Saturday 27 June: No work, no school, no pubs – of course people flock to the seaside

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/26/letters-no-work-no-school-no-pubs-course-people-flock-seaside/

868 thoughts on “Saturday 27 June: No work, no school, no pubs – of course people flock to the seaside”

  3. Shooting fish

    SIR – On safari in South Africa about 10 years ago, we stopped for a barbecue lunch. While eating my chicken wings I threw the bones into a reservoir, only to see a large fish (Letters, June 26) – about four feet long – surface to eat them. I asked my professional what it was. “A catfish,” he said.

    Since all my fishing gear was at base camp, I loaded up my .30-06 and shot the catfish, to the delight of our head tracker, Qeuesie. I gave him the fish.

    The next morning I asked him how it was. “I don’t know,” he said. He had swapped it for a fridge. Things work differently in Africa.

    Mike Bailey
    Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire

  4. Received yesterday:
    Aviation minister: hundreds of pilots in Pakistan have ‘fake’ licenses
    During an update on the investigation into PK8303, Pakistan’s aviation minister announced that up to 262 of the 860 pilots in Pakistan may have cheated on the license exam by having someone else take the exam. In response, PIA has grounded 150 of its pilots and initiated firing procedures against them.

    1. Back in the day when I was flying to Moldova I first had to fly to Paris as Air Moldova (flying Aeroflot cast offs) were banned from the UK on safety grounds
      Following these revelations it is unbelievable that PIA are not banned forthwith!!!!!!!!!!!

    2. The total is going up – in manner of speaking.
      What about the other 112? Do they pedal faster? Go brroom, brroom ….nyyaaaahhhhhh …. more realistically?

  5. Six seriously injured in Glasgow attack and suspect killed by police. Fri 26 Jun 2020 18.35 BST.

    Six people including a police officer and two teenagers were seriously injured, and the alleged perpetrator shot dead by police, after multiple stabbings at a hotel in central Glasgow.

    Police Scotland said David Whyte, a 42-year-old constable, was in a “critical but stable condition” in hospital with five other men – aged 17, 18, 20, 38 and 53 – seriously injured, after a lone man went on the attack shortly before 1pm at the Park Inn hotel on West George Street.

    Morning everyone. It is of course impossible to know exactly what is going on but I’m more than a little sceptical about this. The three deaths reported earlier didn’t happen and it’s not terrorist related? I don’t think so. I think the Reading business put a serious crimp in the timetable and another terrorist attack risked losing the momentum entirely so they’ve buried it. This is borne out by the Black Broadcasting Commission (BBC) where the leading stories on the 5am news, were Yemen. Florida, Mexico and the Philippines!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/26/armed-police-seen-entering-building-in-serious-glasgow-incident

    1. Think the media are trying to twist this to get sympathy for the ‘poor downtrodden’ asylum seekers.

      As I understand it there are about 100 of them occupying 90 rooms in this 3 star Glasgow hotel – therefore most will be housed singly. They get 3 meals a day, albeit not to the Michelin standard promised by the people smugglers. Toiletries are supplied and their laundry is dealt with. WiFi might be adequate were not so many trying to contact their relatives still at home.

      Sounds like a pretty good deal to me and one that many of the population would be very satisfied with.

      1. Not to mention that all the rooms will have en suite lavatory and shower/bath.

        Do they get three meals a day?

        1. 3 meals a day is my understanding.

          Wonder if at the heart of the matter is expectations of standard of life as promised by people smugglers? Suspect there are wild claims of a house with big garden for all, car, servants and no need to work as money will be showered on them. The reality is somewhat different but presumably those parting with large sums of money to be transported here are only too willing to believe the lies.

          1. And they get all that while we are told there are millions of British unable to afford to feed themselves.

            I use “British” very loosely here.

    2. Yes Araminta.

      Strange that yesterday the Glagow Police stated to Sky News that three people were dead.

      Fortunately they all seem to have arisen since…and it’s not even Easter!

      1. Afternoon Janet. Further down the page it says:

        As the incident unfolded, senior police sources said that three people had been fatally stabbed, citing information from the ambulance service and circulating within police channels.

        Which is it? Don’t the ambulance crews know when someone is dead?

  6. Cambridge University’s very modern bigotry

    The institution promotes an academic tweeting racism, yet considers Jordan Peterson to be beyond the pale
    BY DOUGLAS MURRAY

    hat is the opposite of equality? It is inequality, surely. And what does inequality look like? Well that’s any time in which an outcome varied solely due to the nature of a person’s inherited characteristics.

    So if two people have precisely the same qualifications and fitness for a role, but one of them has a racial or sexual difference and is either advanced or held back because of it, you could legitimately say that the subjects had been treated unequally.

    Even in a country as tolerant and open as Britain, it is undeniable that historically people have been disadvantaged because of their sex, sexuality or skin colour. Roles for which they have been eminently fit and suited have been closed to them because of a characteristic over which they have no say. Not all the bad blood from this has gone away.

    Of course the way to dissipate any remaining bad blood would be to visibly and consistently strive to appoint people to positions based on their merit, confident that in the course of time people of ability will rise to the positions which they deserve. But what would be the most divisive way in which to go about trying to address such inequalities? Well, that would be to very visibly and obviously create and institute a mirror version of the old system: to attempt to carve out special privileges for people who look like those who suffered discrimination in the past, and to treat with a special disdain and contempt the people who look like they might have once benefited from discrimination.

    There have been a number of fine examples of this emerging catastrophe in recent days. There has, for instance, been the exceptionally light-touch policing which allowed early Black Lives Matter protests to descend into violence and disorder in London. And the very heavy-handed policing (justified, as it happens, but which could have been used at the previous protests) when groups of predominantly white and often violent protestors turned up to ‘defend’ statues which were under attack from some BLM protestors.

    Then there was the sacking of the 24-year old who arranged the “White Lives Matter Burnley” stunt, after a month of hearing politicians, media, corporations and street protestors repeatedly citing the slogan of BLM.

    Of course, you might for a time say that ‘Black Lives Matter’ should be a promotional matter and ‘White Lives Matter’ a sackable one. But it begs the question of how long you want to keep that standard up for? A month? A year? Indefinitely? If indefinitely isn’t achievable we get back to that issue I have raised here before, which is how you would know when you have ‘over-corrected’ for long enough.

    The question hovers over institution after institution, even at places that used to be our major seats of learning.

    Most people in the UK will never have heard of Priyamvada Gopal. A scholar of ‘post-colonial studies’, she holds a fellowship at Cambridge University and lectures in the English faculty there, despite not being especially distinguished even in her own field. A small body of work sits behind her — but a greater body of grievance clearly sits within her. Two years ago she made headlines after berating the college porters at Kings College, Cambridge, accusing them of calling her “Madam” instead of “Dr Gopal”. And this act of “racism” caused Dr Gopal to not only berate the lower-order porters, but to threaten to withhold her talents from the inhabitants of King’s.

    That mixture of haughtiness and incendiarism appears to be Gopal’s preferred register. On Twitter she regularly produces content which is so unbecoming of an academic at any institutions — let alone at our second-greatest university — that I confess that for a while, after first coming across her, I assumed that she was a spoof. Surely nobody who acts in such a deranged and deliberately provocative manner could possibly have any role at an institution of higher learning?

    But she does, and this week Cambridge reaped their latest reward from her presence. On Wednesday Gopal chose to send out a message on Twitter saying:

    “I’ll say it again. White Lives
    Don’t matter.
    As white lives.”

    Quite how this racist little rant adds to the store of Cambridge University’s reputation in the world would be a matter for that university’s authorities. If it had any. As though to prove that her intentions were honourable and sane, Gopal followed this up with a Tweet simply saying, “Abolish whiteness”.

    Which is of course totally normal behaviour, and definitely the way that academics at publicly-funded institutions are meant to pass their time. But what was most interesting on this occasion was once again not the ugly and divisive rhetoric of one undistinguished academic, but rather the reaction of the University’s authorities.

    Amazingly enough, Gopal’s statement that the lives of white people do not matter did not land with universal acclaim. Surprisingly — which must have come as a great grief to her — some members of the public objected to her use of her platform and time to spread racism. Some complained to the university. And on Wednesday evening Cambridge University issued its own statement:

    Of course that statement is a flat-out lie. Cambridge has been deeply unwilling to stand by its academics in recent years. Last year the University dismissed the young researcher Noah Carl after a mob that was totally ignorant of Carl’s areas of research decided that he was guilty of racism. A most cursory investigation was performed, and then they revoked the contract they had already given him.

    Also in the past year came the case of Jordan Peterson. The Canadian academic and professor was meant to take up a visiting position at Cambridge University, only for the institition to rescind their offer after it was brought to their attention that one fan at a meet-and-greet had once had his picture taken beside Dr Peterson while wearing a t-shirt saying “I’m a proud Islamophobe”.

    Both Peterson and Carl are white men. Both were dismissed by Cambridge University for racism ‘adjacency’ (to use one of the weasel words of the time). Neither was remotely guilty of the charge of racism because neither man is a racist. But I suspect that if either of them had ever tweeted out a statement saying, “Black lives don’t matter”, or “Indian lives don’t matter” or similar racist garbage, then I strongly suspect that Cambridge University would have dismissed them even more swiftly than they did. If that were possible.

    So what is the difference? The only variable that explains Cambridge’s prejudicial standards is that Gopal is not white. Cambridge University has carved out a racism-allowance for Gopal where she can act in a manner in which others would not. She is literally priviliged.

    And it is not just an allowance, but a positive ladder. After her Twitter rant, Gopal started to point to abusive messages which her racist tweets had garnered and pointed to these as evidence that she must be right — a renowned cry-bully move. But on Thursday she announced how well this had all worked for her, because the evening before “Cambridge promoted me to a full Professorship”. Was there some sudden surge in quality in Gopal’s work? A sudden swell of academic material which suddenly opened the University’s eyes to the gem that was sitting in their midsts? Clearly not.

    Like all really successful 21st-century privilege-wielders, Gopal knows how to play the game. You pretend that you are in a position of weakness and vulnerability, when you are actually in a position of power. You present yourself as a victim as soon as people call you out as an aggressor. And you pretend to be the offended party after going out of your way to cause maximum offence yourself.

    I don’t know how long these new racist standards will be allowed to run. Perhaps longer than they did before. But what should be clear by now is that anything less likely to foster harmony or tolerance than these current inverted standards could hardly be imagined.

    https://unherd.com/2020/06/cambridge-universitys-very-modern-bigotry/

    1. anything less likely to foster harmony or tolerance than these current inverted standards could hardly be imagined.

      Which, I think, is the point. It’s about sowing division, not harmony.

  7. A repeat from last night

    Maxine Peake vs Laurence Fox reveals the double standards of the chattering classes

    Where was Equity, the actors’ union, when Peake told an out-and-out lie?

    DOUGLAS MURRAY
    26 June 2020 • 6:00pm

    The trouble with double-standards in the age of mass communication is that everybody can see them. Where once an individual, institution or movement might have hoped to conceal their hypocrisies, now they are there for everyone to witness. So it is with the case of Maxine Peake. This week, the actress made headlines because of an interview in which she alleged that the Israelis taught the US police how to kill George Floyd. The problem is that it is a lie. Even the far-Left, anti-Israel group Amnesty – widely alleged to be the source of the story – has denied that it is true. It is simple anti-Zionism reheated to suit the current moment.

    So perhaps it isn’t surprising that a Jeremy Corbyn protégée like Rebecca Long-Bailey should have retweeted the interview in which Peake made this claim. Apart from its racism, the interview included the standard actress stuff about the wonders of Corbynism and the importance of bringing down capitalism. They aren’t fools, these actresses. They know that if there’s one way that their profession will be reinvigorated, post-lockdown, it will be through the obliteration of the market economy. But Labour is now in new hands. And Keir Starmer swiftly sacked Long-Bailey. While his predecessor said there was no place for racism at the top of Labour, Starmer has done something to prove it.

    But the question I want answered is: where is Equity, the actors’ union? Earlier this year, after the actor Laurence Fox appeared on Question Time, the union (of which he is not even a member) denounced him. Fox’s crime was to say that he didn’t think Britain was a racist country. For this, Equity branded him a “disgrace”. Actor after actor lined up to condemn him and lobby to make sure he never worked again. After Fox took legal action and forced an apology out of Equity, the entire “race equality committee” of the union resigned.

    Perhaps this is why Equity have been so silent on Peake. Because there is no one left to do the full witch-dunking denunciation act. Or perhaps the silence is explained in another way. The same way that one might explain the silence of the actors and celebs who clambered over each other to denounce Fox. Could it be that most people in the acting and celebrity worlds are happy with someone who promotes conspiracy theories, so long as it is wrapped up in the fashionable idiot language of anti-capitalism and “equality”?

    I suspect so. In which case I would strongly recommend that Peake and her colleagues mull on something. What Fox said on Question Time reflects the sentiment of the vast majority of the British public. What Peake said reflects the views of a small group of malcontents who the public has rejected at the ballot box every time we have had the chance. So here is the thing, my actor-y friends. It’s not the public who are living in some hyper-partisan, out-of-touch bubble. It’s you. And we can see you very well.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/26/maxine-peake-vs-laurence-fox-reveals-double-standards-chattering/

    1. Top comment BTL (which links this Murray article in DT and his article in Unheard)

      26 Jun 2020 8:49PM

      No comments allowed on Priyamvada Gopal, the racist Cambridge lecturer.

      Her notorious tweet of 22nd June is well known: “I’ll say it again. White Lives Don’t Matter. As white lives”.

      Her tweet of 25th June (now deleted) is even worse: “Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the whites, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their livelihoods with the livelihoods of people of colour and LGBTQ.”

      Surely this is a clear case of Incitement to Racial Hatred under the Public Order Act 1986?

      1. Top comment BTL on Charles Moore’s article

        Whig Party

        26 Jun 2020 10:11PM
        I was just about to post a comment on Douglas Murray’s article saying amongst other things ‘I wonder how long the DT will allow comments on this article’ and as I pushed the send button it said that ‘comments are no longer allowed’. Ha!

        The new leadership of this paper is clearly not happy with its readership. Well its readership is sorely tempted to cancel its subscription. Bloody lefties.

