Sunday 31 May: The Government should have more faith in the public’s common sense

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/2020/05/30/lettersthe-government-should-have-faith-publics-common-sense/

826 thoughts on “Sunday 31 May: The Government should have more faith in the public’s common sense”

  1. TOMMY ROBINSON’ And the Hundred-Year-Old Racist Rape Meme. Caolan Robertson. 29 May 2020.

    This is why ‘Robinson’ campaigns against Asian grooming gangs and not the systematic grooming of boys in the Catholic Church, or the majority of white men convicted of rape or paedophilia in the UK, or even against Billy Charlton, the de facto leader of the Sunderland campaign who was charged with possessing indecent footage of children this year.

    White women are held up by these groups as the paragon of untouchable Western virtue, so when they are assaulted, groomed or made the victims of rape, who has done it becomes the key factor in determining the level of outrage. Extreme right influencers and groups like Mark Collett, Generation Identity and ‘Tommy Robinson’ use these cases – which make up an absolute minority of sexual attacks – to stoke the narrative that there are marauding bands of Muslims out to pillage our civilisation and defile our wives and daughters.

    Morning everyone. The author of this piece, Caolan Robertson, is Tommy Robinson’s former cameraman and is male and judging by online footage is almost certainly Gay. He appeared once in front of the camera himself in the aftermath of the Westminster Bridge attack mouthing somewhat hysterical warnings about Islam with Tommy looking on and trying not to look embarrassed. Now our Caolan has done a volte face and is anti-Robinson.

    This should not come as a great surprise in itself, homosexuals are notoriously unstable in their allegiances (one of the reasons the old KGB and present day Mi5 recruit them) and betrayal comes quite naturally to them. The article itself is a well written (probably with professional assistance) and highly polished defamatory piece; if it has a fault, it is that it tries to do too much in drawing in every possible thread. By the use of sophistry and innuendo it makes Robinson’s concerns into the “Racist Rape Meme” in the title. The thousands of sexual assaults by Pakistani Muslims on young white girls become a minority of all the rapes committed in the UK by mostly white men and Robinson’s motivations hypocritical at best and purely racist in nature at worst.

    All this said it does not explain Robertson’s original wish to work for Tommy Robinson. Why would a Gay Man wish to associate himself with the leader of the English Defence League? Someone who is anathema to the LGBT alliance? A position that would make him an outcast among those of the same nature as himself? One wonders if he were not simply an Mi5 informer but a “swallow” sent to entrap Robinson into a homosexual affair? What a lot of problems that would have solved for the PTB!

    https://bylinetimes.com/2020/05/29/tommy-robinson-and-the-hundred-year-old-racist-rape-meme/

    1. Morning Minty. It’s difficult to know what to believe these days.

      Not wishing to detract from the seriousness of the points you make, if I may summarise:

      “One ‘Swallow’ doesn’t make a Summons”….

      1. Morning Stephen. There is no truth in the MSM. The only thing you can do is sift through it and try to discover what it might be! Robertson has other form than what I refer to here. He is almost certainly an informer for Mi5!

        2. 319768+up ticks,
          Morning As,
          I know one thing as sure as God made them there apples
          Tommy Robinson’s ilk as with Tommy Atkins is going to be sorely needed in the near future

      2. Morning Stephen. There is no truth in the MSM. The only thing you can do is sift through it and try to discover what it might be! Robertson has other form than what I refer to here. He is almost certainly an informer for Mi5!

    2. This is why ‘Robinson’ campaigns against Asian grooming gangs and not the systematic grooming of boys in the Catholic Church, or the majority of white men convicted of rape or paedophilia in the UK.

      The big difference between the Muslim rape gangs and e.g. Catholic priests assaulting young boys is that the priests are overwhelmingly individuals who carry out their offences by themselves. The scandal in these cases is that individual bishops have covered up these assaults. It should also be noted that the vast majority of these assaults have been of a homosexual nature.

      1. And to the best of knowledge, they haven’t gang raped any of the boys, i.e. up to fifty men at a time, beat them up, set fire to their homes with their parents inside, nailed any boy’s tongue to a table, doused them in petrol and threatened to set them on fire.
        If they have done any of those things on an industrial scale, we’ve yet to hear it.

        It’s not TR’s job to right the wrongs of the entire country.

      1. Thanks. I knew I’d read a scathing article about the pair and couldn’t remember where or who’d written it.

    4. Campaigning against deaths in traffic does not mean one isn’t also concerned about deaths from falls.
      A campaign has to have focus – too wide, and nobody knows what you are about, doesn’t join, and you can never get anything done.

    5. Caolan Robertson was involved with the cameraman, George, at the time he worked with TR. The pair were also in contact with and involved with the far Left organisation, “Hate Not Hope”, at the same time. The pair ran up huge bills on hotels, champagne, etc, and did a hit piece video on Rebel Media and Ezra Levant. Caolan was an untrustworthy snide, but who did produce very good documentary videos.

    6. I don’t have time to post the full story, but this Person (C R) is completely discredited as a source of information. Just ignore all his ramblings.

    7. Why is there an lgbt ‘alliance’? Do they think where they put their privates has any legal relevance whatsoever? That it confers special rights on them?

  2. Four injured in 200ft cliff jump, prompting police to close packed beach. Indy 31 May 2020.

    Four people have been seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea at a beach in Dorset.

    Air ambulances landed at the scene at Durdle Door, after police said they had been called to two separate incidents.

    Videos on social media showed people climbing and making the leap from the 200ft rocks in what was suspected to be “tombstoning”.

    This is the answer to Belle’s posts yesterday!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-dorset-beach-crowd-durdle-door-air-ambulance-a9540656.html

        1. We are not, Janet, we left at the end of January this year. We are currently negotiating our future relationship with the EU and those negotiations will end in exactly six months, at the end of December this year.

        2. We are not, Janet, we left at the end of January this year. We are currently negotiating our future relationship with the EU and those negotiations will end in exactly six months, at the end of December this year.

          1. ‘Morning, Elsie, I make that seven months – we still have to get through June.

            Mind you, given the EU ‘negotiators’ (ha ha) intransigence and continued attempts at undermining our sovereignty and democracy (their approach for support from the Lib-dumbs and other minor parties) I strongly advocate telling them that if we don’t have the semblance of a trade agreement by June 30th, we will leave the table at that point, under WTO rules and pay them not a penny more.

            But then, I’m an unreasonable old git and care naught for it, have lived and travelled there for many years

          2. I stand corrected, NtN. Looks like I may have caught a bug from either Anne Allan or the Abbotopotamus, neither of whom are any good at Maffs.

          3. I hate to contradict you, but our current status of half in/half out can in no way be described as “Out of the EU”.
            During this interim half way stage we are still vulnerable to actions by those who would wish to see the Referendum result reversed, as we have seen with the Cummings farrago and the Ed Davey Bill to extend the negotiating period.

          4. Bob, I don’t deny that the EU and many Remainers are desperate to keep us in the EU, but it is undeniable that we have already left, even though we are currently in “transition mode” and have to obey EU laws and pay their “taxes” even though we have no say in how the EU operates. But this will end in just six months and then we will both “have left” as well as being “out of the EU”.

          5. It will only end in December if we can avoid the remainiacs asking for an extension. We aren’t out until we’re over the line.

          6. The Government of this country decides whether or not to ask for an extension, and (i) Boris has already said “No way!” and (ii) he has an 80 seat majority.

          7. I will remind you that Bojo claimed he’d be dead in a ditch if we hadn’t left by the first deadline – we didn’t and he isn’t, although he has been ill. How many MPs rebelled over Cummings? Enough to negate a majority?

          8. When Boris made that claim he had just taken over as PM and held a minority government in which the Parliament was riddled with Remainers and “refereed” by a corrupt & biased Speaker who managed to thwart his efforts, even to the extent to refusing to allow him to go to the country to seek a fresh mandate. I think that things are better now, although I accept that he will need to constantly keep an eye on maverick members of his Party for the next six seven months.

          9. There are rumblings of remainer opposition among Con MPs today. I shan’t trust any of them until we are actually out – and even then, I’ll be wary.

      2. Likely climbed up from the water a bit & jumped from a cliff that can be up to 200′ high.

    5. This brings into doubt the opening line of the letter above posted by Hugh that starts:

      “ SIR – It’s time to trust the common sense of the public and end this morale-sapping lockdown”

      As I said previously, the reason the Government has needed to act in such a draconian way is that the majority of the public have no common sense.

      Yesterday, a friend’s son had a row with a customer in the butchers that he works at. The floor is clearly lined out with yellow tape and signage yet this one client would not do as asked. He constantly kept crossing the line rather than waiting. Eventually after a few warnings the customer was told to leave the shop or the police would be called. Very little common sense or indeed manners shown by a forty something man wanting to buy some meat. I wonder what he told his wife when he got home without the Sunday joint?😂

  3. Four injured in 200ft cliff jump, prompting police to close packed beach. Indy 31 May 2020.

    Four people have been seriously injured jumping off cliffs into the sea at a beach in Dorset.

    Air ambulances landed at the scene at Durdle Door, after police said they had been called to two separate incidents.

    Videos on social media showed people climbing and making the leap from the 200ft rocks in what was suspected to be “tombstoning”.

    This is the answer to Belle’s posts yesterday!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-dorset-beach-crowd-durdle-door-air-ambulance-a9540656.html

  4. Sven and Ole work together, and are both laid off, so they go to the unemployment office.

    Asked his occupation, Ole says, ” Panty stitcher. I sew de elastic onto de cotton panties!”

    The clerk looks up panty stitcher. Finding it classed as unskilled labour, she gives him $300 per week unemployment pay.

    Sven is asked his occupation.

    “Diesel fitter,” he replies.
    Since diesel mechanic is a skilled job, the clerk gives Sven $600 per week.

    When Ole finds out, he is furious. He storms back into the unemployment office, to find out why his friend and co-worker is collecting double his pay.

    The clerk explains, “Panty stitchers are unskilled and diesel fitters are skilled labour.”

    “Vhat skill?” yells Ole, “I sew de elastic on, Sven pulls em open and says, ‘Yah, diesel fitter!”

  5. Good morning, all. A bright day – but, yet again, a strong easterly wind. And a heavy dew.

    2. Deer in the garden, brilliant sunshine in the eyes at about 3am… good morning!

  6. Sack Dominic Cummings for his wild midnight ride to Durham? Only if you want a LONGER lockdown. Hitchens. 31 May 2020.

    I doubt that anybody much in the top layers of Government truly believes all this rubbish. They know it has not worked and has done terrible damage and only cling to it in the hope that they will not be found out.

    They created a panic and lost control of it. They are now just hoping to get through the misery they caused without anybody realising just what a mess they made, or punishing them for it.

    No one with any sense would pay attention to this farrago of incompetence!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8372985/PETER-HITCHENS-Sack-Dominic-Cummings-want-LONGER-lockdown.html

    2. Sadly Hitchens has forever and a day been incompetent. His brother had all the brains. Peter is slow in comparison and a bit of a religious zealot and completely barmy when he talks about the economy.

    3. Is this the same edition of the Wail that also has found people making up shit about Cummings – posted just now.

  7. They do not want to give us our lives back do they. They love the power they have over us. These EU habits die hard.

    1. It was inevitable, Johnny. They hate to relinquish even the tiniest power to direct you on how to live your life. That’s the Socialist way. And the POlice get to boss the adults about even more, and more aggressively, too. What’s not to like?

    1. 319768+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      The usage of submissive pcism & appeasement used by the political governing bodies, supported via the ballot booth has already set out a child’s future and the mullahs are going to have a great deal of say, if not more.

    1. What a rare thing, a Graun article that is not attacking the Government or full of woke & PC garbage.
      It looks like a more robust approach is at last being taken with a return to police teams getting to know an area and actually speaking to people. Like yourself, I hope it works and is a model that can be used in all our cities.

        1. Thanks Bob, I feel honored. I long ago decided that my having a twitter account would be bad for my health, though I am still tempted to sometimes. Much safer with you firing them than I. 😊

  11. Bamerica on fire and it isn’t even August.

    I suspect they are going to get a long hot summer.

  12. Morning all. End this absurd limit to our freedom……

    SIR – It’s time to trust the common sense of the public and end this morale-sapping lockdown.

    The Government should certainly stop deferring to “the science”, which simply means a highly risk-averse approach. In the past week we have also had the unedifying spectacle of politicians and scientists hiding behind each other. The former claim to be “following the science”, while the latter say these are “matters for politicians”.

    Instead, the Government should find its political mojo, look at the wealth of international data on Covid-19 and take a more pragmatic view. This is vital if our country and its economy are to get moving again.

    Nicholas Dobson

    Doncaster, South Yorkshire

    SIR – You report the view of Professor Michael Levitt, a Nobel Prize winner, that the lockdown has been “a waste of time”.

    It appears that his prediction of deaths in Britain has been significantly more accurate than that of Professor Neil Ferguson.

    It cannot just sit there as an unresolved debate. Did the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies consider views such as his?

    Robert Smart

    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    SIR – Regarding the question of whether lockdowns work, two months ago I was a sprightly 85-year-old, getting out and about and doing all my own food shopping.

    I now rely upon the kindness of others. My neighbours are brilliant, bringing me cooked meals from time to time. I have my own garden, so compared to many I am in a comfortable position. However, I have become an old man. I need to see an optician, a dentist and a chropodist.

