Matthew Hancock
Seems that little Matt Hancock has once again exposed his own ignorance…
Regular blog readers may recall that I wrote about Hancock last year:
Now he tries to seem terribly important and portentous as Health Secretary during our Coronavirus times, but somehow it just does not wash.
Italy
In fact, it looks very much as though Coronavirus has peaked in Italy
Despite the peak having probably been reached in Italy, its government has decided to extend “lockdown” until 3 May at earliest. Will there be an Italy left once the populace emerge blinking into the early Summer sunshine? I doubt it.
Does that mean that the UK government-of-fools will extend “lockdown” until June? If they do, they are looking for trouble.
This idiotic woman, below, has the same vote as you. Now do you see why our form of “democracy” leads to governments run by idiots and/or confidence tricksters?
https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/11347343/stockpiler-mum-bins-food-no-regret/
The bitch is not even giving the stuff that is still OK and within date to local foodbanks! It is not hard. Waitrose and other supermarkets have large bins beyond their checkouts.
Early tweets seen
Ah. Here’s one from some Twitter “celebrity” called Felton. He has 170,000 Twitter “followers”, no less, and is a TV comedy writer, apparently.
Absolutely peak Twitter stupidity. Thinks that people are “expert” because they have a few letters after their names and/or positions as government advisers. Not so. The principal government adviser on Coronavirus, one Ferguson, of Imperial College, said that UK deaths from the virus could reach 250,000. A month later, quite recently, he said 5,700! Hello? The actual figure, at time of writing, stands at just below 9,000.
While we are on the unpleasant but necessary topic of deaths from (actually, “with” or “related to“…) Coronavirus, we might remind ourselves that there are about 70 MILLION inhabitants of the UK. In other words, and in round figures, so far there has been 1 death for every 8,000 of the population.
Obviously, that is a serious public health problem, amounting to several thousand people having died in the past week, but it has to be seen in the context of the approximately 10,000-11,000 people per week who die in this week of the year anyway, taking the past five years’ average. The increase is actually below 1,000 per week, over the past week, and a matter of about 500 extra per week in the past month or so.
So far, only a few brave souls such as the scribbler and TV talking head, Peter Hitchens, have put their heads above the parapet and asked “is it right to shut down the whole economy, pretty much, for this, particularly when we do not really know what if any beneficial public health effect the ‘lockdown’ has?”
One might say “weigh a doubt against a certainty”: the “doubt” is what if any good effect the “lockdown” is having; the “certainty” is what negative effect the “lockdown” is having on the already-fragile UK economy.
Lies, damn lies and statistics…
The government of fools
What would I have done?
What would I myself have done, were I at the head of government? This:
Had I been the ruler of the UK (take that as you will), I should have ordered a complete lockdown for one week only. Complete. That would have sent the message to the population, and would have enabled preparation in NHS and police etc. After that, I should have pushed hard, with every tool available to government, the only measure we know beyond question halts Coronavirus spread, namely the thorough and effective washing of hands with soap and water, perhaps every 15 minutes.
I should have restricted gatherings of people in large excited groups and in very confined spaces (again, the only places we know spread this virus greatly) and would have recommended the responsible use of parks, beaches, shopping areas and so on. No-one wants to get this nasty condition, so I think that would have been as, or nearly as, effective as the “lockdown” that we now have.
The Underground, trains and buses (and equivalents outside London) would have to cease operations for the duration, or only allow a small proportion of “key workers” aboard, so that “social distancing” could be observed in those incubators of the virus.
That would have saved most of the economy from a terminal spiral. Now, as things are, we are approaching what amounts to a near-collapse economically, unless the “lockdown” stops very soon.
The “furlough” payments cannot be maintained indefinitely, and at present are due to determine in 2-3 months, at (I believe) the end of June. When that happens, huge numbers of employees will simply be made redundant. Retail, manufacturing, service. Many enterprises and indeed whole sectors were showing weakness before “Coronavirus” or “COVID-19” was ever a factor.
The political impact will be huge. The millions who cheered on Dunce Duncan Smith in his attacks on those without paid work, for example, will be shouting, not cheering, when they end up on “Universal Credit” and find that they get a weekly pittance and not the pay they had before the “crisis”.
Housing too. Millions will not be able to afford rents, and Housing Benefit will not cover rents in full. We then see the collapse of both the parasitic “Buy to Let” market and the wider housing market. Property will be worth 50% of what it now is. Perhaps even 25%. Impossible? 20 years ago, properties were about a fifth, even a tenth, of what they are now, supposedly, “worth”. Does the rocket only go up and never down? Will banks be lending freely after all this? I doubt it.
Going, going, gone…?
It will be recalled that some “expert” called Ferguson, from Imperial College, told the government and msm that over 250,000 people might be killed by Coronavirus in the UK. He later had to “revise” his estimate to…5,700. In fact, that seems to have been mistaken too, though less so (the death toll is now, officially, not far short of 9,000, though that may be partly because everyone who has Coronavirus is now (for the past 10 days or so) registered as a “Coronavirus death” even though the real cause of death may be some other condition).
Well, now we see that the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, based in the USA, and apparently the leading data collector for such things not only in the USA but in the whole world, has “revised” its 66,000 prediction for the UK to somewhere between 22,000 and 62,500! So much for “the experts”…
Silly, but it made me laugh…
Priti Patel
How can that freeloading and thick (in both senses) Israeli agent last, even in this government of fools?
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/coronavirus-live-uk-updates-covid-21839286
Meanwhile, the bitch tries to distract attention from her own and the government’s failings: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210601/Home-Secretary-Priti-Patel-reveals-paedophiles-stalking-children-online.html
https://twitter.com/Andrew_Adonis/status/1248990309998039042?s=20
Below, a scene from our wonderful, liberal, free country (that we have been told about all our lives…)
Speculations and conspiracy theories
The present atmosphere gives rise to all manner of conspiracy theories. One or two may have elements of truth in them.
What if “COVID-19” (or some other one next year or the year after that) were to be deliberately released and designed to mutate, with the idea of reducing the population of the Earth to say a tenth of its present size? What if getting infected by the virus were not to confer immunity to most victims? What if second, third waves of slightly different viruses were to hit the world, leaving only 10% or 1% of the population alive and immune?
The atmosphere must be getting to me! I have only had one can of Pilsner Urquell!
In the end, one must have faith that the advanced section of present-day humanity (white Northern Europeans) will, even if only a tiny number of them, survive and thrive, creating a new and better culture and civilization down the line.
Is not all Eternity mine?
Ian Robert Millard 