The Money Tree growing in the Treasury Garden
We’re now in semi-Lockdown. Glancing through the early morning MSM home pages it’s fair to say that some events didn’t happen, depriving said MSM of screaming headlines, photos and editorials. So let’s look at what all didn’t happen.
On Saturday the 4th of July pubs were semi-open, as were restaurants and hairdressers. The hordes of drunken Brits didn’t materialise to the chagrin of ‘Our MSM’. Hairdressers, as far as I can make out, were only visited by MSM ‘Beauty Columnists’, not by normal peasants. It must have been shocking for the Westminster Bubble dwellers to see that the plebs outside the M25 were actually behaving ‘responsibly’. So that was a national ‘non-event’.
On Sunday the 5th of July at 5pm the nation was supposed to get together in street parties, to celebrate the birthday of ‘Our Sacred Cow’, to have tea with neighbours and to light a candle for all who’ve died. That was the idea of the PM who apparently duly ‘celebrated’ for the TV cameras. How one can have a ‘street party’ in Downing Street is beyond my imagination. The rest of the nation – did nothing. Surely a sign that we’ve all had enough of being nannied by some self-appointed Lockdown enforcers?
Here’s something else that didn’t happen: ‘Our NHS’ hasn’t been swamped by new CV-19 ‘cases. It’s quite odd, this: not only are Leicestershire hospitals not on the brink of breakdown, the latest outbreak in Merthyr Tydfil – a spike of 130 cases at yet another meat processing plant (link) – also hasn’t swamped Welsh hospitals, just as that outbreak at a meat processing plant on Anglesey didn’t. The interesting thing about this piece of news is that it was reported in Wales a week ago. Perhaps the explanation by Public Health Wales didn’t fit the narrative of ‘Our MSM’ where ‘case numbers’, whichever way they come about, are now replacing ‘death numbers’ to keep us scared. The Welsh PHW lady said:
“The identification of these cases is evidence that the Test, Trace, Protect strategy is being effective, and we are confident that all appropriate action is being taken to control this cluster.” (link)
This was so ‘dangerous’ that even the Welsh First Minister didn’t reinforce the much harsher Welsh Lockdown ‘rules’. So there is something else that didn’t happen. However, ‘Our MSM’ are extremely coy to mention that these numbers are a function of that ‘test-test-test’ exercise which they have wanted, loudly, for weeks.
Something else isn’t happening. Take for example the warning that the Lockdown and the exclusive focus on CV-19 could lead to more cancer deaths:
“Research by Health Data Research UK, the national institute for health data science, warned that the overwhelming focus on Covid-19 was likely to cause 18,000 excess cancer deaths. It said that this could almost double to 35,000 in the worst-case scenario. It said that urgent referrals for cancer care had dropped and that treatments had been delayed or cancelled. Thousands of patients have been scared off seeking help from GPs or going to hospital for treatment for fear of catching coronavirus.” (link, paywalled)
What isn’t happening is that, unsurprisingly, ‘Our MSM’ aren’t questioning what has made people so afraid of seeing their GPs. Generally, for ‘Our MSM’ their ‘Project Fear and Hysteria’ simply didn’t happen. Health writers and experts can now turn to the next item on the ‘Protect Our NHS’ agenda:
“Sir Simon Stevens [‘Health chief’] told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One that it was “entirely possible” that there could be another surge in coronavirus cases in the winter and that a vaccine may not be available in time. The health service is particularly concerned about the impact of a second wave as the symptoms for flu are “interchangeable” with those of coronavirus. Ministers are considering giving the flu jab to everyone over 50 to reduce pressure on services.” (link, paywalled)
Why not give the flu jab to everybody? Perhaps even make it compulsory? Never mind that people will still shun GP surgeries or pharmacies – and never mind that this jab hasn’t been as effective as NHS bosses have wanted us to believe. Else why are there deaths due to ‘seasonal flu’, why are there reports every year about people having become ill with flu after that jab?
