Saturday 13 June: What kind of country are we now, when the Cenotaph and Churchill’s statue are boarded up?

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/2020/06/12/letterswhat-kind-country-now-cenotaph-churchills-statue-boarded/

809 thoughts on “Saturday 13 June: What kind of country are we now, when the Cenotaph and Churchill’s statue are boarded up?”

  2. As one of Oxford’s few black professors, let me tell you why I care about Rhodes. Simukai Chigudu. Fri 12 Jun 2020.

    I was a PhD student in Oxford at that time as well as a founding member of our chapter of RMF. As a Zimbabwean, it was difficult for me to view Rhodes simply as a man with odious views compared with our contemporary standards, as if it were his words alone and not his actions that were under scrutiny.

    Rhodes’ imperialism gave rise to a pattern of settler colonialism in Southern Africa predicated on racial domination in political, economic and social spheres. In Rhodesia, 8 million disenfranchised black people eked out a living at subsistence level or below it, while 250,000 white people, barely 3% of the population, owned more than half of the country’s available land, and virtually all of its business and industry, before independence from colonial rule in 1980. Education, healthcare and housing were all segregated, with white people enjoying levels equivalent to those in western Europe or the United States.

    Morning everyone. When one reads this you can only hope that the few become the none. We have here someone from Zimbabwe complaining about White Rule. Now this is not an inarguable point but Zimbabwe? Really? Aside from the hypocrisy of this position it is difficult to avoid the conclusion when reading Mr Chigudo’s work that it is heavily self-censored. There is no direct criticism of either Mugabe or the present government in any of it. In a record of murder, massacre, torture and the ruination of an entire country all he can find to write about is the cholera outbreak of 2008, though careful even in this to avoid attributing the blame to the government. Now don’t get me wrong if I had family or friends in Zimbabwe I wouldn’t write anything critical of Mugabe and his cronies either but then I wouldn’t start lecturing anyone else about their supposed shortcomings; particularly when I’d sponged off them for the last twenty years.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/12/oxford-black-professors-cecil-rhodes-british-empire

    1. Possibly the exploitation of what was to become Zimbabwe by Rhodes can be illustrated by the gross commercial exploitation of London Rastafarian sauce maker Levi Roots by that evil white money-maker, Peter Jones, from the TV show ‘Dragons’ Den’. When Roots was interviewed, he crestfallenly grumbled about how much money Jones was making from him… here was a clear case of the white man’s imperialism of the honest hard toil of the black man… but then his face lightened up (if that were possible in Roots’ case) and he said “but I am making more”.

      1. ‘Morning, BoB, he appears to be a craven little guttersnipe, happy to suck on the teat of a country he despises, despite it educating him.

        It makes one wonder if there is any mileage in trying to educate baboons like this.

    3. Southern Rhodesia was the bread basket of Africa. Zimbabwe cannot now feed itself.
      The reason – white farmers had their land confiscated, many murdered. The farm employees lost their livelihood.
      The new “owners” knew nothing about farming and most land is abandoned and unproductive.

  3. SIR – Baden-Powell was the very antithesis of a racist. Exactly 100 years ago, long before such views were fashionable, he gave an address to scoutmasters stating that the spirit of scouting “can only be understood by outsiders when they see it ruling the thoughts and actions of each member of our brotherhood – a scheme which in practice disregards difference in class, creed, country and colour”.

    His views in this regard never wavered throughout his long life. Baden-Powell saw in Mein Kampf “wonderful ideas on education, health, propaganda organisation etc”; but in his summation he added “and ideals which Hitler does not practise himself”.

    The Hitler Youth was a perversion of the Boy Scout Movement. Hitler saw the Boy Scouts as “a haven for young men opposed to the new State”. He banned the Scouts in 1934, and in 1940 Baden-Powell’s name went into Hitler’s “Black Book” – a list of those to be detained on sight had his invasion of Britain come to fruition.

    During this present campaign to besmirch the reputation of almost every British hero, I wonder whether the perpetrators are truly ignorant, or just pretend to be, so as to further their own perverted political agenda.

    Nicholas Young
    London W13

    1. …I wonder whether the perpetrators are truly ignorant, or just pretend to be, so as to further their own perverted political agenda.

      Black Lives Matter is just a tool. The aim is a Marxist state.

      1. 320084+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        As is the crime that triggered these odious events allowing it to emerge and blossom into a full scale issue.

    2. 320084+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      Due to much of today’s education teachings they would not be taught that Mr Young.

  5. SIR – At breakfast, my wife suggested a “quickie” divorce (Letters, June 10) so that we can each see our grandchildren.

    Malcolm Whittle
    Newbury, Berkshire

    1. First course for me is a mug of tea with two paracetamol and a codeine for my knackered hip.
      I’m more than a bit concerned that in a matter of months it’s gone from a minor niggle to a serious problem and getting to see someone with this bloody lockdown is next to impossible.

      1. Not being silly, get them to check out your knees too, if you have even the slightest niggles there.
        Mine all started with a torn cartilage and a refusal to stop playing contact sport.

        I know it’s anecdotal, but In my case the specialist said the real problem that had caused the hip to deteriorate was the opposite knee.

        Good luck.

        1. I was having minor right knee problems when I rather stupidly did it further damage in an otherwise minor motorbike mishap, but the hip now makes walking the 1½ miles to Cromford & back a struggle and my 5 to 10 mile walks are well & truly out of the window!

          It was being kept bearable with 2 paracetamol and one codeine twice a day, with an occasional 3rd dose, but within the past week I’ve had to go up to the maximum 4 doses per day.
          I’ve got a telephone appointment (?????) with physio arranged so I will be laying it on a bit thick.

          1. Mention the knee.
            I ended up having to have both replaced. The knee man suggested I had to have a new hip, which came as a huge shock as I was only in my 50’s.
            They did the hip first and I had to wait a while to be sure the hip was fine before the knee could be done.

          2. I have a friend whose (private) hip operation on 27th. March was cancelled when the NHS commandeered the local Ramsey hospital.
            She contacted the surgeon’s secretary a few days ago: she is top of the list when he resumes work; it sounded as if this would happen within a few weeks.

          4. I was wondering if it might be worth your putting out feelers so you are at the head of the queue.

  7. SIR – I chair the governors at a primary school. We were ready to open on June 1, in line with government guidelines.

    At the last minute, we were “advised” by the local council’s public health body that it was not safe to open. This has happened twice now, and each time we were told that we can make an individual decision based on circumstances.

    However, we are under the threat of litigation should something go wrong; we may lack insurance, and teaching unions are telling staff that they should not attend. We are damned if we do and damned if we don’t, but please don’t blame the Government. Rather, blame the all-powerful unions who appear to be holding local councils to ransom. To my shame, ours is a Conservative county council.

    Anna Shone
    Lancaster

    1. Our offices have turned into a bonkers maze where people can’t sit beside one another, can’t sit together at lunch, are boxed in with great dividers. The shared kitchens are now one person only and there’s a thermal camera over the door.

      As a result, we’re all working from home for a long as we want. Having a bit of space to come together was so we could meet up, waffle, let the dogs dash about and draw on a whiteboard.

      We’ve not yet cancelled the office space but we have found our connectivity to be utterly feeble. Internet in this country is antique.

  8. SIR – If there are empty plinths, there might be some commemoration of the 1,587 Royal Navy personnel who, between 1808 and 1867, died on the West Africa Station while saving 150,000 black Africans from slavery and seizing 1,600 slave ships.

    At the very least, such sacrifice should be acknowledged by all sections of opinion.

    Michael Durey
    Sorrento, Western Australia

    https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/status/1270698452486361089

    A cousin of mine has our great-grandfather’s journal from when he served as a young midshipman in the West Africa Squadron. The narrative makes for fairly dull and monotonous reading until one tallies up the numbers of slaves freed and the numbers already dead by the time the RN captured the slavers.

    1. Careful now! The BBC won’t know what to do with him. He’s black so they want to love him, he’s honest and intelligent and an economic Conservative, so they’ll hate him.

      Oh. I know. They’ll ignore him. A shame as Dr Sowell is erudite and should be praised.

    2. Not just the West Africa Squadron, but East Africa too.
      My late cousin did research into the family history and discovered that a several times Great Uncle was killed in action boarding an Arab slaving dhow.
      Sadly his papers were thrown out after he died.

    3. Since this whole nonsense kicked off, one silver lining is that I’ve discovered so many black conservative commentators. How did I miss Thomas Sowell before? he was a black Jordan Peterson before Jordan Peterson was.

  9. Good Morning Folks,

    Sun was out now clouding over a bit.
    Off for an early game of tennis played once last week, it’s much harder now that I’m carrying a baby in my belly.

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

  10. I think we have to face the fact that a revolution is not on it’s way, we are already in one and it’s being orchestrated by our globalist masters, every few days more and more unfathomable events are going to take place.

  12. The Government can’t run away from this poisonous culture war any longer

    Protesters are trying to efface our rich national story and retell it as purely one of racial oppression

    CHARLES MOORE – 12 June 2020 • 9:30pm

    In 1992, the controversial Arthur “Bomber” Harris got his statue outside the RAF church, St Clement Danes in the Strand. This paper’s then editor, Max Hastings, had the nice idea of sending me thence in a circuit via Whitehall and Trafalgar Square, to compare the scores of monuments along the way. Several things struck me as I strolled. One was the odd mixture of genuine renown/heroism/usefulness – such as Nelson, Edith Cavell, Bazalgette, who built the Victorian sewers – and obscurity/lack of merit – the 19th-century Duke of Cambridge, King James II. Another was the sight of a great clash of history reconciled in stone: King Charles I rides proudly at the top of Whitehall. At the bottom of it, by Parliament, stands Oliver Cromwell, who executed him.

    These statues (often remarkable works of art) were erected not by one omnipotent authority, but by all sorts. The choices often reflected the people’s preferences. Nelson’s column, for example, cost £50,000 (nearly £7 million today), the bulk paid for by public subscription. What overall narrative can one see in this array? Certainly no single, official preaching of imperialism, racism, or any doctrine. You see the story of a free people, unfolding in the haphazard way in which freedom always works.

    What we have now, under the guise of Black Lives Matter, is an attempt to impose a single, organised, hostile narrative on this country. It wants literally to efface our rich national story and retell it as one of racial oppression, using the tactics of a “flash mob”. In a famous phrase, the conservative philosopher, Edmund Burke, said: “Rage and frenzy will pull down more in half an hour than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.” That is exactly apposite.

    What ignorance, what cheek of the extremists to claim the British have spent 400 years without addressing the wrong of slavery. Christians have been taught that slavery was wrong since St Paul subverted the Roman Empire by saying so 2,000 years ago. Far too often, they failed to follow that teaching, but it never went away. In Britain’s case, the same nation – often the same families – which profited from the slave trade, came to repent and to act. From the 18th-century, through court cases, legislation and with the help of the Royal Navy, they got rid of it. Free societies have many faults, but they are much better than other societies at correcting them.

    Yet the ideology of Black Lives Matter perversely calls anti-slavery movements “problematic”, because they present white men as saviours. Rioters in Parliament Square attacked even the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the most important opponent of slavery in world history. That is mad, and bad.

    Black people today are surely right that they are likelier than white people to feel the hurt of slavery and its after-effects. Their greater presence in modern Britain should and does make the slave experience more central to our consciousness. But it does not follow that our citizens, black or white, should be taught to hate their country and knock down its monuments.

    Older than black-white tension in Britain is that between Protestant and Catholic. In the 16th century, whichever side was on top killed the other. Triumphant Protestants proudly destroyed “idolatrous” Catholic statues. After centuries of hatred, both sides gradually came to repent this vileness, and made peace. The cultivation of “blackness” as anti-whiteness is a reversion to that terrible habit of thinking that celebrating your identity means hating another one. The notion that whites are inevitably racist is like the anti-Semitic trope that the Jews are forever guilty of killing Jesus.

