Yesterday was a good day. At last we got the announcement that most of the covid 19 restrictions are being lifted. The advice to work at home is being withdrawn. The threat of covid passports recedes. Mask wearing will become a matter for individual judgement.
One of the reasons why I am a Conservative is I believe wherever possible people should be free to make their own decisions about how they spend their lives and how much risk they run. Of course I agree we need a criminal law which provides deterrence and punishment for those who wish to harm others by violence or theft, but not a criminal law that extends into payment of your tv licence or how many people you invited into your home.
The government has done well to lead work on developing a vaccine and making it available so that most people have accepted it. This allows a return to more normal social contact and provides a reason for the government to roll back its extensive regulation of our daily lives. There will be considerable debate and study in the years ahead as we look back on the response to the pandemic. The world figures do not show any easy correlation between length and duration of lockdowns and less infection, intensifying the need for more study and discussion of what responses worked best to contain and overcome the virus.
Anyone worried about the continued presence of the virus can limit their own social contacts and can wear a mask. They can rely more on on line shopping and may be able to negotiate more homeworking with their employer. They can certainly keep their vaccination up to date, which seems to lessen the risks of catching a serious version of the disease. All this points to lifting all special restrictions , whilst the NHS continues to provide advice and guidance especially to the vulnerable. Those of us who voted for less restriction last time are pleased that numbers of serious cases and hospital admissions did not shoot up dramatically as some predicted.
January 20, 2022
This is a step in the right direction no doubt accelerated by other alarms and excursions that threaten the PM. I was surprised to hear my MP, Sue Morrisey, the member for Beaconsfield, claim she owed it to Boris Johnson. I was under the impression she owed it to the voters. Beaconsfield is not some northern Red Wall marginal but one of the safest Tory seats in the whole UK! With one actual Red Wall MP defecting to Labour (why does that not trigger a re-election process?) we had confirmation yesterday that there is not much difference these days between two rotten corpses of once vibrant political parties.
January 20, 2022
Indeed, particularly as the MP who changed sides had sponsored a bill which would have made any such MP as himself to put himself back up for a vote if he changed sides!!
Zorro
January 20, 2022
Indeed he should join the hypocrisy party with a good majority in Parliament but then our host with the statement “wherever possible people should be free to make their own decisions about how they spend their lives and how much risk they run” is forgetting the past two years. Rather like letting a prisoner free after two years telling him he’s innocent and you always thought he was. Bull.
January 20, 2022
That is to say, these are just NOT contemporary Tory values!
January 20, 2022
+1
Yes the height of hypocrisy, but then does anything surprise us any more hope his local association force a by election !.
January 20, 2022
This gentleman has a very interesting profile on Wikipedia, pertaining to his past work with various Councils, after he became an MP.
January 20, 2022
Yes, I don’t think that he will do so well at the CLP, somehow.
But your “they’re all the same” trope is just self-evident rubbish.
January 20, 2022
If you donât like your party anymore go âindependentâ your voters will understand, but if you change to another party, well thats just a poke in the eye to your voters
January 20, 2022
I agree. I live in Bury South and I was one of the few (compared to the hundreds from Momentum helping his then Labour opponent) to help him with leafleting and canvassing. I have to say that there was nothing then to suggest he was not a genuine Conservative – indeed he was leader of a relatively (relative to Conservative Council groups elsewhere) right wing Conservative group on Pendle Council and he was a genuine Brexiter -the last time I met him nearly two years ago we celebrated Brexit together at a local Conservative Club on the night we left the European Union. I suspect as a now self declared ‘centrist’ he will have more trouble with the local Constituency Labour Party than he ever had with the Conservatives.
I may be cynical but I would point out Bury South is probably going to be the most difficult constituency for the Conservatives to hold on to partly because it is not a typical Red wall seat and its southern end borders Manchester and has increasingly been drawn into its metropolitan Labour voting habits and partly because the last Labour M.P. went independent and detached sufficient of the Labour vote to enable Mr. Wakeford to win very narrowly as a Conservative.
On the blog topic I very emphatically agree with John Redwood that ‘wherever possible people should be free to make their own decisions about how they spend their lives’. That is one reason why unlike my M.P. I would never contemplate voting for, let alone joining Labour, a collectivist big-government Party.
January 20, 2022
Modern Conservatism is epitomised by the very absence of values, so the headline is a bit daft, I think.
January 20, 2022
And Labour has real values ?
Hilarious NHL
January 20, 2022
oldtimer, with a 79 seat majority they could vote that change in this week. Any defections an automatic by-election, unless they stand as an independent not voting against the manifesto promises they were elected on.
January 20, 2022
Because, the theory goes, you are supposed to vote for the âmanâ, not the party.
January 20, 2022
A general question: if a shop or other premises keeps a sign by the door asking you to wear a mask , will you respect their request as owner or leaseholder ‘host’ or will you simply ignore it since it will no longer be against the regulation?
January 20, 2022
The most reasonable and logical assumption would be that the owner/manager had simpply forgotten to remove the out-of-date sign. So of course I would enter maskless, but if I was asked to leave then I would do so.
The fact is, however, that I never wear a mask and in the whole period of the pandemic I have not once received a complaint (in the UK, that is – quite a different story abroad where a more fascist mentality seems to rule!).
January 20, 2022
I’d first ask the proprietor what s/he would do about entering a shop where there was a sign saying ‘Please do not wear a mask in this shop’. I’d see what the response would be, and then form my own opinion of this person and their request.
January 20, 2022
For a long time now people have worn masks out of politeness, not adherence to “The Science”. If a shop wants them to wear a mask, they will probably continue to do so.
January 20, 2022
PS It is not so long since people in bicycling helmets were asked to remove them on entering shops and banks because their faces couldn’t be properly seen by the cameras.
January 20, 2022
âWe need more Conservative valuesâ
Indeed. However, this is a much bigger topic than a few changes that may have been introduced to shore up the position of Boris Johnson. I am sure he would not think âyesterday was a good day.
What does the Conservative Party now stand for? Can we trust that manifesto promises will be honoured? Will attention be focussed on other topics that barely featured before the party won the election?
January 20, 2022
Agree â the manifesto and its key pledges should be the main effort, any alteration should trigger a general electionâŠnot just conservative values but moral values
January 20, 2022
I’ve just read the manifesto again and it doesn’t mention ‘conservative values’ or anything related to standards or values at all
reply They are embedded in the main policies
January 20, 2022
The Conservative government of Boris Johnson has broken at least THREE manifesto pledges: (i) that there would be no tax increases; (ii) that Northern Ireland would come out of the EU like the rest of the UK; and (iii) that the net zero date would be 2050. There may well be more broken pledges, and it is clear that Boris Johnson doesn’t give a damn about the promises he made to us to get our votes. The traitor has betrayed us all.
January 20, 2022
Correct
January 21, 2022
Have to agree with Dan Wootton:
âIf Boris wants to survive he MUST put an end to
– green taxes,
– SAGE,
– Downing Street incompetents and
– Carrie’s never-ending chaosâ
January 20, 2022
Good morning.
It is reported that a freedom of information request was submitted to the ONS. It basically asked, “How many people have died ‘of’ Covid as opposed to those that have died ‘with’ Covid ?”
The figure was just under 18K. ÂŁ400bn in debt. Business ruined. Education ruined. State services ruined. Our rights and liberties trashed. And so on. All for the sake of less than 20k people. By comparison there were less than 2k death on Britain’s roads in 2021, a slight fall on the previous year.
Our kind host sounds triumphant. He shouldn’t be ! This government, through a combination of lies, deceit and fear mongering, bequeathed itself powers over us that it had no right to do and, still retains said powers.
I THEREFORE DEMAND THAT ALL SAID POWERS BE REMOVED !! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO DICTATE HOW WE LIVE, YOU ARE OUR SERVANTS, NOT OUR MASTERS !!!!
January 20, 2022
+ many
However, all it needs is for the people to stand up and NO, we do not accept your draconian demands.
January 20, 2022
What it really needs is for the people to decide on a ‘build back better’ for themselves and be rid of the establishment parties.
All they’ve done is take it in turns to ruin Great Britain, and in particular England.
January 20, 2022
Mark B, you could add that, even not counting ‘Covid deaths’, there have been over 10,000 deaths above the 5-year average since last July, which could be the consequence of the NHS cancelling operations and screening ‘because of Covid’.
I agree we must learn from the mistake of allowing government to arrogate powers as it did in March 2020. The Coronavirus Act must be repealed and statutory instruments put in place to ensure no future government can sidestep Parliament with draconian legislation that removes our fundamental rights.
January 20, 2022
I imagine deaths and serious health issues will be something that will be a knock on effect for many years to come due to saving ‘our NHS’.
As for a Parliamentary debate, well what as we see is the outcome of that when most in Parliament are all singing from the same hymn sheet anyway( as seems to be the case on many issues blighting us) but just wear a different colour rosette?
January 20, 2022
The excess deaths could also be caused by irreversible heart and lung damage resulting from the vaccine entering the bloodstream. I had breathing deterioration after my second jab and the first person we met in France had a heart attack after her jab, having been very healthy before. Yellow Card and VAERS show many of these. Life insurance claims in the US have increased by 49% since vaccine roll out. In the first wave, without vaccinations the excess deaths were normal.
January 20, 2022
40% not 49%.
January 20, 2022
Richard II or it could be because of peak birth years after the war and the extra lifespan over the past three decades.
January 20, 2022
Ingenious, a-tracy, but why would those factors kick in just in 2021? Still, I’m sure government scientists are working hard right now trying to establish the answers for when we have the public enquiry, so who knows, you may be right.
January 21, 2022
These factors didn’t just kick in this year Richard in 2018 there was a peak death month in January with thousands of extra deaths from a form of flu that wasn’t protected by the flu vaccine.
Number of people aged 100 and over has risen by 350% in the last 30 years – source DM 2014 Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that there are now 13,780 people over the age of 100 in Britain, compared with just 6,860 in 2000. there were about 3,000 in 1983. So an extra 10,000 pa living over 100. https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-kingdom/life-expectancy
January 20, 2022
Professor Karol Sikora has predicted tens of thousands more deaths from cancer over the next few years as a result of people either not bothering to be screened of having screening cancelled.
January 20, 2022
+1 Mark B. Thank you.
January 20, 2022
Thank you for saving me the trouble of writing basically the same thing.
January 20, 2022
Me too Donna! Thanks Mark B
January 20, 2022
Absolutely.
This is not nor ever was anything akin to such as ebola or the plague.
So why the hysteria?
January 20, 2022
A trial run for Global Warming. It was useful for the Government to determine that draconian laws that they thought could be applied only in Communist countries can be applied in a democracy if you scare enough people a lot.
The Yanks are going for broke in the US. Now if you disagree with Joe Biden you are a domestic terrorist and the State will sic the FBI on you.
January 20, 2022
Defo a test of the system before the UN takes over
January 20, 2022
What “hysteria”?
All I saw was people generally complying with a degree of minor tedium and inconvenience in their lives with the expected calmness.
