Friday 24 July: Obligatory face coverings exemplify the say-so of ministers becoming law

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/23/letters-obligatory-face-coverings-exemplify-say-so-ministers/

659 thoughts on “Friday 24 July: Obligatory face coverings exemplify the say-so of ministers becoming law”

  1. UK and US say Russia fired a satellite weapon in space. 24 July 2020.

    The US and UK have accused Russia of testing a weapon-like projectile in space that could be used to target satellites in orbit.

    The US State Department described the recent use of “what would appear to be actual in-orbit anti-satellite weaponry” as concerning.

    A test of a new Russian satellite took place on 15 July with the aim of performing checks on the country’s space equipment, Russia’s defence ministry said at the time.

    Morning everyone. This incident took place 10 days ago so why is it appearing in the MSM now? It’s clearly important to someone; it has wide coverage in all the major propaganda outlets and the UK has been drawn in as support poodle. Even more interesting why have the Russians carried it out? Now there are rumours on the internet that recent incidents in Iran; the attack on the Natanz nuclear facility being the major one, were carried out by a satellite based laser. This is not as unlikely as it first appears since the Iranians have not furnished any other explanations and there have been no publicised arrests or harangues against the usual suspects. They appear to be baffled. Now it could be, and I phrase it no more strongly than that, that the Russians have confirmed that such was the cause and have demonstrated with this anti- satellite weapon that they not only know but are not a sitting duck like Iran!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53518238

    1. Maybe it was the Russians that burnt down Notre Dame trying to stir up racial conflict.

  5. SIR – Ümit Yalçın (Letters, July 23), the Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey, asks why Islamist terrorists are identified in this way.

    The reason is that Islamism is the ideology that motivates their actions. This ideology, which has its own word in Arabic, is a particular interpretation of Islam with which many Muslims may not agree.

    We can even acknowledge that not all Islamists are terrorists, just as we might say that the existence of Marxist terrorists does not mean all Marxists are terrorists, any more than the existence of Hindu nationalist terrorists means all Hindu nationalists are terrorists.

    I am not aware of any terrorism inspired by Christianity, but if there were such terrorism, we would have to find a name for it. If the public are to be well informed, we need to find ways of describing the motivation that leads people to commit extreme acts.

    Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali
    Oxford Centre for Training, Research, Advocacy and Dialogue
    London W1

    1. SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, July 21) is right that “Islamist” is a useful term. Islamists are distinguished from ordinary Muslims by the fact that they turn Islam into a political ideology, comparable (and, they believe, superior) to communism, fascism or liberal democracy.

      As the pioneering South Asian Islamist thinker Mawdudi wrote: “All man-made ‘isms’ have been tried out and did, by and large, not work. Now, after becoming exhausted, there is no other remedy left for man than to return to Islam.”

      Understanding Islamist violence requires an appreciation of this essential ideological component, hence we should continue to use the term “Islamist”.

      Dr Fitzroy Morrissey
      All Souls College, Oxford

      1. I notice that neither writer challenges the Turkish stooge that slammerdom is not a RACE.

        Perhaps they think it is…..

        1. Michael Nazir-Ali is a Pakistani Christian I think – he knows all about Islam. Perhaps he thought that point was to stupid to argue over.

          4. He certainly did, Bill. Why “Islamic terrorism”? Well, in the main Christians don’t indulge in such an activity, so there is no more to be said. Incidentally, Michael Nazir-Ali visited our church a few years ago…most impressive.

      2. Islam (it means submission) is a political ideology. There is no separation between mosque and state.

      2. Williams and Welby were specially appointed to destroy the Church of England and, we must admit it, unlike our politicians they are fit for purpose.

        1. Oh I dunno, the politicians are there to destroy Britain, aren’t they??

          Reading the revelations about Runcie and his wife, it appears that the rot had already set in in the 1980s.
          How anyone could be Archbishop of Canterbury and win a court case by lying in his teeth….!
          Liberals have no decency, not a scrap.

    3. “I am not aware of any terrorism inspired by Christianity.”

      The IRA?

      No one expected the Spanish Inquisition.

      1. No, not really. It was political. The island of Ireland was split when the Plantation occurred and power and property came into the hands of Protestants. Successive UK Governments used the religious differences as a cover for the huge political, social and economic injustices that were commonplace. One man-one vote in local elections did not happen in NI until 1969. That was some time after Uganda.
        (Property owners had 2 votes, taxi-drivers none, kind of thing. Protestant hegemony was seen as a political key to continued attachment to the UK. Harland & Wolff did not employ Catholics.)

        1. Actually I quite like the idea of property owners having 2 votes …

          1. Two properties – 3 votes, three properties – 4 votes,…buy-to-let empire, ah, now you’re talking!

      2. They didn’t do it to restore Catholicism in the north and make the Protestants burn in hell, but to unite the two halves.

    4. Christians forget that there’s plenty of incitement to violence in the bible as there is in the Koran. The difference is that Christian countries, being intelligent, industrialised and increasingly rational sort of morphed into a little community group, more a mother’s meeting than a religious organisation.

      Islam, by contrast, is vastly more militant and has not developed alongside an increasingly rational, secular base. While it’s attitudes are not only unchallenged and not even confronted but lauded by the state machine it will continue to produce disaffected, angry, anti social characters.

      1. The Old Testament is full of Islamic type violence.
        Apart from expelling the money lenders from the temple, the founder of Christianity was not violent.

      2. Good afternoon, Wibbling.

        Christians do not forget the incitement to violence,
        the difference is they try to follow the teachings of
        Jesus Christ,,,,,,,hence Christians.
        As Anne has written earlier!

      3. In the Old Testament, but the New urges one to turn the other cheek and states that the meek shall inherit the earth.

      4. The violence in the OT usually refers single historical events with reference to particular peoples or groups being smited. Incitement to violence in the Koran is generalised and for all time – the two are not comparable.

  6. Good morning. Just looking in to see whether the world came to an end overnight.

    Cannot find any LAW that says that masks are compulsory. I suspect there is none.

    Getting the car out ready for Narridge. Back this arvo, DV.

    1. Hope you look gorgeous after your hairdo – don’t go too bouffant or it won’t fit in the Yeti. {:^))

      1. I am obliged to my learned friend for his helpful intervention.

        Couldn’t find it at 06.00 today!

    3. Something to do with delegated legislation, Bill. Any lawyer will explain it for you. Oh, hang on…

    1. 321679+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      We will rue the day ( 24/6/2016) the peoples struck back.
      The politico enema are in revenge mode.

    1. I don’t understand why they didn’t break it down and put it in the bin. Or better, take it home with them.

      Such people should be flogged.

      1. Someone had put the outer packaging from a multi-pack of lager in the dog waste bin a couple of weeks ago. What?

  9. Reading this makes one angrier and angrier………………………at DfID

    ROSS CLARK: What planet are we on? Britain gives £71m to China in aid – even though they’re on the warpath over Huawei… and yesterday blasted a rocket to Mars. But now, if you can stomach it, read where those tax millions are going
    *UK taxpayers have forked out an eye-watering £71million in foreign aid to China
    *In 2018, almost £100million was carved out to finance the China Prosperity Fund
    *Britain also sent £110,000 to try and stop money laundering in the Asian country

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8554637/Britain-gives-71m-China-aid-stomach-read-tax-millions-going.html

  10. BBC Breakfast TV
    Naga Munchetty interviewing two shopkeepers, not wearing masks in a shop in Scotland, asking them how mask wearing in Scottish shops is working.

      1. Morning HJ
        If you’ve ever peed in a wet suit in chilly weather you get a nice warm feeling all over!

        1. I thought that was the first thing you did when you jumped (or fell off the boat) into icy water 🙂

          1. I used to roll off an inflatable during water training with Newfoundlands but thst’s all water inside the wetsuit now!

          2. I used to sail a Topper. They were easily tipped over – or at least, I found it easy to do.

    3. I gather that, bizarrely, shopkeepers do not have to wear them whilst their customers are supposed to.

      What?! You were looking for logical consistency?!

      Don’t make me larf …

  11. Morning all,

    I missed yesterday’s musings but apropos the letters about teachers and ‘the Corona’, it should be remembered that teachers are seemingly the only people who can’t get to work when it snows.

    1. When I was a teacher I lived in the school. I had to do so as a housemaster.

    2. I’ve known teachers (myself included) who trudged through snow and ice to go into school.

      The problem is a bit like any organisation – you hear about the bad ones, the majority just get missed.

  12. I got 2 re-usable and washable masks from AMAZON which cost about £3.50 each plus postage. They are worn round the neck and are very light with a fine mesh. I noticed the 30p bags you get in Sainsbury’s for loose vegetables have an even finer mesh. They looked acceptable and as useful as other face masks I tried one on [ in the privacy of my home] and covered my face down to neck level. They unfortunately had corners at the top which would be an embarrassment to some unless they had huge ears. They could be used in extremis. Perhaps Sainsbury’s could look at them and if functional,consider selling them at the entrance for 30p. I would have posted a photograph but my face would have been visible and I don’t want to cause further stress to the public.

    1. I got 10 masks for £1.59 inc postage from Amazon and they’re great and I’ve washed a couple

      1. Morning Alec – The postage for mine cost more than that. You must be on Prime. It has struck me that as the effectiveness of the face cover is irrelevant that wearing women’s stockings gangster style would suffice. The possibilities are numerous. The government is toying with us. We should fight back.

      1. ‘Morning, Joe.

        As he was in a restaurant perhaps he meant to write sated, or the German satt, a crude word for full, replete, etc.

        1. A grammar enthusiast called Peddy
          Declared he was always quite ready,
          To admonish and curb
          An intransitive verb
          Used with object and not at all steady.

          Not my best I am afraid.

          The rot set in when they stopped teaching grammar in the 70’s and when fewer and fewer people did Latin

    2. I think she’s on the ground, Martyn Truther, but I take your point.

      ‘Morning, JN.

  15. Morning all

    SIR – The decision to impose wearing of face coverings in shops illustrates a serious constitutional issue.

    I searched in vain for the relevant legislation yesterday morning for the major infringement of personal liberty imposed today. The Commons has risen for the summer but that does not stop the Government issuing all manner of regulations purportedly to prevent the spread of a disease almost extinguished in my area. A Statutory Instrument making such law can normally be challenged in Parliament, but it does not sit until September.

    The non-statutory basis of the two-metre rule has already been exposed, but the Government still promulgates social-distancing rules as though they were the law.

    Truly, we live in an elected dictatorship where it seems that the say-so of ministers is the law.

    Michael Staples

    Seaford, East Sussex

    SIR – Today, we shall be compelled to wear face masks while shopping – four months after the Covid lockdown began. The disease has declined without recourse to masks.

    The imposition of masks is illogical and strongly points to political diversionary tactics or creeping totalitarianism.

    Chris Speke

    Chester

    SIR – And now Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, says she hopes people will be “shamed” for not wearing masks while shopping.

    Perhaps the police could provide tubs of tar and feathers beside the hand-sanitiser dispensers.

    John Kennedy

    Hornchurch, Essex

    SIR – As a profoundly deaf person, may I suggest Andrea Pepper (Comment, July 22) invests in a liquid-crystal display mini writing tablet, to be given to the person with whom she wishes to communicate. This minimises frustration for both parties and, more importantly, deters the other person from shouting at her.

    Alternatively, when shopping, use a written note: “I am a deaf person, please show me the receipt.” It works.

    Raymond Jones

    Modbury, Devon

    SIR – As a wearer of spectacles and behind-the-ear hearing aids, a face mask presented two problems – fogged-up specs and a tangle.

    I have found a solution – a strip of non-slip polymer, half an inch wide, five inches long and incorporating three preformed studs half an inch apart at each end.

    With the strip at the back of my head and by fitting the mask loops over the appropriate studs instead of over my ears, I can now avoid a tangle. A much better seal between my face and the mask leaves my spectacles unmisted.

    No prizes for guessing where the strips are made …

    Gordon Ratcliffe

    Sherborne, Dorset

    1. Just posted a link to the statutory instrument.
      The list of exempt premises is huge – basically, it applies to shops only, not places where people gather.

      1. Gather ye Covid whilst ye may,
        the virus is still a-flying;
        And this same Corona that smiles today.
        Tomorrow will be dying

      2. Our rulers love multinationals. Non executive seats on Boards and good ROI. Independent shops on the High Street? – Pah! and Goodbye.

    2. 321679+ up ticks,
      Morning Epi,
      First letter I believe Mr Staples has nailed it down as in
      ” we live in an elected dictatorship” correct,and have done so for years giving carte blanche via the ballot booth.
      Surely in “elected” lies the answer, in people power via the
      ballot booth kicking into touch the ” party first ” voting mode.
      Opposition to the lab/lib/con coalition party close shop MUST be the order of the day, surely.

      1. The perversion of the course of democracy got well under way in the 2015 General Election.

        Public meetings, that hitherto had been open events where hecklers were encouraged to put candidates on the spot, who did not know what might come up from the floor was replaced by a system, as employed by the mainstream media (but not presumably Al Jazeera or RT) where all questions had to be submitted a week in advance for vetting by the chair in co-operation with party managers, had to be on topics approved centrally, there was to be no discussion between the candidates and no follow-up questions from the floor. These were the rules.

        In 2017, the hustings in my town were cancelled. All we had to go on then was what we could glean from the set piece leadership debates as presented on TV and by carefully-presented pieces from professional broadcasters.

        In 2019, few people even bothered to come round to canvass or to put up posters. We just did as we were told. I spoilt my ballot paper, writing the name of a 14-year-old romantic classical composer who has a much better character and vision than any of the candidates on offer on the ballot paper.

        This is what we have come to.

        I know, ogga1 of your political affiliation, which you have been promoting here tirelessly over the months. If it’s any comfort, I did vote for that party for the last euros in 2019, and must say that the outrage of its lack of proper representation in the Commons proportional to its popular vote in 2015 was the same outrage that led me to vote Liberal way back in 1974 on my 18th birthday. 1974 – 14 MPs for 6 million votes; 2015 – 1 MP for 4 million votes.

