Wednesday 27 May: Dominic Cummings’s behaviour has cast doubt on the soundness of his wider judgments

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/05/26/letters-dominic-cummingss-behaviour-has-cast-doubt-soundness/

728 thoughts on “Wednesday 27 May: Dominic Cummings’s behaviour has cast doubt on the soundness of his wider judgments”

  1. I’m over quarantine when so many of these rules don’t make sense, so I’ve booked a holiday. Allison Pearson. 26 May 2020 • 9:43pm.

    Iam not a rebellious person. A classic oldest child, I tend to work hard and aim to please. It takes a lot to light the blue touchpaper of insubordination in my conformist soul. If there is one thing, however, which is guaranteed to ignite that flame it’s official idiocy.

    And so it was, after Priti Patel made her announcement about the 14-day quarantine for arrivals in the UK, that I went to my computer, typed in Skyscanner and bought a British Airways return ticket for July 23 .

    Where to? I hear you ask. Doesn’t matter. I couldn’t care less where I go, but I will not stand by and see a government I voted for trash what remains of our economy. At a time when most other countries are lifting their quarantines, tail-end Charlie Blighty is just getting around to imposing one, having let in tens of thousands of people from the world’s most-infected hot spots. Apparently, our quarantine is so urgent that the Home Secretary says it won’t begin until June 8.

    Oddly enough, that’s around the time a scientist friend assures me the coronavirus will have petered out and our battered hospitality and travel sectors can begin to recover.

    Well, not if the Government has anything to do with it. British Airways has already made 12,000 of its 42,000 staff redundant. Willie Walsh says the quarantine means BA will have to review its plan to return to 50 per cent capacity in July. More terrible and avoidable job losses may follow.

    Passengers like me, who are arriving back in the UK, will be required to fill in an online locator contact form providing details of where we will spend our fortnight in isolation. We can be contacted at any time and may be subject to “spot checks”. Let’s hope that the Border Force is as good at monitoring your columnist as they are at tracking down illegal immigrants.
    Enterprising readers have suggested that one excellent way of bypassing our quarantine is to purchase a dinghy at Calais, set sail and land at Pett Level with all the other migrant boats. There you are guaranteed a welcoming cup of tea, free accommodation and no monitoring whatsoever.

    I’m afraid that mounting public cynicism is only to be expected. Fatalities from coronavirus in the UK are now largely confined to hospitals and care homes. The chances of being infected in the community are very small, but the Government is painfully slow to release lockdown, still insisting on measures which make no sense.

    Take the fabricated two-metre distance rule. SAGE thought Brits were too stupid to observe any shorter social distancing so gave us the longest length in the world. Two metres is an absolute killer for restaurants, pubs and small shops whereas the one metre recommended by the World Health Organisation would at least give those businesses a fighting chance. SAGE claims that changing it now would be “too confusing”. Let’s do that immediately, shall we?

    As for schools, it’s a fiasco wrapped in a tragedy. One head teacher of an infant school just sent me a copy of the risk assessment she needs to complete this week. You would swear it was weighing up the hazards of a nuclear submarine, not a couple of classrooms containing four- and five-year-olds. “The measures are nowhere near proportional to the actual risk,” the head writes, “Sadly, the noise the teaching unions have made have increased the severity of the measures. If we even suggest not complying with some of them they are making it clear that teachers will refuse to work.”

    The local authority expects the head to try and enforce “impossible” social distancing while her staff will have to wear full PPE “for any physical contact” with the children. Even examining a grazed knee. Absurdly, she has had to purchase an incinerator to safely dispose of the totally unnecessary protective garments. “My concern is that we know with pretty much 100 per cent certainty that exposing young children to these measures will inflict emotional and psychological harm, and this is to protect them from a virus which poses virtually no risk to their age group. Allison, I despair.”

    Truly, Jonathan Swift should be living at this hour to do full justice to the epic folly of our beloved country which has lost its senses over coronaphobia. It’s almost beyond satire.

    Even conformists should consider rebelling before it’s too late and they’ve imposed the “new normal”. Let’s make a date. July 23. Come fly with me?

    Morning everyone. William put this up last night but I thought it deserved a second viewing for its Common Sense. Present Government Policy is piling Tragedy onto Farce. That anyone still believes this idiocy is a monument to their credulity.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/quarantine-many-rules-dont-make-sense-booked-holiday/

    1. Not sure having a trip out of the country is going to do much for our economy, still if it keeps her away from Cummings gate I suppose it has merit.

      1. I’m rapidly forming the opinion that Pearson is a bit of an airhead.

        1. She seems to be losing her touch. Has she been got at by the editor?

          ‘Morning, Peddy.

    2. Totally agree and have thought the government has been driven to a vast over-reaction. Interesting that all mention of Prof Ferguson has disappeared into the ether and very little blame was given when his mistress visited him twice whereas Dominic Cummings is pilloried.

  2. Good Morning Folks,

    Nice sunny start here
    Seem to have inherited a pesky young fox hanging out the garden making a pest of itself.

    1. Has some idiot been feeding it? Get a strong lamp and a rifle, or put a snare down. All perfectly legal.

  3. It looks like the MSM are just going to keep repeating the same stuff every morning as if yesterday and the day before didn’t happen, with no self awareness of how stupid they look and sound.

    1. 319643+ up ticks,
      B3,
      Repeated enough times deceit / lies
      become fact for many, look at these
      governance parties manifesto’s for instance.

    2. ‘Morning, Bob.

      The ghost of das Murmeltier* rises again.

      *Sorry, can’t think of the English name for it.

    3. “It looks like the MSM are just going to keep repeating the same stuff every morning as if ……”

      I daren’t say it 🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃……..

      Morning Bob.

  4. Channel migrants: Boats and kayak carrying 80 people intercepted. 27 May 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f189abb1b2b9b21f4cc3adfac618f7ab30bad0ddfbab9a6edb7dd8ae8e9c3c5c.png

    The Home Office said 65 men and 15 women had crossed the English Channel on Tuesday in small boats.

    The migrants presented themselves as Libyan, Moroccan, Iraqi, Syrian, Kuwaiti, Iranian, Afghan, Eritrean and Sudanese.

    TIRED OF GOING TO WORK? SICK OF PAYING RENT?

    Well come to the UK with Home Office, the UK’s foremost travel agent. These are just some of our satisfied customers and as advertised by Nigel Farage himself. Lilo’s and Beach Balls are also available. Arrival and a warm welcome guaranteed. Accomodation arranged. Group bookings and Children especially welcome. Tours and Excursions optional. Free Health Insurance. Full ABTA member. Security provided by Border Farce.

    YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE! TRAVEL WITH HOME OFFICE!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52815207

    3. The migrants presented themselves as Libyan, Moroccan, Iraqi, Syrian, Kuwaiti, Iranian, Afghan, Eritrean and Sudanese.

      Your starter for 10: what links these people from a wide swathe of the World?

    4. ‘Morning, Minty.

      Arrival and a warm welcome guaranteed. Accomodation Accommodation arranged.

      Before I left Sweden, I used to study the estate agents in East Anglia online. In every property description by one particular agent in Norwich the word accommodation was spelt incorrectly. Not a good advert.

        1. A pedant replies: “Grammatical errors don’t encompass spelling mistakes.’

    1. Good morning, Geoff. Very many thanks. We both appreciate your kind thought.

      2. Good morning Mr. Beagle! Sending you and the MR good wishes and much happiness for your Silver wedding day! Hope it’s a wonderful one and the sun shines on your trombetti!

      4. ‘morning Bill, congratulations to you and the MR. She sounds like a saint😊

      5. Late on parade, me. Congratulations to you both, Bill. Have a great day, what’s left of it! If long service medals were given out I’m sure MR would qualify!

    2. Oops, I’m late to the party – have a wonderful day of celebration of twenty-five years! And the sun is shining!

  6. What have we learned from the Cummings affair?

    There Conservative party is full of wet blankets with no backbone that just go belly up when under attack.

    1. 319643+up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      “What have we learnt”
      40 new shades of treachery.

  7. Good morning, all.

    Well, we made it! 25 years ago, we were slaving in the kitchen preparing lunch for 20 people – before walking down the road to church to be married.

    We should, right now, be in Salamanca where we went immediately after the wedding. It was a short break bought and paid for before all the buggerment started. Perhaps we’ll go there for our Golden Wedding…!!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12fd6abe19695049cd2345113cc6f2880e1582b5168d6cf0de25160d9c5d7249.jpg

    2. Good morning Bill
      Lovely photo of you both .
      Doesn’t time fly so quickly, the day is yours to reflect on your stickability and best friendship .

    10. Congratulations on your Silver Wedding Anniversary, Bill! All the best to you and your MR. 🍷🍸Lovely pic.

    12. Many congratulations, Bill – & MR, who is obviously one tough lady!

      1. Robert Pest is a linguistically-challenged halfwit who would benefit from a good bitch-slapping.

        1. ‘morning Grizzly, I would just add ‘daily’ to your comment – between the ‘a’ and ‘good’.

        2. Peston was filmed in almost face to face discussion with a police officer recently and actually informed the police officer that he should be standing further away from him. Has he reported this incident to he Chief of police and dealing with it with the same vigour he is currently dealing with Dominic Cummings?

      2. Thanks Belle, and good morning to you. The mention of Robin Day has reminded me just how bad the current mob are – Beff, Koonsberg, Bunter, Craig…what a totally rude, sneering and incompetent bunch they all are. The only exception seems to be Andrew Neil, who rarely appears these days.

      3. Everyone know Peston’s political affiliations, but how many knew Robin Day’s?

    1. Good morning Peddy.

      I am enjoying hearing about your rose collection and Googling the names you provide. Sombreuil looks such a pretty rose, I expect it has a delicious scent.

  10. Morning all. DT obsessed with DC…….

    SIR – By his own account, Dominic Cummings is a very busy man who makes a large number of important decisions each day that affect the lives of every person in this country.

    His defence of his actions was threadbare and hypocritical, and showed an extraordinary lack of intellectual, moral and emotional judgment. Is this the kind of person we want advising the Government?

    Dr Nigel Hurst FRCP

    Luppitt, Devon

    SIR – Dominic Cummings’s enemies display the same lack of compassion they ascribe to him – no hint of understanding or sympathy for a father and his family. What happened to our new, caring society?

    Ian Priestley

    East Leake, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – Am I the only one who doesn’t mind if there is “one set of rules for us and another for them?” The people at the top of the Government, and their advisers, are working under great pressure to steer us through this crisis. It is fair to give them some flexibility.

    If Mr Cummings needed to drive north to be sure of satisfactory child care, that is fine by me. As long as he hasn’t furloughed his regular child-carer and didn’t claim travel expenses, we should leave him alone.

    Denis Sharp

    Tickenham, Somerset

    SIR – As a parent, I sympathise with Mr Cummings: we always want to do the right thing for our children.

    However, the fact is that his actions will result in large numbers of people believing they can interpret the rules to suit their own circumstances. This, in turn, could lead us back into lockdown, with all the economic and personal tragedy that will bring.

    Clearly Mr Johnson weighed this up and decided to keep his adviser on board. That is deeply worrying.

    Mike Carter

    Hove, East Sussex

    SIR – I was unable to visit my elderly father, who lived just three miles away from me, before he died at home in April, owing to the lockdown rules.

    Having heard the Prime Minister’s defence of Mr Cummings – that he had followed the instincts of any father – I wish I had followed my instincts as a loving son.

    Dr Millan Sachania

    Chertsey, Surrey

    SIR – Just to clarify: if you have a problem with your eyesight, should you climb into a powerful car, pack your family – whose health and safety are apparently your prime concerns – in the back and drive 60 miles to see whether or not you can do so safely?

    The Government advised us to use common sense. Words fail me.

    Lin Lascelles

    Bridport, Dorset

    SIR – I was under the impression that Mr Cummings was a bit odd, not least because of how the media portrayed him. However, at the press conference, I thought he was calm, articulate and professional. We need more people like that.

    Doug Harris

    Stockton-on-Tees, Co Durham

    SIR – Mr Cummings’s emergence at the press conference half an hour late added insult to injury.

    Fiona Wild

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – A man who goes to work every day at No 10 unshaven and wearing a T-shirt and ill-fitting trousers displays the kind of arrogance that might make him think he can do as he likes.

    Philip Ryder-Davies

    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    SIR – A man breaks the rules for the sake of his child and wife and is condemned by the press. When he leaves his home, photographers and reporters crowd round him. What happened to social distancing? Is it a different rule for them?

    Yvonne Bernstein

    London N20

    2. He was late at the news conference because he was still trying to formulate the bullshit about the castle visit

    3. I was unable to visit my elderly father, who lived just three miles away from me, before he died at home in April, owing to the lockdown rules.

      Having heard the Prime Minister’s defence of Mr Cummings – that he had followed the instincts of any father – I wish I had followed my instincts as a loving son.

      You should have done you spineless git!

      1. If Dr Millan Sachania’s father had been in hospital, he would not have been allowed in. As his father was at home, the only thing preventing Dr. Sachania from visiting him was his own slavish following of the rules. I would have gone to see him, and risked a fine.

        1. No policeman with even a modicum of common sense would have fined him. Most would turn a blind eye.

          1. Trouble is, there seem to be coppers about who don’t have any common sense. Regardless, I would have gone to see my father and happily have paid the fine if one were to have been imposed.

          2. Don’t pay an on the spot fine. Insist on a trial. A fine is a conviction. Make them work for it.

          3. Agreed, Horace and Good morning. That has always been my attitude – you prove it, chummy, in a court of law.

          4. I agree with you, but if I had been stopped on the way, I would not have wanted to argue there and then. I don’t know what the appeal procedure is (there must be one), so would have taken the ticket and investigated an appeal later.

