Boris Weighs Up “Nuclear” Options
There’s a story by Tim Shipman in the Sunday Times today that I’m struggling to understand. He reports that last Wednesday at 4pm the Prime Minister convened a war-gaming exercise in which they considered various responses to different “second wave” scenarios.
For an hour they mapped out options for the next few months. Simon Case, head of the COVID-19 taskforce, led a discussion of three fictional but realistic scenarios that reflected Whitehall’s fears about what could happen next. “There were three whiteboards in different corners of the room,” one of those present said.
In their tabletop war game, Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, first discussed an outbreak in northwestern England, then an outbreak in London and finally a general increase in infections nationally.
Under the first scenario, local authorities in the northwest saw a persistent rise in infections and the measures taken by councils failed to stem the tide. Johnson and Sunak agreed that the first lever pulled should be additional restrictions on household interactions. “There must be quick, decisive action,” Johnson said.
That evening, the fictional scenario became reality as the prime minister was presented with Office for National Statistics data showing a 66% rise in infections in a fortnight, with increases in Blackburn, Bradford and Manchester.
Where does that 66% figure come from? The ONS infection survey data released on July 31st showed an increase in the number of people testing positive over the past two weeks of just five. In the period June 29th to July 12th, 31,542 people were given a nose and throat swab, of whom 19 tested positive. In the period July 13th to July 26th, 28,325 people were swabbed, of whom 24 tested positive. So an increase of ~0.06% to ~0.085% in the unweighted sample. In the ONS table below, when weightings have been applied, this shows up as an increase in the percentage of the infected population in England of 0.05% to 0.09%. Is that the figure Tim Shipman’s referring to? If so, it’s based on an increase in the number of people testing positive of precisely five.
What about the claim that infections have increased in Blackburn, Bradford and Manchester? In section three of the ONS infection survey, headed “Regional Analysis”, there is the following caveat:
There is not enough evidence to say there are differences in the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 in different regions of England.
Indeed, the daily average for the percentage of the population estimated to be infected in the North West remained constant at 0.05% from June 15th to July 26th. In the same period in London, by contrast, it increased from 0.10% to 0.14%. So why local lockdowns in the North West but not in London?
In Shipman’s article, he goes on to say:
Wednesday’s war game also featured a sobering session on what might happen if such an approach was needed in London, where the number of cases is rising, though not as fast as in the northwest.
Er, no. As we’ve seen, the number of cases isn’t rising at all in the North West and is estimated to be rising a bit in London. (Was one of the five new cases in London?) So what does Boris intend to do if the number of cases in London continues to rise? Here’s where Shipman’s article makes for alarming reading.
In the war game, Johnson and Sunak agreed that in the event of a London outbreak, it might be necessary to scrap the entire “green list” of countries exempt from quarantine, meaning all arrivals would have to self-isolate for 14 days. “We’d need quick guillotine decisions,” one of those present said.
In March, the Prime Minister considered, and rejected, plans to lock down the capital harder than the rest of the country. But in Wednesday’s war game he agreed that if infections rose significantly, overnight stays in London would be banned, Londoners could be subject to stay-at-home orders, and close-contact services such as hairdressers would close. “The challenge in London is how quickly people move around on the trains and Tube,” a source said. “It would potentially spread much quicker than in other areas so you’d have to be quicker on the regional hammer in London.”
Most controversially, the ministers concluded that people would be advised not to travel in and out of the capital, raising the prospect of restrictions on those inside the M25. “That would be the border point,” an insider said.
God help the nine million people who live in London. A mad, hammer-wielding maniac has taken up residence in Downing Street and will “whack” the capital if a handful of more people start testing positive for the virus, regardless of the damage he’ll do to public health and the economy.
In the third scenario, which Whitehall officials called the “frog boiling” scenario, the prevalence of the virus increases gradually but inexorably across the entire country, with local lockdowns failing to snuff out fires. The response here, apparently, would be to extend the “shielding” policy to encompass everyone over 65!
Johnson sanctioned work to go ahead on plans for “enhanced shielding”, which would see the number of people judged clinically vulnerable and urged to stay at home increased from the current total of 2.2 million to “a much wider group”.
