I could see the point of Test and trace when few people were vaccinated and when rising caseloads could lead to a surge in people with serious illness needing hospital help. Today now the vaccines seem to have broken most of the link between case numbers, hospital patient numbers and deaths it is less clear that the current Test and Trace system is sensible.
Test and Trace always had weaknesses, largely based on individual reactions to it. Some people did not download the app and never liked the system. It could not be mandatory as not everyone has a mobile phone and there was no way people could be made to keep a charged phone by their side every day 24 hours a day. Some who downloaded the app then declined to take any incoming call which might have been a warning call from the system to get them to self isolate. Others took the call, promised to co-operate but found compliance too difficult.
Most people with jobs and family duties are not in an easy position to go home and stay home for 14 days. Few have a fortnight’s supply of good food ready. Many need the income from working and not all can do everything from their home. Many have to do things outside the home to look after other family members. The ask of Test and Trace was simply too high for some who were not ill, did not feel they had it or were going to get it, and were unsure why they had been told to self isolate in the first place. I hear details are scarce about where and how you were in contact for those who were approached. This is for understandable reasons as the app has to reassure on privacy about who went where and when.
Today there is the danger that the Test and Trace system generates far too many precautionary requirements to self isolate for many people who do not have the disease and are not about to have it. The rules need relaxing as we learn “to live with the disease” as the government says. No major country has succeeded in eliminating CV 19, even those who have had more severe and longer lockdowns than us. The best advice surely is to ask people who feel ill with likely symptoms to get tested, and to stay isolated if they turn out to have it.
July 6, 2021
Test and trace cost an absolute fortune and was a massive waste of money.
July 6, 2021
Exactly. Why do we have so much testing of people in the UK 4 times the rate per million as Germany. All causes death in the UK July 2020 (after the nasty spring 2020 bulge) to date adjusted for age and population are entirely in the normal range. This despite the dire NHS now with its St Georges Cross being largely shut.
When Chris Whitty says the NHS will always cope it is an emergency service – what on earth did the man mean? Only a very small proportion of the people who died of Covid received any intensive care treatment at all. Many got no treatment whatsoever not even palliative care.
July 6, 2021
Charles Moore in the Telegraph & Melanie Phillips in the Times are surely right today on the dire NHS. A state run monopoly, âfreeâ at the point of delay rationing system and with huge waiting lists is a disaster failing millions.
Deaths from Covid UK per positive case are an amazing 45 times higher in the UK than in Singapore so poor or often non existent was the care they received. Try the Singapore system perhaps, the NHS is clearly an absolutely appalling system, this despite many good and dedicated staff. Sir Simon Steven CEO thinks it is wonderful. He seems not to realise how appalling it is. Is he pretending or totally deluded?
July 6, 2021
LL, +++++1
July 6, 2021
So Grant Shapps is changing everyoneâs number plates/stickers from GB to UK what a waste of time and money. The second change to the number plate style this year, as Grant Shapps announced a new GB design with a Union flag on January 31. A new green number plate was also introduced recently for electric vehicles.
Can this dope (who claims quite wrongly that electric cars are zero emission) not just cancel the other idiotic waste of money HS2 and fix some of the millions pot holes and stop blocking the roads with bike and bus lanes please!
July 6, 2021
If you trade in your old car for a new electric one you increase CO2 emissions (not decrease them on average) after manufacture of new EV car and the energy to charge it is fully considered.
July 6, 2021
LL
“If you trade in your old car for a new electric one you increase CO2 emissions ”
……and also makes one’s self a target for social outcasting and ridicule as a liberal-minded virtue signalling idiot with too much money to waste.
July 6, 2021
@Lifelogic,
Careful. One of the things the richest countries all share is lots of bike lanes (Denmark, then Netherlands, the USA, Canada, Japan etc ..)
Although cyclists can be really annoying (and I am not a cyclist), I like the idea that lots of people are taking extra exercise on bikes (which makes them more productive and more healthy – reducing cost on NHS), and reduces smog and pollution in our cities, in particular in our beautiful city of London.
If we’re too anti stuff like this, then voters will just think the Tories are gas-guzzling luddites.
July 6, 2021
Ed M
Problem with spending tax payer’s money on cycle lanes is that cyclists don’t use them.
They seem to prefer getting in everyone else’s way and putting their own lives at risk in the process. Some kind martyrdom / liberal voter thing.
July 7, 2021
@Steve,
I am NOT a cyclist. But there are huge benefits to people’s mental and physical well-being in cycling. Therefore indirectly saving the country loads in NHS bills and increased productivity at work. And it’s also good on the environment (less noise and pollution – which is great if you live here in London). Lastly, it’s not as if everyone driving in their car has to. Not saying take away the car, all I am saying, too, is don’t take away option for bike also – I’m sure the Dutch would agree me, including Dutch Conservative voters!
Lastly, most of the cyclists are I know are all fairly rich middle-class, like my neighbour next door who is a doctor – consultant. He cycles to work. Probably Tory voters. At least here in London where I live.
So this charge of liberalism on bikes is a bit lazy (sorry) and cliched if not properly thought through. I think anyway, I might be wrong. Plus I am NOT a cyclist ..
July 7, 2021
‘Problem with spending tax payerâs money’
– Some of the cyclists no doubt work in The City here in London. The City that had to be bailed out to a degree / in some shape or form by the tax payer. So we need to be careful about being over-idealistic about the charge of ‘spending tax payer’s money’
July 6, 2021
Well Grant Shapps should provide these stickers free then shouldnât he. Roll up, roll up get your free stuff in the UK for everyone but the people paying their taxes.
July 6, 2021
LL
The response is plainly obvious – just don’t buy number plates with UK decals. Insist on plain or those with the George Cross.
July 6, 2021
Thirty seven billion pounds wasted. No transparency. A complete failure it did not prevent further lockdowns as it was claimed it would.
The UK government adhering to the capitalist mantra that the market-place and private sector are the answer to any problems the UK faces.
Consultants on a ÂŁ1000 a day. Massive underutilisation of the resources paid for. The usual suspects involved in setting it up – but now also including accountancy firms who find it more a more profitable line of work than auditing. With such large sums of money and no transparency you also have to consider corruption in the contracts themselves. These contracts were handed out without competition under cover of an emergency. Failure to deliver has no consequence for the providers who can rest assured of more government largesse(taxpayersâ money) in future.
July 6, 2021
Indeed how on earth can they even spend so much money, so very quickly and while delivering so little of any value?
July 6, 2021
LL
…..because it is’nt their money they spend.
July 6, 2021
It did and was here but not in other countries such as New Zealand, Thailand, S Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Australia, China etc.
Any idea as to why?
July 6, 2021
Martin. At a guess – huge numbers of mates of mates, who have a vague idea of how a mobile works, how code might work, how mobile to mobile might work, how to flag a contact system to a database, how to make that database available to an army of people who were supposed to be fully employed, pretending timely visits to those affected (?) , massive management making tiers of facing stones on pyramids look amateurish. Contracts placed at eye-watering values without proving what they thought they were buying could actually be delivered….. I’ll stop there as it gets so distressing to remind oneself of the snouts in troughs probably never equalled in the western world.
July 6, 2021
and the sole point was to justify the ferocious lockdowns.
Hospitalisation would have been a better and less disruptive indicator.
Jobs and money for the boys.
