Tuesday 29 June: How the Hancock shambles looks in the eyes of a staunch Conservative

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/28/letters-hancock-shambles-looks-eyes-staunch-conservative/

510 thoughts on “Tuesday 29 June: How the Hancock shambles looks in the eyes of a staunch Conservative”

  2. Major overhaul of Border Force after failure to stem flow of Channel migrants. 29 June 2021.

    The Home Office has ordered a major overhaul of the Border Force amid growing frustration over the failure to stem the flow of illegal Channel migrants.

    The two directors general of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement are to quit their posts and will be replaced by a single supremo tasked with curbing the crossings and overhauling Britain’s “broken” asylum system.

    Consultants are also said to have been recruited to investigate a merger of the two Home Office directorates as the Government seeks to regain the initiative after a doubling in illegal migrant crossings this year and the failure to deport any to “safe” third countries.

    Morning everyone. More time wasting waffle cover for what is the government policy of mass immigration !

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/28/major-overhaul-border-force-failure-stem-flow-channel-migrants/

    2. We knew there was a problem with the Border Force when border controllers were cut back by the Brown Government and it was brought up as an issue by Nick Clegg during the 2010 General Election.

      So why wasn’t anything done about it when Clegg’s party got into Government?

      Nick Clegg is now an executive director of a $1 trillion corporation that is above the law (no judge can touch it now) in a Californian mansion and therefore being made to pay for his negligence.

      [edited for typo]

      1. Morning Jeremy. It was always a scam designed to mislead the population into believing that they were doing something about immigration!

        1. During the height of Blair’s deregulation of border controls for those whose lives matter, it took five years and endless hoops to jump through just to get my Filipina girlfriend a tourist visa to come to my country for three weeks. Several times, she had to travel to Manila (about the distance from London to Rome) to attend interviews with the British Embassy, only to have her application rejected based on a “balance of probabilities” that she might abscond. Each time, the waiting time was about 12 weeks.

          This included sending “for security reasons” my personal identity documents and bank statements to an unsecured office in Manila contracted by the British Embassy, and sending a sum of money to the Philippines for months in the hope that her family and friends could be trusted not to dip into it. I had to provide proof that I was in stable employment, and so did she. Due to a downturn in the market, we managed to get a few weeks unpaid leave for her and an undertaking to keep her job open for her to return to. This had to be done twice, since they failed to get the visa done by Christmas, and had to reschedule it for Easter. By then, she’d spent all the money and I lost confidence in her.

          For me to get a visa to her country, it cost me a fiver and I was able to complete all the clearance documents on the plane, with a cheerful warning that I might not live long if I was a drug dealer.

          In the end, I gave up that project after they put such restrictions on spouse visas. I knew that I was never again going to be in secure job drawing a salary of more than £18,000, and that Government had told me that since I was not “a net contributor to society”, I had no right to family life. I had another girlfriend by then, but had to let her go, since I did not want to raise her hopes any longer.

          Feminism, the changing aspirations of women my age, it being considered “inappropriate” and “abusive” for heterosexuals to engage in courtship initiation in social settings, and marriage redefinition has made it practically impossible for someone like me to find a wife locally.

          1. A friend (British) repatriated from Malaysia a couple years ago, with his Malay wife and children, to Bristol and a good position as a senior engineer.
            Except… the embassy lost his passport when he applied for a visa for his family. They then lost the evidence papers of his employment. Interviews – at least, they lived in KL, so access wasn’t too bad. Disbelief, refusal to accept Malay wedding certificates. Oh, yes, and huge fees.
            When they finally got to Heathrow, the eldest son was refused entry, seemingly upon a whim and having all his papers in order. He was returned to Malaysia.
            Utter farce, and total nightmare.

          2. This was the cause of the breakup of my five-year relationship in 2009. When I first got involved with her in 2004 on a side trip after visiting my dying father in Australia (he actually lived another 15 months, and I repeated the trip a year later), I told her that I would not commit to her unless she had visited my country and seen what it was really like. Then she could make a good decision about our future, rather than one based on romantic fantasy.

            We finally got all the evidence we needed by October 2008 for a successful tourist visa application with me sponsoring her visit. It was my last chance to do this, since I had actually been sacked from my zero hours driving job for eating sandwiches during my lunch break, when they expected me to work through. I still had enough payslips though for her application.

            I sent her £500 with the instruction to keep it safe for whatever expenses would be needed for the journey when the visa came through, which it did in January 2009. She then arranged some more unpaid leave over Easter to clear a way for the trip. Her birthday was in March, so I decided that would be a good day to buy the return air ticket. As I was online to the travel agent, I said she needed to draw £30 from the money I sent her to buy travel insurance, since she would not be covered by the NHS, and it was something that had to be arranged in the Philippines. Also, I told her to change £100 into British currency, so that if challenged in Heathrow, she could say she had enough money to travel home if I failed to meet her at the airport or we fell out while she was in the UK. Otherwise, they would simply not let her through.

            She told me that she had already spent all the money I sent her in October, because her mother had to go into hospital, but I suspect that it was blown on a Christmas party with her friends. If you have anything in the Philippines, you share it around; it is their culture, and it was how I was able to find love there and not here. It did tell me how much she valued our relationship though. I drew my own conclusions, abandoned buying her the ticket and our relationship ended on that day.

            If the British Embassy had given us the same laxity they offer to violent jihadis or Romanian pickpockets, then we could have got it all sorted out in 2004, and decided then if we had a future together.

    3. Major overhaul of Border Force after failure to stem flow of Channel migrants.

      Consultants are also said to have been recruited

      Ah, the good old consultant scam that enables more taxpayers’ money to be channelled to supportive chums. Reality will probably result in a change of name and a few useless bods being replaced with a larger number of equally useless bods, all drenched in lashings of government spin.

    4. There is no “failure to stem the flow”, What kind of crap is this? They have been actively engaged in encouraging and participating in it!

  4. Good morning all.

    The Telegraph is leading on how much harm the lockdowns have caused to children:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/

    Could the tide finally be turning? Will people finally wake up to the harms caused by this year-long national holiday? Children neither succumb to nor transmit the virus, yet they have born the heaviest burden. Isolated from their friends for months, missing out on their schooling and childhood experiences which can never be repeated, taught to believe that everyone and everything around them is a source of infection and if they get close to another person they will “kill granny.”

    But hey, children are resilient right? Lets wait and see if over the years to come the impact on the young can be shrugged off so glibly.

    1. A neighbour’s teenage daughter has been a nightmare since lockdown started. Recently she decided that she wanted to be a boy and demands to be known by a boy’s name. Now back at school, the school panders to her and her GP has sent her into a gender reassignment program. Her parents are worried sick and hope that a return to normality will resolve what seems to be state-encouraged attention-seeking.

      Another neighbour’s child hasn’t seen her brother for a year as he is in an education charity-sponsored place at boarding school that requires him to isolate.

      Another neighbour’s twins run away and hide back in their house when they see anyone. They have become withdrawn at school and only interact with adults.

      There’s a lot of recovery to be done. Judging by my experience batting for a relative, services are overwhelmed and most parents will be on their own other than an offer of antidepressants from their GP.

      Suffer the little children . . . .

      1. Last summer, I brought a nine year-old friend of my daughters round for a play date. On the drive home, she told me that my daughter was the first child she had seen other than her brother in six months. It broke my heart.

        But don’t worry, the resources of the State and children’s charities are standing by! There is a long, multi-signatory letter in the Telegraph today from various children’s charities. Where were they when the government was closing schools and playgrounds? Children need to play with their friends and have the stability that this Covid existence will end and never return. They do not need ‘mental health’ support and the threat of more lockdowns in the autumn.

        1. I could not agree more. Just want to scream every time I hear some idiot bleating “mental health” now.

          1. It’s the new buzzword BB – a new invention, never had it in the old days – we just got on with life

        2. There will be no effective mental health support, not in the autumn, not never.

      2. Having watched one granddaughter’s first two years at university dribble away in lecturer strikes and then 18 months of Zoom lectures and also seen my two youngest grandchildren become scratchy and unmotivated, I will never, ever forgive this government for what they’ve done. The knowledge that the ‘opposition’ would do the same is no comfort.
        At last something approaching the freedom that we took for granted at their age is now happening; but we – and they – know it is now conditional. What Our Rulers giveth, Our Rulers can take away.
        In my youth, that sort of capricious attitude towards people’s freedom was the preserve of regimes like Soviet Russia or Mao’s China.

      3. It isn’t just parents that are on their own when dealing with medical problems. They will be lucky if they even manage to see a GP to get anti-depressants.

    2. So much being written on children’s education, or rather the lack of it, with the majority of the scribblings assigning the blame to the virus. I wonder which of the many behavioural scientists who infest SAGE thought this ruse up? The government’s attack is across society as a whole and disrupting the lives and education of our children is an emotive subject, and in the eyes of evil, a legitimate target.

      1. Could it be the behavioural scientist who happily admits to being a Communist?

        Have the Communists ever had the best interests of this country at heart?

