Time to unlock

I understand the caution of advisers specialising in controlling CV 19. For them there may indeed be a mutant virus around the corner that beats the vaccine, or a new variant that spreads faster. The task of government is to weigh that advice in the balance with the advice coming from people wanting to re open their businesses, get back to work, have a less restricted social and family life who think the current restrictions have gone on long enough.

Earlier in the pandemic debates I suggested  a range of measures to help keep people as safe as possible whilst locking down less of the economy. Some were adopted. The basis of the whole package was the principle of helping all elderly and medically vulnerable people to stay away from others who might be a centre of infection whilst allowing others unlikely to get a serious version of the disease more freedom if they wished. It was important to make it as easy as possible for those isolating to get deliveries of the things they needed from phone or on line orders, and for them  to keep in touch by phone or zoom or social media.  The measures adopted anyway had to allow a large minority freedom to work to keep the rest of us supplied with food and water, power and broadband. It also had to allow all of us the choice to go to food shops and to take some exercise. As the official figures for cases and deaths built up around the world there was no simple relationship between length and severity of lockdown and death rates. Countries like Belgium and Hungary with lockdown policies suffered worse than others not taking so many measures.

The UK government did well in early identification of vaccines to back, offering cash and orders to companies that seemed likely to develop and test a successful vaccine. It also took up the idea of testing existing drugs for their efficacy in treating the disease to cut death rates for those infected. I also urged more work on air flows and air extraction to make public venues safer, and better infection control in  health establishments.

Yesterday the government announced a continuation of measures for another four weeks. This will harm a range of businesses still locked down, and continue to impede other businesses operating well below  normal capacity thanks to social distancing rules. I urge them to review this decision as soon as new data becomes available. It appears that the vaccines are very effective, and that practically everyone vulnerable to bad version of the disease has now had a vaccine. I favour letting people make more of their own decisions about how much risk they are willing to run in their lives. If someone still has a fear of this virus then of course the employer, the family and the community should be sympathetic and help them to do as much as possible without social contact. For others who are at very little risk of a bad version of the disease, let them make more of their own choices.

242 Comments

  1. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2021

    I believe they have withdrawn “furlough”?
    Surely this is the moment Cagney spoke of right at the beginning of this nightmare?
    Stress testing 
and those businesses which do not survive will be punished?
    What better method of clearing the way for a reset?
    Cruel, cold, calculating but effective.

    1. Everhopeful
      June 15, 2021

      Oh no!
      Rotten, rotten iPad.
      CARNEY!

      1. Ian
        June 15, 2021

        Public Enemy, one of Cagney’s most famous films, was the most influential gangster films of the period. Perhaps your iPad was right all along.

        1. Everhopeful
          June 15, 2021

          Hehe!
          Yup! Freudian slip!

    2. ha ha ha
      June 15, 2021

      Cagney made my computer brain stall for a minute

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        +1

    3. hefner
      June 15, 2021

      gov.uk ‘Claim for wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        +1

    4. a-tracy
      June 15, 2021

      Furlough is being phased out from July 1 and end on Sep 30. Employers have to contribute to workers’ salaries from July. The furlough was originally due to finish at the end of June 2020, before it was extended x5.
      From July the government contribution drops to 70% so the employer makes up 10%. In August and September the government will pay 60% of the furlough so the employers make up 20% from no turnover in the still closed operations, or companies that can only open half their business. Plus the business has to pay the Employer’s NI and Pension.

      Employers can still furlough employees for any amount of time and any work pattern, known as flexible furlough, or they can fully furlough their workers – although it is imperative employers and employees must have a new formal agreement and keep a written record of their flexible furlough arrangement. This last requirement is imperitive.

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        Wow!
        You know your stuff.
        Thanks!

    5. Ed M
      June 15, 2021

      Problem is also its not really government who decides to unlock but the people. People won’t venture out of their homes if they feel its not safe to. Whether they are right to think this or not, that’s the reality and government has to deal with this. People now less scared catching Covid in general but many people still scared of catching Long Covid. Boris has had right idea by getting as many people as vaccinated as possible.

      The government’s

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        +1

  2. dixie
    June 15, 2021

    Haven’t we saved the NHS yet?

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2021

      The national slogan was ‘Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives’
      The term ‘mission drift’ springs to mind

      1. dixie
        June 15, 2021

        I stand corrected and mission drift is certainly happening.
        Perhaps John could press the government to reveal their detailed exit criteria …

      2. John Hatfield
        June 15, 2021

        Mission creep?

      3. steve
        June 15, 2021

        glen cullen

        I prefer more fitting terms for example; ‘sneaky hidden agenda’

  3. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2021

    Ummm
not a lot of caution going on in Cornwall!
    Except for the fully masked waiters who stood in the background like old time servants.

    1. Dave Andrews
      June 15, 2021

      Lockdown is for the proletariat, naturally.

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        +1

      2. Lifelogic
        June 15, 2021

        Indeed while they lecture us all about CO2, watch the red arrows, enjoy their BBQ, fly over on private jets and Biden even flew over several presidential cars it seems.

        1. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2021

          Charles Moore sound as usual today:- This is an error, we knew the roadmap’s risks.

          It is indeed a major error by Boris, Net Zero is an even larger one.

          1. steve
            June 15, 2021

            LL

            “It is indeed a major error by Boris, Net Zero is an even larger one.”

            They are not errors……it’s deliberate.

      3. Bryan Harris
        June 15, 2021

        Exactly – One rule for them, another for us.

        How dare they ignore their own travel rules!

      4. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        we’re the proletariat alright…under the jackboot

        1. NickC
          June 15, 2021

          Well, some of us are plebs, Glen!!

    2. J Bush
      June 15, 2021

      Aye, there are photos all over the internet evidencing the double standards displayed.

      Official photos of the TPTB masked and distanced. However, once away from that, they are congregated together chatting, no distancing, no masks, arms around each other etc. Jetting in, jetting back, no quarantining for them. But what I find interesting are the memes and comments accompanying the evidence of this duplicitous behaviour. I am reminded of the lampoons of yesteryear. The number of sceptical and angered people is growing.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      June 15, 2021

      Yes. That image wasn’t lost on me either.

      Ghastly.

      And poor waiters and waitresses in this heat.

      Inequalities are starting to show and have never looked so stark.

      1. Sharon
        June 15, 2021

        No L A

        But they are quite open about the difference between ‘them and us’, the photo shoots are a bit half hearted attempts to show willing, but it must be known that the non masked and non-social distancing photos are readily available. They don’t care.

        Almost a case of ‘get used to it plebs.’

      2. NickC
        June 15, 2021

        Four masks good; two masks bad; zero masks – you’re one of the elite.

  4. Mark B
    June 15, 2021

    Good morning.

    Whilst the Tory Party and Alexander Johnson MP continue to do well in the polls, this charade will continue. As soon as there is a dip, watch as the ‘expert’ advise gets either ignored or downplayed.

    Follow the Science ? Pah !

    1. Lifelogic
      June 15, 2021

      Well they certainly did not follow the science in the vaccination order negligently failing to adjust for the far higher male risk to covid which jas resulted in so many extra needless deaths and has cost ÂŁmillions. Certainly they are not following science with their insane net zero Carbon lunacy.

      Boris can only be forced to open up when Labour (and Rodney Starmer) start to actually oppose this net harm lockdown lunacy. All cause deaths since end of July last year (nearly 12 months & after the nasty 2020 Covid bulge) adjusted for population and age have been entirely within the normal 5 year average range. This despite the NHS having been largely shut.

      1. Ed M
        June 15, 2021

        @Lifelogic,
        Its not just about deaths but about Long Covid which can affect lots of different people.

        1. zorro
          June 15, 2021

          Can you please define medically ‘Long Covid’. It appears to be slightly longer lasting symptoms that you could potentially get from any virus. How many people exactly have been diagnosed with this syndrome
?

          And please don’t forget the latest symptoms for ‘COVID 19’ – this non HCID – a headache and a runny nose at this time of year. Who would have guessed? They are laughing at you. They will ramping up the CT thresholds on the PCR tests for runny noses. Pathetic
          zorro

          1. Ed M
            June 15, 2021

            It doesn’t really matter what you or I think. What matters is what millions of people think. And they won’t come fully out of their homes unless government deals with Long Covid. Either they say Long Covid doesn’t exist. Or that the opposite. Whatever. The government has to respond to this.

          2. Ed M
            June 15, 2021

            Digging head under sand won’t get rid of this pandemic. Boris tried this at beginning – disaster .. But once he accepted that he has to deal with the FEAR of ordinary people from this – whether from getting Covid at beginning to getting Long Covid now, he acted quickly and wisely, in my view, with getting everyone jabbed.

            FEAR is one of the big enemies here. You might think to be fearful of Covid / Long Covid is stupid. Maybe you’re 100% right. But it doesn’t really matter. What matters is getting rid of this fear so that people return to work, even when Boris lifts all the restrictions.

            I know what I say is annoying. But it’s the truth. Don’t bash me for that! Or the pandemic will just drag out longer than it has to.

        2. NickC
          June 15, 2021

          Any virus can give rise to long term effects, Ed.

