Aaaah – more shiny round objects to dazzle ‘Our MSM’!

There are times – mornings, to be correct – when I marvel at the sheer asininity produced by government and supporting MSM. I’ve not yet made up my mind if we’ve got to a state where we are already too bludgeoned into acquiescence to protest, or if we peasants are simply not paying any attention to those inanities any longer. 

For a non-covid example let me mention that ‘orrible snow storm we were threatened with, the storm which was going to bury the South East under inches of snow. Well, there are a few feeble photos in the DM and The Times graces their report with a photo of the Blues and Royals exercising their horses on Horseguard Parade, covered by a dusting of snow only (link, paywalled) but you’ve got to go to the ever reliable Express for ‘snow doom and gloom’ predictions – coming next week (link).  

Still, covid and lockdowns and vaccines are now always with us, in one form or another. It is surprising though that the broadsheets are refraining from publishing any ‘good news’ graphs showing the huge reduction in case numbers, hospital admissions and deaths. They hide them coyly inside their other covid articles. You need to visit the DM to find a report, published yesterday evening (link)! Apparently, we don’t need to be told the news that “we” hit a six-week low in number-of-deaths, that ‘cases’ were the lowest since 8th December 2020 – “we” might ask why we’re still locked down.

Instead, the covid imperium came out with yet another inanity. No, it’s not the question of that SA mutant. It ‘won’t become ‘dominant’, said Professor Van-Tam at the usual covid press conference yesterday and we surely believe him. After all, the DT’s political sketchwriter sez that his voice and bedside manners are so very reassuring. Before you ask: no, I’ve not watched him or indeed any of those Covid PR productions. Life’s too short and there are other things one can watch if one wants to*). 

However, there’s a study from SA itself where they found the Oxford vaccine only ‘10% effective’ against their SA mutant. That is important, that ought to worry us! It comes under ‘how is this even making sense’:

“The results of a new study in South Africa show that the jab offers virtually no protection against mild to moderate illness, meaning it is likely to allow the virus to spread. However, scientists believe the Oxford-designed jab, currently shouldering the bulk of the rollout burden in the UK, should protect against hospitalisation and death from the variant.” (paywalled link)

Well, since our own PM tells us to get that Oxford jab anyway – he would say that, wouldn’t he! – and since Professor V-T tells us to do so as well, there’s no need to worry, surely! Even as the DCMO (that’s ‘deputy chief medical officer’) has made those reassuring noises about the SA mutant not becoming dominant (paywalled link), our MSM present us with ‘expert opinions’ telling us why we must worry.

No critical questions are being asked in their written reports. It’s as if they’re little kids who are dazzled by one round shiny object after the other, saying ‘aaahhhh’ being their only reaction. For example, not one eyebrow was raised in The Times where we find SAGE expert after SAGE expert making the case for … ‘moar lockdown’:

“Britain should “take the pain” of longer restrictions to reduce the risk of mutations needing repeated lockdowns, government scientific advisers have said. Experts said evidence that vaccines may not work as well against the South Africa variant of the virus strengthened the need to drive cases much lower to reduce the risk of dangerous new mutations emerging.” (link, paywalled)

That must be why BJ himself is now hinting at ‘moar lockdown’, not ruling out the possibility that ‘the South African variant could delay the relaxation of lockdown restrictions’ (paywalled link). ‘Dear Matt’ is also preparing us plebs for this eventualité even though he must be aware that some of his colleagues and backbench MPs have now become wise to the incessant goalpost-shifting he is so fond of, threatening a possible backlash (link, paywalled).

I won’t bore you with the warnings raised by SAGE experts, all cautioning us about getting every ‘covid number’ as low as possible. They’ve now thrown a new expression into the covid debate to scare us with: ‘prevalence’. That relates to the number of people ‘infected’, and ought to be as low as possible because otherwise that pesky virus will replicate and create more mutations – the horror!

There’s another snag: Test & Trace – the only way known to man to prevent ‘death-by-covid’, or so we’re told. We remember that there were ‘surge testing’ exercises going on in ‘hotspots’ for the SA mutant: that door-to-door testing in places like Bristol and Liverpool. This worked well enough for our home-grown ‘Kent Mutant’ because the variations could be picked up by the fabulous PCR. 

PCR however cannot pick up the SA mutant – it needs proper gene sequencing for that, and while The Times (link, paywalled) praises our scientists for being world leaders in this endeavour, the whole thing sadly takes time: two weeks of it. Tough, innit, to have science show up the limitations caused by normal time constraints experienced in proper science labs – something no pleading by BJ or ‘dear Matt’ can accelerate.

The latest appeal by Matt and his friends however is beyond a joke – not that his friends in the MSM are asking why this appeal is necessary – oh no! They simply reproduce the appeal as if it’s just one of those things, no questions needing to be asked. 

This is it: all over 70s who’ve not yet had the jab are told to ‘contact the NHS’. Yes: “we” suddenly are encouraged to call them, to book our own jab-date (e.g.: link, also: link, paywalled and: paywalled link). Why, after two months of their mass-jab drive, the NHS still doesn’t know if all in those age groups have been jabbed is surely a mystery worthy of investigation – but nooo: “we” are supposed to be happy that we’re now permitted to ask for our own jab-date! So if you feel that you’re surely ‘eligible’, do come forward, to make our covid government look good – they need the numbers to show they’ve jabbed all over 70s, as ‘promised, by 15th February. 

It’s a ‘production push’ and now even “Children and grandchildren are also being asked to encourage older relatives to ask for vaccinations if they have not already received it.” (link, paywalled). Not one of our covid reporters in our covid MSM has asked how it is possible that people, especially the over 70s, have fallen through the NHS net, or why ‘only 90%’ of them have been jabbed so far! These surely are questions worth pursuing? 

Meanwhile we’re admonished not to pester our GPs – we should ask them for an appointment only when booking online or using a jab-booking phone line – it’s 119, since you asked – isn’t producing ‘a convenient appointment’! Not in my wildest dreams did I foresee that ‘Our NHS’ is telling patients to ask rather than wait to be told …!

I leave you with a recommendation for an outstanding analysis published yesterday (link) in The Conservative Woman. This article explains, giving chapter and verse, the reason why the MSM have become the supine propaganda mouthpiece of the covid government. Do read the whole thing! The scandal is that government is financing,, with our money the covid MSM propaganda machine for which we also pay when we buy the papers or read them online. It’s also a warning for the future, when the green blob takes over the control of our lives ‘after covid’. Thomas Jefferson had something to say about this despicable exercise:

“To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”

Just so! Let me finish with a news item that made me laugh, hollowly, because it displays the inanity and stupidity of those who ‘govern’ us. We’ve seen the reports about the EU jobsworths stopping the export of our fresh shellfish – Sir John Redwood has picked up on this in his Diary this morning (link). So here is Mr George Eustace, Environment secretary, rattling a sabre we don’t have, threatening that “we” might board EU fishing boats, disrupting their catches, unless Brussels ‘backs down’ (link). 

Using threats one cannot execute is bad enough. Menacing Brussels by talking about something we don’t have – fishery patrol vessels – is simply cringeworthy and clearly counter-productive. Words simply fail me, yet again!

Meanwhile, do keep warm and

KBO!

~~~   ooo   ~~~

*) This is the old film ‘Passport to Pimlico’ which gave me much joy when I watched it on Saturday. Especially the ending …