Latest News › Forums › Discussion Forum › Elections Aftermath: Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged? #TORYRIG2019
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Kim Sanders-Fisher.
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AuthorPosts
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SA
Guest“Cannot for the life of me understand why so many CLPs are unwilling to do this – almost like they are happy for us to continue to be tortured by this corrupt Crime Minister & his crime syndicate.”
One of the main reasons for the results of the election is that the Labour party has been badly divided. The Corbyn Leadership and the ,members on one side and the PLP and party apparatus on the other. When you look at it this way you see that some within the labour party actually got the results they fought for ever since Corbyn was elected as leader, This may be the reason, or one of the reasons why there is such an apathy from within the party. Also remember after this deadly blow to the party, produced by this result, the labour party has been on the defensive and would be very conscious that to question the results would be to appear as bad losers. After all this has already been rehearsed in the States where the Democrats tried to discredit Trump’s win by all sorts of means including the spurious Russiagate.
Ell
GuestHello SA
I do not disagree with what you say, however this could have been done quietly and only made public if significant numbers were found to have had thier vote supressed which would entail action by the suppressed voters as it would be human rights issue and not action by labour party.
Fear of being accused of being “sore losers” stopping LP acting is betrayal of memebers and campaigners who worked so hard.
Shame on them! Enabling Tories to this day!
Ell
GuestI have created a flowchart to show this as I really do not think people know how the system of Individual Electoral registration works.
These notes expand on that.
Register to Vote.
Responsibility for preparing electoral registers was taken away from the overseers of the poor and given to local authorities with the passage of the Representation of the people act 1918. The ‘head of household’ was responsible for registering everyone who lived at the address.
The electoral registration system was changed again with the passage of the Electoral registration and administration act 2013. The new system is called Individual Electoral Registration (IER).This gave everyone who is eligible to vote control over their own registration.
It introduced a new online application process, IER Digital Service, managed by the Cabinet Office. This allows for the personal data provided by the applicant, to be matched with data held by the Department of Work & Pensions (DWP), in order to verify the identity of the applicant.
The transition to IER began in June 2014 in England and Wales and September in Scotland, following the Independence Referendum.
During the transition almost 90% of those already on the register were automatically data matched and added to the new register. Those people who were not successfully matched were invited to register to vote.
If you don’t know whether you are registered to vote, it’s possible to check under this new system by contacting the Elections Office at your local authority.
Personal Data required for IER application which is input to IER Digital Service online by an Applicant or from the Local Authority uploading information via their Electoral Management System (EMS) which was received from a paper application form.
• The applicant’s full name.
• The address where the applicant is resident on the date of the application and in respect of which they are applying to be registered.
• Any address where the applicant has ceased to reside in the 12 months prior to the date of the application and, where that address is not in the UK, an indication of whether that person was registered as an overseas elector during this period.
• An indication of whether the applicant is resident at any other address, including any address where the applicant is currently registered and claims to be entitled to remain registered.
• The applicant’s date of birth or, if they are unable to provide this information, the reason why they are not able to do so and a statement as to whether the applicant is under 18 years old or aged 76 or over.
• The applicant’s National Insurance Number or, if they are not able to provide this information, the reason they are not able to do so.
• The applicant’s nationality or nationalities or, if they are not able to provide this information, the reason why they are not able to do so.
• An indication of whether the applicant requests their name to be omitted from the edited register.
• A declaration that the contents of the application are true (in practice, on the paper form, this will involve a signature or at least a mark on the form that shows that they have made the declaration).
• The date of the application.This data is matched with the DWP CIS database which is an amalgamated data source, consisting of information received from internal DWP systems, as well as other government sources, such as HMRC and possibly DVSA.
In order to perform the data match, DWP have developed an algorithm which matches the applicant’s personal identifiers (full name, National Insurance Number [NINo], and date of birth [DOB]) sent to them via the IER Digital Service, against the CIS database.The DWP matching algorithm works like a filter, the stages of which can be broadly summarised as:
• The identifiers contained in the personal record are standardised by DWP to make them more consistent with the DWP dataset (e.g. removal of spaces and hyphens from NINo)
• The personal record is compared to the records in the DWP dataset, following a sequence of matching operations:
1. Is there a record in the DWP dataset with a NINo that matches the NINo provided? If not, the personal record is flagged as No Match and no further matches are attempted.
2. Does the DWP record identified at step 1 have a DOB that matches the DOB provided? If not, the personal record is flagged as No Match.
3. Do the names on the DWP record identified at step 1 match the names provided? A series of name matches are carried out until the best match is obtained.
4. The end result is a series of match statements that describe the levels at which a record has ‘passed’ or ‘failed’ against a series of matching criteria.
5. The level of match obtained is reported back to the IER Digital Service which assigns a score to the results, indicating either success or failure.
6. The match results plus the score assigned to them are passed to the Local Authority EMS where they are displayed to the Electoral Registration OFFICE (ERO) within 24 hours.
Applicants whose identity can be verified through the DWP match are added to the register of electors at the next available update, providing the eligibility criteria (age, nationality, residence) have been met and the applicant has been positively determined.
The Local Authority must then confirm in writing that the application has been successful and must include the date that the applicant will be added to the register.
For further details and information the Local Authority must take if an applicant’s identity cannot be verified see: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-11/Part%204%20Maintaining%20the%20register%20throughout%20the%20year_0.pdf
<img src=”https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6052893853873989517#editor/target=post;postID=3834176856706812992;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname” alt=”Register to Vote Flowchart” />
Ell
GuestThe register to vote flow chart can be downloaded here [requires Google account]
or email me
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This reply was modified 4 years, 1 month ago by
modbot.
Ell
GuestI have written up these notes about the Electoral register and the annual canvass.
As other have pointed out the 2019 annual canvas was greatly affected by the timing of the election.
As I have written under register to vote when you do so your identity must be checked before you can get onto the register. It is not difficult to see that delays in verifying identity when large numbers of persons were registering to vote close to the deadline, might lead to many people not getting onto the register in time.
For 2019 the deadline to register to vote was 26th November and for LA the deadline was 29 November in order to publish the register on 1 December.
According to press reports 660,000 people registered on 26th December, a huge number to verify identity in 3 Days
Electoral Registers.
Responsibility for preparing electoral registers was taken away from the overseers of the poor and given to local authorities with the passage of the Representation of the people act 1918. The ‘head of household’ was responsible for registering everyone who lived at the address.
In June 2014 the electoral registration system was changed again with the passage of the Electoral registration and administration act 2013. The new system is called Individual Electoral Registration (IER).For a summary of this process see Register to vote.
If you don’t know whether you are registered to vote, it’s possible to check under this new system by contacting the Elections Office at your local authority.You will remain on the electoral register unless and until:
• You are not entitled to be registered in respect of the address.
• You cease to be resident at the address or cease to satisfy the conditions for registration.
• You were registered as the result of an application for registration made by someone else (i.e. not the individual whose details are provided on the application and who has declared that the information provided is true) or your entry has been altered as the result of an application for a change of name made by someone else.Annual Canvass
Under this new system an annual canvass takes place and the revised electoral register is published on 1 December. The only exception to this rule is if there has been an election during the canvass.
A Household Enquiry Form (HEF) is sent to all properties in the registration area within the period of 1 July to 30 November. This is a paper HEF in the prescribed format and cannot be sent by email or by any other electronic means.
The HEF may be pre-printed with certain information about each person currently registered at that address namely:
• Full name and nationality.
• An indication as to whether each person listed on the form is aged 76 or over.
• An indication of whether each person is omitted from the edited register and information on how they can change their preference (‘omitted’ includes where the person has previously opted-out of the edited register or has at any time requested that their personal data is removed from the edited register until further notice under Article 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
• An indication as to whether each person has an existing postal or proxy voting arrangement.The HEF must be accompanied by a covering letter and a pre-addressed, pre-paid reply envelope in which the form can be returned. See examples below.
A HEF cannot be used to register people. It is a mechanism to collect information about who is resident and eligible to register at a particular address.
Any potential new electors identified (for example, where a name has been added to a HEF) will be sent an Invitation to register (ITR) and a registration application form.
By law a person who has received a HEF must provide the information that it requires to the ERO, but there is no requirement for the form itself to be returned. This includes where there are changes to the information pre-printed on the HEF or new information is being provided.
There is a criminal penalty of a fine up to a maximum of £1,000 for failing to provide the information required by the HEF to the ERO.
The penalty for providing false information to an ERO is up to six months imprisonment, an unlimited fine in England and Wales or a fine of up to £5,000 in Scotland.Revised Electoral Register
The revised version of the electoral register must be published by 1 December which applies even if the date falls on a weekend or bank holiday.
The only exception to this rule is if there has been an election during the canvass when the revised version of the electoral register must be published by 1 February of the following year.
The Electoral Registration Officer (ERO) must publish:• The full register of electors for all election types combined as far as possible into one register and containing the appropriate franchise markers.
• The edited register which is an exact copy of the full register but with the exclusion of those who have opted out of their details appearing on it.
• The list of overseas electors.The full register must contain the name, address, nationality, franchise marker and elector number of every eligible elector.
The register is divided into polling districts and each one is given a unique set of letters. Each elector is given a number which as far as is reasonably practicable, are allocated in such a way that the numbers run sequentially in each part of the register. The polling district letters and the number together are known as the elector number.
The names of electors who may only vote in certain types of elections must be prefixed in the register with certain letters called franchise markers.
E indicates that the elector is an overseas elector who is also a peer eligible to vote in the House of Lords and is only entitled to vote at European Parliamentary elections.
F indicates that the elector is an overseas elector who is only entitled to vote at UK Parliamentary and European Parliamentary elections.
G indicates that the elector is a citizen of a member state of the European Union (except a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland) who is only entitled to vote at local government elections.K indicates that the elector is a citizen of a member state of the European Union (except a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland) who is entitled to vote at European Parliamentary and local government elections.
L indicates that the elector is a peer eligible to vote in the House of Lords who is entitled to vote at European Parliamentary and local government elections.
N indicate that the elector is anonymousThe table below shows an example of some of the formatting for an electoral register and an accompanying explanation in the right-hand column.
Sample Electoral Register
Elector number Franchise marker Name Address Description (not shown on register)
1 Evans, Gareth 1, The Street Ordinary elector; can vote at all elections
2 12/06/yyyy Juba, Charlotte 2, The Street Attainer; can vote if poll is on or after date shown
3 G Chamberlain, Louise 2, The Street Local government elector only
4 K Mackenzie, Scott 3, The Street Local government and European Parliamentary elector only
5 L Pack, Daniel 4, The Street Peer; eligible to vote in the House of Lords, cannot vote at a UK Parliamentary electionOther Electors
Elector number Franchise marker Name Address Description (not shown on register)
6 F Jolly, Simon Overseas elector; cannot vote at local government elections
7 Watts, Julie Service elector; can vote at all elections
8 N Anonymous elector; can vote at all electionsExample of HEF can be downloaded here
or email
[email protected] for a copy
Ell
GuestI am working on a flow chart and write up for the process of registering for a postal vote.
Hope to publish in the next week.
Re postal votes a simple matter of delaying the sending of PV packs of those who would have voted labour would be enough to rig the results.
Ellen
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestWow! This is a lot of information Ell. I am curious, what is the significance of the age over 76? I know that people over that age are still able to vote as my mother was still voting at 88. So why is this part of the questioning?
Many people do not realise that young people can get on the voting register at 16 even though they cannot vote for another two tears. I think if a huge number of 16 and 17 year olds got their name added to the register it would sent a message to the Tories… Your time will soon be up! Sadly this is only true if we are able to prevent further rigging of the Electoral System in future
By the way I think the “Sore Looser” jibe is just another lousy excuse for complacency. I can hear the tiny, whiney voice of Gavin Williamson saying we should “just shut up and go away.” That image should be enough to energize and enrage you; we cannot be beaten into submission by whiney Tory wimps.
Ell
GuestHello Kim
No idea of the significance of age 76 on Electoral Register – except there is comment from time to time that older folks should not vote – unfair for younger voters to have thier future decided by doddery old people or some such rubbish!
this is an interesting idea
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestControversially, and to much public outcry, the Victoria Derbyshire has already been banished from the airwaves. Did you notice that now “Politics Live” has just disappeared from the schedule without warning? Obviously the Tories did not need any dissenting voices from the opposition or guests and they did not want their own MPs challenged live on air: it had to go. We inch closer to becoming a police state with total control over the state owned media. We must fight back.
So we are left with those dreadful daily “News Conferences” that are a one way indoctrination featuring Tory policy from the great leader; as uninspiring as a Tory Party political broadcast, but with supportive questioning cherry-picked from the right wing media. There are the two selected science “experts” chosen for their support of the dangerous eugenics experiment of “Herd Immunity!” Boris Johnson “wears” the loyal, quasi legitimizing powers of these two Tory science stooges like “the Emperors New Clothes,” hoping they will deflect the growing international criticism of his abandonment of UK Covid 19 reporting obligations to the WHO.
With his usual nauseating bluster Boris claims we will: “Get on top of it” as if he is talking of mounting the misses! Johnson blithely boasts of an end in sight twelve weeks hence with not a shred of evidence to support his delusional optimism. Best not to mention his cracking joke about alternative ventilator manufacturers producing equipment for a program he wanted to call “Operation Last Gasp!” He was advised that his comment really was far too sick for prime time.
Despite the increasing impact of the Pandemic, several much needed Hospitals will still close as nothing can be allowed to get in the way of the Tory stealth dismantling of the NHS. A pity he couldn’t sell that “Herd Immunity” strategy to the public; their confidence in the lying toad making disastrous decisions to sacrifice thousands of predominantly elderly patients was so unacceptable Johnson was forced to pretend he had never mentioned his “Final solution” for Social Care. Time to tone down the “many of you will lose loved ones” Churchill style rallying cry and put the onus on the public following orders: you will survive, but only if you’re good! That way if the death toll climbs you can blame public non-compliance.
One plan to “Slaughter the Sheeple” man not be foiled as his dithering over the logistics could abandon those forced into self-isolation to starve due to lack of funding and inability to access food supplies. Blame it on the confused elderly too “stupid” to order Online, blame it on lack of family support or cash strapped Councils not providing care or carers off sick; Johnson will walk away from the collateral damage unscathed as usual: it is never his fault. If Johnson can maintain his tight control of the media the public will never learn the most shocking facts. He has postponed important decisions until embarrassed into following the lead of the devolved governments – some leadership!
There are many important issues I am really passionate about aside from Covid 19 and crash-out Brexit, austerity, the plight of the homeless, destitution on Universal Credit, victimization of the disabled, our exploited and abandoned young people, but also the disastrous foreign policy towards the Palestinians, the children of Yemen killed with bombs we sell to the Saudis as well as the Persecution of political prisoner Julian Assange. None of these issues will ever be dealt with until we are able to remove this toxic Tory Government from office.
The 2019 General Election was rigged and we will continue to suffer the consequences until we Investigate the Election Result, expose the truth and overturn the vote. You were right to point out Ell, that our time to correct this injustice is limited, but we can potentially appeal to the EU as European Citizens at least until December. Impeachment may not have been resorted to for a very long time, but these are extraordinary circumstances and we cannot afford to be complacent or constrained by convention. Above all we cannot give up as Tory inaction, blunders and deliberate cruel neglect will cost lives: there is now far too much at stake.
Ell
GuestKim
Have emailed you contact details for 4 people involved in Led by donkeys. DM (private message sent to 2 of them on twitter Oliver & James and Private message sent to Oliver on Facebook.
Just keeping on keeping on.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestMany thanks Ell. I will be focusing on preparing my appeal to professional Investigative Journalists and those who are in a better position to publicize the campaign more effectively than I can so that the message goes mainstream. I appreciate your help in locating the all important contact details to facilitate this effort and getting the information out there via the media platforms that I am not at all familiar with like Twitter and Facebook. We all have different skill sets, but working together we can sucseed in this endeavour.
We cannot allow the Covid 19 crisis to provide cover and an excuse for the Tories to get away with the Covert 2019 General Election vote rigging scandal. It is only by seeking justice to overturn Covert 2019 that we can remove this rogue Government from office to replace the blundering incompetence that now puts so many British lives at grave risk.
