dailysceptic.org Open in urlscan Pro
188.227.164.103  Public Scan

Form analysis
3 forms found in the DOM

GET https://dailysceptic.org/

<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="https://dailysceptic.org/">
  <label>
    <span class="screen-reader-text">Search for:</span>
    <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search …" value="" name="s" tabindex="-1">
  </label>
</form>

POST

<form method="post" id="ls_supporters_form_form">
  <input type="text" name="ls_supporters_form_name" id="ls_supporters_form_name_id" value="" placeholder="Name">
  <br><input type="email" name="ls_supporters_form_email" id="ls_supporters_form_email_id" value="" placeholder="Email">
  <input type="hidden" id="ls_supporters_form_nonce" name="ls_supporters_form_nonce" value="f533faf593"><input type="hidden" name="_wp_http_referer" value="/"> <br>
  <div>
    <div class="grecaptcha-badge" data-style="bottomright"
      style="width: 256px; height: 60px; display: block; transition: right 0.3s ease 0s; position: fixed; bottom: 14px; right: -186px; box-shadow: gray 0px 0px 5px; border-radius: 2px; overflow: hidden;">
      <div class="grecaptcha-logo"><iframe title="reCAPTCHA"
          src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/anchor?ar=1&amp;k=6LcFYvAbAAAAACXSuf9bT0XFTAHHsMtreoRe7g4a&amp;co=aHR0cHM6Ly9kYWlseXNjZXB0aWMub3JnOjQ0Mw..&amp;hl=en&amp;v=Eyd0Dt8h04h7r-D86uAD1JP-&amp;size=invisible&amp;sa=submit&amp;cb=tc1cgd6fcc6q"
          width="256" height="60" role="presentation" name="a-bwxyoege1p77" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-top-navigation allow-modals allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"></iframe>
      </div>
      <div class="grecaptcha-error"></div><textarea id="g-recaptcha-response" name="g-recaptcha-response" class="g-recaptcha-response"
        style="width: 250px; height: 40px; border: 1px solid rgb(193, 193, 193); margin: 10px 25px; padding: 0px; resize: none; display: none;"></textarea>
    </div><iframe style="display: none;"></iframe>
  </div><button id="ls_supporters_form_submit" class="g-recaptcha" data-sitekey="6LcFYvAbAAAAACXSuf9bT0XFTAHHsMtreoRe7g4a" data-callback="onSubmit" data-action="submit">Submit</button>
</form>

GET https://dailysceptic.org/

<form role="search" method="get" class="search-form" action="https://dailysceptic.org/">
  <label>
    <span class="screen-reader-text">Search for:</span>
    <input type="search" class="search-field" placeholder="Search …" value="" name="s" tabindex="-1">
  </label>
  <input type="submit" class="search-submit" value="Search">
</form>

Text Content

Skip to content
Main Menu
 * Today’s Update
 * About
 * Forums
 * Log in
 * Donate
 * Free Newsletter
 * Search
   Search for:


HOW MUCH DID LOCKDOWN AFFECT UK MOBILITY?



The mainstream narrative concerning England’s national lockdowns is that each
one arrested a steep upward trend in daily infections that would have otherwise
continued unabated. Infections were rising; we had a lockdown; and infections
started falling.

However, there are several reasons to doubt this narrative. To begin with, the
international evidence suggests the impact of lockdowns on COVID-19 outcomes was
marginal at best. They only “worked” – in the sense of halting a nascent
epidemic – in a small number of geographically peripheral Western countries,
like Australia and New Zealand.

Next, the statistician Simon Wood crunched the numbers on the three English
lockdowns, and found that infections were already declining before each one was
introduced. His analysis is consistent with the time-course of infections
reconstructed by researchers on the REACT antibody survey.

What’s more, the economist David Paton identified seven separate indicators,
each showing that infections peaked before the third English lockdown. Indeed,
lockdowns are often imposed around the peak of the curve, as governments come
under increasing pressure to “do something” about rising case numbers. (Back in
July, Chris Whitty told MPs the epidemic was probably already in retreat when
the first full lockdown was imposed.)   

The way lockdowns are assumed to work is by reducing the number of interactions
that result in viral transmission. However, distinguishing their impact from
that of voluntary changes in behaviour is no easy feat (see my recent interview
with Philippe Lemoine).

What’s more, since transmission is driven by “superspreaders” (those few
individuals who account for a disproportionate share of infections), the
relationship between interactions and infections isn’t necessarily linear. For
example, reducing interactions by 50% may reduce infections by much less than
50%.

Rather than trying to tease out the effect of lockdowns on infections, one can
look at their impact on mobility. If lockdowns are what account for the curves
peaking and then falling, one would expect to see sudden declines in mobility
just after lockdowns are introduced. And you’d expect these declines to be
sustained until case numbers had come down substantially.

Is that what we see? We know from the Google mobility index that there was a
rapid decline in mobility during March of 2020, though that decline began 7–10
days before the first lockdown commenced (on March 24th). This is shown in the
chart below:

How Much Did Lockdown Affect UK Mobility?Read More

By Noah Carl  /  19 August 2021 • 13.39
 Google mobility index   Lockdowns   Simon Wood
3 comments


BRIT SENTENCED TO SIX WEEKS IN PRISON IN SINGAPORE FOR NOT WEARING A FACE MASK



A British man who refused to wear a face mask on public transport in Singapore
and who reportedly harassed the police sent to arrest him for breaking Covid
rules has been sentenced to six weeks in prison in the country. He has been
charged, in part, for being a ‘public nuisance’. The Guardian has the story.

