Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Police checkpoints, supermarkets sealing off shelves of “non-essential” goods, a police state the likes of which nobody in Wales has experienced since the 13th century.
Big Government Bans Supermarkets from Selling ‘Non Essentials’ in Lockdown Wales
VICTORIA FRIEDMAN 23 Oct 2020
Wales’s First Minister Mark Drakeford has said that supermarkets will not be able to sell ‘non-essential’ goods like clothing during a 17-day lockdown.
From 6 pm on Friday to midnight on November 9th, Wales will see many retailers close, apart from shops which sell food like supermarkets, as well as pharmacies and off-licences.
There had been a complaint in the Welsh parliament that clothing shops and hardware stores had to close, while supermarkets were still open to sell similar products. The Welsh leader’s solution was, instead of allowing those shops to remain open, to ban larger retailers from selling ‘non-essentials’ entirely.
Claiming the move would create a “level playing field” for small businesses, Mr Drakeford said on Thursday according to the BBC: “We will be making it clear to supermarkets that they are only able to open those parts of their business that provide essential goods to people.”
…
Read more: https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/10/23/big-government-bans-supermarkets-selling-non-essentials-lockdown-wales/
Those hard borders;
No escaping from Wales: UK police to enforce travel ban
AP 24 Oct 2020
A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections
No escaping from Wales: UK police to enforce travel ban
By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press LONDONLONDON (AP) — A police force in England says it will try to stop people from leaving Wales, which has started a 17-day lockdown to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections.
The Gloucestershire Constabulary will patrol routes from Wales and pull over drivers they believe are making long journeys. Travelers without a good excuse will be asked to turn around. If they don’t comply, officers will inform their Welsh counterparts so they can take action because Gloucestershire police don’t have the authority to fine people traveling from Wales, the department said.
The situation illustrates the patchwork of coronavirus restrictions imposed by authorities throughout the U.K., which has Europe’s deadliest coronavirus numbers, with 44,661 confirmed virus deaths. Some 1,756 of those occurred in Wales, which has a population of about 3 million.
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Read more: https://www.breitbart.com/news/no-escaping-from-wales-uk-police-to-enforce-travel-ban/
I have fond memories of Wales, a nation bursting with national pride and their rich history. Distinct from England, friendly and totally crazy at the same time. The Welsh dragon, an ancient call to freedom, is everywhere. Welsh people move to rhythms others can barely hear, the old magic always seems very close to the surface of modern life. Britain’s strict pub closing time was frequently ignored. Life on the edge – two guys once tried to mug me in Cardiff, asked me what I had in the briefcase, so I said “coke”, and they ran away. I had a can of coca-cola in my briefcase. The first time you visit a pub in Cardiff, you pick a fight with someone, after that nobody gives you any trouble. Some of the hottest women in Britain, and the best late night steak houses. Just walking down the street in Cardiff or Swansea is an adventure; love, lethal danger, breathtaking beauty, or the indescribably weird – you never know what you will encounter. Wales is truly a glorious living modern centre of ancient Celtic society.
Not a nation of rule followers.
Yet at the same time Wales endures a seemingly endless parade of some of the most unimaginative, repressive, and economically illiterate politicians in Britain.
I suspect if anyone in Britain finally gives the finger to the lockdown fascists, it will be the Welsh. One provocation too many will be all it takes.
The llunacy continues…
https://thewallwillfall.org/2020/10/05/covid-19-masks-are-a-crime-against-humanity-and-child-abuse/
Covid-19 masks are a crime against Humanity and child abuse
Wales is being conned by the same sort of Covid-19 bullshit as most of the rest of the world. But when you go looking for what’s really happening a completely different reality appears. Check out the official line on RT-PCR antigen testing and then the reality from NHS hospital locations in south Wales.
Dr Giri Shankar, Incident Director for the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak response at Public Health Wales, said:
“We are aware of misinformation circulating on social media which suggests that testing for COVID-19 generates a positive result for flu or common cold viruses.
“This is completely incorrect.
“The swab (PCR, antigen) test for COVID-19 has been specifically developed to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – also known as COVID-19 – and has a proven accuracy rate of 99.91%.
“We would remind everyone to ensure that they are getting their information from established, trusted organisations: Public Health Wales, Welsh Government, and NHS Wales, and not to share anything from unverified sources.”
If the RT-PCR antigen test ‘has a proven accuracy rate of 99.91%’, perhaps in the lab in vitro with reference standard materials, perhaps he can explain these SARS-CoV-2 antigen test results, and their conclusions, from Cardiff and Swansea NHS sources reported in the BMJ at the end of July? I quite like their conclusions…
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1808/rr-22
Out of 31 tests they got false positives, false negatives, probable hits on residual RNA from previously infected people, they put off operations due to false positives … and they weren’t even going up to the Ct45 recommended amplification in the UK. They were hitting problems with Ct as low as 35 which is arguably too high anyway.
