Wednesday 26 August: The BBC’s tin-eared Proms meddling reflects its disregard for viewers

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/08/25/lettersthe-bbcs-tin-eared-proms-meddling-reflects-disregard/

591 thoughts on “Wednesday 26 August: The BBC’s tin-eared Proms meddling reflects its disregard for viewers”

      1. Thanks! The one I wanted to write was a lot stronger but I decided that it wouldn’t stand a chance of reaching the letters page.

    1. I like the cartoon, Citroen, is the bottom left section meant to be Johnson Minor and Major Minor? But I think you are far too pessimistic in your prediction of “sun rising in a cloudless sky – it won’t last”.

  3. The woke war against British history must not be allowed to succeed

    Tearing down the heroes of the past risks creating an atomised society that is more divided than ever

    ANDREW ROBERTS – 25 August 2020 • 9:30pm

    When asked by Radio 4’s Today programme about whether the British Museum ought to have left the bust of its founding father Sir Hans Sloane in place, only with a label pointing out that he had been a slave-owner, the historian David Olusoga replied: “Then we should get all of the statues from the Third Reich in Germany and the age of the Kaisers and the statues that celebrate Nazism and the militarism of Prussia and we should put them back on display.”

    Having directly compared British imperial history to that of Hitler and the Nazis, he continued: “This is not to compare British history with German history, but there is a thing that mature countries do, which is they understand that not all of history can be celebrated.”

    Are we a mature country if we no longer believe that the life and work of the botanist, physician, collector and president of the Royal Society Sir Hans Sloane should be celebrated, even though his wife inherited slaves, which Sloane did not free but instead profited from? Even the briefest consideration of the life of Sloane will convince most reasonable people that the British Museum, which claims that Black Lives Matter forced “a certain level of urgency” to its actions, has behaved disgracefully in so besmirching the memory of a good, decent man who allowed it to purchase the 71,000 artefacts that started its collection for one-quarter of the sum for which his executors could have sold them.

    Sloane was a renowned doctor who was elected to the Royal Society of Physicians aged only 27. He worked unpaid every morning ministering to the poor, and devoted his salary to Christ’s Hospital. He developed the use of quinine for eye treatment, which was later employed to treat malaria. He was an early advocate of the use of inoculation to fight smallpox. He was instrumental in setting up the Foundling Hospital and Chelsea Physic Garden. He catalogued over 800 species of plants, concentrating on those with medicinal properties. Does that sound like a Nazi to you?

    Sloane was a giant of the Enlightenment, yet he was also a man of his time who, before his death in 1753, failed to campaign against slavery before it was abolished in 1833. So his bust must now be removed from a place of honour and prominence to somewhere where it can be labelled as part of what Hartwig Fischer, the present director of the British Museum, describes as “the exploitative context of the British Empire”.

    If it is possible to have a better curriculum vitae as a philanthropist than Sloane, it is hard to think of one, even though a part of his wife’s wealth derived from an evil institution. He neither bought nor sold slaves himself, and he wrote about the ill-treatment of them. If 80 years after the death of Hartwig Fischer, it is discovered that part of his income had been derived from the dividends of something that is perfectly legal today but comes to be considered as totally morally unacceptable, will his portrait at the British Museum be turned to the wall in shame?

    The moral of the story is clear: if you are rich, give nothing to the nation, because 250 years after your death, your bust will be removed if an American is murdered horribly in Minnesota, and leading historians will equate your life of charitable work, medical breakthroughs and philanthropy with the crimes of the Nazis.

    In the desperate race to do whatever Black Lives Matter demands, we have seen three low moments in the past week alone, of which the attack on Sloane was only one. Another was the scandal exposed by The Telegraph at the British Library, where staff were ordered to check their privilege by reading Marxist authors and supporting Labour politicians.

    Needless to say, the BBC were not to be outdone in the wokedom stakes, and the Last Night of the Proms will this year not have lyrics such as “Britons never, never, never will be slaves” sung at the Albert Hall. Yet logically, how can refusing to become a slave be in any sense a positive avowal of slavery as an institution? Just as Rudyard Kipling’s Road to Mandalay is a squaddie’s moving love-poem to Burma and the Burmese – yet has been consigned to the dustbin by the (probably deliberate) misreading of a single line – so are we really going to be made to feel shame over Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia, too?

    Similarly, if the underlying message of Mr Olusoga’s James MacTaggart Lecture – that the media must precisely reflect British society in every aspect of racial and class diversity – is adopted, how can that be achieved without quotas and positive discrimination? The duty of the media is to question and challenge authority, not slavishly to try to look and sound like the rest of the nation. As the late Bernard Levin used to say: “I would sooner read a newspaper owned by the greatest villain unhanged than one written by a committee of civil servants.” Yet that is the route Mr Olusoga’s lecture is pointing to.

    Journalistic merit should be the sole criterion for a job in the media. Indeed, instead of arbitrary and divisive quotas, positions should be filled across the economy based on who is best at the job, regardless of their background.

    What the true racists want to see is Britain balkanised and atomised, with every group confined to its own geographical and career areas of society, each fearing and hating the others. That is their ultimate ambition, and what we must not allow to happen.

    So we must not confuse decent, good men like Sir Hans Sloane with Adolf Hitler, or force British Library staff to read Marxist authors if they don’t want to, or stop Prom-goers from singing a patriotic song that that was written in 1740 and was thus bound to have a few lines that we wouldn’t necessarily write today, over a quarter of a millennium later.

    Andrew Roberts’s latest book ‘Churchill: Walking with Destiny’ is published by Penguin

    1. How come Mr Olusoga, a self-seeking self publicist was asked to deliver the James McTaggart Lecture?

      1. The lecture is a feature of the Edinburgh International Television Festival and hence only open to approved luvvies.

      2. I tried to discover who is responsible for selecting those who give the lecture, but without success. However, MacTaggart was a Beeboid…

    2. I’d love to know what involvement in the slave trade Mr. Olusoga’s ancestors had.

    3. Good article C1, thanks for posting. Olusoga is a nasty and noisy little worm. I wish he would just eff orf.

      2. That’ll be the half-caste Olusuga who gladly accepted an Order of the British Empire……. The irony of it; quite lost on him, of course.

    4. Then we should get all of the statues from the Third Reich in Germany and the age of the Kaisers and the statues that celebrate Nazism and the militarism of Prussia and we should put them back on display

      His terms are acceptable.

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s crop of mostly anti-BBC letters. The good news is that our state broadcaster continues to dig its own grave, and with added gusto:

    SIR – The news that the words of Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory will not be sung at Last Night of the Proms (report, August 25) not only saddens me, but also indicates what little understanding the BBC has of the emotion of this event.

    It’s like taking the horses away at Ascot.

    Linda Briscoe
    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    SIR – The BBC is now without either hope or glory.

    Sir Michael Ferguson
    Bath, Somerset

    SIR – The BBC’s “review” of the Proms is the work of a tiny number among the metropolitan media “woke”, all bouncing around their echo chamber, attempting to gratify one another.

    I broadly support the BBC, and would like it to flourish for years to come, but it is threatening its own existence with these nonsensical decisions.

    Mark Allen
    East Grinstead, West Sussex

    SIR – There is a simple response to the BBC’s Proms decision: don’t tune in.

    Let this be the lowest-rated Last Night ever.

    Alison Rhodes
    Waxhaw, North Carolina, United States

    SIR – Since the BBC has been happily screening repeats all summer, why not do the same for Last Night of the Proms? Perhaps we could have a “best of” compilation.

    The politicised opinions of the Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, and the Proms director David Pickard, could be safely sidestepped, and the television audience given the enjoyment that this tradition has provided for generations.

    Max Ingram
    Cénac et St Julien, Dordogne, France

    SIR – Private enterprise now has a chance to show its mettle.

    Let Classic FM broadcast a rival concert using the traditional words.

    Michael Staples
    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – I am no young radical, but I have long considered Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory to be outdated.

    They encourage us to look back to a long-gone past, rather than facing up to our true position in the modern world. We are a small island and mid-ranking power.

    Valerie Crews
    Beckenham, Kent

    SIR – Perhaps these songs do need new lyrics. A national competition would be exciting.

    Pam Raymond
    Ringwood, Hampshire

    SIR – There are parts of our history that none of us feels proud of – but that is our history, I’m afraid.

    I have been moved by the Black Lives Matter movement – and we must all play our part to ensure equal rights. But erasing our history does not help.

    Vin Harrop
    Billericay, Essex

    SIR – The BBC says the Proms will still be patriotic, highlighting Jerusalem – whose lyrics only mention England. What about the other Home Nations?

    Dr Richard A E Grove
    Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire

      1. I, too, have been “moved” by BLM…to reach for the remote in order to turn it off.

    2. Geographical note to Ms Crews. We have always been a small island. That did not stop us.

  6. What motto should the BBC use for it’s organisation?

    I was thinking – ‘The BBC, Taking the British out of Britain’.

    1. ‘Morning, B3. A good effort, but I’m going to stick to my tried and tested “We are never wrong”. I suppose another contender could be “Get woke, go broke”.

    1. ‘Morning, Bill. I hear that yesterday’s dire summer weather will have left Narfook by lunchtime.

    2. It appears to have died down up here, but the sky to the North West is glowering threateningly.

  8. Face masks to be worn in schools after Government U-turn. 26 August 2020.

    Children will be told to wear face masks in schools after a government about-turn on its coronavirus policy.

    New guidance will apply in secondary schools only and will require all pupils in Year 7 and above in England to wear face coverings in corridors and communal areas but not in classrooms.

    It will be mandatory in schools that are in local lockdown areas and left to the discretion of head teachers in the rest of the country.

    As forecast by yours truly yesterday. Gloat. Gloat!

    http://disq.us/p/2bf941z

    Keep that fear going!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/25/face-masks-worn-schools-government-u-turn/

    3. The only thing the Government hasn’t done a U turn on in recent months is their wages and expenses increase.

  9. Second wave goodbye to our economy is on it’s way, sudden rises in covid cases in Spain.
    How could this be?
    They locked down early, under much stricter rules than us.
    Masks were worn from day one.
    Now everyone is catching it, who would have thunk it?

  10. Last night we watched, belatedly, the two beeboid programmes of the VJ Day commemoration. The MR recorded them while I was in NNUH.

    The first – from the Arboretum – was (IMHO) awful. The ghastly Raworth bleating – reading her script badly, and waving her left hand. The best moment was when the invited historian said (rightly) that the bombs on Hiroshima etc were justified because they saved millions of lives and brought the war to an immediate end. Her face was like thunder – and she couldn’t get him off air quickly enough. Charles and his missus looked bored – Chas playing his “very old man” role…. And the Woke William really needs – urgently – lessons in public speaking. Compared to the address from the King in August 1945 – his words and delivery were dire.

    The other prog, from Horse Guards – was much better and (apart from a couple of bits of Royal Tournament stuff and faux singers) very moving. Nothing like hearing the chaps who were there.

    Rant over.

    1. I wasn’t sorry to miss them both, Bill, such is my distrust of the BBC not to insert its own distorted views when dealing with such subjects. Interesting that you comment on Billy Wales’ inability to speak clearly…I have long thought that his delivery is just awful.

      1. Willy had the good sense to marry Catherine Middleton. She appears to have common sense and keeps her thoughts to herself. I feel she will make a good consort when William finally becomes sovereign. Hopefully when his wet father abdicates in the manner of his equally wet forebear, Ed VIII.

        1. I know he can’t help being bald; but he is far too fat for a young man. He has the look of Albert of Monaco about him.

  12. BBC Radio 4 stirring racial sh!tpot.

    ‘Guiltless black man shot in the back several times in front of his children’ – repeated every 15 minutes, accompanied by tearful plea from distraught wife who fears he has been paralysed from the waist down for life. Passing mention of looting in sympathy with innocent victim of police brutality. i.e. millions of dollars worth of property burnt or stolen in city centre.

    Pass the sick bag!

    1. Also extended TV coverage on BBC. Funny how some trivial commonplace incident in a far-off country can become major news here. Latest News from South America? Well, no, there’s never any news from that continent.

