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
To travel or not to travel
Posted at 8.50pm.
Posted at 8.50pm UK time
Rules on travel to ‘amber list’ countries are so ‘absolutely clear’ that even members of the Cabinet get them wrong!
I report on this for Lockdown Sceptics here.
Regional GDP across Britain – then and now
Posted at 7.30pm.
Posted at 7.30pm UK time
Maps showing the shift in regional GDP across Britain over time present a sad reality for our nation.
They illustrate a century of economic and social betrayal inflicted by both of our major parties.
The Conservatives and the Labour Party are responsible for this – what makes you think they will fix it?
Actions not words
Posted at 6.40pm.
Posted at 6.40pm UK time
I’m always pleased when slow-learners finally get it, but amid talk of the Tories adopting pro-industrial, pro-family and anti-woke policies, remember that their actions in government over the past 11 years have been exactly the opposite.
Actions not words...
Read William Clouston’s article on ‘The indifference of free trade’ here. The Conservative Party’s talk of adopting pro-industrial policies is particularly relevant following our recent break from the EU.
The Conservative Party’s reaction to the basic arithmetic of trade deficits is to market the second category (selling assets we made yesterday) as something positive; as Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, the FDI label is misleading. Rather than generating investment in new endeavours or industries, most FDI foreign investors taking equity stakes in long-established assets, businesses, or pieces of infrastructure – it represents a literal selling off of the family silver.
As Britain’s withdrawal from the EU finally approaches, we must shake off the indifference of our current leaders and confront head-on the question of industry and trade.
Over and over…
Posted at 3.15pm.
Posted at 3.15pm UK time
What we’re seeing now regarding the reaction to the Indian Covid variant is what has been happening non stop over the past 12 months.
The Prime Minister and the Government say that something is the last resort and then eventually Sage’s lobbying makes it inevitable that the ‘last resort’ is the option they go for.
Enjoy these freedoms now, they'll be taken away soon enough.
‘Better than Labour’
Posted at 2.15pm.
Posted at 2.15pm UK time
If the Tories call for another lockdown, will social conservatives and ‘defenders of liberty’ finally leave the party or will they forgive it and prop it up for the 100th time?
I suspect it will be the latter...
Tiers may return if Indian coronavirus variant takes hold
Posted at 7.50am.
Posted at 7.50am UK time
Read my Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman here.
Fence sitting
Posted at 6.10pm.
Posted at 6.10pm UK time
I appear to be the only person in the British Politics corner of Twitter without a firm opinion on present events in Gaza.
Many people are screaming at me about the latest example of Israel's ongoing and heinous persecution of the Palestinian people. Others remind me in similarly strident terms that Israel has the right to defend itself and is anyway the only Western-style democracy in an otherwise benighted region. Hamas started it, they explain.
However, I have no opinion on what I am told are, in one way or another, events of the utmost moral and political importance.
Britain, my own nation, has more than enough problems to occupy my time, without me making the effort to learn about a problem so intractable and complex it has remained unresolved for about 4,000 years. Because of this, I am far too ignorant to have a view on present events in Gaza.
I wonder how many of those Britons convinced of their own judgements about the current conflict might secretly be in the same boat.
We should move on from the Howard Beckett story
Posted at 5.20pm.
Posted at 5.20pm UK time
Howard Beckett made a mistake. We are all human; it is in our nature to make mistakes. He has apologised. He has taken down his Tweet.
Now, If you are opposed to cancel culture, as most people say they are, that should be the end of the story! Nothing else matters.
‘Ahh,’ they say, ‘Beckett and his kind love to cancel us – they wouldn’t be so forgiving.’
You are, of course, correct. But you also need to grow up.
Wanting to retributionly (my creation!) cancel people is just what the woke do.
The Covid inquiry must look at the international response
Posted at 1pm.
Posted at 1pm UK time
There must be a thorough investigation into how we’ve managed the pandemic – not just on a national level, but on an international level too.
Governments were allowed to get away with too much, and with little scrutiny.
Independent thought
Posted at 11am.
Posted at 11am UK time
It is time to stop using the word ‘independence’ when referring to the Scottish National Party’s desire for Scotland to leave the UK.
An independent thinker is one who is free of groupthink. An independent woman is a female making her own successful way in life, free of society’s expectations. When a 21 year old gets his own flat, he is said to have become independent. A rich man is one of independent means. An independent pub is free of the overweening control of a large chain. Through history, independence movements have freed peoples from their erstwhile colonial masters.
It is clear why the SNP would want us to refer to Scottish ‘independence’, but less clear why we should let them engage in this sort of psychological operation.