The only hysteria has been amongst the comments by right wing eccentrics on sites like this and among the handful who have made a nuisance of themselves in public places with their incoherent protests.
January 20, 2022
Right wing eccentrics eh NHL
I’ve see friends of mine going bankrupt as the restrictions have closed or ruined their previously thriving businesses.
I’ve seen people not able to continue their life saving treatments and operations in hospitals suffering months of pain.
And others I know suffering depression and mental health challenges.
You might be happy sat in front of your log burner on a fat pension safe at home but millions are not.
January 20, 2022
Maybe the hysteria of throwing away the ideals of magna carta
Restrict people movement
People ordered to stay at home (with or without symptoms)
People told not to go to work
People ordered to wear mask and shamed into getting vaccine
People not allowed to visit family
The governments daily brief of doom & gloom
January 21, 2022
And here’s a bit more.
January 20, 2022
Our politicians are controlled by the media. The media loves hysteria. Our politicians react hysterically to appease the media. Outside the bubble some people react even more hysterically. Others look around, bemused, as they find themselves living in a madhouse.
January 20, 2022
You are peddling disinformation. Your 18k figure is absurd, it is 10 times too low. The current running total number of deaths with Covid specified on the death certificate by a doctor as a cause of death is 176,000. So that is “Of Covid”. Suggest you apologise.
January 20, 2022
I am only repeating what I heard. I would link to it but, unless you are one of the privileged few, and I am not, you get moderated.
January 20, 2022
You need to look in to this a bit more, Roy. In about 150,000 cases it’s on the death certificate as ONE OF the factors identified by a doctor. In about 17,000 cases it’s the only one. And Covid is only there in many of the 150,000 cases because, following WHO instructions, it’s got to be on the death certificate, if the doctor thinks it may be a contributing factor. Read the ONS response to an FOI request that Mark B was referring to, and you’ll be up to speed.
January 20, 2022
On reading the blog I was going to refer to the same F I R as you have, but it would appear that you have missed an important point.
We had a brand new government less than a month old when covid-19 hit Europe and within 2 or 3 weeks ICUs were filling up, we were short of PPE, little knowledge of the virus and the last pandemic was 100 years ago. It would be have been criminal not to have frightened the pants off us and lock us up.
Although we did a fantastic job with the vaccine we then had the variants and as each one arrived we had to establish whether or not the vaccine would still work. Fortunately it has so far, but at the same time we have gained a lot information on the virus, hence the relaxation of Plan b.
Has the government kept the ”frighteners” on for a little bit longer than was necessary, possibly, but they do not deserve the onslaught spelt out in the second part of your comment
January 20, 2022
It was known early on that the virus was most dangerous to the elderly, specifically those over 80, and those with underlying health issues. The way the government handled this was poor to say the least. The only good thing they did right was to handover the administration of the vaccine to an individual from the private sector. The government and the NHS moved all the old and sick patients with Covid to care homes thereby increasing the death toll. It also stopped people that it knew were low risk from working and destroyed parts of the economy. And it, after over 2 years and much scandal, not to mention reluctantly, decided to GIVE OUR FREEDOMS BACK. Pardon me sir, but I thought slavery was abolished long ago ? And if the emergency is over, then they no longer need those powers ? But like so many, once government has granted itself more control over your life, it never lets go !
January 20, 2022
I am a fair and reasonable man. I understand that the government took fright when the virus struck, for two reasons: (i) the worrying scenes from Italy (a nearby and comparable country) of hospitals being overwhelmed; and (ii) the absurd and scaremongering modelling of likely case and death numbers. But it is precisely at times like these that we rely on the good judgement of our political leaders. Not every country succumbed to panic, with Sweden being an obvious example.
The government should have (i) sought a range of advice, and not relied on modellers who had been proven to be wrong in the past; and (ii) adopted a policy of protecting the vulnerable, not oppressing those in least danger (and crashing the economy at the same time). A bit more calm (which is meant to be our national trait – remember ‘Keep Calm & Carry On’?), a bit more logic (not everybody was equally vulnerable – something known at the time – and therefore not everybody should be treated the same), a bit more focus (how to specifically protect the most vulnerable) and a bit of a more of a wider perspective (taking into account the economy and principles such as individual liberty) are what I would expect from an intelligent and reasonable government. Unfortunately all we got was panic and oppression. Boris Johnson will be judged harshly by history.
January 20, 2022
The last pandemic was in 1968, the Hong Kong flu, but because it was treated largely as a private matter, not a political one, i.e. not an opportunity for toppling the Government, it isn’t remembered. It went to America the following year and it was none of the President’s business either. He got toppled over something quite different and the pandemic isn’t once mentioned in Farrell’s 700 plus pages of biography. In our case, the NHS was nothing like as powerful then, nor were the media. If the Hong Kong flu had got the same response as the Wuhan virus, many people contributing to this blog would not have got their university education or met their spouses. Yet it took all ages, and all levels of health.
January 20, 2022
Just a word in reply, George – “Sweden”.
January 20, 2022
A Danish paper,Ekstra Bledet, has apologised for peddling misinformation on the numbers of deaths from the Wuhan virus supplied by government without conducting investigations of its own. Do you think this might catch on?
January 20, 2022
No ! But if you defund them, like I do with the BBC, then they ,might realise that insulting your patrons by lying is not a good idea.
January 20, 2022
Do you have a link to the FOI request and response?
January 20, 2022
Mike
No ! Our kind host does not allow me the luxury like he does others. The really annoying thing is, these ‘others’ post links that are never on topic and always in some small way are about themselves.
But hey, it is he’s site.
January 20, 2022
Beyond belief
January 20, 2022
So we’re meant to be grateful to our masters for getting some of our freedoms back and there’s me thinking MPs were public servants?
This entire, shameful episode in world history will in time be seen as a monstrous act of inhuman barbarity perpetrated by political forces against innocent human beings
And restrictions lifted to save Johnson’s skin and no doubt in response to threats from backbenchers who now recognise that the entire lockdown agenda was an act of brutal and vicious State politics rather than a policy driven by clinical necessity
History will condemn western leaders and their embrace of totalitarian ideals to impose a new arrangement between person and the State.
As an aside. I see it is now a criminal offence to criticise all things female. The feminist drive to destroy trust between the sexes, insulate female leaders from any cross-examination and enslave and demonise hetero-males is now complete. It won’t end here. These dark leftist forces aided and abetted by the Tory party haven’t even got started with their agenda to crush all opposition to their suffocating agenda
January 20, 2022
Absolutely DOM, but I thank God that I live in Wokingham and have a sensible, conservative MP who has not been inculcated into the Covid, New Normal, Build Back Better cult. We have the, on the back foot but we must keep up the pressure. As John says, âthe threat of covid passports recedesâ but has definitely not disappeared.. They need this for their digital ID wet dreams, so we must be wary – Mark Carney stays alive in the shadowsâŠ.
Zorro
January 20, 2022
Oh, and still waiting for Whittyâs apology for his senseless attempt to crash the economy and peopleâs joy before Xmas. Will he crawl out from under the rock where he is currently hiding and say sorry? Strange guyâŠ.
Zorro
January 20, 2022
Beware the scientist obsessives… too focussed on their world, they see not outside it.
January 21, 2022
like the ones who developed the vaccines?
January 20, 2022
Plus his vaccination of children which the figures suggest does rather more harm than good and the failure to vaccinate men a bit younger than women in the vaccine roll out – as risk logic clearly dictated was sensible. This cost many lives and would have saved money and protected the NHS better too. They were following duff science or politics not real science alas.
January 20, 2022
As a female, I despise this feminist idiocy. However, I also have no time for the race and gender etc idiocy either. It is like they all want to be the ones who are as Orwell wrote, “more equal than others”
Do all those who endorse any or all of the above idiocies not realise, they are merely ‘divide and conquer’ pawns in the PTB draconian game?
January 20, 2022
+1 The ‘feminist’ drive is nothing in comparison to the divisive gender/race/religion/colour drive. Equality should be good enough for anyone, and priority not given to anyone but that should not rule out more help given to the poor and disadvantaged.
January 20, 2022
Asked about all this western wokery at his press marathon just before Christmas,Vladimir Putin replied:
“A woman is a woman,a man is a man,a mother is a mother and a father is a father.”
It’s now in the Russian constitution.
January 20, 2022
It means no more than “brexit means brexit” though, does it?
Incidentally, do you know that Slavic languages have typically five genders anyway?
But it was a good reply to end a tedious conversation point.
January 21, 2022
I’m not an expert on Slavic languages,but I believe it’s really only three(m,f,n) but sometimes there is a distinction between the animate and the inanimate-usually for the masculine.
January 20, 2022
Excellent comment.
As a woman I absolutely abhor this.
It’s also very contradictory which makes the feminists especially hard liners look rather silly. They wish to portray themselves as more than equal to their male counterparts in every aspect of life and yet when the going gets tough what do they do, they turn on the water works as my late Father would say. If not actually then metaphorically, expecting and demanding to be treated with lesser severity because of their status as a woman.
Women here in England did have status, always have had and have always been respected and our advice sought by men. What has happened I think is the usual tactic of shining a light on the exceptions and claiming it to be the rule. So a picture is painted of all men being sexist and the poor ‘wimmin’ are chained to the sink etc. etc.
Sadly many young girls now see themselves as victims and I feel very sorry for our young men who are often accused of being ‘sexist’ when they have just tried to follow their age old natural instincts.
The work place will be interesting as more women are ’empowered’ no matter how useless they are, who will dare tell them or remove them.
No good will come of it and it will be women, all of us, that will be the losers as men feel it best to distance themselves for fear of contravening some new law by a slip of the tongue or a wrong look.
Still Johnson did say he wanted to build back in a ‘more feminine way’
January 20, 2022
This intended destruction of the west and socialist globalisation has many sources, and they are all powerful. As Andrew Bridgen described the other day, trying to outrun the socialists is hard work, every time you pause for breathe, they overtake us. (not verbatim- gist of what he said).
Yesterday was just a small win.
If Boris is unseated, whom might replace him? We could end up out of the pan into the fire.
January 20, 2022
I hear this a lot, ie. if Boris goes we may get somebody worse. Why on earth should we put up with Boris?
Even if there is only a 5% chance of jumping out of the pan and landing safely, it is better than staying in the pan and being 100% confident of getting fried.
January 20, 2022
At least his home manager and her Bright Blue friends would disappear along with most of his dafter greencrap.
January 20, 2022
Hoo bloody ray!
I am too relieved to feel vindictive.
Just hope there is no back-pedalling!
January 20, 2022
Allister Heath surely right today – âThe real threat to the Tories is the mass impoverishment of Middle England. Boris must scrap the hike in National Insurance. Itâs a symbol of all thatâs wrong with his Government.â
That and the expensive energy agenda.
January 20, 2022
+1
Agree 100%
January 20, 2022
And constant mass immigration and an obsession with imports and a failure to address our balance of payments deficit and 5% council tax rises every year.
January 20, 2022
+1
January 20, 2022
Nothing about getting to grips with the channel invasion or becoming self sufficient in energy.
