December 10, 2020 - 8:00am
Now that the great vaccine roll-out has begun, I can reveal its active ingredient: sour grapes. At least, that’s the impression you get reading Fintan O’Toole’s column in The Guardian.
According to him, the pride that we might feel in being the first country to start vaccinating against Covid is “phoney patriotism”. In any case, he argues, “very little is really gained by jumping ahead of other countries by a few weeks”.
Really? How about vaccinating vulnerable people against a deadly disease that’s still infecting thousands every day? I’d say that’s a pretty big gain. What would O’Toole have us do instead? Politely not use an available vaccine until the EU catches up?
Let’s just imagine the reverse scenario, in which the EU had got its ducks in a row and the UK was lagging behind. Do you think The Guardian would have been running op-eds arguing that Europe was “jumping ahead of other countries” and that the British delay didn’t really matter? No, the propaganda value of such a comparison would have been exploited to the full.
O’Toole is keen to remind us that this particular vaccine was developed in other countries — something we already know. It’s not like the British government is trying to obscure that fact — it has, after all, ordered millions of doses, and is now busily injecting them into its own citizens. Inoculation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The author accepts that the “integrity of the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency is not in doubt”, but then immediately launches into a diatribe about the “political pressure to declare a win for Britain”. What is being implied here? If the integrity of the regulator is beyond doubt, then the only political pressure that matters is that on the Government to make the vaccine available the moment it’s approved.
If ministers want to declare this a win, then good. It’s not like we don’t need cheering up. Indeed, the economic recovery depends on the restoration of hope. O’Toole objects to ministers wrapping up the good news in “red, white and blue”, but what government doesn’t wave the flag? The EU is no exception — slapping the old blue-and-gold on anything it can get its net contributors to pay for.
Of course, if you’re determined to put the worst possible spin on everything that the British Government does, then there’ll be no pleasing you. O’Toole even accuses Matt Hancock of “pretend-crying on Good Morning Britain”. Well, that’s one interpretation. Another is that a man who has shouldered a weight of responsibility that few of us can imagine, who has been blamed for the deaths of tens of thousands people, and who has lost a family member to Covid might just be feeling a twinge of emotion on a day when something finally went right.
Peter Franklin is Associate Editor of UnHerd. He was previously a policy advisor and speechwriter on environmental and social issues.
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SubscribeFintan O’Toole is awful, just awful, and completely incapable of any objectivity or balance in anything and everything he writes. I can’t even face the New York Review Of Books any more owing to his frequent presence there.
And can we please stop using the word ‘elite’ with regard to these people? To quality as one of the ‘elites’ you must have demonstrated outstanding prowess in some aspect of science, industry, sport, medicine, art, literature or, yes, perhaps even politics or public administration.
But all the people to which this word is attached are nothing more than virtue-signalling grifters who have been wrong about everything for about 50 years and visited nothing but disaster after disaster upon us and, indeed, upon the people of various other countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.
As I’m sure you’re aware, the use of the word “elite” was a rhetorical strategy designed to enable another subsection of the ruling class to stigmatise their opponents. This division allows an old Etonian and Oxford graduate like Boris Johnson to claim straight-facedly not to be part of the so-called “elite”.
I agree that it would be much better to restrict the use of the word to people who are “simply outstanding in their fields”.
I agree. Let’s use the word Establishment to describe people who have power given the institutional position they hold.
Guardianistas view everything through the lens of ‘Britain bad, EU good’ – when the facts don’t bare this out it’s like like Orwell’s doublethink. The mental gymnastics involved must be exhausting
Yep, so much so I gave up on it some time ago. It is presumably, fabulously profitable clickbait though and, with the Guardian’s funding as it is, i.e. no paywall, I guess it’s unavoidable.
George Orwell: ‘Notes on Nationalism’
First published: Polemic. ” GB, London. ” May 1945
“very little is really gained by jumping ahead of other countries by a few weeks”.
The shocking misanthropy that lurks behind Guardianistas mock concern. See also “I hope Boris Johnson dies”. Many of them are really quite frightening.
Also sour, very sour people, sucking the joy out of everything.
Yes. I did a little experiment some time ago by looking at the headline in the Guardian on the news-stand I pass every morning (not buying it obviously) and it was relentlessly negative, day after day after day. I gave up after a month or so, it was just too depressing.
Tbh, this year the Daily Telegraph website has become just as bad with relentlessly negative (and misleading) headlines.
You could just as easily have substituted the word “BBC” for the “Guardian”.
The illiberal anti-British are well equipped:
Newspaper arm – the Guardian
TV arm – the BBC
Political arm – the Labour Party
It’s such a relief that all of these are so poorly marshalled that they are losing followers in droves ….