Yesterday, more than two million vulnerable people were released from shielding in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This “segmentation approach” would see many more people receive a tailored letter in September or October, “before it gets cold”, spelling out their risk factors. Health issues and age would be taken into account – an approach that is likely to mean that a large number of people aged between 50 and 70 would be urged to stay out of harm’s way. Personalised advice is possible because scientists have better evidence about which factors most effect whether people survive COVID-19.
“At the moment, shielding is binary, you’re either on this list or off it,” said one of those familiar with the thinking. “But we know there isn’t a simple cut-off at age 70. People would get a personalised risk assessment. The risk rises after 50, quite gently to start with, and then accelerates after age 70.”
It is likely that this would mean people being put in tiered risk levels but would be controversial because it could be depicted as quarantine by age. Most of those affected, if the shielding plans are adopted, are likely to be over 65.
Can’t the over-65s just carry crucifixes and cloves of garlic to ward off the vampiric virus? I’m sure that would result in a far lower loss of life than imprisoning them in their homes.
Postcard From Melbourne
And if you want a glimpse of the future, a reader has written a “Postcard From Melbourne“, where a draconian second lockdown has been imposed by the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews after a minor uptick in infections. It’s not pretty.
Lockdown 2.0 was quickly imposed, a few postcode areas first then all of metropolitan Melbourne. A concern to anyone who values their liberty had to be the total lockdown of a number of housing commission apartment blocks with zero notice. By the time the Dear Leader had finished his announcement on TV that no one would be allowed to leave these tower blocks there were already hundreds of police surrounding them forcibly stopping anyone from leaving. Considering in ‘normal’ times they can’t rustle up two cops to attend burglaries, night-time home invasions or muggings etc. they were able to find 500 of them to police this hard lockdown with no trouble at all.
Of course the lockdown has had little effect so next was mandatory face nappies for all when you’re outside your house with $200 fines gleefully being handed out by the Vicstapo. Before that has even had any chance to have an effect Prof Sutton and Comrade Andrews are informing us that ‘Stage 4’ Lockdown will have to be implemented or the world will end. Still no concrete details but from leaks in the news sites it will be like NZ, everything barring supermarkets and essential services closed, no travel more than 5km from home, one occupant from a house allowed to go shopping and a huge increase in police patrols using numberplate recognition cameras to catch and fine anyone not complying with this madness.
I’ve given up trying to have an adult discussion with anyone here. I know of only two people who are lockdown sceptics like me. Every single other person you speak to is a complete COVID Lockdown fanatic who will not contemplate any other view. It’s quite unsettling. Aussies love to make out they are this rough, tough, she’ll be right, bunch of rebels when in reality they are a nation of supine, compliant rule followers who love nothing more than ‘dobbing in’ someone else for not following the most petty of rules and regulations. They are such a nation of bedwetters someone has actually started manufacturing home wares with portraits of the Victorian Chief Health Officer, Health Minister and State Premier – bizarre and creepy!!
Worth reading in full.
No “Second Wave” in Western Europe, Says Theoretical Physicist
Today I’m publishing a third update in the “Canaries in the Mine” series produced by Dr Rudolph Kalveks. Dr Kalveks, who has a PhD in theoretical physics, has used a standard tool in epidemiology – the Susceptible-Infected-Recovered/Resolved or (“SIR”) model – to analyse the lifecycle of the virus in different regions. In his first article in the series, he concluded that in Europe and America the pandemic was approaching the end of its life and a “second wave” was unlikely. He looked at the data again in the second article in the series and saw nothing to change his mind, and did the same in the third, concluding that while the fatalities might not have reached a ceiling in some US states they had in Western Europe. That’s also what the data indicate in his fourth analysis, published today.
The curves show that when the penetration of coronavirus in a country reaches a ceiling, typically represented by a fatality rate below 0.1% of its population, its spread slows to a standstill, with few further fatalities arising. This certainly appears to have been the case in mainland Western Europe, where the average daily death rates from the coronavirus have now declined to single figures (in terms of individuals) in every country, notwithstanding the relaxation of many of the lockdown restrictions imposed early during the pandemic. The “Canaries” are telling us empirically that Western Europe has reached or is close to herd immunity. Prof. Gupta at Oxford and other epidemiologists explain this in terms of the immune mechanisms at work in addition to antibodies, such as T-cells.
