99 thoughts on “Saturday’s Papers

  1. Formerly known as @ireland.com

    I am not sure of the point of local lockdowns, if people can arrive back in the country with the virus, without being forced into quarantine. Most people will not self-quarantine for 14 days. The virus will just keep coming into the country.

  2. goldenbrown

    Yes Minister!

    not sure if I’m most concerned at the gross expense of it or that these mini-ministers are considered incapable to the point where they require a pair of PR stabilizers to cover up.

    all the same what an amazing place to work! any kids in their Leaving Cert cycle, even those midway into their Uni should halt whatever career nonsense they are planning and change their plans stat….sign up for whatever Political Science, PR, Sales n Morkeshing courses are available ‘cos those streets (esp. that one named Kildare) are certainly lined with gold!!

    1. GiggidyGoo

      True. Sure isn’t that how Simon Harris climbed the dizzy heights having started as an assistant to Frances Fitzgerald.

      1. GiggidyGoo

        Nope – it’s where FFGr go for their daily instructions I’d say. Who would the rest of my gang be eh?. This will be interesting.

  3. V AKA Frilly Keane

    64 advisors is an awful lot of people management for already (supposedly anyway) busy Government Ministers

    I could see the benefit of engaging a whole-time professional from a specific sector, ie a Social Housing specialist alright
    And I’m very keen to know who Sean Fleming brings in to be his Credit Union advisor
    ’cause tis not before time we had a Minister

    But, in all fairness, Media Advisors
    C’mon lads
    All these Government Departments already have full-time Communications Departments and PR contractors

    And now the Taoiseach is hiring Social Media Influencers to supplement his spin

    Lads, we’re being suckered

    No matter where you are on the Mask / Anti-Masks spectrum
    You can’t deny the Government handling of the Pandemic is an absolute sham

    1. Charger Salmons

      Well I suppose it makes a change from you whining about Boris’s handling of the pandemic.
      Fact is very few countries have had a great pandemic.
      It’s not something most of them have ever had to deal with and they have had to make it up as they’re going along.
      That’s the difference I suppose between political leaders entrusted with people’s lives and know-all keyboard warriors with the benefit of hindsight.

      1. johnny green

        19,400 dead while in care in UK exposes the deadly effects of the UK’s govt’s austerity measures,spending on adult care by the UK govt fell off a cliff by 700 million btw 2010 and 2018 .

        Since 2010 PE firms have invested almost 2 Billion across 64 retirement homes with today 8 in 10 nursing homes in the UK owned by for profit operators.

        “There are fundamental flaws to the business model of the privatization and operation of nursing homes,” said John Spellar, a Labour member of Parliament who has railed for several years against PE involvement in the industry.

        “Many nursing homes operate in an environment of profiteering, cost and corner cutting, all the while their owners are loading them up on debt with high interest rates and expecting the taxpayer to pay when it fails,” Spellar said. “You can’t tar everyone with the same brush, but a lot are there to make a quick buck and get out before the music stops.”

        https://pitchbook.com/news/articles/pandemic-private-equity-backed-nursing-homes

        -there is a deep dive/report on PE/Nursing Homes in Uk about drop-will link it.

        coming sunday by the spotlight team at the globe.

        “The elderly are among the most neglected, a problem fully exposed as COVID-19′s deadly rampage swept through Massachusetts nursing homes. Top state officials, among others, failed to recognize this group’s vulnerability early enough. In the end, one out of every seven nursing home residents here died.”

        https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/23/metro/coming-soon-last-words-spotlight-investigation-into-death-dying-mass/?event=event12

          1. johnny green

            its comical Ali-she’s a hack at the post,writing for her Paddy Private Equity wannabe’s.

            TAILORED CONTED-indeed and your link proves my point!