        1. Perhaps the newspaper should cancel it’s readership and get itself another?

          1. It’s doing its best, obvs. It’s trying to take the Guardian readership. I wonder how long it’ll be before they have a begging segment at the bottom of each article….

      2. I posted yesterday that I had made a formal complaint to the Cambs police. A quick reply from them said her tweets were already under investigation. I expect that they will have a word with her, probably on bended knee.

      3. Now we have the opportunity to carry out a resolute offensive against the whites, break their resistance, eliminate them as a class and replace their livelihoods with the livelihoods of people of colour and LGBTQ.

        I have absolutely no doubts that behind all the barminess of Black Lives Matter that this is the projected, but usually unspoken end; the annihilation of the White race!

        1. The white race is beleaguered as never before, well, not since the Ottoman onslaughts.

        1. ‘Resolute offensive against the whites’

          Abject, blatant racism. Break our resistance? You’re the only one who needs breaking. Get out of my country and take your weirdo poofs with you. We made the world. You wouldn’t have your job if we hadn’t created it.

          I hate her. I absolutely, completely, thoroughly hate her because she is the epitome of everything wrong with this country – spoiled, over privileged, wasteful, arrogant, egocentric, rude, crass, racist, hate filled and, worse than that, supported and endorsed by the hypocrisy of the state machine.

          1. I reserve my hatred for the wimpish establishment who have allowed matters to deteriorate so far.

          2. I reserve my hatred for the wimpish establishment who have allowed matters to deteriorate so far.

      5. Morning all. Why does she still have a twitter account? Others have been banned for far less. Usual double standard!

    2. What Peake said reflects the views of a small group of malcontents who the public has rejected at the ballot box every time we have had the chance

      They don’t care. The Left is in charge of pretty much everything in this country, so they can be as hypocritical as they liked and laugh in our faces while they do it, because there’s no one in a position of power and authority who’ll do anything about it (bar, in this case, Starmer, and he’s no centrist).

        1. As I wrote last night when I posted this piece:
          “I think it’s simpler than politics and ideas of virtue, Dougie old chap. As an actress, she’s gone from the perky, bright-eyed, blonde high-flyer to the scraggy, wizened old office cleaner in a very short time. Any publicity will do.”

      2. I very much doubt that Starmer made the decision on the basis of principles or ethics. It is a political decision. It may be a mistake. Long-Bailey now has clear run to build her own support group.
        As for who trained whom in what, that is unknowable. Such training is widely disseminated. Military training moves out into police forces and into private contractors (mercenaries), and security consultants. There are plenty of the latter around, many having worked in some rough places, and I am not referring to London.

  8. Laurence Wilkinson
    Will Cambridge University finally stand up for free speech?
    26 June 2020, 5:35pm

    When Dr Priyamvada Gopal, a University of Cambridge academic, tweeted ‘White lives don’t matter’ and ‘Abolish whiteness’ in response to a banner reading ‘White lives matter Burnley’ being flown over a Premier League match, it certainly provoked a response. Dr Gopal was quickly inundated with horrific personal and racial abuse, but she stuck to her position, arguing that she was appropriately addressing systemic racial inequality.

    It wasn’t long before the University of Cambridge weighed in with a strong statement defending Gopal, without explicitly mentioning her. ‘The University defends the right of its academics to express their own lawful opinions which others might find controversial, and deplores in the strongest terms abuse and personal attacks’ read their statement.

    In simple terms, their view was that you may not like what Dr Gopal has to say, you may even be shocked and offended by her, but (particularly in universities) there needs to be an environment that enables uncomfortable and challenging discussion.

    The problem with Cambridge’s statement is that it rang very hollow in view of their recent track record in defending other academics. Perhaps the most famous example is that of Jordan Peterson, who had a visiting fellowship offer rescinded in 2019 after student pushback. In defence of the withdrawal, a university spokesperson said ‘[Cambridge] is an inclusive environment and we expect all our staff and visitors to uphold our principles. There is no place here for anyone who cannot.’ The Student Union went further, saying: ‘It is a political act to associate the University with an academic’s work through offers which legitimise figures such as Peterson.’

    Then there was the case of Noah Carl, who was sacked from a research position after staff and students complained about his alleged ‘collaboration with far-right extremists’. Defending his dismissal, the master of his college said: ‘there was a serious risk that Dr Carl’s appointment could lead, directly or indirectly, to the college being used as a platform to promote views that could incite racial or religious hatred, and bring the college into disrepute.’

    The interesting thing is that the statements made in relation to both Peterson and Carl could just as easily have been trotted out to justify a dismissal of Gopal. But not only did the University defend her right to say things that clearly could cause offence and incite hatred, they went on to promote her to a full Professorship. In a recent Guardian interview Gopal seemed to want the University to go even further and throw their full weight behind her position.

    The contrast in treatment on this particular issue is illuminated by the plight of Mike McCollough, a physics lecturer at the University of Plymouth, who was subjected to an investigation by his university after ‘liking’ tweets that included ‘all lives matter’. The investigation has since been dropped, but unlike Dr Gopal, it is very unlikely McCollough will now be offered a promotion as recompense.

    Free speech is the lifeblood of universities. If they fail to facilitate the free and frank exchange of ideas on campus, particularly on divisive topics, they have lost their purpose. Let’s hope that Cambridge’s statement will hold true for all academics going forward, regardless of what side of the argument they find themselves on.

    Laurence Wilkinson is Legal Counsel at ADF International.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/will-cambridge-university-finally-stand-up-for-free-speech-

    1. Let’s hope that Cambridge’s statement will hold true for all academics going forward, regardless of what side of the argument they find themselves on.

      Don’t be silly. Free speech only works in one direction now.
      Cambridge are absolute hypocrites, and don’t appear to care if we know that or not. They’re rubbing our faces in it now.

    2. I gather Gopal’s main talent is playing the race card.
      Given the attitude of her culture towards fellow Indians of varying skin shades and accident of birth, am I permitted to use the word ‘hypocrite’?

    3. The white bloke gets sacked for stating the facts and not being racist – all lives matter – the Indian racist gets promoted and protected from – not racist abuse: she was told she was a racist. People said they were upset at what she had said. People said she was wrong. She saw that as ‘abuse’ when it is simply hte truth.

      That’s hypocritical. Black lives do NOT matter. People, individuals matter. Anything else is the very definition of racism.

    4. People may have misunderstood her comment, which was intended to emphasise that human lives matter irrespective of skin tone and ethnicity.
      Frankly my dear, with 7.8 thousand million of us pests trampling this beautiful planet Earth, my sympathies lie with the flora and fauna.

      1. As an academic she should, perhaps, have worded her message in a less ambiguous manner.

        Not to worry, I’m sure we all received the message she intended. Loud and clear.

        1. An additional irony is that her ‘discipline’ is part of the English department.
          But it’s probably racist to expect clear, unambiguous statements.

      2. Yet she said ‘White lives don’t matter” with a lower comment “As white lives”.

        If she was trying to say that people should be treated equally she could have, instead she said categorically ‘White lives don’t matter’. She has also made racist statements before. Bluntly, she has form as a spiteful little racist.

        Gopal, like the black racists matter group are the problem. Not society.

  9. A well deserved thumping of Alan Bennett

    James Delingpole
    Pure poison: BBC1’s Talking Heads reviewed

    Alan Bennett despises his characters and the Englishness they embody
    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt5a40bcaa7e9dcbba/5ef35c3a50aa0d587526d1a5/TV.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds
    Sarah Lancashire as the creepy Yorkshire mum in Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads. Image credit: BBC/London Theatre Company/Zac Nicholson

    The big mistake people make with Alan Bennett is to conflate him with his fellow Yorkshireman David Hockney. But whereas Hockney’s art is generous, warm, bright, life-affirming, Bennett’s is crabbed, catty, dingy, insinuating. The fact that the BBC-led establishment keeps telling us he’s a National Treasure tells us more about the BBC-led establishment than it does about Bennett. Bennett is typical of the English intelligentsia Orwell anatomised in his ‘The Lion and the Unicorn’ essay: ‘It is always felt that there is something slightly disgraceful in being an Englishman and that it is a duty to snigger at every English institution, from horse racing to suet puddings.’

    I’d forgotten quite how much I disliked Bennett till I was reminded by the BBC’s revival, this week, of his universally acclaimed 1980s monologues Talking Heads. No Thora Hird this time, obviously. But lots of really top-notch thespian talent — Harriet Walter, Sarah Lancashire, Martin Freeman, etc — going through their paces, dusting down their special accents, meaningful expressions and pregnant pauses, paying homage to the master (now 86).

    The one I particularly hated was one of the two new ones he has written, ‘An Ordinary Woman’. This begins with Lancashire, as an apparently amiable, down-to-earth Yorkshire mum, describing the moment when her 15-year-old son asks her to inspect a worrying spot on his penis, and she realises that she actually finds him sexually attractive.

    Is this is a common phenomenon? Personally, I found it creepy and weird — and rather resented having to spend half an hour of life listening as, on Bennett’s behalf, Lancashire riffed on this bizarro theme. It’s a notion that Kate Bush sort of touched on in her song ‘Infant Kiss’, but at least Bush has the excuse of being away with the fairies, poetically oblique and oddly innocent. With Bennett, on the other hand, you get far too much prurient detail: Mum wondering whether on the other side of the partition wall dividing their bedrooms her 15-year-old is masturbating — and getting aroused by the idea.

    They say that as civilisations collapse, as ours is now, the intellectual elite become morbidly obsessed with the decadent and perverse. You’d really need to be a BBC commissioning editor, I think, or a theatrical luvvie like the director who oversaw this project — Nicholas Hytner — to greet a TV monologue half-celebrating, or at least not wholly condemning, maternal incest with anything other than a ten-foot bargepole.

    And I’m not buying the defence that Bennett is merely inhabiting the minds of the marginalised and the downtrodden. There’s one of his throwaway lines at the end — except, of course, with Bennett nothing is throwaway — where the mother takes a pill to cure her condition because it ‘makes you indifferent to one another like families normally are’.

    But are families normally ‘indifferent to one another’? Only in the imaginations of the jaded, the sick and the Marxist, I’d say. Perhaps Bennett himself had a disappointing upbringing which he never got over, I don’t know. But if I were his psychiatrist I’d find reams of material: the querulous, gay, mentally ill character in ‘A Chip in the Sugar’ (played by Bennett himself in the original version and in this one by Martin Freeman) all but imprisoned with his mother, like Tony Last forced to read Dickens to Mr Todd for all eternity; in ‘Soldiering On’, the widow and doting mother played by Harriet Walter, still utterly besotted with the vile son who won’t visit her and who has reduced her to a joyless, penurious existence gorging on daytime TV.

    ‘I wouldn’t want you to think this was a tragic story. I’m not a tragic woman. Not that type,’ Walter’s indomitable, stiff-upper-lipped Englishwoman tells us at the end. But the irony is bitter and unconsoling — and my feeling is that Bennett despises his characters and the Englishness they embody more than he loves them. Take the relish with which he sets up the character of the antique dealer (Kristin Scott Thomas), who spends the first half telling us what a good eye she has and how wise she is to all the tricks of the trade — and the second ruing the potential millions she has lost giving away for a song a Raphael drawing her expert eye failed to identify. Her mistake, of course, was to have been a hard-working decent member of the English bourgeoisie. Had she been a smelly old tramp lady in a van, Bennett would have treated her to a hagiography.

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m fully alive to the charm and wit and fluency of Bennett’s writing, the way he captures so perfectly the tics and cadences of spoken English (though he’s better at doing Yorkshire folk than he is his somewhat caricatured upper middle classes), and I do think The History Boys, The Madness of George III and Wind in the Willows make great nights out. But the politics, the bitchiness and the misanthropy underneath are pure poison.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/pure-poison-bbc1-s-talking-heads-reviewed

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

    BTL:

    Marion Husband • a day ago
    How could anyone, anyone at all, write such a ridiculous story line? I have a son and never, ever in a thousand life times would he show me his penis (the very idea is making me laugh nervously…) nor would I want to see it, even if he was worried about some lurgy – I would just tell him to make an appointment with his GP. This sounds like a homosexual fantasy, and is so absolutely vile and unbelievable that I am amazed it was even produced or that the actress could even speak the lines with a straight face (if she did, I don’t know, I never watch anything at all on the BBC and would never watch anything by the spiteful Alan Bennet.) I am honestly amazed by such implausible writing. I know the BBC has gone mad, but really? It’s an insult to mothers to be written about by someone who obviously has absolutely no idea what it is like to be a mother of a 15 year old boy. (But then, it seems like he has no idea what it’s like to be a 15 year old boy either.)

    1. Would never have considered watching it back then or now.
      The problem is the Bennett’s of this world appear to be in control of everything.

    2. I read a preview of the programme and decided to give it a swerve.
      No doubt the luvvies will be wetting themselves and Piers Morgan will be demanding that all mothers be DBS’d the moment their sons hit puberty.

    3. On the odd occasion where I’ve actually heard Bennett talk I’ve been struck by how wimpish and petulant he sounds.
      Does anyone else get the same impression?

      1. He is a studied creation of himself. Despite not having lived there for donkey’s years, he still speaks as though he lived in Yorkshire rather than N.W.3. and this tendency has grown with age and is marked in Yorkshiremen in particular. Bennett has written some marvellous things and his eulogy for Peter Cook is a masterpiece. Like Mr Stephen Fry, he appears to believe all this country needs to survive are good libraries and an ample supply of carpet slippers.

    4. Why do these Lefty London socialists never leave the country they seem to hate to live somewhere where socialism is actively practiced?

      Is it because they want to keep complaining or because those nations usually don’t have any bog roll?

  11. David Cameron – straight to the top of the globalism tree alongside the globalism ultras…

    ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”.
    .

  12. That’s so sweet……..

    Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May….

    All signed up to the globalist Washington Speakers Bureau.which has strong links to the Democrats and the very top of the Obama administration.

