Friday 8 May: Looking back from these strange times to the end of the war in Europe

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/05/07/letterslooking-back-strange-times-end-war-europe/

867 thoughts on “Friday 8 May: Looking back from these strange times to the end of the war in Europe”

  2. I intended catching up on yesterdays page but decided to escape here from all the spider pictures – not fair to arachnophobes.

  3. Good morning insomniacs.
    The DT woke up so I did a mug of tea for us both.

    An excellent comment on the Letters Page:-

    A Long
    8 May 2020 1:22AM
    After several weeks of severe lockdown, social distancing and endless broadcasts of death and despair we are beginning, thankfully, to talk about what happens next.

    There are a great many threats to lives and health that come in many forms and severity. For the most part we accept what they are and we balance the risk and dangers against other parts of our daily lives and how we want to live. To move forward from coronavirus we need the confidence to face up to it.

    It is still early days on Covid-19, but it does appear to be slowing. Also, data seems to be emerging that many may have caught it with mild to no symptoms. This means the ratio between infection, serious illness and death could well be a lot lower than it first appeared and it may end up being similar or even lower than that of influenza (flu). We are more accepting of flu, complacent even, given it is the third biggest killer of humans at around 3.2 million a year. And that’s with vaccines for some strains.

    Covid-19 is unknown and unfamiliar, so we tend to be more afraid of it. In contrast, those dangers we are more knowledgeable about we find easier to face and balance the risks they pose against how we live. For example, road traffic accidents kill around 1.4 million people a year, but we accept this risk as worth taking in order to drive motor vehicles. 320,000 people die each year from drowning, but most people are happy to paddle, swim, surf or sail in rivers, lakes and seas. Closer to home, in Europe alone, around 50,000 people are killed each year while out for a walk and 20,000 while out cycling.

    The biggest killer of mankind is sepsis. It affects about 50 million people a year with around 11 million fatally. That’s a mortality rate of 22%. There are many causes of sepsis including things as innocuous as minor cuts, scrapes and blisters.

    Because we are familiar with dangers like these we balance the risks against the things we enjoy and want to do. We regularly use our cars, go for walks, cycles and swims without really thinking twice about dangers they hold. We risk the potential of getting scrapes, cuts and bruises with almost every activity we undertake, but we don’t worry about getting sepsis stop us from going about and enjoying our lives.

    For the past two months the threat of Covid-19 has put a stop to ordinary life as we know it. We cannot like in perpetual lock-down. So, like all other dangers we must do the same with coronavirus.

    1. Giving something that is a threat to people a name seems to be the trigger for hysteria and panic.
      Before hurricanes had names, they were just strong wind, nothing to worry about much. Now, the world gets in a panic over it.
      Before flu had a name (Covid-19), it was flu. Most people had a heavy cold, called it flu, and still came to the office, and barely a single person gave a shit.
      Now it has a name, the whole effing world economy has been crashed, people arrested for not panicking, and now everyone is hiding at home, quivering with fear and wetting themselves.
      Bah!
      75 years ago, people had backbone. Now, well…

      1. That is what makes the compulsory ‘Knees Up, Muvva Brahn’ so galling.
        That generation would be thoroughly ashamed of their wimpish descendants.

    2. Mr Long has missed the point of the policy. As is well stated, it was always about saving the sacred cow that is the NHS. The same number will die in the long term despite the lockdown, Unless like NZ, you close your borders for the foreseeable.

      1. Does that mean there will be no more bloody “hakas” for the foreseeable? Hooray.

        1. I’m always surprised that the uncoloured natives are allowed to take part in this appropriate world.

    3. Most accidents, apparently, occur in the home (presumably because that’s where we spend most of our time). By modern standards, that means we should never get out of bed.

  4. Second!

    Let’s start the weekend right (and I can lie-in in the morning).

    There was a missionary in deepest Africa with a tribe that had never seen a white man before.

    One day a young native girl gave birth to an albino baby. Immediately this was noticed by the Chief and he was upset with the missionary.

    The missionary, realising the danger he was in, knew that he had to explain how nature sometimes created these oddities. He took the Chief alone into the jungle in an attempt to explain his innocence.

    While walking through the jungle, God gave him the perfect example he needed to clear up this mess. They had stumbled across a flock of sheep. All were white as could be except for one small sheep which was jet black.

    The missionary pointed this out to the chief and said “look at that little black sheep, you see what I am trying to get you to understand now?”

    The Chief hung his head and said, “Ok. I understand. So… you no tell on me and I no tell on you!”

    1. Then they went home and butchered the child for it’s magical medicinal properties.

  5. Government has ‘terrorised’ Britons into believing coronavirus will kill them, says adviser. 7 May 2020 • 9:30pm

    Prof Dingwall is based at Nottingham Trent University and sits on the Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), which feeds into its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage).

    Speaking in a personal capacity, he said: “We have this very strong message which has effectively terrorised the population into believing that this is a disease that is going to kill you. And mostly it isn’t.

    “Eighty per cent of the people who get this infection will never need to go near a hospital. The ones who do go to hospital because they are quite seriously ill most of them will come out alive – even those who go into intensive care.

    “We have completely lost sight of that in the obsession with deaths, the human interest stories about deaths, the international comparisons about death rates, the opportunities for intrepid television journalists to put on lots of PPE and go into high tech where people are acutely ill.

    Morning everyone. A rare outbreak of Common Sense in the MSM!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/07/government-has-terrorised-britons-believing-coronavirus-will/

    2. 318968+ up ticks,
      Morning As,
      There is a far greater chance of evil consequences as in injury & death as has been proved by continuing to give the lab/lib/con, mass uncontrolled immigration, pro Appeaseing, pcism & submissive,paedophile umbrella, coalition party polling booth oxygen in the future.

      The lab/lib/con coalition KILLS, fact.

    4. A frightened population is far easier to control than an informed, intelligent one.

    1. Good day, Hugh.

      That wanqueuer was simply one of the worst of what is a very bad bunch of CP “leaders” of the perlice farce.

        2. Parade not subjected to social distancing or police interference as “not necessary”, then?

          1. Oh, he’s far worse than you think, Tom.

            I’ve complained to him, personally, on a number of occasions and he refuses to acknowledge, let alone reply, to my emails.

            He is a DOUBLE graduate of Common Purpose and, last year, he disbanded the Derbyshire Constabulary Male Voice Choir which performs free concerts for charity all over the place, and which had been supported by all previous chiefs. The fact that the choir was not costing anything and was largely made up of retired officers and civilian employees still didn’t cut the mustard with the twat.

        4. They really can’t complain at being mocked.

          Dear life, what were they thinking? Stupid fools. The weirdo community comprises a tiny number of the population and where they put their bits is irrelevant. The law applies to them equally.

        5. Surely the Police are there to police the event, not join in? (Rhetorical).

    2. To be a little bit fair, it wasn’t a lake. It was a quarry lagoon, I believe. A polluted lagoon with or without the black dye.

      1. And it wasn’t the first time it has been dyed, although that was to put off swimmers.

      2. Whilst full of redundant quarry machinery, the water is not so much polluted, as naturally alkaline from the rocks the water drains through.
        It’s also been the scene of several deaths as the water is much colder than swimmers expect which causes a thermal shock.

    3. Jumped before he was pushed? Preserving his gold plated pension?
      Morning, HJ.

    4. A couple of dog walkers who had, apparently, not driven to Curbar Edge, but had just walked up from their home.

  8. Good morning to you all on what is a very memorable day.

    75 years ago, I saw the first bonfire that had not been started by the Germans. And someone, from somewhere, had fireworks. I can still see it all in my mind’s eye.

  9. Police Won’t Charge Disgraced Govt Scientist Who Broke Own Lockdown Rules. VICTORIA FRIEDMAN. 6 May 2020.

    London’s Metropolitan Police Service has confirmed it will take no further action over disgraced former government scientific adviser Neil Ferguson breaking the country’s lockdown laws by allowing his married mistress to visit his home, merely saying that his actions were “disappointing”.

    This of course was a part of the deal. He goes down by his own hand without involving the Government in any way and they don’t pursue him for any breaches of trust or whatever! That said I don’t think they appreciate what a complete bounder he is! Though there is no way that I can prove it I think Ferguson is far more than a Fraudster and Charlatan. I doubt personally that he could pass A level mathematics. He has lived a life (at the taxpayers expense) that is one of the great scams. Perhaps one day he will write his memoirs and enlighten us as to how he did it!

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/06/police-wont-charge-disgraced-govt-scientist-who-broke-own-lockdown-rules/

    2. How will he get his book published? His XR doxy and her believers will have deprived us of electricity, paper making and the ability to print in any form.
      Maybe we could get monks to grind up oak apples or soot to hand write the tomes.
      Morning, Minty.

      1. I’ve had my Imperial Good Companion typewriter serviced. My alternative office includes a hand adding machine, landline telephone (with dial, of course), an abacus, a slide rule (given to me by my parents when I studied maths, and in pristine unused condition), a bakelite pencil sharpener, pencils, a fountain pen, two bottles of blue-black ink, enough big sheets of blotting paper for my desk blotter for around 150 years, a stack of A4 paper and a green metal filing cabinet. The most modern item is my 25-year old Filofax.
        I’m ready for the end of electricity.

        1. Sadly, except that my typewriter is an Olympia, and I don’t have an abacus, I, too, am ready for a life without electricity.

    3. If they had charged him, he’d probably win on appeal, since these ‘rules’ are so badly drafted.

  10. Morning all on VE Day. The bunting is out with the Union Flag draped outside our bedroom window…..

    SIR – I shall be spending the VE Day anniversary in lockdown – just as I did in 1945 when I was quarantined in the school sanatorium with chickenpox.

    When I heard the skirl of bagpipes my heart soared as I knew the war in Europe was over. Ever since, whenever I hear bagpipes, I thrill at the memory of that moment.

    Miriam Howitt

    London SW15

    SIR – I was seven years old on VE Day and remember talking to Willie, a German prisoner of war who helped on our farm. I asked him what he would do now the war was over. He began to cry and said he could not go home as the Russians had occupied his part of Germany.

    My father reminded us that the war continued against the Japanese and to pray for his brother’s safety in Burma.

    I remember VJ Day more vividly as it meant my uncle would be coming home – with his Military Cross.

    Andrew Norton

    Hinton Park, Somerset

    SIR – My mother and her sister went out in 1940 to stay with a family who lived on the banks of the River James, not far from Richmond, Virginia, where they went to school for four years.

    I remember her talking about how the house showed scars of battle dating back to the American Civil War and how musket balls could be found in the surrounding woods. There were still people around who remembered that war.

    When she went out there, it was 75 years after the end of the Civil War. So my advice to children today is to talk to as many veterans as possible or to people who were around at the end of the Second World War, 75 years ago, and gather their stories.

    Ian Hutton

    Liphook, Hampshire

    SIR – I remember on VE Day as a four-year-old seeing my much older brother climbing a ladder placed at the front of our house and painting a large white V for victory by a bedroom window. That V at 24 Hillcrest Road, East Dene, Rotherham, is still visible today on Google Street View.

    Like the British people, wartime paint obviously had stickability.

    Michael Browne

    Chesterfield, Derbyshire

    SIR – Our ancient church has a bell tower with separate access stairs from the ground.

    There would be zero risk for two people to go up and ring a bell 75 times to commemorate VE Day.

    The church authorities have decided that ringing that way would not be acceptable. Seemingly, the judgment is based on advice that assumes a team ringing event.

    Ian Sutherland

    Alton, Hampshire

    SIR – Did my parents really fight in the Second World War so that I could celebrate VE Day as a prisoner in my own home?

    John Plumb

    Abergavenny, Monmouthshire

    1. Mr Michael Browne is quite right! There is also another one on No 18…(a sad old fogey writes…!!)

    3. Our (small) flag was raised early this morning. The neighbour, a real Oberst, has a flag the size of the USS Nimitz on his flag-pole.
      Fairly quiet ceremony at Akershus festning, with only one war veteran present (due to trying not to kill them off with the virus) – HM King Harald.

  11. Morning again

    SIR – When I heard about Professor Neil Ferguson’s slip-up and resignation (report, May 6) I felt like clapping on my balcony. I’ve distrusted him and his advice from the start. And yet wasn’t he just doing what we’re all doing – sticking to the rules, but only up to a point?

    I’ve caught the most law-abiding of my friends arranging get-togethers in their gardens or streets, or meeting friends for walks when strictly it’s not allowed – simply because they realise there’s no logic to doing otherwise.

    What Professor Ferguson did wasn’t wrong. If only his edict could have been: “Be as sensible as you possibly can.” Wouldn’t that have caused less misery?

    His sin was to think he knows when the rules can be bent, but that everyone else is too much of an idiot to do the same. The idea that there’s an oikish and irresponsible “them” and a responsible and upright “us” is one that pervaded the Brexit argument. It’s patronising and reprehensible.

    Virginia Ironside

    London W12

    1. Ginny, dahling …. your chums haven’t closed down an entire economy and given free rein to the authoritarians and snitches within our shores.
      (The rest of the world, also, but if the entire planet is also daft enough to go along with Professor Underpants, then bad cess to it.)

    2. She misses the point that his predictions were also little better than a wild guess, and the basis of the lockdown.
      If the true numbers had been predicted, there would be no lockdown, so why are we continuing? Ferguson didn’t even believe his own advice and proved that when he was meeting up with his left-wing, activist girlfriend, so why should we take notice of it any longer??

  12. SIR – The lockdown was introduced to prevent the NHS from being overwhelmed – and it worked. In the absence of a vaccine, the only way out of it is for the whole population to be gradually exposed to the virus. Sadly, some people will die. There will be several more peaks of cases.

    The Government is taking advice from experts whose mindsets are medical. The fact is that an extension of the lockdown will ruin the economy and soon there will be no money to pay for medical care; more people will suffer and die from a multitude of other causes, children’s cancer care will stop, as will heart operations, and medications will be restricted.

    Get the country back to work.

    Robert Ashton

    Royton, Lancashire

    1. What’s the betting Robert Ashton is a retired pensioner that no longer needs to work?

  13. Good morning all

    There are an excellent batch of letters and comments on the DT this morning .

    Britain has become a money making racket and a tourism magnet for rich Asians , have we become a hoist to our own petard?

  14. Disgraceful that our Garden Centres are closed…..

    SIR – Yesterday I visited B&Q for some much-needed DIY materials. The store was managed extremely well, with organised queuing outside and at the tills. It has a large outdoor section that sold everything you would need for a garden and more. It was very busy, but social distancing was still observed.

    My local garden centres, which sell everything that B&Q sells, are all still closed. Why?

    Ian Pinington

    Partridge Green, West Sussex

    1. Gardens centres which show initiative by providing deliveries or “car park collection” can manage.

      1. Our local, independent garden centre closed its doors at the start of lockdown. They offered a delivery service on a limited range of goods but at a price and minimum order amount, even within the village. Nurseries in the area were offering a superior, and cheaper, delivery. Two weeks ago, the local one partially reopened but customers were restricted to a limited route through to the tills, no browsing or off-route movement. I hope they open properly, even if only allowing limited numbers of customers at a time.

    2. B&Q redesignated themselves as hardware stores rather than garden centres.

  15. SIR – Much has been made of the fact that on Tuesday, Covid-19 deaths in Britain reached the highest number (29,427) in Europe.

