Wednesday 10 June: Keeping schools shut will do lasting damage to an entire generation

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/09/letterskeeping-schools-shut-will-do-lasting-damage-entire-generation/

910 thoughts on “Wednesday 10 June: Keeping schools shut will do lasting damage to an entire generation”

        1. Sky News has 99 pictures over the last 99 years.
          I would rather have his top 99 gaffes ……….. some were truly awful but then again many were really funny!

          3. When he was a child he didn’t know whether to be on the Indians’ side or the cowboys’ and he never learnt which ones built the better wigwams.

    1. Some kids are working at home and succeeding.

      Yesterday my 15 year old granddaughter had a message from her Maths teacher. The message read “That’s the Nat5 (=GCSE) coursework finished for the exams next May. We will be starting Higher Maths (=AS Maths) but you will also be given exercises to keep the Nat5 coursework fresh in your mind.

      A bog standard comprehensive school – just a good cohort of boys and girls getting on with the work.

      She has her mind made up about the future direction she would like to take – the first steps are to do well at school and then university.

        1. My granddaughter is working hard at school – neighbours’ kids on either side are the same age, same school and have done sod all in the last 10 weeks. Business as usual for them – they both attend school regularly but do very little whilst there.

          My granddaughter has little to do with them as they have no interest in bettering themselves or their education levels. There could be an improvement as they were reasonable at primary but 15 year old white boys show no interest – their parents hand out everything to them.

          All 6 of my grandkids get handouts from their parents and the grandparents BUT it is results based, behaviour based, work done etc etc

      2. That’s heartening. There seem to be very uneven responses across the nation.

        1. My two grandchildren went back last week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. This week they are back every day. However, my granddaughter is unhappy because the parents of a couple of her friends are not allowing their children to return. Granddaughter is in Year 6 and will be leaving this school at the end of term and will not see these friends in a school environment again. Grandson is so laid back he’s almost horizontal and is not all miffed that some of his mates are not returning this term. He’s been doing his two hours a week additional coaching via the internet and really enjoys learning.

          1. I hope the refusenik parents aren’t taking the children on holiday. That is illegal.
            But it’s fine to keep them cooped up in their bedrooms.

          2. Granddaughter is off to start at St Mary’s in the new term. She will find new friends there, I’m sure, and maybe parents with a little bit more backbone.

    2. Maybe now all those parents who complain that teachers have an easy time of it, with short working days and long holidays, will learn that the job is not as easy as they thought and shut up.

  4. SIR – I always spell necessary correctly as I know that I am wearing one collar and two socks.

    Carol A Forshaw
    Bolton, Lancashire

    A lifelong friend of mine was asked how to spell ‘necessary’ when being interviewed for a shorthand typist job at Buck Ho. The interviewer (a Guards officer in an immaculate Savile Row suit topped with a bearskin “Birthday Parade on Saturday – got to get used to carrying the weight of this thing”) commended her on giving the correct answer.

    She explained “My mother always taught me that it’s one corset and two suspenders.” She got the job (and a wealth of funny stories that followed)

    2. Never Eat Cucumber, East Salmon Sandwiches And Remain Young. That one still goes through my mind when I type the word.

  5. SIR – I worked in the Health and Safety Executive for many years. One of the myths we often encountered was that “safety is paramount”. But safety can never be paramount. Is is a factor in human endeavour, and an important one – but still just one among many others.

    The human race has always pushed boundaries and taken risks. Driving, for instance, is a dangerous thing to do – yet we still do it because we have made the decision that the benefit is worth the risk. Even staying at home is not risk-free. So when I hear teachers saying that schools must be “safe” before they start teaching again, I know that this is simply an excuse for doing nothing.

    Dr Hugh Anderson
    Liverpool

    2. I wonder how many of these teachers (and parents) who want schools completely safe also went on the recent protest marches??

      1. Areas with Labour controlled councils are those predominantly against reopening.

        1. That’s strange. Perhaps they don’t realise they are missing out on propaganda time 🙂

    3. Spot on, Dr Anderson! Watching the teachers’ unions ducking and diving as they search for yet more excuses not to return is one of the outstanding low points in the pandemic, when so many have worked so hard to keep the place going. They have been aided and abetted by a weak government, which seems not to care one jot about the loss of education for our youngsters. ‘Leave without pay’ should have been introduced at the first sign of reluctance. What could they have done…strike??

      ‘Manners – ‘Morning, Citroen.

  6. There are some giggles here…

    The only man who calls the Queen ‘cabbage’: From the night he sneaked into Clarence House after a boozy blowout, to his fondness for Mary Berry… here’s 99 things you’ll be amazed to learn about birthday boy Prince Philip
    *
    *
    *
    82 Told in Ghana that the country had 200 Members of Parliament, Philip replied: ‘That’s about the right number. We have 650 and most of them are a complete bloody waste of time.’
    *
    *
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8404165/Boozy-blowouts-Mary-Berry-99-things-need-learn-birthday-boy-Prince-Philip.html

    1. If you must put a woman purporting to be a letterbox on a plinth, for goodness sake do the decent thing and paint her black.

    2. You need to re-read Boris’ Telegraph article on the burkha, Citroen. Despite his claim that it makes a woman look like a letterbox, he argued that women have the right to wear what they choose to wear.

    1. We were taught this at primary school, although it was about the baby Jesus and the tune as I recall was a little different.

      :-))

    2. Best to stay at school then, Bob3. It seems that you are more likely to die from a lightning strike than to die of Covid-19.

      :-))

  10. Let’s face it we’re lost,the long march through all the institutions is complete,law media civil service police army judiciary the bloody lot and there is not a single politician let alone a party with the courage to stand against the baying mobs and say “the emperor has no clothes”
    Dt today those seeking to defend our cultural icons are “Far Right (of course they are) or Football Hooligans” while the vandals are “brave protestors”
    This only ends one way and I am reminded of the concept if the agents of the state come for you be they gestapo or nkvd if they are forced to fear for their lives at every encounter never knowing if they will return home alive after oppressing the populace they wont be so keen
    (I think it’s Solzhenitsyn)

  12. Morning all. Depressing times.

    SIR– You report (June 9) that “schools may remain shut beyond September”.

    The risk of children infecting adults or indeed one another with Covid-19 is acknowledged to be extremely small. The damage being done to children educationally, emotionally and socially by keeping them away from school is beyond calculation. Even accepting that social distancing is likely to be impossible in most schools, the price that children are being required to pay by being confined to home is now too high.

    It is imperative for their future, and the future welfare of our society, that all schools reopen by September.

    Giles Slaughter

    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    SIR – I cannot believe it is beyond the wit of those in charge to get schools up and running again, as has happened in other countries. One obvious solution might be to split classes and have, say, 15 pupils in the morning and 15 in the afternoon.

    The summer holidays should be jettisoned so that pupils can catch up, with a one-week holiday before the beginning of September.

    Patsie Goulding

    Reigate, Surrey

    SIR – Why do people think education and the economy are different?

    Until schools are prepared to take children off our hands, nobody will properly be able to get back to work.

    Charlie Rigby

    Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire

    SIR – The debate over schools is mired in fear – for students, teachers and those back at home.

    However, the reality is that, outside school, groups of teenagers are assembling on bikes, in parks and at beauty spots, with no social distancing or concern for the rules. Parents and teachers must know this to be the case.

    David Coverdale

    Leeds, West Yorkshire

    1. SIR – As I was on my daily walk yesterday, I heard a sound that was music to my ears.

      It was the sound of children enjoying themselves and shouting at each other in the school playground.

      Liddle Stokoe

      Ashtead, Surrey

      1. children enjoying themselves and shouting at each other in the school playground.

        There is downside to eveything

        The procession will soon start past our house,

        2 or 3 kids running wild
        Two ‘ladies’ walking behind, each pushing a push chair with the stomachs (that is plural for each)
        Mobile in left hand at left ear
        Vapour faag in right hand

      2. Liddle Stokoe risks being put on a register for the rest of his life, and any effigies of him in the town square torn down and burnt at the stake, for daring to suggest he finds music in the voices of children.

        As we all know, Safeguarding requires children to be locked down in their bedrooms with smartphones silently listening to the “poetry” set to the goosestep beat of those who worship American gangsters because they are black and therefore have rights.

    3. I have a message for Patsie Goulding. It’s not beyond their wit. They simply don’t want to do it.

  15. Guardian stands by cartoon of ‘bull’ Patel
    The Guardian will not remove a cartoon that portrayed Priti Patel as a bull, despite her describing the image as racist and offensive.

    The illustration, by cartoonist Steve Bell, depicted Ms Patel and Boris Johnson with horns and rings through their noses. It remains on the website.

    In the Commons on Monday, Ms Patel spoke of being portrayed as “a fat cow with a ring through its nose, something that was not only racist but offensive”. Ms Patel is a Hindu.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/09/george-floyd-protests-funeral-houston-donald-trump-black-lives-matter/

    Now if a Muslim had been portrayed as a pig…

    1. Depicting the bovine Home Secretary as a bull was gratuitous, insulting and in poor taste (and possibly anatomically incorrect), as would depicting a bunch of Islamic clerics as the pigs in ‘Animal Farm’, but such is the way of knockabout political point scoring.

      Surely the targets of such abuse have better things to get worked up about?

    2. Depicting the bovine Home Secretary as a bull was gratuitous, insulting and in poor taste (and possibly anatomically incorrect), as would depicting a bunch of Islamic clerics as the pigs in ‘Animal Farm’, but such is the way of knockabout political point scoring.

      Surely the targets of such abuse have better things to get worked up about?

      1. She was getting “worked up” because a Labour MP accused her in Parliament as not really caring about racism.

      1. It’s the hypocrisy.
        The point being, that no cartoonist, particularly a Grauniad cartoonist, would dare to portray the current London Mayor as a pig.

        1. Journalists, and I use the term loosely, are too far gone to be hard-nosed, impartial and fearless. They have to follow the policies of their employers, pandering to the chatterati.

      2. Yes – but you do not answer Aeneas’s point. Would the Guardian or Steve Bell dare to portray a Muslim as a pig?

        1. No. I do agree that any offence against muslim”sensitivity” would bring the police around our ears.
          Funny old world. Who would have thought that the Danes would stand up for free speech while we kneel before crazed hooligans?

          1. In the UK free speech is limited to what the state agrees to. It is NOT free.

            All the weak kneed nonsense of apologising for posters that state a fact “Woman: Adult human female” shows the terror of appearing fractionally against the mob – and it is the mob. A braying, illiterate, stupid, racist bunch of thugs.

            Bullies should be stood up to, not indulged. Not blasted knelt before.

      3. The Guardian would never have published a cartoon of a Muslim depicted as a pig, and even if they had, they would have rushed to apologise – that’s the difference.

    5. SELECTIVE INDIGNATION

      [This phrase is relevant to virtually all MSM asnd politicians every new day]

    6. One rule for one, one rule for another.

      Was the Guardian not up in arms over Charlie Hebdo’s portrayal of Muslims?

  16. SIR – If the Prime Minister wishes to encourage electric cars (Business, June 8), he should concentrate on providing refuelling infrastructure, rather than a scrappage scheme.

    Last year I bought an electric car, but was obliged to sell it as the lack of charging points around the country made the vehicle unworkable for me.

    Charles Cooper

    Southwold, Suffolk

    2. What a berk you are, Charles Cooper. A couple of minutes on the interweb would have told you, very clearly, that the number of recharging points is woefully inadequate…

  17. SIR – With regards to the pulling down of the statue of Edward Colston (report, June 8), some wise words from Éamon de Valera, the former prime minister and president of.of the Republic of Ireland, should be remembered.

    Asked by a German journalist why they were sitting in a room in Dublin Castle surrounded by the portraits of viceroys who “oversaw Ireland’s oppression”, he replied that they were part of the long history of Ireland and should not be forgotten.

    Robin Mathew QC

    Little Barrington, Oxfordshire

  18. This is how it must have felt before WW2 with the government giving in to the bully boys.

  19. Good moaning.
    Maybe better brains than mine can work out how, in these circumstances, an animal becomes unconscious if it is not stunned: a paragraph in response to my signing the petition to ban non-stun slaughter in the UK.

    “Where an animal has been subject to religious slaughter without stunning, it is not lawful to shackle, hoist or move it in any way until it is unconscious. Systematic checks must be carried out to ensure that animals do not present any signs of consciousness or sensibility before they are released from restraint and do not present any signs of life before undergoing any further processing. Slaughterhouse operators must have Standard Operating Procedures in place that specify the actions to be taken if an animal still presents signs of life.”

    “The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Ban non-stun slaughter in the UK. ”.

    Government responded:

    The Government would prefer all animals to be stunned before slaughter but respects the rights of Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their beliefs.

    Council Regulation (EC) No. 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing makes it an offence to cause any animals avoidable pain, distress or suffering during their killing and related operations. In particular, animals must be stunned properly so that they are unconscious and unable to feel pain during the slaughter process. In this legislation, the only exception to the rule that animals must be stunned before slaughter is where animals are slaughtered in accordance with religious rites.

    The Welfare of Animals at the Time of Killing (England) Regulations 2015 (WATOK) implement and enforce Regulation 1099/2009 and contain stricter national rules which provide greater protection for animals at the time of killing, including for religious slaughter.

    Where an animal has been subject to religious slaughter without stunning, it is not lawful to shackle, hoist or move it in any way until it is unconscious. Systematic checks must be carried out to ensure that animals do not present any signs of consciousness or sensibility before they are released from restraint and do not present any signs of life before undergoing any further processing. Slaughterhouse operators must have Standard Operating Procedures in place that specify the actions to be taken if an animal still presents signs of life.

    National regulations on religious slaughter have a long history. Religious slaughter was first debated in Parliament in 1875. The Slaughter of Animals Act 1933 introduced a legal requirement for stunning of animals prior to slaughter, and contained an exemption where animals were slaughtered for specific religious communities. Over the years, the rules governing religious slaughter have developed to provide additional protection for animals slaughtered in accordance with religious rites and have maintained the long-standing exception for Jews and Muslims to eat meat prepared in accordance with their religious beliefs.

    Animal welfare is monitored and enforced in all approved slaughterhouses by Official Veterinarians of the Food Standards Agency. They will monitor that all animal welfare requirements are met to ensure that animals are spared avoidable pain, distress or suffering.

    The Government is currently engaging with religious communities and other stakeholders on issues relating to religious slaughter, including meat traceability and minimising non-stun slaughter volumes.

    Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs”

    1. The Government is currently engaging with religious communities and other stakeholders… Usual fob-off.

    2. The Government would prefer all humans to be stunned before slaughter but respects the rights of minorities to eat human flesh prepared in accordance with their beliefs.

    3. In New Zealand, all animals must be stunned before slaughter, including those destined for their halal markets:

      “In New Zealand there is no exemption to the requirement for pre-slaughter stunning, unlike in some other countries. Halal slaughter requires that the animal dies from the “halal cut” to the throat, i.e. that the pre-slaughter stun is not powerful enough to kill the animal.”

      https://tinyurl.com/ya87wfyn

      If it’s good enough for NZ’s customers, why not for UK Moslems? Rhetorical!

    4. In New Zealand, all animals must be stunned before slaughter, including those destined for their halal markets:

      “In New Zealand there is no exemption to the requirement for pre-slaughter stunning, unlike in some other countries. Halal slaughter requires that the animal dies from the “halal cut” to the throat, i.e. that the pre-slaughter stun is not powerful enough to kill the animal.”

      https://tinyurl.com/ya87wfyn

      If it’s good enough for NZ’s customers, why not for UK Moslems? Rhetorical!

  21. Hi everybody (because it’s not morning everywhere)

    The Italians at one time were suffering the greatest rates of global COVID infection and yet their country is accepted to be amongst those with world class health services.

    Now it transpires that Italy is leading the world in COVID immunity levels – the abandoned original herd immunity policy of the UK Government and the frowned on policy of the Swedes.

    Perhaps the whole human race has become enslaved by a greater power – that of nature, whether it be as the great architect intended or by the consequences of our meddling with the original drawings.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/09/half-people-tested-italys-coronavirus-epicentre-bergamo-have/

    1. ‘Morning, Angie, time to bring on the Pale Horse.

      A real, worldwide, bubonic plague, where the results are grotesquely visible, should be enough to put the world to rights again.

  22. Good morning everyone.
    I’ve been reading about garden gadgets, and spotted this ‘woke’ product review :
    “Jeremy (verified owner)
    I’ve already bought my wife a washing machine and a lovely self-loading and emptying (or so it seems to me), dishwasher. So now she’s got so much time on her hands I bought her this battery chainsaw. It’s really good, the 140 is a slightly better battery and lasts a bit longer. I got the additional battery so she can keep on going a bit longer, as I don’t like to run out of fuel for the wood burner. The firm were great getting it to us before Easter. Good service as usual. Katy’s over the moon with it. I just need a heavy log splitter for her now.”

    1. I worked for a farmer when I was 20. He was only a year older than me, and took over the farm when his father hung himself in a barn. We were talking about women and our preferences. He said that the No.1 attribute he was looking for in a farmer’s wife was that she could weld.

      1. I have the greatest respect for farmers. I always try to watch farming programmes on TV.
        “Hideously white” aren’t they.
        They all deserve far more praise and recognition.
        Instead they are slagged off by the left wing loonies.

        1. We need to remove their subsidies and encourage a system that ensures that they are paid for their produce. Prices for milk and dairy and meat products need to increase.

          1. Perhaps when and if we ever actually escape from the grips of the EU mafia we will have more money to assist our own farming communities instead of paying subsidiaries to French small holdings.
            Most of our farmers have had to invest in some forms of diversity to survive. Many have been forced to sell land which had been used to build homes for migrant families who don’t seem to be contributing to the economy.

          2. Farming subsidies have existed since WWII.
            In an ideal world, farmers would receive no taxpayer help; however, given sensibilities towards animal welfare (in this country – not towards imported food) they just cannot produce what is demanded at a price people are prepared to pay.
            I now look upon farming subsidies as an insurance policy; the world does not have to supply Britain with cheap food.

