Last month, leading SAGE member and renowned Communist Susan Michie caused a stir (among sceptics, at least) by suggesting that mask-wearing and social distancing should become part of our “normal” routine behaviour and stay in place “forever“. Unfortunately, her view is not quite as fringe as we might hope.
New polling by Ipsos MORI for the Economist suggests that a high percentage of Brits believe a number of lockdown restrictions should stay in place “permanently”, including nighttime curfews (19%), travel quarantine (35%), and face masks (a whopping 40%!). Well over 40% of Brits also believe that only those who have been vaccinated against Covid – and are able to prove it – should be allowed to travel abroad (“permanently”).
Matthew Holehouse, a British Politics Correspondent at the Economist, says this could be an anomalous result because we’re living through a “very strange time for public opinion”: “Do some people struggle to differentiate how they feel now from how they’ll feel once covid is gone?” Either way, the results are alarming.
The write-up from the Economist is worth reading if you can get past the paywall.
Stop Press: There’s bad news from YouGov, too. Its latest polling suggests that more than one-fifth of Brits are “very nervous” about lockdown restrictions ending and more than 50% are either “very nervous” or “fairly nervous”.
What kind of nation have we become?
The YouGov findings are also worth viewing in full.
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Once upon a time we were a free country – but even now i suspect people who want to stay in perpetual lockdown will be permitted to to so
If THEY want to stay in perpetual lockdown, let em!!!
Just leave the rest of us to TRY to return to NORMAL.
Less cars on the road. Less people at the places you want to go to. Less people all over the place. Winnner-winner,
Fewer maybe?
I’ve been waiting to use this
:))
It’s a good job that apostrophe is correctly placed
Better grammar a requirement!
Are you using grammar as a verb there?
Less of a quantity, fewer of a number. Less potato, fewer potatoes or, as in the government’s case, less stupidity, fewer idiots.
Absolutely right. I am sitting in the bar of a hotel near Aviemore; you wouldn’t believe the behaviour of some of the guests, mainly English, who are convinced that the virus is slumbering until you stand up. One woman has put her mask on to move from one chair to another, less than one foot away, because a friend was joining her for a drink. Honestly, it was almost comedic. But these people, retired and well-spoken so possibly intelligent, are the kind of people who think we should all stay hiding behind our sofas for years.
nailed it
I recently watched a couple, who were sat outside drinking, put masks on to get up and walk 10 paces, take the masks off to smoke a cigarette, then put the masks back on to return to their table. Utterly moronic.
as long as they were filtered cigarettes – that keeps the smoke out
“who were sat”?
Since we’re in pedant mode today it’s “who were sitting”.
Apologies for being a Dick!
PS I did give your comment the thumbs up.
They can. In fact, I hope they do.
They gave chosen the country of the living dead.
We belong to the land of the living.
I’ve seen a man forget for a second that there was a deadly pandemic ongoing within the cafe I had visited for lunch. he made his way to a free table and as the waitress came over, “Oh no, my mask!” he said. “Don’t worry, you’ve made it here now” replied the smiling unmasked waitress.
“No, no. My fault” as he takes out a mask from his pocket and puts it on.
Orders his food.
She leaves.
He takes it off.
I am looking at this with my jaw on the floor.
The insanity continues. Scenes like this will make wonderful material for a sketch show in the future provided we’re not going to censor humour as well. It really is too ridiculous.
I’m not sure they actually ‘believe’ it in any real sense. It doesn’t reach that level of cognitive process. They just ‘do’ it when ordered.
‘Ja, mein Fuhrer!”
Just came across I nice quotation from one of the Rebus novels :
“… it was so much the underworld that you had to fear so much as the overworld”
It’s frightening how easily brainwashed most people are.
If there is a brain to wash.
Exactly.
“well-spoken so possibly intelligent” – quite, as I pointed out to a “gentleman” who informed us “oiks” on the way back from the London march that he was “well educated” (so obviously knew better than us) – education does not necessarily equal intelligence.
And intelligence does not, necessarily, correlate with rationality. It’s the latter that’s in short supply these days, at least among those classes of people that are attempting to run our society. As Orwell wrote in 1984: “If there is hope, it lies with the Proles”.
It’s good old fashioned “common sense” that’s seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth
I don’t disagree, I was using “rationality” as a synonym for “common sense”. But I stand by my thesis: you’re more likely to find rationality among the ‘lumpenproletariat’ (as the middle class wokerati tend to characterise the good yeomen of this land), than amongst the Guardian-munching, lentil-reading classes of Islington, Hampstead, etc.
As an old boss of mine used to say “the trouble with common sense is it’s not very common”.
Good point Ed T thank you.
Sometimes quite the opposite in fact.
This is one of the most idiotic ‘rules’ there is. I would like to interview some of these obedient people to see what theories they come up for its existence. Might be good for a laugh!
Almost as idiotic as the ‘one way’ barbecue system recommended by some ‘expert’ last year !
True Story: 22 Days Inside a New Zealand Quarantine Facility
Dr. Sam Bailey
The shocking, true story of what happened to Mary Jane Newman inside a New Zealand Managed Isolation Quarantine facility (MIQ).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ocDKEFsUY
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
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I don’t understand telegram, i happen to sit in a church on a Sunday morning with rather a lot of lockdown sceptics – i take your point though
139 pages of rules and regulations for “returnees” in NZs MIQ https://www.miq.govt.nz/assets/operations-framework-managed-isolation-and-quarantine-facilities.pdf
You need a free Press to have a free country!
Can one have a free press under private ownership?
Under government ownership, then?
Good God No!
“What kind of nation have we become?” Regrettably one to get out of if it becomes possible.
We did (get out of Blair’s Britain) 20 years ago. Here in Spain it’s not much better. Our 26 yr old son manages a nightclub on the costas. The owner has passed on the Catalunya edict that he must either be subject to the gene therapy, or undergo a daily antibody test at €8 a pop. He’s opted for the latter.
Still less than 50%, though!!
Exactly. Let’s focus instead on the fact that the majority don’t want any of that rubbish.
52% wanted Brexit FFS and that was considered a mandate. So let’s push on and kill off all of those horrible measures.
