I was glad to see the government yesterday reported cases in hospital and deaths from CV19 have been falling. It seems that Plan A, persuade most people to get the vaccine, is working. So why the need for some new measures?
The Secretary of State told us that though there are only a few hundred Omicron cases in the U.K. they guess there are in practice 10,000 already. If that is so then the lower hospital cases is even more significant. They say Omicron cases are doubling quickly, but most people with it are not seriously ill or have no symptoms.
I disagree that people should have to show vaccination proof to go to an event or a night club. I disagree with people being told to work from home. People now have three options to manage their risk of catching covid. They can take a vaccine which greatly cuts the chances of getting a serious version of it. They can decide to avoid crowded places and observe prudent distancing in what they do. They can agree homeworking with their employer where that works for both parties. They can decide to take the risk, as we do for most other diseases that we can catch from other people.
It is time to move on from worry about the virus. Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk.
December 9, 2021
Good morning,
Good, I support your view on the proposed new CV 19 law. These are indeed strange times; I find I am in agreement with both Mrs May and, President Macron over the same object: Bunter Boris. He is clearly behaving like a trapped rat and can only now cause problems for those around him. Despite his highly polished education it is sad that he has not learned the meaning of, ‘mea máxima culpa’.
December 9, 2021
Peter Wood,
Yes Boris is terrible. However, May and Macron should keep their traps shut and let others point this out. I am tired hearing from the worst Prime Minister ever and I won’t listen to the pompous little Frenchman.
As for ‘mea maxima culpa’, Boris is a post second Vatican council Catholic.
December 9, 2021
I think you’ll find Mrs May was the second worst PM ever.
December 9, 2021
It’s all about the build back better. BOZO is being frightened by the commies on SAGE and he needed a distraction from Christmas parties.
He has to go.
December 9, 2021
Good – but without any sense or opposition from Labour/SNP what can be done?
December 9, 2021
Good morning.
The most ridiculous thing about these latest pronouncements, coming so soon after the Partygate scandal at No.10, is that, and I cannot remember the numbers off my head but, if there are say 4,000 people at an event then people have to wear masks and have passports to attend. However, if there 3,999 people, they don’t ! And so on. Now we all knew that this virus could do many incredible things, being able to count being one of them, but it seems to be taking a life all of its own. It is clearly a highly intelligent virus, being able to outwit the smartest human minds, and drive policy makers quite mad.
Yesterday evening I attended my local Salvation Army to assist in the wrapping of presents for underprivalidged children. I although I did not wear a mask, I had a flow test and showed it to them. They were very relaxed about the whole thing and no one gave me hassle or funny looks. Same too when i am out shopping. It seems the mood music has changed and that the events of the past involving government indiscretions has achieved what I long for hoped and said would happen regarding this SCAM.
You pretend to tell us the truth, and we will pretend to believe you 😉
December 9, 2021
+1
Last line…exactly my reading!
December 9, 2021
Well done Mark for helping those less fortunate. Farage made the point last night he will not comply. This farce has gone on too long.
What is the NHS actually doing different to last year? What planning has changed/occurred to manage both ordinary health issues and covid? I see none.
Where was the war time spirit over the last year to get more nurses, doctors, cleaners etc to build front line staff to cope this winter? All I read was a huge increase in back room bureaucratic staff on huge salaries!!! WTF is going on.
The new useless head of NHS instils no confidence she has a clue, strategy or plan. Was the head of NHS position filled by quota or merit or socialist political affiliation? I ask because it appears Stevens qualification was an advisor to Blair and some chap which led the NHS failed £11 million app was a mate of Osborne’s.
December 10, 2021
Thanks, Hope
December 10, 2021
You can only get doctors, nurses and technical staff if there are sufficient qualified college leavers to train for those roles.
This country alone does not provide enough.
So we used to rely on our fellow modern, pre-educated Europeans.
You have told them very rudely to go away.
December 10, 2021
Ten times more people (with great A levels) apply to med school than get places.
Ask the BMA why they decide to ration places.
December 11, 2021
When I was at university, it threw out the entire year of aeronautical engineering, because none of them were good enough by the absolute standards required.
Would you rather that or have planes falling out of the sky?
December 11, 2021
How is that ridiculous whataboutery even relevant?
There is a huge number of UK students who cannot get into Med School.
Whilst we import from poor nations already trained medical staff.
It is a disgraceful scandal.
December 9, 2021
Ha ha ha ! And mine too !
The tragedy of Party-gate is that we shouldn’t have been in lockdown and by their actions they all know it too !
Think of all those livelihoods going to the wall, think of all the joy being sucked out of being young’s lives, think of all the old withering alone at home. Think of all the NHS neglect and the death… I’m burying a dear uncle on Monday who died having missed two consultations last year (the ninth person I have known to die in this crisis – none of Covid. And these aren’t all old people.)
December 14, 2021
Brilliantly put, No Longer Anonymous.
I also know three people that have died in the last year and half, 2 cancer and one heart attack. Two of them are under 55.
Also my children’s education, socializing and mental health have suffered.
December 9, 2021
If this had been the plague they claim it to be..
We’d all be dead by now!
December 9, 2021
It is about one in 500 in the UK who have died (within 28 days of a test) on official figures. Perhaps just ~ 1/1000 actually caused by Covid and this heavily slanted towards the very elderly with other conditions. We now have better treatments, better hospital care, most have been fully vaccinated and the new varieties seem to be less dangerous too. So why on earth would anyone bring in these addition restriction now?
Seems rather unfair that Allegra Stratton has to resign just for a practice question and answer session – who on earth leaked it now and why? I do wonder how many practice sessions she needed for the tearful resignation offer? Doubtless the generous taxpayers will give her a good pay off as consolation.
Allegra was quite right to keep her old diesel rather than causing a new EV to be built (if she was really trying to save CO2 plant food emissions that is). A shame she and ministers did not point this out in her own defence.
December 9, 2021
It seems from reports likely that lefty alarmist dope Carrie was the main reason for Allegra’s appointment (the pleasant enough Guardian journalist & Arch. and Anth. lefty). Also surely to blame for Boris’s conversion to the mad, climate alarmist, devil CO2 gas religion.
Is she trying to bury Boris’s leadership and kill the Tory party too?
December 9, 2021
LL, according to ONS 36,000 died within 21 days of having the emergency experimental injection!! The one Javid is forcing people to have or be sacked from care home jobs. Will he accept responsibility for the deaths?
Dr Whyte won his case in High Court today to speak out and give balance view about experimental injections! NHS and associated bodies tried to stop doctors like him giving a scientific alternative view on vaccinations.
Well done the High Court to allow proven scientific dissent against the govt false narrative.
December 9, 2021
+1+++
Agree 100%
December 11, 2021
Hope, about 600,000 British die every year.
Most have been vaccinated over the last 12 months, especially those most likely to die in the near future anyway.
Do the most basic arithmetic and you’d expect exactly that, wouldn’t you?
December 9, 2021
Johnson now suggesting mandatory vaccines with an experimental gene therapy!! He has gone mad. This is not democracy. We are not allowed to choose to die in the UK but can travel to do so. But can be forced to have an experimental drug!!
Still no progress in UK with ivermectin or hydroxychloriqine!! Despite its cheapness, availability, national studies elsewhere and central to national strategies in poor countries where vaccines not widely available? Why are the scientist still not examining the merit now there is sufficient evidence? Not even being considered should cause alarm.
December 9, 2021
And yet the annual flu excess deaths numbers aren’t a great deal higher….we’ve been had – a year and a half of insolating and mask wearing hasn’t achieved anything
December 9, 2021
Probably actually “ achieved” a negative benefit.
December 9, 2021
There is also the issue that these (and further) measures will bring millions into direct conflict with Parliament.
Those of us who have had enough. (My mum will probably die next year – due to weakening clearly brought on by lockdown. You cannot stop me seeing her in the New Year.)
The clear message is that those who make the rules don’t give a toss about them. The Stratton issue was not a one off and it simply cannot be discounted that Johnson has activated plan B as a distraction – he has left himself wide open to that charge and lost all trust.
The worst of it ?
That he put Beeboid/Gruadian/Blairist Stratton in such a powerful position in the first place whilst leaving you on the back benches.
That tells us ALL we need to know about his brand of Conservatism.
December 9, 2021
PS, “I have been assured that a party did not take place.” is not the same as “I did not know that a party had taken place.”
Why did Mr Johnson use this peculiar phrase ?
December 9, 2021
He is trying to finesse his way out. Classic Boris. Deny – deny a little bit less – and then even less – and then claim he didn’t deny at the outset.
Equally ‘a minion’ falls on her sword hoping , that we will accept the sacrificial lamb, we won’t, and no doubt, on the basis she got that job when not the best candidate, allegedly Carrie wanted her to get it, as subsequently proved by demotion and disastrous performances, someone whispered in her ear that if she went quietly she would be ‘seen all right’.
December 9, 2021
a ‘business meeting’ with lavish food and drinks, music, laughter, dancing? kissing?
Attended by over 30.
what makes a this a party – I don’t understand the difference.
December 9, 2021
I believe that seven other parties are being talked about now!
And a couple of newspapers have guest lists that they won’t divulge.
December 9, 2021
@NLA,
I wonder why we were paying this woman £125,000 per year for doing a non-job.
December 9, 2021
MWB – I’d gladly have paid her 125k NOT to do it.
How have they infested everywhere ?
December 9, 2021
@krishgm twitter 8 Dec
“A friend points out that Allegra Stratton – who was a good journalist – never actually held a No 10 press conference but is now famous for a pretend one. Now the face of a scandal, but she was the PM’s spokesperson, working for him, in a culture he created. Will he own it”
So if she never held a press conference why was she holding a pretend one? Set up.
December 9, 2021
Thank you, John, for opposing these latest measures.
