Friday 18 June: As Europe opens up, Britain continues to squander its vaccine dividend

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/17/letters-europe-opens-britain-continues-squander-vaccine-dividend/

699 thoughts on “Friday 18 June: As Europe opens up, Britain continues to squander its vaccine dividend”

  1. Lib-Dems win Chesham and Amersham by election. The Conservatives need to take note.

    1. mng Clysider, check my post earlier this am on yday’s link, full details within. Conservatives / Labour [who lost deposit] will keep quiet as will compliant MSM, except BBC re Tories

      1. Morning AWK – HS2 apparently had a big affect on this result. Our bombastic PM must now realise that he is living on borrowed time

        1. I read that in link on local post which would of course resonate with the electorate. And Lab / Greens allegedly coordinated voting. As usual woke reporters confuse UK with US, neither of those parties would influence their base vote. Like 2016 EU Referendum, it’s usual woke political arrogance which appeases MSM and ignores reality. For those that never saw my earlier link, for ease of referral https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/national/19381773.lib-dems-secure-historic-by-election-win-chesham-amersham/

        2. Surrey is waiting. I grew up in Dorking, which like Guildford is becoming Liberal Democrat territory.

          I was personally involved in the then SDP-Liberal Alliance County election campaign in 1985 when they won 17 seats from the Conservatives and took control of Hampshire County Council by one vote in Winchester. There was a schism in the Alliance when a Social Democrat stood against a Liberal in Aldershot, and it was my job to limit the damage there and not allow it to spread to Farnham (which had the same local newspaper circulation) where the Liberals were mounting a bid for the council there.

          The place where I was born in Middlesex has had a Lib Dem MP for a while now, and just across the river in Surrey, is the current Leader’s constituency.

          1. I live in Surrey. The local council elections were a triumph for the Greens, my county and borough councillors respectively getting more and more than twice the votes of all the other candidates combined. Local elections are not GEs and people may vote differently if the Greens become over-powerful, but it’s a warning to Johnson et al if they bother to face reality.

        3. No problem, if Dom is right the buffoon plans to jump ship in 2026 and go and make his fortune. As long as he scrapes a win next time round his planned timetable will be on track.
          Let someone else pick up the pieces, it worked for Treasonous May didn’t it.

        4. Some statistician produced the mathematics showing that it would be cheaper for the nation to buy a fleet of helicopters to fly all rail

          passengers between London and Birmingham rather than spend all that money on HS2.

          Anybody still got the original article?

    2. Yes indeed, what is the point of voting Conservative, just to get New Labour, we have had ten years of Conservative led government, what have they done in that time exactly?
      With all the cultural Marxism coming out of all our institutions is like living under a hard left Corbyn government.
      I know the liblabcon are all working for globalist new world order government and have been for decades, so what is the point of elections at all?

      1. 334482+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        They,the overseers would love that, a NO election, lab/lib/con name in hat jobbee, all overseeing politico’s are winners in the close dictatorship shop.
        Build ON what is established at this moment in time IMO the nearest I can get to the REAL UKIP under Gerard Batten vote is Anne Marie Waters, FOR Britain.

        Her rhetoric is what I want to see in action.
        These Isles have been under the destructive
        hammer of the lab/lib/con members / voters
        sh!te for far to long, we are witnessing what these destructive fools continued to enforce
        via the polling booth and it ain’t no way acceptable.

      2. I’ve long regarded the current Conservative Party as grassroots Tories led by a Blairite New Labor Lite Clique.
        I’ve seen little to change that opinion over recent years.

    4. 334482+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      The electorate need to take note unless another rerun of the voting pattern since the j major era is required,
      then again the lib / dems were always 100% eu assets.

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy dull start here, it’s as if someone has dimmed the lights after the recent hot weather

  3. Mng all, today’s sent in jottings from headcase ramblers or is it rambling headcases?

    SIR – Boris Johnson has thrown away Britain’s vaccine dividend.

    On July 1, those of us in the Schengen Area who are double vaccinated will have an app that allows us to move around the continent, saving the travel and tourism industries in the process.

    Meanwhile, England will remain in lockdown until at least July 19. Mr Johnson likens himself to Churchill, but he has shown a serious lack of judgment. MPs need to grow some backbone and force him to rescind his unwarranted restrictions on freedom.

    Rodney G James
    Brasschaat, Flanders, Belgium

    SIR – The letters (June 17) from Professor Scolding and Ruth Leach struck a chord with my wife and me.

    We returned from Malta on Saturday and are in quarantine. We paid around £250 for our day-two and day-eight tests, and are still awaiting the result for the first of these. We are on day six now. Day eight falls on Sunday, so our swabs will not arrive at the lab until day 10. We cannot leave quarantine until we receive the result of the second test, so we are not expecting to be free of this hassle any time soon.
    And we’ve had both jabs.

    Geoffrey White
    Wellow, Somerset

    SIR – Sue Hardy (Letters, June 17) says the vaccinated, “impatient for opening”, should wait a few weeks for her 20-somethings to be inoculated.

    The vaccinated have waited long enough, and should now be allowed – along with hard-hit businesses – to get on with life. The next excuse for extending lockdown will be that the elderly and vulnerable need their boosters. The 20-somethings could be 70-somethings like me before they are set free.

    John Castley
    Peterborough

    SIR – Delaying release from lockdown will not prevent a third wave. There is no point holding back to see what happens. Covid-19 is here to stay. It is not a “stable” virus like smallpox, which took decades and global vaccination to eradicate. It is labile, with numerous evolving variants, and will never be eradicated. This is why we get seasonal respiratory viral infection, and why those of us on the wards see a few people dying from these viruses in most normal years.

    Covid-19, being a novel human virus, has tragically killed many more people than we are used to seeing, despite the restrictions. This pattern will continue until the virus reaches an equilibrium with its human host. Eventually it will join the panoply of seasonal respiratory viruses and cause regular but only irritating breakouts.

    The best strategy is to push for national and global vaccination. This will at least attenuate illness in those exposed. Indeed, vaccination plus exposure may offer the best protection by enhancing the immune response first to the vaccine and then to a less severe illness from the wild virus.

    Dr Matthew Dryden
    Winchester, Hampshire

    Getting to Oxbridge

    SIR – By the 1960s, my old school, Holgate Grammar in Barnsley, often sent six or more pupils each year to Oxbridge (“Cambridge college takes 22 pupils from elite school”, report, June 17). I was one of four who came to Cambridge in 1968.

    You didn’t have to be encouraged to apply – if you were destined for top grades at A-level it was the done thing. By the 1970s, that conveyor belt of talent had stopped.

    Today, so far as I am aware, there are just two students from Barnsley at Cambridge. The reason for that change was the advent of comprehensive schooling – a well-intentioned idea, but a disaster for the brighter pupils.

    The point about the 11-plus was that it identified talent to be nurtured, with the best being pushed ahead.

    Richard Holroyd
    Cambridge

    ‘Greener’ roads

    SIR – On Wednesday, I took a black cab in central London for the first time in two years. The route was littered with speed humps, slowing traffic. Cycle lanes have cut road width, creating queues, and Piccadilly Circus is partially pedestrianised, sending traffic on a detour.

    Apart from increasing the cost of the journey, all this led to a rise in the fuel used. Does no one think through these environmental initiatives?

    Roger Gentry
    Weavering, Kent

    Awning patrol

    SIR – Letters about awnings (June 17) reminded me of being a young police constable in the early 1960s in Goole in the East Riding of Yorkshire.

    A morning duty was to don my helmet, making me a 6 ft 6 in constable, and walk down the main street to ensure it did not touch any bars. If it did, I politely asked the shop staff to raise the bar. I made many friends and received many cups of tea.

    Edward Marston
    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    SIR – As I get older, what I really miss is shops that offer a chair on which to rest.

    Jane Moth
    Snettisham, Norfolk

    SIR – Why do Britain’s pharmacies not follow their European counterparts by displaying the temperature and the time? It is always interesting to try to work out whether both are correct.

    Michael Noble
    Fareham, Hampshire

    Cummings’s contempt

    SIR – The latest outpouring of venom from Dominic Cummings (report, June 17) amply demonstrates his utter contempt for Parliament and select committees, as he chose not to deliver to them the evidence that they requested, but to release it to the public instead.

    What concerns me more, however, is what other documents he may have copied, bearing in mind what he clearly had access to while acting as principal adviser to the Prime Minister. I trust that someone, somewhere is looking into this.

    What this whole sordid episode shows is the staggering lack of judgment of the Prime Minister in forming a view that Mr Cummings was a suitable person to be his top adviser, and then, assuming that the published texts are genuine, being so indiscreet as to make such comments to him in electronic messages.

    Stephen Wallis
    Billericay, Essex

    GB News vs the mob

    SIR – The campaign by the group Stop Funding Hate to deprive GB News of advertising revenue (report, June 17) is the most recent example – and an instructive one, too – of the deployment of the horrid modern phenomenon of cancel culture.

    Here is a group of political activists for whom a contrary opinion must be a display of hate, and who are determined by fair means or foul to annihilate any opposition, principally by loud and incessant accusations of this or that phobia, or, as here, unspecified accusations of hatred (even while it is clearly the activists themselves who are the ones displaying hatred).

    They rely on the acquiescence of feeble-spirited people to cave in to their demands. If the advertisers rushing to withdraw support from the new channel had any backbone, they would tell the mob in no uncertain terms what they could do with their yowling.

    Charles Lewis
    London N2

    Transatlantic family

    SIR – Admiral Lord West (Letters, June 17) is right: of course there is a special relationship between the UK and the US. How could there not be?

    I once asked an American what his compatriots really thought of this country. He replied that they considered themselves the most successful of all our children. And that’s the point: we are members of the same family, sharing culture, values, language (more or less) and generally a common inheritance. We feel at home there and they here.

    Long may it continue.

    Richard Longfield
    Weston Patrick, Hampshire

    Up to the Test

    SIR – What a pleasing contrast it is to watch England’s women bat with skill, elegance and panache, and to see them scoring runs (Sport, June 17).

    They exhibited the patience required in a four-day Test, unlike their male counterparts, who were humiliated by the Kiwis last week.

    I hope the boys are watching and learning.

    David Bacon
    Rotherham, South Yorkshire

    Canine calendar

    SIR – Apart from working dogs, what do pet dogs actually do all day?

    Mike Gilbert
    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

    Bees aren’t wild about gardens left to grow

    SIR – Our garden is alive with bees (Letters, June 14), except for the bit left to grow wild. They prefer the shrubs and flowers in the borders to the buttercups, oxeye daisies and others in the meadow garden.

    Barrie Bain
    Wadhurst, East Sussex

    SIR – I am tired of “wild lawn” enthusiasts lecturing me on how to maintain an insect-friendly garden.

    While I abhor artificial turf, my neat, closely cropped lawn is surrounded by buddleia, ceanothus, lavender, sage, salvia, geraniums, poppies and alliums, as well as fruit trees and flowering cherries, all of which are bee and insect friendly. We have specially bought insect “hotels” and solitary bee homes.

    Leave us mowers alone.

    Neil Bunyan
    Flitwick, Bedfordshire

    Beware of meddling with voters’ pensions

    SIR – There are about 12 million pensioners in Britain (report, June 16), some wealthy, some comfortable and others who are struggling to get by.

    This latter group is concentrated in Red Wall constituencies. Around
    three million people belong to this group – enough to decide the outcome
    of the next general election. Meddle with their pensions at your peril.

    Cliff Peers
    Chester-le-Street, Co Durham

    SIR – Matthew Lynn (Comment, June 17) makes some fine points about the triple lock for pensions, but I think it will help the economy. We oldies are less likely to save and more inclined to spend that windfall on a cruise, or help our children and grandchildren, thus returning the money to the economy.

    John K Greenwood
    Southampton

    SIR – Including wage growth in the triple lock was intended to avoid pensioners missing out on an increase in national prosperity, not to cause a sharp jump in their pensions.

    The Government could avoid this unintended consequence, while still keeping to the spirit of its manifesto commitment, by using an average of wages over a longer period.

    Julian Gall
    Godalming, Surrey

    1. For a more realistic view on parent-child relations, Mr Longfield, please read “the Brother Karamazov” by Dostoevsky.

    2. “The reason for that change [fewer pupils going to Cambridge] was the advent of comprehensive schooling – a well-intentioned idea, but a disaster for the brighter pupils. The point about the 11-plus was that it identified talent to be nurtured, with the best being pushed ahead. ” Comprehensive schooling has been a disaster for bright, working-class children in particular. They are the ones who, in general, don’t have pushy parents.

    1. All this ridiculous mask on mask off business, does the virus only exist above 5 feet from ground level.

  5. Police have charged two more men over the shooting of Sasha Johnson. On Thursday police charged Prince Dixon, 25, and Troy Reid, 19, with conspiracy to murder. A total of four men have been charged in connection with the shooting, while four others remain on bail until June.

