Yesterday I was one of a few MPs who voted against a six month extension to the powers of the Coronavirus Act. I did so because I wish to hold the government to its promise of an end to lock down this June. I did so because I think the powers are too sweeping. We need to restore our liberties and let people make judgements for themselves about their conduct and their health risks. I did so because I do not think government can protect us from all harms, and has to avoid taking so much action against one threat that it leaves us vulnerable to other threats.
I and others will continue to question and to seek to persuade the government to remove this raft of restrictive measures. Without the Official Opposition also opposing we lack the votes to change things, but we have voices and public support which we need to represent.
March 26, 2021
Good morning
Sorry, off-topic.
FUS Mentioned it a while ago, but I too have become concerned with the whereabouts of LifeLogic. Sir John, you haven’t banned him have you? And if not, is there a way you can contact him to see if he is alright ?
Thanks.
Reply No I have not banned him. There is only one possible contributor to this site who regularly has the piece binned because they wish to ascribe everything they do not like to a couple of named individuals who are not in governments around the world instead of engaging with what government says and does.
March 26, 2021
Hi Mark. A couple of us think he may have changed his name on site to Skylark. I’ve missed his posts but the content from Skylark looks familiar.
March 26, 2021
And the frequency.
March 26, 2021
Correct.
March 26, 2021
Welcome back. Looking forward to reading your posts again.
March 26, 2021
Reply to reply:- Well spotted Mark. For someone who normally has a lot to say on this site, his silence is a little worrying. Is it possible John just to send him a quick email to enquire if he is okay?
March 26, 2021
Agreed, if possible.
How could one not miss his “green crap” & “highest tax for 70years” đ
March 26, 2021
He says the same thing daily he has been saying for years. Maybe he is working on new material.
March 26, 2021
Nig l,
Maybe Lifelogic has taken up studies during lockdown?
A politics, philosophy and economics degree perhaps?
March 26, 2021
Reply to Reply
Thank you Sir John. As Jools mentions, any chance of sending in a quick email ?
FUS and Jools
Thanks for your support.
March 26, 2021
PS Thanks for voting against.
March 26, 2021
I am fine thanks very much & have even had my AstraZenica vaccine (no adverse effects).
It now looks like the year June 2020 to June 2021 (after the nasty Covid bulge in spring 2020) will end up with total excess death of only about 7-8%. This despite the NHS having closed very many services and with a higher population too. Entirely within the normal range and if you look at years of life lost the position is even less worrying. We are way past time to open up it has been a severe over reaction since June 2020. The damage caused by lockdown far exceeds the benefits.
March 26, 2021
Agree.
Death rate mean (last 5 years) is 0.92%. In 2020 it was 1.01%. This equates to 62,000 excess deaths last year.
2010 561666 62759500 0.89%
2011 552232 63285100 0.87%
2012 569024 63705000 0.89%
2013 576458 64105700 0.90%
2014 570341 64596800 0.88%
2015 602782 65110000 0.93%
2016 597206 65648100 0.91%
2017 607172 66040200 0.92%
2018 616014 66435600 0.93%
2019 615455 67530172 0.91%
2020 686000 67886011 1.01%
March 26, 2021
Non so bind as those who choose not to see… Non Covid excess deaths have been lower this year because the Covid restriction have prevented these other excess deaths, if the usual Flu had also circulated the number of excess deaths would have been Flu + Covid.
March 27, 2021
You can’t die twice, Jerry.
March 27, 2021
@NickC; No, but ones chance of dying can double…
March 26, 2021
Thutch,
I would add that LL specifically stated mid-year to mid-year (not calendar) so that valid comparison to seasonal viruses (whether covid is or isnât itself) could be made.
Then, approxâ all cause crude mortality (I only have England and Wales to hand) is
7/14-6/15 0.925%
7/15-6/16 0.898%
7/16-6/17 0.912%
7/17-6/18 0.933%
7/18-6/19 0.880%
7/19-6/20 0.997%
7/20-6/21 est. 0.971% (assuming average death rates until end June)
So, average of 7/14 to 6/19 is 0.91% and 7/19-6/20 is 9.6% excess compared with 14-19 period.
7/20-6/21 is estimated at 6.7% above 14-19 average (5% above 15-20 average).
Note, there has been an upward trend in mortality and 18/19 was unusually low, so using the average as baseline overestimates the excess. (Not that this is a good thing, to my view the trend in mortality, even after aging popân and reduced immigration are taken out, is more serious and relates to underlying health problems and the national approach to health. Covid has examined the nations’ underlying health issues very closely. The order of magnitude difference in deaths between those with a comorbidity and those without highlights this, shifting people from one population to the other would be equivalent to a 90% efficacy treatment and for many with metabolic disorders this is possible with three non-drug interventions.)
Yes, such numbers can be interpreted by the tragedy of excess deaths (though I think this hides the bigger tragedy), nonetheless it also possible to describe in terms of survival e.g. percentage surviving 19/20 compared with 14-19 average year is (100-0.997)/(100-0.91) = 99.91%, hopefully 99.94% for the current year (but we need to wait until the end of June to know) â and these are underestimates since trend mortality looks like it is going upwards (which is bad) and 18/19 was unusually low.
Covid has highlighted the underlying problem of our nationsâ health, but the focus on excess deaths has both masked this problem and directed resources away from it.
March 27, 2021
Lovely work, Caterpillar.
March 26, 2021
Welcome back Lifelogic. Good to know you are okay.
March 26, 2021
LL,
It’s lower then that if you allow for the upward trend in all cause mortality (for England and Wales).
March 26, 2021
@LL; “We are way past time to open up it has been a severe over reaction since June 2020. “
With a comment like that one is tempted to asked where have you been since June 2020? Obviously not here in the UK, considering since then the UK has suffered a far worse spike in Cv19 infections and deaths during Q4 than we did before and during the first lockdown in Q1 of 2020.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to see the end of the lockdown but it has to be done safely for all, not just those who have had the vaccine, I do understand the economic damage, I wanted retail to open before schools and believe it was safer to open shops than schools – education is a movable feast, when UK law requiers our barely 5 year old children be sent off to school many other countries wait until age 6 or 7, what is more those countries often have better over all achievements than the UK.
March 26, 2021
“No adverse effects”
Umm. Evidently not !
(Good to see you’re still around – even if you DO over do it a bit. BTW. I’d miss Andy, Newmania and MiC with the same concern.)
March 26, 2021
@Mark B; There are a few once regular commentators besides Lifelogic who appear to have vanished into the ether over the last 12 months, and before our host toughened up his moderation policy – Cheshire Girl; Edward; Edward2 & Libertarian. Not sure if it was CG or but there was one ex nurse (?) who posted she was concerned she was suffering from, or the after effects of, the virus back in the early days, not sure if we ever heard anything more though.
I recall all were concerned about the CV19 virus and the apparent inaction from the govt, indeed Lifelogic & Libertarian were unusually harsh in their comments. Perhaps it’s not just the usual “lefties” who have had enough of the hard right and their Covid deigning? There, got us back on topic…
March 26, 2021
Good Morning,
We see across the ‘western’ world, health related national lockdowns. I think it too early to speak of totalitarian states BUT, it is clear that in some places the usurpation of hard won democracy and social freedoms is occurring in the name of societal security. It is not hard to imagine that certain minds will be seduced by the acquiescence of a trusting population and move on to take more strict social control.
Sound familiar?
March 26, 2021
There are so many quotes through history which warn us about transposing security onto liberty. It rarely ends well. Our Dear Leader, who likes to consider himself a ‘fervent Sinophile’ is playing fast and loose. Little confidence can be put in his public expressions which vary from week to week. There is an unseemly rush to bring in this ‘vaccine passport’ identity state no matter how well the vaccination programme goes, but where is the necessity and proportionality in these aims? We also have the Joint Biosecurity Centre which is now part of UKHSA. These organs are there to implement a biosecurity state which can restrict your freedoms at short notice on alleged public health grounds. The detested Coronavirus Act should depart this realm in April 2022 at the latest but what will replace it? There is too much power invested in the state to control individuals and it looks suspiciously like a social credit system lite which could be hardened in time….
zorro
March 26, 2021
My fears also, Peter.
March 26, 2021
Peter, The untargeted national lockdowns in the UK have not worked – the all deaths graph (ONS) shows no correlation between lockdown start and finish dates and inflexions (allowing for the c4 week cycle of infection to death). We have lost liberty for nothing in such lockdowns. As well as giving the notion to the establishment that we can be house arrested whenever they want.
March 26, 2021
Top man.
March 26, 2021
Heart-felt thanks, Sir John.
I was quite despondent yesterday at the small number of MPs who voted against a six month extension to the powers of the Coronavirus Act.
Your second paragraph has given me some hope. I wrote to my MP last week, but I obviously hadn’t managed to change his mind.
I look forward to hearing how else we can work towards getting these restrictive measures removed. My fear is that come September the annual cold and ‘flu season will be another excuse to lock us down.
Mary M.
March 26, 2021
It’s fairly obvious from the ONS deaths graphs that the Chinavirus is opportunistic, seasonal, and endemic. It is likely therefore that a variant will cause problems next winter.
March 26, 2021
A politician in touch with the people is a rareity John so well done you. With the vast majority of vulnerable age groups vaccinated by June I can’t see why we need restrictions anymore. What’s tge point of vaccinations if we are to be continual prisoners? There has been too much damage to people’s lives already. It’s time to rebuild the economy and people’s lives. We’ll done John.
March 26, 2021
Well done John. Predictive text!
March 26, 2021
I doubt government wish to control us unnecessarily because it is impractical. My thought is that they do not wish to see all the sacrifice and cost to be negated by yet another wave of the virus. Three more months of restriction while more arms get jabbed is not too much to ask. Having roped a wild stallion, keep it so until it is coraled. The ultimate effect of new variants, the growing lack of control in Europe, and the pernicious attitude of the EU to vaccine distribution could reverse our achievements to date. Be patient and reassess the picture in June. The journey is not over.
March 26, 2021
agricola. Elements in government DO wish to control us at all cost.
If Lockdowns worked they would have done their job by now. Vaccinations have been offered to those at most risk.
You have succumbed to the Fear and Panic propaganda that has been churned out for a year.