A progressive Government of the people would prioritize the genuine needs of the people and our precious environment. That radical change of priorities is what we all desperately need in this time of crisis. This is far to important for complacent denial and acceptance of the Covert 2019 vote rigging; we cannot afford to give up.
Ell
GuestThe representation of the people act 2000 gave everyone the right to vote by post starting with the 2001 general election. The table below shows the increase in postal voting since 1997.
The figures for 2019 will be available late in 2020 when they are published by the Electoral commission; however Lord Ashcroft poll is estimating that in 2019 the postal vote as a percentage of the valid votes was 38%.
Region Year Electorate Turnout (number of valid votes counted as % of electorate) Total number of valid votes counted Postal votes Issued Postal votes included in count Postal votes included in count as % of valid votes counted
UK 2017 46,835,433 68.80% 32,220,817 8,456,791 6,986,581 21.68%
UK 2015 46,354,197 66.22% 30,697,525 7,592,735 6,302,073 20.53%
UK 2010 45,597,461 65.11% 29,687,604 6,996,006 5,596,865 18.85%
UK 2005 44,245,939 61.37% 27,153,310 5,362,501 3,963,792 14.60%
UK 2001 44,403,238 57.26% 25,426,017 1,758,055 1,370,884 5.39%
UK 1997 43,714,673 71.57% 31,286,284 937,205 738,614 2.36%Ell
GuestPostal vote application
The representation of the people act 2000 gave everyone the right to vote by post starting with the 2001 general election.
Electors who are registered to vote are entitled to apply for a postal vote for an indefinite period, a definite period or for a particular election.
There is no requirement for an elector to provide a reason why they want to vote by post.
A postal vote application must be made in writing, but can be in any format, letter, fax, email with a scanned signature or an absent vote application form are acceptable, as long as the personal identifier information is clear and unambiguous and is provided in the format prescribed in the regulations and as explained below.• the signature shall appear against a background of white unlined paper of at least 5 cm long and 2 cm high
and
• the applicant’s date of birth shall be configured numerically in the sequence of day, month and year, i.e. DD MM YYYY
Unlike applications to register to vote, postal vote applications cannot be made online or by telephone.
Where a registration to vote application is made online and the applicant indicates that they wish to vote by post and provides their email address, the IER Digital Service will automatically email them a postal vote application form – see example below.
The applicant can print off and complete the form, then return it to their Electoral Registration Officer.
Where the applicant does not provide their email address but indicates that they wish to vote by post, the IER Digital Service informs the ERO who sends a paper copy of the postal vote application form.
There are a number of pieces of information that must be included on a postal vote application by law. The application must be made in writing and be dated, and include the following information:• the full name of the elector.
• the address where the elector is (or has applied to be) registered to vote.
• the elector’s signature (or a request for a signature waiver – see below).
• the elector’s date of birth.
• whether the application is for a particular election (and if so, identify which one), a particular period or an indefinite period, and if it is for a particular period, it should specify that period.
• whether it is for parliamentary elections, local government elections or both.
• the address where the postal ballot pack should be sent and, if this is not the registered address, a reason for the redirection.
If an applicant is unable to provide a signature or a consistent signature due to any disability or inability to read or write, they can request that the requirement for a signature on the postal vote application (and postal voting statement) is waived. The applicant must provide with their application the reason for the request and the name and address of any person who has assisted them with completing the application.
The ERO will need to gain proof or evidence in order to be satisfied that the applicant is unable to provide a signature, be satisfied that the request for a signature waiver is genuine and is not being used as an attempt to avoid the postal vote security measures.The ERO should ensure that all applications are date-stamped upon receipt as this is particularly important in the lead-up to an election. On the last day for applications ahead of a particular election, it is also advisable for the ERO to record the time of receipt, so that they have a clear audit trail of which applications were received before and which applications were received after the deadline.
Only electors who are registered, or will be registered, can apply for a postal vote. Once the application has passed the registration check, it must be scrutinised to ensure that it satisfies the prescribed requirements set out in paragraphs. Where it does, the ERO must confirm to the elector the outcome of the application.
If applications are incomplete the ERO should, where possible, make further enquiries to obtain the missing information. If the missing information is not submitted, the application must not be allowed.
Where it appears that the elector has made a mistake when completing their postal vote application (for example, where they have transposed their date of birth figures), the ERO should contact the elector and ask them to resubmit an application form with their identifiers.
The ERO must write to all applicants to let them know whether their application has been accepted or rejected and if an application is rejected, they must give the reason(s) why it has been rejected.Any postal vote applications received after the deadline for a particular election must be disallowed for that election, and the elector notified of the fact.
If, however, it is an application for a definite or indefinite period going beyond the election, and the application meets all the prescribed requirements, the elector should be advised on the confirmation notice that their application will become valid for future elections. If the application is refused, you must notify the applicant of the decision and the reason for it.
An appeal procedure is provided for persons whose applications have been disallowed. Any person wishing to appeal must give notice to the ERO within 14 days of the date of the decision on the application and must specify the grounds of appeal.
The ERO must immediately forward the notice to the county court, together with a statement of
• the material facts which have, in the ERO’s opinion, been established in the case
• the ERO’s decision upon the whole case
• any point which may be specified as grounds of appeal.
Postal application forms may be scanned and stored electronically, or the ERO may keep the originals in paper form. In the case of Northumberland county council I have had written confirmation from them that all forms containing personal identifiers are scanned into the Local authority’s electoral management software provided by Idox/Civica.
Electors who have been allowed to vote by post must have the letter ‘A’ marked alongside their names in the register to be used in the polling station. The local authority EMS system has the facility to print registers especially for use in the polling station at a particular election.
Postal voters’ signatures are refreshed every five years.The law requires EROs, by 31 January each year, to send every absent voter (postal, proxy and postal proxy voters) whose signature on the personal identifiers record is more than five years old a notice in writing
• requiring them to provide a fresh signature if they wish to remain an absent voter
• informing them of the date on which they would cease to be entitled to vote by post or by proxy in the event of a failure or refusal to provide a fresh signature (i.e. six weeks from the date of sending the notice).
Absent voters who have been granted a waiver are not affected by the refresh provisions as they do not have a signature on the personal identifiers record.
The ERO cannot require an absent voter to refresh their signatures outside the formal refresh exercise, except where you have sent a rejection notice to a postal voter after an election on the grounds that the signature provided on the returned postal voting statement did not match the example held on the personal identifiers record (and the person continues to be shown on your records as an absent voter).
The next refresh exercise will be in January 2020 and will cover those absent voters whose signatures on the personal identifiers record will become more than five years old between 31 January 2019 and 30 January 2020.
Six weeks from the sending of the original notice, absent voters will lose their entitlement to vote by post or proxy if no response is received.
This means that absent voters have just under six weeks to return the notice or the entitlement would be lost on the last day of the six-week period.
After three weeks of the date of the original notice, if no reply is received, a reminder notice should be sent to the absent voter.
The date of birth is not part of the refresh process as set out in legislation. Existing absent voters do not need to provide their date of birth again in order for their absent vote to continue.
The notice must require the absent voter to supply a specimen of their signature, and explain that if this is not received before six weeks of the date of the notice, their absent voting facility will be cancelled.
The following information should be included in the notice to explain:
• how the required personal identifiers are used and how the personal identifiers assist in deterring misuse of the entitlement to vote by post/proxy.
• the details of the absent vote currently in place for that person and the types of elections at which the person would no longer be able to vote by post/proxy if they do not provide the required signature.
• that cancellation of the absent vote for failure or refusal to supply a new sample signature does not prevent the elector subsequently re-applying for an absent vote.
• the circumstances in which the signature requirement may be waived.
• the deadline for the ERO to receive the signature (i.e. before six weeks from the date of the notice.
Any fresh signature that is received after the deadline cannot be used to add the previous absent voter back onto the relevant absent voter record.
In this case the ERO should send the person a letter explaining that the notice cannot be accepted and that if they wish to continue to have an absent vote they must re-apply and provide their identifiers on the application.
The ERO should include an application form with the letter. There is no provision for you to pre-print the date of birth you already hold on the new application form.The ERO must notify the person in writing that their absent vote has been removed. This applies equally where the person has refused to provide a signature or has failed to respond to the notice or reminder notice.
The notice must:
• explain that the person’s absent vote has been removed because of a failure to provide a fresh signature, and that if they wish to vote they can only do so at a polling station.
• inform them of their polling station.
• remind them that they may make a fresh absent vote application, which must include their identifiers.
The ERO should include a new absent vote application form with the removal notice.
The flowchart can be downloaded here:
https://riggedge2019.blogspot.com/2020/03/postal-vote-application-flowchart.html
Ell
GuestIssue and return of Postal voting pack
The Electoral Registration Officer is required to keep records of those applications for postal votes that have been granted.
The records must indicate
• the elector’s full name (unless the elector is registered anonymously).
• the address to which the ballot paper is to be sent.
• It should include the elector number, and if the elector is registered anonymously, their elector number must also be included.
When an election or referendum is going to be held, the ERO uses these records to instruct the printing services company to send out postal vote packs.
According to advice on Northumberland County Council website “your postal vote pack may not be sent out until 4 working days before the election”.The postal voting pack contains:
• Ballot paper
• Postal voting statement
• Envelope A
• Envelope B
The elector should follow these instructions:
1. Mark their vote on the ballot paper by putting an X in the empty box to the right of the name of the person they want to vote for. The elector can only vote for 1 candidate.
2. Put their ballot paper into envelope A and seal it.
3. Complete their postal voting statement with their date of birth and signature. Make sure you fill in your date of birth not today’s date.
4. Put their completed postal voting statement and envelope A (which has the marked ballot paper inside), into envelope B and seal it.
5. Post envelope B. It is free to return a postal vote by post so there is no need for a stamp if you are posting it in the UK.
The elector needs to ensure that they return their ballot paper AND their postal voting statement or their vote will not count.
You need to return your postal vote so that it arrives by the close of the poll. If your postal vote pack arrives too late to be returned by post, it can be handed in to the Returning Officer at your local authority or handed in at any polling station within the constituency.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestHi Ell – You report that: “If an applicant is unable to provide a signature or a consistent signature due to any disability or inability to read or write, they can request that the requirement for a signature on the postal vote application (and postal voting statement) is waived. The applicant must provide with their application the reason for the request and the name and address of any person who has assisted them with completing the application.
The ERO will need to gain proof or evidence in order to be satisfied that the applicant is unable to provide a signature, be satisfied that the request for a signature waiver is genuine and is not being used as an attempt to avoid the postal vote security measures.”
I did not know that there was an alternative available to accommodate those who might no longer be capable of signing their name. I doubt that many people know this is the case. I can imagine frail elderly people with arthritic fingers producing shaky signatures that would not survive the automated scrutiny controlled by Idox. How many votes are discarded due to an illegible signature?
Was this another type of disenfranchisement or could these votes be reassigned during the unsupervised in house process that Idox maintain control of with their Postal Vote Managed Service. Is there a process for contacting the voter when their postal vote has been rejected? This would allow for a correction or a later attempt to vote directly at the polling station.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestWill COVID 19 facilitate implementing the dangerous authoritarian policies of this far Right faction of the Tory Party with their “Decimating Down” agenda conveniently enabled by the “COVERT 2019 Rigged Election” fake “landslide victory” result? In a recent Article in the Canary they offer a stark warning: “The Tories just revealed the most terrifying part of their coronavirus plan.” Stating that: “The bill will introduce sweeping measures,” the article published an alarming quote on Twitter from ITV’s political editor, Robert Peston, that summed up the enormity of the proposal:
“There has never in my lifetime been a law that so encroached on our civil liberties and basic rights as the Coronavirus Bill, scheduled to become law by end of month. It is all aimed at keeping us safe. But the transfer of unchallengeable power to the state for two years is… huge. It covers everything from burials, to holding those who threaten national security for longer, to closing borders, to detaining those with mental health issues, to empowering the police to quarantine those with the virus, and much more. This is… wartime stuff.”
Others chimed in on Twitter: QuantumChoices #FBPE @tfoale 18 Mar “They’re handling it extremely badly – according to the world’s experts. Just like they’re handling brexit really badly, according to the economists and trade experts. This is a government that doesn’t like experts, remember. They prefer sycophants.”
In a subsequent Article the Canary reveal that: “The bill will change the following around mental health care and support:
• It will now only take one doctor’s approval to have a person sectioned (detained) under the Mental Health Act. Previously two doctors had to agree to this course of action. This protected people from biased, incorrect, negligent, or unfair decisions.
• Time limits on detaining people in a mental health setting will be removed. Currently, medical professionals can detain people for up to 6 months at first, depending on circumstance. This will now be open-ended, meaning if you’re in psychological distress you can be locked up indefinitely.”Such sweeping powers are incredibly dangerous with malevolent leadership in absolute majority control of Government as we now have. In this same piece the Canary also warn that the bill will permit Hospitals to discharge patients back into the community without regard for their ongoing care and allow Councils to ditch their responsibility towards care of the disabled and vulnerable including children. The affect on our judicial system could turn trials into “Kangaroo Courts” with expedited procedures that will put Human Rights at risk just as Brexit will allow the Tories to eliminate most of the right we now enjoy.
There were ominous warning signs on page 48 of the Tory Manifesto that they planned to attack the basic rights of citizens, both Workers Rights as well as Human Rights, especially members of targeted minority groups like the gypsies. The Coronavirus Bill will accelerate our loss of liberty under “Medical Marshal Law” with the Social Safety net now being stripped away even more swiftly and more radically than we had once feared. Within this Article there is a letter that the Canary have drafted, appealing for people to send a copy to their MPs to prevent such lack of responsibility.
Alarmed by what the Canary describe as: “all these changes are unprecedented” they quote civil liberties group Big Brother Watch on Twitter: “The law will last 2 years. Government must justify this length given the severity of the measures, which will interfere with the everyday lives of people in the UK. A shorter duration with a sunset clause would ensure the powers are strictly temporary & promptly reviewed.
It’s right that Government takes rapid & robust action, but good laws are rarely made in haste & rights are too often the casualty of crisis. The Opposition & civil society have important roles to play in scrutinising emergency powers to protect both public health & human rights.”
The Canary are concerned that measures enacted in haste will be retained for a very long time, warning: “But what Big Brother Watch fails to address is whether the powers in the bill will actually last two years; or whether the Tories will merely keep these existing power in law permanently. Because the way the legislation is being passed, they have the power to do this.”
The Covid 19 health crisis could help this radical hard Right faction of the Tory Government to usher in the full scale dictatorship we fear they had planned all along. This fear is amply justified by the alarming pledges on page 48 of the Tory Manifesto where there were warnings of attacks on the power of the Judiciary and a Tory reinvention of what Human Rights will remain in place after leaving the EU. There has been an extremely rapid and alarming reduction of the BBC presentations that might render any criticism of the Government: control of the press and state broadcasting is a classic warning sign of dictatorship!
Due to the distraction of the Covid 19 crisis, thankfully the forced opposition party grovelling in support of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election result is no longer as repetitive and nauseating as it once, but the public cannot be conned into thinking that there will be a progressive comeback in five years time. Future “Elections” will be purely cosmetic attempts to justify continuation of strict Tory authoritarian rule. Voter ID checks will disenfranchise millions of the most vulnerable potential voters and the introduction of electronic voting machines will greatly simplify vote fraud in future.
We need to strengthen and increase the powers of our Electoral Commission, but that will never be an issue worth addressing for the Tory Government who so richly benefit from slack regulations and nonexistent oversight. “Do not expect the Fox to pitch in with long overdue repairs to the Hen House!” Even if no concrete evidentiary proof of fraud is uncovered in an investigation it will still expose the unacceptable weaknesses in our Electoral System: A watchdog that cannot watch is just a dog! We must commit to Rescue our Watchdog as All Votes Must Count.