> The city-state, which has had comparatively mild Covid outbreaks, has taken a
> tough line against people breaking virus rules, and there have been several
> cases of foreigners being punished.
> 
> Benjamin Glynn was arrested after footage of him not wearing a mask on a train
> in May went viral.
> 
> The 40 year-old subsequently harassed police sent to arrest him, and refused
> to wear a face-covering during a court appearance last month.
> 
> According to reports, Glynn delivered a rant in court – in which he described
> the proceedings as “preposterous” and “disgusting” – and said masks were not
> effective in preventing the spread of Covid.
> 
> This prompted the judge to order a psychiatric assessment, but Glynn was
> deemed fit enough for the case to continue.
> 
> On Wednesday, he was convicted for breaching Covid rules, his behaviour
> towards police, and causing a public nuisance.
> 
> A court official confirmed the jail term to AFP on Thursday, saying it was
> backdated to July 19th – the date when Glynn was first remanded.
> 
> As he had already served two-thirds of his sentence on remand, Glynn was freed
> from prison Wednesday and will be deported, according to local newspaper the
> Straits Times. …
> 
> In May, nine Britons were banned from working in Singapore after breaking
> coronavirus rules while partying on a yacht in Santa hats.

Worth reading in full.

By Michael Curzon  /  19 August 2021 • 12.25
 Face Masks   Police   Singapore
10 comments


AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND’S ZERO-COVID DILEMMA



We’re publishing an original piece today by a senior executive at pharmaceutical
company setting out the choices facing Australia and New Zealand. That’s to
their misguided pursuit of zero-Covid, there are no good options. Here is the
opening section:

> There is a moment in one of the Mad Max films where Max and his band of
> tagalongs have successfully escaped from their pursuers and are striking out
> through the post-apocalyptic Outback in search of The Safe Place, a haven of
> security where they hope to live out their lives in peace. After much
> struggle, they crest the top of an enormous dune only to see an endless desert
> stretching out beyond the horizon. It is as this point that the true nature of
> their predicament becomes clear; do they continue on alone into the unending
> sea of sand in what may be the forlorn hope of reaching The Safe Place, or do
> they stay where they are until their pursuers inevitably catch up with them,
> or do they turn around and head back into danger but to somewhere where they
> know there is water and shelter?
> 
> In many ways, this is an apt metaphor for the situation Australia and New
> Zealand now find themselves in with respect to Covid. Having apparently
> successfully escaped from the pandemic, what should they do now? Do they
> plough on in the hope of reaching some kind of Safe Place, which may or may
> not exist, or do they instead attempt to re-join the rest of the world?

Worth reading in full.

By Toby Young  /  19 August 2021 • 11.25
 Australia   New Zealand   Zero-Covid
26 comments


DOUBLE JABBED JUST AS LIKELY TO SPREAD DELTA VARIANT AS THE UNVACCINATED,
ACCORDING TO NEW STUDY



A new study by researchers at Oxford University rubbishes plans to introduce
vaccine passports as it shows that Covid vaccines do not significantly reduce
transmission of the Delta variant. For the same reason, the researchers suggest
herd immunity is “unachievable”. MailOnline has the story.

> Although fully vaccinated people are significantly less likely to be infected,
> those who do get Covid have a similar peak viral load as the unvaccinated.
> 
> This means infected people ‘shed’ the same amount of virus when they cough or
> sneeze, regardless of whether or not they have been jabbed.
> 
> Experts said the findings strengthened the argument for a ‘booster’ Covid jab
> programme this autumn.
> 
> However, the study stressed that two doses remain remarkably effective at
> preventing death and hospitalisation.  
> 
> And even though the viral load may peak at similar levels in the vaccinated
> and unvaccinated, scientists say it’s possible jabbed people clear the
> infection quicker.
> 
> The study, based on data from 700,000 Britons, is the largest yet to evaluate
> vaccine effectiveness against the Delta variant, which has been dominant in
> the U.K. since May. 
> 
> Researchers concluded two doses reduce the chance of getting the Covid by
> about 82% for Pfizer and 67% for AstraZeneca.
> 
> It follows similar findings by Public Health England and the U.S. Center for
> Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which earlier this month released
> figures showing unvaccinated and double-jabbed have very similar viral loads.
> …
> 
> The researchers compared results from December 2020 to May 2021, when the
> Alpha variant was dominant, with those from May to August 2021, after the
> Indian [Delta] variant drove a summer wave.
> 
> The Delta variant has blunted the efficacy of vaccines as fully vaccinated
> people who do get Covid now have a similar peak ‘viral load’ as the
> unvaccinated.
> 
> This means they are just as likely to spread the virus onwards, and to develop
> mild symptoms such as a cough or temperature.
> 
> In contrast, vaccinated people who were infected with the Alpha variant had a
> much lower viral load and rarely got symptoms.

Worth reading in full.

By Michael Curzon  /  19 August 2021 • 09.49
 Delta variant   Vaccine   Vaccine Passports   Variants
100 comments


