Friday 4 June: Only by ignoring the data could current restrictions be prolonged

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/2021/06/03/letters-ignoring-data-could-current-restrictions-prolonged/

534 thoughts on “Friday 4 June: Only by ignoring the data could current restrictions be prolonged”

    2. We walked off the 18th, just as the first spit of rain started. I needed sun cream for the front nine! Thankfully the bar has a roof. Cheers!

  3. Morning, all Y’all!
    Another sunny and warm day. Beginning to need rain, forest fires on West Coast island burned some houses, nobody hurt, fortunately.

  4. Biden takes swipe at Putin with vow to battle corruption which is ‘weaponized by authoritarian states’ and ‘rots Democracy from the inside’. 4 June 2021.

    President Joe Biden is putting global anti-corruption efforts at the center of U.S. foreign policy and took a swipe at Vladimir Putin in his announcement.

    ‘We will take special aim at confronting corruption, which rots democracy from the inside and is increasingly weaponized by authoritarian states to undermine democratic institutions,’ the White House noted in a memo on their new policy. ‘We will crack down on tax havens and illicit financing that contribute to income inequality, fund terrorism, and generate pernicious foreign influence.’

    Morning everyone. Well it’s hypocrisy but hypocrisy on a magnificent scale! Lol! Corruption? Here’s someone steeped in it! Perhaps he thinks Beau’s adventures in Ukraine have been forgotten and one would have thought that the less said about fixing elections the better!

    There is a serious side to all this. This pitiful husk of a man wrapped in the Fog of Dementia; liar, kiddy-fiddler, crook, illegal POTUS, is the Leader of the so called Free World and has the Power to take us all over the edge into Oblivion. He might well serve as a personalised exemplar of the West and its moral and political decadence.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9649691/Biden-takes-swipe-Putin-vow-battle-corruption.html

  5. Biden takes swipe at Putin with vow to battle corruption which is ‘weaponized by authoritarian states’ and ‘rots Democracy from the inside’. 4 June 2021.

    President Joe Biden is putting global anti-corruption efforts at the center of U.S. foreign policy and took a swipe at Vladimir Putin in his announcement.

    ‘We will take special aim at confronting corruption, which rots democracy from the inside and is increasingly weaponized by authoritarian states to undermine democratic institutions,’ the White House noted in a memo on their new policy. ‘We will crack down on tax havens and illicit financing that contribute to income inequality, fund terrorism, and generate pernicious foreign influence.’

    Morning everyone. Well it’s hypocrisy but hypocrisy on a magnificent scale! Lol! Corruption? Here’s someone steeped in it! Perhaps he thinks Beau’s adventures in Ukraine have been forgotten and one would have thought that the less said about fixing elections the better!

    There is a serious side to all this. This pitiful husk of a man wrapped in the Fog of Dementia; liar, kiddy-fiddler, crook, illegal POTUS, is the Leader of the so called Free World and has the Power to take us all over the edge into Oblivion. He might well serve as a personalised exemplar of the West and its moral and political decadence.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9649691/Biden-takes-swipe-Putin-vow-battle-corruption.html

  6. ‘Morning All

    Here we go again,Gove back from Portugal after being hassled at the football

    “Turn the PCR back up to 45 he thunders,that’ll teach those footie fans now having to quarantine.Oh and bang Portugal back on the Amber list just because we can,that’ll irritate the Plebs”

    Meanwhile the ‘Rona tugs its forelock to the great and good flying in for the G7, no tests and quarantine for them

    No Sireee the ‘Rona wouldn’t dare……..

    https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1400500373073412100?s=20
    These people think we are idjits

    1. 33319+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Morning Rik,

      “These people think we are idjits”
      Surely is this not confirmed via the polling booth

    1. High Definition? Huey & Dewey (Louie missing)? Horse Dung? Hyacinth Ducket?

    1. when I first scrolled down quickly, I misread that as “will the all blacks start to riot” – which then raised the obvious question how’s rugby’s IRC going to deal with that?

  10. the unenlightned Bde tap keys again. As pointed out by Rev Alan Wright but unfortnuately for ECB’s wokeTom Harrison “Let he is without sin cast the first stone” indeed is a clear attempt to absolve himself [Harrison] of any blame. Given Ian Botham who suggested that Pakistan was a good place to send the mother in law is now in the HoL, let Overton smoke cannabis and join him in the HoL at the end of his career –

    SIR – Prolonging current restrictions is now at odds with the data.

    Covid-19 is a respiratory disease that is said to spread in much the same way as influenza. Yet, despite lockdowns and precautions, deaths from influenza and pneumonia have been higher than Covid-19 since March.

    Office for National Statistics weekly figures put deaths involving influenza and pneumonia at 1,171 (the underlying cause in 287 cases). Deaths involving Covid-19 were 151 (the underlying cause in 108 cases).

    We should be making the most of the spring and summer, when these diseases are in natural remission.

    Has the Government lost its nerve?

    Peter Ball
    Hussingtree, Worcestershire

    SIR – Savings that yield compound interest are a good example of “exponential” growth (Letters, June 1), but it would still take a pound coin an awfully long time to turn into a tenner.

    Rita Coppillie
    Liskeard, Cornwall

    SIR – In March 2020, we were asked to lock down to save the NHS and save lives. This year, we have excellent vaccines to protect the NHS and save lives. Lockdown must end on June 21.

    The Government must take every measure to prevent new variants entering the country. That is its duty and responsibility.

    Let’s get England moving again.

    Robert Mitchell
    Poulton-le-Fylde, Lancashire

    SIR – On a recent two-hour train journey to London some 30 per cent of people in the carriage were not wearing a mask.

    Overwhelmingly, they were young people who would not have been vaccinated and would be excellent transmitters of the Indian variant.

    No challenge was offered by the train manager, despite the law, and penalties on mask-wearing being clear and advertised at stations. This was the same on the return journey.

    It is right that people have a choice on vaccination, or indeed mask-wearing. However, the more who refuse, the higher the transmission and case rate, the greater the chance of vaccine-defeating variants. These would cause direct and indirect threats to health, and derail efforts for people and business to regain normality.

    The law on mask-wearing should be enforced; health and social-care workers should be told no jab, no job. The cost for us all at this juncture is just too great.

    Sir John Oldham
    Glossop, Derbyshire

    SIR – People participate, experts advise, Government decides. The Prime Minister should remember this and hold his nerve.

    John Moseley
    Monmouth

    SIR – Would it not be a good idea to vaccinate all university students before they disperse around the country?

    Christine Howard Jones
    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    Charity done right

    SIR – Like many of your readers, I was horrified to read of the stratospheric scale of charity chiefs’ salaries.

    I note that the Salvation Army’s chief executive receives £15,000 a year, and his officers £12,000.

    Although not a Salvationist, nor even an Anglican, I am proud to support financially an organisation that goes to wherever the need is greatest, and the latest news makes me prouder still.

    Stephen Pound
    London W7

    SIR – Your report on charity pay abuses highlights the fact that we all pay for them. One person’s charitable relief is another’s tax hike, since the national revenue is reduced by donations, and has to be made up through general taxation.

    While tax relief is fully justified to encourage giving, it invites the question of why relief should be given on the substantial investment income of large charities, all of which are protected by common services such as the police and Armed Forces.

    Should they not contribute to the common weal through a small tax on their huge ungifted, untaxed reserves?

    Lord Vinson (Con)
    London SW1

    SIR – Most of the charity coverage has focused on the feelings of donors: volunteers have had few mentions.

    Having worked as a volunteer for several charities over the years, I know that we put in long (unpaid and often unsocial) hours doing the actual work, as well as fundraising. On top of this we have to comply with all the directives issued by head office, which entails associated paperwork. (The employment of paid staff has to be justified.)

    We moan about it but seldom quit because we actually believe that what we are doing is important. Perhaps charities should only employ those who have already shown their dedication by volunteering.

    Susan Wood
    Braye, Alderney

    Anne Boleyn’s time

    SIR – Miranda Kaufmann urges us to watch Channel 5’s Anne Boleyn with the rich history of the era’s black figures in mind.

    Fair enough – but I did wonder how the queen had a pendulum clock in her chamber when they were not invented until 1657.

    Charles Penfold
    Ulverston, Cumbria

    Sex does exist

    SIR – Your Leading Article captured a number of strands of opposition to where Stonewall has led government departments and other public bodies.

    Readers who have not followed the growth of Stonewall’s influence may be shocked by its consequences.

    This year, we saw the Office of National Statistics defeated in the High Court when it attempted to abandon accepted ways to determine one’s sex in the census, in favour of effectively allowing people to self-identify. Had the ONS prevailed, we would have had no sound statistical basis for planning services such as those for health, where many conditions are related to biological sex.

    There are numerous cases of public organisations misinterpreting equalities legislation and protecting gender identity rather than sex, as the law requires. People with male bodies, including those who have committed sexual offences, are being allowed to self-identify as women and are being housed in women’s prisons.

    The Telegraph is right to approve of the Government’s reported plans to stop Stonewall’s “toxic politics” being spread throughout the public sector. It must be explained that this is not an illiberal act, and is not an attack on LGBT people’s legitimate rights.

    Many of us who were involved in campaigning against Section 28 legislation in the 1980s – which was widely seen as an attack on gay people – now urge MPs to look carefully at what the Government is doing, and not fall into the trap of thinking that this is a repeat of those times.

    We welcome the sensible approach Liz Truss has taken to stop the destruction of rights based on sex and same-sex.

    Tim Barnsley
    London SW16

    Casting the first stone

    SIR – While no one will condone the reported words of the England cricketer, Ollie Robinson, they were written nine years ago when he was still a teenager. He appears “ashamed and embarrassed”.

    Is there no possibility that someone could change? Are we all to be judged by our words and actions when we were much younger and more foolish? How many of those condemning him today have never committed an indiscretion?

    Forgiveness is a quality that occurs only in human beings. Let’s have an end to any witch hunt, accept his 
apology, and move on.

    Rev Alan Wright
    Barton upon Humber, Lincolnshire

    National Trust prices

    SIR – If “accessibility” is the aim of the National Trust’s leadership (Harry Mount, Features, May 27), perhaps the organisation should consider lowering its prices. Even a season ticket is not necessarily the answer for people on modest incomes.

    Felicity McWeeney
    Hartburn, Northumberland

    Boris’s bale risk

    SIR – Liam Moore (Letters, June 2) correctly points out that Boris Johnson’s wedding-party bales were much more likely to have been made of straw, rather than hay.

    However, hay bales can be equally supportive for heavier posteriors if, when baled, the density setting on the baler had been adjusted up.

    While hay bales tend to be more comfortable to sit on, there is a much greater risk of sitting on a thistle.

    John Major
    Monmouth

    Constable’s ‘Hay Wain’ was a different wagon

    SIR – Camilla Tominey’s report on Constable’s painting, known as The Hay Wain, muddies the water regarding his masterpiece.

    It was an invention to call the vehicle in Constable’s painting a hay wain. But it is not a cart either. Most people do not know the difference between a cart and a wagon. A cart has two wheels, while four wheels make a wagon.

    It is, in reality, a pole tug, designed and used to transport what remained of a tree after felling, when all the branches and foliage had been removed.

    What remained was the stock, which had to be taken to the foresters’ premises so that it could be sawn into planks – via a saw pit.

    Such vehicles would be soaked in a pond during summer months to make sure that the spokes remained tight.

    John Vince
    Prince’s Risborough, Buckinghamshire

    Assisted dying is a crude response to suffering

    SIR – It’s simply not true that people are denied control at the end of their lives under the current law (Letters, June 3).

    The law is framed to give clear rights to refuse unwanted intervention. Helping people do that has become a mainstream activity, not only in health and social care, but also in wider society. Nor is it true that people can’t be open about their wishes. All over the country, with the right support, the often complex and fluid preferences of people facing life-shortening illness are discussed freely with families and clinicians.

    If there were a case for changing the law to permit assisted suicide, it would not be built on the kind of misrepresentation that suggests people currently have to face death in impotent silence. There is ample knowledge about how to address the very real difficulty some people have in getting relief for their suffering. What’s needed is for society to act on that and to treat this problem as an urgent priority, not for us to dodge the issue by telling ourselves that a hastened death is the only fit response.

    The last attempt to change the law failed not because of the parliamentary timetable in 2015 but because the weight of evidence showed it was not the change required, and would not be safe. This remains the case. If we want to help people nearing death, we can do much better than the current Bill.

    Dr Idris Baker
    National Clinical Lead for Palliative and End of Life Care, Wales
    Swansea

    SIR – Those arguing for the legalisation of assisted suicide and/or euthanasia often suggest that it will lead to a fall in suicide rates. This is simply not true.

    As a 2015 peer-reviewed study, looking at the US state of Oregon, concluded: “Controlling for various socioeconomic factors, unobservable state and year effects, and state-specific linear trends, we found that legalising physician-assisted suicide was associated with a 6.3 per cent increase in total suicides (including assisted suicides).”

    Given the epidemic of suicides we have in the UK – around 6,000 per year – it would seem unwise to take action that might increase this number.

    Alex Jones
    London EC1

    1. “While tax relief is fully justified to encourage giving,…”. Nope!

