The Psychology of a culture is revealed and perpetuated in how they relate to and treat their children and in how they relate to and treat the most vulnerable people within their society. Heal that and we can heal everything.
There are Governments, lobbyists and others who are citing harms caused by bad management of the epidemic locally, and of the pandemic globally, to argue for opening up whilst community transmission is still very much active, which amounts to worse management, rather than arguing for best management that achieves zero community transmission.
Zero Community Transmission was dismissed as and 'not credible' by the English PM, and 'impractical' in the UK Parliament this week
This is untrue - Zero Community Transmission is protecting the health and welfare and the economies of 1.8 billion people across East Asia and Oceania. They are pragmatic States.
Zero Community Transmission is a series of practical, common sense measures that are not by any measure extreme, and which avoid repetitive cycles of open and shutdown, as well as reducing the possibility of variants emerging from within virus laden communities.
I, and many others, would appreciate it if you could publish this letter to correct this misinformation coming from the UK Government, and others.
Yours sincerely
Corneilius Crowley
Please withhold my address and phone number from publication.
Some misanthropic governments, malign lobby groups and misinformed citizens are using the harms caused by deliberatelybad management to argue for worse management rather than for better management and this is lethal. It is venalavarice exhibited those who should behave better, given the duty of care inherent in the position of power they occupy. An old story, perhaps, corrupt Governments imposing malign policy upon entire peoples under the guise of help yet does it have to be this way?
#BodgJoh #BodgeJohnson
Associating the success (and by extension, failure) of a public health response with an appeal to an exceptional national character can be dangerous. It can make learning from others less likely, and make changing course, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, a painful – perhaps impossible – process.
Ordinary people who are using the harms caused by deliberately bad management to argue for worse management rather than better management are misinformed, some are mislead and there are others, a minority who are content to remain wilfully ignorant.
1.8 billion people and their economies are being protected by zero community transmission strategies, and have been for over a year.
The news media, the government and their sponsors and blinded supporters and the 'freedom' mob (who pretend to themselves they oppose the Governments bad policy) are all refusing to follow the Science, and what they are doing is arguing for worse management, whilst deliberately ignoring the evidence, the science and the lived experience of 1.8 billion people?
1.8 billion people in China, Taiwan, South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos, Finland, Norway and a bunch of other countries following the science and the best public health practice is a huge evidence base.
Zero community transmission is a series of mostly fairly straightforward policies, they are not extreme actions, they are common sense, science led actions that suppress a virus in a community and then maintain a situation where community transmission is not allowed to erupt.
The key elements of best public health outbreak management in no particular order include:
1. generalised mask wearing, 2. general attention to hand hygiene, 3. physical distancing where necessary, 4. localised person to person contact tracing, 5. fullest support to anyone who has been in contact with a known case to quarantine, 6. testing for presence of the virus and for antibodies on a community level around outbreaks, 7. fullest support for treatment of symptoms in isolation, away from the community, 8, Fever clinics to protect general hospital systems. 9. tightly quarantined borders, 10. full support for all workers if and when they need to isolate, 11. clear timely information available on outbreak status to citizens in their locality, 12. clear and consistently science grounded communications from Government and Health Authorities 32. and an absence of profiteering - meaning the profit is the outcome for the whole community or population.
In essence chasing down the virus as a behavioural dynamic supported by national and local governance and health systems.
This is what Governments and 1.8 billion people are doing across East Asia and Oceania and it is working.
These actions are all being done without a vaccine - it's great that a number of vaccines have been developed and are helping, yet they are not the solution to a virus that mutates in order to over come barriers placed in it's way.
The solution is to stop the transmission of the virus. A virus that does not meet human host dies. Slowing transmission down is not that. Stopping transmission achieves that goal.
How could people I personally know ally with the UK Ruling Faction and ignore that evidence?
How could people I personally know appeal for opening up without the better management?
What kind of myopia is that?
New Zealand, Vietnam and Taiwan and UK had the same Science and Evidence on February 2020 - NZ, Vietnam and Taiwan chose to follow the science, closely.
UK decided to ignore the Science.
The different outcomes are VERY clear.
www.zerocovid.uk for more information on what zero community transmission science is.
I argued for zero community transmission back in March 2020 and again in April 2020, without understanding the role that slow spread and variants were going to play - now we know more about variants and the fact that they are part of the same problematic behavioural dynamic.
The longer the virus has to play within any given population the more likely it will generate variants that survive what ever we throw at it. Especially within countries that have medically advanced treatment for AIDS and other immune disease states, where the virus can live within a human body for months on end.
"These questions are especially important at a time when environmental pressures, such as expanding herd immunity, vaccine-induced immunity, antiviral therapies, and public health intervention strategies, may — through selective pressure — promote virus survival and escape."
Johnson, his advisors and the Cabinet, and indeed the Labour Party led by Keir Starmer and Parliament have never 'taken responsibility'.
Johnson is the self styled economic Superman, who publicly rejected all 'medically irrational' response to the Corona Virus, on February 3rd,
"We are starting to hear some bizarre autarkic rhetoric, when barriers are going up, and when there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other."
His own words, his own speech.