      1. Yes’day there was an item about Argentina having the highest rate of increase in Covid infections in S. America.

      3. Sod-all from South Africa, too.
        Seriously pissed-off with MSM. Likely to defund the lot of them today.

      4. No news from Cabo Delgado either.

        According to friends in South Africa that’s really about to blow up!

  13. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/will-surgeons-allowed-do-jobs/

    When will our surgeons be allowed to do their jobs?

    Hospitals are deserted, yet the NHS faces a possible patient backlog of almost 10 million by Christmas

    25 August 2020 • 7:11pm

    The eminent surgeon and Professor of Medicine gave me two pieces of advice, “Don’t get ill in the next year, Allison, and don’t bother with private health insurance. It won’t help.”

    I interviewed Jai Chitnavis in Cambridge a week ago on the day after the recorded Covid-19 deaths in England fell to zero. That milestone, as the doctor observed with an ironic smile, had passed with almost no acknowledgment in the media. “Never before was a society kept imprisoned after a pandemic had passed,” he mused.

    Very few medics have dared to speak out on the unfolding disaster in our hospitals. Jai Chitnavis decided that he had to say something because “irrational fear” and “the hysterical and suicidal societal pantomime” pose such a threat to the nation’s health. “I never thought I would preach sedition for the welfare of my patients and students,” he sighs.

    On the desk was his A4 diary which showed the last date he operated. March 17. After that, PANDEMIC is scrawled in big letters. One of the private hospitals where Mr Chitnavis does much of his work – he is one of the top knee surgeons in the UK – was shut down in its entirety. As far as he knows, during lockdown the Government was continuing to pay the group the hospital belongs to to remain at the service of the NHS. On the rare occasions he went in, the place was deserted with just a handful of nurses waiting for patients who never came. The astonishing thing is the NHS continues to pay private hospitals to remain underused despite the fact that so many are Covid-free. Originally, doctors were told that September 1 was the date for returning to normal, but now it’s March 2021. “I’ve even heard March 2022,” he says despairingly.

    Our local NHS hospital, Addenbrookes, has had no admissions with Covid for six weeks and was never close to being overwhelmed even at the height of the epidemic. Only one or two corona patients remain in intensive care, yet many departments are deserted. “I’m told there are 300 to 400 empty beds there.”

    The other private hospital Jai Chitnavis works for “also commandeered by NHS management” has “still not sent me any word of what to do with more than a dozen NHS patients who were all given dates for their operation six months ago”.

    He got up and flung open a cupboard to reveal a teetering tower of files. “Those are another 50 patients of mine, mostly from the NHS, who await operations. I do not have a date to operate on any of them. The same dilemma faces surgeons around the UK. You can’t believe the amount of suffering there is out there, Allison.”

    Oh, I can. I tell Jai that Telegraph readers have emailed me scores of horror stories about being unable to access crucial medical treatment. One told me that although her husband, who has COPD, was extremely unwell, he was merely offered an appointment with a nurse on the phone. “Only because I was a doctor did I manage to pester the hospital and get a face to face appointment with the respiratory consultant.” She says her husband was the only patient in the Outpatients clinic staffed by two receptionists, four nurses and a consultant. “He was also the only patient in the X-Ray department where he was able to have an instant CT scan which revealed he had pneumonia in the right lung. For patients who have no medical knowledge a phone call with the nurse would have achieved nothing. It’s so dangerous.”

    Jai Chitnavis tells me he had “high hopes of Boris”, but he is bitterly disappointed. “I wonder if Margaret Thatcher would have been so invisible.” A trenchant letter he wrote to the Department of Health a few weeks ago got a stunningly complacent reply saying “the NHS has triggered the de-escalation clause. Since 15 May, private providers have been able to restart routine elective work funded by health insurers of individuals”.

    In fact, like many surgeons he has been told he can only operate at weekends. He reckons most hospitals are barely back to 25 per cent capacity, and the NHS now faces a possible patient backlog of almost 10m by Christmas. “Because the bath is emptying at a quarter of the usual rate and the tap is still gushing.”

    Five months ago this week, the British people were asked to support the NHS and save lives. “Now it’s time for the NHS to do its job and save people,” says Jai Chitnavis. Someone had better listen to this great surgeon before we have another preventable catastrophe on our hands.

    1. The Norfolk and Norwich was definitely NOT deserted while I was there. All its 1,200 beds were occupied.

      (I thought I posted this about an hour ago…..was it “cancelled”?)

    2. Proof positive ‘They’ really are out to cull the sick, the lame, the old and the poor.

      I would bet that not a single MP has had any trouble seeing a Doctor.

      Good Morning.

    3. One of my friends has just had her scheduled operation postponed, with no new date given. She goes private as well. To add to her woes, she’s just lost her mother (although not covid-related).

  14. 323030+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Heavens, are the peoples revolting,turning ugly, kicking back against the establishment ? voting Land of Hope & Glory top of the pops,whatever
    next ?
    Does this not strike the peoples as being something of a bloody great paradox singing this at the top of their voices in a manner of protest against
    the dictatorial regime then supporting & voting for the very same dictatorial
    regime.
    Keeping in mind this patriotic ditty is just showing the top of a bleeding great iceberg of odious issues repeated year on year getting worse each time via General Elections & the polling booth.

  16. Morning all

    The Proms……

    SIR – The news that the words of Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory will not be sung at Last Night of the Proms (report, August 25) not only saddens me, but also indicates what little understanding the BBC has of the emotion of this event.

    It’s like taking the horses away at Ascot.

    Linda Briscoe

    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    SIR – The BBC is now without either hope or glory.

    Sir Michael Ferguson

    Bath, Somerset

    SIR – The BBC’s “review” of the Proms is the work of a tiny number among the metropolitan media “woke”, all bouncing around their echo chamber, attempting to gratify one another.

    I broadly support the BBC, and would like it to flourish for years to come, but it is threatening its own existence with these nonsensical decisions.

    Mark Allen

    East Grinstead, West Sussex

    SIR – There is a simple response to the BBC’s Proms decision: don’t tune in.

    Let this be the lowest-rated Last Night ever.

    Alison Rhodes

    Waxhaw, North Carolina, United States

    ADVERTISING

    Ads by Teads

    SIR – Since the BBC has been happily screening repeats all summer, why not do the same for Last Night of the Proms? Perhaps we could have a “best of” compilation.

    The politicised opinions of the Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska, and the Proms director David Pickard, could be safely sidestepped, and the television audience given the enjoyment that this tradition has provided for generations.

    Max Ingram

    Cénac et St Julien, Dordogne, France

    SIR – Private enterprise now has a chance to show its mettle.

    Let Classic FM broadcast a rival concert using the traditional words.

    Michael Staples

    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – I am no young radical, but I have long considered Rule, Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory to be outdated.

    They encourage us to look back to a long-gone past, rather than facing up to our true position in the modern world. We are a small island and mid-ranking power.

    Valerie Crews

    Beckenham, Kent

    SIR – Perhaps these songs do need new lyrics. A national competition would be exciting.

    Pam Raymond

    Ringwood, Hampshire

    SIR – There are parts of our history that none of us feels proud of – but that is our history, I’m afraid.

    I have been moved by the Black Lives Matter movement – and we must all play our part to ensure equal rights. But erasing our history does not help.

    Vin Harrop

    Billericay, Essex

    SIR – The BBC says the Proms will still be patriotic, highlighting Jerusalem – whose lyrics only mention England. What about the other Home Nations?

    Dr Richard A E Grove

    Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire

    1. Pam Raymond is optimistic if she thinks that a national competition to cobble together new lyrics for old favourites would be exciting. It would be a woke-fest. Linda Briscoe if you take the horses away from Ascot (I presume you mean Royal Ascot), you’d get a lot of ignorant, posturing people who wear silly clothes and drink too much (outside the covid panic, of course), with absolutely no purpose for the gathering.

  18. Lord Grade on Toady defending the BBC’s right to make a decision regarding the Proms….and they got it wrong, just as they got it wrong on Brexit, and…,and…,and….

    Mishal Husain dumbstruck

    2. 323030+ ticks,
      Morning C,
      By the same token they are NOT alone.
      I still remember quite clearly the cries of “we have won
      job done, leave it to the tory’s” 24/6/2016.

      1. Morning ogga1 – you repeat that phrase “we have won,job done, leave it to the tory’s” ad nauseum. I have listened carefully over the last 4 years
        to the comments on Brexit and never heard that phrase nor seen it written except in your regular comments here. Can you tell me where you heard that remark.

        1. 323030+ up ticks,
          Morning C,
          Probably via brietbart prior to being blanked for
          truthtelling, along with may I add “no need of UKIP
          now” as another input.

          You have witnessed post 24/6/2016 the return of the multitude to supporting the lab/lib/con coalition party soon after victory.

          I do not have to embellish any issue C the facts speak for themselves.

    2. Yes, my very question to Mrs HJ at the end of the programme – why no mention of the witchfinder general?

  20. The Proms should be a celebration of classical music in a party atmosphere, and the Last Night should be a grand party to end all grand parties. If Covid regulations make public celebration impossible, then this year’s Proms should be cancelled, same as the Olympics.

    Rather than a sad arrangement of the traditional jingoistic medley that has been so enjoyed over the years, better to replace it with the Radio 4 Start-up medley, the one that used to greet isolated folk in their beds each morning as they prepare the day to come.

    Then we have work to do, working out just how in future we are to celebrate together. When I tried to raise this on an online forum a few days ago, I was duly cancelled.

    2. I think the dropping of the R4 medley was perhaps the start of the PC brain-rot that now infects the BBC.

    3. 323030+ up ticks,
      Morning JM,
      May one ask, is it really music befitting of a Country that is currently rapidly sinking under the weight of it’s own
      self induced political sh!te.
      Bearing in mind the orchestras rendering as the Titanic
      was floundering.
      Makes one wonder.

  23. 323030+ up ticks,
    Watched last night 6 pm Yesterday channel the “saved our collective arses”
    invasion, it should be mandatory shown after assembly every other day, rote fashion in ALL schools nationwide.
    Masking the truth is laying in trouble for the future.

    1. Apparently mouth wash clears one of those conditions – but I can’t remember which.

  26. In June, Fabricio Quieroz was arrested for embezzlement – he was caught transferring over the years £164,000 from the public Treasury into his personal bank account. £12,000 of this money was put into the private account of Michelle Bolsonaro, the wife of the Brazilian president. When Jair Bolsonaro was asked by a local journalist why his wife received this money, the President responded by telling the journalist he “felt like covering your face in punches”.

    Bolsonaro continues to allow his friends to devastate the Amazon Forest, and the response from global business interests is to dismiss environmentalists complaining about this as woke communists, lumped in with the gender-and-race lunatics.

    Donald Trump is a close family friend of Jair Bolsonaro. Does he condone this embezzlement as the correct way to run a large nation?

    1. I might add that if this sort of corruption (heaven forbid!) were to happen in the U.K. the numbers involved would not be in thousands, but rather in billions. Why does it cost £100 billion to build a White Elephant railway line?

      3. I’m ashamed to admit that my immediate reaction was “Call that corruption! Pah, mere amateurs.”
        Living in Blighty has given me higher aspirations.

      4. Good morning all.

        And why is it going to cost £387k to build a new National Institute for Health Protection? What’s wrong with the existing building for PHE? Of course I expect the same personnel will be working there so what’s going to be different in the end? This government is in one helluva mess. Is it deliberate so that we will all be clamouring to stay in the EU after all because nobody can make a decision any more. What a mess we’re in.

        1. I wish it was. I think you are out a thousand-fold in your calculation, and that’s just for the HQ building in Harlow. We can only begin to imagine the costs of all those executive golden handshakes as they are taken on again afterwards as consultants at double the pay.

          1. I am sure you are right Jeremy regarding costs, I was merely quoting the figure in the press. What a sad state the U.K. is in.