        The disgrace this heaped on Parliament as it descended into anarchy during 2019 was a direct result of there not being adequate representation for Leavers there, so that the British negotiating position could command any respect with the EU negotiating team. It is also the reason Boris Johnson got in with a shoo-in, taking much of Labour’s “cloth cap” heartlands with it.

        Now, they all seem to have gone home and leave us to our own devices to sort out. I anticipate the only way out of the mess is to dismiss the law as useless and act on our own initiative.

        1. 321670+upticks,
          Morning JM,
          Agreed, for my part I see it as for many entering a polling booth purely to pick at a recurring scab
          titled the lab/lib/con coalition
          party.

          Sheep scab is a caused by a parasitic mite called Psoroptes ovis politico, which is a skin surface feeder ( politico trougher). Infections via the polling booth are a major welfare concern as they can be debilitating with high morbidity, and fatalities can occur through loss of condition, malnutrition, secondary infections and hypothermia .
          Current UKIp has fell foul of the treachery mite found within the
          present neC.
          Real UKIPPERS are still around,
          waiting.
          My personal take.

    3. Gordon Ratcliffe, you are well behind the curve, matey. A small firm near here manufactured such a device, free of charge, for staff at our hospital, and those hospital friends helping our elderly social day care clients with trips out, since the start of the pandemic. They are known here as ‘ear savers’ and I can vouch for the fact that they are much more comfortable than the elasticated type, although a bit of a fidfle initially.

    1. Long list of exempt premises
      No requirements to the effectiveness of the covering in trapping virus, aerosols, or even great big clumps of flying snot… It just has to cover nose & mouth.
      “face covering” means a covering of any type which covers a person’s nose and mouth;

      1. 321670+ up ticks,
        Morning Aoe,
        Nice one, as soon as the keyboard come into play
        you knew the punchline.

        2. As of the MSM this morning, banks are not excluded from the rules. Possibly. Maybe…

  18. 321679+ up ticks,
    I beg forgiveness for this re-post from late last night,

    O2O.
    Is this intentional that many of those in power positions
    seem increasingly to be creating problem issues then
    rhetorically making a play of solving them, always keeping the peoples out of step with many issues.
    The peoples I am sure do not want anymore mosque built, so they are built, the peoples want no more mass immigration, so Dover gets government blessing,
    ALL the goodness of these Isle’s is getting the sh!te kicked out of it, has anyone else noticed ?

  19. Two of the ‘Beatles’ British jihadists now admit to abusing western hostages. 23 July 2020 •

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9401e379b0cf23b66e6d6f2cdecd61e74edd72d3b6eaa3f269107c6f9dbd250d.jpg

    Two British jihadists who were part of the notorious Islamic State “Beatles” quartet have for the first time admitted their involvement in the mistreatment of western hostages, including the American aid worker Kayla Mueller.

    US and British authorities agree that the “Beatles” were responsible for 27 killings, including the beheadings of British aid workers David Haines and Alan Henning, and Americans James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig.

    These are the sort of people that the UK Government encourages to come to the UK. You don’t really need any written or eyewitness evidence. The evil is written on their faces!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/23/two-beatles-british-jihadists-now-admit-abusing-western-hostages/

    1. Why have we allowed people like this to flourish in Britain?

      The two things that are going to create an unstoppable wave of racial tension amongst the indigenous population of Britain are movements such as Black Lives Matter and the government’s refusal to act decisively about immigration and expulsion of illegal and criminal immigrants.

      Indeed, I find that more and more people are now saying that they are becoming ‘racist’ in their views when only a few years ago they would not have admitted it even to themselves.

      1. Shutting the stable door…

        What you say about immigrants might have been valid fifty years ago, when Enoch Powell was having second thoughts about Commonwealth immigration (incidentally before we joined the Common Market), but today many of the worse and most evil of the villains, including these two, were born and bred in the UK, and cannot therefore be classed as immigrants.

        We last deported criminals when we transported our convicts to Australia to spare us the cost of feeding them and their families according to the levels they demand for themselves, but deny others. Australia today is not quite so amenable to processing our industrial waste. Not even Bangladesh or Turkey will take them, and as for the Saudis – they won’t even accept genuine humanitarian refugees even if they are devout Muslims and fully compatible with their culture, unless they carry bags of gold to spend in the Mecca retail experience for the mega-rich.

        What we need therefore is some landfill that won’t contaminate the local environment, and this may need some ingenuitive engineering and perhaps lateral thinking. Diverting large amounts of the national cake to an organisation such as the Premier League that goes down on its knee to worship kindred spirits to the Islamist Beatles may carry the blessing of our Establishment, especially in London, but sooner or later, folk providing the ingredients to this cake will get fed up and just stop at home and socially isolate from the nation.

        1. I wonder if the death penalty for terrorists would make ‘British’ ISIS supporters more reluctant to stay in or return to Britain?

          The whole corrupt and craven British establishment needs root and branch reform.

          1. I worry about the death penalty, Rastus. It’s open to misuse (as are all laws), but there’s no comeback.
            The old man arrested under antiterrorism law for heckling the Labour party conference years ago; Tommy Robinson – all could be fitted up easily and done away with permanently. At least Tommy can be released from jail.

          2. I too have my reservations.

            One goes back to topics debated in school debating societies, for example: “This House believes that the death penalty should be re-introduced for convicted terrorists.”

            Somebody arguing for the motion could produce statistics for the number of people murdered by murderers who had not been executed and projected figures for those who would not have committed murder had the death penalty been there.

            Say, for the sake of argument, that one innocent person is hanged but the existence of the death penalty saves ten innocent lives then on the grounds of pragmatism the death penalty could be justified.

            Mind you, terrorists have little respect for their own lives let alone the lives of others.

          3. I think we would have large scale and very destructive riots if one terrorist was martyred by a return to the death penalty.
            There are those in our midst who are praying for this to happen.

          4. Be very careful about how you define “terrorist” though. Erdogan has set a precedent whereby all political opponents are deemed to be “terrorists”. Likewise Netanyahu. The Blair Government defined a terrorist as an old Jew who heckled the Foreign Secretary at Party Conference, and there is little doubt the current Labour Leader would use his legal expertise to push through a similar definition were he ever to gain power. Simply to refuse to go down on one knee before a game is enough of a hate crime to warrant an arrest.

      2. Morning Richard

        “Why have we allowed people like this to flourish in Britain?”

        Why indeed .. the way I view this is that the more diverse Britain becomes , the divisions and wars and blood letting in the Middle East and Southern Asia will ignite here .. We cannot cope with so many quarrelsome primitives who are imposing their will on us here in the UK .

        What percentage of foreigner does it take to cause mayhem here ?

        We just have to bear witness to the BAME movement and BLM to see how destructive and lawless these people are .

      3. It is racial wars for which ‘they’ are agitating. ‘They’ will do their utmost to ensure that we lose. Being faceless, cowed and controlled behind our face masks is the start.

        1. Spot on. I am a little dismayed by the way the marxists seized on the lockdown with the BLM movement to push their destruction of the west forward.
          In only a few weeks, they have pulled far-left opinions, if not into the mainstream, then at least into being accepted by their stooges in the media, local government, civil service and other areas.
          As usual, conservatives were caught on the hop, desperately virtue-signalling and denying they are racist – mostly because the Conservative party has drifted so disastrously far towards the left.

          1. And as such the Conservative party no longer knows for what it stands; not a single conviction-politician amongst them, reduced to quiveringly pronouncing what they are not, rather than proudly announcing what they do stand for – how can they, when they no longer have any concept of true conservative ideals.

            I feel that the Floyd death was contrived, it was prepared and set-up for that moment we were deemed to be at our weakest and like all advancing armies full advantage was taken. I cannot see a peaceful outcome; as Boris said, some (many) of us will die, but it will not be from Covid-19.

          2. The reaction was set up in advance and then activated once a suitable peg to hang it on appeared.

          3. I think they took advantage of something that they knew would happen sooner or later.
            An appalling statistic is that more black people died in the BLM riots than at the hands of the police in 2019.
            It’s not about black lives.

    2. Good morning all

      The Home Sec Pretty Useless appears to be allowing more of that disgusting variety hospitality ashore along our Sussex and Kent courtesy of the Border Force and other so called Liberal Lefty Tory outfits.

      I am sick and tired of the stupidity of all politicians .

          1. Have an unexpectedly free day.
            Will concentrate on laying out the complicated tapestry that I treated myself to.
            It’s small, but a very different design; I like working from a chart as it stirs up the little grey cells.

          2. My eyes cannot cope with small stuff anymore.

            I’m off out with the dogs shortly. sadly our beautiful countryside is becoming rubbish strewn .. I found a couple of blue paper masks on heathland yesterday ..

            What on earth are people thinking .. they have no respect for anything or anywhere .

            Is Britain similar to France and Italy and anywhere else re litter , I hope not.

          3. Don’t watch the Bbc or read the MSM, T_B. Your life will be much more pleasant!

          4. One of my elderlies , a service veteran aged 86 died on Saturday , and another truly delightful veteran , nearly 90 years old is terribly ill.

            My last meeting was in February , and a handful of stalwarts came from here there and everywhere for lunch at the RBL, including the gentlemen mentioned above , I have known them all for years .. 17 years.

            Then there was Lockdown .. We nomally meet for lunch every 2 months.

            Amongst these dear people, some served in Egypt, Palestine , Jordan, Syria , and Iraq, late 1940’s to the mid/ late 1950’s .

            Veterans from the armed services, not many left now from that age group.

          5. Sadly, as we age we lose a lot of friends. The only certainties in life are death and taxes.

    3. Good morning all

      The Home Sec Pretty Useless appears to be allowing more of that disgusting variety hospitality ashore along our Sussex and Kent courtesy of the Border Force and other so called Liberal Lefty Tory outfits.

      I am sick and tired of the stupidity of all politicians .

    4. Why are they still breathing? They gloried in their evil doings. If they were allowed to go back they would do it all again.

        1. Waste of metal and too quick.

          I’ve a tree saw. I suggest gradual dismemberment – cauterising the wounds of course while under an adrenaline drip.

          Throw the limbless bodies in a lime pit to scream the remains of their lives.

          And at a stroke, I have become them. Brutalist, angry, violent. This is where enforced diversity takes us.

      1. Dung beetles (the insects) perform a useful recycling and seed planting service. Unlike these useless and savage men.

    6. My father and about four hundred expats were rounded up by people like that , during the Suez Crisis, my mother, sister and I were evacuated from Egypt.

      They had sacks put over their heads , the English Padre was beaten , and many others were treated roughly. Nearly 3 months of internment !

      What the Egyptians did to our pet dogs , which we inherited from British Army officers, heavens only knows , a daschund and an alsation.

      It is the Arab instinct to spit, whack , shout , wave their arms around , make a noise etc etc. There is NO such thing as peaceful Muslims.. Islam is a barbaric cult .

      It is time we here in Britain got more nationalistic , we should protect our own and stop this quasi friendly front that is encouraged by politically correct idiots .

      For goodness sake even the Indians and Pakistanis have a caste system , and what about Sunni and Shia and all that tribal nonsense?

      2. My father spent quite a lot of his war time RAF postings in north Africa. He would say to me many times during his life “Never trust and arab son”.

    7. Our governments over the past twenty plus years haven’t given much thought to the type of people they have let in. Even when they get hold of illegal ingress of so called migrants. They are illegally trespassing. Even when the border/immigration farce catch them they more often than not bail them and of course they just disappear again. Is it any wonder that crime rates in the UK have gone through the roof.
      The current home secretary is taking her time in stopping all this.

  20. What’s happened to Cochrane? Who’s upset him? He’s closed his Max the Dog account! Speak up the Guilty Party!

    2. we all Guilty ‘cos we upset him by daring to disagree; sad really, because technically he was often nearly correct.

      1. Correct about what? He could only talk about one thing. The rest was an utter mystery to him! He was the most ignorant Troll I’ve ever come across!”

        1. If one is rational one judges a point of view by its validity more than by the person who has it.

          The converse is true in that one can have great respect and affection for someone with whom one often disagrees.

          1. That’s why The Economist doesn’t give the author for their articles.

          1. One of the nastiest things about the Brexit debate was that people were encouraged to hate and despise those who had a different point of view.

            In my opinion remainers were more venomously vindictive and filled with hatred and spite than leavers but, being a leaver I would say that wouldn’t I?

          2. In my circle of friends and acquaintances, I find that even hinting that one voted leave results in a shower of vitriol.

            Someone stating openly they voted remain and leavers do not seem to do similarly.

            Oddly enough, remainers are also the ones most paranoid regarding Covid and believing of Government statistics and the likes of Ferguson.

          3. I told a remainer chum of mine that they were wrong in everything they thought about the EU.

            I let him present his case and demolish it. Lefty remainers like to think they’re righteous but most are just ignorant.

          4. There does seem to be a correlation there. Also noted in my limited interaction with Brits.

          5. Yet the leavers weren’t out and about shouting at the remainers. Remainers were actively attacking Leavers.

            Is it because we won? I doubt it. I think the very nature of why we voted to leave, that inherent belief in democracy, in respecting the will of the people was the reason for that. Remainers didn’t seem to share that. It was their way or nothing. The constant undermining of the result was just heinous and the traitors didn’t care about democracy.

          6. Geldof pumping V-signs on the Thames was possibly the low-point for the Remainiacs. He certainly was a rat and probably still is.

      3. No, he wasn’t. He would regularly draw a reference from one event to another but then when it suited him, completely ignore causality.

        He didn’t present arguments and as soon as he was challenged he’d prevaricate, deflect and when that failed insult people.

        I’m happy to be challenged but it’s got to be better than ‘I’m right you’re a Far Right fascist’.

    5. Maxy always goes on holiday in July and then returns to NTTL in the autumn as someone else..

          1. We went to see him once in London………he stop mid song and complained that people were taking photos of him !!!!!??

    6. I was wondering that. He was rather offensive on Sunday evening, but since then had beem calm even when disagreeing. More concerning is that LotL has gone as well.

    7. Had no idea about the connection…must pay more attention. Although I have always considered blocking to be a last resort, I was on the point of doing so in the case of MtD after one of his recent outbursts. Looks as though he has saved me the trouble.

    8. Don’t know. ‘Twas not I; I rarely engage with him. After being extremely foul-mouthed the other day, he seemed more reasonable last night. Perhaps Mr Hyde did him in.

  21. According to the law, “face covering” means a covering of any type which covers a person’s nose and mouth.

    I am not worried about catching the virus off others, so long as I keep out of coughing range and wash my hands after going to any public place. I probably had it before Christmas, and still have the lingering tickle and the chronic fatigue. Nor is it likely that I will pass it on to others – the infectious stage has long passed. However, it is antisocial for any coughing, sneezing and spluttering from me to be spread around, since this upsets people. This is the main purpose of any face covering.

    Why must I look like a bank robber though? If the only purpose of this mask is to stop my bodily fluids being flung across the room, why not use the simple alternative that is being knocked up by enterprising British companies diversifying their wares while the main product is suffering during the downturn?

    I have therefore ordered some of these: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392879859136 which I’ve seen shopworkers wearing. They are much better than the cloth masks, in that they do not restrict breathing, they allow people to see facial expressions, and crucially they comply with the law as passed above and any coughing or sneezing or singing droplets is stopped by the visor and can be washed under a tap.

    1. 321670+up ticks,
      O2O,
      Lets face it, what is behind the mask ? what in reality is the mask masking ?
      Who really is setting the height appertaining to the
      West ern roll.

      1. That’ll be the one that goes round the UK, down the middle of the sea and across the Bay of Biscay, I presume.

    2. I’ll be the first to say it: Norway doesn’t have a border with Spain.

    3. The North Sea/English Channel/Bay of Biscay is a very FAT border.

      Sweden/Finland/Russia/Belarus/Poland/Germany/France is an ever fatter border.

    4. Norway hasn’t just threatened. If you didn’t return a day or so ago, you now have to go into quarantine if you have taken the opportunity to visit Spain.

    1. It’s interesting. We already knew this, it just received no prominence in the confusing plethora of analyses, warnings, predictions and regulations with which we have been bombarded over the last six months. The BBC mixed news and social media, science and lunacy, into an incomprehensible broth.
      We know that bugs travel through air conditioning which is why public transport and especially air travel is so dangerous. The same applies to buildings. The new Glasgow Hospital is a death trap. Wearing a mask will not stop viruses. The manufacturers say so on the box, as does the BMJ.

        1. Doesn’t need a hole. As Michael Gove demonstrated with his misted up glasses, the moisture borne virus particles can freely escape, if they exist, through the sides.

          1. You are surely not suggesting that the ‘Reporters’ “you can trust’ would do such a thing?

        3. Doesn’t need a hole. As Michael Gove demonstrated with his misted up glasses, the moisture borne virus particles can freely escape, if they exist, through the sides.

    2. All of this is doubtless true but since the virus has a fatality rate somewhere between 0.001% and 0.03%, depending on whose statistics you believe, it surely doesn’t matter?

      Trump is right that increased testing increases the number of supposed cases, because anyone who’s had a cold in the last ten years is likely to have residual evidence in their body and therefore test positive, as the testing isn’t sophisticated enough to distinguish normal colds and flu from C19, which anyway is no more fatal than flu.

      1. Those old colds is why over a thousand of yesterdays deaths in the US were ascribed to CV. Dangerous stuff those colds of last year.

    3. Trying to avoid this thing by what in effect are mechanical means is a fools errand! Is it not Stephen?

      1. You are right Minty. Never ever travel by public transport!
        I’m mindful of the fact that two years ago I took a lengthy journey involving a bus and two changes of trains. During that journey at various times individually four people sat directly behind me and proceeded to cough their guts out without using handkerchiefs. The result for me was a serious cough and subsequent lung infection which took four months and three courses of antibiotics to clear. Avoid travelling on public transport!

        2. I caught C19 in February after taking train and taxi journeys (and getting soaked and frozen while doing it).

    4. If it is so durable in the environment then why aren’t people dropping like flies?

    5. There has been a bit of research into the longevity of covid viruses on cold, hard surfaces over here. Apparently in damp, humid conditions and at about three or four degrees centigrade, the little bugs thrive. This has winter sports organizers in a bit of a tizz, indoor rinks are apparently ideal homes for the bug.

      1. Not to mention meat processing plants across the world. Damp cold conditions workers packed closely together etc….

      1. Morning Bob, I visit my sawmills and order all the wood I need and make them myself.
        The panels I make work out more expensive than ones I can buy but last far longer. Renewing posts is more of a pain, only 1 to do today, it will need renewing before the winter arrives.

        1. We’ve a decent sawmill near us too. It’s where I bought the wood I needed for my shed.

    2. They’ve heard that young white girls will be going back to school soon and want to “appreciate” them.

    3. Surely it would be more racist to let them into a racist country than to send them home to a country that shares their values?

      1. Saudi has an ‘Empty Quarter’. Plenty of room for all their persecuted co-religionists.
        Let the desert bloom; it’s what the Jews did in their allotted sand patch c.1948.

        1. That would be interesting – here’s your new land, ask Israel for help in making it habitable.

          2. That is something that ought to have been done decades ago, but the Arab World are more interested in keeping the conflict as an open, festering wound.

        2. Which proves what can be achieved if one has the
          determination!

          Good afternoon, Anne.

    4. The problem is we have already had at least one plane load of Syrians landed in the UK from the Greek mainland !

  27. SIR – I taught all my life in the state system, so am aware that teachers enjoy job security and a generous pension on retirement.

    During the pandemic, they were not furloughed and remained on full salary, while the great majority were not required (by their unions) to work as hard as normal.

    They will go back in September on increased pay, unlike millions in other professions who are likely to lose their jobs through no fault of their own. Yet the Association of School and College Leaders regards this pay award as a “kick in the teeth” (report, July 22).

    Peter Sandall
    Ludlow, Shropshire

    Honorary NoTTLer!!

    1. SIR – At my school and at many others in both the public and private sectors (Letters, July 23), hundreds of hours of live online lessons were delivered to pupils during lockdown.

      My school taught its entire curriculum, moving all teaching online overnight. We lent laptops to disadvantaged pupils and checked in individually to see how all pupils and their families were getting on.

      We stayed open for children of key workers; staff, including our Special Educational Needs team, came to school to work with those pupils who needed it most.

      Pupils came in small groups from June 15 to work on art and music coursework, and to receive catch-up classes in maths and English. Everything followed Government guidance on social distancing.

      During the summer, we are running a three-week course of catch-up classes, thanks to our partnership with Thomas’s Foundation.

      My teachers worked exceptionally hard and I am sure others did too. My real worry is that Ofqual is not going to ensure that my GCSE and A-level pupils get the results they deserve. Cancelling exams and a seemingly random approach to awarding grades could be the summer’s real scandal.

      Clare Wagner
      Headteacher, West London Free School
      London W6

      Well done, the school founded by Toby Young et alia.

      1. This is why Labour is so against ‘free schools’ and independent schools.

        Their ethos is not nearly negative enough!

    2. Why did 100% of independent schools give full on-line tuition to their pupils while many state schools did not?

      As I have said before we sent one of our sons to an independent school (where he was taught English by Bill Thomas’s MR) but the other wanted to go to a state school. Both performed equally well academically but the great difference was the ethos of the teachers. At Gresham’s our elder son was able to engage in a wide range of out of school activities while virtually nothing was organised by the teachers for out of classroom activities in our younger son’s state school.

      1. Our grandson at RHS had 5 hours of online lessons every school day.
        Our granddaughter at Colchester Girls High School was dropped like a brick. She was supposed to take her GCSEs this summer. Effectively, she was told her results depended upon her Mocks and course work. Tough titty – off you go.

    3. I’ve exchanged ideas with a head of English chum at nigh 10 at night. He was working, he gave a stuff.

      What I am genuinely confused about economics wise is this splurge in public sector pay, the campaigns about obesity and wearing a mask in public as they tell us a to wear a mask when going into the high street which will deter everyone.

      It’s as if ‘This is the wrong thing to do. Do this’ was the government’s mantra.

    1. Dominic Sandbrook often writes good article in the Mail. Indeed he is very much better than most of the Telegraph’s current journalists.

    2. The BBc stink and are crass and to add more hatched up consummate insult to injury, the only people who would have any respect for Churchill or understand his commitment as a leader, are now being forced to support the financially.

    1. Have a look at the Dover Channel Seaway – shows all the shipping movements. There are 4 boats stationed on Dover – Seeker, Searcher, Hunter and Speedwell – all are UK police/customs boats – when you look at their tracking you can see they run a taxi service – SAR ?
      They are running up and down picking immigrant people up from all over the channel –

      1. Now if the four boats stationed on Dover were French and they picked up those chancing the Channel and returned them to France, the Trafficking trade would quickly dry up and those intent on travelling to the UK via France would try elsewhere – problem solved for both France and the UK

          1. It can only just cope with a Force 3 gusting to Force 4 headwind. It certainly ain’t fast enough to avoid any prospective collisions with ferries or tankers!

    2. A case of sticking a wet finger in the air to estimate the chances of catching the virus?

    3. That assumption is grossly exaggerated

      That assumption over there, or this assumption over here?

      1. No. The one behind the rock in the corner of the field two miles from the University as you drive towards the rising sun. Obviously.

  32. This is sickening and depressing:

    Diversity is no reason to scrap Sheffield’s cathedral choir

    It’s hard to know where to start with this extraordinary decision, which seems driven largely by inverted snobbery

    LUCY DENYER
    23 July 2020 • 6:04pm
    Lucy Denyer

    Back in what now seems the impossibly distant time of mid-March, a flurry of emails whisked into my inbox concerning choir rehearsals. “Tonight’s rehearsal is on!” the first one read. And then: “But you don’t have to come if you don’t want to.” Minutes later: No, it was off. And now it’s been five months since I gathered with the choir I sing with, although there have been weekly sing-alongs (all participants muted) on Zoom. I can feel my voice getting rustier and my sight-singing abilities atrophying, as hopes of us being able to reconvene become ever more distant.

    Most choirs have had a shocker over lockdown. We’ve been banned from singing together because of fears doing so will lead to aerosol transmission of Covid-19. The longer the prohibition lasts, the harder it gets: choirs across the country are now facing oblivion, with cathedral choirs particularly hard hit.

    Pity, then, the choir of Sheffield Cathedral, undergoing a double blow, having just been informed it is to be disbanded “for reasons of diversity”. Significant change is needed, the Dean says. Cathedral music needs to reach “parts of the city we haven’t reached before”. Heaven forfend that it might be able to do that with its existing choir, which performs largely traditional choral music (perhaps unsurprisingly, in a cathedral parts of which date back to 1200). But no, the whole thing must be scrapped and started again to appeal to Sheffield’s “mixed urban community”.

    Sheffield Cathedral will get rid of its 40-strong choir and replace it with a new team of choristers who reflect the diverse South Yorkshire city
    Sheffield’s cathedral choir is to be scrapped and started again for reasons of “diversity”
    It’s hard to know where to start with this extraordinary decision. Perhaps with the appallingly inverted snobbery that presumes the people of Sheffield are unable to appreciate the sublimities of traditional church music. Or the equally misguided assumption that classical music is automatically “elitist” – when, as James Bingham, a former member pointed out, the Sheffield cathedral choir makes amazing music on a daily basis in the city centre that is free to everyone. Or that broadening the repertoire of a choir means having to scrap it and start again, when a well-trained choir is perfectly capable of tackling almost any type of music. A clue, perhaps, lies in the fact that the current choir is largely drawn from the private schools of Sheffield, and the Dean wants to give “as many children the opportunity to sing at the highest level”.

    Fine. But don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. Broaden recruitment; set up an outreach programme; add new music to the choir’s repertoire. But don’t use diversity as an excuse to destroy something good. And please, don’t screw up another blameless group of singers this year.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/23/dont-use-diversity-excuse-scrap-blameless-choir/

    Top BTL comments:

    Sara Well
    23 Jul 2020 7:05PM
    Bet no gospel choirs are scrapped on the basis of diversity and that is perfectly correct. There’s nothing wrong with horses for courses. Why don’t woke idiots understand this? This is cancel culture in full flow, leaving us all, irrespective of skin colour, the poorer.

    Flag168Unlike
    Reply
    John Thomas
    23 Jul 2020 8:03PM
    The decision to axe the choir for reasons of ‘diversity’ is stupid, lazy and profoundly unchristian. Stupid because no sane person would erase a brilliant ensemble for transient reasons of political fashion.

    Lazy because if the choir is not diverse enough, then someone should get off their cassocked rear and do something about it. Unchristian because it denies both singers and worshippers one of the primary means of worship.

    Flag136Unlike
    Reply
    Richard MacCutchan
    23 Jul 2020 8:53PM
    Why are so many people in leadership roles so utterly stupid and out of touch with the majority of the population of this country?

    Flag127Like
    Reply
    C Rostill
    23 Jul 2020 8:57PM
    @Richard MacCutchan Because to get into a leadership role, particularly in public services, you do have to be, utterly stupid, and out of touch with the majority of the population and terrified of upsetting the minority woke population.

  33. Well, folks, back from Narridge. Arrived at 08.40 in good time for the MR’s hairdo. I thought I’d go to the market, and do a couple of bits of shopping. Oh, and go to the bank.

    Big mistake.