            “Media at Trinity College Dublin. Formerly a journalist/editor with more than 20 years experience of writing, commissioning and editing in national print media and online. Edited Review section of Irish Independent. Took lead role in revamp of Businesspost.ie. Specialise in concise, accurate content creation, especially where speed is a priority and complex ideas must be made accessible. Skilled in opinion writing and tailoring content for different audiences”

            -The coronavirus-related deaths of almost 1,000 people in Irish nursing homes reflected an abject failure of policy and oversight by successive health ministers and the agencies they oversee, allied to untrammelled privatisation of a highly vulnerable sector-your link .

            https://ie.linkedin.com/in/catherine-o-mahony-b0739a1b

            “Tallaght University Hospital “-yeah sure.

        1. GiggidyGoo

          He ain’t on form here’s days, that’s for sure. A deep-rooted inferiority complex that boomerangs him back to Irish matters every time, and he’s not making much sense.

        2. V AKA Frilly Keane

          Only thought to ask as I’ve always being a shop local sort
          I rarely dabble in the foreign games stuff

          A bitta mention here and there
          In the natural discourse of things alright

          Can’t think of a time when or even where, I dedicated a whole post to Boris or other Political leaders as to how they go about their business in their respective countries

          Did a few FK columns back in the day that did a dance with Alan Rickman, Mr D’Arcy and the 2016 US Presidential alright

          But even know-all keyboard warriors with the benefit of hindsight. might need to be reminded of their deeds every now and again. So please Charage. If you wouldn’t mind.
          Ta.V

      2. E'Matty

        In this learning as they go along approach you are identifying, what do you think was the rationale behind the policy of sending sick elderly people back from hospitals into the nursing homes with strict instructions they not be tested for Coronavirus? We should of course consider this policy, on which our mainstream media has remained silent, in the context of the fact that 80% of Irish Covid deaths were in nursing homes.

        This “learn as they go along” policy of sending sick elderly people back to the nursing homes was followed in the UK, Sweden, the US (NY at least) and many other countries. What was the logic behind this policy do people think?

    2. Charger Salmons

      I shake the packet of cat food and crashing through the wall they all come.
      Right on cue.
      Just the merest flick of the wrist.
      The sort of gesture they’re all familiar with.
      Here kitty kitties.

      1. V AKA Frilly Keane

        Put up or Shut up Charage

        You’re a great man yerself for calling lads out to back up with facts, and going back to dig out historical posts

        So come on
        Let’s have ya practice a bitta’ve what you preach

        Or accept you’re a prize gomb with all the substance and resistance as boiled knicker elastic

        1. Charger Salmons

          I’d rather burn my eye-balls out with a red hot poker than suffer the pain of having to trawl through your incomprehensible rubbish a second time.

      2. GiggidyGoo

        Repetition eh Charger? You used that line two weeks ago. Maybe because you substituted the cat food for beans in the one ring stove in that bedsit palace?.
        Sure Have Inferiority Troubles meter hitting 8.17

      3. Rosette of Sirius

        Now look what yis all did. The Chitty Chitty Child Catcher Charger ensnared you again with in his specially prepared kitty trap all while wearing his Saville Row made tactical ghillie suit. Yis never had a chance…..

          1. Rosette of Sirius

            Cunning traps require cunning plans…..

            Is Kitty Catcher Baldrick or Blackadder? Regardless, they usually come a cropper either way. Can’t help themselves.

    1. Daisy Chainsaw

      Antimask aren’t exactly known for their intelligence… Look at the “science” they rEsEaRcHeD!

      Banging on windows and terrifying children in the RTE creche really showed them for the dregs they really are.

    2. E'Matty

      Fauci is a complete gangster. Has been for decades. Of course, all the media have to do is present him as some kind of white knight and the herd types positively fawn over him and treat him like a wonderful hero. You people are so utterly gullible. Incapable of critical thought, mainstream voices of authority literally tell you what to think and you obediently comply. Pathetic.

