Thursday 12 August: It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams

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/2021/08/11/letters-time-honest-conversation-purpose-exams/

644 thoughts on “Thursday 12 August: It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams”

  1. Morning everyone. Regards to Conway on his loss. Respect and consolation do little good but their absence even less.

  6. Departing shortly for a day at Lord’s – or should that be Lourdes? Nagsman picked up an injury putting up a marquee yesterday so won’t be able to open the bowling; she hopes to join us later.

  7. mng all. the Islington Wine Cellar Members are back from collecting their results [on Hampstead Heath]:

    SIR – It is not only in A-levels that we are seeing grade inflation. The proportion of first-class degrees being awarded is also much higher now.

    Before rejigging what we call grades (report, August 11), we need to stop and think about the purpose of exams, and what we want to be able to deduce from the results. If we merely want to know that a student has reached a certain level of attainment, then a pass/fail system would be adequate.

    However, if we want to rank students, we need to do that properly. Having nearly 50 per cent of students attaining top grades at A-level, and one in three getting firsts, is a nonsense.

    I happen to be wary of over-reliance on exams. My husband failed the 11-plus but went on to get a PhD; I got indifferent A-levels and couldn’t get into medical school, but had a good career as a hospital consultant once I got my BSc and PhD and was finally allowed to do the medical training.

    However, if exams are the best we can do, let’s decide what we want the results to tell us, and be honest about it. After that, deciding on a grading system should be relatively easy.

    Dr Jenny Jessop
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire

    SIR – Switching from alphabetic to numeric grades will not cure inflation.

    One solution would be to publish the percentage mark gained by each pupil in each subject. An alternative is to normalise the results. This would be based on the sensible and defensible assumption that pupils’ relative performance conforms to a normal (bell) curve – so that, for example, the top 5 per cent of marks get an A, the next 15 per cent get a B, and so on.

    Pamela Wheeler
    Shrewsbury

    SIR – This year’s exams should have been administered with the expectation that grades would fall across the board. There would still have been a top and a bottom. The universities would simply have had to adjust their entrance requirements.

    In the event, inflated scores were inevitable. I cannot understand why Gavin Williamson is still in his job.

    Mick Ferrie
    Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

    SIR – A young woman, interviewed on the BBC, said: “We’ve worked hard. We deserve these results.”

    Therein lies the problem. Those of us who taught in the past recognised that, often, the students who failed to achieve high marks had worked harder than the ones who did. I once gave an A for effort to a child who went on to achieve a D or E.

    There is an important lesson: one should accept one’s limitations and learn to flourish within them.

    Felicity McWeeney
    Morpeth, Northumberland

    SIR – The real question is: why are state schools performing so much worse than private ones? Rather than tinkering with grades, the focus should be on ending this discrepancy.

    Malcolm H Wheeler
    Bonvilston, Glamorgan

    Boer volunteers

    SIR – Professor Saul Dubow (Letters, August 11) reads much that is not there in my comments on the Boer war, and overlooks some that is. My text – which I admit was intentionally provocative – was proposed as a short explanatory inscription for use at a war memorial. His letter does not, as far as I can see, contradict anything in it.

    I am, however, intrigued by his assertion that pro-Boer volunteers were “principled”, as if this contradicts my observation that they included nationalists and racists. Nationalism is also a principle, as their commander, a fervent French anti-Dreyfusard and founder-member of the anti-Semitic Action Française, would have agreed. I assume Professor Dubow would concede that volunteers who died fighting for the British Empire could also be principled.

    He does, perhaps inadvertently, confirm the point of my article: that “explaining” monuments is unlikely to end controversy.

    Professor Robert Tombs
    Cambridge

    Alpacas and TB

    SIR – I have bred alpacas for more than 20 years and have tremendous sympathy for the plight of Helen MacDonald and Geronimo (report, August 10). Our herd of 18 animals is, in fact, awaiting the result of a bovine tuberculosis (bTB) test.

    A month ago, we received a letter from the Animal and Plant Health Agency informing us that there had been an outbreak and instructing us to have our alpacas tested. It will be heartbreaking if any test positive, but it is something we must accept to slow the spread of this devastating disease. Perhaps we should be focusing on the main vector of bTB, the badger.

    Caroline Trotter
    Towcester, Northamptonshire

    Inconvenienced

    SIR – At least Richmond Park has public lavatories (Letters, August 9). When I visited St James’s Park recently, those on the Mall side were closed, so people were forced to use the café’s facilities, much to the annoyance of staff.

    Mary Moore
    Croydon, Surrey

    SIR – I remember visiting Bristol in the early 1980s and having wonderful meals in an Italian restaurant that had once been a block of lavatories (Letters, August 10).

    Diana Spencer
    Herne Bay, Kent

    No more testing

    SIR – There is one sure way of stopping profiteering by Covid test suppliers (report, August 10): scrap them.

    There is no real need for them for travelling abroad, just as there is no real need for the stupid locator forms – proof of vaccination should be all that is required. The whole process of travelling is irksome enough without the draconian government overlay.

    Roger Chappell
    Coventry, Warwickshire

    SIR – Much has been said about paying those who have not yet been vaccinated to take the jab (Letters, August 10). This must never happen. It rewards those who do not have a sense of responsibility towards the country or themselves.

    We must bring in vaccine passports as soon as possible for all public gatherings. This pandemic is far from over, and everyone has a duty to take all precautions offered to protect the population.

    Dr Robert Mitchell
    Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire

    SIR – I note that nobody has got around to getting risk assessments in place for civil servants to return to work (report, August 11). This could have been done months ago.

    Can we assume that civil servants are not back at work yet for the same reasons that Tesco stays open in the snow but schools don’t?

    Philip Saunders
    Bungay, Suffolk

    Electric car ethics

    SIR – Elizabeth Marshall (Letters, August 9) points out that lithium mining is toxic – but so too are the processes for getting nickel and cobalt.

    The production of rare earth elements for batteries in electric vehicles involves the use of child labour (in the Congo), the destruction of farming (in South America), appalling pollution (in Russia), the use of incredible quantities of water in places where it can’t be spared (in South America), relocating whole communities (in Africa), and death and ill health among the workers.

    It would be most refreshing if the forthcoming Climate Change Conference might consider the whole situation and not just headline-grabbing plunges towards net zero or other nebulous concepts.

    Peter Owen
    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    SIR – It is accepted that about 50 per cent of the pollution caused by a vehicle occurs during its manufacture; hence, buying a new one is not good for the environment.

    The climate tsar Alok Sharma should therefore be praised for hanging on to his diesel car (report, August 11). For minimum impact on the environment he should keep it going for around 15 years and 150,000 miles.

    Anthony Cutler
    Malvern, Worcestershire

    Sweeter gooseberries

    SIR – In your report (August 10) about the heaviest gooseberry at the Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show, you describe the fruit as “sour”.

    That may be true for some of the culinary varieties, but many of the dessert varieties are a delight to taste straight from the bush.

    I can recommend both May Duke and Pax, which have smooth, port wine-coloured skin and a lovely sweet flavour. A few years ago I attended a presentation by a member of the Egton Bridge Society and acquired a variety called Just Betty. These have pinkish skin and a pleasing, subtly sweet taste.

    Peter Foley
    Waddington, Lancashire

    A special rural scene at risk of extinction

    SIR – Another reason to be sorry if traditional thatching straw were to disappear, or become rarer (Letters, August 6), would be the loss of attractive stooks of corn in the fields.

    Before combine harvesters were common, corn stooks were widely seen in the countryside. They are usually now only seen when older varieties of wheat, which produce long straw for thatching, have been cut with a reaper binder, and they are a reminder how our fields once looked at harvest time.

    Peter Holloway
    Tarporley, Cheshire

    The cost of recruiting doctors from overseas

    SIR – J Meirion Thomas (Comment, August 10) shows that, while thousands of suitable students are turned down by British medical schools every year, 60 per cent of new doctors are trained abroad.

    In addition to the loss of human capital, the worldwide recruitment by rich countries of doctors from poor countries results in an £11.4  billion annual cost in excess mortality in low-income countries. India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa suffer most.

    This is truly overseas aid in reverse.

    Dr John Doherty
    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    SIR – I write in support of Professor Meirion Thomas’s plea for more medical schools on two fronts.

    First, while doctors from low-to-middle-income countries justly aim to enhance their training by working in Britain, there is no guarantee that they will return to their home countries, where they are much needed.

    Secondly, would it not be sensible for the Government to revisit those universities that failed in their bids for medical schools in 2018? The University of Surrey in Guildford was an applicant with the facilities and faculty in place, but at the time was considered to be politically in the wrong place.

    Neil Weir
    Guildford, Surrey

    SIR – More serious than our shortage of medical school places is the shortage of general hospitals suitable for training newly qualified students.

    The constant closure of hospitals since nationalisation in 1948 has resulted in a reduction of hospitals in Britain from 2,688 in 1948 to 1,257 in 2019.

    When I graduated in 1966 it was, even then, sometimes not easy to find a good general hospital to learn the basic practice of medicine and surgery. Recently, I was told by a surgeon friend that postgraduate training places are now “like gold dust”.

    Dr Max Gammon
    London SE16

    1. The greenest car on earth is, in fact, the Land Rover Series & Defender.
      Despite their appalling fuel consumption, there are more of them in proportion to those made still on the roads, as they are easy to repair, and so the invested pollutants go further.

      1. I concede that my neighbours Mk2 Land Rover is better for hunting pheasants. His road kill would be hanging over his patio like Newgate trophies. When I tried that with my 2CV, I had to replace the seriously dented bonnet.

        My 1987 2CV, which is about to go round the clock for the second time, is a doddle to work on, once the wings are unbolted, and parts are still available (despite it last being made in 1990) and reasonably priced. £300’s worth of welding bought me another year on the MoT.

    2. “We must bring in vaccine passports as soon as possible for all public gatherings. This pandemic is far from over, and everyone has a duty to take all precautions offered to protect the population.”

      Dr Robert Mitchell is an idiot. Vaccination is to reduce the virulence of the symptoms, not give protection – viz. the increase of infections in those vaccinated.

      2. All the people carrying the passports will be busy giving the virus to each other, and then they can go home and give their worse variants to unvaccinated people.

    3. Line up to get your gold star from Klaus Schwab, Dr Mitchell.
      I am far more scared of vaxx passports than I am of covid.

          1. What’s the point? Queue is a noun and verb. In the UK we simply queue. It is readily understood. In the same vein we correctly use the word twice. We do not need to show our ignorance by using the vacuous “two times” as they do across the Atlantic.

          2. “Line up” is a perfectly acceptable alternative verb to “queue.” It is distinct from the noun, which is definitely US-English.

          3. I disagree. Why use two (American) words when one far superior English word suffices? We must do all we can to stop this cancerous deterioration in standards.

          4. They are not American words. They are English words. “Line up” as a verbal alternative to “form an orderly queue” is pure British English, and far easier to type.

          6. I understood your point to be that you think I am using an American English term instead of a British English one.

          7. “Standing”, “in” and “line” are all good British words in their own right. However, used together to denote a queue is distinctly unEnglish and is among a tranche of expressions that have been imported from America that diminishes our language. If we don’t fight back against this deterioration in the quality of English then we may as well give up and simply adopt ghastly Yank slang as standard.

    4. Stooks.
      I think there was a letter yesterday, saying that farming is a business and not a museum. Too right it is.
      In actual fact, farming is a business with very poor returns for the farmer, as farm gate prices are almost the level of production costs, and the workload is enormous. Nobody has spare money to pay labour to walk around fields to stook the longstalk corn after it’s been cut, they are too busy scratching a living doing something else. You just have to watch Jeremy Clarkson on Amazon to see (in between the buffoonery) the work and cost involved, for bugger-all return.

      1. For some, farming is a hobby. Like driving steam trains or singing madrigals. Better than nightclubs.

  8. The Afghan Papers – (at war with the truth) 14 August 2021.

    Year after year, U.S. generals have said in public they are making steady progress on the central plank of their strategy: to train a robust Afghan army and national police force that can defend the country without foreign help.