            And now there are rumours that BJ will be gone in 6 months and also DC will be gone by December. Don’t know where these rumours have come from but if not Boris who on earth will be the next Conservative party leader? I dread to think.

        2. For the same reason everything big state does is both useless and expensive. Incompetence, corruption, fraud. Same people, same building, heck, probably doing the exact same jobs as badly as they were before just lumping the tax payer with the bill for nothing.

  28. I don’t understand the teachers complaining about the Government and it’s latest u turn regarding face nappies.
    In non lockdown areas it is the headmaster who decides if they are to be worn. Let the teachers harp on to their headmaster.
    As far as lockdown areas and potential bullying in schools, here is an idea, maintain some discipline and stop turning a blind eye to bullying.

    https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/mailonsunday/index.html

  29. Guardian takes legal action to shut down parody headline generator
    By Freddy Mayhew Twitter

    The publisher of The Guardian has taken legal action to shut down a parody headline generator which it claims has infringed its copyright by using photographs of its journalists and contributors.

    Imitation headlines parodying the Guardian’s online op-eds with real author byline pictures were shared on social media in December alongside the hashtag #trollingtheguardian, which trended on Twitter.

    Guardian News and Media has now issued a take down notice through solicitors Bristows LLP to the web hosting provider for the guardianmeme.com website, which produced the headlines.

    https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Guardian-meme-generator-TWEET.jpg
    *
    *
    *
    In 2015 lawyers for The Guardian wrote to the Martial Arts Guardian opposing the latter title’s attempt to trade mark its name.

    At the time Press Gazette noted that there were at least 50 publications in the UK with the name Guardian in the title.

    https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-takes-legal-action-to-shut-down-parody-headline-generator/

    1. Patrick O’Flynn
      What is the point of Boris Johnson’s Tory party?
      26 August 2020, 6:58am

      It was way back in 2003 that the journalist Peter Hitchens first declared the Conservative party to be ‘useless’. Peter’s thesis was that the Tories had become incapable of fighting effectively for any significant conservative cause, and were in any case usually unwilling even to try and therefore should be disbanded. In a series of columns over several years embracing issues from the EU to mass immigration to law and order and cultural matters too (they certainly repay reading again) he sustained what was at the time a lonely barrage on the right.

      His thinking certainly greatly influenced my own decision to join forces with Nigel Farage and Ukip while actively campaigning for UK withdrawal from the EU from 2010 onwards. And as we contemplate the banishing of the lyrics of Rule Britannia and Land Of Hope And Glory from the Last Night of the Proms, the relegation of the statue of Hans Sloane at the British Museum and the general advance of extreme ‘woke’ identity politics through our public institutions, the Hitchens Thesis comes to the fore again.

      If all this is happening under a Tory administration with a majority of 80, then what is the point of anyone with a patriotic attachment to British history, tradition and culture wishing the Conservative party well?

      The lily-livered and befuddled initial response of Boris Johnson to these latest reverses recalled his initial feeble response to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, with their attacks on police officers and defacing of national monuments in central London.

      And yet while Boris has been slow to act, if at all, in the face of this new woke orthodoxy, I do not despair. Because visionary as he undoubtedly was, I do not think Hitchens got it exactly right all those years ago.

      The lesson from the Brexit years is surely that the Tory party is not useless but listless and flaccid. Lacking a confident, empowering ideology or cause and accustomed to surviving by making continual concessions to the remorseless ‘progressive’ tide, there is one thing that can shake it out of its slumber. And that is the threat of losing office.

      So it was that first Ukip and then the Brexit party was able to bully the Conservatives into holding an EU referendum and then, eventually, stay true to its outcome. The provision of an attractive alternative offer to many of the voters that the Tories depended on to stay in power was what did the trick.

      Naturally, after they had been forced into a pro-Brexit position, many Conservative MPs played the part of long-term and principled proponents of the cause of restoring national democratic self-determination. But in fact that was true of only a handful.

      So now, if there is to be an effective pushback against the woke orthodoxy, it will not come through just sitting around waiting for the Tories themselves to decide it is necessary to ‘defund’ the BBC, scrap the absurd ‘protected characteristics’ guff in equalities legislation or whatever else.

      It will only come through the creation of an alternative political party unashamedly dedicated to such causes. The necessity for a new party was part of the original Hitchens analysis. But given the entrenched advantages of incumbency under a first-past-the-post electoral system, the impact of such a party will most likely not be to replace the Tories but to force a shift in their position.

      On that basis, things are actually set pretty fair for patriotic social conservatives in the culture war. Despite widespread disillusion with the recent performance of Boris Johnson, Tory support is not switching to any of the other available parties represented in parliament because they are even more in hock to the Wokes. There has however recently been a notable uptick in the poll rating of the Brexit party – a mothballed entity with obsolete branding and zero media coverage. In one recent poll it scored four per cent despite being unprompted, out of sight and out of mind.

      It is as if the electorate already understands what must happen and is champing at the bit for things to get underway. As the leader of two startlingly effective previous sorties against Conservative party listlessness and with a huge social media presence to assist him, Nigel Farage undoubtedly has first dibs on convening a potent new alternative.

      But it has become inevitable with or without him. At some point in this parliament, a new socially conservative force is going to spring to prominence, very quickly reach double figures in the polls, leave the Tories trailing Labour as a result and then force them to – among other things – scrap the compulsory funding model of a BBC that has totally lost the plot.

      The Tories will then recover their poll lead and claim all the credit for doing stuff they declare themselves to have passionately favoured all along before slumping back into listlessness at the first available opportunity. In politics this is the new circle of life.

      1. 323030+ up ticks,
        Beg to differ slightly it is my belief it was the UKIP
        party that designed & triggered the referendum
        first & foremost prior to “nige” leaving, going rogue
        on a mass knifing spree of 30000 plus then joining the brexit party under the Blaiklock leadership,
        Otherwise I agree fully.

      2. “….It will only come through the creation of an alternative political party unashamedly dedicated to such causes.”

        What have I been saying in my recent posts?

        I know that Peddy will be upset but this needs to be repeated over and over again until people realise that the Conservative Party will never again win a general election but that the alternative is far, far worse.

        My dream team: Owen Paterson, Richard Drax, Nigel Farage and John Redwood.

      3. BTL:

        Bob3 • an hour ago • edited
        What is the point of having a Conservative government when they :-

        Allow groups like BLM and XR to flourish as if they secretly support their aims.
        Allow the farce where economic immigrants can come here by dinghy across the channel while trying to silence all media coverage.
        Go along with the economic reset button pressed at Davos under the cover of a hugely hyped up pandemic.
        Allow £ trillions of debt to ramp up.
        Continue with EU projects like HS2 even though we supposedly are leaving the EU.
        Pay councils in a time of national economical crises to shut down and narrow roads all over the country as part of the climate change scam and their war on cars.
        Not publish the findings of the grooming gang scandal.

        That is just for starters

  33. Listening to late night Radio 4 last night – some lady, involved in the Proms and
    with a foreign name, was going on about the song “Jerusalem” which is
    another traditional tune for the Last Night.
    She has altered the words of a couple of lines – “to make them more inclusive” – for the BAME, Black Lives Matter movement!
    Edit ()

    1. How dare any one interfere with the things we know , appreciate and love and lean on .

      Bame and BLM have massive chips on their shoulders because they do not know who they really are , they have no identity apart from their colour .

      1. More BAME people should be asked why they came and settled in Britain in the first place – or why their parents or grandparents did – if it is such a nasty, racist place.

  34. Good morning, my friends

    I never thought I would have anything in common with the captain of Manchester United Football club but when he had an attack of amnesia and had to ask a Greek policeman who he was I realised that I too had no idea who he was.

      1. How dare you : Grammar books at dawn – I issue the challenge!

        I have NOT given my self an upvote. The only time I ever do that is to check who has upvoted after which I remove it. I have just rechecked and no self-upvoting has occurred from me!

    1. 323030+up ticks,
      G,
      Real UKIPPERS wouldn’t, current lab/lib/con coalition
      members / voters would, willingly.

        1. 323030+ up ticks,
          Afternoon W,
          On two very important issue real UKIP showed their strength of character as a party, an
          eu election & the design & triggering of the referendum.
          The “nige” was the mouthpiece, the pro UK membership was the driving force that made it work.
          Fighting all the while on four fronts of treachery,
          lab/lib/con/brussels.

          Not bad for a party that was judged by many to be a one horse outfit.

          May one ask over the same time period say three decades have the lab/lib/con won any cigars?

          Treachery aside,otherwise they would be taking home a box of fifty king eddies.

    2. Many people would. No doubt the state would enforce doing so with a massive fine.

      On the upside, there are some lovely bums out there.

      1. On wonders about the “stopping power” of those shots that it needed so many to incapacitate him.

          1. One can’t really be sure.

            At some point the details will come out but at the moment it’s another glorious excuse to riot and loot.

          3. The police had been called to robbery where a knife was used.

            This was a known felon with a record of gun offences. His car number would have been called in and the police would have been aware of what they were dealing with.

            As a matter of interest, just what would you have the police do?

            Stand back, let the criminal retrieve his gun and shoot them?

      2. Oddly, I’ve never been shot by police officers.

        I’ve managed this miraculous task by… not commiting a crime.

        Yes, US police are far too gung ho but that’s the consequence of a population that sees nothing wrong with 6 year olds getting guhunz for Christmas.

        1. It’s a trigger-happy society over there.

          This man was a known scumbag but the police have given BLM more ammunition.

    4. As she says: the Police need our support.

      Of course she is talking about the US but what support do the police in UK give to the likes of Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins?

  37. Listening to late night Radio 4 last night – Dalia Stasevska from Finland, a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement was going on about the song “Jerusalem” which is another traditional tune for the Last Night.
    She has altered the words of a couple of lines – “to make them more inclusive” – for the BAME, Black Lives Matter movement!

    1. This Finnish woman will be guest conductor for the Last Night of the Proms. She has a f*cking cheek putting her political stamp on the proceedings, aided and abetted by the BBC. She should accept the position of ‘guest conductor’ with a good grace, or not at all.

    2. Why alter any literature? If you are so unhappy with an existing item, why not write your own?

  38. LOCKDOWN LUNACY 3.0: It’s over J.B. Handley 2020.

    Here are the death curves, from Worldometers, for six European countries. It’s self-explanatory, so I won’t belabor the point. To state the obvious: Sweden had no lockdown. Amongst the other five countries, the choice for HOW to lockdown varied widely. Knowing those simple facts and seeing these charts, if you still think lockdowns are important in the management of a seasonal virus, I can’t help you. In Western Europe, IT’S OVER, and it had nothing to do with how governments, or the populace, behaved. A virus does what a virus does.

    Morning everyone. This is a rather long blog about the epidemiological aspects of the Coronavirus and its conclusions can be abbreviated to a simple premise. It’s over. This is a general observation and will be contradicted by individual cases and where government continues to nurture it with social distancing and lockdown measures that paradoxically ensure its propagation. The whole thing has been an exercise in Governmental Stupidity, medically, socially, and worst of all economically, where its true horrors will not become apparent for another six months.

    https://jbhandleyblog.com/home/2020/7/27/lockdownlunacythree

    1. Adolescents with acne will suffer very greatly and possibly develop more severe dermatological problems as a consequence of wearing masks.

      Young men and women working is restaurants and at supermarket checkouts are already complaining of getting blotchy, itching, spotty skin.

        2. Did you not have spots when you were adolescent? I certainly was spotty between the ages of 15 -17 and was very conscious of the fact because I was very vain and wanted to look attractive. As a result I spent far too much time washing and cleansing myself until the hair on my face started to grow and the spots disappeared.

          4. Yes – but I applied it too liberally and it dried my skin out to the extent that it turned red and raw.

      2. All the waiting staff at Cote yesterday wore the clear visors. I’m sure they are useless at preventing any disease transmission, but at least we could see their faces.

        1. They are useless. I saw one waiter on TV wearing one at an angle so that his breather would have been funnelled straight towards the customers.
          I wore one vertically as a dentist to stop my eyes & face being splattered, but I also wore a mask.