July 6, 2021
Richard Madeley had it spot on when interviewing that Marxist behavioural scientist (another pseudo job) saying that SAGE hadn’t got the interests of the country at heart.
It is staffed with commies who delight in disruption of the capitalist system
She had no answer.
July 6, 2021
Exactly, and the government itself destroying companies with its ludicrous self-isolation policies!
zorro
July 6, 2021
And Madeley is clearly rather a left of centre too.
July 6, 2021
+1
To both comments.
July 6, 2021
Along with the App, the one South Korea had wasn’t good enough for them, they had to have one with bells and whistles on , so employed some classics educated person to lead the effort, having flushed millions down the drain they gave up.
July 6, 2021
Agree – and it was never fit for purpose unless you where a public servant
July 6, 2021
Good morning.
When confronted with such nonsense by the government I have chosen to ignore it and will continue to do so. What I am seeing on the ground is what I predicted last year in that, people will begin to ignore the government once the propaganda had worn off and they saw that it was not as bad as first portrayed. The government has lost much trust and is behind the curve regarding people’s behaviour.
Time to end this sorry charade.
July 6, 2021
Well said!
July 6, 2021
I was on tubes, buses and trains last week in London. Mask use was only about 60% and much of that half hearted and not fully covering mouth and nose.
July 6, 2021
Just been to Wimbledon – incredibly ridiculous ‘system’ to check jabs, id, tickets on mobiles etc. Like a spec to build a Roller when you actually want a pedal bike.
Once inside the 100% masks rapidly became 10% wearing for ‘elderly’ and almost zero for under 30s.
So it must be revenge for the football crowds transmitting without a care, so proving the tennis fans can do the same. Stand by for a spike…..
July 7, 2021
If the government were really serious, they would stop ALL persons from entering the country. They never have and, they have now decided that the VERY wealthy can come in whenever, from wherever, they like. Yet we, in our own country are treated like a pariahs.
July 6, 2021
Agree. Why not lift restrictions now? Why wait another two weeks? People are fed up with it all now and tge virus will still be there in two weeks so let’s just get on with it. We will never be more protected than we are now. This is it!!
July 6, 2021
Agree â weâve destroyed our economy for a virus which is combated by a vaccine, sounds very similar to the flu to me
The ‘test & trace’ is indeed a charade
July 6, 2021
The whole p(a)n dem”ic was a charade from day one. Wake up people, please. The media and fear are the pa (n) d’emi :c.
July 6, 2021
Well said indeed, Mr B! Surely more people are seeing that we are being insulted and cheated out of our freedom to live life as we wish, and, even worse, that our precious country has been damaged beyond repair by all this. Time to get rid of SAG(E) and for the PM to practise a bit of ‘mea culpa’ perhaps?
July 6, 2021
Out of 96 people I now have 20 sitting at home doing nothing because 3 have (what they describe as) âa bit of a coldâ. The isolation rules are terrible – Iâm lucky Iâm not a business that has to make money. I havenât downloaded the app and havenât been ill or.tested positive on any of the LFTs Iâve done over the last year; if Iâd had the app I could have had weeks of isolation because I havenât been a hermit. Simple answer, stop testing and bin the app. That way society might actually be able to function.
July 6, 2021
Pavlov’s Dog springs to mind, and they have just started testing the bell (mobile alerts) in some cities.
The
leninistssocialists in power must be having orgasms over what they have been able to accomplish.July 6, 2021
+1
July 6, 2021
I wonder if this whole episode has been just a global experiment
July 6, 2021
Where, how did the experiment start? A nasty virus would spread the need for population control, severe damage to western economies, generate corruption on a scale possibly never envisaged, lead to complacency and acceptance of strict measures to undermine freedom of choice, action and gradually even thought.
July 6, 2021
or we’re just characters in a Clive Cussler novel
July 7, 2021
glen – the issue is Fiction years ago is today’s reality. That dystopian fiction is steadily becoming fact.
July 6, 2021
Yes, regular mobile alerts – YOU ARE IN DANGER – should be just the ticket. That and T&T nonsense are perfect tools to destroy an economy and stop it from functioning.
Zorro
July 7, 2021
Indeed especially with the net zero religion on top of this.
July 6, 2021
+1
July 6, 2021
I canât think of a major country which has had a longer or more severe lockdown than us. We have had quite severe restrictions for 18 months – mainly because of the epic failure of the Brexitist government in early 2020.
Now they are getting their knickers in a twist over masks. You do not wear a mask to protect yourself. You wear it to protect others. Even if you are double jabbed you can catch COVID and pass it on. Many millions of younger people have not yet had one jab let alone two. They are the ones most likely to be serving you in pubs, restaurants, supermarkets and on public transport -and by wearing a mask you protect them. They may not die from COVID in the numbers elderly people do. But they can get very sick from it – and Long COVID is a major problem. At least a quarter of a million younger people already suffer from it.
It is, predictably, the elderly Brexitists in the Tory party and the Faragists who are having the biggest hissy fit about masks. Refusing to wear one is the ultimate act of selfishness. It does not surprise me that so many elderly Brexitists plan on going maskless. The failed generation fails again.
July 6, 2021
To include Brexit shows the obsessive prejudice that informs many of your posts now meaning I rarely read them.
Shame. Up to that para, spot on.
July 6, 2021
Over the last year , with one or two exceptions, the people I have seen going maskless have been the young – people of your age and below, including a bunch of politicians on a recent international jolly.
July 6, 2021
So you ‘canât think of a major country which has had a longer or more severe lockdown than us’, Andy. Well, that may be because you simply didn’t think very much. If you’d troubled to look into it, you’d have found that many countries have had either more stringent or longer lockdowns that us, or both. Spain, Belgium, Peru are examples, to name a few. All of these have had high levels of death and illness. To anyone who cares about the fact of the matter, it’s been well-known for a long time now that lockdowns don’t correlate with favourable health outcomes. Nor does mask-wearing. Texas lifted all restrictions months ago, California kept them. Where’s the big spike in deaths and disease in Texas that lockdown advocates predicted? It didn’t happen. The lies and scare-mongering constantly retailed by people like you have been found out. You should pipe down.
July 6, 2021
The rules here will be different and I will continue to wear a mask in enclosed spaces anyway. As you say it is to protect others, Andy.
However, I expect that people will be physically attacked for wearing them in some places, given the deranged mouth foaming that we read so often.
July 6, 2021
Total reversal of truth as usual, MiC.
The brave thing to do is NOT to wear masks and I think most people are wearing them not out of fear of the disease but fear of being judged.
If you’re scared of Covid wear an N95 and protect yourself. If you’re not wearing an N95 then clearly you’re not scared of Covid.
You just like bullying people and “You must wear it to save others” is the ultimate in that.
Despicable.
July 6, 2021
Andy, the three month initial lockdown closed down the disease, everyone was allowed to go off to Europe and elsewhere on holiday where less testing is done and brought a load more back so that when schools and colleges opened come September it was spread again. Same will happen this year if they donât hurry up now and double jab quickly.
All of the over 18âs I know have received their first shot. I have been impressed just how quickly they rolled that out once they got going in the under 40âs.
It is the âelderly Brexitistsâ that if they donât wear a mask when in close contact with strangers that will be the ones taking the risk. Personally I will continue to wear a mask if in closer than 1m distance from strangers and I wonât be going abroad for at least another year because I think that is where the biggest risks are in countries that donât test a quarter of what we do.
