Friday 31 July: Britain must learn to live with Covid – not retreat into lockdown again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/30/letters-britain-must-learn-live-covid-not-retreat-lockdown/

771 thoughts on “Friday 31 July: Britain must learn to live with Covid – not retreat into lockdown again”

          3. We were tidying up and found one of those things in the corner of the bathroom, after we moved our spare awning

            Does anyone know what it is and how it works

  3. ‘Donald Trump will tear him to pieces’ Farage makes astonishing US elections prediction. 31 July 2020.

    Speaking to TalkRADIO, the Brexit Party leader and staunch supporter of Donald Trump’s campaign claimed the US President will obliterate his opponent in the US elections, Joe Biden, when the pair will lock horns during the most-awaited pre-election debates. Nigel Farage claimed he was rooting for the former Democrat Vice-President to win the leading spot in the run for his party as he claimed Mr Biden would have no chances of winning against Donald Trump.

    He said: “I’m very worried about the Joe Biden situation because I want Biden to get to the Democratic Convention and I want Biden to be the presidential candidate for the Democrat Party because I know that when it comes to those three head-to-head debates, which the Americans have been having since 1960 – Donald Trump will tear him to pieces.

    Morning everyone. Nigel is only partially correct here. There is no way that the Democrats can allow Biden to front up against Trump in a televised debate. They will therefore do what Johnson did and refuse it.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1316466/donald-trump-news-nigel-farage-us-elections-2020-joe-biden-debate

    1. I see Obarma has waded in, saying white police have their knee on the necks of Blacks.
      That’ll help. Arsehole.

      3. I do wish that O’Barmy would just shut up and go home. This rule should apply to all former presidents, PMs and the like.

        ‘Morning Oberst and all. Scorchio predicted here today; 30°C is about 10 degrees more than I would like…

    1. “Look son, if I knew how to use this thing round my neck I wouldn’t be sending you to hospital!”

    2. “Definite TRUTH”? Surely you mean “Definite PROOF” don’t you? So if “V” (Voodoo witch doctor?) tells “JS” (Joe Soap?) something about Bill Clinton (for whom I have very little respect) then I must accept this as being absolutely true? I take no such assertions as gospel without a lot more evidence than this post, Minty.

      1. Bill Clinton Went to Jeffrey Epstein’s Island With 2 ‘Young Girls’, Virginia Giuffre Says. 7/30/20.

        Shortly thereafter, Scarola asked her “Were sexual orgies a regular occurrence on the island at Jeffrey’s house?” Guiffre responded, “Yes.”

        Scarola then asked if she was ever present with Epstein and Clinton on the island.

        “Ghislane, Emmy [another girl who was allegedly a regular at Epstein’s house], and there was 2 young girls that I could identify. I never really knew them well anyways. It was just 2 girls from New York,” Guiffre answered, and said they were all staying in Epstein’s house on the island.

        How’s this Elsie? I pinched the graphic off of Parler and posted it out of laziness though it is by Candace Owens which gives it some credibility. This story is a non-MSM narrative so the above is the only other confirmation available!

        https://www.newsweek.com/bill-clinton-went-jeffrey-epsteins-island-2-young-girls-virginia-giuffre-says-1521845

        1. I went to the link.. Newsweek “respects my privacy”, so please sign up for adverts and cookies, before you can read the article. Somewhat ironic?

    1. Could be a good place to test a COVID vaccine that we haven’t been able to trial on animals.

    2. Nigel must be the politicians public enemy number one in the UK. He must watch his back. He speaks for many people in the UK.

    1. “Thank goodness this restaurant doesn’t insist on social distancing!”

  10. SIR – While we’re on the subject of Tony Blair and the constitution (Letters, July 28), let’s not also forget that it was he who abruptly decided to abolish the office of Lord Chancellor, without consulting or giving prior notice to the Queen, the Lord Chief Justice or the senior judiciary (or, indeed, the then incumbent).

    This act of constitutional vandalism deprived the nation of an experienced and influential voice in the legislature (the House of Lords), the executive (the Cabinet) and the public arena.

    Had it been heard, it might have helped contain the creeping politicisation of judicial review and consequent loss of confidence in the judiciary as judges, rather than policymakers, that has since ensued.

    Unfortunately, as with most ill-advised tampering with our unwritten constitution, this will be hard to reverse.

    His Honour Peter Birts QC
    London SW6

    Hanging would be too good for him.

    2. It wasn’t ill-advised – he knew exactly what he was doing, and the goal of de-stabilising one of the world’s most stable countries was achieved.

    1. The same thing happens with democracy unfortunately. The mice vote for the cheese to be free, and the whole system collapses.

      1. Which is why those not paying shouldn’t be given a vote.

        No taxation, no representation.

        1. There are strong arguments against one person, one vote.
          I thought it was about right in 1832, but then being middle class, I would 🙂

    1. Do you wake up every morning in this state, Rik?

      Good Morning and ‘have a nice day’ {:^))

  14. Good morning all.

    Wall to wall sunshine. It’s supposed to be warm today.

    1. Morning, Peddy. It certainly will be a scorchio day today. So I am off now to spend an hour in the garden before it becomes unbearable. Slayders, NoTTLers!

      PS – I’m off to visit Korky this afternoon and enjoy a glass of “Bill’s medicine” and a chat in his (Korky’s) garden. I’ll give him all of your regards.

      PPS – Correction: I’ll give Korky the regards of all NoTTLers.

      2. Not allowed ! Elsie Lawbreaker.

        What will be illegal?

        It

        will be illegal for people who do not live together to meet in a

        private home or garden, except for limited exceptions to be set out in

        law. You should not host or visit people you do not live with, unless

        they are in your support bubble. If you live in the affected areas, you

        should not visit someone’s home or garden regardless of whether this is

        in or outside of the restricted area.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8578133/Matt-Hancock-BANS-households-parts-Manchester-Lancashire-Yorkshire-meeting-indoors.html

      3. Say hello and give our very best wishes to The Dandy Front Pager – Caroline and Rastus.

        1. Will do, Rastus. (Am I still allowed to call you that or should I “take the knee”?)

  15. Just heard Matt Hancock say that “this virus didn’t exist six months ago”. (Who said “the science is settled”?)

    1. How does he know that. We don’t know what is being cooked up in Labs around the world. They say they are looking for cures for diseases but it’s obvious from what has happened that they are creating them not curing them.

        1. Matt Hancock can’t remember if he existed six months ago.

          No, no, it should read: Matt Hancock can’t remember what version of himself existed six months ago.

  16. 321925+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Does seem to me that there is a great deal of dictation going on stemming from the governance shepherds overseeing a multitude of ovids ( think Latin).
    Also seems to me that the governance party is pushing envelopes power wise regarding how high the peoples can be made to jump.

    Then covid 19 is also dictating, regarding the life style of the peoples when we combine the two for political reasons then we have trouble.

    Incarceration must come into play for any politico etc withholding or hindering an answer on money / political grounds, knowledge of this should
    not be concealed ” for the good of the party”.

    Currently the “good of the party” depends on how you grade sh!te.

  17. It seems that the Asian community is being affected by the virus that other communities ?

    So, if they are more likely to die of the coro18 virus it would seem
    that they catch the virus more easily and hence, are carriers of the
    virus – after all, they don’t all die from it.
    If they are carriers wouldn’t it be sensible if they were isolated? It is normal
    practice when infections are being spread by close proximity
    I know! – I can hear racist!, racist! being screamed –

    1. It’s more likely that you can hear people muttering, “Shouldn’t he have had another coffee?”

      1. Thanks for the link, it was worth a click just to watch a Titan Airways A318 landing at St Helena airport.

  18. Matty”s building this up so everyone’s gotta have Bill Gates’ lovely injection !

  19. From an article in today’s Telegraph – Mat Handoncock

    Asked on BBC’s Today programme whether the measures were announced late
    on Thursday night to stop Eid celebrations from taking place, he said:
    “No, my heart goes out to the Muslim communities in these areas because I
    know how important the Eid celebrations are”
    OMG –

    1. Why oh why are these politicians putting themselves out of for the bearded pyjama clad ones and Eid ..

      The fields here are now empty of sheep, and we KNOW sadly a terrible cruel death is anticipated for them

      Easter was dissed and dismissed for us .

      Perhaps politicians should learn ERDU and ARABIC to get the message across that we the white population are being endangered , we are the tax payers and if we all also die , there will be no one left to pay their benefits!

      1. It may be more useful to learn URDU, rather than ERDU, Belle. My father had to learn basic Urdu during the war, some of which he passed on to me.

      2. I would guess that 100% of the people in the ‘Asian’ ‘Community’ speak Urdu.

    2. With an established Church you would have thought that our country is Christian.

      But in Welby we have the worst Archbishop of Canterbury since Henry VIII brought about the existence of the Church of England almost by accident and we no longer have any truly committed Christians in the government.

      Indeed the last prime minister to declare unequivocally that he was Christian (unlike Cameron and May who were luke warm)) was Blair – and he has turned out to be the anti-Christ.

      1. Do you really believe that Blair was telling the truth?

        Rhetorical question…

      3. Good morning, Rastus.

        As I explained the other day, his appointment is part of the plan to infiltrate all of the establishment with Critical Theory stooges, like Welby, and they have been very successful in doing so.

        ARROGANT COMPLACENCY (aka The Mass Suicide of the Right).

        As I have warned, repeatedly, over the past decade, the insidious rise in power and influence of the Left has been matched, equally, by the ongoing lethargy of the Right. Warnings have been given from many sources of the dangers of this approach, but still the Right slumbers on in their gin-soaked torpor whilst the Left have incessantly been busy little bees.

        It gets worse. All the time that the Right have been harrumphing over “the good old days”, the Left’s surreptitious and calumnious policy of Critical Theory (aka Cultural Marxism) has been speading its cancerous tendrils, unchallenged, throughout all societies in the Western world.

        A brief guide to ‘Cultural Marxism’.

        The concept that has become known as Cultural Marxism (or Critical Theory) can be traced back to the Frankfurt School of the 1920s. The Frankfurt School refers to a number of Socialist intellectuals who, after realising the Communist revolution in Russia was unlikely to be repeated in other European countries via force, dedicated themselves to developing more imaginative methods of advancing Socialism in the West.

        The master plan they eventually settled upon is now know as Cultural Marxism, a strategy which can be generally defined as:

        ● The gradual process of destroying all notions of tradition, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sexuality, the family unit and natural justice; in order to re-assemble society in the future as a Socialist utopia.

        ● A utopia that will have no notion of gender, race, morality, God or individuality; and where all ideas of childhood, fatherhood, motherhood and nationhood are endered obsolete.

        The method used to achieve this outcome is to gradually spread the ideology in a stealthy manner, by infiltrating all existing societal institutions including schools, universities, unions, the film industry, the media, the church, the police, the judiciary, the military, the civil service, and all major political parties. With the ultimate goal of embedding it — largely without being noticed — in the popular mind, in the hope of eventually leading all the masses to abandon their own cultural identity and national heritage, by their own volition, entirely without resistance or objection.

        It is not as though many on the Right aren’t aware of this. The surreptitious infiltration of all Right-wing parties is nearing completion and most — if not all — of those former Right-wing parties have been invaded to such a degree by the Critical Theory mob, that the war has already been won by them without a shot being fired … just as they had planned.

        Unless sufficient Right-minded warriors, from all freedom-loving states, can be mustered and marshalled into revolutionary units dedicated and determined to fight back and remove all those cancerous tendrils from those affected societies — in effect, a worldwide uprising of the Right — then we might just as well put our hands in the air, wave the white flag, and accept the Socialist utopia that we did so very little to protect ourselves against.

        The arrogant complaceny, ingrained stupidity and lazy inertia of all freedom-loving, Right-minded people is rapidly leading to their mass suicide.

  21. Stop press:

    The new president of the Royal Horticultural Society is – Keith WEED.

    Made me smile!

      1. Well, his mother’s maiden name was Hedges – so you could be on to something!

      1. As you will see from my simultaneous post below – he is deeply into the “right” things…..

  22. From the DT…. BTL………..

    ”One of the many objectives and functions of the Corona scam is to trash the US economy, so as to greatly increase the chances of Trump being defeated in the coming US election.

