Health Secretary Sajid Javid gave the Downing Street press briefing today – the first one in five weeks. The headline news is that the Government isn’t implementing ‘Plan B’, although Javid did add the ominous words “at this point”. He said the NHS was not under unsustainable pressure, the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths had been weakened by the vaccines and announced that the Government has spent considerable sums on some “game-changing” treatments developed by Merck and Pfizer. MailOnline has more.
Sajid Javid today batted away demands from NHS bosses for the Government to revert to its Covid winter ‘Plan B’ amid surging infections and a sluggish booster vaccine programme.
The Health Secretary insisted ministers would not reintroduce face masks and WFH guidance “at this point” as he addressed the nation from the podium at No 10’s first Covid press conference in a month.
Mr. Javid said that while the NHS was seeing ‘greater pressure’, he was confident the pressure was not ‘unsustainable’. He said ministers would ‘stay vigilant’ because cases could still rise to 100,000 a day this winter.
The decision by the Government to hold its nerve on restrictions will anger NHS leaders who claim hospitals are already buckling under the weight of Covid, flu and backlogs caused by the pandemic.
Mr. Javid used the press conference to urge Britons to come forward for their booster jabs in a bid to speed up the sluggish vaccine campaign — which has only seen a quarter of care home residents revaccinated.
He said that the country was still ahead in the race against the virus thanks to the initial Covid vaccination effort, but claimed that waning immunity meant that lead was “narrowing”.
Pleading with the country to get their booster, Mr. Javid added that not only would a booster save lives, it would also “protect our freedoms”. “Boosters could not be more important,” he said.
Daily infections are currently on the brink of passing the 50,000 milestone for the first time in months. Department of Health bosses today recorded 49,139 positive tests, up 15% on the previous week.
Meanwhile, hospital admissions rose by 15.3% week-on-week to 869, while deaths jumped by nearly a third to 179. Both measures lag behind case numbers by a few weeks, due to the time it takes for someone to become seriously unwell after catching the virus.
Mr. Javid also announced the U.K. has bought hundreds of thousands of “game-changing” pills that can be used to treat Brits with Covid at home this winter.
The U.K. has bought 480,000 antiviral molnupiravir pills made by US pharmaceutical company Merck and 250,000 PF-073 courses from Pfizer. They still need to be approved by the U.K.’s medical regulator before Britons can get their hands on the drugs.
Worth reading in full.
It’s good news that the Government is resisting the mounting pressure from various public health panjandrums to start reimposing Covid restrictions – for now. Let’s hope Boris can hold his nerve.
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Well, I suppose that as long as they continue to support the none existent Genocide in Palestine carrying on, the RPTB will be content to leave them alone, – for now.
(Don’t mention Excess Deaths, aka mRNA jabs though).
And I almost forgot. _ How’s Ukraine doing these days. Almost as though NATO’s losing…Shhh.
I don’t know if you actually watch GB News, or listen to it on the radio, but excess deaths and mRNA jabs are often mentioned and discussed, most notably by Neil Oliver, as are various differing views about what’s happening in Palestine and Ukraine.
Quite, and Mark Steyn did a hell of a job while he was there, highlighting the predicament of the vax injured and seeking justice for them. Tragically it would appear that he can count himself among them now. I don’t watch his shows but I hope he’s on the mend and in better health these days. I think he was my favourite presenter, closely followed by Neil Oliver. I miss how candid Mark was. You very rarely see that level of forthrightness in a presenter. He really did know how to shoot from the hip and he seemed genuinely to care about the people he was speaking with/about.
Second that Mogs.
It’s an unfortunate loss not to have Mark Steyn on GB News anymore, but maybe it wasn’t entirely the fault of GB News. I once said on Twitter that Mark Steyn and Jamie Jenkins (Stats Jamie) were like Lennon and McCartney, and Mark Steyn ‘liked’ the tweet. I loved John Lennon, but apparently he could be very difficult at times, maybe it was the same with Mark Steyn at GB News.
How are the forty million Ukrainians, army 200,000 strong, faring against the 150 million of the Russian Federation, army of 1.15 million, you ask?
Well…..surprisingly well given that Russia is the world’s foremost nuclear power with the world’s second most powerful army.
What was that noise…..oh, probably that would be the explosions rocking and sinking the Russian landing craft, Novocherkassk. You could hear the explosion because the ship was full of drones made in medieval Iran since Russia is unable to supply itself with its own drones…….