    Police previously charged Cameron Deriggs and Devonte Brown, both 18, with conspiracy to murder. They will appear at the Old Bailey in the coming weeks. Det Ch Insp Richard Leonard said: “The investigation team have worked tirelessly but we are still struggling with a distinct lack of witnesses”

    I think Det Ch Insp Leonard might find the clue is in the names. That will point them to the “community”. But he won’t go there. Welcome to SE London

    1. GM & happy Friday AWK, since when do coppers find clues? Prince ( preeenz ) & Devonte ( Deeeeevon-tea ) them’s be good old rustic inglish names !

      1. mng, thought those well known sarf luhndun names would resonate with you. Await the emotive waffle “they’re really lovely boys, would do anything for anyone” – like shoot a darkie as they owed someone a favour

      1. Elf and I know it well locally the usual response is “an unscheduled meeting means full on Barney Rubble leaving them in a Two and Eight”. If lucky they’d be left with their Alans. No need to bell the Bottle Stopper

        1. You are very right Mr Kamau

          Sky Business News interrupted their programme to broadcast Sir Ed Davies’ blatantly political speech

        2. You are very right Mr Kamau

          Sky Business News interrupted their programme to broadcast Sir Ed Davies’ political speech

    1. Beautiful lady.

      Since it was bought up by Google though, YouTube has started to behave badly – it crashes my browser loading up the ads and the Goggle malware.

      1. GM & happy Friday Jeremy – every video is now spoilt with pop up ads & if you press the little X to remove them, then in a minute or two you get more & more of them popping up. Its all part of Googles deliberate harassment of viewers on YouTube to get them to sign up for the paid Premium service.

          1. I sometimes use Brave for posting but had a lot of problems posting JPG & Gifs with it as it kept on telling me that they were over a certain limit ( I think 5MB )

      2. I have ad blockers on my devices (iPhone, iPad & laptop) and never have problems with pop-ups. I have to suffer the ads during YouTube videos, but I just read comments until the ads are over; for me it’s a small price to pay to get the free content. Some sites such as Guido Fawkes’ make life difficult over my using an ad blocker but, again, it’s a small price to pay.

        1. I don’t mind the ads until they freeze the system and crash the browser.

  7. The legacy of “Taking the Knee” to support a dead foreign criminal which MSM avoid, 3 England players of colour were raised by single mums [which MSM also avoid mentioning] https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4a7a4278459cf457df22f503d3b912b1a10467f2cbf9c2f80c9cd539c4964c50.jpg post registration of Buy Large Mansions as a UK political party, your England team at the next World Cup https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f7111613120cc0fa3a8eb8128212ebb5fa4d79b83cbc120ac609cd6316429996.jpg

    2. Like Ian Wright, who went on tv for an hour-long special to bemoan how he’d been ill-treated by his step-father. No mention of that he’d have been far less likely to have suffered with his father around instead of a step-father and the programme frequently showed him with his wife and 2 kids, conveniently ignoring his other 6 kids, one step/adopted, by 4 different mothers that he’d previously abandoned to risk the fate he’d suffered.

      2. Spot on. That article in the Mail made me incensed!
        I brought up my children alone, which was very much NOT my choice.
        There wasn’t a day went by when our family did not feel the loss of the missing father.
        To see those idiots celebrating single parent families because the children became footballers is beyond belief when so many children fail or end up in a life of crime.

    1. GM & happy Friday Sos. Welcome back to medieval times when the lords of the manor ruled & moved about freely whilst the serfs were tied to the land

      3. I think we should all be rather more worried about the “quarantine hotels.”
        Locking people up for a time limit dictated by the government, without trial, and at their own expense is a stroke of genius that would have any dictator kicking themselves for not thinking of it.
        That video of the place near Heathrow was actually quite disturbing.

        I can foresee a scenario where mission creep occurs, and people think it’s quite reasonable to insist upon a 2400 pound stay in a quarantine hotel if an unvaccinated person pops over to France.
        Once the death rate of this virus was established as 0,14%, and it was defined as a NOT notifiable disease by the WHO, desperate measures like quarantine hotels should not have been implemented at all. There is no justification for them.

        1. The loss of basic civil rights is exploited by those in power simply because the UK does not have an armed citizenry – evil dictators know they cannot rule if the citizenry is armed, so they enact laws to ban & seize legally held weapons -Hitler did it, Stalin did it, Mao did it , Castro did it , Maduro did it & in the UK John Major & Tony Blair between them made sure that the Elites control the people by taking away their legally held weapons. Once the public is defenseless all manner of evil rules & regulations can be used to keep the masses under control as is the case of enforced quarantine & making the tax paying suckers pay for it whilst also paying for the keep of their beloved Muslim migrants !

    2. This just goes to show that they do not believe it is beneficial which is correct. It is true that isolation prevents contagion between households, but it is also true that quarantine concentrates it within households and those countries that did and did not impose strict quarantine have not had markedly different death rates.
      – Societies have never destroyed their economies by isolating the healthy.
      – The latest variants do not make people very ill;
      – There are effective treatments and profilactics;

      – Enough of this madness.

      2. I am sick and tired of 70 and 80 year olds, who have been vaccinated, telling me that the young should continue to suffer the restrictions until double vaccinated, just in case those young might pass some new variant on to those vaccinated 70 & 80 year olds.

      1. Yes. I have heard that double-vaxed may return from Amber nations without quarantine.
        Something of a quandry for me.
        1 I do not like being hustled and this drive to jab is an almighty hustle given the treatments available; but
        2 I want to take my family and grandchildren to our house in Auvergne.

        1. I hope you get there and can get BACK again but I have doubts with Johnson’s track record. He would make a great goalkeeper for the national team, the way he keeps moving the goalpost, none of the opposition know where to aim for.

        4. Is it possible to drive there via Holland and Belgium for example? Possibly avoiding border checks which may be concentrated at airports? thr shengen thing is a great idea, because it would seem to make any cross-border checks in the EU illegal unworkable?

    4. as it clashes with what passes for UK holidays and the backlash on people, not to mention Mr Symonds woke effort of 40,000 at Wembley. Play the final in Hungary. Their first game against Portugal – 62,000 sell out, no social distancing, no taking knee crap

    6. Maybe the millions of Brits could meet the VIPs on arrival and block them for the length of the tournament?

  11. A weak Joe Biden is badly out of his depth. 18 June 2021.

    President Biden’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Geneva was hyped in advance by the Biden team as a demonstration of American leadership on the world stage. In the end, it was a display of weakness rather than strength, offering the Russian dictator a global media opportunity to defend his tyranny and destructive foreign policy.

    Biden made no mention in his press conference of the prospect of further sanctions against Moscow or of the hugely controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline. Nor did he make any reference to Russia’s use of chemical weapons on European soil, most notably the barbaric Novichok poisonings in Salisbury. His focus was on cooperation rather than confrontation.

    Agreeing to this summit was a mistake by the White House. It is hard to see what the conceivable benefit would have been for the United States. Putin is not a pragmatist like Mikhail Gorbachev, the Cold War leader who worked with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher to bring an end to the Soviet Empire. He is a cold-blooded killer, schooled in the murderous and uncompromising mindset of the KGB, and he should never have been granted a meeting with the US president while there are still Russian troops in Georgia and Ukraine.

    As can be seen, the author of this piece does not mince his words, nor his accusations confine him to the truth; though it does follow the program in that it sees Putin as personally responsible for all the differences with the West! How could it be otherwise? Russia is integrated into the World Economy, it sells its raw materials to the West, it has no ideology that it wishes to propagate. Aside from its Military Potential it is little different from any other country. Its people share the same aspirations and disappointments as their European and American counterparts. They desire nothing more than to live their lives as others do. It is this one man that is the cause of all the difficulties.

    Vlad’s offence is that he is a Patriot which is anathema to a West whose leaders are adherents of Cultural Marxism, a creed that despises both European and Christian Civilisation and seeks to blot it out, not only in the present, but from the pages of History itself!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/17/weak-joe-biden-badly-depth/

    1. I was under the impression that the Americans asked for a meeting and Russia said yes, when we can fit you in.

      Good morning.

  12. Good morning, all. And a very happy Battle of Waterloo Day.

    Gentle – and very useful – rain

    2. Looking at the picture below it would appear that Napoliloon is declaring war on Biden.

    3. Useful rain on the anniversary of Waterloo? How appropriate. Without the overnight rain and associated delay in the kick-off we might have lost before Blucher arrived.

      1. Blücher held back until the last moment. If the ‘Dwarf’ had looked like winning Blücher may have changed sides.

        ” Blücher’s Prussian way of war was to make contact with the enemy as quickly as possible, concentrate all forces, deliver the decisive blow, and end the war” (Wiki) Except at Waterloo… strange that!

      2. Blücher held back until the last moment. If the ‘Dwarf’ had looked like winning Blücher may have changed sides.

        ” Blücher’s Prussian way of war was to make contact with the enemy as quickly as possible, concentrate all forces, deliver the decisive blow, and end the war” (Wiki) Except at Waterloo… strange that!

    4. Useful rain on the anniversary of Waterloo? How appropriate. Without the overnight rain and associated delay in the kick-off we might have lost before Blucher arrived.

    2. Comparisons, as Dogberry observed are odorous, but when King Lear was confronted by his evil, nasty Theresa-May-like daughters, Goneril and Regan, he vainly hoped that one might prove to be less nasty than the other.

      Those wicked creatures yet do look well favoured
      When others are more wicked. Not being the worst
      Stands in some rank of praise.

      Boris Johnson has leant something from King Lear’s words by trying to surround himself with people who are even more incompetent and nasty than he is.

      1. When I was part of a theatre group at university, they had a helluva job to cast Cordelia; all the girlies were lining up to play Regan and Goneril.

  15. Latest Breaking News, the cancelling of Enid Blyton by English Heritage is said to be part of a Famous Five Year Plan, subtitled The Great Reset, Build Back Better.

  19. Priti Patel ‘deeply ashamed’ so many rape victims have been denied justice. 18 June 2021.

    Priti Patel and Robert Buckland have apologised to rape victims, as they admitted they were “deeply ashamed” that thousands of them have been denied justice.
    The Home Secretary, Justice Secretary and Attorney General Michael Ellis said the failings in the criminal justice system were “completely unacceptable,” as they pledged to prosecute more than 1,000 extra rape suspects by the end of the current Parliament.

    “We owe this to every victim and are extremely sorry that the system has reached this point,” they said in a 60-page review setting out measures to reverse plummeting rape prosecution rates.

    So without any hearings Patel and Buckland have decided that all these accusations are true? Were the Juries all deaf? The judges all misogynists? How exactly do they know this?

    What we see here is the Judicial System turning away from justice toward Social Prejudice. Soon to be accused, will be to be guilty. Kangaroo Courts in all but name!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/17/priti-patel-deeply-ashamed-many-rape-victims-have-denied-justice/

    1. “You wouldn’t be in the dock if you hadn’t done it”.

      This was said to me by a professor of Law in at Czech University in 1991.

    2. Soon to be accused, will be to be guilty. Kangaroo Courts in all but name!

      Except, if you eat in Ali’s Snack Bar of course

    3. And, far from being ashamed, she seems proud of the fact that illegal immigration is completely out of control.

    4. The police don’t arrest muslim rapists. The police are contemptuous of women who have been raped. Social behaviour has changed immensely, and moral standards have declined. In this context the use of mobile phones and phone apps like Tinder aka “phone me for a f*ck” have proliferated. The margins have become less clear cut.
      The sentencing of rapists is such that sentences are trivial in relation to the crime. The tariff for violent rape, which is the most provable, is life imprisonment and that sentence is very rarely handed down.

      This is not really a failure of government. They make the laws. It is up to the police, the prosecution services and the judges to implement the laws and deal with these crimes appropriately. All three have serious failings.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-54570653

      1. I caught an advert for Love Island when I was watching the racing. It struck me how tarty the women in it were acting. Standards of behaviour have fallen considerably. Lady-like they most certainly were not.

  20. Priti Patel ‘deeply ashamed’ so many rape victims have been denied justice. 18 June 2021.

    Priti Patel and Robert Buckland have apologised to rape victims, as they admitted they were “deeply ashamed” that thousands of them have been denied justice.
    The Home Secretary, Justice Secretary and Attorney General Michael Ellis said the failings in the criminal justice system were “completely unacceptable,” as they pledged to prosecute more than 1,000 extra rape suspects by the end of the current Parliament.

    “We owe this to every victim and are extremely sorry that the system has reached this point,” they said in a 60-page review setting out measures to reverse plummeting rape prosecution rates.

    So without any hearings Patel and Buckland have decided that all these accusations are true? Were the Juries all deaf? The judges all misogynists? How exactly do they know this?

    What we see here is the Judicial System turning away from justice toward Social Prejudice. Soon to be accused, will be to be guilty. Kangaroo Courts in all but name!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/17/priti-patel-deeply-ashamed-many-rape-victims-have-denied-justice/

  21. The irony of what was clearly a massive protest vote against BPAPM and his useless gang of tyrants is that the Limp Dumbs are JUST as much in favour of the endless restrictions on personal freedom as the other mobs.

    Let is start the None of The Above Party.

