The PM's announcement of #2ndLockdown is a body blow to the British people. Just as the economy was picking up, even giving cause for optimism, we're now to impersonate the Grand Old Duke of York, giving in to the scientific advisers & marching England back into another lockdown.
The way that the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) has pressurised the Government into taking this decision has been unprecedented. Normally, advisers advise & ministers decide. Yet that system has broken down...
...with Sage believing its advice to be more like commandments written on stone and its members publicly lecturing the Government over the airways when it disagrees. This is despite the fact that many of its recommendations have been hotly disputed by other reputable scientists.
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ByteDance (TikTok) claims it's a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven. The reason for this unusual boast is to show it is not a Chinese company. However, this was laid bare last month when Wang Wenbing, a spokesperson for the Chinese Government, confirmed...1/4
...that ByteDance is in fact a Chinese company. This is important because it means ByteDance and its subsidiaries, including TikTok, are subject to the Chinese National Intelligence Law - a law requiring Chinese organisations to hand over data to the Chinese Government... 2/4
...upon request, regardless of where such data was obtained. Also requires firms (when asked) to lie about receiving or complying with such requests. This law has deeply troubling implications for the security of data that all too many in the West gladly hand over to TikTok. 3/4
The Chinese authorities were alerted to the threat the #coronavirus outbreak posed when human-to-human transmission was confirmed early December, just as they were about to sign a trade deal with the USA ending the damaging standoff between the two countries. Was the reason 1/4
that the government closed down any mention of the outbreak through December and January to protect this deal? Phase 1 of the deal was set to lift tariffs on about $200 billion of Chinese exports. However, if the deal hadn’t been agreed on December 15. 2/4
...then the US intended to impose wider sanctions on Chinese exports. As it happened, the deal was agreed on December 15 2019 and then signed exactly a month later on January 15. This was a critical period. Any indication in this time that China had a serious health crisis...3/4