Round-Up
No time for an update today, but here’s a round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours (and a special thanks to Mitesh Kariah who has been tirelessly flagging stories up for me for months):
- ‘How to Talk to People Who Won’t Wear Face Masks‘ – Unintentionally amusing piece in Teen Vogue about how to talk crazy non-mask wearers back from the precipice
- ‘Public Health England’s exaggerated death statistics are a scandal that has fed fear‘ – Strong stuff from Matthew Lesh in the Telegraph
- ‘“Game-changing” coronavirus antibody test passes first major trials‘ – New finger-prick test that is 98.6% accurate, apparently
- ‘The media’s Jihad against Sweden’s no-lockdown policy ignores key policy facts‘ – Good post by Ryan McMaken for the Mises Institute blog
- ‘Google will ban ads from running on stories spreading debunked coronavirus conspiracy theories‘ – Does this mean Google is demonetising the WHO?
- ‘Free speech and civil rights go hand in hand‘ – Timely reminder from Kevin Yuill in Spiked that free speech and minority rights are complementary and not in opposition to each other
- ‘Wales is planning for a nightmare scenario with coronavirus this winter‘ – God help the Welsh
- ‘Parents should stop worrying about making their children socially distance‘ – Good piece by Rosa Silverman in the Telegraph
- ‘Man charged with fraudulently claiming $9m in coronavirus relief and gambling with it in Las Vegas‘ – At least someone’s having fun
- ‘No wonder this committee thinks it runs the country‘ – Juliet Samuel takes aim at SAGE
- ‘Why coronavirus deaths remain low in the US despite surge in new cases‘ – Mandatory reading for bed-wetters
- ‘My husband’s drinking problem hit in lockdown‘ – No, it’s not by Mrs Young. Quiet at the back
- ‘Hatred of Donald Trump is warping news, warns BBC’s Jon Sopel‘ – He’s not wrong
- ‘IRS Announces Taxpayers Can Make Checks Directly Payable To Any Corporation Or Billionaire They Want This Year‘ – Did someone say “Bailout”? Nice piece in the Onion
- ‘English universities must prove “commitment” to free speech for bailouts’ – Excellent news in the Guardian
Theme Tune Suggestions by Readers
Only one today: “Witchfinder General” by Carl Douglas
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
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 re-opened, 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. Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all. 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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Note to the Good Folks Below the Line
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
I know it becomes difficult to navigate the comment threads after 24 hours. One alternative to continuing to post below my updates is to move to our new Lockdown Sceptics Forums, which webmaster Ian Rons has just created. You’ll need to verify your email address before you can start posting, but they should be relatively easy to navigate. Apologies for not creating them sooner. Any problems, email Ian here. Or just email him to thank him for creating such a great website.
Gone Fishing Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation recently to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. But I’m on holiday until Saturday, July 25th and won’t be doing much work on this site for a week. If you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
Salem 2.0
I thought I’d give my readers something to chew on while I’m on a break: Salem 2.0: The Return of the Religious Police to the Public Square. This is a book about cancel culture that I’ve been working on for a while now, but which took a back seat during the coronavirus crisis. Hoping to get back to it as the crisis recedes – although that’s happening more slowly than I hoped. It’s a work in progress, so don’t expect too much. The shape of it should be pretty clear, however.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Amazing, this is great as you want to learn more
11:11
A simple idea.
A species together fighting the forces of Evil.
A species taking control of its destiny.
And making OUR world good.
Please, share this today, everywhere.
We human hearted WILL WIN this war.
But it will take all of us.
Nothing else will do.
https://olivefarmercrete.blogspot.com/
Wondering how many people enjoyed having an outdoors drink or meal at a Welsh pub or restaurant today? It’s pissed it down most of the day in north wales today. Whoever decided the latest rules regarding welsh pubs and restaurants clearly wants those businesses to fail, for local tourism to fail, and for the local population to sink into a deeper depression. Well done Drakeford.
Mask Friday approaches, the day the Conservative and Unionist Party officially puts a gun to its head and pulls the trigger, the day war is declared by the British Government on the UK High Street and the day we move from recession to a deep 30s style depression. Insanity and anarchy let loose.
Please don’t put that face on The lead photo unless it’s completely covered with a paper bag.
Earlier on, somebody mentioned Essex police’s shaming policy. Have a look at their Twatter and see how many ‘masked’ crims they are looking for…
https://twitter.com/essexpoliceuk?lang=en
Re Jon Sopels attempted virtue signalling on TDS.
Nightly on 10.00 news, we are treated to a 5 minute monologue from Mr Sopel on everything Trump is doing wrong, orange man bad, USA is being ruined by Trump etc.
