Friday 5 June: The Government has chosen the worst possible time to close Britain off

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/04/lettersthe-government-has-chosen-worst-possible-time-close-britain/

632 thoughts on “Friday 5 June: The Government has chosen the worst possible time to close Britain off”

  1. Douglas Murray
    Twice in one week we have had “Black Lives Matter” protests in London
    that have resulted in attacks on British policemen and vandalism of our
    national monuments. And as always when it comes to protests against
    America, consistency is the first thing to go. The same BBC that was so
    intent on shaming sunbathers during lockdown seems to have no especial
    problem with these mass gatherings. Indeed, it has joyfully joined in
    what it evidently sees as yet another opportunity to bash Donald
    Trump….
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/04/lefts-silence-hsbc-deafening/
    The Al-Beeb is actually poisoning peoples minds,my sister was totally unaware of Floyd attempting to pass forged money or having methamphetamine and fentanyl in his system,to her he was a “gentle giant” who had “turned his life around” who was attacked by policemen for no reason……………..

    1. Some Lefty scum sccrawled ACAB on a monument – one that gave them the freedoms to do that – and complained when the household cavalry scrubbed it off.

      The arrogance, hubris and perverted sense of entitlement of their own ego is putrid. As usual, this isn’t about racism, or equality. It’s a bunch of spoiled, indulged wasters destroying what others have built.

      I’d also like to ask: there’s a bunch of black lives matter placard wavers ranting, looting and destroying because they’re saying the world is racist, yet they’re the ones making this about race.

      The police – black, white and green – are there representing society. They’re not looting, destroying and grafitiing. Who then, is the problem? The mob, or society opposing them?

    2. The London BLM rent-a-mob are hell bent on removing Boris and thus win approval of the Beeb. Likewise, the (manipulators of) the US rioters are hell bent on removing Trump, as per Tucker Carlson’s piece last night.

      https://youtu.be/gjvVMTUHUuc

      Morning, Rik

      2. The Left – the BBC – like people like this whereas they hate the middle class B&Qers. It’s blatant hypocrisy. The BBC and Left generally are riven with it.

        Some are more equal than others, after all.

  2. Morning, all.

    Some light rain overnight n N Essex that just about managed to dampen the soil but not enough to make a difference to the level in the water butts. The strong wind will soon dry the soil out unless we get some of the showers forecast for later this morning. Here’s hoping.

    1. I think whitey should demand their money back for being sold substandard goods.

    2. Much depends on the actions of others. If it IS a tiny minority of muslims then of course, no. However while such behaviour is endorsed and supported by the religious leaders you have to say yes, it is.

      1. And, by “endorsed”, taht covers consent by being silent, instead of condemnation.

        1. .and the rapists and so-called grooming gangs didn’t goo back to their wives and mothers, did they??

      2. There can be little doubt the Moslem mind is moving in one direction if only at differing speed.

    3. The object is not equality but parity; only then can the work of dismantling western civil society begin.

        1. ‘Bills’ are capitalist. They will expropriate and ‘re-distribute’. See ‘collectivisation’, Ukraine famine, ‘Great Leap Forward’ , Year Zero, Cuban ‘miracle’, …

  5. German prisoner is ‘strongest Madeleine McCann suspect yet’. Thu 4 Jun 2020 21.38 BST.

    Detectives in three countries have appealed for evidence in relation to the strongest suspect they have had in 13 years to the disappearance of Madeleine McCann, as German authorities said they believe she is dead.

    Circumstantial evidence has convinced detectives that a 43-year-old German child sex offender and rapist, identified by Portuguese sources on Thursday as Christian Brückner, is their prime suspect as it emerged he has been known to police for years.

    Morning everyone. I actually feel sorry for this guy though I think he should have been hanged years ago. It’s quite clear that the whole thing is just a distraction from the Virus fiasco. One notes for example that he is just a “suspect” and that only now are they appealing for “evidence” about something that happened thirteen years ago and has been the subject of the most intensive enquiries since; all without result one might observe. There’s a better chance of my winning the Premium Bonds than this happening! The “links” to Portugal are circumstantial at best and spurious at worst. That he has a criminal record is not evidence that he had anything to do with the McCann case. That “he had various casual jobs in the Lagos region, including in the hotel and catering industry” is actually in his favour since had he worked at the Praia de Luz it would be in the records and he would have been investigated at the time. This is not by way of saying that he is innocent, only that there is no reason to think him guilty.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/04/madeleine-mccann-praia-da-luz-christian-bruckner-strongest-suspect-yet

        1. The Portuguese Police showed themselves to be incompetent right from the outset of the investigation.

          1. That’s why a selection of the Met’s bestest was sent to Portugal on permanent holiday. Strange how a suspect is found just as the funding runs out?

    3. The strangest aspect is that were appealing for information about a telephone call and published the number; why didn’t they check the phone records?

    4. Morning Minty and everyone. I’d like to know who has such influence to “persuade” TPTB to keep spending our money on this investigation. And, as you say, a coincidence that this has just popped up all over again when the Covid19 is creating so much adverse publicity for the government. (Well deserved I might add).

    1. They airbrushed out the image of the revolting fuzzywuzzy under the knee.

  8. Classic Scholar

    Paddy goes for a job on a building site. The foreman tells him, “I’ll hire you if you can tell me the difference between a joist and a girder.”

    “Certainly,” says Paddy. “Joist wrote Ulysses and Girder wrote Faust!”

  9. “Throws hands up in disgust”
    Right,so face masks will be mandatory in 10 days time but aren’t now?? Okaaaaay
    After the 15th how do I get to a shop to buy masks?? Teleportation?
    Travel quarantine is essential now but wasn’t back in March?? Okaaaay
    Is it me?? or is it really just an omnishambles??

    1. Allow the public to risk assess and make their own decisions

      The Government should trust people’s ability to navigate the nuances of lockdown with their own common sense

      TELEGRAPH VIEW
      4 June 2020 • 10:00pm

      In the first weeks of the pandemic, the Government insisted that the wearing of face masks in public was unnecessary, even as other countries such as Germany mandated it. Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, called the science behind the general population wearing masks “extremely weak”. Now they are encouraged and, as of June 15, they will be mandatory on public transport, enforced with a fine. A makeshift covering will do; there are exceptions for children, the disabled and those with breathing difficulties.

      It follows a pattern. The Government insists that we do not have to do something other countries are doing – such as quarantining travellers – only to u-turn and impose that very policy around the same time those other countries are starting to ease off. It could make its reasoning a great deal clearer. The Government says it wants to avoid a second wave of Covid-19, which is entirely right, but that is thought likely to hit much later this year – unless the Government knows something we do not. In which case, what?

      And if we must now cover our faces, then it is also surely time to rethink the two metre distance rule: the longer we keep it, the longer certain businesses must stay shut. Last week the Government’s chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said that the two metre rule could be mitigated by measures such as ventilation or wearing masks, and if the Government is making that calculation on trains and buses, it ought to make it elsewhere. Why not invite the public to make more of their own decisions based upon a reasonable calculation of risk? This is presumably what the authorities allowed protestors to do when they marched in London this week, and it is what Labour MP Barry Gardiner did when he announced that he would take a “break” from social distancing to join them. Who knew that we all enjoyed such a choice?

      Current virus policy looks like “one step forward and two steps back”: at the height of the pandemic, one could still, in principle, fly to the UK or sit on a ferry without a mask on, but now – with the virus supposedly receding – the regulations are actually becoming stricter, not weaker. The Government would no doubt say that it is inevitable that when the country shifts from a blanket lockdown to one that is targeted, the situation will become more complex. But the answer is to trust people’s ability to navigate these nuances with their own common sense.

      1. But the answer is to trust people’s ability to navigate these nuances with their own common sense.

        They can’t do that! They have to make this look like the Black Death Foiled. When it finally dawns on the masses that their jobs and futures have been sacrificed for a bout of Flu, they are finished, so they have to try and put off the evil day at all costs!

      2. But people can’t. It’s absurd. The group who want to be told what to do don’t know what to do. The ones who don’t want to be told complain they’re being told what to do.

        The rest of us, the normal people just want to get on with our lives.

        1. I have given up on people’s opinions. Most people seem to think that they know best and that everyone else is mistaken. I have no real way of knowing, so I do what I think seems sensible and remain alert as to the dangers.

      1. Yes Stephenroi, and the BBC will say “You see, the British government can’t run the show, we must let Brussels be in control”

        1. I’m beginning to think that the PTB also believe that. We are well and truly plucked whatever way…

        2. If the EU were the ones making the decision we would still be waiting. It’s evident that the EU is utterly pointless and incapable of responding effectively – because it only legislates in it’s interest.

          1. I agree with you wibbling, however Mr Blair, Mr Brown and the BBC are very anxious that we rejoin as soon as possible

    4. We start out with government telling people how to think and behave.

      Then government tries to say “Think for yourselves”

      People show they’re too stupid to do that. Government says ‘Wear a mask on public transport” (which isn’t bad advice as dear life some people simply don’t wash) and people complain.

      It;s a mess because the government is pandering to the stupid.

    6. Good morning, Rik.

      I am NOT going to wear a mask.
      This entire disorganised, shambolic
      cockup has got to stop.

      I have been patient with the government
      but my patience has run out.
      Headless chickens doesn’t begin to describe them.

    7. Leaving aside the issue of travel quarantine (I think you are quite right, Rik) can I make a point? By announcing that face masks will be mandatory in 10 days’ time you will have 10 days in which to buy or make one. If the Government announced mandatory face masks “with immediate effect” then you would need to find some method of teleportation.

    1. Morning, Delboy.
      Don’t shout too loud, or you’ll be inundated with tourists!

    2. Goodmorning DB

      Miserable , cold and very windy and overcast here in South Dorset.

      Moh off to play golf , warm clothes today instead of shorts.

    4. It’s looking ok for a towel day here as well (getting the towels in the wash as they’ll dry quicker) .

      1. I would nobly offer to wash my car, but I can still see out of the windscreen.

      1. And I have never ever heard one word of gratitude from any one of them.
        While the elderly who have worked all their lives are struggling on the financial front. A lot of these ungrateful migrants are receiving up to three times the amount in benefits.

        1. Much of the ills of society could be solved by scrapping child benefit. Just get rid of it entirely. Instead, take less from married hetero sexual couples with children.

          This could be done automatically. Yes, there are exceptions but we need to end this unmarried couple breeding for advancement.

    1. What utter scum. And look at them – look at the colour of those people.

      They shouldn’t be taken seriously but treated like the criminals they are.

  14. Morning all

    SIR – The idea of effectively closing our borders to both inward and outward travel at this stage in the coronavirus pandemic is bizarre (report, June 4).

    I have heard no adequate justification for the move, nor have I met anyone who sees this as anything other than economic vandalism, threatening the very existence of our aviation and hospitality industries. If we want to be more selective about who we allow to enter the country, there are less harmful ways to do so.

    For the first time in 40 years I find my loyalty to the Conservative Party stretched to the limit.

    Tom Sackville

    London SW4

    SIR – Yesterday there were 90 arrivals into London Heathrow, including flights from New York, Miami, Doha, Shanghai and Stockholm.

    Stable doors and horses spring to mind.

    Roy Hodgson

    Northampton

    SIR – Will the Government be recruiting thousands of special quarantine police to enforce the rules?

    David Tomlinson

    Diss, Norfolk

    SIR – The proposed air-bridge arrangements need to be unilateral, so they can be withdrawn at short notice.

    If a flare-up of Covid-19 occurred in another country, such an arrangement would allow us to act immediately. A multilateral agreement would require the consent of the nation in question, which could cause a dangerous time delay.

    Andrew J Smith

    West Malling, Kent

    SIR – Let us hope that the Prime Minister’s air bridge is somewhat more successful than the Garden Bridge was.

    J T R Silverman

    London NW2

    SIR – I sympathise with Anne Nash (Letters, June 4), who has a daughter working in Stockholm. My son-in-law is on a Nato posting in Italy, so my daughter and grandchildren are living there. I turn 70 in a couple of weeks. I could go and visit them to celebrate for a few days, entering Italy without a problem, but would have to put myself in quarantine for 14 days on my return.

    On the other hand, if she came to me, she would have to stay for 14 days. The rules say she cannot stay with me overnight, but the hotels are closed, so they are not an option either. Has anyone thought this through?

    Paul Rutherford

    Alresford, Hampshire

    SIR – Our grandson was born on April 6 this year, and his parents have been unable to register his birth as the appropriate offices are not open and it is impossible to do this online.

    They are therefore unable to apply for a passport for him, so he cannot accompany them on holiday abroad. Is this a denial of his rights as a British citizen, and theirs as his parents?

    Marilyn Parrott

    Altrincham, Cheshire

    1. Why would anyone in their right mind want to take a two-month-old baby on holiday abroad?

  15. Ed Miliband…remember him? Been given a platform on Toady to babble on with a Labour/Green political broadcast uninterrupted by Michele Husain for 8 minutes. Utter drivel “The point is this…” “The point is this…”

    1. He’s a leading member of the greenie wankerati, so always welcome to spout drivel on Toady.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

  16. SIR – I have found the perfect way to achieve a soft-boiled egg.

    I place an egg on the first shelf of my Miele dishwasher, next to the glasses, and set it off for its longest cycle, which lasts for one hour and a half.

    One can time it perfectly for breakfast, and in the meantime relax with the Daily Telegraph letters page.