    Since the public authorities are confronted by hatred, not by reason, this grim fact should affect their response. The mob is not to be placated by concessions. In happier circumstances, it might have been possible for Bristolians to work out, in friendly conversations, that Edward Colston, despite his great philanthropy for his city, was not its best modern icon. But there is nothing to be gained by discussion if what the race extremists really want is to try every leading dead figure in their kangaroo court. They want Britishness disgraced. Already they are picking targets at the heart of our story – Nelson, Gladstone, Winston Churchill.

    What next? Our cathedrals, I would guess, with their innumerable monuments to white soldiers, missionaries and colonists. And our monarchy – including our present Queen who, in 1947, vowed her lifelong duty to “our great imperial family to which we all belong”.

    Indirectly, the Brexit debates involved these themes. A refrain of some Remainers was that there was something shameful about Britain as an independent country, proud of its history. Leave won the 2016 referendum because most voters did not agree. In last December’s general election a major reason for the Conservative victory was the realisation that Jeremy Corbyn’s guiding star was affection for whoever – the IRA, Hamas, assorted Communists – hated Britain. Even under Sir Keir Starmer, doubts about his party linger. Sir Keir was photographed “taking the knee”; 130 Labour councils are preparing statue hit-lists.

    The famous “Red Wall” that Labour lost will not take kindly to such attitudes. Nor will most voters. Yet until so far the Government has been curiously hesitant, acting like Theresa May after her majority of nothing, though it won a landslide of 80-plus seats. In the gap it has left, senior civil servants feel free to speak as if they were elected politicians. Sir Richard Heaton is permanent secretary at the Department of Justice, one of whose official purposes is to “protect the public”. He officially declared “racism takes many forms … privilege takes many forms. It’s why the Black Lives Matter movement is so important.” Meanwhile, in the streets nearby, supporters of Black Lives Matter were inflicting indignities on public monuments like the Cenotaph.

    The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has insisted on order, speaking bravely from her own experience of an immigrant background, but the lead must come from the top. This began today with strong tweets from Boris Johnson, a best-selling biographer of Churchill. Today, he said: “The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square is a permanent reminder of his achievement in saving this country – and the whole of Europe – from a fascist and racist tyranny.

    “It is absurd and shameful that this national monument should today be at risk of attack by violent protesters. Yes, he sometimes expressed opinions that were and are unacceptable to us today, but he was a hero, and he fully deserves his memorial.

    “We cannot now try to edit or censor our past … The statues in our cities and towns were put up by previous generations. They had different perspectives, different understandings of right and wrong. But those statues teach us about our past, with all its faults. To tear them down would be to lie about our history.”

    These are good points, well made. It is indeed absurd and shameful that Churchill’s statue should be at risk. But how does it come about that it is boarded up? Are the police too weak to keep it visible? For far too long, Conservatives have fought shy of our culture wars, hoping they could keep power by winning on the economy. These wars are now, unfortunately, unavoidable. If Mr Johnson and the whole Government cannot moderately but firmly, knowledgeably and repeatedly refute the great libels now being smeared across our past, and therefore threatening our harmonious future, they will lose.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/12/government-cant-run-away-poisonous-culture-war-longer/#comment

    1. The confusion is this sense that the racist black mob want something. They don’t. They just want to destroy what we have, to take what isn’t their because they have never adopted this country as their own.

      1. The Mayor should be reduced by a head – or raised up by a rope.

        That bastard is a liar, cheat, coward, frightened, abusive, desperate reality denying windbag who belongs in the gutter.

      2. I’ve been reading articles and social media input about Greater Manchester: it’s the same story there. Greater Manchester Police is a disaster with ACCs leaving left right and centre or being under investigation. The mayor, Andy Burnham is as useless as a chocolate fireguard and under constant criticism from whistleblowers and concerned residents.
        Here’s a good starting point for anyone interested.

        Whistleblower

    3. Why is Moore asking this question?

      Are the police too weak to keep it visible?

      Moore is a very erudite man and he must be aware of the insidious advance of Common Purpose in the senior ranks, not only of the police but many, if not most, public bodies. CP is the worm that is destroying our Country from the inside. With a different leadership the police would be more effective as would anything poisoned by CP.

    4. ” It is indeed absurd and shameful that Churchill’s statue should be at risk. But how does it come about that it is boarded up?”

      I suggest that it is boarded up by a nasty and bigoted London Mayor intent on siding with the BLM yobs whilst pretending to protect it, because he realises that this is no longer (if it ever was) about a black man being unlawfully killed four thousand miles away but a valuable opportunity to embarass the government he so detests.

      Anyone with balls and a spine would have instructed the police – albeit a police farce that is riddled with v-s and pc and siding with the mob – to defend public property by whatever means. Failure to do so would result in some big changes at the top.

      Thanks for posting, Citroen. As usual, Charles Moore is spot on.

    5. Apparently the far right including as suggested on the BBC Radi0 4 this morning, London club football fans , will be out in force to protect the statues. BLM are now asking their supporters to avoid Westminster today. The vigilantes are doing the job of the police.

  13. ‘The science’ was right – it was the Government that was wrong

    SAGE advisors never suggested a full lockdown – so why are they now trying to rewrite history?

    TOBY YOUNG – 12 June 2020 • 6:48pm

    According to the WHO, there are two pandemics raging across the world. The first is the one we’re all familiar with, but the second is more insidious – the explosion of fake news about the virus. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on February 15. “We’re fighting an infodemic.”

    This theme was taken up by the UK Press Gazette which launched a “Fight the Infodemic” campaign on June 3. “The aim is stop key platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter from promoting misinformation about vital issues like Covid-19 and instead to favour evidence-based journalism from bona fide outlets,” wrote the editor Dominic Ponsford.

    What surprised me about this is that the biggest fake news about the virus has been disseminated by the mainstream media. I’m thinking of the myth that the government’s scientific advisors urged Boris Johnson to impose a full lockdown long before March 23 and it was only because he ignored them that Britain has one of the highest Covid death tolls globally.

    This narrative received a boost on Wednesday when professor Neil Ferguson, a key member of SAGE before he was forced to resign, told MPs that if the government had locked down a week earlier the death toll would be considerably lower.

    “The epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions were introduced,” he told a select committee. “So had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half.”

    But if Professor Ferguson believes that, why didn’t he say so at the time? I’ve looked at the minutes of the SAGE meetings leading up to March 23 and there isn’t any evidence that the scientific attendees, including Ferguson, were urging the government to impose full lockdown.

    Various different social distancing measures were discussed by SAGE, but no one in the group recommended quarantining the entire population. The measures talked about were home isolation of symptomatic individuals and the cocooning of the over 70s – both of which were introduced by the government on March 16.

    The penultimate SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18 where it was noted that the impact of the measures introduced so far would not be known for two or three weeks. According to the minutes, the boffins said it was too early to say whether additional measures – such as closing pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues – would be necessary.

    In short, Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were not “following the science” when they took the decision to place everyone under virtual house arrest, and nor were they ignoring it by not doing so earlier. On the contrary, their scientific advisors were urging a more cautious approach.

    In the SAGE meeting on March 23, the day lockdown was announced, the attendees flagged up the negative impact of the containment measures. “Actuarial analysis is required to estimate deaths caused indirectly by Covid-19, including those caused by the social interventions,” says one of the minutes. Another says: “Given the clear links between poverty and long-term ill health, health impacts associated with the economic consequences of interventions also need to be investigated.”

    Some will point to the report by Professor Ferguson and his Imperial College team, warning the government that hundreds of thousands would die if it stuck with its mitigation strategy. But that paper stopped short of calling for a full lockdown. The measures it recommended were precisely those introduced by the government on March 16. As the journalist Christopher Snowdon notes, “The only time Ferguson and colleagues use the word ‘lockdown’ in the text is when they are making a distinction between their proposals and an actual lockdown.”

    What’s so odd about Professor Ferguson’s remarks on Wednesday is there’s no reason to think infections were doubling every three or four days in the week before lockdown. Simon Wood, professor of statistical science at Bristol University, published a paper on June 1 showing that the R number in England and Wales was less than 1 before March 23. The same conclusion has been reached by Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford.

    In other words, the containment measures introduced on March 16 were more than sufficient to halt the spread of the virus. The government’s scientific advisors did not urge the Prime Minister to go any further, and they were right not to do so. I’m convinced that the decision to place the entire country in suspended animation on March 23 will end up costing more lives than the pandemic.

    The myth that’s grown up around the lockdown, then, is the opposite of the truth. Boris didn’t turn a deaf ear to the scientists urging him to lock down. Rather, he ignored their advice to tread carefully and rushed into one of the worst decisions in our history. Next time Professor Ferguson speaks out, that’s the story he should tell.

    Toby Young is the creator of LockdownSceptics.org

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/science-right-government-wrong/

    3. Reluctantly, I accepted that the NHS needed a breather to prepare for a possible epidemic; though whether C19 was any worse than the epidemics that had appeared throughout my lifetime was a moot point. (WHY the NHS needed that time is another story.)
      Once the Nightingale Hospitals – grossly underused – had been set up, there was no need for this Year Zero repression.
      Now we have drift and hysteria. Plus the Red Guards taking the chance to finish off a society that they patently hate.

    1. Bright sunshine and blue sky in East Anglia but rather cold, the heating has been on
      first thing for the past few days and I’ve my Arran jumper back on.

      2. I got soaked going for the paper on Thursday and I’ve had the fire lit the past couple of evenings.

        1. I’m glad it’s not just me, it’s been rather cold this June; but husband still
          didn’t approve of me putting the heating back on.

  15. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with Longbòw and Axe .
    Have just put the oven on for almond croissants which we’ll eat with yoghurt
    and shall drink a pot of English breakfast tea ( leaf not bags ).

        2. There is something quite obscure about your early morning eating habits Mr Viking,
          I can only assume you’ve been eschewing around foreign parts at various times in life
          and have developed a multiflavious palate 😉

          2. Last night’s curry for breakfast is excellent. Wakes the taste-buds and helps with the social distancing…

          3. Oh no ! Smoked bacon would have the same effect,
            I don’t want curry for breakfast 😉 maybe it’s because you
            live in a cold place. Icelandic people eat weird breakfasts containing
            sea cliff birds cooked in milk . I’ll stick to tea and toast I think.

      2. Soft boiled eggs, granary soldiers and Twinnings tea ? Had that yesterday.
        Tomorrow it’ll be kippers ( natural) with farmhouse bread and another pot of tea.

        1. Tomorrow its smoked haddock poached in milk, salt and pepper. White farmhouse bread.orange marmalade for me. Ginger preserve for mrs N.

          1. That sounds really delicious too.
            I do have a recipe book containing traditional Edwardian country house
            breakfasts and thought I’d try a few but the husband thinks they
            belong to another time.

          4. One meal a day these days, Paul.

            I have a bacon “breakfast” about once a week for my solitary meal (at 1300). The only day I differ is Saturday; that is when Swedes insist on their Saturday supper (the main meal of the week). Tonight it is barbecued baby pork back ribs with a mixed side salad.

      1. Good morning Mr Viking
        Just been rather quiet doing lots of drawing, walking and online history courses.
        Hope you are in fine fettle and enjoying the sunshine.

        1. I am indeed. I sprang out of bed as soon as the sunshine burst into my bedroom.

    4. After first course of tea, codeine and paracetamol, I’m on 2nd mug of tea and just had 2 x slices of wholemeal toast, one with a plum jam the other with Marmite & cottage cheese.
      Now about to finish the last slurp of tea with my other assorted pills & capsules!

      1. Codeine contains an anti inflammatory which has the effect of suppressing the immune system and taking it with paracetamol isn’t advisable.

        It’s one or the other, preferably the latter.

        1. NHS website says it’s safe to take them both. Tried to attach link but it goes on about lots of other things. But you can look it up yourself of course.

          1. Is that the same NHS which thought it a good idea to put C-19 positive patients in care homes ?

          2. I’m not saying the NHS are infallible – all they wanted to do was “save the NHS” and they have done many ridiculous things; however, there is long term evidence that these 2 are OK together.