Unfortunately I simply cannot take any such opposition seriously unless it involves at least half of the Conservative MPs. 40, 60 or even 80 rebels won’t come close.
Of course, I can’t take abstentions seriously either since they are only advertising their willingness to be persuaded to change their minds.
December 9, 2021
Agreed 100%. I hope you are joined by enough other MPs to defeat these proposed restrictions. They were announced in an attempt to change the narrative away from parties a year ago in No 10 itself in breach of the then prevailing rules. Newspaper headlines today suggest this crude ploy to further restrict our liberties has failed.
December 9, 2021
I’m not usually a conspiracy-theorist but the pace of actions yesterday, at No 10 and in the Commons, means that I’ll be buying your analysis. Johnson has to go!
December 11, 2021
People with a shared baleful intention often do not need to conspire.
December 9, 2021
Most are now realising that what we are seeing is another small step in a journey towards a place in which all that we have known has been obliterated and replaced by something that is evil and malignant
It is simply unacceptable for any MP to remain silent regarding this barbarism
December 9, 2021
+ many.
Unless of course they agree with them.
Or are just obeying orders!
Johnson used V de L’s exact words re enforced jabbing.
Are we still closer to the EU than we imagined?
Or is someone else handing out the script?
December 9, 2021
Throughout history scandalous situations invariably (always?) come back to money or power or both. Hence the expression, “follow the money.”
Money and threats of exposing misdemeanours can be used to bribe and coerce people to do the bidding of the briber. The making of mega bucks and the risk of losing that is a great incentive to abusing power and money to hang onto your money and power.
December 9, 2021
+1
Yes agreed!
And there is quite a network to follow!
Vested interests?
December 9, 2021
Looks like it (to both questions), and I was impressed by the artfulness and length of his oblique threat.
December 9, 2021
+1
December 11, 2021
No European Union institution can compel any of its citizens to have any medical procedure, it would be beyond any treaty remit.
Some – but not all – of its member states can, according to their constitutions, however.
The UK also can, and has done so previously with smallpox, and I think with polio vaccination too.
December 9, 2021
+1 enough is enough, with Boris there’s a new disaster every week
December 9, 2021
+1
It is making me soooo weary.
Wearing us down…is that the idea?
December 9, 2021
DOM – many WILL remain silent.
December 9, 2021
The biggest part of the problem as being reported is the number of non vaccinated people occupying hospital beds. In some cases as high as 80%.
These people are in reality walking time bombs so give them their choice not to be vaccinated but advise them as a condition of their decision they are not eligible for NHS treatment in any shape or form.. There has to be an element of taking full responsibility for their actions. How many times has it been shown non vaccinated people in hospital advising, pleading everyone else to take the jab.
December 9, 2021
Which part of “the jabs don’t stop you getting or transmitting the virus” don’t you understand?
They are prophylactics, not traditional “sterilising” vaccines. The only person they give some degree of protection to is the recipient.
Perhaps we should start a national debate on who the NHS should provide treatment for. I do not want to pay towards:
1. Smokers
2. The obese
3. Drunks
4. Dangerous drivers who cause an accident in which they are injured
5. People who take proscribed drugs
6. Anyone who is injured as a result of a crime (ie burglary and the householder defending his property)
7. Any foreigner who hasn’t got medical insurance
That’ll do for starters…..
December 9, 2021
Donna if they start going down that dangerous and frightening road they would look at who rocks up the most in A&E and ban all those:
8. Horseriders
9. Snowboarders and Skiers
10. Motorbike riders
11. Cyclists
12. DIYers
December 9, 2021
+1
Especially as this govt claimed to be clamping down on health tourism.
I do not want to pay for illegal criminals entering our country to be put in four star hotels. Detention centres at best or taken to Syrian type camps to be processed. Cameron claimed camps in Syria to process them was a way forward. Is this not the same as Patels latest sham?
I do not want to pay for substitute drugs for drug users. Put them in jail to dry out. Just because politicians admit to taking illegal drugs does not mean a blind eye should be given to it and police discouraged to act, as has been the case for years. Politicians not wanting to criminalise people behaving like themselves! People walking into chemists and being given drugs to feed their habit at the expense of the taxpayer! Rewarding illegal activity is never a solution. This is central to boat people coming here.
Under Major’s era thieves given pocket money, criminals taken on holiday all with a view as an alternative to punishment. Studies showed they went on to commit further crime!! What is wrong with hard prison, no visits to allow contraband etc.? Make them earn their keep. Make it austere, no TV gym. Make it horrible so they do not want to go back. There is no deterrent in the CJS.
December 9, 2021
Donna
Agree 100%
Well said, there are too many people spreading division
I’ve heard that the people suffering HAVE had the experimental vaccine, this is a very troubling turn of events from Johnson
December 9, 2021
Difficult to argue with that, but no doubt someone will.
December 9, 2021
Your taxes don’t pay for it.
We don’t use the Euro we use the £
Donna where do you get your £’s from that you use to pay your taxes ?
It’s written on the front of every bank note.
December 9, 2021
Shake the magic money tree eh Derek?
December 9, 2021
The whole point of the NHS is that it provides universal care.
How would it continue if it started to discriminate?
It depends on universal U.K. contributions!
December 9, 2021
@Everhopeful
Maybe we do not wish the NHS to “continue”.
Maybe we would like it to improve and to not waste our money.
December 9, 2021
I hate the NHS.
Was merely responding to Turbo.
The NHS is a clear and present danger until it is disbanded.
And do we really want it discriminating against people?
December 9, 2021
Where do you get your £’s from that you then use to pay your taxes Oldwulf ?
It’s written on the front of every bank note.
So who’s funding who ?
We don’t use the Euro we use the £.
December 9, 2021
There are many areas in which the NHS ‘discriminates’ in the widest sense. Don’t you pay for your own spectacles and eye tests (with exceptions) and much of your dental treatment despite being an NHS patient? Fertility treatment is not handed out free by the bucket load, working age patients pay a contribution to the cost of their prescriptions except under certain conditions, and so on.
December 9, 2021
This is not the case. The NHS provides no care at all to the many people who suffer from Dementia or Alzheimer’s, so it is a sham.
December 9, 2021
Indeed. We need to be clear with those who choose to be unvaccinated – if you get seriously ill from Covid, tough. We will not treat you in our hospitals. We will not pay for your care. If you can fund your own, fine. If not, hard luck.
When you refuse the chance to take a £10 jab to protect yourself, you shouldn’t have the option of having free intensive care worth several thousand pounds a night if your health gamble fails.
Obviously those who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons need all our support. If you choose not to, then we should choose not to treat you when you get sick.
December 9, 2021
Fine, refund my NI and some of my income tax and I’ll go private. Whatever next, forced abortions?
December 9, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
oh dear…
December 9, 2021
ITU care funded by the unvaccinated is hardly free.
December 9, 2021
Should we be equally clear with those who have received the jabs, and deny them treatment for any ‘vaccine injuries’? Should the jabbees pay for their own shots and shooting galleries rather than being supported by the unjabbed?
December 9, 2021
@Andy; Careful what you wish for, it is a short walk from were you are to totalitarianism, after all why should the majority help those who refused to vote/accept for what the majority wants…
December 9, 2021
I have had my three jabs.
On other blogs I am presented with reams of data and news by people telling me – with cogent reasoning – that I shouldn’t have had them.
It should always be the prerogative of a sane, free person in a free society not to have injections.
The jabs do not stop transmission, they do not stop infection. They simply mitigate the illness (if we are to believe that.)
There is a far greater argument for refusing treatment to smokers and the obese and I wouldn’t even advocate for those either.
BTW. Where is “Save lives, save the NHS. Get out of the house. Lose weight !” ???
December 10, 2021
@NLA; “BTW. Where is “Save lives, save the NHS. Get out of the house. Lose weight !” ???”
Been in the legislation from day one of the first lock-down, even if originally only for one hour per day, exercise has always been permitted -and encouraged. Do try to pay more attention at the back! 😛
December 9, 2021
For once, I agree with Andy !
In circumstances like this, the NHS funding model, does not work. If I were to need ICU bed for a heart or other condition, my life would be put at risk because the available beds are taken up by those that deliberately chose not to protect themselves with a couple of simple injections that countless millions have found are entirely harmless and offer excellent protection. This cannot be right.
I have younger relatives who have refused the vaccine because they believe in the most ludicrous conspiracy theories they have read online, such as Bill Gates introducing tracking devices with the jabs.
While we have idiots like these in our population there is no end to the damage they can cause and the risk they pose to the sensible majority.
In the meantime, I am in the Far East on business and, although fully jabbed and boosted, I see I now have to get another test before returning on the 21st, even though the latest variant produces no or mild symptoms and is already spreading across the country out of control. That is ludicrous !
December 10, 2021
On the other hand, if you were to need a scan for cancer diagnosis, you might find all the available appointments were many months into the future because of prioritisation being given to booster vaccinations…
December 9, 2021
should we say the same to people who are in hospital because they smoke? or drink too much? or are too fat because they eat too much or don’t take enough exercise? What a silly and unpleasant post you’ve made.
December 9, 2021
Andy, yesterday you said that the UK had a moral duty to rescue people who choose to leave the safety of France and risk their lives crossing the Channel in inadequate boats but today you say people who choose to refuse a vaccination should be left to their own devices and not receive state aid. Surely this is contradictory and inconsistent?
December 10, 2021
Not at all. We have a duty to try to rescue those in trouble at sea. If they don’t get in the lifeboat that is up to them.
The Covid jab is your lifeboat. Don’t take it if you don’t want to. But if you then drown, tough.
December 10, 2021
Your reply makes it sound like the illegal immigrants have ended up in the Channel through no fault of their own, whereas the reality is they are choosing to leave a perfectly safe country and attempt a risky crossing. Why they would want to leave the paradise of the EU to come to a country you think is populated by elderly racists is a puzzle.