Has Ukraine asked for peace talks yet since it is doing so badly…..no…..that was, in fact, Putin……
So Russia is ‘winning’ but trying to start peace negotiations?
That sounds as though the U.S. strategy made plain by the U.S. Defense secretary last year, ‘We want to see Russia weakened to the degree that it can’t do the kinds of things that it has done in invading Ukraine’, has been very successful…..
I guess for as long as there are people like Monro who believe that asking for peace is a sign of weakness, we will have war.
No, Monro, I am no fan of Putin. They’re all c*nts, the people who seek power over others. But it seems that – unlike Western Europe who can’t even field enough tanks – he actually understands the old maxim:
si vis pacem para bellum
I’ve just assumed its a degree of RDS – Russia Derangement Syndrome – similar to the Trump one and equally bewildering in its vehemence.
I have made it clear on any number of occasions that Russian peace overtures simply signify an expedient wish to regroup, re-arm. But the fact that it is Russia, and not Ukraine, seeking a pause, is telling.
I have also made it clear that Putin wants a land corridor to Moldova, as he has repeatedly made plain.
That is why you will have war in Ukraine for the foreseeable future, perhaps with the occasional expedient pause.
This conflict has been in progress since the ninth century, if not before.
Nevertheless, as I have also often observed, for as long as they choose to pursue it, the U.S. strategy continues to be very successful.
You have made it clear what you think, that is not the same as making it clear what Russia’s intentions signify (they know that not you) – that’s just your hubris.
Of course they know their intentions….but your mistake is in thinking that they have not shared that information.
They have told us, in stark clarity, exactly what they have in mind:
Produced by Putin’s Presidential Administration with input from the Russian intelligence services and armed forces, a 17-page internal strategy paper was made public in early 2023; a comprehensive guide to the unofficial annexation of Belarus via a combination of economic, military, political, and social measures, with the objective of full absorption into a so-called “Union State” with Russia by 2030.
The Russian takeover of Belarus as outlined in the document appears to closely mirror Moscow’s plans for Ukraine, albeit by less direct means.
The documents were drafted by the Russian Presidential Administration’s Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation.
The Directorate for Cross-Border Cooperation is staffed by Russian intelligence officers from the three main spy services, the FSB, SVR and GRU, respectively representing the domestic, foreign and military agencies. The directorate’s real agenda is bringing nations back into Russia’s sphere of influence.
The Moldova plan, in parallel with the one for Belarus, is broken up into three different chapter headings: the political, military and defense sectors; the humanitarian sector; and trade and economy sectors. These headings stipulate specific milestones the authors would like to achieve in the short term (by 2022), medium term (by 2025) and long term (by 2030). That final target year, the document says, should see the “creation of stable pro-Russian groups of influence in the Moldovan political and economic elites.”
The documents also contain plans for the Baltic States. The plans for each Baltic country consist of two parts. The first one describes threats to Russian interests and the second one sets out steps to address them. Political, military, military-technical and security objectives, trade and economic objectives, and finally humanitarian or social objectives are in turn divided into three different time frames: short-term (until 2022), medium-term (2025) and long-term (2030).
More recently, Putin made a lengthy speech on Russian identity at the World Russian People’s Council on November 28. Putin reiterated his previous claims that the “Russian nation” and people are composed of ethnic Russians, Belarusians, and Ukrainians who were artificially and violently divided via policy miscalculations during and after the fall of the Soviet Union, arguing Russia (the state) should unify this “Russian nation. Putin defined the concept of the Russkiy Mir as a union of people who feel a spiritual connection to the “Motherland,” consider themselves to be native Russian speakers, and are carriers of Russian history and culture regardless of their national or religious affiliation. Putin, however, pointed out that there cannot be Russia (as a state) or the Russkiy Mir without ethnic Russians and implied that current Russian citizens and “all other peoples who have lived and are living in [Russia]” make up Russia. Putin geographically defined the Russkiy Mir as the Ancient Rus’ (Kyivan Rus), the Kingdom of Muscovy, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the contemporary Russian Federation, indicating that the Kremlin’s concept likely also includes “Russian compatriots” in Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
Wake up!
This is not complicated. Look at a map.
Putin’s goal (for as long as it takes) is a new ‘iron curtain’ from Kaliningrad to Ukraine’s southern border on the Black Sea.
That will incorporate Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all NATO members.
That means war, for you, probably nuclear. That is why the U.S. strategy is what it is.
Wake up!