And a month later, on the morning of March 5th he suggested, with a smirk on his face that revealed the lie, that he had dropped the idea of Herd Immunity, one of the 'theories' which 'had been debated'. Then he says 'I think we need to strike a balance' which does not imply stopping the spread, which is what all the East Asian states had chosen, what New Zealand had chosen, and what others were choosing. What then is the balance between stopping the spread and allowing it to rip through the population - it is trying to manage a slow spread (which was known then to be impossible, and has since been proven three times to be the case, and we are at c.20% of population infected with 80% still at risk.)
transcript :
"Philip Schofield: Is the delay essentially trying to spread this out so it doesn’t all happen at once and overwhelm the NHS, and that you can actually delay it into perhaps the summer when it’s a little bit quieter and the ordinary flu might have died down a wee bit, is that what you’re doing?
Boris Johnson: Well it’s a very, very important question, and that’s where a lot of the debate has been and one of the theories is, that perhaps you could take it on the chin, take it all in one go and allow the disease, as it were, to move through the population, without taking as many draconian measures. I think we need to strike a balance, I think it is very important, we’ve got a fantastic NHS, we will give them all the support that they need, we will make sure that they have all preparations, all the kit that they need for us to get through it. But I think it would be better if we take all the measures that we can now to stop the peak of the disease being as difficult for the NHS as it might be, I think there are things that we may be able to do."
Following that appearance on morning TV, all his main advisors spoke in the following days about reaching herd immunity - all of them knowing there was no viable vaccine available in any reasonable time horizon, and that Herd Immunity as a concept only applied to a vaccination program, it has no Public Health meaning outside that context- as if it were possible and a in the long term a good thing.
23rd of March Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Valence cite 'Mathematical Studies' and 'Behavioural Science' as informing Government Policy, with no mention of a Zero Community Transmission Strategy that had been proven in Wuhan, South Korea, Taiwan, SIngapore, Hong Kong and was being proven in New Zealand....
So whilst they claim to have rejected a Herd Immunity strategy, the social material reality is that every single policy position that have taken has been designed to allow slow spread - which is a tacit acceptance of Herd Immunity as a target.
It is impossible to control a slow spread of an infectious aerosol carried disease, and they all knew this all along. any attempt to do so guarantees that there will be surges that demand shutdowns. Opening after shutting down without eliminating community transmission absolutely guarantees that there will be another surge.
The only way to control it is to stop it, to suppress the virus and eliminate community transmission. Then keep in place rapid, efficient locally driven cluster control systems to ensure any new outbreaks are dealt with. it also requires tightly controlled quarantine borders.
These are all relatively simple mechanisms. They make demands of Government to ensure all the people are well informed, never misinformed. They make demands on Government to support all the people through the process, including lockdowns when they have lost control of community transmission.
Evidence of intentionality
The UK Government, the Ruling Faction (that includes all the media, news broadcasters and pundits, the anti-maskers, anti-vaxxers, the right wing grooming operations) have never adopted a zero community transmission strategy
The Great Barrington Declaration promoters in the UK had a meeting with Johnson in September, which resulted in delays to closing schools, which led to more spread of the virus. Teachers infections rates were +300% more than their local areas.
The Spectator publishes a lie - claiming there is no Scientific Consensus, claiming that the scientists behind the Great Barrington Declaration represent a split in the virology, epidemiology and public health science communities.
An astroturf campaign - USforTHEM funded by US NeoLiberal think tanks, co-ordinated by Conservative party back benchers, promoting herd immunity and opposing school closures, smaller class sizes and other mitigations of spread whose efforts have fed into Johnsons policy positions.
This is ALL deliberate action - at this level it cannot be described as incompetence.
Billionaires in the UK have made an extra £25 billion in the past year.
The Crony Contracts have created many, many newly minted multi millionaires.
Ask your self now - what must be done to resolve this situation?
another deliberate play
one of these politicians is honest, the other is a political grooming gangster - the different outcomes speak volumes.
a repeated behavioural pattern indicates intentionality
Whose Immunity?
"deliberate action
by the Ruling Faction -
a harmful infraction
of a States duty of care
to the citizen,
and to other states.
They spread the virus,
they spread the cash,
These venal people
are a lethal rash,
one we cannot even scratch.
they have an 80 seat
immunity."
More than 9 months ago, New Zealand reported their first death caused by COVID19, on February 29th, 2020.
The first UK death from COVID19 was recorded a month earlier in England, the death occurred on January 21m and was reported January 29th.
On the 3rd of February, the UK Prime Minister in a speech in Greenwich, publicly rejected taking the known, proven steps to prevent an epidemic escalating within the UK.
His words:
"there is a risk that new diseases such as coronavirus will trigger a panic and a desire for market segregation that go beyond what is medically rational to the point of doing real and unnecessary economic damage, then at that moment humanity needs some government somewhere that is willing at least to make the case powerfully for freedom of exchange, some country ready to take off its Clark Kent spectacles and leap into the phone booth and emerge with its cloak flowing as the supercharged champion, of the right of the populations of the earth to buy and sell freely among each other."
Throughout that month, the UK was importing the virus via 80,000 English Ski tourists travelling to and returning from Northern Italy and Austria, where an epidemic was known to be taking place. The UK abandoned existing contact tracing and isolation systems that had been operating. They lost control of the virus, and made no effort to suppress and control it, and stop community transmission - at best their policy choice has always been to somehow control it and manage a slow spread, in order to 'protect the economy'.
Both countries had the same information available at the same time.
Both Governments and their expert advisors and external independent expertise knew about this new infectious respiratory disease, how it spread, what the implications were in terms of case fatality rates, asymptomatic spread etc.
All of this was known at the time, and the need to prevent community transmission was very well understood.
The experts all understood that no matter how slowed down the spread of the virus might be by obviously inadequate measures, it always contains the potential to rapidly move beyond control causing widespread and deep harm, and thus necessitating a series of full lockdowns. Waves upon waves of disaster.
