“Our New Religion”
If there were an official gong to be handed out for steering us through the Corona Virus Pandemic then it has to go, collectively, to ‘Our MSM’. Not only did they make Johnson abandon his earlier tough and now, in retrospect, sensible stance to go for that dirty concept, ‘herd immunity’, they fuelled the atmosphere of fear day by day so that they can now crow that Brits are frit and won’t leave their homes.
They are already setting the agenda for what they want to see next: a Starmer government. According to reports he made life difficult for Johnson in yesterday’s PMQ. Now a certain Liam Byrne – formerly Chief Secretary of the Treasury in Gordon Brown’s government and famous for leaving a note for his successor in Cameron’s incoming government, saying “I’m afraid there is no money” – writes in The Times that the new, post CV-19 economy must be ‘bold and green’ so that the deaths of those felled by CV-19 were ‘not in vain’ (link, paywalled).
That is a stomach-turning argument: did all those who died of CV-19 elect to do so, to ‘save’ you-know-what? Once you see where Mr Byrne has been earning his crust you know where he’s coming from. Wearing the Labour rosette is just camouflage: he is chairman of the Global Parliamentary Network of the IMF and World Bank.
Next, in a piece in The Times the author, a professor at Nottingham University, slyly evokes 1945 – it is VE day tomorrow, after all. He surreptitiously suggests that, just as the British people in 1945 voted in Labour, we should get rid of the Churchill-admirer Johnson. Put down your cups of tea before reading this quote:
“By VE Day most voters had decided that if they were to build on their collective achievement in defeating Germany then Churchill – who opposed talk of building a post-war New Jerusalem – had to be replaced. During the election campaign which followed within weeks of the German surrender he was even booed at open-air rallies. For in voting for a Labour government Britons decided that their most appropriate wartime memorial would not be a few inspiring speeches from a heroic leader but a society that through collective provision looked after those in most need. The central feature of this new society would be, of course, the National Health Service, the very institution that is battling Covid-19 on behalf and which millions of Britons applaud every Thursday evening. It is the NHS rather than No 10 that is now the lion who looks after us all.” (link, paywalled)
That ‘New Jerusalem’ was encapsulated in “Our NHS”! There you have the outline of the forthcoming campaign in “Our MSM”: now that “Our Sacred Cow” has saved us it’s our sacred duty to keep saving and protecting it, under a Starmer government of course, while going green. I wonder if in that ‘New Jerusalem’ reports like this one will be permitted:
“Every one of the 400,000 gowns brought back from Turkey last month has been impounded in a warehouse outside Heathrow Airport after inspectors found the gear was “useless” and fell short of UK standards, senior sources said. Ministers were last night facing questions over whether the money paid for the gear will be recovered, and why the public were not told earlier. Millions of masks bought from factories in China have also been seized and impounded after being found to fall below UK standards, it can be revealed.” (link)
It’s a lovely little vignette showing what happens when government politics is driven exclusively by MSM-produced ‘Fear&Hysteria’. I do wonder though what the Labour savers-of-our NHS would have said had PHE actually stockpiled proper PPE equipment ‘just in case’. Wouldn’t they have deemed that a horrendous waste of money while ‘Teh Poor’ needed food banks? I can already see the coming headlines in ‘Our MSM’ about ‘Austerity’ and ‘Toreee cuts’.