Why now during the Covid 19 crisis? This global pandemic is clearly demonstrating the critical importance of strong, trustworthy leadership, something that is sadly lacking in Boris Johnson. The lies, chronic blunders, dangerous mistakes, u-turns and cruel calculations that have characterized his handling of the response to Covid 19 have sunk the UK into an even deeper pit of shame called out by world leaders. As the death toll climbs it could fuel public outcry and a revolt against this rogue Tory Government. The PM’s shallow “Get Brexit Done” mantle can no longer hide his nakedness and incompetent lack of leadership in a real crisis.
Demanding a comprehensive investigation into the Covert 2019 Rigged Election result is vital to exposing the corruption that could now cost thousands of lives in the UK. Removing the Tories from office is a top priority in order restore the sanity of adhering to WHO guidelines, properly supporting our NHS staff and enabling a progressive Government to protect the lives of all our people instead of just finding more ways to squander public money on the elite. Progressive socialist policies will prove key to our survival as a nation, but we cannot continue to beg for them piecemeal from a Tory Government that promoted the fake science of “Herd Immunity” fully prepared to sacrifice the most vulnerable and “Slaughter the Sheeple!”.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestResponding in this time of national crisis who can we clearly identified as “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” in UK Politics? Despite receiving more support than any other Labour leader since 1945 it was not enough to take out the Tories in 2017. Were vote rigging shenanigans in play back then? It is hard to know, but certainly it was already well recognized that our Electoral System was wide open to Industrial scale abuse. Despite the angry rants of centrists Labour members wanted Good Jeremy to stay put and over eight Months ago a Petition appealed for a: “Vote of confidence in Jeremy Corbyn.”
The resounding support for Good Jeremy in the Petition led with the statement: “We, Labour Party Members and Supporters, have full confidence in the Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn. We recognise he is the target of a relentless smear campaign, orchestrated by the wealthy establishment who do not want a socialist Labour government.” Sadly, although this Petition has continued gaining support and is now fast approaching 70,000, the “relentless smear campaign” continued to ramp up unabated in an effort to destroy Good Jeremy or find a way to remove him for losing the Covert 2019 Rigged Election.
That was then, but what of now? Despite the concerted hammering Good Jeremy suffered from our supposedly neutral BBC and the heavily biased Right wing press strong support for Corbyn persisted beyond the deeply disappointing Covert 2019 Rigged Election. As his detractors assigned blame to Good Jeremy in further humiliating smears to reinforce the Tory lie about “borrowed votes,” Fake News of the crumbling “Red Wall” was repeated in grovelling apologies that were never warranted. But even in this darkest hour many were not ready to abandon their champion and a new Petition appeared: “Campaign to keep Jeremy Corbyn as leader.” To date another 18,788 and counting have signed to express their desire to keep Good Jeremy as leader.
In a recent Article in the Canary: “A storm is brewing over the Labour Leadership race” the state that: “Despite the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the Labour Party leadership election is going ahead. But a growing number of people are calling for the party to suspend it. And they’re also saying outgoing leader Jeremy Corbyn should remain in the job.” As leader of the opposition our Good Jeremy has maintained a laser-like focus on the priorities of ordinary people he has: “remained on track repeatedly holding the Government to account for their reckless decisions in mishandling the Covid 19 crisis. More and more the Labour leadership contest is looking like a damaging distraction that is totally inappropriate at this critical time and should be abandoned.”
In the Canary article there is a Link to the most recent Petition: “Covid-19 Outbreak: Suspend the Labour Leadership contest.”
The Petition, which has now gathered over 5000 signatures, states that: “It has become clear that the COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis unlike any this nation has confronted in at least a generation. It is a crisis that demands the full attention of the party’s membership, the labour movement, PLP and party bureaucracy.” It describes how the leadership campaigns have: “ground to a halt” due to the coronavirus saying: “now is not the time for a complete change in leadership and shadow cabinet.” It calls on the party to: “work together to hold the government of Boris Johnson to account. We do not have the luxury of retreating into an inward-looking debate among ourselves. Over the coming months, we must work together, as a party, to fight for our communities.”
The people of this country were quick to identify Dominic Cummins as “the Bad,” a treacherous cancer now ensconced within the very heart of this rabid Tory Government. On Sunday the 22nd of March the Sunday Times exposed the sinister influence and callous attitude of Bad Dom in his top advisory role with the ear of the Ugly Boris Johnson. This explosive article levelled the whole misguided support for the unproven dangerous strategy of “Heard Immunity” on Bad Dom, blaming his malign intervention for promoting this obscure pseudo-science that put the UK at odds with the WHO and most other countries globally.
The sheer arrogance of the Bas Dom leads him to mouth off next to an active mike, blurt out shocking revelations to the press, candidly “spill the beans” in front of multiple witnesses and boast of his ingenious manipulative prowess in deranged ramblings on his Blog. His warped belief in eugenics is well documented if deeply disturbing, but he is a known quantity of bad that permeates this rogue far Right faction of the Tory Party committing the PM and the cabinet to his evil agenda.
However, we should remember that the Bad Dom is on very shaky ground as public resentment grows over the failed policy of “Herd Immunity” and his callous statement that the Government should: “Protect the economy and if that means some pensioners die, too bad.” The Bad Dom could also face prosecution for his admitted use of illegally obtained data in the Brexit Referendum and the Covert 2019 Rigged Election as this puts him on the wrong side of UK Data Protection laws. This potential bombshell is well described in one of the Daily GasLamp Blog posts on Cambridge Analytica where they say: “Illegal to the price of $5billion just to facebook alone for allowing a loophole in its software. How much more illegal is it for people to deliberately exploit that loophole?”
Boris Johnson “the Ugly” emerged at today’s PMQ’s as if at the top of a precipitous elitist Davos ski slope ready to begin his familiar devious slalom weaving through all the important and valid questions, deftly evading the treacherous mogul bumps of harsh reality with his non-answers in a rapid decent all the way to the dirty slush at the very bottom of the black run. His repeated exasperating message was “sure, we’re doing that,” or more accurately, we might get around to it in our own sweet time! All top familiar the emphatic: “we will do whatever we can, whatever it takes….” but only if and when we are absolutely forced to do so!
The untrustworthy Pinocchio Ugly Boris responded to urgent appeals from across the house over the total lack of financial support for the most vulnerable by liberally spaffing money, all over the chamber on empty promises he had no intention of keeping. He was: “putting a billion pounds into arf, arf… £1000… Universal Credit arf, arf…. 500 Million to local Councils arf, arf…” the answer to everything was another lie about money that will probably never materialize. Don’t look for it to appear any time soon in accounting because the only budget promises Ugly Boris will honour are to the wealthy benefactors who sponsored his Covert 2019 Rigged Election campaign; their generous slush fund could actually transpire.
Ugly Boris’s new “Obey me” mantra has become: “Stay at home, Protect the NHS and Save lives.” It is all up to us of course. As usual the vague Tory promises are easy to go back on. This, while asking the public to take responsibility for accomplishing all the civic duties they will never be given the resources to achieve. Ugly Boris has set us up for a catastrophic failure that his Government fully anticipate will claim the lives of thousands; a disaster they have cleverly engineered to blame on public non-compliance as our future dictator establishes his God like authority. Ugly Boris and Bad Dom wilfully precipitated this chaos as the incompetent Tory. Government has totally abandoned you with no recourse to funds; many will die in their “Slaughter of the Sheeple!”
We helplessly suffer the increasingly ugly spectre of Boris Johnson, flanked by compliant ministers and discredited “scientific experts,” while acting on the advice of the Bad Dom to tout the latest populist “Nudge” tactics. With the pomp of Tory Party political broadcasts and the barest minimum of scrutiny, Ugly Boris has scheduled daily Press Briefings to deliver the latest smorgasbord of confusing and conflicting new restrictions and unrealistic demands. There must be constant hand washing despite limited access to sinks; use hand sanitizer despite the fact that this antimicrobial Gel is no longer available in shops; strict social distancing despite being imprisoned in cramped accommodation of forced to rely on packed trains, and self-isolation despite the critical lack of food delivery slots. Many will die in the “Slaughter of the Sheeple!”
While lying about desperately needed Testing and backlogged PPE logistics putting NHS frontline staff at risk, Ugly Boris had the gall to taunt the NHS “Cannon Fodder” with his outrageous promise of 40 new hospitals! I am in no doubt that when the giant US healthcare Corporation get their greedy hands on our privatised NHS they will invest in swanky new facilities to cater to the needs of wealthy clients after usurping the prestigious brand name of our crumbling health service. Sadly, the blatant lies of our “part time Prime Minister” will continue to infect our screens and our minds until the disastrous duo of the Bad Dom and Ugly Boris are finally ousted.
Ugly Boris will be glad to see the back of PMQs for a while, but he should not count on a swift end to the rigorous scrutiny of Good Jeremy any time soon. Warned that he was “not going anywhere” should be the catalyst for Labour members to demand that he stays in post; Good Jeremy is the strong leader the British so desperately need to guide us through this time of crisis. If there was a complete exposure of the fraud committed to steal the Covert 2019 Rigged Election the last thing we want is for the Labour Party, already critically weakened by lies and deception, to be deprived of its strong, trustworthy leadership.
We need to support the Petition to end the race to find a new leader and “Rescue our Watchdog” so that we can neutralize the serious damage done by Bad Dom and Ugly Boris – In “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” we can only hope the Good Jeremy, always on the right side of history, will eventually prevail.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestThe Daily GasLamp has posted a couple of pieces on Covid 19 and how the Pandemic could shape future UK political decision making. Any deviation in focus leads to the question: what takes priority right now Covid 19 or the Covert 2019 Rigged Election? In the first Post: “Covid 19 and Future Policy” they are quick to point out the ineptitude of our “part time Prime Minister” in dealing with Covid 19 and previous crisis’s that have emerged thick and fast since he claimed his “borrowed votes” in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election.
The biggest blunder, following directly after Boris Johnson’s stark admission that “your loved ones will die,” was letting the already doom filled imagination of the general public contemplate the horrific impact of “Herd Immunity.” Described by the author as: “Loose talk or policy, whatever, the term “Herd Immunity” has horrified scientists world wide when its been applied to COVID-19: such a policy could condemn as many as 1 million to death in the UK with no guarantee that any future immunity protection would occur.” Condemned by the WHO over the Government’s inaction, Johnson has drawn sharp criticism or his Trumpian approach.
In a list of priorities there are the usual points raised about the poor handling of testing including testing at Airports and other points of entry; one not mentioned that still has me in shock: testing our Medical staff and Carers. As a former Medical professional myself I cannot imagine dealing with the anxiety of working around infectious patients without proper protection, but apparently many of our NHS staff are being put at risk in this way. Issues that increase risk for NHS staff include the sheer volume of their exposure during practice and the negative impact on immunity caused by exhaustion and high levels of stress.
Medical staff have already become infected and some are now sick enough to require ventilation equipment. The British public are fiercely protective of NHS staff so if a Doctor or Nurse dies it could precipitate a tidal wave of angry public reaction towards the Government for their complacency. Whenever basic needs are raised there is the same “the check’s in the mail” type of reaction from Johnson and his team and one has to wonder if the constant delays don’t represent a determination to silently stick to the disastrous do nothing “Herd Immunity” strategy like “nothing has changed” as the Maybot was so proud of announcing.
“But already we have run into problems: testing at home? testing at airports? proper sick pay? release prisoners? All these policies need a complete change in government direction!” claims the author… good luck with that one. However, I keep returning to that chicken and the egg conundrum of what comes first, Covid 19 or the Covert 2019 Rigged Election that exacerbated this crisis with abysmally incompetent, untrustworthy leadership? While some may want to put the latter on hold until the former is under control I would argue that it could prove impossible to get Covid 19 under control until proper leadership is in place.
The list of the “could have been” policies just drums home the injustice of what was stolen from us in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election. “What we don’t need is “socialism-for-the-already-rich”…” but certainly we do need “A form of QE for the rest of us” Amen to that! Where I disagree with the writer is in his assumption that: “There is no point, wishing for a Corbyn-led government. That boat has sailed.” Corbyn has made really powerful interventions in the last few weeks and a growing number of Labour supporters believe he needs to stay in place to provide strong leadership, stability and consistency during this challenging national crisis. Corbyn is universally trusted to put ordinary people first, but any move to put aside the leadership contest will of course need to come from the contenders.
Although they will not admit it publically every delay and half baked decision Boris has announced has reinforced my belief that the Tories are still committed to a version of Dominic Cummings’s warped eugenics program for “Herd Immunity” to cull the elderly and most vulnerable in a “Slaughter of the Sheeple!” The “black is white” PR spin enabled by the BBC and tabloid press does little to convince me otherwise. There will be a very big spike in deaths that Boris Johnson will as usual try to blame on stupid people not following his orders, despite the fact that many of his dictates are entirely unworkable.
There is no financial help for those who have been told not to go to work, statutory sick pay is only just over £94 a week, one of the lowest levels in the EU, and Universal Credit is being overwhelmed with applications. Some will die of starvation because even the food banks are having trouble meeting the increased demand. There is no program in place to make sure that the elderly, those at risk or in self-isolation can get food. There are weeks of waiting for a delivery slot even for pensioners who are Internet savvy. In Spain they have found elderly people abandoned to die in care homes; nothing we are doing will prevent this from being repeated here in the UK where provision of Social Care is already thinly stretched.
A very serious flash point that will incite public outrage will occur if any NHS workers become infected and die. Doctors and Nurses have already succumbed to Covid 19 in Italy and the things that put them at greater risk will be at least as relevant here. The delay in testing our frontline medical staff and care workers and the poor supply of inadequate PPE put them at increased risk as does travelling to work on overcrowded trains. Other countries have done a far better job of testing and protecting these key personnel, and have still had Medical staff die; we should brace for a worse outcome here.
If the deliberate choice to abandon the well proven requirements of the WHO causes a far higher death toll in the UK there will be an urgent call for the Tories to go. There is no accountability or honour in the Tory camp and they will try desperately to cling on to their stolen power. The public must be ready to seize the agenda and drive the press by refusing to allow the BBC and the Tabloids to shield Boris Johnson and his warped side-kick from taking full responsibility for obvious blunders that will cost countless lives. Rebellion, civil unrest and disobedience would not be taking advantage of tragedy, but instead doing the right thing to save lives as it’s important to remember that if such social upheaval occurs the obvious remedy is to remove corrupt leadership.
While I would never suggest or encourage anyone to resort to anything beyond peaceful protest, inevitably desperate people may reach breaking point where severe deprivation causes the oppressed to demand change and outweighs the fear of confronting police or facing military suppression. This has proved true in rebellions overseas that have toppled governments even when they turned the might of the military against their own people. We could potentially see riots in London within a few weeks if Boris Johnson continues with his dithering and denial while significantly more people needlessly die.
We know that the Tories had already factored in serious depravation and lethal consequences following crash-out Brexit; this was revealed when we learned that operation “Yellowhammer” included stockpiling body bags! Why would the Government need a large stock-pile of body bags? It was obvious even before Covid 19 accelerated their deprivation initiative that the Tories were planning on the chaos of Brexit causing many to fall through the cracks and die. I was concerned enough to anticipate the panic buying and non-survival of the most vulnerable, but for the Government this might have been a well planned strategy all along.
I do not believe that there is a right time to crank up the campaign after it has been put on hold for a few weeks or months due to Covid 19; every day the Tories are allowed to remain in power will cost more lives. Our goal to thoroughly investigate the validity of the 2019 Election result, and hence the legitimacy of the Tory Party to make catastrophic decisions on our behalf, could not be more urgent as they seek “emergency powers” under cover of the Covid 19 crisis. They have demanded that their Brexit crash-out must not be delayed as this facilitates manipulating and altering our laws by stealth; this could destroy democracy in the UK.
Deal with Covid 19 or focus on the Covert 2019 Rigged Election should not be an either/or choice as it will require us to build a very strong base of universal support for the earliest opportunity to remove this dangerous Tory Government from office.
SA
GuestKim
I fully agree with what you say and what is on the DailyGaslamp and it is very sickening to see such an incompetent government mishandling of the crisis. I agree the policy of Herd Immunity has not been abandoned just silently rolled out. See what I wrote this morning about this on here.