          1. Ed M
            June 16, 2021

            @Nick,
            Again, it’s not about what you or I think but what millions of ordinary people think. Covid is a bit like marketing – and perception. If people are too scared to go out, then they won’t.
            Good news though is that Boris has been top-notch in getting people jabbed. That’s what’s really going to get us properly out of lockdown / restrictions, as it has a really positive impact on people’s negative perception of Long Covid.

        3. glen cullen
          June 15, 2021

          Is it only the public sector getting long covid ?

      2. a-tracy
        June 15, 2021

        Lifelogic, have they said if the numbers in hospital with covid in intensive care with two jabs are male or not? Which CV injections did they have? Have they told us if there are comorbidities that the public need to be more aware of if they have these comorbidities and mix with young children or young adults who are being accused of being the new super spreaders? Because I haven’t seen any detail about the current problem.

      3. SM
        June 15, 2021

        LL: “So many extra needless deaths” – your endless complaint, but you offer no outcome figures to back your assertion. Well, it isn’t ‘fair’ that only men get prostate cancer, and it isn’t ‘fair’ that far more males contract a rare lung disease, sarcoidosis, than women.

        On the other hand, it isn’t ‘fair’ that only women get pregnant and have all the concomitant risks and problems, and it isn’t ‘fair’ that only women get ovarian cancer, and it isn’t ‘fair’ that far more females suffer from Turners’ Syndrome, and it isn’t ‘fair’ that far fewer women are correctly diagnosed with cardiac problems because it’s usually perceived as a predominantly male issue.

        [apologies Sir John, I know it’s off-topic, but I’m really fed up with LL’s rant!]

        1. Know-Dice
          June 15, 2021

          SM, I know that Sir John doesn’t like links as it takes him extra time to moderate, but this one could answer your question and show that as far as COVID and gender vs. age vs. inoculations LL is probably right…

          https://globalhealth5050.org/the-sex-gender-and-covid-19-project/the-data-tracker/?explore=country&country=England#search

        2. Derek
          June 15, 2021

          Perhaps you should consult The Lancet for information? Re cancer…..
          https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30388-0/fulltext

        3. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2021

          Yes but this was 1000+ entirely avoidable and easily avoidable deaths. Just by adjusting the vaccine order to the real gender risk by age. It would have cast nothing indeed saved ÂŁmillions and saved thousand of NHS admissions too.

          Life is not fare I agree, but we should and do adjust treatments for gender risk, we do not give men routine mammograms for example.

          Especially not fair to the circa 1000 new widows created by this gross negligence.

        4. NickC
          June 15, 2021

          SM, Lifelogic does not comment on the “fairness”, only on the well established biological fact that women (in general) have a better immune system than men (in general).

      4. MWB
        June 15, 2021

        Discrimination only works one way. Didn’t you know that ?

        1. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2021

          In this case it hit about 1000 needlessly created widows.

    2. jerry
      June 15, 2021

      @Mark B; You assume any change in the polls will be in the direction of the ever more shrill right-wing, more likely any swing in the polls will be towards Labour, if so watch that ‘expert’ advice being even more influential not less.

      1. NickC
        June 15, 2021

        “Shrill right-wing”, Jerry? Like all those Universities run by the “right wing”? The BBC under the thrall of the “right wing”? People losing their jobs here because of “hard right” persecution? Memorials defaced by the “far right”? Being required to say “person who gives birth” in place of “mother” is “right wing”? The “hard right” prosecutes people for quoting the bible? You need to get a grip – the spirit of the age is the woke de-platforming left (and, no, TINA was not de-platforming) who have an iron grip on our society. Even a defector from North Korea recognises it (Yeonmi Park).

        1. Peter2
          June 15, 2021

          Well said Nick.

        2. Jim Whitehead
          June 15, 2021

          NickC, Excellent comment

        3. jerry
          June 16, 2021

          @NickC; Our host was talking about CV19, Mark B was talking about CV19, I was talking about CV19, you [1] go on on a (t)roll talking about BAME/BLM issues etc…

          [1] assisted by his alter ego Peter2, both share similar posting styles, ignore what is being debated, ignore context, say anything to attack those who do not share their right wing politics

          1. Peter2
            June 16, 2021

            Oh Jerry do calm down.

            You posted with claims of “ever more shrill right wingman a claim any poll movement with be in favour of Labour.
            Despite over 90 polls showing the Conservatives with a 10 point advantage over Labour and Starmer getting less votes than don’t know when asked who they prefer as Labour leader.

            Now your claims are challenged you get all crosd and try to wriggle it away by shouting troll.
            I am called that by you just for posting that I agree with someone else.

            Just admit it, Nick set out a good rebuttal to your claim.

          2. Peter2
            June 16, 2021

            Keep calm Jerry
            You said ” ever more shrill right wing” and you claimed that future polls will show “a likely swing to Labour”
            That is what you said.
            It is there above in black and white.

    3. steve
      June 15, 2021

      Mark B

      I would’nt trust the polls, for all you know Johnson could be controlling them too, a parallel arm of his propaganda institure….the woke BBC.

      Trust nothing from an official platform these days, go with your gut instinct.

  5. DaveM
    June 15, 2021

    It’s not so much a ‘caution’ as an obsession, in my opinion.

    1. Ian Wragg
      June 15, 2021

      Many on here predicted this would happen.
      Boris has handed control to the communist scientists and is hiding behind the sand dunes.
      In 4 weeks time we will find ourselves in exactly the same position with yet another trumped up excuse.
      Whitty showed graphs in percentage terms not a single actual figure.
      Yesterday 8 died within 28 days.
      These people are after zero covid even if it bankrupts the private sector.
      Build back better my arse.

      1. oldtimer
        June 15, 2021

        I too noted the use of misleading percentages when actual numbers of hospitalisations should have been displayed. What we get is more and more data manipulation instead of a clear statement of facts when they are inconvenient to the case for extending the lockdown.

      2. Sir Joe Soap
        June 15, 2021

        5 underlying deaths per day will happen anyway from a random 7’000 people.

        1 in 40’000 people die per day in the UK regardless of Covid, so in 28 days 1 in 1’400 people die from all causes non-Covid.

        Therefore of 7’000 people with positive tests per day, 1 in 1’400, or 5 of those will die within 28 days from any and everything non-Covid..

      3. Lifelogic
        June 15, 2021

        8 died within 28 days only 3 yesterday and not all these “of Covid” just with a positive test but usually of other conditions. People in hospital are nearly all tested regularly.

        It seems to be about 20% more dangerous to live alone and 8 million people do in the UK, so up to about 80 deaths a day might be saved just by deterring this in some way!

        1. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2021

          About 800 a day (UK) die from Heart disease and Cancer. Many of these (perhaps well over 20% of them) are preventable (or rather can be postponed) were the NHS rather more competent and less rationed and delayed. Clearly the lockdown is doing far, far more harm than good. The NHS structure and management is the real outrage.

          1. zorro
            June 15, 2021

            They are clearly not as worthy as our ‘died of any cause within 28 days of a positive PCR test’ fellow citizens who are all greatly mourned. The moral is if you want Matt Hancock to mourn your death make sure you get a positive PCR test and walk in front of a bus
.

            zorro

          2. NickC
            June 15, 2021

            Well said, Lifelogic.

      4. Lester
        June 15, 2021

        Ian Wragg

        It has nothing to do with the virus, a disease with a 99.9% survival rate, the experimental gene therapy obviously isn’t working
 because it cannot, it’s a messenger RNA device with an appalling record of deaths which you won’t hear about on the MSM
        in the meantime the economy is destroyed, when furlough ends the true extent will be revealed

        It is a War Crime to administer a medication without Informed Consent, it was made thus at the Nuremberg trials in 1946 to prevent the likes of Joseph Mengele experimenting on human subjects

        The sight of Johnson waffling on about a more feminine and gender neutral world in Cornwall must have caused more than a few stomachs to heave, I can’t see his hero Sir Winston Churchill smiling down approvingly!

        1. zorro
          June 15, 2021

          We’ll get him a dress for when he appears before a judge
..

          zorro

      5. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        ‘’Whitty showed graphs in percentage terms not a single actual figure’’

        That’s how to manipulate the message

        1. Lifelogic
          June 16, 2021

          +1, like the time he said ‘if the figures keep doubling (this is not a prediction)” – just a blatant attempt to scare the public.

      6. Peter
        June 15, 2021

        Ian Wragg,
        Agreed. They try to silence different views and repeat slogans .

      7. zorro
        June 15, 2021

        Indeed we have – there was no slide on deaths as that is not his agenda. Just insane upper projection figures of 250,000 ‘cases’ a day. All utter nonsense, but fully supported by Our Dear Leader (ODL) Kim Jong Son!

        zorro

      8. Micky Taking
        June 15, 2021

        The scientists want more than their 15 minutes of fame – already exceeding 15 months of celebrity.
        Johnson needs to be advised by the man on the Clapham Omnibus. They know it is control, not science.

      9. steve
        June 15, 2021

        Ian Wragg

        “Build back better my arse.”

        Why ? are you in need of a new one Ian ?

  6. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2021

    If the government had done absolutely nothing nobody would even remember last season’s flu.
    They are ramping, ramping and exaggerating for the agenda.
    This is WW3
.manufactured to get a reset.