    Avril Wright

    Snettisham, Norfolk

        1. Keep in mind that there were long ago days when the local directory would be quite small. Our phone number long ago was TRAnent 23.
          Now, of course there are no telephone directories. We have some old ones that are losing their usefulness, year by year. Across the nation many may have been put to more urgent use in the Great Toilet Roll shortage of 2020.

    4. Miele dishwasher. Just had to get in that detail. If it had been Beko, Avril wouldn’t have been so specific.

      1. Try boiling it for 3 minutes. I like my white still a bit snotty: that way none of the yolk solidifies and is perfect for dipping in sourdough toast soldiers with lots of butter.

        1. What I actually do is put the eggs in a pan cover with cold water,and put the lid on.
          Bring to the boil when properly boiling remove form the heat. Keep the lid on and leave for 6 mins = soft (Grizzly style). 7 mins = just solid. 8 mins = fully hard boiled. No cracked shells provided you do not keep the eggs in a fridge.

          1. I do the same, Johnny, but egg straight from t’fridge. No problems, unless you drop the egg into the pan…

          2. I never keep eggs (nor tomatoes, nor cucumbers) in the fridge. For soft boiled I set a timer for 3 minutes then drop the eggs into gently boiling water then remove them as soon as the timer sounds. For hard-boiled I put them into cold water, bring to the boil then boil them for 12 minutes before rinsing them in cold water. I never cook ‘coddled’ eggs (half-cooked) since I can’t stand them.

      2. Provided it’s a chicken egg.
        Maybe Avril likes a hearty breakfast to set her up for the day.

        Ostrich egg

        Time to boil: Soft boil – 50 mins, hard boil – 1½-2 hrs.

        1. I think possibly the combination high pressure water and dishwasher detergent (think of the damage to glassware) would test an eggshell to destruction.
          And I can’t believe I’m having this conversation.

      1. OK – someone probably had to post this, and it’s me…

        She was standing in the kitchen, preparing our usual soft-boiled eggs and toast for breakfast, wearing only the T-shirt that she normally
        slept in. As I walked in, almost awake, she turned to me and said softly,”You’ve got to make love to me this very moment!”
        My eyes lit up and I thought, “I am either still dreaming or this is going to be my lucky day!” Not wanting to lose the moment, I embraced her and then gave it my all right there on the kitchen, table. Afterwards she said, “Thanks,” and returned to the stove, her T-shirt still around her neck.
        Happy, but a little puzzled, I asked, “What was that all about?” She explained, “The egg timer’s broken.”

    8. I can’t imagine a slower or more expensive way of cooking an egg…

      Looks like a send-up to me…no one could be quite that stupid, even Avril Wrong of Snetters.

      1. Perhaps Avril wanted everyone who reads the DT letters to know she can afford Miele kitchen appliances?

    9. Why not just get the dishwasher out of bed and tell her to shout when the eggs are ready. Quilt over head…

      1. Morning, Korky

        She’s a slow reader if she needs an hour and a half to read the DT letters.

      2. I trust that is not going to be anything smutty involving pink-cheeked Guardsmen and Parisian Tangos?

  17. Article from Conservative Woman on the ‘record breaking’ month of May we’ve just endured.

    AFTER the BBC’s ‘environment analyst’ Roger Harrabin went into hysterics about last month’s sunny weather in his piece ‘Climate change: May was sunniest calendar month on record in UK’, it is appropriate to point out to him that last month was far from being the hottest on record in England:

    Conservative Woman- Harrabin’s Hot Air Over a Month of Sunshine

  18. Whatever the chief Fental Officer says dentists have not come out of this well. Abandoning patients is indefensible.

    SIR – On behalf of our colleagues in general dental practice, we at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh feel it is important to express our concerns about the recent request from Sara Hurley, the Chief Dental Officer, for them to return to work on June 8 (report, June 3).

    This announcement has left patients expecting to access routine dental care as soon as practices reopen. This may not be the case, however, due to a lack of appropriate personal protective equipment.

    The College is advising its members and fellows not to return to work unless they can be assured they will have appropriate PPE at all times. The safety of patients and dental teams is essential, and guidelines must be followed if we are to prevent a second spike of coronavirus infections.

    We have written to the Chief Fental Officer and several Members of Parliament to express these views. We also wish to reassure the public that the dental profession is striving to maintain exemplary levels of safety in these challenging times.

    Professor Fraser McDonald

    Dean of Dentistry

    Professor Philip Taylor

    Dean Elect

    Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh

    1. Behaving rather like the teachers lead by the Left to hurt those they are responsible for.

        2. My wife and i were on holiday in Cornwall with our lab not long after that memorable incident.
          We met one of Fenton’s sisters.
          Fortunately nothing was passed on to ours.

  20. Morning all 😊
    I wonder what gastly political and or left wing mess will be leaving a rancid stain on humanity, is in store for us over the weekend ?

      2. I’m ashamed of what this country has turned into, it seemed to start sometime in the late 90s……………. Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to …

      3. Morning Belle. Someone called Geoff Graham observed the other day we have lived through the most Peaceful and Prosperous era in UK history and we should not complain too much at its ending with us.

          1. As much as it pains me to have no grandchildren, I can understand t’Lad’s reasons for wanting to avoid offspring.

          2. Unfortunately it’s the responsible and the thinkers who make such decisions. The irresponsible and largely benefit-demanding have no such qualms.

  21. Tony Blair tells government mass testing regime must be introduced to keep virus at bay. 5 June 2020.

    A mass coronavirus testing regime that allows the bulk of the population to be tested must be adopted to keep the disease in check, Tony Blair has said.

    The Labour former prime minister warned that the UK is unlocking restrictions when Covid-19 levels remain “stubbornly high”.

    You would think that someone with Blair’s record would avoid saying anything with “mass” in the text. The last time he used it brought on a catastrophe that is still unfolding even now!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/coronavirus-latest-tony-blair-testing-trace-nhs-covid19-a9550041.html#gsc.tab=0

      1. What other solution is there what with him being married to slotgob ‘n all.

      2. Of other men’s penises.

        ‘He was charged and appeared in
        court at Bow Street Magistrates Court

        for importunity in a public
        toilet with another male. He tried to get

        sexual favour from the other man;
        little did he know that the toilet was

        being watched by police. Blair was
        fined £50, and walked away with

        nobody knowing who he really was
        as he used his middle names to cover

        who he was. Charles Lynton is the
        name used, and his friends in court

        got him off with a fine, because
        he is one of them.’

        In the ensuing discussion a “correction” was offered in the
        following terms:

        . The aim was NOT to
        destroy someone but to teach them propriety!

        The individual importuned was a
        close protection officer who had him under surveilance I am given to
        understand.

        He did not appear in Court and
        was allowed to use a KNOWN pseudonym, often a style in such cases, at the time.

        The record is no longer in the
        books as I have checked in some detail!

        He did NOT receive special
        treatment at the time as he was very junior.

        I gather his conviction was never
        reported to the bar which was in fact a mandatory point of honour – who would
        expect honour from Charles Lynton

    2. Is he getting commission? Fiver per swab? Or is the money being placed Cherie’s bank account?
      Morning, Minty.

    3. To be fair to TB he did not trash the government. He was quite sympathetic to the difficulties the government has at the moment. The male presenter gave him time to answer in contrast to the female who talked through the answers Grant Shapps was giving. Shapps seems captivated by the Greens and plans to give his support to green matters when the UK starts to recover.

      1. Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May. Not one of them are prepared to hold to the traditional tenet, that ex Prime Ministers, while out of office, keep their traps firmly shut.

        1. They all want Britain to be subservient to the EU.

          Unfortunately none are willing to explain publicly why.

          1. I suppose ‘it’s a nice little earner for me’ wouldn’t go down too well with Jo(e) Public.

    4. The only thing testing will do is let government know who is infected. Otherwise, it changes nothing. Actions take on the better knowledge of the scale of infection can make things better, but then, maybe it’s better to just leave the f**k alone?

    1. And what about all the young people who get together in whatever form they wish and then separate creating the need for two homes instead of one? The way marriage has been downgraded and denigrated over the years has not helped. It’s not a question of the older generation versus the younger as the article tries to suggest we are all living longer and life in general is so different to when Alf and I married in 1968.

      1. We married in 1968 as well , and elder son lives with us. We have a bit of space to move around , not alot , but enough . We bought a larger house years ago, we had loads of visitors in those days , some of them elderly . Our neighbours are not in close proximity , so we have some privacy , as do others. We do not live in a posh area, it is just a large village .

        Many people who live in many of the housing association houses are single mothers with a few children , they get priority over divorced / single men. People seem to shack up as and when . This is why there is a demand for housing , and of course not forgetting the tens of thousands of immigrants who come in to the country each year.
        I suppose the 3 million people that Boris promised us from Hong Kong will have loads of money and be able to buy wherever they want in Britain .

        1. Shouldn’t think for a moment they’d want to come here and who could blame them. The government could cheer us all up by declaring that, at some point next year when we’re properly out of the EU, we will introduce a 5year moratorium on immigration. All temporary visitors will be required to leave their mobile number with immigration when they arrive (plus all their other details obvs!) so that they can be checked back out again when they leave. Depending on whether they are students, etc., these visitors should be followed up and deported if they overstay their visit. … doh, that’s what they’re supposed to be doing already! Oh well, I can dream, can’t I!

    2. Should everyone give up their property, regardless of what it is, because someone else wants it? Bugger that!

    3. This BTL rather sums it up …
      Here is a question for the readers. How many of you have had more than two children? If you have, then it is possible you have been part of the housing shortage. If you haven’t then it is not your problem. That then begs the question. Should those who have created the shortage be responsible for resolving it?
      Maybe the government might ask itself? Has it allowed more people to relocate and live in the UK, than is necessary to compensate for those who are leaving or simply dying off, without children? The problem with housing supply is not lack of housing, it is lack of controls on the number of people seeking to live in the UK.
      It’s a simple supply and demand issue. Nothing else. The native UK population has been under the reproduction rate for decades. What more needs to be said?

      1. Mustn’t forget the circa 250,000 termination of pregnancies performed annually in the UK

        1. Yes, that does help a little but the population is still increasing, out of control.

          1. It isn’t, however, the indigenous population which is increasing out of control.

      2. I have 3 grandchildren and only one is in the UK at the moment at University. She will probably return to her family in the USA later this year. I live in a 4 bedroomed house on my own but will move to a bungalow if I find a decent one. I will not be forced to move. My second son has not married and has no intention of having any children. He lives on the outskirts of London. My thoughts on where the population growth in white and BAME sections of the UK public is growing fast is unprintable but this growth is leading to a catastrophe.

        2. You would be very unwise to consider moving before carefully doing the numbers.

          Stamp Duty, plus VAT on all the costs of moving make it a very easy way for the Government to make money out of the oldies, in many cases most of the money you think you’ll make goes to the Government in one form or another..

          Everyone that we know who has “downsized” has regretted it.

        3. I have no grandchildren, and have one grand-nephew. The youngest of my nephews and nieces is 22 years old.

          The growth in the world’s human population since 1998 of about 2 billion must have come from somewhere.

        4. I don’t have any children. My brother had two, neither of whom is married.

      3. I have been saying for years that we don’t have a housing problem, we have a population problem.

    4. They are not moving because of stamp duty, conveyancing fees and the lack of suitable properties to downsize to.

    2. I watched it on your recommendation, Sue, last night.

      It is well worth viewing, and broadcasting, to get it as wide an audience as possible.

    4. Just reading a selection of the 17,000+ comments below the video on Youtube shows you just how polarised the US is. By speaking out in a frank way and drawing attention to unpalatable facts I fear she has made herself a target for those who want to continue to promote hate.

      1. She’s been speaking out for several years.

        And then there’s also Dr.Karlyn Borysenko, who until last year, and for the last twenty years, was a Democrat voter. She voted for Hillary Clinton,, but she’s completely switched her views on politics around and is almost a girly-fan of Trump.

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CvILZM-xa7c
        “Donald Trump Is A Genius”

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p7T9HphcFKI
        “The left is seriously delusional. Trump Derangement Syndrome is real, yo!”

  25. Of course the news in the UK has been preoccupied over the last few days with glorifying a murdered American gangster to bother with affronts to democracy closer to home. I had this message just now on Facebook. I first encountered this group protesting outside the Vienna State Opera about Erdogan’s behaviour in Afrin, Northern Syria. In attendance there were the most chilled-out bunch of local coppers I have seen since I was in Amsterdam.

    Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign’s STATEMENT on the Coup Against Democracy in Turkey following the arrest tonight of democratically elected Kurdish MPs Leyla Güven and Musa Farisogullari of HDP.

    Please indicate below in comments or DM if you want to add your name in support and in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in HDP.
    BEGINS.

    “Democracy is on a knife-edge in Turkey. Thursday night marked a further escalation in an attempt to silence all opposition in what is a coup against democracy and part of a political genocide against Kurds.

    The arrest of HDP MP’s Leyla Guven and Musa Farisogullari on trumped-up terror charges is a stain on Turkey and further evidence of its slide into dictatorship.

    The formation of the HDP represented a real step forward for democracy in Turkey bringing together broad layers of trade unionists, socialists, environmentalists, women’s rights activists, Kurds, Circassian’s Alevi’s, Armenians, Turks and others.

    But this is what made it dangerous and a threat to the Turkish state who fear a unity that will bring an end to its authoritarian grip on power.

