Thursday 27 May: Put the number of Covid deaths in perspective and get on with living

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/26/lettersput-number-covid-deaths-perspective-get-living/

556 thoughts on “Thursday 27 May: Put the number of Covid deaths in perspective and get on with living”

  4. Dominic Cummings showed that at heart he is a ruthless totalitarian. Jonathan Sumption. 27 May 2021

    Dominic Cummings’s evidence was every bit as explosive as the billing. But the main thrust of it was extraordinary. It was that Britain should have closed its borders and locked everyone down back in January 2020 at a stage when the first reports were just coming out of Wuhan and very little was known about the virus.

    Act first, think later, has never been carried further than that. No responsible government could have contemplated a lockdown before March, when the health implications became apparent. By that time Covid-19 was already endemic. Even then, there were at least two serious problems about lockdown, neither of which Cummings confronts.

    First, the scientific advice was that lockdowns reduce deaths in the short term, but only by postponing them. Unless they are kept in place permanently (or at least until there is a vaccine), the epidemic would simply come back in a second wave that would probably be worse than the first, because it would coincide with the winter peak of pressure on the NHS.

    Cummings dismisses this as “groupthink”. But it is plainly correct. It was pointed out by Prof Neil Ferguson’s team in the very projections that pushed the Government into the lockdown. It is what actually happened, not just in Britain but in every country that had a lockdown, however early and however strict. The real question is not whether we should have started earlier but whether, whenever we started, the lockdown could or should have been kept in place indefinitely.
    This is why, taking the data over a whole year, there is no correlation between lockdown policies and deaths. Sweden and Switzerland, which had the mildest restrictions in Europe had fewer excess deaths per million people than Spain, Belgium and the UK, which had the most severe restrictions. The determinants of different national outcomes have been the underlying health of the population, its age balance and national expenditure on health services, not government action.

    Secondly, Cummings ignores the catastrophic collateral effects of the lockdown. The economic impact has been appalling. No country ever saved lives by making itself poorer. All serious forecasts of the consequences of the lockdown have assumed tens of thousands of additional deaths due to the long-term hit to standards of living.

    The downside is not just economic. The lockdown has produced a spectacular rise in undiagnosed cancers, untreated heart disease and dementia, all of which are big killers. Data from the UK and across Europe suggest that deaths from these causes may well exceed any lives saved.
    There is a moral dimension to all of this, to which Cummings turns a tin ear. He criticises ministers for not following the Chinese example faster than they did. He forgets that there were moral and not just pragmatic reasons for that. China is one of the most oppressive totalitarian states in the world. It treats people as mere instruments of state policy. We should have higher values. Interaction with other people is basic to human nature and to the functioning of our societies. Criminalising it impoverishes everything that makes life precious.

    That brings us to the heart of the Cummings problem and the Johnson problem.

    The Cummings problem is his contempt for democracy and liberal values. He is at heart a ruthless totalitarian. What we needed, he told us, was “a kind of dictator with kingly power”, who would “push out the boundaries of legality”. “This is war,” he said. “Any rules – forget it.”

    The Johnson problem is the opposite one. He is weak. Cummings reveals that the Prime Minister really was concerned about the collateral effects of the lockdown, and at one point regretted ever having ordered one. Cummings said this with a curl of the lip and a rasp of contempt. But was Johnson not right to be concerned? And was he not wrong to allow himself to be pressed into the shape of the last backside that sat on him?

    There is something bad, Cummings declared, with a political system that offers a choice between two such inadequates as Johnson and Corbyn. And, he added in a remarkable moment of candour, it is “crackers” that some one like himself should have so much power at the heart of government. At least he got that much right.

    Morning everyone. This is a wonderfully lucid article by Jonathan Sumption; well worth posting in its entirety I thought. It is a sad reflection on the present that there are so few people in the UK MSM who can, or even wish, to speak the truth; they can probably be counted on the fingers of your hands. The rest I’m afraid; much like the old Soviet Union that the UK increasingly resembles, produce only lies and propaganda!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/26/dominic-cummings-showed-heart-ruthless-totalitarian/

    2. One can argue about lockdown until the cows come home. Having no lockdown and then having a lockdown is dithering and ineffective. On the other hand the UK borders should have been closed down tight immediately. No-one allowed in, even if they are attempting to return from somewhere else.
      That includes the UK/Eire border. Everything shut down, except for food transport. Failing to close the border was a far, far, greater failing than the messing around with lockdowns, levels, and meeting rules.
      One can only conclude that no-one of those involved have heard of the Decameron, let alone read it.

    1. What a vile sign.
      In other words, when the lockdown happens, it’s your fault, because you just didn’t stick to the rules hard enough!
      Those of us with personal experience of manipulative abusers can see the abuse straight off.

        1. WTF? Where’s that from, Australia?
          That’s appalling! And there are people who would do just that!

          2. Well, I guess the kind of people who would vote for Justin Trudeau are the kind of people who would snitch on the their fellow citizens for not wearing a mask.

  7. I see ManU have followed the England Rugby XV.in failing

    Go down on one knee and prove yourself losers.

    He does listen to our prayers

    1. If a Pro-White political movement had sycophantic supporters who kneeled before it at sporting events then I should imagine the kneelers would be immediately arrested.

      No rational person should ever take racism seriously when It only works one way.

    1. A lovely photo, I once moored in the bay overnight and a group of us from the yacht decided to visit the temple the following morning.
      After a rather hot dusty climb up the hillside we reach the top only to discover there was an admittance fee and none of us brought money, only bottles of water!

  10. (H)armless Fun

    A very successful lawyer parked his brand-new Lexus in front of his office, ready to show it off to his colleagues.

    As he got out, a truck passed too close and completely tore off the door on the driver’s side. The lawyer immediately grabbed his cell phone, dialled 911, and within minutes a policeman pulled up.

    Before the officer had a chance to ask any questions, the lawyer started screaming hysterically. His Lexus, which he had just picked up the day before, was now completely ruined and would never be the same, no matter what the body shop did to it.

    When the lawyer finally wound down from his ranting and raving, the officer shook his head in disgust and disbelief. “I can’t believe how materialistic you lawyers are,” he said. “You are so focused on your possessions that you don’t notice anything else.”

    “How can you say such a thing?” asked the lawyer.

    The cop replied, “Don’t you know that your left arm is missing from the elbow down? It must have been torn off when the truck hit you!”

    “My God!” screamed the lawyer. “Where’s my Rolex?!”

  11. Joe Biden orders US intelligence to intensify efforts to study Covid’s origins. 27 May 2021

    President also asks US intelligence community to explore the unlikely possibility that virus origins trace to Chinese lab.

    Unlikely possibility? Good to see that the Guardian has no personal stake in this!

    At the very beginning of this outbreak the Chinese produced a series of pictures showing people dropping dead in the street and newspaper reports of people being walled up in their apartments. These have never been replicated anywhere else since, even in lockdowns. This surely hints at the very least that they were fake? If this is true, where did they come from, and to what purpose? Well this is China and nothing happens without the Party having a say. My guess is; and it can be no more than that, is that there was a leak and they couldn’t know how bad it was going to be so they assumed the worst both to avoid blame and for the purposes of a cover story about bats etc. This also explains the ruthlessness of their lockdown, the deserted Motorways and Empty Cities. Once it became apparent that it wasn’t the Black Death they moderated it into the form we see today.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/26/joe-biden-us-intelligence-community-covid-19-origins-china

  12. Thousands of YouTube comments on Sky News Australia video celebrate BLM activist being shot in head

    Exclusive: The racist and violent comments appear below a video news report about Sasha Johnson who was shot in the head in London

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7c2c3213ef5a8dd81d247b6601f8c5a2c4f67438/0_81_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=40730d995314091961ff30eae741fcd1

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/may/27/thousands-of-youtube-comments-on-sky-news-australia-video-celebrate-blm-activist-being-shot-in-head

    I bet that a lot of the comments are not from Australians

      1. OLT mng, we know the ways round that “UK TV reactivates The Golden Shot hosted by Bob Monkhouse”. And make it permanent. That’s reverse engineering woke democracy

    3. A sentence that displays a complete lack of English syntax:

      “We are removing comments that are violative of our policies and will continue to do so as we keep monitoring the comments on the video,” a spokeswoman said.

      Surely she should know that there is no such word as violative and that sentence should read:

      “We are removing comments that violate our policies and will continue to do so as we keep monitoring the comments on the video,”

      Journalists and editors – complete garbage.

          1. Had my second shot this morning – so far, so good (as the man said as he fell past the third floor …)

    6. Sasha Johnson?

      One of our prime minister’s mixed-race love children? I wouldn’t put it past him.

  13. here we go with more from the Islington Wine Cellar. SP OSullivan clearly has ongoing issues with treatment of this “farmer giles”. Sheila Clarke’s world fell apart and no one noticed:

    SIR – In the interests of perspective, I should like to see the daily number of non-Covid deaths in England and Wales (around 1,400) reported alongside the number of Covid-related deaths (seven yesterday).

    It’s time for us to get on with living.

    Chris Sermon
    Winchester, Hampshire

    SIR – Throughout the pandemic it has been stressed over and over how important it is to have good ventilation in our homes to help reduce transmission of the virus.

    Is it therefore time to ditch Energy Performance Certificates, which drive towards making our homes almost hermetically sealed?

    Paul Vaughan
    Sale, Cheshire

    SIR – The Government continues to defend its highly criticised restrictions on amateur choirs on the basis of “the best public health advice”.

    Yet my Freedom of Information request to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport for release of documents containing scientific advice relating to restrictions on choirs has been refused.

    The DCMS says that to release such documents would undermine a “safe space” for Government deliberations on “a live policy area”.

    Sir Humphrey would be delighted that the Civil Service still promotes transparency by being opaque.

    Rev Martin Hislop
    Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

    SIR – Your Leading Article (May 25) supporting choral societies facing unreasonable restrictions by the DCMS on choral singing is greatly welcomed by the choral community across the land, and none more so than by the Royal Choral Society.

    However, it is not right to say that “it is not possible to sing Handel’s Messiah in a large, well-ventilated hall”. It is not only possible, but it will happen on Sunday, when the Choral Society will be singing at the Royal Albert Hall(to the an audience of 801, the maximum allowed), in a concert marking the hall’s 150th anniversary, and as we have been doing since 1876.

    Richard Reeves
    General Manager, Royal Choral Society
    London EC4

    SIR – I run a table-tennis group for six or eight older people – all of whom have been double vaccinated.

    We would meet in a large hall and enjoy playing doubles, but that is not allowed. We are hardly a contact sport. We play for pleasure and company. However, we could go to a gym and take part in a sweaty, heavy-breathing workout class with many others.

