I reproduce below my piece from April 11th. I am pleased others now have come to see that bad data and wrong forecasts are a problem for the government’s scientific advisers:
Review the data
The death rate is too high. Every death is a tragedy. We all want to see it going down. The nation mourns those who have lost their lives to this disease.
Soon the government needs to review progress with its object of flattening the curve of the virus spread, to consider how long we need to remain in lock down.
I am glad we are now privy to the figures the government relies on. In the daily briefings we are shown two graphs or ācurvesā, the trend in hospital deaths from CV 19 and the trend in hospital admissions for the infection.
It is presumably these curves that need to be sufficiently flattened to allow the government to transit to the third phase of its advisersā planned handling of the virus crisis.
There are several issues with the Death figures that need getting right. I think it would be good for some administrators and statisticians from government and or from the scientific community advising the government to spend some time ensuring accurate data. This should not involve medical and hospital staff time which is needed to handle the patients.
There was a change in the basis of their compilation on March 26th, when they shifted from 8 hour to 24 hour reports, moving the numbers up. Can they smooth the figures to allow for this?
There is the issue of whether the deaths are all recorded on the appropriate day. The day before yesterday we were told the higher number included deaths from earlier days which they thought had not been recorded at the time. Canāt the numbers to be reworked for all but the most recent by reference to the death date on the medical death certificate?
There is the possibility of double counting. If deaths are sometimes recorded promptly before paperwork is completed, and other times when the paperwork is ready, there needs to be a check that they do not end up recording the same death twice.
The wider ONS figures are also of interest. These are higher as they include deaths not in hospital where CV19 was present. These include some where the deaths certified as with CV19 are based on statements about symptoms with no tests to confirm the presence of the virus. The figures include cases where CV 19 is mentioned where other severe conditions mean the patient would probably have died without the virus anyway.
Hospital admission with the virus is an easier series to get right. Presumably all on admission for CV 19 treatment are tested to ensure they have it, to make the correct treatment available. Admission takes place at one stated time and date, so it should be relatively easy to get a clean series of numbers that are accurate. A simple check would be to compare bed numbers and occupancy rates by hospital and to examine any outliers.
This is such an important decision both to control the disease andĀ for the jobs and livelihoods of the many, that the decision takers need theĀ most accurateĀ possible numbers. Ā (End of original)
I repeat again today these questions
What is a Covid 19 death? What are the numbers for dying of CV 19 and dying with CV 19?
Are the back numbers correctly attributed and compiled?
What is total NHS and private sector bed capacity and what is the current utilisation rate?
What proportion of total beds are currently taken by CV 19 patients?
How are the extra nurses recently recruited and the returners from early retirement being deployed?
November 7, 2020
The nation also mourns those, far greater in number, who have died during the same period of other things. Most of the excess deaths over this period happened at home (60,000 out of 70,000, I believe), as people either were too scared to go to a hospital or were not allowed into one.
November 7, 2020
191 arrested at peaceful protest in London, in June BLM allowed to do whatever they wanted, statues ripped down by mob while police watched, 17 officers used to close a hymn. What the hell is Patal thinking let alone not doing?
Boat loads of potential criminals or terrorists being housed in four star hotels while Macron states openly this week he will double border guards, areas in his country are breeding grounds for Islamic terrorism/ radicalization! Patel’s response, she lets them in and gives them all inclusive hotels!
November 8, 2020
Including 30 people (of all ages and without any comorbidities) killed every day on Britain’s roads by drug drivers.
Is this acceptable to legaliser Andy ?
When did the Tories legalise cannabis ? It’s stench is now everywhere since the last two years.
November 7, 2020
Data and Science will be the undoing of this Government. You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all the people all of the time – I don’t know who said that.
This Government is a bit like the child that cries WOLF, it all goes wrong when there is a real threat. What ever they say from now on will be worth naught.
Even with Brexit we just were give the option to stay or leave – nothing else. We thought that having our own Government and not be held in check by a Dictatorships we would get on and thrive. What does Government do dance around, prance around and avoid doing what it was asked.
That sums up the state of play for a good chunk of the Political Class – they are just so very, very freighted of the people that they spend an inordinate amount of time trying to find ways to hold the people in check instead of releasing them to thrive. The EU rulers have nothing to offer us, the EU Citizens as always will remain friends.