          5. Once you pay, that’s it. Getting a legitimate refund from a business is difficult enough. Having an appeal heard in the justice system will take years. In Scotland there are legal proceedings about to take place… after years. These are not about trivial fines but about many dead and injured and property damage. Clutha enquiry 6 years – whitewash. Sumburgh helicopter crash 2013, enquiry not yet started -was to be this month. Mr Bayo killed by police in Kirkcaldy in 2015 – public enquiry ordered last year and still to be arranged.

          6. My understanding of the ‘on-the-spot’ fine is that you are given a ticket at the time (like a speeding ticket or a parking fine), and do not pay there and then. You have a certain number of days to pay, but you can appeal in this time. I would not argue with the officer at the time, but would probably make it clear that I dispute the issuing of the ticket.

          7. Thanks for that. I had no knowledge of the mechanism. Leyts jam the court diaries if they catch us.

  11. SIR – News that non-essential shops will open soon (report, May 26) is welcome. But what about self-catering accommodation? The holiday season is upon us and if we are not careful restrictions will be lifted too late.

    Strict hygiene and cleaning protocols are in place and the majority of bookings are for family groups, so it is difficult to see increased risk. We need a clear opening date so that we do not miss the boat.

    Kate Graeme-Cook

    Brixham, Devon

  12. SIR – Why do cyclists and electronic-scooter riders have no knowledge of, or respect for, the Highway Code, and show total disregard for registered road users?

    The Government is encouraging these forms of mobility, which do not require any legal certification or vehicle registration, while continuing to expect all motorised-vehicle owners and drivers to be fully insured, to provide verification of roadworthiness and to face prosecution if traffic lights and speed limits are ignored.

    Trot Lavelle

    London SE5

    1. Because they never, ever get punished for their illegal and dangerous actions. Cyclists can do no wrong in the eyes of the law.

  13. Bloody Bishops….

    SIR – Many Anglicans have, in recent years, been increasingly disappointed with the leadership of our Church, especially when it dabbles in politics.

    The intervention by bishops such as those of Manchester, Worcester, Bristol and Ripon in the Dominic Cummings affair (report, May 26) was a step too far. It is an abuse of office for bishops to involve themselves in a nakedly political and utterly secular matter such as this. What relevant expertise do they have?

    The bishops dissipate their moral authority; they should be the last people to join a witch-hunt. Little wonder churches are emptying.

    Gregory Shenkman

    London W8

    SIR – I’m grateful to Charles Moore for his excellent and balanced article (Comment, May 26).

    I hope that those bishops he criticises will learn from his example that it is better to play the ball than the man. I long for the powerful voices of the bishops to be heard speaking to the fear, loneliness and bereavement caused by Covid-19 and the lockdown.

    The church has a message of hope – which, I am sad to say, I have not heard many bishops articulating.

    Lord Carey of Clifton

    Archbishop of Canterbury, 1991-2002

    London SW1

    SIR – The Church’s imminent review of the numbers of buildings, bishops and dioceses fills me with suspicion.

    Closing ancient rural churches will be seen by some as a sensible economy. Online streaming of services has been popular and may be used to justify shutting expensive buildings.

    However, both Catherine Pepinster (Comment, May 23) and Giles Fraser (Comment, May 25) mention how important a building can be. The Church is the people, but their faith is recorded in bricks and mortar. I think of a small parish church on Exmoor in which hang tablets recording the deaths of four members of the same family who died in two world wars. They were my husband’s father, grandfather and two great-uncles. “We will remember them” will ring hollow if we can’t do exactly this in the place where they worshipped.

    Rohaise Thomas-Everard

    Dulverton, Somerset

    2. ‘Morning, Epi, Rohaise Thomas-Everard obviously has little or no idea how church upkeep is achieved. Without denigrating the desire to keep a place where those who made the ultimate sacrifice may be remembered, it should not be up to bishops and diocese, indeed it isn’t.

      Most ancient, rural churches form the hub of small rural communities where there may be no shop, pub, school or village hall and the upkeep of the building is NOT the responsibility of the C of E but mainly devolves down to the PCC (Parish Church Committee) whose prime responsibility is the upkeep of the building’s fabric.

      We, in Flowton, have had the North roof repaired complete with ‘bat’ tiles, the tower recapped and strengthened and are now having a kitchen and toilet built to allow more community activities to take place. All this has been achieved by fund-raising, legacies and donations from visitors, yet at the same time we pay our ‘Parish Share’ of £4,000 annually to the diocese

      1. It’s best that funding doesn’t come from Government, although that’s hard on the locals who have to raise all the money themselves. After all, who pays the piper calls the tune – and you find yourself supping with the devil, equipped only with a short spoon.
        In 1930s and 1940s, the German church didn’t oppose the Nazis because their money came from the State…

      2. It’s been similar at the church where I normally worship. The PCC, together with the Friends group, has raised money for repairs to the fabric and for comforts like cushions for the pews.

    4. “I long for the powerful voices of the bishops to be heard speaking to the fear, loneliness and bereavement caused by Covid-19 and the lockdown.”

      And would this be reported by the BBC et al?

  14. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-52815845

    Latin America has become the centre of the global pandemic, the head of the Pan American Health Organization warns
    The region now has more daily reported cases of Covid-19 than Europe and the US
    The numbers in Venezuela are almost certainly much higher than reported, Human Rights Watch says

    This was confirmed to me by a friend in Chile who has recently recovered from CV.

    1. They should be reported to the police . The press think they are above the COVID _ 19 rules.

  16. Wishing Bill Thomas and his MR a very happy Silver Wedding day from Vouvray and me.

    1. Yo Alf

      I think Bill should change MR’s name to Still Present, now that she has completed the 25 year Apprenticeship

      1. I’ll leave a few more years; one doesn’t want to rush into these things!

  17. Good morning, everyone. The vet found that the Springer had sliced a piece off her pad. Dunno how it happened but she runs through the forest at a great rate of knots and this is not the first injury she has sustained.

    2. Good morning DB

      Oh dear, I expect it may have been flint or broken glass , poor woofle , and I expect she will have to wear a special sock for a while .

      My spaniels developed sore paws during lock down, by just walking around the village , because they are only used to grass and softer surfaces as am I.

      1. The racing huskies get to wear competition socks, so the long distances in snow & ice don’t rub sores between their toes. Maybe your woofits could do with padded socks for walking on tarmac, Belle? Save the paws a bit.

        2. That is a good idea , I will investigate further. We are a little more relaxed now, and there is a a nice bit of heathland where we can give them a run.

          1. I have just bought another set of dog boots for my aged pooch. Because of wear and tear in the discs in his spine due to his age, he drags his back feet. These enable him to go for a walk (at least a mile a day) without abrading the skin on his toes. He has worn one set out. I got them from Amazon.

    3. Ouch! Sounds painful! No wonder she wasn’t so happy… does she need doggy socks?

      1. Remarkably, she is hardly limping at all today but she will get a shorter walk than usual.

    4. Our springer/staffie cross has had many an injury running after smells and rabbits, especially pierced retinas from spiky foliage. A confrontation with an adder 2 days ago means we’re currently going on a shady river walk which is cooler and less likely to harbour vipers.

  18. So here we are in Valhalla, and the gods are awakening the night after a tremendous orgy.

    The god of thunder yawns, stretches himself, turns over and sees this pretty little Valkyrie sleeping next to him.

    Gently he shakes her awake. “Good morning,” he says, “I’m Thor.”

    “Tho am I,” she replies, “but I’m thatithfied!”

    1. The mighty Thor, the God of War, went for a ride on his filly.
      “I’m Thor, he cried”!
      The horse replied, “Well put the thaddle on thilly”.

    2. The mighty Thor, the God of War, went for a ride on his filly.
      “I’m Thor, he cried”!
      The horse replied, “Well put the thaddle on thilly”.

  19. SIR — Culinary tuition in the education system seems to have taken a back seat; only the fast-food industry will gain from this in the coming years.

    Richard CL Pillinger
    Fakenham, Norfolk

    SIR — Why do cyclists and electronic scooter riders have no knowledge of, or respect for, the Highway Code, and show total disregard for registered road users?

    Trot Lavelle
    London SE5

    Dick and Trot, the answer to this perplexing conundrum is quite simple: it is all down to the increasing stupidity of the human species, one shown up very clearly by the execrable standard of the politicians they choose to rule them.

    Once upon a time, not so long ago, there were cycling proficiency lessons provided to teach children (and adults) how to ride a bicycle safely; as well as an appreciation of the sage advice given in the Highway Code. At the same time there were domestic science lessons at schools (even some boys’ schools had them).

    These days, tuition in common sense has fallen by the wayside in the same manner that community spirit, good grace, proper manners, etiquette and decency have disappeared only to be replaced by self-entitlement, pig-ignorance, bad manners and selfishness.

    The human species is rapidly falling down the cesspit and there is no hope on the horizon, no light at the end of the tunnel, and the species is rapidly heading towards the same extinction that the dinosaurs suffered.

    1. My two boys had domestic science here in Norway, with cooking, sewing, knitting and the like. They also got to cook at home, so they can look after themselves.
      But then, Norway is a bit behind the times…
      Morning, Grizz.

      1. Morning, Paul.

        I never had any formal cooking lessons, but my parents encouraged me to learn to cook since it is a necessary life skill.

        1. 50 years ago my wife taught Home Econ at a Junior Secondary (=Sec Modern in E&W)
          Double periods Demo, Kids cook/bake, clean up …………. rough area and many poor kids. The poorest always got extra raw ingredients. This was taken home as a basis for a meal or baking for the whole family.

          Many would marry early & have kids of their own – basic understanding of cooking lasts a lifetime.
          No university talent but some made it as chefs & cooks in local hotels & factories (we had them in the past).

          My wife’s cook books still looked at now & then – Delia made a fortune out of the same recipes & methods.

        3. Indeed. One should be able to look after ones-self.
          Firstborn is a very good cook, mostly due to SWMBOs influence and skills, but Second Son doesn’t care.

          1. Our eldest son comes 2 x per week with our food supplies.
            He goes back to his house with some bakery goods, biscuits, scones, cakes etc – our 2 granddaughters then text back with a score out of 10 for the Gingerbread, Victoria sponge or whatever. As the elder girl says “that xxx was magic, a lot better than shop bought stuff”.
            Today’s baking includes a Victoria Sponge & an Eve’s Pudding – basic baking but wonderful!

        4. Morning Grizz, I’ve always done the cooking throughout our marriage, note I said cooking. Baking always done by OH, made the best pastry and cakes I’ve ever tasted

        5. We found that Iceland (the shop, recently opened in Bekkestua) still sell Fray Bentos tinned pies! Chicken pies, steak pies… My gast hasn’t been so flabbered in ages! To introduce Firstborn to how awful things wee in the 1970s, we bought him one to try. Sensible lad, hasn’t opened it yet, but I might force the issue at the weekend… some things you can only experience!

          1. I was brought up on Fray Bentos pies. I didn’t mind the taste as it was quite rich but the pastry never ever rose.

          2. Maybe I did it wrong – I am sure I ate the pastry and not the box it came in, but it seemed flat, cardboardy and tasteless as I recall… :-((

      2. I seem to remember my experiences of Norwegian restaurant food as abysmal and am glad your boys can cook.

        1. It’s pretty dull and tasteless, also colourless. An example would be boiled fish with boiled potatoes and boiled cauliflower, with a thin white sauce… bleagh. But fish soup is good, as is roast moose.

      3. I’ve always thought children should learn to cook at home. I never even tried very hard with my son and he picked up how to cook probably by example rather than anything else. Judging by the ‘food technology’ course that his stepson has been studying at school, it didn’t strike me as a sensibly constructed course: for the lower set that he is in I thought they should have just concentrated on teaching the children about good nutrition and how to cook nutritious meals that don’t require expensive ingredients.

      4. Domestic science is now “food technology” and appears mainly to consist of which take away meal to choose.

    2. Thanks, BoB. Did you move down to the item immediately below? Someone called Rebecca Butler indulging in some excellent spleen-venting about Cummingsgate…

      1. ‘morning HJ, that’s a good rant, all good points.

        I may be naive but has anyone complained to the police about the continuous harassment outside DC’s home? Surely they should be breaking up any crowds and removing protestors who have no right to be there under lockdown.

    2. It was later deemed police had insufficient officer numbers to be able to safely move people on from the area.

      Too busy looking the other way ?
      Too busy harassing a couple on a quite beach ?
      Too busy admiring the insides of the back passages to care ?

    1. I’m sure the British fishermen would know how to deal with illegal entry to British waters.

      2. One of my nephews’ was in the British Navy at the time of the Iceland cod wars. He’d know what to do.
        No body else seems to have a clue.
        The only waves (Britannia rules the waves) we seem to be involved in, are the illegals waving goodbye to the next boat load on a French beach !

          1. No ped, after the cod war he went on to be navigator on a mine hunter in the gulf war.
            Then became a manager in customer relations in a large UK retailers.
            But his life at sea cured him of his terrible hay fever. 😊

          3. Yeah I know, I ignore his pedantic nonsense. 😀.
            Fur cough would be more apt. Frankly I CBA with people like that.
            😊

          4. I did reply to your pointless obscure and ridiculously cryptic and moreover unnecessary comment. But it seems to have disappeared.
            After serving on HMS Orkney, my nephew stayed in the navy serving on HMS Manchester and later became a navigator on a mine hunter in the gulf war.
            After he left the navy he went to work in upper management for a large retailer, moving to Ireland for a few years then to the North East of England. Where he worked at Employee Training, successfully creating satisfactory customer experience. This of course comes not only from the product being sold but also from the employees.
            To provide an excellent customer experience, the service and support teams need to be readily available. Companies of course want to create positive customer relations need to install a customer-centric culture. Something sadly lacking in todays customer relations.
            He now runs his own business in human relations.
            I hope you are happy with this as it belies your rather flaccid suggestion.

          5. I was misguided by your greengrocer’s apostrophe.

            Ein bißchen Spaß muß sein, oder?

