We’re now bored by covid (not the Chief Mouser!)

The national covid situation must be getting better because there are no ‘we’re all gonna die’ MSM headlines this morning. Instead there are reports sprinkled across the MSM, referring in a veiled way to waycism. There’s a brilliant critique of SAGE, BJ and that roadmap. And then there’s Scotland …

Firstly, there’s an amazing headline in the Guardian this morning, about a ThinkTank demanding NHS ‘health workers’ should go door-to-door to ‘offer vaccines’ to deprived or hard-to-reach communities. ‘Tis to prevent covid from becoming a disease of ‘Teh Poor’:

“Dr Halima Begum, the chief executive of the Runnymede Trust thinktank, said if people were not able or willing to go to GP surgeries, hospitals or vaccination centres, members of the NHS vaccine army should go to them.” (link)

Yes – hordes of already overworked, burnt-out NHS staff should traipse through our ‘deprived’ communities to vaccinate all, even the ‘unwilling’ because: ‘poverty!’. The totalitarian aspect of this measure has of course escaped the authors of that report as well as the Guardian writers. ‘Poverty’ is a cloak for unconscious racism, it seems – look at this:

“Begum said black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities were particularly vulnerable to being left unvaccinated. […] In Birmingham’s Sparkbrook and Balsall Heath East, an inner-city area home to a large Somali population and where 90% of residents are BAME, just 57% of over-80s had received their first jab compared with an estimated 93.4% nationally. The ward is one of many in Birmingham with large BAME communities to have low vaccine take-up, compared with areas such as Rubery and Rednal, which has a BAME population of 9% and where 91% of over-80s had received their first dose.” (link)

Dreadful, isn’t it: ‘The Rich’ (of course white!) get vaccinated and the ‘poor BAME’ aren’t. I hope the Think Tanks won’t come up with a demand to force-jab all those BAME people. 

Staying with what can only be described as ‘reverse racism’, there’s now another row brewing. In the run-up to an expected ‘run on beaches’ similar to the one last summer, there are reports that the owners of an estate in Dorset have complained to government (e.g. link). I truly love the way they’ve expressed themselves:

“The government is being urged to educate “culturally diverse” urban tourists on how to behave when visiting the British seaside before it lifts the lockdown.The Lulworth Estate, which owns Durdle Door, has complained about the behaviour of the huge crowds that descended on the famous beach when travel restrictions were temporarily lifted last summer. It blamed the “younger and more geographically and culturally diverse cohort” for unprecedented piles of litter as well as vandalism and “wild toileting” on the Jurassic Coast in Dorset.” (link, paywalled)

Similar ‘feats’ happened in the Lake District where ‘fly-campers’ left their tents behind and farmers complained last month that ‘tourists’ from cities “were trampling crops to avoid getting muddy feet on footpaths churned up by the increasing number of visitors.” (link, paywalled). Of course, ‘urban tourists’ aren’t all ‘culturally diverse’ …

However, what did they expect after government and certain NGOs demanded the countryside had to be made ‘accessible’ and ‘attractive’ to ‘diverse’ communities? I cannot refrain to mention a beautiful ‘whataboutery’ by one reader of the Times who asked ‘what about Glastonbury?’ Indeed. Perhaps those readers and the ‘diverse’ nationalities would make a good subject for a green campaign, along the lines of not destroying the planet, or summink …

There’s one more item which, since it’s been raised by Tory MPs, must be waycist. The dared to demand that the poor refugees from war-torn France who have begun crossing the Channel again should be quarantined like all those travellers coming here from those covid red-zone countries:

“Covid rates in northern France are up to 15 times those in Dover, while there is concern that without knowing the routes that migrants, including Africans, took to reach the UK, it raises the risk of new variants entering Britain. Migrants are currently housed in hotels in and around Dover.” (paywalled link)

The poor things must be educated on our covid rulz! Forget that many simply escape into the wild that is coin-ridden UK. Of course, Ms Patel’s mandarins rowed back:

The Home Office said Channel migrants arriving in the UK were placed in isolation for 10 days and anyone who was symptomatic was taken to designated accommodation and tested.” (paywalled link)

Spot the parallels: the NHS was going to be ‘overwhelmed’ by covid cases starting in late autumn even though they’d been warned by SAGEs about this. Many were irate that the ‘Sacred Cow’ had apparently done nothing during summer to prepare for this foreseeable event. Similarly, the Home Office was fully aware about the ‘immigrant’ situation all last summer and it was entirely foreseeable that the Channel-crossing would pick up again come the milder weather. Many are furious that the Patel Place has clearly done nothing in preparation for this next wave of illegals.

Who runs these bastions of officialdom? Not elected ministers but our friends the mandarins and civil serpents. This is surely something our other ;friends’ in the MSM must be aware of – but since they’re all denizens of that lovely Westminster bubble, nothing ever will be said, never mind demanding change. ‘Fit for purpose’ is a dirty expression.