December 9, 2021
Turbo
I’m not sure that’s entirely true. A number of data analysis reporters have checked out and tried to make sense of ONS figures, it would seem that it isn’t true that the hospitals are full of unvaccinated people. The data suggests it’s similar numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated. But the common problem seems to be the gaps in the data.
https://bartram.substack.com/p/are-deaths-in-the-vaccinated-delayed
December 9, 2021
@Sharon +1
It appears that the ONS can pick and choose what numbers it wants to validate, and totally ignores the yellow card data published by government.
The ONS is certainly not helping the search for real truth in all of this!
December 9, 2021
Sharp. We obviously have a problem then with nurses being interviewed telling the public what Turbo has heard. I also heard these figures last night. One in five in hospital are unvaccinated. Who do we believe? I know our hospital recently ran out of beds apparently due to high numbers of Covid cases. I wouldnt be happy if I needed urgent treatment to find no bed. We need more clarity.
December 9, 2021
Sorry. That should be Sharon not Sharp.
December 9, 2021
Thank you for that link. I’ve been looking for it.
‘Similar numbers’ can be analysed with a weighting. If the majority have had the jab then the non-jabbed are over represented in hospitals proving the case for.
December 9, 2021
There is also the point that – in older people- it is more likely that they will die within 60 days full stop, not just within range of a jab.
The figures for the young, however, are alarming.
December 9, 2021
There are many more double-jabbed than unjabbed dying with Covid, and also getting hospitalised. However, you have to take into account the much greater number of the ‘vaccinated’ population anyway. I believe when you do that, there is a slight advantage for the double-jabbed, but it’s not much to get excited about.
December 9, 2021
I can tell you from the horses’ mouth typically those requiring ICU are NOT vaccinated at all, some openly regret not doing it, others die without the ability to regret.
December 9, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
I am vaccinated and (reluctantly as they will give me gene therapy and not AZ) booked in for a booster on Saturday.
However the thought of removing access for a service which is paid for by all taxpayers without the option of opting out from non-vaccinated people is as abhorrent to me as is immediately giving benefits to people who arrive here from another country. It just shouldn’t be done.
December 9, 2021
NS
AZ, Moderna and Pfizer are all gene therapy jabs. None of them is a traditional attenuated vaccine. All that differs between the three is the *method* of delivery: while Moderna and Pfizer use mRNA, AZ uses a viral vector method based on chimpanzee adenovirus to switch on the cell’s alarm systems.
In other words, the AZ makes the RNA from its DNA coding. The others deliver it directly.
December 9, 2021
These 80/90 figures are simply not true, overall in hospital it is more like 30% (with Covid and unvaccinated). They seemed to use figure for numbers of ECMO machine use to produce these misleading propaganda figures. The rather second rate NHS has very few ECMO machine capacity anyway (as few as 15 in some reports). Japan’s health system seems to have 2,200+. So you are not likely to get one if you need one in the UK.
December 9, 2021
I agree that we each have a freedom of choice to receive the injection and the responsibility to carefully consider whether they are a benefit or harm to the integrity of our immune systems.
We should also carefully check the data published weekly by the Scottish and UK Health Security Agencies who are tracking “cases” through to “deaths with/from” Covid-19 against number of injections.
The data has been showing for months that your 80% claim is wrong and the UK is heading into a health disaster of its own making.
In other words, all of us who have been injected might want to start taking isolation seriously for our own protection.
December 9, 2021
Turboterrier, you are only able to retail this utter nonsense because you are ignorant of the government’s own figures, published in the week 48 Covid surveillance report:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1037987/Vaccine-surveillance-report-week-48.pdf
If you look at the data for patients aged 60 and upwards (where Covid can be serious), emergency hospitalisations with Covid are 80% double-vaccinated. ‘Covid deaths’ are 84% double-vaccinated.
But perhaps you prefer to believe what the newspapers tell you?
December 9, 2021
@turbo; The walking time bombs are those who have been vaccinated and believe they can carry on regardless, many of those activity spreading the Omicron variant are likely to be those who ARE vaccinated but have an asymptomatic infection. Hence the reintroduction of mandatory masks wearing in many settings.
The vaccine, as Donna says, does not stop the vaccinated from being infected, does not stop them from passing on their own infection, if that wasn’t the case why has the govt invested so much resources providing a national network of PCR testing stations along with home/work Lateral-flow testing, given that something like 80-90% of the adult (post 16) age group are now vaccinated?
Then what if/when the virus mutates to avoid one or more of the current vaccines, the debate about the non- vaccinated will be somewhat moot…
December 9, 2021
jerry – it is called population control. Do you really think your government cares about you.
December 10, 2021
@Paul Cuthbertson; Only unthinking conspiracy theorists believe such nonsense.
December 11, 2021
Reply to Jerry – The real conspiracy theorists believe their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure you.
December 9, 2021
I don’t doubt your information but it is strangely different here in Austria. We had 14 deaths here in Lower Vienna this week from Covid, of which 10 were people who had been single or double-vaccinated. Whilst these are deaths rather than intensive care admissions (which you were referring to), it seems to be a complete reversal of the figures in the UK.
December 9, 2021
Perhaps you are stamping you feet and shouting ‘ I will not die of Covid’.
A lesson to be learned over here?
December 9, 2021
Turboterrier
It is not 80%, nor, as mistaken Dr Hilary Jones trumpeted on television, 90%. The government’s own figures show it is 36%, and some of those in hospital are called ‘unvaccinated’ even though they have been vaccinated twice, if they were last vaccinated within the last 14 days. According to this government and the NHS’s mad accounting, that is equivalent to not being jabbed at all.
December 9, 2021
Barbara. As said before more clarity is needed. How are the public able to make an informed decision when we are bombarded with different information from all scources? I looked on the Internet recently for stats and information about mask wearing. A few weeks ago the advise was that masks were no good. Now they are saying they do offer protection. Just what are we to believe? Some people are too busy to keep looking up all these stats. We should be able to rely on the NHS and the government to give us accurate and up to date information. It would seem that is impossible. Is it any wonder people like Turbo are misled? Some people here who have no medical background seem to think they have all the answers. Nobody really knows anything so perhaps they could stop being so righteous?
December 10, 2021
The total number of beds occupied by covid patients is under 7,500, which implies less than 5% of beds are taken up by them.
December 9, 2021
Boris has done what I wanted which was to leave the EU.Time for him to move on and make more money to finance all the women and children he has fathered.
He is now surrounded with too many problems.The country needs a new PM to grab the many opportunities of having left the EU.
As to this new virus I will take my chance.Having caught the first virus which caused two minor strokes and 18 months of long COVID and feeling much better.
December 9, 2021
Glad that you’re feeling better, Bob. Best wishes for its continuance.
December 9, 2021
Who do you suggest to replace him who has any chance of winning given all the fake Tory MPs? – Vat on school fees Gove, remainer Truss, the dope Javid, failed heath Sec. Jeremy Hunt, tax to death Sunak, Failed Foreign Sec. Raab?
What a dire list this is.
December 9, 2021
L/L. We may as well slash our wrists now.
December 9, 2021
The country needs a new PM to reclaim Northern Ireland as part of the country fully and in all respects.
December 9, 2021
+1.
December 9, 2021
+1 Boris isn’t surrounded by complex world problems…he is the problem
December 9, 2021
Puppet Boris implements the wishes of the Globalist UK Establishment who have controlled us for centuries.
December 9, 2021
The question is why you wanted to leave the EU – when it has made your country worse. It has made your children and grandchildren permanently poorer. It has massively harmed businesses – particularly small businesses. It has hugely increased red tape. Prices have skyrocketed. Freedoms have been removed.
And the type of foreigners you voted to get rid of arrive in great numbers by inflatables.
There are no opportunities from leaving the EU. You have made the country permanently worse. At this stage it is difficult to know if your position is down to stupidity or treachery. Maybe both.
December 9, 2021
Agreed – he needs to be replaced as does most of his cabinet. Preferably by MPs with Conservative values, that’s if enough of them exist in the fake Conservative party.
December 9, 2021
It is time to move on from worry about the virus. Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk.
Why stop there? Why not let people make their own decisions about whether to carry around loaded weapons which side of the road to drive on, or whether to build houses in their back garden..
Oh yes that’s right , because its effects other people.
Prior to the vaccination programme the UK`s performance in protecting its people was the worst of any major country in the world . The early signs with Omicron are hopeful but I do not wish to be at the mercy of the stupidest people in the country or those who wish to pretend Brexit has not been the disaster it has been.
Reply The UK was not the worst. In your world of total control you would have to ban driving or riding a bike because you could hit someone with your dangerous machine.
December 9, 2021
You could use your “it effects other people” argument about benefits @new.
Everyone should do some form of paid work as it effects other people if you don’t.
You could use your “it effects other people” argument about paying for other people’s children
You could use your “it effects other people” argument about boat people taking up money and accommodation in this country
Where is your line for what effects other people so should not be allowed?
December 9, 2021
Reply to reply
+1
A neat put down.
Newmania probably works (hides) at home while working class people risk their lives bringing him stuff.
So he doesn’t actually *feel* the negative effects of these measures (but he will, soon enough.) This is probably why he doesn’t understand why Brexit happened.
So, Newmania. When will we ever get out of masks and away from state interference in our lives ? If not now (with vaccines and a low death rate) then when, exactly ???
And where does your ocean going estimation of your own intelligence come from ?
Do keep it up, though. It’s wonderful for recruitment to the other side.
December 9, 2021
The difference between the worst-in-the-world and the UK is not significant in scale, and may even be attributable only to counting methods.
However, there is a universe between the UK and the best, e.g. New Zealand.
You can try to footballify the thing into a league table, and it might work for some of your more stupid voters I suppose though, but even then only if not being bottom is what matters to them, Sir John.
