Bournbrook Live
Our commentary on the news as it comes in.
If you would like to contribute to Live, please email us at live@bournbrookmag.com
Weekend News Review
Posted at 8.10 am.
Posted at 8.10 am UK time
My Weekend News Review for The Conservative Woman, which leads on the topic of falling infection rates across England, can be read here.
More than half of people in England living in areas with almost no new Covid cases
Posted at 5.20 pm.
Posted at 5.20 pm UK time
Here’s a good test for the Government: Many areas across England have now gone months without enough Covid cases to justify the publication of their data – but will the Prime Minister honour his pledge of following "data not dates"?
Cartoon by Crid.
My guess is no. If anything, the fact that (only) one in seven areas saw a week-on-week rise of Covid infections between March 28th and April 4th could well be used by the Prime Minister to justify extending lockdown – or reintroducing “tiered” restrictions (that is, another national lockdown in all but name).
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
God rest his soul
Posted at 12.05 pm.
Posted at 12.05 pm UK time
It is with deep sorrow that Her Majesty The Queen has announced the death of her beloved husband, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.
Holidaymakers face paying hundreds of pounds per trip for Covid tests
Posted at 8.15 am.
Posted at 8.15 am UK time
My Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman today can be read here.
Good news and bad news in Scotland
Posted at 9.30 pm.
Posted 9.30 pm UK time
The good news is, Scotland has recorded its lowest March death rate since 2014 – also among the lowest in 50 years.
The bad news is, the country’s National Clinical Director says it is still too soon to unlock.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Brits crave a tougher stance by the Government on law on order
Posted at 3 pm.
Posted at 3 pm UK time
A recent poll suggests that 48 per cent of Brits support the reintroduction of the death penalty, with only 28 per cent in opposition.
I'm not always a fan of opinion polls but I do sense there is some truth in this.
My take away from this is as follows:
Whether the public is generally in favour of the death penalty or not, it *does* crave a tough stance on law and order
People are confused and upset by societal breakdown
People want a sense of authority on the streets – a visible presence of someone on the side of the law abiding
Often, people are afraid of what they see in their neighbourhood – gangs, drugs, violent crime. They feel the police spend too much of their time on other matters
I get a sense that many are particularly alarmed by the rise in violent crime. Life is seemingly cheap and for some, their community is a no-go area, particularly at night. People simply dare not to do the things that they used to do years ago
People know that violent crime has descended out of control because the authorities are indifferent to ‘low level’ crime (graffiti, drug taking, car crime, vandalism, theft, burglary). It is often this low level stuff, however, that has the greatest impact on individuals.
Vaccine confidence fears as under-30s in UK offered AstraZeneca alternative
Posted at 1.10 pm.
Posted at 1.10 pm UK time
My Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman today.
Is this how we influence the Tories on vaccine passports?
Posted at 9.40 am.
Posted at 9.40 am UK time
We must do all that we can to prevent the imposing of Covid vaccine passports – even if the battle seems already to have been lost.
The campaign group Big Brother Watch, which has been excellent over the past year (and, indeed, for a long time pre-Covid) has launched a crowdfunder to create a legal fight against Covid ID. I’d say this is well worth supporting.
Another method of opposition is to write to local election candidates for next month’s election, and to tell them that you will not support them if they back Covid passports.
A reader of Lockdown Sceptics has suggested this approach, as I outline here.
Under 30s to be given alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine – but only where possible
Posted at 5.25 pm.
Posted at 5.25 pm UK time
The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has delivered its verdict on the link between the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and blood clotting: ‘The risk [of getting blood clots after receiving the AZ vaccine] is four people in a million.’
The risk is greatest for younger people – particularly young women – so people below the age of 30 will now be offered alternatives to the AZ vaccine.
But Government advisors have stopped short of limiting the rollout of the vaccine for younger people altogether. Alternatives will only be given where possible.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Even Government scientists are saying that Britain’s unlock is too slow
Posted at 1.30 pm.
Posted 1.30 pm UK time
A member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling (SPI-M) group of Sage has said that the Government’s ‘roadmap’ out of lockdown could be sped up because of the success of the vaccine rollout.
Meanwhile, Professor Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London, has criticised Sage for frequently making use of the most pessimistic assumptions, ‘perhaps to avoid complacency’ among the public.
It’s about time the Government properly considered advice from bodies other than Sage, that great harbinger of doom.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Shoppers may need Covid vaccine passports
Posted at 8.20 am.
Posted at 8.20 am UK time
My Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman can be read here.
Meanwhile in Sweden…
Posted at 6 pm.
