Irresponsible unvaccinated NHS nurses are accountable for:

1. empowering the ignorant anti-vaxxers (people who believe vaccines are unsafe and infringe on their human rights)
   
   as well as
2. putting patients and colleagues at direct risk for exposure to the serious and sometimes deadly, coronavirus disease
   plus
3. undermining public confidence in the Covid vaccine and encouraging the population to avoid getting jabbed, as it sends a clear strong message that vaccines are no longer IMPORTANT when they insist that vaccination is unnecessary, so should NOT to be a condition of employment for health and social care workers, but in reality, the vaccine is undoubtably the best line of defence in our Nation’s fight against this destructive virus
   
   together with
4. discouraging the general population to get the jab – on the basis that if the medical professionals don’t trust it then why should anyone else, eh?
   [MEDICAL GUIDELINES – healthcare workers (HCWs) are at RISK for ‘exposure’ to serious, and sometimes deadly, diseases. If anyone works ‘directly’ with patients or ‘handles’ material that could SPREAD infection, they should get appropriate vaccines to REDUCE the chance that they will get or spread ‘vaccine-preventable’ diseases. They individually NEED to protect themself, their patients, and their family members. They MUST make SURE they are always up-to-date with ‘recommended vaccines’]
   Healthcare workers include physicians, nurses, emergency medical personnel, dental professionals and students, medical and nursing students, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, hospital volunteers, and administrative staff.
   plus disgracefully
5. letting down and kicking in the teeth their fully vaccinated fellow nurse colleagues who have suffered unimaginably throughout the pandemic with debilitating overwork and stress, their hospitals’ intensive care beds persistently blocked by often dying ‘unvaccinated’ patients, while consequently other ill people also end up needlessly losing their lives as due to bed shortages they are unable to be given the operations and treatments needed to save their lives from cancer, organ failure, or other critically conditions
   
   However, with typical ‘booze–partying’ Boris Johnson government weakness, shopping trolley ‘smashing between aisles’ syndrome, flip flopping, and with the support of ‘out of kilter’ Health Secretary Sajid Javid (who previously HAD said “NHS staff have a DUTY to be vaccinated”) is shockingly now planning a last-minute reversal U-turn on mandatory Covid jabs for NHS and social care workers when under pressure from clearly ‘professionally uncommitted’ staff threatening if the plan went ahead, crippling staff shortages by abandoning their posts through remaining un-jabbed – therefore they all should immediately be ‘struck-off’ to protect society, and replacements recruited who actually accept responsibility for adhering to proper ‘professional standards’, eh?
   What’s most surprising about this saga of ‘qualified’ staff rejecting the need to be personally protected, even from the potentially deadly latest Covid BA.2 Omicron variant disease, is that for many many decades it has been totally accepted that ALL hospital doctors and appropriate colleagues, amongst other things, have to be Inoculated against Hepatitis B together with being regularly tested and having documented evidence of a complete hepB vaccine series, or a blood test that shows they are immune to hepatitis B (i.e., no serologic evidence of immunity or prior vaccination) – WHAT’S FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED MAKING NHS STAFF NOW REFUSE TO ACCEPT SUCH ESSENTIAL PUBLIC SAFETY MEASURES?
   

[Hepatitis B

 is an ‘infectious’ disease caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) that affects the LIVER; it is a type of viral hepatitis. The virus is ‘transmitted’ by exposure to infectious blood or body fluids. It can cause both ‘acute’ and ‘chronic’ infection. Many people have no symptoms during the initial infection. In ‘acute’ infection, some may develop a rapid onset of sickness with vomiting, yellowish skin, tiredness, dark urine, and abdominal pain. Often these symptoms last a few weeks and rarely does the initial infection result in death, and while most of those with chronic disease have no symptoms, CIRRHOSIS and liver CANCER however eventually DEVELOP]

Notes: INOCULATION and VACCINATION are two closely related terms. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. Inoculation [the term comes from Middle English “inoculaten” which means grafting a plant part to another plant]. One definition for inoculation is that it is introducing or placing something which will grow or reproduce. Inoculation of a vaccine or an antigenic substance is also common. This type of inoculation is done to increase immunity towards a specific disease has a broader meaning compared to vaccination [the word vaccination comes from Latin word “vacca”, which stands for cow (the reason behind this interesting origin is that the first ever vaccine made emanated from small pox, which has a close resemblance to the pathogen cow-pox, a virus disease affecting cows but can be spread by touch from cows to humans, localizing in small blood vessels of the skin and in the mouth and throat – in the skin, this results in a characteristic maculopapular rash, and later, raised fluid-filled blisters). While vaccination is introducing immunogens to the body in order to stimulate the immune system to produce more antibodies to fight infections. (Vaccination is essential for it gives the body a chance to produce antibodies and be prepared with a memory IF a natural pathogenic attack occurs. The method is efficient because then it requires less time to produce antibodies to fight the germs. Some vaccines are also given after contracting the disease. It is the MOST efficient and widely used method of immunization. This method has helped people to fight dangerous diseases. Vaccines such as small pox, measles, tetanus, and polio are very popular and effective examples for the mission and are used throughout the world]. However, depending on the situation inoculation could mean vaccination. In such cases both are considered as artificial induction of immunity. vaccination. In such cases both are considered as artificial induction of immunity.

Most vaccines are given as injections, and some are given orally. Polio and cholera vaccines are good examples for orally given vaccines. Depending on the type, 4 vaccination classes could be identified:

(i) Some vaccines contain killed bacteria or virus.

(ii) Some contain attenuated live virus or bacteria.

(iii) Some vaccines may contain a part of the virus or bacteria such as protein capsid or a bacterial cell wall.

(iv) Some vaccines contain isolated compounds or secretions such as bacterial toxins.

[Inoculation has a ‘broader’ meaning than vaccination. Inoculation done in order to achieve ‘immunization’ is CALLED vaccination. This makes vaccination a sub method of inoculation]

[The data and information for this post was garnered by this blogger in research from a variety of internet sources, with many thanks, but it is of course presented totally independently]

The term ‘literally homeless’ is often used to denote the people staying in shelters for the homeless, on the streets, or in other similar settings (e.g., in abandoned buildings, in make-shift structures, in parks)

‘Sheltered Homelessness’ refers to people who are staying in emergency shelters, transitional housing programs, or safe havens.

‘Unsheltered Homelessness’, on the other hand, refers to people whose primary night-time residence is a public or private place not designated for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for people – for example, the streets, vehicles, or parks)

Homelessness isn’t JUST sleeping on the streets. It also means people without a permanent home. This COULD mean living in ‘unsuitable’ temporary accommodation in hostels or bed and breakfasts or sofa-surfing

At the end of 2019, then newly released research from the homelessness charity Crisis revealed the contemporary scale of an issue that has rarely before received serious scrutiny. Their findings were the latest at the time attempt to articulate the realities underpinning what is the most common, and commonly misunderstood, form of “hidden homelessness” in the country.

It is all too easy to imagine those in power dismissing the findings, as they DO the grotesque explosion in the use of food banks over the last decade, as a uniquely British impulse to charity – something to be ‘applauded’, rather than ‘challenged’ as a key symptom of an ever more grossly UNEQUAL society.

Of course, these are the same people who wish to degrade tenants’ rights even further, and who continue to punish and humiliate those who have the audacity to be POOR, or anyone who claims state benefits. It is no accident that over half of people spoken to by Crisis pointed to housing affordability as the KEY reason behind their starting to sofa surf, while 40% said that their benefits didn’t cover the cost of rent

It’s thought that there are at least 320,000 people currently homeless in the UK, a number most observers believe to be a considerable underestimate. Of that number, there are more than 170,000 “core homeless households” – those experiencing rough sleeping, night shelters or unsuitable temporary accommodation. Of that number, more than 71,000 are thought to be sofa surfing – depending on the kindness of friends, family and acquaintances, often for protracted periods of time when they have nowhere else to go

As ‘anecdotally’ recounted by Francisco Garcia in the Guardian newspaper, back thirty years ago in south-east London, the birth of a baby would have come as a great social RELIEF for the parents, although their lives were full of some minor and some major cares and stresses, but when at the forefront was their housing situation, a blend of precarity and claustrophobia: what we would call “legal homelessness”, THEN as NOW. The couple’s parents’ lives were partly spent between the mother’s housing association flat, and the spare beds and sofas of various ‘’’friends and family’. However, the baby’s birth offered them the promise of a modest council flat, a solid enough base for a less immediately difficult future

It speaks vividly of the current absurdities of the UK in 2021/2022 that the resolution to such parents’ story sounds like a fairy-tale, some 30 years on. It seems comically distant, that once – even in London – there were affordable and even social housing OPTIONS for those without the requisite capital to navigate the private rental market, let alone to dare to dream of home ownership [Note the waiting list for council housing in England had been forecast to double from 100,000 to 200,000 this year, while according to the Chartered Institute of Housing, the UK also sold off 20,000 social rented homes in England between 2020 and 2021, as 1,000,000 sit on the waiting list for social housing.

Out of those, 121,000 were sold off under the Right-to-Buy scheme introduced under Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Government. Meanwhile 116,000 were converted to higher ‘affordable’ rents, while the rest were demolished. Separate figures from the Office for National Statistics show that the number of households in the UK’s private rented sector increased from 2.8million in 2007 to 4.5million now. With more than a million households in England stuck on a social housing waiting list and fewer than 7,000 social homes built last year in 2020 – the crisis gripping the country is unlikely to vanish any time soon

The National Housing Federation warned in findings published in its 2020 annual People in Housing Need report, the most comprehensive report then on the state of the nation’s housing crisis, that the real ‘social housing waiting list’ in England is 500,000 households – much bigger than official figures suggest

In the modern still affluent 21^st century UK, some seventy years after the war had decimated its housing, widespread homelessness now seems rife with doorway rough sleepers lying in the streets of all our major cities across the Country. According to Shelter, between 4,000 and 5,000 people sleep rough EVERY night, a figure that has more than DOUBLED since 2010. These are ‘visibly’ destitute people, who attract sympathy or scorn for as long as attention alights on them at all. But we must not forget the thousands who remain locked out of statistics and out of sight. Certainly, visible homelessness is up, but don’t forget the hidden pain of Britain’s sofa surfers, when also tens of THOUSANDS of people depend on the kindness of friends and family just for a place to sleep EVERY night.

In the UK, the government provides official point-in-time estimates of homelessness.

These official estimates come from reports submitted annually by local authorities to the Department for Communities and Local Government. The main sources of information for these reports are either active counts carried out on a single night, or estimates based on information provided by agencies such as ‘outreach workers’, ‘the police’, ‘the voluntary sector’ and ‘faith groups’ who have contact with rough sleepers on the street

Homelessness is in fact a global problem (impacting for example people in the UK, the US, the 36 OECD countries, and France, Chile, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and elsewhere around the globe). Evidence shows it equally affects the advanced economies and rich counties including the United States of America, no less (homeless people in the US remains an important policy problem and on any given night in 2016, around 550,000 people suffered from homelessness, with 1 in 1,670 Americans being homeless).

Moreover, here in Britain as reported by the UK Metro newspaper, there’s the new crisis of EVICTION, with thousands of families fighting to keep a roof over their heads, so 200,000 CHILDREN faced enduring homeless this Christmas after eviction from privately rented accommodation this winter (so much for Santa Claus delivering presents in the night at home to excited youngsters – how could we, that’s YOU and ME, be so cruel at this most special time of year for young kids and one which is supposed to be a period of peace, joy, giving, and family celebration, combined with dreams of idyllic times and a serene existence?)

A new poll carried out by YouGov for the housing charity Shelter has just revealed that very shocking 200,000 statistic – moreover according to latest government figures 126,000 children were ALREADY homeless in England (Shelter estimates that 55,000 children, along with their families, had already been evicted or removed from their homes in the last three months, and that 104,000 families had already received an eviction notice in the last month or are currently behind on their rent) – those drastically high numbers are in part a result of the hike in living costs, which when combined with reduced incomes from redundancies and furloughs in the pandemic, creates a financial emergency for those families teetering on the edge. With fuel costs soaring, Universal Credit payments cut, and rent prices increasing, it’s all adding up and forcing many families to fall behind on rent payments, a near guarantee of EVICTION and impending homelessness this winter. We’re now seeing a real crunch point as debts pile up and living costs soar – this has resulted in more eviction notices landing on doormats

[While councils have a ‘legal duty’ to house families with children, they are struggling to find suitable accommodation for those evicted from their homes. This means children are spending long periods of time in run down and often grossly overcrowded temporary accommodation with no stability at all. Fundamentally, the government needs to tackle the root cause of homelessness – which is a lack of homes people can afford to live in.  We don’t have enough good quality social homes, because we’ve barely built any for years.  Last year we built FEWER than 6000, while over a million households sat on waiting lists – the government needs to do better – MUCH BETTER]

[‘Section 21’ evictions are the most, ‘common’ types you get in the private rented sector. It’s referred to as the ‘no fault eviction’ because the landlords DON’T have to say WHY they want the property back. So, whether they want to sell it, move back into, or knock it down – these are all things they can evict people for without ‘any sort’ of explanation or evidence]

Sometimes, a minority of landlords needed to sell or move back into the rented homes because they were in financial difficulties themselves However, it isn’t just faltering finances instigating evictions – following the government’s eviction ban, which came into force at the start of LOCKDOWN in March 2020, the protections it offered for renters during Covid ended in June 2021  (Once that ban was lifted, landlords all over the country were suddenly getting papers ready to evict because they hadn’t been able to do it during that period – predictably a tsunami of more than a year’s worth of evictions, were incoming at some point, but the Johnson government did absolutely NOTHING to prevent it nor the RESULTING homelessness – DISGUSTING, especially when the government had fully committed that no one would lose their home due to the pandemic!).

There are social causes of homelessness, such as a lack of affordable housing, poverty, unemployment; and life events which push people into homelessness .People are forced into homelessness when they leave prison, care, or the army with NO home to go to

Ending the stigma that clouds the homeless population is the FIRST step in finding a meaningful, long-lasting SOLUTION for those doing it tough.

We are finding these below are also SOME of the key homelessness reasons:

Eviction from a privately rented home is one of the LEADING causes of homelessness. Short contracts, unfair evictions, and sky-high rents mean people struggle to keep a roof over their head

Unexpected ‘life events’

A relationship breakdown, losing a job, or physical or mental health problems might disrupt your life. And without a stable home or a fair welfare system to support you through tough times, an unexpected life event can be all it takes for the pressure to pile up and for you to lose your home

Social stigma: If a person has a vehicle or (even better) a camper they can use, then parking in some random parking lot for the night is more ‘socially acceptable’ than sleeping at a shelter. Unfortunately, some shelter volunteers are there for the express purpose of identifying ‘those people’ and pointing them out to anyone and everyone who will listen. Others have actually watched well respected and well connected ‘pillers-of-society’ do this…aggressively…on many occasions over the years (Also there are many reasons why homeless people AVOID using the local shelter. Some of the more commonly known reasons are a lack of sanitation, infestation with bugs or rodents, extremely dangerous people already using the shelter, problems with theft, enforced sobriety rules and being banned from the shelter for previous actions while staying there)

Employment: If you’re serious about acquiring or maintaining employment, staying at the shelter can be a terrible idea.

Abuse: Anyone running from an abusive relationship will be trying to find a safe place where they cannot be found.

Children: Even shelters that accommodate families with children can be hazardous for kids and teens. Depending on the situation, the number of people using the facility, and the way the shelter is managed, a parent may assess the situation and decide that it is simply too dangerous for the kids.

HOUSING should be a human right, but millions lack this basic right. According to a 2005 global survey, over 1.5 billion people don’t have “adequate” housing. It’s difficult to identify more precise numbers because countries have different definitions of “homelessness.” Tracking the issue is also expensive, so updated records are not common. Regardless, we know that homelessness is a major concern around the world. In recent years, many countries have seen their rates increase. Here are 10 root causes of homelessness:

Stagnant wages

While the cost-of-living increases, wages haven’t. In the United States say, the minimum wage has gone up around 350% since 1970, but the Consumer Price Index has increased by over 480%. This makes it challenging to cover everyday living expenses, let alone save money for homeownership down the line or emergencies. Without the ability to save money, an unexpected expense can devour a person’s income. Around the world, low wages keep people ‘trapped’ in poverty and more vulnerable to homelessness

Unemployment

While low wages contribute to homelessness, unemployment is also a significant factor. Reasons for unemployment vary and some countries have higher rates than others. Once a person is unemployed for a time, they can easily slip into homelessness. Research shows that most unhoused people want to work but face obstacles, such as not having a permanent address.

Lack of affordable housing

High housing costs are a global issue. A global survey from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy showed that out of 200 polled cities, 90% were considered unaffordable. This was based on average house prices being more than three times the median income. Without affordable housing, people find themselves with fewer options. It becomes harder to find housing near a place of work or in a safe area

Lack of affordable healthcare

Healthcare is very expensive, but many people are uninsured or underinsured. This means spending large amounts of money on healthcare while struggling to pay for rent, food, and utilities. It can also mean neglecting routine check-ups and procedures, leading to higher medical costs down the road. One serious injury or accident could push an individual or family into homelessness

Poverty

On a global scale, poverty is one of the most significant root causes of homelessness. Stagnant wages, unemployment, and high housing and healthcare costs all play into poverty. Being unable to afford essentials like housing, food, education, and more greatly increases a person’s or family’s risk. To address homelessness effectively, governments and organizations need to address poverty.

Lack of mental health and addiction treatment services

The two-way connection between mental health, addiction, and homelessness is clear. In the US, around 30% of “chronically homeless” people have mental health conditions. In 2017, the National Coalition for the Homeless found that 38% of homeless people depend on alcohol, 26% depend on other substances. Having a mental illness or addiction makes a person more vulnerable to homelessness and makes it more difficult to find permanent housing. A lack of stable housing also exacerbates mental health and addiction issues. Without treatment services, it’s very difficult for someone to break the cycle.