    2. Sir John Oldham appears confused. There is no law on mask wearing, merely guidelines regarding face-coverings.

      1. This is why we’re up shit creek without a paddle…

        “Sir John Oldham is a GP by background and led large-scale change and improvement for the Department of Health and others. He is a non-executive director of the Care Quality Commission and an Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Global Health at Imperial College.8 Apr 2020

        Sir John Oldham | Contributor | Health Service Journal”

      2. Mng, agreed, his emotional virtue signal gripe seems to be younger people, un jabbed with “Indian variant”. Guess he was locked in his toilet in his bedsit

  11. England will discuss not taking the knee anymore after being booed by their own fans. 4 June 2021.

    Powar said the decision on whether to take the knee should remain with the players as Southgate intends. “It’s up to the players, if they are being booed at a place like Wembley, whether they continue to do it or not,” he said.

    Asked whether the idea that fans are booing the political relationship with BLM rather than the players themselves or anti-racism gestures, Powar said: “That argument is always a pretext. Players – or others – taking a knee are not joining an organisation, they are contributing towards a movement, a movement towards racial equality and racial justice. For most of us it it’s quite transparent and it’s not really an acceptable argument.”

    One wonders if he would have been so supportive of the England Team giving the Nazi Salute at the 1936 Berlin Olympics? They too were not joining an organisation, only showing support at the behest of their political masters!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/euro-2021/2021/06/03/gareth-southgate-england-fans-boo-taking-knee-have-missed-point/

  12. 333819 + up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    TRUE FACT,
    Friday 4 June: Only by ignoring the data could current restrictions be
    prolonged
    Agreed, put another way,
    Current political manipulating fictional facts,
    Friday 4 June: Only by manipulating the data could current restrictions be prolonged.
    Spot the supple ( as a clout from a club hammer) difference.

    Be warned of other incoming covert political sh!te, there is a buildup
    in place in regards to reset taking place.

    Political daily outlook thick falling chaff.

    The DOVER treacherous issue surely even tells the hard core tory
    ( ino) member / voters they are of NO consequence.

  14. Variants of concern:
    The N501Y (the South African) and K417N (the Nepalese} mutations.

    The VOCs of most concern at the at the moment are the more transmissible South African and the antibody busting Nepalese – a combination of which could wreck the amazing progress made in the UK to eradicate deaths involving COVID-19.

    If Labour find this out they will accuse the Tories of not shutting down foreign travel earlier.

    New Results
    The N501Y and K417N mutations in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 alter the interactions with both hACE2 and human derived antibody

    https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.23.424283v2

    https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210311/N501Y-mutation-in-SARS-CoV-2-responsible-for-increased-viral-transmission.aspx

      1. Mng Awk,

        Whilst BRICS seems to correlate with the emergence of deadly viruses it leaves the rest of us shitting them. 😕

        1. BRICs [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa] is certainly causing the Western Finance industry and Politicians to regularly change their underwear. It’s taken over most of the core node points in Africa, southern Europe and most of Asia. Nothing to do with virus merely trade deals where money’s put on the table whereas Western Govts want their own strings / immunity attached beforehand. And recipient countries following the money not the gum bumping creating heat and light

          3. You have a point and that could be the answer to avoiding foreign travel – zoom away on an e-holiday. Just plug in your usb uv sun lamp and you’!l get an e-tan in no time!

  15. Good morning, one and all, a brief stop before going for blood tests. Today’s funny:

    Some Very Poor Taste One-Liners…

    Such an unfair world. When a man talks dirty to a woman it’s considered sexual harassment. When a woman talks dirty to a man it’s £2.50/min (charges may vary).

    Got stopped in the street outside Boots today by a woman with a clipboard asking “What products do I use for grooming?” She was a bit taken aback when I replied, “Facebook”.

    Met a beautiful girl down at the park today. Sparks flew, she fell at my feet and we ended up having sex there and then. God, I love my new Taser!

    Got a new Jack Russell pup today, he’s mainly black and brown with just a small white area so I’ve called him Bradford.

    If you get an email telling you that you can catch Swine Flu from tins of ham then delete it. It’s Spam.

    They say that sex is the best form of exercise. Now correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think 2 minutes and 15 seconds every 3 months is going to shift this beer belly.

    When I was a kid people used to cover me in chocolate and cream and put a cherry on my head. Yeah, life was tough in the gateau.

  16. What an excellent week this is turning out to be for NoTTLers getting letters printed in this week’s DT. Yesterday my Auntie Elsie had one printed and today another occasional NoTTLer has had one published.

    Well done to those two. 👍🏻😉

      1. Good morning, Araminta. It was this one (reprinted by permission):

        SIR – Michael Heaton (Letters, June 1) says: “The Wuhan lab theory would make a plausible James Bond plot (which would be a first).”

        Clearly he has never watched On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in which the arch-villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld plans to release a pandemic on an unsuspecting world. Foiled, of course, by 007.

      2. Good morning, Minty. Don’t you know? My own contribution to Mankind was Elsie’s home-made marmalade and rhubarb crumble.

        1. Morning Elsie. I looked for it when Grizz mentioned it but couldn’t find it!

          1. Have you looked in the fridge? That’s where I keep my rhubarb crumble, and my opened jars of home-made marmalade.

    3. What a crawler you are, young Grizzly. I reckon you are just angling for another jar of my world-famous home-made marmalade, like what I gave recently to a Toots Thielemans fan. :-))

    1. What is never explained is after these continual giveaways what does Britain ever get in return?

      1. 333819 up ticks,
        Morning J,
        More demands from brussels via the tory (ino) eu asset party.

      2. Nothing comes of nothing as both Julie Andrews and Shakespeare’s King Lear observed. But I cannot believe that Boris Johnson ever did something good even in his youth or childhood.

        I cannot see that dark forces are at work which have led the Bonking Buffoon to a complete betrayal of his country’s best interests.

    2. What is it that has made Boris Johnson capitulate to the EU? Until,the last moment Britain was going to stick to its commitment to

      NO BORDER IN THE IRISH SEA
      and
      COMPLETE CONTROL OVER BRITISH FISHING WATERS

      and then, suddenly Johnson caved in completely.

      Why? Has he been blackmailed – and if so by whom?

      1. 333819+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        He is of them, the same ilk as his party is on behalf of the eu & treachery, he has pulled the plug out of the arse of Blighty
        and we are on our way to the bottom, if DOVER does NOT show that then nothing will.

      1. you get the gist:

        Graham Dixon – art critic, Legg [Dr] – Eastenders, Worral Thompson – chef, Lemar – warbler [sings apparently], Fergison – Eastenders
        Hayward – was businessman in China linked to politburo [killed], Moat – Murderer, Wilmott – actor, Slattery – “comedian”, Abraham – gay actor
        Levell – Coronation St, Mann – self explanatory, Quirke – Eastenders, Gaffney – Eastenders, Mutya – – [UN]Celebrity Big Brother, Gubby – Gay actor

        1. Nope – completely lost.

          AGD was a very good art historian and an excellent TV presenter till he became famous and started parodying himself. Didn’t WT go shop-lifting? The rest – no idea.

          Still can’t see why they are playing foopball (sic) (aka Wendyball).

          3. pt of deception gambit to cover G7 amd WEF Polygon Cyber webconference playing last year’s tournament over these events using “criminals past and present”. the names will appeal to the woke audience. I won’t be watching it, it’s the cricket season

    1. Kris Kristofferson earned a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where he studied at Merton College. While at Oxford, he was awarded a Blue for boxing, played rugby for his college, and began writing songs.

  21. By banning Tiananmen vigils in Hong Kong, China is trying to rewrite history. 4 June 2021.

    The Communist party is widening its attack on the legacy of 1989 – and criminalising a new generation of activists

    Beijing’s epistemological campaign will not be content with choking off public commemorations of 4 June. Following the pattern laid down three decades before, another target is the reframing of the 2019 Hong Kong protest movement as a violent insurgency driven by hostile foreign forces. So long as western countries continue to act like Hong Kong is not their problem, Beijing will be empowered not just to excise the past, but also to rewrite the history of the present.

    One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this exhibition of navel gazing. China i.e. the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is only interested in maintaining itself in power. Tianmen, and Hong Kong are examples of dissent from its rule and it thus seeks to invalidate them. Contrast this with the Euro-West whose entire History, Religion and People are being erased. Perhaps this acute myopia might be explained by Ms. Lim’s record of service with the BBC!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/04/banning-tiananmen-vigils-hong-kong-china-communist-party

    1. Jonathan Myles-Lea urged his readers recently to buy and treasure second hand history and reference books like the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, as they are currently being re-written.

        1. I bought a second-hand set of Encyclopedia Britannica at auction for a song many years ago. We also have the 22 volume set of the French equivalent, Larousse – again which we bought at auction for a very reasonable price and it is in our student house’s bookshelves at Le Grand Osier.

  23. From today’s DT Sports’ Letters:

    Jab refusal puts team-mates at risk

    Oliver Brown is right: Henry Slade should not be made a pariah for refusing the Covid jab (May 29). But who would want to tour with a man who put his own personal interests above the well-being of his team-mates, even of the Lions tour itself?

    Tony Jones, Knightsbridge, London

    How the hell do you work that out, you muppet? If the rest of his team mates have had the jab, this makes them immune to catching the virus! This is how an “immunisation” works. His presence on the tour wouldn’t affect his team mates in the least.

    Moreover, if Slade doesn’t have the jab it won’t make him less susceptible to be a carrier. I don’t know who is the most cretinous here: Jones for his clueless letter, or the gormless DT in publishing it!

  24. Stonewall urges employers to drop mother for ‘parent who has given birth’ to boost equality ranking. 4 June 2021.

    Stonewall has advised organisations to replace the term mother with “parent who has given birth” to help boost their ranking on an equality leaderboard, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The controversial charity has advised employers wishing to be included on their Workplace Equality Index that they must remove all gendered language, and allow those who self-identify as a woman to use female toilets and changing rooms.

    The Home Office, MI6, the British Army, the Department for International Trade, the Government Legal Department and the House of Commons all also appear in the top 100 on Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index.

    Colour me surprised!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/03/stonewall-advises-organisations-use-parent-has-given-birth-help/

    1. Stonewall is another of those organisations whose battle was won a long time ago but still flail around trying to find something to justify their existence , the real problem for me is ,until recently, the slavish and unquestioning following of their perverse ideology by Government and Business , Government ( local and national) have never been known for common sense but when business happily follows this deviant path then a fear we are in trouble.

    2. Cultural Marxism hasn’t just given us a set of moronic beliefs; along the way it’s destroyed Free Speech and Common Sense because these are inimical to its advance. You cannot be both Politically Correct and Sensible. They are mutually exclusive.

      1. I hope you don’t mind, Araminta, but I’ve just stolen your excellent comment (above) and I shall print it out and affix it to my workshop wall. I have a collection of anti-Pinko common sense on the walls for the education and enlightenment of any visiting Lefty.

        2. I have some wise words from Shakespeare pasted on the wall just above my computer screen which expresses sentiments with which I am sure you agree.

          But man, proud man,
          Dress’d in a little brief authority,
          Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d—
          His glassy essence—like an angry ape
          Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
          As makes the angels weep ….

          Of course the ignorance of man was duly demonstrated when a person of colour thought he was being described as a monkey by a ‘racist’ journalist. And if man’s stupidity needed even more confirmation Andrew Stewart, the journalist in question, suffered such opprobrium from the BBC that he resigned from his job.

        3. I have some wise words from Shakespeare pasted on the wall just above my computer screen which expresses sentiments with which I am sure you agree.

          But man, proud man,
          Dress’d in a little brief authority,
          Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d—
          His glassy essence—like an angry ape
          Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
          As makes the angels weep ….

          Of course the ignorance of man was duly demonstrated when a person of colour thought he was being described as a monkey by a ‘racist’ journalist. And if man’s stupidity needed even more confirmation Andrew Stewart, the journalist in question, suffered such opprobrium from the BBC that he resigned from his job.

    3. Stupidity was always around but the UK establishment did not see the advantage of letting stupid people & organizations dominate the agenda, but once cultural Marxism became well established in politics, academic institutions & completed their stranglehold over the media, then stupidity became the norm

      1. Happy Friday, Pud.

        The difference between then and now is this: stupidity was the norm; now it’s compulsory!

  26. Another leading expert, Dr Roger Hodkinson, speaking on a range of topics surrounding the CV-19 panic. His message to politicians “…stick to your knitting,” is clear. Calm and clear delivery of facts that even his College do not want him to disseminate.

    Dr Roger Hodkinson

  27. Another leading expert, Dr Roger Hodkinson, speaking on a range of topics surrounding the CV-19 panic. His message to politicians “…stick to your knitting,” is clear. Calm and clear delivery of facts that even his College do not want him to disseminate.

    Dr Roger Hodkinson

    1. 333819+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Doesn’t stop at the hotel bill, and while you are once again voting in the same overseers the illegals have moved on to regular welfare in many cases forever.

      1. One figure I saw was £10,000 a year per head. It’s not all bad. Chums of the government own the accommodation in which these immigrants will live for the rest of their lives. The rent allowance to the immigrant from the taxpayer is paid directly to the owner of the accommodation.
        The owner then pays off the mortgage, and has an income as well as modest increases in the capital value of the property. If the immigrant has the capacity to carry out simple work such as cleaning, he can work on low wages for the government’s chums employment agency in cleaning government offices, thus giving the chums even more money.
        This money can then be invested into holiday complexes in the Caribbean thus helping the economies of the islands.