    This will be assisted by absolutely massive voting fraud, using a newly introduced universal postal voting system that the Democrats are passing into law, making unimaginably large scale fraud simple to execute.

    If Trump is defeated, then everyone’s lives in the Western world will change very fast, and very dramatically – because he is the only significant obstacle (like him, or not) to the total takeover of the West by the Marxist globalists.

    The globalists – who control almost all Western governments, mainstream parties, institutions and media, including of course Boris and his gang of fraudsters – plan to usher in an Orwellian, totally controlled, far-left New World Order – which is what they call ‘the new normal’.

    This will amount to the end of the world as we have known it – and it’s going to be truly horrible.”

    1. Sadly, there are very few frogs jumping out of the warming water. (Most of them seem to be on here!)

      1. In the interview someone posted yesterday with Nigel Farage, he commented that most people are not interested in politics, barely bother listening to any news and just want to get on with their life. This strikes me all too often amongst the circle of people I know, whether family, close friends, aquaintances or work colleagues – very few are politically informed and even those who show more than a passing interest frequently get to the stage of just not wanting to know once they have been bombarded unremittingly for too long. I think very few frogs have any idea how hot the water is already.

        1. To be honest, I am beginning to switch off from the news. Fortunately, I have you lot to keep me informed – thanks, guys!

          1. I don’t watch/listen to any, Con. I know anything significant will pop up here.

    2. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever. 1984

      1. 321925+ up ticks,
        Morning JN,
        All part & parcel of the punishment package being meted out in payment for the 24/6/2016 verdict.
        Do not forget your lab/lib/con vote is essential to receive more of the same in the future, as we have proved our worth in the past.

        1. No, they are yum! Yum! We used to eat kangaroo in Germany during the mad cow disease scare.

          1. We had kangaroo at the Krasnapolsky Hotel in Amsterdam.
            I can’t remember anything special about it. In view of your comment, it may have veered towards the beef spectrum.

    2. That’s quite a gape; you could fit one of your tennis balls in there.

      How’s the tendon getting on?

          3. Ahhh – thanks, Peddy! I’ve been wondering what to do with the sherry, and as I have lots of mint and am low-carbing, that looks like the perfect way to celebrate the first sunshine in weeks here!

  26. Is there a doctor in the house? Yesterday, the dental assistant took my temperature by pointing a small ray-gun at my head. She said it was 35.9 – that’s 96.6 in black-and-white, which strikes me as rather low. Am I in fact dead?

    3. The temperature checkers at Television Centre regularly read mine as low as 35.1, which is not quite dead but it’s certainly hypothermia. At the other end of the scale, one guy walked in to Broadcasting House and was told he had a temperature of 43. Turned out there that the checker stand was placed too close to a TV monitor. It’s all BS, basically.

    4. No Joseph – 35.9C is quite normal. My temp varies between 34 .1C and 37.1C as discovered when I have been taking it 4 or 5 times a day for the last fortnight. Taken after coffee or a hot meal tends to raise the temp but 37C is rarely reached. I have always had a lower temp than average but it is nothing to worry about. My pulse is low unless I am having an Atrial fibrillation when it can go up to 130/ minute. My blood Oxygen stays firmly around 97 even when fibrillating although I need to rest.

        1. Me too and with a mother and sister who were nurses. That’s 36.8 recurring in Centigrade but that’s too messy for the much tidier and more rational metric system so it was rounded up to 37 or 98.6ºF. My more recent mercury thermometer shows the ‘new normal’.

          Nature must obey Man, not the other way around.

      2. When I have had my temperature taken by way of a thermometer in the mouth, it has often been as low as 97.8 – lower than the approved 98.4 (or 98.6 in America). Does taking the temperature by pointing the thingy at the head give a lower figure than would be given by the old method?

  27. So more covert climate change initiatives under the cover of making people safe from Covid today, when will the mainstream media catch on?

  28. At last! Morning, Campers.
    Kicking myself for not checking that I’d (properly) switched on the washing machine last night.
    Ho hum; slight rearrangement to my day and very much a first world problem.

    https://youtu.be/6JwdF8ac_QQ

  29. Just happened to be reading/ looking at the Mail [I usually just scan it , rather than read it!]
    Came across abn article that mentioned a Black Newspaper ?
    I checked on-line and came across this website – voice-online. The other day we heard about a new magazine called COCOA – for a certain BAME? community and now we have a newspaper for that community?
    I had in mind a magazine named BLANCO – wonder if that would be OK ?

    http://www.voice-online.co.uk

  30. Morning all.
    Just a quickie, off out. I’ve just seen that broadcasting NWO stooge and crass dolt Vine on the TV. He’s debating the subject should meat be banned from public events and gatherings………..my wife was up stairs and she asked me why i shouted “WFT is that grinning idiot on about now” ?

    1. 321925+ up ticks,
      Morning RE,
      He takes twatology to new heights,he would condone
      halal cannibalism under sharia law if given carte blanche with a menu, mind I believe the current HOC canteen would accept it.

    2. Morning all.
      Just a quickie….

      FILTH!!!
      .
      .
      .
      .
      .
      Oops sorry!
      Wrong chat site!

  33. SIR – Maggie Hughes (Letters, July 29) should be thankful that she doesn’t live in Scotland. Our supermarkets also open from 8am to 9am for wrinklies, but it is illegal for them to sell alcohol until 10am.

    John Marsh
    Dunblane, Perthshire

    That encapsulates all that one needs to know about the SNP

    1. Not really, Dolly.

      To know about the SNP, you have to know who is behind it…

      Bottles of wine are, er, very small beer.

    2. Have a look at the proposed new (consolidated) Hate Crimes Bill. Even the police are criticising it in that it puts an end to free speech. If one person is offended by anything you say, you face prison. Only one witness is needed, and that can be the person offended.

      1. But as all the foreigners here can walk around saying whatever they want – in THEIR language – our police won’t know what they are saying. Only people speaking English will therefore be arrested.

        1. This is all about making life better for foreigners. Is it a coincidence that our Justice Minister is a muslim?

    2. They are not looking for intelligent life on other planets in this solar system (they already know there isn’t any), just evidence of forms of rudimentary life.

      However, I agree with your sentiment. Human intelligence is rapidly on the wane (clear evidence is presented in massive degrees daily). Education is in retrograde progression and more and more attempts are being made, by those in control, to keep the population uninformed.

  35. This is what happens if you over-promote a woke civil servant to be in charge of a retail empire. It ends up as a quango for soshul housing.

    John Lewis: Sharon White brings down curtain on the golden age of department stores

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/business/2020/06/12/TELEMMGLPICT000226088993_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqyuLFFzXshuGqnr8zPdDWXiTUh73-1IAIBaONvUINpkg.jpeg?imwidth=680

    The John Lewis chairman is willing to try some very unconventional things to save her company

    Like almost every other player on the high street, John Lewis is battling a crisis that has turbocharged shoppers’ stampede to buy over the internet.

    Part of Dame Sharon White’s response is straight out of the industry playbook. More shops could close, she said, selling online is crucial and the grand old department chain will aim do more of it. No surprises there.

    But that is where normality ends. Dame Sharon is clearly willing to try a raft of unconventional ideas in her battle to reinvigorate the chain – from becoming a residential landlord to stocking second-hand items.

    There is even a plan to double-down on gardening in the chairman’s manifesto – the most popular idea with John Lewis employees.

    And mixed in with the bold new strategy is talk of promoting equality and sustainable living – noble aims that industry observers stressed will only be achievable if it is matched by a ruthless focus on maximising income.

    “Horticulture, where did that come from? Haven’t they got enough problems? It is a bit bonkers,” said Richard Hyman, an independent retail analyst.

    “In order to have the permission to have a green, sustainable agenda, in line with the traditional John Lewis values, you have to be able to drive revenues.

    “That gives you the permission to develop those values. If your business faces an existential threat you need some commercial solutions first and foremost.”

    The plan is in stark contrast with the company’s decision to sell 1,200 acres of land as part of its Leckford Estate in Hampshire to a private buyer earlier this year, just before Dame Sharon took over.

    The deal was part of an £18m transaction, according to Companies House accounts documents for one of its subsidiaries, which also included a previous property sale.

    While the mutual has had some support from external advisers, most of the proposals were a cross-pollination of initiatives put forward by suppliers, its own staff and customers.

    Hyman thinks an unusual plan to turn stores into affordable housing is welcome, given that John Lwwis was already planning to shutter shops before coronavirus. Like many of its peers, the mutual has already admitted to having too much space.

    It is also planning to beef up its credit arm to ease the pressure on its own finances. John Lewis had already been quietly ramping up marketing of loans, foreign currency and pet and wedding insurance in its department stores and supermarkets, as well as online, last year.

    Its online ambitions to turn both John Lewis and Waitrose into a “digital first” business will renew speculation that the top brass might have to consider a takeover or merger to guarantee success. Dame Sharon has ruled this out in the past. She expects the supermarket chain to go from 5pc to 20pc of sales online.

    “That’s a hell of a jump – are they going to go to bed with someone else?” a grocery source said. “That too implies a lot of further [store] closures.”

    Hyman adds: “If online is going to go up, how are they going to stop the stores from hemorrhaging money.”

    Dame Sharon unveiled her plans only internally, leaving speculation to run rampant in the gossipy retail industry. An insider said these plans are just the first step in a bid to resurrect the business, and she will put forward a more comprehensive strategy in autumn.

    This gives enough breathing space to a string of new executives – including James Bailey at Waitrose and Pippa Wicks at John Lewis – to potentially come up with their own radical ideas or reject existing ones.

    Either way, it will not be the traditional department store as we know it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/07/31/john-lewis-sharon-white-brings-curtain-golden-age-department/#comment

    1. I don’t imagine that woman ever went into a JLP shop until she was appointed to meet the diversity tests….

    2. Bad I am. My, and several other, comments BTL on the DT article have been deleted. The aggregate total has been racing downwards since the snowflake mods got to their desks at 8:00 am.

    3. If you sell quality products at sensible prices, it should work. I always found John Lewis dull and unexciting, like M&S but with more hardware. Department stores need to focus on service and not on being a branch of Matalan. Personal shoppers, aggregation and delivery of purchases, chairs to sit on, a very nice tea room, floor assistants to guide and inform, expert knowledge, and attention to detail and to service are all required. Otherwise we go elsewhere.
      They lost us completely 30 years ago when we were refused a JL card. (If we’re good enough for Jenners…)

    6. If John Lewis actually opened their stores, people might use them. Fools!

      Morning all!

    7. Like M&S, which is now a successful food retailer with a dud clothing store attached. But management refuse to open their eyes.

    8. The rot set in about 15/20 years ago. They went to far in changing their offer and turned their back on the customer base and went for new customers out of greed, and those younger new customers were the first to change to internet buying. They were told but did not act.i

  37. Why British troops are heading for the UN’s most dangerous battlefield – and why Europe needs them there. 29 July 2020.

    The Light Dragoons will be the first unit to deploy in a three-year UK commitment.

    Lt Col Robinson says the men and women under his command will apply the “hard-won lessons” from Afghanistan. He believes peacekeeping operations are nothing new for British forces. “Is this just a continuation of what used to be normal?” he asks.

    Well apart from live fire training I’m unable to think of a single realistic reason as to why we are in the Sahel. As to the “hard won lessons” from Afghanistan one would have thought that the Primary one was not to stick your nose into other people’s affairs with inadequate resources!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/29/british-troops-heading-uns-dangerous-battlefield-europe-needs/

    1. I can already see the faux handwringing and empty political crap from Johnson when the first bodybag comes home.

    2. No doubt under the same insane rules of engagement that lead to the capture of British forces in Sierra Leone that required Operation Barras (Operation Certain Death) to rescue them

      There is a reason the troops nicknamed the operation “Certain Death” and it wasn’t because they were afraid,the army had seized total operational control from the politicians in return for their silence about the ludicrous rules of engagement the politicians had imposed over their written objections and for once were going to finish the job.