    2. utter woke drivel from the purported CEO. Put him on Gordon Brown News and challenge him to define “Hate” context when eager to “invest / advertise” in GB News in the first place

    3. I’m as against woke as most people here, but they’re not being as hypocritical as the others. They believe in and are clear on their woke policies – indeed, they boast about them as their USP – and people have plenty of choice to go elsewhere. Furthermore, GB news viewers are not their target market, so I wouldn’t expect them to advertise there.

        1. Really? That surely amounts to embezzlement unless the company’s purpose as per its Incorporation include “giving money to terrorists”.

      3. fair point. The flip side being CEO knew in advance given it was clear to the public before launch what GB News would do. He “signed up” Octupus knowing he would pull his own entity out, so the company’s portrayed [and his bottom line profit focus] was on advertising clickbait to those he’s already signed up to and not upsetting them. His company doesn’t have consumers, he has customers

  23. Good morning, Nottlers all! Have just Furminated our very shaggy Labrador and got a large bag of fluff from his coat! As it will not now end up in the vacuum I put it out in the garden, and already have several sparrows and a couple of bluetits removing it! I assume they are renovating their nests for a new brood!

      1. Ho Ho,Uncle Bill! It’s a beautiful sunny morning, not a cloud in the sky and warm! Nae blue tits here!

          1. Big, yellow hot thing in the sky! A rarity in these benighted parts!
            The wee Nikeliar doesn’t like outside interference, unless it gives her money!

  26. Ukraine takes down Russian-linked hackers behind £6m ransom attack after Joe Biden demanded a crackdown – in stark contrast to Putin’s lack of action. 18 June 2021.

    Ukrainian police, accompanied by Korean officers, arrested six people on Wednesday accused of belonging to a hacking group known as Cl0p.

    The group as a whole is accused of attacking hundreds of companies including in the US and Korea, and last year was paid a $6million Bitcoin ransom by one firm.

    Ukraine’s action stands in stark contrast to Putin’s response when pressed by Joe Biden over hacking at their summit yesterday, which was to deny that Russia is the main source of attacks on US computer networks.

    Correct me if I’m wrong but Russia and Ukraine are separate countries?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9696613/Ukraine-takes-Russian-linked-hackers-6m-ransom-attack.html

    2. Ukraine has a large Russian population. You may have noticed something in the papers about these peace-loving people over the last few years.

    2. I googled. Pilots may have died but BA has said that the story is bogus.

      Edit: one of the 4 actually died from complications of Covid. Natty Red’s Misusing his death with this fake news is contemptible.

      Further edit: Perversely, the pilot dying from Covid complications after being the longest-staying hospital Covid patient wouldn’t be counted as a Covid death by the government’s “28 days of positive test” definition despite clearly dying from Covid complications, albeit I’m sure that they’d have counted him.

      1. TBF, BA would have to say it’s bogus and Reuters are funded by FCDO and State Dept for propaganda purposes. If BA admitted it outright, the chaos would start

          1. if they admitted it, BA owning 55% of holding group IAG and other shareholders stocks would plumment. Largest shareholder is Qatar airways 20 or 25% stock. UK MSM in usual compliant mode, so BA would have to state it’s not true. And it’s convenient social media rhetoric to limit foreign travel, so compliant with UK Govt objectives

          2. Think. If 1 in 10,000 people were dying from the second vaccine dose we’d know about it. Why would this affect BA’s share price, as, if true, it’s the vaccine neither BA nor even the wider airline industry? As I explained earlier, one of the deaths was due to Covid, not a jab. Never believe without checking a post on Twitter, the home of daft conspiracy theories.

          3. ok, this where we differ, there is no such thing as Covid – it’s a computer simulated model projecting worst case scenarios around seasonal influenza. Anything pertaining to Covid is Psy Op / Fear but Govt diktats and compliant MSM are joined at the hip and convenient avenue to cover wider deception. The BA mantra is well timed – delayed lockdown, July 9th cyber polygon [another simulation attack on supply chains in SMEs. Collapse BA [and Boeing’s also wobbling] – Vax / Digital PPTs [linked to jabs]. Great Reset’s all about fourth industrial revolution owned by a few fake elites with full control, no Government etc.BA would as would others, be a convenient stock option. BA’s twatter account could be done by a 2 yr old like most social media and MSM. UK Govt and BBC seem to be handling consipracy theories at present

      1. Four pilots have died. BA says not due to vaxx related causes.
        If it was vaccine related, we certainly wouldn’t get reliable information. Do they normally have death rates like that?

        1. I don’t know. But out of a population of ~ 40,000 pilots in the age ranges in question it seems high.
          BA states (yes I know) that the deaths are not vaccine related.

          1. They have under 5000 pilots, all who are medically screened. But as we know, medical events can happen to the fittest. Perhaps they were up ladders painting their houses or playing with chainsaws!

          2. Thanks, I got the figure from a 12,000 pilot lay-off number headline

            “BRITISH Airways is cut a quarter of pilots with 12,000 workers jobs at risk, according to reports. “

            On further checking it appears that that was employees not pilots

  28. Liberal Democrats take Tory stronghold with historic win in Chesham and Amersham by-election. 18 June 2021.

    Boris Johnson’s Tories suffered a humiliating by-election defeat as the Liberal Democrats scored a historic win in Chesham and Amersham.

    Liberal Democrat Sarah Green is the country’s newest MP after winning the seat, which had been a Conservative stronghold since its creation in 1974.

    Payback innit? Cancel our holidays we cancel you!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/18/liberal-democrats-take-tory-stronghold-historic-win-chesham/

    1. There are few things much worse than Boris Johnson but Ed Davey is one of them.

    2. I think it might be Ogga2’s theory of people voting for the ‘least bad’ (certainly mistaken here) party.

  29. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a52fc974ac27e247fac95e0592a0131152e9c9ec39d28576fa73b7dd5fae2d38.jpg

    My wife and I were watching Who Wants To Be A Millionaire while we were in bed.
    I turned to her and said, ‘Do you want to have Sex?’
    ‘No,’ she answered.
    I then said, ‘Is that your final answer?’
    … She didn’t even look at me this time, simply saying, ‘Yes..’
    So I said, “Then I’d like to phone a friend.”

    And that’s when the fight started…
    ________________________________
    I took my wife to a restaurant.
    The waiter, for some reason, took my order first.
    “I’ll have the rump steak, rare, please.”
    He said, “Aren’t you worried about the mad cow?”
    “Nah, she can order for herself.”

    And that’s when the fight started.
    _____________________________
    My wife and I were sitting at a table at her high school reunion, and she kept staring at a drunken man swigging his drink as he sat alone at a nearby table.
    I asked her, “Do you know him?”
    “Yes”, she sighed, “He’s my old boyfriend. I understand he took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear he hasn’t been sober since.”
    “My God!” I said, “Who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?”

    And then the fight started…
    ________________________________
    When our lawn mower broke and wouldn’t run, my wife kept hinting to me that I should get it fixed. but, somehow, I always had something else to take care of first, the shed, the boat, making beer. Always something more important to me.
    Finally, she thought of a clever way to make her point.

    When I arrived home one day, I found her seated in the tall grass, busily snipping away with a tiny pair of sewing scissors. I watched silently for a short time and then went into the house. I was gone only a minute, and when I came out again I handed her a toothbrush.

    I said, “When you finish cutting the grass, you might as well sweep the driveway.”
    The doctors say I will walk again, but I will always have a limp.
    _____________________________
    My wife sat down next to me as I was flipping channels.
    She asked, “What’s on TV?” I said, “Dust.”

    And then the fight started…
    ________________________________
    Saturday morning, I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day.

    I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife’s back; now with a different anticipation, and whispered, “The weather out there is terrible.”

    My loving wife of 5 years replied, “And, can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?”

    And that’s how the fight started…
    _______________________________
    My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary.
    She said, “I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds.”
    I bought her a bathroom scale.
    And then the fight started……
    ______________________________
    After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver’s License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.
    The woman said, ‘Unbutton your shirt’.
    So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair.
    She said, ‘That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me’ and she processed my Social Security application.
    When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.
    She said, ‘You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability too.’

    And then the fight started…
    ________________________________
    My wife was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror.
    She was not happy with what she saw and said to me,
    “I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you
    to pay me a compliment.’
    I replied, “Your eyesight’s damn near perfect.”

    And then the fight started……..
    ________________________________
    I rear-ended a car this morning…the start of a REALLY bad day!
    The driver got out of the other car, and he was a DWARF!!
    He looked up at me and said ‘I am NOT Happy!’
    So I said, ‘Well, which one ARE you then?’

    That’s how the fight started

      2. When I’m feeling ornery, (apologies to English purists), I see how far I can push it.

    1. Employ a moron then don’t be surprised if the moron generates moronic plans. Classic GIGO but he’ll swear lie that is wasn’t down to him. No Sirreeeee!

    2. 334482+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Now there’s a brilliant treacherous move how to erase
      a segment of the indigenous pop, in long term via using a very gullible / thick indigenous pop, short term.
      Give flu a new MORE lethal image even rhetorically
      in many cases, tell indigenous antidote is in short supply, wait, keep DOVER ongoing.

      Build temp. hospitals,corner the market in hospital beds, he who controls the bedpans controls the NHS
      controls the peoples.

      Keep DOVER ongoing.

      Number of indigenous patients / operations dangerously neglected daily, mounting.

      Neglect in health care / much needed operations
      if neglected long enough no longer need……

      Diagnosis results if left long enough falls under the heading ” no further action need be taken because the recipient has been”.

      Keep Dover ongoing,

      A lab/lib/con coalition mantra,
      Keep Dover ongoing, reset, replace, build/build/build
      a new indigenous peoples for a new Nation.

    3. An utter waste of our time and lives.

      Isn’t that the definition of government?

      1. 334482+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        It does seem to me this governance group is working to a program triggered by its predecessor whilst fine tuning & programming the peoples in abeyance, with many of the people’s consent, NO questions asked.

  32. SIR – Apart from working dogs, what do pet dogs actually do all day?

    Mike Gilbert
    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

  35. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter. This newsletter is a brief round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    Advertising boycott of GB News condemned

    On the night of its launch, Andrew Neil vowed that GB News will “puncture the pomposity of our elites and politics, business, media and academia and expose their growing promotion of cancel culture for the threat to free speech and democracy that it is”. A review in the Times said GB News’ model of “unwoke TV may yet bite”. We certainly look forward to seeing it grow. The regular Woke Watch segment will be must-watch viewing. Allison Pearson in the Telegraph says the channel is a welcome new voice. Congratulations to Inaya Folarin Iman, our former director, on her Sunday night debut.

    The new channel has already sparked fury among the perpetually-offended, with a campaign to pressure companies into withdrawing their ads. Kopparberg, Grolsch, Nivea, IKEA, the Open University and Pinterest have all pulled their adverts – although Vodafone seems to be having second thoughts. Top marks to the Co-op for refusing to go along with the boycott. It told a complainant on Twitter, “We will not seek to affect the editorial independence of publications or channels.”

    The Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said to the Daily Mail, “One of the cornerstones of our liberties is our robust, free and diverse media and GB News is a welcome addition to that diversity. It is up to brands to advertise where they wish, but it would be worrying if they allow themselves to succumb to pressure groups.” Also in the Mail, Mick Hume said the meek submission of corporate giants to a small number of protestors and the “grossly misnamed lobbying group Stop Funding Hate” was the slow and painful death of free speech. But there’s plenty of fight left in free speech defenders. Tom Slater slammed IKEA’s hypocrisy in Spiked, pointing out that calls for inclusion “never seem to include those who just so happen to hold a different opinion to the great and good”. In ConservativeHome Charlotte Gill condemned the “appalling but unsurprising” attempt to cancel GB News – and criticism of the boycott kept on coming: Allister Heath in the Telegraph warned businesses to drop their woke campaigning or face a consumer backlash, and Jawad Iqbal in the Times said the sabotage was an exercise in “spineless stupidity”. Writing in the Express, Leo McKinstry said the boycott was simple bullying, amid a mood of “aggressive intolerance” sweeping across the UK.

    We are writing to all the companies that have suspended their advertising on GB News urging them to reconsider.

    Honours for free speech campaigners

    Many congratulations to Professor Nigel Biggar, Chair of the FSU, who was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours, and Dr Arif Ahmed, who was made an MBE. We’re delighted for them both.

    Report + Support shows why we need the new Free Speech Bill

    We have written to the Russell Group of top universities about their use of ‘Report + Support’, an online system for reporting “microaggressions”, among other things. Almost all of these websites omit key safeguards set out in law for the protection of free speech. If you are a student or an academic at a Russell Group university and have been investigated as a result of Report + Support please get in touch by emailing help@freespeechunion.org. Taxpayers have been unwittingly funding this sinister scheme.

    FSU General Secretary Toby Young has written a piece for Politics.co.uk defending the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill and rebutting some of the misinformation and misconceptions being pushed about the proposed legislation.