    I keep busy, writing articles for local newsletters and reading my Telegraph from cover to cover. But all these activities are sedentary, and I now have to lever myself out of my chair if I have been sitting for any length of time. I hope that, when the lockdown is lifted, I will be able to get back to where I was at the end of February.

    Ray Pearce

    Castle Bromwich

    SIR – Sensible distancing is a possibility, but keeping to a two-metre distance is not – especially in restaurants, hotels, sports stadiums, theatres and cinemas.

    We need to drop all the government diktats and return to common sense. Only then will we get back to some form of “normal”.

    Duncan Rayner

    Sunningdale, Berkshire

    SIR – The phrase, “all dressed up with nowhere to go”, springs to mind with the reopening of the retail market, in particular clothing.

    Who wants a new outfit if there isn’t anywhere to wear it, apart from outside a restaurant while waiting for a takeaway?

    Owain Price

    Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire

    1. Your two metres are only a tad over a yard here in Scandinavia. Maybe the virus isn’t as sprightly in our cooler climes?

    2. Ray Pearce, ” I need to see an optician, a dentist and a chropodist.”
      Seems to have a few problems with his ‘i’s.

    3. Someone should inform Duncan Rayner that restaurants, hotels, sports stadia, theatres and cinemas are currently all closed, for the very reason that he suggests: the impossibility of keeping to a two-metre distance.

      1. Seems to work here – with 1 metre separation, like the rest of the world.

  13. Morning again

    SIR – Frederick Forsyth’s proposals (Letters, May 24) for the public sector could be put to good use in the NHS.

    While the medics run a meritocracy, NHS management operates a bureaucracy, which is like mixing oil and water. Administrators must be held accountable and remunerated according to their results.

    Doctors and nurses save lives. Their employers should try to save money – or at least provide better value.

    Bob Stebbings

    Chorleywood, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Mr Forsyth suggests halving the departmental budget for public-sector salaries. I recommend the opposite.

    Having worked in the IT department of a non-metropolitan police force, I can confirm that public-sector salaries are lower than those in the private sector. However, the higher pay on offer in the private sector is a reward for being part of a fast-paced, ruthless environment.

    Many in the public sector at ground level are content with a lower salary because of the contribution they make; they are not “useless” or looking for a blame-free career. The problem, as I recall, is that there are too many managers, who fail to make quick decisions. The solution, then, is to increase salaries for those who do the ground work, but remove the layers of management that hold things up.

    Steve Fisher

    Kidlington, Oxfordshire

    1. Good morning, Steve Fisher, you say ” I can confirm that public-sector salaries are lower…” what you neglect to say is that the pensions are higher and gold-plated and the CSU ensures that, despite any blunders, major or otherwise, you keep your miserable little wage-slave job.

      1. He’s got a point, and if you’re earning 30,000 instead of 45 your pension isn’t quite as good. They’re not final salary any more.

        However the differece is also of job security and output. The timelines involved for public sector work are much, much longer than the equivalent for private, with no consequences for failure, delay or issue.

        Thus keep the salaries the same but yes, brutally reduce the number and pay of management. Public sector manager pay is obscene. When it is force backed, guaranteed there must be genuine consequences for failure.

  14. SIR – Sir Keir Starmer, the Labour leader, claims he would have sacked Dominic Cummings immediately for breaching the lockdown rules.

    It seems, however, that he had no such concerns when he appointed Stephen Kinnock as a shadow cabinet minister after he had been warned by police for breaking the rules.

    Russell Walker

    Crickhowell, Powys

    1. ‘Morning, Epi, Sir Keir Starmer tries to air his principles on the basis that, if you don’t like them, he has others.

  16. SIR – Thousands of parents and children of all ages crowded on to Bournemouth beach last Sunday, in a clear breach of the social distancing rules.

    I wonder how many Year 1 and Year 6 schoolchildren among those crowds will be prevented from attending school tomorrow by their parents on the grounds that they could catch Covid-19.

    Barry Hedger

    Basingstoke, Hampshire

    3. Quite a big queue, but well behaved. The Duomo’s pizzas must be really good.

  18. ‘Morning, all. From the DT Letters:

    SIR – The phrase, “all dressed up with nowhere to go”, springs to mind with the reopening of the retail market, in particular clothing.

    Who wants a new outfit if there isn’t anywhere to wear it, apart from outside a restaurant while waiting for a takeaway?

    Owain Price
    Llandygwydd, Cardiganshire

    Why is Mr. Price so dismissive of maintaining standards of dress, while queuing outside for a carry-out? I’ve just received the latest advertising blurb from a local Cantonese restaurant, giving details of its opening hours and reminding customers that the dress code for queuing outside is ‘Black Tie’.

    Sad to hear that standards in Llandygwydd have slipped so far.

    1. Is the ‘Black Tie’ for the funeral after eating No 42 – Bat Chow Mein? 😂😂

  19. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    First letter:

    “SIR – It’s time to trust the common sense of the public and end this morale-sapping lockdown.

    The Government should certainly stop deferring to “the science”, which simply means a highly risk-averse approach. In the past week we have also had the unedifying spectacle of politicians and scientists hiding behind each other. The former claim to be “following the science”, while the latter say these are “matters for politicians”.

    Instead, the Government should find its political mojo, look at the wealth of international data on Covid-19 and take a more pragmatic view. This is vital if our country and its economy are to get moving again.

    Nicholas Dobson
    Doncaster, South Yorkshire”

    I can’t help agreeing with Mr Dobson. It is not just a matter of morale; as every days passes the huge damage to our economy will become harder to repair – if indeed repair is still possible.

    1. Good morning, Hugh.

      I think it has gone too far; that it will be impossible to drag the country back to what passes for normality.

      1. Much of what the Government has done is questionable, some of it very questionable, but what is most sinister is the description of the future as the, “new normal.” There appears to be a plan to ensure that, “what passes for normality,” to not be on the agenda.

    2. The difference betwwen ‘The Military’ (as I knew it) and ‘Politicians’, on decision making and action

      In the Armed Forces, all levels, a task is given. exisiting procedures/training/current information/security /peers consulted etc HOWEVER. the senior person in that chain of command makes the decision and issues orders on what action is to be taken. The Buck stops with Him/her

      In the Politics all levels, a requirement is established :
      a (COBRA?) Meeting is held
      a (COBRA?) Meeting is held ad infinitum

      exisitingprocedures/training/current information/security etc are discussed

      See above
      A decision is finally made
      Orders given etc

      The responsibility for the outcome

      If successful THE POLITICIAN
      If a failure THOSE OFFERING ADVICE

      The Buck stops where the Piloktician says

      You should never have Authority without Responsibility

  20. ‘Morning again,

    Well, whoda thunkit? According to the papers’ review just now on R4, the clown who claimed to have seen DC out on a second trip has now admitted that this was false, and merely a joke. What a jolly jape!

    Oh my aching sides…

    Edit: I hesitate to quote anything purporting to be ‘news’ in the Daily Fail, so treat with caution:

    https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372911/amp/Boris-puts-Dominic-Cummings-chance-one-witness-admits-sighting-aide.html

    1. A lengthy sentence for attempting to pervert the course of justice might wipe the smile off his face.

      1. My thoughts too, Sos. But somehow I doubt that Plod will be removing any front doors as a result. The conspiracy to ‘get’ a highly successful Brexiteer runs wide and deep…

        I look forward to the BBC and other broadcasters admitting that this was a leftie plot and issuing a retraction and apology…hmm, probably not in my lifetime.

    1. By their name, Rik, Antifa should be against themselves, as they certainly act like fascists.

      Time for them to disappear up their ain folk.

      1. Of course they’re fascists. It’s all the Left are. They’ve always been and always will be the monsters, the poison, the evil.

    2. This will not diminish. If the chap dies, those identified inflicting injuries, must be arrested prosecuted and if found guilty face capital punishment.

    3. This will not diminish. If the chap dies, those identified inflicting injuries, must be arrested prosecuted and if found guilty face capital punishment.

    4. No, they should be flogged. Beaten, flayed and crucified left to die a long, slow death.

      They are not protesting about an unlawful killing. They’re just scum.

  23. Boris puts Dominic Cummings on his ‘last chance’ as witness who went to police is HIMSELF accused of breaking lockdown, another admits he MADE UP sighting and Anti-Brexit peer is identified as plotter. 31 May 2020.

    The Mail on Sunday can today reveal that a retired teacher who reported the No 10 adviser to police broke lockdown rules himself – while a supposed ‘witness’ who claimed Mr Cummings had made a second trip to the region admitted he made his statement up as a joke.

    Tim Matthews said that he doctored the details on an app used by runners to record routes and times to make it seem like he had seen Mr Cummings in Durham six days after he had returned to London.

    Meanwhile, former teacher Robin Lees, who called police about Mr Cummings taking a trip from his parents’ Durham home to Barnard Castle, last night admitted to making a long-distance trip himself.

    There’s no evidence given here that Boris has said any such thing but common sense tells us that neither he nor Cummings would want a repeat of last week. The rest appears to be true. Cummings was largely fitted up, a novel experience in Government one imagines and should give them some idea of how their victims feel!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8372911/Boris-puts-Dominic-Cummings-chance-one-witness-admits-sighting-aide.html

    1. I’ve always said that the great shame about the Mail is that for 99.99% of the time it’s content is facile,deplorable,sensationalist and prurient but now and then they print a well researched and responsible article which is then sadly lost under the pile of turgid effluent, this may be that article.

    2. That ‘witness’ should be prosecuted & given a very severe sentence.

    1. I suspect there won’t be a Press scrum nor a leftie protest set up outside his home.

      1. I was rather hoping there might be! And the idiot runner who went to far as to change his app to show that he’d seen Mr Cummings when he really really hadn’t, just for a laugh! Staggering hypocrisy!

          1. I can’t remember who said “they have very left-wing faces” but these two numpties have!

    2. Mr. Lees claims that he did not break lockdown rules by driving 263 miles to pick up his daughter, saying that it was ‘after the regulations had changed’, and that he had ‘waited until we were told we could drive anywhere in the country’.

      This is not correct. The regulations state that people can drive further distances than just their own locality in order to exercise. A 526-mile round trip does not qualify.

      Mr. Lees also says that he objects to ‘this intrusion into my family and this is absolutely nothing to do with them’. He had no such compunction when involving Dominic Cummings’ family when he made the complaint against them.

      1. This really exemplifies the stupidity of the rules – they are open to reinterpretation and people get all het up and indignant about unsocial distancing etc. This nonsense should be scrapped immediately. Let those who consider themselves at risk stay at home but everyone else should try and get back to normal. Who on earth wants to stay in lockdown forever?

  25. No scientist but i wouldn’t have thought that people could possibly pass on corona virus to other people sitting on a beach on a hot sunny day.
    The benefits to health must far outweigh any minuscule risk, especially for people that have been stuck indoors for months.

    1. Morning Bob. It produces Vitamin D as well. A prophylactic against the virus!

  26. Looks like hideously white middle class lefties trying to stir up the blacks into rioting in London on Sky News

    1. I thought that your lot followed the Americans, it is white youth that are doing most of the looting and rioting in the US.

        1. There us also an official sounding web site claiming that the rioters are out of town right wingers. With Trump blaming the left wing mayors, who can tell if this is just a push back as the truth.

          1. There is no organised right wing, it is a myth and if there was they wouldn’t be rioting and looting

    2. Of course. It’s what they do.
      They should be ashamed of themselves, but I doubt they have any shame.

  27. Edinburgh University is studying the controlling relationship between dendritic cells and T cells and conclude that if this compromised then the T cells can go rampant and start attacking any part of the body.

    This is what happens in MS.

    It leads them to think that people with MS are Vitamin D deficient.
    But could this also be happening with a COVID-19 infection.
    If so, basking in the sun is the antidote – take the kids on holiday but don’t keep them where the sun don’t shine.

    Vitamin D reduces immune cell activity
    Researchers at the University of Edinburgh looked at how vitamin D affects two types of cells, called dendritic cells and T cells. These cells are both part of our immune system.

    Normally, dendritic cells activate T cells, which play an important role in fighting infections.

    https://www.mssociety.org.uk/research/latest-research/latest-research-news-and-blogs/new-insights-into-the-role-of-vitamin-d-in-our-immune-system#:~:text=Vitamin%20D%20reduces%20immune%20cell,important%20role%20in%20fighting%20infections.

    1. You need to be careful when coming to any conclusions when reading this article because it relates to research on how genetic mutations in some people may instigate an abnormal response to Vitamin D.

  28. Well it’s all kicked off in the USA again
    I’ve never really understood the reasoning behind destroying your local shops and amenities because you can.
    Where is the civilisation?
    If people from different races cannot live together in peace without all these tensions arising every few years or during times of hardship and adversity or because politicians or sinister forces keep stirring things up inventing perceived bias using false statistics for political gain, then has the multicultural experiment failed?

    1. …then has the multicultural experiment failed/

      It was always doomed Bob! It is against human nature. Peace only exists so long as the Central Power can keep them apart!

    2. Would there have been rioting if the policeman was black and the chap who died, white?

      I doubt it.

