The Great Reset

Plan B Has Nothing to do with the Great Reset – it’s a Back-of-the-Fag-Packet Bodge

I’ve written a comment piece for Mail+ about yesterday’s ‘Plan B’ announcement by Boris, arguing that it shouldn’t be seen as the final nail in the coffin of those who cleave to the cock-up theory of history. On the contrary, it’s yet another balls-up. Here is an extract:

A friend sent me a message last night after Boris Johnson had unveiled ‘plan B’ at a hastily arranged press conference: “Still think it’s a cock-up and not a conspiracy?”

I can see his point.

After all, how strong is the medical case for the restrictions announced last night?

The number of Omicron cases may be doubling every few days, but what evidence is there that vaccine passports will ‘flatten the curve’?

Germany has had a Covid certification scheme in place for weeks, yet it has a higher number of cases per day than we do.

The Scottish government published a 70-page document last month making the case for vaccine passports, but neglected to include a single scrap of evidence that they work.

Which is hardly surprising, since people who’ve been double jabbed are still becoming infected and infecting others, albeit at a lower rate than the unvaccinated.

How else to explain the fact that daily cases are creeping up, even though, according to the Office for National Statistics, 95% of English adults have antibodies?

If the jabs don’t prevent you from catching the old variant, what hope is there that vaccine passports will stop the spread of the new variant?

Incidentally, the number of Covid patients in English hospitals is falling, the hospital admission rate of Covid patients in England decreased to 6.02 per 100,000 people in the week ending November 28th 2021.

We know from looking at South Africa, where Omicron has been circulating for a few weeks, that those infected are less likely to be admitted to hospital than people who test positive for Delta.

So why the last-minute, panicky announcement?

My conspiracy-minded friend thinks it’s all part of a worldwide plan. He believes that since March of last year the government has been doing the bidding of a small cabal of powerful billionaires who want to control the world’s population via vaccine passports and other bio-security measures.

The problem with this theory is that the Government isn’t capable of planning something 48 hours in advance, let alone 21 months. In a testy exchange yesterday on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Dominic Raab categorically denied ‘plan B’ was being actively considered, only for the Prime Minister to announce it the following day.

I’ve known Boris for more than 30 years and at one stage worked for him when he was editor of the Spectator. I’ve always been fond of him, but the chances of him being enlisted in a global conspiracy by Bill Gates and his pals are vanishing to zero. That would be like planning a casino heist with Mr Bean.

Worth reading in full.

By Toby Young  /  9 December 2021 • 12.44
       
222 comments

Why Boris Has Gone Gaga For ‘Build Back Better’

borisbuildbackbetter.jpg

We’re publishing a guest post by an academic economist about why Boris, who used to be a borderline climate change sceptic, has passionately embraced a ‘Net Zero’ agenda. Could it be because he wants to curry favour with Joe Biden?

Many of his supporters are dismayed that Boris Johnson seems to be buying in so deeply to the hardcore green agenda. This is doubly so when we consider how this agenda might overlap with the powers the Government has accrued over the course of repeated lockdowns. You need not be a full-throated believer in the coming Great Reset to see that green activists are angling to leverage these new powers to impose their radical program on the population.

Those that are dismayed by this latest evolution of Johnson’s politics have been scrambling for an answer. Johnson does not personally seem like an enthusiast for hard green policies. Yes, he used to bike around London as mayor – but this hardly indicated that he was interested in the more totalitarian aspects of the green agenda.

Some have turned to the influence of Johnson’s latest wife: Carrie Symonds. The profile fits. Symonds seems like a squishy ‘right-thinking’ London liberal with an instinct finely-tuned to get as close to power as possible. Sorry Boris, but she probably did not marry you for your looks or your dependability.

In what follows I am not dismissing this personal dimension but think that it needs to be viewed in a broader context. Johnson may bend to Carrie’s will behind closed doors, but this cannot explain why the whole Tory Party has painted itself green.

Why Boris Has Gone Gaga For ‘Build Back Better’Read More

By Toby Young  /  4 November 2021 • 18.30
           
118 comments

Covid Flip-Flopping is Cock Up, Not Conspiracy

I’ve written a piece for Mail+ today trying to explain communications omnishambles of the past few days. Here is an extract:

Boris Johnson has executed so many U-turns in the past 18 months, it’s as if his solution to the supply chain problem is to retrain as an HGV driver. But even by this Government’s standards, the past few days have seen some spectacular flip-flopping.

Will vaccine passports be introduced for nightclubs, sports stadiums and other large venues? Judging from the string of contradictory ministerial statements about this, the answer seems to be: “No, but, yeah, but…”

The week began with Boris saying he wanted a “bonfire of Covid regulations”, only for him to give a press conference yesterday warning of more restrictions to come this winter.

Then there was Professor Chris Whitty’s bizarre remarks on Monday about vaccinating healthy 12 to 15 year-olds, which will have left most parents none the wiser about whether it’s a sensible precaution or not.

The only thing Boris seems to have set fire to this week is his last vestige of credibility.

According to some cynics, this conflicting advice is a deliberate attempt by the Government to gaslight us. Trying to discover some rhyme or reason beneath the recent spate of back-of-the-envelope announcements is to misunderstand what Boris is really doing, which is to deliberately confuse us.

In their conspiratorial eyes, it’s designed to soften us up for the mass rollout of ID cards, digital currency and – eventually – a Chinese-style social credit system in which anyone who challenges the billionaire-financed technocratic elite will be socially isolated and financially impoverished. They refer to this diabolical plan as ‘the Great Reset’.

I’m not convinced. As a journalist who has been writing about politicians and their shenanigans for more than 30 years, I’m a subscriber to what’s known as ‘Hanlon’s razor’ – never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. In other words, it’s usually cock-up rather than conspiracy. Most politicians I know couldn’t even reset their alarm clocks.

Worth reading in full.

By Toby Young  /  15 September 2021 • 17.51
   
241 comments