  13. More shocking news coming out about the events in Glasgow

    A young man got it into his head to go down to the beach for the day, it is believed that he had been radicalised by scenes from Bournemouth on the dark web, his friends tried to restrain him but he hit one with a deck chair and the other two with a heavy duty metal bucket and spade.
    A passing policeman tried to intervene but was soon overpowered with a rolled up rough towel, SAS style.
    Luckily when back up arrived they managed to skewer him with a pointed end of a windbreak pole.
    They have searched his room and gone through his computer, they found he had been searching on google for sandy beaches and beach huts, the thought is he may of had a whole arsenal of deadly beach equipment stashed in one.
    Hut to hut searches are being carried out all over the seaside this weekend.

    1. Talking of heavy duty buckets and spades: frequently I cut my foot on those metal spades while chopping down into the sand.

  14. Morning all. Rules are relaxed so that other rules may be made. What hopeless nonsense comes next.

    SIR – People can’t go to the cinema. They can’t go to a pub. They can’t go to a restaurant. They can’t go to the gym, to a concert, to a play. They can’t go to a swimming pool; they can’t play most sports; they can’t watch live sport.

    Half of them can’t go to work. Most of their children can’t go to school, and none of them can go away on holiday.

    Of course they’re going to go to the beach. It’s an inevitablity of the unjustified continuation of lockdown, and the Government is responsible.

    Clive J Hicks

    Tollerton, North Yorkshire

    SIR – There is a simple answer to this – children back to school and parents back to work.

    Neil Wrench

    Ellesmere Port, Cheshire

    SIR – The worst aspect of the scene at Bournemouth was not so much that people ignored the safety guidelines but the appalling amount of litter left.

    Geoffrey Wyartt

    Newent, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Should all those returning from the beach at Bournemouth be required to quarantine for 14 days?

    Richard Fenn

    Wakefield, West Yorkshire

    SIR – While the relaxation of lockdown announced by the Prime Minister is to be welcomed, it will be nowhere near a return to life as we knew it.

    With every easing comes a slew of new rules. These are so numerous one suspects the public has given up on trying to understand them, let alone comply with them. Even a trip to the pub will present an obstacle course to be run before that tantalising pint.

    Businesses of course have no alternative but to comply with the 46 pages of guidance if they want to get back to serving customers.

    How ironic that a government elected on a manifesto to rid business of EU over-regulation should load bureaucracy on the backs of already struggling British enterprises.

    Alan Bilham

    Tetbury, Gloucestershire

    SIR – The Government’s guidance for businesses seems at times like an April fool’s joke. “Thrill-seekers enjoying rollercoasters and fairground rides will be discouraged from screaming” (report, June 25).

    Business owners must feel they are losing the will to live. Yes, they can reopen to customers, but with so many caveats that it will be for many of them like running things with their hands tied behind their backs.

    Culture in Britain is obsessed with health and safety but we’re now seeing something on an altogether different scale. The bureaucrats can come up with whatever unworkable rule they like and simply justify it by saying that they are “following the science”.

    Larry Oster

    Southsea, Hampshire

    SIR – Why was the decision made to reopen pubs on a Saturday? Surely a Monday evening might have been more sensible.

    Simon Morpuss

    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

  15. SIR – As you published a picture of the statue of my grandmother, Nancy Astor, with the word “Nazi” daubed on it (June 25), I thought your readers might like to know that she did not hold any Nazi sympathies at all.

    I knew her well (I was 20 when she died) and she never expressed any sympathy for Nazis or anti-Semites during our many conversations.

    Perhaps more compelling evidence is that Nancy Astor was high on the list of people Hitler intended to execute if he had successfully invaded Britain.

    David Astor

    Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

    1. I never made it to that list. Sadly for my street cred among the antifas, Hitler had never heard of me.

      1. Don’t worry, in due course your ex wife would have denounced you. Not all of his supporters were male.

  16. SIR – I am an aspiring cricketer, aged 14. The Government maintains it will be guided by “the science”. The science says that healthy children are most unlikely to suffer seriously from Covid-19; that the disease does not transmit well outdoors or in the summer; that we should practise social distancing; and that most major outbreaks originate indoors.

    Cricket is a naturally socially distanced pastime. Going to the pub or out for a meal are not. Yet the Government is allowing pubs and restaurants to open soon, while junior cricket matches remain prohibited.

    I may or may not go to the pub when I reach 18, but I shall definitely vote in the next general election.

    Wilf La Fontaine Jackson

    Alresford, Hampshire

    1. He’s confident that there won’t be another general election bore his 18th birthday. I’m not.

      1. A general election actually fell on the day of my 18th birthday. I also went to the pub. It is possible to do both.

        1. The law on the age of majority was changed between my 18th and 21st birthdays. (Grumpy look.)

  17. SIR – On safari in South Africa about 10 years ago, we stopped for a barbecue lunch. While eating my chicken wings I threw the bones into a reservoir, only to see a large fish (Letters, June 26) – about four feet long – surface to eat them. I asked my professional what it was. “A catfish,” he said.

    Since all my fishing gear was at base camp, I loaded up my .30-06 and shot the catfish, to the delight of our head tracker, Qeuesie. I gave him the fish.

    The next morning I asked him how it was. “I don’t know,” he said. He had swapped it for a fridge. Things work differently in Africa.

    Mike Bailey

    Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire

    2. Good morning Epi

      How disgusting ..

      Mike Bailey , Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire should be ashamed of himself, I daresay his type contributed to the tons of rubbish retrieved from our local beauty spots here in Dorset during the heat wave..

      We don’t have giant cat fish to devour rubbish, only tired volunteers who try to attempt to keep our precious little coves and beaches tidy .

  18. 320700+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    It is really bloody obvious that we take no heed or learn from past history
    and as for old tried and tested sayings, totally ignored, as in old nick makes work for unemployed hands.
    How many more Glasgow type hot spots are being topped up vie the incoming Odessa line running illegals into Dover under the watchful eye of the governance party ?
    I put this latest odious blatant intake on par with the paedophilia outbreaks since the JAY report being revealed nationwide.
    Nobody knows what the politico’s are unleashing on the nation whilst
    posing as a government, we the peoples are left to witness the results of
    the politico’s treacherous actions time & time again.

  19. Half of Britain’s imported coronavirus cases originate from Pakistan,
    The Telegraph understands, amid calls for tougher quarantine checks on
    arrivals from “high risk” countries.

    With up to two flights a day from Pakistan, there have been reports of
    some arrivals almost instantly going to hospital for intensive care,
    amid concerns that the influx has led to localised clusters.

    2. So saying Covid affects dark skinned people statistically more than white could be disingenuous if it is being brought into their communities from abroad.

    3. Good morning

      With up to two flights a day from Pakistan ?

      As we recently heard , most of their pilots are unqualified.. but why are we receiving two flights a day , are we importing stuff other than people from Pakistan,

      Do you have a link please.

      1. It’s actually 3 planes a day taking off, Belle, but one of them always crashes en route.

      2. ‘Morning, Belle.

        From what I’ve seen, a significant number of their pilots are unqualified but not most.

    4. With such a record of recent accidents and the findings about licensing, the EU would normally ban PIA from flying in its airspace until an audit confirmed that its systemic failings had been addressed. Garuda, the airline of Indonesia was banned for many years in the naughties. Strange that there has been no reaction from the European Aviation Safety Agency. Spose we need all those qualified curry chiefs.

  20. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76b0018b5dae65789ebfdd31d54136fcaa0a1df8d2be19f22892d95426230933.png I wholeheartedly agree that bringing back national service would be a good thing (it should never have been abolished in the first instance) but instilling discipline into those who have never experienced any form of strictness or regimen of authority would be a stern task for even the hardest sergeant-major.

    Before this happens the Right needs to regain control of the establishment and weed out all the Common Purpose influences — indeed make membership of such organisations illegal — and restore Britishness to all spheres of influence in British society. To vacillate is to surrender.

    2. The problem now is the time taken and the money spent in training a recruit. I trained for 18 months to qualify in my aircrew category and join an operational squadron. The RAF got 6 months service out of National Service aircrew.
      EDIT: I joined up in 1955. The time and money will have increased greatly.

    3. National Service only in the army. At the risk of upsetting ex-pongos the feral youth of today need army style discipline and to let them loose in the more technically challenging arena of the RN and RAF would be disastrous for those services. They could still get job training in the army.

      1. Yo Alec

        The pre-eminent need for those ‘mending airey planes in a shed’ is Personal Discipline

        At times, you will have to point out to more senior folk, that an aircraft is unfit to fly

    4. There was a TV series a few years ago called Bad Lads’ Army where some ne’er do wells were put through National Service type training. It turned some of them round, but some were hopeless cases.

  21. Today’s news round up from the mainly peaceful BBC

    racism
    racism
    racism
    racism

    Rinse and repeat endlessly.

    Nothing else has happened in the world today.

    2. I have a a handful of fairminded decent friends who are furious with the delivery of all news and programes from the BBC , either on TV and even the radio .

      Phone conversations usually end with a lively exchange, but we are frustrated paying the licence for such outrageous outpourings like the recent Talking heads, which was so disgusting , we switched channels because we couldn’t believe what we were listening to .

      By switching channels means that one is then faced with appalling charity adverts to aid and assist the third world ..

        1. Some people found Bennett and his three chums from Beyond The Fringe funny.

          I didn’t.

      2. To aid and assist the third world? But David Lammy has told us not to do that because we are “white saviours”.

  22. SIR —The prime minister’s excuse for not permitting junior cricket to return, declaring that a cricket ball is a “vector for disease”, is specious.

    If all members of the fielding side, except the bowler, wore gloves (as they do in baseball); and the umpires carried a supply of antiseptic wipes to be used on the ball at the end of each over; that feeble excuse would be invalidated.

    A Grizzly B…

    1. Ball-tampering – artificial substance used on a cricket ball. And they wear gloves in baseball ‘cos they’re cissies.

      1. One of my favourite hobbies is Yank-baiting on YouTube.

        I never tire of telling them that their national sport, rounders, is played by little girls in the UK, who never wear gloves or silly helmets.

          3. Morning, Sue. I bet you were one to be reckoned with wielding a hockey stick.

            Or was it shinty in your neck of the Trossachs? :•)

          5. Why-aye, hinny! Divvent drop your prottle dottle on the proggy mat, pet! Though but. 🤣

            I allus knew you were a canny lass! :•)

            [I love Tyneside and adore stottie cakes, ham and pease puddin’.]

          6. Why yebuggermar! It’s “dottle” man! Apart from that yer axcent’s fair lovely pet!

          9. Shit, shite, bugger and damn! I shouldn’t have got that wrong!

            I used to have a really funny little booklet called “Larn Yersel’ Geordie.” It told me about that famous firm of Geordie solicitors known as Haddaway & Shite. 🤣

          10. I have that very publication! Very funny! I also do a mean stottie with corned beef and beetroot! Food of the Angels (of the North)!

          11. It certainly is. I was taught how to make pease pudding by a Geordie woman. I still make it today and add lots of softened chopped onions (in butter) to enrich it like I was taught. I also cook the ham inside a plastic bag (in a water bath) and then add the undiluted stock from the bag to the pease pudding along with lots of chopped up bits of ham.

            I serve it cold with ham and salad in summer but sometimes hot (as a soup) in winter.

          12. I’m drooling…! Have lived in Scotland since ’79 and still miss the north-east! I do love Glasgow and the people – quite similar to Geordies – shipbuilding and heavy industry – humour and resilience, but I’m still English!

          13. I joined in an interdepartmental* hockey competition where I worked long ago. Mixed m/f teams. I volunteered to go in goal. Oh Dear.
            The rough tough rugby and football playing blokes hung back, through innate gentlemanly delicacy, not wishing to use physical superiority to overcome the young ladies. HA! and again HA! I’ve never seen such brutality. The young ladies were very free with their sticks. Let it go at that. I survived.

            *This was back in those times when capitalist businesses built social clubs and sports facilities for their staff.

          16. Sorry Horace. I wasn’t being nosey! Honest! I joined S&N Hotels division (Thistle) when I left university in 1977.

          18. No! I was actually in hotels! My friend was in Horse Wynd in accounts! We young managers did descend on the offices on occasion!

          19. I was working for Waverley Vintners in 1977, I think, on the floor below Thistle Hotels.
            I remember that Thistle had a purge on HO staff and fired one third of them in one sweep around about that time.

          20. I’d forgotten that! They did it again a couple of years later and then started selling off hotels. A pity because they were good to work for and I had 3+ happy years with them. Did Waverley Vintners go into administration? Do you still play hockey?

          21. I never really played hockey. (How difficult can it be?) I played rugby sometimes. Waverley were sold off when Heineken bought S&NB, to Bulmers, maybe. They did go into administration.
            I’d been fired long before that, when I was General Manager.

          22. The job market was quite volatile for several years around then.I was made redundant from large companies twice in just over a year and really it wasn’t me!

          23. We used to play the Boys Grammar School and as they were quite nicely brung up, they didn’t go in all guns blazing! They soon learned!

          24. NOW you’re talking.
            Though a friend whose daughter played lacrosse came back from an inter-house school sports competition looking somewhat ashen faced. And he was born and brought up in the East End.

          25. Certainly not for the faint- hearted! Our sports pitches were next to Newcastle United’s training ground! A lot of long balls got hit to the chain fence dividing us! Ah! memories!

  25. The writing is rather turgid…

    Sam Ashworth-Hayes
    How should we feel about compensating slave-owners?
    26 June 2020, 3:31pm

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

    BTL:

    Blindsideflanker • 15 hours ago

    Why should we feel guilty about buying the freedom of slaves?

    Perhaps they are also opposed to this….

    The situation was so bad that in December 1640 a Committee for Algiers was set up by Parliament to oversee the ransoming of captives.Charities were also set up to help ransom the captives and local fishing communities clubbed together to raise money to liberate their own.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how-should-we-feel-about-compensating-slave-owners-

    In 1645, another raid by Barbary pirates on the Cornish coast saw 240 men, women and children kidnapped. The following year Parliament sent Edmund Cason to Algiers to negotiate the ransom and release of English captives. He paid on average £30 per man (women were more expensive to ransom) and managed to free some 250 people before he ran out of money. Cason spent the last 8 years of his life trying to arrange the release of a further 400.

    1. It’s called putting your money where your mouth is. It was also a decision made centuries ago, so trying to undo it makes no sense, but then neither does most of what BLM does, if you take them at face value.