The Government has now unprecedented power especially as Parliament has now been dismissed and I am afraid the Labour party is totally at sea with its prolonged leadership elections. There is no united voice against this government which has now given itself sweeping power. In effect we now have a supreme leader, not a democratic Prime Minister.
It is as if not only the political class has been neutralised but the scientific and medical advisors to the government have become so politicised and do not offer sound advise but are told what to say by Dominic Cummings. When the dust has settled I think those people will have an unbearable burden of guilt to shoulder, because they have been used.
The insanity of the government’s approach can just not be emphasised enough. They had the models of China, suppressing the infection by first major expansion of treatment of serious cases, then isolation of milder cases by proper quarantine and total curfew of affected cities. This has worked for now. In South Korea they suppressed the infection by early testing contact tracing and quarantine. We had two models and two months to act, all wasted.
We now have a situation where we have a rogue regime contributing to the death of its own people, maybe we should escalate this to the UN as a human rights issue?Ell
GuestKim & SA
totally agree with all that you say especially
“Deal with Covid 19 or focus on the Covert 2019 Rigged Election should not be an either/or choice”
However the reality, at least for now is that NO-ONE is LISTENING or willing to act!
Lord save us all now we are living in a dictatorship
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestBoris “Bull in a China Shop” Johnson joins the “Herd! Not that I would wish him or anyone else harm, one cannot help commenting that those in leadership really should practice what they preach. It is a great relief to know that we might not be so frequently bombarded with his pervasive featuring in so called “press briefings” that are a lot more like Conservative Party political broadcasts with a one way regurgitation of Tory spin. This latest development is certainly not confidence inspiring when not just the PM, but his Health Secretary, Mat Hancock, and Chief Medical Advisor, Chris Whitte all test positive or show symptoms for Covid 19 on the same day.
The simplistic sound bites delivered by jovial Johnson often pose far more questions than answers due to his complete lack of understanding of the most basic principals involved in effective “Social Distancing.” A less confusing instruction was needed to instil the concept in everyone including children: “Avoid People and the Things that People Touch!” That would be my simple instruction as it includes the missing part of the Covid 19 contamination puzzle that is barely mentioned in health warnings: “the things that people touch.”
You might avoid contracting the virus from an infected person by keeping a safe distance apart, but then pick up the bug from the door handle they grabbed just before you touched it yourself. We must become a lot more conscious of the things that we all come in direct contact with so frequently every day as the virus will survive on hard surfaces for up to 72hours. Carry a supply of antimicrobial wipes with you in a Ziploc bag and wipe the door handle, the ATM keypad, the access or lift button, before you touch it. This is just one more line of defence to include in your armoury.
Boris should have paid attention to the proper operation of a lever tap before exposing his own poor practice demonstrating a hand washing routine to the nation on public television. Re-contaminated his hand turning off the tap he showed a total lack of understanding of the design, but he probably wasn’t listening to NHS staff – so what else is new? A strong leader would have asked the NHS staff to demonstrate what constitutes a thorough hand wash rather than barge in front of the cameras to set a really bad example. This epitomizes his style, ignore sound advice and rely on Boris bluster.
Boris Johnson has consistently let down the people of this country, none more so than NHS staff who a crying out for an adequate quantity of proper PPE supplies and urgently needed access to testing. Each time this vital issue is raised he starts blathering on about vast sums of money he is about to spend while promising yet again that NHS needs are being met. Attention craving Boris will feel lost performing to an unresponsive screen. Perhaps a week of alone time will do him a world of good, providing the solitude he needs to contemplate the enormity of his errors. Now that the PM must follow his own order to “Stay Home” it is a pity he is still so slow to comprehend the importance of his other messaging to “Protect the NHS” and “Save Lives!”
I had noticed that Boris did not look well for over a week and I kept wondering if he had become infected; how many other MPs came into close contact with him and will soon need to self-isolate. If the public needed a concrete example of gross incompetence following deeply flawed decision making the core team dropping like nine pins certainly made a very poor impression. Undoubtedly Boris Johnson needs a period of self-isolation; might I recommend a much longer period of isolation by leaving public office… say, for good!
The abysmal handling of this crisis will be fully exposed in the coming week as Covid 19 deaths exceed 200 a day, an alarming number of NHS staff prove to be infected after testing of staff begins and other MPs are forced into isolation. This Tory Government negligently wasted two months and it will cost many lives; when our Doctors and Nurses start dying there will be a public outcry. It did not have to be this bad. The Covert 2019 Rigged Election gifted power to this dangerously incompetent team; Exposing the Truth can and must remove them from office. Please spare us the torment of hosting the world’s first “Virtual Dictator.”
SA
GuestWe are in an extremely dangerous situation I am afraid. We have a government that has been installed through deception, with absolute control, no scrutiny by Parliament and with sweeping powers. If one does not see a connection between HMG response to the Covid-19 pandemic and Brexit and the last election, one must be blind.
I of course know that the Covid-19 pandemic is real and quite dangerous and have argued in the other thread that the government’s response has, and still is, incompetent, slow, too little too late, wishy washy, no clear directions, causing confusion rather than clarity. I am now beginning to think that these actions are deliberate.
I believe that since the referendum one of the main aims was to align UK with US in every way, politically, socially, economically and of course militarily. In many ways UK has been the cat’s paw of US foreign policy regarding Russia and has been mainly responsible for the new cold war, and deliberately so. During this period UK has refrained from antagonizing China and pretended to run a sort of policy of looking at China for a possible post Brexit trade deal. Whether this was real or whether it is actual a reflection of a real division within the Tory party, is difficult to determine. I believe that there is a very strong Atlanticist faction within the party. The most recent international political activity has been to start blaming china for the pandemic as was done by IDS today and echoing the rantings of Trump and Pompeo.
The new policy now is to try and reduce the panic. The chief medical officer has now picked the figure of 20,000 deaths as the projection of what will happen, and this has become the target of analysis. We were told on the BBC and Sky news by some analysts that this about 650 extra deaths due to Covid-19 as the others would have died anyway of flu or other cause and that this is the estimated excess mortality from the virus. But it is of course too early to make this assumption seeing that cases are still on the rise, and that any social distancing measure will take at least two to three weeks to show an effect.
I do hope that there is still a mechanism for retribution after the dust has settled and an enquiry would show how ill prepared the government was for this predicted scenario and has lost two months of planning. The parlous state of the NHS has come to light and the lack of a clear disaster contingency plan, or the lack of its implementation is a serious indictment of this government. But I am afraid it will not be the politicians who will be to blame.Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestTrot out the Tory Tripe, punctuated by dizzying supply numbers of kit that seems forever “on its way” and generous funds pledged, but not quite in support of those who need it most. With each broadcast, we brace ourselves to endure yet another monologue of self-congratulatory party political drivel that euphemistically passes for a “Press Briefing.”
This daily dose of dictates drowns out the main news and yet we feel inextricably compelled to watch and discover the worst that lies ahead. We dutifully tune in each day to learn the latest restrictions; the harsh commands of a Government that now dictates control over every aspect of our diminished lives, from whether we can afford to feed our kids to how long we will be permitted to venture outside our own front door and for what specific purpose. While I’m not suggesting that strict quarantine restrictions are unnecessary; I cannot help worrying about the imposition of Medical Marshal Law as what we are witnessing is the very epitome of a fledgling authoritarian police state under the supreme command of a Dictator.
On a daily basis the same important questions remain unanswered or neatly deferred with more procrastination over crucial issues like when vital PPE will actually be delivered to Hospital staff and when the long postponed testing mandated by WHO will begin? No one from the Government has been forced to explain why two precious months of preparation time was needlessly squandered when there was such a crystal clear indication of the scenario we would inevitably face in the UK. Are we three weeks behind Italy or just two? This pales in significance as our Tory Government stubbornly ignored the glaring warning signs and failed to adhere to WHO appeals to test, test, test, to quantify our risk, trace isolate infected cases.
There were the stunning examples of how Asian countries had swiftly brought the Covid 19 pandemic under control with massive testing programs, innovative technology used to trace all contacts, strict isolation of infected individuals and blocking of borders, but the elitist British always think that they know better! When other European countries banned large gatherings, the blasé Brits invited football fans to flock to Liverpool where they arrived unchecked from the Madrid hotspot of Covid 19! While sensible foreign Governments closed their schools and enforced cautious lock-downs, “Take Back Control” UK blundered on in stark defiance of the reality gripping our continent.
This morning’s grilling from Andrew Marr put Michael Gove on the spot: “Can I ask, when we will reach the peak?” Gove, seeking to suspend scrutiny replied that “…it depends on the actions that all of us take… practicing social distancing, if we follow the rules…” that typical Tory denial of responsibility was shocking as the scramble for blame begins in earnest. The sheer gall of Gove to raise the spectre of the Tories early warped strategy where the “science” had once supported “Herd Immunity,” now ridiculed and barely mentioned in embarrassment, replaced by a new rebrand of the Government’s continued advocacy of “good scientific advice!”
On Marr’s question about providing PPE for NHS staff there was another mealy mouthed diversion from Gove: “That’s what were seeking to do…” I want to know, why are we still seeking at this late stage of an imminent disaster? “We have known about Covid 19 since December” Marr protested; to which Gove claims that the Government has been “increasing testing over the last month…” He then adds that on testing we are “rising up the league tables” as if gaining comfort from the possibility that a few other national Governments are doing an even worse job than we are in the UK.
Defending Tory inaction Gove said “The important thing is not to look backwards, but to look forwards;” well I can understand that, as it would expose the massive failures of your inept governance. Gove pledged “when it’s over we will look back.” Sure, and waffle on about “lessons learned” by a Tory Government that never learns from even the most brutal lessons of its reckless past. From Gove there was yet more “seeking” he was “seeking to increase access to ventilators… seeking to upscale testing… seeking to increase production of PPE…” “Can you assure staff who, in the course of the last few days, should have received PPE?” Marr pressured Gove. So, did NHS staff actually get those supplies? Gove was starting to sound like “Where’s Waldo” seeking so much, but we are all wondering when he would find and more importantly when the Government would actually deliver?
Marr elaborated on one NHS supplier in Nantwich called “Direct Access,” who had resourced 2500 ventilators that they could have procured for the Government some weeks ago. Too late for that now! Gove meekly agreed to investigate as if it was the first time he had learned of it, despite several well circulated news reports of the failure. Gove prevaricated claiming perhaps they had “not met specifications” and the equipment was “not what’s required to save lives?” Another company mentioned was MEC a reputable manufacturer of ventilators who offered 500, but no reply from the government; sadly, Marr informed, “you missed the boat!”
Ignoring, bungling or misplacing the early offers of well established manufacturers of ventilators, according to Gove the Tories will channel funding to favoured private sector companies like Dyson, McLaron and Rolls Royce who will re-invent this urgently needed complex equipment from scratch. A totally new design and a rushed production-line is acceptable for simple supplies, but this strategy is potentially downright dangerous with a machine the delivers the crucial amount of air needed to sustain human life!
Marr pressed on: “let me ask you about the EU procurement scheme, which would have allowed Britain to get more and cheaper equipment that we desperately need and which we have not taken part in.” Good point, we all want to know why? Gove passed it off as “…there’s some confusion over our involvement in that scheme…” He went on to invoke “Senior figures in the NHS,” saying that it would not have made any difference and with a truly delusional Brexiteer flourish Gove boasted of British exceptionalism by commenting that there was “nothing we can’t do as an independent nation…” The Europeans are busy collaborating to resource kit, but we just arrogantly dismissed the EU offer of cooperation on bulk purchase supplies that now leaves the UK scrambling to meet the urgent demand!
Marr’s grilling continued apace. “The health service did an enormous project four years ago looking at an epidemic exactly like this, why did you not learn any lessons from that project?” Marr demanded to know. Gove defensively denied taking part, but appeared flustered as he claimed there were lessons learned, but awkwardly veered of the point with “more broadly” eager to return to “seeking at this time, and in the light of the best scientific and Medical advice, to respond appropriately… do the best we can…“ Obviously he didn’t get the memo on toning down that “scientific advice” Boris Shit, but then most Tory MPs are sticking with the same line. Gove ended with: “How do you put a price on life?” That’s a bit rich coming as it does from a hard right Tory proponent of ruthless austerity cuts! It was a relief to see Marr really put a Tory Minister on the spot for once.
The Sunday Telegraph has revealed that: “the NHS failed a major cross-government test of its ability to handle a severe pandemic but the “terrifying” results were kept secret from the public.” They go on to say that “Ministers were informed three years ago that Britain would be quickly overwhelmed by a severe outbreak amid a shortage of critical care beds, morgue capacity and personal protective equipment (PPE),” they said an investigation has discovered. “Codenamed Exercise Cygnus, the three-day dry run for a pandemic carried out in October 2016 tested how NHS hospitals and other services would cope in the event of a major flu outbreak with a similar mortality rate to Covid-19.” The Telegraph exclusive noted that “The report on Cygnus’s findings were deemed too sensitive by Whitehall officials to be made public.”
A Guardian article revealed that Tory ministers readily ignored the essential need to stockpile protective facemasks for our frontline staff in case of a pandemic flu outbreak…Why? That wasn’t considered cost effective, but under the “spare no expense” budget of “Operation Yellowhammer” it was important to stockpile body bags to prepare for the purely preventable damage of a hard crash-out Brexit! This is a damning demonstration of where their core priorities lie: a Tory Government unwilling to invest in the necessary precautionary lifesaving protective equipment was ready to accept the requirements of dealing with the unnecessary carnage that their chaotic Brexit fiasco might create! That warped thinking puts the genuine priorities of the people dead last and is truly sick.
The only positive punch-line of the pathetic Johnson Election campaign came when lying toad Boris promised forty new Hospitals for the NHS, but was this ghastly iteration really what was meant? The Nightingale’s are being prepared, giant warehouses for the condemned victims of the looming nightmare scenario ahead; all part of the preventable production-line of pain and suffering on passage to the morgue! The death toll has already surpassed 1,200 as mistakes made at high levels months ago will continue to have horrific repercussions in the next few weeks. The only strategy that has ever succeeded in getting the Covid 19 infection rate under control involves massive testing programs and strict tracing and isolation protocols, but this deluded Tory Government has yet to commit to this requirement as they seem absolutely determined to prove that the WHO are wrong.
In his Must Read Article “The Hammer and the Dance” author Tomas Pueyo describes: “What the Next 18 Months Can Look Like, if Leaders Buy Us Time.” The informative piece includes a lot of useful graphs to elaborate on the basic point he is trying to get across. He calls out our tepid response: “The US and UK, like countries such as Switzerland, have dragged their feet in implementing measures.” Pueyo lays out the likely consequences of a “Do Nothing” approach with the reality check that: “If 5% of your cases require intensive care and you can’t provide it, most of those people die. As simple as that.”
As I have also posted on the Coronavirus Forum: This author also raises an important point about “Collateral Damage,” noting that the numbers “only show people dying from coronavirus. But what happens if all your healthcare system is collapsed by coronavirus patients? Others also die from other ailments.” Quoting the total number of ICU admissions in the US in one year as 4 Million the likely death toll if there was no place for these patients in ICU is truly staggering. With a far smaller population in the UK the potential collateral damage of fatalities here in the UK added to Covid 19 deaths would be unacceptably high.
The case presented by Pueyo clearly demonstrates that we absolutely cannot afford to overwhelm our NHS. Unfortunately, we appear to be right on track to do just that if we do not impose stricter measures right away, but also start aggressively testing and tracing to track down and isolate cases before they spread the virus. It does not inspire confidence or reassure the public that the PM is taking the necessary measures seriously when not only has Boris Johnson tested positive, but also the Health Secretary, Mat Hancock plus the PMs Chief Medical Adviser, Chris Whitte, has developed mild symptoms and decided to self-isolate. Is Whitte postponing a test to avoid Boris’s “take it on the chin” bravado looking more like a total wipe out at the top?