    2. The thing I most hated about science and maths exams was that you were expected to memorise equations and the periodic table etc, when in the real world you could just have a tiny booklet containing everything you could possibly need.

      1. My biggest problem, going through life after leaving school, is that I am forever mislaying my book of log tables and slide rule. I simply keep forgetting to take them out of my pocket whenever I change my trousers!

      2. No dictionaries in language exams got me – in the real world, I use a dictionary all the time.

  40. The final record played just before midnight on 14th August 1967 on Yorkshires own Pirate Radio Ship, Radio 270 anchored 3 and a half miles off the Scarborough/Bridlington coast during the mid 60s. The Labour Government of the day introduced the Marine Offences Act to silence these wonderful broadcasters which came into force on August 15th 1967. A sad day for broadcasting and for democracy in the UK.

    Essex girl makes good!

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

    3. Radio 270 was my favourite station. A ‘must listen to’ for all my friends and me in our early teenage years.

  41. Land of Hope and Glory is propelled to the top of the charts as the BBC faces Proms backlash

    Dame Vera Lynn’s Land of Hope and Glory reaches No.1 in the charts as thousands sign petition backing traditional anthems

    By Victoria Ward 25 August 2020 • 6:35pm
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2020/08/25/TELEMMGLPICT000214392667_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwdFmvql0Kz3eqVGzjPMS6CI.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Dalia Stasevska, who will conduct the Last Night
    That looks like a Ukrainian born Finn wearing a kimono….AAARRGGHH CULTURAL APPROPRIATION
    *
    *
    *
    Trevor Phillips, the former chairman of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, said the BBC always panicked about race as there was no ethnic diversity at the top.

    “What you have is rooms full of white men panicking that someone is going to think they are racist,” he added.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/25/bbc-faces-proms-backlash-campaigners-propel-land-hope-glory/

    1. When British conductors conduct an orchestra in Finland, do they tell the locals what they ought to be doing with their history?

      Thought not.

      1. My thought entirely, Wm. I have been toying with the possibility of writing to the Finnish Ambassador to The Court of St. James’s to suggest that we don’t need Finns to tell us what to do with our history and traditions.

        When in NYC I spent seven years working for Kansallis-Osake-Pankki, a Finnish bank that had been founded to cater to the needs of the Finns rather than the Swedish segment of the population who dominated business and owned much of the property. (The KOP Finns were great fun, party animals, and not very keen on rules. At that time KOP was ‘AAA’ rated but subsequently met its demise when the USSR collapsed.) The 100th anniversary of KOP’s foundation occurred whilst I was there and was an excuse for a global booze-up. In NYC they hired a vast auditorium at the Lincoln Center which they filled with all employees, clients, and other hangers on for an excellent concert of almost undiluted Sibelius. Had I suggested that Sibelius was a bit too nationalistic and gets boring after a couple of hours, I would have been thrown out on my ear.

      2. Maybe a British conductor could tell a Helsinki audience that Russia should have won in 1939.

        1. Maybe a British conductor could suggest that Finlandia is too nationalistic to be played in Helsinki?

    3. It is far worse than that; they are worthless snivelling spineless bedwetting country-hating idiots.

  42. This is my nomination for silliest letter of the week – and yes, I know it is only Wednesday today but I am confident that no one will get even near Mr Fisher’s effort for the remainder of the week:

    SIR – In 1982, when I left on leaving my job in a large department store, my gift included a tin of Portuguese sardines – with the advice to quarter-turn it every week.

    I followed this procedure rigorously until the item was lost in a house move 30 years later. It was a very pretty tin.

    Brian Fisher
    Tonbridge, Kent

    He definitely needs to get out more!

    4. Whatever the male equivalent is for ‘daft bint’ applies.

      What difference does it make whether its aligned N-S or E-W anyway?

  44. SIR – Greenwich is not the only place to be hampered by council road closures (Letters, August 22).

    Edinburgh is also suffering. George IV Bridge has lost its taxi ranks and a traffic lane to new pedestrian and cycle lanes, which are guarded by bollards. There are cars forming long queues in each direction. I know of a local electrician, servicing a resident’s property, who spent 45 minutes looking for suitable parking. A local takeaway faces losing necessary revenue from taxi drivers who were hitherto able to pop in for lunches.

    I also wonder how emergency services will fare under this set-up, and how people are to access public buildings in the immediate vicinity – especially on Edinburgh’s inevitable wet and windy days.

    Ronia Crisp
    Cambridge

    Brighton declared war on drivers some years ago now, which is why we gave up visiting the place. Our local news yesterday showed the latest attack on vehicle use – an almost empty bike ‘Zil lane’ and a huge queue of vehicles in the remaining half of the road on the seafront. Cyclists there already enjoy plenty of cycle lanes (I have used them) so I suspect that this is more about satisfying their hatred of vehicle use, plus some virtue-signalling by a bunch of desperate greenies.

    2. The High Street in Edinburgh is pretty much closed. Car travel in Edinburgh is difficult and slow especially if you go anywhere near the centre. George IV Bridge is the location of the Central Library and the Museum of Scotland is 100 yards away in Chambers St with the Sheriff Court opposite. Parking is hopeless.

  45. Off out for the first pub lunch in ages shortly so I’ll drop these off together……….
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fcdcdc6fa49399e8dcdd8ec9794adaca04f54a02780f2c03a511c6c258b4baa2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e92f0299f768d345b1eb397cbc009fe958465c275a716c478c0c54467da5909.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9164ca52e374f1faac60e8f4a82280e3630ecea53616e3a99e982bf66cb34796.jpg
    I’m not hopeful,the “long march” appears complete……………..

    1. The problem is they don’t complain. Big state seems to like importing more gimmigrants.

      Immigration is fundamentally an economic problem. We don’t have enough money to feed the world.

      We don’t have enough jobs for everyone to have one.
      We haven’t the housing for these people to live here.

      Yes, rich Lefties squeal and wail that we should ‘feed the world’ but you don’t see them offering their own cash or homes – not when the crunch comes. No, at that point they want ‘you’ to pay for it. For you to pay for their ego.

      The criminality, social disruption and violence all start when there’s not enough to go around. The obvious lack of education – deliberate lack, mind – of people in economics and governance (far too few understand, let alone accept that the EU practically sets our budget) is fundamental to stopping the tide of illegal gimmigration.

      1. 323030+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Anne,
        My favourite rendering when on the outside of about 8 pts of Guinness.

  48. If this mask wearing goes on for any length of time then will people become insular and lose their identity, like the women out in burkas? nobody knows who they are by sight, you wouldn’t go up to one for a chat when out or know if they were a neighbour or not.
    Will it be easier for them when the cull comes, as it surely will if we carry on down this road of destroying the economy and try to replace it with a false green economy, the less human we feel, the better for the Marxists

    1. What the Left never consider is that slavery is still going on today – the gimmigrants are being sold into it by other blacks.

      Comically, they all ardently support such people trafficking. Perhaps they need reminding that they, the woke Left are the ones – as usual – who are in the wrong?

      After all, they don’t care about immigrants. They just want to annoy those opposing them.

  52. Just written a letter to Aftenposten. They published this morning an article saying, basically, that Rule, Britannia! is a song about colonialism and ensalving folk. Letter to the managing editor and the article author, asking both to point out from the lyrics where they say that colonialism is to be encouraged, and people enslaved, and chiding them for a sloppy and incorrect article, chopping little bits from the lyrics to support their point.
    Bah! Wankers, the lot of them.

  53. SIR – The Prime Minister should not be “appealing” to parents to send their children to school next week (report, August 24).

    He should be informing them, in no uncertain terms, that if their children are not in school, without good reason, they will be fined for every day’s absence.

    Jane Jennings

    Dursley, Gloucestershire

    SIR – I was due to change school in the the week that war was declared in 1939.

    When the school reopened after Christmas, my mother decided it wasn’t safe and kept me at home for nearly three months. I never made up that time and struggled from then on. I gave up trying, and became the class clown. Only by great good fortune did I avoid ruining my whole life.

    I don’t envy parents who are having to make similar choices today.

    Doreen Tamplin

    Birchington-on-Sea, Kent

    SIR – There has been some disagreement over the need for face masks in schools (report, August 25).

    As with paper handkerchiefs, most face masks should be used once and then thrown away in order to minimise the risk of transferring the virus to other surfaces.

    Sadly, most people – including schoolchildren – will wear them, take them off, and put them in a pocket or bag for reuse.

    Stephen Hazell-Smith

    Penshurst, Kent

    1. Pleese, Miss, Doreen is fick,

      Of course she could have “made up” the three months had she applied herself.

          1. Nope. Nellie went back to the jungle.

            Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
            And said goodbye to the circus
            Off she went with a trumpety-trump
            Trump, trump, trump
            Nellie the Elephant packed her trunk
            And trundled back to the jungle
            Off she went with a trumpety-trump
            Trump, trump, trump

    3. If the masks are effective, surely they become hazardous clinical waste and should receive specal treatment when being diposed of.

      Just what are you going to do with 20+ million face masks being disposed of every day Mr Hazell-Smith?

      Even at 1 ounce per mask that’s over 500 tons of dangerous material to be collected and disposed of daily.

          1. Indeed. I’m sure we’ll get the blame, although nobody has yet been able to explain how the Texas-sized island of plastic rubbish in the Pacific is the fault of those of us who live round the North Sea.

          2. Some of it will be European and British waste sent to the Far East because of mad EU recycling rules.

    4. I had a whole term off when I was 7 or so, and that also set me back. A lot of knowledge and the ways of learning is being absorbed at that time, if the school is any good.

    5. I had a whole term off when I was 7 or so, and that also set me back. A lot of knowledge and the ways of learning is being absorbed at that time, if the school is any good.

    6. Judging by the number of discarded face masks littering the area where I live, most people are only using them once – and then they drop them on the floor.

  54. This version is taken from The Works of James Thomson by James Thomson, Published 1763, Vol II, p. 191, which includes the entire original text of Alfred. (Wiki)

    When Britain first, at Heaven’s command

    Arose from out the azure main;

    This was the charter of the land,

    And guardian angels sang this strain:

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    The nations, not so blest as thee,

    Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;

    While thou shalt flourish great and free,

    The dread and envy of them all.

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    Still more majestic shalt thou rise,

    More dreadful, from each foreign stroke;

    As the loud blast that tears the skies,

    Serves but to root thy native oak.

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    Thee haughty tyrants ne’er shall tame:

    All their attempts to bend thee down,

    Will but arouse thy generous flame;

    But work their woe, and thy renown.

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    To thee belongs the rural reign;

    Thy cities shall with commerce shine:

    All thine shall be the subject main,

    And every shore it circles thine.

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    The Muses, still with freedom found,

    Shall to thy happy coast repair;

    Blest Isle! With matchless beauty crown’d,

    And manly hearts to guard the fair.

    “Rule, Britannia! rule the waves:

    “Britons never will be slaves.”

    1. 323030+ up ticks,
      Morning JN,
      Of the last three decades especially, the lab/lib/con
      coalition party and memberships certainly put paid to that little lot, we are witnessing the finale.

    2. You can see why the BBC wouldn’t want anyone to listen to the words. Of course it’s not so easy to hear all the words clearly when being sung, so now they have probably ensured lots of people have checked it out on google to read it for themselves and find out what’s so objectionable.

      1. “You can see why the BBC wouldn’t want anyone to listen to the words.”

        “Wouldn’t want?” The BBC are not arbiters of taste or culture. Their remit (their charter) is to inform, educate, entertain. Nowhere in that charter does it give them any dominion over what its viewers should do, think or believe. They are public servants not public oppressors.

        Until there is a complete and utter clear out at the BBC, from top to bottom [Sue E excepted], then the current infernal status quo will continue to abominate and proliferate.

        1. Sue E for DG!
          It scans, so we should chant it outside the BBC hq.
          Morning, Grizz.

      2. Sent the words to Aftenposten asking them to show me where it glorifies colonialism and slavery, as the allege in their article..

