Friday 2 July: The Government’s Covid restrictions are hopelessly out of date

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/07/01/letters-governments-covid-restrictions-hopelessly-date/

473 thoughts on “Friday 2 July: The Government’s Covid restrictions are hopelessly out of date”

  2. Morning all, pollsters eh! What do they know, nothing it appears. The good news for the buffoon, Sir Cur will stay in place being an inefficient opposition leader to him.

    1. 300 votes, was their a recount?
      A win for the establishment whoever won, I suppose.

        1. Were the postal votes delivered in sacks just before the polls closed?

          1. no idea, it follows the same voting fraud which “the establishment” seem to condone. Another element that came from US. End result is now there’s a “lesbian MP for Kashmir Batley”. Next by election expect Shamima Begum to stand

          2. Kim Leadbeater (Lab) 13,296 (35.27%)

            Ryan Stephenson (C) 12,973 (34.42%)

            George Galloway (WP) 8,264 (21.92%)

            Thomas Gordon (LD) 1,254 (3.33%)

            All the other candidates polled 1,898 collectively. Not seen / heard anything from Ed Davey, presumably the slice of the postal voting cake was either a mere “biting” or he was in one of the sacks that arrived too late

          3. Proof positive (if the figures are to be believed) that there are over 26,000 deluded voters in Batley & Spen.

        2. Good morning

          Labour is beginning to learn how to steal an election from the US Democratic Party. I wonder how many of the postal votes were those of dead people.

          (Please would you back this up with a link?)

          1. aftn Rastus, agree it’s another US export. Info I’m getting is c/o old school mate who lives, works [plays rugby league in Batley] and voted. He’s mailing me and we’re on skype, hence sharing info on the “QT”.

            The public confirmed element re postal votes c/o Limp Dem tweet is 16,113;

            “The overall electorate in #BatleyAndSpen is 79,373. The amount of postal votes applied for is 16,113. #LDReporter— TonyLDR (@LdrTony) July 1, 2021”

    2. Polling now attempts to set the agenda rather than reflect the public mood.

      An ONS “survey” re jabbing children published in Lockdown Sceptics is one such.

      If the vaccination of children against Covid is given the green light in England, almost nine in 10 parents will be happy for their own children to be included in the roll-out, according to a new survey released bythe Office for National Statistics (ONS).

      >

  3. mng, here we go with the usual virtue signalling from the Islington wine cellar:

    SIR – My wife, who like me is double-jabbed, went to watch our grandson swim. She was unknowingly in the proximity of someone who tested positive for Covid, and three days later she was told by the NHS to self-isolate.

    We immediately took lateral flow tests, which were negative, and three days later did so again – also negative. Self-isolation for 10 days after exposure, under threat of a fine for non-compliance, was inappropriate.

    The test-and-trace rules came into force almost a year ago, before the successful vaccine programme. They are out of date and restrict sensible adults who have their own best interests at heart in avoiding Covid. They must change.

    David Richards
    Fowey, Cornwall

    SIR – Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, says he wants to end the school bubble system as soon as possible (report, June 30).

    Surely, that is today. It is the choice of ministers that this ridiculous system continues to devastate children’s lives. They should hang their heads in shame.

    Alison Handy
    Penwood, Hampshire

    SIR – Having worked with school leaders throughout the pandemic, it is clear to me that they have truly gone the extra mile at every stage, especially now, as cases again rise exponentially.

    Schools conduct rigorous contact tracing when a case of Covid arises, then take advice from public health colleagues before deciding which pupils to send home. Meanwhile, they receive inadequate support and guidance from the Government.

    John Thompson
    York

    SIR – If it is so important that children catch up after missing education, why is it that they had two weeks’ holiday at Easter, a week at half-term, and are about to have another six? Surely, they should be in class.

    David Helliwell
    Wetherby, West Yorkshire

    SIR – The Government should take note of problems that could arise
    from immunising children, in light of the opposition expressed by many
    epidemiologists.

    In the 1970s and 1980s, more than 700 families were compensated for damage following immunisation with whole-cell whooping cough vaccine (no
    longer used in this country).

    It was only discovered many years later that it was fever triggered by the vaccine, not the vaccine itself, which caused illness in certain susceptible children; the reaction to immunisation simply brought inevitable illness forward in time. The vaccine is in fact very effective and safe.

    Covid immunisation of children would almost certainly be extremely safe, too. Nevertheless, chance associations with physical and mental health events, which are so common in children, might be blamed on the vaccine, and, in our current state of knowledge, be very difficult to disprove in time to prevent a backlash.

    Dr Douglas Jenkinson
    Nottingham

    National Trust chairman

    SIR – In May, Tim Parker, the chairman of the National Trust, announced that he was stepping down after we declared our intention to submit a motion of no confidence in him to the trust’s annual general meeting. The trust said it was commencing a search for his successor.

    Since then, however, there has been silence. There has been no announcement of how his replacement will be selected. The post has not been advertised and there is no apparent application procedure.

    The trust is at a critical point in its history. It has lost the confidence of many of its members and volunteers, staff morale has sunk to a new low, and both the quality of its work and its finances have suffered grievously.

    This is a vitally important appointment, which requires the very best candidate. The criteria by which this post is to be filled should be a matter for discussion with members and heritage professionals. The National Trust needs someone at the helm who understands and cares about the conservation of buildings and landscapes, and who will not allow political campaigning to distract the charity from its purpose.

    We call on the National Trust’s trustees and members of the council to make this an open appointment process, advertise the post widely and make their selection criteria clear. Only in this way will the best candidate emerge. As the trust is a membership organisation, we also call for the board and council to make their appointment conditional on a confirmatory vote at the next annual meeting.

    Cornelia van der Poll
    Jack Hayward
    Neil Bennett
    Neil Record
    Restore Trust
    London W1

    Time for a tie break

    SIR – You report (June 30) that Wimbledon is fighting gender discrimination by giving male and female players the same towel.

    Might we also see equality for line judges? The men must wear ties, while the ladies need not, even though they are almost identically attired.

    Bill Soens
    Ormskirk, Lancashire

    SIR – Concerning the line judges’ uniform (Letters, June 30), the back wall is dark green but the trousers are cream. Surely the trousers should be a darker colour so they do not stand out.

    Lawrence Haworth
    Woking, Surrey

    Licence fee fiasco

    SIR – Three cheers for the 260,000 over-75s who have still to pay for their 2021 television licence, the deadline for which is July 31 (report, June 30). The whole fee fiasco is a disgrace, for which the Government and the BBC must take equal blame.

    I would willingly pay to watch BBC programmes if the system were fairer, but the licence fee is outdated. It is a bit like the DVLA granting a road licence with the proviso that you can only drive a particular make of car. A subscription service would be more equitable, but, as the corporation relies on repeats to survive, it rightly fears that it would rapidly lose viewers.

    If those 260,000 pensioners have not paid by August 1, the BBC can only take them to court if it can prove that they watched their television prior to that date. Even then, due to Covid, the courts face such a huge backlog of outstanding cases that it could be months, if not years, before any non-payer actually gets to court.

    The more pressure the BBC is put under financially, the more likely it is to change its attitude. There is even a chance that some of its overpaid, under-talented staff will face a pay cut.

    Ian Barratt
    Great Totham, Essex

    SIR – It is worth bearing in mind that about £2 million of the £49 million the BBC hopes it will collect from the over-75s’ licence fee will be paid to just two of its presenters – Gary Lineker and Zoe Ball.

    If the BBC is so strapped for cash that it has to hire people to knock on the doors of the elderly and infirm, it should adjust the level of fees it pays some of its employees.

    Jeremy Nicholas
    Great Bardfield, Essex

    Civil Service morale

    SIR – The widow of Lord Heywood of Whitehall is concerned that her late husband will be unfairly blamed for the Lex Greensill affair in the Boardman review (report, June 30).

    My worry is that it might fit the popular narrative that many of the problems of government can be laid at the door of the Civil Service. Lord Heywood was a totemic figure and the most influential civil servant of the past 20 years. He died in 2018, so cannot answer back.

    In my experience, effective ministers have nothing but praise for their officials. The incompetent and inexperienced ministers are those who tend to blame them.

    We would not think of denigrating our military in this way. The Civil Service is certainly ripe for reform, but the drip, drip, drip of criticism will further damage morale and recruitment, and has to stop.

    Sir Anthony Seldon
    Bray, Berkshire

    Rank disbelief

    SIR – Some years ago, as a retirement present to ourselves on leaving the Army after 38 years of service, my wife and I took a P&O cruise.

    One evening we were invited to pre-dinner drinks with the captain. As we waited in line to be announced, my wife noted that some of those in front of us were giving their military rank (Letters, July 1), and suggested that it would probably be the last occasion on which I would be able to use mine.

    When it came to our turn, I told the person introducing us that we were Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs Morgan. He looked me up and down and, in disbelief, said: “Yeah, right!”

    Needless to say, apart from attending military functions, I have not used it since.

    Steve Morgan
    Whitney-on-Wye, Herefordshire

    Birds with bright plumage remain at risk

    SIR – There was a precedent for the campaign that led to the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act 1921, as described by Tessa Boase (Features, June 30).

    It was anti-cruelty lobbyists who brought about the 1869 Seabirds Preservation Act, which halted the annual slaughter of many thousands of kittiwakes, gannets and other species at breeding grounds such as the cliffs on the Isle of Wight and Bempton (now an RSPB reserve) on the Yorkshire coast.