    1. Bryan Harris
      June 15, 2021

      + Agreed Everhopeful

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        +1

    2. Chez
      June 15, 2021

      + 1 Yes, I agree

    3. glen cullen
      June 15, 2021

      +1 agree

  7. Maylor
    June 15, 2021

    If there is doubt that the vaccines may not be effective against the variants/mutations, shouldn’t we be actively and urgently investigating treatments, such as Ivermectin ?

    What happened to the UK study into alternative medicines to treat covid ? There must now be a lot of data from India where it is reported that several States are using Ivermectin with promising results.

    1. Adrian
      June 15, 2021

      Absolutely, Ivermectin and HCQ were saving peoples lives last year and Budesonide more recently which make the Vaccines an unnecessary evil albeit a very profitable one.

      1. None of the Above
        June 15, 2021

        The Astra Zenica vaccine is provided at cost.

  8. Everhopeful
    June 15, 2021

    If you set up a specialised team/whatever it calls itself to find viruses of course it will find them!!
    Then decide what will happen based on a computer model?
    They should meet my iPad if they believe in AI.
    That’d shake their faith I’m sure!

    1. Sea_Warrior
      June 15, 2021

      And if you pay researchers to find evidence of man being the cause of climate change, they will find it – until you stop paying them.

      1. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        Exactly

      2. Lifelogic
        June 15, 2021

        +1. We see in the USA with caesarean births are about 33% of all births (UK 17%). Doctors become quite good at justifying caesarean births when that course of action is rather more profitable, even when it is clearly more dangerous in many of these cases. Follow the money same with the lockdown and the net zero lunacy.

        1. Lifelogic
          June 15, 2021

          And the CV over testing of healthy people.

      3. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        Very true!

    2. Andrew Fish
      June 15, 2021

      It’s called the Cobra Effect. India had a problem with cobras turning up in cities and attacking people so they announced a bounty on each dead cobra given to the public services. The number of cobras handed in and the bounties paid mounted up, but the problem persisted. An investigation eventually discovered the cause – canny peasants were breeding cobras just to get the bounty. Basically, if you give someone a financial incentive based on the existence of a problem, those incentivised will make sure the problem keeps going.

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        Very good point.

      2. NickC
        June 15, 2021

        Good one, Andrew.

    3. hefner
      June 15, 2021

      EH, I don’t think it has much to do with AI, just plain basic one.
      Ever thought it could be related to you not having set up your iPad properly at the beginning and/or checking that how ever you set it up (or if kept the default settings) is still what you want after the last automatic Software Update?

      1. Everhopeful
        June 15, 2021

        Ah..I have to admit to iPad abuse.
        Everyone feels very sorry for it.
        Not overly techy me.

  9. Martin Briggs
    June 15, 2021

    The Johnson Elite for whatever reasons have now passed the voter tipping point and turned a great policy and operational success into what will become a long standing voter memory of incompetence, indecisiveness and detachment from reality.
    The data and forecasts simply do not justify the lockdown extension.
    The extension is not so much goal post moving, from protecting the NHS to protecting citizens from themselves, but making the goal post so small no goals will ever be scored.
    The summer sun and heat help eliminate the virus and restore community and society confidence and wellbeing. Wait, wait wait for the grey skies and cloudy days was never an objective when marshalling forces for battle.

    1. NickC
      June 15, 2021

      Martin Briggs, Exactly so. Zero covid is an unattainable and immensely damaging policy. All restrictions need to go, now. And the NHS management must be told to stop blaming its customers.

  10. DOM
    June 15, 2021

    We’ve passed the stage of calm and considered discussion on this matter. Most now realise that we are facing a government whose intent is SINISTER and political. This Anti-covid strategy has ceased to be a matter of health.

    Tory MPs trot out their party loyal tripe knowing full well that they’re being utterly insincere and disingenuous.

    ‘caution of advisers’?

    Why doesn’t John take it upon himself and simply tell us all what his real views are rather than using opaque language to conceal the pernicious nature of these SAGE political animals especially those with extremist leftist mindsets?

    Most now know what SAGE is, what their sinister remit is and the identities and histories of those who have been selected by this PM to carry out this political strategy of using a medical issue to change the fundamental nature of the relationship between person and the political State

    It is telling that during this political lockdown we have been bombarded by all forms of propaganda through our TVs, sport and the media. This is no coincidence but a well constructed and well planned strategy to expose us all to the vile nature of Socialist indoctrination

    Johnson’s ‘building back more equal’ is pure, unadulterated Marxist bullshit. Equality is the most sinister of all political terms. It’s true intent is never equality. Its real purpose is political and used as a weapon against people

    Mr John Redwood is now an MP for a Socialist political party. Every Tory MP who isn’t a Socialist must now resign their seats and stand for re-election as a Conservative Party candidate not as a Socialist masquerading as a Conservative

    Cake and eat it politics

    1. Everhopeful
      June 15, 2021

      I dare say JR knows that the tories rip the meat from dissenters’ bones.
      No doubt he has a very good memory.

    2. David Cooper
      June 15, 2021

      If – hypothetically – there was an alliance of the current fringe parties on the right of the political spectrum, and they came together as the Common Sense Party or the Quality Of Life Party, it would be interesting to see how many current Conservative MPs would be tempted not only to join but to do a Carswell and immediately stand for re-election under that banner. Think of the scope this new alliance would also have to tackle the current consensus on Net Zero aka the Great Leap Backward.

    3. No Longer Anonymous
      June 15, 2021

      Applause, Dom.

      The House has been treated with contempt and I cannot believe that Parliament will be going into recess soon with a renegade Prime Minister on the loose. The man cannot be trusted. Not a single word he utters.

      Henceforth I disrespect anyone who remains in his party.

    4. Christine
      June 15, 2021

      I agree.

      The most shocking thing about this pandemic is that the Government has given itself the power to take away free speech and control our lives. All this is a trial run for the next phase which is climate change control. This doesn’t bode well for the future when the green religious zealots take away our cars, boilers, and holidays. You won’t be able to sell or rent out a home unless it conforms to very expensive green legislation. People will be forced onto public transport as private cars will be cost-prohibitive. Foreign holidays will only be for the rich.

      1. John Miller
        June 15, 2021

        I think you’ve just given a nail a headache 😉

      2. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        …and the price of a ticket on HS2 is going up everyday, we the plebs we be lucky to have a bicycle (maybe even a vegan zero carbon bicycle)

    5. Donna
      June 15, 2021

      Genuine conservative Conservative MPs could stop this tomorrow if they resigned the Whip, removed the Johnson’s majority, and sat as the Real Conservative Party.
      But they bluff, bluster and roll over.
      Because their jobs are so much more important to preserve than the millions whose livelihoods are being destroyed by the lunatics in SAGE and Downing Street.

      1. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        I would support any ‘real conservative party and MP’…not this lot

        1. steve
          June 15, 2021

          glen cullen

          “I would support any ‘real conservative party and MP’
not this lot ”

          I would’nt……not ever again. This shower has demonstrated that they and anything even remotely associated with them can never be trusted. They have to be thrown out in such a fashion so as to face no option but to disband altegether.

      2. Bill B.
        June 15, 2021

        +1

    6. MiC
      June 15, 2021

      You have never considered anything in a calm and reasoned manner, if your posts here are anything by which to go.

    7. Jim Whitehead
      June 15, 2021

      +1, to DOM.
      I’d read down the comments with a certain satisfaction that the picture of an incompetent government was widely accepted, but there was also an anger welling in my thoughts.
      DOM is not afraid to vent that anger. From having been a strong supporter (and contributor) to the Conservative Party back in the 80s I would dearly love to see it humiliated and even destroyed. It is pointless, purposeless, and downright treacherous.
      The standard of contribution to the Diary is far above the level that I see anywhere else (except, possibly, the Gatestone Institute articles). I learn much each day from both Sir John and his erudite and thoughtful readership.

  11. Peter
    June 15, 2021

    Yes, businesses will be harmed. Arrriving at Waterloo station at what should have been peak rush hour there were far less people than pre- covid. I was the only passenger on the bus from Waterloo to Holborn for most of the journey. This despite claims that numbers are increasing on public transport. En route large numbers of businesses, shops, cafes etc were boarded up.

    I agree that we should be trying to resume normal daily life more quickly. However, my fear is that we will have delay after delay.

    1. steve
      June 15, 2021

      Peter

      “However, my fear is that we will have delay after delay.”

      Brexit ring any bells ?

  12. agricola
    June 15, 2021

    About 45% of the UK population has been fully vaccinated. This includes all those who are particularly vulnerable and the health service that is tasked with looking after us. Those yet to be vaccinated are the young who are considered less vulnerable to mortality.

    The politicians who control the return to normal are more likely to be condemned for getting it wrong disease wise than they are for continuing to trash the economy. Consequently they are risk averse, a feature of life in the UK for half a century now.

    We need to transfer to flu mode in our battle with Covid. Annual injections, taking account of variants as they arise for all those in the population that do not consider themselves bullet proof. Even something that no doubt the AZs of this world are looking at, a flu/covid cocktail.

    That said, the failure to lift most restrictions yesterday was I felt an excessively cautious and further damaging approach. One that will foster civil contempt through ignoring government rules.

