This morning saw the publication of the second quarter’s gross domestic product (GDP) figure for the United Kingdom. Essentially the collective output of an economy over a given period, GDP is the bellweather indicator of activity and whether an economy is expanding or contracting. Nobody expected GDP to expand as a result of the government’s response and it was more a question of how bad the figure would be.
A lot of attention has been paid to Sweden since the start of the Great Insanity, based upon Sweden not being run by idiots and taking a pragmatic approach that allowed its citizens to exercise something called ‘common sense’. Of course the United Kingdom metropolitan liberal elite were aghast at such reckless behaviour and were desperately willing the deaths of as many Swedes as possible in order to prove that lockdown worked. Other countries and governments lined up to ostracise Sweden, manipulating any statistic that showed Sweden as doing better than them: did you notice how Sweden was quietly removed from the deatmongering government’s slides and charts, once it became clear that it really was doing better?
On the mortality rate per 1million population, Sweden has done 17% better than the United Kingdom (source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center and Worldmeters, as of 0500UTC 12/08/20). 17%…maybe not earth-shattering but it is lower and any lower mortality rate without lockdown means that lockdown led to a higher mortality rate. As an aside based upon the total deaths to the same reference point, a 17% reduction actually equates to 7,926 fewer deaths in the United Kingdom.
The greater schadenfreude had been reserved for Sweden’s GDP, with economists, analysts and lockdown-lovers everywhere looking forward to Sweden’s Q2 GDP figure being so very bad, which would teach naughty little Sweden the error of its ways and allow lots of lovely virtue-signalling by the United Kingdom liberal elite (ironic in the extreme given Sweden’s established association with being genuinely ‘liberal’). Well Sweden’s figure was published earlier this month, ahead of the United Kingdom’s figure today. Here are their Q2 figures along with those of some other lockdown-loving nations, initially without any legend:
Can you guess which ones are Sweden and the United Kingdom?
And now with the legend:
Wow. It is almost beyond words.
Not content with keeping the United Kingdom up there with the second highest mortality rate on the planet, this ‘government’ has managed to cause economic carnage with the United Kingdom having pretty much the worst economy collapse on the planet: no, the United States wasn’t worse as their Q2 GDP was -9.5%.
A mature, pragmatic response from Sweden (treat your citizens like grown-ups) = a 8.6% drop in GDP. A pathetic, murderous response from the United Kingdom (treat your citizens like cattle to the slaughter) = 20.4% drop in GDP.
With the United Kingdom’s death rate having continuously been in the range 8x – 11x the worldwide average (Thank You NHS), the mantra of NOT following government advice has proven correct. With the United Kingdom’s economic performance being over 100% worse than Germany’s and 137% worse than Sweden’s, this ‘government’ now has no credibility or authority from the economic as well as healthcare perspectives.
Financially, medically, socially…whichever way you look at the ‘government’ response it is utterly incorrect. A deathmongering axis of exil, responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of its own citizens and the financial; personal; professional; emotional; mental; educational and social hardship of tens of millions.
History provides a clear reminder of what happens to those leaders and their henchmen who lie to and cause the deaths of so many of their citizens:
