Monday 17 May: Doctors under pressure are well aware that general practice is broken

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/16/letters-doctors-pressure-aware-general-practice-broken/

709 thoughts on “Monday 17 May: Doctors under pressure are well aware that general practice is broken”

  1. Anti-Semitism has ‘no place in Britain’ says PM after convoy of cars chant abuse in London.

    A band of pro-Palestinian activists who drove in convoy through North London chanting anti-Semitic slurs has been condemned by the Prime Minister and numerous Cabinet ministers.

    “There is no place for antisemitism in our society,” Mr Johnson tweeted. “Ahead of Shavuot, I stand with Britain’s Jews who should not have to endure the type of shameful racism we have seen today.”

    Morning everyone. I’m sure Batley Man in his “safe house” is much heartened by this show of hypocritical solidarity. All this, is of course, predicated on the Cultural Marxist idea that if you can prevent people saying nasty things then it will all go away and everywhere will be much nicer! This non-confrontational belief appeals largely to women, which reflects the feminine nature of modern Western Government! It doesn’t; it just drives it underground where it not only awaits the time and opportunity to emerge again but usually, as here, in a more virulent form. People’s minds cannot be changed by gagging them! There is very probably more anti-Semitism in the world today and it more widely spread than in any previous time; it is just suppressed by the forces of censorship and control of the MSM!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/16/anti-semitism-has-no-place-britain-says-pm-convoy-cars-chanted/

    1. All the Cultural Marxist rules were only ever aimed at the middle / working class gentile white males who are seen as the oppressors for some reason, they had to be knocked off their perch.
      They have no answers when those that were deemed the oppressed then become powerful enough to take over, they think they have every right to as they have always had a blind eye turned to them.

    2. Yo Minty

      From watching Thomas the Tank Engine. I know that trains/engines etr can talk to each other and maybe even chant, not covoys of cars

      What Boros Should have said and must in future say is

      “A convoy of cars containing members of the pro-Palestinian community, were driven along the streets of the North London.
      The windows and sun roofs of the cars were open, and the flags of (name country were being flown.
      The occupants were chanting anti-Semetic slogans.
      The police filmed the procession, recorded details of number plates of involved vehicles and are in the process of identifying the culprits
      Criminal charges against them WILL be made”

      1. And if found guilty they WILL be extradited to Gaza, ideally via Tel Aviv.

    3. If you are a racist you have to select the people against whom you are going to be racist carefully and choose the right era in which to do so. It was not OK to be anti-Semitic when Hitler was in power but an opportunistic racist can get away with it today.

    4. If you are a racist you have to select the people against whom you are going to be racist carefully and choose the right era to do so. It was not OK to be anti-Semetic when Hitler was in power but an opportunistic racist can get away with it today.

    5. And absolutely bu88er all will be done about it. The blanketing of Blighty with CCTV fails whenever the peaceful ones kick off and/or the police fall down on their job.
      Big Brother has very, very selective eye sight.

    2. Two blokes hugging, a red haired tranni and a gáyboy, and a pair of Lezzies. It can only be a BBC canteen.

    3. I have a steam railway holiday in Yorkshire booked for the early autumn this year – unless we have another lockdown.

    4. How far have they got with the conversion to all electric (non-puffing) engines to comply with the new ‘Green’ regulations?

  6. No comment

    Conservative MP condemned for ‘racist’ tweet about Israel protests

    Michael Fabricant, the MP for Lichfield, called pro-Palestine demonstrators who clashed with police ‘primitives’
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/d1deb85699dcb979ceaebd538c8f5d4519f73151/96_0_3808_2284/master/3808.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=c443055dfbf24840cdca92ec05317e17

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/may/16/conservative-mp-criticised-racist-anti-palestinian-tweet

          1. A frequent quote on the geriatric ward as we did the ‘toilet’ round after mealtimes.

    6. That photograph has given me the first laugh of the day. I am feeling very down about everything. I can see no end in sight. I will not give in.

      2. Morning. Sending deep breaths your way. Can you go and stomp around in nature for a bit? Always helps me. Well, so long as I don’t think too much while I do it.

        1. Thank you, atd. I have just taken the dog for a walk and feel better, fortunately – I sat by the duck pond for a while looking at the cow parsley and marsh marigolds and remembering that nature goes on in her merry seasonal way regardless. I am so busy telling other people that everything passes, everything has a beginning and an end that I forget to remind myself.

        1. Thank you Conway, I am feeling better now than I was feeling this morning. It made me feel better to just unburden and write it and lob it off into cyberspace to land on this page… then I went off for a walk which helped as well. I find I dig my heels in harder and my resolve strengthens when I have gone through a bad patch, how dare they do this to us. I have utter loathing for them. Night night.

          1. Keep the faith, pm. We are all with you. It does help to talk and it certainly helps to go for a walk. If you can take a dog with you, that’s a special treat and even better healing.

    7. I have actually seen that hair-do in person.
      It has an interesting sheen reminiscent of 1960’s nylon carpets.
      Strangely enough, the chap who feeds and grooms it does come out with sensible remarks.

  7. Mng all, the usual woke bleating hearts poured out below:

    SIR – GPs have not been “missing in action”, as J Meirion Thomas claims (Comment, May 15). Rather, they switched to a mandatory total triage model in March 2020 to protect patients from catching Ccovid in the waiting room.

    GPs have continued to see patients when necessary, but many issues do not require a face-to-face consultation. Taking a good history and knowing your patients help to provide continuity of care. We already have teams of allied professionals working to do this, either remotely or in person, and the polyclinics you advocate would move further away from these relationships.

    We can agree that general practice is broken. This is due to chronic underfunding of a service that provides 90 per cent of NHS contacts for about 9 per cent of the budget. The current system allows most patients to access their GP within one or two days, compared to waiting weeks pre-pandemic.

    GPs are human; we are trying our best with limited resources, while dealing with more patients than ever before, as well as delivering 75 per cent of Covid vaccinations. Why not come and spend a day in general practice to see the demands for yourself.

    Dr Rosie Shire
    GP, Doctors’ Association UK

    SIR – One factor that led to many of my generation of GPs retiring (report, May 13) was the sheer weight of bureaucracy emanating from the government and professional bodies, which we completed in the knowledge that most of it would not be read.

    The second factor was the inexorable rise of the litigation culture, which meant that every appointment, however trivial, had to be meticulously documented. This signalled the end of the five-minute consultation, which was the only way we could deal with the volume of patients presenting.

    Finally, free healthcare has created a sizeable minority of patients whose use of the NHS is out of all proportion to their need, resulting in reduced access for the majority, and an individual GP workload that is unsustainable.

    Dr Chris Nancollas
    Yorkley, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Like Bill Easson (Letters, May 12), I was taught that a proper consultation began with a history, moved to an examination, included a discussion with the patient, and came to a diagnosis, with a suggestion as to treatment last.

    It is with regret that I see more and more difficulty in making a face-to-face GP appointment and I fear the consequences should this trend towards electronic medicine continue. There may well also be a marked increase in legal fees.

    Dr Malcolm Freeth
    Bournemouth, Dorset

    SIR – To visit my GP I have to ring the surgery at 8am and join a queue of at least 30 people. An hour later one tends to give up. Is this acceptable?

    Geoff Dickman
    Maldon, Essex

    A bright future

    SIR – I must disagree with your feature on Farrow & Ball (May 13). Hempel, that has bought it, has manufactured paint in the UK for more than 60 years and also owns Crown Paints. Better them than an investment company that would strip Farrow & Ball of its assets.

    Tony Gadd
    Southport, Lancashire

    Baroness O’Cathain

    SIR – Apart from her five years at the Barbican, Baroness O’Cathain (Obituaries, April 28) spent five decades as a pioneering business woman and as a highly effective member of the House of Lords.

    Detta O’Cathain blazed a trail in business in the 1980s, being among the first female non-executive directors to serve in FTSE 100 boardrooms, including those of Tesco and British Airways. Her sharp mind and ability to get to the heart of complex problems won her respect, if not friends, in a male dominated world.

    As Baroness O’Cathain she used her platform to inspire young women to enter business, and acted as a personal and professional mentor to many.

    As chairman of the influential European Union subcommittee dealing with the workings of the internal market and infrastructure her reputation for assiduous preparation and forensic questioning of witnesses was legendary.

    In a political world often characterised by the concealing of true feelings, with Detta you always knew exactly where you stood – whether you liked it or not. It was not personal. Her interest was in getting to the truth, solving a problem, not in defending a party line. This approach won her many friends on all sides of the House.

    Detta was a good friend, good company, quick-witted and blessed with a self-deprecating sense of humour. She will be well remembered.

    Lord Fowler
    Baroness Smith of Basildon
    Baroness Goldie
    Lord Faulkner of Worcester
    Lord Lucas
    Baroness Fookes
    Lord Bates
    Lord Hayward
    London SW1

    Fishy business

    SIR – Never mind garlic (Letters, May 13). Is it not even crazier that so much of the fish we buy here is either farmed in Vietnam or packaged in China?

    Anthony Whitehead
    Bristol

    Oxford’s historic abuses

    SIR – It is disappointing that students who theoretically have the intelligence to gain a place at Oxford do not understand that they are benefiting from an institution riddled with historic abuses (report, May 15).

    The entire university was initially constructed on tithes and serfdom, and the amassing of land and wealth to which it was not entitled. If students prefer metrication over “imperial measures” they are condoning the brutality of the Roman conquest and its more recent championing by Napoleon Bonaparte.

    One cannot cherry-pick aspects of our historical culture, otherwise we have to abandon the English language in this absurd cultural cleansing.

    Dorian Wood
    Castle Cary, Somerset

    Memories of Beale’s

    SIR – Christopher Howse’s feature (May 14) on the closure of Arthur Beale on Shaftesbury Avenue, brought back memories of the 1970s, when I worked around the corner in studios in Neal Street and was involved in the design of Terence Conran’s Habitat shops.

    Arthur Beale supplied several pieces of equipment, most notably the stainless steel “straining wire”, and the fittings for pulling it taut, that we used as intermediate rails in staircase balustrades.

    How sad that a business with such an incredible history is about to disappear.

    David Salter
    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – I was an articled clerk to the firm responsible for Arthur Beale’s annual audit. This was considered to be a plum assignment, very different to the usual factories and offices we visited. We would do our checking, surrounded by ropes, flags, buoys and other sailing equipment.

    William Fitzhugh
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – Beale’s was of use to gardeners beyond the incidental provision of brown paper bags for seeds.

    Twenty years ago I needed hemp rope to support the rambler roses I was planting at our house in France. The 30 metres I bought from Arthur Beale are still supporting a wonderful display of roses every year. I might even get to see them this summer.

    Peter J Howard
    Spreyton, Devon

    Paying for care

    SIR – In cautioning against “millions of struggling young people (being) required to bail out the asset-rich elderly” for their care, Philip Duly (Letters, May
    14) challenges the Dilnot report’s proposals. However, unfair though those may seem to the young, because the elderly (and infirm) did not have to subsidise elderly care when they were young, the proposals represent a necessary stopgap measure to meet the current situation.

    Today’s young will also benefit from having their own care in old age duly serviced by the recommendations, which will be adjusted over time to achieve a more equitable solution. We all grow old eventually.

    Bruce Denness
    Niton, Isle of Wight

    Horse sense

    SIR – We had a pony who, once let out of his stable, would potter around on his own (Letters, May 15). When he was ready to go back to his paddock, he would knock at the kitchen door.

    Letitia Hayward
    Loddington, Northamptonshire

    Britain’s railways have been run down for decades

    SIR – The need temporarily to withdraw trains when potentially dangerous is nothing new (report, May 14).

    It happened on two occasions in the 1950s, both involving the withdrawal for safety checks of a whole fleet of steam locomotives: the Great Western “King” class in 1956 and the Southern “Merchant Navy” class in 1953. Their absence was covered by sending spare locomotives from other parts of the country.

    Since then our railways have had all spare capacity in track, rolling stock and locomotives stripped from them, robbing them of the ability to respond flexibly to such problems.

    The Government can require the railways to provide cover all it wants, but the fact that it’s not there is due to successive governments and the Civil Service destroying what was once the finest railway system on the planet.

    David Pearson
    Haworth, West Yorkshire

    The Sussexes should renounce their royal titles

    SIR – The Queen wears two hats, she is both head of state and the senior member of the Royal family. When Prince Harry joined the Army he took an oath to serve not his grandmother, but the head of state. When he married Meghan, the Queen gave them the titles of Duke and Duchess of Sussex so they could carry out official duties.

    Harry has failed to grasp that while his family problems are private, his official duties are open to public scrutiny. As he has made it clear that he does not want to serve the Queen as head of state, it is inappropriate for the couple to keep their titles.

    Peter Amey
    Hoveton, Norfolk

    SIR – Like Sheri Jacobson (Analysis, May 14), as a retired therapist I know that therapy offers us the chance to understand ourselves and be healed in a way that helps us to move forward. It has nothing to do with pulling down and stamping on others, which is not conducive to human well-being. However, as part of the me-first, emote-it-all generation, Prince Harry is using his new awareness to persecute the Royal family before a global audience.

    He is hurting his new family as surely as his own was damaged by divorce and death. His lack of psychological awareness is astonishing.

    Eleanor Patrick
    Elsdon, Northumberland

    SIR – The Duke and Duchess’s website claims that they are “serving the Monarchy, honouring the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II” and that they “deeply believe in the role of The Monarchy and their commitment to Her Majesty … Their roles will continue to reflect their sense of duty and allegiance to the Monarch.” How so?

