Questions Of The Day (Politics)

[Mick Harper]

I'm trying to decide whether this is historical or not. The upper classes have always been louchely cavalier towards the 'staff' but only in certain kinds of ways. Rarely, Pritti Patel, in any demeaning way. On a historical note, when was this happening? The War Rooms were, I think, only ready in 1941 when Halifax was safely removed to Washington. I'll consult the oracle when I visit St Thomas's later today. I'm one of the porters summoned back to duty. "Keep pumping that ventilator, Michael."

PS Carting replacement oxygen cylinders to the wards was part of your job but it was disputed whether you were supposed to actually change them or not. Most porters, including me, pretended not to know how (true in my case) and 'let' the nurses do it though if I were a patient I wouldn't trust a porter with my air supply further than I could throw an oxygen cylinder. BOC, I recall, are they still in business?

[Mick Harper]

Further to the PS above, a PSS if you will, and not a PPS as I used to write before Hatty pointed out that this stood for Parliamentary Private Secretary rather than 'a further postscript', certain hospitals are reporting that the demand for oxygen means that their piped supply of the stuff is in jeopardy. One said, "We can't get it past the seventh floor, the pressure is so low." It is one thing the NHS running out of swabs, it is another thing them running out of (20%) of the air that we breathe. As the Hollies used to sing. Even so I should like to hear more of this latest way of circumventing the tyranny of the porters.

[Boreades]

One day they'll write a musical about that.

Oh Mr Porter, what shall we do?
I wanted oxygen to Patients on Floor Seven,
But it ended-up in Two.

[Mick Harper]

One illuminating sidenote. It is being reported that many East End London hospitals are running short of ventilators because they are all going to the Docklands Nightingale -- and not being used there. This reinforces the idea that every year the NHS has a make-do and mend attitude to waves of 'minor' infectious diseases. As every hospital system going back to Hippocrates has to. You make pragmatic (but unannounced) decisions about who gets what treatment depending on demand at the time.

You can't absolutely guarantee to save everyone unless you have seventy million ventilators. That is not as far-fetched as you might think. Everyone in Britain had a gas mask in 1939.

[Wile E. Coyote]

[Mick Harper]

[Boreades]

[Mick Harper]

I have an apology to make. The first since 1994. For some reason I had supposed that Jon Lansman was a figure from my far-off youth in the nineteen-sixties. It turns out he was merely like figures from my far-off youth. Lansman the man is a figure of the nineteen seventies and eighties. Since these old goats feed on the elixir of young female followers' desire to get as close to the truth as possible, they always live to a ripe old age and we shall have Momentum (or the Marxist-Lansmanist fraktion of Momentum, if Wiley is right) for many years to come.

[Mick Harper]

This destruction of 5G towers because they are 'spreading the coronavirus' is exceptionally interesting for us. One of the more remarkable things about conspiracy theories is how little harm they do in the real world. Conspiracy theorists are armchair warriors which is a great relief because their numbers and cohesiveness (and yes, intelligence) would make them a formidable force were they ever to get off their arses and on to their BMX's.

The rarity of such actions -- for instance the bloke who shot up the pizza parlour at the centre of Pizzagate -- would seem to indicate that even if they did, they would sure to be lone nutters. In the west. In the east (and south) rumours can spread and mayhem ensues -- Muslims taking cows for slaughter in India and that kind of thing -- but they are not the same as conspiracy theories. How are they different? They are political for one thing. An excuse for mayhem. Conspiracy theorists have the reputation of being right-wing but I think that is more a case of anti-conspiracists being left-wing. I, for instance, am characterised as a right-wing conspiracy theory peddlar but never a left-wing one, even though it seems equally likely from where I sit, in my armchair. I might end up as a hero to academics if I ever was, a sobering thought. Possibly a creative one...

But now we have some multiply direct action. In Holland as well as Britain according to my statutory forty-five seconds researching the subject. Elsewhere? Our own right-wing conspiracy nut-jobs will keep us posted. Unless they are out blowing up 5G towers, which brings us to the point. Why? What's changed? I wanna know. Also how did the connection get dreamt up in the first place? There must be some logic to it, there always is.

[N R Scott]

[Mick Harper]

Thanks, Scottie, everything bar the last paragraph is unsurprising/familiar but all of it was interesting/informative. The last para is the bit that got past the tin foil hat I wear whenever I am looking at a computer screen. But you didn't give us your views about this new found direct action aspect. Though I did notice you worded your comment about whether it was real or false flag rather carefully.

[Mick Harper]

As to the theory itself, we have clearly reached the stage where there are so many people looking for conspiracies that any important event is certain to have its own conspiracy theory. I suppose that they are themselves subject to peer review, in this case presumably a form of Gresham's Law in which the more seductive theory drives out the less seductive ones, until there is one conspiracy theory to rule them all.

But surely it then becomes something of a cachet to believe in one of the rarer ones. I can't see what satisfaction is derived from just going along with the herd. Come on, AEists, can't we come up with something better than microwaves thinning the blood? Blimey, that's been around since they started putting up electricity pylons. Conspiracy theory morons are just as deserving of our help as academic cretins.

[N R Scott]

[Mick Harper]

[N R Scott]