I voted for Brexit but I wanted hard, fast and total. Our vote certainly put the wind up the globalists (G’s) and contributed to our current plight. The G’s thought their Reset was under threat and the shit-show started.
That is why Brexit is being thwarted at every opportunity. That is why the Union will be destroyed before 2030. And also why our population will be destroyed before 2030.
Under UK first past the post 52% is a mandate.
One where we listen to a self selected set of people who answer polls as though it is actual public opinion.
In a GDPR world is impossible for marketeers to get a representative sample without breaking the law.
You may as well canvas opinion on Twitter. Probably the same set.
I do yougov polls and they don’t stop you replying to the same survey multiple times … They’re meaningless …
“once covid is gone” Covid has gone, in the sense of a public health emergency requiring special measures. Arguably it was such a thing for a few weeks in spring 2020.
The results are not at all surprising. Propaganda works, and the total exposure to covid propaganda on TV, radio, posters, newspapers and all over social media has probably surpassed any propaganda campaign in history.
The UK govt, led by that well-known closet Libertarian Boris Johnson, was a major financial and political and intellectual contributor to that campaign. A PM often seemingly defended by LS as the hapless victim of nasty bullies.
Yeah think they missed an answer on the Economist multiple choice poll
a) For a month after July 19th
b) Until covid-19 is under control globally
c) Permanently, regardless of covid-19
or
d) Stick your restrictions up your arse!
Millions of these gutless, small-minded, cowardly wimps should be marched off over the nearest cliff. These people are lemmings.
No need to march them. Just tell them that at the bottom of the cliff they’ll be saaaaaaaafe.
In order to save lives and protect the nhs you have to throw yourself off the nearest cliff………
I’ve been saying the same for 12 months and I think some actually would. It’s the logical thing to do if you genuinely believe that you are responsible for the health others.
No need for anything except waiting until the next virus activates the ADE in the jabbed.
This is a blatant insult to lemmings!
Another one of those “worth reading full” links which means registering .
Don’t worry, it’s another one of those that really aren’t worth reading in full as it will make your blood boil.
First, polls should always be taken with a large pinch of salt.
Second, they’re sheep. Even at 40% they’re in a minority, and as less and less people wear a pointless mask, the sheep will just follow the herd.
There will of course remain a hardcore of fanatics, but once they’re in a tiny minority they will be forced back to hanging around on street corners crying “the end of the world is nigh” or whatever else they were doing before Covid.
I read somewhere about one of the baltic states (Estonia maybe?) dropping the mask requirement. The poster said that at first a lot of people carried on, but within a couple of weeks, hardly anyone was left. So, I think you are right about the herd.
I have noticed that months ago at the private school through whose grounds I pass daily: once a noticeable minority didn’t bother to wear masks anymore though still being mandated, the vast majority did so within a week, and the few holdouts then gave in a week later.
In a town in Somerset known for its free-thinking etc, masks are not mandated everywhere and actually I entered a shop maskless, despite seeing everyone else all masked up, went up to counter where the maskless sales woman dealt with my order with a smile and without batting an eyelid. The same went for a bookshop. I think the herd need to see some maskless people going about their business boldly and happily before they remove theirs. It is the herd looking for confirmation thing…
The timid watch the brave until they feel it is absolutely safe to get back in the water. They are likely the same people who buy at the very peak of the stock market.
Reminded me of local elections, in which the majority don’t actually vote, with turnouts being around 30% or so in many places.
And people wonder how the nazis ever came to power… It’s also strange how the start of lockdowns throughout Europe happened almost 100 years to the day after the founding of the Nazi Party… Our society is blind and forgetful.
I had a feeling that extremism would rear its ugly head this decade (the world was rapidly becoming economically and morally bankrupt). By other means maybe, but be in no doubt that this is a form of (effectively totalitarian) extremism we are living through. And maybe worse to come.
History repeating itself?.. never..
Through a PR electoral system.
“New polling by Ipsos MORI for the Economist”
Ha ha ha ha ha!
I mean, Ipsos MORI! Take a look at who funds this, to see how it moulds to the narrative!
Just another one of those coincidences that Ipsos mori translates to “they die”.
No it doesn’t. You could just about force it to mean ‘[somebody wants] those same people to die’, but basically it’s meaningless – just like their polls.
Polling paid for by the Economist…I think that says it all. These Economist-funded poll results just happen to indicate the public are hot to trot for more restrictions. Hogwash. None of this junk can be trusted at this point. Polling is being used as social engineering.
”and what result do you want this pole to achieve sir?”
I’m generally sceptical about a lot of these types of polls, in the sense that I don’t attach much value to their results (which is different to whether I agree or disagree with any particular position),
For instance, how nervous do you feel about covid-19 restrictions lifting. What counts as nervous? Nervous you will get infected and die? Nervous that you will get ill? Nervous that you will get a lot of hassle for behaving “normally”. The questions (or maybe the presentation of the results) is so vague as to be meaningless.
And in the bar graphs, most of them add up to over 100%. I’d guess that the numbers are overlapped (so “until covid is over” includes “for a month” because covid will not be over in a month), but it is pretty strange.
Plus, I expect the reality to be that, once restrictions are eased, the nervous nellies will relax pretty quickly.
Re. you last paragraph – it depends very much on leadership and it’s aims.
‘Nuff said.
But don’t suck the comfort blanket of thinking the polls are the problem.
I’m not sucking on “the comfort blanket of thinking the polls are the problem”. My point so far as they are concerned is that I don’t attach much value to the results on way or the other. They are, essentially, just white noise.
And re. my last paragraph, maybe i should have said once/if.
My point is that I find that the poll results as reported are very much in line with what I see happening, and what I hear people saying. I don’t like it, but it looks pretty representative.
I agree that this could change if….. but current political leaders are at best weak poll followers of little courage or brain – not brave leaders.
I know the polls ask leading questions because I’m a YouGov member, but I agree that they do reflect people’s views to a fairly large extent. I think it’s wishful thinking to dismiss them as fake. That said, I also believe many people’s minds can and will be changed, given time and the right stimulus.
Minds? What minds?
Well, whatever people have between the ears. It baffles me, but I guess we’re all different.
My view, too. Polling organisations need to make a profit – being serially wrong is not in their interests.