Watching local news last night a dairy farmer was being paid to rewild a third of her land and reduce their dairy herd. Apparently it was more profitable to get the subsidy.
Absolutely outrageous.
January 20, 2022
I often wonder if Boris deliberately makes us more reliant on the EU, and in turn welcomes the blackmail that ensues to justify his giving the EU even better terms (and more fishing licences). If this isn’t a deliberate strategy then I have to question his intelligence! If it is a deliberate strategy then I have to question who he is working for!
January 20, 2022
+1
This rewilding MUST be stopped.
I can now make sense of the Leftâs constant and vicious attacks on trad farming over the last decade or so.
Stalin rerun.
Obliteration of Middle Classes.
January 20, 2022
The RPA has always been one of public sector institutes which did not only follow EU diktats, but also added gold plated stupidity on top.
They were and continue to be the drivers of this lunacy. The site at Workington hired at least 100 contractors to deliver this. This one site could easily reduce the number it employs (either permanent or hidden by hiring staff) by at least 40%. Further additional savings could be made if the ridiculous hoops they expect farmers to jump through with the farcical ‘site inspections’ and mountains of paperwork etc. Also their multilayered management idiocy, stop monthly ‘one-to-ones’ and return it to annual reviews, monthly one hour breakfast breaks. All paid for by the taxpayer.
January 20, 2022
There is currently a shortage of full cream milk. Perhaps all the Green zealots in DEFRA disapprove of cream as well as meat.
January 20, 2022
Ian
Madness isn’t it !
And then they wonder about food miles and Co2 emissions.
January 20, 2022
Interesting today on power generation. We are running coal fired and open cycle gas turbines and exporting between 1 and 2gw to France.
How does that get us to net zero burning our scarce gas to save Europes stocks.
There’s something that doesn’t add up.
January 20, 2022
Who’s in charge who’s making these decisions ?
January 20, 2022
Do you think that private companies should be banned from selling to whomever offers them the best price, then?
January 20, 2022
Theyâre not conservative values but the policies of this governmentâŠsomething rotten in Denmark
January 20, 2022
I heard on radio this morning that the government are no longer going to issue figures for the numbers crossing the channel. They obviously have no idea what to do and have given up and put this subject in the ‘too difficult yo deal with’ tray. It now seems they want to legitimise this manner of getting to the UK. It’s not just Johnson who needs to go, but the whole lot of useless lumps. No need for an election, just get this lot out, a new PM and a completely new government. Remoaners and green zealots need not apply.
January 20, 2022
Graham 1946: No longer going to issue figures …… Unacceptable. We have every right to know what is going on & who is arriving and how many. But it explains why we are lately seeing scant information & rubbish media articles with all the oft repeated identical wording in every report we do see, which we all know by heart by now. The powers that be want it to be swept under the carpet daily so we forget about it all. Well, many will not stand for that & there are other ‘unofficial types’ who are doing and who will be continue to do their best to keep it at the forefront. OK, with the R N we are to have a new strategy but seemingly without tactics identified to date.
Shirley M – What you say seems increasingly obvious in many areas, planned, deliberate, on a promise to who knows and who knows why? Think we are getting the general idea though.
January 20, 2022
They know exactly what to do. Mass immigration is a policy of our Establishment and they are taking steps to facilitate the anticipated surge by increasing the capacity of the taxi service. Priti Patel’s job is to defuse public outrage by periodic announcements of far-fetched initiatives which are never intended to happen. Globalist governments across the Anglosphere are finding out what authoritarian measures they can get away with. They initially tried to frighten off members of the public trying to count incoming migrants, and it wouldn’t be surprising if involvement of the Armed Forces was used to try to claim that migrant arrivals were some sort of official secret.
January 20, 2022
Indeed common sense at last being restored.
If the vaccine was not going to give us back our freedom, what was the point.
January 20, 2022
I am certain that JR and co. have been working tirelessly in true swan-paddling-beneath-the-surface fashion to bring about this release.
Thank Goodness for JR and the like!
Let no one forget what has taken place.
Nor underestimate it.
January 20, 2022
hear hear
January 20, 2022
You’ve also been freed of the ball-and-chain of having a burgundy passport – which this country could always have had anyway – and the manacles of having blue flags on beaches which have clean water.
Rejoice eh?
January 20, 2022
Complete trivia NHL
And you know it.
January 20, 2022
NLH.What a stupid comment even by your standards. I don’t need to see your name to know it’s you when I read such bilge. Same with Andy.
January 20, 2022
Exactly – real freedom of choice & not top down âgovernment know bestâ – they very clearly do not. How can they know as they as are not at the coal fact and do not know everyoneâs individual circumstances.
Next stop the âvaccines or firedâ agenda at the very least for those with antibodies from earlier infections. Vaccinating children certainly seem to be doing rather more harm than good it is profoundly wrong. Then cull the net zero expensive energy lunacy and reverse Sunakâs vast and damaging tac cuts and stop wasting money on HS2, EV subsidies, renewable subsidies, worthless degrees in worthless subjects, test and trace and all the rest of the waste. Then get real freedom of choice amd a fair playing field at the BBC, NHS, education and in transport, energy, broadcasting, education⊠and then fill the pot holes & stop blocking all the roads. Stop the propaganda advert lies like 90% in ICU are unvaccinated this is clearly not true. A decent police service with deterrents to crime would be good too.
January 20, 2022
– reverse Sunakâs vast manifesto ratting tax increases – I meant.
January 20, 2022
Could you give some examples of worthless degrees and worthless subjects ? I cant find any . Learning and an ability to see life in all its perspectives makes a cohesive population .
People like yourself who identify with certain subjects , modes of study and carry these a few years throughout their lives to give them credibility are entitled to an opinion and the label of worthlessness I certainly would not impress upon you , however you seem to do this to others ,
January 20, 2022
Well at least half of them, any degree you can get on to with less than BBB at A level. Which is probably about 75% of them.
January 20, 2022
Learning is not about getting high marks at exams . It is an evolving discipline in an aspect of life.Arrogance in passing exams is not a good indicator for the future. I have known so many people who have a wide and in depth knowledge of their subject but actually failed their exams and took degrees later in life.
January 20, 2022
Margaret. How about Sociology? My son got this at Bristol Uni. 3 years and a very large debt and now sells conservatory roofs. His father wanted to be able to say his son went to uni.
January 21, 2022
So its not the subject which bothers you.. it is the high fees ..Yes? We have many social workers.
January 21, 2022
Fus: Your mention of conservatory roofs; judging by the recent Telegraph article, the mockers have even been put on the so called middle class predilection, give me strength, of adding a conservatory as part of their home so I’ve crossed that one off my own list as I don’t think I’ll have the time or inclination, to look at ‘the rules’ or consider the extra expense which appear to be on the cards now. Should have looked at the Manifesto more closely….
January 20, 2022
I suggested some years ago that since the government had many years of data showing which students were earning over the student loan repayment threshold, the courses of those who were not earning enough to repay their loans should no longer be funded from the public purse, as these courses were clearly utter garbage. I see that the government is now finally considering doing precisely this, although they are, as usual, only doing so in the most tentative and half-hearted fashion.
January 20, 2022
All that as you say and I’ll add stop trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the electorate on immigration – all of it. Remember Blair had a points system of some sort and look where that went.
Migration Watch do an excellent job of keeping people informed as to what’s really going on.
January 20, 2022
+ many
All true. All needs to be tackled.
Plus maybe tackle anti-social behaviour.
January 20, 2022
“Stop the propaganda advert lies like 90% in ICU are unvaccinated”
I expect that the hospitals have a much better idea of the vaccination status of those in ICU than someone who seems to spend their day posting on a forum under a pseudonym.
January 20, 2022
Well give us what you think the correct figure is Peter
January 20, 2022
I don’t “think what the correct figure is”, I look at the official figures.
January 20, 2022
Tell us then
January 20, 2022
Ok, for example, between July and November, 92% of patients who needed ECMO treatment because of Covid were unvaccinated.
January 20, 2022
So we agree.
January 20, 2022
My questions are around these observations.
The covid waves appear to be independent of masks and controls, similar places with different controls have the same case loads, developing counties with little or no vaccinations have the least deaths, spike protein vaccines appear to only work well for the specific virus variant they were based on, for fit and healthy young people vaccines appear to have higher dangerous side effects than life saving benefits, that the vast majority of deaths appear to come with several life threatening comorbidities or severe obesity so the vast majority of the population were never at risk, that the majority of deaths with covid were not from covid, that there appear to be more deaths from other diseases not being treated than saved by the controls, in addition the loss of GDP will kill more people than were saved by the controls, how much suffering did the pandemic cause to peoples social lives, mental health, schooling, finance and jobs.
These observations lead me to the conclusion that the lockdown and controls were far more damaging than an approach that protected the vulnerable.
January 20, 2022
Spot on. All the independent estimates of cost v benefit suggest these strategies were around 10x worse than doing nothing. Let’s see if the enquiry looks at the value of lockdown, not just “Was it early enough”.
January 20, 2022
+1 Javelin.
The developing countries were most fortunate to avoid mass vaccination!
January 20, 2022
BOF – the developing countries don’t have such a long life expectancy, 63 male, 66 female. I read that covid has affected predominantly the over 75’s and those with co-morbidities, obesity, diabetes.
Bill Gates was warning us all this week that the next pandemic will be much, much worse.
January 20, 2022
A-TRACY
Life expectancy has nothing to do with Covid!
Is B G now conducting gain of function experiments? Or, how does he have inside knowledge of bad case scenarios?
January 20, 2022
Spot on, Javelin.
Now there needs to be a concerted effort to persuade the Health Secretary to withdraw the ‘Mandatory Covid Vaccines’ for NHS workers.
One can’t help thinking that there’s a hidden agenda here, when we already know that ‘vaccinated’ as well as ‘unvaccinated’ can be contagious. Good old-fashioned courtesy is needed – stay away from folk if you feel ill.
January 20, 2022
Exactly.
From the article, which talks about freedom of choice:
>Mask wearing will become a matter for individual judgement.
Will vaccination similarly become a matter for individual judgement, with no disadvantage to the refusers – even if they are frontline NHS workers?
January 20, 2022
Javelin hits the mark!!
January 20, 2022
Alternatively – your observations are flawed. Which is obviously the far more likely scenario.
January 20, 2022
I’ve been using a tight FFP3 mask these past few days ripping up floors and tearing down a ceiling in my kitchen.
I can still smell the fumes and the damp issues (which have caused the rip-out) which means a virus can pass through it.
On the first day all I had was a surgical mask and this proved utterly useless. Everything got through it.
January 20, 2022
+1 on Barrington Declaration Focused Shielding which is what I advocated from the outset once we knew this was largely an Old Man’s, Cancer Victim’s and Obese Person’s killer disease.
The figures would have looked a lot better from the outset had we applied focused shielding to care homes and not done precisely the worst thing possible.
Ventilation is being promoted as the solution to outbreaks but I cannot see how this is practical, certainly not with fuel costs as they are.
Centralised hospitals have been a disaster for disease control – funnelling the infected to the same locations and infecting those with other illnesses. They have also been a disaster for transport and parking for decades now.