    In the Lessons Learned interviews, however, U.S. military trainers described the Afghan security forces as incompetent, unmotivated and rife with deserters. They also accused Afghan commanders of pocketing salaries — paid by U.S. taxpayers — for tens of thousands of “ghost soldiers.”

    None expressed confidence that the Afghan army and police could ever fend off, much less defeat, the Taliban on their own. More than 60,000 members of Afghan security forces have been killed, a casualty rate that U.S. commanders have called unsustainable.

    As in Iraq, they and we, were only ever a Force of Occupation.

    https://turcopolier.com/the-afghan-papers-part-1-at-war-with-the-truth/

    1. In any society that is dominated by a religion that refuses to leave the seventh century; little can be done to educate its proponents, advocates and followers to change. Afghanistan, along with a few other backward countries, will remain, in perpetuity, in the Dark Ages. There is little or nothing that the modern world can do to alter the status quo.

      All those champions of a seventh-century lifestyle inveigled in other countries and who possess a determination and avowed intent to lower those countries to their own backwards, barbaric standards, should be transported to places, like Afghanistan, where they may be among like minds.

    1. What is “clever” in this context?
      Surely a dim person who uses what intelligence they have to do something useful is cleverer than one who, with the intelligence of Einsten, sits on their arse watching TV?
      Morning, Grizz.

      1. Morning, Paul. That is a moot and very perspicacious point. Humans may be a ‘clever’ species, but they are a world away from possessing the intrinsic, innate, intelligence that most other life forms have evolved.

        1. I remember some whazzock moaning about JK Rowling & Harry Potter: “Oh, I could have done that!”. Putting aside the doubt about the ability, the point is, they didn’t. Had they have written HP books for kids, then they, and not JKR, would have been as rich as f**k. Instead, assuming they could have, they sat on their arse, watched TV and likely picked their nose as well, and remained the nonentity they are.

    2. Here we have a clear example of the Marxist Feminist political agenda being pushed as fact. Girls are not smarter than Boys & countries with female political, judicial, academic, medical, scientific & even military leadership are in dead trouble. The Russians, Chinese, Iranian & Arab leaders love to deal with Western pro-feminist regimes because they are the ones they can defeat & conquer quicker.

      1. Funny how the world was led for so long (and still is in some countries) to believe that males were cleverer than girls and males accepted that.

        1. Hi Stormy my post is not about who is actually smarter, if at all, its about the Marxist Feminist Agenda that is being pushed in schools & universities, its what they want us to accept as factual because they say it is & they write the script, invent the science & falsify the data! Its no different to their Global Warming Agenda, they have the means to push and it they believe that it advances their cause which is a one world government of autocratic rule by the Marxist Elites.

      2. Funny how the world was led for so long (and still is in some countries) to believe that males were cleverer than girls and males accepted that.

    3. “Girls have long been ahead…”

      In my experience certainly since the 1950s. At junior school three girls were always ahead of me at the top of the class and all three went on to selective schools. After that, I do not have a clue what they achieved in life.

      Addressing OB’s point: one of my brothers-in-law could not in any way be deemed academic but give him a stack of wood and with his innate ability and high class tools he could make just about anything. In a matter of days this summer he extended his ‘man cave’ to accommodate a new gas barbecue cooker, bar etc. His current hobby is making guitars and previously he made exquisite rocking horses that were featured in a fancy magazine. Is he clever? Of course he is. He didn’t sit on his arse but formed his own double glazing and conservatory installation company and did very well for himself and his family.

      1. I some time go came to the belief that there are different kinds of intelligence. Logical intelligence for the philosopher, physical intelligence for the joiner.
        Within the different types of intelligence there are other areas or divisions. Physical intelligence in the joiner and a physical intelligence in the gymnast where the emphasis is in spatial awareness and relationships. We have all of the different kinds of intelligence in the West in abundance, not so much elsewhere.

    4. ‘Morning, George, there is also the possibility that girls mature into adulthood, earlier than boys.

      2. In the days of the 11-plus, exam results were skewed deliberately against girls to enable the boys – who achieved better results a couple of years later – were not disadvantaged by their later development.

    5. Yo Mr Grizzle

      Girls are more cleveresterer….: We had a saying

      He/she/it can work out “The square root of two thirds the volume of jar of pickles, but could not open it”, however clever is apt

      In general, “intelligent” is closer to “intellectual, mentally capable, logical”, and “clever” is closer to “creative, ingenious, cunning“.

      1. Yo, Mr Effort.

        Intelligence is a concept possessed in shiploads by those creatures that do not breed more than their environment or food supplies can support; that do not routinely trash their own living environment; that do not threaten all life forms with nuclear weapons; that do not pollute the only planet known to support life with vile indestructible chemicals, plastics and poisons; that do not ransack the planet for chemicals; that do not destroy sources of vital potable water; that do not kill off countless other species of plant and animal that form a necessary biodiversity; that do not invent idiotic deities to worship; as well as a million other atrocities that no other life form commits.

        The human species is a vastly clever organism, but its intelligence levels are lower than an amoeba’s.

    6. I do wish they would stop pushing this rubbish. Girls are just more likely to want to conform to what adults expect from them, and more likely to study the whole syllabus conscientiously, while the boys are focusing on becoming complete experts in the one thing that interests them.

      This feminised education system is producing generations of mediocre women who pop out at the end with good degrees that “prove” they are intelligent…yet they still can’t translate that into success in the workplace. Instead, we’re just seeing mediocrity spreading through the workplace deluding itself that it is success. Visible results are box-ticking hires like Cressida Dick.

      This is particularly noticeable in IT. Lots of young women are being given incentives to study STEM subjects. But consistently, thoughout my career roughly ten percent of software developers have been women, in most of the companies I’ve worked for. The 1 in 10 woman developers are just as competent as the men.

      I’m now noticing a new trend, whereby young women are popping up in roles like “Program Manager” at big tech corporations and CVs showing that they studied software development. Or the absolute cliché, the female tech journalist (= didn’t make it as an engineer).
      In other words, these women studied coding, but they did not go on to become coders.
      They did not become competent coders, by spending ten years at the coal face solving really difficult problems.
      Instead, they got a few years experience as junior coders, and then made a sideways move into some job with “manager” in the title.

      These young mediocrities are then presented as role models and experts, to people who really have spent ten or twenty or thirty years building things and solving genuine problems.

      1. The rot started to set in when manageresses became ‘managers’ (why not womanagers?); conductresses became ‘conductors’; and actresses became ‘actors’ (among many more). It got much worse when trannies started to take over.

        1. And “agenda” had an “s” added [“agendas”] to explain to the stupid that we were talking about plurals.

    8. Having conducted countless lessons for both male and female soldiers, I would say that the women were generally more diligent and applied themselves to learning noticeably more than the males e.g. in taking notes and asking questions. In the results of subsequent written tests, however, I could see no noticeable difference in scores.

      Conclusion: females apply themselves more in the classrooms. It’s probably down to attitude.

    1. 336651+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Heard a whisper that there is an anti scouring movement starting at £20 a pop along the lines of
      pushing peoples to stand up & stay static as an anti scourer, sorry, just took the tea down the wrong way Og.

  12. The lost tablet and the secret documents. 12 August 2021.

    Wagner is a Russian mercenary group whose operations have spanned the globe, from front-line fighting in Syria to guarding diamond mines in the Central African Republic. But it is notoriously secretive and, as such, difficult to scrutinise.

    Now, the BBC has gained exclusive access to an electronic tablet left behind on a battlefield in Libya by a Wagner fighter, giving an unprecedented insight into how these operatives work.

    And another clue given to us in Tripoli – a “shopping list” for state-of-the-art military equipment – suggests Wagner has probably been supported at the highest level despite the Russian government’s consistent denials that the organisation has any links to the state.

    As for Wagner’s presence in Libya, the tablet with the cracked screen has shed new light on the group’s covert operations there – from troop movements to booby-trapping civilian neighbourhoods. Its owner and his comrades may be long gone from the locations marked on the on-screen maps, but the BBC understands from civilian testimony and open-source evidence that – despite a ceasefire – fighters are still in the country and continue to destabilise peace efforts.

    An electronic tablet! How fortunate! And it’s not even password protected let alone encrypted. The BBC should buy a lottery ticket immediately. Wagner is a Russian copy of the US mercenary operation Blackwater (now known as Academi) and exists for the same reasons. It allows for things to be done; and losses to be denied without drawing in the State. As to destabilising Libya that was done by Cameron and Sarkozy with American Military aid!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/extra/8iaz6xit26/the-lost-tablet-and-the-secret-documents

  13. Good morning, all and very happy shooting. NOT a Glorious Twelfth around here, though. Grey and dull.

          1. Hola, Elsie. I shall be trimming back the shrubs at the front.

            Quando vamos a Côte?

  20. Biden to Putin: Drill, Vlady, Drill.12 August 2021.

    A principal objective of the multitrillion-dollar Biden economic plan is to force Americans to reduce their production and consumption of fossil fuels. So why is the president now encouraging overseas production by petro-dictators, which in turn will encourage consumption world-wide? It’s almost as if disruption of the U.S. economy has become an end in itself for Washington’s ruling class.

    In sum, current U.S. policy is for oil from authoritarian abusers of human rights like Vladimir Putin to play a larger role in the energy market, while simultaneously asking U.S. taxpayers to spend unprecedented sums to reduce the use of oil in energy markets. Where are all the media’s Russia collusion theorists?

    It’s not the Russia Collusion but that no Western Leader actually believes in the Global Warming scam. That’s for the peasants. In the UK it provides Ministers with Foreign Travel, good food and wine, and no doubt a bit on the side is supplied by their hosts!

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-to-putin-drill-vlady-drill-11628710542

  21. 336651+ up ticks,
    Talk about long stops via tory (ino) overseers safeguarding their future.

    Pro con carpetbaggers slithering into position…. again in the form of ,the grand old duke of treachery, he marched them up to the top of the hill then he marched them….

    Tears and technical chaos: Andrew Neil weighs up his future at GB News
    Insiders say veteran broadcaster has been frozen out of decision-making by Australian boss who may want it to become a ‘British Fox News’

  22. Aah, The Glorious 12th. Good morning, Fellow Grousers!

    It’s Not What It Sounds Like

    One day Ed goes over to Bob’s house looking for him, but the only one there is Bob’s wife.

    “Where’s Bob?” Ed asks.

    “Out at a bar,” she tells him, then adds “I’ll tell you which one if you loan me $50 so I can go to the beauty parlour!”

    “Well,” Ed replies, “that’s all I got, but sure, I’ll lend you a fifty.”

    She tells Ed Bob is at O’Malley’s.

    When Ed gets to O’Malley’s, he sees that Bob and the boys have already finished their first round of drinks.

    “Buddy boy!” Bob yells to Ed, “You’re just in time to buy the boys a round!”

    “Sorry, Bob,” Ed replies. ” I just blew my wad on your wife’s face.”

  23. One solution would be to publish the percentage mark gained by each pupil in each subject. An alternative is to normalise the results. This
    would be based on the sensible and defensible assumption that pupils’ relative performance conforms to a normal (bell) curve – so that, for
    example, the top 5 per cent of marks get an A, the next 15 per cent get a B, and so on.

    Pamela Wheeler
    Shrewsbury

    The Bell Curve, like wot the GCE system used for Grades

    1. Indeed. I recall my French master admitting, somewhat reluctantly, that GCEs were competitive exams.

    2. When I took “A” levels the system was set so that 70% passed with very few getting A grades. (Indeed, 3 B’s would easily get you into Oxbridge and you could get into places like UEA – as I did – with a B,C,D).

      ERGO: 30% of “A” levels were failed outright.

      And remember your school would not allow you to study for “A” levels unless you had at least 5 “O” levels and – as we all know – “O” levels were very much more difficult than GCSEs so those studying “A” levels were starting from a far higher base than those entered for “A” levels today.

  25. Putin’s tubby ‘traitor’ isn’t exactly James Bond! 12 Aaugust 2021.

    Details of the man at the centre of an international espionage scandal are beginning to emerge, with neighbours’ descriptions suggesting he’s no James Bond.

    David Smith, a security guard at the British Embassy in Berlin, is accused of passing on classified terrorism documents to a Russian spy, it emerged last night.

