In response to the lockdown Sir Desmond Swayne said his initial reaction was “despair”, adding: “These are difficult decisions but that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s the wrong decision. More people will die in the long run.”
An MP since 1997, and former PPS to David Cameron, Swayne says he’s definitely voting against the lockdown and points to the fact that when he asked Matt Hancock two weeks ago what evidence he had of excess deaths above the long term average in recent weeks, the Health Secretary said there wasn’t any. Swayne says: “Every year thousands of people are carried off as a result of the flu but we don’t run around like headless chickens.”
Another MP who says he’s voting against the new lockdown is the MP for Bolton West Chris Green. Green resigned as a Ministerial Aide in early October over the Coronavirus restrictions, saying at the time that the “attempted cure is worse than the disease”. Since then he hasn’t changed his mind and says a lockdown now “only pushes the problem into the New Year when another similar lockdown will be imposed.”
The damage done to the economy by the lockdowns will be given as a reason as to why we can’t have the brexit we want.
I am sure you are correct although whether this is the result of Machiavellian duplicity or headless chicken incompetence is unclear.
As people round here know I have, for years, been beating the “the economy is going to collapse” drum – due to the Credit Bubble monetary and banking system, and vast levels of government spending.
But I will never know if the economy would have collapsed anyway – as the government (indeed many Western governments) decided to SMASH the economy, and then jump up and down on the bits.
How else could the “Great Reset” be accepted by the people of the West.
The economy, society, HAD TO BE SMASHED – people such as Klaus Schwab have been working for 50 years (half a century) to introduce the totalitarianism they crave.
Why should they wait any longer – they want tyranny NOW!
Agenda 21 Agenda 2030, Sustainable Development, Stakeholder Capitalism (Fascism – Big Business and Big Government coming together to crush free competition, especially from small business, and exterminate the freedom of choice of ordinary people0) Build Back Better!
If it had not been Covid 19 (which they “wargamed” before it officially existed) it would have been “the environment”.
Indeed they had already laid the ground work for “the environment” as an excuse for tyranny.
After all the average Member of Parliament gets their knowledge from television programmes.
“We must do X,Y,Z – the science is settled!” is the intellectual level of our masters.
John – they are even using the same slogans (“Build Back Better!”) in many different countries.
And the same (utterly terrible) policies, in many different policies.
Mr Alexander “Boris” Johnson may be stupid (I do not know – I have not met him), but this is nothing to do with “headless chicken incompetence” – these decisions were taken at the international (not national) level.
Some leaders have not followed the script – which is why, for example, President Trump is to be removed (by order of the international establishment elite).
I fear Paul is quite correct, Boris is following orders, as he did to everyone’s bafflement when he refused to close the airports.
“…as he did to everyone’s bafflement when he refused to close the airports.”
Not everyone’s bafflement.
He didn’t close the airports because by the time it became an issue the number of infections that could possibly arrive through the airports was only a tiny fraction of the number of infections already taking place among the populace, and so would make next to no difference, and because lots of British voters were stranded abroad and it would have been politically bad not to do anything to help them.
If he’d closed the airports in January, that might have helped. But once it was in the UK and spreading exponentially, closing airports would be shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. It is true that like any other gathering, putting a crowd of people in a confined space with recirculated air for several hours is a spreading opportunity, but air travellers at any one time are only a small fraction of the population at large, and the benefits of getting UK citizens home (and maintaining international trade) was seen to outweigh the minor increase in R. So long as there is enough compliance to get R below 1, the government don’t care all that much about making a minority of exceptions.
I thought at the time it was pretty obvious why he did it. And I seem to recall the government explained their reasoning at the time. But the Lefty Remainer mainstream media were determined to attack Boris by any means available, and relied on the British public being stupid enough not to see what they were doing.
It’s like the press saying everyone is “baffled” by Trump’s policies. ‘They make no sense! He’s mad!’ Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?