      1. White police officers are less likely than their black counterparts shoot a black suspect, because they are only too well aware of the potential repercussions (FBI crime statistics).
        Black gunmen are about three times more likely to shoot someone who’s white than the other way around.
        97% of black Americans are killed by other black Americans, 1% by a white person, 2% by the police.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8323375/Delaware-couple-shot-killed-veterans-cemetery-visiting-sons-grave.html
        “Army veteran, 86, and his wife, 85, who were ‘executed’ in random act of violence while visiting their son’s grave – as they’d done at least 1,000 times since he died of cerebral palsy in 2017”
        No riots.

        https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/police-officer-who-fatally-shot-sobbing-man-temporarily-rehired-apply-n1028981
        “Police officer who fatally shot sobbing man temporarily rehired to apply for pension
        The shooting of Daniel Shaver by Mesa, Arizona, Officer Philip Brailsford last year was caught on bodycam in a case that drew national scrutiny over the use of deadly force.”
        Victim was white. No riots.

    3. Racist! The “multicultural experiment” is a great success. Consider how tolerant we are. We give these savages all the benefits that were hard won by our ancestors . We feed them and clothe them, give them a roof over their heads and put our money in their pocket. We let them worship in their savage cults, voodoo, islam etc and tolerate their riots in Brixton and their bombings in Manchester. We let them stay with no restrictions. That was the whole point of the experiment. It could hardly have been a greater success.

    5. Cultural Differences, which have many supporters,

      Male – Female
      Ying – Yang
      Labour – Conservative
      Black lives Matter — KKK

    6. The highly unfashionable answer lies in the “Bell Curve” study of IQ.

      1. At once end of the curve – high intelligence and the other end – let’s call it the Bellend – low intelligence….

        Morning Sue et al….

        1. Until the axes are visible along with the data gathering method I’m afraid these are just coloured lines.

          1. They’re illustrative but informative enough. The x-axis labels should be at the left, ‘dunce’, at the right, ‘genius’.

    7. How I hate
      Apartheid
      But how I love to demonstrate.

      (Lyric of a cynical song written in the 1960’s when RCT was a politically very incorrect reactionary student at a trendy new university!)

      One of the verses:

      We really had a field day with Sprinkbok sporting tours
      We cut up cricket pitches in the multi-racial cause
      When we stopped a game of rugby it was our finest hour
      But there’s no discrimination in those clamours for black power.

      1. RCT?

        Forgive my lack of 1960’s pop awareness, I was too busy serving in the Royal Air Force both in England and Germany.

          1. I am still waiting to be discovered and for my songs to become an overnight sensation. Unfortunately my high opinion of their satirical brilliance is not shared by anyone else.

            When my son who works with computers next comes to stay I shall ask him to make a recording of my ‘back catalogue’ and post it on this site.

            By the way Phallic Alec’s keyboard playing is brilliant and I am always delighted when he posts some of his music here.

      2. I was a lone voice arguing against sanctions on Apartheid South Africa, because it was (naturally) the poorest in society who suffered most – ie, the blacks. So we in the West caused misery and starvation in SA so we could feel better about ourselves? What selfish sh1t was that?

    8. …then has the multicultural experiment failed/

      It was always doomed Bob! It is against human nature. Peace only exists so long as the Central Power can keep them apart!

    9. One might argue that the Lammy folk simply revert to the law of the jungle when thwarted.

        1. A few tweets from the LGBTQXYZs to the effect that wearing your trousers in a way that exposes your bottom indicates that you are open to anal sex would soon get waistbands back where they belong.

          1. I was subjected to a gross view of ‘builder’s bum’ a couple of weeks ago, except it was the man delivering the fencing materials not the builder. I don’t often feel such need to avert my eyes.

      2. His supporters seemingly support his verbiage. If they didn’t, he’d change tack.

        I sincerely doubt he thinks of situations beyond the opportunity for personal gain.

      3. I thought there was a significant element of HashtagMeToo. Lots of videos showing folk looting expensive items from Apple, Nike and Louis Vuitton. These items are more easily accessible once a full scale riot is underway…..

        I hope Priti has prepared for the troubles which are very likely to erupt with temperatures set to soar for the next three days…..

      4. Perhaps they are just “uncomplicated” folk that the race hate industry for decades now has bombarded with lies and half truths that whitey is the fount and cause of all their trials and tribulations rather than their own limitations and react only as “uncomplicated ” folk can.

    10. The majority of black people murdered in Britain are murdered by other black people.

      Most mass murder – or ‘ethnic cleansing’ – of black people committed in much of the African continent is ordered by black tyrants..

      The reporting of the statistics of persecution of Christians by Muslims has been taken off the internet – and indeed many black Christians have been murdered by Muslims – because even reporting the statistics is considered racist.

      Our friend Grizzly certainly makes a valid point when he states that the intelligence of the human race is in terminal decline!

      1. Morning, Rastus.
        Interestingly, Black Lives Matter only when Whitey is to blame. Nobody whined about BLM when black Londoners were offing other black londoners, in fact quite the opposite – when knives were banned and stop ‘n search operated, this was seen as racist by the black community. So, by their effectively stopping the prevention of black kids being murdered, black lives actually do not matter after all – at least, from a black point of view.

      3. Tribal cleansing.
        It’s been an African activity for centuries and the only respite for much of the continent was during the colonial period.

      4. Intelligence is in decline and Western people have lost the basic instinct of survival and common sense.

      5. Good morning Richard

        Dare I say that the Royal family is a prime example .. intelligence in terminal decline .. It is all in the genes!

        1. Not sure it is just down to pure intelligence, our brightest and most highly educated people promote the most stupid ideas that can be seen through by the average person in a few seconds,
          I think it is down to inexperience and the rejection of old beliefs and ideas that worked for idealogical experiments.

          1. The experiments are seen as A Good Thing, because if they fail, the upper (richer) classes have financial security, whereas the lower classes are much more hand-to-mouth, smaller margins for managing risk, where a failure leads quite quickly to total loss and destitution.

          2. Yes exactly, i have always believed that these failed experiments were nothing but deliberate.

          3. I have a friend who has a first class degree in Modern Languages from Oxford who was a colleague of mine. He is an affable fellow but one of the most stupid people I have ever met – he is incapable of making reasonable decisions about anything and lacks all common sense. The only person I know to match his dimness was a classics graduate from Cambridge who was infallibly wrong about everything.

            On the other hand my best man who has a Cambridge degree in Engineering is one of the most practically intelligent people you could ever meet

          4. Classics and Modern Languages have their uses, but are so removed from real life that they are useless for developing either practical skills or common sense.

      6. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d4db0684944538a3fe8508888f029fe521b78fdc5ea5c79365df5e416b26bc6f.png Good morning, Rastus, and thank you for that observation and comment.

        I firmly believe that this graph showing the recent explosion in the human population roughly equates to the unstoppable rise in the lunacy of the species.

        Human intelligence and ingenuity slowly rose (in proportion to the gradual increase in population) until the time of the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries. This was also a time of the greatest period of our culture with the prominence of Austen, Dickens, Kipling; as well as many wonderful artists and composers, innovators and engineers. It was a time of great minds.

        The explosion in the population that gained an unstoppable impetus and momentum in the 20th century brought with it an inversely proportional rise in stupidity, imbecility, gormlessness, and sub-standard education; compounded by a lack of class, decency, etiquette, good manners and community spirit (to name a few).

        Like it or not mankind is on a one-way ticket to self-annihilation and, do you know what? For the planet (and all other living organisms) that event cannot come soon enough.

        1. The inherent intelligence of the population is probably constant. The trouble is, that the opening up of world wide instant communications to the masses means we are now exposed to every thought and opinion no matter how stupid, dangerous or banal.

          1. “The inherent intelligence of the population is probably constant.”

            That is a moot point, Stormy, but forgive me if I disagree with it. It would make an interesting topic, though, for debate at the Oxford Union methinks.

          2. I would say the range of intelligences is constant – there have always been ant there will always be people born of low, medium and high intelligence; it’s education that varies.

          3. If the proportions are not even – if those of low intelligence always form a much higher proportion than those with high intelligence, then with the massive increase in population will give the impression that humans are more stupid in general. Also those of low intelligence now have the means to expose their stupiditiy much more widely to the world at large.

        2. ‘Morning, George, your graph neglects to shew a definite dip around 1347 – 1351 or indeed prior to 1666, when reportedly 50% of England’s population died prematurely.

          1. The graph is world population so such blips in certain countries may not register on such a graph.

          2. Well, Cynarch, Europe as a whole (hole) suffered 30 to 60% deaths, enough I would think to make a dip, however slight.

        3. I assume the 1900 point was the advent of medicine and clean water.

          However the poopulation (yes, I’m leaving that typo in) in the West has declined – Labour’s malice reversed that – but the real problem is the uneducated third world. We give them technology and infrastructure but they lack the education to use it.

  29. Good morning all.
    Vege samosas & spring rolls for breakfast to match the weather.

    1. Excellent.
      In the US wild west….The Paper Bag Kid Arrested for rustling.

  31. Good morning all. It appears that the arse-covering exercise is beginning. After months of government saying that they are “following the science” (which is actually means, pointing at the boffin over there and saying ‘he made me do it!’), the scientists are reminding us that it is politicians who are actually meant to make decisions:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/30/boris-johnson-must-have-final-say-lockdown-says-sir-patrick/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-onward-journey

    And actually, he is quite right. SAGE is not elected, nor is Dominic Cummings, nor Professor Lockdown. The buck stops with Boris and his government for deciding that the coming economic tsunami, deaths from other causes, spiked in domestic violence, loss of our freedoms etc was justified to “flatten the curve.”

    Over to you Boris!

    1. One thing Boris was keen to do was to follow what others were doing and learning from them. It’s never the other way round – nobody looks to the UK to see how to do things because it’s usually a disaster.

    2. I’m sure Winston made quite a few mistakes but he was the best we had available at the time.
      Lets be quite honest, often today’s experts occasionally become tomorrow’s fools.
      Even in journalism. But journo’s are often more inclined to get away with it.

      1. But Churchill offered hope – we will fight them the beaches etc.
        There is no expression of hope at all from Boris or anyone else. That is why crowds are going to beaches because they, probably, feel that if their going to die their going to die in the sun. Human beings are social animals and you cannot imprison them for long periods without actually locking them up in prison. If we’re going to die let’s all go out on a high.

    3. 319768+ up ticks,
      Morning JK,
      ” Over to you boris”
      Then commenced the cries ” where’s
      all the bloody rubber stamps gone”.

    4. Yo JK

      I have posted my thoughts on it below.

      Buck Passing is inbred in politicians

    5. I will not deny that thew Government has made some bloody stupid decisions, but given the flack aimed at them from those determined to bring Boris Johnson down, it is more surprising they have not made more.

      1. Doing things arse about face e.g. quarantining people flying in when the infection rate is falling and not doing so at the outset and allowing millions to arrive/transit from hot-spots, was avoidable and surely couldn’t have been, “following the science,” could it?

      2. 319768+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        they made a defining one when
        using treachery as a way forward, they are in many eyes
        receiving their just rewards.
        Same players / same parties as pre 24/6/2016.

    6. I don’t think that Boris had much choice with the lockdown, most of Europe was already locked down.
      He didn’t have big enough balls to do anything different.
      Though it was a no win situation I suppose.

      1. He did have a choice as to whether to listen to the fear-mongering predictions of Professor Lockdown, the man with a long history of wildly over-exaggerating death rates from pandemics:

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-questions-that-neil-ferguson-should-be-asked

        It is easy to be wise with hindsight, and I wouldn’t have wanted Boris Johnson’s job at this time. So yes, the lockdown could perhaps have been justified for 3-4 weeks to build up NHS capacity and see how deadly it was. After that, we should have gone back to normal. To continue after the objective of ‘squashing the sombrero’ has been achieved reaks of either political cowardice or an agenda to make the removal of our most basic freedoms the ‘new normal.’

        1. ‘morning JK, I think Boris was bounced into the lockdown by the MSM and what other countries were doing. It was probably the right thing to do and as a director of a SME I cannot but praise the financial help given speedily to businesses.

          The turning point was Boris becoming ill and ending up in hospital, there was no one else in the Government to replace him and everything meandered for a few weeks. Once out of ICU he was still a shadow of himself for quite a while. In fact his standing up to the baying mob this week illustrates he has recovered. Hopefully he will get the country moving again.

          Then all he has to do is finish Brexit and deal with the BBC, the PHE and the bureaucracy of the NHS. All the while being “damned if he does” and “damned if he doesn’t”.

        2. The bit I don’t like is that the hospitals emptied themselves of sick people in the expectation of getting new sick people to treat – and it never happened (good!). Likewise, people needing treatments for cancer were rejected. Was all that because the Covid is more exciting, or because everybody flew into a panic? In any case, there are quite a few dead now because of the reaction to covid.

          1. The decision to move elderly Covid patients from hospitals into care homes is the greatest scandal of this situation. It must not be forgotten about in the ‘fog of war.’ Whoever made that decision arguably caused the deaths of thousands of frail, elderly people and must be held to account, ideally in a criminal court.

            As you rightly say, the NHS became the Covid Health Service and if you had anything else (cancer, heart attack, stroke) you could literally just FO and die at home.

          2. What was the purpose of the isolation (Nightingale) hospitals? Were they not ready at the time that patients were being sent to care homes?

          4. They should have selected certain hospitals to treat Covid patients and others to carry on treating all patients as normal. And there should have been sanctions against staff making tik-tok dances during work hours on NHS premises.