    However, while that figure is valid numerically, it is statistically irrelevant. The only reasonably valid comparison is deaths as a proportion of population. On that basis, on Tuesday, Spain had 540 Covid-19 deaths per million people, Italy had 483, Britain had 433, France had 376 and Germany had a remarkably low 83.

    So we are not the best, but we are by no means the worst. It should also be noted that, while France has a lower Covid-19 death rate than Britain, its population density (118 per square kilometre) is less than half of ours (272 per square kilometre). That must have an effect on the spread of the coronavirus.

    Professor John Dearden

    Helsby, Cheshire

    1. I think the Prof is assuming a great deal when he says that the “figure is valid numerically”.

      Personally, I am, er, sceptical…..

        1. Well… only if reasonably accurate. All the stories we read about Covid being listed as the cause of death when it wasn’t, makes one wonder what the real numbers are.

          1. It would be interesting to know how ‘flu deaths used to be recorded, and whether the methodology is the same.

            I suspect that many deaths this year that should have been attributed to ‘flu have been recorded as Covid-19.

          2. I’m thinking the real numbers are a lot less, which leads to the question, what is this punitive lockdown really all about.

    2. What proportion of the populations of those countries are obese BAMEs compared with Britain’s generous supply?

    3. Somebody here will, no doubt, have the details but isn’t it the case that some countries only count deaths ‘from’ (dominant cause) rather than ‘with’ (many of which haven’t been tested, just assumed) the virus?

  16. SIR – As someone who travels annually to both Australia and Spain, I am reading with great interest the proposals for air travel in the future.

    Social distancing at the airport is impossible: the queues for check-in, security and boarding would stretch for miles.

    Nor can it be maintained on aircraft. Even if passengers were adequately spaced, where would the queue for the lavatories form – and how would you pass those in the aisle seats?

    Face masks are likely to become mandatory, though their effectiveness is unclear.

    And how would this work in practice? On a short flight, it wouldn’t be too hard – but what about longer flights? Removing masks at any time would presumably negate their value, so how would we eat and drink?

    Paul Valente

    Pulborough, West Sussex

    SIR – Ian Maxwell’s plan (Letters, May 7) for removing freight traffic from Heathrow is wide of the mark.

    Almost all the freight handled by Heathrow comes in the belly holds of airliners, rather than in dedicated freighters.

    Heathrow has 200 stands for airliners, which are nearly always full, and has a mere 15 freight stands.

    The only way to move the freight to Gatwick is to move all the flights and passengers there too.

    John Newbury

    Warminster, Wiltshire

    1. Is there any chance of an air purification/ sterilisation system in closed confined spaces such as tube trains and particularly Aeroplanes. ?

  17. SIR – The Prime Minister has said that he went through “litres and litres” of oxygen during his treatment in intensive care at St Thomas’s Hospital and did not need to be connected to a respirator (report, May 4).

    In his video tribute when he left the hospital, he especially thanked two nurses, Jenny McGee and Luis Pitarma. Mr Pitarma is a senior nurse and a specialist in the use of an extracorporeal membrane oxygenator (ECMO). Presumably, Mr Johnson did not need a respirator as his blood was much more efficiently oxygenated using ECMO.

    Fortunately for the Prime Minister, St Thomas’s is one of only five hospitals in this country that have this fantastic piece of equipment.

    Professor Rudolf Hanka

    Wolfson College, Cambridge

  18. SIR – It appears that, as a consequence of the lockdown on restaurants and hotels, there is a glut of the better cuts of meat, such as sirloin and fillet.

    Similarly, our fishermen are unable to sell 80 per cent of their catch to the EU, and have only the British market to serve.

    In normal circumstances, one would have expected the prices of such products to fall dramatically, but I have seen no evidence of this in my local butchers and fishmongers.

    Why are normal market forces not applying?

    Brian Birch

    Sittingbourne, Kent

      1. Yo T_B

        Declare that you are the President of Woolisland, than sit back and await the Merc from Overseas Aid

        1. Mrning OLT

          Yeah, just like that song , remember ?
          I couldn’t believe the amount of new cars in that airfield .

          Incidentally , there are 3 huge cruise ships resting in Weymouth Bay off White Nothe . I gather Southampton is rather overcrowded with cruiseliners at present.

    2. Our fishermen aren’t even putting to sea to take a catch not to sell.

      The local boats have been tied up at the harbour since the lockdown started.There is no ‘British market’. All the pubs and restarants are shut! Even the chip shop next to the harbour that has no eating-in arrangements is closed.

      It costs a lot of money to run a boat once it’s left the quay. It’s still costing them while they are tied up, but a damned sight less than days at sea. They aren’t going to go if they can’t sell what they catch.

      Is Brian Birch thick?

      Photo taken two weeks ago. They are still there now. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/827347c346d77ebaa037910ec12b12cd2967b4601c5b62254c2f94d08aa90aef.jpg

    3. Our fishermen aren’t even putting to sea to take a catch not to sell.

      The local boats have been tied up at the harbour since the lockdown started.There is no ‘British market’. All the pubs and restarants are shut! Even the chip shop next to the harbour that has no eating-in arrangements is closed.

      It costs a lot of money to run a boat once it’s left the quay. It’s still costing them while they are tied up, but a damned sight less than days at sea. They aren’t going to go if they can’t sell what they catch.

      Is Brian Birch thick?

      Photo taken two weeks ago. They are still there now. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/827347c346d77ebaa037910ec12b12cd2967b4601c5b62254c2f94d08aa90aef.jpg

      1. Nearly all the fish’n’chip shops around here (Hunts) seem to be open for take-away business.

        1. Horses for courses. My wife was talking to the owner of one of our local ones a day or two ago. He told her they were still ‘negotiating’ on ways to open. Difficulties with social spacing, not only of customers, but of staff behind the counter and in the prep area

          Most fish & chip shops use fish that has been frozen at sea, often weeks ago. Anyone thinking they are getting ‘fresh’ as opposed to frozen fish at about 99% of our chip shops is mistaken. I know of at least one well regarded shop on the Tyne that uses fresh local fish and even advertises the name of the boat and skipper who caught it on a daily-updated white board in the shop, but they are the exception.

      2. Foreign trawlers are out in our territorial waters.
        Why should our fishing boats be tied up at docks? They’re an essential service, aren’t they, ie providing food. Plus, I doubt the fishermen can catch WuFlu out at sea, in the fresh air.

        1. As I said in my post, the places that they would sell the bulk of the fish to are closed by law, hotels, pubs and restaurants.

          There is no market worth going out for. They aren’t a ‘service’, they are self-employed owners with crews to pay and boats and loan payments to maintain.

    4. Morrisons had a half price offer on all steak cuts for at least a week on all steak cuts, including sirloin and fillet. I’ve got a freezer draw full to prove it. It was still on offer yesterday.

  20. Should I stay or should I goo?
    I canna’ say – ‘cos I don’t noo’
    Could I live or might I die?
    Yet I’m still here! I wonder why.

  21. Magpie keeps coming indoors after the cats food
    And now the fox.
    Poor old cat can’t hear or see a thing though.
    So is completely unaware

  22. Just commented to MOH that the Germans don’t really seem to be fully joining in today’s celebrations (German stock market open). Have others noticed that?

    2. I’m with the Germans – though for a different reason. I can’t celebrate what a spavined, fearful people the British have become.
      If only Hilter had waited for another 70 years, he could have walked in unhindered by such inconveniences as the British defending their country.

      1. Yo anne

        The Border Farce would have escorted them across the Channel and put on special Chunnel Trains for them

        1. Yes and turned Britain into an enormous concentration camp , and made slaves of everyone , just like they did on the Channel Islands .

        2. And as for the Perlice Farce – they’d have joined the Milice before you could say knife.

          2. “Um die Ecke bringen” – take (him) around the corner = liquidate him.

          4. Colonel German was the SBO at Colditz for a while.
            Just saying, in an ironic tone of voice.

        3. Yes and turned Britain into an enormous concentration camp , and made slaves of everyone , just like they did on the Channel Islands .

    3. Our stock market is open, too. As are all businesses that are allowed to be. It’s not a public holiday.

  23. Morning, Campers, on this day when we celebrate that the British Bulldog Spirit has been replaced by the Clapping Seal Syndrome.
    I’m not a fan of the ‘Men are driven by the one eyed trouser snake’ school of feminism; I’ve seen too many women make utter fools of themselves thanks to their hormonal urges, but this Jan Moir snippet did make me chuckle.

    “I’m not saying that all men would be like the King of Thailand, riding out the lockdown in a four-star German hotel, with only a self-designated pleasure room and his 20-strong sex harem for company.

    But perhaps a lot of them would, given the chance. The king’s concubines have been allocated names which hint at the truncated lives they lead, including The Beautiful One Who will Be Faithful To The King; She Who Obeys Lovingly; I’m Ready When You Are, Big Boy; and Are You Kidding? I’d Love To Do That Again.

    If the sexes were reversed — they never would be, because women simply aren’t so stupid — the male harem would be called very different things, such as I’ve Fixed The Boiler, Love; Let Me Put The Kids To Bed Tonight; and the one that really gets me going — I’ve Gone To Live In The Shed.”

    1. Most impressive, Bill. That is one string of flags more than here at Janus Towers…

      P.S. How is the reluctant heating system today? Any progress?

      1. Not much – the “heat bleed” still doesn’t function by convection. I’ll get matey back next week to have another go.

    1. “War in an extension of politics” Clausewitz.
      Wars are started by politicians so no difference in reality. Nothing changes.

    2. Bears repeating – even 2,000 years later:

      “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”

      ― Marcus Tullius Cicero

      3. It’s a great quote, but there is considerable doubt about whether Cicero actually said it – it seems more likely that it was attributed to him in a fictional book (A Pillar of Iron) by Taylor Caldwell, published in 1965!!

        1. Knickers and Spit. I assume by the name, the author was an American.
          By 1965, our rulers were too busy doing the very thing mentioned in that piece.

      4. 318968+ up ticks,
        Anne, very apt, can also be applied
        to UKIP.
        A party cannot survive
        treachery & treason from within as in the actions of the current NEc.
        8/5/2020,
        ogga1.

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        Morning Tb,
        Adhering to the same voting pattern that put the odious scene
        in place can only guarantee that it
        will mature as it is on a daily basis.
        I do look upon the lab/lib/con coalition party as the political compost from which the islamic ideology party will blossom, unfortunately.

      2. Agreed. And to add insult to injury we Brits are observing the 6ft social distancing rubbish. Unbelievable.

  26. No 10 battles to regain control of lockdown messaging amid fierce criticism. 8 May 2020.

    The government was on Thursday evening urgently trying to regain control of the next phase of the pandemic crisis as it faced fierce criticism and warnings that mixed messaging was priming the public to give up on the lockdown.

    Downing Street’s plans for laying out a “roadmap” on Sunday were thrown into chaos by a rash of headlines pointing to a significant easing next week. This prompted concern from many quarters, including from one of the government’s scientific advisers who said the public were mistakenly being given a “green light” to abandon the lockdown.

    Well it must be a repeat of every other battle they’ve fought over the last thirty years then. Defeated before a blow is struck. I’ve just come back from Morrisons and apart from a couple of neurotics swathed in winter scarves it is as per normal!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/07/no-10-scrambles-to-control-amid-fierce-criticism-of-lockdown-mixed-messages

  29. I am pleased that the 11am silence descriptions that I have read concentrated on VE day and the end of the war in Europe, rather than follow the timetable and reflection as published in the ES.

    At 11am, a two-minute silence will be held to honour the wartime generation, and to reflect on the impact Covid-19 has had on people across the world.

    5. “It is your BODIES that should remain two metres apart, madam, not your knees!”

    11. Policewoman tries tactfully to warn lady that she has forgotten to wear any knickers.

    13. “Out of the 5 acres in this park you had to choose my spot.”

    15. Nice pair of legs!
      Did the photographer get done for Upskirting?

    17. “Even if you are a sex worker, and allowed to work, you must still keep two metres apart”

    18. The WPC is setting a good example………..Her buttocks are two metres apart.

    19. “I don’t care if it is ‘maximum exposure to get vitamin D,’ you aren’t allowed to let the Sun shine up your ar5e”

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        If it were to be so then best make it a double along with the legal chappie, best nip his sort of mindset in the bud, early doors.

    2. The Snack Bar Boys should have cuddled up to Bliar, when he was ruining running the country,
      like the IRA did

      They are bulletproof (sic)

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        Morning Olt,
        In my book b liar was / is only a segment of the lab/lib/con coalition.
        As said in prior post we as a nation could not have achieved our present standing as a nation without the coalitions continuing input.

      2. 318968+ up ticks,
        Olt,
        Thinking on it it was a different type ennma then, the bomber did not hang about as now the islamic ideology follower following the instruction book to the letter is more liable to have his/hers @rse joining yours / mine in going vertical.
        Good politico’s have been warning of this for decades but have been castigated as far right racist & suppressed.

    3. His religion is irrelevant. He’s a criminal. If he hadn’t committed a crime, he wouldn’t be in prison.

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        W,
        His religion is very,very relevant as
        of being of an instructive nature, and following that landed him in prison.

  32. Afternoon All

    V E Day you say……………….

    Boy,have we squandered our birthright,the one our parents paid blood and treasure for

    Looking around We’re getting a real life demo of how a nation can be enslaved and brainwashed into believing anything the Government tell us

    War is Peace

    Freedom is Slavery

    Protect the NHS.

    It’s even got the same cadences.

  35. If lockdown is to continue, we should be trusted to know the real reasons why. 8 May 2020.

    It’s unfair to blame Professor Neil Ferguson. He never asked for such power over our lives: he was asked for his opinion and gave it. His charts showed that school closures, social distancing, washing hands: nothing would do enough to impact the spread of the virus. Only a full lockdown, ran his argument, would crush the Covid growth rate – and it would do so almost overnight. Why was the professor so sure? There was no real time to ask, or explain. Advisers advise, ministers decide and the Prime Minister decided to take the advice of this particular adviser.

    Actually Ferguson is the one person who is to blame. We are where we are because he advised it. The problem is that he is almost certainly the greatest Flim Flam man ever. This is not to say that he has profited by his fraud but by virtue of results. A fluke of human affairs placed him at a point in history where his advice has wreaked mayhem on the world.

    Ferguson is a Sociopath. He is all things to all men. A human chameleon. He has navigated his way through life and career without ever being exposed. There might have been individuals who spotted this but as I know from personal experience pointing this out is extraordinarily difficult and Academe is as averse to scandal as Politics. I doubt that he will be waylaid even now, too many political futures indeed that of governments would be extinguished if the truth came to light.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/05/07/lockdown-continue-should-trusted-know-real-reasons/

      1. Afternoon Ndovu. Yes when I researched him I smelled a rat. As I’ve posted on the same thread the code is irrelevant, Ferguson never used it! He is a complete Fake. Everything. His qualifications, his research. It is all bunk!

    1. You may have noticed that in the past couple of weeks traffic jams have been reappearing. That’s not because traffic has returned to pre-crisis levels.

      It’s because road space for cars and commercial vehicles has been deliberately reduced, in the process engineering unnecessary congestion and air pollution — the very thing ‘green’ policies are supposed to combat. Never mind the fact that while coronavirus lingers, the safest way to travel is in your own vehicle.