New to the Tory Tripe propaganda line it was time to gain public acceptance of our grisly fate, an appallingly high body count that would need to become more palatable with frequent retelling to the shocked British public. We might keep the death toll down to less than 20,000, but only if we follow their orders to the letter. Do exactly as you are told and fewer will be killed by this dreadful disease, but they want you to believe that this is not in any way their fault. When their ineptitude causes us to breach that bloated boundary, after blaming and shaming the public for the stupidity of their non-compliance, will another arbitrary target be set?
Do not blame Tory incompetence, their stubborn ignorance as they disputed uncontrovertibly facts by advocating a “do nothing“ policy in the pretence that the Dom’s eugenics program of “Herd Immunity“ would provide sufficient damage control. The public recognized a classic Tory motivation with the financial advantage of a convenient extermination of our elderly and infirmed! Too late to undo the harm of inexcusable dithering they now want to disown the consequences of their abysmal decision making. Time to reframe the Tory spin, it will be portrayed as wilful public non-compliance and not their fault at all; the inevitable 20,000 lives lost the Tory “Slaughter of the Sheeple” is about to begin! But, it never had to be this way.
We could have vigorously fought back after the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, but we lapsed into a fatalistic complacency allowing the Tory lies to flood our airwaves with hype about “borrowed votes” and buying into that fear of being labelled a “sore loser.” But it is still not too late to “Rescue our Watchdog” and demand a thorough investigation into the stolen Election. I know many of you feel that the Covid 19 crisis demands our urgent attention and right now this must remain our priority. But Covid 19 and the Covert 2019 Rigged Election are inextricably linked. Unless we remove this Tory Government from office we will be forced to accept the tragic consequences of their dangerous decisions that will continue to put so many innocent lives at risk and the “Slaughter of the Sheeple” will proceed unabated.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestCovid 19 “Emergency Measures” are being manipulated by leaders intent on solidifying authoritarian rule, with Hungary’s Victor Orban leading the assault on Democracy. How soon before his known admirers in our hard Right Tory Government demand similar untrammelled power? Covid “viral coup” is currently decimating the toxic team at number ten, further weakened today as “Herd Immunity” advocate, Dominic Cummings, himself joins the “Herd.” This might defer their power grab for a week or two, but not for much longer than that, as an absent parliament is the perfect scrutiny free environment to forward their dictatorial aims.
The Guardian documents how: “Hungary’s parliament has passed a new set of coronavirus measures that includes jail terms for spreading misinformation and gives no clear time limit to a state of emergency that allows the nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to rule by decree.” Orbán’s Fidesz party had the advantage of a two-thirds majority to ignore the valid concerns of opposition parties who called for an end date or sunset clause for the emergency legislation.
The overwhelming majority gifted to Boris Johnson in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election fake “landslide victory” would allow the Tories to overrule opposition objections in the UK to an unlimited extension of draconian “Emergency Powers” in exactly the same way as Orbán’s Fidesz party has. Some of these alarming measures were openly pledged on page 48 of the Tory Manifesto, with new limitations on the power of the Judiciary and attacks on our Human Rights. The Tory Election campaign itself provided ample demonstration of absolute control over the media including our supposedly neutral state run broadcaster, the BBC. The judiciary and the press are always the first to come under attack in the march to Dictatorship.
In an earlier Guardian article written before the decisive vote, Márta Pardavi, co-chair of the Hungarian Helsinki Committee, said “You can’t have a completely unrestricted mandate for the government. The current draft does exactly that. It basically gives an open-ended carte-blanche mandate.” The Budapest-based think tank Political Capital commented that “The past 10 years have served as ample proof that the Hungarian government exploits and abuses opportunities to weaken institutions serving as a check on its power, whenever it has the chance to do so. Extraordinary legal situations are very easy to introduce, but it is much harder to return to business as usual afterwards.”
Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, a French Green MEP who represents the European parliament on Hungary and the rule of law, warned that Hungary had been taking a “a dangerous turn away” from democratic standards. “Viktor Orbán must not be given a carte blanche to further empower himself and strip away Hungarian citizens’ democratic rights under the auspices of tackling the corona crisis,” she said. “the EU had left it late to respond to decade-old concerns about democratic backsliding and the weakening of the rule of law under the Orbán government. Sadly for Hungary, we have been so far [behind] that I am a bit lost [as to] what we can do now.”
Orbán’s onslaught on democracy has not gone unnoticed by the EU, but it has remained a member state while determinedly flaunting the upholding of democratic principles that form the basis of membership. Over a year ago the Guardian reported: “MEPs vote to pursue action against Hungary over Orbán crackdown – Parliament votes for first time to trigger article 7 procedure against a member state. The European parliament has voted to trigger the EU’s most serious disciplinary procedure against Hungary, saying the country’s government poses a “systematic threat” to democracy and the rule of law.”
However Hungary is not the EU’s only trouble spot as reported by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group in an Article: “Dictatorship law that could force Poland out of the EU brings thousands out in protest.” Commenting on the implementation of EU Law: “This is not the first attempt by the right-wing PiS [‘Law and Justice’] party in power to seize control of the judiciary, however the measures proposed against independent judges are so openly repressive that the law would inevitably raise questions about Poland’s continued membership of the European Union.”
In their description of the steady progression towards Dictatorship the group note similarities with their own leadership in Ukraine saying that: “On coming to power in 2015, the PiS government behaved very much like UKraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych and his Party of the Regions in 2010. There were blitzkrieg moves to ‘tame’ a major part of the media and legislation to secure control over the judiciary. In Poland’s case this has meant that public television has effectively become a mouthpiece for the ruling party, with all issues of public importance, including the attack on an independent judiciary, reported with major distortion and manipulation.”
The same areas of attack in both Hungary and Poland are definitely on the Tory agenda; certainly the BBC has already “become a mouthpiece for the ruling Tory Party.” We must seriously consider the alarming warning signs demonstrated by the steady encroachment on democracy that has occurred under Orbán starting with the classic well recognized danger signs of dictatorship: attacks on the Judiciary and freedom of the press. The hard Right faction of the Tory Party that seized control following the Covert 2019 Rigged Election hugely admire Victor Orbán; his totalitarian rule is the model they will follow if given the chance. We cannot give them that chance.
When Boris Johnson crashes us out of the EU in December even the hope of a belated intervention by the EU due to unacceptable Human Rights violations will no longer be available to us in the UK: that is the Tory Brexit end game. While we remain in the transition period there is still an outside chance that British Citizens, both here and on the continent, plus EU Citizens resident here could potentially appeal to the EU to protect our Human Rights by challenging the Covert 2019 Rigged Election and possibly the Brexit Referendum result for the same reason: fraud and corruption.
By December it will be too late to appeal to the EU so we must not delay efforts to “Rescue our Watchdog” and demand a thorough investigation into the stolen Election. I know many of you feel that the Covid 19 crisis demands our urgent attention, but the Tory Party will not let this crisis go to waste; they will take full advantage with “Emergency Powers” granted temporarily, but permanently enforced as is the fear in Hungary. Covid 19 and the Covert 2019 Rigged Election are inextricably linked. Unless we remove this Tory Government from office we will be forced to accept the perpetual Human Rights limitations of “Medical Marshal Law” setting us on the path to Dictatorship.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestDon’t we all feel so secure in the knowledge that our leaders have consistently made all the right choices? Not! Why squander money on protective kit for your expendable NHS staff in preparation for a global Pandemic that might still be a few months or even a few years off? Instead you should prioritize the renewal of our Trident Nuclear deterrent so you can claim strategic importance in a war that would totally annihilate almost everything on the entire planet! To an Eaton educated toff that makes perfect sense… A really “strong leader” is going to opt for complete wipe out of the human race; why doesn’t Corbyn get the importance of that? How unpatriotic! Now Jo Swinson, she is on side; Boris can count on drafting her in to push the button as she’s said she was up for that.
So here we are grotesquely unprepared for the biggest challenge our nation will face since the Second World War knowing that our Government has funded those Nuclear subs to protect us from an enemy that will probably never be foolish enough to strike even if they had a valid reason to do so. The jingoistic politicians will invent a reason just to ramp up the fear and concern over an enemy that has never attempted to be openly hostile towards us. We need to construct an enemy or we cannot justify the need for a deadly deterrent and without all that animosity and sabre rattling our MPs would shrink back down to the scared, diminished little boys they really are behind that Eaton arrogance.
Without that constant fear of the Russian threat we might have progressive Socialist politicians trying to divert the funding for our precious arsenal towards programs that are genuinely needed to secure public safety and the tangible welfare of us all. How unspeakably abhorrent that, after the neo-liberal decimation wrought by Thatcher and a decade of austerity, we might actually vote for a Government that was firmly focused on the public good. It was such a crying shame that when the progressives offered real hope to our nation, desperate for change, their victory was snatched away by Tory fraud in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election.
It was such a cruel trick when Tories doubled down to gloat, brandishing that grotesque lie about “borrowed votes” and forcing Labour MPs to grovel in humiliation to reinforce the validity of that totally inexplicable Covert 2019 Rigged Election result. They would have worked hard to end the grinding poverty, deprivation and suffering that a decade of unnecessary austerity cuts had inflicted on most UK citizens. They would have raised the living wage, and scraped Universal Credit: the driving force of destitution, homelessness and reliance on food banks. They would have build affordable homes for ordinary people to live in ending the insecurity of the private rental profiteering.
Aside from the enticing election pledges, there were sound underlying policies like the “Green New Deal,” Nationalization of utilities and transport, but also the investment in neglected infrastructure gutted by years of senseless Tory cuts. There would not have been time to strengthen our flood defences to avoid the deluge that swamped so many homes, but it would not have been ignored by a part-time PM holidaying on a Caribbean island and immediately forgotten the second the water subsided! The years of underfunding our NHS could not have been fixed overnight, but it would have been an urgent priority under Labour.
When Covid 19 first appeared in Wuhan a responsible Government would have assessed the inherited lack of vital kit and staffing resources, quantified the potential risk to our country and prepared accordingly by first making sure that our NHS was braced for the devastating potential of a global Pandemic. We knew this was on its way in January so this urgent task should have been at least partially accomplished before the end of February with a basic set of precautionary restrictions advised for the most at risk groups, vigilant checks at points of border entry, testing and tracing. We will never get on top of this crisis until the Government adheres to the WHO demand to test, test, test!
There will be little to celebrate by December of 2020 as the Tory team plan to crash us out of the EU without a deal, severely compounding the extreme hardship that will be gripping the nation even if we have managed to emerge from the trauma of the Covid 19 Pandemic. It would be typical of the sick mind of Boris Johnson to promote Covid 19 Christmas decorations in “fever red” and iridescent bilious green, obscene blobs with lots of protuberances to lodge on the festive tree! I doubt it would occur to him that half the population would be too impoverished to celebrate even if they were not starving.
In really does not have to be this way, but we cannot afford to procrastinate any longer; we must take the actions necessary to remove this rogue Tory Government ASAP before their abysmal poor judgement causes even more catastrophic harm. December is a harsh deadline where we will lose any right to appeal to the EU for justice and help to correct the Covert 2019 Rigged Election the result that scuppered our right to a democratic confirmatory vote on Brexit. It is not too late to challenge the rigged vote if we can gather the crucial evidence.
The EU cannot ignore the risk of the far Right Nationalist takeover in Hungary and Poland; they must try hard to re-establish the democratic rules that govern the EU and maintain a peaceful collaboration between all member states. The EU should also act swiftly to prevent the UK from becoming a Singapore style tax haven on the edge of the continent, exploiting its citizens in a virtual slave state; they could try to help us rescue our democracy. The consequences of refusing to get involved will see the EU dominated by dangerous authoritarian Dictatorships. We cannot allow Covid 19 to become the vehicle helping to enable this nightmare scenario to evolve in the UK.
SA
GuestWhilst people are dying, our clown PM finds time for a joke
Boris Johnson has largely managed to cloak his clownish persona when leveling with Britain about the severity of the coronavirus outbreak. But the prime minister reportedly slipped back into bad habits on a Monday night conference call with manufacturers, who have been urged to join a national effort to produce more medical ventilators for the impending medical crisis. Politico reports that some of the business leaders were “less than impressed” with Johnson’s conduct on the call, with one saying: “He couldn’t help but act the clown, even though he was a on call with serious CEOs from goodness knows how many companies.” The same unnamed business leader is reported to have said the prime minister “joked” that the emergency project to build more life-saving ventilators could be known as “Operation Last Gasp.”
This shows the level of thought of this buffoon in charge. But it also underlines an even deeper flaw of thinking. The government has not shown any sign of urgency in dealing with stopping the infection other than social isolation. The military should be deployed in helping in distribution food to prevent people from unnecessary shopping journeys, hotels should be requisitioned to isolate mild case in quarantine. But of course Johnson’s focus on the high tech end of things, respirators, which are so much down the line and would be better sourced from manufacturers with proven track records and licensed products, instead of by turning to companies in which the Tories hold shares for a bit of diversion of the main issues showing the incompetence.
As the WHO urged from the outset, nothing can substitute for testing, testing, testing, and also isolation.Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestTrot out more Tory Tripe, punctuated by dizzying supply numbers of kit that seems forever “on its way” and generous funds pledged, but not quite in support of those who need it most. Another depressing and frustrating Tory spin “Press Briefing” came and went with a lot more questions asked but, just as many legitimate queries left unanswered. The presenters ducked and weaved in their efforts to evade the reality that on the ground, despite all the expansive numbers and reassuring delivery boasts, the crucial kit has not arrived and NHS personnel are still chronically short of PPE. Attempts to divert attention from the disgraceful facts and avoid scrutiny included the usual gushing compliments and flowery tributes to frontline staff who rightfully feel they are being treated like “cannon fodder!”
The success of Asian countries in getting the epidemic under control was proof positive of the importance of massive nationwide testing programs. Over a month ago the WHO implored us all to test, test, test, but UK Tories have so far arrogantly ignored these warnings with an anti-EU aloof “Britain knows best approach.” It really doesn’t matter to the Tories that their sick eugenics program has been exposed and universally debunked as dangerous lunacy when they have total control over the strategy that will be forced on the UK public. Above all else this is about controlling the PR spin with the help of our subservient BBC and the compliant Right wing media, both of which are in the bag!
So why must we endure this prolonged and inexcusable wait for widespread testing to begin in the UK, where even our precious NHS staff are denied access to Covid 19 tests? Beyond Gove’s impotent “seeking” and the mealy mouthed “intentions” that “over the coming weeks” the necessary testing will increase to tens of thousands every day, there are the endless excuses about the supply chain and access to the critical reagents necessary for wide-scale testing to proceed. But, yet again, this feeble excuse does not conform to the reality that we could very easily manufacture the reagent in the UK as we already produce all of the required chemicals domestically.
The shallow spin doctors then turned to raising the possibility that it comes down to a lack of facilities to analyse the tests that still creates a delay in rolling out more testing. But this too is a bogus claim as there are dozens of reliable top quality labs throughout the country that have not yet been enlisted to help meet the need to ramp up this vital support. One such lab facility in Oxford, undeterred by haphazard Government dithering, responded promptly after being approached by local GP Surgeries concerned over the urgent need to test their staff: the lab set up a reliable service to accommodate the demand for testing.
Once again a tight group of Tory deception artists offered us a barely credible excuse by planting the seeds of doubt regarding the reliability of the currently available test kits, as if the rest of Europe had decided to just “wing it” with dodgy lab work while trusty Tory ministers demanded a higher standard for the Brits! There have been hints, so far just unsubstantiated defamatory rumours, that Spain was caught off guard and deceived by unreliable Covid 19 tests. In reality the Tory propaganda being used to persuade us not to trust these tests is just a re-emergence of the mendacious Tory warnings not to trust experts.
The Tory gross mismanagement of this crisis is starting to show as their impressive pronouncements fail to gloss over the reality relayed to the media throughout the UK. The Government’s shock horror comparisons with the worst hit countries currently suffering a higher body count merely predict a frightening trajectory we are destined to exceed. The whataboutery of criticizing Spain and France for unreported deaths in their care homes and the wider community does not build public confidence as the true picture of distorted under-reporting of Covid 19 fatalities in the UK seeps out raising the spectre of deliberate Government dishonesty about the extent of the crisis.