Worth reading in full. You can see all four analyses on the right-hand side as sub-pages of “How Reliable is Imperial College’s Modelling?”
Thousands of Protestors Join Anti-Lockdown March in Berlin
Great to see so many people turn out for an anti-lockdown protest in Berlin yesterday. A crowd of people, many not wearing masks, marched from the Brandenburg Gate on Saturday ahead of a rally in Tiergarten park. The demonstration was called “The end of the pandemic: freedom day”. Euronews has more.
Protesters held up placards promoting conspiracy theories such as “Corona, false alarm”, and there were chants of “we’re here and we’re loud, because we are being robbed of our freedom”.
Placards also read “we are being forced to wear a muzzle” and “natural defence instead of vaccination”.
According to the BBC, which also reported on the march, over 15,000 people turned out (although some local observers put it at 20,000).
The mood is peaceful but hardly anyone is wearing a face-covering or observing the required social distancing, our correspondent says.
“Our demand is to go back to democracy. Away with these laws that have been imposed on us, away with the masks that make us slaves,” said one woman.
Restrictions in Germany include the wearing of face-coverings in shops and on public transport, social distancing rules and hygiene requirements apply throughout the country. Mandatory testing has been introduced for holidaymakers returning from high-risk areas.
Germany has had more than 210,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 9,000 related deaths since the pandemic began.
What the BBC neglects to mention is that 9,000 deaths is less than half of the German death toll for seasonal flu in 2017-18.
The mainstream German papers have reacted to the demo in a typically hostile way. The German-speaking reader of Lockdown Sceptics who has scanned the German papers for us before has had a look.
German papers are highly critical of the demonstrators. The Frankfurter Allgemeine describes the people attending as “corona deniers” who, with their refusal to wear masks and adhere to social distancing rules (hardly surprising given they were protesting against lockdown regulations) are described – at best – as misfits endangering the health of others. At worst they are linked to neo-Nazi groups whose support for the demo is mentioned in several reports and helps to underscore the sense that people demonstrating to retain basic freedoms are extremists. Tarring lockdown scepticism with right-wing extremism has always been a common and obviously emotive thread in German reporting.
Bild is similarly relentlessly critical, painting the protesters as “corona deniers”, “conspiracy theorists” and “right-wing extremists”. Reading these reports you’d conclude that no moderate sceptics bothered turning up. The report is immediately followed by a headline shrieking that there are 15 new cases in Hamburg. Hamburg has a population of 1.9 million.
The Sueddeutsche reports on subsequent arrests of protesters, and features a quote from the Justice minister, Christine Lambrecht. “The freedom to demonstrate is an important right, underpinning democracy,” she begins hopefully. But she then shows scant regard for this right: “However, demonstrators should adhere to regulations that exist to protect public health, and I have no sympathy for anyone who so self-importantly ignores them.”
Cornwall Residents “Terrified” of Tourists
There was a depressing story in the Independent yesterday about how local residents in Cornwall are reacting with horror to the influx of “staycation” tourists.
Residents in Cornwall have expressed dismay at overcrowding due to an influx of domestic tourists on so-called staycation in the UK.
One local in Wadebridge said on Facebook that some tourists were not socially distancing because they “feel safe down here”.
“My shielding is paused from today but I’m too scared to go out,” she said. “Tried walking into town a couple of times but no social distancing at all. I was constantly doubling back, leaping out of the way and panicking just to keep my distance from the hoards. It’s horrifying.”
Another, in St Ives, said she was “too scared” to go food shopping because of the crowds and had told her children not to visit the main shopping street or the harbour seafront.
This was “the general consensus among friends,” holiday lettings manager Claire Harris told the BBC.
I was thinking of holidaying in Cornwall this year, having been many times before and loved it. But if the locals really are leaping out of the way at the sight of any tourists, I’m glad I didn’t.
The Mail has the same story. Apparently, some locals have taken to calling Cornwall “Benidorm on steroids”, while local “Marshalls” are patrolling the streets, making sure social distancing is being observed.