    The HDP won seats in parliament for the first time in 2015 breaking the majority of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

    In November 2016 he moved against the party, arresting its MPs in a series of nighttime raids with the oppression continuing to escalate.

    170,000 public sector workers have been sacked, thousands of academics purged for signing a peace petition and hundreds of media organisations shut as Erdogan consolidates his authoritarian grip on power.

    More than 15,000 HDP members and activists have been detained since 2015, with 6,000 receiving jail sentences, according to the party.

    At least 200 elected officials and seven former HDP MPs are behind bars, including former party co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas.

    Operations against HDP have intensified in recent weeks amid speculation of a possible snap general election. 45 out of 65 HDP-run municipalities have had their mayors removed on trumped-up terrorism charges since local elections last March.

    A further six were not allowed to take office despite being elected, bringing the total to 51. According to the HDP, at least 21 of the mayors remain incarcerated.

    Britain has played a key role in legitimising the attacks on democracy through continued political and military support, including two state visits for President Erdogan in the last two years.

    We demand an end to the normalising of relations with Turkey, an end to arms sales, and condemnation of Erdogan’s political repression and mass arrests of elected opposition politicians and activists.

    Turkey must be isolated as a pariah state as South Africa was under the apartheid regime.
We call on the government to make an immediate and urgent statement condemning Turkey for its continued attacks on democracy and for the freezing relations until all political prisoners are released.

    We demand the Labour Party issue an urgent statement in solidarity with their sister party, the HDP and press the government on the issue in parliament.

    Resistance is Life – We stand in solidarity with the HDP and all those fighting for freedom and democracy in Turkey.”

  26. I see following the Only Black Lives Matter demo on Wednesday rentacrowd moved on to the home of Dominc Cummings.

    This is nothing but political intimidation and ever so slightly bonkers, these people have come from a demonstration about the death of a man in a foreign country thousands of miles away. They broke the social distancing guidelines to demonstrate outside of the home of a man they say also broke social distancing rules (showing an alarming lack of self awareness) blaming him for a virus that came from Communist China and the death of man at the hands of a Democrat controlled Police Service in a Democrat controlled State.

    This is the warped mentality of the left, the tragedy is nothing of what I have written above will register, much like the White Queen they can believe in six impossible things before breakfast.

    #NotaCult

    1. Any excuse to have a go. Didn’t Black Lives Matter bring retribution down on House of Reeves in Croydon (and one of the few buildings there to survive the blitz and comprehensive redevelopment) because of what they did to a bruvver in Tottenham?

    1. Good morning, Peddy. Why is it that when I see you have posted “Good night all” it is usually a couple of hours after the event, and when you post “Good morning all” it is usually a couple of hours after the event? Is it because you are a lark and am I an owl?

      1. It is perfectly feasible to save bedspace by putting the Spanish in with the Germans. The Germans get up about the same time the Spanish go to bed.

  28. I’ve looked and looked and looked but I still can’t see a hypocrite…

    LAMMY: YOU CAN’T CONDEMN CUMMINGS THEN GO ON PUBLIC PROTESTS
    https://youtu.be/rhsTPn6b7RI
    In a not-so-subtle dig at his colleague Barry Gardiner, David Lammy told Question Time viewers last night that he isn’t participating in the Black Lives Matter protests, as you can’t “one week condemn Dominic Cummings for travelling up the country and the next go out” and protest. If left-wingers who criticised Cummings’ actions shouldn’t go out and protest, Guido imagines the movement may snuff out pretty quickly…

    Lammy also said he won’t be protesting as he’s in a position of responsibility, implying those who do go out are irresponsible, whilst saying he applauds those who “have taken to the streets in our country” A record number of flip flops in record time…

    1. Barry Gardiner is now learning that in the House of Commons the opposition sits on the opposite benches, but your main enemies sit behind (or either side of) you.

    2. What a protagonist slime bag far left tosser that thing is, he represents his own views and one with any common sense would have nothing to do with him.

  29. One must question the mentality of someone (Avril Wright) who put’s an egg in their dishwasher to see if it turns out suitably soft boiled for their pallette

          5. Well, Prince Harry’s is really Henry, so I’m doubly confused now!

            :-))

    3. She could at least have told us which settings she used on the dishwasher. Did she use the gentle or heavy cycle, did she use heated dry?

      Just asking for a friend.

    4. I don’t have eggs* on my palette, Alec. Just oils or acrylics 🙂
      *Egg yolks are used in tempera.

  30. From ZH: Tomorrow’s US jobs report will be one for the history books: with a record 19% Unemployment, and an additional 7 million job losses added to the 20 million from last month, the labor picture will be far worse than anything observed before in US history, eclipsing the darkest days of the Great Depression.

    I wonder what the true picture is in the UK?

    To reduce unemployment by one million requires the creation of 1,000 jobs per day, 7 days, per week, 52 weeks per year for nearly all of 3 years……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ec119fa64d44378f9747c8a2ac90fb5e4daad4aa174e2c9cf40a40664b7939a.png

    1. The true picture in the UK? God knows. But while all this chaos is going on, jobs lost etc, our govt carries on fetching in unemployable, uneducated non-English speaking, our culture hating, 3rd worlders, in for a free life.

      1. Be fair, walter, the government is at least hitting one of their targets. It’s not one the people want and it’s not one the government publicises but it nevertheless exists and they’re doing their damnedest to succeed.😎

    2. They shut just about every business in the country and then express surprise at the unemployment numbers?

      1. Morning.
        Here too.
        Reminds me of when we used to go camping in a tent. Slightly chilly, cloudy, breezy & damp!

        2. DON’T TOUCH THE ROOF!!!!!!!
          The anthem that rang throughout every fortnight spent hunkering down in some blighted Welsh field.

          2. I never discovered why we didn’t have one.
            As children, you tend to just go along with things.

          3. ;-))
            Indeed… and everything damp, creepy-crawlies all over the canvas, and the gnats inside rather than outside.
            We bought a Lavvu in the end – tall enough to stand up in, so you didn’t need to crouch or roll around on your bed to get dressed, and could sit in comfort. It even has a woodburning stove, to dry you out on those all-so-rainy days! You don’t half get strange looks when you fire up…

  34. ‘Morning All

    This morning we are lectured to in the DT by Setti Warren

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/05/moment-generational-change-black-people-learn-lessons-past/

    This brave man who rose to political office from the mean drug filled streets of the ghetto overcoming obstacles that would crush a lesser man………………..

    Oh Wait………

    Scion of a political family,private school,prestigious Boston College,a lifetime riding the outrage bus sucking on the federal and state teats,never created a job or made a payroll

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setti_Warren
    I never owned any slaves,you never picked any cotton,I need no lectures from such as you
    FOAD
    Edit
    Nailed (see Lammy for more details)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/76719a35374e973e8aad52432245a731f803f51e8800b006a6c679636ae40067.jpg

    1. Decades later, his words still ring true.

      Whatever happened to “I want my little children to be judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character”?

      No profit in integrity, decency and self respect, I suppose. Far too much like hard work when you can simply say ‘I is black’ and demand other people treat you as something special.

      I find myself becoming the very thing I stand opposed to: by making their skin colour an issue, they are defining people who disagree with them as a stereotype: you’re with us or you’re against us. I am neither. I find the actions of these thugs repugnant. They are racist, anti social, violent thugs because that is how they are behaving. What they are encouraging by their ranting is a sort of self fulfilling prophecy: they complain about racism and set about destroying property, stealing and assaulting people when others oppose that those looters, rioters and bullies call *them* racists.

      Racists complaining others are racist because they comdemn your violent behaviour which reinforces the negative stereotype you’re supposedly complaining about.

      The world’s gone potty.

    2. Just as Labour have a vested interest in keeping people poor and dependent upon government largesse.

  35. So Tim Davie, currently CEO of BBC Studios, has been appointed as the new BBC Director General. This ensures more of the same.

    1. Of course. The Left always looks after its own, and despises the people who pay their wages.

    4. I thought the current DG (formerly something to do with English Opera?) was only appointed a couple of years ago. Has he reached his pension and golden goodbye award so soon? DGs used to last a decade or more.

      1. Tony Hall has been D-G for seven years – he’ll be 70 next year.

        Edit: no D-G has served for more than 9 years, since the first – Lord Reith – who was in post for 11 years.

      1. I expect he has tattoos.

        Without tattoos he wouldn’t have any street cred with the opinion-influencers who are the sort of people who consider tattoos should be mandatory.

      3. He does, doesn’t he?

        He also has that unmistakeable sneer!

        Good afternoon, JS.

        1. Somehow he looks like the sort of person who has interests in common with Max Mosley, and I don’t mean motor racing.

    6. I presume he now sees the left light.
      “Davie stood as a councillor for the Conservative Party in Hammersmith in 1993 and 1994[9] and was deputy chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative party in the 1990s”
      Wiki.

  37. Emma Watson responds to criticism for her support of George Floyd. 4 June 2020 • 11:45pm.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07c2cb27d60197be7733fc8b48fb0836d017f0bfe40b106aadfd47096ba91659.jpg

    The actress was criticised for including white borders on black squares she posted online in a tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement.

    Nothing about her supporting a dangerous career criminal caught in the act of passing counterfeit money to fund his drug addiction then?

    Just curious!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/03/emma-watson-responds-criticism-show-support-george-floyd/

    1. You have to publicly demonstrate that you are a leftie to get work from the BBC.

      Whether she believes it is an entirely different thing.

  39. SIR – What a pity that in 2011, when Caroline Spelman was Secretary of State for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, she rejected Thames Water’s proposal to build a reservoir in Abingdon, which would now be supplying eight million people.

    Barbara Ray

    London SE12

    1. Spelman would be able to employ the, “I was following (EU) orders,” defence if she was ever queried on her decisions not to allow building of the reservoirs to hold that resource so necessary for life and healthy living.

      1. Directives, not ‘orders’. A bit like guidelines, one of those flexible words that means what they don’t tell you.

        1. Order:

          an authoritative command or instruction.

          Directive:

          an official or authoritative instruction.

          tim5165, I get your drift. “I was following orders,” has, for the EU, too much of a Germanic ring to it, perhaps?

          1. Always obeyed, often gold-plated by the Brits. Even though I’ve been an active secessionist for more than twenty years, I sometimes wonder what things would be like if our masters had been as cynical as our fellow Europeans in there use and abuse of EU membership.

            I’ll get me gilet.

          2. but what is a ‘guideline’, other than a useful rope on a mountain path? Let alone ‘guidance’?

          3. EU speak is deliberately vague and therefore open to different interpretations as evidenced by the documentation that treacherous May and Robbins brought back from Brussels.

    2. It would be interesting to learn who’s advice she based that decision on.

  40. Good morning, all. Some light rain – nothing to write home about. Might be a bit more later. Not what was forecast.

    1. Morning Bill, morning all. I’m afraid that we hogged all the rain in Yorkshire. Very soggy night.

      1. Dry as a pommie towel in mid Herts. 😊

        An expression borrowed from an old squash playing mate.
        Give us a beer mate I’m as ………. a pommie towel.

      2. Good morning all.
        We grabbed quite a bit here in Derbyshire. Gully grid up the road must need clearing as the water’s flowing across the road outside.

  41. NHS test-and-trace system ‘not fully operational until September’. Thu 4 Jun 2020.

    It comes as a leaked email from the chief executive of Serco – one of the main companies contracted to deliver the service – revealed how he doubted the scheme would evolve smoothly but said he wanted it to “cement the position of the private sector” in the NHS supply chain.

    The disclosures come as scientists said lockdown measures should not be eased until the test-and-trace service is well established. The system, which tracks those who have contracted coronavirus and anyone they have been in contact with, before asking them to self-isolate, was rolled out across England last week with the help of 25,000 contact tracers.

    This is just another addition (Lock Down, Quarantine, Face Masks) to the epic of incompetence and stupidity that has characterised the whole Government response to the Virus. The only thing we have left to see is the Cabinet appearing at one of the briefings and all simultaneously attempting to shoot themselves in the left foot and missing!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/04/nhs-track-and-trace-system-not-expected-to-be-operating-fully-until-september-coronavirus

    1. It has nothing to do with efficient track and trace or any other putative development.
      It has to do with dragging matters out for so long that we’ll be grateful for the relative freedom of Stalinism New Normal.

    2. Ah, Serco. Houses for immigrants. CEO Rupert Soames. Looking for a “business gonnegtion*” to the Government?

      * Meyer Wolfshiem in “The Great Gatsby”

          1. Not for nothing can the letters in his name be re-arranged into Romping Arse…..

          2. Where is Jeremy Clarkson when you need him.

            [Clarkson once famously punched Moron in the gob!]

        2. Listen Moron, if you are taken in by your son’s bilge then more fool you. It takes 2 (or more) to ‘distance’…

      2. You T_B

        The only good thimg about the ‘lefties’ is that the Clap will bring them all down to earth

        The ‘males’ ie those with low-down stickyoutie bits, will have fun with umbrellas.

        I do not really think, that they should have had the whole of UK out on Thursday evenings wishing ‘Clap for Carers’

          1. Only by stoppage of Tot, so the medication would work (so I have been told)

            The RN did not punish you, as that would stop you reporting sick.

            The Yanks punished yoy AND told your family, hence Vietnam Rose was a lethal weapon for the Vietcong. The GI’s took the disease back to the US with them.

    3. Abysmal. The principle here is cash flow. Universities are looking a financial disaster and they will do anything to keep the punters students happy. Close all but a dozen or so down.

