A real Kabuki theatre – better than the EU Grand Kabuki Theatre

We’re back on the same old covid treadmill as far as ‘our MSM’ are concerned. There’s the warning of that ‘3rd Wave’ , of ‘variants’ – and of the ‘vaccine war’ with the EU. It’s all Grand Theatre to make us plebs go ‘aaahhh’ and admire our wonderful covid ‘statesmen’. 

It doesn’t seem to raise even one eyebrow in the combined newsrooms and editorial offices of ‘our’ MSM that Whitty is still into his gloom & doom routine. There’ll be a 3rd wave, he said, so we must still be afraid. I was incensed by the language though:

“Professor Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, claimed at a conference today that there will be ‘bumps along the road’ as the UK lifts social distancing rules and slowly returns to normality in the coming months. His comments echoed that of fellow SAGE experts, who say a third coronavirus wave is inevitable and that allowing holidays to Europe this summer could lead to another lockdown.” (link)

Are we little children who need to be warned of those ‘bumps’ – all caused by us for irresponsibly demanding an end to lockdown? Are we toddlers who need to be shown the stick of ‘more lockdown if you don’t behave’ – because people want to go on a summer holiday in European countries? Have you noticed what isn’t mentioned – that by that time even more Brits will have received their jabs? So – do jabs work or don’t they? 

RemainCentral  has a more ‘serious’ way reporting this – but note how suddenly the concept of ‘no covid’ is being introduced:

“Professor Whitty […] earlier said Britain would “definitely” see another surge of Covid-19 this year and the chances of eradicating the disease were “as close to zero as makes no difference”.” (link, paywalled)

It is therefore a case of ‘live with it’, isn’t it – which shouldn’t be so difficult since we have those fab jabs. But see what BJ said:

“Speaking at a Downing Street press conference to mark the first anniversary of lockdown, Johnson insisted that the situation was improving, saying that “cautiously but irreversibly, step by step, jab by jab, this country is on the path to reclaiming our freedom”. (link, paywalled)

Oh really? Not as long as the SAGEs and the various covid tsars will have their say! Whatever they’ll impose on us: curtailing our freedom, stopping the lifting of lockdown restrictions – be certain that it will always be our fault because “we” irresponsible plebs didn’t follow the latest rules. BJ’s blustering about jabs notwithstanding, the SAGEs clearly don’t believe that vaccinating the whole nation will work. Here’s Whitty again, saying that

“’There will definitely be another surge at some point whether it’s before winter or next winter, we don’t know. Variants are going to cause problems, there will be stockouts [sic! No, I dunno either!]  of vaccines and no doubt there will be multiple problems at a national level but also at a local level – school outbreaks, prison outbreaks, all those things that people are dealing with on a day-to-day basis.’ (link)

Anything could happen! Everybody could get covid! Anywhere! At any time! This year, next year – just keep being afraid! Here’s more, from a Whitty colleague:

“SAGE member Professor Calum Semple said Britain could expect a third wave in July or August, even if it doesn’t loosen international travel rules. […] ‘The concern is, as this third wave is going on elsewhere, that will generate new variations. Even within Britain there is a likelihood of a third wave in potentially July and August time when we do unlock society.’ (link)

Yes – you read that right: there’ll be a 3rd wave anyway, regardless of whatever SAGE does, and even if we keep every international traveller out! But it’s not just those, or us irresponsible, summer holiday craving Brits who’ll be guilty of making a 3rd wave. Here’s the latest, rather ironic intervention by the SAGEs:

“Boris Johnson is under mounting pressure from Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, and Jonathan Van-Tam, his deputy, to implement tougher border controls to stop mutant strains being imported. They are said to be “very concerned” because the majority of people travelling from France are exempt from quarantine measures. Van-Tam told MPs yesterday that 68 per cent of those arriving from the country — predominantly hauliers and other drivers — were not covered.” (link, paywalled)

Oohh – that’ll make Macron happy! Did you notice that suddenly SAGEs are demanding ‘more border controls’? Never mind that “we” can’t control our borders anyway, SAGE didn’t demand this during the outbreaks last year, especially not during the first one. Ah well, we knew nothing then, they tell us – now we know! But sirs, don’t we have mass jabs now which protect us? Ah – but there’ll be those ‘variants’ which can appear anywhere and against which those jabs might not protect us! So – lockdowns and travel restrictions in perpetuity, is it? Yes, if you’re a SAGE.