NEWS ROUND-UP


 * “Britain’s competitiveness will suffer if we don’t return to work” – It is
   vital for the development of new, fast-moving technologies, to have people
   collaborating in the same environment, writes James Dyson in the Telegraph.
 * “Record number of children on NHS waiting lists for eating disorder treatment
   amid Covid pandemic” – Nearly a third of the children waiting for eating
   disorder treatment have been waiting for up to three months for care, while
   11% have been waiting even longer, reports MailOnline.
 * “Face mask divide in Parliament as MPs recalled for Afghanistan debate” – The
   majority of Tory MPs opted not to wear coverings as the Commons returned to
   full capacity for first time since before the pandemic, reports the
   Telegraph.
 * “Pfizer Covid vaccine 86% effective after third shot” – The Pfizer Covid
   vaccine has been shown to be 86% effective in preventing infection among
   over-60s after a third dose, according to initial results published by
   Maccabi Health Services, as reported in the Jerusalem Post.
 * “Booster vaccines should not be administered, WHO warns as U.S. gives green
   light” – The World Health Organisation says Covid booster vaccines are not
   necessary and calls on countries with high vaccination rates to donate
   surplus vaccines to poorer countries rather than administering third doses,
   reports the Telegraph.
 * “The role of the BBC in emergencies” – “It would have been reasonable to have
   read this BBC News piece and to have formed the (false) impression that Covid
   now poses a greater hospitalisation risk to younger adults,” writes Jamie
   Walden in his latest column in Bournbrook Magazine.
 * “Covid recovery: public health, services and justice system reforms” – The
   Scottish Government is inviting views on its “Covid recovery” programme.
 * “Is it time to stop blaming China?” – “The outcomes of our response to Covid
   include a bankrupt country, record waiting lists for NHS treatment, some
   remarkable statistics regarding suicide and a host of other problems
   regarding child abuse, domestic violence and mental health problems. China
   did not do this to us… our own Government did.” A blistering piece in Unity
   News Network.
 * “Texas school district requires masks after finding dress code loophole to
   bypass ban” – A district website announcement says the Governor’s recent
   executive order doesn’t allow his office to usurp the school board’s power,
   reports the Guardian.
 * “Trump claims Covid booster shots are ‘money-making operation’” – Former
   President Trump says that rolling out ‘booster’ vaccine doses “sounds like a
   money-making operation”, reports MailOnline.
 * “NYC to Impose Up to $2,000 Fines on Businesses Serving the Unvaccinated” –
   Businesses that fail to comply with New York City’s vaccine mandate will face
   up to $2,000 in fines, Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced, as reported in
   Breitbart.
 * “Tucker Carlson: Self-Censorship Turning America into ‘Soviet Society’” –
   Tucker Carlson warns that America is becoming a “Soviet society” prioritising
   conformity over freedom of behavior and thought in an interview with
   Breitbart.
 * “Decadence and hubris have finally brought down the American Empire” – The
   U.S. is in retreat on all fronts, and its incompetent politicians are
   incapable of reversing the decline, writes Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
 * “I’m guilty of going against The Science: a defence of my condemned, censored
   ‘dangerous’ speech to parliament” – Most of the research touted about around
   masks and Covid is based on observational studies and not randomised control
   trial studies that are considered the gold standard in science, writes George
   Christensen in the Spectator Australia.
 * “Australian health official flees press conference after question over spike
   in teen suicides, as Victoria locks down again” – Victoria’s Chief Health
   Officer abruptly left the stage during a Covid press conference when a
   reporter asked about a surge in suicides among teenage girls, reports Russia
   Today.
 * “Australia’s Qantas says all staff must be vaccinated” – Qantas says all of
   its employees must be vaccinated against Covid, making it the latest global
   airline to mandate jabs for staff, reports BBC News.
 * “Vaccinations, Coercion and the Rule of Law” – “The Australian Constitution
   prohibits any form of compulsion, which would subject citizens to medical or
   pharmaceutical services, including mandatory vaccination,” writes Augusto
   Zimmermann and Gabriël Moens in Quadrant.
 * “Cattle don’t cause global warming, they’re already net zero” – “The Green
   Wreckers who destroyed Australia’s cheap, reliable electricity are now
   targeting our cattle industry,” writes Viv Forbes in TCW Defending Freedom.
   “They use fake science and false advertising to threaten our right to produce
   and consume real meat.”
 * “There’s a huge problem with the Government’s hydrogen strategy” – Hydrogen
   won’t just lead to higher energy bills, it could even increase greenhouse gas
   emissions, writes Ross Clark in the Telegraph.
 * “New Confirmation that Climate Models Overstate Atmospheric Warming” – Two
   new peer-reviewed papers from independent teams confirm that climate models
   overstate atmospheric warming and the problem has gotten worse over time, not
   better, reports Watts Up With That.
 * “Nigella Lawson’s pal accused of racist cooking” – Pippa Middlehurst, a
   friend of Nigella Lawson, has been forced to fight back after being accused
   of racism for daring to publish a Chinese cookbook even though she’s white,
   reports the Mail.
 * “Biden’s most heartless betrayal” – The American Government cares more about
   pronouns than the fate of Afghan women, writes Ayaan Hirsi Ali in UnHerd.
 * “Twitter Tests New Feature for Users to Flag ‘Misleading’ Posts” – Twitter
   has announced it is testing a feature that lets people report tweets they
   think are misleading, with with the objective of scaling up its “broader
   misinformation work”, reports the Epoch Times.
 * “‘Colonialism’ flap at the opera as Madam Butterfly is put under the
   microscope” – Ticketholders to new Welsh National Opera production will be
   offered talks on how Puccini’s classic tale raises issues of ‘imperialism’,
   reports the Telegraph.
 * “The competition watchdog is set to investigate sky high PCR test prices” –
   Travel writer Ben Clatworthy tells talkRADIO: “It’s ridiculous that providers
   are charging hundreds of pounds. It’s a complete racket and underhand way of
   travel restrictions by stealth.”


