There was a time when most of the population listened to something called the ‘wireless’. There are films showing concerned families listening as Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain told everyone with regret that the nation was at war with Germany. How that felt to many I can only imagine, coming, as it did just 20 years after what many who were in thick of it and had often lost close relatives, often referred to as ‘the last lot’. As far as I can tell the newspapers and the wireless reported the news in a factual way, did not spread doom and gloom or berate Cabinet Ministers or waste everyone’s time with inane comments about how they looked or sounded and how much better everything would have been if Halifax and his cronies had been in charge. I can find no footage of a retired Great War general lecturing and hectoring that he himself, given his outstanding experience and 100% hindsight, should have been consulted and that preparations made years ago as all this could have been foreseen and that the shortage of plans and equipment to defend protect and feed our nation were totally inadequate, slow to be implemented and was all the fault of some minister or civil servant.
These days we have the media doing its best to undermine the efforts of a government voted into power only a few months ago, obviously to the annoyance of its mostly 30 to 40 somethings, the product of a left wing educational system clutching their media degrees which obviously give them an in-depth knowledge of microbiology, statistics, supply chain logistics and everything else.
Unfortunately the reality is somewhat different as the quality of their reports to camera outside some government department or hospital (for some reason almost always in the London area) must leave viewers wondering if their research is done in virtual internet chatrooms, or their researchers are self-isolating and working from home without internet connections.
The print media is even worse; generating often hysterical click-bait headlines reporting the opinions of ‘witless celebrities’ or ‘Mr Angry from Purley’ ranting and raging on breakfast TV and radio phone-in slots as if this health emergency is a purely British emergency and how we must be grateful for the heroic doctors and nurses of the National Health Service, as they and they alone are working hard under dreadful heart-breaking conditions, leading the way, the few that are owed so much by so many.
So much so, kind-hearted people are rallying around collecting millions of pounds or working to produce protective wear for hospital staff which should have been provided by the managers of the many hospital trusts, all of which are led by highly paid executives and chief executives and apparently scrutinised by a board of directors. Reporters and journalists should be asking searching questions, one would have thought, but it seems they are incapable of exploring or even asking trusts or chief executive officers to explain why, having just been given £12 billion pounds by this Tory government, these debts were accrued in the first place and why, all we are hearing is this could happen, this may happen, if this does or not happen and it’s not our fault that we don’t have enough protective gear intensive or high dependency beds available. Mostly it’s implied that this is due to Tory cuts, or central government ineptitude, complacency or whatever. Cue centre stage – John Humphrey, from his article in the Daily Mail:
It’s obviously too early for a final verdict. That will take years. But there are two accusations that need answering. One is a worrying level of incompetence; the other is treating the public with condescension at best, disdain at worst. They are linked. Do we really need to be told in every other sentence of every ministerial interview that we must ‘stay at home, protect the NHS, save lives’? If you haven’t registered that simple (and sensible) message by now, you never will.
It’s called reinforcing the message, John. You above all people should know that; haven’t you and your colleagues at the BBC been doing that for years on the news and current affairs programmes?
He continues with this long rant, mostly against the government, and puts forward the case that other people are also key workers. Goodness! That wouldn’t be the little people in their hundreds of thousands that the BBC has talked down to and treated with disdain and condescension for years, particularly when talking about (or not as the case maybe) Brexit and immigration but whose views should now, according to John, be treated with reverence and acted on, would it?
The public, like juries, frees itself of political concerns to make judgments based largely on common sense. Will we find out that the Government floundered, but the public got it right?’
Words, in my view, cleverly crafted to set doubt in the minds of many people as the economic and financial cost begins to have an effect on that part of the population which is not protected by generous full pay provisions, or £10,000 gifts to ‘help’ or £325 a day to watch and take little or no part in a ‘chat room’ conference for the entitled.