          3. That’s true. However a move towards a market where goods are priced at above cost in a way to both give the farmers a fair return and minimise the burden on taxpayers would be desirable. We need farmers to stay in business and make farming sufficiently attractive for succeeding generations. We don’t need to make them all rich.
            I remember seeing on TV a farmer with a very big arable farm making no bones about having been made a multi-millionnaire by subsidies. He said that the subsidies were on offer, so he accepted them.
            In the Borders the farmers are all pretty well off. As well as huge gleaming brand new farm machinery the men have Range Rovers and the wives have Audis. Of course, the farmland of the Merse is some of the best in the UK.
            The stories about “poor farmers” are about hill farms with a few sheep. The farmers have been reluctant to take on the supermarkets regarding pricing (e.g. milk). It is very difficult certainly, but not impossible.
            It should be kept in mind that EU subsidies have a large political influence. If the EU wants money to go to Greece a subsidy is offered for olive oil etc.
            UK farmers got subsidies for borage some years ago. (?)

          4. ‘Afternoon, Horace, “UK farmers got subsidies for borage some years ago.

            Presumably they don’t get it any more, so that is why I have to put up with mint in my Pimms when borage was traditional when I was young(er).

        2. There is a brand of foodstuff called “The Black Farmer” – pretty good it is.

      2. Our daughter who is a vet, married a farmer in the Borders. Apparently, she is the “wrong sort of vet” but useful at lambing time as she has very small hands!

      3. I believe one of Dudley Moore’s wives was called Tuesday Weld – but I expect he had others for other days of the week such as Blow-torch Thursday and Solder Saturday.

      1. I’ve never been starry eyed about the police; their job was dealing with the dregs of society and I have no doubt that corners have always been cut.
        However, they are now merely a political force, obeying the latest societal fad rather than reasonably dispassionate upholders of the law.

    2. Good morning, Anne

      Everything has been delayed or cancelled except Armageddon which has already begun.

    3. Thank you, Anne.

      I quote: “The police should never feel afraid to enforce the law. What’s more (although I can cite no hard evidence) I’m convinced that the majority of ordinary people actively want a more rigorous, determined approach to keeping order in our public spaces and protecting the legitimate freedoms of us all”.

      You are so damned right that we want a more rigorous, determined approach and we want it NOW.

      We need some leadership from our elected Government and not ‘behind the sofa’ (© Our Anne) cowering.

  24. SIR — Will statues of anyone connected with slavery be removed? If so, will all statues of Romans disappear? They were slave owners par excellence.

    Al Marsh
    Farnham, Surrey

    Hear, hear. Let’s knock down Hadrian’s Wall and free the Jocks.

    2. In Colchester we have a plethora of Roman artefacts and history. We have hundreds of yards of wall standing many feet high, an imposing gateway and a museum stacked with all manner of Roman collectables. To add insult to injury we also have a large Norman keep that was built using the Roman rubble from the old town, the keep houses the museum. The town has a Saxon church with a square tower constructed from the same Roman rubble as the keep. The red tiles/bricks are the giveaway, they have lasted close on 2,000 years. Were the building materials mined and fabricated by slaves and therefore fair game for the anarchists? The Romans were slavers of the first order and the Normans effectively enslaved the conquered population for centuries. Must these monuments to English history be sacrificed to appease a minority group any, or all of whom, could bugger off and find a more agreeable country to live in. Good luck with that.

      1. You’ve forgotten the lead sarcophagi; I’m sure no free Roman mined lead.
        And you are right; I doubt the average serf noticed the fine line between his position and that of a slave.

        1. I think lead (and other) mining was reserved for the worst criminals, but probably also required a lot of slave labour. Essentially it was a death sentence.

  25. The BBC are still reporting that the riots were “largely peaceful”.

    2. Yet, if Tommy sneezed, he would be reported as

      ‘Intentionally trying to spread Covid to a group of innnocent BAME men, as they left Court’

  27. In some parts of my town a company has appeared, set up barriers and started digging channels in the pavement and laying a green coloured plastic pipe. The logo on the barriers protecting the work says “social connectivity”. I don’t know if it’s for broadband or electric charging points for cars. I think the Vans have SCP but as I was on my bike trying to negotiate what was left of the road space I had to concentrate on my cycling.

    2. Green ducting normally is cable tv/broadband, gas is yellow, electricity is red, water is blue and BT used to be grey.
      Of course, these days it could all be changing to black.

      2. Recently contractors dug up the road leading from the electric substation to the planned access road to a new estate of 150 homes. The ducting was black and about 8″ in diameter. Haven’t seen any gas, water or communications contractors in the area. I suppose that each will arrive in turn and make their own excavations.

          1. The excavation started in a lane which is a cul-de-sac, has only a couple of properties but does have a large sub-station. I assumed that the duct would be taking the mains feeds to the new estate. I don’t think the main sewage access would be there but rather in the main road that runs between two estates.

            I’ve already had a discussion with one of the local councillors over the safety aspects of crossing this main road as all the schools, shops, bus stops are on the other side of the road to the new estate. She answered promptly but the decision of the safety aspects reside with County. Their missive the councillor emailed to me was very unilluminating.

          3. ‘Afternoon, vvof, the local council’s decisions are generally just the contents of black ducting.

        1. It is amazing what one can pickup in a life’s journey.
          Of course, most of it is useless trivia. 🤔

          1. vvof – I think I have picked up a lot of common sense but usually too late.

      4. Red presumably from the days when the live wire was red (now it’s brown – how topical).

    3. If the duct wasn’t very deep it was probably broadband/cable TV, which my son informed me is always very shallow just below the pavement. Other utilities have a regulation minimum depth.

      1. A few days ago, I was looking at just such an arrangement beneath the pavement running outside a neighbour’s house.
        What surprised me was the sheer thickness of the cable piping.

      1. The Conservative Party committed suicide when it got rid of her, Everything of value that the party might once have possessed – integrity, wisdom, honesty, morality, steadfastness, truth and principle died with her departure.

        No wonder the filthy left-wing scum triumphed and celebrated when she died.

        1. There’s been no one like her since. She did far more for lower paid people than any Labour PM ever did.

        2. I actually met her, in Baku of all places, at their first Oil Fair back in 1992. Got to shake her hand… never washed mine since.

        3. If I start listing the shiites who were responsible for that, my head would explode.

    5. Who the hell was responsible for organising Mrs Thatcher to be interviewed on television by such a cretinous dim blonde?

    6. Maggie swaying like a cobra about to strike. She used to spit venom at the Left at TP conferences.

    7. I’m a bit surprised at the ‘ni’ (vous) form in the subtitles. Nowadays everyone says ‘du’ (tu).

    1. Hope all these people aren’t Oxford students, isn’t it supposed to be the cream that floats to the top there.

    2. The ‘knee bend’ is just one knee away from Ali Snackbar goin to prayer

    3. Any chance of seeing whole article please? Part that I can see looks promising.

      1. Here you go, VOM.

        Why Dame Cressida Dick must fall
        The one thing both Government and police fear more than civil unrest is an accusation of racism

        ALLISON PEARSON
        9 June 2020 • 7:00pm

        Here’s a puzzle for you. How can police caution two grandparents and tell them to leave their son’s garden because they have exceeded the permitted gathering of six people when over 15,000 protesters were allowed to pack Hyde Park in response to the brutal death of George Floyd in the United States?

        How is it that grief-stricken relatives are not allowed to attend the funeral of a beloved uncle because it is against the law, but furious youngsters get a free pass as they deface the statue of Winston “is a racist” Churchill?

        How does Housing Minister Robert Jenrick keep a straight face when he says reopening churches will have to wait because the “exhalation’ during the singing of hymns is a problem? And I suppose, Mr Jenrick, that scores of protesters pursuing Met officers, as they beat a frantic retreat down Whitehall, don’t present an exhalation problem with their foul, four-lettered, airborne oaths?

        Donnez-moi un break!, as the old Boris was wont to exclaim. In the Orwellian lockdown we now inhabit, “Holy, Holy, Holy (Lord God Almighty)”, which congregations should have been singing at full throttle on Trinity Sunday, is banned because it allegedly presents a danger to public health. Yet, on that same Sunday, there was no limitation on gleeful, expectorated cries of “F— the police!”

        Churches, it turns out, are in the bottom category of “the most dangerous and least important services” along with beauty salons and pubs. (Funny, they would be in my top 3 most important.) Even though C of E services are so sparsely attended that social distancing is a poignant fact of Anglican life. Meanwhile, if you fancy assembling a throng to hurl bottles into Downing Street or push a bicycle into a horse – please step this way!

        That, ladies and gentlemen, was the deeply troubling double-standard in law enforcement which we witnessed over the weekend. As it happens, I admire many of the young people who took to the streets to show solidarity with their black friends and neighbours. The young, not being calloused by cynicism, feel injustice keenly and, if you think racial injustice no longer exists in this country, well, that’s because you’re in the wrong (or right) colour skin.

        I also think the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston should have been taken down years ago and put in a museum where it belongs. Colston transported 100,000 men, women and children from Africa to America and mislaid 20,000 on the way. No one should have to look up to that.

        But none of this means it’s OK for the police to turn a blind eye to criminal damage. Superintendent Andy Bennett of Avon and Somerset Police explained that arresting protestors, as they grappled with Colston’s statue, “would have caused more disorder and disruption”. He understood “the frustration and anger many Bristolians have felt towards the statue over the years”.

        It may come as a surprise to Supt Bennett, but the police are not paid to moralize or empathize, they’re supposed to enforce the law. A fear that you may provoke protesters further if you attempt to restrain them is not enlightened law enforcement, it’s a green light for anarchy.

        Things were no better in London where we saw a collapse in Metropolitan policing standards. “Officers displayed extreme patience and professionalism throughout a long and difficult day,” said Commissioner Cressida Dick following scarcely believable scenes of frightened coppers running away from gleeful demonstrators.

        Coppers I saw in the melee who looked more like traffic wardens than riot police. Dame Cressida seemed to neither allow her officers to defend themselves or provide enough PPE to guarantee their safety. Thirty-five suffered horrible injuries as a result, betrayed by their PC boss.

        In the Commons, Priti Patel went some way to restoring public confidence when she vowed to bring violent “thugs” to justice. Still, the suspicion remained that the one thing both Government and police fear more than civil unrest is an accusation of racism. The rules on social distancing apply to everyone, or none at all.

    4. I wonder what would have happened if that Brazilian electrician her officers murdered has been a PoC?

      1. Maybe the backlash from that incident taught her to appease rather than act decisively.

    5. London is being wrecked by people like her and Kahnt.
      Politics never was and is certainly not part of their remit.

  33. Just had a painter and decorator round to do some work on the house..

    Couldn’t believe that he’s currently a furloughed British Airways Pilot.. Made a lovely job of the landing…

        1. One of the charge nurses at Severalls used to drive a hearse on his ‘off’ shift.

          1. Hmmm. The good old days. When no one suspected Santa of being a child molester. Or nurses of selling research material?

      2. Village posties also had plenty of time to moonlight, three I worked with finished their rounds in no time at all.

    3. As I said to Horace, last evening, Philip, when he posted that, “In Lockerbie they still leave the landing lights on.”

    1. The analogies have hit NOTTLers.
      Throw into the mix Florence under Savonarola, England when feverishly The Stripping the Altars and France and Russia during and after their revolutions.

  35. The Sultana made a good point when we were discussing stuff this morning. The “rich slave traders” did not erect the statues and memorials. These things were put up to honour them as benefactors to the community. These people now being denigrated created employment locally (no irony intended) and paid for the building of halls and utilities.
    When we tear down their memorials we dishonour those who erected them. Our forebears.

      1. I was going to type – On a currant topic, Boom, Boom – but I thought better of it.😎

    1. Too true… Last week, in Paris, there was a demonstration against dairy farmers, claiming that milking cows was “cruel”.

      https://www.lefigaro.fr/flash-actu/des-militantes-seins-nus-denoncent-le-calvaire-des-vaches-laitieres-20200605

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/161890b7104e5b4a6205cbced1e98429bc4809c4f4ed078548cd1352be8ab2ec.jpg

      For those of you who do not speak French, the placards say “Not your mother, not your milk” and “Wean yourself” – a close play on words in French with “Help yourselves”.

  38. Good morning all. An interesting and balanced article from the Free Speech Union (no comments allowed by the Telegraph!):

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/09/sake-free-thought-civilised-debate-rhodes-must-not-fall/

    My own view, for what it is worth is that such statues belong in a museum. I can understand that as a black person, it would be offensive to see a statue which celebrates the life of a person who was involved in the slave trade. Moving it to a museum seems to me to be a reasonable compromise. That way, those who wish to see it can do so, schoolchildren could be educated about the history of the slave trade (and the good work which was done as a result of it) but it is not in a public space.

    Instead, we have mob rule where a statue is torn down. We have seen in the past few days that the rule of law has broken down in this country and the police apply the laws selectively and politically. Troubling times.

      1. Well said. Have any of the BLM protesters heard of the Barbary Pirates? Do they know that African tribes dealt in slaves for centuries and sold their own people to the white slavers?

        Britain did profit from the slave trade. But Britain did more than any country to abolish slavery, because it was understood that it was a crime against humanity. It is the one-sided view of history that annoys me, the idea that whitey has only committed evil in the world and we have to be held guilty for our sins forevermore.

        1. “Britain did profit from the slave trade.” Please prove it. Prove the extent of it. Where are the figures? Has anyone calculated the numbers?

          1. Are you saying that we didn’t profit from the slave trade? I doubt that anyone has exact figures, and I am not suggesting that all of Britain’s wealth and success is based on the proceeds of slavery (as BLM probably would). We had a part in the Trade, but in terms of historical time and numbers of slaves it was small compared to African and Arabs. We did more than our fair share to stop it, at great cost of blood and treasure to the Royal Navy.

          2. I know about our heroic efforts to suppress slavery as I’ve posted on that in the past, a number of times.
            Where is accurate information on the profit made? I’m not saying one way or the other. The situation now is that this is an accepted fact, yet there is no proof ever presented.
            My thinking is that slaves were expensive and did not like work, so the ROI is problematic.
            I would suggest that the profits were made as a result of sun and rain and soil as sugar and tobacco and cotton grew well when cultivated. Any contribution to this by slaves would be marginal, and needs to be separated from the work done by those indentured on the plantations, that is the Irish, Scots and others, who did know how to work.
            Where are the numbers!
            You say “I doubt that anyone has exact figures” and I say that is nonsense. The figures are there in old ledgers, invoices, papers, letters. I have seen a photo of a slave invoice, by clicking on Google, never mind delving into old records. I have no doubt at all that proper management accounts could be compiled. The barrier is simply that historians do not do numbers.
            And the present mood is such that to search for truth would be racist, I suppose. But don’t say that there are no figures. Businessmen are not historians. They record numbers. They eat, sleep and breathe numbers. Numbers are their guide to success, back in the 18th century as well as now!

          3. From an African tribal chieftain’s point of view, the slave trade was a wonderful way to make money by shipping off political rivals, useless members of subdued tribes who weren’t good slave material plus all the criminals, thugs and general ne’er do wells.
            No need to keep useless mouths to leech off the local economy.

          4. As well as the surplus offspring of parasitic relatives and the like. “M’Bungo, ma deah, deah, nefew, you is goin’ on a long ‘n excitin’ trip…”

          5. I would be surprised if slavery figured highly in the profit. It was the industrial revolution that produced the profit. If Rome hadn’t had such a huge supply of slaves, the industrial revolution might have taken place under Rome. It could be argued that slaves act as a disincentive to wealth production.

          6. Just so. The raw materials came from the bounty of nature: cotton, tobacco, sugar.
            Slaves were in British ownership only in the West Indies, after the American Revolution. Presumably not big numbers.

      2. Tell Sadiq Khan that the founder of his religion enslaved people. ‘The Perfect Man’.

      3. Just recently, Yazidi women were captured and sold as sex slaves. No word from the men, because they had all been marched off and slaughtered.

    3. In a cultural revolution, all statues are removed and all history books are destroyed. The past is erased.

      That looks like Britain’s future.

  39. Scheduled on Toady at 08:10am, Chris Patten (in his capacity as Chancellor of University of Oxford) to talk about Rhodes statue. He’s a fully paid-up luvvie so it might get interesting as he squirms.

    1. Yesterday I read somewhere (might have been here) that when the Rhodes statue issue first came up Oriel college’s benefactors threatened to withdraw funding and the issue was dropped, or as it now appears, put on the back-burner. Take the knee or face financial problems and possibly ruin: difficult choice. Not.

  40. Morning again

    Remember the guy who seemed to have been pushed and fell and was filmed with blood oozing from an ear? It looks staged now I have looked closer. He holds on to his mobile ,crosses his legs and something comes from his right ear.

    1. Lost the link,he’s a professional leftard protestor with over 300 arrests to his credit

      1. Reminds me of Lady Maud Lynchwood baring her breast when being arrested for protesting on ‘Blott on the Landscape’. Interestingly, in real life they took it out on the building featured in that scene, the Market Hall in Ludlow, which was demolished soon after.

    1. How does BLM value the lives of 59 Nigerian Christians in comparison with one American gangster? Do we get to hear of the funerals of all 59, along with their emoting families on the Today Programme, even though both Nigeria and the USA are both former British colonies and should have equal newsworthiness?

  43. The latest globalist cuckoo in the UK’s top nest is very quiet.

    I wonder if he was offered a sweetener to approve Hong Kong 2 UK ?

  44. Nicked

    Tens
    of thousands of monuments erected in Africa by white men must be torn
    down and destroyed because they are a constant reminder of colonialism
    and oppression.
    These include:

    Schools
    Hospitals
    Roads
    Airports
    Dams
    Water treatment plants
    Power stations
    Factories
    Farms
    Breweries
    Food processing plants

    These
    monuments were designed, built and paid for by white people and their
    very existence is an affront to the black people who are forced to see
    and use them every day.