    2. Add on legal aid, compensation for “illegal imprisonment” and that is before they get into the Benefits system.
      The French will not even consider a refund. These people are a vast cost to the taxpayer and a bonanza for the legal profession and our Government turns a blind eye to the illegality of the invasion.

      1. 333819+ up ticks,
        Morning Cs,
        I am finding it a tad difficult to get my head round “our government” I take it to mean this motley collection of treacherous political overseers, reminiscent of vultures picking over the UK corpse for offerings to brussels.

      2. Also reinforcements for the Anti-British forces in the current latent civil war.

    3. I don’t see why.

      President Macron stated a few months ago that France deports 30,000 illegal immigrants a year.

      Perhaps the British government could do the same?

      1. Good morning, Janet

        As you said in one of your posts: why don’t these migrants settle or seek shelter in Muslim lands?

        Indeed, with an established church surely Britain has every right to put Christian migrants at the top of the list – not for religious reasons but for more felicitous integration.

      2. 333819+up ticks,
        J,
        Surely the “deal” is inclusive of accepting the french deportation material, it is certainly shaping up as such in the hands of the turkish delight, amnesties R me, and his cast of supporters.

  29. I wonder if there will shortly be an unexplained “Cornish” variant – immediately after the world “leaders” bugger off home.

    They seem to be under the delusion that the plague cannot affect them.

    4. Leaves a bad taste in the mouth and you start looking oddly at your sister.

    6. What will happen if one of the Leaders develops symptoms and tests positive for the virus? Boris, having suffered near fatal Covid, could be a spreader of the virus if our medics are to be trusted. What if Boris infects sleepy Joe?

      2. Then at least he will have done something useful in his moserable, poxy life.

    7. Maybe it can’t? (Wearing a conspiracy theory hat with knobs on.)

  30. Good morning from a bright & mild Derbyshire. no rain and a comfortable 10°C on the thermometer.

    I see I upset Ann Arnold on the BTL Comments in the small hours!

    1. Good morning, Robert. I do hope you saw my post about Bonsall, yesterday.

      1. I missed it as the page locked up and I had to reload it, but just looked it up!
        Just responded:-

        Begun by the previous Landlord.
        There was a saying “Going to Ible for the hen races” a local variant of “mind your own business” and he brought the Ible Hen Races to Bonsall.

    2. Good for you Bob! She doesn’t half witter on! And most of it is drivel!

    3. Morning Bob. I found her argument a bit out of date with figures from the USA on the efficacy of various vaccines different from what we are being told in the UK.
      She never mentioned the T-cells which lie dormant until a virus appears and quickly develop latent immunity to attack the new virus.
      Her insults were unjust and unnecessary. Her common sense was lacking.

    4. I enjoyed that interchange – The entity known as Ann Arnold whoever he/she/they/it may be ,clearly has an impressive opinion of herself/hisself/their-self/itself

    4. Showing off now, but I’ve got top comment on that! Just sayin’… Morning all!
      38th wedding anniversary! What a day I’m having!

        1. Thanks Grizz! Child bride I was! (Can I still say that, even as a joke?)

          1. Trying to get back to normal, thank you for asking. Picked up her ashes yesterday. Just the ballache of probate to go through now exacerbated by our joint ownership of a croft – the Crofting Commission even after modernisation a few years ago is still in the 17th century

          2. So sorry about that Spikey. It must be so tough to sort everything out when you are mourning your darling wife. My dear friend lost her husband last September and things have only just become a bit clearer. he was only 68 and had organised his estate etc but still the wheels of the legal system grind exceeding slow. One amusing thing was the headstone which was granite,ordered from Aberdeen but inscribed in the Far East somewhere, which got stuck in the Suez Canal!
            Sorry to reply so late but my iPad is playing up and I’m using old mans laptop!

      6. Congratulations. Now let’s see one of your wedding snaps. Come on, I dare you!

      8. Fantastic! Congratulations! Hope the celebrations started early… ;-))

        1. Quarter past 5! Daughters dog is on her holidays here, and she started uffing then!
          Thanks for your good wishes!

    6. Which accent would that be? NEast, NWest, Cumbria, Duram, West Hartlepool, and all the Scottish versions?
      Patronising gits.

  32. Just been to check the greenhouse. Decidedly chilly outdoors – strong wind and rain in the offing. No shorts and T-shirt today.

  33. Good morning all.

    We are supposedly in the final weeks of the ‘war on Covid’ and we should be feeling de-mob happy. Instead, we seem to be in no better place than we were last year. A sense of confusion and fear reins, with new variants popping up (Nepalese variant anyone?) the R number on the rise and travel plans thrown into chaos again. When will this end?

    If Boris Johnson was any kind of a leader, he would state clearly that 21st June is ‘Freedom Day’ regardless of case numbers or new variants. We have invested over a year of our lives to defeat Covid, we did all we reasonably could to suppress the virus, and have one of the most successful vaccination programmes in the world. For the mental health of the nation and to give businesses the certainty they need to plan, all restrictions will end on 21st June – and he would also repeal the Coronavirus Act, to show he really meant it. Instead, it appears that he is simply waiting to be told what to do by the SAGE zero-Covid fanatics. He is no leader, he is unfit to be Prime Minister.

    1. A sense of confusion and fear reins, with new variants popping up (Nepalese variant anyone?)

      All going to plan Kuffar!

      1. 333819+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        I believe ALL the midsummers are under threat as shown by, knifed & died of covid.
        bludgeoned & died of covid, poisoned & died of covid.

    2. I wonder if Boris Johnson has any close friends who love, respect and admire him. He is contemptible in the way that Jonathan Ross is contemptible. One begins by being mildly amused by such people until one discovers they are sheer, unmitigated excrement through and through.

      2. I have been told he is doing a difficult job and is held in high regard, as demonstrated by polling figures and election results.
        My response was his opposition leaders has been Corbyn and Starmer. Pick any Nottler you want and they would look good against that pair!
        Johnson is full of bluster, waffle, lies and U turns, I despair so many think otherwise. There must be a Conservative in the country somewhere!

  35. I’ve had this dull, aching feeling of emptiness for the last couple of days and have been wondering what the cause of it was.

    I’ve just realised.

    I haven’t read anything about Harry and Me Again since last Friday!

    2. Just for you…

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk…

      HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

      It’s a little-known fact that long before Meghan Markle rose to the
      Presidency she had once been married to an obscure member of the British
      Royal Family. Prince Harry is the younger brother of King William V,
      and currently 27th in line to the throne, just behind Princess
      Charlotte’s daughter, Lady Cuddles, her child with the son of Lord
      Sheeran of Framlingham.

      This fun fact might be worth mentioning in your exam essay: it will
      demonstrate to the examiner that you have a wide grasp of even the most
      obscure details.

      :@)

    4. There is something I the DM about her today. No idea what, I scanned past mighty quickly.

  36. Good morning, my friends

    I am still furious that a young man of 27 can be sacked because of something he tweeted when he was in his teens. I am reposting this from late last night:

    This chap, Ollie Robinson, was born on December 1st 1993 two days before our older son Christo was born.

    DT Story: Ollie Robinson to be dropped by England for second Test in wake of racist tweets bombshell
    Bowler ended day two with 4-75, but the ECB is understood to be determined to make an example of him as it tries to root out discrimination

    Ollie’s first two days in the England cricket XI were very successful and he was England’s top wicket taker. He is now 27 years old as is Christo who is a design engineer working for an international aviation company.

    Apparently in 2012 when he was 18 Ollie made an ‘offensive racist’ tweet which some zealous nerd has obviously done some muck raking to find so, nine years after his tweet as a teenager, the ECB has decided to drop him.

    I wonder what I said when I was 18? When Christo was 16 he ran as the UKIP candidate in the Gresham’s School mock general election in 2010 – will this be held against him? This was the election when the odious Cameron needed the support of the fornicator Clegg, who boasted about having bedded 30 women, to form a government. Clegg is now paid £500,000 and Cameron is steeped in mire but they will probably escape punishment.

    I have already stopped supporting England’s rugby XV because of its kneeling to honour a violent black American criminal. I shall now no longer take any interest in England’s cricket team either.

    1. Good morning, Rastus.

      I understand your concerns but the presence of a cartel of ‘woke’ administrators will not prevent me from continuing to enjoy watching the sports that I love.

        1. Indeed they do, but to stop watching the sports I’ve always enjoyed will only be a case of self-flagellation.

          1. Yes, but if certain players are not in the side for political reasons then you are not watching the proper England teams.

          2. That’s always been the case. Selection anomalies have always been with us. There was a time when the best were not selected. The MCC used to prefer ‘chaps’ with public school accreditation over ‘blokes’ from down the pit who could play cricket much better.

            The FA chose clueless managers who would eschew the obvious excellent talents of players like Tony Currie, Rodney Marsh, Alan Hudson, Stan Bowles, Frank Worthington, Matt le Tissier (among others) who were deemed to be ‘mavericks’ and not team players. Bland footballers who toed the line (such as Trevor Brooking) were preferred leading to England not qualifying for the World Cup between 1970 and 1982.

            Despite all that I continue to watch those sports and I will not allow political meddling to deprive me of my enjoyment.

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

    Free speech victories

    We’ve achieved another victory this week. Dr Neil Thin was suspended from teaching and placed under investigation by the University of Edinburgh after students labelled him “problematic” because he objected to the renaming of the David Hume tower. He was abused online and subjected to a gruelling, eight-week investigation. We’ve supported him throughout and he has now been cleared and will face no further action. But as we’ve seen so many times, the process is the punishment. Following his exoneration, Dr Thin says he wants to promote “a campus climate that fosters core academic values such as considerate debate, curiosity, intellectual honesty [and] freedom of expression”.

    Since our founding last year, the FSU has won some dramatic victories, writes Dan Hitchens in the Critic. “Britain’s free speech advocates have faced a frustrating puzzle. They seem to have the public on their side… The government, too, seems sympathetic… yet, on the ground – in workplaces, in universities, even in how people relate to their neighbours – there’s never been more fear of expressing an honest opinion.” But with the help of our members, we’re starting to turn the tide.

    Readers will know of our intervention last week over Cambridge University’s “microaggression” reporting website. In response to this latest episode, Dr Alan Hearne has written to the Times with what sounds like a good suggestion: “Across the country many universities, led by Vice-Chancellors with more academic than management experience, are veering away from sensible policies concerning free speech and debate, often under pressure from loud minorities. Perhaps it is time for the Chancellors of these universities to help steer their academic colleagues on to a path that is more acceptable to society at large.”

    Stonewall crumbling after stifling gender critical dissenters

    Stonewall has been in the news constantly since the report commissioned by Essex University exposed its misleading guidance on free speech – which was used to no-platform feminists concerned about the erosion of sex-based rights. The LGBT campaigning organisation is being sued by Allison Bailey, a lesbian lawyer, who alleges that Stonewall tried to stifle her opposition to its stance on transgender rights. Stonewall is backing a legal attempt to remove the LGB Alliance’s charitable status, the gender critical group Bailey co-founded. An effort that Debbie Hayton in the Spectator says should be laughed out of court.

    Equalities Minister Liz Truss is urging Government departments to pull out of Stonewall’s “champions” scheme, whereby they have to pay the charity to audit their diversity, equity and inclusion policies, and calls are mounting in the legal profession for law firms and chambers to withdraw from the scheme on the grounds that it is stifling free expression. The Telegraph says the organisation has lost touch with reality, as more and more people who dissent from Stonewall’s increasingly whacky agenda are smeared and abused. In a recent interview, the CEO of Stonewall compared gender critical beliefs to anti-Semitism!

    One of its founder members, Simon Fanshawe, has been cancelled by the organisation for disagreeing with its stance on trans issues. “How bitterly ironic that the only freedom Stonewall won’t embrace is the freedom to disagree,” he wrote in the Mail.

    Labour MP Dawn Butler launched a poll on Twitter asking her followers who they trusted more, Stonewall or Liz Truss? The Equalities Minister won 69.5%. It isn’t our business what Stonewall wants to campaign for, but it should not try to promote its agenda by stifling dissent, shaming its opponents and handing out inaccurate legal guidance, all of which threatens free speech.

    Ollie Robinson attacked for tweets he sent as a teenager

    Cricketer Ollie Robinson was forced to apologise after his test match debut for tweets posted almost a decade ago, when he was 18. Nobody’s career should be destroyed for things they said as teenagers, no matter how foolish they might be. We will be monitoring the situation – especially if Robinson faces further sanctions. In the meantime, we would advise all our members with Twitter accounts to install ‘Tweet Delete’, an app that deletes any tweets more than a week old.

    King’s College London apologises for sending “harmful” photo of Prince Philip to staff

    King’s College London issued an apology after a staff member sent colleagues a 2002 photograph of Prince Philip opening a university library with the Queen. KCL, of which the Prince had been a governor since 1955, said, “Through feedback and subsequent conversations, we have come to realise the harm that this caused members of our community, because of his history of racist and sexist comments. We are sorry to have caused this harm.” This apology has been widely ridiculed.

    Wuhan lab leak theory

    Writing in the Telegraph, Sherelle Jacobs takes on the huge pressure not to challenge “the Science” that meant the lab leak theory about the origins of Covid-19 was effectively suppressed until a few weeks ago. “The West has found no definitive antidote against everyday impulses of conformism, snobbery and intellectual laziness,” she writes.