    Ironically, this measure probably resulted, at least until 1921, in the slaughter of millions of birds in foreign lands to compensate for the loss of home supplies to the millinery trade.

    To this day, brightly plumaged birds remain in peril. Exotic feathers still adorn headgear in tribes and societies all over the world, including at weddings and other fashionable occasions in Britain.

    Jim Wright
    Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire

    Heating will be unaffordable if gas is phased out

    SIR – I am a pensioner and have gas central heating. Last winter, like many, I limited the heating to one room for one hour in the morning and three in the evening – 28 hours per week. Still, my fuel bills were substantial.

    According to my energy bills, electricity costs five times as much as gas per kWh. At this rate, when gas is phased out and replaced by solar or wind-generated electricity, I will be able to afford to heat one room for 48 minutes per day.

    Electricity is inefficient, wind and solar power are unreliable, battery capacity is limited and ground-source heat pumps (Letters, June 26) are impractical and expensive to install. Hydroelectric power is only available in certain places. The great white elephant of Hinkley Point – over budget at £20.3 billion – may not work and, if it does, will not start generating energy for years. What can we look forward to?

    Julia Mitchell
    Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire

    SIR – I have been hearing a lot about using heat and air pumps for heating and water. While I am in favour of anything that might help to “save” our planet, I have a problem.

    I live in a small village, where the loudest noise is wild birdsong, which is one of the reasons we chose to live in such a quiet area. Increasingly, however, this peace is being eroded by the hum and whine of air pumps, which goes on all day and night.

    However “green” these pumps are, I refuse to add to this cacophony. Surely some clever engineer can do something to quieten them.

    David J Hartshorn
    Badby, Northamptonshire

    1. A couple of responses to Mr. Richards:-

      G Lush 2 Jul 2021 1:32AM
      David Richards makes a good point about the absurdity of contact tracing. If tests detect covid, why are those deemed to have been in contact with someone infected forced to isolate, instead of also getting a test? Why force them to stay home for 10 days?

      Someone else getting a positive result is enough to condemn you to isolation for 10 days, but you cannot have a test yourself, to prove your own innocence? Where is the logic?

      Meanwhile, all the other members of your family go about their daily business, while you are stuck at home, and would be spreading it if infected by you, and that is fine?

      This insanity has to stop.
      Flag72UnlikeReply

      Robert Spowart
      2 Jul 2021 3:58AM
      @G Lush I learned from Sky News Australia that Singapore has decided to totally unlock on the grounds that the virus is now endemic in the world and we may as well learn to live with it.
      Delete62LikeReply

      Warren Sheehy
      2 Jul 2021 6:20AM
      Yes, they’ve stopped testing for it too. Their hospitals are at normal capacity.

      1. Why do people use the wretched app if they don’t want to be pinged for being near some covid spreader? It’s just asking for trouble.

        1. Morning Andover and Nottlers

          Totally agree with you. Like lambs learning to become sheeple!

        2. Covid Spreader?
          Or an asymptomatic positive test?
          Or a totally false positive?

  5. Kitsch and archaic, the Princess Diana statue is a people-pleasing dud. 1 July 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/771f9ba5ee5d15e9b2e4f85eac324439cadcf9447bf4aff1eea77baea70dfba0.jpg

    Warmth. Elegance. Energy. These, according to Kensington Palace, are the attributes of the new statue of Diana, Princess of Wales, by the sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley, unveiled on Thursday in the Sunken Garden.

    Warmth? Pull the other one. Broad-shouldered, thin-hipped, eyes narrowed, shirt defiantly unbuttoned, his Diana is combative and confrontational, not maternal. No doe-eyed ingénue, this. Sure, she’s portrayed as a latter-day saint, offering protection to three children (though spare a thought for the poor kid relegated to the back), but she isn’t a sweet Madonna: there’s something distinctly masculine about that stance, squaring up to the viewer.

    Morning everyone. The author is being kind here. As statues go it’s pretty dreadful both in execution and intention. It bears no resemblance whatsoever to the reality that appeared on our TV screens or Newspaper pages. It is in fact a Woke Statement disguised as a portrait. We should get BLM to knock it over at the earliest opportunity!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/kitsch-archaic-princess-diana-statue-people-pleasing-dud/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. If they ever did a remake of A Christmas Carol they could use that as a backdrop for the ghost of Christmases yet to come.

    2. Perhaps the photo has distorted her likeness a bit, but to my eye she seems to resemble the footballer Martin Peters!

      1. Morning VOM. The artist has deliberately made her Androgynous almost Trans.

      2. Morning VOM. The artist has deliberately made her Androgynous almost Trans.

      3. Morning VOM. The artist has deliberately made her Androgynous almost Trans.

    3. Morning Minty, let’s be honest, does it matter what it looks like. Will it be on public display where very few would make a special trip to see it, or will it be out of bounds, hidden away from the public.
      To my mind the whole thing is just another excuse to lay down and worship “St Diana”

    4. Yep, completely mediocre.
      It was a huge mistake to choose an eyecatching fashionable outfit. And the little girl’s head is too small, she looks like a miniature adult.

      I’d have put Diana in jeans and a shirt, sitting looking out over the garden in a thoughtful pose. But then the statue would only have been of a white person, and I suppose that is unacceptable.

    5. Mary Poppins taking the kids to market. Should get a decent price for them.

    7. Does it please “people” as opposed to the woke? I haven’t heard anyone in my circle say a good word for it.

  6. Government announcing dystopian price rises on domestic gas and motoring, in order to meet net zero and to save the planet.

    I don’t think they need to worry so much with 1970s levels of inflation about to kick off

    1. Meanwhile, the rest of the world, China in particular, just carries on. Even if the U.K. were to immediately stop every single ‘carbon emitting’ activity, and there was any truth in the whole climate ’emergency’ scam, it would make not the tiniest difference.

      1. Morning BoB. I laughed at the tweet below that from Lawrence Fox – Michael Jackson as trans racial!

    2. She is not only mendacious and evil – she is nasty and spiteful with it!

      1. With my tinfoil hat on, I cannot help thinking that she used the Windrush business to discredit the idea of deporting illegal immigrants.

  8. Morning, everyone. Another bright start in N Essex and the forecast for the day is promising.

    At the UK level one control freak has been dispatched, hopefully into political oblivion, but others remain in post or in the Opposition. Sadly, at the international level the controlling freaks remain in place and too many politicians remain in their thrall.
    What turned this huge swathe of politicians into the evil people they now are? Power, control, money or were they ever thus and kept it hidden from public view? Whom can we ever trust again from the political class?

    https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1410576427838230532

      1. mng, agreed. No mention that Javid is also a staunch remain entity being used to prop up Mr Symonds. The cabinet now more closely resembles the Black and White Minstrel show: Sunak, Raab, Patel, Javid, Alok Sharma [COP 26 President], Kwarteng

        1. Raab is a Jew – does that qualify him as an honorary black, so his life matters?

          2. Not according to BLM bleks. They are driven by their own inadequacies and resent any race or nation that makes a go of life.

    2. Good Moaning, Korky.
      I hope my sense that the balance of power has shifted away from Mr Symonds is correct.

      1. I have had doubts about who was driving whom re Hancock and Johnson. Both unarguably disgusting manifestations of humankind.

      1. Point of interest, Italians were classified as WOPS by US Immigration – it stood for WithOut Papers.

        1. Sadly, not so:

          Wop (noun)
          Derogatory for “Italian,” 1912, American English slang, apparently from southern Italian dialect guappo “dandy, dude, stud,” a greeting among male Neapolitans, said to be from Spanish guapo “bold, dandy,” which is from Latin vappa “sour wine,” also “worthless fellow.”. It is probably not an acronym, and the usual story that it is one seems to date only to c. 1985.

  9. Patently Obvious

    Little Johnny was sitting in class doing math problems when his teacher picked him to answer a question,

    “Johnny, if there were 5 birds sitting on a fence and you shot one with your gun, how many would be left?”

    “None”, replied Johnny, “’cos the rest would fly away.”

    “Well the answer is 4,” said the teacher, “but I like the way you’re thinking.”

    Little Johnny says, “I have a question for you. If there were three women eating ice cream cones in a shop, one was licking her cone, the second was biting her cone, and the third is sucking her cone, which one is married?”

    “Well”, said the teacher nervously, “I going to guess the one sucking the cone.”

    “No,” said little Johnny, “the one with the wedding ring on her finger, but I like the way you’re thinking.”

  10. Taliban has won the war in Afghanistan, says Lord Dannatt as UK and US troops pull out. 2 July 2021.

    During 20-year conflict, 454 British military personnel have been killed, but as troops depart, country appears destined to slide into chaos.

    As the drawdown of Nato troops throughout the country has commenced, the country has seen a surge in violence, with district after district falling to the Taliban in recent days.

    Lord Dannatt added: “The Afghan National Army has seemingly lost the will to fight and many soldiers are abandoning their posts, no longer supported by substantial international air power.”

    Well it won’t be chaos; it will be Afghanistan as it has been for two Millennia. The whole thing was futile from the very beginning; the ludicrous ambitions of the Western Elites buying their fantasies with the lives of the young men they sent there.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/01/taliban-has-prevailed-afghanistan-says-former-army-head-lord/

    1. Chaos is its natural state. The mistake is to transplant large quantities of the people elsewhere where they can bring the Taliban and chaos to new places.