      1. Nigel

        It’s amazing how many of Trump’s staff and inner circle have been arrested, indicted and jailed, and yet it isn’t until someone in his administration disagrees with him openly that the right wing/Putin-lovin’ left/whatever the hell E’Matty is supposed to be smear machine finds ways to label them as ‘a complete gangster.’ Everyone else just thinks – ‘well he’s not bad for someone in the Trump admn,’ with the understanding that it is a low bar indeed.

        1. Charger Salmons

          Surely you don’t expect Tubs to have the wit or gumption to ask a sensible question ?
          He’s like a bulimic Graham Norton.

  4. E'Matty

    The government and media focusing now on demonizing anyone socialising, especially the young. They will sensationalise this as much as possible to try get the frightened and obedient element in society to support more draconian and authoritarian measures going into this autumn and winter period. Perhaps the inviolability of the home will be targeted, though of course under the guise of stopping house parties. Of course you’d have to support giving Gardai the power to enter a home without a warrant if someone dared to have a party.

    Time for people to reject this BS narrative based on an hysteria inducing exaggeration of the threat posed by this virus. Too many in this country have been willing to hand over power and give up hard fought for rights all for an illusory and misguided notion of “protecting society”.

    The Right to Free Assembly being targeted. Sure you can’t have peaceful protests with this virus eh? Freedom of expression. Sure you can’t have that. You might question the government narrative and isn’t that endangering us all to this terrible scary virus? Freedom of movement and the right to travel, sure we can’t be moving around with this scary virus. The Right to earn a livelihood. Good luck with that, sure we’re crushing entire industries and sectors of the economy, but like, it’s to protect you from this really really scary virus. Down to the worst of them of them all, the basic human right to say goodbye to a loved one on their deathbed.

    This is NOT a particularly deadly virus. Life expectancy in Ireland for a male 80, a female 83. Circa 50% of deaths over 85. 79% over 75. 93% over 65. 95% had a serious fatal disease in order of prevalence- chronic heart disease, chronic neurological disorders (Alzheimers, Parkinson’s, MS), chronic respiratory diseases, cancer/malignancy, and diabetes. These were by and large people who were on their death bed, who maybe (because many were not even tested in the first 6 months) contracted a coronavirus, before they passed. We are told they died WITH a coronavirus, not FROM a coronovirus. Never before in medical history have patients died WITH a virus.

    The only ones who genuinely seem to be victims of this Covid 19 coronavirus are those who die or not, but do suffer a cytokine storm causing their immune system to overreact and attack the bodies organs. This is also used to scare people by saying “look, it affects people of all ages”. Coronaviruses have a long history of cytokine storms though this is only in the context of vaccine interference. The mainstream ignore and conceal this FACT.

    Not only are this government attacking our basic constitutional freedoms based on an illusory notion of a deadly threat to public health, they are now recommending a course of action, nationwide mass flu vaccination, which could have devastating results for public health. Time for people to wake from their fear induced stupor and aggressively and forcefully push back against this garbage. If we don’t, the future is extremely bleak for us all.

    1. Lilly

      ‘Coronaviruses have a long history of cytokine storms though this is only in the context of vaccine interference.‘

      What does this mean? I know what a cytokine storm is, but what is a cytokine storm in the context of vaccine interference?

      1. E'Matty

        Thank you for asking. Professor Ian Frazer, Australian immunologist responsible for developing the HPV vaccine, and an Honorary Fellow of RCPI “One of the problems with corona vaccines in the past has been that when the immune response does cross over to where the virus-infected cells are it actually increases the pathology rather than reducing it,” Professor Frazer said.

        “So that immunisation with SARS corona vaccine caused, in animals, inflammation in the lungs which wouldn’t otherwise have been there if the vaccine hadn’t been given.”

        We also saw Influenza vaccination and respiratory virus interference among Department of Defense personnel during the 2017-2018 influenza season. Vaccine derived virus interference was significantly associated with coronavirus and human metapneumovirus.

        Another study in 2013 found that Vaccine-Induced Anti-HA2 Antibodies Promote Virus Fusion and Enhance Influenza Virus Respiratory Disease.

