This state-imposed dystopia must end now

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The phrase from the United States’ Declaration of Independence which states our natural rights and which the executive is designed to protect and defend. Most governments all over the world are pursuing, as they see it, the continuation of life to the detriment of liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If the choice were either life or liberty, I would imagine the majority would choose liberty, as they should. William the Conqueror in 1066 at his coronation set out the first element of liberty within the City of London. This ancient principle should not die, not now and not ever.

This country amongst many others in the world has decided to impose lockdown measures. Why, you may ask? The reasoning being to protect each country’s individual health systems and to limit the loss of life. The first element of the reasoning has been completed. There have been numerous temporary NHS Nightingale hospitals foisted upon cities around the country, with very little usage to much expense. The second element is slightly more complicated, as I will explain. Loss of life is an appalling side effect but is lockdown the best way to prevent it? I think not. We should, however, not forget the ancient principle of aegrescit medendo, meaning the remedy is worse than the disease, and to not react irrationally or with emotion.

Let us look at an anomaly in this situation. Sweden. Sweden has not gone into lockdown, unlike its Scandinavian counterparts and has allowed its citizens to use their own judgment and common sense to do what they believe to be suitable to themselves. The current judge of whether COVID-19 cases have reduced is looking at the ‘R’ rate. Our objective as a country is to have an ‘R’ rate below 1, and it is currently 0.8. Sweden’s is 0.85. This raises an important dynamic: might a voluntary lockdown work just as well, without the disruption to normal social and economic life? I would agree. The virus has indeed spread faster in Sweden and it has been predicted that it could result in 85,000 deaths. Their death toll is currently 2,860 and they peaked a fortnight ago, so the predictions were widely wrong and now Sweden is having a day-by-day fall in infections and deaths.

This plan is called folkvett and in scientific terms, herd immunity. This is simply the resistance to the spread of a disease within a population that results in a proportion of individuals becoming immune to the vaccine, through building their immune systems. Herd immunity is not uncommon and not wild. It is what every country in the world has done when dealing with a public health emergency. Was there a lockdown during the 1957 influenza pandemic? No. Does anyone know the death toll? 80,000. One could argue that it did not prompt an economic shutdown because the generation in power had a more sanguine attitude towards disease.

It does seem to anyone who flouts the idea that lockdown should not have taken place or should not continue much further is treating with a j’accuse anger. The simple thing is as German professor Sucharit Bhakdi repeatedly warned that deaths would occur from closing social life and economic activity. The hoi polloi seems to believe that those who make such an argument are putting life versus money. Quite the opposite – it is life versus life. Economic catastrophe causes death. According to the study of fifty-four countries after the Great Recession, the number of suicide deaths rose by 5,000 in 2009 alone. This crisis seems to be resulting in an additional borrowing cost of at least £250bn this year. This will have to be paid for, with hardship and austerity lite. The effects of a lockdown on economic activity is not simply just money. Poverty kills and when it does not kill, it maims physically and socially.

There has also been work taken place by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health which shows that no child has been known to pass COVID-19 on to an adult, and very little evidence to show it is transmitted to any person. This finding has led the Swiss government to allow grandchildren, under the age of 10, to hug their grandparents as they concluded that “young children don’t transmit the virus”. What does the world do, however? We shut down schools, colleges, universities, and nurseries. We deprive our children and young folk of the one thing everyone should be entitled to as a human right: an education. It has resulted in teachers now deciding their student’s grades in exams and foisted the teaching of a myriad of subjects onto parents, who are not qualified nor trained to teach in any field. This is not a sustainable solution for children and could conclude another ‘lost generation’.

There does also seem to be a view amongst the general populus that lockdown will ‘get rid’ of this virus. Nothing could be further from the truth. If I knew and had evidence to believe that keeping Britons under house arrest for two more months would result in an elimination of the virus, I would give it huge consideration. This is, however, scientifically wrong. Viruses change and mutate. They re-appear. There may never be a cure found and if there was, there would be some people who would object. There is only two ways this virus will disappear: either exposure creating immunity, or an effective vaccine, which could take many years.

The minute the British public or any country is allowed back to normality or ‘relative normality’, deaths and cases will increase. Then what? Announce another lockdown? An endless spiral of lockdown? Sweden will not go through this dilemma. They have no lockdown to ease. Deaths have been higher, but they are going down as the country’s populus has started to develop immunity from the virus. The Chief Scientific Advisor, Sir Patrick Vallance, did once flout the possibility or idea of herd immunity in the UK but this was rejected by the politicians. We are now paying the price for not listening to our own experts and until we accept that deaths will rise, cases will rise when lockdown is eased, we will never get out of this.