      After the hostages were rescued and evacced with the embedded journalists leaving no witnesses the SAS/SBS went hunting annihilating the West Side Boys

      After their total destruction several other similar gangs either disbanded or surrendered to government forces

      The truth emerged ten years later………….

      “It was a famous military coup de théâtre – the spectacular SAS rescue

      of British troops held by vicious Sierra Leone guerrillas. But, 10

      years later, a respected author reveals the real story: 200 rebels

      killed, their corpses hidden … and the truth buried by Tony Blair”

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1307151/SAS-vengeance-West-Side-Boys.html

      1. That’s the way to do it.
        Go in hard and clear the vermin out, no fanny farting about.

      2. Remember this Rik? John Reid April 2006.

        We’re in the south to help and protect the Afghan people to reconstruct their economy and democracy. We would be perfectly happy to leave again in three years’ time without firing one shot.

      3. Yes, it was awful…nope, I can’t keep a straight face. That and the accompanying Operation Palisser saved Sierra Leone from disaster. They also saved many lives.
        The rules of engagement in respect of the military in Afghanistan were more restrictive then those of the Metroplitan Police.

          1. Yes, inexcusable. I imagine the thinking was that all Afghans carry guns, and they may point them at you, but don’t shoot unless they do. Whereas my thinking is, ban all guns. Anyone carrying a firearm in public will be shot dead without warning. But that would violate tradition and upset them…

    4. 321925+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      We have ample proof now via Dover that this segment of the lab/lib/con coalition DO go and seek trouble out & return it to these shores.
      If you hit a dog with a stick without reason expect to be bit.
      You hit a resident of Sahel with a led pill his
      brother / sister living in Brentford is very likely to take action, that is a lesson learnt.
      By the by any governance members going as observers ?

    1. Lesley Bird, chief operating officer at Birds Bakery, said:
      “At Birds, we take the safety of our staff and customers very seriously – and have very tight procedures in place during this pandemic. A lot of our customer base are the elderly – many of them vulnerable – and it is our responsibility to keep them, and our staff, safe. Like many other food outlets, during this pandemic we have asked customers to only use debit cards because notes and coins are not clean – and this poses a risk to our staff who are handling that money.

      “In the case of Megan Metcalfe she was taking cash from customers and then making payments with her own card. This contravenes our current health and safety policy relating to Covid-19 and is also against company regulations. It was with regret that we had to ask Megan to leave the business because of those two issues.”

      Two questions:
      1. Is Ms Bird snotty and officious or just another well-meaning but gullible fool?
      2. Why is a plastic card less likely to be a carrier of the virus than cash?

      1. 321925+ up ticks,
        Morning WS,
        Sorry patience is wearing thin so in a nutshell he is a tw@t.
        Maybe he believes that the virus wears toetector
        boots, as in the toecaps adhere them to the magnetic strip.

        1. She, not he. I wonder if that makes a difference…

          Otherwise, I am in accord. Madness, all of it.

          1. 321925+ up ticks,
            WS,
            I stand corrected I still had the swine vine on my mind, it did cross my mind at the time & all, that she needed to be introduced to a daily paxoing until common sense & using ones initiative returned, if ever.

        1. You’re assuming everyone uses contactless cards – and doesn’t touch anything anywhere else in shop.

          This really is purely theoretical risk. The chance of infection by contact is slightly higher than nil and life has been crushed by a demented paper exercise.

      3. You can make contactless payments up to £45 without your card leaving your hand or touching the machine.

        1. It’s not about contactless cards (I refuse to have one) but the absurd idea that all that we touch is deadly.

          1. I don’t really think about it – it saves keying in the pin and someone shoulder surfing. It’s quicker too. I’ve not had a problem with them. I have to use the keypad when I do the shopping. So all the people that used it before me could be carrying the bug, So far I’ve not gone down with anything since January.

      1. Who doesn’t have a bank card? They’ve been needed for cheques since 1980s or so…

        1. Not much use if you’re housebound and you have to pay a neighbour for the odd loaf or pinta they kindly bought for you.
          I speak from experience.

          1. Best way to deal with no cash is to fill the trolley with frozen food and abandon it at the checkout.

          2. I have found that a problem. Not so much cash itself, but definitely loose change rather than notes.

  39. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – We have some helpful sheep who frequently volunteer to mow the grass in our churchyard (Letters, July 29).

    They are Texels, the ovine version of a tank. Admittedly, it’s better if they don’t come just before shearing time, when they are feeling rather itchy, as gravestones make good rubbing posts. They also regard flowers on graves as a delicious hors d’oeuvre.

    Caroline Coke
    Towcester, Northamptonshire

    The sheep in the grazing area of Ashdown Forest are often referred to as the “woolly mowers”. They keep the roadside verges nicely trimmed but have the unfortunate habit of taking a nap on the warm tarmac. Still, sleeping sheep are better than sleeping policemen I suppose as they slow the traffic without wrecking your suspension.

  40. When will this madness end? Morning all.

    SIR – We are now hearing talk of a potential second wave of Covid-19, and calls for more self-isolation and lockdowns.

    There are thousands of dangers to life and limb. However, no matter how risk-averse we are, one thing’s for sure: some day, we are all going to die. So we balance those risks against the quality of life we want.

    To me, the prospect of a life spent perpetually masked, scared witless of being near fellow humans and stuck in a domestic bubble, devoid of close social interaction, is not acceptable.

    Covid-19 is unpleasant, but it’s proving to be no worse than many other viruses that we have learnt to take for granted and live alongside.

    Charles Jackson

    Newcastle upon Tyne

    SIR – Your Leading Article (July 30) rightly argues that we cannot keep running away from Covid-19.

    Surely, the arrival of a second wave across Europe provides further evidence that temporary lockdowns cannot halt the progress of the disease. At best they may “flatten the curve”, but this simply spreads the same number of deaths over a longer period, while inflicting ever-worse social and economic damage.

    Advertisement

    So the unsavoury choice appears to be either to lock down until a vaccine is found or take a similar approach to that of Sweden, with proportionate precautions that don’t crash the economy.

    While this strategy has been criticised, Sweden’s death rates are lower than those of some countries that imposed stricter lockdowns – including Britain.

    Nigel Henson

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Peter Richards and Frederick Forsyth (Letters, July 30), echoing Lord Sumption (Comment, July 28), say we should accept the deaths caused by Covid-19 and get on with our lives.

    I wish them well in that venture, but unfortunately it is not an option for the elderly or clinically vulnerable among us (such as my wife), for whom contracting this virus potentially means the opposite of getting on with our lives.

    Robin Motts-Gardiner

    Melksham, Wiltshire

    SIR – In the past seven days I have visited what are normally thriving businesses – a swimming pool, gym and two restaurants. Aside from myself, there have been one, two and a dozen other people in these places respectively.

    I am worried about Covid-19, but my nurse agrees with me that there is a trade-off. Given my other health issues, it is more important for my wellbeing that I am able to exercise, and visiting places such as restaurants is good for my mental health.

    Are most people staying in because they are frightened? Or do they dislike the safety measures? Things look very bleak out there.

    Gordon Moser

    Barkingside, Essex

    1. When will this madness end?

      Morning Epi. I stick by my original forecast!

      Minty’s Law. 1 April 2020.

      Mark my words this is the Apocalypse. Not because of this minor ailment but because the response to it will destroy the foundations of the modern world.

      http://disq.us/p/28bj8sc

      1. Have you been taking Maffs lessons from Annie and the Abbotopotamus, Minty? Surely you mean 2050? :-))

  41. Good morning, all. Sunny and warm already – but stiff breeze.

    The Princess Anne prog was very good.

    1. Will finish watching it tonight, Bill. I do like her no-nonsense attitude and her sense of duty. What a great example she is. Pity it isn’t followed by most in public life.

    1. He will, without question. He’ll make sure they’re given a 5 * hotel suite.

      1. 321925+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        They in turn will send selfies within surroundings
        back to place of origin telling any left to get aboard the next unofficial ferry and await escort,
        will meet in hotel bar.

      1. 321925+ up ticks,
        Evening RE,
        If so maybe a lesson to be learnt would be to do the same, as in look after our own to start with.

  43. SIR – While telephone and video consultations (report, July 30) have a role to play in the NHS, far too much emphasis is being placed on them by our IT-obsessed Health Secretary, Matt Hancock.

    Face-to-face consultations remain the safest and most effective method in many situations, and practices forced upon us by Covid-19 should not become the norm.

    Dr Anthony Hartley

    Buxton, Derbyshire

    SIR – If video consultations are widely adopted, will we end up with a second-class GP service for the many without access to the necessary technology?

    Or perhaps, given that the Government seems to have so much money to hose around at present, it will provide free tablets and meet service-provision charges so that everyone can avail themselves of remote consultations.

    G P Brown

    Norwich

    1. Posted by me late last night/this morning:
      “Do I have to buy a blood pressure machine? How will Dr listen to the gurgles in my lungs, and the beat of my heart? What about blood circulation to my feet, and blood & wee tests? Will he be able to see any effects of stroke through the phone? Surely the time taken questioning about these issues would be longer than a quick glance? What about speculum activity?
      Man’s a buffoon. It will extend time used in consultations, and reduce effectiveness.

      1. We have personal experience of “telephone diagnosis” – my wife got a bad allergic reaction to a bite; so bad that I wanted her to go to the Doctor – easier said than done! The surgery took details and a doctor duly rang back – actually commendably quickly. A lotion was prescribed and used – the symptoms got a lot worse. This time the phone call asked for photos which we sent and a different diagnosis followed – more lotions and creams but to no avail. The next time my wife insisted on actually seeing someone – this resulted in a specialist being consulted and a third diagnosis – this time things are improving, but slowly. One wonders how much more quickly things might have improved if she had been seen in person at the start?

  44. Fatties…….

    SIR – As a semi-retired nurse, I could not agree more with Charles Moore (Comment, July 28). Like him, I see too many overweight nurses and care staff in hospitals and the community.

    I have some sympathy, though. When I was a busy ward nurse and midwife, I often simply did not have time to take a proper break. To keep myself going, I consumed copious amounts of chocolates and biscuits left on the ward by grateful patients.

    Karen McCleery

    Winchester, Hampshire

      1. Semantics again. The word ‘Karen’ also refers to a population (semi indigenous?) who live in Myanmar/Burma. They were pro British and anti-Jap during WWII, and consequently they have suffered since Burma’s independence.

        In Spain, the equivalent expression is ‘Yoli’ from the name ‘Yolanda’.
        UK obesity is due to different factors, eg town planners have failed to study continental cities, where it is still just about possible to go to work using a mixture of public transport and walking. Because of relatively accessible apartment buildings.
        In UK, the car is king.

  45. SIR – The Government is right to encourage people to cycle (report, July 28). In my younger days I cycled thousands of miles – to school, to work and for social activities.

    However, cyclists must observe the rules of the road. I see many – mostly young men – racing along with their heads down. They do not always indicate at junctions, they often ride two abreast and do not get into single file when cars need to overtake – and where there are cycle lanes, they do not always use them.

    Even if they can’t be tested on the Highway Code, cyclists should be warned about riding recklessly.

    Edward Severn

    Witney, Oxfordshire

    2. Back in the 1960s, in a graduate house I once knew, one of those enthusiasts, riding flat out, head down on a straight stretch of road he knew, rode straight into the back of a parked car which he did not anticipate. He damaged himself severely and needed stitches. The car was relatively unscathed.

    3. Back in the 1960s, in a graduate house I once knew, one of those enthusiasts, riding flat out, head down on a straight stretch of road he knew, rode straight into the back of a parked car which he did not anticipate. He damaged himself severely and needed stitches. The car was relatively unscathed.

      1. That’s exactly what happened to my father’s brand new Ford Zodiac. The cyclist flew over the car & his teeth scored the paint on the bonnet. My father had little sympathy for him.