    4. Universities used to be about learning different subjects – now it seems it is all about learning how to be subjugated….

  43. So this mask wearing on public transport is it more to do with psychological warfare than any use to prevent Covid?

    I think the government has hit on a new way to control people, make up a silly rule with some fear attached, millions of low IQ sheep will obey, the mobs of jobsworths and the rule obeyer’s will be out policing it, those with any semblance of self respect and common sense will have to comply, breaking their spirits in the process.

    You then have a compliant herd readied for the next indignity.

    1. Stand Up! Sit down! Stand up and put your chair on the desk! Put the chair on the floor! Sit down!

      I remember this from primary school; it’s called obedience training.

    2. Back at the beginning of March when everyone ws still travelling, that would have made sense.

      It now as useful as a quarantine on airport arrivals.

    3. A work colleague told me yesterday that she turned up for a hospital appointment wearing a mask and was told to take it off, it’s useless and you shouldn’t be inhaling your own carbon emissions.

      1. I had to attend A & E recently. I decided to wear a mask as i was going to the ‘House of Death’. I have no idea if they are any use or not but decided to err on the side of caution. All the staff were wearing them.

        On being assessed, besides my injury, i was asked name, address and telephone number.

        I returned to admissions to await someone to take me in. A name was called. I looked around and the only other person there was a young pregnant lady and i didn’t think her name was Philip. So i went to the reception desk and asked did you call me? Philip Dawson? she asked. I said no, Philip *******.

        It turned out that name address and telephone number were all wrong.

        So much for masks.

        1. How long did they rummage around your innards before they discovered the baby was missing?

          1. Har har.

            It took an hour to be processed and admitted. A very nice lady nurse gave me codeine and when that was obviously not working she brought me fast acting morphine.

            It took two hours to see the doctor. Busy on the wards i expect.

            30 minutes later i left with more painkillers.

            There were a total of 8 people in A & E that evening.

          2. Pain, what on earth was wrong with you.. Did you break a bone or have toothache , tummy ache , what then?

            Are you a bit better now?

          3. I am a bit better now. Don’t have to use ice packs anymore. The bruising was in glorious technicolour.

            I had just finished serving up a steak dinner when Dolly tried to murder me. Not for the first time. She got under my feet and i tripped. I crashed into the coffee table. Unfortunately it was my groin that took most of the impact. The swelling was appalling. Two or three days later the skin began to fail under the pressure and a huge amount of brown and yellow sticky puss began to flow. Thank goodness tor tena pads. I’m still a bit leaky now but the agony has toned down to just stinging. I’m also off the codeine.

            I don’t blame dolly as she always becomes very excitable when meat is around.

            Anyway…enough about me…how are you?

          7. Dare I suggest you had a narrow escape. That sounds terrible . I hope you are mending nicely . Poor Dolly must have had a fright as well.

            My hip is playing up, but it is affecting my knee , result of lockdown , walking on hard pavement around the village for exercise, very painful. I am exercising the dogs on fields again, much softer , but pain killers are a nuisance.

          11. You can probably find an English version of a site like this. Footwear is very important with the type of pain you are suffering. I know things like padded trainers/sneakers aren’t necessarily your go to fashion but if they can ease the pain, it can be worth it.

      2. I believe they are more about protecting others from your exhalations rather than the other way round. There was a good “More or Less” on the World Service a couple of weeks ago on the topic.

        Apparently we breath out 2 sizes of droplets large and small, the large ones obviously have a greater viral load, but are affected by gravity and fall to ground quickly, the smaller ones though float around like dust. Wearing a mask gives others a bit more protection from your own large droplets.

    4. “Can you describe the mask the assailant who stole your handbag was wearing, madam?”

    5. Surely the ‘low IQ sheep’ (sic) will have no choice: no face mask = no boarding of buses or trains.

        1. Oi! Careful!

          I’m from Derbyshire. I understand sheep. I speak sheep! 🐏

    7. It’ll put a few people off using public transport. The only time I go by bus is if I go to London or into Gloucester, when I park the car at my friend’s house.

      Shame I renewed our railcards before the lockdown.

  44. Soros says – Stay indoors for two months in isolation
    Soros says – Furlough millions of people
    Soros says – Clap and bang pans on a Thursday
    Soros says – Keep 2m apart
    Soros says – Kneel for gangsters
    Soros says – Wear a mask on public transport.

    – Street protesters should social distance
    – Arrr caught all you rule abiders out there didn’t I

    1. Boris the Turk has shut the Churches and the Public Houses and has now ordered women to cover their lower faces when they travel on public transport. How soon before the Westminster people traffickers ban bacon butties?

    1. Unfortunately, it is no longer one of the best countries anywhere to be an indigenous native.

  46. The Rise and Fall of the British Police

    In light of the recent abominable and unprofessional behaviour, during riots and public demonstrations, by members of what used to be a well-respected British police force — together with their now routine displays of a wholesale lack of dignity, respect for the public they used to serve, and dismissive attitude towards that very same public — here I have researched an insight of how it used to be in England around one hundred years ago.

    Reproduced, below, is the Foreword to the First Edition of Moriarty’s Police Law (that was reproduced in the Twenty-First Edition, 1972) written by the late Sir Charles Haughton Rafter, K.B.E. Chief Constable of the Birmingham City Police Force. Sir Charles dicusses the trials and tribulations faced by the police constable, each day, on duty, and the absence of easily assimilated advice and guidance on law and procedure prior to the publishing of Moriarty’s Police Law. His admiration for those performing those duties — and his bitter distaste for the lack of support they received — knew no bounds. He wrote:

    In writing these remarks I feel impelled to make a few observations upon the police themselves.

    After a long and varied experience of them and of the way in which they perform their duties I must give unqualified testimony to my admiration and respect for the Police Forces of this country. Their fairness to and consideration for prisoners — as for anyone in distress — their tact, their courtesy, the many little acts of kindness that they do so quietly and unostentatiously from day to day, their great services to the public, have so endeared them to me that I am proud to reckon myself one of their number.

    Only one closely associated with them can realise the immense knowledge possessed by the police of the intimate private lives and affairs of so many people. Yet never a hint of these matters is ever made public. the police force is, indeed, a silent service. What social mischief would ensue, were it otherwise, it is impossible to imagine. The public are justified in the confidence they place in their integrity and discretion.

    In the course of his daily duties the constable must encounter many matters of much difficulty upon which he must decide on the instant — matters calling for tact, judgment, knowledge of the law and of his duties, and for decision of character.

    To anyone responsible for the administration of a great police force one experience which occurs from time to time must make him think. It is the occasion of the great criminal trial, or perhaps a great criminal appeal. ranged on each side are the best legal brains and the best legal knowledge in the country, and, on the Bench, some of our most learned and most distinguished Judges.

    Many conferences have been held, and great time and large fees have been spent in obtaining the best legal advice, and in putting the case forward in its best legal aspect, both by the prosecution and the defence. The Court — both bench and bar — is piled up with legal reference books. Case after case is quoted and debated. There is much discussion of the “Judges’ Rules”.

    In the midst of all this there is a solitary police constable. He is the principle witness for the prosecution. He is in charge of the case. Naturally the question arises, “What’s it all about?” It is the conduct or the action of the constable that is being discussed.

    Quite away from any help or legal advice, alone and unassisted by books of reference, he has arrested a man for murder who is now on trial or appealing against his conviction. The great question now is whether the constable has acted legally — in making the arrest, in cautioning his prisoner, in taking a voluntary statement from him which he now denies or alleges to have been extorted, in the method by which the prisoner has been identified, and in many other points which counsel, at their leisure, after consulting their clients and their books, most ingeniously devise. Clearly the constable is on his trial as well as the accused.

    As he goes on his daily tour of duty he knows not what is in store for him, or what emergency he may encounter. It behoves him to adopt the Boy Scouts’ motto and “Be Prepared” for any eventuality that may arise. He will have no time to consult musty reference books. The law and his knowledge of duty must be in his head, upon which he can alone rely to do the right thing at the right time; so that he may emerge unscathed from the ordeal of legal criticism that he must encounter later on.

    The constable suffers from many disabilities, not the least of which is the paucity of those books from which he may make himself master of his powers and duties.

    Of these powers and duties, that of arrest with all its concomitants is the greatest, as well as his greatest responsibility.

    The Common Law with regard to arrests is very complicated, depending as it does on abstruse definitions of various crimes, and their division into felonies, misdemeanours, and minor offences, or petty misdemeanours, the power of arrest varying in each case.

    In felonies and misdemeanours the power of arrest comes from the Common Law and Statutes; in case of minor offences the police can only arrest where the statute creating the offence gives that power.

    In felonies and misdemeanours also the powers of arrest vary in accordance with a variety of circumstances. The Common Law of arrest is interpreted, or amended also from time to time, by an immense number of judgments in what is called “Case Law”. These legal decisions are intended to make the law clear for the guidance of the Courts and for lawyers.

    There is no concise and easily understood direction for the guidance of constables. The main books of reference are also inaccessible to the ordinary constable.

    At a meeting of the Chief Constables’ Association on May 30, 1918, in an address I said:

    “Consider that most important subject, the powers and duties of constables in making arrests. I do not know any book published for the use of any of the English police forces which gives full and adequate instruction on this subject. The best instruction for police that I know is in the Irish Constables’ Guide, by the late Sir Andrew Reed, K.C.B., Inspector-General of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

    In order to compile a complete and exhaustive instruction on this point one has to consult many books. In none of the ordinary law books available by the police can one find the subject treated as a whole. For example, in Stone’s Justices’ Manual it is dealt with in scraps in over fifty different places. In Archbold’s Pleading, Evidence and Practice in Criminal cases, in about twenty. The reason of this is that these books are not written for police purposes. The most comprehensive statement of the law on this subject, and the standard of authority, is Burn’s Justice of the Peace (now out of print); but, to complete it, one has to consult many others, including not only those above referred to, but Blackstone’s Commentaries, Russell on Crimes, and other standard works.

    These books are not within reach of the ordinary police constable. How, then, is he to know the law, and his powers and duty under it, if this instruction is not collected from its various sources and put before him in the form of a comprehensive book?”

    These being my views on the subject of police instruction, I congratulate Mr Moriarty on his meticulously careful preparation of this book of “Police Law”, which goes a long way in providing in a comprehensive form that knowledge which the constable finds it difficult to obtain.

    The book shows much evidence of careful research and co-ordination. I think it will supply a long-felt want to many members of the Police Service.

    C. H. Rafter.
    Birmingham
    December, 1928.

    Further to this the late Captain Sir Percy J Sillitoe K.B.E., [former Chief Constable of Chesterfield (1923–25), East Riding of Yorkshire (1925–26), Sheffield (1926–31), Glasgow (1931–43) and Kent (1943–46) before being appointed Director-General of MI5 (1946–53)] described, in his 1955 autobiography, Cloak Without Dagger, his preference for the type of man he believed would make the ideal police constable:

    It does not seem to me essential that a police constable should be a man of more than average intelligence or that he is necessarily going to be a better policeman if his standard of education is higher than the next man’s. Indeed I once argued with some passion on this point with Lord Trenchard. Trenchard was called upon by Ramsey MacDonald to deal with corruption in the Metropolitan Police Force and enhance its prestige in the early 1930’s after the case of the notorious Mrs Meyrick and her illegal night clubs. It was his opinion that if university graduates could be induced to join the police force, improved standards of police conduct would automatically result. As an outcome of his belief the Hendon Police College was set up to be a staff college where university and public-school men — together with a small number of special entries of a high standard of education — would be trained for three years to become an “officer” class in the police. These young men were to leave the college with the rank of Station Sub-Inspector. My view was — and still is — that the police force needs not exceptionally high standards of education, but very great integrity of character, combined with the wisdom which comes to some — though not all — men when they have had wide and varied practical experience of human nature. To me, it seemed absurd that these young men should be sent out as the superiors of Superintendents twice their age who often had a great fund of real knowledge acquired through their years of service, and who were now, as a result of this scheme, debarred from any chance of promotion beyond that rank.

    After a time, of course, the number of Hendon graduates was found to be heavily in excess of the vacancies available for Station Sub-Inspectors. A few of them did eventually become efficient Chief Constables in the provinces, but Hendon College, as such, did not survive, and I personally feel that it is not to be regretted. I am, of course, in no way deprecating the entry of university graduates into the police force — on the contrary. But I am convinced that a man who has a university degree does not ipso facto make a good policeman; and I am equally sure that there is no way of becoming a good senior police officer other than by starting at the bottom and spending at least a few years doing the work of an ordinary police constable. And here I would like to stress, also, that since many more ordinary constables are needed than senior officers, men who do not aspire to high positions but who are unwavering in their determinaton to discharge their simple duties conscientiously are no less necessary to the Force than are a smaller number of enterprising and ambitious men who work with rapid promotion in mind.

    P. J. Sillitoe,
    London
    1955.

    It occurs to me that those in charge of today’s excuse for a rabble that used to be police have either lost sight of, or even have no inkling of, what used to stand for normality in the office of police constable. An ill-thought-out graduate-entry scheme was instigated in 1978. A lot, if not most, of the ills befalling the British police that continues to this day can be directly traced back to that benighted governmental decision. Concurrently, the long-awaited elevation in police pay and service conditions (by virtue of the implementation of the recommendations of the Edmund-Davies Review on Police Pay and Conditions) was paid for by the increasingly surreptitious and insidious rise in political control over the police.