It was Dominic Cummings who had arrogantly declared that the Tory Party “doesn’t care about poor people” as they were intent on dismantling our NHS. Thanks for the warning Dom, but most of us knew that already! Once again it took the Dom, mouthing off in his arrogant glee, to articulate the heartless Tory agenda with regard to Covid 19; the disgraceful sentiment of shocking Tory shame: the elite must focus on the economy, undoubtedly to protect their wealth and privilege, while “if a few elderly die, too bad!” The Tory Government’s Herd Immunity policy was clearly a well calculated culling program designed to eradicate those receiving the regular state benefit of a pension!
The horrific political choice of “Herd Immunity,” advanced by Dominic Cummings, was a strategy of accepting that we must be prepared to sacrifice our seniors in strategy that can only be accurately described as the “Holocaust of Care.” Sadly, the evidence of procrastination, poor decision making and pathetic excuses paints a clearer picture of the underlying strategy with every passing day. Herd Immunity has not been abandoned, far from it, this shockingly brutal Tory campaign has just gone underground and morphed from “do nothing” into intentionally delay, divert and distract to accomplish the exact same goal.
The Tory Government is simply taking the necessary steps in preparing to manage the preventable extermination of the most vulnerable sector of our population, our elderly. The Nightingale facility has been hastily established, not to save countless lives, but to deliberately give the false impression that the Government has spared no expense to upscale and support our NHS. The huge capacity of the converted Excel Centre is completely focused on end-stage patients who will require ventilator support before many of them inevitably die. These are the people who are most likely not to survive, making this impressive facility little more than a grisly warehouse on passage to the morgue!
For the wealthy elite there’s still plenty of scope for obscene profit making along the way as the Tories turn to their top donors in the weapons industry, BAE, to produce lifesaving ventilators! This explains the Tory focus on end-stage management rather than facilitating containment through adequate prevention with PPE and testing. We cannot allow the Tory Government to manipulate this Covid 19 outbreak or stand idly by as their dystopian nightmare scenario achieves a “Holocaust of Care” in the UK. The mismanagement of this crisis is not just deadly it has become increasingly clear that there was a deliberate decision made to cull the most vulnerable in our population and Herd Immunity remains the instrument selected to achieve that ultimate goal.
The only way to change direction is to have a trustworthy team in charge, but that requires us to take the Covert 2019 Rigged Election very seriously, demand a thorough investigation of the mounting evidence and hopefully remove this toxic Tory Government from office. We can no longer afford complacent procrastination until after the Covid 19 crisis has passed while the public is continuously indoctrinated to accept our gruesome fate presented daily through the fake “scientific lens” of the Dom’s failed eugenics concept. Covid 19 has been coapted as the vehicle for the Tory “Slaughter of the Sheeple!”
J
GuestAs I’ve said again and again, without the full breakdown of local results and a wide ranging database of lost/rejected/refused votes voters we’ll get nowhere. I don’t see any new evidence here unless you know something I don’t.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
Guest“Are your rats dying in more than unusual numbers?” Well our King Rat, Boris, is still in self-imposed quarantine in his luxury Downing Street “nest,” but other Tory Rats have continued their relentless scavenging, tenaciously fighting to preserve their own privileged dominance as per normal. When you arrive in a foreign port it is a universally accepted procedure to fly a yellow “Q” flag to request quarantine clearance. I was told that the bizarre initial question used to be on the quarantine questionnaire presented to Captains sailing into Bermuda as it was once considered relevant information to determine the absence of infection.
In the Seychelles the Quarantine Officer arrived with a can of insecticide to spay the cabin of our boat, but I was told that they also took this precaution with incoming flights, to kill potential malaria carrying mosquitoes. In Australia they expect you to ditch all of your fresh produce before entry, but after a 7,650 mile passage from Uruguay on leg two of the Whitbread race fresh food was just a fantasy invading our minds as we crawled into a bunk. Varying from country to country, there are vaccination requirements that control entry, but such vital precautionary measures have been the accepted norm in place to keep our populations and the natural environment safe all over the world for hundreds of years. There is no major deviation from what is required as we must adjust quarantine appropriately in response to the threat posed by Covid 19.
Contrast the inappropriately nonchalant response at Heathrow Airport for those flying into the UK from overseas in the midst of a massive, very serious, global Pandemic. No questions, no health checks, no temperature check, no precautionary warnings or restrictions imposed and no advice on how to proceed despite the country being in a state of partial lock-down. In the Canary Article: “Britons cite ‘shocking’ lack of medical checks and advice after landing back in UK,” returning passengers remark on the difference between how this challenge is dealt with in the countries they have left and the shocking blasé attitude of UK authorities.
We were jolted by news of football fans flying in from the epicentre of Covid 19 infection in Madrid with no checks or restrictions, but that blunder was weeks ago before matches were cancelled and large gatherings banned. Have we learned nothing in the interim? It seems not. Why are we still taking such huge risks with the health of our citizens months into the onset of this crisis? Is this just an incompetent oversight or yet another component of “Herd Immunity” as we deliberately ignore the potential risk of more infected individuals entering the country to augment the expanding hidden statistic of people with Covid 19 in our communities?
Did the Tories really abandon Herd Immunity or is it secretly supported and encouraged while they do what Tories always do best, incessantly lie to the public? The total absence of any logical quarantine checks at UK points of entry is certainly not an isolated policy discrepancy, which begs the question is Herd Immunity still the core Tory strategy? Ongoing issues are troubling; the fiasco over providing adequate PPE supplies to NHS staff and delays over expanding testing beyond the pitiful number being done right now, with just over 2000 among the half million workforce in the NHS having been tested so far. These faults and failings diminish public confidence in the Tory leadership team even while King Rat and the menacing maniac that bites his tail remain confined to their respective nests.
King Rat and other dominant rodents are about to emerge from self-isolation following an amazing one week reprieve from having to constantly endure their daily preaching. Mat Hancock took to the pulpit with more promises of ramped up testing despite a scale back on what was boldly pledged by the PM in parliament an age ago. After we had patiently waded through the Health Secretary’s mix of accolades to abandoned NHS staff, over-egged speculation on future testing and self-congratulatory hype, we anticipated tough questioning. However the accommodating BBC abruptly broke away from the press briefing to spare the Rat Hancock any undue embarrassment. Did any reporters quiz the Rat on his shambolic personal failure to take up offers from multiple University lab teams to get that vital testing accelerated weeks ago? We will never know… cut to a breaking report on….the weather!
One question we did hear posed to the potentially Covid free Rat at the podium was about why the NHS advice is again at variance with WHO guidelines over post Covid infection isolation. Reminded that his brief period of confinement fell short of the recognized period for remaining an infection risk to others, Hancock hastily retreated behind the familiar shield of our superior UK scientific advice; this, despite receiving dubious council from the same advisory team in the past. I doubt that Covid 19 magically vacates its tormented hosts after exactly one week of symptomatic misery in all of the milder cases. Determined to deviate from the well informed recommendations of the WHO, advice driven by global scientific data on Covid 19 from around the world to remain in isolation for two weeks, the arrogant Brits always expect special circumstances to apply to them. Tories never learn!
How do you wipe out a veracious colony of scavenging Tory Rats? Set Traps: well most have been set by the Tory Government’s own chronic ineptitude and persistent blunders. Distribute Poison: Websites, the press and even the BBC are starting to scrutinize and fault the appalling mismanagement and sheer lunacy of current Tory policy. It has taken months of grotesque incompetence to get to this point, but the unbridled sycophantic adoration of Boris Johnson by the MSM might finally be coming to a cynical end with journalist of all persuasions starting to ask tough questions at last. I note that even the trashy tabloids are targeting the Tories now!
Last, but not least, we must unleash a few hungry Cats. We need our public spirited opposition parties to aggressively bare their claws, put this disastrous Government on the spot and get these Tory Rats on the run. This is no time for meek mewing that will enable further dangerous procrastination and lethal policy decisions to continue risking countless lives unabated. A new leader of the opposition reshuffling the deck is an unnecessary distraction during a time of national crisis. Corbyn is no tame pussy and we should demand immediate suspension of the leadership contest to unify behind the stable Labour team already in place, but too late for such sanity!
I continue to maintain that Covid 19 and the Covert 2019 Rigged Election are inextricably linked in that we have no control over critical policy regarding the former until we have dealt with the injustice of the latter. If an investigation exposed the fraud of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election then Corbyn should replace the part-time PM and sling the other rats out by the tail. We cannot afford to wait for Tory rats to desert their sinking ship after the Titanic disaster created by King Rat Boris in public office. We must campaign to rid this country of the pestilence infesting Westminster right now!
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestJ – There are people out there still collecting and tabulating the data and I feel the need to encourage them not to give up or become distracted by the Covid 19 crisis. I keep reminding people that disastrous mismanagement of the Covid 19 and the Covert 2019 Rigged Election are inextricably linked because we will not get appropriate attention paid to prioritizing patients, the NHS and vulnerable people until we remove this sham Tory Government from office. If the Tories successfully bury the Covert 2019 Rigged Election fraud then they will continue to manipulate the Covid 19 crisis to achieve their shocking agenda that will include a Holocaust of those in Care.
What we really need most is to bring a professional Investigative Journalist onboard to sift through the data that has been compiled and chase down leads. I have contacted a number of journalists who might potentially be interested in getting involved, but it is a tough ask during a time of national crisis. It is important to elaborate on the impact exposing the Covert 2019 Rigged Election fraud would have on how the Covid 19 crisis could be managed with a progressive Government in place. While other people contacting them over the same issue will help to persuade them so will keeping this discussion alive at a time when many people are worried about their own basic survival.
There is also the potential that there might be one or more crucial Whistleblowers out there who could come forward with game-changing information. As a former Whistleblower I understand only too well the impediments to uncovering the truth and speaking out publically. Whistleblowers often feel very much alone and isolated in their quest to reveal the truth feeling that they will not be believed. That is one of the most effective weapons that is used to silence Whistleblowers and it is a hard barrier to overcome knowing you will be ridiculed, vilified and torn apart by powerful special interests trying to silence them. A major reason to keep this Forum going is to offer refuge and support to anyone who finds the courage to come forward and supply crucial information as a Whistleblower.
The other component that might move this in a forward direction is a huge spike in publicity surrounding the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, but this will only happen if there are places like this Forum and the Daily GasLamp Blog putting the word out there. This issue needs to get picked up by the Twitter icon who posts as Rachael_Swindon or another highly read, noticeable figure. You might be able to help by pointing such people to this Forum. I have also sent an email to the “Led by Donkeys” team in the hope that they might take up the cause. When they started with their poster campaign most of the UK had been bullied into silence with that fake “Will of the People” BS, but they really turned things around.
In the coming weeks the faults and failings of this self-interest motivated band of incompetents running the country will start to cost thousands of lives. The Tory “Final Solution” for Care of our elderly relatives through deliberately allowing Covid 19 to spread unchecked is sickening enough, but when loyal NHS staff start dying because they were sent to the frontline like cannon fodder without proper PPE kit there will be outrage. The press are starting to become more critical with less pandering to the Tories and ordinary people all over the UK will soon be clamouring for ways to get these selfish brutes removed from office ASAP; do not give up, there is a way: Covert 2019 Rigged Election!
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestIn his recent Blog post “How it Starts” written in response to the Tory Government’s shambolic handling of the Covid 19 crisis, Craig just wrote: “The lack of contingency preparedness is completely indefensible. It is partly a result of the stupidity of Tory austerity that has the NHS permanently operating at 100% capacity with no contingency, and partly the result of the crazed just-in time thinking that permeates management in all spheres and eliminates the holding of stock.
It is incredible to me that the UK is willing to throw away some £220 billion and rising on Trident against a war scenario nobody can sensibly define, but was not willing to spend a few million on holding stock of protective clothing for the NHS against the much more likely contingency of a pandemic. What does that say about our society?”
This echoed my cynical comments in an earlier post of mine when I said: “…Why squander money on protective kit for your expendable NHS staff in preparation for a global Pandemic that might still be a few months or even a few years off? Instead you could prioritize the renewal of our Trident Nuclear deterrent so you can claim strategic importance in a war that would totally annihilate almost everything on the entire planet! That makes perfect sense… A really “strong leader” is going to opt for complete wipe out of the human race; why doesn’t Corbyn get the importance of that? How unpatriotic! …
So here we are grotesquely unprepared for the biggest challenge our nation will face since the Second World War knowing that our Government has funded those Nuclear subs to protect us from an enemy that will never be foolish enough to strike even if they had a valid reason to do so. The jingoistic politicians will invent a reason just to ramp up the fear and concern over an enemy that has never attempted to be openly hostile towards us.” In reality the most serious threats to our nation are the random terrorism that our warped foreign policy has provoked, a global Pandemic as we are witnessing with the Covid 19 crisis, but also the rampant disease of PsyOps deception and fraud infecting our democracy that we experienced with the Covert 2019 Rigged Election.
London’s Excel Conference Centre just completed its miraculous nine day transformation to become “a place of hope and a place of healing “ as the Nightingale Hospital. Partitions in place it was rapidly filled with expensive Hospital beds and will soon to be equipped with brand new high-end ventilation equipment, which will cost a pretty penny. There was some very serious money to be made here and a few Tory benefactors to please with lucrative contracts for an NHS facility that was designed to impress the public with its “no expense spared” propaganda spin. Tories will never let a good crisis go to waste!
Disposable gowns, single use face masks and cheap protective visors, that’s dime store kit for the staff. Normally bought from Asia at very low cost, this was a far less attractive area of supply if you wanted to make a quick buck. No wonder PPE slipped so far down the priority list when Hancock started calling around his friends to see who could turn a profit out of the current situation. It had not been deemed cost effective to retain a decent stockpile if PPE in preparation for an emergency, consequently our frontline Healthcare workers were running low and crying out for fresh supplies. NHS staff would have to make do and wait for that cheap kit from overseas to ship in while the boss made repeated lame excuses to reassure the public it was on its way.
The grisly death toll rising by over 600 patients in a day is no surprise as Hancock once again leads the daily briefing. Chastised in a previous announcement for honouring the brave NHS Doctors who had died, without acknowledging that Nursing staff were falling victim too, he reported that two NHS Nurses in their thirties had died of Covid 19. With far less fanfare, due to their lower status, it was briefly mentioned that two Nursing Assistants had also died of the virus; we need to remember that the delivery of care is a team effort where the contribution of everyone involved is vital to success. These courageous NHS staff were needlessly sacrificed due in part to the continuing incompetence of Tory Government supply chain blunders over PPE.
When Hancock waffles on with his shallow insincere accolades directed at ordinary workers who have been so severely exploited by the Tory Government for the past decade; it’s just nauseating to listen. Even cleaners are commended for their dedication now, but they will not be rescued from the slave wage poverty of a zero hours contract while the Tories remain in power. Shame on all those Tory MPs who loudly applauded their approval for denying a Nursing pay rise and voted to remove the Nursing bursary; the British public have not forgotten where your real priorities lie.
Prince Charles performed his first “Virtual Official Opening” of the London Nightingale from his safe bolthole north of the border after his fortunate recovery from a disease that so effectively kills ordinary people. Medical staff half his age face a far tougher challenge, bombarded by this virus from highly infected patients, they struggle to cope without the proper kit to keep them safe. Their fearless dedication to duty will save many lives. It remains a sad reality that if they had been soldiers in need of guns, bullets and grenades to kill the enemy de jour, they would not have been left wanting by the callous Tory team responsible for decimated our NHS.
This carnage was so avoidable if it had been confronted in a well coordinated effort at an earlier date. Vigilant checks at our airports and other points of entry could have identified infected travellers as soon as they arrived and ordered an immediate two week quarantine for all those returning to the UK from overseas. An early program of testing and tracing contacts could have keep the spread in check. There was time to start stockpiling PPE kit, ordering equipment and ramping up testing capabilities as the Government knew Covid 18 was on its way as early as January.
An evaluation of high transit cities would have identified London as a very high risk area for infection to spread rapidly. The elderly and those at increased personal risk could have been strongly encouraged to limit their social contacts or consider self-isolation from the very beginning of March, just as I had decided to do myself to limit the potential burden I might place on the NHS. The elderly and disabled requiring help would have had time to establish support contacts and get delivery of essentials in place before the panic buying overwhelmed their capacity to cope.