    Virtually all the market stalls are closed. 70% of all shops were closed. Many of those that were “open” didn’t start until 10 am. The hat stall was open in the market; but no sun hat in my medium size. Haberdashery depts in John Lewis and Jarrolds = NBG. Two metre rule enforced by teenager gauleiters. I wondered about telling them that it was now merely one metre – but saved my breath. Took half an hour to get into the bank. More staff shrieking about standing on the two metre”blobs” – and sanitising. and sanitising.. One way systems to get in and out. Bloody nightmare.

    Very few people – just lots of tramps, tattooed drug addicts (plus dogs) and yobs on bike speeding through the meagre crowds.

    I know that shopping is prolly my least favorite occupation -but this trip was unutterably depressing. There was a feeling that the PTB want to close down the city and stop all commercial activity – despite the determination of some traders to carry on.

    90% of people in the street did NOT wear a mask; of the 10% who did, half were frighted people scaring of dropping dead on the spot; the other half were going in and out of the shops and presumably couldn’t be arsed to put it on and take it off. Virtually no shop assistants were masked.

    The MR is thrilled with her haircut and look 10 years younger. She asked me what the best part of the morning was. “Leaving Norwich,” I replied!

    Shan’t be going there again in a hurry.

    1. I went into a shop yesterday and all of the aisles were blocked off, you had to wait and be escorted by a spotty teenage assistant who would handle everything for you.

      Second stop was the lawnmower shop, only one customer at a time, mask wearing mandatory but four staff who were not wearing a mask.

      Time to fire up the Amazon account and buy online, it’s bad now but just wait until winter and we are expected to lineup outside in some nice minus twenty snowstorm

      1. I don’t think they would ask you to ‘line up’, but they might make you queue. 😉

        1. Standing on some painted spot on the sidewalk / pavement (get that distinction wrong at your own risk), separated from your fellow humanity by two metres or so, waiting for some spotty teenager to allow someone to go shopping is not my idea of a queue.

      3. I thought the same as I queued and queued for the bank – outside. Lucky it wasn’t raining….

    2. Good afternoon, Bill.

      I am sorry to read your market experience was so unpleasant.
      Olney market continues to have a very pleasant ambiance;
      I am sorry it is too far for you to visit ……..it might, slightly,
      sweeten your mood.

    3. If Caroline looked ten years younger they would think she was my granddaughter – some people already think she is my daughter.

    4. Oh dear, how times have changed in the past 15 years. An early morning mooch around Norwich, on a sunny summer’s morning, was a delight. After finishing my last night shift at the airport I had no intention of wasting the day in bed. I would drive straight home, have a cool shower, change, and then drive back into the city, getting there around 0800 hrs.

      Sitting on a bench outside the market, drinking a nice cup of coffee, watching all the day-shifters walking bleary-eyed to work was wonderful. This would be followed by a wander around the market, a nip to Wilkinsons for a bag of tea or some coffee beans, a tour of Jarrold’s or Bond’s (John Lewis), a wander along Gentleman’s Walk and up London Street, then a sourdough salad sandwich and a cup of flat white at Expresso, opposite St Andrew’s Hall, before a drive back home feeling all is right with the world. Sometimes I’d drop into see Colin at his barber’s shop down Bridewell Alley and put the world to rights with him whilst he gave me a trim.

      Wonderful city is Norwich and I miss it.

      2. Good afternoon Grizzly

        I went to UEA in the 60’s; one of my sons went to Gresham’s in Holt and the other to UEA so we are no strangers to Norwich.

        I used to love the city in the 60’s but now everything has been changed by the one way systems and I feel very lost.

        The is no place stranger and less familiar than a place one used to know well which has changed.

        1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

          I started going to Norwich, to visit friends, in 1981. I fell in love with the place but was eternally mystified by its topography since it appeared to have more than one city “centre” and navigating between them was a bit of a challenge; but I persevered and soon put it all together.

          I moved live in to Norfolk in early 1999 and a trip into Norwich became a weekly event. I know it like the back of my hand now and have learnt all the “rat runs” in and out of the place and all the best places to park.

          1. You will find it completely changed, Grizz. It is a nightmare to attempt to drive. Virtually everywhere within the inner ring road is now pedestrianised or subject to ludicrous one-way systems….

            We park on the outskirts and walk.

        3. The Norwich Laura Ashley was a top destination in the seventies.
          A friend and I used to go there, buy our frocks and stock up on bundles of patchwork pieces.

      3. I commuted to Norwich from North Essex for about two years mid nineties. Hitherto I worked from the firm’s London office in Seymour Street near Marble Arch but was seconded to the Norwich office on Ferry Road.

        I found that the associate Keith Darby, who was Surveyor to the Fabric of Norwich Cathedral, had contracted Hepatitis C and was dying. I was assigned the task of formulating repairs to the tower of the cathedral and a scheme to repair the cast iron belfry louvres. Keith could not make the scaffold ladder climb, up the tower internally to the triforium then out onto the aisle roof via a leaded window before ascending the external scaffold.

        At a height of two hundred or more feet above ground, even on a sunny day I was obliged to wear my oilskin jacket to avoid freezing. Having made the climb I would remain all day, peeing if necessary over the scaffold, then descend in time to listen to the completion of Evensong from a stone ledge in the tower.

        The door to the tower in the transept was a very heavy oak construction with creaking hinges and a massive noisy lock.

        1. A wonderful place and beautiful cathedral. I’ve made the short walk through The Close, from Tombland to Pull’s Ferry, on many an occasion.

        2. Seymour Street near Marble Arch is where the Victory Services Club is. Central London hotel for serving and retired service personnel at £45 a night.
          A very high standard to boot.

    5. Last week I had to go into Colchester town centre.
      One of the most depressing experiences ever.
      I will not be rushing back.
      At one time, MB and I would potter into town to do our ‘messages’ and include a lunch/drink/coffee as a small treat. Ho hum.

      1. Normally on a Friday I would have taken a wander into town to visit the local market and meet up with friends. Our usual watering hole has closed permanently and I just didn’t want to have to take a mask with me on the off chance I might decide to go into a shop. The days of browsing and impulse purchases have long gone.

        1. Exactly. My visit into town was purposeful. Paid the paper bill on the way in; went to TK Maxx – stocked up on half price posh soap – a good 6 – 8 months worth. Home again.
          No desire to linger.

      2. Agree.
        Bill should become a DT writer… maybe not, he can write factual English, with the correct words and spellings.

    7. I drew a cheque out of the Derby Nationwide this morning and paid it straight in at the Halifax up the road. From parking the van, walking to the banks and getting back to the van took an hour.

  35. 321679+ up ticks,
    More like the UK governance lab/lib/con coalition party
    have run / is running a very successful take GB down campaign aided & abetted by a very gullible supporting cast of voters,
    The message is as loud & clear on par with dropping a stick of dynamite into a hearing horn.

    lab/lib/con politico’s are shaping your kids future via Dover plus.

    breitbart,
    ISIS REMAINS ‘MOST SIGNIFICANT TERRORIST THREAT TO UK’

    ( begum still has child bearing hips) Lest we forget.

  36. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – Harry Mount (Features, July 21) writes about copies of railings designed by John Nash in 1817 being restored to St James’s Square in London, after the originals were requisitioned during the Second World War to make munitions.

    He suggests that most railings seized for this purpose were not used, as demand was lower than anticipated.

    What really did happen to them? Were some dumped in the Thames?

    An internet search yields only guesswork. There are no eyewitness accounts of vast amounts of railings turning up at iron and steel mills to be smelted and refined into war-worthy steel.

    Is anyone still alive who can say?

    Roger Croston
    Chester

    Here you go, Roger Croston, this sounds reasonably convincing. I suspect that we may never know the true position:

    https://www.londongardenstrust.org/features/railings3.htm

    I had to smile at the thought of the cut-down railings being dropped from bombers onto the enemy…”Steady, Skipper…hold it there…steady……… railings gone! Take that, you Jerry bastards!”…as yet another set of railings was dropped. A little unlikely, perhaps, as the weight would be prohibitive if bombs were also being carried. There is no report that I am aware of to say that we were that short of munitions. Besides, the emptying of Elsans over Germany must have been a whole lot more satisfying!

    1. A very large yard outside Edinburgh got the railings from the New Town. They were still there decades later. As they are made from cast iron they cannot easily be turned into anything else, unless you have a handy blast furnace, I think. I suppose that they could have been returned, although obviously not to their original position, butt there were and are lots of “vacant positions”.

      I can’t help myself. This phrase appeared in a very funny, unintentionally funny, letter of application to our office in the 60s.

  37. Reading the shopping reports below, they seem to be mostly consistent with our experiences. The High Streets are now populated by zombies and the shops, where open, are mostly empty.
    This could easily have been predicted. Marketing people use focus groups to determine what people may think of a product or a fashion. We must then infer that the Government was well aware that legislating for the mandatory wearing of useless face coverings in shops would drive even more people to online cashless shopping. They want us to stop using cash. The anti-money-laundering rules requirements are beyond silly. Payments for toy cars bought in Germany are held up by anti-laundering checks. Money transfers from bank to building society are questioned. Payments for the purchase of property are the cue for lengthy interrogation in a darkened room (not if you are Russian, of course).
    I paid the hairdresser in cash on Wednesday, at their request. The first cash payment made in four months, even though it is my preferred method.
    I’ve already commented below that the High Street is to be phased out in favour of online businesses.
    Tell me this is not a bid for complete control of every law-abiding citizen?

    1. Can’t tell you that, Horace because I don’t think it’s true. It IS a bid for complete control of the law-abiding.

      2. I thought it was “Not only but Also”….. Peter Cook.

        It becoming more and moore obvious these people are in the wrong job.

      3. Only around 25% of the world population have an IQ above 110 so pretty much anything that rises above basic necessity can be branded elitist.

        1. Morning Sue. We are probably just bright enough to cause trouble, but too dim to survive long term!

        2. Morning Sue. We are probably just bright enough to cause trouble, but too dim to survive long term!

      5. It’s also very discriminatory. I was turned down for a number of quite good choirs. Apparently I failed the auditions because I could not sing.

  39. I note the three Pikey Scum have been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter of the Police Officer………….

    They are due to be sentenced next friday,manslaughter attracts sentences from as little as a suspended sentence up to life imprisonment(hah)

    I suppose we shall see “Whose Lives Matter”

    “While sat in the dock he laughed with Bowers and Cole as details of the

    horrific death were read out which reduced PC Harper’s widow to tears.

    At first he told the police: ‘I do not give a f*** about any of this’

    when they arrested him for murder.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8556433/Teenage-driver-PC-Andrew-Harper-case-not-guilty-murder.html

      2. 321679+ up ticks,
        Afternoon S,
        What have you got against bird colonies & wishing contamination on them, no muck passing, A life
        long sentence in Pentonville gives time for reflection.
        Not nice, years ago I worked in there
        ( construction) knowing I was coming out every night a 5.
        I can assure you a short 9 hour stay is nor very nice.

    3. Having been made some kind of protected species, our traveller friends/pikey scum have zero respect for the police because the word has gone out that they are untouchable and can therefore do exactly as they please. Personally I would be happy to supply 3 lengths of suitable rope…

    4. 3 weedy little feral teenagers callously killed a trained British Police Constable.
      Makes you begin to understand why cops in the USA are taught to kneel on a suspect’s neck, especially when the suspect is on drugs and socially distant. (2 metres tall).

  40. 321679+ up ticks,
    May one pose a question, who will be our Simon Wiesenthal when the dust of madness / treachery settles & sanity returns ?

      1. 321679+ up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        Small correction IMO
        “Is not in our culture” will no longer apply, new odious rulings are putting unacceptable pressure on the peoples and give it time it will be recognised
        for what it is, a race replacement campaign.
        As we type our culture is being diluted in ONE instance via the waters of the English channel
        ie Dover under the watchful eye of the governance party.

  41. “Those who engage with criminals to enter this country must have some awareness that they may be required to engage in criminal activity once here.”

    2. i’ve just looked at this Ndovu. In my postcode 5 people have died since the beginning of the “crisis”. Hardly a calamity!

  43. As MPs go off on their summer holidays, basket case Britain is going bankrupt. 24 July 2020.

    ‘I’m better off than I’ve ever been. I’m not missing the commute, I’m saving on my season ticket. Why would I want to pay a fiver for a sandwich from Pret or buy an expensive cup of coffee from Costa? Plus, I’m seeing more of my kids. Go back to the office? No thanks, chum.’

    Some people selfishly see the fall-out from corona as a godsend. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to them that this isn’t the way the economy works. Money makes the world go round.

    There can be no prosperity if nobody is spending.

    Central London is a basket case. So, I’m told, are the main shopping areas of other big cities such as Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds. Those stores and cafes which opened again recently are starved of punters.

    If they don’t see a dramatic increase in takings soon, they will soon have no alternative but to shut for good.

    If city centres die, and they are heading that way, millions more will lose their jobs. The tax base will collapse, the benefits bill will go through the stratosphere and there won’t be any money to spend on Our Amazing NHS — or anything else, for that matter — let alone pay the interest on the billions of pounds the Government is borrowing every day.

    And with the entire economy in free fall, it won’t be long before the jobs of all those ‘working from home’ start to disappear, too.

    Those lucky enough to be kept on will have to swallow substantial wage cuts. The rest could see their jobs outsourced to cheaper people working from home in Bangladesh or Eastern Europe.

    I agree with Littlewood here. We are living in a fool’s paradise where everything is being allowed to go to the dogs while the PTB play games with the Virus.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8554933/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-MPs-summer-holidays-basket-case-Britain-going-bankrupt.html

    1. CV was difficult to call, closing down the economy however, has a pretty certain outcome.

      1. One is minded of the Movie Serenity where the PTB feed the population a drug to suppress aggression and they become so docile that they stop performing all activities of daily living and placidly die.

      2. One is minded of the Movie Serenity where the PTB feed the population a drug to suppress aggression and they become so docile that they stop performing all activities of daily living and placidly die.

    3. I have just cancelled my booking for my London campsite. I shan’t be allowed to go to the Battle of Britain service (got the letter today) so I no longer need it. There is no way I’m going to London just for the “fun” of it!

