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Boris “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.”
We 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.Trot 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.
Covid 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.
Don’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.
Whilst 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.Trot 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!”
As 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.
“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!
J – 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!
In 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.
They 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.
SA – 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.
This 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.SA – 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.
The 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.We 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.
It 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.The 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.
I 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.
The obvious question is : How did Dominic Raab and Laura Kuensberg know the results of the postal vote? It seems that this in itself is a misdemeanor which should be investigated by the police.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics/constituencies/E14000697
SA – You are absolutely right to point out that this “should be investigated by the police.” At the time it was taken to the police and reported to the Electoral Commission by at least one local constituent, but the authorities who are supposed to be guarding the integrity of our voting system did nothing despite repeated demands for action. At the bottom of the Coxon Blog post there were numerous comments and among them I found one with two interesting Links. Although I was able to follow both Links for some reason when I copied them into my post it triggered the “Wordfence 403 Forbidden” blocking message. I had to remove both Links to get my content to post.To see the lengths that Della Reynolds went to in her efforts to get Dominic Raab investigated you can find and follow these Links by going to the comment section at the end of Coxon’s Blog post and locating the comment posted on March 7, 2020 at 3:22 pm by: [email protected] that begins: “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.” Towards the end of his comment you will find the two links that caused me such a problem when I tried to insert them in my post. One Link goes to a group of exchanges between Della Reynolds, who was a constituent of Raab not prepared to just accept his illegal conduct. It is worth reading her exchange of complaint emails directed towards the Electoral Commission and their dismissive replies.
I wanted to see if there was a way to find Della Reynolds elsewhere on the Internet in Blogs, Twitter comments or Facebook. Without much effort I quickly made a very interesting discovery: apparently Della Reynolds had been entered as an independent candidate in two previous Election cycles. She had not attempted to run in the December Election, possibly concerned that her entry might take votes from a more viable progressive thereby helping Raab, but it demonstrated that she had good knowledge of the whole process when she raised her complaint. In what was once a Tory safe seat of Esther and Walton Della Reynolds tried to make a difference by competing stating on Surry Mommy: “I am the first Citizen candidate to stand in the UK. I am standing on the platform of accountability and social justice. We need to be able to hold those with authority to account; it is a vital check and balance that keeps us all safe.”
On “Who can you vote for” her statement reads: “I’m standing as an Independent candidate in Esher and Walton to provide an alternative view to the dominating conservative message in this very safe seat. This message does not tell the whole story. My website socialistinsurrey.com provides information and source links so that people can find out the facts behind NHS privatisation, cuts to school budgets and why there is proposed building on green belt land. My aim is to help people ‘make an informed decision’ on June 8th. Please check out my website, read and share.” There is contact info that I will be chasing down in the coming days.
On Twitter at, Della Reynolds #Truth @phsothefacts, I found that the comment posted by: [email protected] appears to be one in the same person; I’m not sure how these accounts as I’m not twitter enabled. She describes herself as a “Campaigner for reform of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman. This unaccountable body is failing the public.” A Pinned Tweet asks: “Want to know more about how the Ombudsman deals with your complaint? Then contact [email protected]. #phso?” There is also one of those rapid sketch video explainers.
As a former NHS Whistleblower I suffered retaliatory sabotage during a period of retraining here; I discovered that any defamation inflicted by a University is protected from legal recourse by something called “Absolute Privilege” and that ended my career. This means that Whistleblowers in Medical training can be effectively silenced with malicious lies and there is no legal defense. “When is a law not a law? When it’s a colander!” Just as so called Whistleblower protections for NHS staff are a superficial sham, so are the numerous official Ombudsman services and Watchdog agencies that are supposed to provide public protection, review and accountability. just like the Electoral Commission: “A Watchdog that cannot watch is just a dog!” The UK is going to the dogs!
On Della’s Twitter page one precious nugget that Della retweeted caught my eye under “Spot the Difference;” “Coronavirus: MPs given extra £10,000 each for home working expenses,” in stark contrast to Mat Hancock’s comment “Now is not the time to discuss pay rise for Nurses.” One person has posted damning Video evidence: “Our government spent weeks in pursuit of herd immunity, then backtracked when they realised how much more awful it was going to be. A short chronology of some of what they said” is on that video, but I cannot find a separate Link I also notice that the “Led by Donkeys” team were active again with a campaign to highlight a comparison between the Hero and the Zero. It is sad to hear about Corporations and the wealthy elite true to form profiteering from the misery of Covid 19, but we really do need to name and shame them.