The comments following the article were, in the main, neither particularly flattering nor in agreement with his comments and most could be summarised as ‘watch out there’s a Humphrey about’ a slogan which older readers may well remember.
It wasn’t always like this. Now beyond living memory there were some fearsome health epidemics that ravaged communities and really frightened people – people who had little health provision save the local doctor whom they paid for consultations, or local hospitals funded by subscription and whose knowledge of what they were facing and what they had to work with was, by our comfortable know it all standards, basic to say the least.
Part 2 will be published tomorrow.
“a dedicated International group devoid of their own National self-interest.”
Sounds like an endorsement of those dedicated International groups dedicated to their own self interests; i.e. the globalists.
I hope that is a misinterpretation.
Should have been assigned to Mr. Paul…
What right have these ‘educated’ morons, who decide to profit from their evil work under the heel of their callous Masters, to presume that the rest of humanity want them EVER to produce ANY man-made viruses?
But now the Circus is being orchestrated and managed by China……..and remember we are dealing there with ONE AND A HALF BILLION people. They believe that in a war of attrition THEY will inherit the earth, out of sheer numbers and demographics.
Throughout history Communists have taken it upon themselves to decide the fate of millions of simple innocent people – on the basis of and promise of a Utopia, which anyone who has an understanding of human nature knows full well, is a virus-like disease itself – that it doesn’t threaten the old, but the simple minded.
The creation of a Communist State, and subsequently a Communist World, just as in the case of Islam, requires the total blind submission of the ENTIRE world populace. China is now the ringleader of this dangerous tribe of murderers and elite ‘political actors’ – all of whom live in the lap of luxury once they ‘take the reins’ within their domains.
Will they EVER come to realise that we humans will always desire, and indeed need, diversity and variety in our lives – . I think perhaps the French (for once!) said it best and phrased it succinctly “Vive la Differance” THAT is what it means to be human.
Perhaps the time HAS come to fully Police and outlaw this experimentation with all types of weapons of potential mass destruction ……….forever.
”Will they ever come to realise….”
Will they ever actually CARE?
My comment here will give youngsters a laugh, so I guess it is not wasted ! ….. Once upon a time we had something called National Service. – It was useful in giving everyone a period of having to obey orders. – Our Government was elected less then five months ago, with a very large majority and yet today we are asked to do something in this Nation, which is hardly arduous. – ‘Stay at home and protect the NHS so saving lives’ – Yet we have some saying ‘I won’t’, and others questioning the Authorities, even though in this case, the Authorities were elected by democratic means ! ….. Do we have to accept that this Nation has a large number of morons ? – Having been asked, we are now obliged to be ordered to do what we have been told. – This should really not be necessary for the British people !
Now there are different views upon the correctness of action to the Coronavirus. – Of course there are, and that is fine in this Nation, but elected Government has decided on a course of action. – To go against it only shows moronic disobedience. – When this is over, there will be very deep enquiry of Government, as to their correct action in this matter, and even deeper enquiries when the costs are known. – Costs in lives, in trade and in National standing. ….. It is also my hope that our MSM will be investigated for their part in the alarmist drivel that they have been guilty of, with such apparent pleasure. – If this is done, I hope that individuals will self examine themselves for buying these comics, but then I don’t expect they will because they have always bought a particular newspaper, having to buy their opinion rather than self generate their own opinion !
The Government also decided on a course of action when they finally deigned to give us a referendum on our membership of the EU and that was that we should remain. Our Revered Leader at that time even blew £9m of our own hard-earned on telling us in print. The so called opposition were also full on remainers so no challenging the orthodoxy there. Did you blindly follow their lead and never question their view we should remain? This whole website is about “disobeying” the Government of the day on that issue.