November 7, 2020
My observation with the ONS, because I use there figures elsewhere, is that a usually wrong. However, they are explicit in their T&C’s that the figures will always be corrected as and when real data becomes available.
November 7, 2020
What is the false positive rate for the test. How many positives are re-tested and what % are positive again. How long after having had the infection perhaps without symptoms do people still test positive? What proportion of the circa 22K new cases a day are false positives? 10% or 50%?
New positive cases are now in decline as we are surely close to herd immunity in most areas – does the government have any other explanation?
November 8, 2020
According the the Lancet (“False-positive COVID-19 results: hidden problems and costs”), the false positive rate is between 0.8 and 4 percent.
Given the low proportion of positive Covid test results overall, these would make up a sizeable proportion of all positive tests, and if the higher figure is used in some locations it could potentially make up all positive tests.
November 7, 2020
You were right to raise those questions back in April but no one in government took any notice. They will ignore today’s repeated questions too. They have wilfully distorted figures to justify authoritarian actions. At no time have we ever been subjected to such an attack on our personal liberty and freedom and we have endured far more deadly epidemics than this one. Sadly, Parliament, with a few honourable exceptions, has acquiesced. Any government that connives in presenting false information with the deliberate intent of instilling fear into the population and thereby enabling it to act in a dictatorial fashion is malevolent, unworthy of support and needs to be removed. Furthermore, legal action must be taken against all those who have conspired in this way.
November 7, 2020
Well put, Brian. Thoroughly agree.
November 7, 2020
Yes indeed. For more than eight months this has been going on. Isn’t that long enough to realise that this government is never going to speak truthfully and act with integrity?
Sir John, what on earth are you doing, continuing to support this dishonest and/or corrupt government? Asking questions like this hasn’t worked. To continue to act in a way that has been proven not to work is actually worse than doing nothing. An attempt to pretend that you are doing something, thereby fooling some people into believing you are being proactive seems designed to limit calls to act in a meaningful way. I’m not fooled, which is why I continue to call for you to act in the only meaningful way available to you, i.e. to explicitly withdraw your support for this government by resigning the whip.
What will it take for you to meaningfully distance yourself from a government that is openly deceiving not just the public but its own backbenchers?
November 7, 2020
+1
November 8, 2020
I do not think our kind host resigning the Whip is going to help. This government, much like the virus itself, must now be left to take its natural course. And that cliff edge cannot come soon enough !
November 8, 2020
What Sir John could achieve alone is clearly less than if he were one of forty or so. That could bring the electoral cliff edge forward four years. But such a calculation ought to be separate from the fact of continuing to associate with the Conservative Party which is damaging to credibility. That said, if Sir John resigned the whip today, I think the vast majority would forget that he had supported this shower for so long, or at least give him a pass for having done so.
Sadly, I suspect it comes down to the view that, no matter how appalling a Tory government is, a Labour government would be even worse. And that this kind of thinking is so prevalent in the land is why there is such little grounds for hope. There is a constituency for a new party, but it is far too small, and the ‘unity’ of the legacy parties is a key limiting factor. I believe change will not come through the ballot box, at least until circumstances are overwhelmingly dire. At which point the nature of the change is anyone’s guess.
November 8, 2020
Hear hear.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
‘What are the numbers for dying of CV 19 and dying with CV 19?’
In the US, the CDC ( the equivalent of UK’s PHE) undertook such a study and found that only 6% of recorded deaths were for those who had died with no other underlying causes (co-morbidities).
If we apply that same percentage to UK Covid deaths (48475 currently on Worldometer) then only 2908 recorded deaths in the UK are directly attributable to Covid.
In addition, there is concern that there is considerable mis-diagnosis, Covid being put on the death certificate when the disease is more likely to be another respiratory illness. This Autumn, with the Government keen to bump the Covd death figures up, there is a highly noticeable reduction in Flu and pneumonia deaths. Too, note the overall death rate from respiratory illness is the same for any other year. Who, but SAGE and the Government, believes that flu and pneumonia have miraculously disappeared this Autumn? The people do not believe this is true.