    No longer is a police constable a citizen, locally-appointed, who derives his authority under the Crown, with a prime remit for the protection of life and property; the prevention and detection of crime; and the prosecution of offenders against the peace. Nowadays they are a scruffily dressed, poorly-disciplined mob who can be recruited from anywhere, preferably holding some minor university degree, and who derive their powers by virtue of political diktat or whim. It seems that nowadays, the possession of a third-class degree in social sciences or media studies by potential candidates for the constabulary is far more preferable than a solid grounding in criminal law and procedures. How on earth can that be thought to be a good thing?

    How many of today’s replacements for proper police constables would survive under the high standards of discipline, well-groomed smartness and devotion to public duty that was expected of the real constables of yesteryear? How would they cope with being on call, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year for a paltry pittance of a wage? My guess is that not a single one of the overpaid, ill-disciplined hordes that are an excuse for a law-enforcement agency today would get even close to cutting the mustard. Pounding the beat on the streets of one’s local “patch” and getting to know everyone who lives there has long been the bread-and-butter of good police work. Along with all other things in this “progressive” day and age, it has disappeared forever.

    Since the time of the inauguration of the first police force by Sir Robert Peel in 1829, the police — members of the public themselves — have always been public servants. This is no longer the case. Political brainwashing by a Left-wing agenda from insurgent establishments of indoctrination such as Common Purpose hold sway. Those former police chiefs of impeccable standing — dinosaurs by today’s “standards” — such as the aforementioned Peel, Rafter and Sillitoe (among many other well-respected and dedicated public servants) will now be turning — nay: squirming — in their graves.

    ©Grizzly,
    Sweden
    June 2020.

      1. Please wait a while before doing so, Bob. Just to give me the time to send it to the government (Home Office) and various newspapers.

        A week will do.

        1. If someone who already has my E-mail address sends it to you, I’d be grateful for details of where it may appear.
          Can someone with mine & Grizz’s addresses please do me the favour of passing mine to him?

    2. Yo Mr Grizzle

      I have given you your deserved uptick

      I will be popping in and out of your post, to read it completely, through the remaining days of summer

    3. ‘Morning, George, in those days certainly 1955 and immediately thereafter, your average constable didn’t have to face up to drug-ridden blacks with an over-large sense of entitlement.

      Those same blacks were and are, backed up by senior police, the Home Office and dozens of virtue-signalling whites, usually on the political left.

      All I can say today is, God help us.

      1. Reading the Paston letters should be compulsory. Then we will all know what it’s like to live in a society where law and order has collapsed.

    4. You’re right about squirming -it’s how I feel. I haven’t watched the videos of the police kneeling before the rabble because I have no wish to watch public humiliation. How do any of the ones who do that have any self-respect left and how can they face themselves, their family, friends and colleagues without feeling total shame and embarassment, especially when it is splashed all over the internet from now to eternity.

      1. They should all be compelled to wear frilly pink clothes with pom poms attached to the knees which emit the sound of a crying baby when they kneel.

        1. Apparently they were ‘allowed to if they felt it safe’. Which I thought stupid. They are deploying into a hostile environment opposing the violent thugs of the Left.

      2. I’ve no idea what that said. Was it ‘we agree with you’? Then why are they standing up for society to keep the peace?

        Is it in solidarity with the aims? They’ve no aims beyond destruction. The mob cannot be respected. The need to be opposed and reminded that law applies to them rather than sides with them.

  47. Good morning, my friends

    I have never been inclined to believe anything Chris Patten says or does.

    DT Story: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/06/04/chris-patten-hits-china-hsbc-row-escalates/

    Chris Patten accuses China of ‘mafia’-style tactics as HSBC row escalates
    Hong Kong protest leader Joshua Wong fears more firms could be “forced to kowtow to Beijing” when security law is passed

    The Bath electorate saw through Patten and voted him out of Parliament.

    I can only imagine he has always had some very venomous material with which to blackmail people with power since being thrown out of office as an MP. Since losing his partliamentary seat he has gone from highly paid sinecure to highly paid sinecure: Hong Kong governorship, E.U. commissioner, the BBC, Oxford University etc etc,

    The man is an incompetent, smug and shallow fraud and that such a man is seemingly so successful in our system brings shame down upon us all.

    1. Morning Rastus. I couldn’t agree more, but I’m not sure it brings shame on us all, your phrase “so successful in our system” is the key. Sadly I think it has always been thus, even a cursory perusal of history brings to light corruption and nepotism in “the system”. The change is the ability for this to be brought to a wider audience other than in the private rooms of gentlemen’s clubs in London. The question is what can be done about it. Looking back, the motivation for entering politics seemed to be a kind of personal philanthropy, give something back from a life of experience. Politicians had been brought up through periods of tribulation such as the war. Today, instant gratification, self-centredness and credit dominate, with a population who have been subject to a dumbed down education system infiltrated by left wing marxist politics, and subject to a media environment similarly affected. The situation is one not too different to that which brought the end to the Roman Empire, internal corruption, unrest and invasion. I am only glad at 72, hopefully I shall not see the outcome.

    2. The public do not get to see the job requirements for these elite posts. Are incompetence, smugness, a fraudulent mind-set and any number of other personal failings in the ‘essential’ column? So much easier for the real power-brokers to control weak hirelings. Plenty of examples around: the Commissioner of the Met, for instance.

    3. Yo mt t

      The man is an incompetent, smug and shallow fraud and that such a man is seemingly so successful in our system brings shame down upon us all.

      Enough of his good points, please say what you really think of the w anchor

    4. Jobs for the common purpose boys. No matter how loathsome or incompetent they will always end up with their snouts deeply in the trough.

  51. SIR – The killing of George Floyd (Letters, June 4) was a shameful act. The protests that followed were inevitable, but the rioting and looting that took place were indefensible.

    The peaceful protests in London on Wednesday were a credit to those who took part. Those who tried to whip up violence betrayed their cause. Disregarding the law, whether by police or protesters, is never acceptable.

    David Kidd

    Petersfield, Hampshire

  52. What a shambles this all is……

    SIR – The British public has behaved in an exemplary fashion during lockdown, but the authorities have adopted a can’t-do attitude when it comes to the next steps.

    It was obvious that people would want to visit beaches and beauty spots as soon as restrictions were relaxed. So why are car parks and lavatories closed? Why are traders not encouraged to provide refreshments? Why can councils find staff and signs to block roads but not to signpost the available car parks or instigate temporary one-way systems on roads and footpaths?

    Research suggests that Covid-19 could spread via human faeces and urine in public spaces. Yet the places where lavatories are usually available are closed. With all county shows, concerts and other large gatherings on hold, there must be a plentiful supply of mobile lavatories available to hire. The same goes for litter bins of all shapes and sizes.

    Holiday camps and caravan sites are closed, yet they have facilities and, often, access to less crowded beaches. Let them open to provide parking. Encouraged to do so, many farmers will find fields for parking, too.

    The demand for British holidays will only increase. Authorities at all levels must facilitate use of our beauty spots, not stand in the way of people’s well-earned enjoyment of them.

    Denis Sharp

    Tickenham, Somerset

      1. Morning, Maggie.
        The pictures from Durdle Door were appalling.
        However, given the local gauleiters’ love of making life as unwelcoming and difficult as possible for visitors, would you advise human poo bags?

        1. No different to the “bag it, bottle it, take it with you” regime followed by squaddies on countless covert observation post operations.

    2. Perhaps Mr Sharp is new to this country. Councils are a means of providing sinecures to trainee politicians.

  54. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/894b92d6cfb7f25e5111c2fb132815e7ded444234448fab4d6f6a24c3ac9f728.png If I had been the Serjeant-at-Arms of the House of Commons I would have dealt with this situation most delicately. I would have frogmarched the vacuous cow, and her brat, out of the building.

    Her constituents should then be advised that they no longer have representation in parliament and that they ought to take immediate steps to hold a by-election and elect a proper member of parliament to represent them.

    1. Poor little mite, someone hand it a phone with the Childline number ringing…

    2. I like babies.
      Local ‘frontline’ hospital workers have said (off the record) that not one of their assorted children has caught Wuhanitis from their parents, and that all of the local victims had underlying health issues (although each death is in itself a tragedy).

      1. No one who I know, in my locality, neither friends nor relatives, knows of anyone who has caught the disease let alone died from it.

    3. Why does she think it acceptable to bring their child to her offices?

      It’s our property. She is not special and really needs to learn her place. This is the same woman who wanted to sublet her being an MP (at our expense) while she was a mother on full pay?

      1. Since the beginning of time, in all work places, children have not been permitted and quite rightly so. Children belong at home or in a nursery. The rot set in when children were permitted into pubs!

    4. It shouldn’t be beyond the bounds of possibility to bring a baby in just for a vote, but her reported “get over it” reaction to criticism is enough in itself to disqualify her from membership of the house of commons in my view.
      The only thing the commons are required to do, is bring alternative points of view to a debate about how things should go forward – we don’t want or need dictators who push forward their own agenda and tell people to “get over it” in there.

    3. I’m not surprised they are ANTI Sweet FA – it must have been a very long time…. if at all.

  57. Labour’s David Lammy spoke out in support of George Floyd protesters as he urged Brits to educate themselves about structural racism in their own society.
    Black Lives Matter protests have erupted across the UK in response to death of Mr Floyd in police custody in Minneapolis. The 46-year-old African American man died after a police officer knelt on his neck while he was restrained.
    He needs to see this unless he can’t handle the truth
    I’ll be back… with the link
    https://heavy.com/news/2020/06/candace-owens-george-floyd/

        1. Thanks Sue I’ve sent to everyone I know this morning.
          I wonder what that leading far left black protagonist Lamy thinks of it.
          He should be absolutely ashamed of himself.

    3. A paper from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences studying those killed by police between 2012 and 2018 also found that black men in the U.S. were 2.5 times more likely to be killed by police. That study concluded that “Police homicide risk is higher than suggested by official data. Black and Latino men are at higher risk for death than are white men and these disparities vary markedly across place.”

      Is that because they’re more likely to commit crimes in the first place. They’re considerably more likely to belong to a gang:

      “In 1999, Hispanic Americans accounted for 47% of all U.S. gang members, African Americans for 34%, non-Hispanic whites for 13%, and Asians for 6%.”
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gangs_in_the_United_States#:~:text=Demographics,-See%20also%3A%20Race&text=In%201999%2C%20Hispanic%20Americans%20accounted,expanded%20in%20the%20years%20prior.

      around 13 per cent of Americans are black, according to the latest estimates from the US Census Bureau.
      […] according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, black offenders committed 52 per cent of homicides recorded in the data between 1980 and 2008. Only 45 per cent of the offenders were white.
      Blacks were disproportionately likely to commit homicide and to be the victims. In 2008 the offending rate for blacks was seven times higher than for whites and the victimisation rate was six times higher.

      […] 93 per cent of black victims were killed by blacks and 84 per cent of white victims were killed by whites.
      https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-black-americans-commit-crime

      1. I wonder what the figures would like like if “domestic violence” deaths were extracted?
        Husbands and wives killing each other or their children, sibling killings and child parent killings.

  58. Invitations are being issued for architects to design a mausoleum to be built in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis. The mausoleum will house the embalmed body of Mr George Floyd, in a crystal case. The newly formed Institute Of Black Heroes will manage the building and the immediate environs. The mausoleum will be open daily for visitors to pay their respects. Amenities attached to the new building will include an outdoor cafe area with both MacDonalds and KFC, and there will be a small break-dancing area. A spokesman for the new Institute said that he had in mind a building shaped like a bent knee, as that would be modern and appropriate.

    1. There will of course be ‘herbal and chemical products ‘ available at all Food Outlets

      There will be a knife and gun secure storage as you enter and of course a make-up Room for the Heroes “Ho’s”

    2. Is that the best you can do?

      KFC is for whitey, it would be Popeyes or BoJangles, not KFC that were invited to run the franchise..

      1. I’m sorry. I did not do the research. The demographics of the market segmentation of fast food brands and outlets in urban areas with a predominantly black population….

        1. Not forgetting boiled peanuts.

          You are forgiven for not delving into the demographics of greasy chicken emporia.

    3. Is it being crowdfunded or are there thousands of donors just itching to throw their money away? Not that I care.

      1. Sadly, many of the contributions of money which have been received so far have turned out to be counterfeit.

    4. Lenin eat your heart out. Will foreigners be ushered to the front of the queue line?

    1. Yo, Mr Effort.

      In your opinion it is very dood, some people might find it very dad! 😉

          1. Both were produced by Alan Parsons whose ‘Old and Wise’ was mentioned here yesterday, by Plum I think.

          3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4orbG9Hic I’ve long been an Albert King fan, he is my favourite blues guitarist, but I had never come across this track, Funky London, taken from the eponymous album. I first heard it being played at a record store as I walked around Camden Market a few years’ back and I asked the owner to confirm that it was indeed the maestro. He did so but told me that he was playing a copy of his own CD and didn’t have a spare one to sell me. I eventually located a copy of the album online so I am now a happy teddy!

          5. Please do! Grizzly.

            I think most of us enjoy the music when reading the posts.

          1. Yes! From the album ‘Between the Wars’ which I believe was also produced by Laurence Juber.

          3. Another new one for me, Caroline, thank you. This is made all the more enjoyable by being played on two of the best acoustic guitars that money (a lot of money) can buy: a Martin and a Taylor.