March 26, 2021
You are sadly mistaken and ill-informed.
March 26, 2021
see my comment below + Guardian article
March 26, 2021
Or your mind is closed by conspiracy theories. I am with Agricola.
March 26, 2021
Pauline I do not subscribe to the view that this pandemic is all smoke and mirrors, a subterfuge designed to control us. 126,000 plus deaths seem to suggest otherwise. A plot devised by Marxists or Maoists as some would have us believe. The argument is about the rate and speed at which the brakes are released.
What sort of government would spend the vast amount of money that has been spent, to achieve what could be done a la Burma by calling out the military. The only thing they would achieve is a very rebellious population which they would have no chance of controlling.
See how it goes until June, then if the situation is promising, lobby fo the removal of governments restrictive powers, but in the interim cut them some slack. If is all the plot you suggest I will join you at the barricades.
March 26, 2021
Agreed.
March 26, 2021
I’d say you’re half-right, Agricola. I agree the government can’t bring themselves to admit that all the sacrifice (on the public’s part not theirs, of course) and cost (ditto) have all been for nothing. But it’s the sunk cost fallacy: they cannot let go because they know if they simply say it’s over, the fear goes away and the hard questions start as to the cost/benefit analysis of lockdowns. As Charles Walker MP said yesterday, anyone who thinks the government won’t want to renew the Coronavirus Act again in September is deluding themselves.
March 26, 2021
Agricola, I think it more likely than not that we will see new variants every winter for years to come. Control over us is the holy grail for statists, and is becoming more practical every year – lockdowns, restrictions, fear-mongering, nudge units, surveillance, etc, all facilitated by artificial intelligence, the internet, and interconnected government computer power.
March 26, 2021
It is time For Johnson, Hancock SAGE and its associated ‘behavioural’ unit to go. They are no way shape or form, conservatives. They are destroying much more than they conserve. Sadly, much of the rest of your party are the same
March 26, 2021
J Bush. You speak true. John Redwood is one of the few ‘Conservatives’ that do wish to conserve our hard won liberties and freedoms.
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
What utter tosh, and who is going to take over from Johnson and whoever this mythical figure is, even if he/she could get close to his levels of popularity, would be quickly dissed by the likes of you for not reverting to some sort of Thatcherite utopia. A basic requirement of politics is to get elected so your views today, would fall,at the first hurdle.
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
Politicians are like drug addicts. Once they have power they can’t live without it.
Handcock is absolutely revelling in his role as puppetmaster and we are the marionettes.
Charlatans the lot of them.
No checking of French fishing boats, unlimited cross channel taxi service. How about they start using powers they already have rather than wanting more.
March 26, 2021
Handcock is absolutely revelling in his role as puppetmaster and we are the marionettes
What a wonderful and apt description of Matt Hancock. He is positively loving the power this virus is giving him.
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
Ian, Yes, that’s true.
March 26, 2021
The decisions are not to make us a poor country , they represent the greatest utilitarian principle in order of priority . I myself do not stress about lack of freedom as I feel a lot safer at present this way and am heartened by the reported changes in levels of pollution, however businesses going down do bother me just as in past history, did the closure of coal mines , backed by yourself. This may have been an historical blunder which turned out to be the best decision for the collective carbon footprint.
The freedoms which many say they want, often belong to the selfish individuals who only care about themselves and not for society as a whole.As many countries go into their third lockdown , think again John. We have seen beaches full of people flaunting the rules,locally I have seen groups of younger people en masse spoiling the countryside , throwing empty cans and other pieces of rubbish thereby deliberately spreading the virus because they want to … shame on them..
March 27, 2021
Well Margaret Brandreth, if you believe that Utilitarianism is the Best Political System, THAT IS YOUR RIGHT, in a Democracy !
You are at liberty to set up a new political party campaigning for your beliefs – IN A DEMOCRACY !
Try doing it in a dictatorship though.
Oh I forgot, of course, feeling safe, being protected from a virus is all that matters.
Oh no, you want to be protected from pollution too. And you want your Carbon footprint to be lowered. You want everybody to be imprisoned in their own homes so they cannot have any life that does not agree with you. Groups of young people en masse! How Terrible!
My word , you remind me more of the Puritans in the Civil War, rather than the theory of Utilitarianism.
Either way, I can’t imagine why you are supporting the so called Conservative Government which we ELECTED. (In case you have forgotten.)
March 26, 2021
Does your desire to restore our freedoms extend to giving us our freedom of movement back?
This appears to be a right valued by many millions which you are all happy to steal.
March 26, 2021
Andy unless I’m mistaken normally we can travel between Scotland, England, Wales and N.Ireland – temporarily restricted for good reasons.
I assume you mean somewhere else – why not say so? The question does not need answering -you will have to wait for decades until we are all dead. Be patient, lad!
March 26, 2021
Andy canât wait decades, heâs old himself.
March 26, 2021
There are certainly lots of things I value Andy. Freedom from the EU ‘Project’ is one of them.
The only loss of freedom of movement I’ve suffered recently has been caused by the pandemic, nothing to do with Brexit. When these restrictions are lifted, I will still be able to go to Europe on holiday without any issues. I also worked in Europe before the EEC was created and afterwards. I don’t recall any difficulty with foreign work permits before the EU existed. If I had any practical problems when working abroad, it was with local byelaws & housing (when living in Italy) and that was whilst we were still in the EU.
I’d be very interested to hear where and when you lived and worked in the EU and how you feel things have altered to any great degree since we’ve left it?
March 26, 2021
I rarely agree with you but respect your right to keep âproddingâ. love the outrage of the well past their sell by date views, responses albeit some of your assumptions are equally condescending.
I wonder if your hobby is fishing. You certainly know how to âhook âemâ!
March 26, 2021
No, Andy, the EU stole our right to decide who comes here. Now restored thanks to Brexit. But that’s old news. Trying to deflect from the EU’s current serial self inflicted vax problems, hmm?
March 26, 2021
When the pandemic has subsided I would encourage you to move where you wish, other than next door to me.
March 26, 2021
Stop criminalising people for winning a vote that you willingly participated in. You are reneging on your promise to uphold the referendum result when you marked your ‘X’.
– We got out of the credit crunch because we weren’t in the euro
– We got the vaccine because we weren’t in the EU
The EU failed on both the major catastrophes that it faced in its lifetime and the UK did well to be distanced.
March 26, 2021
It wasnât my referendum. I do not think complicated policy should be made by posing a binary question to mostly ill informed people. This includes MPs.
The majority of the electorate did not vote to leave – and even the minority who did vote to leave did not agree with each other about what leaving meant. Turns out it meant fewer rights, masses more bureaucracy, a border down the Irish Sea and more dinghies. Just what you voted for.
The removal of my free movement was in the 2019 Tory manifesto – which the majority of the electorate rejected. Your minority removed my rights anyway. I am genuinely not interested in your corrupt useless government. Most of us do not vote for it. I am not interested in what they say. The laws they passed are not approved by the majority of people. They talk only to a dwindling minority of old people.
In due course we will remove them all. And we wonât necessarily need an election. A revolution will do.
March 26, 2021
Well. It turns out that the ‘ill informed people’ made a good decision after all.
And your time to have campaigned was up until the EU Referendum Act 2015.
So, did you ???
I’d like to add that this situation arose after graduated pressure from sceptics over several decades. It was no surprise to me when it happened.
March 27, 2021
Conservatives are currently 13 points ahead of Labour.
A bigger lead than they had in the run up to the last election.
March 26, 2021
Thank you for voting against the bill. I am greatly concerned at the authoritarian road we are heading down. That this is happening on the Conservative Party’s watch is particularly alarming. Covid and later climate alarm will be used to drive through legislation which is manifestly not conservative but find favour with a strange combination of big tech billionaires and utopians. National goals, such as those you frequently argue through in detail, Sir John, seem much less important to this government than nebulous global initiatives. Please consider forming a new party, actually committed to conservative principles, and confident in the sovereignty of nation states to determine their own policies.
March 26, 2021
Right in every respect, Peter. Our establishment pretended they didn’t know what to do after they returned the UK’s colonies to their rightful owners, but persist in meddling in foreign countries still. And allowing them, principally in the shape of the EU, to meddle here.
March 27, 2021
Peter Crompton. I 100% agree with every word you said there and wish I had said so yesterday. The authoritarian road we are heading down is alarming. As you say it will be repeatedly used for ‘climate alarm’ etcetera.
It is incredible that a ‘Conservative’ government have done this.
It will be gleefully taken over and strengthened by Labour of course, when they get the chance.
March 26, 2021
I wonder what restrictions on our rights and freedoms John would be prepared to accept if 120,000 British people had been killed by foreigners who had entered the country, rather than by a virus which has done the same?
And what expense might be justified in confronting the threat?
It’s a Thought Experiment worth doing, I think.
March 26, 2021
Surely depends on how many would have died anyway Marty.
Interesting idea for conscription in the future though, make the elderly and infirm the cannon fodder.
March 26, 2021
Martin, A disease is entirely different from a war. Didn’t you know? And you may not have noticed it, but death is a fact of life – we all die but few of us do so in wars. Death mainly comes from old age often precipitated by disease, such as the Chinavirus. Before you embark on “thought experiments”, how about actually thinking?
March 26, 2021
Why mention foreigners here ? Are you muck raking ?
You’re loving all this, I bet. A socialist’s wet dream of oppression with a bit of thought control thrown in a’ la the Cancel Culture putsch.
I expect a successful vaccine roll out is a bit of a disappointment to you and you want to ignore it.
I’ve recently returned to work after a period off sick and on treatment for depression. Not that Covid or Lockdown made me depressed but that it messed up my strategies for dealing with life long depressions.
Suicides have gone through the roof in my business and on my return I’ve had countless people come up to me and tell me “Good on you for opening up about it. I hope you are well. I’ve had enough of this too… and my partner as well.”
Big Up to Sir John for his vote yesterday.
We need to start counting deaths and hospitalisations and ditch infections now that the vaccine is here and get us out of lockdown, social distancing and masks PDQ.
And then re-orientate our dependence away from China. Their goods are not worth it.
March 26, 2021
MARTIN, so you deny that Covid arrived here from the infected foreigners?
March 27, 2021
Does that THOUGHT EXPERIMENT allow genocide, rape, torture, imprisonment of the Uighur people too?