Racial inequality

In the United States say, racial minorities experience homelessness at a higher rate than the white population. According to research from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, black Americans are 3 times more likely to LOSE housing. Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans are also minorities disproportionately affected. The reasons why are based in racial inequalities such as racial discrimination in housing and incarceration

Domestic violence

Women and children are especially vulnerable to violence-triggered homelessness. To escape domestic violence, people will flee their homes without a plan. If they don’t have a place to stay, they can end up living in cars, shelters, or the street. Even for those who stay, the toll that domestic violence takes makes them more vulnerable to homelessness in the future. This is because trauma often leads to mental health issues and substance abuse

Family conflict

Closely related to domestic violence, ‘family conflict’ can also lead to homelessness. This is especially true for the LGBTQ+ community. Coming out is risky. Families can kick out the individual or make the home environment dangerous. According to the True Colours Fund, 1.6 million young LGBTQ+ people end up homeless each year. This population is also at an increased risk for homelessness at a younger age

Systemic failures

While homelessness can occur because of an individual’s or family’s circumstances, we cannot ignore the systemic failures. Homelessness occurs when society fails to identify and support people at risk of becoming unhoused. Failures in areas like correctional services, healthcare services, and child welfare are very common. A society’s failure to address racial inequalities, increase wages, and provide affordable housing also contribute to homelessness rates.

SHELTER

Shelter is a UK registered charity that campaigns to end homelessness and bad housing in Great Britain. It gives advice, information and advocacy to people in need, and tackles the root causes of bad housing by lobbying government and local authorities for new laws and policies to improve the lives of homeless and badly housed people. It exists to fight for all those whose lives are blighted by the loss of their home. In the UK the housing emergency is devastating lives & communities across the country No-one needs to face bad housing or homelessness alone. Last year over 5 million people turned to Shelter for advice, while 3,300 unique callers used its helpline each week

This has been a difficult year for many of US in Britain, but this winter, THOUSANDS will face the added challenge of being stuck in unsafe housing or the prospect of losing their home altogether.

[SHELTER Urgent Appeal (https://www.shelter.org.uk/)

If you and your family were ‘safely housed’ this Christmas, YOU by donating now if you are financially able, COULD help provide vital support to OTHER people facing eviction, families living in UNSUITABLE temporary accommodation, and people facing ANOTHER night sleeping in the car.

As well as support and advice, you’ll also be giving HOPE – ‘the hope’ of a brighter 2022 for someone giving their all to get into a safe, secure home

‘DONATE’ this winter and help families facing homelessness (say £10, £20, perhaps £30 (which could fund two webchats, giving expert digital advice for someone facing homelessness), £80, or just choose your own amount? Donations won’t be restricted to any single project but will be used by Shelter wherever they’re ‘most needed’ in their fight to defend the right to a safe home (for every £1 you donate just 21p is spent on fundraising]

Such freedoms in England we could all have done WITHOUT and though this chaos was avoidable, it was incurred because Health Secretary Sajid Javid courted popularism by abandoning England’s crucial virus defences by dropping virtually all COVID-19 restrictions last July, hence England reopened despite skyrocketing Covid cases, warnings of supermarket shortages, and Boris Johnson himself being in 10 days forced self-isolation after he came into contact with a confirmed coronavirus patient, and when the U.K.’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty warned “I don’t think we should underestimate the fact that we could get into trouble again surprisingly fast” Nightclubs and sporting events were free to function at full capacity in England, and the government NO LONGER advised people to work from home— Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland devolved governments took a more cautious steps and did not reopen fully.

Wet behind the ears Javid through this irresponsible action and his following inaction is undoubtably ACCOUNTABLE but like the others before him, he doesn’t take responsibility, does he? NO AND WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO SAY NOW TO THE DEVASTATED BEREAVED?

It is now nearly New Year 2022 and will be celebrated with great hope around the World, but contrastingly in many if not most communities, the sentiment is ‘good riddance to 2020 and 2001, years ravaged with a worldwide pandemic, widespread destructive floods across the globe, and raging devastating wildfires on many continents including Australia and US, when surely ‘the coming 2002 year cannot be as bad’. Well, we will have to wait and see about that as we cannot be confident that life will actually deliver us all a better outcome, can we when God’s protection now cannot be trusted?

Even the Bible Old Testament in the book of Exodus exposes the God of Israel as a cruel punitive egoistic megalomaniac who enticed other human individuals into the evil acts when responsible for the ten disastrous Plagues inflicted on Egypt in order to force the Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to depart from slavery, solely so they may worship him –  each of the plagues confronting Pharaoh and one of his Egyptian gods; served as “signs and marvels” given by God to answer Pharaoh’s taunt that he does not know Yahweh (the name of God used in the bible):

1. Turning water to blood: ”with the staff that is in my hands I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink and the Egyptians will not be able to drink its water”
2. Frogs: “I will plague your whole country with frogs. The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs. The frogs will go up on you and your people and all your officials”
3. Lice or gnats: he said “stretch out thy rod, and smite the dust of the land, that it may become lice throughout all the land of Egypt.” And when Aaron stretched out his hand with the rod and struck the dust of the ground, lice came upon men and animals. All the dust throughout the land of Egypt became lice
4. Wild animals or flies: this was of creatures capable of harming people and livestock. The “mixture” or “swarm” only came against the Egyptians and did not affect the Israelites
5. Pestilence of livestock: “the hand of the LORD will bring a terrible plague on your livestock in the field—on your horses and donkeys and camels and on your cattle and sheep and goats”
6. Boils: then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Take handfuls of soot from a furnace and have Moses toss it into the air in the presence of Pharaoh. It will become fine dust over the whole land of Egypt, and festering boils will break out on men and animals throughout the land”
7. Thunderstorm of hail and fire: “at this time tomorrow I will send the worst hailstorm that has ever fallen on Egypt, from the day it was founded till now. Give an order now to bring your livestock and everything you have in the field to a place of shelter, because the hail will fall on every man and animal that has not been brought in and is still out in the field, and they will die”. Then he sent thunder and hail, and lightning flashed down to the ground. and rained hail on the land of Egypt; hail fell and lightning flashed back and forth. It was the worst storm in all the land of Egypt since it had become a nation.
8. Locusts: “I will bring locusts into your country tomorrow. They will cover the face of the ground so that it cannot be seen. They will devour what little you have left after the hail, including every tree that is growing in your fields. They will fill your houses and those of all your officials and all the Egyptians—something neither your fathers nor your forefathers have ever seen from the day they settled in this land till now”
9. Darkness for three days: the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt—darkness that can be felt.” So, Moses stretched out his hand toward the sky, and total darkness covered all Egypt for three days. No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days
10. Death of firstborn: “About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again”

Now, it doesn’t matter how close we have been to the Christian religion in the past but even those of us who are committed to our God have questions in our minds about trust in God and the teachings of Jesus. Indeed, some of us when let down have at least been tempted to shake a fist at God, I suggest?

Those of us of the older generation remember only too well the Aberfan disaster of some 55 years ago, which was the catastrophic collapse of a colliery spoil tip on 21 October 1966. The tip had been created on a mountain slope above the Welsh village of Aberfan, near Merthyr Tydfil, and overlaid a natural spring. A period of heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry, killing 116 children and 28 adults as it engulfed Pantglas Junior School and other buildings. The tip was the responsibility of the National Coal Board, and the subsequent inquiry placed the blame for the disaster on the organisation and nine named employees as having some degree of responsibility [see post here ‘Aberfan – where was God? October 23, 2016 by dadman007’]

Last year 2020 saw the entire World in the grip of an uncontrollable virus pandemic that started in Wuhan, Hubei, China in December 2019 and so far, has made over 260 million people contagiously ILL and cost the LIVES of above 5 million souls.

Coronaviruses are themselves a group of related RNA viruses that cause diseases in mammals and birds. In humans and birds, they cause respiratory tract infections that can range from mild to lethal. Mild illnesses in humans include some cases of the common cold (which is also caused by other viruses, predominantly rhinoviruses), while more lethal varieties can cause SARS, MERS, and COVID-19.

Some might rightly ask where was our Christian God as the Holy Bible’s declared caring father while all this was happening to everyone in his flock including believers and non-believers, the righteous and the sinners, the kind and the uncaring, the rich and the poor, the good as well as the bad, both criminals and law abiders, the young and the old, the fit and the infirm, nurses and doctors dying while helping the sick – all treated alike, without distinction, eh?

For that matter where was Pope Francis and what was he doing about this dire situation for mankind [remember the Popes have regularly claimed to be divine, and as the supposed successor of Peter, the Pope claims infallibility, the position of God on Earth, and ability to judge and excommunicate angels], but those two questions equally applies to both Elizabeth II, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of her other realms and territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland [head of the Anglian Church] or Justin Welby Archbishop of Canterbury [the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury], doesn’t it?

Oh yes, we might ponder what did any of those who are rich, famous. and powerful actually do to help or alleviate the suffering of those struck down or their lives shattered by this devastating illness? What understanding or kindness have we seen from say mega rich footballers and their likes who continued to party in celebration of last Christmas and New Year and indeed continued to ignore the basic rules designed to help contain the spread of the virus (which they now lamely describe as a “mistake in judgement”.

José Mourinho had made his disappointment clear to three of his Tottenham players after they attended a party over the Christmas period last year in clear breach of strict tier 4 coronavirus regulations or West Ham’s Lanzini seen with Lamela, Lo Celso and Reguilón

With the credibility of football’s Covid-19 protocols undermined by a photograph of Spurs players attending Xmas party with 14 family and friends or Tottenham Hotspur trio Erik Lamela, Giovani Lo Celso and Sergio Reguilón and West Ham United’s Manuel Lanzini all faced disciplinary action and a police fines after being caught breaking Government and Premier League rules by meeting together over the festive period.

Manchester City defender Benjamin Mendy also risked punishment after admitting hosting a New Year’s Eve dinner party, as did Crystal Palace captain Luka Milivojevic and Fulham striker Aleksandar Mitrovic for a similar breach that casts further doubt on English football’s community responsibility

What now of the Bible verses about caring for others, and which assures us that God is a caring father. Scripture tells us that the reason we are able to love is because God loved us first. His love for us should compel us to love others more and make sacrifices for people just like Jesus sacrificed His life for our iniquities. Is that teaching compatible with doctors and nurses in the NHS and carers in Care Homes losing their own lives to the virus while caring for others, would you say?

However then, what now for the powerful bible verses about God’s deep personal care for us? What explanations are offered us by the pious, eh?

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? Psalm 22:1

We can feel like God has forsaken us. That he is far away. That he doesn’t see our pain or hear our groaning. One of the greatest challenges’ believers face on a regular basis, is what will we believe – our feelings and emotions or God’s Word. Our feelings are real. We really feel them. They are strong. But our feelings are a poor barometer of the truth. Though they are true feelings, they are not always the truth. God’s word is the truth, whether we feel it or not. So when we FEEL like God is not near, we must remember his Word. We must remember his promises

1. For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” Isaiah 41:13

God doesn’t simply send an angel to hold your right hand. The God of heaven and earth personally holds your right hand. This is a figurative expression of his closeness to us and his personal care for us. He says that we are not to fear because he personally helps us – “I am the one who helps you.”

2.  fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

Here God says that he personally will be with us, strengthen, help and uphold us. For this reason, we need not fear or be dismayed when facing or going through tough times

3. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. Isaiah 43.2

We will all “pass through waters” and rivers of hardship and uncertainty and walk through the fires of life. But God promises, “I will be with you.” Personally. Presently. In the midst of the fire, like he was with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

4. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Psalm 32.8

This is one of life verses. God himself, the fountain of infinite wisdom and knowledge, promises to personally instruct and teach his children. And he promises to counsel us with his eye upon us. He is watching over us every second. He never slumbers nor sleeps. And he counsels us step by step, day by day, with his eye constantly watching over our every step

5. The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Psalm 23.1-3

In this, one of the most well known passages in the Bible, God tells us he cares for us intimately and personally. He leads us. Feeds us, gives us rest in him. Our good shepherd feeds us and refreshes us in his word – in green pastures. He personally restores our souls when we are weary and drained. He personally leads us in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake – so that we will bring glory to his name.

6. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young. Isaiah 40:11

Our good Shepherd gathers us in his arms and carries us “in his bosom,” a picture of intimacy and closeness and deep care, and he gently leads us.

7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5.6-7

God isn’t so busy running the universe that he doesn’t have time for our petty worries. He tells us to cast all our anxieties on him. Why? Because HE CARES FOR YOU. He cares about you. He cares about your children and grandchildren. He cares about you in your job. He cares about your church. He cares for you, that you would have joy and strength

8. As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God! Psalm 40.17

The Lord takes thought for us individually – “the Lord takes thought for ME.” You personally are always on his mind. He knows us intimately when we’re “poor and needy” spiritually, emotionally, or physically. And because he takes thought for us he is our help and deliverer. So cry out to him!

9. When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the broken-hearted and saves the crushed in spirit. Psalm 34.17-18

Are you broken-hearted? Crushed in spirit? The Lord is near to you. He is with you and identifies deeply with you. If God tells us to weep with those who weep, how much more does he feel for us in our sadness and pain. And he tells us to cry for help, because he hears the cries of those he has made righteous by the blood of Christ. And our personal Saviour will deliver us out of ALL our troubles

10. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2.13

We were once far off from God, but when we believed in Jesus, God brought us near by his blood. How near? We are one with Christ, in union with him. Adopted as God’s children. No longer far off, but family.

11. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” Hebrews 13.5

God will never leave nor forsake us. This is how we can be content in every circumstance. We have God himself, the fountain of life and every good thing, and he will never abandon us.

12. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. John 15:15

Talk about intimacy! Jesus calls us his friends! Intimate friends. Friends are intimate and share with each other. And Jesus makes known his Father and his Father’s words and ways to us.

13. A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18.24

Jesus is closer to us than any brother, than any family member could ever be. And he sticks close to us.

14. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Isaiah 49.15

Lovely verse. Human mothers have a deep care and affection and concern for their nursing children. Human mothers have deep compassion on their infants. Yet sometimes, they may forget. Yet God has more compassion and care for us than the most loving mothers on earth. He will never forget to care for us or fail to have compassion on us.

15. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

When we are afflicted, we can run to “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” And there is no affliction he will not comfort us in – he comforts us in “ALL OUR AFFLICTION.” So much so that we can pour out God’s comfort on others in their pain

Hopefully these verses encourage you as much as they have encouraged some others through the years. God cares for you

[What do YOU think about where does true life actually leave us – throw our lot in with the Devil and join the rich criminals who don’t get punished in this world, or continue strong belief in the scriptures, or even search for a different GOD?]

Yep. And in the aftermath of a retrospective but damning Commons inquiry into the government’s mayhem handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, Shapps has insisted that the government was

‘prepared for A pandemic’,

but the problem was just they

“weren’t prepared for THIS one”

idiot!

 and events occurred as reported below from the  Guardian:

The inquiry ‘Coronavirus: lessons learnt’ (or NOT?) found the Covid response was ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’, when the early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths,

Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, the landmark inquiry has found.

“Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than OTHER countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers.

A 2016 exercise warned of the need to stockpile PPE four YEARS before the Covid pandemic hit. Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years BEFORE the pandemic

The crisis exposed “major deficiencies in the machinery of government”, with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge.

Despite being one of the FIRST countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK “squandered” its lead and “converted it into one of permanent crisis”. The consequences were profound, the report says. “For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.”

PM Boris Johnson did not order a complete lockdown until 23 March 2020, two months AFTER the government’s Sage committee of scientific advisers first met to discuss the crisis. “This slow and gradualist approach was not inadvertent, nor did it reflect bureaucratic delay or disagreement between ministers and their advisers. It was a deliberate policy – proposed by official scientific advisers and adopted by the governments of all of the nations of the UK,” the report says.

“It is now clear that this was the WRONG policy, and that it led to a higher initial death toll than would have resulted from a more emphatic early policy. In a pandemic spreading rapidly and exponentially, every week counted.”

Decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – “rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”, the report concludes, stressing: “This happened despite the UK counting on some of the best expertise available anywhere in the world, and despite having an open, democratic system that allowed plentiful challenge.”

The report from the Commons Science And Technology committee and the Health And Social Care committee draws on evidence from more than 50 witnesses, including the former health secretary Matt Hancock, the government’s chief scientific and medical advisers, and leading figures from the vaccine taskforce and NHS Test and Trace.

It celebrates some aspects of the UK’s Covid response, in particular the rapid development, approval and delivery of vaccines, and the world-leading Recovery trial that identified life-saving treatments, but is highly critical of other areas.

Some of the most serious early failings, the report suggests, resulted from apparent groupthink among scientists and ministers which led to “fatalism”. Greg Clark, the chair of the science and technology committee, said he dismissed the allegation that government policy sought to reach “herd immunity” through infection but the outcome came to be seen as the only viable option.

“It was more a reflection of fatalism,” Clark said. “That if you don’t have the prospect of a vaccine being developed, if you think people won’t obey instructions to lockdown for very long, and have a wholly inadequate ability to test, trace and isolate people, that is what you are left with.”

The “impossibility” of suppressing the virus was only challenged, the MPs say, when it became clear the NHS could be overwhelmed.

The report questions WHY international experts were not part of the UK scientific advisory process and why measures that worked in other countries were NOT brought in as a precaution, as a response was hammered out.

While Public Health England told the MPs it had formally studied and rejected the South Korean approach, NO EVIDENCE was provided despite repeated requests.

