2020-08-23

Fizzies

Hope you are going to drink it rather than spray it all over the place like F1 drivers!

There’s another sport ruined by giving credence to the crash test dummies witterings about unfairness

And I’m still fizzing with anger at those evil or wicked, definitely inept f*cktrombones who have left us in penury with their knee jerk doubling down acts of gross stupitidy

Why did Fauci pay the Wuhan lab to do research?

Because it had been effectively banned in the USA:

https://asiatimes.com/2020/04/why-us-outsourced-bat-virus-research-to-wuhan/

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/10/us-halts-funding-new-risky-virus-studies-calls-voluntary-moratorium

Well well well.

Here’s the initial CDC report that lead eventually to the risky research being halted:

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0711-lab-safety.html

They kept screwing up safety precautions and could not keep containment.

It a cheap comment to make considering the depth of your finding but in light of cottin/polyester coverings this hopped out –

“Thus, the potentially infectious samples were moved and used for experimentation by researchers in these lower biosafety level laboratories, who believing the samples were inactivated, were not wearing adequate personal protective equipment while handling the material.”

For all their tinkering with this material the really appears to be little gain for the risk. To the average tax paying joe.

What was Fauci’s motivation for continuing his funding of investigations after US CDC closure. Why did he continue in Wuhan, what was his end goal? It would appear to have been exceptional to have moved camp after being closed down to unacceptable risks.

Thanks for posting A Git.

Then what happened? All the below is/was on the internet as I read it, research did myself at the time but it’s slowly disappearing. Enough clues for individuals to do their own research.

2017 moratorium lifted in the USA.

2017-2019:

• Chinese “scientists” arrested trying to sneak vials of the coronavirus out of Canada to Wuhan.
• Plane listed as having started in the US and with destination Wuhan with coroanvirus samples on board put on Turkish whistleblowers website
• Fort Derrick Maryland shut down (military cease and desist orders) for security reasons or drain problems after refurbishment – take you pick on reason
• Ditto for the UK biolab at Porton Down
• Gates/Soros invest in WuXi pharmaceuticals in China
• WEF event 201
• banker’s meeting in jackson Hole, Wyoming with carney on about resetting the financial system

Dec 2019 – Harvard professor involved in coronavirus research arrested by FBI, Justice Dept release papers. He had lied about links monetary and financial to Wuhan lab. Researchers really Chinese military scientists not civilian students. Paid lots of money by Wuhan lab as advisor.

Then you have the military games in Wuhan just before the first cases became known, the US military did not send athletes a planned but normal soldiers, vaping deaths caused by unknown lung problems which now match “true covid-19” symptoms but these disappeared quickly from the news, first cases in Japan traced to Hawaii when the US military were in transit from Seattle to Wuhan, WuXi lab by Wuhan wet market closed just after outbreak started.

Lots of interesting coincidences.

The Chinese have been operating a bio-spy ring. Very murky stuff. Nor sure it’s been so CV related as you imply.

led
l e d

past of “lead”

This is from Dominic Cummings’ blog last year:

https://web.archive.org/web/20200305191733/https://dominiccummings.com/2019/03/04/the-most-secure-bio-labs-routinely-make-errors-that-could-cause-a-global-pandemic-are-about-to-re-start-experiments-on-pathogens-engineered-to-make-them-mammalian-airborne-transmissible/

I’ve maintained all along that Wuhan flu was a misnomer because it originated in a US lab.

Ah, the irony of some people, Trump included, calling this “the Chinese virus.”

Do you think Fauci would have told him? Doubtful.

He is calling it that without Fauci telling him anything.

Don’t forget the BBC. And most of the the US MSM….
https://twitter.com/apinkrose/status/1240290866410946565
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-51168333

So Fauci could have caused the outbreak…that would be well, if not exactly amusing, a nicely hubristic result.

The story is not that new.
There is an interview with Robert Kennedy jr. at Mercola, which delved into this a while ago.
Add to it his personal financial conflicts of interest and that 2 Nobel Prize winners and one nominee have now come to the conclusion, that the virus must be man-made, and that particular fish smells very rotten indeed.
And so does China’s treatment of it.

Great stuff Awkward, more please. I’m soaking this stuff up & disseminating it like a patient shedding dead virus particles!

Sack Whitty and Vallance and appoint Professor Heneghan as chief advisor. Problem solved.

With Sunetra Gupta and Michael Levitt as principle advisors.

And put Ferguson into permanent lockdown.

Tower of London

Plenty ought to be sent there. So many that we’re going to need a bigger tower.

It’s pretty big. And social distancing would be ‘optional’,

The ravens need the company.

‘Never more’.

Need their guts for dinner.

Agree. We should make full use of it, complete with the execution facilities on Tower Hill.

End of a rope

Hanging’s too kind. I think they should suffer for a L-O-N-G time!

I’d advocate making them re-enact Sisyphus for the rest of their lives.

I’d go with Prometheus.

I say we make them live the Green Utopia/Extinction Rebellion Good Life for a couple of years.

Social distancing: two metres of rope from the top of a lamppost.

By the time you add their height that might reach the ground.

Plus Drs John Lee and Malcolm Kendrick

Don’t forget them.

Add to that Hancock, Harding

You’ve got to get rid of Prof. John Edwards as well.

My personal five interesting and unexpected indirect fallouts from Covid:

1. So many people I enjoyed watching and reading, I now can’t bear watching. And vice versa. For example, I now can’t bear the likes of Piers Morgan, when previously, I found him quite refreshing albeit annoying. As well as the usual suspects, I now weirdly find myself reading the Twitter accounts of people like Denise Welch, Matt Le Tissier, and even taken an interest in Boris Johnson’s sister. How the hell did that happen in just 8 months?! (As an aside, I do find it ironically amusing that Piers is regularly pimping his new upcoming book called “wake up” when this is exactly what he needs to do!) I even found Lee Hurst had joined the party on Twitter. I had completely forgotten about him since They Think It’s All Over ended!!!
2. We have always been made to feel extremely guilty that our daughter missing school for a holiday would have a detrimental effect on her education. How can we ever believe this rubbish again?!
3. The Covid situation has really brought home the message that friends come and go, and family is for life. Similarly to Brexit, if friends disagree with you, it is amazing how fickle and distant they can become if your views are not shared.
4. Prior to Covid, I was a Brexiteer. I wasn’t hardline, but I just felt from an extremely simplistic point of view, as a country, we should be able to have greater control over our rules. Rightly or wrongly! But, given the absolute shambolic way the Government has ruined our country…..I find myself now being a converted Remainer. I just don’t feel like this Government can be trusted to Govern!
5. When the dust settles on Covid, does anyone not feel the sheer divisions are setting up serious problems in this country? Could we start seeing civil wars? In the last few years we have created…..brexit Vs remainers, lockdown vs anti-lockdown, vaccines vs anti-vaccines, liberty arguments, woke arguments, increasing social media divisions, the people vs the media, the distrust in science vs religion, digital age vs traditionalism, a greater understanding of the darker powers and conflicting interests. Then the impact on the world? Who is going to take the blame for Covid? Will anyone? Like the masks, will two factors/countries be pitted against together? I don’t know, it just feels like this is just the very beginning, unless….someone takes a damn grip of the whole sorry situation, however likely/unlikely that is.

Anyway, keep going Toby, keep fighting. We all really appreciate your sheer effort and drive. Our numbers are growing and it is because of brave people like you!

PM Johnson’s government no longer qualifies as representing the Leave voters and they are behaving just like the EU Parliament.

Well said. That is exactly what is happening. Psychologically Johnson has never left the EU.

He closed the border and ended free movement. That is what leaving the EU means.

On point 4, you trust the EU to govern us then??? Once we are out our politicians will be forced to learn, the EUrinal will continue to stink.

Ha ha, I was thinking this a few weeks ago – I’m full on brexiteer but…

The last few months being governed by the incumbent shower of shite – are we capable of looking after our selves?

The past few months have shown that we need a good clearout of the Establishment, and we need that whether you are a Leaver or a Remainer; Left, Right or Centre; libertarian or big-statist. We’re capable of looking after ourselves, we just have the wrong people in those jobs at the moment.

That’s the thing – Brexit isn’t an end in itself, it’s a step on the road to proper self-government. Most of our current political establishment have made their careers in an era where they don’t have to be accountable, merely electable, with too much decision-making passed to Brussels or unelected quangoes. As it becomes harder to pass the buck, politics will be reshaped, but it will take time.

Absolutely, Andrew. It’s a root and branch rebuild that’s required.

And the existing lot are terrified of that!!

True. The people who get elected are pretty but pointless.

Drain the swamp!

I would find another slogan. That one hasn’t worked well for America. The American swamp is deeper and smellier than ever.

maybe we should defect to the SDP- any thoughts?

It might be worth lending them your vote for a bit. If we could get a change of government from the current Tory/Labour/Lib Dem parties (at local or national level) it might force the others to re-evaluate – and it would flush out a few of the current intake. All we have to do then is refuse to vote for any legacy candidate who makes a reappearance in our constituency – thus ensuring we get a new generation of politicians who know the electorate is watching.

end career politicians. One term only

… the incumbent shower of shite

Always good to see accurate descriptions being employed, Major.

Well, you have a greater chance of looking after yourselves outside the EU. You can vote the bastards out.

Love Lee Hurst. His comedy club at the Fym Fyg in Bethnal Green was always great. Dirty, cheap and amazing value. He was regularly the funniest guy on stage.

Lot of respect for him. Unfortunately I do wonder if his career is being affected by having the ‘wrong’ opinions on many things..

You point to the coming effects of divide and rule. I for one am worried.
Meanwhile, we’ll press on, resisting and educating to the best of our ability.

“3. The Covid situation has really brought home the message that friends come and go, and family is for life. Similarly to Brexit, if friends disagree with you, it is amazing how fickle and distant they can become if your views are not shared.”

Problem is that this also goes for family.
There are some real mask militants in my family. They are totally immune to any other arguments. Real bed-wetters. I have a feeling that I will be edited out for scoffing. Except: I don’t see them anyhow because no one sees anyone anymore. You can approach the frontn door, but please don’t use the loo! Pretty soon we will have to install privies so that guests don’t have to enter the house . . .

Ah, like the worker’s cottage I used to live in in the High Peak. Lots of our houses had little ex-privies out back that had been converted to garden sheds.

My friends wife who was ‘shielding’ was so scared when the 1 household meetup thing happened she actually visited her friends house with a bucket to wee in garage rather than use her friends loo. That’s when I realised that this government have succeeded in scaring the life out of normal folk.

Well, I have to do that in my allotment shed these days because our site toilet has been shut. Getting used to it, although it is challenging when you’re female.

It’s good for your compost heap though ! Really speeds things along.

I can’t imagine that woman was ever what a sane community would call normal.

The EU had plans for vaccine passports two years ago
The globalists control the EU and UK govts.
Easier to fight back if we only have one corrupt layer above us instead of two

I admit it, I used to enjoy watching Piers Morgan – he was always witty and amusing, someone I could enjoy at a distance. But he feels out of time now, the gravity of this moment just doesn’t suit him and I wonder whether unconsciously he knows it and is acting out? These times call for people with more substance – sound bites just don’t cut it any more.

“ I find myself now being a converted Remainer”

Having been ordered around by this government, whom you can remove, you now want to be ordered around by centralised technocrats you can’t remove.

Sorry I can’t get my head around that.

Very interesting points.

I also voted for Brexit, but this covid farce and the reactionary position taken by so many on the right (of which thought I belonged prior to this situation), has made me question some of things that I perhaps took for granted. I still find a lot of the remainer arguments and attitudes deeply patronising, but I have absolutely zero faith in this prime minister or government to deliver anything at all at this point. If asked to vote again on the issue, I would probably vote against the government position.

I honestly never thought I would agree with the left on anything. And then this covid situation happened….

Isabel: do you ever look at WHO’s daily summaries of the pandemic? It is raging in many nations. Which means we are all at risk. This pandemic is not over. I know you know this.
Richard Horton Editor Lancet

 Indeed. And by excluding all but deaths with first positive test within 28 days this substantially underestimates total, with many more dying within 60 days. And let’s not forget those who survive with multi organ damage
Martin McKee Prof European Public Health

The problem is that these two have very big influence in the UK and in the medical establishment .With such fear mongering bad news if the gov. listen to them

Martin McKee historically was also involved in the push for smoking bans.

I was thinking along those lines myself. How many in our government actually understand any of the science? The relevance of the ct threshold and false positive rate etc etc.
I doubt they sit around researching it like a lot of people on here do. I assume all they know is what the likes of MSM, SAGE and the WHO tell them, and they seem to consist of terminal bedwetters. As much as everyone is blaming Boris and Hancock, I can’t help but wonder how much they know? I can’t think of any other reason why such damage is being inflicted.
Hopefully, as we’ve seen more sceptical articles coming through MSM and mass protests, they’ll start to see what’s been right under their noses.

they only understand their fat payoffs

Ignorance is not an excuse. How many of us read this site in our spare time? It consumes us because it is important. Boris is constantly skiving because it isn’t important to him.

Planned food shortage ahead?

This was already flagged up a couple of days ago: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/21/uk-cheap-food-could-fuel-covid-19-spread-says-who-envoy

And here’s one from the DT:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/22/covid-19-can-survive-frozen-meat-fish-three-weeks-study-finds/?fbclid=IwAR1oLDiO4-qi7wrgjzYdXiDCSfglflDyYAyC5eDrZy76V2bKLEuqL4oES08
Covid-19 can survive on frozen meat and fish for up to three weeks Scientists say this could explain outbreaks in countries that have not had cases for long periods

Here’s what a friend posted on her Fb page:
From a scientist…. I’ve been thinking about all these food factory clusters and closures. Is it by sheer coincidence the folk producing our food are more likely to test positive than say workers in arms factories and pharma plants? Or are the beer bug police specifically targeting the food industry? And if the lurgy can survive for weeks on frozen meat and fish does that apply to tofu, veggies, and Bill’s burgers too?
Before anyone gets their knickers in a twist about the latest instalment of fear in the press please remember this. Trillions of vy rus es fall from the sky every day and there is no way to avoid them. They are swept up from the planet’s surface into the troposphere and can travel thousands of miles before falling back down to earth. Scientists already know this but clearly Telegraph journalists don’t.
If you are worried about catching any lurgy you have two options. Spend the rest of your life in a Michael Jackson chamber or eat nutritious food, supplement when necessary, and go for regular walks outside to support your immune system. That’s how our ancestors batted off bugs through the millennia and it still applies to us today. http://www.maddiet.co

And here’s an interesting reply:

Well given the hubby works in said food manufacturing and out of 800 people they have had no more than 4 cases , I’d say it’s a resounding no

!!!

It is very plausible that the virus survives in frozen food.Hep A,another RNA virus,survives and there has been outbreaks of Hep A from frozen berries

That wasn’t the point I was trying to make.

Any form of raw food is risky, especially if your digestive system isn’t sufficiently robust to deal with pathogens.

This is why most of us cook our meat and fish and why our prepacked salad is washed in chlorinated water. Also why the US has to bleach its chicken but fortunately our standards are sufficiently high and that doesn’t apply here – yet.

The point is about targeting food processing plants as hotbeds of positive cases. They’ve already closed down an M&S sandwich factory. Was anyone actually ill?

I do worry that food shortages could be on the cards for winter. There’s already official talks of a second lockdown, despite de Piffle’s protests.

That was discussed in this Daily Mail article today: Cabinet Office has drawn up emergency plans to prepare for UK worst case scenario if second wave of Covid coincides with No Deal Brexit in December, leaked document reveals
The article discussed the possibility of having the army in to deal with “civil disorder” caused by food shortages and price hikes as the no-deal Brexit cuts off 30% of our food supplies from the continent.

Also (plans for) another virus outbreak in December. “As a result, social distancing measures and masks will have to continue until 2021.”

They certainly aren’t wasting this crisis.

The point I wanted to make was that C-19 could survive on frozen food and be imported to i.e. NZ.Clearly warming kills the virus but handling frozen food and eating raw frozen food might rarely transmit.The Chinese detected C-19 on imported Ecuadorian shrimps (best irony) but probably not enough to directly transmit. Just shows impossible to stop this virus all over the world.

its deliberate. they are doing the same in the USA and Germany.
This is about population reduction

They could have painted out if you cook your food the virus gets dried, no problem. Wash salads cook food, wash hands.

I meant to say they should have pointed out if you cook your food the virus gets fried. Autocorrect fail.

Easily solved in the examples of meat, fish and most veg: cook it, because heat kills virae.

This was mentioned in “yesterday’s” comments but it has got me so seething that, despite being a reader for the past few weeks, I finally felt compelled to join up and comment.

Has this been staged by the BBC. When and where was it taken?

This has been going on for weeks now. At some point they have put together a library of photos of masked people in about every situation you could think of ready to be attached to an appropriate story.

Go to https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/virus-masks?phrase=virus%20masks&sort=best

Go to shutterstock.com and search for “mask children”. Literally hundreds of photos and drawings of kids in masks.

You’ll see hundreds of stock photos of people in masks on all the major stock photo sites. Photographers are good at figuring out the latest trend and capitalising on it.

Shame on them!

But couldn’t it be seen as a picture showing the obscenity of masking and socially-distancing children?

Well, it is also that. But it would be generous in the extreme to assume that was their intention in using it.

and all vox pops on tv show masked people in situations where the regulations mean masks are not required. It wouldnt surprise me if they deliberately ignore 10 unmasked people walking past and then pounce on the 11th masked person .

Of course, they are actors. Heard a vox Pop on the radio re travellers returning from Croatia. Person straight from RADA. Complete crap.