    We’d hoped to go one week without a case of censorship at Cambridge, but it wasn’t to be: Sir Noel Malcolm has accused the University of failing to publish a sympathetic article about Brexit on its website, despite including pro-Remain articles by other academics. Our Director Douglas Murray has written an eviscerating piece about Professor Stephen Toope, the Cambridge Vice-Chancellor, in the Spectator.

    Members and supporters will recall that we supported Dr Neil Thin in his battle against student witchfinders at Edinburgh. He was cleared after a stressful investigation, but the students who’ve abused him online have faced no action. He doesn’t want his student accusers punished, but he does want his university to acknowledge that their behaviour was unacceptable.

    Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s essay on “obscene” cancel culture went viral this week. “We have a generation of young people on social media so terrified of having the wrong opinions that they have robbed themselves of the opportunity to think and to learn and to grow,” she wrote. Definitely worth a read.

    Meanwhile, Oxford academics have been told to “leave their personal political views at home” by Lord Wharton, Chair of the Office for Students, following the news that 150 dons and graduate students are refusing to teach undergraduates at Oriel College until it pulls down its statue of Cecil Rhodes.

    While we welcome the Free Speech Bill, we’re not so keen on the Online Safety Bill. Ruth Smeeth of Index on Censorship writes in the Times that the legislation “creates tiers of free speech akin to an autocratic regime – giving special protections to politicos and journalists to speak freely, while the rest of us are censored”. Members attended our FSU In-Depth event on the Online Safety Bill this week – if you want to come along to our talks, sign-up as a member here. Students can join for as little as £2.49 a month.

    History lessons condemned as “terrorism”

    Prevent was set-up to counter terrorism – now it’s being used to rewrite the history curriculum because it’s too white and too male, according to the Telegraph. We’ve come across other examples of Prevent being misused in this way and are worried it’s becoming a serious problem. If you’ve experienced this, please contact us.

    There is mounting evidence that British schools are becoming infected by the same ideological gobbledegook that has captured American high schools. Case in point: a call for primary school pupils to learn about “white privilege” as part of the religious studies curriculum.

    The age of “no debate” is over

    Maya Forstater has written about last week’s landmark court ruling in her favour in ConservativeHome. “The judgment states clearly that no one has the right to harass others at work and, importantly, protects everyone from discrimination based on their belief or lack of belief,” she wrote. “This means it protects people like me who think that the words ‘male’ and ‘female’ relate to sperm and eggs and the bodies built to deliver them. It also protects those who believe in innate-but-fluid gendered identities, and who prioritise ‘gender expression’ over anatomy.” Her lawyer, Peter Daly, was named lawyer of the week by the Times.

    Murdo Fraser wrote about the Forstater case in the Scotsman, noting that “it was an important ruling for champions of free speech, and a serious blow to those who have maintained the extremist position that there is ‘no debate’ around the gender issue. In a time when we have seen feminists such as Germaine Greer and JK Rowling face ‘cancelling’ for stating their opinions, this is a very welcome development.” Iain Macwhirter also welcomed the judgment.

    The fightback by gender critical feminists is in full-swing, write Rosa Freedman and Jo Phoenix in the Spectator. They were given a public apology by the University of Essex, which had no-platformed them for their gender critical views. Brian Monteith says our success in Lisa Keogh’s case is a “chink of light”. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats are being sued by Natalie Bird, who was banned from the party office for 10 years and from standing as an MP for the LibDems because she wore a T-shirt saying: “Woman: Adult, Human, Female”.

    Compelled speech isn’t free

    Readers might laugh along with Liz Jones’s A-Z of woke in the Daily Mail, if only its ideology (and vocabulary) wasn’t enforced so vigilantly by our public bodies and institutions. NHS Scotland has been accused of Stasi-like behaviour for saying it will “monitor participation” in an LGBT Pride badge-wearing campaign. Not to be outdone, the National Trust is asking volunteers – many of them elderly – to wear rainbow face paint and glitter to celebrate Pride. Harry Miller reports on the National LGBT+ Police Network’s recent antics, which has told those who dissent from its nostrums, “We see you, we have reported you.” A welcome blast of common-sense then from Stephen Watson, the new Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, who says officers’ impartiality is being jeopardised by the police taking the knee or wearing rainbow shoelaces. “The public are getting a little bit fed up of virtue-signalling police officers when they’d really rather we just locked up burglars,” he told the Telegraph.

    Priti Patel adopts the FSU’s position on “taking the knee”

    The row over taking the knee continues to rumble on. Home Secretary Priti Patel says the England team is engaged in “gesture politics”, but that if players are allowed to take the knee then fans should be allowed to boo, echoing the FSU’s position on the issue. The Sun pointed out that we have defended a fan who was threatened with not being allowed back into the stadium of his local club after he booed. We explained: “He didn’t boo because he disapproves of BLM, but because he wants to keep politics out of football. Why shouldn’t he be allowed to express that view, provided he does so in a lawful and peaceful way?” It isn’t just an English phenomenon. France is divided on taking the knee, writes Gavin Mortimer in the Spectator. The campaign group Don’t Divide Us has written an open letter to the FA, urging it to tell players to stop indulging in this divisive virtue-signalling.

    America

    Composer Daniel Elder has been blacklisted for condemning arson during the BLM protests last summer. The classical music industry now won’t touch his work; he isn’t even allowed to sing in a choir.

    North Korean defector Yeonmi Park has compared her time at Colombia University to her home country – and Colombia comes off worse. “I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying,” she writes.

    State legislatures are banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory in schools.

    The New York Times has retracted a claim that satire site Babylon Bee is a “far-right misinformation site” that “traffics in misinformation under the guise of satire.” It’s actually very funny.

    New free speech platform

    Members may be interested in Ariuum, “the first free speech video debate platform where you can create your own channel to share your ideas and opinions live with other Ariuum Citizens, while voting for the topics that you believe in”. The creators promise that Ariuum “will also be hosting live debates and discussions from the important guests that you want to hear from”. They write: “In this age of mass censorship and digital totalitarianism, it is important that we all stand for something. What do you stand for? Make your voice heard today only on Ariuum.”

    Debbie Hicks: handcuffed, arrested and charged after filming inside a hospital and posting the film on Facebook

    Debbie Hicks, the anti-lockdown campaigner who was arrested after she filmed what appeared to be an empty hospital ward in December last year – and posted the film on Facebook – has been charged with a Public Order Offence. She is now raising funds for her defence. Whether you agree with Debbie’s views or not, this is an important free speech case – her legal team will be running an Article 10 defence – and she deserves our support.

    Sharing the Newsletter

    We’ve received several requests to make it possible to share these newsletters on social media, so we’ve added the option to post them on a few different platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Just click on the buttons below.

    If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Remember, all of our work depends on our members, we receive no public money: sign-up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against the censors.

    Best wishes,

    1. Started a light shower about 11:30ish and became heavier by 13:00.
      I got a couple of hours of ground elder & bramble pulling up the garden before having to come in.

  37. Anyone know what the hell’s going on now in Falmouth? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc8ef0ed544074668a8449b2ff6ef6df96f8f94d8721fb632fcab6fbc7bcc1e1.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/64facf69c5d496a33db7e82c7dd32c20e0826ac506889909cfba007c255907eb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/de99de51aa1fa791f2c1a4ebe5928824b487f5c987476fc9cfe4ae0e1f640c93.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d51105662c60fad139587dacc88c1dd9ff1086c41a39615ba8450aca7d5eaa3.jpg

    2. Extinction Rebellion showing why humans’ becoming extinct might not be a bad thing.

      1. Must be the Green and Labour party celebrating losing their deposit in by election. Hose them down [not the gardening hose variant!]

          2. And buy five dozen more and have them used!

            Why have the criminals not been immediately deported?

          1. Charles: I don’t have the words for it.
            Fiona: I know.
            Charles: I know you know.
            Fiona: I know you know I know.
            Charles: Yes, I know

  39. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “Gentlemen, let us suppose that man is not stupid. (Indeed one cannot refuse to suppose that, if only from the one consideration, that, if man is stupid, then who is wise?) But if he is not stupid, he is monstrously ungrateful! Phenomenally ungrateful. In fact, I believe that the best definition of man is the ungrateful biped.”

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

      1. Nah! It’s from his Notes from Underground, White Nights, The Dream of a Ridiculous Man, and Selections from The House of the Dead.

  40. Perhaps someone should tell Johnson that if you behave as illiberal, undemocratic and illogical as the the Lib Dems do then people may as well vote for the real thing.

      1. Sadly, MRLP didn’t put up a candidate at Chesham and Amersham.
        The LibDems were the next best thing.

    2. Underneath the Richard Litlejohn piece i just read the chilling story of the Greek man who has now been arrested for killing his young wife. He also killed their puppy.

        1. I hadn’t been following it, but evidently the police thought that, too. I’m surprised they let him go to the memorial service.

    3. Underneath the Richard Litlejohn piece i just read the chilling story of the Greek man who has now been arrested for killing his young wife. He also killed their puppy.

    4. I opened a new bar of Imperial Leather this morning and wondered how long that name will last.

  44. Scotland Go Home!
    No, it’s not an exhortation, it’s a forecast. Our school team could have beaten the Czechs, and that is hardly any exaggeration. At our school the sports were rugby and cricket. Football (not “soccer”) was frowned on as a game for hooligans and was barely “official”. One year our school team went unbeaten. Hardly surprising as a number of players went on to professional careers, including a future captain of Scotland.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDRBDX3nt_o

    1. Well i’ll put money on Scotland beating the kneeling Nancy boys later today.

      1. Unfortunately, both sides will be kneeling tonight, despite the Scots originally saying they wouldn’t be doing it.

          1. As far as the Scotland team are concerned they have been ordered to do it by the SFA, with the approval of Ms Sturgeon, of course.

        2. A now seemingly a proven fact, kneeling makes one mentally restrained and rather pathetic as our team was.

      4. Do they really need seven perlice to arrest one naked bloke? Even if he is Scots and deserves it all!

    2. A few of us suspected it was coming down from the Trilateral Commission but wondered how it could be proved. (Proven?)

    2. Keen to privatise our NHS! We can see where this is going!

      We are already there……NHS (Neglect Health Service)

    3. A quote:

      There seems to be no shortage of bad ideas in Westminster.

      They usually involve an unspecified cost to the people at large to

      provide an undisclosed benefit for the influential and well-connected.

  47. Just back from an emergency trip to Morrisons – who are giving a 25% discount on virtually all their wines price at £5 or over. Even the ones where they are priced at 2 for £10 The MR selected a mixed dozen which came out at £50. Hurry, hurry – while the offer lasts. You don’t even need a loyalty card….

    Absolutely tipping down. Cats disgusted -and bad tempered.

        4. Carolyn, your MR, will know that Macbeth’s Porter had some interesting things to say about the effects of drinking :

          Porter:
          ‘Faith sir, we were carousing till the
          second cock: and drink, sir, is a great
          provoker of three things.

          Macduff
          What three things does drink especially provoke?

          Porter
          Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes; it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance: therefore, much drink may be said to be an equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him, and disheartens him; makes him stand to, and not stand to; in conclusion, equivocates him in a sleep, and, giving him the lie, leaves him.

  48. I saw a part of an interview of Jeffry Archer by Dan Wootton on the GN News channel last night and it occurred to me that he is a sort of Enid Blyton for semi–adults. His books are ‘page turners’ but his literary style is very poor and his characters and plots are stereo-typical and trivial.

    1. He made a valid point that the people objecting to Enid Blyton have a narrow and intolerant miindset and had they been born a hundred or more years earlier, their opinions would doubtless have reflected what’s now seen as the worst of that era just as they now represent the worst of present day prejudice.

      1. When stealing sheep could lead to the bankruptcy and death of a small-holder stealing sheep was a capital offence. This was an appropriate punishment at the time but we live in a different world now.
        It does seem to me that the Woke are using Orwell’s 1984 as a manual rather than seeing it as a warning. Judging yesterday’s standards by today’s and cancelling history is absurd and unfair but I do not criticise Enid Blyton for having ideas and writing about themes that were acceptable when she wrote them.

        1. It is a fine line. Some of her writing made me uncomfortable as a child, because it was so unpleasantly racist. I refer to a few lines in the Castle of Adventure about a black character.
          I didn’t know about “racism” then, I just found it rather nasty. I also felt uncomfortable reading the blatant propaganda put out by the left in the 70s, which was already lecturing me as a white child that I would naturally assume that black people were inferior. I resented this and found it illogical.

          I think there have always been people who take people as they find them (good or bad), and people who are just narrow-minded and nasty. Most of the woke folk belong to the latter group of course, and would have been the nastiest in days gone by as well.

          1. It’s that sense of unease that sets you apart as a moral person. I suppose I would then ask if you blame Blyton, or her time.

            A chap bought my Dad’s old stereo. He arrives at the door, thick set, muscle bound black fellow. I open it, say ‘hello, come in!’ and he looks genuinely shocked as if no one has ever treated him this way before. I never did find the blasted cables to hook it all together.

      2. Whether enid was

        a good or bad writer

        or

        her thoughts/words do not match the Wokery of 2021

        or

        the stories are now adjudged as carp

        Her books were read by thousands of children.