    1. It’s over British Columbia, Bill. Temps around 50C, fires, town burned to the ground.
      :-((

  12. Jolly little story in the local paper about the farmer who fell out with his village and was done for putting up an offensive weapon on his land https://www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/19413328.angry-farmer-court-sign-calls-peopleton-nastiest-village-worcestershire/?ref=ebln

    He might be done for slander, since there is a village somewhere east of Tenbury Wells which once forced its vicar into retirement on mental health grounds after a concerted bullying campaign. I’d have thought that was even nastier than whatever Peopleton could throw up.

    I remember morris dancing at the village fair in Peopleton. They booked us to entertain them free of charge all day, tying us up for the day, and then had the gall to charge us each £2.50 for sandwiches at lunchtime.

    Any more nominations for this honour? I am looking forward to Channel 4 doing a reality show ‘Worcestershire’s Nastiest Village’ which might get made before they flog the station to the Americans.

    1. The more virtue signaling happens, the more the nasty people seem to prevail.

  14. 335003+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    With the results in it does seem now just a matter of time
    as in, the coalition won the batley-spen by election.
    A mini performance of what is to be Countrywide, labs turn to lead ( finishing touches) to the political downward spiral.
    Te,
    Brendan Cox, the widower of Jo Cox, tweeted: “We are all incredibly proud of @kimleadbeater today and Jo would have been too. While the result between the two main parties was close the extremists & haters were left trailing. The people of Batley & Spen have voted for decency and positivity once again.”

    Lest we forget rotherham,rochdale, sheffield etc,etc,etc
    “Where was that ?”
    rotherham,rochdale……

    1. 335003+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Regarding batley & spen, what teacher would that be then Og ?

    2. …and I see a clear indication that the ‘other’ votes, clearly split the ballot.

      When will For Britain, Reclaim and Reform, identify the need to meet, compromise and form a united party – maybe even include George Galloway?

      2. 335003+ up ticks,
        Afternoon NtN,
        IMO as with Batton and the REAL UKIP, nige successfully split the vote with input also from the parties own treacherous nec,in a very pro johnson manner.

        Build on the “For Britain” under Anne Marie Waters leadership would have been change in the extreme and much needed, then as in a domino effect many other sh!te issues we currently suffer from would have been brought down.

        One of the mainstream parties has donned the covert, as yet,
        mantle of the islamic ideology following, hard to say which seeing as they are a close shop coalition.

        I prefer george to farage but NOT in a party building for the betterment of the indigenous / Country.

      1. Seems unlikely, that’s over 40% of the turnout and more than the winning total.

        1. collective fraud among all main parties is the feedback I’m getting, so as to dilute the blowback. A full recount and foresnic analysis would expose all, but I’d expect nothing along those lines. Again another distraction from wider agenda by Mr Symonds and a complicit Kneel Smarmer et al

          2. 100%, another “export” from across the pond. Latest feedback just been mailed is using those who’ve had two jabs will be cited according to batch numbers of jabs as part of the postal voters. Further attempt to muddy the water

    3. am still liaising with old mate who lives there and that number is still in play. Labour activists were out around 7pm while polling stations still open and pushing the postal form filling and paying those involved

      1. If that could be proved it would send a strong message that postal votes should be much better controlled.

      2. I understood that paying helpers at elections (delivering leaflets, canvassing, etc) is illegal.

  16. Good morning everybody!

    Someone at the Telegraph has a truly British sense of humour:

    “Police close M25 and search lorries after panicked migrants dial 999 to say ‘We can’t breathe'”
    Article continues…

    “The incident brought back chilling memories of the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who perished in the back of a lorry in Essex in October 2019.”

    Yup, the healthcare specialists and horticultural experts died an admittedly horrible and tragic death in a refrigerated container.

      1. No, an EU Irish citizen (Ronan Hughes) was convicted last year, along with some EU Romanians.
        As the killers & child abusers of Whitehall & Westminster refuse to introduce an ID system, it is easy for foreign criminals to function on British soil.

        The Vietnamese citizens probably died during the crossing from Zeebrugge; while at sea there is not much mobile signal.

        1. Beware what you wish for; these stories are intended to nudge those angry ar illegal immigration into demanding digital I.D. Once that’s let in, we’re finished (I could bore on about central bank digital currencies and their implications but that’s enough for now).

          1. Yes, I understand the joke, I am the one who sadly sniggered at the phrase ‘chilling memories’.
            As for a ‘cold case’, they’re still looking for a Mr O’Big believed to be living in Spain.
            I try to gently point out that aspects of UK govt policy tacitly assist the world of organised crime, intentionally or perhaps even unintentionally.
            Impoverished Vietnamese people are trafficked to UK to work in nail bars (as prossies I guess) and in cultivating cannabis. But if SOCA etc were to smash the weed growers, the afro-caribbean population wouldn’t get enough cheap local ganja, so they might be tempted to commit more crimes to pay for dearer imported produce.
            Therefore, unlike Singapore, the British people are required to tolerate & subsidise endless junkies, knife crime etc.
            France is tough on paperwork, and the rest of the world doesn’t want to speak froggie, so the chancers head to Britain for an easy life.

          2. Point of order, Tim. SOCA is long gone, replaced by the NCA (thanks, Theresa.)

    2. In the first one – don’t they mean a spelling nazi?
      🙂

      Morning Rik

  18. Good morning all.
    Another overcast one in Derbyshire with 12° in the yard.

  22. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter. This newsletter is a brief round-up of the free speech news of the week.

    Politicians still too scared to defend Batley teacher

    Dan Hodges went to Batley ahead of yesterday’s by-election to report on the failure of the main political parties to address the fate of the teacher driven from his home, along with his wife and two young children, because he showed a cartoon of Mohammed in class. “In a quiet British town, a man has been disappeared. Yet this act of erasure has been greeted not by a righteous outcry, but a conspiracy of silence. Both local and national.” We won’t let this case be forgotten.

    Guido Fawkes reports that the Jo Cox Foundation has made a donation of £1,000 to a charity called Purpose of Life, which named the Batley teacher, exposing him to serious danger – and this was after the teacher had gone into hiding in fear of his life. Apparently, the Labour candidate in Batley and Spen, who is Jo Cox’s sister, was an ambassador for the Jo Cox Foundation when the donation was made. We lodged a complaint with the Charity Commission about the Purpose of Life in March and were told the Commission is investigating it. Its Chief Executive accused the Batley teacher of “terrorism” and “insulting Islam”. The only figure in the by-election who raised the issue was Laurence Fox, who was not even a candidate – he held a free speech rally in Batley, which he spoke to Kathy Gyngell about in Conservative Woman. Tanya Gold, writing in UnHerd, said the by-election had become a “toxic battle”.

    Violence, or the threat of violence, should have no place in British politics. But a spate of arson attacks in Scotland have driven one councillor out of his home and out of political life.

    BBC Pride board seeks editorial control

    LGBT activists at the BBC are demanding the right to vet news stories on transgender issues following a widely-ridiculed interview given by Benjamin Cohen of Pink News on the Today programme. A BBC “diversity and inclusion officer” who is a member of the BBC’s Pride Board encouraged staff to complain about the broadcast, the Mail on Sunday reports. FSU founder Toby Young was quoted in the article: “It’s extremely alarming that a group of LGBT activists within the BBC think they can dictate how Stonewall is covered by the Corporation. There is a bust of George Orwell outside the BBC’s headquarters with the quote, ‘If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.’ The BBC would do well to remind its Pride Board of those words.”

    The Business Department is the latest ministry to announce a review into its membership of Stonewall’s workplace diversity programme. We will be publishing a briefing document on Stonewall by Carrie Clark and Shelley Charlesworth entitled “Stonewall’s Censorship Champions” on our website later today.

    We welcome the Observer editorial declaring: “Freedom of expression is a fundamental human right and a cornerstone of democracy, which cannot flourish unless citizens can articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship or sanction. So it should concern anyone who claims to be a democrat that there is growing evidence that women who have expressed a set of feminist beliefs that have come to be known as ‘gender-critical’ have, in some cases, faced significant professional penalties as a result.” Let’s hope its sister paper, the Guardian, publishes something similar. Julie Bindel writes in the Spectator that lesbians are being “erased” by trans activists.

    Writing in the Critic, Josephine Bartosch says today’s “elite artists are ideological zombies” and that “most submit to censorship; mindful of both the woke sensibilities of their Silicon Valley overlords and those of the institutions on which their livelihoods depend”. Gender critical female artists are particular targets, but the recent case of Jess de Wahls – cancelled and then uncancelled by the Royal Academy – gives some hope that the climate is changing.

    Prevent farce

    An 11-year-old primary school pupil was referred to Prevent after his teacher misheard “give alms to the oppressed” as “give arms to the oppressed”.

    The headmaster of St Dunstan’s College has said that “incredibly anxious” teachers are in fear of a “a righteous generation of children looking for their teachers to trip up” over “micro-aggressions”. He said schools were becoming places where “everyone [is] walking on eggshells terrified of using the wrong word”.

    No need to spell properly at oonivars!ty

    A number of UK universities are now stigmatising academics who mark down bad spelling or grammar, on the grounds that it’s not “inclusive”. The Telegraph reported that a marking policy at the University of Hull challenges “homogenous North European, white, male, elite mode[s] of expression”. Zoe Strimpel, a member of our Advisory Council, railed against this nonsense in her Telegraph column, and the Office for Students has now launched a review of universities that “disregard poor spelling, punctuation and grammar”. If any academics have been penalised for correcting their students’ bad English we encourage them to contact us.

    Cancel culture comes for “picnic”, “leper”, Wagner, French cooking and a free press

    Leo McKinstry takes aim at cancel culture in his Express column: “Open debate, freedom of expression and respect for other voices are disappearing under a wave of divisive infantile hysteria, which in turn is fuelled by social media full of conspiracy theories, simplistic politics and vicious witch-hunts. Too many of our institutions, instead of standing up for order and civility, collude with extremism, dressing up their cowardice as a form of inclusion.”

    The departure of Winston Marshall from Mumford & Sons should be a warning, writes Jack Gebhard in the Times. The guitarist left the band after a Twitter mob targeted him for praising Andy Ngo’s book on Antifa. Alexander Larman called it “a terrifying indictment of free speech and society that Marshall’s piece of literary criticism first merited an apology, and now defenestration”.

    The Edinburgh Festival is rebuffing calls to cancel a play which its critics say mocks the religious beliefs of Hindus.

    Anne Robinson has hit out at cancel culture in an interview with the BBC. Jeremy Vine called the current censorious climate “capricious and unfair” and said he worried about being cancelled. American composer Steve Reich said cancel culture helped nobody, citing Wagner as an example of a great composer likely to be targeted in an interview with Neil Fisher for the Times.

    Novelist Joyce Carol Oates criticised Brandeis University’s bizarre list of banned words: “trigger warning” and “picnic” are both included. She said: “What is strange is that while the word ‘picnic’ is suggested for censorship, because it evokes, in some persons, lynchings of Black persons in the US, the word ‘lynching’ is not itself censored.” Melanie McDonagh took apart the “Oppressive Language List” in the Telegraph.

    The Church of Scotland’s official magazine is under fire for giving “Outcast (5)” as the clue for the word “leper”. Leprosy Mission Scotland has said that the word leper should be “deleted”, in favour of “people affected by leprosy”.

    What does Extinction Rebellion have against a free press, asks Mark Piggott in the Spectator, after the police thwarted its latest efforts to disrupt the distribution of the Sun and the Mail.

    An American academic has said France’s cuisine is an “expression of white privilege”. Let’s hope no one tells Raymond Blanc.

    Critical race theory

    Oxfam’s staff have been made to answer a ridiculous survey on “whiteness” and “white privilege”. Employees found the survey’s language “impenetrable, offensive and divisive”, the Times reported. Brendan O’Neill wrote about the chilling effect the survey had on the free speech of Oxfam’s employees.

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    Remember, all of our work depends on our members and donors. Unlike Stonewall, we don’t receive any taxpayers’ money. Sign-up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against the censors.

    Best wishes,

    2. BoJo has done more for the cause of a united Ireland than anyone i can remember.

      2. I think that Boris Johnson is no clearer about what his intentions are than the voters are. Nobody who sincerely believed in Brexit would have accepted the disastrous deal to which he signed up with no sensible agreement on financial services, control of fishing in British waters and the Northern Ireland Protocol which gives us a border in the Irish Sea.

        I cannot believe that he will remain as prime minister for much longer – but who will replace him?

        Johnson has become so weak and unmanly that it is hard to believe that his most recent wife will stay with him once he is no longer prime minister. I suspect that Carrie Symonds will dump Johnson as soon as he is no longer useful to her just as I cannot imagine that Migraine Markle will stay with Prince Harry as soon as he becomes surplus to her requirements.

  26. A touching story. Last night we decided to let Gus and Pickles have the run of the house (instead of being shut in the kitchen area).

    At 5 am, the MR was woken by a gentle tapping on her foot. On the floor at the end of the bed were two kittens, standing up, looking imploringly at her. “Please can we go out”. They raced down the stairs to the back door – and were off!

    2. You are young only once…. that feeling of a new day dawning fizzing through your bones.

    2. Well battered? The piece of haddock from my local chippy last week looked better, and may I say, more alive than that physiognomy.

        1. ‘She’ looks like a transition gone wrong. You could open beer bottles on that chin.

          2. I don’t know the details – I’ve never needed to know! I do remember reading about it somewhere, though, en passant.

  28. Covid news. The MR has been a volunteer at our GP surgery, helping guide people coming for the jabs. The surgery has done about 30,000. I gather the outfit gets £12 or so per patient jabbed. So a VERY nice little earner. Lots of volunteer. Lots of free food and drinks provided by local supermarkets and firms. It hasn’t cost the Drs more than the electricity and some masks.

    So, as a reward, the Drs have invited the volunteers to go for an outing to a karting place. Isn’t that kind? You only have to pay £40 each…..

    1. How original, my goodness , do they think their kind volunteers want to follow in the footsteps of that Lewis Hamilton ?

      The Doctors should have organised a delicious fine dining event , complete with a quartet!

    2. Haven’t quite got the hang of the teambuilding / thank you event, have they? Like paying for your own leaving present.

      1. I also found it odd that ALL the Drs could go off karting – but virtually NONE of them is available to see patients.

  31. Arghhhhhhhh, God help us all and preserve us

    Up to 5million British holidaymakers could be BARRED from Europe because they were given Indian-made versions of AstraZeneca Covid jab
    EMA does not recognise the Covishield AstraZeneca vaccine produced in India
    This could cause issue for vaccinated Britons eagerly hoping to travel abroad
    Still a theoretical issue as so few European nations are on the ‘green’ travel list

    The European Medicines Agency (EMA) does not recognise a version of the vaccine produced by Covishield at the Serum Institute of India (SII), even though it is no less effective than jabs made elsewhere.

    Holidaymakers given this vaccine could therefore be refused entry at EU border crossings when batch numbers are checked on digital Covid passports.

    The EU Digital Covid Certificate allows those who are fully vaccinated to move through Europe without having to quarantine or undergo further testing.

    But it only recognises vaccines currently approved by the EMA: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made in Europe.

    Britons will be able to determine whether they had the SII jab by looking at their batch number, which appears on vaccination record cards.

    Those who were given the Covishield jab will have the numbers 4120Z001, 4120Z002 or 4120Z003, according to the Telegraph.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9747505/Up-5million-British-holidaymakers-BARRED-Europe.html

    1. Morning all, is this the final act in the Hancock panto and the real reason he was caught on camera and resigned from his job as health secretary ?

    2. No batch no on my card for the first jab – the second was PV466……. I wonder when they started using them.

    3. They really still want to punish us for voting to Leave, don’t they! Of course their economies depend on British tourists but they don’t care about that.

      1. We must stop running our courses and go into handcart manufacture instead so we can take EU enthusiasts to Hell!

    4. My dentist told me that a relative of hers in India had refused the jab because it was produced there and this person – an aunt, I think it was – wanted one made in the UK. We laughed when she told me the tale. Oh dear.

      And good morning all!

      1. These people really are disgusting – a bunch of petulant ar$eholes acting like spoiled brats because we dared to leave their empire!

        1. Which proves Brexit was the right thing to do

          Next time they are in the shite I hope we won’t be daft enough to bale the b*stards out again!

    6. I have already resigned myself to having had my last French visit. It will be their loss; I shan’t be spending my euros there, but spending pounds here instead.

  32. Good morning all from the Tin Tent in a so far warm and sunny Cumbria.
    Yesterday we visited Aira Force and all due credit to the dogs with their little legs they managed a challenging 2hr walk around the attraction. Then on to Ullswater lakeside, viewed with suspicion from the Landau ( dog pram ) but eventually enjoyed.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9326555665025eaf49afaa34577ccdb0132297841aca5d1fecbdc516a8394a97.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5add9d5f2163d4158c1dfa4cc1ef49c3de8184e7e6e151a73248f113f1bb0641.jpg

      1. We have ben extra – inordinately lucky with the weather, the last time we were here ( honeymoon Sept 1973 ) it rained, and then rained some more and it was still raining when we left for Edinburgh.

      1. Nature ( or breeding, I’m not too sure which ) has gifted them with large and robust paws and believe me they are stubborn little madams and if they don’t like a surface they will resolutely refuse to go that way 8^)

  34. Its warming up nicely in the EU…

    Orban blasts Dutch ‘colonial’ mentality after Rutte tells Hungarian PM to respect LGBTQ+ or leave the EU

    The Hungarian prime minister has issued a stern rebuke of his Dutch counterpart, telling Amsterdam to keep out of Hungarian politics after criticizing Budapest’s move to prevent the portrayal of homosexuality to minors.
    Speaking to public radio on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hit back at Dutch PM Mark Rutte and his “colonial” mentality, after he told Budapest to respect LGBTQ+ rights or leave the European Union.

    “This is a colonial approach,” Orban stated, adding, “they just give no thought to what they can and cannot say about another nation and the laws of another country.”

    Last week, Rutte, during an EU summit, challenged Orban to leave the European bloc, noting that Budapest’s policies and perspectives were clearly not in line with Brussels. Hungary “has no business being in the European Union any more,” Rutte stated, adding it was their intention to bring Budapest to its knees on LGBTQ+ rights.
    The Dutch PM’s comments follow the passing of a new law in Hungary on June 15. While the law appears to focus on increasing punishment for convicted pedophiles, it also stipulates that homosexuality cannot be portrayed or promoted to under-18s.

    Orban claims that the law is misunderstood, stating: “This is not against homosexuality. It’s about the right of the kids and the parents.”

    Other leaders have joined the condemnation of Orban, but have stopped short of demanding Hungary leave the EU. French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU could use the judicial powers available to it to punish Hungary but said he didn’t want to use Article 50 (initiating an exclusion from the EU).

    Orban’s Hungary has long been at loggerheads with the EU. Earlier in 2021, with tensions rising, Budapest elected to take the European Commission to court over a stipulation linking access to European funds with upholding the rule of law.

      1. Eastern Europeans are “old-school” when it comes to LGBGT laws.
        Hungary’s laws are identical to Russian ones.
        Matters of sexual orientation are for grown-ups.

      1. Bring it on.

        The EU expanded far too quickly – it should return to its original membership: France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux and start again without the political content.

        1. Afternoon Richard. I liked the idea of a Common Market but it soon became apparent that was not what they had in mind!

        2. Then it wouldn’t be the EU. From the outset it was intended and designed to control the nations of Europe. Expansion is the only way a cancer can grow.

        3. Far too keen to expand east after the collapse of the USSR and rub the Russians’ noses in the dirt.

    3. The PTB have never come to terms with the fact that the British voters in the 1975 referendum on the Common Market thought they were voting for an economic club; it only dawned slowly on the voters that they had been deceived and the PTB were not and still are not interested in business – they are interested in the subordination the nation state and the punishment of those who defy them.

      I think the EU is most unwise to allow competitions such as the Euro Football Championship to go ahead because such things encourage not just mere nationalism but extreme jingoism!

      1. If an EU member state doesn’t win this year then it might just be EU states alone allowed next time.

  35. Parliament shouldn’t make women choose between being a good parent and a good MP
    Stella Creasy : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/parliament-shouldnt-make-women-choose-good-parent-good-mp/

    As you would expect no BTL comments allowed

    We are parents who ran their own business. We were able to make sure that there was no conflict between the two roles. But if push had ever come to shove the family would have had to have been more important.

    1. Stupid whiner (Stella Creasy). Can’t do her job properly, and it’s someone else’s fault.

      1. She went to Colchester Girls High School. It may produce good exam results, but, from our experience, it also churns out Feminazis.

        2. Are we in for a Canadian summer?
          Millions dead by Christmas?
          There’s still hope for pessimists!
          🤔

  37. Jeffrey Bernard is unwell. Actually I, Elf & Safety, is unwell & that is why I have been absent on here the last 3 days . No not Covid-19 , but another flare up of Sciatica these past 3 days with severe back ache in my lower left back, left ankle, neck & over my left eye and what with taking lots of pain killers I have simply not felt up to posting anything but I am making the effort today both on here & my own blogs. So have a good Friday all & a great week end, I’ll be on here sporadically . Today’s music choice is: Hillary Klug and Mairead Nesbitt – Miss McLeod’s Hop High Ladies – Celtic Appalachian Collaboration
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJc2MMVimCY&t=106s

    2. Hope you get better soon! On an ‘elf and safety note – I wonder how often those two get their hair tangled up in the violin strings/bows??

      1. Thank you Paul but Sciatica attacks are both unpredictable & their duration varies in length & seem to get more frequent as you age & your health deteriorates in general.

    7. You have my sympathy; difficult to sleep, lie down etc. Be careful with your choice of painkillers.

  38. Hottest town in Canada burnt to ashes in record heatwave. 2 July 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d0fb9b6aaf25b8d8efa7833b6707e3db9587760dd1fc5b1cdcf7414fd46e79c.png

    “Most homes” and structures have been destroyed and multiple residents are unaccounted for in the town that recorded the highest temperature during Canada’s devastating heatwave.

    1,000 residents from Lytton and the surrounding area were evacuated on Wednesday night as flames engulfed the town in the mountains of British Columbia that reached 49.6C this week.

    Spontaneous combustion! The end is nigh my friends!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/07/02/hottest-town-canada-burnt-ashes-record-heatwave/

    1. He’s a clever bugger,is George.
      He usually has his ducks in a row before he goes public.

    3. No mention of postal votes.

      When will this cancer in our democratic process be cut out.

  40. Cases against two former soldiers accused of Northern Ireland murders in 1972 collapse. 2 July 2021.

    The case against a former British soldier charged with the murder of a teenager in Londonderry in 1972 has collapsed – and a separate case against another charged in relation to the Bloody Sunday shootings has also been halted.

    Good! I say this not because I’m assured of their innocence but because all these prosecutions are motivated by political reasons made obvious by there being no actions against former IRA personnel. The truly shameful thing in all this is the part played by the UK government who could have prevented it, but prefer as usual to play the Cowards Part and abandon UK Servicemen to persecution by a terrorist organisation.

    https://news.sky.com/story/case-against-former-soldier-charged-with-murder-of-teenager-in-northern-ireland-in-1972-collapses-his-family-says-12347097

    1. Is this not yet another one of the many broken promises by the uxorious Mr Symonds-Johnson?

      1. Earlier than that I think Richard. We are ruled by a class of such spineless ineptitude that has probably never been equalled in the history of the world!

    2. BBC Radio 4 were in full IRA recruitment today. No mention of prosecuting the terrorists who deliberately set out to murder men, women and children to achieve their political aims, only condemnation for the soldiers who tried to save the lives of their fellow countrymen.

    1. I read that headline to read: “During summer 2021, the standard (95 octane) petrol grade in Great Britain will become £10.”

      1. My camper is diesel, but my runabout (a Toyota) is petrol. Sounds like the b@stards are about to make my life more expensive still. Current petrol (and diesel) prices near me are both 129.9pp.

    3. Thank you for the information. I was wondering about ice crystals, but the next video on u-bend explains how to extract the ethanol using water, as ethanol is hygroscopic. (doesn’t matter much in Arizona or Australia, but a potential disaster for older vehicles in UK).

      Bio-diesel fuel can also be a nuisance in bus engines, according to a mechanic friend.

      1. 335003+ up ticks,
        Afternoon E&S,
        You cannot get it through to the supporter / voters, until they to are devoured.

    2. Why does she not remove the boat migrants and then people won’t need to post videos of them any more.

      Johnson’s government is rapidly becoming the most shambolic in living memory.

      1. 335003+ up ticks,
        Evening R,
        They have become increasingly shambolic sinse major last had a curry.
        Treachery obviously pays, the politico’s are happy, the voters are happy when their party wins and damn the consequences.
        The voters have very near completed handing the nation over to foreign management ALL under the guise of democracy via the polling booth, no armed conflict, not a shot fired, just
        rank stupidity.

        Rank stupidity = tactical voting as in vote in to keep out.
        ALL the while alien forces are building , daily.

      1. 335003+ up ticks,
        Evening Anne,
        As batley spen shows us quite clearly it matters little.
        Sad to say the mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile concealers have been once more given carte blanche to operate.
        Sad to say the whole odious issue regarding the toxic trio & their jockeying was only threatened by a dodgy jock.
        Bodes ill for the future.

    4. 335003+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Thinking on it how many tories really are against the Dover invasion, of these boatloads many are going to feel gratitude towards their benefactors and show it via the polling booth.
      The voting mode is party before country
      so keeping that in mind Og every little helps.

    2. He wasn’t exactly following Maureen Lipman’s advice on the proper use of Jewish penicillin.

        1. Looks delicious, Pud.

          I occasionally bake a challah because it’s one of my favourite breads.

  46. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “The greatest fool is not the person who has been fooled by the lies of others, despite how crafty and ingenious those lies might have been. Rather, it is the fool who has lied with such amazing dexterity and subtle finesse that he himself has come to believe his own lies. And this is the most forlorn and yet the most dangerous person that I can imagine.”

    Craig D Lounsbrough.

  47. Notice the cautious dog!

    Strolling crocodile sparks panic in India village
    Close
    Villagers in India’s southern state of Karnataka were in for a shock when they found a giant crocodile sauntering down the street.

    It had entered the village from a nearby river.

    A video, which has gone viral, shows locals following the crocodile from a safe distance.

    Wildlife officials later rescued the animal and released it back into the river.

    Footage by Shailaja Goranmane

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-asia-india-57691731

    The BBC no longer offer a Twitter facility!

      1. It says ALL … So you can imagine what a little stroppy loud mouthy local Bimbo would practise on an unsuspectiong granny type!

        I can just imagine the scenario!

        1. I’ve been going to my hairdresser for more than 30 years – so he knows my hair better than I do!

          1. Snap, and I have being going to mine in Wimborne since the eighties , and apart from after Christmas where the one in the village made me look like some one from the village of the damned!

            My hair dresser , a he, has cut my hair beautifully since we arrived back from Nigeria .. where my hair grew long and unmanagable. I went through the Dallas curly look and every other style that took my fancy .

            Sadly he has aged and is in his late seventies now , but still has the charm and scissory fingers that dance through my hair, and I am usually so relaxed and happy when I have had a cut and blow dry .

          2. Mine’s still only in his 50s so he’ll probably see me out – he used to do triathlons so quite a fit guy. He was very young when he opened the salon – but he sold up a couple of years ago and stayed on as manager – He’s quite glad it wasn’t his responsibility to furlough the staff, etc.

        2. Do you remember the tight perms that women used to have? Done specially for Christmas, Easter and before their annual holiday.
          Over the intervening 4 months, the frizzed curly bit descended to their shoulders on the ends of their normal straight hair.

          1. Yes I do , must have played hell on the hair, and their hairnets ..

            Most African types want their hair straightened .

            The varieties of shampoos these days are amazing .

    1. Oh, blimey, I stayed at that Novotel for two weeks (in preference to my mother’s bungalow) … it was there that, in the evenings, I raced through ‘An Officer and a Spy’ by Robert Harris …. My goodness, this is pretty high spec we are GIVING FOR FREE to these people, plenty of whom seem to be not very friendly to us.