        1. I’d post it as picture rather than a link but Disqus keeps telling me that I’m not logged in.

  44. 321679+ up ticks,
    May one ask, did priti remember to lock the door to Dover before doing a “nige”
    22 July / 1st Sept. armada season.

  45. Heyup All!
    Thank you for the sympathetic comments earlier. They were much valued.

    An update on the Stepson Situation.
    Parked up on Midland Road in Derby, by the ex-Post Office, crossed the road to use the pedestrian crossing over London Road, heard an ambulance coming along London Road with sirens going and thought, “Oh no!” when I saw it turn up beside the block where stepson lives and yes, it was going to him!
    It seems he’d locked himself out of his flat, AGAIN, and had decided to lie down on the pavement.
    Obviously in a full psychotic collapse and in need of serious psychiatric help.
    After helping the paramedics as much as I could, he was trundled off in the ambulance and I did a couple of bank visits before heading home for a welcome and much needed cup of tea.

    Have spoken to the on-call psychiatrist and he is going to be admitted, possibly for several weeks, if not months. I did express my opinion of Don’t Care In The Community to him during the phone call and he appeared to sympathise!

    I’ve now a chance to get into Stepson’s flat, having been given a spare key by one of his neighbours, and get it cleaned up and that will be an unwelcome job & a ½!

    1. Sorry to hear that sad news, Bob of Bonsall. Your stepson is lucky to have such a caring stepfather as you.

    3. Have just spoken to Naggers and we are wishing you all the best in your mission. Don’t hesitate to contact her or me if you wish – she has plenty of experience to draw on.

    6. Sorry to hear that, Bob. Mental health issues are the poor relation of the health service round here, so I hope your experience is better.

    7. So sorry to hear that Bob. Wishing you all the best and hope it all goes well. Nottlers are about should you need us,

    8. Best of luck, Bob, with your domestic situation. I wish you all the best.

      [Your mentioning of the junction of London Road with Midland Road in Derby has reminded me of a situation I found myself in years ago at that location. However, this is not the time for it so I’ll tell you anon.]

    9. Thank you, BoB.
      I was wondering how you’d got on.
      Would it be worth getting copy done of the key while you have it? One less hassle if things turn tricky again.

      1. I’m getting three copies done.
        One each for two of his neighbours and one for the manager of the building.

  46. BBC RADIO 4
    Sunday 26 July
    3.00pm-4.00pm

    THE PLAGUE
    adapted from the globally renowned novel La Peste by Albert Camus.

    Great timing Aunty.

  47. Morning all – I see two friends have left us – LotL & Max – did I miss something?

      1. There didn’t seem to be any particular animosity before they departed. They’ve both come back before so we’ll see.

        1. Something strange happened when I was replying last Saturday evening to the previous Friday’s post of LotL Very occasionally I get a red strip across the foot of the post box informing me to try again as there was no internet connection at that moment, or a similar message telling me I am not logged in (!) and therefore I cannot post the photograph. (Actually I am logged in otherwise I would not gave got that far.)

          Anyway, on this occasion, as I started typing my post this time a royal blue strip flashed across the screen, and written within, in white, was the name of a previous poster whose last post on nttl.blog was in February of this year. It flashed across the foot of my post very quickly, all I saw was the name. I just thought this was very odd.

          1. Weird – I often get the red connection warning, sometimes because our connection is poor, sometimes all I have to do is try again.

            The blue one might possibly have been if you rolled the mouse over the share button at the bottom of the post – sometimes odd things pop up there.

        2. Lottie drops in every now and then, adds a comment or two then goes quiet for a while. Maybe she saw that wine glass face mask from yesterday and is trying it out.

          Every time max posts something, several “respected” regulars jump down his throat with insult. Here is Pollys comment last night
          Oh dear
          Looks like Macy has been exited through the dog flap
          Some will no doubt approve of such regular put downs.

          1. They’ve both closed their accounts. They’ve both done so before and come back. Max was particularly offensive on Sunday evening, but yesterday there was no problem and no insults from either him or anyone else.

  48. Racists!!

    A local council in Wales has added 140 words to the Welsh language as native speakers struggle to adapt to new terminology coined during the pandemic. The list includes ‘gweithiwr ar seibiant’ (furlough), ‘cwarantin’ (quarantine), and ‘hunanynysu’ (self-isolation). The coronavirus self-employment income support scheme is translated as ‘Y Cynllun Cymorth Incwm i’r Hunangyflogedig drwy gyfnod Coronafeirws’.

      1. Valleys Maw ap Paw to son: “Why will you not marry Gwendoline… she is Virgin”

        Son “If she is not good enough for her family, she is not good enough for me!”

    2. Cwarantin, Incym and Coronafeirws are just Welsh spellings of the English words – like Ambwlans.

      1. Close, but they were horsey and the Welsh for horses is ceffylau – as in cae rasio ceffylau (racecourse).

  49. Elsewhere, in the 3rd Test at Manchester, England are 131-4 at tea. They’ve left out a batsman for a bowler. The West Indies have included their 6′ 6″, 22 stone off-spinner RRS Cornwall (Rahkeem Rashawn Shane). He’s also an expert slipper and took one today while wearing two hats. Funny old game…

    1. Did they grovel before start of match, or was doing it twice before enough?

    2. At least the players are not wearing the ‘Black Lives Matter’ logo on their shirts – they have the ‘Ruth Strauss Foundation’ symbol (charity).

      Unfortunately, they all still knelt down before start of play this morning.

  50. Hi, Nottlers.

    I’ve been dipping in to find out what’s happening and there’s certainly much to be debated in these very strange times. I noticed OB’s comment that he thinks of me, that is very kind of you, OB.

    Anne and Elsie have been in touch and I’ve distributed jam and vegetables to them as I have a surplus and hate to waste food. In addition, one other kind Nottler sent me a very nice card of condolence and a letter of encouragement. Those articles came as a real, but very welcome regarding the sentiments expressed, surprise.

    On a personal level I remain deeply shocked and heartbroken at losing my wife after 53 years of courtship and marriage. My appetite has returned, I didn’t eat for almost four days after Lizzie’s death, but sleeping still evades me and if I get three hours I think I’ve done well.

    My wife’s eldest sister promised to send me some photographs and that there was one in particular that I would like. It turned out that the picture was of Lizzie about 2 months before she decided that we would meet. It is a perfect picture of a young female in the transition from being a girl into a young woman. It is a stunning photograph and it knocked me for six: I was a little disturbed because at the time that photograph was taken I didn’t know this young woman although she attended the Youth Centre. It was around two months later, at an off-site Youth Centre party, that this young lady interrupted my conversation with my mates and introduced herself to me and then a little later told me, she didn’t ask, that I would be walking her home but that I had to have her home by 9:30 as her parents were very strict.

    That ploy didn’t work too well for her as I wasn’t around during the following week for her to build on her introduction. In addition, I told her I was ‘off’ girls for the time being after a couple of bad experiences. Also, at this time I was away on a very important, well I saw it as important for my career progression, eight weeks long training course at Bletchley Park and I wouldn’t be around until the following Friday evening – that was how it would be up until the week before Christmas and it was early November when she introduced herself – and so on a following Friday evening she asked if she could write to me, just as a friend of course, and would I write to her. I agreed but asked what would her boyfriend think of her writing to me. Her, “We’re only writing as friends so he won’t mind,” seemed OK – gullible 17 yo Korky – there was no boyfriend, he ‘appeared’ after her first ploy failed and disappeared after the first letters a few weeks later. So started our relationship, silly letters that when I read them in chronological order exposed her scheme to become more than my friend. It worked and we had a fabulous 53 years together despite her battle with arthritis and what followed due that awful disease’s further effects.

    I spoke to my sister-in-law re that specific photograph as it had upset me looking at this beautiful young woman who became my wife and who I had lost. My S-i-L’s reply was that I shouldn’t look at the picture and see it as something I’d lost but rather as a memory of what I’d had. She was right of course.

    I’m keeping myself busy in the garden and I have raised a wall by one course in preparation for erecting a 7′ lattice fence on it. Also, I’ve created two raised sandstone topped plinths in readiness for containers that will be planted with vigorous spreading plants to grow over and through the lattice and thereby exclude my neighbour’s garage wall from view – any advice on suitable plants to achieve my aim will be appreciated – and lastly, another plinth, level with the path to place the dustbins and recycling boxes on. The space between will be filled with slate chips after being waterproofed.(see photographs of progress)

    I have joined U3A and another group named ‘Forwards’ which is comprised of single people who have been through bereavement. This group have a wide range of social activities and appear to be just what I’m looking for. They are of course under the ‘social distancing’ and other Government restrictions at the moment which, from what the lady I spoke to told me, is causing disruption and intense frustration.

    Anne has suggested sometime in August for the Colchester Nottler Triumvirate to meet up for a lunch in a local pub, that is something to look forward to. I’ll keep in touch with updates of my progress in rebuilding areas of my garden and how the social interaction develops, please tell me if I become a bore.

    I do not feel up to getting into the hurly- burly of debate on Nottle at the moment and I have no idea when I will. Hopefully getting out and about and meeting people will help ease my sense of loss. Apologies for being a bit maudlin but this losing a lifetime’s partner is a new (very bad) experience for me.
    Best wishes to you all.
    Korky.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6a84a82c688a59a2ec5493f89ada80ddf9ed551ae6c0db3580c4e82a4ed88ec.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d48885b3b01cf653e6178de1615126b5dfea91c48abbf33b14d140ccb9f22ae1.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3aceb85b3124a3f83db6932994e712f460f73b8a6d0b94a2d318063bea8c0fbe.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/21862ba4555cdf94ff7c8867986f18cc8593eeefc05fa9a1609c3d7643d372f6.jpg

    2. We have always been with you in thought and mind Korky.

      Your story was lovely and heartwarming and very romantic , and so similar I am sure to the many courting stories that Nottlers could tell.

      Be kind to yourself and stay safe.

    3. Lovely memories and account. Those whom we love but are no longer with us walk by our side every day.

      One day at a time. All good wishes.

    4. Lovely comment Korky, I can imagine you recalling the weeks japes at Bletchley Park. It would be enough to sweep any young girl off her feet.

    5. Hi Korky, good to hear from you and equally good that you have a project to keep you occupied! Sorry I can’t help with advise re fast-growing plants but I’m sure someone on here will come up with suggestions. KBO!

    6. KBO, Korky. This will sound facile – but time does help.

      As a very wise NoTTLer said to me four years ago, you don’t get over it, you just get used to it.

      Badger your family and friends when you want to. There are worse people in Colchester than Anne and Elsie. Sorry I don’t live nearer.

      Good luck with the paving. I need some doing here…….

    7. My spirits lifted when I saw you had posted, and I greatly appreciate the effort you’ve taken to keep us all in touch with you and your progress at this emotionally difficult time.

      Onward and upward K t K!

    8. Good afternoon Korky.

      Reading your reminiscences is very heart-warming and is very much far from being boring. Never forget, we are always here for you and we always enjoy reading your wonderful missives.

    9. Hi Korky..
      That’s quite a project you’re undertaiking….best to keep busy.
      I recommend Clematis and roses for any situation, especially over an arch. Climbers and scramblers are easy to manage apart from pruning and a liquid feed for the hybrids.Hardy geraniums are great for ground cover and keep the weeds at
      bay.
      Some wag said “You’re closer to God in a garden”…?

      I’m sure peddy has some ideas too he often posts pics of his lovely garden here.

      KBO Korky.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4bc62eac4dfafa926a7588120aa20972554ae77fe588f35a505749fb26c9da3.jpg

      1. Honeysuckle might be an option, even the Japanese evergreen, which is strongly scented, although a bit rampant.

        https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00c3TH698E961u_l3gCz5amd2iS1w%3A1595516767242&source=hp&ei=X6cZX7LXDIKdlwSf56N4&q=japanese+honeysuckle&oq=japanese+honeysuckle&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIICC4QsQMQkwIyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCAA6DgguELEDEMcBEKMCEJMCOgUIABCxAzoICC4QsQMQgwE6CAgAELEDEIMBOgsILhCxAxDHARCjAjoOCC4QsQMQxwEQowIQgwE6BQguELEDOgcILhAnEJMCOgQILhAnOgIILlCdu-oKWMCM6wpgzpHrCmgBcAB4AIABjgGIAegMkgEEMTkuMpgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwjygpKR0-PqAhWCzoUKHZ_zCA8Q4dUDCAk&uact=5

      2. Closer to God in a garden? You certainly are, if you cut through the electric cable of your mower 🙂

    10. Good to hear from you, Korky. It will take a while to adjust, but concentrate on the good times and cherish them. Never be afraid to call a friend if you need to talk. I am extremely impressed by your building skills. Mile A Minute plant (aka Russian Vine) lives up to its name if you want to cover a trellis.

    11. Good to see you Korky – and glad you’re keeping busy.

      Roses and clematis as Plum suggests would be a good choice for your wall.

      Your story about meeting, and the previously unseen photo of your wife was very touching.

      She’ll always be in your heart – and unseen by your side.

      KBO Korky.

    1. He should have just worn it on his face. After all, the law is to wear a face covering in shops. It doesn’t say anything about actually wearing clothes…

          2. As virtually every Bareased Brooding Coklovering TV show host will confirm

          8. I think the two chaps on the left are wondering if they are wearing their masks correctly…..!

      2. I have one with two bands meant to fit right round your head, rather than ear loops. It has a filter and is even more uncomfortable and steamy than the plain kind.

      3. The string goes around the back at the top of the buttocks. And one from the bottom of the pouch and up the crack to join it.

          1. Not the mask but i have worn a thong, though not in public. Sunning myself in the garden.

  52. Lionel Shriver
    Open letters have become ransom notes
    From magazine issue: 25 July 2020

    In the States, the ‘open letter’ is enjoying quite the formal renaissance. Curiously, recent examples of this newly popular epistolary genre exhibit striking similarities to the ransom note.

