Mad World

On Reprobate Press:  https://reprobatepress.com/2020/07/31/the-not-so-great-cover-up/ The case against compulsory mask-wearing I tend to nod along in agreement to so much of what David Flint writes on  The Reprobate  that by the end of his pieces my head is in danger of becoming dislodged from my shoulders. So I was surprised and disappointed to read his recent  pro-masks tirade  on this platform, and the vehemence with which he put forward his argument. David has kindly allowed me a response, so here we go, let’s see if my alternative viewpoint finds any favour. Firstly, most crucially I feel, do masks work? The evidence is, at best, patchy. There is evidence that a certain sort of surgically fitted, one-time use mask can be useful, but not the type of face coverings most people wear, and certainly not the way they use them or look after them. As Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer, said a couple of months back, they probably do more harm than good. ...

On Lockdown Sceptics:  https://lockdownsceptics.org/postcard-from-latvia/ I realise that tourists often view the place they’re visiting through rose coloured sunglasses, but Riga does definitely feel very different to most of the UK – and much more pleasant. My trip got off to an inauspicious start when the person next to me on the plane was a young female who sat down and immediately requested I made sure my mask was covering my nose. I readjusted it and uttered words along the lines of, “Of course. I’ll make myself feel unwell just to please you.” (I have lung scarring from an illness 19 years ago). Perhaps I should have been nicer. But she was a mask militant. After the flight I saw her in the airport’s outside car park, still fully masked up, getting picked up by her (what I presumed to be) dad, who was also fully masked up. Neuroticism must run in the family. My taxi driver from the airport and I bonded over a loathing of masks. He told me that in Latvia they’re only mandatory...

How did it come to this? A prime minister who was said to be brimming with positivity and can-do spirit leading the most enervating administration this country has ever seen? Because be in no doubt : this is a giant vampire bat of a government, sucking the life blood out of the nation, bewildering and terrifying an easily led populace, offering almost no hope to a country ravaged not by a virus but by hysteria, group-think and pusillanimous policy-makers, a miserable, vicious ghoul that has made a bad situation ten thousand times worse. It all started so differently. In fact, the government was complacent. In an action that would come to define his cluelessness, Boris Johnson listened to Professor Neil Ferguson when Ferguson said that China would not send infected people out into Britain and the world, they would test them and stop them from travelling, as they were with those inside China who couldn’t leave Wuhan. Some hope. In another move that would come as no surprise to anyone who...