… the needed acronym is GOB – embracing the Observer, BBC & G**rd**n newspaper in one pink to Red monosyllable … leftists love short, sharp, single syllable words for some reason.
What on earth is O’Toole’s problem? The purpose of any national government is to manage the affairs of that nation and deal with it appropriately, especially in circumstances such as we face today.
O’Toole is a malignant, misanthropic maladroit masquerading as a journalist. ( How’s that for alliteration at 11am? ) Far better to just regard him as a tool ( vulgar pun ) of the leftist cognoscenti. There was a time when journalism on the left was considered and at times provocative even if one didn’t agree with it. His article was simply resentful, and in no way considered.
Sadly The Guardian has long since abandoned any pretence at being anything other than a smug and supercilious echo chamber for what they perceive to be the truth. O’Toole in particular is a bitter and vexatious character if his writing is anything to go by, the sort that grumbles and complains at everything. I wonder if he’s ever had a positive thought in his life?
… the scribe referred to is apparently a well known Irish Times leftist hack – ever angry, spectacularly lacking in a sense of humour, predictably espousing all the easy, knee jerk leftist causes one would expect, more manipulated than he grasps … obviously a useful tool in the diverse quiver of the GOB Axis ” the Axis acronym stands for Observer, BBC and”
Gobsh*te?
O’Toole simply despises Britain, especially since it exerted its democratic independence, which as an Irishman seems particularly galling for him now that country is subservient to the EU after winning freedom from Britain. His loathsomeness and misanthropy is well suited to the Grauniad which is as toxic as 4chan these days but which lacks its humour.
So we’re all agreed then…
We despise the Guardian, the BBC, the MSM, the Left liberal intelligentsia ““ the whole lousy bunch.
And yet…
that lousy bunch proceed from strength to strength facing little effective resistance. Anyone have any plans to wrest the levers of power from the all too firm grip of these influential people? Jeering and sneering from the sidelines doesn’t cut it.
Prime of Ms Gene Brody, ‘Give me a girl at 7 and she is mine for life’. (and Aristotle sort of too) And that is how they do it, Schools. Liberals in education are the rot which creeps up from the wet soil unnoticed years later you find the entire house is rotten.
Yes, we know that already. We can read it day in and day out from all those keyboard warriors who like to jeer and sneer from the sidelines? They will alert us (over and again) to the machinations of George Soros ““ as though that were fresh news. We will be told yet again of the long march through the institutions and “Marxification” of Western education… as if nobody had noticed that before.
Do you ever wonder why it’s the Woke activists who make the running? Perhaps there is a clue in the term “activist”.
Don’t forget the Jesuits. (Again pinched from Aristotle as you rightly say.)
O’Toole is a Anglophobic bigot with a Oirish chip on his shoulder.
Another nail in the remainer coffin. Good.
Is it patriotism or tribalism? We’ve had the same in teh US where multiple Dem politicians refused to trust the vaccine because, you know, Trump. As if he was in the lab formulating it. Now, the narrative is shifting, to pretending that there was no effort within the administration to push for a vaccine, that the whole thing either happened outside of politics altogether or is somehow Biden’s doing.
Maybe that;s what Biden’s been doing in the basement
Fintan O’Toole is a prize pseud for whom nothing, NOTHING that Britons, especially Tory Englishmen, do will ever be right. Ignore him.
O’toole is a great instance of nominative determinism. He is part of a very small group within humanity, and they are not the elite!
If Fintan O’Toole wishes to be taken seriously he should change his name to something like George Caruthers.
Otherwise he will be instantly dismissed for pseudo Fenian toad that he so obviously is. QED?
Fintan Oh Tool!
Yes, well there’s a name to have confidence in.
It’s no surprise to anyone that people such as Mr O’Toole and his ilk hate this country and those who love it for (in their opinion) the wrong reasons.
But what parades as patriotism today is for the most part embarrassing.
We bask in the fading martial glories of the past (in a politically correct, non-problematic way), all the while conveniently ignoring that these people are morally and cultural alien to us.
We also can boast of our adherence to an off the shelf, UN-approved humanist mediocrity, while taking pride in tin-pot metrics, formally-favoured by failing eastern bloc countries, such as medal counts or imagined envies of our third-rate state institutions which, no matter what lies we tell ourselves, nobody wants to copy. No one (who has any choice) aspires to be like us.
Once nations across the world wished to emulate us. Even our rivals begrudgingly respected and envied us. To be an Englishmen was to have won the first lottery of life. Now, perhaps one has won a £10 free bet (subject to terms and conditions).
Maybe the Pfizer vaccine is a step in the right direction, echoing the tradition of Edward Jenner. But he was emblematic of a nation of gentleman scientists and the curious amateur. Exactly what nation this vaccine represents, I’m not sure, but I doubt anyone is taking notes.
Of course, the Chinese were vaccinating people months ago, and mass vaccinations kicked off in Moscow at the weekend.