        In 1967, infants and toddlers immunized with a formalin-inactivated vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) experienced an enhanced form of RSV disease characterized by high fever, bronchopneumonia, and wheezing when they became infected with wild-type virus in the community. Hospitalizations were frequent, and two immunized toddlers died upon infection with wild-type RSV.

        Does this answer your question?

      2. SOQ

        I think E’Matty is drawing a link between cytokine storms and prior vaccinations. There is already some evidence that people who have been flu vaccinated are more likely to succumb to corona viruses afterwards but as usual- that is being contested.

        1. E'Matty

          Thanks SOQ. To clarify, I am really more just raising the historical link between coronaviruses and respiratory viruses in general, and vaccine interference resulting in cytokine storms. At present, we have a coronavirus pandemic. It’s not our first coronavirus obviously so looking at the history of this family of viruses could illuminate our knowledge of this virus. It’s clear there is a long well documented history of coronaviruses and vaccine interference resulting in cytokine storms. We then see that this “pandemic” has caused the worst affected to suffer these said same cytokine storms. Looking at the profile of those worst affected, we see the elderly and medical staff, two groups who annually receive the flu vaccine. It’s quite frankly astonishing that nobody in officialdom is at least considering it relevant. Instead, we have a government policy of trying to get the whole population to receive the flu vaccine this year with fear inducing terms like “twindemic” now entering the common lexicon. For the first time ever, they are seeking to administer the flu vaccine to all children.

          Children have a very low risk from the flu. Children have a very low risk from coronavirus. Parents who blindly follow the government policy thinking they are protecting their kids or the vulnerable in our community could be doing the very opposite. Cytokine storms affect all age profiles. If your kid’s risk to the two viruses, flu and Covid, are low, you’d have to be out of your mind to give them the flu vaccine this year, nevermind a possible covid vaccine brought to market under “Operation Warp Speed”. I would recommend all parents at least research the recent Pandemrix case and the government’s handling of it.

          1. E'Matty

            @ Giggidy Goo – very true. I think the most common word there is “yes” in response to everything. I’d say actual debate is minimal. We’re ruled by imbeciles and yes men.

      1. E'Matty

        I’m simply presenting factual information. I’ll leave the scaremongering to the government, NPHET and the Irish media. They’re already doing an outstanding job on that front. Vaccinate your child if you wish. That’s not my responsibility. It is my responsibility to try and bring this to people’s attention so they can at least make their own choice, in as an informed manner as possible. The government do not do this. How many patents knew when taking the government advice on swine flu and the Pandemrix vaccine and getting their child vaccinated that the vaccine hadn’t completed clinical trials? Not too many I’d imagine.

          1. E'Matty

            Perhaps provide the full quote for some context ” they are now recommending a course of action, nationwide mass flu vaccination, which could have devastating results for public health.” So, I raise a question about the possibility of vaccine interference being responsible for the cytokine storms which are causing the worst effects for Covid patients. I provide factual historical information on the links between coronaviruses, vaccine interference and cytokine storms. I then point out that if this is the case, and the government is now seeking to vaccinate every citizen, regardless of age (for the first time ever for flu vaccines), this could have devastating results for public health. Please detail what part of this is not factually correct? Just because you don’t like the statement, doesn’t make it untrue or false.