        1. Was it in the East of the UK? If so, could have been the chap I’m talking about!

          2. Not the same one then, but it’s clearly common around graduate houses near hallowed institutions!

          3. Not the same one then, but it’s clearly common around graduate houses near hallowed institutions!

  46. Somebody out on Olsofjord has a steamboat. I hear the whistle hooting! Lovely, now that’s music to an Engineer!

    1. To an engineer, what’s the difference between a whistle hooting and a hooter whistling?

        1. Only visited one Hooters, and that was in Alberta. At breakfast time. Very bizarre, so it was, like the girls had just got out of bed and were on their way to the bathroom. Didn’t put me off a massive pile of bacon, pancakes and syrup. Didn’t need to eat for days after that…

      2. The tone.
        A whistle can have anything from ultrasonic tone to the lovely multi-note tunes that A4 Pacific locomotives have, can also be describes as a moan. See about 0:45 0n the attached for the sound I’m referring to – sometimes called a “chime”.
        https://youtu.be/sq5Hh-jVimk
        A hooter whistling is something you might encounter in a stripper bar, after taking a load of beer onboard… ;-))

        1. Go’dag, Paul.

          …can also be describes as a moan.

          Does Norwegian have a deponent ‘S’ like Swedish?

        3. The many times i have played the Verulam (birthplace of the Ryder cup) golf course in St Albans. The first tee is right next to the railway line and the train drivers probably enjoy the opportunity to put the person in the middle of their back swing in a dilemma when teeing off, by sounding the horn.
          It works as well.

    1. Good morning, K.

      While I understand your joke – I don’t get the photo or the figures. But I am dim!

      1. Bill, voters were asked (by Breitbart or Guido) who they thought would make the best Chancellor. Even Labour supporters preferred Rishi Sunak.

    2. Good to see you back on this site, Korky, and to see that your sense of humour is still as good as ever.

  51. Well, one bit of good news – for once. Halfcock has upsets thousands of slammers.

    3. Moslem leader says he’s going too fast –
      “Youd’ve have thought Eid’ve seen that one coming – it’s Allah conspracy!”

      1. I think Hancock is doing a difficult job , and I can see he is not lily livered with regard to making unwelcome decisions .

        I hope he stays strong .

        1. I fully agree.
          We are quick to criticise the way Government is handling COVID but it is literally in the hands of UK residents keep this virulent pathogen under control.

    4. Moslem leader says he’s going too fast –
      “Youd’ve have thought Eid’ve seen that one coming – it’s Allah conspracy!”

      1. Not heard any mention recently of the London elections being postposed at the drop of a hat.

  53. Now sit back and I’ll tell you all a story.

    In Fulmodeston there is (and has been for many years) a chicken “farm” – actually a large shed in which thousands of chickens are raised in a seven week cycle, then taken away.

    There always was an odour once every seven weeks at emptying time – but in the last few years, despite modern ventilation systems, it has become much worse. Lots of people in the village have complained – the Environment Agency handles and notes each and every complaint.

    I should add that I have no axe to grind because the thing doesn’t bother me.

    However, to everyone’s surprise – including the useless MP who attended a village meeting this morning – nothing has happened. It is thought by people with expertise in chicken farming that there is a serious problem with the design of the sheds, their maintenance and, above all, animal hygiene. And yet, as I say, nothing has happened.

    When the MR returned from the meeting, she told me what had happened – including the MP’s astonishment at the lack of action by the Environment Agency.

    The outfit that leases the shed is called Banhams – a well known name in chicken concentration camps in East Anglia.

    I asked whether anyone had ever written to Mr Banham (or whoever is the CEO. In order to help, I did a quick company search.

    The present company directors since 2018 are two slammers.

    That is why no action has been – or ever will be – taken by the Environment Agency. Simple.

    2. Well Bill, bods like that are directors of many businesses.. including nursing homes, private hospitals , properties to rent , hotels , slaughter houses, you name it they are there.

      I forgot to mention Mayors , councillors , MPs and anything else that requires accountability .

    3. I think i saw the name Banham at the horse racing on TV earlier
      Banham Poultry Ltd – Food producer
      Station Rd
      Attleborough
      NR17 2AT

  54. Face masks mandatory in cinemas, museums and places of worship from next week, PM announces. 31 July 2020.

    The measures, designed to cover places where you come into contact with “people you don’t normally meet”, include museums, galleries, cinemas and places of worship.

    Mr Johnson said: “We now recommend face coverings are worn in these settings, and this will become enforceable in law from August 8.

    “At this stage, we are not changing the rules on social contact nationally. I don’t want to tell people to spend less time with their friends. But unless people follow the rules and behave safely, we may need to go further.

    “This is how we will avoid a return to full national lockdown.”

    What’s a Full National Lockdown? Is that where you hand over your house keys and they come and let you out when it’s time?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-self-isolation-second-wave-uk-deaths-cases/

    1. I guess aircraft are still flying in and out of Britain. The government should have closed the borders and airports , and stopped ALL illegals coming into the country!

      1. They should certainly stop flights coming in from hotspots like Pakistan. That is why those northern towns have spiked.

        1. I can’t believe they are still arriving here . All that stuff coming into Leeds Bradford and Luton.

          If we didn’t have all those sorts of people , we wouldn’t have a problem , would we.

    2. A decision based on ‘rising numbers of cases’. Are there really more cases or is this simply a function of increased testing revealing existing infections? And is the testing reliable?

      Masks in cinemas etc but not in pubs? And who will enforce it in the Roperies?

      I simply cannot believe that there is not a significant number of MPs who accept all of this.

      1. An Extract from *Boros’ statement (*©Polly) – my highlighting:

        Around 1 in 1,500 now have the virus, compared to 1 in 1,800 on 15 July and 1 in 2,000 on 2 July. The ONS also estimate there are now 4,900 new infections every day, up from around 3,000 per day on 14 July and 2,000 per day at the end of June

        We can’t afford to ignore this evidence.

        It’s vital to stress that we are in a far better position to keep the virus under control now than we were at the start of the pandemic – because we know so much more about the virus and have so many more tools at our disposal to deal with it.

        Our testing capacity has increased 100-fold

        .

        Let’s suppose the 100-fold increase has taken place over two, even three months. Yet positive tests (many of which will be of asymptomatic subjects) have increased two-and-a-half-fold. Sounds like a rip-roaring success to me.

        2. I would like to know what motivates those tested to be tested.

          If they are being tested purely at random and the positive numbers per whatever number of the population are rising then there will possibly be a problem as cases will be rising “genuinely”

          If those tested are self selecting, for whatever reason, then I would not fully trust the results to be accurate as to the population as a whole.

          If they are self selecting because they have symptoms I would not trust them at all to be representative.

          1. There was a suggestion on the BBC that the problem was Muslims gathering, as they usually do in other peoples homes in significant numbers after Eid?. Some of them may have suspected that they had the virus entailing the track and test of those who were in the same house. Juiliet H-B asked this question this morning and I never found out the answer but it seems plausible.

          2. I don’t know, but I’ll hazard a guess. Some are working in a healthcare / care home setting, and may be asymptomatic, but are being tested routinely. Some have symptoms which may or may not be WuFlu, but now that testing is more widely available, they seek out a test. Bear in mind that in the early days of this nonsense, those with symptoms were told that they must in no circumstances visit a GP, and only bother dialling 111 if they were at death’s door. So it stands to reason that many more were infected in those early stages than have officially been counted. I understand that random testing is also being carried out – in some cases door to door, in others, sent by post. Then there are the false positive results, and I seem to recall reading that, if a patient tests positive twice, that is logged as two infections.

          3. With the huge increase in tests – they are bound to find more positive cases. But how many of these are seriously ill?

          4. I suspect you’ll be close to the mark and it really suggests that the whole lockdown nonsense is based on FUD-science.

          6. And a lot of people have died several times (© Office of National Statistics)

      1. Yep. I shan’t be going to church until the madness ends. I’m already cutting down on the times I go to the shops. As you have to book a time slot to go to a museum, I shan’t be patronising them, either.

  55. How sad, what a pity, never mind…Brighton Pride is cancelled, but it remains to be seen whether any rozzers in the area will be ready to break up any illegal gathering, or whether they will run away and make themselves invisible.

      1. Not impossible of course, but such obvious law-breaking by those charged with upholding it might have uncomfortable consequences. Many in Sussex have had enough of Sussex Police antics and won’t vote again for our PR-hungry P&CC. I’m already one of them.

    1. Or you’re trying to sleep in a 16 man barrack room and several of the room are playing cards with the full screw.

      1. Some of us may use an avatar but make no attempt to disguise who we are. You, for example, may call yourself Bill Thomas but we all know you’re really called the Legal Beagle.

      2. Well Bill, you can

        You were in the Limelight, before most of us on here were born.

        We have archive of you chatting away on the John Logie Baird show, way back
        before Mr Schicklegruber demanded that all Radio Shows must ‘star’
        Jeremy Whine (You were Young then)

        We salute You Grand Old Man Of Nottlers

          1. shuffles feet.

            Bill, please make sure that they end up on the correct leg, when you have finished shuffling your feet

    3. No! He must have better things to do. We just go around in circles wasting time in between breakfast and the sun going below the yard-arm. If he is so inclined, read Brietbart for a more cutting expression of similar views but without the clever enhancements from literature provided by some French based chap. But I like it…

    8. Nice pic – but he may be a bit young to join us! He does look like a chip off the old block!

          1. I got the impression from some comments she made a few weeks ago that she was in her early 20s.

    10. If he uses Twitter and the like, how does he react to being trolled on personal media?

      If he’s uncomfortable with it he should be cautious about jumping in.

        1. Does he read this stuff?

          If not, he should for a while and see if he is stimulated to join in.
          When it’s pleasant it is good fun, but it can turn very unpleasant at times.

          2. I agree, but there are stiil extremely dogmatic people who are very forthright in expressing their opinion and will never countence another point of view or perspective.

          9. He looks in from time to time to see if his parents need sectioning yet.

    11. No! He must have better things to do. We just go around in circles wasting time in between breakfast and the sun going below the yard-arm. If he is so inclined, read Brietbart for a more cutting expression of similar views but without the clever enhancements from literature provided by some French based chap. But I like it…

    12. Is he any good with fish. Asking for a friend who used to have a Plaice in France.

    13. As I slowly move down the page, before getting to the brow and the eyes, the piccy looks like
      a lady in a pink cossie diving into the water

      Sorry

  61. Mail to a Conservative MP………………

    Has the UK become ”too dependent on the goodwill of foreigners” ?

    Of course, there is no doubt about that. The UK has clearly been engulfed by stealthy foreign intervention for decades which has led UK politicians to ”value international cooperation and globalism over rational defence of the nation”.

    Not just by your favorite ”bête noire”, the European Union, but by the United Nations, the World Health Organization and now Open Society which heavily influences all three as well as influencing many politicians across the Western world.

    So through malign and billionaire supported foreign subversion, the UK is being taken down a pathway to voluntary repudiation of ”rational defence of the nation” and to accept global control and global government by an elite which is not remotely interested in nation states and which seeks to destroy them.

    For examples, look no further than the UK’s ”global government” response to coronavirus which is proving to be a wipe out disaster and the upcoming wipe out disaster of Net Zero and the reverse meaning ”Build Back Better” which will destroy the UK economy. As well as accepting ”no upper limit” migration, the UN migration compact, speech laws and human rights, all of which originate in the New York Plaza Hotel meeting in April 1996 between Tony Blair and George Soros. Continued and extended by subsequent UK administrations in conjunction with him.

    Consequently, there are only two choices………

    A) Expose the conspiracy which started in 1996 based on total disclosure which will ruin the UK’s political parties.

    B) Ignore the conspiracy and hope it will go away. It won’t, it will get even worse.

    Polly

  62. I’ve just received this via email from Nigel Farage. You really do have to wonder what is going on! There must come a point at which the numbers become unmanageable. Is that when they start sequestering houses off the indigenes under the Racial Reparations Law or is it simply a matter of killing us all!

    Dear Minty,

    Over the last few months, I have done my best to highlight the rapidly increasing numbers of illegal immigrants crossing the English Channel in inflatable dinghies and small boats in order to settle in the UK. Many millions of you have watched my videos on this issue since March. In doing so, you have helped to make it a national talking point.

