The top fighting cock landed on the roost yesterday
One event yesterday afternoon should have garnered even more attention in our covid MSM than it did. Some tentative ‘analyses’ published in the past couple of days in ‘our’ MSM hint that certain chickens are already circling over yon roost they’re going to come home to. Well, one huge chicken – more like the top fighting cock – actually landed yesterday. More on that below. In addition, the grinning face of Matt H. gracing our frontpages this morning was sufficient to put anybody off their first cup of coffee or tea, showing that he’s probably lost his last marble. And then there’s Ms vdLeyen who seems to have totally lost the plot – in public.
Starting with Ms vdLeyen – or Ms ‘von der Lügen’ (German for ‘lies’): she has now declared open war on AstraZeneca. Dominic Sandbrook writes in the DM:
“In an extraordinary outburst, she threatened to invoke Article 122, the emergency clause that allows the EU to waive intellectual property rights and patents and to seize factories and take control of the means of production. It’s a quasi-communist tactic that would make a tyrant proud and that would allow her to block the export of vaccines, commandeering jabs ordered for Britons and redirecting them to European citizens. […] AstraZeneca, she claimed, was directly to blame, having ‘under-produced and under-delivered’ and ‘reduced the speed of the vaccination campaign’.” (link)
The truly strange thing about this is that the covid~ and mass~vaccination reports from the continent have shown that, thanks to the campaign by Macron and Merkel, a huge number of EU citizens don’t want this vaccine. Furthermore, EU countries sit on a huge stockpile of the AZ vaccine after 17 EU member states have suspended using it because of the suspicion it might produce thrombosis. So why Ms vdL wants to grab everything pertaining to AZ now, when member states have stockpiles and people don’t want it – well, who knows! It’s beyond rational explanation.
Perhaps she wanted to divert attention from the Brussels ‘project’ of installing a Brussels vaccine passport? How such passports help when mass vaccination has been so pitiful in EU member states is anybody’s guess. The danger is that this may well provide a welcome pretext for our covid politburo to introduce such covid passports here in the UK, especially since Brits ‘may apply’ to that Brussels passport, Brexit or not (link). I’m not betting that ‘Brits’, so keen to go to mediterranean beaches, won’t apply in droves, selling out civil liberties for the pottage of ‘summer holidays’.
Staying with vaccine passports: Mr Gove is running a ‘consultation’ where we all can have our say – here is the link – but, given my previous experiences with such government-run consultations, I sadly regard this exercise as a sop to us peasants where we are permitted to let off steam while the perpetrators, the civil serpents and government, have already decided what to do. Still – have a go, why not!
This exercise is also a deflection from the promises made, that “we” would be free by June 21st because by then all who want would be vaccinated. Now Hancock, grinning inanely, told the nation that sadly there are production and supply bottlenecks and that the NHS has warned vaccine hubs of a ‘four week supply drought’. Oh. How odd.
This is apparently related to the Oxford jab. It’s unclear if the mRNA jabs are also affected. The point is that the younger cohort, the under 50s’, won’t get their jabs as promised by yon Matt H. who:
“effectively ruled out offering jabs to people under 50 before the second half of next month. In a letter from NHS chiefs, vaccination centres were told to focus on higher-priority groups and to invite younger adults for vaccination only in “exceptional circumstances”. (link, paywalled)
Nothing is precisely said or known about the reasons for this bottleneck. This is only based on a leaked NHS letter, and while speculation is rife, AZ is not accepting the blame:
“AstraZeneca refuted the claims and insisted last night that its UK supply chain was not experiencing disruption. A spokesman said: ‘Our UK domestic supply chain is not experiencing any disruption and there is no impact on our delivery schedule.’ There are also suggestions of manufacturing issues with the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines, according to sources.” (link)
‘Honi soit’ and all that if one thinks this might have something to do with keeping the lockdowns running! After all, how can “we” be graciously given back our freedom, robbed by the covid government, when the mass vaccination is faltering! The strange thing here is that ‘the young’, especially the white middle-class young, are apparently quite unkeen to set up demos to demand their freedom back. Why they’re only keen to protest in order to demand more restrictions and more loss of our liberties, from free speech (‘must protect wimmin from misogynists!’) to freedom of movement (‘must save the planet by stopping mass travel!’) is anybody’s guess.