    I want to see a forensic enquiry in place soonest with a six month conclusion time. We need to know where we got it right and where we got it wrong so that we are well prepared for the next weaponising of virology, accidental or deliberate. The free democratic world needs to ensure that there are no economic benefits deriving from the release of such viruses, deliberate or accidental.

    1. SM
      June 15, 2021

      Seconded.

    2. MFD
      June 15, 2021

      Live old horse and you will get grass.!!!

      Do your own thing, its your life

  13. Hat Man
    June 15, 2021

    Sorry, Sir John, but as far as HMG is concerned your views don’t really count, I’m afraid. You’re merely a people’s democratically elected representative, and you might inconveniently represent their views and interests. The ones who count are the media editors who will tell the public what to think. So they’re the ones who the PM informed first about his lockdown extension plans. They matter because how they shape the message will allow the government to get away with destroying people’s lives and livelihoods some more. The Speaker may protest, perhaps he’s finally realised what’s going on – the truth can often come as a shock. The bunch of sheep on the ‘Opposition’ benches aren’t bothered about it, that’s for sure.

    1. beresford
      June 15, 2021

      It is being reported that Government ‘sources’ are whispering that restrictions may ‘have to remain’ until next Spring……

      1. glen cullen
        June 15, 2021

        A friend, who is a senior civil servant, was warned off in January to working from home and furlong in the service till at least September when joe public was told 21st June – Someone knew lockdown was going beyond 21st June some time ago

    2. Sally
      June 15, 2021

      Agree. Why wasn’t this extension of lockdown put to Parliament?

      1. Micky Taking
        June 15, 2021

        maybe common sense would prevail – and defeat beckoned?

  14. Richard1
    June 15, 2021

    Lockdown for covid is like net zero for global warming. A policy which we know doesn’t work, but which has taken hold of governments, urged on by shrill and sanctimonious leftists. Experts, however eminent, who question the logic and set out the costs and benefits are denounced and cancelled. Proponents of lockdown/net zero decline to submit to scrutiny and debate and rely on denigration of opponents and censorship of media. Excellent interview on the folly of lockdown with Stanford’s Dr Jay Battacharya on the Telegraph planet normal podcast.

    Indeed there is no correlation between countries which have locked down and covid outcomes. Even more striking is the contrast within the US where non-lockdown states like Florida have outperformed hard lockdown states like NY and CA.

    1. Cynic
      June 15, 2021

      @ Richard 1 Totally agree.

    2. acorn
      June 15, 2021

      US “States That Took COVID Seriously Did Better Economically Than States That Didn’t
      California outperformed states like Florida and Texas in terms of health outcomes too”.

      While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and other GOP shooting stars have spread their names cross country by boasting about supposedly saving businesses through largely ignoring a pandemic that’s killed 600,000 Americans, a pair of new studies indicate that states which mandated masks, limited gatherings, and ordered store closures have done better economically than the ones that freewheeled it.

      According to Yahoo News, an Oxford University report that rates government non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) by stringency, along with UCLA’s latest quarterly Anderson Forecast, reveal that “lockdown” states ended 2020 with better economic numbers than states that chose a “looser” response to the crisis.

      The studies found that the more people perceived the virus as being under control, the more readily they participated in the economy. (By Ian Spiegelman -June 10, 2021 Los Angeles Magazine.)

    3. turboterrier
      June 15, 2021

      Richard 1
      Lock down for Covid like net zero.
      Like the Climate Change Act, Net Zero and Covid Lockdown guarantees the instigator of these policies a place in history and gives them immortality.
      They do have something in common in that they have all been passed with little or no concerns to the real effect on the people they are supposed to represent.
      All three policies are costing the tax payer trillions in the long run and the vast majority of our elected members do not have a clue or give a stuff, they follow like sheep.

  15. George Brooks.
    June 15, 2021

    We had a lot of charts and stats yesterday selling the 4 week delay when in fact there was only one reason dictating it.

    We need the time to get another 14m to 28m jabs done by which time we should be able to live with this virus. It is better to wait 4 weeks than spend the summer fighting a rear-guard action

    1. Boris Killed the Pubs
      June 15, 2021

      And then on to the next mutation, and the next and the next….

      The Tories have just killed the British pub and restaurant for no logical reason. Otherwise people are ignoring them and behaving normally.

    2. Bill B.
      June 15, 2021

      Sure George, like it was better to have a November lockdown than to lose Christmas. And it was better to lose Christmas and then open up at Easter. And it was better to carry on the lockdown at Easter so as to have a foreign holiday, and… and…?

      It’s sad to see you can still believe this.

      ‘Fool me once, shame on you’, fool me four times…..?

  16. forthurst
    June 15, 2021

    By some miracle, the government appointed a highly competent and qualified individual to oversee our vaccine roll-out when it could have been left to the NHS bureaucracy or another private sector person but with a PPE degree and a track record to match, although its effectiveness may have been damaged by taking Tony Blair’s medical advice on spacing the jabs rather than the manufacturer’s recommendations. However, the government continues to make unforced errors such as allowing a failing centralised track and trace operation to continue when it was very obvious from the beginning that only boots on the ground would be effective, and failing to stop the importation of the Indian variant by large numbers of people because of a potential trade deal.

    There would be more confidence in a return to normality if more thought the government consisted of competent people who were capable of acting effectively and in a timely fashion to prevent the spread of the disease.

  17. Andy
    June 15, 2021

    Brexitist decries ‘a policy which doesn’t know how to work.’ Irony overload.

  18. Know-Dice
    June 15, 2021

    I must have missed the apology for not keeping the Delta Indian variety out of the UK.
    This surely shows why voting to extend Government powers was wrong. In the case of needing to extend lockdown this should have been brought back to Parliament rather than just rolling it over and over…

  19. Sea_Warrior
    June 15, 2021

    The political battleground for the next week or so will be on the point as to whether Johnson & Hancock let the Indian variant into the country through their own negligence. At present, I’m buying the Opposition’s variant of the truth.
    I note from the Worldometers site that all of the places in Europe I want to holiday in right now (Cyprus, Greece and Portugal) are safer than the UK, which makes me wonder why they are all AMBER. A trip to Leicester would be more hazardous to my health.
    Looking ahead, COVID-sniffer techonology is advancing quickly. I feel some talented backbencher needs to start pressuing Shapps on his plan to get the devices into our airports, at pace, so the testing/isolation regime can be relaxed, at pace.

  20. David Magauran
    June 15, 2021

    I have noted that in the last few weeks the emphasis has changed from hospital admissions and deaths to the spread of the Indian strain. All along it has been the governments and advisors intent to extend the lockdown. Boris said that 19th July would be terminal. Will It?

    1. Philip P.
      June 15, 2021

      Sorry David, he didn’t and it won’t. His handlers never had any intention of restoring individual freedoms and civil rights in this country. We in this country are the experimental lab to see how far the public can be oppressed before the pips squeak. That is what the elite technocracy must want to know – at what point will they have to fear they’re not ‘getting away with it’, as Neil Ferguson put it? When will media indoctrination not work any more, so that force has to be used? These are important questions in governance, 2020s-style. If you look at discussions of ‘resilience’ in current social and political theory, it’s often defined as the public’s ‘peaceful adaptation to crises’. That’s the challenge for today’s rulers, avoiding anything like insurrection, Gilets Jaunes, umbrella protests etc. against the outrages they are imposing on their people. So far you’d have to say they’re doing pretty well at getting away with it. (And Andrew Neil won’t make much difference!)

    2. zorro
      June 15, 2021

      No
      zorro

  21. Roy Grainger
    June 15, 2021

    “Yesterday the government announced a continuation of measures for another four weeks”

    Strictly the announcement was for “at least” another four weeks and there’s surely no-one left who thinks it won’t be longer than that ?

    I agree we should be allowed to make our own assessment of risk. Just like Michael Gove who went on a non-essential holiday to Portugal, attended a major sporting event, didn’t have to quarantine on return to UK, came in contact with a Covid case and didn’t have to self-isolate as a result. How about letting the rest of us do all that too ? Or what about a holiday in Cornwall with no masks, no social distancing, no limit on the number of people attending an outdoor BBQ ?

  22. Nig l
    June 15, 2021

    Appalling decision. Public Health England having had a government boot on its neck finally broke free to say the modelling was faulty, we know many Trusts have few/zero Covid patients and NHS chiefs are saying they do not recognise the situation as presented.

    Having not caught it through following the previous lock down rules, hygiene, mask and distancing, I am now told that though I have had the vaccine I am at risk.

    Just let me bloody we’ll get on with my life as I have safely to date. I am in Portugal at present, not the two major cities, the country is open and vibrant and looking at the alleged figures safer than the U.K. yet I am being punished for that is what it is.

    You rightly poke fun at the EU but this time they are making us a laughing stock.

    1. MiC
      June 15, 2021

      The UK Government is making the UK a laughing stock.

      No other entity need do anything.

      1. steve
        June 15, 2021

        MiC

        Have to agree, +1

  23. David Cooper
    June 15, 2021

    Here’s hoping for a robust attack upon the decision to prolong lockdown when it is debated in the Commons, and a suitably large vote in opposition to it from MPs who stand for integrity and common sense rather than slavish devotion to the government line.

    1. Richard II
      June 15, 2021

      Look out the window, David, and you’ll see a flying pig.