        1. Oh yes – they way they shared all our secrets with the Rooshians proves it…

          1. The old World Peace argument.
            If the Ruskies also had the knowledge to build a bomb, a balance of power would be kept so nobody got nuked.

        2. Until Operation Barbarossa (when the Russo-German pact broke down), British communists were actively involved in sabotaging our war effort.

      2. They must not be allowed to get away with blaming all this harm on the virus. It was their insane and disproportionate RESPONSE to the virus which caused all this.

        We should have just protected the vulnerable and let the rest of us get on with our lives. How could that possibly have been worse?

        1. JK, they are working to an agenda that doesn’t chime with either normal medical practice or common sense. Many more people need to wake up to what Johnson has planned for us.

  5. I would stake my life on Labour losing in Batley’. Spiked. 29 June 2021.

    I remember talking to Tony Blair in 1996 and asking him what was up for grabs – what he could change as Labour leader. Would he even consider supporting capital punishment? He said everything was up for grabs. Everything. The party didn’t stand for anything.

    Over the following 20 years, working-class voters began to desert it. In northern areas, they drifted more and more away from Labour, many of them voting for independent candidates instead. These voters are basically old-fashioned Labour people, who know that there’s a class war, who believe it needs to be fought and who don’t go along with any of the identitarian rubbish that the Labour Party currently produces.

    I would disagree with Rod here! The Labour Party actually walked away from the White Working Class. They did this partly because they hate them (and still do)and considered them unreformable and that they would still vote Labour having nowhere else to go. This latter attitude has now evaporated and Labour faces extinction at the polls. The Cultural Marxist vote (Gays, Muslims. Immigrants) is not sufficient on its own to get them into Government !

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/28/i-would-stake-my-life-on-labour-losing-in-batley/

    1. ogga urges us to vote for independents and never for Lib/Lab/Con. But just like true Labour supporters Conservative supporters have nowhere else to go.

    2. Happy to disagree with you. Mrs Thatcher & various shifts in the UK economy allowed many ‘working class’ people to upgrade to ‘middle class’, eg by buying a council house. Once you have a mortgage and a property, you tend to look askance at socialism.

      1. That’s why Labour was determined to destroy grammar schools. They were instruments of upward social mobility and Labour couldn’t have that.

  6. Good morning, all. Grey.

    A major overhaul of Border Farce? That’ll go well…..

      1. When the “migrants” were unhappy with being accommodated in an Army barracks, they set it alight.

        The Government promptly moved them into hotels.

        Will the same happen when they set their accommodation alight in Africa?

          1. But not yet subsidised by the British taxpayer….but I did enjoy your witty comment.

          4. Another idea which the politicians haven’t thought through. It will mean many more immigrants coming here, probably with their families in tow.
            The Border force should protect our borders according to our legislation and no legal aid should be given to the invaders.
            A redundant cruise boat in the widest part of the channel should be where the invaders are taken for sorting out. Africa is a no no.

      2. Why do those in the press and the government invariably speak about Africa as though it is a country?

        1. or even an aspiration?
          “Africa, gateway to the future” (apologies to Peter Sellers, Frank Muir & Denis Norden)

  7. Chris Whitty: Police investigate video of Chief Medical Officer being harassed by two men. 29 June 2021.

    As he tries to walk away, a man can be heard saying: “Just one photo, please.” Another says: “One photo, mate.”

    As Prof Whitty attempts to walk away, the men grab him again. With a line of police vans visible in the background, a voice is heard saying “Leave the gentleman alone” before the clip ends.

    Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi condemned the incident, tweeting: “This is disgusting and these thugs must be found and charged. Zero tolerance for harassing a public servant.”

    Thugs? Aside from the hypocrisy of Zahawi of all people accusing people of harassment when did asking for a photograph become a public order offence?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/29/chris-whitty-police-investigate-video-chief-medical-officer/

      1. The fashionable restraint method is a knee on the throat. Watch tonight’s football match to see how it’s done.

      2. He should be grateful he didn’t get the Simon of Sudbury treatment.
        I am not capable of behaving like that, but I can well understand it.

  8. Morning all

    Here are some of the letters.

    SIR – My daughter, who is sitting her GCSEs next year, has been sent home from school yet again to isolate for 10 days, following “close contact” with someone who had positive lateral flow and PCR test results. They sat near, not even next to, each other on a bus.

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    She has been doing daily lateral flow tests (all negative) for weeks. Yet she, and five other pupils, have once more had their education disrupted on the instruction of Public Health England. She is now on her fourth iteration of online school since March 2020.

    Now that all adults have had the chance to be vaccinated, and given what we know about the effect of Covid on children and teenagers, it is time for a change of policy.

    This generation of pupils has already suffered so much disruption. We owe it to them to stop unnecessary isolations and further reliance on online school, which will always be a poor second to teaching in person.

    Dr Sophy Jubb

    King’s Cliffe, Northamptonshire

    SIR – Judy Murray is right: children need experience of winning and losing. This enables them to develop skills and strategies for tackling future challenges.

    School sports day plays a part in this.

    Anna Hare

    Helmsley, North Yorkshire

    Second edition

    SIR – I don’t see what is strange about having two copies of the same book (Letters, June 28).

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    If nothing else, my two copies of Arthur Mee’s Wiltshire will save my daughters arguing over who has it when I am gone.

    John Newbury

    Warminster, Wiltshire

    Advertising ban in the battle against obesity

    Joe, ‘the fat boy’ from Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, by Harold Copping (1863-1932)

    Joe, ‘the fat boy’ from Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, by Harold Copping (1863-1932) CREDIT: alamy

    SIR – Despite vigorous opposition from industry lobbyists, the Government is pushing ahead with plans to protect children from being targeted by junk-food advertisements on television and online.

    This is right, and the Government should take much credit for introducing a policy that will help improve the health of children for years to come.

    Obesity is a major public health challenge in Britain, and all sectors, including the advertising and food and drinks industries, have a role to play in making the healthy option the easy option for everyone.

    As industries with strong track records in innovation and creativity, we are confident they will adapt.

    We look forward to this bold step being passed into law in the upcoming Health and Care Bill.

    John Maingay

    Director of Policy and Influencing, British Heart Foundation

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    Ian Walker

    Executive Director of Policy, Information and Communications, Cancer Research UK

    Chris Askew

    Chief Executive, Diabetes UK

    James Toop

    CEO, Bite Back 2030

    Caroline Cerny

    Alliance Lead, Obesity Health Alliance

    SIR – Should the Government also ban the Great British Bake Off television series, which does little to solve the obesity crisis?

    Robin Clark

    Calne, Wiltshire

    Weddings as pilot schemes for unlocking

    SIR – It will be good news for many that the semi-finals and final of the Euro 2020 football tournament can go ahead safely with 60,000 spectators, following successful pilot schemes.

    What a pity a few pilot schemes weren’t included in less high-profile events. Maybe then couples could have had their weddings as originally planned. Thousands of school children could perhaps have had their sports days with families watching, as well as attended transition days to their new schools, and enjoyed so many other events that are important parts of their school lives.

    Elizabeth Bleakley

    High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

    1. And here are the rest.

      SIR – What a shambles! I am a staunch Conservative but I have to agree with comments made by Sir Keir Starmer on the news channels.

      The Prime Minister made two huge errors. He should have sacked Dominic Cummings after his spree at Barnard Castle and Matt Hancock immediately, instead of saying, after he had received an apology, that the matter was “closed”.

      The Prime Minister needs to be more like Churchill, who had the strength of character to replace at least one close friend in his Cabinet during the Second World War as he deemed it necessary.

      Marianna, Viscountess Monckton of Brenchley

      Harrietsham, Kent

      SIR – I would venture to suggest that an explanation for the PM’s apparently relaxed attitude to Matt Hancock’s misdemeanours is that he had sufficient political savvy not to risk being labelled hypocritical, thus acknowledging the accepted wisdom of the old adage “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones”.

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      Jean Hoseason

      Esher, Surrey

      Placeholder image for youtube video: YNRocSuUVko

      SIR – The Prime Minister has made a good choice in Sajid Javid as the new Health Secretary, particularly as, with his financial background, he will be well placed to confront the ever-increasing cost of the NHS. He will have a very full inbox.

      One job should be to discuss with the Education Secretary the training of medical personnel. Currently, Britain trains only 7,100 doctors a year and relies on importing almost the same number from abroad. There are similar discrepancies for nursing staff.

      When such medical staff come from the Third World, where they are even more needed, it shames this country.

      Michael Staples

      Seaford, East Sussex

      SIR – Will the new Health Secretary provide us with a health service that works? The recent fiasco regarding the behaviour of many GPs highlights the fact that something needs to change.

      GPs operate as a regulated private business with a guaranteed income based on the number of patients registered with them.

      We need the system to operate in a similar pattern to that for dentists and opticians, whose income depends on the service provided for a fee paid by the patient. Dentists and opticians send out reminders for check-ups, as without clients their income is zero. There is no such incentive for GPs.