The RT-PCR antigen test which is currently responsible for disrupting the world is unfit for purpose (many good explanations available) and the political responses to it are equally invalid. What is happening here and now in Wales with arbitrary decisions being made by the Welsh ‘government’ about what is, and what isn’t, essential goods appears to conflict with basic Health & Safety. E.g. phone chargers are not essential – so how do people with a dead mobile phone for an ambulance? I haven’t had a landline for 2 years and I’m just one of many… Clothing is apparently not essential – I guess hypothermia can’t hppen in one of the coldest wettest windiest parts of the UK in late October and November? ‘Cos the braindead Welsh ‘government’ says so…
People are a bit cross – the response to this petition is probably a record and if anybody else wants to register their protest please feel free!
Allow supermarkets to sell “non-essential” items during lockdown
https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/244282
The petition accepts international responses and, quite frankly, we need all the help we can get!
I live in wales. During the spring lockdown English tourists escaping to wales were fined and sent home, the ones who escaped to thier holiday homes were ridiculed with mainly rural area politicians calling for a ban on holiday homes, double the council tax for holiday homes, ect ect, thier was open racism within local communities, signs telling the english to f- – – of home. Such was hate stirred up within Wales.
To understand the fuller picture drakeford is a hard left leader of the welsh majority in the welsh parliament..hes called the FM first minister.
What seems to be for political reasons the welsh administration have taken opposing views to the uk government, from not making face masks compulsive in the first LD when england did, to now making them compulsive. Even changing the english name from circuit breaker to fire break. In the current lockdown.
I’m not surprised the english police are stopping the welsh at the none border, firstly many who will be stopped will be english not just welsh . It looks like who ever is crossing this in name only border are victims of the political games between Wales and england having little to do with the transmission of kungflu.
The southern end of wales were most people live has never really come out of lockdown eg travel restricted to the county you live in, the rule of six, compulsive mask wearing. Another political agenda being imposed on the people is a campaign of posters through out south wales announcing “THE GREAT RESET”
The only stirring of the welsh people against these draconian measures, is against the ban on supermarkets selling none essential items, which include bedding and socks, kettles, ect ect. The banning does not stop people buying online, which defeats the object of protecting sales to local shops when the lockdown lifts.
The welsh government will also be holding a interactive climate change debate virtually, between the 2nd and 6th November. To pursue thier none consensus climate agenda. Drakeford and his government have also publicly had arguments with trump over covid. Such is the state of play in wales at the moment.
May I put this in political context? The Blair Labour government set up the referendum on Welsh devolution and we had constant propaganda in favour of Yes from both the government and the BBC. Even so it passed by a whisker, and with strong suspicions of corruption in the vote.
The Welsh Assembly was designed to ensure a Labour control, which so far has been successful, however the Labour vote is in long term decline and given the inexorable trend since devolution they won’t last. Labour in Wales is deeply vulnerable to a new energetic party that manages to connect with the people. The only people ignoring this are the Labour Party in Wales. Labour in Westminster are deeply concerned because it is likely to cost them several seats. But Labour in Wales …
The First Minister started with Alan Michael who was a slick politician, moved on to Rhodri Morgan who I never liked but had an excellent CV and was without doubt very clever. Then Carwyn Jones a Labour trooper who got to the top on Buggin’s turn, solid but lacking imagination. Now we have Mark Drakeford – Corbyn in Wales – more Buggin’s turn. Disconnected, idealogically bigoted, bereft of imagination and not terribly bright. No experience of anything outside academia and social services, and won’t listen to anyone who has. The fact that he became a full Professor beggars belief, but … Labour in Wales.
The welsh government are also predicting another lockdown in Jan Feb , my feelings on this are you cant predict what a disease will be doing in 3 to 4 months time, this is more about the reset than kungflu , we will be allowed a little freedom over december ( or might be) because we all know the kungflu will hold a truce over Christmas.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54681885
Probably the most worrying aspect of lockdown is the thousands of letters sent out just before the current lockdown by the NHS advising folk routine surgery ,cancer scans, ect have been cancelled, I have one of these letters, yet the welsh government in thier wisdom have closed down some of the extra capacity in the form of florence nightingale field hospitals, which is a contradiction to why our appointments have been cancelled.
I picked this up from Breitbart:
‘The Law Society of England and Wales, on 23rd October 2020 said
“Lockdown enforcement powers resume in Wales.
The Law Society of England and Wales is keen to make people aware of the powers that enforcement officers have during the ‘fire-break.’
Enforcement officers are police constables, police community support officers and anyone designated as such by Welsh Ministers or a local authority.
They will have the power to enter homes and other premises if they have reasonable grounds for suspecting that the lockdown restrictions are being contravened or are about to be contravened, or consider it necessary to enter to find out whether restrictions are being contravened.