    3. I’m amazed; I didn’t realise any were still standing, let alone functioning.
      I thought they’d all been destroyed or left to rot during the past 60 years.

      1. Yes, Twinings from now onwards. I find that they’re part of Associated British Foods while Yorkshire Tea is privately held.

        1. This is becoming like shopping at Lidl or ALDI. Restricted choice makes life easier.

      2. Do the idiots not understand that one can think that black lives matter without condoning or approving or supporting the anarchist political movement called Black Lives Matter.

        I thought people from Yorkshire were noted for their common sense!

      5. Yup,get woke go broke I’m never buying their tea again
        Besides tea itself is racist,all us racist Brits adding milk and spoiling that black purity……………..

        1. Good morning Rik.

          I wonder if this will prove to be their
          ‘Ratner’ moment?

        3. You may laugh, but hideously white milk is a racist issue actually…I’ve just read an awful left wing light novel, that tried to make out that only white people can digest milk, and they inflict it upon the 70% or so of the world that can’t digest it…yes, white oppression again.

          This monstrous lie ignores of course the millions of Africans who can digest cows milk, as well as the large number of white people who can’t!

      6. Yep. If you don’t support BLM, don’t buy their tea, said YT. Get woke, go broke, hopefully.

  45. School canteens to re-open for lunches under strict social distance rules and reduced menu –
    Two metre soup only

    1. Give the little dahlings 2 yards of ale & let them sleep all afternoon.

      Job done.

  46. Good morning all

    Sorting through a few old children’s books recently , Enid Blyton’s adventures of Noddy, I guess she was onto something when she featured the Golliwogs chasing Noddy in his car!

    1. I remember being driven through some ghetto in Kingston (or was it Mo’bay?), Jamaica & the car’s being chased.

  48. UK extremists ‘exploiting gaps in law to push their agenda’. Wed 10 Jun 2020 00.01 BST

    Extremists are exploiting gaps in existing laws to push their agenda, such as peddling antisemitic coronavirus conspiracy theories, a former counter-terror chief has warned as a major review of current legislation is launched.

    A former assistant commissioner for specialist operations at the Metropolitan police, Sir Mark Rowley, has been asked to lead a review to examine whether existing legislation adequately deals with “hateful extremism”

    Just disposing of the last shreds of Free Speech!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/10/uk-extremists-exploiting-gaps-in-law-to-push-their-agenda

  49. Chicago sees most violent day in almost 60 years as 18 are killed in city. 9 June 2020 • 7:44pm

    Chicago suffered its most violent day in almost 60 years when 18 people were killed as rioting and looting broke out amid the George Floyd protests.

    The fatalities figure on Sunday 31 May was the highest on record according to the University of Chicago Crime Lab, which has been tracking the data since 1961.

    Among those reportedly killed was a man paying his cell phone bill, a high school student and a visitor from Washington DC seeing his family for the weekend.

    It obviously needs depolicing lol!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/09/chicago-sees-violent-day-almost-60-years-18-killed-city/

    1. When can we expect the mass protests and the wall-to-wall coverage on British TV to mark the injudicial killing of these three?

    2. I didn’t ever hear of anyone rioting over the death of Tony Timpa in 2016 following restraint by police in USA. Hard to imagine why it attracted so little attention!

  50. Four years ago in the largest democratic decision in the history of the UK the people voted to leave the EU. Immediately, the PTB went into overdrive to stop the decision being implemented and four years on we remain in the grip of the sclerotic and corrupt EU.

    A matter of days ago and 4,000 miles away a serial criminal was killed by a police officer and as if by magic a movement arose consisting of a few thousand anarchists. This band of thugs and virtue signallers then paraded in London causing mayhem and attacking the police while in Bristol a mob of vandals wrecked a grade listed statue while the police, by their own admission, stood by and did not intervene.

    Worse was to come as the sight of politicians, police, including the most senior ranks, ‘taking the knee’ in obeisance to the anarchist mob became public. A more unedifying and shaming spectacle is hard to conceive. Now we see that In a matter of days, with no democratic mandate from the people, changes are being mooted to set this Country on a course of, as proposed by a caller to LBC yesterday, correcting history, an Orwellian statement if ever there was one.
    Think on this: a democratic decision vehemently denied for years and a very public surrender in days to anarchists and thugs by our supine ‘leaders’. This is what the UK has become. Where are the people to drag this Country from the edge of the abyss?
    Rant over.

    1. Morning KK

      Your rant is justified , many sensible people are in shock re the recent events .

      Our police force appears to be led by common purpose brainwashed fools .

      How can we be racist defending our own country and history from being demolished and threatened by subversive thuggery .

      Who will defend us from Marxist thuggery ?

      1. The police had no problem in bashing pensioners over the head during the peaceful Countryside march.

      2. 319933+ up ticks,
        Afternoon TB,
        Certainly NOT the lab/lib/con coalition party they have proved that over the last 4 decades getting worse on a daily basis, these last two decades
        should leave none in any doubt.

      1. You are not wrong, Kaypea. I really do not know what our ‘leaders’ are thinking of. Surrendering to the mob, and it wasn’t that large a mob, is unforgivable. One can only conclude that many in authority sympathise with the mob and that the electorate have been conned. If this isn’t the time for a new party to arise that supports the British way of life then there never will be a time.

        1. This is the sort of situation where a ‘Man of Destiny’ arises.
          Weak ‘leadership’ leads to these situations.
          Edward the Confessor was a weak king = warring Godwins followed by William the B’stard. Henry VI was mad and weak = Tudor accession after a period of relative, but edgy peace.

          1. Is now the time for Nigel Farage to reemerge like a revitalised phoenix as it is absolutely clear that no existing political party is either capable or interested in governing the country properly?

          2. Could be, Richard, start the ‘WAKE’ party ( We All Knew Europe) to startle the woke, half-asleep lefties.

          3. 319933+ up ticks,
            Afternoon R,
            You are still calling for the circle line political authors IE the road to nowhere
            but defeat.
            When you should have been calling for
            peoples of the “Road to freedom” author & ilk.
            You still trust a serial back knifer of great magnitude.

        2. 319933+ up ticks,
          Afternoon KP,
          We had, at long last a pro UK party under the leadership of one Gerard Batten for a year, he showed what real leadership consisted of.
          To repeat myself, he asked the membership for £ 100000 to get the party out of the red & received £300000,
          he added 14+ thousand raising daily, to the membership all in a year then stood down as agreed, he then put his name forward for leadership election only to be rejected by the UKIP Nec as “not of good standing” within the party.
          UKIP represented the British way of life
          for 28 years and no one as a patriotic
          leader done it better than Batten.
          Gerard Batten, A man for ALL reasons.

      2. It’s made me angry.

        Angry that these thugs are using force any dissenting voice opposing their racism a racist

        Angry that the state seems complicit in their thuggery.
        Angry that the basics of cause and effect – a life of criminality leading to arrest and death are ignored.
        That the facts are being utterly distorted because they don’t suit the narrative – black men are responsible for most violent crime, especially against other black men (most stabbings in London are carried out by black boys).

        There are genuine, real issues we need to discuss – where this criminality comes from. It needs to be discussed – rationally, openly not a thuggish rant by spoiled, privileged, indulged wasters wanting to destroy a society they clearly hate and seek to destroy yet has given them everything they could ever want on a plate.

        Genuinely, I believe if the Left were given their own planet they’d destroy it once they tore each other apart.

    3. Yours is no ‘rant’ but a reasoned and supported by observable fact description of past days we have all witnessed. Where is our government? Indeed is there a government? What has begun with statues will not end there. Libraries – already partly purged by activist librarians, art galleries similarly afflicted by tendentious interpretations, school curricula – could they be more biased? – social events and memorial occasions, the flag. Nothing would be free from scrutiny and censure; a craven elite won’t make the mistake of consulting the indigenous populace for its views. Are we then just to stand mute, inwardly fuming?

    4. Purging history has been at least forty years in the making. First, the Blob got hold of education and stopped teaching history or Christianity. Now that they have a large number of ignorant people, and migrants from other countries, they feel emboldened to make their move to re-write history.
      I doubt Khan is only motivated by left wing spite – once the statues have gone, Britain’s Christian heritage will be next.

    2. The film for which Hattie McDaniel became the first African American actress to win an Oscar (Best Supporting Actress).

  54. Apropos the national disgust at the abysmal quality of present day police chiefs in the UK, please permit me to show how fortunate I was when I first became a police constable back in the early 1970s. My chief constable, Sir Walter Stansfield, was just about as far away as it is feasibly possible to get, both as a chief of police and as a human being. I still salute you, sir.

    This is a resumé of his career, posted privately by a fellow ex-officer:

    Sir Walter Stansfield CBE MC QPM CPM CstJ (Croix de Guerre – France)

    My first contact with Sir Walter was as a police cadet in 1977. I remember having the job of taking up his papers into his office at the beginning of the day from reception at HQ. He always used green ink* in his fountain pen. I was the cadet Federation representative and asked him questions about the role of the cadet corps at a Federation meeting. He had an aura of authority about him at all times. Some of you may remember his welfare officer. Major O’Hara/O’Mara? He was a colleague from the war and I would love to know more of his history. Anyone know anything? I knew he lived at Alderwasley towards the end of his life and I decided to try and find out more about his life and career. This is some of the preliminary research as I have been amazed at his life and what he achieved.

    [*All officers were obliged to write in black ink; all supervisory ranks used red, the chief constable alone used green]

    General History

    Sir Walter Stansfield had a portrait at Force HQ displaying the medal ribbon of the Military Cross and the French Croix de Guerre avec palme. The French award the Cross of War is an equivalent to our Military Cross. He was awarded one with palm leaves. Sir Walter Stansfield served as Chief Constable with the Derbyshire Constabulary from 1967-1979, in that period he would have had two DCC’s Francis Hulme (1959-1976) David Parkinson (1977-1979) and three ACC’s, Leslie Bowers (1966-1976) Godfrey Rayner (1961–1977 ) and Alf Mitchell (1975-1981).

    Sir Walter’s tenure as CC came just after the commencement of the Derby County and Borough Constabulary, which had come into force in the April of 1967 on the amalgamation of the County and Borough Forces. Prior to his move to Derbyshire, he was Chief Constable of Denbighshire Constabulary from December 1964 until October 1967 (records show that Denbighshire had strength in 1965 of 302 officers, it would later merge with other local forces, eventually ending up as part of North Wales Police).

    Walter Stansfield was born on the 15th February 1917 in Brighouse Yorkshire and was educated at Heath Grammar School in Halifax from 1928-1935 but also in Chartre France. This schooling in France would lead him to his military career. On the 2nd April 1939 he joined the West Riding Constabulary as Police Constable 1393 and was stationed at Wakefield. Following the start of the Second World War, he enlisted into the Royal Artillery, leaving the force in August 1942, he trained at an OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) as cadet 14264922, before being promoted at the end of his training to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant 302309 Royal Artillery.

    Special Operations Executive (SOE)

    In the dark days that followed the fall of France a new volunteer fighting force was hastily improvised to wage a secret war against Hitler’s armies. This force was called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) and their mission was sabotage and subversion behind enemy lines. Sabotage meant blowing up trains, bridges and factories whilst subversion meant fostering revolt or guerrilla warfare in all enemy and enemy-occupied countries.

    During the war, Stansfield was recruited into the SOE (Special Operations Executive) Created in July 1940, with the role of conducting espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in occupied Europe against the Axis powers, and to aid local resistance movements. SOE was a clandestine department that few people were aware of. To those who were part of it or liaised with it, it was sometimes referred to as “The Baker Street Irregulars”, after the location of its London headquarters, or “Churchill’s Secret Army” and “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”. Its various branches, and sometimes the organisation as a whole, were concealed for security purposes behind names such as the “Joint Technical Board” or the “Inter-Service Research Bureau”, or fictitious branches of the Air Ministry, Admiralty or War Office.

    On July 16, 1940, Prime Minister Winston Churchill appointed a civilian, Hugh Dalton, to be SOE’s political master and then promptly ordered him to ‘Set Europe Ablaze!’ Bold words indeed from Churchill considering that his newly formed SOE only had a few agents in the field and no effective wireless communications. Sir Walter was recruited into the Free French section of the SOE (Special Operations Executive) by Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas. Wing Commander Yeo-Thomas was known by the code name White Rabbit having been parachuted into France in 1942 and surviving behind enemy lines for 18 months organising factions of the French resistance groups. He was captured by the Gestapo in March 1944.

    For months, Yeo-Thomas was subjected to the most terrible forms of torture including forced drowning and resuscitations in baths designed by his captors in order to tap into his encyclopaedic knowledge of the French resistance. He had developed many of the Jedburgh groups operating in France and his information and secrets were vital to the war effort. He was sentenced to death and was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp. His story is detailed within an amazing book called The White Rabbit by Bruce Marshall. He was awarded the George Cross and appointed to the Legion D’Honour.6 members of the SOE were awarded the George Cross, 4 posthumously. More information on this incredible man can be read via the link. http://nigelperrin.com/soe-yeo-thomas.htm#.Wk6jJ01LHIU

    He managed to smuggle a letter out of the concentration camp anticipating his death the next day and it is an incredible document detailing his struggles and thoughts as he prepared for his execution the next day.

    James Bond Connection.

    This smuggled letter has only recently been declassified. It was interpreted and processed by Ian Fleming as he and his brother were serving operatives in the SOE based in London at this time. Sir Ian Fleming later found fame and fortune by writing the James Bond books. The character Q as the Quartermaster is taken from life and I have access to a copy of one of the Quartermaster manuals issued to SOE operatives in 1944 offering them items of secret equipment to benefit the war effort.

    Special Operations Executive (SOE)

    I am fascinated by the human story behind these heroes and heroines and wanted to find out more about how they operated and functioned. Operatives came from all walks of life including some adept at safe breaking and burglary! The training they received was amazing and in-depth. Weapons were specifically designed for use by SOE staff for hand to hand combat.

    The Imperial War Museum has a permanent exhibition illustrating the SOE and some of its specialised equipment. These included silenced weapons that looked like tubes that operated by being placed against the skin of the victim. Some of the gadgets and gizmo’s designed for war use. They are amazing pieces of ingenuity. Carborundum grease was specially designed and dropped to the resistance. It contained minute abrasive particles and its use inadvertently by the German troops servicing a train carrying tanks is thought to have saved over 15,000 allied lives. Two 14-year-old girls using bicycles swopped the grease in its storage near a station. The German train and its contents were delayed by 3 days arriving at the front line. This type of simple but incredibly effective guerrilla warfare turned the tide for the allies.

    Sir Walter’s War

    He was sent to Tangiers in North Africa were on the night of June 13th -14th 1943 together with a French agent and wireless operator they were dropped by parachute near to Severac-le-Chateau in France. Other agents involved in the mission were René Dinomais and Edouard Pays together with another agent called Bernard Weil. This was an Inter-Allied (multinational) Mission, of which a number were sent out in 1944 – the object was to act as liaison with the existing groups on the ground and provide arms and support etc. He returned to the UK in October.

    SOE Training

    I have been able to access his wartime training record from the National Archive held at Kew Gardens and a separate file held at the Imperial War Museum devoted to staff who served in the SOE with distinction. His language skills were exemplary as his father had a furniture business and he was schooled in France. He, therefore, spoke like a native.

    It is clear that he was not a natural parachutist from his trainer’s comments but he was applauded for keeping his obvious fears under control. He excelled at language and agent craft and quickly fell into roles where he took the lead of the groups who were operating together as a team. He was criticised by one trainer for spending too much time writing letters to his wife and new baby. Interestingly, one of the more senior instructors saw this as a very positive trait and remarked as such within the training file.

    For the next three months, he was to play a leading part in organising and arming resistance groups in the Aveyron area for mounting guerrilla actions on German troops and supplies. His orders were to prevent or delay Axis re-enforcements reaching the Normandy landing areas and the south of France for the August landings. His code name was Commandant Hubert.

    French Citation

    His task was to support the local Marquis around the town of Severac le Chateau on the Southside of the Massif Central. His exploits became legendary although he was shy to talk about them after the war. He was decorated by the British with the Military Cross and by the French with the Croix de Guerre with Palm. The specific French citation reads –

    Republique Francaise. Guerre 1939-1945.

    Mention in Despatches.

    Stansfield (Alias Choeur) – Major in the British Army)

    An officer remarkable for his energy, daring, judgement and patriotism. Parachuted into France in Aveyron at his own request at the beginning of 1944, deputised magnificently for the Departmental Military Delegate, organising several Maquis and directing personally sabotage and attacks against superior enemy forces. Took the place of the Departmental Military Delegate killed by the enemy, ensuring direction and essential liaison until the New French Military Delegate was parachuted, contributing powerfully to the general re-organisation of the Department. This citation carries with it the award of the Croix de Guerre with Palm. Given in Paris 1st.September 1947. Signed Paul Ramadier.

    Military Cross

    This major award was made for a series of linked actions over a prolonged period working behind enemy lines. In one ambush action that he led 53 Germans were killed and 21 captured. His men stole 3 lorries and destroyed the remaining convoy of vehicles. Only 1 man from his force died in this action. In another action over 50 enemies were killed and a tank and an armoured car were destroyed.

    I have read the debriefing paper that he wrote describing his efforts and it is incredibly understated and fact-based. His analysis of the political situation in the areas of his operation was superb. Key amongst his actions were those that took place around the town of Severac, a small town in the Aveyron department of Southern France, where Stansfield was parachuted into France on the night of the 13th-14h June 1944, roughly a week after the D Day landings in Northern France. Sent as part of an SOE Jedburgh team, his mission was to organise Marquis ( resistance ) groups and personally direct sabotage and attacks against the Germans, in addition, he had to replace the Departmental Military Delegate who had been killed in action, he is shown as working on the RF Section of SOE.