    It is thought that about 300 people made the dangerous journey from Calais in 2018. This year, more than 3,000 have arrived already and that number could be 7,500 by Christmas. Yesterday was another record day as over 200 migrants entered through Dover. We knew they were coming, but started to wonder what happened after they had arrived here.

    Several concerned members of the public then contacted me in recent weeks to tell me about what they have described as “strange happenings” at hotels in their areas. So, I went to investigate one such tip-off in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on Wednesday. What I found what extraordinary. You can see what happened by clicking this link right now.

    Figures by Migrationwatch UK show this Conservative government is accomodating 48,000 illegal migrants in hotels and private accommodation, costing the taxpayer up to £4 billion over the next 10 years. That figure could end up being even higher.

    This scandal continues, but I am committed to establishing the facts and continuing to campaign on this important issue. Most of the mainstream media won’t report this, so I ask you to watch and share my latest viral video and tell people the truth.

    Best wishes to you and the rest of the Nottlers Nigel

    1. 321925+ up ticks,
      Afternoon AS,
      My well meant & sincere advice is watch your six unless you will incur an unwanted invisible mending bill

    2. 2 billion already handed over to Serco et al,suitable brown envelopes(BVI company acc in reality) slushed around,no continuing gimmigrant inflow,no more government funding no more bribes and backhanders

      See HS2 for further scams and details
      Edit
      Just been pointed out to me that the Serco contract is a TEN YEAR ONE,tptb have no intention of stopping or even slowing the invasion

    3. Good afternoon, Minty!

      Did Nigel ever properly explain why he let down so many people by withdrawal of candidates from the last GE? Surely he could not have trusted a buffoon like Boris? Or was he a) unreliable, or b) giving the electorate a chance to see that none of the main parties can be trusted? If the latter, he may have thrown the baby out with the bath-water, as I know of people who are wary of voting for him because of what he did.

      1. Good afternoon Hertslass.

        Much as I like Nigel Farage I think it was a disaster that he capitulated to the Bullshitting Bombastic Bonker when he had him by the short and curlies.

        Had Farage kept his Brexit Party candidates in place in all seats where the sitting Conservative was a remainer then Brexit still would have won the general election and we would all have been much more secure.

        1. I agree – he was very foolish .

          Edit – manners! Good afternoon to you and Caroline too.

      2. Afternoon H. Nigel sadly is not perfect. His choice of subordinates is almost always dreadful and he trusts people; an egregious fault in a politician. The withdrawal of candidates was an error and I stopped funding The Brexit Party because of it. In spite of all these faults he is still the only patriot on the UK political scene and we must support him or no one!

        1. 321925+ up ticks,
          AS,
          Very sad to say by one who followed him for years that he has treachery down to a fine art.
          On reflection he was a tory initially then on taking the UKIP leadership become a tory
          coxswain steering the party along tory lines.
          To many counts against him.
          Gerard Batten showed us real leadership
          farage knew that he could hence the anti Gerard letter.
          He split the vote & in collusion with the Nec helped destroy a patriotic party that
          seriously threatened the lab/lib/con coalition the way Batten was building it.
          “nige” in my book is highly suss.
          My personal view.

        2. Thanks, Minty

          Can’t he then join with UKIP and say, English Democrats? If the country really means more than his ego, then surely he would .. if he hasn’t been able to learn by his mistakes by now, he never will. :o(

          1. Nigel ditched UKIP, having failed to set up a successor, and then bad-mouthed the members who had been activists and supporters for him while he was leader. He’s blown it as far as I’m concerned. I can’t forget that.

      3. 321925+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HL,
        Along with an anti Batten letter he wrote to the UKIP nec against Batten taking the leadership &
        his take on the UKIP membership via the LBC
        along with the in camera vote him wanting a 6 month extension concerning Brixit turning the other cheek on his rant is definitely NOT an option.

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

      2. Most of the mainstream media won’t report this, so I ask you to watch and share my latest viral video and tell people the truth.

        He already has!

          1. I don’t think I could quite swing that Phizzee and it’s probably a good thing. We would have every Mi5, Hate not Hope, Antifa and lefty loony troll in the Galaxy posting gunk on the board!

    1. Doesn’t show here, but you can view [for the moment] by using the link diect.

  65. Without wishing to sound like a hypochondriac, I have just been back to see Dr Stupid. To arrange a face to face, one has to complete an online form with symptoms, history etc etc.

    Needless to say, his first question was to ask me what my symptoms were…..and then asked me to run through the events of the last four effing months. He asked me when the last tablets ran out. With the bloody screen in front of him – giving the info. Anyway, he gave me the tabs that I wanted.

    It is tricky to describe the clown – but think an ignorant know-all Mr Barraclough from Porridge…..

    Incidentally, they ask that you spray your hands on arrival. Fair enough – but it occurred to me, as I picked up the bottle, that lots of filthy, disease-ridden, virus infected hands will have touched the bottle……. Ideal hygiene…..

    Anyway, the good news is that I am still alive – and that my oxygen is 99% (unless of course Dr Stupid was reading the figures upside down…{:¬))

    Bloody scorchio in yer Norfolk – and solid – really solid, endless traffic bound for the coast.

    1. Bloody scorchio in yer Norfolk – and solid – really solid, endless traffic bound for the coast.
      Forecast for thunder and lighting later typical English weather. eh.

      Having become more than a bit cheesed orrf with delays in the NHS. Earlier this week i arranged for and had a call back telephone conversation with a GP at our surgery. He was very positive about my long awaited jab of Steroid into my arthritic knee.
      I didn’t hear back straight away but i pulled a bit of a cunning stunt. I typed a note to the surgery and stapled it to a repeat prescription, posted it in the surgery box yesterday. And hey presto doc rang me this morning. Now i have an arranged appointment and procedure next Friday arvo. Result !!😎

      1. I tried the letter stunt three weeks ago. I handed it in; the girl said she would put it in Dr X’s tray. They lost it. When I saw Dr X he said letters were a hopeless way of communicating…!!

        1. A friend of ours was worried about the results of a blood test as she thinks as her mother did, she may have cervical cancer.
          They have mislaid the blood ??????
          What a bunch of wonkers.

        1. That’s daft surely the NHS should be accepting these as people can’t get into the surgeries and on line is a bit of a shambles. How on earth do the elderly get their repeat prescriptions ?
          We also have our delivered by local volunteers.

          1. They presumably have to ring the Prescription Ordering Service (nice initials!) and wait ages in the queue (while paying for the call). My surgery won’t even accept renewals over the phone. Helpful? I don’t think so.

          2. Some times i wonder if some of the the applause has gone to their heads Conners.

    2. A good GP will engage one in conversation, questions etc. to assess your state of mind. Your response to the ‘last four months’ question will reveal quite a bit.

      1. The last GP – who had the nerve to retire – I had known for 30 years and he never asked damn fool questions to which the answers had been supplied lots of times….

        He knows (or should have known) all about the last four months. I only saw the wazzock two weeks ago….

        1. Of course he knew about the last 4 months, he was just wondering if you did!

    3. So sorry to hear your patience has been tested Bill .

      Is Doctor stupid a student GP.. how old is he .. is he real?

      Poot old Barraclough from Porridge, he was also on Last of the Summer Wine..

      Since 1530 the weather has been clamping in , very strong breeze , clouds and spit spots of rain . really low cloud from the Channel .

      I think this evening will produce some storms.

      This morning at midday the temp was 33c.. really warm , fryingly warm.

      Last evening the flying ants hatched and took off , they were everywhere , no sign of them now.

      The harvest is well under way, the rumble of the combines is quite comforting , in a harvesty sort of way.

      1. They are harvesting up here – sounds like tank warfare!

        Dr Stupid’s age? Early 40s? Qualified and registered 2005

      3. And those combines get bigger every year. It used to be that you could just pull off to the curb and the combine could rumble along on its merry way to the next field, now it seems that the only safe haven is to pull right off the road. The only consolation is the long queue of tourist traffic that is inevitably stuck behind any large piece of agricultural equipment.

        Tempers are getting a bit frayed with badly behaved tourists in these parts, several restaurants are shutting facilities in response to a few incidents and there is even a petition doing the rounds that would ban tourists.

    4. Have some medicine & maybe some more.
      Sun’s shining, medicine is tasty, what’s not to like?

        1. Not here it hasn’t. Same tomorrow – then cooler and damper next week – just as all the grockles welcome holiday-makers are settling in and s[reading the plague.

      2. Just about to – we have just finished the watering. All the water butts are equidistant from where the water is required…!!

      1. He might at least have taken the bitch for dancing lessons.

        Edit: Those two deserved each other. What a miserable twosome they made.

    3. She called an election, ran the most inept conservative campaign in my lifetime, lost a majority and nearly lost us Brexit. Once again, the bigger the disaster the better the reward. Nothing changes.

      1. I wanted to give you an upvote, but I already have – why can’t I upvote twice???

  67. The police killers have been sentenced. Henry Long got 16 years, the other 2 got 13 but whether these are fixed sentences or not is not known yet. [Talk Radio]

    1. Mr Justice Edis sentenced Long to 16 years behind bars and jailed Cole and Bowers for 13 years. All must serve two thirds of their sentence. Breaking news!

    2. Standard procedure is that they will be eligible for parole after serving half their sentences.

    2. That looks like Oz that’s they way they build their houses.
      Timber Framing, lots of insulation, brick veneer and plasterboard, ready for occupation in under 4 weeks.

  69. 321925+ up ticks,
    The police are finding it hellish difficult on account of the unwritten submissive,pcism & appeasement rulings on some beaches today and would like an ID red / white / blue arm band for the indigenous maybe a tattoo, similar to the ss & Jewish markings.
    There will be hell to pay if they pick on a incoming illegal in the confusion, &
    think of the compo.
    With a great many of the peoples already mentally scarred due to mass uncontrolled immigration actions whats a bit of physical scarring.
    Maybe priti will give it some serious thought.

  70. I am off until whatever day it is tomorrow. Do others find they lose touch with the days?

    Have a jolly evening plotting.

    A demain.

      1. Stop that right now !

        Don’t measure your life in dustbin days. Get the bloody golfer OH or Son to do it !

        Be assertive. Tell them what is what. Put on a nice frock and go out to afternoon Tea with friends.

          1. From the 16th century to the early 20th century, frock was applied to a woman’s dress or gown, in the fashion of the day, often indicating an unfitted, comfortable garment for wear in the house, or (later) a light overdress worn with a slip or underdress.

            No corset nonsense. A frock.

          2. A “frock” is what naval personnel call the thick white roll neck pullover worn by divers.

          3. I know what one is, or was. I haven’t worn one since I was a child. I might very occasionally wear a “dress” for a special occasion.

          4. I remember the last time we had a similar conversation. You posted a picture at a family event and i said how nice you looked in your sparkly dress. You then told me it wasn’t a dress but a skirt and a top.

            How am i supposed to know !?

            You wait til they let me out. I got my Liberace/Technicolour jacket waiting to Wow.

            Actually it came back from the tailors last month and apparently i need permission to wear it in public.

            They are worried about an increase in car crashes as people gawp at my splendourousness.

          5. I think it was trousers and a top, actually! At the anuual hedgehog team get-together. I do still have one or two skirts but they are getting a bit tight in the waist! And that was before the lockdown and more wine.

        1. Here, too. Wednesday (when I put the bin out) is the highlight of the week – it’s the day I go riding.

  71. PS – two good bits of news.

    Martins Farm at Hindolveston has re-opened the farm shop. Wonderful. Anyone who lives within 20 miles would be amazed at the quality and price.

    Secondly, after the halal meeting this morning, the MR was chatting to neighbours about our search for kittens.

    A lady who lives seven houses away said that her female was pregnant and she would be happy fr us to have a couple of kittens.

    TTFN

    1. You should have asked Mrs Slocombe if you were looking for pussy. She has a big one.

  72. The Waitrose delivery, my highlight of the week now, such is life, has just arrived. The delivery man was wearing a black mask for the first time since we have been getting supermarket deliveries. It was so anonymous, so depressing, so robotic. No smile. I have no idea who this person really was. It must be devastating if you live alone, it was a human contact reduced to its absolute minimum. I may try a Sainsbury delivery next week, just for the sheer hell of it.