“We must conclude that no formal evaluation took place, which amounts to an extraordinary and negligent omission given Korea’s success in containing the pandemic, which was well publicised at the time,” the report says.

The MPs said the government’s decision to HALT mass testing in March 2020 – days AFTER the World Health Organization called for “painstaking contact tracing and rigorous quarantine of close contacts” – was a “serious mistake”.

When the test, trace and isolate system was rolled out it was “slow, uncertain and often chaotic”, “ultimately failed in its stated objective to prevent future lockdowns”, and “severely hampered the UK’s response to the pandemic”. The problem was compounded, the report adds, by the failure of public bodies to share data, including between national and local government.

Further criticism is levelled at poor protection in Care Homes, for black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and for people with learning disabilities.

Prof Trish Greenhalgh, of the University of Oxford, said the report hinted at a “less than healthy relationship” between government and its scientific advisory bodies. “It would appear that even senior government ministers were reluctant to push back on scientific advice that seemed to go against common sense interpretations of the unfolding crisis,” she said.

“It would appear that Sage, Cobra, Public Health England and other bodies repeatedly dismissed the precautionary principle in favour of NOT taking decisive action until definitive evidence emerged and could be signed off as the truth.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said the report was damning. Hannah Brady, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the report found the deaths of 150,000 people were “redeemed” by the success of the vaccine rollout.

“The report … is laughable and more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings than it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost parents, partners or children to Covid-19. This is an attempt to ignore and gaslight bereaved families, who will see it as a slap in the face,” she said.

The content of the Commons inquiry report is particularly galling considering that articles were posted here in real time and updated daily identifying the ongoing multiple government failures like ignoring success in other countries and which not least included concentrating primarily on a vaccine solution with solely long term applicability instead of prioritising developing ‘immediate’ medication treatments or indeed the government ordering millions of vaccine doses with no plan whatsoever to actually jab people, so they left that critical exercise to a twelfth hour bodge job requiring volunteer efforts!

The worst thing about it all is that government incompetence has continued unabated since those early days, hence back in July this year the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid together with PM Johnson courted popularism by abandoning England’s crucial defences against the virus, widely dubbed as “Freedom Day” JULY 19 (postponed from original 21 JUNE by four weeks), combined with a total absence of leadership from the Government on mask wearing, or doing things differently which meant looking out for each other and not buying the “Freedom Day” rhetoric, when implementing the badly mistaken opinion that the pandemic virus had already been defeated so basic life could return to normal – England removed COVID-19 restrictions as cases rose again and while the rules vanished the virus didn’t! The decision to ditch most coronavirus restrictions was strongly criticized by many medical professionals who had been at the forefront in the fight against COVID [The decision to remove the restrictions came as the UK reported 48,161 new cases and 25 COVID-related deaths over a 24-hour period]. Since then, there has been many million more virus cases and thousands of deaths which could have been avoided – Javid through his irresponsible action and following inaction is accountable but like the others before him, he doesn’t take responsibility, does he? NO AND WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO SAY NOW TO THE BEREAVED? Also, countless people of all ages will now suffer for years with long-covid [unexplained symptoms that are usually in younger people and usually people who didn’t initially have to be in the hospital or weren’t severely sick with COVID] and for which there is a severe lack of treatment centres

Our incompetent government is relying alone on non-compulsory vaccinations, and booster jabs to save the day when boosters themselves were ONLY currently approved for the over 40s and those with underlying conditions (yet HASN’T brought in legislation to stop anti-vaxxers actively spreading ‘misinformation’ about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines on social media to discourage others from taking up offered vaccinations, and at a time when vaccination been made neither compulsory, mandatory, nor materially beneficial for the general population, so the irresponsible and evil clandestine murderers  who are responsible for the deaths of countless innocent others, can completely undermine the country’s virus control measures [the wilfully UNVACCINATED should be FINED and NOT be eligible for ANY free treatment under the NHS and should pay 100% of ALL their health costs including expensive hospital ICU stays (even if they die there)].

Be aware, that its commonly predicted that new Covid variants will both be more infectious and will be able to overcome vaccination protection, so vaccination alone isn’t enough to keep the virus under control and current Covid measures are ‘insufficient’ to deal with the virus over Christmas, expert Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and the lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Study app, warns vaccines alone are NOT ENOUGH to control coronavirus and current measures are ‘insufficient’. He says that this coming Christmas is not the only one to be worried about, and that Covid could be a concern for the next five years. He said experts now have a better picture than they did last year, when they thought they just had to get through the year ‘And that’s clearly turning out not to be the case, as we realise that just vaccines alone are not the final solution to this – we need a combination of measures’.

As reported in the Sunday Times, doctors and nurses are venting their anger as unvaccinated Covid cases delay vital operations

The NHS had a backlog of 5.8 million waiting for surgery and specialists are increasingly frustrated at how the unvaccinated have left them unable to tackle it (despite that massive backlog, in the last two months (October & November) at least 13,000 UK hospital surgical operations have been cancelled due to people sick with Covid-19 (and that is a major under-estimate to boot!)

Doctors and nurses have told of their anger and frustration at not being able to treat other seriously ill patients as new figures show that more than 90 per cent of Covid sufferers requiring the most specialist care are unvaccinated.

Between 20 per cent and 30 per cent of critical care beds in England are occupied by Covid patients and three quarters of those have not been vaccinated, according to the latest data up to July this year.

Separately, NHS England said that between July and November more than nine in 10 patients receiving the most specialist care, in which artificial lungs were used to try to save their lives, were unvaccinated.

This is undermining efforts to reduce the backlog of surgeries and the overall NHS waiting list, which had grown to 5.8 million people by the end of September Doctors have warned that some transplant operations cannot go ahead and that complex cancer surgeries are being delayed, risking tumours becoming inoperable.

All nurses understand they have to provide non-judgmental care. But what we find difficult is that giving care to patients who have chosen not to be vaccinated has a knock-on effect on other patients. We are still human beings and we still get angry at things that we think aren’t just

Some patients who are being rude, disrespectful and even violent to some nurses trying to look after them was behind high levels of mental health problems in ICU nurses, who are already reporting increased levels of post-traumatic stress after their experiences of the past two years

Dr Dhruv Parekh, a consultant in critical care at the University Hospitals Birmingham trust, which has Europe’s largest critical care unit with 100 intensive care beds across a whole floor of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said: “When you can’t provide the services you feel you need to for the rest of your community and other patients who’ve got life-limiting illnesses, there is a degree of frustration and anger. This is stopping us from doing that really important work and helping the rest of the patients we need to be trying to help.”

The 43-year-old said that it was “infuriating and frustrating” to see patients die when their deaths could have been prevented. “It’s heartbreaking and upsetting because ultimately, when that happens, for the patient and the family, the realisation dawns that this potentially could have been prevented .

• Covid patients had a significantly LONGER length of stay in CRITICAL CARE than other patients, with an average of NINE days; longer (IF they SURVIVED the infection – ICU Consultant Dr Dhruv Parekh), Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (while Consultant Dr Zudin Puthucheary reports that 40% of unvaccinated COVID-16 patients are dying in critical care and DIDN’T NEED TO if only they HAD been vaccinated)
• In the unit this meant that as many as 100 to 140 OTHER SURGERIES, which would require stays of only one or two days, had to be delayed each week
• These are transplants that can’t go ahead. These are patients waiting for complex cancer surgery where every week counts. It could tip them over from an operable cancer to an INOPERABLE CANCER
• Between July and November, 150 patients were referred for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, or Ecmo, where blood is cycled through an artificial lung machine before returning it to the body. Of these patients, ONLY 6 PER CENT had been fully vaccinated (The treatment is usually reserved for younger patients and is a last-ditch effort to buy their bodies time to recover from the virus) – NHS England

Yet our Health Secretary Sajid Javid (who readily had admitted that Covid-19 cases here could reach 100,000 a day – AND NOW IT HAS!) but the government continued to sit on their hands and refused even recently to implement coronavirus ‘Plan B’ in England on top of its new guidance, where people are advised to test for Covid before going to crowded places or spending time with those who are at greater risk from Covid

[Plan B which could include: Vaccine passports (used for entry to large indoor events, entry to nightclubs, cinemas, theatres and concert halls and many other indoor and outdoor events); a return of ‘mandatory’ face coverings in some settings like on public transport, and in shops and hospitals; recommending that people work from home; or reintroduction of social distancing?]

That’s despite the government being heavily criticised as Covid cases in the UK continue to soar with the NHS Confederation warning the UK risks ‘stumbling into a winter crisis’.

Besides, recent research in South Africa has uncovered that those who had been infected with the original virus, so then had natural antibody protection against it, WEREN’T now protected against the new Omicron variant – that raises the basic question as to whether current approved vaccinations will also prove to be ineffective against Omicron, doesn’t it?

Moreover, the COVID-19 infection has actually progressed out of a pandemic stage and is now classified as an endemic in this country, which means the virus can be experienced at all times, at low levels, and is now characteristic of, prevalent, and native to our country. This is a direct result of those ignorant, irresponsible individuals who have refused to be jabbed so have allowed the virus safe haven to persist in their midst.

England is today in even more of a dire situation than ever, as a new variant B.1.1.529 [the worse ever seen, first identified earlier this month in Botswana [a prime breeding ground for potential variants due to the country’s low vaccination levels), but since then detected in Hong Kong, Israel, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Czech Republic, and possibly Holland, as well as UK), designated name Omicron (from the Greek rather than using country name eg South Africa where identified), has emerged from South Africa and with our government’s usual ineptitude in protecting the borders with too little too late, has been allowed to enter the Country (hardly surprising when reportedly 15,000 people have flow into the UK from South Africa this April since the mutation was first identified there [whence as a financial consequence over £70billion was wiped off the value of London’s top shares]. Because Omicron displays 50 mutations with 30 in the virus spikes, the grappling hooks used to attach to human cells, made it dramatically different from the original Wuhan strain for which the world was building up immunity, it is actually a totally NEW disease that not only threatens pandemic recovery, but may well now herald a brand-new pandemic of its own!

Our Johnson government allowed Omicron into the UK, and now Scientific Advisor, influenza expert, Professor Mark Woolhouse, warns

The FIRST Omicron cases in England (Brentwood Essex and Nottingham) were indeed linked and involved travel to South Africa, but WHO brought it here and WHY weren’t they screened-out? (Worryingly however, it had spread with at least 22 in England and 10 in Scotland, amid fears there are already hundreds of others, many of who possibly haven’t actually had direct links to that part of the world) Boris has boasted about how quick he was to ban flights from African counties, but obviously what was needed was more stringent action and perhaps even banning non-British visitors – we know for example that two plane loads of people from South Africa landed in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport with Covid infected people on board. The Netherlands found 61 Covid cases in air arrivals from South Africa, and is checking for the newly discovered Omicron variant (the passengers on two KLM flights were already in the air when the Netherlands announced travel restrictions on flights from southern Africa). This means that anyone transferring from Schiphol or arriving here from the Netherlands could have been carrying the Omicron virus into the UK unless successfully screened – why weren’t they?

Our Johnson government allowed Omicron into the UK, and now Scientific Advisor, influenza expert, Professor Mark Woolhouse, warns:

it’s ‘too late to make a ‘material or significant difference’ to a potential surge of omicron infections in the UK or on increasing Omicron cases as the UK is to be hit by an Omicron wave

the UK has been issued with this Omicron wave warning after the variant’s overall cases jumped by 50 PERCENT in one day – the total number of recorded Omicron cases rose to 246 after a further 86 were added to the overall tally [experts predict “hundreds” of cases are circulating undetected because not all PCR tests are sequenced for variants and Omicron is spreading through the UK much faster than initially feared (DOUBLING every two days and on course to overtake some of the 11 countries from where travellers to the UK are now required to quarantine, so probably over one million NEW cases by Boxing Day and six million by NEW Years Eve, and yet in a farfetched statement at PMQs Johnson bizarrely claimed we were in a ‘much better’ situation than last Christmas!). Clearly Omicron is now transmitting in the community with numbers now up again to some 568 WITHOUT many with connections to South Africa, [the officially estimated true numbers are about 10,000] and if stricter measures DO prove necessary, delaying their introduction until AFTER Christmas (Boris though is determined to party AGAIN this year, like on December 18^th 2020 (‘supposedly’ now being investigated for retrospective breaches of the Covid-19 regulations by the Met Police – but also how much did those last year cost us British taxpayers, eh?), will only lead to even TOUGHER rules in the ‘New Year’ – travel restrictions at best  might slow the variant a very little but will NOT stop it says Government Advisor Sir David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University)].

The hopes that Omicron (the new variant that IS NOW dominant in London, and soon WILL BE in the whole UK, and which has shown a higher resistance to vaccines), would though prove to be just a ‘mild’ illness compared to the Delta variant, have finally been dashed by the news of the first UK Omicron EIGHT DEATHS, as well as another EIGHTY-FIVE patients HOSPITALISED in England with that mutated strain.

(Then with hospital admissions and health worker absences rising substantially, combined with a huge increase in COVID cases in London, Mayor Sadiq Khan has declared a ‘major incident’) [past ones were declared in 2017 for Grenfell Tower and the Westminster and London bridges’ terror attacks], to help ease the pressure on the capital’s HOSPITALS [more than 26,000 daily infections recorded – the largest number of NEW infections since the coronavirus pandemic BEGAN]

(Previously only weeks ago and worryingly, it had spread with just 22 cases in England and 10 in Scotland, nevertheless amid valid fears there were already hundreds of others, many of who possibly haven’t actually had direct links to the African part of the world)

Boris had boasted then about how quick he was to ban flights from African counties, and has since rejected suggestions the government as usual acted ‘too late’ in reintroducing travel restrictions after the discovery of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, but obviously what was needed was more stringent action and perhaps even banning non-British visitors – we know for example that TWO plane loads of people from South Africa landed in Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport with Covid infected people on board. The Netherlands found 61 Covid cases in air arrivals from South Africa, and is checking for the newly discovered Omicron variant (the passengers on two KLM flights were already in the air when the Netherlands announced travel restrictions on flights from southern Africa). This means that anyone transferring from Schiphol or arriving here from the Netherlands COULD have been carrying the Omicron virus into the UK unless successfully screened – WHY weren’t they?

The situation with the new Omicron super-strain, more contagious than the prevalent Delta strain, has forced the government’s hand so our bungling PM has announced in a another typical wishy-washy response shambolic performance at a Covid briefing, where he reluctantly confirmed, but without a deadline, that face coverings would be compulsory in shops and on public transport (but due to expire on Monday 20^th December (review was expected 17th December), as well as PCR tests for arrivals in the UK within 2 days, and a 10 day self-isolation for close contacts of positive cases – but still no mention of the necessary other significant Plan B measures urgently recommended by viral scientists – yet this situation came at a time when some 10,000 Test and Trace call handlers are being axed, hence that already flawed system will now be further decimated, when also Johnson himself has utterly undermined medical support for mask wearing as a virus spreading prevention and self-protection aid, by repeatedly REFUSING to wear one in public places [like at Cop26 (including siting mask-less beside vulnerable ’David Attenborough’, 95), or in a London theatre, on a hospital tour, on a packed train, in a school, on a prison visit] despite even when being required by the rules, or flouting official requests to wear a mask or being surrounded by others correctly doing so.

Masks are ‘almost’ CERTAINLY an ‘effective’ public health measure for ‘preventing’ and ‘slowing’ the spread of SARS-CoV-2: ‘masking’ prevents the transmission of the disease by ‘blocking’ the atomization of virus-containing respiratory droplets (coughing, sneezing, talking) and their subsequent inhalation by uninfected people, and it is thought the ‘airborne spread’ of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is the dominant route of infection (heavy duty N95 and KN95 masks are BEST at warding off COVID-19, while commonly worn surgical cloth face coverings provide only limited protection but filter about 10 percent of exhaled aerosols

It has now been exposed by a news organization in America that Missouri state withheld and hid data on the SUCCESS of mask mandates, making it painfully evident that some US states cared more about politics than public health – misinformation thereby prolonged the deadly effects of the pandemic. State attorney general Eric Schmitt was aggressively against implementation mandates, while Republican state governor Mike Parson was also against masks on freedom grounds. Donald Kauerauf Missouri Health Dept Director has affirmed by email that mask mandates had been very effective in places where implemented, like say the larger cities of St Louis and Kansas, and had significantly REDUCED both Covid transmission and death rates from April to October, compared to the stringently un-masked places

THIS IMPORTANT FIELD RESULT MAKES MASK WEARING IN ENGLAND EVEN MORE ESSENTIAL THIS WINTER, not least in light of the new Omicron variant’s potential ability to swerve vaccines – Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid need to heed!

Moreover, Boris has further demonstrated his despicable policy of one rule for others while none applied to himself and his friends (a Survation poll for the Mirror newspaper determined that 60% of people and a majority of Tory voters agreed that indeed was the case) , with the revelation that 12 months ago members of his No 10 team held their own festive party days when reportedly In each case, there were 40 or 50 people crammed “cheek by jowl” into a medium-sized room before Christmas last year, while London was under Tier 3 restrictions (the law clearly stated ‘NO PERSON may participate in a gathering which consists of two or more people and takes place in ANY indoor space) and also the Country under lockdown with people banned from seeing their loved ones at Christmas even those dying, whence any festive event would have been against the rules that applied in 2020 –  the rules that were in place at the time, are very clear: ‘you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party’. However, while serial liar Johnson at first would not deny that a “boozy” Christmas party was held in Number 10 during the lockdown, he is taking the British public for fools by insisting that

no rules were broken and

“All guidance was followed completely”

– how the hell can you pretend to have had multiple large drinking parties in limited room spaces at Number 10 with everyone wearing permanent masks and applying the 2-meter social distancing rule, eh? Johnson has now belatedly at PMQs actually denied there was ANY such party, despite the indisputably strong evidence to the contrary with numerous reports that staff drank alcohol, played games and exchanged secret Santa gifts?