People not connected to the Internet, unaccustomed to using such technology or unable to afford it are struggling to adjust to the requirements of Online banking and ordering of groceries so that they can remain in isolation. Not everyone on the planet has a smart phone! The people least likely to be familiar with such equipment are among the most vulnerable in our country. Trying to rely on a more familiar technology is fraught with frustration and interminable waiting times only to be told to go Online. To initiate Online banking they need an email and a mobile number to text… This Tory Government knew exactly who would be most severely impacted by the hardships of this crisis, but so far they have failed to put supportive measures in place.
Those most susceptible to the disease could just as easily starve to death isolated in their homes or abandoned in care homes as infection becomes rife due to low paid care givers trying to provide support while unprotected and without being tested to determine if they are infected. Was this a tragedy of incompetence or intent? It certainly appears that the Tories seized upon this crisis as a “Final Solution” to create a “Holocaust in Care!” The reckless Tory policies have deliberately constructed another way to torment and exploit the poor. Those struggling through the benefit system, or already living in severe hardship relying on food banks, will have the weakest immunity to fight the ravages of Covid 19; young victims, even children, will die in the “Slaughter of the Sheeple!”
Bristol and Harrogate now added to the new Nightingale facilities to be converted at pace in Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow; a total of seven following on from the London example, but all destined to become a grim warehouses filled with helpless patients in transit to the morgue. Rapidly equipping these new facilities will become another cash cow for the wealthy elite with Tory favoured companies making a killing on lucrative contracts while offered a perfect PR opportunity to buff that tarnished Tory image by spending money on the iconic British NHS. Who will staff them and will they get regular supplies of PPE are less urgent priorities that succumb to perpetual annoying procrastination and delay.
Tories will never let a good crisis go to waste! It never had to be this way, but the juggernaut of Tory profiteering will not be derailed by opposition complacency. This is the ruthless Tory agenda that the stolen majority of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election gifted to Boris Johnson and we cannot change policy without removing this corrupt Government. A credible investigation of the alleged “landslide victory” result is urgently needed to “Rescue our Watchdog” and restore our failing democracy for the good of the people of this country. Any Labour realignment to help enable the unfolding carnage of the Covid 19 crisis is totally unacceptable and must be strongly resisted. The EU could be persuaded to help us restore our rights, but not if we waist time and do nothing.
SA
GuestThey seem to be concentrating on the high end high profit part, the fancy respirators and newly sprung nightingale hospitals, but skimping on the cheaper PPE, wider testing and isolation of early cases which are still highly infectious. Instead those with early and mild disease stay at home to distribute the disease to those living within the same household. Masks should also be widely distributed to everyone as a recent Nature article suggests that they are protective because they reduce dissemination of the virus from carriers but also protect the wearer. But this very simple measure is unavailable.
Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestSA – Face Masks worn by infected people, or those suspected of being infected, reduce the distance infectious droplets can be projected by a sneeze or cough. A massive grey area complicating this issue is that people who are entirely symptom free may still be able to infect others. This is true of the period before they start to experience symptoms and potentially for as long as two weeks beyond the point they feel well again. This is why the WHO have recommended a longer isolation period than this arrogantly stubborn Tory Government, who abruptly cut the total isolation period down to just seven days! This misguided variance suggests that either the PM is determined to follow poor advice or they are still relying on Herd Immunity, but at a more controlled pace.
While a blanket assumption that all of us are potentially infected would require us all to wear masks, the reality is there are barely enough to maintain regular supplies for our Medical staff and care givers who must take priority. For those who are confident that they have not had any opportunity to become infected, but need to venture out to shop, Face Masks do help to limit the infection risk we all take by touching our face without thinking after picked up germs from something we have made contact with. The recommendations for hand washing and using hand sanitizer will combat infection caused by this natural impulse.
Even the most efficient cleaning crews cannot keep pace with the need to constantly sanitize the things we touch, so carry your own supply of antimicrobial wipes to sanitize the rail, the door handle, call buttons, keypads etc. as this will offer another layer of protection. This potential for infection through contact with frequently touched surfaces is why the vague term “Social Distancing” is so inadequate. A far more comprehensive and easily understandable instruction that even a small child can grasp would be: “Avoid people and the things that people touch!”
In an earlier post I wrote: “You might avoid contracting the virus from an infected person by keeping a safe distance apart, but then pick up the bug from the door handle they grabbed just before you touched it yourself. We must become a lot more conscious of the things that we all come in direct contact with so frequently every day as the virus will survive on hard surfaces for up to 72hours. Carry a supply of antimicrobial wipes with you in a Ziploc bag and wipe the door handle, the ATM keypad, the access or lift button, before you touch it. This is just one more line of defence to include in your armoury.”
I wanted to come up with an acceptable alternative for increased protection that would not impinge of critical supplies that must be reserved for our besieged Hospital and Care staff who are being let down so badly by this Tory Government’s shambolic supply chain deficiencies. To read about my personal solution using wash and reuse fabric mask protection go to the Forum on Covid 19.
A revealing “List of Lies” was posted on the Skwawkbox under “Don’t know where this is from” one of the comments latter identifies the author, Ricky Coxon. I decided to take their advice to copy and paste this list here on our Forum since the Skwawkbox have said: “It’s something you certainly won’t see or read in the ‘mainstream’ media. Share widely.”
Govt: We’re talking to supermarkets
Supermarkets: You’re notGovt: There’s a shortage of chemicals
Chemicals companies: There isn’tGovt: The science has changed
Scientists: No it hasn’tGovt: We never got the email
EU: Yes you didGovt: 25,000 tests per day
PHE: 7,000 tests per dayGovt: Ventilator companies are making ventilators for us
Ventilator Companies: you never got back to us. Dyson are thoughGovt: We’ve got 30,000 ventilators coming
Dyson: actually, it’s 30 for nowGovt: PPE has been delivered
NHS: No it hasn’tGovt: We’ve built the Nightingale
Nurses: but no one can staff it thoughGovt: Unprecedented economic package!
Self-employed: Not until June!Govt: Banks will give you short term loans
Banks: 40% overdraft rates and we want your home as collateralGovt: Save the NHS
Me: You bastards have been killing it for the last decadeGovt: We are not pursuing herd immunity
WHO: Yes you areGovt: We are not lying
Media: oh ok, good job old boyI just found Ricky Coxon’s Blog and blow me if there wasn’t a very interesting expose Blog post on, you guessed it, the Covert 2019 Rigged Election entitled: “Why did Labour Lose?” In his post Coxan notes that: “Maybe nothing sinister happened with our postal votes, but, if you think about it, there is no way Johnson could have been elected without corruption playing its part. Maybe IDOX is the reason Labour lost the 2019 General election? Maybe it wasn’t but, if nothing else, some basic due diligence appears to have gone amiss that could provide everyone with some basic assurances regarding a key component of our democracy.” I hope he will support my Petition calling for an urgent nationwide Investigation to “Rescue our Watchdog!”
This chap has really done his homework and covered all the bases; I will be going over it in detail to see if there are any new leads that I can share with you here. There are still dedicated people out there questioning the Covert 2019 Rigged Election result and, despite all of my exhaustive efforts to track such people down, I stumble upon them quite by accident. Does he know about our Forum? I will be contacting him ASAP We need to build and consolidate our efforts even more now as the disastrous mishandling of the Covid 19 crisis will continue unabated until an investigation exposes the truth and we can remove this corrupt Tory Government from office.
SA
GuestThis is a very important article from Declassified UK. This extract gives you the gist of how the secret services in collusion with the press, in particular The Times, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail and the Sun pulled all stops to prevent Corbyn from winning both the 2017 and 2019 elections, and it had no connection with facts:
The stories — which quote former or current members of the army, navy and special forces, as well as MI5, MI6 and an ex-senior civil servant — have averaged one every six weeks since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party in September 2015. There have, however, been significant spikes in frequency during the 2017 and 2019 general election campaigns.
There is a strong suggestion that, for some stories, intelligence officials have themselves provided secret documents to journalists as part of what appears to be a campaign.
Every story has been picked up across national print media, often setting the news agenda and chiming with statements from Conservative government ministers. Nearly every story appeared in four papers — The Daily Telegraph, The Times, the Daily Mail, or The Sun.Kim Sanders-Fisher
GuestSA – Thanks for posting the important link. While it is both shocking and very distressing that the Tory establishment managed to succeed in ousting the most visionary potential Prime Minister we have seen in decades through their disgusting smear campaign, I cannot help feeling frustrated that Corbyn did absolutely nothing to fight back.
Part-time PM, Boris Johnson was admitted to Hospital the other day despite surpassing the official end of the UK’s misguidedly truncated Covid19 quarantine period. It’s hard to feel sympathy for a man as narcissistic and selfish as Boris whose incompetent blundering steered us headlong into a needlessly exacerbated crisis that has already claimed thousands of lives. At a daily press briefing there were questions regarding Johnson’s health, specifically whether he was sick enough to take a much needed Hospital bed while still stubbornly refusing to step back from his duties, not that we really miss his bumbling, chaotic interventions. As the new leader of the opposition started to select a shadow cabinet, Johnson was determined to continue leading the “Bedside Cabinet!”
Both Mat Hancock and now chief Medical advisor Chris Whitte are back in post following their one week absence fighting Covid 19. This demonstrates reckless disregard at the highest level in Tory Government for WHO recommendations that would have them both remain isolated for a further two weeks since they could still preset an infection risk despite becoming asymptomatic. I had trouble relocating the Link where I found the WHO Recommendations and everything on the WHO Website is available through pdf Downloads . This recent Article in the Canary highlights the dangerous discrepancy between the well informed global consensus and our Herd Immunity promoting Tory Government dictates.
Contrast the UK Instructions: “if you live alone and you have symptoms of coronavirus illness (COVID-19), however mild, stay at home for 7 days from when your symptoms started.” The Canary article goes on to point out that: “….the recommendations from the WHO are that a person who displays Covid-19 symptoms should continue to remain self-isolated for two weeks after the end of those symptoms. WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said (emphasis added): ‘People infected with Covid-19 can still infect others after they stop feeling sick, so these measures should continue for at least two weeks after symptoms disappear. Visitors should not be allowed until the end of this period’.”
Mat Hancock was challenged on this very point by one of the journalists at the first press briefing he did after coming out of self-isolation. He resorted to the standard defence of relying on the advice of top UK scientist… Was this more British exceptionalism or did he receive a test while recommending that other people go on to spread the infection in accordance with the Tory eugenics strategy? Obviously Covid 19 does not have a precise sell by date where the virus magically vacates the host on day seven or jovial Johnson would have bounced back already. It really is time for the Tories to pay attention to the globally respected experts advising the WHO.
Despite the appallingly callous Tory attitude towards NHS staff these same besieged heroes will not hesitate to provide Johnson with excellent care and if anything proceed with additional proactive caution due to his status as PM. I doubt Boris will reflect for an instant on the resounding applause he joined in with as his Tory colleagues defeated a pay rise for NHS Nurses; he would rather the public remembered his empty gesture clapping outside number ten. The health deterioration of Johnson might at last make the Tories have more serious regrets over the horrific reality of the delays caused by their warped Herd Immunity strategy and repent the disgusting sentiments of Dominic Cummings who prioritized the economy and “if a few old people die, too bad.”
Now we face anxiety over how Dominic Raab might function deputizing for Johnson in the interim; will Tory policy be increasingly dangerous and erratic or will the leadership team re-evaluate their flawed plans, start adhering to WHO recommendations and step up to the challenge of seriously ramping up testing. There is talk of an “exit strategy” before we have even bothered to quantify how many people are already infected. Easing restrictions before widespread testing and tracing have become well established would bring another wave of infections and unnecessary deaths. Will this reckless Tory Government, focused on the economic priorities, really care if there is an even higher death toll as long as most of the victims are the elderly, disabled and the poor?
We cannot allow concern over Johnson’s health and recovery to distract us from holding his temporary deputy to account over the lack of PPE on the frontline and the slugfest pace of testing. A hard core Brexiteer Raab is one of the extreme Right wing authors of the book “Britannia Unchained;” a really frightening prospect for leadership, even on a purely temporary basis. Of all the results in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, Raab’s surprise victory was one of the most suspicious, but now he might be in command for a while this fraud is even more egregious. We must continue to campaign for an investigation to expose the truth so that this entire Tory Government is removed from office and the rightful winning candidates are able to take proper charge of the Covid 19 crisis.
While wishing Johnson a complete recovery of his health I only hope that this experience of extreme vulnerability will make the PM reflect on how cruel Tory Government austerity policies, targeting the disabled, the less fortunate, have had a brutal impact and that his loathsome attitude towards those who are working so selflessly to save lives is truly despicable. Perhaps after Boris has had to “take it on the chin” himself he might manage an apology or at least learn to show genuine compassion for others in future. Just a few short weeks ago Boris was feeling invincible and in charge, making off colour jokes about vital pieces of kit; now he will be praying that he doesn’t need to spend any time on a “Last Gasp” ventilator himself! All of a sudden his sick joke is not so funny.
SA
GuestThe emperor has no clothes.
The Tory policies unravel as they are made but there is no one with the wisdom to confront this truth.
When Tories advocates social distancing, and prior to that, herd immunity, they thought these measures only applied to the common people, of course they themselves were protected. But viruses do not obey Tory laws, several members of the cabinet and the PM his advisor, the medical advisor, the crown prince and a top epidemiologist all got the virus. Even the pregnant girl friend of the prime minister got it. It underlined the sloppiness of their actions.
I wrote a rather scathing post here which I then asked to be deleted when Matt Hancock, appeared in BBC QT last Thursday, exactly seven days after onset of his illness, I was furious. As you have pointed out Kim, the policy is based on exceptionalism because why otherwise make a policy of isolation for only seven days when the WHO says two weeks?
Not only that, the Chinese have data which shows that thee median for clearance of the virus is 20 days but the longest was 37 days. When confronted with the question by the panelists as to whether he was infectious he came up with the answer about his advisors saying 7 days is safe, but in any case he was exercising ‘social distancing’ as a precaution. He displayed such shocking ignorance I don’t know why someone didn’t tell him that there was a difference between isolation and social distancing.
This whole episode has illustrated how this kingdom is really run exactly as a kingdom and not a vibrant democracy. Even the Queen was rolled out to remind us.Kim+Sanders-Fisher
GuestWe cannot allow the current wave of public sympathy for Boris Johnson’s plight over his deteriorating condition to drown out the well deserved legitimate criticism of the reckless Tory policy that has seriously exacerbated what could have been a challenging, but manageable pandemic threat. The peril he now faces is partly due to his own cavalier attitude that has cost so many innocent lives and our concern doesn’t absolve his deadly decision making. I genuinely want the PM to recover, in part because I want him to take full responsibility for the callous decisions he and his advisors have been responsible for. I believe that Johnson and his cronies should be charged with treasonous acts of deliberately endangering the citizens of this country in a genocidal experiment.
In the wake of the announcement that the PM has been moved to the ICU, the BBC presenter asked a Tory minister: “How will they cope in his absence?” Well it’s not like the corrupt Tory cabal hasn’t already had to stumble through two serious event’s, including major flooding and military brinkmanship between the US and Iran while Boris blithely bathed in the warmth of the Caribbean sun is it? While it’s difficult to decipher the exact state of the PM’s condition when we are just told that he in a stable condition, but not on a ventilator, unsure what the protocols call for here in the UK, it is still possible to read between the lines.
Reports have indicated that Boris Johnson “might have a needle in his artery!” An Arterial line is very different from a standard IV which is simple intravenous access in the arm often to deliver fluids. Art-line insertion in the clavicle area is a sterile procedure performed by an anaesthetist in order to gain direct access for Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) tests on a regular basis. You do not pop an Art line in someone who just needs a bit of supplemental oxygen! If extra O2 was all that was needed ICU would be a pretty terrifying place to be moved to “in case you for worse. I would hazard a guess that Boris might be at an intermediate level of care receiving oxygen via a CPAP mask. CPAP is a non-invasive mechanism of assisted breathing that is often used at home by those who suffer from chronic snoring; however Dominic Raab claimed that Johnson was not getting non-invasive respiratory support.
