The Pandemic Pandemonium

And now, for an interesting development...

At work, we have been having antibody tests. I regard these as the important test to have, because this gives us a much clearer picture of the spread and severity of the virus in question. And everyone in my department leapt at the chance to have it, to get the data to people, what has been happening.

We have been doing them this past week, step by step. We have yet to have the whole department tested, but the results so far...

We found (to date) seven people who had it, and didn't know or have symptoms.

Myself?



So, that ends my worry of having bad luck, and ending up on a ventilator. I want the whole country to have it, to see what the spread has been so far. I bet you it has been about like mad, creating a lot of asymptomatic cases...

I trust what you say about the virus more than I do the experts Avacyn. I know that there is some confusion and conflicting opinions about these tests.

Are you saying that you had a very mild case?

"There were two logical responses to this pandemic: continue as normal to protect people's livelihoods, or do a proper lockdown to protect their health. Instead, we got half-arsed half measures that aren't protecting either..."

I agree that the whole thing has been badly managed. There are some big conflicts of interest involved.

Some of the rules are arbitrary, senseless and contradictory.

It seems to me that they probably threw dice to get some of the numbers they came up with

Welcome back aletheia I hope that you have escaped the virus.

I was surprised to see so few people objecting to the lockdown on principle.

Today's the day for central London

From what I have seen to date, although more shops have opened their doors people are not coming to the main shopping streets in any number. Today some roads will be closed and pavements temporarily widened to encourage outside dining.

I get the idea that the rules and regulations for both cafes and customers will make this a not very attractive prospect. Some of the big chain coffee shop branches are still closed as footfall is low.

I suspect that it will be a while before normality is restored and that some eateries have gone for good.

I don't know anything about Shepard Fairey so don't want to characterise his views, but genuine leftists (not liberals larping as communists) do 'get it' about capitalism. They understand that free markets mean plutocratic slavery. It's hard not to if you've read Marx. His critique of capitalism is pretty much spot on. His alternatives are predicated upon wishful thinking, utopian nonsense that doesn't chime with the biological reality of human nature, but at least it's motivated by something deeper than dollar worship.

As flawed as they are, I'd much rather live in a society built upon Marx and Lenin's principles than on Friedrich von Hayek's or Ayn Rand's. At least commies have a view of the world that extends beyond selfish self-interest. At least communism has a real animating spirit. Look at the intense loyalty Stalin inspired in his people; he's still incredibly popular in Russia even today.

Imagine a Western leader of today inspiring such feeling. LOL!

I doubt whether there will be a second lockdown, at least not one of the sort that turned central London into a ghost town. It will be more a case of taking precautions and enforcing the rules about masks and social distance. However, there is no harm in preparing for the worst just in case.

Although the traffic is more or less normal and there are people out and about, many shops are still closed in the main shopping streets. This does not just affect the profits of the evil capitalists, it means lost livelihoods.

Well, It was said that the Deep State had a lot of bunkers and such there, and were planning it as a nice little hiding spot. Her shutting everything down stopped them going there.

But face reality: It is a couple of islands, and the overall population is five million people. It is quite easy indeed, to go and end the pandemic there, not to mention there is some distances between the different populations. Thus, it is rather easy to pin down and contain it.

There is going to be a public enquiry into the government's handling of the problem here. There are also suggestions that the reported death total is too high. It does seem like a huge mess, and the conflicting and confusing rules and guidance continue.

When I was out this week, there were still posters telling people to stay home and save lives, and to avoid using public transport if possible. Yet the maximum number of people permitted on one bus went very quickly from 20 to 30 then was dropped.

"I am growing ever more sceptical of the whole affair..."

I agree. I am one of the lucky ones in that none of the restrictions has affected me very much, but some sectors have been hit very hard and some people suffer when they can't get out and about and interact with other people freely.

I wholly agree: it didn't have to be this way. We should have gone for herd immunity, and not locked down at all. People only are worrying about the SARS-Cov-2 virus, when there is mounting deaths from cancer, strokes, heart attacks... and this will only continue, too. I absolutely dread this winter, because it will be horrible. I can see a huge surge in deaths, and not because of the virus. I guess, however, people will have to live it, and then understand. Which deeply saddens me.