Here, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's Prime Minister, speaks to a news anchor on the first New Zealand fatality..
One of the items they discuss is managing borders.
I urge all my readers to watch it. Pay close attention to Ardern's logic, and compare that with what we know about the English Ruling Faction's apparent 'logic'.
In this global pandemic, every state has a duty of care to not export the virus, to achieve zero community transmission within it's own borders, every state has a duty of care in this to all other states.
Just as you and I, as people sharing the same streets and areas, we too have that same duty of care -to not spread the infection - it has to be said that those who wilfully risk spreading the disease are harming the entire community, and cannot be said to be acting on the available evidence.
Those who, due to lack of financial support, are forced to take risks cannot be scapegoated to protect the governments that refuse to take the correct action. Those whose work is essential - shopkeepers, rubbish collectors, nurses, porters, care workers, teachers, bank clerks serving the public, post offices and their staff, public transit staff, police, ambulance crews and many, many others - need the rest of us to prevent the spread of the virus so that they can get to and from their essential it us all work, in relative safety.
Comparing New Zealand's leadership with the UK ruling faction leadership:
Being Social.
New Zealand is not a Socialist state by self definition - however their Government has behaved as a genuinely socially caring state should in terms of dealing with the viral infection spread by SARSCOV2 in order to avoid the deaths and harms caused by the disease stage of the infection, COVID19.
The New Zealand Government acted on the available evidence and the skills learned in China, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and others and they have suppressed community transmission and they have fully supported the health and welfare of all the people, with all the resources of the state, without profiteering.
That is socialistic in action.
Social. It is not an ideological stance - it is a social stance.
Community. All of us matter.
Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior.
What the Ruling Faction of the UK is doing is disaster capitalism - profiteering from the disaster.
Deliberately, callously exploiting people's vulnerabilities in spite of warnings, in spite of their 'errors' being clearly defined, identified, quantified and presented to them, they have persisted with policies that ensure slow spread of the virus, which guaranteed surges would occur.
If this was being done within a family group, we could have no problem calling this outright lethal intentional abuse and cruelty.
We would not fob it off as incompetence.
We cannot fob the behaviour and actions of this English Ruling Faction as mere incompetence.
This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.
Recently reported in the media is the work done by legal experts which shows that UK Government has changed the 'rules' and 'guidance' on how to 'behave' with regard to the SARSCOV2 virus in order to avoid the COVID19 disease and 'save the economy' at least 64 times.
"Lockdown rules inEnglandhave been changed at least 64 times by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic..."
Here's a listing you can read to check the accuracy of this:
Adam Wagner, of Doughty Street Chambers, whose team made this list, has been studying the regulatory response of the Johnson-Cummings-Tufton Street Tory Administration, and he has found that new national regulations, local regulations, regulations on face coverings or rules on travel quarantine have passed into law on average every four-and-a-half days since the first restrictions were introduced in the spring.
Think about that - UK, a leading 'world power' moves the goal posts, the rules, the 'guidance' for it's own population, with regard to a serious viral infection which is transmitted from person to person by aerosol and very fine moisture droplets, every four and a half days. Confusion reigns.
New Zealand, Finland, Vietnam, South Korea and a good few others reveal no such pattern, and they have achieved zero community transmission, with strategic cluster control policies that are effective, protecting both the people and their economies.
Their guidance is clear, unequivocal and their populations trusted them, and their chosen strategy - zero community transmission - worked.
Who trusts this UK Government, today?
Do you? I don't. I haven't trusted the UK Government since Chris Whitty claimed 'behavioural science' as the basis for UK Government policy back in March 2020.
"As a result, the rules have become increasingly cumbersome, with police, lawyers and ministers unable to distinguish between laws and advice. The guidance given to the public often does not reflect the law, Wagner said.
Many rules, including those demanding that people have a reasonable excuse before travelling, are effectively unenforceable." Adam Wagner's words.
We can all see truth of that.
Mr. Wagner has been analysing the laws for nine months, and he points out that every time ministers release a new set of rules, there is an element of theatre, farce and confused activity within the people before the legislation is found to be difficult to enforce.
“There was the inadvertent banning of sex between people not in the same household, which led to the creation of linked households, or support bubbles.
“There was the issue of whether scotch eggs were a substantial meal. There has been endless confusion over exercise, which I think has been totally avoidable,” he said.
The coronavirus legislation itself has grown from being a pdf of just 12 pages in the spring, to 72 pages in the autumn, to 108 pages and 50,000 words after the introduction of tier 4 restrictions" Wagner said.
Readers of my blog are familiar with my position on all of this.
We are trapped in our homes, because we care and because we are stuck with an historically lunatic, manipulative, harm causing Government whose 80 seat majority means they can dictate what ever they like to the country.
And because we all understand that we have a duty to each other to stop the spread of the virus (stopping the spread is spreading the love) we cannot protest, march etc and so we are caught between a bully administration and the risk of death among our families.
How venal and cowardly are those 'decent' Tory MPs who know this is all wrong, and yet continue to protect that elective dictatorship as their Masters preside over 100,000 and rising avoidable fatalities!
There must be at least 80 of those 'decent' Tory MPs who know what they are doing is wrong, but their desire for power trumps the people's health and safety.
Why are they behaving in this way?
Here's one theory, based on observed attitude, action, behaviour, justifications, excuses and outcomes,- all tainted by repeated misleading narratives and gaslighting. In Public.
