I do not think it is an exaggeration to say the UK has fallen under the control of a group of “mad scientists”, out to test a brand new theory.
Far from the cinematic depiction, a mad scientist is someone obsessed by a wild theory and determined to pursue it, while ignoring any contrary evidence. (And one definition of insanity is pursuing the same action, over and over, and expecting a different result.)
It is truly dangerous when such a mad scientist gets the ear of a witless politician. Last time was Edward Teller whispering to Ronald Reagan about lasers-in-space: "Star Wars".
Witless, Unbalanced and HGV (he does remind me of one, in that hefty pin-stripe) are on a trip, determined to test out a wild new theory, that the ultimate toll from an airborne virus can be “controlled” through limiting human interaction.
That may seem intuitively logical but, remember, at the outset, they said the whole point was to “slow it down”; not to “stop” or “control”. And the retort to that, since proven correct, was that all they were doing was delaying the inevitable, all while adding new problems into the brew.
Instead of focussing on protecting the vulnerable - which could have changed the ultimate toll - from a contagion largely harmless in over 99% cases, they are obsessed with controlling spread to everybody, regardless of whether they are vulnerable or not. Utter, sheer madness.
The horrific tragedy is that they are conducting this experiment, not in the confines of some laboratory, but out in the real world, on the lives of tens of millions.
The absolutely crazy thing is that the government is not listening to anyone else. These guys, who have formed a self-serving cabal, as evidenced by the continued presence of Lockdown-Fergusson, now have a monopoly on dictating government policy. They are not “advising”. They are telling the government what to do.
Over on this side of the channel (France), we are thankful for a temporary, and entirely fabricated (imho) “crisis” about a perceived delay in rolling out vaccinations. This being the magic potion for the phantom plague. Two myths this time combining to cancel each other out, leaving the government on the defensive and not in a position, so far, to go out ruining people’s lives any more. Hopefully, they will go ahead and relax the final remaining restrictions on 20 January as promised, but 2 weeks is a very long time in politics, and I am not too optimistic.
In the meantime, it all means little to me because, as a result of too many visits to too many speakeasy bars and secretly operating restaurants, and far too much joviality over the last few weeks, I need to run dry for some time, cut down on the calorie input and concentrate on work. The only thing I am hoping for is that gyms will reopen on the 20th. Remember? … those places that medical doctors told us for years we need to go to, for our health, but now mathematical modelers say are lethal to everybody’s health.
We lost when the "NZ locked down early and hard and they are back to normal" myth gained traction. After all, the only thing they did different that had any effect was closing the borders and as a sparsely populated island nation 1,000 miles from its nearest neighbour quarantining them was not difficult.
(snip)
Speaking of which, where were the "MUH PARLIAMENTARY OVERSIGHT" johnnies that were so quick to screech about Brexit? Where were they in the last 12 months.
Where did the myth come from that Europeans failed to squash the virus because they didn't lock down hard enough, unlike Australia and New Zealand?
While the Antipodean lockdowns may well have been harder than the UK's, it isn't likely that they were harder than Spain's or Italy's. Surely their success was in a large part down to being both isolated (relatively few imported cases) and in the southern hemisphere (so less community spread pre-lockdown as it was summer), which meant that case numbers were low enough at the start of lockdown to make total eradication a reasonable goal to shoot for, in the way that it wasn't in Europe. (On the other hand, Argentina demonstrates that a southern location is no panacea!)
Europe instead ended up hoping that a test-and-trace system like South Korea's could serve as its lockdown exit strategy, but cases still ran out of control in South Korea in December, in spite of a test-and-trace system far in advance of what Europeans could have hoped for (both due to government competence and fewer cultural expectations of privacy).
Incidentally, I find it surprising that lockdown sceptics tend to be Brexiteers, given that effective South Korea-style suppression (let alone eradication) seems impossible without rigorously-quarantined borders (which also explain the success -- right on our doorstep! -- of the Isle of Man).
No, I don't believe so.
The key point to remember is that we live in an age of information warfare. How many of the people posting furiously on social media are actually real, let alone posting in good faith? It's ridiculously easy to make fake profiles to push narratives and agendas.
Of course, a portion of the population are eager to see the country locked down. I don't doubt that - but there's also plenty of people who are skeptical or in full opposition to invasive policies and lockdowns that have no nuance/care for the consequences.
It's tough. We're being isolated from friends, family and strangers alike. Bit by bit, avenues of discussion and debate are being shut down to protect the mainstream narratives from ever being challenged.
Yet history has shown, time and time again, that such approaches are unsustainable. I am of the firm belief that those in power have overplayed their hand by far too much and this is, in large part, desperate flailing to evade consequences and criticism.
Things may get worse before they get better, though if and when they start going after regular people in earnest and going after more than just lockdown skeptics/those of us wary of taking an experimental vaccine...I do believe even a large portion of the quiet, meek masses will begin to speak up, if only for the sake of self preservation.
Well, perhaps we have lost the information war then.
Clearly, when so much news is disseminated over the internet and the big tech companies and so-called "fact checkers" have us all by the balls it is increasingly difficult to even discuss even sane and cogently formed alternative views openly anymore.
There is also the prevalence of emotion over fact fuelled by social media. Lockdown zealots on social media proclaiming how lockdown sceptics have blood on their hand and will be responsible for killing thousands of people who are not yet dead (supposition). Whereas they completely ignore the evidence that thousands of people have died as a result of the very measures they claim are incontrovertibly correct in order to protect lives (fact).
Yep, right on. The professional journalists amongst the lockdown zealots find it hard to let facts get in the way of their ideology.
We truly have entered a repressively totalitarian holding zone.