      When the lockdown is lifted, we’re going to need our cars, vans and lorries to get the economy moving again. How on earth otherwise are tradesmen supposed to get to work? Do we intend to force plumbers to pedal from site to site with a boiler strapped to their backs and half a dozen radiators under their arms?

      Are scaffolders supposed to hump their gear onto Tube trains, while simultaneously observing strict social distancing regulations? Just imagine trying to negotiate the escalator at Oxford Circus station with a 36ft steel pole slung over your shoulder.

      They should do exactly that, and see what the reactions are.
      Or simply refuse to provide a service to anyone living in one of the zones affected by the traffic restrictions.

      1. Surely it’s simpler – we’re just hugely overcrowded to the tune of over 20 million people.

  37. Boris’s message on Sunday should be

    Go back to work

    Pay tax

    Save lives

    Or the NHS will die

    1. Yo A_t_G

      Shirley

      Save Lives

      Get Back to Work

      Collect Taxes

      Reorganise the NHS and make managers etc accountable for their actions

      1. Yes any suggestions to rid us from the excessive advertising of the save the nhs. It has turned me against this whole charade. We are adult human beings who can assess risk on our own without being told what to think by some transient politicians and scientists.

          1. Not the first man to make the mistake of being led by his dick into making a monstrous cock-up.

          2. Bonking his mistress was the very least of it. His extremely overblown predictions of mas deaths produced by an amateurish piece of in-house coding that’s persuaded millions to destroy our economy is the real crime.
            Oh, and the blatant hypocrisy.

  38. Beer delivered, time to reset the beer machine so that it’s nice and cold for Affligem & Newcastle Brown. Cheers.

    1. NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!

      As a long time drinker of Newcastle Brown back in the 60s and 70s I had many a sore head from that particular brew, but being a dark ale it should be served at ‘cellar temperature’, 55°F, not chilled as if it was some lager.

      I wrote here just a few days ago of my experience in the early 70s when the Brown (never ‘Dog’ and never – shudder- ‘Newkie’) started to taste different from what I was used to and I worked out the reason why. A copy from that post here;

      ‘When they pulled down the pub I used to start off at I had to start going to a club over the road. They were into the new-fangled chiller shelves there and they thought it was a good idea to put all their bottles on it, including the ales. I would be sold a bottle that had ice clinging to the base. It tasted foul. I soon learnt that the sour taste wasn’t because the beer was old or stale, but because it had been over-chilled and the bad taste didn’t go away even if the beer was left to get warmer. I cured that by asking for a bottle from the crate, not the shelf.

      Eventually I went off drinking it in favour of the real ale that was starting to be available and that’s what I prefer in a pub these days. About 1993 I was on a visit to the S&N Brewery (now demolished) at Newcastle. We went around the bottling plant, where there were thousands of bottles being filled, before going to the place we really wanted to be – the free bar.

      I asked our guide why, since it was a dark ale that should be served at cellar temperature why so many places chilled it, even to the extent that the lablels on the bottles now carried the to me blasphemous instruction ‘Serve chilled’.

      He shrugged his shoulders and said ‘Marketing’.

    2. NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!

      As a long time drinker of Newcastle Brown back in the 60s and 70s I had many a sore head from that particular brew, but being a dark ale it should be served at ‘cellar temperature’, 55°F, not chilled as if it was some lager.

      I wrote here just a few days ago of my experience in the early 70s when the Brown (never ‘Dog’ and never – shudder- ‘Newkie’) started to taste different from what I was used to and I worked out the reason why. A copy from that post here;

      ‘When they pulled down the pub I used to start off at I had to start going to a club over the road. They were into the new-fangled chiller shelves there and they thought it was a good idea to put all their bottles on it, including the ales. I would be sold a bottle that had ice clinging to the base. It tasted foul. I soon learnt that the sour taste wasn’t because the beer was old or stale, but because it had been over-chilled and the bad taste didn’t go away even if the beer was left to get warmer. I cured that by asking for a bottle from the crate, not the shelf.

      Eventually I went off drinking it in favour of the real ale that was starting to be available and that’s what I prefer in a pub these days. About 1993 I was on a visit to the S&N Brewery (now demolished) at Newcastle. We went around the bottling plant, where there were thousands of bottles being filled, before going to the place we really wanted to be – the free bar.

      I asked our guide why, since it was a dark ale that should be served at cellar temperature why so many places chilled it, even to the extent that the lablels on the bottles now carried the to me blasphemous instruction ‘Serve chilled’.

      He shrugged his shoulders and said ‘Marketing’.

        1. A full English beakfast is one of the cures for a night on it.

          It’s no longer the same, though. When they were brewing it at Newcastle the brewery used to boast that it gained part of its unique character from the water which they drew from their own borehole further up the Tyne Valley. They went a bit quiet on that front ten years ago when they moved brewing from Tyneside to Yorkshire.

          More recently it’s coming from Holland!

          It’s bloody Heineken!

  39. Afternoon all.
    We receive emails from our local police, in the latest one it warns about celebrating VE day in the usual fashion, do not even have small street gatherings.
    But I’m not sure if we will receive a warning about gatherings when ramadan ends, perhaps we might.
    Now it’s been mentioned…….
    We had a phone call from our friends south east of Melbourne in Victoria this morning, they said they have both suffered the mild symptoms of the Virus, and are okay now. cleaning wipes have been widely available from the start and also plenty of disinfectant is available. They wipe everything they buy from the supermarkets. Especially the necks of bottles, as I said to Bruce “why don’t you buy some wine glasses” ? ;-))
    But only around 100 people have died from it in the whole state. The police are being very strict on people driving around, unless they have good and genuine reason they are fined 600 dollars.

    1. Oz & NZ have both isolated from the rest of the world – easier for them as they are not so heavily populated as we are, and they are a long way from anywhere else.

      Whereas we have continued to allow planes to land – full of who knows what and as for the Border Farce ferry service……..

      1. Whereas we have continued to allow planes to land – full of who knows what and as for the Border Farce ferry service……..
        Especially that Ellie.
        I read that 18million people have returned to the country (mainly air travel) in one way or another since January.

        1. I think that the 18mn figure includes a significant number of people who would have been passing through to get elsewhere.

          If 18mn is true and they have stayed, it would suggest that at any one time a quarter of the total population was out of the country. It would also suggest that what we think of as day to day overcrowding is nowhere near as bad as it could be.
          Horrifying thought…

          1. My friend who finally got home from Malta yesterday is now in quarantine for fourteen days, no going out for any reason. He expects to be receiving visits from plod to check on him.
            Strangely after arriving in Toronto and clearing immigration, he was allowed to catch a flight to Ottawa then a taxi home. Ah well, the thought counts.
            It will be interesting to hear how his partner got on, she was flying into New York and then faced a lengthy drive home.

          2. It shows clearly what a farce many of the so-called safety controls really is.

          3. Since we’ve already got tens or hundreds of thousands of people circulating in the country with the disease, a few more coming in through airports aren’t logically going to make a difference.

            It’s not as if they are coming from a land ravaged with pestilence to a pristine environment.

            These controls are about being seen to be doing something and making people feel better.

          4. Agree re the second paragraph but not the first.

            Those flying in, certainly initially, appear to have come from places where the virus was already very active. The possibility of them being carriers was thus greater than that within the general population. And the numbers were both very significant and the people were from all parts of the country.

            If we were going to act we should have shut the border immediately.

          5. Initailly it made sense to stop them coming in, but we didn’t.

            The horses have long since bolted from that stable. Now that the disease is worldwide and in the general population in the UK, it’s more a cosmetic exercise in PR.

          6. My guess is that the bug has spread far more widely than indicated.

            It’s why I’ve been an advocate of statistical sampling tests to get a better feel for how widely it has gone.

            Don’t just test people with symptoms or known exposures, test a representative sample of the population as a whole. It should tell us how well, if at all, herd immunity is progressing.
            Even now it is not too late, done weekly and one would get a far more accurate picture.

          7. Get YouGov on to it – they’ll come up with whatever result the Govt want.

          9. Without widespread blind testing, we’ll never know how dangerous (or not) it is.

            It’s in the system now and it’s never going away. As you say, we need a measure of it and testing of large numbers, especially those who aren’t displaying symptoms is essential.

          10. It doesn’t even have to be very large numbers, even a tenth of Hancock’s 100, 000, let alone BJ’s 200 would give a very good insight, if the sample was truly random and across the country.

          11. That was the reason put forward by Matt Plonker Hancock against doing anything at airports to test incoming passengers.

          12. He might be a plonker, but it didn’t make him wrong on that point.

            Testing, blocking and quarantine would have been immensely valuable early on, coupled with strict measures to deal with the small number of cases here at the time, now it would be cosmetic. The whole world is busy cutting itself off from the whole world while pretending to be stopping something coming in that they already have in abundance.

      2. 318968+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,
        Could it be something to do with the governance party do you think ?
        We did have the same problem
        with the last lot did we not ?
        Which brings to mind the one prior to that, that, that,& that.
        It could almost lead one to believe there was an anti UK
        political campaign running via the lab/lib/con coalition party.

      3. In the past six weeks or so my river walks have been fairly quiet in terms of overhead traffic but yesterday evening the planes were flying in over Hammersmith every 3-5 minutes. They’re quite low at that point so it’s very noisy.

        1. And we noticed one approaching after 11pm

          We thought there is a prohibition of landings after 10.30pm?

        2. Probably French beans from Egypt, Strawberries from Spain , Avocados , Celery , Plums , Papaya, Grapefruit, Sweetcorn limes lemons and lots of stuff that we usually take for granted .

          Anyway .. it is what it is .

        3. And we noticed one approaching after 11pm

          We thought there is a prohibition of landings after 10.30pm?

        4. Good morning, Sue on Monday. The bloke who just replied to you about your walk to work is the one who treated TP so badly.

          I have a policy of never replying to anything he says. I know TP and trust her to have given a true account of his behaviour.

    2. The official data says only 97 covid deaths for the entire country, not just the state of Victoria.
      Which makes one wonder why they’re bothering with lockdown at all.

      1. Nip it in the bud, like we didn’t.

        Even then, since it’s world-wide, it’ll be coming to get them one day

      3. Nip it in the bud, like we didn’t.

        Even then, since it’s world-wide, it’ll be coming to get them one day

  40. I don’t know if this has been posted yet.

    Petitions Committee
    House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA
    Tel 020 7219 7614 Email petitionscommittee@parliament.uk Website http://www.parliament.uk/petitions-committee

    Rt Hon Priti Patel MP
    Secretary of State for the Home Department
    2 Marsham Street
    London SW1P 4DF
    United Kingdom

    Dear Priti

    5 May 2020

    I am writing to request a revised Government response to e-petition 300239, calling on the Government to release the Home Office’s Grooming Gang Review in full.
    My Committee considered your department’s response to this petition at its meeting on Tuesday 5 May, and agreed that it did not directly address the request made by the petitioner, and therefore did not meet the standard for Government responses that has been agreed with the Leader of the House.
    Your department’s response explains the Government’s current work on child sexual abuse, which includes investigating the characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation, and states that this work will inform the Government’s forthcoming strategy. However, the response fails to respond to the petitioner’s request for this work to be published.
    My Committee has already received a significant volume of correspondence complaining about the Government’s response, and I am sure that your department has been receiving similar correspondence directly.

    Your department’s response to this petition was also substantially late. A response to this e-petition was requested on 6 March, but not received until 24 April. It has been agreed with the Leader of the House that the Government will respond within 21 days, making your response four weeks late. I fully appreciate that the Government is currently under significant pressure, but it is disappointing to receive a late response that also fails to adequately respond to the petition.

    I am therefore writing on behalf of the Committee to request a revised response that directly responds to the request made by the petition. This should clearly state whether the Government will publish its research into the characteristics of group-based child sexual exploitation. If the Government does plan to publish this, your response should set out in what form and when. If the Government does not plan to publish this, your response should explain the reasons for this.
    I would be grateful if you could provide a revised response before the House rises for Whitsun, on Wednesday 20 May, given the substantial time that signatories to this petition have already been waiting for the Government response.
    I am copying this letter to the Leader of the House, with whom the standards for Government responses and timeframes within which these should be provided have been agreed.

    Best wishes,

    Catherine McKinnell MP Chair of the Petitions Committee

    CC: Rt Hon Jacob Rees-Mogg MP, Leader of the House of Commons

    1. “Sorry Kate, the slammers will get upset, and it will prove that TR is correct. So it ain’t gonna happen”. Next.

    2. Well, well. That’s very interesting.

      I don’t think they’ll get a proper response from the HO. It’s endemically corrupt, and the report would be an indictment of its own activities and staff, so won’t allow it to see the light of day, despite any endeavours of Priti Patel. She needs to sack the whole department and start again.

      1. A much more likely outcome I would suggest is that Ms Patel is dumped out of office rather promptly if she won’t toe the party line on industrial scale Moslem sex trafficking in the U.K.

      1. As a Libore MP, promotion under this government rather unlikely?

        ‘Morning, Minty.

        1. My mistake Hugh though I would point out Starmer wouldn’t release it either!

      1. Morning, HJ.

        I’ve spent some time reading about the corruption and incompetence in Manchester, Oldham and other points North, that are being revealed by a number of concerned local people. These exposures include prominent people in politics, the police, business and one can imagine this flavour of involvement by other prominent people nationally putting a hold on publishing this report. A highly redacted report with names removed would be worse than not publishing as it would confirm a cover-up. I’m sure that the PTB will brazen it out.

    5. Meanwhile out in the real world:

      Manchester Evening News – Social Worker Arrested Suspicion of Sexual Activity with a Child

      Whistle-blowers and concerned residents in Manchester and Oldham are fighting against the endemic corruption and incompetence within the authorities on this and other issues. If Oily Starmer holds any hopes of restoring the Labour Party’s reputation he has to address what is going on in many of our northern towns and cities. Sadly the need for votes has outweighed doing the right thing in recent years.

      https://twitter.com/recusant_raja/status/1257967573548875776

      1. F rom theManchester Evening News article above:

        ‘Following the findings of the report, Chief Constable for GMP Ian
        Hopkins requested a peer view to analyse its approach during operation
        Augusta.’

        Do the job for which you are paid handsomely by the public?

      2. Given they’re all at it, the full weight of big state will be brought to ensure the suppression of the story.

        The corruption, fraud and waste in the public sector is immense. It is awash with money. None of it going where people think it is. That’s why this constant clamour for higher taxes disgusts me so much.

        1. Where’s the constant clamour for higher taxation? There’s a clamour for higher spending but that is not the same thing as higher taxes.
          We are likely to have a recession when we are back at work. The last thing you want during a recession is taxes going up or spending going down

      1. The report will never be released. If it is it will be redacted heavily. All mention of religion will be removed.

        The HO was late because it didn’t want to write it and took it’s time carefully crafting a document by committee no doubt to blame those raped. It is not fit for purpose.

  42. “Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson are sued over £6.7m unpaid bill that is four months overdue on their £13m skiing chalet in the Swiss resort of Verbier”

    Oh how sad – and on this day of all days. Well done Randy Andy and the Jockey’s daughter.

    1. I’m afraid Brenda should have stuck to producing just the two children.

      2. But the thingie in the woodpile has caused her grief over a grandchild who would still be there.

    2. They should have dossed down in a media mogul’s holiday home.
      It is possible to learn from the younger generation about matters other than the interwebby.