A Catholic Writes
A reader who recently converted to Catholicism has got in touch to tell me about his experience of attending Mass again for the first time in months. It wasn’t pleasant.
I am writing to you to share my experience of returning to Mass recently. As I had only become a Catholic last November you can imagine how much I was looking forward to returning to Mass a few weeks ago. However, my joy quickly turned to sadness. At the door of the church I was greeted by a “steward” who told me I had to put on a mask and then escorted me to my seat. Talking to other people was not allowed before or after the mass. Worst of all, the stewards were all donning masks, visors, surgical gowns and gloves. It made the experience more like an appointment at the dentist than worship! Oh, and I nearly forgot to say that no singing was allowed and when the priest came to distribute the host he silently dropped it into my hands. The service was shortened to 30 minutes. Evidently a full hour Mass might be deadly even though I could go and sit with a friend in the pub for hours safely! I left the service deflated and pondering whether to go again until these ridiculous restrictions are lifted. Perhaps I should start a catholic resistance movement called Massked Resistance.
Round-Up
- ‘The Not-So Great Cover Up‘ – David Lewin makes the case against face nappies in The Reprobate
- ‘Customer numbers fall after compulsory face masks were introduced in shops, figures reveal‘ – Mail reports that the introduction of mandatory face nappies has meant fewer people going shopping, not more
- ‘Senior Tory MP is arrested on suspicion of rape‘ – An ex-minister was arrested yesterday on suspicion of having raped a House of Commons researcher
- ‘Death of free speech in the US‘ – Caroline Graham in The Mail On Sunday reports on the assault on free speech in American newsrooms, while Andrew Roberts discusses a new Cato Institute survey that reveals that 62% of Americans are too frightened to speak their minds
- ‘The Government’s National Panic Service is being used to keep us in a condition of perpetual alarm about coronavirus‘ – Peter Hitchens’s column in The Mail On Sunday is always worth reading
- ‘Track and trace fails in 50% of “easiest” cases‘ – More evidence that Matt Hancock’s £10 billion ‘track and trace’ programme isn’t fit for purpose
- ‘Schools’ plan B for autumn Covid spike: online lessons for all‘ – Alarming report in The Sunday Times saying schools are preparing for more online lessons from September
- ‘LifeSite petition encouraging break-up of Big Tech goes viral‘ – An American website has started a petition urging the US Government to break up Big Tech to end censorship
- ‘Britain’s ship of fools sails on, rudderless amid the Covid seas‘ – Strong column by Jeremy Warner in The Sunday Telegraph
- ‘This is no time for a midlife crisis Boris!‘ – Dan Hodges thinks the explanation for the Prime Minister’s increasingly bizarre leadership style is that he’s having a midlife crisis
- ‘Mask rage: “One man told me I shouldn’t be allowed out if I can’t wear one”‘ – Unusually sceptical piece about mandatory face nappies in The Observer
- ‘Delaying herd immunity is costing lives‘ – Good piece by Martin Kulldorff in Spiked. He points out that the current lockdown is protecting the healthy instead of the vulnerable
- ‘Academic freedom on trial as sacked professor asks High Court to decide‘ – Article about Professor Peter Ridd who is fighting James Cook University in the courts after being sacked for challenging green orthodoxy about the Great Barrier Reef
- ‘They’ve Ridd us of this turbulent scientist‘ – Professor James Allan, columnist for The Spectator Australia, weighs in on the same topic
- ‘Top WHO disease detective warns against return to national lockdowns‘ – This is the same WHO official who said asymptomatic people infecting others was “very rare” back in June
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “You Don’t Need a Mask” by Rick Estrin and the Nightcats
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months 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.
Forums Back Up and Running
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.
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open. Initially, they became a spam magnet so we temporarily closed them. However, we’ve found a team of people wiling to serve as moderators so the Forums are back up and running. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I thought I’d create a new permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (although it’s showing a delivery date of Sept 7th to 16th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from eBay here and an NHS exemption notice for just £2.99 from Etsy here (see above).
And don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
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“Priti Patel: We must pause all Net Zero targets”
And in a nutshell theres the truth. This is no emergency, if we can afford to wait before we act further. We know it. They know it. They know that we know it, yet still they continue.