          5. In Shropshire a high proportion of hospital deaths were people admitted from care homes.

        3. One of the major causes of the public being terrified was the incessant TV adverts of Save the NHS, Stay at Home etc. We switched the sound off when they came on. The MSM saw this as the ideal opportunity to continue to scare the wits out of the public and are still doing it. Closing down anyone who disagrees with their narrative.
          It was decided that a Covid life was worth more and a Cancer or Cardiac life. Domestic abusers were locked in with their prey. People are now terrified to go to hospital because they’ve been told how dangerous this pandemic is.
          The economy is/has been trashed and the politicians are caught like rabbits in the headlights. Unable to take a sensible decision. This Conservative government has done what Socialist governments could only dream of. They will now continue this calamity and try to tax us into prosperity.
          I fear for my children and grandchildren but more so for the great-great grandchildren, ad infinitum, who will still be picking up the tab for this almighty mess.

          1. Very well said.

            What has been lacking is any attempt to re-assure the public on this. Infection rates are so low in London that they are struggling to find infected people to test vaccines on. The vast majority of people who died have been elderly and those with ‘co-morbidities.’ Millions of people have had the virus and with mild or no symptoms. Essentially, that this is not the Black Death and we need to get on with our lives. But no, we are inching our way fearfully out of lockdown, still maintaining social distancing of 2m, for no good reason. As I’ve said, I can’t work out if this is a cock-up which will make the invasion of Iraq look like a jolly good idea, or actually part of a green/socialist agenda to create a ‘beneficial crisis’ and let the State control our lives. Time will telI suppose, it is an utter disaster either way.

          2. 319768+ up ticks,
            JK,
            My true belief is that they should have give it a POSITIVE spin & wove it into the soaps
            ie Corrie etc, from the very outset, I am being serious folks.
            But, the power factor
            counts in political circles.

          3. New York Governor Cuomo was talking about their response to CV19 yesterday.
            He mentioned how when telling people to stay home by stressing the potential impact of the bug running rampant, how hard it was to ask / tell essential workers to keep working

        4. Boris could have made the choice to follow the Swedish model rather than copycat the rest of the world, but as Bob says he was too timid to stand by that. The first 3 weeks of lock down could be justified in the light of not having too much information at that stage and to allow the NHS to be organised to take Covid patients. I don’t think there was any justification in prolonging it. At the start of the lock down there should have been a more positive outlook e.g. advice on boosting vitamin D and taking advantage of the sunshine, allowing people in urban areas to use parks with police only intervening where there was a clear lack of social distancing or groups appeared to be too large to represent a single household. The government just seems to have panicked without properly thinking anything through and failed to take into account a wider range of valid opinions instead of relying entirely on Prof Lockdown. In the long run it would have been better if the government had done nothing IMO.

          2. Hi Cynarch, positive outlook; two words that the UK MSM never use or understand.

            With everything that has happened/is happening we have to factor in that the Government is being constantly attacked by the BBC & MSM. Effectively fighting with their arms tied behind their back. At times of war in the past the media was almost guaranteed to print the Government’s version of events to help morale.

            I don’t believe that the Government should be able to control the MSM but likewise the opposition shouldn’t either. Currently the opposition can do whatever it likes, fully backed by the MSM. It shows how bad the opposition is though when they handed an eighty seat majority to Boris at the last election. (Yay!).

          3. I wouldn’t want the government to control the media either. I would prefer the media to hold the government, the opposition and others to account. The media appears to be the propganda wing of certain groups and to be purveyors of fake news or non-news (celebrities etc), but too many of the population don’t seem to have noticed this.

        5. I don’t think Boris did decide on the lockdown because of the science
          We were a couple of weeks behind most of Europe with the lockdown, I bet we were threatened with punitive economic and political action if we didn’t follow suit and crash our economy so we were all on a level playing field.
          He would also be under pressure from WHO
          Our media would have crucified him once the death toll started rising while wheeling out scientists saying he had ignored their advice.
          Beside I beleive this was all part of a worldwide initiative to close down all our old CO2 polluting activities in order to save the planet, part of the drastic action that was being debated back at Christmas time.
          The green lobby apart from the Chinese have been the only winners in all of this.

          1. I read a report a week or two ago that said the cleaner air was allowing more sunlight to fall on the ground, thus accelerating warming more than previously…

          6. Of course. Wasn’t it claimed on 9/11 that the average ground temperature was about 1degC higher be there were no aeroplane contrails over the sky in the U.S….which brings us back to clouds and water vapour controlling temperatures, but which haven’t been factored sufficiently well in climate models.

          7. The logical conclusion would be to bring back coal fired power stations to prevent warming?

      2. He had a choice to lock down the airports and sea ports if he was going to lock us down. Common sense and logic would have dictated it. Joined up thinking, however, is not any politician’s strong point.

  32. Good morning..

    What happens in America usually happens here a week later!

    Will the black Americans destroy their food sources like MacDonalds and Kentucky Fried chicken ..

      2. Front. You can tell by the thumb position on her hand. Otherwise, you’d have a hard time telling….

        1. The hand is the giveaway, as I noted in my comment. How anyone can let themselves go to that extent is beyond me. Perhaps she has a hormone problem? Isn’t that the old excuse?

      3. Blimey! And I was worrying about having put on weight through lack of exercise!

  33. 319768+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    May one ask does it not seem curious that the peoples are saying common sense can be a trusted agent allowing freedom of movement against the governance
    wishes ( power play imo).
    The question is when selecting a governance party is common sense used in the ballot booth ?
    If so, that then means that common sense equates to failure.
    We have suffered a continuing run of failures especially
    over the last four decades due mainly to the siren call of the brussels golden trough & the greed of the political rubber stampers, they are still in play & still finding support.

  34. Angry Canterbury residents call for Labour MP Rosie Duffield to resign after breaking lockdown rules
    https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/angry-canterbury-residents-call-labour-4179320

    Canterbury’s Labour Party have moved to clarify that Rosie Duffield has not resigned as the district’s Labour MP.

    The MP for Canterbury and Whitstable was forced to apologise last night (May 30) after she met with partner James Routh in April, the Mail on Sunday revealed.

    She has since issued a full statement and resigned from her position as a party whip.

    However some residents have taken to social media to urge Ms Duffield to resign completely.

    I’m getting really tired of this ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude. The lockdown rules were vague (probably deliberately so), but this hounding of people for breaches of them should stop now. It seems as though some people from both left and right are going out of their way to find instances of political opponents breaking the rules, no matter how minor the breach. It does not bode well for re-uniting the country after the recent divisions of opinion.

    1. I just looked at this link and it seems to be all about Dominic Cummings not a Labour MP. Perhaps I couldn’t be bothered to look further down. The lockdown should be ceased right now.

      1. Therein lies the problem – “but he did this, so why shouldn’t she do that”. It’s so divisive.

        1. Exactly. At the moment it seems more divisive than Brexit has been. But it will be again very shortly when we approach the 30th/1st July deadline for extending the transition period. That’s what we need Dominic for.

          1. No! Cummings is an unelected official with too much power and Brexit was in part to get us away from such people. What we need is elected leaders with the courage and willpower to do what they were elected to do.

          2. But we don’t have an elected leader with the willpower to do it and IMO Dominic Cummings is the one person to put the resolve into Boris.

            It’s just the same with the illegal boat invaders – why are we actively collecting these people and bringing them in to the U.K.? No won’t power in that case!

          3. You said “what we need etc” and my response was that we need elected leaders to do the job. I agree with you that put elected leaders are a pretty lack-lustre bunch but that does not mean that the need is no longer there. The people to put resolve into Boris are his MPs in the first place and the electorate in the final analysis.

          4. I do understand where you’re coming from but I’m rather afraid that the MPs may not step up to the mark either, so many of them were remainers originally. And the fact that there is an 80 majority in the HoC could be a two edged sword. I may be worrying unnecessarily, I hope I am, but a lot can happen between now and next year.

          5. I have no idea what the mood of the country is right now concerning Brexit. My guess is that it is pretty well in favour of Brexit because Covid-19 has amplified the fault-lines in the EU and because people realise that we have to move on if we are to have any hope of recovery from the crisis. I think that many MPs do pay heed to what their constituents tell them and, if I am right and the consensus has swung substantially in favour of Brexit, then Johnson could well be under pressure from his own Brexit-inclined MPs and very little opposition from Remain-inclined ones. As you say, though, there’s much that can happen over the next 7 months.

          6. If 30/06 deadline is missed, another can be created, right up to 00:00 hrs.

          7. I didn’t know that. However I’d rather the government declared that there will be no more “negotiations” right now and that we will be using WTO terms from January next.

    3. They’re not hard to find, Aeneas, loads of the two-faced gits abound throughout the supposed lock-down.

      The easiest thing to do is to remove all the rules, regulations et al and get on with making Britain great again.

      We need to do this, in order to stand up to the EU bully-boys and to clamp down on our own Police/Border Farce bully-boys.

    4. I’d agree on one condition.

      The right will stop naming and shaming the left when the left stop naming and shaming and finger pointing at the right.

      1. I suspect that as the 650 well practiced and wretched AHs stole 10 grand a piece from the UK tax payers, they now think it’s only fair that they like to be seen as ‘keeping their hand in’. How wrong they are,…….as usual.

        1. Tut, tut – it wasn’t theft – it was a “revised additional budget…”

          1. Funnily I knew a Nottler would have an answer. 😆
            Time for another glass of….🍷 do you know what Bill, I’m really enjoying all the social distancing.

    5. The MP for Canterbury and Whitstable was forced to apologise last night
      (May 30) after she met with partner James Routh in April, the Mail on
      Sunday revealed.

      Disgusting: I thought Labour MPs always batted for their side

        1. May I fiddle a bit:

          I Thorpe it was the LibDems who were more into ‘that sort of thing’.

        2. May I fiddle a bit:

          I Thorpe it was the LibDems who were more into ‘that sort of thing’.

    6. “The lockdown rules were vague” so we could be pushed about at the whim of the police. All good training, for the slaves and enslavers.

    7. We expect (or at least hope) that our leaders will lead by example and, when they don’t, it is right that people should complain. Leading by example means not just adhering to the letter of the law but also to its spirit. Posters on this forum who were officers or senior NCO’s in the Armed Forces will know that leadership means not expecting those you lead to accept things that you wouldn’t accept; maintaining impeccable standards of honesty, integrity and courage; and being uncompromisingly honourable. Some fall short and, if exposed, pay a high price. Why should our elected leaders be given a free pass?

      1. Unfortunately a very old fashioned view.

        There appears to be them and us with various levels of them enjoying different levels of freedoms.

        1. They had probably followed me first and followed you because they wanted to see if there were any more like me.

  35. Morning all 😊
    The government should have more faith in (some of ) the public’s common sense.
    And I might add that could quite easily be stretched the other way.
    Not including our MSM.

    1. Civil unrest in London last night several stabbed in Hyde Park. Armed police sent to respond and restore order.
      Culprits arrested, injured recovering in hospital.
      So far no age or identity give in reference of those stabbed or arrested.
      I wonder why.

      1. 319768+ up ticks,
        G,
        That went out the window via ted the treacherous, currently they have it covered in parliament as in having a choice the bible or the islamic ideology followers handbook ( lying between the two dispatch boxes) that gives lying to unbelievers carte blanche.

        Make haste, halal steak & kidney pie for lunch.

    4. Civil unrest in London last night several stabbed in Hyde Park. Armed police sent to respond and restore order.
      Culprits arrested, injured recovering in hospital.
      So far no age or identity give in reference of those stabbed or arrested.
      I wonder why.

      1. 319768+ up ticks,
        Morning Re,
        By the lab/lib/con being a one mind coalition party with no credible opposition the safety
        valve has been well and truly lashed down.
        How long before brussels receives the call “help” ?

        1. Here’s another problem in a London labour borough and not a thing done about it.

          Hundreds of revellers have gathered at an illegal party in east London despite lockdown measures, police say.
          Pictures and videos posted on Snapchat show large crowds gathered in Detmold Road, Clapton, as a DJ plays in the street.
          At around midnight on Sunday, Hackney Police said officers were at the scene and a police helicopter was also being used.

    3. A friend of mine with whom I shared a study at Blundell’s nearly 60 years ago has a farm in North Devon. He sent me this photo a couple of days ago but he did not confirm whether or not it was photographed on his farm so I took it as a yes.

  38. Oh my goodness me, it looks like there’s that good ol’ ”Billionaire Influence” at the heart of the UK government again !

    As the amazing James Delingpole tells us……

    ”Build Back Better” – The Latest (UN) Code Phrase for Green Global Tyranny”

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/31/delingpole-build-back-better-the-latest-code-phrase-for-green-global-tyranny/

    ”Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised that, once the coronavirus crisis is over, he intends to “build back better” for future generations”.

    ”Build back better” is actually a United Nations invented phrase and what it actually means is more world government, more green taxes and regulation, more expensive energy, more identity politics, more corporatism — and, of course, less freedom and entrepreneurialism.”

    ”The greens and the globalists aren’t about to let a crisis going to waste. This is the moment they have been waiting for. And don’t expect much resistance from politicians – even ones wearing the ‘Conservative’ label, like Boris Johnson. They’re part of the problem”.

    Who is highly influential at the United Nations and Davos which want a global ”Shared Future” with massive fiscal transfers by first world nations to ”poorer countries” probably to be achieved by supra national government power ?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p50OWLS4WBY

    None other than the multi billionaire who cannot be named who just by totally random unconnected coincidence runs a multi million dollar ”leveraging” organization very close to Downing Street !