          3. But in effect it’s virtually the same thing as taking nurofen, aspirin and paracetamol together.

            I don’t think that’s a good idea.

      2. That sounds like a bit of a concoction, you must rattle 😉
        Plum jam is a favourite of mine, I love it on a thick slice of fresh farmhouse bread.

    1. “By playing this video you agree to Twitter’s use of cookies

      This use may include analytics, personalization, and ads.

      Learn more

      OK”

    2. If you’ve ever been in a Primark it looks as though it’s been looted every day. :-))

    4. Well done, EU, I trust you’re enjoying your plague of imported locusts. Suck it up, shit-face.

    2. Flog them. Wretched creatures. If they don’t respect it they will never integrate.

  19. Morning all 😊
    I’ve just been reading in the Express on line part of Jonathan Dimblebee’s assessment on why and how the bbc became so biased in its presentation and content.
    As is the typical and usual scenario these days, it’s seems to be everyone else’s fault. What utter Bolero.
    Lovely day.
    Have fun. ☺

  20. SIR — What happened to freedom of speech?

    CD Waterfall
    Bedford.

    As another correspondent on this very forum today, Pam Siddorn of Chester, reminds us: “… we will not be silenced by bullies.”

    To this end in March this year I became a fully paid up member of Toby Young’s new pressure group, The Free Speech Union, whose motto is Audi Alteram Partem “Listen to the other side” (or “Let the other side be heard as well”), i.e. nobody shall be condemned unheard.

    Anyone with strong views on a subject, voicing them, and then not permitting me to respond with my own views will be met with the full force of my fury.

    1. Aren’t certain subjects effectively banned with Toby’s “Free Speech Union” ?

    2. No they won’t Grizz, you’ll just get shouted at by the braying mob of morons.

      Reason and intelligent debate doesn’t come in to it. They don’t *want* you to speak because it challenges them. Challenge cannot be permitted. It might make them think of how absurd they are.

      1. The braying mob of morons may shout as much as they like, they will not shut me up.

    3. Like all of Toby Young’s output, it’s controlled opposition. He hopes to have free speech in a framework of laws that explicitly forbid it.
      How can you have a balanced debate when one side has the right to have the other side punished for “hate crime”?

  21. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3579345e669666bc043729f3ed575fb598cefd499d35ffac8e674d28ef2f9078.png

    As some of you may know and most do not I occasionally read an American Blog entitled Sic Semper Tyrannis by Colonel Patrick Lang a distinguished former member of the US military. Its views are strongly reminiscent of NoTTL.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

    I attempted to access it this morning and received the above dialog box. The first thing that springs to mind is why would Col. Lang seek to restrict access to his own blog? It defies common sense. What I think is happening here, though I cannot know absolutely of course, is that they have begun shutting down private blogs with unwelcome views and are unwilling to say so directly. This is just by way of saying if you should wake up one morning and find Geoff Graham’s blog has vanished it will save you much fruitless searching!

    1. Unless he’s being invaded by leftie bots and trying to do something about the infestations.

      1. Well he has complained recently about trolls but restricting access would not solve that. There is also the point that the dialog box is a dead end. Also I’ve seen some pointers that indicate that Disqus itself may be under threat!

        1. Maybe we should correspond by post. A meeting of all interested parties sometime in September where real addresses can be exchanged.
          Thereafter we could get in touch by letter. We could maybe use a book code and I’d suggest “1984” as the book.

          4. I believe some Nottlers have already exchanged email addresses Horace, perhaps you should put up a post at the begining of the day asking about it!

      1. It now works for me Richard which leads to the question why. I’ll keep an eye on it for a while, perhaps the Colonel will explain in few days!

  22. We had a generous amount of rain yesterday afternoon, and a downpour during the night .

    We need rain, and then some more .

    There are lots of funny lumps UNDER the lawn this morning .. a run of lumps and some disturbed grass. Moh started to wave his arms around , in an agitated fashion .

    He will be watching carefully what happens next!

      1. I know Sos, funny that it just created lumps under the grass and no molehills , tunnelling just under the surface for a few yards .

        1. Possibly the rain has brought their prey closer to the surface and they don’t need to shift too much earth out of their runs, merely pushing it to one side, hence the lumps.

        2. We had a mole running riot. Bought 3 mole traps never set them as the mole had gone never to return.

    2. Moles. We have a badger digging holes in ours. Not to mention the roedeer who eats my geraniums and nips the tops off the tomato plants. Still – we do love our wildlife.

      1. So do I, J.

        We have quite a few varieties of bees buzzing around , but not many other insects .. We saw a few butterflies in early May and a dragon fly, and that was it .

        Ants and black fly in abundance on the Elderberry bush , I suppose they are a food source!

      2. So do I, J.

        We have quite a few varieties of bees buzzing around , but not many other insects .. We saw a few butterflies in early May and a dragon fly, and that was it .

        Ants and black fly in abundance on the Elderberry bush , I suppose they are a food source!

      3. ‘Afternoon, J, the bluddy badgers dig under one of our three, single track, exit routes every year, the council close the road until after August and then pour concrete into the setts and wonder why they come back next year and start digging a little further away.

        For those who might remember the comic Radio Fun, many, many years ago, because in there was a little character who would appear in the corner of some strips to say “Daft, I call it.” and it’s still apt today.

        1. Have they forgotten badgers re supposed to be a protected species? Of course they are not protected from the cullers.

          1. I am well-aware, as are they the council are, but I question, are they an endangered species, should they be protected, why?

            The council obviously DO recognise, hence the ‘wait until August’. Although it’s not proven, there seems to be this risk of TB to cattle.

            Cattle or Badgers, I know whose side I come down on, being a milk-loving carnivore.

          2. Badgers are protected by the Wildlife Act of 1972. It’s why they are such a nuisance and why numbers have got out of control.

    3. 320048+ up ticks.
      TB,
      Yus, a sure case of Bactrian mole ( funny lumps) a family on the move.

    1. You beat me to it, Belle. The portrayal of defenders of public property as ‘far-right’ comes with the implication that the only people who would do so are ‘far-right’.

  24. Queens birthday trooping the colour rehearsal at Windsor Castle.
    The bbc must be having an uncomfortable morning, there are no people of colour to focus in on at the parade of the First Battalion of the Welsh Guards.
    But there’s a female guardsman in the troop. With the biggest bearskin anyone has ever seen.

    1. “… there’s a female guardsman in the troop with the biggest bearskin anyone has ever seen.”

      Ooh err, Missus!

          2. So (© Cathy Newman), what you are saying is that bearskins are a by-product of having Brazilians.

          4. So (© Cathy Newman), what you are saying is that bearskins are a by-product of having Brazilians.

          5. It used to bug me, when in the Royal Green Jackets that my rank was Rifleman.

    2. I saw a bit of that. Awful. I remember seeing trooping the colour when Horseguards was full, each side of the ground lined with Guards.
      As they marched off today I commented that one in the front rank was a midget. Then I realised that, impossibly, it was a female person.
      A hundred years ago, at a time when life was hard and there was not the wide availability of cheap food and fruit that we have now, the Guards were big men.
      As someone commented here a couple of days ago Mr Putin must be very amused.

  26. SIR – Senior NHS figures have shown themselves to be spineless by deciding to remove Thomas Guy’s statue from outside Guy’s Hospital.

    That the statue of Churchill has been covered up shows that the Government* is also spineless.

    What sort of country have we become that even the Cenotaph, the memorial to the Glorious Dead, has had to be covered to protect it, due to the inability of the forces of law and order so to do?

    Michael Wilkinson FRCS
    Seaview, Isle of Wight

    *It was Sadiq K who ordered Churchill to be shuttered. The observation still stands.

    1. It’s a country where sensible NoTTlers should be looking for safe places to send their Grandchildren. Russia or Eastern Europe look OK and South America are probably the best bet!

      1. Chile is probably OK, at one stage I was seriously considering retiring there, but you can forget the rest of S. America.

          1. It looked like that at the time, but I was put off mainly by double taxation & no free prescriptions for OAPs.

        2. I might consider Y Wladfa in Patagonia, the offshoot land of my fathers.

        3. I remember reading that the much accepted founding father of Chile was of Spanish/Irish descent. He had the wonderful name of Bernardo O’Higgins 😊

          1. There is a B. o’H. street in the middle of Santiago & various places are named after him.

          2. Admiral Cochrane was instrumental in keeping Chile out of the clutches of Spain, and is similarly remembered in street names.

        4. Ah yes, Chile….the destination of choice for many ‘Europeans’ after VE day. The last time I went, there were several remote towns in the south that still spoke German.

          1. There are German schools in the South too. The teenage daughters of my BBQ host near Pukon entertained me in German, but their parents could not speak it, so we had to get by in Spanish.

            Btw, it’s not the towns that spoke German, but their inhabitants. 😉

    2. SIR – We are staring down the barrel of civil disorder. Having to board up the statue of Churchill is a disgrace.

      What on earth is going on with people? We need to get back to work as soon as possible.

      David Dickinson
      Swansea

      1. Quite so, Mr Dickinson. Rarely has this been so obvious: “The devil makes work for idle hands to do.”

  27. Sir Lindsay Hoyle calls for review of Parliament’s statues and paintings after Black Lives Matter protests. 12 June 2020 • 7:00pm

    In fact, rather than tear down statues, Sir Lindsay would prefer that efforts were taken to explain and contextualise Britain’s bloody past.

    He says: “I’m a person who enjoys history, and history is very important to us – very very important it’s about making judgement on history. It’s about telling the right stories in history.

    “If people don’t want the monument where it is, I understand that and agree with that. But it should go into a museum, where the story can be told about where the wealth came from, how that wealth was accrued. Tell the story – don’t destroy the statue.”

    The sheer spinelessness of the inhabitants of Westminster does not bode well for the future.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/12/sir-lindsay-hoyle-calls-review-parliaments-statues-paintings/

    1. I think that it is a good idea that such clips are shown.

      It actually underlines just how stupid these people are, that they can’t see that the greatest danger to their children is other blacks. And in the miniscule chance they should be killed by the police the odds are heavily stacked that there will be some drugs/gangster/lawbreaking connection in the background.

      1. If you’re right about tribalism, surely “danger” isn’t the point ?

      2. No, they can see it but they refuse to acknowledge it. As soon as they say ‘Yes, actually, it’s our fault for raising savages’ they are responsible. They are guilty.

        They can’t cope with that. They cannot admit that they are at fault. It is a demented cognitive dissonance sustained by the Left wing media.

    4. The police have killed one black criminal in 6 years. Black thugs have killed other blacks every three days.

      It really is time the media stopped lying.

    5. And BLM want to ‘de-fund’ the police, both here and in the US, thereby removing the only protection that blacks (law abiding as well as criminal) have from black criminals.

      I feel that we are facing a very dangerous moment in our history. We have a government which has removed the most basic of our civil liberties and seeks to regulate every aspect of our lives down to whether grandparents can hug their grandchildren. We now have an alliance of BLM and Left-wing politicians seeking to erase our very history and national identity. We are currently still a ‘vassal state’ of the EU and don’t know what the final shape of Brexit will be. How did we find ourselves in this dystopian reality so quickly and will we have the moral courage to escape it?

  30. Apols if already posted:

    I won’t kneel with the masses,
    I won’t be told my fate,
    By people who hijack tragedy,
    To perpetuate their hate.

    Don’t you shout Black Lives Matter,
    Whilst running through the streets,
    When your people are burning Foot Locker, Stealing Nikes for their feet.

    Don’t dance on The Cenotaph,
    Like it’s Carnival or Mardi Gras,
    That sacred stone edifice,
    Marks people who died in war.

    How dare you besiege Number 10,
    This isn’t even our fight,
    If you want to go and protest,
    Get a 4,000 mile flight.

    Social distancing flouted,
    Police punched in the face,
    Missiles hurled at Downing Street.,
    This isn’t about race.

    It’s rent-a-mob and anarchists,
    Versus police led by lambs,
    They just stand there and take it,
    Lefty Cressida tied their hands.