    Freddie Sayers in UnHerd says that Facebook’s crackdown on “misinformation” about the lab leak hypothesis – a theory now regarded as quite plausible – shows how powerful Big Tech has become.

    FSU writes to Met Police over arrest of evangelical preacher

    The Free Speech Union has written to Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, following the recent arrest of the evangelical Christian preacher Hatun Tash in Hyde Park. Ms Tash often criticises Islamic doctrine and the Koran, and large groups of protestors, mostly Muslim men, often try to prevent her from speaking. On several occasions the police have responded to this by forcibly removing Ms Tash from Hyde Park, even though she is not the aggressor in these situations. In her latest arrest, property was taken from her by the police and not returned, even though she was released without charge. We’ve asked the police to urgently commit to protecting Tash’s right to free speech, and to provide training for officers so that they understand the right to free expression.

    Does the culture war even exist? (Yes)

    Our Director Douglas Murray rejects the idea that the culture war is a right-wing fantasy, a claim we frequently hear. Gareth Roberts, also writing in UnHerd, says that far from the culture war being an invention of the Conservative Party, it has taken years “to drag the hopelessly naive and unaware Tories, kicking and screaming” into debates about gender ideology and critical race theory.

    Jonathan Ross has spoken out against cancel culture. During an appearance on Loose Women, he said, “You see people being stopped from speaking at universities because they are expressing things that students don’t want to hear… or there’s this new thing called ‘safetyism’, when people are saying, ‘I don’t feel safe at work in this environment because people hold different opinions to me.’ I think that’s dangerous and I think that’s wrong, and that’s an area I would kind of push back on.” His comments were endorsed by Spiked.

    Elsewhere, Charles Bremner interviewed Sonia Mabrouk, the combative opponent of woke politics in France, for the Times.

    Financial censorship

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation has reported on the phenomenon of financial cancelling, where banks or other financial institutions abruptly close accounts of lobby groups and campaign organisations because they disapprove of their politics: “When a handful of online payment services can dictate who has access to financial services, they can also determine which people and which services get to exist in our increasingly digital world. While tech giants like Google and Facebook have come under fire for their content moderation practices and wrongfully banning accounts, financial services haven’t gotten the same level of scrutiny.”

    Event: The Online Safety Bill’s Threat to Free Speech

    Date and time: Wednesday 16 June 2021, 7-8.30pm on Zoom.

    Join us for the FSU’s first Online In-Depth, an opportunity to ask the experts, get up to speed on a free speech issue and share your views with fellow FSU members. Our experts for the evening are the FSU’s Director of Research Dr Radomir Tylecote and Matthew Lesh, Head of Research at the Adam Smith Institute. Rado and Matthew are co-authors of the FSU’s briefing “You’re On Mute: The Online Safety Bill and what the Government should do instead”, a critical assessment of the Government’s Online Safety Bill. Will the Bill make the UK “the safest place in the world to go online” or will it restrict online free speech to a degree almost unprecedented in any democracy? The evening will be hosted by Claire Fox, Director of the Academy of Ideas and a member of the FSU’s Advisory Council.

    You can register here for this members’ only event.

    Event: The Great American Race Game

    The UK premiere of Martin Durkin’s provocative documentary film on the politics of race in America will be held on 1 July and followed by an interview with the director, with an opportunity for audience members to ask questions. Tickets can be obtained here.

    Date and time: Thursday 1 July 2021, 7-10:30pm

    Sharing the Newsletter

    We’ve received several requests to make it possible to share these newsletters on social media, so we’ve added the option to post them on a few different platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. Just click on the buttons below.

    If someone has shared this newsletter with you and you’d like to join the FSU, you can find our website here.

    Remember, all of our work depends on our members, we receive no public money: sign-up today or encourage a friend to join and help us turn the tide against the censors.

    Best wishes,

    1. Can we borrow your free speech team over here please.

      Trudeau and co are pushing a bill through parliament that pretty much amounts to censorship of internet content.

      An amendment that would exclude personal Facebook postings from the control was defeated by an unholy alliance of liberals and Quebec separatists.

  38. The law on mask-wearing should be enforced; health and social-care
    workers should be told no jab, no job. The cost for us all at this
    juncture is just too great.

    Sir John Oldham

    Glossop, Derbyshire
    an MRD moment

    Well I never

    Posts by Sir John Oldham

    Adj Professor Institute of Global Health Imperial College.https://www.england.nhs.uk/author/sir-john-oldham/

    2. Now they know the High Court is on their side they will come even more. The govt approved invasion is now blatantly ON. Patel and Dan have done absolutely NOTHING except wave in dangerous people of a culture that hates us – and are going to be nothing but a massive financial burden. Why work when criminality gets you housed, health care, translators, kids schooling, money etc etc.

    3. We could act against the muslims here. An eye for an eye? Lex talionis is accepted by the q’ran and sharia law. So what’s holding us back?

  41. A man from the land with no snakes speaks with forked tongue.

    The UK chose this Brexit. Now, we must make it work

    The British Government can’t address challenges faced by Northern Ireland through unilateral action

    SIMON COVENEY, Ireland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence

    June 2021 is a moment of hope and reflection. We have learnt much in the pandemic about our collective resilience, sense of common values and interdependence. We take pride in how frontline workers in Ireland, the UK and across the world sacrificed so much to protect the most vulnerable.

    The contribution of the Irish in Britain to the NHS’s response and of Britons in Ireland were powerful reminders of our deep interconnectedness. We are at our best when we work in partnership towards a common goal.

    It is in this spirit of partnership that we need to restore and revitalise the EU-UK relationship. The years of Brexit negotiations and campaigning are over. Now is the moment for real political leadership to make the most of the agreement struck by the UK. That deal provides for a partnership with the EU that supports citizens and businesses, now emerging from the pandemic.

    However, for it to work, the relationship requires both sides to make wise decisions and responsible choices.

    Since 2016, the UK has made choices: the UK chose to leave the EU; it chose the type of Brexit it wanted; it chose the Northern Ireland Protocol; and it regrettably chose unilateral action in breach of its legal obligations. At each turn, the EU has sought to respond with real-world solutions that respect the UK’s choices.

    Neither Ireland nor the EU wanted or sought trade barriers. The UK Government chose that path. The checks and controls on British goods entering the Single Market are the result of that choice, with inevitable costs for businesses and consumers.

    This outcome was understood by the UK Government during the negotiations and in the last UK general election, when the type of Brexit pursued was central to the Conservative election platform. The UK Government made clear-eyed, legally binding commitments in the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland.

    The Protocol is a creative joint UK-EU solution to the many serious challenges raised by Brexit on the island of Ireland. It took more than four years of negotiation and exploring of all other options. Ultimately, the UK and the EU found and agreed solutions to the challenges together.

    The Protocol protects the Good Friday Agreement – it explicitly respects the principle of consent on the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. The Protocol also gives Northern Ireland unique access to both the UK and EU internal market.

    The UK’s choice of a “hard” Brexit created many challenges, not least for the people of Northern Ireland, who voted 56 per cent to 44 per cent to Remain in the Brexit referendum. As the creation of the Protocol was a joint effort, so must its implementation be. The UK must show commitment to delivery and work alongside the EU. However, we must also recognise that the UK’s decision to prioritise regulatory sovereignty over seamless access for its traders and exporters to the EU Single Market has consequences for Northern Ireland.

    The current challenges ultimately cannot be addressed by the UK acting unilaterally to override provisions of the Protocol – that would only mean further instability, doubt and rancour. The lesson, hard-learned in the years leading to the peace process, was that sustainable results are achieved only when the key players work together.

    There have been mistakes made by both sides, like the widespread concern caused when the European Commission fleetingly considered using Article 16 of the Protocol. The EU heard those concerns and immediately reversed course within hours. In contrast, reciprocal concerns regarding the UK Government’s ongoing disregard of its legal obligations, under an agreement it negotiated and Parliament ratified, have gone unheeded.

    Unilateral actions only damage trust and make effective cooperation much more difficult – not just between the UK and the EU, but also within Northern Ireland. Its interests and the peace process are best protected by partnership and agreed solutions. They are urgently required now.

    So how do we move on? The EU is designing proposals that will meet many of the issues of genuine concern to Northern Irish traders. For instance, an SPS/veterinary agreement could remove up to 80 per cent of checks on agri-food goods in Northern Ireland’s ports.

    This idea has widespread support across Northern Ireland – business, farming, political, and community leaders have told me directly that they support it. I hope the UK Government will listen to their voices and seriously engage with this solution.

    My UK counterparts have stressed that they want the arrangements for Northern Ireland to be as light as possible – here is a simple, concrete and positive choice the UK could make to achieve that aim. The EU side is open to making it work.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/03/uk-chose-brexit-now-must-make-work/

    1. The Blarney stone must have dropped on his head.

      As far as I am aware at no point has the EU acted except to try to do down Britain at every opportunity, with maximum connivance of the South.

    2. The EU side is open to making it work.

      The EU like its predecessors, the Napoleonic Empire, Wilhelmine Germany and the Third Reich are enemies of the UK!

      1. For the EU the ONLY way for it to work is for us to surrender total control to them.

    3. What a snivelling, lying dog! He and the Hindoo did their best as catspaws of the EU to wreck Brexit entirely, and they pretty nearly did.
      Well, we have bought nothing from Ireland for a couple of years now. And we won’t. Oh, and our Tour of Ireland is cancelled!

      1. Talking of snakes, I saw an adder while walking the dog first thing, and then he found a grass snake in the side garden when we got home.

    1. Thank you. I miss the cemetery in Laure where a dozen of my friends are buried.

      1. French cemeteries are well worth a visit, they give an insight into the importance of family and show how many generations have been fixtures in their communities. Whenever we attend village functions people are very keen to know exactly where one lives and take a delight in telling you of their own antecedents in the commune. In our experience they are kept much tidier than their British equivalents. Unfortunately the Health and Safety virus appears to have infected even this aspect of death after life.

          1. I didn’t realise that.
            The families certainly also do a bit, I’m often surprised by just how well kept individual plots/tombs are. What is odd to me is the number of high quality pictures and bits of marble there are, it’s not surprising stuff gets pinched.

          2. One of our dearest friends – now in there herself – visited her husband’s grave every day. There were always fresh flowers and it was immaculate.

            The Mairie has the job of cutting grass (if any), weeding, cutting hedges and general upkeep of the cemetery. Families tend their own tombs.

      1. Completely out of off-topics, will you be ok with an off-Mars/Snickers bar instead?

  43. BLM ramifications . . . .

    Gareth Southgate says he will hold a meeting with the England players to ask whether they want to continue taking the knee before matches after the gesture was met with loud boos before their Euro 2020 warm-up game against Austria.
    Southgate will leave it to the players to decide whether they want to continue, or adopt an alternative gesture –

    How about a raised arm and clenched fist in a black leather glove . . .??

    1. Or they could show how much they respect their supporters; by dropping their shorts and mooning at them.

      1. I have visited that stadium. It was quite eerie. The pool was still in use surprisingly.

        1. I have vague memories of driving along a main road that now passes through it.
          Or possibly it was one the 1936 Olympic sites.

    1. The big question which nobody has answered is:

      WHY DID BORIS JOHNSON CAPITULATE WHEN HE HAD PROMISED THERE WOULD BE NO BORDER IN THE IRISH SEA?

      Why?
      Why?
      Why?

      And I very much doubt if he has the integrity or the testicular strength to admit it was a great cock-up and scrap the deal altogether.

      1. 333819+ up ticks,
        R,
        He & his entire mob are part & parcel of the eu, they are eu assets, repeating myself again & again they thought ALL their EIDS had come at once when, regarding the referendum result they heard the cry of fools, we won, leave it to the (ino) tories

    2. The big question which nobody has answered is:

      WHY DID BORIS JOHNSON CAPITULATE WHEN HE HAD PROMISED THERE WOULD BE NO BORDER IN THE IRISH SEA?

      Why?
      Why?
      Why?

      And I very much doubt if he has the integrity or the testicular strength to admit it was a great cock-up and scrap the deal altogether.

    1. Fear and control, it is all about fear and control.
      It will continue until the people realise that – simples.

      1. “Why don’t you want a jab?” – “What is this? – the Covid Inquisition”?

    1. Still Just morning all, whether it’s the intention of families or individuals to go away on holiday or not, i think 99.9% of the UK population is fed up to the eyeballs with this government and all the other idiots we have to pay billions each year to accept their constant mishandling and poor judgement.

        1. After a our eldest his wife and two young children’s’ long none stop 6 hour and difficult journey a week ago from his Hertfordshire home to Salcombe. Instead of leaving the vacation apartment at the 10 am departure time he decided to leave at 7 pm last night nothing really lost. Back in 4 hours with a refueling stop. Straight through. The problem is Sos as you might well know from past experience the roads in this country are not very good for, well actually driving on to get somewhere.
          We had planned to go to Oz via Singapore again this year, but that’s now a back burner job of course.

  47. Professor Branestorm strikes again:

    “‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson warns Indian variant is between 30% and 100% more infectious and twice as likely to cause hospitalisation in the unvaccinated compared to Kent strain as battle continues over June 21 Freedom Day”

    Millions dead by Midsummer’s Day.

  48. A teacher asked his students to share what their dads do for a living;
    Little Johnny said,
    My dad’s a stripper at a gay bar.
    After class, teacher pulled him aside and said, is your dad really a stripper at a gay bar?
    No, he’s a reporter for BBC but I was too ashamed to say that.