July 6, 2021
What you fail to recognise Andy, is masks are useless. They are no more than a placebo. Just a symbol that the wearer is trying to conform. Loose flapping cloth masks do not seal against incoming or outgoing virus.
The exception it has been proved is the FFP3 type mask as used within the NHS, but rarely or never seen worn by the public. These are considered to offer some protection.
Why you continue to connect your wild political views to Brexit or Nigel Farage is something of a mystery, as is your hate for the elderly. If you’re lucky, you’ll be elderly one day.
July 7, 2021
Can everyone please just stick to SCIENCE instead of subjective opinions not based on science. This – from Oxford University – says that the masks do work. ‘Oxford COVID-19 study: face masks and coverings work Call for immediate adoption’.
July 7, 2021
At end of day, lots of people won’t venture out of their houses to buy stuff unless we get a hold of this virus. These people won’t venture out whether government says it’s OK to or not. So we have to deal with this fear whether it is irrational or not. If we don’t, then our economy is diminished (Yes, we also have to deal with liberals who want to impose excessive restrictions as well). What has been the GAME-CHANGER by far are the jabs, created at record speed. It is the scientists who have saved the day (quite amazing what they’ve achieved). Not politicians. Although Boris done good job in getting everyone double-jabbed so quick.
July 6, 2021
There have now been a good number of scientific studies that found mask-wearing does not make the wearer safer against virus infection than not wearing a mask. Lockdown fanatics like Andy therefore have to shift the argument and claim that masks prevent the wearer from spreading disease. But there have been no proper randomised control studies of that aspect either. The best we can do is to look at ‘natural experiments’ where it’s so happened that in similar places during Covid masks were worn in one place but not in the other. This was the situation in the US in North Dakota (masks) and South Dakota (no masks). Official data show Covid cases per million in these two states have been very similar. Mask-wearing or not made no difference.
Sixteen US states have now recognised that masks do little or no good. It’s well over time to end the ridiculous mask fetish in this country too.
July 6, 2021
Exactly real-life scientific experimentation destroys the muzzlephiliac case.
zorro
July 6, 2021
Brexit has nothing to do with with Covid pandemic .. Every country in the West has had huge problems (even Australia in terms of the hassle people have to go through and damage to their economy).
I think the government is right to try no masks. And if people simply fail to be sensible then gov always have option to re-introduce masks in crowded, indoor spaces.
The gov tries to treat people like human beings and when people don’t act like human beings then they intervene – but not before / not by default.
July 6, 2021
btw, ‘damage to economy’ is huge issue.
If an economy shrinks, it means there is less money to go into Services.
So EVERYONE is poorer / worse off – not jus the rich – but the poor, too, and everyone in between.
So be careful of false compassion
July 6, 2021
Strange. Damage to the economy wasnât a huge issue for you when your Brexit permanently wiped 5% off future growth.
July 6, 2021
As I said before, sir, I voted Remain (although in theory a Brexiter). However, I support Brexit now for democratic reasons. Brexit won.
July 7, 2021
How odd – there’s no reason to support the Tories just because they won an election with a minority of the people in this country too.
I see that two million covid19 cases are considered quite possible this summer.
However, as others have said, the more serious disease, to which we are going to have to become accustomed to living with, is the Conservatives and their rentier reverse-distributive capitalism.
July 7, 2021
False statistic from Andy.
You write as if 5% has already been lost.
It hasn’t
The 5% you quote is a pessimistic forecast into a future of many years ahead which says there will still be growth in the UK but it might be less that if we had remained in the EU.
Might….
And the models don’t allow for the UK Govt to create positive economic policies to create more growth.
Fake news yet again from Andy and his mates.
July 6, 2021
So pleased you have an upbeat attitude to life. One of the can-do generation.
July 6, 2021
Do you remember that song from 1987 by Starship ” Nothings going to stop us now” This is how industry is leading . We will build ,despite all the spanners thrown into the works and the miserable moaners!
July 6, 2021
@Andy,
Please join the Tory Party:
1) They are the only party who can actually govern so that our economy does well. Without a strong economy, you simply can’t have Services (whether one is a Socialist or a Conservative). It’s simply IMPOSSIBLE to square the circle of having Services and not having a strong impossible. Jeremy Corbyn (and others in Labour) would have to have magical powers to achieve all he wanted to achieve without supporting the economy as the Tories do.
2) They are the party which most stands up for The Family. The strength of individuals and communities (whether poor or rich) and a nation depends on strong family life.
The Tories are far from perfect. I totally agree. But they are the best choice. Also, I voted remain (reluctantly – in theory I’m a Brexiter – I voted remain because I didn’t think we were ready / prepared / had leader for Brexit). And there are still good reasons for leaving Europe now whether you’re a Brexiter or not. But the main point is that Brexiters WON. One of the great things about this great country is proper DEMOCRACY. And that includes whether you agree with the vote or not (I hate abortion – I’d love to rip up the legislation on that – but I can’t. The country voted for it. I can do other things – LEGAL – to try and oppose abortion. But they must be legal. And they cannot undermine democracy of this country).
July 6, 2021
âYou do not wear a mask to protect yourself. You wear it to protect othersâ so these magic masks let the virus go one ways but not the other do they? They are a one way virus valve? So if you turn them round they would protect you and not others them. Sure!
The air, viruses, breath and water droplets goes straight through them. If it did not they would clearly suffocate the users. There is no scientific evidence they do anything of value at all really. Might well do more harm by becoming a virus reservoir.
July 6, 2021
A comfort blanket in essence.
July 6, 2021
Exactly, particularly as they are ‘popped’ on and off multiple times without cleaning hands and stored in mucky pockets and god knows where else. How can sane people believe this nonsense? It’s like a mass Stockholm syndrome experiment.
zorro
July 6, 2021
@Andy
It does not surprise me that, as always, you present a completely unsubstantiated statement as if it were the truth. The truth is you have no idea how âelderly Brexitistsâ feel about masks. As it is primarily elderly people who are at risk, it would not be surprising if they are keen for mask continuing to continue. We all know how ALLEGEDLY (by you) selfish they are – surely, being rich and idle (with your good self personally funding their very generous state pensions), they would want mask wearing ton continue so they can hang around for a few more years.
Why you feel their position on Brexit is relevant is a question for your intellect.
July 6, 2021
The main failure was implementing existing plans for a pandemic to Chuck old people out of hospital and put them in cares homes. Turns out that this policy – drawn up by âexpertsâ – was wrong. This policy was also pursued with the same bad effect elsewhere in Europe and by the leftwing EU supporting devolved âgovernmentsâ in the U.K. in so far as Brexit has any relevance to this whole crisis, it is the triumph of the UKs independent vaccine policy. A huge contrast with the ridiculous EU commission clown show, the disgraceful anti-vaxx lies promulgated by EU figures like macron and von der Leyen. And of course their shameful hounding of AZ, a company which has made a magnificent contribution to defeating covid. (Amusingly and predictably theyâve fallen flat on their faces with that).
Meanwhile there is no correlation at all around the world between the degree of lockdown – generally pursued by leftwing governments – and success in dealing with covid. Worst of all has been leftwing Peru, heaviest lockdown, worst results. In the US leftist NY and CA have done far worse than right of centre Texas and Florida. Etc etc. You of course have been shouting for more lockdown at every stage. Quelle surprise.
July 6, 2021
I heard a researcher the other day suggest masks only reduce risk of infection transmission by around 10-20%. In other words they just make things a little safer. They don’t represent protection. If a venue requires mask wearing, then the safe thing is not to go there.