March 26, 2021
Good for you, Sir John. A six-month extension isn’t justified. The government’s communications have been marred by ministers not being honest with us, the people. I no longer trust them. The most recent mistake? Having a lockdown-exit strategy that would ony be delayed and never advanced – no matter how good the news from the front line.
P.S. Today, I’ll give some credit to Grant Shapps for introducing rapid-testing of inbound lorry-drivers at our ports.
March 26, 2021
I don’t give Grant Shapps any credit, why wasn’t this testing inbound lorries instigated from 23rd December, we pay to do it on all outbound drivers and our UK drivers required the expensive ÂŁ140 per pop tests.
March 26, 2021
484 -76 vote, what a bunch of treachorous morons but they know the masses will still vote for them. Wake up people.
The real conspiracy theorists believe that their government cares about them, the media would never mislead or lie to them and the pharmaceutical industry that makes billions from sickness wants to cure them.
March 26, 2021
Thank you for standing up for liberty
March 26, 2021
Thank you – but very, very disappointing that so few MPs voted against.
Very disappointing too that The PM is still in coercive mood, trying to coerce the younger generations to get vaccinated or possibly risk qualifying for a vaccination passport which “might” become a requirement domestically to visit pubs and so forth. Also, trying to coerce pubs to want to be allowed to demand vaccination certificates from all of their customers – and become enforcers at the same time.
I noticed that our local Conservative candidate was encouraging all voters to register for a postal vote, despite the fact that Woking is likely to have far fewer than a hundred active cases – and most of those who might visit a polling station certainly asymptomatic and so far less likely to transmit a virus. Postal votes must not become the new normal! Have we learnt nothing from the States?
March 26, 2021
corrections:
risk not qualifying for a vaccination certificate
and Wokingham is likely to have far fewer than a hundred active cases
March 26, 2021
Sir John, well done and thank you
March 26, 2021
This morning it has become clear that the EU is prepared to blame anyone but itself for their lethargic vaccine performance. Their tendency to hit out holds one lesson for the UK. We need a drive for self sufficiency, purchasing from the world market, and reduced dependency on this failing and flailing EU state, while taking a sympathetic attitude to the needs of individual countries where they coincide with ours.
The blocking of the Suez Canal emphasises our need to be much more manufacturing self sufficient.
March 26, 2021
Thanks to the EU it could be that AstraZeneca will never again provide a vaccine at cost:
https://order-order.com/2021/03/25/listen-astrazeneca-wouldnt-make-vaccines-at-cost-again-after-eu-row/
“Speaking on the Today Programme, BBC medical editor Fergus Walsh claimed that multiple senior sources inside AstraZeneca said that in future, the company was unlikely to forego the profits enjoyed by the likes of Pfizer (set to make billions from its $19.50 jab, compared to the $4 tag for AstraZenecaâs) now that the European Commission has smeared the vaccine with claims of blood clotting and low efficacy. Not to mention threatening export controls, and blaming AstraZeneca for their shortfall in vaccine supply⊠”
What has Ursula von der Leyen actually done to help combat this disease?
I know that my own contribution has been negligible, just to avoid causing unnecessary problems while keeping up spirits; but she has not even managed that, in fact she has done the opposite.
March 26, 2021
spot on – Global Economy leads to division not harmony.
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
+1 – when you have not been elected by the people and are not accountable to them – it can never be your fault. YDL – ‘broomsticks’ come to mind also
March 27, 2021
Related to agricolaâs comment: âNew Suez crisis: a global economy creaking under the strainâ FT, The big read – supply chains, 26/03/2021.
Two points worth thinking about:
– âThe idea of moving from Just-In-Time to Just-In-Case to Just-At-Home is harder than it looksâ.
– âIf you can do your job from anywhere, someone anywhere can do your jobâ.
David Goodhart might have an addendum to his 2017 âThe Road to Somewhereâ.
March 26, 2021
Thank you so much for your efforts, Sir John, but even you must now be wondering exactly who is running this country. It’s clearly not the Party we anointed with the privilege of power, but appears to have its roots in totalitarian China. Do MPs seriously think it’s acceptable to empower the government in this corruption of our democracy?
I believe I’ve previously pointed out that the EU’s “four freedoms” were anything but, for the simple fact that the minute something is legislate for, it no longer meets the definition of freedom. As it’s now been leaked to the newspapers, I presume Mr Gove has felt the euphoria of absolute power and already authorised the development of his Big Brother app. What on earth have we come to, Sir John?
March 26, 2021
Thank you very much indeed.
March 26, 2021
Thank you Sir John, if only there were a few more Conservatives in the Parliamentary Party. On 26 September 2021 we will be entering respiratory illness season once more. I wonder what the next vote will be?
March 26, 2021
When socialists complain that centrists have taken over the Labour party they are lauded as caring and insightful. When Conservatives complain that centrists have taken over the Conservative Party we are “swivel eyed loons”.
If only our next election could provide a genuine choice now that we are out of the EU and can make real change to our society.
March 26, 2021
Well done JR. Handcock and Johnson have lost the plot. They have totally forgot what we stand for as a country. Johnson needs to be ousted. I will not abide by the rules. There is no evidence to justify the laws.
Let us hope it is found he broke the ministerial code for lavishly decorating flat while many suffer across the country. Pure greed without the money to pay for it.
March 26, 2021
Thankfully the UK does have 484 MPs who actually understand the issues.
March 26, 2021
Jerry, I would have preferred that they voted to NOT extend the powers. If we got to June and powers were needed again, then that could have been put before Parliament at that time?
March 26, 2021
@Know-Dice; There are many laws and regulations (some far more draconian than this Coronavirus Act) that sit happily on the statute book, just in case, without causing problems, fear or protest. I am totally mystified why some see so many issues in this legislation, more so given that schools have returned, certain sports venues will be allowed to reopen next week, groups of friends will be able to meet up in public places, and hopefully shops from 12 April.
March 26, 2021
Agreed
March 26, 2021
As a pendant Jerry you will appreciate that you should be referencing England not the UK.
up to 484 lobby fodder – 76 free thinkers.
March 26, 2021
So you don’t think the vaccines work, Jerry? Interesting . . . .
March 26, 2021
Some people now avoid confronting the reality that they are living in a world in which normality has ceased to function as an ethical position.
March 26, 2021
Well done indeed and please continue. A supine opposition quickly turns us into a totalitarian state.
March 26, 2021
Off today’s topic
So the UK gives, yes GIVES EU based companies and the rest of the world the knowledge and technology to produce a very usable Covid vaccine and all we hear from the EU leaders is moaning that the UK hasn’t exported any vaccine. They really are showing their backside covering true colour.
March 26, 2021
K-D, Are you serious? Do you really think that Pfizer-BioNTec, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, Novavax, Sputnik V, Sinovac, Convidecia, Covishield, … are all gratefully thanking the UK for giving âthe world the knowledge and technology to produceâ a Covid vaccine.
Some of these companies working with mRNA technology are if anything scientifically a couple of steps ahead of AstraZeneca.
While it is very true that the UK with its AZ vaccine is at the forefront of the vaccination effort in the UK and has a much higher vaccination rate than most countries, it is simply ridiculous to state that the vaccine production efforts in other countries are thanks to the UK.
March 27, 2021
You missed out the words “very usable”.
March 27, 2021
You also missed the word “a”, Hefner, as in: “gives … EU based companies and the rest of the world the knowledge and technology to produce ‘A’ very usable Covid vaccine”.
March 26, 2021
Well done but it is appalling that so few MPs voted against it. 484 to just 76 – what pathetic (evil even) MPs we have.
March 26, 2021
But some may have thought without Labour opposition what is the point of resisting. Almost as large a majority as the insane Climate Change Act.
Another daft decision from the Supreme Court. Wages need to be determined by supply and demand not second guessed years, later by PC lawyers and judges who have never worked in a shop or a warehouse. This on top of the Uber and Gig Economy rulings. The government and courts seem determined to destroy the ability of the UK to compete effectively creating endless parasitic jobs in the process.
March 26, 2021
Skylark, Well said. Those 484 MPs range from the authoritarian to those who obviously don’t think the vaccines work.
March 26, 2021
Sorry to ask you this, but you are not LifeLogic are you ?
March 26, 2021
Hi Skylark.
I do not believe you are Lifelogic as some do. This is waaaay too short a post !
March 26, 2021
We now know he is. It’s amazing how you can recognise an individual from their style of writing.
March 26, 2021
You certainly wouldn’t recognise me if you met me !
March 26, 2021
And in other news we read the Defence Review, long on bluster short on honesty about the effect on our capability reduction. Our navy will not be brought up to itâs necessary complement until 2035. Presumably the Chineseâs are happy to wait?
March 26, 2021
Nig1, Our aircraft carriers are just PR, little if any use for actually fighting. They do not have enough defence ships, and are not nuclear powered. In any case why should we be meddling in foreign countries?
March 26, 2021
ÂŁ55bn for track&trace alone : ÂŁ46bn for Defence budget?
Something seriously wrong there. I smell a combination of Rodent, 3 week old Herring and cow poo.
March 26, 2021
I need to see the breakdown for the track&trace spend so I can sack a few people
March 26, 2021
If you keep trying to hold peoples hands, they’ll never learn to walk on their own.
March 26, 2021
@Mac- that is why they(the people) don’t understand and what rulers prefer
March 26, 2021
Yes, restore our freedoms. You were right to vote against the extension. âOther threatsâ include destroying the economy.
I donât trust government. I donât believe the alleged threat is so great that these powers are required. I believe the government are trying it on. Never let a crisis go to waste and all that.
March 26, 2021
Whilst I agree with some of your argument John “… let People make judgements for themselves…” that is ok but then the Government must accept that some people will make silly or necessary selfish decisions, which could have a massive effect upon others, and at the same time may clog up our hospitals.
Are you ready for that ?
Unfortunately not everyone one is responsible, and not everyone is retired and can self isolate at will because it will not affect their income.
Many simply have to go to work to pay for a roof over their head, provide food, and all the other necessities of life. The Councils have not stopped collecting Council tax. Heat, light, power, and water still charge for their services along with many other organisations.
Yes furlough has been great for some, but many others have had little or no support.