I’ve noticed that in press photos. Label says “Shoppers wearing masks on X high st. When you look at the pic, one person, centre shot, will be masked and everyone else is acting normally.

The 11th person is the one more likely to give the BBC-acceptable answer. So yes.

It is time we all set about putting pressure on the ‘government’ to end this farce.

Millions of people in the global south use HCQ as an anti-malarial and the incidence of Covid-19 is negligible. In many countries nobody has died from the disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2P4-cK_K8&feature=youtu.be

HCQ is safe, cheap and effective and can be used as a prophylactic.

What are we waiting for?

Enough pitchforks ?

Bill Gates.

A retrial of HCQ.

HCQ is being used sucessfully in small doses around the world. African countries, India and so on. Western HCQ trials of effectiveness against Covid19 appear to have been arranged to fail. Designed from the outset to essentialy cause toxic poisoning through administering unsafe amounts to subjects. The effects of these ultra high toxic doses were studied. Trials cut short because of the harm and deaths attributed. HCQ is over the counter in many, many countries. It has been in common use for 65 years.

Low amounts are proving to be superbly effective.

I believe there is a court case in Brazil which is fighting back against the flawed high doseage trials.

I’ve taken it for years. Will continue to do so.

It’s is said to be hard to get hold of in US now. Pharmacists not honouring prescriptions – on a rare occasion a doctor has prescribed it.

UK I have no idea what the status is – health service shut down as written about so sadly above.

If it’s over-the-counter in many countries, some enterprising dudes will take orders on the interweb and post you some.

Essential what came up in the 9 doctors for truth discussion. Market forces supply and demand. People need to be asking for it.

At a premium. See previous post.

Fair enough though – envelopes, postage, profit to live on. It’s not their fault our governments have gone ga-ga.

This is the Brazilian letter in English with all signatories

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NZOJ57fM0RTaHD1t_9w2iua7lUJhOgWT/view

I have written to Toby in this vein with a few suggestions. I hope he thinks it is worth while.

I believe HCQ could be the key if we can get the story out to enough people.

There isn’t much time. Rally on Saturday. Gov’t 2-year extension Sept.

I was checking it out yesterday. Amazon has none listed.
One site, with medical info, said it cost just over £6 for 20 tabs but there was no facility to purchase.
A couple of other sites were offering it for sale in the UK but wanted at least £30 for 20 tabs!!

http://tapnewswire.com/2020/08/special-announcement-from-the-free-people-alliance/

So now Chris Whitty’s view is that missing school poses more risk to children than Covid, which is what we’ve said all along… The past was alterable. The past never had been altered..

Newspeak. 1984. Big Brother.

An article making the case against UBI.

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/july-august-2020/money-for-nothing-3/

I don’t think it is very convincing, because it analyses UBI against the ‘old normal’. Reluctantly, I am forced to accept that we are heading towards a ‘new normal’. Furloughing is already a radical departure from the old ways of doing things, and in the coming months and years the state is going to have to take the reins in many vital aspects of our lives that used to be serviced by the businesses vapourised by government policy.

I envisage a society that exists mainly in its homes. A garden will be much more important than it used to be, but the government will mandate mask wearing there, too. A system of rewards will be set up for people who inform on their neighbours, and there will be constant monitoring with drones – enthusiastically welcomed by most responsible citizens.

People will be idle much of the time, living a virtual existence through the internet and TV. Their only physical needs will be food, IT products, physical exercise machines, the upkeep of their houses, and sanitary products (hand sanitiser, gloves, masks, etc.). New clothes will be largely unnecessary – most people preferring to wear ‘green-screen’ overalls with ‘fun’ virtual outfits generated by their computer when making video calls.

Someone will have to produce these products, but automation will reduce the need for physical manpower. We are already seeing that people such as designers and engineers can do much of their work from their homes.

People will travel much less than today, and if they do, it will be via on-demand self-driving vehicles with built-in automatic sanitisation tanks and sprays, which will take them to automated train stations and airports. This will keep them “safe”. Permission to travel will be a privilege that can be earned by, for example, informing on neighbours who fail to wear their masks.

A maximum one-child policy will be encouraged, with financial penalties for those who deviate from this. Children will get all their schooling needs through their screens. People who can demonstrate same-sex relationships will receive financial rewards. People in the most historically-privileged categories (e.g. males with pale skin) will live in the poorest accommodation with limited access to the internet, giving them time to reflect on what they have done and reducing their toxic influence on society.

All entertainment and news will be via officially-sanctioned internet channels. Citizens will be required to hand over old DVDs for disposal, with stiff penalties for those who are found to have kept contraband material. The harshest punishments will be reserved for a list of particular titles, the worst of which is Gone With The Wind .

In other words, I think it’s all going to go a bit ‘science fiction’ (it’s already started) and UBI will be the obvious answer to keeping the population docile while permitting some degree of enterprise among those so inclined…

If I’m unfortunate enough to still be alive I’ll definitely top myself but hope to take a government minister or advisor with me.

Buck up Bella – several of the fuckers.

Except UBI will have to be very low to be sustainable. The scenario isn’t economically sustainable, so is bound to fail. Hope that cheered you up.

And legalised dope smoking!

Before I start this, let me just say for the record: I am a free-market capitalist (in case I haven’t made that obvious here before). I do think that the state has a practical duty (though not necessarily a moral duty) to make provisions for those who can’t or won’t look after themselves, though I also believe that people have a responsibility to make their own way, as far as possible without state intervention. I also believe that the state is just about the least efficient possible organisation to handle anything and in an ideal world should limit itself to the things that simply can’t be run through other means (er… defence. Maybe policing). But I realise that last point is an argument that was lost more than a century ago.

UBI works on paper – the key being “universal” – and it’s actually a fiscally conservative mechanism. If you’re going to have to provide funding for people who can’t/won’t work anyway (and let’s face it, that’s inevitable) then it makes sense to provide an amount of money sufficient to live on – otherwise, there’s little or no point. If you then give the same amount of money to everyone, regardless of their means, employment status, motivation, you a) avoid the trap of resentment in both directions (I resent you because you have more money than I have and I don’t believe you’ve earned it; you resent me because I do nothing and I live off your taxes) and b) retain a motivation to become economically productive – it’s only possible to earn more money by taking a job and the benefits are incremental and clear; my £Xk a year UBI is guaranteed. If I take a job paying £Yk, then I will have £Xk + £Yk. But – to stress – it does have to be universal, otherwise very thing falls over.

How is it funded? Well (again, on paper), in theory you can raise corporation tax to compensate. If UBI is £15k (example figure, for the sake of argument) then an employer can reduce the salary it pays to every single employee by £15k (and they will be net even). With employer’ ps NI costs and whatnot, that 15k salary equates to more than a 15k saving, therefore the tax bill on the corporation can be substantially increased.

End result (in theory): you don’t have a more equal society, but you have a society where there’s less resentment, because everyone has enough to live on and everything that anyone has above that, is off their own bat. You significantly reduce the administration (And cost) involved in welfare payment, because everybody gets the same amount of money, regardless – this means you actually reduce the size of the state. Meanwhile, social disharmony is decreased and it’s a more appealing place for companies to operate.

Now, all that is theory. There are any number of problems I can see with implementing it in practice, not least of which is the impossible political problem of saying “yes, even Richard Branson gets £15k a year”. I’m not convinced, or a particular supporter, but I do think it’s an interesting concept, particularly when and if a significant proportion of current jobs are automated out of existence.

Good summary. I come from a similar political base as you, albeit probably rather more nationalist and traditionalist. In the past when I was more of an idealist my ideals tended to anarcho-capitalism, which is pretty much pure free market capitalism. The points you make in support of it are sound, though it will not stop many people resenting those ricer than they are.

The main problems with it are first that it relies on government administration and therefore delivery will be both corrupt and incompetent. Second, it means that more and more people will be dependent on direct state income, and it must be pretty clear now even to those who might have been naive on this point a few years ago that there is no prospect of that power not being used by the government for direct coercion.

However, it is argued, and with some force, that the logic of accelerating technological advancement makes something of the sort inevitable, as more and more people are simply unable to compete with automation (including AI, for the non-manual workers).

It is argued that the spinning Jenny and the steam loom will assign everyone to the workhouse and that the working folk will face an ever-worsening future, while the evil capitalists become ever wealthier.

We are desperately in need of genuine innovation to increase productivity, assuming you believe that economic growth contributes to the increasing welfare of the population. The “digital revolution” has contributed nothing beyond an expectation that more expensive people should be able to do things for themselves with apps, so less expensive people can be laid off. I’m exactly the right age that email was a business novelty as I came into the workforce, but it’s still clear that what it’s actually achieved is to increase the opportunity for “doing stuff” without much increasing the opportunity to get things done.

Automation and AI may be very disruptive in the short term, but I’m fairly sure of two things: 1) history tells us that human beings adapt to disruption and have a determination to go out and find themselves useful things to do, so they can feed their families; and 2) this technology is nowhere near as advanced as people would like you to believe it is.

1 & 2 are both pretty reasonable points, but that doesn’t mean that what was true about past technological advances will necessarily be true about future ones. Though experience certainly would tend to put the Luddite on the back foot.

I think it’s possible to make the case that past technological advances have gone some way towards making a proportion of the population who were formerly perfectly employable as manual labour, much less in demand, and that future tech advances are likely to increase the proportion to whom that apples.

Which is not to say that it would be advisable or feasible to stand athwart the advance of technology, yelling Stop. Merely that it’s worth considering the likely consequences. One of which might well be an increase in the desire for and feasibility of ubi, which past tech advances have arguably made possible. If nothing else, you could not have employed enough clerks and administrators to effectively implement and police a ubi scheme with C19th technology in a state rapidly approaching a population of 70 million plus.

Both the agricultural revolution and the industrial revolution led to huge numbers of workless and disaffected in the short term. For a few decades after each got into the swing, you might have thought that you were seeing the destitution of the nation, but meanwhile economic output continued to increase and new jobs were created.

It’s not at all obvious today where the growth opportunities come from when it comes to automation and AI, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Manual Labour has continually become more specialised and more skilled and at the same time, manual labourers have remained in demand. We’re never again going to be a low cost country and we shouldn’t worry too much about that.

But past experience does not reliably forecast future prospects in such matters.

You also might increase innovation. Having a bit of a safety net makes it easier for people to try out new ideas instead of just having to get a safe and boring job that pays the bills.

That too, yes. But again – all of this works on paper. I’d be fascinated to see it trialed properly, I’m just not sure I want to be a guinea pig.

I knew a guy once who went on about the abolition of money and how great it would be in a philosophical-sounding way. Then I learned later in the conversation that if money were abolished he would have been about 15k better off…

I think we may find support of UBI polarized on similar lines with obvious exceptions being the usual suspects like George Monbiot and those kind of people.

I think we may become simultaneously more economically productive and less economically active. We’re a long way off it though at this point. The accountant-free accounts receivable department is probably further away than the driverless car (which is much further away than they would have you believe).

You say trialled properly, so I’m assuming you’re aware of the limited experiments in some countries, all stopped AFAIK, except maybe the Alaska social divi .
The arguments against UBI seemed compelling to me. You can only fund it by withdrawing all state run universal safety nets, leaving each individual to fund their children’s education, all health and social care etc. And you still still have to deal with the mentally ill, druggies and others who can’t look after themselves on £15K p.a.

I saw a story in the last couple of days suggesting there’s another research project just been announced in Germany.

Germany to trial giving away £1,000 a month in universal basic income

If the answer is ‘more government’ then you’re asking the wrong question!

Chris Whitty has stated that closing schools is more harmful to children than the virus ever could be. In this he is obviously correct. However, he ought to be asked when he knew this. Did he know this when the government (notwithstanding their denial) decided to close the schools? If he did not, he is at best incompetent. If he did, he was guilty of participating in a decision that he knew would cause serious and substantial and unnecessary harm to the children of this country. Whitty, and all the others responsible for inflicting this harm on the nation’s children need to be held to account. Now.

Whitty should have the grace to resign, and spend the rest of his life in a severely penitential order of monks.

Not doing this, or similar, makes him a valid target.

He should be in solitary for the rest of his life and forced to wear a muzzle 24 hours a day.

Preferably in the Tower of London!

Quite. Either the virus has just now mutated and become effectively harmless to children, or it always was.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2002032
This article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on 28 February 2020, ie a month before the lockdown measures. The study clearly shows that the virus presents almost no risk to children.

If you look at Chris Whitty’s career, he has had close links for years with the BMGF. I am not saying that he is directly funded, perish the thought, and of course those handy online fact-checkers confirm that he’s not :-), but it is impossible not to doubt his motives for anything he says.

These senior people whose advice supposedly informs the contradictory Government diktats are morally bankrupt and criminal: ‘Schools must open but the R number (WTF) will go up so we’ll have to close pubs and shops’ , ‘Look at all these rising cases; it’s the second wave. We’ll need another full lockdown’ , ‘There are no deaths in (wherever) so they must be locked down’ , ‘No you can’t get your cancer treated, it’s far too dangerous to go to hospital’, ‘Food factories are hot-spots of ‘cases’ but not Amazon warehouses’ etc etc. etc. The promotion of their lies by the media is equally culpable. Confusion and fear rule and we stay divided. It is deliberate.

We sceptics have always known that the Government has never followed ‘the science’. What they appear to be following, along with most other governments, is the WHO playbook, funded by famous philanthropists and big pharma. The ever-changing and contradictory ‘advice’ and ‘facts’ are part of the psyop. From what I understand, cognitive dissonance is a favourite tool of behavioural scientists and torturers. You are forced to hold at least two contradictory ideas in your head at once and it drives you mad so you submit. Examples abound e.g. shop workers were given no protection at all when there was a chance of catching CV19 but as soon as it disappeared screens were erected and then masks were made mandatory. Some employers even callously make them wear masks all day. My hairdresser can sit in a pub without a mask on but at work she’s expected to wear a mask and a visor now for 10 hours at a stretch.

Nobody sane could think this was about protecting health. Arguably governments have also been driven insane as well as their people. The only ‘independence’ shown by any leader now is the imposition of more draconian measures than any other leader and so the ante goes up and up. Even Sweden may not be all that great really and Belarus is facing a CIA-backed ‘colour’ revolution so they may not hold out for long either.

I recommend LSs not to submit to the cognitive dissonance of watching the tyranny and dystopia increase while trying to believe that this is about panic and cock-up. Boris Johnson will never ‘grow a pair’. He is a puppet.

As George Carlin memorably said, all those years ago:

‘They don’t give a fuck about you. They don’t care. At all…..AT ALL……. AT ALL!!!’ MW

There is also nearly nothing about him anywhere except the following:

one of 4 brothers
never married
father shot dead in Athens
most of childhood spent in Nigeria
Went to Malawi to study malaria where he became involved with Bill Gates
top vaccine researched at GSK
became CMO of England
Now on board at WHO – recent appointment. Reward for services rendered?

That’s it sum total of searches.

Thanks, ‘Okkard GIt’! Not much but enough to spell it out. MW

They only want your obedience and your money.

‘ Get on with your lives! Professor says as coronavirus “not as deadly as first thought” ‘ – It’s our old friend Prof Carl Heneghan again. Can he please be made the Chief Medical Officer?

How are they chosen? Like the Pope?

I think they have to gone to the same school as the chief civil servant in the department of health.

The chief civil servant in the department of health knows his dossiers. He also knows who butters his toast.

But even Heneghan implies that he defers to distancing and risks etc:

“When outbreaks do occur in pubs they should currently be seen as outliers. They give us an opportunity to study them – assess why the outbreak occurred so other venues can learn and reduce their risks.
“ Where they have broken the social distancing rules, this should be made clear .”

Come and listen to the only podcast taking the piss out of the bedwetting morons out there. Might change the name of the podcast…suggestions in replies please! It’ll be on iTunes next week. For now: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TvMounXNnJPuycMbn3kj7?si=rdqJ9sQrSn6wYSIbJ8YSJw

Listened yesterday, twas very good. We need more of the dramatics to lift our spirits, maybe a guest or two some discussion.

Name change sounds like a good idea.

Yeah, if you’ve got any suggestions please pop them over!

Strayed sheep might be an appropriate Handel?

Sorry, couldn’t resist!

Ricks Rave

Good stuff, will listen later!

I’d also recommend “London Calling” from James Delingpole and Toby Young himself. They’re not without a little fun poked at the bedwetters.

Also, the Delingpod from James Delingpole. Both can be found on most podcat providers

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/8ngj8-92924/London-Calling-Podcast

https://delingpole.podbean.com/

Brilliant article today Toby. Like the increased use of letters from contributors to get facts across. Like the observations and links in the comments section, anyone scrolling through your articles and reader comments for the last couple of days can gain more than enough information tounderstand everything we see happening. Kee up the great work.

Agreed! Thanks Toby.

Good for a laugh

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&time_continue=139&v=NZ5kcE-gcnw

thank you! we needed a laugh

But… it doesn’t deviate from the mainstream narrative. It thinks that the problem was that we didn’t lock down soon enough. This won’t bother Boris – it is a secondary irritation for him compared to The Big One: that we shouldn’t have locked down at all.

It was supposed to be humorous Barney!

So is Nish Kumar. But I’m not laughing

Don’t worry – Nish is laughing so much at his own jokes that he doesn’t care if you Think he’s funny.

I found this baloney on the Canada Weather Network site. Worried about global temperatures might be in the year 2100! This info came from the Government of Canada no less.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/this-scares-us-all-in-medicine-a-look-into-extreme-heat-in-2100

yellow car

Alexis Fitzgerald, thank you for your contribution. What an awesome post. Bring some friends!