    2. Thanks. Very interesting. She is an engaging lady. Easy to follow what she is explaining.

    3. How does a weight-lifting machine work in a gravity-free environment where nothing has any weight?

      [I know, I know; it’s all to do with isometrics and pushing against immovable objects, but there are still no ‘weights’ to ‘lift’!]

    1. Probably bought that car he looked at and is enjoying a run in the country.

      1. Close. I have actually been feeling like shyte all day – a combination of failing body; splitting headache and the effing political situation which utterly depresses me. And the house roof is leaking – in an inaccessible spot under the solar panels….

        Apart from that…

        Just back from lengthy negotiation. They wouldn’t budge on the price – even when we got up to leave… The MR managed to get them to do a new MOT, full service and various bits of tidying up.

        What matey will never now, of course, that our budget was to pay twice what we are paying for a new car…. So we are happy!

        1. Good luck with the leak.

          It’s a wise man who knows where the roof leak originates unless he can actually see the hole.

          Today I’ve been painting over a stain from a leak which was caused by a slipped tile several feet away from where the drips fell. We had a small earthquake here a while back that shook things up a bit and we’re constantly finding small problems that resulted from it. The wretched things manifest themselves at the most inconvenient times.

          4. I can. My favourite German word when studying for O level was Strassenbahnhaltestellle. Street Railway Halt Position. Or tram stop in English.

          5. My favourite is the Afrikaans for tubeless tyre – binnebandelosebuiteband – literally inner-tubeless outer tube.

          12. On the very day that I moved into this ‘ere cottage, the cold water tank in the attic that feeds the hot water tank on the 1st floor split. Most of the contents were initially absorbed by the thick insulation in the attic and it took me 24hrs to figure out what had happened. No hot water, shower, bath etc for 6 weeks until the plumber could find the correct replacement {under lockdown rules) Had to use neighbour’s facilities.

            A friend down the valley has been without a hot water tank for 3 months. After inspection by the plumber, it was agreed as to the specs for the replacement with an immersion heater at the bottom of the tank. Plumber shows up on the doorstep 8:30am yesterday with a new tank of the correct dimensions and an immersion heater at the….top.

          15. Must be a big hole if the rain starts and you get the dripping immediately.

        5. Headaches are often due to dehydration, Bill. Be sure to drink plenty!
          Of course, the right fluids will also help with relaxing stresses, too.
          ;-))

        7. Always best to get an MoT carried out by someone who is separate from the garage selling the car. I bought a car in the Norfolk area once; the exhaust fell off a few days later, completely rusted through. But if I had complained about the inadequate MoT, the DVLA (etc) would have impounded the vehicle for the length of any investigation, typically six months.

    2. It’s why I say to all white Liberals who encourage protest and excuse the looting and violence.:

      “If racial hatred becomes violent what makes you think that you won’t be beaten up by a black mob when they see you’re a white person? They won’t stop to ask your politics.”

      1. But he loved his Gran, always obtained a birthday gift for her.. . . Nothing since 2007, had he seen the light, served 13 years or just been smarter.

        Still doesn’t excuse police actions.

        1. I think he spent 5 yrs in prison for the final offence – there was an excellent rant by Candace Owens, which goes into a bit more detail, posted late yesterday by William S. at behest of Sue E. – https://youtu.be/JtPfoEvNJ74 – well worth watching for for anyone who missed it.

      2. All crimes committed in Texas. You would think, with a record like that in 2007, robbery with a deadly weapon would entail a long term sentence, especially in the Lone Star State.

      3. What happened to 3 strikes and you are out? If it was still in place presumably he would still be alive and thousands of looters wouldn’t have an excuse to go looting….

    4. Well dear – the looters don’t care about your politics – no matter how virtuous you are.

  63. Following on from Hugh Pennington’s article earlier in the week.

    Will discovering coronavirus ‘dark matter’ save us from the dreaded second wave?

    One scientist has posited that there is a so-far-unknown reason why more of us are immune to the virus than originally thought

    FRASER NELSON

    Has Sweden finally repented of its error in rejecting lockdown? “Light touch cost us many lives, Swedish scientist concedes” ran an Australian headline.

    “Swedish faith in Covid strategy plunges after errors revealed,” said an American newswire.

    “Sweden’s Tegnell admits too many died,” revealed the BBC.

    Only one country seemed to miss this story: Sweden. Anders Tegnell, its state epidemiologist, was quoted talking about other issues – but not renouncing his strategy. Which raises the question as to whether something was lost – or, rather, added – in translation.

    Tegnell was asked if too many had died from Covid. “Yes, absolutely,” he replied. Hence the headlines. He went on to underline doubt, as he often does in his daily televised conferences. Everyone is learning all the time, he said, so if this happened again, of course he’d do things differently.

    But it’s still too early to say what, he said. Perhaps he would not have closed down sixth-form colleges. He says he has still seen nothing to make him think lockdown worked – and points to Britain as an example of its failure. Will he have made mistakes? Certainly. Which ones? Only time will tell.

    This is why scientists tend to stay out of the political arena: honesty backfires. Admit doubt, and it’s spun as a humiliating admission of failure. Admit regret, and it’s a declaration of incompetence. But science is full of doubt: positing a theory, inviting challenge and welcoming refutation.

    Politics is more about posturing and certainty, sticking to your guns and going out singing Non, je ne regrette rien. This Covid crisis, however, is characterised by doubt. There is far more doubt, even now, than politicians like to admit.

    Take the theory that there will be a second wave of Covid. The argument, crudely put, is that lockdown put a lid on the virus. Lift lockdown, and the virus escapes. Those who have had it are probably safe, because they develop antibodies. But until there’s a vaccine, everyone else will be vulnerable.

    Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has even spoken of wristbands being worn by those who test positive for antibodies: they’d be free to go back to work. But others would be at risk because (as he assumed at the time) there was no such thing as immunity to Covid.

    This is now being challenged by studies suggesting many, perhaps most of us, might have some immunity because we fought off common colds (about a third of which are caused by coronaviruses). Researchers call it “cross-protective immunity”. Anthony Costello, a former director of the World Health Organisation, who once feared the worst about the virus, says the new studies cast doubt on whether there will be a second wave after all.

    The latest development came from a team in California who found a certain Covid response in the immune system of patients who recovered from Covid. Intriguingly, they discovered the same response in a control group who had never had the virus. This might, they said, point to some “cross-reactive, pre-existing immunity to Sars-CoV-2” in up to 60 per cent of people. It might help explain the mystery of the Diamond Princess, a cruise ship where Covid spread unchecked for a fortnight but only one in five passengers ended up catching it.

    Karl Friston, a neuroscientist at University College London, put it well recently: there is some kind of immunological “dark matter” out there stopping the virus from infecting as many of us as had first been feared. No one is quite sure what it is, but it does seem to exist. Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford University has made the same argument: that the virus has followed the same pattern worldwide, irrespective of various lockdown policies. Immunity, she says, is more likely to explain its demise.

    Yonathan Freund, a professor of emergency medicine at the Sorbonne, has gone further and said a second wave can now be ruled out.

    “Many of us realised that a good number of the population do not seem able to contract the virus,” he said recently. “It’s not clear why, but that’s how it is.” The immunological “dark matter” again. His conclusion: lockdown was vital, but the epidemic is over. To test his theory, he says, end lockdown now. “Closely monitor what happens. If it starts again, we will see it very quickly – and take measures.”

    It might sound a bit risky but, as Tegnell says, continuing lockdown is also taking a massive risk. There are costs, inflicted on the most vulnerable. A study this week found that the closure of British schools could set back the work of reducing inequality in education by 10 years.

    On top of that we have the economic misery that will stunt so many life chances, predominantly of young people. All this may be a price worth paying – but we just don’t know. The world is still waiting for evidence about whether lockdown works. It is, still, a theory.

    We can now test that theory. We have enough data on Covid deaths to be able to work backwards, and estimate just how far the virus was spreading. The Norwegians did this last week and found that the virus peaked several days before lockdown. It was, for them, a big finding with big implications: in retrospect, says their health chief, lockdown was not needed. The virus could probably have been controlled with far lighter measures.

    Now, the same study has been done for England and Wales. Prof Simon Wood of Bristol University shows the virus was falling fairly quickly by the time of lockdown, having peaked five days earlier. An important point, he says, when considering the “ethical” issues of a second lockdown and whether it would claim more life than it saves. But his study, like all such studies, emphasises how much we still don’t know.

    It’s possible the virus is being halted by immunological dark materials. It’s also possible that these dark materials don’t exist, and that we are susceptible to a second wave. We can say that no country that has reopened has seen an overwhelming resurgence of the virus – and that the world has decided that the greater risk lies in staying locked down. The doubt looks like being something we’ll all have to live with.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/04/will-discovering-coronavirus-dark-matter-save-us-dreaded-second/

    1. Not sure that I want to stake my future on some magic keeps the bug away from most of us but I like the concept.

      Surely this makes sense though otherwise just about everyone would have caught the bug from one of those superman spreaders.

      1. Some of the comments are of the derisive ‘Dark matter? Really? Ho, ho, ho!’ style. They fail to understand it’s just metaphor.

        Sadly, it does appear that a majority of the population still consider the virus to be ‘potentially’ worse than the black death and that we must cower forever.

        1. Maybe it could be worse than black death, we might find out next winter. In the meantime the sun is shining so we should send everyone back to their dark dingy workplaces, allowing seniors out to enjoy life.

    2. “A study this week found that the closure of British schools could set back the work of reducing inequality in education by 10 years.” That probably means the brightest will not have been brought down to the lowest common denominator.

    1. It’s conspicuous that the U.K. has nobody willing to say the same as this young lady. And what’s really scary is that Germany is willing to jail her for offering a different opinion.

      1. It’s interesting to compare the political stance of Sky in Oz and Sky here in the UK …

        1. We don’t have Sky and actually do our utmost to avoid seeing any news in tv. But the Oz sky is better? Or more investigatory? (That wouldn’t be difficult!).

          1. I’m just going by some extracts from the Oz Sky news on YouTube that would never be shown here in the UK

    2. You can fool some of the people all of the time.
      You can fool all of the people some of the time.
      But if you send your children to be educated [sorry: ‘coached’] at a school [sorry: ‘conditioning establishment’] staffed by gormless, critical theory-immersed, brainless, Leftist, Common Purpose-indoctrinated morons …

      1. Argeed Griz.
        There are some obvious problems advanced by coporate greed therefor more profit, which unusually arrives parked in the financial services or personal pockets. And continued decimation of forests on three continents for more than 60 years.
        I read recently that now in South America cattle farming now supplies most of its beef to China.
        They seem to have fallen our with the Australian suppliers.
        More shipping involved.
        Over breeding by humans, possibly in selected cases to attract finacial support without having to give anything in return. Often this leads to a form of tribalism, separate development. And therefore more and larger cities, over develpoment resulting in massive over population. I’ve said so many times before that people as described should have been ‘encourage’ to stay and put their own ‘houses’ in order before bringing their troubles to other cultures.
        Most of them come from areas where solar paneling would have been a huge asset to mankind and their lives. Instead of consuming energy and other some many other precious resources including infrastructure, in much cooler climates. Most of the carbon footprints of the migrant communities would have been close to zero where they came from. But as soon as they shut the new front door their carbon footprints go through the roof.
        IMHO, A complete waste of time and effort.
        Trying to make the world’s population equal aka common purpose is impossible.

        1. Mankind is the biggest notifiable disease ever to have evolved.

          Anyone not believing that just ask any of the hundreds of thousands of plant and animal species made extinct, directly, by the onward “progress” of humanity.

    4. Of course.

      Its why the Left is going all out across the world, because they’re worried that they’re losing the propaganda battle against the population majority. Everyone can see the blatant hypocrisy over banning people from going to the beach, going sightseeing, driving any distance, protesting against lockdown, because it’s selfish and might kill your granny.
      But gathering in thousands in the middle of cities across the world, no social distancing, etc, is just fine. Sod granny.

      1. I see examples of ignorance everyday. If I phone the police to complain I would be sticking my neck out. And I no longer trust the police.

  65. Pulled a gypsy bird last night! She asked me did I want to go back for a good time, she wasn’t kidding either.
    I went on the Dodgems, Waltzer, Ghost Train!!….and came home with a bloody Goldfish.

          4. Nope. Yer Swedish is perfectly understandable… Onkel Skrue!
            ;-))
            Ducking the issue…

      1. I think she said “Duck a l’orange….anybody”.

        Well, that’s mothers for you.

    3. I forgot to let the ducks out this morning, only discovered why they were so quiet at about 2 o’clock. Now I’m in the doghouse.

      1. Lost an aged goose earlier this week; the others looking a bit nervous and the bloody Canadas have fled. Probably a badger.

    4. Were the flucking ducklings ingratiating themselves – or merely attempting to integrate, sweetie ? … x

  68. What a difference a couple of days make. Tuesday – shorts and T-shirt – complaining about having to water everything.

    Today – 7ºC – winter clothes on; stove roaring away.

    1. True.
      Our water barrel was completely empty a couple of days ago, which gave us the opportunity to clean it out and reposition it better. It’s nearly full again now.

      1. That’s because we haven’t let any of it head east from Shropshire. I have a flood outside my studio and the drains in the street are overflowing!

  69. Brendan O’Neill on Sky News Australia, talking about the “pathological hypocrisy at the heart of UK race-based protests.”