None of our General hospitals have train stations nearby. You’d think that would be a basic requirement. They are miles away.
How the hell have towns got bigger (in our case MUCH bigger) and yet police, fire and hospital facilities have been closed down ?
January 20, 2022
I agree entirely. UK has one of the highest levels of obesity in the world – c30% – and lockdown and controls have probably made this worse!
January 20, 2022
Dr Steve James told Javid that the patients he treated in ICU were nearly all obese. This is where the government should be focusing.
January 20, 2022
Utter tosh. You support voter ID checks even though there is zero evidence of fraud. You support huge clampdowns on peaceful protest (only the House of Lords is saving us from these draconian restrictions on freedom). Your Brexit has taken away freedom of movement from a whole generation of young people. You’ve happily voted for extra powers for state snoopers. You don’t believe in people being free, you believe only in looking after YOUR kind of people
reply I do not think you need the right to close the motorways to uphold free speech
January 20, 2022
Reply to reply: I think you’ll find it was the police who closed the motorway, allowing demonstrators to go on to the carriageway. Otherwise the poor darlings would have been killed by the fast-moving traffic. No Emily Davisons among those demonstrators, I fancy.
January 20, 2022
The videos I saw showed the protesters on junctions of the motorways, and they waited for the traffic lights to go red before blocking the road. The police were useless though and allowed the protesters to block all traffic, including ambulances. I really cannot see the value in protests that cause such hardship to other people, and where vandalism is involved. It is merely attention seeking, very damaging, and counterproductive as it alienates everyone.
January 20, 2022
Maybe that happened some of the time, Shirley, but:- ‘A group of 15 activists at junction 8 near Reigate in Surrey were able to get onto the motorway by phoning the police who closed the road for them.’ THE TIMES 15TH SEPT. 2021.
‘Police blocked off a bridge over the M8 motorway during a second day of climate protests in Glasgow. About 300 Extinction Rebellion activists gathered outside investment bankers JP Morgan on Waterloo Street before moving to Scottish Power.’ BBC 2ND NOV. 2021
Of course the police have a difficult task to perform, but I’m not sure they were using their powers in the right way on such occasions.
January 20, 2022
Protesters seeking attention?! Surely not.
January 20, 2022
Without the police on their side the demonstrators would have been given a jolly good kicking by irate motorists and would not have done it again!!
January 20, 2022
How many of your relatives took advantage of ‘freedom of movement’? Only one of my extended family did. More have worked beyond the EU.
January 20, 2022
It is the EU who abolished freedom of movement for British citizens, NOT the UK. The EU could have shown their friendship towards us by saying we would continue to be treated as before, but instead they chose to impose restrictions on us. The EU has never been willing to treat the UK according to its different circumstances, instead preferring to try and impose a one-size-fits-all policy. This is simply unacceptable and is why we were FORCED to leave.
The UK is GROSSLY OVERCROWDED. The maximum comfortable population for a country our size is 55 million. Instead we are now over 70 million (including all the illegals). We are suffocating and cannot take any more people – and that includes asylum seekers – and should have a policy of population reduction to get our population density down to the right number. Or does the Left truly believe that there is NO upper limit for our population, and that this can just increase forever?
January 21, 2022
How does this compare to Sweden?
January 20, 2022
Nonsense – although I am uneasy about the curbs in the Protest Bill which quite rightly will come back to the House. However, powers already exist to deal with protesters as long as the Police do their duty.
Zorro
January 20, 2022
We already have laws against obstruction, public nuisance, and disorderly behaviour, but they are not enforced where some people are concerned. Judges too will interfere and prevent the police from enforcing the existing law, on these people’s behalf. So how can we be sure any additional law will be upheld by the police and CJS?.
January 20, 2022
Voter fraud is rife especially in our enlightened communities.
January 20, 2022
So why are prosecutions and convictions not also rife then?
In 2019, there were 6 convictions for electoral fraud, 3 of which were for candidates faking nomination signatures, 2 for using someone else’s vote, and 1 for disruption.
January 20, 2022
Evidence, please.
The vexatious complaints in the Peterborough by-election were all found to be groundless, for instance.
January 20, 2022
Then the Birmingham judge who said a local election was more akin to a banana republic.
January 20, 2022
Oh come on Brexit has not taken away freedom of movement, the hysterical reaction to a virus has done that.
People were free to travel up to that point either to the EU or further afield.
Still even the lock downs haven’t curtailed some people’s freedoms to just wander in at will!!
January 20, 2022
Freedom of movement is not the same as freedom to travel. Covid allowing you are free to go on holiday – subject to local visa requirements.
But freedom of movement is not about a holiday. It is about living, working, studying in other countries. And your Brexit has stolen that from us.
The pensioners from Bury who wanted to retire to Spain now canât – because of your Brexit. The musician who wanted to tour across Europe to earn a living now canât – because of your Brexit. The young person who wanted to spend a couple of years working in the Med or the mountains now canât – because of your Brexit.
Britons are now the only people in developed Europe who cannot choose where to live. We are stuck permanently on Plague Island thanks to the vote of a minority or elderly xenophobes who still donât understand what they voted for.
January 20, 2022
You can live permanently in Europe young Andy.
Just meet the basic requirements of the nation you want to live in.
Members of my family did this before the EU invented freedom of movement.
January 20, 2022
Gary Megson : âYou support voter ID checks even though there is zero evidence of fraud.â
There is a lot of fraud taking place it is just that the police and our authorities are purposely not looking for it, just as they look the other way when it comes to grooming gangs or FGM or unregistered schools âto not upset our new communitiesâ.
We have millions of non-UK nationals in residence, including 6m EU nationals, and even tens of thousands of people arriving with no ID let alone voter ID, plus 250,000 Chinese âstudentsâ.
Of course we need voter ID coupled with proof that they are allowed to vote.
You wouldnât accept a payment just because a person gave you a sort code and bank account number without checking the account existed and belonged to them.
A democracy can only exist if we have losersâ consent and the losers believe the elections were free and fair. But of course you know that.
January 20, 2022
+1
January 22, 2022
The imagination can be a wonderful thing, but by no means always.
January 20, 2022
Reply to reply.
The police need no new laws to arrest and remove people obstructing motorways.
Insulate Britain were allowed to do so (with the offer of tea and biscuits) because they were part of the *correct* cause of protest. State actors, in other words.
Imagine anti immigration protesters doing the same.
This is the most Left Wing government I have ever witnessed in this country.
Reply They do need new laws as they say the old one does not allow them to stop the closure of roads
January 20, 2022
Reply to reply: Wilfully obstructing a public highway is an offence under the Highways Act 1980. I gather the difficulty the police had was in carrying out arrests without harming the demonstrators glued to the road surface, or whatever their delicate little bodies were attached to.
January 20, 2022
R Grange. Well if those protestors are not bothered about people possibly dying in an ambulance they are obstructing then I say just grab them and remove them from the road using whatever force necessary even if their darling faces get injured. It’s all self inflicted. They make me sick.
January 20, 2022
Right to Reply
Highways Act 1980, Section 137 Penalty for wilful obstruction.
(1)If a person, without lawful authority or excuse, in any way wilfully obstructs the free passage along a highway he is guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding [F1level 3 on the standard scale].
January 20, 2022
I largely agree – but I don’t think you are right to accuse Mr Redwood of only believing in looking after “his” kind of people – but it seems to me to be a completely fair accusation to the ruling class.
Except for the voter ID point – even if there isn’t fraud, where’s the harm with making sure there isn’t any?
It doesn’t impinge on personal freedoms like Covid Passports do.
January 20, 2022
Well, even if there isn’t much cash-in-hand tax dodging by traders, what’s the harm in making sure that there isn’t by, say, requiring all such work to be paid for by transparent means?
And so on.
If people have nothing to hide then they have nothing to fear, do they?
January 20, 2022
How grateful I feel that the restrictions are finally being lifted. Now will the Government repeal the appalling and draconian Corona Virus Act? Or will they keep it in place to keep control of ‘we the people’. We shall see.
I part company with our host on the vaccines which have caused much harm and continue to do so. The figures are there and can be found on other online publications such as The Conservative Woman. No other experimental drug would have been allowed to continue on trial with those deaths and harms. Now they are failing, while superior natural immunity is still not recognised. Disgraceful.
Meanwhile, the overall mortality rate for the UK for 2020 was about 1%, within the normal range, and it will surely be within normal again for 2021. Can anyone confirm that yet? This will clearly show that the fear mongers of SAGE and government have lied to us throughout.
I now hope to live long enough to see big names in court.
January 20, 2022
It isn’t just the UK’s Yellow Card system (which has recorded almost 2 thousand post-jab deaths and 1.4 million adverse effects, many serious). The USA’s VAERS system, the EU’s and Australia’s all record the same.
And the ONS admits it has data on the number of children jabbed who have died/had adverse effects from an experimental gene therapy which JCVI refused to recommend ….. but refuses to release the information.
SHAMEFUL .
January 20, 2022
Well said BOF
January 20, 2022
+1 regarding the vaccines.
January 20, 2022
For 2021, ie since vaccination. the overall death rate has increased. In the US life insurance claims have increased by 40% over the same period, unlike 2020.
January 20, 2022
ons.gov.uk âDeaths registered in England and Wales: 2020â, 14.5% higher than in 2019.
January 20, 2022
2015 602782 (deaths) 65110000 (population) 0.93%
2016 597206 65648100 0.91%
2017 607172 66040200 0.92%
2018 616014 66435600 0.93%
2019 604707 67530172 0.89%
2020 686000 67886011 1.01%
I haven’t seen 2021 yet. Source = Statista & worldometers
January 20, 2022
Great post Tim
Hef loves statistics.
January 20, 2022
Yes, indeed, shame that Tim did not understand that an increase from one year to the next is not done by comparing to the total population. If he had wanted he could have gone 1.01/0.89 = 1.1348 an increase of 13.48% from 2019 to 2020. Which is quite consistent with everything I wrote. Not that I think P2 will understand this sophisticated level of mathematics.
January 20, 2022
Oh don’t worry hef I get it
Not that I agree.
I like Tim’s statistics.
January 20, 2022
From your own figures 686000 / 604707= 1.1344 so 13.44 % increase.
From ons for England and Wales 607922 / 530841 = 1.1452 so 14.53 %increase.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
January 20, 2022
You’re right on the numbers, Tim. But the question is, why the excess mortality in 2020? We now know deaths attributable to Covid with no underlying health condition came to 17k. far less than the screaming media headlines. It’s time we were given a proper analysis of what happened, in a public enquiry.
January 20, 2022
No, you have misunderstood the stats.
January 20, 2022
Rather like SAGE then NHL
January 20, 2022
No, I was just being generous. Look at the ONS page
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsfromcovid19withnootherunderlyingcauses
You’ll see that like for like, year for year, there were in fact only 9,400 deaths in 2020 attributed only to Covid. Which is even fewer than the 2020-2021 Q3 total, that happened to be the figure I remembered. If you look at Tim’s figures you’ll also see that 2020 mortality was about 80,000 more than in a bad flu year like 2015 or 2018. Deaths from Covid without underlying conditions may not have made much of a contribution to that. So what was all the extra mortality? If Macmillan Cancer are right, 50,000 extra deaths from undiagnosed cancers might well have had something to do it.