The Guardian-reading woman’s e-mail was spot on. Her reference to Event 201 can be further supported as follows: The GPMB (Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, a UN/WHO/WBG organisation) report “A World At Risk – Annual report on global preparedness for health emergencies” states on page 10 of the Exec Summary that a progress indicator by September 2020 is:

“The United Nations (including WHO) conducts at least two system-wide training and simulation exercises, including one for covering the deliberate release of a lethal respiratory pathogen .”

The simulation exercise was Event 201 in October 2019.

Could it be that Covid-19 is the “deliberate release of a lethal respiratory”?

The report can be found at https://apps.who.int/gpmb/assets/annual_report/GPMB_annualreport_2019.pdf

Military games 2019?

RECENT ABERDEEN FOOTAGE OF THE POLICE REACTING TO SOMEONE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE SECOND WAVE!

Yes indeed toby, we finally have a credible scientist from the mainstream being listened to and saying like it really is in the uk! As we have known for months here, the below will end by being the historic opinion of the madness / mass moronity which has come to pass over the last 5 months.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1326293/coronavirus-death-rate-UK-fatality-rate

PS. Below is sturgeons reaction to someone breaking the lockdown rules on an aberdeen beach who was looking forward to a big second wave! Note the reference to new zealand, where the demented woke leader would certainly lock him up!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78s7DO5eehQ

Where can we get the full Whitty interview? That was just clips and very edited. Why did they show his hands? And did anyone notice he doesn’t seem to blink. It’s like he’s been injected with that stuff that stops wrinkles and creates no expression.

The WHO gives him access to youth serum. It’s experimental, so it doesn’t quite work.
( I just totally made that up, in case anyone doesn’t get the sarcasm).

Adrenochrome.

Frightening how often many a true word is spoken in jest.

Its impossible to do satire anymore. The real world outruns it.

They should have given him a truth serum instead.

All you need on Whitty is this quote:

Select Committee for Health and Social Care, 21st July 2020:

CMO Dr Chris Whitty stated “If you look at the R, and the behaviours, quite a lot of the change that led to the R going below one occurred well before, or to some extent before, the 23rd, when the full lockdown started.”

Toby mentioned it exactly once then never again. Anywhere. By anyone.

Committee Chair Hunt never question him on it and neither did any other committee member. They have not answered e-mails about this either.

No other links anywhere on the internet no matter what search engine you use either.

Only place it is on is on parliamentlivetv which they cannot really hide but do not advertise and you ahem to search for the quote.

https://parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/4b2dfc60-0c0e-47fe-8b78-1db2f135a004

Here is a link to a video I had them make for me, the instructions for this are on the website and easy to follow:

https://1drv.ms/v/s!Agv7JEO8MngCiSmT-rY5ChSI9LV-

It runs from 10:58:00 to 11:01:00 on the video recording of the committee hearing.

Very useful – thank you! MW

Brill, thanks.

Thanks .Will take a look.

The eyes have it:

https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tell-someones-lying-by-watching-their-face-2016-1?r=US&IR=T#keep-an-eye-out-for-rapid-blinking-2

Botox

Botox?

Or bollox

Well said Toby Young.
This shouldn’t be about right or left wing.
It’s about being numerate and being able to understand relative risks.

I do think we could do with a high profile, centre left figure, also a Remainer, to come out in favour of Lockdown Scepticism. Much as I appreciate, indeed admire, what Toby has done here, bravely ploughing a lonely furrow at, I imagine, considerable professional risk, he is an extremely divisive figure for people who are Remain, ideologically and I do feel that is limiting the traction of our argument.

Agreed. Where would someone like Charlie Kennedy have been on this?

A very good example. I wonder where Heseltine is on lockdown.

Or Ken Clarke.

Ah yes. Ken Clarke – the doyen of the left since his stance on a No-Deal Brexit… never mind the million quid [at least] he made from a Tobacco company who exploited children in Africa — soooo progressive!

Pissed out of his head

It’s certainly true that people like Toby Young, Simon Dolan and Peter Hitchens will be attacked because of their politics, or perceived politics (lots of people think Hitchens is a “Tory”, which he isn’t) by people on the left, and any message they have will be ignored. I am afraid this is the case in the US where masks have become political, and toxic and daft US politics is infecting the world.

Lord Sumption is probably more centre right than left but he was probably a Remainer.

It’s quite shocking that not a single serving MP has at any point stated that the Emperor has no clothes.

The MPs are certanily not serving their constituents!
Skiving MPs more like!

I wonder what Frank Field’s views are? He’s no longer an MP but he was always one of the few MPs I respected.

He’s busy promoting Adonis’ book about Bevin.
This recent post might be of interest however:

This is the most important report on how to counter hunger and it should be the basis of our political action in countering this evil. https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5801/ldselect/ldfphe/85/85.pdf
@LordsFoodCom

I had a quick look. This bit rang alarm bells:

The government has introduced guidance on what constitutes a healthy diet through Public Health England’s Eatwell guide…..
…. We also have recommended that the government step up its efforts to encourage the food industry to reformulate its products to reduce harmful levels of salt, sugar and unhealthy types of fats…

Depends whose version of healthy fat you then promote!
However, I’d say the conclusions are relevant, given the coming epidemic of unemployment.

Just back from our first church service in the building. Covid-wise probably less of an ordeal than I thought. Arrived fairly early when there was nobody guarding the sanitiser or track-and-trace pad – that though was academic as I am well known there and we had all previously indicated we would be attending. 20 chairs distributed in singles and pairs at 2m spacing in the large hall. Nearly everybody else put a mask on either before or just after they entered, but virtually everyone had removed them ten minutes later. Friend Ian was distributing masks to those who didn’t, had to thrust my lanyard in his sight to remind him. One lady asked where I had got my lanyard from, suffers from asthma, one success.

The service itself didn’t quite work as planned. It was a live plus Zoom service but they couldn’t manage to get sound from the remote Zoom participants. A bit important since the hymn music and prayers were being done by one of our remote members. So after starting 20 minutes late some substitutes had to be made and we just read the words of a couple of the hymns (not allowed to sing them anyway..).

Good to see old friends, at times even maskless, but I have the feeling trying to do it with the Zoom element is not the way forward.

I thought you lot answered to a higher power. Just sing! And be, er, damned! If we are at the point where the Police would attend to haul away pensioners singing hymns in church then we are already lost.

https://churchesoftheuk.wordpress.com/2019/02/13/torridon-open-air-church-am-ploc-wester-ross/

For interest.

When lairds cleared the land people were left to live on the scraps of land at the fringes, the beaches. People continued to go to church. Fighting covid lockdown measures inspiration is found in our past.

No mistaking how brutal humans are against other humans. Not done in error. Deliberately cold actions.

http://laworfiction.com/2020/07/lockdown-laws-in-england-have-been-revoked/
You can sing!!! It is only GUIDANCE and there are no consequences for it!

Sing anyway. That will expose the snitches in your group. When found, excommunicate them.

Re reports from doctors and patients today, the medical profession should hang its head in shame. What happened to ” First, do no harm”.
Collectively rallying round to provide front line cover in the initial wave, fine. (Doctos are only too proud to tell me that they did this). But now, covering up the LACK of serious Covid cases so that the fear can be maintained.
Actively preventing other patients from getting medical treatment, at this late stage of the pandemic, will go down in history as an act of mass manslaughter.
Furthermore, we pay £2.4billion a week for this. Any consultant who phones me up will get fried. And I’ll only zoom if he comes round and shows me how to use the thing.

I suppose the NHS was caught up in the whole overblown fear mantle created by Imperial and the letters from Simon Stevens to prepare for the 660k admissions that never happened. I know my friends still working for the NHS loath with a passion the clap for the NHS and the thank you NHS. Boris has certainly created a monster. My senior nurse partner says a lot of the doctors don’t really know what has happened, are lost and he sends the link to Carl Heneghan to many.

But also some staff like the adoration.

Maybe in the beginning but there is no excuse for this charade to continue. The NHS should have been back to full service after 3 weeks.

Yes. Simon Stevens though continues to go along with the Imperial model, as does the government, in preparing for the winter wave so it is a higher management thing keeping things from functioning. Even the white elephant Nightingales and the private hospitals are being kept on standby. The top is holding up the change back. I suppose as an employee of the government Stevens goes with their narrative.

Although Simon Stevens, his NHS Chief Financial Officer Julian Kelly and management generally are planning and funding for services to mostly be back to 100% running by October (70% August, 80% Sept):
https://www.hfma.org.uk/news/news-list/Article/nhs-announces-elective-funding-details
Their guidance also now says that 14 day isolation prior to in- patient procedure is only recommended for the vulnerable, para3.5 of Guidance:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng179/chapter

But what about the 50% telemedicine we keep hearing about? That’s not 100% running, that’s 50% plus the few conditions that can be helped via phone or Skype.

But that’s still nonsense! The vulnerable will be at risk AFTER their in-patient procedure!

“But also some staff like the adoration.” They better watch that. I’ve been watching the Daily Mail comment sections quite carefully and hostility towards the NHS, including doctors and nurses, has been rising sharply. The continued lack of medical care is angering larger sections of the public – and this will only get worse over time as people suffer various medical conditions that they can’t get real help with.

I don’t know what what other European health services are like, but I’ve always found the NHS to be mediocre. The best thing that could be said about it is that it’s free at the point of use.

Well, they saved my life by operating when I had cancer. Then turned around and insisted that I needed chemo when it wasn’t actually the recommended treatment for my stage and grade of cancer. So swings and roundabouts here.

And as a user of American medical services, I can tell you that things could be worse. My mother was notified of her terminal lung cancer diagnosis by telephone in 1997 by an American doctor.

Put them on the spot. Test their technological prowess and their lack of humanity.

Doctors should be given no benefit of doubt, they’ve betrayed their patients, betrayed their oaths and lost the trust of the country. They will never recover their position in society.

In the hospital where I work, we want to see patients and are constantly trying to change the game so that we can, and are treated as if we’re being selfish. It’s purely a management decision that clinic space is not available to us and we are desperate that we can’t provide our usual service. I’ve even seen urgent patients in the car park and will probably be called to account for that. Phone consultations are not clinically safe, it’s impossible to properly assess and diagnose a patient without seeing and examining them. People don’t feel able to speak out as the cost would be our jobs, there is a rule not to “bring theTrust into disrepute” , a disciplinary matter, and this can cover pretty much any type of public expression of opinion, let alone the abysmal treatment of actual whistleblowers.

Well done for publishing that article about ‘left-wing’ scepticism.

As I’ve said before, this issue cuts across the simple(minded) left/right dimension, and there are plenty of us who pigeon-hold as ‘left’ are also advocates of civil liberties and human rights. It used to be a taken-for-granted position outside the totalitarian spoof ‘left’.

And, yes, we are Blairites – of the Eric sort rather than the Iraq-bombing sort.

We value the freedom of speech that he passionately advocated, and are similarly against the corrupt perversion of language that he hated. We tend to be just as ‘okkard’ ( a term from my part of the world – contrarian by instinct and reluctant to sign up to shite just because it pretends the correct pedigree. The jackboot brigades to our left and to our right wings don’t much care for the breed : we don’t march to any old tune, and recognize the contradictions that Orwell wrote about so forcefully in ‘Homage to Catalonia’.

Above all, I guess that many of us of my age remember the sort of ‘leftism’ of this generalised sort that inspired many of the two generations that went before; generations that felt strongly ‘never again’ and created the better world that we grew up in. It’s why I never wear a poppy since it became demeaned by the knee-jerk followers of fashion. The handed-down experience is too raw for such empty and sentimental obeisance that defiles rather than enhances memory – especially when we see this crumbling in the face of a rather ordinary virus.

Many of us now feel politically homeless as Starmer tactically eases his way up the greasy pole, leaving any shreds of principle at the base, whilst a gross narcissist, known only for egregiously lying through his teeth at any possibility of advantage, pretends to govern the country. I guess a lot of decent (if mistaken ) Tories feel the same.

No – as said – this crisis isn’t defined by left/right.

Hear, hear!! Left-right has definitely left the building; far too simplistic. We’re ‘lefty refugees’ here too and we’re quite amused to be re-born as right-wing libertarians Starmer is Blair on steroids and we think the hijacking of the poppy thing is yet another psyop.

Above all, thank you for using the word ‘okkard’. Maybe you’re a north-westerner too. When I was about 20, my Dad (a small ‘c’ conservative) was asked to describe his daughter in one word. Guess which one he chose! MW

It is strange to be a right wing libertarian now for me too. But what this has done for me is to broaden my thinking. Perhaps open my eyes. I am so grateful to Toby for risking doing this website. And yes Starmer is terrible. I had hoped he might take up the sceptical mantle but instead he doubled down on the lefts risk adverse and elimination tripe. There is no going back now. But who will we vote for? I feel Labour is over for me. When I see Michael Gove I have a feeling he is going to come out as a sceptic and wrestle Boris off the podium. Would that be a good thing?

Yes, Toby Y has done us all a great service and i haven’t minded being exposed to different views either. What passes for the ‘left’ are a lost cause, it seems. As for Gove taking over – would it make any difference at all? I doubt it. MW

I tend to think that Gove, or anyone else, taking over would only be a good thing if it was on the basis of an admission that a huge mistake had been made and that we now need to get back to normal.

On the other hand I suppose it’s possible that he’s a secret sceptic, but would not say it openly, but would gradually look for a way out rather than doubling down. That would not be ideal, because it leaves us open to another round of this shit next time there is a “pandemic”, but it would arguably be better than what we have now.

He did say masks would not be mandatory – it’s possible that was a windup, but I tend to think it’s what he really thought. That’s a tiny chink of light maybe.

People like Gove must be reading things like this and the Spectator too. They do know Toby to some extent. I think Gove could do it. There are plenty of people with good credentials, Carl Heneghan etc, to help him. I don’t know how possible it would be to replace Boris though. I don’t have that much of an insight into the Conservative party. I think if he were brave enough to stand up to the fear and viral elimination stupidity he could turn things around and make a political name for himself.

I’ve no idea how much power the Chair of the 1922 committee has but I’ve been sending Graham Brady missives for a while, along these lines:
Dear Sir Graham,

I’m sure you read the article in the Daily Telegraph about your backbenchers getting restive. I really hope so. I hope you read all the comments on the increasing number of sceptical articles in the print media. The tide is definitely turning.  One described Ferguson as having caused more deaths around the world as Pol Pot. Similarly, I get posts on my Facebook from Public Health, WHO, NHS and various other quangos operating in this mad world and the comments are eye-opening….I would say 80% sceptical, filled with derision and loathing for the bodies and the government.

They are not going to be able to keep up the charade that they reacted proportionately, when the ‘all countries’ tally comes in. I’m sure you’ve read about Peru- the harshest lockdown, now approaching the worst death toll. It’s all there in the graphs.

When parliament returns in September there will be an attempt to extend the government’s extraordinary powers for 2 years.  Can you imagine another 2 years of this mayhem? I urge you to do something about it. With the current lot in charge that surely would spell the end of the Conservative party. I used to have so much sympathy for Boris Johnson & his merry men but I’m afraid that has all evaporated.

Honestly, I would even vote for Corbyn & MacDonnell (if available ) than Tory at the moment, that’s how bad it is.

Please do something about it!

Perhaps we should all do this, and to our own MP’s, especially Tory & especially Red Wall? Sir Graham’s email address is:
altsale@parliament.uk

My MP is probably considered the leader of the “Red Wall” MPs. He isn’t known for answering emails but I keep trying

He lacks the strength of character. He’s basically a lying buffoon.

Right now I think I would support any politician who makes a determined, outspoken stand against this, even if they were one I would never normally vote for! Even if they do so purely as a career-advancing move.

But, in the longer term, I wouldn’t trust anyone who doesn’t make a solemn promise to never do this again , except in the most extreme circumstances (e.g an Ebola-like disease as discussed above) and for the minimum time necessary.

It seems certain elements took the opportunity to try to bring the government down which is criminal in the middle of a crisis like this with people suffering. But I am as disappointed with Boris for not being able to stand up to it.

Put them in a ring and let them wrestle it out WWE style. Fun for all.

Nah…make them all take a go on Takeshi’s Castle! winner takes all

I was a Green Party supporter, not anymore.

I wouldn’t trust the Slimy Gove as far as I could throw him.
The future looks bleak, the future is ……

I’m a South-West okkard bugger from a long line (as long as I can trace – heading for the iron age) of Gloucestershire weavers, carpenters and assorted peasants (before the houses got taken over by Islington and Kensington weekenders).

A wide family that routinely and humorously took the piss out of anyone too precious, precocious or fragile and risk-averse was the best vaccination against bullshit like this.

Alan G is from Bath and he says they never used ‘okkard’ (even though he out-okkards me, frequently!) He says for them lot, Northerners start at Gloucester so maybe he’s right, for once. MW

Okkard applies in my part of Yorkshire too – mind you I’m right on the Derbyshire border.

Ah, nobbut just. MW

Yes my sentiments too. What shall all we politically homeless do? I know Toby has said it is how he feels too. We are people of what would be termed left and termed the right. It doesn’t split that easily anymore. If only Boris was brave enough even now to stand up and say they did their best back in March but with more information can see it was an over reaction. There could still be a turning point and he could recover himself and the country. He has Carl Heneghan to back him.

Reading the cancer stories was heartbreaking and just the tip of iceberg of the terrible sadness and loneliness this has caused, people dying alone, people fading away in isolation. I know from my critical care anaesthetist friend that suicides are up. A week ago the M62 was closed when I was travelling East as a woman was perched worryingly on a bridge. Perhaps she driven to it by the Covid lunacy.