    Meanwhile America’s burning,
    It’s a tragedy we all agree,
    That George Floyd lost his life,
    For all the world to see.

    Justice must take its course,
    The cop has lost his job,
    Now he faces twelve good and true,
    Not a braying mob.

    So Monday I won’t be kneeling,
    I won’t even bow my head,
    Because someone I don’t even know,
    Has wound up dead.

    An armed robber and a felon,
    In and out of jail,
    As a model citizen,
    He was a total fail.

    I’ll weep for whom I choose to,
    I’ll say where and when,
    Not because a lifelong offender,
    Bought it in the end.

    I don’t condone the officers,
    They rightly face the wrath,
    But ask me to kneel for a criminal?
    Don’t make me laugh.

    You can keep your lefty rhetoric,
    Your dismantling of our state,
    It’s BLM not Middle England,
    That’s peddling the hate.

  31. 320084+ up ticks+ up ticks,
    A very understanding group are posing as a government at this moment in time, they have allowed the looters / abusers up until 5 o’clock to commit mayhem then they must get back under their rocks because the SO far righters are heading for town and never the twain shall be allowed to meet.

    1. I read the article which should be read by all that value proper policing.

      “The buzzword used by so many senior officers to justify these calls is that they are “tactical decisions”. No doubt they are, but there appear to be two misapprehensions at work….”

      Yes, indeed. The retreat to Dunkirk and the decision to evacuate were “tactical” decisions. As Churchill said at the time, wars are not won by evacuations. We have seen supposed figures of authority surrendering public spaces to the mob and using sophistry to justify why when property is being destroyed and lives threatened, they have done nothing.

      1. ‘Morning, Alf, a little modification, I hope you don’t mind.

        “Time to reintroduce a Riot Act and brutally enforce it.”

        1. Much better. It would be wonderful if they would enforce all laws without fear nor favour. No special groups. Two hopes, Bob and No.

      1. What we need – urgently need – is true synchronous gigabit fibre. 100mb/sec up and down. BT want tot throttle it to protect their leased line business but stuff them.

        There should be an option to wfh if you want to, go in to the office if you want to. The war queen has worked from 8-4 every day, is sleeping better and getting more done as opposed to starting at 6 to tolerate the two hour commute there and back.

        We don’t need to travel to an office. If people want to for a group meeting, great. Otherwise what’s more sensible: having very tired people forcing themselves up, driving to an office (because the bus takes an hour and a half, not 20 minutes) and then doing the same in reverse and achieving vastly less than if they’d had a nap half way through the day.

    1. Don’t even declare it. Just stop paying. Why should you tell them? They’ve no legal authority whatsoever.

      1. Dear Silverback ape very old friend of mine, good morning .
        Still flying the UKIP flag I see. At least you are loyal.

        1. 320084+up ticks,
          Morning Anne,
          That is a must if you want to receive a full weekly
          insanity welfare payment.

        2. And shouldn’t we amend, reform or scrap Newton’s Law of Gravity? I am sure that our MPs would be the first on the bandwagon to vote this through Parliament.

      3. Dear Silverback ape very old friend of mine, good morning .
        Still flying the UKIP flag I see. At least you are loyal.

        1. 320084+ up ticks,
          Morning A,
          A nice early morning post appreciatively received.
          Sad to say the current UKIP has moved to the ersatz department due to a treacherous Nec.
          A UKIP, as was,under the Gerard Batten leadership
          is very much currently a dire need.
          Please read through the actions taken for / against Gerard Batten by the Nec from the 17th Feb 2018
          then make a judgement, many don’t.

          Currently truthsayers will NOT be tolerated.

  36. Morning

    SIR – Speaking as a sculptress, I can tell you that sculptures matter. Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, speaks of the “far Right” who plan to take to the streets to defend our statues. It is possible that you may also see a lady of a certain age with a large umbrella and a small dog.

    Hilary Chelminski

    Addiscombe, Surrey

  37. Morning again

    SIR – I have never before felt compelled to write to a newspaper, but the J K Rowling row over being a woman (report, June 12) forces me.

    I am a woman, or thought I was. This was something I was certain of. I am now too old to menstruate. Am I to call myself “a person who used to menstruate”? Am I to be stripped of certainty by others’ selfish demands?

    I am not transphobic, and I also take issue with the bullying nature of those who know what it is to feel marginalised yet seek to marginalise others. They do themselves no favours in attacking J K Rowling, who should not have succumbed to pressure to publish her private world.

    The sex at birth of the vast majority of babies is male or female. (There are, I think, a very few born with both sex organs.) When maturity and experience allow, we can choose a gender, and for transgender people there should be no issue.

    What matters to me is others seeking to displace me as a woman and rename me in functional terms. Being a woman is one of the only special things I have. Having children is one of the only special things I have done. Do not seek to obliterate womankind and make my life meaningless.

    If anybody wants to be a woman, go for it – menstruation or no menstruation. But be clear: there is a suffragette in all women somewhere, and we will not be silenced by bullies.

    Pam Siddorn

    Chester

    SIR – Whatever the reaction of celebrities, J K Rowling needs to know that many millions of us agree with her views on gender and safe single-sex spaces. Keep telling the truth.

    Andy Brown

    Allestree, Derbyshire

    1. There’s been an advert on TV recently by a company called Numan. It says
      “Erectile Dysfunction is common among men, doing something is less common”

      Why is the trans lobby not demanding it be changed to “Erectile Dysfunction is common among people with penises, doing something is less common”

      Why dont trans men get as much attention as trans women? Ah, yes, because the views of trans women (who are really men) are still more important than trans men (who are really women).

    2. Ah but you see that gives you rights. It allows you to define yourself rather than to be defined.

      It sets you apart by an act of biology and fact rather than a mental demand. That the man in a dress cannot do what you have done means he is not ‘a woman’ and he so desperately wants to be, to salve his own mental illness.

      You see Ms Siddorn, you’re oppressing a minority who want what they cannot have and thus seek to forbid you your identity in favour of their own.

    3. There’s been an advert on TV recently by a company called Numan. It says
      “Erectile Dysfunction is common among men, doing something is less common”

      Why is the trans lobby not demanding it be changed to “Erectile Dysfunction is common among people with penises, doing something is less common”

      Why dont trans men get as much attention as trans women? Ah, yes, because the views of trans women (who are really men) are still more important than trans men (who are really women).

      1. It is a shame there is not much, much more erectile dysfunction in China, India, USA, Indonesia, Pakistan, Brazil, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico, Japan, Ethiopia, Philippines, Egypt, Vietnam, DR Congo, Turkey, Germany, Iran, Thailand …

      2. I don’t know if it’s true, but i get the impression there are far more MTF than there are FTM in the trans “community”.

    4. As Rowling has used her wealth and celebrity to be a leader of the “Woke Movement” busily undermining our culture for many years I personally find it very funny to see her attacked by her former allies
      You reap what you sow
      Edit
      Stray one iota from the party line which moves ever leftwards into complete insanity and you get “cancelled” the fact she’s right (this time) cannot save her

        1. I gather all the child ‘stars’ have now turned on the woman who started them on their route to becoming millionaires.
          Maybe JK should read up on the history of socialism.

          1. Yes – makes you realise that the real final volume of Harry Potter would be one of divorce, disaster and disgrace bending the knee to Voldemort. No heros at the end.

          2. Once again, we see how the Left creates a totalitarian mindset and there is no room for dissension- there is a continuous ratcheting down of “progressive” thought and those that then question it, are demonised. As an author, she ought to read a bit more George Orwell and remind herself of the history of the Left- chaos, poverty, death and destruction.

      3. She has been paying intellectual and political Danegeld ever since the first HP book was published.
        I wonder how many of her Labour chums will show gratitude for her £millions by defending her now?
        Don’t hold your breath.
        Morning, R-R.

    2. Our national flag is just “a flag” according to the BBC.

      And the Cenotaph is not “a statue”; it is our national War Memorial.

      Idiots.

    2. 320084+ up ticks,
      Afternoon M,
      Truth being the media is the toolkit of the lab/lib/con coalition party,
      .

    3. Thank you, Mola, posted to Ar$ebook with the bye-line, “Wake up, people, you’re all (World-wide) being taken for suckers.”

    1. Of course it isn’t. They’ll attack those protecting the monument.

      After all, the black thugs and fascist Left can’t be disrupted in their violent thuggery, can they? All opposition to the vandalism and rioting must be crushed. Stuff what society wants, the state has an agenda.

        1. He looks to me just like the kind of man that puts his life on the line for his country. That’s pretty “extremist”. (We are now in a different world with a different language and a lexicon of different meanings.)

          4. I don’t know… he’s not wearing long socks with his shoes and wot! No sandals?

            Have to be suspicious of these folks.

      2. If you quickly scan the article, you see a small group of yobs, it takes a moment’s attention to notice the berets, notice the colours and realise that they are ex soldiers, not disgruntled football fans,

        Job well done by the left, If you don’t look closely you get the wrong impression.

        1. Doesn’t it totally undermine the premise of the article, then? They’re describing one thing, showing another.

          1. But you have to look carefully to realise who is in the picture, it could easily be a bunch of yobs. Only the second look shows that they are older and maybe not the typical hooligan.

    2. Almost the whole of the MSM is on the side of these people, the BBC leading the charge!

      1. The BBC has never let a narrative get in the way of the truth.

        Turn a blind eye to the racist vandals, call rock throwing, looting and burning ‘peaceful’ but when it’s opposed… attack like a terrier those hindering their beloved racists.

  45. One of life’s little pleasures – having head bumps from a cat 😊😺

    2. The cat equivalent to pulling down whitey statues, you have capitulated but I like it!

  46. Still Relevant Today?
    Bill Clinton and Al Gore are standing next to each other in the bathroom taking a leak.

    Bill peeks and sees that Al has a huge shlong on him. So he asks Al, “How’d you wind up with a dick as big as that?”

    Al says, “Every night before I go to bed, I grasp my penis and hit it really hard on the night stand, three times in a row. That makes it all swollen, and after a while, it just stays that way.”

    So later that night, Bill goes home and Hillary is already in bed sleeping. He walks quietly into the bedroom and takes his dick out, and proceeds to hit the night stand with it, three times.

    Whereupon, Hillary wakes up and whispers, “Al? Is that you?”

    2. “our communities”. Hmmmm.”on the whole…peaceful” Hmmmm. “a small minority”. Hmmmm. Presumably this police officer wasn’t there. He probably heard it on the BBC.

        2. It does. I was wondering which communities he had in mind. The word is usually found together with the words social cohesion when excusing the atrocities carried out by muslims.

        3. I have come to loathe the word “Community.”
          On the flip side, it’s quite a good way to identify websites that you don’t want to belong to.
          “We in the xxx community…”

    3. What is the MPS?

      Oh hang on – not the metropolitan police ‘service’? It is not there to serve! It is there to ENFORCE the law.

    4. I was under the impression that all marches and demonstrations had to be agreed in advance with stewarding discussed with police?

        1. Illegal protests run by bullies, thugs and scum don’t bother with the niceties of law. Those are for other people.

        2. It seems that there are no rules for hooligan mobs. The police look on, smiling gently.

    5. Shameful. The public influenced the statue-burning to stop, not the police or the government.
      What do we pay them for?

  48. Good morning ,

    The Black Broadcasting Corporation news is full of it again .

    Why don’t the BBC for once wheel in the white victims of black crime . Why aren’t the families of murdered whites / those who have been burgled / mugged / run over/ chopped up etc allowed to say their bit on the BBC.. and say that we are the victims , and why are we regarded as hate figures , why are we being persecuted for racism in our own country.

    2. 320084+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      The governance parties adhere to the unwritten rulings of submissive pcism & appeasement.
      The lab/lib/con coalition follow the same path.
      These parties do not elect themselves they are given consent to govern via the people’s / polling booth.
      Seemingly if they deal in a touch of treachery / deceit it matters not, a reshuffle & a GE sorts that out.

      GE = best of the worst dictates, OK.

    3. It could even be worse TB, imagine if the bbc had advertising.
      They already deliberately use people whose pronunciation has an ethnic twang.
      And of course we already see vastly disproportionate representation all over our TV screens.