  24. Alan Jutson
    June 15, 2021

    From so called survey’s and poll’s it would seem that the majority of the Country are with the Prime Minister.
    Those who are still on furlough do not seem to be much bothered about lack of work (for the moment anyway), those who can and do work from home also seem reasonably content, the retired, now they can meet up with others and are fully vaccinated, are less worried than they were.
    Remember the majority of the Country do not own a business for which they are financially responsible/liable.
    The government is still increasing our National debt as spending continues to rise and the tax take is down, but most politicians do not seem to worry.
    Some of the above is perhaps why Boris has made the decision he has, and the fact that he would be politically crucified if we had to go back into lockdown again, or deaths really started to rapidly increase in a major way again.

    1. Peter
      June 15, 2021

      Alan Jutson,

      And in Scotland they decided to allow schools to drop lessons and let the children watch Scotland in the Euro football competition instead.

      A life of constant idling.

      1. Micky Taking
        June 15, 2021

        And learning to accept they are losers.

  25. Sir Joe Soap
    June 15, 2021

    5 underlying deaths per day will happen anyway from a random 7’000 people.

    1 in 40’000 people die per day in the UK regardless of Covid, so in 28 days 1 in 1’400 people die from all causes non-Covid.

    Therefore of 7’000 people with positive tests per day, 1 in 1’400, or 5 of those will die within 28 days from any and everything non-Covid..

  26. wab
    June 15, 2021

    Fortunately we have people making decisions who are scientifically trained and numerate, and the backbench humanities graduates from Oxford are being ignored. Redwood makes it sound like the entire country is in lockdown. He needs to get out from his ivory castle a bit more and experience the traffic jams that have returned. The allies would never have won the war if all the pathetic whingers who complain about covid measures had been in charge then.

    1. Boris Killed the Pubs
      June 15, 2021

      Oh contraire.

      The return to normality other than businesses opening fully rather proves that the scientists are wrong.

      The vast majority of people I know are ignoring the Government and more and more people are giving up on masks. I travelled on a train yesterday and 30% of the packed carriages were maskless.

      Otherwise, let’s not elect a politician again. Let’s allow scientists to get on running the country instead.

    2. Richard II
      June 15, 2021

      That’s an interesting admission, Wab. The scientists, computer modellers and behavioural psychologists aren’t supposed to be taking the decisions. Their role was supposed to be advisory, to give accurate and reliable advice to the elected politicians responsible for taking the decisions. But you may well be right. That would explain why the decisions taken have treated the public like laboratory animals in an scientific experiment, not as voters who could kick them out of their jobs.

  27. beresford
    June 15, 2021

    Why can’t we at least get rid of the silly restrictions? Face masks do nothing, and there is footage of Boris being told this by a doctor a few weeks before we were told to wear ‘face coverings’. The only thing achieved is to create a climate of fear. Why do hospitality venues have to employ ‘table service’? As long as numbers are restricted in the venue, why can’t you just buy your drink at the bar and take it back to your table?

    1. MiC
      June 15, 2021

      Rubbish – masks are highly effective at reducing transmission.

      You take the infantile position that anything which is not 100% is no better than 0%, as do so many on the Right, however.

      1. Know-Dice
        June 15, 2021

        Agreed.

        As has been said before, why would doctors wear masks if they didn’t provide some protection.

        1. Micky Taking
          June 15, 2021

          all part of the ‘I know about these things image’.

      2. Lester
        June 15, 2021

        MiC

        You’ve obviously missed Dr Mike Yeadon
 ex deputy head of Pfizer and a specialist in respiratory disease saying that a mask is as effective in stopping a virus as a chain link fence is in stopping a mosquito and it’s a cause of bacterial pneumonia because you’re breathing in all the rubbish you’ve breathed out because the mask is a Petri dish of bacteria

      3. zorro
        June 15, 2021

        Would you like to link to a randomised control trial to evidence your hypothesis. You won’t because you can’t. You just abuse people.

        zorro

      4. beresford
        June 15, 2021

        Mmm. So we have doctors saying that trying to stop virus particles with a face mask is like trying to catch a fly with a fishing net, and on the other hand we have Martin in Cardiff who swears that they are ‘highly effective’. Who to believe.

        1. MiC
          June 16, 2021

          The mask is not to stop “virus particles”. Covid-infected people do not emit these as such.

          It is to stop the minuscule droplets which carry them, thousands of times larger.

          Furthermore, these droplets carry an electrical charge, which causes them to migrate to and to adhere to any fibres which they might approach as they pass into a mask.

          They WORK.

  28. BJC
    June 15, 2021

    Nothing I heard yesterday justified delaying the return of our freedoms and lives. Mr Johnson clearly doesn’t understand data; it’s certainly carefully framed to deceive, ably assisted by the malign influences of the media/polls. Poll people on a return to work or the lure of lazing on the beach and it doesn’t take a genius to imagine what the answer will be!

    I’m still trying to understand how Mr Johnson, et al, could stand there po-faced and imply that they were balancing an either/or situation. Opening the country is clearly NOT something that precludes the continuation of the vaccine rollout, so it would still have offered a reducing risk of infection over the four weeks.

    1. zorro
      June 15, 2021

      Ask those who put trust in him and were continually deceived
.

      zorro

  29. Sakara Gold
    June 15, 2021

    Watching a very shifty-looking Johnson lying and blustering to us again last night, whilst announcing the start of the third lockdown, made me reflect on the basic errors that the government made right from the start of the Chinese plague virus crisis. Apart from the mistaken “herd immunity” strategy, they have consistenly placed economic considerations first.

    Putting pressure on Johnson to delay the start of the first two lockdowns and then prematurely re-open the economy, after the undeniable success of this tactic, has led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. The fact is that this virus is unbelievably contagious and has shown a startling ability to throw up new variants that are even more so.

    By failing to go for the zero virus strategy last month – when there would have been a good chance of success – the government has exposed the country to the (almost) certainty that the virus will evolve into yet another variant that can evade the vaccines.

    Darwin’s theory of natural selection is operating in Bolton. Mixing a vaccinated population with an unvaccinated cohort is extremely risky. Chris Whitty needs to look into his graphs in greater detail and wonder whether they are already showing evidence of a vaccine resistant variant. By his admission, there are already small numbers of infected people in hospital across the country who have been double-vaccinated.

  30. formula57
    June 15, 2021

    I am bound to support the Government’s delay because had it relaxed restrictions my own behaviours would have altered but little for now.

    Matt Hancock has previously denied it was feasible to adopt “… the principle of helping all elderly and medically vulnerable people to stay away from others who might be a centre of infection whilst allowing others unlikely to get a serious version of the disease more freedom…”. It does seem a good idea though and perhaps adoption should be reviewed afresh in the light of present circumstances.

  31. Donna
    June 15, 2021

    I don’t believe this is about a virus which the Government downgraded to a Low Consequence Infectious Disease a week before the first Lockdown.
    It’s about Behavioural Control of the population. As Neil Ferguson admitted “they didn’t think they could get away with it (lockdown) but when Italy did, they realised they could.”
    They’ve been using Project Fear and Behavioural Control techniques ever since to test and enforce our compliance. This, I now firmly believe, is in preparation for the global Health Surveillance System being prepared using “vaccine passports” and a Social Credit system to control our behaviour.
    40,000 businesses have gone to the wall already this year. That’s hundreds of thousands of ruined lives. Meanwhile, on Sunday 8 people died with (not of) Covid.
    There is no medical or scientific justification for these restrictions to continue ….. so there must be another reason. It looks like it’s The Great Reset.

    1. Iago
      June 15, 2021

      Yes, quite agree. They have not got enough injected yet for their electronic ‘pass’, so they will continue until they do.

    2. Peter
      June 15, 2021

      Donna,

      Agreed.

      Occasionally they let the cat out of the bag. ‘You will own nothing and you will be happy’. Schwann, WEF etc.

      Covid is a convenient cover for other policies they wish to introduce. They cannot just lurch from one bank crisis to another. Time to consolidate gains and maintain or increase power. Johnson will aim to ingratiate himself with the Davos set.

      1. Peter
        June 15, 2021

        Schwab not Schwann.

  32. Original Richard
    June 15, 2021

    If the government really wanted to stop new variants coming into the country they would require that all incoming travellers quarantine and that this also applies to the hundreds of illegal migrants the government collect in the Channel and bring into Kent each day.

  33. Nig l
    June 15, 2021

    And in the meantime time the government has given a massive contract for Chinese lateral flow tests that industry insiders and the FDA know the results from them are highly inaccurate.

    These are being handed out free to do self testing yet are not good enough when people return from amber countries. Why if HMG are handing them out by the billion and surely a daily test for the period of quarantine, especially as a PCR is required before returning, is safer or what’s the purpose of these handouts?

    More contradictory rubbish.

    1. Micky Taking
      June 15, 2021

      Handed out free because the warehouses have billions of them, a large embarrassment for Johnson, Hancock and co. Sold to the NHS by mates of Government mates.

  34. David L
    June 15, 2021

    I understand that a main topic of conversation in the pubs at the weekend, while watching England v Croatia, was how grateful everyone is that there are no amateur choirs able to perform, thus keeping us safe from catastrophe.

    1. Bob Dixon
      June 15, 2021

      Regretabbly spitting is not a yellow card moving onto red card offence.