It would be far more neutral to use the words ‘secede’, ‘secession’ and ‘secessionists’.
Given the SNP’s plans for Scotland involve using somebody else’s currency, having no control over monetary policy, using the ECJ as its supreme court, subordinating Scottish law to EU law, relinquishing control of its borders, and giving up jurisdiction of its coastal waters, secession would probably be a more accurate word than independence, too.
Sage is pushing for more lockdowns because of Covid variants
Posted at 10am.
Posted at 10am UK time
Concerns are starting to rise over the latest mutation of Covid, namely the Indian variant.
Already we hear that Sage is advising an immediate slowdown of the exit ‘roadmap’, with the possibility of yet another national lockdown firmly on the table. It seems history is repeating itself in pandemic season once again, with the PM being confronted by the medical lobby with either the choice of local restrictions or full lockdown.
This reminds me of the ‘Tier Four’ restrictions that lasted a very small amount of time before the PM bowed to Sage once again and threw us all into the same crippling restrictions.
Regardless of what occurs, this will be painted as an inevitability. Instead of tightening the borders or using track and trace intensely, the harshest route is being taken first. Watch this space, and let us hope that the vaccines can prevent another repeat of the lockdown saga.
Breaking News from Sky…
Posted at 9am.
Posted at 9am UK time
Breaking News from Sky: ‘Indian Varient cases soar in UK’…
Actually, it’s 1,300 positive tests out of 67 million people, with no mention (there never is) of how many of these people are genuinely sick.
In the Covid inquiry, there must be a thorough examination of the role media outlets like Sky have played in using slogans to perpetuate fear in the population.
Almost 90million fewer face-to-face GP appointments were carried out in 2020 compared to the year before
Posted at 7.30am UK time
Read my Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman here.
‘Roadmap’ could be delayed, says Sage member
Posted at 8.15am.
Posted at 8.15am UK time
Read my Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman here.
What a Covid inquiry will likely look like
Posted at 12pm.
Posted at 12pm UK time
Boris Johnson has been pushed into promising a full public inquiry into the Government's handling of Covid.
But we must recognise that an inquiry that doesn't seek to understand whether or not locking down in the first place was the correct thing to do isn't an inquiry at all.
All that the Government’s inquiry will find is:
The first lockdown was introduced too late and should instead have happened in the first week of March 2020
We didn’t lockdown hard enough
The mask mandate should have been introduced immediately
A lack of PPE in the early days made the spread of the virus worse
Emptying hospital patients to care homes was a disaster.
Sage advisers cut next year’s death toll predictions 10-fold
Posted at 8.20am.
Posted at 8.20am UK time
Read my Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman here.
On the Queen’s speech
Posted at 2.35pm.
Posted at 2.35pm UK time
Her Majesty the Queen has just pledged that her Government will boost infrastructure and lead Britain into a prosperous post-pandemic future. But why has our longest-serving Monarch been reduced to a mouthpiece for Johnson’s Government?
Reports have revealed that everything the Queen is listing in her speech comes directly from the Government. Her Majesty’s decision to make the Monarchy less involved in politics across her lifetime clearly has its drawbacks.
She’s been reduced to a megaphone for Government propaganda; where’s the scrutiny? What are her personal wishes for this cabinet?
The enforced absence of hugs has been cruel and must not be repeated
Posted at 10am.
Posted at 10am UK time
The research literature established long ago that loneliness is a profound source of human misery and a killer. This is ‘the science’.
As ministers start to ‘give’ us back our freedoms, remember that socialising and embracing other humans serves as a necessary psychological function.
We may be more mentally durable than physically and may be able to take some forms of mental deprivation for longer than we can physical (eg withholding food or water). However many of the authoritarian Covid restrictions have not only breached civil liberties, abrogated human rights, savaged the economy, endangered many from non-Covid ailments and have had dubious merits regarding infection control – they have also deprived millions of necessary mental and social nourishment.
Cartoon by Crid.
These are bodily functions, the enforced absence of which is cruel and unusual. Any enquiry must acknowledge that the lockdown option must be removed from the table in all future circumstances.
Vaccine passport for holidays will be on NHS app next week
Posted at 8am.
Posted at 8am UK time
Read my Daily News Digest for The Conservative Woman here.
Too little too late
Posted at 8.05pm.
Posted at 8.05pm UK time
Government rules on mask-wearing is secondary schools will come to an end on May 17th.
Even though the Government has removed the requirement for masks in class, let's not forget that there was never an analysis done on the effects of this on children and education in the first place, nor has it ever been proven that they stop transmission of Covid in school.
Yet another failure that will be pushed under the rug.