The coronavirus is not the greatest crisis in our history. It is not even the greatest public health crisis in our history. But the lockdown is in no doubt the greatest interference with our personal freedom in our history. However noble the mantra of ‘saving lives’ may be, it is not the only valuable object. To say that life is priceless is just empty rhetoric. People say it because it is comfortable and emotionally satisfying, but they do not actually believe it. We passed the peak on Apr 8 well before the crazy measures introduced by the Government on March 23 could possibly have affected matters.

There is a lot more to living than being alive. Life is about challenge and about experience. Life is having drinks with friends and family. Life is going to the theatre or a football match. Life is companionship, love, friendship, and celebration. They are fundamental elements to our existence as social animals.

Ending this lockdown will be a political decision, not a scientific one. Lockdowns and state imposition are something that a totalitarian state like China would do, but not a country with liberalism at its heart. We need to consider what relationship we want with the State and the State needs to decide what relationship it has with its citizens. This virus is not the end of life and normality. We really should be thinking more imaginatively, and not following others. As Lady Thatcher said: “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you.” Let Sweden be the latter crowd and let us embrace our Scandinavian counterparts.

Ignore the gloomsters, this is a perfect Cabinet

Hallelujah! The resignation of one Theresa May brings joy to many people - Brexiteers, socialists and the commentariat. The socialists have another tear in their eye now - and that is due to the next Prime Minister being one Boris Johnson. For the first time since 1991, the Conservative Party now has a Prime Minister who believes in Brexit, is optimistic about Britain's future, and is a true democrat.

The Prime Minister seems to have been taking advice from my Fantasy Cabinet. I created one many months ago and I wanted Dominic Raab at the Foreign Office, and the superb Priti Patel at the Home Office. Those two have now occured - along with the added advantage of Mr Raab being the de facto Deputy Prime Minister. He has also put Jacob Rees-Mogg into the Cabinet, promoted new talent and has moved the amazing Liz Truss to International Trade - removing the useless Dr Fox - to negotiate trade deals all around the world. This Cabinet is brimming with talent, optimism, drive, and focusing on our withdrawal from the European Union.

However, I have noticed - to quote the Prime Minister - many gloomsters and doomsters, and absolutists, complaining that the Cabinet does not have enough Brexiteers on it and because the useless Work and Pensions Secretary has been kept it is now a source of skepticism and pessimism. What utter nonsense. Every single Cabinet Minister had to re-enact their entrance to Scouts - as I remember doing many years ago - and say 'On my honour I will do my best to do my duty to God and The Queen and to commit to us leaving the tentacles of the suffocating bureaucracy of the European Union'. It contains four out of the five signatories to 'Britannia Unchained', it contains two Spartans, one of whom is in a Great Office of State, and it has a Depute PM - either Mr Gove or Mr Raab - whom voted to Leave.

This is one of the few occasions where I have been proud to be a member of the Conservative Party, and will be proud to campaign for them in the upcoming general election next year. A Cabinet that contains the talent of tomorrow and the removal of the dire, useless, wets of Gauke, Clark, Hammond, Fox, et al, and is passionate about the future this country has ahead of us. The Conservative Party is on course for a stonking majority - WHEN it delivers Brexit on Hallowe'en - and another positive of this occasion would be that Ms Soubry, Mr Grieve, etc, will no longer be honoured with the title of 'MP'.

We should be proud of our great country and what we can achieve. We should be proud of the excellent domestic agenda that the Prime Minister has announced from finally having a plan for elderly social care, boosting funding for education, building more houses and importantly - cutting taxes. This is a mix of a One Nation and a classical liberal plan. A perfect combination. Someone may call it compassionate conservatism.Mr Johnson will go down in the history books with the names of Disraeli, Gladstone, Thatcher and Churchill - but he must deliver Brexit or he will not be PM by Christmas. He recognises that, and he will deliver. I trust him.

It is time for Boris

Originally, I supported Esther McVey for the leadership of the Conservative Party, and I still do believe that she is the best candidate. There is one issue - she is not gaining traction among MPs, and is still languishing with six supporters. This means I need to pick a different candidate - who can win.

I have decided who I am backing. This person has the support of Jacob Rees-Mogg, whom I have much admiration for, Liz Truss, who should be Chancellor of the Exchequer in the next Government, and Steve Baker and Priti Patel, the two 'Spartans' who stood firm on the Withdrawal Agreement. This person is Boris Johnson. 