For the NeoLiberal Factions, Zero Covid is Socialism - full state support for the people, without profiteering, based on science led and social material evidence, to protect the people and the people's economy. Thus zerovid strategy is rejected from the get go.
That is their first reaction, a pure knee jerk thing - and their second thought, which implies thinking this through is "How can we game the epidemic to enhance our Power and increase our Wealth Holdings".
My little crony... a lay out of the person to person links, and commercial links between ruling faction and their supporters, and contracts issued to entities with little or no direct public health expertise.... creating a few hundred instant millionaires with cash they need to 'invest'...
No matter what their public face is, irrespective of all denials and statements suggesting otherwise, by politicians, spokes persons and media punditry, the effective social and material reality of UK Ruling Faction policy on managing this epidemic amounts to slow spread towards mythic herd immunity.
They wish to protect the hedge fund money tree.
I sit here in impotent fury, unable, since March 23 2020 to make any material difference.
What can I do?
I write songs, and I sing them. I write blogs and I post them. I try to keep myself as grounded and sane as possible, in safety, whilst millions of others are forced to take incredible risks to keep me safe. There's an ambulance on my street this morning as I write. Someone is suffering - and this odious Government is responsible for that suffering.
64 Ways to Mislead a Country
People are not 'heroes', they are stoic, caring, hard working and they are genuinely committed to the welfare of the whole community, non excluded.
There are hospital staff, teachers, care-workers, bus drivers, tube drivers and builders who have died simply because Johnson's Government refused to adopt a zero community transmission strategy at any stage, and issued confusing and conflicting 'guidance and advice' which muddied the waters.
The Queen has faded in inglorious insignificance, as a moral leader of this nation.
The English Church headed by Welby sits too close to the bankers.
Starmer plays nasty games within the Labour party, and still attacks the nearly got into government Corbyn movement.
Only the SNP as a whole and complete Party in Parliament show any degree of genuine, humanistic care.
What are we to do?
So I rewrote "Fifty Ways to Leave your Lover" as "Sixty Four Ways to Mislead the Country."
This is my first draft, as I write today, and I hope it will improve with time as I struggle with the song, and the parsing.
What I'd like to see is a 100,000 versions flooding the UK Charts ( yes a mad dream that will never materialise because I will never 'produce' in order to 'attract', that's not my style at all) in order to get the message across. Like, as if music was a public voice in the shared commons, speaking to all our true needs,
The Music Industry Fail
I am also profoundly disappointed that the UK Music Industry leading bodies, moguls, billionaires and Stars have never publicly called for a Zero Community Transmission strategy - even as live gigs and festivals were taking place in those countries that took the ZeroCovid approach, that managed so well to suppress community transmission and put in place systems to deal rapidly and kindly with clusters.
The added odium of irresponsible people like Van Morbidson and Wreck Claptout issuing a series of anti-mask, conTheory songs is unbearable to a people's songwriter. May they be publicly shamed and censured, and may their entire catalogue be handed over to fund support for low income folk across the UK. ( that's not going to happen, either. I know. I am a dreamer, not the only one...)
I know it won't happen. It's just a thought, an aspiration about the potential for justice.
I am angry and very, very saddened by all of this...
Here is the first draft.
I will be practicing it, and will probably make a video of it to go with my other songs from this period -
It will be an interesting album, when it is finished.
If I survive this Johnson Government.
My apologies to Paul Simon, for this wrecking of his song, which is a song about planning a betrayal. I think I have adapted it well, lyrically, at least for these difficult times.
I will avoid 5/4, 13/9 and 21/7....
"The problem is inside your head," Boris said to me
" the answer is obvious, if you take it illogic'lly.
We will not help folk in this land to be virus free;
sixty four way so to mislead the country ."
He said, "you are aware It's not my habit to be true;
we plan our rules to be easily misconstrued.
scapegoat the people who we have deliberately confused;
sixty four ways to to mislead the country
sixty four changes to to mislead the country ."
Break all the rules, Dom.
Make a new plan, Dan;
Joke about Hake, Jake,
Set yourself Free
Get back to school, fools;
no need to discuss facts;
get back to work, folks .
Herd Immuniteeeeeee....."
REPEAT CHORUS
Second verse:
He said, "It *thrills me now to see you struggle in such pain;
I wish there was somethin' I could do to make you smile again."
I said, "I get that, but can you help us to be virus free?"
"No chance" he said! "I'd rather save the hedge fund money tree!"
He said, "We will keep the airports open, it's a human right;
with the virus on board, they'll be taking their flights."
That's why he moved the goalposts, and I now I realise
sixty four ways to mislead a people
sixty four changes to mislead the people."
* "I saw the whole [European Union] change. It was a wonderful time to be there. TheBerlin Wallfell and the French and Germans had to decide how they were going to respond to this event, and what was Europe going to become, and there was this fantastic pressure to create a single polity, to create an answer to the historic German problem, and this produced the most fantastic strains in the Conservative Party, so everything I wrote from Brussels, I found was sort of chucking these rocks over the garden wall and I listened to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England as everything I wrote from Brussels was having this amazing, explosive effect on the Tory party, and it really gave me this I suppose rather weird sense of power."
This self admission of his enjoyment of the buzz of causing distress in others, at a distance, is indicative...
His professional use of the mussed up hair, and jocularity is of course a performance.
On the one hand the prefect who fags his juniors, on the other hand the comedian who distracts the audience...
Kindest regards
Corneilius
"Do what you love, it is your gift to universe."
Thank you for reading this blog.