March 26, 2021
…and not everyone can see through the pure garbage we get indoctrinated on daily
Please investigate the real reasons why people don’t trust the government and why they will avoid the vaccines at any cost, before making the the claims you do.
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
By taking off some restrictions those people without jobs and adequate income can begin the long road back to normality. You have a problem with that?
March 26, 2021
There are many things wrong with that… But let’s get back to normality knowing what we are doing rather than through ignorance of what is taking place.
I urgently advise you to take a closer look at the whole subject
March 26, 2021
How condescending of you. If only we had the intellect you clearly have!
March 27, 2021
This is not about intellect – It is about ignoring what is happening and then trying to be morally superior because they have had the jab
March 26, 2021
Absolutely no problem with that at all Fred, each to their own, just making the point that some, thank goodness the minority, behave as if there were no risk to anyone at all, and will continue to do as they like, recent protesters spring to mind.
Clearly as more and more people get vaccinated, then the overall risk factor is reduced accordingly.
Thus I agree with Agricola’s post this morning, let’s not blow it at the last minute, after nearly a year of controls.
March 26, 2021
When did taking off some restrictions ‘blow it all at the last minute?’
March 27, 2021
Last summer.
March 27, 2021
So Denis who is to blame? The people for idiotic mass gatherings or the Government edict?
Would you have gone to a 50,000 attendance football match, or bigger at Cheltenham?
Freedom to choose -or shutdown completely ?
What do you want…nobody has paid work, little left of society and family life as we know it?
March 27, 2021
No it didn’t, Denis. For the simple reason that the rest of the world is there to supply chinavirus mutations easily imported into the UK. There is no point to sealing off the domestic population within our borders if we then leave our borders wide open.
March 26, 2021
The overall ‘risk factor’ was never higher than 5% of people catching the virus… but if you imagine everything will go back to normal because a lot of people have been vaccinated then you are going to be sadly mistaken.
Already we hear about a 3rd wave… Lockdowns will continue, not because the virus is so bad, but for political reasons.
March 27, 2021
JR — Firefights like this will continue until the full extent of understanding is reconciled.
Can I please request you do a piece on all of this: CV from the start — We should be able to air what we all see as the issues, from both sides, summarised by you , that can then be commented on.
I’d be happy to supply a list of issues, reasons why we don’t want the vaccine and why it appears the government is taking a very hard line on enforcement.
Thanks for considering this request, and thanks again for being an MP who values what we are so quickly losing.
March 26, 2021
“some people will make silly or necessary selfish decisions” – Really? How long have you been alive? So, on that basis, we live in a quasi dictatorship. Don’t be ridicuous.
zorro
March 26, 2021
Alan Jutson, Does the government tell us which cars to buy (or indeed which house)? No. It simply makes general rules such as lighting requirements, road worthiness rules, etc, and for houses building regulations, applicable to all, without controlling what we choose. People behave remarkably responsibly where they are allowed to. I do not blame the government for the first lockdown, but I do for all subsequent untargeted national lockdowns. I trust that people would have behaved responsibly with guidance about the Chinavirus without the full national lockdowns.
March 27, 2021
Looks like you agree with me NickC.
I agree the majority act sensibly, I agree the Government makes the general rules, I agree we should make our own decisions and take responsibility for many of our own actions, not a problem with any of that.
If you read my post again that is exactly what I have said, its the actions of a very small minority which could prove to be a problem for the rest of us, hence still the need for some sensible rules and compliance as we move forward.
March 27, 2021
Alan, So we actually disagree! I abhor the government lockdown rules (which don’t work anyway) which institutionalise our loss of liberty to (supposedly) cater for the “irresponsible minority” who won’t take any notice – because they’re irresponsible! We have lost something precious for no advantage whatsoever.
March 27, 2021
Alan, the minority you speak of havenât been following all these rules and moving forward they wonât follow âsome sensible rulesâ either. The rules those of us who do obey instructions follow to the letter and condemn our own families to isolation, misery, loneliness and despair, I have missed a year of my parentâs lives and theyâre in their late 70âs but donât live close enough to stand and shout to them from the pavement. The minority carry on regardless just look at all those men outside the school in Batley, they wonât be local parents of that school, they are meeting up from different areas, shoulder to shoulder, taking their masks off to speak and shout out. The people in Bristol throwing objects at police horses and shouting out to âkill the billâ double entendre – They arenât following Borisâ rules! Where are the fines for them? Someone, somewhere knows exactly which people are meeting up and infecting others, track and trace canât be that inefficient that it isnât showing patterns – WHAT is being done about it? Nothing!
March 26, 2021
Good morning Sir John
Unfortunately, while yourself and a few others want to see the UK as a sovereign free and self reliant country. The Government has other ideas, they are control freaks of the highest order, they have more in common with Putin and Xi Jinping than a Government serving the People.
The Coronavirus Act was never required for anything. 90% of the People of the UK complied with advice on Covid-19 without the Laws. The other 10% ignored them and basically said up yours to the laws.
When you add this act to ‘Investigatory Powers Act 2016’ the snooping charter, you get a handful of those in power are so frightened of loosing power, so frightened of the people they have become Dictators. We need a country that is a true ‘Democracy’. We need Government by the people for the people.
March 26, 2021
The ‘snooping charter’ works against freedoms and democracy and hands access to everyone in the UK’s private information to Foreign Adversaries. It just cannot do what the persuasive authorities imply, it does the opposite, but it does give the State more control over the innocent, the people in general.
The missing safety net for the people is the ‘Courts’ the ‘just cause case’. Everything this Government has introduced suggests they sees themselves as a supreme being.
As it has been said before when the State says its for ‘Your own Safety’ it becomes the complete opposite.
March 26, 2021
The hospitality industry is open in Russia. Putin says that vaccination should be an individual choice. A sad day when we have to look to Russia as a beacon of civil liberty.
March 26, 2021
Everything still open in africa. middle east and the far east – only europe, anz and america closed down ?
March 26, 2021
Ian, Unfortunately you are exactly right.
March 26, 2021
You were right to vote against the extension. Lockdowns do not have appear to stop the spread of the coronavirus any more than an absence of lockdown, based on evidence from Sweden and Florida, USA. Their sole purpose in the UK has been to protect the NHS. This has been achieved at the cost of trashing the economy, hundreds of thousands of lost jobs and the neglect of just about everyone who has suffered from a different serious medical condition. We have also witnessed the use of DNR instructions (albeit under a different label). It is time to end this dictatorship.
March 26, 2021
Oldtimer, your comment about DNR makes me wonder whether the MPs will go on voting against any effort towards a proper law related to âend-of-lifeâ. According to the charity Dignity in Dying, the number of British people wanting a change in the law has now increased to 84%.
But within the UK Parliament we still have a majority stuck on topics like âbeginning of lifeâ (abortion-related) and âend of lifeâ (Do-Not-Resuscitate, advance care planning, terminal illness, euthanasia … would be questions to be properly addressed).
They hide themselves behind the BMA, Royal College of GPs, Royal College of Nursing, even when 60 to 67% of members of these august organisations would allow such a change in the law.
Has anybody ever thought that MPs were representing the âpublicâ at large?
March 26, 2021
How I wish you were Prime Minister.
March 26, 2021
Oh my goodness !
Bliss!
Weâd actually have a conservative Conservative real, proper government!
March 26, 2021
How happy I am – that I am not!
March 26, 2021
+1
March 26, 2021
Well done.
This is getting stupid now. What exactly is the point of showing your papers to get into a pub ? I mean the actual health benefit of that measure ? If I’m in a pub and 18 people are vaccinated and two people have chosen not to be vaccinated (the young staff probably) what is the problem exactly ? Where is the evidence that excluding those two from that environment, where everyone else is vaccinated and so infection and transmission is very low, will make any difference to NHS loading ?
If the scheme was intended to accelerate unlocking mid-way through the vaccination campaign then it might make some sense (although it would be discriminatory, and we know the roadmap will never be advanced anyway), but the briefings are it will only be implemented *after* everyone has been offered a vaccine starting next winter (the first confirmation we have that restrictions are anticipated to be permanent, no surprise).
Given Labour are just fine with these measures it is hard to see what can be done – in the medium term replacing Boris with Sunak might help ?
March 26, 2021
Government of the sheeple by the sheeple for the sheeple.
Sir John, I am apoplectic.
Your Tory ship is on course for a destination that is not of your choosing.
Nigel Farage jumped ship and secured passage to his destination.
That said, I note your stand on the vote and your reasoning and I applaud both. Indeed, Sir John, my applause is rather more emotional than a man of my years cares to admit.
March 26, 2021
People like you are always apoplectic though, aren’t you?
If it’s not one thing then it’s another.
It would be funny, except you have votes, and we are all suffering as a result.
March 26, 2021
FFS !
Society is crushed beyond recognition and you suggest this is normal and we are over reacting ?
March 27, 2021
And you weren’t apoplectic about about Brexit, Martin? No dire warnings about “all suffering as a result”, and rants about people who don’t agree with you having the vote, and rages about the supposed uselessness of the UK, and sneers about patriotism, etc, etc?
March 28, 2021
You wouldn’t happen to be ‘Martin in Cardiff’ by any chance?
The name has changed but the ad hominem insults haven’t.
March 26, 2021
What else do we decide for ourselves, whether or not to build a load if houses in our farmland , whether or not to dump our rubbish on the Street , whether or t to drive on left ? This is safe seat posturing, the British have 2 points of reference
1 I`ll do what I like thanks.
2 There ought to be a law against it .
The first is chiefly for themselves and the second for others generally, but currently the emphasis is very much on the latter which is why lock down has been widely supported.
Here is an interesting comparison , between a nominally democratically elected Brexit Government and the ( boo hiss ) Chinese âŠerrrm system
In 2016, the last year the survey was conducted, 95.5 percent of respondents were either ârelatively satisfiedâ or âhighly satisfiedâ with Beijing.
( Harvard Gazette )
In March 2021, 35 percent of adults in the United Kingdom approved of the government, compared with 44 percent who disapproved.
People want order because order gives them freedom . No -one wants the freedom to be poor or for stupid people to spread disease
March 26, 2021
God.
I wish you’d bother to structure your posts so that they’re easy to read.
March 26, 2021
Right. After the fourth reading I get it.
