Unions, left MPs, media, scientists and mayors warned against haste to re-open schools and force people back to work – and MPs rushed ahead anyway
Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, Rishi Sunak and their whole party, along with Keir Starmer and his pliant front-benchers are all covered in shame this evening after the government announced a renewed tightening of lockdown across a swathe of the north because of rising coronavirus rates.
Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and West Yorkshire will all be subject to increased restrictions from midnight, with Hancock feebly blaming the people for the consequences of political errors. But union leaders, left MPs and media and elected mayors and council leaders have all warned for months that the Tories’ undue haste would lead to a new surge in infections – and in avoidable deaths.
Leicester was a case study in the consequences, with Hancock forced to admit the school return had played a central part in creating the city’s hotspot. Yet Johnson and co continued to speed ahead anyway – and Starmer’s shame is not limited to a mere lack of resistance. The Labour leader played an active role in welcoming and promoting measures to ease the lockdown, particularly the rush to re-open schools. School outbreaks have rocketed, just as the so-called ‘leaders’ were warned:
Even though studies have shown how fast the coronavirus can spread in – and from – schools, only this morning Starmer’s education spokesperson was agreeing with the Tories that there is no need for masks for school staff or pupils.
Likewise, when Johnson rushed working people back to their workplaces with barely 12 hours notice, Starmer and his team were near-silent – and Starmer himself answered ‘We’d have to look at it’, when asked on radio whether he would support unions trying to protect workers from avoidable exposure.
So when Starmer wanted to make what passes for an attack in centrist minds on the Tories’ actions this evening, he could only focus on the lack of notice given of the changes. He could hardly attack much else when he has been all but in lock-step with Johnson on the substantive measures he and his health secretary have taken.
Now, as predicted, infections have risen – and people who needn’t have died will die, while the economy and family life of the north suffers compared to Tory heartlands.
Shame on all those who pushed for this and on those who enabled them. Shame on them all.
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Can meet in a pub but not at home??? What a balls up!
The following are a couple of clips from an article on the CAAs website that I just happened to come across by chance:
A crowdfunder launched to raise money for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal defence has received money from donors calling themselves “Adolf Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer”.
Other donors also used provocative names or left offensive comments, such as ‘Jack T’, who claimed that Mr Corbyn had been targeted by “people within the Labour Party working on behalf of the racist State of Israel”.
Jack T…. now that name rings a bell
https://antisemitism.uk/crowdfunder-for-jeremy-corbyns-legal-defence-gets-donations-from-hitler-and-bstard-son-of-netanyahu-and-starmer/
And just in case anyone is wondering WHY I was on the CAAs website, I was checking out a few things for a comment I was putting together to post on Counterfire:
https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/21466-starmer-s-panorama-drama-an-attempt-to-bury-corbyn-s-legacy
I do care about the poor, job-denied, racially-profiled, badly-housed, constantly-stopped-and-searched minorities…
but imagine the far greater hurt, shock and horror of that other minority whose lives are literally destroyed by being forced by their leaders to trawl through thousands upon thousands of internet comments, seeking out the occasional antisemitic ‘trope’.
They’re the ones I feel really sorry for.
Allan, have you ever checked out the CST’s website? I expect you have – I believe a fair assessment of antisemitism in the UK can be gleaned from the number of prosecutions annually.
Noticeable are the small numbers – around twenty criminal cases per annum – and the fact that it’s about the same every year.
Twenty is twenty too many of course, but there’s no hint of the claimed huge increase since Jeremy became leader.
And there would necessarily be more antisemitic crimes prosecuted if antisemitism were genuinely on the rise.
Any ‘rise’ in the number of offensive online comments is fully explained by the vast army of people with a ‘special interest’ that began trawling the internet looking for historic examples after Jeremy won the leadership.
How do you know that they are being ‘forced’ David? Perhaps they are more-than-happy to do so. And I think it’s a bit OTT to say that their lives are ‘destroyed’. WWOTT in fact!