The enforcement officers may use reasonable force while exercising their power and can also take other people, equipment and materials into homes if they think it is necessary.
Enforcement officers appointed by local authorities only have the power to enter non-domestic properties”.
David Greene, president of the Law Society of England and Wales, said:
“These are extraordinary powers and it is important that the public are fully informed about them so that they don’t fall foul of them inadvertently. It is vital that laws of this nature are both visible and understandable”.
These powers clearly contravene decisions of the ECHR and yet not a single voice has been raised against them in Wales, or anywhere else. What an incredibly dangerous precedent.’
Dyed in thew wool authoritarians like Drakeford are in seventh heaven with Covid.
Yes I did read this, what this article missed is the welsh government gave itself powers to inact new legislation
Within hours of dreaming it up. Essentially they have given themselves powers that avoid scrutiny and consensus.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-54572538
And next week I’m betting they will use the above to bring in climate legislation
Sounds very much like Common Purpose at work.
The question is often asked here in the UK, if our situation would have been any worse any more Draconian if Labour (socialists) had won the last election back in 2019.
Well, now we all have the answer to that question, because Wales has a Labour administration and what Draconian Drakeford Welsh First Minister (Lab) has demanded of the Principality, is what Labour would have done and demanded nation wid. We are grateful they had did not win the chance to do it.
Their primary driver of Labour, seems to be the destruction of capitalism.
That Labour desire enforced by police, in Wales and along the borders with Wales, is a disgrace and we have to start refusing to cooperate.
WE did not vote for a totalitarian state back in December 2019.
Covid cases, are NOT covid deaths. Look after the old folk, and those with serious health problems and it’s practically a ‘non-disease’ to everyone else, but try telling that to politicians and other assorted idiots.
‘I suspect if anyone in Britain finally gives the finger to the lockdown fascists, it will be the Welsh. One provocation too many will be all it takes.’ You were right!
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/supermarket-coronavirus-covid-fire-break-19159487
In the past, when the Spanish Flu struck, one could make an subjective approximation of quarantine borders by comparing those borders and geographical shapes to Cubism. In this era, in this metaphor, it was a time of ‘Quarantine Cubism’.
There were no Teslas or high speed jets, and people mainly stayed in their home town and so the quarantine was in a golden age. In quarantine Cubism, the borders are well defined and the different shapes and colors do not leak into other areas of the canvas. Neat.
Neat borders, and well defined shapes make planning a quarantine in my subjective artistic metaphor a piece of cake.
Today, with travel and high speed jets, and Teslas driving around everywhere the borders are more akin to a Jackson Pollock painting, and this is precisely why modern day quarantine cannot, and will not work for any long term purpose. Have a look at a Jackson pollock painting and marvel/behold how not even the best contact tracing and Ai cameras can unravel it. The virus in our modern world is all over the canvas in seconds like a Jackson Pollock.
https://www.jackson-pollock.org/number-5.jsp
It is probably worth imagining that as early as December 2019 last year, the virus was already metaphorically a Jackson Pollock painting on steroids. On an imaginative subjective metaphorical level, the virus had been everywhere on the global canvas as early as that, or at least that is what i imagine in this artistic metaphor, subjective representation.
So someone got their britches in a bunch because COVID!!!!! and is trying to spook people all over again?
No clothes buying? Well, what if the washing machine beats your tee shirts to pieces and you need new ones? Just wear the holey shirts and flog yourself while hollering “Bring out yer dead! Bring out yer dead!”
Well, you try turning people into toads, just for gits and shiggles, but that’s what I’d do. That, and get out the Cornish cookbooks, because figgy hobbin is easy to make and tasty, and…. but my distant forbears came from Scotland and Cornwall, so I can watch on the sidelines. There’s a secondary go-round starting up here in My Kingdom, so I”m on the sidelines watching and waiting.
How can anyone have nothing to do? I”m so cotton pickin’ busy all the time that I can barely get the laundry done, never mind anything else. Maybe some of those idle souls could come clean my house for me?
Yes, but the weather is lovely
From the article: “to slow a surging rate of coronavirus infections”
So why is the number of Wuhan virus infections surging right now?
The explanation given for a surge this time of year is that the weather gets colder so people crowd together inside at a greater rate that enhances the chances of getting infected.
That makes sense, but in the United States the Wuhan virus has been surging for weeks now and when it started the weather was warm all over the United States and has only gotten colder here in the last couple of weeks and that is only affecting the northern sections of the nation, while the south is still warm, yet the Wuhan virus number of cases is surging.
Do we have a mutated strain that is more infectious?
The good news is the death rate is way down as we learn how to treat the disease.
It seems to largely dispel the theory that the virus is airborne in droplets, as it should be much harder to spread in hot, humid weather.