Highly respected scientists Dr Mike Yeadon and Graham Hutchinson argue that the pandemic was over by the summer; and that the government and advisers are now lying with regards to the severity of Covid (See Anna Brees on youtube). As Theresa May said (I paraphrase) the statistics are made to justify the lockdown pollcy rather than the policy being made as a response to the figures – it was ever thus throughout this pandemic.
A fraudulent government participating in a globally-coordinated fraud on the people.
November 7, 2020
It continues to be exercises in public control, Covid being the best present the advocates could ever have dreamed of. The ‘mad ‘ scientists love the attention and importance being shown. Now that the public is showing rational disbelief in them and the spurious corrupted spreadsheets, they wheel out Simon Stevens, a much more eloquent and believable presenter. However, his simplistic data does not bear examination either.
The game’s up – but like with Brexit Boris hangs on doing really well to shift blame.
We don’t believe you!
November 8, 2020
Everything coming out of the government is after the behavioral psychology department has pontificated over the herd’s reaction to the presentation. They decide to show the numbers that suit their policy and leave out the numbers that don’t. We are the herd.
November 7, 2020
Are you saying that those whose deaths are normally attributed to flu do not have co-morbidities? Are you also saying that steps taken by the government, individuals and healthcare workers to prevent transmission of Covid-19 have no effect on the transmission of flu? Are you also saying that people who have co-morbidities would have died within the same timescale as the course of Covid-19 or are you saying the government should cease to worry about Covid-19 as it only kills a comparatively small number of fit people? Do you know the proportion of people who recover from the acute phase of Covid-19 but continue to suffer adverse consequences including irreversible organ damage?
November 7, 2020
Forthurst – 4 questions / brief responses:
a) Far less flu deaths have co-morbidities than Covid as Flu is deadly for all age groups. The average age of death for Covid is 82+. If you are under 70 and it is of small threat. Not so for flu.
b) Yes. Pretty minimal effect. Once it is widespread in a society then there is little that can be done by governments to stop its advance. Canute and the sea.
c) Yes, those that died, largely being 82+ and with several co-morbidities, were likely to die soon. For some, like pneumonia, it might be regarded as ‘the old man’s friend.’ And yes, the government should cease to worry about Covid-19, to the extent of thereby adopting the Swedish low intervention model.
d) ‘Long-covid’ is no greater a problem than that for any other virus such as ‘long-flu’. The proportion is quite small, particularly as (from the top of my head) 99.5% of those infected with Covid recover. I think the Infection Fatality Rate is about 0.26% – See John Ioannidis work in New York.
November 7, 2020
In addition to note (b) it should be noted that flu deaths in the Summer were about 10 times higher than Covid deaths, and the flu deaths were normal for that time of year.
Sceptics like myself pointed out that it was strange how that government interventions had made no difference to the number of flu deaths; and therefore logically didn’t have any effect on Covid deaths, another respiratory illness, either.
The government feared this argument, and in Sept/Oct began changing how they reported flu and Covid deaths. Now, according to the government, it seems, they are making every effort to count flu deaths as Covid deaths – hence Flu, for the first time known to man, has suddenly disappeared; but Covid deaths have rapidly increased. Dodgy or what?.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
James Bertram
“only 6% of recorded deaths were for those who had died with no other underlying causes (co-morbidities).”
Not surprising, CV19 is after all syndemic, it never was pandemic. If they admitted it was Syndemic that could lead to argument that the virus came out of a lab and was probably designed to target comorbidity.
The fact that the virus goes for comorbidity is in my opinion a smoking gun.
“A fraudulent government participating in a globally-coordinated fraud on the
people”
Sums it up nicely, James. Better to blame a bat than to cease trading with China….too much obscene profit being made from crappy plastic goods that don’t work / don’t last five minutes.
This virus came out of a lab and the buggers know it.
November 8, 2020
Well. A nation as vast as China (millions of square miles) with wet markets everywhere and the one that is the epicentre of CV-19 just happens to have the Wuhan Institute of Virology right next to it.
I happen to think it was an accident.