    Which major UK policies since 1997 are not the result of ”Billionaire Influence” ?

    So far as I can see… none at all………..

    I wonder why UK governments apparently think multi billionaires are right every time ?

    Polly

      1. I think that’s moved on to massively paid non jobs after retirement and loads of massively overpaid speaking engagements where the subject is just blah blah blah…

        1. 319768+ up ticks,
          PP,
          Yes , brown envelopes are just a cover tag for all-sorted back handers.

    1. Lower right corner… Is that an attempt to make a loo-roll go further – by cutting it in 1/2?

      1. Dunno. My last bell lost it’s clapper. No one seemed to notice at the hand bell ringing club so i think i got away with that one.

      1. Even if he was does it need that many cops to bring him under control? Why not Taser him?

        1. I’m not sure Yank cops are supplied with tasers, Spikey. They are all armed with guns in any case.

          I’m sure that American police officers are taught means of subduing prisoners (as UK police officers are) but kneeling heavily on a man’s neck for eight minutes certainly isn’t one of them.

      2. Does it matter? Since when did being on drugs allow the police to kill you? If a largish man puts his knee on your neck for 9 minutes, you will die. The time of death is clearly false. The police were beginning a coverup, then realised that there was too much evidence in the form of CCTV and video.
        In the case of Seku Bayo, the video is less clear. No action has been taken against the officers involved. Nor will it be as once again the Procurator’s office has jumped in to rule out a prosecution before the facts are known. The nine officers involved will likely retire once the evidence begins to be presented in the Public Enquiry that may happen some time (it was diaried for this month).

          1. My apologies. I’m in a bad mood at present.
            A reasonable assumption is that he was on drugs. There apparently was some kind of altercation in the shop. Also he was in a rather expensive Mercedes, but whether owner, driver or passenger?
            The response by the public has been insane. The start of a summer of riots, possibly being whipped up Democrats. The police moved quickly against the cops involved.
            Here, it’s the Bayo case that riles me. He was wandering about, possibly on drugs, but apparently not doing any harm. Some do-gooder phoned the police and shortly thereafter Bayo is jumped on and he dies after being manhandled and pinned down by a large number of policemen. (A bit like the shooting dead of Mr Stanley in London.)

          2. That’s okay Horace. Seems a lot of tempers are running high at the moment. Seems he was trying to pass forged $20’s.

            The result does seem heavy handed.

    2. Still don’t know why they stopped him. It was certainly very aggressive and the policeman has been charged with murder. What more do they want?

      2. To make life even more horrendous for Trump. It will be his fault, first last and umtimately, you know. Civil disorder and an election coming up, the democrats are rubbing their hands in glee!

        1. Yes. That did occur to me.

          For the same reason the bbc haven’t covered much if any of the gilets jaune riots.
          They like Micron and don’t want to see him damaged.

          1. Neither does the bbc want us getting ideas ourselves, that sort of thing tends to spread. Although if it hindered Brexit, that would be different.

          2. Too late,….. Hundreds of activists have gathered in Trafalgar Square to protest the death of George Floyd in the US, as well as alleged police brutality in the UK.
            Protesters could be heard chanting “black lives matter” and “say my name, George Floyd” in the central London square, in reference to the campaigning civil rights group.
            Others held up placards saying “Racism has no place” and “I can’t breathe”.
            The protest comes after an event in Peckham on Saturday and is set to be followed by several more in the capital next week.
            And Glasgow today.

          4. Yep this is what happens when the police farce is totally irresponsible and left wing.

      3. If he looked like he was under the influence of drugs they would cuff him.

        He had a rap sheet longer than your arm.

        Cops regularly check parked vehicles in high crime neighbourhoods. Have a few words then act as necessary.

        Seeing as he was already in cuffs i don’t know what the knee on the neck was for.

        Just my two penneth.

        1. To cause just the sort of trouble that has erupted, to make life even more difficult for Trump? Civil disorder and towns on fire, the threat of shooting looters, mayhem. Were they just too dim to understand they might be charged with murder, should this be the case?

          1. Perhaps everyone’s hero needs to tone down his rhetoric a bit as well. Why at every opportunity is Trump calling out local politicians as being useless left wingers?

          2. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that he gets a little bit of the same, but not just from politicians but probably 90% of the MSM?

          3. Take a look at the failing cities in the U.S and you will mostly find them run (badly) by left wingers.

          4. You mean all of those northern cities that used to be strong industrial centres but have now lost out to cheap foreign imports. It’s not just left or right.

            But what did this have to do with the riots? The US is badly split between left and right, him pushing the same old divisive button doesn’t help calm things down. Does he understand anything other than divide and rule?

          5. Just a second richardl_.

            The Democrats have been playing the BAME victim card for decades in the USA, stirring up racial hatred.
            If any party should be taking a hit for what is happening it is the Democrats. They sow the seeds of division wherever and whenever they can. Their whole raison d’etre is to keep the minorities dependent on the Government, so they can secure their votes.

            I’m not keen on Trump, but I despise the Democrats.

          6. You cannot change the past even the present Democrats are off the map with their left of left members in congress, Ocasio Cortez is the obvious extreme but job.

            However, Trump is the current top dog. Instead of fueling the differences he needs to be building fences instead of slagging off the other parties.

          7. Indeed so, but when the other parties are actually stoking the violence and division, they need to be called out. The Press won’t do it, so who do you suggest?

            (p.s. there’s two t’s in butt)

          8. Never looked for the second t, I see that face and my mind just turns off.

            When Bernie Sanders speaks you know you are in for a good dose of corbanysm and know that it could never happen in the states, but with Democrats like Pelosi you always wonder how bad it could be.

          10. Trump under his Presidency got more black people into work than the Dems. The Dems prefer them to be on benefits. Just like in the U.K.

          11. And the Dems response to that is that Trump rode on the coattails of stuff that Obama started.

          12. I find it difficult to see what precisely Obama achieved in office. The one thing he managed successfully was to enrich himself from having been a third rate lawyer in Chicago to becoming a multi-millionaire.

            Much the same applies to the Clintons. The Clintons actually sowed the seeds of the financial collapse with their mock support of property loans to blacks who could never meet the repayments.

          13. I find it difficult to see what precisely Obama achieved in office. The one thing he managed successfully was to enrich himself from having been a third rate lawyer in Chicago to becoming a multi-millionaire.

            Much the same applies to the Clintons. The Clintons actually sowed the seeds of the financial collapse with their mock support of property loans to blacks who could never meet the repayments.

      4. He was accused of using forged $20 notes in the store.

        Having done so, why he would hang around and not leave the scene is a mystery

        1. Yep, but as per usual it’s everyone else’s fault and the truth is going to be supressed.

    1. Have there been any Pentecost greetings from political leaders, as there were for Eid last weekend?

        2. Not to be improved upon….. except by using Sicilian lemons and finishing with finely grated zest. But what do i know?

          1. I use lime zest and juice when making the curds (instead of lemon) and I use the more traditional currants instead of raisins.

            [People who use just the juice from citrus fruits and throw away the zest should be shot!]

      2. Doubtful. I did my bit, and hoisted the flag of that well-known Turk, St George, up the (locked down) church flagpole. I’ve prolly broken every rule in the book.

        We had a virtual service on Zoom this morning, but somehow I decided to carry on weeding. That’s three I’ve missed, in succession…

        1. I watched a bit of the Mass from St Peter’s Basilica this morning. If the Eucharist must be reduced to video entertainment, it might as well be the best, with some Michelangelo in the background. It was live and with a congregation.

    2. Ah! The original (and best) British Nirvana and not the pastiche American one who stole the name.

    2. Too many people with too much time on their hands. The devil makes work for idle hands.

  44. OT. Just walked the Springer for an hour in Hurn Forest. Clear blue sky, no cloud or contrails. Ferns are 5-6 ft high and growing. Rhododendrons are in full magnificent bloom. Birds are singing including the cuckoo – and this is all free! I’ve lived in several different countries but you can’t beat England! I do hope we can keep it as it is.

    1. I too have lived in a number of countries and although some of them are better than the UK in various ways, the full UK package beats them all.

      1. I think that over in Canada we have a lot more of the physical stuff and certainly a lot more space to live in.

        However, as long as you are away from big cities there are many intangibles that come out as a huge plus for UK life. The recent exchange of garden photos is a good example, you are showing roses but all that I could manage were some daffodils. Oh for a lengthy spring.

        Too late to matter now, we couldn’t afford to move back.

        1. About 20 years ago, I was flying to Canada and the guy sitting next to me was a gentleman of Indian ethnic origin who had emigrated to Canada a few decades earlier. We chatted and he opined to me that, apart from the bits close to the border with the US, Canada was actually a third-World country. I thought that this was perhaps a bit harsh and, certainly, what I saw of Canada seemed pretty good although it was Ottawa and surrounds.

          1. Very limited infrastructure outside of the cities, well very limited anything if you go one hundred miles north of the border. Add to that an indigenous population that is not able to adapt to the ways of the western world and he was probably right.

        2. The thing that struck me about Canada was the huge electricity pylons everywhere. Such a shame to mar the view, but I suppose there’s a practical reason for it.

          1. It would cost a pit full of money to bury all of the cables. The utilities need to transmit power thousands of kilometers from many of the hydro dams. Another minor issue is the amount of rock that they would have to deal with, the soil is very shallow in places.

          2. That’s why I thought there would be reasons for not doing it. Aesthetically, it’s a shame, practically it’s a no brainer.

        3. Flowers you say.

          All French roses apart from the white peony.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9ef0123d9ef61a30b8cd03e64468f5250a5c82812d41847b38dc8a2b00024c8f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1d6e164b2ac9461f65f69f309c88f5a90170e286539c849c8268cc130dccc93.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e3a4364c28c8f9fc4f5169a47187afa9d9e68d77a14c8eb617b36e80d554bcf6.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cdf9d8c2eb5cc2ab3ae2b7c34f3e1826c730c5a11dd266d63217247993e10612.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c1e173446fe4758bd5c6c715a3d1fcd8b98b9de14124bab85b57b523591c5fbc.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ccb26b88a8cac8c68ad4b73e47f8de10087335800abe18929df173b9faffb958.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/87db9310d31a57d8ecaa74004ef802d6e41126e442d95ab0d19fe1b426349bca.jpg

          2. Names would be helpful. The deep crimson/purple looks like William Lobb……

          3. Yup.

            Vicomtesse Pierre de Feu, Adelaide d’Orleon, William Lobb (musk rose), White Peony, Pink musk rose (name lost or could be a sport of Alba Semi-Plena) and Versicolour.

            The shot from the side of the small greenhouse shows the white cluster rose Seagull running wild to the left of the thatched gable end to my cottage. To the right are Kathleen Harrop (thornless) and Ville de Lyon but these are not distinct in the picture. The Syringa behind the greenhouse is an unusual colour and was taken from the Fellows’ Garden at St John’s College Cambridge.

    2. I too have lived in a number of countries and although some of them are better than the UK in various ways, the full UK package beats them all.

    3. I cannot argue with you, Del. I have spent the afternoon a a remote watermill, here in a beauty spot in southern Sweden, with friends, enjoying a picnic in the sunshine.

      However, as nice as it was, it doesn’t come close to comparing favourably with the North York Moors, Exmoor, the Isles of Scilly, the Pennines, the North Norfolk Coast, the Peak District, the South Downs, the Yorkshire Dales, Dartmoor, Northumberland, The Cotswolds, Suffolk’s Constable country, or the Lake District. The word ‘England’ is written through my heart as the word ‘Blackpool’ is through a stick of rock!

        2. I didn’t actually ‘forget’ them, Geoff. Along with a few other places, such as the Chilterns, New Forest, etc, I have yet to experience such places of beauty.

        2. I said South Downs, John. I’ve also visited the Trough of Bowland, and the coast at Arnside and Silverdale.

  45. Disqus is still being bluddy about going to ‘n’ comments above/below, once it has more than 200 comments.

    Can we complain to the teenagers asking them to sort their software program? Yes, I deliberately use the American, as they’d think a programme was something only seen on the BBC – always assuming they knew what the BBC is.

    1. I have always known it as a computer ‘program’ (using the American spelling), which nicely distinguishes it from a ‘programme’. Likewise ‘tire’ and ‘tyre’ – the American spelling does not distinguish between fatigue and a rubber covering for a wheel.

      1. How about an American liter?

        I was a touch peeved after buying some grass trimmer fuel yesterday when I checked the label on the litre can and saw that it was an American liter, 948ml .

        I don’t normally buy expensive special stuff, but it was buy a can and get a five year warranty which seemed like a good deal at the time.

        2. American liter? I know the US spelling is ‘liter’, ‘meter’ etc, instead of the English ‘litre’, ‘metre’, but I didn’t know there was a different ‘liter’ size. That makes no sense.

          I do know that US and Imperial pints and gallons are not the same, due to different numbers of fluid ounces in a pint (16 in the US, 20 in the UK). I think there is also a difference in US and UK tons, although not in ounces and pounds.

    2. You never can tell. I remember a BBC colleague many years ago calling someone in California to ask about using some archive footage in a Proms broadcast and launching into an explanation of what the Proms are, only to be told, “Yes, I know, we go to London every summer for the Proms”. What are the chances, even given that the footage was subject related?

    3. 319786+ up ticks,
      Afternoon KtK,
      Your post saying KS post had disappeared & then asking if he was a mod. has also disappeared as I got red banded answering it.