It beggars belief that this is taxpayer funded and we put up with his nonsense.
Put it this way – if he was to try this in Moscow about Vlad, he’d be heading home within 24 hrs
They cant dismiss Trump, so they ridicule and denigrate, the lefties make me sick in that respect.
You’d think the conspiracy to stop Trump winning or holding the Presidency, led by the CIA and using a dossier prepared by a Brit, an ex M15 operative (Christopher Steele) might be of some little interest to Sopel and the rest of the UK media…think again. Virtually no coverage. Plenty of coverage of what was in the dossier but almost none about Steele, his motives, his background and whether he was acting with the knowledge of MI5 (or is it 6?). Sopel, Bryant and Zurcher aren’t real journalists reporting what is happening. They are Democrat propagandists, working to DNC talking points, just like CNN.
Seem to recollect Steele is MI6.
In Hunstanton today. Lots of people out enjoying themselves, relaxed atmosphere, people not hedge jumping at all. Then I encountered the only mask zealot nutters today. They had also muzzled their toddler. Where are the NSPCC?
Same place as Banardos and Save the Children
I’m beginning to think this obsession with masks and making them mandatory now is part of a march to create that ‘mysterious ‘second wave.’ Masks prevent normal respiratory function which in turn will adversely affect the immune system. So, along with the stress of losing your job, increased poverty, and restrictions applied to associating with friends and family and the overall fear (all compromising immunity) if the second wave comes about (with a little help from their friends) that’ll be why. In short: wearing a mask damages the immune system. Someone put that on a badge.
I agree, years ago fresh air was advocated for all respiratory problems even on cold days. The 2nd wave will be from the people who have been denied treatment or had treatment discontinued for other ailments. Its a massive tragedy which should result in prosecutions for those who instructed doctors not attend patients in care homes, to cancel treatments etc.
Given people can self certify and anxiety is a jutificstion for exemption, we are likely to see a growing mass exemption movement. I know I experienced high levels of anxiety when trying to wear one.
I’m quite concerned about the few people I’ve seen driving with a mask on.
AFAIK that is driving whilst impaired.
It only takes one person with low SpO2 to pass out at the wrong moment and you have potential multiple fatalities.
The police should treat driving with a mask on the same as driving while using a mobile.
Any person doing so is actively endangering others.
Agree. That’s a very important point. Husband says he has driven tractors while wearing a mask (he grew up on a farm) and says it restricts breathing and vision, and is dangerous because you end up fiddling with it all the time.
Yes, maybe a judicious campaign is called for to redress the balance.
public adverts:
Masks – they’re dangerous if operating machinery – don’t do it”
The sheep will get really confused then.
I did a cursory look into driving with masks AA and RAC .. no advice. I began to make a call to IAM roadsmart but failed the its covid so you will be on hold forever test.
Genuinely surprising these motoring organisations haven’t communicated about the danger.
If anyone has the time.
HSE may be a better bet on safe operation of amachinery, risk of hypoxia and allowable limits of oxygen for working etc.
If the driving instructor is working and wearing a mask, he should have a risk assessment that says what the oxygen levels inside mask are or an SpO2 meter permanently affixed to his finger whilst operating machinery etc etc
Rules for radicals -punish them by holding them to their own standards.
Driving lessons have resumed in my area and I’m appalled at the number of students and instructors I see wearing the muzzles during the sessions.
I don’t think they’ve twigged what would happen if heaven forbid one or both of them pass out due to hypoxia or hypercapnia.
Reading posts below about police and Hancock urging the public to enforce mask wearing by shaming, harassing and reporting non conformists I am reminded of the Chinese social credit system and would suggest we are on a slippery slope to something similar.
At the height of lockdown we had numerous incidents of people being filmed or photographed doing something the camera person disapproved of and the footage then shared on community social media. In my village a very elderly man stepped off the end of his drive to collect a shovelful of horse poop to put on his roses. Apart from the happy snapper a good 50ft away he was in a deserted lane but this delightful person shamed him on social media for leaving home for a non essential reason! I think we can expect to see a return of this sort of behaviour come Friday.
However I don’t think people will take the muzzle shaming lying down. Mr Bart has predicted that many of these snitchers will find a fist being slammed against their face if they ever have the temerity to approach someone not wearing a muzzle.
If it was me, I would give them the Fascist salute and greet them with “Viva Il Duce” or “Viva Franco”
A pithy rebuttal in an article from the US
“The coronavirus is a natural disaster,”
No, it isn’t.
The coronavirus is just another flu. The real disaster has been the work of human beings.
Resisting it must be, too.