Mmmn.. it smells like politicking to me Neil.. Words are cheap, and I wouldn’t trust Patel as far as I could swing her.
She’s sounding rather like Macron in France, and when they all start to sing from the same hymn sheet you know there’s something in the wind.
All that governments have been pushing through has been planned well in advance, and any hitches wargamed. The agenda is set.. they’ll just pretend it isn’t, whilst coming in through a backdoor..
“I wouldn’t trust Patel as far as I could swing her.”
And you wouldn’t be swinging her far George. She’s a hefty lump.
I didn’t want to say that Hux.. but seeing as you have..
Where angels fear to tread…
The honest emergency in that context is that she is likely to lose her seat in the next GE. Her constituency is affected by ULEZ.
“Climate adviser says 2030 could be too soon for petrol vehicle ban”
And in another nutshell, thats why bureaucrats with narrow thinking and inexperience should not be trusted with anything that the market can do better. When the market produces electric vehicles that cost the same as a petrol car, last 15 years, don’t catch fire or use dangerous cocktails of rare minerals to work, AND can be recharge for half a tank of petrol, we will buy them Chris. We’ll buy them in their millions. That might be a hundred years from now though…
‘…we will buy them Chris. We’ll buy them in their millions.’
As long as they can fly through the atmosphere and you can hover 30 foot above the Serengeti…
A counter-offensive would be marching on Moscow, which could well justify tactical nukes. Expelling an invader is not a counter-offensive, though.
I think you’ve been misunderstood Brett,..
I get what your saying, if ukraine was to invade Russia north, towards Moscow then their political right to self defence would be enacted but, trying to retake disputed territories to the south should not be accepted as an Invasion of the homeland!
Medvedev has been sabre rattling for a year or more. Whether he is deranged or if he is doing his master’s bidding we cannot tell. The use of nukes in Ukraine would produce a western response against Russia which would materially degrade their forces and their infrastructure.
What counter-offensive? It’s just more Telegraph wishful thinking and some usual propaganda to keep people ‘on-side’, there’s also the fact that there is ‘conflict fatigue’ so they need to try anything to rouse people’s interest….there isn’t any evidence that I have read..including the American media, that shows that Ukraine has made any progress whatsoever. Most of the articles are saying the exact opposite.
So what else can they do?
The bigger story is the authorisation by Congress of a $350 million ‘security assistance’ to Taiwan…a couple of days ago…you know just in case America’s Russian venture doesn’t get the outcome they want….
Not sure I totally buy the “invader” narrative. Russia was massively provoked (NATO membership for Ukraine and massive persecution of Russian speakers in Donbass region) – the USA wanted Russia to invade.
..this is an interesting podcast from Patrick Bet-David in the US, they cover a lot of stuff.
It’s a long podcast but the end bit isn’t very long..and there’s a new ‘undercover’ video of former general Stanley McChrystal @2.17 regarding Nordstream…the excellent comedian Dave Smith makes better sense with his comments than the supposed ‘experts’…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drDwGz6D9ic
Thanks for posting – that was absolutely brilliant. And Dave Smith was very insightful and articulate throughout…
Yes..it’s a bit of turvy-topsy when the comedians are more diplomatic and politically shrewd than the bloody politicians!!
The whole issue around de-banking is ridiculous. There should never, ever be a reason to be debanked unless you’re a mass murdering, would-be tinpot dictator billionaire planning the demise of the human race….oh..er..hang on….
The more it becomes something that is discussed as if there are reasonable grounds for debanking, it’s begins to gain some faint level of acceptance. It becomes a thing.
Equally worrying is the fact that banks are making it harder for businesses and people to deal in cash. Thank goodness Farage is on to it because no one else with such a high profile is. People are either being complacent in paying with phones and cards or complicit. In the case of the banks, they have some sort of agenda going on that needs to be revealed. Three banks have closed ion my local town in the last two years. There are now only two. Quite often the cash machines are out of order. In my local supermarket – which I try to avoid by shopping locally and at farm shops – two out of their three self-service machines that also take cash seem to be out of order on a very regular basis. Is this also the sign of an agenda? I imagine you all have similar stories to tell. If we could somehow get these stories ‘out there’ and join with Nigel Farage and make it a strong people movement, we might have some success. What do you think?