    What are these rules all about?

    Joan Flower
    Bristol

    SIR – Yesterday I went to McDonald’s. They wouldn’t let me in because I didn’t have a National Health Service app on my phone. They would have let me sit in the garden, but it was cold.

    Sheila Clarke
    Belfast

    Saving Fleet Street

    SIR – As architectural editors, past and present, of Country Life, we call upon Robert Jenrick, the Housing Secretary, to hold a public inquiry into the Corporation of London’s approval of the demolition of two handsome 1920s frontages in Fleet Street on the processional route to St Paul’s Cathedral – numbers 72-78 and 80-81, opposite the old Telegraph building.

    The City Corporation’s approval of its own application is an affront to natural justice. (No one should be judge of their own case.)

    It also makes a nonsense of conservation area policy, which was introduced by the late Lord Duncan-Sandys to protect unlisted buildings that are the frame for listed buildings. These contribute to the lively and varied street architecture that is the essence of so many of the capital’s most famous thoroughfares.

    Strong objections from Historic England, the Victorian Society, the Twentieth Century Society and Save Britain’s Heritage have been swept aside. Intervention by government ministers led to a rethink over Smithfield General Market. The same needs to happen in Fleet Street.

    Mark Girouard
    Marcus Binney
    Clive Aslet
    Michael Hall
    Jeremy Musson
    John Goodall
    Farnborough, Hampshire

    Woke Cambridge

    SIR – A letter from Professor Eilis Ferran (May 24) of Cambridge University pointed out it has a “Dignity at Work policy and Change the Culture initiative”. I think that says it all.

    Alisdair Low
    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – Numerate people, of whom there are many in Cambridge, know that “micro” means “a millionth of”. Its lawyers will be familiar with the maxim De minimis non curat lex (“The law is not concerned with trifles.”).

    By contrast, the often confected outrage of woke folk is in danger of giving hyperbole a bad name.

    Philip Corp
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    Retuning Radio 4

    SIR – It will take more than reintroducing the morning UK Theme on Radio 4 (report, May 26) to win back its audiences.

    Susan Sang
    Petersfield, Hampshire

    Left without help

    SIR – I am 90 years old and housebound with arthritis. My wife, who is 89, has just come out of hospital and is equally confined to the home.

    She has lost her Halifax bank passbook and has also forgotten her PIN, which she needs in order to access her account.

    After spending half an hour on the phone, I was eventually told that my wife can get a replacement passbook and PIN only if she presents herself at the branch counter. While the person I spoke to admitted that, in the past, the postal service had been used, she could offer no solution to the impasse.

    Can your readers offer any advice?

    George H Teasdale
    Leeds

    Cummings’s truth

    SIR – Dominic Cummings, the former chief adviser to the Prime Minister (report, May 26), is, I suggest, not unique in trying to reinvent history and his part in it. Every decision made by the Government since the pandemic began has been the subject of intense discussion and argument before the fact.

    However, after the fact the history is written – uniquely in this case – largely by the vanquished, who proclaim loud and long how everything would have been so much better had their opinion prevailed.

    If the Government, and especially the Prime Minister, try to tell us that they believe they got, and are getting, every decision right in these unprecedented circumstances, they are fools.

    Rob Fisher
    Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

    SIR – If there were a Eurovision Whinge Contest, and we could field Prince Harry and Dominic Cummings, we would have a sure-fire winner.

    Sue Milne
    Crick, Northamptonshire

    Two-tier NHS

    SIR – I am a consultant obstetrician. At no point during this pandemic did any expectant mother have a face-to-face appointment replaced by a telephone consultation (Letters, May 25).

    If it was fine for pregnant women to be seen in person rather than by telephone, I cannot fathom why patients with cancer had to settle for telephone appointments.

    It appears a two-tier service exists – with cancer patients not getting the same attention as pregnant mothers.

    Malcolm John Dickson
    Morley Green, Cheshire

    Powering the future

    SIR – If the Government was serious about global warming (Comment, May 26), every new-build would have photovoltaic tiles on the roof.

    Marcus Anstie
    Sutton Benger, Wiltshire

    SIR – Any government that makes houses with gas boilers unsellable will make itself unelectable.

    Bruce Cochrane
    Hornsea, East Yorkshire

    Bags of personality

    SIR – Am I alone in my annoyance at the anthropomorphising of inanimate objects, with phrases such as “Whoops, I’m the wrong way up” written on my parking permit, “I’m not in service” emblazoned on a passing bus, and the latest, “I’m a delivery crate liner”, on a plastic bag?

    John H Stephen
    London NW8

    A different class of travel in the days of steam

    SIR – Three classes of railway travel were not still available in the 1950s (report, May 19). Second class had effectively been abolished by the main line railway companies in the 1920s. It lingered until 1938 on some suburban services. The choice was between first and third until 1956, when third was renamed second.

    David Lyall
    London SW3

    SIR – There is a way that Great British Railways could improve the lot of passengers.

    The railway operator should address the fundamentals of passenger comfort: a padded seat at a comfortable angle, a smooth, quiet ride and no noisy underfloor engines.

    S P O’Sullivan
    Bristol

    Take care if recycling unwanted gifts of wine

    SIR – Greig Bannerman (Letters, May 25) must have very forgiving friends. If I were to recycle a “cheap bottle” of wine by sniffily handing it back to the originator, I’d expect it to be opened in front of me and poured steadily over my head.

    Paul Cornish
    Cambridge

    SIR – The way to avoid the embarrassment of having to accept a dinner guest’s below-par wine is to remit, with the dinner invitation, the contact details of one’s vintner together with a carefully curated list of acceptable vintages.

    Or, preferably, to dine alone.

    Nigel Hyde
    Hungerford, Berkshire

    SIR – The presentation of a bottle of wine to a good friend of mine was most likely met with: “Thank you, the perfect bottle for the occasion.”

    I asked him once how that could that always be so. “If it was any better he wouldn’t give it to me, any worse and I wouldn’t drink it,” was the response

    Nicholas Franks
    Dorchester

    SIR – My wife and I, together with two other couples, were invited to a dinner party. By chance we had each brought a bottle of red wine.

    When we went into the dining room our host was seated behind four opened bottles of wine, their labels positioned to be clearly visible. When we had been seated he picked up the first bottle and served some wine to the couple who had brought it. This was repeated with the other two couples. Finally, he picked up an obviously expensive claret and served it to his wife, before pouring a generous amount into his own glass.

    My only regret was that I failed to ask him if I could take home the remains of my bottle, since it would otherwise be wasted as he obviously would not drink it.

    Dr Michael Pegg
    Esher, Surrey

    1. Well Joan, being an ex TT player of many years I can relate exactly to what you are saying in your comment, and the answer to your question is CONTROL, they just don’t want to give any of it up.

    2. SIR – If there were a Eurovision Whinge Contest, and we could field Prince Harry and Dominic Cummings, we would have a sure-fire winner.
      Sue Milne
      Crick, Northamptonshire
      Ain’t that the truth.

      1. mng Obl, Sue Milne [or whatever moniker they choose, depending on what day of the week it is] is a classic case of someone with too much time on their hands and with nothing pertinent to think, write about, except their deluded emotions in the hope they had something worthwhile to write

        1. I didn’t realise the Telegraph was allowing even mild criticism of P Harry.

          1. they confuse themselves attempting to compare the “Duke of Suffix” and the Noble Pegg / Bannerman of Esher monikers and lose their limited train of thought. Although the mental image of P Harry as Sue Milne sitting outside freezing their tits off waiting for a McD and fries, does “warm the cockles”

    3. John H Stephen – no you are not the only one! This ridiculous childishness never fails to annoy me as well.

    4. Sheila Clarke’s been the victim of vaxx pass apartheid, which the government would very much like to impose on people in the UK, just as it has been imposed in Germany.

      1. Here, the vax pass law specifically forbids it being used to deny access to shops, cafes, pubs, restaurants and your place of work.

        1. They have got round that in Germany by requiring you to produce a piece of paper stating that you have had either a negative test in the last 48 hours, covid in the last 6 months, or the double vaxx.

  14. Good morning, all. It was glorious sunshine and blue skies at 5 am. Now grey and cloudy and miserable. Happy days!

        1. Happy anniversary Bill and the MR! Hope you have a lovely day out, and that it, at least, stays dry!

        2. Happy anniversary Bill and MR.
          Have a really great day. Off to somewhere nice for grub?

  15. Putin rules out compulsory coronavirus vaccinations. 27 May 2021.

    President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday issued a new plea for Russians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus but stressed that the jabs would not become compulsory.

    Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, Putin urged Russians to cast away any remaining doubts and said that the Russian vaccines were “the most reliable and safest” in the world.

    “The most important thing is health. Please think about it,” 68-year-old Putin said.

    Ah Russia! Land of the Brave and the Home of the Free. Almost enough to remind you what it was like to live in a free country!

    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210526-putin-rules-out-compulsory-coronavirus-vaccinations

    1. mng Araminta, amazing isn’t it leaving people to make their own choices, as a result making a leader more popular with the people

  16. Putin rules out compulsory coronavirus vaccinations. 27 May 2021.

    President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday issued a new plea for Russians to get vaccinated against the coronavirus but stressed that the jabs would not become compulsory.

    Speaking at a government meeting on Wednesday, Putin urged Russians to cast away any remaining doubts and said that the Russian vaccines were “the most reliable and safest” in the world.

    “The most important thing is health. Please think about it,” 68-year-old Putin said.

    Ah Russia! Land of the Brave and the Home of the Free. Almost enough to remind you what it was like to live in a free country!

    https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210526-putin-rules-out-compulsory-coronavirus-vaccinations

  17. Mention on NOTTL late last night of Sky showing a mural depicting George Floyd with angel wings. That must give hope to some of those living who ‘didn’t fancy their chances’ in the hereafter because of criminal lifestyle.

    Assuming beatification and sainthood to be the next step, wonder what the new Saint George will be the patron saint of? Violent repeat offenders perhaps?

    2. Recall seeing similar in Norn Iron, painted on house walls, but depicting the IRA.

  19. Batley Grammar teacher allowed back to school but Prophet Mohammed picture should not be used again. 27 May 2021.

    The Trust’s full report was not published but the executive summary cited guidelines from the Department for Education which state that schools are allowed to include a range of ideas and materials in lessons, including where they are “challenging or controversial”.

    The report said that schools must balance this with the need to promote respect and tolerance between people of different faiths and beliefs, “including in deciding which materials to use in the classroom”.

    The investigators said that “great care must be taken” that lessons featuring controversial topics are taught in a way that “promotes respect and tolerance between people of different faiths, beliefs and values”.