  5. Anyone

    @E’Matty – “These were by and large people who were on their death bed, who maybe (because many were not even tested in the first 6 months) contracted a coronavirus, before they passed. We are told they died WITH a coronavirus, not FROM a coronovirus.” That rang a bell. I think Ireland has failed in its basic duty to protect the vulnerable. I recorded 4 Skype calls with my then 84-year old father during April when he was ‘cocooning’ and slowly deteriorating mentally as he was on his own. Loneliness is not a thing to take lightly and laugh at, despite what some on here may post. Anyway, during these weekly calls, he said he was feeling tired a lot more, and not doing the usual hygiene routine, not reading his books. Yet, with ‘The Repair Ship’ blaring in the background of our calls, he remained attentive and we reminisced and laughed. Of course, he was adamant due to the curtailment of his drives into the shops, chats with the librarian, going to the recycling centre, and watching far too much Six-One that this Irish Covid-19 response was idiotic and badly handled. The next week no call happened, he fell over at 6am that particular morning, exhausted while out feeding his cats. He managed to crawl in to his house and lay propped against the bed. 14 hours later when my sister dropped out after her long day at work with shopping, she found him conscious but soiled. His legs were gone. An ambulance was called. He refused it, saying ‘I’ll get Covid in there’. But after 15 minutes and a call from my brother in London into his ear, he acquiesced. Once in St. Vincent’s he tested negative for Covid and later diagnosed with advanced liver cancer. It was news to him and his family. One week in, after more tests, and various conflicting pieces of information from medical staff, we were told it was terminal and to ‘prepare’. Yet how can one prepare in a lockdown when only one of three children can get there? Week two, he tests positive for Covid in hospital, week three-and-a-bit he dies alone, leaving nurses around him in tears as they thought him a ‘gentleman’. His last words were “I think I’ll go now”. It was said he died with no added effects from this Covid infection that he received on the ward. He was rightly hesitant to step into a back of an ambulance. A few hours before he succumbed they tested him again for Covid as was scheduled. But the ‘machine broke’ we were told, so we’ll never know if negative or not. What we do know is when the death certificate was issued, Covid was listed at #3. I’m not sure how it goes on that island of yours but would he have been a nightly statistic on RTE? The human cost is incalculable. And the rest of this tale has many more twists and turns and could be fleshed out better elsewhere, but suffice, at its heart is one example of the impact in Ireland during this ‘crisis’. Personally, I have utter contempt for the country and its approach to its disenfranchised citizens on many issues. From afar it doesn’t look great nor bode well. But I’ve literally not much skin in the game now. It’s arguable of course, you might be having a fulfilling life there with family, friends and lifestyle. I just can compare the country that I live in (Czech Republic) that has given me everything, and my passport country that gave me nothing but problems.

    1. Janet, dreams of big guns

      You have my heartfelt sympathy, may your Father rest in peace, I have seen first hand what loneliness does to mental health.
      I always find it’s the people who have lived abroad who are able to be the most objective about quality of life here. It’s a pity because people really need to stand up and expect and want better.

    2. V AKA Frilly Keane

      Thank you for sharing your story with us Anyone
      Very sorry for your loss.

      When I come across similar Covid accounts I can’t help myself thinking that all the agitation between believers and deniers / maskers / anti maskers Is helping to conceal the real truth of Ireland’s Pandemic Response

      Which is an abject failure of our Health & Community Care Services
      At every level

      The decades of de-funding and privatising
      Particularly our elder care and most vulnerable special needs population, has come home to roost

      There were circa 40 testing centres announced & rolled out by the end of March
      WTF have they been doing and what’s become of them
      They all can’t be waiting for reagent, lab facilities, volunteers, PPE etc

      Same with schools/ public transport

      They knew all their mistakes by May
      Yet they insist on doubling down and repeating them

      1. Anyone

        Thanks V, and Janet. Agree on both and it’s disheartening to watch the deterioration of the social net due to private interests, divestment, party ineptitude and vanity, alongside voter apathy. But was forever so. ‘Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad’, and this echoes online where ‘mad’ means clicks means money means distraction. Jaron Lanier in ‘Social Dilemma’ urges people to divest from social media in order to regain some personal control and focus in society (if to protest, act affirmatively, learn attentively, see the big picture or just see the beauty of nature and people). I’m inclined to agree with him too.