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      There are many ways of covering needy patients, but the principle is to make people aware that a cost is involved and that there is no such thing as a free service.

      Instead of treating private healthcare as something nasty, it should be welcomed as a vital element in reducing demand on the NHS.

      There is a need to give tax relief again to those who subscribe to private healthcare.

      Royston Edwards

      Cobham, Surrey

      Placeholder image for youtube video: u381G_Ds0Ng

      Secret documents

      SIR – Surely the correct action on finding sensitive official documents in a public place is to hand them in to the police, not put them in the hands of the BBC.

      In revealing the papers and broadcasting excerpts from them, the BBC has displayed a serious degree of irresponsibility and shown a dismal lack of respect for aspects of security.

      Tertius Jardine

      London W4

      SIR – It is appalling that classified military documents have turned up in a public place.

      For its part, the BBC has allowed staff to scrutinise “Secret UK Eyes Only” documents and broadcast some of the highly sensitive content relating to current military operations. Perhaps the corporation should be investigated for its part in this serious breach of national security – or just erase the word “British” from its title.

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      Sir Gerald Howarth

      Chelsworth, Suffolk

      Banks fail customers

      SIR – As a retired old-fashioned bank manager, I can answer Peter Robinson’s question, “Will banks ever again put the customer first?” (Letters, June 27).

      Banks have moved away from any thought of customer service in their pursuit of profit. They have imposed online banking so that the customer does the work, closed branches to cut costs (and hence personal contact), refused to take cash as it is too expensive, ceased to send statements and made customers use centralised call centres. Try asking for a bridging loan to move house or a first-proceeds advance to pay estate duty and you will be met with a blank stare.

      Judgment and knowledge of the customer are no longer used. If the computer has no algorithm or can’t credit score it, you can forget it, along with safekeeping for your valuables or will. It will only get worse for the poor old customer.

      Tony Foot

      Mosterton, Dorset

      Top ranking

      SIR – Why, when their letters are published, are retired military officers allowed their old, defunct titles as, for example, in Major John Smith (retd)?

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      As a retired mechanical engineer, perhaps I should also enjoy this privilege.

      Mech Eng Rupert Wilson (retd)

      Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

      Children after Covid

      SIR – Despite the Prime Minister’s pledges, the needs of babies, children and young people have all too often been overlooked in pandemic policy-making.

      In particular, the closure of schools and nurseries has deprived children not just of educational opportunities, but also of the chance to exercise, socialise and enjoy activities vital for their physical and mental health.

      Experts recently warned that up to 1.5 million extra children and young people in England could require mental-health support because of the pandemic. With the final hurdles in the return to “normality” in sight, it’s time to put this right and stop the piecemeal approach to policy-making.

      The Government must produce a new vision of childhood to help children, young people and their families to recover from the impact of Covid-19.

      Their voices must be at the heart of plans to rebuild, backed by renewed investment in the services and workforce that they rely on.

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      This will require action across Whitehall and in town halls to improve education, health, early years, youth and social care services. It must be accompanied by a commitment to protect children facing additional challenges, like those with disabilities, those from minority communities and those growing up in poverty.

      Our children and young people deserve better. Only by putting them at the heart of policy-making can we build a better future for our country.

      1. Our children and young people deserve better. Only by putting them at the heart of policy-making can we build a better future for our country.

        This is just meaningless Political Cant!

      2. Tertius Jardine?, Vicountess Monkton?, Sir Gerald Howarth?

        Yesterday it was Nigel Smith.

        Gerald Howarth …As a Monday Club Executive in 1972 Howarth appeared with Jimmy Savile and Jeremy Thorpe in a Liberal Party, party political broadcast.[9] Wiki.

        Personally, i’m a little bit picky about who i associate with.

        1. Same here. I wouldn’t dream of being photographed with Theresa May, David Cameron or Boris Johnson.

      3. Royston Edwards makes this point: “Instead of treating private healthcare as something nasty, it should be welcomed as a vital element in reducing demand on the NHS. There is a need to give tax relief again to those who subscribe to private healthcare.”

        If you wish to use private health care and private education in France you are not robbed of the education and health care for which you have paid with your taxes or compulsory state insurance schemes.

        To simplify with an example: if I had to have a hip replacement and the cost of this to be done privately was € 20,000 then the state insurance scheme – to which I have to contribute would pay, say £8,000 € towards the cost and I would have to fund the 12,000 € deficit myself from my own voluntary insurance scheme or out of my own pocket. In Britain, if I went “private” I would get no state help just as I would get no state help if I educated my children privately.

        Of course it would benefit both the state healthcare and education systems if more people used the private sector as it would reduce the pressure on the state systems. But the British system is too deeply based on resentment and envy to consider more intelligent solutions.

        1. Private health care makes use of expensive NHS facilities such as operating theatres MRA scanners and the like. The NHS hires out these facilities. The hire costs are included in the patient’s bill. The patient thereby pays twice.

        2. During the1990s, tax relief was introduced for pensioners; they received a tax allowance for their private health insurance payments. One of Blair’s first acts was to cancel that benefit.
          (The other was to cancel the Assisted Places scheme which gave poorer pupils access to good private schools.)

    2. Director of Policy and Influencing?

      What about the sweets and chocolates at eye level for children at supermarket checkouts? A subject that has been talked about for the last 40 years.

      Wanker.

      1. Good morning all.
        What about the lack of facilities at state schools for brushing one’s teeth after lunch?

        Good point Phizzee.

        1. Good morning to you.

          I’m in a strange mood today. I’m shouting and swearing and screaming in a black & white silent movie. I think i’m going mad.

          The only place to brush ones teeth would have been at a sink in the lavatory. Not a good idea.

          I was the youngest of six children. We shared a toothbrush. If my parents weren’t dead i would kill them.

          1. Hold on in there Phizzee, to everything you have achieved, and to the funny, clever, kind, irreverent man you have made of yourself, who earns genuine liking from other people.* +

            *If they don’t like you, f*k’em.
            + and from Dolly of course

          3. Reflect on the many generous things you have done for other people.

            KBO. Throw all the tablets away. Just an idea.

          4. I sometimes get similar. I know my mood has been heavily influenced by gut health in the past.
            Can also be influenced by medication, so if it persists and you are on medication, perhaps worth reviewing that.
            Lack of sleep or low blood sugar can also play tricks with the mind.
            Usually it goes away fairly soon.
            Eating dark chocolate or other carbs sometimes helps my mood.

          5. I think it’s the season.
            I’m in a particularly poor frame of mind these days too. Stress, and the lack of much to look forward to apart from more of the same crap, doesn’t help.
            KBO, mate.

          8. It could just be the season and the unseasonable weather – it’s summer for goodness’ sake, yet it’s cold, dull and damp 🙁 I’ve been very low these last few days, missing Charlie like mad and can’t put the images of his last day out of my mind. Today is a weekly anniversary. I will snap out of it eventually, but it’s tough at the moment.

          10. It gets many of us – the anger and despair at the same time. As bb2 says, focus on what you are now, how you have come through hell, to be the lovely person that people will travel miles to meet up with…

            Have a rant – it’s good for you! xxx

          11. Morning Phizzee,

            It is a dull dank damp day, and you are probably needful of some one to rant onto , then settle down with with a bacon buttie and a cup of tea.

            Do you have anyone to help you with basic things , I gather you can’t drive yet.

            Please kick this mood out of the window , and focus on the things growing in your garden and Dolly .

            You are well thought of… just whistle a happy tune eh?

    3. Teaching has been in a mess for some time. My son, Henry, who is bilingual, has a very intelligent girlfriend who has a Masters’ degree in Maths and is now half way through her Ph.D studies. But when she was at school in the course of her GCSE studies she had 15 different French teachers and learnt nothing and so did not even take the exam. Of course if one wishes to follow an academic career and travel in one’s studies it is extremely useful to have some knowledge of other languages.

      1. When I was in my third year at grammar school I had eight different maths teachers a week – one for each lesson! I was rubbish at maths even before this happened.

      1. 334905+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        It must be acceptable by many also as the voting pattern
        supporting the mass uncontrolled immigration coalition shows, with very little opposition.

    2. This is, of course, disgraceful but does it not raise the question: “Is is better that they attack Labour politicians or that they terrorise and get sacked a teacher who tried to do his job and teach Comparative Religion in school?”

      When I was at school we didn’t “do” Comparative Religion – we did Scripture. As so much art, music and literature is based on stories in the Bible a sound knowledge of it is essential if we wish to understand our cultural heritage.

      For example, when we were studying the poetical works of John Milton we had also to have a passing acquaintance with Greek and Roman mythology but without some knowledge of the Bible the student would find his work almost completely incomprehensible.

      2. 334905+ up ticks,
        Bob,
        Judging by those that are being voted into positions of power
        it does come across as many are doing just that, and even voting for more of the same.

        Batley & Spen will show the voting trend.

  10. Re the BPAPM’s lies about sacking Halfcock. I think he hates confrontation of any kind. That’s why he didn’t sack Cummings (but left it to his harrdian); that’s why he said the Halfcock affair was “now closed” (before Carrion insisted that he sacked him – and replaced him with her special spamhead pal). That’s why he married the harridan – because she insisted and he hadn’t the balls to refuse.