    Stansfield was awarded the Military Cross for his wartime exploits, as a Temporary Captain RA, this was ‘gazetted’ in the London Gazette on the 21st June 1945, in an issue of the Gazette which contained other SOE recipients of gallantry awards, including Francis Cammaerts ( DSO – Distinguished Service Order )

    In 1947 France awarded him the Croix de Guerre Avec Palme, a medal roughly equivalent of the Military Cross.

    Post War Years

    After the war, Captain Stansfield served with the Control Commission in Germany and between 1946 –1950 he was seconded to the Special Police Corps there.

    Take a moment to consider this for a minute…… Having undertaken this amazing work he was then tasked with taking over the policing and reinstating democratic order to Berlin immediately after the war. The black market was rife, many scores were to be settled and weapons were abundantly available. This has got to be one of the greatest policing challenges faced by anyone in the 20th century. Following the end of the war in Europe Stansfield was employed in the Allied Commission for Germany, the post-war commission set up to ‘Police’ Germany after the cessation of hostilities, as an acting Lieutenant Colonel he would later be the senior British police officer in Dortmund Germany in 1947.

    As usual, he was successful and then demobbed back to the UK where he rejoined the West Riding Constabulary as a constable.

    In 1956 he was detached to the Colonial Police Service in Cyprus where he reorganised the force structure and investigated terrorist’s offences involving EOKA. Stansfield can be next seen working for the Cyprus Police (under British colonial rule from 1878-1959 ) the London Gazette 5th June 1959 shows his award of the Colonial Police Medal (CPM) as ACC of the Cyprus Police Force. He would then return to Denbighshire 1964-1967, prior to joining Derbyshire.

    He was promoted to the rank of C/Supt in 3 years before returning to the West Riding force in 1959 attaining the rank of ACC.

    He then became Chief Constable of Denbighshire Police before being demoted to DCC as this force amalgamated with West Yorkshire.

    He then took over as CC for Derbyshire. He was president of ACPO for 3 years and was a massive supporter of the unit beat policing model that was introduced nationally.

    In an interview done for Police Review he was asked about his policing ethos. He was asked if he could give his officers one thing to make lives easier what would it be and he replied, “A corkscrew and bottle opener, as this was the thing that his staff were asked for most in the county when visiting the beauty spots of our great county.”

    He oversaw the moving of the police headquarters from Matlock to a more central position at Butterley Hall, Ripley. This gained land where a large and flourishing training school was built. This training establishment was used by most police forces in Great Britain and during the 1970s & 1980s also regularly hosted students from other countries.

    In March 1974 he became a Serving Brother of the Most Venerable Order of Hospital of St John of Jerusalem and in the same year a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. He supported the training of police officers in first aid and many staff won high honours using skills in this area.

    Walter Stansfield was Derbyshire Chief Constable for eight years; he would go on to obtain the following awards:

    QPM (Queens Police Medal) LG 14/6/1969

    CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ) LG 28/12/1973

    MstJ (Serving Member Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem) LG 11/6/1974

    Knight Batchelor LG 29/12/1978 *

    CstJ ( Commander Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem ) LG 18/12/1980

    [*now serving as Chief Constable of the Derbyshire Constabulary]

    He prosecuted Princess Anne for speeding on the M1 (96mph in a 70mph limit). He also garnered controversy with his decision to stop supporting the Flying Squad based at the DRI. He was also the president of ACPO for a number of years and was also elected president of the Special Operations Executive group for 3 years.

    He revisited France annually for memorial dinners and it was something clearly dear to his heart as he kept copies of menus from most of these events.

    Moving back to Denbighshire in 1967, on retirement, he died in Wrexham, Denbighshire, Wales in December 1984, he was 67 years old, his ashes were later interred in France.

    A tribute written by the then head of the Special Operations Executive society was published in Police Review and it detailed over 3,000 French patriots visiting a shrine built in his honour for the scattering of his ashes.

    1. What an amazing life story! Thanks for taking the time and trouble to write it, Grizz. Inspiring.

      Good morning, everyone.

      1. Thanks, ATD, All I did was copy it; someone else did the hard work. I feel very proud to have served under him.

    1. A tanned chap on the beeb this morning speaking quite eloquently, stated that history is fluid. Does he really not understand that History is a record of fact and does not change. He is the one who is getting together the Love-in for the NHS in July. I suspect that if you don’t go out and cheer it will be quite ok for the mob to burn your house down.

  57. SIR — When I was first married, I used the washing machine to wash and spin-dry lettuce for a party.

    The lettuce was fine – but I was not happy picking out the slugs that were attached to the drum.

    Penny Keens
    Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

    The catalogue of halfwits who use domestic appliances for improper uses grows daily. Their surreptitious increase is in keeping with the exponentially documented rise in human stupidity. Their idiocy is exacerbated by their desire to write to newspapers and share their imbecility with everyone.

    1. I suspect the stupidity always existed, the difference is that now people seem happy to advertise it.

      1. There might have been a lot of stupidity among the 2,000,000,000 people who were on the planet when was born, but that pales into comparison when compared with the compound interest earned by the 7,800,000,000 (and rising, rapidly) that now infest the planet. A quadrupling in just 70 years! FFS!

        You seem to have a greater faith in the intelligence of your species than I do. I have observed stupidity growing at an alarming rate even during my lifetime and it is getting worse by the second. Watching current events suggest it is accelerating at an ever faster rate.

        1. I’m not convinced it’s stupidity per se but other factors such as not being taught to think critically. How does one define stupid – are you stupid if you do one or two stupid things in your life or does it have to be all the time? Does the world appear more stupid merely because news is more widespread coming from all parts of the world, not just one’s own country. I just feel that saying humans are becoming more stupid is a sweeping statement that is difficult to prove.

          1. As human civilisation developed, from the time of Chaucer and Giotto, all human endeavour has enhanced steadily. The language improved, and great strides were taken in art, music, literature, medicine and science. The agricultural and industrial revolutions improved the lives of many. Mankind was, indeed, a resourceful, inventive and highly intelligent species. He also knew the bounds of acceptable behaviour. Decency, respect, good manners, grace, etiquette and consideration for others were taught at home and in the schools and punishments were doled out to those who transgressed the laws and rules of society.

            The came the 20th century and liberal ideas. Children were no longer taught to respect others and were encouraged to be selfish. The years of improvement in standards of the English language stopped and a retrograde development ensued. This has now deteriorated to such a level that grunts, profanities, ‘text-speak’ and gibberish has now supplanted prose. Youngsters are now transfixed in their own world staring incessantly (and gormlessly) at a small hand-held screen.

            People are breeding out of all balance to the environment they live in and are routinely trashing. They care not a jot for the pollution they create since that is “someone else’s” problem.

            The evidence of that ever-increasing stupidity is being shown, every day, on television. I could write a book on the clear evidence before me on how more and more crassly idiotic the species is becoming. Trouble is no one would buy it and, in any case, they would be far too stupid to understand it.

    2. Good morning, Grizzly

      Pot – Black – Kettle.

      Both you and I send off letters to the DT hoping that they will be printed and the fact that so few of our letters appear nowadays is further evidence of the lack of judgement and incompetence of the Letters editor.

      1. Good morning, Rastus.

        It was certainly different in the days of Conrad Black and Max Hastings.

  58. Bill and Joyce are driving along when they see a wounded skunk on the side of the road.

    Joyce says, “Oh Bill, please stop and let’s try to help it!”

    Bill stops the car but refuses to do anything more, so Joyce gets out and picks up the skunk and brings it into the car.

    “It must be freezing!” she says. “See how it’s shivering? What should I do?”

    “Put it between your legs,” Bill replies.

    “But what about the smell?” Joyce asks.

    To which Bill replies, “Oh, he’ll get used to it after a while!”

  59. First They Came for the Statues. It Will Be People Next. Delingpole. 10 June 2020.

    Perhaps not since the era of Oliver Cromwell, when Puritans smashed and burned any work of art or architecture they deemed impure, has Britain engaged in such a frenzy of iconoclasm.

    Across the country, mobs of petty tyrants, puffed up with self-righteousness and moral fervour, are plotting which little piece of British history they can vandalise or destroy next. Ironic, perhaps, given Oliver Cromwell himself is now on the list of condemned statues.

    Nigel Farage described this mob on TV yesterday as a far-left Marxist organisation to much opposition from Morgan and his accomplices. It’s interesting to read the Wikipedia account of the Cultural Revolution at its beginnings. (The murders came later!)

    At the Red Guard rallies, Lin Biao also called for the destruction of the “Four Olds”; namely, old customs, culture, habits, and ideas. A revolutionary fever swept the country by storm, with Red Guards acting as its most prominent warriors. Some changes associated with the “Four Olds” campaign were mainly benign, such as assigning new names to city streets, places, and even people; millions of babies were born with “revolutionary”-sounding names during this period. Other aspects of Red Guard activities were more destructive, particularly in the realms of culture and religion. Various historical sites throughout the country were destroyed. WIKIPEDIA.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution#Red_Guards_and_the_destruction_of_the_%22Four_Olds%22

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/06/09/first-they-came-for-the-statues-it-will-be-people-next/

    1. I recall that the Red Guards proposed changing traffic lights so that red became “go”, because red was clearly the correct colour for progress. I am not sure that black traffic lights would be effective, though.

  60. The impartial police are investigating some people who shouted abuse at BLM demonstrators. Very quick off the mark they are, and very determined.

    “Hertfordshire Constabulary assistant chief constable Bill Jephson said: “We understand that people of all ethnicities, throughout Hertfordshire and beyond rightly feel horrified about the death of George Floyd in America.
    “We as a Constabulary stand shoulder to shoulder with those across the country, and indeed the world, who are both saddened and angered by the way Mr Floyd lost his life on 25 May.
    “We will always challenge discrimination and racism wherever we find it and investigate crime reported to us and are taking action as a result of what happened in Hoddesdon yesterday.”” (My highlighting.)

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/black-lives-matter-hertfordshire-protests-racist-abuse-a9557721.htm

    1. ‘Morning, Horace, like all our Police Farces across the country, Hertfordshire Constabulary are just displaying to the world what cowardly wimps they are.

  61. The Tellylaff Tellysubbies strike again, on the Letters Page.

    They presume we are all posh, with two surames

    Eve Wilson Hill

    Head, Hampshire

    is infact

    Eve Wilson
    Hill Head, Hampshire

    1. That put him in his tin can and put the lid firmly back in place.

      I wonder if we’ll see it on BBC News, Sky and/or C4?

    1. Why does he have a mobile phone mini-aerial sticking out of the top of his head?

    2. I like that – interesting statue.

      I think those wanting to tear down statues should instead just add a plaque itemising what the inidividual had done as a permament reminder. Obviously at present this will be a list of their sins, but at a later stage after all the hoohah had died down, there would have to be the addition of a second plaque with the positive actions.

      1. Agreed.
        After all, is the remains of Auschwitz a celebration of all the evil the Nazis did? No. Should it be torn down and concreted over? No. It can stay as a reminder of how easy it is for society to become bad and pick on one section to be persecuted.

        1. Similarly, Paul, Dachau, just outside Munich, still stands and is needed to remind future generations how low mankind can stoop in its inhuman treatment of others.

          1. Never made Dacau. Probably, thank goodness.
            I’m glad I visited Auschwitz & Birkenau, Sacsnhausen. It was the right thing to do, although personally very uncomfortable.

          2. I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau & Theresienstadt (Terezin), both heart-breaking.

  64. In a rational world, I would have woken up to find that the news was filled with reports of the hundreds of rioters who had been arrested

  65. I have never seen “Gone With The Wind”, but right-on Tanya Gold in the DT wants it banned.
    DVD £5.99 on Amazon. I have ordered it on principle, since this will be the next area to be ‘cleansed’.

      1. I’m not sure I can be @rsed to watch it; it’s the principle of the thing.

    2. Afternoon Anne It’s full of really nice Black People and Selfish Neurotic Warmongering White people. So it’s really racist!

  66. I remember my English teacher at school talking about E.M. Forster’s well known phrase ‘only connect’ in his novel Howard’s End and it has deeply influenced me as those who read my posts will know as I am forever seeing connections between life and literature.

    Looking at the calls to unfund the police and to allow criminal desecration and vandalism to flourish and bring about the total destruction of the whole fabric of our society I cannot help thinking of these words of John Milton’s from Paradise Lost:

    Chaos umpire sits
    And by decision more embroils the fray
    By which he reign. Next him high arbiter
    Chance governs all.

  68. In my own little protest, I have change my Pseudonym and Avatar since Nanny has morphed into Irma Grese (look it up) and I protest against the jackboot regime that our British Society has become.

      1. Fine looking woman, I’d say. Any relative of Ernst Röhm perhaps? Or just a happy camper?

        1. She looks more like a Head Girl; though possibly not one that Form IV got a pash on.

    2. But… but… but… when J E Taylor founded it he called it the Manchester Guardian after the town which made its fortune from weaving cotton from the cotton-picking slaves. Clearly the paper made amends by dropping the “Manchester” from its title at a later date. Don’t tell me, Rik, that you now expect the paper’s journalists to atone again by “bending the knee” whenever they submit their copy?!?!?

        1. Sorry to disagree, Sos, but I believe that for a very long time The Guardian has not any journalists.

  70. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d07d4851c28d55a869860bd7b1fccc15e518338a616b6bb1b6087578314b3e61.jpg

    REMEMBER PEOPLE: On Thursdays we #ClapForCarers and on all the other days of the week, we attack those that put on a Police uniform and go to work to keep us safe.

    The very same Police Officers who:

    Arrest people for hate crimes including racism,

    Go to domestics,

    Deal with all sorts of violence and fights,

    Deal with thieves, fraudsters and robbers,

    Arrest rapists and murderers (that’s a popular one!),

    Confront terrorists,

    Find lost people and missing children,

    Go to car crashes and deal with the fallout,

    Talk suicidal people down from a ledge,

    Are the go-to service for people in mental health crisis,

    Take drink and drug drivers off our roads,

    Kick doors in to help the elderly that have fallen,

    Arrest drug dealers,

    Prosecute criminals,

    Protect the vulnerable,

    and, ironically, facilitate peaceful protests all year round.

    This list is by no means exhaustive, but, IF you share the hashtag #DefundThePolice, #ACAB, or similar, then PLEASE let us know YOUR plan on dealing with all of the issues above, along with a contact number that we can all use to call you on the next time that there’s a gang-related stabbing in the street and a child has died. It would be nice to give hard-working Police Officers a break and perhaps you’d be able to break the news to a grieving family – whilst promising to bring those responsible to justice – with your advanced knowledge of forensics and the criminal justice system?

    Also, before you say “they hardly do any of that” – please tell us who exactly is filling up the prisons?

    Finally, before you quote X, Y or Z as an example of when the Police have fucked up, let us tell you that they have fucked up in the past, they’re regularly held to account, and you’d do well to compare that tiny percentage of failings to the rest of things they deal with successfully, day in, day out…

    … but you won’t do that, will you? 🤷🏻‍♂️

    1. And to add to your list:
      – Visit old people at home to do social work, because the social services are overwhelmed
      – Act as a big brother, to warn off scumbags who would rob and scam our vulnerable old folk

      both of which I experienced last year with regard to two bastards who tried to diddle my Mother out of £6,000 for a sofa she didn’t really want. Hat-tip to Vale of Glamorgan Police!

    2. ‘Morning, George,

      Sadly, if you put a percentage against each one, the top of your list would outrank the rest by far, hence my referring to them as the Police Farce.

      You, of all people on here must be very sad at the fall of a Force in which you were obviously very proud to serve.

      1. ‘Morning, Tom.

        ‘Sad’ doesn’t start to describe it. That is why I put the bio of my first chief constable on this forum today, to remind me of the times when we were led by men of substance.

    3. Spot on, Grizz.
      More to being a copper than wearing a big hat and big boots.

      1. I remember getting thrown in at the deep end when I commenced my career, Paul. No one threw me a towel!

        1. Similar when I joined the Offshore industry. Issued a rubber stamp & a notebook & sent out on a job within the first half hour. No effing clue, but learned quickly.

    4. But some of those tasks do not need a highly trained policeman, that is the point of the do gooders. Suicide watch, mental health activity, find lost kiddies might be better handled by a social worker not someone togged up with guns and body armour.

      Obviously you always know what kind of call you will face and the claim is that cases needing a strong response are very limited.

      I can accept the line about demilitarising police, most US forces have armoured vehicles in stock.

      1. Like stewards on aeroplanes are there for safety purposes, to facilitate evacuation in case of a crash and are so trained, a Policeman needs to be able to handle serious situations, but until one of those turns up, they can also note down the names of missing cats …

      2. I’m not quite sure what you are trying to say here. In the UK police are (and have been for quite some time) a first point of summons for many people for a plethora of incidents/situations. Frequently it is only after the constable arrives that he is able to determine which other agency (if any) is needed to deal with the situation in hand.

        95% of police officers in the UK are not routinely armed on duty (or “togged up with guns”). Body armour, maybe, but guns, no. In any case, reports of missing persons have always been the police’s remit in the UK.

        Of course, I can only speak with any authority of what the routines were in my day, but not much has changed with respect to what I’ve mentioned above.

        1. The UK is different to Canada, our police are always armed. In the US it is not unusual to have several officers turn up to an incident, all armed, all hidden behind protective equipment. This show of force cannot be good when confronting an attempted suicide.

          As for missing persons, we are supposed to be asking why the police have the responsibility, why could not there be a separate unit just for that.

          I believe that the whole defunding of the police is doomed to failure. I have never been involved with the police but I could see that even a simple road accident could easily escalate way beyond the norm and require the power of a fully trained police officer, not a glorified insurance adjuster. A couple of years ago there was an incident un western Canada where police were called to a farm over something minor, it was a setup by someone out to gun down some officers.

        2. George, you say “…not much has changed with respect to what I’ve mentioned above.” except that a copper hardly ever turns up at a crime scene but just issues a crime number.

          Certainly, in my 3 years return to rural East Anglia, I’ve yet to see a copper in our village.