Into the bargain there have also been multiple rumours of an earlier party on November 27^th, again while the UK was supposed be in NATIONAL LOCKDOWN, reportedly a leaving party for Cleo Watson former aid to Dominic Cummings. Moreover, Cummings himself has claimed that more parties were held in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, including one when the country was in the grip of the second national lockdown and another was held there on 13^th November last year (the day he himself was sacked from his job at Number 10) while the country was also in lockdown and at the time, the public had been told to stay at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect the NHS – it’s pretty amazing that our own Prime Minister who is supposed to know everything needed to run the country, yet doesn’t know what goes on in his OWN FLAT nor his Downing Street residence, so has to repeatedly seek assurances from others that there was no party and that no COVID rules were broken, eh?

[despite Boris’ further futile denials about parties, the news on the grapevine is that Jack Doyle, the PM’s most senior communications advisor, with 50 people present, made a thank you speech and handed out awards of paper certificates to his team  for work done during the year at the alleged Downing Street Christmas party on December 18]

Oher parties reportedly include 13 November 2020 in the PM’s flat with his wife (a BAD influence?) when Spad Cummings left; a leaving party for a staff member on 27 November 2020 during the second lockdown when Boris gave a speech; 16 December 2020 at time of tier 3 restrictions banning indoor mixing; 18 December 2020 party with 40 people and ‘Secret Santa’ presents; 22 December 2020 the infamous daily press briefing rehearsal spoof

A photo has now emerged of Boris himself personally seemingly BREAKING Covid laws by mixing with aides while hosting a Christmas QUIZ in No 10 last year on December 15 (so 3 days before the disputed big Christmas party) when London was under tier 2 regs banning ANY social mixing  between households and a work Christmas lunch or party was NOT permitted under tier rules; the PM was flanked by two members of his top team, one wearing a Santa hat and the other draped in tinsel, as some two dozen staff huddled together conferring on questions, quaffed fizz, wine, and beer brought-in from a local Tesco Metro

Then of course there is also another matter of BORIS Johnson being accused of flouting THREE Covid lockdown rules in a late-night dinner date with then fiancée Carrie on October 21 last year, when the pair were a mile and a half from Downing Street at fashionable London restaurant Darby’s until 10.25pm — despite the CURFEW imposing 10pm closing. it is said also that at one point, Boris went out to circulate with other parties in the main dining room. He WASN’T wearing a mask at times and he spoke to a couple of customers while standing at their table, when it was also revealed that new mum Carrie spotted pals dining nearby, whence the friends wandered over to speak to her and the PM – this despite a total BAN on mixing with other groups at tables [at the time, venues in the capital were subject to strict rules which also REQUIRED diners to wear masks when moving around in restaurants and a ban on different households mixing at tables – but he is said to have breached those curbs too (one rule for us and another for him!)

[at the time, Covid cases in London were on ‘a steep upward path’ with rates doubling every ten days, so staff were taking’ extra care’ to ensure they WOULD be ‘shut’ by 10pm, hence the bill was sent to the Prime Minister’s table by around 9.40pm, but by 10pm Boris, Carrie, and team, REMAINED seated with the nervous staff trying to say ‘politely’ that it was closing time and saying: ‘We need to clear the house’, but Boris was deep in conversation, then finally left the premises via the emergency exit LATE at 10.25pm!]

Moreover, we are now reliving March 2020[ [(when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the FIRST national lockdown), and once the nationwide stay-at-home order was lifted in May 2020, it was replaced by regional restrictions, social distancing measures, self-isolation laws for those exposed to the virus, and rules on face masks, while in autumn and winter 2020, further nationwide lockdowns were introduced in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases]. THIS year we have had mixed Govt messages on Xmas parties, which is ‘killing’ hospitality, since experts have reported companies are cancelling office Christmas parties after fears about the Omicron variant’s rise, prompting pleas from pubs, bars and restaurants for clearer messaging from ministers on festive celebrations.

That comes for example as Business Minister George Freeman told LBC that he had cancelled his in-person Christmas party with staff this year, but added he did not want to be telling businesses what “they should or shouldn’t be doing” in terms of festive celebrations

That decision to cancel the in-person party contradicts Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s advice, who in contrast told LBC that there was “no need” for the public to change festive plans. Boris Johnson also echoed similar messages to the Health Secretary whilst speaking at a Downing Street press conference early in the week. The Prime Minister said the Government doesn’t “want people to cancel such events”, assuring the public it was not “necessary to change the overall guidance” Also, Gillian Keegan, Minister for Care told LBC people should “go about their plans” with Christmas parties.

All that, despite Dr Jenny Harries, who heads up the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), suggesting people should LIMIT their socialising to stop Omicron getting around, and saying people should try to “DECREASE our social contacts” and avoid mixing “when we don’t particularly need to”.[She suffered an immediate ‘put-down’ by Downing Street, claiming that her role was solely to provide advice to the government and not to advise the population – but in true Boris Johnson wobbly shopping trolley style, they forgot that UKHSA is actually now a new GOVERNMENT department in the United Kingdom, replacing Public Health England, since April 2021 and fully operational on 1 October 2021, and it is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), so Dr Harries’ statement as Chief executive of UKHSA is in fact YOUR government POLICY, Boris!]

Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said whilst people should enjoy Christmas, she added: “I don’t think there should be much snogging under the mistletoe.”

Also though, as demonstrably in the past, the government apparently has learnt nothing from its  s   l   o   w  reaction to the spread of the Delta variant, which then ravished this country with unacceptably high hospitalisations and deaths, including fast growth in children aged between five and nine, and which is still rampaging across Europe with Austria, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland all now suffering high infection rates, so it could not afford to fail again as it has, with Omicron, which according to Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty will inevitably’ spread across the world in the next days.

It has now been exposed by a news organization in America that Missouri state withheld and hid data on the SUCCESS of mask mandates, making it painfully evident that some US states cared more about politics than public health – misinformation thereby prolonged the deadly effects of the pandemic. State attorney general Eric Schmitt was aggressively against implementation mandates, while Republican state governor Mike Parson was also against masks on freedom grounds. Donald Kauerauf Missouri Health Dept Director has affirmed by email that mask mandates had been very effective in places where implemented, like say the larger cities of St Louis and Kansas, and had significantly REDUCED both Covid transmission and death rates from April to October, compared to the stringently un-masked places

THIS IMPORTANT FIELD RESULT MAKES MASK WEARING IN ENGLAND EVEN MORE ESSENTIAL THIS WINTER, not least in light of the new Omicron variant’s potential ability to swerve vaccines – Boris Johnson and Sajid Javid need to heed!

Moreover, Boris has further demonstrated his vile policy of one rule for others while none applied to himself and his friends, with the revelation that 12 months ago members of his No 10 team held their own festive party days when reportedly In each case, there were 40 or 50 people crammed “cheek by jowl” into a medium-sized room before Christmas last year, while London was under Tier 3 restrictions (the law clearly stated ‘NO PERSON may participate in a gathering which consists of two or more people and takes place in ANY indoor space) and also the Country under lockdown with people banned from seeing their loved ones at Christmas even those dying, whence any festive event would have been against the rules that applied in 2020 –  the rules that were in place at the time, are very clear: ‘you must not have a work Christmas lunch or party’. However, while serial liar Johnson at first would not deny that a “boozy” Christmas party was held in Number 10 during the lockdown, he is taking the British public for fools by insisting that

no rules were broken and

“All guidance was followed completely”

– how the hell can you pretend to have had multiple large drinking parties in limited room spaces at Number 10 with everyone wearing permanent masks and applying the 2-meter social distancing rule, eh? Johnson has now belatedly at PMQs actually denied there was ANY such party, despite the indisputably strong evidence to the contrary with numerous reports that staff drank alcohol, played games and exchanged secret Santa gifts?

Into the bargain there have also been multiple rumours of an earlier party on November 27^th, again while the UK was supposed be in NATIONAL LOCKDOWN, reportedly a leaving party for Cleo Watson former aid to Dominic Cummings. Moreover, Cummings himself has claimed that more parties were held in Boris Johnson’s Downing Street flat, including one when the country was in the grip of the second national lockdown and another was held there on 13^th November last year (the day he himself was sacked from his job at Number 10) while the country was also in lockdown and at the time, the public had been told to stay at home to prevent the spread of coronavirus and protect the NHS – it’s pretty amazing that our own Prime Minister who is supposed to know everything needed to run the country, yet doesn’t know what goes on in his OWN FLAT nor his Downing Street residence, so has to repeatedly seek assurances from others that there was no party and that no COVID rules were broken, eh?

Moreover, we are now reliving March 2020[ (when Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown), and once the nationwide stay-at-home order was lifted in May 2020, it was replaced by regional restrictions, social distancing measures, self-isolation laws for those exposed to the virus, and rules on face masks, while in autumn and winter 2020, further nationwide lockdowns were introduced in response to a surge in COVID-19 cases] with mixed Govt messages on Xmas parties THIS year which is ‘killing’ hospitality, since experts have reported companies are cancelling office Christmas parties after fears about the Omicron variant’s rise, prompting pleas from pubs, bars and restaurants for clearer messaging from ministers on festive celebrations.

That comes for example as Business Minister George Freeman told LBC that he had cancelled his in-person Christmas party with staff this year, but added he did not want to be telling businesses what “they should or shouldn’t be doing” in terms of festive celebrations

That decision to cancel the in-person party contradicts Health Secretary Sajid Javid’s advice, who in contrast told LBC that there was “no need” for the public to change festive plans. Boris Johnson also echoed similar messages to the Health Secretary whilst speaking at a Downing Street press conference early this week. The Prime Minister said the Government doesn’t “want people to cancel such events” assuring the public it was not “necessary to change the overall guidance” Also, Gillian Keegan, Minister for Care told LBC people should “go about their plans” with Christmas parties.

Concerns about the original source of the current pandemic are resurrected as suspicions are growing that the virus was manipulated in a lab in the city of Wuhan amid claims that Covid is a BIOWEAPON that leaked from Wuhan lab during military ‘Frankenvirus’ tests, claims Chinese whistle-blower

A CHINESE virologist who fled to the US after alleging China covered up the Covid outbreak has insisted the virus is an “unrestricted bioweapon” that leaked from a Wuhan lab.

All this, despite Dr aJenny Harries, who heads up the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), suggesting people should LIMIT their  to stop Omicron getting around, and saying people should try to “DECREASE our social contacts” and avoid mixing “when we don’t particularly need to”[She suffered an immediate ‘put-down’ by Downing Street, claiming that her role was solely to provide advice to the government and not to advise the population – but in true Boris Johnson wobbly shopping trolley style, they forgot that UKHSA is actually now a new GOVERNMENT department in the United Kingdom, replacing Public Health England, since April 2021 and fully operational on 1 October 2021, and it is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), so Dr Harries’ statement as Chief executive of UKHSA is in fact YOUR government POLICY, Boris!]. Work and Pensions Secretary Therese Coffey said whilst people should enjoy Christmas, she added: “I don’t think there should be much snogging under the mistletoe.” Also though, as demonstrably in the past, the government apparently has learnt nothing from its s l o w reaction to the spread of Delta which then ravished this country with unacceptably high hospitalisations and deaths, including fast growth in children aged between five and nine, and which is still rampaging across Europe with Austria, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Switzerland all now suffering high infection rates, so it could not afford to fail again as it has, with Omicron, which according to Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty will inevitably’ spread across the world in the next days!

Whistle-blower Dr Li Meng-Yan In her March 31 report, wrote: “SARS-CoV-2 was created based on template viruses ZC45 and ZXC21, which were originally discovered in bats by scientists of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) The subsequent laboratory modifications had enabled its ability to infect humans as well as had enhanced the virus in its pathogenicity, transmissibility, and lethality

Dr Li even claims that a trove of Dr Anthony Fauci’s emails proves her allegations and that he was among scientists who KNEW about it but tried to HIDE it – following the release of the emails, Fauci an American immunologist and past director of the National Institute of Allergy finally acknowledged the “lab-made” Covid theory may have some weight [Senator Rand Paul claimed Fauci spread lies about American-funded research in the Wuhan lab, where Covid is increasingly thought to have originated]

Dr Li Meng-Yan, formerly a virologist at Hong Kong’s School of Public Health, has previously backed claims Beijing tried to silence anyone who attempted to raise the alarm when the virus first broke out in Wuhan last year She has also backed claims that the virus came NOT from a meat market in Wuhan, as is widely thought by scientists, but from a virology RESEARCH centre in the city

Furthermore, Shi Zhengli a top Wuhan virologist from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which carried out pioneering research on almost identical viruses, warned that more COVID mutations are coming, as deadly new mutations of COVID-19 will continue to emerge  – and a so-called Doomsday variant . She fled to USA in fear of her life after coronavirus cover-up claims and vows to publish evidence PROVING virus is manmade

The corona virus might of course also adversely impact flu season as we could see COVID-19 and the flu exist in the same seasons.

POSTSCRIPT [Government U-Turn on Plan B]

Boris Johnson is ridiculed for making policy U-turns so another one on Covid is no surprise, is it? His record is one of 20 U-turns on a range covering free school meals, exam grades, Christmas lockdown, Owen Paterson suspension, and vaccine passports

Now following the country-wide spread of the Omicron variant, Boris has announced the tightening of virus restrictions in England with new Covid rules laid down by the Government, which will see latest ones rules will come into force these two weeks involving:

1. the introduction of mandatory COVID vaccine passports (a negative lateral flow test will also be acceptable!) to enter large venues (affecting indoor venues holding more than 500 people and outdoor venues with a capacity of more than 4,000) and nightclubs coming into force Wednesday 15 December (‘devastating’ for nightclubs)
   NOTE: lateral flow tests results ARE totally UNRELIABLE – BECAUSE there’s NO actual ‘proof’ the person reporting actually TOOK ‘any’ test whatsoever, let alone performed it correctly, OR even reported the ‘true’ result. Also, Omicron can be very, very ‘fast’, so any test result expires very quickly – it is hours that we are talking about here
   
2. From Monday 13 December, working from home where possible
3. mandatory adult mask-wearing will be required in more public settings including theatres and cinemas from Friday10 December – also shops and supermarkets (places which offer goods or services for retail sale or hire) plus shopping centres (malls and indoor markets, Auction houses, Post offices, banks, building societies, high street solicitors and accountants, credit unions, short-term loan providers, savings clubs and money service businesses, Estate and letting agents, premises providing personal care and beauty treatments (barbers, hair salons, tattoo and piercing studios, nail salons and massage centres)  Pharmacies [fixed penalties of £200 for the first offence (reduced to £100 if paid within 14 days)]
   [The Plan B measures will be reviewed on ‘January 5’, before their expiry date of January 26]
   

However, the PM while naively insisting the new measures do NOT amount to a lockdown and people can CONTINUE with Christmas parties and children’s events such as Nativity plays, as long as they “exercise due caution” (when past behaviour shows that can’t be relied on), has sparked a fierce REBELLION within his own party as MPs turn on him over unveiling ‘the long put-off’ Plan B of Covid measures in the wake of the alleged Downing Street 2020 Christmas party, whence ordinary people might ask the question ‘Why should we follow rules?’ when the government itself doesn’t [indeed a Survation poll for the Mirror newspaper determined that 77% are LESS LIKELY to follow Covid rules if government officials broke them!). This MP backlash though clearly demonstrates that the Tories care more about their party politics of popularism and winning the next byelection than UK public health, or indeed saving people’s lives from Covid, doesn’t it? One HUNDRED of the Tory MPs, amounting to half of Boris’ backbenchers, voted against him in favour of MORE covid-19 DEATHS in England.

These crass Conservative MPs are ones who really bury their heads in the sand while hoping that simply denying the existence of the problem avoids having to face something negative, whence they are persons ignoring the obvious facts about the Omicron surge and refuse to accept scientific advice [England Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warns that hospital admissions from Omicron was now ‘nailed-on’ and he reports ‘this is a really serious threat’ – there are several THINGS we don’t know, but ALL the things we DO know are bad]

[There is a popular ‘but untrue’ metaphor, believed to have originated with observations of ostriches that appear to bury their heads in the sand to avoid predators, when in fact the ostrich might dig a massive hole to bury their eggs safely in the ground or later ostrich parents may dip their heads below the ground to gently turn the eggs]

The very next 3 days after these idiot Tory MPs who refused to ‘follow the science’ (only thwarted by those of Labour) carried through on their vile 14^th December rebellion against essential Omicron protection measures for England, in favour of COVID deaths, the number of infections hit progressive massive new record DAILY HIGHS of 78,610, 88,376, and 93,045, then on 19 December 2021 82,886, with the 7-day total UP over 50% since 6th December, (its highest DAILY cases totals ^EVER of the pandemic – so more than 10,000 up on the previous record high (68,192) set on January 8 at the pandemic reached a PEAK last winter), and with now over a hundred more deaths each day (totalling 780 DEAD in the past 7 days), also with expectations that Covid records will be broken a lot over the next few weeks (with another 900 in hospital with coronavirus and on 13 December 6,056 people with the virus in 7 days admitted into hospital in the UK, slightly down from 7,488 a week earlier, but the hospital admission rate of COVID-19-confirmed patients in England has increased to 7.06 per 100,000 people in the week ending 12 December 2021). Hospitalisations and deaths have specifically impacted the elderly and particularly the over 75s

We also saw the UK pass 11 million cases of COVID-19—only the fourth to country in the world to reach the tally (only three other countries having more cases—the US, India and Brazil, yet the UK has a significantly _smaller population, so NOT a record the government should be proud of, eh?). Omicron was FIRST detected in the UK on November 27^th. Two days earlier Britain had recorded its 10 millionth COVID infection, so it has taken just three weeks for another MILLION people to be infected – BUT CONSERVATIVE MPs DON’T GIVE A DAMN, do they? No, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is doing essentially nothing to combat Omicron in continuance of its already discredited herd immunity agenda. The sole aim of the government is to protect the profits of big business!