And yes. I’m tired of buying items that don’t last. Outsourcing our ‘dirty’ work has failed in so many ways and now western civilisation (as we know it) is imperilled because of it.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
It is possible that flu has reduced over the epidemic because of the precautions taken over covid also work for flu. It is more likely that large number of untreated cancer, stroke, heart and other patients are now entering hospitals, hospices and care homes with terminal disease and are testing false positive on entry or picking up the virus. They are then recorded as with Covid and the true rise in deaths from lack of treatment is concealed.
November 7, 2020
Doing a Government style guestimation in the first wave the hospital capacity reached 15% of beds. That of course occupied about 30% of NHS Staffing(at 100 staff per patient) – the others appeared to have furloughed, as all other treatment stopped. If not on Holiday NHS Staff took to Social Media to show their prowess in dance off’s against other teams around the NHS.
The NHS is said to be the Worlds largest employer with 2.5million on the books. Again using Government style of logic 1.2 million hospital staff were able to take a fully paid up holiday and relax.
The disappoint for the rest of us is that according to the NHS’s after the event figures 40% of those that caught Covid only caught because they cam in contact with the NHS for other reasons. Using Government logic, science and guess work 40% of all Corvid cases in the first wave were as a direct result of lack of procedures and poor sanitation within the NHS its self.
November 7, 2020
I don’t suppose, even IF they knew the answers to your questions John that they would admit how stupid and wrong they have been. Everyone I speak to is completely deflated and concerned about where this country is going. It’s just too depressing for words. All the hard work of individuals and businesses thrown down the pan and for what? The jottings of figures from men who would have difficulty passing the 11 plus or so it would seem.
November 7, 2020
++
November 7, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
Parliament should be that second opinion when it comes to something like this virus … The house used to be full of professional people who could give a balanced view on life and livingness … Now it seems to be full of lemmings, apart from a few decent independent thinkers.
That the government is intent on keeping us aligned towards the NEW NORMAL and everything that this means demonstrates that our method of government has outlived it’s best days — It still treats us all as cattle, while those considered to be “THE VERY BEST PEOPLE” are making decisions that will mean we have no choice but to accept our fate or be excluded from the, rather less attractive these days, benefits of society.
November 7, 2020
They simply won’t be measuring what they don’t want you to know.
In particular, they could very easily make an accurate determination of the rate of false positives in pillar 2 testing. They haven’t, because they know it is too high for the very low prevalence of infection, but this suits their purpose.
The obfuscation is intentional, the alarmism is intentional. If this isn’t criminal, then it should be.
November 7, 2020
John seems to be trying to drag the discourse about the Government’s simple but massive failures in dealing with this epidemic into the mire of arcane claim and counterclaim about figures and methodology.
Well he would, wouldn’t he?
November 7, 2020
I thought you liked political debate.
Is questioning and challenge of the presented authodoxy a bad thing?
Or should it be, as you seem to want, only a recognised set of opinions must be allowed.
It is that path which ends in show trials, prison camps and a history of many millions put to death.
Choose your pathway.
November 7, 2020
Masks clearly didn’t work then.
I see them worn everywhere to please don’t say it’s because people aren’t complying.
November 7, 2020
It’s a great pity they never listen to wise advice especially when people’s lives and hundreds of billions are at stake.
If Boris was a football manager ……
Or if Boris was a football player with so many own goals….
Maybe a football hooligan but not his own referee!
In rugby I have seen players pass out after a scrum down for far less …
November 7, 2020
Questions you m8ss John, why have we no seasonal flu or pneumonia deatgsthis year.
All respiratory deaths are being labelled Covid.
Seco d, why don’t we get the daily total deaths and the 5 year average week on week.
It looks like many people are ignoring the lockdown and rightly so.
Joe public knows when he’s being lied to.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
Sir John, you raise excellent questions. It is difficult to believe that the Prime Minister and the Cabinet do not have access to the answers, but we are not allowed to know. It seems clear from the data that is available that in a number of parts of the country, the hospitals are not overwhelmed by Covid and are unlikely to be. Why therefore a national lockdown and why no published data on the costs of it to the nation in both short and long term?
November 7, 2020
Good questions. Another would be – What proportion of the incoming hospital patients test positive and have symptoms? The test amplifies to a point where pieces of RNA or dead virus can give a positive result when the patient has not been ill or displayed any symptoms or may have had the virus and recovered. Some well qualified doctors put false positives at nine out of ten. A patient may come in after a car crash and die later but test positive and be recorded as a death with Covid.