    I’ll get me white coat.

    2. Confrontation requires a different set of skills. WSC, being an ex army officer, could manage & dismiss people.
      At the risk of sounding judgemental, I tolerated Mr Hancock’s mediocre performance as Health Secretary, but was distressed that a balding middle aged man would put his libido ahead of the best interests of his children.

  11. OT – Vaccine news. I have had two doses of the Astra one. Apart from a sore arm – no obvious side effects. However … a month ago I began to have blotches on various parts of my arms. To begin with, I ignored them, because at my advanced age, if I bang into something, a large blotch appears. The, a the same time, every evening my ankles and feet were very swollen.

    The MR did some smurfing and discovered that – among many other things – blotches and swollen feet were recognised side effects of the Astra jab.

    In the last week, the swollen feet have returned to normal; and the blotches have gone.

    This public service announcement is aid for by the world-beating NHS. Clap.

    2. I recently met someone I know who was telling me all about her vaccine (she’s about 40), and I couldn’t help noticing that her arms were blotchy. I wondered if it was a vaxx side-effect, as she usually has good skin.

      Glad your side effects have gone away.

    4. I considered the jabs were more risky than Corvid so did no have them (nor will I ) Their clinical trails have 2 years to run.

  12. Good morning, my friends

    If the Daily Telegraph is so terrified of what the readers think then I do not know why they offer any platforms at all for people to express their views in BTL comments

    I have had the same experience as Sarah Curtis. I expect other Nottlers have too.

    Sarah Curtis
    29 Jun 2021 9:16AM
    I’m being heavily moderated today, so will sign off. Been reduced from top comment to 1 and had comments on other articles removed. At a time when free speech is paramount, I find this totally unacceptable.

    2. Because they are terrified of my scepticism to their “news”, they don’t get my subscription….

  13. Good morning, my friends

    If the Daily Telegraph is so terrified of what the readers think then I do not know why they offer any platforms at all for people to express their views in BTL comments

    I have had the same experience as Sarah Curtis. I expect other Nottlers have too.

    Sarah Curtis
    29 Jun 2021 9:16AM
    I’m being heavily moderated today, so will sign off. Been reduced from top comment to 1 and had comments on other articles removed. At a time when free speech is paramount, I find this totally unacceptable.

  14. Good Moaning.
    Will spend a day savouring schadenfreude.
    Plus a little light dog walking.

  15. Reflex reaction to turn off the radio on hearing the words “equality between the sexes” as a news item.

  16. Good morning from a dampish Derbyshire. A bit of rain overnight by the looks of it and 10°C in the yard.

    What happens in the USA will shortly be happening over here. That’s if it isn’t already:-

    Outrageous! Here’s a Look at the Shocking White Privilege, Gender Equity Lesson Plans Used To Indoctrinate Your Kids

    By Alicia Powe
    Published June 28, 2021 at 8:10am
    3158 Comments

    Parents may not be able to vet or opt out of the social justice, ideologically skewed educational regimen being taught nationwide in K-12 classrooms.

    But thousands of lesson plans designed to instill students with a gender-fluid, racist, anti-American ideology are available for review at TeachersPayTeachers.com, a site allowing teachers to sell and share educational programs.

    According to the Teachers Pay Teachers website, TpT “is the go-to place for over 85% of U.S. educators to find teacher-created, teacher-tested classroom resources” and “has grown to reach over 5 million educators.”

    Read more at Gateway Pundit:-
    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/06/outrageous-look-shocking-white-privilege-gender-equity-lesson-plans-used-indoctrinate-kids/

  17. To answer Rupert Wilsons letter regarding why retired service officers still use their ranks – arrogance and snobbishness. Ranks of Squadron Leader (and other service equivalents) and above are permitted to use their rank plus Capt (in the Horseguards I believe) which is a low commissioned rank and therefore sounds greater than it is – Capt Mark Phillips springs to mind. I believe it stems from the days when , after retirement, you became part of the reserve.
    I know many ex-service high rankers who don’t use their ranks and I can vouch for their lack of arrogance.
    Signed Chief Tech Fallic Alec RAF (ret’d)

    2. My best man came out of the RN as a Lieutenant Commander and went into running various profitable and successful businesses but he never used his military rank once out of the navy.

      1. It’s not until you reach the rank of Commander in the RN that you have scrambled egg on your cap.

        1. I may be wrong but I seem to recall that a lieutenant colonel in the army is entitled to call himself colonel when he comes out of the army and a lieutenant commander is entitled to call himself commander when he leaves the navy.
          Something that brought home to me how old I was getting was when a boy whom I had taught from Common Entrance to “A” level and had been captain of one of the school sporting teams I organised as a schoolmaster became one of the youngest generals in the British Army.

          1. I think that that is something that applies when serving too.

            When written the lieutenant is referred to, when spoken it is dropped.

            Friends and relatives who have “qualified” ranks were always addressed by the higher one. Colonel/Admiral.

          2. In 1968 on my voyage aboard the RMS Pendennis Castle from Southampton to Cape Town we became friendly with a whole group of younger people of around about a similar age. One young lady was with her father who had been a colonel in the British Indian army. I lost count of the times at the bar over drinks we might have asked him. Would like a nut colonel ? Two of the gang stayed with the family for a couple of days at their home in Salisbury on the way back from our eventful trip to Vic Falls Kariba and Zambia and back to JHB. I think he knew (Mike and I) we we coming and we didn’t see him at all. Probably out on the plantation. 😎

        2. I may be wrong but I seem to recall that a lieutenant colonel in the army is entitled to call himself colonel when he comes out of the army and a lieutenant commander is entitled to call himself commander when he leaves the navy.
          Something that brought home to me how old I was getting was when a boy whom I had taught from Common Entrance to “A” level and had been captain of one of the school sporting teams I organised as a schoolmaster became one of the youngest generals in the British Army.

      1. I second Grizzly’s remarks.

        Auntie Elsie, marmalade and rhubarb crumble maker (extraordinaire).

        1. Soon be time for the best crumble of all, Auntie Elsie. The sublime and unsurpassable plum crumble.

      1. Morning John – I was a Lifeboy but I never got into the Boy’s Brigade. I became a farm hand.

    5. I am a retired RAF senior officer from my first career. I only use my title when writing to my bank manager and the like as it seems to get me a better reaction. I always think less of people using it in public except when commenting on military matters.

      I always laughed at the difference between my treatment when in uniform compared to when in civvies, particularly when in bike leathers.

      AFAIK the retention of the title is nothing to do with the reserves – officers still remain on the reserve List for a few years – just history.

      1. “I always think less of people using it in public except when commenting on military matters.” I agree entirely. As with medical people who may add “FRCS” after their names, as long as it is relevant to the subject under discussion.

    6. I agree.
      Signed Sgt J.Standley, NBC, MAPRIC, RMQ 1-3, Colloquial German, Royal Signals (ret’d, in fact virtually comatose).

  20. Smacking children makes them more aggressive, finds study
    Definitive link found between physical punishment and problems such as aggression and antisocial behaviour
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/29/smacking-children-makes-aggressive-finds-study/

    BTL
    When I was little I was behaving disgracefully as we drove along in the car en famille and I was whining and grumbling and driving everyone mad. When I started a resentful and churlish, insistent sobbing my mother said: “Richard, if you don’t stop this nonsense at once we shall give you something to cry for.”

    I did not stop this nonsense and, true to their word, my father stopped the car, I was pulled out of it and given the good smacking I so richly deserved.

    Thereafter, as I was generally an affable child, every time we passed the place of the smacking I remarked cheerfully: “Look everybody. This is where I was given something to cry for!”

    I was beaten at school by housemasters, headmasters and prefects far more often than I was smacked by my parents but I did not feel any resentment towards my parents as I doubtless deserved all the smackings I got. I can say though that my mother smacked with rather more zeal and venom than my father and Kipling’s Elephant’s Child would have steered clear of her if he could.

    Do any fellow Nottlers hold a grudge against their parents for smacking them when they were naughty or do they, as I do, admit that they were right to have done so?

    1. It was normal in the 1950s for parents to smack their children. It began to be frowned upon when my children were growing up in the 70s.
      I don’t suppose you and Caroline beat your boys as you were.
      I don’t hold a grudge against my mother, she had a lot to contend with but she did clout me from time to time.

      1. I must confess that when I felt I had to smack Christopher I burst into tears and he had to comfort me.

        1. Same thing when my mother smacked me for the first time. I was intent upon putting my hand in the fire.

          (I’m still a pyromaniac, mind.)

