The Government has moved to dispel public anxiety over the perceived web of secrecy surrounding the SAGE committee, which has heard, and discussed, scientific thought pertaining to the Coronavirus pandemic, by making public the names of its members. This rare and welcome moment of openness has, sadly, been overshadowed by the kind of fundamental stupidity to which those out on the right are far too susceptible.
Right-leaning media outlets approved, the
Mail telling “
The names of those who sit on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) had not previously been published on security and independence grounds. But this morning the Government bowed to mounting pressure and release then names of 50 experts across many fields who have sat in regular meetings during the pandemic - with just two refusing to be identified”.
For those out there not yet adding two plus two and getting four, they added “
It came amid a row over No10 aide Dominic Cummings attending meetings and will fuel speculation that he is one of the two members whose identities remain redacted”. Speculation? It’s nailed on that Polecat Dom is one of the two, with the other name more than likely to be not unrelated to Cummings’ pal Ben Warner, so-called “
Data Scientist”.
You don't get to know who this is, except he's in the other photo already
The belief that Cummings has precipitated an “
Oh what a giveaway” moment was only reinforced by the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog
trying to create a diversion by going after David King’s “
Shadow SAGE” group, on the grounds that one of them had written something for the Fabian Society, more than one had opposed Brexit, and one was married to a Corbyn SpAd. The usual lame smears.
To then highlight the intellectual deficiency at the heart of the Fawkes massive, The Great Guido then tries once more to dissuade speculation about Cummings and Warner
by publishing the SAGE membership alongside the sneering aside “
Presumably just to set the conspiracy theorists off, two participants have not given permission to be named”.
But, to no surprise at all, the Fawkes rabble were putting no-one off the scent, with Paul Lewis, the Guardian’s head of investigations, noting “
Curious why Dominic Cummings and Ben Warner are not on the list of Sage participants? Take note of the small–print. First, this is a list of participants who provided input ‘as experts’. Second, two participants ‘have not given permission to be named’”. To which he then added an aside.
“
There's no doubt Cummings participated and gave input. Several other Sage participants have told us that. Seems the get-out-clause may be that he did not do so as an ‘expert’. Transparency, of course, is a relative concept”. Quite so. And that might have been that, had the Fawkes mob not made a
last desperate intervention to divert attention.
“
The revelation of SAGE’s membership has shown that not a single economist is sitting on the committee that appears to be advising continued economic lockdown. Not ideal The Adam Smith Institute are calling on the Government to listen to a broader range of experts when considering the process of winding down the lockdown” they blustered.
What does SAGE stand for, O Great Guido? Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. So it’s got scientists on it. Diversion failed.
We see you, Dominic Cummings.
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4 comments:
Old-style artificial intelligence output.
The plot sickens.
Literally.
Has Guido ever put on their blog that they are Tory activists?
Paul Staines AKA Guido Fawkes the Tory activist and fake news specialist has attempted to diss the shadow sage group set up by Professor Sir David King as 'Labour Activists' in the same way that he labelled frontline covid 19 nurses who protested about lack of PPE as 'labour activists'. No heroes or angels they if they vote Labour! Zelo Street is doing a sterling job in exposing this cringeworthy popinjay for the mindless moron he is. He used to employ one Harry Cole who used the corporeal Staines as a springboard to The Sun newspaper in 2015, and whose first front page Sun splash was the Court Jezter nonsense about how Jeremy Corbyn would refuse to kiss the Queen's hand as a Privy Councillor while he personally would benefit and receive £millions from something called Short money. Cole did not even now what Short money was he is so thick. Cole & the Sun were taken to IPSO by a little old lady from East Sussex, a disabled pensioner, who treated her with their usual manipulative condescension and put a team of lawyers and a full time paid ombudswoman to fight the case. The little old lady won and refused to accept an apology low down on page 22, but said a front page splash found to be false should be met with an apology on the front page. IPSO attempted to bury the news by releasing the information just before Christmas, so the little old lady cntacted an old friend with whom se used to work, who happened to work on the Independent, still in printed form then,who ran an exclusive with the headline in red ink: 'Gotcha'. Other nationals followed suit. And so it came to pass that Harry Coles was humiliated and hauled over the Coles, so to speak by the Sun's editor for embarrassing them,this being the first successful case against the Sun ever with a front page apology demanded by IPSO!
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