By Michael Curzon  /  19 August 2021 • 00.21
 News Round-Up
43 comments


THE DECLINE AND FALL OF CONSERVATISM



We’re publishing an original essay today by Dr. James Alexander, an Assistant
Professor in the Department of Political Science at Bilkent University in
Turkey, about the transformation of the Conservatives into the party of the
metropolitan elite, after a brief flirtation with populism. Dr. Alexander charts
the history of the Party through a succession of crises, with the latest being
the global pandemic. Here is his concluding paragraph:

> The fifth stage is the crisis which has resulted not so much from Brexit as
> from Covid. Brexit was a revolt of a new Country party against the Court party
> of almost all assembled authorities, including both Labour and Conservative
> authorities. After some dithering, Johnson chose to side with Country. Hence
> 2016. But Covid has broken all of the traditions of opposition I have sketched
> thus far. For it is the Conservative Party – no matter how reluctantly – which
> stands at the head of a unified Court party which has done more than anyone
> since Walpole has done to ignore the Country, and not only ignore it, but
> oppress it. Johnson has presided over the establishment of an entirely
> technocratic politics of problem-and-solution which is, alas, not a politics
> at all, but the substitution of technique for politics. In this situation, the
> Government appears to be as committed as the opposition is to a unified
> politics of Universal Lockdown and Universal Vaccination and Universal Carbon
> Elimination in which no one is defending any aspect of the old order
> (including the church or universities) or even liberalism itself. The
> Conservatives have no longer got anything to defend. They have capitulated to
> their enemies and done it with a grotesque
> hyper-Disraelian-Bismarckian-Maoist-Malthusian flourish by way of forcing us
> to take the knee, take the mask and take the jab. They are not Tory, not
> liberal, certainly not even ‘austere’. They have found a magic money tree.
> They are presumably waiting for the seas to turn into lemonade. They are
> locking us into a magnificently communist-corporate hybrid order which will
> make the public-private partnerships of Blair and Brown look extremely pallid.
> If this continues then the only conservative thing about the Conservatives
> will be their inclination to hold on to their name.

Worth reading in full.

By Toby Young  /  18 August 2021 • 18.26
 Conservative Party   Technocracy
60 comments


U.S. TO OFFER BOOSTER SHOTS FROM SEPTEMBER



The U.S. Government has announced that Americans will be offered booster Covid
vaccine doses from September 20th, starting with healthcare workers and older
people, saying that the protection from two vaccine doses “decrease[s] over
time”. More than a million Americans have already had a booster vaccine,
according to federal data, but the roll-out is also being extended due to fears
over the Delta variant. The Guardian has more.

> The White House is prepared to offer a third booster shot starting on that
> date to all Americans who completed their initial inoculation at least eight
> months ago, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a
> statement.
> 
> The White House pandemic response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said the Covid
> vaccine booster shots will be free for all Americans. “It will be just as easy
> and convenient to get a booster shot as it is to get a first shot today,”
> Zients said.
> 
> The booster shots initially will be given primarily to healthcare workers,
> nursing home residents and older people, all of whom were among the first
> groups to be vaccinated in late 2020 and early 2021, the department said.
> 
> Top U.S. health officials said in a joint statement that they based their
> decision to offer boosters on data showing that the protectiveness of Covid
> shots currently authorized in the United States begins to diminish in the
> months after the shots are given.
> 
> The officials included Joe Biden’s Chief Medical Adviser, Anthony Fauci, as
> well as the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food
> and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health.
> 
> “The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2
> infection begins to decrease over time… and in association with the dominance
> of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection
> against mild and moderate disease,” the officials said.
> 
> “We conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced
> protection and prolong its durability,” they added.
> 
> The officials said that they expect that people who received Johnson &
> Johnson’s single-dose Covid vaccine will also need boosters. …
> 
> In recent weeks, several other countries have also decided to offer booster
> shots to older adults as well as people with weak immune systems, including
> Israel, France and Germany.
> 
> The decision announced by the U.S. officials represented a shift from the
> optimism of health authorities in May in curbing the pandemic when Biden set a
> goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults with at least one dose by July 4th.
> That goal was achieved about a month late.

Worth reading in full.

By Michael Curzon  /  18 August 2021 • 18.08
 America   booster vaccine   Vaccine
38 comments


SPIKE IN NUMBER OF MENTAL HEALTH REFERRALS IN U.K. AFTER LOCKDOWN



The number of mental health referrals made in the U.K. in March this year is
almost a fifth higher than the number made in February 2020, before the
imposition of numerous, long-lasting lockdowns. At the same time, the number of
patients actually receiving care has fallen. MailOnline has the story.

> Around 300,000 Britons were recommended for treatment in March this year, a
> rise of 18% compared to February 2020…
> 
> Referrals more than doubled in hardest-hit areas in England, including Leeds,
> Redbridge and Greater Preston, according to the analysis by the BBC.
> 
> Urgent referrals to crisis care teams – which include suicidal patients – have
> also risen 15% in the same time period, nationally.
> 
> However, the impact of the pandemic on mental health referrals in England
> seems less clear when looking at the entire year. There were roughly 3 million
> in the 12 months to March 2021, about the same as the previous year.
> 
> Charities fear patients have suffered in silence and put off coming forward
> for care during the pandemic, and warn there could be huge increases in
> referrals to come.
> 
> Despite the spike referrals this March, the number of patients actually
> receiving care was 9% below pre-pandemic levels.
> 
> Limited capacity due to social distancing is said to be partly to blame, as
> well as reduced services during lockdowns.
> 
> One suicidal mother who tried to take her own life last spring said she felt
> “abandoned” by the NHS when it shut down services to focus on Covid in the
> first wave.
> 
> Experts have long warned that a silent mental health epidemic has been brewing
> amid the pandemic, particularly in the young.

Worth reading in full.

By Michael Curzon  /  18 August 2021 • 15.48
 Mental Health   NHS   Suicide
18 comments


VACCINE PASSPORTS ARE BACK IN ISRAEL



Vaccine passports are back in Israel, little more than 11 weeks after
Jerusalem-based writer Arieh Kovler wrote in the Spectator: “The scaremongers
who said that vaccine certificates would be some lasting form of social control
were wrong.” From today, Israelis over the age of three must show proof of
vaccination against Covid or of a negative test to be allowed into indoor public
spaces, except for malls and stores. Mask mandates are also back, including for
large outdoor gatherings. Haaretz has the story.