All Putin really understands is Josef Stalin’s mindset: ‘How many divisions does the Pope have?’
Simply delete Pope and insert EU.
This is the invader of Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine twice. This is also the butcher of Syria.
He already had peace, and Crimea, after 2014. He chose war, again.
Make no mistake, he or his successor is coming for the Baltic States, in due course, which then brings war to these shores……
“Ofcom’s commitment to free speech”
Come back in 10 minutes to check on me – if I am still rolling around on the floor laughing, I may need to be rescued before my break a rib or something.
GB News – better than nothing I suppose but they were poor regarding Steyn and Fox.
“Left leaning” = Unashamed supporters of “Socialist Fascism” as the great monro puts it. The BBC is the world’s best funded political party.
I agree about Mark Steyn – though it should be noted that GB News never sacked him – but I don’t agree that GB News acted poorly in sacking Laurence Fox. I don’t want to hear men demeaning women on GB News, and that’s not the image of itself that GB News wants to portray, so they were right to sack Fox. Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees Mogg and Patrick Christys are all much better on GB News than Laurence Fox ever was.
You see Fox as a man demeaning women, I saw a man prepared to exchange banter and give as good as he got with a mouthy sort.
I don’t recall hearing a peep out of Farage and Rees Mogg condemning the Covid scam. They are part of the establishment, part of the problem. Fox is awake to the extent of the problems we face and happy to put himself in harm’s way to stick up for what he believes in. No comparison.
Nobody is right about everything. It’s too much to expect. Nigel Farage (and as far as I know, Jacob Rees Mogg) made it clear that people should not be coerced into getting vaccinated, and should not be discriminated against if not vaccinated, and I can’t imagine he was a great supporter of lockdowns.
Fox was right about it all, many others were. It was a key moment when it was time to speak up and bugger the consequences. I would accept a Damascene conversion a la Bridgen, but those two don’t come close. Farage was a cheerleader for vaccines, so was Rees Mogg probably – he was in the bloody government for a good part of it all.
“Can’t imagine he was a great supporter of lockdowns” – not nearly good enough. That’s why we’re in this mess.
Spot on re the Rona fascism. Both of them supported the totalitarian medical nazism. GBnews bar Steyn and Oliver was MIA.
GB News is tepid – very tepid, a cold cup of tea on a cold morning. Better than nothing, but that does not mean much.
And to please the ofcommunists they have tossers like Portillo – gay, whose every sentence must contain ‘climate change’. Some of Oliver’s ‘guests’ are just as bad and just as useless – all to please the ofcommunists.
OFCOM’s remit should be limited to managing allocation of the spectrum. Why does the state feel it needs to police content? Why do people feel they need the state to police content for them? We’ve become a species of little children (present company excepted). Worse than children actually – children have joie de vivre.
Yes but a football player isn’t much good to his team if he keeps getting sent off. ——–He has to stay on the pitch.
Well it was GB News that sent him off. Why? Was not the right choice to simply say “so what”? I don’t want “nice” journalists and politicians, I want honest ones who see what’s going on in the world and call it out. We’ve done “nice” and it got us nowhere.
You can be honest and also box clever. He knows TV News is regulated
Why did GB News sack him?
The Channel is already under big pressure from organisations and leftist tyranny who wants it bludgeoned off our screens. They cannot get advertisers, and money is tight. All presenters know this including Fox. You gotta bat for the team not for yourself. There are ways to go about things and still get your points over.
Depends what compromises are required in order to “bat for the team”. I repeat, why specifically did GB News sack him. I mean both what reason did they give and what you think the real reason was.
I cannot answer that fully as I don’t know their real reason as I am not aware of any statements they made regarding his departure. What I am trying to tell you is that just opening your gub and blurting your own opinions using little tact on National TV can be harmful to the channel and to yourself. You gotta be smarter than that.
Their original official statement as far as I can see was very brief and didn’t give reasons. The owner makes a few more comments here: GB News boss breaks silence on Laurence Fox comments which ‘should not have happened’ – Bristol Live (bristolpost.co.uk)
It may be that Fox committed some kind of sackable offence under the terms and conditions of his employment. Probably all TV presenters have some clause now in their contracts along the lines of “if you say something and the cancel mob come after you, you’re toast”.
One thing the GB News owner did say was this “We totally respect Ofcom”. I don’t really want to watch a channel owned by someone who respects Ofcom, or says he does. Ofcom should be abolished. The state has no business regulating content.