December 9, 2021
New Zealand one day will crawl back out into the world from under its beds and open up to the world.
A nation isolated geographically with a population density a fraction of European nations.
More sheep than people.
December 10, 2021
New Zealand did not require the lockdowns that the UK did, precisely because they dealt properly with the virus at the outset, as did a good number of countries. They could go to pubs and to sporting events while the venues were shuttered up here.
It was this country where the people “crawled out from under their beds”, and repeatedly.
December 10, 2021
You have not addressed any of my points.
We shall see what happens to New Zealand when they open up to the world which they will have to one day.
You can’t lockdown for ever.
December 10, 2021
Ah, yes, Sir John, here’s one right now.
December 9, 2021
The UK is 29th for deaths per million, behind many EU countries. The UK independent vaccination programme was a triumph. Do you remember how the UK govt was slammed by pro-EU types – probably including you – for not participating in the EU programme? And do you recall the anti-vaxx drivel from EU figures like Macron, Merkel and von der Leyen, in their fury that the UK had done so well?
It is far too early to call Brexit a success. But neither has it been the disaster you and others so confidently predicted.
December 9, 2021
Certainly now “Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk.” for the alternative is to trust Blue Boris’s Government, advised as it is by various professor lock-downs who once upon a time told us herd immunity was possible.
December 9, 2021
To this I would add “and do not attack their decisions – make other treatments available”.
If there were a risk of a radiation leak from a nuclear power station, any responsible government would issue iodine tablets to to nearby population. If the government had made Ivermectin tablets available to the populous, there would have been considerably less admissions to hospital (Uttar Pradesh State in India).
However, I am totally in favour of restrictions on the unvaccinated – it is the vaccinated spreading the disease. More people will realise the obvious.
Instead of obsessing about parties, a proper discussion on adverse effects is the important subject to address. More heart problems because of covid stress – give me a break.
December 9, 2021
Vaccination is a form of controlled herd immunity
Plan ‘B’ and the wearing of masks actually disrupt the advantages of the vaccination to take hold and work its magic across the nation
December 9, 2021
I see that ONS report that 95% of adults now have antibodies to the virus. That’s about the level needed to prevent measles outbreaks from spreading. Meanwhile, they also report excess deaths have been significantly higher than covid related deaths since mid summer. It seems we have ignored other medical conditions too readily.
December 9, 2021
“Blue Boris”.Wasn’t he one of the Smurfs?!
December 9, 2021
I agree with Sir John Redwood’s approach.
I have had the jabs(with some buyer’s remorse) and also the annual flu jab.
I have been doing the lateral flow tests at home and the results were negative. However, I had a dry cough and went to Boots where the assistant suggested a PCR test. I later took one and the result was positive. So I am currently self isolating. It’s not the end of the world. It’s just like having a cold.
December 9, 2021
+1
Yes.
Because that is probably what you’ve got! A corona virus!
And the jabs didn’t prevent it.
Did they?
Get well soon 🌺
December 9, 2021
Reminds of when you had a bad cold or flu, you’d stay home and take paracetamol….and you didn’t have to wear a mask, you used a hankercheif
December 9, 2021
Mark B, one can understand that a ‘negative result’ from a flow test will reassure some people. But perhaps you did not even have to do this test? Your local Salvation Army volunteers would probably have presumed that you were well by the very fact that you turned up to help.
If we take tests we could be playing the Government’s game. What happened to trust? Pre-covid, most thoughtful types stayed away from others if they felt unwell, which you no doubt would have done too.
Some might say, ‘Ah, but what about a-symptomatic spread?’ Several studies, including a study of 10,000,000 (yes, 10 million) people in China, show that there is so little evidence of a-symptomatic spread as to be hardly worth mentioning. We have to ask ourselves why such a big thing has been made by the Government of a-symptomatic spread. (Scary, no outward signs, even a beloved friend or relative could be lethal . . . )
As for masks, I’ve also continued to go into shops mask-less, smiling and eliciting smiles from others. Now that the Government has re-affirmed the mask mandate, I’m going to have to ‘screw my courage to the sticking place’ again, but I will not comply because the mandate is political, not based on science.
If you look up Swiss Policy Research and ask are face masks effective you will find encouraging evidence from studies conducted in a number of countries.
December 9, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
Data on mask effectiveness is conflicting but the best Danish study showed that masks make little difference.
December 9, 2021
+1 but why would anyone sensible think they would do?
December 9, 2021
Correct – the wearing of masks is indeed political
December 9, 2021
Mary M
Wearing a mask to stop a virus is like employing a chain-link fence to stop a mosquito… Dr Mike Yeadon … ex-deputy head of Pfizer
December 9, 2021
+1 in fact more like dust and a fence with holes the size of tennis courts.
December 9, 2021
Someone who makes money from vaccines says masks are no good? Sounds unlikely.
December 9, 2021
Thank you for your reply, Mary M
December 9, 2021
The true measure of a mask is not the concocted lab videos but the ones where people are vaping through them or wearing them outside on a cold day.
They are utterly engulfed in their own vapour. The double-mask video by The Independent (YouTube) is particularly interesting because it really is natural vapour and even double masks leave a huge cloud of vapour.
Face it. You get on a train carriage for more than one stop you’re getting Covid – or any other exposure, masked or not.
You wouldn’t dare rely on one of these stripping an asbestos roof or in an ebola crisis.
December 9, 2021
Mary M – I am in wholehearted agreement with you
December 9, 2021
It’s comforting to know that there are some MPs, including you Sir John, who will stand up to the tyrants of SAGE and this disgraceful excuse of a Prime Minister lurking in his No.10 bunker.
There is no justification for these restrictions being imposed. We were told that the Roadmap to Freedom would be irreversible; it should not be reversed EVER.
I don’t believe for one minute that Johnson didn’t know a party/parties were going on in No.10. He himself broke the lockdown restrictions by having the current Mrs Johnson’s best buddy to stay for Christmas …..using the risible excuse that it was to provide a child-minding bubble. How many adults does it need to child-mind a toddler! He has no moral authority to impose restrictions on us.
I am beginning to doubt his sanity.
December 9, 2021
I don’t know about his sanity, but I do know that being PM has ‘gone to his head’. He appears to have had a personality transplant. Never has a person more ill-equipped to be PM managed to slither into No. 10.
Who can one blame? Well, you Tory voters, of course. You must have been insane.
December 9, 2021
Your final sentence is interesting. Some months ago I wrote the same, admittedly more directly, but Sir John would not publish it.
December 9, 2021
Agree the proposed move to ‘Plan B’ because of Omicron is moronic. Whilst it will slow down transmission rates marginally there are substantial downsides.
When will the government start to release cost – benefit assessments with these announcements. I was of the understanding such an assessment was a prerequisite? Our Country cannot afford this brain-dead decision making.
December 9, 2021
Plan ‘B’ is what it is – a political distraction
December 9, 2021
+ 1000
I have been saying all pandemic “Where is the cost to benefit analysis in the presentations ?”
This is most unscientific of the Government and its advisers.
December 9, 2021
“ It is time to move on from worry about the virus. Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk.”
I couldn’t agree more!
Let people make their own choices about their own health and their risks of illness. There are some more important things for government to address… like how to keep the lights on. Being cold is as great a health risk!
December 9, 2021
@Sharon; Stop being so bl**dy selfish, are some on the right so incapable of thinking about anyone other than themselves (and their dearest?)! It is not just their own health they are deciding upon but other’s, for each and every person who ends up occupying a hospital bed due to ignoring CV19 restrictions/advice means another person might not get their cancer or angina etc treated.
December 9, 2021
Jerry. Well said. I am fed up with me, me, me. Doesn’t anyone think about the doctors and nurses who have to cope with this? They will be the first to moan when they become seriously ill or involved in a bad accident and a bed can’t be found.
December 10, 2021
Do you not even trust yourself to behave sensibly Jerry and FUS?
Do you really require the state to tell you what to do in order to do the right thing?
Currently not one death due to Omnicron.
December 10, 2021
@Peter2; Yes I do trust myself to behave sensibly, and I’m sure @FUS trusts herself likewise, but I do not trust those who share your apparent attitude to behave sensibly -sorry.
“Currently not one death due to Omnicron.”
No doubt, back in 1939, you would have only started to hand out ARP shelters etc. after the first bombs rained down, only after the first deaths introduced the blackout regulations, only after the first (of any) gas attack handed out gas masks!
Anyway I think you meant to say ‘no recorded death due to Omnicron’, but that is a very low bar to clear, should Omnicron be causing deaths 29 days or more after a confirmed CV19 positive test…
December 10, 2021
So you trust yourself to behave sensibly Jerry but not many who like me, would prefer the government to trust the public a little more, to behave sensibly.
Very odd logic.
PS
Your 1939 scenario is a complete red herring.
PPS
Pedantic as usual Jerry
Add “recorded” to “no deaths” if it pleases you
December 10, 2021
@Peter2; “prefer the government to trust the public a little more”
Indeed but it has been the refusal of sections of the public to behave sensibly without being asked that has brought many a otherwise totally unnecessary law, in this case simple acts such as wearing a mask and/or to social distance in crowed areas for example, why the govt has to impose laws and instruct such people now the CV19 situation appears to becoming critical again.
Anyway, if you were going to practice these moderate and sensible CV19 restrictions anyway why are you complaining about being told to do much of what you would have done anyway, unless of course that was the least of your actual intentions. Damned by your own pen and over protesting!
If you can not understand the comparison (I could have just as well used the 1960s era laws that made the fitting of seat-belts in cars compulsory) between 1939 ARP measures and today, acting preemptively to prevent needless deaths before they occur, then it says far more about you Peter than it does me. As for being ‘pedantic’, that comes from (trying to) deal in the facts, not your wishful thinking and hearsay, after all those who believe there should be another full and hard lock-down could also play by your rules, pluck numbers out of the ether to suit their argument…
PS. Is this, to paraphrase Monty Python, going to be the short or the full argument/troll, how much time should our host set aside for your indulgence?