Otherwise Mr Franklin is spot on.
If you believe what the Russians and the CCP tell us, then that says more about you than anything else.
Fair enough, but I have long since ceased to believe anything that western governments and the EU etc tell us.
Fair enough also – though that in turn doesn’t mean that Russian and Chinese authorities are therefore true. So both points could stand.
I’m more in the camp that thinks western governments incompetent rather than malicious, for what it’s worth.
I think that the Western Governments are just as malicious and have become very very jealous of the totalitarian power of the Russian and Chinese Governments.
I think that the Western governments are pushing to implement similar systems and are depending on the fact that so many people write them off as incompetent for cover while they bumble their way to a police state..
I don’t, but I do pay attention to what I read on Reuters and other credible news sources. If you think my statement is based on what the Russians and CCP say, that says more about you… etc
I don’t know anyone who actually pays for a copy of the G. – so how does Mr O’Toole get paid?
If anything, the UK government has been pragmatically unpatriotic in accepting (at least in part) that the best vaccine for the job might not be the one developed within our shores.
… envenomed : … we come to this site for material other than detailed retelling & exposure of the envenomed gibberings bubbling up from the Observer/BBC/G**rd**n newspaper Axis. Should we need to consult this increasingly desperate Axis – unlikely – we will know where to seek it out. It’s acronym is GOB. How appropriate in angry Fintan’s case !
Fintan O’Toole only cares to look at the World from its backside. Is it any wonder he sees nothing but …
What do you expect from a rag that, with its cousin “The Independent” and its baby brother, or should I say comrade, “The Daily Worker” is Jeremy Corbyn’s favourite.
O’Toole would have been much kinder had the first jabs been reserved for healthy transgenders or POC.
Then there’s the not at all implausible speculation that Pfizer waited until after the US election to announce preliminary efficacy results just because of Donald Trump’s wish for an October breakthrough, given CEO Albert Bourla had suggested the earlier date was realistic back in July. Political pressure has been a factor. O’Toole is of course following The New York Times in scaring up the safety when Covid has already killed more young’uns aged 15 to 24 in my home state than the vaccine ever will, not to mention oldsters having much less to lose from such risks. It’s been put in tens of thousands of arms with nary a reported effect we should dread. And it does seem whichever the virus or the vaccine is more convenient at the moment gets weaponized for rhetoric.
But he’s not wrong to tell us that Britain can’t gloat right now. Nobody’s cleared the woods yet. I’m almost expecting a botched rollout in the fragmented US public health system with arguments over priority of access raging while supply chains hit snags and delays. Although Britain’s NHS is a unified organ, that alone won’t render it immune to a similar outcome, or to taint of unfairness in the eligibility determinations. Nor are these troubles patriotism might ease.
The rollout in the US will be managed by the states, which is a bit different. As with everything else, some states will manage the process better than others. Fairly easy to predict which ones won’t manage it well.
If you really want to see a good assessment of O’Toole’s modus operandi, read “Burning Heresies” by Kevin Myers, a former colleague of his on The Irish Times.
It’s quite comical when a bunch of Brits fails to realise that a man called “Fintan O’Toole” might just possibly be Irish … and when they proceed to belabour him for failing to be a patriotic-enough Englishman.
Seem to have some tech issues here (first time commenting). Tried posting a reply under Simon Latham’s post, in which I included 2 links – one from the BBC and the other from Tenders Electronic Daily (online version of EU Public Procurement) re: tender from MHRA. The post was pending approval by Unherd, but seems to have disappeared?
Let’s try again.
Here is Dr. June Raine from MHRA (*Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) on the BBC last week;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/…
‘The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.
Dr June Raine from the MHRA said that the vaccine was recommended for approval after “an extremely thorough and scientifically rigorous review of all the evidence of safety, of effectiveness and of quality”.
I couldn’t agree more, and I can’t understand Eaton, Oxford and Cambridge who are supposed to be the “clever winners” of debates and they are Marxists and decolonizers!
Our education system is effectively colonized by Marxists, so is the Judiciary WE should be purging our society before it is too late!
OUR political system made loads of societies and places people are prepared to die with their children to get in to (UK, USA, Australia etc) and in our education system they are supporting the Marxists which only made loads of societies and places which people are prepared to die in order to get out of! And our BRAINS support the makers of the nightmares.
If you go far away and try to build history from about our lifetime, we start off with a sort of federation covering a quarter of the world many parts work in progress, many parts the best places to live in and every time we get a Marxist government landslide our greatness falls in huge chunks and we are still at it, and people behind all this are getting loads of money to appear as if they were “intelligent”?
In 1945 they started the irrevocable destruction of the Empire which today should be the EU and any other union on the planet but on steroids, perhaps a few sensible people will build CANZUK but are they that intelligent in Eaton, Oxford and Cambridge to allow it? Does Moscow want them even to build CANZUK?
