Keep being afraid – very afraid …

 

The end is nigh – the PM told us so yesterday. That’s the ‘End of Lockdown, or rather the fizzling out of it. There won’t be a daily Hancock Theatre – what will our eminent MSM ‘journalists’ do with their free time! One of the LibDem leadership candidates (yes, ‘twas Ms Layla Moran, again …) is already moaning that this means that the MSM won’t be able to scrutinise government any longer – the scandal! What on earth did those poor dears do before the outbreak? Knit salads? Crochet cupcakes? 

But don’t go out and celebrate – July 4th won’t actually be ‘Lockdown Freedom Day’. Johnson declaring that the country will come ‘out of hibernation’ on that day demonstrated by the choice of that expression that he and his Whitehall scientific advisers didn’t and don’t have a clue about life outside their Westminster Bubble. We didn’t ‘hibernate’, we tried to live in a climate of utter fear and hysteria thrust upon us by government and MSM. We tried to accommodate to the ‘rules’ imposed on us by a Whitehall drunk on their sudden power, a power not to be questioned because of “Teh Science”.

‘Our MSM’ were only too delighted to regurgitate what government scientific advisers told the PM and the nation, no questions asked, no divergent opinions allowed. Even now the broadsheet ‘health’ and ‘science’ editors are trying to educate us by asking ‘what is the science behind the PM’s decision’ (link) because without ‘science’ we’ll be lost.These are the new conditions under which we’re allowed out even though the ‘experts’ are hedging their advice:

“The bulk of the country’s hospitality, leisure and tourism industries will be able to restart from July 4 as the coronavirus infection rate continues to fall. Pubs, restaurants, hairdressers and cinemas can open if they are deemed to be safe. To allow them to operate, Mr Johnson announced that the two-metre social distancing rule will be replaced by a new “one-metre plus” regime, insisting that mitigations such as face coverings gave a “broadly equivalent” protection at the shorter distance.” (link, paywalled)

Well, hurrah and hallelujah, innit! Savour though the full idiocy of this ‘end of hibernation’ announcement, savour the never-ending opportunities for bureaucrats locally and nationally to keep interfering in our lives! Ponder what is actually meant by ‘a new one-metre-plus regime’! Is it one metre plus one or ten or fifty centimetres? Who is going to measure? Will we only be ‘allowed’ to visit ‘safe spaces’, those with plastic shielding everywhere?

This is in fact the back door which allows Whitehall and government scientists to keep us in fear and subjugation, always supported by the helpful MSM. See this for example:

“The chief medical officer for England has told people not to get closer than two metres without being “incredibly serious” about precautions and doctors said that masks should be worn outside. Chris Whitty said people should stay two metres apart whenever they could and make sure they used mitigations such as masks, screens and facing away from each other if forced to be closer. […] The British Medical Association said that people should now wear masks “as a matter of course”. Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific adviser, said that “one metre, with mitigations in place, can be equivalent risk to two metres”. (link, paywalled)

Yes, that’s the ‘New Freedom’: treat everybody you come into contact with as potential leper from whom you must protect yourself. Perhaps we might ask those who shy away from us as if we were wearing the mark of Cain: “is it because I is a CV-19 suspect”? It doesn’t stop there – The Times seems delighted to report some key points which we better keep in mind for future reference. They illustrate that, Lockdown or not, Our MSM are fine with living in a benign dictatorship where unelected Sages dictate how to run our daily lives.

Firstly, they report that “Johnson has been told” by the experts that this ‘new normal’ might risk us getting back to the times of the start of the outbreak, that we peasants must be ‘prepared’ for a return of Lockdown. SAGE and all those CV-19 experts are still poised to shoo us back into Lockdown prison, suggesting that the PM better do what experts tell him. These experts are insinuating next that we ought to ‘think of the children’, not go to pubs while schools aren’t yet open and never mind that people need to get back to work. Finally, these ‘measures’ would be in place until next spring, according to Chris Whitty. They’re not ‘risk-free’ he warns, but allow us ‘to operate in a reasonably normal way for a prolonged period’. (link, paywalled)

It’s strange that amongst all the ‘omigawd – there’s ‘a risk’ articles and reports and other articles describing the general dissatisfaction with this ‘end of hibernation’ announcement there’s again no mention about the effect on the economy, except for these observation by Matt Lynn in the DT:

“The economy could not survive much longer. Even with massive government support, businesses can’t be put into deep freeze forever, and emerge as fresh as the day you stored them. Skills rust, customers forget you, and goodwill evaporates. Another month, and there wouldn’t be an economy to come back to.” (link)

Furthermore, this is the only slight critique of the medical experts and their pronuncements in ‘Our MSM’:

“With daily deaths into the teens, and infections below a thousand a day, we face a medical challenge but hardly an emergency. There was no longer any justification for killing off tens of thousands of businesses and millions of jobs.” (link)

That begs the question if there ever was such justification. Thanks to sites such as Lockdown Sceptics those of us who’ve always taken a more jaundiced view of what ‘Whitehall sources’ have been telling ‘Our MSM’, we know that the numbers of infected and dying people were manipulated from the start. We know that ‘Our MSM’ were complicit by either smearing critics as ‘right wing conspiracists’ or by not even reporting their critical assessments.

Mr Lynn’s concluding remarks are actually more scary than the SAGE threat about future Lockdowns:

“And yet as “rules” turn into Government “guidelines” there is a risk that companies, egged on by the insurance industry and the unions, will gold-plate them, and move too slowly, and too cautiously. In truth, the only real guideline we need right now is common sense. Between them, companies and their customers should be trusted to make their own decisions about what is safe and what isn’t – and that is the only thing that will ensure the rapid, V-shaped recovery the country needs.” (link)

Sadly, I believe Mr Lynn’s warning will turn out to become the ‘new normal’ for businesses. As ‘risk’ must be avoided at all costs because ‘lives must be saved’, it’s only right that the precautionary principle must rule, to keep us all ‘safe’. It doesn’t matter, for example, that there are no sound scientific reasons for keeping people out of swimming pools – what matters is that we peasants must be kept in a state of fearfulness – there might be this second wave, you know.

It’s somewhat distressing to look at Johnson’s statement in the HoC yesterday. It shows that he’s as scientifically illiterate as the rest of the Westminster Bubble dwellers:

“I must ask the House to understand that the virus has no interest in these debates. Its only interest, its only ambition is to exploit any opportunities is to recapture ground that we might carelessly vacate. There is one certainty – the fewer social contacts you have, the safer you will be.” (link)

Turning CV-19 into a sort of human-like entity with a mind of its own, with ‘interests’, with ‘ambitions’, is as unscientific as can be. As for that last sentence – it’s meant to impose a deep, abiding fear on us by telling us that we can only be safe by avoiding ‘all social contacts’. However, even in the context of the CV-19 pandemic, Benjamin Franklin’s words still apply:

“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

Perhaps someone might remind Johnson of a quote by another eminent American, that US President who was Churchill’s ally in the dark days of WWII. He told his nation that “we have nothing to fear but fear itself”. Why then must we be kept in permanent fear? Is it because a fearful population is ruled more easily? And who will those ‘rulers’ be? 

Keep vigilant in these increasingly sinister times but remember that these ‘rules’ are only ‘guidance’, not laws! Common sense should rule us and courage should be our guide, not fear!

 

KBO!

 

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