      1. It was being pulled by a donkey but they ambushed the driver crossing the bridge & stole the most intelligent member of the delivery team!

    1. More from the DM
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9651823/Release-medical-records-bat-cave-patients-Fauci-urges-China-FT.html

      Now flip-flopping Fauci wants answers from China:
      Embattled doctor urges Beijing to release records of six miners and
      three Wuhan lab workers who got sick from a bat cave BEFORE the pandemic
      Six miners fell ill in 2012 after visiting the bat cave in the Yunnan cave
      Three researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology also got sick in 2019
      All of them suffered symptoms similar to COVID before the outbreak unfolded
      Fauci believes the records could provide insights into the origins of the virus
      ‘It
      is entirely conceivable that the origins of Sars-Cov-2 was in that cave
      and either started spreading naturally or went through the lab,’ he
      said
      Follows the release of thousands of his emails at the start of the pandemic

    2. thanks for posting that, Johnny. It is meant to rain here from 2 pm until the middle of the night, so I may just watch it (again, I think) this afternoon.

    1. She must follow NoTTL – We have been saying that it was biological warfare since March 2020.

  54. BTL:

    Independent • an hour ago
    The late Dom Gregory Dix , an Anglican Monk from Nashdom, asked “why should we trust our fathers- in -God when the sign of a bishop is a crook and that of an archbishop is a double cross”? However Dix would not have regarded the lady as a bishop or even a priest.

    Steerpike
    Anglican bishop: ‘Never trust a Tory’
    3 June 2021, 7:10am

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt87eed21590acd40d/60b87aa64d715a25225832fe/GettyImages-632274144.jpg?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=crop

    It would almost be funny if it wasn’t so mind-numbingly tedious. The Bishop of St Davids, the Right Reverend Dr Joanna Penberthy, has discovered Twitter. And we’ve discovered just what goes on inside the mind of a mid-ranking Anglican bore. It is, apparently, a rather angry place — not the quiet reflective serenity one might expect from a woman of God.

    The bishop is a #FBPE Remainer headbanger who wants to #GTTO (get the Tories out). She is keen to let everyone knows that she ‘will forever remain a Welsh European’ and has been happily sharing nationalist propaganda — including comments by the SNP Covid adviser Devi Sridhar, erroneously claiming that the United Kingdom has held back Scotland’s Covid response (vaccines, anyone?). Included too are claims by the bishop that we are ‘in the foothills of fascism’ and tweets from other very angry Remainer types asking ‘who the fuck’ paid for Boris Johnson’s wedding.

    The bishop is not averse to giving counsel to her 3,000 followers either, delivering not just spiritual guidance but political guidance too. Penberthy, in reaction to the false claim that the Conservatives were planning to abolish the Senedd, tweeted:

    Never never never trust a Tory https://t.co/RYwwoxo236

    — 🖤🕷🌹🌟Joanna Penberthy WeAreRemain#GTTO#FBPE (@jo_penberthy) March 25, 2021

    One must wonder what her parishioners in South Wales make of all of this. The bristling bishop seems keen to assert that these are somehow ‘personal views’ — as if a senior member of the Anglican clergy in Wales can simply say whatever they like provided they’re not wearing a mitre. If the views are personal, why are they being broadcast into the public sphere?

    The bishop has now put out a predictably limp non-apology for the above tweet. Meanwhile, the poor people of South Wales are stuck with frothing political hackery in the place of spiritual enrichment.

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

    Anglomicronesian • a day ago
    And, thus, another senior clergyman illustrates why the CofE is now an irrelevance.

    Note to the bishop: those more inclined to attend church are not the leftie liberals who support the same causes as you. They tend to be the more traditional members of society who are likely to have voted Tory and for Brexit. Like the Labour party, the Democrats, etc., you no longer understand who you represent.

    %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

    Breitbart

    Woman Bishop Deletes Account She Used to Abuse Conservatives, Brexit Supporters

    1. They just churn them out, don’t they? A never-ending stream of totally useless, un-self aware, boring, brainless morons, who have less to do with Christianity than I do to the Scottish Natsie Party!

    3. Good evening, Sir!
      A question. Do you, or anyone else for that matter, recall a report or comments made on the 10th anniversary of the ordination of women that the bulk of the feminists who’d become communicants of the CofE in order to force the measure through, had, 10 years later, fallen by the wayside?

    4. “She is keen to let everyone knows that she ‘will forever remain a Welsh European'”. Of course she’ll remain European; I’d like to see her turn into a Welsh African.

    1. There are a lot of those clips around TB and most if not all of them have probably been set up.

  56. Not sure if it’s been mentioned today but last night on the BBC news they made a huge issue about the Chinese and their alleged persecution of certain sections of their northern provincial populations, i.e. the muslims. The BBC even somehow managed to interview two people from one of the areas who had traveled all the way to London to state their case. How these people were brought to the UK and by whom was not referred to or mentioned. It might have of course detracted from the ‘impact’ the BBC were trying to make. Which reality didn’t quite come across as they might have intended, rather a limp effort and a damp squib.
    What ever it was that the BBC were trying to ‘Pull’ was not apparent. My initial and more lasting response was “who gives one”! They bring on much of deserved criticisms from their own attitude of excessive self importance.
    As we are all ready aware from many world wide experiences every where they go and every where they are, they cause a s much trouble as possible………and that’s just the BBC. 😉
    As is quite often the case of the BBC, it seemed they possibly just trying to pull the other one.

    1. I saw that too – and wondered WHY is it always “come to England and protest”?

      1. That’s exactly what my good lady said. “Why are they here”?
        I think it’s part of the media intervention process in trying to gain more sympathy for the actions of the people who are already here and those in the army camps, I would estimate that the vast majority of them are muslim men under 35 years of age, or the easily convertible. More and more trouble brewing.

        1. They tried doing that with the Rohingas – but they are still in their camps and the news circus has moved on. We haven’t even seen reports of the brutal crackdown by the military in Myanmar for the last couple of weeks. Maybe because the protesters were actual Burmese people.

    2. The Yuigers and the Tibetans both have their own homelands – but the Chinese won’t let them just be who they are – they can’t stand any other race except Chinese. Yet, apart from the Beeb making the point that this particular group is oppressed – why don’t they ever criticise China for being racist? Only whitey can be racist, it seems.

      1. I don’t think It’s about race Ellie, that’s only our media interpretation for something they have no other means of definition, unless the mention the M or I word. And they avoid it like the plague it’s self. Which is of course part of the problem.
        I can only revert back to the best PM this country never had, Enoch Powel. It seems now (but far too late) he was absolutely correct about all his assessments of the the then Future.

  57. Us and Them – Football fans come back from Portugal – -QUARANTINE !!! – Gove comes back from same game – -NO isolation for him – -just take a Daily Test Mr Gove !!!!!

    1. 333819+ up ticks,
      Afternoon W,
      They are immune like Supermen, their only weak spot
      is if ever the electorate start to think before kissing X the arse of the three monkeys in the polling booth and continuing to abuse the Country with their vote, would see them the politico’s brought down.

  58. 333819+up ticks,
    Thin end of the steak & two veg,

    UK’s medicines regulator approves Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12-15 year olds.

  59. Dr Vernon Coleman, this should raise the hackles, personally I think he nailed it.

    What he might have also said is, why are so many GPs hiding behind closed doors If they think the vaccine is so successful ?
    Or if it is a viable option and they have had the jab, why are still hiding ?
    It certainly seems to have stuff up my life at the moment.

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/fzR9e8JPnbMS/

    1. He does make a salient point that vaccinators should not puncture a blood vessel because the vaccine is not then absorbed into the muscle as intended. Delivery directly into the bloodstream can have undesired side effects but Dr Coleman does not mention that COVID-19 vaccines enable the body to recognise the ACE-2 receptors which are expresed in the heart as well as a number of other organs.

      This research confirms what other studies have found, that the N501Y mutation is what permits the variant to be more transmissible, by allowing the virus to more readily bind to human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors. ACE2 is an enzyme present on the membranes of the human heart, kidney and lung cells, and if compromised, can increase a virus’ host range, transmission, and pathogenesis.

      https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210311/N501Y-mutation-in-SARS-CoV-2-responsible-for-increased-viral-transmission.aspx

      Dr Coleman needs to keep up to date with the latest epidemological research rather than the confusing, incomplete and often misleading published statistics.

      1. I’m not a medical person but Perhaps it might be a good idea if you contact him Angie, i’m sure he will appreciate it.

  61. Well that should get attention from China. The boys have just imposed a 295.5% anti dumping duty on furniture imported from China. Not that it matters, all furniture stores are closed under their oppressive covid orders.

    1. Don’t worry the Chinese have a cunning plan to get round the anti dumping duty on furniture, all the container crates will be marked : Chopsticks for Wun Hung Low’s chain of Chinese restaurants & pet supplies.

  62. Russian tennis player Yana Sizikova is ARRESTED at the French Open over match-fixing claims after hundreds of thousands of euros were bet on her losing her service game in doubles… before she fired in two double-faults and missed another shot. 4 June 2021.

    An investigation was launched after bookmakers identified irregular betting activity around the doubles match. It was claimed that hundreds of thousands of euros were bet on Sizikova losing her service game

    The Russian – who lost the match with her partner on September 30 – hit two double-faults while she also failed to reach the ball after being forced back to the baseline, as the fifth game of the second set went the way of Mitu and Mari.

    There I was behind the counter at Betfred and Sergei came in and said to me; “Minty babushka can I lay a bet?

    So I say; “Of course you can you great Russian Bear you! And can you tell your people not to sharpen their knives on the counter Sergei? It’s real marble.”

    “Good. I like put a hundred thousand Euros on Sizikova hitting two double faults in the fifth game of the second set. OK?”

    “Of course it’s OK my Siberian Wolverine. People lay bets like that all the time! Why we had one in 1993!”

    “Good. We want our money back if it not happen!”

    “Of course Sergei. We do that all the time!”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-9652063/Russian-tennis-player-Yana-Sizikova-ARRESTED-French-Open-match-fixing-claims.html

  65. A few examples of phrases you might not know were invented by Shakespeare:

    In stitches (Twelfth Night)
    In the twinkling of an eye (The Merchant Of Venice)
    Mum’s the word (Henry VI, Part 2)
    Neither here nor there (Othello)
    Send him packing (Henry IV)
    Set your teeth on edge (Henry IV)
    There’s method in my madness (Hamlet)
    An anal sphincter of lies (Ye Tales from the Bbc Part 4)

    https://th.bing.com/th/id/OIP.rca3xzQrlZH3Bfj2mBK3aQHaE6?pid=ImgDet&rs=1

  66. Work on the first core section of a controversial underwater energy pipeline linking Siberia’s gas fields to Western Europe has already been completed, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday in a surprise announcement.
    Speaking at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, Putin said “I am pleased to say that today, just two-and-a-half-hours ago, we have completed laying the pipes for the first section of Nord Stream 2, and works are advancing on the second segment.”

    “The gas pipeline, including the segment under the sea, has already been completed,” the president added. “There are two sections, from the German side and the Russian side – they have to be welded – and then it will be finished.”

    The base station, he revealed, is “ready” to pump gas into Nord Stream 2 and begin supplying consumers in compliance with tough environmental standards. “We are willing to further implement high-tech projects like this with our European partners and partners elsewhere,” Putin declared.

  67. My home phone rang a short while ago ( rare event ! ) and I picked up, only to get no voice but crackling sounds. Then an Asian male with VERY bad English spoke in whatever language, Then used my name and I realised this was not another go to get me to have the jab. I put the phone down and once back on here entered the number that had called for it to be searched for. All I got was “Cannot connect to broadband” – yet the icon on the bar said I still was. Shut the comp down and left it for a bit, then restarted it. All ok – so – another scammer trying it on.
    I assume if it was a genuine call about something they would have rung again. They haven’t. The reception quality, though showing the call had a Southern UK number was ****ing awful. Just checked on my Mc Afee anti-virus and they registered it. Seemingly treated and sorted now.

  70. Today is the first time in 16 months I walked into a pub and had a couple of beers.
    Somehow the world has taken on a rosy hue, I wonder why? 😉

  71. It has been an interesting week in the Scottish Borders. On Tuesday we saw a Hercules flying low by the River Tweed. Yesterday we saw two Typhoons flying overhead at about 300 feet. There was nothing then a noise like paper being ripped very loudly and then they were overhead and gone. Very beautiful planes, and scary. We are a practice area. Sometimes these exercises are prelude to a real action somewhere else three days later.

    1. Moscow…i’ll bet its Moscow.
      Or maybe an African country with no defenses.

      1. Have they brought that out of mothballs to augment our air force capability?

    1. I think that the Gods are crying at the sheer woke stupidity of the ECB with tears of rain for punishing an 18 year old for having the wrong opinions 9 years after he had the gall to express them.

  73. ‘The day I started drinking vodka in the morning, I realised I had a serious problem’. 4 June 2021.

    Just over a year ago, on May 25, 2020, I found myself pouring a glass of vodka at 10.30am. It was a line I never imagined I would cross. Drinking was something to do at night, I thought, in the sweaty heat of a pub or bar, or on your living room sofa, in front of the television after a long day of work.

    But just an hour or so after waking up, there I was, in my kitchen, sipping vodka from a glass. The taste felt immediately wrong. I realised I had a serious problem.