And who are these ‘leaders’ you refer to that are supposedly forcing this ‘other minority’ to trawl through social media comments etc? And ‘shock and horror’?
Yes, I know David, and I have pointed out on many, many occasions on here that out of all the thousand of alleged claims of A/S, only a couple of LP members have ever been prosecuted as such, and one of THOSE was from before Jeremy was leader. It’s very odd, to say the least, how the CAA and the LAA and JLM and Margaret Hodge and Ruth Smeeth et al never seem to report there alleged incidences of A/S to the police. I wonder why NOT!
‘Searching for the truth about on-line abuse allegations’
Here.s a couple of clips from the article:
This CST study covered the period in which Ruth Smeeth MP claimed that, since the Chakrabarti press conference on 30th June 2016, she herself had received 25,000 abusive messages, mostly on twitter, with 20,000 of these sent over a single 12-hour period…..
The problem is that such a large number of antisemitic tweets, allegedly received by Smeeth, were not picked up in the CST survey which ran throughout that period. In fact the maximum peaks the CST team found were around 200 antisemitic tweets a day…..
https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/searching-truth-line-abuse-allegations/
Sarcasm Allan – just crude sarcasm at an adolescent level.
One could argue that sarcasm is the only appropriate response to the ridiculously transparent antisemitism fakers.
People who claim the left is antisemitic or that Covid is a conspiracy don’t deserve to be gently humoured.
David, you were spouting complete and utter bollocks, and YOU know it!
And your ‘response’ was complete and utter bollocks as well!
But you must now hold the record fot the most OTT comment EVER posted on skwawkbox, so congratulations for such an achievement!!
But pray, do tell, who are these leaders you speak of?
(I have a feeling I won’t be receiving an answer from Mr McNiven to that particular question!)
Allan – I was sarcastically making the point that black people have it far worse than Jewish people – that black people suffer genuine racism, oppression, bad housing etc. and that Jewish people – don’t – but that some of them trawl the internet looking for things to complain about. Their leaders? Take a guess.
Are you seriously saying you didn’t get any of that or have you just set out to irritate me?
My apologies David, but on second thoughts, signpost (Cod rest his soul) MUST take the top prize for the most OTT comment ever posted on skwawkbox (and a further 95 or so of the top one hundred places), but at least you won second place for your above comment. BUT – and THIS is the good news (which I hope goes some way to making up for the disappointment of losing first place) – you ALSO win THIRD place for your brilliant analysis and deducktion of working out, by the process of elimination, WHO must have been responsible for poisoning the Skripals and Nick Bailey (eg ‘Could it have been a mad scientist?’), albeit JOINT third place, along with Steve H’s post about me ‘hunting people down and attacking them’, which he posted on here about seven months ago.
So congratulations to you both!
Allan, did you contact the CAA to tell them I was right and that you agreed with me 🙂 ?
As we know from ‘The Lobby’ documentary, the then Labour MP Joan Ryan was seen being told by Israel official Shai Masot that he had money provided by Israel to support LFI.
Shame too on the trolls who pretend coronavirus is just a scare story.
A death-pox on those fuckers.
” A death pox on those fuckers” . Spoken like a true believer!!!
Just kidding:
Children and schools
It has been known since March that the risk of disease and transmission in children is minimal in the case of Covid19. The main reason for this is probably a pre-existing immunity due to frequent contact with previous coronaviruses (i.e. cold viruses). There was and is therefore no medical reason for the closure of primary schools, kindergartens and day-care centres and for special protective measures in schools.
In the meantime, further studies on this issue have been published:
The British epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse stated that there is not a single confirmed case of infection of a teacher by a pupil worldwide.
Tracing pioneer Iceland found “not a single case where a child under 10 infected their parents.”
A joint report from Sweden (without primary school closure) and Finland (with primary school closure) concluded that there was no difference in infection rates among children in the two countries.
In the USA, three times more children up to 14 years of age have died of influenza than of Covid-19 (101 versus 31) since the beginning of the year, according to the CDC.