November 7, 2020
Excellent questions, as usual thank you. Here’s a related one – how many of the ‘cases’, hospital admissions and deaths are truly due to Covid 19 or are they actually from other respiratory problems? At risk of duplicating my post from yesterday, Dr Mike Yeadon is one highly respected scientist who believes Covid 19 is virtually over and present statistics relate to other viruses wrongly identified. If so, can we re-open the economy forthwith, or will such a move be blocked to save the hides of Messrs Johnson, Hancock, Whitty, Vallance and Sage members?
November 7, 2020
When they test everyone in Liverpool they should record whether each positive has had any symptoms in the past or at present. This would give a picture of the true number of infections and whether these are infectious.
November 7, 2020
and record whether reds or blues!
November 7, 2020
Be careful with the media induced word of the week ”’infection”’
We may well all be infected, but whats important is whether we have symptoms or sickness
November 7, 2020
It ages well JR unlike this useless, awful government which seems committed to destroying SMEs no matter what the consequence. I also predicted this in the early months of the pandemic when it was clear what the real purpose of lockdown was….. How about they might tell you in 2030?
This government does not care about the health of people. It has not bothered with an impact assessment for what must have been one of the biggest decisions in the history of this nation. If it did care, it would have been encouraging exercise and prioritising that above all else along with a healthy diet and appropriate vitamin supplements. Fortunately, a good number of us have done that anyway rather than trusting in the snake oil vaccine salesmen…
zorro
November 7, 2020
Absolutely, hear, hear!
November 7, 2020
I wish the vaccine was āsnake oilā instead of aborted foetus and formaldehyde!
November 7, 2020
Yes. Where is “Lose weight, save the NHS” ?
And that should apply regardless of CV-19. During lock down people have got fatter ! Including many people who used to keep fit at the gym.
November 7, 2020
It remains a solid comment 7 (seven!) months later. The additional questions make it even more solid.
A couple of sentences I commented at the time:
“Capacity and utilisation data should be given for each potential bottleneck, also as function of time.
I would add (again and always) the Govt should be giving estimates (and methodology) for life years saved by lockdown and life years lost (due to present delays and future effect on economy ā no evidence for the cure being worth the cost has been given)”
November 7, 2020
they try to make the reality as opaque as possible, so that only simon stevens and his ilk get to know how they are doing their rationing and allocation. if the truth gets out that the nhs is corrupt, incompetent, and actively anti many groups of patients then its religious status would quickly fade.
November 7, 2020
“I am glad we are now privy to the figures the government relies on.”
This is such a disgrace, 8 months into the pandemic and we are still struggling to get data on it.
November 7, 2020
Iain Moore
“This is such a disgrace, 8 months into the pandemic and we are still struggling to get data on it.”
Be reasonable Iain…..it takes time to craft the kind of data they want us to believe, especially during a phoney pandemic.
November 7, 2020
Good afternoon.
Sir John
Most of us here can see that you are trying to help the government out of a mess that it need not have got itself into. Sadly, as we saw from the vote in the HoC recently, you are a minority. You realise as we, that the government has allowed itself to be mislead, not just by questionable data, but by questionable individuals and organisations who want the government, and thereby your party, to fail. Fail so that there prefered candidates can take the reigns of power. We have, as PM, a man who many here think is not up to the job. Too easily swayed and lacking in strength of character to fight his, and our, corner. He surrendered his responsibility when he stated he would be led by the science (he rally meant scientists). But whilst he may have relinquished responsibility he cannot so easily relinquish accountability. Both he and your party will be held to account for what they have both done and not done and there will be no getting away from it.
I, like others here, sense the danger both your party and the nation are in and, are as helpless in the face of fools who cannot think outside there protected bubble. That bubble, as you well know, lasts for only 5 years maximum, at which point the damage wrought on the people of this nation will permeate said bubble.
In 2016 I was full of hope and optimism. Now I am full of despair foreboding.
November 7, 2020
These questions will not be welcomed by the government.
They have chosen their approach and donāt want any evidence which might support any deviation from it.