    Elisa Stanton
    Alton, Hampshire

    1. Why not come and spend a day in general practice to see the demands for yourself.

      The Nottlers award for the most stupid comment of the day!

      2. Morning, Minty. No mention of the fact that GPs are so well paid they can live comfortably by working part-time.

    2. What about a law to protect fair competition for women in women’s sport?

      3. What?!?!?

        Are you suggesting that self diagnosed transsexual weightlifters are anything other than women and who couldn’t possibly have a physical advantage bestowed by being born and having trained all their lives before transitioning as men.

    1. mng Bob, summed up in one sentence – “Lockdown is a policy not of public health but of psychological and economic war” which everyone on here was saying over a month ago

      1. Morning AW, some of us were saying it over a year ago, but it is nice to see it confirmed

    2. mng Bob, summed up in one sentence – “Lockdown is a policy not of public health but of psychological and economic war” which everyone on here was saying over a month ago

    1. After a night of research into trying to establish what is “moderate” drinking ( no conclusion yet ) you have described my condition to a tee.

  12. Bring it on!!!

    Andrew Marr hints at BBC exit over impartiality frustrations

    The presenter warned he may soon find it ‘very, very hard’ to carry on being neutral on political issues

    By Jack Hardy 16 May 2021 • 8:05pm
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2021/05/16/TELEMMGLPICT000258744749_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqp9c5WVj0Jr0gvyuux5WeKI-QD44-voN49g7o0Fjx2T4.jpeg?imwidth=680

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/16/andrew-marr-hints-bbc-exit-impartiality-frustrations/
    No comments allowed

    And good riddance to the insufferable smug Marxist.

    3. Impartiality! When was that then? God help us if it ever turns partial!

      1. The very same

        Steerpike
        Andrew Marr’s Mystery Lady
        10 September 2012, 1:00am

        One can wait for years for a good Sunday TV presenter scandal to break, and then two come along at once. Sky’s married Sunday morning host Dermot Murnaghan was caught by the People canoodling in Hyde Park with a make up artist half his age, while the BBC’s Andrew Marr was busted by the Mirror appearing to kiss a mystery woman outside a Fitzrovia watering hole.

        Excruciatingly featured in the papers they both had to review yesterday morning, Marr was seen leaving his marital home in Richmond with a suitcase. However, the inquisitor insists he was heading for a trip to America rather than being booted out by his wife Guardian columnist Jackie Ashley. He fervently denies an affair with a grovelling apology this morning:

        “’No, no, not at all. But I would say my wife is very cross with me and quite rightly so. I am a grown-up and I should know better. It was very poor behaviour on my part and she is entirely right to be annoyed.

        Marr does have form in this area and a broken super-injunction to prove it. AsMarr claims not to remember why his hand was down the back of his young brunette friend’s jeans, claiming: ‘It was an innocent goodbye to my series producer.’ Mr Steerpike wonders about that — the Andrew Marr Show does seem to lack a producer with brown hair.

        Say what you like about Marr, but he has never pretended to be a role model. In his book, My Trade, he goes as far as to say that journalists like him are precisely the type to end up having a bit of a fumble in Soho street corners:-

        “Anyone who reads about or watches journalists’ lives must be struck by our unreliability as partners – not all of us, obviously, but many of us. Nor do journalists have high self-esteem as a class. The passing-on of information that someone, somewhere does not want to see published is not a popular business… Journalism is the industrialisation of gossip.

        Quite. And in this spirit, Mr Steepike offers a challenge. Do you know Marr’s mystery lady? There is a chilled bottle of Pol Roger heading your way if you do. All suggestions on a postcard to steerpike@spectator.co.uk.

      2. We always suspected that the man is a scumbag but the woman has marred her reputation by allowing him to put his fingers down her pants.

    6. He works for the BBC

      The words, impartial and neutral are an anethma to all the barstewrds

      I wonder who told him about them, then.

    7. I always thought he was a Tory.

      One of my closest childhood friends was in a family of very staunch Conservatives. The father proudly showed me his copy of ‘Das Kapital’ explaining that one cannot criticise Marx until one has read it and understands what he is arguing. Conservatism, especially that promoted by Margaret Thatcher, was profoundly egalitarian – that we all have the right to make the best of our lives, and it is one of Government’s prime responsibilities to encourage this, for the betterment of us all.

      1. Why is it only people with a Conservative mindset who appear to understand that to argue against someone else, you first need to listen to and understand their thoughts and ideas?
        A couple of Latin Phrases are useful rejoinder to try and educate people:-

        In utramque partem disputare:- In both sides of the Dispute.
        A means of coming to terms with and better understanding an opposing argument is to learn to “argue the opposite case”, thus being better armed to dismantle your opponent’s arguments.

        Audi alteram partem or Audiatur et altera pars
        “listen to the other side”, or “let the other side be heard as well”.
        Give your opponent the chance to put their case. By doing so you can examine their arguments and identify the weak points.

        The danger being, of course, that you may realise the strength of their argument and be forced to change your opinion.

        1. Of course. Marr makes two valid points – that it is not acceptable to leave litter and despoil the environment in the name of personal advancement, and that it is unacceptable to use one’s power to claim huge personal remuneration whilst denying the livelihoods of others.

        2. Good morning, your last sentence underlines why freedom of speech is so vital to a free people in a free country (current pandemic diktats notwithstanding).

        3. Hi Bob – that is why I love strong debate. I have had my opinion changed on a number of occasions by persuasive argument.

          In fact, I am trying to achieve something similar in the world of electrostatic control in the semiconductor industry at the moment, by trying to convince the “establishment” that they are doing some things wrong in the name of electrostatic protection. It’s an uphill battle against well-entrenched opinions, but I base what I say on science so I am confident about the correctness of my stance.

          1. With both global Warming and the Wuhan Virus, I’ve realised that the term “following the science” is used to give a false impression when they are really following Scientific Opinion specially selected to support their policies, with the counter opinions of any other scientists, including specialists in the particular field, ignored.

          2. That is a very insightful point, Bob, and I am glad you made it.

    8. Any chance he is trying to make himself available for GB News?
      Is this his way in trying to kill it off?

    10. To be honest I find this man entirely odious.

      But to some extent I do not care if he expresses his views as long as equal air time is given to someone with completely different views and it is made absolutely clear that he is stating his own opinion rather than fact. We know already what many of his views are – how did we work this out if he was working for an entirely impartial organisation?

      It is completely hypocritical of the BBC to pretend that its presenters are neutral when they clearly are not.

    11. This is the same clown who castigated politicians’ behaviour, whilst hiding behind super-injunctions.

      Impartial, my foot.

    12. As I’ve said before Marr Mate you either loathe him or loathe him……

  13. Manipulated Brits are still on the Covid leash

    It is a mark of how psychologically abused we have been that we now regard the restoration of basic rights as freedom

    TIM STANLEY
    17 May 2021 • 6:00am

    Today is liberation day: hugs, restaurants and masks off in schools. I’m afraid I’m too depressed to enjoy it. I can’t get over what has been imposed upon us for the past year, and it’s a mark of how psychologically abused we are that getting permission to exercise basic human rights is regarded as freedom.

    We are not free. We are on a leash. The leash has been extended and now, like an innocent dog, we are running around the field imagining we can go wherever we want, while the master stands poised to snap us back to heel. Thanks to the Indian variant, it feels inevitable that he’ll do it.

    Never mind that the India strain, as of last week, is not linked to a significant rise in hospitalisations; or that early lab work suggests the vaccines can handle it; or that 36 million of us have had a jab and around two-thirds are likely to carry antibodies. Never mind any of this, because the philosophy guiding policy is that it’s the modern state’s job to reduce risk to near zero, that because we can shut down society, we should.

    By this logic, even a gangbusters vaccination programme isn’t enough because, you know, “variants” – and some people, for whatever bizarre cultural reasons that no one has satisfactorily explained, don’t do vaccines. The war on disease, if you swallow its logic, is by its very nature perpetual. “Of all tyrannies,” wrote C S Lewis, “a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive”, for while the despot will eventually sleep or be satiated, the kind tyrant is driven ceaselessly on by their conscience.

    I have never been in the “do nothing” camp. There are things we should have done at the start and didn’t, like suspend international travel or protect care homes, that might have reduced the need for lockdown later on (the Indian variant might have snuck in during a three-day window on travel, which requires justification). When Covid arrived in the UK, it was incumbent upon society to act and we can be very proud of what we have accomplished.

    But I was surprised by how easily a government can seize absolute control, even in a mature democracy like Britain’s. That we were locked up in our homes for benign reasons is irrelevant: everything that I thought was foundational to our system – right to protest or movement, parliamentary oversight – turned out to be contingent and, under the right circumstances, quickly suspended. Idiot that I was, I didn’t even know the mechanisms existed to do this.

    An even bigger shock is how far the British went along with it (some of them, particularly the train guards, seemed to revel in it). The happiest explanation is that we wanted to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do. But while lockdown has encouraged self-discipline and self-sacrifice, wonderful qualities both, it has also legitimised pettiness, harassment, rudeness and a culture of fear that permeates everyday life and will take a long time to erode. People were motivated by an instinctual reaction to disease, which is understandable, but they were also manipulated and conditioned.

    According to a book out today, A State of Fear by Laura Dodsworth, in March last year ministers were worried we would not comply with health guidance, so there were discussions with experts about increasing “the perceived level of personal threat”. We can infer the Government acted on that advice because we were bombarded, with the aid of the broadcast media, with terrifying statistics and horror stories that suggested the world was on the verge of an end-of-life event. “The way we have used fear is dystopian,” one scientist told Dodsworth, “ethically questionable”. It was stupid, too: “People became too scared.”

    The other way the puppet-masters broke us down was to treat us like children. “Hands, Face, Space” – with little pictures in case we were too thick to get it. The symbol for “Thank you NHS” was the nursery-school rainbow. The primary reward of extending the lockdown leash is to get a hug (“carefully”, says Matt Hancock, and preferably outdoors). The Government might as well have handed out gold stars for good behaviour, though I find it very hard to believe that everyone in Britain who has been offered an illicit hug in the past few months turned it down, let alone two people who have both been fully vaccinated or had recovered from the disease. Why would they? Should it be forbidden to do something that in all probability does no harm?

    The secret history of the coronavirus, like that of past plagues – or wars – is of millions of people who secretly threw dinner parties, hooked up with strangers or persuaded a kind nurse to let them hold their father’s hand while he slipped away on an otherwise empty hospital ward. Our society demands, for the moment, that we pretend none of this happened. So we must be liars, too, complicit in a culture of performance, wherein we fake deference to ideals that are far beyond human endurance.

    By helping us against our will, said Lewis, the tyranny of kindness puts us on the same plane as those who “have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will”. Kids and animals. The final insult is that the experts didn’t feel they could trust the British to be good citizens, that they had to coerce us instead. I will never look at the state the same way again.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/17/manipulated-brits-still-covid-leash2/

    1. At the outset of the BatFlu I found these resources and you may conclude what you will.

      https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/882722/25-options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22032020.pdf
      https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/MINDSPACE.pdf
      https://www.coronababble.com/post/the-ethics-of-using-covert-strategies-a-letter-to-the-british-psychological-society

    2. It is eleven years since I last had a hug – with a Filipina lady, who is probably a nun now. I attempted one with my daughter back in 2014, but was informed in writing three weeks later that she no longer wished to maintain a relationship with me. She has been brought up in the belief that fathers are not important, and a bit distasteful. She now works for the National Trust with responsibility over the nation’s cultural heritage.

      I fear that “going back to 2019” is not going to be enough to restore freedoms we once took for granted.

    3. 332844+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      A great deal of it was brought about by
      a great many peoples suffering from a form of Stockholm syndrome plague as in being in love with their political abusers, namely the lab/lib/con coalition.

      Those that have seen the state of the nation and knowingly kissed X an above party candidate in the ballot booth are securing the foundation stones ( reset) in place… for their children, surely another form of abuse.

      Many of us can say “not in my name”

    4. “The other way the puppet-masters broke us down was to treat us like children. “Hands, Face, Space” – with little pictures in case we were too thick to get it”

      No. The pictures were needed because there is a sizeable cohort in this country rthat doesn’t speak English.

      “The final insult is that the experts didn’t feel they could trust the British to be good citizens”

      Quite right too. I don’t trust a lot of people to be good citizens either.

    5. What this chap clearly doesn’t appreciate is that the repeated messages and restrictions are necessary to try and get the point through to the 1% of people who WOULD spread the disease if they had an illicit hug, or an illicit party. The majority of reasonably intelligent people probably don’t need to hear the message so can pretty much ignore it, as they will behave sensibly anyway.

      I heard that we had a local person who died from Covid (yes, from not with) after being infected at a funeral gathering. That same person also attended a child’s birthday party after the funeral but before developing symptoms, and they infected numerous children and their parents. That came through “the grapevine” – you don’t hear that detail in any official statistics.

      If people don’t understand the need to drum the message home as if we are all imbeciles in order to finally get through the thick skulls of people who willingly would put others’ lives at risk in order to exercise what they believe is their own personal right to do whatever they want , then they deserve to contract the disease and find out just how harmless it is first hand.

      Personally, I would rather trust the advice of professionals who know what they are talking about, and do everything I can to avoid this disease. If that means withdrawing other people’s right to party until the threat is under control, then so be it. It’s not exactly a significant or permanent restriction of personal freedom, it’s a temporary precaution, for the good of everyone.

  14. Good morning.
    A dull but dry start to the day at 6°C. It’s still not warming up to any extent, but the frost appear to have gone.