    1. Saw an advert this morning for bespoke masks where you can get your own smile printed on the mask.

    2. I wore mine for the first time in Morrisons this morning – it was hot, sweaty and made my specs steam up.

      3. Straight from the Serengeti – what do you expect? Wachui ain’t chilly.

        1. Actually it’s supposed to be a snow leopard – I thought the other one was a bit bright.

          1. Perhaps you’re supposed to fill it with crushed ice before putting it on.

        1. I zipped round and completed the food shop in half an hour. Then I had to join the queue for the checkout. Twenty minutes queuing and ten at the checkout itself. Total: one hour, as normal, but not as normal. It was quite busy as I went at lunchtime, rather than my usual late afternon time. We’ll see what it’s like next week.

    4. Thanks for thinking of those of us who live alone. It is indeed a massive barrier to informal human interaction.

      1. I had a period of living by myself for seven years in my mid twenties to early mid thirties. A lonely time that will never be forgotten. Masks are a totally dehumanising experience for both the wearer and the observer.

      2. Gorden Ramsey who pissed off the whole of Cornwall when he decided to evacuate his large family from London. It’s okay though…his son is marrying a Billionairess so they probably won’t get any trouble from the local Plod. Who can’t even spell ‘ess’.

    3. Well Plum. You could always jump on top and hope for a happy ending. Prolly worth a couple £Mill at least. Make sure the rohynpnol Nurse has just visited.

        1. I see it as a short link, with unconnected url-type characters separate from the https link.

  79. Portland has been given over to the mob. Spiked. 31 July 2020.

    In recent weeks, bands of anarchists, along with assorted others, have attacked the Hatfield federal courthouse and the federal law-enforcement officers that President Trump deployed to protect it. Rioters have thrown Molotov cocktails, frozen water bottles, rocks, cans of beans. They have fired commercial-grade fireworks at the officers, smashed glass doors and used saws and power tools to try to break in. One night they set fire to the courthouse. Nearly 245 federal agents have been injured, and the damages are in the millions of dollars. In response, the feds have used tear gas and shot rubber bullets, along with making arrests. As a US deputy marshal said, the street ‘looks like downtown Baghdad’.

    This level of destruction is exceptional and a major news story. And many Americans have seen the extraordinary nightly battle images from Portland on TV or social media. Yet, when confronted with such scenes, a large section of the media has been going to great lengths to tell its audience that Portland’s protests are ‘mostly peaceful’. As a CNN write-up put it, ‘The protests in Portland were mostly peaceful, though they have at times devolved into violence, vandalism and arson’. Or, as Reuters blandly noted, ‘Peaceful protests and more arrests in Portland as demonstrations continue in the city’.

    Eventually someone is going to realise the MSM are no longer neutral observers reporting facts but partisan players who deserve to be treated as enemies.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/31/portland-has-been-given-over-to-the-mob/

  80. Bill Gates met with Jeffrey Epstein, according to the New York Times…………

    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/jeffrey-epstein-bill-gates.html

    Later that spring, on May 3, 2011, Mr. Gates again visited Mr. Epstein at his New York mansion, according to emails about the meeting and a photograph reviewed by The Times.

    The photo, taken in Mr. Epstein’s marble-clad entrance hall, shows a beaming Mr. Epstein — in blue-and-gold slippers and a fleece decorated with an American flag — flanked by luminaries. On his right: James E. Staley, at the time a senior JPMorgan executive, and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers. On his left: Mr. Nikolic and Mr. Gates, smiling and wearing gray slacks and a navy sweater.”

    1. Breaking News

      I have never ever met

      Bill Gates, or his brother Pearly

      Jeffery Epstein or his Irish cousin Phil O’Stein

      Tom Cobbley or any of his crew

      However, my mate YamYam, does know everyone, apart from Three, who lives in Salop

      1. He’s far too rich and self important to have bumped him self off. He’s paid up and done a runner.

    3. Breaking News

      I have never ever met

      Bill Gates, or his brother Pearly

      Jeffery Epstein or his Irish cousin Phil O’Stein

      Tom Cobbley or any of his crew

      However, my mate YamYam, does know everyone, apart from Three, who lives in Salop

    2. The worse problem with those, was taking them out of the player on the dash board and the tape being still stuck in the player and all the tape falling out on the floor around yer feet whilst driving………

      1. The Attorney General has a week in which to appeal the sentencing as too lenient – and discover whether or not the jury was nobbled.

          1. In view of public opinion, he wouldn’t dare. But you never know these days.

        3. There is a risk that the woke Court of Appeal might reduce the sentences….

        4. I would push for a shorter sentence.
          A week is long enough for the hangman to take the scrote’s measurements and erect the scaffold.

        6. I think the re-trial for murder is a non-starter. Life imprisonment is the maximum term for manslaughter, but again, I think there is little point trying to go for that. The defence may go for a reduced sentence. Let’s hope that doesn’t succeed.

      2. Apologies Rastus, but you say that as if you’re surprised.

        Did anyone thing they would get what they deserved? Did anyone think justice would be done?

          1. Except that, for killing a copper (remember ACAB) a lot of lags will applaud the thugs – and fête their arrival.

          2. I fear you are right, Bill. I can just see Grouty lining up the best cells in the place for them, room service provided, 60″ telly with the full Sky package, gourmet catering…

  85. The BBC is reporting that Shamina’s case will go to the Supreme Court. Quite a quick decision to do that. It is also reported that there are certain of her circumstances that must not be made public. The BBC refers to a potential contempt case being brought against the Sun for publishing information from the draft ruling that she would be allowed to come to the UK to appeal. “The draft in this case also included confidential information about Ms Begum’s situation that the court had already decided should not be made public.”
    That is very odd. A veil of secrecy is being thrown over the case. Is this in preparation for a decision in her favour?

    I would note two points;
    1. Court cases often drag on for years with long gaps between hearings . (A Public Enquiry in Scotland has been waiting for seven years.). This woman is already getting preferential treatment.
    2. When ISIS started occupying territory in the Middle East and proclaiming itself a State, I suggested that the UK should recognise it as a State. That would have put the actions of this woman and others, as citizens of a belligerent State into a very clear category. It would likely have meant that there would have been no possibility of her and her vile ilk ever being admitted to the UK.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53607595

    2. It is great to see how even the Scales of Justice are in UK

      Tommy gets locked up, for talking about slammers who were kiddy fiddlers

      Begummy, or whatever her her names is an out and out, anti UK terrorist, gets an all expenses flight back to UK,

      bed and board, legal expenses and support from the left,…. good job she is not Black, or she would be an MP by now

      1. Depends on your definition of black – I refer you to Major Gowen of Fawlty Towers.

      2. I won’t use the “B” word for this trash. It is a title the equivalent of wife of a Bey, or maybe “Countess”. These foreigners don’t half bum themselves up.

    3. I think we all know that she will be allowed back into the country for her appeal against deprivation of citizenship, and that, once here, it will be impossible to get rid of her.

      1. …and many other Isis-supporting scum will then raid the legal aid coffers for more of the same. And any prospect of sending them home is in a minus quantity. High time the courts were not involved in such matters, so let us hope that this will be one of its last decisions before it is disbanded.

    4. Supreme Court, aka Blair Insurance Policy to make sure the law always goes in the globalist direction.

  87. BBC wants to play a bigger role in children’s education
    Not on my watch matey

        1. Yo Peedy

          There is a small ytpo in the second word, the one which starts with ‘f’

    8. Education? Indoctrination, more like. Their children’s programmes are already about as woke as you can get.

  88. 321925+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    This “nige” chap seems to have uncovered a foreign plot to corner the market in hotel rooms what ever would he say if it came about that thousands of foreign elements had been given social housing whilst we still have an indigenous social housing waiting list.
    Why has this never been brought to the fore before by this illustrious
    rhetoric driver, he can talk the talk but can he …. … ….

  89. Hi, all.

    Elsie called round and we had a most convivial chat for around three hours. Social distancing and a couple of chilled glasses each of 2.4K Nelson Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand made for an interesting afternoon.
    I’ve had my first week of social interaction since my darling wife – 6 weeks now – passed away. I’ve joined a bereavement group and the members are very welcoming and quite a bit of fun. Went to their Tuesday group, now what day was that? – and the next day to their picnic down on the coast, a great way of getting around the bonking buffoon’s restrictions.

    Being the ‘new’ man I was asked by three the ladies to join them for a chat: being a new member attracts a lot of attention. The men are out-numbered by around 2.5 to 1 re the ladies, a reflection of the fact that ladies generally live longer than men.
    Following two bouts of the ‘Forwards’, as the bereavement group is called, last evening my brother and his youngest son met me at a local hostelry for a couple of pints and some food. My brother’s eldest son couldn’t make it and neither could my son as his wife was on duty at Colchester General Hospital’s A&E department but we’re hoping to get all five of us together in the near future.
    Life is still tough, sleeping is very difficult, and trying to come to terms with my loss is still a long way off. I am working hard in the garden and this coming weekend marks the nemesis of the weeds. A Dutch hoe and a few pints of SBK should see a marked difference across the garden.
    I asked Elsie if I should continue my scribblings about my wife and our life together and the answer was, “Yes”. I really do not want to become a bore but dragging out the memories, both good and bad, definitely helps me and the tears I shed when writing would amaze Lizzie: I was always the strong one but a loss like her passing hits home no matter how strong one hopes to be.
    I may post a story tomorrow that begins with Lizzie’s start in life and how her future changed when she came under the love and guidance of a wonderful couple that led to her meeting me.

    1. EB’s right, and you’re not a bore.

      KBO.

      It’s going to happen to most of us one day, better to be reminded of the joy of the memories as well as the sorrow of the passing and your experiences may well help someone else.

          1. And some of us may not go through it, as we may well go first. These days, thoughts like this are with me on first waking, as I transcend the layers of sleep, but fortunately so far they dissipate like sun on the morning mist when I get the day started. So far.

          2. Pm ,

            My thoughts exactly ..My Moh leaps around like a young gazelle , and has the energy for 3+ good games of golf a week, mowing the lawn and being generally destructive in the garden.

            I feel exhausted and quite left behind when we go out for walks. I am usually 10 paces behind him, being a bit slower but also being distracted by a beatle on it’s back or a butterfly requiring a closer examination, and keeping an eye on the dogs !

            I am having such strange dreams at night , really weird , and sometimes wonder where I am in the world . I wake up and go through the rigmarole of trying to get back to sleep again, and then wonder whether I will be alive in the morning ..

            Moh sleeps badly, loo visits etc, but he copes during the day, and he can catnap if necessary , I can’t do that.

          3. That is me, Belle, too – I am usually about ten paces behind poppiesdad as well (like a muslim wife!) and I feel permanently exhausted these days, I think it is the worry of it all, and I am a natural worrier! I find that I am taking great sighing breaths to get me through the day, wondering what will become of us all. Fortunately I get relief from looking at the timeless English scene outside our windows, the glint of the sun on the grasses and willow leaves, how they move in the breeze; walking the dog over the fields and through the wood, looking at the lovely cottage gardens with their hollyhocks bordering the green.

            Fortunately pd doesn’t have the nightly loo visits but for years he has suffered from Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, whereby some nights every 20 seconds or so his body ‘jumps’ especially his legs – it is ok if I have managed to get to sleep but if not it is, appropriately, a nightmare. He, of course, doesn’t know he is jumping about the bed. Sometimes I have to migrate to the spare room. But the worst is the free reign that the subconscious mind has just before waking, in those minutes before the conscious mind exerts its control once again.

          4. Good heavens , it seems everyone has anxieties one way or the other .

            I need a new pair of shoes , I sent away to ECCO for a nice pair of walking shoes , and they arrived here within the week, but they are too narrow . I have had Ecco for years, and they have always fitted . I can’t send them back!

            I haven’t been into our nearest town since February , and I doubt whether there are any shoe shops open .

            Cool evening here after having a very warm day.. so I hope everyone has a proper sleep, where ever they are , including you PM.

          5. Maybe your feet have become wider…

            And you should be able to return items. Wasn’t there a return slip with instructions in your package?