The actual reason for this demand is money – more money for the NHS, for testing, for backlogs, for pay rises for the heroic NHS frontline workers:
“Sir Simon said that there could be “very significant” extra costs to the NHS later this year around the flu vaccination campaign, personal protective equipment and sustaining the number of extra hospital beds. […] Sir Simon also spoke about calls for pay increases for NHS staff after unions representing more than 1.3 million nurses, cleaners and paramedics wrote to the chancellor and the prime minister about the issue.” (link, paywalled)
Yes, that’s right: ‘Our NHS’ needs more money – don’t they always! And here’s a truly sinister indication of what is in store for us. Remember that there’s no CV-19 vaccine as of yet, but this flu vaccine ‘exercise’ is ready to go, providing government with a trial balloon:
“Last week Downing Street announced that eligibility for an NHS flu injection would be expanded as ministers try to protect the health service, but they did not specify who will be included in the immunisation programme. The government has already ordered extra stockpiles of the flu vaccine in preparation. Ministers also want to ensure that more people in groups classed as “at risk” receive a jab this year.” (link, paywalled)
Any bets that this new ‘at risk’ classification will be applied to all who have been tested for CV-19, positive or not? Government has the data thanks to ‘test and trace’. Having stockpiled this flu vaccine ministers wouldn’t want to experience the scandal of the Tamiflu stockpile which had to be destroyed when swine flu didn’t happen, despite the modelling efforts of a certain Professor Ferguson, would they!
Of course, we also don’t know anything about how the CV-19 virus will evolve – or do we? The DT has published an intriguing ‘exclusive’ on this subject, faithfully copied by the Express a few hours later (link):
“Dr Tom Jefferson, senior associate tutor at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM), at Oxford, and visiting professor at Newcastle University, argues that there is growing evidence that the virus was elsewhere before it emerged in Asia. Last week, Spanish virologists announced they had found traces of the disease in samples of waste water collected in March 2019, nine months before the coronavirus disease was seen in China. Dr Jefferson believes that many viruses lie dormant throughout the globe and emerge when conditions are favourable. It also means they can vanish as quickly as they arrive.” (link)
It is certainly an interesting hypothesis and I would hope that this is one research project for which government will find money. We can predict though that finding money will be the ‘next big thing’ to occupy ‘Our MSM’.
There’s not just ‘Our NHS’, perpetually first in line, there are also universities. The Times reports that 13 of them could ‘go bust’ according to a report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (link, paywalled). That’s bad, very bad, according to the PM’s brother, and more money for Unis is needed:
“Jo Johnson has accused ministers of trying to shrink the university sector in every area except science. The changing shape of the UK economy, with its need for service skills, tech expertise and problem-solving, means that employers need more graduates, not just in science but also in the full range of humanities, social sciences and the arts, he said.” (link, paywalled)
Oh yes – we need more graduates in gender studies, employed in the public sector, to watch that we all ‘respect’ the LGBTXYZ ‘community’! We need more graduates in all those art subjects, in meejah studies and sociology, to explain to us dumb non-graduates what we must do and perchance enforce it when they’re employed by local councils. Happy days!
Never mind our uni students and graduates being outpaced by science graduates in the Far East, working on robotics and AI. We don’t need that, not even when we’re told what Mandarins are planning for our Armed Forces. This was leaked from the Ministry of Defense:
“Mandarins have suggested the scrapping of RAF air bases and a fleet of Hercules planes and Puma helicopters in a bid to save money, […] The Treasury has asked departments to make savings of 5 per cent or more as part of a wider review of Government spending, while Boris Johnson has appointed a history professor to personally oversee any cuts to UK defence capability. Draft plans suggest a significant chunk of the Royal Marines’ capability could be axed, including its artillery, engineers and landing craft. Money would instead be invested in new cyber and space warfare technology.” (link)
I’m sure that is money well saved, especially when our graduates, fit in arts and humanities, are asked to develop such new technologies! After all, we’re not going to buy them from China, are we!
And finally, here’s something that happens all the time: Labour proposes to ‘tax ‘Teh Rich’, this time to make them pay for all the handouts needed in the wake of the Lockdown:
“Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, said it was fair that the “very best-off people” should help to pay for the cost of the coronavirus crisis if the economic recovery stalled.” (link, paywalled)
We better keep in mind that Labour never changes its spots. The Islington dinner party set is bound to begin their usual propaganda for Labour, now so nice and polished with that lovely man Starmer at the helm.
If the prospect of Starmer in No 10 doesn’t frighten you, it certainly frightens me. It’s something we should all be truly afraid of.
KBO!
Would Sir Kir waste money better than Boris ?
Put people out of work, yes,
Dole at 80% earnings ?
where do I sign on ?
Viv as usual I totally agree with you. One thing that struck me is that almost certainly the 15 ‘threatened’ unis are almost certainly the ones we’d be better off without.