Just today my family learnt from my fathers care home that if he attends his eye clinic appointment in September they will make him isolate in his room for 14 days. We will cancel the appointment and seek advice as we cannot bear the thought of an elderly frail 87 year old sitting alone for 14 days. He has a ground floor room but the care home are unable to unlock the gate in the grounds so that we could support him during this isolation. It is making everyone into risk adverse dictators. All this suffering is criminal and I really feel I want someone to pay!!!

“ If only Boris was brave enough …”

If only Mr Toad wasn’t Mr Toad, with a record of narcissistic opportunism that has never surprised …

Read this, under “guidance” they cannot stop visits if it is against the welfare of the patient/resident. They can put restrictions in place such as masks, meeting outside, limiting numbers of visitors at one time but they cannot stop any visits:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes

The assessment should consider relevant factors including:

• the health and wellbeing risks arising from the needs of the cohort of residents in that setting. This will include both whether their needs make them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and whether their needs make visits particularly important (for example, people with dementia, a learning disability or autistic people may be permitted visitors when restricting visitors could cause some of the residents to be distressed)

• where the healthcare needs of the individual cannot be met by socially distant visits, whether there are sufficient infection-control measures in place to protect the residents, staff and visitors, to allow the visit to take place

The factors relevant to decisions about particular individuals or groups of residents include the following:

• the benefits to a person’s wellbeing by having a particular visitor or visitors
• the extent of the harm that will be experienced by the resident from a lack of visitation or whether the individual is at the end of their life

They MUST talk to you about it:

• In making these decisions, the care provider should actively involve the resident, their relatives or friends,
• Providers must consider the rights of residents who may lack the relevant mental capacity needed to make particular decisions and, where appropriate, their advocates or those with power of attorney should be consulted.

Thank you. You do so much to help with all the legal things. We were waiting to see what they would come up with no now it is so restrictive we can discuss it with the CCG and try to get some help. The guidelines are much more supportive of visits but as they are private owners they can hide behind we are doing it to protect the rest of the residents. Really now that I have had some experience of the care sector I think some of them are not fit to be running care homes.

“ What shall all we politically homeless do?” Stop voting for parties that do not represent our views, and give support to parties that do, if they emerge. Ideally you’d want a properly conservative party to emerge, and a party on the left that sincerely believed in liberty and freedom of speech, but opposed the “conservative” party in other areas of policy.

Also enjoyed reading the article, even if my background and original political sympathies weren’t precisely identical. I can totally identify with the second-to-last paragraph.

My only comment is about the couple of “The virus could mutate” references, as far as I know if a virus like this – highly infectious and only moderately lethal – mutated naturally, it would become less lethal (possibly more infectious as well). When a virus becomes more dangerous by mutating, it’s when you have a lethal but not especially infectious (or not human-to-human transmissible) virus which becomes more infectious (as with bird flu). Apologies if I’m incorrect in my assumptions here.

What does seem to be mutating out of control is the psychological “virus” which seems to have infected so much of the world’s population (and virtually all of its leaders)!

Yes. It’s a virus of the mind more than the body.

Mutation is just random. Anything that makes the virus more infectious will be selected for. Virus doesn’t care if you die because either way you’re immune but it wants you not to be too ill so you keep moving around spreading it.

Coronaviruses mutate relatively little and so far there is only evidence of one mutation that gives it an evolutionary advantage. It’s called DG814 or something (I may have the number wrong but it starts with DG). Sylvie posted a link about it the other day.

This mutation happened pretty early and made it better at entering cells which was an advantage. But it didn’t make the disease any worse.

Fear mongering about mutations is exactly that. It’s just as likely that any other common cold coronavirus would suddenly become more lethal and we never worried about that.

https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(20)30820-5

As an American (/Brit dual citizen), I now despair about the November American election. As a leftwing person, of course I would never vote for Trump. Despise the guy – I’ve known too many people just like him. Sorry if that ruffles your feathers – I grit my teeth at some of the right-leaning comments here, but “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” and all that, so as far as I’m concerned, we’re comrades in arms here.

But Biden and Harris are calling for a three-month nationwide mask mandate . They’ve swallowed the whole thing hook, line and sinker.

Biden also says he’d lock down country if spread of coronavirus warranted it
Obviously, I cannot vote for a candidate that thinks it’s okay to lockdown my birth country like that.

So it looks like I may not be voting this year. I don’t know if I can convey how big a deal it is for me not to be able to vote against Trump, but it seems that my birth country has gone mad.

I feel for you. I’m not an American but was obsessed with US politics until the coronavirus madness descended. I hate Trump too, but Biden lost me with the mask garbage. If I were an American, I couldn’t vote for Biden on that basis alone, though I’m not sure I could vote for Trump either. I have felt politically homeless most of my life, but I’ve now become a one issue voter and my issue is FREEDOM. Having said that, I still feel politically homeless because all the parties have trampled our freedoms and are utterly power hungry. Good luck with your decision — and if it’s to not bother voting I totally get it.

Well, it certainly won’t be to vote for Trump, but it looks likely that Biden has lost my vote.

They may have mistimed that. Public opinion will turn probably rather rapidly at some point. I guess we just hope for an odd number of U-turns between now and the election.

Just start calling it the “Biden Burka”.

That normally does the trick.

I could hug you. Agree with every word

I was in Phuket a few weeks before the 2004 tsunami and I returned the following November after the tsunami to find it as I had left if, fabulous.

The effects of the tsunami to those effected were horrifying to the extreme – I had some friends who were on Phi Phi island when it hit from both sides, they survived physically but maybe not mentally. But the survivors picked themselves up, cleaned the place up, and just got on with it. Now its an unpleasant memory.

If we had no sensationalist, exaggerated, out of context, media reporting of the virus, and there had been no reaction, then I believe;
the hospitals may well have been overwhelmed as the vulnerable succumb to the bug,
many would have passed away a few weeks/months early,
those effected would have had a horrendous time for a short intense period,
herd immunity would quickly and naturally put an end to this particular nasty, and possibly increase our immune systems ability to fight the next nasty that comes along.

meanwhile; businesses would continue to do business, people would continue to go to work, children would continue be educated and tested, people would continue to receive life saving hospital care, etc,etc. probably as it was during and after the 1968 Hong Kong Flu that apparently killed over 80,000 people.

Would we have fared better during and after the covid-19 incident if we had had no public health officialdom interference?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8655725/British-holidaymakers-Spain-risk-deadly-West-Nile-virus.html

Just when you thought it was safe to come out from behind the sofa. Ner-na. Ner-na. Ner-na, ner-na, ner-na, ner-na…Dives into a vat of santiser…

Sanitiser even…

The Daily Mail has always been full of such doom-mongering nonsense. Bollox in other words.
Trouble is that its readers seem to swallow the stuff whole and without question.
Hitchens must often feel like a lone voice in the wilderness.

All the tabloids are full of shit, and the “quality” newspapers are not always better.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343797723_Emerging_of_a_SARS-CoV-2_viral_strain_with_a_deletion_in_nsp1

I published this in the last edition where Baltimore group found evidence of genome deletion making it possible that C-19 is getting less virulent. I did not notice that one of the co-authors was Robert Gallo a friend of Mr Fear himself Fauci. Maybe he changes his mind now.

Gallo was friends with Mr Fauci way before Bill Gates was.

.

I hope that there are no copyright issues here because it was so silly and so funny that I had to circulate it amongst my downhearted friends.

Dunno, don’t suppose Viz really care. I must admit that my old Viz books have given me a much needed boost.

“Coronavirus: We will see ‘real problems’ with Covid-19 this winter” chief medical officer says.

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-foolish-to-assume-covid-19-vaccine-will-be-here-for-winter-whitty-12954756

I looked to see what these ‘real problems’ were but couldn’t find any explanation.

Too few dying with Covid-19?
Collateral deaths from the health service closing down?
Medical officers and government having to face the music at last?
Mass unemployment?

Sorry fat fingers again! Last number should read 12054756

Like I said yesterday – all these public health boffins. What an easy job when your main key performance indicator is that reality is never as bad as your prediction !!

Problems like mass unemployment and accompanying crime wave and civil disorder?

This man is a criminal. And look at who he’s in bed with (Awkward G’s post, above). MW

The left wing sceptic says:
…governments went ahead on the advice of the WHO as if this were ‘the big one’…. This is not the big one.

I find this argument a bit of a red herring. Because it suggests that the only error was the mistaking of Covid for the big one. If it had been the big one, would everything that has happened, and will happen, be ‘right’?

We can now see that even without the real ‘big one’ the response to it will never end. So the moment the plans for dealing with a pandemic were formulated, and accepted by governments internationally, a ticking time bomb was primed. All that has happened is that we have triggered it prematurely. This dystopian future was already set in stone by giving power and responsibility to monomaniacal ‘scientists’.

We might have had a few more years, but with the general progression towards a woke idiocracy already happening (thank you, Guardian-reading left), the odds are it was going to be triggered mistakenly at some point anyway.

I think if we were dealing with something as infectious and fatal as Ebola clearly you would need government to be more interventionist.

There’s clearly a point where an infectious disease poses a big enough threat to warrant intervention beyond simply ramping up healthcare provision, but the bar has been set far too low.

This sounds callous maybe, but given the huge damage from the measures taken, they cannot in my view be justified even if the Ferguson prediction turned out to be true – the costs would still outweigh the benefits.

I agree that it would have needed some heavyweight response – hopefully localised. But in that case, you wouldn’t have needed to legislate – people would have locked down themselves! Sure it might be a catastrophe, but at least it would be a natural catastrophe.

Our pandemic response is a man-made catastrophe with a preset formula regardless of the virulence of the pathogen – as we have seen. This preset formula contains a logical flaw within it, meaning that the measures can never be lifted.

I remember in one post someone made the point if we are in the middle of a genuine pandemic and there was clear evidence of this eg large numbers dying or if they survived becoming so ill as to require hospitalization or being unable to leave the house, why would the government need to introduce draconian legislation with instructions what people can’t or can do with punishments. In a genuine pandemic people would voluntarily take precautions to avoid danger. I felt this was a good point. The fact governments have to rely on coercion is a sign we are not in a pandemic

They will be lifted. Or bust.

Definitely some kind of measures would be needed with a genuinely lethal disease, but I suspect in that case people would be so genuinely scared that very few people would need much persuasion to stay away from each other, avoid public places etc.

That’s part of the reason diseases like Ebola haven’t spread as much as they could, most people did everything they could to avoid places where the disease was even rumoured to be.

I definitely agree that a deadly global pandemic is one of the disaster scenarios we’ve been constantly terrified with by the media over the last couple of decades (SARS, MERS, bird flu, swine flu etc.) and it really didn’t take much effort for people to be convinced that this is finally the “big one” and hit every panic button in sight. Reading about the 2009 swine flu epidemic shows a similar bandwagon of panic and scaremongering, which soon ran out of momentum when so few people actually caught, let alone died of, the virus.

If there was a genuine pandemic with large numbers dying or at least falling seriously ill would governments introduce draconian legislation or would they feel it is unnecessary as people would voluntarily take precautions. When danger exists governments don’t need need to rely on coercion to make people avoid danger. For instance, drink driving is illegal and you can be prosecuted but even if drink driving was not illegal most people would have the common sense not to drink drive because it is so dangerous.

Lockdown skeptics would agree government intervention would be necessary with a dangerous disease. A major problem I see there is no threshold or criteria of disease characteristics before a lockdown can be introduced eg fatality rate, severity of symptoms, mode of transmission, infectiousness, severity of symptoms. As a result of this lockdowns can be introduced regardless of the characteristics of a disease which is a recipe for disaster. We see a nasty lockdown in Melbourne over a tiny number of cases. In addition governments can use claims to justify lockdowns without any evidence to back those claim. For instance, asymptomatic spread is used to justify lockdowns but governments don’t have to provide scientific evidence for this.

The actual plan to follow is the one Sweden is still following right now.

Check out the Czech Republic. Better than Sweden.

In what way??

Please tell me what you think of this? I am really trying so hard to not thinking about the issue of mandatory vaccine but I cannot. I have a 7 year old and it was so hard to have her, she is our only one. She has been vaccinated and I am not an anti-vaxxer. That said, t I am worried about her being vaccinated with a coronavirus vaccine that has not been tested for long enough. Would you feel the same? I have also recently veered into watching more about Bill Gates and one clip struck me from the Pandemic film. I have found it here as a single clip. It’s only a couple of minutes. Please watch it and tell me what you think. It horrifies me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jYqMgyFvm0

Indeed – how will the IFR compare to the Vaccine Fatility Rate?

I also am not an anti vaxxer, have had all my jabs etc, but I don’t fancy this rushed snake oil being pumped into me.

Thanks …

Please do not consent to vaccinate your daughter. Her odds of dying from Covid are virtually zero vs. the risk of the vaccine, which is orders of magnitude higher than zero. No vaccine has been proven safe — some degree of harm is baked into the cake, which is why the vaccine manufacturers in the US were given blanket liability protection in 1986 after they threatened to stop making vaccines altogether. They acknowledged then that it is impossible to make a perfectly safe vaccine. The government has paid out over $4 billion to vaccine-injured kids/families, and that just scratches the surface as it’s nearly impossible to get a hearing in vaccine court. In any risk-reward calculation, vaccinating a child against a virus which will not kill them makes no sense, but you might be signing up for a world of hurt if your child is permanently injured. Just my opinion, of course.

I’ve a 9 year old daughter. These madmen will give her an untested ‘vaccine’ over my dead body. And then some.

Thanks …

I’m afraid that single sentence is meaningless without being seen in context.

I know what you mean. Anyone know where we can get the full interview or where it is from?

Your wish is my command…

https://www.euractiv.com/section/agriculture-food/video/bill-melinda-gates-advocate-gmos-to-a-brussels-audience/

He’s making an analogy, I think – what he says doesn’t make any sense to me, even in context.

Also, interestingly – I didn’t realise genetically modified crops is another thing the Gates are involved in.

We would be better off finding out what B Gates is not involved in.

I would not recommend anyone to have a vaccine that has been rushed through without the normal testing, especially those at minimal risk from the disease such as your daughter. I wouldn’t have it at 55 but if I was 75 I might if I had a lot of comorbidities. It’s about balancing relative risk.

I have to add, It’s very easy for everyone when we are isolated and depending on the internet – especially when surrounded by “true believers” – to spend a lot of time not only watching stuff that adds to our knowledge but disappearing down wormholes that take us into more and more weird and whacky territory. We are no more immune to this behaviour that the sheeple we mock. I would suggest a walk in the country and shunning the conspiracy websites. Let’s not be like them, frightened of vague shadows.

Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate the addition about the wormholes. It was the bit of realism I probably needed to hear. I will go for that walk!

It’s the voice of experience. Coming on here cheers me up but a lot of the internet makes me more anxious and fed up! X

They are not vague shadows, they are dark shadows looming overhead.

I am not an anti vaxxer even though it is highly likely that our daughter’s autoimmune condition went acute as a result of her Second MMR being given as a live vaccine. We all have dead versions of the flu vaccine every year for all I very much doubt how useful or necessary they are. But for all the flu vaccine is a bit of a nonsense, at least it hasn’t been rushed into production before it has been adequately tested and also the flu is a disease that actually afflicts children, unlike Covid. Our children will not be having a Covid jab and neither will we because it is completely unnecessary.

No anti vaxxer myself either just DON’T want a hurried vaccine.

“ I am worried about her being vaccinated with a coronavirus vaccine that has not been tested for long enough.”

You are absolutely sane and right. A proper testing regime requires about 3-5 years – the longer end if the vaccine is novel. Proper RCTs and analysis of long-term effects can’t be rushed.

But – above all – your daughter is not at risk from this virus. In fact, most of the population isn’t, but children especially so. It’s a generally mild infection – particularly so for younger age-groups.

I’m an old fart with other health issues, and am thus one of the susceptible – but I’m not taking any old novel vaccine chucked in my direction without proper trialling.

Paradoxically, those who are most at risk from Covid are also most at risk from the vaccine. There’s a reason they test vaccines on healthy people with no co-morbidities. There is evidence that having taken the flu vaccine last fall is linked to worse Covid outcomes, and it’s widely known that flu vaccines are linked to greater instances of non-flu, respiratory infections. Got the flu from a flu vaccine 30+ years ago and never had one since and almost never get the flu. Keep your Vitamin D levels high!

Absolutely, the trials have rigorous selection , the ones used are the healthiest humans they can find …then roll it out to the unhealthiest that it has never been trialled on. madness

Indeed they definitely are.

You would be insane to give an untested (as in skipped animal trials), liability free vaccine to your daughter. Or indeed have it yourself.

It’s a huge gold rush and these people have no idea what they are doing.

Please look at this short clip with Dr Peter Hotez, Director of Texas Centre for Vaccine Development. He is a vaccine enthusiast and this proposed RNA vaccine scares him. It has the capacity to do huge damage.

From 26 minutes:
https://thehighwire.com/videos/covid19-connecting-the-dots/

We have no children, CM, but it’s as simple as this: if a stranger gave you (or your child) a handful of pills, and said “Take these, never mind what they are, you’ll be ok”, you wouldn’t would you?

She’s 7. She does not need the vaccine for about the next 60 years if then by which time we will know if it is safe. It will probably be OK but is a completely unnecessary risk and I would avoid it.

Ditto. Similar age little one. All vaccinces taken to date. Save for flu nasal vaccine. Always said no to that. Not an anti vaxxer. My old folk were immunologists.

But this vaccine? No, nor will a test will be used. A test provides zero benefit to child nor society.

Will be removed from school if there are any suggestions a test is required. A Vaccine isn’t even going to be considered.