        1. There are always exceptions. I used to know a Vicomte, and he was a good fellow.

    3. Yo AO’E

      May I fiddle a bit, with you(r post) please

      What is the point of arguing about whether or not driving your child from London to Co Durham should attract a £30 fine when the whole of UK fishing industry is at stake?

    4. “The director of the EU Commission’s UK task force added: “They are no longer part of the CFP, which means they are an independent state that can decide for themselves what to have in their borders.

      “On the other hand, there is a mutual interest to establish clarity because people working in fishing need to know what they can fish and where.

      “There are also people who fish in our waters… There are markets for fish products frequently landed in the UK and exported to Europe.

      “I don’t think it should surprise anyone that we start from different positions in this negotiation.””

      So basically the director of the EU Commission UK task force is saying that after over four years of meetings/negotiations they have not moved an inch. Just demonstrates that the whole ‘negotiation’ is a sham. We should just leave now.

      1. Could be a good idea to leave EU whilst everyone is arguing about driving from London to Co Durham.

        1. We’ve already left – but as no trade deal seems possible , we might as well shove the implementation period back where it belongs.

          1. No, we have left in name only. We are still subject to EU rules, regulations, the ECJ, etc and are paying them a small fortune. We shall only have left on 31st December 2020 if we can avoid extending the transition.

  23. Thank you all you kind NoTTLers for the comments of support for my 16 year old grandson who’s pet cat, Jasper, died yesterday, Jasper was nearly 13 and GS can’t remember not having him around. A very sad day for him and his family. Thank you all once again.

    1. Losing a pet doesn’t get any easier even as an adult. My adult son is likely going to need to have his house rabbit put to sleep, and he’ll be devastated.

      1. I think it some ways it gets harder………but none of my pets is forgotten. From Old Nick, my Mum’s dog who died when I was seven, to little Suzie who disappeared one evening last year, they all have a place in my heart. We now have Lily, an elderly tortie, who’s a sweetie – but she doesn’t replace those who have gone.

        1. I still maintain the plots where our guinea pigs ended up, each buried with much ceremony by our very sad children.

    2. I’m sorry that I missed this site and news yesterday.
      Please give my sympathies to your grandson. I know how hard it is to lose a pet.

    3. The sooner he has a new kitten, the better. It will help him get over his misery – and show him that life goes on – in the nicest possible way.

      1. When Wiggy died Mongo was barely 6 months old.

        Even now I can’t say his name without Mongo looking out the window, wondering when his Dad’s coming home. Maybe he’ll forget. Maybe if Mongo hadn’t been sired by Wigs I wouldn’t have got another dog. I don’t think you can simply replace them.

        1. Bob and Thompson were twin cats. We had them from six weeks. Aged 11 Bob died quite suddenly. Thompson went into what I feared was a terminal decline. We found a kitten. It took Thompson a week to accept her, and for the next four years they were inseparable.

    4. I spent half of my growing-up years with our dog and took him on his last walk, to the vet’s, one dark November evening.

      No problem watching him go and none walking home but when I opened the front door – no dog! It was at that point it hit me and I could have given Niagara Falls a run for its money that night.

      Your grandson has my sympathies.

      1. At least you got him to the vet. I delayed taking my cat to the vet rather than getting it done for her sake.

        Which is how I ended up holding her one night when she passed away in obvious pain.

        2. The day before he died, Magnificat had climbed up the outside of he house as he usually did, to come in through an upstairs window, despite being old and knackered, so we thought he was OK. The next morning, a neighbour called, Second son went round & brought back what was clearly a dying cat. Firstborn, then aged 25, whose cat Magnificat was, was in floods of tears. We took Magnificat on the one-way trip to the vet. The farewell scene at the front door was very upsetting.
          It took ages before we stopped looking at the mat just inside the door for the cat, as he liked to curl up there waiting for us to come home – the mat is electrically heated – and there’d be no cat. We substituted him with two lovely great Norwegian Forest cats, and they are fantastic, but not Magnificat.

        3. My cat Joe had been ailing for a while, but not quite ready to go. On the Tuesday after August BH 2001, he sat by the pond until we came home from work, then came in a ate a little bit of chicken. Then he laid down on the carpet and died. He was 17. We were able to stroke him as he went peacefully.
          We put him in a cardboard box and sat and looked at him. His brother, Pat, came bounding in, peered in the box, and went and finished off Joe’s meal. He lasted another year.

          1. Reminds me of the reaction of my current dog when his bed-mate had to be put to sleep at the age of 17. Current dog was there when the deed was done; I lifted him up so he could sniff his former companion and know he’d gone. Little sod sniffed, then looked out the window, asked for a biscuit and when he got home plonked himself in the middle of the bed they had shared, wriggled around and you could almost hear him say, “at last! It’s mine, all mine, now!” It was the making of him, though; he stopped trying to start WW3 on every walk and it was clear he should have been an only dog from the start. That’s why I can’t ease in a replacement to tide us over the lonely gap when he goes (he’s getting on for 17 himself now and getting more like his former companion in looks by the day).

  24. …and now for something diffe…..

    Listening to Shine On You Crazy Diamond before going to bed last night, I wondered where today’s equivalent of all the 60s/70s variety of music is.

    I downloaded it and you can probably hear it in the background.

    P.S. The fact I never switch on my wireless these days may have something to do with it.

    1. Try classic oldies.co.uk, available on a selection of sources.
      It might help your music choices until you decide you have had enough and search elsewhere.

      1. Thanks but the link doesn’t work.

        My point though was that there doesn’t seem to be the same innovation in today’s music as in the years I mentioned. My age, I suspect.

        1. Sorry, my typo all one word. http://www.classicoldies.co.uk
          I do understand what your point is, I once read a music review where the journalist stated that 1 Direction was more influential in the history of music than The Beatles. Took me an age to compose myself enough to stop rolling around the floor in hysterics. Let’s not mention Led Zeppelin, the Stones, Bowie etc, etc, etc.

          2. Thanks.

            One thing I like about YouTube is that whatever you play, there’s always a list of he stuff you’d long since forgotten down the side.

            Incidentally, the current DJ’s name on Classic Oldies whizzed me a back to Tommy Bruce – another name gathering dust in the back of my head.

          3. Sorry for the delay, but as you mentioned YouTube do a search for The Analogues. A Dutch group who faithfully reproduces the Beatles sound but not the vocals. Their aim has been to perform live the last 5 albums, something never done by The Beatles.

  25. ‘Morning again.

    I see that the RNLI want all beaches they are currently not manning to be closed. Now, when I were nobbutt a lad, I cannot recall seeing any lifeguards on any of the beaches my parents took me to. The item on TV yesterday evening cited a popular SW beach (name escapes me now) where there have been 9 drowning in 8 years. Sad as each of those will have been, that is a fraction over 1 per year, which I reckon is a very good record when considering the many thousands of visitors during that period. My parents made me very aware of the dangers and kept a very watchful eye on me. Is this not the case any more? Is responsible parenting delegated to others when on the beach now?

    Apart from anything else, can you imagine the manpower required to close every unmanned beach? No, neither can I. And I would say that it isn’t for the RNLI to make such absurd demands.

    1. Just a sign (in English preferably) stating there’s no lifeguard present should be sufficient.

      1. Why can’t folk look after themselves? How long has there been lifeguards at every beach in the UK?
        RNLI are wanking well above their pay grade.

        1. Look after themselves? Are you MAD? There must be NO risk and they have to have every decision made for them. If you let them think for themselves, there is no telling where it would end. They might even realise they’ve been lied to, made fools of and start using common sense!

    2. I am just wondering whether the illegals would DARE cross the Channel if they knew that there would be no oner to intercept or rescue them ?

      1. I hadn’t thought of that. Undoubtedly once ashore, these illegals send the message to their associates that gaining entry to the UK is a doddle complete with full escort and freebies for life.

      2. They certainly wouldn’t bother if they were turned round and landed back in France with no benefits, free housing and all the rest. Then the boats destroyed, they were fingerprinted and DNA taken and they were never let in even if they tried to enter legally in future.

    3. I was a boy in St Mawes and spent most of my summer holidays swimming, scrambling about on rocks and messing about in boats. I was left mercifully free of supervision from an early age and there were no safety organisations about to rescue me.

      I remember a piece of good advice in Swallows and Amazons. The Walker children’s father is a naval commander and their mother sends him a telegram as she thinks he should give his blessing and consent to his four children aged from 7 to 12 going off in a small dinghy and camping on a deserted island in the Lake District.

      His reply is simple:

      ‘Better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won’t drown.’ .

      1. ‘Morning, Richard, I too was brought up on Swallows and Amazons, left to my own devices with my older brother and we soon learnt not to be duffers.

      2. In my twenties I was a rescue swimmer. We did lots of training in all sorts of conditions, mostly fully dressed to weigh us down. I thought myself a powerful swimmer and one year in France was caught in a rip tide and there was nothing whatsoever I could do about it. I was chucked about like a rag doll. I’ve lived by the sea and water all my life and respect the blighting stuff. Anyone who doesn’t is a berk.

    4. Particularly not when immigrants can turn up on our beaches, aided and abetted by our paid-for border force and navy. Soon they will be the only ones allowed on our beaches. Fight back against this authoritarian nightmare.

    5. The real reason the common purpose organisation that was once the RNLI want the beaches closed is so we don’t see the swarms of illegals.

    7. We used to spend our holidays in Devon and go sometimes to Dawlish where my aunt and uncle had a beach hut. We didn’t bathe when the red flag was flying, it was as simple as that. Mind you, I can’t recall a time when I was there when the red flag wasn’t flying! 🙂

  26. Wel obviously the plan to keep any news off the front pages is working, it’s all Cummings and no goings on.

    By the way, who stole spring? Summer arrived on Monday and temperatures are up above thirty C today.

    2. What is being hidden:

      Brexit Revoked.
      Boris assassinated by Hunt ”’ literally of course
      Ferguson re-instated (ManU happy)

    3. 19.5C here at present. Just right, with a nice clear blue sky and a light sea breeze. A perfect spring day. Only problem I have is with our house martins who are swooping low as they try to make a new nest with very little mud in the area because of the drought. I can think of no way to help the poor little chaps.

      1. Can you not create a patch of mud anywhere? An old bath tub with some soil and a lot of water in it?

  27. SIR — On December 19 1932, the president of the Weimar Republic signed into law a decree forbidding the desecration of the German national flag.

    On May 14 this year, the Bundestag created a law, punishable by three years in jail, forbidding the desecration of the European Union flag or the flag of any other country. France has a similar law, and can punish offenders with fines. Such desecration is not allowed in Spain, Italy or Greece.

    We have never had such a law in Britain, which makes me very proud, and is an example of the tolerance other countries should emulate.

    Barrie Sullivan
    Plymouth, Devon

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3d448006d56e35df87c532d8936269c4a49f0c2db0eb28fa6bf2d1629d78bb9.png Oh yeah? Well let me tell you something, Mutti. Try sending your stormtroopers around to arrest me, bitch, and they will taste cold steel.

    1. “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”
      Evelyn Hall, The Friends of Voltaire.

    2. Hmmm… Just trying to reconcile these 2 statements…

      Oh yeah? Well let me tell you something, Mutti. Try ending (sic) your stormtroopers around to arrest me, bitch, and they will taste cold steel.

      These days, tuition in common sense has fallen by the wayside in the same manner that community spirit, good grace, proper manners, etiquette and decency have disappeared only to be replaced by self-entitlement, pig-ignorance, bad manners and selfishness.

      1. Hmmm! Just trying to understand your — now daily — unwarranted childish pops at me and my posts.

        Is your existence, nowadays, so wretched and devoid of content that you have taken to routinely trolling someone who has invariably given you unqualified support in the past?

        Funny how you always sought my backing whenever you wished to attack others (on this forum) who were only concerned about your welfare. Perhaps becoming an unwashed hippy during your geriatric period gave you the bitterness that arose from your inability to settle and fit in during your benighted time in Sweden.

        Do grow up and stop being the pathetic creature you have turned into. And do stop ‘correcting’ other people’s grammar. This does not bode well for you, especially since you are incapable of following the proper advice on English usage provided in litt by real experts on the topic, such as H W Fowler and Sir Ernest Gowers who know much more than you ever will.

        I sincerely hope you recover.

        2. Phew, play the ball & not the man, Grizz.

          Your posts since the beginning of the year have become so inflatedly pompous & repetitive that one it is difficult resist reaching for a little pin.

          Still, if you can’t understand the humour, I can have my fun elsewhere.

    3. Morning Grizz. The Weimar Republic also passed several laws limiting Free Speech so as to hinder the National Socialists. These were the very same laws Hitler used to shut down debate in the Third Reich!

      1. Morning, Minty.

        The only device that will ever deter my use of free speech is a bullet.

        1. As did the South African government when they introduced apartheid even to the extent of changing the Provincial borders to extend to the Low Water mark from the High Water mark. This meant they could fully segregate the beaches and not have the indigenes walk along the water’s edge on a White beach.

  28. Morning folks.

    I understand that 1st July is the last date the UK can request an extension of the Brexit Negotiation talks with the EU. Is it little wonder that Cummings and Johnson are being hounded out of office. And if they are forced to go who will step into their shoes – my money is on Jeremy Hunt. I’m on record from 5 years ago saying he was being groomed for high office… 🙁

    1. Who does the “allowing”? If it’s convenient to the EU, five seconds before the drop-dead date would be OK.

    2. Just logged into the Slog and find that John Ward has written this:

      Murdoch candidate Hunt leads the Tory rebellion against Cummings as Civil Service sources reveal Sir Mark Sedwill’s plan to take out Brexit negotiator Frost
      “Jeremy Hunt – the man I have always said is the Establishment’s Chosen One to lead a National Unity Government including Keir Starmer – has finally admitted that he is the de jure leader of the 39 largely Remainer Tory MPs now demanding the Head of Dominic Cummings. Hunt judges this to be a safe move given that his Number 1 fan Black Prince Rupert has almost completed (in alliance with Pigswill) the pounding artillery barrage of Cummings’ last redoubt.”