    2. MiC
      June 15, 2021

      The absence of loudmouth braggarts standing at bars boring everyone within earshot has been very welcome too.

      1. Peter2
        June 15, 2021

        MiC
        Good to know you have kept out of pubs and bars.

  35. Bryan Harris
    June 15, 2021

    YES If we continue as we are we should consider the implications:

    – restaurants and leisure pursuits will simply fade away to practically nothing;
    – many people will become destitute;
    – do we currently grow enough food for ourselves;
    – shortages of all sorts of raw materials will increase – Electronic chips are already scarce, wood chips and toilet rolls will follow;
    – if other countries are locked down as well then some foods will disappear;
    – suicides will increase as the poor value of life sends people neurotic.

    That would be the tip of the iceberg.

    Paying this price for the less than 5% of the population who might die from the virus is totally unacceptable.

    We need to let the virus’ takes their course, because that is the better alternative than having nothing worthwhile left at the end of all of this, if lockdowns are ever cancelled.

    Let the NHS take the strain, it has been very under-worked over the last 2 years as most of us have seen — but give people the drugs that work, not an emergency vaccine that has not completed it’s trials and kills far more than any other vaccine in history.

  36. glen cullen
    June 15, 2021

    ”I urge them to review this decision as soon as new data becomes available”
    ______________________________
    The data is in – yesterday the UK death rate was 3

  37. Andy
    June 15, 2021

    Notice it is the elderly Brexitists – fully protected with both jabs themselves – who are now demanding we unlock. They are remarkably content with risking other people’s lives.

    The virus is now affecting younger people. It is those in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are ending up in hospital in significant numbers – many facing a battle for life or a longer term fight against Long Covid. Many of these people have not had two jabs yet. My second jab isn’t til the end of July. I am late 40s. Many people in their 20s have not had one jab yet.

    Younger people put their lives on hold for over a year to protect the elderly. Many suffered huge financial trauma – getting a maximum of 80% of their salaries when their bills continued at 100% of the value.

    And now the old – who suffered no financial loss at all – are being asked to wait a few more weeks while the young are protected with their jabs and the elderly are revolting. (In every senses of the word it turns out).

    Compare and contrast the stoicism and compassion of the Me Too generation with the selfishness of the Me, Me, Me generation . It’s sickening.

    1. MiC
      June 15, 2021

      Well, apparently the vaccination immunity may wear off quite quickly in the elderly – within weeks – especially against the Delta Variant, so we’ll see, won’t we?

      1. Micky Taking
        June 15, 2021

        evidence? Any idea what that small word means Martin?

      2. MiC
        June 16, 2021

        The possibility remains open because there is as yet no firm evidence that it does NOT wear off in such people.

        1. Micky Taking
          June 16, 2021

          evidence that it DOES was your implication. Rowing back now, eh?

    2. Bob Dixon
      June 15, 2021

      Tough is it not.
      I am 80. I still run my own business which has not been affected. I have had both jabs. Yesterday I was able to have a couple of pints in the pub.
      All I need now is to be able to spend a week in France with my partners children and grand children in late July and 10 days on the Costa Blanca in early September.

      Almost back to normal. Happy days.

      1. a-tracy
        June 15, 2021

        Good for you Bob but not everyone is in your happy place.

    3. Boris Killed the Pubs
      June 15, 2021

      I took two jabs that I didn’t want. I really really didn’t.

      I took them on the promise that lockdown would be lifted to that my kids could live the great and free life that I enjoyed in my youth.

      And so that I didn’t have to be served by some poor sod wearing a ghastly mask in the heat of summer.

      1. steve
        June 15, 2021

        BKTB

        And you believed them ?…..most people learned not to believe anything they say during the farce that was brexit.

    4. Richard1
      June 15, 2021

      you with your sanctimonious calls for lockdown are the one blighting the futures of our young people.

      young people are at almost no risk at all from covid – virtually none without pre-existing conditions have died and almost none hospitalised. but you want their education, careers, desire to travel, social lives and mental health further blighted by lockdown – which we have seen is any case both useless and damaging. Lockdown is a much bigger threat to young people than covid. try to show some empathy.

      1. Micky Taking
        June 16, 2021

        Andy says ‘It is those in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are ending up in hospital in significant numbers’.
        You say ‘young people are at almost no risk at all from covid’.
        So Covid decides not to infect after a quick age check… What age is that?

    5. Sea_Warrior
      June 15, 2021

      I didn’t bother reading past your sixth word.

    6. a-tracy
      June 15, 2021

      Andy, “It is those in their 30s, 40s and 50s who are ending up in hospital in significant numbers – many facing a battle for life or a longer term fight against Long Covid”

      Seriously please answer this. How do you know the age breakdown of people currently in the hospital facing a battle for life? If you have access to the statistics and reports, what comorbidities do they have? Did they or a relative or friend come into the UK from the highly infected areas? How many are there? Are they men or women what is the breakdown of those in a ‘battle for life’? You do have a habit of not responding to your wild statements and I am curious where you get all these statements from?

    7. steve
      June 15, 2021

      Andy

      “They are remarkably content with risking other people’s lives.”

      No, it is not brexit pensioners doing that….it is your remain Boris and his bosses at SAGE.

    8. beresford
      June 15, 2021

      How about us ‘elderly Brexitists’ who haven’t been ‘jabbed’ and don’t want young people subjected to an experimental medical procedure for an illness that poses little risk to them. What’s our angle, Andy?

      1. unjabbed
        June 15, 2021

        +1

      2. Jim Whitehead
        June 15, 2021

        Unjabbed, mid seventies, full time professional, and unimpressed by other professionals willingness to inject an experimental drug under umbrella indemnity cover by the government.

    9. Ed M
      June 16, 2021

      @Andy,
      Its a balancing act. If the economy is trashed, that will affect the young in the short to long term. You miss that point.
      Just as some others on this site miss the point that it doesn’t matter if they are not scared of getting Long Covid (most likely most here have been double jabbed) but the perception of those too scared to go out for fear of getting Long Covid.
      Boris has played his hand well by focusing on getting people jabbed – quickly. This is easily the main and best way of getting us out of lockdown / restrictions. Really, we have to go along with what he does now and support him. For all the mistakes he made, he was bang on right with the jabs.

  38. John Miller
    June 15, 2021

    It is said that Mr Johnson’s hero is Churchill.
    He should be reminded that Churchill had a method avilable to him to minimize casualties during the Blitz. He could have ordered the poulation of London to go and live on the Underground platforms 24 hours a day all week for 5 years.
    But perhaps Mr Churchill realised that existing like worms on subterranean platforms was not a life people wanted to live, even at risk of death or dismemberment.

    1. Bryan Harris
      June 15, 2021

      +1
      So pertinent John Miller

  39. Wokinghamite
    June 15, 2021

    We seem to lack a clear plan to deal with rising hospital admissions. Won’t the situation just get much worse if we carry on without some kind of adjustment? The R factor is too high again.

  40. Ed M
    June 15, 2021

    I want economy back to normal as soon as possible. But people who compared Covid to the flu did not help (only made things worse). Covid isn’t the bubonic plague but it has left about 1 million people (correct?) with long Covid. Long Covid is really quite debilitating. Both physically and psychogically.
    At end of day, the heroes here have been the scientists, bringing out vaccinations extraordinarily quickly. Well done to Boris for implementing them quickly.
    Just as scientists can solve this so they can solve damage to the environment without damaging our economy.

  41. glen cullen
    June 15, 2021

    I predicted the government covid-19 extension to the lockdown date some weeks back

    Its easy – just think of the most silly or ridiculous thing our government could do next, and then wait for a few days and it will be realised

    1. a-tracy
      June 15, 2021

      glen – reopen for the school holidays (jolly japes), close again come September 6th for a short circuit breaker. Trouble raises its head, close down again ‘covfefe variant’. Why would all those working at home, on 80% furlough off work, without their usual childcare and travel costs, often with top-up part-time work want it to change? Can we be told on the next set of polls what is the circumstances of those polled. Are they working at home, furloughed, working externally with the public.

    2. steve
      June 15, 2021

      glen cullen

      Well given Johnson’s record on keeping to dates it’s no surprise we’re still having to wear stupid face masks. I don’t know of anyone who trusts a single word the bloke says.

  42. oldwulf
    June 15, 2021

    “I favour letting people make more of their own decisions about how much risk they are willing to run…”

    Those who administer the public sector are cautious. They know they will get paid come what may.

    Those who administer the private sector, take risks. That’s what they do in order to survive.

    A conundrum.

  43. Mark Thomas
    June 15, 2021

    Sir John,
    Prior to unlocking in June, the government decided on a trial run in a holiday seaside destination in Cornwall. This involved a group of newly arrived foreign visitors not subject to quarantine, even though some of them would be considered clinically vulnerable. Over the course of several days masks were discarded and social distancing replaced with group activities in close proximity, including physical contact. Although the results are promising and so far does not seem to have resulted in a new outbreak, another four weeks of restrictions are still essential for the safety of the general public.

  44. Bob Dixon
    June 15, 2021

    Whats happened to Flu?
    Every year it returned, having mutated and caused the death of thousands. Has it been eradicated?
    So Covid , a flu like virus, is mutating and its called the Indian variant. Soon it will be replaced by a further variant. Next year we will experience further variants, Perhaps Flu will be the main killer?
    The population need to live healthier life styles if they wish to survive this virus and other viruses.