        1. Yes, I did J, as I found the original was made against a different thread. My fault, apologies to Ogga.

    1. It appears the natives are getting restless, Geoff. Best look to emigrate….

        1. Well, I have wasted a lot of time this afternoon watching live transmission from the International Space Station.

          That seems an option….{:¬))

          11. It’s just that I haven’t played since March, and when they eventually re-open the churches, the likelihood is that singing, and especially choirs, will be banned for the foreseeable. They’re part way through overhauling the organ in t’next village; at this rate there’ll be a dome and minarets added to the building before anyone gets to play the bloody thing…

          12. My church has taken to You Tube to televise the services – happy Pentecost, by the way – recorded in their own homes. The musical director produced a Tallis motet (probably from his own family as they are all in the choir). It was so lovely to hear.

          13. Probably a silly question:
            Do traditional church organs deteriorate quickly, if they aren’t used?

          14. Not silly. They benefit from being used, which is why I never lock the console. Tracker (i.e. direct mechanical) action organs are prolly OK. Electric or electro-pneumatic actions are likely to develop problems, since every key, stop, and piston is basically a switch, and lack of use can lea to oxidisation of the contacts = unreliability. I powered up the village instrument last week, and all seemed to be OK.

            I tried using Hauptwerk (a virtual pipe organ program) on the laptop, with some success, although latency meant I had to play the notes before I heard them*. When I tried to use this with Zoom, everything crashed.

            *SS Andrew and Patrick, Elveden, Suffolk, has an organ with a slight delay in the action, and the organ is round the corner from the console, so the organist hears the sound reflected from the South West corner of the building. If you listen as you play, you grind to a halt…

          16. That is certainly a view. Purists will tell you that tracker is the only way. But – especially on large organs – it can be extremely heavy going to play. Electro-pneumatic has been around for around a century, and most large (i.e. cathedral) organs will have this. Or direct electric..

          19. Not half – we had a dreadful bat problem which almost screwed up the re-roofing.

          20. We have a few, but the evidence is limited to the odd discoloured spot on the brass Communion rail, and occasional bits of insect-based poo on the altar. It has been suggested that incense repels them, but sadly we;re not that far “up the candle”.

          22. You may jest, but during the roof replacement, we had a meeting with the man to whom we had to pay £3,000 to do a “bat count” (he counted two). I was about to speak out (a bit) but the architect took me on one side and warned that one word that bat ndid not care for and he could wreck the whole caboodle. Cause it to be cancelled. And the church fall down.

            Yet another way in which the whole bloody world has gone mad.

          27. We’ve had a directive from the rector that the bishops say the organs need exercising or checking over or summat. Haven’t you got an excuse to go and play now. Our church has never been locked (the churchwarden clearly saw no need to change things at the behest of the archbish) though I’ve only gone and played a few times.

        3. Hungary….but you have to learn the bloomin’ difficult language.

          Australia on a rotating visa.

  48. Here’s another problem that occurred in London over night nothing done abbott it, as far as the press announcements go.
    Apparently a few loud sighs have been registered.

    Hundreds of revellers have gathered at an illegal party in east London despite lockdown measures, police say.
    Pictures and videos posted on Snapchat show large crowds gathered in Detmold Road, Clapton, as a DJ plays in the street.
    At around midnight on Sunday, Hackney Police said officers were at the scene and a police helicopter was also being used.

          3. I’ve only had to remove ticks from our dog a couple of times. Surgical spirits did the trick.
            Perhaps it could be introduced in the bar at Westminster.

    3. The load bearing capacity of Michelin tyres are heavily overinflated.

      1. Sorry to deflate you but…

        The load bearing capacity of Michelin tyres are is heavily overinflated.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Peddy, are we talking about tyres or the load-bearing capacity – it’s not clear?

          Maybe ‘twould be better expressed as, “Michelin tyres load-bearing capacities are heavily over-inflated.” but what do I know,

          I prefer the Pirelli calendar.

          1. The subject of the sentence is capacity, therefore the verb must be singular.

          2. Maybe ‘twould be better expressed as, “Michelin tyres load-bearing capacities are heavily over-inflated.” but what do I know,…

            better still…

            Maybe ‘twould be better expressed as, “Michelin tyres‘ load-bearing capacities are heavily over-inflated.” but what do I know,…

        2. Yo Peddy

          Sorry to deflate you but, but the pressure remains the same , just the shape alters

          1. But we are not discussing pressure, but load-bearing capacity.

            I’m just amazed that the front tyre is in contact with the road.

    1. 319786+ up ticks,
      o2o,
      What do you think og ? something decent building I hope.

  54. If they find Soros’ paws all over Antifa, that’s going to have a huge implication for the UK.

    2. Brian Cates @drawandstrike
      ·
      37m
      This means all federal, military and intelligence powers of the United States government may now be brought fully to bear on these goons. And those funding, enabling and supporting them, both inside the US and outside.

      Happy hunting, guys!
      Quote Tweet

      Donald J. Trump
      @realDonaldTrump
      · 1h
      The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a Terrorist Organization.

  55. That’s me for the day. A day of three halves. The first two were very hot – 30º out of the wind; , the last one was – although bright and sunny – suddenly very chilly, with a strong east wind. Had to ditch T-shirt and shorts for warm clothes.

    Looks as though there will be just one more hot day – then progressively colder through the week – with “rain” (whatever that is) on Friday.

    A demain.

    1. Rain is due here on Wednesday, apparently, Bill. I shan’t be sorry to see it. Everywhere is so dry and there’ll be no hay if we don’t get some proper rain soon. There is no spring grass for the horses. Dr Green is nowhere to be seen.

      1. Ditto. The irony is that, since we left Laure on 20 March, they have had (in the arid Sarf of France) 18 INCHES of rain…. No one can recall such a wet spring. All blamed on us leaving!!

        1. I had a phone call from one of my French friends this evening. She said that Normandy (where she lives) had had no rain at all, but in Aix en Provence (where they have a flat) it’s been torrential.

  56. Evening, everyone. Had a fantastic ride on the Connemara today. Not only was he wearing the hackamore which makes him more relaxed (they tacked him up in his Happy Mouth bit yesterday and he is much less happy in that, no matter what the brand might say!), he seemed to have benefited from the workout yesterday. I was cooked about half way through, though, and had to stop to catch my breath! After I’d turned from puce to merely bright red I carried on 🙂 I am going to have to step up the fittening exercises, clearly.

      1. Only in the field (a fly mask), Bill. Even my instructor wasn’t wearing one today. Thank goodness for that; I actually managed to hear the instructions at the end of the arena (40m away).

          2. I’m thinking of investing in one of those radio transmitter/receiver things to use in the school. One of my other instructors had one and it was brilliant. Saved her voice and I got to hear all the instructions.

        2. When my younger sister lived in Murcia they took us to a brilliant steak restaurant in the middle of nowhere. Next to the carpark was a set of stables and a dressage area. I sat down and watch the wonderful horsemanship for a good half an hour before we went into eat. I loved the sounds and smell of it all.
          Something you never experience from TV.
          I only rode a horse (4 hours) once in SA I could hardly walk after. I did enjoy it all the same.

          1. So (© Cathy Newman), what you’re saying is that you dined on horse steaks.

          2. Nothing wrong with horse, if you can get it, I’ve a recipe for it Pot-Au-Feu De Cheval (Horse Stew). It’s very filling and, above all, very tasty and tender.

          3. I’ve eaten horse several times in France & Germany & always enjoyed it.

            I was just tweaking a tail.

          4. 😉
            Nope huge BBQ ‘d beef steaks, we had to bring the remainder home in ‘doggy bags’.
            I have eaten horse in Belgium after spending two weeks eating crap in Czechoslovakia in 1966. 😊

    2. Excellent, Conners! Bet that brought a smile to your face! And the Connemara’s 🙂

      1. Certainly did (can’t speak for the Connemara ). I was in a really good mood when I got home and, unlike yesterday, it lasted. I sat out in the last of the sun at the back of the house with a nice glass of red. Aaahhh 🙂

  58. Modern Life……………

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9aed0c09f26331fa72a474319ffa37fb46cafd2127412fff6018437aa69169f6.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e15736a9ae027152cf98562bb29dfa61dce6630b0d49cf8e2ace04b96274583c.jpg

    https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/100770534_3474835599210469_6043702301883891712_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&_nc_sid=110474&_nc_ohc=KX6EJIQAMUIAX_uwz-1&_nc_ht=scontent-lax3-1.xx&oh=e133a2a16914de5864da3fab09afb66e&oe=5EFAA122

  59. Singing hymns could spread coronavirus, minister suggests
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/31/singing-hymns-could-spread-coronavirus-minister-suggests/

    Singing hymns could spread coronavirus, a minister suggested yesterday, as he defended the decision to keep churches closed.

    Speaking at the government’s daily briefing, Robert Jenrick said that when places of worship reopen, he does not want to see “what we’ve seen in some other countries where large gatherings in places of worship, particularly because of the demographic in some faiths, because of singing hymns and so on which can lead to exhalation, can create particular problems.”

    O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing. Or not.

    1. I just came up to turn the ‘puter off – and saw this.

      What a ludicrous, unthinking, uncaring remark such as this shows is that NO ONE in the Westminster bubble goes anywhere near a church. If they did – especially the Prime Monster, churches would be open; priests ministering; organists changing their combinations and choirs singing.

      Ignorant fluckers – the lot of the in HMG. (And I post as a former Christian whose faith has totally evaorated – but still likes to go to church occasionally – for the peace and quiet and words and music.

      TTFN

      1. I’ve posted previously that the local parish is broke, and they’ve decided they need to sell the Verger’s cottage which has been my (admittedly rent-free) home for the last 15 years. Fair do’s – they’ve offered me a new contract for 5 years, which would add the cost of renting a local property to my meagre salary. If singing, and other church music – is banned (see Germany), I don’t see how they can make good their offer.

        I’m now seriously contemplating throwing in the towel, and heading back to God’s Own County (Cumbria – other blesséd counties are available), where rents are about a third of what they are hereabouts.

        1. I’m sorry about that, Geoff. That’s a right bugger.
          I always wondered why the C of E didn’t much care about Christianity, or ministering to people much. It’s like the civil service “management of decline”.
          Firstborn’s Godfatther, a vicar, says he is the last vicar in the Church of England that believes in God. He seems to be right.
          I hope the alternatives you get are better than present situation.
          And, in any case of doubt, Yorkshire is God’s own County – that’s why it’s the biggest!
          ;-))

          2. I’ll give you that, but Cumbria is the second biggest. And it has the Lake District, and Cumberland Sausage. There are still clergy at parish level who believe in God – but they’re few and far between. Our Rector is one. I’ll sit things out for the time being. The cottage should have been on the market on 1st April, I was told to expect estate agents around three weeks ago, taking photos, etc. At the moment, no-one has done a survey for an EPC (Energy Performance Certificate). It was valued at £700k before the lockdown. It may be that rural properties with gardens hold their value, since working from home is now a thing. However, I think buyers are likely to be thin on the ground, while most folk don’t know whether they’ll still have a job by Christmas.

            I predict that I’ll still be here…

          3. I know not what will eventually transpire, Geoff; just as long as you’re still here – in all senses!

          6. Whenever a second adjective is needed when describing superlatives, it only goes to demonstrate that the thing being talked about doesn’t hold the record for the first adjective.

          7. It’s to distinguish it from counties that have a coastline. We’re a land-locked shire county.

          8. Thankfully a Norfolk boy, now living in Suffolk but, all my life, I’ve wanted to be accessible to water.

          9. Having been born just about as far from the coast as possible, I have never been a great fan of the seaside, although I holidayed in Devon as a child and lived in Essex for seven years. Given a choice between a seascape and a landscape it will be the latter for me every time.

          10. A former workmate from that lovely county never tired of telling us all that fact.

          12. I think we need to discuss your assertions about “Cumbria”, Geoff. 😉

            For a start, are you from the traditional county of Cumberland, or next door Westmorland? [You will note that I am a traditionalist and tend to ignore the abominations of Ted Heath’s 1974 “realignments”.]

            As for size, the 1831 list of county sizes gives Cumberland as the 11th largest and Westmorland as the 29th. Put them together into the area now known as “Cumbria” and they still come up only in 4th place (after Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and Devon).

            Yes, I fully accept that the 1974 messing-abouts [sorry: “realignments”] made many counties bigger or smaller but that does not diminish the fact that many people still regard the traditional county boundaries as sacrosanct. That is why Rutland had to re-emerge from its unholy annexation by Leicestershire, and the East Riding was obliged to shed its silly transmogrification into “North Humberside”.

          13. ‘Evening, George, Biggest ain’t necessarily best; always remember (as I do at 6’ 3″) the bigger they are the harder they fall.

          15. OK, Grizz. I was basing my argument on the 1974 ‘messing about’. Something has changed – it seems that Cumbria is 3rd in terms of area, after North Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

          16. I think different generations of politicians will always mess about with tradition. Who knows what there will be in, say, 20 years time?

      2. Caroline played the organ twice consecutively today as mass was divided into two services so that there were not too many people in any one service. Being Whitsun people were especially keen to come to church after lock down.