We’re making bogeymen of the CCP and their polls are to be believed over ours.
Brilliant !
March 27, 2021
No Longer, Yes, we know that Newmania’s anti Brexit and anti English diatribes aren’t worth reading.
March 26, 2021
I do indeed thank you for that stand.
This virus has seen far too many laws passed in it’s name that could be described as oppressive.
You know very well my take on all of this…. but how long are government going to ignore the wealth of data now available against lockdowns and against masks?
What is their motive?
I’ve still seen no real answer as to why the process developed from 2011 to handle virus’ was bypassed and ignored – It was a workable solution. Lockdowns are not.
March 26, 2021
Come on – no doubt you can do it by the same mental processes – how many thousands of people have been killed by that little ring of golden stars on car number plates?
March 27, 2021
The impact of lock down is not to be trivialised.
What I’m seeing is back door socialism and opportunism by the Left.
March 26, 2021
Bryan, Yes, we can be thankful for JR, and the other 75 MPs, who opposed the government’s insouciant theft of our liberties.
March 26, 2021
While some will baulk a the comparison – We have Dominic Raab in the MsM condemning the Chinese while the Government of the UK is transitioning the people of the UK to a similar level of total control.
As it has been said so many times before ‘1984’ is a warning writ Large and not the Bible the State should be following.
March 26, 2021
Well, itâs a shame more MPs donât hold the government to account. What is Labour up to? They seem determined to be irrelevant.
March 26, 2021
No. Labour know that when the proverbial brown stuff hits the fan, the tories will be blamed for everything (despite the fact that Labour voted in-favour of all the measures) – they WANT these measures in-place when they assume power after the next G.E.
It’s a win-win for them.
March 26, 2021
Thank you for your vote. It is good to know that some of our MPs share our concerns.
Two aspects of what is going on really concern me.
1. Do certain members of govt and their scientific advisers have a vested financial interest in the policies that they follow ? We need to know if the decisions were made were based on fact or financial gain.
2. Why were any dissenting scientific voices effectively silenced and ignored ? For example, those eminent scientists who published the Great Barrington Declaration and those who put forward established treatments and drugs which were effective in treating the virus.
Reply Government Ministers have to declare any financial interests and absent themselves from any decisions which could lead to a conflict of interest. The Opposition watches this very closely.
March 26, 2021
Can you explain, Sir John, why SAGE members are not subject to the same rules?
March 26, 2021
Of course Ministers must declare any interests they have on a given topic but not, so far as I can see, to their scientific advisers. Several of the latter do appear to have associations, past or present, with big Pharma. Whether or not that gives them a pecuniary interest in the way they advise government is far from clear.
March 26, 2021
Declaring an interest is not really enough. It is very clear that so many of the laws and regulation passed (EU and UK) could only have been driven by vested interests, corruption, lobby groups or so called “consultancies”. There is clearly no other sensible reason for most of these laws. Nearly all the renewable energy lunacy and green lunacy for example or all the absurd over regulation of landlords or the absurd complexities and compliance for taxation and the likes.
It clearly make no sense other than to profit the vested interests and pressure groups parasiting on the back of the productive. Fewer and fewer doing useful & productive jobs and more and more doing pointless or parasitic ones.
March 26, 2021
Maylor, The first three signatories are indeed âeminent scientistsâ, the rest of the 764,079 concerned citizens, 13,796 medical and public health scientists, and 41,890 medical practitioners maybe less so.
As you certainly know, the GBD has among its signatories such influential people as Dr Bernard Castle UK certified optometrist, Dr Harold Shipman UK Medical & Public Health scientist, Prof. Elderknob Stoadgobler PhD UK Chimerical Immunology, an Isaac Newton, a Miss Tooth Fairy, and even a Prof. Dr Victor von Frankenstein Prof. of Applied Anatomy, Goldstadt Germany, all names giving extreme confidence to that declaration, whose outcome by the way is likely to become the UK situation by end of June, if the vaccination effort continues.
So, no sweat.
March 26, 2021
Thank you for so voting.
The Government must take care that it does not lose the support of a weary and increasingly unconvinced public by keeping restrictive measures in place longer than they are clearly needed.
March 26, 2021
Thank you for voting against extending the Coronavirus Act. The pity is that so few other MPs did the same. We are moving inexorably to an authoritarian police state under BorisJohnson. People who have resisted the 12 months’ daily brainwashing by this government and their paid for lackeys in the MSM will have observed the introduction of measures over that period which were previously described sas “conspiracy theories” to discredit any opposition to this unfolding tyranny. Never in my lifetime did I expect
such a dreadful situation to arise, least of all from a supposedly Conservative government!
March 26, 2021
Well done and thank you!đ
However we now know that the vast majority of our MPs want us to remain in the cellar in chains.
And that they obviously are not as constrained as we are, since they voted that way.
If a Great Reset is required …why not just do it?
Without all this cruelty.
Or is it about something much worse?
March 26, 2021
Judging by what a local councillor ( eager to ramp up talk of âcasesâ) said to me….this is really all about continuing âfurloughâ.
Presumably that is why the âoppositionâ, keen to see the country bankrupted ( and more) keeps voting with the …um…conservatives ( what do they call themselves now?).
Oh yes…âThe Roll Up Your Sleeve!â party?
March 26, 2021
Hancock confirmed that the 6 month extension was not required to prolong furlough, they are unrelated.
March 26, 2021
Oh.
Wonder why they are so keen on it then?
I thought they were pleasing their âfurloughedâ voters.
Just power mad?
March 26, 2021
Isn’t the Government’s majority under EVEL absolutely huge on England only measures? Opposition MPs are thin on the ground in England.
Apart from that I would say that to unlock economic freedoms we need vaccinations (production problems noted) and probably some sort of vaccination card. Agreed it is a pain however our MPs have foisted all sorts of paper work on us motorists (must have and be able to produce driving licences, insurance certificates, MOT certificates and registered keeper documents). Add to that us motorists have to tell the police who is driving our cars if they are zapped by a speed camera etc. I accept these restrictions to keep the death toll on our roads down (about 3,000+ per annum) Covid-19 has killed over 100,000 in a year.
March 26, 2021
A vote for sanity.
Besides which lockdowns do not keep us safe, they do more harm than good.
March 26, 2021
Thank you on behalf of the British people for opposing this, it does seem as if the list of those opposing (and the more pusillanimous who would only abstain) was comprised of the more experienced members of your party. The media are full of the government’s potential social credit passport for entering hospitality venues, though you wonder whether this is a ‘Nudge’ exercise to panic people into taking an experimental injection, since the passport is likely to soon be condemned by international courts. Apparently there will be three ways of getting a passport. The first is the injection itself, though it doesn’t prevent you from catching, carrying or transmitting the virus, it doesn’t actually make you immune, and nobody knows how long the beneficial effects last. The second is a negative test result, which will have to be very recent and provides no protection against catching the virus. And the third is to prove that you have had the virus, creating perverse incentives for people to deliberately seek it out.
March 27, 2021
Ditto.
March 26, 2021
To âprotectâ from a hard to identify virus by removing all other medical care is obviously nonsensical.
I might think differently if off work and being paid. ( Although that has sinister forebodings).
Successive governments have laboured to make the workplace as abysmal as possible.
Was that the plan.?
They tried to get rid of us with âBack to Work Interviewsâ. The walking dead had to sniffle and cough their way into work …or face the consequences.
March 26, 2021
Apparently the virus is not that hard to identify if you have artificial intelligence available …
https://www.cityam.com/20-second-covid-test-to-be-distributed-across-the-uk-and-europe/
“20-second Covid test to be distributed across the UK and Europe”
“Designed and manufactured by UK-based AI specialists iAbra, the test combines imaging, holographic microscopy with AI, and will be the most accurate test available so far.”
I imagine that if it is successful Ursula von der Leyen may claim to have had a hand in its development.
March 26, 2021
I meant from the point of view that the virus appears to have every symptom under the sun, including none.
Plus it is said that the virus has never been isolated…so do they know what they are looking for?
Anyway that new test sounds so much better than having a swab rammed into oneâs brain.
A feather in the EUâs cap.
Oh but will they export it to us?
March 27, 2021
Who says that it has never been isolated?
March 26, 2021
I and others will continue to question and to seek to persuade the government to remove this raft of restrictive measures. Without the Official Opposition also opposing we lack the votes to change things, but we have voices and public support which we need to represent.
Persuading the Govt is missing the point by many miles. The Govt’s position is not based on science, data, economic cost, social cost, ethics, subjective well-being or any dimension on which one might choose to persuade. The Govt’s position is one of dictatorial power advanced through propaganda, through fear, through threat, through violent policing, through dependence. You/we need far more than persuasion or irrelevant political blaming of the opposition. This is fundamental, yet many people have been fooled, bought or otherwise into not appreciating that etc ed
A quick brain storm:-
Could the Queen make a public apolitical speech looking forward to total restoration of freedoms on 21st June if not earlier?
Can enough Conservatives be gathered to remove Johnson (- the fact that this has happened yet is shockingly worrying)
Can enough Tories side with Labour for a vote of no confidence / a bill to change the electoral system or some other threat to Johnsonâs dictatorship.
The handful of Tories who want to restore democracy and freedom need to be hear loud, and need to call for civil disobedience and need to be on the front line (what a shocking thing to have to write)
⊠how far will have to go
The basic point is a campaign for freedom, liberty and democracy has to get ahead of the normalistation of tyranny and dictatorship â persuasion of the dictatorship cannot achieve this
March 26, 2021
Itâs no mere thing to vote against your own government
With principles and desire of freedom I support and appreciate your choice 100%
March 26, 2021
A genuine heartfelt round of applause for you sir – voting against the extension of powers. It seemed to me like the beginning of the slippery road to hell. I know it failed but you showed your feelings. Thank you.
March 26, 2021
Thank you Sir John for saying what any reasonable person understands.
Liberty for each individual, to make their own decisions, how to defend themselves from harm, has been fundamental to the English Constitution from the earliest days.
Our present Government has been sucked into becoming a Totalitarian State where holding on to their own Power is the overriding aim.
It is unfortunate that the opposition are going along with it but then Socialists do believe in State Control.
It is also unfortunate that with such a large majority your few votes have little effect.