All the banks seem to have gone in our local towns as well. They have generally retained one branch in the county town, but that’s it. I tend to use our local post office now as a bank, for paying in, withdrawing etc.
Some months ago I needed to withdraw a larger than normal amount of cash. You would think the money wasn’t mine. I had to phone in advance to say I would be attending, then had to fill out various forms. This is done under the excuse that I might be being pressured to pay some dodgy tarmacker or similar, and if they asked me once, they asked me ten times what the money was for, to which they were unhappy that they kept getting the answer ‘that’s my personal business, and nothing to do with you’. It took about twenty minutes for them to actually, reluctantly, produce the cash. If there is ever a run on a bank – well, it won’t be happening, will it? Theyv’e made it administratively very difficult to access more cash than the £250 your debit card will get you out of a machine.
Yes, OB, this is very worrying. I would say that you can start your own debanking by withdrawing cash slowly over time. Then again, where would you put it? And more alarmingly, if you wanted to open another bank account and turned up with a suitcase of cash, they’d be accusing you of being a money launderer or drug trafficker. They, the banks, are making it very hard to conduct our own business by suspecting all of us as being either dupes or criminals when it comes to large sums of cash.
When the banking crisis looked imminent I gradually withdrew a few grand from the local ATM to keep under the mattress. Then I had to buy a new car and paid my cash that I’d withdrawn from my account back in – it caused almost as many questions as to the source you had taking the stuff out.
It does look as though the real reason for money-laundering regulations is much the same as the real reason for “the war on terror,” “the human right to a digital identity,” “centralised NHS records,” and so on. Which is not to stop international money-lauderers, who get to run countries.
I am awaiting a response from the Treasury on how many cases for money laundering there have been since the legislation came in, and how many have been successful.
No response as yet.
In similar vein, I keep wondering whether any work has been done to see if all the DBS checks have actually prevented the abuse of any vulnerable people (by comparing cases before and after the legislation, for example).
They have certainly created a lucrative industry, but the headlines of abuse within institutions continues, and drawing attention to safeguarding concerns regarding gender indoctrination of children will lose you your job.
All true but they are making it difficult for new businesses to get a bank account and keep it, they make it didfficult for mbusinesses and individuals to make payments (they often ask what is the payment for!).
Some of this results from their past connivance in momney laundering (HSBC) and the requirements of EU regulations which the current government refuses to amend. By maintaining regulatory equivalence nd most EU regulations one supposes they will find it easier to re-enter the EU Customs Union when nthey think they can get away with it.
On the grounds that they will carry on de-banking people regardless, what I want to know is:
-has anyone yet worked out the general criteria the banks are using to target individuals for de-banking (aside from PEPs, SMEs and cash businesses – and vicars who complain about multicoloured flags)?
-what options are available for anyone who has been de-banked?
-is there any way one can protect oneself from being de-banked?
-how long before the ‘free cash withdrawals’ at ATMs start being charged for (always been suspicious about that one), probably on a sliding scale?
-how is one expected to participate in CBCDs if you don’t have a bank account or smartphone?
Farage’s new organisation might eventually be able to address some of these issues but it’s the meantime I’m concerned about.
On your last two points:
-https://www.fca.org.uk/firms/access-to-cash The FCA has new powers to make provisions about ensuring access to cash for those who still rely on it. They haven’t set out their proposals yet as the powers are new this month.
-I believe TPTB envisage physical ID cards for those few without a smart phone. Either way, the ID will be linked to your very own digital wallet which they want everyone to have. Digital wallets directly linked to the central bank may replace bank accounts as we know them, though it’s a bit unclear what will happen to the big banks.
Will the FCA ensure that such people can be paid in cash by employers, pension funds and the state? Not much use having access to cash if you have no access to money.
Good point. No, I expect they are only interested in ensuring just about enough cash machines across the country whilst we transition to a wholly digital system.
Thanks for those – the last one is scary, to say the least.
Vote for one of Farage´s UKIP parties: Reclaim, Reform, etc. (why can´t they unite?).