> Children between the ages of three and 12 will be entitled to receive free
> rapid antigen swab tests. Those aged 12 and up who are not vaccinated will
> have to pay for their own tests. Around 220 testing stations will operate
> throughout the country to carry out these tests, and more will be added
> according to demand, the Health Ministry said. Results from the rapid antigen
> swab tests are available in 15 minutes, and a negative result grants a Green
> Pass valid for 24 hours.
> 
> The requirement to present proof of immunity will be applied in most sectors
> of the economy and public and private institutions, including swimming pools,
> gyms, academic institutions, all cultural and sporting events, conferences and
> exhibitions, museums, libraries, restaurants, and hotels. 
> 
> However, the Green Pass will not apply to summer school programs, so that
> parents will not have to test their children every day as a condition of
> participation.
> 
> Starting Wednesday, the number of participants at events will be limited to
> 1,000 people in enclosed spaces and 5,000 at outdoor events without assigned
> seating. At events in private homes, where proof of immunity won’t be
> required, the attendance limit will be set at 50 in enclosed spaces and at 100
> in open ones. There will be no limit on crowd sizes at events with assigned
> seating, but these events will also require proof of immunity.

The renewed requirement for vaccine passport checks comes amid fears over the
Delta Covid variant, reports the Guardian.

> After its launch in December, Israel’s widely praised vaccination drive helped
> to drastically bring down infections. But that trend has since reversed,
> driven by the spread of the more contagious Delta variant of the virus, with
> restrictions that were lifted in June reimposed since July. …
> 
> About one million Israelis have not been vaccinated even though they are
> eligible.
> 
> According to the Health Ministry, more than 8,700 people tested positive for
> Covid on Tuesday, the highest number for a single day since January.

The Haaretz report is worth reading in full.

By Michael Curzon  /  18 August 2021 • 12.28
 Face Masks   Israel   Vaccine   Vaccine Passports
127 comments


AND FINALLY…



In this week’s episode of London Calling, James Delingpole and I ask how Dan
Andrew’s became such a bug-eyed authoritarian zealot, whether Afghanistan is
America’s worst foreign policy disaster since 1975 and why the Orwell Foundation
didn’t stand up for author Kate Clanchy when she was targeted for cancellation
last week, in spite of awarding her the Orwell Prize for political writing in
2020.

You can listen to the podcast here and subscribe to it in iTunes here.

By Toby Young  /  17 August 2021 • 23.48
 Afghanistan   Dan Andrews   London Calling
50 comments
Posts navigation
1 2 … 172 Next Page →
Today’s Update



DONATE




NEWSLETTER

To receive the latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details
here:





