Whitewashing …

 

The whitewash has started. It’s amazing: today’s Lockdown reports are full of exculpations and finger-pointing: SAGE didn’t do it, PHE didn’t do it, the NHS didn’t do it – only Johnson did. I’m not going to defend Johnson and his cabinet for what they did, but shall point out below how the Westminster bubble dwellers, the Islington champagne socialists, are setting up their stalls to get rid of Johnson. Let’s remind ourselves that he was actually elected by the majority of this country, most of whom do not live inside the M25. 

The first and most important item on that list of who all didn’t ‘do it’, i.e. scream for Lockdown, are the MSM. They, in their own eyes, are as pure as the driven snow. Their ‘Project Fear&Hysteria’ articles and reports had of course no influence on anything – of course not! Suddenly they are giving space to articles pointing out, with perfect hindsight, that perhaps that Lockdown wasn’t needed – funny that, after nearly three months of it. I’ve yet to see one single editorial acknowledging that perhaps their sustained  ‘Fear&Hysteria’ campaign had anything to do with anything. I’m not expecting that there will be any such editorials in the coming weeks and months. 

The other ‘item’ on that list is the pernicious influence of Whitehall and its mandarins. Whenever ‘our MSM’ talk about ‘the government’, they omit to mention that government ministers act on the advice of their departmental civil serpents. The point is that Whitehall will always be there, to ‘guide and advise’ their ministers regardless of their political party.

Our MSM are not criticising any Whitehall mandarins: these remain in the shadows. Of course, it’s inconceivable that the various reporters of the various MSM do so because they don’t want to be cut off from their ‘sources’, all those departmental whisperers who’ve been briefing against Johnson in the past five months – ever since we left the EU on January 31st! There are exceptions, but funnily enough, they don’t seem to brief the MSM – or perhaps the MSM aren’t using their briefings because they don’t fit their ‘get rid of Johnson’ agenda?

Taking a closer look at the whitewash now starting we read today that SAGE never ever advocated a Lockdown! The same herd of hacks which only days ago wrote breathlessly how an earlier Lockdown would have saved lives, according to Professor Lockdown, are now falling over themselves to describe how SAGE was slow to consider Lockdown because they were ‘in the dark’, nothing was known and this was a fast-developing scenario. 

The same herd of hacks who demanded ‘action now’ from Johnson, the same herd of hacks who accused him of following or not following ‘Teh Science’ are now telling us that this same science wasn’t able to give proper advice because the scientists didn’t have time to model things properly! 

There’s one astonishing acknowledgement: we the people actually listened and started to take our own distancing and shielding measures before Lockdown proper, thus preventing that feared spike of infections:

“Prof Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance, the Chief Scientific Adviser, repeated often in March that moving too early could cause compliance to fray at a bad time. Prof Matt Keeling, a member of SPI-M told MPs on Wednesday that they had underestimated the public’s willingness to comply, […] Looming over all of this was the fear of a more fatal second peak. Even on March 13, when Sage warned that members were “unanimous that measures seeking to completely suppress the spread of Covid-19 will cause a second peak” when lifted because of a lack of immunity.” (link)

So SAGE told Johnson in March not to do it while the MSM screeched at the same time that he had to do it. Also, SAGE is already washing their hands just in case there is a ‘second spike’ caused by Lockdown. Funny how they were so certain then, with their warnings, but have nothing to do with nothing today!

That Johnson’s decision was wrong, in retrospect, is now neither here nor there: it was ‘correct’ at that time, thanks to the incessant and overwhelming campaign in the MSM. This is something we should not forget!

In another astonishing report out today we read about ‘the scientists washing their hands’ of advising Johnson on that social-distancing rule. You couldn’t make it up:

“Boris Johnson has been told it is up to him to decide whether to accept more coronavirus cases in exchange for relaxing the two-metre rule as scientists distance themselves from the trade-off. The prime minister[…]  has been told by his advisers that there is no magic number at which changing the rule is safe. Weighing up the needs of the economy and of health is an inherently political choice which cannot be delegated to scientists, members of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have said.” (link, paywalled)

This latest ‘advice’, now published for all to see, begs the question: will ‘our MSM’ still admonish Johnson to ‘follow’ the science’ even as those scientists are now letting it be known that, actually, they didn’t really know anything, not in March and not now, and can’t therefore advise?