    2. Just the government’s way of propping up the hospitality industry – got to keep those hotels going, with the migrants and the enforced arrest for UK travellers.

  51. For the price of a few steaks , I have located a window cleaner , and have informed Moh, yes when he came back from golf a couple of hours ago .

    Window cleaner will appear every 6-8weeks or so depending on weather etc , have a few windows to clean and some of them are difficult to access!

    I can now breathe easily .

      1. Gee whizz, I’ll tell you what , I was full of trepidation telling him, but the steak bit he could relate to , so Jim is the man with the window plan and the ladders!

        Thank you for being supportive , it was a phew moment 😅😉

          1. Chips and egg? CHIPS AND EGG! It’s Thursday, we always have steak on a Thursday!

        1. The fishman used to come round in one of those – his was a grey one. The milkman and greengrocer were still using horses and carts at the time.

    4. Good for you. I have had this problem with my old boy for years, Belle. “I’ll do them”, says he. “We don’t have to waste money on window cleaners!” Ha ha. I can count on the fingers of one hand, no, let’s be fair, two hands, that we have been in this house (40 years) and that he has cleaned the windows. Mostly it has been me cleaning them, on an ad hoc basis, as and when any particular windows seemed to need attention. Well, I threw in the towel last year, p’dad reached 79 – he’s just 80 now – and lo and behold! – we have a window cleaner who comes every two months, £20 a pop. That includes a 16′ x 10′ conservatory, two sides of which are windows.

      1. Oh my goodness we could all do with a together huggie thing that footballers and rugby players seem to do .. United in thought and unconditional support .

        What is it with husbands .. mine sounds like yours , he and my 52 year old son , always promise then actually nothing gets done , although son DID fix my old Bosch washing machine yesterday, the drum brushes had perished , but when I did my daily wash, I couldn’t.. thing was buzzing and strange encryptions appeared , any way when Moh arrived home at 1330 today after a 7am golf start , he fiddled with it and found the water feed wasn’t turned on.

        I used to do the windows but I think I have shrunk in height , I hate step ladders, Moh has done them as well, but he has a that’ll do approach to most things , streaky windows!

        My bloodpressure must be racing .

        This afternoon is hot and sultry , took dogs for walk at 1600, should have gone later, but tennis and football dictates , and a grass snake slithered away in frontof us, so pretty , but you know what , snakes are a real primitive fear that most of us have .

        The chap who is doing my windows suggested £30 and I said , goodness me that’s a bit steep so he came down to £20.. then I showed him where the outside water taps are placed . End of next week he might appear , fingers crossed.

        1. Not surprised you’re wary of snakes after your experience with the dog last year (or ws it longer ago than that?) Grass snakes are harmless but adders can be a worry.

        2. It isn’t just people who have a primitive fear of snakes. I’m convinced one of the reasons horse loathe hose pipes is that they think they are snakes 🙂

      1. Because, in the old days, they tended only to be at the front of the house – and so would have opened on to the street. Certainly that was the case in mediaeval villages such as Laure.

        1. One wonders why it isn’t standard practice, although it means the space around the window has to be kept clear when opened.

          It’s much more convenient for the wife to clean them….

  52. By presenting Galloway as the plucky underdog, the BBC put air in his sails. 2 July 2021.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwIuA2kh3eE

    If you thought England beating Germany was compelling viewing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Take a look at George Galloway being interviewed by the BBC’s Martine Croxall just before yesterday’s Batley and Spen by-election. It’s TV gold.

    Croxall stood no chance. She was onto a loser the moment she decided not so much to interview Galloway, but to put him on trial. If she’d engaged in responsible, unbiased reporting, she might have shown him up. There’s enough material. But she couldn’t manage it. By attacking in such ludicrous fashion, she gave him all the oxygen of publicity he craved. Cue a clip that went viral. He ended up with more than 8,000 votes from a standing start.

    I’ve seen a few car crash interviews in my time but this was Asteroid hits Earth stuff. She was literally obliterated! Another smug BBC Numpty spouting her half-witted views for the edification of the Dull Peasants. I’ve watched it twice it’s so good!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/02/putting-galloway-position-plucky-underdog-bbc-put-air-sails/

    2. She’s completely unaware that the licence fee is a tax. The Office for National Statistics re-defined the licence fee as a hypothecated tax in 2006.

  53. 335003+ up ticks,
    Will the black uniform and jack boots enhance my street cred angie baby ?

    breitbart ,
    johnson meets murky,
    Live Coronavirus latest news: Germany to relax quarantine for double-vaccinated Britons

    1. The CofE is very like both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. It is completely out of touch with its core supporters who are abandoning it.

      1. Welby has shown zero leadership throughout the covid time – closing churches was a very bad move. No singing, no weddings and very limited funerals has put people’s backs up.

        1. When the going gets tough you need spiritual guidance and help the most. Just when the going got tough the CofE abdicated all responsibility for its flock, ran away and locked its doors.

    1. Jumping ship, distancing herself from the inevitable as it is all starting to crumble?

    2. I cannot imagine which would be worse – living with Michael Gove or living with Sarah Vine.

    3. Has she caught him in flagrante? I thought her piece the other day about her “former friend” Samantha was odd.

        1. It’s an article by Mary Wakefield, Cumming’s wife.

          https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-husband-s-gay-affair-with-gove

          “My husband’s ‘gay affair’ with Gove

          A few weeks ago I discovered that while he should have been focused on the fight of his life during the referendum campaign, David Cameron was instead obsessing over whether or not his justice secretary, Michael Gove, had had an affair with my husband, Dom Cummings, campaign director of Vote Leave.

          The story was in the Mail on Sunday, who eked it out across two consecutive issues. On week one it kept Dom and Michael’s names under wraps (for ethical reasons, it said) but revealed the source of the thrilling bit of gossip to be an aide of Cameron’s called Gavin Williamson (now Chief Whip). Williamson had, said the MoS, dashed into No. 10 ‘in the heat of the bitter EU campaign’ to deliver news of the fling to the PM.

          Even before I knew Dom was one of the Brokeback Brexiteers this seemed a very curious tale. What could have made Williamson so sure? Why did he rush to tell the PM, ‘in the heat of the campaign’? The story was written as if somehow Williamson thought a gay romance shed light on the otherwise inexplicable success of Vote Leave. Perhaps he imagined they were all fuelled by homoerotic passion in the manner of the Spartans.

          The following week the MoS, recovered from its bout of ethics, printed the names of the secret lovers and I felt an odd mix of emotions. First sadness, that it wasn’t a more exciting revelation, then a glimmer of understanding, followed by a feeling of anxious shame which has stayed with me ever since.

          Cameron’s position on the matter, I’ve heard it said, is simply that ‘Gove chose the wrong DC’

          The understanding was about what might have been Williamson’s motive. Not then, nor now, does David Cameron accept that his pal Gove — a lifelong Eurosceptic — chose to campaign for Leave for the sake of his country. Cameron’s position on the matter, I’ve heard it said, is simply that ‘Gove chose the wrong DC’, Dominic C over David C, and that for this crime he will be forever dead to Dave. So what if Williamson, in the manner of all successful courtiers, was simply telling his leader what he thought he wanted to hear: an explanation as to how the ‘wrong’ DC could ever be preferred? This all makes Cameron’s No. 10 sound like teenage group chat on WhatsApp. If the young knew what really makes a modern Tory tick, they might identify with them more.

          But though he (allegedly) spread lies about my husband, though he conjured images I will never quite recover from, I can’t be too cross with this Gavin — and here’s where the shame comes in. Over the past few decades I must have heard many dozens of stories about politicians or actors being secretly gay. Magazines, newspapers, the internet are full of them. Gay rumours follow like vapour trails in the wake of any star: in politics, sport, Hollywood, and I’ve never before paused for long enough to wonder if they’re nonsense. I’ve thought: no smoke without some romantic spark, and more often than not passed them on.

          But what if almost all of the endless ‘insider’ stories about secretly gay celebs are as bogus as the Dom/Gove story?

          It’s a rare political leader who isn’t ‘known’ to be homosexual by someone or other — excepting Cameron, for some reason, who perhaps doesn’t have the imagination to be gay.

          There’s many who’ll swear Obama’s marriage is a sham, and that he was a frequent visitor to gay saunas in his Chicago days. He’s believed, among the sorts who think him a secret Muslim, to have had a fling with the very straight, very married mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel.

          I interviewed the late fat chef Clarissa Dickson Wright a few years before she died, and she told me that she believed Tony Blair to have had gay relationships. They moved in the same circles at the Bar in the 1970s, she claimed, and his nickname was ‘Miranda’. Why? ‘Because of The Tempest — you know, when Miranda says: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world,/ That has such people in ’t.”’ It didn’t previously occur to me, even through the Wendi Deng affair, that this might be entirely untrue.

          And what of all the whispering about the supposedly secret sexuality of William Hague, which eventually forced an embarrassing and sincere public denial? I spent my formative years in journalism as a gossip columnist and barely a month went by without my editor including a little paragraph on Hague’s ‘friendship’ with Seb Coe. Why did they practise judo so often, we wondered pathetically in print.

          It’s all just utter cobblers, isn’t it? Is Tom Cruise straight? Is George Clooney’s marriage for real? What about John Travolta? What’s behind this great yearning need of ours for famous men and women to be gay?