Elderly unmasked but vaccinated people aren’t the risk to young unvaccinated people. That will be other young unvaccinated people.
July 6, 2021
In England you don’t have to wear a mask, you have to wear a ‘face covering’. This includes crocheted masks and pulling your t-shirt over your nose. This should tell you that the mask mandate is covid theatre, intended to spread fear and make people demonstrate compliance to the regime. ‘Protecting others’ is Government propaganda, the benefits of even surgical masks being questionable with some experts saying they atomise droplets, enabling them to travel further. If you want to go round in a mask, have at it. ‘Younger people’ are the least likely to comply now and I suspect they will be the first to bin their sodden rags.
July 6, 2021
+1
July 6, 2021
Throughout the pandemic where I live young people have been the ones most notably flouting the social distancing regulations with blatant disregard of bubble mixing limitations. I will take this into account when considering whether to wear a mask myself to “protect” them.
Just to answer your quiz question, Poland had a harder and longer lockdown than UK – schools closed for much longer. This meant they had far fewer deaths than UK in the first wave. Look at them now – worse. Hardly an endorsement of your strategy.
July 6, 2021
Roy, Wikipedia’s ‘Covid -19 Lockdowns’ page says Poland’s first lockdown was quite short, just 29 days, much shorter than ours, which was 103 days. Maybe you know better?
July 6, 2021
Time for those who want to to wear N95s and protect themselves and away with this nasty “You protect me” pressure on people. More people burden the NHS with obesity than CV19 but we wouldn’t stigmatise them. But I am actually happy that you want to wear a mask forever. I wouldn’t want to see your face and I think you’ve actually committed hate crime on this site and deserve to lose some liberty.
No. It isn’t the elderly wishing to see masks ditched. They are still shit scared. You are making it all up again. They are taken in by your propaganda.
If you’re really bothered about spreading Covid then don’t go out for anything other than essentials. And none of this crap of taking your mask off in public to eat or socialise and then putting it back on to go to the toilet and pretending that there is any consistency at all in the way you behave.
July 6, 2021
Ridiculous comment. Please put brain in gear before commenting.
July 6, 2021
Masks are effectively useless. Ask any spectacle wearer. True, one can treat the lens with anti-mist product but that simply hides the problem, which is that unless the mask is sealed at the top, air always takes the route of least resistance i.e. in and out of the top of the mask. Consider the covid particle size. It is vanishingly small and mask density appears to the particle comparable to trying to catch a marble with a trawler fishing net. Not that that matters because of air always taking the route of least resistance, which is generally not through the mask. It is interesting that the todayâs news is that mask-fanatics are the new Brexit people and those that are not fanatics are to be accused of being delusional, stupid, probably racist and any other epithet to hand.
July 6, 2021
My rebuke isnât against you Andy its against our MPs as I believe the complete opposite of what you state and find all MPs culpable.
I believe that those who continue to wear these ineffective masks are mindless autotrons conforming to an unquestioning communist way of living.
We the people are also guilty of allowing our government to control our very existence, without question during the past 18 months
July 6, 2021
By your logic, it wonât matter if everyone is vaccinated as they will still have to wear a mask. What utterly unscientific claptrap!
Zorro
July 6, 2021
Dear Andy, it is a pity that any substantive points you make are invariably lost in a framework of sneering insults to Sir John and any reader who does not oppose everything he writes. Is it worth my bothering to point out that Matt Hancock is a 42 year old Remain voter? Those who are suspected of assaulting Dr Chris Whitty do not appear to be old. I have only seen mobile phone images of the mass recent “Freedom” demo in London; from them there seem to have been demonstrors of all ages but predominantly fed-up young people . A large proportion of them ( as in demos outside Downing Street) seem to have been too young to have voted in the Brexit Referendum. According to your analysis of that affair, they must therefore be Remainers.
I shall continue to wear a mask where I think it matters, having done so since before the first lockdown in March 2020.
July 6, 2021
@Andy,
You’re being completely negative and a trouble-maker
1) UNPATRIOTIC. You’ve said not 1 positive thing about why it’s a good thing about Sovereignty. Sovereignty is a virtue whether you’re a religious or an atheist (both a virtue in Judaeo-Christianity and the Greco-Roman world – although not all ancient / Greeks were atheist – far from it).
2) UNDEMOCRATIC. Brexit won. Respecting the winner is how democracy has worked in the UK for hundreds of years and across the Western World. The UK is not a banana Republic or a Communist or Fascist regime.
3) DISUNIFIER. This country must unify after all the wounds of Brexit vote (wounds caused by both sides). You’re not helping mend the wounds, only only adding salt to them.
July 6, 2021
Please do yourself a favour and take a break. Go on holiday. Enjoy yourself. Politics isn’t even that important (it’s important but not that important). But you’re just causing trouble. There is sooo much disunity and bitterness between people in this great country of ours – I’m sick and tired of it (not of our country but all the division).
July 6, 2021
The intent of T & T is political not clinical. CV19 is a highly persuasive justification for the beta testing of a State run system of monitoring individual daily movements.
I believe most politicians knew full well the devious and iniquitous nature of T & T but as ever they kept silent to maintain party unity and party loyalty. Super duper. Ancient liberties sacrificed to protect political parties. We really are up crap creek when once moral politicians dispense with important safeguards from State oppression and for what? Career? Pay and pension? To keep their safe seat or neutralise threat of deselection?
I don’t possess an I-Phone. I have no intentions of buying one. I refuse to be subject to the sinister policy decisions of Marxist advisers like Michie and her ilk who appear to have been embraced by John’s party
Tory MPs have become supine to a Labour party driven form of dark politics that will destroy the freedoms, liberties and dignity of our people
Thanks for nowt Comrade
July 6, 2021
Test &Trace for covid is merely a symptom. There are a vast array of T&T systems out there checking on your every thought and action. The plus side is that offialdom is so incompetent they are rendered ineffective. Witness the numbers on legitimate EU immigrants in the UK. Their registrations double the official estimate. The CS UK style suffer pissup in a brewery syndrome.
July 6, 2021
+1
Masked,kneeling, bloody great long, poisoned-tipped swab stuck up to the brain.
What satanic ritual is that?
How could they have gone along with it?
Mass torture.
For no reason because when you get the fluâŠyou go home and stay in bed.
July 6, 2021
Follow the money perhaps – ÂŁ billions.
July 6, 2021
Thatâs it.
And how about if you claim not to be in it for profitâŠyet you own the company that makes the essential bits and bobsâŠunder another name naturally!
July 6, 2021
And the switch to cashless.
That makes being ‘cancelled’ viable and lethal. Literally.
July 6, 2021
There was something sinister about how our elite politicians developed and assigned billions to a body outside of our NHS that captured peoples information and managed testing away from hospitalsâŠ.and continues to do so
Why was my vaccine given to me in a white plastic tent in a car park of a building in an industrial estate rather then on NHS hospital grounds ?
July 6, 2021
Just be glad they did Glen if you had gone to hospital there are no car parking spaces on vaccine days, you have to wait a while for your turn. Everyone I know locally that went to the local supermarket car park talked about how fast and smooth it all was.
July 6, 2021
T&T rented that industrial carpark space using taxpayers money while NHS hospital carparks seat empty
July 7, 2021
That’s because massive numbers of staff stayed home due a member of extended family knowing somebody who claimed to have had symptoms that might have been Covid. Better to be safe than sorry. Join the ‘who is working? masses’.
