"Don't panic, Capt. Mainwaring!"

'Thus spake' the ineffable 'Cpl Jones' always as a prelude to him taking off in a welter of panic!  Happily - so far! - there appears to be little sign of panic amongst my fellow subjects despite the floods of grim warnings rising upwards above our ankles.  'If the bugs don't get'cha then the market crash will!' seems to be the favourite song of the moment.  Even so, as I look about me, I see no signs of panic - yet! - and I hope and believe that the phlegmatic will win over the panic!

The only appropriate tune to whistle as we, so to speak, 'dodge the bullets' is, of course, "Que sera sera", what will be, will be!  Just do the sensible things and follow the advice of the medical experts - not because they are always right but the chances are that they know better than anyone else!  So far, it seems to me, Boris has hit exactly the right note - truthful but calm and sensible.

Well done, Boris, it is not usually your lip that is renowned for its stiffness but keep it up!

 

 

Comments

[Whitewall]

When irony of one panic overtakes another:

"Extinction Rebellion Washington DC
@XRebelDC
XRDC has cancelled its mass die-in at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History this Sunday because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to the science and the public health emergency declared in DC, we feel it would be irresponsible to go ahead with the action."

[David Duff]

You need a heart of stone not to fall off your chair helpless with giggles!

[Timbo]

A commentator on another site suggested going along the row of shirtless ladies protesting at an event like this and scoring them on the quality of their boobies, with the winner getting a blue ribbon. Something to think about.

[Timbo]

It appears that the explanation for the run on toilet paper is that when one person coughs, a hundred shit themselves.

[Loz]

Follow the advice of Blighty's medical experts? Let's see the data, workings, and evidence then ...

We can’t answer these questions, because the government’s scientists aren’t yet disclosing what studies and past evidence underpin their current approach. The government’s tactic – one might even call it a nudge – is to appeal to the credentials of its advisers and behavioural scientists, and to trust the experts.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/13/why-is-the-government-relying-on-nudge-theory-to-tackle-coronavirus

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, say no more.

SoD

[Loz]

This is a fascinating article, backed up by real, hard core, examples of how China's astonishingly flexible businesses analyzed, acted, and are now bouncing back from CV19 ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/hbr.org/amp/2020/03/how-chinese-companies-have-responded-to-coronavirus

Where does one see or hear any of this coming from DomBo, Sir Humphrey, or the "weirdos and misfits"? And large business monopolies, for that matter: where are the ingenious strategies and tactics? "Can we have another bail-out please?" is all they can suggest.

Why aren't all the airline trolley-dollies doing home deliveries? Why aren't all the hotel and restaurant workers nannying for manufacturing workers, doctors and nurses who can't work from home and look after the kids when the schools close?

Oh, I forgot, the blue socialists just killed the gig economy with IR35. They don't believe in a flexible employment model. They don't believe in letting markets solve problems, rather they believe that DomBo, Sir Humphrey, and the "weirdos and misfits" solve problems. Epic fail.

And what about the apparent super-irony that it is Marxist China letting markets and competitive CEO's take the lead, and reaping the benefits!

Well now, here's a thing. It's likely going to be my thing for a while so don't worry if you miss it:

"The market IS Communism".

Not my words, those words are Karl Marx himself.

Marx proposed that the world would go through a Socialist phase first where the state took over the means of production and distribution. He said it would be an effing disaster. But it would do one thing: It would tattoo into the minds of everyone that you cannot leave people in need behind. As John Stuart Mill put it: If your inaction causes harm it's as though you caused harm by your action.

That problem, leaving people in need to suffer through the inaction of the well-off, would see the state take the lead for a period long enough that there would be no generation alive who thought inaction acceptable. That was the socialist phase of Marxism.

Although Marx knew the state would be successful in the indoctrination - tick, and he was right there - he also knew it would be the worst implementer and director of the remedy: DomBo, Sir Humphrey, and the "weirdos and misfits" would make a cock and bollocks of delivering it - tick, he was right there too.

So he foresaw that socialism would eventually yield back to the people and the market for the delivery of the "need" goods and services, not just iThingies, foreign holidays, beer, etc. This he called the communist phase.

Lenin was the first to follow the prescient prediction only a couple of years after the Russian Revolution started, with the NEP ("New Economic Program") of radical market reforms! Lenin went Thatcherite! So soon, Comrade, how'd that socialist phase go for you then?! Sucked balls did it? No worries for you mate, we're still suffering with the NHS, social services, and state education 100 years later! Lenin then croaked and what happened next is history as Steelman reverted to socialism.