Fox was not very foxy. ——–He should have been clever enough to avoid being booted. ——You have to be the Fox that gets into the chicken coop and doesn’t get caught.
“GB News – better than nothing I suppose but they were poor regarding Steyn and Fox.”
Absolutely tof and they got rid of Calvin Robinson simply because he stood up for Dan Wootton. My initial support for GB News evaporated over the Fox business although I had little support left after the way they treated Mark Steyn.
Without a doubt malign forces are ranged against GB News but continually caving to the mob and criminal outfits such as Stop Funding Hate will ultimately result in their demise.
100%
I had forgotten about Calvin Robinson – thanks for the reminder
”I had forgotten about Calvin Robinson” – that says it all, he isn’t being missed!
I don’t watch GB News, only Neil Oliver’s monologues
Then you miss some excellent programmes, such as Patrick Christys Tonight, and Free Speech Nation, and the Dinosaur Hour, and Headliners which keeps me informed about the news without depressing me, which I never miss when Lewis Schaffer is on it. The rest of the time GB News is generally pretty interesting, engaging and entertaining.
That’s good to hear!
I think we all need to remember that if GB News is wiped out what is there left on TV? ——BBC Liberal Progressive Dogma and SKY News with it’s Climate Show. ——–We need to support GB News despite it having failings or it is back to listening to Kay Burley and Adam Boulton.
I don’t watch TV news of any kind, or read newspapers. I support in a very small way some alternative news and views sites, this one among them.
The only problem with your approach of not watching anything is that it is hard to criticise what people say if you never actually listen to what they say.
I read reports on some key events, some linked to “legacy” media sites. So I am aware of what’s going on and how things are reported. I’m rarely if ever surprised by anything. You don’t need to keep abreast of every event to have an idea of what’s going on.
I agree totally. I think if Neil Oliver ever went there’d be a mass exodus of viewers, surely? Patrick Christys is good because he’s often highlighting the immigration issue, plus he went down to get up close and personal with the Hamasshole Jew-hating Rape-apologists, to broadcast their mental derangement and fanaticism for all to see, didn’t he? So he’s a good ‘un as far as I’m concerned.
I don’t actually watch GBN though, just snippets shared here and on Twitter, so I don’t know all the presenters all that well. What I’m wanting to know is if they might have covered this yet, as it’s the sort of thing I can imagine they would. This is really odd and not very appropriate, imo, and we can’t even blame Drakeford anymore can we? Why on earth use schoolgirls though??
”The Welsh government used 14-year-old schoolgirls to attract ‘refugee’ men from Africa and the Middle East to Wales.
The Welsh Labour government used taxpayer dollars to use underage girls to attract military-age illegal migrant men from Africa and the Middle East to Wales.
The promo video started with two minor teen girls greeting the refugees and letting them know they would be arriving at a welcoming environment.
“Fleeing your country is difficult, but Wales wants you to feel welcome,” one of the little girls said in an undated video.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/12/welsh-government-uses-14-year-old-schoolgirls-attract/
There might be something to this, but the reference to ‘taxpayer dollars’ in relation to Wales does raise some questions for me.
I don’t have much time for any of them. Obviously not the condescending liberal circle jerk elite or those who attempt to guage populist opinion and give it want it wants whilst poisoning them. TS Eliot said that the media starts by catering to the public taste and ends by debauching it. Rudolf Steiner was asked why it is necessary to bother with spiritual science – surely it is good enough to be a good person they asked. He replied that being a good person is a very difficult thing which requires a lot of learning. These pontificators in the media don’t know much and they don’t care about their shortcomings. They are so lacking in virtue that they don’t even consider the pernicious consequences of their hollowness.
So where do we find the kind of people you approve of?
They say that when the student is ready the teacher appears. I don’t think it is a matter of finding them it is more a matter of the times that we live in generating the best in ouselves and those around us. Then it all just happens naturally.
And what do we do until this teacher or these teachers appear?
We live in the here and now.
There is something to be gained by looking at current affairs. There is nothing to be ganed by seeking out media channels that confirm your own unexamined impulses. If they were examined then you wouldn’t seek reassurance. But in our time there is a higher work and you need to discover it. It can be predicated on survival instinct alone. We take the English language for granted but there is a certain high level spirit contained within it which is possibly the best weapon in the world at this time to fight against this evil. The fine old English art of taking the piss. We do need to sort it out quickly.
Because all the other channels refute the existence of my biggest concerns, it is refreshing to find someone willing to ‘go there’.