And so to the huge cockerel that came home to roost: Dominic Cummings, who gave evidence to the HoC Select Committee on Science and Technology yesterday afternoon. Here’s the video of his performance. It’s long, and I’ve only managed to get through it half-way, but our intrepid MSM reporters were there en masse. Here’s a quote from the DT’s opinion page:
“He gave a masterclass in defying expectations, as hundreds of hacks eagerly tuned into Mr Cummings’s evidence to the Science and Technology Committee, doubtless hoping for juicy soundbites, talk of Cambridge Analytica, Putin, lizards, and so on. A gaggle of photographers and journalists thronged outside Parliament. For the usually-deserted committee corridor, this was a box office draw. What the former Number 10 aide offered was a morning of high-tech nerdery; featuring countless paeans to science funding and knowledgeable diatribes on Whitehall bureaucracy.” (link, paywalled)
It’s significant although not surprising that the massed reporters disregarded the aim of this inquiry, namely to find out about the new science agency to be launched (link). It’s the brainchild of Cummings and is called ‘ARIA’. However, they heard some hot, juicy stuff, such as Cummings denigrating the Hancock department. He was telling the MPs – mostly on Zoom, of course – that “when the nation emerges from lockdown there should be an “urgent and very, very hard look in this building [Parliament] into what went wrong and why in 2020” (paywalled link). Speaking softly, he didn’t mince his words. Here’s a word-for-word quote to be relished:
“It’s not coincidental that the vaccine programme worked like it did, that we had to take it out of the Department for Health, we had to have it authorised very directly by the prime minister and say strip away all the normal nonsense. In spring 2020 the Department for Health was a smoking ruin in terms of procurement and PPE. You had serious problems with the funding of therapeutics. Patrick Vallance [the chief scientific adviser] said this shouldn’t be run out of the Department for Health. We also had the EU proposal which looked like an absolutely guaranteed programme to fail debacle.” (link, paywalled)
Cummings further called for government to be ‘de-bureaucratised’ and that ARIA be kept out of the grasp of ministers and Whitehall bureaucrats, especially the Treasury. He did say that Sunak supported this approach.
In conclusion I simply cannot resist to quote at length from Quentin Letts’ sketch in The Times. I vow that my impressions, having watched just about half of this hearing, are in total accord. Enjoy – you won’t find better:
“Bilious news for Whitehall’s amalgamated union of best-practice puffballs: Dominic Cummings was back, bulleting them with cool abandon. Boris Johnson’s former chief of staff did a turn at the Commons science and technology committee. His evidence — intense, detailed, funny, troubling — will have had mandarins gumming their Zoom headsets so hard, they’ll possibly have electrocuted themselves. Treasury risk supervisors and NHS procurement directors in particular may need sedation. A horse-syringeful of Prozac for Matt Hancock, please, ostler.
This was the best revenge viewing since Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West, Charles Bronson’s harmonica now played by Cummings. They thought they’d killed him off with their derision of his Barnard Castle trip and his falling-out with Carrie Symonds? They. Were. Wrong. Cue the spaghetti western music. […] It is just as well that the Reform Club, canteen of senior civil servants, is not open for lunch at present. There would have been a stampede for the bloody Marys.” (link, paywalled)
No apologies for this long quote – we all need a bit of light relief in times like these!
KBO!
Photo by sammydavisdog 
Here is another link for the Government “consultation” on vaccine passports which may be of help
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/covid-status-certification-review-call-for-evidence Apparently my MP is concerned about privacy laws etc. and is looking closely at it! In other words he will do as he is told.
I bought the kindle edition of Failures of State by Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott that Viv referred to in a previous ID as I hoped it would shed some light on the incompetence of the past year. It is quite lengthy but have read three chapters. Chapter one had a bit of Brexit bashing in it (they still don’t get it), and had we left shortly after the referendum and dealt with the details after, the Government would not have been “distracted” or “taken their eye off the ball”. Having said that, I don’t think it would have made any difference, we would still have got BRINO. Chapters two and three get down to more nitty gritty stuff, namely that the virus did come from China (who knew) and scientists were silenced and made to deny previous statements to various news outlets, as being wrong. No surprise there then. No doubt more exciting revelations are to come.
Thanks Lisa but the same applies.There is no way to get the question up on the screen at the same time as the means to answer it! It may be that my system works very different to most.
As to the rest of what you say there, well, Gerrard Batten warned that article 50 was a trap. He said the way to get out of EU was to simply repeal the 1973 Act that took us into the EEC. All the rest depended on it, so would be repealed at the same time.
That still seems to me, how it should have been done. Although there might have been disruption, the basic question would have been settled, U.K. was an independent sovereign country. Trade matters would be sorted through the W.T.O.. Let’s face it, we are in a no better position now.
Talking about Covid having ‘distracted’ Government is a ‘squirrel’. There was a year in which we were in a position to say, ‘no more talk we are leaving, no deal’. But Bozo was listening to the wrong people.
Well at least your book is talking sense re it being the C.C.P. virus!
It may be just my antiquated computer system at fault but trying to answer that vaccination passport consultation today has totally failed. That is from Viv’s link above and from John Redwoods diary and direct from google.