      3. Our eldest child, aged around seven at the time, did something that was forbidden because it was dangerous. I cannot now remember what. Mostly all the children were well behaved. When out in the garden they could do as they pleased. I decided that a first use of corporal punishment would be appropriate. As I was quite muscular in those far off days I did not want to use my hand as the intention was to deliver a sharp shock but not any damage. I decided to use a thin garden cane. it was quite brittle so would break before inflicting damage. I took hold of the child and held her against the sofa as she struggled and squirmed. Holding her by one hand I administered a blow to the back of her legs. Howling was added to the struggle. Before I’d laid on the second blow I was given reason to regret my inadequate planning. The child was still wearing shoes with hard leather soles, and had begun to kick me as hard as she could. She could kick very hard indeed. “Now, there you go,” I said, “don’t do that again”. I let her go. I retired to attend to my bruises.
        There were no more excursions into corporal punishment…

    2. I look back on thrashings that left me bruised for well over a week, such that I had to lie to teachers when at school that I had fallen or run into something or been hit by something. I slept on my stomach afterwards.
      If it had happened to a child today, I suspect I would have been taken into care and possibly my parents arrested for actual bodily harm.
      The beatings by teachers and prefects were water off a duck’s back by comparison.

      I do not hold any grudge, it was how it was in those days.

      I never struck my own children.

      1. I had spectacular bruisings from a beating I once was given by one of the prefects at school. Six of the best from the Devon junior squash champion and holder of the School Javelin record left blue, purple and red stripes across my bottom and made me a tourist attraction in my house and boys from other houses came to visit during the after-games shower/bath time to admire the lines upon my buttocks inflicted by the school’s victor ludorum’s impressive canesmanship.

        By contrast I don’t think my parents ever left a mark on me but they were never really trying to hurt me.

        1. BT will be able to tell you of a sadistic teacher, ex-England squash player, who gave the choice “backhand or forehand”. His beatings didn’t impress me.

          Imagine your bruising experience, but mine was from just below the waist to well below the buttocks and add black and yellow to your blue, purple and reds. My bruises were visible below my swimming shorts which was why people noticed. I always tried to change where I couldn’t be seen.

        2. My high school in SA had some cane-happy masters (Father O’Brien, you sadistic bastard – I hope you’re rotting in hell). I was a well-behaved child and one who avoided trouble and confrontation. Nevertheless, I wound up with well on 200 strokes over a 5 year period. A class mate of mine reached that total in the first year aged 13. He went on to become a judge! As flogging and the death penalty were only abolished in the mid-90s, I always wondered if he’d had recourse to avail himself of these punishments.

          1. I only once got physically punished (a ruler across the knuckles) in school – primary school. I own up I deserved it; I was warned, “the next one to make a noise will have the ruler”. It was unfortunate that I moved and scraped my chair …

      2. I smacked one of the two children once on the bum. He was well behaved for two weeks. That was the one and only time I smacked either of them. My mother used to delegate beatings to my father.

    3. Or is it that children with latent antisocial issues are more likely to be smacked for being naughty and not change their long-term behaviour despite smacking?

      2. I was give the cane across the hand on two occasions for having untidy handwriting, despite my English and spelling being of a high standard. I was six years old at the time. It didn’t improve my handwriting which remains as spidery as ever 60 years later.

        I’ve often wondered how other countries manage to enforce discipline in schools without corporal punishment.

    4. My mother gave us the look.. she disciplined via facial expressions and her eyes.

      Sadly also not speaking to us for hours untill we grovelled.

      I don’t do that, and have never ever been sulky , usually cheerful and positive , Moh is prone to great silences and negativities which makes me wonder whether I married my mother .

      1. My mother had many very good points but she could be very difficult.
        I am very lucky that Caroline has all my mother’s good points and none of her bad ones.

        1. Morning all and especially Richard.
          I thought of your sailing achievements and thought you might like this.
          Earlier this morning there was a feature on TV about the farming family who suddenly decided to buy a boat and sail around the world. Saved by a Japanese fishing boat crew.
          https://survivalextremesea.wordpress.com/2015/08/16/shipwrecked-by-whales-the-robertson-family-survival-story/#:~:text=A%20family%20is%20shipwrecked%20in%20the%20Pacific%20ocean,a%20voyage%20around%20the%20world%20during%20the%201970s.
          Obviously all grown up now and still Very grateful and an interesting survival story.

          Any chance your Caroline might have a word with the Dutch ref before todays game against Germany ? I have a feeling our boys are going to need all the help they can muster. 😄😉🤩

          1. Good morning, Eddy

            They could help themselves by psyching themselves up with a Morris Dance like the NZ’s haka rather than by a submissive and self-abasing kneeling before the game actually starts.
            As you say, Caroline is Dutch and when she was at Bath University she played the melodeon in the university’s Morris side. I must admit I am not a great fan of Morris Dancing but a couple of dances around a Maypole before the match starts might bewilder the opposition.

          2. dances around a Maypole before the match starts might bewilder the opposition.
            That could encourage the wearing of lederhosen und ze sausage vayving.

      3. MB is given to that. For the first few years it distressed me; now I fight fire with fire.

      4. My ex and I once went three weeks without speaking, except to the children or the cat. I’m glad to say that doesn’t happen in my current marriage.

    5. ‘Mother’s Look’ was enough……

      I used the same remedy with my children but you have to get in first….before they
      cotton on that you don’t really mean it….!

    6. The left always present evidence that proves to their satisfaction that children who are not exposed to violence are less violent than children that are exposed to controlled violence from their parents.
      Yet, I am very suspicious of these findings, because they go against all my life experience and intuition.
      As an aside, I believe that the area of research into children’s behaviour has probably been one of the most heavily manipulated to support preconceived ideas in the last half century or so, starting with Kinsey’s notorious “research.”

      In my experience, the most dangerous, aggressive, anti-social and trouble-making people fall into two categories:
      a. those who don’t understand boundaries, including physical boundaries and
      b. those who have been brutalised by uncontrolled violence.

      The left always tries to make out that all smacking falls into the latter category.
      However, I think it is vital that children learn
      – that violence is an inate part of every human being
      – that they will encounter violence in their lives, in situations that cannot be dealt with by running to the teacher or in a non-violent way
      – therefore, that they must learn to handle and control both their own inate violence and the violence of others.

      Controlled smacking by parents or other authority figures (I say, controlled, this is NOT a licence to beat children black and blue), and fighting with peers is the way generations of children have learned about the existence of physical boundaries, and how to use and control violence.

      I think it is very dangerous to exclude these valuable life lessons from children’s upbringing, as the modern feminised education and parenting establishment has largely succeeded in doing.

      1. “…those who have been brutalised by uncontrolled violence…The left always tries to make out that all smacking falls into the latter category.”

        This is part of the nature v. nurture argument. The Left has an imbecilic view that we are all born pure and with the correct ‘teaching’ we will have a pure world. To end a debate with them, ask them where the badness comes from…

        1. Yes, that post war idea that if only we can eliminate poverty by throwing huge amounts of other people’s money at the poor, then crime will disappear, has a lot to answer for!

        2. Noble Savage or Tabula Rasa?
          Rousseau was so besotted with his offspring that he bunged them into an orphanage.

          3. So did I at 3.0 am after being woken every 30 minutes every night for over a year.

      2. The trouble with a lot of research is that if you set out to discover something your research is likely to lead you the finding what you want to find!

        1. Have you read “The Rosie Project”? It has a sequel with a similar name, I can’t remember it, where the hero is asked to investigate a feminist research team that the Dean of the university suspects are faking their research results to try and prove that babies don’t need fathers.
          Of course they are, and he triumphantly proves it in his own way in the book.

        2. But, Rastus, looking first in the fridge before embarking on a major research project is so much easier when you want to find something.

          :-))

    7. There is a world of difference between a short, sharp, corrective smacking of an errant child’s bottom, and the child abuse of incessant beating.

      Let’s not forget: all higher intelligence mammals — bears, lions, dogs and cats — give a short cuffing to an errant pup.

      1. Rastus has previously described the punishments he received at school and said it didn’t harm him – but I would class that kind of treatment as child abuse.

        1. It only happened when he was a fag. He’d probably dish the same thing out to his own fag.

  21. Good morning, everyone. Surprised to get an appointment at short notice for the Glaucoma Clinic. Only 12 months late.

  22. Reading a report on the elimination of the French football team by Switzerland I came across this BTL comment:

    Switzerland v England in the final? That would be slap in the face for the EU.

    It would also remind us that Europe is not the EU and the EU is not Europe.

      1. To many back passes TB, their game pattern seems to have a more then slightly nauseating political content.

        1. For every pass back to the goalkeeper a goal should be forfeited. If matches end with a negative number of goals, then it will make the league tables and competition results a little more interesting. It will certainly curtail the tactic.

          Boxers are deducted points for not actively hitting (being negative) so football should be the same.

          1. Something needs to done to bring the rules above the constant shenanigans of the players. Rolling around ‘in agony’ on the pitch after the slightest knock, off the pitch for 5 minutes.

          4. On obedience they might take notice of what the loyal and frustrated fans think of them Ellie. 🧚🏽‍♂️a man fairy.

    2. England in the final might produce a cacophony of booing if they took the knee.

      Using the PA system to drown out a few hundreds might be possible, 60,000 would be a different matter entirely

  23. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “We have known for a long time that Prince Charles’ empty sails are so rigged as to be swelled by any passing waft or breeze of crankiness and cant. He fell for the fake anthropologist Laurens van der Post. He was bowled over by the charms of homeopathic medicine. He has been believably reported as saying that plants do better if you talk to them in a soothing and encouraging way.”

