Do You Trust the Government?
www.bitchute.com/video/33qWgnYWPr4D

The Truth about Facemasks:
www.bitchute.com/video/O6IpCkpdzR34

Wearing a mask is a bit of a tease
I'd rather be putting one on my knees
For all the good it'll do me and you
With help from above we will all make it through.

A mask on your knee would not stop a flea,
And one on your snout won't keep covid out.
Just pull up a snood when you go to buy food,
And your makeshift nappy will keep them all happy.

Covid, Class & the Decay of Cultural Confidence in the West:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GVP_Nxvjn0

Sorry, but I have no confidence in the opinions of a man with such awful dress sense (wearing an open-necked shirt with a formal suit) and who keeps saying "incredibly" when be means VERY, and "incredible" when he means GREAT.

But seriously, everyone (including me) HATES the lockdowns and restrictions, which are blighting our lives and doing serious harm to many, but the NHS has to be saved from becoming overwhelmed, and there is scientific consensus that the measures do slow the progress of the pandemic. In the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic, the vast majority of those who died died at home, but there was no NHS then, and nowadays everyone demands (if he needs one) a hospital bed of right.

Regardless of the shirt and literary style, I can't have full confidence in anyone who was once a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, but Brendan O'Neill does speak well on the issue of free speech.

How can you be sure there is scientific "consensus" if alternative views are censored?

Yes, he does, and he should have (and probably has) by now grown out of his Socialist views. All but the most blinkered and indoctrinated Communists do by the time they reach a certain age and have acquired a certain amount of world wisdom.

There's no consensus on whether or not lockdowns overall do more harm than good (and I am not convinced either way) but the evidence that TO A SIGNIFICANT DEGREE they restrict the spread of the virus is indisputable.

How do you know it's "indisputable" if other voices are being silenced?

It's indisputable in the sense that it's heavily supported by the scientific data and subscribed to by a large majority of epidemiologists, medics and statisticians of all political persuasions.

In an absolute or literal sense, almost nothing is indisputable. After all, there is still a Flat Earth Society and Creationism is still taught in American schools. But in this case what is absolutely indisputable is the overwhelming consensus of expert opinion. And these experts and the politicians advised by them are as much aware as we of the harm - economic, sociological, cultural and political - that lockdown is doing.

As a libertarian, and one who prefers to judge for himself what risks to take, and one whose remaining time may be short, I myself am biased against the restrictions. But I am completely unqualified to judge what is best in the longer term for the greatest number. Should Covid get me or one of mine, however, I am likely to change my mind.

That doesn't really answer my question. You say there's an overwhelming consensus of expert opinion, when free debate is not being allowed. People are at risk of losing their jobs (or worse) if they speak against the accepted narrative, and alternative voices are being censored by the media.

I place my trust in the judgement of Keir Starmer and Boris Johnson, the latter who was extremely reluctant to and hesitated long before imposing the restrictions - and has been severely criticised for his hesitation - both of whom have the facts, and who will have also heard these "alternative voices" which are at least as likely as the accepted wisdom to be wrong.

Do you watch the BBC as well?

No. (I haven't got television.)

Where do you get your news?

From newspapers, mainly.