4 ms·
For the record, I'm very much anti Tory, very much a promoter of vaccines which work and very much a promoter of being able to understand and question statistic
by rob_c 4y ago
For the record, I'm very much anti Tory, very much a promoter of vaccines which work and very much a promoter of being able to understand and question statistical analyses in a consistent way.
People can place words in my mouth but they are not true. I'm an educated individual with a strong understanding of statistical analysis, scientific modelling and was asked to give advice of the validity of the tools used to construct report 9. I reported them to be as broken as I feared with evidence and then the action on this was strictly political in the UK after advising govt committees.
The basic right of not getting arrested for traveling in the British countryside or the ability to go and earn a living without government intrusion in all factors had been removed for several months and the thought of being able to congregate in a small group to simply discuss something like the works of Shakespeare was for a time effectively illegal.
The fact these rights were restored has nothing to do with them being removed en masse. I'll note whilst still allowing private flights into the country without restriction as long as you were bringing in than £50k to the country(!).
I'm not talking about the USA. Nor do I care to here. I'm not talking about any political party here, again nor do I care to. I'm not taking about anti scientific rigour or scientific discussion here, not do I care to. And nor do I care to discuss statistical illiteracy in any way shape or form.
- n4r9 4y ago> The basic right of not getting arrested for traveling in the British countryside Not sure this was a "basic human right" in England even before COVID. See e.g. https://www.mylawyer.co.uk/trespassing-a-A76076D34460/ https://www.mylawyer.co.uk/trespassing-a-A76076D34460/ and https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ https://www.righttoroam.org.uk/ . All land is owned by someone, only around 8% of it is "open access", and the right to roam has only existed for 20 years.
- rob_c 4y agoI won't argue with the global broad stroke of that definition at 1000ft not being correct. But being legally threatened and forced to leave for visiting a publicly owned and publicly accessible UK national trust land in the middle of nowhere is stupid, yet this is what was regularly happening in 2020. Basic right of way ability to go about ones life without state harassment was removed in countries that people pretend are full off freedom and virtue.
- n4r9 4y agoThe policy does seem absurd hindsight. As does the whole "wash your hands for 20 seconds" and "we see no reason to record mask-wearing". I agree it's important to be cautious when deciding whether an emergency overrides the right to liberty. We have to bear in mind that in mid-2020 we had very little knowledge of the fatality, infectiousness, or transmission mechanism of the virus. It was huge, unknown risk to public health, there wasn't time to research the virus profile or to carefully construct fine-grained policies.