Having a nice day

We have guests for the next day or so. ‘North’ and friend are gracing our humble abode with their metropolitan presence. This has meant a small extra drain on our resources, but nothing we cannot cope with. The weather has turned as well. I can sit out on my back porch in the evening in my Pj’s. Spring has arrived. Not before time. This year everything has been three weeks late.

Of course this is nothing out of the ordinary. Just part of the normal cycle of warm, wet and cool years.

For me this means an opportunity to keep the lawn trimmed and take an occasional day out to Galway city, where I got to read some of the writing on the wall, much of which is “#freeassange” or “Free Julian Assange”, who is still languishing in Belmarsh jail in the UK. Of course the UK doesn’t have political prisoners (and other such bollocks)

Personally I think Assange should be released. All he did was embarrass the Yanks and expose their administrations war crimes. For this he was originally arrested on trumped up charges of sexual assault of an embittered ex-girlfriend (Which have since been dropped). Besides, he’s Australian, not a US citizen, so their administration should be told to go swivel. Unfortunately the UK are slavishly in lockstep with the warmongers, and have as much to cover up as the Yanks, so Julian Assange will remain in unjustified detention.

As for the forthcoming Irish ‘hate speech’ laws, aren’t those an affront to democracy? They violate the single basic premise of civil rights in that we are all supposed to be equal (Yeah, right) by pandering to ‘protected characteristics’ which means that some people will have more rights than others, or else.

I mean Mrs S and I wandered into a Galway shop and some person sporting lavish curls, a frilly shirt, eyeshadow and curly moustache was serving. I may have raised an eyebrow, but said nothing, trying to work out whether it was a biological male looking female or biological female trying to look male. Failed on both counts, but they were doing a decent enough job, so there was nothing to be said.

Did the raising of a curious eyebrow constitute a ‘hate crime’? When a maths teacher gets fired for saying “Well done girls” because one of them suffering from pre-pubescent dysphoria (a condition mostly cured by puberty) gets offended and a parent gets nasty, then I’m truly glad I live out in the sticks, where at least everyone can tell a steer from a heifer.

Foreswearing

Right, so over in the UK a chap called Charlie King is going to be sat down, have stern words said to him in a draughty old stone barn, and have an extremely heavy hat put on his head. All the while a bunch of people outside will be shouting “Hooray!” or “Boo!”, all the while blaming the poor chap for stuff he has no real power over. Such is the burden of monarchy, for all its wealth and apparent trappings. All that smiling and waving when you really don’t feel like it.

So there’s a new coronation oath is for individuals to give their allegiance to the new King? As an Expat, I have mixed feelings. I think that when it comes to pomp and ceremony, the UK, or rather London, wins hands down. Elsewhere, not so much. I miss the old place sometimes, but the bits I really liked are in a place twenty years and a couple of hundred miles away. There’s no way back there. Not without serious collateral damage.

Mrs S, however, is going to watch the coronation livestreams, but I’ve got too much work to do. I won’t be swearing allegiance to anyone either. Not without my fingers firmly crossed behind my back. Experience has taught me that people who want you to swear oaths are usually the first ones to break their word, so forgive my cynicism and let me forswear any swearing. Apart from the four letter kind when we get sold out yet again.

During the next couple of days when it promises to be damp, I have a kitchen to refit with new handles and hinges. Then there’s a few other jobs to do. We didn’t have a kitchen refit as part of the renovations because we were holding cash in reserve for the main works. Besides, the sold wood doors we have are in pretty good shape, therefore I’m just replacing the old hinges and handles and giving the rest a good old scrub. The ones I’ve done so far are looking good.

Then while it’s allegedly going to be sunny I’m going to give my hives a quick look over. It’s still a bit cool to do proper hive inspections, and here in the wilder west it’s been cooler and wetter than usual. So I’ve had to hang back and wait for the weather to warm a little more.