          1. Anyone

            Adam Vojtěch (33) resigned on Monday with a “I have nothing to apologise for” after less than three years as health minister. Soon congratulated by his ‘Yes’ party leader / PM Slovak billionaire Andrej Babiš, Vojtěch says he will leave politics. ‘Renowned’ Czech epidemiologist Roman Prymula was selected as replacement. In the corridors of power, Vojtěch was exhausted, pilloried from all sides and lost support of the PM for his steps to reopen society sooner than advised. Prymula, a former communist solider, is known for disagreeing with Vojtěch’s restriction approach (Prymula wanted to keep mask wearing compulsory in inner areas and public transport during the summer holidays, but Vojtěch cancelled it, thus when people returned to work and school in September, the daily COVID case count went up from 50-100/day to 300-400/day, making Prymula concerned). Currently, all universities have distance learning as teachers / lecturers were the highest increasing industry infected (I’m one of them, but I’ve worked online lecturing since March exclusively). Prymula is a no-nonsense edict communicator, and new restrictions are being planned next week after blaming students for the increase in Coivd cases (note the similar claims in the UK). A Czech vaccine has been developed by the National Institute of Public Health (SZU), the Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (UHKT) with the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM). Further development will depend on the decision of the Ministry of Health. There is a claim of conflict of interest as Prymula’s daughter is a director of a private pharma venture here, but I don’t know anything about it. Interestingly, most Czechs would refuse to get vaccinated against Covid-19 when such a vaccine becomes available, according to the results of a September survey by the Stem/Mark agency. Three-fifths of respondents said they would not avail themselves of the possibility to get vaccinated. People’s reluctance stems from a general distrust of vaccines and their possible side-effects and the belief that the vaccines against Covid-19 will not have been properly tested for time reasons. Respondents also said that they did not consider Covid-19 to be life-threatening.

          2. Anyone

            As the daily ‘Radio Prague International’ site reports today: “The number of newly-registered Covid-19 cases reached 2,946 on Friday, the second highest daily increase since the epidemic hit the country in March.”

            “Although the majority of people have mild or no symptoms, the number of people hospitalised and the number of coronavirus-related deaths has seen a steep rise in recent days.”

            Make of that what you will.

            There are currently around 30,000 people ‘fighting’ (media’s word) the infection. The countries share a similar physical size (78,000sqm), so, Ireland 5m pop., 35k cases approx, 1797 deaths / Czech Rep 10.7m, 61k cases, 581 deaths. Lower mortality down to many factors, one of which is claimed to be 1970s-era child inoculation programmes in CSSZ providing greater immunity to symptoms today for middle-aged demographic.

          3. John Green

            Adam Vojtěch was replaced by his former assistant, who was the architect of the country’s earlier efforts to contain the pandemic.
            Due in part to the senate and regional elections in two weeks-he was fired:)

    3. SOQ

      Thank you for sharing Anyone and my condolences on your loss.

      This story in the Daily Mail is of relevance- there is no doubt but that people are really suffering.

      Lockdown ‘could kill 75,000 over five years’ – that’s the OFFICIAL projection of non-COVID deaths caused by missed cancer diagnoses, cancelled operations and health impacts of a recession. The virus death toll? 42,000

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8774141/Coronavirus-UK-Lockdown-kill-75-000-thats-OFFICIAL-projection.html

      1. Cian

        75,000?

        Wait. I though modelling was totally unreliable? Or is it only unreliable when you don’t agree with it?

        Perhaps you can explain how you choose which models you trust?

        1. SOQ

          I didn’t say I agreed with it as I don’t know what methods they are using.

          It is however at least partly based on data analytics which is a hell of a lot more reliable than what the CoVid modellers appear to be doing.

          As anyone who has ever drawn up a risk register will tell you- it is not what you include but what you omit which will trip you up.