Apart from that, the general findings gel with experience. Which is not to say that there can’t be a sudden tipping point to a different general perception : the GBP is infinitely malleable, and current ‘leadership’ is without intellectual or moral compass – attracted by any passing magnet.
Probably, but I think that so much depends on the framing of the question as most people are easily led- ask any salesman or woman!
The questions are skewed. I no longer do it.
I’m a building surveyor and a large amount of my work comes from social housing providers (housing associations, local authorities etc) and despite the fact that it has always been perfectly within the rules to continue to survey their properties, they are by nature bed-wetting, busy body virtue signallers, so most of my work dried up until this April. Since then, I have found, almost without exception, that nobody wants me to wear a mask when I enter their homes and everyone is absolutely sick of this. The sense that we have been taken for a ride seems to be taking hold, especially since ‘freedom day’ was postponed amd the G7 shenanigans.
I don’t believe the opinion polls in the least. I meet and converse with hundreds of people each week and nobody (except for a few obvious nutters) is actually on board any more.
I was in Scotland seeing family this week. My sister (a doctor) is also keen for restrictions to continue. I didn’t push the issue as I was there to take the kids on holiday to help with her mental health issues partly caused by lockdowns. Sounded like a BBC narrative though.
Saw my uncle who is on oxygen for a terminal lung condition and will likely die this year regardless. He’s keen on masks but is quite keen that people live a life rather than try to protect him. I did a test before seeing him and will get a stock of the tests before my next visit.
There are retirement bungalows next door to my house. They are all fed up with the whole thing and would not wish for anyone to have their life ruined to protect them. They most want to play golf and see their family.
People who want restrictions to continue are just utterly selfish.
I was surprised by my sister’s view. She is not selfish. She gives more than she gets. I think it’s the propaganda.
Point taken.
Most of them are well-off, have company at home, jobs and incomes largely unaffected by restrictions and plenty of private space.
‘I’m all right, Jack!’
Ain’t that just the case? Those I know, who are loving their lockdown, are mostly retired with comfortable homes. Mind you they all had their jabs but are still waiting to go on holiday…
They’re pensioners and they’ve had their jabs? That’s another drain on the treasury taken care of then)
I am semi-retired, I have a comfortable home, I have not had ‘the jabs’, nor will I, and I have been against this nonsense even before it started.
Definitely. My sister in law admitted this without realising when the ‘delay’ was announced, saying that it was the right thing to do and she could still go out for tea, shopping, visits and so on. I have to admit I nearly lost it with her- pointing out that there are people living in bedsits in big cities or business owners that may have used the last of their cash reserves preparing for ‘freedom day’ that could well be feeling suicidal right now, but apparently it won’t hurt them to wait a few weeks…
Don’t forget Jill.
In the spirit of political correctness, etc.
For many it’s fear, for some of what they believe to be an existential threat to mankind, for others of being thought delinquent.
True.
How many of them are public-sector jobsworths?
Who, let it NOT be forgotten, have not suffered any financial penalty for the past 16 months.
Exactly! I hate how the vulnerable and the elderly are used to push their disgusting agenda. I’m classed as “vulnerable” as I take an immune-suppressant drug to control RA but I have never, EVER, expected anyone to behave in such a way to “protect” me! My health is my responsibility, and mine alone. I look after myself and take necessary precautions like hand washing but not using that sanitising gloop, and I have never worn a filthy face nappy. I’ve been absolutely fine, trying to live life as best as I can.
My Dad also takes a drug for RA – his comment on all of this is that it is the biggest farce in history. He will have no truck with it & never has!
‘My sister (a doctor) is also keen for restrictions to continue … I was there … to help with her mental health issues partly caused by lockdowns.’
Sounds like a form of Stockholm syndrome, where captives, as Huxley foretold, come to love their captivity, even though they are free to come and go. I hope her problems are temporary and not too serious and she makes a full recovery.
The lockdowns have had a debilitating effect on millions, including me, however, I’m sixty five, have arthritis, an enlarged prostate, a back injury, some undiagnosed liver or kidney problem, undiagnosed chest / throat problems, some minor neurological problem that gives me numbness and tingling in the little and ring fingers in both hands and other problems about which the NHS is inclined to do bugger all. I’m not jabbed and have never had a test. I don’t wear a mask unless I think the shop staff are going to make a fuss, I don’t bother about keeping my distance from others, I hug and shake hands and I’m not soiling my nappy at the thought that I could be killed by an inattentive HGV driver, a falling satellite, a badly wired plug, a faulty level crossing signal, something contaminated from the supermarket, slipping into the river from a wet pontoon … blah blah blah blah blah or a virus with a 99.9932% survival rate for those aged over eighty five, if they catch it.
It is sometimes worryingly easy to slip into despair and become a recluse; I fight the temptation daily and I hope she overcomes her fears.
I think all the ‘permanently’ proponents can safely be diagnosed as having a permanent mental health problem.
When such a significant proportion of the population exhibit such raw and stunning stupidity, democratic civilisation is doomed.
I am of that opinion since encountering the first teenage Millennials.
The majority of people have always been stunningly stupid. If democracy ‘worked’ before Covid, it was because the gibberings of the stunningly stupid were largely ignored.
Hopefully yes. Imagine a world without idiots. Oh bliss.
I think it goes way deeper than that.
The old saying that the majority of people are idiots has been irrevocably confirmed over the course of this shitshow.
We are surrounded by imbeciles, morons and idiots – some of them are our families.
Rats or feral pidgeons have more sense of self-preservation than our virtuous, shallow members of this so called “society”.
The trouble is, social media amplifies the problem as the bedwetters set each other off on an endless trajectory of panicking unnecessarily,
The biggest problem I’ve had in understanding the bogus Covid hocus pocus is whether those of us who are refusing the jabs are Orwell’s IngSoc party members or his living-on-the-fringes outcast proles.
Indeed- I don’t ‘do’ Facebook or Twitter and most of my close fiends are the same so our views are invisible to those who live on social media.
It’s nature’s way. We’ve lifted ourselves above the basic threats to survival so another evolutionary mechanism is required and nature has the solution: suicidal stupidity. The idiots have the jabs and the jabs take out the stupid, just as vaccines take out the very old, the terminally ill and the constitutionally weak.
