Will the Brits get their holidays this year? [Letter from Great Britain – 02-13-21]

“The Financial Jigsaw” has been serialised here and is replaced by this weekly “Letter from Great Britain.”  NOTE – If anyone would like an electronic copy of the complete book, I should be pleased to email a free PDF on request to: [email protected].

This review was taken from our ‘Keep Britain Free’ lobby group and summarises where the Brits are in the clamour to go on holiday this year among other atrocities.   Just a matter of weeks after Matt Hancock (the Health Secretary) suggested that 2021 would be a bumper year for British holidays and announcing that he had planned his own trip to Cornwall, the Government has rapidly back-tracked on this sentiment, with the Transport Secretary warning Brits not to book any holidays – either abroad or in the UK – in fact it is currently illegal to go on holiday anywhere by government mandate!

Whilst this decisive U-turn may seem confusing enough, last Wednesday, Hancock re-instated his intentions to travel to the West-coast to the Tory backbench 1922 committee – at the same time the Prime Minister was telling the nation that it was too early to decide whether people can go away this summer. So, are they now suggesting that it is one rule for ministers and another for the general public?

Whilst this relentless mixed messaging aptly sums up the shambolic handling of the pandemic by our Government, it doesn’t stop there! Just yesterday morning, Matt Hancock once again demonstrated how detached he has become from reality by uttering the words that the government was now working to “allow” people to go on holiday this year. Do they seriously think Britons will stand idly by and allow ministers to dictate their every movement?  Here are the details: https://www.yourmoney.com/insurance/should-you-book-a-summer-holiday

Demands for a swift schedule to take England out of lockdown seem set to increase this week despite Downing Street’s attempts to push back against Conservative MPs who want all restrictions lifted by the start of May. Ministers hailed meeting the government’s first major vaccination target, and said any hastiness in reopening could risk undoing the progress made in combating the pandemic. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/15/mps-urge-government-to-spell-out-economic

But there were reports that there could be a general relaxation of some rules on 8 March, such as allowing two people from different households to sit together in parks, and even allowing pub beer gardens to open for Easter at the beginning of April. The first travellers arriving in England from a “red list” of 33 countries will be required to check into government-designated accommodation from today for a10-day quarantine at their own expense. It comes as the government reconsiders introducing vaccine passports for travellers.

To add further to this nonsensical narrative, this week the Government has also bombarded us with a stream of utterly ridiculous new border controls.  From Monday, all arrivals into the UK will face mandatory triple Covid tests at their own expense. Moreover, anyone who tries to lie about their arrival from a so called ‘red list’ country could face a jail sentence of up to ten years, while those who try to avoid the mandatory self-isolation period in a hotel will face a fine of up to £10,000.

The new hotel quarantine regime requires arrivals in England from red list countries to prove a negative test result 72 hours before they travel to the UK. They will then have to book their hotel stay online before they travel to the UK.  Hotel quarantine costs £1,750 per person for 11 nights. An extra adult (aged 12 or over) in a room costs £650 – so couples sharing a room will pay £2,400.  Children under five are free, while there’s a £325 charge for children aged five to 12.  People facing significant financial hardship as a result of this charge, can apply for a deferred repayment plan when booking.  There is a £1,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a mandatory test and a £2,000 penalty for any international arrival who fails to take a second mandatory test.

It is simply unfathomable that lying on a passenger information form can carry a higher sentence than crimes including making threats to kill, indecent assault, possession of a firearm or the attempted rape of a child.  These latest measures are completely disproportionate to the threat and the fact that the Government has once again got away without pursuing proper process in Parliament.

On top of this, the Government is now also threatening to hold us to ransom, suggesting that we will not be able to attend venues or travel abroad again unless we have a ‘vaccination passport’.  It is simply absurd that this is what society has come to. The Government is out of control as the Supreme Court, with their cowardly Judges, gave them free reign to make decisions on the fly without any consequences.

These latest infringements echo life under a communist dictatorship and will only push more businesses up and down the country closer to the brink of collapse.  Throughout this ‘pandemic’ our Government has become an utter shambles, turning out a myriad of ambiguous and contradictory rules.  As a result businesses are hanging by the skin of their teeth and the unemployment rate is expected to more than double from pre-pandemic levels when the furlough scheme comes to an end.

Nearly 600,000 UK firms are at risk of failure if Government does not extend support measures in next month’s budget; they will be putting up to nine million jobs under threat, a report warns.  Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows that one in three businesses had less than three months of cash reserves – considered the danger point for firms – in the four months to the end of January.

This has risen from a quarter of firms previously, with small companies and those in the poor hospitality sector suffering the most as the third national lockdown in England wreaks chaos.  The IPPR said small businesses are at greatest risk, with four in 10 very low on cash.  Half of all firms in hospitality, food and other services are in the same position, as are 40% of those in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector.