      1. On our regional news and BBC radio4.

        They already have Asian channels etc , so why are we subjected to the adverts and yoof stuff , when the audience is somewhat more mature ?

    4. They wouldn’t say the ‘right’ things the Left agree with.

      The BBC doesn’t sully itself with such annoyances as facts when there’s a narrative to spin.

    5. Listened to the HnH nark this morning say that Churchill was a war criminal and holocaust denier. Not a squeak from the fawning interviewer.

      1. Yes, I did .

        I think that London will become uninhabitable in a couple of years, judging by the mess other British cities have become… and of course cities overseas as well .

        1. I was surprised to read the other day that the black population of this country is only 3%. That was probably true in 2011 at the time of the last census, but the Asian population of London is over 40% and higher in some areas. Brent and Newham have had the highest number of deaths from the racist virus.

      2. Khan was given a totally free ride on Toady this morning – no interruptions at all from the Husain racist. I nearly choked on my kedgeree.

        1. I never listen to R4 – haven’t done for years. OH likes to hear the 10-pm news on BBC but he is totally apolitical and the bias probably escapes him.

          2. I don’t even bother with that now. “Viking, Forties, Dogger Bank…….. ” it’s a world away.

        2. Morning Issy

          I squirmed , then switched channels. The BBC are forgetting who they serve .. they are appealing to a minority audience that doesn’t exist .. because they are glued to their phones and patois!

      3. In a parallel universe where the press were free and fair, they would be investigating how groups like Hate Not Hope are funded, instead of taking their repulsive agenda seriously.

        1. HnH is presumably in some way, connected to the state, MI5. It’s a mechanism for the Deep State to make deniable attacks on nationalists. A conduit to the MSM.

          It barely even exists as real organisation despite it’s attempts to appear so. Check out the lively comment section on it’s site. Nothing happening week in, week out. Which tells me no one is really visiting or reading their stuff. It’s all astroturfing.

          The Runnymede Trust is similar. The MSM routinely ask for their opinion or credulously publicise a report from them. A report that was never asked for and no one will read. HnH and the Runnymede Trust are there to tell the media and government want they to hear and then policies can be based on the recommendations of these bodies.

          I can take some pleasure in discovering that the Runnymede Trust had Disqus comments at one time. As with HnH there were hundreds of pages without a single comment, in other words – no one is reading or visiting. I left various helpful and supportive comments which they were as completely unable to answer as my friend Max. Then my friends started leaving comments too and before you know it I was banned and they scrapped comments altogether!

          As so often, an entity which believes in open borders for white countries doesn’t believe in open borders for it’s own comment section. HnH is the same, I’ve never had a comment published there.

          1. HnH follows the standard formula – pick a name that nobody can disagree with, and use it to push marxism and globalism. I thought it was a sorrrrros group.

          3. Surely the name is back to front? After all, they hate people who hope for a better world.

    6. The BBC needs to present programmes on the way blacks treat one another throughout most of Africa. Black lives should matter but certainly doesn’t seem to matter in the African continent which has much potential and which the population disregards. The Chinese may try to take control as they see the opportunities there and have built ports and other infrastructure in Africa.

      1. There has never been a significant mention of all the thousands of body’s found in the mine shafts in Zimbabwe.
        When he allowed the Chinese to exploit his country’s natrual resources, Mugabe made slaves of a lot of his own people.
        And he had thousands murdered.
        Certain people might say, ah but he’s dead……..that speaks volumes about the real concerns behind this outbreak of absolute disgusting ‘we hate you whitey’ BS.

      2. Most of the tyrants have sold their countries to China – the infrastructure enables the transport of the rare earth minerals, animal body parts and everything else that benefits China rather than the African people.

        1. Corporate greed Ellie, it’s against the general ethics of morality and destroying our planet.

  49. Afternoon, all. Gorgeous day – made for gardening – just to take my mind off the horrors going on.

    I may look in tomorrow – if only to see whether the “Prime Minister” has said or done anything positive to show leadership.

    Somehow, I rather doubt it.

    Have a lovely day setting fire to things.

  50. Good morning all. A DT letter today …

    Stephen Jones 13 Jun 2020 2:10AM
    Whils I am Australian and understand the Winston Churchill statue matter is one for the great people of the UK – I think given he was the leader of
    the free world for such a long time I can comment briefly without overstepping the mark.

    Covering his statue is a disgrace – it shows that the government is not only totally out of step with the silent majority in the great country of Britain, it also has
    no backbone – a commodity Mr Churchill had in spades.

    Not too sure about the size of his commodity — Aussie humour, perhaps.

  51. London’s Race-Baiting Mayor Khan Is Pouring Petrol on the Flames. 13 June 2020.

    One of the more dispiriting revelations of recent days has been the terrifying degree to which our great cities — from Seattle to Toronto, from Minneapolis to Bristol — are now utterly in thrall to the radical left.

    Yes, of course, this has been years in the making and we’ve all seen the warning signs. But it’s shocking and dispiriting all the same to see, for example, a metropolis as mighty as London brought low by the machinations and dirty politics of the crappy, two-bit, Islamist Social Justice Warrior currently acting as its Mayor.

    It’s so obvious that Khan is an inverted racist and Anglophobe that one wonders why it isn’t pointed out more often. I suppose the answer to this is in the rest of Delingpole’s piece. These people control every media outlet.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/06/13/londons-race-baiting-mayor-khan-is-pouring-petrol-on-the-flames/

    1. Bloody idiots. Playing into the hands of sad Dick and the perlice. All a couple sandwiches short of a picnic.

      1. Apparently, the Football Lads started to have a go at the police because they’d heard that the police were going to arrest the Veterans who were guarding the Cenotaph.
        The Football Lads were told there were undercover police among them, usually the ones getting noticeably animated and shouting “Tommy, Tommy.”

      2. No, not really. Those officially charged with the duty of keeping the Queen’s Peace have not merely done nothing. Those holding responsibility for law and order have sided openly with the rioters. Senior police officers have gone on record approving criminal damage, a crime that carries a 14 year jail sentence.
        What’s left? An appeal to the UN to send in peacekeeping troops as the USA threatened to do in Northern Ireland?

        1. ‘Afternoon, Horace, “An appeal to the UN to send in peacekeeping troops as the USA threatened to do in Northern Ireland?”

          You know and I know, that the UN is a bunch of posturing lefties looking for World Domination. Wasn’t the last person with that aim and objective known as der Führer?

    2. Well. What would you expect? The police are on the side of the violent BLM mob. Their top officers have openly and plainly endorsed the racist, violent thuggery of BLM. The PM and Home Secretary have commented like spectators rather than as the responsible parties and have endorsed the motivation of, and sympathised with the uncontrolled street gangs of the BLM. Despite 62 police having been hurt, the numbers of people arrested and in custody for crimes of violence, assault, and racially aggravated criminal damage is nil. (Does any one know differently?)

      1. Completely agree.

        The police didn’t do their job. This is the consequence. The police now – with the Left media – will dismiss, deride and insult those opposing the violent thuggery, bullying, looting and vandalism of the racists.

    3. Looks like infiltrators to me. I might be wrong. Someone’s trying to start a fight. Not a good look, and precisely what the establishment said it would be.

    4. That’s very strange. There’s no current live shots from the actual demo, only some aerial footage of people walking down a road. There are a lot of short clips of fighting. Usually there are plenty of people doing live filming from their phones….

  53. As of Half Past One the BBC is running a “live” thread on its News website. It is about the market in Wuhan.
    The BBC is not running alive thread on ongoing events in Central London at Westminster and Trafalgar Square.
    I must be missing something here. A few sick people in China is a more important story than the ongoing destruction of law and order in the UK. A more important story than that the police are togged up with riot gear ready to attack former soldiers defending our civilisation.

    1. They don’t want the “silent majority” of Middle England to know what is going on here.

    2. Don’t worry…. the descendants of those at Trafalgar, Waterloo and Alamein are arriving…

    5. A total of 45 people out of 517 tested at the Xinfadi market tested positive for Covid-19, a district official said. None were displaying symptoms.

      Wow! Such a massive story! Not much happening in a market on the other side of the world, where we’ll keep your attention away from something that is happening in your own country. Good job on the deflection, BBC. Your Communist overlords will be most pleased.

      1. If the BBC is sympathetic towards Antifa, wouldn’t it be covering today’s events in London in detail so as to discredit the opposition?

        Unless, of course, it’s about as serious as the dozen silly drunks at the Countryside Alliance march in 2005, film of which is regularly pulled out of the archive by the BBC to show how violent rural Britain is.

        1. Have a look at the DM coverage of the marches in London and the language used: “far-right thugs” who look like ordinary middle-aged and even fairly elderly ex-soldiers and the “peaceful” BLM marchers throwing smoke bombs and other missiles.

          1. I made a similar point elsewhere.

            If the Daily Mail’s gone over, we’re in trouble!

          4. Perhaps these two men pointing their fingers (one with his left hand, note) are those accused of Nazi salutes.

          5. The Daily Mail went over years ago. It’s strategy is to been to throw a bit of red meat to the ‘right’ but always side with the regime when it comes to the crunch.

            For example – a quarter of a century ago the Daily Mail was the launchpad for the Stephen Lawrence psy-op.

          6. The Daily Fail went over a long time ago – it is taking a while to clear out the few remaining ‘middle of the roaders’. I don’t know of a UK paper that is genuinely right of centre.

          7. The Daily Mail went over years ago.

            For example – a quarter of a century ago the Daily Mail was the launchpad for the Stephen Lawrence psy-op.

            It’s strategy has been to throw a bit of red meat to the ‘right’ but always side with the regime when it comes to the crunch. Also it’s blatant manipulation of votes on its comment threads and the ruthless suppression of ‘right wing’ comments.

    1. Comment:
      “If the UK bore any resemblance to the racist hellscape it’s being portrayed as by the church of woke then they would be out in ships turning refugees away for their own good.”

    2. My most beloved father, a former governor of Northern Sudan, had more integrity, common sense, good humour, wisdom and learning than any BLM activist will ever have.

      When he returned briefly to Sudan on his way South to visit his brothers in Rhodesia and South Africa after his retirement some elders organised a grand dinner for him. What they said in their welcoming address was: :

      “The only thing you ever did wrong was to leave us.”

  56. After Russian Taxi Driver Is Fired For Refusing Black Customer, Right-Wing Backlash Fuels A National Debate. 13 June 2020.

    MOSCOW — When a taxi driver refused to give a ride to a Congolese student in the Russian city of Bryansk this week, a video of their exchange quickly went viral. The student, who recorded it, asked the driver if he was racist. “Of course,” came the reply.

    Within hours, the ride-hailing service Yandex Taxi announced that it had ceased working with the driver, and would not tolerate racism and rudeness from its employees and contractors. The move quickly garnered praise, with many Russians taking to social media to condemn the driver’s discriminatory actions.

    My sympathies needless to say are with the driver. Not because he is a racist, which he is, but because we should all be able to do as we damn well please without worrying about what Big Brother might think! This is the worst of Cultural Marxism (something that is despised in Russia where of course they remember the real thing) it attempts to suppress the individual and make him conform to a stereotype; to become a robot, a slave.

    https://www.rferl.org/a/30667655.html

      1. There was a brief clip on the News last night showing a statue being boarded up: thin timber frame, hardboard panelling.

        Matches, anyone?

  59. 320084+m up ticks
    Seemingly all b liar & co were doing at the Cenotaph on remembrance Sunday then was a recce for a forthcoming attack.

    Why support these rear exits financially if on welfare, STOP IT, if employed tell their employers who MUST take action, employing missiles guarantees a mandatory long sentence.

    Quit supporting / voting for the political support parties lab/lib/con of this
    odious group.