This blog, like all my other content creation work is not monetised via advertising. If you like what I present, consider sharing my content. If you can afford the price of a cup of coffee or a pint of beer/ale/cider for a few months, please donate via my Patreon account.
The outcome of current UK Government policy is placing producers, singers, dancers, booking staff, sound engineers, riggers, buskers, hospitality staff, writers, choreographers, lighting engineers, technicians, set designers, graphic artists, poets, copy writers, actors, musicians, empresarios, directors, hosts, comedians, cameramen, cleaning staff, ushers, set painters, make up artists, wardrobe directors, tour managers, security staff, catering staff, poster makes, printers, flyer distributors and many, many others - the Creative Arts Industry - in a stress position where we will, due to impending economic poverty as a direct result of lack of adequate support be forced to demand to be able to return to work in unsafe situations.
This will without doubt increase the risk of spreading the virus, and then we and our customers will be blamed for spreading the virus, for our lack of 'common sense', and then our businesses, theatres, recording studios, clubs, halls, festivals and pubs will be shut down a second time, and there will be no furlough offered - everyone will be expected to move onto Universal Credit.
Then the Industry will be ripe for a business take over.
The Creative Industries are a potential bonanza for those with the cash to buy up existing yet struggling enterprises at knock down prices.
Those who have cash reserves will be in a position to buy up what ever is left, at very low prices, to be held until the economy opens up again, and then make investment gains for the purchasers as those assets regain value. The kinds of people who bet against industries failing, and make a lot of money doing so.
Jacob Ress Mogg and Pater, aspirant minnows among that shark infested pool of avarice. Government issuing muti-million pound contracts to tiny companies with little experience, no staff, minimal turnover. Clearly the shock doctrine opportunists are in full flow.
European countries have seen this threat and are taking steps to protect their native Arts and Creative Industries. Not the UK. They have abandoned the Arts and Creative Industry.
When what was needed, and what is still is needed, is to pay everyone to stay home, to be able to be comfortable enough to stay safe for 12 weeks, to follow the proven eliminate the virus from community transmission protocols, which includes, of course ,strict quarantine of incoming travel, as have other states done, as Scotland's First Minister will have to do very soon to protect her people, those she genuinely serves.
Then, when the country is made safe, we can return then return to work, to live and to play in a happy State, having succeeded has New Zealand has, in eliminating community transmission, with secure quarantined borders (taking back control) and with vigilant systems in place in case of any outbreaks. This is all eminently feasible, and necessary - with the UK population of 67 million still only at under 5% infected, there is 95% and more to play for.
Bearing in mind that elimination of community transmission will protect people and the economy and make the wait for a vaccine so much less burdensome and frightening.
Rather than making the economy scream so that Hedge Funds and others can game the situation, which is the existing policy stance of the Johnson Government - they are not the UK Government, they are the HedgeFundMining Giants Government in occupation.
An interesting article on what is known as Sage Gate. The gaming of a novel infectious viral disease.
One Voice
With that in mind, I feel a deep and painful frustration, a pain in my heart that is heavy with dismay and disillusionment, as I look at the 70,000+ excess deaths that have 'happened', each and everyone avoidable.
How can the Arts community stand to look at itself in the mirror, aware as we all are of so much avoidable death and taking notice of the lack of a voice in the UK and in Ireland, a clear speaking voice, a creative communicative voice grounded in the evidence of epidemiology, virology, public health, social care and economics, a hearty voice speaking out for the suppression of infection rate leading to eliminating community transmission of the virus within the island population of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland as a whole bloc as the most appropriate policy to protect both people and economy alike.
What is Art if it is not a voice? Mere entertainment? If so, then the typification of the role of artist as non-essential is a correct typification, for we can all entertain ourselves if push comes to shove. Boredom is always a choice.
Why is the Arts and Creative Industries collective unable to find a common voice, unable to use it's vast talents to speak up for the vulnerable, the disabled, the teachers, the students and the parents who are all being placed at great risk by this governments odious behaviour?
When any figure has a public voice, and there exists a verified threat to the public, to the commons, then it behoves that voice to speak up.
The sound of silence is deafening.
So I wrote these a while ago, trying to suggest we push for the kind of policies New Zealand have proven. Why not? Otherwise it's just more death, sadness, greed and gas-lighting? What have we go to lose?
"The grooming (gaslighting) of human vulnerability is one of most vile things any human being can do to another."
#JohnsonVariant
In this piece I want to describe what I see in 2020 England - that we are a population are enduring an abusive situation, which is similar in dynamic to that of a family living with an abusive parent where the parent dominates the household, where the members of the family cannot leave and are therefore forced to adopt distorted roles within the situation, where the parent denies the abuse, and gaslights the family members to deflect criticism, awareness and action to address the abuse.
Johnson is symptom, the problem lies deeper than him and his cronies. Living with the English Ruling Class Corporate Kleptocracy is living within an Abuse Relationship Dynamic, at scale. Robber Barons Magna Carta Libertarianism at it's worst.
The current political policy decision making system in England, as it stands, is not fit for a healthy 21st Century Democracy and it cannot protect the people's human rights, or our right to health from an adverse Government. These two papers examine the Right to Health betrayal of this English Government.
"Using the UK as a case study, we examine critically the extent to which the government’s response to COVID-19 complied with the legal framework of the right to health. We review further key states’ obligations on the right to health and assess its suitability in times of pandemic. Finally, we offer some recommendations for an update of the right to health."