As the evidence accumulates, lockdown advocates will not want to be reminded of the positions they took. Don’t be the last to die on that hill, NLH.
January 20, 2022
E.g. if a person with covid19 suffers a pulmonary embolism, or organ failure, and dies as a result, then the latter may be recorded as the cause of death.
Covid19 however, makes such events catastrophically more likely.
January 20, 2022
+1
January 20, 2022
I always said a focused protection model for dealing with C-19 was far superior to blanket lockdowns and controls. Shame BoJo didn’t follow the pre-planned approach to a viral air-borne sickness. That said the Government’s other decisions on this area were a sight better than the rest of the UK political parties wanted.
Ironic BoJo is being pilloried for his people breaking mixing rules (as those in that group knew their C19 risks were miniscule) whilst the basic plans were sound… Well, more sound than others.
January 20, 2022
Bozo is being pilloried because he broke the appalling rules that HE imposed on US.
That’s why people resent his behaviour on this occasion, while previously being unbothered by his insouciance to the rules. We ALL break the rules in all sorts of ways, but that’s because we don’t agree with them, and accept that others do the same. But these were HIS rules!!! He made us suffer while he laughed at us. That’s what is unacceptable.
January 20, 2022
@PeterB; Boris and others are not being pilloried for mixing, they were doing that as essential workers, but for breaking the laws with regards holding what were non-work events.
January 20, 2022
You assume they were non work events.
January 20, 2022
@Peter2; Come off it Peter, we are talking about Whitehall here, were emails and phone calls the at the very least are logged and archived, if this was an official work event it will at the very least have been listed in the office diary, with a list of invited attendees, likely minuted, in other words there will be more of a paper trail than just a ‘dodgy’ email asking for secrecy, thus it would have been very easy for this matter to have been put to bed on day one, and why the need to “bring your own bottle”?
Not long to wait until the Gray report, and new leader, perhaps!…
January 20, 2022
Work colleagues who work closely together every day having a lunchtime get together in an outside space.
Come off it yourself Jerry.
January 21, 2022
@Peter2; But such non work gathering had been made illegal, and if this was a work meeting why no official diary entry, why the need for secrecy, the email is self damning!
January 20, 2022
The PROOF that these were ‘non work events’ is that Carrie Johnson was present. She holds NO official position, and therefore has NO right to be involved in any government business. For her to be involved in, and influence, government business would be CORRUPT. Labour have compained of other outsiders being granted influence in government as a result of financial donations, and the same ‘no outsiders’ rule must surely apply to a woman who is neither elected nor holds any paid position as official or adviser. I am surprised nobody has pointed this out before.
January 20, 2022
How ridiculous you can be P2 trying to play the devilâs advocate: Indeed colleagues are very likely to have lunch together. However I doubt this normally requires a suitcase full of booze.
Or was it like that in your line of work?
January 21, 2022
Your total lack of self awareness when you mention playing the devil’s advocate is comical.
January 20, 2022
I’ll clarify my views.
I’d pillory Boris for introducing the ‘no social mixing / lockdown’ rules more so than I would for his people ignoring them. As I said a focused protection control model would have been better.
My point was that Boris did get some things right – vaccine contracts, fast roll-out to high risk groups and his party was the one resisting the excess controls on movement/behaviours. He screwed up other areas – notably shipping ill OAPs out of hospitals and into care homes.
UK approach stands up OK against other countries, overall.
January 20, 2022
Look at PHE figures for infection in nursing homes. A tiny amount came from hospitals; most came from staff going in and out, especially agency staff. That is why they are being intransigent on the matter of compulsory vaccines, because they were pilloried, not because the measure is correct.
January 20, 2022
It stands up against other countries which did similarly as badly as the UK, yes, by definition.
It does not compare with those which actually did well, but you don’t want to hear about those.
January 20, 2022
I look forward to seeing civil servants sent back to their desks. It’s been two months since I filed my tax-return – and I have still to see any evidence that it’s been looked at.
January 20, 2022
Surprising, I submitted my SATR to the HMRC website four days ago (Sunday 16, 09:14) and this morning I have the confirmation of what I will have to pay by 31/01 and 31/07/2022.
The HMRC tax return website has been improving enormously these last few years.
January 20, 2022
Yes, that is the real scandal, not whether some of them went in the no 10 garden two years ago. The PM alluded in the House to Whitehall still refusing to come in to work.
January 20, 2022
@S_W; You must be the first person to complain that they have not received their tax demand! đ
I assume you are talking about a paper return [1], not an on-line submission, the latter is automatic, you will have had both a calculation & receipt, if not I would check it has actually been submitted to the HMRC from the Govt gateway portal, and do so within the next 10 days….
[1] for which only a fool does not send it “Royal Mail tracked”, or better, to the HMRC
January 20, 2022
Probate on a tiny estate still unresolved after 14 months with a clear will written with a solicitor! Property can’t sell without it racking up service charges and taxes.
January 20, 2022
Sir John, you are suggesting that civic rights can be restored because a government is pushing a vaccine onto the population. I do not see this as an example of Conservative belief in personal freedom to choose. What will you say the next time a questionable health crisis is inflicted on the public?
Also, I find it strange that your commitment to this Conservative principle does not seem to extend to the many thousands in care work and the NHS who stand to lose their livelihoods because your government says they must get jabbed. If my local garage worker says he won’t take the Covid vaccine, that’s by the by. When a well-qualified NHS worker, say Dr Steve James recently, says he has reasons not to, I take that seriously.
Reply I oppose compulsory vaccination and voted against that measure
January 20, 2022
The compulsory vaccination ( a vaccine which doesn’t actually seem to do a lot) should really be a wake up call to the population in general.
Had we seen people dropping down like flies in the street, fleets of ambulances rushing the sick and dying off and our neighbourhoods seeing funeral after funeral then maybe we could say we were in the grip of something very dangerous to us all indeed. That’s not how it is or was though, as hard as I believe much of mainstream media tried to make it seem so.
What I find odd is that I assume all those NHS and care workers who as yet haven’t had and will refuse the vaccine, are still at their posts. So why can’t they carry on as they are using the precautions that they are.
Has there been a massive increase in sickness and death because of these workers?
Why were their services good enough before the vaccine even came on the scene but suddenly are a toxic threat to all? Surely a compromise could be done on this.
It of course will be of no concern for staff shortages because under the Conservatives mass immigration is carrying on. I believe, if told correctly, already rules relaxed even more by Javid and Patel to hand out more visas for people to fill the gap of those they intend to remove from their posts for not rolling up their sleeves.
Unless this has changed, Migration Watch reported on the Conservatives removing the Resident Labour Market Test so by that means workers can just be imported at will.
January 20, 2022
To reply good well done. Little reason for the young, children or people who have had covid to have them. Probably net harmful for these groups in fact. But for older people the figures are rather different.
January 20, 2022
Javid on Talk Radio just now on Talk Radio is clearly not of a mind to reverse the very foolish all NHS and Care Home staff must be fully vaccinated law – not even for those who have had already had Covid. It seems the boosters do not even last for more than a few weeks anyway.
Rather a silly man study the figures mate – these sons of bus drivers like Khan do not seem to have a very good record for logic. Khan even wants to keep people in masks on tubes and buses.
January 20, 2022
I seem to remember that the smallpox innoculation was compulsory for children under a certain age back in the fifties.
January 20, 2022
Which was perhaps sensible on balance as the benefits were worth the risks, it is a very nasty disease amd attacked children and the young – not so for the Covid vaccines & children it seems.
January 20, 2022
Yes, it was fully effective and eradicated smallpox. Unlike the situation we’re talking about now.
January 20, 2022
I hope you are right, Sir John, and we see a return to Conservative values.
All I want from any government is for them to care for the UK and put the country and it’s citizens FIRST, ahead of their party even. They will be judged on the results, which does not bode well for Boris.
January 20, 2022
I think now what we have is a conserving of values of the New Labour variety. So by twists and turns you could say this is a Conservative party, conserving values of some sort.
January 20, 2022
Not if he keeps listening to his champagne socialist, climate alarmist, animal rights activist and rip off gold wallpaper theatre studies graduate dope of a wife.
January 20, 2022
”put the country and itâs citizens FIRST”…..gets my vote
January 20, 2022
Shirley – then the WHOLE system needs to be changed. Unfortunately we do not have a Constitution like the USA which commences “We the people…….
However I feel change is coming.
January 20, 2022
Lock downs were a success.Some people are looking at the numbers of hospitalisations and deaths with the lockdowns in place It simply demonstrates the blinkered approach to disease and the spread of it. Does anyone know the numbers without lockdowns? of course not.. If me and my contemporaries waited to see if a disease was going to kill or not kill a person without preemptive action we would certainly have the evidence! As for the numbers( that is looking at lives and deaths as numbers ) of deaths even with lockdown .. how callous can some people be! If their family were counted as a number how would they feel?
The action hasn’t simply been the UK, it has been multinational. Where there are more people and over population disease by its nature proliferates.
As for individual freedom., where it impacts on others survival ,,and this is life or death..freedom takes second place to the selfish individualist.
January 20, 2022
We have the evidence of Sweden, which didn’t lock down and admitted it basically used the UK’s Pandemic Preparedness Plan which the UK had in place …. before SAGE and Johnson binned it.
It’s excess deaths which matter, not the manipulated data on “Covid deaths.” Sweden has lower excess deaths than most western countries which locked down.
January 20, 2022
The Swedes said to us: “You suddenly jumped out of the boat.”
January 20, 2022
Margaret : please don’t attribute your own lack of knowledge to others. ‘Does anyone know the numbers without lockdowns? of course not.. ‘ you say. Yes, they do, anyone who’s compared England (lockdowns) with Sweden (no lockdowns), or US states with and without lockdowns will know that.
I will not be coerced into measures that impact not on others’ survival, but mainly on billionaires’ profits.
My freedom doesn’t end where your fear begins.
January 20, 2022
Unfortunately, for enlightened, internationally-minded people, their freedoms ended where the brexitists’ bigotry began.
January 21, 2022
Don,t try to bludgeon me with your insults. It wont work!
January 20, 2022
I want every death not attributed directly to Covid counted as a Lockdown death.
Yet another friend (a really close one this time) succumbed on Monday night. This totals 12 since restrictions began and a good many of them under sixty and not one of them of Covid (or even with it.) I have never known a death rate among people I know like this. Never.
Reports of many of them missing hospital consultations having been referred by their GPs.
January 20, 2022
M. B.
Sorry Margaret, you are quite wrong. Look at Sweden that never locked down, and Florida, and Japan. Sweden fared about the best in Europe! Most of Africa was always impossible to lock down and vaccination rates were very low (10% perhaps!) but they have come out very well.