    4. Morning Bill. Anyone who has watched the video of Sarah Ferguson (Strange coincidence that. Do you think it’s genetic?) gloating over that pile of cash, knows the reality of this pair. I wouldn’t trust either of them as far as I could throw them!

    5. My first take on this was “Why blame them when they have secretaries and other lackeys who would normally be expected to do all the paperwork and just present the cheques to them for signing?”

  43. No 10 battles to regain control of lockdown messaging amid fierce criticism. 8 May 2020.

    The government was on Thursday evening urgently trying to regain control of the next phase of the pandemic crisis as it faced fierce criticism and warnings that mixed messaging was priming the public to give up on the lockdown.

    Downing Street’s plans for laying out a “roadmap” on Sunday were thrown into chaos by a rash of headlines pointing to a significant easing next week. This prompted concern from many quarters, including from one of the government’s scientific advisers who said the public were mistakenly being given a “green light” to abandon the lockdown.

    Well it must be a repeat of every other battle they’ve fought over the last thirty years then. Defeated before a blow is struck. I’ve just come back from Morrisons and apart from a couple of neurotics swathed in winter scarves it is as per normal!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/07/no-10-scrambles-to-control-amid-fierce-criticism-of-lockdown-mixed-messages

    1. A point I commented on here yesterday morning.

      A partial quote from my post:

      ‘It was the press that brought us the shortages of toilet rolls and tinned food with their alarmist and prominently-posted headlines, showing us things like empty shelves even before the shelves were empty in this country. Toilet roll panic buying in Australia was used to start the panic here.

      Now, instead of sticking to the facts and limiting their reporting of the fact that Boris will be making an address on Sunday, they had to go further. They began to speculate as always about what Boris might be going to say. Leaks? Who can say? If they don’t have leaks they just make things up anyway.’

      1. The MSM are absolutely determined that the present government will be the last Tory government EVER

    2. Genies and bottles.
      In March the green light was given to authoritarians and their ignoble legions of snitchers and narks.
      Actions have consequences and they don’t always take the expected direction.

  45. https://www.theorganicprepper.com/schools-after-covid-prison-camps/

    “What Will Schools Look Like After COVID? Prison Camps. They’ll Look Like Prison Camps.”

    One school in Quebec has released its guidelines for when it opens, and it will be treating children as if they were guilty of a heinous crime, and they’ll be kept permanently distanced from one another as if they’re all highly infectious (there’s evidence that children are not affected by the virus and don’t pass on the virus to other people), they’ll remain seated in a designated seat all day, including lunch, and they will be allowed only a little exercise, i.e. “walking outside safely distanced from one another in a prearranged pattern” when weather permits.
    The original link to the Facebook page has been removed.

    https://m.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1568895466610410&id=131360617030576&hc_location=ufi
    Guidance from another school in Quebec, with the link still available.

    The link to the Quebec government guidelines is also on the site which is available as a download.

    This is how you destroy childhood, instill fear of contact with anyone else, it’s how you destroy your society once and for all.

    Our own government is now saying that lockdown will only be very slightly eased. The lockdown was supposed to be about “flattening the curve” and “saving the NHS.” Both have been achieved well beyond what was anticipated. So what’s the excuse for continuing this?

    I won’t mention that it’s my birthday today. I really don’t feel like celebrating. Last year I was cruising the Med, and up on Mount Edna sightseeing. This year I’m under what I now believe is an unnecessary lockdown. Bah, humbug!😟

    4. ‘Morning, Ims. If you are not going to mention the fact that it your birthday today, I am prevented from wishing you many happy returns…

      P.S. Did you Mount Edna just the once?

        1. That’s how Popeye got a black eye – he went to Mount Olive
          Morning Tom

        2. That’s how Popeye got a black eye – he went to Mount Olive
          Morning Tom

          1. Popeye: “Gee, Olive, you’re awful pretty.”

            Olive: “Oh, Popeye, you pretty awful yourself!”

    6. Have at least a tolerable birthday, and many excellent ones in the future!

    8. Creating millions of Pavlik Morosovs whose natural affections are so stunted that they’ll betray their nearest and dearest to the authorities.

    10. Have a good day thinking about the good times, and hope for better next year.

    11. There are tomato plants going begging if you feel like a celebratory drive to Fulmodeston…. And trombetti…

      1. I might just do that, Bill, if the PM allows me to when he speaks to the nation on Sunday. That kind Mr Korky has already given me some tomato plants, but I’d love to have a go at growing some trombetti. (Good morning, btw.)

        1. I fear that this dreadful quarantine is going to continue – with tiny ameliorations – and that your journey from the wilds of Essex would be regarded by the various Stasi roadblocks (“Ausweis bitte”) as definitely NOT essential.

    12. Happy birthday anyway! Fight lockdown in any way you can. Anger is so much healthier than depression.

    13. When you look back next year I wonder how you’ll feel.
      A lot better I hope.

      Happy birthday.

    15. Considering supposedly children don’t catch or pass on CV a lot of kids have died from CV.

  46. Oh dear………

    The Third Strain of the NILE Virus is coming. (Type C)

    I thought you would want to know about this virus.

    Even the most advanced computer programs from Norton, McAfee, Eset – Nod 32 and others cannot take care of this one.

    It appears to target those who were born prior to 1958 – but beware, the lockdown and consequent slowing down seems to be increasing the chances of being affected!

    Virus Symptoms

    1. Causes you to send the same email twice. (Done that)

    2. Causes you to send a blank email. (That too)

    3. Causes you to send an email to the wrong person. (Yup)

    4. Causes you to send it back to the person who sent it to you. (Ah-ha)

    5. Causes you to forget to attach the attachment. (Done that)

    6. Causes you to hit SEND before you’ve finished. (Oh no, not again)

    7. Causes you to hit DELETE instead of SEND. (Hate that)

    8. Causes you to hit SEND when you should DELETE. (Heck, now what?)

    It’s called the C-NILE virus!

    A lot of us have already been inflicted with this deadly disease and unfortunately as we age it gets worse.

    Keep well my friends.

  48. UK scientists furious over attempt to censor Covid-19 advice. 8 May 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/478a0e6823deb0279d5eb8e066ec3dc7f1bc4410bc2ebdd71c21f13737c56648.jpg

    Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

    The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on Emergencies (Sage) this week to mollify growing criticism about the lack of transparency over the advice given to ministers responding to the coronavirus.

    This is of course ass covering. They’ve f*cked up and that don’t want anyone to know!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/08/revealed-uk-scientists-fury-over-attempt-to-censor-covid-19-advice

    1. The more they do things like that more certain we will be that they bought a fake mathematician lock, stock and barrel.

    3. That can’t be the report.

      Usually they leave in the connectives. To redact the entire thing is absurd.

  49. We’ve put a Union Flag and bunting up in front of the house to remember the end of WW2 ( European Edition) and I was going to post a picture until I realised the painful irony created by having a BMW and Honda on the drive .

    4. We moved our French registered French car before taking the snap below!!

  52. First emotional event of the day for me this morning was when BBC Radio 4 News played the recording of the massive celebratory crowd outside Buckingham Palace singing “Land of Hope and Glory” . I was nearly 6 and my brother 5 the day before. We and our little tribe of school friends ran about the streets shouting “we won the war” in total ignorance of the significance of the conflict. Our mothers kept us secure and shielded from the possibility that our fathers might never come home. We had a happy childhood.

      1. Certainly no longer acceptable to grow up in a household with simply a mother and father apparently.

        1. Morning Stephen. But they grew up without sex and gender instruction and believing girls were girls and boys knew it, that whites were normal and not the racist homo – islamophobes that they really are. The horror of it!

      2. We were lucky. The only war event was when the German planes came over our house on their way to bomb the Clydebank shipyards. We should have been in our Morrison Shelter but my mother took us out onto the back step to listen to the planes flying overhead. A bomb apparently fell onto the Glasgow – London railway just a few miles away. I am told that crowds of people from Glasgow trawled the streets of Motherwell and Wishaw and elsewhere looking for accommodation after their homes were bombed.

        1. MB still has a piece of shrapnel that landed in his pram when the Germans bombed a local clothing factory.

          1. The house my parents lived in was destroyed a week before I was born; three years later, a V1 fell in the field opposite the next house.

            I feel lucky to be here.

    2. I was 15months old and I do not recall getting even an extra milk ration.

  54. Good VE Day afternoon to you all.

    3pm toast nearly here, and so it’s modern pop but nevertheless ….[ off to the front door very soon ].

    As we walked along the beaches of Normandy

    We came to Juno, Omaha and Gold

    And whispered a prayer for the boys

    Who said goodbye to it all.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4sjN9Wtue8

  55. No post delivered today. This means no post till Monday as the Royal Mail has stopped Saturday deliveries as from last week. It is now a number of weeks since the Royal Mail stopped their tracking service. Even if you pay for tracking it no longer happens.

    1. I ordered a book in the middle of April (via Amazon marketplace) and it didn’t arrived within the expected timescale. they sent me tracking details and it showed that it was with the Royal Mail “out for delivery” for over a week. It came eventually.

      1. The Canada post tracking system is stil working, it shows that every package since early April is stuck in the International Arrivals depot in Toronto.

        Such a reliable service that the government are now using Amazon to deliver PPEs instead of using the post office.

      2. The Spectator has sent an apology to subscribers because there are doubts that the physical magazine will arrive before Monday.

      3. I have received a book from Amazon almost weekly. All have arrived on time; in fact the latest arrived yes’day a day early.

      4. Was it a a readable book , something interesting ?

        I just cannot get stuck into any thing that requires concentration at the moment .
        Moh enjoys a Soduko puzzle every day , peace and quiet in the loo, that sort of thing!

        1. Yes — it was the last of Joy Adamson’s books – the one about the leopard “Queen of Shaba”. A hardback published in 1979 just before she was murdered. We’ve been reading them all. I don’t think people these days would agree with some of her methods for her research but they are a fascinating read.

          I ordered Born Free before we went away, as we were going to Meru, and I couldn’t find my original copy. I hadn’t realised it was all three of the Born Free books. I’ve since bought the two about Pippa the cheetah. All are old and out of print, but don’t cost much.

          We’ve both been reading quite a lot, as well as chatting on here. OH has been busy outside more than I have.

        2. I have just started a puzzle. At the rate I am going, it might be finished by the end of the year.

    1. I say they are grossly massaging the figures to keep the country fearful.

    2. The baby had an underlying condition – as nearly 90% of the victims had.

    3. Belle, for some, as yet unexplained, reason(s) it would appear that it is more important to the Government to keep the borders open than trying to stop the spread of the virus. Eighteen million people passing through, visiting or remaining is a disgraceful statistic when the resident population is being coerced into staying at home, observing personal spacing, closing down businesses etc. etc.
      The immigration figures over the period of lock-down must be scrutinised to see if the Government maintained the levels that we’ve become accustomed to and which satisfies their globalist needs. With unemployment levels being forecast to rise substantially this year the argument that we need mass immigration to bolster the economy and fill vacancies will not hold water. Let’s see what happens.

      1. KK,
        Nothing makes any sense anymore .

        Our country has been vandalised by a foreign bug .

        Some of the people we have given shelter to in the past 75 years hve altered the landscape and culture of Britain forever .

        Bomb damage can be fixed , and buildings rebuilt, but we cannot rebuild the character of the British spirit that got us through the war with so much sacrifice and sterling spirit and bravery .

        Sorry to moan .

        Moh erected a large White Ensign on the front lawn this morning . It belonged to a Type 14 Blackwood class Frigate that he served on before he started his Fleet Air Arm training .. talking 52 years ago!

        1. I flew the Union flag, but I was tempted to fly the RAF ensign (I only have one flagpole). After all, if the RAF had been defeated in 1940 we wouldn’t have been celebrating VE Day at all.

      2. One lesson that our politicians have learnt from Jean-Claude Juncker is:

        “When you are given an awkward question you must LIE”

        Indeed from its very inception those running the Common Market/EC/ EEC/EU knew that project would be scrapped if the proles knew the truth – so lying was the only option.

        In fact I am surprised that there are not courses on offer at university on Mendacity and how best to apply it.

        2. Courses at university on Mendacity?

          Certainly there are….but the titles of the courses are PPE

    4. Well, that’s a strange coincidence.
      I was literally just looking at another report of a 6-week old dying “from Covid-19”. That other one was in Connecticut, where the governor announced the baby’s death, but the coroner there didn’t support the announcement, as the cause of death hadn’t been determined:

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8193487/Coroner-refuses-rule-COVID-19-cause-death-six-week-old-Connecticut-baby.html
      Coroner refuses to rule COVID-19 as cause of death of six-week-old baby after Connecticut governor claimed toddler was ‘youngest coronavirus victim in the world’
      Infant died at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford on March 26
      Posthumous coronavirus test of the toddler came back positive, officials said.

      The state has ordered all hospitals to test all patients who die during the pandemic, regardless of the manner of death.

      A post-mortem test turned up a positive result for coronavirus, which is why Lamont and Bronin made their announcements.

      But there are still pending toxicology reports as officials are leaving open the possibility that the toddler had an underlying condition such as sudden infant death syndrome or positional asphyxiation.

      1. More worrying is the emergence of the rare and nasty Kawasaki disease in children who are positive for Covid-19.

    5. But the story goes on to explain that the 6 week old baby had an ‘underlying condition’ that they are not going to disclose the nature of, while saying it was a covid victim.

      2. The irresponsible rag known formerly has the Telegraph fails to mention this fact.

    6. And how about fighting them on the beaches – by which I mean those arriving on the beaches near Dover.

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        Afternoon R,
        The supporters of lab/lib/con
        mass uncontrolled immigration
        firmly linked to the submissive
        Pcism & appeasement peoples put paid to that long ago.
        As with “you live by the sword you die by the sword”.
        In my book the same applies to those currently supporting the
        lab/lib/con coalition party, and so it will come to pass.

      2. 318968+ up ticks,
        R,
        If peoples were serious about stopping mass uncontrolled immigration they would have done it decades ago via the polling booth.

    1. May the 1st marked the beginning of my 16th year TV and TV Licence-free. Over £2,300 saved and spent on better things.

  58. Kent State and the death of the Sixties spirit. Spiked. 8 May 2020.

    Kent State marked the beginning of disillusionment with politics, leaders and the possibility of meaningful political change. Given the lack of trust in leaders or institutions – a legacy, in part, of the Vietnam War – cynicism replaced the sometimes naive optimism of previous generations. Millions of students shut down hundreds of universities, colleges and high schools in the days after Kent State. But they did so with no expectation of changing the government’s course on Vietnam – like both Neil Young and the hardhats, this was only an expression of inchoate rage.

    I remember Kent State and of course the Vietnam War; just the first of a series of disastrous conflicts that the West has lost. The greater loss of faith in politics was probably the Iraq War and the non-existent Weapons of Mass Destruction. This has proved to be such a bugbear that Western Governments and their agencies no longer tell the truth about their Foreign Policies. Lies, Disinformation and Propaganda, call it what you will, are now habitual while the truth is suppressed at all costs. This gives rise to the thought that it may not be possible to govern an informed and educated electorate under a Democratic system and that Authoritarianism, Tyranny even, are an inevitable by-product. If this is true it presages a dark future.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/05/08/kent-state-and-the-death-of-the-sixties-spirit/

    1. Afternoon Minty,it’s being so cheerful that keeps us going ain’t it??

      Ah yes, an end to college deferments for the wealthy and being forced to share the same risks as the ghetto kids,raise the banners comrades!!