THE Omicron Covid variant could lead to 4,000 deaths a day as the more transmissible strain continues to spread, new research claims Professor Neil Ferguson.

The study, carried out by a team led by Professor Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London, comes as daily Covid cases hit another record high.

[Meanwhile a study just released found that Omicron was FOUR-TIMES ‘more’ infectious than the ‘original’ Covid strain and TWO-TIMES more infectious than the Delta strain. Scientists said this was because Omicron’s highly-mutated spike protein was better at binding to human cells, which then infects the host with Covid]

Furthermore, during questions about the introduction of the new rules, the Conservative launched a damning takedown of Health Secretary Sajid Javid as he HADclaimed how the variant did NOT support the introduction of fresh restrictions, and he had added how protection against serious disease “remains strong” through vaccination before sharing his concerns over how much longer Britons will have to endure Covid restrictions!

Now, sage expert, Professor John Edmunds has said that the restrictions were a NECESSARY evil ….but  very damaging for parts of the economy, particularly the hospitality, and retail sectors, which are going to be affected

The real ‘problem’ though behind the new restrictions is that despite massive additional funding the NHS has failed miserably to expand its capability as promised, so it remained vulnerable and had to be protected when an issue like the new variant arose

Nevertheless, tory MP cynics say that Boris Johnson advanced his Plan B limited reintroduction of Covid-19 restrictions and the timing of his recent announcement, was a dead cat diversionary ploy to distract from ongoing scrutiny on alleged Christmas Parties held by his Downing Street staff LAST year (a media conference outlining the festivity gatherings was to have happened the following day!)

[Deadcatting – or the ‘dead cat’ tactic, is a tried-and-tested ‘political manoeuvre’ to deflect attention from a damaging subject. It springs from the notion of throwing a dead cat on to a table as a diversion, so that people talk about the cat rather than the issue causing problems]

However, the fight against the OMICRON variant will become “much more challenging”, expert Professor Kevin Fenton, Regional Director of Public Health for London, has warned (many national conversations are going to have to take place as we move from our second and into our third YEAR of the pandemic) – officials have ALREADY started considering a “Plan C“, which could see the return of having to check in at the pub and a more blanket USE of the face covering mandate.

All the scientific evidence indicates the urgent need for limits on indoor mixing, an 8pm curfew and another LOCKDOWN (a COBRA meeting is set to go ahead 20^th December as leaders from across the UK discuss spiralling Omicron cases), but as those SOLELY responsible for the chaos, the blocking of hospital ICU beds, the cancellation of countless life-saving operations, and the current threat of the virus overwhelming the NHS, are the wilfully UNVACCINATED who have provided a reservoir sanctuary for the virus to exist in and mutate, then they alone should be the SOLE object of the lockdown, and NO new measures should apply to those who have done the right thing – had two jabs and a booster. Those who haven’t should rightly have their social lives curtailed until they learn the lesson that there’s a personal price to pay for utter selfishness – just watch how quick they change tack, eh?

Scandal-hit Boris Johnson has cancelled THIS year’s Downing Street Christmas party amid mounting anger and public fury over claims his staff held lockdown–breaking parties LAST year, but said he hoped people would go ahead with festive events while exercising events while exercising caution – which won’t happen, will it?

Jun 12, 2020 · Masks can reduce the growth rate of coronavirus infections by 40%, according to researchers who studied the experience of places in Germany that promoted their use.

Searches related to german us study on masks shows 259 times more effective

Aug 22, 2021 · Study finds N95 masks more effective than surgical, cloth coverings against COVID-19 … Omicron variant spreads to six more US states

Correctly wearing of the surgical masks was shown to be more effective than using the N95 masks even the latter has a better facial fit (Noti et al., 2012). Davies et al. ( 2013 ) recruited 21 healthy volunteers and collected air samples of each volunteer in three different conditions: 1. wearing a mask made of T‐shirt, 2. wearing a standard surgical mask 3. wearing a N95 mask – Author: Yuxin Wang, Zicheng Deng, Zicheng

Masks are almost certainly an effective public health measure for preventing and slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2

Yep. And in the aftermath of a retrospective damning Commons inquiry into the government’s mayhem handling of the Covid-19 outbreak, Shapps has insisted that the government was

‘prepared for A pandemic’,

but the problem was just they

“weren’t prepared for THIS one”

idiot!

 and events occurred as reported below from the  Guardian:

The inquiry ‘Coronavirus: lessons learnt’ (or NOT?) found the Covid response was ‘one of UK’s worst ever public health failures’, when the early handling and belief in ‘herd immunity’ led to more deaths,

Britain’s early handling of the coronavirus pandemic was one of the worst public health failures in UK history, with ministers and scientists taking a “fatalistic” approach that exacerbated the death toll, the landmark inquiry has found.

“Groupthink”, evidence of British exceptionalism and a deliberately “slow and gradualist” approach meant the UK fared “significantly worse” than OTHER countries, according to the 151-page “Coronavirus: lessons learned to date” report led by two former Conservative ministers.

A 2016 exercise warned of the need to stockpile PPE four YEARS before the Covid pandemic hit. Coronavirus report warned of impact on UK four years BEFORE the pandemic

The crisis exposed “major deficiencies in the machinery of government”, with public bodies unable to share vital information and scientific advice impaired by a lack of transparency, input from international experts and meaningful challenge.

Despite being one of the FIRST countries to develop a test for Covid in January 2020, the UK “squandered” its lead and “converted it into one of permanent crisis”. The consequences were profound, the report says. “For a country with a world-class expertise in data analysis, to face the biggest health crisis in 100 years with virtually no data to analyse was an almost unimaginable setback.”

PM Boris Johnson did not order a complete lockdown until 23 March 2020, two months AFTER the government’s Sage committee of scientific advisers first met to discuss the crisis. “This slow and gradualist approach was not inadvertent, nor did it reflect bureaucratic delay or disagreement between ministers and their advisers. It was a deliberate policy – proposed by official scientific advisers and adopted by the governments of all of the nations of the UK,” the report says.

“It is now clear that this was the WRONG policy, and that it led to a higher initial death toll than would have resulted from a more emphatic early policy. In a pandemic spreading rapidly and exponentially, every week counted.”

Decisions on lockdowns and social distancing during the early weeks of the pandemic – and the advice that led to them – “rank as one of the most important public health failures the United Kingdom has ever experienced”, the report concludes, stressing: “This happened despite the UK counting on some of the best expertise available anywhere in the world, and despite having an open, democratic system that allowed plentiful challenge.”

The report from the Commons Science And Technology committee and the Health And Social Care committee draws on evidence from more than 50 witnesses, including the former health secretary Matt Hancock, the government’s chief scientific and medical advisers, and leading figures from the vaccine taskforce and NHS Test and Trace.

It celebrates some aspects of the UK’s Covid response, in particular the rapid development, approval and delivery of vaccines, and the world-leading Recovery trial that identified life-saving treatments, but is highly critical of other areas.

Some of the most serious early failings, the report suggests, resulted from apparent groupthink among scientists and ministers which led to “fatalism”. Greg Clark, the chair of the science and technology committee, said he dismissed the allegation that government policy sought to reach “herd immunity” through infection but the outcome came to be seen as the only viable option.

“It was more a reflection of fatalism,” Clark said. “That if you don’t have the prospect of a vaccine being developed, if you think people won’t obey instructions to lockdown for very long, and have a wholly inadequate ability to test, trace and isolate people, that is what you are left with.”

The “impossibility” of suppressing the virus was only challenged, the MPs say, when it became clear the NHS could be overwhelmed.

The report questions WHY international experts were not part of the UK scientific advisory process and why measures that worked in other countries were NOT brought in as a precaution, as a response was hammered out.

While Public Health England told the MPs it had formally studied and rejected the South Korean approach, NO EVIDENCE was provided despite repeated requests.

“We must conclude that no formal evaluation took place, which amounts to an extraordinary and negligent omission given Korea’s success in containing the pandemic, which was well publicised at the time,” the report says.

The MPs said the government’s decision to HALT mass testing in March 2020 – days AFTER the World Health Organization called for “painstaking contact tracing and rigorous quarantine of close contacts” – was a “serious mistake”.

When the test, trace and isolate system was rolled out it was “slow, uncertain and often chaotic”, “ultimately failed in its stated objective to prevent future lockdowns”, and “severely hampered the UK’s response to the pandemic”. The problem was compounded, the report adds, by the failure of public bodies to share data, including between national and local government.

Further criticism is levelled at poor protection in Care Homes, for black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and for people with learning disabilities.

Prof Trish Greenhalgh, of the University of Oxford, said the report hinted at a “less than healthy relationship” between government and its scientific advisory bodies. “It would appear that even senior government ministers were reluctant to push back on scientific advice that seemed to go against common sense interpretations of the unfolding crisis,” she said.

“It would appear that Sage, Cobra, Public Health England and other bodies repeatedly dismissed the precautionary principle in favour of NOT taking decisive action until definitive evidence emerged and could be signed off as the truth.”

Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, said the report was damning. Hannah Brady, of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the report found the deaths of 150,000 people were “redeemed” by the success of the vaccine rollout.

“The report … is laughable and more interested in political arguments about whether you can bring laptops to Cobra meetings than it is in the experiences of those who tragically lost parents, partners or children to Covid-19. This is an attempt to ignore and gaslight bereaved families, who will see it as a slap in the face,” she said.

The content of the Commons inquiry report is particularly galling considering that articles were posted here in real time and updated daily identifying the ongoing multiple government failures which not least included concentrating primarily on a vaccine solution with solely long term applicability instead of prioritising developing ‘immediate’ medication treatments or indeed the government ordering millions of vaccine doses with no plan whatsoever to actually jab people, so they left that critical exercise to a twelfth hour bodge job requiring volunteer efforts!

The worst thing about it all is that government incompetence has continued unabated since those early days, hence back in July this year the new Health Secretary Sajid Javid together with PM Johnson courted popularism by abandoning England’s crucial defences against the virus, widely dubbed as “Freedom Day” JULY 19 (postponed from original 21 JUNE by four weeks), combined with a total absence of leadership from the Government on mask wearing, or doing things differently which meant looking out for each other and not buying the “Freedom Day” rhetoric, when implementing the badly mistaken opinion that the pandemic virus had already been defeated so basic life could return to normal – England removed COVID-19 restrictions as cases rose again and while the rules vanished the virus didn’t! The decision to ditch most coronavirus restrictions was strongly criticized by many medical professionals who had been at the forefront in the fight against COVID [The decision to remove the restrictions came as the UK reported 48,161 new cases and 25 COVID-related deaths over a 24-hour period]. Since then, there has been many million more virus cases and thousands of deaths which could have been avoided – Javid through his irresponsible action and following inaction is accountable but like the others before him, he doesn’t take responsibility, does he? NO AND WHAT DOES HE HAVE TO SAY NOW TO THE BEREAVED? Also, countless people of all ages will now suffer for years with long-covid [unexplained symptoms that are usually in younger people and usually people who didn’t initially have to be in the hospital or weren’t severely sick with COVID] and for which there is a severe lack of treatment centres

Our incompetent government is relying on vaccinations and boosters alone to save the day (yet hasn’t brought in legislation to stop anti-vaxxers actively spreading misinformation about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines on social media to discourage others from taking up offered vaccinations. Moreover, its commonly predicted that new Covid variants will both be more infectious and will be able to overcome vaccination protection), so vaccination alone isn’t enough to keep the virus under control and current Covid measures are ‘insufficient’ to deal with the virus over Christmas, expert Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London and the lead scientist on the Zoe Covid Study app, warns vaccines alone are not enough to control coronavirus and current measures are ‘insufficient’. He says that this coming Christmas is not the only one to be worried about, and that Covid could be a concern for the next five years. He said experts now have a better picture than they did last year, when they thought they just had to get through the year ‘And that’s clearly turning out not to be the case, as we realise that just vaccines alone are not the final solution to this – we need a combination of measures’.

Yet our Health Secretary Sajid Javid (who readily admits that Covid-19 cases here could reach 100,000 a day) and the government continues to sit on their hands and refuses even now to implement coronavirus ‘Plan B’ in England on top of its new guidance, where people are advised to test for Covid before going to crowded places or spending time with those who are at greater risk from Covid

[Plan B which could include: Vaccine passports (used for entry to large indoor events, entry to nightclubs, cinemas, theatres and concert halls and many other indoor and outdoor events); a return of ‘mandatory’ face coverings in some settings like on public transport, and in shops and hospitals; recommending that people work from home; or reintroduction of social distancing?]

That’s despite the government being heavily criticised as Covid cases in the UK continue to soar with the NHS Confederation warning the UK risks ‘stumbling into a winter crisis’.

Moreover, the COVID-19 infection has actually progressed out of a pandemic stage and is now classified as an endemic in this country, which means the virus can be experienced at all times, at low levels, and is now characteristic of, prevalent, and native to our country. This is a direct result of those ignorant, irresponsible individuals who have refused to be jabbed so have allowed the virus safe haven to persist in their midst.

It might adversely impact the flu season as we could see COVID-19 and the flu exist in the same seasons.

Lying con artist Tory ex-cabinet minister was handsomely paid [basic annual salary £81,932 (from 2020) combined with amazingly generous pension pension rights (based on ‘final earnings’ at retirement, and the number of years the MP has been a member of the fund)] and raked-in substantial expenses as an MP (say up to £41,000 per month in the past year alone), yet instead of doing his proper job, he took alternative employment in 2016 with two companies (Northern Irish employers – health giant Randox and a meat firm Lynn’s Country Foods, trousering£112,000 a year for doing so), and against the rules worked tirelessly for them seeking government meetings, and lobbying ministers and officials, sending emails & letters, instead of working for his North Shropshire constituents and the State, before caught-out with his skulduggery was exposed. He resigned as an MP to escape, but has got off Scot free, hasn’t repaid a penny of his fraudulently obtained pay or expenses, nor been sanctioned at all and will draw full pension (say at least £18,500 a year), because he is a friend of PM Boris Johnson whose government is clearly prepared to support and ignore sleaze, and the speculation is that he is suspected of even offering him a peerage, making him a Lord, in compensation for his disgrace for corruption?

[Diagnostics company Randox, which paid Owen Paterson for lobbying work, won a coronavirus testing contract worth £133m just days before government officials confirmed it did not have enough equipment, according to documents. Questions also persist regarding Randox’s ability to land Covid-19 contracts worth around half a billion pounds, many awarded without tender, over the past year and a half].

This crass MP has publicly repeatedly denied any wrongdoing whatsoever, despite the damning evidence or being found guilty of braking lobbying rules by the appointed Parliamentary Standards Commissioner– which makes him not only a sleazebag but bare-faced liar, to boot?

The Conservative Party’s engulfment in further allegations of sleaze after Johnson’s interventions on lobbying rules and handling process including an embarrassing government U-turn, has resulted in a poll showing Boris Johnson’s approval ratings have hit a record low, while nearly half think HE and the Tories are corrupt!

The UK’s political anti-corruption reputation is now totally trashed, and so much then for its own strategy to step up global action to expose, punish and drive out corruption in all walks of life, eh?

FURTHER UPDATE (21 FEB 2022)

Well, Dame Cressida Dick’s resignation may have come in February 2022 after a string of scandals that had thrown Met into crisis, but now London Mayor Sadiq Khan and she are engulfed in a war over the size of her £500,000 payoff plus £160,000-a-year gold-plated pension as ‘Khan tries to avoid handing over such a huge severance package’ so is resisting the full amount

This ALL because the Mayor of London messed up BIG TIME in 2021 when rather than follow due process and issue some WARNING written letter(s) to Met commissioner Dame Cressida Dick (raking £¼ million a year), the first female and first openly homosexual officer to lead the Metropolitan Police, saying that her performance needed to improve or she would be sacked, HE, in what can only be described as a moment of madness, actually outwardly commended her tenure to lead the Metropolitan Police by then e   x   t   e   n   d   I   n   g her then contract on 10 September 2021 by TWO years from April 2022 until 2024, which triggered a backlash from those wronged by the Met who saw it as a reward for failure

By giving such an unwarranted contract extension to Dame Cressida Dick, she could now receive a huge pay-out of more than £500,000 plus a peerage with ‘discussions ongoing’ over an exit package for her constructive dismissal after he forced her to resign February 2022 (she could receive two thirds of her £230,000 salary as a pension, plus a six-figure cash settlement) – which is a dreadful reward for failure and it’s appalling that the public purse should have to foot the bill. MPs and relatives of the victims affected by scandals on Dame Cressida’s watch have called on Mr Khan to either refuse to offer her a pay off OR fund the amount himself

UPDATE (11 FEB 2022)

Dame Cressida Dick has dramatically quit her critical position on the evening of 10th February 2022, despite a strong refusal to do so earlier in the morning. This ‘overdue’ event finally happened NOW because she had lost the support of London Mayor Sadiq Khan Labour over her ‘latest’ plan to reform the Met following a series of appalling incidents (including the murder of Sarah Everard) and too many historical cases under her watch, involving serving police officers, which has seriously undermined public confidence in our largest police force and destroyed trust in the integrity and professionalism of the police officers who serve them. As the Commissioner, Cressida Dick in apparently displaying indecisive leadership and poor management, has faced a series of scandals, most recently concerning violent racist, misogynist and homophobic MESSAGES exchanged by officers based at Charing Cross police station, that have just been published by a watchdog!

