These are not lawyers! How very dare you!

Dearie me – I never knew that there were snowflakes amongst the lawyerly profession! It’s not that they’re frightened, in public, about having to go back to work, to their offices, unlike their colleagues across Whitehall who’re still allowed to stay at home if they ‘feel unsafe’. No – it’s about illegal immigrants, deportations, and a Home Office video. More on that below.

There are two other items of interest this morning. One is about ‘caseitis’, i.e. worrying about case numbers as opposed to hospitalised CV19-infected patients, the other is about going back to work. The interesting point here is that ‘Our MSM’ are still desperate to keep the fear and hysteria campaign going, come what may. It’s in the way they report things. 

Look at how they use government stats: yesterday afternoon the DT shouted from the rooftops, sort-of, that “Positive coronavirus cases fall for first time in six weeks – The drop comes even though the number of tests being carried out has risen” (paywalled link). Surely that’s good news? Not so if you look at The Times. Early this morning, their headline pours cold water over any immature jubilation: “UK’s first dip in coronavirus since July may not last, data suggests” (link, paywalled). 

So now what? The Times reports that another set of government numbers shows that case numbers can dip and rise – amazing, isn’t it! See this:

“Celebrations may be cut short, however, by more up-to-date data from the government’s Covid-19 “dashboard”, which provides daily figures. It shows a dip in cases over the same week in mid-August but figures starting to increase again from August 18. Yesterday 1,522 new cases were recorded, the highest total in 11 weeks. There has been an average of 1,138 new cases a day over the past week, up from 540 in mid-July.” (link, paywalled)

Perhaps we need to have hourly ‘caseitis’ reports, not just daily ones? And who were these experts who make a valid point about fluctuations? Shouldn’t our ‘science editor’s have been ware of that anyway? Here’s a shamefaced quote:

“Experts have said that the daily tally can show larger fluctuations, especially during periods when local outbreaks are targeted with extra testing. The number of people dying from Covid-19 continues to drop, with the seven-day average falling from 64 on July 24 to 11 yesterday.” (link, paywalled)

So people are actually not dropping like flies because of Covid, but “we” must still be afraid, very afraid! The DT at least hints at the true reason for reporting these numbers: it’s about puffing up the test&trace system, now that it’s under ‘new leadership’, that of  Baroness Dido Harding, the interim head of the new National Institute for Health Protection, now incorporating NHS Test and Trace, formerly run by PHE and that NHS entity tasked with delivering ‘Our NHS’ Apps months ago. It’s clearly about drumming up business as the Baroness explains why “we” really ought to use that app:

“I urge everyone to use NHS Test and Trace to help everyone get back to a more normal way of life. If you have symptoms, book a test immediately, and if you are contacted by the service, follow the advice you receive.” (paywalled link)

So don’t bother your GP but take the test when you ‘have symptoms’ – it might be CV-19! – but go and get tested and go straight into personal lockdown, on full pay if you’re in the public sector! ‘Our Sacred Cow’ needs your support, after all, as hospitals are still empty. They’re like the Marie Celeste according to a report in the DT where we read that:

“NHS surgeons are only working at around 50 per cent capacity, the president of their Royal College has revealed, despite record waiting times for crucial operations. Official figures show that more than 50,000 people have waited a year for treatment – up from 1,117 a year ago.” (paywalled link)

It’s puzzling, this: numbers fall, CV-19 deaths have diminished, and still ‘Our NHS’ can’t cope:

“But medics said efforts to restore services are moving too slowly, with some likening their hospitals to “the Mary Celeste” because so many patients were being kept away. Prof Neil Mortensen, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, said the NHS was struggling to restore services, with a lack of routine testing for NHS staff hindering efforts to create “Covid-free” zones.” (paywalled link)

Perhaps ‘Our NHS’ ought to use their own app and do lots of test&trace on their own employees rather than having more tests pushed onto the wider population? And why, after all these months, has ‘Our NHS’ still been unable to create “Covid-free zones” when department stores and even some schools have been able to do that? ‘Tis a puzzle …

And if ‘Our Sacred Cow’ still can’t cope, still hasn’t got ‘Covid-free zones’,  then obviously it’s heartless to expect ‘workers’ to go back to work! There will however be a ‘media blitz’ next week, with a carrot-and-stick approach, to get people back to work.  A ‘new app’ probably comes under ‘carrot’:

“A publicity campaign to begin next week will extol the virtues of returning to the workplace, making the “emotional case” for mixing with colleagues and highlighting the benefits to mental health. It will also provide reassurance that “the workplace is a safe place”, while a new online tool will help people avoid the most crowded trains and buses.” (paywalled link)

Oh dear! Government plans to address our ‘feelings’, and our mental health! Will they declare that ‘WFH’, i.e. ‘working from home’, is bad? Indeed – and here’s the ‘stick’:

“Ministers are already warning of the negatives of home working as part of a carrot and stick approach. They have sent out the message that bosses at struggling firms will find it easier to hand out P45s to people they never see than to colleagues who have been at their desks during the pandemic. The Prime Minister is said to be increasingly concerned about empty offices and eerily quiet city centres as millions stubbornly refuse to heed his calls for them to return.” (paywalled link)

This isn’t aimed at the private-sector workers who have been doing their best, who have been braving the CV-19-riddled atmosphere and gone to work to keep this country running – it’s aimed at the civil serpents:

“Ministers are pushing for occupancy levels in the Cabinet Office and the Treasury to rise to 30 per cent by October but there is little expectation that there will be a full return to work this year. Mr Johnson, however, is understood to be determined to get them back to work.” (link, paywalled)

Ah! That ‘new travelling app’ surely will help! Interestingly, the next quote seems to indicate that certain Tory backbenchers have had enough:

“Responding to the apparent confusion between the prime minister and health secretary’s messages, Sir Iain Duncan Smith, a Tory MP and former party leader, said: “The government must have a clear and simple message that civil servants should show the way and get back to work. They’ve got to stop mixing that message. The reality is that small businesses that provide the vast majority of jobs in the UK rely on people in city centres being back in their offices. If they do not go back many of those businesses will collapse, which will lead to higher unemployment and in turn impact on people’s mental and physical health.” (link, paywalled)

Yes, well – good luck with that, Sir IDS! Don’t forget that the various public sector Trade Unions are fully into ‘protecting’ their members so they can stay at home on full pay while at the same time scuppering any initiative from the government. Perhaps a better message would be “public sector workers who keep ‘working from home’ are going to kill off the economy”? 

I leave you with the remarkable vision of lawyerly snowflakes. Ms Patel’s Home Office yesterday tried to deport 23 – twenty-three, what huge number! – of illegal immigrants and had to abandon that flight because:

“the Home Office had been hit by so many last-minute legal claims that it had no option but to pull the flight, which would have returned 23 illegal migrants who had reached the UK on small boats from France.” (paywalled link)

Anyone who has had the slightest interest in the scandal of illegal immigrants flooding into our country knows that there is a group of lawyers specialising in keeping those illegals in our country. Yesterday’s unprecedented ‘lawfare’ however had a reason which had nothing to do with the cases of those deportees. It was a simple exercise by those lawyers to show that they have the power and must on no account be ‘offended’:

“It [the flurry of last-minute legal claims] came as the Home Office was embroiled in a row with lawyers over a video it posted on attempts to remove migrants from the UK, in which it said current regulations are “allowing activist lawyers to delay and disrupt returns”. (paywalled link)

I’ve not watched that video – life’s too short! – but wonder if this video was another mandarin attempt to stick a knife into Ms Patel’s back. See this:

“Matthew Rycroft, the permanent secretary at the Home Office, admitted that officials should not have used the phrase “activist lawyers” in the video, which criticised legal efforts to halt the removal of migrants. Senior lawyers had accused the department of “painting lawyers as villains”.” (link, paywalled)

Do we really believe that there were no Home Office ‘officials’ with any connections to any ‘senior lawyers’ who might have raised objections to that offensive word ‘activist’? Perhaps this severe lapse in communications amongst the Westminster Bubble dwellers occurred because they were all “WFH”? 

The funny thing is, of course, that ‘activist’ is a label used happily by ‘Our MSM’ when describing those who organise mayhem-creating demos ‘in a good cause’, like BLM. If it’s good enough for them, why should it offend lawyers? Why do they interpret this as ‘painting lawyers as villains’? Does this mean other ‘activists’ can now be offended as well? ‘Our MSM’ better be careful! 

As for us plebs – well, we’re never ‘activists’, we’re plain old villains as far as ‘Our MSM’ are concerned. We can’t be offended, even as the Westminster Unholy Coalition offends us day in day out. 

KBO!