  60. Operation Alert
    .
    In 1954, the United States Federal Civil Defense Agency instituted an exercise called Operation Alert. It was a civil defense drill that took place on the same day in scores of major cities. Citizens in what were called the “target” areas were required to take cover for fifteen minutes. At the same time civil defense officials tested their readiness and their communications systems, and federal officials practiced evacuating from the capital. Even President Eisenhower left the White House for a tent city outside Washington. The following day newspapers routinely published reports of the fictitious attacks naming the number of bombs that were dropped in the mock alerts, the number of cities hit, and the number of casualties.
    In 1955, New York State made the failure to take cover during an Operation Alert exercise punishable with a fine of up to $500 and a year in jail. A small group of pacifists that included Catholic Worker Dorothy Day reacted to this law by staging a protest in Manhattan’s City Hall Park. When the air raid sirens sounded, on June 15,
    .
    1955, the 27 protesters sat on park benches, surrounded by reporters. They explained that they were protesting the government’s pretence that citizens could be protected in the event of a full-scale nuclear attack. The protesters were arrested and given suspended sentences.
    .
    The pacifists held similar protests every year. But it wasn’t until a group of young mothers organized a much larger-scale demonstration in 1960 that the rest of New York took notice. The women managed to draw hundreds of protesters, including celebrities like Norman Mailer, to City Hall Park on May 3, the day of the 1960 Operation Alert. The organizers appealed to the political centre; encouraged protesters to dress in their best clothes and to bring their children; and claimed to represent just one belief: “Peace is the only defense against nuclear war.”
    .
    There was one more Operation Alert in 1961. The young mothers managed to bring together two-and-a-half-thousand protesters. That year civil defense protests also took place in other states, and hundreds of college students staged demonstrations on several East Coast campuses. In 1962 Operation Alert was permanently cancelled.

    1. 1955, the 27 protesters sat on park benches, surrounded by reporters. They explained that they were protesting the government’s pretence that citizens could be protected in the event of a full-scale nuclear attack. The protesters were arrested and given suspended sentences.

      I’m guessing the reporters were not punished.

      1. They were probably protected by the Constitution or one of its amendments. The Yanks may be strange, but they take their free press very seriously.

        1. The first amendment:

          Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

          ..which is why it is much, much harder here to win a libel case against the press.

          2. The US Constitution is an excellent document. Concise, well-written, and I’m also impressed with the care taken to preserve it and it’s principles.

          3. I like the “broad sweep” of the writers’ thinking. Pity the Supreme Court likes to pick at it.

    2. Well – we’ve had to “take cover” for three months now from an invisible enemy. Is it all just an exercise in control?

      1. Pretty much. However, the record-keeping has been so bad, so confused and mixed up that the real impact of the infection on a healthy population won’t be able to be ascertained. So no rational assessment can be made as to whether placing us all in house arrest was necessary to prevent the spread of the infection causing damage other than to those who were destined to leave us this year anyway..
        As an exercise in control it has worked very well, although now fraying at the fringes. A substantial number of people, according to polls, want the lockdown to remain until Covid-19 vanishes, despite there being no sense to that.

        1. It won’t vanish until everybody has caught it or acquired some immunity. Keeping us all under house arrest is counter-productive. It’s similar in a way to the kids who have allergies due to a large extent to the over- enthusiastic use of anti-bacterial cleaners these days.

  61. In other news. There is no limit to the number of people who may attend a rugby match in New Zealand. (Looks like they don’t have Covid-19 then?)
    A white Australian rugby player currently playing for Worcester has been refused a work permit which would have allowed him to take up a contract offered by Edinburgh. If Mr Jono Lance were to pop over to France and arrive back via a trip in a rubber boat, there would surely be no such difficulty.

      1. That’s the rumour that you have been spreading but I simply wouldn’t know.

    2. How do we know he is “Far Right” – hairstyle? Shorts? Sure he’s not far-Left?

      1. The photo is by an African: Thabo Jaiyesimi

        Interesting to note that this seems to be the only photo taken by this person on 13 June. Generally on photo library sites you’ll find sets, so we can often track down the specific image used and see it in context with others not used, often featuring the same people, the same event and so on.

        Still, I’m sure there’s nothing suspicious about it at all. Luckily he (or she) doesn’t have a dog in the fight;-) Or any qualms over the cultural appropriation of white people’s technology – cameras, the internet etc

        1. If there are some factors about this picture that strike me as odd, they include there being nobody else about at the time, there being only one professional photographer available at the appropriate moment and, so far, absolutely no video evidence plastered all over social media.

          This scene is a Godsend to the BLM/Antifa people.

          5. The one pissing is wearing white socks; this chap doesn’t have socks. Maybe he pissed on them & left them on the railings to dry.

          6. Afternoon Sos. I’ve looked at most of the stills and there is no one remotely like him in the crowd. The get up was to ensure the police would know who he was and not arrest him. He was just there to provide negative publicity.

          7. It is just conceivble that he might be identified.

            Tobias Ellwod, one of the first on the scene at the time to help Keith Palmer, has put out tweets to try to get him found

          9. I doubt it.
            It’s lack of will on the part of the authorities.

            If that guy had posted a particularly obnoxious series of hatey tweets he would be found.

          10. The shonet stirrer from the Soubry incident is suspected to have been “borrowed” from Special Branch or whatever their name is nowadays.

            I did see a short and very inconclusive bit of video of a rally in, I think, Leeds where the bloke with the camera was ordered to stop videoing by a man who was stirring up trouble. The cameraman claimed he looked very similar to Soubry’s Agent,

    3. Well whoever he is and whatever he that is really bad manners. Oh, remind me, have not all the public lavatories all over the country been closed and locked by order? Including pubs and cafes?

      2. 320084+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        Would it help if we took a sample of the crowd
        say 30 peoples and waterborded them for the truth, plus the fact the shock of such an action
        would stun a great many into facing reality.
        Get the SAS to take a sample with no comebacks as the action is to prevent a civil war kicking off,
        Any drowned during the process put them up on a plinth as a WARNING.

          1. 320084+ up ticks,
            N,
            No way, submissive pcism & appeasement say “no
            taking the p!ss” he would end up with a large wodge of compo.

      3. I doubt he knows what is next to him. The wretched Councils cannot be bothered to open public loos.

    2. It’s a smoke flare, not a firework as most people would understand the term.

    3. 320084+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      And all the while priti had all the crowd looking North
      the invasion fleet were picking up their National Insurance numbers at Dover.

        1. 320084+ up ticks,
          Afternoon N,
          No, it will ALL be in the packed lunch package they receive on landing along with welfare info etc,etc.

    1. This is what happens when basically normal people end up adopting the mental framework constructed for them by hostile aliens. There is no winning.

        1. I think I need a stiff drink this evening – what with Polly and Max arguing the toss about nothing while London is awash with tossers and pissers – I’ve just about had it. Still I have a cup of tea to drink.

          5. He’s hoping I’m about to get some dinner ready………but I keep getting distracted.

          7. The last time i had Long Island Iced Tea was at a hotel in Malta. The bar was on a roof terrace and it also had a pool.

            Three drinks later all my clothes fell off. I vaguely remember swinging my wet underpants over my head in the Bar after i had had a dip. Never again ! 🙁

          8. I got involved in a pool party in Port-Gentil in Gabon on a crew change (going home). Oh dear, oh dear.

          9. I’m so glad i have a short term memory… Though it does come back to haunt me sometimes.

          10. The recollection was hidden in the darkest recesses of the dimmest part of my selective memory.

          12. That takes me back – a cocktail bar across the square from my flat in Düsseldorf. If you drank 5 in an evening, they gave you another.
            Also used to knock them back in a Spanish bar in Darmstadt. Scrumptious

          13. Many years ago, there was a tiny cocktail bar at the top of the lift in Terminal B of Frankfurt airport. Hardly anyone went there, so it was a great place to kill time waiting to fly – with LIIT.
            Gone now. Sadly. :-((

        2. Me being sumwat fick, was in a Cafe in France and saw the waiter pour some red wine into a glass of White wine,
          to make Rose……. so I Fort

          1. I’m fick also . so is Moh

            We went to Chat however you pronounce it Briand for a steak of the same name , years and years ago.. We nearly lost our teeth chewing so hard .. I reckon we had horse.. and the wine was like vinegar!

          2. Horse meat is supposed to be quite tender – I only tried it once and disliked the close texture. So you probably had beef skirt or something else that’s better slowly cooked.

          4. If you asked for it well done you brought it on yourselves. };-))

            The French take a perverse delight in serving the toughest, chewiest beef for people who don’t request rare or medium rare.

            If it’s a half decent restaurant I always tend to err towards the house wines, they like to protect their reputation. It’s usually much better than buying anything at the cheaper end of the carte, unless you spot something you know is good.

            We also give a price range and ask for a recommendation. Sometimes one loses, but by and large they appreciate being asked and recommend a good one.

          6. It depends where you get it, but by and large, that’s a fair observation.

            Back to Grand Frais, we’ve had some good ones off the chiller and some very good ones via the butcher, when buying for something better than every day.

          7. I do the same here. I know which pubs and restaurants value their reputation.

          8. The beef was probably ‘nervous’. The animal was frightened at the point of its despatch. This is the reason for avoiding Halal slaughtered beef or Halal anything to be honest.

          9. They might well have been doing that!

            Generally the cassis, or whatever mixer is chosen, goes in first and it is topped up with white wine or fizz to create the kir.

        3. I had my first Kir Royale in a little back street café in an unfashionable arrondissement (I’m far too low caste to be able to afford to eat in a fashionable arrondissement!) back in 1977. It was a coming-of-age moment.

        1. No. One can buy it here, however I have a friend who frequently travels to and from Germany and he brings me a crate of 20 x 50cl bottles for about 20€. About a third of the cost of the same thing bought in France. It is a refreshing beer in hot weather.

        2. Erdinger & Paulaner are the export weissbiers, available everywhere, and mostly not drunk in München as they are too mainstream.
          Still, beggars can’t be choosers.

          2. Dunno about France, but available in Vinmonopolet in Norway, most offies in the UK, many bars all over… hic! Burp!

          4. half a litre is too much for me. I wish they did 250 ml.

            Very few beers are available in that size in the UK I have discovered….grrr

          5. 250ml? That’s not even half a pint! The smallest bottles I’ve seen in the UK are ‘nips which are one third of a pint. These are generally used for strong beers such as barley-wine, the most prolific of which is ‘Gold Label’. My favoured micropub in Southampton has glasses marked with calibrations at one third, one half and two thirds of a pint. They are happy to serve a third of a pint on request but most people drink in pints.

          8. I only get Paulaner because I don’t know any better. Can you suggest a less mainstream alternative weißbier that I might enjoy?

          9. Supply is the thing. Those two are widely exported, but basically see whats available. There’s also dunkelweiss whick is ok, but personally I stay away from the clear weiss – the flavours are all in the yeast, so it tastes of poor lager.

          10. I have a friend who visits Germany and brings it back. I’m not keen on dunkels, but am aware of a whole world of Heffeweiß about which I know very little. Friend has access to all sorts. Any suggestions?

          11. The best I had was an East German version – Unertl. Not seen it for years. Otherwise, I buy whats around.

        1. I can’t drink wheat beer. It’s just wrong!

          I’m not drinking any beer at present but when I do I like it to be a barley-based, well-hopped, cask-conditioned ‘real’ English ale.

          1. I like all quality beers. Factory piss & wind, no, and you’re right, a good quality English IPA is spot on; even Heavy hits the mark at the right time.
            Firstborn’s local boutique brewery NSB) brews a wonderful IPA in English style – plenty hops, but not the excessively hoppy American style that has taken over here.

          2. Hear hear!

            Although I must admit, I’m getting the taste for Belgian beers because proper ales aren’t really available here unless one really goes hunting.

            I’m sure Harry K will know many, but I don’t drink enough beer to hunt them out.

            If ever asked about things I miss from the UK, I generally say the only thing I really miss about England is the pubs and decent beers.

          3. I’m not so well up to date on the modern Belgian scene but so many of its old favourites are still around that you should find plenty to satisfy you, especially the more ‘conventional’ ale types. The lambics and sour ales might not be to your taste.