    2. Civilisation would be nice but if you challenge this it’s going to get, like, scary. They’re never going to admit that cultural relativism necessarily condones savagery.

  72. Morning hall.
    So, the mob want to have all statues removed which would remind them of society’s historical racism. To be replaced by statues of people who fought racism perhaps? To remind us of society’s historical racism?

    1. Morning all 😊
      What is happening in our country is so stupid and is akin to blaming Sir Walter Raleigh for everyone who has died of lung cancer.
      Khant is busy pushing this far left mob agenda he needs to be removed.
      Today.

        2. Morning T-B – I think your question is rhetorical. He has probably the same opinion as most Nottlers. I think we are at a tipping point now and if the Mayor of London is an example the Muslims will soon be applying their Sharia wherever they are able to. This must be nipped in the bud by the politicians who appear to be sleeping on the job.

          1. I don’t know if you are aware but when the mayoral election was taking place thousands of Jewish people in North London, didn’t get their election documents on time and were unable to cast their votes.
            Administration error.
            It seems that cheating little git was at it before he was ‘elected’.

      2. What’s so far left about a man that penalises people too poor to buy new cars every few years by fining those running bangers in London on a daily basis?

        1. I’m not entirely sure what what mean JM.
          But London has probably one of the best transport systems on the planet.
          Not so many people need cars in the capital. Those who insist on using them pay the price.
          TFL are at breaking point, mainly i guess because of vote catching free passes for too many people for too long. Milions of pounds lost from and monitoring Fare dodgers (London voters). And the unions who still insist that modern technology is inappropriate. As in driverless trains.

      3. BBC radio 4 news presenter was listing a number of prominent people who have statues to commemorate them and who were involved in the slave trade. I refuse to name them as I don’t want to encourage the BBC’s apparent support of BLM.

        1. There’s been a lot of emphasis on the bbc on social media, perhaps it’s time it’s know and subversive influence was removed.

    2. Precisely. Statues are a reminder of the past. They are not intended to glorify the dead person but are part of our cultural heritage and remind us of good deeds along with bad.

      Khan’s ignorant and subversive notion that statues should represent ‘his’ chosen subjects under the banner of diversity is a sham. Khan seeks at every turn to mock and belittle us and take over our country by stealth.

    1. Byrne joined the legion in 2012 as director of fundraising and, having been promoted from within, says he’s familiar with the charity’s work and has “a fundamental belief in the dual purpose of the legion – remembrance of the dead and the support of those who are still living”.

      He adds: “It’s a very personal thing. My grandfather was on the western front – whenever I go out to the battlefields, I meet people who have a relative buried out there. There’s always a sense of wanting to remember and say thank you.

      “And the people you meet from the ex-service community and their families are so inspirational in the face of adversity – I come away humbled.”

      Historically, public awareness of the armed forces ebbs and flows, he says, so the charity must engage younger generations.

      https://www.thirdsector.co.uk/big-hire-charles-byrne/management/article/1399529

      The man is an ignorant fool, and he has done the Royal British Legion members a great disservice by supporting the hooligan outfit BLM

      1. What a ghastly specimen he is. So full of “right-on” platitudes and sound bites.
        A know-nothing smug buffoon.
        Good moaning all!

        1. Good morning Sue .

          I wonder who selected him.
          The poor old RBLwill be in trouble , this man has the sensitivity of a rusty old ploughshare.

      2. The RBL was exposed decades ago in a documentary on TV. It was in black and white. It showed fleets of Bentleys for the upper echelons who were holed up in a country house and contrasted their lifestyle with the blind folk in their Poppy factory in Richmond/Petersham.

  75. The anger and division in this country is getting very dangerous now and the Government must realise this. They can’t hide behind COVID-19 any longer. If they don’t take action to quell the many demonstrations that are taking place in this country, there could be bloodshed.

    2. The trouble is we already have a left wing police state to mess us about and monitor what we think – but the sort of decisive police force we need in order to quell insurrection is no longer is available.

      1. It is worse than that. The authorities have force at their disposal in a way that they never previously had. In the fifties a policeman had a wooden baton in his back pocket. That was it. Policemen now carry steel batons. Policemen now carry chemical sprays and tasers, as routine. Both can kill. Firearms are commonly and openly held. (There was some concern expressed when policemen carrying guns went into an Inverness supermarket to buy sandwiches.). Policemen routinely wear body armour and carry submachine guns.
        The public have been disarmed. Our right to even disagree or express opposition to the lynch mobs running amok in our street has been suppressed.

        1. The public was never armed in a way that could be said to be a counter to state aggression. Not like the USA.

  76. NOW memorial to founder of London’s world-famous Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital could be REMOVED due to his ties to slavery – as statues of Sir Thomas Picton and Sir Robert Peel face the chop
    Cardiff City Council is backing the removal of Sir Thomas Picton from its city hall over his slave ownership
    An obelisk dedicated to him in Carmarthen, after he was killed at Waterloo, is also in the firing line
    All 130 Labour councils have promised to ‘review the appropriateness of local monuments and statues’
    Dozens of memorials honouring colonial figures have been targeted for removal by activists on a hit list
    The monument of 18th Century slave dealer Robert Milligan was uprooted from its spot on West India Quay

    3

    1. oh dear, wait until the locals find out that Picton is bad, I wonder if we will be forced to rename our town?

      We might end up living in Happy Black rainbow

    2. This country has gone mad! Where’s the Government? Why won’t they put a stop to this nonsense?

  77. We have just had a general election and there wasn’t anything in the LibLabCon manifesto’s about pledges to remove statues, nor was there anyone even mentioning it in all the tv debates, not one question on it, I don’t suppose they were in local council or mayoral elections either.
    Strange now it has become priority number one for some reason to hold the country together

    1. There is a precedent set by the Equal Marriage Act in 2014, which was not supported by any Manifesto pledge, nor was in any Queen’s Speech, nor was there a Green Paper or White Paper, and was objected to by half the people surveyed. Even Peter Tatchell said a better approach was to open Civil Partnerships to everyone and let marriage wither on the vine.

      The official statement put out when conducting a public consultation was “you are going to get this whether you like it or not”. Such is democracy!

    2. The Mayor of Bristol was being interviewed a couple of days ago and, when asked why he hadn’t done anything to remove the Colston statue during the 4 years he had been in office, he waffled and said that he had higher priority things to deal with. Hmmm.

        1. Yes, it was. He would have been far better off saying that he had been preoccupied with subjects such as schools, roads, social services and leave it at that.

  78. We natives are repeatedly told that the second and third generation children of immigrant parents are as British and as English as we are, they have all the same rights as those that come from stock that have been here for thousands of years, nothing wrong with that.
    So when one is born in a country if you have all the rights so then you must inherit all the history as well, one cannot just cherry pick.
    Everyone born here then must bear the same responsibility for the slavery that occurred hundreds of year ago, it would be racist to say otherwise.

    1. And the same credit for being the leaders in the movement to put a stop to all slavery?

      Perhaps the government should counter the BLM campaign against historical British slavery to run daily dramatic exposures of present day slavery organised and engaged in by non-white people?

      Why have white people so easily given up the moral high ground – it is completely irrational.

    2. Do present-day Germans bear the responsibility of Nazi deeds committed in the 1930s and 1940s?

      1. A very good point, Aeneas. I Iived and served there from 1967 to 69 and, apart from bullet scarred buildings in the back-streets of Goch, the Germans themselves avoided speaking English for fear of being quizzed about their part in WWII.

        Nevertheless we made many good friends and just avoided the subject.

      3. The were not “Nazi” deeds. They were German deeds. The BBC may say that the Nazis invaded Poland. That is not true. The Germans invaded Poland. Spitfires were not flown by Tories. The Labour Party fleet did not hunt the Bismarck.

        1. Well once starting a war, that killed millions of young men
          because someone nobody
          had ever heard of was shot by someone no one had ever heard of.
          Might have been construed as an accident.
          But staring another war killing millions of people 25 years later………….

        2. The German people democratically elected Hitler and the Nazi party. Therefore Nazi deeds perpetrated in that period are German deeds.

    3. Too true Bob

      And we know that many who serve in the African Embassies in Britain aslo have their own servants / slaves as do the Arabs .

      I suspect many wealthy African and Indian doctors also have their own staff as well and pay them a pittance .

      What are Au Pairs if they are not slaves .. and why do so many wealthy foreign footballers have staff quarters in their luxury pads?

      1. Er …. when my sons were young, we had Au Pairs. In fact, most of my earnings (after tax) were taken up by supporting them.
        Basically, they only had to cover the hours when MB and my shifts over lapped.

    4. Absolutely correct. Bob.
      If I may i’ll borrow that one when my leftie friend replies to my email from yesterday.

    5. To some that walk amongst us the sign is an invitation, rather like the ‘Wet Paint’ notice that attracts fingers.

    1. I thought that our Canadian leadership was bad but at the moment we are head and shoulders above the UK (Trudeau excepted naturally).

      What on earth has happened to the UK, is no one in charge any more, the police certainly appear to be avoiding their duties. We have some nice burly Ontario Police stationed herte that you might want to borrow, they occasionally get to clear Mohawk roadblocks.

      If they have so much spare time and obviously lack any fear of crowds, why not clear the streets by sending everyone back to work?

      2. It would be poetic justice if the virus kick offs again and all the protesters and their families catch it.

    2. I don’t like to see that word “we” as though I shared some culpability in this state of affairs. I don’t. Had I my way it would never have arisen and had I the power now it wouldn’t last for long!

      1. I wholeheartedly agree Minty. It is not me it is the PTB who have allowed this to happen with their utterly shameful response to events. (I’m being restrained here). The whole government is rotten to the core. Trouble is, where will it all end? People are stills scared witless about the bl..dy virus and we are not a revolutionary people. So how do we get out of this shi.ty mess?

    3. It should be reversed with the racist bigot being chased down by the police.

        1. It’s hard to believe that a (non) government less than 6 months old could have surrendered our country without a fight. I am almost lost for words Anne. This will surely go down as the greatest dereliction of duty in our history.

          1. I have reached the wordless stage.
            I genuinely do not know what to say – other than ‘My poor grandchildren”.

          2. I’m also worried about my great grandchildren. Our grandchildren are nearly 16 and 17 and the other already 18.

    2. I looked at the shipping movements in the Channel this morning.
      That Border Protection vessel, named Searcher, went almost as far as the French coast to pick those illigal immigrants up. They also made another lenghty trip to collect anothe boat load.

    1. When I look at his paintings I think I’m on drugs.
      They have an almost dreamlike quality.

  88. Good afternoon, all.

    We didn’t go to the funeral after all. I slept very badly – if at all; and while I did, I dreamed that I reversed the car against a pillar and ripped the front door off.
    Too much of an omen. So we went to the tip instead. In the rain.

    No news again, I see.

    As I mentioned yesterday, it is my elder son’s 54th birthday today. He was born in the wonderful old Charing Cross Hospital – opposite the station.

    Unlimited visiting 24/7. New mothers spent a week in hospital – then, on the night before release, husbands were instructed by Sister to take their spouses out for supper. When I looked askance, the sensible lady replied, “It’ll be 15 years before you have another chance to be alone…”.

    1. Smart move. Or lack of move.
      Hate funerals, in fact, any kind of goodbye. Auf Wiedersehen is OK, but adieu is not.

    2. When elder son was born, we had a superb old school midwife (ours were born at home).
      She told me that she had four daughters and was lining up No. One Son as a possible match for one of them.

      1. This was the same sister who told my wife, as she cried about, “The pain,” “Not pain, dear, bearable discomfort.” A phrase which has stuck in the family for 54 years!

        1. My mother would recount that my late sister Eunice was her most painful birth. The midwife complained “anyone would think it was your first and not your third”.

          I was her fourth and the heaviest of five at 8lbs 2oz.

          1. The cause of much of the excruciating pain of childbirth was caused by being made to lie down to give birth – a very unnatural position, which I think came in with the Victorians, but is now changing.

      2. For the birth of both Christo and Henry Caroline spent a week in hospital and had a single room provided by the French medical system.

        If there is a single room available they will always give you one. The one time I had to share a room was when I had my gall bladder removed. I was just coming round after the operation when the poor chap in the bed next to me with tubes stuck into every orifice including his willy had an epileptic fit and fell thrashing and writhing from his bed onto the floor. I was all tubed up myself (but thank God not one up the willy) so I could not move but I drowsily pressed the alarm button and a team of nurses arrived immediately to look after the chap and to wheel my bed to another room.

  89. Well Piers Morgan, you’ve been a huge cheerleader for BLM, now look what you and your ilk have unleashed.
    It’s too late for you to be outraged, you brought it on yourself.

    “Piers Morgan hits out at professor for comparing Winston Churchill to Adolf Hitler on GMB”

    I hope when the BLM mobs start storming the homes of wealthy white people you and those like you are part of the first wave of attacks.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/piers-morgan-churchill-row-good-morning-britain-kehinde-andrews-a4464781.html

    1. Ada: “I can’t tell the difference between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition – they’re both wearing tall white pointy hats”

      Bert: “Well Ada, the PM stands up with his tall, white pointy hat on whilst the Opposition Leader kneels whist wearing his”

    2. Boris: “We’ll arrange for Sweeny Todd to do the necessary for you, Keir.”

  91. At 7pm I shall be standing up as straight as I can and singing the National Anthem.

      1. Just so moving. These are my people, and I stand with them. God save the Queen.

  92. It seems that this recently-invented concept, Black Privilege, is getting more popular and is increasing, worldwide, apace.

    Must be something in it.

      1. Thanks, Jules.

        I just needed to get it off my chest in a wider forum. The Home Office, DT and DM have all ignored it.

        1. I have circulated you excellent article to family and a friend in America. Well done Grizz, if only we still had coppers like you were.

          1. Thanks, Grumps, but to be fair I was an average copper back in those days. I did my job diligently and got on with the public but I was privileged to work alongside some top-notch crime-busters (as well as a few duds too).

          2. I met a few good cops in my 10 years as a Magistrate’s Court Usher but a lot of automatons. The few were approachable and you could see how they obtained their information. The younger ones were all about themselves and trying to impress how tough they were. Age and experience count for an awful lot and I bet you were one of the good guys that did the spade work that made the ones at the top look good.

          2. It it’s a really great piece. Very informative and beautifully written.

          6. A woman arrived at the Mayor’s presentation wearing a rose in her cleavage.

            Mayor: “If I pluck your rose will you blush?”
            Woman: ” If i pull your chain will you flush?”

    3. Probably 15 years ago at an East London nick and memo was circulated regarding a nick (scuz the pun) name used for the desk sergeant. They were told in no uncertain terms that he was no longer to be called Chalky.
      The ‘problem’ arose because his name was White. But……yes you guessed it, he was black.
      All this stupidity started quite a few years ago.

      2. In the 60s, on 85 Squadron at RAF West Raynham, we had two guys, one of whom was very black and the other a bit paler. They quickly got the nicknames, Midnight and 23:59.

        No-one took any offence.

        1. 😊 Exactly.
          I worked with 3 black guys back in the mid 60s. Two Jewish guys a Polish chap, an Indian (he was one of the nicest people I have ever met) Irish, a Spanish chap. Old and young alike. There was no racism. No animosity.
          These black people need to get the stupid chips off their shoulders. They’re not doing them selves any favours.

          1. Very good lecturer, maybe not so dazzling, and he did emit quite an odour of curry!

      1. 319933+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        She incites unlawful rebellion why does the country harbour such peoples ?

    2. 319933+ up ticks,
      o2o,
      It will be scarring peoples with acid next, how has this
      odious element been allowed to forment within a once decent society og ? is it via the ballot booth?

      1. Jo Brand has already got form on inciting people to acid attacks on anyone she doesn’t agree with.

        1. 319933+ up ticks,
          Afternoon A,
          My comment started with feigned wording.
          That jo has been well branded due to her take on the odious issue.

        2. And I bet her boy, Russell, is more than eager to use LSD – that other substance referred to as acid.

      1. 319933+ up ticks,
        Evening Ims2,
        The establishment are bringing in the guards on a daily basis, there is no opposition that one can see operating.
        May I ask if anyone can prove me wrong ?

    2. I would love to give them all a collonial irrigation …

      … with hydrochloric acid!

  95. ”The Seattle east police precinct has been entirely boarded up. Traffic in & out of the zone is controlled by the anarchists & communists. Militants are calling this their commune. Police are ordered away”.

    Oh no…. this is not far from Boros’ new multi billionaire friend…. Bill Gates………….

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1270479149241561088

  96. It’s now 18:02 UK time.
    I’ve made my BLM protest; protesting about BLM anarchy.
    To Hell with them all.

    1. If the police actually applied the law these people violently protesting are simply racists and should be charged under race relations and breach of the peace.

    1. I have not forgotten Polly, and never will I forget. Cry England, Harry and St George. It is writ through my DNA.

    2. You’ve got to give it that: he has amazing taste.

      After all, the Cisco voip phone really is the bees knees.

  101. Descendants of Pyramid Builders attack Statue of Rameses II. Ibn Battuta. Cairo News 10 June 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/44ba194287085ee74dbadf254455ec606136a44c3b6aeb12e092e5ff480bde80.jpg

    One of the statues of the notorious Rameses II at Abu Simbel was seriously damaged yesterday by ALM (Arab Lives Matter) who described him as one of the Nineteenth Dynasties most monstrous Pharoahs. Infamous for his oppression of innocent Nubians and pre Jewish anti-Semitism he conquered most of the Middle East in a series of xenophobic wars.

    Abdul Hussein a direct descendant of one of the workers on the statue said, “He was a colonialist monster who dragged my ancestor from his mud hut in Northern Syria and made him work for nothing, and buy his own straw. We need to destroy the Myth of Ancient Egypt as a benevolent power and Great Culture.” Asked about reparations he answered, “Nothing can repay us for forty centuries of oppression but we need to be treated with the respect that is our due.”