My work involved my driving towards the midlands today. In various places I saw evidence of ongoing HS2 work. In the office a letter was received regarding a property we own in Crewe saying at this stage there was no intention to compulsorily purchase it (HS2 again) which begs the question – so why write about it?
Never mind Covid, this other madness continues unabated.
I am told not to give up hope – after all, for example, “South Dakota will still be a non locked down, limited government State, under a “President Biden” – just as it was under President Trump”.
This very seriously underestimates the power of the Federal Government over the States (at least if the Federal Government is under fanatical Collectivists – people like Senator Harris or Speaker Pelosi) – and the scale of the Democrats plans to BAIL OUT all the wild spending lock-down States. And bail out all the NON Covid debts of these wild spending States – going back many decades.
As for the United Kingdom – given the state (the REAL state) of the economy, perhaps we had better get used to talking of our nation in the past tense.
As for Covid 19.
Either one could try and keep it out – as Taiwan (7 deaths – 7) and other nations did – which most certainly would mean closing the airports and so on (and at-the-start).
Or one could go for herd immunity – as Sweden and some American States have done.
Leaving the borders open, but shutting down internally is neither of these policies – and, yes, was either insanity or FOLLOWING ORDERS.
You ability to eloquently argue nonsense never ceases to amaze, NiV, although I suppose that is to be expected from someone whose screen name means “empty rhetoric”. It’s a pity you can’t find a constructive outlet for your talents.
I’ve seen ‘BREXIT’ costed at 3% of the economy, conventionally a recession. We lost 20% in the second quarter due to COVID lockdown hysteria. Probably another 10% third quarter. And now another lockdown and the utter destruction of the ‘service economy’ ( Remember the service economy? That was going to replace Iron and Steel, Coal mining jobs ) well, now that’s down the shitter too.
So, in terms of impact on the economy, 3% GDP is negligible compared to what the maniacs have subjected us to.
The contracts for the PR firms to ‘sell the lockdown’ to the public were agreed in February. The ‘corona virus’ legislation wasn’t just concocted overnight in March, although our useless Parliament did approved it unscrutinized in a matter of hours.
PS. I think and hope Trump is going to win handsomely. And should it come to pass that he does, I’m going to spend a good part of next week laughing at videos of leftist mental breakdowns.
Ah, who can forget the quintessential schadenfreude video of the meltdown of the Young Turks on Election Day 2016?
Every time I watched it, it occurred to me that I was being juvenile and vengeful, which felt so good I’d watch it again.
Good times.
“You ability to eloquently argue nonsense never ceases to amaze, NiV,”
The consequences of exponential growth can be a bit unintuitive, I’ll grant you, but I’d hardly call mathematics ‘nonsense’. It’s not really all that complicated.
“although I suppose that is to be expected from someone whose screen name means “empty rhetoric”.”
Is that really what you think it means?! Or was that a joke? It gave me a smile, anyway.
“It’s a pity you can’t find a constructive outlet for your talents.”
What makes you think I haven’t? 🙂
The consequences of exponential growth…
Two for the of price one. Firstly, when in doubt, change the subject, secondly, make a statement to draw your opponent into a lengthy refutation. Of course, I was doing much the same with “empty rhetoric”, which you effortlessly parried, so points there.
As to your final point, I’ve given that some thought to that. You’re too good to be in politics, on the civilian side, anyway, although I expect the bureaucracy has some talent squirreled away somewhere, but I tend to see you as one of those unpopular defense lawyers that can get anyone off of anything. Am I getting warm?
APL: “And should it come to pass that he does, I’m going to spend a good part of next week laughing at videos of lefAtist mental breakdowns.”
bobby b: “who can forget the quintessential schadenfreude video of the meltdown of the Young Turks on Election Day 2016?”
Oh well! I’ll just have to console myself with a stiff whisky, a slow smoke, while I consider what might have been.
It’ll be interesting if we never hear any thing more of COVID after January.