I’m waiting to see what work say if I’m sent off with a cold, and say I need a negative test to return. Given I’m not having a test to arm PHE’s replacement with useless stats, there will be something of an impasse with work!

Short answer, if I was you, no. I wouldn’t consider a pointless vaccine, safe or otherwise.

That’s the problem we face now. These people are getting really sneaky and slippery with their obsession to keep this charade intact and ongoing.

Not watched yet, but a German doctor, Dr Sucharit Bhakdi suggesting the planned vaccination is wrong to on basis of risk/benefit analysis
Some good basic immunology slides for those who would like to explain why they are happy with some vaccines e.g. Tetanus, but not with Flu.

He also explains a little of differences between types of vaccines.

He emphasises the huge value of vaccines, but doesn’t accept the same for flu vaccines.

I haven’t read/listened to it all yet as just found it.

Original pulled on youtube already.

youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eR1j9vqKi8
bitchute: https://www.bitchute.com/video/KNn1rVtpuEML/

Nice to see a left wing anti-lockdown perspective. Like many I have been dismayed by the way that the so called left have embraced the masking, the fines, the culture of fear perhaps even more readily than the right.
This is despite all evidence in terms of statistical likelihood and mortality rates. The left (of which I ostensibly consider myself a part in other times) have taken all evidence of economic meltdown caused by these measures, and dismissed them as capitalist insularity, as if poverty and job loss does not affect the poor.
They usually take very seriously the education and psychological rights of children, but now are happy to close schools and muzzle children. Any mention of mental health damage and you are ironically called a snowflake in all but name.
Basically the left seems to be ok with all measures, no matter how awful, simply because they agree with the cause.

I think most on the left and the right, as well as the vague centre, have swallowed the rhetoric whole. Some may be motivated politically, but I think the main motivation is emotional: they are frightened. And I’m not saying that to mock, most people are frightened of these things. Then follows relief when you realise things aren’t so bad after all, then embarrassment, then the arse-covering.

While I’m also left wing, I have to echo the idea that it is not simply the left that is “ok with all measures”. More than half the population seems to accept these measures and more than half of the population are not card-carrying members of the left. The hostile and angry coronaphobes I’m aware of come from all political persuasions.

I don’t think there is a correlation between politics and coronaphobia, just like there isn’t a correlation between scepticism and politics.

It’s not so black and white for sure, but there is a correlation between being on the left and compliance with Covid measures. I’ve seen stats in the US that show Dems are far more compliant with masking, distancing, etc. than independents and Repubs. I think it’s generally the case that people on the left are more trusting of government than those on the right, but of course there is plenty of crossover with respect to Covid. Fear seems to be a driver and fear knows no political party. I think many on the right might be fearful of the virus but are more fearful of the creeping totalitarianism. I’ve always been left on social issues (not to the point of embracing woke-sim) and slightly right on economic issues. I’ve now become much more “right” simply on the basis of protecting rights and freedoms. Makes for strange bedfellows…

Am a Brit with a couple of friends & people I know in the US (generally moderates, a couple formerly strong Democrat but swayed significantly away recent years) and agree with the sentiment of your post & the stats. I’m not so sure it’s to do with trust in Government/authority though, I would say it’s the mainstream media. Back in the 60’s & 70’s true liberals absolutely cut their teeth on challenging authority and holding the press to account – Vietnam War, Watergate, yada yada. Today’s world it appears different. My personal experience; say to someone on the left you seek out different views and challenge what you hear on CNN – good gracious. I’ve had vicious online assaults, social media attacks — from people I considered at least good acquaintances, if not outright friends.

My view is that it is fairly straightforward: the left of the mid-C20th were rebelling against the establishment. Now they are the establishment.

This is most apparent in the change in views on freedom of speech. In the mid-C20th those on the left were mostly fanatically in favour of freedom of speech. Stalinists aside (and even them, sometimes, for tactical reasons) they all quoted Voltaire’s claimed dictum as supposedly representing their views (whether or not he actually said it): ” I may hate what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it”. Over the past 30 years or so that shifted to the modern anti-free speech stance on the left, represented by the constructed pretext of “hate speech” and cancel culture.

Once they realised that they now have the power, and need not fear their own views being suppressed by authority, they started to look for ways to use authority to suppress opinions they hate.

Quite a few doctors and NHS employees comment on here. Generally the message is ‘oh it’s too risky to speak out, what about my career, there’s no whistleblower protection’ etc etc. Really like to hear some comment from them today about the above cancer stories.

There is plenty of whistleblower protection in the UK:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/whistleblowing/

https://www.gov.uk/whistleblowing

https://protect-advice.org.uk/eu-directive-on-whistleblowing/

Just follow the protocol.

Problem, Okkard Git – it doesn’t actually work very well in reality when push comes to shove.

Depends on how well you can handle the pressure you will be put under, can handle the unspoken threats and so on.

Are you willing to risk everything you have including reputation, money, family, friends, possessions to stand up for what you know is right or not is the problem.

How many are really willing to put everything on the line?

The protection is there, the question is can the whistleblower stand up for their rights and convictions in the face of immense pressure from the authorities.

That is the main question/problem/issue.

I stood up for what was right against one of the world’s biggest commodities trading companies 10 years ago – no whistleblowing protection in that situation – but wife agreed I was to do what was right and would back me. Took 2 years, was fully vindicated, they backed down, apologised and so on. No monetary recompense, only the pride and satisfaction of knowing I did the right thing.

So I know what I’m talking about for once.

If those who are horrified by what has happened banded together and acted collectively it would be a lot more difficult to single anyone out for the kind of pressure you describe. But it seems no-one is prepared to go out on a limb, despite these horror stories. The writer above is correct, it is cowardly.

Everybody switch off their smartphones at the same time at the rally next Saturday, August 29, 2020.

I’m not essentially disagreeing with you – but this has been a particular global brainwashing operation that has been different to the experience which you relate. The totality of the pressure is exceptional.

It really is exceptional. I’ve come almost to blows with some people over it, and this is just peer pressure, not employer pressure. The totality of the thing is incredible.

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/news/article/this-scares-us-all-in-medicine-a-look-into-extreme-heat-in-2100

This article was created by the Government of Canada.
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/canadian-centre-climate-services/basics/trends-projections/changes-temperature.html

Could I respectfully ask about the relevance of this article to the topic at hand. I searched it briefly and could find nothing about the virus or lockdowns or other such measures.

It’s the same fearmongering crap. Worried about something that might happen in 80 years. PM Justin Trudeau is just as intransigent and stupid as PM Boris Johnson. I live here and I can’t take it any more. Just ask Lisa from Toronto.

Was thinking of taking a trip to Whitby, on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway next week, however having a looked on the railways Twitter feed did not impress:

Great one way system
Plenty of hand sanitiser
Staggered seating

Just what I want more madness, why would I want to spend £76 (2 adults, 2 dogs) on a less than pleasant day out?

As the railway retweeted this post they obviously want bedwetters as customers so we shall stay away, our LS pound notes are not wanted.

The museum sector is killing itself.

Think I will drive to Whitby instead and have a nice day out with only a few extra miles of driving.

Hi Dave, how do you add a screenshot?!

Hi Lord Rick

On the attached image I have highlighted in red the icon used to attach an image.

and you also need to be logged in.. Whilst you can post without being logged in the attach image icon doesnt appear… i just realised this!

Also a steam railway fan and have no plans to visit anything like this until society has regained its sanity! It’s not just a matter of principle, more that what should be an enjoyable experience is made depressing and soul-destroying by the insistence on “hygiene theatre” and presumably mask-wearing.
Earlier in the lockdown I actually donated money to several heritage railways (and other places like museums) which I’d originally planned to visit this year. Now I’m so ****ed off with the whole farcical situation that I have no intention of giving any organisation or cause my money until they’re prepared to take a stand against this!

I need to get some works drawings from the NRM at York, unfortunately the research facilities are still closed, with no date set for this area of the museum to reopen.

Another preserved railway where I have been taking photographs and measurements from a prototype vehicle to allow me to make a scale model, is unable to allow me to visit, and have no idea when I will be able to visit.

How did we get here, and more to the point how are we going to get out.

Hi Dave, just out of interest, which vehicle?

Apologies to all none railway minded sceptics!

Hi NeilC do not know if you will see this, I have been going to GCR Nottingham to measure a Shark brake ballast plough and I need some diesel drawings from York.

I thought GCR Nottm are about to re-open / or have re-opened. My nephew was there yesterday, helping with the model railways, although that could have been without the public! GCR Loughborough are running trains again, definitely.

I wish I could answer your last question(s).

With an incidence of infection of 1 in 2,200 – and realistically much lower – the closure of facilities is ludicrous – and was even when infection was higher.

I know that the Railway Museum is operating entrance restrictions for the general public – again – pointless, but the idea that allowing research is hazardous is barmy. Unfortunately, it seems normalized.

I wonder what the statistical risks are of developing an illness from breathing in steam train smoke/soot, versus catching a serious illness from the dreaded Covid.

Indeed, why do they not simply offer bedwetter vs LS coaches, where people who are able to assess the risk can travel with some level of normality.

Do not look out of the window you may get smuts in your eye.

Good idea. They could label them as “old normal” and “new normal” coaches. Then everyone could travel. I know which would be the more popular ….

They do these things and it puts people like us off. We are the people who will mostly go out and about as we are not afraid. Catering to the afraid will end up with businesses etc going down the pan

On a similar note, looked at a Pub restaurant website earlier, fancying a bit of dinner, but this put paid to it (my emphasis):

• Hand sanitising stations which you must use as you enter and leave the restaurant.
• Seating arrangements to ensure a safe distance is kept between customers.
• Table service only – you will be shown to your table and must remain there , staff will take all food and drinks orders, and bring them to your table. You will not be allowed to sit at the bar.
• We will require details (name, phone number and number of guests) of a member of your group to fulfil track and trace requirements as you enter the restaurant.

Plenty of “must’s”, “will’s” and “you’s” in there! Presumably, each table is assigned its own uniformed stormtrooper. Went to a Wethy’s instead – they’re getting a bit keener on T&T, but we managed to avoid it.

And no doubt face nappies

DD, we’ve fancied that in the past, but been put off by the cost, never mind the current ball ache. What is fun is driving up the A169 and nipping off to each of the train stops by car/foot. Lockton and Levisham are worth a look (walk through to Levisham), then Goathland (‘Heartbeat’ country) and maybe Grosmont (not as much there). Beck Hole along the way, too, then on you go to Whitby. You’ve got scenery, pubs, villages, the train passing and all that. A good day out.

My daughter bought me a voucher for two all day tickets on the Great Central Railway,I had planned to use them in the Spring.I can’t see me ever using them now,the GCR appears to have lost the plot big time,this is from their website,

• Pre-booking online is essential for these trains.
• Trains depart from Quorn & Woodhouse only .
• We will be using compartment coaches.
• Each order will be allocated a single compartment for their group.
• All passengers in each compartment must be from the same family group or support “bubble”.
• Face coverings must be worn on the station platforms and when boarding the train. Face covering may be removed when seated within private compartment (please note that this may change depending on government advice at the time).
• The station platform will not be open, except for passengers with valid tickets when boarding and alighting.
• An efficient queuing system has been arranged for boarding the train to preserve social distancing

To top it all they are only running trains at the weekend and then only three services on each day.
As you say Dave,they are committing commercial suicide,it’s a cheek that all of the heritage railways are bleating they are running out of money and asking for donations when they feel this is a good way to treat their supporters.

Sounds like a rather depressing holiday. No thanks.

Latest NHS England figures show hospital deaths still at 0 for the 19th. 5 since. 1 reported today but without positive test.

Regarding the withdrawal of treatments from the NHS, does anyone know if they can be sued for say, corporate manslaughter?

They can but not for this as it will come under the Coronavirus Act

If Dolan wins his case in September regarding the legality of the government’s response, then I have the feeling that the floodgates will open as angry bereaved relatives bring their cases before the courts.

This could get very expensive for the government.

Hope he does and hope they do and hope it is.

I am sure the “no win no fee” solicitors are already looking at the possibilities for gaining some fees for this type of work.

Reply from Councillor Durant:

Thank you for your messages of support. I’ve had many letters published in my local paper (Romford Recorder) on the subject of lockdown and sent many messages to all councillors and senior officers too. It seems my message to a lobby group has incited a media response, which I welcome. Fortunately I’m elected as an Independent, a rare thing in London, and allowed to be a dissenting voice. The tide will turn when the proverbial hits the fan at the end of furlough in October, and it won’t be nice as the entire political establishment falls into disrepute for its almost unanimous support for the ‘mad’ lockdown. A Dr John Lee and Peter Hitchin’s blog have been lone voices in the mainstream media, see links. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8597815/Britains-gone-lockdown-la-la-land-says-DR-JOHN-LEE.html & https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

Good work Agent Awkward!

Bravo!

Very well done. That councillor needs a medal

I’m glad at least one political figure, somewhere, understands that the issue here is the lockdown . And every political party represented in Parliament is complicit, even if only by silence, in the fact that we have one at all. Not a single MP stood to question or condemn its implementation . A plague (we all know which one) on all their houses.

Awkward Git, thank God for people like you, prepared to dig and dig and dig. More power to your elbow!

And his metacarpal.

What I am finding the most depressing aspect of this pandemonium is that all sense of reason seems to have disappeared without a trace amongst anyone responsible for this mess, from the government itself, to the NHS, to local authorities, and so on ad nauseam.

The inhumanity of so many of the provisions, the face mask, being the most obvious, and inhumane treatment of people in so many ways is abhorrent, and yet it continues on a daily basis, with no sign of ending.

Indeed, we are being softened up for another lockdown, if the hints being dropped by the media on a regular basis are true; second-wave, here we come.

Just for how long will so many of our elder fellow citizens be locked away from family and friends, to deteriorate, to die alone, unloved, surrounded by masked and gloved ghouls?

How many more will it take for someone to realise that this inhumane treatment of so many is worse than the risk of their dying in the twilight of their lives?

Denied seeing their wives, husbands, sons and daughters, grandchildren, friends. Who is to hold their hand?

We did not, and we aren’t ‘saving’ our elder citizens, we have actively murdered them, and continue to ‘torture’ those locked up, isolated, in ‘care’ homes – a misnomer if ever there was one. Do we still have habeas corpus? It, like any sign of reason, seems to have gone missing too.

As for the NHS, what were we supposed to be saving for if it wasn’t to retain a functioning health service? The appalling and often heart-rending stories of lives ended, treatment denied, and pain and suffering unnecessarily inflicted and endured is a national scandal.

The only clapping we should hear is when the whole rotten edifice is abolished, together with the cowardly medics who seem to like to be pretend doctors. Tip, if you don’t want to work with people who might have infectious diseases, don’t get a job or career in medicine! Perhaps we need to train career advisors better.

I am absolutely livid at what has happened and at the continuing denial of ordinary, everyday life to us all. And for what?

So that we can be Covid-free? We cannot, we will not, ever, be able to outwit nature, and our efforts to thwart this not particularly threatening virus is doomed to fail. Like to trying to find a vaccine for the common cold, another corona virus.

We as a species are equipped to adapt and deal with new pathogens all the time. That’s why we have an immune system after all!

What we can do, and should have done, is to advise those most vulnerable, given them support and treatment as required, and looked after them as best we could.

Not lock them way. Together so as to spread the disease better. Amongst the most vulnerable.

One didn’t need to be an epidemiologist to look at the original predictions made to see that they were fanciful in the extreme. Looking at the projected death rate in the UK would seem to suggest we would have to been biologically different to everyone else on the planet, as no where near that number had died anywhere else!

Didn’t anyone, anyone at all, ask to see any evidence before we were all placed under house arrest, including the economy, and the old sacrificed?

Actually, I’m not livid, I’m angry, and to coin a phrase, ‘as mad as hell’; how to fight back is another matter.

I’m not sure why I have posted this as it won’t change a thing, but one lives in hope, sometimes.

As for a musical suggestion, what always comes to mind as I walk maskless around the shops and looking at the beguiled in their masks is the “All we like sheep” chorus part from Handel’s ‘Messiah’; it just seems so apt.

“You don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind blows”

Bob Dylan

Another Bob Dylan line came to mind today from Masters of War:
“You that hide behind walls, you that hide behind desks, I just want you to know I can see through your masks.”

Feel the same about all you said. I won’t have another lockdown, didn’t take any notice of the first and was out and about when the streets and beach was deserted, almost, a few of us acknowledging each other’s free spirit. We must just keep on doing what we have to do.

I agree there won’t be another lock down as most people won’t do it. And they authorities won’t be able to do anything about it if vast numbers won’t do it

Thank you for posting it Gtec. Because it does matter and it does change things. It makes me feel less alone and that there are others out there struggling like me and that gives courage to keep battling for personal reasons and for the sake of our country. If only Boris were to read today’s post by Toby and some of the comments here today perhaps he would be braver.

Boris is a waste of oxygen if you’re waiting for him to see sense you’ll be waiting a very long time indeed. I think the virus cooked his brain, that’s if he actually did catch it and it wasn’t just part of their plan to get us to comply after their appalling breach of our civil rights.

Thanks for your kind words, and to the others below, all much appreciated.

I’m glad you did post this Gtec. We are with you.

Gtec you speak for many of us, posting here does help, because others know they are not alone.

I am feeling just like you. It is such inhumane treatment of old and young, everyone.
So last Saturday I called my friend who is a GP and I broke down. I said I was angry and upset and told her why.
All she said “Oh, it is hard, we just need to live through this”. I felt like she really lacked empathy.
Then she started talking about the second wave. I replied that there was no evidence for the second wave.