    In echoes of Cold War espionage, Smith received a bundle of cash in return for providing highly sensitive reports to a Kremlin agent, it is alleged.

    There are fears Smith may have been susceptible to being blackmailed by agents working for Putin due to his alleged ‘extreme right-wing views’, The Sun reported.

    Security guard? No doubt he’s handed over Next Week’s Launch Codes! His employment clearance was probably aided by his “extreme right wing views.” Two weeks ago a high level civil servant was cleared of impropriety when he left Top Secret documents at a bus stop.

    This has the aura of Fakery about it!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9885109/Security-guard-UKs-Berlin-embassy-charged-passing-documents-Russian-agent.html

    1. When I was in Primary school, we were taught A, B, C, D, E etc. (What are you talking about?)

      1. I was the only landlubber in a pirate school. We didn’t get far with the alphabet. A and B were fine, but as soon as we went to C I found I was the only one left in class.

  29. 336651+ up ticks,
    The UN has got to be given the chop as it has gone off its chump, totally.
    A meat ration on par with a walnut.

    The gates & minions will have us on a tablet diet yet, NON conformists will
    succumb to malnutrition.

    In line with past actions the political overseers are to form a sniffer department with patrols out in force especially on a SUNDAY, on account of the signature nation dish of England is… ROAST BEEF.

    A lab/lib/con coalition vote is a must for less, in this instance, roast beef.

    https://youtu.be/BVhN7Ory_Ck

    1. Will someone please explain to me: what is the point of the United Nations? Why does it still exist?

      1. 336651+ up ticks,
        G,
        A sounding board, ideas to be taken forward, the pillow whisperer , carrie will be listening intently & johnson awaiting her orders.

      2. ‘Morning, George, as I remarked yesterday, the UN, run by 3rd World wonks, is there to ruin the Western Economy and bring it down to the level of the 3rd World shïtholes.

        1. Morning, Tom.

          Therefore if it is run by third world wonks, it shouldn’t take much effort for the first world to put it out of business. For good.

      4. It exists to provide well paid jobs to the relatives and friends of third world dictators, and for some extraordinary reason, western nations appear to regard themselves as bound the the utterances of these people. Dictated of course, by the Trilateral Commission.

      5. Much depends who you ask.

        To some, it is a grand vision of multiple countries coming together to solve matters of international concern. An organisation doing great work on a shoe string budget because other nations won’t commit to the ideal vision of a ‘united nations’.

        To others it is a wasteful, expensive bureaucracy more a retirement home for incompetent bureaucrats given a leg up into roles that have no business existing. A meddling, intrusive, obstructive hinderance for pen pushers, form fillers and serial meeters.

        The Rwandan genocide is a clear example of the UN’s incompetence. Decent people with grand visions and genuine good will were fought by a protectivist bureaucracy designed to ensure that the very least got done while being as vocal at blaming others for their own arrogance.

        The end result was catastrophic failure and loss of life that – again – could be seen either as meddling arrogance or desperate need to help. I think it depends where you stand. If you’re on the ground, seeing the horror, as a decent human being you want to help and look to trans national organisations with clout to make those changes.

        When you’re *in* the international body, on the 20th floor and feeling very important, you’re more interested in filling in form 2387.d/2/345 properly, and getting it filed away – you don’t care that it’s a water purifier in desperate need for a village – it’s just paperwork.

    2. I have noticed that the ribeye steaks in Morrisons seem to be diminishing in size!

      2. Buy them from an independent butcher and you can stipulate the size of a far superior quality steak.

  31. Just imagine if Boris Johnson’s pitch to voters at the last election had included the stark reality of his Net Zero by 2050 agenda.

    GREEN PLEDGE 1: ‘Er, well, you’re going to have to get rid of your gas boiler – but don’t worry the replacement heat pump or hydrogen boiler (which probably won’t work very well) will only set you back something like £12,000.’

    GREEN PLEDGE 2: ‘Oh, and if you want a new car, you’re going to have to upgrade to an expensive electric model, even though we don’t have anywhere near enough places to actually charge the damn thing at the moment.’

    GREEN PLEDGE 3: ‘And we’re doing all of this even though China is going to keep destroying the environment with unrestrained zeal, but let’s just not talk about that.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9884589/If-Boris-thinks-Brits-pay-nose-green-boilers-hes-signing-death-warrant.html

    1. 336651+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      He would still have found support / votes, the main thing is him & party are in number 10, then HOPE takes a big part ongoing, same with major, the wretch cameron, treacherous treesa.

      The black comedy is the electorate are voting for a joined at the political lip, a coalition.

    2. And his other great fraud:

      Let’s get Brexit done! (But don’t worry about the NI Protocol, the fisheries or the financial services industry!)

    3. Yo T_B

      The irony of it all, is that China, india et al, will have to up their 110% non Green Policies, to supply all the Wokist Countries with the ‘goodies’

      that they are prohibited from manufacturing themselves ie

      Heat Pumps
      Electric Cars
      Batteries for above
      Solar Panels
      Puters
      Phones
      etc

      1. Not prohibited. We simply won’t be able to – at all, ever again. Manufacturing will collapse. The green nutters have already destroyed our heavy industry. Their crackpot idea that such can come from windmills is ludicrous, and shows their abject ignorance over engineering.

        But that’s the problem. Stupid ignorant people are making decisions with consequences they don’t understand about what other, better, brighter people can and cannot do.

    5. It’s the hypocrisy that bothers most. Give the government more of your money and climate change will go away.

      Buy a polluting, toxic electric car and climate change will go away.

      Don’t use heat, light or fuel and climate change will go away.

      If we do all those things, we will be poorer, ill more often, obliterate our industry, cripple our tax base and be worse off by far.

      Yet the government refuses to do the very thing necessary to actually resolve the real issue – uncontrolled, massive, unskilled, unwanted, criminal invasion.

  32. 336651+ up ticks,
    Somewhat rich coming from a pro johnson manipulator in the full knowledge that it will never happen all the while he has a rear orifice.

    Tow the Boats Back to France to Stop Channel Migrant Crisis, Farage Tells Govt

    1. Good morning ogga

      You know it is possible to agree with people whom you do not like! You do not like Farage so you dismiss everything he says and does; I find him to be an excellent broadcaster who is extremely lucid – (even though he is far too vain!) and I certainly think he has made some very grave mistakes!

      1. 336651+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        My likes / dislikes do NOT enter the equation it is more
        a warning going on past actions.

        Tokyo Rose, lord haw,haw ALL had a following.

        Smooth talkers have pulled off many an odious stroke.

      2. 336651+ up ticks,
        R,
        He made ONE very serious treacherous intentional “mistake”,and I do NOT want to see him have the opportunity to make a second.

      3. Nigel Farage claimed last night that he had no political ambitions at the moment. [ I paraphrase] NF should be asked what political party he will favour at the next election and why he is apparently so reluctant to interview Richard Tice on GBNews. As far as I know no Reform UK party member has appeared on the FARAGE GBNews programme. Reform UK intend to have 500 candidates in the next General Election and are training the candidates now. Reform UK will not backdown to allow the Conservatives an easy ride.

        1. Good morning, clydesider

          ogga is right in thinking that Farage is not an easy ally with whom to work. He certainly seems to fall out with people. Wasn’t Richard Tice once his right hand man?

          I would like have liked to have seen Boris Johnson interviewed by Andrew Neil before the general election but Johnson managed to dodge that. Andrew Neil could well have exposed just how very bad the Johnson/May surrender to the EU Withdrawal Agreement was – all we had heard from the bovine excrement sprayer was that the WA was ‘brilliant’, ‘new’ and ‘oven ready.’ Only the last of these statements was even partially true – but the WA was only fit and ready for an incinerator not an oven.

          Farage is most immodest – indeed he is always boasting about Brexit. But he has never been questioned closely about why he said the Boris/Gove trade was all right when it has made such a pig’s ear of N.Ireland, the fishing industry and the financial sector. He has also not been taken properly to task over his abject surrender to Johnson by withdrawing Brexit Party candidates in Conservative held seats without insisting on a satisfactory quid pro quo. We still have a House of Commons which would be very happy to overthrow Brexit and get even worse terms for the UK.

          1. Good morning Rastus – NF reminds me of the Alan Partridge character at times but I enjoy most of his FARAGE programmes. He had that amusing but deluded Extinction Rebellion founder on last night. Easy meat for NF.

        2. I really wish, Clyde, that Reform, Reclaim and For Britain, would seriously consider ceasing to split the vote, check out each other’s manifestos and seriously consider a compromise amalgamation, thus becoming a force to be be reckoned with.

          We desperately need a third party that might just cause the Lib/Lab/Cons to pull on their brown trousers.

      1. 336651+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Ntn,
        Just someones alter ego showing through, touch of Jekyll & Hyde, could be one on here a disgruntled tory (ino) he, she, or it has popped up before as the clog or boot, something like that, more to be pitied.

  33. Good morning, my friends.

    Girls set to increase GCSE lead over boys – and we should ‘accept they are cleverer’
    Education expert says female students have outperformed male counterparts since GCSEs set up nearly 40 years ago.

    “Girls are expected to increase their lead over their male peers in GCSEs, with an expert saying we should “just accept that they are cleverer”.”

    Girls have always done better with ‘coursework’ as they are more industrious and more keen to please – at least that is my experience of teaching. I have taught some very clever boys and very clever girls but I would hesitate to say that girls are more clever than boys – but their exam performance has been greatly improved by a system that has been geared in their favour.

    I await a report that tells me that transgenders are the cleverest of all!

          1. Although some don’t finish their flying courses before entering those high buildings . . .

      1. I thought of her when the media drooled over the predominantly-black school sending so many kids to Oxbridge. If she’s a typical black oxbridge graduate then god help them.

        Ps in thinking of her you’ve sublimated her spelling ability: it’s ‘Abbott’.

          1. I bet you can’t wait to read her memoir, out next year. It’ll be a barrel of laughs, starting with that this person who’s made a career out out of being black and ranting about unfairness and immigration has chosen the publisher Viking, a name synonymous with being White and violent, destructive immigration.

    3. A woman* suffering from dementia finds a private hospital offering brain transplants for those rich enough to pay. She sees that the prices for women’s brains are twice those of men’s brains and the assistant tells her that you get what you pay for. The woman immediately goes on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram boasting how that means women are so much cleverer and more valuable than men. She goes to another brain shop and finds that the price difference is similar, similarly being told you get what you pay for. However, put off by the price difference, strange in that men’s brains are larger, and, buoyed by the thought of becoming a trendy transgender person, she discusses at length the different characteristics. Being told that overall, each is as capable in their different ways, alike to cows and pigs being equally valuable in different ways, she queries why women’s brains are twice the price. She’s again told that you get what you pay for and that the women’s brains are more expensive as . . . . .

      . . . . they’re practically new, having been little-used.

      * Switch genders when talking to women!

    4. I am heartily relieved I was at school before course work and now teacher assessments became the norm.
      Either or both would have totally blighted my record. Exams I can do; months of plodding dutifully along is not my cup of tea.
      A quick burst of adrenaline for a few days after a year of coasting along is my style.

  35. Brit embassy ‘spy who leaked secrets to Putin has stash of Russian flags, Nazi books & John Le Carre spy novels’. 12 August 2021.

    The Sun can reveal he is thought to have “extreme right-wing views”, raising the possibility he may have been blackmailed by Russia.

    And visible in his flat was a full size Russian flag hanging in the corner of the living room, along with stuffed animals wearing Russian military hats, it is claimed.

    His bookshelves were stacked with books about the Nazis, World War 2 and the Soviet Union – along with a spy novel by John le Carre and books by infamous conspiracy theorist David Icke.

    The alleged spy’s suspected home had a worn cream leather sofa covered in soft toys, mainly bears and dogs, sat in front a TV with a PlayStation – which also has a Russia flag hanging alongside.

    Well that settles it! Anyone with a cream coloured leather sofa is definitely a Russian spy!

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15844585/security-berlins-embassy-snared-spooks-spying-russia/

        1. The early ones are quite good – as he became more famous and started writing pot-boilers, I went off him.

      3. If the security guard had studied them carefully, he’d never have been caught?

      4. Totally OT Bill – just heard a lady on the radio talking about her cat – no details on breed or anything – – – she said it can’t miaow – just squeak – and I instantly thought of your previous comments on G and P.