      More here: https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/05/27/exclusive-taking-shape-stage-three-of-the-mark-pigswill-plan/

      1. Boris needs to oust Sedwill, it was a mistake not to have done so sooner. The guy has too much power and is a total Europhile – he will do everything he can to disrupt anything this Government tries to do.
        You cannot run a country when the head of the treasonous impartial civil service is directly opposed to you and the Electorate.

  29. 319643+ up ticks,
    Surely the RNLI are going to hit rough waters with their call to close beaches, when a health / safety sign on all beaches would be more apt.
    …..BEWARE OF INCOMING ILLEGAL MIGRANTS.
    Signed,
    A patriotic commoner.

    1. How are they funded these days? I’m guessing they’re not reliant on voluntary public donations.

      1. 319643+ up ticks,
        Morning Se,
        I also would agree, probably as with seemingly the lead steers of
        many an organisation ( governance parties NOT exempt ) receiving well padded brown envelopes.

      2. Aren’t they sitting on a colossal fortune that makes them able to do what they want?

        1. After the contempt they treated life long volunteers to and the fact that they provided swimming lessons to Somali girls in Somalia i wrote them out of my Will too.

  30. Happy Anniversary, Bill – if you’re there!
    And special regards to the MR – tough lady!
    😀

  31. DT Letter

    SIR – Mr Cummings’s emergence at the press conference half an hour late added insult to injury.

    Fiona Wild
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    So, you think the MSM should control HMG

    (5h1te of course they do.)

    1. They carefully ignore the fact that Durham police issued their statement at 16:01, one minute after the conference was due to start.

    2. The staff at the remains of the Telegraph are choosing the most anti-Boris letters they can find. If they are not writing the letters themselves…

    1. So, remainers are not accepting Brexit, which a state of affairs and actions agreed in Parliament, but they chase Mr Cummings, for transgressing a guideline.

      Some peeple seem to be more equal than others.

      A list of recipients should be made public

      2. It certainly should. Far too much of this has been going on. Mrs Murrell was never away from Brussels over the last few years, as was Clegg and others. It is treason.

    2. Barnier seems to have given UK an ultimatum to decide now to extend trade talks beyond end December or any deal is off.

      2. Great news lets go our own way asap. The EU is an evil place for freedom.

      3. We should call his bluff. When E.U nations find they can’t buy or sell to us they will riot.

      1. “accompanied by an agreement on a financial contribution” thieving bar stewards, they’ve had enough of our money [and anyway, after Covid we don’t have any!!]

        1. I posted this on Order-Order earlier:
          Dear UK,
          We’d like you to extend to help us out. And it’s going to cost you.
          Cheers, suckers.

          M.Barnier

      2. “The European Union has always said that we remain open on this matter.”
        Really? I don’t recall that being said by them, ever. I do not recall them being “open” on any matter at all, ever.

    4. ‘Afternoon, Mum, as far as I’m concerned Barnier may depart and multiply, the only assent to fish he may get, will only come from the Fish-wife who wishes to see her Country and the rest of the UK, gutted.

      We must stand up to the EU and tell them that, since they cannot negotiate but only try to splutter and undermine us, we will leave immediately on WTO Rules and pay not a penny more.

    6. I see Ian Blackford is part of the “team” of traitors who want an extension – I see he drove from Westminster to Skye to isolate, which seems a good bit further than Durham – and seemingly without a real excuse like a potentially isolated child with sick parents? Why is no one camped on his doorstep??

  33. From the Guido site, another example of the Left’s kinder politics:

    https://order-order.com/2020/05/26/guardian-and-mirror-writer-threatens-to-assault-michael-gove-in-front-of-his-children/?utm_source=Guy+Fawkes%27+Blog+List&utm_campaign=0499093bbc-Mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_547885726c-0499093bbc-229989625

    Do you think that the police will pop around and have a chat with him? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/717483c2e327b91609739593e903617723e20020cbb10b35b391d1c4b776bff6.jpg

    1. The police did raid his house, bashed his door down and dragged him back to the cells in cuffs. A quick court is going to be convened and it appears that he could face a public flogging. Right.

    2. It’s very revealing (of Twitter) that this guy appears to suffer no hindrances from Twitter.

  34. Local garden centre has re-opened. Charge of the wrinkly crinkly brigade. At least i managed to get half a dozen strawberry plants !

      1. It is a pleasant place to while away an afternoon. They sell a lot more than plants. They also have a butcher, aquaria and a sweet shop. A cafe upstairs with access to a large terrace with chairs and tables overlooking all the plants..

          1. Not as such but if you order a roast dinner, mini bottles of wine are available.

    1. Eh? The army has oft been used to spy on people in Britain; the letters in MI5 stand for Military Intelligence, which is separate from the Mothers of Invention.

    2. The Brigade uses social media such as Twitter and Facebook as well as psyop techniques to influence populations and behaviour. David Miller said that it is “involved in manipulation of the media including using fake online profiles”.[25][26]

      In late September 2019 the Middle East Eye reported that Gordon MacMillan, a Twitter executive with editorial control over the Middle East and North Africa, is also a reservist officer in the 77th Brigade. Both Twitter and the British Army denied that they have a relationship or agreement. David Miller, a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol who studies British government propaganda and public relations, said it was hypocritical of Twitter to close accounts alleged to be connected with non-Western governments while having links to the British Army.[27][28]

      During the UK government’s daily coronavirus briefing, 22 April 2020, Nick Carter confirmed that 77th Brigade are working with the Home Office Rapid Response Unit “helping to quash rumours from misinformation, but also to counter disinformation”
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/77th_brigade_united_kingdomrole_and_composition

    3. 319643+ up ticks,
      o2o,
      If gulags & mosques are in the next manifesto’s of the lab/lib/con coalition party will the electorate still support / vote for them ?

      OOOH yes, consequences have never yet stopped the party first brigade yet.

    3. Mustn’t forget thatJames Watt and his ghastly company simply loath the English ba****ds!

  38. 319643+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    UN ADMITS 70% OF BOAT MIGRANTS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR ASYLUM.

    By the same token we in the UK have 650 politicians who are very eligible for asylum that is, in Broadmoor
    incarcerated for being criminally, treacherously, insane.

  39. UK must grant Hong Kong people asylum as China imposes security laws, says tortured Cheng. 26 May 2020 • 4:01pm

    Simon Cheng Man-kit, a former UK consulate worker tortured by Chinese secret police, is urging the British government to give Hong Kong people the opportunity to come to the UK as Beijing imposes a national security law in the territory.

    “The UK government has no excuse to turn a blind eye,” he said. British authorities should “grant asylum to Hong Kong citizens and equalise the rights of British National Overseas holders.”

    British authorities must “take care of the Hong Kong people,” rather than spouting “words [that] are still quite constrained and moderate.”

    I don’t like the Chinese Government. I suspect that I still wouldn’t like them even if they were not a gang of murdering Marxist thugs. They are too much like the UK Government in other things for my tastes. This does not mean however that I think we should throw open the doors to the population of Hong Kong; not only because we don’t have room and we don’t actually have any obligation to them, but because the protesters to my mind have precipitated this crisis. They knew with whom they were dealing and instead of moderating their opposition and waiting for a turn in fortune they went completely over the top and made it into an existential struggle. Hong Kong, like it or not is a part of China. No government let alone the gang in Beixing is going to give up any territory, the end result of such a struggle was inevitable.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/26/exclusive-uk-must-grant-hong-kong-people-asylum-china-imposes/

    1. All we have to do is pick some tiny Scottish island and send them all there and in fifty years’ time…

    2. The turn in fortune would have been the death of the latest CCP leader-for-life. The writing was on the wall for Hong Kong when he took over as leader of the party.

    6. Never realised it would be that simple! Well, what are you waiting for?

      ‘Morning, Stephen.

    7. signed & now at 11380. Of course if achieved it might turn all Muslims into vegetarians/vegans rather than encouraging them to leave.

    9. Done – 11,392. I don’t seem to have seen this one before, or I certainly would have signed it earlier.

    10. Oh and the Muslim Council of GB have apparently said that Muslim’s will leave Britain if Halal meat is banned.

      Is that a promise?

      3. Although I respect most animals i would personally volunteer to work in a properly run abitior. If it meant banning halal.
        ‘One’ including all, has to wonder why the always gobby animal riaghts nasties are not standing out side these disgusting slaughter houses and hurling abuse as they do on every other occasion presented or even invented.

      1. Yes, for me it tends to undermine the constant reminders from our farmers and the media about our outstanding animal welfare standards…

  41. Morning all 😕
    The only comment I really want to make on Cummings is.
    If our now almost totally inefficient political minded police, had actually carried out their sworn duty in the beginning and disallowed the close loud and illegal gatherings out side his home. He may not have thought it was then appropriate to ‘escape’. And none of this on going fiasco would have happened.
    I’m afraid that, generalising though it maybe, judging by their actions all over the country in past 10-20 years or so, the now lame authorities in the UK have completely ‘lost the plot’, so to speak.
    From out of all this i just hope that mass redundancies in so called journalism, will follow the people losing their jobs earlier in this extremely badly managed situation.

    1. Apparently someone funded a large TV screen placed in the street to broadcast to his household… I think Mr Ward’s comments below are correct. This is an attempt by remainers to remove Boris and his team and replace them with the ineffectual Hunt and his fellow Eurotravellers.

    2. Apparently someone funded a large TV screen placed in the street to broadcast to his household… I think Mr Ward’s comments below are correct. This is an attempt by remainers to remove Boris and his team and replace them with the ineffectual Hunt and his fellow Eurotravellers.

    3. Apparently someone funded a large TV screen placed in the street to broadcast to his household… I think Mr Ward’s comments below are correct. This is an attempt by remainers to remove Boris and his team and replace them with the ineffectual Hunt and his fellow Eurotravellers.

        1. The media have always considered themselves above the law.’It’s our public duty, innit’.

        2. And surely driving such vans around London is an unessential (?inessential Peddy?) journey.

          1. That sums it all up perfectly.
            It’s a great shame that the rest of the country is not aware of what is actually going on. I’ve been aware of a under hand goings on most of the time during this crisis.
            The known far left agitators should now be arrested for collusion against the British state. No mercy shown at all.
            And well done who ever organised the flowers for uncle Bill and his OH. 😊

      3. The TV screen funders were ‘Led by Donkeys’, a pro-Remain grouping. I can’t find out where their funding comes from.

      4. The screen was put up by “Led by donkeys”, whoever they are. Funded by Open Society I expect.

    4. This is the email I sent to my MP over the weekend:

      “Dear MP,

      As you may know, in any normal year, it is not unusual for a District General Hospital (DGH) to experience 5, 6 or 7 or so deaths every day as patients come to the end of their natural lives. I fully understand that Covid 19 is a particularly virulent and nasty disease which medical staff throughout the world are desperately trying to work out the best course of treatment. However, with current daily death rates of less than 200 patients dying with (not necessarily from) Covid 19 for the 100 or so DGHs in England alone that is on average less than 2 per day.

      Most sensible folk understand that there is a need to adopt sensible hygiene measures. Given the fact that the NHS has created an enormous amount of spare capacity, the Country is in a good position to deal with the inevitable upward spike in cases when lock down is lifted. We cannot remain isolated forever.

      From the published evidence, there are two groups of professionals who are blatantly ignoring ‘social distancing advice’ the Police and the Press. By the way, were you aware that WHO guidance published on 29th April 2020 recommends ‘distancing’ of just 1 metre?

      This Country simply cannot afford to endure this continued unscientific lock down of the bulk of the population. It may well be over by Christmas but then so will the British Economy. Time to urge the Cabinet to allow Britain to return to normal this week.

      Yours sincerely”

      Stephen

      1. I am very glad you didn’t waste a stamp….

        Stand by for usual bollux in acknowledgement.

        1. Hashtag-Metoo

          His reply: “Thank you for your e mail. I agree with your points and you can see that agreement in the 64 posts I have made on my website. I am increasingly wanting us out of lockdown now. I am also very well aware that the Nordic countries and France have a one metre rule.”

          No sense of ‘Action this day’……..

        2. Hashtag-Metoo

          His reply: “Thank you for your e mail. I agree with your points and you can see that agreement in the 64 posts I have made on my website. I am increasingly wanting us out of lockdown now. I am also very well aware that the Nordic countries and France have a one metre rule.”

          No sense of ‘Action this day’……..

          1. Well, my useless prat last “posted” his news about the plague on 22 March. This year. So you can see he has his finger right on the pulse of what his constituents feel.

          2. Those constituents being the ones that passed away with Covid-19. I wonder if he was wearing rubber gloves?

      2. Good for you Stephen, but don’t hold your breath. I gave up writing to MPs a few years ago. You don’t, or never will get what you pay for.
        I don’t even get a polite a aknowledgment when I point out mistakes made by our parish council.
        People at this moment in time who are in politics, think amongst themselves, that they can do whatever they like.

        1. People at this moment in time who are in politics, think amongst themselves, that they can do whatever they like. – and, are they wrong? No evidence so far…

        2. If the disorder of reporters / large TV screen had happened outside my house, for some reason, I would have been on to the police.

          Breach of the Peace is an all encompassing bit of Scottish Law which would provide the police to demand that the reporters, TV cameras, TV van disperse – this would have happened in the past.

          The Politically Correct PC of today would probably have brought teas & coffees for the hordes.

          1. ‘Morning Falkirkbairn, a well-placed brick would have sorted the TV screen.

            As for the Police Farce, they would have turned up in their rainbow cars, with rainbow hats and stilettos, offset with their blue-painted fingernails. They have become a Common Purpose menace.

            I just wish we had a strong Home Secretary to rein them in while closing our borders tight, against the illegals.