    During June’s riots following George Floyd’s murder, a beloved independent bookstore in Denver called The Tattered Cover posted online that the shop would be politically impartial, the better to remain a neutral space for customers. Cue local outrage. Cue the store’s immediate volte-face: fulsome support for Black Lives Matter.

    The reversal proved unsatisfactory. Signed by miffed patrons and authors, an open letter to the owners listed ten demands. Among them, the shop must hire more ‘individuals from marginalised backgrounds’, especially at management level, which would presumably entail sacking existing staff; re-configure its stock of books to ‘adequately reflect’ US demographics; donate 10 per cent of its paid promotional space to minority writers; never call the police when disruptive customers are black; and install a ‘voting-empowered board’ of ‘relevant community members’ to control programming. So much for being an ‘independent’. As my brother emailed: ‘Maybe they should burn down their own bookstore in solidarity.’

    Meanwhile, the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation expressed formal camaraderie with ‘the black community’ and denounced ‘systemic racism’. An open letter decried this statement as ‘worse than the bare minimum’. Signed by hundreds of beneficiaries — poets whom the Foundation had awarded grants and whose publication it had facilitated — the letter listed five demands. These included: replace the president with someone ‘affirming for people of colour, disabled people, trans people, queer people, and immigrants’; drastically diversify staff (thus firing current employees); and redistribute ‘every cent’ of the Foundation’s ‘massive wealth hoarding’, directing the bulk towards literary work that is ‘explicitly anti-racist’. Contemporary poetry can be a slog at the best of times. Teetering stacks of ‘explicitly anti-racist’ collections could kill it for good.

    However incredibly, the Poetry Foundation is rich. More incredibly still, the shakedown worked. Resignations followed, and the promised $1 million backhander is doubtless just the start.

    Now, open letters are often blackmailing — if we can use that term — universities. Online diatribes decry a school’s shabby racial record and issue the now-standard list of demands. The letter to Princeton’s provost, signed by more than 350 of its own faculty, itemised 48 demands — some symbolic (statues, building names), some substantive (more steroidal affirmative action).

    But the open letter to Stanford takes the biscuit. Each crammed with a host of sub-demands, the 16 stipulations are distributed under the headings ‘Within six months’, ‘Within 12 months’ and ‘Within 18 months’. Signed by a host of student organisations such as the ‘Stanford Black Pre-Law Society’, the document might seem justifiably urgent were it to request ‘Please stop allowing the KKK to burn crosses on campus’. But we’re way beyond that.

    Insisting that Stanford devote ‘at least’ $25 million to this purification ritual, the letter commands the administration to guarantee a job for 100 per cent of black postdocs and to provide two black career counsellors for every ‘marginalised’ grad student. The school must not only assist but finance black protest movements (sorry, ‘nonviolent liberatory practices’). No less than $3 million must bankroll ‘improved quality of life and well-being’ for black students, including: campus shuttle service to black spiritual meetings; one black therapist for every five black grad students (while any ‘non-black therapists at Stanford must complete training to address white privilege’); more on-campus black fitness instructors, black-owned restaurants and ‘black estheticians skilled in caring for and styling black hair textures’.

    Further, annual anti-racism training for the entire Stanford community must last a minimum of eight hours and ‘go beyond traditional training (i.e. implicit bias and microaggression)’. Any individual reported for acts of racial injustice ‘must complete an additional unpaid 40 hours of anti-racist training as a first warning’.

    As I can’t do this extraordinary document justice, masochistic readers should check out stanforddaily.com. Calling for wholesale affirmative action substantially in excess of minority percentages of the population (one online comment stressed ‘There is nothing too extreme’), this open letter also has the texture of a ransom note — if, given its prolixity, from kidnappers with time on their hands. Implicit, then, is ‘or else’. Or else what? Why doesn’t Stanford tell the signatories to stuff their arm-chancing extortion letter where most of us stash last night’s dinner?

    What’s baffling about these petitions for massive transfers of educational resources into (demonstrably counterproductive) anti-racism training, huge administrative expansions and levels of personal support for minorities that no students of any race are ever offered? American universities are going broke. In Plague World, lucrative international students are withdrawing, and domestic students are delaying admission. Schools dependent on funding from state governments that are also going broke are in for an ugly surprise. At Stanford, hiring is already frozen, discretionary spending forbidden.

    The Poetry Foundation’s large endowment makes it a tempting mark. But bookstores closed for months can’t afford to become charities. Universities with devastated enrolments can’t lavish vast sums on racial gesturing. Indeed, the entire BLM movement seems to be fomenting in a parallel universe — fiddling with ‘white fragility’ while Rome burns. Both the American and British economies are perched on a precipice. The US unemployment rate in June was more than 11 per cent, and with state re-lockdowns that number could readily soar beyond April’s near-15 per cent. For black Americans, unemployment is already more than 15 per cent. Rather than insist institutions feed an opportunistically thriving anti-racism industry, activists might best save their contumely for when there’s really something to complain about. They won’t have to wait long.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/open-letters-have-become-ransom-notes?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=WEEK%20%2020200725%20%20FISHER%20%20AL+CID_9a494a2561282480385b10b1aa0240a8

    2. Steerpike
      The Wall Street Journal hits back at staff’s ‘cancel culture’
      24 July 2020, 11:32am

      Last month, the New York Times published an opinion piece by the US senator, Tom Cotton, calling for the army to be used to quell rioters during the Black Lives Matter protests. Despite this proposition being supported by 52 per cent of Americans, the paper’s staff were not happy about its publication, and many publicly said the piece’s mere existence put their lives in danger.

      Shortly afterwards, an ‘Editors’ Note’ was added to the piece and James Bennett, who had defended publishing the article, resigned from his position as editorial page editor. At the slightest sign of pressure from its staff, the Times completely buckled.

      Over at the Wall Street Journal, it appeared that a similar dynamic might be playing out this week, after 280 of its journalists signed a letter to their publisher, complaining about the spread of ‘misinformation’ in the paper’s opinion section. The letter argued that recent pieces in the section, including a piece by Vice President Mike Pence, were unacceptable.

      It appears though that the opinion section of the paper aren’t taking the attack lying down. This morning, its editorial board published a response, and promised to continue to ‘offer an alternative to the uniform progressive views that dominate nearly all of today’s media.’

      The response is worth a read in full:

      “We’ve been gratified this week by the outpouring of support from readers after some 280 of our Wall Street Journal colleagues signed (and someone leaked) a letter to our publisher criticising the opinion pages. But the support has often been mixed with concern that perhaps the letter will cause us to change our principles and content. On that point, reassurance is in order.

      In the spirit of collegiality, we won’t respond in kind to the letter signers. Their anxieties aren’t our responsibility in any case. The signers report to the News editors or other parts of the business, and the News and Opinion departments operate with separate staffs and editors. Both report to Publisher Almar Latour. This separation allows us to pursue stories and inform readers with independent judgment.

      It was probably inevitable that the wave of progressive cancel culture would arrive at the Journal, as it has at nearly every other cultural, business, academic and journalistic institution. But we are not the New York Times. Most Journal reporters attempt to cover the news fairly and down the middle, and our opinion pages offer an alternative to the uniform progressive views that dominate nearly all of today’s media.

      As long as our proprietors allow us the privilege to do so, the opinion pages will continue to publish contributors who speak their minds within the tradition of vigorous, reasoned discourse. And these columns will continue to promote the principles of free people and free markets, which are more important than ever in what is a culture of growing progressive conformity and intolerance.

      https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-wall-street-journal-hits-back-at-staff-and-cancel-culture-

    3. Quite frankly, many universities in the US and Great Britain deserve to disappear.
      They certainly appear to have lost sight of the meaning of the word education.

      “The act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.”

      Etymological Meaning of Education. The word education is derived from the Latin word “educare” which means to bring up. Another Latin word “educere”, means to bring forth. … They say ‘e’ means out of and duco means to lead’ i.e. to educate means to lead forth or “to extract out” the best in man.

  53. Apropos Grizz’s trip down Memory Lane in Narridge earlier today, we have just enjoyed a cup of tea made with Wilkinsons’ China Black with Apricot.

    As to the establishment, think Twining’s in The Strand, London – but with obese staff – heavily tattooed…..

    1. Must be a new crew in the place. The staff when I was a frequent customer were slim, intelligent, clean and friendly; always a pleasure to visit.

      It seems like everything has changed in Norwich since I’ve not been about to keep an eye on the place.

      1. I am sorry to be negative, but the whole place has really gone downhill. I remember when I first came here in 1984, it was a very agreeable city – and driving in and out – and in the centre – was straightforward. No more.

        1. As I said earlier I now feel very lost in Norwich – a place where I lived from 1966 – 69. MInd you, Henry met his girlfriend at the age of 17 in his very first week at UEA and they are about to buy a flat together in Lancaster while she works for her Ph.D and he works in computers while doing a M.Sc in computer technology.

          I took rather longer to find the love of my life! I did not meet Caroline until I was 40.
          .

          1. Lancaster is another lovely small city that I also got to know quite well in the early 80s. I’ve not been back for a while so no doubt it will have changed.

  54. So Boris wants to cut down on adverts for sugary food because he is a big fatty and supposedly it made his virus far worse.

    I wonder if he will be making condoms mandatory and free for unmarried couples based on his life experience.

    I wonder will all new government policy revolve around his personal outcomes

    1. I do wonder at Boris much of the time. I will make up my mind about him on the 1st of Jan next year. As with all politicians it what they do not what they say. remember he placed the lock down after the peak deaths had passed. He never ended the flights and out of the country but just made us suffer. the current death rate is less than average.

      1. I share your views pretty much completely, Johnny. Roll on January the 1st!

    2. If vasectomy became completely reversible then perhaps all boys received this at puberty and only had the operation reversed when they get married.

      Of course in Boris’s case he should have had the operation and never had it reversed.

      1. I say that all illegal immigrants are costing this country of ours a fortune , so if they want to be regarded as residents of the United Kingdom , may I suggest they learn the Lords Prayer , the National anthem and have the SNIP.. We don’t want hordes of little Mo’s and Fatimas , do we!

        1. Half of today’s indigenous don’t know the Lord’s Prayer or the National Anthem, Maggie!

          1. Very few women arrive as illegals .

            I have huge sympathy for them , they could have useful careers and be an asset to society .

          2. Not if they’re muslim, they wouldn’t. They have been conditioned to think they are worth less than a man and need male sanction to do anything.

      3. A lot of the early vasectomies reversed themselves by the vas deferens joining up again. Since those days a length of the tube is removed so that the ends can’t ‘reach’ each other.

    1. 321679+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      The softening up & forerunner of wearing the full blown burka.
      The politico’s will say ” well you wore a partial facial
      covering for months did you not”
      Camouflage is a well used political tool just look at the politico’s stance on the truth.

    2. I haven’t worn mine yet, apart from the selfie when it arrived. Went over to Cirencester today to the printers – didn’t bother going into any shops.

    1. “Naga Munchetty backed by BBC after viewers complain” – Mandy Rice-Davies.

      1. Nieghhhhh, but the nag’s appearance at Kempton is probably not out of the question.

    1. Ada ” Did you buy a loaf from the baker this morning”?
      Bert ” Yes Ada, I used a face covering by putting the thumb and forefinger of my right hand up my nose and the other fingers over my mouth. Then I pointed to the loaf I wanted with my left hand.
      You should try it Ada!”

    3. Talking of inept law enforcement: from The Grimes this morning:

      “An MP described Greater Manchester police as “the most inept force in the country” after a motorway was brought to a standstill by a group of boy racers taking selfies.

      Andrew Gwynne, Labour MP for Denton & Reddish, criticised officers for their failure to intercept the convoy, despite the event having been promoted on social media the day before.

      During the event, organised by a former sales manager who refers to himself as DMO Deejay, a procession of customised cars stopped on the M60 on Sunday. Video on social media shows drivers sitting on their bonnets and filming the resulting traffic jam.

      The disruption caused significant traffic problems on surrounding roads and motorways and police were forced to close the M60 anticlockwise, at junction 24 for Denton. Mr Gwynne said it had been “a nightmare for all the residents after literally thousands of people descended on the town”. He told the Manchester Evening News: “GMP must be seeking the award for the most inept police force in the country right now.”

      DMO Deejay claimed on Facebook that he had planned a “shutdown” but a “shutdown on a small scale”. He shared news articles reporting on the chaos and claimed that 20,000 people had joined the convoy.”

      “Greater Manchester police said that a 25-year-old man was interviewed yesterday in connection with the event after voluntarily attending a police station in Hyde. Superintendent Jane Higham previously said: “The scenes that were posted on social media of the car event in Denton on Sunday afternoon were quite frankly unacceptable . . . this disregard for the rest of the public is shocking and will not be tolerated.”

      There will be as many other examples of police uselessness as there are people in England.

  60. I am for the first time in i don’t know how long…………going out to dinner!

    My local Spanish restaurant. The owner and a chum….Antonio, spent the lockdown picking spuds at £9 an hour.

    I have a few jokes lined up to torment him. 🙂

      1. He survived. His wife works in a bank so the money kept coming in.

        I’m going to ask him if he is going to rename his restaurant ‘Spudulika’.

    1. Well, look at the champ who ran the London Fire Brigade – and told firemen to keep out of Grenfell Tower….

    3. I wonder wevver more effnics are fire raisers, and loike the smell of burning and that sort of fing, so the effnics who become firefighters speak their language , and of course the public will be stopped from drooling over firefighters because they will be too effnic and strange looking to attract attention on the super stud stakes!

    5. So if you’re a six-foot, rugby playing, blond bloke, identify as a queer Asian woman and you’ll be fine.

    6. I might give them the benefit of the doubt.

      They would want to keep them isolated together, so that “normal” men are not put off joining.