Then in 1997 they destroyed our UNION! The one James VI of Scotland built with bankrupt Scotland and the successful England and its Empire of Elizabeth I. James knew that two parliaments was a bum idea and wouldn’t of even crossed his mind to have a third Parliament in Brussels, but that is what the Marxists did with our Union. Three Parliaments for 5 million people of Scotalnd.
What is wrong with a local councillor and an MP?
What they were going to do in 2019 to throw the Marxist IRA at England to split it up and swamp it with incompatible immigration, people who hate us, many even want to kill us and bringing their own law (a state can only have one law and is defined by it!). This is unlike what other Kingdoms like Japan are prepared to tolerate in order to protect its people which it does much more effectively.
Anyway incredible stuff, I can’t believe THAT would even be an option in the United Kingdom ever, what are we doing? A very good comedian at the time said “we have a Prime Minister with a Russian name and a Leader of the Opposition with Russian policies”.
Even worse on June 7th this year a guy from the black lives Marxists climbed on to the Cenotaph and attacked our flag. While the Marxists were trying to stick on to England the history of USA, England that was behind the first super power ever to spend shed loads of money to free slaves instead of to make them was being falsely attacked, to free the slaves the Empire at the time had to fight black kings and Moslem kings trying to keep their income as the Empire made its law and international law.
The Marxists attack England and the Empire taking everything out of time and out of context, and incredibly stupid people try to change the laws across the whole world of other times!
Not only that, this was an instalment from the Enoch Powell prophesy, I fail to see a group prepared to confront this perversion of freedom which is letting in a theological and a Marxist tyranny.
The progression of this is civil war or accepting the annihilation of England.
League tables about who vaccinated first are as pointless and unconstructive as league tables about who has had the best/worst performance during the whole Covid saga. What we need to be focussing on is the best way to get us out of this whole lockdown mess.
Knocking The Guardian and/or its contributors is like kicking a dead cat.
Ghastly news medium with contributors who mostly live in a past century.
I loved the reaction across MSM when he not only hit but exceeded his 100,000 tests a day target on the day he said he would. They spent weeks complaining we finally had the testing capacity we could have done with 2 months earlier when they were complaining that he could not simply magic up something that only a few countries had as a fortunate outcome of where the dice fell when capabilities like that became more centralised so others could not rely on them when they were really needed.
I have been thinking about the 2 Care Workers who got an adverse allergic reaction to the vaccine and needed hospital treatment. It was stated they were 2 of 2000 Care Workers who were vaccinated. So 1 in 1000 could have an allergic reaction to this vaccine. If you extrapolate that out to the population the NHS could be swamped. SAVE THE NHS. SAY NO TO THE VACCINE :))
These were both people who carried adrenaline epipens because they had a tendency toward anaphylactic intolerance or allergy. People with that sort of history have now been advised to not get the vaccine.
Who knew? Folks prone to allergic reactions suffered allergic reactions.
Doesn’t it make it more fun though to exhibit patriotism, knowing how upsetting it is to people who loathe the UK, yet still choose to live in the UK? It’s just one more thing to be patriotic about. Enjoy!
Who doesn’t feel a tingle run down their spine when they hear the EU anthem? Or is that the Champions League theme music? I get confused.
“
Let’s just imagine the reverse scenario …”
Sure, a completely imaginary scenario gives a silly, cooked-up argument some much-needed back-up. Funny how often this happens!
“Spare us the fake patriotic tears, Hancock” were my thoughts as well. It is insane for the MRHA to rush through approval for a novel vaccine when the threat from SarsCoV2 is so low. I recommend a look at Dr Wodarg’s website.
ENGLISH – wodargs Webseite!
Risky vaccination experiments Dr. Wodarg and Dr. Yeadon apply for immediate stop of all corona-vaccine studies and ask for co-signing their petition We are asking all European citizens for co-signing the petition. You find the prepared E-Mail to send to the EMA and the text of the petition here.
https://www.wodarg.com/engl…
Many reactions to Hancock’s alleged ‘tears’, but it looks more like he is suppressing laughter, which has been spotted by many. On another note, here is Dr. June Raine from MHRA (*Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) on the BBC last week: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/…
‘The UK has become the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, paving the way for mass vaccination.
Dr June Raine from the MHRA said that the vaccine was recommended for approval after “an extremely thorough and scientifically rigorous review of all the evidence of safety, of effectiveness and of quality”.
At the same time MHRA have a tender out for GBP 1.5M on Tenders Electronic Daily (TED – online version for European Public Procurement);
https://ted.europa.eu/udl?u…
‘The MHRA urgently seeks an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) and ensure that no details from the ADRs’ reaction text are missed.’