    Christopher Hitchens.

    1. I doubt, if he talked to the plants, they’d grow better – they’re more likely to shout “Go away – your ears are blocking the sun”

    2. He also appears to be in love with Professor Schwab and The Great Reset.

      Surely unwise?

      1. His father was figurehead of the WWF which was started by the same people. I have seen speculation that the Windsors are part of that group of stinking rich families behind all this.
        Not looking unlikely I would say. Would explain William’s attachment to the same themes.

        Whatever happens to the peasants, the Windsors intend to come out of this with their privileges intact. My feeling is that Britain does not need a monarch whose loyalty is to some super-national group.

    3. The plant thing is true….scientifically proven. They do better if you sing to them and play music.

  24. A good start to the day’s activities.
    En route to the Nelson as part of my circular walk on Saturday, I noted a 4″ dead ash sapling just inside the woods. A bit of pushing and it fell over under control, but across the path.
    So I’ve just been up to clear it out of the way and managed to drag all 37′ of it down in one bit!
    Got the battery chainsaw out to cut it into 8′ lengths and it’s now in the woodstack waiting sawing into stove lengths.

    Got into the house to hear R3 playing Beethoven’s Egmont overture, so I’ve wound the played back 10 minutes and am enjoying the music as I type!

    1. Enjoyed some Vivaldi & Bach on R3 on my drive home from Gloucester yesterday afternoon.

    1. Will ‘Leroy’ learn that besides being a flash accessory, guns are somewhat dangerous?

      2. 334905+ up ticks,
        Afternoon VOM,
        Maybe “leroy” followed the vid which ended rather abruptly
        maybe leroy’s mates will take heed.

  26. Back from Day 2 of the bonfire. Still smouldering away. Bonfire’s OK, too..!!

      1. I know- I revel in it. I think how worried yer Chinese will be about the pollution.

  27. A BTL comment from the Littlejohn article in the DM on Boris and the Conservatives….

    Dominic can you answer if Boris was telling a truth or lie on the
    following?. 3 weeks to flatten the curve, no border in the Irish
    sea…That’s a red line we would never cross, …we will have complete
    control over our borders…an extra 350 million pounds a week for our
    NHS… A ring of Steel around care homes…a great deal for our
    fishermen and farmers… a 40 billion pound world class track and trace
    system…we have an oven ready deal… our financial services will be
    fully protected…,,, we have complete transparency when issuing
    government contracts….we are all in this together…no third runway
    will be built at Heathrow and i willl personally lay in front of the
    bulldozers…we will not be introducing vaccine passports or biometric
    ID. Also how did Dido become head of track and trace and why were
    consultants each paid over 7000 pounds per DAY? Also what measures were
    in place to avoid companies claiming furlough money and grants that
    they shouldn’t and then liquidating?

    1. And BTW how’s the budget for HS2 going? And what are your thoughts on the Chesham and Amersham by-election?

      Hi Phizzee, how’s things?

        1. Sorry to hear you were low this morning, Phizzee. Was it pain related? Glad you’re feeling better now.

    2. One thousand a day to consultants, I think. That would be about the going rate for senior software consultants.

      1. Dream on, I was charged out at $5,000 a day and that was about fifteen years ago.

        It was also a day or part thereof – answer the phone for a five minute conversation and that should have been another $5,000.

        1. Oh well, if you count what the agencies charge to government departments….!
          This is a racket I don’t really want to get involved in, though I have seen it. But perhaps I’m just being stupid. Come into the office at 11 am, read the paper, leave at 4 pm, charge the customer ten hours per day. Customer twigs after a few months, move on to next project – unless they are a government department of course, in which case count the cheques til retirement.

          1. I wish I had government contracts if that is what it is like.
            It was more like ten hours at the client site (actually working), follow up with other team members in the evenings and travel to and from home at weekends.

          2. I’ve done the ten hours thing, but I have seen other contractors taking the p (at a big multinational, but I bet government stuff is far, far worse).
            To be fair, the project had lost its way, management was hopeless, so I guess they just wanted to ride the doomed gravy train as long as it lasted.
            I tried to do an honest job, but the product never even went to market, and nobody was giving me any work to do, so I had to create the tasks that I thought should be done.

    3. And after his complete surrender to the EU how did the moronic British public – including Farage – applaud him for his failure saying the trade deal with the EU was a success.
      Whatever one thinks of Cummings I cannot believe that if Nut Nuts had not got rid of him Johnson would have stood firmer and not have capitulated so completely to the EU.

    4. You missed out “I will be dead in a ditch if we don’t leave the EU” by the first deadline.

        1. That’s probably more accurate. I didn’t check the actual wording, but the sentiment was abandoned, that’s for sure.

  28. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e322008fdbda963c15dafba10e9873eb23cc97e89b83e0891f05209b91c442af.jpg There is a wonderful aroma in the kitchen. I’ve just roasted some Mediterranean-style vegetables in olive oil and the scent is driving me mad.

    Two yellow onions, roughly chopped.
    Six large cloves of garlic, sliced.
    16 chestnut mushrooms, quartered.
    One courgette, sliced.
    One yellow pepper, sliced.
    16 home-made sun-dried tomato halves, halved again.
    Extra-virgin olive oil.
    Sea salt.
    Freshly-ground black pepper.
    Oregano.
    Pinch of chilli flakes.

    I roasted the veg (except the tomatoes) and seasonings in a large cast-iron pan in the oven at 180ºC for an hour, stirring occasionally. With ten minutes to go I added the sun-dried tomatoes.

    I shall eat some, lukewarm, on a home-baked bread cob with a couple of slices of prosciutto. The rest will be eaten cold (some with a salad) for further meals later in the week.

    1. I’m sure it tastes and smells nice but it doesn’t look very appetising to me.

      I have a joint of beef resting. I’m pretending it is Sunday today.

    2. One of favourites. Sunday buffet at our grandsons christening had sundried tomato’s on the serving dishes, i must admit i did have a few, they are one of my favourites.
      I’m think of buying some Filo pastry sheets and making Filo spinach and Feta cheese pie. Another favourite.
      I’m rather fond of Greek food.
      There was a lovely Family run Greek restaurant in Camden Town we use to visit often.
      And one of the best Greek meals ever was lamb kleftiko was up a narrow staircase on a roof top restaurant in Lindos, Rhodes.
      https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/cheese-recipes/spinach-feta-filo-pie/

      1. My first job was in a Greek restaurant. I still remember all the dishes and the smells were incredible. The wine wasn’t up to much but it went well with the food. Aphrodite and Retsina were the biggest sellers. Aphrodite was like water with a squeeze of lemon juice. Retsina for removing the enamel off your teeth.

        Peter Angelis, the owner dubbed us all with Greek names. Irene becoming Helena and Philip becoming Philippos.

        On Fridays and Saturdays i had to dance Zorba. For a laugh i used to lead them all out of the restaurant and into the high street.

        One long pissed up crabwise conga line. Happy days.

        2. I learned a bit of the language from Panos who I worked and shared a flat with fro six months in Port Elizabeth. The Greeks take a long time to drink a small cup of coffee. On the way to Lindos from Pefkos my wife and two of our sons were waiting at a bus stop. A cab drove past and the driver looked us over. A few minutes later he drove past and pulled over, he called out, English ? Yes we said and he told us to jump in, which we were glad to do. Why do id toy ask i said to him, he replied, I thought you were German (all with blonde hair) he told us he didn’t like the Germans because they invaded the Island during WW2 and ate all of his grand fathers donkeys. I’ll bet not a patch on the Kleftiko.

  29. V late on parade today but…

    The joke from hell

    An Illinois man left the snowballed streets of Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife was on a business trip and was planning to meet him there the next day. When he reached his hotel, he decided to send his wife a quick e-mail.

    Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it in from memory.

    Unfortunately, he missed one letter and his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife, whose husband had passed away only the day before.

    When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:

    Dearest Wife, Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.

    Your Loving Husband.

    PS, Sure is hot down here.

  30. Well it hasn’t rained here yet today, but it’s been very overcast all morning. Just taking doggo out now it’s bound to chuck it down, the family don’t call me rain man for nothing.

    2. I um-ed and ah-ed about whether to don a raincoat when I took Oscar for his morning walk and eventually decided to risk it without. It turned out to be the right decision as it brightened up.

      1. Well i didn’t get out in the end, it chucked it down nearly all afternoon at least an inch of rain.

    1. The teeth sometimes fall out, but otherwise OK; although I must admit that I tend to find rinse-aid removes the patina…

    1. Nice one!

      It would be an understatement only to say it’s a little bit funny!

    2. Do you know whooo i ammm ?
      That is so funny………more than a little bit funny.

    2. This fisherman and his colleagues are good people. But “risks his life”? He is wearing an inflatable jacket to keep him afloat and is attached by a line to the crew remaining on the ship. How could he possibly be risking his life?

