Vaccines were rolled out first in care homes (as if they had not already targeted the elderly enough). Deaths spiked alarmingly. Because those deaths occurred within 14 days of injection, they were deemed "unvaccinated" and, of course, the authorities simply covered the spike in deaths with, "Well, they were old anyway".
More generally, it is an absurd proposition that the roll out of vaccines would suddenly cause a spike in "unvaxxed" deaths. They were rolled out long after CV-19 was over (peaked in early April 2000 and was totally spent by late June of that year (how do I know that?). Subsequent "waves" were manufactured using unreliable tests which generated bogus "cases". (Nobody would ever answer the simple question: what percentage of those testing positive had symptoms? They dare not answer.)
No other relevant data supported the presence of those "waves" which saw huge numbers of totally healthy people isolating. Absolute idiocy, but essential for maintaining the scam long enough to allow the vaccines to be rolled out.
Oh, you fell for it. Some people spotted it at the time.
The ONS lost all credibility during CV-19 as they blatantly faked key data. So, how exectly did they do it in the case of vaccines?
Well, we can leave the "died with" = "died of" to one side (although that lie was easily exposed). When the vaccines came along (care homes were targeted first), the surge in short-term deaths was so great that the ONS once again had to spring into action.
Suddenly, according to them, nobody was "vaccinated" until 14 days after injection (during which time, large numbers had already died - and hence were classified as "unvaxxed by the ONS).
Then, boosters came along. Same thing, people were still dying at an alarming rate. How to deal with that? Easy, unless you had all the jabs, you magically became "unvaxxed" once again.
The UK's record on public sector projects is so lamentable, we cannot possibly go down this route.
The biggest white elephant, HS2, has so far cost £46.2bn, including £3bn already written off on a section which will no longer be built. The projected cost is now well over £100bn for a service which will be below the original spec (complete with slower trains - the "HS" initially standing for "high speed").
If you can believe it, the original estimates ranged from an initial £15.8bn to £17.4bn, later revised up to £32.7bn. Far from the project being enhanced, perhaps explaining the soaring cost, its ambitions are being scaled back. It is the most expensive railway in history, anywhere in the world. The result will be nowhere near world class.
In other highlights. The government has spent more on planning for the Lower Thames Crossing (turns out the relevant Labour Minister cannot even tell you where that is) - some 5.2miles of tunneling in total - than Norway actually spent in building the world's longest tunnel.
We also plan to build the most expensive nuclear reactors in the world, but still cannot get out of the planning stage.
Same old pattern time and time again. We simply cannot afford to have government involved in any infrastructure projects.
Another false narrative. A recent study has identified a number of rapid warming events during the last ice age.
Greenland was found to have experienced 11 sharp temperature bursts, warming 10 to 16C in a matter of just 50 to 200 years. This happened despite CO2 levels remaining broadly stable.
Based upon this research, the strongest warming occurred across the northern extratropics, especially Eurasia. It appears, therefore, that the Earth's climate has shifted far more violently and rapidly in the past, even when CO2 levels remained relatively stable.
There is no significant increase. While the 2025 Defence Spending Review fantasises about an increase in expenditure from £62bn to £73bn by 28/29, it is very unlikely to happen due to the rapidly escalating debt crisis facing the government.
Labour aren't leading anything, they are just proving how irrelevant the UK actually is.
Meanwhile, there is a lurking environmental crisis heading our way. Vast quantities of wind turbines and solar panels are heading for replacement, leaving problems over recycling/disposal. Quite apart from the net cost (it costs much more to dispose of a solar panel than the value of the materials which can be recycled), the biggest issue to pollution.
A number of European countries have already banned the disposal of wind turbine blades in landfill. The same is likely for solar panels due to the high risk that heavy metals like lead and cadmium will leach into groundwater. Needless to say, no alternatives have been put forward. It appears that the UK government simply plans to leave offshore wind farms rotting in situ (what better monument could there be to their current folly).
Good try but, as usual, not true. Government debt is exploding under Labour. Soon, welfare payments will exceed total income and corporation tax receipts combined. Debt is so high that payments on that debt threaten to eclipse total VAT receipts. Labour are heading towards a debt-induced death spiral.
What fine words. No doubt she will also be setting out the government's capital expenditure commitments to ensure that the new, shiny nationalised railways can function efficiently because I'm sure they have learnt their lesson from the past when nationalised industries collapsed due to lack of investment.
@TedUrchin@UKLabour Well, yeah; if you cave entirely to the unions, they will call off their strikes for a time. Exactly what Labour did. Extra pay for no improvements in productivity.
@medialens Oh, of course. Nature is in perfect balance and then, humans come along. And, equally obviously, human-generated CO2 is different from "natural" CO2. Can't win against this level of stupidity, can you.
Actually, it was never "sold" as a cure for Britain's ills. It did, however, present significant opportunities for a refocusing the economy, all of which were purposely squandered by the government of the day.
But, the topic of Britain's economic decline is relevant. In many ways, the mirage of Britain's prosperity was built upon rampant and sustained property price inflation. Try to imagine a situation in which that had not occurred, with all of the underlying distortions it has caused. Massive distortions in terms of capital allocation.