November 7, 2020
How many beds in each hospital were allocated to C19 last lockdown, and how many are deemed to be still allocated to it now (we heard of one hospital up North that stated its C19 beds were full to capacity, when in fact it had drastically downgraded the C19 beds per se to just 8 units…).?
Of the allocated C19 beds NOW, how many are occupied? How does this compare with last time i.e. beds available / beds occupied.? The truth please!
Your writings and questions, John, suggest you have the same doubts and misgivings as the rest of us, in that the intent to lockdown ‘anyway’ is primary and the data is being stroked / confected to justify that action. The next question then is, “That being so, what the hell is the agenda?”. The failure of the PM and/or his Cabinet to clarify this issue, or indeed to clearly deny it, is now the cause of much supposition and hysteria in the public domain.
November 7, 2020
Biden won…does that mean Brexit is off
November 7, 2020
No glen it means we are screwed
November 7, 2020
No – we’ve already left the EU. I hope some staffer will inform the President Elect of the fact.
November 7, 2020
keep up glen – Brexit has been off for about 3 years. (sad grin).
We will miss the orange clown with hairsprayed barnet, but I doubt many will miss our non-hairsprayed barnet B/shitter.
November 7, 2020
Strange question: Why should it be off? It has nothing to do with the USA. I want Brexit on 01/01/2021.
November 7, 2020
And so you will get it 01/01/2021..fasten your seat belt..hope yer not travelling to France or anywhere else
November 7, 2020
I fear that this government is looking for any excuse
November 7, 2020
Brexit is now irrelevant
This virus is a global governance coup
November 7, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
It has already happened.
It might mean that the Government will now start being more realistic about to what the European Union might agree, without an antagonistic fool of a US president in the frame any more, however.
November 7, 2020
Your desire for globalism in a short few words.
November 7, 2020
Barnier says that the British negotiators are asking for more than the Canada deal. So why doesn’t he prove this by offering us the bare Canada deal and seeing if we accept it? You would surely agree that we shouldn’t accept LESS than everybody else, remembering all that we have given the EU either directly or via omission in the WA?
November 7, 2020
It just means glen, that the UK is now up Shit Creek without a paddle. Any trade deal with the EU, will now be 100% on EU terms. A US-EU trade deal will rank much higher than any UK-US; or UK-EU deal.
The Northern Ireland protocol under the Withdrawal Agreement Treaty will be backed 100% by the next US Congress; they all claim Irish connections.
Remember that the US only ever considered the UK to be its access port into the EU market space, that didn’t speak the English language.
November 7, 2020
You are doing a Boris – guessing. As yet there is nothing to support your assertion.
November 7, 2020
Fine, no trade deal. The USA trades with the EU under WTO rules and they export a lot more than we do. We can put an end to these interminable fake ‘negotiations’ and get on with signing trade deals with the rest of the world. We can control our fisheries like every other independent coastal state: EU, back of the queue.
November 7, 2020
Wrong.
If a deal doesn’t suit the UK then it will not sign.
International trade continues with or without a deal
November 7, 2020
It seems to mean the USA and UK will have to suffer more expensive, job destroying, climate alarmist, war against plant food lunacy. Let us hope the Senate will veto whatever they can on this pushing green crap nonsense. Every green job must destroys (or export) at least two others (due to expensive energy and extra taxation). The foolish Biden seems to think it will create jobs (or perhaps optimistically he is not that dim and just pretends he thinks this – for political reasons).
It is all very depressing. It gives Boris problems with a real Brexit and problems with the Irish Border. Then Boris has the government’s Covid Incompetence and the Scottish issue with the dire Sturgeon and her National Socialist Party of Scotland. Plus he has problems with his greenish, theatre studies graduate partner.
Women, the young and college “educated” young women in particular are largely to blame for Biden it seems.
November 7, 2020
The BBC has become even more unbearable, biased, full of green crap and wrongheaded that usual this evening.
November 8, 2020
LL
Give it a rest!
November 8, 2020
And today on Marr with the dire and pathetic identity politics and politics of envy pusher David Lammy. Yet another lawyer.
November 7, 2020
Biden has not won. The media are reporting he did, because that is what they would like, but the count has not finished and there are many legal challenges ongoing, including orders from the Supreme Court. Trump remains president until January, unless the Electoral College meets and declares 270 states to one or the other candidate. The media are trying to hoodwink the public.