Submit



RECENT ARTICLES


 * WALKABOUT


 * THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF CONSERVATISM


 * VACCI-NATION


 * COVID-19 VACCINATION AND THE DEATH OF INFORMED CONSENT


 * THE HERESY OF HERESIES


CONTENTS

 * About
 * COVID-19: Just the Facts
 * The Real Science of Covid
 * How Many Excess Deaths Are Due to COVID-19?
   * Just How High Are Excess Deaths in 2020?
   * The Strange Story of Week 48
   * Critical Care Figures Cast Doubt on ‘Second Wave’
   * Close Analysis of Regional Notifiable Disease Data Bolsters the Case for
     the Epidemic Phase of COVID-19 Being a Spring phenomenon
   * A Problem With Numbers
   * How Much Loss of Life Was Due to COVID-19 in 2020 Compared to Other
     Diseases?
 * How Reliable is the Modelling?
   * Code Review of Ferguson’s Model
   * Second Analysis of Ferguson’s Model
   * How Replicable is the Imperial College Model?
   * New UCL Paper on Contact Tracing Gulls Credulous Journalist
   * Another Computer Simulation, Another Alarmist Prediction
   * How Convincing is Imperial College’s COVID-19 Model?
   * The Real Fault with Epidemiological Models
   * Canaries in The Mine
   * Canaries in the Mine: An Update
   * Canaries in the Mine: A Second Update
   * Canaries in the Mine: Mañana Waves
   * Canaries in The Mine: Ripples
   * Canaries in the Mine: Seasonal Peaks
   * The Grim Reaper Is Still Owed A Few Souls
   * When Did Scientists Turn Into Lobbyists?
   * The Glitch That Stole Christmas
   * Imperial College Modelling Falsely Assumes No Seasonality to COVID-19
   * The Seasonality of COVID-19
   * The Hierarchy of Clinical Evidence: of Lockdowns, COVID-19 and Chickens
   * The Imperial Model and its Role in the UK’s Pandemic Response
   * Neil Ferguson’s Response to an Article in Lockdown Sceptics
   * Derek Winton’s Response to Ferguson
   * Lockdown Sceptics’ Exchange with Professor Neil Ferguson
   * Steps Towards a Technocratic Dystopia
   * Review of Paper Claiming 20% of Infected Are Vulnerable to Reinfection
   * SAGE Modelling From May Last Year Said Approach Recommended in Great
     Barrington Declaration Was Least Bad Alternative to Lockdown
   * Not So SAGE After All: A Review of the Latest Models
   * With Its Latest Model of Doom, Predicting 10,000 Hospital Admissions a Day
     in Mid-July, SAGE’s Connection to Reality Has Finally Snapped
   * Has the Delta Variant Killed Seasonality – or Just Freedom?
   * Photoshopping, fraud and circular logic in research
   * The SAGE Models are Already Wrong
 * What Percentage of the Population Has Been Infected?
   * Leicester’s Unnecessary Second Lockdown
   * What SAGE Has Got Wrong
   * All the Syndromic Data in one Place
   * The Data Suggest We’d Achieved Herd Immunity in December Before the
     Vaccines Were Rolled Out
   * Assembling Covid Jigsaw Pieces Into a Complete Pandemic Picture
 * What is the Infection Fatality Rate?
   * Has SARS-CoV-2 Fooled the Whole World?
   * The WHO’s Erroneous Risk Assessment
   * The Mortality Risk of COVID-19 is Dying Out
 * How Should We Value the Lives of Those Most at Risk?
   * The Risk to Granny
   * Do we Value Life?
 * What is the Cost of the Lockdowns?
   * Leaked Analysis of the Impact of the Lockdown by a Senior Official at the
     German Ministry of the Interior
   * If Lockdown Was a Drug, Would We Use It?
   * Why is the British Public so supportive of the Lockdown?
   * The Astronomical Cost of Lockdown
   * Following the Séance
   * Ten Reasons to be Anti-Lockdown
   * Lest We Forget: Life is not Non-Death
   * Loneliness and Mental Illness
   * How Lockdowns Damage our Immunity
   * A Look Back at the UK’s COVID-19 Containment Strategy: Did We Get it Wrong
     and at What Cost?
   * The First Anniversary of “Three Weeks to Flatten the Curve”
   * The Case Against the UK’s Lockdowns
   * Lockdown Fanatics Have Forgotten the Lesson of North Sentinel Island
   * The irrationality of the Lockdowns
 * What is the Exit Strategy?
   * COVID-19 as a Workplace Hazard (Part 1)
   * COVID-19 as a Workplace Hazard (Part 2)
   * COVID-19 as a Workplace Hazard (Part 3)
   * Climbing out of the Lobster Pot
   * Lockdown Land
   * The False Choice
   * Government by Chaos
   * The Covid Civil Servant
   * Striking reduction in lethality in ‘2nd waves’
   * How to Live With Risk in the COVID-19 World
   * How Likely is a Second wave?
   * Covid Deaths and Taxes
   * Lies, Damned Lies and Health Statistics – the Deadly Danger of False
     Positives
   * Covid Madness
   * The Nationalisation Of Individual Choice
   * Unlock Manifesto
   * All Hands on Deck
   * The Flu Hypothesis
   * Don’t Build Fortress Britain
   * Quo Vadimus?
   * Preliminary Materials for a Theory of Devi Sridhar
   * The Flu Hypothesis: Part II
   * The Ne Plus Ultra of Zero-Zealotry
   * The Flu Hypothesis: Part III
   * The Paralysis of Caution
   * Where Do London’s Mayoral Candidates Stand on Lockdown?
   * Time to Unchain the U.K.
 * How Have We Responded to Previous Pandemics?
   * The 1957-58 Asian Flu Pandemic: Why Did the UK Respond So Differently?
   * The Precarious Influence of Influenza
   * AIDS Hysteria Prefigured Covid hysteria
   * A Feeling of Deja Vu
   * AIDS and Covid
   * HIV Had a New Variant Too
 * Has the Swedish Government Got it Right?
 * Should We Reconsider Herd Immunity?
   * Do Medical Complications and Lingering Effects Make COVID-19 an Unusually
     Dangerous Diseases?
   * What SAGE Has Got Wrong
   * What Happened in South Dakota?
   * Risk of Asymptomatic Spread Minimal. Variants Over-Hyped. Masks Pointless.
     An Interview With Professor Jay Bhattacharya
   * We Cannot Afford to Censor Dissenting Voices During a Pandemic – Prof
     Martin Kulldorff
 * Masks: How Effective Are They?
   * Scientific Information on Masks Against COVID-19
   * Masks: How Effective Are They? An Update
   * Slight Adjustments to Boris’s Famous Burkha Article
   * MASKS – manners, manipulation and maths
   * We Shall Everyone Be Mask’d
   * Do Masks Increase Risk of Transmission?