July 6, 2021
I’m one of those who don’t have a smartphone but even if I did I don’t think I’d bother with downloading T&T, preferring instead to keep my distance from the great mass of people who STILL don’t bother with sensible public hygiene measures. One of my meetings today has been cancelled after the other party was ‘pinged’ yesterday.
Following yesterday’s announcement, the next few weeks will see all caution go to the wind and the infection rate go through the roof. People seem to want everything to open AND to be able to go abroad. Here’s the news: the likelihood of our being welcome in more of the usual holiday destinations countries has just gone down. (No-one wants to go to Germany.)
P.S. I have maintained three weeks’ worth of dry, tinned, chilled and frozen provisions in my house since the beginning of the crisis. It’s a sea warrior thing.
July 6, 2021
+1
we maintain 2 months of basics and meds.
July 6, 2021
Sea Warrior, your caution in keeping provisions ready does you credit and we’d all do well to follow your example. I certainly am. Just one thing: there is no published Covid ‘infection’ rate. You’re thinking of the so-called Covid ‘cases’. But these are just people who tested positive usually on a lab test (PCR) that CANNOT distinguish infection from dead viral matter left by a cold or flu the person may have had much earlier.
In the next few weeks we will see normality return and health officialdom will stop publishing these meaningless figures, if it has any sense. The authorities in Singapore dealt well with the Covid crisis, and they’re giving up on the ‘case’ figures. Our government-payroll ‘scientists’ will mutter and grumble that they’re not being listened to any more, but will keep their fingers crossed for the usual seasonal respiratory disease among the very elderly starting in the autumn, so that once again these fraudsters can strut their stuff. Let’s hope the general public aren’t gullible enough to fall for it again.
July 6, 2021
Can’t find much wrong with that, SW.
July 6, 2021
Likewise. And have been taking to food banks near sell-by and replenishing.
July 6, 2021
Doesn’t that say something ? We have been in this situation for nearly 18 months !!!
July 6, 2021
âŠ.and a bottle of rum perchance
July 6, 2021
Dear S-W,
The thing is a virus and there are NO public or even private hygiene measures. Alcohol rubs at 80% can kill a number of bacteria, if more dilute not at all, but not a single virus ~face masks fine enough to capture virus particles would suffocate the wearer. Continued wearing of as little as half an hour provides a seed bed of filtered particles.
Moving through the exhaled air of others collects accumulating virus particles which swirl up like dust and settle amongst a whole zoo of pathogens.
Good luck with the iron rations
July 6, 2021
The covid19 virus is not exhaled as single individual particles, but as droplets containing them, thousands of times bigger. What’s more they generally carry an electric charge which attracts them to mask fibres.
Masks are effective against these.
July 6, 2021
This nonsense has cost us all very dear.
And our enemies are sniggering in their dark corners thinking how easy it was to dismantle 1000 years of civilisation in under two.
Stupid, stupid, idiot liberals have let them win!
Surely the very invasive nature of this test, a dangerous humiliation in itself, along with mandated masks(!!!) should have alerted a remotely bright observer?
And let us consider the fact that no one âin the knowâ has ever been remotely scared of the plague. And even they were not wily enough to hide the fact that they knew there was nothing to fear!
July 6, 2021
The whole system has been a colossal waste of money and made the situation worse. Stop testing. The tests are inaccurate, unreliable and can be manipulated.
July 6, 2021
In UK life simple common sense solutions that anticipate intelligent reactions are not popular with the bureaucratic mind. They shift responsibility to the people and therefore demonstrate a lack of control.
In Spain they leave it to individuals to decide if they have been in contact with covid. The individual goes to the Centro de Salud, gets tested, and if positive goes home and isolates. Expect a call each day from your GP. If the GP decides you are in danger he acts appropriately. If not after 14 days you are free to go. You are not subjected to spurious scammers to have tests at great expense such as they operate at Birmingham Airport. Nor do you get lied to as to their purpose.
Doctors have not gone to ground in Spain. If you need to see one, you make an appointment and in my case yesterday it happend in a none emergency case within 40 minutes.
The UK has become an inefficient bureaucratic nightmare of its own making with an end result that little is done in the public sector for anyones benefit. Joe public knows we are swamped with immigrants leading to all the pressures on public services. The HO thinks we have 3 million legitimate EU citizens living in the UK. Truth is there are near 6 million. With that level of mathematic perception do you think they have any idea of how many illegals there are. If the base figures are useless any planning is meaningless. Civil Servants and Politicians need a prolonged dose of Vlad the Impaler, followed by the level of competence that only seems to reside in our military.
July 6, 2021
Apologies for going off piste but very angry;
The sale of Newport Wafer Fab to Nexperia (a CCP company pretending to be Dutch) is the final straw for me.
The government is there to protect our national interest, not just those of the city, and Kwerteng needs his head examined if he and his advisors think this isn’t damaging to our interest and not a national security threat, as was the sale of Arm.
So is the Government and in particular the CUP’s industrial strategy simply to sell everything and anything and protect none of our interests whatsoever?
I will not be voting Conservative again which I guess is just as well because my vote was for you rather than the CUP and we are being allocated to a new constituency.
July 6, 2021
Your piece this morning is so full of factual errors, government propaganda and wishfull thinking that it is hard to decide where to begin to comment.
Hancock and Harding’s Test and Trace has cost taxpayers north of ÂŁ35 billion and we are entitled, for that sum, to expect that it worked. The government committee who reported on it stated that it was a total waste of money and had been unable to influence the course of the epidemic.
It was your insistence that the government delayed the introduction of the lockdowns and ended them prematurely that has resulted in thousands of fatalities, the highest number in Europe. “learn to live with the virus” is an admission of defeat and came from the same mistaken stable as “herd immunity”
New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and other countries did eliminate the Chinese plague virus by going for the much cheaper and more effective zero virus strategy. Australia’s current outbreak has been traced to a single airline steward superspreader who caught it during the course of his employment. The resulting outbreak will be contained by another,, successfull lockdown.
Rarely has a government in this country’s history managed to kill so many of it’s citizens by pure incompetence, lest it be the Battle of the Somme. Hancock and Harding have resigned. Shapps and Boris “pile the bodies high” Johnson should be next.
July 6, 2021
ÂŁ35 Billion….I’ll say that again because I can’t quite believe it – ÂŁ35 Billion
July 6, 2021
Sakara Gold – just a couple of points:-
The British government brought in the first lockdown last year on the same day as Germany, 23rd March. Germany had no excess mortality in 2020, we had quite a lot. Nothing to do with how soon the lockdown was brought in.
We had one of the longest-lasting lockdowns in Europe, till early July, long after other countries had opened up with no negative outcomes. We did not have more deaths pro rata in 2020 than any other countries in Europe. According to the Oxford University’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, the figure for England and Wales is below the figure for Belgium, Poland and Spain. In the first two months of 2021 it’s true our excess mortality was high, but since March it’s been almost zero and lower than in other European countries such as France, Belgium, Spain and Holland. You continue to peddle the myth than Britain fared worse than countries with harsher lockdown regimes.
Yes, Covid has been tough, but more restrictions wouldn’t have reduced the deaths. Just look at Sweden which didn’t lock down, we did. Death figures in the two countries have been similar. You’re going to have to take this on board sooner or later: lockdowns don’t work, and they should never ever be used again.