“Dame Alison Rose should not have resigned”
True, she should have been sacked and arrested and de-damed (if thats a word)for breaking customer confidentiality laws, and, the bank fined £20 million for allowing it to happen!
Yes, as well as the entire NatWest Group board including the chairman (yes I spelt that correctlyj whose full confidence she had apparently.
And the BBC bod, who MUST have known he was being passed confidential information.
No wonder they want Muslims to keep on coming. It’s to boost the falling population numbers. It’s just when you see them en masse like this, and the contrast to the beautiful English houses in the background. They both look totally at odds with each other. Yes I’m aware that sounds really bad but if I can’t say my true feelings here where can I say them?
P.S We never seem to see the break down of stats anywhere but just for the record, I have no problems with people seeking asylum if their lives are in peril from where they are fleeing, but just how many immigrants are of the economic type, whereby they’re travelling over here for the welfare benefits? Because all of these videos I see with working-age men on boats ( sans belongings or passports ) travelling to Europe, they don’t look like they’re suffering PTSD because they’re fleeing for their lives. They always look like they’re going on their jollies! We need to know the honest breakdown of just what % of which category are coming into the country, otherwise we cannot be blamed for being cynical and suspicious.
I think it’s fairly obvious that most are of the ‘economic’ type and they later get their wives/kids brought over once they’re set up, hence videos like below. Muslims rarely marry and have kids with non-Muslims. London will be like Amsterdam, if it isn’t already, with kids that have both parents as indigenous British being a minority, total replacement being inevitable and only a matter of time.
https://twitter.com/BFirstParty/status/1685712084359696386
I don’t think it sounds bad at all, and I agree we should all feel able to speak openly on this forum.
I agree with you that Europeans should be open to genuine cases of asylum; but that we should be much more “selfish” in choosing which economic migrants we want in our countries.
In my view, a country should feel a sense of togetherness based on shared history, shared values, shared language and shared culture. I am just not convinced that Islam and European culture are compatible – Muslims have fundamentally different views about the role of women in society (including how to dress in public), homosexuality and religious tolerance, amongst other things. Many of them despise western culture. Assimilation and integration with the indigenous people is not IMO likely, given these fundamental differences.
Cheers Michael and I totally agree. Fair enough if there’s a skills shortage in some area, such as medicine or the tech industry, but I very much doubt these immigrants are the ones making up the majority. Too many videos of them chucking their I.Ds and passports overboard too, when I’ve seen footage of them on their way to Europe on the boats. I mean, in what realm would anyone ever have a kosher reason for doing that? And I agree with their religion being totally at odds with not just Christianity, but literally Jews, Hindus, non-religious people, you name it they don’t tolerate it. That’s why I think diversity up to a point is a positive thing and can enrich a community but there has to be a threshold and I don’t think it’s racist or xenophobic to not want to live as a minority in your own country. I’m also interested to see how the UK compares with Germany here regarding welfare payments to immigrants vs natives. As I say, when does the cut-off point come?
”The number of German recipients of welfare benefits has halved since 2010, while the number of foreign nationals receiving social assistance payments has doubled, government data has revealed.
The data emerged from a response by Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs Anette Kramme to a request made by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP René Springer.
It revealed that the number of German recipients of the citizens’ allowance had almost halved from 5.2 million in 2020 to 2.9 million as of February 2023. In contrast, foreign recipients of social benefits had doubled from 1.3 million people in 2010 to 2.6 million currently.
With spikes in the number of recipients experienced during the 2015 migrant crisis and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, it means the German taxpayer is paying around €15.4 billion each year in social benefits for foreign recipients, a 122 percent increase over the €6.9 billion reported in 2010.”
https://rmx.news/germany/germany-cost-of-foreign-welfare-payments-soars-to-e15-4-billion-a-year-as-foreign-recipients-double-since-2010/
100%with you Michael.
I wonder how many migrants claim asylum in other closer, peaceful ,easier to reach African countries? Not many I’ll wager…but why not? If my life was in danger any safe country would do!
How many African countries take in their brothers?
They seem to have no problem slagging us off for not taking enough!