January 20, 2022
+1
January 21, 2022
Every area in consideration of densely populated areas, movement is unique . You are comparing chalk and cheese. This is blanket research which is rarely accurate. If your individual freedom is worth far more than thousands of others individuals ,then you are fighting against yourselves.
January 21, 2022
What is needed in this respect are thinking skills, not a reliance on taught knowledge or blanket research ,just simple observation , internalisation and understanding the processes within your own immediate area.
January 20, 2022
359 people confirmed dead with Covid in the UK yesterday.
A Conservative considers this a good day. Staggering.
Reply Like you I regret all those who died. They died on a day of continuing restrictions.
January 20, 2022
“With a Covid positive test within 28 days” often not of Covid at all. The only two people I know personally who died both elderly went into hospital for other condition and both caught Covid in hospital. Not too surprising as the NHS often (negligently?) have wards with Covid Patients and non Covid patients in the same ward! How many died with spots, athletes foot, an eye infection or a sore throat within 28 days?
Total deaths England and Wales ONS figures week ending 7th Jan 12,262 (average past five years 13,298). So over 1000 down on five year average and with a higher population.
January 20, 2022
Probably 1,600 people died of one thing or another yesterday, as always on an average day given the population. Even though we have a Conservative govt, we donât yet have immortality.
You were trumpeting the âexpertsâ who said we would see 5,000 deaths a day. You were wrong. Again.
January 20, 2022
Andy wants to sit at home while trades and shop assistants work around him. Nice life.
January 20, 2022
359 dead with C19, not from C19. Even the NHS is now admitting near-on 50% of the people coming into hospitals with C19 are there because they need treating for something else.
Far better to look at excess mortality as a measure of the impact of C19. That rate is significantly below the scary picture painted by 150,000+ C19 deaths.
January 20, 2022
Even the BBC confirmed many of these related to coincidental deaths.
January 20, 2022
So it was just like the ‘flu’ after all
January 20, 2022
‘With’, Andy – not ‘of’. BTW, infections in France, in your beloved EU, are running at three times the UK rate.
January 20, 2022
Yet France is still reporting fewer deaths.
reply There are definitional differences over with and of covid
January 20, 2022
With Covid, Andy and not of it.
Glad you pointed that out.
January 20, 2022
@JR reply; Your reply makes Andy’s point, if that number of people are still dying even with restrictions it rather suggest far from easing restrictions the govt should be tightening them, or at the very least waiting.
The announcement of an end to some CV19 restrictions has nothing to do with the data, everything to do with the PM needing the Tory MSM to have something other than “Partygate” and a ‘Red Wall’ MP defecting on the from page.
January 20, 2022
You are a zero Covid adherent then Jerry
January 20, 2022
@Peter2; No, I have long accepted that we will have to learn live with CV19 now, but there is a mile of difference between adjusting to how we now need to live, accepting new social norms etc, and simply expecting to carry on regardless.
January 20, 2022
Which is the path we are travelling on now.
Towards a removal of restrictions.
Otherwise we live under restrictions like New Zealand or Australia perhaps for years more.
January 21, 2022
@Peter2; You are being somewhat binary. There are effective alternatives to either carrying on regardless, as Brazil tried to do, or locking down as New Zealand & Australia have done. Even before CV19 in many far eastern countries it was already the social norm to wear masks for example, in some societies not respecting another persons personal space, social distancing, is regarded as an insult.
Many social norms here in the UK have changed over time too, tell us Peter, before Cv19 would you have invested your money holding ‘Tea Dances” or in holding Discos or Raves, a Lyons Corner House franchise or a fast-food outlet, or perhaps you went to an old cinema expecting to see a film but could not understand why people were sat playing Bingo…
January 21, 2022
You need to decide Jerry.
Do you support the UK in its gradual reduction in restrictions or do you prefer a more restrictive approach as favoured by some other nations.
January 22, 2022
P2; Try actually reading what I said in the comment you replied to above!
January 22, 2022
I did
Are you trolling me?
January 20, 2022
Andy. The important word is ‘with’.
January 20, 2022
The important word is dead.
January 20, 2022
@BOF; Many patients with advanced cancers do not die of their cancer, they die due to the pain killing drugs given as part of their palliative care they receive, I hope you are not trying to suggest these people do not die ‘with’ cancer. Many victims of RTA’s do not die ‘due’ to the impact, they die of multiple organ failures or the loss of blood etc, I hope you are not trying to suggest these people did not die because of an RTA?
January 20, 2022
Wrong Jerry
People are listed as victims of cancer even if powerful pain killers hastened their demise.
Coroners courts decide cause of deaths by things like road traffic accidents.
January 21, 2022
@Peter2; That was my point! So why do some object to CV19 being listed on a death cert?
As for your other comment, are you mixing up pathology with the work of the coroner? In most cases doctors (who includes pathologist) write death certs, unless unable to or unwilling, not coroners courts, the later merely tried to find (cause or manner) as to why someone has died – how many death certs have “Open verdict” for cause of death…
January 21, 2022
They object because it isnt the real cause of death.
People in hospices in their 80s and 90s suffering terminal illness marked as dying from Covid whereas their relatives believe otherwise.
January 22, 2022
@P2; “They object because it isnt the real cause of death.”
To judge from your ‘logic’, you do want “Cancer” removed from death Certs where it was the patients palliative care (often morphine) that was the direct cause of heart failure, in the same way as CV19 can be the direct cause of heat, lung or other organ failure, even though the patient might have some other co-morbidity that they may well otherwise have lived with for weeks or months, even years, before dying.
“People in hospices in their 80s and 90s suffering terminal illness marked as dying from Covid whereas their relatives believe otherwise.”
Quite the opposite! The vast majority of relative will already know of the co-morbidity, by banning mention of CV19 from the death cert it will stop relatives knowing their loved ones had caught CV19, perhaps within a NHS or private heath care setting…
January 22, 2022
Your post as usual goes off on numerous tangents away from the original post.
A person in New York hit by a bus and killed instantly had a death certificate saying Covid.
January 20, 2022
Of course, Sir John. And about six people died on the roads in spite of speed limits and other road safety laws, so perhaps all those should be removed too?
January 20, 2022
Interesting point â strict road safety laws never stop drink, drug or criminal drivers….that commit the majority of road traffic accidents
January 21, 2022
@glen cullen; Without such laws nor could the police stop the few irresponsible people, on the other hand not having any laws only increases the number of irresponsible people – compare the UK, with its strict fire-arms laws, with the USA for example.
January 20, 2022
You favour permanent restrictions then NHL?
January 20, 2022
I too “believe wherever possible people should be free to make their own decisions about how they spend their lives and how much risk they run”. They should also do this on a level playing field not one hugely rigged by government tax, subsidy and misguided regulations.
The main markets that are hugely and damagingly rigged by this (and past) governments are:- energy, schools, universities, housing, public transport & cars, OTT building regulations, jobs/employment, healthcare, the BBC & broadcasting, the “arts” (museums, opera, theatre, classical music, sports… a level playing field and real freedom of choice please. For all these areas and not rigged markets, subsidies and differential taxes – this usually for no sensible reason. The damage done by this OTT rigging of markets by deluded politicians is huge.
January 20, 2022
A good day?
We’re to have most of our Civil Rights restored – which should NEVER have been removed in the first place.
Millions of lives ruined by this Government, the so-called Opposition and a MSM which ramped up fear (on behalf of the Government).
We’ve got a fraud for a Prime Minister: a man who pretended for decades to be a Conservative-libertarian and turns out to really be a tax, borrow, print and squander Socialist-Eco Loon. A man who demonstrates by his actions his belief that rules and laws only apply to the little people and then lies about it.
And as the icing on the cake, a so-called Conservative MP who is so “flexible” with his beliefs that he can switch from the CONs to Labour because there’s effectively no difference between them.
I presume Sir John means “good” as in “not quite as awful as it could be.”
January 20, 2022
Why didn’t they announce that unvaccinated NHS staff would not now be fired ?
January 20, 2022
WhatâŠand admit theyâve been wrong for 2 years, not a chance
January 20, 2022
Re: covid jabs
My brother and his partner have been fully taken in by the fear mongering and had all the jabs offered, latest just before Christmas. Just after Christmas his partner was bedridden for 3 days because she was so poorly. My brother was feeling poorly and when the 3rd test delivered a positive, he put himself in isolation for 10 days.
Similarly, a work colleague had his 3rd shot and felt ill afterwards, tested positive and isolated himself, but he is still not 100%. His response to being ill after the jab was, ‘I had the booster just in time before I got really ill’.
We are all in, or approaching our 70’s and I have had none of the jabs. Apart from early 2020 when I was rather poorly for a few weeks, all I have had since is a common cold that required lots of hankies.
We all eat a healthy diet, none of us are obese and my brothers partner and I have the same health condition.
So the big question for me is, how come all those I know (I have only provided 2 examples) who have been jabbed up to the eyeballs keep getting ‘covid’, whereas I, without any jabs, do not?
January 20, 2022
It’s the same with people I know, J Bush. And they can’t work out why. Perhaps they’re waiting for the media to tell them the jab was a bad idea.
January 20, 2022
Those of us who are Conservatives would all like to see more Conservative values but surely for that we first need some actual Conservatives in Government to want to implement them. Unfortunately we wonât get that with manifesto ratting Johnson and his hugely damaging policies. Itâs clear he and his cabinet havenât got a Conservative bone in their bodies between them.
January 20, 2022
359 people reported dead with Covid within 28 days of a positive test in the UK yesterday.
A broken record thinks heâs scoring a point. Predictable.
January 20, 2022
What I would like to see Sir John is more gratitude to those in public life. I would like less intrusion into private lives and more realism about how hard some people work and what it costs them. The press are unelected amoral and self serving yet no one ever demands better standards from the British press. It degrades the country that the press always seem to be trying to cause the most damage to the UK. Itâs just not like that in other countries.
It makes the UK appear weak and I should think deters people from taking high profile jobs. Itâs already starting with an anti Whitty witch-hunt.
There is no point having inquiries about Covid. Itâs a wicked problem and will always be different next time.
January 20, 2022
Most evidence leads to the conclusion that Mr Johnson is set on destroying Conservative values rather than increasing them. Planning assumptions around vastly increased cross channel migration is one latest example. Johnson cares little for the inevitable terrorist atrocities from mass non- vetting, care homes to be a prime target now that people arriving illegally pending asylum decisions, are to be allowed to work in them after one year. It wonât be long before English council tax increases (the migrants only want to live in England) are made to cover the cost, whether by an explicit migrant precept or not.
January 20, 2022
Will this include telling the GP’s to get back to the job they are paid to do?
Will it also include the instruction to hospitals to drop their blackmail to have ‘covid tests’ to have a surgical operation?
January 20, 2022
What exactly is John Redwood âtypes of peopleâ – alas not very many of these around. People are still perfectly free to move (as they were before we even had the dire the EU. Where this is restricted this has been done by the EU or individual countries over whom we have no control introducing more red tape. So blame them.
January 20, 2022
Andy Hindsight. I seem to have missed your alternative policies. How is your beloved France doing.
Whoops topped half a million cases, their highest on record. I seem to have missed your trashing of them as well.