I understand your measures, but... that would be a disaster. When would you end Universal Basic Income? How much to you give? And... what you propose, is to tax people, then give it back to them. It's a nonsense idea. A far wiser move is to reduce taxation. Remove Income tax for those earning £20,000 or less, and reduce VAT across the board to 5%. This them improves the liquidity of the public, who will be buoyed up by debt going into this. In April and May alone, People borrowed an extra six billion pounds, just to make ends meet. This won't conclude conducively for them. There is going to end up being a massive credit crash, things carry on as they are.

People have pointed out that the best thing the Government could have done, was to do nothing. Let the economy shudder, sake, then work itself out. I fully agree. it is going to be utterly painful, and deeply damaging. But we would be over the worst by now, and be on the way to getting back on track. Now? We will see millions unemployed. I suspect that nationally 50% of all businesses will fail this year, with a good portion more to follow next year. You cannot keep business in limbo like this. And a lot of businesses are now changing contracts, and forcing employees to accept them. Centrica springs to mind.

And it is all well and good to say that the owner of Wetherspoons should be using his personal fortune to keep things going. Let's go down this path, and he was giving everyone full pay. How long before he is out of money, and has to declare bankrupcy? You then have a broken business, a bankrupt business owner, and several thousand unemployed. What is more, that businessman is not going to start up any businesses in the future. He is broke. Whereas, by being cold and harsh, he can then beat back the storm, and then start new businesses down the line. Essentially, pick your poison. One has the chance of bigger things in the future, one is a temporary salve.

As for him getting state aid... well, he should not have had it. I am all for him closing all Wetherspoons, and sacking all the staff. This is an artificially induced economic crash. It is acceptable. Not remotely nice, but I can live with it. 


People need to realise that the British are now a post consumer society. The economy is still a consumerist economy. It has to fail, and collapse. Utterly and totally collapse. Because it has to be rebuilt to fit the new society. And I don't like this, because we could have done this a lot more painlessly. 

Your posts deserve considered replies Avacyn.

Just a quick response to a few points for now:

“We are looking at permanent mass closure, in my reckoning.”

I agree, chain branches in particular. We really didn’t need all those coffee and sandwich shops though. I think that the shops in central London that still haven’t reopened are gone for good.

“I reckon it is a matter of time, before everything is fully clamped down again.”

Local lockdowns are indeed a possibility, but surely no one would dare to impose another total lockdown considering the damage that the first one has done. Time will tell...

Preparing for a pandemic the elite way

“The Deep State was clearly planning to use New Zealand as a refuge - lots of the high level players have bunkers there. The swift shutting down of borders killed all of that for them. They couldn't go and hide away over there.”

We discussed tunnels and underground bunkers - and private islands and large ships - as refuges for the super-rich on the old forum.

Castles and country houses with estates are possibilities too.

Very few people are in a position to protect and insulate themselves in the event of an apocalyptic collapse in this way. Many people have not even got a house with a garden for growing things and a garage for storage, and a private generator is as much beyond their reach as a private submarine!

Four dooms awaiting the UK

“When I was preparing back in February, I was working on supplies of bottled water, because I saw a situation where the British Army was going to have to seize all of the power plants and water stations, to guarantee that they would still operate. Happily, we have not had such a breakdown - not even close...”

Avacyn I said on the old forum that you were often ahead of your time in that your posts later became very relevant and your predictions came true.

This may just be scaremongering and clickbait, but it could also happen:

“Boris Johnson has told the army to prepare for a second wave of coronavirus, the flu, Brexit and flooding in a four-pronged disaster which threatens to cripple Britain.

Head of military strategy and operations at the Ministry of Defence Lieutenant General Douglas Chalmers said 'No. 10 has been very clear' that tabletop preparedness exercises must be completed by the end of August.”

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8550967/Boris-tells-army-prepare-quadruple-winter-whammy.html

They are preparing for flooding rather than a drought, but the army is still involved.

I am certainly going to continue stocking up just in case.