Home Secretary Priti Patel Conservative has warned that the next incumbent Commissioner faces ‘stark challenges’ covering scrutiny of policing culture and conduct so MUST tackle the ‘institutional issues’ within the force [which Cressida certainly didn’t]

However, Ms Patel clashed with Mayor Khan by being sidelined by him, so was then surprised at this sudden departure while she was also ‘annoyed’ (thought it ‘rude’ and ‘unprofessional’ ) that the police chief had been called by Mr khan to an emergency afternoon meeting with him over the reforms, which she then declined and instead resigned!

PREVIOUSLY

Some say that you got your job as a bit of blatant window dressing? You have said publicly recently regarding Sarah Everard’s murder that you are ‘Sorry’ and ‘Lessons will be Learnt’? Ambiguous, misleading, weasel words when you don’t explain WHAT you are Sorry for, nor WHAT Lessons will be Learnt?

Wayne Couzens, a serving Met armed police officer, with an all-areas pass to the Commons, committed the heinous crimes of kidnap, rape, and murder of 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard and trash burning his victim’s body, yet he was not dismissed, so remained in your force and was still paid long after he had admitted this criminality. He was recruited and passed ‘clearly inadequate’ vetting checks with no follow-up, as he had no criminal convictions or cautions, and that despite his reputation in previous forces as a sexual bad egg [nicknamed ‘the rapist’ by colleagues in the Civil Nuclear Constabulary because of his inappropriate behaviour around women]. He used to work at his father’s garage in Dover before joining the Kent Special Constabulary at some point after 2002, and a colleague in that year has spoken of ‘his attraction to brutal sexual pornography’. He used prostitutes and had a fake Match.com dating profile despite being married with two children. In 2018, it has been claimed that he was reported to bosses for slapping a female police officer’s bottom at Bromley police station but it appears no action was taken; and also, while at Bromley, it is alleged he became the subject of gossip for only stopping female motorists – before taking their details so he could watch their homes – and parking outside schools to leer at mothers and sixth formers.

Couzens had previously committed flashing sexual offences – the early sign of a carnal marauder

On February 28, just 72 hours before Miss Everard’s murder, two McDonald’s staff told police they were flashed by a male motorist at a branch in Swanley, Kent. Officers are then believed to have identified Couzens’ car via CCTV of his number plate. However, officers did not realise the suspect was their own officer until afterwards. He previously had exposed himself (naked from the waist down) on February 7 and again on February 27 (again officers are believed to have identified Couzens’ car via CCTV of his number plate).

Furthermore, Couzens’ car number plate was linked to a 2015 alleged indecent exposure in Kent, though Couzens was not named as the suspect, but the vehicle involved was identified and that information would have been enough to establish that Couzens was the owner. Met Police blamed the Kent force for the missing link, claiming ‘Kent Police investigated this allegation and decided to take no further action’ – the record of this allegation and outcome may not have been found during the Met vetting checks. Indeed more recently he was suspected of flashing two women at McDonald’s three days before his vile escapade [the incident had been reported to police, who identified Couzens’ car via CCTV] – and though police knew that one ‘Wayne Couzens’ was accused of flashing they apparently failed to identify him as a Met officer until later, so he was never apprehended – that inexplicable failure, which smacks of protectionism by fellow officers, as very few people share the killer’s name (meaning a basic investigation would have identified the Diplomatic Protection Officer as the suspect), whence he could have been exposed as a sexual predator and suspended (involving being put on restricted duties, meaning he had to hand in his warrant card and couldn’t have any contact with the public), before he went on to kidnap, rape and strangle Sarah, but that ‘failure to investigate’ fiasco allowed him on the evening of 3 March 2021 to fulfil his sick fantasy and proceed with his premeditated plan to seek out on the dark streets of South London and fatally attack any innocent lone woman stranger he came across. There were multiple missed chances to expose Couzens as a threat to women. That would include the fact that twisted killer officer Wayne Couzens ‘showed off a prostitute at a Met Police party’ and referred to her as his bit of “brass” at a private do at the Hilton in Maidstone, Kent – the former Met Police officer was said to be open with colleagues about using prostitutes. In addition, on another occasion a woman is alleged to have turned up at his London police station asking for money, and the married dad-of-two was then ‘called back from patrol’ so he could go to a cashpoint with her and he admitted she was also a prostitute – the woman refused to leave until she’d spoken to Couzens. A source said Couzens was “always saying weird things about sex” and gave several colleagues “the creeps” – it “beggars belief” if “not actually criminal” that he was protected by colleagues and no-one saw fit to raise either of the two escort incidents with superiors or how your force failed to identify Couzens as a predatory risk.

Sarah Everard’s ‘false arrest and murder’ has corroded trust in the police in general and brought ‘shame’ on your force’ – women’s confidence in the police has been shattered, hasn’t it?

Why was Wayne Couzens not also charged with the false arrest used in the abduction – because that would put the police in disrepute? Who decided that?

The burden to stay safe has repugnantly been delegated to women themselves (wives, partners, sister’s, daughters, and female friends) as demonstrated by the Met Police new ‘ridiculous’ derisory guidance telling women to ‘wave down a bus’, if they don’t trust a male officer! What distrust people will now have where they have to protect themselves FROM the police in that manner, eh?

Reportedly more than 750 of your officers and staff have faced sexual misconduct claims since 2010 – just 83 sacked though! Well before Wayne Couzens, staggeringly some 27 of your officers were CONVICTED of sex crimes in the past 5 years, including one who was jailed 26 months for sending highly sexualised messages to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl? Another officer was sent down for 22 months for 3 counts of possession of indecent child images and three of outraging public decency. Five have even carried out sex offences while ON DUTY since 2010 and unbelievably one was recruited last year despite a conviction for INDECENT EXPOSURE? Sex offences included rape, possession of indecent child images, and voyeurism, while 150 serving officers have convictions for OTHER offences ranging from assault to drugs – when it’s never appropriate for a force to employ an officer with a criminal record, is it?

Yet another serving Met police officer (now suspended), from the same Diplomatic Protection Command as Couzens, has been charged on 3 October with rape by Hertfordshire Constabulary when off-duty on 4 September 2020 in St Albans.

Moreover, in the months before Couzens’ criminal actions he exchanged WhatsApp group misogynistic, racist and homophobic texts for 8 months in 2019 with his police colleagues, as found on his phone, so another 16 of your officers and others are now being probed and are ones who are ‘belatedly’ facing a criminal investigation for sending grossly offensive material (why are some still on duty?). However, you knew all about that of course as a superintendent senior officer ‘whistle blower’ warned you in March about the 2019 WhatsApp sick vulgar sexist texts sent by your officers, that amply demonstrated the flourishing sexist culture environment at the Met, though you didn’t respond. Nevertheless, action WAS taken – but NOT against the culprits but AGAINST the female informant who was victimised and lost her job, so took your force to an industrial tribunal and won her case for compensation DISGUSTING. In typical police cover-up fashion, a panel had found the WhatsApp group vile participants behaviour to be ‘distasteful’ but NOT amounting to MISCONDUCT – but the industrial tribunal decided differently and ruled the messages were ‘sexualised, derogatory towards women, offensive, and completely inappropriate for ANY workplace’!

Many months ago, your force the MET was exposed by senior officers as being a hotbed of unchecked widespread and rife toxic sexism and misogyny, so how come you didn’t know about it nor take appropriate action to deal with what amounts to institutional misogyny, eh? You don’t seem to get the seriousness of the situation you have presided over?

Furthermore, on 13 March 2021, your male police officers were seen ‘grabbing and manhandling’ peaceful women who were then handcuffed and removed from crowds at a vigil for Sarah Everard in south London (while officers had a responsibility to enforce Covid-19 restrictions at the rally it was in the public’s view a response at times neither appropriate nor proportionate – though a police watchdog ‘whitewash’ found they had acted “appropriately”).

[During the vigil held in memory of Sarah Everard the ‘Reclaim The Streets’ group had planned to hold a peaceful vigil on Clapham Common in honour of Everard, on a Saturday evening but ultimately cancelled those plans after failing to engage the London Met Police in talks about how best to hold the event – however, despite the change of plans, hundreds still descended on Clapham Common in a show of female solidarity]

Rotten apple Wayne Couzens was surrounded by likeminded sexism fellow officers who did not investigate his foulness and he was disgracefully protected by your rotten barrel institution

All these dreadful things at the MET, Britain’s largest police force with 43,000 officers [Police Officers: 32,373; Special Constables: 1,840; Police Community Support Officers: 1,254; Designated Detention Officers: 614; Police Staff: 9,814], happened on YOUR watch, but YOU don’t seem to accept ACCOUNTABILITY, so although Couzens is solely responsible for Sarah Everard’s murder, WHO is accountable for your organisation’s many many failings, that now make it not fit for purpose, eh?

You have belatedly now announced an independent review into the “standards” and “culture” of the Metropolitan Police when you say “Our leadership, our processes, our systems, our people, our training, everything will be looked at. This will be a fully transparent report, it will respond to me, but will, of course, make recommendations for changes, I’m sure, and those will be public.” but why did you wait and not do so at the appropriate time, say a year ago, when it would have saved Sarah Everard from brutal murder by Wayne Couzens?

Your devious plan to protect your management inaction by holding an ‘independent review’ in secret and only disclosing to the public ‘change recommendations’, has been scuppered by Home Secretary Priti Patel’s decision to launch an independent government inquiry into the Mets (your) failures after the Couzens scandal [“unimaginable failures” allowed Wayne Couzens to keep his job], hasn’t it? She like the general public is aghast that indeed he was ever was allowed to join as a Met police officer and remained one, before raping and killing Sarah Everard (the worst moment in the Metropolitan Police’s 192-year history?) – it will also investigate the missed opportunities you had to identify his predatory behaviour, and the ‘boys club’ culture at Scotland Yard that protected him from exposure. Secondly, it will cover changes that you needed to have implement in vetting practices, professional standards, discipline and workplace behaviour [currently it will be non-statutory, so unless that changes it will NOT have powers to compel witnesses to attend hearings or get full access to documents, as there are genuine fears it could be obstructed by Scotland Yard no less, and monster Couzens himself could obtain the right to appear and even gain full access to sensitive detail linked evidence. [Patel also asks “what’s going wrong in policing in London” where all the key statistics on crime and misconduct were “going in the wrong direction” (it has to be said under your personal management for over 5 years since 2017)

The Telegraph newspaper’s latest exposé of your force’s catalogue of failings and ‘institutional rot’ that has corrupted the Metropolitan Police, including ‘ineffective’ and ‘bullying’ management, is outlined by a number of your team former-detectives from CAIT (Child Abuse Investigation Team) covering SE London, one of Scotland yard’s most sensitive units, who claim the complaints process is broken, potentially ‘putting children at risk’, amidst allegations that as well as instructions to carry-out ‘unlawful’ acts [when refusal to comply led to disciplinary proceedings), there were orders from superiors (which were covered-up), to arrest and caution people over abuse offences they were NOT believed to have committed and for which there was no evidence, solely in order to boost the recorded ‘clear-up rate’ – and officers were too afraid to raise concerns about their colleagues because of a ‘culture of protection’ in the Met – predictably your force subsequently determined that certain allegations were ‘not supported by evidence’.

Based on their disturbing reports, in defence either you must claim that YOU employed INCOMPETENT detectives OR these are bare-faced LIARS – WHICH IS IT MADAM?

There is one thing abundantly  clear about the dreadful murders carried out in just some six minutes by Plymouth born gun-fanatic Jake Davison in his own residential area on the evening of Thursday 12 August 2021 and that is he should never have been legally in possession of a gun, isn’t it?

Be of no doubt as well that HE alone is solely responsible for the massacre killings of his own mother Maxine Davidson(who bizarrely he blamed for his lack of success with women and himself being a virgin), and four other innocent strangers in the street [toy pram pushing 3 year old girl Sophie Martyn, her dad Lee Martyn, and another two passers-by, Kate Shepherd, and huskies dog walker Stephen Washington, plus 2 more shot and seriously injured, Michelle Parsonage and son Ben, before like the coward he was, he shot himself dead, but there are outsiders who should be also held accountable – like the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police, Shaun Sawyer, and his financially well rewarded team of police officers who had accepted responsibility for issuing firearm certificates, requiring them to ensure none fell into the wrong hands – when in the case of Davison one certainly DID, so these individuals utterly failed to adequately perform their duty – with 5 victims dead as a consequence! Those policemen should not however be confused with the very brave unarmed and armed cops who rushed to the scene in what proved to be a futile attempt to stop those killings.

[Davison has been described as being a member of the Incel (short for involuntary celibate) community, a fatalistic and misogynistic (hatred or contempt for women or girls – it is a way of keeping women at a lower status than men) with a world view that your position in life cannot change. So although this attack is currently being treated by detectives as a domestic incident, nevertheless early indications are that it was in fact a terror attack (you see Incel definitely can be an ideology for the purposes of terrorism) – indeed there are 10,000 people with women-hating incel views like Davison in the country, and already Jake Davison’s atrocity was praised in extreme misogynistic message boards and the Plymouth gunman was hailed as a ‘saint’ by like-minded misogynists in chat rooms and forums dedicated to the extreme incel subculture. Some users said Jake Davison’s rampage, marked the beginning of a new ‘season’ of attacks by men consumed by a hatred of women

In the first place, mass shooter Davison actually had NO personal RIGHT to own or have a gun – the UK is not America so NOBODY here has the same constitutional right to bear arms. A member of the public gun licence certificate should ONLY be granted by UK Police to an applicant:

1. who poses NO threat to public safety
2. who has good reason for owning a gun

As events have shown, NEITHER of these conditions and constraints could have been applied to this crazed gunman

• Davison had been licensed to own a firearm since 2018, but hindsight has amply demonstrated that he WAS a threat to public safety and the peace, but we will only later find out why that wasn’t identified as such by those responsible (even just by his weird visual appearance). Exactly how did he prove otherwise to the police [not least after having had his licence delaying revoked last December for an assault incident some three months earlier? (but they the police themselves incomprehensibly returned his weapon a month before his murderous rampage) and despite it having been identified also by the police that he in fact had anger management issues, as well as there being ample evidence of legitimate concerns about the state of his mental health!). It’s already self-evident from his running amok that loner Davison is exactly the sort of person that should have been on an establishment ‘watch list’ and certainly NOT somebody on a Police ‘gun-holders list’
• What ‘possible’ valid reason could a 22-year-old trainee crane operator living in a council cul-de-sac in middle of the small Keyham community area of Plymouth city, have to own a shotgun (which if licensed can indeed be lawfully be used for toff sports such as clay-pigeon shooting)– let alone the devastating pump-action shotgun (a repeated shots killing machine) deployed by the maniac in this slaughter, eh?
  
  Gun licence applicant background checks are very much required in this country so what checks were actually carried-out by the police and what follow-up resulted? Any check with anyone who had known him since his teenage days would have reported that he was a dangerous character. It’s noted also that apparently the police have had altercations with Davison over the years, and it also turns out that the social media platform Reddit actually suspended his account in violation of Reddit’s Terms of Service, on the Wednesday, the day before the shootings, after he sexually harassed a 16-year-old girl (five days after the American girl reported him to moderators).
  

He had also posted misogynist and homophobic views on various internet forums whilst utilising Reddit to openly express hostility and resentment towards his mother, Maxine, who had repeatedly attempted to personally get, and persuade him to receive, treatment for purported mental health issues. His channel was subscribed to an account named IncelTV, and other clips of his videos contained further references to – and using terminology of – such Incel community; in one discussing “missing out on a teenage romance” and refers to “Chads“, saying further that: “I’m not advocating this, but if I have to I might even try and use drugs to make up for it, maybe cocaine fuelled sex or something, maybe that can make up for that missed teenage experience.” and “The reality is, love is for the young, and I know I’m still somewhat young and I hope I can make up for it, but I have a feeling like I missed that boat and it’s never coming back

[Note: a chad is a derogatory name given to attractive men who are sexually successful with women]

Reportedly, five years ago in 2016 outside a Tesco less than a mile distant from his killing field, Davison in an unprovoked assault savagely attacked one Scott Hobbs and his pregnant partner. However, the police rather than properly recording it as a serious assault (which would or should have impacted his firearm certificate application), they simply let him off with a mere caution despite the injured man having to be taken to hospital (the police didn’t take the issue seriously and unbelievably said Davison was ‘nothing to worry about’) – later Davison (who at the time did NOT hold a firearm license) also threatened to use a gun on Hobbs as part of a subsequently harassment campaign, eh?

How comes the police were always out of the loop on such significant matters, and so deemed Davison a licensed firearms holder, a safe bet to own and use a powerful weapon?

There are two main categories of guns are people allowed to own – firearms and shotguns.

1. A firearm is defined in the Firearms Act 1968 as any weapon “from which a shot, bullet or other missile… can be discharged”.
2. A shotgun is a type of gun intended to fire a large number of small pellets rather than a single lead bullet or slug.

It is more difficult to get a licence for firearms than for shotguns, because weapons that fire bullets must ONLY be used for specific purposes in specific places. These would include deer stalking or sports shooting on an approved range

In contrast, shotguns tend to be used in more general rural circumstances, such as by farmers who are protecting livestock from foxes – and police recognise that landowners need guns for pest control.

According to UK law, there is no actual limit on the number of guns or the total amount of ammunition that a Shotgun Certificate (SGC) holder can possess at any one time, though each shotgun must be recorded on the certificates

According to the most recent figures for England and Wales, there are:

• 156,033 people certificated to hold firearms and they own 617,171 weapons.
• There are shotgun certificates which cover 1.4 million shotguns.

Statistics for Scotland in 2020 show that:

• 25,983 certificate holders held 70,839 firearms
• 46,703 people in Scotland are certificated to hold shotguns and 133,037 weapons are covered by that scheme.