Now let’s look at that ‘roadmap’ again which our ‘betters’ in the MSM and in politics seem to have accepted without a murmur. If you’re so inclined, you can read the official document here. I recommend today’s Lockdown sceptics’ Newsletter (link) especially since they’re reporting on spates between Ferguson and non-SAGE correspondents. Ferguson is riding high because, as we wrote yesterday, it was ‘models’ which made Johnson adopt the ‘not yet’ way to release us from lockdowns.

Meanwhile, a ’government source’ dangled another carrot in front of our noses, saying that an early release ‘could be triggered’ if the ‘effect of vaccines’ is better than expected (paywalled link). Well, clearly this won’t happen given the ’terrible’ situation in the ‘deprived, poverty-stricken’ areas where jabs aren’t taken up (see above). Of course, Matt-the-H had to pour cold scorn over that hope:

“On Tuesday, Matt Hancock was among those suggesting there was little chance of any improvement on the timetable laid out, saying: “We need to see the effects of each step, and that takes five weeks.” (paywalled link)

Yeah right – “we” all need to stick to the rules as laid down by SAGE, don’t we – even the mighty health czar himself! And “we” need to educate the illegals who might bring new mutations into our country.

Meanwhile, Professor John Lee has written a furious attack on this whole despicable situation. Relish this:

“To justify keeping us in cold storage for another four months, the PM leaned on his reliable allies in Sage. The more Sage gets wrong, the more Mr Johnson clings to its view of the pandemic. Few politicians have any understanding of science, so they become captives of their most cautious adviser, and fail to question the validity of their data and advice.” (link)

Professor Lee’s next observation deserves to be shouted from the rooftops. It should be slapped round our sit-at-home peacocks’ heads as well. Quoting what BJ said when presenting his, ahem: SAGE’s roadmap, Professor Lee continues (my emphasis):

“Mr Johnson’s use of the word ‘fact’ is revealing in that context, as it suggests a fundamental ignorance of the uses and limitations of modelling. You do not deduce ‘facts’ from modelling, but ranges of possibilities, which by their very nature fluctuate wildly according to the assumptions used and the data submitted.”  (link)

And then Professor Lee really lets rip. After listing all those scare numbers from the scare models, he writes:

“These figures are not facts. They are hypothetical and based on models which have, in the past, repeatedly been found wanting. Besides, this is not how modelling is supposed to be applied to political decision-making that affects the economic future of this country. If you allowed your life to be governed by worst-case scenarios, you would never drive a car or get on an aeroplane. Risk is there to be mitigated, not eliminated.” (link)

The good professor then attacks the test regime – again, not mincing words when he writes that “It is infuriating to see ‘case’ numbers being reported as rising when the key determinant, the number of tests, is never given.” (link). Ah – but how else could the covid Politburo and their helpers in the MSM keep us scared? Read the whole thing and keep it for future reference, for example when you want to answer Sir John Redwoods appeal in his Diary this morning, to let him know what you think about a ‘’vaccine passport” (link).

I leave you with news about Scotland. This is delicious. Mr Salmond was going to testify in Holyrood in the case he’s bringing against Nicola Sturgeon. Then this happened::

“Alex Salmond has cancelled his testimony to a Holyrood inquiry after a dossier of claims he made against Nicola Sturgeon was heavily censored following pressure from Scottish prosecutors. Opposition MSPs said that the Scottish Parliament was left facing a “credibility crisis” after Mr Salmond’s written submission was finally published by the legislature on Monday, only to be pulled Tuesday morning, on the eve of his scheduled appearance.” (paywalled link)

Ms Sturgeon is increasing her pressure to get another IndyRef, to achieve her dream of an independent Scotland and never mind the costs to the Scottish people. Meanwhile No 10 is trying to campaign for the Union to stay. Therefore this is not just a spat between the former and current leader of the SNP, it’s of concern for us all. Here’s why:

“His camp believes the episode adds weight to his belief that a tyrannical Crown Office, the equivalent body to the Crown Prosecution Service in England, is inappropriately meddling in the Holyrood inquiry in an attempt to protect Ms Sturgeon and her allies.” (paywalled link)

The DM has published the text which has been ‘redacted’ out (link). I wonder how many other ‘inappropriate meddlings’ Ms Sturgeon and her allies are guilty of. I wonder furthermore if this ‘inappropriate meddling’ isn’t a clear indication that she’s happy to step outside the Law to achieve her aims. I wonder, finally, if Mr Gove and his ‘Unit’ is fully aware and will make use of it.

Meanwhile, I am hopeful that this hotchpot of ‘news’ I looked at this morning means that perhaps, just perhaps, we might return to ‘politics as usual’, red in tooth and claw. Wall-to-wall covid has become boring.

KBO!