    3. Algiers was part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza. It proved more trouble than it was worth.

  26. Good morning, all. Another hot and unpleasant night, made worse by a quantity of small (unkillable) flies. Fresher just now with the suggestion of rain.

    Many blecks dead during the night?

    To this demented old man, it does seem odd how very silent the BLM tossers are when it comes to the daily killing of blecks by blecks. Still, I read that Dick Head of the Yard is determined….

    2. Good morning to all Nottlers.
      The first policeman to attend the incident of the hungry & angry Sudanian in Glasgow was a PC Whyte.
      It could have gone either way, as Black is also a Scottish surname.

  27. Some of Treasa”s $150,000 half hour speeches are to uni students where admission is by ticket.. but the tickets are free.

    Funding apparently comes from foundations and bequests.

    I wonder who handles the purse strings ?

      1. My theory is that bungs to unis might be a billionaire route to rewarding politicos.

  28. SIR – The Government claims its response to the pandemic saved the NHS, but this is far from the truth.

    There are in fact two services: the National Covid Service, which battled heroically, and the National Health Service, which went into overdrive in reverse and no longer exists.

    Since March, it has been impossible to consult a GP, dentist or any other health professional in person. Diagnosis is by telephone, amounting to little more than guesswork.

    Serious illnesses such as cancer, diabetes and strokes are left untreated, and patients are frightened away from A&E. The result is about 9,000 excess non-Covid deaths in the period.

    The NHS now does not exist at the point of delivery. The only way to get treatment is privately. Most people cannot afford this. The Government needs to come clean on this truth.

    Nicholas Renton

    Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

  29. Black. This is the darkest hue (as opposed to colour); it denotes a complete absence of (or complete absorption of) all of the visible parts of the light spectrum.

    White. This is a complete absence of hue or colour; it reflects or scatters all visible parts of the light spectrum. White is the exact opposite of Black.

    Why then do humans of a dirty pink-hued skin insist on describing themselves as “white”?

    More to the point, why do humans of a mid-to-dark brownish-hued skin insist on describing themselves as “black”?

    I have never seen either a white nor a black human. Anywhere. Some get close (e.g. albinos and Cameroonians) but none fit the scientific description.

    Also, why do those who erroneously describe themselves as “black” insist that all references — everywhere — to the name of a hue be expunged from the face of the planet?

    I shall not be told by anyone that I cannot use the word “black” in any proper context. EVER!

    1. It all depends on where you are coming from.

      It is like with politics where a left leaning lefty like Corbyn would probably consider anyone with common sense as far right.

      1. My whole point is that I care not a jot for people’s “perceptions”, only scientifically proven and verifiable facts.

    2. Yo Mr Grizzle

      Blackborough Blackburn Blackden Heath Blackfield Blackford Blackfordby Blackgang Blackheath

      Blackland Blackley Blacklion Blackmoor Blackmoor Forest & Blackmoor Vale Blackmore Black Mountains

      Blackpool Blackrod

      Just a few of the places which will have to change their name

      https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199609086.001.0001/acref-9780199609086?btog=chap&hide=true&jumpTo=black&page=90&pageSize=20&skipEditions=true&sort=titlesort&source=%2F10.1093%2Facref%2F9780199609086.001.0001%2Facref-9780199609086

        1. Excellent brass band.
          The sound every true Yorkshireman has playing in his head when he thinks of Yorkshire…

        1. Interesting – didn’t know that. I always thought that it was down to pretentiosness (sp?).

      1. Again? AGAIN?!?!? Today’s rain is the first for well over a couple of weeks in my neck of the woods!

        1. Small correction, Peddy. Lluvia is feminine (La Lluvia as shown in your clip). And I think that one always says “El gato” regardless if it is a Tom or a Missy.

          2. Really, Conners? I thought it was an instruction to play the piece slowly.

            :-))

    2. Got a bit damp going down for the paper & a bit of shopping an hour ago, though to be honest not much damper than the past couple of days.
      The difference being that today was refreshingly cool & damp and not hot, steamy and sweating my chuffing gonads off!

    1. Given the tendency for such articles to vanish, I now send the whole article, rather than the link, to my email.

    1. Police trying to fit in with the ‘community’ means losing rather than gaining respect.

      1. Which reminds me.
        Is the Notting Hill Stab Fest on this year?
        I assume the answer is yes, regardless of pieties about Covid-19 and social distancing.

        1. It was cancelled back in May (due to take place August Bank Holiday). I wouldn’t mind betting that there will be an ‘unofficial’ carnival.

      2. 320700+up ticks,
        Morning A,
        It could be also be gaining respect in a great many places courtesy of mass uncontrolled immigration
        and looked upon as tribal dancing.
        With, after the performance , a kneeling stance to replace the bow.

    2. I think the pink neck bands go so well with the black and white. Um, when I say black, I mean…

  34. DT Story https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/26/headteacher-suspended-saying-teachers-sat-home-nothing-lockdown/

    Headteacher suspended for saying that some teachers were ‘sat at home doing nothing’ during lockdown

    Clearly this headteacher, Pauline Wood, is a sensible, conscientious and effective headteacher whose school has achieved an excellent reputation and she has been sacked for daring to suggest that some teachers could have done more for their pupils during lock down.

    I have mentioned here before that we sent our first son to an excellent independent school, Gresham’s, but our second son chose to go to a boarding state school. Both boys got comparable academic results and indeed both went on to get good university degrees and are now both in good employment.

    The great difference between the independent and the state school was the commitment of time teachers were prepared to give outside regular school lesson time. Christo, at Gresham’s, received first class pastoral care and a very wide range of extra-curricular opportunities. He played in swimming and rugby teams; he went sailing and flying with the CCF; he was in two school plays and helped write an entertaining house revue/cabaret; he was a bass in the school choir and acted as compere (because he is bi-lingual) on the school’s choir tour to southern France where they sang in churches and cathedrals; he was the leading light in the Gresham’s Model United Nations group and spoke in the Peace Palace at the Hague in the Netherlands; he was a stalwart member of the debating club and was a member of the school’s cultural and French clubs. Oh yes, he was also the Chapel sacristan. None of these things would have been possible without the commitment of the teachers’ time outside normal school lesson time.

    Henry was happy enough at his boarding state school and his academic tuition was satisfactory but the pastoral care he received was sub-standard and the other opportunities that were given to his brother at Gresham’s were just not on offer.

    The treatment of Pauline Wood for expecting excellence and commitment from her teachers shows how very deep the rot has set in.

    1. Good morning, Rastus.

      As you are aware, you and I hail from polar opposite backgrounds and I did not enjoy the level of education that you or your boys did. Having said that, many of the teachers at my lowly secondary modern were very enthusiastic when it came to out-of-class activities.

      The school ran many clubs for boys in order to engage them in participation events outside of the normal school curriculum. As well as various sporting and swimming clubs there was a bird club, a gardening club and a well-subscribed sailing club. The sailing club held events on a large local reservoir where members were taught the necessary skills required for successfully operating the school’s own small sailing yacht.

      Whilst my school did not offer much academically, many of its teachers were fervent and passionate about their pupils’ wider development.

    3. ‘Morning, Rastus.

      If she indeed said ‘sat at home doing nothing’ in those exact words, she deserves a rebuke for promoting bad grammar.

      She cannot expect excellence & commitment from her teachers if she sets a bad example.

      1. Good day to you, Peddy

        I too noticed the grammatical faux-pas but I thought I would leave it to you to point it out!

        1. That ghastly phrase now has the royal seal of approval. The dim William uses it frequently – and he went to Eton – so it MUST be OK.

          1. An Eton education isn’t all it’s cracked up to be – look at Cameron for a start.

        1. Indeed there is, but try reading my post again & take note of the opening word ‘if’.

    4. “A sensible, conscientious and effective headteacher”. Didn’t she get the message about being woke, woker and a complete woker. Obviously not.

  35. ‘Morning All

    “When I manage to escape from England because of the systematic racism
    experienced by me and my white brothers and sisters I chose Somalia as a beacon of stability and safety
    Those Somalis housing
    me at their expense in business class hotels had better make sure that I
    can get a decent English breakfast and the wifi is acceptable otherwise
    there will be trouble………………………….”

  36. RIP, Douglas Grey, aged 89. Founder of ” The Alberts “. A true one-off.

    In 1968 Douglas Gray married Julie Charlton, but the marriage was dissolved. After his children left home, he shared his life with a
    parrot and a series of elderly dogs of doubtful parentage and uncertain temper. In later life, he became an assiduous churchgoer and would
    attend weekly services at the local parish church dressed as a Cossack.

          2. Thanks – I needed a break from reading posts from 2D thinkers and those that wanted to lick and stroke the pet house troll. Having glanced at yesterday evening’s thread I realise even more, as you have, that there are none so blind who cannot see.

    2. For crying out loud, we all KNOW that Jesus was from the middle east!
      Typical liberal, lecturing us as though we were all as ignorant as he is.

      1. Persians are very light-skinned. Almost white – and from the ME.
        Just saying.

        2. Indeed. There are plenty of fair skinned, brown-haired people in that area. It’s not as though we have a tradition of portraying Jesus as Boris!

    3. I don’t think that I have ever looked at an image of Christ and thought “Christ, he is the wrong colour”.
      I suppose that makes me unChristian or something.

      1. I don’t think of Christ or God as images of colour ..

        The Arch bish is interpreting his own images , and I really believe his faith is failing .. wearing thin!

        1. I doubt if he has any. If he did he would take care of his flock and let his vicars open the churches for prayer.

          1. I had an email today from my church to say that they are hoping to be able to hold services soon and will let me know when they start. There is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems.

    4. “Middle Eastern”? Of course Welby is anti-Zionist so it would pain him to admit that Jesus of Nazareth was a Jew.

    5. Perhaps the daft elderly git is out working on his suntan, so he might actually look the part he likes to play.

    6. That one in the top right – is that a white police officer holding a gun on a black Jesus?

    1. Morning Rik

      Remembering the blood and carnage inflicted on our police decades ago and into present times , would good people seeking a career with the police have ever imagined they would have to confront crazed madmen and women from another foreign culture .

      1. Is he guilty of racism towards Italian cuisine? Or are the hotel guilty of racial appropriation by using a non-Scottish recipe?

      1. Oh good. We’ve not had one of those before.
        It’s like collecting stamps.
        How many more before we have a complete set of homicidal Methodists?

  40. Now RECIPES are reviewed for ‘cultural insensitivity’ over claims chefs are ‘appropriating dishes’ from ethnic minorities without properly crediting them
    Two food publications have been accused of not crediting ethnic minority dishes
    Bon Appétit’s Alison Roman received criticism for her Indian/Caribbean curry
    Ms Roman’s #TheStrew recipe did not state where the dish originated from
    ‘BBC Good Food’ and Olive, edited by Christine Hayes, are also under fire

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8465301/Recipes-reviewed-chefs-appropriating-dishes-ethnic-minorities-without-crediting-them.html

    2. When I first met my brother’s Australian wife (of Sri Lankan descent) she stood next to me watching avidly as I prepared an Indian-style curry for supper.

      I was slightly nervous and I asked her to put me right if I was making any mistakes. “Oh no,” she replied, “I’m hoping to improve my own cooking skills by watching you.” I was most flattered.

      1. I hope she didn’t indulge in cultural appropriation and learn to make pork pies.

    1. I thought “color (sic) blindness” was part and parcel of modern thespianism.

    2. Reciprocity. It means that non-white actors cannot play white parts. That will put an end to the BBC using black actors to depict such characters as Margaret of Anjou in ‘The Hollow Crown’. Won’t it?

        1. Sophie Okonedo played Margaret of Anjou in the BBC’s Henry VI.

          Fiona Shaw played Richard II some years ago.

          Take your pick.

          2. The upside of all this nonsense is that my bank balance is looking healthier.
            An all male Coriolanus is seared into my memory; an effete ageing Volumnia struggling with her tunica and a Virgilia whose day job was, presumably playing for the Harlequins, simpering in a corner…..

          3. Mine too; my eyes nearly popped when I checked it online the other day.
            I put it down to lock-down’s preventing my spending.

          4. Apart from a new phone, my other spending has been on second-hand books via Amazon.

            Though I’m still paying Denplan and my appointment with the hygenist was cancelled. I doubt if there will be a refund.

            Our Council Tax went up and all we get for that is the streetlamp (which goes off at midnight) and the rubbish collection.

        2. There is no such thing as an ‘actress’ any more – they are all ‘actors’. Until it comes to the BAFTAs and the Oscars, of course.

          1. Maxine Peake (spit) seems to have flitted to & fro between the 2 during the last few days.

          2. “OMG – I’d like to thank my Mom and Dad and all the wunnerful people who made this such a happy film…”

          3. Obviously this ‘woke’ thing passed me by even though I live in Woking. I do not subscribe to ‘gender’ appropriation. :-))

      2. ‘Reciprocity Failure’ is a problem sometimes experienced with old black-and-white film stock.

        2. Mainly from over-exposure (ironically) and also results in colour shift in colour film

      5. “The Hollow Crown” portray Margaret of Anjou as being black?
        http://www.quora.com › Why-did-The-Hollow-Crown-portray-…

        Sophie Okonedo is of Polish and Russian Jewish ancestry on one side and Nigerian ancestry on the other side, and she is Jewish. So she is of mixed ancestry, not “black” any more than “white”. Margaret of Anjou’s ancestry was French and German Palatinate, and she was of royal blood.

          1. One of the few things that Meghan Markle got right was embracing being mixed race. There’s nothing wrong with being mixed race, yet the left tries to shoe-horn anyone with a drop of African blood into being “Black”.

          2. She “embraced” it alright! To look at she is slightly dark-skinned but not very. But her mother is ccertainly black, and played a very dignified role at the wedding.
            Her father, and other relatives, however, seem to be undignified “white trailer trash”. Not surprised she disowned that lot.
            Whatever her colour, she’s out for herself as a social climber.

        2. But Margaret of Anjou was white. Sophie Okonedo may be a good actress but “white” she ain’t.

          1. More likely her talent. I thought she captured the very essence of a ‘she-wolf’.

          2. …or the Jewish inheritance bit, or the Russian bit (which might have been White Russian) or the Polish bit…

  42. Request for ideas please.

    A beloved Uncle of mine passed away recently. He had a good, interesting and long life. Sad to see him go. He always entertained us children at family get togethers with magic tricks.

    He left me a bequest in his Will. Rather than spend it on a holiday or fritter it away on trivia i would like to do something special to remember him by. Any ideas welcome. Even jokey ones, mentioning no names (Bill).

    2. A donation of £125 will provide a brass plaque fixed to a plank on the Pier.

      Each plaque can be engraved with a message up to 30 letters. Your message may just be an individual’s name and date, a group, club, society or company or it may be a message in memory of a loved one or to celebrate a new birth or anniversary. A colour certificate complements each plaque.

      https://www.swanagepiertrust.com/plaques

      1. What a brilliant idea. He would absolutely love that.
        Do they have something similar in Weymouth. He lived there all his life in Great George Street.

          3. How about donating some of his books to the library in his name. Or a public notice board inside with his name on it.

      1. He served on Ark Royal. I will have a plaque made and will name the deck the Quarter Deck in his honour.

        I’m glad all these ideas are relatively cheap.

    4. You are always up for a laugh .. I think you should try to get some lessons from a member of the Magic circle .. invest in 3 cups , a pack of cards , a set of bright hankerchiefs, some dice , some balls , a jug and a glass of water , and a FEZ .. then entertain your many pals after dinner with some wonderful sleights of hand ..

  43. In the past many artists, writers and poets depended on patronage. Indeed this went further than just moral encouragement but on financial support and the opening of certain doors for the recipients of patronage.

    One of the things that BAME people seem to resent is the condescending attitude of white people towards them – they find this offensive and patronising. On the other had they are eager to get preferential treatment in many fields of endeavour – for example certain BBC jobs and government jobs are open exclusively to BAMEs and they are allowed considerably more freedom of expression than Non-BAMEs.

    My conclusion is that BAME people do not want to be patronised but at the same time they do want to be patronised.

    2. Typical of Leftish thinking. No wonder so many of them have mental health issues. Cognitive dissonance writ large.

    1. He almost certainly meant 120 thousand and he appears to be correcting himself but the gif cuts out.

      I don’t like Biden but that’s merely a stumble not a sign that he’s senile. It’s just the kind of thing the MSM do to Trump all the time.

        1. What does it take?

          Because sure as Hell anyone who has it won’t want the job.

    3. I do pity American voters – a choice between two senile old men living in another world.

      1. I like Trump. Biden is evil. Many Americans believe that Obama is gay and that Michelle is a Tranny formerly known as Big Michael. The Obama children are borrowed.

        I think Clint Eastwood summed it up when he stated Obama would be found out as the biggest fraud in history. Biden is running a close second.

        1. Trump tweets before he thinks – he may have been a successful businessman but does he ever think? He’s no statesman and his response to the corona crisis and the BLM crisis has been abysmal.

        2. Trump tweets before he thinks – he may have been a successful businessman but does he ever think? He’s no statesman and his response to the corona crisis and the BLM crisis has been abysmal.

          2. Absolutely. With the amount of conspiracy theories running wild in the media, I am surprised anyone aspires to any official government position these days.

  46. “I see you’re a transphobe now father”

    Julia Hartley-Brewer twitter = This is bloody ridiculous. They’re coming

    for us one by one. Stating biological facts is NOT a crime. Please join

    me in protesting to Twitter about the suspension of @glinner

    : Graham Linehan suspended from Twitter as ‘Glinner’ account disappears

    Just the end of a long road of unpersoning

    https://gcn.ie/graham-linehan-campaigns-against-trans-people-work/

  47. EXCLUSIVE: Knifeman shot dead by police after rampage in Glasgow hotel is named as ‘loner’ Sudanese national – as it’s revealed he warned of attack the night before he injured six including PC
    The man is allegedly a Sudanese national called Badradeen
    Badradeen warned a friend he was going to stab people in the room next door who were making a noise
    Asylum seeker from Yeman said he reported the plan to the hotel supervisor
    Six people including a police officer, David Whyte, remain in hospital

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8465979/Knifeman-shot-dead-police-rampage-Glasgow-hotel-named-loner-Sudanese-national.html?ito=push-notification&ci=20460&si=7271111

  48. Ref: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8465925/Former-Met-chief-Ian-Blair-slams-rise-attacks-police.html

    I don’t quite know what he was expecting. The police have eroded public trust, knelt before thugs, painted their cars to support the alphabet community and let criminals off.

    Their management – that word itself is indicative of the problem – has eroded any sense of presence the police once held. Of course the racist thugs are going to attack them. They know the police are toothless. They know they can behave as they want to. Worse, the media fervently oppose the police. Who can forget 27 officers injured at ‘peaceful’ protest?

    All to promote the thuggery of racists.

    2. “Who can forget 27 officers injured at ‘peaceful’ protest?” The BBC and most other media outlets?

    1. The UN said all of the car’s occupants are believed to be workers from the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO), a peacekeeping force based inJerusalem.

      Yeah, right…

      And besides which, I thought the full title was Combined United Nations Truce Supervision Organization.

  50. I have now read the newspaper story about the stabby chap in Glasgow. He is reported as saying he was “hungry”.

    I reckon he was saying he was “angry”. Who wouldn’t be, being forced to live in Glasgow?

    3. I felt a bit peckish until half an hour ago.
      Luckily, the kitchens knives were downstairs and I hadn’t the energy to get one.
      Morning, Willum.

      1. You have my sympathies. I’ve never found sleeping upright easy.
        I had to do it for about month after my op.
        How much longer do you have on the anti-Bs?

        1. Until Tuesday evening. This is day 4. I haven’t noticed any change. .. grrr.

          1. Hopefully they’re working in the background and you’ll start feeling better from later today.

          6. As a dentist, I was proscribed from prescribing it.

            Actually I did prescribe it a few times; it depended on whether the pharmacist was paying attention.

          8. Clarithromycin was/is not on the list of drugs which dentists are allowed to prescribe. A pity because it is an effective but ‘gentle’ antibiotic.
            Big brother strikes again.

          13. I should have thought that a pair of glasses 1/2 full would be another reason to go to Specsavers.

          18. H’mmm ….. what are you on?
            Did you see an actual human being or was it a phone chat?

          19. A real doctor. She did the plague test (and told me there and then that I didn’t have it – and she was right).

            Penicillen.

            In theory an X-ray is being “arranged” (sometime in October, I imagine) and then I’ll have the enormous pleasure of seeing my own GP – who is known as Doctor Stupid.

          20. Ooh, the very word penicillin makes me shudder. The rash starts around my neck and shoulders and takes approx six months to work it’s way down the body and disappear off the toes. It literally moves rather than just fading. Mind, only the initial stage itches. After that it’s just unsightly.

          23. It sent my mother into a coma, and my brother has the same problem.
            Because he used to race cars, he has his blood group and penicillin allergy still tattooed on his wrist.

          24. Help Nurse…..

            I was prescribed Clarithromycin.

            Alhough feeling worse I finished the course. Still feeling nauseous with a metalic taste
            taste in my mouth.

          26. Thanks Nurse…

            The antibiotics made me feel worse than the ankle injury hopefully they
            cleared the infection. I’ve had anti Bs before but never left me feeling so
            nauseaus and dizzy…. I finished the course nearly two weeks ago..

          30. One of my brothers has allergies to both penicillin and aspirin.

            [I’ve hidden to offensive word, Sue.]

    2. Morning, Annie. Like you, I am SO grateful for this morning’s rain. Long may it continue. Just about everything else has been put on hold for the past week in an attempt to keep cool.

  52. “Radio 4’s Today programme downgrades editor role”.

    “Sarah Sands will be replaced by an ‘executive editor’ as decisions on coverage are handed over to a centralised planning committee.

    BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today programme is to lose its editor, downgrading the role to an “executive editor” with less power to set the agenda”.

    “The second round of interviews begins next week. The BBC has struggled to attract candidates from outside the organisation”. Daily Telegaff.

    Couldn’t find anyone suitable from outside the BBC? What about North Korea, Venezuela, Channel 4 or the Civil Service? There must be some drivelling leftie loon amongst that lot that qualify. Must try harder.

    1. Decisions by a “centralised planning committee”? Sounds like a recipe for disaster.

    1. And don’t forget to loot it and burn it down, the next time an American policeman kills a black criminal 4,000 miles away.

      1. Not true Sos, its been well established that none of the recent London rioters actually lived in the areas of Brixton, Harangueagay or Nottinghell.
        A sp-wokes person for the air-rehars said on TV “None of those people came from this area”.
        Of course not, it was everyone else’s fault.

    2. It looks as if he’s running a business from his home, does the council know about this ?

        1. Exactly ! 😉

          We have a ‘know it all’ PITArsé local councillor (now a widow) who lives in our road, due the lack of garden maintenance since she moved in with hubby 20 years ago, the leylandii hedge at the bottom end of the garden is now about 60 ft high. Having studied the laws on this she had one removed and left the rest, as apparently it has to be more than three in a row that qualifies as a hedge. There is a thousand pound fine if the council inform them it has to be cut down as ordered. But i estimate it would cost three times that to remove the whole lot. Neighbour’s to the other side had to take down tall conifer’s as others whose gardens adjoin the bottom of their garden had solar panels and the 50 feet high trees blocked the sun light. We are hoping she might get the order, or else.
          It seems it’s quite often one law for them and another one for the rest.

          2. Our next door neighbour – who is extremely strapped for cash due to a long drawnout, acrimonious divorce, was bullied by one of the neighbours, whose garden adjoins hers, as a tree was overshadowing their shed. She complied and it cost her a lot of money she could ill-afford.

    3. Asanteman Market on 587 High Rd Tottenham N17.
      So i suspect that people might be forgiven for thinking that the majority of the produce on sale in that particular store has been selectively imported.
      If not grown in private gardens or council owned allotments. Which i believe that the process of selling the produce could be illegal.
      If it was grown in the UK commercially, it’s likely it would be against the principle’s of the aforementioned councillor.

    4. Afternoon all.
      Absolute proof that really Stupidly crass comes in all shapes sizes and colours. I just wonder if the people of Harringay actually boycott British farm produce. From what i have seen and know from expereince 99.99 of British farming families are white………what next ?

        2. Many a true word eh 😉

          We saw him at a bar in Port Elizabeth the mid 60s.He inspired me to go to Fogarty’s book shop and but some folk music books.

          1. Good day to you Paul.

            Sorry not to have replied sooner to your e-mail but with our courses actually going ahead in a week’s time my e-mailing has been more or less restricted to business.

            I loved the music you attached – particularly the guitar version of ‘Tears in Heaven’ which I play myself but not, I fear, quite as well!

            I recently tracked down Jeremy’s first recording in England (Jeremy Taylor His Songs) recorded in 1968 after he had made a couple of albums in SA. I bought it on line from a record dealer in Cambridge. Jeremy has now retired and lives in France in the Loire region with his fourth wife, Sonya..

            In 1968 the President of France, de Gaulle, had done his best to stop Britain entering the Common Market just as recently his successor, The Toyboy, has ironically done his best to stop Britain leaving the EU!

            Anyway the song I was after which I cannot find on line is called Pizouf which, according to the song, was shouted at Old Big Nose when he came on a state visit to Britain.. He thought this was a quaint British greeting showing respect and admiration. He did not realise that what they were actually shouting was Piss Off!

    7. We are hearing the same message over here. So far I have failed to follow the advice.

    8. You know only white people can be racist!
      It’s perfectly ok for black people to denounce white people as privileged and racist.

      1. What about white goods like washing machines , fridges, etc.

        I am sick to death of their relatives emailing me for money and using threatening language . I went to the expense of changing our phone system to call guard.

        1. We ‘ve had the call guardian system for several years now and it cuts out all nuisance calls. Unless you have friends and family plumbed in it can cut them out too! But most people seem to get through if they are genuine numbers.

          The emails should be screened out and go into your spam folder for deletion. Gmail is quite good with those. Which email do you use?

          1. We very rarely get those sort calls any more, if we do and i answer i just leave to phone next to the radio or tv until they ring off. At least it’s cost them a call.

          2. We haven’t had any since we changed the phone. Somehow it knows they’re from an automated system, as real people get through even if they’re not people we know. Though my son in Switzerland says he can never get through.

          3. We have a similar problem with our friends in Oz, they are cut off after the first ring. But what they do now is ring on a mobile to inform us of a call on our land line.

      2. The whole racism scam was only ever about attacking white people.
        We should have known that when Ray Honeyford was the Blob’s first high profile victim back in the 80s, for daring to say that white children could be disadvantaged if they were the minority in schools.
        It’s just more out in the open now.

        1. White children, especially boys, are still disadvantaged if they come from poor homes. Children whose parents never read or instill any love of learning, are disadvantaged, whatever their skin colour.

  54. Russia ‘offered bounties to Afghan militants to kill American troops’. 27 June 2020 • 2:47am

    US intelligence has found that a Russian unit offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants to kill troops of the American-led coalition in Afghanistan, The New York Times has reported.

    The newspaper, citing anonymous officials, said that Mr Trump was briefed on the findings in March, but has not decided how to respond.

    According to the newspaper, the Taliban operation was led by a unit known as the GRU, which has been blamed in numerous international incidents including a 2018 chemical weapons attack in Britain that nearly killed Russian-born double agent Sergei Skripal.

    A unit known as the GRU? God help us! This is the most utter tosh but compared to the UK it is a model of common sense. The New York Times obviously keeps a CIA unit in the basement who produce 2 or 3 of these stories a week. They are all evidence free and appear to have been written by twelve year olds. Why would Russia pay bounties for something that Afghans would quite happily do for free? How would they know that the claims were genuine and since only 20 Americans were killed in country last year what possible difference would it make to anything? If the Russians were really serious they would supply the Taliban with anti-tank missiles as the United States has done with the Jihadists in Syria.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/russia-offered-bounties-afghan-militants-kill-american-troops/

  55. Can ministers not see that inhuman lockdown rules are driving this terrible disorder? 27 June 2020.

    What is likely to be the result when millions of blameless individuals are locked into unnatural social isolation with most of their normal activities and occupations – the things that make life recognisably human – banned? Answer: they will spring the lock on their cages. Having done that, they are more likely to abandon their sense of propriety and normal standards of decent behaviour.