Remember 20 years ago? The media announced Al Gore had won, he accepted … they danced in the streets … then he had to eat humble pie, because it wasnāt true.
November 7, 2020
I agree he has very probably won.
But why are the BBC flashing up “Biden wins UK Presidential Election” endlessly. This is clearly not actually true at this point. But then such is the BBC endless one sided lies every day on Climate Alarmism and CO2.
The US economy need climate alarmism like it needs a hole in the head. Lawyers tend to be rather poor leaders in general I find. Good very often at generating parasitic jobs, spewing out red tape and destroying real ones.
November 7, 2020
And apparently Johnson has gone all out to congratulate Biden!
November 7, 2020
Biden has NOT won! Many cases and recounts to come.
November 7, 2020
No Lynn..not this time..we have to be real.. so now we have big decisions to make whether we want to be alone or else we want to get real.. to get real we have to come to terms with the EU pop 500 million and the US Pop 400 mill.. its about taking back control you say..but the Irish border is getting in the way- hard to know what to do
November 7, 2020
”’to get real”’
is complying with the results of the referendum and the wishes of the people
November 7, 2020
+++1
Exactly!
November 7, 2020
If they were confident they had won, they would have done as they announced they would, and insisted on every vote being counted first. Remember all those “count every vote” placards? Even their own people weren’t expecting a declaration till next week. They suddenly rushed it out today because Giuliani was having his press conference in Philadelphia and that had to be drowned out at all costs. It was. They think they have made it a fait accompli now and the idiotic world leaders have obliged them. Since when did the “networks” have the power to override the constitution and the law? The counting is still going on, including of military votes, and the matter is sub judice. But these people, the fraudsters and the MSM have no respect for the constitution or the law, and none for democracy and justice. Despite it having been shown that postal votes were applied for in greater numbers by Republicans, we are being told all postal votes belong to China Joe. It is a disaster. For America and the world – which has witnessed this coup, the third attempted against the President, in full view.
November 7, 2020
A real Brexit might well be off alas.
Boris had already changed his mind on right to wrong on the green crap, is still pissing money away on HS2 and wasting billion on a poor and misguided Covid agenda. His chancellor seems to like pissing tax payers money down the drain at every turn too.
The lock down now is clearly totally misguided as is the Furlough until March.
November 7, 2020
Why? Who is the US’s largest invester?
November 7, 2020
Glen
It means Boris will stupidly think he can get away with BRINO, falsely arguing that Britain now needs the EU in the absence of a trade deal with the US.
It’s obvious, Boris after all did not reciprocate Biden’s threats against the UK.
Johnson will cave in now.
November 7, 2020
+1 Agree
November 8, 2020
Why does the UK need a trade deal with the US? UK business and industry does very well without one. They are after all the US’s largest foreign investor
November 7, 2020
Is it possible to determine a precise cause of death without a pathological examination?
November 7, 2020
No and often not even then! Very often several causes combining to push them over the edge.
November 7, 2020
forthurst
They don’t need to, since they are recording every death as CV19 – essential to pull off the scam of the century.
November 7, 2020
The last COVID death in my local general hospital, serving a medium-sized city, was on the 5th. My recollection is that fewer than five have died in the past two weeks. I am now tracking the numbers, looking for evidence that No 10 has been conned into shutting down the economy across the land, throwing millions onto the back of the taxpayers, to deal with problems that are local in nature.
November 7, 2020
Very pleased to see that Mr Biden has accumulated more than 270 votes in the electoral college and that we will be seeing the back of Mr Trump in January.
November 7, 2020
His policies will damage the US and UK economy hugely. Hopefully the Senate will stop some of his many loony policies and his insane expensive energy/green crap agenda.
November 8, 2020
By His you mean Biden of course- so listen up.. Liden is an upright old man who has nothing to lose, in his life he has been through the hoops.. he is not out on the golf course types like Trump.. he’s not that person.. with almost fifty years of public service he cares about people- he cares about the world and the climate and children and our futures children’s children.. if you don’t understand this concept then go stick yer head- EEjit..irish for idiot
November 8, 2020
In short Jamie , like all far left tweeter. Gets abusive if one does not see eye to eye with his twisted logic. You know ! The one that says a trace element is changing the world……etc
November 8, 2020
Biden may āCareā about the climate but the solutions the alarmist dopes push do far more harm than good. I agree Biden is probably rather better than most on the left.