Gtec, well said and eloquently put. I get the feeling that the reckoning will come – the government has shown that its unable and unwilling to stop the tsunami of job losses and bankruptcies. Add in the growing list of people developing mental health issues as well as long list of people waiting for treatments for cancer, stroke, heart diseases, etc and a whole host of problems. But are the government listening? Noooooo…..they’re still fixated on this virus that’s on the retreat.

Boris and co should be very afraid now. The volcano is about to erupt, its now a question of when not if.

I am not anti vaccination. However, I will not be having this muck pumped in to my veins any time soon

I’m very pro vaccination for other people.

I’m very pro-vaccination, provided it has gone through all the proper procedures, trials and tests. After all, these controls are there for our safety?

Toby’s interview with Yoram Hazony is excellent. Hazony is a very clever fella, as is our Toby.

Upbeat and silly. I’ll probably change the name. You can email suggestions to bedwetterspodcast@gmail.com HERE’S THE LATEST EPISODE https://open.spotify.com/show/4TvMounXNnJPuycMbn3kj7?si=x1v6kQJMRQaKYK_wc10gwg

Excellent letter Guardian reading woman could not more heartily agree

Having just finished dearing the excellent Henehgan article, I spotted this headline below it:

Coronavirus symptoms UK: Three main issues in the tummy warning of COVID-19 infection
In the tummy ?!
And we thought the government treats us like 5 year-olds!

Using Carl Heneghan’s upper IFR estimate of 0.49% (1) and the Gomes et al upper herd immunity threshold (HIT) of 20% (2), the final UK death toll should be about 65,000. Given that there have been 51,935 + 4,213 + 859 = 57,007 deaths involving COVID-19 up to 7 August (3, 4, 5), we’re about 88% through the pandemic.

Compare with the Cambridge upper IFR estimate of 1.8% from 6 August 2020 (6), which is an input to SAGE via SPI-M, and Ferguson’s 16 March upper HIT of 60% (7) and you get a final death toll of 720,000, or 8% through the pandemic.

Unfortunately, the UK government believes the latter and does not seem equipped to question it or seek the diversity of scientific opinion that exists on the matter.

All my hopes rest on Sweden. Come spring next year, if Sweden is living in blissful normality without a disastrous winter of COVID-19, everyone else is going to look rather silly.

(1) https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/estimating-the-infection-fatality-ratio-in-england/

(2) https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.23.20160762v1

(3) https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales

(4) https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/weekly-and-monthly-data-on-births-and-deaths/deaths-involving-coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland

(5) https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/weekly-deaths

(6) https://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/now-casting/report-on-nowcasting-and-forecasting-6th-august-2020/

(7) https://www.nicholaslewis.org/why-herd-immunity-to-covid-19-is-reached-much-earlier-than-thought/

All my hopes rest on Sweden. Come spring next year, if Sweden is living in blissful normality without a disastrous winter of COVID-19, everyone else is going to look rather silly.

Hopefully Sweden won’t inflate their own figures, either.

They will come under enormous pressure from most of the rich world to fall into line

I think a lot will depend on the US election outcome

If Trump wins, he MIGHT be a bit more sceptical and put the weight of the US behind getting back to normal. If Biden wins, it’s likely to be the opposite

Yeah Biden looks like going full on into the agenda.

Just went into 3 shops, maskless, for the first time, as my 20 & 27 year olds have been doing from the outset. Quiet, of course, but it was fine (I am a natural conformist). Just looked pityingly at all the masked around me. Nice lady on way into M&S asked if I had one, I said (to my shame) “no, I’ve had a bronchial infection due to mask wearing & I won’t be wearing one again” & sailed in. A keen mask wearer friend has had such an infection. That’s it. Not wearing one again.
On the subject of Saturday’s march, I thought a good chant might be “NEIL FERGUSSON: POL POT!!”. If you hear me yell it, join in!

Good on you, they first few times are the worst, but as you have already been confronted it can only get easier.

Yes well done. I am like you Marie and avoiding shops as much as possible but I have gone maskless into 4 places now and it felt very good. I did feel like some other people have posted on here that the staff respond nicely to maskless people. Perhaps it is because they cannot have a proper conversation or just an acknowledgement from masked customers and it must make their jobs long and lonely. We all need human encouragement and engagement.

Or it’s because they’ve been instructed not to challenge us in case we have psychiatric problems and kick off!

So we kick off.
Good.

I used the bus today and I noticed that the bus driver smiled and greeted me with a cheery “good afternoon”. He didn’t really do that with passengers who were muzzled. Makes me wonder if the driver was a closet sceptic or is someone fed up with seeing faceless zombies day in day out.

Ugh, ugh, who wouldn’t be nauseated by an endless stream of faceless zombies?
The sight of just one, here in Wales where gob nappies are optional (except on public transport!), makes me sick.

I think the Johnson government is enjoying all this zombie nonsense.

I do feel depressed seeing faceless zombies where I work. Conversation with them becomes very stilted and fake.

I’m always reminded of what Jack Straw said about the niqab – its a barrier to communication. Ditto with muzzles.

If people resent wearing the face nappies, they’re likely to glower at the driver, or avoid eye contact altogether. Pretty crap for the poor driver all day!

I’m coming to the conclusion that smiles are a very powerful everyday weapon.

Agree. I did notice that the bus driver did smile at Mr Bart (who was unwillingly wearing his muzzle) but with me, I got both a smile and a cheery greeting.

There was a woman behind me who was muzzled and I noticed that the bus driver just grunted as she touched in her card.

Hence why I thought the bus driver is a closet sceptic.

If Ferguson had been in charge of Enigma Britain might have lost their battle with Nazi intelligence.

Oops wrong way around. If Ferguson had been in charge of decoding Enigma Britain might have lost their battle with Nazi intelligence.

I don’t think he would have been intelligent enough to work on Enigma.

Has anyone heard/read one of the doom merchants explaining their reasoning for the belief that the virus du jour is here and fatal forever when that wasn’t true for SARS, HK flu etc? Grateful for any light cast on this because I’ve somehow missed it.

Not seen anything of the sort

I don’t have a link Charlie but I think it is seen as going to be around as it is more like the coronavirus that cause common cold and with lots of asymptomatic infection which means it is likely to settle into being a seasonal virus. It seems with SARS and MERS they had a higher mortality rate and less asymptomatic mild illness. Perhaps Carl Heneghan has written about it on the CEBM blog. I know he believes it will become endemic/a circulating virus. I don’t think he means it to be a verdict of doom just for us to stop the destruction and fear and accept it is a virus like all viruses before it that we are now used to. Hope that helps.

Sorry need to add they don’t think it will be fatal, for most, they think it will get milder over time. I think this view is taken because it is mostly affecting older and ill people seriously and not the whole of the population

Thanks, Wendy. Definitely helpful. I’m sure Heneghan isn’t going for a negative spin, but I have heard others make the worst-case assertion without explanation. Much appreciated!

Well as we know there are plenty of folks who will spin anything in the negative for various reasons. Some seem to want to back up the NZ type of elimination cause, others for politicking etc

There was an article on here the other day; the virus has “attenuated”.

Yes. I think that is what happens to those viruses that stick around and we live with. Some how we have lost sight that viruses are a normal part of the world and we evolved an immune system because we encountered lots of them throughout our evolution. Everything has viruses – all plants and animals.

I was thinking about how Carl Heneghan and his team have written up their research. They have been very careful not to apportion blame and not to score political points in any direction. Though they must have opinions. They have presented tight well backed up research arguments that seem to be having a good effect. People from any position can look at their work without becoming defensive. I am sure this is deliberate and is has worked. Carl is a practicing doctor and he has done so much to help people and I guess that is because he can see the suffering and damage.

Yep. Shame on the scientists that make others tread on eggshells. Has there been any prominent geek that has shown any humility? I know Whitty is slowly shuffling backwards but that kind on snakiness doesn’t count.

He did say on the radio that the BBC had been ” scaremongering” to that one with the glasses. Whose lame reply was “must do better”!

Given that the Birmingham Nightingdale Hospital has recently been dismantled I can’t imagine the powers that be think there will be a significant resurgence of the virus!

I am not watching or reading MSM, but was this in the news? Or did they do it very quietly?

I’ve heard it said in the DT that the virus is here to stay, I responded what like influenza and the common cold?

…& James Corden

The New Zealand article on the Telegraph site is good, but there are some slightly alarming pro-lockdown and anti-Swedish comments, including a long diatribe from “Notre Dame” accusing Sweden of “senicide”. Not what I’d expect on the Telegraph.

I don’t usually spend any time reading comments (except here) but usually check the top page briefly on articles like this to get a feeling for the general mood of the readers!

I’ve read comments from Norte Dame before. An odd person!!

There are some serious whackjobs BTL in the DT.

I ignore ‘Notre Dame’ he’s been writing utter twaddle since March 2020, many commentators on there say he’s from the 77th, some of those comments are quite funny!

Propaganda?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgFwFPAU0AM-m8Z?format=jpg&name=large

https://twitter.com/whelanh1/status/1297518452077481985/photo/1

After publishing the first very illustrative graph of pandemics in the US compared to C-19 this second link gives a table comparing influenza death per 100000 population per month. Striking how similar C-19 seem to be like Asiatic flu and I think death numbers adjusted to population change might come out the same. But the extra ordinary thing is that even seasonal flu can be even more deadly than pandemic flu. During the World War 2 in the US higher mortality but I suppose there were other priorities at that time

I was sent this picture , absolutely speechless Government’s around the world and the WHO along with MSM and anyone who thinks it’s ok to harass people for not wearing masks should hang their heads in shame

Very very horrible.

That’s fucked up

I’m in tears. What is that mother thinking of.

Looks like the dad with one of those baby harnesses.Says it all really.

You’re right. So proud mum takes the photo.

WTF he might as well throttle it! I can’t bear it, some people are just too stupid !

Mentally ill. MW

Very Stupid Dad impedes his baby’s neurological and intellectual development.

My God. My God.

PS.I think this week’s Covid Stupid Award is already in the bag.

Child abuse.

Down with this sort of thing!

Bill Gates=Dr. Strangelove.

https://delingpole.podbean.com/page/2/
June 29 2020 Delingpole Simon Dolan

Check out this article from last week about the Czech Republic:

As of Aug. 16, there were 20,012 cases in the country of 10.7 million, with 121 new cases found on Sunday, the Health Ministry data showed on Monday.
Of the total number of cases identified since the outbreak in March, 13,799 have recovered, while 397 people have died in connection with the COVID-19 illness.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-czech-cases-idUSKCN25D0LR

I’m hoping CZ will hold out from going back to mask madness. The tail tried to wag the dog there last week when the authorities announced that muzzles would be extended to many more places (including shops and restaurants) from 1st September until Spring! Unfortunately they didn’t run it past the PM and he reversed it all a few days later. Link

I’m sure CZ will start appearing on quarantine lists soon, Slovakia has already advised it’s citizens against visiting Prague (just advice for now I believe).

It looks like the Anglo-Saxon countries have fared the worst. Bloody Hell!

What are the ‘Anglo-Saxon’ countries?

I should really let richard riewer answer you, but in case he doesn’t I took it to mean the UK, US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand – obviously those countries are no longer necessarily predominantly Anglo-Saxon, but they all shared a common origin in their laws and to some extent system of government, and culture.

The Five Eyes

All those countries who are closely controlled by the American secret state.No surprise there then and gives a clue to the origin of the oppression

I don’t believe for a second that Rick H doesn’t know what Anglo-Saxon means or which countries the term usually refers to.

I don’t believe in the perpetuation of racial myths bred in simple minds – it’s as simple as that.

For example – anyone who thinks that the US or Australia are ‘anglo-saxon’ countries in any meaningful sense is living in a fantasy world.

… and the UK has a pretty mixed, mongrel heritage.

… I’m glad to say.

That’s what I assumed – a concern for dogmatic ideological purity on your part, not an honest question.

Those are the ones that I had in mind.

Commonwealth countries, part of the Queen’s bounty.

are there still any countries that are “anglo- saxon”?

What is more worrying to me is that some have fared the worst in terms of the restriction of liberty and the lack of scrutiny or protest from public, media and courts

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-020-00439-1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

“This preprint study reports that immune cells (monocytes, CD4 + T cells, CD8+ T cells and B cells) are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection. This was observed by in vitro infection of immune cells and by ex vivo detection of SARS-CoV-2 in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with severe COVID-19.”.

This probably not unique to C-19 virus and occur in very rare and severe cases. But be sure this is going to be used in some form in Project Fear.

Interesting thanks! They seemed to find some evidence of monocyte infection in 53% of severe cases. They couldn’t find any T-cell infection except in vitro.

Balloux is already defusing this one:

https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1297510754359414784

“ The most common cause of temporary lymphocytopenia is a recent infection, such as the common cold .”

This is often one of the first things to look at when fact-checking C19 hysteria– find out if it’s any different to or more severe than what other coronaviruses do. It’s an interesting paper of course and not itself hysterical but people are already jumping on it as you predicted.

Some of the criticism of Balloux on Twitter is justified. The wiki is just reporting that you get low white blood cells after an infection, there’s no evidence given there that the virus is actually infecting immune cells.

But it’s not uncommon for some immune cells to get infected with viruses, especially monocytes (who are actually eating viruses). They are on the front line after all. It’s not a cause for panic although worth understanding. Is it implicated in severe Covid-19? No smoking gun but it might be.

Measles is an interesting one. Not only does it infect B and T cells but it actually preferentially knocks out immune memory cells. So it wipes the memory and the next time you get a common cold it’s much worse.

Another e-mail from Councillor Durrant plus a link to the attachment he sent with it for telling the council your views:

https://1drv.ms/b/s!Agv7JEO8MngCiTDB8qT0_0Rb6QKB

The e-mail:

Dear All,

The world’s gone mad, or you would think so if you took the official reasons for lockdown seriously, but as I don’t think the establishment are mad, there must be another explanation for their madness! Why would they knowingly wreck the economy and lives under the guise of fighting a seasonal ‘flu’ virus? There are always a range of interests behind government policy, and be clear many billionaires are becoming multi-billionaires from the misery being inflicted by lockdown, but who else benefits? Is there a hidden political agenda?

Well there is a revolutionary idea called “worse is better” and “don’t let a good crisis go to waste”. I believe the political purpose behind the madness is to stop Brexit, sink Trump and further EU integration.

Already the French President has used the crisis to progress more fiscal integration, giving the central bureaucracy the power to levy taxes, and quarantine the ‘yellow vests’. In UK when the proverbial hits the fan in October when furlough ends there will be intense pressure to extend the transition period (forever)! And in America Trump was riding high on a strong economy until the lockdown, mostly maintained beyond reason in Democrat run states. So the crisis is being dragged out in UK until October to coincide with US elections in November! I mean if UK announced the crisis over, how could the Democrats keep the lie going in US?

I’m not here discussing the merits of a Boris Brexit, Trump re-election or further EU integration, but just a “Globalist” establishment motive behind it all.

I’m producing a leaflet, a survey asking a question, focusing on Brexit and the ‘madness’, see attachment, which you are welcome to fact check before I get it printed.

Regards

Oh dear! The weakness of the opposition : confuse the issue with a stable of hobby-horses.

I’m with you. We don’t come from the same direction, but this looks disappointingly weak, badly worded and poorly thought through to me.

He’s asked for feedback ……

Time to take the guillotines out of mothballs. Macron can go first.

Regulars will know that I like to keep an eye on daily worldwide deaths and cases. It is looking more and more likely that worldwide the virus has run out of steam. It might be that R = <1 worldwide now. Daily cases have been on a bumpy plateau of around 250,000 to 260,000 since July 24th. Deaths peaked back in April at under 7,500 per day and right now seem to be moving towards 5,500 per day, worldwide.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Thank you, very hopeful signs

Looking at the graphs both cases and deaths seem to have passed their peak, the start of the downturn for the former especially seems to be several weeks ago.

I would guess the fact that the two graph curves are such different shapes, with no massive April/May peak in cases, is because there’s so much testing now compared to early on. Given this, it seems odd that the downturn is more noticeable in the case graph compared to the deaths.

Forget the world with all the variables involved. Just look at here. The virus committed hari-kiri a while back.

Can you do the link again? Thanks.

Sorry. Misread your post – thought there was a link under the word here .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=253&v=LfeN68Zp-TY&feature=emb_logo

This is short interview English subtitles with Prof Pueschel Germany who has done 100 autopsies of C-19 cases. You will never see such type of interview in BBC presently.Interesting.

very interesting, thank you!

Interesting. Thanks …

Excellent!

Excellent – thank you. Have saved this to share round.

Edinburgh planned protest.
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/edinburgh-news/anti-lockdown-protest-set-march-18815998
Suggest keeping an eye on dates.

I’m going. I have to and will regret it if I don’t go.

Given the very strongly-worded article from Prof Heneghan and my Twitter feed I’m somehow getting a feeling that the tide may finally be slowly beginning to turn. Then again, I’ve felt similarly about a million times already in the last couple of months.

I’m just waiting until winter. Remember that lockdown has only happened during the spring/summer months so far in the UK and the consequences also haven’t had enough time to manifest yet. When the tide does finally turn it will be a Pyrrhic victory because we will all be worse off somehow but that’s unfortunately what it will take to get people to wake up and revolt.

There wil be a lot of shame going round. Any talk of taking any collective action again will be met with “Ah so remember that last time they tried that shit? What happened?”

It may be a blessing in disguise. The full incompetence, idiocy and criminality has been there to see.

The odds are that winter will bring the usual rise in infections.

Any bets on what they will be attributed to?

Because not many people will be happy queueing outside shops in the pouring rain for half an hour. Just see how deadly the virus becomes then…

Since March the weather has generally been very kind. Imagine enjoying a beer or two in a cold, wet beer garden? Sounds like an end to some more pubs. Bournemouth beach in November, maybe not.