    This is lockdown hysteria – a previously unrecorded form of group madness. It should not have been beyond the reach of anybody with a commonsense understanding of the human condition to anticipate that the restrictions being imposed on ordinary life would become intolerable – especially in a law-abiding society like this one where the population takes to heart its duty to obey even the most officious rules.

    That’s it! We are all stir crazy! Lol.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/can-ministers-not-see-inhuman-lockdown-rules-driving-terrible/

    2. I’m not stir crazy. The lockdown has not affected me at all, as I was only saying the other day to the Easter bunny.

      1. I hate to break this to you but there’s no such thing as the Easter Bunny. I know this for a certainty because the Toenail Fairy told me so.

    3. All the Leftards were already half crazy.

      I’m off to the neighbours this evening for a Tapas party. I’m taking fried Keflatori and a strawberry Pavlova. Photos later.

      No madness here.

      2. Ooooh ….. Greek, Spanish and Australian nosh.
        There’s cultural appropriation for you.
        Have a lovely evening.

        1. Thank you. It was nice. Spicy little veal sausages. Broccolli fritters with guacomole. Nice salads and lots of Gin. It got bloody cold later though so they came out with throws and blankets. Dolly got one too. And a couple of sausages. 🙂

        1. Can’t. Having an orgy later. We are being safe though. Everyone will be wearing a gimp mask.

      4. “All the Leftards were already half crazy.”

        Which half would that be, Philip? 😆

    4. But the globalists are exploiting it to their own ends. When this circus finishes, Europe will be several steps further on the road towards total destruction.

      1. In fairness it looks as though we are doomed anyway! Ragnarok is on its way!

    1. Wasn’t there a group called “Hot Chocolate” – one of their songs was ” A Great Big Melting Pot”?

    3. Is that why the Maasai drink their cows’ milk mixed with their cows’ blood?

      1. 320700+ up ticks,
        A,
        Sad to say, many do, as reflected in the voting pattern & why we continue to go deeper into the sh!te bog after each General Election, guaranteed.

        1. Their acronym stands for “People for ethical treatment of Animals” which I would agree with. Their methods and more cranky ideas – no thanks

          1. Exactly. The above moronic tweet has nothing to do with ethical treatment of animals.
            I buy milk from a cooperative of farmers with average milking herd size of 25 cows. No intensive farming here, they are outside in the fields, weather permitting. This is far more ethical than trying to turn milk into a race issue.

        2. As a yobbish firebrand I stood against animal testing of any sort. I still do, fervently.

          I don’t see the point in wearing furs or other such nonsense and prefer natural materials (although i wish the war queen would stop buying me wool).

          But PETA are a bunch of idiotic morons who cannot be taken seriously. That sort of promotion above is part of why they’ve no credibility. There is animal cruelty. That’s what must be stamped out. Drinking milk just ahem – dilutes their message into the facile.

          1. If you lived in a very cold climate, you might see the point in wearing furs! The Russians don’t seem to have any problem with it.

          2. They would say that the cruelty comes as the milk is used by humans instead of the calves it’s intended for. Dairy cows have to calve each year to keep them in milk.

        3. An organisation of the Left which prefers animals to humans and which provides exciting violence against people with whom one disagrees whilst providing an overwhelming sense of moral superiority.

    5. Blackcurrant juice drinks will now be banned as well.

      As will Lucozade, as it’s waycist against people from Essex and Cheshire.

  57. NoTTLers!! Take heart this Saturday afternoon!! This is a reprint of a Rodders column from August 2017

    Rod Liddle
    The hormone that makes you a liberal halfwit

    The effects include mania, hypersensitivity, confusion and stupidity. Sound familiar?
    From magazine issue: 19 August 2017

    People who feel unkindly disposed towards economic migrants are chemically imbalanced, according to a study from the University of Bonn. More specifically, they are deficient in oxytocin, a neuropeptide hormone sometimes known as the ‘cuddle drug’ because of its ability to turn normal human beings into simpering halfwits.

    Psychologists ran a series of studies in which Germans were asked how much money they would like to give to, say, Tariq and Mohammed, who have just arrived here from Syria. ‘Nothing at all, unless they intend to spend it on a ticket home’ is of course the correct response, and indeed many Germans initially concurred with this. However, after they were bunged some oxytocin they were handing out the dosh willy-nilly. Remarkable. Perhaps German women should be given regular doses to make them more amenable when they are sexually assaulted by the so-called refugees. Or perhaps the researchers have got the whole thing the wrong way round and the people who are most fervently in favour of the unlimited arrival of talented brain surgeons, engineers, physicists etc from the Levant, Somalia and beyond actually have far too much oxytocin, and it is they who are chemically imbalanced, not the rest of us.

    I checked the effects of an oxytocin overdose — you tell me if you think the following egregious states strike a chord when you watch liberals marching through London to protest about something or other: mania, hypersensitivity, memory impairment, intense confusion, shakiness, stupidity, convulsions and restlessness. I reckon I may be on to something. Perhaps if we gave liberals oxytocin inhibitors they would end up being at least borderline rational, able to debate the issue without screaming ‘they are human beings!’ and sobbing uncontrollably.

    In the meantime we’d better get used to the left deciding that people who hold views with which they disagree are either evil or chemically or mentally unbalanced. It is a kind of gentle totalitarianism (at times, not that gentle) and it has been on the rise for quite a while. For many years now, people in the workplace who express views which run counter to the party line on feminism, LGBT rights, transgender rights, disablement and so on have been routinely sent on re-education courses where they are left in no doubt that their opinions are ‘unaccept-able’ and must change. It is a source of great shame to me that while I worked at the BBC I was sent on only one of these, and that was one which was compulsory for everybody.

    Footballers who express doubts about the legitimacy of gay marriage, or homosexual sex, are fined and sent off to be brainwashed. Social workers who oppose gay parenting are usually just kicked out, no course needed. As are Christian social workers who dare, at any point, to mention the word ‘God’ to their clients or their colleagues. In such a way, views which are shared by a significant minority — or even a majority — of British people are rendered contraband and samizdat. Areas of debate are closed down, because as far as the liberals are concerned, there is no debate at all. And so we arrive at a stage where people are banned from speaking on college campuses because their views might transgress any one of countless asinine shibboleths imposed by the authoritarian adolescents of the NUS (usually with the craven support of the college authorities).

    But this fury does not stop at criminalising opinion. It will also criminalise fact, when the fact is inconvenient. For example, to state that the acquired gender of a man who has transitioned into a woman is less authentic than the gender into which he was born is almost always, scientifically, a fact. Check the chromosomes. But simply to state it will get you banned from speaking at our universities and will most likely get you into trouble at work.

    Then there’s the case of the sacked Google engineer. James Damore wrote a ten-page treatise on why he thought Google’s equality and diversity programme was not working. In particular, he suggested that the reason there were fewer women working as engineers and at higher echelons in the company was because they might not be suited to the work. He phrased his objections inelegantly and without caveats, but the gist of what he was saying was almost certainly right. In British schools, 90 per cent of students taking computing at A-level are male. Just as almost 80 per cent of students taking physics are male. There has to be a reason for this and it cannot simply be down to institutionalised gender inequality. Despite 30 years of educationalists trying desperately to raise the percentage of women taking physics, despite government directives and the WISE campaign with Princess Anne as its patron, the proportions of women studying technology and the sciences remain stubbornly low.

    You might draw from this a conclusion that, on average, more men than women wish to work in such areas and that even if discrimination still exists, either engendered in the home or reinforced by schools and popular culture, there is still a more basic reason why girls don’t go into hard science. That is all that James Damore was trying to say. And yet after three and a half years of service he was kicked out because he had, said Google, ‘promoted harmful gender stereotypes and violated our code of conduct’.

    The notion that he might be right, which he almost certainly is, did not remotely occur to them. It is something they are not allowed to think. When it came to dealing with someone who possessed views different to their own, suddenly Google’s oxytocin levels dropped very sharply, as is so often the case.

    1. I’m coming round to the idea of parting with some dosh for the Spectator. We must give Liddle every encouragement in the current climate.

      Edit: just think how much faster Europe could be conquered if they put some oxywhatsits in the vaccine. Or the food. Or the water….

      1. Check it out. I believe the Spekkie is running a 3 months cheapo offer to get you hooked.

  58. I might have known:

    Half of Britain’s imported coronavirus cases originate from Pakistan, The Telegraph understands, amid calls for tougher quarantine checks on arrivals from “high risk” countries.

    More than 65,000 people have travelled to Britain on 190 flights since March 1 from Pakistan, which is reporting 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day, and has seen a new spike in the disease after easing its lockdown measures. Most are thought to have UK passports.

    Data from Public Health England (PHE) shows that 30 cases of coronavirus in people who have travelled from Pakistan since June 4, which is understood to represent half of the incidents of imported infection.

    With up to two flights a day from Pakistan, there have been reports of some arrivals almost instantly going to hospital for intensive care, amid concerns that the influx has led to localised clusters.

    Officials are understood to be worried it could lead to a backlash against Britain, through it creating a backdoor for infections into Europe as the UK prepares to open air bridges.

    Officials are concerned that countries like Portugal may be importing cases from Brazil, but does not wish to say so explicitly because of our own colonial links.

    “We can’t take people off the list because they might import cases from their former colonies”, said a Whitehall official. “Diplomatically we have to rate [them] to see actual uncontrolled spread. Imagine if people said that about the UK with our links to the US. We’d be fuming”

    Bharat Pankhania, a quarantine expert at Exeter University’s medical school, said the Government needed to concentrate its resources on screening individuals from “high risk” countries rather than a blanket “light-touch” quarantine where no-one is tested or physically supervised in the community.

    “As soon as a country reaches a set threshold, then special screening and tests are done on all individual arrivals at the border. If they are staying in Bath, for example, then the local public health director is alerted and they are subject to on-the-door checks by his or her team,” he said.

    “You also need to make it clear that this is a serious issue if you are coming from an at-risk country, and increase the penalties for breaches so that those who do [breach], go to prison and/or £10,000 fine.”

    Concerns that passengers from Pakistan were spreading coronavirus saw one of the world’s biggest long haul airlines suspend flights from the country this week.

    Dubai carrier Emirates suspended flights out of Pakistan after some 30 passengers on a June 22 flight to Hong Kong tested positive for Covid-19. Etihad and Fly Dubai also suspended flights out of Pakistan.

    This week, South Korea’s government temporarily banned most people from Pakistan and Bangladesh from entering after it recorded increases in coronavirus cases from those countries.

    Ten players of Pakistan’s cricket team supposed to take part in an upcoming series in England tested positive this week for Covid-19.

    British officials are understood to have repeatedly urged Pakistan to enact tougher controls on its flights as cases have grown.

    Pakistan International Airlines, the national carrier, said it had been flying direct to and from the UK since early April. At first irregular flights were organised according to demand to repatriate British and Pakistani nationals, with up to a dozen trips per week. In the past week the airline has resumed a more regular schedule flying daily to either London or Manchester.

    A spokesman said passengers were screened in Pakistan with heat sensors and had to wear masks. Anyone recording a high temperature during screening was not allowed on board.

    Officials estimate that at any one time there are some 100,000 British nationals in Pakistan, most of them dual nationals. Some 25,000 British nationals were repatriated from Pakistan between April 4 and May 13, almost all of them British Pakistanis.

    A Government spokesman said: “The new health measures at the border are informed by science, backed by the public and designed to keep us all safe.

    “We are seeing a high level of compliance and we expect this to continue as the vast majority of people will play their part to help stop the spread of this disease.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/26/exclusive-half-uks-imported-covid-19-infections-pakistan/

    BTL Comments allowed? You must be joking.

    1. How about flights from the US where over 40,000 new cases were reported yesterday? According the a US newspaper, the EU has already decided to keep its ban on Americans flying to the EU. Is Britain doing the same?

      That quarantine idea is still way to late but it looking too stupid now.

    2. Pakistan International Airlines, the national carrier, said it had been flying direct to and from the UK since early April. At first irregular flights were organised according to demand to repatriate British and Pakistani nationals, with up to a dozen trips per week. In the past week the airline has resumed a more regular schedule flying daily to either London or Manchester.” – this is the airline that just found out that 25% of it’s pilots are unqualified…

    4. You would have thought, quite erroneously it would seem, that we would control who comes into the country and from where. Silly racist me!

    5. I feel quite nervous .

      This area has attracted thousands of Asians in the past few days , they arrive in their beautiful very expensive cars from the Midlands and elsewhere ti visit an iconic Jurassic beach which has featured in many Bollywood films .. it is a pilgrimage.

      The locals blocked the roads and narrow lanes , and still they arrived .. much has been broadvast on the local news including the Jeremy Vine radio show .

      We all hope and pray that the virus hasn’t been transmitted to our local police and council workers , parking machines and local village shops .

      The Prime Minister should have been stricter about travel .. he has created the perfect storm for all vulnerable people and our local rural population .

      1. There was a lovely video popped up on Facebook this morning showing daytrippers wading out towards the sea at Weston Super Mare (?). The tide was out and they were up to their knees in thick mud.

        Our local council have just played the game. Oh look, e coli, close the beaches for the weekend.

          1. I made the mistake of visiting Prince Edward Island once. It was April and I found that absolutely nothing outside Charlottetown opened until May. – hotels, restaurants, bars and golf courses were all locked and abandoned.

          2. Went to Blackpool, and it was both shut and inundated with water. The IoW was also shut. WsM was wet.

    6. Pakistan International Airlines, the national carrier, said it had been flying direct to and from the UK since early April. At first irregular flights were organised according to demand to repatriate British and Pakistani nationals, with up to a dozen trips per week. In the past week the airline has resumed a more regular schedule flying daily to either London or Manchester.” – this is the airline that just found out that 25% of it’s pilots are unqualified…

  59. ‘The lockdown is causing so many deaths’. Spiked 27 June 2020.

    The clarion call was to clear the hospitals of patients. There was a point when my local hospital was a quarter full. Staff were wandering around with nothing to do. You hear this idea that all NHS staff have been working 20 times as hard as they have ever done. This is complete nonsense. An awful lot of people have been standing around wondering what the hell to do with themselves. A&E has never been so quiet.