  57. This is just the start.
    Big Brother – in the form of DBS (think of the children), ‘Elf ‘n’ Safety, and a plethora of council prodnoses trying to up their depleted income – will be all over this like a rash.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/working-home-home-contents-insurance-might-invalid/

    Working from home? Your home and contents insurance might be invalid

    Home insurance may no longer cover those working from home from Sept 1

    26 August 2020 • 5:00am

    Home working

    Some home insurance policies may be void after September 1

    Millions of workers forced to work where they live may find their home and contents insurance no longer covers them from next week.

    Currently, the Association of British Insurers, a trade body, states: “If you are an office-based worker and are working from home as a result of the pandemic, your home insurance cover will not be affected. You do not need to contact your insurer to update your documents or extend your cover.”

    However, the ABI will review this guidance on Sept 1, which may leave homeworkers unprotected as some homes and contents policies are designed only for “home or domestic use” and not for work.

    Jimmy Williams, of insurer Urban Jungle, advised those working from home to make sure their home and contents policies cover them.

    “Some insurers aren’t being very flexible and are insisting that domestic policies don’t cover incidents if people are working from home or if they are running a business. So, if you spill tea on your laptop while writing a work email, they might say you’re not covered.

    “If you are doing clerical work, mostly working on a computer, then your home insurance usually covers that. But if you run a business out of your home that is public-facing then that’s probably different. Also, online sellers won’t be able to claim for stock which is damaged, lost or stolen,” said Mr Williams.

    When lockdown was in place, it was harder for insurers to draw a distinction between the office and home. But now that the government guidance is different, it is easier for them to do so, he added.

    Home working became the norm this year, with figures from the Office for National Statistics showing nearly half of Britain’s 32 million strong labour force worked from home during lockdown.

    Official government guidance now states: “If your workplace is open, you can return to work but your employer must make arrangements for you to work safely.”

    1. The nub of this scaremongering piece worthy of the Daily Fail is this:

      “Jimmy Williams, of insurer Urban Jungle, advised those working from home to make sure their home and contents policies cover them.”

      Bingo, job done. Generally a domestic policy will automatically exclude personal items of business use, but insurers are happy to extend cover to basic office equipment and suchlike belonging to the policyholder if they are asked to. Furthermore, working from home has been shown in the past to reduce the risk of daytime burglary.

      This article sounds more like the Daily Fail than the Mailygraph.

    2. Then there are business rates…..food hygiene regs (you might offer someone a cup of tea – and if you haven’t been on a £200 a day course……)

      The end is listless…..

      1. Yup. Endless fun for the nation’s desk pilots – if they can be bothered to do anything as mundane as work.

  58. Catching up with ‘The Spectator’, in last week’s issue I came across:

    I started a dating site last Sunday. Not words I ever thought I’d write, but I’ve become a kind of den mother to a large group of people who believe the risk of coronavirus has been exaggerated, and it dawned on me that this could be a useful service for them.

    The idea is that if you’re a Covid realist you don’t want to go out with a hysteric who thinks the lockdown is being eased too quickly and frets about a ‘second wave’. You probably wouldn’t even be able to arrange a first date, let alone manage a kiss at the end of the evening. What you need is a ‘safe space’ where you can meet potential partners who share similar views.

    It all began in April when I started a blog called Lockdown Sceptics. I wanted to create a clubhouse for that small band of dissenters who think that locking down the entire population, the healthy as well as the sick, is a violation of our civil liberties, particularly when our scientific understanding of how the virus is transmitted is so incomplete. It quickly started getting a lot of traffic, suggesting we aren’t such a tiny minority after all. On an average day, the site gets 25,000 visitors and to date it’s had more than 2.5 million page views.

    Last week I got an email from one of my regular correspondents saying he was newly divorced and thinking of signing up with a dating agency. ‘It made me realise that a key criterion for meeting someone is that they absolutely must be a lockdown sceptic,’ he wrote. ‘I genuinely think that if I can find a girl as sceptical as me, she must therefore be marriage material. That’s how important (and sadly divisive) this issue has now become. I could never date (let alone build a relationship with) a lockdown zealot.’

    That’s when the lightbulb appeared above my head. Why not start a dating site myself? My tech-savvy collaborator, Ian Rons, had already created some discussion forums on the website, so all he needed to do was add a new page where users could post their lonely hearts messages. We decided to call it ‘Love in a Covid climate’.

    Almost as soon as it was launched, it was invaded by pro-lockdown trolls who think anyone who downplays the threat of the virus is a middle-aged, Brexit-supporting, Tory-voting, scientifically illiterate 5G conspiracy theorist. They began to post satirical personal ads, some of which, I have to admit, were quite funny.

    ‘After a demoralising divorce I was, like many, reinvigorated by the Brexit movement only to be let down by Boris in this mask debacle,’ wrote one. ‘Looking for Albion-loving lady 35-50 who would be open to dressing up as Winston Churchill and spanking me with a cricket bat while I sing “Land of Hope and Glory”. No snowflakes need apply.’

    Other wags suggested alternative names for the new service, including ‘Two Meeters’, ‘-OkStupid’ and ‘Spreadr’. The general theme was that lockdown sceptics are more likely to have the virus than other people, making them extremely unappealing as dating prospects. I even got an email from a journalist at the Guardian asking me to respond to the charge that the forum could spread coronavirus and harm the individuals involved.

    But as we sceptics are fond of pointing out, almost no one has the virus any more. Many people wildly exaggerate the risk. For instance, a poll published a couple of weeks ago found that the public believe that 7 per cent of the UK population has died of Covid-19. That’s more than 4.5 million people. In fact, the real number of Covid fatalities in Britain is about 45,000, 1 per cent of that.

    According to John Ioannidis, a Stanford Professor of Medicine, you’re more likely to die in a road-traffic accident than you are of the virus if you’re under 65. As I told the Guardian reporter, I’ve created my dating site for people who are properly informed about the risk and want to meet others who haven’t succumbed to what Bernard-Henri Lévy calls ‘psychotic delirium’.

    Luckily, Ian Rons had already put a team of moderators in place to keep the forums clean and tidy and they quickly went to work, kicking out the trolls. Since then, I’m happy to report, it’s really taken off, with dozens of legitimate users now posting bona fide messages. I have no doubt that within six months we’ll be celebrating our first Lockdown Sceptics wedding.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ive-started-a-dating-site-for-lockdown-sceptics

    Confession – I am married to a Covid-bedwetter …..

    2. Is that why you spend time here? You need some sanity! One of the worst aspects of this disease hysteria is the way everybody is looked at as a potential vector of fatal illness.

    3. “For instance, a poll published a couple of weeks ago found that the public believe that 7 per cent of the UK population has died of Covid-19.”
      I’m fairly sure that 25%, at least, of the public are innumerate.

  59. Is it time the BBC and the Proms parted ways?

    The BBC’s mishandling of the Proms is a shocking dereliction of duty – this national institution deserves better

    NORMAN LEBRECHT – 26 August 2020 • 7:00am

    Bringing the nation together: the crowd at the Last Night of the Proms in 2014 CREDIT: EPA/Shutterstock
    Two media events signal the change of seasons in the British Isles. The annual “first swallows” letter on the middle pages of a broadsheet newspaper is the harbinger of spring, while Rule, Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms on the second Saturday in September is the trigger for everyone up and down the land to fluff up the woolies and hunker down for winter.

    The Rule, Britannia moment is a rare collusion of cultural and national sentiment. Year after year, this classical concert is guaranteed a place on a main BBC TV channel, and it rouses us from our sofas in a shameless singalong to lyrics that have long since lost all meaning. The justly half-forgotten Thomas Arne, turning out a musical for the West End in 1740, wrote the aria as an appeal for national unity in the face of simmering Scottish secession. If Nicola Sturgeon were to take umbrage at the words, she’d be well within her rights. There’s no real cause for Black Lives Matter protesters to alight on it, other than the inflammatory noun “slaves”.

    For the lame duck BBC, however, the merest ripple of woke outrage provoked a typhoon of memos and stratagems. Last weekend the BBC leaked to a newspaper that the Last Night conductor Dalia Stasevska, a BLM supporter, objected to Rule, Britannia. Ms Stasevska (no relation to Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Dahlia) is a Finnish Ukrainian who was granted Last Night rites by stale, pale males at the BBC’s music department in order to redress their internal gender imbalance. A protégée of the BBC Symphony’s music director Sakari Oramo, she is, with Oramo, one of four Finnish conductors with posts at BBC orchestras (John Storgårds at the BBC Phil and Anna-Maria Helsing at the BBC Concert Orchestra are the others). While Finns can be notably clannish, it is noteworthy that the nervous BBC lacks a single BAME baton.

    A moderately capable conductor of limited experience, Stasevska, who is married to the great-grandson of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, shares the faddist concerns of the thirtysomething generation. Knowing little of Britain, she is none the less entitled to make her views known. Under any previous Proms controller – Roger Wright, Nicholas Kenyon, John Drummond – she would have been quietly told that if she didn’t like the anthem she could withdraw from the concert. Drummond faced down national uproar over a noisy Harrison Birtwistle premiere; Wright banned Nigel Kennedy after he played politics by showing up in an Arab headdress. No big deal: the Proms thrives on furores.

    But the present chiefs – Alan Davey at Radio 3 and David Pickard as head of Proms – let Stasevska make her political point and mulled on it. They must have been aware of the likelihood of a media leak that would force them into action. With Tony Hall making his final speech as director-general in Edinburgh and Tim Davie not quite in the job, there’s a vacuum at the top of the BBC and a propensity to kick decisions around the media before reaching a conclusion.

    As the calculated leak blew into a summer storm, panic ensued. After a flurry of virtual meetings on Monday, it was decided collectively – no one at the BBC takes personal responsibility – to maintain the place of Rule, Britannia and the more imperialist Land of Hope and Glory in the Last Night programme, albeit without any singing so that no one could be offended by the words. The omission was attributed, speciously, to scientific Covid rules on voice projection.

    So, while aiming to have the best of both worlds, BBC bosses have delivered the worst – two songs which cannot be sung, two anthems without emotion. The BBC has, for the first time, actively censored the Proms, subjecting itself in the process to self-harm.

    Does it matter? Of course it does. We are facing a winter of discontent, the bleakest in memory, with a pandemic stalking our streets and unemployment rising to Depression records. What the nation craves at the turn of seasons is comfort and certainty, the assurance that Rule, Britannia is still in place on the second Saturday in September regardless of masks and self-distancing, that Covid can be defeated by keeping our cool. By emasculating Britannia, the BBC lost touch with public mood. It is also in danger of losing the confidence of the music community to remain in charge of the Proms. Commercial operators who would normally take the BBC’s control of the Proms for granted are starting to mutter privately about possible alternatives. The ownership of the Proms is not set in stone.

    The BBC took over the festival in 1927 after its co-founder, the entrepreneurial conductor Henry Wood, ran into financial difficulties. Wood’s orchestra was merged into the new BBC Symphony and the Proms played on happily until the BBC summarily pulled the plug in 1939, at the hour of greatest need. Wood found rich backers for a couple of summers until the BBC changed its mind, recognising the brand value of presenting a genuinely popular season of uncompromisingly highbrow music.

    Since then, the BBC has prided itself on running “the world’s biggest classical music festival” without a penny of external sponsorship. There have been wobbles, for sure, notably in 1980 when the BBC orchestras went on strike and Thatcherites called for privatisation, but the machine has generally run smoothly and the world’s finest musicians have competed to be seen at the Proms.