          1. My internet has been down for the last half hour. I got an email from Ashes but nothing else.

      1. Was it really an assault? Or maybe only technically an assault as it looked like couple of exuberant hooligans roping Whitty in for a “selfie”.
        Meanwhile, a couple of rapists who were served with deportation orders 3 years ago are still in this country.
        Manchester police have taken no action against an identified rapist.
        Yet Whitty is front page news and a police priority. Ordinary folk, little white girls, are beneath contempt as far as our authorities are concerned.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-57403043
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-57646453

        1. It wasn’t an assault. It’s the sort of thing my dad did. Grab you. Pull your head to their chest. Give your head a rub and polish, then kiss you.

          The likes of Whitty don’t inhabit the same world as mere mortals.

    2. 334905+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Bout another 30 + houses there Og,
      might be some lorry drivers among them I think we are doing pretty well for nuclear scientists, surgeons and such.

      The reset, resettle, replace campaign is picking up speed now, time
      it gets round to the general election the herd will, along with mosque attendance five times a day take it as norm.

  38. Professor Lockdown’s blonde lover has sent me an email!

    Antonia Staats – Avaaz

    Dear friends across the UK,

    This Sunday, 4 July, is Thank you day
    — and together we can make it huge! 16 *million* people in Britain are
    already planning to take part, and Avaazers up and down the country
    have shared beautiful messages of thanks online, for all those who
    helped get us through the pandemic.

    Craving some in-real-life activity and inspiration though? There’s a
    whole menu of fun events and suggestions for the day — or you can
    always set up your own:

    Well she and Neil Ferguson set up their own fun event didn’t they?

      1. Somebody who maybe once in the past has signed an Avaaz petition. I used to sign a few of those, mostly on animal topics, but very few these days.

        It’s the reason I have several email accounts – that went to the petitions one.

          2. I can only guess that it may be Anti Vaxxers Against Astro Zeneca.

            Why these people expect you to know instantly what their acronyms mean is beyond me?

  39. 334905+ up ticks,

    breitbart,

    Migrant Crisis: Nigel Farage Challenges Home Secretary Priti Patel to Come to the Border

    They can run away together.

  40. Shamima Begum poses ‘no danger’ and should be free to return to UK, says ex-US diplomat. 29 June 2021.

    Shamima Begum does not pose a danger to the British public and should be allowed to return home, according to a retired US ambassador who recently helped free a Canadian woman from the same Syrian detention camp as the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl.

    “I’ve talked to Shamima – she is part of the group of women who have absolutely rejected the Islamic State – I know enough about her to feel quite confident that she’s not a dangerous person,” Peter Galbraith told The Telegraph on Tuesday, following reports that the former diplomat had secured the release of a Canadian mother.

    It’s amazing how few Nazi’s there were in Germany after they were defeated!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/29/shamima-begum-poses-no-danger-should-free-return-uk-says-ex/

    1. He’s been taken in by a practised liar. She saw the horrified reaction to her first filmed interview and modified her behaviour. It doesn’t mean she deserves to come home.

      1. She’s a muslim. All good muslims lie, it’s part of their ideology (kitman, taqiyya).

    2. Why do we have to take the word of an ex-US diplomat to decide who may and may not return? Butt-out lardarse (I’m sure he is – he’s American innit?)

    3. Even if she poses no danger to the British public (which I do not believe for one second), there is also the fact that her actions must be seen to be unacceptable and therefore her return to the UK is impossible, if only to act as a deterrent to others.

    5. If she were allowed to return would he, for sake of argument, be prepared to commit all his children and grandchildren’s lives as a surety against her never reverting to type?

    6. What hypocrisy. The US is refusing to take back its citizens that went to ISIS.

      Besides which, whether she is a direct danger or not is immaterial. She’s more Bangladeshi than British. If she’s British then she’s a traitor. She snubbed us and we don’t want her back. She made her bed; she can go lie in it.

    7. Bowlox. Leave the homicidal little cow where she is. Just supply her co-ordinates to however’s next bombing round her way ….. problem solved.

    8. She absolutely rejected the UK state, then became at the very least a baby factory for a terrorist and probably took part in some atrocities herself. Now that’s all gone wrong for her she’s decided she likes the UK after all?
      On the other hand nobody should be left stateless these days. I do hope Bangladesh grant her citizenship.

      1. As her father’s there, they should do. But I don’t suppose they want her either.

  41. Happy Tuesday all Nottlers . I was glancing at the Bejing Daily Fail & read :https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9736991/Time-learn-live-Covid-Downing-Street-warns-UK-accept-flu-like-death-toll.html
    It is ‘time to learn to live with Covid’: Downing Street warns UK will have to accept flu-like death figures of up to 20,000 a year in marked shift on messaging as country approaches July 19 with ‘no going back’ after Freedom Day
    Have to accept 20,000 dead a year? Elf says : – You & your kinfolk first you bloated fat Turd Johnson, lead by personal example !

  42. “It is ‘time to learn to live with Covid’: Downing Street warns UK will have to accept flu-like death figures of up to 20,000 a year in marked shift on messaging as country approaches July 19 with ‘no going back’ after Freedom Day”

    Gosh – each year we “accept” tens of thousands of ‘flu and pneumonia deaths, to say nothing of cancer, heart disease etc etc. Just another one to live with.

          1. Don’t want to know about your todger. Oh, codger.
            :-(( Must visit specsavers, don’t look to good.

  45. The tragic thing that Halfcock will quickly come to realise is that his relationship with his children changed irreversibly when he told them he was leaving their mother. Even if (which seems most unlikely) he and she tried again, the children’s trust has been broken.

    Those of us who have been there, know the cost and guilt which lasts a lifetime.

    3. I feel sorry for his wife.
      Handycock and Cordwhangler are university chums.
      I wonder if the (barely) current Mrs. Hancock now wonders if she was always second best?

  51. Afternoon, all. Dull start, but brightened up now. Oscar’s education (and socialisation) continues; I walked him into town this afternoon (after I’d done the food shopping and stowed it at home) so he could meet and greet the dog-friendly shop assistants for the first time and then we went to a dog-friendly café where I had a coffee and he stood rigid and tense! He’ll get used to it and relax the more often we do it. Welcome to the routine, Oscar! He got lots of admiring looks and compliments, but unfortunately, at the moment, I couldn’t let anybody stroke him because he isn’t relaxed enough. We’ll get there in time. He’s flat out now.

      1. G’day, Bill. They haven’t rung so I rang them. It seems likely that the results aren’t back yet. The receptionist is going to remind the vet to ring me.

    2. Its likely very stressful for him. That’s tiring! Glad he’s progressing though.

      1. I agree. Part of it will not just be the long walk (his second of the day), but the nervous tension of going to new places and meeting new people (and dogs).

    3. Do you know how long he was in the rescue and why? Glad he seems to have perked up with his treatment, anyway. Perhaps pancreatitis is a problem he’s had before.

      1. I wonder if he wasn’t suffering from it when we got him. I put his sickness in the first week down to a change of diet and the stress of a new routine and new surroundings. Given that he ate his vomit and cleaned the area completely, unless anyone saw it happen they wouldn’t have realised. His owner had a hip replacement and couldn’t cope with him, apparently, and the family didn’t want him. Perhaps they weren’t dog people – he would be a handful if you weren’t experienced. His rescue centre vet record starts on 21st April (first vaccination) and I picked him up on 6th June (D Day, appropriately enough!). His tail was wagging a lot today, despite being in new surroundings, so hopefully, he’s feeling a lot better.

        1. Sounds as though it’s a problem he’s had for a while and possibly why the family didn’t keep him. It’s a shame the medical records don’t get passed on – we got no prior records for Lily but she’s in good shape for an old girl. She’s got good legs and plenty of spring in her step.

          1. No, I think it’s more a sign of guarding his food (he is very bad about that, but I’m working on it) – he did NOT want to let me near it to clean it up the first time, but I did manage to fend him off and clear it away the last time. The point I meant to make was that unless someone actually saw him throw up, after less than a minute there would have been absolutely no sign of his having done so, so nobody would have been any the wiser, which could mean he’d had the condition a while. I don’t know if he was kept short of food or taunted at feed times (he certainly gets very excited and I’m working on making him calmer before he’s fed). I would have thought in kennels he would have been fed in his cage (or wherever they house them), so it wouldn’t be competition driven.

    4. Hi Conway,
      So glad you have Oscar ….I’m quite envious!
      I’m still looking for a doggy best friend… missing Maud so much…
      Older small dogs are in short supply, so I may have to succumb to a puppy………….god help me!

      2. Thank you, Plum. If I see anything suitable (I’m still on lots of F/B rescue pages), I’ll let you know. To be honest, ALL dogs are in short supply because there is such a demand. Be prepared to be disappointed often and to jump through lots and lots of hoops. 🙁 Here’s a link to the Oldies Club: https://www.oldies.org.uk/

  54. Very bad scheduling by those that run the Euros, fancy putting an England match on when Federer is on centre court

  56. Disgraceful: both sides kneeling in the football.

    Commentator: “Overwhelming response was positive” – yeah when you’ve got the PA system broadcasting loud cheers.