One wonders then why the EU is so keen on blocking vaccine exports to the UK. After all, clearly only a strict lockdown and restrictions on international travels is the solution! That begs the question: is the whole EU vaccine war just a piece of Kabuki theatre, to dazzle all of us peasants, here and in the EU? Is it a giant piece of political posturing, in Brussels and here, to distract us from noticing the failure of all of them to deal with covid? It’s not even about the Oxford vaccine, it’s Brussels demanding that the whole covid~ and vaccine~misery be shared across the continent:

“Brussels will on Wednesday propose rules that would allow the EU to restrict the export of vaccines to countries like Britain with high vaccination rates. Ursula von der Leyen has demanded “reciprocity” from Britain after she said the EU sent 10 million vaccines to Britain over the past six weeks, mostly from Belgium’s Pfizer plant, but the UK exported no jabs to the bloc.” (paywalled link)

‘Diplomats’ are negotiating behind closed doors, always happy to leak gossip, and we can expect some sort of document today. Meanwhile, Ms Merkel is on record as not supporting an outright export ban – but she’s still supporting her own EU head honcho, Ms vdLeyen:

“Merkel said: “There are a huge range of international interdependencies when it comes to vaccine production. You have to be very careful now about imposing general export bans — you have to take a very close look at the supply chains.” (link, paywalled)

So she’s learned about supply chains … I’m amazed! There’s a new argument though:  it’s now about ‘reciprocity’, which the EU interprets thus:

“Clément Beaune, the French Europe minister who is close to Macron, signalled today that talks on AstraZeneca with the UK could avert a crisis as long as Dutch-made jabs, said to total about four million doses, were not exported. “We want to avoid that AstraZeneca doses produced in Europe go to Britain when we are not receiving anything. We want to make sure the reciprocity principle applies,” he said.” (link, paywalled)

There, see – that’s not so difficult to understand, is it! ‘You’ give us what we’ve demanded in the first place – international trade agreements and contracts be damned – and according to the ‘reciprocity principle’ we won’t use the harsher measures which we’ve mentioned and which would affect us worse than you if we took them … !The Daily Mail has this piece of gossip:

“A Whitehall source said any ban would be viewed as a ‘hostile act’. The source said Brussels appeared to be trying to distract attention from its own failings by blaming Britain.’They are risking long-term damage to their relationship with us in order to save the political careers of a few,’ the source said.” (link)

Well spotted, that Whitehall source! The DM writes that this new EU proposal might be broader in outlook and include “other vaccines, such as the Pfizer jab, on which the UK is reliant on exports from Belgium. France and Germany signalled they would support the move.” (link). Something which has escaped the mighty broadsheets’ Remain correspondents is however this:

“Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin warned that a ban would be a ‘very retrograde step’. The Netherlands also opposes the jab ban, with Belgium and Poland among a string of other EU countries said to have serious concerns.” (link)

Observe the Paris-Berlin axis in its full glory, pulling the strings of the Brussels lapdog! The ‘minnows’, like Eire or the Netherlands, will simply be overruled. Since covid has affected the EU member states as much as us, I wonder how long those smaller countries will remain content with the Brussels ‘ruler’, imposed, as we recall,  after the 2019 EU Parliament elections.

In the end they’ll come up with an innocent little communique with sufficient loopholes for all those vested interests, saving the face of Ms vdLeyen. There’ll be a ‘marathon’ session, ending early Friday morning, to show all the benighted EU citizens as well as us Brexit Brits that Brussels is working hard for the sake of all concerned – especially when it’s about getting Ms vdLeyen out of the hole she’s dug so diligently for herself.

Covid? Lockdown? Vaccines? Forget it – this is the EU’s ‘Grand Kabuki Theatre’. Just sit back and enjoy! We’ve all got time for that thanks to the lockdowns everywhere, haven’t we!

KBO!

Photo by matsuyuki