We need a leader who can deliver Brexit, prevent a neo-Marxist taking office in Number 10, and to bring our country together after the divisions of the referendum. We also need a leader who took a principled stand against the 'Chequers' agreement, which he surely did. We need to be optimistic about how well Britain can do, we need to aspire to be greater, we need to champion low taxes and free enterprise, and we need a leader who can connect to those who put their faith in Jeremy Corbyn two years ago.

I attended Boris' speech at Conservative Conference after his resignation from the Foreign Office and it was barmstorming. I truly believe that he has the character, the passion, and the drive that we need to leave the European Union on October 31st. I would also urge Boris to bring back the legend, Dominic Raab, to the Cabinet. I truly like his domestic, Thatcherite agenda and he could bring some expert talent to the table.

This is a critical moment in our political history. We must leave the European Union on October 31st, with No Deal or a FTA. The latter is becoming very unlikely so we must exit on World Trade Organisation terms to restore faith in our democratic process. Boris Johnson has a huge platform, and can deliver on what I have just outlined. He has broad appeal, and has electoral successes behind him. I never thought I would say this but I urge you to back Boris Johnson to be the next leader of the Conservative Party, and Prime Minister.

Mr Johnson, Snr., and I, after Boris' excellent speech, October 2018

It is time for a Liverpudlian Prime Minister

I have been struggling to decide who I was going to back for the next Conservative Party leader, and then Prime Minister. 

We have the continuity May candidates of Rory Stewart, Matt Hancock and Jeremy Hunt. We have the Brexit candidates of Boris Johnson, Esther McVey, Andrea Leadsom and Dominic Raab. We also have Michael Gove, plus there may be more to join the fray.

I have struggled who to back. I did always want Dominic Raab to be leader. Dominic seems to be the leader we needed to sort out Brexit and come back with a decent, conservative government with optimism at its heart. But he has let me and many others down. He has decided to near enough back HS2, keep foreign aid at its current amount, allow Huawei into our 5G network and to accept the discredited Withdrawal Agreement with some tinkering around on the backstop. This simply is not good enough and what I want in our next leader.

I want a candidate who will lower taxes and foreign aid. A leader that will connect with blue collar, Northern voters. A leader that will invest in our police. A leader that will scrap HS2. Most importantly, I want a leader who will fight our corner in Europe and leave on a WTO basis. That leader is Esther McVey. 

I have met Esther on numerous occasions as she is a constituency neighbour and I can see the dedication and passion she could bring to the role of Prime Minister. So, after much deliberation, I have decided that the next leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister should be Esther McVey, the Liverpudlian. Bless John McDonnell's heart.

We must grasp this opportunity

The Conservative Party's heart can now start beating again. We now have an opportunity to choose a new leader that is not Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown mixed in female form, but someone who will deliver Brexit, and a new bold ambitious agenda for the future.

I have been critical of the Prime Minister ever since the disastrous General Election. I will not forgive her for not once visiting Cheshire, an area where we once held nearly all the seats and now only a measly some, but I must respect her. She had a level of resilience which I can never hope to have, and the dutiful way she acted as a true public servant is long to be respected by the British public.

We have had some awful Prime Ministers in our recent years. Notably some of the main ones have become Knights of the Realm, which is bizarre to myself, whom are Sir Edward Heath, Sir Anthony Eden and Sir John Major. But, Mrs. May may be close to being worse than Lord North, who lost the American colonies, on levels of incompetency.

The public must not just look at her failure to not deliver Brexit after nearly 3 years. They must recognise her failure to re-introduce grammar schools, her failure to find a sustainable solution to our social care crisis, her continual support of nanny-statist policies, and her support for continuous money for the NHS. I do struggle to find any positives from her premiership. The one vivid in my mind, however, is her robust response to the Novichok poisoning in Salisbury. This was a moment where she truly looked statesmanlike, but that did not last long.

But that is the past. We now must look to the future and grasp the opportunities we now have in front of us. I was very close to leaving the Conservative Party, and very close to believing that the Party had been irrevocably damaged that it could not come back. But it will. And it must.

We need a leader who will stand up for liberty, and free trade. Someone who believes in a meritocracy and equality of opportunity. One who will fight Marxism not with Blair-lite, but with true conservative principles. Most importantly, one that will honour the instruction of the 17.4 million people who casted their vote in favour of this great country leaving the European Union.

The candidates have not all announced for the leadership, but when they do I will make my decision officially on who to campaign and vote for. Those principles above are which I will hold them to. This country is amazing and it can do so much better than this managerial style of politics. We need a fresh Cabinet and a fresh Party to reconnect with the ordinary voter. I truly hope that we find a candidate that will do so in the weeks ahead.