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UoaKAqmiwEo

    There are a lot of good clips and videos from SNA, which beats anything on our tv news channels.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQNL8BJ_Ptw
    Little faith left in the system’ as premiers ‘cower to left-wing protesters’: (Peta Credlin)
    If it is now legal to have mass protests across Australia in the times of COVID, then surely all coronavirus social distancing regulations should be scrapped and “normal life” should be allowed to resume says Sky News host Peta Credlin.

    Black Lives Matter protests are scheduled to take place across Australia tomorrow, with up to 50,000 people estimated to attend a rally in Melbourne.
    All this comes as strict coronavirus social distancing regulations still remain in place across Australia.

    “Either the rules apply to all of us or they don’t,” Ms Credlin said.

    “Either this is a health emergency or it’s not. As things stand, this weak double standard from premiers, who’ve been happy to fine people for living a normal life, but cower in fear of left-wing protest organisers, is one of the reasons why so many voters have so little faith in the system. Forget protesters trying to claim this country is divided. Nothing shows it is divided more, than laws that apply to some Australians and not to others”.

    The premier was forced to seek an injunction against the planned protest after a huge outcry from ordinary Australians.
    But it’s clear that the same double standards are being applied everywhere, with ordinary citizens being punished for getting together, couples can’t meet up and spend the night together, etc, etc, but it’s absolutely fine for thousands to completely ignore the lockdown rules and protest together in cities everywhere.
    It’s called p***ing on us and telling us it’s raining. The contempt for ordinary people is just breathtaking.
    At least it’s reciprocal.

  72. That’s me for the day.

    Spare a thought for the many thousands sitting in landing craft 76 years ago tonight.

    A demain – I hope – though feeling as I do, I may give it a miss.

    1. …and spare a thought for those men of 6th Airborne climbing into their transports to jump in the dark behind enemy lines to take the guns at Merville, Pegasus Bridge, etc., etc.

      1. And the likes of Jim Speed, already on the beach, waiting for it all to kick off.
        Respect.

    1. They are going to make Britain as unsafe as the countries they came from long ago, whether it was the West Indies , Africa, Asia Minor and everywhere else.

      We used to be a safe group of islands , they arrived here because we gave them safety , housing , free health and education and decent jobs . Now they have created deprived areas that are no go areas , and sadly indigenous whites are pushed to the bottom of the list and forgotten.

      1. Ayaan shares one bedroom with her seven children. Malek is couch surfing and barely eats one meal a day. Ali suffers from tuberculosis and lies awake at night anxious for the family he left behind.

        In the case of Ayaan, it was the Somali civil war that brought her to Britain in 1990.

        i.e. she arrived 30 years ago, where have all the children come from?

        Ali, 49, arrived five months ago from Syria and applied for asylum on arrival. Due to a spell sleeping rough, he suffers with latent tuberculosis which could make him vulnerable to Covid-19.
        It appears he’s Doctor!

        1. I also made the point about strange situation concerning Ayaan in the Standard’s comment section.

    2. No, Sos, you are not a heartless bastard.

      It must surely be due to our [various Governments
      who have handed out our hard earned cash. Yes I
      know there are International/EU laws relating to
      welfare payments to Legal immigrants but our
      lack lustre CS has, for a long time, paid out
      these people whether they be legal or not.
      It is bad enough paying out, as we do, for our own
      malingerers……but at least they are OUR malingerers!!

    4. They come here coz we’re a soft touch. And we’re obviously not as racist as the rest of the western world. It’s only your money and mine and every other poor sucker living here.

    5. I have been called far worse for complaining about the so called refugees crossing into Canada. Unlike the UK we have lots of empty land and newcomers are welcome but even so why should my tax dollars go to supporting someone who flies into the US on a tourist Visa then crosses the border and claims asylum.

      1. The UN should out Trudeau Trudeau.

        Open Canada up as the refugee centre of the world.
        Export EVERY asylum seeker, refugee economic migrant etc. to Canada.
        There’s plenty of space, more than enough agricultural land to feed them all and it would show once and for all whether a multi-cultural paradise on Earth can be created.

          1. I spent my young childhood there and loved it.

            But Trudeau has rather taken the gloss off it.

        2. Alternatively, there is lots of room in central Australia – they’ll really feel at home there, especially surrounded by an Israeli wall.

        3. Oh thanks. If it gets boy PM a UN security council seat, he would probably do it.

          What about canvey Island becoming hong Kong north as an example

      2. Don’t worry, richards_, at least the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have crossed the border with Junior in the opposite direction, thus saving you and your fellow Canadians a small fortune.

    7. One word answer, Sos, Caliphate

      Are you up for that ‘cos I ain’t? To misquote Enoch, “There’ll be blood on the streets.”

      1. Unfortunately I’m convinced there’s a fair chance of that in due course. I hope I’m wrong.

  74. I’m getting angrier and angrier about Saint Floyd.

    Imagine if Tommy Robinson (for whom I have little time) was killed tomorrow by a British, Pakistani heritage, policeman in the same way as the American career criminal.

    Do you think the crowds would be out bending knees?

    No, the hypocritical MSM would be celebrating, not directly but certainly saying he had it coming to him.

    The world’s gone mad.

  75. Observation of the rules and regulations of the Covid-19 pandemic in the Scottish Borders has been rather relaxed throughout. The Lidl we go to has no queues outside or external markings on the ground. Other supermarkets take this more seriously. Sainsbury’s has external markings and an official supervisor. We have not gone there at all. The few people wearing face masks, and sometimes plastic gloves, are clearly loonies as their other garments make obvious. Our neighbours in the village have visitors. In the streets of the towns, which are generally quiet, people are going about things quite normally. Sort of.
    The rules that are about to be imposed by law, will require everyone on public transport to wear a mask. Everyone who goes into a shop will be required to wear a mask by law.
    Where are we as regards the state of the pandemic?
    In the Scottish Borders there have been no new cases for a week. The worst instance was a care home that had 7 deaths. Sensible figures seem hard to come by at local level. However as regards Scotland around 2400 people have died with/from Covid-19 in what is roughly a 3 month period, over half of these deaths were in care homes. In a 3 month period around 2100 people were killed or injured in road incidents in Scotland in 2018 with little or no notice being taken. The number of ICU facilities in Scotland was around 180 at the start of the outbreak and the Scottish Government pledged to increase the number to 700 (I don’t know what the number is now). The number of patients in intensive care is under 50.The number of Covid-19 patients overall at present in the NHS in Scotland is around 1,000. NHS Scotland has 22,000 beds of which 18,000 are “acute”. Presumably half the hospitals are empty?

    So the questions are;
    Why is everything still shut down?
    Why are increased restrictions being imposed? (Face masks on public transport and in shops.)

    I can think of no time or place in Europe in the last 100 years when the indigenous population of a country had such severe restrictions placed on them, except when they were occupied by a foreign power.

    1. “In a 3 month period around 2100 people die in road incidents in Scotland…”

      Only 1,870 died in the whole of GB in the year ending June 2019. I think you are quoting overall casualties.

    2. These restrictions – pointless and much too late, have the appearance of being imposed by a foreign power on a cowed population.

    3. You must remember ministers do not write the regulations. Their civil servants do that for them. At present we have a Conservative government continuing to pursue an unchanged brexit timetable. This is not what the civil service wants to see, and they will do anything that they can to ensure the regulations are open to as strict interpretation as possible. This is with the aim, helped by the media, of undermining the government in the public’s eyes.

  76. Tommy Robinson is arrested for assault at ‘Asian sex gang’ protest but claims he ‘acted in self-defence’ after man spat in his face and called him a ‘racist p***k’

    Tommy Robinson has been arrested on suspicion of assault but told police he ‘acted in self-defence’ after a man spat in his face and called him a ‘racist p***k’.

    The former English Defence League leader, 37, was detained after police received a report of an assault on a man at Hollywood Retail Park in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, shortly after 8.30pm on Thursday.

    Another fitting up exercise! No comments allowed!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8391909/Tommy-Robinson-arrested-assault-protest-claims-acted-self-defence.html

    1. They always link TR with the far Right, if the far Right actually exists I have never seen it in action on the streets
      Yet at the moment the far Left are on political manoeuvres the police and security forces must know who are organising and behind all these mad protests, yet we hear nothing about them.
      It’s a bit like XR, I expect the are all connected, it is if the state is submissive to them for some reason

      1. It’s a bit like XR, I expect the are all connected, it is if the state is submissive to them for some reason

        Fellow travellers. They both have similar aims, i.e. carbon zero, i.e. destroy the economy.

    2. Spitting is assault. In the present times a number of people have received serious punishment for deliberatley coughing on someone, or spitting.

      1. It depends who is being spat on Horace. There’s quite clearly a group, probably organised and paid by Mi5, that organises these incidents.

    3. If he didn’t hit back, he’d be attacked all the time. If he does hit back, he’s arrested.
      Heads they win, tails he loses.

      1. Yes. It’s a little like being stalked where the police are on the side of the stalker. If you complain they laugh. If you do anything they arrest you. If you don’t do anything you are confined within the limits of your own home afraid to venture forth!

    5. One might have thought that by now he would realise that if he was attacked with a machete a plea of self defence would be rejected.

    1. Hard to disagree with Candace Owens. All these riots and propaganda like “Black Lives Matter” when 9 unarmed black men were killed by police last year and 19 unarmed white men.
      Of course none of them should have died – but the media narrative about a police force that constantly murders black people is beyond destructive.

  78. Had enough of the crap on the MSM ?
    Great prog on channel 5. Draining the Bermuda triangle.
    8 klm down. Plenty of room for every one in politics and the media.

  80. Channel 5 gets better, NZ journey around north island by train. Did part of it by road 1977.

      1. Ready to record PT 😊
        I have to catch up on Tarrant Cape Town to Pretoria by rail.
        I did CT to JHB.
        And the other way by car.

        Bloody hell WTF are we all doing in this once great but now useless bloody
        country ?

    2. Tell me the title of the Channel 5 programme, Eddy, please. I’d like to check the ITV Hub to see if I can watch it on Catch-up a day or so later. Thanks!

      1. Sorry Elsie I missed your reply. The programme was about a train journey to wellington on north island NZ

  82. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg8OU0B_HUE
    Jeff Taylor: “EU wants an extra £300 million from the UK!”

    Published on 5 Jun 2020
    Brussels is demanding the UK contribute a shed load more money to the EU to help it fight the invisible enemy (CV19).

    The EU wants the UK to hand over somewhere between £2-3 hundred million quid to top up their Coronavirus fighting fund.

    Or more precisely funds, because it’s spread over many areas making it hard to quantify the exact amount involved.

  83. Evening, all. The govt seems to be determined to finish Britain off. It has been raining steadily here, and worse; it has rained at Newmarket as well.

    2. I was watching on ITV4 today (netting a small increase in what Ladbrokes owe me and my children! Hooray!) and it appeared to me that such rain as was sustained made the surface ‘skiddy’ rather than the ‘going soft’. The forecast suggests a modest rainfall between 8:00am and 2:00pm tomorrow which might be to your hoss’s disadvantage but don’t abandon all hope. I’m not an informed follower on the flat but was very surprised by many of today’s runnings.

      1. Yes, that’s the problem as I mentioned yesterday. When you get rain on very hard ground it tends not to soak in, but make the surface slippery. That’s not going to help him because he does 0 to about 35 mph in a few seconds. He’ll be wheel spinning. Results have been surprising since Monday. 50/1 and 33/1 winners have been going in.

      1. He’s running tomorrow, Eddy. In the Palace House Stakes. He doesn’t like soft or greasy going because he’s a seriously fast sprinter (he holds two course records).

        1. Good luck to him, Eddy.

          EDIT: I meant Conners not Eddy. Apologies to both of you.

    4. As far as I am concerned it has saved me a lot of time (and higher water bills) watering my garden for an hour or so every evening.

      1. Thank you. He finished second (again in this race). Ran well, though. Just beaten by a faster horse.

        1. That’s a great result. Was it by much of a margin? You must be delighted but would, undoubtedly, have preferred the number 1 slot.
          Ignore my post of a few minutes ago.

          1. Three quarters of a length and the same to the third. We’re pleased with him for his first run of the season.

  84. Great jobs news for The USA for May insted of the lefts forecast that 8 miilion jobs would be lost 2.5 million have been gained the best result in a singlle month ever in American history. I think the prsident Trump is pleased. hard to find the story on the BBC news web site hidden in a margin story .

    1. Agreed, Johnny. Astonishing new US jobs statistics. Have checked with my son in Cleveland, OH (who can be a bit of a nerd for statistics) and he tells me that there is a bit of ‘softness’ around the periphery of the headline number but the validity of the inner substance of the surge has thumped the Democrats in the groin. Let’s hope it’s sustained.

    2. Was it the armed demonstrators that invaded the State legislature that she called terrorists or could it have been the unarmed demonstrators that were legally (by American first amendment blah blah rights) demonstrating near the White House that she called terrorists?

      Oh no, that was Trump wasn’t it? Kettles, pots and American politicians.

  86. When things return to what every normal might be, I think we might buy a large campervan and eff off, we are so cheesed off with everything.