  15. ‘Morning All
    Funny Old World….
    They’re all out there on social media,the pundits,the politicians,the commentariat,even the odd feminist,all frothing indignantly,nay hysterically at the Muzscum who have dared to drive through the leafy suburb of St John’s Wood screaming threats of rape and murder….
    Julia Hartley-Brewer is typical of the breed as she booms “I stand with my Jewish neighbours and their daughters”
    Such a pity that over the last 20/30 years she and her ilk have signally failed to “stand” with the thousands of working class/in care girls actually raped and threatened with murder by the Muzscum!!
    What could be the difference?? I suspect the clue is the “Leafy suburb of St John’s Wood”

    1. But the nice Mr Azit Inem was just running a social club for the young girls

    2. But the nice Mr Azit Inem was just running a social club for the young girls

    1. If Fauci and his NIH knew this back in 2005 then our NHS must have known this too. This is an example of the hard questions that have to be asked in the upcoming inquiry. Hancock, Johnson & Co must not be allowed to wriggle off the hook that they have impaled themselves on.

      Why do these so-called “smart” people forget so much of what they stated in the past? Recent Hansard records show that those advocating some measures now were denying those measures were being considered when obviously they were on the table. Lying without any embarrassment appears to be a requirement of politicians and many of those they employ in positions of authority..

      1. Need to crowdfund an attack barrister to represent “The People” at the enquiry & prevent a pals whitewash.

        1. The People’s problem will be that the liars will be setting the terms of the inquiry. The PTB are probably working on what will be admissible as evidence and what will not be, as we write.

          1. The liars and cheats will also be appointed to head the ‘independent’ inquiry.

        3. Francis Hoar has been pretty good so far. We all know that the only “enquiry” will be as to why lockdown was not imposed earlier though.

      2. Korky, the Government certainly knew this:

        On 26 February 2020 the Department of Health and Social Care formally banned the export of Chloroquine.

        This information is freely available on the Government website.

  18. Russian children carry toy guns and sing war songs about being ‘merciless to the enemy’ and ‘dying for the Motherland’ at primary school parade. 16 may 2021.

    Schoolchildren as young as nine were filmed parading in military uniforms while carrying replica machine guns and chanting war songs in Russia.

    The primary school pupils carried ‘toy guns’ and chanted ‘there is no forgiveness to your enemies’ as they marched in the industrial city of Elektrostal, which lies 36 miles east of Moscow.

    We used to play “Cowboys and Indians” and “War” though I suppose these have now been outlawed from the playground. There were also military cadet organisations for older children. What a wicked time it was; no sexual deviancy lessons for the under sevens or the evils of Racism and Colonialism! How we ever survived it I do not know!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9582449/Russian-children-carry-toy-guns-sing-war-songs-merciless-enemy.html#comments

    1. Age 13, I was trained in the use of the Enfield No 4, and at 14, the bren gun. Childhood in the Colonies.
      Better cancel me.

    2. Minty, I’m surprised at you – “Cowboys and Indians” indeed! Surely you mean “Bovine Animal Managers and Native Americans” don’t you?!?!?

        1. I’ve heard of “cowpokes” but never “indywags”, young Grizzly. But then, language changes over the decades – for example, that Beano (or Dandy?) character “Little Plum, your redskin chum” is now known as “Old Prune”.

          :-))

          1. Just as Dennis the Menace is now Dennis the Old Fart; Beryl the Peril is now Beryl the Old Bag; and Minnie the Minx is now Minnie the Hag.

            [Plum was Beano, as was Dennis and Minnie. Beryl was Topper.]

    3. I was a cub at the age of eight, then I became a scout and then at 14 I had to join the CCF. None of these things ‘made a man’ of me but they did make
      me a cynic.

      When I was a schoolmaster I had a rather unreliable car and I often asked the head boy, who was also head cadet in the CCF, when his troops were ‘on parade’ in the vicinity of the area where we parked our cars if he would lend me a few of his ‘toy soldiers’ to give me a push to get the car started. The pupils were amused by this but some of my colleagues thought I was disgraceful. Incidentally this boy was a splendid chap – he became an army officer, went to Manchester University to read Physics and came to stay with us in France a year or two ago with his wife and children.

  19. Spiked

    “So the 21st-century left refuses to share a platform with feminists who

    think biological sex is real but they will rub shoulders with protesters

    who chant about killing Jews? This is the perverse position the woke

    left now finds itself in. It sees prejudice everywhere except where it

    actually exists. State a biological fact and they’ll brand you

    transphobic. Criticise the burqa and you’re an Islamophobe. Fail to take

    the knee to Black Lives Matter and its every potty political belief and

    you’ll be called racist. Wear a sombrero and you’re cancelled. But

    chanting death to Jews? No biggie. The woke warriors against racism and

    hatred will suddenly, magically go deaf. They’ll look the other way. ‘I

    didn’t hear anything.’”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/16/the-lefts-shameful-silence-on-anti-semitism/

    2. 332844+ up ticks,
      Morning AWK,
      It would not surprise me in the least to see some “Gov. believing adults” running around beating their arses reminicent of when we were kids going up the shop for mum on a make believe horse.
      The queer folk content of these Isles is surely mounting.

        1. 332844+ up ticks,
          AWK,
          As usual with consent of the comply then complain contingent.

    4. AHOY THERE CAP’N!
      THAR SHE BLOWS!! LANDWHALE TWO POINT OFF THE LARB’D BOW!

  21. Good morning, everyone. Update on daughter: Consultant says it is less than a stage 2 cancer and he is upbeat about a good outcome. He will take out a lymph node to confirm that the cancer hasn’t had time to spread. Daughter goes to the QE in Birmingham a week tomorrow for the pre-op procedure. Thank you for all your messages.

    1. That’s relatively very good news, let’s hope it continues.
      Good luck for you all.

    2. Good morning Delboy, wishing your daughter a successful & easy pre-op procedure followed by whatever treatment is needed for a full recovery to good health ASAP.

    7. Morning DB, if it is any assurance at all I can tell you the treatment seems to improve year on year.
      Mrs VVOF was told earlier this year that a mammogram showed a 6mm lump which proved to be cancerous. After a delay because of a positive Covid test (another story in itself) the lump and a lymph node was removed. The lymph node biopsy was good and now only a short 5 day radiotherapy course remains to make as sure as possible no trace remains.
      What struck me was the care she has received from not only the hospital but even from our local GP. I read of difficulties patients has experienced, I can only say not in this household, we must be truly blessed.
      I will remember her in my prayers.

      1. Morning vvof. I had exactly the same as Mrs.vvof last February, and had the surgery and follow-up radiotherapy. Had a yearly mammogram last week and am now waiting for the result. Good wishes to your wife and I also feel blessed!

        1. So pleased it turned out OK for you. To think they can pick up a 6mm lump, so small it is amazing.

          1. I was checked just before Scotland stopped breast and bowel screening, so I really was lucky! My lump was only 5mm and when I went last week for the mammogram, the radiographer was amazed how small the scar is!

    8. Good morning DB

      So pleased your news is more positive than negative .

      Wishing your daughter all the very best for the next few weeks .

    9. Good morning Delboy! Glad to hear that the news is positive! Thinking of your daughter and the family.

  22. 332844+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Vaccines appear to prevent 97 per cent of Indian variant infections
    Matt Hancock says the Government is not aware of anyone who has died with the variant after receiving two jabs

    We are suffering treachery via a clutch of politico’s who
    at first glance “appear to be normal”

    If this clutch of politico’s could have run the governance of these Isles as successfully as they have run the plague campaign ( IMO deceive to achieve) we would be once again world leaders.

    The DOVER invasion is surely showing the true
    nature / agenda of the governing politicians yet they still find support from the indigenous… WHY ?

  23. Speeding drivers ‘pose a greater threat to the public’ than knife-wielding thugs and should not be treated more leniently, police chief warns. 17 May 2021.

    Speeding drivers are being treated more leniently than those caught carrying a knife, a top police officer has said.
    Andy Cox, the national leader for fatal collision investigations, said those who drive at an extreme speed pose a greater threat to public safety.

    Of course. Speeding car owners are always intent on running drug dealing drivers off the road and killing them while pedestrians out shopping are their natural prey!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9584213/Police-chief-warns-speeding-drivers-not-treated-leniently-knife-wielding-thugs.html

    1. Well Mr Cox, how about you make the argument that instead of the cash machines (speed cameras) that has been installed, try spending it on police patrol cars, that would without doubt raise the behaviour of the majority of drivers.

      1. Yo vvof

        and obviously, it is OK for convoys of cars to travel through out towns, with the drivers and passengers breaking our laws, with regard to anti-semetism

        If Tommy, was walking down the road and someone said (s)nigger, he would be arrested for aiding and abettting an anti-BLM comment

    2. My Satnav has a feature which I call ‘The Devon Game’ where it sends me to a narrow street in a market town surrounded by high hedges which gets narrower and narrow until ending in a dead end outside someone’s garage where it is impossible to turn round.

      A rural variant of this is ‘The Derbyshire Game’ where, as one climbs uphill, the lane gets narrower and hemmed in both sides by dry stone walls. It goes on for miles until in the middle of the road is a gate, behind which is a flock of sheep and a tantalising view in the far distance of civilisation down in the valley.

      ‘The Worcestershire Game’ is a variant, in that the hills are not so steep, but the lane is muddier and windier, and extraordinarily beautiful and green. There is no dead end, no gate, and the odd sheep, but not in the way. It just carries on indefinitely. The theory is that if one travels in a straight line long enough in England, one gets to the sea, but few country lanes in Worcestershire go in a straight line. One also needs nerves of steel to go more than 15mph along there without hitting a tree.

      When I was in the Netherlands, I discovered a variant of this. An urban street became a suburban road, which became a country lane and then turned into a field. At that point was a helpful sign telling me that there was no longer a speed limit in force.

      2. The Dorset variant takes you along the back lanes until you are confronted by a man in army fatigues putting up a red flag and closing a barrier across the road, because the gunnery ranges are in action. Unfortunately the barriers are placed so that you cannot actually watch the fun and games, more’s the pity.

    3. While I would have speeding and especially tail gaters shot, the reality is in hampshire that most of the main routes are car parks anyway. People push and shove through red lights, change lanes without warning and do anything to get ahead because, as I timed yesterday, the light for an exit was on for 3 seconds.

      In a one mile stretch of the misery that is Southampton city, there are 14 traffic lights in less than a mile. 14! No wonder people jump the lights. No wonder the air quality is appalling. Worse, they’re designed atrociously, with a left turn blocked while traffic passes across. Instead of simple bridges, there’s yet more traffic lights. The trunk routes are blocked in favour of side routes. It is stupidly designed.

      However, knife crime won’t be resolved until two things are imposed: working for a living and the nuclear family. Blacks especially struggle here – for reasons that seem to be cultural and welfare supports this deficiency.

      The best thing we can do to help end knife crime is to accept the solutions to solve it are discipline, the family and to end welfare.

      1. Southampton for drivers is the Seventh Circle of Hell. Consider, the Avenue is one of only three main arterial routes in and out of the city and is either 2 or three lanes wide. Last year (for awhile), the city fathers decided to emulate Sad-dick Kahnt and took one lane away for a cycle lane. Result: chaos and tailbacks back onto the motorway. Mercifully they saw sense and restored (most of) the road to it’s former self. It’s still a nightmare city in which to drive though.

  24. Good morning & happy Monday all Nottlers, it was a quiet night in Tel Aviv, no rocket attacks but down south & around Gaza the Ham-Arse scum kept up a continuous barrage of short range rockets, thankfully no casualties reported but some damage to homes, a kindergarden & shops . Morning music time:
    Top of the World – The Petersens
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrG9Wb6eASM

    1. I get the impression that the PLO Controlled West Bank is relatively calm when compared to Gaza. If correct, I think this strongly suggests that the current crisis has been created by Hamas to the huge detriment of the people of Gaza.

      2. Good Morning Bob, you are correct, the current fighting was triggered by Palestinian President AKA Mahmoud Abbas cancelling the Palestinian elections ( he has been in office 15 years of a 5 year term as PA President ) because the PLO will lose the election in Judea & Samaria ( the West Bank ) to Hamas as they did in Gaza after we unwisely withdrew from Gaza and then under pressure from US President George W Bush allowed the PA to hold elections, which the PLO lost. This is Hamas’s attempt to incite widespread bloodshed by Israeli Arabs & those in the PA administered territories which they have partially succeeded in doing in order to bring down Abbas & his gangsters in the PLO

  26. Where’s Garlands when you need her?

    A CENTURIES-OLD battle over how to pronounce a river name was decided by a game of croquet yesterday.

    The river Nene originates in Northamptonshire and runs for 100 miles through Cambridgeshire and Norfolk before flowing into The Wash.

    However, for generations there has been controversy over the way it’s name is pronounced – locals in Northampton say “Nen” while 40 miles away in Peterborough they say “Neen”.

    When a long-awaited local croquet derby was planned, the two sides decided to up the stakes by making it a decider on the correct pronunciation.

    Northampton was the first side to win five games in yesterday’s nine game contest and claimed the right to call the disputed river the Nen with a decisive 7-2 victory in a four-hour face-off. Paul Hetherington, 56, the Peterborough club secretary, said: “The dispute has been going on a long, long time, it must be centuries-old. I’ve always been interested in the pronunciation because the towns are only 40 miles apart and we are just downstream of Northampton.

    “I was joking about it with the Northampton club when I thought it would be a good idea to have a game to settle, once and for all, the name of the river.” The origin of the Nene – the UK’S 10th longest river – is unknown but its name has changed over the years; it has been called Nenn or Nyn over time.