PS: ‘just as vaccines take out the very old … ‘ should have read: just as viruses …
I like your take on this. Looking back, worrying about survival, providing for yourself and yours, feathering the nest – those were the focal points of humanity. These days – worrying about correct pronouns.
Fuck them. We cannot do the thinking for them, they’ve already given the task to the state.
That was the objective of SPI-B – the induction of mental illness.
““Do some people struggle to differentiate how they feel now from how they’ll feel once covid is gone?” I suspect some people struggle to realise there are different positions to differentiate!
Some academics have argued that humans only because truly self conscious around the time of the early Greeks. Personally, I suspect a lot of people still have not.
Sadly, I think your last statement is close to the mark. They are not conscious higher entities, they are just husks, running on survival algorithms and no more advanced than your average alley-cat.
Top Cat begs to differ …..
What about “Brain”?
Some academics have argued that humans became unconscious sometime around the time that the company “Nokia” shot to stardom.
I used to think that the susceptibility to utter bollocks (in the form of propaganda) of the German population in the 1930s was an anomalous combination of circumstances.
We see now that it wasn’t – evil lies in a much wider bovine compliance that can be easily induced.
had to red it twice but well put
It’s the perpetual human condition, we were wrong to ignore those who warned us throughout history.
I guess those who want permanent restrictions should just brick up their doors and do us all favour and never go out, they probably never do anyway.
That’s the thing though – they do. In their own cars, taxis, private jets, to second homes, birthday parties (a certain Sky ‘presenter’) etc.
They have insulated incomes, lots of private space, company at home and substantial savings. Tight restrictions barely affect their quality of life at all.
For the love of God, Montresor …… do it!
Disturbing and depressing.
Of course, many of these people are well-off, have a decent amount of internal space at home and often also a garden, don’t live alone and have a job that is largely unaffected by restrictions.
What’s that expression again?
‘I’m all right, Jack!’
If anything proves party politics is dead it’s this. I thought that mind set was supposed to be Tory? I bet they aren’t Tories…
Definitely. My sister in law admitted this without realising when the ‘delay’ was announced, saying that it was the right thing to do and she could still go out for tea, shopping, visits and so on. I have to admit I nearly lost it with her- pointing out that there are people living in bedsits in big cities or business owners that may have used the last of their cash reserves preparing for ‘freedom day’ that could well be feeling suicidal right now, but apparently it won’t hurt them to wait a few weeks…
A nation of bedwetters!
I thought the B-word was banned here?
Blundering bedwetters bedazzled by bastards.
Bullshitting bloated bastards?
The waitress at the pub at which we have just eaten says that she will continue to wear a mask even if restrictions are lifted as she just feels safer with one on. She knows three people with ”long Covid” and is terrified of catching it herself. I can sympathise with her because she is on her own and there is no one to look after her if she is ill, but she would be in the same situation if she had flu or glandular fever or a whole host of other diseases or infections which could incapacitate her. She is also middle aged, morbidly obese and struggles to breathe in her mask.
I’m not angry with her for BEING frightened but I am furious that she has BEEN frightened deliberately by the PTB.
When we could all have been frightened into losing weight instead, which at least would have had some benefits.
Sighs, and goes to see if there is a Magnum left.
And today’s total of deaths with morbid obesity…
I think the coming ‘global food crisis’, with panicky reports of ‘supply chain’ shortages and interruptions, rationing to protect our ‘food security’ (Queue, Wait, Eat?), is going to ensure that the war on obesity is waged with vigour. Supermarkets will be converted into distribution centres for prepared (and medicated) ready meals that we can reheat in our low carbon footprint micro ovens.
In five years time the streets will be clogged with hordes of shuffling zombies whose folds of loose skin are decorated with dead flat, intensely coloured tattoos rather like the designs on deflated balloons.
Masks have never been effective inbound. Even the fanatics don’t claim that.
Ordinary people think they are though
They do- ‘small price to pay if it keeps us alive!’ was one comment I heard just after the mandate was introduced. ‘How?’ I asked, while trying to hide my incredulity. ‘They must help block the virus’ was the reply. How can you argue with that? The bloke in question was sat in a cafe waiting for his coffee, took his mask off to drink it, then put it back on again, safe in the belief that what he had just done would keep him safe from Covid.
Ideology/Quasi-religion.
The bloke in question was sitting in a cafe. Present tense. Please.
Tilly dear,
Tell your mother that that was the imperfect….
Morbidly obese?
So she’s a fucking idiot who is incapable of making good life choices as she eats herself to early grave and wears a mask between bites.
Good riddance.
Dear Leader’s hero is Churchill, as we all know. Churchill inspired courage when there was reason to feel fear; Johnson inspired fear when there was reason to hope*
*really this should be ‘when there was no reason to feel fear’, but that doesn’t sound as good.
Churchill was a war criminal and a traitor. History will not look kindly upon him.
Traitor?
Just goes to show how many people have fallen for government lies about Covid.
More bullshit polling
The poll suggesting a high percentage of Brits want restrictions to stay is more indicative of what the government want to happen as the poll is fabricated propaganda,
there is a scary number of people who are completely under the covid propaganda spell
It’s circular though – people want it because the government has spent 18 months (and a fortune) scaring them shitless. The government can now claim that it’s what people want, and carry on with it. The only thing which may end this destructive spiral is a big financial shock – which surely is coming.
The polling questions are often loaded. Something to the effect of “would you want continued restrictions if it saves lives and prevents the NHS from being overwhelmed?” I think these pollsters should reveal the questions they ask.
Dream on. The compliance level is massive.
some people see their online businesses booming, why would they want to go back?
It’s mainly the big players – especially Amazon – who have done well out of this.
What use is a booming business if you can’t enjoy the benefits and get on with living your life?
You think Jeff Bezos is affected by this?
Not surprising really. You have to wonder how they phrased the questions and how they selected the respondents; but in any case the figures show that a majority do not support the restrictions.
True Story: 22 Days Inside a New Zealand Quarantine Facility
Dr. Sam Bailey
The shocking, true story of what happened to Mary Jane Newman inside a New Zealand Managed Isolation Quarantine facility (MIQ).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8ocDKEFsUY
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
A government poll has shown that 110% of the population trust government polls.