    3. One day the media will have to accept the truth, that the Nazi party was very, very Left wing – as all evil is.

    4. “Quick, Simon, we need to make this guy look like a Russian spy, how do we do it?”
      “Well Rupert, we should probably put some stuff in his flat, Russian dolls, bears, a flag maybe. Oh, and a few spy novels, for the tradecraft. What do you think, Simon?”
      “Capital, old boy! Let’s get to it as we only have a couple of hours.”
      “Das Kapital, Rupert….”

      2. Morning Horace. There does seem to be some sort of reading list for the people Mi5 fit up. The “far-right” invariably have a collection of books on the Third Reich and of course the Anarchists Cookbook, though long out of date, is compulsory.

      3. Morning Horace. There does seem to be some sort of reading list for the people Mi5 fit up. The “far-right” invariably have a collection of books on the Third Reich and of course the Anarchists Cookbook, though long out of date, is compulsory.

    5. I wonder how much influence the Brussels mafia had over this ?
      I read that they are stopping qualified UK pilots from getting jobs, it seems the mafia have changed the rules for pilots applying for jobs.
      The Brussels mafia are behaving like kindergarten children who knock over fellows Lego towers.

  36. Back from Fakenham Market – as busy as usual. Very few masks. Most people still masked in Morrisons. But not the staff nor the Thomases.

    Highways Authority done a great job. The ONLY access road to the market square is “closed”. So, in theory, no access by car to market, nor to Tesco (where the carpark is). It clearly deterred some motorists – but the sensible ones ignored the signs and went to the market. Not a soul to be seen working on the “roadworks” of course…

    1. Not a soul to be seen working on the “roadworks” of course…

      My wife and I came across a similar situation last week near WGC she had picked me up from hospital and trying to avoid the rush hour traffic took the ‘back roads’. On a small roundabout near the A1 there were traffic lights. An 8 minute wait for green. But it was a three way traffic light situation, lots of cones lots of cars queuing, three lanes of roads shut but not a soul in sight,…… nothing happening !

        1. New one way systems as well Bill.
          Did you get the email about the I word ?
          I had to frown this morning re the news……..NZ shut down at least until Christmas. 26 people in total have died from ‘covid’. Same in Oz borders shut and patrolled. Taliban murders over 1000 people, no body really gives one… some ladies alpaca might have to be put down, a massive interest and discussion in that ?? And youngsters ecstatic about ‘exam results’. I suspect more pleased that they didn’t have to take the exams, but please do beware of the approaching and massive costs of university education.

          Soz…….. typo one thousand people.

          1. I had the misfortune to enter the kitchen while the MR was listening to the Toad prog. Apparently, one person in Canberra has died *with/from) the plague so the whole Capital Territory has been closed down.

            Wonder how many died in traffic accidents in the same period…

            * delete as appropriate

  37. Open letter to Professor A Pollard from the founder of the Children’s Union, Ross Butler. This is the Professor Pollard who appeared before a Parliamentary Committee recently and who appeared to, ever so slightly, back off re “vaccine” efficacy and use. Circling the wagons?

    Children’s Union – Open Letter to Pollard

    1. Thank you for posting that! It’s an excellent letter.

      There was one line that surprised me, and that was Ross Butler’s assertion that most vaccine damage is medium or long term. Does anyone know what is the received wisdom, or the evidence to support this?

      1. I’ve been reading many articles by doctors, virologists and other specialists who are independent i.e. not financed by Big Pharma or government grants. They have concerns on a number of aspects including fertility in both women and men; neurological damage and ongoing damage to the body’s other major organs.

        In particular Professor Sucharit Bhakdi has given some talks on the attack the spike protein is making on the cells lining the blood vessels. The result is clotting and will happen at the capillary level as well as in veins and arteries: the claim re capillary clotting is that the clotting will eventually severely damage the organs, including the brain.

        Look up Dr Bryan Ardis: he is a holistic doctor and has very firm views on the “vaccines” and on the use of a particular anti-viral drug. He has been interviewed by Reiner Fuellmich and that interview can be found here

        1. I’ve seen the Bryan Ayris one, and it is very interesting. Actually I read the line as referring to all vaccines, not just the covid jab, which surprised me, because nobody is likely to associate long term effects with a vaccine.
          Perhaps I misinterpreted it, and it is supposed to refer to the covid treatment as you say.

      2. Precisely because there is currently no evidence, BB2 as the ‘vaccine’ hasn’t been around in the medium or long-term, that is why I’ve refused it and I worry that Best Beloved, with JAK2 blood cancer hurried off to have both jabs and says she will take a booster.

  38. The BBC phaffing on about school exam results .

    We need people to repair roads, empty our bins , clear the gutters , pick the fruit , sow the wheat, harvest the barley , milk our cows , feed the pigs , ferment the beer , clean our windows , repair our gas boilers, sort out plumbing problems , fit new windows , rescue climbers , drive ambulances , sort out the blood clinics , print newspapers , paint bridges , direct traffic drive buses, DRIVE food lorries , operate cranes , drive JCB’s, dig holes , funeral directors , work in nursing homes , care as in really care . Forestry workers, fencers , etcetc.

    I have had enough of hearing about so called highly qualified youngsters who know absolutely nothing , and who drift the way that unfocussed clever clogs do.

    My eldest son is an electrician , he chose to do that , his friends have nothing jobs though highly qualified in office speak. younger son works in retail . Still working thank goodness , and eldest son worked all through the different lockdowns last year and this. His Skills were very much in demand

    Moh retired from flying , and plays golf now, mows the lawn cuts the hedges in the garden , but wishes he had SPECIFIC skills.. Yes achieved great exam grades , O levels and A’s , and he worked hard at school , his pals in his grammar school , did well, but learnt skills and now have businesses.

    All I hear from him is , I wish this , I wish that . Practical skills are so important in this life .

    1. “Practical skills are so important in this life.” but as far as business is concerned, undercut by cheap imports from Eastern Europe and the Far East. Apprenticeships are falling out of favour here, because who wants to pay to educate a youngster when a fully qualified Pole or Estonian is available at a lower salary?

      1. I suspect it’s more that youngsters want the good things in life now, not later, so won’t work for the lower wages that reflect their lower output and the costs and demands of training them.

      2. Absolutely spot on Obs, and hardly any vocational training any more. From the experiences i hear with our three sons and D i Ls the pushy me, me, me, youngsters all want to start at the top of the tree, they usually already know everything.

    2. Morning all.

      Electrician’s are well trained and worth there weight in gold, as are most tradesmen.
      I have a friend who is a heating engineer he earns well over 100 k per year. But alas according to Boros he might be out of work by 2030. But having said that we wont need any heating by then because of ongoing and extreme Glowball warming.
      The problem we seem to have in the UK now is, many younger people see themselves as above getting their hands dirty or driving a van for a living.
      I often wonder how we managed to reach the stage we are at now.

      1. My dentist could not find any newly qualified dentists to take on in his practice, they all expected to go into private practice straight away to make their fortune.

        1. The practice I go to – taken over by BUPA a few years ago – has a succession of recent graduates so I never see the same one twice.

          1. My older brother bought an established practice in 1964 – established for decades but the 40 year old dentist died.
            Borrowed £5K from the Bank of M&D – £2.5K to buy from the alcoholic dentist’s widow and £2.5K to “fix up” the dilapidated practice premises that were rented. Paid back M&D in 24 months and practiced for 36 years – employed another 4/5 dentists and made a fortune on NHS patients in that time.
            £5K does not sound a lot but he bought his first home, a brand new 3 bed house, for £3K Cash flow was so good the bank gave him an overdraft for the 18 months to pay it off!

            Who owns it now? BUPA – he initially sold it to his employees but squabbles led them to sell up and BUPA was apparently the sole bidder.

        2. The practice I go to – taken over by BUPA a few years ago – has a succession of recent graduates so I never see the same one twice.

        1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/08/11/tony-blairs-university-pledge-has-failed-says-son/

          Tony Blair’s university pledge has failed, says his son

          Euan Blair criticises ‘artificial target’ of higher education for 50pc of school leavers and says former Prime Minister agrees

          By Matthew Field 11 August 2021 • 5:00pm

          Tony Blair’s landmark target for half of school leavers to attend university is no longer fit for purpose, his son has said – claiming that the former prime minister agrees with him.

          Euan Blair, who runs a start-up aiming to get more young people into apprenticeships, said that the New Labour target is out of date and “has not worked out”.

          Set out in 1999, the policy was a flagship part of Number 10’s bid to improve education under Tony Blair. His target was continued by subsequent governments and only officially abandoned by the Conservatives last year.

          But critics have argued that it encouraged an unhealthy focus on higher education which led to a proliferation of pointless “Mickey Mouse” degrees and lured undergraduates into racking up large debts without a meaningful increase in their salary prospects.

          Speaking to The Telegraph in the wake of record A-level grade inflation this week, Euan Blair said: “When you look at the 50pc target, the belief was the more people go to university, the more people can access great opportunities, the more we would transition people fairly from full time education to full time employment. It has not worked out that way.”

          “A pretty stark statistic is only 4pc of those on free school meals make it to a Russell Group university. Lots of students [end up] in jobs deemed to be low skilled that would not need a degree in the first place.

          “It is right there is a change, and that change has been talked about in terms of saying: ‘let’s not have an artificial target for how many people go to university’, let’s help people figure out from a plethora of options what is in their best interests.”

          Asked if his father would agree, the 37-year-old said: “He does. He’s massively supportive of what we are doing, that will not surprise you.”

          Tony Blair’s most recent comments on the policy suggested that he continues to support it.

          This summer he set out an Education 2030 plan in conjunction with Lord Adonis, one of his former ministers, calling for even more pupils to go to university and suggesting that dozens of new campuses should open in deprived towns.

          Tony Blair’s landmark target for half of school leavers to attend university was finally reached in 2019 Credit: Alain BENAINOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

          The pair said that GDP improved by £1,200 per person for every 1.5pc of people attending university.

          Writing in a paper last month for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Mr Blair said the 50pc goal remained “as controversial as it was correct and essential”, adding it would be “wrong to soft peddle” on that goal.

          Euan Blair is the founder of Multiverse, a start-up that works with the world’s largest technology companies to help them recruit apprentices straight out of school.

          He said: “What we are saying to people is there are lots of people applying to university, a significant number are applying simply because they think it is the thing they are supposed to do and that is the route they have heard about through teachers or read about in the media.

          “There is an incredible route through an apprenticeship to some of the world’s best companies and some of the world’s best tech start-ups.”

          Tony Blair has lent his support to the idea of boosting apprenticeships, as well as calling for the UK to go even further in promoting higher education.

          Alongside Lord Adonis, he wrote: “We need pathways to careers and prosperity as strong for those who don’t go to university as for those who do – ‘the other 50pc’ as they are sometimes called – and this should be a key ambition for the next decade.”

          Euan Blair said he believes that schools must do more to advertise how many students go on to take apprenticeships and teachers needed to champion them as much as university.

          He said: “One problem is teachers do not have enough resources to talk about apprenticeships.”

          School league tables should be modernised to give weight to students taking on apprenticeships, he added, rather than “what percentage went to a Russell Group university”.

    3. Now that people are starting to come back to the office, I’m losing count of the number of staff members I see walk up to the front door and when it doesn’t open automatically, stand there looking completely non-plussed.

      Granted when I came back last summer, I also walked into what used to be an auto-revolving door but I already knew the alternative. There is a stand in front of the centre door with a large button displaying a wheelchair graphic plus a scanner pad for ID passes. Either hitting the button or scanning a pass will open the door.

      A couple of mornings ago an anti-BBC protestor let himself in without any problem at all and stood in receiption having a good old rant!

    4. You list there a whole series of jobs done by men, not women. Whether by ability, attitude, personal preference or societal pressure, women have long avoided these jobs and the skills involved and this trend seems to have exacerbated in the 40+ years since I started my first job as a graduate engineer.