    So after we have waded through all this hypocritical obfuscation what we have is Religious Censorship and unwritten Islamic Blasphemy Laws?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/26/batley-grammar-teacher-allowed-back-school-prophet-mohammed/

    1. I doubt that the teacher will ever feel safe enough to return to the school.

        1. Morning Minty, learning Russian and or Hungarian would be high on my list of things to do.

          1. Morning VVOF. Were I much younger I think that I would be preparing to move to one of them!

          2. Agreed, I have told all my grandchildren that their future is not here in the UK, they need to consider the very few available alternatives.
            They will not of course, the result of subtle brainwashing starting in school. They sadly think this is normal and how it should be.

      2. He could always get his own back by marking little Mohammed down in every test, exam etc… And giving him detention regularly

    2. If you were that teacher, would you go back and work for the cowards who run the school?
      The dominant ethnics running the town have declared a Jihad against him
      Life insurance will be difficult to get
      As for his Union, The National Woke Tw*ts, I would not pee on them to put a fire out
      The government should carry out a full review of the whole affair, otherwise our Freedom of Speech and Thought has been eroded even more
      I would hate to be young, in the soon to be Caliphate of Ununited Britain,

    3. “…the need to promote respect and tolerance between people of different faiths and beliefs…” This is nonsense. It is not just untrue that we should do this, it is the case that we should stop or destroy some faiths and beliefs.

    4. And the BLM activist woman who was shot by the black posse was allowed to spout the most incredible racial hatred about white people and say she wanted them to be slaves!

      What really pisses people off is the selective indignation. If you are black or a Muslim you will get away with things for which a white person would be tried, convicted and sent to prison.

      You might conclude that the PTB do not think such people are capable of following the law and must be excused or treated more lightly than whites. Isn’t this, in itself, patronising and racist – it implies that they are inferior and so must be excused.

        1. As the old adage says: “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”

          But being inferior is?

      2. I’m just so glad that her campaign worked. Only blacks appear to have the ownership of and knowledge of what to do with guns.

      3. Yesterday, three people involved in the Hillsborough disaster had their cases dropped. The underlying reason was that they had altered their earlier testimony which was given to the initial enquiry, but was not “under oath”*. It was said that they did not realise that their evidence might be used in a number of processes.
        However, we must wonder at a legal process that allows people to lie because they are not under oath?

        I may not have understood that correctly, of course.

        1. “allows people to lie because they are not under oath?” – errr – Politicians do it all the time.

          1. Indeed they do. Provided they lie in their role as politicians a Scottish Court ruled that this was acceptable.

    5. Capitulation. Get a few angry muslims waving their arms about and the PTB cave in.

      1. Wait a few years, get a few million more muslims and THEY are the PTB. And now your country is a complete sh*thole (Pakistan, Lebanon, Indonesia … former muslim minority countries).

        1. The one Muslim country that was not destroyed was Turkey but that was because Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk) made sure it was a lay state and illegal to wear any signs of religious faith in public offices.

          Sadly Recep Erdogan is quite determined to stamp out all the good that Ataturk did

      2. Oddly, they are complaining about children being taught that Islam is intolerant and… go on to provide the most fervent evidence possible!

    6. How did we reach a point where education cannot teach and this is enforced by the state edifice?

  20. Good morning, everyone. I see that the media have been instructed to trash Cummings.

    3. As we know whistle-blowers are not appreciated and they are usually sacked even when it turns out that they have told the truth – this does not necessarily mean that they are not needed or that the truth they told was ‘fake news’!

      However in this case normal protocol was not followed: Cummings was sacked on the paramour’s diktat before rather than after he blew his whistle.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/810887cd3dff54bc38ee2e524cc2e5911765f1bae49f099bbbe30bbd47a4535e.jpg

      1. For Whistleblowers to be required, it says more about the ‘organisation’ than the blower

        In a properly managed organisation, if an employee identifies that is something wrong, they should be able to report it through the management tree, recording time/date/comments etc

        Another route would be during an internal quality assessment by an in-house assessor.

        It is then for the managers to manage, if they fail to do so, they are at fault.

  21. Good morning from a beautiful bright Derbyshire. Still a chilly 5°C but at least there is no rain forecast.

    An excellent comment in the lead letter by Mr. Chris Sermon, yes, it is time for us to get on with living.

      1. I frequently quote the line, “Pretentious, Moi?.
        As an aside there is a Chinese vase in Fawlty Towers. It has also appeared in “The Two Ronnies” ironmongers, and in “The Professionals” where it was damaged rather badly by machine gun fire. It was the first item we ever bought at auction, and well worth the £3 paid for the many happy hours playing “spot the vase” in TV programmes…
        Subsequently, we found that it had been made in Birmingham along with many thousands of identical vases. (Live and learn.).

        1. Oh dear. How sad are we? I did the same with the set of crystal glassware i have. Spotted it in lots of programs.

        2. Not that I read ‘Hello’ magazine, but I gather the same fireplace appeared in photos with allegedly stately home owners/disgustingly rich interviewees draped over its mantelpiece.

    2. it’s the same woke bloke Barney. He’s hoping in the dim compartments of the figment of his loose imagination to land a role in a new format of the Prisoner tv series

    3. Thank goodness I live Norf of the river amongst people who don’t give a stuff.

        1. 🙂
          River Thames, not Tweed!
          That is something MB has not inherited from his forbears. No Scottish head for booze whatsoever.

    4. Thank goodness I live Norf of the river amongst people who don’t give a stuff.

    1. I find, like changing gear in the car, as long as I don’t actually think about it, I can remember my Pin number.

    2. MoH’s daughter came up with a good one IMHO – use the first four figures the person’s Date of Birth – a number drilled in from birth. Someone born on 15th December – PIN – 1512. As one of a couple will know the birthday of the other then it is fairly certain that it won’t be forgotten.

        1. I use the last for numbers of our phone number when I was I was a child. Those were the days when you announced your number when picking up the phone. I can remember that number more easily than my mobile number which I always forget,

        2. Good idea, 1111AD “The Crusaders, led by Baldwin I, besiege Tyre.”, no one will know that so it’s a very safe pin number.

    3. Steiff bears are more realistic. They have snouts.
      My Mother doesn’t like our cats, as they have lean faces (Norwegian Forest Cat), not these round babyfaces that many cats have.
      But they are lovely cats, with bags of personality, masses of hair (see trousers for much of it), and weigh in at 10kg and 7kg – all muscle.

    1. I miss Jimmy Young, he always asked the questions to his interviewees that I wanted to ask. I liked the fact that he was his own man, that he did not stay for after work events. The halcyon days of radio.

      1. Margaret Thatcher and Bill Thomas liked him greatly too.

        I think he was a far better interviewer than a singer!

        1. JY was certainly head and shoulders above his stand-in, the ill-informed, clickbait-chasing, churnalist Vine.

      1. He didn’t seem very impressed with the flowers i sent. I had to wear gloves to pick all that ragwort.

          1. The common name for ragwort is ‘Stinking Willie’. Which i thought appropriate in the circumstances.

  26. 333460+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Thursday 27 May: Put the number of Covid deaths in perspective and get on with living

    May one ask, could this be possible, for that surely one would need to examine every death cert. and ask the question died OF or WITH.

    As with cowboys to simplify matters, they died WITH their boots on or OF having their boots on.

    You CANNOT trust a word these LLCG coalition political treacherous whelks say, ALL the electorate are voting on is the name of the party of
    yesteryear when sanity / common sense had access to the corridors of power.

    Now they are swearing oaths of political allegiance on material that
    states they, the oath taker are given some sort of lie permit to use in regards to no believers ie non islamic ideology followers.

    There is no opposition to the multitudes voting for more of the guaranteed same, they are in point of fact working in conjunction knowingly with proven political failures The vote and whinge brigade
    ARE the problem this nation has as a barrier to returning to normality.

  27. 333460+ up ticks,
    🎵,
    Chaff is in the air everytime I look around, chaff is in the air every sight & every sound….

    Live Politics latest news: Matt Hancock to come out fighting after Cummings’s ‘lying’ claims

    Reality,
    May one ask,
    What was the DOVER illegal intake yesterday.

  29. Ah well – bang goes our livelihood for this summer and the foreseeable future:


    France toughens rules for Britons arriving to combat spread of Indian variant
    French ministers preparing to toughen rules by placing UK on equivalent of the amber list, with self-isolation supervised by police

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/26/britons-travelling-france-need-negative-covid-tests-face-10/

    This has nothing to do with Covid and everything to do with Toyboy Macron and the nasty and vindictive little Frenchman’s anglophobia and spite about Brexit.

      1. But we have to travel there first. We haven’t see our sons in Britain for over a year.

        2. Nor I have I seen my daughter for over a year and it’s likely June 21st
          will be like Christmas…..CANCELLED!

      3. Can’t get in – too expensive, too difficult, too capricious.
        Forget it.

    4. Our neighbours have informed me they are coming back to the UK middle of next month i hope they realise this, i’ll send them a message.

      1. They need to read the .gov.uk site to get a full idea of the hoops to jump through. You gotta buy in advance the tests, and it seems that the price can vary between £48 and £200+ a pop.

        1. I sent them the link, for various reasons they’ve been stuck at their Holiday home in the French country side for over a year.

    5. We only have one UK guest still booked. I suspect they won’t arrive.

      I’ve now cancelled/crossed out all available dates, I can’t be bothered with the hassle and cost of the inevitable cancellations.

      No wonder the bastard is shipping migrants across as fast as he can, I suspect that many will be carriers of new variants.

        2. What, buy him a nice meal, take in a show then f*** him in the ar** all night?
          There’s be a long queue, but he’d likely enjoy it.

    6. UK has Norway on amber list – apparently, it’s the default position, not on red, not on green.
      That’s us effed as regards a trip this summer, then. The hoops to jump through and then get knocked back by the airline… not going. forget it.

      2. 333460+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        The bridge connecting the United Kingdom to brussels the
        ( deal) should have, in reality us ALL marching in step over it.

    2. 333460+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Og, to me it shows up as the lab/lib/con coalition , members / voters have uncorked the bottle containing the islamic ideology creation and are now seeing the odious consequences.

      Every kneeling, appeasing gestures made adds to the dangers already witnessed lest we forget, as in
      rotherham, oxford, rochdale etc,etc.

      Currently a lab/lib/con vote condemns the innocent.

      1. 333460+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AA,
        The amount the governance overseers have allowed entry, encouraged with backing from the electorate again & again it would not surprise me to see them marching ten abreast, mile long column, down through Whitehall with a police escort in attendance.