   * My Journey Through Mask Insanity
   * Mask Creep
   * Mask Non-Compliance Is a Moral Duty
   * Anti-Maskers “Practice a Form of Data Literacy in Spades”, Says MIT Study
   * The ‘Smile Free’ Campaign
 * Has the Government Granted Itself Too Many Draconian New Powers?
   * The Corona Virus Pandemic, an Analysis: Part 1
   * The Corona Virus Pandemic, an Analysis: Part 2
   * The Corona Virus Pandemic, an Analysis: Part 3
   * Blessed are the Prophylactic Givers for They Shall Inherit the Earth
   * The Communist Deregulationists
   * Temporary Government Programmes
   * The Government is Gambling with People’s Lives
   * Playing With our Theory of Mind
   * HMP Quarantine Hotel, Heathrow
   * I Think I’m In An Abusive Relationship – With the Government!
   * The Government’s Shameful Use of Psychological Techniques to Terrify People
   * The Government’s Shameful Use of Psychological Techniques to Terrify People
   * Election Address by Boris Johns-On
   * The Sceptics’ Case for Boris
   * So Long Matt Hancock
   * A Political Theory of COVID-19 or Hobbes’s Coviathan
 * Are the Police Being Over-Authoritarian?
   * What Happened to the Good Old British Bobby?
   * Chased By Edinburgh’s Keystone Cops
   * Why Will the Police Allow Muslim Protestors to Gather Outside Batley
     Grammar School, But Not Christians in a Church on Good Friday?
 * Are Schools and Universities Over-Reacting?
   * How at Risk Are Your Children From Coronavirus?
   * I Was Cancelled For Starting A Petition Urging the Government to Reopen
     Schools
   * UsForThem: The Birth of a Movement
   * The New Normal: COVID-19 and Freshers
   * The Case For Exams
   * Is the Physical Side of Life Under Attack? 
   * It’s The Covid Panto, But The Children Aren’t Laughing
   * Children Should Not be Demonised
   * Requiem For Universities
   * The Home-School Curriculum
   * Now Granny is Safe, Are We Killing Our Children?
   * The Rise of the Expertocracy
   * Isn’t it About Time We Gave Students a Break?
   * Regulatory Capture, Trade Unions and Child Abuse
   * If You’re not one of the few Experts, Then You’re one of the many
     Functionaries
 * Are Hospitals Spreading the Virus?
   * If I Can Survive Four Days in a Corona Cauldron, Maybe Everyone Should Get
     Back to Work
   * Covid, Hyper-Medicalisation and Virus Interference
   * What are We to Make of the 40.5% Hospital Acquired Covid Infection?
 * Why Have There Been So Many Deaths in Care Homes?
   * Sweden Did in Fact Lock Down When it Came to Care Homes
   * Letter From a Care Home Whistleblower
   * What Would a Focused Protection Strategy Have Looked Like?
 * How Effective are Ventilators?
 * What are the Most Effective Treatments?
   * Is Vitamin D a Silver Bullet?
   * Is the Virus Becoming Less Deadly?
   * Vitamin D: Did a Prescribing Ban in Care Homes Contribute to Fatalities?
   * Unlock Defensive Immunity With Vitamin D
   * Why Hand Sanitisers do More Harm Than Good
   * The Hydroxychloroquine Saga
   * Lancet Paper Over-Estimates Number of Complications Associated with
     COVID-19 Hospital Patients
 * How many Non-COVID Patients are Being Neglected?
   * The Year the NHS Failed the People of Britain
   * Letter From a Care Home Whistleblower
   * Restarting NHS Cancer Services
   * Covid Marie Celestes
   * Truth In The Timeline Of Covid
   * Why Can’t I See My Disabled Son?
   * Has Covid Revealed the NHS’s New Clothes?
   * A Hospice Nurse’s Perspective
 * Testing: Do You Have the Disease?
   * Public Health England: A Predictable Failure
   * False Positives
   * When is COVID-19 not COVID-19?
   * Government Innumeracy
   * COVID-19: Parliamentary Brief
   * Flu-Like Illnesses
   * Testing – Muddle and Myth
   * Is the Increase in Cases Just an Artefact of Increased Testing?
   * Counting COVID-19 ‘Cases’ is Misleading Everybody
   * False Positives in Care Homes
   * Might Most Positive Tests be Wrong?
   * How Covid Deaths Are Over-Counted
   * Scandal: PCR Testing Sites Not Fit For Purpose
   * Dr Clare Craig: ‘We Are In A False Positive Pseudo-Epidemic’
   * PCR-Based Covid Testing Has Failed
   * The PCR False Positive Pseudo-Epidemic
   * Health and Safety Breaches at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab
   * False Positives in PCR – a Primer
   * Has the Evidence of Asymptomatic Spread of COVID-19 been Significantly
     Overstated?
   * Close Analysis of Regional Notifiable Disease Data Bolsters the Case for
     the Epidemic Phase of COVID-19 Being a Spring phenomenon
   * PCR Expert: UK’s Testing System is a Mess, Monopolising PRC For Covid is
     Killing People and Matt Hancock is Moronic
   * How Did a Disease With no Symptoms Take Over the World?
 * Testing: Have You Had the Disease?
 * Vaccines: How Efficacious Are They? How Safe? And How Voluntary?
   * The Pfizer Vaccine’s Side Effects
   * Ambitious Interpretation of Results of the Oxford Vaccine Group’s Latest
     Paper
   * Frustrations of a Volunteer Vaccinator
   * What Connection Does Gibraltar’s High Covid Death Rate Have With the
     Vaccines, if Any?
   * Complaint to the GMC about Mandatory Vaccines
   * Careful What We Wish For
   * Vaccine Passports Make a Mockery of ‘Free Consent’
   * Is the MHRA’s Yellow Card Reporting System Fit For Purpose?
   * Why I’ve Had the Jab
   * How Worried Should We Be About the Variants?
   * European Court of Human Rights Says Kids Have No Right Not to be Vaccinated
   * As Vaccine Passports Are Rolled Out Across the World, What Price Freedom?
   * Let’s Show Vaccine Passports For Football Games the Red Card
   * Young People Should Not be Strong-Armed Into Getting Vaccinated
   * ‘First Do No Harm’ Means Not Vaccinating Young People
   * ‘No Jab, No Job’: Can Healthcare Staff be Coerced Into Getting Vaccinated?
   * The EU’s Vaccine Passport Scheme Could Destroy Peace in Northern Ireland
   * Immunity Passports: A Debate Between Jay Bhattacharya and Alberto Giubilini
   * The Flawed Reasoning Behind Vaccine Passports
   * Raising the Alarm on Myocarditis After Covid Vaccination