The Fixed Term Parliament Act is also an abomination.
I wonder whether your questioning and persuading might be turned towards sacking Hancock, Sage, Whitty, Vallance etcetera, if not the P.M. himself.
They are now moving towards Mandatory vaccinations which are an infringement of internationally accepted Human Rights. That is coming on top of the Lockdown policies which it is obvious do more harm than good.
You DO HAVE public support I assure you. In spite of ‘their’ efforts to suppress it.
March 27, 2021
Great debut !!!
March 26, 2021
Sir John,
Freedom IMHO is an ever changing feast. We are not free to carry pistols, drive without a seatbelt or smoke at work. I suspect it is inevitable that we will have new long lasting health laws that will change the way we live from now on.
My bigger concern is that we may be stuck with other emergency changes that can have lasting financial damage. Many of us savers hoped that the “emergency” low interest rates from 2008 would recover to more normal levels sooner than this. In fact the taxpayer, yet again, lost billions just last week with the selling of a small percentage of NatWest (RBS as was) shares bought in the banking crisis (technically the loss was crystallised with the sale).
So my concern is that furlough (and other taxpayer funded schemes) will be extended on the vain hope that our freedoms to travel internationally and pack hospitality venues will somehow return to 2019 levels – costing us (and future generations) on supporting people to “not work” until future politicians recognise that the way we live has changed permanently.
We must focus on getting productivity back up (IMHO).
PS – I admire your principles on voting (including you stand on the EU trade bill).
March 26, 2021
The talk from ‘Boris’ about the use of passports to go the pub is completely unacceptable. If he were the believer in the freedom he postures about he should instead have said he opposed the whole idea. His words are a good indicator that we are to be controlled indefinately by the likes of him and your party and government, Sir John
I suspect you will remain loyal whatever they do, claiming yourself innocent by having voted against them. There seems no limit on what you will tolerate.
March 26, 2021
Sir John,
Unfortunately with so few MPs voting against, it is highly likely come September that Parliament will vote for another six month extension. Thus we will have been in effective lockdown for two years, with the occasional relaxation of restrictions.
March 26, 2021
The world pandemic Spanish flu of 1918 only lasted 18 months – and that was without a vaccine
March 26, 2021
I would have voted to extend the powers for another six months, while hoping that the need to exercise them will greatly diminish before September. But above all I don’t want to go round the same miserable cycle again because the restrictions have been relaxed too quickly or too many people have started to ignore them. Later today we should get updates on the level of infection in the population but last week it was still an order of magnitude higher than last summer and on my projection it would take until mid-June to get it down.
March 26, 2021
If you think that what the Gov has done is the correct thing to do then why are we the worst affected Country in the World and by a large margin? If the Gov expect all the Vaccinations to be done by June, Why does it need an extension? That is all but admitting that the vaccine doesn’t work, mind you the big Pharmas did say the vaccine would not stop you catching the virus, or spreading it to others but would only mitigate some of the effects of the virus, in other words you wouldn’t be quite so ill. Why is Sweden, Dakota and others that took basically no actions against Covid no worse or better off than we are? About time you started to face a few home truths.
March 27, 2021
Please don’t try to put words in my mouth. Like other governments around the world the UK government has made mistakes dealing with this pandemic, some of them very serious mistakes, but as I have said before I am prepared to cut them some slack because we are still learning as we go along.
Clearly the vaccines do work in the crucial senses that they reduce the severity of the disease if it is caught, and therefore the need for infected people to become hospital patients, and finally the death rate. However it is not yet clear to what extent they protect against infection with the virus, or onward transmission of the virus, plus there are large numbers of people who have not yet even been offered a vaccine and significant numbers who have received the invitation but have declined to be vaccinated.
As to your personal aspersion I’m fairly well up with the reality of this including the fact that the infection rate in England is still an order of magnitude higher than it was at the lowest points last summer and it seems that it is no longer falling, see the updated chart in Figure 1 here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/26march2021#number-of-people-who-had-covid-19-in-england-wales-northern-ireland-and-scotland
March 26, 2021
For heaven’s sake Denis Cooper. Surely you can see the total lack of sense in your argument. It boils down to:-
LOCKDOWNS HAVEN’T WORKED. WE MUST HAVE MORE LOCKDOWNS !
March 26, 2021
spot on
March 27, 2021
I can’t follow your train of thought here.
When I look at the ONS charts for infection rates in Figure 1 here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/26march2021#number-of-people-who-had-covid-19-in-england-wales-northern-ireland-and-scotland
it is obvious that lockdowns do suppress the virus – at a cost, we all agree on that – but it is also obvious that when the restrictions are lifted the virus can quickly rebound from very low levels.
When that happened last summer nobody had been vaccinated and so we are now in a much better position in that respect, but on the other hand the current levels of infection are an order of magnitude higher than last summer and moreover from the latest update it seems that they may no longer be declining.
Personally I will not be relaxing any precautions just yet, even though I have had my first jab and it has had over six weeks to take effect, and even though I too am pretty fed up with the curbs on our freedom I don’t want the government to be pushed into doing anything which may kick it off again.
March 26, 2021
Denis, if these lockdowns and restrictions work and you believe the level of infection figures from swab tests why is the level of infection a higher magnitude than last summer (it was July before we came out of the first lockdown after 17 weeks)?
Is it perhaps because Hancock and Shapps have allowed truck drivers into the UK throughout this time without any testing at all, to roam all around the UK, meeting people in the UK in our ports, warehouses, factories, ports have outbreaks such as those near Anglesey and the Kent outbreaks? So we all stay locked down so Europe can freely export into the UK with no barriers whatsoever whilst restricting UK drivers and UK products.
The infected people what were they doing in the past three months that I’ve not seen my parents, my children, my friends.
March 27, 2021
Well, when I look at the updated ONS charts in Figure 1 here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/26march2021#number-of-people-who-had-covid-19-in-england-wales-northern-ireland-and-scotland
I can easily argue that the resurgence of the virus started with relieved UK residents enjoying the “Great British Summer” in a carefree way, and moreover with subsidised meals in restaurants, rather than with truck drivers bringing in the same or another variant or with a new variant emerging in the UK, and that it was then made much worse, with the infection level hitting 2%, because people had been led to expect that they could have something like a normal Christmas.
But whatever the breakdown of the causes for the resurgence of the virus may be – no doubt academics will study this for a long time – the practical outcome was that we started this year at a unprecedentedly high 2% infection level in England and so far we are still only down from that to 0.3%, compared to the lowest level of 0.026% at the end of June last year:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/england9july2020#main-points
And according to the latest ONS update the infection level is no longer falling.
March 27, 2021
You say that you can easily argue that the resurgence started with UK residents enjoying subsidised meals in restaurants, well how can you argue that, what access to data of people later infected do you have? How did people locked down for 17 weeks and virus free when restrictions were lifted in the UK infect each other with a virus that had been snuffed here. I personally believe it was from going back into aircraft and travelling over the world who werenât testing as much as we were that brought back new strains and a resurgence.
Where have the current infections come from? No shops open since Christmas Eve, no restaurants, no travel abroad for the majority of people without PSA tests costing ÂŁ140 yet we just have allowed foreign trucker after foreign trucker in without any check whatsoever itâs disgusting and when I found this out when I have to pay for my drivers to have a PSA test I am frankly fuming about it. You know we canât even go to Southern Ireland without quarantining for a fortnight, without a full PSA test just to make a single delivery, yet they can flood here – fuming.
March 28, 2021
Common sense tells me that you cannot sit in close groups indoors eating and drinking and merrily chatting away to each other for a couple of hours or more, and necessarily without wearing masks because is it is difficult to eat and drink with a mask on, and possibly with waiters and other members of staff also not wearing risks – you may have seen the pictures of Rishi Sunak playing at being a waiter – without a high risk of passing around the virus if even one person present in the room is infectious. There has already been one academic study suggesting that Eat Out To Help Out became Eat Out To Help Spread The Virus, and no doubt there will be more studies, but in the meantime I prefer to use my common sense. Of course the “hospitality industry” denies that there was any problem, but they would wouldn’t they. Likewise when I see people crowding on to beaches, and forming mass assemblies where it is very unlikely that all the participants are free of the virus, then common sense tells me this is unlikely to be a good idea.
March 26, 2021
Denis, the level of ‘infections’ is merely a product of the flawed use of the rtPCR test, taken to ct45 amplifications (the inventor- Kary Mullis – stated that it should never be taken past 34 cycles, as any sampling errors and contaminants render the results useless. He also sated that it should never be used in isolation to ‘diagnose’ illness in asymptomatic people. What are we doing? – the opposite of what he recommended!!! Testing at ct45 produces over 35 TRILLION copies from one single fragment (i.e. dead!) of any old type of coronaviral RNA. It is designed to return a positive result).
You may care to research what has become known as the ‘Corman-Drosten Paper’, which sets out the procedures for using PCR in connection with SARS-Covid-2. That paper (heavily relied upon by one Prof Neil Ferguson in his ‘advice’ to S.A.G.E.) has been roundly criticised by peer review and there have been numerous calls for its retraction – not that you will hear that from Government ministers, the members of S.A.G.E. or the mainstream media. They will ALL know about that, but it is never highlighted, much less discussed, as it goes against the official narrative).
Dr. Mike Yeadon (ex VP of Pfizer) and a Respiratory Disease specialist of several decades standing, has argued – convincingly IMO – that we are probably already at Herd Immunity level. If the PCR testing cycle threshold (ct) were reduced to fewer cycles (perhaps Mullis’s max 34?) there would be very few positives. The testing ‘casedemic’ would disappear almost instantly. His contention is that the pandemic now only exists because S.A.G.E. says it does. The evidence for it, is just not present in the numbers now.
There is a further question there – if we had been testing at fewer than Mullis’s max-ct34, would we even be where we are now? It is – I would argue – very doubtful that we would be.
regards,
GW
March 28, 2021
Do you suppose that the ONS has never considered the extent to which its findings may be distorted by false positive test results?
When – if – you look at the chart for the infection rate in England in Figure 1 here:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/26march2021#number-of-people-who-had-covid-19-in-england-wales-northern-ireland-and-scotland
do you suppose that all those movements of “Percentage testing positive for Covid-19” up and down over two orders of magnitude are meaningless, mere artifacts of a testing methodology based on ignorance?