Then there’s the NHS App, designed to track us. We wrote about that yesterday and recommended this critical comparison in The Register. Here’s the take-home quote again:
“As soon as someone agrees to share their information with UK government – by claiming to feel unwell and hitting a big green button – 28 days of data from the app is given to a central server from where it can never be recovered. That data, featuring all the unique IDs you’ve encountered in that period and when and how far apart you were, becomes the property of NCSC – as its chief exec Matthew Gould was forced to admit to MPs on Monday. Gould also admitted that the data will not be deleted, UK citizens will not have the right to demand it is deleted, and it can or will be used for “research” in future.” (link)
Never mind that this app might break privacy and human rights laws! We must worry about this app because it’s incompatible with the Google/Apple app and would therefore mean Brits couldn’t travel abroad because ‘our NHS app’ can’t show that they’re ‘free from’, according to the DT (link). ‘Our NHS’, reinventing the wheel, is now spending money on experts to make their square wheel compatible with the round wheels used everywhere else. Well, Sunak will surely find some more money for that – never mind that it’s unclear if we’ll even have money to afford travel abroad …
And then there’s the Professor Pants-Down saga. While quite a lot of comment posters in the MSM think that he was ‘only human’ and we shouldn’t be hypocritical, there are already apologists – e.g. in The Times (paywalled) – who think he overreacted and that ‘his expertise’ would surely be missed. Stop laughing, you lot on the back benches! Here are quotes from a veritable eulogy:
“When Neil Ferguson’s report predicting Britain would suffer 510,000 deaths without strict measures was published, it completely shifted government policy. Until then No 10 had pursued a “herd immunity” strategy. This was scrapped and preparations were made for months of lockdown. Professor Ferguson, a fitness fanatic who normally wears jeans, a T-shirt and jacket, has advised five British prime ministers on outbreaks from foot and mouth in 2001, Sars in 2003, swine flu in 2011, and Mers in 2012 to Ebola and Zika in 2014. In the world of mathematical epidemiology he is renowned for his quick thinking, clear solutions, work ethic and temperament.” (link, paywalled)
And not one person, in government or Whitehall, took notice of his disastrous and plain wrong ‘predictions’? Perhaps because he’s a jeans-wearing fitness fanatic? It’s hard not to see an ulterior motive in those who advised Johnson to accept that Ferguson model … There’s more:
“As the coronavirus began to wreak havoc around the world, he set up the university’s Covid-19 response team and revisited a mathematical model he built 15 years ago. […] As well as guiding UK policy, his work on the virus informed the strategies pursued by the White House and the governments of France and Germany. He has faced criticism.” (link, paywalled)
I say! Did he indeed ‘face criticism’? Then why was he crowned as ‘Top Scientist’, leading the government’s pandemic answer by putting the whole country under house arrest? I hope that those foreign governments won’t sue him or our government for this modelling disaster …
It’s also indicative of the “we follow Teh Science” attitude prevailing in Westminster when the only criticism of Ferguson is about his take on his immunity:
“His claim about his immunity led to questions about the efficacy of his advice and calls for the Government to publish the advice it has received on immunity. Tobias Ellwood, a senior Conservative MP, said: “If there is an absence of the understanding of immunity, then the Government should be more transparent on that.” (link)
There’s not one critical assessment of Ferguson’s model in the MSM. Those of you who read Lockdown Sceptics might have seen the devastating analysis of Ferguson’s model. One comment poster also provided the link yesterday evening in a comment post. Here it is again.
It forcefully reminds me of ‘Climate Gate’ (see here). That was 11 years ago. We know what happened next: nothing, as far as ‘Teh Science’ was concerned – and much as far as our economies were concerned: we must all become green and carbon-free.
But back to that Ferguson code which was the reason for the utter thrashing of the world’s economies. The article’s author describes a whole list of errors for which Imperial College London gave weaselly explanations which always missed the points made. I’m no coder and have no expertise, but this surely must raise eyebrows:
“Due to bugs, the code can produce very different results given identical inputs. They routinely act as if this is unimportant. This problem makes the code unusable for scientific purposes, given that a key part of the scientific method is the ability to replicate results. Without replication, the findings might not be real at all” (link)
Words fail me! Again! Are there no politicians in cabinet, are there no mandarins who have a faint idea how actual science is actually supposed to work? The author concludes:
“All papers based on this code should be retracted immediately. Imperial’s modelling efforts should be reset with a new team that isn’t under Professor Ferguson, and which has a commitment to replicable results with published code from day one.” (link)
Amen to that! Read the whole thing – if I can understand it, so can you. Enlighten your MPs who obviously haven’t a clue about proper science. Be alert to the coming campaign to replace Johnson with Starmer – after all, just as with Brexit, we peasants are too stupid to understand what we voted for. Be aware that you might soon have to confess that yes, you do love ‘Our NHS’ and will give everything to protect it: your savings, your earnings …!
I think that, contrary to what ‘Our MSM’ want us to believe, we’re only at the beginning of the Churchillian struggle to save our country – not just from CV-19 but from the NHS-religionists. So
KBO!
Photo by FlickrDelusions 
We are coming up to VE day, but does it mirror the current VE Day? Virus in Europe day; We would not have a real VE Day celebration if the current gOVERNMENT (small g) were in power back then, because D Day would not have taken place. Cancelled because the death toll, as modelled and predicted by the then Babbage Computer, would have been unacceptable. Those brave people of the day would now be ashamed of what we have become.
They panicked with the lockdown and are panicking again over the economy. Hence next week. Trying too cut their losses.