          3. They’ll seek you here,

            they’ll seek you there,

            they’ll burn you in your underwear…

    10. The principal requirement must be a lack of fear of heights surely?

      You need physical strength to hold a charged hose and the ability to climb tall ladders without fear. You need to be fearless when trying to prevent the collapse of buildings and ensuring that any collapse does minimal damage to men and property.

      You need to think on your feet, not rely on some faith in a religious doctrine, a sense of entitlement brought about by a mistaken acquiescence and acceptance by fools of your ‘identity’ or some gormless belief in an imagined superiority gained by the dark colour of your skin.

      1. Good heavens, corim! Such physical requirements are discrimination against those who can’t meet them. They must be eliminated.

        1. My neighbour was a fireman based at London Barbican and other stations. He was asked to rescue a chap who had tried to to rob properties by climbing along the gib of a construction tower crane. Unfortunately the wind caused the gib to move and the thief had to be rescued.

          My neighbour is moved to tears when recounting the loss of his comrade firefighter when a building collapsed in Finchley. His mate was discovered sheltering beneath the wheel arch of a fire engine.

        2. My neighbour was a fireman based at London Barbican and other stations. He was asked to rescue a chap who had tried to to rob properties by climbing along the gib of a construction tower crane. Unfortunately the wind caused the gib to move and the thief had to be rescued.

          My neighbour is moved to tears when recounting the loss of his comrade firefighter when a building collapsed in Finchley. His mate was discovered sheltering beneath the wheel arch of a fire engine.

    11. Surely white men can go a long as minority ethnics (based on world population) and if rejected on that basis, claim to be identifying as the + option (which presumably can be absolutely anything).

  64. Strange finish to Laura Kuensberg’s interview with Boris Johnson on the 5pm BBC radio 4 news. She kept criticising Boris’s belated decisions on the Covid-19 pandemic and Boris’s replies that the decisions were made as soon as the experts gave him the go-ahead. Kuensberg was obviously disbelieving these answers. At the end Boris gave a long uninterrupted explanation of what he was planning to do next. The interview was then ended with no usual thanks from the interviewer. I suspect LK was hustling away to prepare to demolish BJ’s answers at her next appearance ob BBC Radio 4 News.
    This morning Nick Robinson on BBC Radio 4 News listed all the mistakes and delays, in his opinion, which Boris has made since the outbreak appeared in the UK and added Dominic Cummings’s trip up to Sunderland and Barnard Castle. The BBC Radio 4 News is totally biased against the Conservatives and BJ in particular.

    1. Given the party’s majority in Parliament i fail to understand why the BBC is still the “State Broadcaster”….

      1. Could the BBC be the new Reds under the beds .. I mean that red settee and other such things are the give away..

        Simian smiles , and manicured manners fool me not a jot!

      2. Because to bring about change requires guts and determination. Not found too much in Westminster.

        1. Fight battles small enough to win and big enough to matter, vvof. Let’s first get Britain back to work, then fully exit the EU, and then tackle the thousands of problems this Government inherited, either in order of importance or by cutting off the small escape routes before the Big Push.

          1. I admire your sentiments Elsie, but encouraging a climate of fear will not get Britain back to work I’m afraid.
            To my mind I will believe a full exit of the EU when I see it but you are right about the problems this country face. The credibility of Boris Johnson now only rests with what he does regarding the EU, that does give me some small degree of hope, after all, legacy means everything to politicians.

    2. Just seen the part they showed on the News. She hardly let him speak – kept talking over him.

  65. Evening, all. Have done some maintenance jobs in the garden and some rationalising in the workshop. The latter is now looking more spacious, even though I haven’t actually got rid of anything! I have taken over MOH’s old laptop since mine is temporarily unusable, owing to its being shut down while it was in the middle of a Windows update 🙁 I spent most of today personalising my “new” laptop (Spitfire background, no start up or shut down or navigation sounds – my pet bane), setting up Mozilla with my own home page (which will be changed once I’ve transferred the proper page from this computer – I’ve put loads of things on an external disk to transfer) and getting rid of Chrome which insisted on starting up the moment I switched the machine on and refused to be tamed to what I wanted. I also tried to change the power saving settings while it’s on mains, but although it said it had, it didn’t! Busy day with next to nothing to show for it!

  66. “Three teenagers convicted of killing Pc Andrew Harper

    All three were standing trial for murder, but the jury found them guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter”

    A sickening case. Bring back hanging. Jury intimidation appears also to have been involved. We need to stop thinking the best of people.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/24/three-teenagers-convicted-killing-pc-andrew-harper/

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2020/07/24/TELEMMGLPICT000235725148_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqaBJSHwufYM_Fh0ArUj1hen6jm8JmtdbOYDNXtsUnvuU.jpeg?imwidth=1280

    2. Was it said that the jury was intimidated? I didn’t read the reports as I am so sickened by the case and the verdict.

    3. 321679+ up ticks,
      Afternoon J,
      Disagree,the governance parties lab/lib/con are steeped in innocent blood without adding to it.
      For conformation ask Timothy Evans.

      Life MEANS life their upkeep in jail is of no importance
      monetary wise, certainly not to a government that entertains HS2 & giving china a £ 71 million handout, that is only two issues.

      1. And I disagree with you.

        Capital and corporal punishment are the hallmarks of an intelligent and civilised society. Keeping laughing murderers in comfort for decades is an utter abomination and clear evidence of the increasing stupidity of the species.

        1. 321679+ up ticks,
          G,
          So G,
          Timothy Evans is to be put
          down ( as he was ) then as
          collateral damage a ?
          In view of HS2 & £71 million aid to china
          just two examples to imply long term incarceration is wasted money is highly farcical.
          I doubt very much if Mr Evan found the outcome of the case a laughing matter.

    4. That would wipe the grins off their faces. I think they’ll get a ‘hot’ reception on the inside.

  68. I really AM going now. Pasta to make – bottles to open. A shower needed after clearing a “blockage” on a full 1,000 litre water butt. Amazing how fast water flows when the blockage is cleared….!

    A demain.

    1. You’ve cleared a water butt and now you intend to clear De (water) Mains?

      :-))

  69. So:

    Henry Long, Albert Bowers and Jessie Cole
    were today convicted of manslaughter for the
    cruel and senseless murder of a young man…
    who was doing his job.

    Good Lord almighty……

    1. Three parasites who contribute nothing to this country, and have taken the life of a young man who served the community.

      1. Now, if it had been a black thief…… well

        Knee Bend, Fist Stretch Ha HaHa

          5. Not a chance – 5 – 8 years. “Young men, on a spree, not fully aware of consequences – need a chance” etc etc etc.

            After all, Mr Justice Cocklecarrot does want HIS luxury estate, posh car, wife and children done over by the Pikeys, does he?

          6. A fiddle Mr T

            Not a chance – 5 – 8 years. weeks, “Young men, on a spree, not fully aware of consequences – need a chance” etc etc etc.

    3. I hope that they are buggered in prison; to the extent that they need colostomy bags for the rest of their lives.

        1. I know, I’m too soft by half.

          Let’s add every STD known to man into the mix shall we?

      3. There is little chance of those filthy buggers dropping the soap in the shower. They live in filth and leave filth everywhere they go in our country.

        Time surely to repatriate them to Eire and let the Irish sort them out.

          1. Good point. I have no idea and suspect these rats were born in our country.

            We have all sorts of trouble here in North Essex and Suffolk border with Travellers. Many crimes can be traced to an encampment near Ridgewell where they have a permanent site. The ruddy local vicar speaks about the wonderful relationship he has with this scum.

            We have experienced copper overhead power lines stolen, putting several villages in The Belchamps out of power for months, regular theft of overhead railway cables causing distress and delay to commuters, theft of vehicles and most recently the theft of old number plates from vehicles.

            At our most recent power cuts the devils stole cables connecting temporary generators to the grid and sabotaging a temporary standby generator in nearby Stoke by Clare by stealing the diesel needed to power it.

          2. It’s similar wherever they appear, as far as I can tell.
            A few vigilantes armed with flame-throwers might cauterise the problem.

          3. Yup. I forgot to mention the theft of lead from church roofs using drones to identify targets.

            Lavenham Church being the prime example in recent times.

      4. I’ve already suggested that they’ll get a ‘hot’ reception inside.

        1. I fear, that as cop-killers, they will be lauded as heroes, so sick has our society become.

          1. Hmmm… I can see where you’re coming from, but in this case I think they’re buggered.

          2. I hope they are sent to different prisons and that they “enjoy” all the “benefits”.

          3. If they had been BLM ‘travellers’, they would have taken over control their allotted prison from the Guvnor
            and repaced all the ‘Screws’ with in house Knifemen

  70. I left this post on Morrisons website for what its worth.

    “I used a mask fot the first time today. I found it very difficult to see
    properly as my glasses kept steaming up, as a stroke victim I had to
    stop and remove my mask so i could get my breath back. Do not be so glib
    with your comments and have a care for people who are having problems
    with this. You have made no reference to help people only give your
    orders.”

    1. There are clauses, Johnny, for people who have difficulty with masks on medical grounds.

        1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53522129

          There are exemptions to the new rules for children under 11, those with disabilities or certain health conditions, such as respiratory or cognitive impairments that make it difficult for them to wear a face covering.

          Ms Whately said people could print out a card from the government’s website to show they were exempt if they wished, but stressed people would not be expected to carry proof of an exemption.

          Public Health England has warned parents not to buy coverings for babies and young children because of the risk of choking or suffocation.

          Masks will not be mandatory in indoor venues that have other safety measures in place, including:

          Eat-in restaurants
          Pubs
          Hairdressers and salons
          Gyms and leisure centres
          Cinemas, concert halls and theatres
          Visitor attractions such as museums
          Libraries

        2. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020/791/made
          My emphasis.
          Reasonable excuse
          4.—(1) For the purposes of regulation 3(1), the circumstances in which a person (“P”) has a reasonable excuse include those where—

          (a)P cannot put on, wear or remove a face covering—
          (i)because of any physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability (within the meaning of section 6 of the Equality Act 2010(10)), or
          (ii)without severe distress;
          (b)P is accompanying, or providing assistance to, another person (“B”) and B relies on lip reading to communicate with P;
          (c)P removes their face covering to avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury, to themselves or others;
          (d)P is entering or within a relevant place to avoid injury, or to escape a risk of harm, and does not have a face covering with them;
          (e)it is reasonably necessary for P to eat or drink, P removes their face covering to eat or drink;
          (f)P has to remove their face covering to take medication;
          (g)a person responsible for a relevant place or an employee of that person acting in the course of their employment, requires that P remove their face covering in order to verify P’s identity;
          (h)in a registered pharmacy, an employee of that registered pharmacy acting in the course of their employment, requires that P remove their face covering in order to assist in the provision of healthcare or healthcare advice to P;
          (i)a relevant person requests that P remove their face covering.
          (2) In this regulation “registered pharmacy” has the same meaning as in section 74 of the Medicines Act 1968(11).

      1. Or write on the back of an old Christmas card and attach with string from the garage. Free!

        1. I am thinking of printing my own. I suffer from DPMTF Syndrome. (Don’t Push Me Too Far).

        1. You can wave it at busybodies who either mutter under their breath or come up to you and start berating you for being ‘selfish’.

      3. There is no way I am going to walk round with a badge on like the jews had to do in Nazi germany. Thank you all the same.It is good of you to try and help.

        1. You can quite validly claim exemption from wearing a mask because of your medical condition. Producing a badge might stop people having a go at you for not wearing one.

        2. Make your own badge Johnny, it only needs 2 words, the second one being “Off”, you have a choice for the first word. F**k is worthy of consideration. Gone are the days where manners and consideration is shown to others by the snowflakes, I choose to give none in return.

          1. A guy I worked with once has a set of business cards made, with “I think you are confusing me with somebody who gives a f**k” printed on them.

          2. That would work. Once upon a time I would never have considered being so forthright, but when you have been shat upon so many times by so many of the so-called elite, you tend not to mince your words any more, at least I don’t these days.

      4. You can get these free by going to the websites of charities such as Asthma UK.

  72. 321679+ up ticks,
    ‘National, Disgrace’ – UK Home Office Rejects Syrian Christians, Refugee Intake 100 Percent Muslim,
    The actions of the current nec put paid to UKIP as a party of integrity&
    truthfulness.
    And ogga got the DCM from breitbart for truth telling, DCM= don’t come Monday.

    Thanks to John for reminding me.
    This was the real UKIP in full flow building a pro English / GB party of integrity, one that had to be taken down by lies deceit & treachery via the ersatz ukip nec & a letter / rant from farage.

    ogga1 • 2 years ago
    Have you joined the queue to join UKIP yet ? if not then currently you are part of the problem.

    flashman ogga1 • 2 years ago
    Well put mate and true.

    cliffordt ogga1 • 2 years ago
    Gerard’s doing great isn’t he – breath of fresh air! 🙂

      1. 321679+ up ticks,
        Evening PP,
        What ever their stance is rest assured that it does not have the interest of these Isles at it’s heart.
        To my mind they are suppressors of progress & truth.

  73. Good morning all.
    It’s going to be an annoying morning.
    My mentally ill step-son’s condition has got worse and I’ve got to go and try & see him in Derby today. He’s reaching a point where he needs to be sectioned, but trying to get through to the mental health support is next to impossible.
    Another successful example of “Don’t Care In The community.”

    2. Morning, Bob. I feel very sorry for you and all your family.
      This situation has been going on for about forty years, ever since a deadly combination of medical fad and beancounters realised that mental hospitals were sitting on a lot of valuable land on the edge of towns.

      1. It’s not just the UK. Mental health seems to be swept under the carpet everywhere. Evidenced in Norway by the high levels of suicide.

        1. Far too much of mental health diagnoses and psycho-pharma is smoke and mirrors anyway. The more you look into it, the less scientific it looks.