December 10, 2021
No not dammed by my own words at all Jerry
But if you feel you are so incapable of behaving that you need micro management and legislation that controls everything you can do then you should be happy with the way things are heading.
You carry on Jerry with your historical red herrings.
You will be back to 1066 eventually.
Hilarious.
December 10, 2021
I think it very sad you always descend to calling people troll who just simply challenge your arguments without being rude offensive or aggressive towards you Jerry.
It is like people who heckle and try to shout down those they disagree with in public forums.
December 11, 2021
@Peter2; I will indulge your (two recent) comments one last time.
Laws get put in place only when common sense and/or morality within society fails to prevent problems, and yes such problems might be caused by a very small minority. You talk of allowing common sense, yet is is common sense to have been wearing a mask and socially-distance when shopping for the last 18 to 20 months, yet how many people were still doing so when shopping by mid November 2021 – so much for believing people do not need to be “micromanaged”.
But perhaps you do have a point, I hope you will agreed, that all the Thatcher era (anti) trade union laws should never have been made and should thus be repealed immediately. It should, after all, be for the trade unions and their members to decide how they manage their affairs, how they vote for officials or strike action, or if there should be closed shops, if they choose to hold such meetings in car parks with a public show of hands or make use of secrete postal ballots etc, it should be no business of the State – ho-hum…
“You will be back to 1066 eventually.”
LOL, saying that on a site were our host has often referred back to 1066, or the Magna Carta etc, indeed Hilarious! 🙄
“I think it very sad you always descend to calling people troll”
I speak as I find, nor do I “always descend”, if you do not want to be called a troll stop behaving like one. It is also strange how you did not object when I called @Andy a troll the other day, so your protest is not about “calling people” trolls, just being described as such yourself.
“It is like people who heckle and try to shout down those they disagree with in public forums.”
Just as you do yourself, except most would call it a “debate”, and quite how anyone “shouts down” someone on a fully moderated text based forum, duh…
As @hefner suggested a week or so ago, send us your GPS location Peter2 (or is it really Edward, funny how he vanished and you appeared, with very similar posting & thought styles), I’m sure we can have a whip-around to have a mirror delivered to you in time for Christmas.
December 12, 2021
Gosh what an essay.
Carry on with your cheap abuse and pedantic waffle if it keeps you busy Jerry
Ho hum.and duh as so eloquently say.
And you call others trolls
Hilarious Jerry.
December 9, 2021
I see that the Met won’t be bothering with an investigation into alleged wrong-doing at No 10, for want of evidence. If only they had had a policeman on duty outside the front-door.
December 9, 2021
@S_W; That Scotland Yards decision will be seen for what it is, a favor being returned…
December 9, 2021
or a ‘signing-in’ log…..did they all bring a bottle or was refreshments provided (taxpayers expense)
December 9, 2021
Comment of the week !!!!
December 9, 2021
and who was seen delivering food and drink to No9? Dozens alleged to have attended – nobody blowing the whistle?
December 9, 2021
perhaps it was to No 10 via the rear tradesmen’s entrance?
December 10, 2021
I wonder what the Met would have done if a Tory had reported a similar alleged gathering amongst Labour people?
December 9, 2021
The measures are irritating and almost certainly useless – and they do have a cost.
But at least the revelation of the Downing Street party last year means we can’t have another lockdown.
December 9, 2021
City centre hospitality businesses have had a very difficult time. Over the last 18 months or so, many have ceased to trade.
A new call for people to work from home will be the death knell for many of the remaining hospitality and other businesses. The media generated fear of Omicron has already caused footfall problems.
Sir, I fully support your stance.
December 9, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
I thought Sajid Javid was a good level-headed replacement for Hancock but he’s now spouting rubbish about having a million cases A DAY by January. Obviously the scientists have been working on him too.
As the problem with Omicron is that it infects already-vaccinated people quite easily what on earth is the point of vaccine passports ?
If there are really 10,000 Omicron cases already (and I’m inclined to believe it as I live in one of the hotspots) surely all inbound travel restrictions can be removed immediately, if not why not ?
Not sure why Boris is drivelling on about compulsory vaccination – it is against the current law. If he wants it put it in the next Conservative manifesto and see how far that gets him.
Time to ditch Boris and move on. Letters in please.
December 9, 2021
The Government authoritarianism is on an ascending trajectory whilst the severity of covid is on a downward trajectory.
There are several measures that cause the voters patience to snap
1) The lack of lethality of covid
2) The evolution of the vaccine is too slow
3) The risk of covid versus the risk of the vaccine.
4) Lockdown is costing more lives than it saves
(1) is happening right now (2) is happening right now but 1 makes it irrelevant (3) happened during the delta variant. (4) happened during the beta variant.
The Government is blinded by nudge theory, invested in big science and parties to notice that dehumanising people with internal passports and health scares remind everybody of history lessons they were told to learn from.
December 9, 2021
It’s very odd that Boris announces further restrictions just as evidence from South Africa shows that the original epicentre of the Omicron outbreak in Gauteng province, has not seen reported daily infections increase for four days now.
https://gpcoronavirus.co.za/#cases/province.GP/Cases
Also, the FT reported that early hospital data from South Africa suggests mild symptoms.
https://www.ft.com/content/d315be08-cda0-462b-85ec-811290ad488e
If this continues to be the case, it looks like Sir John and hopefully other MPs will have good grounds based on actual data to challenge the govt.
I am still far from convinced that the tests used to determine cases, are 100% accurate and capable of determining what variant is involved.
December 9, 2021
Quote; It is time to move on from worry about the virus. Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk; unquote
Exactly, we have to learn to live with Covid just as we learned to live with influenza.
I’ve had three jabs (despite not really believing in their efficacy) If I still catch it, what more can I do?
While I have your attention, it’s time for a new leader of the Conservative party. Boris is now a bumbling, incompetent joke.
December 9, 2021
If most on this site think it’s ok to be unvaccinated why have most like you had it?
December 9, 2021
On topic Sir JR, this looks like a smokescreen to deflect from Boris’s self induced problems. I don’t know anyone who does not agree with you.
This current situation is just a metaphor for problems across government caused by a PM acting like some mediaeval monarch, supported by supine courtiers, who believe rules are for other people.
December 9, 2021
Since the roll out of the jabs death rates and illness should have gone down not up.
If the rates have gone up then what use is the jab?
If rates have gone down then what need is there for more jabs?
Why is the govt. ignoring the findings of scientists in SA? ie a very mild disease ( common cold).
Who is spinning gold from this filthy straw?
Can’t guess!
The mainstream misleadia has admitted there is an unprecedented spike in young people getting heart trouble, even dying. They are trying to put it down to stress of lockdown.
That’s rather QED isn’t it? Etc ed
December 9, 2021
Do you really not realise that among the 5or 6 million waiting for treatment will be quite a few tens of thousands (more?) that will have shortened lives. Indeed there are possibly hundreds of thousands who have had no diagnosis but remain in severe risk of having a terminable illness.
December 9, 2021
Of course I do.
But the government, you well know, is shutting us down again.
THEY won’t admit it is because of denying people treatment!
Can’t you see that they are trying to shrug off responsibility.
December 9, 2021
This has never been about control of a virus it is about control of people. Who would have thought that in our lifetimes we would have a government (least of all a so-called Conservative governement) taking away our liberty, freedom and democracy and moving relentlessly to authoritarian state control just like China. Too many MPs and the MSM have been complicit. Our country has already been irreparably damaged by the tyrants in charge. This is a war of good against evil and those MPs who can see this need to take action beyond just voting against this government next week.
December 9, 2021
On yesterdays topic, I noticed the Minister failed to answer again why the Nightingale hospitals were not used.
It shows he has no power over the NHS.
Why do accept such a zero response?
December 9, 2021
At the beginning of the Chinese plague virus epidemic, here in the UK Sir John agitated against “draconian” restriction of freedoms – following Trump – which helped to delay the first lockdown. As a result the virus spread rapidy among the vulnerable with tens of thousands of cases overwheming the NHS and deaths running at 2000 per day.
Sir John then compounded the error by agitating for premature relaxation of the lockdown “restrictions” for economic reasons. The result was thousands more deaths. Quoting “deaths per million” is disingenuous as each country defines “deaths” differently. Yesterday the BBC website noted that GPs have recorded Covid on 170,001 death certificates – the worst total in Europe. What an appalling record of government incompetence.
The restrictions are inconvenient, but are a sensible precaution until we know more about the Omicron variant. Labour will vote in favour. So should the “Covid Recovery Group”
Reply The UK counted a lot of elderly people dying from complex conditions as covid deaths in the early days. In the USA Democrat states with longer and more comprehensive lockdowns have not done better than Republican states. You ignore my calls for isolation hospitals to stop the spread in DG hospitals, my call to stop putting still infected people back into care homes, my wish to adopt more life saving medicines more quickly and to improve air extraction and cleansing etc
December 9, 2021
May I suggest that the era of hacks being brought onto the government payroll at Secretary of State-level pay needs to end – and that now is as good a time as any.
December 9, 2021
Good morning.
Sir John, thank you for your stance.
Readers might have heard the interview Marcus Fish MP gave on R4 Today this morning.
Very good.
December 9, 2021
🙏thank you Sir John
December 9, 2021
I do hope that you have also expressed your lack of confidence in your leader to the chair of the 1922 committee?
December 9, 2021
Even I’ve put a letter into the 1922, however it doesn’t carry any weight as I’m not an MP – that’s democracy for yeah
December 9, 2021
“Trust people to make decisions”, now there’s a novel concept for a conservative government! On the one hand we are told that the “Moronic” variant evades the “vaccines”. On the other we are told to get jabbed. Now we are told that a sniffle could be an indicator that you have Covid. If a sniffle is all it has become, then what is the fuss about?