    The season costs the BBC £10-11 million, half of it recouped in ticket sales. The net £5 million cost, providing hundreds of hours of free broadcasting, is peanuts compared to the corporation’s football outlay. The BBC gets a very good deal out of the Proms. This summer, however, it has proved unequal to the task. Months of dither yielded two September weeks of concerts in an empty Royal Albert Hall. Nobody was happy, but Covid got the blame. Then, this month, other concerts began to stir. The Wigmore Hall announced 100 performances “with or without audiences”. Cadogan Hall, half a mile away from the RAH, is selling tickets for September. First off the mark was the former Proms chief Roger Wright, now chief executive of Britten-Pears Arts, who revived the Aldeburgh Festival with outstanding musicians and avid audiences.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/music/2020/08/24/TELEMMGLPICT000237686612_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqyuLFFzXshuGqnr8zPdDWXiTUh73-1IAIBaONvUINpkg.jpeg?imwidth=680
    Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason performed to an audience at Aldeburgh last week

    Last week the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, with his pianist sister Isata, performed to 150 people at Aldeburgh. Next month, they will appear at an empty Royal Albert Hall. Sitting at their Aldeburgh recital was Alan Davey, the BBC executive who has been unable to organise an audience at the Proms. He told all around him how wonderful it was, without explaining why the BBC, with all its clout, cannot organise a Proms concert with an audience. This looks like a shocking dereliction – a failure of nerve, imagination, ingenuity, sensitivity and initiative. While concert givers up and down the country are welcoming audiences, the BBC sits back and blames Covid – both for the empty Albert Hall and for the Rule, Britannia fiasco.

    In normal times, heads would roll (as they did in 1980). Incoming DG Tim Davie has larger headaches ahead – over-75s licence fees, lack of new TV shows, unchecked overstaffing – but the Proms are a talisman for the BBC and the failure to put on a season with a live audience raises questions of confidence and competence. Why was it beyond the BBC to let 50-500 people into the 5,000 seats of the Royal Albert Hall? Is the BBC still the best provider of summer music? Might a private operator, or a private-public partnership, do better? Could the Last Night be spun off as a money-spinner? Has the loss of Rule, Britannia killed the Last Night?

    Privatisation is in the air once more. In Germany, the NDR public broadcaster is putting out its chorus to public tender. London’s South Bank Board looks set to be broken up. Covid will reframe the arts, in some ways for the better. Now is the time to start talking about the future of the Proms. The BBC has failed us this summer. Might another franchise holder – Channel 4 or Sky – do a better job?

    Norman Lebrecht’s book Genius and Anxiety is out next week in paperback

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/time-bbc-proms-parted-ways/#comment

    ​

    1. Quite agree! They need not fill the Albert Hall to the gunnels, but why not a smaller audience?

      1. The Beeb shouldn’t be entrusted with anything. They only care for those that fall within their own orbit and dish out our dosh in one massive circle-jerk.

    1. She spoke very well – so she has a Slovenian accent – it’s more attractive than an American one.

    2. I enjoy Bette Midler films but she, in that statement, shows what a hypocritical Leftie she is.

        2. Not only is she beautiful (Melania) she is also gracious and elegant. Is there a little bit of the ole green eye with Midler?

      2. I hate that sort of tasteless “getta loada my cleavage boys” approach to female dress.

    1. ‘Dalia is a big supporter of
      Black Lives Matter and thinks a ceremony without an audience is the
      perfect moment to bring change,’ a BBC source said.

      Next month, she will become only the second woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms.”

      Well – we remember the political speech from Marin Alsop. don’t we? Doubtless this woman will use the Last Night for another.

      1. I don’t care if she does, to be honest. I shan’t be listening to it. Unfortunately there will be no live audience to give her the bird.

  62. SIR – Last week I received a fine of £110 from Ealing council after my daughter mistakenly inputted “0” instead of the letter “O” when using her mobile phone to pay – on my behalf – for an hour-long parking permit for my car.

    Computer-generated emails provide no details for anyone with whom I might discuss the matter. My daughter is on maternity leave and my son-in-law has been furloughed. Made to pay £110 for zero; councils are milking us.

    Paul Rust
    Swansea

    Don’t pay. Write to the council explaining the circumstances (use registered delivery). Presumably your daughter has proof of payment either on her phone or a credit card bill. The council dare not take you to court over a genuine mistake, especially as the parking permit has been paid.

      1. While everything has been shut for months, what are we actually paying our council tax for?

        1. Good afternoon, J.

          Our ‘Refuse Collectors’ ie. Dustmen
          have been their usual, excellent selves,
          not once have they missed collections,
          indeed due to the additional rubbish,
          caused by people being at home, they
          have made additional visits.
          Taking into account what we are paying
          our ‘Glorified NHS’ I consider these men
          to be worth their weight in gold.

          1. Good afternon, G

            The rubbish collection is about the only benefit we get from our Council Tax – they have indeed been working right the way through, though we have had no extra visits. The tip has brought in an online booking system since it reopened – so no more queuing to get rid of garden waste.

            Everything else provided by councils has been closed – leisure centres, swimming pools, libraries, etc. Not sure about provisions for the poor and needy, like family centres and so on, but the food banks have been doing a roaring trade.

          2. Yes, I agree with you about closed facilities,
            and believe councils should claim greater
            support from HMG to cover these closures,
            hence leading to a reduction in costs, they
            are probably still paying wages etc. and
            maintenance costs will continue.
            The NHS has the same duty of care to its
            users and has failed miserably in my opinion.

          3. Dustmen? What they?

            Our bins are collected and emptied by a lone operator. He (sometimes she) drives the lorry, jumps out every few yards, drags the bins across the road, empties them, takes them back, gets back in the cab and repeats this sequence all shift long.

            They have no back-up in case of accident or emergency, but don’t seem to mind.

    1. Why are the media bigging that up when here in Britain we have enough black on black crime , and crimes aginst our usually fair minded put upon police force.

      1. Our police very rarely actually shoot them in the street – especially in the back. The trigger-happy American police overracted shooting this scumbag and by doing so have played into the hands of the Woke and BLM brigade.

        1. When asked why they shot him so many times the police said that’s all the ammo we had

    2. Some rules when stopped by the police in the US:
      – Keep your hands visible & keep still.
      – No sudden movements, especially those that look like you might be going for a gun or a knife (eg. towards back pocket for wallet & ID).
      – Do what they say.
      – Tell the officer what you intend to do before you do it. “Is that OK, Officer?”
      – Be polite.
      Remember, these guys have guns, and from their perspective, you may well have one, too. If you are grabbing for your gun, they don’t have very long to work out what you are doing and whether it’s a threat, so they will likely do something unpleasant.

  64. Afternoon all.
    ” People who are properly informed about the risk and want to meet others who haven’t succumbed to what Bernard-Henri Lévy calls ‘psychotic
    delirium’.”.
    I have a long-time friend/carer who, after Covid March, decided to stay away. Well, one seriously-distanced visit when he fled after a few minutes. We spoke y’day and he said that next week he will visit but ” we can sit by the back door ” ! I have two other remarkable carers who have supported me throughout. – and covid would probably totally fruck me.

    So, do I tell this frightened, obsessive, twit to grow a pair or to eff oRf into his cotton wool sunset?

    1. Tell him he enters your covid-infested abode at his own risk – but that he is a risk to you as he has undoubtedly been in contact with other disease -carrying individuals, while you have been closeted at home.

    2. Hang on to him for now. Although obviously not literally. To be perfectly cynical there may well be non-covid times when you need assistance, and you may need to take advantage of that. Any port in a storm. Put him into the box marked ‘Future Reference’ subheading ‘Fairweather’ and treat as such.

  65. Nearly 50,000 salmon escape from fish farm in Argyll after four of its pens were damaged during Storm Ellen. 26 August 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/504f86bebb9b2850bee5fccee1f0f37eacfba453b489a1c80ad9d7800c5bd6dd.jpg

    Nearly 50,000 salmon escaped from a fish farm after four of its pens were damaged during Storm Ellen.

    The North Carradale farm in Argyll was badly hit by the bad weather, which broke mooring ropes attaching the pens to the seabed.

    Another 30,000 salmon also died in the incident, while 125,000 were caught and harvested.

    Go for it lads. Make for the Border! Escape this Piscine Auschwitz! Swimming makes you free!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8665121/Nearly-50-000-salmon-escape-fish-farm-Argyll.html

    2. Unfortunately, they only know how to swim in circles. On a more serious note, those escapees are a genetic hazard to wild salmon if they start interbreeding with them.

  66. If it were a different era, than given the government’s many u-turns** a Boris Spinning Top would be a bestseller.

    ** No u-turns which really would be big improvements such as on HS2 and “zero carbon”.

  68. Goats still in fine fettle. Won’t bore you with a snap. Just a delight to see them goating about! Great therapy for a recovering patient.

  69. With severe gales blowing in The English Channel there have been far fewer illegal immigrants landing on the Kent coast in the last couple of days.

    However, don’t worry – unlike companies such as Flybe and others which have gone bankrupt normal service will resume as soon as the wind force diminishes.

      2. As someone observed the other day, (the US Dr on the video?) very, very few senior/elite people have actually died of it.

    1. It is another version of karma, or what goes around comes around. I prefer if you live by the sword etc – so much more graphic and poetic. And mostly they all do, one way or the other.

  73. Left-wing news outlets are absolutely delighted to report the shooting of a black man in Wisconsin which has given BLM and ANTIFA the excuse to start riots, looting, etc. such that Wisconsin is now in a state of emergency.

    However, not reported at all, except on local news outlets is that 66 people were shot, five fatally, in Chicago last weekend. Yesterday alone, 22 people were shot.
    https://chicago.suntimes.com/news/2020/8/25/21400584/22-shot-shooting-monday-august-24-crime-gun-violence

    But all that is fine because it is ‘people of colour’ doing the shooting.

    Chicago is a Democrat run city. Here is a photo of Chicago’s left-wing, BLM supporting mayor.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f6b4abed07b8900b8d01a9675132ed9b18808eeb9a6bf14f946edd575196aa07.png

    2. The BBC have given us an update on the poor Wisconsin chap’s condition. Apparently his lawyers* have stated that he will never walk again.
      If I were him I’d have asked for a medical opinion.

      How can he afford lawyers? We can’t even afford one.

    4. It’s comical that they all blame Trump for the state of their cities yet all those cities that are in chaos, empty, impoverished are democrat run ones.

    2. What seems to define all the queers is that they have to show off their sexuality. Polite society just gets on with the sloppy bits of life in the privacy of their own homes and it is as if these people want to make themselves seem different. The last thing I want to see are grown men in tight shorts, it was bad enough living in Germany for a while but at least they kept their baubles and their oompahs to themselves

      1. Ah,but they want it both ways, if you’ll pardon the expression. They want to be special, but they want their perversion to be seen as normal. Well, either it’s normal (it isn’t – it may be natural, but if it were the norm, most of us would be doing it) and therefore run of the mill, or they are a special case. I just wish they’d shut up and get on with it behind closed doors.

      2. I have a number of gay (or queer) friends/acquaintances here and in most cases you wouldn’t know, unless you were in on the social group. There’s certainly no overt gay/camp/pride behaviour.

    3. 1. Pride in being gay is absurd. It’s a bit like being proud of being a cat owner.

      2. You’ve chosen an unnatural lifestyle. Fine. Shut it.

        1. Pride is all too often really hubris. Pride requires personal effort, sacrifice, investment and risk.

          I genuinely don’t understand why they feel this need to prance about. It annoys me, it doesn’t break down any barriers. You put your parts up a bottom despite to expel human waste. Weird, but fine, that’s your choice. Keep it private, please.

          1. As a child, I learned that pride was a bad thing, ie a sin.

            The re-branding of anal sex as “the love that dare not speak its name” was one of the great PR triumphs of the twentieth century.

  75. Any takers here?

    Steerpike
    Wanted: MoD diversity boss, £110,000-a-year
    26 August 2020, 10:40am

    Diversity and inclusion is, apparently, ‘mission critical’ to the Ministry of Defence. That’s right, up there with keeping our troops safe or even, believe it or not, defence of the realm. Which is why the MoD is now looking for a new director of diversity and inclusion. In fact, the role is so ‘mission critical’ that the successful candidate will be paid at least £110,000 — more than a major, colonel or brigadier.