Strange how mainly white European countries seem to take the lions share and yet we are supposed to be the colonialist racist bas”@#ds !
Kemi Badenoch: “It is critical that Government appointees are protected and not punished for speaking their minds” Really Kemi? Why not everyone?
For all their protestations against current policies a stranger might assume the Conservative Party was in opposition or that it had been through all the years when its disastrous policies were developed and implimented.
Instead, as we know, they were fully engaged and enthusiastic for destruction of reliable energy, wokery and the rest. Ministers were proud to be photographed watching as power stations were demolished (NB the Germand mothballed theirs). They supported excessive government spending and borrowing, rapid expansion of the money supply and a failure to seriously try to protect us from EU domination and illegal immigration.
This is the usual election strategy of the Tories. When they realise their members and supporters do not want the policies the leadership wants, they make vague statements to pretend they are the people to protect us. It happened for decades over the EU and it applies equally to immigration (legal and illegal), loss of energy security and price instability.
When will Tory party members wake up and leave. When will the electorate wake up and realise it is the biggest priblem because our electoral system prevents new parties while the old, tired ones continue their oligopoly of politics. The political class needs to be taken down but I fear it will take more than one election, more than one crisis and perhaps non-democratic means to achieve it. If bad things happen it will be because the political class became so disconnected with the people.
You read all the entries above, and think
How the **** did we get SO stupid?
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/dame-alison-rose-portrait-of-a-climate-and-diversity-fanatic/
Some interesting new information on the Alison Rose charlatan. She is a member of Common Purpose, a deeply insidious organisation with evil intent. Sir Nigel has indeed taken a big scalp. No wonder the WEFfers reacted by de-banking Dr Mercola.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/beware-the-tyranny-of-the-who-my-plea-to-every-mp/
Somebody at least is having a go – the seriously evil International Health Regulations.
A disturbing article on the reality of transgender surgery. Why is this abuse being sanctioned?
https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/18-year-old-boy-died-doctors-create-vagina-part-colon
Might sound harsh, but tough s#!t! Any surgery carries risk including totally unnecessary ones!
I hear you & for the much older adults agree with you, but for an 18 year old who’d been placed on puberty blockers as a young teen, it’s nothing less than child abuse.
That’s not very kind Dinger.
This ‘meeting’ happened in June ….. don’t know how I missed it? Did you know there even was a Global Methane Hub…?
https://www.eutimes.net/2023/06/13-nations-agree-to-abolish-farming-in-order-to-save-the-planet/
“The global climate cult is getting ready to kick its war on food into overdrive with 13 nations – many of them major cattle and food-producing states led by the United States, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Spain – signing onto a commitment to place farmers under new restrictions intended to reduce emissions of methane gas.
The Global Methane Hub announced in a May 17 press release that agriculture and environmental ministers and ambassadors from 13 countries, including the United States, have signed a commitment that pledges to reduce methane emissions in agriculture. The U.S. was represented by Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry.
Last month (in April 2023), the Global Methane Hub collaborated with the Ministries of Agriculture of Chile and Spain to convene the first-ever global ministerial on agricultural practices to reduce methane emissions. The ministerial brought together high-ranking government members to share global perspectives on methane reduction and low-emission food systems.”
As the author points out ..they don’t actually tell you what the ‘low-emission food systems’ are..or how they work? Is it just stopping farmers from growing food and keeping farm animals?….and if it’s not, why don’t they say what it is?
The article also lists the other participants involved…which come as no surprise…
”Conference participants included the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Climate & Clean Air Coalition, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the Inter-American Development Bank.
The World Bank, another creation of the post-World War II, U.S.-led liberal rules-based order, has been talking a lot lately, along with the U.N., about a coming famine. The World Bank issued a white paper just last week, on May 22, titled Food Security Update: World Bank Response to Rising Food Insecurity.
The director of the United Nations World Food Program has also been putting out, starting in September of last year, dire warnings about a coming global famine.”
Worth a read..it’s fairly short..
(It also doesn’t mention that the lead country, the USA, was more than likely responsible for the greatest ever release of methane into the atmosphere, ..with the destruction of the Nordstream pipeline…(LOL!))
Thanks Mrs Gums and the linked article is worth a read.