    The Governor of Cairo, Khaled Abdel-Aal Abdel-Hafez said in a statement that they are making up a list of all the other pre-Islamic monuments that offend Allah and his followers and that the Sphinx is top of the list. A spokesman for the President of Egypt added, “Those were terrible times in Egypt. All sorts of things went on that wouldn’t be allowed now!”

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose!

      1. The people who came after the Ancient Egyptians did start to wreck the pyramids for building materials. Certainly the Great Pyramid, and possibly the other two, were encased in polished white limestone, the remains of which can be seen on the summit of the Great Pyramid.

    2. Abdul Hussein a direct descendant of one of the workers on the statue…

      Good old Abdul still has his descendant’s copper chisels and stone hammers along with his diary written on papyrus.😎

    3. Of course the descendants of the Hebrew Slaves have a somewhat higher IQ. Whoops, did I say that?

    4. I wonder if the poor benighted Arab know-nothings are aware why the Israelites (the Jews ancestors) ran away?

    5. Blimey, if Abdul was that desperate for a bit of rockery stone, he could have popped down to his local garden centre. He’d only have to queue for an hour and a half.

    2. Love this historical snippet. The former Manchester Guardian was founded in a city whose wealth was based on cotton.

      “The Guardian was founded in 1821 by John Edward Taylor who traded in cotton produced by the slaves of the American south.

      Ban the Guardian for historic slave links!”

          1. Me too. I managed just under an hour very early this morning weeding one of my raised veg/flower plots before the rain began. Then, after lunch, I went out for a very short shop for chicken breasts, broccoli and bits & pieces to enable me to try out the Broccoli/Bacon/Cheddar/Chicken recipe which Plum-Tart posted on here a few days ago and which I’ll report back on in a week or so. Tonight, though, it’s a simple Tikka Masala Curry Chicken with rice. Then a glass or two of wine whilst I watch another episode of LEWIS, before climbing the stairs to Bedford. So I’ll say in advance “Good night all!” to all NoTTLers.

      2. That one is cut-and-pasted for future use (on Guardian-reading Mancunian Beeboid Pinkoes for starters!).

    5. Now if only he would tell us what he really thinks.

      No comments against the view either.

    6. What a great article. Thanks Bob.

      To hell with all the modernisation malarky can’t we return to the times that didn’t need modernising and when our governments ad police FORCES worked for the benefit of the law abiding citizens of our once great country.

      1. A return to Peel’s Principles of Policing would not come amiss. No wonder they want to tear down his statues!

  103. I was just thinking they most probably used African slaves to build Stonehenge, just to be on the safe side we had better demolish it.

    1. Fair enough. He, obviously will be the first to sign up to be permanently traceable, I assume?

      3. 319933+ up ticks,
        It will either be a crown or a head transplant prior to disappearing when the sh!te finally meets the fan.

    3. I sometimes wonder what it would take to see the back of this filthy criminal and his entourage. A fatal heart attack would be too good for the wretch.

      2. 319933+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        I do believe it would be better through the courts then stripped of ALL assets being
        gained via criminal actions, then free to sample the decent peoples feelings without protection.

        1. Regrettably Blair, along with Brown, was propelled by the Edinburgh Masons and so many of our judiciary are also Masons. There is therefore little chance of the heinous swine being brought to justice in our courts.

          Just look at the composition of Blair’s Supreme Court, all pro-EU and most with Masonic connections.

  105. Ok, so let’s take this one step further…..

    Allegedly Bill Gates wants a digital ID in his C-19 vaccines…..

    Who is Bill Gates’ new best friend ?

    Boros !

  106. Will the bames be out in force to set fire to the Commonwealth for having sacked their beloved Sec Gen (of color)?

    Or will they put her on a pedestal?

    (Sorry to come back – but have just had a brilliant 45 min skype with birthday son – preceded by a BRILLIANT lecture from the British School at Rome. On YouTube from Friday.)

    Bit pished!!

    1. What would the luvvies have to do if they didn’t have something to be politically correct about?

  109. Interesting article in the DT:-

    ‘What do Black Lives Matter actually want?
    Dig deeper and you’ll find that “ending oppression” or “empowerment” aren’t quite what you might imagine they mean

    Benedict Spence

    Everyone can agree that the oppression of human beings by others is bad, and that human life is sacred. Everyone can also agree that throughout Western history, there have been countless examples of atrocities committed, very often racially motivated.

    No one, either, can deny the role of the British Empire in this. Nor can anyone deny that, across the West today, certain communities still face disadvantages that others would not wish to have themselves.

    Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a movement, we all know, that started in the US in response to the killing of African American men at the hands of the police. And now it is here, too. There are myriad reasons as to why this is, which we could argue over until we are blue in the face. But something that is rarely discussed is what the movement aspires to. What does BLM want?

    On the face of it, very few people can disagree with the title. Do black lives matter? Yes, of course. Even those who respond “all lives matter” cannot deny it. So straight out of the blocks, people may feel inclined to stop examining the movement there. Only a racist would say that black lives specifically do not matter, and that they weren’t opposed to people being mistreated as a result of their ethnicity, after all.

    But dig a little deeper, and you’ll find that “ending oppression” or “empowerment” aren’t quite what you might imagine they mean.

    In 2016, the US BLM campaign released ten demands as part of a manifesto, almost all to do with changing police practices in the US — things like increasing the number of minorities in community police forces to better reflect their ethnic make up, and the introduction of body cameras for officers to ensure acts of brutality would be caught on tape. Beyond those two, few of the points were or are applicable to the way policing is conducted in the UK. But the movement has morphed since then. Today, segments of BLM don’t want to change the police: They want to defund it. Some actively want forces abolished.

    Today, BLM’s sites are deliberately vague on what, exactly, they want. There’s a reason for that: If policy isn’t revealed in any great detail, and aims are kept opaque, broadly based on catchy slogans everyone in principal agrees with, it makes it harder to examine, and to criticise, what a political movement wants.

    But the official GoFundMe page set up to support BLM in the UK moves beyond the idea that its adherents just want a different approach to policing, or for society to remain the same but with a level playing field for all regardless of background. It claims to be committed to “dismantling imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people.” https://uk.gofundme.com/f/ukblm-fund

    That’s quite a leap from what the movement originally asked for — and is a full marathon from what a lot of ordinary Brits may have in mind when aligning themselves with what they imagine is the continuation of the civil rights movement. This is no such thing: It actively calls for the dismantling of the state and the system it operates within. Don’t be fooled when it tries to only single out the structures that hurt ethnic minorities: In the past week, even the NHS, staffed to the brim with ethnic minorities, has been branded institutionally racist. When they say “dismantle state structures,” they mean the lot.

    Suddenly, it begins to change the way one looks at the activities of the past few days, with hammer and sickle emblems daubed all over London’s monuments, and suggestions that, following the defenestration of the statue of Colston in Bristol, that those of the likes of Robert Peel, Earl Grey and, for some reason, Harold Wilson, should follow suit. It is no longer about police brutality, either here or in the US. It isn’t even, really, about racism. It is about regime — the regime itself is racist, and so the whole thing must go.

    The UK BLM movement, like its US counterpart, also actively calls for the “abolition of police.” That is a line, I think, almost no one here wishes to cross, especially when it is proposed by people who have no qualms about attacking others or committing acts of vandalism. The Old Bill may be going down an ineffective path of bully-boy tactics and language policing, but we still need murderers and terrorist apprehended by someone. Who else is going to do it? The abstract idea of the community?

    It also pledges to use some of the funds it raises on education; but will it go towards helping people from impoverished ethnic minority communities in the UK learn trades? Enter the professions? Help them empower themselves by being able to earn a good living, lifting themselves and their families of their predicaments, and help forge a better society? You know, education? Or by “education” does it mean spread more of the ideology at play, recruiting more converts to the cause, which seeks conflict and change over dialogue and reform?

    There is inequality in the UK. There is prejudice, and there are things to be done. But somehow, I’m not sure our nation is so bad that it warrants being torn down and started all over again by a movement with such aims at its core.’

    1. Tearing it all down and starting over again is what the Frankfurt School wanted and the invented concept of racism, encouraging a grievance culture, was always intended to facilitate that goal. The egalitarian myth has at its core a lust for power.

    2. Pretty well, there’s equality of opportunity. If folk choose not to avail yourself of it, that’s their business and their problem. Why should I give a shit?

    3. By “education” they mean brainwashing – or no education at all at the moment. Get them back to school – get them back to work! Children are going without education – black and white.

    4. Isn’t this Insurrection and there must be a law against it and a will to prosecute it. We may have the first but we lack the second.

    5. They seem to have edited the GoFundMe page – the sentence “dismantling imperialism, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy and the state structures that disproportionately harm black people” is no longer there (at least I couldn’t find it).

          3. Not at all – I consider myself to be an African, one albeit with a shortage of melanin. 🙂

      2. Who actually donates to such a page? Maybe the likes of the extremely wealthy Lewis Hamilton?

  111. If we don’t watch our backs , there is a danger of us being replaced by non whites , in fact it has started already, the indifference shown by Labour politicians , and the scared excuse ridden Tory MPs seem to me that we are accelerating towards a bigger threat than Covid 19 .

    1. As far as Labour is concerned, Belle, the indigenous of this country do not figure at all in their plans, for they are now the bourgouisie, all of them, all of us, whatever our backgrounds. They now look upon the immigrants to this country as being the true proletariat. Probably tories as well.

      1. 319933+ up ticks,
        Evening PM,
        They are a political shell group with an islamic ideology inner force awaiting, is my take on it.
        Look at the positions of power being established, mayors, councillors, etc.

    2. 319933+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      Throw in a multitude of prayer mats and burka’s and you are on the money.

    3. There’s a terrible irony there, with the people who moan about Colonialism doing exactly the same. Perhaps in 200 years time their statues will be pulled down?

    4. ‘Evening, Mags, a Caliphate with mainly black but some white slaves.

      Certainly no homosexuals. Watch out Owen Jones – you’ll find yourself sky-diving off the Shell Building.

  112. Follow the science!

    Medical experts were asked if it is time to ease the lockdown?

    Allergists were in favour of scratching it, but Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.

    Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but Neurologists thought the government had a lot of nerve.

    Obstetricians felt certain everyone was labouring under a misconception, while Ophthalmologists considered the idea short-sighted.

    Many Pathologists yelled, “Over my dead body!” while Paediatricians said, “Oh, grow up!”

    Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while Radiologists could see right through it.

    Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing, and pharmacists claimed it would be a bitter pill to swallow.

    Plastic Surgeons opined that this proposal would “put a whole new face on the matter.”

    Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.

    Anaesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and those lofty Cardiologists didn’t have the heart to say no.

    In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes.

      1. Very good sos! Wasn’t the Black Death spread by rat fleas? How very apt!

    4. It would serve her right if she was fired for gross misconduct and expelled from the UK. She is a disgrace to her profession.

      This whole BLM nonsense is getting totally out of hand.

      1. Sack her on the spot. And I’m sorry to say this whole BLM nonsense … <b> IS out of hand.

        1. Only if her contract allows it and the GM is defined. Even idiots should be protected by the law.

          However, I don’t see why the Home Secretary cannot terminate her visa and expel her.

          Perhaps a petition should b started.

          1. She is not an idiot since she is an Oxford graduate – or perhaps she is? In any case contract or not she surely can be sacked on the spot for gross misconduct

          2. I know many Oxbridge graduates who are idiots. Yes, good at exams but absolutely no sense.

          4. Then it seems her whole education, GCE, A levels, Oxford degree etc. we’re for nothing if she can not distinguish right from wrong

          5. Quite.
            One wonders how she would be treated in the USA if she advised the same thing for all statues of the racist, slave owning tyrant, George Washington.

          8. Being an Oxford graduate doesn’t make her smart! She displays a distinct lack of basic common sense.

          13. Wouldnt that be ironic! Unfortunately I can’t find out from a search for her name.

          14. Grizzly has appointed himself the expert on human stupidity. I’m sure he’ll be able to tell whether she’s an idiot or not.

          15. I thought you were above snide comments like that, Cynarch, it doesn’t become you.

            All I’ve ever said is that it is my opinion, gleaned from daily observations over many years. I’ve never professed to be an expert.

      3. I certainly hope she gets sacked – she is clearly working in the wrong profession.

    5. She would make the perfect candidate for experimentation of colonic irrigation by HCl, HNO₃ or H₂SO₄.

  114. I see the Book Burning Corporation has removed Little Britain from its on line content.

    The irony of left wing comedians being denounced by ‘woke’ puritans is not lost one me.

    The left eats its children, I’m going long on popcorn on this one.

  117. The Independent reporting that Donald Trump has refused to change the names of Military bases named after Confederate Generals. Good for him.

      3. I met Joan Baez in Lindos, Rhodes in ’74. Later in the evening in the taverna she gave us a song or two.

          1. I loved my 2 weeks there. That was before any of the hotels; I stayed in a villa in the heart of town. There was an atrium courtyard where we had our meals under a lemon tree. Happy days…

    3. We need him to win in November. He is the only western leader to stand up to these people and check the rise of China. Non of our people can come anywhere near him.

      1. Our craven, spineless politicians deserve nothing but complete contempt.

        Why isn’t the prime minister sticking up for the majority of people who voted for his party in December?

        I suspect that keeping his promises to the British people is no more important to him than keeping his marriage vows was.

  119. It’s a mad world in which one has to boast: “I’m a lockdown sceptic!”

    The Government’s cowardly U-turn on schools is a fiasco

    The sooner it can start rectifying that harm, the better

    TOBY YOUNG

    The reaction of various organs of the state to the ongoing coronavirus crisis – Downing Street, the Department of Health, local authorities, the police, the BBC – has left me profoundly shocked.

    I didn’t have a particularly high opinion of our ruling elites to begin with, but the lack of political courage, the failure to put the interests of the country above their own sectarian self-interest, the staggering incompetence of agencies like PHE, the lack of integrity of our leading scientists… it’s all a bit much. I hadn’t realised just how dysfunctional the British state is. But the absolute nadir has been the closure of our schools and the failure to reopen them.

    It beggars belief that virtually all ‘non-essential’ businesses will be open again within a matter of weeks, including Alton Towers, but schools will remain closed until September – and, according to Matt Hancock, may not reopen even then. Thanks to the intransigence of the teaching unions and the government’s ludicrously over-the-top social distancing guidance, we have blighted the lives of millions of children.

    As a lockdown sceptic, I don’t think the government should have closed schools in the first place. In Sweden, schools for those aged 5 to 15 have remained open throughout the pandemic and it has seen fewer Covid-19 deaths per capita than the UK. Sweden is often contrasted unfavourably with Norway, which has an even lower death toll, but the Norwegian Prime Minister recently appeared on television to apologise for over-reacting to the crisis and said she regretted closing schools.

    The risk of children dying from the virus is virtually zero. In the whole of the UK, only two children aged between 5 and 14 have died from coronavirus, which, as this paper has pointed out, means they’re less likely to die of Covid-19 than be struck by lightning. Seasonal flu poses a greater risk to children – on average, 12 children a year are killed by influenza – but we don’t close schools every winter.

    There isn’t much evidence that children can infect adults, either. A survey by the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health wasn’t able to find a single case of a child passing on the virus to an adult. Among the cases considered by the Royal College was that of a nine year-old British boy who caught the virus in the French Alps but didn’t pass it on despite having contact with over 170 people at three different schools.

    Okay, Britain wasn’t alone in erring on the side of caution. But does it have to be among the last countries in Europe to reopen its schools? In Denmark schools reopened on April 15, in Germany on May 4, in China on May 5, in Greece, the Netherlands, France and the Czech Republic on May 11, in Austria on May 18, in Spain on May 25… the list goes on. In most cases, not all children have returned, but Britain is an outlier in having waited until June 1 to allow some children to return to school and still not having reopened secondaries.

    The government initially hoped all primary aged children could return for a few weeks before the summer holidays, but has now done a U-turn. The problem, it says, is that schools don’t have enough teachers, or the classroom space, to comply with the government’s guidance to keep children in ‘protective bubbles’ of no more than 15 – something the teaching unions have been saying for some time. But if children aren’t vulnerable to the disease and can’t pass it on to adults who, exactly, are the government and the teaching unions trying to ‘protect’?

    In no country that has reopened schools has there been a resurgence in infections. On the other hand, the evidence that children are being harmed by missing school is overwhelming, particularly kids from disadvantaged backgrounds. Robert Halfon, the chairman of the education select committee, told the House of Commons yesterday that 700,000 disadvantaged children weren’t doing any work at home. How can we expect to close the attainment gap between these children and their middle-class schoolmates if we allow them to languish at home for six months, stuck in front of their Xboxes?

    Incredibly, Rebecca Long-Bailey, the shadow education secretary, said yesterday that she “welcomed” the government’s U-turn on reopening schools. I hope she’s reminded of that next time she dares to complain about poor children under-performing in exams.

    As the father of four school-aged children and the co-founder of four schools, I am beyond angry about this. We live in a society in which virtue-signalling politicians praise teenagers for pouring onto our streets in their tens of thousands to protest about racial injustice, but in the next breath say it’s too dangerous for them to be taught in groups of more than 15.

    The government needs to get its priorities straight. It has done a colossal amount of damage by placing the entire population under virtual house arrest in response to a pandemic that’s no more serious than a bad bout of seasonal flu. The sooner it can start rectifying that harm, particularly for the most vulnerable, the better.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/10/governments-cowardly-u-turn-schools-fiasco/

    2. I believe that the UK deserves all it will get.

      Useless politicians and “experts”, together with a compliant, cowed, population who don’t have the wit to question what is being done to them have brought the problems on themselves.

      The BLM protests are just the latest manifestation of how stupid the UK has become.

      1. My beloved schoolteacher friend reckons keeping schools closed is the right thing to do, as it’s too dangerous to reopen.
        What can I do with that?
        It’s profoundly depressing.

        2. The more ignorant the left can place the children, the happier they will be.
          It’s all about control.

          1. and buggering parents about – how can you work if you have kids to mind?

