They’re back …

 

You really couldn’t make it up! Just one day after I pointed out that BJ’s promise of a fabulous ‘Covid Inquiry’ contained backdoors designed to let the covid emperors escape, here we are: SAGE is holding an emergency meeting because that Indian variant is spreading so quickly. There’s also a piece of ‘NHS news’ which, yes, made my blood boil. yet again. More on that below.

Firstly – that ‘Covid Inquiry’. Some MSM writers are already pondering what such inquiry might look like. It’s all giddily speculative because neither a chair nor the actual ‘terms of reference’ have been decided yet. However, at least this piece of intriguing information has slipped out:

“The inquiry will also not start until spring 2022, triggering criticism of delays from Labour. There is no guarantee its findings will be completed by the next general election, currently due in May 2024.” (paywalled link)

Moreover, because the terms of reference aren’t yet set, backbench MPs are already hard at work getting questions on the table, from the efficiency of lockdowns all the way down. After all, BJ and his covid hench-emperors will all testify – on oath. Next year. How intriguing. Not.

I must be a dreadful knave for thinking that the covid government seems happy to wait out another ‘wave’, the seasonal winter cold now clearly being covid but not flu, not the sniffles, not pneumonia. We do know that this will mean more lockdowns, that this will mean they can shrug their shoulders and declare such inquiry would better be postponed until 2024 so that a new government – Tory, of course – could start with a clean sheet. After all, it’ll still be ‘the pandemic’, so inquiries cannot be undertaken.

Back to today and SAGE scientists are already hinting that the fabulous release from all restrictions on Midsummer Day may not be permitted to happen. Everybody in government is now a covid expert and our beloved MSM love playing ‘gotcha, as this quote shows:

“George Eustice, the Environment Secretary, said on Wednesday that the Government “can’t rule anything out” when asked about the potential for local lockdowns, as he admitted Covid-19 hotspots had emerged in parts of the UK.” (paywalled link)

It’s news to me that this government needs to be forced into ‘admitting’ that hotspots exist. There have already been reports that Bolton is such a hotspot. “We” of course cannot talk about the mix of ethnicities living in Bolton and “we” can of course not talk about the uptake of vaccines in certain ethnic groups – that would be racist. Researchers have however found that the “infections are spreading more rapidly amongst the Asian community” (paywalled link). Next, we’re given the scare numbers:

“Analysis by one of the UK’s biggest variant trackers warned the strain is focused in hotspots Bolton and neighbour Blackburn with Darwen, where outbreaks have grown by 93 and 86 per cent in a week, respectively, with more than half of lab-checked cases proven to be the Indian strain.” (link)

Before everybody clutches their pearls and grab their nearest face covering let me point out that this is about 750 or so people. Half of all covid infections in London are also thought to be caused by those Indian variants even though the numbers are still small. And while BJ is still optimistically burbling about looking forward to town centres bursting into live next month, he again left himself an escape route, warning that:

“the Indian strain was ‘of increasing concern here in the UK’ and could ‘pose a potential lethal danger. […] The end of lockdown is not the end of the pandemic. The persistent threat of new variants, should these prove highly transmissible and elude the protection of vaccines, would have the potential to cause greater suffering than we had in January.” (link)

So we’ve been duly warned and have to await the ‘guidance’ by SAGE who are meeting today. Never mind that another expert, Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics, Imperial College London, said that their data show that thanks to mass vaccination:

“[…] we can have more infections in the population with far fewer deaths. And we actually see that difference growing nicely now for hospitalisations as well, so for each infection in the community we are producing fewer hospitalisations and far fewer deaths.” (paywalled link)

Might that fearsome ‘increased infectiousness’ of that variant not matter so much after all? Why then is SAGE frit, why are covid politicians even thinking about keeping restrictions in place? Are they afraid of being called racist – or are they hoping to keep us under their covid cosh? 

Next, the NHS news, dug out by the DT, which made me angry. The NHS has now formalised the ‘guidance’ they gave to GPs last year when everything was locked down (my emphasis):

“New NHS guidance instructs family GPs to embed a system of “total triage”, meaning that anyone seeking to see their doctor must first have a discussion online or by telephone. It makes clear that anyone deemed by a doctor to require a face-to-face consultation should still receive one, but says that about a third of all patients’ requests can be dealt with using online messaging. The advice, first issued in April last year, and updated last September, as a short-term measure, has now been formalised into annual NHS operational planning guidance, which came into force last month.” (paywalled link)

Doesn’t it strike you as rather odd that we have not been informed of this guidance even as people keep complaining about their experience to the MSM? Isn’t it odd that our MPs seem to be incapable of demanding this guidance be scrapped forthwith? There’s more:

“GPs should “discourage” patients from turning up in the hope of securing an appointment, with such cases given a demonstration of online forms using a smartphone, […] The guidance also suggests that online consultations can be carried out “very quickly”, recommending “quick wins” such as using preset messages.” (paywalled link)

Using ‘preset messages’? So ‘the doctor’ doesn’t even need to engage with the patient on the phone? A preset message is of course a wonderful diagnostic tool …! Doesn’t this look as if the NHS is ‘guiding’ GPs not to bother with pesky patients? After all, this system “helps GPs to identify and focus on the most urgent and serious cases and ensure that those who need them get face-to-face consultations.” (paywalled link) – so it’s all good, no?  Me, I think this is all because apparently modern-day GPs don’t want to come into contact with the pesky unwashed masses. Now, thanks to covid, they don’t need to:

“When the NHS first issued guidance recommending use of “total triage”, it said that such measures were necessary to “protect patients and staff from avoidable risks of infection”. The same phrase is repeated in the updated guidance, despite falling cases of Covid.” (paywalled link)

Isn’t it wonderful how covid has changed our lives! We won’t be able to see our GPs, our roads are already being reconstructed by local authorities into cyclists’ paradises, never mind that people still need to use their cars: what do a few extra miles of detours matter when “we” can all get onto our bikes and become green.

Well, I for one shall refrain from cycling to my GP surgery. I’ll consult Dr (insert the browser of your trust) and find out about what ails me without having to see ‘preset messages’. I wonder though if “our NHS“ will send me NHS-approved devices to take my blood pressure, my temperature, test myself for covid – and will give me an NHS-approved smartphone. 

I leave you with news of ‘coercion by cabinet’. If you thought Cancel Culture only takes place at universities, think again. You’re aware of the situation in Israel where Hamas is shelling Israel with rockets – over 1,000 so far. You’ve probably heard how all the Western ‘statesmen’, BJ included, are again calling for ‘calm’ – from both sides. So while BJ tweeted his ‘concern’, urging “Israel and the Palestinians to step back from the brink and for both sides to show restraint”, a foreign office minister, according to the DT, was

“[…] forced to delete a tweet expressing support for Israel in its conflict with Palestine […] Lord Goldsmith, an environment and foreign minister shared a message from the Israel Defence Forces about the country’s response to rocket attacks from Hamas. The peer tweeted: “No country on Earth would be expected to tolerate these incessant attacks on innocent civilians – by an organisation committed to their total eradication. Why should Israel?” (paywalled link)

Good question, Lord Goldsmith – and another good question is why he isn’t allowed to make that point. Is ‘cabinet discipline’ now used to coerce all ministers to sing from BJ’s hymn sheet only? What might one call such political set-up? Answers on a postcard.

 

KBO!

 

 

Photo by USFWS Mountain Prairie