    1. Micky Taking
      June 15, 2021

      It requires transmission. When schools close, offices shut, buses empty, trains are light, shoppers are limited and masked, transmission is a flu killer.

      1. Micky Taking
        June 15, 2021

        s/be ‘no transmission is a flu killer’.

  45. p k dick
    June 15, 2021

    gb news. That pretty boy that was on g forks will kill it stone dead.
    Thats not what the public like.

    1. beresford
      June 15, 2021

      What I’ve seen of GB News has included a level of free debate not encountered in the existing MSM. The Cancel Culture fanatics are waging a campaign to strip the new broadcaster of its advertisers, so the channel must be doing something right,

  46. no6
    June 15, 2021

    I’m glad I have no affiliations and belong to no groups. I can think for myself.

  47. hefner
    June 15, 2021

    I have just deposited £1.20 on my saving account, the amount that the new trade deal between Australia and the UK is going to save my household. With the present interest rate at 0.2% that will be a massive £1.2024 by June 2022. I’ll feel like Croesus. thank you Liz, Scott and Boris. Really appreciated.

    1. Peter2
      June 15, 2021

      So heffy first you lefty remainers said there would be no trade deals.
      Then you said there are trade deals but they aren’t very good.
      Now you reduce the trade deal down to how it affects you.
      One of 70 million people in the UK.
      Perhaps the most ridiculous perversion of statistics ever seen on here.

      1. hefner
        June 16, 2021

        Oh, so you do not consider how political decisions of all kinds might affect you and your family? You are one of these disembodied minds only interested in ‘levelling up’ and ‘building back better’ independently of how these wonderful concepts might affect you. You are such an ethereal soul that you do not mind whether there will be any new jobs created by the sovereignty-manufacturing sector for your children and grandchildren. I would have thought there might be a few like me keen on knowing how the extra £350m/week for the NHS will speed up obtaining the operations some in my family need, or by how much my ‘standard-of-living’ might rise and possible subsequent tax return.

        How lucky you are to be free from such down-to-earth considerations.

        1. Peter2
          June 16, 2021

          Nothing of the sort heffy.
          I was just pointing out your ridiculous use of statistics and they way you and other remainers keep altering their Project Fear predictions as more things happen you said could not or would not happen.

      2. hefner
        June 16, 2021

        E2P2, please remind me, who not so long ago was asking for real figures in pound sterling (or actual number of infections or deaths) and not percentage?

        1. Peter2
          June 16, 2021

          How is that relevant when you try to minimise the benefits of a single trade deal by giving us your guess of its effect on just you?

      3. hefner
        June 16, 2021

        And last P2, did I ever say all such things about trade agreements. I think not, you make it up.
        Have a great day.

        1. Peter2
          June 16, 2021

          Do you hefty?
          I recall your regular project Fear predictions of no trade deals and post brexit failures.
          Revisionism and rewriting of history a classic response as expected.
          Thanks for your good wishes by the way.

    2. anon
      June 15, 2021

      This deal is needed to support our allies, i could not care less about the economics.

      WTO would have been a much bigger boost and impetus to supply chains and would build independence by diversifying from a hostile EU foreign policy. Eire/Northern Ireland is not the problem, let them vote.

      The problem is we have BINO establishment, subserviant to the EU and its state controlled entities. 15 year deals. More delays. Errors and incompetence are a small part of the problem.

      Where are the plans to bring UK energy production under direct UK control and expand UK controlled production preferably renewable with existing plant kept as capacity for forecast gaps .

      Threats have been made implicit and explicit.Action is now required.

      We need to think about strategic sea & air route defense and also reliable non EU trade partners.

  48. John McDonald
    June 15, 2021

    Dear Sir John,
    on 26/2/2020 I posted on your blog:
    “I do hope your views on isolation of areas and people to prevent the continued spread of the virus are not the Government’s view but it seems like it.
    Economic growth at any price including the lives of people.
    Let us hope and pray that your view is not put to the test”

    16 months on we now have Variant D travel in and out of the UK has never been stopped in all this time.
    Which has been the main source of new variants.
    By luck we had a good vaccination programme to offset the continued blindness on the part of the government and economists in regard to international passenger travel.
    But we are told that the vaccines only provide protection for six months and we are back to were we started.

    What people do not seem to recognize is that you may have the virus and it does you no harm but you can pass it on to someone and it kills them. But as we are now a me society no more than can be expected, sorry to say. But at the end of the day the blame for the mess in regard to social freedom we are now in and have been since February last year is down to the current Government. But it may have been worse under any other Political Party.
    Because the Government did not secure the UK border from the invasion of the virus we had to introduce lockdowns etc. within the country. But it may have been that we did not have the staff and competence to secure the boarder. There was clearly was not, and is not, the political will to do so -why?

  49. mancunius
    June 15, 2021

    The young should NOT be coerced into getting themselves vaccinated – the risk of blood clots and other as yet undiscovered side-effects is far too great, and those (such as Prof. Sridhar) who insist there ‘are no risks’ are corrupting the public debate. The possible deaths and infertility among not one but two generations is far too great a price to pay for the convenience of the ‘precautionary principle’ fanatics and the childish selfishness of their elders, my cowardly contemporaries.
    It’s flu. A rather nasty kind of flu, if caught by those with weak immunity systems or who have neglected their own health through poor nutrition and self-indulgent habits of lazy inertia. But still, just flu. We used to cope with it annually – avoiding crowded indoor spaces when it’s at its seasonal height, not giving it to others. Now the mixture of babyish irrationality and the anti-social callousness of a now society grown far too heterogeneous (for reasons unnecessary to broach here) have turned an infectious condition that mankind lived with for centuries into a pretext for idleness. What a shower.

  50. mancunius
    June 15, 2021

    ‘…*are* far too great a price to pay.’

  51. Mark
    June 15, 2021

    With the most vulnerable categories largely vaccinated to levels that can be expected to offer herd immunity, it seems we are being held hostage by communities where vaccine uptake has been limited because of reluctance or opposition, and where large household sizes are a factor in greater transmission. Outside these areas the vaccine seems to be proving effective at limiting the severity of cases, and we are not really seeing an upsurge in hospitalisations to match the rise in positive tests.

  52. hefner
    June 15, 2021

    Well done GBNews for the film of the BBC journalist Nick Watts being insulted and threatened by ‘crùme de la crùme’ profoundly intelligent clear-thinking anti-lockdown protesters.

    Will we get a storming of the Houses of Parliament as we have seen one of the Capitol last January? Stay tuned: Run, run tovarishch, the fifth column of culture warriors is behind you.

    1. Peter2
      June 15, 2021

      Everyone found that scene reprehensible.
      Don’t try to hang it on anyone that holds different opinions to you heffy.
      I know what you are trying to do.
      Your generalised slur won’t work

      1. hefner
        June 16, 2021

        P2, did I try to do such a thing or do you need to imagine that I did so that you can feel plainly content and go soundly to sleep tonight?

        1. Peter2
          June 16, 2021

          Yes you did I think heffy.
          Which is why I said, what I said.
          And again, thanks for your good wishes.

  53. Derek
    June 15, 2021

    This decision makes absolutely no sense at all.
    Why are we Brits risking/bothering to accept the 2 vaccinations when nothing changes for us? We accept those vaccines, designed to prevent a serious infection and death, and expect to be freed from our enclosed life-styles. Indeed in the same way as we are with our annual flu-jabs. Here, it changed nothing for us nor for businesses around the country.
    There have been numerous cases around the world, proving that these lock downs make little difference to the death rates. The WHO says the same. Why are these facts ignored when making these damaging decisions?
    The fact is, regardless of the measures adopted, the associated death rates are less than 3% of all registered Cov2 cases.
    With a Global total of 176 M cases, there have been 3.81 M registered deaths, which equates to 21 deaths per thousand cases. A very low number.
    In this country we’ve had 4.57 Million cases v 128K deaths. That equates to 28 deaths per thousand CASES or 2 persons per million of POPULATION. A Miniscule proportion.
    Why should this be determined too dangerous?
    So we’ve vaccinated, we’ve repeatedly locked down and LOL, very belatedly, locked-out (closed our borders – except to illegals, of course) but at the same time, destroyed unknown numbers of businesses all at enormous cost to the tax payers and what have we actually saved? Anything?
    No, not at all and I fear that more will die(d) because of the serious lack of urgent treatment available since Covid 19 was wrongly considered so deadly that it surpassed all other illnesses and their urgent treatments. Yet the Downing Street paranoia continues. They must seek to wipe out the virus – an impossible task and a waste of time and resources because the virus mutates just like the common cold. Containment and control is the only way out.
    I’ve already survived the virus and know the effects were so similar to the influenza bug I caught way back in the last century. It killed thousands of people, yet there were no lock downs just careful behaviour and it lasted for only 6 months.
    This new extension is put down the the rising number of cases of “Indian” Covid. How many have died from it here? And after this ‘Indian’, what comes next? ‘Sri Lankan’ strain then ‘Saudi Arabia’ strain, etc?
    I fear we are being subjected to a never ending cycle of lock down after lock down as the virus does as all other viruses do and continually mutates, getting weaker with each switch and these Lock downs are preventing the natural degradation cycle from being actioned. Now,with a successful vaccination programme, we should be doing what we always should have been doing – protecting the vulnerable and allowing the invulnerable to carry on with the normal lives but being aware of the vulnerable.
    This extension will have done the Government no good at all – quite the opposite.