          2. That’s what my neighbour said when I asked him if he was working from home. He’s got two boys.

      2. I’m not sure the population is cowed or compliant. The state seems to be, which is merely evidence of how little it represents society and how important it is that the public sector be brought to heel.

        1. I disagree.
          The population is totally cowed.
          If they were not, schools would be open, businesses too.
          The BLM people would have been given the “Bum’s rush”

  120. Living as we do in a small seaside town near Bristol we have been plagued with droves of visitors whom I shall henceforth refer to as incontinentals

  123. BTL@DTletters

    @Party Pauper S T Smyth

    10 Jun 2020 5:50PM
    I’m a little tired of black people whinging and feeling sorry for themselves. Crime statistics show that crimes against white people by blacks stand at 547,000, while crimes by whites on blacks is 59,000. Whites killed by blacks 9.8%. Blacks killed by whites 0.7%. Whites killed by police 55%, blacks killed by police 27%.” You only have to look at tv ads and news readers to see that black people are over represented, compared to the numbers in the country. Where were the riots when Lee Rigby was beheaded, or Charlene Downs was cut up for kebab meat, or Emily Jones who had her throat sliced open, or Jerry Wolfowitz who was battered to death for being white? Or all the little girls who have been groomed, raped or suffered FGM? We have to tolerate and pay for thousands of illegal economic migrants arriving every day. And now we are told by immigrants to take down our historical statues! I am proud to be white but that doesn’t make me racist. What makes me racist is being expected to get on my knees and apologise for being white in my own, predominantly white, Christian country by people from other countries that we have welcomed here. I am sick of anti white propaganda.

    And then there’s the slavery card. No one complaining about it today was a slave, and I certainly have not made anyone a slave. I don’t expect you to apologise for what your forefathers did, and I can’t be responsible for mine. In any case the first slaves were kept by black Africans and I’m told this continues to this day.What about all the universities, hospitals, schools, roads and railways that the British built all over the world where there were none? We have always been happy to welcome people of all colours from all over the world, but when they start to try to bully us into changing our culture and religion, and try to impose their, often lawless (knife and drug crime) on us, the enough is enough. Too many people are afraid to speak out for fear of being called racist, and that is why we are now being overwhelmed with brainwashed rioters and thugs.

    4. The blacks and Muslims have been working away for years in attempting to destroy our country. Most are simply easily led and thick between the ears but many in authority are messianic and determined to impose their cultures on us.

      We need a complete reappraisal of the legitimacy or otherwise of all of these imports. We need a thorough deep cleanse of our institutions and society to rid ourselves of these people. They care not for us and we should care even less for them.

    5. We need to demonstrate one hell of a backlash against the Blacks, Muslims and virtue-signalling whites.

      The Government needs to rein in the Mostly Shit Media, The BBC, Sky News and C4 News, all harbingers of fake news and Project fear.

      Pardon my French but – Boris, shew some fucking leadership before someone else feels forced to do it for you.

  124. We are witnessing a cultural purge with an unquenchable appetite

    Nothing is off the table as campaigners go after whatever they see diabolical, leaving no room for debate in this far-reaching revolution

    EMMA WEBB

    The toppling of Edward Colston’s statue in Bristol, the defacing of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square and attempts to set fire to the British flag on the Cenotaph have opened the floodgates to what is beginning to look like a cultural purge.

    This has not been helped by the Mayor of London, who instead of condemning mob iconoclasm, legitimised it by creating the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm to review London’s landmarks, murals, street names, statues and memorials, ensuring that it is cleansed of anything ‘problematic’ by modern standards.

    The speed with which the historical revisionists have mobilised across the country is terrifying and will have left many who do not agree feeling helpless; not least because the costs of speaking out against the movement have been made unbearably high, so no one is coming to the rescue.

    It was bad enough when, after watching the toppling the Grade-II statue, Superintendent Andy Bennett from Avon and Somerset Police comically explained “once it was down we made the right decision which was just to allow it to happen because what we did not want was tension”, making it clear the purpose of policing is now the prevention of tension rather than crime. Like the state-sponsored iconoclasm of the 16th century, now it is coming from the top.

    Before anyone could object, yesterday evening the statue of Robert Milligan was removed by a JCB from his plinth outside of the London Docklands Museum. This statue had already been vandalised by Black Lives Matter protesters, so perhaps wanting to avoid a repeat of what happened in Bristol, the authorities rushed ahead with the removal.

    The statue was removed in response to a petition by local councillor Ehtasham Haque, which had been signed by more than a thousand people in the first 24 hours – but that alone shouldn’t justify its removal. Haque said he put pressure on the owners of the land to remove the statue, saying “This statue was not built to teach us history. It was displayed publicly to honour and glorify a slaver who has no relevance in a 21st century civilised society”.

    Who gets to decide what is relevant? Milligan was chairman of the West India Dock and was responsible for its construction. The statue is outside of a Museum – surely a plaque providing information about his involvement with slavery would be more appropriate. Removing his statue doesn’t erase history; it prevents people from meeting their history face-to-face as they go about daily life.

    In Edinburgh, city leaders placed a plaque providing context on the monument dedicated to Henry Dundas, first Viscount Melvin, a politician who delayed the abolition of slavery. Indeed, Scotland’s Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights (CRER) has opposed the demands to rename streets named after 18th century slave-owning merchants because “we can’t erase the past by renaming streets”. All this would achieve is a distortion of our historical perspective. What we need more history in our public places, not less.

    The campaigners’ extensive hitlist already includes: King Charles II, Nancy Astor, Oliver Cromwell, Horatio Nelson, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir Francis Drake, and the list is set to expand. It even includes Former Prime Minister Charles Grey, the Second Earl Grey, who oversaw the abolition of slavery across the British Empire. He is on the list because reparations were paid to the owners, not the slaves.

    And now the University of Liverpool have announced that it will rename halls named after Liberal Prime Minister William Gladstone – who is also on the list – because of his family’s links to slaveholding. His father was one of the largest slave owners in the West Indies. The campaign against 16th Century figures Sir Francis Drake and his cousin John Hawkins in Plymouth has also taken off with remarkable zeal. The removal of his statue from Plymouth Hoe looks likely, given the council already announced that they will rename Sir John Hawkins Square.

    Meanwhile, Cardiff have given the go-ahead to remove a statue of Sir Thomas Picton, former slaveholder and governor of Trinidad and in Leeds, a statue of Queen Victoria was defaced with the words “racist” and “slave owner”.

    The campaign to remove Cecil Rhodes from Oriel College Oxford has also been reignited, with 26 councillors petitioning for its removal from private property saying the “city’s public art and monuments should reflect its values”. Oriel College already decided not to remove the statue in 2016 following similar uproar, sensibly stating that “the continuing presence of historical artifacts is an important reminder of the complexity of history”.

    This demand that public spaces be purged of ideologically impure elements is authoritarian and what we are witnessing has all the hallmarks of a cultural revolution with an unquenchable appetite. The academics and activists providing the ideological underpinnings for this movement view every aspect of our history and society as complicit in systemic racism, so nothing is off the table. It is already clear that this purge will not stop at public monuments and street names, but is turning into a far-reaching cultural phenomenon.

    One of the latest casualties is classic 1939 film Gone with the Wind, set on a plantation, was removed by HBO for “romanticising racism”. No individual, government or generation should have the power to edit the public space or access to art and culture in this way, and it is likely to cause more tension, not less.

    The suggestion that campaigners want to promote debate is laughable, because the movement has made discussion too high-risk. There is no room for charity or historical literacy. Historical figures are viewed as either diabolical or saintly, when in reality, history is simply messy.

    People should be free to encounter their history and make their own moral judgements. As Churchill wisely put it, “to build may have to be the slow and laborious task of years. To destroy can be the thoughtless act of a single day” – it is a shame he’s been cancelled.

    Emma Webb is Director of the Forum on Integration, Democracy and Extremism (FIDE) at Civitas

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/10/witnessing-cultural-purgewith-unquenchable-appetite/

    1. I watched The Man In The High Castle last year, an Amazon Prime series in which the Allies, Britain and the US, etc, lost the war, and the U.S. was divided between Japanese and Naxzi German control.
      The Nazis came up with the project, Jahr Null, Year Zero, to re-educate all the American children with a new version of history, to separate them from their real history, and to take down statues, including the Statue of Liberty.
      That’s what we’re seeing right now. They’re destroying our history and our culture, and no one in leadership is stopping them.
      Nigel Farage is still talking about lockdown, etc, tonight.

    2. The fascist Left have never changed. Any opportunity to destroy and control society is siezed upon with gusto.

      This is why they must be opposed, not knelt before. They should be told no, you’re wrong and your oppression will be resisted.

    3. I find this letter in today’s DT interesting:

      SIR – With regards to the pulling down of the statue of Edward Colston (report, June 8), some wise words from Éamon de Valera, the former prime minister and president of.of the Republic of Ireland, should be remembered.

      Asked by a German journalist why they were sitting in a room in Dublin Castle surrounded by the portraits of viceroys who “oversaw Ireland’s oppression”, he replied that they were part of the long history of Ireland and should not be forgotten.

      Robin Math ew QC
      Little Barrington, Oxfordshire

      Ireland is awash with tokens of 800 years of British rule. With the exception of the IRA’s disgraceful demolition of ‘Nelson’s Pillar’ in O’Connell Street in March 1966; there has never been any appetite to destroy symbols of Ireland’s Anglo-Irish history.

      Many Royal/ Irish institutions survive and prosper to this day.

      The greatest act of nationalistic ‘vandalism’ was – probably – repainting thousands of Queen Victoria’s red cast iron pillar boxes – green …

    1. No thought for the seriously injured policewoman who was thrown from her horse due to action by these thugs.

        1. Why? It managaed to return to the stables by itself apparently uninjured. Possibly another horse was injured.

    1. When a dog is looking good, they know it, and it shows. They are beautiful and they know it and it shows!

    4. As a confirmed cat person, I can definitely write that your two dogs look wonderful! Love the alert ears…

      1. There’s something of the batwing in the ears, especially the one at the back!

    5. Funny looking doorstops.
      };-O

      Well trimmed Scotties and West Highland Whites make a great picture, as yer Scotch Whisky people realised.

      A great family friend breeds both. The puppies are hillarious, running around like re-constructed match boxes.

  127. Is tribalism normal ? Is that what we are really looking at I wonder ?

    As Wikipedia tells us………

    ”The word “tribe” can be defined to mean an extended kin group or clan with a common ancestor, or can also be described as a group with shared interests, lifestyles and habits. The proverb “birds of a feather flock together” describes homophily,[3] the human tendency to form friendship networks with people of similar occupations, interests, and habits.[4] Some tribes can be located in geographically proximate areas, like villages or bands, though telecommunications enables groups of people to form digital tribes using tools like social networking websites”.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribalism

    1. There’s a whole tribe of people here now who hate us, hate our way of life, hate our history and culture and want to obliterate it. If they don’t like us they can sod off.

        1. It seems they already have. But this is my ancestral home and I’m not going anywhere.

  129. I’m not sure how to link the video but the Leave EU page on facebook has an utterly unbelievable video of a police officer being attacked somewhere in London.

      1. OK, my laptop is playing very silly beggars, struggling to scroll down and even writing a comment takes several attempts

        1. Download and use Ccleaner, Mum. It’ll get rid of the cookies and other crap in you internet/Google, whatever cache.

          You’ll be surprised at the amount of junk it initially finds. It’s free.

          1. It seems tonight was the night for full shut down and restart. Maybe that will help but I will look into your suggestion too. Belt and braces job! Goodnight.

    2. Link produces error message. Is it a case of common sense entry being removed?

  131. Evening, all. Another step towards normality; polo is set to resume, albeit behind closed doors. The sooner owners can go racing the better; I have two runners at a nearby course on Friday and I’m going to have to find the races on the Internet to watch them 🙁

      1. They will be lined up against the wall and shot – what a bluddy good idea – do it NOW.

  133. Alistair Campbell, given as “an author” with no more background, has a long article published in Aftenposten about how awful Britain is under the Tories. No mention that he is a political stormtrooper and professional liar for Labour.
    https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikk/i/JojxjP/boris-johnson-og-koronakrisen-det-er-en-vond-foelelse-aa-skamme-seg-over-landet-sitt-alastair-campbell?
    However, BTL there is huge criticism about him and Aftenposten’s attempt to blackwash Boris & the EU – including from me. Bastards.

      1. …but surely that’s a black ‘unsinkable’ ship being sunk by a white supremacist iceberg!

    2. Just emailed the editoress to say she should be ashamed, that by publishing such crap with blatant political content without informing the readers who wrote it, is an attempt to mislead, by the comments has damaged their reputation for honesty (!) and if she doubts me, look at the comments btl.

      1. A dangerous PoS when used like this. Many don’t look for corroboration these days – but I was heartened to see that the article and it’s posting was given a huge kicking BTL.

  134. Good night, Gentlefolk, perhaps a prayer while God blesses you might help us. Is divine intervention all we may hope for?

    1. Remember, Tom. God helps those who help themselves (but not, presumably, the looters) 🙂

  136. Is Boris deliberately trying to force a leadership challenge, do you think? He is so wishy washy about covid-19, so mealy-mouthed about the weekend and beyond riots (peaceful protests)….. Perhaps he really doesn’t want to ‘get Brexit done’ at all and he is hoping to be rescued from his name going down in history by his tribe.

    1. I have always had the most severe doubts about him.

      I quoted from John Milton’s Paradise Lost this morning and I shall quote him again:

      Semblance of worth – not substance.

    2. I have always had the most severe doubts about him.

      I quoted from John Milton’s Paradise Lost this morning and I shall quote him again:

      Semblance of worth – not substance.

    3. Actions speak louder than words and I judge people on what they do never on what they say. pity more people do not do the same. As Starmer went down on his knee. that is what I judge him by.

  137. Deep breaths please . https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1293928/Black-Lives-Matter-racist-statues-map-Robert-Milligan-Cecil-Rhodes

    Scroll through the lists and see what those wretches have targetted to demolish in your area.

    Lord Baden Powell statue on Pool harbour quayside .. Remember the Boy Scout Movement ?… Why do they want to demolish his memory .

    Drax avenue in Wareham .. Someone must get stern with this BLM movement .. they are causing mayhem and must be stopped!

    1. We will soon all be required to dress in boiler suits and wave little red books.

    2. Its British culture they wish to destroy and replace it with black culture. You know, the culture across Africa which tens of thousands flee from.

    3. How long has the LBP statue been on Poole quayside? & where is it? I don’t remember there being one.

        1. He must be fairly recent, but I the last time I was in Poole was 16/17 years ago.

    4. There’s a counter petition to keep the Clive statue in Shrewsbury. The Shropshire Star on-line poll was highly in favour of keeping it.

      1. The PTB and the MSM need to have Brazllians so they cannot continue to be got by the short and curlies!

  139. ‘Evening all. Just a note to say that the laptop just died. I’m not sure how to post a new page from the phone, so there may not be a new page for a few days…

    Sorry…

    1. What !!! Oh, how will I sutvive in these troublous times !! It is a plot….. !

    4. AAAA!!!
      What will we do?
      That’s a bugger, Geoff. Hope he rest of you is OK.

    6. Sorry to hear that Geoff.
      If you need any help just shout. I’m sure between us all we can help out, its the very least we can do. Best wishes. 😊😊

      1. I really think this is over to the really, really savvy NOTTLers.
        What is it about laptops at the moment?

          1. It’s similar to lapdancing but without the girl. Or the music. Or the dancing. In fact, it’s nothing like it.

            HTH.

    7. If we have a blank Thursday page available there are Nottlers who can provide the letters one by one. Would that work Geoff?

    9. Ah, the Stasi are after us. Watch out for your front-door, Geoff (and I’m not joking)

  140. CHARLES MOORE

    Baldies of the world, throw off your chains

    Bald men are more likely than others to suffer severe symptoms from Covid-19

    Speaking as one myself, I am troubled by the news that bald men are more likely than others to suffer severe symptoms from Covid-19. Male sex hormones are catnip to the virus, it seems. Bald men are bursting with these. One study found that 79 per cent of male virus victims in Madrid hospitals were also victims of hair loss. Frank Gabrin, the first doctor in the United States to die of Covid, was bald.

    This is only the latest example of the vulnerability of our kind in modern society. It is typical of our marginalisation. Whereas the virus vulnerability of black and ethnic minority groups was quickly noticed and an inquiry into the causes was established, the threat to us emerged only last week. No one has lifted a finger to help us. We are hurting.

    We baldies are ignored out of deep-rooted prejudice. Men with hair exploit their power to indoctrinate other oppressed groups, such as women, to see us as unattractive. In the 60-year dominance of television, no bald political leader has led his party to victory at a general election. Neil Kinnock, Iain Duncan Smith and William Hague, whose sole “crime” is visible in the photograph on the page opposite, fell foul of this unwritten law, imposed by popular fear and structural exclusion. In the present Cabinet, only the Defence Secretary, Ben Wallace, and (more arguably) the Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, share our problem.

    Only 12.5 per cent of the 16 men in the Cabinet are bald, yet we make up nearly 40 per cent of the male population. Boris Johnson’s blond, unthinking sense of entitlement is deeply disturbing.

    It is not just politics. Where are the bald role models across society? When has the Doctor in Dr Who or James Bond ever been played by a (visibly) bald man? We are almost completely absent from advertisements, confined to “character” parts in films and hairbrushed out of fashion-modelling. Where are the bald celebrity chefs? In TV political coverage, Nick Robinson was almost the only severe hair-loss victim on air. It is telling that, in recent years, he was moved to radio, thus becoming invisible.

    Many bald men have felt driven to conform to the demands of the intolerant, hirsute majority. Photographs of Elton John in the 1970s, for example, suggest that he had less hair then than now. To succeed, he was forced to live the lie of hair “restoration”. This coping strategy, which helped make him Sir Elton, was an understandable reaction to oppression. But it won’t do for the rising generation of the bald. They demand justice.