        Far too many Kidz of today cannot Read Rite or do Sumz, when they leave School, at 16, let alone leave Junior School.

    2. Morning Richard. The vast majority of literature is trash. I believe Orwell once wrote an essay on its attraction! One which I share!

      2. I have finished reading ‘Down and out in Paris and London’. Very interesting and an easy read because of his style. Thank you for the recommendation.

        I am now reading ‘Homage to Catalonia’ which i’m finding a bit more challenging.

      3. But… who cares? I encourage my chums to read anything. When I taught one nervous chap asked if he could read his super hero comics and we had a great discussion about The Flash. Words were going through his head.

        The last book (well, novella) I finished last night was about a murderer going around slashing up women. A werewolf, mutant and playwright were all suspects and all along it was the suppressed madness of an abused daughter who was a man by day and became the killer at night. It was genuinely a really good yarn.

        It isn’t what you read, it’s that ‘you do’. I am reading Shake hands with the Devil and as a harrowing account… vampire gothic fiction leaves it standing.

    3. Later on the programme there was an American lady journalist who argued that the answer to Nicola Sturgeon is to give her what she wants as this will bankrupt her country if she wins a referendum on independence. Students, for example, will find that they have to pay the same level of fees as the horrible English who are currently subsiding them! The longer she is not given another referendum the more she will be able to nurse her grievance and feel justified in saying Scotland is being tyrannised by cruel Sassanachs.

      She also made the suggestion that union with Eire would be a disaster for the Northern Ireland. The Northern Irish would lose money and the Southerners would have to pick up the tab. She also said that much as the Irish would like the North and the South to be merged virtually nobody would be prepared to pay a penny piece to achieve it.

      She also made the point that many English people would be quite happy to cast both Scotland and Northern Ireland adrift.

      Please would someone tell me who this woman is as I have forgotten her name.

      5. As the BBC claims we give £11billion a year to NI, and they voted to Remain in the EU, let’s just give them what they want……..and save £11

        billion a year. Sounds good to us!

    4. As Jeff said about Booker prize winners ‘They might hate me, but they wish they could sell like me.’

  49. Warning: another scam email

    Morrisons

    If you do open DO NOT click on anything

      1. I have Donated £1,000,000.00 plus £50,000 to Prince Odinga Odangley in BlackNigeria, your agent

        1. The receipt is in the mail ( East German Mail ) along with a signed copy of Prince Odinga Odangley’s guide to the use of traditional witchcraft medicine in the NHS.

      2. I have Donated £1,000,000.00 plus £50,000 to Prince Odinga Odangley in BlackNigeria, your agent

  50. I was appalled by the shocking slurs earlier in today’s NoTTL against the various courageous ladies who gave birth to distinguished wendyball players of colour.

    There were several suggestions that these sainted ladies had had children by lots of different men – who buggered off.

    This is a calumny.

    It is well-established that ladies of West Indian origin are possessed of the power of virgin birth. All their lovely boys were gifts from God.
    How dare anyone suggest otherwise.

  52. Just in passing, I note that yesterday, 51 people died in yer France (where masks are no longer required outdoors – and where movement throughout the country is allowed).

    The UK figure is 19. So it is 2½ times worse in yer France – but we are the ones locked down forever.

    Funny that.

        1. Round here as well – when I went for a walk the other evening, a car came past with two mask wearers inside. I’m going to try a mask-free visit to Morrisons later on.

          3. There was one other unmasked besides myself in Waitrose today. No-one at the farm shop. Just say exempt if the door gestapo if asked, you get more confident as you go along, although all this has put a dampener on a browsing session, I no longer think ‘I’ll just pop out to the garden centre for a little look around.

          4. We went for a meeting yesterday at our local brewery – they’ve put up a lot of outdoor pods so we were sitting outside under cover – but only the staff appeared to be wearing masks anywhere. When the order came, OH told the young guy he couldn’t understand what he said due to the mask – he’d brought two pints of Alederflower instead of two elderflower cordials……..
            It was very busy there, I’m glad to say because it’s a very popular venue and they were struggling earlier in the year.

          5. We went for a meeting yesterday at our local brewery – they’ve put up a lot of outdoor pods so we were sitting outside under cover – but only the staff appeared to be wearing masks anywhere. When the order came, OH told the young guy he couldn’t understand what he said due to the mask – he’d brought two pints of Alederflower instead of two elderflower cordials……..
            It was very busy there, I’m glad to say because it’s a very popular venue and they were struggling earlier in the year.

          6. We’re quite sure that there will be a new attempt by the PTB to get women to mask up this coming winter.

            It will probably be presented as “a good way to prevent the spread of ‘flu”

          9. If anyone bothers you about it, tell them you’re exempt by reason of intelligence.
            My own rule is to not wear them until someone asks me to. Then I do because some people are so terrified I don’t want to ruin their day.

          10. I’ve got the exemption card in my pocket but didn’t get it out on Wednesday – just told the holier than thou bloke I’m exempt.

      1. Not to mention suicides (or just plain turning their face to the wall and giving up)?

  53. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to abstain from most restricted election in Iran’s history. 18 June 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4317d0e61c4530b2194f01c852898a4c7c113d48bd1bcc6948e3f1eaddaaefd0.jpg

    Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will not vote in Friday’s presidential election in Iran and warned that the outcome would produce a government without a popular mandate, in another blow to the credibility of the most restricted poll in the Islamic Republic’s history.

    Mr Ahmadinejad, who was president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, said he would exercise his “personal right” to abstain after what he described as the disenfranchisement of voters.

    Old Jad’s looking a bit rough!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/18/not-going-vote-mahmoud-ahmadinejad-abstain-restricted-election/

    2. With Ibrahim Raisi polling 57% in the opinion polls,i don’t think it matters.

  54. A little distraction , a bit of history .. but is it true?

    Interesting history!
    They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a day it was taken & sold to the tannery. If you had to do this to survive you were “piss poor.”

    But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot; they “didn’t have a pot to piss in” & were the lowest of the low.
    The next time you are washing your hands & complain because the water temperature isn’t just how you like it, think about how things used to be. Here are some facts about the 1500s.
    Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. Since they were starting to smell, however, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

    Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women, and finally the children. Last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it . . . hence the saying, “Don’t throw the baby out with the Bath water!”

    Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, resulting in the idiom, “It’s raining cats and dogs.”

    There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could mess up your nice clean bed, therefore, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That’s how canopy beds came into existence.
    The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, leading folks to coin the phrase “dirt poor.”

    The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door, it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way, subsequently creating a “thresh hold.”

    In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire.. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while, and thus the rhyme, “Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.”

    Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, “bring home the bacon.” They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”

    Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

    Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the “upper crust.”
    Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial.. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, creating the custom of holding a wake.

    England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive, so they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift.) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

    And that’s the truth. Now, whoever said History was boring?

    3. I heard it was 2 strings leading to the surface in case one snapped, then they could pull the other one, Belle.

    4. Sounds reasonable. In Tokyo up until the 20th century the “night soil” was purchased from householders by the market gardeners who used it to fertilise the crops they grew to feed the citizens.

    5. Judges processing to the assizes still carry nose gays; a relic of the days when the streets were full of ordure and the place stank.

  55. Bournville, Nice steady rain here … Glad I mowed the lawn yesterday and did some weeding … Bindweed from neighbours will be really invigorated this morning (will tackle by filling small bottles with weedkiller and routing bindweed into said bottles …. need more bottles).

  58. Teacher suspended after showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to pupils during an RE lesson at West Yorkshire school refuses to return to work over fears for his life. 18 June 2021.

    A teacher who was suspended after showing a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad to pupils during an RE lesson has refused to return to work over fears for his life – despite being cleared of causing deliberate offence and told that he could have his job back.

    Though I don’t wish this guy any ill I have to say I don’t have much sympathy for him either. He’s teacher. It’s more than a fair bet that just before this incident he was spouting multicultural crap and Diversity is Good and we don’t want to be Islamophobic do we children? Well he’s run into the real thing now and it looks a lot different close too! One has to smile at his fellow workers who all dropped him like a hot potato and his boss who almost ruptured himself suspending him. These people all lie not only to their pupils but to themselves about reality.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9700475/Teacher-suspended-showing-cartoon-Prophet-Muhammad-pupils-refuses-return-work.html

  61. We must not forget this evening that Black Lives Matter is a political organisation with the stated aims:

    i) To defund the police;
    ii) Overthrown capitalism;
    ii) Honour the memory of a violent black criminal.

    Two teams this evening will kneel in reverence and support of BLM – they are England and Scotland.

    The best result in the group matches tonight would be:

    Scotland to beat England by 1 – 0
    and for
    Croatia to beat Czech Republic 1 -0

    In the final matches next week the best results would be for

    Croatia to beat Scotland by 1 – 0
    and for
    The Czech Republic to beat England 3 – 0

    This would mean that Croatia and the Czech Republic would each finish with 6 points and that England and Scotland would finish with 3 points each. As England had conceded more goals than Scotland they would be eliminated. If the Scottish team survived this round because of the odd points system they would be more likely to be eliminated in the knock out part of the competition and the principal wokist teams would hhave both been eliminated. Just as BLM want the police and capitalism to be eliminated so the ant-Wokists should want both Scotland and England to be eliminated.

    So come on Scotland and come on Croatia in tonight’s matches.

    (I am not confident that my analysis is completely correct. Perhaps a Wendyball enthusiast could put me right if I am wrong?)

    2. It’s interesting to know that this evil criminal, who was so violent and brutal towards women, is so respected.

      Mrs Ndovu has also something to say on the subject of preying on women.

    3. Thank you Richard, I for one will not be watching the knee-bending but I have no interest in Wendyball at all

      1. Nor me – you can’t switch the radio on up here without them pontificating about this bleedin’ grudge match. For the Jocks it’s about getting pissed for a couple of days

        1. The shite weather in the south of England ought to dampen their enthusiasm….

        3. Evening, Alec. It’s even infected the racing. At every possible opportunity (and even some impossible ones) they inserted a comment or puff piece about the Wendyball. I tune into the racing programme to watch the effing RACING. If I were interested in Wendyball, I’d be watching that, not the races.

  62. Oh dear.
    BBC R3 is playing the UK premiere of Theo Verbey’s Notturno.
    From the first couple of minutes, I’d say it’s not worth listening to.

    1. The moment one sees the words “World Premiere” or “UK Premiere” – I switch off immediately.

      The din will be played once – and a ginormous fee paid to the “composer” – and it will never be heard again.

      1. I try to give them two minutes before switching off.
        I don’t always get to the 2 minutes though.

    2. I used to sit on the floor of the Albert Hall during the Proms constructing little stories in my head to fit the world premieres. The china cabinet has come crashing down and oh no, someone just trod on the cats tail. Whoops, the cat ran and the grandfather clock has fallen over. Now the dog and the cat are wreaking havoc and oh dear, they set off the fire alarm. And so it goes…

  63. Does anyone have any information on the three pilots who are rumoured to have died from blood clots in the last few weeks? Rumours of BA in talks with govt yesterday. If I hear of any more information I will get back on this.

    1. There were rumours going around that it wasn’t a good idea to fly after having the jab because of blood clots.

      1. That’s got me thinking, if it was a side effect then the greens would be very pleased if it became too dangerous for the vaxxed to fly.

    2. I put up a text earlier that had a total of four pilots dying in seven days. Some people thought it may be a hoax and of course it may be untrue. If it is true then rest assured that Johnson, Hancock and the gang will deny or suppress the story. If untrue then not a very clever story to put around.

      1. One of them had been in hospital for many months and was said to have died from multiple organ failure following covid.

    1. Crikey, they look really miserable! The one on the right is heading toward contortionism.

    2. Why don’t they get off their @rses and protest against WTF is happening to this friggin’ country…..?

    2. “Mao’s little red book is so passée Andrew. Here’s my big red book of down and dirty, debt disaster.”

    3. ” To think just 20 years ago my only option would be to work sweating away in the hot kitchen of a Tandoori & now I can make every taxpayer in the UK sweat ! “

    4. “Can I recommend the chapatis to start Sir? Your table is waiting here, if you’ll follow me”

    5. This picture of Andrew Neil makes me think of some of the people Othello met on his travels:

      “….. the Cannibals that each other eat,
      The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
      Do grow beneath their shoulders.”

    6. Good Lord, I never realised Andrew Neil was a midget. He makes Sunak look tall!

    1. It’s the beginning of the end for our much loved NHS.
      If you can’t afford to pay consign yourself to the scrapheap…..Fk off and die……

  67. Another one falls…

    Dear Member,

    You may have been following news and discussions in recent weeks about discrimination in the beer and pub industry. [Er, no…]

    In response to this, and in recognition of CAMRA’s responsibilities as a leading consumer group, this week we launched an Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality Review to ensure members and non-members do not suffer discrimination and feel safe and welcome within CAMRA and at our events.