    You certainly did! It should have been Scotch at that time in the morning!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/day-started-drinking-vodka-morning-realised-had-serious-problem/

  75. Watch and learn America.You don’t need sanctions…you need mice !

    The 210-kilometre Baltic Pipe, estimated at a cost of up to $2.6 billion, was to link Danish and Polish gas consumers with Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea.

    The Danish Environment and Food Complaints Board has rejected the previously issued environmental permit to the Baltic Pipe project.

    The 210-kilometre pipeline, previously green-lit by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency in July 2019 and slated to start operation in October 2022, turned out to threaten the habitats and breeding areas of several protected mice species (including the hazel dormouse and the birch mouse) as well as bats. Both agencies work under the auspices of the Danish Environment Ministry.
    Energinet will now, together with the authorities, clarify the consequences of the decision for the Baltic Pipe project, yet is in the process of closing down construction work until the necessary permits are available.

    “Baltic Pipe is a large construction project that crosses Denmark, and which cannot avoid creating inconveniences, but we have full focus on the gas pipeline being laid as gently as possible to humans and nature, including also ensuring good living conditions for protected species that may be affected along the way”, Marian Kaagh said, promising updates on the project’s status as soon as more clarity is established.

    The Baltic Pipe project is a collaboration between Energinet and the Polish gas transmission company Gas-System. The gas pipeline was to link Danish and Polish gas consumers with Norwegian gas fields in the North Sea.

    The gas pipeline was to extend over the Danish regions of West Jutland and South Jutland, through the islands of Funen and South Zealand.

    The total cost of the Baltic Pipe was estimated at DKK 12-16 billion ($2-2.6 billion).

    Warsaw has been eagerly promoting the project as a replacement for the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 project, which Poland actively opposes.

  83. Breaking News –

    The Benefits of child vaccination – Mass Sterilisation, euthanasia, saving the planet from climate change, leaving more resources for billionaires and the new normal.

    Far outweigh the risks – people living normal happy free lives, no great reset,

  85. That’s me for this miserable day. Winter has returned. Rain. Cold. Stove going. Cats on strike.

    Have a jolly evening writing to enquire why Glove (sic) is exempt from quarantine. I wonder if his children (at least one of whom accompanied him to Portugal) are ALSO exempt.

    A demain.

    1. Good evening Bill, this morning was quite miserable , but dry , and we are experiencing a nice clear breezy sunny evening .

      The clouds that are scudding across the sky from West to East were so strange , Moh and I thought they looked like a huge fleet of warships , really and truly looked like ships going across the sky in uniform fashion. Moh and I were motoring down a steep hill at the time , the clouds were probably propelled along by a high jet stream .

      Watered the garden this morning and this evening!

    2. It’s been a beautiful day up here, if more than a bit tiring.
      After waking up in the small hours & not getting back to sleep, the DT & myself sat up with a mug of tea until 5ish.
      Then after getting up later, I had a couple of hours going to & from Matlock with a bit of shopping, walking to & from Cromford for the bus.

      After that I then had to go & pick the S@H up after his week working in Shap.

      Traffic’s been flaming demic most of the day, not only is it ½ Term, but a lot of people who would otherwise go abroad are staying in the UK.

  86. About bloody time. Though not something second granddaughter needs to read.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/have-we-hit-peak-graduate-

    “Have we hit peak graduate?

    James Forsyth

    The Tory party has turned sharply against the idea of ever larger numbers going to university. The reasons for this are both economic and political, I say in the Times today.

    On the economic front, the taxpayer is bearing more of the cost of the expansion of higher education than expected — the government estimates that it will have to write off 53 per cent of the value of student loans issued last year — and there is a belief that the lack of funding for technical education is contributing to the UK’s skills and productivity problems.

    Politically, the issue is that graduates tend not to vote Tory. At the last election, the Tories beat Labour by 44 per cent to 32 per cent. But among graduates (not students), the Tories trailed Labour by 14 points, polling a mere 29 per cent.

    Politically, the issue is that graduates tend not to vote Tory

    Ministers think that a shift away from higher education is happening anyway as the economics of paying £9,250 a year for a degree, compared with getting a technical qualification, are becoming clearer. But over the summer, the government will consult on minimum entry requirements for university.

    There is also interest in limiting the numbers on courses that offer poor value for money, both for students in terms of employment prospects, and the taxpayer because of loan repayments. This would fit with Gavin Williamson’s aim of clamping down on low-quality courses.

    The government will have to respond to the Augar Review into post-18 education, which was commissioned by Theresa May, at this year’s spending review. I expect it will do so by moving resources from higher to further education.”

  87. 333819+ up ticks,
    Radio 4 at five was something else the hexpert saying a bit of greenland the size of wales has fell of and a tsunami 6 m high could threaten Scotland around Aberdeen, Inverness area adding ” I am not scaremongering” so much for the global warming.

    Then old macdonald had a yarn saying we are all socialist now and how the tory (ino) party were 16 points ahead in the political sh!te stakes having great success in the race to the bottom, lab (ino) & not tory (ino) were the answer regarding the future, according to old macdonald.

    Leave it to the electorate to sort out in their usual manner then the imams will sort out the electorate with a great number of cutting changes, I do believe that heads will roll… literally.

    1. I wonder how many otherwise healthy children have died after being vaccinated compared with the number of otherwise healthy children who have died from Covid.

      My money is on the vaccinated number being higher

      1. Experimental therapies should only be given with the informed consent of the recipient. Children are not equipped to give informed consent thus to inoculate them with untested experimental therapies is a crime against humanity.

          1. If Johnson and Hancock implement such a change against ‘international law’ they will pay doubly at Nuremberg 2. A spell of say a life sentence in Guantanamo would be a fitting punishment, that or a firing squad. Evil bastards they are.

          2. Again, much as I would like it to happen, it won’t.

            Wait ’til you see the announcements after the G7.

            Your worst nightmares will suddenly become policy. The global elite have the populace by the balls and the squeeze is about to start.

          3. No they won’t. It’ll be like every other time a politician has done something awful – they’ll not even be prosecuted, they’ll be re-elected instead.

          4. Those arrogant Nazis thought themselves invincible too. This current lot are not invincible either.

            We just need to remain ‘unvaccinated’ and steadfast in our determination to see criminals brought to justice.

            There are more of us than them when you subtract the Covid idiot sheep. Many of those sheep will be dead within a few years as the adverse reactions to injected toxins wreck their immune responses to wild virus. I say sheep but ferrets and transgenic mice might better describe them.

          5. Those arrogant Nazis thought themselves invincible too. This current lot are not invincible either.

            We just need to remain ‘unvaccinated’ and steadfast in our determination to see criminals brought to justice.

            There are more of us than them when you subtract the Covid idiot sheep. Many of those sheep will be dead within a few years as the adverse reactions to injected toxins wreck their immune responses to wild virus. I say sheep but ferrets and transgenic mice might better describe them.

    2. I imagine that Johnson, Hancock, Farrar, Vallance, Whitty, Drosten, Ferguson, Van Tam and others are shitting bricks now that Fauci has been ‘unmasked’ in the States.

      I expect Bezos and Gates and Zuckerberg and the other globalist ‘Titans’ funding and profiting massively from this global scam are preparing to face their very own Nuremberg 2 for crimes against humanity.

        1. The whole episode of the last year and a half has been an absolute nightmare for small businesses and the self employed.

          Millions are likely to lose their jobs after September, hundreds of thousands have been denied treatments for cancers and other life threatening diseases whereas hospitals have remained half empty, tens of thousands have lost the will to live and vulnerable old people have been dropping like flies whether from the deliberate policy of infecting care homes with the decanting of old people from hospitals into care homes and now from the administering of toxic ‘vaccines’.

          1. I agree.
            They might say they were acting in the nation’s best interests initially. and it was a choice I would not have wished to have made; but once it became apparent that all was not as it appeared, they should have had the courage to say they were wrong and acted accordingly.
            Instead they have doubled down every single time, and the damage they have done is, in my view, unforgivable.

          2. Not to mention those with dementia whose mental condition has deteriorated markedly due to the lockdown and being unable to go out, meet friends or even have a cup of coffee or tea in a cafe. It has been inhuman.

    3. The deaths amongst the older generation from covid were also in the majority with prior conditions.

      Covid might have been a problem but in reality it’s been a series of lies, half truths and spin because the reality didn’t match the marketing.

    1. If the England football team are sensible, they will realise that they will be booed if they continue to go down on one knee at the start of matches. Even if they do not agree with the booing and the reason for it, they must realise that the knee-bending gesture is divisive (to say the least). Best to call a halt to it now, before any further damage is done.

      1. They belong to the Can’t Be Wrong camp, so not sure how their brains will process that idea.

    1. So much marketing BS.

      It’s pretty obvious that Facebook censor press they disagree with.

      If someone works for farcebook, then that’s usually public information.

      No, leaks are not damaging if you are not incompetent. As for subjective and lacking ifnormation – all you’re saying is ‘we disagree with this and want to control it.’ That isn’t confidence, it’s a bunch of cretins.

      1. Sir Nick Clegg himself announced that President Trump is to be banned from Facebook for two years.

        That Clegg non-person was a prize cretin and arsehole when shacked up with Cameron. A more detestable piece of excrement is difficult to conjure.

    2. Somewhat scary that Zuckerberg wants to terminate people.

      Shades of Herr Himmler’s policy.

  93. I’m with the Downing Street policeman…

    Britain has proven itself to be a remarkably generous country

    The UK’s efforts to fight Covid contributed to one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in history

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 4th June 2021 • 6:00am

    Andrew Mitchell, a former international development secretary, has tabled a parliamentary amendment in a bid to prevent Britain’s aid spending being cut from 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.5 per cent. He might have the numbers to succeed. Given that a G7 summit is being held next week in Cornwall, one can expect several days of the UK being characterised as having “abandoned” the developing world in its hour of need by planning to slash aid, as if we have suddenly become a pariah state. Nothing could be further from the truth.

    Only 14 countries have ever met the UN target of spending 0.7 per cent of GNI on Official Development Assistance (France last hit it in 1967). The UK put the figure into law in 2015, an irrational act that inevitably put an emphasis upon inputs (the need to spend the money by the end of each round) rather than outcomes (the difference made to people’s lives). The UK also does many good things that do not always fall within the remit of the 0.7 per cent, including select military actions and expanding trade – and this past 18 months, far from retreating inwards, has contributed to one of the greatest humanitarian efforts in history.

    In early 2020, taking a gamble on vaccines before we knew they would be effective, the UK taxpayer invested millions in Covid research and development, as well as upscaling manufacturing here and abroad. The resulting Oxford/AstraZeneca jab is sold at cost – one-tenth of the price of some of its rivals – to the entire world, can be transported and stored easily and accounts for most of the doses distributed to poor nations through the Covax scheme. Britain has donated £548 million to Covax thus far.

    This is a very generous country: even if we had spent just 0.5 per cent of GNI on development in 2020, we would still have ranked as the fifth largest aid donor in absolute terms (as it was, we ranked third), and even if this planned, temporary cut takes effect, we will still be spending £10 billion despite a drastic economic contraction.

    If we are ever to return to our previous heights of charity, the economy will have to grow much more quickly. This necessitates some tough budgetary choices. Those MPs who want to retain the 0.7 per cent target must explain what domestic spending they would cut, or taxes they would raise, to meet the cost of redistributing British taxpayers’ already overstretched resources.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/04/britain-has-proven-remarkably-generous-country/

      1. Sunak has a stately home of his own in N Yorks, he is incredibly wealthy .

        Sunak and his wife live in Northallerton, North Yorkshire, and also own a house in Kensington and a flat in Santa Monica, California. He is a Hindu, and has taken his oath at the House of Commons on the Bhagavad Gita since 2017.

        He put down roots in his new constituency of Richmond, North Yorkshire, augmenting a £10 million property portfolio (metropolitan digs in London – a Kensington mews house, a flat on Old Brompton Road – and a place in California) with a £1.5 million Georgian manor in Yorkshire set across 12 acres, including an ornamental lake. Here, he now entertains the constituency membership with lavish summer parties at which uniformed staff serve champagne and canapés. He has been repeatedly dubbed by newspapers the ‘Maharajah of the Yorkshire Dales’.

    2. I recall the surreal experience, many years ago of driving through the desert and suddenly seeing a ship moving through the sand. It was absolutely weird.

      One of life’s great surprises.

      1. Not quite the desert, but – whilst based on a new Sainsbury store in Thorpe St. Andrew, Norwich, we noticed the incongruous sight of a luxury yacht among the trees. We investigated, and found the almost complete Bellissima* – Bernard Mathews’ new toy. There’s clearly money in turkey twizzlers.

        *i.e. ‘Bootiful’…

        2. The Norwich office of Feilden & Mawson, for whom I worked at the time, were responsible for the Eastern Daily Press building there.

          The chap who sold me a telephone system then converted a 1 year trial to a seven year lease, one Christopher Fox was prosecuted for fraud and sentenced to seven years in prison viz. out in 3.5 years.

          Fox lived at a Thorpe Hall but was obliged to sell as his wealth was sequestrated to compensate some of his many victims. I missed out on compensation, living in North Essex. The bastard cost me almost thirty thousand pounds when including solicitor charges at £300.00 per hour or more precisely £30.00 every six minutes.