Yet I still keep coming across these videos which insist that dear old planet Earth is going to boil and we climate sinners are all going to DIE! Har har har! So there you deniers! Personally I’ve never seen that. My path to climate scepticism began around 2000, when I began to notice all the wild predictions failing to come true.

Right. Okay. How true are all these claims of climate doomstering when put in context? For that kind of hard information it’s best to go to the guys on the ice.

What? Are we really only in a short term optimum heading into another cooling phase? Better finish my planting then.

As for ‘misinformation’ or is it disinformation or malinformation, a.k.a. lying? Seems to me that all these claims of falsehood are coming from those responsible for pushing the most massive piles of bovine excrement in front of us and over reality for their own venal purposes. Yet these are the people who demand our unthinking loyalty? Seriously?

By way of illustration. Norman Fenton does the numbers on the vaccine. Oh. You mean to tell me the mainstream narrative was and is misleading? Surely not. But my names not Shirley.

As an aside, I made some time to glance at the mainstream ‘news’ and some talking head was saying that “The Government should do something…” Hah! I’ve got news for him, they did, and that’s why we’re in the mess we’re in.

Anyway. There are seven fruit bushes to plant out on Saturday, five rose bushes to set out into a new protected rose bed and I’ve just potted out six Willow rootstocks with freshly sprouted rootlets. So that means I’m on target for a total of thirty trees this year, no subsidies applied for.

What else? All the Portuguese Laurels have been moved, and are bedding into their new locations nicely. Mrs S and I raided our local Nursery for some exotics to put in the main garden. Those are planted and settling in. The lawns are coming along and the greenhouse project will be completed in another week or so. Then we’ve got house guests coming all the way from London.

Hi ho. In between times I have to look at getting a new brush cutter.

Life at the moment, is far too busy for swearing oaths. But I’ll leave the last word to Neil Oliver in this interview.

Update: Having watched the actual crowning and parades, I was struck by two main thoughts; Doesn’t Charles look ancient? And; the march down the mall was magnificent, superbly disciplined and timed. Which just reinforces what I said at the start of this post. When it comes to ceremony, pomp and circumstance, no-one does it better than the UK.

What’s that app?

There is a rumour that the highly useful end to end encryption in whatsapp is threatened by the so-called ‘online safety bill’ currently running through the UK house of commons.

Via the Daily Sceptic comes this piece in the Spectator magazine, based on this scholarly paper from Cornell University.

Now our family, separated by the miles as we are, regularly use whatsapp to keep in touch, and over here in the wilder west of Ireland, we use it extensively to communicate with various commercial enterprises. It’s that useful.

Unfortunately, in a desperate bid to be seen to be ‘doing something’, the UK government (and by proxy, all of the ‘Five eyes’ nations) wants to see everything you’re doing all of the time online. You know, just in case you might have a thought they disapprove of. “Nothing to hide-nothing to fear” eh?

As for the “It’s to stop the paedo’s” argument, what’s the bloody point when the grooming appears to be happening within the UK school system. There are people being admitted to schools to do story reading, who, in the not so distant past, would never be allowed within a quarter mile of the school gates.

Now, see if you disagree, but it seems to me that every expansion of the surveillance state leads to less security, more scams, more vulnerability. At least for the public at large. As an example; do I feel any more ‘safe’ than before all this surveillance was rolled out? No I do not. From a personal perspective, I feel oppressed, crowded, harassed and jostled. All this while totally innocent of any offence, apart from the spurious one of disagreeing with the state on certain issues. For this I pay my taxes?

All right, I currently pay my taxes in Canada and Ireland, but I did pay them in the UK when I lived there. Okay?

Hells bells! I’m off out to do something useful. The lawn needs mowing and there’s even more chores to do. Apart from railing at injustice.

Another day…

And a bit of good news. Both my colonies of bees have survived the cold weather and have been foraging in the gorse and heather in the garden and hedgerows. Work has started on the greenhouse project and we’ve chopped most of the bloody Ivy down.

Elsewhere the globalist projects of unchecked illegal immigration and ‘fifteen minute cities’ are under pressure with protests popping up all over Ireland. The ordinary people are getting upset. Not the media myth of the ‘far right’, but everyday, ordinary people without a political thought in their head. Until now.

That’s right. Ordinary people watching familiar streets being invaded by outsiders at a faster rate than the outsiders can be comfortably assimilated. As an outsider myself, I’m always at pains to observe the social norms of anywhere I happen to end up. Within reason.

Like with the wilder west of Ireland. I’m not a Catholic, but many of my new friends and neighbours are, so you respect that.

However, for the people who do not respect our ways of life, there is a way to at least make your voice heard, at least in the UK, See below for pushback strategies on three critical ‘consultation documents’,

If you can’t be arsed, then don’t whine about it later. The path is lit but requires a little effort. On the other hand, if you don’t want your liberty, all you have to do is stay quiet, like a good little citizen in your pod. Owning nothing and unable to take a shit without permission.

To those that argue “They wouldn’t do that, would they?” I would reply “Oh yes ‘they’ bloody well will. Because ‘they’ can if you let them.”

Getting your own back

Busy clearing trees and shrubs today, opening up the garden a bit more and getting ready for the removal of about ten overgrown Leylandii. While Mrs S was telling me how to cut down trees, a task I have successfully performed on various occasions for several decades without supervision, my mind wandered onto the topic of these insane ‘fifteen minute cities’ and how to fight back against this insult to liberty.

Protesting seems to do no good, as the eco-zealot instigators seem so convinced of their rightness that they will ignore any heartfelt pleas and go ahead anyway. If pressed they may simply label the opposition ‘domestic terrorists’ and carry on regardless.

However, one idea that did occur to me while hauling branches was to surreptitiously obtain the vehicle registration numbers of the people responsible for instituting and enforcing these unfair regulations and stick copies of them over the number plates of several random other vehicles in the area, or perhaps the next zone over.

Now given how rarely most people actually look at their own vehicle registrations, this would seem a wizard wheeze if well done. It would certainly make a nonsense of the automated camera enforcement. Because if offending councillors / officials vehicles start racking up multiple fines without going anywhere it might give them cause to reconsider their ill judged authoritarianism.

Those intent on making mischief for the offending instigator might even simply walk past a few ANPR cameras with a copy of an offending councillors number plate emblazoned on their back while walking the dog, identity perhaps concealed by a large hat and scarf. If the cops show up, the number plate sign could be readily discarded, or even left in a place where the ANPR cameras would keep registering the number, and the rest left to the automated system generating thousands in fines for the net zero advocates, overloading the system. Interested parties might even share number plates so that the eco zealots get fined from multiple fifteen minute cities.

The glory of this jolly jape is that a crime will not have taken place. Well, not really. Knowing what I do about how these systems work, it is apparent to me that all sorts of entertainment might be had without going anywhere near the offending eco-zealot, or anything which might be construed as stalking. All that needs to happen is that their own systems are turned against the most deserving.

Bankrupt the net zero bastards, say I. It’s only what they deserve. For those unfortunate to get caught in the fifteen minute trap, it’s called getting your own back.

Let the games begin. This could be fun.

The great honking

As an expat Anglo-Canadian I’ve been taking an interest in the current Canadian Revolution led by the Truckers over the various mandates. Haven’t been watching any of the mainstream content, but trying to find first hand livestreams and perspectives to get to the core of what is going on.

How would I characterise the truckers blockade of Ottawa? Noisy but good natured. No ‘Nazis’ or ‘alt-right’ or ‘anti-vaxxers’, just ordinary Canadians of all ethnic and religious persuasions, no ‘white supremacy’ here, who have had quite enough and would like it to stop please.

Viva Frei’s livestreams are interesting if his content can be contrasted with the ‘reports’ from the mainstream. Protesters are being prevented from getting hotel rooms by the Government buying up all the rooms. No doubt with taxpayer dollar. Expedia cancelling hotel bookings in Ottawa. Facebook and GoFundMe have tried to cut support and funding. The Corporatists who own the politicians are panicking.