An informed view would say that is more worthy of your comments (if anything is?) how strange. Anyone would think you are biased.
January 20, 2022
France has had a lot of infections of Omicron. But because of the success of its Tous AntiCovid vaccine passport app, France also has a much higher vaccination rate than us – so is currently reporting fewer deaths. Sensible precautions with masks have also helped France have a significantly lower death toll than Brexit Britain. Thatâs how France is doing.
Incidentally I have the Tous AntiCovid app but never downloaded the NHS app as I didnât want this dreadful British government holding my data.
January 20, 2022
Andy please go and live in France. God forbid you should get ill here. It’s such a terrible country but you must like something about it because you’re still here!
January 20, 2022
If that was a good day, you are clutching at straws. Remind next time when I am stopped by the police that not realising I am breaking the law is an acceptable defence.
But Boris you made the law. Did I? I am sorry I must have forgotten just like changing my phone.
Utter mendacity.
January 20, 2022
I too am very pleased at the news of the relaxation of the rules. And I agree, JR, with your thoughts about personal freedoms and decision making.
One thing I would say, there have been a variety of groups such as Us for Them, The Declaration, Big Brother Watch, Smile Free, and Iâve no doubt others that have been working hard to try and secure our freedoms back from the government, so itâs not just down to Borisâ generosity, that heâs returning something that was theirs to take; itâs been the threat of losing his job that has prompted Boris to announce what he did yesterday.
However, there is still the matter of mandatory vaccinations hovering like the sword of Damocles. There was no mention yesterday of that going. And as that was only put into place recently, Iâve no doubt that wonât necessarily go in March!
Why, when the NHS is so short of staff, would the government sack up to 80,000 of its staff? I find that decidedly worrying⊠who will they come for next? Hospitality, shop workers, then the rest of us?
January 20, 2022
And in other news, we see the final proof that your migration policy has failed, the daily numbers are not going to be revealed.
You can bet, had they been going down, they would have been all over the front page.
Failing and flailing. Your new Tory slogan.
January 20, 2022
+1 I keep wondering how Boris could make illegal immigration even more attractive. Illegals are treated better than legal residents of the UK. I wonder if Boris will propose an amnesty for them again. It wouldn’t surprise me.
January 20, 2022
Well said Mark B.
Itâs even worse in EU land. Iâm in Austria where mandatory vaccinations are due in a couple of weeks time, and papers must be shown to enter non-essential shops.
Us skeptics here hope the UK will lead the way in demonstrating that âitâs overâ. The trouble is so many people have been terrified into thinking that all the measures taken are proportionate, in their interest and should continue whatever the hospitalisation figures show, that politicians feel they can keep on with it all.
January 21, 2022
That is a national decision, nothing to do with any European Union institution, which would have no authority to make vaccination compulsory, nor to order lockdowns etc.
January 20, 2022
Sensible as usual SJR, it’s just so sad that you are not leading the government as you are the real deal as far as have.seen for many years.
January 20, 2022
As well as the 359 who died with Covid on a good day for the Conservatives, yesterday we learned about soaring Tory Brexit pensioner inflation.
Officially we are told inflation is 5.4% – the highest it has been for 30 years. What happened 30 years ago – in 1992? The EU was founded. The Brexit pensioners embracing the benefits of Brexit by hiking the prices of everything you buy to benefit their rich friends. This is their Brexit dividend. Howâs it working out for all of you?
Anyway, 5.4% is official inflation. It isnât actual inflation for real people. Because the sort of goods real people buy on a regular basis – pasta, rice, vegetables, fruit, meat, fuel – are all rising in price much faster than this. Itâll get even worse in April when gas and electricity prices soar – and next winter will be a disaster for many.
I can afford these Brexit price hikes. I can just fire our Brexit voting cleaner if I need to save cash. Most people are not so lucky. Good luck Brexitists. I am told food banks are quite good. Let me know.
reply So why is German inflation high, anD US inflation at 7% There was much more the Brexit than I realised!
January 20, 2022
Andy always scape-goats my wonderful Generation who experienced the wonderful joys of the 1960s :-
The Beatles, Stones etc. and wall to wall radio before the arrival of colourful clothes and colour TV.
I think you’re having a laugh and pulling one as usual. Either way you’re deeply envious.
January 20, 2022
Savid Javid says today “While the parties were going on *people were at home protecting themselves*”
Um – no ! What a twisting of facts. They were at home to “Save [other] lives. Protect the NHS…”
It is clear that very many Tory MPs have had a change of heart as they can see that Labour now have a very real chance of winning the next general election.
Well I don’t care anymore. This is just Red team vs Blue team gaming as far as the electorate are concerned.
We already have a Leftist, woke, mass immigration, high tax and high waste eco loon government in charge replete with hypocrisy, chumocracy and a bent towards do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do totalitarianism.
I’m particularly galled at being told by a bloke who has more kids than he remembers, spread across multiple households (and rising) telling me (with only two exceptionally well raised ones – to the highest professions) that I’ve got to cut my carbon emissions.
At least Boris and I share a tendency to recycle knackered old cars and keep them going.
January 20, 2022
It is a moral duty to oppose immoral laws. The government has no business forcing us to protect ourselves. This applies equally to vaccinations, seat belts or any other such laws. Unfortunately, too many politicians forget that they are appointed to represent us and to be vigilant in the protection of our freedoms. Fortunately, enough of the electorate are able to recognise offenders and ensure their removal at the earliest opportunity.
January 20, 2022
It seems I am correct to be worried about the mandatory vaccines for NHS staffâŠ
In response to questioning by Dr Andrew Murrison MP, Boris responded,â The arguments have been made well made by colleagues across the House today. I just remind him this is something that is supported by the NHS themselves for patient safety. It is a very difficult point when it comes to patients who have contracted fatal Covid. People do want their medical staff to be vaccinated. I would just repeat what I have said throughout the afternoon, I do think it is the responsibility of all healthcare professionals to be vaccinated.â
Togetherdeclaration.org are asking people to send a letter to all the six unions⊠see the website to download the letter and other details.
January 20, 2022
Conservative values should aspire to improve the lot of the many not the few.
This government is too focused on targeted groups and not its core. It would do better to concentrate on its core and throw the occasional red meat to the pressure groups, instead we get the opposite.
January 20, 2022
And it is now clear your energy price cap has destroyed the market, pushing up costs, reducing investment, trashing business models.
A (cloth eared) spokesperson for the BEIS said it was protecting millions of vulnerable consumers.
Putting 45 suppliers out of business, giving their customers to a the few giants that are left.
Wow that really is encouraging competition. Yet more evidence of the total lack of economic understanding from the party allegedly of free enterprise.
January 20, 2022
“We need more conservative values”
But you aren’t going to get this by filtering out real conservative candidates at the selection process.
The Conservative Party has been taken over by stealth. The Woke have taken over your selection process. Malign forces are trying to remove and discredit the Brexit supporting MPs.
We are given the illusion of democracy but in reality it’s the people controlling the selection process who really have the power.
Until your party reinstates its true values you are doomed to fail. All these net zero policies are vote losers and will destroy our country.
I suggest you deal with the real problem and start building a real Conservative Party. Until this happens I’ll stick with the Reform party who better represent my values.
January 20, 2022
Agreed, Christine.
As Parliament had (maybe still has) a preponderance of remain voters I suspect the selection criteria for candidates has been pro-EU for many years. That is why Parliament is so out of step with the wishes of the majority, but we can only choose between the candidates offered. I still do not trust Parliament to uphold democracy and the result of the referendum.
January 20, 2022
Quiet day in the Commons yesterday, good time to release the good news that Covid is on its way out. One fact that I only learnt when Nigel Farage announced it, was that following a FOI request, only between 17,000 and 18,000 actually died OF Covid in this pandemic against the 150,000 plus who died WITH Covid and underlying serious health conditions. Partly in support of this information he also passed on the information that the average age of those who died was from memory 82.5 years. In final honest analysis was the pandemic all it was cracked up to be and all the lifestyle changes justified. The real cost will be all those who died and will die unnecessarily from lack of NHS treatment. The NHS having been diverted to Covid.
January 20, 2022
Is it the case that the average age of men dying from the Wuhan virus is higher than the average age of men dying?
January 20, 2022
One can only wonder how much the changes on the Covid restrictions are about following the evidence and how much it is about dissuading the submission of letters to the Chair of the 1922 Committee.
January 20, 2022
The hospitalisation stats in a few weeks should clarify that rather effectively, I think don’t you?
January 20, 2022
If today’s reports are to be believed, it seems that Number 10 may have other means of persuasion.
January 20, 2022
I havenât seen anything like âtraditional conservative valuesâ this past decade
I would welcome this government producing a list of its values
January 20, 2022
The daily number of positive tests has come down from a peak near the start of the year, but so has the number of tests carried out, so how much of the fall does that account for? Yesterday’s figure, over 108,000, was the third daily consecutive increase, and the hospitalisations and deaths are also much higher than before Omicron. For the time being, I would like to see face-masks continue to be used in shops, on public transport and in other public places. If the “science” says we don’t need to, then so be it. The conference on 26 January should be interesting.
January 20, 2022
Wokinghamite, can I suggest you try looking at the ONS figures for Wokingham? There have been six ‘Covid deaths’ in the Borough between mid-December and mid-January, about the same as in August-September, and far fewer than this time last year. Covid patients on ICU beds are running at about 7 or 8, about the same as in November, and hospital admission numbers are declining. Even on the government’s own parameters, Omicron is certainly over in Wokingham. By all means take all the precautions you want, but don’t expect anyone else to see any reason for them.
January 20, 2022
Woking. You can use your face mask. Nobody is stopping you. Just don’t expect me to. It’s the one thing I really wanted an end to. It’s farcical to expect me to wear one in a very large supermarket but not use one in a small pub. Madness.
January 20, 2022
Off topic, I find it quite interesting that if I google for:
âWe also strongly believe that with similar technology and common sense we can make any border frictionless with no material detriment to customs controls or food safety.â
then this morning there are just three references, the two mentioned yesterday:
https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/01/19/the-politics-of-gas/#comment-1293345
plus one new one:
https://upjobsnews.com/ms-urges-government-to-end-northern-ireland-border-checks-and-help-solve-labour-shortage-trending-news-more/
“M&S urges government to end Northern Ireland border checks and help solve labour shortage”
One might have thought that a striking claim like that made in a letter sent to the Prime Minister by the Chief Operating Officer of a leading food company, supported by fourteen other prominent companies, would have attracted more attention, and around the world not just in the UK.
Of course “common sense” has been sadly lacking when it comes to the Irish land border.
January 20, 2022
Well, now it has got into the Telegraph, but the government under Boris Johnson still will not recognise the blindingly obvious fact that it is EXPORT controls that are needed, checks and controls applied to the trickle of goods leaving Northern Ireland and going across the land border into the Irish Republic, not IMPORT controls applied to all or any of the goods coming into Northern Ireland, and if the Irish government and the EU don’t like that they should be told to lump it. What have we to lose apart from Boris Johnson’s low value trade deal, one which was never worth having at the price of our national unity and independence?