But they want us at home, online!

In our town on Saturday they queued meekly outside cafés in pouring rain and 60 mph winds.

Not sure I can bear to read it.

Leaked Government dossier reveals worst-case scenario if no-deal and coronavirus coincide A secret dossier has revealed scenarios that could happen if a second wave coincides with a no-deal Brexit, including food airdrops, petrol shortages and animal diseases.

https://uk.yahoo.com/news/leaked-government-dossier-reveals-worst-102700874.html

Nope I don’t think I can bear to read it either!

So why are the current government going along with it if this REALLY is a left wing plot!?

The response is pure incompetence rather than any conspiracy.

I don’t think it was unintentional, its been repeated throughout the West. This is the big Reset when the western world eradicates democracy and freedom. The only way to reverse this is a bloody Rebellion.

A left wing plot? By what appeared originally to be a right wing Brexiter government? How did that dog change its stripes so comprehensively?

A no-deal has always been on the cards.

By what appeared originally to be…

I think you’ve said it right there. People on the left fantasise about how ‘right wing’ people like Johnson and Trump really are. They want a bogeyman to hate.

And I don’t think Johnson was ever really a ‘Brexiteer’, but knew that Brexit had to be delivered just to settle things.

Fast forward three months, and Johnson and crew genuinely seemed to be going along with the herd immunity idea, but something happened. Johnson came back with that ‘serious face’ he clearly practised in front of the mirror, and the government became the monster we see today. I’m not convinced Johnson ever had Covid – I think he went away to ‘adjust’ to what was coming.

As the article says, it’s a worst-case scenario rather than a forecast but if this all does come to pass then there will be hell to pay, and it will all be happening under Johnson and Cummings’ watch. First they fuck up the Covid response, then they cock up Brexit.

If some of the stuff proposed happens there won’t be enough cops or army to protect the politicians.

It’s just the old Project Fear argument regurgitated by Yahoo. Obvious bullshit.

The big names will have jets and helicopters on standby. We may need to focus on backbenchers, media folk, and nhs management.

Not to protect them from me.
Wait till they get in their baths, then stab them. It worked for Charlotte.

Normal project fear rubbish.no substance

More proof the Coronavirus was a manufactured crisis perpetrated by Remainers and climate change zealots. Its a convenient virus is it not. If they try it on there will be a lot of blood spilt.

I’m a Remainer – but I accept Brexit has to happen.

I don’t know why you keep associating murderous lockdown and incompetent Covid policies with not wanting to leave the EU….

Oh – do give over on this sort of sectarian toss!

It makes opposition to this shambles look stupid, when it is intelligent.

This is starting to remind me of the financial crisis. This has been a world-wide crisis, not one restricted to the UK. I cannot tell you how unimportant Brexit is to the American public, for one, or to any non-European country anywhere in the world.

And I don’t see how this plays into any climate change zealots’ scenarios. We have mass movement into increasing numbers of cars as public transport is almost shut down. How can that fit into any climate change scenario?

They’re coming for your car next!

Did you see this today, about how government anti-car policy has backfired?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/22/exclusive-councils-forced-humiliating-u-turn-grant-shapps-disastrous/

Exclusive: Councils reverse street closures after backlash to ‘green’ scheme. The Government’s £250m plan to close roads to cars has increased congestion and hurt businesses, say residents.

The comments luridly describe town centre chaos caused by the pointless policy. Back to the drawing board then.

Also covered in the Daily Mail. The military is brought in to quell civil unrest and that style of thing.

No such thing as no-deal brexit, this has always been a pro-EU fantasy. The default position is WTO rules.

Sounds like typical Yahoo bullshit.

Would be interested to know what the bed-wetters think happened to “Flatten The Curve”.

Medical services can now cope can’t they? Isn’t it better to stop all slowing measures now and let it rip before winter?

No lockdowns, no masks, no quarantines, no social distancing, no pubs or schools closing etc? All except for the most vulnerable ( who should shield from the likes of flu anyway).

Is that a logical view?

Correct me if I’m wrong.

”bed-wetters think”

not sure that happens

It is logical if this was about a virus

A ‘cheerful’ forecast – don’t read it unless you’re feeling strong!

https://www.theblogmire.com/three-weeks-for-the-lockdown-but-they-were-all-of-them-deceived/ MW

“Once interventions are relaxed (in the example in Figure 3, from September onwards), infections begin to rise, resulting in a predicted peak epidemic later in the year. The more successful a strategy is at temporary suppression, the larger the later epidemic is predicted to be in the absence of vaccination, due to lesser build-up of herd immunity.” (p.10)

Yikes!! 2nd wave 2nd wave 2nd wave …..

I know. His politics are OK for an evangelical Christian but ‘cheerful bugger isn’t he – I did warn you! MW

It’s worth clarifying that what Cheezilla is quoting above is Ferguson. Rob Slane’s piece is absolutely not agreeing with it. He’s really saying that what is going on is still following the dodgy model. MW

Yes, but someone might DIE!

Don’t say the d word, that doesn’t happen anymore!

PM Boris Johnson: Pander Bear

https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1297544999102554112/photo/1

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/public-health-recommendations.html

CDC Guidelines 31 July 2020.
“Wondering what CDC/Gov really thinks about masks? Their guidance on quarantining after exposure to someone with C-19 explicitly states whether the infected OR exposed person wore masks doesn’t matter. My mask protects no one. So does yours. Thanks for clearing that up, CDC!”

Just adding the success in France with masks
Masque obligtoire   21 July and current C-19 cases France

https://twitter.com/Verite2022/status/1297552246843084801/photo/1

On the same day

The dictator brought in 10k fines for parents who organise children’s parties.

The dictators ‘scientific’ advisors announce on the state broadcaster that it’s perfectly safe for children to go back to school

Lunacy heaped upon lunacy

I would never pay a fine for that. I would take the government to court.

Ah but Fifteen people have died in Victoria alone from COVID-19 – including 84-year-old Giuseppe Franzoni .
Taken so young!

Ah, yes, but there is a significant risk of fun being had at parties. Existing restrictions have thankfully eliminated that danger in schools but masks could still be made compulsory just to ensure maximum misery

That’s exactly what I think when they talk about these “illegal parties” in the news.
Looks like people having fun to me – getting pissed, and trying to get laid.
How very dare they.

Puritanism is making a comeback. Send them to America again.

Children’s birthday parties are fine, but only on every third Wednesday (or Tuesdays, assuming Jupiter is ascendant) and as long as every 8th person present wears a mask (NB – Kath Kidstone, Seasalt and Bodensee masks only).

I thought people were allowed to have 30 people to visit in their homes?

Don’t you hate it when you realise you’ve been commenting on a dead thread…

Do we need to look at yesterdays page?

Thread’s dead, baby. Thread’s dead.

Ha ha, love it!

I am 76 years old, which makes me vulnerable according to SOME scientists .

That said, rather than watch my country collapse in social and economic terms, why not allow me to take decisions. If I have been sufficiently frightened by the government, and let me say here: I have not lived in fear from day one and that will continue, then allow/require me, together with the rest of my fellow oldies, to self isolate, wear masks and social distance to our hearts content.

I don’t want my country to end up as a basket case merely to protect me. I will protect myself.

This government, which claims to want to be an independent, sovereign nation has let the country down by following other countries, like a bunch of Lemmings. It’s not as though many other countries know what they are doing.

“ I will protect myself.”

Exactly my sentiment, as a fellow Old Fart.

One day our grandchildren will hear about “the virus that never was”. Thank God my parents, who went through the London Blitz, aren’t alive to see what we have become.

Bravo! Excellent comment.

Top post , it’s so bloody patronising to think every person over the age of 60 needs looking after and protecting, Some do of course but leave the others to decide their own personal risk

Some people under the age of 60 need looking after and protecting.

And they know who they are!

In a nice, secure prison.

talk a customary walk round Acton park this morning-didn’t see Toby-but noticed see Extinction rebellion posters announcing a protest outside Parliament on Sep 1st.
That could get interesting given the “Notting Hill Carnival” is the day before

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8655795/UK-records-six-coronavirus-deaths-toll.html . Would some please explain the soaring bit within “Another 1,041 people have tested positive for coronavirus today bringing Britain’s total caseload to 325,642.
Today’s case total – which is one higher than last Sunday’s 1,040 – marks another weekend of soaring figures after 1,288 tested positive yesterday and 1,033 on Friday.”

Media fear porn at its best. The comments are fun! MW

Best comment so far:

Six? More people have statistically been brutally murdered to death by a medium sized gang of irate Pomeranian T cup puppies

Um … statistics.
Some years ago I read that the commonest cause of death among young men in New York was murder.
Bearing in mind that young people are the least likely adults to die of Covid, but make the biggest zombies, I wonder how Covid terror in NY compares with the fear of being murdered.

Usually, “case” means a situation where a medical intervention is involved but under “new-speak” it means tested positive but otherwise completely well. So in the end the numbers are just something to try to continue frighten us because most people don’t realise what “case” now means.

Yes, ‘case’ is Newspeak for ‘nothing to see here but you must stay very frightened and do as we say.’ For some reason, Toby Young persists in talking about cases rather than ‘cases’ or ‘positive tests’ although the context usually demonstrate that he doesn’t buy in. MW

“One higher”. These people are just laughing at us.

Are the same people being tested every week?

Topic du jour

Revealed in the leaked document, Whitehall is planning for the potential of public disorder caused by food shortages and price hikes.


What leaked document is this?

Your emails from patients suffering from cancer must bring tears to the eyes of anyone with a beating heart. I was diagnosed with advanced metastatic prostate cancer in October 2017 having just played in the Masters European hockey tournament in Glasgow at the end of August 2017. Luckily for me this happened three years ago, not in 2020. I too have quarterly “check ups” that now consist of a telephone conversation rather than a face-to-face meeting with an oncologist. I am on hormone treatment until I die, and I cannot fault the efficiency of the Royal Devon & Exeter when I was admitted three years ago. If I start to feel worse again in the next few months I will be there like a shot at the doors of A&E – they will have to call the police to remove me. I have never been ill in my life, and after 40 years of contributions it is about time I got some value for my money.

I refuse to clap for the NHS as, like some of your email correspondents, nothing was done for me to take any preventative measures when I was as fit as a flea. They are not “heroes”, they are doing their jobs, which was acknowledged to me in private by one of the nurses at the RD&E during this ridiculous overreaction by an incompetent and supine government and health service.

Those cancer stories.
There are no words strong enough.
Let every detail of every case be recorded. Let every story be told to the world, and let the place where they are told be called Nuremberg.

Earlier today there was a post linking to an article about Cllr David Durant from Havering council speaking out about anti lockdown and mask issues. I sent him a congratulatory email and he replied by sending me the text of a leaflet that he is distributing to his local area, requesting responses.

I asked if he would mind my posting the text of that leaflet here and received his consent. I am sure it will be of much interest to LS readers and gratifying to hear someone with a little power – albeit local to Havering – is trying to educate people with sentiments that I am sure will be well received here. So here is the text of his leaflet:

IS THIS ANOTHER PROJECT

FEAR TO STOP BREXIT?

A PERSONAL SURVEY OF HAVERING RESIDENTS BY CLLR DAVID DURANT

There was a populist revolt against the Globalist EU from both “Left” and

“Right” based on restoring sovereignty of the “nation” and “people”. The

Remain establishment tried to stop the revolt with a Project Fear threatening

economic catastrophe!

But it didn’t work and the Leave vote shocked the establishment and finally

led to the election of a badly compromised Paper Tiger PM to deliver Brexit.

A Paper Tiger who roared into office, but immediately folded to promote

another Project Fear, that is wrecking society and economy under the guise of

fighting a seasonal “flu” virus. This real economic catastrophe threatens to

Stop Brexit by forcing an extension of the transition period (forever)!

In UK every year thousands of people are born and every year over 600,000

people die from all causes and it’s something we normally live with. But now

in response to a seasonal “flu” virus we have a government seeking to

lockdown society and economy which will kill far more than it saves, making

the cure far worse than the disease.

It makes no medical sense, but the government is dragging out lockdowns by

conflating corona infections of otherwise healthy people with hospitalisation

and mortality figures which are now less than 2% of deaths from all causes.

IT MAKES NO MEDICAL SENSE!

Many doctors have admitted the risk of dying with corona-virus is similar to

risk of dying with the flu. Web-search DR JOHN LEE

The UK corona death figures have been inflated by conflating died WITH

and died FROM corona and by including anyone who tested positive, but

subsequently recovered and died months later from other causes.

The majority of those dying with corona-virus are over 80 with underlying

health conditions. Whereas the risk of healthy younger people dying is very

small and children are at almost no risk at all.

Masks offer no protection against a microscopic respiratory virus, which can

simply pass through and around the mask. But prolonged mask wearing can

make you ill including, by restricting breathing and reducing oxygen levels in

the blood causing people to faint, resulting in injury or worse.

Many of those promoting the lockdown are linked to the snake oil vaccine

lobby which hopes to make £billions from mandatory vaccines, ignoring

cheap and successful therapeutic treatments and sensible advice about

enhancing our immune systems, with healthy eating, exercise and sunshine.

Imperial College London which furnished the incredible 500,000 people will

die forecast used by the Paper Tiger to impose the draconian and inhumane

lockdown receives considerable funding from big vaccine drug lobby.

The shocking decision to decant the elderly from the NHS into the care homes

resulted in a slaughter that made up over half the UK death figures. Even

more shocking this sinister mistake was repeated in other countries too!

In UK, an official government report says over 4 times as many may die due

to the lockdown than from the virus due to millions of cancelled operations

and appointments and many more are suffering due to domestic, mental and

health problems linked to confinement and economic misfortune.

IT MAKES NO MEDICAL SENSE! IS IT ANOTHER PROJECT FEAR TO

STOP BREXIT BY WRECKING THE ECONOMY?

As this is a local petition, and I am not from Havering or anywhere near it, I do not consider it appropriate to respond to it directly, but will send him the link to this post and I am sure he will appreciate any messages of support from other forum members for what he is trying to do, it is a pity there aren’t more like him.

I am (was?) a Remainer. If I thought for one second that this related to an attempt to stop Brexit, I would become a fervent Brexiteer. To be honest I doubt the link given the lockdown madness in the (in)continent.

Aren’t you in danger of missing the point here? Personally I don’t care if he blames it on Brexit, the French Revolution, the Iraq war or the repeal of the Corn Laws, what we have here is a person with a little local power and a lot of scepticism trying to do something about a scandalous misappropriation of power. That is what is needed now, support him till we get our freedom back and argue about brexit later.

Yes – fair point, well made.

If he’s representing a strongly Brexit constituency, this approach would get a good chance of being heard.

I think that leaflet muddles ‘the point’

Good man David. Stick to your guns. Best wishes from the West Midlands!

What an awesome councillor, looking out for the best interests of his constituents!

Not a squeak from my pointless lot!

Ditto.

PM Boris Johnson is a saboteur.

Purely anecdotal. My future sister in law reports her 2 step kids have been at school for a week and both now have colds – runny nose and sore throat.

Nurse… I’m gonna need a food parcel in here stat

Quick, shut the pubs

Lack of social contact (and presumably less time in the open air) is bound to have weakened their immune systems a bit, so the odd cold is to be expected.

Exactly this. Speak to astronauts when they get back from the International Space Station. They have to be extremely careful when reintegrating into society as their immune systems have been dampened down so much by being isolated from the thousands of viruses and bacteria and fungi we are exposed to every day.

Sunetra Gupta warned that lockdowns weaken the immune system. Seems pretty obvious to me.

Sunetra Gupta is not in the loop.

Fungi ! I’d forgotten all about them, now I have something else to agonize over …

It happens at the start of every school year, always has. Just a lot of assorted germs getting together for the first time. Over in a week. Though I expect there will be howls of ‘Covid’ from the zombie staff and parents.

Colds?
Sounds like time to panic.
Let’s cancel all hospital operations and lay off 10 million workers.

Too late that has already been done.

My kids have been at pre-school for 4 days a week throughout all this, they’ve had any number of colds with runny noses, sneezes and the odd cough. That’s life.

Good healthy stuff!

Exactly. My daughter spent almost the whole of her first year at nursery with 2 big green slugs hanging out of her nose, bless her.

It’s the immune system building itself up. All normal and part and parcel of preparing to survive the big wide world. Not cause for mass hysteria.

Right on Nappy Face! Neurotic Hypochondriacs are running this farce, ready to freak out at the slightest sniffle or cough.

I used to teach 7 year-olds. Big green slugs not restricted to first year nursery.

Classic beginning of Autumn Term stuff. The colds will help them be immune to covid19!
All teachers are hoarse at the end of the first week till they get used to talking all day again. I expect they’ll all decide to self-quarantine for a couple of weeks though.

Hardly surprising after immune systems have been so comprehensively buggered by lock-up.

Exactly what I said. SIL is not concerned, more concerned about how the school will react.

This is going to be the issue isn’t it. My wife has been working from home throughout all this, last week the management are starting a phased return starting 1 day a week. She got a cold off the kids, of course mentioned this and they said not to come in. That’s 2 weeks now, will she be allowed in this week coming?

Also, hasn’t the weather suddenly got colder?

Out of interest, have they been wearing masks at school?

Sorry Carrie I don’t know, they are 6 and 10 so I hope not however we are in Scotland so our glorious leader could impose it.

When the fat buffoon presently ruling us was elected, and we were told by his critics that all he really, really wanted was to be PM and that he was not interested in crunching the detail, I stuck my fingers in my ears and said to myself: “Don’t care! Don’t care! He’s going to get Brexit done. La-la-la, can’t hear you!”