No graffiti, violence, vandalism, no ‘defacing’ of memorials or statues pulled from their plinths, piles of garbage or broken windows, unlike every far left ‘protest’, ever. No ‘mercenaries’ (Where the hell did that come from?). Just Canadian Truckers having a street party blockade in the icy cold of a Canadian midwinter. A bit noisy, but in the truckers own words, “The Honking stops at eight o’clock.” Not because anyone asked them to, but because the truckers understand that everyone has to sleep.

Yes, the stream is patchy, there are a few blank spots, but the content is telling. If you want to skip the long dull bits, go to 1:14 to 1:18 and 1:52 – 1:54 to see the protest signs outside Parliament. Interviewing lawyers providing charity legal support to the protesters at about the 2hr marker. Memes at 2:44. This is history in the making, video as a social document. And it’s only one of many.

There is an old trope that “The revolution will not be televised.” Which is true, it won’t be appearing on mainstream TV. It will be available on a video streaming platform near you. If YouTube falls over, then on Bitchute, Rumble or Odysee. The truth is out there. All you have to do is look.

My personal perspective is that I am making notes on these organisations who are being used as proxies against the pro-freedom protests with an intention to boycott. Not that I ever use them anyway, but I will make an effort not to use them in future and will remind any contacts of my decision and my reasons why.

Our civil rights have been trashed for no good reason. The great honking is part of trying to get them back.

Here are the truckers in their own words;

Welcome to Mayo

In the past week I’ve had half a dozen people, neighbours, postmen, shopkeepers and various others wish Mrs S and I a warm welcome to County Mayo now we’ve bought our place and are clearly here to stay..

It’s a curious sensation. One one hand I feel very privileged, on the other slightly paranoid as in ‘this is too good to be true’.

I do so hope it’s not the “Welcome to the Village.” detailed below….

Elsewhere, the current talk of ‘banning online misinformation’ is strenuously and cogently argued against from this piece, written for ‘Unherd’ by Professor Vinay Prasad.

“Perhaps the most serious objection to censorship is that the censors themselves are not fit for the task. Censors are unaccountable. They may be biased, misinformed or undereducated. They may lack perspective. In short, they are as fallible as the people they are trying to censor. This is especially true in science, where, as history shows us, consensus views can turn out to be false, while controversial or heretical ideas can be vindicated.”

Precisely. Quis custodes ipsos custodes. Who will tell the censors if they are wrong if nothing outside of the orthodoxy is allowed?

Meanwhile back in the real world: builder, window guy and sparky sorted, which leaves me with just the plumber to organise. This will get expensive., but we’ve got the money, so here goes.…….

An insight

In this short YouTube segment of Jacob Brownowski‘s ‘Ascent of man‘ about the horrors of Auschwitz today I found the answer to many of our current dilemma’s and failures of humanity, from ‘woke’ to COVID.

The key quote is between 1:50 and 2:10 “When people believe they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of Gods.”

Authoritarianism is the source of our ills. The ‘do as I tell you’ mob. The compliant and small minded who can’t bear that others are able to make better choices.

Now I need a day at the beach to mull this one over.

Happy new year.

Good news for a change

Those who support freedom of speech in the UK got a bit of a boost today. An ex-copper by the name Harry White who was put on the ‘Non crime hate crime’ list for liking a tweet, subsequently investigated by the Twatter squad for thought crime has just won a landmark judgement in the UK High Court. The practice of putting non-crime ‘Hate’ incidents upon a register in the UK must now end and it may well be that the records obtained over the last five or six years under this register now have to be deleted.

Coming on the back of Fraser Nelson’s revelations about policy driving science instead of the other way around, this is more good news. Those who were long derided as mere conspiracy nuts are being vindicated. To borrow a line from “A Knights Tale”

“Days like these are too rare to cheapen with heavy handed words.”