There seemed to be so few of us in the dark months of 20/21 when, purely for my own sanity, I was crying out for a mainstream(ish) voice that would ‘go there’. Perhaps all we get are a few more sceptics, but that’s a gain in my books.
“But while it’s easy to understand SFH’s motivation”. Is it? Really? Help me out, explain your thinking.
I fear that all their detractors will make a move to have them closed down once the GE date is announced. I hope I am wrong.
Since the 13th june 2021, GB News launch date, I’ve never watched BBC nor Sky News, nor will I ever again. Don’t get me wrong, GB News are far from perfect, but at least they’re in the ballpark on the right planet, unlike the other two. I whinge to GB regularly about their misplaced (but OFCOM mandated) even-handedness which can come across as craven capitulation at times. Example: putting across the HAMAS viewpoint in the current Middle East troubles. Would they allow a murderer or paedophile to present their side of the argument? This search for a neutral bias will be the death of them.
Steyn was a huge loss, (I still follow him). Wooton, not so. Fox was the architect of his own downfall, but a loss nevertheless. Calvin Robinson too is missed. If they lose Neil Oliver, it’s game over.
It’s a fine dividing line between appearing unbiased and appearing pusillanimous and caving to the wokerati.
Regarding GB’s parlous financial state, I’d cheerfully pay a fair subscription rather than watch Sky or BBC gratis.
Never sure about GB News the CEO watches it more than I do. Gene therapy treatment seems to be a no no and recently (according to my better half) they’ve gone all woke pandering to all this naming non existent storms the climate activists want us to believe in. So I’m
afraid I’m mighty suspicious especially when one looks (as usual) where the money comes from as I read somewhere our old “friend” W Gates has his finger in this particular pie.
To the Liberal Industrial Complex anything that does not comply with their world view is to be classed as “HATE”. ——-Because “hate” is not very nice, then those indulging in “hate” must also not be very nice and should be shunned by all of polite society. — World view that differs from that of the Liberal Progressive should be criminalised. It must be removed. ——Liberals don’t want you having choice because you might not choose them. ——-Before GB News I had to watch SKY and was forever shouting at the telly. Especially during things like their absurd “Daily Climate Show” which was the most disgusting propaganda. So when GB News appeared it was GREAT. Here was a channel to ask questions rather than regurgitate dogma. OK there were sound issues and other teething problems, but I knew that this channel was necessary if we were not all to continue being bludgeoned by leftist group think. So the mistakes didn’t matter to me, and wasn’t the Mark Steyn Show just fab? Here was someone challenging the UN and WEF and all of our own handwringing parasites that pander to them. ——-My hope is that problems with funding get resolved and the pathetic people trying to stop advertisers to this channel get what is coming to them, and that GN News does not morph into SKY NEWS LITE, in order to survive the onslaught from the insidious leftist tyranny.
‘it’s more difficult to sympathise with the growing queue of journalists who also want to shut GBN down’.
The elites on the left hate objective debate. They can’t tolerate any opinion but their own.
We may be a minority, but there are a lot of us so we should play them at their own game. Boycott and divest from wokist outlets.
2024 resolution.
In reality we are not really “the minority”. Conservatives had an 80 seat majority in 2019. Many people agree with stuff on this site but are busy with work and family life etc and do not have the time to investigate every issue.
Just to confirm the point, yesterday I read how just 4% of journos in the USA voted Republican.
No surprise. Identical here in the UK too, I imagine.
To advertiser’s, GB news is like the field of dreams, build it and they will(eventually) come! Popularity means money and money means more than box ticking
I’m a big supporter of GB News, got it on the radio at the moment, and watch it streamed via YouTube, I don’t watch it live as I refuse to pay the TV tax.
I know a couple of the companies that boycott the station and don’t buy their products. It’s a pity GB News don’t publish a list of cowardly companies that have pulled ads, I’m sure many would boycott such companies.
A similar new broadcaster started in the Netherlands. It is called ‘Ongehoord Nederland’, translated ‘unheard Netherlands’.
It has had a similar run in with the State Broadcaster, which tried to take them down. This ended up in court and the ruling was about one month ago. ON can continue to broadcast.
it is really good, a lot of common sense, with less fluff and sensationalism than GB news.
Good point Myra and no I haven’t.
“What exactly is going on here?”
They are being exposed as the charlatans, liars and establishment whores that they are.
I’ll leave it to Corporal Jones to summarise.
When they try to censor you, you know you are telling the truth.