rhoda klapp,
I agree that it would be good to clear their locker of old scandals as distractions, and get onto the COVID stupidities now, not later. I also agree about the vaccines, and argued quite firmly here against the rush to develop them. It never made sense, and substantial harm from applying them universally seemed likely.

That was hardly a deep insight on my part and I'm sure some high-ranking health officials put that position and found it faced strong headwinds from the higher-ups. This was the underlying sin, the subsequent coverup is certainly wrong, but hardly surprising. I would prefer the system to be hardened against that first sin; cracking down on the coverup culture is missing the target.

One early 2000s (IIRC) TV documentary series that I cherish was Disaster. Each episode focussed on a particular disaster: the Piper-Alpha oil rig, the Severn Tunnel train crash, and so on. In most episodes they brought the whole thing down to one or two people making a key decision on which the tragedy hung.

In truth, I cherish the series mostly for this recurring theme. I only *really* remember one episode well: the Challenger space shuttle disaster. The "villain" in the piece was the lead engineer at Morton Thiokol (don't remember, but I'll call him Mike). He and the other engineers were concerned about the O-rings, and that their problems were related to temperature. Then we get to see the meeting where they have NASA on conference call, and Mike is the only engineer present. He raises the concern (the next day is going to be a not-too-common below-freezing morning in Florida), and the NASA people are not well pleased. The launch has already been delayed a couple of times, and a teacher in space is great PR — NASA funding may be threatened if it's one fizzer after another. The Thiokol bosses aren't happy either: it might mean their contract is terminated.

Then comes the scene where his boss is saying "Ok Mike, it's time to make a *management* decision. Take off your engineer's hat and make a *management* decisions. Are we good for launch?"

This is a point that was reached in nearly every episode of Disaster. The *wrong* choice was made, and disaster ensued. What the show never did, but I couldn't resist doing, was to look at the alterative reality where Mike said "No way". Mike won't be a hero. Nobody will know the disaster he averted. He will almost certainly be out of a job. NASA might terminate the contract, so all his colleagues will be looking for work too. His name will surely be mud. Very very understandable that he would kick it down the road in the hope that things will go ok with tomorrow's launch or, better still, *something*else* will cause a further postponement.

Anyhow, back to the point: the subsequent cover-up was insignificant in comparison to the initial stuff-up. I want to see efforts made to prevent the managerial interference in life-and-death decision making. Not that I have concrete suggestions but, *if* there was the will for it, I think the problems are no harder than the ones largely addressed in flight-deck rules in airliners. Who knows, maybe just a voice recorder and data recorder would make all the difference. I don't imagine politicians and bureaucrats would like the idea of their every word being live-fed to the internet, along with every "control input", but it might help them focus on their responsibilities.

Mailman,
Yeah, we got that here too. I think the ABC was taking its cues from the BBC. First reports I heard talked of a plunge of 6,000ft. Whatever that is, it's not turbulence, but I suspect it was a mistake by the reporters (I'm a little sceptical about the turbulence story too. Not a flight attendant leaning on a button again!)

There are plenty of things climate change can't do. It can't do anything good.

I dont know why I do this to myself but somehow I found myself watching the news on tv last night about the Singapore Airlines plane that ran in to turbulence on the way to Singapore from Heathrow. What particularly got my heckles up was a casual reference to how turbulence like this is becoming increasingly common due to....f99king wait for it..."CLIMATE CHANGE according to some scientists"!!!

Is there nothing climate change is not responsible for? Its like how everyone from early history was black and how everything tastes like chicken!!!

Robert,
Let's take covid vaccine harms as an example. You may believe the claims of caancer, organ damage, heart disease and death to be true but if you don't it still works. Many claims have been made right here on the internet. You might have seen nothing on it on the MSM. We had a sparsely attended debate in parliament, it went unreported. Some of the people who have spoken out have been cancelled, fired, investigated and generally vilified. What should happen is that the claims should be reported and investigated. Relevant government data should be released for all to see. Then we might know if there is a problem today, not in twenty years when all involved are gone. BUT if one can see the tactics of cover-up being employed right in front of us all, what are we to conclude? It's a cover-up. It's policy. There must be a real issue being covered up. To my way of thinking everyone involved in the cover-up, regardless of individual motives, is participating in a little bit of evil. It's going on right now and the folks who are supposed to tell us, the MSM, are being evil by staying silent on it. Lak of evil intent doesn't matter.

rhoda klapp,
It's certainly a worry that we might be being herded: when things are getting a little hot, bring up a past scandal as a distraction. But the past scandals are real enough and deserve to be addressed. The public are surely capable of seeing more than one thing at a time; it's the media who hold to one monomania until another comes along.

I don't think it's on the money to describe it as "policy". They don't *want* to be evil; the evil is emergent.