      The American mistakes in Vietnam are legion but can be summed up in one quote

      The essence of war is violence. Moderation in war is imbecility.
      Attributed to Lord Fisher during the great War.
      Taken from Macaulay’s Essay on Lord Nugent’s Memorials of Hampden.
      Quotes reported in Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

      1. The real mistake in Vietnam was being there in the first place. Anyone who thought a bunch of unwilling conscripts could deal with something the French Foreign legion spectacularly failed to deal with had to be taking happy pills.

        The interesting point about Kent State was that the National Guard, who did the shooting, in those days was not deployed abroad, but was there to protect the homeland. So, joining the Guard meant you would not be sent to ‘Nam.

        As James Michener put it, draft dodgers firing on students protesting the draft.

      2. Afternoon Rik. It was always a losing proposition as was Afghanistan. The West by which I mean the United States is so rich that defeat makes no difference to them. The rest of us however are another matter!.

        1. Yet Malaya wasn’t,to my mind for two primary reasons
          The mission “Protect the People” was never forgotten
          The alternative to the communists weren’t all gangsters and bandits

      3. The real mistake in Vietnam was being there in the first place. Anyone who thought a bunch of unwilling conscripts could deal with something the French Foreign legion spectacularly failed to deal with had to be taking happy pills.

        The interesting point about Kent State was that the National Guard, who did the shooting, in those days was not deployed abroad, but was there to protect the homeland. So, joining the Guard meant you would not be sent to ‘Nam.

        As James Michener put it, draft dodgers firing on students protesting the draft.

          2. Ironically, that was thanks to Wilson, who was often described as ‘chicanery on legs’.

    2. “that it may not be possible to govern an informed and educated electorate under a Democratic system”

      I think it is very possible. The problem arises when rather more than 50% of the electorate don’t fall into the “informed and educated” category; rather they fall for all kinds of simplistic statements, undeliverable promises and outright lies.

    3. Yet surely the student protesters of the 60’s are the very people who fell for cultural Marxism and are now leading us to Hell in a handcart?

  60. https://www.prisonplanet.com/when-governments-switched-their-story-from-flatten-the-curve-to-lockdown-until-vaccine.html

    When Governments Switched Their Story From “Flatten The Curve” To “Lockdown Until Vaccine”

    Ryan McMaken
    The Mises Institute
    May 8, 2020

    In the early days of the COVID-19 panic – back in mid-March – articles began to appear pushing the idea of “flattening the curve” (the Washington Post ran an article called “Flatten the Curve” on March 14)…

    1. Hardly a glorified cold. More like glorified flu. But then the real flu killed 50 million people in 1918, so it has a way to go yet.

      1. The Covid-19 we are constantly being told isn’t a ‘flu but is more akin to the common cold, with which it shares features.

        1. There seem to be varying strains of it – some mild and some more severe.

          1. That too, although I suspect that susceptibility plus how it was transmitted, rather than a strong or mild version, is the determining factor.

  62. I see the Dover patrol is busy this morning looking for invaders migrants to provide a taxi service for rescue. A different aircraft to normal at the moment whilst the drone, G-TECV covered the earlier period.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a0b7703a714f9995b80bc6206abba168b2118554d4e32ab53a1ec79756b83342.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/07f1e11d41f048c1e3882f66eb7884b43a9336a516514fb1978cd03b1f8fdc83.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/20ad94bbe19a63b09d6699b15e915fa1d9ff87a215a471bfef845bb3594e9827.png

    1. Yo Peddy

      I hope the FireFolk are keeping the regulation 2 Yards and 2 bits apart.

        1. More like an IRA one, or a self-igniting plum pudding from Ali’s Snack Bar

    3. Is it a strange coincidence that both these fires happened in ramadanadingdon?

    4. For a moment, I thought another Prof. had been caught with his trousers round his ankles.

  64. I was born 2 years after the war . Dad was based in India , Ceylon, and on aircraft carriers in the Indian ocean . VJ day meant more to the family .

    Changing the subject , we have just seen the first aircraft contrail for weeks , over head. Moh looked it up and the aircraft was arriving from Georgetown , Guyana to Heathrow .

    Here we are, confined to our small spaces , yet Heathrow is still open to transatlantic traffic .. what a nonsense !

    1. and nowt coming out of RNAS Portland at all now

      It used to be the busiest Heliport in UK

      1. Well, Moh says there is a German company doing SAR training there with funny coloured Seakings who occasionally fly over here.. Yep , you heard right … A GERMAN company!

    1. I’ve hung my Union Jack shopping bag in the garden……pics later if t stops raining…

      PS …can’t find the bunting or union flag since the house move!

  66. Full marks to Reader Mary’s Husband, Nick who rang the church bell for 10 minutes, stopping dead on 11:00 to remind us of 2 minutes silence for the dead of World War 2.

    3. Good morning PT

      I wish I could succeed and be a social winner
      And I wish my friends arrived at 1.00 when I ask them out for dinner
      I know I’ve got the brass
      But I haven’t got the class
      And the whole situation is getting up ….. I mean’s become a farce.

      (From the song: ‘Nouveau Riche’ RCT 1970)

      1. Hi Rastus

        How To Get On In Society by John Betjeman

        Phone for the fish knives, Norman
        As cook is a little unnerved;
        You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
        And I must have things daintily served.

        Are the requisites all in the toilet?
        The frills round the cutlets can wait
        Till the girl has replenished the cruets
        And switched on the logs in the grate.

        It’s ever so close in the lounge dear,
        But the vestibule’s comfy for tea
        And Howard is riding on horseback
        So do come and take some with me

        Now here is a fork for your pastries
        And do use the couch for your feet;
        I know that I wanted to ask you-
        Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

        Milk and then just as it comes dear?
        I’m afraid the preserve’s full of stones;
        Beg pardon, I’m soiling the doileys
        With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

        1. I love Betjeman’s verse.

          The song I wrote hits many of the same targets as Betjeman but I wrote it before reading or hearing his poem.

          I subsequently learnt many of his poems by heart and used to recite them to my pupils when I was an English teacher and to Christo and Henry when they were boys. My favourites were: ‘Young Executive’, ‘A Subaltern’s Love Song’ and ‘The Village Inn’.

          I also greatly enjoyed his verse autobiography : ‘Summoned By Bells’ and his poems about Cornwall.

          1. ‘Yer ‘Tis:

            I see I added a verse to include more up-to-date references and a bit of self-mockery

            NOUVEAU-RICHE – Richard Tracey

            When I went to live in Hampshire,
            I couldn’t understand
            The jeers and sideways glances
            When people shook my hand.
            For I am a self-made nouveau-riche:
            The salt of all the earth
            And I don’t know why my presence
            Makes them squirm or shake with mirth.
            For I’m trying, yes I’m try to be
            Socially
            Acceptable and U,
            But somehow things don’t work out right
            And I don’t know what to do.

            My lounge is large and spacious
            And my toilet’s shocking pink.
            My cruets bear my monogram
            And my wife has got a mink.
            I wear a mohair blue tuxedo
            When I go to the County Ball,
            But I overhear them muttering:
            “He’s not our type at all.”
            For it seems, yes it seems to me,
            That Society
            Is not at all impressed
            By the snappy way I’m dressed.
            And my vocabulary
            (It’s very clear to see)
            Is not used, I much regret,
            By the people from the pages of Debrett.

            I send my kids to fancy schools,
            Like Cheltenhan, Gresham’s, Downe,
            And I drive my great big 4×4
            In the narrow streets of town
            My sweatshirts all bear logos
            Of pretentious, pricey marques
            And my Nike trainers cost ten times more,
            Than the ones at Marks and Sparks
            But it’s sad, oh so sad to see
            That my profligacy
            Has not helped me to rise,
            In the landed gentry’s eyes,
            And in spite of all my dosh,
            My credentials just won’t wash,
            But at least I can afford
            To be a low grade Blair-made rather low class lord

            I’ve got a great big Gothic house
            With turrets here and there.
            And I’ve had the grounds all landscaped
            With gnomes leaping everywhere.
            I’ve a lovely crazy-paved patio
            And an ornamental lake
            Where my wife and I take mid-morning tea
            With a slice of Madeira cake.
            Oh! I wish I could succeed
            And be a social winner.
            I wish my friends arrived at one
            When I asked them out to dinner.
            Oh! I know I’ve got the brass –
            But I haven’t got the class
            And the whole situation is getting up….
            I mean’s become a farce.

          2. Hilaire Belloc, Chesterton and John Masefield are some of my favourites, Particularly:

            The Song Against Grocers

            God made the wicked Grocer
            For a mystery and a sign,
            That men might shun the awful shops
            And go to inns to dine;
            Where the bacon’s on the rafter
            And the wine is in the wood,
            And God that made good laughter
            Has seen that they are good.

            The evil-hearted Grocer
            Would call his mother “Ma’am,”
            And bow at her and bob at her,
            Her aged soul to damn,
            And rub his horrid hands and ask
            What article was next
            Though MORTIS IN ARTICULO
            Should be her proper text.

            His props are not his children,
            But pert lads underpaid,
            Who call out “Cash!” and bang about
            To work his wicked trade;
            He keeps a lady in a cage
            Most cruelly all day,
            And makes her count and calls her “Miss”
            Until she fades away.

            The righteous minds of innkeepers
            Induce them now and then
            To crack a bottle with a friend
            Or treat unmoneyed men,
            But who hath seen the Grocer
            Treat housemaids to his teas
            Or crack a bottle of fish sauce
            Or stand a man a cheese?

            He sells us sands of Araby
            As sugar for cash down;
            He sweeps his shop and sells the dust
            The purest salt in town,
            He crams with cans of poisoned meat
            Poor subjects of the King,
            And when they die by thousands
            Why, he laughs like anything.

            The wicked Grocer groces
            In spirits and in wine,
            Not frankly and in fellowship
            As men in inns do dine;
            But packed with soap and sardines
            And carried off by grooms,
            For to be snatched by Duchesses
            And drunk in dressing-rooms.

            The hell-instructed Grocer
            Has a temple made of tin,
            And the ruin of good innkeepers
            Is loudly urged therein;
            But now the sands are running out
            From sugar of a sort,
            The Grocer trembles; for his time,
            Just like his weight, is short.

            G.K. Chesterton
            (From “The Flying Inn”, 1914)

          3. I also used to recite ‘The Rolling English Road’ to my pupils and a great deal of the Cautionary verses too. I am delighted that my children and my wife love these as much as I do.

            Being snobbish about literature is sad – low brow stuff often has much to commend it! I am sure you remember Belloc’s mocking of literary snobbery:

            Lines to a Don
            BY HILAIRE BELLOC
            Remote and ineffectual Don
            That dared attack my Chesterton,
            With that poor weapon, half-impelled,
            Unlearnt, unsteady, hardly held,
            Unworthy for a tilt with men—
            Your quavering and corroded pen;
            Don poor at Bed and worse at Table,
            Don pinched, Don starved, Don miserable;
            Don stuttering, Don with roving eyes,
            Don nervous, Don of crudities;
            Don clerical, Don ordinary,
            Don self-absorbed and solitary;
            Don here-and-there, Don epileptic;
            Don puffed and empty, Don dyspeptic;
            Don middle-class, Don sycophantic,
            Don dull, Don brutish, Don pedantic;
            Don hypocritical, Don bad,
            Don furtive, Don three-quarters mad;
            Don (since a man must make an end),
            Don that shall never be my friend.

            * * *

            Don different from those regal Dons!
            With hearts of gold and lungs of bronze,
            Who shout and bang and roar and bawl
            The Absolute across the hall,
            Or sail in amply billowing gown
            Enormous through the Sacred Town,
            Bearing from College to their homes
            Deep cargoes of gigantic tomes;
            Dons admirable! Dons of Might!
            Uprising on my inward sight
            Compact of ancient tales, and port
            And sleep—and learning of a sort.
            Dons English, worthy of the land;
            Dons rooted; Dons that understand.
            Good Dons perpetual that remain
            A landmark, walling in the plain—
            The horizon of my memories—
            Like large and comfortable trees.

            * * *

            Don very much apart from these,
            Thou scapegoat Don, thou Don devoted,
            Don to thine own damnation quoted,
            Perplexed to find thy trivial name
            Reared in my verse to lasting shame.
            Don dreadful, rasping Don and wearing,
            Repulsive Don—Don past all bearing.
            Don of the cold and doubtful breath,
            Don despicable, Don of death;
            Don nasty, skimpy, silent, level;
            Don evil; Don that serves the devil.
            Don ugly—that makes fifty lines.
            There is a Canon which confines
            A Rhymed Octosyllabic Curse
            If written in Iambic Verse
            To fifty lines. I never cut;
            I far prefer to end it—but
            Believe me I shall soon return.
            My fires are banked, but still they burn
            To write some more about the Don
            That dared attack my Chesterton.

            n/a

          4. ‘Yer ‘Tis:

            I see I added a verse to include more up-to-date references and a bit of self-mockery

            NOUVEAU-RICHE – Richard Tracey

            When I went to live in Hampshire,
            I couldn’t understand
            The jeers and sideways glances
            When people shook my hand.
            For I am a self-made nouveau-riche:
            The salt of all the earth
            And I don’t know why my presence
            Makes them squirm or shake with mirth.
            For I’m trying, yes I’m try to be
            Socially
            Acceptable and U,
            But somehow things don’t work out right
            And I don’t know what to do.

            My lounge is large and spacious
            And my toilet’s shocking pink.
            My cruets bear my monogram
            And my wife has got a mink.
            I wear a mohair blue tuxedo
            When I go to the County Ball,
            But I overhear them muttering:
            “He’s not our type at all.”
            For it seems, yes it seems to me,
            That Society
            Is not at all impressed
            By the snappy way I’m dressed.
            And my vocabulary
            (It’s very clear to see)
            Is not used, I much regret,
            By the people from the pages of Debrett.

            I send my kids to fancy schools,
            Like Cheltenhan, Gresham’s, Downe,
            And I drive my great big 4×4
            In the narrow streets of town
            My sweatshirts all bear logos
            Of pretentious, pricey marques
            And my Nike trainers cost ten times more,
            Than the ones at Marks and Sparks
            But it’s sad, oh so sad to see
            That my profligacy
            Has not helped me to rise,
            In the landed gentry’s eyes,
            And in spite of all my dosh,
            My credentials just won’t wash,
            But at least I can afford
            To be a low grade Blair-made rather low class lord

            I’ve got a great big Gothic house
            With turrets here and there.
            And I’ve had the grounds all landscaped
            With gnomes leaping everywhere.
            I’ve a lovely crazy-paved patio
            And an ornamental lake
            Where my wife and I take mid-morning tea
            With a slice of Madeira cake.
            Oh! I wish I could succeed
            And be a social winner.
            I wish my friends arrived at one
            When I asked them out to dinner.
            Oh! I know I’ve got the brass –
            But I haven’t got the class
            And the whole situation is getting up….
            I mean’s become a farce.