We elected the Government to serve us and trust them (ish) to act rationally in our best interest. No one elected technocratic scientists like Prof Ferguson to herd our scientifically ignorant leaders into the Lockdown pen where they baaed with the other Governmental sheep similarly set on a disastrous path. All of us are following the rules but not all of us have to agree with them and being free and British it is our duty to be contrarian and challenge the groupthink when it is leading our nation into penury and fascism. The Government have not been level or honest with us, they have not thought for themselves only of themselves. This “enquiry” you mention – is that where the Government polices itself like the joke Chilcot Report? Again when there is no opposition because they are also locked into the same groupthink it is beholden on some of us to go against the grain by looking at the actual real data and questioning everything because no one else is and they should!
I think you have missed a main point MWT. – The 2016 referendum was a point where the voters were asked to make their choice. – Then the Government were supposed to act upon it. – I suppose it could be argued that people who now disobey Government upon Lockdown, are only following Government’s example ! – The rationality of Government, was to ask for the professional’s opinion on the Coronavirus; had they asked Mystic Meg for her opinion, then it would be reasonable to question Government ! ….. Another way of thinking, is that if you think they are wrong, why are you not standing for a seat in Parliament ? – A ship can only have one Master unless you support the notion that mutiny is a correct action to follow !
I was meaning the period prior to the Referendum where Cameron and pretty much all the other pollies were advising us to Remain on their expert advice that it was best for us and professional advice from utterly disinterested sages such as the CBI and many economists. Thankfully (for whatever reasons) Boris and Nigel mutinied against the Government message.
The professional who largely got us into this lockdown mess has a proven track record of failure with his models: garbage in, gospel out though for our masters. He had millions of cattle slaughtered unnecessarily in 2002, got us to waste £1bn on a vaccine that was never used and here he is again. His model took no account of the vastly different mortality rate of different age groups and also did not consider any adverse impacts from a lockdown itself such as increased suicides, mental health issues, poverty, loneliness, obesity due to lack of exercise and purpose etc. etc. I would rather they had asked Mystic Meg than him !
I already have an MP who should be looking at the bigger picture and listening to his constituency like John Redwood does. Slavish rule followers will always have a happy home in North Korea and China but I’d rather live in the old England from last month. If Boris ordered all over 70s to not leave their houses for 18 mths while everyone else gets on with life would you obey unquestioningly or go a bit Fletcher Christian under the injustice?
I agree with you 100%. I think the government allowed itself to be blinded by the “science” (mostly issued by previously questionable sources!). They have now found themselves in a situation where they cannot easily change tack without leaving themselves looking weak and foolish! I know that governments need advisors but that doesn’t mean that they should not think for themselves as well and (above all) keep asking questions!
Where is the sense of locking us all away in our homes to “save the NHS” when our borders are so porous! 15000 per day flying in (reportedly from virus hotspots) and 550 (in the last two weeks) reported as breaching our channel border as illegal immigrants! When there is no testing or forcible quarantine seemingly in place, who knows what they are bringing in with them!
The BBC has long since ceased to be news organisation. It’s new mission is to brainwash us all into their PC/”Woke”/lefty way of thinking.
Whilst it does appear that the Government has slipped onto the back foot I can’t help thinking that the “sacred cow” of the National Health (the organisation not the front line workers) is getting off Scott free.
The NHS has for years been seen as a poorly managed organsation with inefficiencies in systems and procurements and an unwillingness to adapt to developing situations.
The issue of PPE is one area where this is clearly poorly managed. It appears that virtually all of the PPE equipment is used once and disposed of. This has wrongly become an acceptable method of operation under normal circumstances but surely in this day and age of an unacceptable disposable society, methods should have been developed for cleaning and recycling the gowns. We have not been told in detail how the front line PPE is used but the implications are that each nurse/doctor replaces their gown several times during a shift. Information has been given that every time a nurse/doctor attends a different patient the gown needs to be changed. If this is the case it is not surprising that the stocks, no matter how large, are rapidly depleted.