          The solicitors (Greene & Greene) of Greene King and Graham Greene family have a button on their desks and press it every six minutes to charge every poor sucker.

  95. Thought for the day.
    Politicians should FOAD.
    I would actually prefer them to concentrate on the second bit.

  96. The so-called traffic light travel system is the Australia zero Covid policy in disguise

    Even Labour has out-Ukipped Ukip – its ruling belief seems to be that all foreigners are at risk of infecting us with dreadful diseases

    ROSS CLARK

    The removal of Portugal from the ‘green list’ pretty well confirms what many had long suspected: that the government is imposing an Australian-style ‘zero Covid’ policy by stealth. The green list was supposed to be the mechanism by which the world would be reopened to British holidaymakers, obviating the need to quarantine on your return. Instead, it has become a sick joke. It is still possible to book a holiday in Iceland or Israel, perhaps, but as for the rest, the green list is now a litany of obscure territories (many are not even countries) which either don’t have direct links with the UK or which won’t let you in anyway. Forget Australia or New Zealand – you won’t get further than the airport. Gibraltar’s got room for a couple of dozen tourists, so long as they stand upright.

    Resort-owners on Tristan da Cunha are presumably performing cartwheels at their inclusion on the list – or rather they would be if there were any holiday resorts there.

    There are all of 11 holiday bungalows on the South Atlantic island, and a café at the tourist office. If you hurry you might even catch the last boat of the season which leaves on 10 June and arrives a week later. Except you can’t, because the boat leaves from Cape Town, and South Africa is on the red list.

    The government is just playing with us. By dangling the prospect of a Portuguese holiday, then snatching it away from the thousands of people who had just booked, the Department for Transport has done more to dissuade us from foreign travel than if it had never come up with a green list in the first place. It has sent us all a very powerful message: don’t even try to go abroad this summer because we can and will mess around with your plans. The government has destroyed the demand for holidays so there will be fewer people to disappoint later in the year when it refuses to open up tourism for the peak season in July and August.

    The Portuguese are right to say that the UK government is practising ‘health fundamentalism’. There is no objective justification for keeping many countries off the green list. Portugal (769 new cases yesterday) has an infection rate about the same as Britain’s. Spain (5250) is a little higher but not much. Italy (1968) has a markedly lower number of cases. All these countries could be opened up without exposing ourselves to greater risk – with perhaps just a test on arrival back in Britain.

    Yet they remain effectively closed, with holidaymakers subjected to 10-day quarantine plus a multitude of tests required upon return.

    I don’t know what has gone on in Cabinet – I guess we will find out in 20 years’ time when the papers are released – but it looks an awful lot as if the government some time ago settled on the idea of emulating Australia by sealing off our borders, but, worried that the public would not take it well, decided not to announce such a policy. Instead, it would be imposed by degrees.

    Where is the opposition? The Labour party wants to isolate us even further, demanding that the amber list be abolished and all countries on it to be added to the red list. Is this really the same party which feigned outrage in the 2015 election campaign when Nigel Farage announced he wanted to test foreigners for HIV before they could enter Britain? Now, Labour has well and truly out-Ukipped Ukip – its ruling belief seems to be that all foreigners are at risk of infecting us with dreadful diseases [save those in peril on the sea]. It is just a shame Max Mosley is no longer around to publish the party’s electioneering leaflets.

    The government continues to soak up praise for its vaccination programme. But that is going to look an increasingly empty achievement if, in spite of faithfully turning up for our jabs, we are denied the freedoms that we were promised would come with them.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/04/so-called-traffic-light-travel-system-australia-zero-covid-policy/

    1. You can still travel abroad, you just need to quarantine on return.
      The middle classes, who can work at home, and the retired who can quarantine at home, will still be able to travel.
      Stuff the working classes who kept the country running by delivering things to middle class people during lockdown. They must know their place and not think about travelling abroad.

      If this stuff put poor foreigners off from coming here, that would be an advantage, but judging by the ongoing invasion at Dover, it’s not even doing that. Too many freebies being given out!

      1. I’m retired and I could cope with quarantining at home – but I’ve no interest in going on a beach holiday to Europe. I can see my trip to Kenya receding further away again – already postponed from March to October – as the thought of incarceration at my own expense in an airport prison hotel really is the last straw.

        1. We planned a summer vacation in the UK, but have abandoned it for the same reason.
          Bummer! 🤬😱

          1. And in your case it means you don’t get to see your mother. I haven’t seen either of my sons since Christmas 2019.

    2. ‘….The government is just playing with us by dangling the prospect of a Portuguese holiday, then snatching it away from the thousands of people who had just booked…’

      June 21 is going tits up…….

  97. ‘I’m very confident with Fauci’: Biden throws support behind his
    embattled chief medical advisor after the release of his emails
    suggesting he quashed lab leak theories

    “But I’ve also consulted Hillary and we are now confident he is reassessing his stand point.

    He’s also put his affairs in order and said his farewells.”

  98. This country is fast becoming something I’m not proud to be part of…

    ‘Ollie Robinson to be dropped by England for second Test after racist tweets come to light’

    And the net curtain slowly drops…

    1. Apart from the fact most of them can’t string more than a few grunts together it would be interesting if EVERY cricketer, footballer, rugby player, etc etc etc had all their messages and statements unto the nth generation published to be anal-ized by the woke.

      1. Evening Sos.

        Give it 10 years, it will be very interesting to see how some of this stuff turns out.

        PS I won’t be watching the 2nd Test. And I never thought I’d say it, but I hope NZ win it.

        2. Re PS, I agree.
          Hunt hard enough and there will be something in even a Saint’s history that would get them cancelled today.
          It’s time the authorities stood up to the woke bullies.

          1. Lolz,my posting history wont get me cancelled,in a few years it’ll get me hanged or burnt at the stake!!!!!!!!

  99. Another thought for the day.

    When you used to travel BC (before Covid) in Africa, Asia, South America, the ME. etc. did you get a warm glow that your government was pouring millions, if not billions into those countries? Were you pleased that numerous charities were also pouring huge sums into those areas.

    Did you experience lots of the natives calling out how grateful they were for your largesse?

    Did you ever see what your taxes had been spent on?

    NO?

    I wonder why, could it possibly all have been wasted?

    1. On a similar theme, have you ever met anyone from a third world country who had heard of fair trade?

  100. Today, we carried out a home PCR test which is necessary to enter France.
    The following is copied from the instruction leaflet for the test (my bold):

    “3. Take your Swab Sample
    Taking your test may feel a little uncomfortable and unusual, but remain calm as you go through the process.
    …
    First – Take the throat sample
    …..Rub the swab on the right side of your throat 5 times…If this is done properly you will gag. Then move the swab to the other side and rub against the left side of your throat…Again, if done properly, this will make you gag.

    Second – take the nasal sample
    Insert it until you feel resistance…rotate 5 times…This may bring some tears to your eyes”

    So the governments of Britain and France have passed a law forcing us to gag and cry, in order to cross national borders!

    1. Can’t wait to hear:

      (a) the preceding and succeeding paragraphs;
      (b) how many weeks it takes for the test to be returned;
      (c) whether it is a real result or a false one – or a fictitious one;
      (d) how much they rushed you.

      1. You have to create an online account and as soon as you’ve done the test, you log in and tell them you’ve done it.
        We took ours to the test centre (about an hour and a half drive away!) rather than trust the Post Office.
        The woman who took the tests said that results are coming in between 12-18 hours after the test reaches the laboratory at the moment.

        We’ve just had an email to say that it’s got to the lab.

        Real result – 80% likelihood for the PCR scam, isn’t it? By the way, the German lawyer Dr Rainer Fuellmich has already had a court victory in Portugal, where it’s been ruled that forcing people to quarantine over a failed PCR test is illegal, as it’s not an adequate test for the presence or otherwise of sars-cov-whatever.

          1. I think I linked to the government’s page where test providers are listed in my previous post?
            If not, let me know, and I’ll look for it again.
            The list is long, but you can scroll down it to compare the prices.

            The cheapest price for the Day 2+8 tests was 129 pounds, as far as I remember.
            I then searched the page for the string “29” to find all the providers offering this price.
            There was only one, and they were all sold out for the time frame we wanted. You have to book them about 3 weeks in advance, I think.
            So then I searched “39” and found a provider on the list who was offering Day2+8 tests in my area for 139.
            This was the provider we used. They are called Everything Genetic. Their website was pretty easy to navigate.
            For the Day2+8 tests, we weren’t bothered about the time frame for getting results, so after we did the tests, we just put them in the post.
            We did not hear anything more – the information is contradictory, but an SMS from the government on Day 7 said that we would only hear if the tests were positive.

            The test for entering France was slightly different, because the time is very important.
            For this test, we carried it out at home, and drove it to the testing company’s centre ourselves.
            Therefore, we needed a provider that was cheap and within reasonable distance.
            We used screen4.org. They are on the Day2+8 list, but if you go to their website, they offer other tests as well.
            The cost was 60 pounds for a self test, and 85 pounds if you get tested at their centre. Their lab is in Cambridge.
            Our timetable for the test and journey was:
            Friday 10 am – take test at home and register that we’ve taken it on the website
            Friday afternoon – personally hand in the test at a screen4 test centre
            Friday evening – email to say the test was in the screen4 test lab
            Saturday – test results
            Sunday evening – cross Channel into France
            Monday 10 am – test validity runs out.

            screen4’s website is easy to use, and the receptionist at the test centre was really nice. Apparently a lot of people are arriving flustered and stressed out by the experience. However, the results are coming back within 24 hours at the moment.

          2. I really am most grateful. I find the information confusing; websites muddling and lose my rag. My “logic” switch burns out…!

            I leave it to Carolyn who is endlessly patient – but even she gets bogged down at times.

            So thank you very much for being so clear and helpful.

          3. That was rather a long post, sorry!
            I forgot to add, that Everything Genetic were the provider who managed not to include our test Reference Code in the email, so it was just as well that I had made a written note of it when we ordered.

            I am exactly the same when faced with all this bureaucracy.
            Do ask if you need any more information – there is such a LOT to take into account. But once you’ve navigated it all, it doesn’t seem so bad.

            Top tip, I think, is to get everything for both journeys ordered and every form printed out before you leave home, and then make a written list of remaining tasks so as not to forget anything.
            The online form for re-entering Britain has to be done within 48 hours before entry, for example, so you need access to a printer.

          4. More thanks. What sticks in the craw is that it is all complete bollocks.

            We are ripped off by BPAPM and his gang of useless henchmen (and women) and then by the “providers” who are simply taking us for an expensive ride…and larf all the way to the bank.

          5. Yes.
            For example, I have heard from people who work in the NHS that they don’t actually stick the swabs in their nose/throat, they just put the clean swab straight in the liquid, because they don’t want to risk a positive result. Never been detected.
            (As I am a very law-abiding person, I would not do that, it goes without saying. We followed all the instructions scrupulously.)

            I assume you are aware, that Dr Reiner Fuellmich (the German lawyer) and his international network have already won a court case for false imprisonment in Portugal, and convinced a court that the PCR test is not a valid reason to keep people in quarantine.

            While companies connected to members of the government are profiting, we will never see the requirement for these tests lifted. Open banana republic corruption.

          6. By the way, I can now confirm – screen4 got the results of the PCR test for crossing to France back in 13 hours from the email confirming that they had arrived at the lab.

    2. No instructions for anal swabs? Push in and rotate 5 times. This may make you…?

      1. Bleughh!
        If they told people to do that, I bet there are plenty of Britons who would do it, and then probably write a comment online grumbling about it!

        1. Are we allowed to grumble *before* the swab, or is it only after the event?

      2. The advantage of this type of swab is that it has been analysed before you’ve even taken it out!

      1. The witch doctor said so.
        In Germany, I know that the PCR tests you take to cross the border swab only the throat and cheek, not the nose.

  101. If you thought the covid response was being arranged by data, I have a bridge to sell you.

    1. Reality does not apply in the left utopia. See also under the subject of ‘trans’.

  103. Why does the carefully tended, great British lawn make the greens see red?

    The ordinary man’s green sward is the latest target of ideologues who sneer at nature in its tamed form

    CHARLES MOORE

    I was brought up to think lawns were such a British thing that foreign languages did not really have a word for them. In Italian, a lawn is often called il prato inglese – the English field.

    Certainly, lawns are well adapted to our temperate climate. It is no accident that lawn tennis was invented here, or that Wimbledon, starting in three weeks, is synonymous with the sport.

    Lawns feature strongly in our idea of ourselves. In his great 18th-century dictionary, Dr Johnson defines a lawn merely as “an open space between woods” (plus the quite separate meaning of “Fine linen, remarkable for being used in the sleeves of bishops”), but not long after that, the word came to have its modern usage. The Oxford English Dictionary speaks of “a portion of a garden … covered with grass, which is kept closely mown”.

    The lawn represented leisure, order, perfect greenness, and something you could comfortably lie on with much less chance of being tickled by plants or bitten by insects. It was fun for children’s games. It also suggested a peaceful mastery of nature. Serving abroad in parched deserts or steaming jungles, Englishmen dreamt of the lawns of home – including, of course, that most famous, ultra-disciplined adaptation of the lawn idea, the cricket pitch.

    The lawn is now coming under attack. Like England itself (though, by the way, many of the loveliest British lawns are to be found in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland), the lawn is not wild. In current green ideology, that makes it BAD.