          4. I’m very open to change on that front.
            I’ve had some really weird and wonderful ales, they are a fair bit stronger than the UK beers.

            I used to seek out beers with their own “special glasses”.

            For goodness sake, why the Kwak glass!

          5. I assume you’ve been through most of the abbey and trappist beers, along with the spiced ales such as Piraat, Gulden Draak and Delirium Tremens.

          8. Frambozen can be good, if well chilled, but the Trappist beers are fantastic – my favourite being Chimay White Label. Religion in a bottle – after the first slurp, you tend to say “God! That’s good!”

          9. I enjoy a good Iambic Pentameter with my roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

            :-))

          10. I used to occasionally enjoy a cherry-infused Lambic Belgian beer, brewed by Timmerman’s, called kreik, originally fermented in caves by monks. It was more like drinking a wine than a beer but quite refreshing.

          12. Leffe is promoted as an ‘Abbey’ beer, whereas it is brewed by Anheuser-Busch InBev in the Stella Artois factory.

          14. I agree up to a point, Grizz. I’m an aficionado of proper beer as you describe, and will always seek out decent ales when in the UK. The ‘micropub’ revolution has provided a platform for high quality beers from low-volume brewers and there are some stunning beers out there. However I also enjoy wheat beer when the weather suits. Besides, the words ‘decent beer’ and ‘France’ are never heard in the same sentence!

          15. There are beers and then there are memorable beers. One such was Spingo Ale brewed on the premises in The Blue Anchor in Helston. That was in 1978.

          16. Been there, done that! It was far too strong for me, as I recall. But I believe they’ve reviewed their beer range to include lower gravity brews.

          17. “Besides, the words ‘decent beer’ and ‘France’ are never heard in the same sentence!’

            The same thing applies here in Sweden.

    4. Hendricks gin with lime and Fevertree tonic.
      Followed by Chapeldown Bacchus with lasagne.
      I feel amazingly mellow.

  73. Anti racists have daubed on Churchill’s cover … Don’t open , racist inside , and that is what has made everyone protecting him FURIOUS.

    1. I noticed that.

      When did it happen?
      One might think that with all the CCTV everywhere in the UK one camera might have footage.

        2. 320084+ up ticks,
          Afternoon JTL,
          The camera’s could be loaded & fully sound it is the in-action of the establishment that is at fault.

    3. They not really “anti-racist,” are they? They’re anti-white.

      Antifa, BLM and other such groups have no objection to Black nationalists, Jewish supremacists, and Muslim jihadists.

      1. They typically don’t like Jews or Israel, but support Hamas. Seems to me that somewhere along their education process, they were thoroughly brainwashed.

        1. They have been “educated” by teachers who were brainwashed since the protest groups of the sixties.

          1. I was getting my engineering degree in the early ’60s’. We had no time for protests.

            I well remember a cartoon aimed, if I recall correctly at Sussex University. A conga line of hairy, beardy weirdies (as we used to call them) all waving banners. while a couple of obviously phys. or chem. students, both laden with books looked on. One was saying to the other, “I suppose this is like lab work for them”.

          2. At Sheffield University 1970-1973 all of the Student Union officers were lefties. They could be found propping up the Union Bar most days. They were a scruffy ignorant bunch projecting their own miserable lives whilst contemplating half a pint of gnats’ piss (Tetleys).

          6. “…half a pint of gnats’ piss (Tetleys).”

            That is an insult to gnats’ piss! At least Ward’s (pronounced, locally, as Waaaahd’s) had flavour.

          7. I used to enjoy Ward’s bitter in The City Vaults in Lincoln. Not too strong – a proper session beer. Another decent beer was Shipstone’s, both sadly now gone.

          8. Shippo’s was A Nottingham ale, as were Home brewery and Hardy Hanson.

            I was weaned, as a young ‘un, on Stones’ bitter from Sheffield but, alas, in its keg form. It was years later when I came across its proper morph as a cask-conditioned bitter and I was most impressed.

          9. Same at QMW; NUS decided to occupy the main building.
            The fire officers told them that they would have to sign everyone in and out.
            After a day of abuse, whatever cause they felt passionate about lost its importance.

          10. At Essex in 1968 the lecture theatre was occupied. I went on holiday – there were no lectures going on after all.

    1. The PM and police should have stated that anyone left in the area after five oclock would be left to their own devices. Nobody let in or out.

      The pieces will be cleaned up in the morning.

      Let the bastards on both sides beat nine flavours of crap out of each other.

      1. We used to retreat to the pub after our nice, peaceful demos for elephants, rhinos, lions – they can’t even do that while all the pubs are shut.

        1. Were you “kettled”?
          The police seem very able to do that for protests such as yours or the Countryside Alliance or other white middle class marches, but totally incapable of doing the same for BLM, ER etc.

          3. Well we certainly never left any mess. The silent demo against the ivory trade in 2017 was quite moving and powerful.

  76. 320084+ up ticks,
    PM is to undress the nation as in asset strip then move the cabinet
    to brussels.

  77. So did the police kneel in support of those people that tried to defend our heritage?

    2. The kneelers were apparently given the choice by Cressida Dick, proof that the woman is a first rate idiot. It is not for our Police to express political views or bow to aggressive Antifa and BLM thugs.

      1. A thousand upitcks for that comment. She’s obviously a very dangerous effing moron.

      2. Are you sure that is correct, Corrie? I read last week that the “option to kneel” was given by the senior officer in charge last Saturday (the 6th) and not Ms Dick.

      3. The kneelers were apparently given the choice by Cressida Dick

        If she gave them the choice (and they took her up on it) they should all be fired and her especially.

        proof that the woman is a first rate idiot

        Or proof that she’s a successful subversive. She should be investigated. As should those who selected her and gave her the job, as should those who recommended her promotion through the ranks and so on.

          1. This is the problem. Our entire system is compromised from top to bottom. Who can we trust to fix things?

  78. I just listened to our first black professor (emeritus) speaking from Edinburgh. He sensibly thinks that all statues should remain in place but with plaques explaining the significant importance of the individual or group. This would state openly a connection to Slavery or whatever and also record philanthropic works in the case of Edward Colston.

    The statues were erected in other times by other generations. The notion of consigning this part of our history to some dusty museum basement is utterly wrong and a denial of our history, warts and all.

    2. And generally, the statues were raised by a grateful populace who benefitted from the largesse of the man (usually) who was being commemorated.

    3. Or they could teach History properly, so that pupils and students could understand things in context and not through the distorted lenses of ideologues.

    4. Good on him I expect he will end up in the wax museum. Not just a candle in the wind.

  79. Why are some of the NTTL mods so biased and delete innocuous posts which are fine in their setting ?

    Rules and regulations become fortifications behind which small minds build empires.

    1. Your posts were flagged by the person you upset. The mod in question considered that they were personally abusive.

      1. So flagging posts has become a means of winning arguments when combined with biased mods.

        1. Personal abuse is not permitted on this forum. You must know that abuse is real if it is perceived by the receiver as such.

          1. So if someone said hello and someone else thought that abusive, it is abusive.

            How ridiculous.

          4. Orwell’s works are now accepted as training manuals for the police and politicians, as you very well know. The dystopian world he visualised is now with us.
            Why else would politicians here and in the US, be “taking the knee” for a criminal illegally killed by a rogue policeman?

          5. So NTTL has become part of Orwell’s ”dystopian world” judging by your posts.

          6. It’s how the world has become today. I very rarely delete posts so don’t blame me. I prefer free speech – but sometimes it can be perceived as hurtful or abusive, even if that was not the intention.

          7. So are you going to tell the other posters that NTTL is now part of Orwell’s ”dystopian world” ?

          9. Maybe a statement that NTTL is part of Orwell’s ”dystopian world” should be added to the long list of do’s and dont’s at the top ?

          10. The “long list” is actually quite short – and they are Geoff’s words, as the owner of this forum, not mine.

            “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.”

          11. Yes, but that doesn’t work as you’ve told us the site is Orwellian. Also, some mods apply those rules in a biased manner.

          13. Not really. Everyone gets their say and everyone’s opinion matters, especially those who understand tech.

            That is the great bubbling pot of free speech which some people want to close, but find impossible.

          14. Fine – that is why we speak freely here, and why the only posts that get removed are the ones deemed unacceptably rude.

          15. Removed for Orwellian ”dystopian world” reasons.

            That isn’t something to be proud of, in fact the reverse.

          16. You’ve now spent over two hours arguing about nothing – this thread is now closed.

          18. We’ve been discussing free speech… so free speech is ”nothing”.

            Okey dokey.

          19. Them’s the rules. You no like, you go elsewhere. No obligation to post here, no fee, either.

          20. So you’re a supporter of the new Orwellian ”dystopian world” style NTTL.

            I’ll look forward to reminding you of that at various times in the future !

          23. Extracted from definitions of hate crimes in Britain:

            This means that if you believe something is a hate incident it should be recorded as such by the person you are reporting it to.

            Seems Orwell is established legal practice.

      2. I would leave the posts up.

        They tell readers far more about the writer than the target. If people are not interested in the exchange they can always scroll past.

        If people don’t want to read certain posters contributions they can always block them.

        2. And if people don’t like being censored, they can always find another place to post. Simple really.

          1. But surely the now admitted Orwellian ”dystopian world” on NTTL should be opposed ?

          2. They can indeed.

            But the real effect of that is to close opposing viewpoints.
            It makes the censor the arbiter of what is true or acceptable, not the reader.

          3. It seems to me that the Mods only step in when things get abusive and/or personal, which is where I think they should step in. However, posting illogical or bizarre opinions should not be a reason for censorship. In that I think we agree.

        4. They are still up if you don’t refresh the page. I don’t override the decisons of other mods. Each mod makes their own decision as to what is acceptable or not.

          1. Unfortunately, the quirks of disqus cause me to refresh frequently, but I would not go hunting for such exchanges in any case.

            I totally agree that mods should not over-rule other mods. (With the exception of GG, this blog I regard as his.)

  80. I know I have left – but – we have just watched the repeat of the “mini” Trooping this morning. DO SEE IT on catch up. Brilliant originality by the Foot Guards.

    The Queen was the oldest on parade by at least 40 years. She looked delighted and happy.

    Compare and contrast with the shyte in central London (other cities are available).

    TTFN

    1. I have a relative who was very closely involved with such things.

      He told us that the Queen is probably the most “clued up” person on all aspects of the ceremony, the uniforms, the presentations and everythig else. Apparently she can spot the slightest deviation from the uniform from twenty paces.

      He also commented that she has a very wry sense of humour about it all.

          5. I recall one of the recent Jubilees, where the review was, to all intents and purposes, a series of rowing boats.

            OK, that’s an exaggeration, but compared with Spithead it was of asimilar scale of diminution.

      2. She seems so lonely. Obviously PP isn’t going to accompany her and Andrew is out of the equation but it would have been good to see Charles, Anne or Edward with her.

        1. Yer meeeja would have drummed up a shit-storm about Her breaching self-isolation.

        2. Who knows?

          I suspect that she gets a lot of pleasure from her closest “servants” and certainly from the “horsey” side.

          I’ve always had the impression that she’s what we might call middle class in her general outlook, but fulfills the role as Head of State with all its pomp; and enjoys the pageantry.

          Long may she reign.

        3. Au contraire. I think she loves these parades – and is very happy to watch them on her own.

          Just think, Wet Chas would be complaining that the Foot Guards were not diverse enough – especially taking climate change into account.. Anne only likes sailors. Edward? Edward?? The one who couldn’t even cope with the first 14 days of Basic Training???

          1. I agree with you Bill………….but!!
            her children , for all their perceived faults, are still
            her children. I think, in her way she loves them,…..
            not easy for someone who, for the last sixty- eight
            years has put others [i.e. us] in front of her own
            family!

  81. I find it incredible that my spineless MP can tweet regarding Cummings and his trip to his parents,

    Mr Cummings’ alleged actions have also sparked dissent inside Tory party ranks.