Natural event. Unnatural disaster.
How many of you are going to the anti-mask protest tomorrow? I want to go but it’s f**king rail replacement bus to London. Urrrghh.
I would go but its 500 miles away.
400 miles here, but willing to get to a march in future if enough notice. Car sharing.
I’m gonna go. Feel I’ve gotta show my support. Will try and get some videos and pics.
What time and where?
I’m going. Assemble at Hyde Park (Speakers Corner) at 1pm, then on to Marble Arch. Link below
https://www.keepbritainfree.com/post/keep-britain-free-demo
Incredible. Vigilantism is being actively encouraged by the police over something that shouldn’t even be a crime. Somehow I doubt they would encourage us to take the law into our own hands in any other instance.
Oh feck em.
I must admit it have been worried about this for the last few days but having walked about my town centre today and been into Robert Dyas , waterston s, boots , Morrison’s, WH Smith’s and decathlon I have seen maybe 20 per cent mask usage and the people wearing the are pathetic sheep I would snap over my knee.
They can’t win this .
Not chance
The fact that you can in effect self exempt by saying it causes distress is enough to make it easy to get round.
My other half is always very dismissive of my contrary attitude but she is so pissed off by this that she is actually coming to the demo with me tomorrow.
Hopefully get a few beers in before and afters.
Other halves are always dismissive of contrary attitudes!
Today I asked the manager of our Sainsbury’s today what there policy is on masks. He said they will not stop people entering the shop as it is not for them to police it or ask intrusive questions about people’s reasons for not complying. I intimidated that I have a health condition and was concerned I would attract hostility from other shoppers and he told me to go to customer services and ask for a ‘mask exempt’ lanyard which is recognised by all supermarket staff and not just Sainsbury’s. I did that and i would suggest anyone who doesn’t wasn’t a mask, but isn’t as bold as Jonathan Castro of this parish, does the same.
Sorry about typos! Two birthdays in the family and now mish moshed! Cheers peeps!
What gibberish I write when sizzled! Toby needs to give us more time to edit!
That’s good news. Will try to check out what M&S policy is and let you all know tomorrow.
Good news indeed.
Been to Morrisons today, asked one customer services about masks and medical conditions, they said we will need a medical note from your doctor. Calmly I asked to see the store manager and he said whilst they had not had the full instructions from head office yet, he would be taking a common sense approach as they are doing with their staff. He said (as we all know) they cannot enforce mask wearing, and why should they after being open 7 days a week throughout this situation.
Sounds promising, as does Sainsburys.
Thanks 🙂
I’ll probably test it out on Sunday next as I’m staying with my folks next Fri and Sat.
Seems Toby often cites articles from the Mises Institute. Austrian economics has changed my life and taught me how crucial freedom and markets are.
You can find articles from Mises Institute and other free market think tanks on ZeroHedge.
Don’t get teary-eyed about ‘free’ markets.
They never are – and also have created :
Big pharma
Big finance
Big data
It ain’t that simple.
Strong argument all 3 you cite have been created where free markets have been severely restricted by a combination of “license raj” and govt licensed oligopoly.
Tim Worstall has posted extensively on this.
All three, to a greater or lesser extent, reflect the (over) dominance of Chicago School antitrust law and economics, with its blind spot for vertical and portfolio effects. Excellent read – Lina Khan’s Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox:
https://www.yalelawjournal.org/note/amazons-antitrust-paradox
Yes, as worstall has posted at length in a more pithy manner, it’s often an absence of free in the market.
Yes, the market becomes considerably less free when there is regulatory capture, lobbying and special interest pleading, all of which are rife in those three industries. The seeds of the Financial Crisis were sown in the repeal of Glass Steagall and the emergence of the full service giant banking groups (the ‘Too Big To Fail, Too Big To Bail’).
Big Media as well: Google, Facebook, Twitter,You Tube, CNN, ABC,MSNBC, CBS, New York Times, Washjngton Post, FT, Guardian…All supposedly in a free market but all working to actively suppress opinion outside a narrow range. In many ways the US media bar Fox is worse even than the BBC.
I got back from the N French Alps on Thursday, having been there for 10 days. To be honest, it wasn’t that bad on the mask front. Down the valley in Thonon only about 40% of shoppers were wearing muzzles in the supermarket. Up in the more touristy ski resort of Morzine, it was a lot higher approx 60%+. Further up the hill in the refuges, apart from the odd bottle on sanitiser, you wouldn’t have noticed any difference from normal.
