Mad World

I'm currently reading Office Without Power, Tony Benn's diaries for the period 1968-1972, and there is much that is interesting in it. One of its main themes is ministers grappling with UK industrial policy. This was a period of strikes, government aid, some job losses and great acrimony between trade unions and management. What struck me was the way the government, which lest we forget included the formidable likes of Benn, Roy Jenkins, Jim Callaghan, Denis Healey and of course Harold Wilson himself - real heavyweights compared to our current plywood Cabinet - hopelessly floundered on industrial relations. This group of very intelligent men (and one woman, Barbara Castle) were totally unable to get out of the mire and make British industry competitive again, storing up long-term pain.  Castle came out with her paper In Place Of Strife to try and stem the difficulties; prices and incomes policies of various uselessness came and went; discussion at the top table was endless, as ...

Over the last few years I’ve listened to hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of lectures and speeches by Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson. He is a very, very brilliant man, one of the most mesmerising public intellectuals in the world today, with a dazzlingly wide range of knowledge encompassing, besides psychology, philosophy, history, politics, science, literature, scripture, popular culture, and much more. Sadly he has been unwell for much of the last year (but is thankfully recovering ) and so we have not had the privilege of hearing his thoughts on the worldwide Covid crisis. The extraordinary reaction to it will still be getting written about by psychologists a thousand years from now, so it’s likely that Peterson, who contracted Covid-19 over the summer, will have much to say about what 2020 has revealed about human beings, and we can only hope that it isn’t too long before we hear from him. Peterson’s previous teachings are nevertheless germane if we are to loo...

Yesterday I wrote to my MP, Bath's Wera Hobhouse, to ask her if there was anything she could do to hold this government (ie crazed dictatorship) to account. What did I get back? A clearly templated response that didn't address a single one of my concerns, but just took pot-shots at 'right wing populism' and Trump. Pretty dismal. I've pasted the exchanges below. I wrote: Dear Mrs Hobhouse Is there anything you can do to stop this government from destroying the  country? I am in despair. They are taking any joy out of life because of a bug-eyed  focus on one virus, they are spreading fear everywhere and making everyday  life intolerable, they are making decisions and introducing new laws with  zero parliamentary scrutiny. They are acting like an unelected dictatorship, all the while destroying  the health service, destroying education, destroying the high street,  destroying the economy and destroying any feeling of commonality that  people have towards ...

 

 On Lockdown Sceptics: https://lockdownsceptics.org/2020/07/29/ Two days ago I got to witness what a basket case the NHS has been turned into. My GP does not now do face to face bookings. Nor can you book an appointment over the internet any more, you have to ring up. So at 12.30pm I did so. I was in a queue, and I ended up hanging on the phone for 40 minutes until I spoke to a receptionist. I asked her if I could speak to a GP. She said sorry, there were no appointments available this week, but I could ring at 8am or 2pm to try and get an ’emergency’ appointment. I said it’s only 45 minutes till 2pm, could this not be sorted now: she said no, the computer system only “opens” at 2pm. So I rang back at 2pm. It was engaged. I tried again 20 times, it was always engaged. I finally got through and was put in a queue. At 2.45 I spoke to the receptionist. I requested an emergency appointment. She said sorry, they have all gone, I’d have to try tomorrow at 8am. At this point I pretty much...

If the Aids epidemic broke now, rather than in the 1980s, here’s what the reaction to it might look like: April 1 Boris Johnson declares that Aids is not something to be concerned about and chortles that ’Shagging is great! I do it all of the time!’ April 2 Boris Johnson declares that sex is now banned in the UK. April 3 The government launches its new slogan: ’No how’s your father / Save lives / Protect the NHS’. April 4 Patrick Vallance says: ‘Don’t get your leg over. It might be the last thing you ever do’. April 5 It is revealed that the government's decision was heavily influenced by Professor Neil Ferguson's computer modelling on his ZX81 which predicted that 69million British people would die of Aids without intervention. The media fail to point out that the UK's population is just 66.5million. April 6 All images of people that may lead to sexual arousal are banned, including Scottish Widows adverts, A Place in the Sun presenters and Joe Wicks workouts. Apr...

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...