Month: September 2020

(A new format for) Brexit in the news, 09/09/2020.

When I started doing this just a week or so ago, I was wondering why there wasn’t more news about Brexit happening. As they say, be careful what you wish for.

It’s pretty dull just hoovering up links to the latest Brexit stories in the press, so instead of that, I’m going to try a slightly different format and mention the stories that have caught my eye, then provide some links to them.

Government says it will break the law in a “specific and limited” way.

Well, more details are due later today with the detailed working of the bill, but the major news yesterday was the Northern Ireland Secretary, Brandon Lewis, admitting the Internal Market Bill will break the law in a “specific and limited way.”

Many have already pointed out that any transgression of the laws is “specific and limited,” but yet more have asked who will trust a country, and strike trade deals with a country, that breaks international agreements? The decision was also condemned by the former Prime Minister, Theresa May.

As a direct result, the leading legal civil servant, Sir Jonathan Jones, resigned.

This plan is supposedly to deal with being able to move goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, and it has been noted that it also risks breaking the Good Friday Agreement which has lead to peace in Ireland. That has attracted attention from the USA.

Given how rarely the front bench answers questions directly, I wonder why they didn’t choose to evade this one?

14:00: The bill is now out, and indeed it says “notwithstanding inconsistency or incompatibility with international or other domestic law”.

https://twitter.com/davidallengreen/status/1303669460260327429

As the afternoon wears on, Number 10 is apparently claiming that the Withdrawal Agreement and the Northern Ireland Protocol were developed “at pace”.

So that’s OK then.

In addition to Theresa May, another former Prime Minister has stepped into the discussion.

Brexit in the news. 07/09/2020.

Brexit in the news. 05-06/09/2020

Brexit in the news. 04/09/2020.

Bonus anti-anti-masker story

Brexit in the news. 03/09/2020.

Not to mention several threads on the threatened appointment of Tony Abbott as a trade negotiator. Interviewed on Sky News, Matt Hancock was asked about Abbott’s homophobic and misogynistic past, to which he replied “He’s also an expert on trade.” Apparently not, as the following tweet shows:

Center [sic] for Countering Digital Hate

I’ve only just come across this body, and reading a few mentions (usually not tagging the organisation itself) it seems to stir up some controversy, but I don’t really see what is that controversial in this report unless you want to spread misinformation…

Step away from the keyboard…

This post started out as a potential comment on a Facebook thread in the local community group, which in turn was a result of someone posting an image which read “Please wait here until you realise your government is brainwashing you” (imitating street signs that encourage social distancing). It quickly degenerated from there, and it didn’t take long before various trigger phrases were used (MSM, etc).

For reasons of my own sanity (as I type this that thread is now over 250 messages long), I didn’t post a response there, but I felt it would be cathartic to post something here.

“Well, this appears to have gone full conspiracy theory with New World Order, David Icke, Katie Hopkins, Kate Shemirani, anti-vaxxers and a number of theories that can easily be dismissed by some short research on Snopes or FullFact etc (though I’m sure they are also all controlled by the same shadowy forces).

There is no point debating the statistics of cases, deaths, excess deaths and so on, as small discrepancies in how the statistics are collected and reported are presented as examples of how all the statistics are unreliable.

The easy-to-post memes later in the thread comparing face coverings with hazmat suits are missing out on the main point of face coverings. The point of full protective suits or large masks is to prevent any contaminant in the outside being inhaled. Face coverings are just designed to dissipate the air we exhale to reduce the density of virus in the air right in front of us — which could be heading to the checkout operator or person we are talking to. It’s risk reduction, not risk elimination.

Face coverings are for the protection of others, not the protection of ourselves.

Yes, COVID-19 is no longer defined as an HCID (which things like Ebola are), but that’s because we have geared up more to detecting, containing and treating it.

I’ll be getting a flu jab this year, and a COVID vaccination when it is tested and ready. It will not only help me, but stop me potentially carrying the virus to my more vulnerable parents and in-laws.

It’s true, that many vaccines use something called MRC-5 (and WI-38) which has content derived from an aborted foetus. The foetus in question dates from 1966, and a bit more on that is contained in this article. Those cells were used to start the cell strains and the original cells are not part of the vaccine that is administered. What I don’t know is whether the ‘flu and potential COVID-19 vaccines use MRC-5 or WI-38, and I’m pretty sure the conspiracy theorists don’t know that either.

By all means describe yourselves as ‘free thinkers,’ but the rest of us rational thinkers have used our own powers of critical thinking to decide that this is the lesser of two evils, and may even resent the fact that your actions risk dragging this out longer.

One last question — do you think the government is competent enough to carry off a deception on this scale? Or is their incompetence elsewhere yet another deliberate attempt to throw us off the scent?

One last comment, from a blog someone else pointed me at, Let’s go back to work…

Brexit in the news. 02/09/2020

Brexit in the news. 01/09/2020

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