On another Twitter page on a 7th of April Twitter post, David McCulloch wrote: “Having undertaken to analyse the 2019 Election Results in relation to the 2017 figures, I have chased the detailed media data promised in March by the Electoral Commission. Unsurprisingly it is not ready, with no timescale promised. From a preliminary analysis of the 2017 figures, focusing on the seats gained by Conservatives in 2019, it is almost certain that Postal Voting is the key to any manipulation. The risk is that both the detailed data and the Russian Report will be deliberately forgotten because of the pandemic. We must not let that happen.”
Another person commenting on Coxon’s Blog posted a link to “>a Facebook group saying; “If you’re on FB, please join this group: DemocracyNotDeMOCKracy” On this Facebook page Emma Lightburn writes: “See this below and my many other posts with analysis of data for last 5 GE, NO-ONE CARES!! We all know GE2019 was rigged. In an effort to try to understand how, I myself needed to go through the guidance for Electoral Officers published by Electoral Commission and pull out the salient point. I have posted my findings as a series of posts in “bite-size” chunks. I have one more that I am hoping to get finished in the next few days which is the process for opening, checking and counting the returned postal votes.
After I have all of my write-ups together and printed out, now that I understand what happens and who has access to what information, hopefully I can see where it would be easily interfered with. HOWEVER: going down this road is long, drawn out and costly to even get an investigation going – and of course who would investigate based upon suspicion. The easier and less costly way is to prove Human Rights abuse because folks were denied their right to vote.
But this is time sensitive as WE LOSE ACCESS TO THE EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS ON 31 DECEMBER 2020. IF YOU WANT TO TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW – Please contact your constituency labour party and ask them to do a canvass of those folks who said they would vote and did not. Ask the CLP to find out why not and if it was because they were left off the register, did not get their postal pack in time or their PV statement was rejected. The CLP would need to ask if these folks would be willing to be part of a potential HR abuse case.”
These are all sentiments I would heartily endorse and if someone is better connected to contact this group on Facebook, tell them about our Forum, and our efforts to get the Covert 2019 Rigged Election fully Investigated, that would be greatly appreciated. Not everyone has been stupefied and stunned into fearful silence by the Covid 19 crisis and the gross Tory manipulation og same; we need them out of office ASAP. There is still resistance out there; we must not give up.
The Daily GasLamp Article entitled “Covid 19 Policy Patchwork” attempts to identify the “Winners and Losers” under the Tory Government’s Covid 19 crisis coverage. Describing Boris Johnson’s shambolic leadership it concedes that “Since their initial stumble, the government has unveiled a patchwork of policies to support industries, particularly the financial sector, then almost as an afterthought, a further patchwork of policies to support workers, a novel concept for Conservatives.” We were all shocked that there was any safety net there at all, but the various piecemeal offerings are almost certainly the result of serious pressure from the opposition and the devastated public as a whole.
The Charitable sector was the very last forgotten group of workers to be mentioned by Sunak at the end of last week. While their efforts remain vital to core logistical support of the most vulnerable right across the country their plight was of little concern to a Tory Government eager to capitalize on Covid 19 to double-down on the poor and inflict more hardship on the many. The Blogger states that: “The following is a review of job type by social grade and it illustrates that over 50% of the working population cannot work from home with only a third of the self-employed able to keep working, (assuming, that is, there is enough economic activity to keep them going),” and goes on to supply a breakdown of the social grade statistics.
Relying on data obtained from the Office of National Statistics to obtain a figure of 31,800,000 as an estimate of our total workforce in the UK with the self-employed making up 15%, a breakdown across all social grades described by the writer as “not quite realistically” apportioned was used to develop a number of pie charts. Perhaps that was a reference to those who are only really self-employed by the ruthless technicality of modern gig economy exploitation. These groups are identified as: “The AB are Dark Blue – winners – they can work from home – except if they are self-employed! The DE are light blue and C2 are yellow – they can’t work from home – serious losers – either they are on the front line or financially impacted… This probably does not say anything new. But it does say it with pie charts. Even the BBC (now finally) are pointing out that the poor are losing out while the rich sit around.”