          3. Like a backbone, I doubt if any Perlice (Mr Grizzle excepted) umderstand what the purple one is definitely not how to use it

            The Perlice are on a ‘bums rush’ at the moment

            Yo Ol

  42. I’ve had my fun for this morning, now I’m off to mark a German translation.

    4. The Good Fairy said Brexit will happen, then along came the Sorosfull evildoer, who said, over Mr Cummongs dead body

  44. Hello, playmates!

    With all the Cummings vilification in the MSM, this caught my eye yesterday. As I seem to be doing catch-up much of the time, apologies if you have already seen it.

    We have more to thank Cummings for than many know:

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/24/boris-adviser-squashed-plan-delay-real-brexit-concocted-while-he-pm-covid/

    We can’t take out eyes off the Treacherous ersatz Tories (edit: even less the Snivel Serpents) for one second. The people concerned should be sacked.

    1. The twittersphere is alive with rumours about the civil service’s attempted coup on the Brexit negotiations and Cummings’s thwarting of their plans. What is disappointing is that the likes of Farage, Baker, Bone et al. allowed their personal animosity towards Cummings to override their sense of judgement re the strategic view of what Brexit is all about: freedom from the tyranny of the EU and our unelected elite e.g. the civil service.

      1. Politics in the Uk seems these days to be all about “ME”, never about the best for the country (however you define that).

      2. I don’t really do twitter, hardly at all.
        Yes the egos of some of the people are holding this country back.

  45. Emily Maitlis praised for summing up public mood over Dominic Cummings row in Newsnight opener. 27 May 2020.

    Emily Maitlis has been praised for her introduction to a Newsnight special largely dedicated to the Dominic Cummings controversy.

    The presenter opened the show by saying the prime minister’s chief advisor “broke the rules”, adding: “The country can see that, and it’s shocked the government cannot.”

    “He was the man, remember, who always got the public mood,” she said, “who tagged the lazy label of elite on those who disagreed. He should understand that public mood one now: one of fury, contempt and anguish.

    “He made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools, and has allowed many more to assume they can now flout them.”

    Ahhh. Emily Maitliss. The Voice of the People. I must have missed her election to Office.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/emily-maitlis-newsnight-dominic-cummings-lockdown-coronavirus-durham-a9533956.html

    1. And let me guess, the audience “proved” her comments right by enthusiastically cheering anything said against Cummings!

      1. Their bubble seems to be impenetrable. They’ve no idea what we think outside it.

        1. There was a clue at the last general election, but the wankerati seem to have forgotten that.

    2. Her impartiality is most impressive – but only to all Beeboids.

      So glad I missed it.

        1. I’ve nearly always managed to miss her. In fact I think my first exposure was when she skewered Andyboy.

    3. I must have missed her connection to the opinions of the person in the street outside the M25 as well.

  47. As more and more MPs are being exposed as having themselves broken the lockdown why aren’t the MSM demanding to have the movements of all 650 MPs at all times during the lockdown, and the resaons why they did so, in the same way they want that information from Cummings.

    No need to answer. I can guess.

    1. Bugger their movements – I would like three MPs each to give me their £10,000 bonus so I can buy a new minibus for my business. I would have been able to fund it from from the normal accumulated proceeds made by my business but my business has not made any proceeds with which to buy minibuses this year.

  48. Copy of email from my MP (Andrew Rossindell) following missive from me expressing support for Dominic Cummings:

    ‘I am very grateful to you for contacting me regarding recent news stories about the Prime Minister’s’ advisor, Dominic Cummings and your support for the Prime Minister, as well as my view on the issue.

    I believe that it is essential all Government ministers and advisers follow lockdown guidelines, just like the rest of us have to do. The Government has not imposed these restrictions lightly and I know that everyone across the country have been required to sacrifice some fundamental freedoms in order to defeat this virus.

    However, having listened to his entire personal statement and explanation yesterday, my understanding is that the decision by Mr Cummings to travel to his parent’s home was to ensure his young child could be properly cared for by members by his family. Both he and his wife were sick, and this was within government guidelines as set out before he travelled. These specifically allowed people to leave their home in order “to provide care or help a vulnerable person”.

    I also believe that Jennie Harries, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, made clear on the 24th of March before Mr Cummings made this trip that: “A small child clearly is a vulnerable individual, so in this case, although we are encouraging everybody to stay in their households – that’s the unit with the same exposure – clearly if you have adults who are unable to look after a small child, that is an exceptional circumstance.” If these were the guidelines Mr Cummings was following when he made his trip, then it would appear that he did not break the lockdown rules. If there is any evidence to the contrary, then the Prime Minister must of course take the appropriate action.

    My view is simple, if Mr Cummings has broken the law, he should resign, but if he has not done so, now that he is back to good health again, I think we should let him get on with the job of working with Boris Johnson to get our country through this crisis and then our economy back on track.

    There is a huge job ahead of us now to re-build the strong and vibrant economy we had before this crisis and to forge ahead in the world, now that the U.K. has left the E.U. at long last. We must not be distracted by minor issues and focus on the long-term interests of our nation. There are four years to go until the next General Election and there is much work to be done between now and then, once this pandemic has been beaten. So that must be our government’s priority for the sake of all the people of this wonderful nation, to which we all belong.

    Many thanks again for making sure I am aware of your views and do
    feel free to get in touch with me again in the future, should you have other matters you would like to discuss or raise with me as your local M.P.’

    Nothing I can argue against here.

    1. And what are his views on Priti Awful and her Cross-Channel Delivery Service?

      1. Bill,

        Coincidentally I posted email from Rossindell on this very subject five days ago. Not sure if it is straightforward to view such things but can re-post if needs be.

    2. He is a leaver. I wish I could write the same letter, but my MP is Labour and until the boundary changes are enacted there seems no possibility of a change . As a momentum supporter, she would be delighted to see the government collapse.

    3. Only the fact that we haven’t Left the EU yet, not properly, and there are many out to make sure we don’t at the end of December this year. That’s what I’m concerned about because I think if we lose DC then any backbone Boris has of completing the job will evaporate.

      1. The end of June is the last date for extending the transition. We need to ensure that we get past that unscathed and head for the exit door.

      1. Yes Mr. Tastey he certainly did! “Sitting on the banks of the river Tyne”? I’ guessing it rhymed better than Wear!

  50. Appeals for calm after Tommy Robinson visits Barrow amid protests. Tue 26 May 2020 18.46 BST.

    The family of a 19-year-old woman accused of lying about being groomed and abused in a Cumbrian town have appealed for calm after the far-right activist Tommy Robinson turned up claiming to be a journalist investigating the case.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/26/appeals-for-calm-after-tommy-robinson-visits-barrow-amid-protests

    As always with Tommy half- truths at best. A fuller account can be found here though even then there are omissions.

    Tommy Robinson attends mass show of support for Barrow woman 25 May 2020.

    TOMMY Robinson joined hundreds of people in support of a young Barrow woman who is at the centre of sexual assault claims.

    https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/18474095.tommy-robinson-attends-mass-show-support-barrow-woman/

  51. Breaking news from Th Grimes:

    “Lip-smacking chiMPS show hint of language…”

    2. Ah Peterborough, home of my brother, such a wonderful welcoming place and so easy to get list in those characterless Ortons. He has been talking about the queue at all of the McDonalds drive throughs making it difficult to get around.

      1. Most Peterborough districts are dodgy. When we were moving to the area over 30 years ago, we were advised to avoid certain areas when buying, especially New England and Dogsthorpe. Those areas are even worse now. In the end, we bought a house in Lincolnshire, no regrets.

        1. During the year before I retired I had to go regularly to meetings in Lincoln Rd. I hated it & always worried about leaving the car unattended for 3 hours. Especially hated it on dark Winter evenings.

          1. Wise to be worried especially the city centre end. Full of enrichment …..

          2. When I went for an interview in Sunderland I was warned about leaving my car for any length of time. They said that nobody ignores car alarms there.

    3. So no arrests were made at the scene, then? No, didn’t think so. They’d rather investigate 1 person coz it’s easier and he’s not blik!

    4. “When police arrived they found hundreds ‘intoxicated’ party-goers
      gathered in the street around vehicles, including a sporty Aldi R8
      (pictured)”
      oops just a Lidl mistake…………………….

      1. Peterborough’s claim to fame in my book was that it was where Paddy Hopkirk’s car accessories came from. Where would we have been without that beautiful alloy throttle pedal he made to eliminate the silly little bit of tin BMC provided…

        2. The best thing ever produced in Peterborough were Perkins Diesel Engines.

          1. They used to be produced in Colchester at one time. I turned down a job with them.

          3. Perkins, I thought. I suppose it could have been Paxman and I’ve got confused. It was a long time ago.

      2. Lidl did you know!

        Edit: sh!t, I didn’t see the earlier post making much the same point. Sorry Rik-Redux.

    7. I wonder what happened to mayor Boris’ water two cannon trucks.
      The army should have been called in here.
      The stupidity of the authorities will have set yet another precedent.
      They’ll probably deny any prior knowledge of the gathering.

  53. An atheist was seated next to a little girl on an airplane and he turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”

    The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied to the total stranger, “What would you want to talk about?”

    “Oh, I don’t know,” said the atheist. “How about why there is no God, or no Heaven or Hell, or no life after death?” as he smiled smugly.

    “Okay,” she said. “Those could be interesting topics but let me ask you a question first. A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff – grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, but a horse produces clumps.

    Why do you suppose that is?”

    The atheist, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence,

    thinks about it and says, “Hmmm, I have no idea.” To which the little girl replies, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss
    God, Heaven and Hell, or life after death, when you don’t know shit?”

    And then she went back to reading her book.

    1. To make it moresterest Topical

      Change Athiest for

      Corbyn
      Labour Party
      Any BeeBoid ‘journalalist’
      etc

  54. Was there any mention/discussion on here yesterday of the anomaly which foiled R Branston’s latest effort to reach for the sky? I have never seen a report on it except on BBC Radio 4 yesterday morning

    1. He’s another National Treasure I suppose. Can’t be seen to have failed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52802520
      “It’s not clear at this stage precisely what went wrong but the firm had warned beforehand that the chances of success might be only 50:50.
      The history of rocketry shows that maiden outings very often encounter technical problems.
      “Test flights are instrumented to yield data and we now have a treasure trove of that. We accomplished many of the goals we set for ourselves, though not as many as we would have liked,” said Virgin Orbit CEO Dan Hart.
      “Nevertheless, we took a big step forward today. Our engineers are already poring through the data. Our next rocket is waiting. We will learn, adjust, and begin preparing for our next test, which is coming up soon.””

      1. Thanks molamola- poor Richard seems to have problems with his exotic rocketry experiments. I understand that the rocket was fired from the old Virgin aircraft. I wonder where it landed.

      2. Space x had some spectacular initial failures but they & NASA are resting the Falcon Rocket with two crew later today.

        2. Not sure I would want to be either of those two.

          On the other hand , I think it was John Glenn who on being asked if he was scared before take off, said that he felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of 2 million parts — all built by the lowest bidder to a government contract.

          2. Yesterday evening the sky was exceptionally clear, probably less pollution around. We saw the crescent moon in the NW at around 9:30 pm. A clear bright crescent and the full lunar globe visible as well. Wonderful!
            Soon we will go back to skies filled with muck.

          3. According to an ISS tracker app it is just off the coast of Africa and heading towards Southern England, it should son be strolling along the Cornwall to Kent coast.

          4. A good few years back now, we had a spectacular view of the ISS crossing the sky, with the Space Shuttle catching it up from behind. We saw it cross here last year as well. Back in the ’80’s we did get to see a Shuttle launch from the Cape – we were in the area on vacation, heard it was going off the next morning and drove over to watch. Could not get near, but it was a sight.

      3. As a suggestion, can Branston Pickle himself pilot the next Rocket

        We will even Crowdfund to pay forit

        1. I was thinking more of putting him in a cockpit with that automatic banana feeding machine, intended for monkeys in space but inadvertently given to feeding Bob Hope in some comedy or other.

          2. Hi Phizzee, I have been around but there is nothing much to comment about at present. The transparent hostility of the MSM and a cabal of Tory Remainers towards the Prime Minister is palpable.

            We expect the idiotic puffed up Blackfords and Lucas’s of this world to act treasonously but I had hoped that Boris and Cummings would assert control over their own mob. Hopefully they can and will.

            On another topic my wife thought that as self employed persons we could claim under the government scheme for loss of earnings. My wife went through the rigmarole only to be told that she is not eligible. The scheme ceased this weekend. I told her not to bother.

            Neither of us have ever sought or received out of work benefits from government in our lifetimes and apart from my state pension the only other benefit is the Winter Fuel Payment Allowance of £200.00.

            My wife has to work until May 2022 in order to receive a state retirement pension when she will be aged 66.

          3. I am in a similar situation re never having had any benefits. It seems the welfare system is not designed for such as us (hard-working, tax-paying, law-abiding indigenous).

          4. I agree. My eldest brother has not done a days work for nigh on fifty years but receives a state pension, disability living allowance and various other benefits which amount to as much as I receive in state pension which is about £200.00 per week.

            Without my own supplementary private pension we would struggle and now I have lost additional income from my self employment and architectural work. Thankfully we have property and savings but even so this is not a fair system.

          5. It’s always the way. Those that know the system can play it for maximum be benefit but workers are stymied by the bureaucratic process.

            I was talking to a guy over here this week who had been laid off. He can collect unemployment benefits but he has to submit weekly reports of businesses he has contacted about jobs. Missing from the full pay bureaucrats logic is the minor inconvenience that he works in an industry that is not deemed essential, none of the employers are open let alone accepting resumes.

          6. I agree. Most members of my family managed to persuade doctors and social workers that they were incapable of work.

            Once they submit to taking various tablets for this that and the other they become hooked and essentially useless and a burden on society. My two late sisters also submitted to psychiatrists and the eldest to ECG treatment which will have contributed to her utter vulnerability and general uselessness.