  31. Good Morning & Happy Thursday all Nottlers, some enjoyable music: Avalon Jazz Band – Bonjour Sourire (Henri Salvador)
    “Bonjour Sourire”, composed by Jean Constantin, is a song from the French comedy film by the same title, directed by Claude Sautet in 1956, written by Jean Marsan, starring Henri Salvador, Annie Cordy and Louis de Funès.

    Vocals – Tatiana Eva-Marie
    Violin – Adrien Chevalier
    Guitar – Vinny Raniolo
    Accordion – Albert Behar
    Bass – Julian Smith

    Filmed by Sébastien Vergne at The Keep in Brooklyn.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWiM3yYRa4s

    1. Love it ………the posers 🤩
      Have got one of them singing Beyond the sea ?

      1. Mornin Eddy, Big Mike will be useful as a Hollyweird Monster in B movies – no make up or costumes required & Mdme Biden can write a “how to” guide to fast Diaper changing of demented spouses

          1. Two adopted daughters who in the normal course of things would now be doing tricks for their pimps or looting a neighborhood sneaker store

    1. Terrifying, particularly the bit about hunting down and reprisals against family members.
      It reminded me of a certain group of 1930’s/40’s Socialists.

      1. And “reprisals against family members” is the threats our Police get on their tv programs from the RoP lot when they say “We know which school your daughter goes to – We know where you live” – all captured on video – but the polive ignore or laugh it off – instead of grabbing them, charging them and giving them a record a mile long. While the scum get ignored they will see it as weakness – and will ramp it up.

        1. The RoP thugs should have been rounded up and if “deportable”, deported.

          Another example of what happens when the wrongdoers are pandered to in the name of diversity and tolerance towards the grossly intolerant.

      2. Just what I thought. Kill a German soldier and 10 villagers executed. I think we can do without this bunch of wannabe Nazis.

        1. I don’t think it’s a group – I fully expect that one citizen will be dragged out and made an example of for the threats contained in the video. What they are saying is not factually incorrect though – eg the PCR test has already been shown in court in Portugal to be a scam.

          1. No, I agree with a lot of what’s said, just that final few sentences that make me worry.

    3. I’m not entirely comfortable with where this thing is going. If you’ve been vaccinated, great. If, for whatever reason – medical, ethical you’ve not then again, great. It is your choice.

      Neither side should feel heroism or a need to pressure the other. Why the heck can’t people just let one another be?

    2. Safer shopping? Oh, I thought it meant something else entirely! Must have got hold of the wrong end of the

  37. Moment ‘get rich quick’ Instagram trader, 20, who ‘conned people out of £3.8million in elaborate online fraud’ is confronted outside modest two-bedroom house
    where he lives with his parents after his scam was exposed in new documentary

    Gurvin Singh Dyal, 20, from Plymouth, believed to have scammed 1,250 people
    Instagram feed littered with images of flash cars, luxury hotels and a pet goat
    A new BBC Three documentary delves into Gurvin’s alleged dodgy dealings
    By HAYLEY RICHARDSON FOR MAILONLINE

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9621495/Moment-rich-quick-Instagram-trader-20-scammed-people-3-8m-confronted.html

      2. indeed, what better way is there to claim an online discount by claiming to be a student and keeping the duvet warm [not the one he wears on his head at night]

      3. indeed, what better way is there to claim an online discount by claiming to be a student and keeping the duvet warm [not the one he wears on his head at night]

    2. Morning all saw it earlier TB………he’ll be presented with business enterprise of the year award. Sarc

  38. The weather is again cold, damp and dull, perfectly dreich. However, in the last week the trees along the road have turned green, with bright leaves. This morning three male blackbirds resumed yesterday’s squabbling along the fence. We have four house martin nests and one swallow nest under the eaves and the squadrons were out doing wheelies in front of the kitchen window. Over the last week or so a hare has made the back garden** his own, chewing the grass or just lolling around for hours. A smaller hare has occasionally turned up. They may be related. It is the first hare that we have seen in our vicinity, although there has been a small warren of rabbits nearby, across the fence and at the edge of the field.

    * No Chris Packhams were injured in the making of this comment.
    ** A piece of grass about 4metres by 22metres.

    1. Full sun 17C on the Sussex coast. Had to open the air vents in the car.

        1. Bill, what are you doing here! Thought you were away enjoying your anniversary with your lady and Our Lady of Walsingham?

          2. Rider Haggard’s She.

            We used to have a dog called Rumpole whose face resembled the face of Leo McKern who played the old barrister. Just as Rumpole only defended and never prosecuted so our dear old dog defended the family – Caroline and me and our two sons – and only growled at visitors when they looked menacing. If ever if they did Rumpole then placed himself between them and the boys. He loved humans but never attacked anyone but he adored our cat, Chaucer, and loathed all other dogs.

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc457e9888d76a927ad6d10687510b2b63c71f43ffad594decb19b35a8d8fecb.jpg

          9. No worrries, pass it around your mates.

            It gives great comfort to those who have lost pets

    2. 18c and bright in sunny Shepherds Bush. Hopefully my indoor temp at home will start to rise a little too. The central heating season in my building is 1 Oct to 1 May regardless of the weather so I’ve had 19-20c indoors for the past two weeks. Good for sleeping but too cold for sitting in the evenings.

    1. Facebook will allow users to claim on its platform that COVID-19 may have originated in a lab in Wuhan, China – a reversal of its previous policy which banned comments suggesting the coronavirus was man-made.

      Oh well that’s put a serious dent in my idea that it was a leak from a lab!

    2. Some one may have read this book to him.
      “The Eyes of Darkness” is a science fiction novel published in 1981. It references a fictional “biological weapon” called “Wuhan-400” that was designed to kill people but inadvertently gives one child psychic abilities.
      The Eyes of Darkness by Dean Koontz – Goodreads

      1. Truth stranger than fiction and fiction getting it right.
        I used to enjoy his books.

        1. I ordered the book from the local library before lock down, but never got round to getting my hands on it. I’ve just started Spies by Micheal Frayn. An old school chum recommended it to me as we both lived close to the Frayn’s in Mil Hill. I think he based part of his back ground on the book. The authors brother Keith was in our class at junior school. (some one named Keith is one of the characters in the book)
          But ‘out of our class’….. his younger Keith brother became an Emeritus professor at Oxford. I remember him as a gentle studious and polite lad of about 9 to 10 years of age. I went to the family home for tea once.

      2. I am reminded of those lines from Milton’s Paradise Lost:

        “No light but rather darkness visible
        Served only to discover sights of woe!
        “

  41. Back from the market. Much more like it used to be. Still lotsa people in the open air well masked and stepping far away from you.

    Weather = cloudy, slightly damp and likely to remain so all day. It is not only Halfcock who lies – the Met Office does, too.

    Light lunch at 12.30 – then to Walsingham for a quick Mass (only joking) and a guided tour – followed by very posh afternoon tea at the Blakeney Hotel.

    Cats unmoved by the date…!!

    Many thanks to you all for your kind messages. We celebrated by getting – 18 months on – a refund from KLM for the holiday we were unable to take in Spain for our Silver Wedding last year. Still waiting a refund from Thameslink Railways….. Deafening silence.

    1. Our eldest son and daughter in law, with two youngsters booked a weeks holiday in Salcombe and are no longer able to go, but the deposit is none refundable.
      Poor old Ma and Pa will have to step up to the plate and take it on…..nice apartment and on site parking as well.

      1. I used to visit Salcombe regularly when sailing along the South Coast between Keyhaven and St Mawes. The parents of a pair of young people at the school near Lyme Regis in which I taught ran a pub, The King’s Arms, on the waterfront in which I had many a pint of beer over the years.

        1. The last time we were in Salcombe I think we went to that Pub for lunch. If it’s all down hill to the water after initial entry, a lovely spot.
          We also had a good mornings mackerel fishing just before we came home. I have a smoker at home and there’s nothing better than smoked mackerel.
          We also had lunch in the Winking Prawn.

    4. Many Happy Returns Bill and MR! Fine sunny day here so far – warm too. We had a burst of energy this morning.

  42. Not sure if anyone has posted the latest from Professor Dolores Cahill yet.
    h t t p s : / / w w w . bitchute . com/video/rXznEf76luMh/

  43. 333460+ up ticks,
    I do believe that something went a tad crook clearly shown with leaving the brexit result in tory (ino) hands
    That was unforgivable.

    But to leave a whole Country in the treacherous, deceitful,lying hands of the lab/lib/con coalition collection of odious overseers, decade after decade, is without doubt bordering on high treason.

    A majority of the peoples are obviously happy with their political lot for the simple reason there is no opposition.

    https://twitter.com/MigrationWatch/status/1397824904729223171

      1. Romanian gypsies by the look of them. They are on the move at the moment for the summer season.
        There was a huge crowd of them on the boat when we crossed from France to the UK recently.

        2. Hope they had full details of their vaccinations, tests, destination, locator forms etc etc….(sarc)

          1. They must have had, otherwise they wouldn’t have been let onto the boat. One chap without a car was sent back, he may have been one of them, I’m not sure. The ferry company kindly ordered him a taxi to Dunkirk – at his own expense…he looked pretty disgruntled!

        3. They also arrested a driver for having more than one person in his Fiat Uno, more than two in his Citroen 2 cv and five in his Audi Quatro.

          1. I’m surprised he could fit more than two horses in the Citroen, I’ve only ever managed one, despite what they promise.

          2. I’m stuffed. The one thing I’ve never carried in my VW girlie car is a Fox.

        4. Nothing will come of it, just a slap on the wrist and they’ll be all off shop lifting again.

      2. Romanian gypsies by the look of them. They are on the move at the moment for the summer season.
        There was a huge crowd of them on the boat when we crossed from France to the UK recently.

      3. Police stop Skoda Octavia carrying NINE people

        They took Two seats out!

        Bluvvy TellySubbies

        Police stop THE DRIVER OF A Skoda Octavia carrying NINE people

      2. It’s easy, you use a computer mouse and press that in. All right Prestatyn………….

      1. Wonderful moment from terrific film*. My chest swells with pride that I am British.
        *In my last year at school struggling with French**, we were able to distract the teacher from the text of “Pêcheur d’Islande” by asking about the guns the French used in Indo-China. He was then easily switched to the guns in “Zulu” as the time frame was similar.
        ** The grammar lesson was last period before lunch on a Friday. Froggy would ask me a grammar question a few minutes before the end of the period. I would struggle with it, offering various erroneous possibilities while he harrumphed into his moustache like Jimmy Edwards. There was no escape. The bell would ring and I would struggle on. Everyone else in the room was now glaring at me, eager to leave. Time passed. My fellow pupils were restive. I’d finally arrive at an acceptable answer and the class would be dismissed. I was never popular, but Friday lunchtime was the nadir of my time at school.