It almost restores my faith in human nature so it does. Fraser Nelson and Harry White should be added to the Queens New Years honours for these two victories alone. For these are knightly deeds and should be recognised as such.

For my own small part, my happy news is that ‘North’ is on her way and we’re going to collect her from the airport. Fingers crossed now. The only possible issue is that she might not be let back into the UK as the eejits are talking about locking down. As if that will do any good.

How’d that work out?

Came up against the silly rule that you have to show a vaccination certificate yesterday. To get a cup of coffee. A freaking cup of coffee and a light lunch for heavens sake! The staff demanded to see them before we would be served. I didn’t have mine with me (Never carry it), so we walked out of the coffee shop .

We might have sat in and had a nice lunch, spending a pleasant hour and spending fifty or so euro’s, paying wages for the staff and keeping the economy rolling. We didn’t.

So we went to a competitor around the corner who offered outdoor space for dining without demanding our papers and spent our money there.

The place where we were refused service unless “Papieren bitte” has earned a scathing review on Tripadvisor and Expedia. I will never knowingly enter the premises of that franchise or any associated business ever again. Ireland used the boycott against bad landlords back in the day, now it’s time to resurrect that tactic.

Yes, they were free to refuse me service because I couldn’t ‘prove’ my vaccination status. However, the menu was rather limited and the fare looked fairly average with nothing out of the obvious to recommend it, so the money walked.

Mrs S is upset at my blunt refusal to carry a vaccination certificate, but I told her archly that “I’ve gone along with this farce for long enough. I’ve had the jabs. Thus far and no further.”

She protested that this “Limited her choices.” To which I responded; “This is a matter of principle. I’ll happily show my certificate when going in for medical treatment, but nowhere else. The coffee shops can fuck off.”

We’ll see who goes broke first.

The politicians don’t follow these rules, so why should we?

Covid Passports, a modest proposal

Feeling a little buzzed and mischievous right now, having had my first dose of muscle relaxant and painkiller. Talk about pukka stuff. Right now you could cut my arm off and I’d laugh myself senseless.

Mrs S is deriving great merriment from watching me wobbling around the house, bouncing off the furniture like some bipedal bumper car. Everything has stopped hurting and I’m high as a kite. Whoopee. Look kids, don’t do drugs or, oh who am I kidding?

Nevertheless, onto the meat of this post dear reader. Ah, the dreaded lurgi, the not so fatal disease everyone has been running around doing headless chicken impersonations about for the last year and a half. At least if you’re under eighty without a ‘co-morbidity’. The disease 80% less likely to kill you than pneumonia. This plague that has people wearing masks in the streets and more ridiculously, behind the wheel of their car. Now it is being mooted that we must not go anywhere without some form of documentation to ‘prove’ that we are not ‘unclean’. Well now, there’s a thing.

Those of us who object to such an iniquity as a ‘COVID Passport’ have been subject to a litany of public misinformation and vile slander. Despite having proper scientific evidence to hand, not some regurgitated media ‘facts’. So I think it’s high time we got some payback.

Having heard a discussion about how our medical histories might be made available to every low ale house keeper and entry level security guard, I thought; “Hmm. What we need here is a little pre-emptive poetic justice.” And like all seriously good ideas it’s simple and cheap, and here it is;

If some person denies you service because you are reluctant to hand over your personal data, simply log on to your social media account, or better still an account with something like Tripadvisor or Expedia and post a bad review. I mean a zero star complete stinker. No swearing. No abuse. Just keep it polite, brief and succinct.

Say for example a restaurant insists on seeing some form of Vaccine related ID, don’t make a fuss, do as you are asked and have your meal. Enjoy yourself. Then give the premises in question the bad review. Same for any other place.

For example; a bad review in the case of a ‘No Jab-no entry’ café might look like the following; “Appalling coffee, stale pastries and very rude staff. It’s a shame I can’t give a minus star rating to these premises.” Make no mention of the bar to entry, but contrariwise, a café that does not make a big deal about “Papieren bitte.” should get a five star review and fulsome praise like; “My new go-to coffee hangout, lovely helpful staff and sausage rolls fit for the Gods.”