      1. Mine is still parked up at the moment. I drove it to the stables on Saturday to give it an airing.

  87. Commander Jim Speed, commando who cleared the beaches on D-Day – obituary
    Under intense fire he ensured a steady flow of men, vehicles and supplies off Sword Beach, and was awarded the DSC for his courage

    By Telegraph Obituaries
    5 June 2020 • 12:43pm
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2020/06/05/TELEMMGLPICT000232450246_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqp2HdEvMdCw5n3XrRYSzui6ZTDP09TlfHVgzEEtuFaow.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Commander Jim Speed

    Commander Jim Speed, who has died aged 96, was a beach commando who landed on Sword beach before H-Hour on June 6 1944, leading a two-man “underwater clearance marking party”.

    Before dawn, the 19-year old newly-promoted Sub-Lieutenant Speed RNVR was one of the first men to set foot on red sector of Sword Beach. [No buggering about with BLM in Hyde Park for him] He was part of “Roger” Royal Navy Commando, the specially trained beach commandos whose task on D-Day was to hurry men, vehicles and supplies off the landing beaches – where otherwise they were subjected to enemy fire – and to prevent bottlenecks which might stem the flow of reinforcements.

    Speed ran forward across a quarter of a mile of exposed sand to the dunes, where he lay on his belly to dig a slit-trench, but every attempt to hold up a signal flag on a 9ft pole was greeted by a rattle of machine-gun bullets fired from a pillbox, which killed or wounded many of his section of the commando.

    In a pause between bursts of fire, Speed ran forward and, he recalled, “popped a hand grenade through the slit”, before he could resume his task of marking safe passages through the mined, German obstacles. Planting large signs amid a hail of mortar fire made him an obvious target, and when the beachmaster arrived later, “he was a little surprised to see I was still there.”
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/obituaries/2020/06/05/TELEMMGLPICT000232523151_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqqVzuuqpFlyLIwiB6NTmJwfSVWeZ_vEN7c6bHu2jJnT8.jpeg?imwidth=960
    Royal Navy commandos in Normandy

    On the second night, after little sleep or food, “R” Commando had to dig in to fight off a German counterattack, though this was thought to be less difficult than dealing with the congestion on the beaches. The first days passed in a blur of activity – Speed mostly remembered missing his lunch – amid persistent fire from a hidden German howitzer “which made things a little bit unpleasant”.

    As the landings progressed, Speed’s task changed, to clearing the beaches of damaged ships, bodies and unexploded munitions, and scavenging the wrecks for valuable equipment, including the rum ration. Later he borrowed a motorbike to visit the hinterland to buy eggs and cheese to supplement his iron rations. [Wasn’t this incident featured in ‘The Longest Day’?]

    Speed was wounded three times before he was evacuated to England; to him it was all “a bit of an adventure”, but he was awarded the DSC for his courage under fire.

    James Henry Speed was born near Southampton on November 20 1924 and educated in the area. He wanted to follow his father into architecture, but joined the Navy aged 18 years and four days. He volunteered for hazardous duties and trained in Scotland as a beach commando.

    Hazardous duties allowance doubled his pay as a midshipman, but he had little idea where he was going to land until briefed on the eve of D-Day. Later he trained for the invasion of Japan, but never deployed to the Far East.

    Speed was demobbed in 1946 and resumed his studies briefly, but abandoned these to work in forestry in North Wales and Shropshire. Falling on hard times, he was declared bankrupt in 1953; he rejoined the Navy as an able seaman but was quickly put through for a commission.

    While on exchange in the Royal Australian Navy, in HMAS Cootamundra (1957-60), he married an Australian, Olga Natalie Dickson, but his request to transfer to the RAN was denied by the Admiralty, and he was obliged to return to the UK to serve a further three years.

    However, in 1963 he emigrated and began a 20-year career in the RAN, ending as an acting commander and in command of HMAS Lonsdale, the navy’s Melbourne depot, before retiring in 1984.

    Subsequently Speed was Man Friday and general factotum at a prep school for 14 years before retiring to live in Melbourne, where he enjoyed painting, walking, and reading.

    Jim Speed was appointed a member of the Légion d’honneur earlier this year. His wife Natalie survives him with their son and two daughters.

    Jim Speed, born November 20 1924, died May 15 2020

    3. That generation and the one before it will stand the test of time. R.I.P.

    6. What a contrast to the young pillocks who chant and scream ‘freedom from oppression’?

    1. I clicked on this and watched a speech by ]inthematrixxx[. I have not the slightest idea what the man was on about. Can any NoTTLer enlighten me?

  89. Good Trump: “They said we’d lose 9 million, we’ve gained 2 million…it’s a rocketship.”
    Bad Trump: “It’s a great day for George Floyd.”

    Will he survive?

  90. The virus: who and what do we believe? The articles from John Lee and Ralph Pennington (reproduced here this week) about possible over-counting of deaths and the dying out of the virus appear to represent a silent minority. Their views seem to be absent on the BBC, which has today been relentless in its reporting of the continuing terror of the Great Plague. David Speigelhalter has been on again telling us the the death count is almost certainly higher while a raft of experts have been talking of second waves and the need for masks and so on. I’ve dipped in and out of several radio and TV news bulletins and I don’t think I’ve heard anything at all critical of the official ‘science’, only of the government’s late reaction to events.

    I can’t think of any time in my life when I have thought the world so mad and dangerous as it is now.

  91. Racial Confrontation – was it really like this in 1492?

    https://youtu.be/p96pdqxxu_4

    Today it’s one of the favorites for an organ recital:
    I chose this one to illustrate the coordination required between organist and assistant:

    august 15, 2017
    Live recording concert
    Bovenkerk Kampen
    Hinsz-organ
    Organist: Gert van Hoef
    Assistants: Cees Jan de Hon en Marjolein van Hoef

    https://youtu.be/NVDc3hvcahQ

    1. Good night, Peddy. Enjoy your current book. Today I received the complete LEWIS box set which I ordered yesterday. But I shall wait until tomorrow to start watching an episode each evening. There are 33 episodes in total but I have already seen the first three (on catch-up TV) so I shall just about have finished watching the entire series by the time that I can go and get my long locks seen to. Bonne nuit – a tu et ton chat. (Le chat is masculine, although Missy is feminine, so I may have got that last sentence wrong.)

      1. Une chatte is a female cat, Elsie. It should be à toi (and then repeat à before ta chatte).

      2. Bonne nuit a toi et ta chatte.

        toi is the all-purpose dative case of tu. It is OK to say chatte as Missy is a girl but be careful who you say it to – it can also mean the same as Conchita!

        I liked the Lewis series very much, more so than Morse or Endeavour. I usually wait for the repeats on ITV3.

  94. From the BBC re Coronavirus: Who should wear a face mask or face covering?
    “How will the new rules be enforced?
    Mr Shapps said it would be a “condition of travel” to wear a face covering and people could be refused travel – and even fined – if they didn’t follow the rules.
    He said British Transport Police would enforce the regulation if necessary – but he hoped most travellers would comply.
    Details of the rules will be displayed at stations. Transport staff will also wear face coverings, and volunteer marshals, known as “journey makers”, will give advice.”
    aka “trusties”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51205344

    1. I doubt any “travellers” will comply – maybe passengers will!

  95. Yes, CM, we probably will ‘huff and puff a bit’ – and then allow hundreds of thousands of them into the country.

    Was Covid-19 created in a lab? China has some urgent questions to answer

    Given the regime’s history of lying, we should take seriously the theory that the virus may be man-made

    CHARLES MOORE

    In his interview with this paper’s Allison Pearson on Thursday, Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, said: “The Chinese understand us extremely well. We understand them extremely poorly.”

    This is important and true. Since Deng Xiaoping first moved his country away from Maoism in 1978, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) – which wholly runs China – has studied the West deeply. It wants to copy it, get rich from it and, by the middle of this century at the latest, beat it.

    It has done this through commerce, finance, property, science, cultural links, Western universities, and by cyber-penetration and spying. Its work has been consistent, intense and purposeful. Our response has mostly been credulous, lazy and greedy. I would guess that for every one Westerner who has troubled to learn Mandarin, there are 10,000 Chinese people who have learnt good English.

    As a result, we barely noticed the ominous change of pace and tone which came with Xi Jinping’s rise to power in 2012. Thanks to Covid-19, and the ensuing nearly 400,000 deaths worldwide, we have noticed now.

    In the past couple of weeks, our Government – having been slower than the United States and Australia – has at last begun to move. It is now turning against Huawei’s involvement in our 5G future. It has focused on the plight of the people of Hong Kong, boldly promising them a “path to citizenship” because China has broken the Sino-British Agreement of 1984 which is supposed to protect them until 2047. But there is so much more that needs understanding, and so little time left.

    Sir Richard’s interview chiefly concerned a new learned paper about the hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine, written by distinguished scientists, the vaccinologist, Birger Sorensen, and the immunologist, Angus Dalgleish, in the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery. Having first held back the news of the disease, the CCP finally made it public towards the end of January. Sir Richard’s intelligence-service mind made him suspicious about the speed with which the Chinese then rushed out a series of publications fixing guilt on pangolins and bats. So he is interested in the Sorensen/Dalgleish theory.

    Obviously, you cannot get the right vaccine without knowing the nature of the virus. This lack of full knowledge explains the failure of vaccines so far. In the authors’ view, the virus they are trying to vaccinate against is what scientists call a chimera – in this case, as Dr Sorensen put it to me, “constructed in such a way that it can make use of co-receptors on human epithelial cells”. Another way of putting it is that it was built by human beings to see how infectious it could be to human beings. This does not mean that the purpose was to make people ill – it was, rather, experimental – but it does, according to this theory, mean that it was created in a laboratory and is extremely dangerous.

    Dr Sorensen insists that “the world will be misled unless we can see the data that matters.” The Chinese authorities have “not revealed that data properly or correctly”. He is working on a follow-up paper to study in detail what data they gave us, and what they withheld.

    As you can imagine, the political consequences are big. If we know that China has not been straight with us about the virus, that would affect all our dealings with it. This may explain why the scientists had some difficulty getting an earlier version of their article published. The well-known magazine Nature was particularly sticky. It has published earlier work dismissing any idea of a lab-created virus. The magazine’s editor is on record giving extravagant praise to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

    It is also noteworthy how quickly some people have rushed to slap down Sorensen and Dalgleish. One newspaper yesterday reported that Sir Richard’s former sister organisation, MI5 – which has neglected Chinese subversion in this country – had dismissed the chimera theory, saying the infection began in the Wuhan wet market. This was particularly odd since, in mid-May, the CCP publicly withdrew the wet-market explanation as the origin of the virus, perhaps because that line could no longer hold against mounting evidence.

    Given the danger of political polarisation, another learned article, just out, is helpful. In the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a publication with a Left-wing character, Milton Leitenberg, a biological weapons expert, begins with a denunciation of Donald Trump and his allies for being “as notorious a gang of fabricators as will ever likely be recorded in American history”. In his lengthy review, however, of all the published data –¬¬ including data put up on Chinese websites and then removed by the CCP – he goes on to say that “the possibility of a laboratory escape of the pathogen was a plausible, if unproven, theory.” That theory was not invented by Trump.

    In 2015, Leitenberg continues, the Wuhan Institute of Virology “initiated construction of novel chimeric coronaviruses” and subsequently published on this. These were what are known as “gain of function” experiments to make a virus capable of infecting a new kind of cell. He also produces evidence about inadequate security at the two relevant labs in Wuhan, especially at the Wuhan Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Quite separate work by Alina Chan and others at the Harvard/MIT Broad Institute, the leading genetic lab in the world, aligns with the argument that the virus is extraordinarily well pre-adapted to infect human beings.

    Putting this and other emerging work together, one can fairly say that China has scientifically well-founded questions to answer about the origin and nature of the virus. And fairly add that it has not been frank or honest so far. This is a matter not only of getting the history right, but also of life and death. Chinese concealment is hindering the search for a vaccine.

    If we did not expect such concealment, we do not understand the Chinese leadership.

    I said earlier that the CCP has worked earnestly for 40 years to understand us. One thing it has never understood, however, let alone liked, is our love of freedom and openness. To Chinese leaders, these things seem dangerous, even unpatriotic.

    So it has been a constant source of pain to them that a free entity, Hong Kong, exists – or should I say existed? – on their doorstep. Deng and his successors had the wit to see that the wealth of the former colony should not be destroyed; but they regarded all that stuff about free speech and emerging democracy as a form of subversion. Hence Xi’s attempt to impose a new national security law on the territory.

    The current CCP leaders hate the fact that those fighting for freedom in Hong Kong are overwhelmingly ethnic Chinese, so they have to assert that such people are stirred up by foreign interests. Their close study of past events – the weak reaction to the Tiananmen Square massacres 31 years ago this week, their entry into the World Trade Organisation without being made to observe the rules of free trade, our timidity about the Hong Kong protests last year, and British feebleness over Huawei just before Covid struck – all these have convinced them that we shall huff and puff a bit, and then let them get away with it.

    Perhaps they are right. Perhaps they understand us all too well. It will need the entire free world to prove them wrong.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/05/covid-19-created-lab-china-has-urgent-questions-answer/

    1. There was a mass programme of English teaching in China during the late seventies and into the eighties.

      1. Most Chinese people still speak lousy English. Try reporting a bug to Microsoft, who seem to employ a lot of them. Whenever you come across a Chinese person who speaks good English, they’re usually from Hong Kong. Can’t say I blame them too much for that, as the languages are very different.
        One reason why I’ve never attempted to learn Chinese is because I don’t think I would get far with a tonal language, as I am very unmusical and often can’t hear the difference between different sounds.

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