This whole sorry hysterical episode in our history has alway been about deceit and upwardly manipulating the numbers, big numbers hold the headlines and capture the attention. I know of no-one who actively wants this to continue….Methinks tis all a big fat fib.
So many living in an illusion. The only pandemic is on TV…the real world is continuing as usual.
This whole “freedom day” makes you laugh when you consider everything is open, everyone is socialising, working and travelling and no one is dropping dead in the streets.
So long as you don’t watch the news, the pandemic isn’t on TV. How many programmes/ads do you see that feature the muzzled, shackled, covid world? Particularly the ads. The advertisers know that covid hysteria doesn’t sell.
Although I dwell on the pessimistic side, having recently sampled a lot of motorway services on the run north from Bristol to Yorkshire (I pee a lot), I do note that face masks in advertisements seem to be getting rarer. A sign?
I’ve noticed that too. I think advertisers instinctively prefer to show faces. The human social instinct is strong and I think will win in the end.
Would you buy a used car from a masked man, or woman?
FAKE NEWS!
I’m seeing more and more bare faces on the London Underground. I am rarely (if ever) challenged when I take my bare face into a shop, bank or place of worship. There is hope.
Since the beginning of the mask mandate and up until recently, I’ve been too cowardly to go into shops, pubs etc without my lanyard on (I don’t like confrontation). I have hated every minute of being in those places, and just avoided going in shops as much as possible. On the original freedom day, after some encouragement from reading BTL comments on this site, I decided to cast off the lanyard and embrace the old normal, and I haven’t looked back since. Never once stopped or questioned, and I’ve found a new confidence, exhilaration even just going round the supermarket. I smile to myself and others. I like to think there are masked people looking at me with curiosity and envy, thinking “I remember what that was like in the old normal, could I get away with that myself”? We can and do influence people so keep it up, my friends!
The lanyard is a contemporary form of yellow star or pink triangle.
My local fish shop insists on a mask so I comply, although I do make throw-away remarks about how silly they are because they don’t work, are a health hazard themselves, a future environmental problem &c &c &c. However, I don’t bother elsewhere and even the otherwise unemployable goons in hi-vis at the supermarket seem to have tired of making a fuss.
I bet IKEA are doing a roaring trade in tables for these types to hide under.
This kind of tactic is a behavioural nudge, intended to make people believe that they should still want covid restrictions or at least continue to go along with them, because if they don’t there is something fundamentally wrong with them (ie, selfish, reckless, uncaring, stupid etc etc). It’s all about conforming to a perceived norm, even when it isn’t the actual norm. You see it with teenagers all the time, they don’t want to be different to their friends. What we are tasked with is demonstrating to people that there is another way, which demonstrates that their “new normal” is patently absurd. I flout the mask rules at work every day, and after several months of doing so and letting my opinions be known, now at least half my colleagues are doing the same.
I’ve been thinking that it would be good if shop, cafe, restaurant and pub owners etc could make it be known to potential customers that they are welcoming of people regardless of whether or not they want to carry on with mask wearing and social distancing, and not require vaccination status or track and trace details come “Freedom day”. Perhaps identify themselves as “Freedom Friendly” (as opposed to that ghastly “covid safe”), and be seen as having a really positive and inclusive attitude towards the public rather than the discrimination that’s being actively encouraged by the government. Perhaps there could be a logo and a website where a sign could be downloaded and printed off. Perhaps a website like this one where people could register their Freedom Friendly status. The important thing is to get the public recognising that the majority aren’t scared to death of covid and remembering what freedom really is.
Of course it’s a behavioural nudge – we had exactly the same with “freedom” last year, which was delayed a little bit, with Saint Boris’s “squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze the brakes”. The tyrants are afraid that the plebs will go all out and party. They know that those who think the roolz are rubbish have been breaking them anyway.
I expect many of the “pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeese wear a face covering” signs in shops will stay up, because the staff can’t be bothered to take them down, or they’ll be afraid they’ll scare the masked sheep away. I have defied these signs many times, even now: not once have I been challenged.
The question is, how many of these businesses will try to enforce something that’s no longer “law” (even if that so-called law wasn’t legally enforceable)? They risk causing conflict and/or losing business, and getting a bad review or shamed on social media as a result. We should be asking all of these businesses to take down their old signs (especially the ones saying people must wear a mask and socially distance), and if they want people to still do these things, rewrite their signs removing the “must” and making it a request instead. And that conversation would be an opportunity to encourage the owners to engage their brain and put covid risks into perspective.
I started wearing a mask in certain supermarkets because I grew tired of the irritating encounters with suddenly empowered shop assistants who thought they were my mistresses. Arguing with an IQ of <80 is not a dignified or satisfying exercise and since I do not enjoy supermarket shopping even when there are no petty annoyances it is something I try to avoid .
It may not mean much but a few acquaintance’s of mine who were proudly displaying that absurd NHS rosette ‘I’ve had my jab’ seem to have quietly removed it from their profile on Facebook.
I agree that people are cautious not to express an idea that is too far outside the “received wisdom” and perhaps therefore shy to SPEAK OUT against covid regulations. However, what damage to anyone’s reputation can be done through anonymously contributing a multiple choice poll submission.
So although what you say is correct from the standpoint of social acceptance in one’s community / family, I don’t think that applies here. I think it’s more about the ambiguity of the question and the wide-ranging definitions of what it could mean to be nervous.
I’m not sure I understand what you’re saying. What I do know is that this period between “freedom day” (if it indeed happens) and the reimposition of restrictions/lockdown when the government decide we’ve had enough (semi)freedom is precious time in which to get people thinking, questioning why they are wearing masks and asking others to do so, when they don’t have the so-called law to use as a lazy excuse. I for one will be questioning shop owners etc who still sport the old “you must wear a mask in this shop” signs in their windows. If we all did this in our local communities, it could have a considerable impact. A bottom up approach to counter the government’s top down one.
Well it’s about time all these covid scaredy cats died of covid. Harsh maybe, but these fucktards need removing from the gene pool. They can fuck off and leave the rest of us to get on with our lives.
Can’t disagree with that.
The UK is the nation where pollsters continually get it wrong, increasingly very badly.