December 9, 2021
As a constituent I support your decision to vote against the restrictions. I am concerned that, in Boris Johnson, we have a PM who is more concerned about saving his own skin than the well being of the country.
December 9, 2021
Look at the data coming out of South Africa. The Omicron variant has swept across their country and pushed the Delta variant almost completely out. It is already clear it is much more transmissible but far less severe as cases have risen sharply but hospital admissions remain low. Symptoms are little different from the common cold. Is this Government suggesting that we bring in draconian measures to combat such a mild disease? They really have lost the plot. Nature has given us a huge window of opportunity to reach herd immunity with this very mild variant. As the doctors tell us, we will all catch Covid sooner or later; I’d rather catch a mild variant now than a severe one in the future as it mutates again.
December 9, 2021
Here’s an interesting, rather off topic, item:
https://euobserver.com/democracy/153767
“Commission plan allows police to shoot suspects in other EU states”
“Police, under proposals by the European Commission, would be allowed to chase suspects into other EU states and shoot them, if necessary.
“We propose a better police cooperation on the ground, that’s boots on the ground,” EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told reporters on Wednesday (8 December).”
I’m beginning to suspect that this EU thing is not just about improving trade.
December 9, 2021
Yep the Government has done its job and has produced a vaccine at the taxpayers expense which is free at the point of injection, they are also producing and making public (Factual I hope) information at regular intervals on the number of people infected, and hospital admissions.
They also publish regularly the symptoms, the means to get a test, and suggested possible prevention measures.
Surely people now can make their own minds up about their own risk.
I went to the theatre last night and wore a comfortable face covering throughout, others did not, sanitisation was available for hands, should you choose to use it.
Whist I have the Covid app on my phone, I have not used it for 9 months, since a family member was pinged because their next door neighbour, who they had not been in contact with for weeks, had the virus on the opposite side of the party wall, which completely separates the two properties.
I have no problem with the NHS app showing my vaccination status to whoever wants to see it.
When I cross the road I look at the traffic flow first, and assess the risk before crossing, I do likewise when choosing where I go to visit with the virus risk.
December 9, 2021
With Boris Johnson as PM there is huge risk that the right of centre vote will split leaving it open for a mishmash coalition of the left.
December 9, 2021
And in related news the government once again failed to ensure there was capacity before bringing in a draconian law, namely the ability of the testing industry to turn around PCR tests so travellers have to put up with inflated prices and potentially long isolation periods. If that happens to me through no fault of my own I will ignore the rules.
I am blowed if this government is going to ruin my Christmas. I have followed all of Sir JRs common sense points, have wasted hundreds of pounds on unnecessary tests, and despite travelling to so called ‘hot spots’ have never proved positive.
December 9, 2021
Because this is a political project.
On the basis of no deaths with the new variant, and less cases despite a huge increase in testing, there are no reasons for any measures!
It is common knowledge, amongst experienced doctors that understand how a virus works, that as a virus mutates it becomes less deadly – but that doesn’t stop the constant scare stories that omicron could be very deadly.
JR, we are all glad to see you take a stand against what is being done in the name of a pandemic – we all want life to return to normal, and it will do if more MPs have the guts to realize what is going on and put a complete stop to it.
December 9, 2021
Plan B is just a means to give the Civil Service more holidays over the festive season.
December 9, 2021
Watched PMQ’s. It was disgusting. The topics aside the behaviour of MP’s was disgusting. To think this embarrassing charade is shown around the world. Point scoring, back biting, sniping, shouting down our own PM so he cannot be heard. Stage managed questions. The mother of all parliaments has turned into an national embarrassment every Wednesday. More like a kindergarten. If Parliament want to continue with its embarrassing mess can we not televise it. It is of no consequence anyway.
December 9, 2021
The biggest embarrassment is thinking that people around the world see the bloke we have as PM.
December 9, 2021
The raucous, non-socially distanced parties at No.10 and SAGE members not following their own lockdown rules gives me the impression that they knew more than what they were telling us and that the really dire scare stories put out by the Government, its fifth column behavioural advisers and the MSM led by the BBC were false.
The same is no doubt true for the really scary stories of man-made CO2 emissions causing the end of the world that is also being broadcast by the same group.
Since we started the Industrial Revolution they say we must be punished by accepting to reduce our CO2 emissions unilaterally and quickly at any cost or inconvenience, such as power blackouts or travel restrictions because the technology does not yet exist, whilst they, and much of the rest of the world continue their lives emitting as much CO2 as they wish.
December 9, 2021
Well fortunately the govt, advised by scientists (not economists and lawyers [1]…) with regards public health issues, is not going to need our host support nor that of others on the govt backbenches!
“They can decide to take the risk”
Except, without govt WFH legislation etc, many employees can not decide for themselves, many will either have to take the risk, loose their jobs, or at least be laid off (without any Furlough support in place).
“as we do for most other diseases that we can catch from other people.”
But not for diseases with no-known or only partial cures.
[1] the latter who should perhaps keep their powers dry until such time someone in govt suggests mandatory vaccinations
December 9, 2021
I suppose that our oh so liberal and naive MPs realise that the definition of “fully vaccinated” is an ever moving goal?
It won’t end with three and a fourth is on the cards.
And anyone with fewer than the newest jab number will be classed as “unvaccinated”.
And discriminated against. Apartheid.
I object to and am offended by the way Johnson says “get jabs in arms”. Who the Hell does he think he is speaking about.
Also it should be required of all politicians to call it “Vaccine”. Thus compounding their lies because that is what they claim it is.
December 9, 2021
Sir John I agree with you one hundred percent.
In defence of the PM, he is pushed and pushed by the opposition, Sage and the media to impose more and more draconian restrictions on us.
I do wonder whether the media has been nudged to keep the scare stories going.
I read an article on Conservative Woman about The Behavioral Insights team and their agreement, which our news media companies have signed up to, which ensures only one side of the climate change debate gets aired. I wonder if a similar agreement exists in relation to Covid19. It is scary reading the B. I. T’s websight and what they’re up to.
I am a life long Conservative supporter and following Mr Cameron and Mrs May’s disastrous premierships, I had high hopes for Mr Johnson who I thought was a real Conservative, sadly I have been disappointed again. Are there any real Conservatives left in the so called Conservative Party other than our host?
If we don’t get the party sorted out really soon, we shall have to endure another Labour government with Jimmy Krankie backing them up, something our nation can’t afford.
December 9, 2021
Unbelievably as the Government imposes this WEF agenda the media are thumping on and on about a Christmas party, and even suggesting that the assault on our liberty is a distraction tactic. I suggest that it is the other way round and the party is the ‘dead cat’. Boris has been longing for months to play with the other kids, but figures here have gone disappointingly downwards. He hopefully suggested that he could impose restrictions based on other countries’ figures and has finally jumped, based on events in South Africa and a graph clearly marked ‘Not to be used to evaluate vaccine effectiveness’. A whistleblower has revealed that last week’s facemask announcement was a softening measure for the Plan B release. Look for extension to pubs and gyms next week and further mendacious claims that he is doing this because of the ‘unvaccinated’.
December 9, 2021
Regarding hospital admissions, I had the impression from last night’s Downing Street conference that they were expected to rise sharply now that Omicron has arrived, but that it would take a short time before its impact on the numbers became visible. How would the N.H.S. cope with the feared increase in demand unless restrictions were introduced? There is already a backlog from other illnesses.
December 9, 2021
The evidence from South Africa doesn’t back this up. There they have had an explosion in Omicron but hospital admissions and deaths have hardly risen.
December 14, 2021
BBC News has just announced that the Chief Medical Officer has warned the Cabinet of a coming significant increase in COVID hospitalisations.
December 9, 2021
I reluctantly agree – I have had enough of this Big State approach. However the idea of Mandatory Vaccinations is more than a step too far.
December 9, 2021
I very much hope you will not be alone. The Government seem to be completely in thrall to the panicking NHS. The question that needs answering above all others is: having now had all but two years to get its house in order and in receipt of limitless quantities of our money, why has the NHS not put itself in a position to cope with the current threat? Both Hancock and Javid have shown themselves incapable of getting anything done. The only (great) success was the initial Vaccins roll-out, and that was taken out of the hands of the NHS. The ‘Booster’ campaign is back with them, and they are making a bureaucratic mess of it.
December 9, 2021
I fully endorse you post today and your position regarding further restrictions under the governments plan ‘B’
Urgent questions
1. Will MPs need to show a covid-passport to the House of Commons, like the plebs in similar venues
2. How many people have died and /or been hospitalised as a direct result of omicron and where those numbers a decision trigger for plan ‘B’
December 9, 2021
Dr Raghib Ali (an epidemiologist who is now a government advisor, although not I think admitted to the hallowed halls of SAGE) drew attention to an interesting study on his twitter feed. It shows that the public were scaling back and increasing their levels of social contact in advance of lockdowns being put in place and relaxed, but in reflection of the level of infections represented by positive tests. That is, the people can be trusted to show common sense – as we also know from Sweden, where restrictions were never as severe.
December 9, 2021
I’m pleased you will be taking positive action. These restrictiobs must be opposed, there is a constant erosion of our freedoms which must be opposed.
There must be more opposion though as ‘Boris’ is danger. He believes in nothing apart from himself and must be got rid of.
December 9, 2021
Dear Sir John
If only more MPs took your courageous stand, there would be no question of this nonsense continuing. In your constituency’s NHS area, as you undoubtedly know, Covid hospitalisations and deaths are flat and Covid ICU bed occupancy is in the low single figures. There is nothing of any significance happening. The omicron variant of SARS Cov 2 is predictably very mild, so should not be responsible for overloading the NHS. As far as I know things are very similar in other places. So Johnson has failed to show any need for measures introduced since 30th November. The man is completely lacking in principle and integrity, bringing in restrictions in an attempt to blot out bad headlines from the Allegra Stratton fiasco. That is no way to run a country.
