Caution: Contains Logic

Cash is physical legal tender that can be used to exchange goods, debt, or services. Cash is simply an extension of the trade principal - a placeholder in between trades, to allow indirect exchange where people have differing needs. Using basic trade, I could provide a service to a farmer and obtain some food in return. The flaw is that the farmer may not need my service, meanwhile someone who does need my service may not produce food. Cash adds flexibility to the trade principle and allows more people to participate in it.  Moving the records of a person's cash earnings online does make a certain amount of sense in the modern age. However, if cash becomes obsolete, those numbers stop representing anything real and instead represent the "value" of each individual to the state. If digital currency becomes the norm, the solidity and security of cash is completely lost. Digital currency is vulnerable to hacking, it will make society more power-dependent, and it has absolutel...

Neil Ferguson. Professor Lockdown. His word has been taken as gospel by SAGE, the government, and the British people, and his modelling influenced the decision to introduce lockdown back in March.  Let's take a look at some of his other statistical works of art.  2001 - Foot and Mouth Disease!  In 2001 Ferguson and his team produced modelling that influenced culling policies, including "ring" culling - slaughtering animals in neighbouring farms despite no evidence of infection (well, they could have been asymptomatic)  This move cost the UK economy an estimated £10 billion, plus the wasted slaughter of over 6 million cattle, sheep, and pigs.  The modelling used was heavily criticised by experts, who claim the modelling was "severely flawed", "not fit for purpose" and made a "serious error". Clearly, this heroic work deserved an OBE, awarded to Ferguson in 2002. 2002 - Mad Cow Disease!  Ferguson predicted up to 50,000 deaths from BSE in the UK...

Last week it was announced that participation in the Covid-19 vaccine trials will be mandatory for all care workers. I am truly struggling to understand how this has happened in England - it is proving almost impossible to put my reaction into words. In my past 2 attempts to write this post I have been found myself entirely without words. It's a transparently insane occurrence, no matter how the Ministry of Truth try to frame it.  Ministers claim they have passed the mandate out of concern for low uptake of the vaccines in care home workers. This suggestion has provoked two strong responses in my mind that I'm sure we all share: A) Where was their "concern" for carers when they were sending sick residents back into their facilities, instead of the Nightingale hospitals?  B) Why is it not up to the workers what risks they're willing to take? A theme of my objections throughout - adults should have the right to assess the level of risk and make their own decisions ...

 If the government cared about the NHS, or cared about public health in any way, here are some things they would have done: Temporarily Ban Smoking. 21% of hospitalisations for any respiratory disease can be attributed to smoking. Plus 14% of all admissions for circulatory diseases, and 9% of all admissions for cancers. If smoking had been banned or even discouraged in the same way that handshakes have been, for example, the covid risk for smokers would have significantly reduced - after quitting, circulation and lung function start to improve after 2 weeks, and risk of heart attack drops after just 2 days! And this in turn would have reduced hospitalisations and reduced pressure on the NHS.  Keep Exercise Facilities Open.  Obesity is a covid risk factor. Boris told us himself: "my friends, I was too fat". Exercise can reduce your risk of major illnesses, such as heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes (another covid risk) and cancer by up to 50%. Not to mention, ex...

 It's taken me a day or so to process the last demonstration. As Essex participants will know, there was a significant delay in our journey to the starting point - a fatality at Gidea Park caused all trains into Central London to be stopped. Undeterred, the group splintered and made their various ways into Hyde Park. From here on, then, I can only speak for my small family group who made it to Marble Arch at half past 1. Half an hour late, we were still able to join the crowd that was streaming steadily out of Hyde Park, with many more to come.  It was undoubtedly the highest-attended protest yet. Aerial footage courtesy of Richard Tice shows the miles of road occupied by tightly packed people. The BBC even said there were "thousands" of us, so by the ratio of their previous estimates, I assume there were over a million. I was pleased to discover on Sunday morning that multiple papers had actually reported on the protest, and the Mail Online had used a photo that my banne...

 Dear Maskers,  I'd like to invite you all to play a game. It's called Never Have I Ever. If you don't know how to play, you just grab a big glass of wine or some shots, and take a drink every time you've done something on the list.  Ready?  Never Have I Ever worn a mask on my chin.  Never Have I Ever lowered my mask to talk, then pulled it back up.  Never Have I Ever touched the front of my mask. Never Have I Ever walked around with a mask swinging from my wrist. Never Have I Ever put a mask down on a table then put it back on.  Never Have I Ever put a mask in my bag or pocket between uses.  Never Have I Ever worn the same mask multiple times without washing.  Are you drunk yet?  There is an argument for masks preventing infection under the pristine conditions of an operating theatre, where the practice is executed to perfection. But out in the real world, the use of masks is counter-productive. When you have it round your wrist, it's p...

 Yesterday's protest has resulted in mixed feelings. The turnout was great for all 16 protests across the UK and it's always good to get out, mix with like-minded people and fill the streets. On the other hand the route was quite empty of observers, probably due to it being agreed with the police beforehand, and the energy was lower. I think that there were multiple reasons for the overall dampened spirits. One is the division between organisers who possibly all want to be the one person in charge and take credit. Another is the division within the cause - people campaigning about child trafficking and other causes that, despite being important, aren't to do with lockdown. They may well be linked to the same figures who are profiting from lockdown, but the lack of focus definitely dilutes the impact we could be having. Finally, another reason is the frustration and exhaustion that is coming from having so many protests so close together with no coverage and less reaction fr...