We discuss the concept of nobility both in terms of position in society but more importantly in terms of actions. Noble acts are those with a higher than average moral compass but it is the driver to this which determines whether the person is actually noble. For instance someone who is a binary thinker on the right sift of the Asperges spectrum is a black and white thinker and will automatically act on their opinion. This is not a function of courage . Indeed it just happens that their action is noble . It could just as easily be an immoral act. Someone wearing a face mask may be seen as noble as they appear to be protecting others at the cost of their own comfort but in reality they are not if they acting out of fear or simple compliance. We posit therefore that Winston Churchill and Margaret Thatcher did noble acts but were not noble people They automatically followed their own opinions. Churchill was in fact highly disagreeable and Thatcher sacrificed her children for her career. We link this to the 3rd member of our group today who had a penny dropping moment in yesterdays mentoring session where he understood that doing something he loves as a career means nothing if it comes at the cost of closeness to his family. Acting on that revelation will indeed be noble.

We take a critical look at why racism exists, the idea of erecting and toppling statues and the ultimate irony of Oliver Cromwell the founding father of modern parliament and democracy in the UK. People are idolised by their contemporaries using the standards of the time. It is impossible to say whether that person would have behaved the same way at a different time in a different life.
It is certainly possible to topple contemporary heroes such as Kevin Spacey or Jimmy Saville as they are judged by the standards of their time. But it is highly dangerous to seek to expunge history. This is a sign of the creeping disintegration of society spearheaded by political correctness which defies logic and commons sense. Furthermore heroes are seen as such often because they appear virtuous yet virtue in the week is not possible as they do not have the choice usually to be good or bad. It is the strong with the ability to do harm who then use their power for good which is virtuous. There is not a single hero or idol who does not have a chequered past or who has not demonstrated an ability to do harm. Indeed who better than Winston Churchill to stand up to the Germans? A highly disagreeable British Bulldog relentless and unstoppable and inspiring yet who had in the past been clearly racist. It is not coincidence that he was deposed the same year that WW 2 ended. But where would we be without him? What we should do is learn from history. Point out the good as well as the bad. If not why stop at idolised mortals? How about God, Allah, Buddah who allow racism to occur or even Coronavirus and this inept government to destroy the economy? Why not topple every religious institution? Fortunately this is an intellectual leap too far for the average activist.

In evolutionary terms what is familiar and similar to us we like and what is unfamiliar or dissimilar we do not like. Generally this made sense because something would be familiar if it had not eaten us during our last encounter with it. We are tribal and have been hardwired to favour and relate to members of our own tribe which conferred an evolutionary advantage. Our mirror neurones in fact respond preferentially to members of our own racial background although this can be trained out.
By allowing different ethnic groups to coalesce in concentrated cultural hubs all crammed together in the same city without any sense of integration then the phenomenon of racism will be expressed naturally as you have dissimilar and unfamiliar groups in close contact. This is a disintegrated society with poor national identity and therefore is a sign of a badly run society. You can avoid the expression of racism by having an integrated society with a clear national identity to which everyone not only belongs but feel they belong. Subordinate to this can be a degree of cultural diversity but no more than is compatible with the national identity and culture being dominant. Anything less than this will lead to a society weakened from within by its own discord and strife.
How can events in another country cause demonstrations and riots in the UK? Two reasons: Mirror neurons ie events abroad remind people here of their own resentments with the second reason being sublimation of the stress of fear and anger of lock down, its lack of purpose and clarity and the forthcoming economic catastrophe as furlough is withdrawn from ghost companies no longer viable or even in a position to pay redundancy. All this to deal with a virus with low fatality which peaked back at the beginning of April and has followed the same course in countries irrespective of lockdown, no lockdown or partial lockdown. The fear of a second peak is more media hysteria in part driven by a second peak in Iran after lifting of lock down there without understanding that is a measurement artefact ie the incidence has increased as it is being measured more. In fact mortality is currently running below seasonal norm.
We conclude that the country is really run by the media with a vested interest of selling print while they pass responsibility via the excuse to the right of free speach to politicians greedy for election or re election who pass responsibility to scientists who are working with government grants and the principle one of whom believed so fervently in his lock down model's necessity that he broke it to have sex with someone he met on a dating site. If it was Ebola raging through the London streets he may well have chosen to remain abstinent. The Hansard report has already concluded that the media are responsible for misinforming the public and making them cynical about politics yet the public are also expected to vote with this knowledge. We speculate that the media should be heavily regulated and paid a fixed salary with bonuses for those sticking to the truth and ruthless sanction for those exaggerating or lying. Free speach is a precious powerful and dangerous commodity and cannot be conferred to anyone with a vested interest apart from the good of the community and in some instances preferably behind closed doors in order to protect the integrity of the fabric of society. Otherwise we get the media circus of destructive scavenging with a zombie political class chained to the stakes of media influence and the country carried by the ebb and flow of the tide of fear and chaos and destruction.