"The concerns caused by the profoundly disturbing announcement of a herd immunity strategy in March 2020 (3) were worsened by the consideration that such medical strategy might have been shaped without peer review and adequate multidisciplinary input. This highly disputable decision supposedly was taken following the guidance of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergency (SAGE). The legitimate concerns were accrued by the perceived lack of transparency as the members of the group remained secret for a considerable length of time, being publicly revealed only in April 2020 (4). Unsurprisingly, the quality of the scientific advice to the British Executive Authority has been openly criticized by numerous professionals holding international reputation; to the extent of being publicly challenged by the spontaneous constitution of an alternative and independent advisory group (5). Such events remain unique to the UK"
They make it clear that democratic institutions in England have failed to protect the population.
October 2021 - Parliamentary Select Committee's on Health and Science issue a report excoriating the policy choices of the English Government in the early stages of the pandemic, but stop short of demanding accountability or change in the current status quo.
October 2021 - this article describes the English Government as a plundering entity.
"although the Johnson government has been reluctant to spend even relatively small amounts on some issues – such as school meals for the poorest children during holidays, pay rises for nurses, or benefits for the poorest – they did not hesitate to spend money in large quantities on a new ’Royal’ yacht which the Royal family does not want (£250 million), on PPE (well over £1 billion), on the so-called “NHS test and trace” (£37 billion ) – when this spending was directed into the corporate sector, via a special VIP lane which crowded out experienced suppliers in favour of donors and contacts of ministers. As a result, much of the money spent was (from the taxpayers’ perspective) wasted.
Indeed, the government’s attitude to NHS spending – or indeed to any spending which can in some loose way be linked to the NHS – seems to be: “tax-funded spending is fine, as long as we can direct it to whom we want and as long as the tax burden does not fall on the wealthiest.”
Taken together these all indicate a serious situation, where duty of care to the population is denied. To deny that duty of care to the population, whilst enriching associates, is abuse of power.
A healthy deliberative democracy involves the people as a whole, including our best experts and minds, as well as each and every citizen, active and engaged in policy design and implementation, nationally and locally, especially where it impacts our lives.
We, the ordinary people, have understood this long time.
We have the elements of a solution - we laid it out in some detail in 2006. Much of Corbyn's policy agenda was designed by people, by the Labour Party general membership working with experts in the various areas of concern, and Momentum's trajectory aimed to empower people in political decision making. Scottish Independence is driven in large part by the ill effects of Austerity, unjustly imposed by the few upon the many. They want to be free of such adverse imposition.
It doesn't have to be this way, The current situation is not inevitable, it is not set in stone, it is not inherent or innate to our humanity.
Today we see the problem - in excess deaths, avoidable chronic disease, economic harm and expanding poverty, even as the class of millionaires and billionaires grows wealthier and politically stronger.
COVID19
The English Government's reliance on the Vaccine and their rejection of Elimination of Community transmission strategies is, in part, a tacit admission of a deliberate failure rather than incompetence. The English Government is quite clearly exploiting the situation to preserve their power, to enhance their personal and collective wealth and choosing, repeatedly, to let the 'herd take it on the chin.' This is abuse of power.
Under the guile of 'personal responsibility' they have withdrawn all support for limiting the spread of the virus. Even people who have been vaccinated will be exposed to the virus. Those who survive, survive. That is and has always been the plan. Herd Immunity via infection, mitigated by the Vaccine.
Our behaviour has been communitarian, and the Government's ministers have behaved selfishly, arrogantly, dishonestly. The Government rejected the best strategy, out of hand, with no public discussion on the matter.
Elimination Strategy Works Best.
Elimination of community transmission within any given population or district is the go to strategic policy - because it is a proven strategy. 1.8 billion people and their economies are being better protected by elimination of community transmission strategy than those that have allowed the virus to spread. It is a complex operation because it requires providing support to meet a wide variety of social and economic needs.
It is made complicated and rendered almost ineffective if tainted by considerations of retaining power and pursing economic gaming, as Test and Trace and as Crony Contracts for PPE and other kit have demonstrated.
"Among OECD countries, liberties were most severely impacted in those that chose mitigation, whereas swift lockdown measures—in line with elimination—were less strict and of shorter duration (figure). Importantly, elimination has been framed as a civic solidarity approach that will restore civil liberties the soonest; this focus on common purpose is frequently neglected in the political debate.
Evidence suggests that countries that opt for rapid action to eliminate SARS-CoV-2—with the strong support of their inhabitants—also better protect their economies and minimise restrictions on civil liberties compared with those that strive for mitigation."
Vaccine is not a stand alone protection.
Hoping that the vaccine will resolve the epidemic and the pandemic is an admission of failure to pursue elimination of community transmission with the determination, resourcing and energy required. It is allowing the virus to spread, for ideological and economic reasons and that is an abuse of power, a betrayal of duty of care.
The work being done to develop vaccines is superb, and reveals a co-operative energy that is truly international and life affirming. Nonetheless, there are priorities being missed by the English Government, and their banking on the Vaccine as the get out of jail card in the future is reckless, callous and is not avoiding avoidable harms.
Duty of Care
I want to be really clear here - it is the duty of every nation, every government to eliminate community transmission of the virus within it's territory, not only to the people of each territory but also to every other state - knowingly exporting the infection is a breach of that duty of care.
New Zealand was completely free of the SARSCOV2 virus, (as I edited this in January 2021) and as such does not need the currently available vaccine, which is not, in any case, an immunity conferring medicine, as it is designed to attenuate the severity of disease post infection.
New Zealand can maintain tightly quarantined borders, and their economy will thrive, even without international tourism ( a primary vector of global viral spread) - they have enough people to run an internal tourism that will benefit it's citizens hugely - it is important to put to bed the sanctity of the tourist industry at this time.