I didn’t wear a mask at all. Everywhere I went, the shop assistants and alike appeared more friendly than usual and gave me the impression that they maybe quite liked the fact that I wasn’t wearing a mask. A friend who lives locally told me that the Gendarmes had told someone else she knows that they wouldn’t be enforcing mask wearing.
That said, I’m back out there in August with my better half. As I understand it, mask wearing will be mandatory in France also by then. Therefore, the atmosphere may be a little different but I still won’t be wearing one.
I’ve decided that I’m happy to take a fine if needs be. Wearing a mask… Read more »
sorry – meant to post under Jane’s comment below
Oh dear…..
https://twitter.com/EssexPoliceUK/status/1284471002202877952
I won’t be surprised if this will be an even bigger problem come 24 July.
I saw that in some places teenagers were using latex masks and wigs to disguise themselves as older adults and thus be able to buy alcohol!
I came across something similar on Twitter. If anything will make mandatory muzzle wearing backfire these incidents will be it.
Indeed. Someone should send this to Sadiq Khan
🤣🤣
For years places have had “signs no helmets or face covering to be worn in this building”.
Course chancers are going have a go, even more so once the economy melts down and people get desperate.
Exactly. Its not only robbery that will be an issue, what about assault? It would be hard to identify the attacker.
There is a real possibly, that even the police might be taking the piss out of the guidelines now.
That also crossed my mind as several police chiefs have gone on record that they will not be enforcing this.
Social Experiment
Untermensch
Kritik der reinen Vernunft
(Am I playing the game right?)
Matt, you’ll appreciate this. O Level German paper in the year above me. Translate ‘it is raining heavily’. Girl from my school couldn’t remember es regnet stark, and wrote ‘es ist peltin doon’!
Brilliant!
Apologies, was trying to say is this a social experiment and all the services are in on it, but it wouldn’t accept the comment
That’ll teach you for the comment on my stottie piece earlier!
ENGLISH LAKES HOTELS
Just received an E-mail tonight from English Lakes hotels, owners of the Midland Hotel Morecambe. The steps they are taking to ‘covid proof’ their hotels are breathtaking.
Here’s a copy of my reply sent by E-mail. I do think more of us should be proactive when we get this Sh*te
Thank you for your E-mails concerning your plans to make your hotel Covid Safe. As a past customer who has enjoyed numerous stays at the Midland in the past I just want to say the following.
I know that your efforts are in line with government guidelines but the prospect of staying at your hotel with social distancing, face masks, hand sanitising and the rest fills me with horror.
I’m afraid, under these conditions, I wouldn’t stay at your hotel if you paid me never mind expecting me to pay you.
If you come to your senses and, along with other big businesss, tell the government enough is enough they may realise that every effort they make to subjugate and control the population and indeed take away our freedoms is destined to make this country an even bigger basket case than it already is.
My wife and I… Read more »
They seem to be under the delusion that the more of this rubbish they do, the more people will feel safe and use the facilities, the opposite is true
Agree. And its not just the hotels but even shops and museums are labouring under the same delusion as I’ve learned from writing letters to them
Its driving people away
It’s a really effective way to protest telling a business you are a customer witholding your custom. Can be done politely in person at any shop, let them know why and just walk away
Perhaps I should have mentioned in my post the sentence that really makes you feel welcome. It comes at the end of reams of garbage concerning social distancing:
‘Guests breaching our policies will be reminded of their responsibilities and any individuals persistently disregarding social distancing may be required to leave the property with immediate effect.’
Nice!
Well written and spot on. Please let us know when they reply.
Had an ‘automatic response’ telling me they will get back to me as soon as possible—-we’ll see.
Covid Safe YUK! CCP Virus it is and these diktats would make the experience more like a stay in China.
Although I have never stayed at the Midland Hotel, it does look lovely since it was renovated.
Good on you as a past customer telling them not to expect you back under current conditions.
P.S.:
“they may be jeopordising values that are important to them e.g. public embarrassment by their behaviour, loss of respect by friends or family ”
And absolutely nothing about the efficacy of a mask against contracting CV19, just personal shaming if you don’t wear one. That’s not exactly a good argument in favour of masks, is it? That just confirms to me that the police think it’s all bllx too.
..and no mention of the fact that it is not a criminal offence to not wear a mask..
From Conservative Woman:
“The virus has dissipated but the government and media are still keen to continue their fearmongering, making mask wearing in shops (apart from sandwich shops) mandatory from July 24, a week today. If that wasn’t enough the government is once again keen for the public to help police by informing the authorities about rule breakers, as so succinctly put by Matt Hancock in Parliament recently:
At one minute into this clip you see Hancock informing the House that ‘the enforcement will be largely undertaken by the great British public.’ It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what Britian’s homegrown ‘gauleiter’ meant. He would like the informer culture, rallied when the lockdown came into place, to step up once again to ensure that anyone not adhering to this ridiculous policy be shamed or reported. For a man who recently talked about the ‘community spirit’ of the British people in light of all these restrictions, he has little idea of what community means or what a new age of the informer will mean to community cohesion.”