Under “Front Line Thanks” the writer lists the groups of vital key worker who we rely on so heavily to keep working: “Obviously the people on the front line have guaranteed jobs but their health is at risk. Many are working without adequate PPE.” The daily Tory propaganda broadcast, that masquerades as an official “press briefing,” tries desperately to dodge the question of critical supplies by conveniently diverting our attention with grateful accolades for the NHS and Care staff they are letting down so badly. Clapping for Carers is a distraction tool to paper-over the continued exploitation by a Government committed to dismantling our NHS. “Now is not the time to discuss pay rise for Nurses,” according to Mat Hancock who will benefit from that extra £10,000 for his home working expenses during the crisis.
The shallow presenters of the facts according to Tory spin, cannot even manage a degree of honesty in revealing the number of NHS and Care workers who have died of Covid 19 in the line of duty: they say 19, but the real figure is 31 so far. Craig picked up on something that I had also noticed, the disproportionately greater number of these deaths that were of overseas decent: the immigrants so badly maligned and mistreated by the Tory Hostile Environment. To crown it all Mat Hancock had the gall to suggest that NHS staff were squandering precious PPE supplies and had to be reminded that it is our NHS staff who are precious and it was his job to make sure they had enough of the right kit to keep them safely protected while treating Covid 19 patients.
In a later post from the Daily GasLamp entitled “Rich Rewarded by Covid 19” some of the obscenities of the wealth targeted Tory bailout are exposed as it points out: “The transfer of risk is a key concept within modern contract deals, in big business and government. However this concept is about to have its ultimate realization with Covid-19… Here are yet more examples of how the rich are taking a holiday, having a sing-song and getting bail-outs. Meanwhile front-line workers aren’t even getting PPE while putting their lives on the line. Most of these workers get poor wages and may soon become homeless.”
The Blogger starts out by highlighting US examples: “As part of the bailout, half a trillion dollars is available as backstop cash to be splashed out on big business,” but then switches to the reality here in the UK naming: Easyjet, Virgin Atlatic and Rolls Royce and pointing out that “In fact the UK is in lockstep with the USA approach.” The article looks to the other end of the scale described as “Exhibit B: Mass unemployment with rent arrears soaring and the housing market in free fall are all affecting the 99%. The unemployed and the self employed are being stuffed by small print in the government support schemes. There are so many holes that the support system is a sieve.”
The writer concludes by targeting the obscenity of Boris Johnson’s Covid 19 treatment taking up one of the scarce ICU places without the requirement of a ventilator and how the press fawned over him during his hospital confinement. With a growing list of neglected investigations, that the public really should already have been informed of, it describes how “the newspapers and mainstream media continue to gaslight the population… gaslighting by omission… what has happened to all the other investigations.” Those listed range from misallocation of public money, the controversial Russian report to the “…illegal use of social media data and possible postal vote fraud in the General Election,” reported on so well in previous posts from the Daily GasLamp.
We cannot take our eye of the ball as the consequences of the reckless Tory exploitation of the Covid 19 crisis would never have been enabled in the first place if it were not for the Covert 2019 Rigged Election. We must continue to demand an urgent nationwide investigation into what occurred with the postal votes in December. Ignoring the dire need to expose the truth will mean a continuation of the chaos of inequality and deprivation inflicted on the most vulnerable as the Tory agenda of exterminating the elderly while endangering those who care for them will accomplish a “Holocaust of Care!” We cannot afford to allow this atrocity to proceed as planned; that requires removal of this Tory Government ASAP: do not give up the fight.
Gove seen and photographed jogging a couple of days after declaring that he was self isolating because his daughter had symptoms suggestive of early Covid-19. Of course the ordinary Tom, Dick and Harriet would have self isolated for 14 days, even if they were ‘essential’ healthcare workers. But apparently Gove was in the clear because he has requested Whitty to allow his daughter to be tested and she was found not to have the virus so he is in the clear. So it appears that the government’s priorities for testing is politicians first, whilst healthcare workers continue to face the risks and have to self isolate.
SA – I am not the least bit surprised to hear that one of the elitist cabal responsible for dictating abject misery for everyone in the country used his own ultra privileged position to gain access to one of the tests that are in such short supply to gain the peace of mind so readily denied to our courageous NHS staff. I note that the daily propaganda parade still cannot quite bring themselves to fess up to an accurate number for the Covid 19 deaths among NHS and Care staff; the subject wasn’t raised at all. If I had not had by career destroyed as a Whistleblower I know that right now I would have been right in there among the cannon fodder drafted from Surgery into the ICU due to the Anaesthesia component of my sabotaged ODP training.