    This work will be led by a Review Group that will be tasked with looking at our existing equality and diversity policies and processes to identify any gaps, weakness or improvements that can be made. The Group will also review our Disciplinary processes and policies to ensure nothing is discouraging people from reporting discrimination, harassment, or abuse – and that when it is reported, it is being dealt with appropriately.

    We have invited some members to join the Review Group already, but we are also holding an open application process to appoint more volunteers to the Group – which is why I am emailing you today.

    We would particularly like to encourage people from under-represented groups within CAMRA, and those who are not currently “active” volunteers to apply to bring a different perspective to the Review Group.

    If this is you, or you have relevant experience that you would be willing to volunteer to CAMRA, please consider applying to join the Review Group. Applications are open until Friday 25 June.

    We expect that one of the first tasks for the Review Group will be to launch a ‘discovery process’ to invite members and non-members to share their experiences, to assess the scale of any issues and identify where action can be taken.

    If you are not successful in your application to join the Review Group, or you want to contribute but do not want to apply to join the Review Group, you can still take part through that process.

    If you have any questions, please reply to this email.

    Thank you,

    Abigail Newton

    CAMRA Vice Chairman and Facilitator of the Inclusivity, Diversity and Equality Review Group

    P.S. All the above information and links can be found at camra.org.uk/inclusivity-diversity-and-equality-review. Please pass on this link or forward this email to any CAMRA members you think would be interested in this volunteering opportunity.

        2. He said he’d cancelled his direct debit – but I don’t think he’d seen this rubbish already.

    2. This is the new great corporate scamming department.
      Compliance was a highly paid, very cushy job with almost zero responsibility.

    3. How thick can these people possibly get? Are they so unaware of the world outside their tiny bubble?

    4. I withdrew from a rather good wine purveyor called Naked Wines (no sniggering at the back) over a similar type of message, concerning their new funding, for black applicants only, in winemaking course. To increase diversity in winemaking, don’t you know. Told them I was not prepared to be woked at.

  68. 334482+ up ticks,
    Can it be that very shortly the only options left will be a General Election or a civil war.

      1. 334482+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Se,
        It must be stated that in a wartime setting ( as we are in today ) this will be treated as bordering on treason and will be treated as such, LONG term incarceration.( hanging is far to good) WILL be meted out.

        If peoples power can make sh!te happen & keep it up over decades via the polling booth then by the same token, people power can reverse the procedure and make good happen via a people’s reset.

    2. It will take a war to sort out all that is wrong now. Thirty years ago we might have had a chance.

      1. Good afternoon poppiesmum -I wonder if our Military are training for a Civil war and if so who will they be fighting for in the UK.

        2. I am wondering if a new group with no allegiance to this country are being trained up in former redundant rural barracks.

          1. Hi Poppiesmum,

            There are many barber shops opened up around here in the last couple of years.

            They all appear to be staffed by young fit Arabic men.

            Hardly ever does one see a customer.

            What is going on?

      2. 334482+ up ticksm
        Afternoon Pm,
        30 years ago the rot really set in along with majors dress code
        it went serious via three allies fighting among themselves as in the lab/lib/con coalition in a party before Country fashion
        that has without doubt proved to be a political demolition wrecking ball wielded by fools.

        We are overseen by political cretins voted in purely by party name ie tory = ino
        name ie lab = ino
        name ie libs = brussel asset
        Again,again & again.

  71. Street partying Notting Hill carnival cancelled.

    That is a great pity, it might have proved once and for all how transmissible and deadly Covid now is, given the mass vaccination programme.

    If nothing untoward happened it would spell the end of the whole charade, if thousands caught it and died then on with the regular lockdowns but at least there would be certainty.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/notting-hill-carnival-won-t-take-place-on-streets-covid-lockdown-virtual-b941330.html?itm_source=Internal&itm_channel=section_banner&itm_campaign=breaking-news-ticker&itm_content=4

        1. Bring back the Kray brothers…all is forgiven. At least under their rule you could walk the ‘effing streets and women were respected.

          1. One of my colleagues was a salesman in London. The Krays were customers. Nice to deal with, he said.

          2. I remember watching a program that featured Peter Cook at the Establishment club.

            The Kray’s asked him if he needed any help with security and he told them there was a Police Station just a stones throw away and he would be fine.

            Their response was polite and they left.

    2. They have staged some large scale concerts where everyone is being tracked and monitored. Just to see if it is safe.

      Hopefully all those UEFA VIPS that are blackmailing the PM will catch it and die. Slowly and painfully.

      That’s me in my good mood….

    3. More people die at the Notting Hill Carnival any other GayBlak civil disorder in the UK. Blick on Blick usually.

    5. I’m not sure that if thousands died it would prove anything, as the PTB would simply say that blacks are not taking the jab. However, if nothing happened, the PTB would simply say that ore blacks have been jabbed.

    1. It’s been a swelteringly hot day again, here in Eskimoland. Right now it’s 30ºC and that is forecast to be the same for the next few days. I’ve not seen a single cloud in the sky for four days and that is set to continue. Tonight is forecast to be a sultry 21ºC … all night long!

      2. Nice. Still pissing down here but on the upside my strawbs are looking really good.

  79. The painful memories of the Lancaster Bomber veterans: ‘We were looked at as if we were murderers’

    It has been 80 years since the maiden flight of the iconic Lancaster. In a new film, the remaining veterans tell their stories

    What will history make of COVID and our reaction to it. Compare it to what went on all those yearsago

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/painful-memories-lancaster-bomber-veterans-looked-murderers/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. Do those who view the crews of Lancaster bombers as ‘murderers’ not give the same opprobrium to the crews of Heinkel, Dornier and Junkers bombers too?

      1. I doubt that those people have ever heard of those German aircraft. Harris and his Bomber Boys were murderers, end of story.

        1. Don’t forget that the young of today are taught that it was England who declared war on defenceless Germany. They have heard Chamberlain’s broadcast – so they know it is true.

          1. The French drove us back across the Chanel, from Dunkirk

            We rallied our forces then re-invaded Europe, to take over the Common Market in 1944

            The French, Germans, Italians made peace with us and then we gave into Russia

            History Lesson 2021 style

        2. Bomber Harris was an old boy of Allhallows School in which I taught for 12 years and where I met Caroline.

          Harris was much fêted at the school and was considered a hero rather than a villain.

          We left Allhallows to set up our French courses business in 1989 but the place struggled on without us for 10 years before closing in1999. It was very sad to see the school go as the foundation dated back to C16th and it was a lovely place situated on top of the cliffs between Lyme Regis and Seaton.

        3. Troll. Educate yourself. War is nasty; people die. The Germans killed far more civilians than we ever did. The RAF started by not bombing when even civilian property let alone civilian lives could be affected, many aircrew dying bringing their bombs home, until Churchill and the War Cabinet responded to the Germans in kind. All civilian deaths are regrettable, but shortening the war by bombing saved far more lives than it ever cost. The real criminals and murdered are the German leaders who prolonged WW2 when it was clearly lost, the total bombing deaths being a fraction of the lives lost in fighting to the end and the immediate aftermath.

          2. You mean he missed out ‘To them’ so looked as if he called the RAF murderers? You could be right, but that’s not how it reads

        4. Is fighting to keep your country free, murder?

          If a man breaks into your home to kill you is killing him murder? Where do you draw the line? Do you simply let them kill you, destroy everything you knew and loved, continue a genocide without lifting a finger to say ‘this is wrong’?

          No, Korky, they were not murderers. They were soldiers in a war, and in war, the objective is to kill the enemy.

          Many people have heard of those bombers. The Lancaster is simply famous because it is British and, well, this is Britain.

          1. I think Korky meant that the woke think that Harris and his Chicks were murderers. It didn’t come over well.

        1. On the contrary, they killed far more civilians than the RAF ever did ( remember to count the Eastern casualties).

    2. They fought for their country, doing what Churchill and the War Cabinet ordered them to do. Practically the whole country cheered them on until their dreams of a fairer world led Churchill to grub for votes by trashing these brave men.

      Twice as many Bomber and Coastal Command aircrew died on direct Battle Of Britain operations as Fighter Command aircrew but their sacrifice is hardly ever mentioned. Later on more Bomber Command aircrew died in one night than Fighter Command aircrew in the whole of the BofB. Their odds of survival were small, roughly 1 in 4 for a full tour, only surpassed by Coastal Command strike crews with a 1 in 6 survival rate for a tour.

      In both world wars Germany took the lead in attacking and killing civilians, killed far more than they had killed (remember to count Eastern deaths) and only had done to them what they had first gleefully done to everyone else. They are the perpetrators not the victims.

      The Lancaster may be famous, but rarely did aircrew survive its being shot down due to its narrow escape hatches and propensity for wing spars to burn through quickly. Most crews died when their Lancaster was shot down, on average only one of the 7/8 crew surviving. Comparable figures for the other 4-engined RAF bombers were 3/4 of 7/8, with USAAF crews having higher survival rates.

      1. It was shameful that the aircrews only got a clasp rather than a campaign medal, and that far too late for many of them. One chap I knew (who only died a couple of years ago in his nineties) was the sole survivor of his crew – his Lanc was blown up and he only survived because he, as the pilot, was wearing a seat parachute. The others had clip on chutes which were stowed. No time to get to them and clip them on.

      2. It was shameful that the aircrews only got a clasp rather than a campaign medal, and that far too late for many of them. One chap I knew (who only died a couple of years ago in his nineties) was the sole survivor of his crew – his Lanc was blown up and he only survived because he, as the pilot, was wearing a seat parachute. The others had clip on chutes which were stowed. No time to get to them and clip them on.

    1. It’s an impossible issue. For us, rich fat westerners it’s obviously wrong.

      However the alternative may have been making mud bricks and getting trench foot.

      Our sensibilities just don’t apply in other countries.

    2. It’s an impossible issue. For us, rich fat westerners it’s obviously wrong.

      However the alternative may have been making mud bricks and getting trench foot.

      Our sensibilities just don’t apply in other countries.

    1. Bert “Will you watch the Scotland/England footie tonight, Ada?”

      Ada ” not even if you begged on bended knee…”

    2. Ada “Will you watch the Scotland/England footie tonight, Bert?”

      Bert “Oooh… yes Ada…..I enjoy a good sleep!

  82. To all those moaning about the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Woke set; the Common Purpose brigade; the Me, Me, Me contingent; the Self-Entitled cartel; the Hurty Feelings creche; and the Easily Offended faction; I have this to offer.

    This can only be due the failure of their inept parents (in tandem with their not-fit-for-purpose teachers). These sub-standard people are the root cause of this increasingly malignant societal cancer. Why are those parents so inept? Because they themselves were given no proper guidance or effective discipline by their parents and teachers. Each generation is getting successively more and more unfit and clueless. I shudder to think what the next two generations will bring.

    [And before all those who are offended by this (eminently provable) hypothesis get on their high horses and moan that their children are intelligent, disciplined and thoughtful of others; let me tell them that they, these days, are in the minority.]

      1. Surely bombers would stay together to increase the covering fire to support one another?

        I worry about the description though as the EU isn’t a bomber. You can fight that. It’s a glue that suffocates. Beloved by expensive administration and Lefty social democratic nations while turning them into communist failures.

        One size does not fit all. It simply doesn’t work. Never has, never will. Leaving the EU will never be enough. It’s ethos, arrogance and attitude must be cut out.

      2. Surely bombers would stay together to increase the covering fire to support one another?

        I worry about the description though as the EU isn’t a bomber. You can fight that. It’s a glue that suffocates. Beloved by expensive administration and Lefty social democratic nations while turning them into communist failures.

        One size does not fit all. It simply doesn’t work. Never has, never will. Leaving the EU will never be enough. It’s ethos, arrogance and attitude must be cut out.

    2. As a parent I tried to avoid what I thought my parents’ failings were bringing myself and my brother up, tough disciplinarians , minor infractions attracted “the wooden spoon” and major ones “the belt” ,fibs or lies no matter how insignificant brought swift retribution, clear the plate before you left the table no matter what just post war horrors sat on it etc etc. While this sounds like a “poor me” whine I didn’t think it unjust at the time and had a happy childhood . I’ve been left with a respect for authority and an inability to lie without going bright red. In those days the teachers were not overtly political as I remember. Move forward to the present day and we’ve had at least two iterations of parents trying to avoid that which they didn’t like as children but more importantly we have a very left wing cadre of teachers who probably spend a lot more time with their pupils ( called learners now , pfft ) from nursery to 6th form than their parents both of whom will be at work for long hours. I don’t know how this can ever be resolved.

    3. I think Gen Z is dong a lot of wising up when they realise how expensive university is.
      The problem is that the worst of Gen Z are now going to university where they get even more brainwashing before being perfectly qualified for a life at the taxpayer/OpenSociety trough.
      The smart ones are finding alternatives.

    4. Man hands on misery to man.
      It deepens like a coastal shelf.
      Get out as early as you can,
      And don’t have any kids yourself.

      [Philip Larkin]

      But I also enjoyed Adrian Mitchell’s parody:

      They tuck you up, your Mum and Dad.
      They read you Peter Rabbit, too.
      They give you all the treats they had
      And add some extra, just for you.