December 9, 2021
In a conversation with my own MP on Tuesday he stated he was not aware of any change in plan from the government despite Plan B being trailed in the media. Obviously not all MP’s are in the government ministerial conversations but he did say that the current plans would not be reconsidered until later this month when we had more data. So it seems even Conservative MP’s are kept out of the loop, which makes me feel like this Plan B action is a cover story for the PM to deflect the party / no party fiasco.
I thought Sajid Javid was brought in to ensure that we moved away from the doomsday pronouncements of Matt Hancock and to be more sensible and nuanced in our approach. Apparently not.
Urge you MP to vote against is my advise.
December 9, 2021
Since the start of the first vaccinations, I have turned them down. I have made my own assessment of risk and concluded that I am more at risk from health-damage caused by the vaccines than I am from covid. I wonder how many of the obedient sheep who have trotted out for their recent inoculations have ever consulted the MHRA lists of adverse reactions?
I am happy to consider a vaccination product that has been tested rigorously over many years, with a decent track record and long-term data on safety. Those that government wishes to push—even force—on us are not in those categories. Yet by refusing them I am labelled as a wicked person, who should be banished from society and left to live on breadcrusts. Having done my working life in medical diagnostics, I know enough to make a health decision for myself. I thank our host for standing up against the tyrants.
December 9, 2021
I hope there are few like you. Most of us rate a sore upper arm, even a buzzy head for half a day to be eminently preferable to a week often 2, in bed feeling as if dying, sadly quite a number endure agony in hospital denied infecting loved ones, and a worrying number die – yes die.
If in ten years time it is discovered that vaccinated people lose feeling in the arm used, have a headache for a few hours every month, sometimes find energy levels lower than normal but at least still alive. You however may not be around to gloat ‘I told you so’.
December 9, 2021
MT
Or a blood clot, permit people to make their own choices, read the stories about serious side effects and don’t try and pressure people to take an experimental, untested gene therapy
The pharmaceutical companies don’t accept any responsibility for any damage caused by their products, if I have the vaccine on your recommendation will your accept responsibility if I have a problem?
December 9, 2021
Well said Micky. Billions all over the world have had the vaccine and there doesn’t seem to be a big problem with it. I had zero side effects with all three and most people I know were the same.
December 9, 2021
You may have been OK but I know several people who have not been. My own daughter was rushed into hospital with a severe side effect from the booster and other members of my family have been very ill. The vaccine producers’ own data shows women are three times more likely to report serious side effects than men and those in the 30 to 50 age bracket are experiencing far more problems than the older age groups.
December 9, 2021
But you are unaware of the adverse effects people are suffering because this data is being suppressed. Maybe in ten years the truth will come out and Chris Dark will be proved right or maybe the benefits of the vaccine will outway the problems. The point is we just don’t know because we aren’t being given the facts. Ask yourself why the adverse effects data is being suppressed and why the drug companies want to bury it for the next 70 years. I have seen a copy as the US courts forced the manufacturers to publish it and there are some worrying issues that need urgent investigation.
December 9, 2021
I see that OFGEM have announced that as a consequence of the collapse of so many energy retailers, some £218m of Renewables Obligations payments were not made by them by the deadline. The standing procedure is that these are mutualised, adding to already hard pressed bills of those whose supplier paid in full already. Since generators who get RO subsidies have been making out like bandits from the windfall of hugely higher market prices with no increase in costs, albeit some reduction in sales because of low winds in some cases, it seems reasonable that mutualisation should be cancelled to give some relief to hard pressed bill payers. Perhaps Mr Kwarteng or Mr Hands might like to comment in Parliament.
December 9, 2021
In similar vein, I note that the prices for UKA carbon allowances are now anticipating that the government will not increase the supply of allowances adequately despite the triggering of the provisions that arise from prices having more than doubled. This also represents a hidden tax on billpayers and tilts the playing field in favour of excess profits for those renewables generators who are not constrained by CFD contracts by pushing up the cost of CCGT generators.
I also saw that in his evidence to the Lords Select Committe on OFGEM and Net Zero, Mr Brearley and his sidekick seemed to think that these high prices were a good thing because they made Net Zero policies seem less unattractive. It is time that OFGEM was cut down to size with its remit confined to acting in consumer interests, rather than endlessly supporting green interests (as the 2010 Energy Act requires it to do – thanks Ed Miliband).
December 9, 2021
…..and yet where is the evidence that nightclubs are a significant source of infection?
December 9, 2021
John, Well Said !
December 9, 2021
Thank you Sir John.
I am reassured to read your voting intentions and hope many of your fellow MPs will also vote against this CV 19 law.
Like many others I now find this Government frightening and serious changes need to be made to prevent this country sliding into fascism.
December 9, 2021
The race is on. Which will achieve popular immunization first: the mild omicron variant or the vaccines?
Till he decided to use irrational restrictions as a smoke screen to cover the relatively minor furore over the Christmas party the inoculation programme was the one thing the P.M. had done well; it might almost have compensated for his and his wife’s promotion of the anthropogenic-climate-change fraud, for which the electorate did NOT vote.
But these absurd SARS-CoV-2 restrictions will likely — should the people be dumb enough to comply with them — hinder the omicron variant’s effective immunization of the population!
Let him go now ere he do any more damage … and take his wretched wife with him.
ΠΞ
December 9, 2021
Good for you, Sir John. I wonder how many of your colleagues will have the decency to join you.
The solution to the concern that hospitals, and ICUs in particular, will be overwhelmed is obvious and simple: in the last few weeks the government has announced that several new treatments have been approved, so when anyone presents themselves at hospital with covid simply offer them a cocktail of these new treatments and immediately discharge them.
We have to start treating covid as no more than a minor and fairly insignificant disease and stop panicking like cowardly and cretinous old women!
December 9, 2021
I see that the “Health” Sec has declared forced jabbination ( pin you down and “get it in the arm”) to be “unethical”.
How will the liars wriggle out of that one?
Redefinition of the word “unethical” as they have done with “pandemic” and “infection” and “truth”?
We will not be surprised.
December 9, 2021
Today I read that non-Irish Eu citizens living in Ireland will have to apply for pre-travel clearance to cross the border into Northern Ireland all under proposed new British immigration laws – but the question is: how will this affect me a British national travelling several times a year to EU countries for business as I expect there will now be the quid pro quo of similar laws for UK nationals made from the 27 EU countries – can I now expect to be bogged down with this extra layer of bureaucracy madness everywhere I go?
December 9, 2021
I totally agree with you, Sir John. But, given that politics is the art of the possible, would you not have more success trying to introduce a “sunset clause” amendment so that the new rules automatically expire after, say, a month unless reintroduced by Parliament?
December 9, 2021
It is so obvious I am surprised Johnson has the nerve to do it – but, of course, many Conservative voters are so tribal (and many other people are so depressed by politicians) that he knows he will get away with the new measures as a diversion tactic. That is all it is.
It is so brazen it is unbelievable.
December 9, 2021
Boris commands zero respect now and is not a credible PM.
Trust is like glass when broken, impossible to repair without completely melting down again from whence it came.
Asking to vote for the Conservative Party punters will ask which one, the party or ……
December 9, 2021
Spot On
As a news reporter said today ”after brexit – no one knows what this government is for”
December 9, 2021
Mr. Redwood – are there any more like you in (not, at) the Party? I would have expected all the MPs in the ERG to feel the same about the direction of government. Surely you could act together to rein in the madness emanating from No. 10?
December 9, 2021
“Trust people to make their own decisions about how to handle the risk.”
So, how do I manage my risk of coming into contact with infected Covid denialists, acting like suicide bombers in crowded places? Can I assume they will not be wearing face masks? If so, would they do the rest of us a favour and tattoo a “V” on both cheeks.
December 9, 2021
Acorn
Don’t you know that even if you’re vaccinated you can still pass it on?
December 10, 2021
Stay indoors for ever.
December 9, 2021
Sea Warrior : There is no reliable measure of Covid infections as such. You mean positive PCR lab test results, but the PCR test procedure does not accurately discriminate a live infection from dead viral matter. Lateral flow tests are even less accurate. It’s sad to see you’re still buying into the scam narrative, 21 months later, and still asking why you have to submit to COVID testing – it’s because it’s profitable, no other reason. A virus illness that you have to have a test for, to know you’ve got it, is absurd.
December 9, 2021
A virus illness that you have to have a test for, to know you’ve got it, is absurd.
A virus that some people don’t know they have – and which kills some people. A test for that is absolutely necessary. Your comment is absurd, egotistic nonsense.
December 9, 2021
Haha – typo alert: £2.5 million (not 32.5 million – the shift key didn’t work!). If only you had an edit function for comments!
December 9, 2021
Why is PC Dick allowed to say that the police will not be investigating this Christmas party crime ?
I genuinely wonder just why the English vote for these Eton/Oxford/Cambridge polititians. Are they basically forelock tugging serfs who don’t think like free people.
December 9, 2021
Sir John, well put and I hope you can have some influence over the current direction of travel. Shame on Whitty and Vallance too who are meant to take responsible for all health matters not just Covid. Perhaps when this is debated you could ask for the the evidence from other nations such as Wales that masks and vaccine passports reduce infections
December 9, 2021
For all that I find Sir John`s rhetorical approach a bit off-putting I actually agree that we are over-reacting right now .Its not just the restrictions its the message. My Christmas has fallen to pieces today; social gatherings cancelled, trips postponed , bookings cancelled . All very disappointing and I cannot see the logic of yet.