Yes, by all means states must provide adequate support to workers in all areas afflicted, and the money creation systems must bend to that task, willingly and not as profiteers - the irresponsibility inherent in the UK allowance of unquarantined travel has given the world the Kent Variant, and indeed the Delta Variant, and the tourist industry has not gained by that at all.
Delta and Tourism
In October 2021 (as I update this piece) New Zealand are faced with an outbreak of Delta, which started in early August, arriving via a flight from Sydney. The New Zealanders are struggling to contain it, making slow progress. Some speak of New Zealand 'abandoning' Elimination Strategy. That is deliberate misinterpretation of what New Zealand's government and people are doing.
They have made ground, but are facing another surge of cases, which they believe to have arisen from non compliance of a few people. The ill effects of misinformation misleading the few undermine the whole.
They are still intent on stopping community transmission, and maintaining vigilant over sight and the capability to get on top of localised outbreaks, bearing in mind the development of Vaccines and the emergence of Delta. They are pushing ahead with a rapid vaccination program. They are still focused on their primary duty of care for the health of the population.
We in the UK, on the other hand, have lost ground by a deliberate lack of attention to duty of care.
By all means we must pursue the vaccine trail, but surely we must not let it be said that elimination was not given the fullest possible resourcing - let it not be said "we will open up, and take whatever casualties arise", because we have a vaccine.
Let us do everything in our power to protect our populations and our economies at the same time - this does not have to be an either or situation, indeed justice suggests it must not be so.
The Public Discourse is not truthful.
The news media, the press, the broadcast news are not being honest. There are ample cases of gaslighting, misleading disinformation, outright lies in all our News and Press Media and in Government communications.
There is no community without honesty and transparency.
The relationship between Establishment /Government and the people of the UK, and in particular the people of England, as it stands today, is abusive.
It's a scaled up, institutionalised version of the abuse family dynamic. We can see various roles being played out by the key sectors that function to keep the family together, that maintain the status quo.
Bearing in mind these roles, these behavioural patterns, are imposed by the abusive situation, and they are, within the family, survival strategies, as well as part of what enables the family system. They are mostly not consciously chosen, but are places the abused go to in order to hold some degree of psyche-level stability, and attempt to survive the situation. Sometimes people will adopt or be forced to act out more than one role.
At the institutional level, that distinction is no longer applicable - institutions are engines, agencies of intentional action.
So here's a few suggested markers, and I'd be happy to read critiques of these to refine this study...
The Abuser - Boris Johnson and the Cabinet, The English Establishment of Power, Oligarchy
The Enabler - The right wing media, the left wing media, the centrist media, the Churches, Parliament that refuse to speak the whole truth.
The Hero - Idealised images of Nurses, Policemen, Troops, Doctors - Personalities such as Farage, Rees-Mogg, Tommy Robinson, National Icons that distract from the wounds by claiming British 'Spirit' etc..
The Scapegoat - Immigrants, the poor, the low income workers, the Blacks, the Browns, the Whites, the China Virus
The Lost Child - The Establishment Arts that refuses confront the truth, Britain's Got Talent, people groomed by Conspiracy Theory, Cultism etc..
The Mascot - The Queen, The Flag, The Establishment Arts, Parliament
These are all wide generalisations, and there needs to be a discussion around how truthful each of these elements of our Society are, in the face of this immediate situation.
Adding nuance, it is fair to point out that whether one chooses Left, Center or Right, within a Violent Hierarchy, it is still a Violent Hierarchy. That is a core truth that remains taboo. Rejecting elimination strategy was and is act of violence. Nobody wants to speak or write about this in the public domain.
We must break that taboo.
Or are you, like me, one of the innocent: victimised citizens, born into this mess, and trying to live as honestly and as harmlessly as possible?
Are you one of us, the ones who didn't f*ck it up?
Here's a very cool, comedic, musical reminder of who you are, where you are and what we are dealing with.
Enjoy, then read on.
How do we shift out of these situational roles?
How do we help unf*ck this situation?
The situation - State level lethal domestic abuse.
65,000 excess deaths due to the epidemic, at the time of writing, the majority of which could have been avoided.
Deliberately punitive and harmful policies protected by lies, masked by manipulation and and covered up with misleading information in news media and by Government.
Online political and marketing grooming, playing on people's fears and prejudices, deliberately exacerbating cognitive biases to generate extremist positions within the population in order to exploit that social division.
Brexit.
These are all wilful harms, caused by political grooming gangsters.
Forcing children into un-safe 'covid-ready' schools in order to push parents back to work, in order to reduce furlough in preparation for a second peak, a shut down, business collapse, and then offering Universal Credit in place of furlough to a traumatised workforce.
Gaslighting and emotional black mail the chosen strategy of the Education Secretary to get the schools re-opened. The Shadow Minister for Education who opposed opening in un-safe fashion, who supported teachers Unions, removed from position using a false accusation of anti-Semitism.
The Education department confirming a day later that parents holding their children back from returning to School in September will be fined.
Encouraging irresponsible behaviour - the purpose of the Cummings Road Show - in order to then blame the people for the surge in community transmission of the virus.
Stanley Johnson's rule breaking visit to his Greek villa. The rules and regulations to protect the people and the economy are for ordinary folk, they are for the plebs and they are not for the likes of Johnson, and Cummings who married into the aristocracy, whose wife's father claims to be genetically superior to ordinary folk.