Generally speaking, people can be silly some of the time, but not stupid for most of the time.
Wrong, just like the modellers
“What kind of a nation have we become?” you ask… Well I think we’ve become a nation where the polling represents us about as well as our politicians do!
A number of points about the YouGov poll:
There are clearly plenty of things to be nervous about pertaining to the lifting of restrictions other than catching the virus, hence bringing the “nervousness of the nation” up to the levels we see in these polls. if taking part, I would be compelled to tell the pollsters: “It depends what you mean?”
Just about everyone I speak to literally CAN’T WAIT for the restrictions to end!
I am definitely, definitely nervous about point 4. I’m still remembering:
“We need to squeeee-eeeeeeeeeeze the brakes.” (last August)
“Normalish by Christmas.”
“It would be inhumane to cancel Christmas… oh, I’ve just done it.”
“Schools are safe.” (Then closed the same day)
“See your family at Easter.” (Which was cancelled)
No wonder we’re nervous about our glorious leader having a wobbly and throwing his toys out of the pram the day before, as the patron saint of U-turns has done so many, many times.
Patron Saint of U-turns….love it!!
So a comfortable majority do NOT want any of those things.
Instead of talking up the minority let’s focus on the majority and bang that drum hard . People are driven by momentum. Let’s create the sense that the momentum is on our side, which it probably is.
Hmmm, Lockdown Sceptics’ headlines often seem to take the distinct tone of behaviour science manipulation. I sometimes wonder if Lockdown Sceptics is SHILLING FOR THE RESETTERS!
Yes, it could have read “60% do not want restrictions to continue”.
Given the relentless propaganda, the numbers are very low. For 18 months they have tried to brainwash everyone into a new normal and they have failed. The majority don’t want it.
THAT should be the headline.
The purpose of such published polls is not to reflect opinion but to form it.
This is an absolute non story, I sometimes wonder why it’s spun the way it is. For example from the article.
– 79% are against any nighttime curfews
– 74% against for closing casinos and clubs
– 65% against travel quarantine
– 60% against masks
So the ample majority in every case is against anymore of this bullshit. Why report it as a problem ? Given the validity of any polling, the questions will be loaded and despite this the majority have had enough.
I don’t buy it. People talk the talk now, but when the sheeple see most want to get back to normal they’ll be good little sheep and join us. Perhaps that’s naive, but I see lots of people through work and feel I have a good understanding of what normal people are thinking.
A colleague at work today was telling me and another colleague her husband had a series of clots after his second vaccination and she now was thinking seriously about not getting her second. My other colleague started informing her the risks were so so small for clots it was nothing to worry about, but I had to interrupt. I spent 5 minutes empathising with how awful that must’ve been without any comments on for or against vaccines and I think that helped a lot.
This is the first person I’ve met who has directly suffered from the vaccines and it really hit home about how horrendous this all is.
Stories like that spread fast…the zealots will I think disappear before long
This is an illustration of the mass hysteria, psychosis even, that is the result of intense propaganda and the stifling of rational debate, particularly by the media. We know that mental illness and other psychological problems are on the rise and this is probably a manifestation of the real pandemic: irrational fear. The question is: should the irrational fears of so many be allowed to restrict the freedoms of those who haven’t succumbed to the scam?
Polls are an opportunity for virtue signalling, even auto-virtue signalling if the poll is anonymous.
No, it’s not a percentage “of Brits”, if you take a closer look, every question sums to more than 100%. Eg 70% wants mask mandate to end a month after July 19th and 65% until covid is controlled globally and 40% permanently. So, 40% actually makes for 22% here. Second, it seems that those answers are only among people who support compulsory measures. That’s what the asterisk says. If i am correct, then this poll is nonsense.Among those who support compulsory measures, ie people with a fascist identity, almost 1 out of 2 would support permanent ban on flights. This shows what psychopaths those people are and has nothing to do with the population or polling.
1) Its a You gov poll so automatically suspect.
2) They’ll sing a different tune when the hosepipe of cash for nothingn is turned off.
It reminds me of those stories like the Sorceror’s Apprentice, or perhaps Colditz when the officer tried to get sent home by pretending to be mad. When you do something wrong, it has consequences far in excess of what you had intended or could imagine.
Catch 22?
What the fuck. I don’t give a fuck. You can all fuck off. I’m a free man not a numbef. Fuck off you brainless twats. (Everyone except a Lockdown Sceptic of course).
Once again, it depends how you ask the question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GSKwf4AIlI
What kind of nation have we become? A bunch of brainwashed, gibbering wrecks hiding behind mummy’s apron strings ( or SAGE’s masks) content to do as we are told, or the bogeyman might get us. Spineless f*ckwits! I’m just thankful that there are a few of us still awake and alert to this insanity. Who needs a sodding foreign holiday THAT badly, anyway??
We do, to get away from the sheep for a while and to get some consistent sunshine
Is anyone really surprised by this? We are a nation of pathetic, craven hand-wringers- ‘Ooh, I hope it’s not too soon’, Stay safe’, ‘You can’t be too careful’, etc. are all so common that I want to shoot people when I hear any of these whinges. Watching the England match with a couple of family members was awful- comments about the lack of masks, no distancing, cheering and how this will inevitably lead to untold numbers dying were at least as common as comments about the actual game! Whenever I ask who’s going to pay for all this all I get are vague comments about it ‘not being important right now’, or accusations of being more concerned about money and the economy than people’s health. Trying to point out that they are intimately connected is a waste of time. Mention Florida or Texas and I just get blank stares and shrugs. You know what? I don’t care any more- let them have their own lockdowns and leave the rest of us to get on with it.
“We are a nation of pathetic, craven hand-wringers”
At one level, you are right. But it isn’t an explanation. Still less when you extend it over a continent.
This is an infection caused by purposeful, blanket propaganda and induced fear, not primarily individual or social characteristics. We should never forget that as the ghosts of Goebbels and Mengele rise from the grave.
You could stick Labour on the poster as well, unfortunately. The lack of a competent opposition is one the hallmarks of the troubles.
Polls that ask do you want to stay in lockdown and are you nervous about restrictions ending with no other options are not a real indication of anything they’re propaganda. I fill out surveys on YouGov’s site and that is the type of question asked repeatedly they’re nothing more than a propaganda tool meant to steer opinion.