Independent referees have to provide confidential character statements in which they are expected to answer in detail about the applicant’s mental state, home life and attitude towards guns.

In the UK, single, double and tripled–barrelled shotguns as well as those which have a lever action, pump-action, semiautomatic and fixed magazine capacity of no more than three cartridges are legal with a valid Shotgun certificate and meeting the basic safety requirements for firearm possession in the UK. Types of shotgun ammunition, such a solid slug, can only be bought following the granting of a Firearm Certificate (FAC).

However, there is a major general problem on gun control in the UK. You see, while if someone wants to extend or modify their house, they have to apply for planning permission and that becomes public knowledge, whereby neighbours and others can comment and formally object, whereas any enthusiast can apply for a firearms certificate WITHOUT that being disclosed to the public, whence they can secretly own and keep one or more powerful loaded weapons in their house or flat in a dedicated gun cabinet, without their neighbours or community being any the wiser. Likewise, a young person seeking to rent a flat for the first time will need a sponsor, or guarantor to cover non-payment, whereas a young person seeking a firearms certificate doesn’t need anybody to vouch for them nor be responsible for any gun misuse. MADNESS, eh?

Who is accountable? – our MPs of course who have created laws that allowed such murders!

Following the tragic, dangerous, unnecessary, and shameful abandonment of Afghanistan by ‘the greatest military force ever assembled’ (as labelled by past President George W Bush), with American forces who ex-President Donald Trump branded “the greatest fighters in the world”, after 20 years of hard fighting, close monitory, and vast financial investment, there’s now an ineradicable stain on the West.

Sir John Major KG CH who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997 and served in the Thatcher government from 1987 to 1990 as Chancellor of the Exchequer and Foreign Secretary, was MP for Huntingdon from 1979 to 2001, launched an attack on the current Cabinet and vehemently says the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and withdrawing troops from the country was “strategically very stupid”, whence the hasty withdrawal of allied troops, pulled out ‘abruptly and unnecessarily’, will be a “stain on the reputation of the West” for at least a lifetime

The US withdrawal and the inevitable collapse of the Afghan security forces means that every other aspect of our 20-year engagement (political, institutional, educational, social, health etc) has also collapsed.

It started to unravelled after a series of events that sapped the confidence of the Afghan forces which passed the initiative to the enemy, like the departure of civilian contactors, many ex-militaries, which removed the network of logistical and engineering support so vital to any war effort. More importantly there was the loss of air support (limited US airstrikes against Taliban positions were insufficient to halt their advance) – the Afghan fighters were ‘trained’ to fight with that cover so they previously had battled with a safety net of ground knowledge of ISR assets (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance), knowing they could call-in airpower when needed – with that gone they were ON THEIR OWN and the Taliban knew IT and capitalised on that! Indeed, NATO forces wouldn’t fight without such air support and the Afghans couldn’t successfully either, not least when the Pentagon made clear it would all cease by the end of September. Who made that defeating decision to remove ISR – was it an imbecilic military or a crass politician, eh? Moreover, the politicians in dealing with the Afghan forces merely exposed their utter lack of understanding about warfare – it’s NOT simply about numbers, training, or equipment, but it IS more about morale, will and confidence – the Afghan’s abandonment left them floundering, devoid of any belief or fighting spirit – while by contrast it of course buoyed the Taliban with inevitable consequences.

Then there is the fact that hundreds of thousands of weapons, vehicles, aircraft and uniforms were left behind for the Taliban so it is now one of the best armed forces in the World – it has seized the American and Allies’ Western-made abandoned weapons, as well as equipment supplied to the Afghan army, including night vision devices, assault rifles and vehicles, though the fate of 46 other aircraft is not yet known, as Uzbekistan announced that 22 military aircraft and 24 helicopters from Afghanistan requested to enter its airspace after the Taliban took control. The Taliban terrorists ‘gloatingly flew a captured $6million US Black Hawk helicopter over city of Kandahar. It is feared the Taliban could have access to up to 200,000 firearms, 20,000 Humvees and hundreds of aircraft the US donated to the Afghan army. Though the US military says that SOME of its equipment was disabled (the US Head of Central Command has said that all 73 aircraft left at Kabul airport were made unusable before the US military left?), but earlier this month, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan admitted the US doesn’t have a ‘clear picture’ of just how much missing $83 billion of military inventory could now be in the hands of the enemy, though multiple outlets have estimated the figure includes 22,000 Humvees given to Afghan forces between 2003 and 2016 and Taliban fighters have since been pictured riding atop the vehicles in Kabul. Equipment given by US to the Afghan Army now likely to be in hands of the Taliban also includes 50,000 tactical vehicles, 1,000 mine resistant vehicles and 150 armoured personnel carriers. The terrorist group also released propaganda footage of body armour-clad ‘special forces’ with night vision goggles. Aircraft likely left for the Taliban to use includes over 160 planes and helicopters, including four C-130 transport aircraft, 23 A-29 Super Tucano turboprop attack aircraft, 45 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and 50 MD530 choppers. The US also donated at least 200,000 firearms to the Afghan army, including M24 sniper rifles, M18 assault weapons, anti-tank missiles, automatic grenade launchers, mortars and rocket propelled grenades.

Thanks to Joe Biden the Taliban now have more attack helicopters than the British Army and indeed they now have more Black Hawk helicopters than 85% of countries [Obama furnished ISIS with 4 billion with of weapons and equipment when he bailed out of Iraq, while Joe Biden’s abandoning Afghanistan presented the Taliban with 180 billion worth of weapons and equipment]

Thanks to the largesse of the American taxpayer, the Taliban now has more attack helicopters than the UK, and is better armed than almost EVERY NATO country, apart from the US

Between 2003 and 2016, the US bought the Afghan security forces 42,000 ‘light tactical vehicles‘ – such as Ford Ranger pickups and cargo trucks – 9,000 ‘medium tactical vehicles,‘ and over 22,000 Humvees. WOW! The Afghan Air Force (AAF) had 167 aircraft in the country at the end of June, according to a report published by the US-based Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) – these included 33 light attack planes: A-29s and AC208s (these are fixed-wing aircraft designed to carry out strikes against targets). Also among the 167 aircraft are three C-130 transporter planes, as well as 24 C-208 utility planes. Most of the AAF’s fleet are helicopters, also known as “rotary wing aircraft” – among them, 32 Soviet-era MI-17 and 43 MD-530s (the MI-17 is used primarily for transportation purposes, whereas the MD-530 is an attack helicopter), but perhaps the most recognisable aircraft in the AAF’s arsenal is the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter (thirty-three of these infamous attack helicopters were in Afghanistan and operational at the end of June 2021).

The consequence of Taliban having this excessive military hardware is a dramatically increase the their capacity to inflict violence on communities they have targeted in the past, and their ability to rule Afghanistan more completely in a more brutal way is another major concern; the impact that aircraft may have on any ‘potential’ uprising against the Taliban, such as the small but growing resistance movement in the Panjshir valley, since the capacity for urban action is very much curbed by the arrival of potentially a single helicopter!

While some 3 years ago we British had set up a ‘Sandhurst in the Sand’ academy supposed to be Britain’s legacy to Afghanistan – with a generational commitment to train, mentor, and nurture the commanding officers (including any future head of the Afghan Armed Forces) who would ensure stability and peace long after NATO had left (a task predicted as needing years if not decades –but a commitment cut short by US and UK withdrawal and one now never to be fulfilled!). As the Taliban launched their attacks from rural strongholds, we simply ignored the high attrition rate amongst Afghan soldiers, then the more we stepped back, the more they stood up, with a capacity for great courage and resilience, but international assistance in the background was essential, so when unthinkingly that was held back and absent, it was unrealistic to expect the Afghans, led by only partially trained commanders, to hold the peace, wasn’t it? NO it was NOT at all realistic JUST MADNESS!

Through July as the Taliban (a fanatical group not constrained by the rules of War and like zombies were ‘kill or be killed’) advance grew momentum, Afghan forces – an army already on the run, withdrew from some rural areas to concentrate on deemed key assets (major routes, border crossings, key cities). It finally all undid in just some 11 days as the Taliban in mid-August forced their way into the centres of provincial city after city before finally breaching the gates of capital Kabul, occupying its central square, and triumphantly taking TOTAL control. That has all resulted from a long term planned abandonment of the country by the western leadership, accompanied by rank opportunism by the enemy. This has been a catastrophic military failure resulting from calamitous political short-sighted incompetence, no less.

As well then, we have as our own Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab (reportedly now said to have ‘a second-rate brain’) who apparently thinks his Cabinet job includes visiting Red listed countries [places the government says are not safe to travel to because Covid-19 is so rife] and possibly bringing back new vaccine resistant virus variants to the UK, so he doesn’t follow the required UK’s isolation rules, now deciding it’s also a good time to go AWOL on a 5 star beach holiday to Crete, when predictably an unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan was about to strike like a bolt of lightning, not only destroying countless innocent lives there, but also undermining British foreign policy [he says he was caught unawares and wouldn’t have gone if he’d known what would happen over that weekend! (is British intelligence these days really so dire?). It also turns out that he ignored the pleas of officials to act because he was ‘too busy’ enjoying his luxury holiday on Friday 13 August, during the chaotic situation in Kabul, to make an important phone call to ask Hanif Atmar, Afghan foreign minister, for urgent assistance in evacuating Afghan interpreters & their families (at risk from Taliban revenge killings for previously supporting British troops) – demonstrating massive errors of judgement and that from a senior minister, one holding the third highest Great Office of State (those posts being 1. Prime Minister, 2. Chancellor of the Exchequer, 3. Foreign Secretary and 4. Home Secretary), for which he refuses to resign. [The subsequent official report that the call was finally made, but by a junior minister, turns out to be a blatant cover-up lie and instead the defence now for Raab’s incompetence is that it would have been pointless him making any call (i.e. he is meaningless)]. Mind you, Raab’s boss PM Boris Johnson can’t really criticise any of that, since he also was having a summer break of his own in Somerset with his departure on holiday on the Saturday, despite public warnings the Taliban would be in Kabul within hours, was another astounding ‘dereliction of duty’, so he was equally absence during the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban! It’s incomprehensible why both men had not cancelled their vacations as the scale of the Afghan “catastrophe” become clear (moreover, after churlish Raab was instructed by Whitehall to cut short his Greek island of Crete holiday he nevertheless nobbled the Prime Minister to remain on the enduring beach for two more days while Kabul’s besieged residents languished.

During a select committee hearing on the UK’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Dominic Raab repeatedly refused to answer when he went on holiday A leaked document suggests Mr Raab travelled abroad on holiday after his own department had advised Kabul was at imminent risk of falling – also he repeatedly rebuffed questions over when his holiday began, and IF he was already on holiday on 11 August – when the US assessed the Taliban was likely to capture the WHOLE of Afghanistan!

Secret State department cables warned in July that the Afghanistan government could quickly collapse following the US withdrawal later in August. Around two dozen officials from the US Embassy in Kabul gave the Biden administration the stark warning in a 13 July cable. One report in July — as dozens of Afghan districts were falling and Taliban fighters were laying siege to several major cities — laid out the growing risks to Kabul, warned of the large territorial gains that had been made by Taliban fighters and noting the lack of resistance being put up by the Afghan’s own security forces. As well, the classified cable made recommendations to speed up the evacuation of Americans and its allies.

While here at home, a leaked Foreign Office report (the ‘Principal Risk Register’)warned government ministers on 22 July (a full 4 weeks before the fall of Kabul on 15 August) that the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan would lead to “rapid Taliban advances”.

[The Foreign Office ‘Principal Risk Register’ is a standard monthly report for the management board which does not contain intelligence assessments and indeed this department’s risk report appears to be at odds with the JIC assessment]

The department’s own document, which is not currently in the public domain, highlighted that there was a risk that major cities in Afghanistan could collapse. and were in danger of being taken over, following the departure of military personnel and the report warned of rapid Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and that assessment was published more than three weeks BEFORE the UK government in the middle of August even launched Operation Pitting (the ongoing British military operation to evacuate British nationals and eligible Afghans from Afghanistan).

During the select committee hearing, Raab appeared to be taken by surprise when he was asked why he had not acted on the Foreign Office July “principal risk report assessment”, the implication being that he wasn’t aware it? [there are two kinds of intelligence failures: there are those failures where the intelligence agency failed to provide the intelligence – and that is the traditional meaning of the word, but there is a second kind of intelligence failure where whoever is the principal didn’t read it!).

Mind you the pair of politicians [PM and SoS FCDO] prioritising their holidays over duty is just the tip of the iceberg, as it transpires that the top Whitehall chiefs in the Foreign Office, Home Office, and even MoD (so the 3 most senior civil servants overseeing the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan) ALL had the same idea so were ALSO on holiday despite the Kabul debacle (the most senior diplomats, the permanent secretaries, being respectively Sir Philip Barton, Matthew Rycroft, and David Williams – all DISGUSTINGLY absent ‘on leave’ as the Taliban advanced and also immediately after) – the general government  policy seems to have been just let the thousands of Afghans die – they’re only bloody foreigners anyway! [We are, or expect to be, a civilized ‘caring’ nation yet have been let down once again by the British elite (reports have even surfaced of empty seats galore on some Kabul rescue flights, while refugees are left on the runway or die on it after clinging to and falling from a taking-off plane)]. It’s now rumoured that although Boris Johnson reportedly ‘had “full confidence” in Raab, he WILL sack Raab in the next reshuffle [don’t forget though that it was Johnson himself who picked Raab as Foreign Secretary in the first place and agreed to him staying away – what does that say about the PM’s judgement, eh?]
Britain has made a great play that the Kabul airport was kept open by the military for rescue flights but failed to mention that the Taliban were in total control over who was allowed to actually reach the airport (however, the airport has since suffered some shutdowns and is basically shut down for commercial travel and there was chaos as Kabul airport closed after a fatal crush at the barricades). One can be sure that the Taliban will NOT cooperate in the military keeping the airport open for longer to allow rescue flights, as their priority is to see all military gone (also there was and still is a major security risk of ISIS-K attacks on the airport [the US had warned its citizens to avoid Kabul airport amid concerns about the potential for terror attacks on evacuees by Afghanistan’s branch of the Islamic State (IS) group but that nevertheless happened on Thursday 26 August when two suicide bombers (obviously allowed through by the Taliban) killed well over 100 Afghans, and 13 U.S. service members, and that was followed-up by a rocket attack on Kabul airport by ISIS-K on Monday 30 August] The US showed just what supremacy of the skies can achieve (and should have done against the Taliban) when with a swift revenge drone strike it killed a “planner” of the suicide bombing at Kabul airport that killed at least 170 people – the military launched its first deadly attack against an ISIS-K as a “24/7” hunt for those responsible continues. Another US drone strike ‘eliminated an airport bomb threat’ – the drone strike in the Afghan capital Kabul prevented another deadly suicide attack at the airport and targeted a vehicle carrying at least one person associated with the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group (secondary explosions from the vehicle indicated the presence of a substantial amount of explosive material)
Here at home, Dominic Raab says UK plans to “Hold Taliban to Account” on protecting human rights in Afghanistan – the Foreign Secretary has threatened the Taliban with sanctions if they fail to protect human rights in Afghanistan. Doesn’t he know we lost? What planet is this man on, eh?
The catastrophic failure of the West and NATO in Afghanistan has inevitably opened the doors to Russia and China to achieve their objective of widespread world political and economic domination, hasn’t it?
Yes, but British troops must now return to Afghanistan because if we don’t there will be full-scale bloody civil war in the country, when Britain has equally abandoned its moral duty there when like the USA it chaotically withdrew troops holding the vile Taliban at bay – the country was being handed back to the very insurgency we went in there to defeat. The consequence of that is that that country will once again become a viper’s nest of militants and a safe haven for all other international terrorists to mount their attacks on America and Europe, while also the success of the Taliban in overcoming the legitimate Afghan authorities will be a catalyst beacon encouraging their UK fellow travellers to undertake acts of terrorism here. Belatedly (3 years off the pace) the Johnson government has at last decided to allow Afghanistan refugees, and those particularly vulnerable to Taliban retribution because they had assisted British forces, to now settle in Britain. However, that has escalated because of the exit debacle, so we are set to welcome some 25thousand refugees from that country to be spread around the UK in one of the largest resettlement schemes in this Country’s history, YET TOTALLY UNPLANNED and UNFUNDED as yet (when you can be certain that the bulk of those refugees were NOT involved in helping us to fight the Taliban) – amongst them though will doubtless be hundreds of clandestine terrorist or covert candidates prone to radicalisation, all given a free flight to UK, housing, benefits, health care and a cushy life here, only to use that as an opportunity to ply their evil terror trade – we cannot have any confidence that they can be weeded out on arrival nor watched thereafter, can we? No, as we cannot even screen, detect, expel, nor control the terrorists, who already live here in our midst, can we? Oh yes, it is ‘claimed’ that Afghans applying to come to Britain are being rigorously checked for links with radical Islamic groups and crime – but can we really trust that process when we already allow in asylum seekers who we are even unable to unmask as adults pretending to be children to gain entry, eh?

A man on the no-fly list reached UK during the Kabul evacuation operation triggering a security alert A person on a no-fly list from Afghanistan was reported to have reached British soil in an overnight evacuation operation. The individual, who is not being identified by the government, flew into Birmingham on a British military plane in a potential security breach. However, the unidentified man was later set free as after investigation he was not deemed as a ‘person of interest’ to the security agencies or law enforcement

Reportedly, during processing evacuees at the Kabul airport there’s been a spike in impersonations, forged documents and forged passports at the airport and at least five people on Britain’s “no-fly list” attempted to leave Afghanistan on British planes, and while four of them were prevented from flying, one person made it through to Birmingham. Furthermore, another barred individual also got a flight but was intercepted in Frankfurt and was successfully blocked from continuing his journey to the UK, though his family, however, was allowed to continue. Its clear that the government has been diluting checks and had a poor disorganised exit strategy, otherwise it would have ensured the necessary checks were in place, so these kinds of lapses couldn’t happen?