            As you say there is a game to be played but it often leads to a miserable existence with dependency on the state.

            Ivan Illich wrote a paper entitled ‘Medical nemesis, the expropriation of Health’ which sums up the issues for me.

          7. You might not have received any out of work benefits but, if you are receiving a state pension, you will also be getting or be eligible for free prescriptions, free bus passes and the £10 winter payment; and you probably will not be making NI contributions; paying fees for work-related insurance, unions or professional bodies; or bearing the costs of commuting or running your business. There isn’t much fun in getting old but there are a few compensations and remember that no-one says on their death bed “I wish that I had worked longer”.

    2. There was an item about it on BBC News online yes’day, but I didn’t read it.

    3. Branson had forgotten his lighter so they couldn’t get the second stage started, the rubber pellets only smouldered when they tried matches.

  55. 319643+ up ticks,
    Overall the anti GB brigade ( inclusive of those supporting mass uncontrolled immigration parties) are winning hands down and thanks to these types heads
    will, in the near future, join the hands along with @rses
    raised in the air as we become a gigantic bike park nation.
    Submission,pcism & appeasement will dictate word changes in many ways, for instance,
    🎵
    Please,please, get me to the mosque on time.
    UKIP just had to be suppressed they were out
    of step with the current treacherous trend of politics.
    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1265584280845066240

  56. After a much needed break, I have decided my feelings on the Cummings witch hunt necessitate a comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/27/dominic-cummings-tory-critics-need-grow-spine-stop-lefts-useful/
    Talking about the 40 odd Tory MP critics.

    “What a risible collection of political invertebrates, pompous virtue
    signallers, monster ingrates, grudge-bearers and strategic dunderheads
    they are”.
    David Warburton, MP Somerton and Frome – David can you hear me, yes it is you they are talking about.
    I am so pleased I never voted for him last December.

      1. Agreed and all right thinking people realise it. Glad to see that nearly all Nottlers still lead the field in astute considerations.

      2. “Cummings refused to allow an extension to Brexit”. Wasn’t one of the main reasons for Brexit to get the country out of the control of unelected officials?

    2. It’s such a shame and very frustrating that the general public are unable to make a stand on this outrage being conducted by the far left nasties.
      I’ll bet my house that if 20 people walked along Whitehall tomorrow holding placards displaying their disgust. They would all be surrounded by the scum media and all arrested. On trumped up charges.
      This is such a terrible state of affairs we have been subjected to, by bloody disgustingly horrible people. What makes it even worse is, we the public pay the salaries and expenses of.

    3. The rights and wrongs of the Cummings affair are of trivial interest to those self-employed people who run their own businesses and have seen their incomes this year cut by 80% or more while in addition to their annual salary increase MPs have given themselves a £10,000 expenses bonus because of the virus that will bankrupt everybody except themselves.

      No matter which party you are in:

      MPs you are excremental scum.

      May you rot!

      2. Most of us would be able to put up with the stench of their rotting corpses.
        It would be a lesson to the rest of the disgusting far left.

      3. 319643+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        They know as well as the electorate know that come polling day these feelings will be as ice cubes in a microwave.
        Vote lab keep out tory, vote tory keep out lab, we are witnessing as a nation the evil consequences of that continuing voting pattern.

      1. My experience of his replies are lots of words but nothing worthwhile said.

    2. Sedwill also tried to get the UK chief Brexit negotiator David Frost sacked.

      1. A niece of mine knew him at school. He was not liked but his family has money.

      3. Time for Boris to sack Sedwill. I know you are supposed to keep your enemies closer than your friends, but this is getting ridiculous.

          1. He’s probably already got enough gongs to sit in the Lords.

            Comes up with the rations, don’t you know!

  58. Well, NoTTLers – colour the MR and me GOBSMACKED!!

    A courier has just been (who, very topically, was the spitting image of Cummings) with a magnificent bouquet of gorgeous flowers. And a vase.

    We are both very touched by your thought and generosity. Thank you all very much.

    2. These people were selected from a much larger group of others who wished to be on the meeting list. I don’t know who selected them but surely some leavers should have been on the list. Boris bumbled at times but looked much better trimmed. I think he had make up on as his nose looked less pock marked. He managed OK to answer the questions and was sensible enough to leave some loaded questions to be answered later.

    1. Bert: “At last, an opportunity to see if someone can breathe through that hypoallergenic pillow she bought you, for me to use.”

    3. Bert: “I’ll phone the cops before she arrives and get her arrested for breaking the lockdown”.

    4. I hate to break this to you Ada, but she has been up in the attic for this last ten years

    5. Funny thing is dear…..for the last 40 years i thought you were your mother.

    1. “The migrants presented themselves as Libyan, Moroccan, Iraqi, Syrian, Kuwaiti, Iranian, Afghan, Eritrean and Sudanese”.

      I find it extremely difficult to believe that they organised the crossings as a cohesive unit. People smugglers must be involved and our Border Force and the French are aiding and abetting those smugglers.

      Fingerprint and do a DNA test and stick them on the next plane to where they claim to have come from.

      Tell them that they will NEVER be allowed to settle in Britain.

        1. Remunerative employment (tax free) awaits. Albanian gangs can hardly keep up with business; child trafficking, prostitution, drugs, protection services. Local police very happy.

          2. The cash amounts are negligible.
            It’s the housing, healthcare, education, and family reunifiction that really attracts them.

          3. That was what I meant by the pot of gold. It’s not necessarily cash in hand.

          4. Indeed.
            Many people assume that they arrive and are immediatly on £26,000 a year plus the bits we referred to, which isn’t the case.

          5. Why aren’t they told they will be at risk in Tower Hamlets , and might die of Covid19 or stabbings or Shia or Sunni divisions if they come to Britain?

  62. Further to the thoroughly deserved and essential extra money offered to MPs for their justifiable additional expenditure .

    How much infrastructure and equipment would £6.5 million pounds buy if properly controlled centrally?

    Gawd, when I were a lad all the managers and most of the staff used a telephone system into the central typing pool and the typists dealt with the letters as they arrived.

    Surely something similar but web serviced could be arranged for MP’s at a fraction of that money, zoom etc?

    1. Since the parish is about to put this Verger’s Cottage on the market, I’m quite pleased to hear that. I’d rather stay where I am, but they have offered to cover my rent in another place for five years, as long as it’s within three miles of the parish. Which gets me into State Pension territory, and I’ll prolly [®BT] be ready to retire. And if the valuation of £700k before lockdown was to significantly reduce, the brown stuff would hit the fan. Aldershot, here I come…

    2. So farsnads broke the lockdown rules. Why isn’t the MSM chasing them instead of Cummings? Are they Remainers by any chance?

  66. Hello. Dinner will be ready in half an hour ; comfort food for the husband
    and I. Cumberland sausages in gravy with Madeira wine with tinned
    tomatoes and crispy Onions with multigrain mustard mash.

    1. Tagliatelle Bolognese with Parmesan.

      I’m using a C&B Bolognese sauce with corned beef. It’s cheating, but more authentic than spag. bol.

      1. That sounds very nice. I love parmesan cheese, lots of it.
        I can report husband’s foot is getting better, still looks very red but
        swelling has gone down,

        1. Parmesan is Missy’s favourite cheese but I allow her only very little otherwise she gets sick.
          Glad the toe is on the mend.

    2. We’re having chicken thighs done in the oven………with – not decided yet but I have some asparagus.

      1. I love chicken thighs, our favourite cut of chicken,
        did a tarragon cream sauce with them the other week.
        Asparagus is very nice roasted in olive oil 10 mins.

        1. I usually just steam it for a few minutes. We’ve got a pudding, too – OH has made a lemon one.

          1. Might have a lemony pudding at the weekend, today was the weekly
            shopping day but I’ve the ingredients to make something.
            Hope your lemon pudding is lovely .

          3. I used to steam it, but I have roasted more recently and think roasting gives a better result (we do broccoli the same way).

        2. I heard on Farming Today this morning that much of this year’s asparagus crop isn’t being picked. Lack of demand, apparently. ‘Tis a crying shame.

          1. It’s a terrible waste, asparagus is wonderful. I should imagine
            lots of vegetables will be sharing the same fate , unfortunately.

    3. We had poached eggs on toast , ham and a fresh tomato and a splash of mustard .. then a microwave apple crumble and custard. Quite delicious.

      It is a warm evening .and I had lots of watering to do.

      1. Very nice indeed,, especially the crumble and custard which is my
        favourite pudding, love it.

        1. I prefer the less sweet versions – rhubarb crumble that strips the enamel off your teeth, gooseberry the same. :-D)

          1. Rhubarb and ginger crumble is very nice, but not a huge fan of
            gooseberrys, I like sweets to be sweet 🙂

      1. Yes indeed it was a traditional Cumberland sausage ring and
        very nice indeed, very enjoyable .

          2. Any Cumberland Sausage you find in yer average Sainsbury’s (other supermarkets are available) will be made to a recipe which approximates to the real thing. Even the Donald Russell variety which are currently lurking in my freezer. The chances are that they’ve never been within 200 miles of God’s Own County. A former Churchwarden in this parish has a second home in Bowness-on-Windermere. Sometimes, he brings the odd kilo of meaty goodness back with him. It’s a different animal altogether.

            Actually, I had an uncle who had a butcher’s stall in Carlisle’s Covered Market. Long deceased. My family were quite closely involved with John Laing and Sons, and anyone venturing North from Head Office at Mill Hill was prone to collecting yards of said uncle’s sausages back to the smoke…

          3. When I was about 12, my mother was doing the accounts for the local butcher.

            She could see he was really struggling and she offered my labour in exchange for the odd meat product, sausages, offal, and the like and a few pence for me to spend.

            Good sausages are singularly lacking in all the “nasty” bits.

            It was a really great holiday job. I learned how to sharpen knives, gut fowl, remove tendons and generally work hard. I even used the sausage machine and was shown how to make the sausages, string them at 8 to the pound and pack them up.

            The worst bit was the deliveries, using one of those asymetric wheeled butcher-boy bikes. One of the big customers kept geese; the bloody things liked nothing better than to give me Hell when I was delivering! The round was miles long. Still, it all helped from the fitness point of view.

    5. Go easy on the comfort food or you will end up like me thinking, ‘I don’t care, I don’t care’, And two months later ‘oh my gosh, look at me, whatever made me think I didn’t care, I do care (now), I do!’ when you throw caution to the wind under the stress of it all.

      2. Yes indeed so, I am very careful with the comfort food, it’ll be easy to
        hanker down and eat nothing but those things but unwise .

    1. Heavens above, read that report by the girl and weep. Never mind Cummings and co, why the hell are the media not screaming about this kind of event happening in England?

    2. They’ve probably all watched the “Dirty Harry” movie where the bad guy paid to be beaten up and they think the girl has done the same.

    1. “Mr Ross made the long journey from northern Scotland to southern England after having managed in his home constituency for some eight weeks, claiming that, for him “home working has been successful to a point, but living in a rural part of Moray, my connection to the internet has been adequate at best.”

      He also complained of two occasions when his WiFi failed during a virtual Select Committee session, and some of his contributions having “broken audio”.

      Ross also said he was “required to take a small piece of legislation through the House of Commons” and answer parliamentary questions on behalf of the Scotland Office, claiming that, while arrangements have been put in place for parliamentarians to perform their roles remotely, the Speaker preferred that he was “physically in the House of Commons”.

      Politicians are, as “key workers”, permitted to travel during lockdown, although members of the public may question whether those who have travelled to and from London have the moral high ground to call for Mr Cummings’ head for doing the same thing.”

      My word , what words can we use to show our displeasure with people like that.

      It actually feels as if we are still existing in Cameron days.. the era of the long Pinochhio noses!

      1. Afternoon, Mags, my reply on Breitbart:

        Pitiful excuses from a ‘Remain’ hypocrite.

        Ross is well removed from any remaniac levers but it’s dismal that he resigns over an issue where he has committed the same ‘sin’.

      2. Internet not great?

        Just like millions of other people who are being expected to work from home and home school their children.

        1. He was given £10000 to equip himself with communication equipment so that he could work from home. He must not have spent that that too prudently as others seem to have done as I briefly watched Hilary Benn’s Committee discussing Brexit. There were several communication breakdowns with one solidly built SNP woman accusing Michael Gove of turning off the audio before things were restored. David Frost looked as if he needed sleep and the ring leader HB desperately trying to keep the show on the road.

          1. One wonders what he spent the money on, if he’s done that.
            Have you pressed “post” too soon?

      4. So when is he going to be championing the roll out of fast, reliable broadband for ALL the countryside?

    2. Perfectly understandable he had to return to London to carry out his ministerial duty.
      I am also sure that in the spirit of observing lockdown, he stayed at his London address and never returned to Scotland.
      The media scum would be proud of him……oh wait, he didn’t. Hypocrite.

  69. With repeated thanks to NoTTLers your kind remarks and comments – and the flowers, this is what they look like:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72d858ea45ab8003a2fa6e01814a94bf82e23f691c185c1aaef80dc523f5228f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0ee5084cd7fe1473ea36c4a64fbb0e355f05da702c91a2d5c37adb5268d2aed.jpg

    I am signing off for the day. Rose beds to weed – and then, at 5 pm – we go to Rome for a lecture online from a chap at the British School at Rome.

    Then, possibly, a glass of something cooling – plus salmon and our own asparagus.

    Many many thanks to you all.

    A demain

    2. Sorry to be late, happy 25th anniversary to you and the MR, enjoy your salmon and asparagus!!

    3. They are beautiful and so evocative of the promise of a summer’s day about to bloom.

  70. Good afternoon from a Saxon Queen
    Just having coffee in the sunshine before unpacking the huge amount of two weeks worth
    Morrison’s shopping. It took me twice as long as usual because my husband wasn’t with me
    ( his bad foot is beginning to get better ) but shopping is quicker and better organised when he’s with me
    but I shan’t tell him that .