      Alas, my 3 recently-adult sons and their friends have no interest in learning practical skills either. Despite my offering to teach them practical skills and to pay them to help me in my home DIY and car projects, with free beer on top of the board and lodging already provided, they weren’t the least bit interested. Even the one almost finishing his 5 year degree-whilst-working office-based engineering course can’t wire a plug.

      No wonder we have to import so many manufactured goods and have such massive trade and balance of payment deficits. We’re spending some £3,000 pa per taxpayer more than we’re earning, all paid for by borrowing and selling off the family silver.

      When the reckoning comes it’ll be brutal.

      1. Ah, but everything comes with a plug already attached now! I was taught to wire a plug in Housecraft lessons at my Secondary Modern.

        1. My ‘Comp’ lessons included Metalwork, Woodwork (and Cookery if the boy shouted loud enough)

      2. Plugs come ready-wired these days – so that ignorant people don’t put the wrong wire on the wrong bit.

      3. My ex was a practical man who could turn his habd to everything – the sons are both IT people who don’t do that kind of thing. The current husband, although he was a professional man, is also good at prectical things.
        Maybe it’s a sign of modern education that practical skills are devalued?

    7. I love beinng a doom monger, but I do genuinely worry about the economic future. I’ve been lucky in my choice of job and how I’ve done what I want to, my way and been – from that first router for a tenner to the last quarter million contract – obscenely fortunate.

      Yet I look at Junior and wonder – given the government debt, the punitive interest rates, the obsession with green, the hammered economy, the demand from employers for experience in *apprentices*, the sheer difficulty of running a company in the face of the truly disgusting racism and diversity of the Left wing agenda – what he will do.

      Will he get a degree he never uses? Hop from job to job, struggling financially? Will he ever earn enough to keep ahead of the ever rising through tax cost of living?

  39. “SIR – Another reason to be sorry if traditional thatching straw were to disappear, or become rarer (Letters, August 6), would be the loss of attractive stooks of corn in the fields.

    Before combine harvesters were common, corn stooks were widely seen in the countryside. They are usually now only seen when older varieties of wheat, which produce long straw for thatching, have been cut with a reaper binder, and they are a reminder how our fields once looked at harvest time.

    Peter Holloway
    Tarporley, Cheshire”

    Yes, yes, Mr Hollowbrain – yokels in smocks used to cut the corm with scythes – let’s bring them back. Plus all the maladies that killed most of them off before the age of 40.

    Wanqueur.

    1. Soon to be seen again all over the UK – horse-drawn ploughs and other farm implements, thanks to the rush to scrap diesel and petrol engines.

        2. We should all print that out and send it to 10 Downing Street. For the attention of the Prime Minister and her wife, Doris!

        3. We should all print that out and send it to 10 Downing Street. For the attention of the Prime Minister and her wife, Doris!

          1. The Green Jobs will not be what the British public welcome. Thousands of individuals are being trained to rip out our gas boilers and other gas appliances and replace them with Heat Pumps. An unnecessary, expensive and destructive occupation

    2. I was taught when studying fashion that women who worked in the fields pre-industrial revolution were rigidly corseted, hence the odd way they’re seen bending in illustrations of rural life, not principally because it was fashionable but more because their bones were fragile and needed the support. Rickets and all that.

      2. Ironically, being in the fields wards off rickets and, despite our scientific knowledge and improved diets, rates have been steadily increasing for the last 50 years (due to higher prevalence in non-whites*/colonialism and racial discrimination in health services*).

        * Delete as appropriate

      3. That is an amazing fact, Sue .

        Fragile bones etc, and of course rigid corsets were very popular right up unto the 1960s.

        I can remember my dearly missed elderly Aunt , who was a district midwife decades ago, having a fitting from the Spirella corset lady , something most ladies did in those days.

        http://www.corsetiere.net/Spirella/Corsetiere/Fitter.htm

        Corsetieres from 1958, 1965 and 1967 (by which time her Spirella income has allowed her to buy one of the first Morris Minis). The appearance and demeanour of the corsetiere was of prime importance. Note the twin set, pearls and gloves

        1. The only corset I remember my mother wearing was a rollon with suspenders.

          I did try a panty girdle but disliked being cut in half.

      4. Corset’s true…{:¬)) I sometimes wish for a similar myself. They are available in chemists’ shops but always packaged so one can’t try one on.

      5. One of my fave Edinburgh destinations is the Surgeons Hall Museum. Among the satisfyingly gruesome exhibits is the skeleton of a twenty something woman who died during childbirth in the 1790s.
        Apart from being minute by our standards, her bones are a floppy and distorted – particularly the pelvic area.

    3. Well matey Holloway having lived backing onto corn fields twice, I can tell you the bloody farmers use to set light to the stuff, choke the locals and stink our homes out. I doubt if new roof Thatching ever takes place now, the household insurance cost we be bee too high and slates and tiles don’t catch fire or rot.

    4. Ah, the countryside as a leisure facility for townies. He’ll be right at home in Westminster or DEFRA, or indeed anywhere in the public sector.

      I wonder what Clarkson would say.

      No wonder we import 50% of our food.

      1. That’s beccause most of the farmland has now been built over to provide housing for the white flight from our benighted and overcrowded cities.

        1. And the NWO wants the population doubled – While JR wants us to grow more of our own food – does anyone realise this is an island? – finite space and land? Clearly not. and where is all that extra much needed electricity, for the massive population increase going to come from?

          1. The Greeniacs in Norway want to stop meat-eating. Since most of the land isn’t tillable, how do they expect to feed themselves with vegetables and grains and roots? Animals are sent off into the hills to munch scrub and turn it into meat – nobody can plant any crop other than trees there.

          2. Big factories turning oil and wood pulp into delectable mush is the answer.

            Think of Peddys dinner description with that on offer – who knows what missie would get.

        2. And much of the rest is farmed to produce vegetation used for biogas, which involves huge tractors and huge trailers burning diesel fuel and driving for miles at about 35 mph along main roads in order to reach a heavily subsidised digester plant. Meanwhile, the government is willing to import thousands of tonnes of woodchips from the USA to burn in power stations, because it looks greener than dirty black coal.

        3. And much of the rest is farmed to produce vegetation used for biogas, which involves huge tractors and huge trailers burning diesel fuel and driving for miles at about 35 mph along main roads in order to reach a heavily subsidised digester plant. Meanwhile, the government is willing to import thousands of tonnes of woodchips from the USA to burn in power stations, because it looks greener than dirty black coal.

        4. …and 500 acres at a time, of good arable farmland taken for so-called ‘Solar Farms’ that compact and ruin the land for 40 years just so that EVs can run out of power for want of a bucket of electricity.

    5. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19c5abacda6941c0010d58eea1ad4b18f4cb83425a9d7a335f143f45b9315afd.png Well I think you are being most unfair in your attack on Mr Holloway. In no way is he advocating, in his letter, a return to the feudal system replete with besmocked yokels wielding scythes. The reaper-binder he mentions is a modern form of harvester, still in usage, that cuts the crop in an efficient way that retains the straw for thatching purposes.

      Spelt is one of those ‘older varieties of wheat’ that he mentions. I was first introduced to its flour by Galton Blackiston, head chef and proprietor of Morston Hall, who bakes a very superior-flavoured bread with it. I still bake such bread and it is utterly delicious.

      2. A small memory from Not A Bad Life

        Farm activities also played quite a large part in our lives at about this time and harvest time was always special. Combine harvesters were rare in those days and the corn was reaped and bound into sheaves by the reaper and then had to be manually “stooked” into two rows of six or eight sheaves, all leaning on each other.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1f7ef5d591143a0f6f0dbfc568091cef9e7acd35487d20a92dfa063b3b4b53ed.jpg

        The greatest fun came near the end of reaping a field; as the tractor and reaper worked round and round the field in ever-decreasing circles, there would come a time when all that remained was a small stand of corn in the centre of the field. We boys would gather around all sides of this small stand, waiting for the rabbits that had been gradually rounded up into it by the passage of the reaper. At the very last minute, rabbits would make a dash for it from all directions and we would do our best to clobber as many as we could with our “rabbitting” sticks – miniature knobkerries or shillelaghs. Plenty of rabbit stew for several weeks to come.

        Catapults were another method of dispatching rabbits for the pot but required a great deal of practice in their use in order to become proficient.

        1. In 1944 in a Herefordshire corn field I was bitten by a sheep dog which was standing guard as the last clump of corn was being cut. The dog was concentrating on the imminent scattering of rabbits as I tried to pat him. I learnt a lesson then not to interrupt a dog at work.

        2. The down side was going out with my parents to glean ears of corn for the blasted chickens.
          My back is coming out in sympathy at the mere memory of bending over the vast acres that were once Earls Colne airfield.

    6. I live under straw thatch. The cottage was rethatched using a variety of straw named Maris Huntsman. This is a variety of longstraw and recommended by Historic England. It is grown by Norfolk farmers and threshed using a fifties style set-up using a single cylinder Field Marshall to avoid bruising the stalks.

      Historic England do not permit the replacement of historic straw thatch with other materials.

      I believe other varieties of longstraw are available for thatching. The old varieties are not used for grain, something to do with the EU.

      1. I can’t be bothered to re-educate myself via t’interwebbynet, but I was brought up to believe that Norfolk reed was superior to straw. No doubt some landowner lobbied English Heritage etc to insist on straw. Reed would last about 25 years, straw a lot less, AFAIK.

    8. Holloway is probably too young to have been involved in harvesting corn in that old fashioned way.

      It might have looked idyllic with the men slowly advancing across the field with their scythes cutting nice straight rows while the young family members followed along behind, propping up the nice piles of wheat behind them. However, it was mighty hard work and a very slow process.

      Maybe the old fashioned approach is needed for corrims roof but I would hate to see the price of a loaf of bread if wheat was still cut this way.

    1. Can’t be worse than having it run by the brainwashed products of marxist universities, from which the non-jabbed will of course have been excluded.

  41. And yet another attempt at the vilification of GB News from the Telegraph. You would think that it was a left wing paper, wouldn’t you?

    Tears and technical chaos: Andrew Neil weighs up his future at GB News
    Insiders say veteran broadcaster has been frozen out of decision-making by Australian boss who may want it to become a ‘British Fox News’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/08/11/tears-technical-chaos-andrew-neil-weighs-future-gb-news/

    If only it would become a Fox news or a Sky News Australia. Then we would be getting fact and news of substance, not propaganda pieces from the BBC or Sky UK catering to the left and their fanatical bunch of cult followers.

    1. The Daily Telegraph is a Left-wing newspaper; that much is evident to all who read it.

      The DT, in company with the Conservative Party, all other political parties, the rest of the news media, television and radio, the judiciary, the police, education (schools and universities), the health service, the establishment and every other echelon of British society has been stealthily and surreptitiously invaded by the malignant forces of the evil Left over the past few decades. All this was achieved whilst the Right remained sitting with its thumb up its arse tut-tutting about how much better the good times were.

      The Left is now everywhere and in full control.

      1. I’m afraid Grizzly, you are correct. What is it about the Right that it doesn’t or cannot fight back?

        1. Right wing mentality is about the individual, not the collective. Thus, RW people tend not to band together in the same way as left wing, don’t make collective decisions and act as a collective in the same way. Thus, no “united” front to resist.

          1. We are also far too tolerant, and we practice what we preach about free speech.
            The left on the other hand have the mentality that if they don’t agree with something, they join together and beat it until it is dead.

    2. One of the problems with GBNews is the fact that they have no library of historic news items to show. Perhaps the Australian boss could give AN some freedom and allow Fox News to allow clips from its library to be shown on GB News. GB News needs a free Andrew Neil to forensically interview his chosen targets.

  42. And yet another attempt at the vilification of GB News from the Telegraph. You would think that it was a left wing paper, wouldn’t you?

    Tears and technical chaos: Andrew Neil weighs up his future at GB News
    Insiders say veteran broadcaster has been frozen out of decision-making by Australian boss who may want it to become a ‘British Fox News’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/08/11/tears-technical-chaos-andrew-neil-weighs-future-gb-news/

    If only it would become a Fox news or a Sky News Australia. Then we would be getting fact and news of substance, not propaganda pieces from the BBC or Sky UK catering to the left and their fanatical bunch of cult followers.