    And yes, racism is involved. All mainly white nations – led by Britain, Spain, Germany, the Czech Republic – are disproportionately bald. In modern culture it is considered perfectly acceptable to complain about the “male, pale and stale”, whereas comparable remarks against women and ethnic minorities are rightly stigmatised. “Male, pale and stale” also means – let’s be clear – bald. When you consider that China, the origin of the virus, has the lowest rate of hair loss in the world, the pattern starts to look positively sinister.

    So it is time to speak out. Our anger may force us to chuck statues of men with hair into the nearest harbour. Already our global movement is stirring. Our president is the Duke of Cambridge, and our secretary is Dominic Cummings (although we have not, so far, had time to ask them about this). Bald Lives Matter!

    Privileged access for China

    Covid-19, which came from China, is keeping new Chinese away. British universities, which have become dangerously dependent on Chinese students for their money, are therefore in a pickle, as potential entrants for the next academic year take fright. At Cambridge, for example, they charge Chinese students roughly twice what they charge British ones.

    It will be sad if able Chinese students no longer avail themselves of the benefit of a Cambridge education. But the current problem does expose a strange feature of the Cambridge system. Nowadays, admissions of UK students are “contextual”. This word, translated, means that applicants from independent schools are discriminated against, with those from poorer backgrounds given places on worse academic results. This is justified in the name of increasing “access”.

    In the case of Chinese students, no such process applies, since China is a place in which only the rich get a good education and all power derives from the Communist Party (whose senior members are very rich). So virtually no poor students from China apply to Cambridge. Nick Chrimes, a historian of Cambridge who helps Chinese students there, tells me that they come exclusively from the Chinese upper middle class, with a few super-rich “Red princesses” thrown in.

    So the “privileged” Britons are turned away and the privileged Chinese are let in.

    Masking a hidden threat

    Many question the coming compulsion to wear a face mask on public transport. Some have cause to fear it. An asthmatic acquaintance writes that he cannot use a dust-mask because, especially in hot weather, it restricts the inflow of air: “As soon as an asthmatic starts gasping, it is a painful downward spiral.” He needs his inhaler. He has had to write to his doctor for a certificate of exemption.

    Not for the first time in the Covid story, a genuine, direct threat to health seems to be considered less important than a more distant, debatable one.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/09/baldies-world-throw-chains/

    1. I am very thin on top but I am ‘O’ blood group. One is supposed to be bad for me and the other good. I shall just carry on going where I like with no face mask or gel on my hands. I just wash as normal with soap and water.

    4. I posted this article here a couple of days ago and commented on the fact that bald men are sexually far more potent than their more hirsute brothers and male friends.

  141. We thought it was bad just 2½ years ago…

    Now our police prefer playing politics to solving real crimes

    How can the police be too powerful and too feeble at the same time? This is perhaps the greatest avoidable scandal of our age, and yet nobody ever does anything about it.

    The decisions which led to this mess can easily be tracked down. I did it years ago, and have supplied the details to politicians (including Theresa May) and senior police officers.

    It benefits nobody, least of all the police themselves. So why is it never put right? The amazing fall of Damian Green might serve some purpose if it led to action. But will it? I couldn’t care less about Mr Green. I may have met him once, but am not sure. I despise his party and the Government of which he was a member.

    But the behaviour of some of the police officers who searched his parliamentary offices, and have since gone public with pornography claims, seems to me to be disgraceful and wrong. It is an improper use of powers given to them for other purposes.

    I shuddered when I first heard of the case, sensing in it a threat to freedom in general, as I often do these days. The initial arrest was dubious and looked political.

    This doesn’t just affect politicians. Thanks to powers very foolishly given to them, the police now act as judge and jury in thousands of cases. They can publicly ruin a person by noisily arresting him in a well-publicised dawn raid, even though they have no real case against him.

    They can make him unemployed by keeping him on endless so-called ‘police bail’. This is a sinister and lawless procedure, allowing police to punish individuals against whom nothing has ever been proved.

    And many of these decisions are taken by highly political people, trained and indoctrinated in the new dogmas of political correctness, quite distinct from the old-fashioned coppers who came from the normal world and shared the general view of right and wrong.

    At the beginning of the 19th Century, Parliament feared that the police would turn into just such an engine of oppression and secret power. Only when Robert Peel came up with his brilliant idea of citizens in non-military, modest uniform, unarmed and with tightly limited powers, patrolling the streets on foot, did MPs at last agree to allow an experiment.

    And it worked. It worked brilliantly. It never got too powerful. Its constables were the servants of the public, and knew it. Their presence on the streets prevented thousands of the sorts of crimes that now go undeterred and unpunished. They were a rallying point for the good and a warning to the bad. They never got above themselves, wore baseball caps or disappeared to go on sociology courses.

    The net of local police stations, open all hours and close to where we lived and worked, made it easily accessible. It never stopped working. Right into the 1960s, official inquiries confirmed that it was still highly effective.

    The most advanced academic research, by James Q. Wilson, has since endorsed it as the best type of policing known to man. By discouraging small offences, it discouraged large-scale crime too. It wasn’t perfect. There was some corruption, and some brutality. But these resulted from the failings of human individuals, not the system itself.

    Alas, a combination of liberal political reform and vain, fashionable innovation, backed by a few prominent journalists, ended it in a few short years. The police disappeared into cars and back offices, specialist squads and political correctness lectures. Wherever they were, they weren’t on the streets.

    Besieged by louts? Call back next week, we’re busy. Burgled? Fill in this form, we’re busy. People openly using drugs on the street? Not interested. But ask them to join in a Gay Pride march and they’ll be along, high heels and nail varnish at the ready.

    Police stations were closed by the hundred (it is still happening). Those that were not sold off were closed for most of the time, and in many cases have come to resemble Soviet border control posts, with those inside them cut off from the public by thick glass and long waits.

    New stations were sited far from town centres, to emphasise that the police don’t need us and expect the same in return.

    It is obligatory at this point to say that there are still decent police officers, and so there are. But St Francis of Assisi, or Superman, would struggle to do a good job under these conditions.

    It has all been a terrible, unnecessary mistake. It would be easy, cheap and popular to put it right. Mrs May would become a national heroine and be remembered as long as Robert Peel if she would only do it. Well, why doesn’t she?

    Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday, Christmas Eve 2017

    http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2017/12/now-our-police-prefer-playing-politics-to-solving-real-crimes.html

    1. Theresa May was the worst Home Secretary and the worst Prime Minister in our history. Her inaction and appeasement of black and Islamic hooligans is testament to her utter incompetence. Her faux-Brexit position and adherence to pro-EU remainer civil servants remains a scandal of epic proportions.

      Boris Johnson needs now to reenact his Churchillian self image. The Antifa mob should be declared enemies of the state and proscribed. The BLM mob should be declared a terrorist organisation. Those committing vandalism and seeking to destroy and replace statues and other examples of our English heritage should be prosecuted for their crimes and either incarcerated or else deported.

      1. “Theresa May was the worst Home Secretary and the worst Prime Minister in our history.”

        I get your point, Corim, but I really can’t see her as better or worse than the twin scum of Blair and Brown. I have all three as a deadbeat dead heat. I simply cannot choose.

        1. Better throw in Major and Cameron as well, George.

          In fact ALL those following Thatcher have been appeasing and destructive crap.

        2. Fair point Grizz. Every judgement is necessarily marginal.

          Blair did immense damage to our country and poses a continuing threat to our existence as an island nation. He is a paid up member of the New World Order and is funded to the tune of millions by Soros. Blair’s sole motivation is transparently a desire to achieve great wealth.

          Theresa May poses a different question as to her motivations. I believe she simply tried to serve her husband’s commercial interests without a care for the British people. The woman was and remains poisonous to our interests.

          Edit: Either way neither Blair nor May can be declared other than enemies of the British people and enemies of the state.

      2. What should happen and what is likely to happen are, alas, very different.

  142. Anyone for Time?

    Notice outside bread/cake shop at Bournville Green:

    Following Guidelines re. Covid19

    …
    Only one customer in the shop in the shop at anyone time

  147. SIR – In the United Kingdom there remains a virtual cloak of silence over the continuing economic legacy of the trade in African peoples.

    It is an open secret that the bankers Barings, the Church of England, members of the Royal family, West India Dock, even something as mundane as the RNLI all profited from the blood-soaked proceeds of slavery. The trade was essential to the very structure of capitalism as we know it.

    The Slavery Abolition Act in 1833 saw the largest bailout in British history (before the banking crisis and coronavirus). It paid out to planters and owners £20 million, or in today’s money £23 billion. This fiscal stimulus built railways, hospitals, banking dynasties and political dynasties, embedding the brutal legacy of slavery into the very fabric of British society.

    And if that legacy, and the racism it begets, cannot be discussed and, yes, apologised for, then young people will feel fully justified in tearing down those monuments to murder that they are expected to walk past every day.

    Deryck Browne
    Chief Executive, African Health Policy Network
    London E7

    The crass ineptitude of this letter loudly reinforces all prejudices against this cohort.

    BTL:

    Max Bonamy

    11 Jun 2020 4:10AM
    Thanks for the lecture Deryck Browne.

    We get it, we whites are the vicious ‘ice’ people. Let’s see how the brotherhood of the much nicer ‘sun’ people have been doing.

    (I first read this ‘ice / sun’ tag in the editorial of The Voice, a black newspaper widely distributed in London.)

    Quick comparison between British and African efforts to abolish slavery:

    UK
    1807_Abolition of the Slave trade Act
    1807_The West African Squadron (Royal Navy) is established to suppress slave trading.
    1833_Abolition of Slavery Act, ending slavery in British colonies by 1838

    Africa

    Black on black slavery not abolished in:
    – Niger until 1960
    – Mauritania until 1981 – but carried on until 2007
    – Mali until 1992
    – Ghana until 1998
    – Western Sahara until 2010
    – Chad until 2017

  148. This article was put on the DT website at 5:42pm; comments were closed at 9:30pm.

    Targeting statues of historical figures is a clumsy attempt to start a culture war

    That William Gladstone has made the statues ‘hit list’ shows that this destructive campaign is based on distorted understanding of the past

    ROBERT TOMBS – 10 June 2020 • 5:42pm

    So William Ewart Gladstone has been added to the hit list, and Liverpool University has predictably rushed to deprive him of the obscure honour of a hall of residence named after him. If “the People’s William” is looking down from an Evangelical Heaven, he must regard such a minor humiliation as a just chastisement for his sins, of which he was obsessively aware. But should we in 2020 be happy about this sudden wave of historical scapegoating?

    The reason given is that Gladstone came from a wealthy slave-owning family, benefited financially himself, and in his maiden speech in the Commons in 1833 defended his father from charges of mistreating slaves on his plantation. There is worse, seemingly not yet noticed by the “Topple the Racists” organizers: during the American Civil War, he for a time supported the slave-owning Confederacy.

    Whether this wipes out the reasons why he has long been honoured (and was loathed by the Right) is, I suppose, a matter of moral judgment. On the virtuous side of the scale is his creation of modern progressive politics; urging democracy as a moral right; attempting to give Ireland home rule; creating a modern civil service; supporting sexually abused women; advocating Italian freedom; opposing arms spending; campaigning against ethnic atrocities in the Balkans; criticising imperialism and arguing for an ethical foreign policy, and so on. His political record is unsurpassed – 60 years in politics, and prime minister in his eighties. He was arguably the most wide-ranging, intelligent, unpredictable, dynamic (and psychologically odd) of our great modern politicians – a progressive global hero worshipped by his huge working-class following.

    Personally, I am not an unalloyed admirer of his rather sanctimonious style of politics, allied with a shameless opportunism (playing with an ace up his sleeve and claiming that God had put it there, commented a colleague). It is an odd spectacle to see some on the modern Left destroying their own heritage. But it is a distortion of history: Gladstone was not a slave trader, or owner, or defender of slavery. The past is different from the present: the educative purpose of looking at history, however superficially, is to try to understand that difference, and in this case to understand why Gladstone took the positions he did.

    He thought that the legal and peaceful abolition of slavery was to the general good. In the American Civil War, he accepted Lincoln’s statement that the war was not about slavery. He believed that it was dragging on endlessly, causing huge suffering, not least economic suffering to the workers of Northern England, most of whom supported his desire for a negotiated peace. These may have been wrong opinions, as Gladstone later acknowledged. But they were understandable, and hardly wicked.

    I am not one of those who regard all historical monuments as sacrosanct. No one has the right to a statue or even a hall of residence in their honour, and certainly not in perpetuity. We can surely choose to remove the statues or other honorifics of people we no longer respect, or have merely forgotten. I rejoiced when the many statues of Stalin and Lenin in the old USSR were pulled down: I’d be pretty worried if they were put back.

    But my main reason for feeling uneasy about this present campaign is less historical than political and ethical. If we crudely apply the most “woke” criteria to figures in the past, few will emerge untarnished, and the campaign itself will soon become ridiculous: on the hit list already are Captain Cook and, for no obvious reason, Robert Peel (another popular hero – for reducing the cost of food). More seriously, to attack a figure like Gladstone, or vandalize the statue of Churchill, due to distorted historical understanding or just for the hell of it, is a deliberate rejection of our shared history, not just the bad but also the good.

    It is a clumsy attempt to start a nihilistic culture war and offend as many people as possible. Scapegoating heroes from the past may be for some in Britain just a fun way to break lockdown and feel virtuous with no effort. But stirring up dissension on an issue – police brutality in the United States and racial discrimination in general – on which most people agree is bizarrely counter-productive.

    Robert Tombs is a Fellow of the newly launched Centre for Brexit Policy, and he is writing a book called Offshore Island.

    ****************************************************************

    David Robson
    10 Jun 2020 9:30PM
    What disturbs me the most is the government’s acquiescence whilst these people destroy our history and culture. Whilst it’s a given that the BBC and mainstream media despise the British people, I had at least hoped some of our institutions and public bodies would see it for what it is.

    But they are too frit. We are being abandoned; race relations are being set back by years and perhaps rightly so.

    As the truth keeps twisting I’m afraid we will have to look after our own interests

    Robert West
    10 Jun 2020 7:26PM
    If you hate Britain so much you are free to leave. We will clap you as you go.

  149. This has become a neo-Maoist war on the past. 10th June 2020.

    Of course, it is never only artifacts and art. Cultural Revolutions are fundamentally crusades against living people and their foul, incorrect thoughts. It is hard to keep up with the list (black list) of people cancelled by the Woke Guards over the past week’s orgy of moralism masquerading as anti-racism. In the UK, a radio presenter was suspended for daring to question the orthodoxy of ‘white privilege’. A Welsh journalist was dumped as a judge from a literary competition for criticising Black Lives Matter.

    Morning everyone. Geoff is having problems so I’m just carrying on with this channel. I thought that I w ould like to try and see the course of future events though nothing is absolutely certain of course. Least of all in a revolution. This said they do follow certain patterns.

    This “revolution” is still in its early stages and will eventually run out of statues. They will then graduate, as Brendan says, to people. Expect to see “Confessions” on TV news programmes by public figures; Footballers, Journalists, Actors, Politicians, CEO’s of companies etc. There will be documentaries on TV (BBC, SKY) showing the cruelties of White Oppression. The Slave Trade, Empire etc. Nottlers should also keep an eye open for their personal safety. Being stopped, robbed and humiliated by mixed race gangs of youths in broad daylight will be a real danger particularly in areas of high immigrant density. Don’t argue or try to reason with them and don’t expect any help from the authorities!

    This is only the beginning. The economy will collapse later this year and things will become much worse. Local pogroms of whites are likely but the real stuff won’t get started until the Government is replaced. We will then get “reparations” with people (Whites, Sikhs, Indians),evicted from their homes and given to incomers. The organised murders won’t start until then. This will all be happening against a massive influx of migrants as the gates will be thrown open to all comers against a background of record domestic unemployment and collapsing (the fault of Whitey of course) public services.

    Hell is on its way!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/10/this-has-become-a-neo-maoist-war-on-the-past/

  154. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/opinion/2020/06/10/TELEMMGLPICT000232783085_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqnovVTiJx1-CJOCPnC8SeZ7Xa9kaT7nBott6zaOlWe3E.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Wedgwood porcelain medallion circa 1787 designed by William Hackwood and widely distributed by the anti-slavery movement

    SIR – It was in Britain that the moral enormity of black slavery was first acknowledged and acted upon. First, back in 1772, Lord Mansfield gave his landmark judgment that slavery was illegal within Britain, meaning that any black slaves who landed here automatically became free.

    Soon after this, Granville Sharp, Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce spearheaded the primarily Christian Evangelical campaign to make the slave trade illegal. This was finally carried into law in 1807, followed in 1833 by abolition of slavery itself in all British dominions.

    Britain has been acknowledging that “Black lives matter” since the 18th century.

    Dr Allan Chapman
    Oxford

    1. SIR – Wouldn’t it be nice if protesters placed a wreath at the memorial next to the Houses of Parliament to Thomas Fowell Buxton, William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and others in thanks for their efforts to abolish slavery against strong opposition?

      Sir John Lushington Bt
      Barrington, Somerset

  155. …severe COVID-19 (defined as respiratory rate >30 breaths/min, room air oxygen saturation <93%, PaO2/FiO2 <300 mm Hg)…

    https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/doi/10.1182/blood.2020006000/454646/COVID-19-and-its-implications-for-thrombosis-and

    People Identified as having COVID-19 infection are effectively required to be locked up and virtually excommunicated from society for 14 days. We potentially could all be stigmatised for catching this deadly virus but BAME people are twice as likely to suffer the indignity of being labelled as an infected member of society along with the added penalty of the greater likelihood of dying from it than whites.

    The virus can be seen therefore as the reimposition of white oppression manifest on the street as police brutality.

    But really it’s something implicit in our blood lines that keeps us shackled to our fate on this earth.

    Main thing is to keep our respiratory rate < 30 breaths/min.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e1d113905d220126435250d6c88c617fe87e9f635ca3fc68da81c32da862fcd2.gif

Comments are closed.