November 7, 2020
Roll on the evil politics of envy, identity, quotas for everything, higher taxes, red tape spewing and the expensive energy lunacy. Plus lots of unemployment, declining living standards and more crime.
November 7, 2020
Mr. Biden has indeed come a long way since being caught plagiarizing Neil Kinnock speeches. Good luck to him: he has a heavy burden.
November 8, 2020
Shows such poor judgement to copy Kinnock! We have to hope he doesn’t copy the rambling, going nowhere nonsense he used to spout!
November 8, 2020
So what did Trump do ?
Wage war and destabilise countries and regions as his predecessors (including Mr Obama) did ?
No.
He waged peace.
Now tell me which of his policies you thought were so evil.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
We need to know why this is happening. MPs should have demanded better data before ordering this lockdown. Whilst Labour MPs are ready to push the economy downhill for their own purposes, Conservatives should have been firmer. We won’;t forget this.
November 7, 2020
Iām afraid ā bad data and wrong forecasts are a problem for the governmentā. Only a fool would take advice which is repeatedly contradicted by the facts. We have fools in Government and I say so with a āheavy heartā.
I am speaking of both Brexit and CV19 when I say that they seek to thwart and control the British people with eccentric and pellucidly simplistic and contradictory arguments.
This Government will go one way or the other. They have attacked the British people and recovery from both financial and psychological cost of their of their attack will take generations.
If the Tory Party is incapable of seeing this and replacing them, they are of no use to us either.
November 7, 2020
+1
So very true
November 7, 2020
Replaced by whom?
November 7, 2020
LL
They have no replacement. They’re all rotten.
November 7, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
So what is going to happen now- with Binden elected and all of the OTT insults over the past few years directed by honourable English elected parliamentarians and English MEPs at, but not alone the EU parliament of European members, but also at US Democrats and democratic party politicians? So what now? Where do we go from here? What control are we going to take back? I would love to know what the great stalwarts and promoters of Brexit- IDS, DD, Fox, Steve Baker et al including the mighty midget Andrew Bridgen have to say now? Where are we going- just where are all of these new overseas trade deals’ Liz Truss
November 7, 2020
The worst consequence of Trump’s demise is the loss of the last concerted opposition in the Western world to the insane and repressive globalist Open Borders One World Government agenda. Compared to that Brexit is small beer.
November 8, 2020
+1
November 8, 2020
+1
November 7, 2020
JR
Mr Redwood, as you can see from the comments to your well written articles of late, nobody trusts your party one iota.
Might I suggest Mr De Pfeffel-Johnson is slung out, and replaced by someone who at least ‘appears’ to put British sovereignty above all else ?
That way we could possibly boot the can past 31st Dec and be assured of running out of time to capitulate to Macron and his EU.
My feeling is that Boris Johnson is too dangerous to leave in office between now and 31st Dec.
November 7, 2020
Off topic but not really.
Drug drivers are now killing 30 people a week.
Is that acceptable to Andy ?
It is quite frightening to have a car full of lads scream by you and the unmistakable stench of cannabis (which is everywhere now btw) emanate from the open windows.
When did the Tories make a secret pact with the police and the users to make cannabis legal ? I think it happened about two years ago.
All of a sudden it was everywhere.
November 8, 2020
Correction…
That’s 30 people A DAY killed by drug drivers !!!!
November 8, 2020
I’ve noticed this.
November 8, 2020
Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock’s effective plan for permanent crisis in the UK
(YouTube)
Boris planning to spend 100bn to expand testing to 10m per day.
Currently 300,000 per day with (say) 7,000-15,000 false positives per day.
Rising to 10m per day with (say) 230,000-500,000 false positives a day.
By comparison, current NHS budget in England is about 130bn a year.
November 9, 2020
It is worrying that major decisions are taken based on what is known to be incomplete or inaccurate information or in defiance of economic sense , and such information is even quoted in support of the decision !
This seems to be more and more the case nowadays – with more higher education we appear to be going backwards.