SAGE again
Britain would not survive another lockdown, and that's exactly why certain members of SAGE and their ideological soulmates wish to impose one.
THERE APPEARS TO HAVE been some contrition on the part of an unelected subgroup of the unelected group SAGE (Scientific Group for Emergencies). Members from the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviour (SPI-B) have ‘expressed regret’ for the deployment of ‘totalitarian’ tactics aimed at prompting compliance from the public - some even describing it as ‘cruel’. But within minutes of fessing up to this, they were at it again - this time because of the ‘Indian’ variant of the virus that comes from a country we dare not mention.
Putting aside the features of the variant, this announcement - circulated wildly by the UK media whose largest client just so happens to be the UK government - arrived alongside rumors that SAGE is on the warpath. Apparently, some of its members are hopping mad that they’ve been ridiculed - and are now considering ways of shutting critics up.
As things stand today, Britain’s scheduled exit out of restrictions looks highly unlikely, but the pattern of events that have prompted this new despair is familiar. Everything seems manageable until SAGE ‘discovers’ a new variant, or conjures up some new modeling. At that moment, bought-and-paid-for media quickly respond, sometimes with hatchling questions such as ‘is freedom in doubt?’ (Here, the Daily Mail, whose editor is a ‘zero covid’ enthusiast, is particularly useful). This is followed by more SAGE claims, until politicians, such as the underwhelming Matt Hancock, are wheeled out: ‘afraid so,’ he fake grimaces.
I am interested in one specific encounter that supports the second part of the pattern and illustrates the shadowy convenience between naked political operatives and obedient media. Yesterday, the New Statesman interviewed Dr. Devi Sridhar, Professor & Chair of Global Public Health, Edinburgh University Medical School (Sridhar also happens to be the best friend of Hillary Clinton’s beautiful daughter Chelsea). She was questioned by Britain’s most obnoxious reporter, George Eaton, whose scandalous, dishonest behavior resulted in the late Roger Scruton being fired by the UK government for comments he did not make. It will not have been lost on Sridhar that the flawed Eaton is nothing if not slippery: she clearly calculated that the occasion could be used to convince this repulsive creature to blood the scientifically impossible concept of ‘zero covid’.
I have no doubt that it’s SAGE’s Susan Michie who is furious. Peter Hitchens’ takedown of her featured in the Mail on Sunday (importantly - not the same thing as the Daily Mail), and was immediately condemned by (mostly academic) groups and individuals sympathetic to the Marxist behavioural psychologist. But how did she respond? She reposted, on her Twitter feed, all the support she had received from occupants inside her echo chamber - not one of whom is employed by the hospitality industry, not one of whom works for Pret, or as a traveling barber. None were furloughed or made redundant. Most enjoy the largesse of funding they play no role in raising - in grants they are virtually guaranteed of - year in, year out.
SAGE, Michie and Sridhar detest Britain. Their enemy is not a virus but a profile. Another lockdown with further reduced compensation would render everyone but the wealthy a ward of the state - which is precisely one of the ways you prevent people criticizing you for being unelected.