This principle can be applied across social media. Nothing abusive, just muted disgust and a soupcon of sarcasm. Night clubs could be critiqued with “Stale DJ, overpriced drinks that taste like they’ve been watered down and some of the ugliest people this side of Watford Gap.” other venues might attract something like “Doesn’t anyone clean up around here? The place smells like it’s been used as a lavatory.” Yes of course owners read their competitors reviews, wouldn’t you?

Nowadays everyone checks reviews before visiting. The idea being that if enough genuine-looking negative reviews begin to impact the bottom line of any zealous enforcer of the COVID tyranny, I’m sure that eventually they’ll get the message and the whole silly circus will grind to a suitably embarrassed halt.

Me, if found out and challenged, I will simply kiss the rod and plead the painkillers. They really are seriously good.

St Paddy’s

Over here in the Emerald Isle it’s coming up to the one year anniversary of tiers and lockdowns. Notwithstanding; earlier today Mrs S and I were treated to a convoy of about fifty, yes fifty cars sporting the Irish tricolour and balloons honking madly as they drove up our lane, kids sitting in boats on trailers, standing on the dash as Dad’s drove, waving at everyone from out of sun roofs waving flags. Elf and safetee would have had a conniptive fit.

Despite noises in the media about increased Gardai presence to prevent anyone anywhere enjoying themselves, people found a way round. God alive, this is why I love this place.

Good grief…

A pleasant surprise dropped into my YouTube feed this morning. David Davies has introduced into the UK Parliament a bill which is meant to promote freedom of expression in the University system.

“A Bill to place a duty on universities to promote freedom of speech; to make provision for fining universities that do not comply with that duty; and for connected purposes.”

Currently awaiting it’s second reading. This is good news, providing this private members bill stays the course. It will be interesting to see who pops up to speak against it, or plays silly buggers with this bill at the Committee stage.

“And connected purposes”? Might this mean all those anti-social media platforms?

Popcorn on standby.

Casualties

Just having a scroll down the Scriblerus blog list and note that a few went offline. James Higham, arguably the Godfather of the group has retreated to Blogspot, as has Orphans of Liberty. Scribblings from Seaham is completely AWOL. Demetrius at Cynical Tendency hasn’t posted in well over a year, likewise Tim Newman. Raedwald died. Our original number shrinks. Some lost interest, others simply drifted away like ghostly ships, vanishing over the horizon.

Links have been updated to new sites where available.

Thus it is that merciless time catches up with all of us. Orphans and Nourishing Obscurity disappeared because their web admin, Chuckles, died. Which is sad, but then all human life is finite. We all die. So that should be a spur to engage with life, before it inevitably ends. To do less is to have merely existed.

That said, a lot of the old long form bloggers have been carrying on the verbal fight for freedom of expression more intermittently, or on other platforms, so I’ve left their links untouched. The diehards amongst us will hopefully keep on posting because it’s become too much a component of our lives. Perhaps driven by bloody minded habit or the thought that if no-one speaks up against the darkness, the voiceless will be led mute down into eternal dystopias, stripped of hope and berated into subservience.

The mainstream press, with few salient exceptions, won’t help. They’re too much a part of the machine. Few modern politicians will for the self same reason, and if no-one speaks to oppose the erosion of basic human freedoms, that minority who might stand up, won’t. It’s also worth noting that great ideas like human liberty, cannot be killed, but they can die of neglect. So we must not be neglectful, no matter the temptation. We must light our own candles, no matter how small, or let the night take us all.

We’re not the only ones. Listen to this Talk Radio talk with Neil Oliver. This blog does not believe that there is ‘no point’. The only time that happens is when you give up on living, and that is a perniciously dangerous idea.

Thus dear reader, you can be assured that this blogs febrile and occasionally satirical ravings will continue, even if I’m just shouting into my own little bucket. Okay, which one of you smartarses shouted “Shame”? Go to the top of the class and then do us all a big favour by jumping off.