    Paul Chard, 61, chairman of Northampton Croquet Club, said: “It is quite odd why there’s a difference. On Wikipedia, they pronounced it Nenny but no one calls it that. I know that in villages in the middle of us such as Oundle and Thrapston one person at one end of the village will say Nen and a person at the other end will say Neen.

    “With Peterborough and Northampton deeply divided north and south of the river you can sometimes hear people who live in the middle oscillating between the two pronunciations.”

    However, the pronunciation could shift on a yearly basis as the croquet clubs plan to make it an annual tie.

    Who cares what it is called? Local dialectic differences will always remain, and rightly so. For example, the expression “Now then” is pronounced as “Na then” (with the emphasis on the second word) in Chesterfield, whilst 12 miles away in Sheffield it is pronounced “Nar den” (with the emphasis on the first word).

        1. Hi Grizz. I’m well, thanks, but suffering from a bad back at the moment, hence my chair-bound state and presence in here! Otherwise I would be out in the garden attending to much needed maintenance and sowing. My beans have been trashed by the wind three times so far, so another planting is needed. The spring has been so dry my rhubarb is flowering! First time I have ever seen rhubarb do that.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fd486af7b42d30c90e0b419ac9bc702c1d286255d6a72d97b36689b2571cf2e8.jpg

          2. Ouch! I know all about bad backs, having suffered with one for decades. Take care.

          3. To get your back sorted and exercise your lungs , go and see a Choiropractor

          4. Good morning, Grizzly

            My back has given me intermittent trouble for some time. I now have an electric back massage machine attached to my chair in the office and since using it I have been much more comfortable.

            My trouble is cramp in my legs and ankles when I am in bed. Any solutions?

          5. Good morning, Rastus.

            I used to have occasional bed cramps but since I embarked on my one-meal-a-day diet and started drinking more water they have disappeared.

          6. My rhubarb flowered last year, but it’s shown no sign of doing it again this year.

    1. Men were alot more attractive then, no bald heads and tattoos either . No slouching , and I loved our fashionable dresses , shoes and handbags , those were the days . I was so pleased to be part of it .

      1. loved our fashionable dresses , shoes and handbags , those were the days . I was so pleased to be part of it .

        So was Danny La Rue and men at the BBC

      2. Ummmmm ….. the men we noticed were 50 years younger than they are now. How are they shaping up in their seventies?

    2. People are fit because they have manual labour jobs. Because they work near to where they live and walk to it. Because they had far less leisure time as far more was done manually.

      Now…. the washing machine is on, the dishwasher running, I hoovered, if it gets cold I’ll turn the heating on. As for work? That’s being done inside three monitors and a VM rather than by hand.

      I’d also point out that people smoked a lot more and had lower life expectancies. A lot of the problems of our current age are because of our leisure time and wealth.

    4. Feature films of around that time that were shot n location give us a window into that time. How wonderful it was. We kew it and thought that it would just get better and better. But it didn’t.

      1. 332844+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        By the same token we should never have pursued a voting
        pattern that could be seen to be getting worse and worse.
        The politico’s steered the herd on a course of destruction and the herd took to it, purely for the good of the party name
        they could NOT acknowledge that the real genuine party was murdered and long time dead, sad really.

        By the by I lived in Kew and schooled in Kew & Richmond.

  28. Handicap or Allergies

    A man is sitting next to a woman on a jet, which is getting ready to take off. Suddenly, the man sneezes.

    He unzips his pants and wipes the end of his penis off with his handkerchief. He zips up, and continues reading his magazine.

    The woman cannot believe what she just saw. Then the man sneezes again, unzips, pulls out his penis and wipes it off with a handkerchief.

    The woman says, “Excuse me sir, but that is disgusting and rude, and if you do it again, I am going to call the Flight Attendant and have you removed from this plane!”

    He says, “I am so sorry that I have offended you. I have this very rare, embarrassing physical handicap that causes me to orgasm every time I sneeze.”

    The woman, disarmed by the man’s honesty, and somewhat embarrassed by her own callousness, says, with sympathy, “Oh you poor man, what are you taking for it?”

    “Pepper,” he answers.

      1. 332844+ up ticks,
        Morning VOM,
        The way things are shaping getting prepared for future eid
        celebrations is my way of thinking.

    2. I’m not bothered about stuff like that. The old Peellian ‘the police are of the people and the people are the police applies.

      I do mind when they smash in a door to arrest someone who disagreed with the state.

        1. Vote for Sad Dick Khant as Liebore Party Leader

          Well he can do no worstererer than the previous Mayor, who went into mainstream politics

          1. as a Londoner OLT, I’ve never voted for any London Mayor, it’s a virtue signalling position that’s not needed. Genghis would have been better following his Dad’s career as a bus driver

    2. Didn’t a U.S. president once argue that there is no danger in getting shot?

  32. Good morning all

    Here is a repeat of a comment I made about 2 weeks ago , and the blooming DT didn’t consider it worthy enough to print.

    “Since when has the emphasis on hugging/ needing a hug been a British thing, we were always regarded as a reserved bunch, rather upright and guarded with our emotions.

    Did membership of the EU change our national character?”

    3. I never hug ( only family) I shake hands firmly. Hugging and kissing is for other countries not England. Stiff upper lip and all that.

      2. Funnily enough some Frenchmen are just as averse to hugging as the British are.

        1. Its all that kissing, 3 if you from Paris but only 2 if you are from the country.and they eat garlick in vast quantities to make the snails tast nice.

      3. I forget the story but ‘Two Englishmen sit down to dinner and starve to death after not being introduced.’

    5. I think hugging is shorthand for all normal human social intercourse.
      You know, shaking hands, standing closer than 6 feet, not wearing a mask, treating your fellow human beings as people rather than plague bacilli.

      1. Moh and I were walking the dogs on some lovely heathland the other day , lots of gorse bushes , in flower , and a few silver birches , nice views , get the picture ?

        The spaniels were sniffing around for rabbits , and spotted a couple of our vintage enjoying a picnic , sheltered from the strong breeze , sitting on rugs , picnic basket etc.

        Moh and I called the dogs in to put them on their leads , we had a lead each , dogs were really good , but quite near the couple , who were waving their hands around and the wife was shrieking… as we approached to get the dogs back on their leads less than 6foot away from the shriekers .. She was yelling ” you are too close , you are too close , social distancing please ”

        Moh was laughing , and I said ,” but we are all here in the fresh air , and we have been jabbed , please don’t panic ”

        The woman was sitting on the rug, but I am sure if that rug had the ability to fly , it would have taken off . She backed away from us , cringing in terror , shouting at us about our dangerous behaviour .

        We were not within in handshaking distance , we were further away than that . My Moh said ,” but how do you manage to shop , and do you everyday things ”

        They were full of terror and nervous anxiety .
        We just walked on wondering who was right and who was wrong.

        1. My wife an I were walking in the countryside around Lepe a month or so ago and, in a field in the back of beyond, we encountered a couple (same age as us) both wearing masks. They amost leapt over the hedge when they realised we were on a collision course (i.e. we would pass about 20′ from them).

          You’ve got to feel sorry for some people. Only slightly though …

        2. My wife an I were walking in the countryside around Lepe a month or so ago and, in a field in the back of beyond, we encountered a couple (same age as us) both wearing masks. They amost leapt over the hedge when they realised we were on a collision course (i.e. we would pass about 20′ from them).

          You’ve got to feel sorry for some people. Only slightly though …

        3. My wife an I were walking in the countryside around Lepe a month or so ago and, in a field in the back of beyond, we encountered a couple (same age as us) both wearing masks. They amost leapt over the hedge when they realised we were on a collision course (i.e. we would pass about 20′ from them).

          You’ve got to feel sorry for some people. Only slightly though …

        4. I would have kept my distance. Couldn’t possibly go close enough to put on the dogs’ leads. Respecting people’s personal space and all that.
          The Not So Happy Picnickers would have had a more immediate problem than a virus to worry about.
          Chomp. Slurp. “Yum ….. pork pie. Ta muchly. Just leave off the mustard next time.” Burp. Fart ….

          1. That reminds me of a time I took my late pooch with me to an open air fund-raiser where we had a stall. He lay down with his head under the table, hidden by the table cloth. After a while, I realised he was suspiciously quiet and on investigation discovered that’d he’d eaten my companion’s corned beef sandwiches!

          2. You are such good fun Anne,

            That thought occurred to me but Moh was hissing at me, ” leads, get them on their leads now “….. Me saying ” no, you do it “, He said .. “Maggie I said leads now, the dogs listen to you!!!”

    6. I am delighted that over the last year I have not had to kiss, on both cheeks, people that I barely know.

  34. 332844+ up ticks,
    breitbart,

    TURKEY’S PRESIDENT ERDOGAN CLAIMS EUROPE AN ‘OPEN-AIR PRISON’ FOR MUSLIMS

    Via our turkish delight the UK is the same for the indigenous until such times as the voting pattern dictates,
    the islamic ideology followers takeover is complete, then things WILL get worse.

    1. No… you can’t leave a prison. There is absolutely nothing stopping Muslims leaving Europe. Other elements, such as the state provides housing, food and money to spend. The only difference is prisoners usually have a job or training. Far too many Muslims do not work.

    2. TURKEY’S PRESIDENT ERDOGAN CLAIMS EUROPE AN ‘OPEN-AIR PRISON’ FOR MUSLIMS

      We should free them all immediately!

      1. Cameron advocated that, look how it turned out for him.
        With that in mind, go for it Boris.

      1. For those who cannot stay zipped up , I think there could be problems ahead !

        If you are sexually active with someone outside of your household, consider these precautions to reduce your risk of getting the COVID-19 virus:

        Minimize the number of sexual partners you have.
        Avoid sex partners who have symptoms of COVID-19.
        Avoid kissing.
        Avoid sexual behaviors that have a risk of fecal-oral transmission or that involve semen or urine.
        Use condoms and dental dams during oral and anal sex.
        Wear a mask during sexual activity.
        Wash your hands and shower before and after sexual activity.
        Wash sex toys before and after using them.
        Use soap or alcohol wipes to clean the area where you have sexual activity.

        https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/expert-answers/sex-and-coronavirus/faq-20486572

          2. 🙂 I like a language to develop and given that English is the lingua franca of the world, it will evolve into various forms; but I have to admit that is one pretentious, pseudo medical term that gets right up my nose.

          5. Hmmm. Would “activity” do? Or does that only apply to younger people? (Oh, dear, I’m collapsing with laughter.)

        2. Good morning, Margaret.

          May we include, along with those who cannot stayed ‘zipped up’, those with loose knicker elastic?

        3. Wear a mask during sexual activity. Like, get two in case of being a double-bagger?
          Wash your hands and shower before and after sexual activity. Sex in the shower can be fun, too.
          Wash sex toys before and after using them. Why does this even need mentioned? Some people are just disgusting…
          Use soap or alcohol wipes to clean the area where you have sexual activity. Are we talking the specific orifice(s), or like, the kitchen worktop, the bed, or…?

          1. Well I guess the Muzzies will bang away with their plentiful wives and extra entertainment procurred from the school gates .

            Which is probably how it is spreading!

    3. The DT calls the Jew baiter’s filthy shouts and unveiled threats “anti semitic slurs”. What has become of us that these vicious faecal men can ride our streets without immediate retribution?

    4. 332844+ up ticks,
      Morning LD,
      This is not new this has been the modus operandi of the toxic political trio for decades fully supported & voted on.
      No one can blame the politico’s really they are NOT going to jeopardise 80K
      plus exs & fiddles a year upsetting an electorate whos voting pattern is telling the politician he is doing the right thing,
      again & again.

    5. Or – in plain English – “Let’s go over to live in that safer country – then disrupt the lives of those people”.

  38. Over the lock up period I’ve seen my doctor – often faster than before.

    However what I’ve not seen is a discussion of why GPs are/have been struggling. No one is talking about the elephant in the room: a massive population. Prior to 1997 we had some problems, but nowhere near as bad as we do now. Crime, rape, drugs, housing, overcrowding, failing services, building practically everywhere .

    Our population, which was falling – quite rightly to accommodate the changing economy to the inversion thanks to Labour’s massive, destructive, uncontrolled, deliberately swamping of our society with the third world we went from about 50 million people to now over 75 million, in 8 years. Those people are now breeding like they’re still in the third world – which, considering the squalor they create you’d imagine they are – and having 5 or 6 children all on the state, to cost ever more in benefits.

    1. 332844+ up ticks.
      W,
      Beware, there are lab/lib/con
      supporter / voters watching / listening.

      By the by more potential
      soldier / patients daily in transit via DOVER, ongoing.

    2. It would appear that a great number of them have become employed in the acting profession, judging by the number of them appearing in advertisements these days.

      I wonder what Equity has to say about racial discrimination in the choice of actors employed for TV advertising?

      (or am I being unduly sensitive to this???)

      1. Tv advert has to have mixed race parents with multiple dark skinned offspring – who will inevitably go on to produce many more of the same colour. Even a trailer for a forthcoming film/prog has Anne Boleyn as dark. . . .so if anyone of any colour can play anyone of any cokour, lets have films showing where white slaves have to work and see their taxes handed over so unworking black immigrants can do nothing, but get a rice in living standards for doing exactly that – – or is that what is happening right now?

        1. I want to see an albino play Martin Luther King or has he become a non-person too these days (Do not judge a man by the colour of his skin…)?

  40. Rape victims in England and Wales to give video evidence to boost convictions. 17 may 2021.

    Rape victims in England and Wales will be able to provide their evidence on video prior to a trial to help improve conviction rates, it is understood.