Stress is a symptom associated with loss of control. We all experience it often on a daily basis. Trauma is the outcome when under severe stress either acutely or over a prolonged period of time. At least one third of the population have suffered trauma at some point in their lives. Trauma develops if the event or series of events that led to the stress is so unpleasant or terrifying that the brain automatically avoids the pain of processing it and it appears as flash backs during the day and or nightmares.
However if you do not process less stressful events but treat them as valid examples to re interpret yourself by then these behave just like minor traumas leading to avoidant and or faulty behaviour patterns in future life further spreading ripples of dysfunction outwards. It is therefore very helpful to write about ones experiences and just doing this even once (writing not typing) can be so effective at combing through life's everyday experiences that this alone can improve physical and psychological health. Sometimes it is too painful for the individual to manage to write about and reflect without professional help, and done properly there is nothing that cannot be worked through and resolved should you want to do so.
During lock down taking time to reflect, write things down and , crucially, re integrate with family and close community can be powerfully therapeutic. Next week we will discuss how professional help for stress and trauma works.

The Pandemic was on the way out just when panic started, in the case of the UK in early April. This was approximately replicated round the world. Ttherefore response strategy was irrelevant. Lock down or no lockdown made no difference to the duraton of the virus in our communities. Sweden which did not adopt lockdown and went for herd immunity only managed to achieve one third infection rate.. London with a relatively relaxed lockdown and even more relaxed airport strategy has achieved a 20% infection rate. This means that the social and economic damage down by lockdown was completely unecessary. There seems to be no excuse for this consisting of any type of integrity. . Pilicitians are elected to use their talent and common sense and consider what is best for the country and not hide from responsibility behind the stained apron strings of pet scientists held on retainer who can't stick to thier own lockdown for the sake of fulfilling their own base desires. Politicians serve the community less than they want to serve themselves by staying in power which is the fault of the mechanism of democracy.
We need to come out of lockdown immdiately. It looks like our comment about being time for another Gena Miller have come true quicker than we anticipated as there is a class action law suit being launched by a business man in Monaco making a claim against the effects of lockdown on his business. In Spain they are callign for the resignation of the President and deputy and disparoval of government has been expressed in other countries. I suspect this will be the tip of the iceberg and it is likely more lies and excuses will be spun in defence rather than cleansing with honesty and responsibility taking but then that would not be modern policitcs or democracy. Time for a change perhaps?

The government are starting to squabble amongst themselves as to how best approach this 'pandemic'. They have listened to the wrong experts, in fact it looks like they listened to the first expert who appears to have been some kind of in house on retainer expert Nial Ferguson who has a history of making rather odd projections and believed in his advice so much he broke it to have an affair with a married lady and it does not seem he was too fussy either! They did not test the validity of his projections with other experts of different disciplines even though pandemic and lockdown or herd immunity have a huge number of multifaceted consequences not only now but in the medium and long term. The truth is that lock down is just flattening the curve and therefore prolonging the pandemic duration needlessly as normal healthy people are at incredibly low risk but prolonging the risk makes it harder to protect the vulnerable people. That is of course if the purpose of lockdown was itself time expired when it was applied as the virus peak was already dropping by April. In other words it was following the pattern of the normal flu and doing the same as the previous 2 flu spikes in 2019-2020.
The chancellor has invested the future financial security of the nation way beyond the Brexit war chest to prevent total economic collapse but statistics from America indicate that the stress caused by lock down and economic hardship will cost more than the chancellor has spent thus drastically worsening the economic crisis and in turn killing more people from stress. Much cheaper to pay the right experts who are not Professors in Hoc to the government and properly protect the vulnerable people. How could one possibly console the families of hundreds of thousands people who have and will die from the effects of stress and other medical conditions neglected by the redundant pandemic response due to a government negligent and or manipulated by the press and or not wanting to appear weak by admitting they got it wrong in front of the electorate. This is one reason why democracies cannot work. The general population is known not to know what is good for it , is easily manipulated by the media and government yet have the power to elect politicians who have to pander to them to stay in power. One may argue that it is seductive to have the entire nation's unquestioning obedience to politicians biddings however wrong they may be yet the mistakes will only be compounded and what will those in power be prepared to do to stop the damning truth coming out?