    The average age of death from Covid-19 in the UK is around 82, and most of those people have comorbidities. I said to our managers that we had to test people and could not just be throwing them into nursing homes. But that is what they did. Homes were virtually ordered to take elderly patients. We had one nursing home that ended up with 12 deaths in a week.

    A couple of useful and informative paragraphs from this article.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/26/the-lockdown-is-causing-so-many-deaths/

  60. The blundering British political class has shown the same incompetence in both fighting wars and coronavirus. Patrick Cockburn. Indy. 26 June 2020,

    Competence takes a long time to create and its disintegration can also be imperceptibly slow. Nobody in Britain was much interested in the fate of Libya as it was torn apart in an escalating civil war. Even when Britain is the victim of a small proportion of that violence, there is a reluctance to put any of the blame on past British actions. The pretence is that somehow shouldering any responsibility lets the perpetrators off the hook. In reality, both the relatively limited number of British casualties stemming from its Middle East wars and the horribly large loss of life because of coronavirus have a common source: a political class that is hollowed out and no longer copes successfully with real crises.

    Yes even when we allow for hostile actors in the UK’s downfall it still leaves a large domestic debit. The political class as a whole seem to be divorced from reality and of course suffer no consequences for their decisions while the different Departments of the State, Home Office etc. are acting independently of the centre. We are probably in the End Times. Another crisis resembling the Coronavirus would probably see it all collapse into ruin!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/boris-johnson-coronavirus-libya-war-reading-attack-david-cameron-a9588061.html

    1. Why don’t we ban all foreigners from speaking English? It’s our language and culture…….

      2. Imagine all the translators and various dual-language pamphlets we’d need to produce! Oh wait….

        1. Please see my post on Leicester, where 70 languages and dialects are current.

    2. If I find anyone outside Yorkshire making a Yorkshire pudding, I’ll frogmarch them to the nearest pillory!

      1. A bit like Bakewell pudding, how anyone can mistake Bakewell Tart for the real thing should choke on it.

    3. Absolutely ludicrous is putting it mildly – if the BBC have enough capacity to spare that some of their staff can “review 13,000 recipes” then they need a massive redundancy programme!

      1. Erm, the massive redundancy programme is well underway. It may accelerate rather than curb the madness.

          1. It’s voluntary redundancy. I know of at least two sane souls who are very happy to be paid to escape. There must be many more?

      1. We had kedgeree for breakfast. It is a Scottish dish. The Indian slaves taught it to their Scotch masters, obviously.

  63. That’s me for today. Strange weather – rain – overcast – sunny – rain – and all the time a strong southerly wind drying out the garden and bashing the roses about.

    Same tomorrow, apparently.

    A demain.

    1. A day of showers down here in Norf Zummerzet, we managed to get a good walk in, albeit precise timing was required.
      We were somewhat lucky perhaps, a very heavy shower occurred 30 seconds after walking back in through the door.
      The lesson learnt from this is obvious,

      Black Clouds Matter! 💦💦

    2. It’s the bluddy deer bashing my roses about. They’ll eat anything floral it would seem.

      1. Parler: Is this Katie Hopkins’ new home for hatred? 27 June 2020.

        Hopkins says she is there because she believes in saying the unsayable, that “there are no such things as opinions that are right and wrong; it’s your opinion and you should stand by it”. She’s also there, frankly, because she has recently received a whole life sentence of exclusion from Twitter for contravening their ban on “hateful content”.

        With an introduction like that it has to be OK!

        https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/steve-anglesey-on-parler-and-katie-hopkins-1-6716807

        1. Well I’m there and it’s a bit tricky to navigate I find. I’ve been suspended from Twitter since April and they ignore my protests that I violated none of their “rules”.

          1. Yo Nd

            Just think of the game “Simon Says”

            Now updated to “Twatter Says”

          3. I seldom impart my thoughts there.
            My “crime” was to take part in a tweetstorm calling for an end to wildlife wet markets in China and SW Asia.

          4. No use. Chinese govt is not as weak as ours, and doesn’t have to listen to public opinion.
            You are right about the wet markets though, horrible things. Viruses are nature’s revenge, I suppose, suffered by all of us.

          5. The recipients of the tweets were varied, including WHO and UN people. Sent not just by me but by others. Twitter doesn’t like coordinated campaigns and pretends that they are sent by robots.

          6. Yo Nd

            Just think of the game “Simon Says”

            Now updated to “Twatter Says”

          7. I find that I have to let these things grow on me Ndovu. I can very rarely use them right off!

          8. My main use for Twitter was for sharing petitions I’d signed. I still sign them but am unwilling to share them on my Facebook page.

          9. I don’t use Twitter and have to confess that I have no interest in joining. There’s not sufficient capacity to say anything interesting and to me at least it looks more like a monkey house than a means of communication.

          10. I don’t use Twitter and have to confess that I have no interest in joining. There’s not sufficient capacity to say anything interesting and to me at least it looks more like a monkey house than a means of communication.

          11. It’s just another propaganda channel. There’s no “debate” as such – it’s just a medium for broadcasting woke views, and shouting down anyone who disagrees. I seldom indulge in any discourse with anyone there.
            I’m still there as HelpaHedgehog and that’s just to keep followers informed of our antics. Twitter knows perfectly well I’m one and the same person.

          12. I’m not on Twitter either. Big mouth + non-politically correct opinions + 120 characters = disaster, sooner or later.
            Looked at Parler, but they seem to have basically the same business model of selling your information, so I should probably steer clear of them too.

          13. Be very careful if you sign up. If your email address includes your name, you could be visible as your user name will default to your address until you change it to something else and amend you privacy settings

            I registered briefly and then deleted my account. I very rarely sign up to ‘register to view’ facilities.

        2. 320700+ up ticks,
          AS,
          Seems to me that a multitude of truthsayers are agathering & the place to be.
          Be aware of politico’s with covert past as coxswains.

    3. 320700+ up ticks,
      Afternoon AS,
      He will meet a few “friends” awaiting recognisable via the mutilated apparel about 30000 plus in all.

      1. 320700+up ticks,
        O2O,
        Er og I didn’t know Parler sported starting blocks, hows that then ? that farage chap has just joined.

          1. 320700+ up ticks,
            Afternoon N,
            When dealing with a great many politico’s the
            “watch my six” request must be made, the politico in question has past form.
            Starting blocks = running in this instance at a crucial moment seeking to get his life back.
            In the nicest possible way yourself must try reading between the lines as very little is as it seems currently.

            God,Queen & Country is ogga1.

  65. https://www.itv.com/news/2020-06-27/first-local-coronavirus-lockdown-could-happen-in-days/

    The first local lockdown – and therefore a test of whether local lockdowns will be effective in suppressing coronavirus outbreaks – could take place within days, according to senior members of the government.

    One pointed out that there has been a surge in cases in Leicester: there were 658 coronavirus cases in the Leicester area in the fortnight to 16 June.

    New data on the prevalence of the virus in the area has been delivered to Leicester’s mayor Sir Peter Soulsby, according to the LeicesterLive website, and he said his officials were analysing the data over the weekend.

  66. Completely OT, but I checked a cuple of things I wanted to post by opening a new page and googling – yet the results come up as a Yahoo result. I thought Yahoo had died years ago. Anyhow, I want a Google result! .

      1. Turned out to be malware. Blitzed it by a combo of a Google reset & McAffee.

  67. Just been for a walk with the dogs . A good drying bracing breeze blowing , patches of blue in the sky, some very heavy clouds , fresh smell in the air , had quite a bit of rain last night and this morning . I hope it rains again later , we need more rain .

    The wind effects the dogs , they pretend not to hear you, as they scamper around and rush through the furzey and ferns scenting rabbits .

    Cattle graze freely and a herd of donkeys, plus quite a few horses and ponies have the freedom to gallop and munch , and gallop again, semi wild I think , all colours . NOT like the New Forest ponies .

    People usually head for Middlebere , a long walk that takes you to the edge of the inner bit of Poole harbour, where the RSPB have hides so that you can observe the special bird visitors to the muddy shores of the harbour . We have seen and heard Osprey , a really thrilling experience , they stop over en route to Scotland .

    https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/purbeck-countryside/features/hartland-moor

    https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/osprey/osprey-webcams/

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

        1. We had a massive storm this afternoon and our poor neurotic Phoebe cat was running around like a dafty,

          5. I realised that – but decided not to bite. Lily is a sweetie – she’s been with us since August. She hid behind the woodburner for three days when she first arrived but came out when she decided we were ok. She’s about 13 now.

          7. Yes – her original owners – the man died, the old lady went into care. She was with our local rescue for several months. When we got got the newsletter we decided to offer her a home. Ours wasn’t home with no cat, since Suzie disappeared one evening. She was 17.

          11. They are the middle bits of ring doughnuts! Pregnant-with-twins-daughter loves them! Hector is definitely
            a “he”, I’m afraid!

          12. Phoebe isn’t very brave unless it’s our daughters mental cockapoo! Then she has a go and he doesn’t learn!

          13. Did you, where abouts are you Sue .

            It hasn’t rained here since lunchtime , so windy though that our growbag tomato plants fell over and cracked in half , a really strong breeze flattened them . The runner beans look abit bedraggled.

          17. Central Scotland! It’s very warm and still, despite the storm so I expect it will come beck again! The garden is literally growing in front of our eyes!

          19. South of Perthshire and east of Ayrshire! In fact, between Edinburgh and Glasgow! And it is lovely – close to both cities and glorious countryside and mountains!

    2. Sounds wonderful Belle! Great for the inner peace, despite the doggy ( selective) deafness!

    3. It’s been drier here that forecast (NforE). I hung around waiting for the thunderstorm or even rain, but nothing happened.
      Spartie had a whale of a time up on the field haring around with a couple of toy poodles and the most adorable teenage Westie.
      He was so tired, he forgot to nag about his supper. Usually he recognises 5.0 pm on the dot.

      1. You sound relieved really , soggy dog weather is sometimes a pain. The dogs were soaking this morning , got them dried off , and then they nipped back outside again , and dried them off again , wet paws everywhere.

        The forecast is variable, sunshine now .. rain later … as if!

    4. I reckon we’ve had all the rain, Maggie. There has been a flood outside my studio again and I got caught out when I walked my dog this morning and when I went out with a friend to walk her dog this evening.

  68. The elderly erudite black gentleman is attempting to explain the statue was paid for by former slaves,the screaming ignorant cretin doesn’t care…………………….

    https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1276725172943196160
    Obviously he should get out of the way of his white masters and saviours,let them destroy something he cares about and get back to the plantation where he belongs
    Sheesh,they don’t do irony do they

  69. From time to time my Polish wife comes up with words which I’ve never encountered in an English dictionary. I offer two below.

    1. Referring to a rushed exercise gathering facts on housing for a professor in Pargue, she said the professor, when her work was attacked by another student as a disorganised jumble, referred to her work as a valuable “factography”

    2. Meowking – this refers to complaining or pleading noises made by our two dogs in Poland, who spend most of their time in large pens – not a bark, not a howl, but a definite higher note, which is held considerably longer than a bark [they are meowking either for food, or for freedom – we let them out, or take for walks, most days].

    1. Trumpeting:

      The process where the MSM shouts “bollox” about anything Trump says.

          1. All my memes are picked fresh daily,purely serendipitous I picked that ten minutes ago and it fitted your comment so well {:^))

  70. 320700+up ticks,
    More is the pity that many of them did not find WHITE underage children
    distasteful that would have been beneficial and saved a great deal of mental scarring in later life.

    1. And I’ll bet that the stupid bastard thinks that it will be his mates and himself running it.

      Save time, lynch him now, because that’s what the mob will do.

      1. If you want any more proof that the UN couldn’t organise an alcohol based amusement in a brewery, try reading General Roméo Antonius Dallaire’s book on his experience as boss of a UN “peace keeping force” in Rwanda! Unfit for purpose doesn’t begin to cover it. {Edit – just to be clear, I think General Dallaire did the very best job he could have done, given the total incompetence of the UN team that were supposed to be supporting him; I’ve met the man, and he is haunted by the whole sorry saga – most definitely not his fault!}

        1. I recommend the movie “The Seige at Jadotville” to anyone who doubts the UN incompetence at peacekeeping and its betrayal of the forces trying to keep the peace. It is also a story of disgraceful betrayal by a government of its soldiers – and, no, it is not the UK Government this time.

          1. .. and for the driver to keep his eyes on the road, as the recent video illustrates.

        1. Easiest jigsaw ever completed.

          Please tell me your view about May and her 8 US speeches for which she was paid $1,250,000 plus expenses.

          Do you think this is genuine, or has someone been opening doors as a reward ?

          Very much looks to me like the latter. Same agency in DC as Blair, Brown, Campbell, Cameron with strong connections to the Obama administration and the world’s top billionaire globalists. Open Society not far away. Timescale looks wrong and all too easy.

          What’s your opinion ?

          1. My view about May and her 8 US speeches for which she was paid $1,250,000 plus expenses:

            It stinks, PP …

  72. Watching the football, on and off, it occurs to me that sport and entertainment are two meritocracies.

    If you’re good enough, you get to the top of the tree, irrespective of colour.

    Everywhere else, people of colour are expecting to be given special privileges. It’s not about white privilege it’s about black privilege.

    1. Please find my earlier post! BAME people don’t want to be patronised but at the same time they do want to be patronised!

  73. I have just received an email

    Complete the application form | Pay for your TV Licence | 6/27/2020 3:30:51 p.m. | Review information | 79400204

    Checking the small print, it is a scam

    Do not answer it

    Report it to

    report@phishing.gov.uk

  76. Your Yearly Dementia Test!
    (Easy, only 4 questions this year)

    Yep, it’s that time of year again for us to take our annual test.

    Exercise of the brain is as important as exercise of the muscles. As we grow older, it’s important to keep mentally alert.
    If you don’t use it, you lose it!!!

    Here is a very private way to gauge how your memory compares to your last test. Some may think it is too easy, but those with memory problems may have difficulty. Take this test to determine if you’re losing it or not.

    The spaces below are so you don’t see the answers until you’ve answered.

    OK, RELAX, clear your mind and begin.