    The plans form part of a review, led by the justice secretary, Robert Buckland, and the home secretary, Priti Patel, aiming to reduce stress on survivors.

    The government review to be unveiled next month is considering a plan for rape survivors to pre-record their evidence, including cross-examination, to spare them the trauma of appearing in person in court.

    The plans will also call on judges to bar the public from the courtroom more often and ensure police return mobile phones to victims within 24 hours.

    Since this is obviously based on the premise that the accusation is true why bother having a trial at all?

    What we see here is an example of the power of Pressure Groups whose well-being is much more important to Government than the mass of the population. In this particular case it is a feminist cause and none of it true. That men, (it’s always men) are “getting away” with rape in courts, is not simply wrong but unknowable. It would require you to not only believe that all accusations are true but sift through all those cases where a Not Guilty verdict has been delivered and decide that the Jury (made up of Men and Women) was wrong and you were right. How? Telepathy? Precognition? Hypnosis? It simply cannot be done! What is being created here is by any definition a Kangaroo Court. It will result in nothing more than the conviction of the innocent!

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/17/victims-in-england-and-wales-to-give-video-evidence-to-boost-convictions

    1. Knowing the cruel result of such accusations on a child is enough to reject anything that presumes guilt before trial. Coupled with the gross incompetence of the police I fear for many young men at the mercy of the vindictive female.

      1. A vaginal swab from the alleged rape victim and DNA analysis of any semen, plus obvious indications of bruising or tearing to shew that it wasn’t consensual. That should be enough – lying on video is too easy.

    2. As I recall being told in Czechoslovakia – “You would be in the dock if you hadn’t done what the policeman said.”

  41. 332844+ up ticks,
    Dt,
    Politics latest news: Vaccine refusers are the ‘principal threat’ to final unlocking on June 21

    Classic deflection,set the peoples against the peoples,
    then open up another Dover front, we have shown our hand even our most gullible supporters / voters are beginning to question….

  42. Just done some sums. With difficulty!

    North Norfolk District – Covid death in 52 weeks to 5 April 2021 = 239 = 4.5 per WEEK.

    NND – deaths from all causes for year 2020 = 1414 = 27 a week.

    So (© telly tart) – doesn’t seem like a massive wave of bodies piled in the streets., Indeed, on another (difficult to read, let alone find) table, the average death rate in 2021 to date in LESS than the whole of 2020.

    I’ll go and lie down. I suspect that most of the deaths were old people who had other conditions often leading to death.

    1. The government don’t want people to know that Bill, don’t answer the front door if you hear loud knocking, for the rest of the week.

    2. Statistically significant reduction seen in road deaths, owing to travel restrictions. There was a 14% drop in the annual death rate to June 2020 as a result of three months of restrictions, so the effect of a whole year of restrictions would be much greater.

    3. There are people who seem to think that we’re all going to live to a very ripe old age and suffer nothing that could possibly kill us unless we get Covid or ‘flu and that even then the main cause of death is Covid if there was a positive test after we were admitted for an other illness; even if we tested negative on arrival..

      1. Hospitals are awful places for catching diseases.

        You and I both know that death can come suddenly or slowly to the young.

        2. It’s a funny thing, I don’t know many who have had it and of friends who know non-mutual acquaintances who have had it, the great majority caught it in hospital, one old dear that I do know caught it twice on separate hospital stays having been given the all-clear in between.

          If it really is as deadly and transmissible as claimed why didn’t all NHS front line staff get it and need hospitalisation?

          1. It isn’t as transmissible as they try to make out. JAMA paper shows 18% secondary attack rate *within households *. Exactly the same percentage as the data from the Diamond Princess.

            They’re lying.

          3. As I keep finding out, logic and facts cannot overcome government-induced hysteria. I think there will be a lot more of it in coming weeks, sadly.

    3. He really is as thick as mince, isn’t he? And he’s compounded it by yapping on about “wealthy privilege”! What a dimbo!

      1. At least the Yanks are now getting his measure.
        To criticise the US constitution – particularly the first amendment – and admit he doesn’t know what he’s talking about!!!
        I bet the atmosphere Chez Woke Windsor is a smidge frosty.

        1. You never had my MiL’s grey mince! She thought onions were exotic, so mince and water it was! She once caught me putting in a tin of tomatoes and nearly had a hairy!

          4. Thank you Mr.Elf! Have just googled Flint and I’m better informed!

          6. Oh yes…an absolute charmer! Her first question when I met her was “D’yer dye yer hair?” Bear in mind I was 22! I thought her husband was the lodger!

          7. I had one of those, second time round. She made it clear from day 1 that she did not like me…and never changed.

          8. Yep! Just the same! I tried for years to be kind and pleasant with her but she seemed to dislike the girls as well as me. The day she called me an “effing twisted cee” was the day I stopped being so nice!

          10. I must admit to being a bit taken aback…! My old man blamed the drugs she was on!

          11. Boiled mince? Ugh, with that layer of grease on the surface? Double ugh.

          12. First, lightly fry it, Paul, to get rid of that grease. Make sure that with onions and whatever else you add, that the gravy is really thick.

      3. Never understood that expression. Whoever came up with that never had school dinners.

      1. William doesn’t have much going for him either .

        He has a gurning face , contorts it just like his father , and always looks so strained and anxious.
        He appears to be rather feeble , tall , rather simialr to a waxy model for Madam Tussauds .

    5. I don’t like the guy, but I think I understand the point he was trying (and failing) to make clearly. I believe he was talking about the invasion of privacy by paparazzi, something that we had a big dose of leading up to Diana’s death, which understandably he would be rather sensitive about. The press use the First Amendment as a shield against any attempt to curb their activities.

      At least, that is the drift I get from reading his comments rather than just the headlines and tweets. I think he has a point.

      1. If he didn’t keep on and on and on about “invasion of privacy” – having announced many, many times – in the loudest possible voice and on as many TV channels as he can manage – that he and his peculiar wife want anonymity and privacy – he’d find that the peace and quiet he craves (!!) would be there. Because no one would bother with the feckless pair.

        1. Totally agree. If he really wanted privacy he wouldn’t be going round TV studios seeking publicity! He surely must be bitterly regretting his leap of faith to the USA. People are right,y upset with his remarks about the First Amendment. First he says he doesn’t understand it then he says it’s bonkers. What a silly billy he is. Where’re is his sensitivity to Americans?

        3. Yes, I thought that too. For someone who claims not to want to be a focus of media attention, he seems to be doing everything in his power to achieve the opposite. Perhaps as sos says, that’s part of the plan so he can claim to be a permanent injured party.

      2. He shamelessly using the Diana “look at me” play book.
        He appears to have the sensitivity of an angry Hippo.

    1. Will that be the same BBC that refused to play Cliff Richard, coz he’s old or banned numerous records over the years because they used rude words?

      1. 332844+ up ticks,
        S,
        More so I believe because he is straight, and not of the saville persuasion.

  49. Lucky or wot….

    Woman believed to be dead wakes up minutes before her cremation.
    A WOMAN who relatives thought had died from Covid suddenly woke up minutes before her cremation.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1437143/woman-believed-dead-wakes-up-before-cremation-india-news

    Shakuntala Gaikwad, 76, suddenly came to life in tears after being placed in a coffin while her family prepared her funeral pyre. The elderly woman had tested positive for Covid and was self-isolating at her home in Mudhale village in the state of Maharashtra, India.

          1. Happy Monday Sean & the two .44 magnum bullets found in his chest also baffled the coroner since gunpowder & firearms had not yet been invented!

    3. Boros still claimed her death on the COVID list here, as grandmother of 72 Leicester residents

      1. with temporary lifting of funeral restrictions, now the whole of Leicestershire can pay their “due homage” for their slice of the cut

    2. Takes me back to my childhood. Standing for hours in food queues with my mother. North End Road, SW6 c.1947.

    1. Perhaps he had a graft supplied by Dai 18 months – so called ‘cos he only had a year and a half (Welsh pronunciation of ear and a half)

      2. But let’s make it VERY clear that our sympathy doesn’t extend to having him back.

    4. Hiya

      I just received an e-mail that gets sent to my USA-based business e-mail account, regarding the contested election results. Do you have any comment on this – is it something that is being openly discussed over there, or is it being suppressed by the media as the writer claims elsewhere in the mail?

      >>>
      I’ve been an election attorney for decades. I was part of the team that filed an election contest in Georgia, alleging that there are more illegal votes included in the certified vote totals, than the margin of victory between President Trump and Joe Biden. But we never had a judge appointed, and we never had our day in court.

      That situation was true in every state: in all the lawsuits filed after the 2020 general election in multiple states, there was not a single evidentiary hearing. Not one. There was never the opportunity in any of the states to present the actual evidence of fraud or illegal votes.

    1. Aw, that’s the old joke about the nun asking two young girls what they wanted to be when they grew up. One said, “A prostitute, Sister”. The nun faints and when she’s brought round, asks the girl again and receiving the same answer says, “Thank God. I thought you said a protestant”!

        1. Billions of blue blistering barnacles in ten thousand thundering typhoons…

        2. We had a rumble of thunder and then a downpour – but it passed over quite quickly. A bit grey out there now, after a sunny morning.

  54. 332844+ up ticks,
    Tell me, who puts into power the peoples that orchestrate
    this type of reward, whilst the child victims award, mental scarring ongoing into adulthood, is being handled by a department unfit to operate.

    The current major odious plague is being spread via the lab/lib/con coalition governance & employees.

    breitbart,

    Rochdale Child Rapists Granted Over £2 Million in Taxpayer-Funded Legal Aid

    Lest we forget next time we vote, taxpayer funded can mean the rapist victims parents, keep that in mind when you next kiss X a lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration candidate in the polling booth.

  55. ‘Soon he will not be wanted on either side of the pond’: Prince Harry sparks furious backlash in the US after calling the First Amendment ‘bonkers’ despite admitting he doesn’t ‘understand it’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9585197/Prince-Harry-calls-Amendment-bonkers.html

    “Americans said he ought to ‘show some respect’ for the country that has welcomed him.”

    What a quaint idea.

    The British do not expect Muslim immigrants to show either respect or gratitude for being housed fed and given social security handouts when they are welcomed to Britain.

    Mind you the British did get a wee bit pissed off when Harry’s wife got him to trash his father and grandparents and lied about how she has been treated in Britain. I that know Harry is as thick as porcine excrement but even he must soon realise that he will not be very welcome back to Britain with or without his wife.

    1. 1st amendment, for info, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution:
      The civil rights of none shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext, infringed. The people shall not be deprived or abridged of their right to speak, to write, or to publish their sentiments; and the freedom of the press, as one of the great bulwarks of liberty, shall be inviolable. The people shall not be restrained from peaceably assembling and consulting for their common good; nor from applying to the Legislature by petitions, or remonstrances, for redress of their grievances.[6]

      1. Yo Ol

        That could be the guidelines for the way the BBC operates.

        Even Marr thinks they are too even-handed

        1. Marr wouldn’t recognise impartiality if it jumped up and bit him on the nose!

    2. I tried reading the ghastly article and came to the conclusion he’s happy about the First Amendment enabling him and his missus to blackguard and lie about other folks but is extremely unhappy that it enables other folk to say they are lying.

      1. I very much doubt that Woke Wun is capable of dissecting any piece of writing.
        I assume the American Constitution doesn’t come in cartoon form.

          2. BTMs Black tomatoes murder.

            It’s one of Billelzeebubs deadly nightshade, cunningly disguised as tomato, plants.

    2. How does it work, Angie? A pump attached to a water butt, then water pushed under pressure to all the plants?

      1. Correct.

        1. Water comes off the greenhouse roof into a water butt.
        2, the water butt feeds a settling tank inside the greehouse
        3. a 12 volt pump transfers water at 1 bar from the internal tank through a pond filter to the distrubution rail on the greenhouse wall
        4. the pump is powered under timer control from an old vehicle battery
        5. the old vehicle battery is fed from a regulated 100 watt solar panel mounted inside the greenhouse

          3. I can’t rely on the children now to do the watering when we are away for a few days.
            They have their own families.

  58. We have all seen the endlessly repeated UK wide adverts for the NHS, adverts telling us what to do, adverts demanding that we follow the rules and keep other people safe. To these the Scottish government has now added a website which may be consulted by those who are anxious or worried about “going back to normal”, leaving the house, meeting other people and so forth.

    https://clearyourhead.scot

    1. Good grief Horace! What a pathetic and craven bunch of wusses this bent assembly has created!

      1. They are also very bad people. See my newest post concerning the Hate Crime Bill, above, or below.

    2. It’s natural not to feel yourself

      So after lockdown can you now take off your pants whilst wearing a kilt?

  59. Vaccine refusers are the “principal threat” to the final lifting of lockdown restrictions on June 21, ministers have warned.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/17/boris-johnson-news-brexit-holidays-lockdown-covid-vaccine-variant/

    Am I alone in detecting a rather menacing threat behind these words?

    Find a vaccine refuser and make him or her a scapegoat and don’t blame us for keeping the lockdowns going. Use whatever blackmail you can think of to force him or her into having the vaccine until we can think of another excuse for keeping you under the thumb indefinitely.

    1. Of course they are. The re disobeying the state. Disobeying authority.

      Perhaps those not wanting to be vaccinated are the real threat – by choosing – to not blindly obey state authority.

    2. Use a carrot but not the stick.
      A free collectable dog tag to wear with DNR written on it – that would also save the NHS!

      1. one US state was offering marijuana as a bonus to people getting vaccinated.