July 6, 2021
Yes, but the government are not alone to blame.
The many people who share and propagate the science denial of commenters here, and who ignore the guidance do too.
In wartime there is an effective solution for such types who undermine the effort against the mortal enemy.
July 7, 2021
Here you can see where the left’s cancel culture is heading.
MiC openly calling for executions for those he disagrees with.
Quite amazing.
July 6, 2021
Open borders comes above everything in the UK. Even the safety and lives of the population.
The Australian, New Zealand , Singapore and Taiwan options were never on the table.
July 6, 2021
I have pointed out several times that to be effective the trace, quarantine and test regime (and it should be that way round) has to operate at speed. If you don’t start tracing until you have a positive test result you introduce so much delay that you might as well not have bothered, because onward transmission will already have happened. Speed is far more important than picking up all the contacts someone may have had, so long as you get a good proportion of them quickly.
The system was designed the other way up, placing emphasis on trying to trace all contacts, but doing nothing until a positive test result was in hand. It was bound to fail.
July 6, 2021
Since the tests are entirely inaccurate, flipping a coin being considerably more likely to be correct, and the numbers of deaths grossly inflated conclusions made from either are guaranteed to be false.
Why do we not hear about the people dying and becoming sick long term from the vaccines? Maybe because of the money being handed out by vaccine manufacturers? What about focussing on the motives of the people behind this absolute disaster of a lockdown? We have communists and paid schills for vaccine companies dictating government policy, we have ministers handing out contracts to their friends whilst ignoring every totalitarian rule they have instituted.
This is the biggest fraud and scandal since the world wars and not a single establishment figure will even ask a question. I think we can see the real nature of the ruling class in this country very clearly now.
July 6, 2021
Yes. Itâs ridiculous telling me itâs nothing to do with an effective solution, more a âwe must do and show we are doing itâ for political purposes. Costing up to 40 billion, very expensive sticking plaster.
It would only work if everyone had a satellite tracker. There are so many nonsenses, Wimbledon and Wembley with many thousands in close proximity, yet going to Portugal or Spain is akin to the plague, I canât go to a supermarket yet I can go on public transport for any length of time to get a test, twice, I have to be tested twice in ten days but if I show symptoms, no need why the tests if I am in isolation, why does the NHS hand out millions of home test kits if they do not accept the results?
What it has demonstrated is that the politicians in charge have zero worldly common sense, knowledge, supported by their own boiler plated belief that only they are right (power corrupts) unchallenged by their sycophantic supporters and a weak PM needing them to maintain his own position and a sterile media, only interested in gotcha moments.
In the meantime the economic and personal miseries continue. The only solution is accurate quick testing stations at schools, airports, stations, office blocks etc and an accurate home testing kit.
Boris visited a close friends business where they have developed said testing station. It needs scale, funding, production etc, but he was impressed enough to say publicly to the staff they should get a government contract. And with that he was off and guess what, nothing happened.
HMG is in the grip of big pharma, lobbying works wonders, costing us too much and denying us quicker more effective/accurate solutions.
July 6, 2021
‘The best advice surely is to ask people who feel ill with likely symptoms to get tested, and to stay isolated if they turn out to have it’
– I agree with you but it’s NOT possible. You can only get NHS test if you have the following symptoms:
1) a high temperature
2) a new, continuous cough
3) a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste
(Or under other extraordinary situations like there is a surge in your area and everyone is required to be tested)
I had a light fever, bad aches and terrible diarrhoea (all symptoms of Covid) but wasn’t allowed to have an NHS Test (instead I just went into self isolation for the required period as if I had been tested positive for Covid).
I felt terrible with fever and terrible stomach but the website said I wasn’t allowed to have a test because I didn’t have the main symptoms of Covid. I stayed safe, and followed the rules of quarantine even though I wasn’t test (/ wasn’t allowed to be tested by the NHS).
July 6, 2021
Do you know what this government is doing in your name John. They have lots of people employed as testers that are sat at home on furlough right now because test packs are being given out to do at home instead by pharmacists, that is unless you go abroad.
I know a person (single jabbed Pfizer) that went to the EU recently for work for a couple of days. They paid ÂŁ100 to get a PCR test required to go out, then they had to buy day 2&8 tests ÂŁ86 for their return, then the PCR needed to fly back from Spain 98 euros, then isolate for 10 days home alone even though paying for all these tests saying theyâre negative. Now they are told by the tracer that called yesterday they can get a day 5 âTest to Releaseâ test ÂŁ80 for a postal one and ÂŁ100 to go in person to get a 24 hour result. Which they need to go back to work next Monday and yet Boris has allowed highly infected tourists and returnees from high infection areas to come into the UK and spread their version of the virus amongst their family and then their community.
In a couple of weeks when all our politicians want to go off to their holiday homes for the month all these requirements will be suddenly dropped to facilitate that, keep elbow bumping each other (which puts your face closer than 1m to other people and gets you bumping into someoneâs elbow they are told to sneeze into!). If this really was a âpandemicâ weâd all be dead because the health service canât cope. Tell the nurses and the nhs they can have more money when they start passing on charges for GP visits, A&E, Operations etc. to all none eligible stamp paying people in the UK, foreign visitors. If it affects them personally it will get done.
It is just an absolute joke the double standards in this Country now. As long as you all enjoy your Ascot and Wimbledon and allow infected Scottish fans to roam all over London during the Euro match spreading the infection between them on the trains in close contact then have the audacity to blame Londoners who kept well away from them.
July 6, 2021
Your very last sentence Sir John is the correct path for the the months ahead. If you feel ‘under the weather’ get tested. Why? Because we need to be alerted to any new variant a s a p so that the effectiveness of the vaccine can be tested.
The virus can and does mutate at any time and in any place. The air waves and news papers, prompted by a useless opposition, have been flooded with accusations of not shutting borders in time, when the mutation could well have happened here.
Keep it as an early warning system for the scientists as we do for the flu every year
July 6, 2021
It’s clear Sage have had their collective noses put out of joint and it was disgraceful for Prof Whitty to publicly declare; not scientific, but personal preferences, directly contradicting and denigrating the PM. Masks aren’t a badge of honour.
The number of cases generated by Test and Trace is merely white noise when the effects of the virus on health/hospital admissions is now relatively minimal, i.e. the former objective has been achieved. The government must change the reported data to something that wholly supports the NEW objectives and put the “scientists” back in their hermetically sealed labs, where they’ll obviously feel more comfortable.
July 6, 2021
And the person appointed to run it was an old chum of Cameron and her husband is an MP. She left Talk Talk with real question marks about performance, so no chumocracy there then.
Apparently she now thinks she should run the NHS. Strewth.
July 6, 2021
Run it, or just take the money that goes with the job?
July 6, 2021
We’re told that cases have been increasing, but once again we are left in the dark as to what’s driving it. In the first wave, I suspected it was circulating through hospitals and care homes, yet the authorities remained tight-lipped. We later discovered infected people were being returned to care homes, with airborne transmission and poor ventilation the method of spreading infection.
So what is driving this new wave? It’s not being spread around in my neck of the woods.
July 6, 2021
Terrorism is never mentioned.
July 6, 2021
They are using hay fever symptoms for the summer variant. So obvious. Utter Morons. That’s why you don’t any evidence of new wave, because there isn’t one. The hospitals aren’t full, no-one is collapsing in the street, the undertakers are no busier than usual.