  46. A shamed barrister who dealt the chemsex pills that killed his teenage boyfriend has escaped being struck off after a tribunal found him guilty of misconduct. D Fail
    Henry Hendron, 40, was suspended in 2016 after admitting possession of a controlled drug with intent to supply following his boyfriend’s death.
    He had bought £1,000 of mephedrone and GBL from former BBC producer Alexander Parkin, 42, to deal ‘in bulk’ on to the gay party scene.
    After a night of chemsex drug taking he found his Colombian boyfriend Miguel Jimenez, 18, dead in the bedroom of his flat in London’s legal centre, Temple.

    Naughty, naughty boy! Don’t do it again… or don’t get caught.

      1. It appears not. Just happened to be in the same room at the same time with the same drugs. Pure coincidence.

    1. Grimbergen produce some good beers.

      Unless it is to boost tourist income I wonder why they are reopening in the abbey, always assuming the beers are the same.

      1. I believe that Carlsberg oversee the brewing, marketing, and distribution. The jolly, rotund Friar Tuck types would appear to be primarily an advertising ploy.

        1. I enjoy Belgian beers but find that they are significantly nicer from a cask than the bottled versions. The ones in a bar make a pleasant end to a long drive when we go up and down through France.
          I still much prefer English ales.

      2. The abbey has the rights to the name, sold in the 1950s to commercial brewers who produced some unremarkable abbey style beers. Will those breweries now stop production?

  51. I have been thinking about the Dominic Cummings fiasco and I have come to the conclusion that it was all a set-up to support his boss Johnson. Possibly never properly kicked out but lying low preparing this act of theatre. Here are my thoughts:

    All show, all theatre. Planned at least from November – Cummings staged dramatic angry exit from front door 10 Downing Street for all to see, carrying boxes, sets the scene for this later development, to be seen as ‘revenge and retaliation’ by the public. They are still all in it together. Cummings protecting his boss, Johnson.

    Cummings yesterday was all about damage limitation for the upcoming Crimes against Humanity cases – to show govt was incompetent and not of deliberately evil intent. It’s damage limitation in advance, again setting the scene for the future. It is the best spin they can find to put on the covid actions. Hancock will eventually be sacrificed and take the blame and be chucked under a passing bus. Probably not yet as supporting him (Hancock) at this stage supports their plea of utter incompetence, of Boris being the ultimate shambling bumbler.

    Edit: Hancock looked deliciously rattled during interogation.

    1. I don’t think they’re that organised. Boris’s campaign to get elected leader was organised down to the last vote – for every other candidate, as well as for himself. It was a classic Oxford Union campaign.
      It’s all gone downhill since then!

      1. I don’t think Johnson is capable of any strategy or organisation but I think Cummings certainly is.

        2. I think they’re all taking orders. Probably not the obviouse villains. More likely the bankers than the wankers, though their interests are intertwined.

        3. Nope, Johnson was a very successful Oxford Union hack. As far as I know, he was a strategist as well as a candidate.
          The leadership campaign was the first time he went head to head with Gove, who was the best of the next intake – a contest that we have all known was going to happen for about thirty years. I have no time for Boris, but I must say, I was glad he beat the Govesome loathe, and I was surprised by how comprehensively he did it.

          Cummings is too wrapped up in idealism and fantasy. And while Plum has a point, I think Carrie is getting the flak for some things that are actually just great reset agenda stuff, eg the sentient animals bill, which will basically destroy livestock farming.

      2. 333460 + up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        See back posts, the transparent farce, leadsome one visit found the kitchen to hot, gove the reluctant candidate / willing assassin, johnson the make believe victim ALL making way for mayday.

        Ultimate aim, damage limitations regarding brussels and a latch lifter for the future
        ( the deal) in place.

        ALL found support via the regular route along the
        lab / lib / con coalition voting
        sh!te road via the polling booth.

      1. Any chance Dilyn could become Prime Minister? Then we could get our lives back.

        2. 333460+ up ticks
          Afternoon Anne,
          Does he ID as a bitch that is the important thing.

      1. I am exhausted by it all, Conway. And I am resentful that my remaining years are fraught with this anxiety.

        1. I know what you mean; I want to live for the few years remaining to me, not just exist.

        2. I know what you mean; I want to live for the few years remaining to me, not just exist.

  52. National Trust critics plot MORE oustings: Activists vow to drive out another THREE ‘senior figures’ including director general after chairman quit amid revolt over charity’s ‘woke agenda’
    Chairman Tim Parker left 24 hours after members launched a bid to depose him
    The charity faces mounting criticism for the ‘woke’ direction it has been taking
    Now, Restore Trust say director-general Hilary McGrady ‘really needs to go’ next
    The campaign group hope to bring back the heritage body’s apolitical ethos
    Say National Trust has 3 senior management figures with ‘highly woke agenda’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9624623/National-Trust-critics-plot-oustings.html#newcomment

    1. They scent blood – that’ll serve the anti-hunting contingent at the National Distrust right.

    1. We get them almost daily in the centre of the hamlet. Imagine your damage, but tenfold. There are houses in most directions so the hunt seem unable to shoot them. We’re fenced all round, so have been lucky..

    2. Man, what a pain.
      Get yourself a shotgun, Rastus, capable of shooting slugs, and load with slugs and blast their leathery asses from an upper window.

          1. I saved one of our company of four from a charge when he panicked as his parker Hale 243 jammed, the large one was gearing up to make a charge.

          2. Saw a video where one of the nasty bastards ripped a hunting dog to bits. Ugh.

          3. We had a couple of dogs with us they were used to flush the Boar out in the open. we ere all on dirt bikes and the dogs dug their claws into a piece of carpet stuck to the petrol tanks. Unfortunately one of the dog chased a large red kangaroo into a pond and the Roo held the dog down with it front paws and the dog drowned.

    3. I spent a few weeks shooting the buggers on NSW sheep stations, like many species of the Ozzie wild life the origin of the gritters were imports from the northern off shore islands. They were after the new born lambs. They’d eat anything even the bodies of those we shot except the tusks and large bones.
      A Tikka triple 2 would suffice plenty of punch and not too much mess.

    1. Remind me why we were vaccinated? Locked in/masked up/life generally made onerous and unpleasant?
      Apart from the government panicking and lots of people making indecent amounts of money, that is.

      1. There is no logical reasoning behind any of this covid stuff. It just becomes so obvious that they are working to a different, hidden agenda of their own. We must reclaim our freedom, set ourselves free.

        1. People are going to be a lot less willing to cooperate this time round. But they have stepped up the spying.
          I’m quarantining at the moment, and I didn’t give them permission to contact me on my phone. They asked me to justify this, so I told them, I usually don’t pick my phone up, just check it occasionally.
          I looked today and an 0300 number has called me every day this week, despite me expressly having said that I don’t want to be contacted on this phone.
          If they want to know whether I’m at home, they can send someone round to check!

          1. The phone calls I had were 0300 numbers, between husband and I we had 16 communications. All this effort is not for the benefit of the public. It is all very sinister.

      2. Tell me, nursey, is there a difference between vaccination and immunisation?

    2. But… but… everybody is vaccinated with the magic goop. Surely it’s no more problem than a few minor sniffles?

      1. They will no doubt be given some suitable bit of paper.
        I would laugh if they were required to get it as a download and that download was later used to catch and evict them.

        And then I unwoke up.

    3. What problem is this solving? There are so many immigrants who need something useful to do, and bus driving is one of them. So, let’s get rid of the jobs that require not much education… that’ll go well.

  60. The Evening Standard’s deputy political editor tells us two of Britain’s leading coronavirus experts, Professor Neil
    Ferguson and Professor John Edmunds, backed up Mr Cummings’s central
    charge against the Government, that delays over imposing lockdowns were
    partly to blame for the high death toll.

    Oh dear, all of a sudden I’m starting to err towards Boris and the Hanker. Who’da thunk that possible?

    Cognitive dissonance hurts my poor brane.

    1. I have a theory that they wheel Ferguson out when they want to give bad news, because they know we already hate him.

    2. That’s what your reaction is meant to be! The whole thing was to frame the only alternatives as lockdown or lockdown sooner and harder.

      That said, have a snifter to relieve the pressure on your brane!

      1. I suspect so.

        The bastards in charge painted themselves into the corner very quickly and everything since has been an attempt to show the public that they were correct.

        I should have put a at the end of my OP.

    3. I wouldn’t beliefe ferguson if he said he was lying. He’s incompetent, and certainly no expert.

  62. Petition to Leave the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol & revoke the Immigration Act

    The Government responded:

    The Government is committed to the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol and has no plans to repeal the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999. We are planning widespread reform of the asylum system.

    The UK has a long and proud history of providing protection to those that need it.† The 1951 UN Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol are the cornerstone of this proud history, and the Government is committed to upholding our international obligations.

    The Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 is a significant piece of legislation that governs large parts of the immigration system and there are no plans to remove it from UK law. That is not to say it cannot be amended and reformed should that be necessary.

    We recognise the challenge of illegal migration and are committed to comprehensive reform of our asylum system. The Government’s proposed changes were outlined in the recent New Plan for Immigration policy statement, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/new-plan-for-immigration

    The consultation period has now closed, and the Government will reflect on the findings before bringing forward legislation to deliver on its commitments.

    Home Office

    † And many who don’t.

    2. They do tell you to sit for 15 minutes if you’ve had the Pfizer one; and avoid driving if you feel lightheaded.

      1. I thought that was in case of anaphylactic shock?
        I just heard that someone I know in their fifties, no blood pressure problems, who has never fainted before, almost fainted today, a few weeks after having shot 1. Couldn’t help wondering, but after all, not everything is due to the magic vaxx.

  64. Just looking in briefly. Set off at 1.15 – grey and dreary – when we reached Walsingham 15 minutes later – the sun was out and it was WARM.. Nearly two hour guided tour of the Abbey by an expert. Fascinating. Then to Blakeney for a POSH TEA. Too much really – the MR asked for a doggy bag. Walk along the sea – then back to two warm cats – the sun is shining and I am about to open a bottle of fizz. To be followed by a LIGHT supper of home grown asparagus.

    So thank you all again for your good wishes. We realised that it was the first time we have eaten out since 5 March 2020 – and that was in Spain!

    A demain

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7735d6a3511a0f445bf8fbca815038b38871246363089445d9169f606f54aeec.jpg

      1. I don’t just want to see Bill – I want to see a photo of Carolyn too!

        1. Are you suggesting that the truth is that the men here all hope to live to be as old as he looks, and that our wives make us look like sugar daddies?