    Somerton and Frome MP David Warburton told ITV News “sacrifices” were being made across the country in a bid to stop coronavirus spreading and the fact that there are rules in place meant “there ought not to be room for any sort of interpretation or following of one’s instincts and allowing that to override the guidance we’ve been given”.

    Mr Warbuton added his father had passed away several weeks ago, but neither he nor anyone else was “able to be there when he died” due to lockdown rules.

    Yet up to now, I can find no comment on his twitter account on events regarding BLM protests or incidents of criminal damage. Conservative? looks more at home in the Avon & Somerset police bending his knee.

      1. There you go max the dog. These are your lot and their ‘peaceful’ protest.

        Or, as the rest of us see, a racist scumbag committing assault.

      1. You might be thinking of a more recent rendition by ‘The Bobby Fuller Four’ in about 1966.

  84. The BBC would usually be at the front of the queue to condemn the USA for its ‘interventions’ in other countries (crikey, I would be) but Donald Trump’s announcement that the USA will no longer be the world’s policeman was described as ‘isolationist’ in such flat tones this evening on Radio 4 that one sensed that the newsreader was struggling to comprehend.

    Don’t expect to hear any approbation from the rat’s nest.

    1. It’s not dark yet, Peddy….. but good night anyway. Sleep peacefully. An hour before midnight..etc

      1. I have ‘left’ the RNLI

        Wondering about The Roal British Legion

        We will be leaving the un-National Trust

        2. I heard recently that the British Legion was starting to be be infected/infested (Common Purpose). The Long March through the Institutions is nearing completion.

      2. Hope they don’t get tangled up in their rainbow lanyards.
        “Ooops …. there goes another Ming vase.”

    3. The National Trust is presently run by silly women. These stupid people have failed to address the major issues with historic buildings.

      These major issues revolve around electrical supply and distribution systems, an understanding of fire protection in historic properties and a failure to take advice from experienced architects and other contractors.

      Thus we have seen the wanton destruction of properties such as Clandon and other properties such as Kingston Lacey in the past.

      My wife and I have let our membership of the National Trust lapse.

  87. PHE has already been skewered for its performance over testing and equipment. I hope it has now signed its own death warrant with this:

    Racism ‘could play a part in BAME Covid deaths’

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53035054

    Make sure you don’t have any sharp or heavy objects nearby when you read this.

    1. Well to be frank the science our government has ‘followed’ was not science at all. It was the supposedly mathematical predictions of a bunch of idiots at Imperial College London, scientists with the mathematical and statistical competence of your average ten year old.

      Blacks and Asians are susceptible to Covid-19 for the reason that they are in large part overweight, suffering from diabetes, genetic compromises from inbreeding and other illnesses and live highly dependant lives reliant on benefits and drugs.

      Many cannot be bothered to better themselves but sit at home fulminating with hatred of the indigenous folk who work to keep them in their own miserable self-inflicted victimhood.

      I am getting a bit sick of their political correctness lies.

      1. Have any of the correlations between CV cases and physical trials been found to be any more than casual relationships?

        Race , sex, weight, diabetic with heart issues and the wrong blood group have all shown to have a higher representation in case counts than would be expected but that does not mean they are causes of increased infections.

        1. I thought the issue was one of susceptibility to the virus. God knows how many the disaffected
          immigrants will have infected.

          It seems that in London no one is particularly bothered by social distancing measures or the compulsory wearing of face masks and face coverings. This includes not only demonstrators but also the Police.

          What an unholy mess our government have made of this. They should be ashamed and rapidly revise their advice to the rest of us who have observed strict lockdown measures and advice on social distancing.

  88. Apparently according to people at the London demo. The police had huge battons to beat up the people who turned up to stop the abuse and defacing of national monuments.
    It was also mentioned that the police were dressed as football ( that’s rather stupid as football is on hold) fans in their efforts to ensure that the Invented ‘far right’ were seen as the perpetrators of disorders. There is footage on Facebook of a black man stamping on the head of a white chap at the demo.
    I’m sure there is a concerted effort to malign any one who had a moral and genuine reason to try to make a peaceful point.
    Consequently it appears to me that our government is involved in this shameful episode that is rigged in favour of the lawless cretins.
    I’ve had enough of all this nonsense.

  89. Back, – just to say, I’ve never yet seen such biased and contrived, news reports from the Biased Bollocks Corporation.

    Boris, for Christs Sake – remove this bloody great blot on the landscape – it may just bring the rest to heel.

  94. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/480006b0e2fc7dd5d9921a6fe0e31b89d05d1414fe61e38037c26176de56d105.png “ To understand how to not remain or return we must understand what has come before…

    17-year-old Lepa Radić was a Serbian girl who fought during WWII but never got to see the Nazis lose the war. In February 1943, Lepa was captured. The Nazis tied a rope around her neck but offered her a way out. All she has to do is reveal her comrades’ and leaders’ identities.

    Lepa responded: ‘You will know them when they come to avenge me.’

    This is why we need history to live on, and the political correctness brigade to leave it alone. We were what we were, and we are what we are. History helps us become, history helps us evolve, history let’s us never forget. This lady deserves to be remembered, this lady deserves the immortality of history. “

    1. Thank you, Grizz. I’d never heard of her.
      Hell, she was only a year old than my youngest granddaughter.

    2. Excellent point you make, Grizz, but the picture is very disturbing.
      Brave lass, though.

      1. It is disturbing, and so it should be, but it’s the sort of historical fact that should be shown to our present crop of 17 year olds. They think that sort of thing happened a thousand years ago, instead of during the lifetime of their granddad.

        1. That is the sad part of coming after, brave people sacrificed their lives for what they beleived, then craven imbeciles throw it all away and on it goes.

        2. If they happen to be German 17 year olds, that may be their great grandad. There’s a happy thought.

          1. I imagine it must be absolutely devastating to find out that your lovely Opa turned out to be a SS camp guard or something equally horrible.
            Someone was telling me that Ainsley Harriot had such a surprise when he took a TV crew to trace his roots, fully expecting to find that his folks were traded and with the victim card already drawn, finding instead that his ancestors turned out to be the trader! Bit of a facer, that.

    3. No doubt they would have hanged her regardless if she had revealed their identities. The n*z*s were renowned for going back on their word. May God bless her soul.

  95. The BBC would usually be at the front of the queue to condemn the USA for its ‘interventions’ in other countries (crikey, I would be) but Donald Trump’s announcement that the USA will no longer be the world’s policeman was described as ‘isolationist’ in such flat tones this evening on Radio 4 that one sensed that the newsreader was struggling to comprehend.

    Don’t expect to hear any approbation from the rat’s nest.

  96. I have just been watching a film and Glenn Millar’s Music was being played

    He was born years too soon

    Hhe was ‘lost’ crossing the Channel, in an aeroplane:

    If he attempted that now, there would be so many boats and planes making sure all channel-crossers got to safety

      1. An interesting book I once read suggested that he arrived the night before the concert, went to a red light district, got into a fight with a heavy, got killed, and the authorities then covered the whole thing up with a “missing flight” story. If I can find the book I will give you all chapter and verse.

  97. Watching Quantum of Solace. I could almost believe that our current globalist masters, Soros, Gates and the Bilderbergers have adopted the themes of several of the James Bond films.

    1. I have been thinking the same over the last two or three years – that we are living through a James Bond movie.

    1. Mmmmm – me too, NTI , on this day of unrest. Sleep well. I have a sense of unease, though …….. things ain’t wot they used to be and will never be again.

  100. Final thought before retiring for the night,
    If Farage could harness the utter contempt felt towards all of our politicians in Westminster, especially Johnson and his government, and turn that contempt into votes, would he be unstoppable.
    How many on this forum who voted for Johnson and his party last December are happy with what they have seen up to now?

    3. We voted conservative. We were offered con lab lib candidates. That was it. The lib dems for the first time ever were hot on the heels of the tories. This, sadly, is Remain territory. The tory party usually has a majority of anything between 21,000 – 27,000. This is farming country. At the December election 2019 the tory majority had been whittled down to 3000-ish, with the lib dems in second place (because of their offer of another referendum). In this household we felt at all costs the lib dems should not gain a foothold. Otherwise, we would have protested by spoiling our vote.

      1. So are you happy now with what you have seen, and IF we do leave with a meaningful Brexit, would you continue your support for Johnson as things stand today regarding the protests etc.
        I had the same choices as you, I chose not to vote, easier choice for me I think. The Lib Dem’s were never going to win here.

        1. 320084+ up ticks,
          JG,
          I voted UKIP there was just no way I was condoning political trash being
          re-elected.
          The best of the worst is not an option as we are currently witnessing whilst good people are suppressed & castigated.

        2. All I can say Is it would have been a disaster in this area had the lib dems got in. I voted with a heavy heart. At the moment I do not unsupport Johnson as I feel he may still be unwell from his illness. For the first time (In a very, very long time, several decades) we had a visit from the new tory mp for this area prior to the election in December – they had, I think, assumed it was a fait accompli in previous years. Heidi Allen was the last incumbent. I am prepared to wait until after the summer recess before delivering my verdict. The cynic in me wonders if Johnson’s illness was contrived – that he couldn’t cope with the pressure any more. Of course I am not happy with the turn of events or how it has all been dealt with. Johnson seems to have gone downhill so quickly, like a child on a slide. There has been no real sense of someone being in charge of uk plc since Margaret Thatcher, thirty years ago

    4. 320084+ up ticks,
      Evening JG,
      Had no trust in either, my back post will bare that out.
      The fall back plan I likened to a rocket ,
      The wretch cameron was the first stage of the limited damage to the eu campaign,with may as the second
      stage after the leadership farce with gove the Pm candidate / assassin, johnson the victim, after leadsome found the political kitchen to hot.

      may was the already chosen one,the 9 month delay was the clincher, then she done her bit leaving the semi
      re-entry last stage to johnson.

      The farage is first & foremost a farage man then a tory.
      My personal view.

      1. Ogga1, I very seldom agree with you but your penultimate sentence is a very accurate assessment of Farage.

        1. 320113+ up ticks,
          Morning EDA,
          The hole in the back of 30000 plus jackets proves the mistrust, highly suss.

    5. We voted for Boris , we had no other choice .

      Moh had his doubts about Boris.

      I reckon that his affair with his latest squeeze and producing a sproglet then his brush with the virus has demolished his drive and enthusiastic energy for life. Like Samson being stripped of his hair.

    6. I did not vote for Johnson in the election for Conservative Party leadership but voted for his party in December, feeling that this was at least better than all the alternatives with a modicum of chance of forming a Government. In the first few weeks of the current crisis, I thought that he and his party were doing a pretty decent job but, as time has gone by and new information has become available, he looks increasingly to be out of his depth. The government’s response to the BLM protests has been shameful but Nigel Farage is not anyone who can unite the country and will appeal only to a tiny minority of people. The truth is that we are stuck with a very mediocre Conservative Government but which, nevertheless, is far better than any realistic alternative. Perhaps we should contract out our government to, say, Singapore or South Korea!

    7. I didn’t vote for Johnson last year. I would have voted for the Brexit Party or UKIP (of earlier times), but they weren’t available. I didn’t trust the Conservatives with Johnson (or anyone associated with him) and so sadly did not vote.

      1. I spoiled my ballot. Paterson was pretty well nailed on and there was no UKIP candidate this year.

    8. I do not have a vote but I would have voted for Farage’s Brexit Party party if Farage had not capitulated without getting anything in return from Johnson.

      This capitulation was a very grave error – had Farage held on for longer the Conservatives might have seen that without an electoral pact with the Brexit Party Corbyn would have won and this would have finished the Conservative Party off for ever.

      I think that Nigel Farage is the only politician who can be trusted on Brexit but I fear he is now a busted flush. Come the next election Starmer and Labour will probably win and that will be the end of Britain – if indeed Britain still exists in any meaningful sense by then..

      1. 320084+ up ticks,
        Evening R,
        It was on the road to lost causes on the 25/6/2016.
        On reflection the farage has always been a coxswain for the tories & he has proved it.
        His anti UKIP membership rant proved it without doubt maligning good decent people, it is all on record.

Comments are closed.