  43. 336651+ up ticks,
    Much more input from the lab/lib/con support / voting brigade it will without doubt shortly be the United Kingdoms bloody nation anthem.

    breitbart,
    UK Radio Station Investigated for Broadcasting Chant with ‘Jihadi’ Lyrics

  44. 336651+ up ticks,
    On par with saying an honest conversation on MPs expenses, both can be taken as warning of future failures,

    Thursday 12 August It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams

  45. Are you all sitting comfortably , then I will begin.

    Russian flags, Soviet military souvenirs and a John le Carré novel: Inside the flat of ‘Kremlin spy’ David Smith as British embassy security guard continues to be quizzed by Germans over passing classified documents to Moscow

    First photos have revealed the inside of David Smith, a security guard at the British embassy in Germany accused of passing secrets to the Russians
    A Russian flag sits in the corner of the room, while a Soviet officer’s caps adorn the top of a bookcase and the head of a stuffed dog toy
    Books on his shelves include John le Carre’s A Murder of Quality, conspiracy theorist David Icke’s The Trigger, and books on Nazi history
    Smith’s Potsdam flat also contains a number of cuddly toys and a PlayStation

    The security guard arrested on suspicion of spying at the British embassy is an oddball fan of military and Nazi history with two Russian flags and at least three Soviet military caps in his flat.

    The 57-year-old British man who has been named locally as David Smith lives in a rented two bedroom ground floor flat in the city of Potsdam south west of Berlin.

    Bookshelves in his flat visible from the window outside are crammed with Russian language books and military histories including two books about Hitler’s feared SS 12th Panzer Division which committed war crimes in World War Two.

    His other books include the spy novel A Murder of Quality written by John Le Carre in 1962, and David Icke’s self-published book The Trigger which is full of conspiracy theories.

    A large Russian red, white and blue flag on a pole could be seen today propped up in the corner of Mr Smith’s living room with a smaller one on the floor beside a TV.

    Soviet military caps showing hammer and sickle emblems on a red star surrounded by a wreath were also visible from the window.

    One was sitting on the head of a cuddly toy Rottweiler dog on the floor while another sat proudly on display on top of a book shelf and a third was on his cream coloured leather sofa.

    Other memorabilia adorning the flat includes insignias of the Russian Baltic, Black Sea, Northern, and Pacific fleets, and a Russian military insignia – not fully visible – which partially reads ‘technical battalion’.

    But the image of Smith as military-obsessed is undercut by a number of incongruous items and books – including three volumes on embroidery.

    His flat also contains a collection of teddy bears and other cuddly stuffed animals, while a PlayStation sits on the floor alongside floral ornaments.

    Many of the books on his shelves are also related to psychology, including volumes entitled ‘Guide to the Brain’, ‘Psychological Influence’, ‘Open subconscious’ and two books by SIgmund Freud.

    Visible on a shelf close to the window are books on First World War history, several texts in German, and one book called Red Partisan – the memoir of a Soviet resistance fighter behind Nazi lines during the Second World War.

    One book title reads: ‘Sex. The Complete Illustrated Guide.’

    Elsewhere he had a desktop computer and several loose papers on a table in his apartment in the quiet tree-lined street of Kiepenheuerallee, Potsdam.

    His neighbours, who described him as being bald and stocky and around 5ft 9ins tall, were baffled to hear of his arrest for alleged spying and insisted that he lived a quiet life.

    His flat – which is believed to cost around 1,200 euros a month to rent – is in a four storey block and has its own ground floor terrace overlooking two tram lines.

    Outside the front door of the flat is a communal table tennis table, but neighbours said they had not seen him using it.

    (lots more if you are interested ) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9886807/Inside-flat-alleged-Russian-spy-David-Smith.html

      1. I suppose it would work for the iphone generation but there are far too many ‘clues’.

        If they really wanted to find a traitor all they would have to do is look in Jeremy Corbin’s address book.

        Good morning, Minty.

        1. If they really wanted to find a traitor all they would have to do is look in Jeremy Corbin’s Code book cunningly disguised as an address book.

    4. Embroidery books! The man is obviously a poof. Obviously guilty. And the books on psychology prove it. Send him off to join Julian Assange! Another one guilty as hell.

      I hate to think what these people would conclude from my book shelf.

  46. Europe is inviting disaster by abandoning Afghanistan’s security forces. 12 August 2021.

    When the first British troops arrived in Helmand, British intelligence officials estimated that at least 80 per cent of Islamist terror plots against the UK originated from the Afghan region. Today, it is almost zero as al-Qaeda, as well as more recent manifestations of Islamist terrorism such as Isil, have been forced to relocate their operations to other failed or failing states, such as Syria and Libya the UK.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/12/europe-inviting-disaster-abandoning-afghanistans-security-forces/

    2. I noticed that about Syria and Libya while reading the article. Con Coughlin had nothing to say about the fact that the two states were ruined by the interference of the USA and us. Not much of a self righteous hypocrite, is he? The man pontificates but never has anything useful to say. He is a warmonger who aught to be sent to the front lines to see the consequences of yapping poodles like him, fat contemptable piece of blubber with a double chin.

  48. The economy must be doing well if Rishi Sunak can take a day off to go to the test match.

        2. ‘Afternoon, molamola, why would his wife have to sit a few seats in front of Boycott? Is this a religious slant.

  49. Report: British commandos hunting Houthi drone operators in Yemen
    According to the report, the team of 40 soldiers from the SAS that landed at Al Ghaydah airport is apparently being helped by locals who are familiar with the area
    Dan Arkin | 12/08/202 https://www.israeldefense.co.il/en/node/51378
    Special forces of the British Army have arrived in Yemen to search for the terrorists who carried out the attack on the oil tanker in the Gulf that killed two people, including a British security guard. London’s Daily Express newspaper reported that it is believed that the Houthis carried out the attack at the behest of Iran. The head of Britain’s Armed Forces, Gen. Sir Nick Carter, called on the West to retaliate for the attack that killed Adrian Underwood, a former British soldier who worked as a security guard for the oil tanker, and the ship’s Romanian captain.

    According to the report, a team of 40 soldiers from the SAS that landed at Al Ghaydah airport is apparently being helped by locals, subsidized by the British Foreign Office, who are familiar with the region. The team is said to include an electronic warfare unit that can monitor communications. There is concern that Iran supplied the drones to the Houthis in order to threaten commercial ships.

    The Daily Express also reported that American and Israeli intelligence believe that the drone was launched from eastern Yemen and guided by GPS toward the tanker before an operator took control for the last mile, directing the drone into the ship’s bridge. The SAS team is cooperating with a U.S. special operations unit that was already in the region to train a commando unit of the Saudi Army.

    A British Army source said that all signs indicate that the drone was launched from Yemen, and that the concern now is that the extended range drone provides the operators with a new capability.

    https://www.israeldefense.co.il/sites/default/files/styles/full_article_image/public/_Uploads/dbsArticles/Screen%20Shot%202021-08-11%20at%209.48.52_0.png?itok=nzaQ7us0

    1. He could do with taking the “chopper” off the muzzle of his gun. These are used for smashing wooden bullets, needed to make the action operate by gas pressure, when firing blanks. The others, too.

        2. Def a training picture. The yellow attachment, the BFA Blank Firing Attachment) is a giveaway.

    2. He could do with taking the “chopper” off the muzzle of his gun. These are used for smashing wooden bullets, needed to make the action operate by gas pressure, when firing blanks. The others, too.

  50. There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth about the effect of the pandemic on our yoof. Judging by their remarkable exam achievements I would suggest parents and teachers or anyone with an interest in educating the next generation wish for the pandemic to last as long as possible.

    1. Next year, 125% of all “students” (ugh) – schoolchildren will get A triple star plus distinction – for all subjects. Official.

      1. And even in subjects they never took Bill – just like the immigrants getting fake certificates from fake immigrant run colleges, here in the UK. Anyone for surgery?????

        2. The husband of a friend worked in a uni. for post-grad students to become barristrs. Some of the African ones with “degrees” could hardly speak, let alone write, English.

      2. And even in subjects they never took Bill – just like the immigrants getting fake certificates from fake immigrant run colleges, here in the UK. Anyone for surgery?????

      3. By the year 2031, all Babes in Arms’ will be presented with their ‘A’ Level results as their take part in the naming ceremony, appropriate
        to their Religion

        The non religious ones will receive theirs, when their parent(s) send the required number of sweet wrappers to the Department of Education

      4. Don’t make such announcements, Abbott and Lammy will hurt their branes trying to find white privilege in the results.

        Do you think that they will announce doctorates for all pensioners to make up for us being we were wronged in the past by having to take those nasty O and A levels.

        2. How the heck Lammy and Abbott ever got into uni. at all is a mystery…is it? (Not through their intelligence).

          P.S. What happened to the son of that West Indian are “much more caring than white women” mother? She hasn’t learnt to shut her rather large gob yet, has she…

    1. and of course………….. all EUites will be encouraged by Boros to move here, (on the dole )

    2. Barnier has worked out that good wine is a scarce resource, and that he doesn’t want any competition from British drinkers.

    3. I just can’t bring my self to call them people, but those creeps are so disgusting aren’t they.
      Forward vison seems to be the motivation here, as Sicily has reached temps of 48.8, the mafia knew this would happen and all moved to cooler Brussels.

    4. Surely that would be illegal? Not that I care. But how can you ban a whole nation in that manner, it must violate international treaties of one sort or another?

      1. …and in reciprocity we could return all the EU settlers here and throw back most of the illegals as well.

        Cuts both way M Barnier.

        1. Trouble is, Tom, our spineless, useless “government” NEVER retaliates.

          Were I in charge, there would at airports be many booths for UK (preferably English) passport holders and just the ONE both for everyone else.

  52. Got to ask – todays title – Thursday 12 AugustL It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams” – – is there a reason for the L at the end of the word August?

      1. I loved that film as a young lad.
        Then the shampoo came out of the cupboard Hatters…………..

        1. I have posted on here recently that I saw South Pacific ( and also The Sound of Music ) several times as a child at the Dominion Theatre in Tottenham Court Road in London’s West End, thanks to reduced price mid-week matinee tickets a friends mother who worked for a Theatrical company used to get for friends & family. I recall the spectacle & sounds of the giant Todd-AO screen & surround sound system which was a technological innovation at the time.

          1. Another film I really enjoyed was Paint Your Wagon.

            During your time in London did you ever encounter a man and his family from Hendon. His name is/was Moshe Frei, he was one of the youngsters recued from WW2 Germany on The Kindertransport . He was a diamond merchant in Hatten Garden. I worked at his home he and his wife were lovely people.

          2. Happy Friday Eddy. as a child I lived south of the river in Herne Hill until we left London for Essex & I don’t think I’ve ever been to Hendon. Naturally I am familiar with the Kindertransport story but not with Moshe Frei. Here in Israel there were several of those who were on the Kindertransport & as grown ups emigrated to Israel to be reunited with surviving family members.

    3. Not an attempt at a Brizzl accent? Last time I was there, we talked about the Ford Cortinal that the guy drove… shows how long since we visited.

  54. Mail to Mr Redwood…

    I thought the UK had left the European Union!

    But as is now very evident, Brexit is just a theory as meetings between Frans Timmermans and Alok Sharma clearly shows.

    Frans Timmermans is one of George Soros’ most trusted personal envoys, just like Tony Blair, and of course George Soros has been pulling the strings of every UK administration since 1990. Both in person and through his $250,000,000 foundation, Open Society London.

    So now it’s clear that Alok Sharma is merely an operative of the Big Money billionaire group which directs the World Economic Forum and the European Union.

    Just like Mr Johnson who appointed him and doubtlessly many other so called “ministers” too.

    Billionaires Rule Britannia !

    Don’t they, Mr Redwood ?

    Alok Sharma and Frans Timmermans together is further proof!

    Polly

      1. He does his blog himself without helpers he says.

        Would you like to help ?