    1. We are waiting for our cheese delivery from Paxton & Whifield, Where are they.?

      1. Hope they turn up soon, it’s annoying to wait for a delivery for food

      3. Afternoon Johnny -Wensleydale Cheese in Hawes has an excellent online selection of cheeses and Gift baskets if you fancy a wholesome change.
        Worth considering.

        1. A couple of years ago we had a weeks stay at Askrigg not far Hawes. Wensleydale cheese emporium have a fantastic cheese sampling area in their building.
          My wife was busy in the gift shop. I came out of the sampling area just in time for her to drag me back in again. That day there was such a thing as a free lunch. 😃 say cheese.

          2. Beautiful surrounding country side.
            On that day there was snow in the car park of the highest pub.
            But we sat outside with the dog and our drinks.

        2. With so much cheese now being made with dried milk we only buy from P&W

    2. I’ve just been reading about you in Bernard Cornwell’s novel “The Flame Bearer”. Quite the little warrior Queen, aren’t you? I bet that Morrison’s were petrified when you walked in with your axe and longbow!

    1. You have to get quite a long way down to find any expression of doubt. In the end, the scheme relies on honesty. I get hay-fever (well, almost – nothing like as bad as I once did). Suppose I sneeze in the presence of witnesses. Am I to be pursued, tested, confined, shamed?

      Soon we’ll all be dead. Inside.

      1. With the wrong air condition and pollen levels I get hay-fever very badly and sometimes suffer from sneezing fits, my eyes water and I look as if I’m running a fever and that’s even with the benefit of tablets and nasal sprays.

        I suspect I could clear Wembley Stadium of covid-fearing snowflakes in less than 15 minutes.

  73. https://youtu.be/QzeEdtgCFhs
    Here’s one for Geoff: The stops on the organ move in a cluster, without being pulledby hand.
    Is there a pedal for that? and does it move in & out just the pulled stops?
    There are also foot buttons in front of the foot “keys”. What do they do?

    2. Yo, Paul. Any decent organ has a series of ‘combination pistons’. They’re generally small buttons between the keyboards (or, more correctly, ‘manuals’), which can be pre-programmed to select certain stops. there are also ‘toe pistons’, which do the same thing, generally, but not exclusively, for the pedals. My ‘umble village church organ has only three pistons for each manual: the Great pistons also operate the Pedal division, which only has two stops. You can see them in the first photo. The outliers are “Great to Pedal”, and “Swell to Great”. These also appear as toe pistons. On this instrument, the pistons can be programmed via a series of switches (see second photo). On larger, more sophisticated organs, the pistons can be set electronically – not unlike storing a frequency on a car radio. Sometimes there are several memories, which can be selected for the use of individual organists.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/12297e19ad97c43b633e526cf52e23e60271be79a98d8d8cd812821c9c2be1e7.jpg

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/327957d7924500aef01e8062d8e5fa040cc8563e0407c18ee4caccd7eba54314.jpg

      1. Looking at your video, I should also mention that some organs have ‘sequencers’, whereby you can pre-programme a series of stop changes for the piece of music in question, and activate each change with a toe piston – which I think may be what is happening in the video…

        1. My woodwork master at City of Bath Technical School, Raymond Jones, was also deputy Bath Abbey organist for about forty years. Every year, at our Christmas Carol Service in the Bath Abbey he would play ‘In dulci jubilo’ by Bach.

          I noticed he practised for ages and was left in wonder that he could use both hands and feet so dextrously. I was a chorister and acutely aware of the magnificence of the Abbey organ.

          Years later I was put in charge of the production information for the restoration of Christ Church Spitalfields viz. collating historical research, commissioning and carrying out surveys, making working drawings and writing the project specification. Its great swell organ by Bridge had fallen silent in the fifties. It is now restored to its former glory. I have somewhere a recording entitled ‘A giant reborn’.

          1. Wonderful, corrimmobile. I would love to witness it in action one day.

          3. Truth is that, after a few exercises, independence of hands and feet just fall into place. I’m somewhat buggered now, not having functioning ankles. But there’s much one can do without the feet. Including In Dulci Jubilo…

          4. Yup. I just wish I could have learnt the organ. My eldest brother plays ‘by ear’ and as a churchgoer he has all of the traditional hymns in his repertoire.

          5. My nephew plays the organ very well. I learned the piano (and don’t play particularly well!).

      2. Thanks, Geoff, for that thorough explanation. I’ve been wondering for years…
        :-))

  74. The French are now trying to cover up their collusion in this illegal immigration scam

    The French Navy is acting now in an even more underhand and deceitful way, as they know we’ve been watching them

    NIGEL FARAGE

    My recent excursion into the Channel and exposure of the scandalous ‘handover’ process, in which the French Navy escorts illegal immigrant boats into UK waters for collection by our Border Force, has had a huge reaction.

    Millions of people have viewed the footage and photographs I obtained. Thousands of members of the public have let their feelings about this vexed issue be known in online comments. And, as a further result of my disclosure, many Conservative MPs are now piling pressure onto the Home Secretary, Priti Patel. These politicians, representing the wishes of their constituents, know she must act quickly.

    At the weekend, hints were dropped that change was in the air and that the British government was about to crack down on this exploitative, dangerous and criminal trade. Not having implicit trust in our national politicians, however, I decided to go back out into the Channel this week to find out for myself how Patel’s attempt to get tough is really going.

    As I reported last week, when the handover which I witnessed was complete, I heard an exchange on VHF radio between the French Navy and the UK Border Force in effect acknowledging that they were going to have to do things differently in future to avoid public scrutiny. Having been rumbled by me, they knew there would be an outcry if this racket was seen to be carrying on.

    As I reached mid-Channel at dawn yesterday, I saw a huge operation underway. A British spotter plane had flown down from Doncaster; drones were up in the air; Border Force vessels and a lifeboat from Dover were responding to calls of several sightings in our waters. I estimate that by 10am, seven boats and 65 people had been picked up. Incredibly, one person had made the journey by kayak. Unhelpfully, at the time of writing it was not possible to get a precise figure from the Home Office about the number of arrivals yesterday because it did not publish any data. I accept that my calculation may therefore be on the conservative side.

    Another mystery with which I grappled while at sea concerned the whereabouts of the French Navy. Previously, it was easy to follow its movements. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a tracking system that uses transponders on ships which provide information about vessel type, dimension, course and speed. This week, the French Navy’s AIS was turned off. It was only through the use of radar and excellent visibility on a beautiful morning in the Channel that the skipper of my boat could see a very slow-moving French vessel heading into British waters.

    Last week when I revealed the shameful ‘handover’ process, nobody accused me of not telling the truth about the French naval escort because the AIS tracker proved what had happened. This week, as they approached British waters, the French Navy put a 1-mile exclusion zone around their vessel and asked those in the shipping lanes to change course. Their excuse for these special requirements was that they were on a ‘search and rescue mission’. This was entirely untrue because the illegal immigrants – who, let’s not forget, were fleeing the safe haven of France – were in a very modern inflatable dinghy moving easily on calm, glassy seas.

    Unlike last week, the French Navy kept much further away from the immigrant dinghy and, with their AIS turned off, they changed course as soon as they saw our vessel, as if to say: “This dinghy has nothing to do with us”. Again in contrast to last week’s performance, the French Navy issued no threats to our boat either this week.

    As the dinghy entered British waters, we approached it. There were 13 people on board. I have to say that one or two of them were pretty aggressive towards us. The vast majority of passengers were young men of fighting age, leading me to conclude that a principal reason for their flight is that they are dodging conscription. It is also entirely possible that some of those arriving were part of the defeated ISIS caliphate army. A sobering thought. Before long, the Dover lifeboat and Border Force had arrived and they were then taxied back into Dover to begin their new life in England. The ease with which these people are welcomed into Britain as though they are in need, despite having left an equally safe European country an hour or two earlier, makes me so angry.

    Although Britain has given France £61 million of taxpayers’ money since 2015 to stop this scam, the French continue to blame us for somehow creating this situation. The difference is, they are acting now in an even more underhand and deceitful way. Reports that the Home Office has contacted Roman Quaedvlieg, the former head of Australia’s border force, to consult him on potential measures to halt the illegal boats is a start. However, I would suggest going even further and asking Tony Abbott, the former Prime Minister of Australia, to come and help Priti Patel directly. Mr Abbott is well disposed towards this country and he knows from experience that crises such as this one are, in the end, down to political will. His experience in handling illegal immigration into Australia by sea would prove invaluable.

    The traffickers are now using Brexit as their key selling point. If we do not, as I hope, extend the transition period beyond the end of 2020, I predict there will be a massive influx this summer. For this reason, our politicians cannot wait until the end of transition for new legislation. Priti Patel must act now.

    The vast majority of Westminster’s politicians and our mainstream media organisations may think this issue is unimportant. As my report from the Channel last week showed, however, the public care about this very deeply. Believe it or not, there are many sound and legitimate reasons for caring about one’s own country, whatever myths the Islington elite chooses to peddle. Priti Patel must not forget this.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/27/french-now-trying-cover-collusion-illegal-immigration-scam/

    1. 319643+ up ticks.
      Evening Ws,
      In my book, containment, keep the issue within the party.

  75. – Tin Foil Hat theory alert, Boris and Dominic were deliberately infected with covid to get them out of the way while a delay to Brexit was being planned.
    Dominic makes an escape to a hideaway only to return in time to prevent it happening
    The remainers go insane

    1. Nothing would surprise me now. Absolutely nothing. Except for government and associated politicians and councils and counsellors acting with honesty, integrity and in the best interests of those whom they represent. That would surprise me, greatly.

      1. 319643+
        Afternoon Pm,
        It would not surprise me if johnson goonered commings &
        last minute requested an extension for a tidying up exercise.

      2. Except for government and associated politicians and councils and counsellors acting with honesty, integrity and in the best interests of those whom they represent.

        The good people of Manchester do not have those nice facilities if the numerous whistleblowers in and around that once great city are to be believed. Here’s one example of which there are many. The usual demographic appears in many of the alleged infractions.

        https://twitter.com/TruthsayerOdet1/status/1265659256315011075

        1. I cannot believe that this is happening in England….. the country that always supported the underdog. Again and again, and this is another example, of how our ancestors died in vain, and for their progeny to behave thus.

      3. Move to Shropshire. I’m a parish councillor and I act with honesty, integrity and in the best interests of those whom I represent (I even managed to persuade my fellow councillors not to raise the council tax this year).

        1. If only we could, I would love a new life – I feel we are too near London now and there is another city just down the road which is growing in all directions – but our younger son lives only half an hour away. Our elder son’s in-laws live in Shropshire, lucky things.

          My apologies should I have offended you – I am sure there are some honest people working on behalf of others but one feels the stuffed brown envelopes come into play in many areas from local planning in our lovely conservation area to Governmental Soros-type bribes. It probably has been always thus. And thank you for resisting, and persuading others to ignore, the temptation to raise your local council tax. I hope your parishioners appreciate your efforts on their behalf.

          1. No offence taken. We are not happy with our town or county councillors. Most of them would fit your description, especially where planning is concerned. I was particularly pleased to have stopped an increase this year because I failed last year. I was the only one saying we’ve had extra money from all the new builds, we don’t need to raise the council tax as well. Fortunately, the argument won through this year. I doubt my parishioners appreciate my efforts, but I do try to stay in touch with them – or I did before the pandemonium. They can’t say I’m remote. I did have one thank me when I got them some new street lights they’d requested – and then they asked for some more! I said I’d see what I could do, but it hasn’t happened yet.

          2. You have done very well for your people. I recall a programme on breakfast tv many years ago (I would rather walk over hot coals these days than watch most tv) – a woman who was really hard up (she was not, er, ‘one of us’) could not afford some sort of expensive dental treatment and she was in pain. A kindly dentist phoned in and offered the treatment, free. Immediately she said ‘oh, my eyes need attention as well, I have this problem….!’ – I was so embarrassed for her, but I don’t think for an instant she was embarrassed in any way. It also in some way rubbished the kindly dentist’s offer. She seemed like someone on the make with no regard for anyone else. You did your best for the light-needing people, I would think they have pushed their luck just far enough!

          3. I didn’t think they were asking for too much – I just wish they’d mentioned it when I put the first application in 🙂 It’s been mentioned now and will go in next year’s programme.

    2. Outright assassination using Novichok was too obvious, I suppose.😎

        1. It was a bad batch of novichuck, that is why the Russian doctors had to jump from the hospital windows.

    3. …………..Boris returns just in time for the birth of his love child……..lucky or wot?

  76. Am I alone in wondering why the MSM shows NO interest in 100s of illegals entering the UK each week and fills hours/pages with 3/4 car journeys by one family.

    2. And there is no way of making them explain what they are actually trying to achieve.

          2. Lots of social distancing at the bbc. Most of them would never notice each other. Too many heads in backsides.
            Not always their own.

          3. Lots of social distancing at the bbc. Most of them would never notice each other. Too many heads in backsides.
            Not always their own.

      5. I read that she has rebelled against criticism and refused to conduct the next programmed interview. Time perhaps for the BBC to seize the initiative and sack her. It cannot come soon enough for me.

    2. Her producer would have witnessed the rehearsal of that diatribe, since he apparently sanctioned it he should be removed as well.

    3. Regrettably the supposedly Top Talent at the BBC have been so extravagantly over-weened and overpaid that they believe their own views to be superior and to represent a consensus. They could not be more wrong.

      They are held in utter contempt by all reasonable people who resent having to pay a licence fee to fund their political bias and generally conflicted nonsense.

  79. This whole current situation is very similar to the story behind 1997 Bond film, Tomorrow never Dies. Media baron and see associates attempts to start WW3 between the UK and China.
    All to allow his global 24 hour news set up to profit from the extensive coverage.