YouGov questions are always leading, generally to the left hand fork in the road. Funny that the founder is a Tory MP
Roughly translates to 21% of Brits regularly wet the bed and 34% wet the bed every so often!!
Do you really believe you gov polls, the bastards are selective in people polled
Does anyone believe opinion polling? (Apart from MSM journalists?)
I would love to know who all these people are that have been polled regarding what the general population wants, because I have never been asked. Who in their right mind would want to keep wearing masks, have nighttime curfews and have social distancing FOR EVER. What utter nonsense. As ‘jabby jabby’ says, if people want to live some moronic life, let them; but let the rest of us people with at least some semblance of sense, get back to normal.
Where the hell do they get these figures? And who are these people that apparently want us all to be locked up and unable to travel forever? I am very sceptical of polls that say things like this. You can bet your boots that they used online or telephone interviews to get the data but where did they get their sample from? How many were asked? From where? And what were the age ranges? I very much doubt this is what people want but those that do have clearly been completely brainwashed by the relentless fear propaganda of the past 16 months. Needless to say, I will be on the next Freedom March in London and do not consent to having my freedoms trampled on like this.
Nudges
I filled in this poll, not nervous obvs, but thought the question poorly framed. Does it mean, “nervous about restrictions lifting”, in case they don’t lift, or nervous about the consequences of lifting.
So there was actually a poll then! You’re the first person I’ve come across that’s been ‘Polled’. Apart from idiotic email petitions, I should add.
The mask wearing bedwetters still come to our seaside town and walk along the prom…I’d like to say go home and stay there. What’s the point breathing through your dirty muzzles on the glorious east Anglia coastline? The bedwetters should go back under their beds and stay there…I don’t want to see them.
19%, 35%, 40% of Brits show themselves to be utter morons, with zero understanding of viruses, vaccines, epidemiology and indeed zero common sense.
When you look at those around you who you are forced to interact with, none of this comes as a surprise.
The trouble with the polling companies is that their questions are designed to get the answers they want. I answer the YouGov polls simply to try and add some balance to their numbers and there are always questions that do not allow a reasonable answer. The trouble is people like the fat lard tub take the answers as gospel.
I don’t believe polls, does anyone with a functioning brain? But looking around and listening to previously, sensible friends, acquaintances, and colleagues I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers are on the low side.
Let the (sorry, I’m going back to the old favorite) ‘Bedwetters’ continue with every restriction they think will save them from the Wiley demon phantom killer COVID by all means.
Stay home you halfwits! You’ll be safe there under your duvets or behind the sofa, bottom lips quivering. Leave us out of your paranoia. We’ll keep everything afloat out here for you.
Us Independent Freethinking Old Variant Humans can carry on as we have done for millennia.
It might actually be quite pleasant sans the new variant human, Homo-Bovinus.
There really is no need for legislation or Government
DiktatGuidance.The statistics would soon change if the relentless MSM / Government terrorism and propaganda campaigns could somehow be stopped.
I’m getting bloody tired of these twats.
DR Mike Yeadon has a new (I think it’s new) video out. Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t already, and you’ve got 45minutes or so to spare. Do try to share as widely as possible.
It’s good stuff, as ever Mike presents a compelling case, that even the most ardent Bedwetter would struggle to deny. They would need to possess an average attention span and the mental faculties to focus for more than a few minutes on common sense though.
OK maybe not then.
https://thewhiterose.uk/dr-yeadons-powerful-interview-on-the-awakening-world-truth-summit-show/
YouGov was created by slime experimental gene therapy sorry vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi. It is niow run by his wife. He swindled expenses years ago for heating for his stables, including underfloor heationg for his horses.
Surely no one takes notice of YouGov polls anymore since it is well established that they are manipulated?
I took part in that survey and the questions are loaded.
Re intelligence and fear. I have lost account of the number of educated friends(many with masters and PHD ‘s ) who share corona fear memes with me. I robustly respond with the context they never get. They usually go quiet. As a critical behavioural researcher i would say that polls when people have been fear primed and no context is given are designed to keep the fear going.
“Would you want to be strung up by the balls to save the world from extinction?”
Breaking: Polls suggests that 60% of men would like to be strung up by the balls.
Seeing many of the comments on the Facebook GB News group when a question was asked as to whether members would continue to wear masks, social dustance etc , the numbers saying they would, astonished me. Likewise other polls on people’s own timelines, revealed that many will continue to do so. What a nation of namby pambies we’ve become. I’m ashamed to be British.
I don’t believe them I don’t know anyone who wants to keep masks and distance and isolate relatives.
This Government polls for one thing its not because they want to know what people think its a ruse to plant in the mind of the people the things that are coming down the track, such that people believe they have voted for them its one of the Governments psyops tools from their box of many tricks, Why ask these questions? If you are going to open up why ask? The Government wants to shut down night clubs it means less people on the streets at night, so less need for police, they want to keep masks because it is a symbol of obedience, as long as people wear these things they the Government know they are still very much in control, Travel quarantine, helps them hit their eco targets, keeps the money in the country, also keeps their boots on our necks/
Yougov was built by Nadim Zahawi, he no longer has a financial stake in it I understand but come on he still has plenty of influence and he is the master of vaccines, so go figure.
The solution to the concerns raised by the eternally worried are
Wear your mask, stay indoors after 10, dont go abroad, and don’t go to nightclubs. Their choice. Others especially the young who have given up their futures to give a few more months of life to those at the end of theirs, would I suspect want to go to Nightclubs, holidays and actually see anothers face so they can decide if they would like to date them.
Polls are w–k
Unfortunately my mother in law is one of these. She will not leave the house unless absolutely necessary nor will she let anyone into the house either. Any letters, parcels, groceries or cash that she comes into contact must be sanitised before it comes into the house or her possession. Despite being fully jabbed she is still absolutely petrified of coming into contact with others ‘just in case’. Any time we visit we have to talk through a window at a two meter distance either side. My partner is concerned that she’s developed some kind of mental illness due to her increasingly erratic behaviour. We’ve tried to get the siblings involved but unfortunately they don’t visit as often and as such don’t seem to think there is an issue.