    2. The boos could be heard, although the loud music from the PA system tried to drown them out. The booing was certainly louder than in the previous match, probably because there are more fans inside the stadium now.

  57. One kneeling German just discovered an escape tunnel now they are all jabbing the ground with bayonets

  58. Yesterday’s reported covid “deaths”:

    UK = 3
    France = 44
    Germany = 8
    Italy = 28
    Spain = 10

    You can see exactly why the Germans want to keep Brits out – while welcoming yer French, Italian and Spanish visitors….

    1. EU membership confers enormous protection against the evil Brexit, I mean covid.

  59. That’s me for the day. Bonfire almost finished.

    Time for a little drinky-poo – then supper followed by the second half of “The Producers”. Now, while I agree there are some funny lines, I find it slow and turgid…I wonder if it will get better. I doubt it.

    A demain.

    2. I saw it the other night. The main showpiece song and dance was as marvellous as it always was but it dragged in places and was not as funny as it used to be.

      1. It’s one of those films that’s very funny first and possibly second time around, thereafter it palls.

  60. Nicked

    The England football team went to visit an orphanage in Russia this morning.

    “It’s good to put a smile on the faces of people with no hope, constantly
    struggling and facing the impossible” said Anatoly, aged 6.

  61. Much as I admire Harry Kane, even as a gooner! I can’t help thinking that he’s come to the Jimmy Greaves point, where the alternative might be a better bet.

    1. He’s scored, but I don’t change my view.

      However, I take full credit for the goal just because I criticised him!

  62. And as they walk off hugging and kissing, stroking, they discover that one of them tests positive for Covid and England are disqualified!
    {;-((

    2. “There ain’t no flies on the Lamb of God”

      Come on Bill, can you tell me where this comes from?

        1. Well done! Mrs Melrose Apes’s angels. Bill mentioned that he rereads all the Evelyn Waugh novels each year

  65. I was going to support Germany but as the Germans decided that they too would kneel to the dead black criminal’s memory I removed my allegiance from them at the last moment. I feel that not having my support tipped the balance. Had they not grovelled before the game started they would have had me on their side and they would have won.

    1. Next up Sweden or Ukraine, I suspect Ukraine won’t kneel, so lets hope Sweden win, even though under normal circumstances one might prefer Ukraine!

        1. England won.
          They now face the winners of the Ukraine vs Sweden match.
          On form, I would prefer to play Ukraine, but I can’t support the George Floyd worship implied by the knee bending. Ukraine won’t knee bend (unless heavily pressurised), so I would end up supporting Ukraine.

          If both bend I support England, Sweden would bend.

          I support the sides that don’t bend.

      2. If Ukraine does not kneel they will have my support. Football should be about football – not race politics.

    2. A few years back we stayed in a hotel in Dinan. When we went down for breakfast there was a few crumbs and discarded food on the floor. The hotelier had accepted a passing coach load of German tourists and they had eaten everything leaving nothing for the hotel guests.

      Germans are no fools and more often than not get the better of us.

  66. Been feeling a bit rum and glum today. Thanks for the kind words.

    I had a terrible taste in my mouth so i went and brushed my teeth then threw up my lunch.

    Feel a bit better now.

    2. Ayup, Philip.

      Rum and shandy don’t mix, you know! 😉 Keep buggering on, lad. 👍🏻

      1. It is the Cytisine i’m taking to stop me smoking. It makes me nauseous. And it is mucking my mind about.

          3. Thanks. It’s been about six weeks of non-smoking. I have weakened twice and one time i even lit the cigarette. Then chucked it away.

          1. I do feel weird. Not sure if it is the drugs or this is actually normal.

            BTW. Someone posted (maybe you) that ‘picnic’ is racist.

            Apparently people used to take food along to the hangings of slaves.

        1. Remember what I said about throwing all the tabs away.

          I was serious, In 2010 in yer France I had some health “problems”. The French world-beating health service made me go to see six different consultants – ALL of whom prescribed a sackful of tablets. After a month of feeling much, much worse than when the ailment started, I told the MR that I was throwing ALL the tablets away and would live (or die) with the consequences.

          Eleven years on – I am sort of still here.

          I think that the counter effects of lots of drugs can make the patient much more ill than he was at the start.

          KBO

          1. The anti-smoking one is the problem and i won’t be taking that forever.

            I need my blood pressure tablets as my BP went 195 over 125.

            I also need my cloppidogrel and statins because of my narrowing of the arteries.

            I think problems occur when a drug is prescribed to counter the effects of another drug.

            Thank you.

          2. Did you have a second covid jab recently Phizz ?
            I had to try three different statins because the first two gave me such terrible leg cramps. Zero cholesterol now. It was a parental thing my father had very high cholesterol and had more strokes than Battersea dogs home. I take Apixaban as well. Drink a fair amount of water as well and Take easy if you can, there is no sin in sitting around trying to relax.

  67. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/06/11/00/44082383-9674835-image-a-74_1623369228461.jpg
    That’s a blacked out image of the perpetrator.
    This is the caption: The Ghana-born 63 year-old took advantage of the vulnerable woman, 31, who has been disabled since being starved of oxygen at birth, when supposedly assisting at her home in Kennington, London
    Do you ever think that we’re being conned?
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9737671/Illegal-immigrant-raped-brain-damaged-woman-caring-fathered-son-jailed.html

    2. Why is the council employing illegal immigrants? They clearly failed in their duty of care for this unfortunate woman. I hope the family sue.

      3. What a shit hole this country is being deliberately turned into by our publicly subsidised politicians.

    3. That’s his normal colour.

      Are we allowed to say as black as the ace of spades any more?

  68. What a miss…by the commentators. The Sterling/Muller incident was crying out for clichés: “It was almost hero to zero for Sterling but with that miss by Muller, England’s name might be on the cup!”. Amateurs.

    Still, if John Motson had been the commentator, he’d have been so excited at the end he would probably have told us “What a triumph! It’s England’s first competitive win over Germany since…since the last one!”

  70. Night All
    Bunch building up
    Megadrop
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f57dcc63d66eb8a564c2db1b06b4345fdfdb4b8e58ec3674b78f8286805f02d4.png
    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/077/757/642/original/e5c2acede64cb2e4.jpeg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/058533414dfd2fbc3aeaa92e5455a946199897ff4565c2158d0597767a960f8e.jpg
    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/077/805/819/original/82b6ed32ffba57bf.png
    https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/077/929/887/original/ccf4323c8e215626.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb91e59b27e7bcad614bd94c7bd92b26bb02600b23e0a60a8bf5dd171fb5f0fe.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3bd0660b2a581203c73452e8f2c1c63649cfcb493fb474325eab6dfc0240e305.jpg

          2. I think in victory it is better for England to applaud their German opposition. The German group are an accomplished team and deserve great credit. It might have gone either way.

            It is better to be generous to our opponents and will serve us well in future games. Triumphalism is not a good look.

          3. I fully endorse that statement. Except where the French are concerned. Kick them while they are down, is the way.

          4. RE, I have not been too well today & did not read my mail till now. I will try tomorrow to sort out what you sent me but I have problems with attachments sent to my mail box & may not be able to download them.

          5. No probs Hatters, I hope you are feeling better now. I just thought the Nottlers needed some entertainment, it’s not all bad news when nature gets its act together. I just wish it could be more selective. 😉

          6. Happy Wednesday Eddy, I’ll try & extract the files a bit later on. I have a storage problem with the account as its a free one with limited storage space & I am not very good at uncompressing attached files, they simply don’t display when you try to open them & need to be downloaded & saved on my computer hard disk, something I dislike doing as I never know how to find them afterwards.

          7. I just wish I could copy and paste them myself. Nothing i try works. Its very frustrating there are so many things I will never understand on a PC and having used Nottlers on my my mobile phone for a few years I suddenly can’t sign in, it tells me I am already registered well of course, but it’s impossible to sign in I have tried everything. I hope you feel better.

  74. #ClownWorld

    There you go, “Bars have to close at 10 in Glasgow in these pandemic

    days except if this game goes into extra time, so I suspect a few will

    be carrying on enjoying this game”

    The virus just stares through the window looking sad when games go to extra time.
    Now,about penalties……………….

  75. We play Ukraine. That Ukraine versus Sweden match was a very ugly affair. Some of the acting was positively Hollywood.

    Edit: okay, not so much Hollywood as Ealing Comedy.

  76. Goodnight all Nottlers. Bedtime music: All About That Bass – Postmodern Jukebox European Tour Version. Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass,” in the style of PMJ ft. Kate Davis, of course. Not only does it feature vocalists Haley Reinhart, Morgan James, and Ariana Savalas rocking some Andrews Sisters- style harmonies, but it also features a sweet four hand bass solo by Casey Abrams and Adam Kubota.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnZ1NQm2uk

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