Let’s not forget, ever, that the Lockdown was sold to us with the slogan ‘protect the NHS’. That is now forgotten, clapathons past and future notwithstanding. Instead, the next line of attack has been drawn by ‘Our MSM’: care homes. The excess death of the elderly in care homes wasn’t due to ‘Our Sacred Cow’ clearing their wards of their elderly patients – their deaths are only due to ‘not enough tests’ and ‘not enough PPE’  which is also the PM’s fault:

“Around 25,000 patients were discharged into care homes without being tested for coronavirus at the height of the pandemic, “extraordinary” new figures confirm. On Thursday night, MPs from both main parties condemned the conclusions of a National Audit Office (NAO) report, which found that the NHS policy to discharge without necessarily testing lasted nearly a month before it was changed.” (link)

Let’s not ever mention the fact that PHE was shown to be incapable of running tests, refusing to accept the involvement of private and university institutions in those early weeks when NHS hospital trusts removed their elderly patients into care homes! Tests for the elderly? Not important for ‘Our NHS’:

“It is not known how many of the 25,000 discharged without a test between March 17 and  April 15 – the day NHS England changed its advice – were infected with coronavirus. However, one in three care homes had experienced an outbreak of Covid-19 by the middle of May, with more than 1,000 homes dealing with positive cases during the peak of infections in April. Last month, the Office for National Statistics estimated that at least 15,000 care home residents had died from Covid-19.” (link)

Yes, hindsight is wonderful, and yes, nobody had any numbers in those early weeks. Nobody in the MSM is asking if doctors or NHS managers decided to chuck out all elderly patients, and of course they won’t because it doesn’t fit the narrative of the heroic NHS.

Apparently, for ‘Our NHS’ the elderly were an ‘afterthought’, were ‘at the end of the queue’, according to the MP Meg Hillier (Lab), chair of the Public Accounts committee. But – see this:

“The report highlighted a “problematic” relationship between social care and the NHS. It said: “We have reported on successive efforts to integrate the two sectors: there have been 12 government white papers, green papers and consultations, and five independent reviews on integration over the past 20 years. Going into the pandemic, meaningful integration was still to occur, however, and the lack of it has made responding to the crisis more difficult in a number of ways.” (link, paywalled)

Twenty years – now isn’t that interesting! Wasn’t there a Labour government in office for the first ten years of this period? A Labour government which didn’t have to ‘struggle’ with Brexit? Don’t ask such inconvenient questions: Labour is not to be touched, they are the MSM’s ‘government in waiting’.

And finally, since we now have to ‘take the knee’, in real life or metaphorically, this next ‘outcry’ relating to ‘BAME people’ is no surprise:

“Black and minority ethnic Britons should get targeted health advice in the event of a coronavirus second wave, an unpublished report by Public Health England has urged. A review into why Bame people have been dying from Covid-19 in disproportionate numbers was criticised for failing to make any recommendations to protect people.” (link, paywalled)

This report by PHE was sent to the government at the end of May and was published on June 2nd. The recommendations are in an addendum, by ‘stake holders and advisers’ (whoever these may be) which hasn’t yet been published:

“The government decided to hold off because of “current global events” including the wave of anti-racism protests. Marsha de Cordova, shadow equalities secretary, told Sky News it was a “scandal” ministers appeared to have blocked publication of a review that could have saved Bame lives.” (link, paywalled)

Publishing these addenda with the report out on June 2nd ‘could have saved BAME lives’ – in March and April? At a time when it was only emerging that BAME people were more affected, at a time when nobody knew why? Doesn’t this show the quality of the Labour shadow cabinet – the cabinet with which ‘Our MSM’ want to replace the current one!

I leave you with one other aspect regarding the Lockdown – an aspect which has been studiously disregarded by the Fear&Hysteria mongers in ‘Our MSM’: the economy:

“Figures due today showing the immediate damage to the economy as a result of the March 23 lockdown will intensify pressure on Mr Johnson to act. Some analysts believe that GDP fell by between 20 and 30 per cent in April as the epidemic peaked and the nation effectively shut down.” (link, paywalled)

I can’t recall any articles in the MSM demanding an end to Lockdown after that April peak! Lockdown fanaticism was in full swing and hasn’t quite abated yet. Lives had to be saved, not the economy. I wonder though if ‘Our MSM’ will now start attacking Rishi Sunak. Perhaps not – that would be racist, wouldn’t it …

 

KBO!

 

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