If I remember correctly SARS could also be spread by poop, so it’s quite possible that’s actually the major way in which this spreads.
I read a little bit about this and the only things mentioned to increase the infectiousness were colder weather, and it was said that the Wuhan virus can survive longer on surfaces when it is colder.
The colder weather doesn’t seem to be the answer for this surge. For example, El Paso, Texas is warm and has been warm and they are imposing a curfew down there today because of the extent of the outbreak.
And you are correct about it may be spread by fecal matter. I read a story the other day about a person who was infected and then tested negative, but when he was tested for the Wuhan virus in his stomach, it was present 30 days after he had tested negative. It seems some people only experience gastro-intestinal effects from the Wuhan virus and never have respiratory effects.
The Wuhan virus is a complicated disease.
I think it was Wales that had the University with quarantining students who were told to hold back a few minutes if there was a fire drill in their dorms so that the kids who weren’t quarantining wouldn’t be so closely exposed to them.
No, it was York University
Well I’m pleased you liked it, Eric, but somehow we seem to have given you a strange view of the place… but then we have a long tradition of winding up impressionable foreigners.
Yeah, the muggers in Roath were probably actors. Did a convincing impression of looking like drunk bums hoping to score a bit more beer money. Hilarious when they ran away.
From the Daily Mail…
Draconian lockdowns do not work.
——————————————————
Stay-at-home orders do NOT stop the spread of coronavirus:
Major study finds restrictions barely change the R rate because people don’t obey the draconian rules
Researchers examined a number of individual restrictions used to slow Covid-19
They looked at a combination of different measures for the best possible option
They found a ‘near lockdown’ with school closures would cut the R rate in half
The best individual option for reducing the R rate is a ban on all public events
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8868923/Lockdown-slashes-coronavirus-R-rate-half-month-study-shows.html
Here’s a basic question in a world closed to questioning. Where is the virus spreading as in venues, offices, non-store gatherings, and families? Was it really a problem in isle 7 nonessential items of the grocery store?
In the USA we have HIPPA laws and employers to heavily cloak the Q&A.
Where the virus is spreading varies from country to country, there is no one answer because it is dependent on movement.
> instead of allowing those shops to remain open, to ban larger retailers from selling ‘non-essentials’ entirely.
The powers did this in California with nary a bleat from the sheeple.
There are any number of commercial PCR tests, all of which recommend a cycle threshold of around 35, above which useful detection of infection is highly unlikely.
National Health Service Standard Operating Procedures stipulate a cycle threshold of 40.
But the one number they cannot fool is the Office of National statistics overall all cause mortality number, plumb normal since the end of May:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales
The anger is palpably building…….
Fighting back in Wales. A hero swings into action.
https://twitter.com/JackieGoode5/status/1319963010870484993
My favorite act of rebellion was the guy who tried to go shopping at Tesco in his underwear.. “aparently clothes are not essential” LOL
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/man-visits-tesco-just-underpants-22900725
Oh and Eric… “I suspect if anyone in Britain finally gives the finger to the lockdown fascists, it will be the Welsh.”
The Scousers beat them to it, after a big publicity campaign surrounding the closure of Gyms in Liverpool, and several owners refusing to close, the gov u-turned allowing them to stay open
Fair point 🙂
Since when was clothing not essential in Britain during autumn and winter ??!
The aim seems to be getting the population used to stupid and arbitrary rules being imposed.
Ahh yes. ‘Grooming’.
(Spoiler – this post will not mention China’s Gift to the West)
So back about 10 years I was in Cardiff during a nice sunny period in July. On holidays I was doing the tourist thing and had spent the best part of the day exploring Cardiff Castle and the like, so by late afternoon I was tired and wanted a break.
And by break I mean Pint.
So next pub I come to I turn into. I go to the bar, get my pint from a polite and well groomed guy in his twenties, and go sit down at a table on one of the very comfortable leather chairs.
Drink some pint.
Oddly, to me at least, all the TV screens seemed to be playing music channels. No sports. That was a bit weird. So, now slightly suspicious, I look around the room at the other punters. Hmmm… well groomed young male bartenders, distinct lack of women, a same sex couple casually making out in the dark corner booth, glam rock style music AND most importantly, NO LIVE SPORTS on the telly.
So clearly I wasn’t going to be able to get any cricket highlights in this gay bar, so once I had finished my pint 15 minutes later I politely left.
And now… 10 years too late, I finally get this advice;
“The first time you visit a pub in Cardiff, you pick a fight with someone, after that nobody gives you any trouble.”
I feel so embarrassed. Hope I didn’t offend any of our Welsh friends with my massive social error.
Sounds like Glasgow on a quiet night.
Had all this in Spain, didn’t stop the virus. Did kill small businesses. Did make Spanish GDP fall 22%, more than the Civil war. Did make suicide rates skyrocket.