          6. You can arrange for the parcel to be collected from you, Mags – it’s what we’ve done. Hermes, despite their reputation, have been quite good for this.

          8. When my new shoes nip me on the achilles i hit the backs with a hammer. Can you not stretch them in some way? An oversized shoetree perhaps.

          9. Ecco are Danish , but some of their shoes are made in Slovakia and some in Vietnam , so the width fittings vary .

            Thanks for the tip Phizzee.

          10. I have sent off for some Tisserand aromatherapy roll-on stuff, Belle (lavender and chamomile), for assistance with insomnia – any port in a storm – to see if it helps – I will report back if it does. Also Tisserand ‘Happy Vibes’ to help one get through the day! (Once upon a time it used to be gin…. not me, I hasten to add, but the population at large in the 18 century.)

          11. Hello Belle. Good to hear that you and Moh are keeping well and active in these troubled times.

            Waltz Moh off to the MO and inquire about a some pills named TAMSULOSIN.

            I suffered from frequent nightly loo visits from the age of 65 onward and it made a great difference, now being able to go thro’ the night without having to get up at all. I’ve been on them daily now for over ten years with no side effects.
            It may be that Moh has already tried this medication and found it ineffective, if so please pardon me for mentioning it.

            My wife, who is still working as a GP is very pleased, as I no longer disturb her sleep.

            as aye

            Terry
            x

          12. Hi there T,

            Many thanks for that advice .. I will ask our village chemist next week for TAMSULOSIN.. R hasn’t tried anything like that before , so it may just help him .. In fact I don’t think he has ever asked the GP about things like that. He can be very coy you know.

            Hope all is well with you all.

            Weird times aren’t they.

          13. Hello Belle,

            It certainly helped me and a close friend of mine, so worth a try. It’s prescription only, so will have to be prescribed by his GP. Bugger being coy if it means a good night’s sleep! It’s funny ex-military men tend to be shy of such things – probably more a generational thing.
            BTW: What’s your old man’s real christian name. Sometimes you refer to him as Moh and ‘R’ in your last post – it’s not really Rodney is it? That was also my brother’s name (another Bootneck) who died a couple of years ago.

            Weird isn’t the word for it – lunatic doesn’t even come close! At 75, I’m a bit long in the tooth to become a ‘Prepper’ and I wouldn’t know what to prepare for anyway.

            T
            x

    2. I would love to read more about your life with Lizzie. Good for you, joining the bereavement group; I hope it will continue to help.

    5. Good to hear from you, Korky, and to know you are beginning to make new friends. Talking (or in this case, writing) is cathartic. We are sympathetic listeners (readers).

    6. Not boring at all, Korky. We love hearing from you. Lizzie would not only be amazed but very proud!

    7. I don’t tend to ask personal questions as i don’t like being asked them myself.

      I am happy when people of their own accord wish to share something of themselves.

      You keep posting, Korky.

    1. Poor Justin McGuirk. He hasn’t yet figured out that the government needs to control people if it is going to implement policies they don’t like.

  92. The real danger from Big Tech is its power to tear society apart

    We are at the mercy of people who think they know better than any of us what we should be able to say or know

    DOUGLAS MURRAY

    This week the heads of some of the most powerful companies in the world appeared before the US Congress. Well they appeared virtually, at any rate. And while certain members of Congress seemed happy to present themselves as having given Big Tech a hard time, even that was virtual. “You’ve got confused between me and Twitter,” Mark Zuckerberg, of Facebook, told a Congressman at one point. The CEOs of Amazon, Facebook and Google sailed through the day, looking meek or understanding as the situation demanded. And then they logged off to continue their inevitable rise.

    If this was the 1970s or 80s, companies this large and monopolistic would have been broken up. But in our decade nobody knows what to do, other than attempting small-scale raids in hearings such as these and then resigning ourselves to their endless metastasis.

    Yet we should not be so sanguine or fatalistic. While Amazon parcels fly around the land, we praise the convenience of Big Tech. As the company takes out nearly every competitor we console ourselves still with that “convenience”. As Google and Facebook eat up the advertising revenues of the established media, we shrug our shoulders and lament the rise of “fake news”.

    But even if the effects of all this on our businesses and media was not so provably devastating, still it would be wrong. Because the power that Big Tech has been gathering for itself is not power accumulated by some diverse and competitive group of companies. It is power accumulated by people living in a few square miles of California that constitute the most radically Left-wing corner of Planet Earth. This is no exaggeration.

    A few years back I spent some time in Silicon Valley trying to work out what was going on with the algorithms that are increasingly dominating our lives. What I realised then was that Big Tech has more power over us already than anyone but perhaps the most demented conspiracy theorists can believe. For instance, I had assumed until then that Google Image Search did what it suggested. That when you asked it to show you something it did so.

    What I discovered was that it did not such thing. Sure, it gives you the impression that you are getting what you asked for. But tread across any of the social justice litmus issues of our time and you find a radically different set of results than those which you had asked for.

    Try it yourself. Search Google Images for “Western Art” for instance. You might expect some of the great culture of the world to appear in an array of images. Not so. Google has decided that what you are after is images of Native Americans, with paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and Vermeer making an appearance way down its online pecking order.

    How about trying “European Art” then? Type that into Google Images and you might be struck by the fact that almost every other image that is offered to you in the results is a painting of someone who is black. Of course, there is no harm in showing people that the last seven or so centuries of European painting included some portraits of black people. But why should the search result that Google gives you back suggest that so many paintings in European art are of a person of colour?

    The answer is that this is what the tech overlords have decided that you should get. People talk about the algorithms of the tech companies finding out what we want and then offering us more of it. And that might be the case when it comes to products that they can sell you and make a profit from.

    But when it comes to anything dealing with the “social justice” issues of our day, these same companies have already decided what you need and they don’t mind telling you. Their beliefs are based on a set of presumptions which are themselves bigoted. For example, the denizens of Silicon Valley have decided that the general public in countries like Britain and America are racists. They believe this was proven by the Brexit and Trump votes of 2016.

    What follows from that is that they think that we, the general public, need “correcting”. And all those failed Liberal Democrats and Obama-era appointees who have flooded into Google and Facebook in the last four years have only consolidated this belief. As has the appointment of former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to Facebook’s “oversight board”. A solidly one-way political orientation is why these companies won’t give you what you ask for on certain pre-ordained subjects.

    They have decided that only a bigot would do an image search for “Western” or “European” art. And they have decided that they should do everything they can to dement or frustrate such people. As for anybody who doesn’t know? A young person, for instance, setting out on the path of knowledge.

    Well, if they happened to search for one of these retrograde and bigoted terms then they can be given an entirely erroneous view of history. One which suggests realities that did not exist, but which nevertheless better fits with the contemporary views held in those few square miles of California.

    Of course, in lots of ways, the tech overlords are simply not as clever as they would like to think. In fact, in lots of ways they are remarkably basic. Every year or so, Twitter has a purge of conservative voices on its platform. In doing so it always suggests that it is expunging “hate” from its platform. But time and again its own parochial, Silicon Valley view of the world shines through. Never more than when they try to define what constitutes “hate”.

    A few years ago, Twitter booted the right-wing firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos off its platform. Yet for years after that it permitted the Pakistani terrorist group Lashkar e-Taiba to run a Twitter social media account. The group that perpetrated the Mumbai massacre of 2008 was either deemed to be obeying Twitter’s community guidelines, or the bods at Twitter simply had no idea what they were dealing with.

    The same oddity emerged this past week when Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Donald Trump Jr. His crime was tweeting a video clip which discussed the possible anti-Covid potential of the drug hydroxychloroquine. Twitter’s justification for the ban included the usual warnings about “misinformation” and possible “harm”.

    Meanwhile, the Twitter account of the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, continued without any hindrance. Just a week earlier Khamenei’s account had announced “The Islamic Republic of Iran will never forget the martyrdom of Hajj Qasem Soleimani and will definitely strike a reciprocal blow to the US”.

    Does that sound like something that could constitute “harm”? You and I might say so. But for Twitter that is just another double-standard which it is willing to sustain.

    People have options of course. And we are constantly reminded that platforms like Twitter do not have to host you. The claim goes that they are companies, not charities. If you would like to form a rival company then you can. But the reality is that Twitter, like Facebook, Amazon and Google, got in at the bottom of the market and have spent years undercutting and crushing any and all competition.

    It is no good saying “use another platform” when one platform dominates a particular market any more than Jeff Bezos should be able to say “buy your books elsewhere” after his company has utterly destroyed the book-selling business in a country like Britain.

    The Big Tech companies have certainly made our lives easier in certain, specific ways. But they have also made our societies more divided, more fragile and more contingent than at any point before on the whims of people who think they know better than any of us what we should be able to say or know.

    Douglas Murray is the author of The Madness of Crowds

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/31/real-danger-big-tech-power-tear-society-apart/

    1. Using another platform can work if enough people do it.

      DuckDuckGo is not as good as Google for search, but they don’t track you or manipulate your search results based on personal data. I use DDG as default, and only go to Google rarely, when I don’t find what I’m looking for.

      I just tried the “western art” test on both DDG and Google, and got pretty much the same results for both, i.e. a lot of cowboys and indians. I think this is just a non-art historian US interpretation, so I absolve Google of bigotry here.

      For “European art” both searches gave a large number of images of Africans.

      Of the top 12 images on Google,
      – 5 were of Africans
      – one was of two men kissing.
      – 2 were feminist
      – None were Christian

      Of the top 12 images on DuckDuckGo,
      – 4 were of Africans
      – 1 was feminist
      – 3 were Christian.

      DDG’s results may be skewed if they use a Google search as part of the input for their algorithm, I don’t know. I know that two Google competitors actually use Google searches, they just anonymise them for you.

      Amazon is just a giant cancer on shopping, and I use it as little as possible. But I realise that I’m a tiny minority and Amazon is unstoppable at the moment.

      Facebook is a fashion, and will go out of fashion in a few years – in fact, it already has. Very few teens are on Facebook, it’s for old people now!

      1. I wish I could like DDG more. What is very frustrating is even when I set it to United Kingdom only, nearly all the links are to U.S. sites. I don’t buy anything with a .com address now, and delete anything that comes with a U.S. state abbreviation without reading it.

        Google also makes it very difficult now to limit searches to UK sites, and they also removed the time-sensitive option with a recent “upgrade”, unless you fight your way through Advanced Search, which makes me ill using it.

        Google Earth should be a wonderful thing, but after they closed down Panoramio and deleted an internationally-important historical archive for “management” reasons. All they offer now are commercial publicity shots that are not even related to the spot on the map, while the amateur-submitted Panoramio images were accurately placed.

        Like most things computer-related, nothing is a patch on what was on offer twenty years ago, and pretty well everything now is a stressful ordeal, despite the progress of technology in this century. I still use an OS (XP) from that era by choice if I want to get something done, rather than this ongoing fight with cookie authorisation, javascripts and screen-hogging, bandwidth-sapping “user experiences” of today.

        1. Yes I use that after someone on here recommended it some time ago. I’ve been perfectly satisfied with it. Well as satisfied as one ever can be when searching for obscure topics.

        2. Startpage is basically just anonymised Google searches (which is already better than Google).
          DDG has its own algorithm, I think.

  95. HAPPY HOUR – further to my post to peddy earlier.

    Doc. just phoned me..I nearly fell off my bluddy chair!

    This morning I had a phone call from my doctor who apologised
    for phoning me! No apologies required… I’m delighted to hear from you or
    anyone, I replied.
    My physio suggested I wear elastic stockings (I can hear you laughing)
    whilst my tendon repairs. So I rang the surgery to order a pair.
    Within minutes the Doctor phoned me back and asked the size small, medium or
    large. Medium I replied………………….and what colour would you like he asked – Black, dark brown or natural. Oh, er natural I said…really impressed.

    I was about to ask him if he offered a shade chart……..!

    PS Just read Eeyore’s post…

    1. You won’t actually GET the stockings, of course, PT. But the Dr can tick several boxes…..

          5. I like it slow. I think i’m falling in love with you Angie. Do you syncopate often?

    3. Because the GP’s are not able to scam us with expensive and unnecessary drugs they have to cross county lines.

      Ask them for fishnets ! Black and white. Bit like the Minstrels……oh no !