The new normal

I was up early, pacing our empty kitchen this morning, worrying. Word is we may even be restricted to travel within 10km of home for the next four weeks. Bound by an insane web of ever changing rules that make the word ‘byzantine’ look like simplicity personified. Masks, no matter how useless they really are at this stage of the game at preventing viral spread, will be required everywhere, perhaps even in your own home. Although there are those who do that already. The insanity is, like the SARS/COV-2 virus, everywhere. It has gone from pandemic to endemic. There’s no escape.

Uncertainty has become the rule under which we live. At this point I don’t even know if our worldly goods will be allowed to be delivered next week. The situation is that unclear. We’ve put a deposit on a suitable car and it’s in the shop having a pre-sale detail and service. Unfortunately, as the car dealership we are buying from is slightly over 10km from our new home we may not even be allowed to pick it up at the end of this week. We have the money to spend, but we don’t know if we’re going to be allowed to spend it.

Insurance for independent expats like us is likewise an issue. Finding someone who will insure without a usable no-claims is a pain. We have full documented no claims in Canada for the last thirteen years and for at least six documented years UK no claims before that, but does any of it count over here? Nah. Only certain countries no-claims, such as some EU states and the UK (But not always) are allowed here in Ireland. We know we’re going to get stung. The only question that remains is ‘how much by’? When it comes to transport, there’s this constant feeling of; “Sticker, see that brick wall? That’s for your head. Off you go.”

However, our woes pale into insignificance if some of the lockdown stories surfacing are any guide. There’s a nasty rumour floating around the Interweb that people have died screaming in agony because they were prevented from getting prompt treatment by the lockdowns. Don’t know if these tales are true or not, but I’m sure that video’s will surface if they are. If this is the new (ab)normal they can keep it.

The truth is like that. It always leaks out. The harsher the censorship by the tech giants, the more things will pop up. The evidence will surface, one way or another. And we know where the blame will lie, as it has lain over the last two decades or more. On those who push the panic button to keep themselves in a job, the powers that be, and those who carry water for them.

Hear what Sargon has to say. They’re cancelling and censoring the White House’s social media accounts? Along with so many others. That’s going to come back to bite silicon valley and some of the big corporates. Especially if Trump wins his second term.

I don’t use social media anyway, having cancelled twatter and Arsebook years ago.

Fortunately our car hire guys have been absolute heroes. Sixt, when it comes down to it, may not be the cheapest, but their customer service is worth every penny. I’ve used them in four countries on three continents so far (Australia, France, UK and Canada) and unlike all the others, have always walked away without a care. There’s never been that WTF! moment when you check your credit card statement after a hire. Our currency brokers have likewise upped their game, as if it needed upping, and come through with some happy news. If you have a legitimate need to shift money from country to country, may I give the gold star of approval to Currencies Direct. Needless to say, Mr Bezo’s boys continually come up trumps. These guys have been life and sanity savers in very difficult times.

Update: Other people are not as fortunate or determined as we, and even children are cracking up under the strain. Watch the video below, read out from a report first penned in May 2020. God alone knows what that poor kid is like now, and he will be only one of thousands. Perhaps even tens of thousands. We can only guess.

These lockdowns are a crime against humanity and the cracks are showing. But I repeat myself. Again and again and a-bloody-gain.

Useful links; as far back as 15th May, 43% of UK Psychiatrists reported an uptick in cases directly attributable to the lockdowns.

At least half a million more people in UK may experience mental ill health as a result of Covid-19 restrictions, says the first forecast from Centre for Mental Health on 15th May. the figures for 1st October predict ten million.

That’s just the mental health side of the coin. The economic damage and attendant fallout promises to be far worse. Now the Welsh assembly thinks it’s lockdown will make any difference. They’re wrong. The real science says they are, but they are politicians who don’t understand what they’re doing or what they’re really dealing with and what actually works.