        Mr Redwood stopped replying when I pointed out the QinetiQ sale in 2003 by Tony Blair to Carlyle Group in Washington where John Major was employed as ”European Chairman” and Tony Blair’s best friend, George Soros, was the star ”buy out” client with $100,000,000 invested from 1994 which he probably won from John Major in 1992. The sale, through a tax haven, was of 31% and it was way underpriced for which there was later an inquiry. On sale day, Tony Blair gave QinetiQ a $7.5 billion contract The inquiry was a whitewash with a ”lessons will be learned” outcome. They knew Major was employed by Carlyle, for which the chairman expressed surprise, but he didn’t know Blair’s best friend, Soros, was the star client.

        I think, but can’t prove, that they skimmed the contract of a billion dollars plus. That would explain why the former management were awarded share deals later worth $100,000,000 between four individuals which looks completely disproportionate to the $50,000,000 price for 31%. Control of the group passed to Carlyle despite them being minority stockholders.

        Tony Blair met George Soros for talks in New York in April 1996 and sold 750 government buildings cheap to Soros’ consortium in 2000. I think it’s likely Soros was shorting gold in 1999 which would explain why Gordon Brown forced the price down.

        Anyway, why not drop Mr Redwood a question about QinetiQ and keep the pressure up? Don’t mention me, just say you read the story online.

        I think if this became headline news it would lead to many other subjects and be the end of LabCon, because it looks like they’ve all been at it from 1990!

        The Daily Mail didn’t know Soros was the star client either……….

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-377208/A-scandal-sells-taxpayer-short.html

    1. Explain why only one doctor is now required to sign the death certificate instead of two.
      Explain why vast quantities of Midazolem were bought up by Hancock in the weeks prior to the ‘Covid-19’ outbreak
      In March 2020 for use in the care and nursing homes and nhs hospitals.

        1. Complete care homes were cleared out with covid. We had 8 deaths in our area all from 1 care home. No investigations from the MSM of course.

  57. Scotland Yard ‘working on Berlin spy investigation for months’. 12 August 2021.

    Metropolitan Police officers have been involved in the case of the British embassy employee arrested in Germany on suspicion of spying for Russia for “a number of months”, Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has said.

    Really? What were they doing? This guy is living in an apartment in Berlin that looks like Vladimir Putin’s Dacha. I’m only surprised that he didn’t wear an ushanka to work and have the 1812 Overture as a ringtone on his iphone.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/08/12/scotland-yard-working-berlin-spy-investigation-months/

    2. Give them a break, they had to commute every day from their Maddie investigation branch in sunny Portugal. What with the covid ‘n all, it takes it out of you.

  58. Cow farts are our future!

    I am concerned after reading the RED button headlines yesterday that fear of CO2 emissions causing global warming will be replaced by turning our attention to the role of methane as a greenhouse gas. Methane (CH4) is mentioned in the IPCC report thirteen times and the headlines yesterday suggested that we may turn to cows as being the easiest thing to tackle as a short term measure to halt global warming.

    I don’t believe giving up milk and beef is a good idea because the raw stuff tastes so good. However according to the chemical properties of cow farts:

    Methane reacts with water
    CH4 + H2O «→» CO + 3H2

    Source: https://chemiday.com/en/reaction/3-1-0-309

    Down on the farm, both CH4 and H2O are plentiful and at a sufficiently high temperature they can be catalysed into carbon monoxide (not a listed greenhouse gas) and three times as much hydrogen that can be used in a thermal regenerative process and possibly even the farmhouse AGA!

    We must therefore turn our efforts into methane capture instead of carbon dioxide capture and create something useful from its byproducts.

    2. Didn’t they put cows on the roofs of cars and vans during WW2 in order to have a ready supply of off-ration fuel?

    1. BTL comment from Realarthurdent:

      22 hours ago

      None of the government’s actions make sense unless you conclude
      that they are being held hostage and forced to do increasingly
      nonsensical things by people holding a metaphorical gun to their head.

      I know that somewhat goes against the editorial line here at
      DailyIncompetenceNotConspiracy.org, but the idea that every single
      Western government would implement policies of such breathtaking
      incompetence, stupidity, incoherence and inconsistency INDEPENDENTLY BUT AT EXACTLY THE SAME TIME.

      Well, how likely do YOU think that is?

      182

      1. All part of the Globalist WEF conspiracy, reinforced at the G7 in June and will be again at the upcoming Cop26 hot air conference.

        1. Urgh, another week or so of the mainstream media making me want to vomit! Have already successfully avoided all Olympics and Qwerty Soup month stuff this summer. I reckon I deserve a rest!

          2. Same here, except we don’t have a TV, and I’ve given up on mainstream radio stations as well. I sometimes listen to the news on Radio Horeb, which is a German language conservative Catholic radio station (available as digital radio). News is stuff like a cathedral in Bavaria re-opening after repairs!

            I used to enjoy the papers, but they have become an exercise in picking one’s way past the propaganda. Ofwhatever has forbidden them from questioning the vaxx narrative. You can tell the Mail wants to – it is seriously out of step with its readers – but they are sticking to the rules.

        2. There is a chance that Nicola Sturgeon pulls the plug on Cop 26 as our PM is not interfering in anyone coming to Glasgow from all over the world. NS may decide that it is in her subjects’ interest to stop Cop 26. I hope she does.

  60. Final paragraph from Patrick O’Flynns column in the DT:-

    ‘At last Mr Tice is signalling to those looking to give the Tories a kicking over their uselessness on immigration that his party is ready to oblige. Those people sitting in despair in the “don’t know” column may start realising they have a place to go. If, as a consequence, Reform starts posting poll scores of six, eight or ten per cent we will be reminded that one thing can always shake the Conservative Party out of its complacency: the fear that its grip on power is starting to slip away.’

    Reform Party it is then.

    1. Or, on the same principle we could support For Britain to kick the Reform Party AND the Tories in the right direction!

        1. You don’t read ogga’s posts then? He’s always going on about Anne Marie Waters and For Britain.

        2. Anne Marie Waters is very courageous, I like her a lot. She’s a working class white woman, so less than dust in the eyes of the establishment.

    2. …and along with Reform and For Britain, they will separately split the vote and let the imbeciles back in.

      Amalgamate I say and give the government parties a really GOOD kicking.

  61. The sensible people in the UK are appalled by the grading fiasco for school attainment this year. Well, it seems that the attack on education by the Left is also prevalent in the USA. There, the Governor(D) of Oregon has come up with this wheeze. How do these politicians come to HATE their Country and its people?

    Oregon Governor’s Attack on Education Standards

      1. I estimate that about 30% of the population are government drones who will do everything they are told without question.
        About 10% are extremely sceptical and will refuse the vaxx at all costs.

        So the real battle is for the remaining 60%, who will question it, but can be bullied, persuaded or cajoled into taking it if the government withdraws their rights for luxuries.

        It is frightening to realise that the future of the free west depends on these people.
        How far will they resist vaxx passports? Will they crumble at the first threat of being refused a privilege that the government probably has no intention of allowing them in the long term anyway, once vaxx passports are set in stone? (eg flying, travelling)

        My daughter keeps reporting her contemporaries dropping like flies. One got it because she wants to visit her family abroad, another one because her boyfriend and everyone she knows (except my daughter) had got it.

        1. ” I estimate that about 30% of the population are government drones ”

          THEY are the ones, when faced with using a Captcha “check” asking to tick if you are not a robot – – are STUCK.

        2. The only reason I bothered with the vax was the trip I’d booked to Kenya for March……….rebooked for October………..still doesn’t look as if I’ll be going – certainly not if it’s still on the red list. It’s pure cercion, but they keep moving the goalposts.

          Now that it’s clear that the vax not only causes undesirable side-effects and is useless at preventing infection or transmission – what is the point of it all? Beyond making some people extremely rich?

          1. Are you going to have the booster? Chances are it won’t help. You might be treated as a non-vaxed, so either you do, and you are possibly on a treadmill for life, or you become one of the untouchables.

          3. At least you had travel. That’s the way I see it, and I have no intention of having any of the jabs. I will die sooner or later anyway, but I don’t want to help the elite in the process.

          4. True…..but seeing the big cats and the elephants and rhinos in their natural habitat is my passion – and it’s passion that makes life worth living……… the prospect of being confined for ever on this benighted , overcrowded island, with no prospect of escape is profoundly depressing.

            Who are these politicians, who can go where they please, what right do they have to remove our freedoms?

          11. Already paid in full and postponed from March to October, so I suppose it can be postponed again. And this week British Airways cancelled our flight home – without offering so much as a credit note! So we will have to go through the rigmarole of rebooking or cancelling and getting our money back.

          13. I think ‘they’ intend us for to give to give up travel for good, N – by controlling via the movement licences (vax passports) and/or making it extremely difficult and expensive for us, quarantine, tests and anything else they can think of. So, what’s it to be? Storming Parliament to rid ourselves of tyrannical government?

          14. There are too few of us to make much difference – most people I know have swallowed the lies.

          15. Are you going to have the booster? Chances are it won’t help. You might be treated as a non-vaxed, so either you do, and you are possibly on a treadmill for life, or you become one of the untouchables.

          16. I believe that the point was implementing a social credit system via vaxx passports. And making a lot of money for big Pharma, of course. Different parties have different motives.
            I don’t know what I shall do if it’s made mandatory for work. I still have a mortgage on my house. I’d have it so that my children didn’t have to, if for example it becomes impractical for nobody in the household to have had it (see Lithuania).

          20. I think they are just implementing the same regime in Britain via bread and circuses instead of regulations.

          21. The government has not come out and said that it is illegal to refuse jobs to the vaccinated. The government is not going to say the being opposed to vaccination is a”protected characteristic”, like being black.
            Nor will it support conscientious objectors such as Catholics*. The Catholic bishops are supporting the government and not the faithful.

            *All of the vaccines available here have been developed and/or manufactured using ground-up babies.

          23. Better than the wimpy Canadian government. Trudeau (yuk, spit) is talking of mandating vaccinations for employees in all federally mandated positions which includes not just federal employees but airlines, banks and so on.

            The only thing holding him back is the point that first nations bands are
            federally mandated and telling your band leaders that that they must get the jab would lose him votes.

          24. The author of that piece has posted a comment below in which she says the governnment has backed down on some of the restrictions and protests are ongoing.

          27. Ignore anything that is ‘mandatory’. Mandatory does not equal ‘legal’. Neither does ‘compulsory’, nor ‘required’. These are guidelines only. Until these are made legal, you do have the law on your side. Government is reluctant to involve itself in this at the moment, it is hoping that business will do its dirty job for it via the use of semantics. Always hold out until the last possible moment (and beyond!) because you never know what happens in life to interfere with process.

        3. I know someone who admits to having 2 x AZ jabs against his better judgement but the problem is that he and his wife are used to dividing their time between London and Trinidad and at the moment they’re both stranded but not together.

          1. I had the AZ jabs and OH had the Pfizer ones. No adverse reactions (as far as we know but fertility is not a problem at our age). My son lives in Switzerland and I haven’t seen him since Christmas 2019. Last time I went there was in 2018.

          2. Everyone has a reason. My Turkish colleagues wanted to visit family in Turkey; another colleague says he should have it because he coaches a youth football team (not sure what the logic is there….)
            Nobody I know below pension age comes out and says, I’m scared of dying of covid, which in my book is the only valid reason to have this treatment, if you believe it will save your life!

        4. They should bribe everyone (and pay those who have already had the vax.)shoulda done that straight away – it would have been cheaper than the furlough scheme.

  63. From https://www.nrk.no/nyheter/koronaviruset-1.14855584 (in yer Weegie, sorry)
    Possible that the Corona pandemic started with a lab assistant who was in contact with a bat, says the man leading the WHO investigation in Wuhan in February.
    (Mulig koronastart i laboratorium Koronapandemien kan potensielt ha startet med en laboratorieansatt som var i kontakt med flaggermus, mener mannen som ledet WHOs undersøkelser i Wuhan i februar.)
    Well, colour me surprised and paint a smile on my arse, who’d a thunk it?
    But – interesting issue – since China controls the WHO, how is it that this face-losing information comes out now, blaming something China said didn’t happen? What is it hiding? Deliberate infection release, maybe?

    1. Wan’t there a Bond film where stuff was released from a circling satelite? – and given the speed that this virus was supposed to suddenly appear round the planet ???