  97. Evening, all. Been a scorcher until the time came for my neighbour to come over for a socially distanced glass of Pimms and then it started to rain! Fortunately, it wasn’t a full-blown downpour so, being English, we sat out under the parasol and carried on. Before the socialising I had spend an hour or so hacking down what was supposed to be a shrub, but which had turned itself into a tree. Hopefully now it will bush out at the bottom again and return to shrub. Owing to neglect (ie I didn’t chop them off when they started to get out of hand), I have a few shrubs like that. I vow to tackle them now we are being put back into lockdown. No spectators at Goodwood tomorrow, despite all the hard work that’s gone into making it possible. I am beginning to hate this government and its bungling, ineptitude and sheer lack of willingness to tackle the importation of disease into this country by failing to close the borders.

  98. I think that what Harry is trying to say in his roundabout way is that data should inform us, not direct us. At least he has had his own enlightenment, though it should not be justified by the inconvenience that may have been caused to the Ropery.

    We can’t hold our breath forever. It’s time we learned to live with the virus

    It is simply not justified for the Prime Minister to react to every spike in cases as if it were a national emergency

    HARRY DE QUETTEVILLE

    There is a moment in the George Clooney film Up in the Air, about an executive who spends much of his working life at 30,000ft, when Clooney’s character explains how to speed through airport security. “Never get behind … old people,” he says, pointing to a gently pottering, elderly couple. “They never seem to appreciate how little time they have left on earth.”

    Then he gestures to several travellers of Middle Eastern appearance and adds. “Five words: randomly selected for additional screening.” He is, of course, exploiting for his convenience the reality of the post-9/11 era (“I’m like my mother,” he says. “I stereotype. It’s faster.”) Today there is a new reality. But ethnic typing is still an issue.

    Since the outset of the pandemic, there have been repeated calls (from myself, among countless others) for greater testing, faster tracing, all in the service of the magic ingredient of modern times: data.

    Data, we all argued, would allow us to respond swiftly to new Covid-19 outbreaks, replacing the carpet bombing of national measures with the precision weapons of highly-localised lockdowns, and hopefully rendering such lockdowns – confusing, contradictory – unnecessary.

    Not so fast. The data is now pointing out the risk that several generations of a single family pose by coming together inside a single house, just as many British Muslims do to celebrate Eid.

    Muslims who travelled across the country to see relatives for the first time in months were told on the equivalent of December 24 that Christmas had been cancelled. Some were and are rightly cheesed off about the last-minute nature of the announcement. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, shows every sign of being cheesed off himself, blaming household gatherings and the failure to respect social distancing guidelines as the cause of new outbreaks.

    Everyone wants to point the finger. But at whom? My beloved data, it turns out, is far from complete, far from perfect, still capable of multiple interpretations. The ONS, for example, knows enough that there is a rise in cases, but not enough to know which parts of the country they might affect.

    Like the introduction of video refereeing in football, what was intended to help shed clear unarguable light can in fact spark more vicious argument than ever. Which is not to demand the hunt for information be cancelled, but to serve as a reminder that the Covid road to supposed perfect, data-driven decision-making will be littered with accidents – more pernicious than ever because we will blame the victims not on our biases but on “the numbers”.

    None of this will need explaining to the Prime Minister. Boris Johnson runs a Downing Street addicted to data, where endless polls augment his own uncanny ability to judge the twists, turns, and, yes, biases, of public mood. His instinct twinned with focus group insight is a mighty political partnership.

    Normally, however, Mr Johnson revels in at least pretending to side with that instinct against the information. With the people against the experts. With his live-and-let-live inclinations against the dogmatists.

    Yet at the lectern yesterday, as so often throughout this pandemic, he was forced to play the role he hates – siding with the experts against the people, rather than with the people against the experts. Reimposing restrictions, delaying easing, for all that he may protest the reverse, feels like a return to lockdown. He will know the public and political impact: can’t he get a grip?

    The irony is that this wound, for such a master of communication, is largely self-inflicted. For what we are going through now is, short of a vaccine or a major weakening of the virus, inevitable. And how we perceive this experience is largely about how it is framed.

    The right messaging requires two things: first, that we stop comparing this pandemic to the Spanish Flu. Let us not imagine that, as a century ago, second and third waves equal to or worse than the first are inevitably rolling toward us. But when the PM talks of “a second wave in Europe” that is the fear he evokes. Second, it is pointless to pretend that we can hold our collective breath until a vaccine appears. A vaccine may or may not appear. If it does, it could come this year, but it could be next year, or never. We don’t know.

    When you have those two points in mind, you don’t step up to the dais, grim faced, as if to announce some national tragedy, every time there is a spike in cases. What you do is say, “This is life with the virus, it is not going away anytime soon, and with every day that it reveals more about itself, we learn to live with it better, hone and tailor our response – and thrive.”

    The reality is that earlier this year, when Covid-19 was largely out of control, the total number of cases doubled every few days. Even at current, growing rates, the total would double every few months. There is no comparison. There is no tsunami just about to crash over our shores. Rather there is an uptick which we must be vigilant about and nimble enough to crush before taking further steps towards adapted normality.

    Somehow, however, the man elected to give us our mojo back, the man who sells himself as the electorate’s dauntless companion through the vicissitudes of life, who sees the bright side and can plot his way there when others spy only a thick covering of grey clouds, has now got himself bogged down in the minutiae of whether casinos can reopen on August 1 or August 15, all while wearing the expression of a punter who has bet his house on the next spin of the wheel.

    As Chris Whitty noted, we have a certain room for manoeuvre and are currently at the limit of that. Mandatory masks and a renewed focus on social distancing may buy us some more room. Young people, so often left out of the political calculus, may justly require more attention, a little bribe here and there, to secure their cooperation.

    Yet circumstances will not remain fixed. We will find ways of expanding Whitty’s margin of action, of doing more and more, fortunes ever improving, with the hope of a sudden dramatic victory in the form of a vaccine always possible.

    We have talked so often of the Blitz Spirit. And while the war, like the Spanish Flu, is not always a useful comparison, it is worth remembering that the Blitz lasted eight months and was followed by four more years of conflict. Bowling-alley Boris should leave the gloomy nitty-gritty to others, and find a way to prepare us for that longer journey.

    The best way of doing so is to point out that, as with data, we are just beginning to deploy our countermeasures, just beginning to change our lives, potentially for the better. Despite huge strides, the room for improvement is infinite. The incentive to innovate vast. It is scary. But the old Boris would somehow convince us that it was exciting too. For there is no going back

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/31/cant-hold-breath-forever-time-learned-live-virus/

    1. Purely by random coincidence, it looks like Chris Whitty knew Bill Gates from 2008………

      ”In 2008, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the LSHTM £31 million for malaria research in Africa. At the time, Whitty was the principal investigator for the ACT Consortium, which conducted the research programme.[7][10]” Wikipedia

  100. If this really is true then Johnson is now beginning to show signs of madness.

    Boris Johnson orders police to enforce face mask laws

    The Prime Minister wants ‘greater police presence’ to enforce face coverings that will be required in most indoor settings from August 8

    Boris Johnson has ordered more police officers onto the streets to enforce the wearing of face coverings which will become compulsory by law in most indoor settings from August 8.

    The Prime Minister said the plans to extend face coverings to venues like museums, cinemas and places of worship would require a “greater police presence” to enforce the rules and levy £100 fines on those who refused.

    A Government source said: “You are going to see more police out and about, not only doing their policing duties but more active in their role enforcing these Covid-19 rules.”

    It is likely to put Mr Johnson at odds with some policing leaders who believe compulsory face coverings are “impossible to enforce.”

    It emerged yesterday that police handed out just 13 fines to passengers not wearing masks on public transport across the country in June – and only one outside the south-east. Face coverings became mandatory on trains, buses, Tubes, coaches, trams, planes and ferries on June 15.

    Mr Johnson voiced his concerns about the apparent failings in enforcement yesterday when he revealed he had asked Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, “to work with the police and others to ensure the rules which are already in place are properly enforced.”

    Full report: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/31/boris-johnson-wants-police-streets-enforce-wider-compulsory/

        1. It was Clara Schumann who mentored Brahms and Liszt – a fascinating woman, who was a concert pianist in childhood, then supported her brilliant husband through his depression, and then revolutionised musical interpretation by learning everything by heart and by being sensitive to the composer’s intentions, rather than just showing off the pianist’s virtuosity. She was also very beautiful all her life.

          They said Alma Deutscher (b.2005) is the new Mozart, but I say she has much more in common with Clara Schumann.

          https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.timetoast.com/public/uploads/photos/7379825/Clara_Wieck_im_Alter_von_15_Jahren.jpg?1477944209

          https://images.derstandard.at/img/2020/01/03/almaBreiteKLEINER1200pix.jpg?w=750&s=88886dc8

    1. ha ha that’s about how I feel right now!
      It was so hot all week that I just went to work, tried to keep awake and tried in vain to do anything useful. Couldn’t think.

      3. He employed his culinary skills to prepare baked beans on toast and pour her a glass of whisky after her usual tiresome day of lying to the British public.

      4. He employed his culinary skills to prepare baked beans on toast and pour her a glass of whisky after her usual tiresome day of lying to the British public.

        1. Did he fail to inseminate her, or did she not conceive? There’s a big difference.

      6. Represented Mediocrity at the highest level of government (and thus made Theresa May look good).

  105. Amusingly, it turns out that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown sold 600 buildings owned by HMRC to George Soros !

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2002/sep/24/uk.economy

    ”Both companies are owned by Mapeley Holdings, a property company part-owned by George Soros and US investment company Fortress In vestment. Mr Soros, a billionaire speculator, gained notoriety when he made £1bn betting against the pound when Britain quit the exchange rate mechanism 10 years ago”

  106. This looks like Tony Blair doing his old friend George Soros a big favor……………

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2000/jul/31/5

    ”Billionaire global financier George Soros could become one of the largest property owners in Britain with the likely successful acquisition of 750 government buildings by his Mapeley consortium”

  107. Wow….. looks like the possible bung to Uncle George by Tony Blair was worth up to $500,000,000………

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2930617/Browns-Mapeley-deal-costs-us-350m.html

    So I wonder… is this another form of inside trading with politicians along the same lines as Soros’ alleged involvement in the US fiscal expansion 2009 where, according to Peter Schweizer, Obama allowed Soros into the US Treasury ?

    If so, I wonder if there are other examples not yet discovered ?

    The ERM perhaps ?

    If it was a bung, is it possible that George Soros shared some of the profits from the Mapeley deal with Tony Blair ?

  108. I posted a day or so ago about British Architecture.

    I have received a great deal of abuse from
    Max the Dog whose comments rate me as a ‘failed architect’.

    During this lockdown I have read and re-read a number of books in my library.

    I have always considered myself to be a traditionalist. My roots go back to Wren, Vanbrugh and Hawksmoor, then Robert Adam and James Paine, then the Woods of Bath, then George Edmund Street, then Gilbert Scott, then Norman Shaw, then Eden Nesfield, then Philip Webb, then Charles Rennie Macintosh, then Edwin Lutyens, then Emmanuel Vincent Harris, then Donald McMorran and George Whitby.

    I hold to my values viz. that architecture transcends superficial style favoured by Architectural journalists.

    As with the common press, the architectural press has mislead a generation or more with its infantile support of the ‘Modern Movement’.

    1. Like everything, architecture has fashions. Out of fashion isn’t forgotten, just out of fashion. Modern mivement will be out at some point, and something else in. Hopefully the new fashion will feature something other than concrete and glass, but I’m not holding my breath.

    3. I worry about Max, not because he has been rude to you, but because that sort of rudeness might possibly be a symptom of some other issue, ie physical or mental health.
      If I were ever to post some of my uncensored opinions, I would be lucky to see the inside of a cell.

    4. Yo Corin

      Do not forget the style of Hans Christian Andersen,

      The Emperr’s New Clothes

  109. Bin wide awake since 5.10am – waiting for Geoff to post Saturdays page so I can say FIRST :.

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