January 20, 2022
Sir John, you know very well that Bozo only scrapped the regulations because he feared for his job. If Tory MPs grew a backbone and threatened him with a vote of no confidence unless he adopted proper conservative policies then maybe we might get movement on other issues too. As it is, due to Tory MP cowardice, we still have the NI Protocol, tax rises, an uncontrolled Channel invasion, energy price rises, etc, etc.
By the way, I read that it was Sunak who objected in cabinet to announcing an end to the TV licence fee – so that’s him out as a successor to Bozo then!
January 20, 2022
Come on, spit it out.
What is the single most important “proper Conservative policy” which should be introduced, and how would it operate?
January 20, 2022
I expect the Treasury told him to do that.
January 20, 2022
@X-Tory; If Boris had adopted proper conservative policies, rather than what appears to be an attempt at Thatcherism+, he would indeed have secured majority support, those Tory MP’s in nice safe seats are not the people the PM needs to listen to as theirs are not the seats that gave him the current majority nor will they be the seats that keep the party in govt at the next election.
The vast majority of traditional Tory voters are moderate, fair minded people, and whilst the ex-Labour Red Wall voters might have wanted Brexit done (many never wanted us to join the EEC in the first place, and wanted out in ’75, some even remained loyal in ’83, voting for the Bennite unilateral exit), it doesn’t mean they want Thatcherism (even less Thatcherism+) anymore now than they did back in the 1980s. For most there was only two choices in 2019, sit on ones hands or vote to “Get Brexit Done”, for better or worse (WA/NIP wise), Brexit is done, now they are free again to cast their vote elsewhere. That has been no great political conversion, and just like with any marriage of connivance, a divorce often follows.
As for the TVL fee, all freezing of the fee has done is make the BBC look even better value, given that BT have today announced an inflation busting 9.3% increase from March with their rivals sure to follow, I suspect Sunak and the Treasury perhaps understood such finer point better than those at DCMS with others around the cabinet table desperately looking for a headline that might save them and their boss their jobs…
January 22, 2022
I’m amazed how you know what millions of voters think Jerry over decades of general elections.
What a sage you are.
Surely you ought to work for a political survey company.
In fact the survey would be unnecessary as all they need to do is publish your pronouncements.
January 20, 2022
It has been reported that Conservative MPs who express any dissatisfaction with the current leadership are being told that it may jeopardise schemes that are proposed in their constituencies i.e. the government couldn’t care less about the people living in such constituencies as long as the party (such irony!) and government don’t suffer. Conservative values???
Reply I have never discussed cash for my constituency with whips. I always put the case directly to the Ministers and department making the decision. Whips do not allocate government money
January 20, 2022
Thank you. Your reply is appreciated.
January 20, 2022
@JR reply; But surely many of these MP’s are likely to be politically inexperienced, with no prior understanding of how central Govt, Whitehall and Downing Street work. This alleged bullying, and worse, is not looking very good from the outside.
January 23, 2022
If you read Sir John’s response it should be easy to understand how money is allocated by ministers and what powers whips have, but yet again you still carry on with your unsubstantiated claims Jerry.
January 20, 2022
Oh dear, embarrassing times for the Conservative Party, John!
January 20, 2022
A tactical retreat by the government, the process towards enslavement will continue, the NHS staff are to be fired and the sailors. Here is a slightly credulous comment –
‘Imagine a virus so deadly and contagious that it disappears when a politician is at risk of losing public office.’
January 20, 2022
John Redwood proving that he knows as little about the publicâs health as he does the economy!
The bit he misses is that an increasing ignorant and arrogant public being directed by an incompetent and arrogant government donât care about anybody other than themselves.
There are still 100000 positive covid cases a day , so the risks are still out there. Why should the sensible and vulnerable have to hide whilst the arrogant and selfish who didnât follow the rules in the first place get to do what they want? It really isnât that hard to wear a mask for a bit and if things get worse this is entirely on the government.
The problem these days is that too many people think only about themselves and not the consequences of passing covid to a vulnerable person, which could prove fatal. Yes – we need to learn to live with covid – but not when we are still seeing a lot of daily cases.
January 20, 2022
We should certainly protect the vulnerable, the 0.03% who may die when catching Covid, and have an average age of 82.5 (government data). But there are better ways todo that than at the cost of imposing harmful, inconsistent and basically ineffective rules. We have to live with Covid, all parties agree. But how? The Great Barrington Declaration, signed by many thousands of scientific experts and medical personnel, showed the way forward, and this is the right time for the authorities to take it seriously at last, and recover some of their credibility.
January 20, 2022
Does that conservative value include sacking nursinghome, carehome and hospital staff and turning hospital into nursing homes, genocide policy if i ever was one. How is home secretary getting on with finding room and jobs for hundred’s of thousands of India people to come to the UK ?.
January 20, 2022
And in answer to Philip P suggesting cash from shops was my idea. .HMG rolling out scheme in 2000 shops whereby people can withdraw up to ÂŁ50, no purchase required.
January 20, 2022
Take a deep read, Sir John, of the MHRA data on the death and injuries toll following the experimental injections. They make very troubling reading indeed. Consider this: vaccines in the past were flagged up and withdrawn if deaths following the vaccine reached over 25 e.g. with swine flu in the US in 1976 the vaccine was pulled after 50 deaths as this indicated very serious problems/dangers with the vaccine. Yet the UK government continue driving these experimental injections forward, relentlessly, in the knowledge that significant numbers of severe injuries and deaths can result from the injections. Why? Why do you apparently support this?
MHRA UK data as of 5 January:
Deaths 1,932
Injuries over 1.4 million, many of these severe/lifechanging.
Reply I do not accept your injuries word. I have always opposed compulsion and said people should make their own judgement based on the evidence.
January 20, 2022
52 m of UK people got a first vaccine, 48 m got a second one, 36 m got a booster, so a total of 52 + 2*48 + 3*36 = 256 m injections.
1,932 deaths that is 0.00075 % of deaths linked to the Covid-19 vaccines.
1.4 m injuries (what type of injuries?) that just 0.55% for what might be arm pain, headache, possibly vomiting, fever. Typically what some people also get following their annual flu jab injection.
OC, Stop being a big girlâs blouse.
January 20, 2022
A few minor treats thrown on the floor and Sir John jumps and wags his tail.
Reply Not so. I am pressing for important changes of policy and approach
January 20, 2022
Mr Redwood – I would agree with you 100% if you dropped the upper-case ‘C’.
In the last few years, the Conservative Party has betrayed every conservative value going.
I will never vote Conservative again – the party is now forever tainted.
I think we need a new conservative movement for real conservatives – would you join a *New Conservative Party* sort of like the ERG but reset and disconnected from the shame of the current Conservative Party?
January 20, 2022
What happens to a conservative when the Conservative Party destroys or acquiesces to the destruction of so much of what we hold dear?
Conservation isn’t enough – we need to restore and then find a way too protect what we have lost.
Maybe I am no longer a conservative but a restoration conservative – a restorative?
January 20, 2022
When will Boris understand that the normal name for ‘isolation’ is ‘being off sick’. This virus should never have been handled any differently, EXCEPT for increased targeted protection for the vulnerable *IF* they chose to do so, and the making available of known, cheap and provably safe and effective early stage medicines, primarily Ivermectin. To deny us these medicines so that people died is unforgivable.
January 20, 2022
+1
January 20, 2022
Shocking stats out on ONS giving total deaths from Covid with no underlying conditions. This was published last month but has just been reported by Dr John Campbell on YouTube.
Freedom on information revelation â disq.us
For 2020 and first 3Q of 2021.
Average age 82.5 years old (higher than the average life of 79 for men and 82.9 women)
17,371 Total Deaths with no underlying condition
13,597 were over 65
3,774 under 65
University of Buckingham oncologist reckons 50,000 extra deaths due to cancer. Plus 6 million people waiting for NHS treatment.
This is shocking.
January 20, 2022
Great post Javelin.
January 22, 2022
Great post P2.
January 22, 2022
Great post heffy
My little troll
January 26, 2022
Do you not realise that you need me as you never post any primary post. Iâm trying to attract the attention of other contributors to the usual deep wisdom of your contributions. đ
January 20, 2022
Why doesnât the opposition highlight this at PMQsâŠ.or any MP
January 20, 2022
The way this government is operating, I wouldnât be surprised if global temperatures where decreasing and the whole climate change was evidenced to be a scam vis freedom of information request
January 20, 2022
Good post Javelin
Those figures do support the accusation levelled at the British political, bureaucratic, the public sector unions, the NHS, the academic and scientific class including the pharmas that WE THE PUBLIC have been exposed to an act of vicious, authoritarian politics both brutal and with malicious intent to harm
People have suffered including Tory MPs who were unable to be with loved ones while (officials Ed)and others partying the night away while old people died alone in care homes after being ejected by NHS from hospitals
Brutal SOCIALISM delivered to us BY A TORY GOVERNMENT
January 20, 2022
Good post, Javelin.
More shocking statistics, shocking in that they demonstrate the huge dishonesty that has taken place over the last 2 years with regard to recording Covid deaths, resulting in a pandemic of fear initiated by the government and fanning of the flames by the media and selected “pundits”. FOI request reveals the following:
“Office for National Statistics admits just 6,000 people died of Covid-19 in England and Wales between Feb 2020 and Dec 2021
In response to a freedom of information request the Office for National Statistics has admitted that just 6,183 people actually died of Covid-19 in England and Wales between February 1st 2020 and 31st December 2021, exposing the 150,000 death toll as an extraordinary lie.⊔
Source FOI/ONS, Daily Expose.
January 21, 2022
Not at all shocking- its been obvious for well over a year.
In fact I am more shocked that an oncologist estimates ONLY 60,000 extra cancer deaths.
So many cases have gone undetected, not referred, late treatment.
Treatable will become terminal, extra year or two will be prevented.
January 20, 2022
I donât think that the Corona Virus Act is in line with true Conservative values.
It must be repealed pdq!
And we need to get back to some sort of proper government where bills canât be rushed through without due scrutiny/voting etc.
January 20, 2022
I would like to see this Government demonstrate it is a Conservative government by ditching the damaging Blair/Brown Labour policies of large scale immigration and the unilateral fight to stop climate change.
January 20, 2022
I would like to see this Government demonstrate it is a Conservative government by inventing a time machine to go back in time and undo everything they’ve done since Brexit.
Unfortunately Conservative Party has gone too far to be redeemed now.
January 20, 2022
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
Groucho Marx or was it Boris
January 20, 2022
Groucho Marx Quotes …’ I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member’
Christian Wakeford doesn’t agree.
January 20, 2022
…been out all day so have not had time to read ….BUT would the real Conservatives stand up!.
January 20, 2022
Blackmail now. Can it get anymore toxic?
January 20, 2022
Who’d thought the government would stoop so low to try to make people comply with their agenda through blackmail?
Oh hold on, I forgot about lockdown, mask mandates, vaccine passports…
January 21, 2022
Within one week of returning to school over half of the children have contracted coronavirus in my grand daughters class.Thank goodness the infections are milder.