    2. Doesn’t explain the 73 patents on the virus, held by various institutions across the West and China, I believe. I think this is the information that they are holding their fingers over the holes of the colander, trying to prevent from escaping.

      1. We passed her in King Street, St James’s in November 2018. Very small lady – we had just come from Christie’s and she was going in!

  67. Breaking…
    Amid the whirlwind advance of the Taliban, the US embassy in Kabul has urged all American citizens to leave Afghanistan immediately, offering to loan them cash for plane tickets if necessary.

    2. Anyone any numbers on how manyTaliban there are supposed to be – because they seem to be able to take control of cities VERY easily

        1. The American Government is notoriously parsimonious not to say miserly with their own citizens but if it’s one of their projects they spread it around like confetti!

          1. British subjects can go eff themselves in a crisis, according to the Embassy.
            Sauve qui peut!

  68. Europe needs to prepare for temperatures of 50C, says Met Office. 12 August 2021.

    The 48.8C recorded in the town of Floridia near Syracuse in eastern Sicily is a harbinger of things to come, the Met Office says.

    Exceeding the previous record of 48C in Athens in 1977, it “raises concerns that even higher temperatures are potential in future, possibly even exceeding 50C,” the Met Office said.

    Why 50? Why not 60 or higher? If Global Waming is taking off there’s no reason to believe it’s going to stop at some number suitable for Government!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/08/12/sicily-records-europes-highest-ever-temperature-deadly-flash/

    1. “The Day the Earth Caught Fire” – You saw the movie, live it in reality – before the sequel – “Earth Freezes Over”

    3. So a whole .8 of a degree warmer than Athens in 1977?? Is that really worth shutting down the world?

      1. It was much hotter here in 1976 than it has been this year or any recent year. The 1930s were hotter as well.

        1. Exactly. And go back a thousand years to the medieval warm period, followeed by a mini ice age, then a gradual warming again. And so on, and so on.

    5. Bit of a man-repellent, I would have thought.

      Just another unpaid advert for M+S in the Daily Mail.
      Anyway, both the models shown were not my ethnicity, so the frock can’t possibly be for me (according to woke thinking anyway).

  70. Cat news. G & P sauntered in a lunchtime, but, instead of pestering their favourite person for food, each found a chair and went to sleep. They are still asleep.

    Later, while weeding, I found the severed leg of a small rabbit and bits of discarded innards. All is now explained, I think. As a team, they stalked, killed and shared the bunny. Good on them. There are far too many invading the place (and they don’t even need rubber boats).

        1. If they can pee on your bed whilst you are still in it, where does that leave you in the pecking order?

    1. Crikey! She looks more like 100 than 61……….. watch out for losing your life savings old dear!

      1. No, he’s not Brazilian, neither does he ply a useful trade that involves going to work.

      1. And from his point of view it’s win win, he can have four under 18’s in his concubinery.

    4. To quote the Police wonk who dismissed the Rotherham rapists: “She made a lifestyle choice”. The only difference is children under 16 can’t consent, whereas Prince Andrew’s alleged victim was 17 at the time.

      1. If it’s true, that’s what condemns him in America. 18 is age of consent.

        We should do a swap, the woman who ran over the Brit in exchange for the Royal who shagged about a bit.

          1. Almost certainly.

            Where the law favours the plaintiff, that’s where the lawyers will choose to Edison.

          1. And on Epstein love Island.
            And on a privet jet,
            And in a private hedge.
            And in a dogging car park.

            Allegedly

          4. Why not? He’s been accused of practically everything else…

            It was a (poor) joke based on the constant drip-feed of accusations.

      2. Was Prince Andrew just another notch on her bedpost, she could have said no thanks .. The photo shows a star struck teenager , and I wonder what he presented her with, a mongrammed hankie or something really nice..

        Personally , I doubt whether he did it . Was he set up, no doubt about it he liked women, but would he really have had it off with a nubile youngster like that .

        If it did happen , she has weighed up her options and has now seen the media bad mouth Andrew , so in for a penny etc

      3. I’m sure Andrew will have deployed his pair of brain cells to ensure that he didn’t sleep with a girl under 16, but it was still sleazy behaviour, and if the girl was being groomed and controlled by a pair of professional manipulators, Andrew’s role looks even sleazier, especially as he can’t not have noticed what was going on. It is impossible to overestimate the control that a professional manipulator can have over their victim, especially when the manipulator is in their forties and the victim a teenager.

    5. On a lighter note, I do remember, as The Secretary of a tit-nosed West End Gentlemen’s club, we would buy a case or two of the Beaujolais Nouveau and on one occasion I asked Cyril Ray a Member and a great wine buff, what he thought about it.

      Having swirled it, sniffed it and finally tasted it, he put the glass down and delivered his verdict, “It’s alright but it’s a little like going to bed with a 16-year-old.”

      Prince Andrew, please note!

  74. That’s me signing off early. Dover sole for supper. An unexpected treat.

    The best I ever had was in a restaurant at Bouzigues (sarf of France) where I was the guest of the Roman Villa Museum a Loupian. I had done a 7 page (2,800 word) translation of the villa guide – and this was their reward. It was 21 years ago…and I can still see the chap cooking the fish over a charcoal grill..

    A high standard, which I know the MR will match.

    A demain

  75. To all those students who got A and A* i have two things to say to you.

    1. You worked very hard.
    2. No gherkin on the Big Mac please.

    1. I needed an assistant who spoke French. I recruited a young lady who was working in an ice cream shop. She did well. It is all pretty much a lottery.

  78. I had a thought today. Sometimes things coalesce in the background before the spiders start to put it together.
    Seven men were jailed last week for a total of 200 years, in respect of the murder of Aya Hachem. Aya was a girl who just happened to be walking along the street when the would be killer starting shooting at their intended target, whom they missed. They did not miss Aya.
    Note the the killers were convicted of murder even though they had no intention of killing her. The law presumes mens rea because they set out to kill someone.
    Compare and contrast the case of Charles de Menenez. Policemen held him down while they pumped seven bullets into his head. Subsequently, despite his being the wrong man no policeman were charged with anything. It was just too bad, eh?
    This week a business man was awarded £7m damages because the police incorrectly brought a prosecution against him for fraud. The de Menezez family received £100,000.

    Fair, decent?

    2. Jean Charles de Menezes was killed: “on the basis of Frank’s* suspicion, the Met’s Gold Commander Cressida Dick authorised officers to continue pursuit and surveillance, and ordered that the suspect be prevented from entering the Tube system.”

      *’Frank’ was a soldier on secondment to the undercover surveillance unit.

    3. 1) Got any evidence that those guys were policemen? Allegedly they weren’t from the Met.
      2) JC de M had already been arrested by a plain clothes officer, so he was ‘de facto’ killed whilst in Police custody.

      1. 1). No
        2) Good point.
        I do not trust anything that the authorities say. They are mostly trying to keep a lid on the milk pan before it boils over.

  80. Death in the French side of the Channel. Illegal died after a boat carrying 40 illegals got into trouble. [French Broadcast and Sky News]
    Might deter a few.

          1. Yes, we’re feeding and housing people, some of whom are murderers before they’ve even landed.

  81. It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of exams

    Bollocks! It’s time for an honest conversation about the purpose of education beyond 16!

    1. Here here. Most pupils have got out of school what they need by 14; 16 at the very latest. As long as apprenticeships and other forms of self-improvement – even late entry university – are available, schooling up to 18 for anyone other than the really academic is a waste of young lives at a time when they should be growing up, not living out an extended childhood.

        2. After 11 years of education, such pupils need special help. The system has failed them.

    2. Actually I’d argue it’s time for a discussion about education generally.

      State run education is a disaster. Half the money for children goes to the ruddy deparment, and what does the department do? Then the council takes another half. Then a tiny group of jobsworth’s (I know, I’ve met one. The sort of people who have opening hours of 9-4 and get *in* at 9 and don’t answer the phone until 10 or after 3) decide who will get the money.

      It is absolutely bonkers that administration consumes so much cash that’s supposedly for education. We can solve this through school vouchers. Cut the state out entirely. A voucher in itself is worthless, but it buys a ‘cash amount’. The school gets the full amount.

    2. “Initially, she thought her father was experiencing a flare-up of congestive heart failure or a recurring infection. In addition to heart problems, Elizondo had diabetes, making him a greater risk of developing severe COVID-19”

      Ah, that would be the ‘vaccines are only 80-92% effective’ caveat. Then again, perhaps he had been give a saline shot instead.

        1. Indeed but she thought he would have suffered so much more if he’d not had the jab! Isn’t dead bad enough?

          1. Good better best, never let it rest, until your good is better, and your better best.

            Dying deader done, let your course be run, until your dead is registered ,and your heirs have won?

      2. A vaccine does not prevent you from getting ill. It’s just basic training for your immune system.

        1. I didn’t say it was. Blame the experts for using a statistical measure that only a small percentage of the population can understand.

    3. “According to Jan Patterson, an infectious disease specialist at UT Health, Rodriguez was right in her assessment, that her father would have suffered more if he had not been vaccinated.”

      He died, so that’s quite an unnecessary comment!

  84. I’m just wondering if I really should post this old joke, I’ve started
    so I’d better finish.

    A prostitute picks up a German tourist in London, and as they walk back
    to the cheap hotel they discuss terms (and conditions).
    He wants it kinky, she agree for an extra £50.
    As agreed, he ties her arms and ankles and then fits old bed springs to
    her knees and elbows. Finally he inserts a duck caller in her mouth and
    insists she blows it repeatedly.

    Do you know where this joke is going yet ? No, okay I’ll continue.

    Off they go, he hammers her from behind and they bounce wildly around
    the room to the sound of a breathless goose. She realises the sex is
    absolutely fantastic and, when she has recovered, asks him what the
    technique is called.
    “It’s an old German love-making practice”he replies, it’s called the
    four sprung duck technique”

    OK, I’m not even stopping for my coat.

  85. South Western Ambulance Service said it was responding with “Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART), multiple ambulances, air ambulances, multiple doctors and senior paramedics”.

    A number of police vehicles are on the scene and some roads have been closed.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-58189679

    At the scene
    Scott Bingham, BBC South West

    i’m standing on Wolseley Road, one of the main routes through Plymouth and it is currently closed in both directions around Henderson Place with traffic being diverted.

    There’s a huge police presence here, I’ve lost count of the number of police vehicles.

    Just where I’m standing I can see at least half a dozen.

    There are three ambulances and we’ve just seen four air ambulances actually take off from the scene here, so there’s a huge amount going on.

    We do not have any confirmed official details from the police yet other than that the incident is ongoing.

        2. Remember couple of nights ago – when I said about remembering those days past, because it is only going to get worse ?

        1. He certainly did not get it from that idiotic BBC website! That tells you nothing whatsoever.

      3. In Plymouth? A siege in a drug dealer’s flat, or a mass brawl between young mothers is more their style.

        1. No terror, eh?
          By writimg that, one immediately jumps to the conclusion that a member of the religion of peas is the perp.

          1. It has become noticeable recently that arms of the government/police use social meeja quite intensely to put out their message. But along with snippets of official info comes a warning to anyone who would release their own view of a happening so closing down anything off message.

          2. No description of the person either – but he’s dead – makes us think one way only.

    4. Thank you, Maggie but, as usual no information from the BBC other than, “Something happened.”

  87. OT
    “There have been a number of fatalities and several other people are receiving treatment at the scene of a ‘critical incident’ involving a firearm in Keyham this evening, Devon and Cornwall Police has confirmed.”

    Perhaps the education system should teach the police to speak plain English …

    1. Just be glad it is still in English – soon there’ll be more non English speakers than us.

  89. The abandonment of Afghanistan by Dopey Joe – and Balmy Boris – is a strategic error.

    It will enable and encourage further terrorist outrages along the lines of ‘9/11’.

  90. I see Johnny Mercer, the Plymouth MP, is imploring people not to speculate on social meejah about what happened. Quite ironic given what he tweeted about Roger Scruton.

        1. Thank you, Sir!

          The reason for the new accounts is because some people, maybe politicians, block me on the Spectator. Always fun when they’re confronted with a new scandal!

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