I will finish by responding to the Prime Minister's comments about compromise. I did at first think she was talking about Sir Nicholas Winterton, and not Sir Nicholas Winton, who was my grandmother's late MP and friend. But her comments reminded myself of this quote from Lady Thatcher:

"If you look at the great philosophies and ideas that have moved the world; if you look at the great religions... do you think you would have ever had those great guidelines had people gone out and said, "Brothers, I believe in consensus!" Of course you wouldn't. You would have had nothing great, nothing of value." 

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Link to my letter to the Prime Minister after her speech on Tuesday 22nd: https://twitter.com/realThomasMoss2/status/1131313149846728704/

As a loyal Conservative, I'll be voting Brexit Party

The Conservative Party has failed us. Since the referendum, they have promised consistently to deliver on the referendum mandate, including a general election. We had the abomination of Chequers, we had the discredited Withdrawal Agreement, and now we have talks with the neo-Marxists of the Labour Party to cobble together a BRINO, with a customs union and alignment to the internal market. Every, and I mean every, promise from the Prime Minister and her top team has been broken.

Since the 2017 election, I have called for Mrs. May to resign, or be sacked. I heard recently that she wants to remain in power longer than Gordon Brown. The truth probably that she wants to remain in power so that she is remembered to be as terrible as Lord North.

It is a shock, as a decently loyal Conservative Party Member, to be contemplating voting against my own Party. I believe in the Party. However, it is a disgrace at the moment, and I have wrote to my local Association telling them that I will not campaign for them until Mrs. May has gone. My patience is starting to run thin and if she has not gone soon, I would not rule out leaving for good. 

The Conservative Party was the party of Thatcher and Churchill. The Party of meritocracy, equality of opportunity, a property owning democracy, having a stake in your work, lower taxes and most importantly, individual freedom and liberty. We have abandoned most of these, but it is not too late to change.

With the political picture in front of myself, my allegiance has gone on the 23rd May. I will be proudly walking to my local Community Centre, and putting a cross with my stubby pencil, for Nigel Farage, and the Brexit Party.

They are the only Party in this election who are standing up for the 52% of this country who want to leave the European Union. They believed in a deal - so did I - but I now favour an exit unto World Trade Organisation rules. There is no other way, and I will not contemplate supporting Mrs. May's surrender treaty, so this is the only way out of the lock jam. A No Deal exit is needed.

If you are a Brexiteer. If you are a Remainer, who respects democracy. If you are someone who did not vote. Take your opportunity to vote. Take your opportunity to show the established order how angry you are at their betrayal. Take your opportunity to vote for a decent candidate. Take your opportunity and vote for the Brexit Party.

The Establishment have won

We are at a terrible position. Brexiteers are staring down the barrel of the gun of a terrible, capitulation as the former Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, said that we are 'surrendering control to the EU', or No Brexit. No Deal is a legal option, of course, but it will not happen as Sir Oliver Letwin et al with their leader-in-chief John Bercow, will stop it legally.

From Iain Duncan Smith, to Jacob Rees-Mogg and to Boris Johnson, Conservative MPs are switching to support this capitulation. This is mainly due to Mrs. May resigning when we legally leave at the end of May, if it is passed. We must understand how this started.

Firstly, do not forget Mrs. May is a Remainer. All five leadership contenders from 2016 support the Withdrawal Agreement. Everything went downhill from Lancaster House. We had Florence, which basically was a load of opt-ins, Mansion House, which became even weaker, then Chequers, and now the Deal. Plus we had a General Election, which should have been her downfall.

I have respect for Brexiteers, whom on principle, vote for and against this new treaty. But, those who vote in favour, are wrong. To be clear, remaining is better. We are moving from one treaty to another, and the new one is worse. Gavin Barwell thought if he gave Brexiteers control over immigration, we would leap at the chance as he thinks we are all bigots, and racists. He was wrong. However, Brexiteers who say they will continue to oppose this treaty, I will thank them. They stayed until the end.

I have to say, with regret, this new treaty will pass. A decent bulk of Labour including the highly respectable Caroline Flint, will support this, and it will be over. I will be disappointed and disappointed wholly in our political class, who have done whatever they can to give us a proper Brexit - but - the Future Relationship is still in to play for. Mark Sedwill, Mrs. May and Olly Robbins all need sacking and we should have a better negotiating team, and actually a leader. I wish for Dominic Raab, and I hope he will stand. 

The establishment has won the battle, and probably the war. The Brexiteers can win a small victory if we achieve a Brexit-supporting, freedom-loving leader for the future, but in the end, the Conservative Party will be dead to the country, and the emergence of a new political party is needed more than ever before.