And even though those movements in the ONS test results for the incidence of the disease correlate with the numbers of real people put into hospital with a real disease, some of whom really die from it?
I suggest that you go to the link I have given and follow through to the relevant sections of the website.
March 30, 2021
Denis, thanks for the reference., which I have looked at.
Can you define for me what you mean by “two orders of magnitude”? (Astronomers use a factor of 2.512x for stellar magnitude, but in most other applications, powers of 10 are used). The graph which you reference, is scaled from 0.00 to 2.5, with the curve peaking just above 2%. I wouldn’t call that range being ‘up & down over two orders of magnitude’ – well not unless your starting point is a level of 0.02% (–>0.2 –>2.0). If we started at 0.001% you could argue for it being into the 4th order, but I don’t think you’d have many peeps in agreement.
With ct45, the number of false positives is likely huge – I’ve seen the figure of 97% quoted from more than one source. I wonder (but doubt) whether ONS have taken that possibility onboard?
What does reducing the numbers presented in the ONS data by 97% avhieve?
Time’s up! It means an almost flat line at or below 120/day (on current levels of new ‘cases’.
You’ll notice (or perhaps not) that BBC made a progression from quoting ‘new cases’, to new infections’ to ‘people testing positive’. Even the self-proclaimed “World’s Premiere News-Gathering Organisation’ are hedging their bets over the validity of results from ct45 PCR amplifications.
I – and I’m sure other readers – would be interested to hear your views on (1) the Corman-Drosten paper, (2) its peer review and (3) the calls for its retraction?
Are you aware of German Lawyer Dr. Reiner Fuellmich’s lawsuits going for the jugular of the Vaccine companies, and directly for Christian Drosten Etc ed ?
Prof Neil Ferguson relies heavily on that paper in his advice to SAGE. Perhaps you could give your views (4) on that too?
The Govt daily data are big (literally) on the midweek fatality figures with the throwaway comment that they are ‘usually reduced over the weekend’. You’d think – wouldn’t you? – that it would be the Monday figure that sees a high, rather than Wednesday?
Plotting up the daily Dashboard data for both new deaths within 28 days of a positive test for both certificate date, and for registration data ( you can get them here https://api.coronavirus.data.gov.uk/v2/data?areaType=overview&metric=newDeaths28DaysByDeathDate&metric=newDeaths28DaysByPublishDate&format=csv ) the bigged-up Wednesday highs stick out like a sore thumb. Once the numbers from certificate dates are collated, the curves are vastly different.
Now I’d add a note of caution there, in that they are numbers for deaths within 28 days of a pos test…. regardless of whether the unfortunate decedants actually died of something else.
Thanks.
GW.
March 26, 2021
Denis, Obviously the government thinks the vaccines don’t work, but I am surprised you are of the same mind. Because if they do work there is no need for the untargeted national lockdowns, nor the restrictions on our liberties, nor the need for internal passports. Next winter there may be a new variant of the Chinavirus resistant to the existing vaccines, of course.
March 26, 2021
+1
Nail on head!
March 26, 2021
And a little too much faith in face masks (ill fitting and often made out of paper), keeping 6 feet apart (unless on a BLM, climate change or anti establishment demo), never visiting your elderly relatives (unless youâre an illegal immigrant)
March 27, 2021
Firstly only half of us have been vaccinated, secondly vaccination does not necessarily prevent you getting and spreading the infection, thirdly there is still a lot of virus around and the decline in the infection rate seems to have stalled, and fourthly some of us may get a third injection in the autumn.
March 27, 2021
Denis, “Only half of us have been vaccinated”. So far. All adults by the summer. The purpose of the vaccines is provide immunity – it will not be 100%, but far better than the 0% you cleverly imply. And for the under 60s without c0-morbidities, the chinavirus is not really a problem. And I have already said that I expect mutations and a resurgence next winter (probably requiring a tweaked vaccine).
March 27, 2021
I don’t imply any such thing, cleverly or otherwise. The immediate purpose of the vaccine was to save the NHS from being overwhelmed, which was narrowly achieved even though at present vaccination does not confer complete immunity and significant numbers of the most vulnerable either were not offered it in time or refused to have it. As far as immunity is concerned somebody who was vaccinated say a month ago could perhaps look at the current level of infection, 0.3%, and divide it by five, but that still takes it down to only 0.06% which is higher than last summer. As far as the general population is concerned the factor could perhaps be taken as 2 at present, so it is as if the infection level was 0.15% not 0.3%. Eventually the entire population will be offered vaccination but even then there will be some who refuse it and some for whom it is not fully effective, and that exercise is unlikely to be completed before the expiry of the six months extension of the legislation. And you are wrong about the virus being no threat to under 60’s, as there is increasing evidence about the long term debilitating effects of this virus even for some younger people.
March 26, 2021
Well done, Sir John. I’m pleased you don’t intend to give up.
March 26, 2021
I thought the UK Governmentâs draconian measures only apply to England, this bill included, England being the only part of the UK not allowed to make itâs own decisions. I see meddling MPs from Scotland, Wales & NI have have voted on it even though it will not affect them or their constituents. At least the SNP for once had the courtesy not to vote although no doubt your colleagues ârepresentingâ English seats would have had no problems if they had chosen to. I know my Conservative MP has no problems with it which is why I will not be voting for him again.
When are 550 gutless self serving UK MPs squatting in English seats going to demand an end to this affront to democracy John?
March 26, 2021
Off topic, defending the Union, that is to say the United Kingdom:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/defending-the-union-of-the-uk/
Those who believe in the United Kingdom may wish to contribute to help fight the case, while those who would prefer to see the United Kingdom broken up need do nothing.
I have a letter in this week’s Maidenhead Advertiser appropriately headed:
“Not worth breaking up UK for free trade deal”
which concludes by contradicting the stated view of a Lords committee that “it is difficult to envisage a worse outcome for the UK than a âno-dealâ Brexit”:
“I disagree; it might be nice to have a free trade deal with the EU, overall worth the same to our economy as maybe six months natural growth at the trend growth rate, but I would much prefer to keep the United Kingdom intact and default to the WTO treaties for our trade with the EU; betraying our fellow citizens in Northern Ireland and breaking up the country would be far worse.”
March 26, 2021
I fully support your stand on opposing this limitation of our freedom. If the goverment achieves its objectives on vaccination the bulk of the population, then all restrictions should be lifted, and people allowed to assess their own risks. Temporary restrictions can easily become permanent for the convenience of authorities, by convincing the public that it “is for their own good”. A simple way to authoritarianism, via creeping erosian of liberties.
March 26, 2021
Well done JR. I’m sure that you can see what is being created and I am glad that you are prepared to take a stand against it.
zorro
March 26, 2021
I believe this article in The Guardian today explains some of my own views – better than I can myself.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/mar/26/40600-people-likely-caught-covid-while-hospital-inpatients-in-england
Inevitably some patients admitted to any Hospital during a pandemic are at risk of contracting ” a hospital acquired inection ” But these figures are truly shocking and demonstrate the self-generated extra workload resulting from many inadequacies in NHS Hospitals . Some of these inadequacies are related to short and medium term deficiences but many are due to long term underinvestment – both capital and manpower. Capital expenditure on hospitals has been worfully inadequate for the last 40 years – but manpower shortages that have been developing rapidly over the last 10 years have not been adequately addressed.
It is much easier to withdraw impositions due to legislation early ( ie before deadline expires ) compared to re-imposing restrictions ( by then probably too late ) when no legislation is in place .
The Covid-19 pandemic in UK remains – and the situation can become worse very rapidly – even a matter of days. If you had been representing my views when you came to vote I would not have supported your action.
March 26, 2021
The next âemergencyâ is likely to be food.
Blocking of Suez Canal plus ongoing shenanigans with freezer containers and rotting food.
Veg seeds…pulses and powdered milk …all âmust havesâ.
March 26, 2021
I should maybe say…destruction of global trade.
March 27, 2021
do we get much food from China via Suez?
March 26, 2021
Thank you for voting against extending the Coronavirus Act, Sir John.
March 26, 2021
Well we can all blame Boris, Hancocks & Co and rightly so but there is also a great many other Cons who obviously agree with them as it is the rest of the Cons who have voted this through. I suggest we hold a long memory for when the next election comes around and make a fresh start with a new party. The old parties have lost their way and no longer represent the people.
March 26, 2021
Dear Sir John,
Perhaps you should address your requirements to the family of Covid viruses.
You were never really in favour of any travel restrictions back in January 2020.
It’s this type of Economic pressure from the start which has dug us into the hole we are now in.
There is no doubt the virus would have sneaked in but more controllable by local lock downs.
But we just invited the virus in wholesale by plane, train and boat unchecked, and never learnt by our mistakes.
Reply I did want international travel restrictions on China , Italy etc
March 27, 2021
Dear Sir John, I am not sure this was the case in January/February 2020. Discussions were in regard to people and not goods.
At the time you were concerned about the damage to the economy. The picture was not completely clear and never will be, but a research facility was at the epicentre of the outbreak in China, and this in itself should have raised alarm bells in Government and restrictions to passenger travel, out side the UK /Ireland, imposed there and then.
March 26, 2021
Well it would seem that this forum is a closed club where others can say what they like but I cannot. Already he has binned a comment and a reply, both on topic and both in context. Both had comments held elsewhere on this forum.
It would appear Sir John is not such a lover of free speech as I had supposed. Bet this is binned too.
March 27, 2021
There are certainly a lot of sycophants .
March 27, 2021
Stringvest you seem new here and are incorrect in your observation, this blog has a very varied audience and contributors. I get comments blocked and held, most of us do. If you want to just read comments by people that are certainly not sycophants search and read: Andy, MiC, Hefner, Margaret Howard, Dom, Hope there are plenty more to choose.
April 4, 2021
How do I search for a particular contributor’s comments ?
PS I don’t agree that my observation is incorrect – I said ” a lot of “.
March 27, 2021
This is not actually a forum, it is a personal blog where the host allows comments. If new to the blog you need to be aware that there is a variable delay in posts appearing since this is a private enterprise and Sir John likely has many calls on his time and only so many hours in the day. Also your browser settings can result in your posts “disappearing” for a while until they have been accepted onto the blog.