A publicised behaviour that is designed to elicit the logical and obvious complaint that 'it's one rule for them and another for us' which then becomes the excuse for irresponsible behaviour, which once it is engaged in, cannot be withdrawn. But the ordinary folk can then be used as scapegoats, to let the Government that has abused the population off the hook.
Deliberate action by a man known to be a master baiter, a master at manipulation of cognitive bias in target groups as a means to winning elections.
Opening pubs when the virus is still at large, with tens of thousands of new confirmed infections weekly, more than a hundred deaths daily, with infection rates static rather than falling across the country, and surges in a number of areas. The risks are real.
How many others will one person, unaware of their infectious status, infect in a pub or restaurant environment? The Government said fire ahead, so you and I cannot blame that unawares person. But the Government will. They will blame ordinary folk for not using 'common sense'. They will not take any responsibility for any adverse outcomes.
Across Europe most countries have mandated strict regulations governing people's behaviour regarding managing the risk where they have opened up. The UK has nothing in place approaching those countries. Nobody in Europe is complaining about their freedoms being limited. Most ordinary folk across Europe are looking at the UK in utter dismay and horror.
The Prime Minister in parliament suggesting to concerned MPs of coastal and beach towns that "they should show some guts and support the opening of their beaches, to help the economy" in a week where half a million people thronged at seas side towns, leaving rubbish all over the beaches, bringing drunkenness, aggression and anti-social onto the streets at night. Bullying is as bully does.
The UK Government are abusing the population. Their deliberate action and chosen policies have led to 65,000 avoidable deaths in 4 months. Millions of job losses remain on the cards, all of which was avoidable. New Zealand had the same information at the same time as the UK Government, and they have eliminated community transmission of the virus, had a minimal death rate, minimal infection rate and are now out of lock down, safely. UK Government has no excuse. They chose to abuse the people. Why?
Whatever, can we just put a stop to this abuse, and work out what happened later, after we have arrived at the happy state that Vietnam and New Zealand have demonstrated is possible?
I wish someone would say that, out loud.
"We are living with an abusive PM, and abusive Cabinet, an abusive Advisor, and abusive Government Ministers, and it is lethal."
Can we say that, out loud?
Vaccine is irrelevant
I have been criticised by many for my stance on Corona Virus. Not least by people who are focused on the Vaccine as a solution or as a problem (Bill Gates being a bad actor etc).
I have made it very clear that the vaccine route is already an admission of failure.
I have made it clear that elimination of community transmission is the only safe, proven long term protocol that we have right now.
I have made it clear that this is a question of will, it is a matter of intent and the provision of funding and resources to where they are most needed - that the present spread of this virus is not an inevitability.
There is more than enough wealth and resources globally to eliminate community transmission, and to set up vigilant systems to eradicate the virus in any given population.
Every country has a duty of care to all others, on it's borders or throughout it's holiday destinations, to prevent the spread of community transmission. The UK has not only failed to meet that obligation, it has consistently refused to do so. In the end, events will force it to take that action.
I am more concerned about 'The Vaccine Solution' than most anti-Vaxxer, anti-Gatesers in that I urge solid, evidence based proposals on how to deal with the epidemic locally, and globally, using proven zero community transmission strategies now. Yesterday was already too late. Today is not too late. We are along way from the exposure that would generate 'herd immunity'...
The anti-Vaxxer anti-Gatesers are against the Vaccine for reasons of political, ideological and belief systems, rather than reasons grounded in epidemiology, public health, social material outcomes and the practical work of saving lives, right now, starting to day. If a useful, efficacious Vaccine emerges, then that is superb, and I support that. If it is exploited to avoid other necessary action, then that is abuse. If the first wave of vaccinations is an experiment, then we need to be told so.
If anything the irrational stance of anti-vaxers and UK Government alike lend themselves to more avoidable deaths, in that both avoid facing the practical realities of implementing elimination strategies, because they are keeping the vaccine hype, hope and horror narratives up front, when what should be happening is that the elimination narrative ought to be front and foremost in all public discussions on Corona Virus, because it effing-well works.
Excuse the expletive, the issue is that intense. People are dying, people's economies are being broken, there is sadness, grief and pain across this land.
So unless my various critics can add to my thesis on how practical it is to eliminate community transmission and in due course eradicate the virus, then they are wasting my time, wasting their own time, and adding to the problem rather than helping to resolve it.
Elimination of the virus is both practical and possible, in every country on Earth. All that is missing is the will to make it so.
Live Data as part of an Elimination Management Protocol.
In Croatia, the government daily briefing includes detailed information on the national test, trace and isolate strategy. The public is informed about the exact locations of positive cases, how many people were tested and how many contacts were placed in isolation as a result. This has been happening since the first patient was tracked at the end of February. Like New Zealand, Croatia also announced reaching zero cases on June 11. Some local outbreaks followed, but the death rate remains low.
In Spain there are infection case maps available for the whole country and for each region and local area.
A well informed, engaged population is a key element to any elimination management strategy, something completely avoided in the UK. I suggest that deliberate lack of clarity is abusive.
There is no good reason whatsoever, bar deliberate government policy, why such detailed maps have not been up and running for the UK since March 23rd. To deliberately keep a population so ill-informed of a genuine public health risk is abuse. There is no other way to state the position. It is abuse if one is aware that any given inaction leads to harms being caused, and one continues to not act when one could act and prevent those harms.
Here's my song about Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand vs UK Government Policy, which I wrote before they had eliminated community transmission, which I KNEW was going to be effective, because I had studied the evidence in some detail.
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