Joanne Nova has a nice turn of phrase now and then. In today's post on the Netherlands she captured the drab reality pretty nicely:

The Netherlands won’t have to pursue stronger environmental policies than the rest of the EU so their leaders can show off at cocktail parties and get jobs with the UN.

There's no Blofeld stroking a cat while making evil plans, it's just social climbing with the "in" crowd, and never mind the riff raff. It's the pigs and farmers around the table near the end of Animal Farm: they just *know* they're above the mere animals.

And when I consider that Jo Nova herself was in favour of COVID alarm, and worked hard to rationalise her irrational fears, theories of intrinsic evil give way to the more mundane problem of human failings.

Blood scandal? Post Office. Scandalous to be sure and shameful for the nationn. But historical for all except for compensation to pay.

What matters is what is happening right now in which similar mechanisms and institutions are misbehaving in the same way. Of course I refer primarily to Covid. The ongoing health issues caused by the vaccine (allegedly), the suppression of the mere thought that something might be wrong carried out by the MS|M, backed by OFCOM and big tech.

Also emerging in the Scottish branch of the covid enquiry is the treatment scandal, where heroic doses of midazolam were given to old folks who tested positive to kill them comfortably rather than try to help them get through the illness.

Do we really want to ignore this one for thirty years like the others? If we do, then it looks like that is not an unfortunate accident, a train of misunderstandings, but a POLICY.

tomo,
That's pretty depressing. As you say, the BBC "coverage" is highly tendentious. They affect to lament that so many health ministers just sat on the issue. It's pretty obvious that there's something constant behind that passing parade of ministers, but no spotlight lands on those faceless bureaucrats.

Fits the pattern of the Post Office stuff of course, though the sheer size means the health system is bound to be more rotten. The irony of being exhorted to "protect the NHS" a couple of years ago...

My Twitter experience has shrunk somewhat since they switched to the x.com domain. Often don't even see the tweets, and no chance with the responses. I suppose it might work better if I signed up, but I'm not about to.

Latest Brendan O'Neill is an interview with Sall Grover, an Aussie trying to defend her right to maintain a women-only website. It has been under heavy attack from trans activists. Apparently $500,000 so far in legal costs in the amusingly named Tickle v. Giggle case in Australia's Federal Court, and likely to be $1.25m by the time it gets heard in the High Court. She's very articulate. Liked this bit (quite near the end):

My barrister in our case, she boiled it down so beautifully. She said that a woman is not a thought and that discrimination law can not be based on a thought. This came from the Australian Human Rights Commission saying that you really didn't even have to dress as a woman if you don't want to. You don't have to do anything like that. You just have to think it.

And how on earth can anybody be guilty of discrimination for not knowing what someone thinks about themselves?

...

My position is: think whatever you want, just don't make *me* think it. If saying you're a woman is what gets you out of bed every morning and live your best life, cool! I don't care. I only care if you're making me, and by extension everybody else, believe it. So who's the illiberal one?

What I'd add is that, just because someone *says* they believe something doesn't mean its true. We see that with words vs. actions in climate, in pandemics, in pre-election polls and many other situations.

Still, I don't see ignorance of one's true thoughts slowing the rise of the thought police.

Oops. Meant to include a link to the Berlinski interview.

.,
Thanks for the link. Ugh indeed. I used to think that it was an irrational fear that people had of clowns, but that trio is creepy.

tomo,
Thanks. Was interesting to read about the Besler setup. What were they thinking! Then again, I suppose that might have led to a recip. steam->steam turbine->turbine evolutionary path. I do like the thought of stokers shovelling away to keep the plane aloft...

Quite enjoyed the John Anderson interview with mathematician David Berlinski. Good to hear his scepticism on global warming, but I think his great rationalism slipped a bit when it came to COVID. He said how impressed he was with the fast development of the vaccines, and said (apparently in all seriousness):

Needless to say I've had myself immunised 11 times, just to be on the safe side.

Hmm. He was also on shaky ground (as far as I'm concerned) in his criticisms of Darwinian evolution. It was an interesting line of reasoning. Paraphrasing:

1. Everyone agrees, mutation is a random process.
2. Evolutionists hold that selection solves the problem of randomness, imposing direction.
3. But the environment is itself random, so 2 doesn't solve the problem

Interesting, as I said, but not very good. Ok, so the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs may have been a random event, but subsequent changes were very much directed (eruptions, darkness, etc.) and gave a non-random selection pressure for what would emerge.

Not sure what the great worry with randomness is anyway. The dice have to fall some way, and we have to deal with it, from the vagaries of weather to the factoid that identical twins have different fingerprints.

Anyhow was an enjoyable interview though, once again, sound quality wasn't great. Was from a couple of years ago; I think he's lifted his game since then.