Tag: united kingdom

UK watchdogs say people with learning disabilities have been given inappropriate ‘do not resuscitate’ orders for COVID-19

In the UK, people with learning disabilities have been told that healthcare workers will not attempt to save their lives with CPR if they succumb to COVID-19, according to an advocacy group.

Mencap, a UK charity advocating for people with learning disabilities, said that in January it was still receiving reports of people being told that they would not be resuscitated if they fell ill from COVID-19. Mencap said it seemed that these orders were given simply because of the patients’ learning disabilities, The Guardian reported on Monday.

Such “do not attempt to resuscitate” orders (DNARs or DNACPRs) instruct healthcare workers not to attempt CPR if a patient stops breathing or if their heart stops beating. Doctors usually administer these orders after discussing the option with the patient or their caretakers. However, England’s Care Quality Commission reported in December that some people had received DNARs in the spring without their knowledge or consent.

“It’s unacceptable that within a group of people hit so hard by the pandemic, and who even before COVID died on average over 20 years younger than the general population, many are left feeling scared and wondering why they have been left out,” Mencap CEO Edel Harris told The Guardian.

“This is eugenics and it is revolting,” US virologist Angela Rasmussen said on Twitter.

The Care Quality Commission is set to publish a report on its investigation into “inappropriate” DNARs in the coming weeks. The commission has said that its investigation focuses on older people and people with learning disabilities, since they may have been disproportionately affected by the practice.

For now, it’s unclear how many people have been given inappropriate DNARs since the pandemic began, or how many of these orders persist today.

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UK Government Could Grant Vaccine Exemptions to Ethnic Minorities

The UK government could grant vaccine exemptions to people of color while simultaneously mandating vaccine travel certificates for everyone else in order to avoid accusations of racism, according to a report in the Spectator.

Despite repeatedly promising that ‘vaccine passports’ would not be required in order to fly, the government has been actively planning for their introduction.

After more than 324,000 people signed a petition opposing immunization passports, UK vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi said that vaccines would not be compulsory and that, “We have absolutely no plans for vaccine passporting.”

That turned out to be a complete falsehood.

As the Spectator reports today, “Responsibilities have already been divided up between government departments to look at the idea. If approved, the Department for Transport will be told to draw up plans for a certificate infrastructure. And the NHS will be told to prepare to let people access their vaccine status when preparing for international travel.”

Sky News reports that Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has already signed off on the proposal but that there’s a “nervousness” within government about when it will be announced publicly.

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UK COVID Cops Arrest Man For Handing Out Free Soup

Police in the UK arrested a man for handing out free soup in a park, claiming that he had violated COVID-19 restrictions.

Nick Smith had been giving out free soup to people in his village for 17 weeks before Sussex Police intervened, claiming he had violated COVID rules by encouraging people to gather.

However, Smith cited exemptions under the rules for volunteering, which allows for up to 15 people to gather either indoors or outdoors.

Smith said he found the whole experience “very shocking” and insisted he was only trying to help people struggling with mental health issues as a result of the lockdown.

“Showing up every week and being a feature they can rely on is what I wanted to do. They just come because they don’t see anybody they don’t talk to anybody and they’re going crazy,” he said.

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HSBC says customers who refuse to wear a face mask will have their accounts withdrawn

HSBC has issued a warning to customers as retailers step up coronavirus safety measures amid a further 1,243 deaths.

The lender – which also owns First Direct and Marks & Spencer bank – said customers who break the law could forfeit their bank account.

Speaking to The Mirror, a spokesman said face masks are mandatory in all branches as per government guidelines.

Those who refuse to comply will be refused service and could have their bank accounts withdrawn.

Jackie Uhi, head of branch network, HSBC UK said: “Our branch colleagues are key workers, continuing to go to work in our branches every day so that customers who need them can access essential financial services.

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Spy Kids: New intelligence law allows CHILDREN to work as secret agents for local councils, anti-fraud bodies and even the gambling watchdog – and even shop their own parents

Scores of Government bodies, the armed forces and even the gambling regulator will legally be allowed to use child spies – including against their parents.

Police and the security services are among those who will be allowed to use under-18s as covert human intelligence sources (CHIS) under ‘exceptional circumstances’ according to official documents.

But guidance for the Covert Intelligence Bill, currently going through the Lords, outlines other public bodies who will be allowed to employ them as undercover agents.

As well as police, MI5, MI6 and the National Crime Agency, they include the Gambling Commission, county and district councils, the Environment Agency and the Food Standards Agency.

The document, which has been published online, prohibits those under 16 from being used to inform on their parents or guardians.

But it permits the use of older teenagers to be used against their own family under special circumstances.

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Police chief calls for power of entry into homes of suspected lockdown breakers

The government should toughen the lockdown by giving officers the right to force entry into homes of suspected law breakers, a policing leader has said.

David Jamieson, the police and crime commissioner for the West Midlands police, England’s second biggest force, said: “For the small minority of people who refuse entry to police officers and obstruct their work, the power of entry would seem to be a useful tool.

“I have raised this issue with the policing minister previously and clarity on the power of entry would help police officers enforce the new Covid regulations more easily.”

As the third lockdown comes into force in England at midnight on Wednesday, the rising infection rate is also causing increasing absences from the ranks of officers needed to help enforce the lockdown.

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We are putting woke idiocy above saving lives

After a year of the Covid pandemic, the rollout of the vaccine promises to be the light at the end of the tunnel. And while the work to develop and test the vaccines has been done successfully and at record speed, the rollout poses an enormous logistical challenge.

In the UK, retired doctors are volunteering to become Covid vaccinators to speed up the process. But the bureaucratic hurdles to volunteering are bordering on the absurd.

Retired GP Claire Barker, in a letter to the Telegraph, writes that she is expected to have documentation that she has received training in ‘conflict resolution, equality, diversity and human rights, fire safety, and preventing radicalisation’.

In other words, medically qualified doctors cannot administer a life-saving vaccine unless they have had diversity training.

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Rendlesham Forest UFO: Are we any closer to the truth 40 years on?

Forty years ago, a remote forest in Suffolk was the scene of one of the most famous purported UFO sightings in history. So just what did happen, and will we ever know for sure?

Vince Thurkettle was out chopping wood one morning in Rendlesham Forest in late December 1980 when a car drew up.

Out stepped two men, aged about 30, dressed in suits.

“Good morning. Do you mind if we ask you some questions?” asked one, in a well-spoken English accent.

Earlier, on 26 and 28 December, United States Air Force (USAF) security personnel stationed at nearby RAF Woodbridge had reported seeing strange lights in the surrounding forest.

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