    4. Hello everyone. This is my first visit. I want to know how people outside of America view their own circumstances and world events. I respect different perspectives and I am interested in the thought processes that go into developing opinions and drawing conclusions.
      Regarding the issue of these particular vaccines, if you’re vaccinated you should have no worry of catching the disease you’re vaccinated against, right? What does it matter if there are people who feel they don’t need a vaccine because they aren’t in a high risk category or they simply don’t want to consent to participation in a clinical trial for an EUA vaccine with no long term safety record and no liability to the manufacturers? Isn’t informed consent part of acceptance of any medical intervention?

      1. Wotcha Lorraine,welcome
        There you go with logic again,it’s a hate crime these days

          1. “Disciple of Christ” sounds worrying – you will know that slammers such as me feel threatened….

          4. Excuse my mentioning it but I thought it was de rigueur for those entering the legal profession as they often have to play Devil’s advocate & defend the most evil of people .

        2. Thank you Rik.
          I’m walking a fine line of trying to gather and present information without offending. It’s quite a task.

          1. You won’t have a problem on this site. We already knew our politicians were lying to us. Cameron. May. Johnson.

          2. It’s painful for all of us when they lie to our faces.
            To me it’s always better to know the awful truth than to blithely be led down the garden path thinking these people have our best interest at heart.
            To live with honor and integrity is the highest calling.

          3. If you like podcasts, James Delingpole (British journalist) has some interesting guests. The conversations verge on the barking mad sometimes, but always interesting and thought-provoking. The one with Mike Yeadon was widely listened to.
            h t t p s : / / d e l i n g p o l e . p o d b e a n . c o m /

          4. Thank you! I do read Delingpole and I like his no nonsense straight talking approach to investigative reporting. I read what Dr Mike Yeadon said about the terrifying aspects of side effects both short and long term of the “vaccines” that are in reality gene therapy. It is not only a loud wake up call to all potential and actual experimental vaccine trial participants but I believe it actually puts his own life in jeopardy speaking out so honestly.

          5. I am not an early adopter of any new technologies (except what I need for my work), and I don’t see why I should be an early adopter of an experimental vaxx! I’ll think about having it when the results have come in, say in about five years’ time.

          6. mng and karibu [kiswahili for welcome]. Those on here are swtiched on and well informed, so no offence would be taken here. Outside the usual, sporadic banter, there’s good information and exchanges of views here. Given time zone differences, the online crowd here changes throughout the day. Enjoy

      2. Hello my dear Lorraine, welcome NTTL – Not The Telegraph Letters. We are a bunch of former posters on the UK Daily Telegraph website from approximately 2011 to 2016 when the DT ceased using Disqus for comments. After that the blog Owner Geoff Graham set up a Disqus channel called Not The Telegraph Letters ( as the majority of us on here posted principally on the DT’s Letters section ) & then when Disqus closed down the 4000+ Channels on Sept.1st 2019 , Geoff set up this Blog which uses WordPress for its pages & Disqus for its readers comments.

      3. “…if you’re vaccinated you should have no worry of catching the disease you’re vaccinated against, right?”
        Not so, I’m afraid. The virus you are vaccinated against can still be caught but with a much lower probability, and if you catch it, likely less troublesome. Other, related mutations may or may not be caught.
        And taht’s why there’s a new influenza vaccine every year.

        1. But Professor Witless has told us the covid completely eradicated seasonal ‘flu – so those silly “‘flu jabs” will be a thing of the past….

          1. Not heard that from anybody in Israel & we were still getting our free annual flu jabs from Sept. 2020 to Feb.2021, I had mine in Dec.2021 in fact before I had my 2 Pfizer vaccinations

          4. Whatever you can get your hands on….

            My quote from Witless is true. According to him and his statisticians, no one has died of seasonal ‘flu since the covid plague began.
            That is why we treat the 125,000 “covid dead” figure with, er, scepticism….

          7. I just looked it up : Influenza and Pneumonia
            Country 2018 2019
            Total mortality 29,516 26,398
            England 27,142 24,400
            Wales 2,309 1,942
            England and Wales 29,451 26,342

          8. There are good and bad years. My own view is that about 80,000 were taken off BY covid (rather than “with”) – roughly equal to the 1968 Hong Hong ‘flu – when the country carried on completely normally.

            I MUST go – the MR is tapping her foot…

          13. The Prophet Mohammed ( Piss Be Upon Him ) will not greet them at the gates of the Islamic Paradise & take them to their personally assigned 72 Virgin goats if they were not wearing clean & ironed suicide vests !

      5. Once upon a time in a UK far far away it was thus. Less so now.

        It appears one can still get the disease even having been vaccinated, the theory is that you won’t get the very severe symptoms, but so far there is little in the way of evidence.

        Given the get out clauses given to the manufacturers by governments I doubt anyone can truly say have been fully informed before they give their consent.

        Welcome to Nottle, have fun

      6. Good afternoon, Lorraine and welcome.
        Speaking personally, my fellow Britons have proved to be a great disappointment; with a few questioning exceptions, they have proved to be compliant sheep who would have felt at home in the old German Democratic Republic.
        As far as vaccines are concerned, logic appears to have totally flown out of the window.
        As an example, when some years ago our family visited African countries we were vaccinated against Yellow Fever; I doubt many of the natives had been vaccinated, but we knew that our inoculation would protect us. That is a detail that seems to have escaped both our politicians and the general British population.

      7. I believe those below 40 or 50 who have no underlying conditions probably shouldn’t be vaxxed unless it worries them not to be. Statistically, at some point, it will be safer not to have it and not incur any immediate ADRs or those ADRs that will happen as time passes.

        1. Ooo, Thank you kind sir!
          Now that was tasty…
          A play on your name and a musical connection to mine 😉

    6. Divide and Rule; always make sure there is an enemy to unite the population against the other/the outsider/John Savage etc……
      Oceania v. Eurasia v. Eastasia ….. ad infinitem.

  60. Do we have to have special checks on food products such as meat and dairy being taken to the Isle of Wight or the Isle of Man or to any offlying Scottish islands?

    The fact that the British government weakly is proposing to have these checks when such goods are sent to Northern Ireland shows that Johnson’government has surrendered British sovereignty. It is a total disgrace.

    Will people ever wake up to the fact that we have shamefully capitulated to the EU?

    UK proposes customs checks for food heading to Northern Ireland to ease Brexit tensions
    James Crisp, the Telegraph’s Europe Editor, has the latest on the Northern Ireland Protocol:

    Britain has told Brussels it is prepared to introduce new customs checks on UK food products crossing the Irish Sea to Northern Ireland in four stages from October.

    The UK has given a roadmap, which has now been seen by the BBC, to the commission as a starting point for negotiations over resolving the impasse.

    It covers more than 20 separate issues including medicines, access to databases and pet travel, the BBC reported.

    The roadmap, which has been a closely guarded secret, says that the UK will begin official certification in four phases. This will begin in October for fresh meat products.

    Phase two will cover dairy products, plant and wine and begin at the end of January.

    Phases three and four cover fruit and vegetables marketing, pet food, organics and composite products but there are no dates for those steps because more information on staffing and integrating UK and EU certification systems is needed.

    1. Surely to God, if the EU demands such checks they should be carried out by Eire on their borders with NI not on inter UK borders.

      1. Boris never misses a chance to give in to the EU does he? It is what Nut Nuts tells him he must do or she will ‘remove benefits’.

      2. All Irish political parties are off-shoots of Sinn Fein & the Guarda & Irish Defence Forces are under the command of the IRA linked politicians in Dublin so who exactly can be relied upon along the Eire side of the border is questionable .

      1. Give them a sextant, a nautical almanac and sight reduction tables and they will end up in the Tasman Sea.

        1. During COVID they should use dead reckoning.
          You can be buried at sea for £175 but the MMO insists on wooden coffins that don’t float.

        2. During COVID they should use dead reckoning.
          You can be buried at sea for £175 but the MMO insists on wooden coffins that don’t float.

      1. Why was it so irrelevant to the Betraying Bonker that he had promised
        NO BORDER IN THE IRISH SEA?
        His promises to the electorate mean even less to him than the vows he made to his wives and the promises he made to his mistresses. The truth is he doesn’t give a toss and the tragedy is that he seems to be getting away with it.

  61. It was a dirty job but someone has to do it…………
    Bus into town to lunch at ‘Spoons,signed in as Eric Blair Phone No 0198 419 840
    “Would you like a mask sir??”
    “No thanks I’m exempt”
    Grabbed table on table service side and walked to bar to check out guest ales
    Jobsworth “would you mind wearing a mask while walking around sir”
    A barked “Exempt!!” sends him scuttling for cover
    Never had “Old Peculiar” on draft so that was sorted two pints with the meal was just right,sadly as I was about to leave the heavens opened and it felt rude to sit there drinkless while waiting for the shower to pass so a third was consumed
    I’m off for a nap,I may be some time……………

  62. Great excitement – the MR and I are GOING OUT for afternoon tea – at some chums.

    Our first eating out since 20 March 2020. I am already feeling quite faint…

    I’ll look in on our return.

      1. Due to grip and essential tremor I have a metal mug with a plastic insert. It holds a good half litre of coffee. If I drop it it bounces. If I bang it against the sink the sink is more likely to come off worse.

    3. Book your hospital bed and oxygen on the way, the cases are going to soar to previously unseen levels and lockdown will resume.

        1. This argument has been going on for so long i just make cream tea smoothies now.

          2. Intact because we have rarely used it , those occassions for using it have come and gone , it is packed away with many other things we don’t use anymore . https://www.google.com/search?q=royal+doulton+reflection+tea+set&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjjsMWmu9HwAhUM_BoKHYIbDjUQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=royal+doulton+reflection+tea+set&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQDDIECAAQGDoECAAQQzoCCAA6BggAEAcQHjoICAAQCBAHEB5Qr7gHWNHiB2CJgQhoAHAAeACAAVuIAYAGkgECMTGYAQCgAQGqAQtnd3Mtd2l6LWltZ8ABAQ&sclient=img&ei=rcWiYKOmGYz4a4K3uKgD&bih=521&biw=1280&rlz=1C1CHBF_enGB775GB775#imgrc=YV-Sdr6YBIFIMM

    7. I went and visited an old chum (who has Parkinson’s) for the first time since lockdown. It was wonderful to sit out and have a drink in the sunshine.

    1. It is indeed scary stuff. Of course, nothing and no one shall stop it because the unjustice minister in one of the untouchables and will cry “waycism” if they do!

  64. And so it shall pass.

    What we have with this new religion is three main pillars. One is that black people are so special and precious, we must organize society to please them. Another pillar is that the condition of black people is not their fault, but the fault of white people and their white supremacy culture. The final pillar is that whites can only gain salvation by committing themselves to elimination of whiteness to the satisfaction of black people.

    The rest of the article is thought provoking if somewhat sobering for us males of the great white stain.
    https://www.takimag.com/article/new-religion/

    1. In The Fate of Empires, Sir John Glubb wrote, “As the nation declines in power and wealth, a universal pessimism gradually pervades the people, and itself hastens the decline.” The great empire collapses in cynicism, pessimism, frivolity, and the lowering of moral standards. This new religion, the worship of black people, may be the sign we have reached the final stage. It comes crashing down in an orgy of crime, foot washing, and self-flagellation by a people no longer fit to rule.

      That’s where we are!

      2. My very clever neighbour , who doesn’t live too far away echoed exactlythe same thoughts , and I had no idea that she had similar anxieties to ours , yet was rather scared of voicing her and her husbands views .

        1. Afternoon Belle. Yes it’s obvious that European Christian Civilisation, of which we are a part, is on its last legs. All we are waiting for is some crisis that pushes it over so the Caliphate can rise on the ruins!

  65. Why is it that just as we unlock there is – yet again – a new reason to be cautious?
    The vaccines seem to work against the Indian variant, so why the hysteria?
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/17/just-unlock-yet-new-reason-cautious/

    A BTL comment:

    What an inconsistent fellow Boris Johnson is:

    He has us by the short and curlies over our personal freedom and Covid – and he’s loving it.

    He had the EU by the testicles over getting complete freedom from the EU and then let go and capitulated just when he should have squeezed.

  66. Flushed with success?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/whitehall-blows-57k-on-gender-neutral-toilets

    Whitehall blows £57k on gender-neutral toilets | The Spectator

    Mr S was intrigued to read in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph that public buildings will have to have separate ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ lavatories in the future. The move – which has already infuriated campaigners who want more gender-neutral facilities – will see building regulations and planning guidance amended to ensure separate ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ facilities are installed in new buildings or those being developed.

    Communities secretary Robert Jenrick is reported to be behind the changes which could see unisex lavatories, shared by men women, seeing the installation of partitions to ensure the privacy of occupants. A source close to Jenrick told the newspaper:

    “It’s a necessity for women to have access to their own provision of toilets, but too often separate sex toilets are being removed by stealth – causing great distress. We’ve listened to the concerns raised by women and the elderly about their security, dignity and safety and are going to maintain and improve safeguards by updating regulations in order to ensure that there is always the necessary provision of separate toilets for everyone in the community.

    Of course Jenrick’s own colleagues at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government would know all about this, having been the Whitehall department responsible for creating the most gender-neutral toilets between 2013 and 2019 with 30.

    A report by the Taxpayers’ Alliance has found that in the six years between these dates, at least £57,467 was spent by just three government departments to create such toilets. Priti Patel’s Home Office came top with a total spend of £36,963, with more than £8,000 spent on providing signage for the toilets while the cash-strapped Ministry of Defence spent £14,887 on 13 cubicles and the Department for International Development splurged £5,617 on just two toilets.