UK v South Korea, a Skwawkbox Article exposes where we could have been without arrogant Tory exceptionalism in defiance of WHO recommendations “In the early days of the global outbreak, the UK government dismissed its threat and even when it arrived here, Boris Johnson quipped about ‘taking it the chin’ as his advisers told the nation the aim was ‘herd immunity‘ – a goal that has now been disguised, rather than abandoned. “Even as death numbers spiralled, the Tories only half-heartedly began to prepare – and the wasted weeks are costing huge numbers of lives: health workers in our crisis-hit NHS are both more likely to die and more likely to transmit the virus to their patients because of lack of testing and lack of protective equipment.”
Another Skwawkbox Article reveals the Tories hidden agenda set to be inflicted on the UK public. They clearly identify that: “Even the new language used still makes clear that the plan is to allow the virus to infect people – to ‘suppress and release’ it. To ‘turn it on and off like a tap’.”
In this article Skwawkbox alert us to the fact that “During Sunday’s press briefing alongside Michael Gove, NHS medical director Steve Powis told journalists that the government will not know how many people are really dying of the coronavirus for ‘days and weeks’. Currently the government is only reporting deaths that take place in hospital and among patients with a confirmed coronavirus test.”
One health worker told the Skwawkbox last week: “Forcing hospitals to send infected people back into care homes with no means of containing the virus is going to infect residents and the people caring for them. It’s the equivalent of pulling the pin on a grenade and throwing it into a room full of elderly people. That’s basically what the government is doing. Their failure to start preparations when they had the opportunity is killing people and their failure to prepare now is going to kill even more. It’s unforgivable.”
Yet more about the underreported death toll. While we wish everyone suffering from this terrible disease a speedy recovery, including the PM, he will have an awful lot to answer for on his return and we should not cut him any slack. Johnson’s deliberate endorsement of this sick “Herd Immunity” policy is unforgivable and still taking lives and it must be totally abandoned ASAP. I believe that the only way that this can be achieved is by removing this Tory Government from office through a thorough investigation of the December vote to expose the truth of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election. Do not let sympathy for a callous perpetrator of widespread harm detract from what desperately needs to be accomplished immediately.
SA
GuestIt is actually much worse than that as I wrote in the other part of this blog about Raab:
SA
April 8, 2020 at 08:37
There’s an added worry. His delivery does not appear to be confident and there is a developing power and decision making vacuum at the heart of government.
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-claims-of-power-vacuum-as-pm-battles-covid-19-while-in-intensive-care-11970239And it underlines a much deeper flaw in our democracy, the over-centralisation of power in the hands of an individual or a small group of individuals in this monarchical setup.
I shall expand on this in the corona virus page.Kim+Sanders-Fisher
GuestThe British People v the Corrupt Tory Government: They admit that people are being overwhelmingly compliant with the restrictions and we are certainly doing our bit, but it is equally obvious that the Tories have no intention of matching our dedication by ramping up the testing as promised and delivery of PPE to NHS staff is still sluggish. However, we endured the same nauseatingly over exaggerated, self congratulatory diatribe again today at the Tory propaganda briefing. Today it was the turn of Chancellor Rishi Sunak to show off and splash the cash; this time he was pledging money for hard hit charities who were always bound to come dead last for any financial bail out.
What a shock to hear the ITV reporter Tom Clark ask tough questions and critically put the Tory Government fairly and squarely on the spot over their testing failures. Clark started his concerted attack with: “my question relates to testing” he demanded to know the truth, “in yesterday’s briefing the Chief Medical Officer made the honest admission that Germany’s lower death toll in the pandemic is due to their ability to test more people more quickly. Given that their death toll is three times lower than ours, is it now time for the Government to come out and admit that thousands of people have died and thousands more will die in this country as a result of our failure to test more people more rapidly?” Ouch! That had to smart, but did he really expect an admission of guilt?
Professor Steven Powis, Medical Director of the NHS, looked seriously rattled as he started into his dodgy denial of Government responsibility with the words, “to be honest” always a good phrase to obliterate trust. He put a lot of diversionary “thinking” into his obsequious unapologetic reply; “I don’t think that’s what the Chief Medical Officer did say,” he countered, trying desperately to reframe the shocking admission of culpability. “I think he did say that testing was many, one of many factors and I think the Chief Scientific Advisor spoke about this too.” Powis was grovelling for excuses as he rambled on; “it was one of a range of things, er in Germany and I think it’s difficult, er, at this stage to say, er what ranges, er what factors, er contributed to what…”
Unable to present a coherent argument Powis fixated a lot on “I think” as he asserted that “the Chief Medical Officer was also making clear, er that it’s important that all countries learn from each other. er and I have no doubt that other countries will want to learn from, er our experience and some of the things that we have done, er in the United Kingdom.” Really? What a statement; it left most of us thinking, sure the UK a perfect demonstration of how not to manage a crisis, but Powis wanted to offer an example: “for instance the work, er the work on modelling and predicting, er what the epidemic might do.” He was losing us with this waffle, but sure, British modelling, “Twiggy” that’s a fine example. Oh, you didn’t mean that kind of modelling, shame she was a real icon.
Powis prattled on with more diversionary “thinking;” “so I think the point he was making yesterday, er was that everybody should be learning from each other and indeed that is, er what we’re doing…” At that point I think Powis, er ran out of power and grasping for a life line turned to the third presenter, “Angela might have more to say on that?” Deputy Chief Government Scientific Advisor Angela McClain didn’t even warrant use of her surname; it was disrespectful, but perhaps “Angela” could pop out and make the tea? Powis was a tough act to follow but McClain put an equally nonsensical slant on the value of testing. “Yes,” she quickly piped up, “I would have thought the point would be that the, the rate of deaths of course appears much lower if you can count many, many more of the cases.” Interesting; that’s why we need to do the testing or did she not understand the question?
But McClain stubbornly persisted on the flawed logic saying, “that’s certainly one of the things you see if you see different fatality rates in countries, er that could be because you’re counting many, many more of the people who should be on the bottom of that fraction.” Got it, don’t bother gathering any accurate data through testing and fault those that do as showing less reliable results than your guesstimates! She felt the need to back Powis; “Um, in terms of modelling, that is something that we’re, er really very happy in this country to offer to other countries and I hope that’s one of the things we can contribute to the international effort.”
We set a clear example of what not to do in “managing” a pandemic; the dangerous outlier stance of the UK as we defied the WHO recommendations to put the lives of ordinary citizens at extraordinary risk with the failed “Herd Immunity” experiment was criminal. How do you respond to such an arrogant display of delusional British exceptionalism? Were they both totally unaware of the gargantuan cock-up we have experienced over the last few weeks? Rishi tentatively asked if Clark wanted to respond? Tom was not ready to let those Tory Government stooges off the hook so easily, he started in again still on the attack.
Tom Clark probed, “like you I just have, through the select committee hearing, on which you were a witness, we heard from the people in charge of testing in South Korea and in Hong Kong, who made it abundantly clear testing has reduced the numbers of cases of Coronavirus in those countries and Mr. Whitte, Dr. Whitte did say yesterday that it was in fact Germany’s ability to test that was yes, part of their lower death rate and that we had less…” Tom sounded exasperated by the Tory lack of awareness on this point. “There was no dispute that it is about testing, so can you tell me whether our inability to test will lead to greater mortality here, and can I also follow up, how dependant is the UK on a testing regime for us to be able to lift lockdown restrictions and are we on course to have sufficient levels of testing in the community to allow us to do that in anything like the next three or four weeks?”
Powis started in again with his familiar “I think” adding that “we all agree that testing is important, that’s not an issue at all.” Really? Powis back with more “I think” in a defensive tone he continued; “the point I was making is that testing is one part of a set of different things, er that will need to be considered in this country’s strategy, that is the case here, it is the case in Germany.” This totally ignores the undeniable fact that Germany has a workable plan due to the solid data provided by their extensive community testing program allowing them to be able to more accurately quantify their total Covid 19 caseload rather than trying to extrapolate backwards from the body count as we must do here in the UK.
Trying to reinforce his rambling message as if it was widely supported on a well informed basis Powis was in a hole, but he kept on digging; “and I have spoken to the Chief Medical Officer today” he said, asserting, “and I think, well I know the point he was making yesterday was, er that it is a part of the overall strategy, er and I think that it is almost certainly too early in all countries experience to know exactly which components of strategies have been the most effective or have been most important, but its highly likely that it’s a combination of these things rather than one, any individual part of an approach.” Sadly, Powis could not be any more succinct than that, er, er, rebuttal. My head was spinning; the above rambling excuse for gross incompetence typifies the daily Tory tripe.
Sunak must have been relieved as the focus of the subsequent press questions was a lot less accusatorial shifting to when might the lock-down come to an end? This issue helped pad out the Tory punch lines “Stay Home – Protect the NHS – Save Lives” as if the appalling loss of life so far was entirely up to us; had we not dutifully obeyed their commands? It was as if we were being primed to break the rules so that they could blame more deaths on us and avoid accountability for their own massive errors and miscalculations. Did that “modelling” that they were so proud of contribute to the junk science eugenics experiment that halted most testing or was it the sobering “modelling” that 250,000 dead was a bit too steep for the public to choke down?
There was a pragmatic press attack on the impracticality and costly impact of Brexit on top of the hit the economy will take over the Covid 19 crisis. Sunak insisted that negotiations were ongoing and the Tories will blast on with Brexit regardless of the growing prospect of deepening the recession. He looked incredulous that anyone might even question the insane logic of his deluded ERG extremist Brexiteer colleagues; we had already left the EU. The wealthy are right on track to make a killing, literally and with cash; no one is going to stop their insanity! Today Rishi generously tossed a bone to the charitable sector, belatedly remembered despite coming dead last. Then he had the gall to say; “we depend on each other….”
The press were so taken in and engrossed in Tory spin that they failed to comprehend that all Powis’s blathering and lame excuses over long delayed testing are the simple answer to the lock-down conundrum: we cannot relax restrictions until we quantify the level of infection within the population, isolate infected cases and tract down their contacts, but it all begins with test, test, test! Any reduction in restrictions that is allowed before mass testing is just another deliberate attempt to increase the number of infected individuals in a strategy of controlled Herd Immunity that will spread the death toll out over many gruelling months. This is a policy of Genocide deliberately targeting the culling of our elderly and most vulnerable, the Tory “Final Solution” for Social Care!
This warped set of priorities is getting elaborated on every day in these nonsensical rambling briefings from compliant Tory “expert advisors” spouting “reliable scientific modelling.” It was Dominic Cummings’s PsyOps techniques that fooled so many into thinking the Covert 2019 Rigged Election was legitimate and it was his eugenics modelling that got us into this mess with Covid 19. The only way to prevent the “Holocaust in Care” is to investigate the rigged vote and get these dangerous Tories removed from office ASAP.
Kim+Sanders-Fisher
GuestI just revisited Ricky Coxon’s Blog to take a closer look at his interesting expose Blog post take on what I call the Covert 2019 Rigged Election; his post is entitled: “Why did Labour Lose?” In his post Coxan queries: “So why then, when every single poll in the last 2 years suggested that if there was another referendum ‘REMAIN’ would win, did we vote for a bunch of hard-right rabid Brexiteers?” Supposedly it was Labour MPs in the Westminster bubble not listening to their grass roots, working class, “Leave” supporters that made traditional Labour voters abandon their party in disgust to vote for Boris Johnson to “Get Brexit Done” with a Tory landslide that collapsed the so called “Red Wall.”
This question has become even more baffling now that the Labour leadership contest returned solid support for Sir Keir Starmer a London Europhile heavily in favour of a confirmatory referendum and determined to return us to the EU at some point. Why have all those supposedly outraged Labour members just swung so forcefully back in the direction of Remain just three months after the defining Election vote? The simple truth is that all those northerners absolutely did not let Boris Johnson “Borrow” their votes; it was a blatant act of theft! Sadly there are still many, including otherwise progressive writers and voices at the Skwawkbox, that insist on enabling the Tory lie about “borrowed votes.”
It is too early to tell how much damage has taken place with the change in Labour leadership, but I am not in the least bit inspired by Keir Starmer who ditched Barry Gardener, one of the best media savvy Labour MPs, from the Cabinet as an early priority. He has been quick to reinforce the media smear campaign over anti-Semitism, too eager to placate the Jewish BOD with every one of their ultra Zionist dictates, indicates who may now be in control of the Labour Party on behalf of Israeli interests. I also fear that Keir Starmer will lurch back to the right, seeking the illusive political sweet spot of the “Centre Ground,” for yet more business as usual Tory appeasement.
It does not help that the situation could get a lot more toxic with Dominic Raab in temporary control of the Tory Party. Raab was well on course to lose his seat at the last election; even the heavily Tory supporting BBC homed in on that very strong possibility. But Raab’s confidence never wavered as he shot his mouth of on air ten days before the election, intimating that he had inside knowledge that the postal votes were going his way. First of all, that knowledge could only have been obtained illegally, and secondly revealing the information on air before poling day was another violation of electoral law. But then we all know that our Electoral Commission is toothless: “A Watchdog that cannot watch is just a dog!”
In his Blog post Ricky Coxon has included several charts to highlight the discrepancies that really convinced him something was seriously wrong with the December result; it did not take long for him to zero in on the portal vote. He states: “In cold, dark, less densely populated Scotland, postal votes increased by +1.9% from 2017. Seems reasonable as it’s been increasing 1-2% since 2005. In milder, lighter, densely populated England, which also has many Labour/Tory marginals, the postal vote increased by +19%. That’s 10 times more!”
Coxon goes on to identify a number of the most suspect seats that changed hands to provide the Tory majority in parliament. He says: “Is it strange that these marginal seats all saw massive postal vote turnout and won by just a few thousand votes? In fact, the 2019 GE, around 50 seats were won by the Tories with marginal votes. Whether something fishy happened or not, surely, this huge increase in postal voting in England would be big news, right? So why does no-one know about this?” The post also raises the issue of the widely acknowledged Laura Kuennsberg breach that was also ignored by the Electoral Commission,
I found some very useful links posted in the comments, but one particularly belligerent respondent to Ricki Coxon’s blog post insists that it is riddled with errors which it is not. Ricky does appear to be mistaken on one point, saying that the Election night counting of the postal votes is done at a remote location. All the information I have says that the ballot boxes are brought to the local count and the postal vote ballot papers are deliberately mixed in with regular ballots. I can find no logical reason to support doing this as it makes it even harder to identify postal vote fraud, but that is how it is done. Most other points raised by Coxon are entirely accurate, well supported and verified with links. In trying to establish contact with this chap I have at least discovered that he has a strong IT background on the higher education teaching level that lends good credibility to his piece; it’s well worth reading.
So did no one care about these serious violations? They sure did: Twitter icon Rachael_Swindon and others captured the BBC footage of Laura Kuennsberg before the broadcaster had a chance to delete the damning evidence and they shared it inline, but it has been impossible to get anything done about it.
The comment posted on Coxon’s Blog on March 7, 2020 at 3:22 pm from: [email protected] that: “This is a well researched piece. Certainly the 2019 GE needs to be looked at and it seems that only members of the public are concerned.” The full comment includes two links that might be derailing this post as I keep getting blocked with “Wordfence 403 Forbidden.” However the Link to the efforts of Della Reynolds, a determined voter in Raab’s constituency who was not prepared to just accept his illegal conduct, contains her exchange of complaints and emails directed towards the Electoral Commission begging them to take decisive action. This same person’s valiant efforts to uncover other vote rigging issues are in a second Link and both Links are active.
There are still people out there who are passionate about getting the Covert 2019 Rigged Election fully Investigated. We should not lose heart or become diverted from accomplishing this important goal because the shambolic and dangerous mismanagement of the Covid 19 crisis is taking many lives and might even be doing so my malevolent design! Nothing will change this reckless Tory agenda which is why they muct be removed from power ASAP.
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