A Canadian study found that most of the children with “Kawasaki-like” inflammatory symptoms had no corona infection at all. The disease in children is “very, very rare”, the researchers said.
A German study came to the conclusion that children act epidemiologically “like brake blocks” and slow down the spread of the new corona virus.
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
“ If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…..” Rudyard Kipling from his poem IF.
Coronaviruses (SARS CV-2) is not the same as or a variation of influenza (common cold/flu) viruses.
I see you are having problems with reading comprehension again!!!
brianbotou – https://skwawkbox.org/2020/07/30/tory-and-centrist-mps-covered-in-shame-as-north-forced-again-into-lockdown-you-were-warned-and-rushed-ahead-anyway/#comment-153756
Oh yes a small chance of what? Oh yes death so your happy to play russian roulette with other people kids. Nice! NO deaths are acceptable all are preventable if people follow the rules and don’t try and play there silly I don’t need to or any other excuse why they can’t wear masks and wash hands. But hay ho the apologists will tell you a few lives to be lost is fine. All I say is it’s a pity there not the ones dying no it’s the innocent older person exposed by a uncaring idiot the disabled person who has to buy food and is crowded in shops have people around them with no masks on because the shopkeeper doesn’t care. Wake up this virus kills or seriously damages your body and can return again and again until it gets the job done. So still feel safe?
The vast majority of unfortunate deaths from Covid-19 had two or more serious illnesses such as dementia, cancer, heart problems, Parkinson’s etc. 95% of the unfortunate deaths died not from Covid-19 but with it. In other words 5% died with Covid-19 being the sole cause of death.
There are already 16,000,000 people living on the poverty line, including 4,000,000 children, 200 000 people are homeless and over 900,000 food parcels were handed. After the effects of lockdown have kicked in you can expect those numbers to rocket because of a policy of fear.
brianbotou – The inescapable fact remains that 10s of thousands are now dead who would still be alive if they hadn’t caught Covid-19. No amount of you endlessly ‘analysing’ co-morbidity and age ranges isn’t going to alter that.
Global pandemic
Super grandad will save you all
It’s called the seat belt law, in order to save a lot of lives then a few are sacrificed for the greater good
It is high time you faced up to reality. As shown above you don’t even have a grasp the basics.
This comment is intended for brianbotou
latest research summaries from Zoe Hyde epidemiologist – children can catch covid (slightly less likely due to having less of an enzyme covid uses to attach to cells). If exposed enough to covid their protection is overwhelmed. One they have e caught it they are as infectious as anyone else. The outbreak previously reported by Skwwkbox in Northern France pre lockdown so Pre social distancing. This had 38% pupil, 42% teacher & 60% other staff would seem to undermine this. This is also worrying given the plan to reopen schools without masks or distancing. The link below goes to summaries of multiple research including links to the actual research. Including research by Dr Drosten in chief advisor to German Govton Covid. Their response has been much better than ours. His research was into the northern France outbrak. The summaries are the pinned tweet on her Twitter feed. Sha was praised for her summary of his research by Dr Drosten.
https://mobile.twitter.com/DrZoeHyde/status/1261576137358012417
It’s not possible to “confirm” by whom any normally mobile and normally social individual was infected.
Pathetic attempt at obfuscation.
This comment is also intended for Bubba.
Dear oh dear, Mc Bullshit and our resident troll playing in a tag time for the true believers in hyperbole and hogwash for a virus that causes unfortunate fatalities by a very very very long way in the over 60s. The median age being 80 and 95% of the fatalities had two or more serious illness. As the NHS graphs from June stated.Not forgetting of course that there have been deaths with cause of death being given as Covid-19 when no such test was taken. The statistics for Covid-19 fatalities have been shown to be in error as, for example, the CBEM centre have demonstrated.
Besides of course the number of unfortunate fatalities amongst the under 20s is miniscule. The number of teaching staff deaths ( note this number does not differentiate in age, previous medical conditions or if they are teachers) of 148 out of a total UK teaching number of over 500,000.