          5. MeToo#

            Safe were those evenings of the pre-war world
            When firelight shone on green linoleum;
            I heard the church bells hollowing out the sky,
            Deep beyond deep, like never ending stars,
            And turned to Archibald, my safe old bear,
            Whose woollen eyes looked sad or glad at me,
            Whose ample forehead I could wet with tears,
            Whose half-moon ears received my confidence,
            Who made me laugh, who never let me down,
            I used to wait for hours to see him move,
            Convinced that he could breathe. One dreadful day
            They hid him from me as a punishment:
            Sometimes the desolation of that loss
            Comes back to me and I must go upstairs
            To see him in the sawdust, so to speak,
            Safe and returned to his idolator.

            This poem resonates with me…

            The Olympic Girl
            The sort of girl I like to see
            Smiles down from her great height at me.
            She stands in strong, athletic pose
            And wrinkles her retroussé nose.
            Is it distaste that makes her frown,
            So furious and freckled, down
            On an unhealthy worm like me?
            Or am I what she likes to see?
            I do not know, though much I care,

  69. All the neighbours came out in the Street for the 2 min silence. Lots of bunting, cake and ginger bikkies this arvo. Plus Gin & Bitter lemon. The wartime cocktail. Might do the Lindy Hop later.

  70. For those who think that the Christian churches and specifically the CofE and the Catholic Church in this country have been too eager to shut up shop, here is something that makes it clear that there is no agreement on this. The Catholic cardinals who wrote this statement make their views quite clear. (I think they may be Nottlers?)

    “APPEAL FOR THE CHURCH AND THE WORLD
    To Catholics and all people of good will
    Veritas liberabit vos. Jn 8:32

    In this time of great crisis, we Pastors of the Catholic Church, by virtue of our mandate, consider it our sacred duty to make an Appeal to our Brothers in the Episcopate, to the Clergy, to Religious, to the holy People of God and to all men and women of good will. This Appeal has also been undersigned by intellectuals, doctors, lawyers, journalists and professionals who agree with its content, and may be undersigned by those who wish to make it their own.
    The facts have shown that, under the pretext of the Covid-19 epidemic, the inalienable rights of citizens have in many cases been violated and their fundamental freedoms, including the exercise of freedom of worship, expression and movement, have been disproportionately and unjustifiably restricted. Public health must not, and cannot, become an alibi for infringing on the rights of millions of people around the world, let alone for depriving the civil authority of its duty to act wisely for the common good. This is particularly true as growing doubts emerge from several quarters about the actual contagiousness, danger and resistance of the virus. Many authoritative voices in the world of science and medicine confirm that the media’s alarmism about Covid-19 appears to be absolutely unjustified.
    We have reason to believe, on the basis of official data on the incidence of the epidemic as related to the number of deaths, that there are powers interested in creating panic among the world’s population with the sole aim of permanently imposing unacceptable forms of restriction on freedoms, of controlling people and of tracking their movements. The imposition of these illiberal measures is a disturbing prelude to the realization of a world government beyond all control.
    We also believe that in some situations the containment measures that were adopted, including the closure of shops and businesses, have precipitated a crisis that has brought down entire sectors of the economy. This encourages interference by foreign powers and has serious social and political repercussions. Those with governmental responsibility must stop these forms of social engineering, by taking measures to protect their citizens whom they represent, and in whose interests they have a serious obligation to act. Likewise, let them help the family, the cell of society, by not unreasonably penalizing the weak and elderly, forcing them into a painful separation from their loved ones. The criminalization of personal and social relationships must likewise be judged as an unacceptable part of the plan of those who advocate isolating individuals in order to better manipulate and control them.
    We ask the scientific community to be vigilant, so that cures for Covid-19 are offered in honesty for the common good. Every effort must be made to ensure that shady business interests do not influence the choices made by government leaders and international bodies. It is unreasonable to penalize those remedies that have proved to be effective, and are often inexpensive, just because one wishes to give priority to treatments or vaccines that are not as good, but which guarantee pharmaceutical companies far greater profits, and exacerbate public health expenditures. Let us also remember, as Pastors, that for Catholics it is morally unacceptable to develop or use vaccines derived from material from aborted fetuses.
    We also ask government leaders to ensure that forms of control over people, whether through tracking systems or any other form of location-finding, are rigorously avoided. The fight against Covid-19, however serious, must not be the pretext for supporting the hidden intentions of supranational bodies that have very strong commercial and political interests in this plan. In particular, citizens must be given the opportunity to refuse these restrictions on personal freedom, without any penalty whatsoever being imposed on those who do not wish to use vaccines, contact tracking or any other similar tool. Let us also consider the blatant contradiction of those who pursue policies of drastic population control and at the same time present themselves as the savior of humanity, without any political or social legitimacy. Finally, the political responsibility of those who represent the people can in no way be left to “experts” who can indeed claim a kind of immunity from prosecution, which is disturbing to say the least.
    We strongly urge those in the media to commit themselves to providing accurate information and not penalizing dissent by resorting to forms of censorship, as is happening widely on social media, in the press and on television. Providing accurate information requires that room be given to voices that are not aligned with a single way of thinking. This allows citizens to consciously assess the facts, without being heavily influenced by partisan interventions. A democratic and honest debate is the best antidote to the risk of imposing subtle forms of dictatorship, presumably worse than those our society has seen rise and fall in the recent past.
    Finally, as Pastors responsible for the flock of Christ, let us remember that the Church firmly asserts her autonomy to govern, worship, and teach. This autonomy and freedom are an innate right that Our Lord Jesus Christ has given her for the pursuit of her proper ends. For this reason, as Pastors we firmly assert the right to decide autonomously on the celebration of Mass and the Sacraments, just as we claim absolute autonomy in matters falling within our immediate jurisdiction, such as liturgical norms and ways of administering Communion and the Sacraments. The State has no right to interfere, for any reason whatsoever, in the sovereignty of the Church. Ecclesiastical authorities have never refused to collaborate with the State, but such collaboration does not authorize civil authorities to impose any sort of ban or restriction on public worship or the exercise of priestly ministry. The rights of God and of the faithful are the supreme law of the Church, which she neither intends to, nor can, abdicate. We ask that restrictions on the celebration of public ceremonies be removed.
    We should like to invite all people of good will not to shirk their duty to cooperate for the common good, each according to his or her own state and possibilities and in a spirit of fraternal charity. The Church desires such cooperation, but this cannot disregard either a respect for natural law or a guarantee of individual freedoms. The civil duties to which citizens are bound imply the State’s recognition of their rights.
    We are all called to assess the current situation in a way consistent with the teaching of the Gospel. This means taking a stand: either with Christ or against Christ. Let us not be intimidated or frightened by those who would have us believe that we are a minority: Good is much more widespread and powerful than the world would have us believe. We are fighting against an invisible enemy that seeks to divide citizens, to separate children from their parents, grandchildren from their grandparents, the faithful from their pastors, students from teachers, and customers from vendors. Let us not allow centuries of Christian civilization to be erased under the pretext of a virus, and an odious technological tyranny to be established, in which nameless and faceless people can decide the fate of the world by confining us to a virtual reality. If this is the plan to which the powers of this earth intend to make us yield, know that Jesus Christ, King and Lord of History, has promised that “the gates of Hell shall not prevail” (Mt 16:18).
    Let us entrust government leaders and all those who rule over the fate of nations to Almighty God, that He may enlighten and guide them in this time of great crisis. May they remember that, just as the Lord will judge us Pastors for the flock which he has entrusted to us, so will He also judge government leaders for the peoples whom they have the duty to defend and govern.
    With faith, let us beseech the Lord to protect the Church and the world. May the Blessed Virgin, Help of Christians, crush the head of the ancient Serpent and defeat the plans of the children of darkness.
    8 May 2020”

    https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/four-cardinals-join-global-appeal-decrying-crackdown-on-basic-freedoms-over-coronavirus

    1. For the reasons described above, the mother church will probably survive yet another bad pope.

      Sadly, it is time to consign the CofE to the dustbin of history. There are still good men among the Anglican clergy but their voices are increasingly drowned out.

      Being culturally grounded in the 1662 prayer book, I’ve stuck with it as long as those services were still available but listening to the sermons at my parish church recently, I’ve been aware for some time now that Jesus left the building long before the doors were locked.

      1. For reasons that I’ve not grasped, the Christian churches in this country are happy to go along with secular governments even when the direction is towards immorality and evil. The ecclesiastical dignitaries seem to wish to be invited to dinner with politicians, even at the expense of the souls in their care. They don’t even take a long spoon.

    2. This is the message I have been waiting for, and I hope it can be adopted at parish level, as well as the Archbishop of Birmingham, Bernard Longley.

      I fell out with the Church two years ago over this very same thing. The infringement on fundamental liberties and the sanctuary of the liturgy was then over the application of Home Office rules regarding safeguarding, specifically over a photograph I took on Good Shepherd Sunday where a retiring priest was at the altar alongside a group of children soon to take their first communion. I did not and would not publish it on social media or anywhere else in the public domain, but I did submit it to the priest’s retirement album to be presented to him on his day of leaving. For me, the image of the priest about to depart his vocation administering to a new generation about to enter theirs, with the saints on the reredos looking down from heaven and the paper plates made by the toddlers summed up the eternal life of the Church as it passes through life after life over the centuries. In addition, I have photographed my own family since I was a child, having been taught to do so by my father, and it is to me an expression of family love. I regard my Catholic parish as family.

      Two years ago, the priest pulled me aside after mass and told me that two parishioners (who would not reveal their names) had complained that I had been taking photographs of children, implying darkly that this was an infringement of Home Office rules on Safeguarding, and placing me under a cloud of suspicion. I have not had the heart to return to the parish since. I raised this as far as Archbishop level (hence my reference to Bernard Longley), but all he was prepared to do was to refer me to the Archdiocesan Child Protection Officer for clarification. This act effectively excommunicates me.

      I can appreciate how the Church had to abide by the paramount demands of civil law in order to persuade Parliament to emancipate the Church in 1829. This is an ongoing process – recent laws on abortion and the redefinition of marriage have tested Catholics quite severely.

      However, they have not up until recently interfered with the Church’s prime responsibility to the spiritual welfare of its parishioners, and indeed all souls of good will. I cannot participate in any church that cannot honour that commitment, even when it conflicts with civil law, which I believe is palpably wrong. There is such a thing as conscience, and even under civil law, conscience should be allowed to prevail.

    3. Thank you for posting that, Horace, it’s nice to know there are some in positions of some standing who are alive to the situation and willing to speak up. Was it sent to anyone in government? I thought it a very powerful piece

      1. I do not know to whom it may have been sent. I don’t think anyone would pay attention, certainly not in this country. We are hardly the Church Militant.

  71. Quite a lot of rain to the south and east of Narridge – and over Yarmouth.

    Dry as a bone in Fulmodeston – worse luck. We really need some steady, useful rain.

  72. 318968+ up ticks,
    Currently I see nothing Churchillian, quite the reverse as a matter of fact in 1000 plus illegals coming up the beach, has this PM johnson chap got his adoration of
    William Leonard Spencer Churchill quite right ? then again have many of us got our adoration of the PM johnson quite right?

    1. Here’s what my son had to say:

      Yeah, I’ve seen that, and it doesn’t surprise me one bit. It explains
      why he’s so reluctant to show us his working – and he still hasn’t
      published the model that predicted 500000 deaths, or the inputs he
      used. The one that’s been reviewed is a “cleaned up” version, and if
      it’s still that appallingly badly written then who knows how bad the
      original is.

      It’s basically what happens when you let incompetent amateurs build a
      highly complex system. He’s come up with a very shoddy random number
      generator, nothing more. It’s exactly the same as the climate change
      computer models that leaked from the University of East Anglia a few
      years ago – extremely badly written, untested, undocumented, very buggy
      code.

      What’s worse is that this lockdown is killing people, probably even more
      than the Chinese flu. Not just because it’s making us all poorer,
      which in general results in worse healthcare outcomes, but because ill
      people are deliberately staying away from hospital. There has
      apparently been a much larger number than usual of deaths from heart
      attacks at home, for example.

      If you haven’t already seen it, this site is worth a read too: https://hectordrummond.com/

    2. A request for the original code was made 8 days ago but ignored, and it will probably take some kind of legal compulsion to make them release it.

      The code is a blind alley. Ferguson never used it. The authorities now realise that they have been had by what is possibly the worlds greatest Flim Flam man and to avoid looking like morons that have to hide the fact!

    3. Like the author, I also have a long background in modelling and scientific research, but I’m still non the wiser about the variation in outputs for ‘identical parameters’. As I see it, the model uses a pseudo-random seeding to slightly vary the initial state, which is a widely accepted approach in stochastic modelling, for example weather forecasts. The purpose of this is to examine the intrinsic variation in the model, so that some idea of the stability or otherwise of it can be determined, and thence the overall accuracy. As for the ‘bugs’, I fail to see how these can introduce additional non-deterministic behaviour – unless the computer used is a quantum one. The example given, which shows a marked difference in two outputs, is a result of using two different versions of the program, which perhaps illustrates how unstable the model if the only difference is in the technique for storing data tables, but the claimed variation isn’t a result of ‘bugs’ per se.

        1. Well, unless and until the code for the original model is released, yes. BTW, 15,000 lines of code is a mere bagatelle in my experience.

  74. Just in from a friend who lives in a house at the end of a Cul de sac.

    “Bunting strung across our road and neighbours chatting at a safe distance was enough to prompt someone to call the police. 10 turned up in a riot van! Drove to the end wishing us a nice time saying sorry but they had to check. Then had to reverse back down and bunting caught in the top of van. They left it to one of us to disentangled it before driving off. Happy times!”

    This imbecility has to end now!!

    1. What WILL the plod do when the quarantine ends? Retreat to barracks, claim to be too short staffed to investigate murder, rape, burglary etc etc (other crimes are available to be ignored)

      1. This being a bank holiday 10 police officers, think of all that lovely overtime – it’s a crime all right!

        1. Some of the bravest men have been bullies. I bet that most posters in this forum who have served in the Armed Forces would agree with me.

      1. Wake up, Priti or you’re gonna have a never-ending nightmare on your hands when the population turns agin.

    3. ‘Evening, Stephen, find out who is the sneak and string him/her up with the bunting.

    4. The snitch should be tied up with the bunting to a lamppost and left there overnight as a warning to others.

    6. Not too far from us (but sadly a bit too far to justify a drive there) is a rather nice pub which serves excellent food. Since the lockdown they have been doing takeaway food – all apparently very well organised and with distancing fully observed – order and pay by phone – collect at the specified time. They had planned to do a small VE day party today, again with the requisite distancing – it’s a small village so I suspect it would have worked well. Sadly someone phoned the police who “advised” them to cancel. I do hope the village identify the snitch!!

    7. I was wondering if that was going to happen to us in our cul de sac. today. Talk about being outnumbered and out gunned. Mr or Mrs PCSO wouldn’t have stood a chance.

    8. It would have been lucky if one of you had been burgled. Scrub that. Plod wouldn’t have known how to fill in the paperwork.

    9. I was hoping someone would call the police. Our neighbourhood watch co-ordinator was one of the attendee’s.

  75. Since God has not played ball today (as he promised), I shall have to go and water the potager.

    Then a nice glass of Cava to honour the day. Then some plaice – delivered to the door by the excellent and enterprising Willie Weston of Sheringham.