Reply Yes I moderate this myself and am often too busy during the working day to do so.I do aim to post all short non libellous posts without links on the day they are sent in.
April 4, 2021
dixie- thanks.
March 26, 2021
Hancock says the vaccine is working to save lives, however, it has not been tested as we have all been in lockdown since December 23rd and many areas before that. I find some of the biggest encouragers of lockdown are those that aren’t affected i.e. they work in essential work and get out and about every day anyway, they visit people they shouldn’t, they have split families and join other social bubbles with one other adult – bully for them they have found workarounds but they must remember some people who feel the need to follow rules are trapped.
I couldn’t believe it when I heard lorry drivers have been allowed to flow into the Country all this time without covid negative tests, what the blimin heck has the government allowed that for! So we get locked down all over Easter because you’ve kept up the flow of virus overload into our Country from Europe.
March 28, 2021
Update just read âTests will be available free at more than 40 Government Haulier Advice sites, and there will be fines of ÂŁ2000 for failure to comply. In addition to the rules on testing, lorry drivers entering the UK will have to follow government rules on social distancing.â John, what the heck is your government doing here with this un level playing field. My drivers need PCR flow tests ÂŁ140 per pop to go to do a delivery to Europe including Ireland, and our government is providing a free-for-all to incomers you best start providing FREE tests for outbound UK drivers too or people will start asking what the bl***y h*** is going on now.
We allow food products to come in without certifications putting our companies at a disadvantage, we allow plants in, no restrictions, yet we allow the EU to put all sorts of restrictions on our exports. ENOUGH. Every time I hear of a restriction I stop buying an equivalent EU product like cheese. I like it when the Guardian keeps telling us of the unfair treatment of our exporters.
March 28, 2021
I add, we needs tests that Europe will allow, Europe has not allowed lateral flow tests they have demanded tests passed by the French government PCR tests that take 24 hours and cost a fortune since 23rd December and youâre giving them a weeks notice, they gave us no notice, I have people that took a test paid ÂŁ140 and were still told they couldnât go to France even though clear of covid because their business in France wasnât essential. Your government just fiddles on ignoring all this rubbish. Do we produce enough cheese in the UK to stop cheese imports without certificates? If so put an end to this import without certificates immediately. Do we produce enough meat? You are being told sausage makers canât export their sausages if they use British meat and your government are just ignoring this and telling them to look for alternative markets. NO.
March 26, 2021
Thank you, Sir John. My own MP voted against it too – I’ll write to thank her. Every little step in the right direction makes a difference. It should be apparent to all that these measures are economically destructive and literally life-destroying – and nothing to do with a fast-vanishing virus. It’s only concerning that so few of our MPs can grasp that. Unless they’re enjoying it.
March 26, 2021
thanks john
March 26, 2021
JR. Itâs like a breathe of fresh reading your blog this morning. Than you for being one of the few to vote against the act. I agree with all your thoughts about it.
I wrote to my MP again last week urging him to think carefully about his vote and put to him some of your thoughts S to why he shouldnât vote for it to continue.
This morning I wrote again asking him to explain why he voted for it… Iâm not expecting a reply, or if there is one it will be about Europe, fourth waves, and new variants….
March 26, 2021
Sir John, you and Sir Desmond Swayne and your other colleagues should be honoured and thanked for voting against the continuation of these harsh, dictatorial powers that threaten our freedom.
March 26, 2021
Boris has pretty much got his hands tied up regarding Coronavirus.
But there is something that Business can do to take advantage of the pandemic, in particular online sales.
Be great if some Brits could get together to create a British Amazon online retailer so that instead of all the money that people spend on Amazon here in the UK flowing back to the USA the money instead stays in our economy. And who knows create a company that could take over Europe – and rival Amazon.
Anyone with ideas?
March 26, 2021
Thank you Sir John.
The numbers are growing but still lamentably few.
The time is long overdue for serious, lengthy and PROPER parliamentary debate on every piece of ‘legislation’ that has been enacted in the last 12 months. There needs also to be a serious and far-reaching examination into the methods that the Police ‘Service’ (…and I hesitate to use that 2nd word) have employed in interacting with the public since March of last year. Some ‘officers’ are unworthy of that title and they sully the hitherto good reputation of the Service. I have no doubt that some of their number deserve their P.45, and others a day in the Dock.
‘Zoom’ & video conferencing do not constitute proper debate. That needs to be done in the Commons (and the Lords’) Chamber(s) so that there can be the appropriate degree of cut & thrust in open debate.
Certain Cabinet Members need to be held to account for their actions, and questioned ROBUSTLY about their actions. That cannot be done by video; they need to – literally – be faced with the argument, with the facial expressions and body language of their questioners clearly visible to them. They do not feel under sufficient pressure from a face on a TV monitor, or a faceless voice over a telephone or SKYPE (…other forms of poor communication are available….) link, and that makes them too comfortable in their dismissiveness.
I also commend your colleagues, the members for Broxbourne and New Forest, on their animated and impassioned contributions in the HoC. Perhaps you would be kind enough to pass them my thanks?
Regards,
GW.
March 26, 2021
“one of a few MPs” just goes to show the extent of the enemy within. Thank you Sir John; we deserve better than from those not of that few.
March 26, 2021
Protest votes are absolutely fine, and it is good to see that we are not yet a Peoples’ Democracy where the legislature always votes 99% for Government policy.
However, there is an expectations story here. We know that we have to have continued restrictions of some sort because deaths among our nearest and dearest friends and allies are not falling as fast as ours, and if the Government did *not* stand behind its own position with legislation, it would sabotage its own goals.
So the Government has to legislate an extension to its own powers, and some non-crazy MPs have to oppose that for reasons of principle. The Universe is unfolding as it should.
March 26, 2021
Thank you very much for voting against these draconian rules, so alien to our way of doing things, our constitution (written down in more than one document, but a constitution nevertheless) and our national heritage. Many, many public health professionals, academics and scientists disagree with the measures proposed, and every Covid fine has been struck down when brought before a judge, because they are unlawful. I recommend everyone read âLockdown: the lie that will never endâ, published on ConservativeWoman.
March 26, 2021
Aside: climate change fight back from somewhere in the old/new political class –
Does anyone know which U.K. politician had a conversation with Prof. Judith Curry on (presumably alternative views of) climate change 25th March? I recall Hefner mentioned Curry in February so I did wonder if it could be Sir John. The only clue Prof. Curry has blogged is that the politician is smart and charismatic.
March 26, 2021
From what I understand the extended powers are there to enable a quick response to a potential 3rd wave despite vaccinations. I think its just an insurance policy and hopefully the extended powers will not be needed or used. Overall I have no particular problem with it I refer early Gov intervention.
On the point of powers and related vaccines, I see the usual bigoted views of the EU and vaccine distribution. Yet no mention either from Gov or far right news papers here about India Gov block of 2nd batch of vaccines to UK. Yet here is a UK Gov who wants to be future business with India. Well having been to India several times, India looks after India and does not care about contract rules or any thing else. We know its a country of contrasts and most Indians answer the same question in 2 different ways, its life there.
March 26, 2021
Is anybody else concerned that free speech is in jeopardy in our schools.
I am concerned that we have suspended a teacher without any law being broken.
I am concerned that our education minister and department havenât come to there defence.
I am concerned that none elected religious group can dictate what is or isnât taught in schools for fear of offence.
I am also concerned that in Scotland this could be considered a hate crime !
March 27, 2021
Yes Glen. The lack of tolerance is most troubling. The breaching of the covid outdoor rules just allowed to continue for several delays.
March 26, 2021
I agree Hefner. It’s time for end of life to be sorted. I am terrified of a long and lingering pointless life before death. I am unable to take strong or even moderately strong painkillers so wouldn’t want to longer on in pain that couldn’t be controlled. I watched my mother suffer and all she wished for was a quicker end to her life. What right has anyone else to say when you should die when your life has been compromised by illness?
March 27, 2021
Sorry John. Leave this comment out. It’s gone in twice.
March 27, 2021
I was away yesterday, so only just read of your stance under the heading ‘Restore Our Freedoms’. Thank you – agree 100%. Maybe also then, we might see a restoration of a little sanity, too!
March 27, 2021
Thank you SJR for your continuing and rational stance against this casual forfeiture of our freedoms.
There is an article in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health entitled âCOVID-19 and the Political Economy of Mass Hysteriaâ published 3rd February 2021 which helps to support some of your arguments.
March 27, 2021
Ah yes a MDPI Open Access Journal where any Tom, Dick and Harry who can pay 1,400 CHF per paper can publish providing their own list of âindependentâ referees.
March 27, 2021
@R.T.G.
â…an articleâ
March 27, 2021
The daily number of new COVID-19 cases has stopped going down, although deaths per day are still declining. The ratio of deaths to cases reached its nadir on 2nd December, when it was 28. That ratio is now 91 and rising, so we are clearly doing a lot better, partly due to vaccination and partly due to increased immunity as the climate warms. To liberate the economy and remove restrictions, we need to maintain a high rate of vaccination in the UK.Vaccine nationalism is here to stay. India has banned vaccine exports and the EU is about to follow suit. Therefore, we need to ramp up vaccine production in the UK for British citizens.
I’m afraid that the WHO is asking too much of human nature in expecting rich nations to send vaccines to poor nations in large quantities before their own epidemics are under control. Expect significant supplies to poor countries in the Autumn.
March 28, 2021
And the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Bill ?
That will not have helped when we have a repeat of CV.19 Mk.2/3/4,[n] later this year and onward……
March 30, 2021
It was good to hear that. Personally I think lockdown was wrong, and I can only applaud Sweden for not following the herd, and being entirely vindicated in that action. It would be even better if those responsible for this terrible policy were made to account for their actions.
March 30, 2021
Worryingly, in today’s (30/03) press, I see that far from reducing restrictions in June, Mr. Gove has been promoting the idea of vaccine passports, possibly to be introduced after June.
Like so many other measures, this started with “We think that would a bad idea”, moving quietly on to “There are no plans”, through “a committee will look into this” and then we find ministers promoting the idea.
When the petitions committee discussed the same issue, it seemed that every single MP was against the idea and yet, I fear, with Labour voting for every repressive measure, there may still not be the numbers for a rebellion.