          OK I know that already applies to you

    5. A charming photo, Bill! Tea looks amazing and so glad you enjoyed Walsingham! Congratulations again to you both.

    7. You’ve gone far too easy on the cucumber sandwiches; congratulations to you both.

      You’ll look far more relaxed with a glass of bubbly in hand !

    8. The warmer weather was specially timed for your anniversary, Bill. So glad you’ve had a nice day!

    9. Good thing my great-Aunt Hilda wasn’t there. She’d have put all the spare cakes and sandwiches, wrapped in a napkin, in her handbag and taken them home…!
      Glad you had a grand day out, Bill. Enjoy the bubbly!

    10. It looks delightful, congratulations to you both – and may you have many more happy years together.
      (I missed the nttl party this morning.)

    11. Delighted you both had a good day, Bill, I raise my port glass to you both with wishes for many happy anniversaries to come.

      Cheers, Prosit, A votre sante.

    12. Bill so glad you & the memsahib had a good time, you shall have to write a little book ” Bills great adventure in the wilds of Walshingham & Blakeny and how I managed to eat more food in one day than the Biafran army ate in a year “

    2. The CIAC advert said: ‘A vaccine bus is available in London Chinatown to offer free vaccine jab to the Community without appointment. Date: 27 May 2021 (Thursday) Time: 12 – 5pm. You DO NOT need to have: NHS number, any proof of address, personal identification. Undocumented migrants also welcomed. Stay safe! Get vaccinated!’

      Vaccine buses have popped up around the UK with volunteer groups enlisted to help run them in areas where take-up has been low such as Luton and Bolton, but the demand in Chinatown is by far the highest seen so far.

      2. Rather beggars the mind. Where will we stop providing for the world’s dross?

        How do we know these people do not have pre-exiting conditions that could affect their having the vaccine? Why do we not demand they speak English and provide documentation?

  66. My car is now in the hands of the motor mechanic , the spare part arrived from France .
    My old car is a Peugeot 307 Sw and is 12 years old , a solid run a round , space in the tailgate for a large dog box for the spaniels , diesel, and does over 58 miles per gallon, no motorway, ‘cos we don’t have motor ways here, just manages so well on narrow lanes .

    What sort of car is there , a bit newer , that would satisfy my motoring requirements? Must have space in the rear for a dog box re height etc.

    1. The Daily Mail featured a nice custom Rolls Royce today, I am sure that they could build a dog friendly version for you!

    2. A Mitsubishi Hybrid crossover SUV?
      Worth looking into if you are prepared to buy Japanese

      2. We had one for 15 months. Hated it! Great drive but lousy build quality. It never did the distance it was billed to do on a charge. Lane recognition system recognised old lane markings and the cruise control saw things that weren’t there! Horrible car and we went back to Land Rovers!

        1. I agree re LR’s. We love ours, now 160K and nearer 20 than her 12.

          I thought T_B’s budget didn’t stretch that far and the type of driving wasn’t conducive to cruise control..
          From her description of her driving, range wasn’t a particular issue

          1. Just need a reliable car ,12 miles to the supermarket / Town/ Weymouth or Dorchester or Poole .

            Trips to the tip 6 miles away , steady and solidi in 50mph/ 40mph countryside , with quick bursts when on a bypass!!!

            Capable of being stuck in slow traffic, tractors etc, tourist caravans , blah blah . I am always shocked when folk buy beautiful new cars , like sexy Mercs etc , the countryside has been a real old muddy slurry ridden mess recently .

          2. Then you might do worse than whatever has replaced the Vauxhall Carlton Estate/Opel Rekord, probably a Skoda of some sort.

        2. Firstborn hates working on Mitsubishi. Lousy car to maintain, very difficult and awkward.

        3. Short wheelbase Landy hardtop. Slow n steady.
          Edit: As seen in Vera, ont’ telly.

        4. Outlander? A PHEV would work for me, notwithstanding the small detail of where to charge it. But I have to agree that Landys have character.

          I had a 1999 TD5 Disco 2 for a couple of years. It was a silly bid on eBay, and I won the bloody thing. It allegedly needed a new engine, so I bought one of those, also from eBay. I discovered that the engine was actually fine, but suffering from a well-known issue, where the engine wiring loom carries oil by capillary action into the ECU, and buggers it up (to use the technical term). Eventually, I fitted the new engine, and sold the old one for slightly more than I paid for the new one (having fully disclosed its issues). Ran the car for a couple of years (including two very snowy winters, when I discovered I had lots of new friends, and rarely put the tow rope away). The car affirmed the saying that Land Rovers don’t leak – they merely mark their territory. And I blew the turbo, trying to join the A3 on a very short acceleration lane, when the tw@ in the nearside lane wouldn’t move over. Fortunately, I blew the exhaust side, which resulted in lots of white smoke. Blow the engine side, and you need to withdraw sharpish, since you can’t stop the engine, which will eventually self-destruct.

          Finally, it had to go, because the air suspension gave out. I still got more from webuyanycar.com than I paid for it, though…

      3. If Swansea ever get around to renewing my licence, an Outlander PHEV is relatively affordable on Motability. But I’m 40m from my parking bay, which is a bloody long extension lead…

        Maggie – if you’re looking for an SUV, you could do worse than a Seat Ateca. I shortlisted it for myself, DVLA notwithstanding, and encouraged friend Dianne to have one. Hers is the Xcellence Lux, which has all the bells and whistles, and, two years later, it’s still bloody impressive. I’ve been in the Tiguan, Karoq and the Q3, but for my money, I’d go for the Seat every time. But I’d recommend the diesel rather than her 1.5 petrol, which is a bit thirsty…

        1. All worth a look.
          Given her typical distances I suspect that a hybrid of some sort might be a better bet if looking longer term..

          1. I assume we’re talking used cars. The Outlander PHEV has been around for a few years, and – given that Mags has off-street parking – would rarely need petrol, given her usage. VAG are beginning to introduce PHEVs, and Seat do the Leon and the Tarraco. But only very recently.

        2. mng Geoff. re DVLC, I put my appln in beginning of May, new licence arrived 10 days later. Sent then by DHL last Friday, picked it yesterday afternoon here in Nbo. So may be worth following up with them as am told they are processing and turning out licences a lot faster post Easter

          1. Interesting, AWK. My problem is that the Drivers Medical Unit had a huge backlog, even before Covid. My (relatively- since I’m a diabetic on insulin) short term licence expired a few years ago, around the time I was advised that my eyesight was ‘borderline’ for driving. Then I had the bilateral below-knee amputation.

            Before I scrapped the automatic C-class Merc, I confess, I drove it illegally for a while, and I’m confident that I don’t need hand controls or the like.

            But I’ve moved, changed consultants and GP, so I think a new application is in order.

            Meanwhile, I’m now two minutes’ walk from Wanborough Station, 30 seconds from the occasional bus, and Uber will pick up here. Except on Sunday mornings, when I’m trying to get to Church. If the driver is called Mohammed, or a variant of the same, I guarantee he’ll reject my ride. Eventually, then it’s back to the drawing board.

          2. mng Geoff thanks for getting back. Like any other Government entity / arm, as you know, they’re all over the place to begin with, then used C-19 as their “get out of work Free” excuse.

            That said, given you’ve moved and changed consultants / GP, it will be worth getting the application and any supporting docs required in [ideally before 21 June for obvious reasons so it’s logged in the system], more so given your change of address. And it seems you’re well enough re travel connections aside the Uber challenge on Sundays depending on who turns up

            Once mine had arrived at Mum’s address, she’d also moved [ I use merely as official postal address for voting, DL etc], it was sent DHL Express to Nairobi and delivered within 4 days. The important rider for me besides date extension was having change of address.

            Luckily here, unless on the coast or NE Kenya, there’s not too many Mohammed drivers within, plenty of Wawerus’ and Cheges’.

            Interesting to hear how you get on with DVLC

      1. How strange.

        That was exactly the car that I first thought of when I read her post

        1. That is almost exactly my first Car. Advertised for sale at £75 the owner said I could have it for £25! It had a couple of foibles it wouldn’t stay in second gear when cornering and the rear offside passenger had a splendid view of the road through the floor pan. I improvised with a bit of 4″x2″ between the transmission tunnel and the door cill to stop the driver’s seat and therefore my arse scorching on the road! Then came the MOT….

          3. In addition until I replaced all 4 exhaust valves at 25pence a pop it did 120 miles to the gallon (of oil)…..

          4. I fitted a twin carb conversion (thanks to Kays catalogue) to Mum’s 1100. I also eventually discovered that it had the wrong final drive, which meant that it was doing around 10% more than the indicated speed. These days, it’s t’other way round…

          5. I had a friend who drove a wreck and the puddle experience wasn’t pleasant.

          6. Mother-in-law had the Daf 33 before we took it on. Her high heels punched a small hole in the floor (think Reggie Perrin & M-i-L), and on the drive to Cardiff one rainy evening, the water level steadily rose in the car… the next day, we found a small round pebble was acting as a non-retun valve in the hole… water came in but couldn’t run out! Ended up with about 3″ of the stuff swooshing around the floor as we turned, braked and accelerated.

          7. Driving up the M6 in torrential rain, the water overtopped the door sills of my Mum’s 1100. I briefly had an Alfasud with similar issues…

          8. We have a water problem on the passenger side; the garage can’t see why, I suspect an insect has covered a drainage hole. The car is left outside all year round.

          9. Maybe the plastic liner inside the door has become detached… all kinds of crud block drain holes, especially from sunroofs. Or the drain hose perishes.

          11. I was passenger in a Mini that had a “drain hole” in the passenger well. We came down the hill and ploughed into the ford at the bottom. The car stalled and the interior started filling with water – not just through the hole, but under the doors! The most worrying thing was when the weight of the water started to shift the car. Fortunately, it started again and I lived to tell the tale.

          2. One of my student friends had that happen. I was waiting for a lift, saw the car as it hove into view then the next thing, the front wheel was no longer attached. I think I had a lucky escape.

          3. It was the top pin, IIRC, that failed due to lack of lubrication.
            Gee… when I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, how do I remember that?

          4. I remember what I had for breakfast, but that may be because every morning I have Mornflake Jumbo Scottish Oats.

            Setting off for a holiday with rellies in Southampton back in the 60’s, with Mum driving the 1100, we rounded a bend, only to see the Moggy ahead pirouetting around its front axle. My old Scoutmaster once observed, to his surprise, a stray wheel overtaking him on a downward incline. Until his car collapsed.