This blog is a party-political-free zone and I’m not assuming a universal love for Mrs Thatcher here but I have found myself wondering how she might have dealt with this crisis. Like Bojo she went to Oxford but unlike our Dear Leader – an Old Etonian whose degree was in dead poets – she was a chemistry graduate, whose dissertation was in an antibiotic (called Gramicidin, if you’re interested).

Would she, a woman of iron principle, who took on the unions and who sent soldiers to fight and die in the Falklands, have abdicated her responsibility in this matter to “the science” – especially when the science is a cadre of left-wingers like Dr Ferguson, with his history of monumental failure behind him? No. Of course she wouldn’t have. My guess is that Mrs T would have countenanced a limited lockdown at first and then, looking at the emerging data, would quickly have opened things up, considering the collateral damage that the policy was causing. (And for what it’s worth, I think she would have taken a dim view of “working from home” seeing it as a recipe for disaster in people’s day-to-day lives).

The Anglosphere has traditionally been concerned with the personal qualities of its politicians but it has never occurred to me till now that such things might actually be important. It’s fair to say that the scales have fallen from my eyes.

Maggie wouldn’t have held much truck with this nonsense.

It depends what the agenda is. The local mockdowns are keeping local authorities on their most obsequeous behaviour. They never recovered from Thatcher’s assault.

Could I ask how you know that Neil Ferguson is a left-winger. I don’t know much about him except that he was responsible for the foot and mouth fiasco.

He was caught sleeping with miltant left-wing campaigner Antonia Staats. Tells you all you need to know.

Maybe he was slumming? Sleeping with the enemy?

Oh perrrleaase ! Let’s not get into the Thatcher idolatry on the back of this nonsense : Mr Toad is about as low a bar as there is! We’ll be getting Blair worship next!

You don’t like Thatcher, I get that.

I DO.

Of course not. But I won’t elaborate, given my strictures on not getting side-tracked from the current main issues.

We’re not party-political here, as I said in the preface to my comment. But actually I voted Blair in 1997.

Blair worship? Blecch! Yuk! Never!

My feelings exactly : Maggie and Blair. Both poison.

Zoe Harcombe posted this on twitter:

Maths friend recently went on a flight. Man at the gate took the passport & boarding card of every passenger (asking them to remove their mask btw) & then handed it back. Friend concluded if your position in the queue was n, you may as well have shaken hands with n-1 passengers!

I’ve always found airports are stuffed with bumptious idiots – and I’m not talking about the passengers.

Remember the pile on she received when she suggested masks reduce blood oxygen content(for whatever reason ie not just the mask but from stress/anxiety etc)? Glad she’s back out there again!

I’m very pleased to hear this. I’ve always liked her stuff as I follow a low-carb diet with intermittent fasting and she’s great at de-bunking big pharma and big food. However, when she posted this very pro-mask piece in April

https://www.zoeharcombe.com/2020/04/covid-19-do-masks-help/

i stopped reading her blog in disgust.

Now there are even links to LS on her Twitter feed and she has posted much more anti-lockdown and even anti-mask stuff at least on Twitter. Another little ray of hope!

Also, earlier in the year, she’d had a real pop at Michael Mosley’s BBC doctor garbage (about another issue). I noticed while shopping a couple of weeks ago part of his smug mug on the front of the Radio Times. He was wearing a mask with ‘save lives’ written on it. What a sell-out tart that man is! MW

She’s really good at pulling stats to pieces and debunking bad studies.

If you need proof that masks is but a social experiment in how stupid the population is:- https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1297451007299866624

From the Nuremberg code:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgF5OOMWsAAzhPr?format=jpg&name=medium

Sorry I couldn’t post the pic itself but the link will take you straight to it.

Good points – will Simon Dolan use them in his appeal, do we think? Has it been suggested to him?

Glad to see at last the social media masses seem to be on our side, judging by reaction to this and some other posts by authority accounts… Need the non social media lot to turn now

There are a few extreme bedwetters in the replies but many more withering put downs !.

contained within this twitter was this tweet
Made me laugh !!!

https://twitter.com/Ianp19731/status/1297560170621435904

Thanks for the laugh. Best all day!

They’re freely admitting there, that there is no science behind the ruling, if any old face covering will do.. I see further down the thread, that Peter Hitchens has written to the advertising standards authority about this poster..

I thought things would be getting better by now, but the fear porn doesn’t seem to be subsiding. Luckily I have a lot of distractions with a 4 & 2yo to deal with – I think my mental health would have took more of a hit otherwise. The eldest is starting school next week and I really hope nothing jeopardises it.

I’ve kept off the news channels, I’ve deleted Twitter, but just go on the website every now and again. I now just follow a few podcasts such as Geoff Norcott, Toby and James’ London Calling, The Delingpod and every now and again Planet Normal with Alison Pearson. These just about keep me sane along with a visit to Wales every week. Does anyone have any other recommendations with podcasts or coping strategies?

My one! Search for Bedwetters on Spotify. It’ll be on iTunes next week.

A really good question. But with no certain answer.

I stay away from what passes as ‘News’ as far as possible – the low level to which reportage has fallen depresses me. But you,ve done that

Looking at real data with a spreadsheet helps to confirm my sanity and provides focus – as does occasional contact with the realities of people here.

Then there’s simply ignoring the imposed nonsense ‘regulations’ with family, friends and neighbours – but that depends upon other convinced individuals. The other side is avoiding situations where communal idiocy smacks you in the teeth.

… and in the end, dealing with real health issues (as opposed to manufactured political ones) – the usual gently grappling with the ideals of Zen presence in the moment provides an anchor – when it can be achieved.

Yes, your comment about real health issues is spot on. While I feel very out of control of my life at the moment given that even the most basic task is now fraught and mediated by the government, my own health is the one thing left I can control. I’m lucky to have a property I can hike so, weather permitting, I hike every day. I have amped up my yoga practice and ordered some more props, though I found a teacher who will see me without a mask which I’m excited about. I started intermittent fasting — so basically shrinking my eating window to between noon and 8 p.m. in order to improve my metabolic health. I try to sit outside in the sun to get my Vitamin D. Our own health is one of the few things we can still control!

I’ve coped by leaving the city and staying mostly at our isolated place north of the city where I don’t have to see anyone. Of course that’s not an option for most. I also socialize only with people who can be old normal; it’s too stressful for me to follow ridiculous protocols. My husband does all the shopping as I won’t wear a mask, though I’d do curb side pickup or delivery if he wasn’t doing it. I order things I need online if hubby can’t shop for me. I stay off MSM sites and don’t watch any TV (other than reality show trash!). In a nutshell, I have kept to myself in a protected bubble! It does get tiresome and boring, but after spending a week in the city virtually locked down because of 100% mask compliance everywhere, I’d rather be up here on 60 acres breathing fresh air and not be triggered by mask zombies everywhere. I watch/listen to Del Bigtree’s The Highwire, The Corbett Report stuff, and London Real (some really great interviews). I like Spiked podcasts and Triggernometry too. I’ve kept my digital subscription to the New York Times only for the puzzles! Gotta keep mentally sharp. My last words of “wisdom” are to treat yourself well and don’t judge or be hard on yourself with respect to anything you need to do to stay sane during this insanity. We’re all trying to cope as best we can, so let’s stay strong!

That’s right.
If you don’t want to get defiled, don’t touch pitch. Or more likely, nowadays, s..t.

Triggernometry is good! They get really interesting people on and let them talk, unlike a lot of other interviewers.

Yes they are great! I had my first introduction to our Toby through Triggernometry. That was an excellent interview.

They’re excellent agree. I would recommend Peter Whittle’s “So What You’re Saying is….” as well. He asks good questions and lets the guest talk, he never interrupts them.

Vernon Coleman (Old man in a chair) is excellent.

Get as much sleep as you can.

Beer/wine/gin according to taste.

Wales is a great coping strategy. Thank f@@k I moved back here 5 years ago. Podcasts – Carl Vernon satirizes the lunacy brilliantly. There’s a podcast I’ve been listening to for years called mysterious universe – aliens, bigfoot, weird science. It’s a good way of removing yourself from reality for a few hours a week. The thing is, the topics they talk about – poltergeists, machine elves and daemonic possession for example – make more sense than the mainstream news at the moment!

Carl Vernon is doing a tour soon!

I know. My place is already booked!

Following complaints made by Scottish prison officers all inmates of Scottish prisons will be now made to wear masks. I believe it has been passed in law but I am not certain. It has been announced today.

Masks at all times. The prison officers had complained it was unfair tgey had to wear them but not the prisoners, the officers said they were being put at risk by the prisoners.

Cannot make this stuff up. The inversion of common sense and scientific evidence. Clearly concerns about hidden idenity came into the picture, were looked into, and deemed unimportant.

Are you joking?

Where the hell have the prisoners been that they’d be putting the guards at risk? Prisoners are already under lockdown, and what happens if they refuse to wear the mask? Will they be put in jail???

maybe they are testing for when they bring “new improved lockdown” in for the rest of us.

Few weeks ago there was a small spate of robberies in electronics shops, consumer stores (at least one Currys, if I recall). It’s OK though they could identify the perpetrators… it was some guys wearing masks.

Is their ‘track n’trace any good?

Is there something in the water up there?

Our daughter had some special blood tests done,on getting the results from her surgeon he pointed out two things not related to her condition.He said she was dehydrated and had a respiratory or throat infection,his conclusion was that these were caused by having to wear a facemask 8 or 9 hours a day,5 or 6 days a week in her job at the hospital.

I wish I could say I was surprised by this. I hope she gets better soon. I’d say she should claim an exemption, but I’m guessing that won’t fly at a hospital.

Thankyou for your kind words Lisa.Unfortunately the hospital won’t allow staff to be exempt,in fact quite a few of the nursing staff there don’t allow patients to be either !

So they don’t give a s..t about acute distress?
That figures.

Can’t she speak to her colleagues and get them all to refuse to wear a mask? If everybody fought against it they couldn’t very well sack the whole hospital.

They have tried over the weeks to be allowed to go maskless in areas where there are no patients but management would not budge.The NHS trust would happily sack all the staff if they had the right excuse.Those in charge are an absolute bunch of uncaring arseholes,they have no compassion whatsoever for the patients and staff and the things they are getting away with under the cover of ‘covid regulations’ are an utter disgrace,they want locking up and the key needs throwing away.

At the very least, they could (and should) name those in management pushing this nonsense. Anonymously, on the internet. Might make the buggers try and defend their position.

I had not heard that facemasks can cause dehydration but would not be surprised. We who have a certain man’s problem keep a very careful eye on our hydration levels. Maybe another tick on the list of things I am mask exempt for…

I’ve been thinking this for a while, and some people have touched upon it on this site. Surely an employer is legally obliged to carry out a health and safety risk assessment on policies such as long-term mask wearing by employees? And surely such an assessment would indicate that there are potential hazards to the wearers’ health?

Needs an employee to make a fuss. As people have pointed out, the NHS is quite nasty about silencing people.

Yes, i’ve been advising worried people and parents where schools now call a “mask” part of the “new uniform” to ask to see a risk assessment for their individual child , that takes account of their medical needs, activity, temperature and room ventilation. It is not uniform it is PPE and as such a risk assessment is necessary

I think parents need to group together and employ a lawyer in this matter – school may well back down then…

Shame her surgeon was unable to prescribe ‘not wearing a mask’. Come back Sir Lancelot, all is forgiven.

Very sad to hear this. Makes me wonder what your daughter can do or even with her colleagues as I suspect that she’s not the only one who has developed health problems from having to wear a mask.

I’d suggest she gets legal representation and threatens to take action against her employer!

There are an astounding number of bed wetting, mask-weaselling comments under a lot of articles about COVID in the media.
This infuriates me more than the stupid fear mongering articles themselves.

There are lots if sceptical ones as well.
Add to thrm!

Many of those are 77th trolls.

Is this an example of “cancel culture” or does it go under the banner of censorship?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-53883258

The statement commencing “Freedom of expression and the arts are important values in our city …” is particularly egregious.

I may have missed if this topic has been discussed previously, so apologies if it has.

Here is a link to a video entitled Bombshell Evidence that COVID RNA Base Pairs are Identical to Chromosome 8 Human DNA
Could those with a deeper understanding of the subject matter confirm whether the claims stand up to scrutiny. Deep down I’m hoping not, but if they do we are in much deeper trouble than we could imagine.

The reference to the above material was included in this video by TheCrowHouse , well worth watching as it provides more context in what it means for the world population in layman terms.

Well – I’ll bow to correction – but I believe that this essentially confirms the wide range of non-specific RNA that can be picked up in a PCR test.

That is chilling stuff! Fits the narrative though.

Could somebody please explain what this means, in non-technical terms ?

The claim is it has been discovered that the genetic code of the material used in the PCR test to establish the presence of Covid19 is in fact the human DNA sequence for Chromosome 8 (wikipedia link) . So what they are pulling out your body and calling a disease is in fact your own DNA. A scam in short.

Exerpt from wikipedia: About 8% of Chromosome 8 genes are involved in brain development and function, and about 16% are involved in cancer.

What TheCrowHouse is warning about in his video is that because vaccines act in a certain way, often turning the immune system on itself, any vaccine developed for Covid19 could cause your immune system to attack your Chromosome 8, basically impairing mental function and your resistance to fighting cancer. So children/adults given the vaccine could suffer from Downs Syndrome, learning disfunction, etc. and an inability to fight cancer.

At least that’s my understanding of the gist of the claims he makes which is why I asked for the opinion of those who understand this stuff.

So how come *anyone* tests negative, if the tests basically just checks you have an 8th chromosome?

Car announced this morning that it wanted more fuel. Out of area so stopped at first Texaco in Peacehaven. Small place, empty, not much room in shop but the lady cashier was behind a screen that would have kept Bonnie & Clyde out. Not young, with those sort of glasses that Dame Edna used to observe Norm’s prostate through.

“Don’t you have a face cover?”

“No” Maintains rigid eye contact – pregnant pause.

“Oh. Twenty Six Fourty Seven, then”

“Jolly Good”

One small step for mankind.

From my observations, most people seem to have unofficially decided that petrol stations don’t count as shops. I would estimate only 10-20% seem to go to the bother of putting one on for the 30 seconds it takes to pay for a tank of petrol – in my area at least.

How often are you down this way, James ? KBF Sussex meeting in Lewes, 1st September. Will buy you a pint.

All the time. Lewes tomorrow as every Monday.

Will find details from Paul K

Another voice of blessed reason chimes in https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/23/second-lockdownmost-english-neighbourhoods-havent-had-covid/

One of the best sceptic articles for a long while. A refreshing blend of common sense and debunking of “the science”.

“‘Just in case’ lockdowns are simply not an acceptable response to dodgy data. And lockdowns cause deaths.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council has warned that forces in England and Wales will continue to increase patrols heading into the bank holiday weekend. Areas of concern, such as Leicester and Greater Manchester, have seen deployments larger than on New Year’s Eve, it said.

Gimme strength!

This is irresponsible. I apologise.

If you you go to google (or search engine of your choice) and you do a search for the medical faculty of imperial college London, Neil Ferguson is contactable by email.

(Medical faculty? Why? Who knows?)

Obviously, I’m not recommending that this should be an opportunity for people to tell him what they think of him. That would be unjustifiable.

Just to add – I definitely don’t have an email in draft as we speak. Nope.

I have not read the above comment from Mr. Matt. The one that mentions Neil Fergusson, that is. I will not be acting upon it. No sir.
Also, just three weeks to flatten the curve…

I should further add that the email I don’t have in draft definitely doesn’t contain the phrase “how do you sleep at night, you psychopath?”

No, your honour, I did not hear the defendant, Mr. Matt, say anything at all. In fact, I didn’t just hear you ask me that.

Baldrick – deny everything.

<gets coat> No!

As well as being wrong to email him abuse, it would be wrong to sign him up for newsletters, websites, marketing sites, political sites, dark web sites, etc.

Or indeed to log on (using a VPN) to various blogs and forums using his real name and giving his email address to the admins, then to post “hate” that would guarantee him a visit from PC (with the emphasis on PC) Plod.

No no, that would not do at all.

I’d been thinking bestiality sites, after all he did fuck all the UK’s lifestock. But hate speech is better, more likely to be acted upon.

Oh no, what am I saying ? Worse, I meant worse. All options are much too terrible to contemplate.

“One month after California Gov. Gavin Newsom unilaterally ordered state residents to wear masks in most public settings, the average daily number of coronavirus cases in the state has increased by over 160%.”

Who could have predicted??? Now that the evidence is in, we’d assume Newsom would concede defeat and rescind the mask mandate.

“Though Newsom’s mask mandate appears to have had little effect on the trajectory of the virus in California, the governor nevertheless this week imposed additional mask requirements on the state, ordering that most students who return to school in the fall will be subject to “strong mask requirements,” namely that “all staff and students in 3rd grade and above will be required to wear a mask or face covering” during the school day.”

So let’s double-down on what doesn’t work in the name of “safety.” We’re in for a long ride I’m afraid…

Know people in CA, a few years ago they were pretty dedicated to staying there long term. Now? they’re much more uncertain… in pretty short order the Governor has increased homelessness levels up 75% in a few years, increased the murder rate in LA county by over 50% and managed to bring typhus, and almost certainly the bubonic plague too, back to the state. But every so often he will shriek “F* Trump!” so the virtue signalling luvvies lap it up. for now, anyway!

I remember seeing this idiot on Bill Maher’s Real Time several years ago when he was Lieutenant Governor of California.

Oh how I love Carl Heneghan. I would marry him if I could…