  54. Derek
    June 15, 2021

    My mistake should have read under 2K per million people. 1.9%.

  55. a-tracy
    June 15, 2021

    There isn’t really any point in reviewing this decision earlier than the four-week extension because all weddings and indoor events will have to be cancelled and can’t be switched back on again at a whim.

    That this decision was made after a weekend of Boris’ jolly meet and greet, just shows that Boris political antenna isn’t tuned in. What he is basically saying is that it was ok for people to travel all around the world and smack each other on the back and have a jolly good laugh together, stand within 2m of each other without masks, photoshoots of them behaving with distance and masks.

    If people didn’t go for their vaccine when they were first invited then why do the rest get punished to save their skins? They made their decisions. The UK could have speeded up second vaccines but we seem to have to fall in pace to Europe, can’t possibly get the re-opened UK early – too politically toxic, probably what was agreed over the foie gras. It will be interesting to see when the rest of Europe opens fully up in time for the school holidays so they can all go where they choose.

  56. Margaret Brandreth-
    June 15, 2021

    You are wrong John as by allowing people to make their own choice in consideration of their own risk and fear gives the foolhardy the upper hand and carriers of various strains then infect others . In our area the number of people infected with the Indian variant is rising.

  57. Philip B
    June 15, 2021

    Boris will be history next year. He will stand down and collect a fortune on the after dinner speaking circuit on the basis that he got Brexit done and sorted Covid. He actually will believe it too. One thing is certain leader he is not, however, bumbling buffoon he certainly is.

    1. Micky Taking
      June 15, 2021

      he won’t stand down. He has to be told to resign or face ‘Vote of no confidence’. The MPs haven’t the balls nor the job security to do it. The Electorate will have its way – what will our lives be like by the time we get to a GE?

      1. MiC
        June 16, 2021

        The people who gave the Tories a thumping majority might take a very different view of Johnson’s replacement.

        Think about that. It was not policy or ideology for which they voted, but an illusory personality.

        Wasn’t it?

        1. mancunius
          June 16, 2021

          No, it was despite his character, not because of it. The massive Tory vote in December 2019 was because he had the correct policy, and the voters were sick of a remainer parliament trying to slither back into the EU that had been rejected by the democratic vote of the 2016 referendum. If Johnson had followed through in January 2020 and refused the EU deal, and abrogated the NIP before it came into effect, he’d have redeemed himself.

  58. Lester
    June 15, 2021

    News

  59. nota#
    June 15, 2021

    More campaigning from the Marxist Left ‘Stop Funding Hate’ an organisation dedicated to ensure you comply with their personal take, beliefs and doctrine of the Left. If you don’t agree with their doctrine you are labelled right-wing, if you believe in choice you are labelled right-wing if you believe in free speech they label you right-wing.

    Did you elect them?

    We have a lame Government that refuses to stand up for freedoms and democracy unless it is the version dictated to them by the extreme left-fringe. Surely something has got to give, how long can this madness go on!

    1. MiC
      June 16, 2021

      Tsk.

  60. Mactheknife
    June 15, 2021

    We were told that vaccinating the old and vulnerable was the key to opening up. This has been done and we are not open. We were told at the start of lock down that it was about “data not dates”, but when the data improved dramatically it became “dates not data” and we were sticking to the schedule. We were told that the vaccines were key to “breaking the link” between hospitalizations and deaths. This has been achieved if you look at the current data and we are delaying opening up. Hospital managers have stated there has been no big surge – even in the Delta variant areas – yet they are ignored.
    It has become about ‘models’, which have been proved time and again to be highly inaccurate. The PM seems enthralled by the scientists and has lost all notion of reality and context. Laughably he said at one point “we must learn to live with it” – then give us the opportunity to live with it !!!

  61. steve
    June 15, 2021

    Johnson tells us we have to learn to live with something dangerous he let into the country, from which some people have already died.

    Enough said.

    1. Mactheknife
      June 20, 2021

      Ever heard of the Flu’ ? Thousands have been dying for years, because we can’t cure it, so we have to live with it. If you think we can cure Covid, then think again.

  62. Martin In Manchester
    June 15, 2021

    Hancock and his incompetent DH have made no effort to increase the capacity of the NHS in the 16 months since it became the CHS. The result is 5,000,000 patients Waiting for medical care a lot of it for serious or life threatening conditions. Yesterday’s announcement was solely to distract from that fact. To kick that can down the road to October when Parliament opens for business again.

  63. Barbara
    June 15, 2021

    I agree. We spoke yesterday of hockey-stick graphs, and their frequently fraudulent nature. As if on cue, I noticed as part of his propaganda presentation yesterday Whitty provided yet another projected hockey-stick graph, this time using a logarithmic scale (with non-uniform divisions) on the x axis in order to make it look more scary. Yet again, our PM folded because of it.

  64. Derek
    June 15, 2021

    This is totally unacceptable and our MPs MUST press our Government to explain why they have extended the lock down when it is clear it is completely unnecessary. Forget face-saving think job saving.

    It seems either the Government have been deliberately misled or they are deliberately misleading us.
    The graphs shown on Monday “proving” their case, have been exposed as near-fraudulent, just like those specially selected portions of the graphs of global warming events, to further promote green energy.
    This is more than a disgrace, it is more in keeping with the MO of the PR department of Communist China, rather than from presentation from a Conservative Government in the UK. See here…
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/fear-freedom-doom-laded-government-graphs-dont-show-us/

  65. glen cullen
    June 15, 2021

    In case anybody missed it (the news media don’t mention it much) – UK death rate today 10

    1. glen cullen
      June 15, 2021

      As the sage group and the media news would tell us ‘’today there has been a 200% increase in deaths’’

  66. X-Tory
    June 15, 2021

    There is a difference between prudence and cowardice, and it is clear to me that the government has crossed from one to the other. I recognise that the obvious retort is that there is a difference between courage and recklessness, and that I am advocating the latter. It is all a matter of perception and opinion, I accept that, but it saddens me that we seem to have become such a risk-averse nation, cowering in the face of the most minor threat – and yes, I know Covid *can* be fatal, but it usually is NOT – and it is probabilities that matter in this world. Some others will say that it is individuals that matter, and therein lies the problem.

    This is not the Britain that conquered the world’s greatest empire, or that sent explorers and traders across the globe, or that fought – and won – innumerable wars. In those days we accepted that great goals sometimes entail sacrifices, and that deaths were often inevitable and should be accepted with equanimity, not with hysterical wailing. We have become a milksop nation, and I blame the scaremongering government and our feminised politics and mass media that elevates sentimental compassion above logic, courage, ambition, patriotism, self-confidence, independence, self-interest and strength.

    I do not believe that the modern values will serve us well in the face of our enemies across the globe – from China to the EU, from Russia to the invading thousands and to the marxist ‘enemy within’. We see our economy weakened and our borders swept aside, our industries abandoned and our people sacrificed. Unless we return to the values of the past this will not end well. But who is defending those traditional values and policies? No-one. Not the Conservative Party and not the ‘Opposition’ (if it can still be called that, given the fulsome support it has given to the government’s lockdown policies). We have a government bereft of courage and, even more so, of intelligence (the simplistic, one-club policy of lockdowns, instead of a more thoughtful, multi-pronged response is proof of the government’s low IQ), and with no alternative on the horizon I have lost all hope and faith in this country’s future.

    1. Micky Taking
      June 16, 2021

      This should be read out at every Speech Day across the land (leaving out ‘I have lost all hope and faith in this country’s future’.)

  67. jon livesey
    June 15, 2021

    Judging by the general run of comments this morning, it may be about time for JR to start protecting his blog with one of those Captcha thingies. “Which panel does not contain gummint thugs coming to steal my precious bodily fluids?”

  68. Will in Hampshire
    June 15, 2021

    Interesting to see details of the new FTA with Australia emerging, as reported in the Telegraph: apparently it’ll deliver benefits of ÂŁ0.5bn…. …in total. I’m underwhelmed to say the least, but apparently it comes with some relaxations of restrictions on freedom of movement (for the young) to partially offset the loss of such freedoms in Europe.

  69. paul
    June 15, 2021

    I am surrounded by a sea of gutless plebs voters.

  70. Lindsay McDougall
    June 16, 2021

    Although the daily cases are rising, hospitalisations and deaths per day are scarcely increasing, since the deaths to cases ratio is falling, thanks to vaccination.
    One unnecessary difficulty is the lower rate of vaccination among the various BAME groups, partly due to religious objections to some of the vaccinations, partly due to fear of a loss of fertility, partly due to fear of side effects of the vaccines. These are all irrational fears. Sorry to be callous, but if a group of people choose not to get vaccinated, that should be their funeral, not everyone else’s loss of livelihood.
    If you doubt my analysis, take a look at the map of COVID-19 rates. The black spots are some East London Boroughs, Bedford, Leicester, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire including Bradford, and the Scottish central belt, all urbanised with a significant BAME minority.

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