      2. To Jerry Hall.
        Q. What was it that first attracted you multi billionaire Rupert Murdoch?

          2. As Debbie McGee likes to point out – Paul Daniels wasn’t a millionaire when she first got together with him. But at the time of the interview Caroline Aherne had just married millionaire Peter Hook.

            A good reminder that the hands that grip the left/lib megaphone get to tell the story the way they want. After all, the stable Debbie & Paul were never liked by the media establishment and constantly sniped at. While poor chaotic, alcoholic Caroline was portrayed as down to earth and normal. Confusing her fictional characters with reality.

            Mind you, Caroline and Debbie both scrubbed up reasonably well. Lets have some gratuitous pics:

            https://i2-prod.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/article11559876.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/h_00164482.jpg

            https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/79/590x/secondary/Debbie-McGee-1138548.jpg

  82. Emily Maitlis broke impartiality rules with Dominic Cummings speech on Newsnight, BBC admits

    Newsnight presenter opened the programme with a monologue saying Cummings broke the rules and has made the public ‘feel like fools’

    The BBC has admitted a Newsnight monologue by Emily Maitlis on the Dominic Cummings affair “did not meet our standards of due impartiality”.

    Ms Maitlis caused a politic storm when she opened last night’s BBC Two programme with the words: “Dominic Cummings broke the rules. The country can see that and it’s shocked the Government cannot.”

    She criticised Boris Johnson’s “blind loyalty” to his special adviser and said the public mood is one of “fury, contempt and anguish”.

    Following a day of furious criticism, the BBC said Ms Maitlis had merely been taking viewers through “a summary of the questions we would examine…in the rest of the programme”.

    In her monologue, the presenter said of Mr Cummings: “He was the man, remember, who always ‘got’ the public mood, who tagged the lazy label of ‘elite’ on those who disagreed… He made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools and has allowed many more to assume they can now flout them.”

    The clip was later deleted from the BBC Politics Twitter feed and the BBC said in a statement: “The BBC must uphold the highest standards of due impartiality in its news output.

    “We’ve reviewed the entirety of last night’s Newsnight, including the opening section, and while we believe the programme contained fair, reasonable and rigorous journalism, we feel that we should have done more to make clear the introduction was a summary of the questions we would examine, with all the accompanying evidence, in the rest of the programme.

    “As it was, we believe the introduction we broadcast did not meet our standards of due impartiality. Our staff have been reminded of the guidelines.”

    The Government and Mr Cummings maintain that his trip to Durham while his wife had Covid-19 symptoms was within the rules.

    During the programme, Ms Maitlis interviewed two politicians who called for Mr Cummings to quit – Tory MP Craig Whittaker and the SNP’s Ian Blackford – and one who supported him, Andrew Bridgen.

    Mr Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire, told the Telegraph: “I heard Emily Maitlis’s monologue twice, because I heard her say it in a rehearsal.

    “She said it as a statement of fact. There was no pretence of impartiality in any of that report. It was judge, jury and executioner.

    “On the programme, it was four against one – Maitlis, Craig Whittaker and Ian Blackford against me – and I was the only one she interrupted.

    “All of the news now has become basically an op-ed. You have Piers Morgan on GMB…they’re all fighting for ratings against various media platforms and it’s a race to the bottom.

    “The biggest thing I have always objected to with the BBC is that they don’t just report the news, they decide what the news is. Everything is slanted.”

    The BBC Charter requires the corporation “to do all we can to ensure controversial subjects are treated with due impartiality in our news and other output”. The BBC’s guidelines state: “The BBC Agreement forbids our output from expressing the opinion of the BBC on current affairs or matters of public policy.”

    Maitlis’s speech, which she wrote herself, was praised by the Labour MP as an example of “public service broadcasting”, and by Ed Davey, the acting Lib Dem leader, as “brilliant journalism”. Maitlis retweeted praise from a viewer who called the monologue “savage brilliance”.

    The BBC has not responded to a request for comment.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/27/emily-maitlis-row-bbc-does-not-even-pretend-impartial-says-newsnight/

    1. “[T]he BBC said in a statement: “The BBC must uphold the highest standards of due impartiality in its news output….” Since when?

      1. Had Allotment Man won the GE and appeared on Newsnight to talk about the crisis (the whole business, not a Cummings-style incident), I don’t doubt that he would have been given a softer ride. He’d have got away with blaming Tories for ‘starving the NHS of funds’. The questioning would have been friendly and sympathetic. Then some hapless Tory would have been hauled in to take the flak.

        BBC – standing the world on its head.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/312944ed6c4a9d4e860356b03f28811ad14993291aaa89e55fe4f4c8e5c3cca5.jpg

    5. I have no idea what they are talking about. The BBC has always been biased.
      I am glad that they are at last somewhat embarrassed. It means they have realised that people are sick of them.

      1. I didn’t bother watching it – can’t stand the woman – but she seems to have caused a stir.

        1. Nor did I. But if they felt the need to admit she was biased it must have been something impressive.

    7. You may rest assured that anything that the W⚓️ Ed Davey has to say is going to be naïve, shallow and normally wide of the mark. Thank heavens for LibDems.

    8. “On the programme, it was four against one – Maitlis, Craig Whittaker and Ian Blackford against me – and I was the only one she interrupted.”
      It would help Andrew Bridgen’s case if he could count.

          1. Might be.
            Half arse, half gob, and the output from both can be put out from either.

          2. On second thoughts:
            A complete arse and all gob and totally interchangeable

  83. I’ve just been watching David Starkey, interviewed earlier this month, and his passion punches through the screen in total contrast to many of our image-trained ‘be careful what you say’ politicians.

    His basic message, as I read it, is that we need a revolution in the way we do things and in particular we need to start making things again.

    Sadly, though, he doesn’t think our leaders have it within them to grasp the nettle and make those changes.

    Here’s the link if anyone needs it:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z552q9cxwB8&feature=youtu.be

    1. The British are living in bacchanalian revelry.. Drinking themselves stupid and eating untill they are fit to bust!

      That seems to be the focus of the Government , bringing back restaurants and pubs , and encouraging the import of more rubbish from China !

      1. Bringing back restaurants and pubs? When’s that exactly, TB? Would you prefer that they stay permanently closed? As for China, we live in a free market economy and much as I would agree with your sentiments about China and the crap it exports, not to mention the oppressive regime that runs the place, it is down to individuals to decide what we do or do not purchase. I like to think that people will be more aware of the country of origin of what is bought (I certainly will) but sometimes we have no choice. I recently bought new brake discs for my German car and they were made in China. They weren’t ‘knock off’ copies either.

        But why are you complaining about bringing back restaurants and pubs? And who exactly is ‘encouraging’ the import of Chinese goods?

          1. Top man! Keep it up! I’d be joining you if it was possible to buy anything but French wine here.

          2. I have been known to cross the Channel to Calais, and return to Blighty with nothing but Ozzie wine. I take the view that it would be rude not to….

          3. The Aussies were at least on our side, which is more than can be said for the Vichy French.

          4. Calais is about the only place in France where Oz wine is abundant. I have frequented Calais Wine and Beer for that purpose, although some of the stuff they sell is crap. It seems that people choose wine with their wallet rather than their palate. But if you choose carefully there are some seriously good bargains there. And Majestic next door! Where did you buy Ozzie wine Geoff?

          5. It was quite a few years ago, Harry. Might have been Calais Wine and Beer, Or possibly Tesco. I’m now using Majestic’s Farnham branch, since an order by email gets a response within 24 hours, and local delivery within a couple of days.

            I’ve an Asda delivery coming on Sunday, which was booked three weeks ago. The other supermarkets are inaccessible. So the Hogs Back Brewery, who now do local groceries, and the milkman, come into their own.

          6. Excellent! The brewery in particular needs all the support it can get. Between you and me, a friend used to negotiate a discount on his Majestic bulk orders. Tesco in Calais is long gone.

          8. Have you tried Laithwaites Black Stump made with Durif grape. Scrumptious.

          9. No. I tend not to buy in bulk – I am trying to keep my drinking habit under control 🙂

          10. One of my fellow students at UCL in the early seventies was a lovely girl Kim McWilliams. She took me to an Australian wine exhibition in Soho and I realised every other bottle was labelled McWilliams.

            I thought at the time she was probably a member of that family and that I may have missed my chance as she fancied me I think.

          11. This reminds me of the time I played for a 9 am service at St Andrew and St Patrick, Elveden. The Elveden estate is owned by the Guinness family. At the end of the service, I was introduced to two or three of that family. As I walked towards the West door, I was pursued by Lady Miranda (recently widowed, and now sadly deceased), who wanted to ask me about the organ. I was due at St Peter, Brandon, at 10.30 am, so I couldn’t hang about, but no-one of her standing has ever again run after me. :-((

          12. ‘Wanted to ask me about the organ’? Oh yeh? You slipped up there Geoff! ;@)

          13. ‘Wanted to ask me about the organ’? Oh yeh? You slipped up there Geoff! ;@)

          15. We use to live between Reynella and Maclaren Vale. Surrounded by wineries. Most were small family run business.
            Long before the police brought in virtually no alcohol behind the wheel.
            We use to travel around wine tasting for a day here and there. Packed lunches and coffee flasks.
            The owners were very generous with the sample tastings.
            Same we found in Margaret river almost 5 years ago now.
            Picked up from our hotel at 9:30 am. Dropped off late afternoon. A great day out.

        2. Morning Harry , I suppose I was being cynical.
          People grazing on the hoof, the stink from takeaways, the sight of rowdy drunken behaviour now seems to be part of British culture .

          Food cartons discarded from cars at beauty spots, and quite honestly . I cannot recall a decent meal that I have eaten in a restaurant for years that I couldn’t put together my self.

          My memory of luxury is a perfectly made crab or prawn and asparagus sandwich and a decent mug of coffee.. gazing at the sea .

          1. I agree with you on ‘grazing on the hoof’ and ‘rowdy drunken behaviour’, but these are symptoms of poor upbringing and education.

            A crab sandwich in wholemeal bread and a glass of Biddenden dry cider works for me!

      2. Although most of my needs are met and I don’t buy much stuff, I’ll be doing my best from now on to buy British whenever I can and hope our manufacturers and entrepreneurs rise to the challenges ahead.

          1. Unbelievable .

            I am shocked , naive as I am, I had no idea that so much stuff was manufactured overseas.

            No wonder we are losing our national identitiy , and feel confuddled by strangers in the midst.. including the Channel.

            Who are we , and what are we all about ?

          2. Thanks – a depressing list.

            Others will disagree and argue that the Government can keep on borrowing till the cows come home but I think that at some point we’re going to have to face a very painful reality and to start paying our way in the world.

            Let’s hope Brexit and Covid are the catalysts for major changes.

          3. The treacherous eu has also assisted in this bleed of British industries from UK soil by giving grants to British firms that wished to locate elsewhere in europe. Who needs enemies with ‘friends’ like that?

          4. Indeed. Ford relocating from Eastleigh to Turkey with the aid of (our) EU money springs to mind.

          2. Lovely, lovely gin! Yum, yum, yum….

            Sorry, just quoting a birthday card received back in January, it seemed appropriate and I have just had two glasses of NZ sauvignon blanc…

          3. I know what you mean. I had a recent birthday card from a friend, with a picture of a woman with a glass, saying to someone who is about to pour “Oh, alright then. But only to the brim”. (That friend knows me rather too well!)

          4. #metoo. Friend is aware of my predilictions – and her own.

            I have filed away ‘only to the brim’ for future reference!

        3. ‘Buy British’ has been an ongoing campaign since the ’70s Eddy. Unfortunately the price tag is the deciding factor for many folk, rather than considering the benefits of buying British. I went to buy a new coffee maker a few weeks ago, looking at Morphy Richards, Philips, Swan etc, all made in China. You can’t win.

          1. Although I agree with the points you make, Harry, I can’t see how we can keep on borrowing to make ends meet. Then again, I’m no economist and could be talking a load of old cobblers.

            My gut reaction, though, tells me things are on the verge of changing and that paying our way in the world may be more of a necessity than an option.

          2. But think of all the money the company bosses pocketed by getting the product made on the cheap, but not cutting the prices. And getting rid of the people who made them, of course. “Competitiveness” is the B School word for it.

          3. That’s exactly the point and the driving factor behind the deception. Clarks Shoes? Lovely, made in England, lots of local jobs. Wrong. M&S clothes? Nice locally made underpants/shirts/knitwear. Wrong. All imported.

            It’s a huge deception and high time these supposedly reputable companies were brought to heel.

          5. And India, Bangladesh, Taiwan plus various othe locations and probably China by now as well.

    1. I have to say my recollection of Balbastre was formed by a performance in Albi Cathedral and on its magnificent organ. Regrettably I cannot find a recording of the same event. The performance I posted is a sort of Disney version of the one I enjoyed in-situ years ago.

      The organ at Albi is one of the greatest instruments and one of the largest organs in Europe.

  88. The very high level of infectiousness of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is due to the far greater affinity of its spikes to ACE2 than even SARS-CoV-1.

    From yesteday’s post I concluded that due to the expressions of ACE2 in various parts of the eye it was conceivable that COVID red eye could well be a valid symptom of infection by the virus.

    This morning I found a reference that concluded that ACE2 was just about everywhere in the body including the brain and that would explain the systemic influence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

    Could this conclusion be the explanation for COVID foggy brain and the observation of patterns of behavioural changes in some people?

    The distribution of ACE2 has been addressed by several groups. High ACE2 gene expression was initially reported in the heart, kidney and testis (Donoghue et al. 2000; Tipnis et al. 2000). Later studies showed ACE2 expression in a wide variety of tissues, including the brain and most of the cardiovascular‐relevant tissues (Igase et al. 2005; Sakima et al. 2005; Doobay et al. 2007), and the current consensus is that the distribution of the protein is ubiquitous.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2667944/

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