            And Cumberland News archives prolly still have a shot of the G Bowman & Co. Moggy van which ejected a front wheel outside Carlisle Citadel Station, amidst the crowds, just as Princess Anne was arriving…

      1. Well Del, I would suggest the bigger brother.
        In the time of Jihad, a Scimitar is the answer.

    5. You must go for the top of the range, Tesla, Mags so that you can get fried and fry the doggies, when it catches fire and takes three months and a complete reservoir to put it out. That is so Carrion green.

    1. So, got trouble with the bouncer? Call him hurty names, and you’ll get by OK.

    2. How tall is she? Because unless she’s about 6 foot, he isn’t a particularly big lad.

      Nobody should have to put up with the abuse she gave, a good slap is what she deserved.

      But it also appears he’s a big girl’s blouse.

    3. “If I’m being physically attacked, I’m allowed to, obviously, defend myself, but against a verbal attack, you’re literally not allowed to do anything.”

      Just draw upon the vast amount of knowledge handed down to you in your English Classes and effectively tell the bint to foxtrot oscar.

      Oh, sorry, I forgot you wos away that day innit, bro’?

      1. He is.

        He can yawn provocatively, say “yeah yeah I’ve heard it all, but never from anyone as ugly as you.”

        Then wait for the physical attack

  70. An insight into a parallel universe – with Disqus comments!
    https://punchng.com/
    I couldn’t resist commenting to someone who posted “We will drive the Fulani (nomadic herdsmen) out of the south” with “But the cows will be very sad!”

  71. It’s time for Oliver Dowden to face the music and let amateur choirs sing again

    Does the Culture Secretary seriously think it’s safer to have thousands of people singing in a football stadium than a dozen in a church?

    ALLISON PEARSON

    Himself and I went out for dinner on Friday. He had the sole, I had the steak. It felt wonderfully odd and oddly wonderful. We haven’t eaten anywhere except our kitchen table for six months. I’m surprised I didn’t ask the waitress: “What’s for dinner, Mum?”

    Truth is, it took a few minutes to get our bearings in this brave new world which has other people in it. The two couples next to us had no such hesitation. A solitary, untouched salad sat primly in the middle of their table, which was otherwise filled with the detritus of every kind of alcohol. Two empty bottles of rose, one of red, several beers and a long glockenspiel of cocktail glasses. They were just cracking into the Irish coffees when our starters arrived.

    The only dampener on what were, in every sense, high spirits was the bizarre regulation that restaurant staff must wear masks while diners don’t. Except if we go to the loo, when, for reasons known only to the joyless brainiacs of Sage, the virus wakes up and starts percolating through the shared air we have all been breathing for two hours. Is there any scientific basis for this? None at all.

    Which is why President Biden has lifted the mask mandate in the US. The states that didn’t have masks – Florida, Texas, South Dakota, all with vanishingly low Covid cases – were starting to make the states that did look absurd.

    Maybe our Government’s scientific advisers don’t mind that their guidance – vaccinated twice, but you still have to self-isolate – appears madder by the day. Well, they should. Respectful people who have played by the rules throughout care very deeply when their goodwill is abused.

    Take the choral singers who were thrilled that they would be able to rehearse in person again. But suddenly came new guidance from Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary. Amateur choirs could not rehearse together after all. Instead, only six people could sing in the same space together.

    “Where did they get the number ‘six’ from?” demanded Caroline, one of scores of devastated, fuming readers who wrote to me. “Six is not a choir – it’s a very small vocal ensemble. Does no one in the Department of Culture sing in a choir? Why may football supporters gather in their thousands on the terraces and sing their hearts out, but my choir of 22 singers may not rehearse, socially distanced, in a church that can seat 450? Why is it now permissible for amateur brass bands (such a popular activity in the current Covid hotspots in the North) to spread their aerosols, while my choir in Tunbridge Wells (6.7 cases per 100,000 over the last seven days, and falling) must wait at least another five weeks?”

    Answering questions in the Commons, the Culture Secretary said that the decision was in response to “very clear public health advice”. Where is this mysterious advice of which Mr Dowden speaks? And what proof does he have that rehearsals of Bach in Tunbridge Wells and York pose more risk than beery massed chants at Aston Villa?

    “This guidance has no basis either in law or common sense,” objects Alison, another Telegraph reader, whose Winchester choir, like so many others, went to great lengths to find a large space in order to comply with the Government-approved Covid risk assessment. Why, she asks, should choirs, which have been prevented from rehearsing since March last year, be discriminated against?

    I couldn’t agree more. With our national mental health at rock bottom, how terribly wrong it is to extend the ban on the companionship and catharsis which a choir gives so many people.

    Oliver Dowden always strikes me as a kind and sensible man. Why is he defending something so patently cruel and stupid? Come on Culture Secretary, do your bit to restore harmony and lift the restrictions on amateur choirs today. Let the people sing!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/05/26/time-oliver-dowden-face-music-let-amateur-choirs-sing/

    Here’s another example of the madness. On Tuesday night, in the National League [sic], the fifth level of English professional football, King’s Lynn played Solihull Borough. The stadium has a capacity of more than 8,000 but attendances are limited to 20% under current restrictions. Just 613 were there. About 15 of these gathered together to make a bit of noise, standing on a covered terrace which runs the full length of the pitch and which has a capacity of about 2,000.

    You know what’s coming…

    King’s Lynn Town Football Club has been forced to cut spectator capacity after apparent breaches of coronavirus guidelines by fans last night. Supporters returned to The Walks Stadium for the first time in more than five months on Tuesday to see the Linnets’ 1-1 draw with Solihull Moors. But swift action has been taken after what officials say is a small minority of spectators failed to adhere to social distancing rules last night.

    Despite several reminders over the tannoy during the game, supporters in the terracing opposite the main stand refused to obey the Covid rules. As a result, following a Safety Advisory Group (SAG) meeting today, the covered terrace has had a 50 per cent capacity reduction placed on it. The club has also confirmed that CCTV footage is being reviewed and some fans may find themselves refused entry to the ground for Lynn’s final home game of the campaign against Aldershot Town on Saturday.

    Health and safety officer Jamie Farr said: “The club cannot stipulate enough the importance for all supporters of the club to follow the guidelines put in place to keep us all safe. Fans failing to adhere to the rules has a detrimental effect of the club’s potential income due to the ignorance of few individuals. Obviously long-term, if the Covid capacities remain in force at the start of the new season, this will have an even bigger effect on the club’s potential match day revenue due to the ignorance of a few people not obeying the rules.”

    https://www.lynnnews.co.uk/news/kings-lynn-town-has-stadium-capacity-cut-after-social-dist-9200909/

    My sympathies are with the club and any other organisations forced to operate under these absurd rules.

    1. I have refused to join our choir’s rehearsals as everyone is required to sing wearing a mask (despite all the scientific evidence that face masks are useless at stopping the transmission of a virus). How I loathe the idiots ‘in charge’ of this farce!

      1. Don’t get me started. Small, socially distanced choirs have been permitted by the Gummint since last summer, Not according to the C of E, though. I’ve lost two choir members through death – neither of which were Covid-related. One had been in the choir for more than 80 years. We’re supposed to be doing her memorial service on 26 June, but there’s no suggestion that singing is about to be ‘allowed’. I know these are guidelines, rather than legislation, but breaking them is literally more than my job is worth. And that of the Rector.

      1. A Director of Music writes: They’re not.

        Although I attended Choral Evensong at Exeter Cathedral this time last week, and they fielded a full (if socially distanced) choir. It’s the first time I’ve heard live music in fourteen months.

        1. We had an ‘organised’ (just 5 acts) open mic at my local on the 17th. Not back to normal, but lovely all the same.

          1. Apparently, singing in pubs is fine. Not so in Church. I have (or had) two small choirs. Two members shuffled off during lockdown – neither was Covid related. One has left the area. One is unlikely to return, since the Rector called her a liar. And one has sworn never to return, since she was rapped on the shoulder by a churchwarden on Christmas Morning and told to “stop humming”…

            They still pay me. And I pretend to be Director of Music. But hymns are bought / downloaded from Jeff Bezos at 99p a shot. I’m basically a disc jockey now. And there’s no suggestion that things will change on 21 June. Or ever.

          2. Not as long as Welby is still in place. After he’s finished, I’ll be surprised if we still have a church of England.

          3. Don’t worry bb2 by the time those ‘in charge’ are finished there won’t be a recognisable England….

          6. Williams was a holy fool, the Jeremy Corbyn of the priesthood, and the Church can survive that. What it can’t survive, is a Tony Blair intent on destruction.

          7. Most of the rot is due to the power wielded by his senior appointments secretary, Caroline Boddington. I knew her when she was a chorister at All Saints Fulham.

          9. Our Rector is in a minority of one in the Deanery. All the others think the future is Zoom. I don’t expect my five year contract to reach the end date, but I’ll hang on for as long as possible. At least until State Pension age. As for Welby…

          10. Zoom is awful. I have seen evidence of this idea in our parish too. We got a questionnaire last year that was heavily slanted towards getting answers that “proved” the future is Zoom.
            I don’t attend the online services because they do nothing for me. I tried them at the start, but they are meaningless.
            They are not “wherever two people are gathered in my name” at all.
            Tell your Rector that he or she is right!
            I think the push towards Zoom is so that they will have an excuse to close churches, saying they are no longer used.
            The Church is sitting on too much capital, and greedy eyes are on it.

          11. Thanks, BB2. I think you’re exactly right. Since moving, I’ve used a poor upload speed as an excuse to avoid Zoom. But the truth is it is a poor excuse for worship, and I’m having none of it.

          12. How can we make this known? I have the feeling that if I just raise it locally, I’ll be labelled a trouble-maker (I probably already am!), and someone who doesn’t care about people who cannot leave the house.
            Has Conservative Woman covered this topic from the ordinary church-goer’s point of view?
            I think we’d have to get together – via Zoom of course! – to discuss it with like-minded people, and convert a strong feeling into a logical argument.
            I could have a stab at writing an article if nobody else wanted to. Would your Rector be interested, do you think?

          14. I think so too. That and re-defining marriage were Cameron’s main contributions to the Blair destruction of Britain project.

          15. Oh, shit. Get thee to a pub, with the choir. The guy who runs the open mic, a great musician, also runs a gospel type event at a local farm come church, and I don’t know what they’re doing there.

          19. The organ tuner came to Puttenham and Seale on Monday. He used to play at five churches, now reduced to one. He reckons that the majority of organists he meets have had enough, and have/are on the brink of throwing in the towel.

          20. There was a report in my local rag about uncertainty over the 21st June release date.

          21. What a miserable state of affairs. I am so sorry you’re having to go through this.

            I’ll give it some extra welly for you when marching and singing tomorrow!

