The Covid Empire has won. The Covid Tsar’s  ‘Plan B’ measures were cleverly split into four items and with the help of Starmer, Johnson achieved a hollow victory. It’s yes to the mask mandate in most public indoor spaces; yes to mandatory jabs for frontline NHS staff in England from next April; yes to permitting pinged people to avoid quarantine if vaccinated and producing -ve tests – and of course it’s yes to that covid passport. 

The majorities for these measures differed but the one for covid passports passed with 369 Ayes, 126 Noes. There were 98 Tory ‘rebels’ and it could’ve been 100 because two Tories forgot to check in with the HoC passports – how confidence-building is that! The fact that Johnson only ‘survived’ because Labour voted with him is mentioned in passing in the MSM, but not as the major story.

There’s one other result which the MSM seem to disregard: the LibDems all voted ‘No’, with the exception of their leader who was absent because he was dutifully self-isolating. This is hugely important because four days ago the bookies saw the LibDems neck-and-neck with the Tories in Paterson’s seat. It’s conceivable that their stance might give the LibDem candidate the final push over the line. Well, we’ll only have to wait one more day to see if voters in that seat are going to show Johnson what they think of his policies. 

And that brings us to the question: will the Tory backbenchers, will the 1922 Committee then have the courage to get rid of Johnson? There were many fine speeches by those ‘rebels’, but frankly, I could not be bothered to watch and listen yesterday and I’m not bothered to link to their video clips. We’ve been there before, we’ve heard it all before, and there’s one huge point which makes me doubt that the Tory MPs will do their duty: they’ll not vote against their own interests. 

The MSM helpfully and gleefully pointed out that ‘half of Johnson’s back benchers’ voted against him. That means the other half aren’t bothered and nor are those in Johnson’s government pocket. The ten PPS alleged to vote against Johnson voted for his Plan B  when it came to the crunch. Tory grandees mutter that the 1922 Committee may have received  more than the 54 letters required to trigger a no-confidence vote. without deeds they’re just mutterings from the Off.

What will these restrictions look like ‘on the ground’? We learned yesterday that the NHS apps for booster bookings and covid passports had crashed: ‘overwhelmed’, weren’t they! Today we’re told that, actually, booster jabs and those vital covid tests had run out in England (link, paywalled). Oh dear. So how can even the most compliant covid lemming follow faithfully those new restrictions? Never fear: ‘NHS T & T Bosses’ let it be known that they have sufficient amounts of that stuff – it’s sitting in their warehouses but there are ‘logistical problems’ and so the test kits have to be rationed (paywalled link). Don’t complete the sentence containing ‘brewery’ and ‘organise’ …!

There’s worse: Whitty scared the Nation by predicting 200,000 new cases daily, possibly, conceivably – according to models (link). Javid used those numbers in his attempt to scare the HoC. I leave it to your imagination how he, how the SAGEs can possibly believe these numbers will arise without ‘warp spee mass testing’ when they’re already incapable of delivering those kits ‘for logistical reasons’. 

While Whitty warned of ‘astronomical infection rates’ which would see shut-downs across ‘swathes’ of the economy our Sacred Cow was already preparing: “NHS bosses yesterday ordered hospitals to discharge as many patients as possible off wards and into care homes” (link). Haven’t we been here before, with dreadful results? Did the NHS ever do this during a flu epidemic? Wait – shouldn’t we be in the middle of a flu outbreak right now?

I would humbly suggest that these scare numbers were being thrown out by Johnson and his covid helpers not only in order to ‘quell the rebels’ but also to prepare us peasants for ‘Plan C’. Remember: Johnson had reassured the nation that there would be no restrictions, only to plonk the already prepared Plan B as dead cat onto the table. In other words, Plan B was already sitting in Javid’s drawers. So why would we believe Johnson now when he allegedly

“assured Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee that he was not minded to announce new restrictions beyond Plan B measures, despite the rapid spread of omicron. Downing Street sources also stressed that Mr Johnson was hoping the combination of Plan B restrictions and a dramatic scaling up of the booster jabs would be enough to tackle the case surge coming.” (paywalled link)

Given SAGE’s and Johnson’s past form, a ‘Plan C’ will be implemented, especially since the ‘logistical difficulties’ mean that untested, omicron-infested people will have to roam the streets, unboostered. It’s not the covid dictators’ fault, is it, when they have to use Plan C after all. 

But wait: just hang in there, submit and never mind another Christmas cancelled privately! Don’t despair – the cavalry is coming, help is at hand:

“A new antiviral pill from Pfizer is on course to become a “critical tool” against Covid after it cut the risk of hospital admission and death by nearly 90 per cent in a final trial, the US drugmaker said. Laboratory tests have also suggested that the treatment, called Paxlovid, remains effective against the Omicron variant. The UK government has bought 250,000 courses, provided that it receives regulatory approval. Pfizer has said it could be available early next year.” (link, paywalled)

It’s dirt-cheap, a course only costing $529 … isn’t Big Pharma wonderful! Aren’t we lucky to have booster jabs and now a pill! A very perceptive comment poster on that Times report remarked: “It’s a protease inhibitor. Perhaps they could have called it Pfizermectin.” Shut up, you plebs! Don’t even think of asking if using Ivermectin might have saved huge amounts of money for Our Sacred Cow! Do comply with all those nice new restrictions, even unto a possible Plan C! Be good covid lemmings and you may receive ‘The Pill’ next year.

With Plan B in force, with Plan C looming, more robust natures are free to tell that whole bunch of covid tyrants and tinpot dictators to eff off or use the appropriate hand signal accompanying the words ‘swivel on this’. As for me, I’ll channel Rhett Butler because “frankly, my dears, I don’t give a damn” – not any longer.

 

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