    Earlier this year, the television horticulturalist Monty Don pronounced that “cutting grass burns lots of fossil fuel, makes a filthy noise, and is about the most injurious thing you can do to wildlife”. It is even, he suggested, a borderline sexist act: “Making a lawn that is pure grass without any filthy and foreign invading plants in there, making sure it’s stripy and neat” is an example of the male obsession with “controlling rather than embracing”.

    This summer, the Royal Horticultural Society is urging people to stop watering their lawns from the mains. The well-named David Hedges-Gower, who makes his living advising the National Trust and others on lawns, sniffs the green wind and agrees: “If you’re looking after your garden lawn properly, it can be bone-dry and as brown as an over-ripe banana – and still be healthy.”

    Mr Hedges-Gower is factually correct: good lawns rarely die of drought in England. But I think it may be time to “control rather than embrace” Monty Don, and stand up for the rights of nature in its tamed form.

    First of all – as is usually the case in horticultural disputes – class is in play here. Most gardening ideas start on a grand scale. In its early days, the lawn was associated with nobility. In the 19th century, as a bourgeois class developed, millions in new villas or terraces were pleased to have room to create modest versions of the same thing. It was a similar process to taking the surnames of aristocratic families – Stanley, Russell, Percy – and bestowing them on their children as first names.

    It did not take long for grander owners to disdain this. The richer you are, the more space you have: ever since the Romantic movement took hold, people with lots of room started to cultivate (though the word in this context is a contradiction in terms) wildness.

    The geometric gardening of the Tudor period gave way to pretend wildernesses and artificial hermitages or grottoes artfully disposed over many acres. It was hard for the middle classes to follow suit if their gardens measured only 90ft by 30ft.

    And so it is today. At home – Longmeadow in Herefordshire – Monty Don has room for his Paradise Garden, Cottage Garden, Vegetable Garden, Herb Garden, Dry Garden and Jewel Garden. They all look lovely on Instagram. But if you want enough room to kick a football and relax in the garden of your suburban semi – and you have no labour but your own – you may take legitimate pride in your orderly lawn. It is a confined space where a molehill really can feel like a mountain.

    You may also be a bit annoyed with Mr Hedges-Gower for telling you to let it go brown all summer: that, after all, is the time when you want to sit in it. Besides, is it really beyond the power of a prosperous, wet country to conserve and distribute water in such a way that you should not be made to feel guilty for using what you pay for from the tap?

    Today is the age of “rewilding”. Wild boar are already digging up large parts of the countryside. Beavers are being brought back. The return of wolves is touted.

    More holistically, projects like Knepp Castle in West Sussex are experimenting with what happens when you abandon conventional agriculture and its machinery and fertilisers. Exciting results include the return of nightingales and turtle doves.

    Some of these trends are good, especially when, as at Knepp, they are pursued in a sustained way, adapting to discoveries as they go along. But inside ideas of rewilding are elements of evasion and dogmatism.

    The truth evaded is that rewilding is a rich person’s game. You need to have a lot of land, and not to need ready money from it, to rewild seriously. As Isabella Tree, of Knepp, discloses in her bible of the subject Rewilding (Picador), she and her husband can do what they do because he inherited 3,500 very valuable acres in the prosperous South East. Their abandonment of farm machinery has freed up enough farm buildings to convert and let them as light industrial units employing about 200 people. She is frank: green policymakers are not.

    What happens to country people if rewilders get it wrong? The National Trust owns 600,000 acres. It is keen to get back to nature and is well placed to improve habitat. But one hears rising complaints from trust farm tenants who simply feel neglected.

    One couple in rural Wales speak of being told by a trust estate rep to “concentrate on looking after your young family; don’t bother about improving the farm”. New National Trust leases restrict food production. How great will its rewilding prove if it works like the Highland Clearances? “Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, where wealth accumulates and men decay.”

    Attitudes to nature are being kidnapped by the dogma that nature is good and man is bad. This is, paradoxically, a 100 per cent man-mad idea, a form of self-hatred. In most countries today – certainly in a small, populated one like Britain – everything to do with nature is to do with man. We do not serve either well if do not admit this. Rewilding is a human activity and cannot work if it becomes anti-human.

    It seems to me that lawns often provide beautiful examples of how man can tame nature without harming it. Obviously, it would be bad if the whole countryside were laid to lawn, but it won’t be. Some of the loveliest landscapes, most characteristic of this country, are those where the eye can work up from the highly domesticated – the well-weeded flower-beds, the neat lawn – to the less cultivated park where livestock graze, and then up again, perhaps beyond a stone wall, to the moorlands (which also need tending by the hand of man) where the wilder things are.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/04/does-carefully-tended-great-british-lawn-make-greens-see-red/

    1. Anyone who thinks “the lawn is not wild” clearly has not seen my lawns! Not helped by the mower steadfastly refusing to start yesterday.

    2. The country’s most massive ‘rewilding’ programme is taking place, daily, at Dover.

      1. Priti Patel has been wrongly titled; she should be:

        The Secretary of State for Massive Amphibious Invasion.

        In which case, she is – presently – the most successful member of Cabinet.

    1. Just goes to show that the cancer of the left is now in full control of the body. No surprises there, when a UK judge hears a case where the plaintiff is not a UK citizen and has entered illegally. We are truly fooked, thankfully, I dont have so many years left.

      1. I have frequently been heard to mutter, “I’m glad I’m old”, KP. I’d hate to be looking at decades of what’s happening now, rapidly increasing in severity.

  105. https://medconfidential.org/how-to-opt-out/

    How to opt out
    Choices available to you in the new GP data collection
    None of the choices below will affect your medical care, or the data that is available for your care. A longer and different process is required for families with children or other dependents, which we walk you through.

    If you live in England and want to stop your GP data leaving your GP practice for purposes other than your direct care, you can do so by filling in and giving or posting the form in step 1 to your GP:

    1) Protect your GP data: fill in and give this ‘Type 1’ form to your GP practice [PDF] [or MS Word] – this form allows you to include details for your children and dependants as well. This is the most urgent step; the deadline to get your form to your GP practice is 23 June 2021, according to NHS Digital.

    2) If you want to stop your non-GP data, such as hospital or clinic treatments, being used/sold for purposes other than your direct care (e.g. for “research and planning“) you must use this process:

    If it’s just for yourself, use NHS Digital’s online National Data Opt-out process – this process only works for individuals aged 13 and over.
    If you have children under 13, you need to fill in this form [PDF] and e-mail or post it back to NHS Digital – this form works for both you and your children.
    If you have an adult dependant for whom you have legal responsibility, you must use this form [PDF] and send it back to NHS Digital on their behalf.
    There is no deadline for step 2, the National Data Opt-out (i.e. your non-GP data), but the sooner you do it, the sooner it takes effect. The National Data Opt-out will not stop your GP data being extracted by the new GP data collection.

    N.B. If you opted out of care.data in 2014, then you shouldn’t need to do anything now. As most people did both a ‘Type 1’ opt-out and what is now a National Data Opt-out, you can check your NHS Digital opt-out status online at NHS Digital. Your GP opt-out status will probably match the opt-out status shown there; although if you’re not sure, giving a a ‘Type 1’ form to your GP Practice now doesn’t have any risk.

    If you don’t have a printer

    If you don’t have access to a working printer, you can ask the NHS Digital Contact Centre to post you the forms you need. Their phone number is 0300 303 5678 and they are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (excluding bank holidays), or you can e-mail enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk any time.

    If there are TWO adults and ONE child in your house, for example, you would ask them:

    Please send forms covering TWO adults and ONE child under 13 to object to the extraction of data from our GP, and a form to implement the National Data Opt-out for us all as well.
    Click here to open an e-mail to enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk

    Remember to change the numbers IN CAPS to match the number of people in your household when you send the e-mail to NHS Digital.

    Or, if you prefer – or if the forms from NHS Digital don’t show up (or they don’t send you what you need, or…) – you can e-mail printer@medConfidential.org with your postal address and we will post you copies of the GP paper forms, for free, no questions asked (tell us if you have children under 13, or the online hospital data service hasn’t worked for you, and so you need the hospital data form as well as the GP data form). If you don’t have e-mail, you can text your address to us on 07980 210 746. If you can afford to make a small donation to support us in offering this service to others, we have a donation page. We will, of course, only use your details to send you the forms you want and we will delete them as soon as we have done that. (medConfidential is registered with the ICO to process personal data in this way.)

    As new information or actions that you can take become available, we inform people via our mailing list:

    GP data: As your ‘front door’ to the NHS, your GP holds the lifetime history of your GP care; all of your prescriptions, your diagnoses, your ailments, your tests and referrals – and the context for them all as well. You have the choice whether information from your GP record is copied outside of your GP practice for purposes other than your direct medical care. (This choice was created in 2010, and is between you and your GP only.) Your GP treats you; other parts of the NHS tend to treat ‘a condition’.

    Other data: The National Data Opt-out is intended to cover your data being copied from all other care providers, and NHS Digital, for purposes beyond your direct care. This choice will in time cover all hospitals, etc. but can at present only be set via NHS Digital, the option to do so via your GP having been withdrawn in 2018. (N.B. The National Data Opt-out does also cover your data leaving bodies such as Public Health England, which used to run the database of every patient who has ever had cancer, as well as other databases.)

    Opting out: While in 2014 you could opt out of secondary uses (i.e. non-care uses) of your NHS data with a single form, now you must use at least two different processes – three, if you have children or dependents.

    Re-use of your records beyond your direct medical care:
    Choices not available to you
    Exercising the opt-out choices linked above will protect you from some risks – certainly more risks than if you do not express those choices. Both opt-outs do precisely what the Department of Health claims they do, but they do not protect you as they could.

    These choices do not, for example, currently:

    Prevent the sale of your hospital history to companies;
    Prevent the use of prescribing data by pharmaceutical marketers to influence your doctors;
    Prevent public bodies doing work with the data they have for commercial companies, such as tobacco companies;
    Prevent mistakes by those who have copies of your medical information from the above, cf. the Partridge Review recommendations.
    Prevent the non-clinical body NHS England insisting that you opt out all over again if it decides to create a new project…
    As of 2021, some NHS bodies’ actions are still not compliant with the 2018 Data Protection Act, which implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into UK law. And several of the important safeguards promised in 2014 are still entirely missing:

    The commercial re-use loophole remains open;
    No ‘single-strike’ penalties are in place;
    No significant contractual sanctions have been applied, despite serious breaches;
    No Regulations have been laid to guide the Confidentiality Advisory Group;
    NHS Digital is still releasing huge volumes of linked, individual-level patient histories rather than using safe settings;
    The sole independent advisory group on collecting GP data – GPES IAG, the group that first raised concerns about care.data – was abolished without a full replacement.
    The best way to have confidence in how your wishes will be respected, and in how your data will be used next month, is to see how your data was used last month. This, for all the reasons we list above, remains impossible.

    1. That’s pretty longwinded. I suppose it’s intended to put people off bothering. Though I see if you opted out of caredata in 2014 you don’t need to do it again.

  106. Evening, all. Only by ignoring adjusting the data could current restrictions be prolonged. There! Fixed it for them. Dog update: we have passed the home check and are going to see Oscar tomorrow. Fingers crossed that MOH doesn’t have the sort of strop and tantrum that happened this morning and we a) get there and b) pass the test.

      1. Thank you. I am amazed I’ve got this far. I shall be devastated if I fall at the final hurdle.

      1. My friend who took the required photos and sent them on (my being so technologically challenged in this department) added that the dog would be truly loved. Whether that will cut any ice remains to be seen.

      1. Thanks very much. After the disappointment of having Timmy snatched away from me less than 24 hours before he was due to arrive, I’m not getting my hopes up.

  107. Good night, good people and God bless you. I’m very tired after a day of blood tests, driving miles to pick up bookcases bought on eBay and struggling with waste bins in the pouring rain.

    Yes, I know, I’m a KOS.

    1. Kos? You’re a Greek island? Who knew? Still, better than a lettuce, I suppose 🙂

      1. The island with the runway with a deceptive approach due to the rising ground. Its probably an islamic gateway to the West nowadays rather than a sun seeker haven. Hound soon to abound!? Edit… just read comment below. doh or.. woof.

        1. Fingers crossed, KP. We are going to see him tomorrow to be vetted (us, not the dog) to see if we are suitable people. Then, if we pass this test, the last hurdle will be the “adoption meeting” where, hopefully, I get to sign on the dotted line and hand over masses of dosh for a dog who is a) second hand and b) nearly 12! Still, any dog in a crisis. At least I’m nearly there instead of missing out at the first weed-out stage.

          1. Best of luck Conway! Thinking of you and got everything crossed! Sleep well!

      2. The island with the runway with a deceptive approach due to the rising ground. Its probably an islamic gateway to the West nowadays rather than a sun seeker haven. Hound soon to abound!? Edit… just read comment below. doh or.. woof.

    1. It has been fascinating to watch the naming of the Kent, South African and Indian Variant. There was a visible thinks bubble from the wokeratti who concluded that blaming Indians would, of course, be dreadfully … racist, and we would change to the greek alphabet. Well, to me, the scariyants are now all the Oh-me-gahhh variety.

    1. Worthy of Damian Day. As essential a prop for TV news reporting as the white suit!

  117. Good morning to the early risers.
    Another beautiful start to the day with a pleasantly cool 5° on the yard thermometer.

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