YOU MISSED OUT A BIT of things that hasn’t happened, and yet the picture at the top of this piece seems to have done it justice ! – The money tree still hasn’t been found by our Chancellor ! – There are cuts to our Armed Forces, but just at a time when the French are trying to be bold in the English Channel !
Well, over the decades there were and are so many ministers and politicians convinced that money tree is somewhere in the Treasury’s back garden that it’s certainly surprising it hasn’t been found yet. Some think it’s actually the Bank of England which guards it.
Me, I think all us taxpayers must have a tiny seedling each which we cannot grow and nurture because Government is always demanding us to denude it of all its money ‘fruits’.
As for the Armed Forces: note that this draft was ‘created’ by mandarins and leaked by them. I sometimes wonder if all those Mandarins are capable of seeing further than their own cherished little bureaucratic empires and never mind working for the weal of the realm.
Thanks again Viv. Let’s hope that draft on the armed forces gets shredded and lost without trace.
Carry on shrinking – the services I mean
It’s all part of the plan. The whole point of the EU defence policy, unification of all forces under the sole leadership of Brussels was that it was plainly evident that UK forces plus those of an ally such as the US would always be more powerful than any combination of continent of Europe forces.
I know it wasn’t the US forces in the napoleonic wars, but a combination of GB and whoever they could find who still had independence at that time, but the first and second world wars must have made it evident that while GB forces were strong no combination of European powers were going to be strong enough to subdue us.
It has been evident since Maastricht at least that EU policy has been to reduce us to has Beene, strengthen collective Europe and ditch NATO so that the US is out of the game.
Why oh why is Johnson continuing this reduction unless we have already sold out and for some reason he cannot reverse policy.
Finally we are returning to world involvement, I would have thought strengthening our Navy and Marines would have been priority, not only to protect trade routes, but also to join up with South Pacific and Chinese seas organisations, supporting Australia and New Zealand in particular.
Oh! have I mentioned a dirty word – Commonwealth? I make no apology we need thematic!
Quite correct Roger Turner. You’ve summed up our history and said what we still need for the future. Our armed forces are an integral part of being an Independent Sovereign Nation. Always have been.
A raft of bad news and incompetent government again but one thing stands out; the trashing of our armed forces.
The one thing that an independent sovereign country must have is the means to defend itself. When one considers the traditional aggressor close by across the Channel that becomes even more important, especially when its attempts to keep control have been dismissed.
Showing of weakness only encourages the bully.
Viv, you missed the ‘broad shoulders’ routine.
What a rotten lot – scrimped and saved all their life for the future, no nikies, no cable tv, no designer clothes, no . . . and coming soon, no money.as you have ‘broad shoulders’ to support the wasters of society.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8493727/High-Street-footfall-half-Super-Saturday.html
Don’t look good does it?
“The identification of these cases is evidence that the Test, Trace, Protect strategy is being effective, …”
Is it perhaps not also evidence, when looked at together with the death rate figures, that CV is a lot less deadly than we’ve been led to believe?
This needs to be looked at to see if we can end the lock down immediately. Who knows, it might even be that
we DON’T NEED A VACCINE!
(Oh dear. Just think of all the taxpayers’ money that could be saved!)
Second that.
We need a reform party that can get immediate traction not ten people in a pub spending twenty years trying to grow. Only Farage can do that. I note there are two pubs near me both large. Neither has opened.
Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine. Government waits for an emergency when people will accept their sinister plans in this case a police state. Note how most of the population are being trained to blame death on not locking oneself up enough. It’s like Animal Farm ‘we must all work harder’.
Its been such a long time since I read the shock doctrine I had almost forgotten the way it worked. Of course. The thing is, when you can trust no-one, who do you trust?
Your articles get better and better every day Viv, cutting with glorious sarcasm through all the Govt and MSM
b——t !!
“… many viruses lie dormant throughout the globe and emerge when conditions are favourable…” translates as; when politicians can make political capital out of them.”
Well something like that Mary. It’s wonderful how suddenly we are told something we knew all along, isn’t it. I mean about viruses being around for yonks then suddenly they are headline news.
It’s not just politicians it’s media, civil service, ‘experts’ etcetera, all with their snouts in the trough.
I’ve been wondering Viv what happened about Ferguson’s ‘Swine Flu’ modelling. You’ve told us.