Every day, it seems, we learn something else we were right all along about the Covid pandemic — and that the Podia of Truth were lying through their teeth about. From the efficacy of Covid vaccines to the worse-than-uselessness of mask mandates to the lab-leak “racist conspiracy theory”, it seems that there wasn’t a single aspect of the pandemic that governments, bureaucrats and the media didn’t lie about.
Not that they just got it wrong, but that they willfully lied through their teeth about it.
The latest domino to fall is “guided by The Science™”. As leaked WhatsApp messages have shown, the UK Health Secretary plotted to “deploy the new variant” of Covid-19 to “frighten the pants off everyone”. Something, he said, was “hilarious”.
Now, documents released under FOI in Australia have shown that Victorian premier Daniel Andrews’ number one guiding factor was his own public image.
Daniel Andrews used a secret taxpayer-funded program to monitor Victorians’ views about his personal performance during the state’s 112-day pandemic lockdown, with the Premier’s top political strategist briefing cabinet on the results.
Recall that this was when Andrews was adamant that “Whether I’m criticised or praised, that is not my concern”.
In fact, it was his sole concern.
Almost 200 pages of documents and emails — released to The Australian by the Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) after a two-year Freedom of Information battle — reveals QDOS Research also conducted extensive and regular monitoring of Victorians’ reaction to lockdown restrictions […]
The trove of previously confidential documents reveal that during the second Covid-19 wave, which claimed more than 800 lives, QDOS was closely tracking public perceptions of the Premier’s leadership and compiling ‘‘cabinet in confidence’’ briefing notes analysing the research.
QDOS ‘‘cabinet in confidence’’ briefing notes to the DPC through July and August of 2020 reveal the Premier’s performance was tested in focus groups of metropolitan and regional Victorians.
Briefing notes and emails also reveal that, while the government said its pandemic response was shaped by health advice, it also ordered intensive online surveys and focus groups to gauge public’s reaction to lockdown measures.
The government which was apparently so chaotic that no one can even remember who ordered the disastrous hotel quarantine scheme was nonetheless able to obsessively monitor public opinion on a daily basis.
A QDOS briefing note from focus group research in Ararat, sent to the DPC on July 24, 2020, reveals that political questions about the government and the Premier were routinely asked in taxpayer-funded metropolitan and regional focus groups […]
Much of QDOS’s political intelligence-gathering operation has been coordinated by the Premier’s Private Office. Many of the documents refer to the “PPO’’ approving and commissioning where, when and who was to be surveyed. The Australian has previously reported that in less than one year, more than 1800 pages of survey spreadsheets were sent by QDOS to the government.
The documents also show what we all knew already: Victoria is a state brainwashed into an overriding Stockholm Syndrome.
“People have become less likely to freely offer support for Dan Andrews but if he is criticised by one person a bigger number stridently come to his defence.”
The Australian
If you’ve ever tried to talk to a Victorian about their Dear Leader, you’ll know exactly what that means. Like so many Pavlov’s Robots, the merest hint of criticism of Dictator Dan triggers an instant, furious reaction.
I’d say they deserve all they get if it weren’t for the fact that Victoria will remain a hundred-billion-dollar economic millstone around the rest of Australia’s neck for years, if not decades.
But don’t bother trying to enlighten them. Even when the facts of Dictator Dan’s lies are right in their faces, they continue to shriek their “I Stand With Dan” loyalty.
Just put a wall around the state and leave it to its own misery.