          There’s certainly nothing moral about all this fictitious ‘outing’. It’s not that we’re all intent on a healthy flinging open of all the closet doors because — what would be the need? There was a time when homosexual stars laid low for fear of suffering professionally; perhaps some politicians still do. But in 2016, in the West, all and any sexuality is increasingly a-OK. In the world of fashion and music, it’s decidedly cooler for a young star to be pansexual than narrow-mindedly straight.

          I suspect the answer is that though our culture has moved on, our monkey minds haven’t. Though we think of ourselves as non-judgmental, it still seems excitingly transgressive to us that someone might be gay. If this were just about illicit sex or infidelity, there’d be rumours cooked up about settled gay couples having straight affairs, perhaps a secret affair between Elton John and Lady Gaga for instance, but no one has any interest in that.

          The great gay rumour mill churns on. Just this week a great friend of mine insisted to me that Hillary Clinton is a lesbian. He knows, he says, really knows it for a fact. Everyone does. Thanks to Gavin Williamson, instead of passing on the news, I’ve bet him £100 it’s rubbish.”

          2. They probably all have crushes and become as clingy as hell when the going gets tough .

            They probably want to become fast breeders now that their women ar menopausal.

            Some men need to be reminded that they are not getting old .. they just fantasize over young stuff, just goes on .

            Younger women are pension snatchers when all is said and done.

            Hancock must have been so determined to trash his career for the love of his new squeeze , he was besotted by her.. or her expensive perfume !

          4. Oh, I forgot about that , Bill ..

            Her husband must be devastated.

            I mean there is nothing sexy about Hancock , bit similar to a vanilla blancmange .

          5. That seemed to be tongue in cheek then. I wonder… Though I have never seen a gay man wear such frightful clothes as Cummings does.

          6. As for Blair, wasn’t Anthony Lynton [Blair?] had up for soliciting in a public loo? Or am I imagining things?

          7. I suspect coincidental names.

            I feel very sorry for the poor sod who is always remembered for his inappropriate action, just because he appears to be Blair.

            But then again, anything and everything remotely close to Blair turns into dross.

  56. From the DT. Apologies if anyone has already posted it:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/02/putting-galloway-position-plucky-underdog-bbc-put-air-sails/

    By presenting Galloway as the plucky underdog, the BBC put air in his sails

    Much like the Labour Party, the BBC is unable to contemplate the views of vast swathes of the electorate

    2 July 2021 • 11:39am

    “If you thought England beating Germany was compelling viewing, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Take a look at George Galloway being interviewed by the BBC’s Martine Croxall just before yesterday’s Batley and Spen by-election. It’s TV gold.

    Is it any surprise Labour only scraped home in a seat it normally wins comfortably? The party may have held sway there for a quarter of a century, but that counts for nothing when you have a man of Galloway’s ruthless charisma and presence scenting your blood, determined to wreck your majority, unwittingly aided by the BBC.

    In fact, if Martine Croxall had set out to damage Labour, she couldn’t have done more than to conduct an interview of such absurd hostility with the party’s main rival for much of the vote. All she achieved was to portray Galloway as a plucky, man-of-the-people, anti-establishment underdog. Who knows how many more votes that won him?

    And Galloway was right: Croxall’s questions seemed to come straight from the Labour Party’s campaign literature. Here’s one of her openers: “You’re not a local man. Why wouldn’t somebody vote for Kim Leadbeater [Labour], who is born and bred here and knows the constituency very well?”

    For comparison, this is Leadbeater’s own eve-of poll tweet: “Vote for an MP who lives and works in Batley & Spen, and who understands the challenges our area faces.”

    Spot the difference?

    Croxall then put this Labour zinger to Galloway: “If you drive a wedge through the majority that Labour currently hold, surely you’ll be handing this election to the Conservatives. Is that what you want? Are you happy to have the Conservatives in power?”

    No wonder Galloway accused her of carrying out a party-political broadcast for the reds. She might just as well have looked straight down the lens of the camera and said, “Vote Labour. And not for this repulsive charlatan”.

    How the fedora-sporting Galloway lapped it up, mercilessly toying with Croxall like a cat poking a wounded mouse. He needs no encouragement. We all remember his bravura performance at the US Senate, ripping a startled Norm Coleman to shreds, accusing him of being “cavalier with any idea of justice“. Even Jeremy Paxman came away only with a score draw after asking Galloway, who had just unseated Labour’s Oona King, whether he was “proud to have got rid of one of the very few black women in parliament.”

    Croxall stood no chance. She was onto a loser the moment she decided not so much to interview Galloway, but to put him on trial. If she’d engaged in responsible, unbiased reporting, she might have shown him up. There’s enough material. But she couldn’t manage it. By attacking in such ludicrous fashion, she gave him all the oxygen of publicity he craved. Cue a clip that went viral. He ended up with more than 8,000 votes from a standing start.

    Is the BBC still capable of impartial interviewing? Yes, of course. But altercations like this just feed the suspicion that our supposedly national broadcaster only represents half the country – that when push comes to shove it can’t help but reveal its own elitist, metropolitan views.

    You might think Labour would approve. But, as the result in Batley and Spen shows us – Labour clinging on by the skin of its teeth – it merely achieves the opposite of what lefty progressives crave.

    Both Labour and the BBC are facing their own existential challenges, but for exactly the same reason: a failure to represent, or even understand, vast swathes of the electorate. And they’re dragging each other down. Far from taking comfort from this by-election, they should wake up and smell some political mustard before it’s too late.”

  57. Michael Gove and Sarah Vine have just announced they are preparing for Divorce. [BBC Radio 4]
    Apologies it has been commented on below. No other person involved.

    1. I wondered why Sarah Vine was, in recent weeks, writing some rather hostile pieces about politicians and their peccadilloes.

    2. “No other person involved”. Yet. Watch this space….

      After all, Glove is MUCH sexier than Halfcock – and “clever” too….

      1. Yup. The wheel caps fell off the project last year, the wheel bolts are loosening and the wheels are about to fall off the Covid bandwagon.

        Any sensible politician and their spouse, any SAGE modeller or Pharma advocate will seek to distance themselves from the impending carnage they have created. And there is neither defence nor escape for any of this motley crew of psychopathic sociopaths.

        Law suits will follow as sure as night follows day. They are culpable not only for ineffective lockdowns and the resultant destruction of countless businesses (and massive psychological damage to the populace) but the coercive pressure to have healthy people ‘vaccinated’ with untested toxic chemicals. The mask mandates add to their crimes against humanity.

  60. I wonder if the proposed multiplicity of heat pumps in a neighbourhood will reduce the efficacy of the heat pumps. I don’t relish the prospect of having to rely on heat pumps to heat my house.

    1. The concept of heat pumps that are capable of both heating in winter and cooling in summer by just movinng heat energy between the home and the outside looks like a no brainer.

      However if you look at this explanation of how they work you can see a potential flaw:

      https://youtu.be/14MmsNPtn6U

      and that is that a community of heat pumping houses will result in a potential 24/7 operation of the external fans and this has already been experienced in practice through intolerable levels of noise pollution.

      1. They’re just large refrigerators with the coils reversed, using the compression and expansion of the gas inside to pull heat from one side and dump it in the other. The outside coils should be in the ground as that is normally warmer than the air in cold weather, thus requiring the pump to work less hard to generate the required heat transfer (theoretically proportional to the temperature difference between the fluid in the coils and the surrounding environment). The pump has to work harder when outside/ground temperatures are low, vastly increasing demand when renewable energy sources generate little electricity.

      2. Thanks for the info. It looks as if the system uses a fair amount of electricity to operate the pumps and will require regular maintenance. I would rather stick to the gas boiler

        1. I’m wondering if the heat pump industry is geared up for mass production of these systems and if there are enough skilled people to install them? I’ll hang on to my three year old gas boiler as long as I can.

  61. Off topic.
    Good sighting today, what I think was a short toed eagle took quite a large snake. The snake was writhing like mad as the bird flew off with it. It was last seen perched on top of a telegraph post holding the snake and wondering how to despatch it as the snake was going crazy in the talon.

      1. It was quite disconcerting, a damned great bird swoops out of nowhere, grabs the snake, and takes off in one fairly fluid movement. The snake didn’t stand a chance.

    2. We watched a grass snake slither up a bank into some heather , very pretty snake, but a snake is a snake , and I have seen too many …

      1. I enjoy watching them, as long as I know exactly where they are.

        Chance upon a snake and my ancestral reaction kicks in and I flinch.

      2. We used to get adders in our garden in Horsham. They liked it under the flat bush – strangely, all the frogs moved out as soon as the snake appeared.

  62. That’s me for this day of two halves. Cold and dreary morning – gorgeous afternoon. Trombetti now about 3 inches long… Tomatoes flourishing. Beans fantastic as are the brassicas. One unexpected gain from the plague has been the amount of time we have been able to devote to the garden.

    I hope you hve a pleasant evening.

    A demain.

      1. So great that if you win anything worthwhile you’ll have had to bet the farm and if it wasn’t you’ll have lost the farm for nothing. That’s the problem with betting against racing certainties!

    1. My gosh! Even at a time like this, Biden can’t resist the temptation to get uncomfortably close to women. (Pic in your link).

  67. Barely survived a trip to the garden centre. Got some marigolds and gerberers to kill and i treated myself to a musa basjoo.

    On the way there almost had a head on crash. A woman in an estate car moved over to my side of the road as she sped past a cyclist.

    This was on a bend, under a rail bridge where the road narrows, opposite a junction. I’m afraid i shouted the ‘C’ word through her open window. Prefixed with the word ‘Stupid’.