    Steerpike wonders if the mandarins at MCHLG will be practicing what they preach in future or if it will be yet more money down the drain.

    3. The weirdo bloke in a dress at my old place demanded to use the women’s loos.

      Lord knows what happened, but there were a lot of complaints.

      The thing complained he had a right to use the ladies and kicked up a massive fuss – a proper shouting match at the real women in the room.

      The polite request went ignored, and he kept using the ladies loo. All the while our lot have laid down that he is a woman, and that shall not be countenanced as speaking your own thoughts is now a sacking offence. Then through the door came a real woman who handed one of our managers a nice brown envelope and… the pretending man didn’t use the ladies toilet again.

  67. 42% of Russians do not want to be vaccinated against Covid-19 ‘under ANY circumstances,’ even to enable travel abroad, says survey
    A Russian survey has revealed that more than two-fifths (42%) of citizens do not intend to be vaccinated against Covid-19 “under any circumstances,” a result that may explain the country’s poorly performing inoculation program.
    Conducted by recruitment company Superjob’s research center, the survey also revealed that one-in-five (20%) unvaccinated Russians would get jabbed if it meant they could travel abroad. The poll came after Greece’s announcement that they would be willing to accept tourists vaccinated with Sputnik V.

    The results found that 18% of Russians yet to be inoculated plan to get the shot even without any other incentive. Some 42% said they absolutely do not want to get vaccinated, even if it is the only option for a trip to another country, and 20% found it difficult to decide.

    1. That’s it then.

      The next variant will be the Moscow Mule.
      Back to stables everyone.

      1. Strange how none of these variants never ever originate from China, a large nation of 1.4 billion people.

        Very strange.

        3. Afternoon Janet. Yes they have a large computer literate population and vast State internet presence and amazingly never hack anything!

          2. This is the Western Intelligence Meme Harry: All Russians are hackers, ergo all hackers are Russian!

      2. Any Russian over 50 has lived as an adult under Communism.
        They’re not easily persuaded.

          1. I’ve decided to have the jab in 2024…when the dust has settled.
            Hopefully by then the hoax will have been exposed.

          2. To travel I have to have it.

            With elderly family UK and children and G/C Oz and UK I don’t really have a choice, unless I want a divorce, which I most certainly do not.

          3. I’m 76 years old and i love living here in Finland.Fortunately ,over the last 12 years we were flush with money and had 2 or 3 holidays every year so we have our memories.
            As for family…they all have my address and an open invitation.

        2. It’s also why they don’t fall for Cultural Marxism! They’ve seen the real thing!

    2. I would imagine that the Russians are very cynical about the trustworthiness of authorities.

    3. “Some 42% said they absolutely do not want to get vaccinated, even if it is the only option for a trip to another country,…”

      Phew, that’s the invasion of Western Europe cancelled then.

      1. I like a nice balanced view of things, this is not one of them.
        As you well know, I consider Johnson to be a buffoon of the first order, a major disappointment among other things but this article is just a bitter rant to my mind.
        I have got to lay down now, I feel all funny after feeling sympathetic to the buffoon, even just a little bit this article brought about.

      2. Nearly wet myself reading that…

        “extracting Britain from the suffocating prosperity of the EU…”

        There won’t be any prosperity in the EU once they cease getting our billions pumped into their leaky coffers every year!

        1. Quite!
          As I noted elsewhere, the ES is an Ozzyboy rag. GO never forgave BJ.

        2. The Eurozone has shrunk every single year. Average wages have fallen. Taxes have gone up, industrial output fallen.

          The data isn’t difficult to find – even through EU lies.

          2. Nope.
            Possibly the Stinking Fir but not the Pinus (yes that’s correct) Virginiana.
            Look it up!

    4. Why on earth does Charles dress like his great grandfather instead of his father , who had wonderful style and neatness .
      Charles tailoring is terrible, just look at his baggy trousers and ghastly coat .

      Prince Phillip was so bang on with classy style … I expect he even smelt nice wheras Charles might smell of mothballs and boiled eggs!

      2. One crease at the ankle is correct. But if he was planting a tree, polished shoes and a Camel coat do show he has no dress sense.

        He really doesn’t take after his father as his son doesn’t take after him. Oh dear. I see trouble ahead…

        1. The acorn must have rolled down a very large hill or a jay might have carried it a long way.

      3. He loves that coat – he wears it all the time & has done for years & years.

          2. Calling a spade anything other than a diverse, non-binary digging implement is worse than naming any of the above.

          3. Are you suggesting a spade isn’t a spade?

            You are a very naughty girl/woman/cis/binary/trans/non binary/ kenwood multimixer.

    7. Charlie: “I look older than my father…”

      Just the clothes for gardening, by the way. I ALWAYS wear a tie when in the greenhouse…..

  70. British tourists were handed face masks, sanitiser and asked to provide full details about their stay in Portugal as they touched down in the country for the start of long-awaited sunshine breaks.

    All Brits arriving the country were also warned by officials at Faro airport of the strict rules for wearing face masks in public places, which includes keeping them on while on the beach or they could be hit with hefty £100 fines.

    Passengers arriving were asked by immigration officials to produce proof of a negative PCR test and show that they had completed a locator form, with details of where they are staying before being allowed to proceed to the baggage hall.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9587981/Brits-warned-wear-face-masks-beach-face-100-fines-land-Portugal.html?ito=social-twitter_dailymailUK

    The idiocy of having to wear a face mask wandering around the outside plants at a large garden centre , in the warmth of the sun, we stayed ten minutes or less then we were gone, couldn’t stand it!

    1. Thanks but I think I will give it a miss, not my idea of a good time.
      Anyone know what EXEMPT is in Portuguese?
      Asking for a friend…..

    2. Come here and you’ll be handed a 10 day stay in a quarantine hotel, at your cost.

    3. I hope the authorities are prepared for the Man City and Chelsea fans in 12 days time…

    4. I agree – there is no pleasure in browsing any more. I just go in, get what I’m looking for, and head for the tills before I suffocate. A whole hobby, just gone, killed by covid cultists.

      1. Print yourself an exemption certificate from the government website. Put it in a clear plastic card holder and attach to your lapel. Sorted.

  71. Evening, all. I’ve turned up early because we are finally holding a proper meeting face to face (socially distanced, of course) tonight rather than a Zoom meeting, so I shall have to disappear shortly.

      1. They are all terrified! We have decided, however, not to make mask wearing (or Covid tests, which one councillor required!) mandatory. If people want to, they can.

          1. I wonder if we’re going to get a full complement or some wusses will cry off.

          2. Yep, he was the only one wearing a mask all the time, even when seated! He is, after all, a Limp Dim.

    4. The Wail had a story about dog’s homes filling up with young dogs. Puppies had been bought without thinking that the lockdown might end but the dog would still be around. Hope you retrieve something soon…

      1. That’s the problem for me; the dogs’ homes are full of puppies, but I need an adult dog. My last two dogs have lived until they were 17 (it must be something in the water), so if I take on a puppy, chances are it would outlive me!

        1. “Oh, the pyres please, for when the sun’s gone down and it gets a bit nippy.”

    2. I’ve been a “regular” at a few pubs over the years. If truth be known too many for my liver.

      The only one where the publican knew my usual was the Spade and Beckett in Cambridge, now long gone I fear.

      No matter how crowded it was, I could walk in and ‘Bud’ Rose the landlord would wave, take “my” tankard from the shelf and be filling it as I eventually got to the bar to pay.

      Silly though it be, it made me feel a valued customer.

  73. Gosh – tea and CAKE – and conversation and no masks and no six feet apart malarkey.

    I shall go and have a drink to celebrate.

    A demain.

  79. Shetland is to have its first Gay Pride event. Both of the persons involved are very happy about this. However there are some concerns about the timing. Summer has been suggested in order to avoid a clash with Up-Helly-Aa. Oh, I don’t know, though, maybe it might not matter.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-57102360

    https://www.uphellyaa.org/galleries/157/2016squad21-w1280-h1280.jpg. (picture credit – Kevin Osborn)

    1. Pop ’em in a wicker man, that might concentrate their minds, if not their behinds.

  80. For some incomprehensible reason, SWMBO is rivetted to an American tv programme to do with people’s rotting feet – just looked up, and mistake! grisly toe amputation, with gore & pliers… argh!

  81. From https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/17/going-london-shows-anti-semitism-still-acceptable-form-racism/
    My phone started ringing just after 2.30pm yesterday, as a convoy of cars began driving around areas of north London with a large Jewish population. The cars were painted with the Palestine flag and a man with a megaphone was screaming out of one of them, “F*** the Jews, rape their daughters”. It was, of course, shocking – and as the afternoon wore on, dozens of people got in touch with me to report what they had witnessed.

    But they didn’t just call me. They called the police first, to report something that was so appalling it had stopped them in their tracks. And what did the police do in response to the calls they were being bombarded with and to a convoy of anti-Semitic hate? Nothing.

    That’s not strictly true. After an hour, they tweeted that they were aware of a car protest in Whitehall – some other vehicles had gathered there – and said that officers were “engaging with those taking part.” It is difficult to think of a more striking example of how the police have lost their way than their satisfaction in announcing that they were “engaging” with a group of race hate demonstrators rather than arresting them.

    It took three hours for the police to act, long after the convoy had been given the freedom of the city to drive – at a snail’s pace – through north London and verbally assault Jewish residents. The police sat on their hands and, presumably, watched the convoy on their camera system as it went about its business.

    And that’s the crucial point about what happened yesterday. It happened because it was allowed to happen. Yes, there were fine words of condemnation from everyone from the PM to the Labour leader. And yes, eventually, the police acted and arrested four suspects.

    But the convoy did not emerge out of nowhere. The previous day, Saturday, saw a large anti-Israel protest in central London. It received lots of coverage. But you would have struggled to find any coverage of the anti-Semitic chanting and placards that were part of the protest.

    One chant was, “Khayber Khayber Ya Yehud jaish Mohammed Sauf Ya’ud” (“Khayber Khaybar oh Jews, Mohammed’s army is returning”). An inflatable balloon Jewish caricature with horns and a hook nose was hoisted by the podium.

    Such open anti-Semitism on our streets is entirely normal. Every year on the ‘Al Quds’ (Jerusalem) Day protest, central London is festooned with anti-Semitic banners and chants.

    Organisers and those involved continually say that they are not anti-Semitic and are merely anti-Zionist, but it is a remarkable coincidence how every time there is an anti-Zionist demonstration it is accompanied by unambiguous and explicit Jew hate. And that is without even considering how ludicrous it is to claim that a demonstration in support of Hamas is not anti-Semitic, when the organisation is committed in its founding charter to the elimination of Jews – Jews, not Israel – from the planet.

    That is why yesterday’s convoy may have been shocking in its immediacy but was not remotely surprising, because it was merely part of a continuum in which these protests provide a regular expression of Jew hate.

    It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that – as David Baddiel put it in the title of his recent book – Jews don’t count. We have learned in recent years that anti-Semitism is not viewed as racism in many quarters. Which brings us, unfortunately, to Jeremy Corbyn.

    Mr Corbyn did not cause anti-Semitism, but his apparent embrace of anti-Semites by standing on the podium and speaking at Saturday’s protest has further encouraged anti-Semitism.

    It is often said that the Jews are the canary in the coal mine – that those who attack the Jews will, given the chance, step up their extremism to include other groups and behaviour. That is why everyone should be concerned. One MP friend texted me last night, saying that he feared we are becoming like France. He meant that in France such is the problem with Islamist extremism that Jews feel threatened merely walking down the street.

    There is always a spike in anti-Semitic incidents here when Israel takes military action to defend itself from terror. I fear, however, that my friend may be right. And if he is, the blame will not be just on those politicians who ally with and give succour to Jew haters. It will also be on those who talk a good game about zero tolerance for extremism, but who in reality have stood by and watched it, rather than acting.

    1. I don’t support the policies of the State of Israel.
      Does that mean i’m anti-semitic?

        2. Giving muslems the right to vote in democratic elections? None of their neighbours do anything so awful.

      3. Large numbers of Scots are apparently antisemmitic. Simply won’t wear undervests.

      4. The demonstration in London went way beyond not supporting Israeli politics (which I also do not always support). That hatred is directed against all of us – there are just more of us than there are Jews in London, so it’s not to open towards us.

      5. Which policies do you not support and, would you think that the correct response to that disagreement is to fire missiles at it from a school playground?

    2. Islam.
      If there really is a God, Islam and Muslims are God’s punishment for ceasing to believe in him.

    3. Hitler and Nazis tried to extermiante the Jews. Hamas want to destroy the Jewish people. The Left call the right Nazis, yet they’re the ones demanding a command economy, high taxes and state control. They want the police only to serve them. They don’t speak out against Hamas trying ot kill Israelis.

      Bluntly, the Left are the Nazis. Always have been. They are the terrorists. Antifa? A bunch of cowardly fascists and they know it.

      The Left are evil. Now we have our capital infested with foreigners, weirdos and welfarists and it’s no surprise that the police don’t bother immediately stopping such abuse. Their entire heirarchy support’s the Left wing, anti Semitic, fascist attitude. Not wearing a mask? Fifty plod will rock up and smack you to the ground. Why? Because that’s the citizen disobeying the state. That must be punished.

      This is why the country is stuffed.

      1. Well said, Wibbles and, as for the mask wearing, it is the perfect reason why the nasties get away with a lot, as they cannot be identified because they’re wearing a mask.

        Ditch the masks, NOW and identify the baddies.