[A no-fly watchlist is used to stop people from entering the country who are thought to be a security threat. An individual can be placed in the no-fly list due to previous serious criminal conduct as well as terrorism. Once on this list, the individual is barred from boarding commercial aircraft or any aircraft during the time they feature on the watchlist]

In another situation, a French court has just handed a 10-month suspended jail sentence to an Afghan man for violating a surveillance order days after France evacuated him from Taliban-controlled Kabul, intensifying a domestic political row over suspected links between at least one evacuee and the Taliban [the possibility that there could be Taliban members among the hundreds of Afghans evacuated by France over the last fortnight has ignited a controversy in France, with migration set to be a prime battleground in 2022 presidential elections] – the man, Ahmat M., who says he was a prosecutor in Afghanistan before resuming his law studies, was ordered not to leave the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, where he was living with his wife, baby daughter and several other family members, is one of five people who were placed under surveillance after their arrival in France as part of an investigation into possible links with the Taliban. Another man, is suspected of working for the Taliban despite helping France evacuate nationals and Afghans in danger. He and four others deemed close to him, were placed under surveillance earlier last week. [the surveillance order included strict limits on movements and Ahmat M., who arrived at the weekend, told a pack of lies in court but was convicted by it late on Wednesday for straying outside of this zone. Another man told investigators that Ahmat M. had asked him to accompany him to Paris to buy SIM cards!

When New Zealand will now tighten its anti-terror laws to criminalize planning and preparation that might lead to terror attack, (closing what critics have said has been a loophole allowing plotters to stay free), after a knife-wielding militant inspired by ISIS (and known to the authorities since 2016 after he expressed sympathy on Facebook for militant attacks, violent war-related videos and comments advocating violent extremism) stabbed and wounded seven innocent people (three critical) in a supermarket attack. Police shot dead the man within a minute of the start of the attack, after he launched his stabbing spree on Friday – the 32-year-old attacker, a Sri Lankan national who had been there since 2011 on a student visa but had been convicted and imprisoned for about three years but could not be kept in prison by law any longer before being released in July. [In May 2017, he was arrested at Auckland’s airport where authorities believed he was traveling to Syria – he was charged after restricted publications and a hunting knife were discovered at his house but he was released on bail. Then in August 2018, he again bought a knife and was arrested and jailed]. He was released into the community in July this year when surveillance began, and he was being followed by a surveillance team and a specialist tactics group and monitored constantly, but the reality is, that when you are closely surveilling someone on a 24/7 basis, it is not possible to be immediately next to them at all times! Moreover, when the attacker is like this one, very surveillance-conscious, the teams needed to maintain a distance to be effective.

[New Zealand has been on alert for attacks since a white supremacist gunman killed 51 people at two mosques in the city of Christchurch on March 15, 2019]

However, what most people won’t know about Afghanistan is that the current sickening  events unfolding there is simply the end game of Britain’s FOURTH Anglo-Afghan War(or ‘Afghan War’), and it is a chilling replay of the first one (1839–42) and our infamous defeat in 1842– that first Anglo-Afghan war brought about probably the greatest military humiliation ever suffered by the West in the East – in an infamous retreat from Kabul, and a resulting mass slaughter, the only British citizen survivor from the 18,500 souls who left the British military garrison for Jalalabad was a surgeon, one Dr Brydon. The entire army (of at the time the most powerful military nation in the world) was utterly destroyed – no less than by a gaggle of poorly-equipped tribesmen!

[a dire situation later described (Rev GR Gleig) as:

• ‘a war begun for no wise purpose
• carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity
• brought to a close after suffering a disaster
• without much glory attached to either the government which directed, or the great body of troops  which waged it
• Not one benefit, political or military, has been acquired with this war
• Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated]
  
  Someone will probably right much the same epitaph words about the current Afghan fiasco – this has been one of the greatest humiliations EVER of the US (it parallels and is equivalent no less of the to the Fall of Saigon Vietnam in 1975 and the whole situation is a denigration of the values of its past great American Presidents, succeeded this century by two yellow belly ‘commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces’ – being ignoramus boastful buffoon Donald Trump and now the cowering, weak, disingenuous, proven uncaring, incumbent ‘Sleepy’ Joe Biden, who has personally created this Afghan debacle when he ignored the reality that the facts on the ground did not justify his extraordinary idea that the only thing to do was to meekly surrender to the Taliban, make an imbecilic retreat, and for America to fly away, leaving Afghan allies on the tarmac to be captured by the fanatics the United States and its allies, earlier defeated. Joe Biden has made the entire world a hostage to terror and TWENTY years on from 9/11, it ends the way it began – with multiple acts of terror, cries of the dying and a grim-faced US President!
  
  Moreover, this ‘ill-informed’, ‘hide-away’ (in Camp David), President Joe Biden (the liberals’ hero), in the most contemptible speech by a U.S. president in modern times shamed America and left its global reputation in the dirt (his despicable dishonesty would have made even Donald Trump blush) – his own defiant doublethink, involving distortions, the rewriting of history, nonsense, and untruths that Trump would struggle to rival – how can Biden ever recover? Moreover, he not only dropped US’s commitment to a combat ally, but he washed his hands over abandoning a partner nation in the mire (saying in an extraordinary defence of his actions that it’s their own fault – accusing them of refusing to fight (translation DIE) when more than 60,000 Afghans already had given their lives (more than double the Americans and eight times more than the British) – only a moronic idiot would accuse them of lack of extreme courage or not been willing to fight. So also unlike his embassy staff he obviously thinks even targeted Afghan officials should have stayed to be slaughtered) and says he stands ‘squarely’ behind his crass carnage provoking decision to haphazardly pull US troops out of Afghanistan in an inconsistent non-reversal of a despicable Trump policy, so he not only inherited the Trump peace plan but didn’t change it and in fact he expediated it by a few months, eager to make good on a campaign promise to bring America’s longest war to an end (in recent times Biden has sought to justify his decision by arguing that remaining in the country for another “ten, fifteen years” would have made little difference, and maybe he’s right, but we’ll never know, though few outside of government share that view). All this from a man lacking military service, who himself like Trump refused to fight for his country in the Vietnam War [being one who received multiple draft deferments from Vietnam – five draft deferments from it for asthma despite he being a Lifeguard & Football player? His predecessor Donald Trump equally never served in the Vietnam War or in the military – for over a decade during the Vietnam War, Trump sought and also received five deferments (four educational deferments and one medical), including allegedly lying about that medical condition to avoid the draft during the height of the war in 1968 – his deferments from the military draft during the War, including a medical exemption for a problem with his heels! [Men between the ages of 18-26 had to serve in the military for 21 months under the Vietnam War draft unless they were given a deferment].
  In the aftermath of the chaos of Kabul’s evacuation mission, Biden deceitful tells his fellow citizens that “We might not get everyone out” – lives may be lost, but the reality of the situation is that there was NO realistic possibility of everybody escaping the capital city alive and he knew it! He doesn’t seem up to the task of leading the United States let alone acting as head of the free world!
  

Note: the former Trump administration struck a deal with the Taliban which would end US military presence in the region after 20 years.

[Trump’s deal with the Taliban was a bad one — especially the bit that allowed the release of 5,000 terrorists and assorted bad guys – (indeed it was in fact a rotten one that despicably none of the allies spoke-out about at the time afraid of angering Washington. But other parts of the deal were ‘conditional’ on Taliban good behaviour, and they’d already started breaking the conditions without response); also, they were to prevent terrorist groups like ISIS-K harbouring in Afghanistan, but clearly haven’t!

[ISIS-K is an affiliate of the so-called Islamic State terrorist group, which once gained large territories in northern Syria and Iraq. This splinter group, which was established in 2015, has been mostly based in eastern Afghanistan, part of an area known as the Khorasan province – which is referred to in their name ISIS-K – its fighters are thought to number up to 2,200 – although this figure could well be rising given the security vacuum left by departing foreign troops from Afghanistan. ISIS-K is far more brutal than IS in Syria and its affiliates. Since its establishment, it has targeted maternity wards, schools and vulnerable minority groups in Afghanistan, killing thousands]

Note the current leader of the extremist Taliban organisation in Afghanistan is a veteran resistance fighter who saw off the Russians, Abdul Ghani Baradar, indeed co-founder of the Taliban itself and deputy to Mullah Omar in the early 1990s, and who was previously captured in Pakistan in 2010 but freed from jail in 2018 (as part of Trump’s Taliban deal because naïve Trump believed he would help broker peace) so was able to continue his terrorism against us and our allies

The very idea the current President Joe Biden’s hands were tied is total nonsense (not least since he’s broken with a myriad other Trump policies). Nevertheless, the deal was honoured by Biden this year, who announced in April that all US troops would be out of Afghanistan by September. But over the last few months the Taliban has gained rapid momentum, claiming several territories including the Afghan capital of Kabul on Sunday 15 August.]

While the disaster of Britain’s retreat from Kabul some 170 years ago, should have acted as a warning FOREVER, yet Britain blundered into the second Anglo-Afghan war 1878–80 and indeed a third in 1919 – so three conflicts in which Great Britain, from its base in India, sought to extend its control over neighbouring Afghanistan and to oppose Russian influence there, and well before Blair signed-up with Bush to invade Afghanistan once again in 2001 after 9/11 – but thereby followed-on the same tribal rivalries, the same battles fought in the same places, but under new flags with new ideologies and new political aspirations involved, though involving the same cities garrisoned by troops who were ‘attacked’ again from the same high passes – and unable once more to prevent being sucked into a wider conflict than intended.

So much now then for “Make America great again” ideal (aka Donald Trump) but just some 20 years after the Taliban were ousted in 2001 (whence they had been waging an insurgency against the Western-backed elected Afghan government), we now have the Taliban, an Islamic hard-line terrorist group of militants, taking over the WHOLE of Afghanistan by force. The democratically elected President Ashra Ghani, abandoned and left to his fate unprotected by the West, following the chaotic withdrawal of US forces, and with the capital Kabul overrun, has had to flee his country, with his own life clearly in imminent danger – the Taliban will doubtless announce the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ from the presidential palace, and continue their paused brutal subjection of the population, with their associated barbaric punitive public summary executions, torture, elimination of human rights and specifically the denial of women’s equality and rights, eh?

How can this have come about following a US military coalition offensive organised in October 2001 to defeat and eliminate these guerrilla fighters? What further is incomprehensible to many of us is why the alliance’s forces when in control of the country and with the Taliban ousted, didn’t destroy the opium drug production capability of the country, not least since it’s the massive income from illegal drugs that currently fund the Warlords and the Taliban with their terrorism?
[Afghanistan has been the world’s leading illicit drug producer for the past 20 years since 2001. Afghanistan’s opium poppy harvest produces more than 90% of illicit heroin globally, and more than 95% of the European supply. More land is used for opium in Afghanistan than is used for coca cultivation in Latin America.
In 2007, 93% of the non-pharmaceutical-grade opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. By 2019 with the West in control, Afghanistan still produced about 84% of the WORLD market. This amounts to an export value of about US$4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords, and drug traffickers. In the seven years (1994–2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers’ share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families. As of 2017, opium production provides about 400,000 jobs in Afghanistan, more than the Afghan National Security Forces. The opium trade spiked in 2006 after the Taliban lost control of local warlords. In addition to opium, Afghanistan is also the world’s leading producer of hashish (hash is a drug, consumed by smoking, made from cannabis)]
What have our own 5 star Generals in charge of this abject war got to say in their defence about their failures and defeat by a group of mere “country boys” (as described by Nicholas Carter – General Sir Nicholas Patrick Carter, GCB, CBE, DSO, ADC Gen a Kenyan-born senior British Army officer now serving as Chief of the Defence Staff), experienced despite their high level educations, elite military training, and widespread combat experience (say like Nick Carter himself, – promoted September 2014 head of the British Army as Chief of the General Staff and June 2018 as Chief of the Defence Staff) that justifies their roles, with an abundance of letters after their names and a myriad of medals to sport on their snazzy uniforms? When are they going to do the decent thing and resign? Isn’t it true that our troops have simply ended back a hundred years to the days of Lions led by donkeys?]

[“Lions led by donkeys” is a phrase popularly used to describe the British infantry of the First World War and to blame the GENERALS who led them. The contention is that the brave soldiers (lions) were sent to their deaths by incompetent, unimaginative, and indifferent leaders (donkeys). In this view, the senior officers are assumed to be from ‘privileged’ backgrounds. A common view of the relationship between senior officers and their men in the Great War (1914-1918, aka World War 1) is summed up by the phrase. The phrase was the source of the title of one of the most scathing examinations of British First World War generals, The Donkeys—a study of Western Front offensives—by politician and writer of military histories Alan Clark].

Regarding General Sir Nicholas Carter [U.S. Lieutenant General Daniel Bolger, blames the British Army leader for death of troops in Afghanistan (saying he refused to carry out air strikes when asked for) and accused him of being ‘risk averse’ mentality for fear of causing civilian casualties] while in a heated briefing about Taliban successes Carter even attacked the media for being unpatriotic– unbelievably he claimed that NATO forces had scored a strategic victory!

Besides all else about Afghanistan, first one has to understand that the US (nor UK) did NOT go into Afghanistan to actually HELP the population there or IMPROVE their country, or introduce better government, nor take it over – as usual with the Americans it was a matter of blatant ‘self-interest’, wasn’t it? Yes, (or as espoused by Trump “America First”), since the US mission wasn’t to promote democracy or anything else there, but WAS to banish its source of terrorism threatening the USA which required them to eliminate key al Qaeda figures (including Osama bin Laden sheltering there), in the wake of the devastating 9/11 terrorist attack on America that included collapsed of 3 buildings including the twin towers at the New York World Trade Centre [A series of four coordinated terrorist attacks carried out by the Wahhabi Islamist terrorist group Al-Qaeda in which 3,000 people were killed. The terrorists had successfully smuggled box cutters and knives through security at multiple airports on the East Coast]:

1. American Airlines Flight 11 a domestic passenger flight hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists. Lead hijacker Mohamed Atta deliberately crashed the plane into the North Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York City, killing all 92 people aboard and ensuring the deaths of 1,402 people at and above the aircraft’s impact zone. The aircraft involved, a Boeing 767, was flying the daily scheduled morning service from Boston to Los Angeles (California)
2. United Airlines Flight 175 a domestic passenger flight hijacked by five al-Qaeda terrorists. The flight’s scheduled plan was from Boston to Los Angeles (California). The Boeing 767 aircraft was deliberately crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Centre in New York City, killing all 65 people aboard and an unconfirmed number in the building’s impact zone
3. American Airlines Flight 77, scheduled flying from Washington to Los Angeles (California), hijacked and crashed into the west side of the Pentagon (the headquarters of the American military) in Arlington County, Virginia, causing a partial collapse of the building.
4. United Airlines Flight 93 a domestic scheduled passenger early-morning nonstop flight from Newark (New Jersey), to San Francisco (California), flight hijacked by four al-Qaeda terrorists on board, and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, during an attempt by the passengers and crew to regain control of the plane (the hijackers deliberately crashed the plane in a field after passengers breached the cockpit door, forced their way in, and fought the hijackers over the controls – It ended up being the only of the 4 hijacked flights NOT to hit its target – that being in Washington, either the Capitol Building or the White House). All 44 people on board were killed, including the four hijackers
   
   One has to ask, who actually ‘empowered’ the modern Taliban in the first place? Well that would be the same blinking Americans of course – because back in 1979 when Russia decided to absorb Afghanistan into its orbit and turn it into a communist state of the 80’s, but understandably, since communism is opposed to ALL religion, it is hardly surprising that the religious fanatical Taliban fought against the Russian invasion, whence America within its political objective to promote freedom and democracy and prevent communist expansion, thoughtlessly encouraged, supplied, and supported, the Taliban extremists fighters in their successful quest, achieved in February 1989, to oust the occupational Russian invaders.
   

What we found out recently about Afghanistan is that in 2001, UK officials took a top-secret trip to Moscow for advice and the response from the Russians was brutally prophetic

In the days before the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, a group of British defence and security officials took a top-secret trip to Moscow.

The plan was to ask their Russian counterparts for advice on operating in the country given the former Soviet Union’s doomed Afghan intervention that ended in defeat in 1989.

One person who was at the meeting recalled: “When the Russians stopped laughing, they told us: ‘You will make the same bad choice we did, you will go in, you will lose, many of you will die and then you’ll be forced to retreat, which will be good for us. How can we help?'”

Twenty years on as the US-led intervention in Afghanistan stumbled through its final, chaotic days and the Taliban took charge, events could hardly have played out in a better way for Russia.

President Vladimir Putin’s government has one of the final few embassies still fully functioning in Kabul and has developed close ties with the Taliban, including allegedly helping secretly to fund and equip their fight against US and British forces – Russia has denied such claims of course.
In addition, images of desperate Afghans clinging to the undercarriage of departing US aircraft as Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul are even starting to make Moscow’s past failures in Afghanistan look marginally less catastrophic by comparison.

At least the then Soviet-backed government in the Afghan capital clung to power for three years following the Russian withdrawal.

The Western-supported administration of Ashraf Ghani barely lasted three hours once the Taliban reached the gates of Kabul, with the president and his closest aides fleeing to exile without putting up any kind of resistance.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed recently that no one had predicted the speed of the Taliban victory and corresponding collapse of the Afghan government. “No one saw this coming. Of course, we would have taken action if we had.” IDIOT?