      They were tucked up when they were small,
      (Pink perfume, blue tobacco-smoke),
      By those whose kiss healed any fall,
      Whose laughter doubled any joke.

      Man hands on happiness to man.
      It deepens like a coastal shelf.
      So love your parents all you can
      And have some cheerful kids yourself.

      1. 334482+ up ticksm
        Evening R,
        Via the treacherous actions of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile coalition group and fee paying members, the decent peoples within society have in turn over decades been fitted up,stitched up, and
        -ucked without doubt up on a year on year regular basis.

  83. 20,000 drunken Scots can rampage in London, but 12 sober English people can’t sing a hymn in church.

    18 months ago, I would never have believed it possible.

    What can we do to get rid of BPAPM and his gang of despots?

    1. Self preservation is the only thing that drives Conservative MPs. If their place at the trough is threatened things happen, as Treasonous discovered.

  84. Miserable day continues – more rain. Gales. Cats on strike. They are in the same position they were three hours ago when I posted that snap!

    And on that cheerful note, I’ll bid you good evening. Find a decent film to watch at 8 pm.

    A demain.

    1. The dwarf Khan isn’t worth 15K, let alone 150. He’s a pathetic, deceitful, toxic liar.

    2. The dwarf Khan isn’t worth 15K, let alone 150. He’s a pathetic, deceitful, toxic liar.

  87. Latest Breaking News- The WHO have announced today that wearing a kilt is covid safer than wearing a mask or having two jabs, so all those beskirted folk are exempt from social distancing and mask wearing, they can street party, sing and generally make a nuisance of themselves in their thousands, they wont catch covid or pass it on to anyone.

    1. Presumably the SNP will station pickets on the road crossings from England into Scotland to tell returning fans not to enter the country.

    3. They will “make a nuisance of themselves in their thousands“…lovely biscuits!

    4. 334482+ up ticks,
      Evening B3,
      I am led to understand the kilt MUST be cast up and over the head though.

    5. 334482+ up ticks,
      Evening B3,
      I am led to understand the kilt MUST be cast up and over the head though.

      1. The NHS hasn’t been “saved”, it’s been destroyed by this government under the pretence of “Covid”.

    2. When nearly all GP’s get a salary regardless of their frequency of face to face appointments, why would they bother unless they still believed in the Hypocratic oath. Money for jam!

  90. Can anyone explain to me what the point is of fining the NHS when there has been terrible treatment resulting in possibly avoidable death. And then, no doubt, huge damages being awarded

    Instead of fining the taxpayer why aren’t they firing those at fault?
    And instead of awarding the damages against the NHS why aren’t they going for the negligent medics?

    1. One tenet of life in the Armed Forces, certainly at SNCO level, is that you cannot have Authority without Responsibility.

      If things go wrong, you ARE responsible.

      Doing the Right Thing and failing, is a different matter. though

      1. Agreed.
        Our problem in the public sector is that it is the institution that gets hit not the individual. Hitting those actually responsible would concentrate minds.

      2. ‘Evening OLT, “...you cannot have Authority without Responsibility and Accountability”.

    2. I have been lucky,

      Between 21 May and 15 June, I have been

      GP’d,

      Blood Tested Twice,

      MRI’d,

      Examined by a specialist

      and my mind set at rest

    3. Because the purpose of ‘Our NHS’ is to ensure there is no responsibility or consequence for those in it.

    1. There’s a lot of shouting from across the way by the yobs who ‘do football’.

    2. There’s a lot of shouting from across the way by the yobs who ‘do football’.

    3. Both sets of craven virtue signalling creeps! Booing all round but cheering pumped out on the tannoy! Pathetic!

      3. There was very loud music being played over the tannoy during the knee-bending and the kickoff, presumably to try to drown out the booing.

      4. There was very loud music being played over the tannoy during the knee-bending and the kickoff, presumably to try to drown out the booing.

    4. Both sets of craven virtue signalling creeps! Booing all round but cheering pumped out on the tannoy! Pathetic!

  93. The Tories are in need of a coup, a hard-nosed William of Orange to oust Boris’s indulgent Charles, the Merry Madman.

    Beware, Boris. This is only the start of a southern revolt against your high-tax, eco-extreme agenda

    The Tories’ humiliating by-election defeat won’t be their last if they continue to take their core voters for granted

    ALLISTER HEATH

    What is the point of voting Tory if you are a prosperous, shire-dwelling Southern voter? You’ve dutifully ticked the right box for years now, even under Tony Blair, but why bother remaining loyal any longer?

    The only message you hear from the Government is that it believes in levelling up the North. That sounds sensible, as far as it goes. But you don’t live there, and as you watch your tax bill, and that of your business, shoot up, it feels awfully like the real agenda is to tear down Southern tall poppies: Neil Kinnock-style class warfare, dressed up in Tory garb. Even HS2, which you hate, won’t use and are paying for, is entirely designed to buy votes in the Midlands.

    There have always been two reasons to vote Tory, one negative – to stop Labour’s mad schemes on economic, social and cultural issues – and one positive; for lower taxes, a sensible approach to the public finances, a better understanding of business and economic growth, a commitment to entrepreneurship, small business and individualism.

    The negative reasons still hold: Southern Tories dislike woke cancel culture just as much as their Red Wall brethren. But, outside the North and Midlands at least, the positive vision has entirely vanished. With Sir Keir Starmer floundering, the fear of Labour is receding, allowing the sort of spectacular Lib Dem protest vote we saw this week.

    There no longer is a distinctive Tory policy towards the economy, tax or freedom. Johnson’s embrace of social democracy, dirigisme, social engineering and extreme environmentalism is in fact a catastrophic ticking time bomb for Southern Tories.

    Remember his promise, during his leadership campaign, to massively increase the personal allowance and deliver huge tax cuts to his supporters in the shires? It’s all gone. The reduction in stamp duty is being reversed. There is no prospect of any meaningful tax cuts under this Government, and in fact a guarantee of much higher levies: the deficit is out of control, the national debt is surging and the public finances – and housing market – are being propped up by quantitative easing and easy money. This is a government that was already addicted to public spending before Covid, but which now believes that the old laws governing the national finances have been entirely suspended. This is one reason why they have been so blasé about the side-effects of lockdown, and so willing to allow thousands of businesses to go to the wall.

    Dissidents such as Rishi Sunak are powerless to act: the new consensus is that the national debt could double again and nothing bad would happen. Bizarrely for a government of Brexiteers, the UK is embracing EU levels of public spending and taxes that have done so much to cripple growth and increase youth unemployment on the continent. One generation ago, the Tories were rightly fascinated by economics and markets, reading and writing pamphlets on the subject, and fighting to convince their voters of the merits of popular capitalism, individual responsibility and entrepreneurship.

    Their ideological regression has been staggering: they now stand to the Left of New Labour or Michael Heseltine, and assume that growth is something that happens only when the Government intervenes or builds a new railway line. This stunning lack of interest in the private sector’s central role in driving economic progress, and obsession with geographic central planning, bodes ill for the party’s long-term viability.

    In the early 1960s, Harold Macmillan, the quintessential Left-leaning, one nation Tory, enjoyed Johnsonian levels of support, bought into Keynesian and dirigiste economics. A decade later, the British economy nearly collapsed, was bailed out by the IMF and suffered from calamitous stagflation.

    Council tax is already shooting up. At some point, so will petrol tax. Corporation tax is rising sharply, making Britain a far less attractive location to base one’s business, and there are ceaseless rumours about further raids on capital gains, Southern Tories’ expensive homes and the 40 per cent pension allowance. And what about social care? Will there be a new tax to pay for it? Does the Government really believe that its voters will simply accept this?

    The tax burden is already at its highest levels since the 1940s, with dozens of often stealthy rises in recent years; yet it will need to increase further to pay for the massive expenditure earmarked for the NHS and its Covid backlog, on the absurd pension triple-lock and on the myriad other lavish promises.

    Yet it gets even worse: who will pay for Johnson’s green revolution? Who will stump up for the new electric cars and the infrastructure that goes with it? If you own three cars and live in a Buckinghamshire suburb, you will be hammered. And what about the new green boiler? Tory-voting households could end up with a combined £50,000 bill, over and above the usual replacement costs, and that is before the pricier meat and the more expensive foreign flights. Yes, all the spending will benefit plumbers and electricians, and workers in new Northern electric battery factories, but the tab will be picked up by a furious Southern middle class.

    It has been clear for years now that a major realignment of politics is taking place: values and education matter more than traditional class allegiance. Far more skilled, university educated, high income people have embraced Left-wing ideologies, a shift intensified by Brexit. The extent of this in Amersham and Chesham is being exaggerated, but it is a factor. One reason is that younger people are priced out of the housing market, partly because older voters oppose enough housebuilding, and are thus dissatisfied with capitalism.

    The Tory challenge is to hold on to enough of its old electorate, including Southern professionals in their late 30s and above while consolidating its epoch-defining gains with the working class. Yet the Tories don’t even have a strategy to attempt this: by embracing social democracy and abandoning capitalism (while struggling to find a coherent, workable message on housing) they have almost nothing positive to say to Remainerish, open-minded swing voters. This is madness as it is they who defected in Buckinghamshire.

    A proper Tory agenda on the economy, tax, housing (based around new towns and garden suburbs) and education would make a difference to this key cohort, and needn’t upset new recruits in the Red Wall.

    Johnson remains extraordinarily popular across Britain as a whole, and his policies on crime, the culture wars and Brexit are hugely better than Labour’s. But this week’s humiliating loss will be replicated all over the South if the Tories become synonymous with higher taxes and attacks on aspiration.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/18/beware-boris-start-southern-revolt-against-high-tax-eco-extreme/

    1. It’s weird, as the Lib Dems demand vastly higher taxes and even more government which, considering the horrific levvies and plans of the current tory one is saying something.

      Low taxes create jobs. Small government creates jobs. Jobs create spending and spending creates even more jobs.

      Green does not create jobs because that money comes from taxes. It is not spent on things people want, but what government tells them to so no new wealth is created. The tax payer is mugged and the mugger tells him what he will spend his own money on.

      1. I think the reason for a Liberal Vote was as the only alternative rather than Tory or Labour – thereby bearing out Ogga’s frequent ruminations on the subject.

        We really need an independent party with a manifesto worth voting for.

        1. So true. It is almost impossible to establish a new party in the UK. The Liberal Party has an extensive network of offices and infrastructure and a wonderful National Liberal Club with facilities in Westminster. All wasted at present.

          It has often occurred to me that should the Liberal Party return to its origins, shift out the wokist pseudo green Ed Davey’s of this world and replace them with leaders with a pro UK bias and interest they would be capable of competing at elections.

        2. So true. It is almost impossible to establish a new party in the UK. The Liberal Party has an extensive network of offices and infrastructure and a wonderful National Liberal Club with facilities in Westminster. All wasted at present.

          It has often occurred to me that should the Liberal Party return to its origins, shift out the wokist pseudo green Ed Davey’s of this world and replace them with leaders with a pro UK bias and interest they would be capable of competing at elections.

        3. 334482+ up ticks,
          Evening NtN,
          Precisely why REAL UKIP as shown by the year leadership via Gerard Batten fell foul of the triggered treachery meted out by the party nEc / nige input.

          1. You’ll notice I said, “With a manifesto worth voting for.” UKIP’s doesn’t and it’s no good mourning lost causes.

          3. 334482+ up ticks.
            NtN,
            I do beg to differ I am in no way “mourning lost causes” far from it, I am pointing out the stupidity of pursuing lost causes more like, in supporting / voting for the lab/lib/con proven anti United Kingdom .coalition party.

            It cannot be denied a multitude of the herd have followed blindly party names of long defunct parties that now exist ino.”
            They see a party making good ( UKIP under Batten ) they feel
            that their ino party is being threatened and watch as the
            making good party is kicked into touch.

            And so the cycle continues, see what happened to the referendum & ” leave it to the tories (ino)” classic lost cause.

        4. 334482+ up ticks,
          Evening NtN,
          Precisely why REAL UKIP as shown by the year leadership via Gerard Batten fell foul of the triggered treachery meted out by the party nEc / nige input.

      2. I think the reason for a Liberal Vote was as the only alternative rather than Tory or Labour – thereby bearing out Ogga’s frequent ruminations on the subject.

        We really need an independent party with a manifesto worth voting for.

    2. It’s weird, as the Lib Dems demand vastly higher taxes and even more government which, considering the horrific levvies and plans of the current tory one is saying something.

      Low taxes create jobs. Small government creates jobs. Jobs create spending and spending creates even more jobs.

      Green does not create jobs because that money comes from taxes. It is not spent on things people want, but what government tells them to so no new wealth is created. The tax payer is mugged and the mugger tells him what he will spend his own money on.