    And what will this new ‘mission critical’ diversity director actually be doing? Ensuring that HM army, navy and airforce ‘at all levels, appropriately represents UK society’ and that the MoD is ‘recognised as a force for inclusion in wider society’. Mr S would prefer to see the MoD recognised as a force for protecting wider society. In fact, it appears the Whitehall bods in charge of writing the extensive job description may have unintentionally let the cat out of the bag. One of the responsibilities is to promote a new complaints and ‘grievance system’…

    Incidentally, Mr S would like to remind readers of the front page of the Times yesterday, which told readers that ‘Defence chiefs face battle over plans to scrap tanks’. According to the report, Britain’s 227 Challenger 2 tanks and 388 Warrior armoured vehicles are now ‘obsolete’ and are to be mothballed. Call Mr S an armchair general, but perhaps the UK’s fleet of tanks is ever so slightly more ‘mission critical’ than another deskbound defence mandarin.

    1. If a Diversity Boss had been around in 1879, the battle of Rorke’s Drift might have gone a bit differently:-
      “Zulus approaching from the South – thousands of them!”
      “At one hundred yards – ready, aim, DO NOT FIRE!”
      “Why not fire, sir?”
      “Because Black Lives Matter”.

  76. For those interested in science, or merely follow it here is a question. A question that never seems to have been asked of Prof. Whitty who is surely the lead of the science that the UK Governments are pretending to follow.
    “In total, how many people have caught Covid-19 in toilets?”
    If none, then why have toilets in businesses, public buildings and in shops and other premises been closed? In particular why are all council public toilets closed?
    Hardly good for tourism, is it?

    1. How would you deduce with certainty that any given Covid-19 infection occurred in a lavatory?

          2. I know they are not everywhere but they do have self cleaning bogs. It can’t be beyond the realm of possibility to have them program the exit door to not let you out unless you have washed and dried your hands.

            Anyhoo…I’m off to watch Terminator Genisys.

          5. True, but that doesn’t necessarily make them super-spreaders. Their hands & fingernails may be filthy, but if there’s no virus present, it can’t be spread.

        2. Do they have filters for hand dryers? I wouldn’t think they had virus level control anyway.

          A restaurant i visited recently on a very hot day apologised for the fact that they were not allowed to run their air conditioning.

          Obviously oblivious to Legionella.

      3. Trace and track, obviously. To go back a few decades, how many cases of VD were contracted from toilets and lavatories? Please note, I did not say in toilets and lavatories.

      4. 323030+ up ticks,
        PTv,
        Should be safe with the 6′ ruling for the majority of the peoples but remind politicians to remember, to handling their own member, & NOT handling other
        members member.

    2. I am beginning think it is all part of turning the uk into a – sorry – dump. All part of the plan in one small way, anyway which way they can think, of making it somewhere of which we are no longer proud. I am amazed at how many birds have been killed by the covid stone.

      1. Apparently, we have had the worst economic downturn in the world – what a surprise! We’ve got a government of idiots in thrall to a proven useless scientist. Good news is, we’re on our way back economically since the ending of lockdown – now all we have to do is stop Boris and his idiots from killing off the recovery.

    3. 323030 + up ticks,
      Evening HP,
      Self explanatory if the overseers control the bowel movements of a person they are a good way to controlling and incarcerating the person.
      There are a great many who plan a trip downtown via the
      pitstops en route.

      Fear of being in a demeaning position of dire need many would rather not take the trip.
      The overseers WILL overlook issues such as Dover but you will find they are shit hot at seemingly minor details of treachery.

    4. A very sore point around here.

      A three hour drive from the big cities, all toilets closed in the park and local restaurants. Then there is upset when the tourists use peoples front gardens as toilets.

      2. I would have you know that we do not drink rosé.

        Well if you insist but just a small one.

    2. Not me. Gordon’s pink Gin. Not pink Gin as people would normally know it with Angostura but flavoured with raspberry and strawberry. Just add tonic and it’s an instant cocktail.

      Just having another one !

      2. I had one of those to greet me to Christmas lunch chez amis 2 years ago. It had blackberries & raspberries floating around in it. Delicious.

  78. BBCgate continues apace.

    Someone called Charlotte Moore, who undoubtedly has gold-plated credentials from the Guardian, is quoted as saying that diversity has never been more important to the BBC. “We must reflect the nation that we are making our programmes for”!

    She wants the BBC to make diversity an absolute priority “otherwise the television industry in this country will not survive.” I think we would all survive very nicely, thank you, without the likes of Charlotte Moore.

    This woman is the BBC’s ‘Director of Content’, no less, and her salary is £370,000, more than double that of the Prime Minister.

    To cap it all, she has said: “Revealing salaries of top earning stars is not in the interests of licence fee payers”. Given that it is the license fee payers who foot the bill for her salary, I’m not sure that many of them would agree with her!

    In the meantime she is pushing the LGBTXYZ ‘community’ and the BBC continues to work to combat “heteronormative culture” in its workplace.

    I really can’t think of anything further to say that is polite enough to be written in a respectable website.

        1. So this is the woman responsible for rewriting British history and culture, and brainwashing the British public. This is so subversive as to be almost unbelievable, except that we know it to be true.

    3. “We must reflect the nation that we are making our programmes for” That would be the 85% white European nation of GB, then. After all, we are forced to pay for their rubbish. More like they are reflecting the nation they want to foist on us.

  81. The clock has just struck Wine o’clock – so I am off.

    See you tomorrow – bright ‘n early – builder coming.

    A demain

  82. We’d miss the BBC, wouldn’t we? How else would we get our daily dose of outrage?

    The BBC’s Proms posturing suggests a corporation with a death wish

    This annual music event has become an opportunity for the national broadcaster to show just how divorced from public opinion it really is

    DOUGLAS MURRAY

    It is that time of year again. When the BBC tries to wrench away my last remaining justification for its funding.

    At last year’s Last Night of the Proms the BBC gave us a number of delights. As well as a new commission called ‘Woke’ the main event was that the task of singing Rule, Britannia was given to a soprano who the BBC thrilled to report was wearing a dress in the colours of the ‘bisexual flag’.

    I think most of us could honestly say that we care very little what team our Rule, Britannia soprano plays for. But the BBC obviously thought otherwise. And in case the dim children at the back (aka the general public) weren’t paying attention, when the last verse came this soprano hauled out a huge LGBT rainbow flag from behind the podium and began waving it furiously. Hurrah and huzzah, the higher-ups at the BBC clearly thought. That’ll show the bigots.

    Only at the BBC could anyone imagine that the world of classical music is overwhelmingly heterosexual and that gay people in said world still face insuperable barriers.

    It appears that this year’s improving Last Night lesson will be an anti-racist one. ‘The Proms will reinvent the Last Night in this extraordinary year so that it respects the traditions and spirit of the event whilst adapting to very different circumstances at this moment in time.’ So said the BBC in their statement announcing that this Last Night would include the playing of Rule Britannia, Land of Hope and Glory and other favourites. But that while we may enjoy the tunes, we may not this year enjoy the words.

    What has changed? Well the conductor for the evening – the Finnish Dalia Stasevska – had earlier been quoted saying that ‘change’ was needed at the Royal Albert Hall this year. Because of the death of George Floyd.

    Speaking personally, I am getting a little fed up with the shoe-horning of George Floyd into every aspect of our lives. The Minnesotan policeman accused of killing him is currently in prison awaiting trial for murder. Literally nobody on earth is defending his actions so it is slightly galling that anyone, at the BBC or anywhere else, should try to present his killing as some sort of Murder on the Orient Express effort involving every white person on earth.

    But the BBC seems to fear just that. At the same time it was wringing its hands about the Last Night of the Proms the corporation released a strange, silent, black and white video announcing that it was dedicating £100 million to “long-term change”. “We’ve always been here to celebrate diversity” the advert said. “But we need to do more and we will.” What does this even mean? What have events in Minnesota got to do with the taxpayer-funded BBC? Did the corporation have any involvement in the killing of Mr Floyd?

    Of course, the BBC is only the latest corporation to display some such fear. A fortnight ago a shopper in Marks and Spencer complained that one of the darker coloured bras in the range was called ‘tobacco’. Twenty-nine-year-old Kusi Kimani told the press, ‘I saw it about two weeks after George Floyd’s death and it was particularly raw to see at that time’. Marks and Spencer immediately apologised and pleaded about how they had ‘more to learn’. Absolutely nobody said ‘What?’ Or more pertinently ‘WTF’? What has the death of George Floyd got to do with an M&S bra?

    Well about as much as it has to do with British history or the patriotic songs which the citizens of this country traditionally enjoy singing. Outside of some radical street protestors it is only in cringing corporations like the BBC that anyone could honestly fail to understand the spirit in which these songs are sung or the deep, decent wells on which they draw.

    Only these ignoramuses actually live with the misapprehension that if we British have a few too many verses of Rule Britannia then we become seized by the urge to invade France. Or bring back that global slave trade we led the world in doing away with.

    Tens of thousands of members of the general public have already signed a petition to try to persuade the BBC that we know how to behave after a song or two. I hope they are successful. A country is made up of its traditions. This country is a decent one, and our traditions are too.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/26/does-bbc-have-death-wish-proms-posturing-suggests-much/

    1. “Twenty-nine-year-old Kusi Kimani” – presumably it’s [note I’m not assuming gender!!] a fully paid up member of the “waiting to be offended by anything, no matter how obscure” club??

      1. I think he is a gay chappie who was looking for something to wear in the forthcoming Notting Hill Riots.

      2. Wonder if Kusi Kimani felt any ‘rawness’ after the murder of 5-year-old Cannon Hinnant?

    2. Talking about British traditions, I’m amazed that the Beefeaters haven’t been pensioned off as they may offend Vegans.

  83. A young drug dealer who was stabbed to death in north-east London was likely killed by rivals wanting to steal his customers, an inquest has heard. Antonio Rodney-Cole died in hospital, aged 22, after he was knifed in Stoke Newington on December 2, 2013.

    Giving evidence over video-link, Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Kooner said the murder investigation was continuing. (2013 still continuing!)

    The inquest also heard written evidence from one of Mr Rodney-Cole’s long-term customers, Leanne Brown.
    In a statement, Ms Brown said she spoke to the victim on the morning of his death, when he said to call him back later as he was still preparing the drugs for sale.
    She said: “When I rang later, a male answered the phone. I didn’t recognise this person’s voice.

    https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB18ordb.img?h=768&w=1366&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f

    Could have been worse – could have been selling in Kenosha.

    2. If we cut off welfare entirely and remove the reason they breed, we could stop the blacks killing blacks problem, wipe out black lives matter with their own hypocrisy and reinstate the nuclear family at the heart of society.

      Just an idea.

  88. Chief education civil servant Jonathan Slater sacked after exams row

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53920146

    The Labour Party condemned the move, saying civil servants had “time and time again taken the fall for the incompetence and failures of ministers”.

    The Labour Party is half-correct. Williamson is truly a cabbage of a minister but the deep-seated problems of government have been more than 20 years in the making and will take a long time to correct.

    Everything leads back to Blair…

    3. “civil servants had “time and time again taken all their instruction from the EU for more than 40 years.”

      1. 323030 + up ticks,
        Evening M,
        The whole kit & caboodle have been brussels assets for decades, a pro eu coalition party.

    4. Agreed re Blair!

      Err, who advises the minimonsters? Answer: The civil service.
      Sack the CS people, we can vote out the ministers, the CS is fireproof, sadly.

  89. Chief education civil servant Jonathan Slater sacked after exams row

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53920146

    The Labour Party condemned the move, saying civil servants had “time and time again taken the fall for the incompetence and failures of ministers”.

    The Labour Party is half-correct. Williamson is truly a cabbage of a minister but the deep-seated problems of government have been more than 20 years in the making and will take a long time to correct.

