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Samizdata quote of the day

[It] is possible that lockdowns will go down as one of the greatest peacetime policy failures in Canada’s history

Douglas Ward Allen

Not just Canada, old chap.

16 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Flubber

    Policy failure?

    Very much depends on your perspective and your politics old chap.

  • Paul Marks

    All the nations that did not lockdown have a lower (LOWER – not higher) Covid death rate than we do.

    Not just Sweden (and they neglected medical care for the elderly – sometimes not even providing oxygen at home), but every nation that did not lockdown – even desperately poor countries such as Nicaragua and Belarus.

    The obsession with lockdowns also diverted attention away from Early Treatment – indeed Early Treatment was systematically SMEARED.

    Last year I delayed and delayed talking about Early Treatment – assuming that the medical authorities were get on with it.

    I am ashamed of myself – deeply ashamed.

  • Paul Marks

    As for the effects of the lockdowns.

    For a long time I have believed that the level of government spending and Credit Bubble (banking) finance would lead to economic disaster – but we will never know whether or not that was a correct assessment.

    The massive increase in government spending and Credit Bubble (banking) antics over the last year, in most of the world, has made economic disaster certain – perhaps disaster could have been avoided without it.

    The economic collapse will destroy many people.

    Unlike the United Kingdom, the United States had enough farm land and natural resources to survive very tough times – but then came the Election Fraud of November 2020.

    Everything that the regime of President Harris does is designed to do as much harm to the United States as possible.

  • Lee Moore

    I feel confident that Canada will be able to amass a glittering array of policy failures rivalling the lockdown.

    Never underestimate the government’s ability to pick ludicrous objectives and then choose astonishly stupid ways of pursuing them, while knocking over a pile of things that are working fine along the way.

  • Chester Draws

    I think the wave of politicians trying desperately to show “leadership” and be the first to ban fossil fuel use will prove to be greatest peacetime failure of policy.

    Not because it will necessarily cost more (because we will back out before we crash) but because it is so witlessly impossible to achieve.

  • bobby b

    So, Fauci also cured the flu! Is there nothing that man cannot accomplish?

  • Stonyground

    “Never underestimate the government’s ability to pick ludicrous objectives and then choose astonishly stupid ways of pursuing them, while knocking over a pile of things that are working fine along the way.”

    This deserves to be a quote of the day.

  • Stonyground

    I was going to say this but you beat me to it. I’m sure that history will look back on the utter folly of the climate change scare in the same way that we look at medieval superstitions.

  • John Lewis

    The absence of the “flu” is about as believable as the late vote counting on the morning of November 4.

  • APL

    Paul Marks: “The obsession with lockdowns also diverted attention away from Early Treatment – indeed Early Treatment was systematically SMEARED.”

    We were terrorized, there is no other way to describe the onslaught of; ‘its the end of the world’, ‘people are dying every day‘, ‘there’s not enough ventilators’, ‘there’s no cure’, 27/7 Main stream media ( especially the BBC, which I watched in amazed awe, in January, February and March, last year ), it really is no wonder, that the British government doesn’t want to privatize the BBC, it’s far too useful ( potentially dangerous ) to be privatized. Personally, I’d shut it down entirely, banish its employees ( the Scottish island of Gruniard would be my choice ), bulldoze all BBC buildings and salt the ground they once stood on.

    I’d just like to say one thing about, ‘we had to discharge COVID-19 patients into the care homes, because there was no where else they could go’, thus infecting the completely unprotected care home residents who bore the brunt of the COVID-19 deaths.

    One thing – Nightingale hospitals – it’s simply a lie, there was no where else in the UK to put COVID-19 hospital patients but care homes.

  • Lee Moore

    I read a good article a while back on the disappearance of the flu. Unfortunately I didn’t bookmark it. However the general gist was that it was very common for a new strain of the flu to drive an old strain into almost nothingness. Even if last year the old strain seemed to be doing really well.

    The precise mechanism was unclear but although old strains survive (in small numbers) the new strain seems to outcompete them. The folk who get the new strain don’t also get the old strain. The new strain remains the big dog until the old strains learn to make a comeback or a new new strain evolves.

    The article suggested that since COVID and flu were competing for space in the same throats and lungs, the same principle applied.

    If true, this would

    (a) explain low flu numbers and
    (b) put COVID deaths in perspective – ie it’s saved us from all the flu deaths we would have had

    Of course another partial explanation is that lots of cases of flu have been misdiagnoed as COVID. Anyway, the point is that this misdiagnosis explanation isn’t a slam dunk just from the virtual disappearance of flu. It could just be that last year we were all listening to the Beatles, but this year we’re listening to the Stones.

  • Stonyground

    Having had some time to think about this, two questions have come to mind. Why the hell is this the case? How the hell can we fix it?

    First question. Running the country is a job that people who have useful skills don’t want to do. They can make a better, and more satisfying living elsewhere. Therefore people without useful skills are attracted to politics. This leads to an endless stream of fukups because no one has a clue. Lack of accountability is also an issue because the incompetents are all in it together so they cover each other’s backs.

    How can we fix it? The people who have the power to change this are the same people who would benefit from the status quo. So, if the more thoughtful among us suggest that, in order to enter politics you must have demonstrated a useful skill in some other field, those in power will say sod off.

    The only hope, it would seem, would be the rise of the useful people party, they would be unlikely to gain power but would put the willies up the existing parties enough to make them change course.

  • Paul Marks

    APL – I wish I could dispute what you say in your comment, but I am unable to find any flaws in your reasoning.

    This means that our situation is terrible – that policy is being controlled, internationally, by people who most certainly do not like us very much (to put the matter mildly).

    And look how they are turning on Mr Johnson (manufacturing outrage over nothing-stories – wallpaper and so on) – he did what they wanted him to do, but they do not think he is (deep down) a “True Believer” in totalitarianism so they are going to destroy him.

    An interesting lesson – one can do EVERYTHING the international establishment want, on Covid, on “Climate Change”, on everything. And they turn on you anyway.

    Under some tyrannies obeying is enough – but the “Woke” tyranny wants more than submission, they want passionate faith.

    Someone can do everything they demand, but if they suspect that (deep down) that person does not feel the burning desire for totalitarianism, then……….

  • Paul Marks

    I think it is the religious impulse – secularised.

    If one really listens to Klaus Schwab and our other international rulers – they speak in very religious terms, just without God.

    The Collective is their God.

    One can carry out all their Collectivist policies, but still provoke their utter rage and hatred – if they suspect that one does not truly BELIEVE.

    And they suspect that Prime Minister Johnson does not truly BELIEVE.

  • APL

    Paul Marks: “he did what they wanted him to do, but they do not think he is (deep down) a “True Believer” in totalitarianism so they are going to destroy him.”

    Couldn’t have happened to a better guy, the spineless disingenuous dog turd.

    Richard North over at EU Referendum blog, has lots of bad things to say about Johnson, on top of the bad things he had to say about Farage, I thought it ‘sour grapes’, but as usual, North has turned out to be correct. I should go over there and apologise.