    #1. What do you put in a toaster ?

    Answer: ‘bread.’ If you said ‘toast’, just give up now and go do something else.

    And, try not to hurt yourself.
    If you said, bread, go to Question #2

    # 2. Say ‘silk’ ten times. Now spell ‘silk.’ What do cows drink ?

    Answer: Cows drink water. If you said ‘milk,’ don’t attempt the next question.

    Your brain is already over-stressed and may even overheat.

    Content yourself with reading more appropriate literature such as Women’s Weekly or Auto World.

    However, if you did say ‘water’, proceed to Question

    # 3. If a red house is made from red bricks and a blue house is made from blue bricks and a pink house is made from pink bricks and a black house is made from black bricks, what is a green house made from ?

    Answer: Greenhouses are made from glass.

    If you said ‘green bricks’, why are you still reading this ???PLEASE, go lie down !

    But, if you said ‘glass,’ go on to Question #4.

    # 4. Please do not use a calculator for this for it would be cheating:

    You are driving a bus from New York City to Philadelphia.

    In Staten Island, 17 people got on the bus.

    In New Brunswick, 6 people get off the bus and 9 people get on.

    In Windsor, 2 people get off and 4 get on.

    In Trenton, 11 people get off and 16 people get on.

    In Bristol, 3 people get off and 5 people get on.

    And, in Camden, 6 people get off and 3 get on.

    You then arrive at Philadelphia Station.

    Without going back to review, how old is the bus driver ?

    Answer: Oh, for crying out loud !

    Don’t you remember your own age?!?! It was YOU driving the bus!

    If you pass this along to your friends, pray they do better than you.

    PS: 95% of people fail most of the questions!

    3. ha ha this is brilliant; my 22 year old son just got 1 / 4! His aged mother would have got zero though.

    1. ‘Allah’ is never happy. ‘Allah’ doesn’t like you eating bacon or pork, or having a beer down the pub. As for a G&T – you’re going to hell. And if you mock his ‘prophet’ – DIE!!!

    2. There is a reason why we graze sheep and not other livestock on the hills; sheep can thrive on poor grazing, others not so much.

        1. Yes, a son of the Raj.

          Bates’s best performance, for me, was as Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery in Patton: Lust For Glory (1970). His comment upon meeting Patton (played by George C Scott), for the first time in Palermo, was a wonderfully hammy, “Don’t smirk, Patton, I shan’t kiss you.”

    1. Well, I don’t know what it’s all about, but the speaker appears to be boring the crowd to death.

    2. I wonder how many black tannies there actually are.

      It’s always struck me as a white middle class moron type of activity.

      EDIT I’ll leave the typo, I meant trannies!

        1. “I’d let you watch, I would invite you. But the queens we use would not excite you.”

          1. It’s not particularly a middle class thing in the UK either, I think.

            It is known to be very common among people who lean towards autism. Autism has recently been linked with poor gut health. A diet high in junk food tends to lead to poor gut health.
            There’s a lot that medical science doesn’t know yet; and mixing politics up with it doesn’t help.

          2. I can only comment from observation, watching and listening to the protesters.

            Anecdotally, I’ve never seen it amongst any working-class people I know, it’s only the MC ones and even there it’s very rare. Obviously my circle of friends and acquaintances isn’t huge but in my opinion it’s a damned great big bandwagon being jumped on to create yet more division within society.

          4. There were a few trans people as customers at the JobCentre where I used to work. One was an ex social worker with a shoulder chip. One was a young man who preferred to be a young girl. Another was quite a sad-looking older man who dressed as a woman. All had mental health issues.

          5. I have also observed a lot of other mental health issues. In fact the one thing I haven’t observed is the media/political fairytale that is solved by a transition and total acceptance and the person lives happily ever after.

          6. Agreed re first.

            Not certain re second, although I suspect the “backlash” might be harsher in that cohort so fgewere put their heads above the parapet.

            Re third, I also have minorities in the family, so I can sympathyse with those who experience such things first hand. However, the numbers in absolute terms are still small.

            Society does need to respect the rights of minorities more; the problem is becoming that the whiskers are controlling the dog.

          7. It is a medical, not a political or civil rights issue.
            Particularly in a family where several people have already suffered from autism or candida overgrowth in the gut as teenagers.

          8. Where we part company here is that I believe what should be totally a medical matter has become a political and civil rights issue and it is being used as yet another stick for liberals to beat conservatives.

        1. They plied their trade in Bugis Street in Singapore in the sixties. I have to say, Bill, it was impossible to tell they weren’t women unless you got up close and personal, as our navigator found out.

          1. Well, I am too young (!!), but didn’t they say that one could always tell a navigator because he couldn’t find his way?

          2. Bugis Street! Nothing like watching the sun rise on Bugis Street of old. By far the best looking girls were not, well, girls. My hazy recollection is that they were called Kai tai.

        2. I’ll defer to your obviously far greater hands-on experience of such things…

          2. In which case:
            I don’t know, but given that there appears to be a strong market for their services I suspect that they are artificially created to satisfy demand. Alternatively Darwin has been busy craeting a new sub-species.

            As a %age of the total population of Asians how great is it?

            Taking a population of merely a billion Asians 0.001% would give 10,000 of them. Do you believe there are 10,000 of them?

  84. Started watching the FA Cup match between Norwich and Manchester United on BBC1. Everybody went down on one knee before the kick-off. I thought all that nonsense had stopped. How much longer is it going to continue?

    3. 320700+ up ticks,
      Afternoon A,
      I will tell you the exact minute it will stop and that will be when lab/lib/con no longer have a shout in parliament.

      1. 320700+up ticks,
        N,
        Do you mean that idiocy has that strong a grip ?
        Deny the turnstile cash until the ticket price allows the family in at an acceptable cost and kneeling is booted into touch.
        The perfect opportunity for the fans to get a result that benefits ALL.

      1. I’ve never watched this industry dressed up as ‘sport’ and have no intention of starting now.

        1. I got taken to a football match (Arsenal) when I was about 10, couldn’t see the point of standing in the cold and being deafened by the crowd: learnt some new words though. 🙄
          Never again, little knowing I would end up freezing my nuts off playing rugby.
          So apart from it being the wrong shaped ball, soccer and its tribalism has never interested me. As you say, a money making machine!

      1. I was taken by surprise. Then the commentator went on about ‘powerful gesture’ and ‘everyone supporting it’. Total bollocks.

  85. I hope you realise that from now on, any inappropriate comment here will receive a “white mark” from the Mods…

  86. The Janet Daley article partially quoted earlier

    Can ministers not see that inhuman lockdown rules are driving this terrible disorder?

    If they are to win the battles ahead, they must stop obeying modellers’ contentious diktats

    JANET DALEY

    A lot of people are accusing other people of being irresponsible at the moment. Those crowds who descended on Bournemouth in such anti-social numbers that they created a civic emergency, and the organisers of illegal raves in south London who got into a serious ruckus with the police are the public enemies of the day. The hordes who trashed the Dorset beaches and the frantic dancers in the streets of Lambeth were certainly asking for it.

    They must have expected the righteous condemnation that has engulfed them. So if their behaviour was so unreasonable and clearly culpable, why did they do it? That is the important question to ask, rather than the one that Government officials and their supremely obtuse advisers persist in asking: how can we stop them? The only possible answer to that can be, by introducing more punitive forms of repression which nobody seems to think is a practical solution.

    So let me suggest an analysis that might offer an answer to the other question. These people are behaving irrationally because they have been driven technically crazy. What do you expect will happen when you imprison innocent people, with no imminent prospect of release or even a promised end date to the sentence? (Do you know why prison officers are so opposed to indefinite sentences without possibility of parole? Because prisoners who have nothing to lose become uncontrollable and violently destructive.)

    What is likely to be the result when millions of blameless individuals are locked into unnatural social isolation with most of their normal activities and occupations – the things that make life recognisably human – banned? Answer: they will spring the lock on their cages. Having done that, they are more likely to abandon their sense of propriety and normal standards of decent behaviour.

    This is lockdown hysteria – a previously unrecorded form of group madness. It should not have been beyond the reach of anybody with a commonsense understanding of the human condition to anticipate that the restrictions being imposed on ordinary life would become intolerable – especially in a law-abiding society like this one where the population takes to heart its duty to obey even the most officious rules.

    But common sense – and an understanding of human relationships – scarcely seems to have featured in Government policy. The things that were ruled out (for the foreseeable future) were not just cruel and thoughtless: they appeared to involve professional ignorance of a quite shocking kind. I have heard it said (by scientists with very narrow expertise) that the psychological and social damage that is being done to children is exaggerated: the young are resilient, they say, and will recover quickly. This is stupidly, dangerously wrong.

    Children have crucial developmental stages in which their social attitudes are formed: if they do not encounter these critical steps at the appropriate time, their ability to form relationships can be permanently affected. While such insight may be beyond the remit of epidemiologists, one might have expected the education unions for whom childhood development is the main business of their vocation, to be aware of it. But the union officials (most of whom are not practising teachers) who led the resistance to schools re-opening were playing a much bigger game: this was trade union power politics as we have not seen it since the 1970s.

    How vividly I recall the political activism that shut the schools of the London borough where I lived back in the golden age of union activism. During the legendary Winter of Discontent in 1979, Haringey Council shut all its schools in solidarity with the striking caretakers. (This may not have been unconnected to the fact that the then chairman of the council’s education committee was one Jeremy Corbyn.) The teachers at my daughter’s primary school were instructed by their union convenors to offer no instruction (even to groups of pupils in the homes of parents) because this would constitute strike breaking.

    It was a fight to the death – and by the end of the 1980s, such “sympathy strikes” had been made illegal. But this time round the Government has provided the unions’ game with its most valuable card: by insisting on maintaining the social distancing rule – even in its reduced form – the teaching unions, and the local councils who support their policy of resistance can argue that it is physically impossible to permit the resumption of normal classroom attendance.

    How much more clearly can I put this? If the distancing regulation were dropped, the refusal of the unions to cooperate in a reopening of the schools would be nothing more than a strike – and calling a strike without a ballot of the full union membership is illegal. If the Government wants to prevail in this reignited battle for control of the schools, then it will have to stop obeying the lockdown lobby whose advice is increasingly contentious.

    Why are they so adamant that, however clear it is that the virus now no longer stalks our streets, there is certainly going to be a second wave in autumn or winter? Because when the weather cools, they say, the favourable conditions for its revival will return. Just look at those food plants in Germany and Wales where outbreaks have occurred in refrigerated environments. Ergo when the summer warmth goes, the epidemic will return.

    But wait a minute. If hot weather slows the spread, why are the states of Arizona and Texas – which are far hotter than Britain – currently suffering exponential increases in cases? Might there be other reasons than cold air for outbreaks in places where fresh meat is processed and chickens are slaughtered? And even if there is to be a second wave – isn’t that more reason to allow the country to take a few free breaths now so that it will be better able to cope psychologically and economically with another pause? Otherwise, what is the risk that we will, by then, be too deranged to care? It is human sensitivity – not statistical modelling – that is needed to give answers to these questions. It would be nice to hear a bit more of it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/27/can-ministers-not-see-inhuman-lockdown-rules-driving-terrible/

    1. The big difference between Bournemouth and Brixton (apart from the numbers) was that only the latter involved rioting. An academic committee must be assembled to find out why.

    2. Second waves in the USA. What do we know about them? Locations, circumstances, numbers, ethnicities, levels of illness, deaths? Without proper analysis, shouting ‘second wave’ is little more than a scare tactic.

    1. The people that went to Bournemouth and other resorts all individually decided to go there, there was no pre-planned organised protest they went there for an innocent day out, whereas the street parties were the complete opposite.

      1. But both events show – in their different ways – that vast swathes of the public has neither faith nor credence in anything that this government says.

        “We don’t believe you wazzocks”.

        1. Well as far as I know it wasn’t breaking any rules to go to the seaside on a hot day it didn’t involve any risk taking if people stayed in their family groups.
          But you are right about the government, only the die hards are still taking it all in

    2. Many here will recall gradually wading deeper into the sea – the first wave which hits you in the nuts gives you a real shock, but the second wave is much easier to take in one’s stride. I reckon that’s how the second waves of Covid will tend to play out – and may be very useful to face now rather than in mid-October, and will, in turn, make mid-October much less hazardous.

    3. tch tch the answer to question 1 is clearly “racism.”

      The answer to question 2 is also “racism”, but there will also be a certain amount of homophobia and islamophobia mixed in.

  87. 320700+ up ticks,
    Being done via the tax payers wallet,
    These governance parties are in point of fact funding the construction of an internal alien army via the welfare office.
    Many of this armies hierarchy are already in positions of power countrywide ( kahn for instance ) and new recruits arriving at Dover daily.

    https://twitter.com/AgainBraine/status/1276809093538291712

  88. Evening, all. People have been locked up for months, the weather is nice and they can travel to the seaside, so they do. Who, apart from the idiots in Westminster, would imagine that they wouldn’t?

  90. Should have greeted you with happy Armed Forces Day (but now it’s too late ). I flew the RAF ensign to mark the occasion. Have a picture to prove it, but haven’t yet downloaded it. Maybe another time.

  92. LAST POST

    You all realise that “currying favour” is now a definite no no.

    1. And you can no longer give anyone a black look ..

      Hope you have a better sleep Bill.. Do you have an automatic dishwasher .. if you do , when it has finished its wash cycle on a hot wash , open the door slightly and inhale some of the steam , don’t burn yourself , but the steam may relieve your chestiness a little bit .

        1. Melt some Vick in a bowl of boiling water and sniff that under a towel.
          Can you still get coal tar burners? My brother was asthmaticky when he was little. The GP said he would grow out of it by the age of seven. He was dead right. Oh, for old fashioned GPs with experience and knowledge of humanity.

          3. Melt some Vick…

            Plain menthol crystals will do the trick at a fraction of the cost.

      4. The Black death, the biggest pandemic in human history. We seem to have the second wave.

        1. My first spouse was born & grew up in Bombay (British Raj). That makes me entitled.

    3. 320700+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Og, don’t mind if I call you Og do you, not in the least.
      Don’t mind me asking but, did you mean
      the injection ?
      Yes, that also.

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