Desperate for the businesses affected
December 9, 2021
Dear Sir John–I couldn’t disgree with you more on what you call trusting the people to make teir own decisions. That might make more sense if the decisions were indeed their own but such is hardly the case–literally the rest of the world is involved. But that’s just the half of it. The way I see it is that a significant portion of the population is one or more of the following, viz lazy, bloody minded, selfish, ignorant unintelligent, hostile, wasters of police time, excessively credulous about the efficacy of vaccines etc etc. I don’t want such people making decsions that affect me, thank you very much.
December 9, 2021
Authoritarianism is addictive – even a Prime Minister who used to call himself a libertarian has succumbed. Now Governments know they can impose whatever restrictions they fancy, without even going to Parliament, they will always find an excuse to go on ordering us about. Thank you to the minority of Conservative MPs who will vote against the new orders.
December 9, 2021
Morning John,
We live in interesting times. I hope you are well.
Who is going to replace Boris that will not try and reverse the Brexit result ?
If you are going to have a proper debate then look at the comments.
People are basing their views on their taxes fund the NHS they don’t. Wrong starting point, wrong solution.
Every £ we have used to pay our taxes since we were born came from HM Treasury. It is even written on the front of every bank note and shows where every £ came from.
It is the government who gives us the £’s we then use to
a) Pay our taxes
b) Buy a government bond.
It is spend and then tax , not tax and then spend.
https://gimms.org.uk/2021/02/21/an-accounting-model-of-the-uk-exchequer/
Until your followers understand that. What are the chances of an honest debate ?
Mandatory vaccination for Polio and TB both now pretty well eradicated in U.K.
December 9, 2021
They were vaccines that worked Derek.
They stopped you getting infected.
December 10, 2021
I’m more worried about if Boris goes.
Who replaces him Peter ?
John would be my first choice.
To me all of this seems to be a co ordinated attack over many months by the liberal media to get Boris out of there.
His actions haven’t helped him one bit. However, he has been attacked relentlessly.
Remainers haven’t vanished they have regrouped and increased their efforts ten fold to reverse Brexit.
Farage is not the answer and never will be. Farage would be Scotland’s answer to all their prayers. With Farage, Scotland will be gone and then the only question is would England end up like Animal Farm or Lord of the flies ?
December 10, 2021
So we may get our money from government without working etc? The means of creating a fiat currency are irrelevant in this context. The government gives most of us nothing; even if it did it is simply created out of thin air.
December 10, 2021
Morning David,
You get the money off the gov regardless if you are working or unemployed.
That’s the whole point.
Unless you are trying to tell me the notes sitting in a till of a company are different to the notes that the unemployed get ?
They all come from the same place. It is written on the front of every note. Economic text books say that workers get their £’s from business and business get their £’s from workers. Doesn’t explain where the £’s originated from in the first place which was the government either from government spending or a loan from a bank.
It’s not rocket science. Government spending puts £’s into the system and taxes take currency out of the system never to be seen again. What’s left over is called deficit which is the private sector surplus.
Even the Romans knew they had to spend the coins first before anybody in Gaul or Britannia could get their hands on the coins to.pay their taxes.
Stamford Bridge issues the match days tickets and then collects them when you go to the game. That’s what an issuer of anything does even a cloak room ticket. They don’t collect the tickets first and then issue them as you go through the turnstyle. As it is impossible.
Your taxes fund nothing David the account they end up in gets ‘re set to zero every night. Your taxes take your spending power away to allow everybody the chance to buy what goods and services are for sale in the economy. If there is unemployment we are over taxed for the size of economy we have.
Taxes for revenue was obsolete after we left the Gold standard and fixed exchange rates.
We use the £ not the Euro. Euro nations do have to raise taxes or borrow to fund themselves that’s the massive difference we don’t because this great nation of ours is sovereign.
It’s time we started acting like it.
December 11, 2021
Please ask the Treasury to print me a few million and send it to me.
And with your economic theory you could abolish poverty in the UK overnight.
December 9, 2021
Your stance is the right one, in my view. It’s heartening to see an MP standing up for what they think is good for the UK rather than parroting the government line. Thank you.
I hope enough pressure can come from the Tory benches (and elsewhere) to get the government to reign back from its ruinous course.
December 9, 2021
We have abundant examples from round the world of Senior persons, those with access to the best information, ignoring all the restrictions they have imposed on others. Clearly they do not believe the restrictions necessary or they wouldn’t do that.
So rather than asking, as everyone seems to be, why they are ignoring the restrictions- the answer to that is obvious- the question should be WHY ARE THEY IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS THAT THEY BELIEVE POINTLESS?
December 9, 2021
+1
December 10, 2021
It is all about control; now they have experienced such control, unprecedented in peacetime, they won’t willingly let go. No doubt Boris is being guided by his globalist mates in support of their evil plans.
December 9, 2021
A return to people taking responsibility for their lives and those around them while the community supports those that do not have the choice would be no bad thing.
December 10, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
Thank you for standing up for liberty, Sir John.
I would just like to add that Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford, backed up by a study at Stanford, has established that the viral load of those who are jabbed is almost exactly the same as those who are unjabbed.
Food for thought as to whether these ‘vaccines’ (which do not prevent catching this disease nor passing it on) are worth having in any case.
December 9, 2021
I’m not sure what you are trying to suggest. The transmitted viral load, perhaps being sneezed at?, will be the same. The body with vaccine supercharged reaction to recognising the invading particles compared to poor recognition of the invaders determines the level of fighting off the billions of particles that ensues.
Killing off particles as a result of not allowing access to our cells decides outcome. If little denial of access takes place the outcome is not good – do I need to say more?
December 9, 2021
The new covid measures are a disaster. The cities and high streets are going to be wiped out.
Boris lies
Boris lies
Boris lies
December 9, 2021
But he only lied about; Brexit, Fisheries, National Insurance, Tax, Northern Ireland, HS2, Net Zero and Parties
December 9, 2021
….and his flat
December 10, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
No more nanny state.
December 9, 2021
Agree….and no more ‘social engineering’
December 9, 2021
Thank you Sir John Redwood. It’s a great relief to me to have you represent my constituency. I’m glad to hear you will be voting against the vaccine passports. It’s reassuring to hear a wise and sensible voice amongst all the madness.
December 9, 2021
+1
December 9, 2021
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer sent his congratulations to Johnson and Carrie on the birth of the couple’s daughter, adding: “Wishing your family health and happiness.” He left out ‘and a long and quiet retirement’.
December 9, 2021
Isn’t Boris a paid up member of the Labour Party
December 9, 2021
We are told that Boris and Sajid don’t really want more restrictions but feel impelled to impose these because their medical and scientific advisers (Whitty, Vallance, et al) say these are needed. The problem with listening to these people is that they only give one side of the argument – that for more restrictions. The point is this: if you asked for advice on how to prevent road accidents you would be told that you should have a man waving a red flag walking in front of each car. And this would be right … if safety was ALL you were concerned about. But in the real world governments must consider economics and social factors.
And the same applies to covid. The more restrictions you have, no doubt the more you can squash the spread of covid, but at what economic and social cost? NO, politicians should NOT follow the advice of their advisers, because these people are incapable of looking at the problem in the round, with appropriate consideration given to economic and social factors. Politicians who outsource their thinking and decision-making to advisers are failing at their job and betraying the electorate.
December 9, 2021
Boris to me is like that fantastic sales guy that everyone likes, he wins business, clients enjoy speaking to him and the employees are energised by him. But the big mistake would be to make him the Manager Director. He can hardly manage himself let alone others, however, there is always room for a top ranking sales director who doesn’t manage people but gets over the message and can lead from the front with a strong Manager working hand in glove with him. Boris needs to deliver on his sales promises. He still hasn’t implemented Brexit to its fullest advantage. The documents from the Eu to the UK has been delayed and delayed whilst the EU implemented the restrictions against the UK from day 1. We now need a Managing Director (JR) to help Boris to achieve his goals without wanting his job and constantly threatening his status.
December 10, 2021
Thankyou for taking this position, I am neither pro or anti vax, I chose to get two doses of AstraZennica earlier this year and I see from the data that this gives me a very good chance of having a milder experience with covid.
While I wish others good health I too would not force it upon them, in fact there is a significant risk to taking the vaccine that must be accepted. And if we were to force “good health” on everyone we would ban smoking, force exercise, better quality fresh food and probably ban anything spicy… I do worry now that we have so many people in power that believe they know better then the people who live with the consequences, this level of hubris caused the immense misery of communism and fascism.
I have noticed that the NHS is presently doing very little actual healthcare, this desperately needs to change. Personally here I’d be happier now for paying private as at least then my healthcare provider would care about me, but as of today that is not very viable due to the dominance of the NHS.
December 10, 2021
It’s interesting that no-one has suggested the need for a vaccination certificate to board a crowded train or bus nor to attend a packed religious service. Those of us who worship mammon seem to be a little bit discriminated against.
December 10, 2021
Whilst I agree that the restrictions aren’t consistent I have some sympathy for the government. We really don’t know yet the effect of Omicron except the infection rate is exponential and if they don’t slow it down now it could have catastrophic results once it starts affecting older age groups. What would everyone do in the governments shoes?
December 10, 2021
Thank you Sir John. Hopefully you may persuade many of your fellow MPs to do the same.
December 10, 2021
Not specifically related to the post but relevant to imposition of restrictions.
Is it not unreasonable that the devolved government in Scotland can impose more stringent covid rules than those in England and then expect the UK government i.e taxpayers outside of Scotland to contribute financially to the economic cost?
December 10, 2021
Well said Sir John.
Persuade more of your colleagues to vote against the continuing covid restrictions.
What a shame Starmer’s lot have no principles.
December 11, 2021
Well said John. It is a relief that we have you and a number of Tory MPs who hold the Government to account on this.
We are in danger of damaging the values on which this country is built and which we hold dear.
The job of the state is to help navigate through reasonably safely, not to restrict what we can do.