I do not profess to have any expertise in this field but it seems to me that changing gowns several times in a short space of time could lead to infection passing from the gowns onto the clothes of the wearer during the change over. The question has to therefore be asked whether it is not possible to set up a cleaning room on each ward where each gowned-up worker visits before attending different patients (or say every hour) when the waterproof gowns are given a disinfectant spray and wipe down before the worker returns to duty. Obviously if the gowns are damaged or severely contaminated they would need to be replaced but the replacement of the gowns without consideration of the number being consumed must be a concern.
Similarly with protective gloves. We have been told for weeks that we must wash our hands regularly as this is the most effective method of stopping the transfer of infection. This being the case it surely it is not beyond the realms of possibility for the careworkers to wash their gloved hands to the same effect.
It is not just the BBC who believe they are infallible …did you see the disgusting interview with Iain Duncan Smith today? The interviewer/newsreader, who happened to be black, conducted the most disgraceful and arrogant treatment of one of the most experienced, civil, gentlemanly politicians this country has EVER had.
Where do they find these moronic readers? Are they bred by brainless TV Executives in cages from the dregs of offal?
An apology MUST be extracted from this arrogant overpaid prig.
Everyone seemingly running around like headless chickens.
The fact is that many countries have been ‘playing around’ with deadly materials……and this tragedy simply had to happen, because there is no such thing as 100%…….not nohow!
The experimentation by a multitude of diverse countries with deadly viruses is simply a criminal affair, a crime against humanity.
If we need to research these deadly viruses then there ought to be only ONE central laboratory doing the research, not a proliferation of individual labs to carry out what, yes, may be essential research …….but this MUST only be carried out by a dedicated International group devoid of their own National self-interest.
We in the UK certainly no longer have aspirations to conquer or Colonise the world – and even if we did then we would be introducing a Democratic system….
But China, like Islam, has a totally different plan and attitude to world Government. Both seek to impose THEIR view of the world on EVERYONE ELSE, by ANY means, both are DANGEROUS ‘Religions’ in their own unique ways……..and the sooner we build resistance to those two evil VIRUSES, the sooner the world will save itself from total annihilation and destruction.
This is perhaps a perfect time to start…………..if China hasn’t already won their particular war against the world, under the guise of ‘trade’…
As I have said MANY TIMES before, most of the crap they sendnus we can make for ourselves, but 59% of it is useless in any event.
MAKE AND BUY BRITISH…….THAT is the first part of the answer. (And I am not the first to advocate THAT!)
I wish every TRUE BRIT good health and a safe future.
”Make and buy British”. No, Mr P, you’re not the first to advocate that. Enoch Powell asked in 1989:
”What would have been the fate of Britain in 1940 if production of the Hurricane and the Spitfire had been dependent upon the output of factories in France? ”
Do you also recall when we were deciding to leave the EU how it was forecast that medicinal supplies might well would dry up?
Strange how we are totally unable to stop hundreds and hundreds of illegal immigrants invading our shores, most of whom will have at least ONE medical problem, when Europe are apparently capable of denying us essential supplies at the drop of a hat.
Hundreds of thousands of our countrymen are in absolutely dire straits simply staying alive or struggling to make ends meet – yet illegals can, and do arrive with impunity, and are given secure and safe harbour. Who on earth is supposed to be organising our Sea and coast defences and protecting us from invasion?
It seems the general public will need organise a ‘people’s Navy’ to take it upon ourselves to defend our porous shores, a latter-day Armada perhaps (if we give in to the EU on fishing rights!) of unemployed fishermen who are paid per the human catch they deliver back to the shores of Europe – which in itself will save us oodles of time money and, more than likely, crime.
It all just underscores in my mind that what we are witnessing is not merely a reaction, however bad or good, to a naturally occuring phenomena. This pandemic may not have been intentional, I am open minded about that, but I feel absolutely sure that it has and is being leveraged to the maximum by the dark state and forces to whom democracy and our nation mean very little.
Using our fishermen (of people) to save the lives of those in peril on the sea and returning them to the safety of France is surely the humanitarian thing to do?