   * Vaccine Passports are Dead – Long Live Vaccine Passports!
   * The Covid Witch-Hunts
 * How Culpable are the Chinese Authorities for the Global Pandemic?
   * The Price of the Truth About COVID-19 and the Cost of the Lie
 * Are Sceptical Voices Being Suppressed?
   * Britain’s Covid Reich
   * COVID-19 and the Infantilisation of Dissent
   * The Hyper-Rationality of Crowds: COVID-19 and the Cult of Anxiety
   * On Viral Entrancement
   * A Warning From Down Under
   * Dead Souls
   * Fewer Dead Souls?
   * Sanity is Not Statistical
   * Lockdown Logic
   * An Unconscious Conspiracy
   * Covid and the Religious Impulse: An Essay in Seven Parts
   * How Will the Fiction be Sustained?
   * A Pandemic of Fear – the Psychology of Emotional Contagion
   * Liars, Fakers, and the Seductive Texture Of Authoritarianism
   * A Cockupspiracy
   * The Great Preset
   * Let’s Hear it for the Disruptors
   * If 2020 Teaches us Anything…
   * Lockdowns and the Death of Liberal Education
   * But What Would a Sceptic Have Done?
   * The Iceberg Cometh
   * Ruminating About the New Religion
   * We Are Not in it Together
   * Who Has Lost Out The Most?
   * No More “Competitive Victimhood”
   * Orwellian Nightmare
   * What’s the Differend?
   * Finland: The Covid Success Story No-One is Talking About
   * What They Don’t Talk About on the BBC
   * The War on Pubs is Being Waged by Puritans Against Joy
   * The Lab Leak Theory: Who Suppressed It? Who Uncovered It? And What Should
     We Do About It?
   * The BBC vs Donald Trump
 * Legal Challenges to Lockdowns
   * The Burden of Proof in the Irish High Court Case Should Not Have Fallen on
     the Applicant
   * The Catch-22 of Challenging Covid-19 Laws
 * The Left-Wing Case Against Lockdowns
   * Why the Left Should Oppose Lockdown
   * Letter From a Liberal Sceptic
   * We Cannot Teach in Masks
   * ‘Jail Bharo!’ – Channelling Our Inner Gandhi Against the Covidcrats
   * Toby Green’s New Book is the Perfect Cure For the Covid Lobotomy
 * Why Haven’t Our Points Landed?
   * The Failed Strategy of Lockdown Sceptics: We Appealed to Reason, Not
     Emotion
   * A Reply to David McGrogan
   * Covid Cynicism
   * Not Just Emotional Pleading
   * Why Haven’t our Points Landed and What Lies Behind the Hysteria?
   * Why we Shouldn’t Moralise Means to Moral Ends
   * To Move the Lockdown Debate Forward We Need More Honesty
   * The Adults are Having a Quite Different Conversation
   * A Rebuttal of Christopher Snowdon’s Claims about False Positive COVID-19
     Test Results
   * Replying to Christopher Snowdon – Again!
   * Striking the Right Balance
   * ‘Existing Isn’t Living’ – Charles Walker MP on Radio 4’s World at One
   * Left and Right Should Unite to Fight Lockdown
   * The Coddling of the Political Mind
   * Sunday in the Park With Rosie
   * Why I am Not a Lockdown Sceptic
   * The Emerging Totalitarian Dystopia: An Interview With Professor Mattias
     Desmet
   * Follow the Politics, Not the Science
   * Can We Trust the Government Ever Again?
   * The Failure of the Political Class
   * The Lockdown Sceptics’ Library
   * How Did the Pro-Lockdown Consensus Emerge?
   * Why Can’t the Government be More Transparent About the Data Guiding its
     Decisions?
   * In Defence of the Handshake
   * “He had won the victory over himself. He loved the Lockdown.”
   * Rule, Britannia. Britannia Take the Knee
   * Fright Night
   * Let’s Not Be Sensible, Folks
   * Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, the Godfather, and Dr. Fauci’s Book Tour
   * The Covid Aesthetic
   * Unlocking Postponed Due to New Variant – in 2039!
   * Covid and the Death of the Scientific Method
   * Lockdown and the Protocols of Fear
 * Around the World in Eighty Lockdowns
   * A Postcard from Spain
   * Postcard from Sri Lanka
   * A Postcard from Belarus
   * A Postcard from Singapore
   * A Postcard from Albuquerque
   * A Postcard From Zimbabwe
   * Postcard From Mexico
   * Postcard From Slovakia
   * Postcard From Nordrhein-Westfalen
   * Postcard from Melbourne
   * Postcard from Belgium
   * A Postcard from Melbourne – PS
   * Postcard From Latvia
   * A Postcard from Brazil
   * Postcard from New Zealand
   * Postcard from Bogotá
   * Brazil – Not a Disaster
   * Postcard from Berlin
   * Postcard from Dumfries
   * Postcard from Disneyland Paris
   * Postcard From Angola
   * Postcard from the British Museum
   * Postcard from Istanbul
   * Postcard from Rome
   * Postcard from University
   * Postcard From Bulgaria
   * Postcard From Rhodes
   * A Postcard From Rhodes – PS
   * Postcard From Argentina
   * Postcard From the Isle of Wight
   * Postcard From Sicily
   * Postcard From North East Fife
   * Postcard From France
   * Postcard From the Maldives
   * Postcard From Luxembourg
   * Postcard from Paraguay
   * Postcard From Rwanda
   * Postcard From Goa
   * Postcard From South Carolina
   * Postcard From Georgia
   * A Postcard From London
   * Postcard From Brussels
   * Postcard From Bali
   * Postcard From the Philippines
   * Postcard From Bulgaria
   * Postcard From the Alps
   * Postcard From Itoshima
   * Another Postcard From Brazil
   * Postcard From Toronto
   * Postcard From Sydney
 * Appendix 1: CPS Guidance on What Constitutes a “Reasonable Excuse” For
   Leaving Your Home
 * Appendix 2: Interview With a Registered Nurse


NEWS STORIES BY DATE

August 2021 M T W T F S S  1 2345678 9101112131415 16171819202122 23242526272829
3031  

« Jul    

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may
be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than
under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes
sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for
our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of
their own conscience.

C.S. Lewis

Search for:



© 2021 Skeptics Ltd.
 * Home
 * Privacy Policy
 * Donate
 * Free Newsletter

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If
you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with
it.OKPrivacy Policy