          1. Churches (and other places of worship) were never locked up in France, so people could always go in for private prayer. All religious celebrations were banned. On 11th May, which marked the first stage of lockdown easing, religious celebrations were still banned but there was a loophole which a number of parish priests (including our local one) took advantage of, which meant that as long as there were fewer than ten people at any one time in the church, we could do what we liked – and so have a Mass, for example. In the meantime, several church organisations took the government to court saying that banning religious celebrations was illegal – the French equivalent of the Supreme Court, the Conseil d’État, agreed with this. As a result, we are now able to have our Sunday services but the rules are incredibly strict: for example, singing is allowed but as everybody has to wear a mask, the effect is rather muffled! I wear glasses which fog up when I wear a mask, so I can’t read the score, so I’m allowed to play mask-free. Bully for me!

          2. Good for you, Caroline. Meanwhile, the CofE hasn’t had a good crisis at all. I get the impression that the Anglican hierarchy will use this pandemic to close down the vast majority of church buildings. I hope Im wrong.

          3. What I fail to understand is why in the United Kingdom, with your established church, you effectively have far less religious freedom – and even tolerance – than here in France which is a pretty anti-clerical lay state! And we have more Musulmans than you – nearly 9 million according to the official figures, but probably more.

          4. The official Government guidelines were that places of worship should remain open, for solitary prayer. That wasn’t good enough for the likes of Welby: it was the Bishops who insisted that all church buildings had to be locked, and out of bounds even to solitary priests. The upper echelons of the CofE and Common Purpose, are indistinguishable…

          5. So, when the C of E exists in name only, what will these pillocks be doing? Emperors with no empire?

          6. Close 5 churches, sack the relevant bishop.

            I don’t suppose it would continue for long.

            Edit.
            That should read sack the irrelevant bishop.

          7. So, when the C of E exists in name only, what will these pillocks be doing? Emperors with no empire?

          9. Yer average vicar gets 3/4 of toot-all as pension – and loses their house (vicarage).

          13. Close 5 churches, sack the relevant bishop.

            I don’t suppose it would continue for long.

            Edit.
            That should read sack the irrelevant bishop.

          14. I have no reason to revise the opinion which I expressed here a few months ago:

            Welby is anti-Christ.

            He was specially selected by Cameron to destroy the Church of England.

          15. But, but, but … If my French friends are anything to go by, hating the musulmans does not bring down upon your head the wrath of plod.

          16. I just wonder when they reopen churches (if they do) how many of the old congregation will return. I expect a lot of people have been unimpressed by the way the upper hierarchy of the CoE has responded to this crisis. I only feel any loyalty to my local church, congregation and rector, not the CoE as a whole.

          17. Same here. The hierarchy seems to be greeniac SJWs. I don’t know what the new Bishop (of Chester) will be like, but I suspect he’s a greenie. At least he did say he was a Christian, so that’s a help!

          18. I do sometimes wonder about whether they really are Christian the way they welcome all and sundry other religions. Have any of them condemned Islam for the appalling slaughter of Christians throughout the world? I was only reading today another harrowing list of Christian persecution (https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/16080/persecution-of-christians-april) and I wonder how many in the CoE hierarchy would respond in this manner as recorded in that article: “[Islamic militia armed with machetes] came at night and knocked at the
            door. My father opened the door. They asked him why he had defiled their
            order of leaving Christianity and becoming a Muslim. He replied that he
            was raised in a Christian family, became a Christian and baptized in an
            Anglican church and he cannot convert to another religion. The
            Islamists threatened to kill him. He said that it is only God who knows
            the time of his death and if it is time for him to die then he is ready
            to die a Christian. Then they slaughtered him. I was in another house
            and I heard all that they were doing. When they had killed my father
            they left.”

        1. It didn’t get into the mainstream media, but recently a Turkish mosque in Ankara was hacked, and when they switched on the call to prayer, out came an Italian anti-fascist song!

        2. The imam (or whoever it is) is probably still in bed with earplugs while the wailing tape is being played.

        3. Not only acceptable, but coming to cities near you on a permanent basis after they’ve got the first lot approved.

          8. Shock, horror – when I’ve been in an Islamic country, I quite like it. Turkey, for example, It sort of underlines the fact that one is a long way from home. I don’t wish to hear it in the Surrey Hills…

          9. I liked Libya. Before the fighting started. Fine people, educated, calm and dignified – not like yer Egyptians, always trying to sell you a carpet or polish your shoes when you try to cross the road…

          10. Even their s*dding supposed musical call sounds like cats. They really have no idea that there are alarm clocks nowadays for those who wish to pray at unearthly hours. I would bet a lot that the imams are asleep during the morning wail.

          14. They’ve already hinted that the amplified Adhan – currently allowed in certain places due to the virus – will become a permanent feature.

      3. Music – haram, art – haram, Christianity – haram. We need to fight back.

          1. Was only thinking the other day that twenty-five years ago, nobody would have heard of haram, halal, hijab, burka, adhan, jummah, jihad, hijra, dhimmi, jizya, kuffar, boko haram, taqiyya, kitman and all the other nasties that Submission has inflicted on us. Now they are part of the language.

          2. Not my language, Conway, old troop.

            I’ll stick to English until I die, despite being intelligible in German, French and some Swedish. You can stick Arabic and its Muslim off-shoots where the sun don’t shine.

          5. Evening, Nanners (or rather ‘Morning – I flit on and off and that makes me late with some replies.

            How are you ?

  60. Second more deadly wave of coronavirus expected ‘to hit Europe this winter’

    Europe’s top WHO official warns that COVID could gang up with other lurgies and devastate Europe †

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/31/second-wave-coronavirus-uk-winter-peak-covid

    † OK, I’ve changed the words but the meaning’s the same…

    And following up behind:

    ‘A very dangerous moment,’ Deputy CMO says as he urges Britons to follow guidelines

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-furlough-self-employed-cases-deaths

    My message to the authorities: GET A ****ING GRIP OF YOURSELVES…

    3. Ok. So they are softening us up for the release of something more deadly, so we don’t have to wait for most of the winter to know that it is amongst us so that they can get on with their plans.

    4. How have the effing ‘They’ managed to work that out. Are they filling the muck spreaders again
      already ?

      We had a phone call from Perth WA this afternoon. All is well there. ONLY 100 people died from the virus in the whole of that huge country l.
      It makes you wonder what actually took place out of sight in Europe.

      1. ‘Evening, Eddy, and were ALL 100 infected with WuFlu, or was it other causes and just tacked onto the WuFlu deaths?

        1. I have no idea NTN.
          We are only told what the ‘THEY’ want us to believe.

      2. Entirely different geography and population (demographic and distribution). Much harder for the virus to spread.

          4. Mainly Melbourne, but also Sydney and a trip down the Great Ocean Road. I went there for the Race That Stops A Nation. I would have loved to stay, but unfortunately, when I was young enough to emigrate and was about to go, I met MOH and bought a house instead.

          5. Two years after we married I got up and opened the curtains and the sun was shining in i said this is the life let’s go to Australia. We were boarding the Chandris Line SS Australis at Southampton in November that year 1976
            Arrived in Adelaide via port Siad, Djubti and Freemantle after 6 weeks at sea. Lived in various locations over the next 4 years. Traveling almost all of the eastern coast. Towing our caravan with our 2 1/4 litre LWB Landrover.
            Loved most of it.
            My favourite part is WA.
            There’s so much to see and do.

          7. On application I was accepted for immigration by the Australian government because my building and construction qualifications.
            We were 50 pound poms.
            That’s all it cost us each to get to Adelaide. Sponsored by an old mate I grew up with.
            One of my work buddies and his wife followed us two years later they still live south east of Melbourne. All being well we’ll be with them again next September. Including a trip to the wonderful Philip island.
            And a week or more in WA.

          8. I was working for a mobile home company. We built the homes in a huge yard they were then transported to where the owners required them.
            They ‘went through’ bust.
            I found other work as a carpenter joiner. Also worked behind the counter in a builders merchants. I picked up some weekend work there.
            My wife was a secretary at Chryslers, until our son was born.

            I helped a couple of guys refurbishing an old run down cottage in North Adelaide. We barely covered our expenses. The housing market had crashed.
            The same tiny cottage would fetch more than one million dollars now.
            Sadly the wrong place wrong time eh.
            Came back to the UK broke and on a promise of taking over my uncle’s
            Successful building business.
            His partner vetoed that they split up over it. The business crumble the partner died. I stated fitting kitchens……..loft conversions extensions. Became a contracts manager. Suffered the slings and arrows etc etc. 😊

          9. I did like Perth on a Saturday night, make chauvinism was alive and well.

            I must admit to preferring Melbourne especially down in the Mornington Peninsular area. Lots of beaches, wine and golf courses, what more could you want?

          10. We spent an afternoon at the Swan yacht club on Melbourne cup day. I’ve never seen so much female underwear. 😃

        2. Of course, but they still have large population’s in the cities. And the suburbs of.
          The ‘first nation’ was especially isolated, apparently they don’t take a lot of notice of regulations.
          The state borders were closed off land air and sea and generally the population hasback lot more common sense and more respect for regulations than as we have experienced most of the people in the UK. And the worse effected country on earth.
          Something os distinctly wrong about that.

          1. Quarantine for 14 days on arrival, at a Government hostel with guards – not waiting until it’s almost over.

          2. Not here Obs it was DIY quarantine.
            One thing is for sure if our neighbours had returned from France they might have starved to death. There’s still at least a two week wait for food home delivery.

          3. My Mother has that problem. Can get a Morrisons delivery about every 2 weeks or so, but her local grocers, Valley View of Dinas Powys, will deliver – and take paid by international bank transfer! Hat-tip to them!

          4. “Of course, but they still have large populations in the cities. And the suburbs…”

            As densely packed in as some of ours?

          5. Some of our friends well over a thousand miles away from Perth in South East Victoria, have been telling us how super careful they have been with everything in their lives during the lockdown.
            It’s quite evident our authorities and a lot of our population have not been paying too much attention.
            Thus the rather tragic outcome.

          6. I think Oz was just lucky enough in preventing a lot of import of the virus and that where it did get in, it found it hard to spread.

            Here, we have very different living conditions and I suspect the virus was here sooner than thought and quickly spread. There is a growing opinion (outside government at least) that control of movement came too late to account for the peak and fall i.e. the virus just spread and then died out.

          7. From experience, I would say that the distance from Perth to South East Victoria is more like 4,000 miles not 1,000.

            Check it out.

          8. Yeh I know, I did say well over a thousand 😊 I couldn’t be bothered to check it. But it is a bloody long way.

          9. My daughter and husband, when they first went to Australia, based themselves in Bussleton in WA but felt so isolated, that they moved to ‘The Basin’ in Melbourne.

            They had such a downer on the idea of driving that 4,000 miles, so they put themselves, and the car, on the train.

            They tried farming out at Tarraville in Victoria, went bankrupt, moved up to the Brisbane area and found that too hot and currently, after bankruptcy spent, moved to Tasmania and have a hobby farm raising pigs and poddies.

            Chooks are no good as the Tazzy Devils take ’em out. Sylvia works for the tax people (AST) and Rich freelances as a qualified electrician. Youngest Granddaughter is now in College in Launceston – the Tazzy one, pronounced Lawn cess ton. They drive me mad with their mis-pronunciation but – it’s their country, who am I to cavil at that?

            Poddies – 10 week old calves to be raised to 10 months and sold on.
            Chooks – chickens.

          10. We stayed in Bussleton on our way back from Denmark (WA) we loved it. But as tourist it’s rather a different matter to making a living.
            On of my cousins lived just south of Perth when we arrived. They have moved up to north of Brisbane.
            Lots of farmers are ‘going through’ it seems that the government have been courting the Chinese as they are grabbing as much as mining can supply. A lot of ozzies are becoming angry about this.
            We struggled as well, it seemed that the economy has 10-12 year cycles we hit a low. Came back for Christmas 79 with our one year old son and tossed a coin.
            I went back to tidy up our belongings were spread between SA and Victoria. Sold everything I couldn’t get into the suitcase. And shed a tear as the plane took off from Melbourne.
            Arrived back in the UK absolutely skint.
            Tazzie has become more popular since the temperatures have risen on the mainland. Wine makers are setting up down there as well.
            Good luck to them I hope it all works out for them. 😊

          11. I think Oz was just lucky enough in preventing a lot of import of the virus and that where it did get in, it found it hard to spread.

            Here, we have very different living conditions and I suspect the virus was here sooner than thought and quickly spread. There is a growing opinion (outside government at least) that control of movement came too late to account for the peak and fall i.e. the virus just spread and then died out.

          12. It seemed to me that our authorities should have stopped all incoming flights and all arrivals by other methods.
            Allowing people to self isolate was a bad move.
            As things have transpired i don’t think most of them should have been trusted.
            It’s quite obvious many have been flouting the rules.

  61. Channel crossings will continue as long as illegal migrants are allowed to stay in Britain
    The business model for people smugglers depends on countries’ unwillingness to turn would-be migrants away
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/31/channel-crossings-will-continue-long-illegal-migrants-allowed/

    TONY ABBOTT
    31 May 2020 • 11:48am
    There are always people who are desperate to live in free and prosperous countries like Britain and Australia. Who can blame them; especially if they’re currently living in Africa or the Middle East? And why wouldn’t those who’ve made it to safety in France or Indonesia want to push on, to where they can maximise their economic opportunity? But not even decent and generous countries like Britain and Australia can give a new home to all who would like one.