    3. There are probably lots of reasons why they lost yesterday. Primarily I suspect it comes down to one thing, bitter disappointment in Johnson. Exactly what is a personal matter to each voter, the list is long, HS2, going Woke, going Green with Princess Nut Nut, a bodged Brexit, many millions of pounds for cycle schemes
      including street closures, the threat to the green belt, being enthralled with SAGE and never ending Covid restrictions, driving hundreds or thousands of businesses to the brink of bankruptcy, the continuous stream of cross channel dinghies, and of course standing as a Conservative candidate but being anything but.
      Sorry if I missed anything off, I’m sure everybody can add to the list

          1. Where’s the raving monster loonie party when you want to cast a protest vote?

        2. Who else Maggie is capable of giving the Conservatives a reminder that they need to up their game. It became obvious to the voters of Chesham and Amersham only the Limp Dums could do it in this particular election.
          I guess you could call it tactical voting to give Johnson a well deserved kick up the backside.

    4. There are probably lots of reasons why they lost yesterday. Primarily I suspect it comes down to one thing, bitter disappointment in Johnson. Exactly what is a personal matter to each voter, the list is long, HS2, going Woke, going Green with Princess Nut Nut, a bodged Brexit, many millions of pounds for cycle schemes
      including street closures, the threat to the green belt, being enthralled with SAGE and never ending Covid restrictions, driving hundreds or thousands of businesses to the brink of bankruptcy, the continuous stream of cross channel dinghies, and of course standing as a Conservative candidate but being anything but.
      Sorry if I missed anything off, I’m sure everybody can add to the list

    5. 334482+ up ticks,
      Evening WS,
      If one has been voting lab/lib/con continually these last three decades then they are major players in the downfall of these Isles, that is an undeniable FACT.

    6. 334482+ up ticks,
      Evening WS,
      If one has been voting lab/lib/con continually these last three decades then they are major players in the downfall of these Isles, that is an undeniable FACT.

    7. “Bizarrely for a government of Brexiteers, the UK is embracing EU levels of public spending and taxes that have done so much to cripple growth and increase youth unemployment on the continent.” That’s because they are BINOs (Brexiteers In Name Only) and certainly not conservatives (with a large or small C).

  94. Further to my comment, earlier:

    Natural News
    British Airways confirms four pilots have died, says vaccines just a coincidence
    Mike Adams
    Reuters is now confirming that four British Airways pilots have died (all vaccinated of course), but the airline claims the vaccines are just a “coincidence.”
    Meanwhile, post-vaccine outbreaks are hitting cruise lines and now hundreds of doctors in Indonesia have been afflicted with covid after receiving vaccines, with some of them in critical care in hospitals, seeing oxygen saturation levels in their blood plummet.
    Today we bring you two important stories that document what’s happening:
    First, see this story about British Airways pilots dying.
    Secondly, this story about memory holing natural immunity (story and podcast)
    https://www.naturalnews.com/

    1. The question is this, which vaccine did the pilots & the doctors in Indonesia receive? All the reported complications & possible deaths seem to be down to the Astra Zenneca vaccine , so I was wondering if this is the case here.

      1. Information on the pilots is scant apart from on conspiracy theory sites. There seems to be confirmation that pilots have died but not when or how. Also no confirmation that the pilots had been vaccinated although it seems likely that they had.

        The Indonesian doctors were vaccinated with Sinovac which is one of the Chinese vaccines. They aren’t dying from the vaccine though. It is because they are contracting COVID-19 after having it. Basically it doesn’t work very well which I have also seen reported in South America.

          1. Thank god that boy blunder trudeau screwed up his deal with China otherwise Canada would have been stuck with the useless vaccine.

            As it is the AstraZeneca vaccine is causing a bit of an issue. US authorities are saying that they will only recognise vaccinations from authorised vaccines but AZ is not one of those. So come next winter, if we are allowed out to play, many of the 60+ age group who received AZ will have trouble getting into the US for their hols.

          2. Thank god that boy blunder trudeau screwed up his deal with China otherwise Canada would have been stuck with the useless vaccine.

            As it is the AstraZeneca vaccine is causing a bit of an issue. US authorities are saying that they will only recognise vaccinations from authorised vaccines but AZ is not one of those. So come next winter, if we are allowed out to play, many of the 60+ age group who received AZ will have trouble getting into the US for their hols.

          4. I don’t know the figures but my understanding is that countries like Brazil and Peru are not impressed at all. On the other hand they are impressed with the Chinese supplying it for next to nothing apart from geopolitical advantage.

      2. Information on the pilots is scant apart from on conspiracy theory sites. There seems to be confirmation that pilots have died but not when or how. Also no confirmation that the pilots had been vaccinated although it seems likely that they had.

        The Indonesian doctors were vaccinated with Sinovac which is one of the Chinese vaccines. They aren’t dying from the vaccine though. It is because they are contracting COVID-19 after having it. Basically it doesn’t work very well which I have also seen reported in South America.

    2. The question is this, which vaccine did the pilots & the doctors in Indonesia receive? All the reported complications & possible deaths seem to be down to the Astra Zenneca vaccine , so I was wondering if this is the case here.

    3. This BA death story was discussed at length earlier. It’s bogus, just another conspiracy story from a Twitter idiot desperate to get his 15 minutes of attention.

  95. Further to my comment, earlier:

    Natural News
    British Airways confirms four pilots have died, says vaccines just a coincidence
    Mike Adams
    Reuters is now confirming that four British Airways pilots have died (all vaccinated of course), but the airline claims the vaccines are just a “coincidence.”
    Meanwhile, post-vaccine outbreaks are hitting cruise lines and now hundreds of doctors in Indonesia have been afflicted with covid after receiving vaccines, with some of them in critical care in hospitals, seeing oxygen saturation levels in their blood plummet.
    Today we bring you two important stories that document what’s happening:
    First, see this story about British Airways pilots dying.
    Secondly, this story about memory holing natural immunity (story and podcast)
    https://www.naturalnews.com/

  96. LAST POST. If you are interested in Space and Science – try to watch on PBS America UK:

    MISSION CONTROL: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF APOLLO

    Brilliant – rivetting. A group of men in their 80s and 90s explaining what they did and how – with archive film (including the ever irritating James Berk (sic) from “Tomorrow’s World” showing why he was so disliked!!

    1. Tomorrow’s World.. A blast from the past

      Did anyone, apart from me, watch the Great Egg Race on BBC2

    2. Tomorrow’s World.. A blast from the past

      Did anyone, apart from me, watch the Great Egg Race on BBC2

    3. My Dad – who was a physicist, hated James Burk! It happened the night that Burk said you shouldn’t put salt in pasta until it was cooked, otherwise it became tough! I remember Dad rising out of his chair and shouting!

    4. My Dad – who was a physicist, hated James Burk! It happened the night that Burk said you shouldn’t put salt in pasta until it was cooked, otherwise it became tough! I remember Dad rising out of his chair and shouting!

    5. In the late 90s and early 2000s had the privilege of working with some of those individuals when I was working on an American satellite programme. If you saw Apollo 13 you might recall when they went into the room to design the rescue package, one of my colleagues was the engineer who led that activity. They were all very special individuals.

  97. LAST POST. If you are interested in Space and Science – try to watch on PBS America UK:

    MISSION CONTROL: THE UNSUNG HEROES OF APOLLO

    Brilliant – rivetting. A group of men in their 80s and 90s explaining what they did and how – with archive film (including the ever irritating James Berk (sic) from “Tomorrow’s World” showing why he was so disliked!!

  98. I see Shamima Begum’s lawyers are claiming she was ‘a victim of child trafficking’. From the videos of her and two friends passing through Heathrow in 2015 I couldn’t see any force being used on them.

    3. Begum didn’t seem to show signs of being trafficked in the interview where she nonchelantly talked about seeing beheaded heads in the bin.

      What I think of Begum’s lawyers doesn’t take repeating here.

    4. Begum didn’t seem to show signs of being trafficked in the interview where she nonchelantly talked about seeing beheaded heads in the bin.

      What I think of Begum’s lawyers doesn’t take repeating here.

      1. Her father took her to several hard line Muslim marches and brainwashing sessions. I think they were delighted with their progeny.

  99. I see Shamima Begum’s lawyers are claiming she was ‘a victim of child trafficking’. From the videos of her and two friends passing through Heathrow in 2015 I couldn’t see any force being used on them.

    1. BTL: “Disgusting behaviour – where do they think they are, the G7?”

    2. The football was bollocks, England were lamentable, and so these Covid restrictions imposed on the rest of us are also complete bollocks.

      Time to tell Boris, Hancock and SAGE to go and fuck themselves.

    1. Why should politicians and sports bodies be exempt from covid restrictions?

    2. But when an XR or other left wing march has passed through, these virtue-signallers couldn’t care less about the rubbish left behind.

  103. I’m too bored with Wendyball and the multimillionaires preaching racism and intolerance to watch the current match. Checking the score, it seems England are as hopeless and over-hyped as their kneeling. Now I’m convinced that they only kneel to take attention away from their ineptitude.

    Edit: FT 0-0. A broke junkie has more chance of scoring than this lot.

      1. A reason that a don’t watch football any more. If you see a close up, the players have wonderful ball handling but the flow of play just seems to be missing nowadays.

        1. We have the most boring and negative manager on the planet! Stultifying football from a guy with no idea!

        2. We have the most boring and negative manager on the planet! Stultifying football from a guy with no idea!

      2. A reason that a don’t watch football any more. If you see a close up, the players have wonderful ball handling but the flow of play just seems to be missing nowadays.

  104. Evening, all. I’ve done lots of walking and some gardening (weeding, positioning the roses for the extension to the rose bed and planting the clematis I bought the other day) today. Hopefully I’ll be getting fitter and losing a bit of lockdown weight.

      1. Hello, Maggie. Very much, thank you. Oscar is asleep by my side at the moment. He is improving at mealtimes; he had severe guarding issues when I first fed him, but now he is slowly learning not to bark, jump up and grab – instead he sits and waits until I put his dish down and tell him “okay”. Not bad for less than a fortnight, I think.

        1. After fifteen years, one of our cat shad still not caught onto controlled feeding.

          1. I get the impression Oscar is actually quite bright – and nowhere near as deaf as I was told he was!

          2. Selective hearing?

            Our cats could hear the food cupboard being opened from anywhere in the house but would not even twitch an ear when you talked to them.

      2. Hello, Maggie. Very much, thank you. Oscar is asleep by my side at the moment. He is improving at mealtimes; he had severe guarding issues when I first fed him, but now he is slowly learning not to bark, jump up and grab – instead he sits and waits until I put his dish down and tell him “okay”. Not bad for less than a fortnight, I think.

    3. I got a couple of hours of ground elder and bramble pulling before the rain started.
      Slight problem, I’m trying to weed a not quite vertical bank and am doing a good job of loosening the soil for it to drop down the bank.
      I could do with another terrace wall!

      1. I have several areas of ground elder still to tackle. Weedkiller (applied before I got Oscar) doesn’t seem to have touched it.

        1. Cutting every shoot as it popped its head above the ground over two years worked for me.

          1. I’m trying to get the roots out.
            There is a massive amount on the level above the bank that needs to be done too.

          2. My mother spent years on that kind of crusade, complaining that a single inch of root left in the soil would re-start. It didn’t work!
            It’s much easier to do a daily round to cut the shoots off as they appear.
            Good luck anyway – I’m just about to raise a couple of flagstones and remove couch grass from underneath them. I will then plant those orange French marigolds between the stones, as they are said to have very thick roots that can even crowd out couch grass. We’ll see.

          3. I am trying to do that with the area I have already cleared – I zap it whenever I see a new shoot. The problem is it has infested the whole of one border, so I need to get it down to manageable proportions before I can apply that method.

      1. Hello, Sue. Oscar is fine, thank you (and fast asleep at the moment). He seems to be happy, and I am certainly much less miserable than I was when I was dogless.

          1. Thank you, Sue. People keep saying that Oscar has fallen on his paws. I keep telling him that, but I’m not sure he’s convinced 🙂

          4. I think it was meant to be, Tom. I really wanted a Border Terrier or a Patterdale, but my attempts to get one of those all failed. We were second choice for Oscar, but the first choice turned him down. I was so desperate to have a dog (any dog), I was prepared to overlook his flaws and quirks. I will work on them anyway and will make him a lovely dog in time, I’m sure.

    1. The commentary was absolutely dire! I think they only saw the Scottish team! Really dreadful! And what can I say about David Moyes…abysmal!

      1. I am astonished at the exaggerated ‘performances’ of allegedly bumped/ tripped players – aimed at maximising the penalty eg Red Card …

        Its definitely not cricket!

          7. I had to enkarge that to make sure I was reading it properly….. (I wasn’t…)

          8. People used to speak in awe about my googlies, but that’s was a long time ago!

      2. Matched Engerland’s performance. They were like a dog chasing a car, which if it caught up with it, the dog wouldn’t know what to do with it.

    2. The commentary was absolutely dire! I think they only saw the Scottish team! Really dreadful! And what can I say about David Moyes…abysmal!

  107. I note the authorities are now offering ‘free’ vaccinations to spotty youths whose wish is foremost to attend those drug infested ‘music festivals’ that we see all over the country where wogs with hold-alls flog their wares to supposedly progressive youth.

    This country is all but lost.

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