Such people do not see the irony that they might as well be dead rather than live a life like that. Has to be said though it is her free choice, if she wants to live like that then let her, but these people should not force their chosen way of life on the rest of us.
I was sitting with my husband in a sports bar in a caravan holiday park in Weymouth. A very bright spark put the children’s soft play in it & our daughter was thrilled to find one open! We watched a family walk into the area, fully masked. They sat at a table and carefully folded & put their masks into a rucksack. They then decided that table didn’t have the view of the soft play that they wanted. They pulled out the folded squares of fabric and held them up to their mouths (still folded) as they proceeded to crouch and move 2 tables over. Their kid then happily played with our daughter for hours…in the petri dish that is soft play.
I wouldn’t trust any answer those people gave to a pollster.
Trouble is those in charge use the views of such idiots as an excuse to turn the country into a totalitarian regime (as an aside it does amuse me that so many people believe that if they are sitting round a table with friends the virus will leave them alone but if they stand up and step away from the table without donning a loose piece of fabric around their mouth and nose the dreaded Covid will pounce from the shadows and strike everyone in the room dead)
It truly was absurd! The woman looked like she had a Hitler moustache since her folded square was black.
What kind of nation have we become?
One to leave?
Correct, but the problem is where to go? Most other countries in the world are indulging in this insanity.
Maybe on Twitter but not out on the street
A friend tells me he’s going to continue wearing his mask after the 19th, whenever he’s travelling on DLR (Docklands Light Railway) near his home.
“I’m not on it for more than 10 minutes” he says, “so it’s no problem.”
The irony of this abnormal behaviour seems to elude people completely.
If your friend wants to make a tit of himself then fine let him. It’s when such people think their behaviour must be imposed on everyone else whether they like it or not that it becomes a problem.
I remember the packed-like-sardines strap hanging commute to and within London and would have liked something to prevent the inhalation of other people’s rancid breath.
The explanation for this polling is simple. Saturation state sponsored propaganda resulting in a brainwashed and scared population combined with a realisation by some people that the continuation of the emergency benefits them personally. It is not rocket science.
I take part in the yougov polling and I am always amazed that loads of people say the haven’t got and never had Covid and have had two jabs then go on to take the we’re still buying project fear and opt for all things lock down and more! There’s a useful bit at the end were you can comment that I use to give it too um with both barrels!!
These are both online polls.
So we’re not seeing what Britons think, we’re seeing what the CCP are telling us that we should think.
No? The Mandarin Empire is a ruthless ethnostate Hell bent on destroying the West, and they have technological capability, near-endless manpower (literally manpower, they have 20 million or more excess penises), and no ethics.
I’d want to hear reasons why they haven’t long since captured all major Western polling companies.
Yes, I think you are on the right track here. If the Chinese wanted to, they could send a few warships round to British ports, unload their armies, and that’d be that with all the Covid bedwetters cowering behind their sofas. They’d have help from all the Chinese already in the UK, all those ‘university students’.
Been to Oxford lately? More like ‘Beijing-on-Thames’.
Perhaps their plan is to keep the British as their slaves, like the Uighurs, but in Britain, manufacturing whatever it is they want.
If there is one good thing to come out of such a scenario, it is that the Chinese won’t be bending the knee to the likes of Sasha Johnson.
Clichés become cliches because they are true – this country is finished.
Indeed. Whilst the Chinese can be nationalistic.. they make everything.. and they are not buying into the WEF Great Shit… they will own us all because of this.
I just went for a walk.. saw three white lads dealing drugs down an alley. Here is the conversation I heard as I sauntered past (with my knife ready in my pocket).
The country is done.
The cliché is that clichés are truisms, which is true.
Oh come on! The questions about pubs, nightclubs and 10pm curfews give it away!
The miserable fu****s who answered those questions in the negative NEVER go to pubs, clubs or out after 8pm for goodness sake.
This is all just psy-ops to make us believe it’s a majority belief, I don’t buy it for one minute.
Everybody I know will be ditching the masks, those that say they won’t will follow the flock when they see they’re in a minority….they are sheep after all.
You have to bear in mind, You Gov will try and get the result thier paymasters/client are requesting. They will target known people to ensure this happens. Don’t believe everything you read from You Gov.
Would anyone buy a second hand car from Zahawi?
A YouGuv poll says 99% would.
When the Berlin Wall came down many East Germans were clearly ecstatic and embraced the future. Many, however, did not and if asked will still tell you (as they have told me) that the old days were, on the whole, probably better, i.e., less crime, more security, etc. But when I asked if they would go back to the old days if it were possible to do so, they told me they would not. Go figure.
I have no idea how accurate these polls are and whether they reflect the views of wider society. Anecdotally, my own experience is that some people are nervous, none of them frightened, but most are looking forward to normal. Ultimately, the majority will follow what the majority do and if they are allowed to live normally for a sufficient period of time, I am sure that the vast majority will just be getting on with their lives as they have done for millennia. Some will continue to wear masks, just as they apparently did after the Spanish Flu, but they will fizzle out too. I’m sure there will be a few diehard mask-wearers but, in truth, they will probably be the kind of people that readers of this website would not want to be around anyhow and so at least we will know for certain who to avoid.
Maybe David Hasselhoff will come and sing to us after we have freed ourselves from Stanley, Nut Nut, alcoholic Boris, The Spider Memo Camilla’s tampon, and Goldman Rockerfeller Klaus Sachs.
ATL is too accepting of these poll findings.
It was a poll of Guardian readers who knit their own socks from sustainable hemp fibre.
Complete BS. The polls lie. All ‘official’ polls have sponsors who have paid for them. He who pays the piper calls the tune.
All the stupid mask wearers are about to be surprised by graphene oxide contamination. Evolution is remorseless and relentless.
Brainwashed morons.
The answer is simple – we need to recruit the Behavioural Scientists and do a positive PsyOps nudging campaign. Sorted, You’re welcome my invoice is in the post.
I was one of the 19% ‘Not at all nervous’ cohort.
When the economy blows, totalitarianism really kicks in and they are facing exterme hardship the idiot sheeple will look surprised and want someone to blame. Then it’ll be Nazism all over again. Get ready to wear your “unclean” badges.