    There has to be a limit to the number of newcomers that any country can accept: first, because large numbers of semi-skilled and semi-literate people either disappear into the black economy or become a burden on taxpayers; and second, because large influxes of very different newcomers, if sustained, change a country’s character. Some might argue that change is for the better. But that’s for a country’s citizens to decide; rather than have it forced upon them by foreigners who simply turn up and refuse to leave.

    The risk with the trickle of people-smuggling boats now making their way across the English Channel is that it might quickly become a flood. That’s what happened in 2015 when more than a million people crossed the Aegean or the Mediterranean, or pushed across borders into the Balkans, insisting on a new home, regardless of the rights of the people of Europe to control their own destiny. Even now, despite literally thousands of deaths at sea, yet-more-thousands are still pouring across the Med, because they know that if they can get to Europe they can stay there. As long as “to arrive is to remain”, people smugglers will have a business model and those countries that lack the will to say “no” are at risk of peaceful invasion. This is the prospect that faces Britain, if swift action is not taken to stop people coming illegally by boat.

    This is the prospect that faced Australia when I became prime minister in 2013. Our sea border had become porous because my predecessor had dismantled earlier arrangements that denied illegal arrivals permanent residency. From just a few hundred illegal boat people in 2009, by July 2013 almost 5000 had arrived in a single month. Under the people smuggling rackets then operating, people would fly to Jakarta, board a repurposed fishing boat, get picked up by our navy, claim to be refugees, and swiftly gain welfare benefits in Australia. Between 2009 and 2013, more than a thousand are thought to have drowned; but more than 50,000 bought a new life for themselves in Australia at the cost of about ten thousand dollars each.

    To save lives, it had to stop; as well as to regain control of our borders and to keep our self-respect as a country. So instead of rescuing people who had no right to come here, and bringing them to Australia, my government instructed the navy to intercept boats, to escort them to the edge of Indonesian waters, and to leave them with just enough fuel to return from whence they’d come. And when the people smugglers scuttled their boats, we had unsinkable orange life rafts to put them on board for the trip back to Java. Sometimes, would-be migrants had to be kept on Australian ships till it was safe to send them back. The Indonesians didn’t like it but it was, after all, their inability or unwillingness to stamp out people smuggling that had allowed this humanitarian disaster to develop. When refugee advocates claimed that what we were doing was illegal, we simply obtained different and better legal advice. And besides, how can it be wrong to save lives at sea by denying the people smugglers a product to sell?

    This is the fundamental truth that policy makers in Britain need to understand. To stop people from setting out for Britain in unseaworthy boats, you have to ensure that they never arrive; or that if they do arrive they are swiftly sent back. Especially if people setting out for Britain in overloaded dinghies are going to be rescued and taken where they want to go, the boats will keep coming; even though no one has a right to set sail from France to demand a new life in Britain; and even though the French have no right to wave-on their problems to Britain just because they are unwilling or unable to control their own borders.

    Plainly, this will require a degree of determination and planning on Britain’s part. The French may not like to hear “they shall not pass” from Britons, even though “ils ne passeront pas” is a resonant phrase from their history. Still, in the long run, this is for France’s good too; as the only way to clear the camps in Calais is to ensure that none of their occupants can ever get across the Channel and stay.

    Tony Abbott is a former prime minister of Australia

    No comment needed.

    1. I didn’t realise how cute ferrets are until an old boy on the guided bus produced 2 out of a bag & entertained us all the way to Cambridge.

  64. Messages about the change in the law for organ donation haven’t gone down so well with the BAMEs.
    I heard two on the radio today discussing whether it is ‘haram’ and that many BAME people wouls not agree with donation.
    Simple.
    Introduce a law which states ‘you don’t give, you don’t get’ so that anyone found needing transplant surgery is only offered this treatment if they are already on the donors’ register.

    1. Y’all want any part of me when I’m dead, feel free. I won’t be needing my body, so help yourself!

      2. Can I have your liver? I’ll have it with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.

      3. I’ve already donated my body to medical science – I felt that some medical students needed a chance for a laugh!

    2. Yo Sid

      We take the organs ie liver heart, etc without stunning them ie no annythetics

      Whats good for the cow is good forr Ali

    3. Oh you can just see the hand wringers accepting that idea.

      They will start by claiming that its everyones right to receive transplants, then move on to saying that the plan is unworkable because some people are too I’ll to be donors. The last excuse will be that they didn’t fight the germans so that they could carry ID cards showing their transplant status.

          3. Sorry, Devonian in Kent, for the long pause – i needed a rest and fell asleep.💤

  65. Friend in Omaha has just messaged that State of Emergency has been declared and National Guard are out.

        1. Interesting to see Trump plans to add Antifa to the list of terrorist organisations.

        2. Strange but some of the media here are discovering quite a few right wing types involved in the looting and rioting as well as the lefyty nuts.

          It seems fairly well balanced – left or right, black or white , they are all at it.

          1. Do they have left and right signs on them. How do they know? It not exactly black and white is it!

          2. Convenient that people don’t have left/right tattoos isn’t it. That way everyone can make assumptions and point at the other group. Do many of these young people actually belong to a political party or even vote?

            Would anything get the Trumps and Pelosis of this world to work together towards their national good?

          3. Mostly Shite Media (MSM) would say that, wouldn’t they – God Bless Mandy Rice Davies.

          4. Apparently police have been targeting press and firing tear gas at them today. A CBC reporter was hit with a tear gas shell yesterday, a US reporter has been blinded in one eye after tear gas was fired at her from close range.
            There is yet another video of police violence where they repeatedly tasered two people who were doing no more than sit in their car. The excess violence was so bad that the now ex officers were immediately fired.

            I suppose that is all OK as well, blame it on the left wing media. Anything but accept that golden boy should be playing a role in calming the situation.

    2. Do you mean that the State of Nebraska has declared an emergency and etc. ?

      1. He said Omaha with 8pm curfew and it violence he thinks blacks rioting. Hopefully let you know if it’s Nebraska in a while.

      2. He says it’s in Douglas County, Omaha. He lives in the adjacent county.

          4. Longer stronger, thicker quicker, deeper harder, cream?
            Available at all good health shops.

    2. Well that sums it all up quite nicely Sue.
      I’m off as well, to bead my rook.
      Spoonerism.
      Night all. 😴

    1. If the police would stop shooting and otherwise using excessive force on black suspects, none of this would be happening. At least the Minneapolis cop has been charged with murder – most get away with it. But, I suppose kneeling on a suspect’s neck for 9 minutes is hard to talk one’s way out of.

      Sadly, however the black community is very much their own worst enemy, as what should be civil rights protests always rapidly descend into burning down buildings and looting. Back in 2015, a similar event (death by cop) took place in Baltimore, and the local drug store was robbed and burnt down. Followed closely by complaints that the community did not have a drug store and how were people supposed to get their prescriptions filled?

      1. The appropriately named Mr Chauvin will be tried by a white judge and a white jury – and, in one bound, will be free as air.

        You read it here first.

        1. That’s what happened out in LA some years ago. The defence argued the cops could not a fair trial in the city, so it was moved to a very white suburb. Except the cops involved were then hit with Federal civil rights charges and promptly convicted. Since the Feds are investigating the Minneapolis incident, I bet Federal charges will be filed. Mr Chauvin will go down for a long time one way or another. They may even charge all four cops present, since none of the others took any action to save the guy.

      2. Good job that there aren’t riots every time there’s a brutal murder by a black of an innocent white. Or, indeed, no riots each Monday in Chicago in protest at the weekend’s black-on-black count.

    2. It rather suggests that they never learn/are incapable of learning, and it also suggests King’s dream is unlikely to be experienced in many lifetimes.

        1. If it had been a black cop killing a white perpetrator do you really believe the reaction would have been the same?

          1. I think a lot of white rednecks would have gone out n*gg*r hunting with their guns.

          2. 100 years ago, possibly. Now, I doubt it.
            And I very much doubt the rednecks would trash their own neighbourhood.

          3. Only in the South. Last bad incident was a couple of them towing a black guy by his feet behind a pick up until he died.

          4. No, but there’s no history of excessive force by black cops on white guys. Especially, if the guy’s only issue was that he was under the influence.

          5. Um… I thought the original complaint was from the store and that Floyd was using forged $20 bills.

            The under the influence appears to have been reported as a result of the autopsy, which has suggested that the kneeling was not the cause of death, but contributory.

            When Chauvin gets prosecuted on too high a penalty and gets acquitted Rodney King is going to look like a cake walk.

            He also complained he couldn’t get into the police car because of claustrophobia yet he was originally sitting in his own car.

          6. No, but there’s no history of excessive force by black cops on white guys.

            Isn’t there? What makes you so sure? But perhaps whites behave better (on average) when stopped by the police?

            Of course they have to, no one is going to burn down a city if they (whites) are shot. Whether they’ve committed a crime or not, they had better be on their best behaviour. And cops know this, thats part of the current narrative – to make cops think twice (or more) before enforcing the law against non-whites especially blacks. Shooting whitey? No problem.

        1. Apropos mischief…

          There was a young lady from Thrace
          Whose corset would no longer lace.
          Her mother said, “Nellie!
          There’s more in your belly
          than e’er went in through your face.”

      3. America is an ex colony and we took all those slaves from Africa there. They really all wanted to come to England on small boats crossing the English Channel escorted by French Navy and the given a lift to England courtesy of our Border Farce (sic).

      6. America is an ex colony and we took all those slaves from Africa there. They really all wanted to come to England on small boats crossing the English Channel escorted by French Navy and the given a lift to England courtesy of our Border Farce (sic).

    1. Cathy Newman asks:

      “So, are you saying that all black people should be launched into space”

      1. What a good idea – they already think they live on another planet, let’s make it so.

        Since they’re so far up it, Uranus seems favourite.

      3. There was a popular joke in the early sixties that by the year two thousand, half the world’s population would be living on the moon. What do half the world’s population have to say about that? “Me no wanna go massa”. Hate speech.

    2. The root cause of our racial problems is the fact that whites have given in and ceded the moral high ground to blacks who have absolutely no justification for occupying it.

      Crimes and sins which white people commit are not excusable – but why should we allow different standards to apply to others?

    1. Johnny, see a bit earlier in this thread for her rendering of Mozart’s ‘Exsultate’.

  81. Why not require anyone who wants to escape lockdown and associated State control to sign a disclaimer stating that they absolve said State of any responsibility for them? Of course that means no financial aid or NHS care, but hey ho…

    2. Are you suggesting that the current arrangements are satisfactory and that opposition to them is wrong?

      1. No. I’m just saying people should have a choice, but with that choice comes conditions.

    3. If they pay for healthcare they should get it, without the need to be controlled by the State.
      The NHS doesn’t refuse to treat people who engage in sports, greediness with food or other non-taxed risky behaviour.

    4. Bit harsh on those who’ve paid lotsa dosh into the NHS and pensions over the years.

    1. All I can see on your clip is a man spouting poetry. Is he George Gershwin’s grandson? I was hoping to hear the opening clarinet glissando.

  84. So when Donald said ”when the looting starts, the shooting starts”… he actually meant on camera !

    Antifa was already infiltrated by law enforcement.

    1. I watched the previous vid but it seemed just like a lot of argy bargy. How do they get the DNA?

      1. They collect anything the target has touched including masks, headgear, gloves, tin cans.. you name it..

  86. Carlos Osweda is amazing, you wanna know what’s going on behind the scenery… read Carlos !

  90. The COVID-19 virus, the way it cleaves to the ACE-2 enzyme throughout organs in the body and the devastating consequences it can have by messing up the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in people depending on their genetic makeup.

    https://youtu.be/W1k1sUoLPlA

    This is an excellent video production that clearly explains why we all react so differently to this SARS-COV-2 virus.
    Of particular note is the observation that those people on ACE Inhibitors or AR Blockers for blood pressure control have displayed moderated symptoms resulting from the viral infection.

    Finishes with an overview of the virus transmission routes that make the virus so infectious.

    2. TTP has been recorded as a significant feature in COVID-19 infections which are characterised by systemic blockages in small blood vessels compromising the functionality of muliple organs.

      It is suggested that the genetic factors of Black African and Caribbean people make them more susceptible to TTP.

      Some studies reported cases of thrombocytopenia, but hardly any studies mentioned how the virus [COVID-19] causes thrombocytopenia. We propose several mechanisms by which coronavirus disease 2019 causes thrombocytopenia to better understand this disease and provide more clinical treatment options

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7156897/

      Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) can be a severe and life-threatening disease characterized by microangiopathic hemolytic anemia, thrombocytopenia, and organ dysfunction.

      Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a severe form of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) characterized by a profound thrombocytopenia, erythrocyte fragmentation and organ failure of variable severity. TTP results from an excessive systemic platelet aggregation caused by a severe deficiency in ADAMTS13….

      Black African and Caribbean people are overrepresented in TTP registries [9–12], suggesting the involvement of specific genetic risk factors

      https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4934773/

    3. A common denominator of complement‐mediated effects in TMAs is endothelial dysfunction and microvascular thrombosis. Recent evidence suggests that the same is true also for COVID‐19 infection. Indeed, pericytes with high expression of angiotensin‐converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) are target cells of COVID‐19 resulting in endothelial cell and microvascular dysfunction. Since heart‐failure patients have increased ACE2 expression, they are expected to be of high risk of cardiac injury due to COVID‐19.7 Similarly, ACE2 is highly expressed on podocytes and tubule epithelial cells of the kidney, whereas a recent study has suggested viral tropism for the kidney.8

      https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjh.16783

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