To paraphrase Albert Camus, who wrote a novel called the Plague, THE ONLY WAY TO FIGHT THE PLAGUE IS WITH THE TRUTH!!!
brianbotou – Unlike you I’m not the one relying on an antivax site that quotes out of date information to support its nonsense.
You can prattle on all you like but the fact remains that 10s of thousands are now dead who would still be alive if they hadn’t caught Covid-19. No amount of pissing about endlessly quoting from crap websites is going to change that.
The truth?
Who isn’t enjoying the freedom from work? Who isn’t enjoying earning more staying at home than working? Who feels lighter knowing they aren’t spending their time making some billionaire that little bit richer?
Covid is more powerful than Corbyn dares to dream about. It is the tool for the lower classes to bring equity.
If it’s false, who cares (no offense to those who have lost loved ones), if it’s true, then we shall see, no?
If you have FACTUAL EVIDENCE, DATA,PROOF which can disprove what the British epidemiologist Professor Mark Woodhouse, the Canadian and Finnish plus Swedish Studies have stated, let’s see it. Instead of true believer propagandistic outbursts and vacuous rhetoric!!!
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
brianbotou – Why would I want to waste my time, I’ve already shown you on a previous occasion that the site you love to quote relies on out of date links to proselytise their rubbish.
It really isn’t my fault that you are unable to work out for yourself that you are just another ‘
usefuldangerous idiot’.You are going to have to play with yourself, I won’t be joining you down your 🐰🕳.
Hmm, you have demonstrated precisely nothing, zero, zilch. What you have demonstrated is you are unable to offer any FACTUAL EVIDENCE, DATA, PROOF OR DOCUMENTATION TO DISPROVE WHAT THE Brutish epidemiologist Professor Mark Woodhouse and the Canadian, Swedish and Finnish Studies have stated. Your are playing your usual propagandistic games instead of refusing to face up to FACTS, DATA AND EVIDENCE. 🙊🙈🙉
You are going to have to play with yourself, I won’t be joining you down your 🐰🕳.
Steve H. 9.04 am 31.07.2020
COVID-19 deaths outside of hospital and differences between death certificate-based and positive test-based.
Using date-of-death based figures provided by ONS, NHSE, PHW, and the all-setting series for England compiled by Public Health England (PHE), available at gov.uk there are large divergences in daily deaths according to whether counts are death certificate-based or positive test-based.
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-deaths-in-england-and-wales-resolving-discrepancies-in-deaths-outside-of-hospital/
the estimated 2.1 million so-called routine operations cancelled from 15 April for at least three months as hospitals across the UK move onto a war footing in preparation for the coronavirus peak.
But there are now growing questions whether the effect of these cancellations – life-altering at best, life-shortening at worst – is being given due weight in the government’s considerations.
Ongoing pain, long-term social isolation and the increased likelihood of developing other life-limiting health issues are all among the risks associated with delayed operations. F
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-nhs-operations-cancelled-cases-deaths-hospital-a9464726.html
The impact on mental health caused by Covid-19 has been devastating. Research last month by Mind found that two-thirds of adults and three-quarters of 13 to 24-year-olds with a pre-existing mental health problem said it had become worse during lockdown.
And new figures show that one-fifth of vulnerable people in Britain have considered self-harming or killing themselves during lockdown. The Royal College of Psychiatrists reports that 43% of psychiatrists have seen an increase in emergency and urgent cases and predicts a “tsunami” of referrals on the horizon. The Centre for Mental Health forecasts an estimated 500,000 more people experiencing mental ill health difficulty over the next year.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jul/15/can-mental-health-services-cope-with-the-devastating-effects-of-covid-19
brianbotou 31/07/2020 at 9:36 am
…..and, surely in the midst of a global pandemic it would be a surprise if there hadn’t been an increase in mental health problems.