There is one good thing about the House of Commons. – When this virus has been dealt with, ( or if it is ), then the records will be examined in detail and account will have to be made. – On top of this will be the National finances being trashed. – The Churchill – Attlee change over might come into being, but it might be wise to understand that Labour’s Starmer is a very shop soiled guy. – He was involved in getting no Court action for that kiddy-fiddling rapist Savile, which might be worth considered thought by voters. – Doing the virus thing, but only with hindsight is not that clever, as anyone could manage that. – Being a floating voter, I am in favour of Johnson being well examined in detail !
The breathtaking hypocrisy not only of Ferguson but of other ‘leaders’ can be seen here – or just a sample of them.
Only a fool buys stuff unseen. Clearly no-one checked out these gowns before purchase. Or nobody with the necessary knowledge.
Take away the ones with the knowledge (ie experts) and this is what you get.
Civil servants at their best. They just don’t seem to be capable of procurement. The story is they went to a Turkish agent and gave him the money up front. His sister’s factory which normally makes T-shirts got the business by a happy coincidence. No samples or pre checks before paying. Other people’s money innit.
And then we had the farce of British Manufacturers approaching the government and asking about specifications etc and not getting an answer, yet nobody in the worse than useless press corps that attends the daily Downing Street briefings asks the right questions and hold our increasingly bl***y useless government to account. I am fast losing my patience with this mob. Setting Brexit aside and taking us out of the EU on the 31st January 2020, so far they have been a huge disappointment. The trouble is that we have 4 years left of this haphazard way of governing the country.
Professor Ferguson … has advised five British prime ministers on outbreaks from foot and mouth in 2001, Sars in 2003, swine flu in 2011, and Mers in 2012 to Ebola and Zika in 2014. In the world of mathematical epidemiology he is renowned for his quick thinking, clear solutions, work ethic and temperament.”
“…renowned for his quick thinking, clear solutions, work ethic and temperament.” So what? What about his actual work?
That list of his previous work is a CV of shame and failure; not expertise.
In the real world, he is renowned for getting his predictions spectacularly wrong, and by huge orders of magnitude, every time. A less charitable person might think, especially as his married girlfriend is a left-wing activist for all the usual loony lefty tropes, he actually wanted to bring the country to its knees, he’s tried so many times.
Know thine enemy. China Virus 10 or more times deadly than the flu?
Here’s a comprehensive update. The video gives a very good idea of what the China Virus is all about.
I can comment on one aspect mentioned which is causing puzzlement among health professionals. They talk of ‘happy hypoxia’. Simple: Our urge to breath is driven by too much CO2, not too little oxygen. Hypoxia sometimes kills skin-divers. I remember reading somewhere that the sensation (while skin-diving, not while dying of the virus) is actually quite pleasant, a bit like feeling drunk.
Article in Mail today saying the lockdown was a waste of time. After all their previous screeching.
When will these cretins allow us to get haircuts again? I don’t see any of them going around looking like the Wildman of Borneo (OK just Michael Fabricant.)
Never let a crisis go to waste.
The world economy might well have the capacity to recover from this in fairly short order as long as there re no further restraints placed on it. Covid and Green Lunacy combined, however, will kill millions from poverty (energy and otherwise).
I have a certain amount of sympathy for the Health Secretary as he, like all politicians, has been flying blind. Without data and blindly accepting the false data provided by Imperial he’s been on a hiding to nothing. That said, failures under his leadership have undoubtedly killed people and anyone with an ounce of common sense would have looked at the track record of the ‘experts’ and used a bit of caution.
When he was Minister for Energy CMM’s policies contributed to our over-costly energy, the driving force behind our economy. Not just that. Domestic users also pay the price. As a county councillor I had people on my division to whom £5 per week really mattered, with heat or eat not being just a slogan. High domestic energy costs impact the old, the poor and the sick most as can be seen by the death rates in a harsh winter.
Unless Call Me Matt gets a grip the cry will be ‘How many old people have you killed today. Matthew?’ Heaven forfend they let him near the Defence portfolio.
Ditch the Green agenda for ten years, a pause for reassessment. Frack to provide cheaper, low carbon electricity and CNG HGV fuel, with standards for NOX and particulate emissions by buses, diesel trains and HGV being made tighter each year.
Maybe the idea that the experts can be trusted has had its day.
JF
BTW, Fabricant? I’m channelling Brian Jones circa 1964.
Place pudding basin then cut!
JF. I agree with your comments but you are too generous with CMM. This is another useless fake conservative. There is nothing there but personal ambition. Look at the CV. Easy meat for TPTB to manipulate.