So is China leading the way in the communist phase of Marx's prediction? Will what remains of socialism in China - about 40% of GDP goes through the state - go the whole hog and go UBI (Universal Basic Income) and benefits payments and a market supply for the need industries?

And will Uncle Sam, whose swamp never grew very big and has drained what little slurry was in there anyway, dodge a late destructive impulse - a la Steelman - to self-flagellate with socialism?

And Blighty? Don't even go there: blue, yellow, and red socialists, obviously, and melt-down.

The plot sickens - literally and metaphorically!

SoD

[Loz]

The shear volume of lies and deceit in this article by supremo country-bumpkin Janet Daley is quite beyond belief ...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/14/coronavirus-has-blown-away-dishonest-ideology-globalists/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

She denounces blocs and globalisation as being super-spreaders and applauds nation states as being correct and righteous on their virus action responses. And yet it is palpably the EU's lack of power as a bloc and it's devolution to the nation states of Europe that has failed. And the bloc of China whose powerful and wider reach across its regions that has slowed the virus and blunted transmission.

And even among nation states' unco-ordinated and disparate actions she praises the slow acting idiots - DomBo and his nudge, nudge, wink, winkers - and ignores the fast, decisive and smart actors like Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2020/03/italy-south-korea-differ-tackling-coronavirus-outbreak-200313062505781.html

Wassup Janet, did Johnny Foreigner handle a crisis better than whitey-Blighty? So just air-brush that fact out then?

She then lies about the public supporting of DomBo and the nudgers when the majority of the public was polled as being sceptical and in favour of greater action ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/14/only-36-of-britons-trust-boris-johnson-on-coronavirus-poll-finds

Sounds familiar: the majority of Brits voted in favour of remaining in the EU in every poll in the 2 years leading up to the December election. Yet that little fact won't stop her claiming "the will of the people" is now being done.

And finally ...

The gradualist approach of the UK Government is defended with impressive expert testimony that is, at once, pragmatic and persuasive.

What fking testimony? The two medical nobs haven't produced their data, logic and workings yet. You just know there's going to be a "hide the decline" style hockey-stick cover-up when it does come out eventually, laced with psychobabble "nudge" theory bullshit.

And to claim this undisclosed testimony as like "the science is settled" when substantial groups of scientists disagree ...

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/science-environment-51892402

... demonstrates her hypocrisy when she argues that the counter-climate alarmism scientists should be heard.

A true Country-Bumpkin.

SoD

[Loz]

In addition to helping work out who to test, South Korea's data-driven system helps hospitals manage their pipeline of cases. People found positive are placed in self-quarantine and monitored remotely through a smartphone app, or checked regularly in telephone calls, until a hospital bed becomes available. When a bed is available, an ambulance picks the person up and takes the patient to a hospital with air-sealed isolation rooms. All of this, including hospitalization, is free of charge.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN20Z27P

That's South Korea.

Now how about the NHS?

Fuck off and stay at home, you call us we don't call you, we never answer anyway and if you leave a message we don't call back, (and we've no idea what an "app" is in spite of billions of IT "investment"), and don't come to A&E or visit your doctor.

£2200 per annum per person.

The envy of the world, eh?

SoD

[Loz]

First person I know personally has had it, sister of a friend of mine. As you would expect, deep flu with an every breath cough for 10 days.

And DomBo, Sir Humphrey, the weirdos and misfits, 111 and the NHS, their response and care? : -

Absolutely nothing.

No testing.

No tracking of contacts.

No reply from 111.

No access to GP or hospital, not even monitoring.

https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/mar/15/uk-covid-19-strategy-questions-unanswered-coronavirus-outbreak

A scandal of incompetence and negligence swept under the carpet of fake science?

What are the odds on that, do you reckon? Some clues maybe: -

1. 10,000 elderly and vulnerable people routinely starved and dehydrated to death per annum on the NHS.
2. Record levels of negligence claims against the NHS.
3. WHO advise against UK strategy.
4. 200 UK scientists advise against UK strategy.
5. DomBo doesn't release data, logic and workings that underpin UK strategy.
6. Janet Daley says UK strategy is sound.

Boney famously said, "Don't give me good generals, give me lucky ones". Therein lies our only hope.

SoD

[Loz]

They will publish, "in future"? ...

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-from-sage-delay-phase-modelling

SAGE also agreed that in line with good scientific practice the modelling and data considered by SAGE in future will be published.

From this ...

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-pandemic-herd-immunity-uk-boris-johnson/608065/

Does that mean they won't be publishing the modelling they did and the data they used thus far? Only what they model and the data they use in future i.e. so they can hide the massive cock-up thus far?

SoD