Don’t Let The Bed Bugs Bite.

Don’t Let the Bed Bugs Bite !

The British media, especially the BBC, have been running a drip feed of French bed bug stories over the last two months. (Bedbug panic sweeps Paris as infestations soar before 2024 Olympics - BBC News). The basic tale is that French hotels, and particularly those in Paris, are experiencing a succession of ever more unpleasant bed bug infestations. The cause is invariably presented as people doing too much travelling and staying in hotels in the post covid world. The fact that there was plenty of travelling and staying in hotels in the pre covid world is not mentioned. The reports usually end with a warning that a cross channel invasion of bed bugs is imminent. There is frequently also an interview with someone in the UK who has already suffered from an infestation and who is able to report, totally plausibly, how expensive, nasty and totally soul destroying bed bugs can be. So in short it’s time to be scared again.

Forgive my cynicism but this reminds me very much of January and February 2020 when we were fed a constant stream of “news” about covid outbreaks and the attendant lockdowns in Northern Italy. The technique is well established. The plague/ infestation/ whatever has to be gaining momentum in a foreign land. Report a bed bug outbreak in Carlisle and the people of Carlisle will be able to report back that there is no such thing. But the foreign land chosen has to be close enough to present a real threat. Bed bugs in Cape Town and no one is bothered but Paris is a completely different matter.

So I’m prepared to stick my neck out and predict that Bedbug lockdowns, or at the very least crippling business and travel restrictions are a very real prospect over the next few months. I’ve shared my theory with several friends in the freedom movement. All of them have dismissed it as too far fetched and unlikely to generate sufficient fear outside of the obsessively germophobic minority. I disagree with them because from the little I know about bedbugs it would appear that they tick (pun intended) all of the social controllers required boxes.

Firstly I should note that bedbugs are real. Unlike “covid”. An infestation really is something you would want to avoid. But why would we suddenly be prone to a rapid increase in infestations now and if the BBC are systematically preparing the ground then we need to be suspicious.

If hotels and holiday accommodation are closed, or even just perceived as unsafe then travel both international and domestic will grind to a halt.

But the BBC have been eager to inform us that the term bed bugs is actually something of a misnomer. The pests it seems are just as happy living in any form of furniture, behind wallpaper or in any other cracks or crevices that most buildings have. Obviously the risk is greatest in places that you visit for a while- think gyms, pubs, restaurants, hairdressers, beauticians and pretty much every other business that was coerced into closing in 2020/21. And obviously of course schools, sending your kids to school could risk bringing bedbugs into your home (Why are bed bugs so difficult to deal with? - BBC Future). A quick dash into an essential shop run by a multi national corporation should just about be safe. So, we can see the exact same activities and businesses being targeted as during 2020/21. These the social businesses, where people interact outside of their immediate circle. Activities that can’t be replicated online. Activities that have no role in the dystopian new world that is being imposed upon us .And critically activities that threaten to undermine whatever the prevailing narrative is.

The BBC have also helpfully informed us that there are plenty of measures that businesses can take to reduce the risk of infestation and that most small independent hotels- and by inference all businesses- will find these measures to costly and would be better just calling it a day. This may be the more plausible route. Businesses won’t actually be compelled to close they will just face a raft of expensive requirements that make their enterprises uneconomic. Business support payments by government are avoided and the money previously spent in small and medium sized outlets will find its way into the multinationals’ coffers.

So a bedbug lockdown is I believe a distinct possibility. I’ll let you make up your own mind as to whether this is too far fetched or not. More importantly we can tackle this threat as we can the other agendas that may be pushed by our enemies to promote their desired digital dystopia. By letting them know that we see and recognise what they are trying to do and that we are ready to resist then we potentially deter and deflect them. Eventually they will have to make a move towards some form of renewed lockdowns as the clock is ticking for them not for us.

Jonathan Tilt

Independent Candidate. West Yorkshire Mayor.