Just this week, the Chancellor announced a “pay-as-you-grow” initiative, giving SMEs the option to extend the length of their business loan from six to ten years. However, these new measures don’t go anywhere near far enough in supporting crisis hit SMEs and will do little to alleviate the immense economic pressures businesses are under. Instead, they are now facing a decade of crippling interest rate payments which will only prolong their struggles and impede future growth.

Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy and they have been crippled by this pandemic from start to finish. Yet as the vaccine roll out continues and the pressure on the NHS recedes, there is no sign of the current lockdown restrictions easing any time soon.

As a reminder, The Great Reset merchants are selling conformity through lies. We need to counter them with the truth, which will, indeed, “set you free.”  But the information needs to be simple and true. Here are the 4 basic facts-

• the ‘virus’ has a blurry definition and has a survival rate of over 99% – no more deadly than some recent flu strains
• the PCR tests DON’T work and are a fraud.
• the reported ‘deaths’ are often people dying of other things and having ‘Covid’ added to their CoD based on the test that doesn’t work or on financial incentive.
• the vaccine is NOT a vaccine. It is experimental gene manipulation which will need decades of testing over generations before it can really be pronounced safe.

Here’s advice on how to counteract this assault on humanity: https://off-guardian.org/2021/02/12/the-new-normal-requires-a-new-response/

I have always been suspicious of the BBC’s agenda and this article explains it so well.  “Panorama was once respected as a bastion of impartial and investigative broadcasting. Today it stooped to the level of the rest of BBC wall-to-wall, morning noon and night, [propaganda] output. It showed its true colours as just another tool of total media control by the same controllers that control governments of the world.

            To broach the subject of vaccine deaths, this is an open letter to government from the UK Medical Freedom Alliance, with named recipients Matt Hancock, Nadhim Zahawi and prime minister, Boris Johnson, copied in. The factual concerns outlined in the letter were not even mentioned in the Panorama farce.”  Read the letter here:

https://johnplatinumgoss.com/2021/02/16/bbc-panorama-a-total-disgrace/

AND, who is behind all this pandemic nonsense and other nefarious actions?  “The CIA and the media are part of the same criminal conspiracy,” wrote Douglas Valentine in his important book: ‘The CIA as Organized Crime’.  This is true.  The corporate mainstream media are stenographers for the national security state’s ongoing psychological operations aimed at the American people, just as they have done the same for an international audience. 

            For those who read and study history, it has long been known that the CIA has placed their operatives throughout every agency of the U.S. government, as explained by Fletcher Prouty in ‘The Secret Team’; that CIA officers Cord Myer and Frank Wisner operated secret programs to get some of the most vocal exponents of intellectual freedom among intellectuals, journalists, and writers to be their voices for (un)freedom and censorship, as explained by Frances Stonor Saunders in ‘The Cultural Cold War’ and Joel Whitney in ‘Finks’, among others; that Cord Myer was especially focused on and successful in “courting the Compatible Left” since right wingers were already in the Agency’s pocket.   All this is documented and not disputed.  It is shocking only to those who don’t do their homework and see what is happening today outside a broad historical context.”  Read on for the full article:

https://off-guardian.org/2021/02/14/opening-the-cias-can-of-worms/

UK has agreed a trade deal with the EU. I will comment on the progression of this deal as it affects the UK economy. 

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said that 49% of UK-based exporters in a survey of 470 firms had suffered problems with post-Brexit arrangements since the start of the year, as companies struggled to adapt and faced higher costs due to extra border checks and paperwork.

Little more than a month into the UK’s new relationship with Brussels, the leading business lobby group warned that urgent action from both the British government and the EU was necessary to solve severe issues with cross-border trade.

It said UK companies were facing extra costs, delays in shipments to and from the continent, mountains of new paperwork and were often confused about whether particular rules applied to them or not.  The findings came as pressure mounted on the government amid difficulties at the borders, with warnings that increasing trade volumes later in the year are likely to expose further problems with the system.

AND here is a live example of how Brexit is not working as intended.  “Mike Bennett runs a small firm called Bennett Silks in Stockport, Greater Manchester, which has been in his family since his great-grandfather set it up in 1904.

            Like many other UK small businesses – the British Chambers of Commerce said last week that half of small businesses that export to the EU from the UK were struggling with Brexit rules, regulations and costs – Bennett says he has no option but to shift part of his company from Stockport to France, so it is back inside the EU’s single market.” Read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/14/as-half-its-sales-are-wiped-out-silk-firm-joins-exodus-to-europe

To be continued next week.

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Author: Austrian Peter

Peter J. Underwood is a retired international accountant and qualified humanistic counsellor living in Bruton, UK, with his wife, Yvonne. He pursued a career as an entrepreneur and business consultant, having founded several successful businesses in the UK and South Africa His latest Substack blog describes the African concept of Ubuntu - a system of localised community support using a gift economy model. View all posts by Austrian Peter