    I hope to see you all tomorrow – if I haven’t been poisoned, shot or defenestrated by Minty! He means well…..{:¬))

    A demain.

    1. Perhaps they thought it was Nigel Farage breaking the ‘essential journey’ rule and also having more than two sea bass in his basket.

      1. Ah, I hadn’t looked at this year’s bag limit. It’s an improvement from what it was at least.

    2. Ever since it’s no longer necessary to be 6′ tall to join the police they seem to have no way of knowing how to keep 6′ apart……

  77. I have been trying to download a link to a facebook page – but Discurse takes an age not to do it.

    My grand-daughter’s uncle, Gabriel Latchin, is a leading jazz pianist in Lunnon – and has started a facebook “session” (see how with it I am) – so for those of you who like jazz (“Nice…!!”) google Gabriel latchin facebook and see if you have better luck than I do.

    Facebookees will, of course, be able to get to his page, anyway.

    1. Just remember the sherry, sweetie ! … x

      I’m having a bottle of Prosecco to celebrate VE night …

      75 years ago, at approximately 10pm, my parents wakened me – not quite four years old – to witness tearing down the blackout-curtains and to marvel at the searchlight cone 10,000 ft above the anti-aircraft battery in the grounds of the Royal Marine Hotel Dun Laoghaire (TKA Kingstown) less than a mile away … there was an extraordinary cacophony of sound from lighthouses and ships in Dublin Bay …

      My earliest vivid memory …

      1. Those blackout curtains may come in useful…

        Thanks for posting sweetie….x

      2. My earliest memory is standing in the back garden watching the USAF aircraft going over on the Berlin airlift. I think they were on the way to Burtonwood airforce base. The runways are now under M62.

    1. Paypal takes a fee – Virgin say they are non-profit but there are transaction fees.

        2. I don’t keep any money in my account but it is very convenient for shopping or buying things in dollars.

      2. I would never trust Virgin over a statement like that.

        I’ll be their managers get paid extremely well, which allows any profits to be reduced.

    2. There must have been at least that amount again spent on the hundred and odd thousand birthday cards sent to Tom. A nice little boost to the greetings card makers.

      1. The postage alone will have been more.
        Is the Royal mail going to refund all the stamps and gve the money to the NHS?
        No?
        I thought not!

      1. And donated £100,000 to the fund.

        As I understand it, the gift aid fees relate to doing the tax refund administration on behalf of the charities and the charities pay the fees.

        Yet more expectation that the NHS and its associated charties should get special treatment.

        1. The rules are the rules….. where would it end? Each and all is a special case. However much money is thrown at the gaping maw of the nhs, it is never enough.

          1. ‘Evening, Mum, “However much money is thrown at the gaping maw of the NHS, it is never enough.”

            …and how much is gobbled up by weak, incompetent and, dare I say it, corrupt management.

        2. The NHS gets billions in funding. Why on earth are people donating millions more to its charities?

    4. Less than 1% is a remarkably low fee compared to other charities. And how much of the £32m will go to NHS administrators to pay the rest out? A darned sight more than 1% I would guess.

  80. 318968+ up ticks,
    The alternating patronage via the polling booth every 5 years of the pro eu coalition parties lab/lib/con adhering to the three monkey mode of voting has done more damage under the cloak of legality to these Isles than old adolf & co ever could, & that include the 6 million CC victims, the UKs problem is ongoing unless………

    https://twitter.com/AgainBraine/status/1258704305172905984

    1. “Sod defending this cold, poxy little island in the North Sea; let’s welcome in all those who wish us harm and embrace their cultures.”

      T. Blair, G. Brown, D.Cameron, T May.

      1. 318968+up ticks,
        G,
        The sad thing is that it is of no matter what the ingredients are
        concerning the inmates making up the party the party comes first & foremost regardless of their past actions / inaction’s, well before the welfare of peoples & country.

      2. T. Blair, G. Brown, D.Cameron, T May. ……….And far too many others to mention.

  82. Just had barbecued pork ribs and home made barbecue sauce. With spicy beans and roasted
    rosemary potatoes for dinner. Reading a book on Churchill now and will be watching the
    concert at 8pm .

    1. Read that as “… spicy bears…”, wondered whether they come from Haribo…

  83. Last post.

    It wasn’t Cava.- Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top – a gift in 2010 from the parents of a child the MR taught in Monaco…..{:¬))

    1. My favourite Champagne. I used to sell it. The Pinot Meurnier in it gives it a lovely biscuity taste.

      1. Lidl are currently selling Cremont de Bourgonge for a knock down price – same grape as those used in Champagne but just outside the Champers region. Aiming to get half a dozen bottles on Sunday…

        1. Good decision, if you see Cremont de Bordeaux it’s equally good value AND they do it in Rosé: Brut and demi sec.

          How much do Lidl charge? it’s under a fiver here in the ordinary supermakets.

          3. Same price as Prosecco. Just south of Auxerre, are some man made caves (the stone was used to build Paris). Inside one set of caves the local Co-op has over 1,000,000 bottles of cremont fermenting….

          7. Same price as Prosecco. Just south of Auxerre, are some man made caves (the stone was used to build Paris). Inside one set of caves the local Co-op has over 1,000,000 bottles of cremont fermenting….

          8. On a point of order, and I know I did the same, but looking at it it looked wrong. Crémant
            The “caves” under Beaune and Épernay and St Émilion and similar locations are well worth a visit. The number of bottles is unbelievable.
            They’d keep that Thomas chap out of mischief for a long time.

      2. Au contraire – it was subtle and very palatable. Not your sort of wine at all.

        1. How could you tell?

          At your age all the senses are in decline.

          But you’re right that good stuff is wasted on me, I’d always chose a case of Cremant over a bottle of Champ-overated-ange

      3. I once managed to swap a case of Babycham someone had given me for two bottles of the good Moët someone had given my father. We were both happy!

          1. My father had many good qualities. A discerning palate was not among them.

  85. A peaceful BH shattered…

    With all the upstairs windows open to let the scents of Seagull & Lady Hillingdon waft into the house, what should wake me from my midday nap than the chimes of the first ice-cream van of the season.
    I would like to see those bloody things locked down.

    1. That’s one thing we don’t get here – we have to walk up the lane to the factory shop.

      I’m surprised the chiming vans are allowed at the moment.

    2. We don’t get ice-cream vans here but we do get Jehovah’s Witnesses about once every ten years or so.

      We don’t get door-to-door salesmen so we don’t have to put up a sign saying NO HAWKERS – (or pas de colporteurs as they say in France.)

  87. Hitler committed suicide 30th April 1945.

    VE day May the 8th 1945, a day of reflection , strong speeches and a new normal .

    The dear Lord worked in mysterious ways.

    1. The ‘experts’ are at it again…! Take no notice, dear nottlers, hug your loved ones and as Sos says, PARTY ON !!

    2. We had an evening with our neighbours in our back garden. Pleasant temperature great company only 5’11and 3/16th of an inch between us but sure you won’t tell. We had a bottle of Sainsbury’s blanc de noirs champagne, they brought red wine and tins of Pimm’s. Chatted for about 90 minutes. Great not to be social distancing and acting ‘normally’. Sod the bloody virus and all those who sail in her.

      1. It was surprising how much better we felt after our get-together this afternoon.

        1. No idea sos it was our neighbour who brought it. We stuck to Champagne. All I will say is that Mrs neighbour will not drink any rough stuff.😉

  89. The Gravity of COVID

    There’s an apple on the tree
    Waiting to be picked.
    There’a pair on the ground
    Waiting to be nicked.

    A.N. Other

    1. For crying out loud.

      Cut out the middle bug.

      Shoot every resident of a care home NOW and save millions in NHS costs.

      Stay home, be murdered, save the NHS.

      1. The problem with COVID’s Rs is that has found excellent hosts in Don’t Care Homes where people have limited life expectancy. Contrary to those who profess to know the impact on the general population this virus has not chosen wisely if it intends to replicate.

        Eventually I’ll be proven to be dead right?

          1. I woke one night and found there was no trace on my pulse oximeter – I thought I was dead.
            So I put it into record mode and showed the pulse oximeter printout to my GP.
            He reacted as if he had seen a ghost, declined to treat me further and suggested I seek a second opinion.

          4. I had previouly received treatment from my GP involving medication for blood pressure using ACE Inhibitors. After three months of failing to respond to the drug I had a sudden nocturnal buildup of fluid in my airways to such an extent that I couldn’t call for help and had to manually pull out thick mucus from my throat over the toilet to breathe.

            I had only my symptoms to try and work out why this had happened but eventually put it down to a delayed adverse reaction to the way that the ACEI had affected my ACE2 receptors. I concluded that I had suffered from drug induced Angioedema.

            My GP’s surgery flatly denied that this could ever have happened and referred me to the community psychiatrist.

            I resolved that if this should ever happen again I would have medical evidence to back up my experiences.

            Well it did happen again and after comprehensive evidence submitted to the MHRA my medical notes were suitably annotated with adverse drug reactions.

    1. Except that the shutdown was ordered by a Republican President, who is now trying to pretend he did not.

  92. Do people covered in Tattoos absorb the benefit of Vit D from sunshine .. just asking whether severe inkings make a difference?

    I know, it is a silly question.

  93. First dinner out for a bit over 2 months. SWMBOs birthday dinner.
    Bliss!
    Same food as takeaway, but completely different dynamic and atmosphere. Different beer, too.

      1. She did! Thanks!
        Pudding delivered on a bed of dry ice + hot water, giving vapour everywhere. Very stylish – and tasty!

      1. Us two and the two lads. Curry for us, at our favourite curry house – we’re often there, so get good service. Food is well-prepared and nicely presented, and for Norway, is reasonably priced. And it was good! Bliss, in fact. Hat tip to Spice Rootz of Haslum.
        We had a few carryouts (curryouts?) from them during lockdown, in the hope of preserving their business, and it was good to eat there with all the atmosphere.
        SWMBO is mumble mumble years old – a year more than me, for the next 6 weeks, anyway!

    1. I’ve heard that it was his elbow that was injured, so he’s confused.

    2. He’s never been the same since his encounter with a Brighton pier…

  95. The Covid Wars, Report from the Sheltered Housing Front
    Must be off, the Awkward Squad VE Day quiz and BBQ will be starting shortly,much meat and bread has been organised so I am doing some sides
    Caramelised Onion Rings
    Herby Paprika Wedges
    Half Baby Toms in a Lemon Balsamic dressing
    The Flags flying and some martial music blaring should reduce the Curtain Twitcher Platoon to paroxysms of impotent rage,they will no doubt grab some more photos to send to Regional Office…………
    Yah Boo Sucks to THEM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  96. Europeans and Russians should remember what bound them together: anti-fascism. 8 May 2020.

    Today, Russian television presenters feed us stories about a European continent in decay, where “aggressive migrants” run amok, where social services take children away from their parents for being “slapped”, where “sexual minorities” destroy traditional families.

    They do? Good God! The Truth. They would never get a job at the BBC with that agenda!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/may/08/europeans-russians-together-anti-facism

    1. Mother Russia – where, if you say (or even think) a bad thing about Vlad – you are either dead or banged up in a gulag for 20 years.

      1. Really? Is mind reading a Kremlin accomplishment now? I must have missed the announcements of mass deaths and the closure of the Moscow Times.

        1. The KGB KNOW what you think; and if they don’t they make it up. Simples….

          1. Interesting thread. Serious question which country or countries do Nottlers think has / have the most competent leadership?

          2. This is undoubtedly Vlad and Russia. He has raised his country up from the gutter in almost every sphere while also being an international player of superlative skill. He has no equal on the world stage!

          4. And, in so doing, has, with his mafia* henchmen stolen billions from the Russian people

            So, in your book, that’s OK?.

            (For the avoidance of ambiguity, MInty, I refer to the Russian mafia).

          5. Yes the Russian Mafia are so fond of him that they have come to live in the UK!

          6. sosraboc’s first rule of political corruption.

            Any politician who wasn’t extremely wealthy when elected, but becomes a multi-millionaire is likely to be corrupt.

          8. Yes the Russian Mafia are so fond of him that they have come to live in the UK!

          10. There is no proof despite several attempts to prove it that Vlad has this fortune and if it were true they are using UK institutions to do so!

          11. Well, there won’t be nicely kept books showing “trustee account for Mr V V Putin”, will there?

            Of course he is using UK banks. Though he may be less enthusiastic right now. But, hey, with several billion, what’s really to worry about.

            Incidentally, what I never understand is WHY these dictators steal so much. They can’t take it with them; and their families tend no to be much larger than the norm.

          13. So the UK Government can seize the money as proceeds of crime?

          14. The issue for Russia is the election of a new competent President in due course. I hope that Mr Putin will prove the critics wrong by announcing he is stepping down in the next few years rather than hanging on.

          20. It’s a matter of status. The more you have, the better status amongst your fellow despots.

          23. I note there was another mysterious multibillionaire shooting in Moscow yesterday…

          25. Minty will deny it and say that, if there was a report, it was fake news.

          27. You know that, and I know that, but there is one who’ll find an alternative explanation!

          30. Well, look at Tory MPs (and Labour MPs too). For the decades they have been involved in businesses that depend on getting contracts from the Government. Some businesses get their income paid directly from the government because they are renting houses to immigrants.
            Slightly more subtle than Russian gangsters, but just as corrupt.

          32. Likewise that’s why I asked the question. I can think of several including closer to home where the leadership is appalling. I think I can see why Minty is enamoured with Mr Putin, given the state of Russia when he came to power. Having watched some of his 3 hour question and answer sessions with the World’s press over recent years he certainly appears confident in his brief and in answering the questions. I wonder how things might have turned out differently with President Trump’s initial approaches to resetting relations with Russia had not the concocted “Russian Collusion” allegations heavily promoted by the Democrats with the support of US MSM, not gained traction and neutralised open dialogue between the two Presidents. Mrs Merkel seems to have no problem in cutting deals with Russia. I don’t know whether she carries a long spoon.

          33. I’m not enamoured of Mr Putin or any other politician, just a realist.

          35. The Frau Doktor is an old-fashioned Soviet sleeper. She is the only western “leader” who speaks fluent Russian to Vlad.

            I know you’ll all call me dotty (again) but wait 50 years and see that I was right.

          36. I’ll be the oldest man in the World by then! You may well be right.
            I’d like to think that given the history of the outcome of invasions over the past 100 or so years any rational leader would be cognisant of the utter futility of such an exercise. There is no better example than the Americans warring in Afghanistan at a cost of trillions of $$$ and achieving the square root of bugger all. I believe it was a retreating Russian General who passed on friendly advice to the Americans not to bother going there!

          41. Quite (see below). And her father CHOSE to go back to the DDR – and Ickle Angie was brought up as a good little Communist Pioneer.

          42. Her father was a Lutherian Pastor who, ostensibly, went to the DDR to continue his ministry.
            But that is where things fall apart.
            The offspring of clergy in the DDR were, as a matter of course, denied membership of the Communist youth movements and access to university.
            Yet she did both.

          44. So Bhutan – where the degree of happiness is included in the GDP figures…

          52. Now now, don’t try to make me angry.

            No doubt you thinking of Conservative leaders like Harper and Mulroney or even the Liberal Martin, despised in their time but we wish that they would come back.

          56. 318968+ up ticks,
            Afternoon As,
            They moved lock stock & barrel to the UK, moscow is now a sub office.
            Different names to protect the guilty.