But the control freaks were panicking because the ‘cases’ were dropping and they needed to be upped again to continue the fear propaganda. That is why school children are being tested, I understand twice a week. Up the ‘cases’ and add a variant, repeat. When the schools close for the summer, I wonder who they will be pressuring next to have continuous tests, to convert into ‘cases’?
July 6, 2021
Test and trace only works when a disease is not already endemic, that way handfuls of people can be fully traced and paid to stay at home. Once a disease is established within a society test and trace is knut-like and is for show. From what I can see our system has not even been able to identify where most of the infected caught it, which would have been useful as a warning.
Our government was too late to move on this and by the time they did the horse had bolted and it, like masks, became a measure to show that they were doing something. They would have been better investing a few billion is a cure like they did with vaccines.
July 6, 2021
There seems to be some confusion about test and trace in this article. If you have the app and it says you have been in contact with a “case” you can entirely ignore it if you want, there is no follow-up at all and indeed the authorities don’t even know you have been “pinged”. It provides no information at all to them about who, where or how long the contact was, or indeed who you are. So, the app is entirely a voluntary system that you can ignore or not. One useful part is the venue check-in facility which sometimes means you don’t have to fill in your contact details on a bit of paper – this is also entirely anonymous and if “pinged” you can again ignore it (not so if you used the paper-based method).
Separately there is a manual “test and trace” system. Anyone who submits a PCR test which proves positive is phoned and asked to list their contacts. Those contacts are then phoned and told to self-isolate (the last figures I saw were 95% of contacts are reached). This is policed – you get phoned typically once per day (by an automatic dialler so it happens regularly) to check you are self-isolating and it is not uncommon for you to be visted too.
All at school are supposed to do two lateral flow tests at home per week. If one is positive and checked by PCR this may result in a whole school class or entire year being sent home to self-isolate. As a result my impression is compliance with this testing regime is poor, there is nothing to stop you just typing in that the test is negative whether you’ve taken it or not.
Going forward it seems the best approach is to make tests freely available, anyone testing positive is told to self-isolate (and this should be checked) and close contacts should be identified and themselves tested (rather than automatically told to self-isolate). You may loosen these requirements for double-jabbers.
July 6, 2021
What is worse. Spitting, as Professional footballers do, or not following the mask wearing rules?
July 6, 2021
How many ÂŁMillions were wasted on this useless back of a fag packet scheme? Who benefitted? Certainly not any of the people persuaded to be traced.
Never mind that the TEST part was so inaccurate, invalidating the whole exercise, but these numbers were used to enforce lockdown. they will, and I’m totally certain over this, be used to make sure we get lockdowns ad infinitum.
The only numbers that matter are deaths – from CV NOT ‘WITH IT’ – and hospital beds in use with CV patients. To use the case figures to justify anything is a total sham.
Without lockdowns we would certainly have begun to live with CV19 well before now.
Let’s get back to a common sense approach to the virus. Let’s stop the idea that those refusing the dangerous vaccines are somehow being selfish – a profoundly wrong idea. Those that have had CV have been found to be resilient to future attacks, which is more than can be said for those taking the vaccines.
(Sorry this is too long)
One last point – If we do see the end of ‘protection measures’ this month, I’m taking bets on how long it will be before we are told that ‘Cases are dangerously up’ and the government is forced to implement lockdowns on a semi-permanent basis.
July 6, 2021
My wife is double jabbed and got pinged. Tested negative and has to self isolate for six days but I don’t because she tested negative.
It’s not just T&T. There must surely be terrorist organisations and individuals out there creating mayhem in the UK by wilfully spreading but this is never ever mentioned.
T&T must be ditched.
Still I don’t know a single person who as died of CV-19 and I haven’t known anyone get ill with it for over six months now. I now have 4 friends who have died in lockdown and arguably because of it. Loneliness, anxiety and two on NHS waiting lists for the conditions that killed them.
The scientists STILL don’t produce graphs to compare deaths by lockdown to deaths by CV-19.
The scientists STILL don’t tell us who died *of* or *with* CV-19 despite there being few bodies to be tested.
Time to ditch the “You protect me and I protect you” policy on masks. N95s for those who really want to wear a mask and think they are at risk.
I’m happy for Andy and MiC to wear them for life.
July 6, 2021
Like most things developed in a hurry, theory turns out not to work so well in practice.
Many people who down loaded the app found themselves pinged, and had to isolate for a theoretical contact. Many who were self testing were clearly not completing the test properly, and so got an incorrect result.
Many wearing a simple mask did not even wear it properly, let alone it being made to any form of standard.
An essential journey for some was a non essential journey for others.
And so it went on.
The difficulty for the Government was it was dammed if it did and was dammed if it didn’t, with the added complication that infection came before symptoms, and because it was a new virus, no known treatment was immediately available.
As always, human nature eventually comes into play, with different people doing, thinking and acting in different ways, and the longer anything goes on, the greater and more varied are the actions by more people.
Did the government get it all right no, did it get it all wrong no !
Would the government do the same again if we ever have a repeat, with hindsight probably not, would we still get lots of armchair experts on any future problems, without doubt yes.
Thank goodness we purchased and helped develop a vaccine, which confirmed knowledge, science, research and development is an incredibly powerful medium which can help us tackle the problems of the World.
Shame that many governments the World over do not use the same method to solve other problems, like so called climate change, by using the powers of research and development first instead of ill thought out legislation.
July 6, 2021
I understand that it is very hard for governments to stop doing things they have started. But there were always negative aspects to test and trace and the positive things have become irrelevant. So it must be stopped.
July 6, 2021
Thought you where about to make a comparison with HS2
July 6, 2021
Dear Government,
This is betrayal,
On a very large scale,
We didnât elect you for this!
To use and abuse us,
To harm and confuse us.
Quite franklyâŠyouâre taking the p*ss!!
July 6, 2021
remedy in your hands….
July 6, 2021
Everhopeful
+1
I have my own version :
Dear imposter government,
Cc Johnson
You’re toast…….KMA.
July 7, 2021
+1
July 6, 2021
No lipstick on the pig!
The country, at vast expense, has endured and continues to endure an exercise in government control which any fool could see was always fatuously irrelevant and totally incapable of âcontrolling the virusâ.
A Political stunt, it never had any credibility as a medical tactic.
July 6, 2021
The ÂŁ300 million + spent on fear advertising by the government and the OFCOM directive to the media not to challenge the narrative have been amazingly successful.
T&T, masks, testing. Just follow the money. The corruption is staggering.
July 6, 2021
Public Toilets
It’s terrible that there aren’t nearly enough public toilets avail in this country (in particular for old people, the disabled – and tourists). The Victorians took sewage so seriously that they got Sir Joseph William Bazalgette to build the brilliantly-built sewers under London. Local authorities must do far more – in conjunction with private enterprise – to provide such facilities. There are currently mobile toilets in places such as Sloane Square. These are great. They are beautifully designed (a bit like the iconic red post box or telephone box).
People might laugh, but this is a basic, fundamental way of treating people with dignity. And I am not proposing tax payers pay for it. But certain local authorities could do a lot more to work with private enterprise on this.
July 6, 2021
A bit like the red telephone box… and used for much the same purpose very often.
July 6, 2021
I think people are far more likely to act sensibly if trusted to do so. Compulsion enforced by something that was clearly so fallible as Test and Trace was never going to work and the sooner it is binned the better.