But I seem to remember that I did succeed a little while ago.
Wasn’t that the one where, first you could till such and such a date, then couldn’t, then you could again?
Strange? Suspicious? or just more incompetence?
Many thanks Viv for the Quentin Letts quote! I am sorry he has chosen to write behind a paywalled journal where I can’t now reach his column. I love his wit and wisdom. His book on 50+ people who bu**ered Up Britain is priceless!
I, so glad I missed seeing Matty H grinning from the front pages! It would not have gone down well with my blueberry wheat breakfast! There is something particularly repellent about ‘that grin’!
Germany’s Health Minister, Jens Spahn, is concerned about a very specific form of blood clot that is happening in the brain possibly as a result of the Astra Zeneca vaccine. It is rare but there has been a spike in the number of those cases. Is it a coincidence that the UK Government’s Stroke Awareness campaign was relaunched on 9 March?
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/relaunch-of-the-act-fast-campaign-to-improve-stroke-outcomes
A group of scientists wrote to the European Medicines Agency pointing out the mechanism by which the vaccine induces clotting. It causes microvascular thromboses; it is getting into the endothelial cells that line blood vessels. This leads the body to an immune reaction to the endothelial cells that promotes coagulation and thrombosis. In older people especially, this manifests as heart attacks and strokes. But, hey, they are old, expected to die, so with no further ado, it is put down as myocardial infarction. Nothing to see here; move along.
No one listened.
So where is the Sanofi Vaxx ??? EU has blown half a billlion on committees , got no vaxx.
Thats why they want to steal ours.
Hope HMG has patent rights on the Oxford vaxxx… we paid for it ,, should charge EU a license .
Frau vin der luger…YHIHF
HoC Select Committee on Science and Technology. Not something that fills me with confidence.
Over the years our Government (and many others) has developed a system whereby they dream up some policy ( take your choice… BSE, National Scrapie Plan, FMD, Climate Change, Covid…), and then find a “scientist” to provide back- up… there will always be one prepared to prostitute himself for money and notoriety..
That “Scientist’s”.views become set in stone. No debate or dissent is permitted. That is NOT SCIENCE.
A prime example: Ptolemy of Alexandria (who died in AD 168) declared that the Earth was stationary and that the heavenly bodies revolved around it. That became “The Science” embraced by State and Church and grisly penalties were forthcoming for any who disagreed.
Copernicus (died AD 1543) set forth his theory that the earth and planets revolved round the sun.No one dared publish that until after his death for fear of the storm it would stir up.
Galileo (died AD 1642) Proved the Copernicus theory mathematically. He ended up in prison.
That’s what can happen when Governments say,”We are only following the science…”
1500 years of ENFORCED ignorance and bigotry…
dickatbarn. Yes but hopefully Cummings will succeed in keeping ARIA ‘out of the grasp of ministers and bureaucrats’.
Dickatbarn. I seem to remember that you are a retired farmer. It seems you are also an astronomer, or maybe a historian?
Anyway, you are so right in your analysis of how a chosen policy can always be backed up by a ‘scientist’ that has been bought.
No wonder you are not full of confidence in the HoC Select Committee!
B.S.E. was a particularly tragic case. Not so much because of the people who died but because of the huge losses incurred by farmers.
Were cattle (herbivores) deliberately fed sheep protein for a while under some misguided ‘science backed’ policy?
If so, it was then swept under the carpet, I believe.
Of course we should also include the ,” Six Feet ” rule which was based , eighty years ago on a hunch by German scientist Carl Flugge ,
Cummings is a globalist to the top of his boots but he is saying all the right things and providing all the solutions to address the sheer incompetence and scandal of the waste and cost of big government. No wonder he was hounded out of No 10!!
You sure he’s globalist Jake?
Anyway – anybody who even attempts to sort out the huge inefficiencies in the civil service has to be applauded. Look what happens to ‘bully’ Priti Patel, every time she asks her civil servants to serve!
The vaccine procurement & roll out (with a little help from the Sun’s Jabs Army) is pretty much the ONLY thing the Gvt has got right. Full marks to Cummings for crediting Vallance with making sure that was a separate unit out of the DoH’s maw, personally I suspected that Cummings would have had a hand in that so thank you kindly Patrick Vallance.
Agreed Helena.
I’ve no intention of having the vaccine but I do agree that the roll out is the only thing the Govt have got right.
Helena You may find this interesting.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/08/10/can-boris-johnsons-brexit-guru-banish-nativist-populism-from-british-politics/
Agreed ! Incidentally, thebest thing you can do for anybody like Cumminigs,is to try sneaky ways of stopping them..Pressure is food and drink. Put em in a room with half a dozen others and watch for results. Works every time.
Agreed Jake.