In reality the propaganda parade that the Tory Government was hoping to manipulate as a constant source of self-congratulatory spin has become an excruciating embarrassment to them as the daily trio of a minister flanked by two discredited “expert advisors” try desperately to avoid revealing the shocking truth. One can imagine key cabinet representatives drawing straws to determine which of them will dance on the head of a pin that day and dodge a stampede from the herd of elephants in the room. While we were told that the ONS data on the total death toll was available to the public it was not to be mentioned on the spin shit show.
Much as Raab tries to claim that the Government is guided by the best scientific advice to do “the right things at the right time” and the lockdown measures are to keep Hospital admissions to a manageable level at any one time, the planned progression so far strongly supports the continuation of their “Herd Immunity” strategy! Is the Tory “Holocaust of Care” proceeding according to plan? One intrepid reporter did manage to pry loose the fact that 92 Care Homes now have Covid 19 cases among their highly vulnerable residents; that is 13.5% of all Care Homes in the UK and up from 10% just last week. The kill rate among the elderly is still increasing, but it’s getting harder to excuse the chronic lack of PPE in those homes; despite counting on the silence of poorly paid staff the word is getting out.
The other day I just couldn’t bring myself to listen to Boris Johnson’s crowing over his miraculous recovery and how grateful he was to the poor bastards charged with saving his sorry arse! How much of the actual seriousness and true progression of his case was massaged and manipulated by our compliant media to engender public sympathy for our universally loathed PM and distract from the huge damage done by his disastrous mishandling of the Covid 19 crisis? Was it really necessary for Johnson to take up a valuable ICU bed in St Thomas’s Hospital? It certainly added drama to his case, not to mention a great excuse for Boris to do what he does best, hole up somewhere where he can bask in the sun and totally ignore the responsibilities of leadership hidden away from public scrutiny.
While the feckless PM’s selfishly deranged team of “sunny upland” Brexiteer dreamers arrogantly refused to countenance even a remote possibility that Covid 19 would go global, the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station in Suffolk was devising a workable action plan to keep their reactor safe and the lights on in two million British homes. Over two months ago, Sizewell started putting in place its emergency plan, before the first Coronavirus cases had yet to be reported in the UK; well in advance of the PM’s belated call for fastidious hand washing and social distancing. EDF Chief Nuclear Officer, Paul Morton, told the BBC that two months ago they had decided to build up critical supplies and stock levels so that they now had sufficient to last into 2021! What a massive difference it would have made if Mat Hancock had only thought to do the same stockpiling of vital PPE kit for our NHS staff!
Paul Morton explained how according to plan they effectively only had half of their people on site at the moment after deciding to split the staff into two teams. Recognizing that the safe operation of their Nuclear reactor must always remain a top priority, they needed to be able to cope with maintaining vital safety checks even if staff contracted the virus. With one half of their workforce in precautionary self-isolation at home, if a number of staff on the current working team get sick the back-up team are ready to come in to take over. Fortunately for those reliant on Sizewell B for provision of their power supply, the management at Sizewell had not squandered that vital lead-time by recklessly waiting for delusional Tory directives to take the situation seriously.
How many other critical public services across the UK do we need to thank for deciding to plan proactively for the potential Covid 19 crisis by acting responsibly, ignoring warped Tory Government policy and refusing costly, totally inexcusable procrastination? To all of those who were guided by logic to courageously step up to the plate, we genuinely thank you for your mature assessment of the impending crisis situation! It’s distinct probability, that a few of the highly experienced members of the UK Civil Service deadwood that Dominic Cummings is so eager to axe, still managed to get a warning out in time to alert strategic sectors of our infrastructure while the Tory torment squad was still fixating on financial benefits of Herd Immunity in a planned cull of our elderly.
While the Tory tragedy team dithers over the inevitable extension of the current lockdown, the first minister’s of both Scotland and Wales have announced the necessary continuation of confinement. Once again the Government is being dragged towards reality by the pragmatic decisions of decisive leaders. If the Tories had not succeeded in conning the public with the Covert 2019 Rigged Election we would have that bold leadership in place right now. It is not too late to expose the truth through a full investigation into the corrupt result. The “Slaughter of the Sheeple” will continue as planned until we remove this Tory Government from office.