This social shaming propaganda has come directly from Matt Hancock.
It has come to Hancock from the behavioural scientists of the SAGE comittee – SPI-B. In order for more compliance social shaming and increased personal threat levels should be caused. This was advice given to the gov in a written document.
I keep mentioning this, I appreciate most already know. Perhaps others reading don’t.
Hancock is a psychopath. Most in government are.
Remember those graphs they used to use in the daily covid briefings, the ones where they proudly showed us how much they were wrecking economy by restricting use of transport?
After we’ve had a week or two of masks, I wonder if we will see similar graphs showing how much more people are shopping in person, now they feel/are safe…?
What is wrong with the Daily Telegraph? I would have expected a Tory paper to be backing a Tory PM but no, yet again they print scare stories. I am struggling to keep up now. So we didn’t see any spikes post these events but that isn’t good enough for some. What on earth is going on and why do the DT keep printing this stuff?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/analysis-blm-protests-crowded-beaches-eased-lockdown-have-not/
I think the word Tory has lost its meaning, if it ever had any. None of them are conservatives.
So what paper do ‘Conservatives’ now read?
We don’t.
Well I’m a small-c conservative. The Economist, though it infuriates me. Nothing else. News from BBC and Reuters, though both those infuriate me too. Would love to find a more neutral source.
Headlines from the Grad cos it’s free.
Actual news from here, Hector Drummond, UK Column, OffGuardian etc.
Spikes are everywhere, they are in fashion. Scotland had a hearty spike yesterday, I forget, 13-19? new cases via the sars 2 test. Not covidding or anything but glad at least we are putting a spike together. 5.5 million people so rustling up a spike of 19 people is the very least we can do. Stops us feeling embarrased.
110 odd in intesive care
No deaths
From memory of scot gov web page.
Dreadful article!
Can anyone explain the practice of breathing from balloons, as depicted in the photo? (sorry can’t post it.)
Its a way of getting high if you have the right gas from say a bicycle repair kit. Edinburgh parks are littered with the canisters.
London demo 1pm Speakers Corner tomorrow!
Itinerary:
https://www.keepbritainfree.com/post/keep-britain-free-demo
I wonder if the BBC will be reporting it?
They’ve never reported anything remotely critical of the narrative that this is a planet-altering pandemic – nothing from Heneghan and Gupta, nothing about Dolan’s legal case, nothing about Sweden.
Evil.
Ironically the BBC did mention Heneghan yesterday and linked to his latest work “Why nobody can ever recover from COVID 19”.
That plays into the hands of the government- excuse to stop reporting deaths
Like PPE and care homes, a distraction from the Big Lie
I emailed them to alert them to Gupta’s herd immunity paper
No answer
Heneghan was on the beeb several weeks ago – maybe on Andrew Marr. I was impressed by him.
He’s great. So no-nonsense.
Wish I could be there and meet people of the same mind. I hope this movement thrives and grows.
Has the actual LAW been published yet? So we know what the exemptions are?
Will the police be examining your shopping trolley if you aren’t wearing a mask? Or perhaps telling you you aren’t allowed in you own garden?
No, surely they will be busy fighting real crime…
Well, if we don’t challenge so-called ‘Coffee shop owners’, we could end up with ‘Coffee shops’ all over the country. Before you know it there would be a service industry or – gasp – a hospitality sector. Thankfully, we don’t do that anymore in this country. Going for a lie down now, with my light weight muslin mask on.
Print the following and show when admonished/questioned:
Stop discriminating, as I am exempt from wearing a mask.
Your mask won’t protect you, rather improve your immunity
Shouldn’t that be “impair your immunity” ?
That is evidence of collusion running from SAGE SPI-B to the police. An important document in the changing of our society.
Police putting coercive control into practice for political/un proven public health reasons. The plod want to be respected, failed.
yay!
That’s sinister because that can be construed as incitement to hate or even harassment.
I think you should send it to Simon Dolan.
Hardly anyone’s going to have the bottle to do that fortunately. We aren’t great at making a fuss and I think people might be scared of the consequences. If anyone did this to me I’d be right down their throat.
Excellent!
Makes me think if the police have a death wish – they’ve not exactly covered themselves in glory over antisoscial distancing then there’s the BLM protests. This will be another nail in their coffin.