    Dolly also had a narrow escape today. A big black dog went for her. She screamed and screamed. Luckily she was on her lead and launched herself 5 foot in the air where i plucked her to safety.

    The other dog owner asked me if she was alright. I responded with ‘if your dog is not socialised with other animals it should be on a lead’.

    He sloped off with his tail between his legs.

    What a day.

    1. You need something alcoholic in a glass and an early night to put some distance between you and your awful day. Hope you’re both ok.

      1. We are fine thank you. Dolly forgot almost immediately when i fed her my burger.

        2. I had bangers and mash tonight. More training for Oscar. He only got the remains of my sausage if he sat quietly and waited until I said okay. He was a good boy and got his reward in the end 🙂

    2. I wonder if Mongo has been properly socialised. He’s very good with other dogs but he is very timid if threatened. I don’t want him to fight and growl, but he should feel he can stand up for himself.

      Oddly, he is fine around other bigish dogs but small ones – especially small, badly trained yappy ones are the bane of his life.

  68. Evening, all. Oscar progress update. Today we didn’t have to put him outside at all when my cleaner vacuumed the house – the first week he was intent on killing the hose and had to be outside all the time, the second week, he resisted for a very short time then had to be distracted with a toy and then outside when that palled; today he thought about attacking it, was told “No!” sternly and “leave!” and obeyed. Then we played tug without him trying to take my fingers off while the vacuuming was finished around him. Double plus good, Oscar! Naturally, he was rewarded with a biscuit. Then, this evening, after a torrential downpour while on our evening walk (fortunately, I’d turned back and got my mac when it started to spit with rain as I went out the door), he let me dry about three quarters of his body without protest. Even though I didn’t completely dry him (head, chest and front legs were missed), he still got a reward because that’s progress. He WILL end up being a lovely dog, whether he likes it or not! 🙂

      1. Thank you, John. Consistency, rewards and reassurance that everything is okay will be the key. He tried to steal some of my food last night – a definite NO! as he soon realised. He failed miserably (and didn’t try to assert his superiority by snapping, which is good).

    2. He’ll be great. reward the good silly amounts and be consistent with the bad.

      1. I keep telling him he WILL be a lovely dog – or else! 🙂 We have come a long way in a relatively short time (it will only be four weeks next Sunday). I made a visit to one of the local grooming parlours today (recommended by one of my fellow dog walkers) to ask if I could bring Oscar in to desensitise him before we have to have him clipped (previously it had to be done by the vet – presumably under sedation). No problem, so there will be a few sessions where he just goes, visits, doesn’t have anything done, but gets rewarded. Softly, softly …

        1. The kitten would train him even faster than you, if it’s anything like the Thomigers

    4. Sounds as if you’re both doing really well Conway, well done, you must be delighted.

      1. I am heartened by the progress. It’s a case of taking a day at a time, gently trying to do more without scaring him, over-facing him or provoking an aggressive reaction. He has got to the stage that he actively seeks T touch on his body (and looks into my eyes with an expression near to ecstasy for a while!) and puts up with it for increased periods. If I stop, he nudges my hand to start again. We haven’t had a “stop, I’ve had enough!” signal for several days.

        1. That’s lovely to hear, he must be giving you a lot of comfort, and things can only get better. He is obviously very happy and trusting you more and more.

          1. The vets (at both practices) have said how he seems to trust me (i e, I managed to put his harness on and strap him in the car without him trying to rip me to pieces!). He has allowed people when he’s out on a walk to put their hands near him and he hasn’t reacted, so that’s something I praise and reward. I still have to warn people not to touch him, for safety’s sake, though. I look forward to the day when I don’t have to do that and I can trust him enough to enjoy being stroked by anyone.

          2. Your patience with Oscar – as with your unbelievable patience in other aspects of your life – is an example to us all, Conwy.

          4. Having been brought up in flats in London where only budgetigars and canaries were allowed we’ve never had dogs. I don’t mind them at all but I dislike owners who allow their dog to jump up at me and the owner then says something like “oh, it’s alright, he won’t hurt you, he’s just being friendly”. And I would never go to stroke a dog, you never know how they’re going to react. You sound as though you’re doing an excellent job.

          5. Thank you. Jumping up is a no-no. It signifies dominance. I’m trying to break Oscar of it (mind you, it took a long time in my previous terrier and I had him from four months of age!). What annoys me is if I correct my dog for jumping up (or trying to) and people say, “it’s alright”. No, it isn’t, it’s unacceptable. Not everybody likes dogs and even those who do probably won’t if he jumps up with muddy paws and they are wearing their best clothes!

          7. Hardly perfect, but I expect my dog to have manners. It is usually said of my dogs that they are better behaved than many children 🙂

          9. I’ve always said there are no bad dogs, only bad owners. As for the children, I blame the parents, not the teachers (well, I would say that, wouldn’t I?) 🙂

          10. One thousand up-votes, vw. Conway’s way with Oscar is most praiseworthy. Well done, Conners.

      1. I hope that by his birthday (October) or Christmas at the latest, he’ll be more like a “normal” (for me!) dog.

          1. Sometimes, I think I’ve cracked it and then he reverts – a bit “two steps forward, one step back”. Still, perseverance will get there in the end.

          1. I got him from Cheshire Dogs’ Home. I think he’d been there about a fortnight. I was told that his owner had had a hip replacement and couldn’t cope with him and the family didn’t want him. They thought it would be better for him (at the age of nearly twelve!) to be put in kennels to be rehomed! If he had always been mine, I would have found some way to keep him, even if I had to rely on the Cinnamon Trust to walk him.

    6. Good on yer, Conners. KBO and you’ll have the nicest buddy and companion. Wishing the best for you and Oscar.

  69. Both teams in Belgium v Italy match grovelled to Marxism. To me it
    looked as though Lukaku gave a (slightly half-hearted) black power
    salute.

    Wasn’t aware of any kneeling in the other match, which Spain won. Hope they can continue to carry the torch for ‘non-kneelers’ and win the tournament.

    1. When I see a honky kneeling in silence, it looks like a tribute to that controversial man Officer Chauvin.

      1. Naughty.
        But nice, I am certain that had Floyd not been restrained, that unless the drugs had killed him, he would have caused the police officers serious harm
        A saint he ain’t.

        1. No, I don’t think he was vicious, but he was large and strong and high as a kite. Of course, the shop assistant was too scared to challenge Floydy about the dodgy banknote and quite correctly called the cops.

          1. This is a guy who held a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach, if you don’t think that’s vicious I don’t think I would wish to get on your wrong side.

  70. Why must parents and children be patient?

    They’ve had to put up with this madness for 15 months, and the ‘bubbles’ system of pupil isolation is destroying life chances.

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 2 July 2021 • 6:00am

    Yesterday, the Prime Minister cast doubt on how much freedom from lockdown we will regain on July 19. “There may be some things we have to do,” he said, “extra precautions that we have to take.” On ending the ridiculous isolating regime in schools, whereby “bubbles” can be sent home if one pupil tests positive, he asked people “to be a little bit patient”, preferring to “go forward to that natural firebreak of the summer holidays”.

    Why should children and parents be patient? They have endured this nightmare already for 15 months. Children are the demographic least at risk from the virus, yet they have made the largest sacrifice in terms of life chances lost, and while the rest of the population slowly gets back to normal, pupils are still expected to endure tests that have been known to produce the wrong results, with punitive consequences. For one positive test, accurate or otherwise, many others are sent home due to the risk of exposure – the latest off-school figure is 385,500 – devastating education, mental health and socialisation. The Government says this madness is necessary to stop the spread of the disease but, of course, its benefits are unknown.

    The costs are painfully clear. Mr Johnson said that Public Health England was studying the advantages of isolation versus testing and he preferred to wait to hear their conclusions before taking action. This slavish adherence to caution is doing great harm.

    The original justification for restrictions was to protect the NHS and thereby save lives. But the health service is nowhere close to collapse and the vulnerable have been double-jabbed. Given that research overwhelmingly confirms the success of those vaccines, who are children meant to be protecting? Why are we even testing them still?

    The original logic behind the regime has collapsed, and the Government should bring it to an end, fast: even just a few weeks of normal education before summer could make a real difference to a child’s life. Britain should be making the most of its successful rollout programme, which has fundamentally altered the link between infections, hospitalisations and death. Instead, we seem determined to become both the best protected and most fearful country in the world, unable to cope with the concept of a trade-off between security and risk. The Government needs to send a clear signal that we are returning to normal, irreversibly so.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/07/02/must-parents-children-patient/

      1. Sorry to disappoint lacoste, I think she has a good & powerful voice even if she ain’t the most attractive of ladies. Nite nite.

        2. I much prefer a jazz combo of voice, piano, guitar, double bass and drums – with optional extras – clarinet, trumpet and trombone …

  73. I see that there are certain people in Canada behaving savagely. No change then.

    1. And no leader to stop the bs.

      Many think that Trudeau is encouraging the discontent, almost nothing from him about the church rings and inch about the latest statue toppling.

      Worst thing is its odds on that he can force an election and get a majority.

      1. So, Richard, you’re saying that Canadians cannot see the nose in front of their faces, i.e., blind and daft.

        1. So it would appear. The list of wrongdoing grows every week, the covid response was abysmal and his arrogance apparently knows no bounds but still a sizeable number are impressed by his cute socks.

    2. Should have got some green chairs, preferably electric, they are more environmentally friendly.

  79. mng to those about. How the Hungarian LGBTQI+ are instrumentalized by the European Unionhttps://www.voltairenet.org/article213494.html and why it goes nowhere

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