        3. It started out with good intentions; there were the simple – often unmarried mothers – who were incarcerated for life.
          But then the medical faddist – trying to polish their enlightened credentials – got involved and patients unable to cope with life outside the safe ‘village’ were tipped out into the community. Then NHS beancounters got involved. Acres of land to the north of Colchester complete the story. As a twist in the tale, many of the flats (aka social housing) look very similar to the old villas and house much the same people.

      2. Public assets for private wealth. The motto of politicians everywhere from Tory Britain to Communist China.

    3. Check on line to see if your NHS Trust has set up a mental health hotline. That’s what we have done in our trust.

    4. Part of the NHS PDM programme. Patients Don’t Matter.

      So sorry to hear of your travails.

    5. Good morning Bob.
      I know someone who works in that field; he told me that sometimes you can persuade them to take their medication against the likelihood of being sectioned.

    6. My brother turned up at the reception desk of a hospital with a hold-all. “You’ll never guess what I’ve got in here” he announced. Turned out it was a crossbow and he was going for all the bad people.

      They sectioned him pretty sharpish!

    7. I understand what you’re going through. My brother is severely autistic and lives in a supported home. You swiftly find that there’s no interest whatsoever from the state. All the vaunted words are just puff.

      1. Sadly, no. Unlike the looters are mindless mob or the green communists these folk can’t organise to stop traffic and no one in the state troughs from mental health care.

    11. My elder bother was sectioned a few times many years ago. My parents had to call the police, who arrived promptly and arranged his transfer to hospital. This, however was 50 years ago. What the situation is now I don’t know. It is a very trying time. I know how you feel, and greatly sympathise.

  74. Discurse is playing silly buggers. It has taken me 15 minutes to log on. I either get the start page with a “D” at the bottom; or an invitation to log in – which, of course, doesn’t work.

    So I shall sign off early. Can’t be doing with this nonsense. If anyon has any suggestions about beating the system – plase reply to this comment – and I’ll see what is said in my e-mail inbox.

    A demain – I hope (discurse permitting)…..

    1. Hi Mr. Beagle! Hope you and MR had a good day! I have had problems all day with discurse! Resorted to switching off, smacking tablet on the table and switching back on!

          7. I was always told that a qualified engineer knew when to hit something, how hard to hit it and when!!

          8. On my old campervan the windscreen wipers became intermittent and then finally stopped (in a downpour, unfortunately). I pulled into the Dambusters Inn and called the RAC. When the chap came, he put the wipers on and gave the motor housing an almighty wallop with the handle of a screwdriver. Wipers miraculously started working. “You saw what I did,” he told me. “If it happens again, do that.” Fortunately, it never did, but when I sold the camper, I told its new owner, just in case. If you are going to be stranded anywhere in a downpour waiting for the rescue services, the Dambusters Inn, near Scampton, is better than most – just be careful what you call your black labrador 🙂

          3. Refreshing isn’t the problem, Conwy.

            I have to do that every ten minutes or so to see the new comments.

            It is when I refresh that the trouble can start. No access – just the front page with a “D” at the foot; or the “log in” malarkey.

            Whatever was wrong at 4 pm seems to have resolved itself – for the time being.

            But thanks for the tip.

          4. I’ve had “there were problems posting this, check your internet” messages, but then when I clicked on “post” again it sent it without any problem. Discurse (sic) is a law unto itself. I just thought I’d inform you that the function of function key 5 (F5) is to send a “refresh the page” command, in case you thought it was a magic bullet 🙂

          5. I assume that the interwebby has fleetingly dropped out.
            I copy to be on the safe side and then wake up the system by clicking on the ‘fan’ symbol at the top of my screen.

          6. I am not even socially distanced from the router and connected by a LAN cable. I’d see from the lights if the Internet had dropped out (it goes red). It’s Discurse at its finest.

    3. I’m getting a lot of the red box and have to try again. Then it tells me I’ve already made that comment…….

      1. I often go through a phase of that when I’ve been away for a while, notably after my midday nap, but not first thing in the morning, strangely enough.

      1. 321679+up ticks,
        Afternoon Ptv,
        So I take it I cannot approach you for a character reference so be it, my only defence is three months lack of Guinness.

        1. I meant the behaviour of the perp was disgusting. Someone should stand on his neck & then he can see how he likes it.

          I can’t remember when I last had a Guinness. Must have been way back in Germany.

          2. 321679+ up ticks,
            Ptv,
            The Mrs asked me what the job was & where, when I told her it was a new Guinness brewery in Ikeja Nigeria, she said she would never see me again, but like the bad penny…..

  77. It will be interesting how Boris gets on with all his spending plans when the money runs out.

    Sorry he will print some more of course.

    1. Don’t even have to print it anymore just a few keystrokes on an iPhone and it’s all done.

  79. I am sitting watching George Gently, there was an advert for the RAF, without ONE WHITE PERSON in it

    I despair

    1. Have you seen the BLM ad on telly yet. Very well made by some clever agency, but likely to result in several broken tv sets.

    2. I think that around 9 out of 10 adverts include non-whites. My observations exclude meerkats.

  81. Boris’s next crusade is to dethrone rule by unelected officialdom

    The idea that the courts should act semi-politically is a recent one, and it’s time to start rolling it back

    CHARLES MOORE

    Because of the horror of Covid-19, everything that happened before it now seems distant. Few have been changed by the experience more than the Prime Minister, who was seriously ill. This week, for example, marking his personal change with a change of policy, he announced much stronger government interventions to prevent people getting fat. Also this week, however, Boris Johnson celebrates his first anniversary in office. We may have partly forgotten the parliamentary and judicial traumas which ensued after he succeeded Theresa May, but he emphatically has not. He knows that, if we want this country to be governed properly post-Brexit, they must not be allowed to happen again.

    The Tories’ massive general election victory in December achieved the first bit of Brexit and largely stilled the parliamentary aspect of the problem – though I worry that No 10 is handling relations with its own backbenchers ineptly. But the judicial problem remains. I am not speaking mainly of the characters of individual senior judges. Most of them are conscientious people.

    With the departure of Lady Hale, the Supreme Court is presided over by the much more careful Lord Reed. And when the measured Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, spoke at the swearing in of the new (pro-Brexit) Attorney-general, Suella Braverman, earlier this year, he promised to “disappoint” commentators who were looking for a display of “endless pyrotechnics” over legal and constitutional reform.

    What remains unresolved is the future relationship of our judiciary, our officialdom, and their concept of human rights law with a country which is becoming truly independent once again.

    One main sticking point in the UK/EU trade and other negotiations is about whether Britain will continue to have to submit to the ultimate decision of the European Court of Justice in matters arising from any deal. Our Government’s answer is “No”. This is one reason to believe it is serious about not extending these negotiations beyond 31 December. It would rather accept no deal as the price. If we leave the EU but still answer to its courts, we become even weaker than we were when, as a member state, we had a say. [As if it made any difference…]

    This issue needs to be understood in a wider context than the Brexit battle alone. It goes back to a different concept of law which has been growing fast in Britain for half a century. The new model first achieved political power under Tony Blair (who was a lawyer, of course, and is married to a human rights one). Perhaps because Labour had been out of power for so long, Mr Blair bought into the belief that the courts should act semi-politically – a permanent opposition to the government, in place of the actual, parliamentary opposition which had proved so useless.

    The idea of international human rights law seemed to Blairites a wonderful tool for entrenching pro-European, centre-Left power in Britain. High fees and conspicuous virtue seemed to go together. Human rights lawyers became almost sexy: Bridget Jones’s boyfriend, Mark Darcy, was a human rights lawyer. Mr Blair’s first administration embedded the European Convention on Human Rights into our domestic law.

    It also abolished the “Law Lords”, our traditionally low-key way of dealing with justice at the highest level, and replaced it with the Supreme Court. The new court was given a grandiose building facing Parliament. The more self-important judges proudly saw this as a standing reproach to mere elected politicians. They promoted the concept of a “collective view” of the judiciary, often an anti-government one. This goes against the British tradition that each judge should be independent not just of government but also of his colleagues.

    Ever since the Blair era, human rights law has become a pervasive meme in public policy and administration. Although upholding many valuable principles, international human rights law also disables the elected government from responding to the wishes of actual voters. Famous examples include the obstacles thrown up against immigration controls and the astonishing extent to which such rights protect violent extremists and terrorists. At the same time, the law has seemed a positive obstacle to offering fair protection, for example, to veterans of British security forces in the troubles in Northern Ireland.

    Related to human rights law there arose a new doctrine about the place of international law in our government. Such law was elevated from its important role of doing justice beyond national borders to the holy of holies which is supposed to command the ultimate loyalty of officialdom. Among the legal and civil service classes last autumn, this loyalty was felt so strongly that they came close to open revolt. To many of them, no deal was almost an act of outlawry. In particular, what they saw (wrongly, I think) as Brexit’s repudiation of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland was to them a blasphemy against their belief system. Some officials evenly privately warned the elected government that they might refuse to obey its orders.

    As for the Supreme Court, its judgment in the prorogation case last September was so strongly motivated by political disapproval of the Government’s actions that it seemed careless of “the Crown in Parliament”, which is the centrepiece of our constitution.

    For many years, these international/human rights concepts swept all before them, although from time to time a few braver spirits on the Tory benches would pipe up, only to be silenced. In 2015, however, the think-tank Policy Exchange began an influential intellectual pushback. Yes, said its new Judicial Power Project (JPP), in a free society judges have an indispensable role in doing justice according to law, but this must be compatible with the rights of a parliamentary democracy and the legitimate needs of an elected government. It was not true, the JPP pointed out, that only tin-pot countries like Belarus refuse to accept the ultimate jurisdiction of an international human rights court. What about free and modern countries such as Australia and New Zealand? As Brexit enthusiasm grew, so did interest in the JPP agenda.

    This week, it has emerged that the Government is dropping its manifesto pledge to set up a Constitution, Democracy and Human Rights Commission. This should be seen not as a jettisoning of these subjects, but the opposite. Commissions on great themes tend to spread themselves too widely, take up too much time, and produce no result. Instead, the Government seems set to pursue the issues by other means. Soon there will be a reappraisal of Judicial Review (JR). JR used to be the legitimate practice of ensuring that governments only acted within the scope of the powers conferred on them. It has increasingly become a means to question the merits of the decisions governments have made. It must rein back.

    The long-touted repeal of the Human Rights Act is now being actively pursued. The Government may even find a way of withdrawing from the treaty which holds us in the European Court of Human Rights. It hopes to assert its sovereign rights over Northern Ireland by finding a way to avoid what the EU sees as Britain’s commitment to impose goods checks between Britain and the Province in the Irish Sea.

    In a free country, the law should be the law of the land, over which Parliament is sovereign, not the rule of amorphous concepts controlled by lawyers – especially not lawyers outside our jurisdiction. Until that is achieved, our country’s new freedom is precarious.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/24/boriss-next-crusade-dethrone-rule-unelected-officialdom/

    1. If Boris tackles the menace of Common Purpose changing laws via the judicial system, then he will have earned his place in history as a Conservative Prime Minister that did our country some good.

  84. Tweet of the day:

    “wearing a mask for the virus is as effective as using a sock as a condom”

    2. But has this statement been verfied statistically using volunteers in double blind trials?

    1. PS. One of them is missing a piano. but it is late on a lockdown, mask-up if you go shopping, Friday night

      1. One of them is a piano short of a duo but I put that down to having had COVID.

      2. I went shopping early this morning at the open air matket with just a bandana round my neck and an emergency patient card that I am required to carry with me at all times – something I can pull out in case I get challenged for not wearing a mask in the open air.

        1. A word of warning to those who use hearing aids

          I had my aids in my ears,

          put mask on
          shopped
          went to car with Trolley
          Took mask off
          Put shopping in boot
          Walked away from car, to return trolley
          Ther, on the deck, about 3 feet away from car, was the electronic bit of aid
          The connecting tube and earbit were still in place

          I wus Lucky

    1. 321679+ up ticks,
      Evening Rik,
      That illustrates the march of time nicely,
      Current lab/lib/con supporter / voter to C ovid.

  87. Q: If #blacklivesmatter and those who write #alllivesmatter are targeted by “liberals” who bay for their cancellation, why do liberals keep screaming about the total of ALL deaths (esp. when most of the white deaths are amongst the old/infirm)?

    A: You shouldn’t look for any logic/consistency in #Libtard positions.

  88. Last night Patricia Janečková revealed herself as a young ‘untameable sexy beast’ as some Nottlers described her.

    Mein Herr Marquis sometimes called “Adele’s Laughing Song”, is an aria for soprano from act 2 of the operetta Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss II.

    Here Adele, played by Patricia, suspects that at a party Mein Herr Marquis may have recognised her as a maid and laughs at him illustrating through her elegance and refined bearing that she could not possibly be a maid.

    Superb timing, pitch and character representation:

    https://youtu.be/gFoet3qe6L0

    1. Years ago I watched a better rendition of this piece by a student at Sheffield University. The event was promoted by the late Alec Dakin in the seventies.

  89. Regarding the Supreme Court and its apparent architectural importance I have several observations.

    Firstly, that the Middlesex Guildhall was a fine building with fine carved stonework internally which occasionally mocked the politicians of its day. Secondly, that the project to convert the building to The Supreme Court was initially led by the openly Freemasonic architectural practice Feilden & Mawson for whom I worked for about ten unfortunate years. A more gruesome and dispiriting experience would be difficult to emulate, despite the fact that I managed to achieve some fine things in their employ, despite the dead righteousness of its egotistical management.

    As regards the internal fittings, this fell under the control of one of my less able assistants, from my Whitfield Partners years, Richard Young of Lord Hankey’s practice who must have joined the ranks of the Freemasons and rendered the interiors in some nasty veneered mdf joinery constructions. I find the whole thing repulsive.

    To add insult to injury the supposed ‘partner in charge’ of the initial works was no other than the nephew of Sir Bernard Feilden, and an incompetent oaf and bully, who was promoted because of his familial associations and generally hated by staff. The git died last year ‘unexpectedly’.

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