Incidentally, if I held the George Cross, I would be sending it back. Charles Moore is spot on in the daily Telegraph this morning.
July 6, 2021
âArrogant Boris starting to treat us as foolsâ good quote.
July 6, 2021
I am waiting for the National Audit Office to do a forensic audit, that will explain how Test and Trace has cost ÂŁ542 per man woman and child; and, who got rich from the public purse.
July 6, 2021
Indeed, and all while delivering nothing of value or actually something of negative value.
July 6, 2021
acorn
You will have a long wait. Johnson’s government and it’s MP’s don’t talk to the public about things which they find incriminating.
July 6, 2021
Test and Trace also initiated the nationwide practice for the unsackable state-employed to stop working for a fortnight, and a glorious excuse for teachers to send their classes home and have a rest, disrupting the lives of millions.
I note that with the politically motivated encouragement of certain social ‘scientists’, many are hoping to perpetuate this practice, for ever and ever Amen.
July 6, 2021
In England, mancunius perhaps we could test every child on the same computer program no pre-prep and if theyâre not yet ready for the next year up leave them in the lower year, miss out year 9 as they do in Scotland and put some extra teachers in High Schools to concentrate Extra effort in the core subjects English Lit and Lang/Sciences/Maths. Those children that have kept up their home reading, studies etc can stay up in the right year but others that have nearly missed a whole year shouldnât go on to the next year group.
July 7, 2021
A-Tracy, I could weep to see how my neighbour’s bright, intelligent children have been held back in the essential core subjects by all the nonsensical sending home and general fearmongering and timewasting. Could the government not see how it was playing into the hands of the NEU?
July 6, 2021
Test & Trace is, without question, the most appalling waste of money that this country has ever suffered in its entire history. Other projects, like HS2 or Hinckley C, are also grossly wasteful, and may even cost more, but at least they will leave us with something tangible and concrete at the end of the day. T&T achieved NOTHING. Zero. It was just ÂŁ40 BILLION ‘spaffed up the wall’, as the man responsible would say. Just think of all the good that could have been achieved with that amount of money, whether it had been spent on scientific and technological research and development, or on strengthening our military, or improving the NHS, or, well anything. Instead it was all just flushed down the toilet. ÂŁ40 BILLION. It is criminal, but of course nobody will ever be punished for this.
I do not accept that T&T was worth spending a single penny on. The pandemic should have been nipped in the bud by closing our borders with infected countries, by encouraging the vulnerabble to wear *proper* masks (FFP3s) which are completely effective at protecting the wearer, by administering better treatments (I’ve given details of these before) and finally by rolling out the vaccines much sooner (I was arguing for these to be approved and used back in September last year as soon as they had passed their Phase II trials). The government did none of those things, and instead destroyed our economy, our freedom and allowed thousands to die unnecessarily. The government’s record on Covid is nothing short of callamitous.
July 6, 2021
I’d love to see their ‘balance sheet’ are they buying every employee a Rolls Royce….how can they spend ÂŁ35-38 billion without owning anything nor achieving anything
July 6, 2021
Off topic, JR, is it not time that this 127% pro-EU* gentleman was removed from this position?
https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/angry-backlash-over-senior-tory-mps-sneering-at-loyalist-bonfire-culture-3297311
“Simon Hoare, who chairs the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee (NIAC) at Westminster, provoked an angry backlash yesterday by tweeting: âWho knew William of Orange arrived in Ireland with hundreds of wooden pallets hence the traditional pallet burning fiesta.â”
* https://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2021/03/11/the-uk-single-market/#comment-1215238
July 6, 2021
More nonsense with the announcement from Sajid Javid that those who are ‘fully jabbed’ will not have to self-isolate if they come in contact with a ‘case’, but others will. We know that the jabs don’t stop you from catching, carrying, or transmitting the virus, but they do (hopefully) leave you less vulnerable to severe symptoms. The purpose of self-isolation is not to protect you but to protect others, so there is no logical argument for discrimination. We also know that ‘cases’ include healthy people whose bodies are successfully resisting covid, jab-assisted or not, since there has to be virus presence to trigger the immune system. Hopefully there will be a legal challenge and some means to hold the politicians liable for damages rather than the taxpayer.
July 6, 2021
“But I’m protecting YOOOOU !!! Now you protect meeeeee !!!!” This situation is awful. Moral blackmail.
Worse than Brexit. Because at least you didn’t have to show out about Brexit.
The only way out of this is for people who are scared to be told to wear proper N95 grade masks. On government order please… not something which sets person against person.
There will be fights over this, I’m afraid.
July 6, 2021
At the risk of setting some people off, your cell phone tells your location all the time, because it has to. Cell phones do not literally talk to one another – they lack the range. Instead, each cell phone talks to the nearest cell tower, and then conversations go through the provider network, not through thin air.
But this means that every cell phone needs to know which cell tower it is talking to, and each tower knows what cell phones are currently near it. That is the only way your provider can find your phone to complete a call. It *has* to know where you are, and therefore, who is near you.
All T&T is doing is making that explicit and showing you that you phone is being “tracked” when in reality it is being tracked all the time.
People are going off pop about something that is actually the routine way the cell phone system works, and pretty much has to be.
July 7, 2021
What if :
a) You do not won one ?
b) You switch it off ?
c) You leave it at home ?
Not much good then !
July 7, 2021
Patchy! You don’t mention connection held on the basis of signal strength nor availability of channels on ‘nearby’ masts. Then switching as signal decreases or another increases/becomes available. ‘talk’ between can be done by Bluetooth if permitted.
July 7, 2021
oh..and I forgot to mention triangulation for location.
July 6, 2021
Irony is not dead yet. European Unionâs border agency Frontex has now sent border guards to Lithuania in order to stem the flow of illegal immigrants and refugees from Belarus. The Lithuanian border guard service said over the last 24 hours it detained 150 migrants and refugees â almost twice as many as for the whole of 2020.
But when the UK tries to control the flow of illegals, it is seen as an example of xenophobia, and a points-based immigration system is a “worst” feature of Brexit.
Had we stayed in the EU, how long would it be before Frontex took control of our borders, for our own good, of course.
July 6, 2021
JR
“The rules need relaxing as we learn âto live with the diseaseâ as the government says.”
We don’t have to live with anything we choose not to. Johnson stupidly let the virus into this country, he can live with it – and learn to whistle while he thinks we should do anything he says.
Personally I don’t do anything Johnson or his fellow quislings say. He has no legitimacy as far as I’m concerned. Not since betraying NI and delivering BRINO instead of BREXIT, and silencing all talk of who sent a Border Farce vessel to France to collect immigrants. – Don’t want to talk about it? no problem, I don’t want to vote conservative ever again.
July 7, 2021
Hear hear.
July 6, 2021
O/T. Tonight on the ITV 10 o clock nĂšs they ran a segment how in Kenya the loss of foreign tourists prompted the national reserves dropped their package prices and the country has responded by taking up the bookings and saving jobs and businesses. There must be something to learn from this for our own tourist industry. The cost of renting cottages and holiday homes have risen dramatically maybe they are missing a trick here?
July 7, 2021
T&T is backdoor digital ID / social credit system.
July 7, 2021
Letâs start seeing figures for âcasesâ (i.e. positive test) normalised for the numbers tested per million.
Itâs not surprising we have more âcasesâ – we are testing moreâŠ..