          22. Thanks, Katy. I considered joining you on Saturday, but church printing stuff got in the way. That, and the absence of legs below the knee. But I guarantee, if Boris delays the 21 June removal of restrictions, I’ll be there. Mob handed…

          23. Mob- handed it will need to be (I think they may give us the illusion of freedom over the summer, mind), but don’t let the lack of leg length stop you if it comes to it – actual marching isn’t necessary, you could just stand and blow through a repurposed organ pipe or something!

            Actually, the poster that moved me most on Saturday was that held by a very elderly man in a wheelchair – “You have stolen my present”.

          24. Apparently, singing in pubs is fine. Not so in Church. I have (or had) two small choirs. Two members shuffled off during lockdown – neither was Covid related. One has left the area. One is unlikely to return, since the Rector called her a liar. And one has sworn never to return, since she was rapped on the shoulder by a churchwarden on Christmas Morning and told to “stop humming”…

            They still pay me. And I pretend to be Director of Music. But hymns are bought / downloaded from Jeff Bezos at 99p a shot. I’m basically a disc jockey now. And there’s no suggestion that things will change on 21 June. Or ever.

    3. Everybody should IGNORE all these stupid rules. There is no basis in science for the ridiculous petty restrictions placed on us.

  72. Irish Joke

    Murphy showed up at Mass one Sunday and the priest almost fell down when he saw him. He’d never been to church in his life:

    After Mass, the priest caught up with him and said. “Murphy, I am so glad ya decided to come to Mass. What made ya come?”

    Murphy said. “I got to be honest with you Father. A while back, I misplaced me hat and I really, really love that hat.

    I know that McGlynn had a hat just like mine and I knew he came to church every Sunday.

    I also knew that he had to take off his hat during Mass and figured he would leave it in the back of church.

    So, I was going to leave after Communion and steal McGlynn’s hat.”

    The priest said. “Well, Murphy, I notice that ya didn’t steal McGlynn’s hat. What changed your mind?”

    Murphy replied. “Well, after I heard your sermon on the 10 Commandments, I decided that I didn’t need to steal McGlynn’s hat after all.”

    With a tear in his eye the priest gave Murphy a big smile and said.

    “After I talked about ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’ ya decided you would rather do without your hat than burn in Hell?”

    Murphy slowly shook his head. “No, Father, after ya talked about ‘Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery’ I remembered where I left me hat.”

    With thanks to Diaspora on NTJP https://ntjp.news/open-forum/f/shavua-tov-the-open-forum-76

  73. We are witnessing great evil. Boris Johnson is looking wrecked. Hancock is unmasked. Cummings is evil and has been involved in a number of heinous acts over the years. These people are useful idiots for the real powers, globalist masters such as Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg and other Silicon Valley Satanists.

    The politicians are all acting on orders from the global elites and implementing plans drawn up from at least 2003 and finally implemented over the past 18 months. This is about stealing lives and livelihoods under the pretext that mass vaccination and destructive lockdowns with masking will serve to save us whereas the precise opposite is the case.

    I remain optimistic that the Baseman himself will fall along with everyone else who have bought into this massive and complex crime syndicate. Their billions should be seized and a fund established to repair the immense societal damage they have caused. Things should be very interesting in the months to come as more people finally wake up.

    1. 333460+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      referendum 48% wanted to turn the country over to foreign rule, a good percentage of the 52% said in 2016
      “we” have won no need of UKIP now
      LEAVE IT TO THE TORIES then promptly returned to, once again giving support to the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition and unbelievable began to squawk loudly when engulfed in an ongoing sh!te shower as a reward.

      Spare a thought for the innocents that have been damaged, especially over these last three decades with a
      cavalier disregard for the consequence of their vote on others as long as their “party” wins.

      1. The greatest scandal is that it is now five years since the referendum and we still haven’t go anything like a proper Brexit.

        I tried to remain optimistic that Johnson would deliver an acceptable proper Brexit but I finally lost all faith in him and the Conservative Party when he refused to tell us what was in his WA and dodged being interviewed by Andrew Neil having said that he would be interviewed by him. When, probably as a result of Gove’s and Symonds’s last minute interventions, he capitulated on the Northern Ireland Protocol and our fishing waters I fully understood how great a charlatan the odious wretch is.

        I lost faith in Nigel Farage when he withdrew his candidates from seats held by Tory MPs. My lack of faith in him was redoubled when he declared that Boris Johnson’s surrender “deal” was acceptable even though it left fishing waters, N. Ireland and financial services in a total mess and not even remotely resolved.

        I have mentioned that Blair robbed me of my vote. This worries me rather less now as there is nobody I would vote for.

        1. 333460+ up ticks,
          Evening R,
          I would like to see some sort of admittance to being wrong in regards to the castigation and uncalled for treacherous slighting suffered by the real UKIP member activist, who worked bloody hard to bring about the referendum only to see it tragically savaged by those doing the castigating.

          Hard to judge which was the worse the lab/lib/con political hierarchy or their core members.

    2. Good morning corri

      Our gardener suggested killing the 100 richest billionaires. Could be a good start.

  74. 333460+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    PRITI USELESS: ILLEGAL CHANNEL CROSSINGS DOUBLE
    May one ask, these mass uncontrolled immigration governance overseers have NO intentions of rectifying
    this odious issue, the consequences of which has resulted in murder, mass paedophilia rape & abuse ect &
    many of the indigenous peoples living in fear.

    My real question is why do the peoples ask for more of the same knowing / seeing daily the results of their continuing allegiance to parties that exist only in name & certainly NOT in integrity.

  75. It’s mad that ‘herd immunity’ was ever a taboo phrase

    The denial of a basic scientific concept by so many prominent authorities is stunning – and alarming

    MARTIN KULLDORFF, JAY BHATTACHARYA

    Throughout history, respiratory pandemics have ended with herd immunity. Long before COVID, public health agencies made detailed plans to deal with pandemics. All eschewed quarantine and lockdowns. Instead, the goal was to minimise mortality until herd immunity was reached through natural infection, vaccines, or both.

    Herd immunity is fundamental in epidemiological science. COVID spreads in populations when infectious individuals come in contact with individuals who are not already immune. Herd immunity reflects the obvious concept that an uninfected individual is less likely to catch the disease when a larger part of the population is immune. While COVID cannot be eradicated, herd immunity assures that in the long run, it will stay at low levels with few hospitalisations and deaths.

    Just like gravity, herd immunity is a scientific fact. To the shock of many infectious disease epidemiologists, politicians, some media, and scientists turned it into a dirty word. Some talked about a ‘herd immunity strategy,’ but every strategy leads to herd immunity, so that is as nonsensical as pilots using a ‘gravity strategy’ to land a plane. The plane will reach the ground no matter what; the key is to land safely.

    Dr. Anthony Fauci and others claimed that 70%, 85%, or some other number is needed to reach herd immunity, showing a profound misunderstanding of the concept. There is no such simple number. It depends on who gets infected, with young socially active individuals contributing more to herd immunity than a recluse. It varies by geography and time; COVID is seasonal – lower in the summer than winter. In many places during the summer 2020, immunity helped keep case counts low. At the same time, another wave was inevitable as the herd immunity threshold climbed in the fall.

    While anyone can get infected, there is a thousand-fold difference in COVID mortality risk between the old and the young. In an attempt to open a conversation about minimising deaths, we co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration that urged for much better protection of the old while letting younger low-risk people live more normal lives to avoid the devastating collateral public health damage from lockdowns. Unfortunately, herd immunity became a propaganda tool to push for endless lockdowns:-

    • In the Commons, health secretary Matt Hancock tragically claimed that focused protection of the old was impossible and that “herd immunity cannot be reached”.
    • In The Lancet, a group of scientists argued against a ‘so-called herd immunity approach’, falsely asserting that ‘there is no evidence for lasting protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following natural infection.’ This is contrary to the scientific evidence, as there is evidence of long-lasting immunity for recovered COVID patients.
    • The World Health Organisation altered its long-standing definition of herd immunity to deny the contribution of natural immunity.
    • Jeremy Corbyn described a “herd immunity strategy” as a form of “eugenics,” displaying a profound lack of understanding of both concepts.
    • Boris Johnson’s former advisor, Dominic Cummings, denounced the UKs delay in initiating lockdowns as motivated by “herd immunity.”

    This denial of a basic scientific concept by so many prominent authorities is stunning. Rather than engage in a good-faith debate on how to protect the elderly better while minimising collateral public health damage from lockdowns, it was easier to demagogue the issue, turning a basic scientific concept – herd immunity – into a propaganda weapon to demonise lockdown opponents within the scientific community.

    The irony in this sad affair is that the lockdowns failed to protect the high-risk older people. The evidence is overwhelming. In the US, for instance, compare locked-down California with Florida, which lifted lockdown in September of last year, in part based on our advice. For example, Disneyworld in Florida has been open since last summer, while Disneyland in California is still closed. The result? Age-adjusted per capita COVID mortality is almost 50% higher in California than in Florida. The lockdowns are a slow-motion “let it rip” strategy

    We now have considerable COVID immunity in the US and the UK, primarily due to natural infections with some help from vaccines. We know this since COVID deaths peaked three months earlier in 2021 than in 2020, while most people were still unvaccinated. As we enter summer with a lower herd immunity threshold, there are no public health reasons to keep the current lockdowns in place. Even the staunchest lockdown supporters should leave the summer months alone. If they understood herd immunity, they would.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/27/mad-herd-immunity-ever-taboo-phrase/

    1. Thank goodness this kind of thing is getting into the mainstream media at last, after so many months of denial. Is it a genuine push back, or are vaccine passports now set in stone, so it’s a case of let the plebs say what they want, they have no power?

  77. My 2nd sourdough loaf of the day is in the oven. By the time it comes out it will be 15 hours from the time I fed the yeast beast this morning. I must be addicted.

    1. Which reminds me…

      The sourdough recipe for my Panasonic beadmaker involves a culture, good for two loaves. I tend to make two in rapid succession, slice and freeze them. And I used the last two slices this morning. Just porridge, then…

  78. Evening, all. I’ve missed out on yet another dog today, but I’ve spent the afternoon creating a 6ft high addition to my back fence in case I should ever get near enough to have a virtual home check. At least I can tick one of the boxes now.

    1. He’ll come, eventually, and now you can be certain he won’t leap out.

    2. Hmm… maybe best to have a MP to represent all expats, rather than voting in some constituency or other.

      1. Would that MP have to represent residents of both sides if two countries were at war?
        If both were British, that wouldn’t be a problem. If both were British passport holders from special protected “communities”, rather more difficult…

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