    4. E'Matty

      Thanks for sharing your story. My sincere condolences. It’s really sickened me how our elderly have been treated, dying lonely and often afraid w7th nobody to comfort them, no kind face without a mask. We knew in January the elderly were most vulnerable yet 80% of our deaths were in nursing homes. How many passed without the comfort of their loved ones. This virus and the response of Irish society blindly and obediently following these clowns in government has caused untold tragedy and will still inflict much worse to come. I have personally lost three relatives to cancer since February (got to attend one funeral before lockdown, snuck down to the second but couldn’t get to the third with the measures in place). An old neighbour is on the way out now, likely won’t be able to go to their funeral and say farewell. In our fear induced state of hysteria, we’re quickly losing our humanity.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      9.33 on the SHI Troubles meter now.
      I didn’t know Dingle was 3000 miles away and was offshore. No hammocks either.

  6. f_lawless

    Disturbing to see the printed versions of all the UK newspapers today – across the board,: their front covers completely reserved to promote the UK’s ‘test and trace’ app. https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1309786977210953728

    Increasingly seems as though this has been the endgame all along. Society won’t be allowed open up to any sense of normality until a critical mass of people have opted in to this app. When that happens, shops, work spaces, public transport, schools and other public buildings can afford to impose it as a condition of entry and service. Those that opt in don’t will be effectively excluded from society until they do so.

    But there are those who are saying that the primary motivation to introduce this new surveillance system isn’t to protect public health. It’s to begin availing of the same technologies that East Asian countries – namely China – are using to monitor and control the behaviour of their citizens. Western global policy makers believe that they won’t be able to compete with China’s ascendancy unless they impose similar social credit systems upon citizens in the West.

    I imagine we’ll soon see a similar drive in Ireland urging everyone to download the HSE approved app in order to let society open up again.

    1. Nigel

      Hilarious that you
      1) find it disturbing that UK papers are for the most part slavish to the Tories.
      2) you think the Troies set out with some sort of end game in mind.
      Libertarian techbros coming up with surveillance apps that are unintentionally or otherwise either racist, sexist, homophobic or authroitarian or any mixture thereof have been a feature of our Silicon Valley-driven tech revolution. I suggest you start wearing a mask?

      1. f_lawless

        1.All of the British Newspapers (including the likes of the Guardian, Herald, Independent) with the exact same front page and you shrug it off as just the Tories doing what they normally do and dictating to the UK press what they must have on their front page?
        2. I don’t think the Tory party itself set out with some endgame in mind. They didn’t even initially opt for the lockdown policy. But the longer this has gone on, it’s become clearer that they too had gotten on onboard with what is a collective plan to impose a next-level surveillance system upon the public

        I think Peter Hitchens puts it well here:


        “It is because most people, having lived all their lives in relaxed freedom, are quite unable to believe what is in front of their eyes. It is a Chestertonian paradox which Chesterton himself never wrote: a government changing the nature of the state successfully and without opposition because nobody can believe what they are seeing, and so everybody politely ignores it.”

        https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/democracy-muzzled/

        1. Nigel

          I don’t shrug it off, I happen to agree with it, it just blends together with all the comments from you and others about the sheeple falling for mainstream narratives.

          The pandemic doesn’t have to be fake for surveillance state capitalists to take advantage of it.

          1. f_lawless

            I would never use the term “sheeple” and I don’t think the pandemic is fake. You must be thinking of someone else.

            Glad that we seem to have at least some level of common ground though ;)

  7. bisted

    …I wish I’d stayed…with the Broadsheet commontariat…I’d have my doctorate from the Mary Hopkins University…I’d understand all the recent comments from the Broadsheet Medics…

    1. SOQ

      Can you not just accept that it is a bunch of people who know this whole thing doesn’t make sense and are throwing out our opinions in the hope that someone else will fill in the missing bits?

  8. Hornet

    The latest to make employers pay sick pay to workers citing that sick workers go without money is simply not true

    Each week under your social insurance deducted from your pay goes for just that
    You get a payment for being sick and you claim this just like if you loose your job

    The government would just love to make employers pay what you are covered for from your stamp or prsi

    Sadly many small companies would fold

    Already they are trying their best to ensure people do not get their state pension and now this

    A few years ago It was revealed public sector employees were 3times more susceptible to getting sick than private sector workers

    I wonder why

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