    Everything leads back to Blair…

  90. Back from a ghastly pub lunch,greeted by a over bubbly blonde child wearing a “covid monitor” tee shirt who kept us waiting for 15 mins to gain entry,once shown to table brightly informed of at least a 45 min delay for food as “The kitchen is behind” (this is at 12.40)
    15 minutes to obtain a round of drinks from the two slatterns behind the bar who had difficulty passing them over the discarded covid ridden glasses piled in front of the pumps which were obviously far too dangerous to remove and wash…………
    Food arrives an hour later,half dishes cold,all chips limp soggy and undercooked………..
    “Could we please have some salt,pepper,vinegar and mayo please”
    “Here’s your pepper and mayo,no salt or vinegar available”
    Probably best words failed me at that point,I would have walked but it wasn’t my party
    A Greene King The Sussex nr Woking

    3. Discount day disasters are common it seems.

      Prior to this covid nonsense i had two disasters with greene king. I posted all the mistakes to tripadvisor for the two venues in question. Loch not fyne and my local hostelry the Red Lion where i also cancelled Christmas dinner because their Sunday roast beef was vile.

      My tripadvisor post also said that it would be easy to choose a venue in future by avoiding greene king altogether.

    4. We don’t use Greene King pubs or buy their stuff elsewhere.
      Once they handed a fistful of readies to Black Lies Matter, they were crossed off our list.

    5. I suspect you mean The Surrey, not The Sussex. A Greene King managed house, these places are generally dreadful, understaffed by poorly trained yoofs who have no idea. Crap food and abysmal beer. As Phizzee says, GK is best given a wide berth at all times.

      It’s a shame because there are some good pubs in that neck of the woods. But that ain’t one of them!

        1. I do recall. The Battleaxes at one end of the runway at Elstree Aerodrome used to keep GK Abbott back then and it was a seriously good beer. As was the Ruddles County in there. It was a Trust House, pre Forte.

          1. Other memories of that era:

            Two pints of Marstons’ Pedigree and a half a pint of cockles was the best hangover cure known to man!

          2. Wouldn’t know, I’ve never had a hangover. 😇

            I do like a good pint of Pedigree though.

        2. History has shown that Brewers who ‘make excellent beers’ usually do so because they don’t cut corners on ingredients and the brewing process. Unfortunately this puts them at a cost disadvantage to the less scrupulous operators and eventually they get taken over and closed. The many examples of this include Joules, Matthew Brown, Gales, Wethereds and Benskins. Those that GK have taken over and closed include Morrell’s, Morland’s and Ruddles. There are others. All of these companies had quality, distinctive and revered beers.

          GK, to avoid takeover, realised this and drove the cost out of their (then) excellent beers and turned them into cheap-to-produce products, using the names of the originals. To their eternal discredit however, they then set about buying up other East Anglian Brewers and closing them down, and closing many pubs as well, including in many cases the last pub in a village. It is a successful company and, despite being a shareholder until recently, I loathe the company, most of their products and their business ethic.

          1. Gales Best Bitter is one of my all-time favourites – sadly, now , of yesteryear.

          2. HSB was a good beer and Fullers have done a half-reasonable job of replicating it at Chiswick. BTW, I am betting that Fullers vacate their Chiswick site and build a new brewery outside London, watch this space….

      2. I think you’re right. I’m not aware of a Sussex in the area. I’ve been to The Surrey once for a pint or two with a colleague; wouldn’t dream of eating there. Used to like GK beer in Bury St Edmunds, particularly in the Dog and Partridge, next door to the brewery. But it was markedly worse by the time it reached Thetford, all of ten miles away. It doesn’t travel well.

      3. You’re quite right of course Harry,it was the Surrey,not my choice,my friend picked it for his birthday lunch,by the end we all wished we had gone to ‘Spoons both for the food and the beer!!
        Your summary is entirely accurate

    1. Land of woke and glory
      Mother of free-loaders now
      How can they exploit thee
      Taking everything Now!

  92. Bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nkers
    I have just come from a meeting at the microbiology labs at a different hospital from that at which I work.
    I went to pay for parking only to find that the machines don’t take cards and had a sign to say exact change if possible (so in short supply I assume; either that or the bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nkers can’t be a*sed to refill them)
    I put my ticket in and the fee displayed £2.80. I tried to put a £5 note in but it got mashed on the way in and so the machine was jammed. I called the intercom and the person on the other end said someone would be down to fix it.
    I waited about 15min, the queue for the machine growing all the time as you can imagine, and the bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nker finaly lumped along with a scowl.
    He opened the mahine and gave me my £5 back. When I put it back in, I only got 80p change. I showed this to the bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nker and he said that was because I had gone over the time limit. I patiently pointed out that was because of waiting for the fault with the machine to be fixed and asked if he could give me the rest from the bag of change he was about to refill the other machine with and he refused and said I would have to write to NHS England (???) to claim it back.
    I asked why they don’t have machines that accept cards and the bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nker said I would have to ask the ‘fat bureaucrats on £100K’
    I asked for his name so he could verify my claim and he said David. I asked if he would tell me his surname as well as, as I explained, there were probably 500 Davids working for the Trust and he would only identify himself as ‘white’ David. He wouldn’t give me his surname for fear of receiving a death threat. (He may very well get one!!!)
    Letter to car park dept in post.
    Bl**dy jobsworth bl**dy w*nkers

    1. I can see you are a bit p!**ed off! I thought nobody carried change for parking any more – they all seem to use their phones.

        2. But there are no parking spaces. The Borders General car park is used by people who work in Galashiels and Melrose. They drive to the NHS car park and then car share to their place of work in the towns. The car park and thresmall surrounding roads are always jammed with parked car…

    2. I don’t agree with violence in general but there are times when a punch in the gob is acceptable. At the very least give him the ‘hairdryer treatment’.

      Sorry you had a bad day.

    5. Absolutely everywhere else will only accept payment by card. I haven’t used cash since March 23rd.

    6. Funny – if it’s ‘our’ NHS then it’s my property – my taxes built the damned thing after all. And the buildings, and the wages of all those inside.

      Why am I being forced to pay to park on my property?

      1. The same, bloody good question I keep asking of my local (Ipswich) hospital.. No answer came the strange reply!!

        Keep questioning, old troop..

    7. What a wonderful day out with NHS parking systems.

      I’m sure that complete books could be written under the title, “My Day Out with an NHS Parking System.” It then leads on to backpfeifengesicht’ – A face badly in need of a fist. If the cap fits…

  93. SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The state takes one and gives it to someone else.
    COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The State takes both of them and gives you the milk.
    FASCISM: You have two cows. The State takes both of them and sells you the milk.
    MILITARY DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The State takes both of them and shoots you.
    BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. The state takes both of them, accidentally kills one and spills the milk in the sewer.
    CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

    2. FASCISM: You have two cows. The State takes both of them and sells you the milk.

      Nahh. You have two cows. The state takes both and tells you to drink water.

      I’d suggest what you have there is corporatism.

    3. Venture capitalism:

      You have two cows.

      You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of
      credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a
      debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four
      cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows.

      The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a
      Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells
      the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company.

      The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one.

      2. I think that Obers may have imbibed several alcoholic beverages more than would be good for him, Mr. Beans!

          4. Pet! I’m honoured! Pet! Are you in the NE of England?

            Nothing wrong with Mrs! Ive got one here!

          5. No pet! A real Geordie who married a Scotsman (he said he was doing missionary work in the North East!) and now live in central Scotland! When did you go to France?

          7. Ah yes! The time that gets away from you! We’ve lived in this house for 35 years, brought the girls up and now have a whole new set of grandchildren, and yet it looks the same and so do we!!🙄

        1. D in K, you are Peddy and I claim my five bob postal order. (Aksherly, I was too concerned with ensuring that the words in my poems rhymed, that I forgot to check my adjectives. This is ironic because some months ago I seem to recall correcting the real Peddy when he wished me “Buenos Noches”!)

  96. Evening, all. Thank heavens for being able to get out and ride! My trainer seems to be building up to doing a higher level of dressage test, judging by what we’ve been practising today (travers, renvers, half pass, counter canter and baby steps towards flying changes). More canter work next week, by the sound of things.

      1. Travers, renvers and half pass are all work on two tracks (in other words, the front end and the back end don’t follow each other because the horse is bent one way or another – shoulder to the inside or quarters to the inside or bent and moving sideways rather than just forwards). Counter canter is when you are circling right, but with the left front leg leading (normally it would be the right front leg) or vice versa. Flying changes are when you are cantering with one leg leading and then, without coming out of canter, skip onto the other lead. These are also called tempi (one or two-time changes, depending how many steps before you skip onto the other lead).

    2. in 1966, as 25-yr-old post-grad student at Trinity College Dublin, I used to train at Ian Dudgeon’s Burton Hall in Leopardstown. My trainer was a merciless Scot’s Grey’s sergeant ! I didn’t do much dressage; I was more interested in hunting and hunter-trials – before the era of ‘three-day-events’.

      1. I used to ride with the RHA saddle club when I lived in Colchester. Not much mercy, even for a civilian 🙂 Three Day Events took off in 1948 with Badminton.

        1. I should have said, “before before the era of popularity and widespread access to ‘three-day-events’,” Conway.

        2. Evening, Conners. I live in Colchester and rode a pony on Sunday evening. I had just driven my car to my local garage for its annual M.O.T. test the next day. The pony was called Shankses.

          :-))

          1. At the time I was riding with the Saddle Club, I had moved out of Colchester proper and was living in Alresford. “Living in Colchester” is shorthand for “living in Colchester and its environs” 🙂

  97. Damn! I have just had a moth fly onto my keyboard and disappear under one of the cursor keys 🙁

    1. It’s there to stay and will invite the family, things will go missing in the house. It was a gypsy moth.

      1. It might have crawled in there to die, with any luck – I did take a swipe at it before it disappeared.

      1. No, it’s actually a Microsoft one. Perhaps it thinks it’s found Gates to another world 🙂

  101. With the odious Notting Hill carnival looming up ahead of us I am reminded of the real summer carnivals in Cornwall where bands such as The St Austell Silver Band marched through the village umpa umpa-ing favourites such as ‘The Floral Dance’ and ‘Going Up Camborne Hill Coming Down’; people dressed up as celebrities or depicted recent events in gaudy and vulgar costumes; much alcohol was consumed and we all had a lovely time.

    In the early 80’s two of the films were making the headlines were : Gandhi and Star Wars. As a group of us had access to a pantomime elephant from a friend who provided props for the Minack Theatre and we also had access to some live goats, chickens and other livestock and plenty of children we decided we would enter the Fowey Regatta carnival. I decked myself out in appropriately over-the-top clothes and fixed red sideburns on my cheeks and paraded myself as the ridiculous Richard Attenborough; a friend of mine who was conveniently bald stripped all his clothes off, covered himself in brown dye and wore just a loin cloth and played the part of Mahatma while my crew members from my boat, Raua were respectively the front and back end of the elephant, while the women and children took the roles of peasant women and children in brown-face and strolled along with us and the livestock through Fowey’s narrow streets where people pressed drinks upon us. Our float was called: GANDHI 2 ” – THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

    We won a prize and bought ice creams all around for children, glasses of wine for the women and beer for the men.

    This bit of fun also reminds me that it is high time that we showed a bit of pride in our past – including our empire – and struck back at the odiously unpleasant wokists.

    1. Try that today and you’d have to call the float “Death Wish – Suicide Mission”.

    2. I read somewhere that the Notting Hill Carnaval is cancelled but that a similar event will take place in Brixton.

      It is almost forty years since we left London following the Brixton riots of 1981 and the knife assault and handbag theft experienced by my wife. We had a flat in Clapham Common at the time.

      I reckon the Wogs of today will be the grandchildren of the violent mob of that time, given their rate of breeding.

      1. Now England’s a multi racial state
        And they don’t have no apartheid
        Especially around Notting Hill Gate.
        They’ve got two way traffic there – the blacks moving in and the whites moving out.

        [‘Talking London Blues: Jeremy Taylor 1964 Wait a Minim, a satirical South African Revue.]

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxc3UtC8eX4

    2. Saw 2 tawny owls on the way back from fishing Sunday evening. One view was stunning as the bird just sat on a low overhanging branch.

  105. Good night, chums. Take a look at your reasons for switching subscribers off – are they realistic? Are you subconsciously playing into the hands of BLM and Antifa? Heaven forfend!

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