You can prattle on all you like but the fact remains that 10s of thousands are now dead who would still be alive if they hadn’t caught Covid-19. Nothing you’ve said changes that.
link to multiple summaries of research into covid and children – children slightly less likely to catch it once they have caught it as infectious they shed virus with little or no difference to adults. Zoe Hyde epidemiologist completed the summaries with links to the original research. The pinned tweet at the top covers children and covid updated regularly as new research comes available. Long and short of it children can catch it can pass it on. Opening without masks or any distancing is playing russian roulette with our kids.
https://mobile.twitter.com/drzoehyde?lang=en
Steve H. 8.59 am. Tens of thousands died with Covid-19 not because of it as the NHS graphs and statistical evidence produced in June stated. 95% of the fatalities had 2 or more serious illnesses, including cancer, emphysema, heart diseases, Parkinson’s, dementia etc and 5% died solely from Covid-19. These diseases plus innumerable others have caused death since man first walked Earth or is Covid-19 responsible for all fatalities now?
Steve H. 10.03 am. A repeat of your usual propagandistic technique of making a statement then when asked for EVIDENCE, PROOF, DATA,DOCUMENTATION running away like a🐔
Steve H. 10 am. Let’s recall why the Covid-19 was called a “ pandemic “. Professor Ferguson and Imperial, who had a woefully disastrous reputation for making predictions on previous cases such as bird flu, swine flu and Foot and mouth diseases, stated that 500,000 people in the U.K. could die from Covid19. The WHO organisation, which had changed the definition of what can be called a Pandemic some 10 or more years previously, called Covid19 a “ pandemic “.
However, if you recall the good Prof refused to let his peers review his software and methodology. Eventually, after immense pressure he conceded and admitted the software was 13 years old and forced to drastically reduce his estimates.
So in regards to your throwaway line of “ surely in the midst of a global pandemic it would be a surprise if there hadn’t been an increase in mental health problems” belies the fact the “ pandemic “ was based on faulty data from a man and institution with a track record of making drastically wrong estimates!
Why the differences in mortality rate country to country due to this supposed conspiracy? Why so many fewer deaths despite a larger population in Germany.
WRONG. Typical – you completely missed the real conspiracy.
We’re a race of parasitic aliens and we travel the universe feeding on all the smartest brains on the planets we visit and replacing them with copies of our brains.
This was the best planet so far, but there are always rejects.
You, RH, Bolsonaro, Trunt and a few others didn’t make the needles flicker on our brain-detectors and we don’t risk our brains in just any old defective host.
No offence, Earthling.
Poor old Mc Bullshit swallowing any old tosh unable to differentiate truth from bullshit. Willing to regurgitate any hyperbole. hogwash and horseshit from the masters table. Edward Bernays must have had people similar to you in mind when he wrote in his bible for all modern day propagandists ” Propaganda” , The unthinking public in need of guidance from their superiors.
brianbotou – Are you really trying to claim that Covid-19 isn’t a pandemic.
Steven H, 11.18pm 31.07.2020. Just woken up from your previous nightshift?
Steve H, 11.18pm 31.07.2020. Just woken up from your previous nightshift?
Let’s hope you have woken up Steve H, but I wouldn’t hold my breath I might choke. Do you deny that Professor Ferguson and Imperial made wildly outlandish claims about the Covid-19 fatalities claim in the UK, which the WHO based their statement of a ” pandemic” on ?
Stop calling him Professor Ferguson and address him by his honorary title
‘Burger King ‘
Dr Anthony Fauci Watched this live – coherent ,evidence based and no hyperbole
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sCKGPw2uof8
CNN coverage of Corona Virus is what reporting should be and is not using sycophantic journalists who just reinforce propaganda and treat the audience with dumbed down pseudo-science.
SM, your link is a month old and this is a fast-moving series of events.
The video is three hours long and most of it will be of little relevance to the UK.
Do you fancy summing up what you found most salient?
Apologies for wrong link- this is the link for Dr Fauci being scruntinised by sometimes adversarial senators(Republican).
https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/fauci-coronavirus-testimony-07-31-20/index.html