          57. Also 1940s German ‘fascism’ and Soviet communism were impossible to tell apart.

            Both are/were forms of socialism and Big Brother government with state control over everything, and woe betide you if you didn’t/don’t toe the party/state line.

          58. OK – its the FSB – but any fule kno that it is the same thugs with a different name. OK no gulag – just ghastly, violent prisons in Siberia.

            Ask Mr Mikhail Khodorkovsky – he’ll explain it to you, Minty.

          59. I would rather ask Tommy Robinson or the Skripals. Oh wait I can’t they’re dead aren’t they?

          1. I love it.

            Victory and tragedy in the same breath.

            The words paint a thousand pictures.

  97. Good afternoon and a bright and sunny one it is too, even in lockdown

      1. Hello Mr Viking, fine Thank You, hope you are too.
        Not had Kìppers for a long while, don’t know why I like them
        very much. Having barbecue pork ribs ( home made sauce ) with
        spicy beans and potatoe wedges. Shall remember Kìppers when next
        shopping.

        1. Make sure they are proper kippers with the bone still in.

          Kipper fillets are an abomination. The best meat is the bit between the ribs that you scrape off with your teeth once all the rest is gone.

          Unfortunately Robson’s of Craster are on lock-down.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craster_kipper

          2. My Aunt Ally used to eat EVERYTHING on a kipper, bones and all!

            I’ve not had a Craster Kipper for YEARS!!

          4. Precisely. You can spend many delicious minutes prising the last little bits out. It’s like those little strands in peach stones.

  99. Good evening, everyone. Happy VE Day 75 years on. We celebrated freedom then. Let’s hope we can celebrate freedom again, soon. On my permitted exercise excursion I passed a young woman wearing a T shirt with the message, “If not now, then when ..?” Indeed.

    1. We celebrated, and gave thanks for, liberation. Led by the King.

      1. I and another friend celebrated rebellion by going across to my neighbour’s garden (I only had to walk, but my friend had to drive), putting up the bunting, waving flags and reciting the Nation’s Toast with a glass of red wine, a bottle of Prosecco, sandwiches and scones to the accompaniment of Vera Lynn, Glen Miller and other wartime artistes.

  100. Most enjoyable BBC1 prog VEday75.. some lovely music and lots of very amusing stoical veterans , heartwarming stories , and my goodness , lots of extreme hardship and sacrifice .

  101. A Lufthansa Frankfurt – Atlanta freighter just flying over the top of us.
    He’#s still in bright sunshine!

  102. COOKING under pressure is no easy feat, with even the most experienced cooks cracking from time to time.

    But the kitchen proved too much for a MasterChef contestant who defiantly served up a raw and fully feathered bird to the judges – who instantly sent her packing.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/food/11581108/masterchef-spain-booted-serve-judges-fully-feathered-bird/?utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=sunmaintwitter&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1588966317

    1. Sensationalism, Publicity, Shock value. She was probably paid and their reactions were rehearsed. Ca..ching !

      What next? Masterchef China?

      These events on TV shows may seem shocking but it is all staged.

  103. COVE IDIOTS Three covidiots spark major rescue op involving 45 emergency workers after travelling 110 miles to Dorset from Slough

    THREE men sparked a major rescue operation involving 45 emergency services workers after they broke lockdown rules to travel 110 miles for a day out at the coast.

    The trio were walking at low tide along the foot of the cliffs in Dorset when they were cut off by the incoming sea.

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11578219/three-covidiots-spark-major-rescue-op/

    1. Which of course is why the whole class is in detention.

      Since three from slough are stupid, everyone stays home.

  104. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d37a4adab1c90146845b19fd411e86092353d2cc2174d1559cbec61cc5f02a0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d37a4adab1c90146845b19fd411e86092353d2cc2174d1559cbec61cc5f02a0.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d62ea96b90effe30db1db36473c336d0e37286c160e46e35f3dab1f62404f0c4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c567335e5795dc103788fc902365f69230f91d7087cb9afd1e147eb2ade6975.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ff72fcb8a7403d7711c63bb1e4baf77e3bfcdaf7eed1c7d83badee820a1f50a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/475a5c7dc89c1c0943bbdc59565231a01f0f855d7dacb998aa5daebed92b83eb.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/999948041546b4645b47f887f3b8f3c0c2ae641a4c552204496a6ec0f7aea5a6.jpg Our Warships and Pompey Dockyard are about to put on a light show…You might think the massive V signs were for Victory but i believe they might mean something else…………………eff off.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b4f0c7c5d920729a848de0902350ad86b0476c5ec5336b60885d25513c85c5aa.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/332222b4543e45f92d2821adeca53a0d1339796f510bf783ef2dc0de4861912a.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7509e6f42295d20db4c9ddb8d84c96ba9b4186e5e42c7f98975e0483179c1685.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4d7f4f8d0748bd2773762ca8ee2d2df00550884b8116a405884ec19777557e77.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/aad0fc3028838169179dec49e8621066eda97688eb990849f0f3b11a280feee9.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2609c3c101bde57cd23bb3f45afd825a65d0ab03d84beadcac79f070b5ed3da3.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/95fc807dbf819e273b4838217b571318047b0c57a82059139f8f8afe91b81534.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a1e6615e3060ea4c4f82e4b7d07f24ae817618c51f961f9888cbdb6710e655ce.jpg

      1. Yes Harry. From the front it looks like a Bentley but from the back it doesn’t stack up !

          1. Erm….. I’m not sure what the conversion is but you have made me blush….3.5?

          2. This one is a 3.5 diesel. V8’s are available but rarer. Hemi’s are rare because most people were concerned about fuel consumption.

    4. Nothing like that happening here, the occasion has been noted but no big celebrations. The liberation of Holland is also commemorated so we would normally have two low key celebrations.

      There was a fly past by the Snowbirds, our equivalent of the Red Arrows but that was organized as a recognition of hospitals and medical staff.

      1. Our Arch Socialist Arch Bishop used Lockdown to shutdown all bell ringing in Great Britain for this 75’th.

        Call to prayer will be allowed

        1. Good to see that the residents of your cul-de-sac are respecting ‘social distancing’, although it would seem that there are some Neanderthals on here who still haven’t quite grasped the necessity for that and think that the Government is in some way to blame for the highly contagious virus that came from China.

          1. Some did succumb though when i was passing out gluten free carrot cake…Priorities became muddled. 🙁

        3. If anybody should be assassinated then it is Welby. He is the anti-Christ and is doubtless in league with the devil.

    7. Looks like you and your neighbours made the best of unfortunate circumstances Phil. The weather was kind and I’m sure you and your neighbours were as well! BTW, what happened to the plastic ducks? Is she still speaking to you?

      1. I will let you know after i have delivered her a plague of frogs. Kaz is refurbishing her pond and after all the frogspawn i have collected and nurtured in my Tadpolerium…and then let loose…..in her new pond the Lieutenant Commander will probs give me jankers.

    8. It looks like some ‘stills’ from one of those 70s surreal films. Well done to all of you though.

      1. You are welcome Maggie. When we are allowed or we decide to tell plod to do his worst….you can come and join us for afternoon tea. I have three neighbours who would distract your hubby to the nearest golf course. They are all Fratton Park supporters also ………..possibly not such a good idea… 🙁

  105. We are apparently anticipating a polar vortex arriving overnight, coming down from our Canadian neighbour, bringing freezing temps. and snow! Will have to go and do some covering up of my herbs on the deck.

    1. Just passing through us now, so it just has to toddle down I81.

      I do love a bit of frost in May.

    3. It’s due to get colder in the UK in the next couple of days, but not cold enough for snow!

    5. We are warned about snow tomorrow evening / Sunday morning.
      Bugger winter, it’s time for warm!

        1. Ah, Easter is the usual date, but with global warming, we should obviously keep the winter tyres on the cars much longer…

  106. Save the economy, free the people, save the NHS.

    I feel the way the government has treated individuels with the stupid rules and regulations is just not on. Why only one hours walk , just why is that for example.

    1. They believe that the only way to get their message across is at the lowest level of intelligence.

      It is why the most important message in recent times is to wash your hands after you have had a shit.

      We know this.

      The imported cultures scratch their arses and then serve kebabs.

        2. They had to be told by their Imams that it wasn’t Haram. In a first world country they have to be told how to clean their arses.

      3. MPs are proving themselves to be the lowest form of intelligence.

    3. Everything they come out with arbitrary. 2 metres, I hour etc. I’ll thought through and totally illogical.. For people who can’t think for themselves.

    4. It never was ‘one hours walk’. There was no time limit stipulated. There still isn’t. All it said was that we wre allowed out for exercise purposes. Suggestions were ‘such as walking jogging or cycling’, but they were not exclusive. If you wanted to hang-glide from your roof as a form of exercise you could.

      The media dreamt the one hour up, maybe because France had a one hour limit (within 1km of home) and they wanted to gold-plate the advice and increase the fear, and Gove repeated it in an interview, but just because a minister says something in front of a camera, it doesn’t mean it becomes law. Even the ‘once a day’ wasn’t enforceable in law.

      The only place in the UK that had a one hour limit was Wales.

      More info here;

      https://planninglawblog.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-rule-of-law-policing-restrictions.html?m=1

    1. Isn’t that brilliant. Rushing out to buy a bar of that chocolate. 😂😂

  109. Re an earlier thread about Randy Andy.

    The money being chased doesn’t relate to a holiday per se, but to a share in the chalet itself.

    The owner appears to have sold a share and retained a share.

    The freeloaders, oops, sorry Windsors, should put in a counter claim.

    I have absolutely no doubt that the original owner hoped to sell holidays there to the rich and famous on the back of “used by Royalty”.
    Edit for link.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8298209/Prince-Andrew-Sarah-Ferguson-sued-5m-unpaid-bill.html

  110. 318968+ up ticks,
    Anybody know the rating on the hope table ( doing the right thing) in regards to priti patel ? only the influx seems to have risen.
    Super wretch cameron would be proud, remember when
    he gave a super pledge to lower the intake & promptly raised it.
    These politico’s in the governance parties must be on one hell of a promise, do they realise that if ultimately they do sell us out to the mullahs & islamic ideology followers there wont be no indigenous politico heads of state running the Country, for the simple reason the indigenous politico’s heads of state wont have heads.

    Then again though, would they still find
    support & votes ?

    1. My thought are that she is serious about getting numbers down, but she’s facing not so much an uphill struggle as a cliff-face.
      Check out Farage’s video from yesterday. He’s a turncoat, but he’s got the bit between his teeth on this, and not letting go. He explained that being in the EU does actually complicate the situation re refugees.
      Patel is possibly facing opposition within the government, but most definitely from the civil servants in the home office. I don’t know what power she has or doesn’t have to get any of them kicked out for not following the policy she sets. She needs a team, if she’s serious, as she’s unlikely to be able to do it by herself. The snivel serpents will stymie her as much as possible.

      1. 318968+ up ticks,
        Evening Ims2,
        Not working and was never meant to I believe is nearer the truth.
        1000 plus since the start of the year no way, NOT with the parties pedigree regarding mass uncontrolled immigration.
        Where is the Churchchilian rhetoric regarding this type of issue ie repelling invaders, or is boris unaware of what is happening ?
        The farage is very selective in regards to mass uncontrolled immigration, on account of infringing on submissive pcism & appeasement.

      2. 318968+ up ticks,
        Ims2,
        At best I would consider her to be a token goody, the treacherous elements need such peoples to make their hidden agendas credible, surely these parties true colours have been seen by now.
        The ratchet clicks in their favour every time unabated, getting worse by the day as is plain to see, if a person is willing to look.

  111. Goodnight, all. Sleep well and be thankful we beat the Germans – and will do again if we all keep the government’s feet to the fire to deliver a proper Brexit. 🙂

  112. Not mentioning our saving the German people from megalomaniacs and such like but you would think at this time of year they would send over a few bratwersts and some beer. Possibly a even a schnitzel or two. Still…..what do they have to thank us for……………………………………………………………………………………………………..

    1. It was the best of times, it was the wurst of times.
      (I’ll get me sausage skin)

  113. John Ward has an Exclusive scoop on Bojo’s address to the nation tomorrow:

    “Good evening,

    I want to talk to you tonight about the way your Government plans to move smoothly onto the next stage in this, the continuing war against Covid19 – a killer more deadly than even the Novochok germ war launched against Britain by Vladimir Rasputin during my period as Foreign Secretary.

    Unfortunately, I can’t do that because our key adviser Professor Nihil Fergusums was caught knocking up some tart in his lockdown and has thus resigned to spend more time with his donations and to be perfectly frank, the rest of us haven’t a clue how to relax a lockdown without it all turning into the most appalling mess.”

    More here:

    https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/its-time-to-get-down-and-dirty-says-boris-slog-scoops-prelease-of-pms-speech/

  114. Amongst the many BBC reports: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52522965

    Churchill: “We came back after long months from the jaws of death, out of the mouth of hell, when all the world wondered – when shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?“

    Early 21st century, Winnie.

    A British army spokesman addressed the crowd: “Europe has been brought to famine and misery by the Germans. The German nation must not expect to fare better than the nations they have overrun.“

    The USA saw that they did.

    “…the Germans had petitioned the Western Allies for a separate peace in the west, leaving German forces free to carry on the war against the Soviet Union in the east. The Allied commander, General Eisenhower flatly refused; on 6 May, he had told the Germans that unless they surrendered unconditionally on all fronts, that Allied air raids would resume. For Germany, General Alfred Jodl signed the surrender document…”

    Stalin won the war…or at least a large chunk of Europe.

  115. Wow!, What an incredible party in the Close!!

    Social distancing was observed, we were all so
    delighted to see one another…….we started at three
    with the doorstep Toast.We have
    decided that every Friday evening will be
    a ‘Friends Evening’…..18.00-20.00………..

    1. That sounds lovely G. You’re lucky, I live in a street which isn’t terribly neighbourly. I’m lucky I’m still going in to work two days a week (working from home on three) otherwise I wouldn’t see or speak to anyone. Same as normal when I think of it.

      1. I am sorry, Stormy.

        We, really did have a great time.
        All thirty houses turned out, we played cricket,
        we had a quiz, we had sandwiches, scones
        with cream and strawberry jam, strawberries
        and cream……..Jerusalem, the National Anthem,
        HM on loudspeaker………and most people
        ……quietly sobbing.

  116. Following on from my earlier post about VE-Day and the quotation by Churchill: “…when shall the reputation and faith of this generation of English men and women fail?”

    I’ve been watching part 4 of BBC TV’s ‘The Beauty of Maps: Cartoon Maps – Politics and Satire’

    It featured Fred W. Rose’s map of Europe of 1877, with the threatening Russian octopus. Nationalism is on the rise. The mood is becoming fractious.

    Talking head: “…everyone is getting ready for something but they’re not quite sure what will come next…”

    Narrator: “For Rose’s audience this was map and news bulletin rolled into one and the British viewer could gain comfort from the stalwart figure of John Bull, resolute solid and reliable.”

    Talking head: “Often, when all the other characters representing all the other countries are scrapping and fighting or kipping on the job, John Bull, up there in the top left corner, is always looking in control of everything.”

    John Bull is dead.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f143252f11f73e933044474f184cfe6ef3acc184fc521319f8006199465b5d08.jpg

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