Posted at 6 pm UK time
The Department for Education has taken the cruel and bonkers decision of forcing secondary school pupils to continue wearing face masks in class after the Easter holidays.
Bournbrook’s Editor Michael Curzon has reported on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Meanwhile in Sweden, sanity prevails on this policy.
The cult of mask wearing
Posted at 3 pm.
Posted at 3 pm UK time
More propaganda on the wearing of masks from Google, which is trying to reinforce the idea that these things are ‘normal’. JHB puts it about right: ‘Sod off!’
AstraZeneca vaccine is linked to blood clots, says EMA official
Posted at 2.30 pm.
Posted 2.30 pm UK time
Pressure is mounting up against the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine – the Chair of the European Medicines Agency’s vaccine evaluation team has said there is a connection between the jab and rare blood clots. The exact cause of the reactions remains unclear.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Khan can’t be serious on unleashing cannabis in the capital
Posted at 1 pm.
Posted at 1pm UK time
I was shocked to see an article in the Independent stating that the Mayor of London has commissioned a review into the wider use of cannabis and its role in the criminal justice system.
My initial thoughts on the issue are thus: firstly, to what extent would this review team operate? Would it be the same as his review into diversity in the capital, which comprised of several, well-known agitators and activists, who were simply not impartial by any stretch of the imagination.
Secondly, what jurisdiction would the Mayor possess? Given the fact that his review team would almost certainly be in favour of decriminalisation, to what extent would the Mayor have the power to instruct the Met to (further) ignore the national law of cannabis prohibition?
Thirdly, this stinks of liberal opportunism.
While we're at the height of one of the worst public health emergencies in a century, what would possess someone to think that decriminalising a drug closely associated with irreversible mental health issues and criminal violence could be a good idea, especially in the capital?
This is a major city with cramped spaces and an epidemic of violent crime – a mental health ticking time bomb – exasperated by lockdowns and with an immense economic shock coming down the tracks, especially on the youth.
Unleashing a dangerous psychotropic drug upon them, in this time of a mental health emergency, would simply be madness.
Testing requirements for travellers abroad are bonkers
Posted at 11.55 am.
Posted at 11.50am UK time
Aviation bosses have rightly criticised the Government’s requirement for travellers abroad to test for Covid twice – even those travelling to so-called ‘green list’ countries.
Tests are minimum £119 a pop. The new scheme will price so many people out of holidays, when they want and need them most.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
British medicines regulator considers limiting rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine
Posted at 7.45 am.
Posted 7.45 am UK time
When the Prime Minister received his first dose of the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, he said: ‘The Oxford jab is safe… The thing that isn’t safe is catching Covid, which is why it is so important that we all get our jabs as soon as our turn comes.’ It turns out that that might not be true.
The UK’s health regulator, the MHRA, is being urged to restrict the AZ vaccine for younger people because of the risk of blood clotting.
Channel 4 News reports:
The UK [medicines] regulator, the MHRA, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation are urgently scrutinising whether younger people – particularly women – could be at greater risk of getting a potentially fatal blood clot after the AstraZeneca jab than they are of dying from Covid. In either case, though, the risk is very small.
Surely this would already be known if – as we’re told – the jab had been properly tested.
I report on this news for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Stop being so coy, Keir!
Posted at 7.45 pm.
Posted 7.45pm UK time
The Leader of the Opposition is doing his best not to oppose the Government on vaccine passports, as William Parker writes here.
Starmer was reportedly ‘really angry’ that an interview he gave to the Telegraph last week was headlined on his ‘criticism’ of the idea. He wants the focus to remain on the Tories, knowing that he would buckle under the slightest bit of pressure to actually criticise the Government’s response to Covid (I don’t mean some of the superficial acts we’ve seen at PMQs in recent weeks).
There are a handful of anti-vaccine passport MPs within Labour, but nowhere near enough. One Labour source told the Guardian that the ‘reservations are real’, but mainly around the ‘digital infrastructure’ of Covid passports, rather than about their implication on liberty. What a joke.
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Labour's fence sitting continues on vaccine passports
Posted 4 pm.
Posted 4pm UK time
Amidst the Government's partial climb down on domestic vaccine passports, all eyes were on Labour who could potentially change the parliamentary arithmetic when the Government puts its plans before the House.
Despite the Leader of the Opposition's initial negative reaction towards the proposals, it seems Labour are set to back them – or at least to abstain. Once again, the Opposition is failing in its role of being, er… an Opposition.
With pubs and restaurants no longer requiring a passport, maybe even Tory rebels will back down.