Ethnic minorities especially Black Caribbean males are at highest risk from the Corona Virus. The key here is obesity or comorbidity which is highest in Black males and in ethnic minorities with increased age. The UK has the most diverse and largest mix of these at risk groups in Europe.
Corona Virus uses the ACE2 receptor to enter cells and this in increased in any form of stress whether physical or psychological including on fat cells. This is the mechanism by which Corona virus kills people who are already unwell or obese. It is also why healthy elderly are relatively resistant to Corona Virus. In other words the risk factor is not age. It is just more likely you will be unwell when older. Once you hit the 90s or even 100s it usually means by definition you have avoided chronic illnesses in order to reach that age which is why there are so many instances of the very old recovering successfully.
Lock down not only increases stress but the forthcoming economic catastrophe will further increase stress making everyone more vulnerable to Corona Virus. Furthermore a second peak is of course going to happen when lock down is eased as has already happened in Germany. It happened with the Spanish Flu and is far more likely to happen with the far less fatal Corona Virus.
Therefore in almost every way possible the government is getting is response to Corona Virus wrong. Indeed Professor LockDown broke his own rules with his married mistress so fervently did he believe in the necessity of his own rules.
Again we say the government is driven by fear, pressure of conformity and narrow spectrum Professors rather than an expert with broad knowledge and common sense. We have been right at every stage of this process by interpreting and stating known facts with a thorough understanding of psychology and an open mind. Interestingly the healthiest people in the UK and the least susceptible to Corona Virus are the Chinese. Now if I were a Chinese Virology Engineer in my laboratory....

The 1918 pandemic killed more people in a short period of time than all the wars of the 20th century combined. The last recorded case was in 1957. Lock down worked but only until the virus circulated the globe and came back for a second wave. Lock down was effective as it was highly fatal with no super spreaders , in other words lock down of a few weeks ensured that anyone who had it was either dead or recovered while everyone else was spared the 25% mortality rate. There followed austerity and economic collapse with the Great Recession where hundreds of thousands also perished. The banks foreclosed on loans to Germany paving the way to the rise of the Third Reich and Nationalism and the second World War.
Coronavirus in relative terms to the Spanish Flu is insignificant, but it is being made as bad as Spanish Flu by lock down with serious stress to the population which will be followed by years of austerity, economic collapse and , if parallels are to be drawn some sort of Global conflict. The only two psychologists to win the Noble Prize have independently concluded that humans cannot reliably make rational decisions about the present or future. It is up to the government to direct people back to family and community values and national identity and to know which experts to listen to instead of non peer reviewed research from computer modelling by statisticians at Imperial. We stated at the beginning that the biggest killer will be stress and the physical and mental consequences of that and unfortunately this is know beginning to happen. What is the wisdom of protecting everyone from a relatively benign predator only to release a parched population into a waste-land ravaged by austerity economic collapse and illness and death. Good luck with that.

This week statistics coming out of India show that seasonally adjusted mortality is less than normal. The reason is that road traffic accidents in India kill more people than coronavirus. A sobering thought which becomes even more sinister when you consider research published over the last few years that shows that economic collapse actually increasing life span. How can this be when we know that stress from lock down and economic crisis has a devastating effect on mental and physical health and will kill many times more people than coronavirus. The answer starts to show itself in the prevalence of depression in the Western World. 20 years ago it used to be the fifth commonest cause of illness and death. Now it is the commonest. This is not because more people are genetically susceptible to clinical depression but rather instead of clinical depression more people are feeling depressed and unhappy with their lives. Thus although antidepressants can be life saving for many people they completely miss the point that people are appropriately miserable and don't need medication, they need different lives. The reason is modern life is killing us. In fact the conclusion is that modern life kills more people than the stress economic collapse and coronavirus combined. Yet what are governments and the general population doing but waiting at the first opportunity to return to normal. We would go so far as the to say that the government are not qualified to manage this crisis and neither are 'experts' unless you know which experts to consult. Certainly boffins in Imperial college producing non peer reviewed models with no understanding of multi layered consequences and human psychology are woefully unqualified. We are missing an opportunity so rare that none like this has presented itself so far in human history and that is to improve human life by applying psychological understanding of what makes humans happy. How many of us think this is going to happen?

We show that dealing with a crisis and the effect a crisis has on you is directly related to your attitude and perception and in evolutionary terms those of us who have greatest difficulty dealing with every day life due to high innate anxiety can be most effective in a crisis. We also discuss how 'experts' are often the wrong people to advise on any situation involving human behaviour and certainly a group of academics in Imperial have no clue how to manage a complicated multifaceted situation where the main killer is stress. We also touch on how the media are grossly distorting statistics by blindly reporting numbers completely unrelated to the real situation.