    4. This could/should be a turning-point and the beginning of the Muslim holocaust.

      The Jews, Hindis, Buddhists and most other religious group who have settled in this country have in no way threatened us, have integrated and quietly practiced their religions without let or hindrance by/to/or from any facet of the indigenous population.

      Muslims, on the other hand have remained segregated, built their own enclaves, wherein they have over-ruled English law and introduced Sharia.

      Without sanction from their own Islamic society, they have, by silence, condoned the actions of Jihadi Terrorists and the time is now, to close all the Mosques and Madrassas and expel ALL Muslims, Islamists, whatever, before they overrun our own cultural identity – which is their self-proclaimed objective.

      I am NOT advocating slaughter, as that brings us down to their despicable level, however I am advocating mass deportation.

      Get out, you’re neither wanted nor welcome here.

      1. Well said, Tom. But I doubt if – even if “the time is now” – anything will happen.

    1. It always amazes me that when I refer to “left wing hair cuts” some people ask me what I mean!

      1. bb2 mng, they’ll never figure it out. Re the pic, If you add eyebrows made of velcro and when sick you give them directions to the Vets and they still won’t figure it

    1. Time for another Reformation. Where’s Thomas Cromwell when you need him?

      1. Without reading your link, John, my understanding of Mary Seacole was, regardless of skin colour, she provided female company and comforts for the British Army in the Crimea and mainly for the Wuperts and Wodneys. She was a black brothel-keeper.

        1. That’s a reasonable summary. The links are very interesting. She was one quarter black, considered herself British/Scottish and her diaries showed that she had a low opinion of her black servants.
          However, for a woman of the time, she should be remembered for being an entrepreneur, adventurer and businesswoman, something for which she deserves some praise.

    2. The lower is the cause of all the troubles in the world, especially Climate Change

      It Is OGG the inventor of the Wheel and I claim my 5 Pound Postal Order

  85. Oh the shame; the ignominy. The DT bots zapped my contribution.
    How will I ever recover? I will whinge about it for at least the next thirty years.

    “To Any Americans Who Read This Column.

    I really cannot apologise enough for the crass comments uttered by the chap who is now (thank goodness) 6th in line to the throne.

    What the blankety blank he was thinking – a British Royal, no less – in criticising your constitution passes all understanding.

    p.s. We may apologise for his ignorant behaviour, but we are not so sorry that we want him back. You have more land in which to ‘lose’ him.”

    1. But Harry might have a point, what good is a constitution when elections can be stolen and they just dismantle the country and nobody has the power to do anything about it.

      1. I’m not sure that constitutions are any guard against crooked politicians. France and Russia have had several.
        However, Woke Wun’s criticism was of the First Amendment, which he admitted he didn’t really understand.
        Maybe when you are a guest in a country it is not a good idea to criticise national institutions particularly when you also admit you have very little knowledge or understanding of the matter.
        Particularly when it is a matter as entwined as your ancestor’s less than sensitive handling of a colony and the constitution that was the result of perceived failings within the mother country.
        To be perfectly honest, I really don’t think Harry is capable of thinking such things through. He is merely the ventriloquist’s dummy.

        1. That particular ventriloquist would be better placed with a rubber one in her mouth.

          And so would we, if she had one there..

  86. Ho hum!

    Passengers flying into the UK today faced ‘bedlam’ at the borders with some facing a three hour wait – with some left standing next to Red List arrivals.

    Heathrow travellers have told MailOnline how they were ‘terrified of catching Covid’ while being crammed into the airport’s border hall this morning. Some even claim they were left standing next to arrivals from Covid-ravaged India while in the three hour long queues.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9588173/Passengers-terrified-catching-Covid-crammed-Heathrow-UK-border-queue.html

    1. Either travel is safe or it isn’t.
      If it isn’t. Stop it. If it is, who cares who one stands next to.

      1. It isn’t. But then… thinking people come out of a clean room is laughable, especially if they’re from India or the middle east.

    2. If they believed their own BS they would have a dedicated terminal or at lease dedicated gates for red-list countries.

    3. The problem with all UK Airports from the point of view of circulation is that passengers arriving are ‘confronted’ with passengers departing. I mention this not because of Covid bollocks but because it makes for inefficient movement and necessary separation of passengers.

      The Covid bollocks has merely highlighted other basics design flaws. Stansted is far and away the worst example, designed by a very clever idiot, an idiot lauded by the architectural establishment.

    4. UK Border control is in the hands of Wogs from the 3rd world, why do they care if White English arrivals got infected with covid-19 & died from it?

  87. I have been thinking and imagining. Just suppose that our adventurers and explores and exploiters, in short all Europeans from around say 1300 who went abroad followed one constant protocol. That protocol would be that no non-Europeans would be allowed to possess, use, examine, copy, or otherwise profit from European technology, science, or engineering in any way.
    So that further along the timeline, in 1960 perhaps, if someone from Fiji wished to visit Europe they would have to do it in an outrigger canoe. If an Indian wished to talk to someone in France he could not use a telephone but would have to go there in person, on foot or on the back of an elephant.
    It is fairly certain that had that protocol been followed then there would be no foreign immigrants in our country. Just saying.

    1. The flaw in your thinking is that this would leave us bereft of curry…. even though we would still have proper British food like doner kebab.

      1. And chicken tikka masala. Oh wait, that was invented by a Scottish Pakistani.

      2. Not us, them. If they lived in caves when Europeans arrived they went on living in caves. The Europeans built bungalows.
        There were no sewing machines or bicycles for natives.
        White men had cars, no one else.

      3. And only the Scots would have telephones, TV, rubber tyres and steam engines.

  89. Stop thinking like the EU, Lord Frost tells ‘indoctrinated’ UK officials
    Former Brexit negotiator calls for bonfire of red tape after British bureaucrats ‘internalised’ Brussels’ mindset in 47 years of membership
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/17/uk-indoctrinated-eu-thinking-says-lord-frost-calls-brussels/
    BTL Comment:

    WTO was the only answer. Boris Johnson and Michael Gove were possibly complicit in betraying Britain’s interest with their hopeless “deal” which, as Von de Leyen says, has given the EU teeth against Britain!

    Why else would they have lumbered Britain with a border in the North Sea, bodged our fishing waters and had no proper agreement on financial services?

    Is everybody convinced that Johnson and Gove – and the British bureaucrats – are really on Britain’s side?

    1. More to the point, is ANYBODY convinced that they are really on Britain’s side?

    2. 332844+ up ticks,
      Treachery has been so blatantly obvious since the 24/6/2016.

      UKIP was right all along with Batten once again pulling the party together once more, treachery via the
      lab/lib/con, the party nec and farage,
      finally left them as the horizontal champs, the ex members down once again but NOT out.

    1. Simples. They will blame the demise of the vaccinated on the unvaccinated. I suspect though that the vaccinated will infect us all.

      I had another Eureka moment today. It occurred to me that the State of Israel has vaccinated its entire population with the Pfizer mRNA jab. This might actually lead to the extermination of Jews. Part of the global plan even?

      The parallels between global lockdown and government vaccination policies with the extermination policies of the Third Reich are regrettably now inescapable.

  91. Yes, MPs are droning on about Brexit again… and it’s even more tedious than ever
    Lord Frost’s interrogation by MPs was expected to be box-office stuff… but it turned out to be a dreary damp squib
    Michael Deacon: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/05/17/yes-mps-droning-brexit-even-tedious-ever/

    Remember that when Dogberry, in Much Ado About Nothing, was told he was tedious he thought it was a great compliment and conjectured what he would do if he were ‘as tedious as a king!

  92. Charles Moore’s Tuesday diary.

    Andrew Marr can’t speak in his own voice on the BBC? Good

    If Mr Marr feels so unhappy, he should join us columnists in the Wild West world of opinion. It’s much more fun than the Beeb

    CHARLES MOORE

    Andrew Marr resents the impartiality requirements of the BBC: the “biggest single frustration by far is … not being able to speak in your own voice”, he says.

    Good. That is exactly how it should be. As an organisation funded by compulsory licence fee, the BBC must not allow its employees to “speak in their own voice” on controversial subjects. If they wish to speak out, that is perfectly understandable, but they must follow the logic of their position and leave the BBC. It is as simple as that. The fact that Mr Marr feels this frustration is a small sign that perhaps, under the new director-general, Tim Davie, the corporation is paying more than lip service to its key founding principle.

    As for Mr Marr, if he feels so unhappy, he should join us columnists in the Wild West world of opinion. It is much more fun than the Beeb and he would be a glittering addition to our number.

    The BBC still has a long way to go, however, along the road back to impartiality. Its coverage of the latest Israel-Palestinian confrontation and the anti-Israel protests in London at the weekend present a case in point. Here there is no overt opinion-mongering as, say, that of Emily Maitlis against Dominic Cummings. Instead, there is a way of framing the issue: Israel is in the dock and Palestinian violence is treated as almost incidental. The BBC’s Middle East editor, Jeremy Bowen, retweeted the headline of an article which read, “Racism, hate and violence are Jewish values too”. Bowen added: “Every Jew, and every gentile should read this.”

    During the weekend protests, a small convoy of cars carrying Palestinian flags was filmed driving through St John’s Wood in London. Their crew shouted obscene anti-Semitic abuse through a loudhailer, demanding that Jewish girls be raped.

    The BBC reported this, after it had been condemned by the Prime Minister. The reporting was calm which, even in such horrible cases, it should be. Imagine how different it would have been, though, if the men with the loudhailers had been white fascists, let alone if they had been shouting similar slogans against Muslim women. All hell would have broken loose. The BBC would have led its news with the incident, and thrown detachment to the winds. The BBC never explains what Hamas, Israel’s antagonist, believes. The Hamas Charter is explicitly anti-Semitic. It speaks of the “Nazism” of the Jews and says “the Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: 0 Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!”

    Firing rockets from Gaza, which it controls, Hamas is working as hard as it can to kill Jews, telling Muslims that killing is their religious duty. Our media should explain that the foul-mouthed anti-Semites in St John’s Wood are not weird outliers: they are doing pretty much what their leaders tell them.

    Remove degree requirements to level up the public sector

    People are a bit puzzled about what “levelling up” is. Given the desire of voters in places like Hartlepool for it to happen, urgent answers are needed.

    I think I have hit on one. Abolish the insistence on a university degree for any job in the public service, perhaps for any job at all. The professions will say they need people with well-trained minds to become doctors, barristers, investment bankers and top-grade civil servants. They do. But what makes them think they will necessarily find more such minds emerging from our bloated university system than from graduates of the “University of Life”, whom they could train themselves?

    Nowadays, policing and nursing are graduate professions, with the result that they disdain the bits the public most value and make entry from poorer areas harder. Even those wandering the richest “olive groves of academe” are not necessarily the better for it. Three years of anti-Brexit prejudice and “decolonising” curricula at Russell Group universities (plus debts of £30,000) may instil lasting bitterness and render alumni unfit for useful employment. Of course, people should go to university if they want to. But why should jobs be specially reserved for them?

    A medal for our unpaid vaccination helpers

    The Government is planning appropriate recognition for individuals who have performed heroically in the Covid crisis once the “war” is over. That is right, but there is a case for collective recognition too.

    Consider the volunteers without whom the mass vaccination centres could not operate. As well as visiting for my own jabs, I have attended three other times with family or neighbours who need assistance, and witnessed the benefits. We, the public, have been put at ease by friendly volunteers (of most ages and both sexes) who register everyone and radiate the sense that they are doing a happy thing. They give a reassuringly local feeling to the place and let the doctors concentrate on the medical work unimpeded. As one GP puts it to me: “Apart from being helpful, they’re invisible.” He means that as high praise.

    The general good effect is what matters. Thousands – round us, roughly 20 per centre per day – are prepared to turn up unpaid, often in bad weather and with some small risk of infection, helping people who may be frail, frightened or confused. To pursue the analogy with war, how about a “campaign” medal for the lot of them?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/17/andrew-marr-cant-speak-voice-bbc-good/

    1. You can’t single people out for praise. What about all the staff in support roles who had to work twice as hard to keep things running when half their dept’s staff were redeployed to these roles.
      I’m not front line but I have had ten times more work to do in my NHS job since the pandemic struck.

      What about shop staff, delivery drivers etc who kept essential supplies available?

      1. Indeed.
        That’s the problem with performance bonus, too. Who is to say that the amazing sales figures by the sales executive aren’t a result of his secretary who keeps it all organised and sorts out all the necessary briefing before the meetings? How would she be rewarded for what may well be the biggest part of the success? Or, should motormouth get it all?

  93. DT’s Tuesday editorial.

    In the UK, toxic politics have poisoned discussion of the Israel-Palestine conflict

    Whenever there are clashes in the Middle East, the UK becomes a hotbed of anti-Semitic invective or worse

    TELEGRAPH VIEW

    It goes without saying, or at least it should, that it is unacceptable to shout vile racist obscenities on the streets of the UK or anywhere else for that matter. The video of pro-Palestinian protesters driving through a Jewish area of north London bellowing anti-Semitic abuse was a shameful episode that has rightly been widely condemned. Four men have been arrested in connection with the incident.

    This grotesque event was emblematic of the toxic politics that have for years poisoned the discussion around the Israel-Palestinian dispute. Doubtless there are many Palestinian supporters who abhor anti-Semitism and favour a two-state solution to the conflict. But we also known that many on the more extreme Islamist wing wish to destroy Israel. The danger in the UK is that the political debate, especially on the Left, encourages this militancy by always casting Israel as the villain of the piece.

    The latest violent upsurge of tensions between Israel and the regime in Gaza has led many on the Left to side with the latter despite Hamas being designated a terror organisation. One-sided denunciations of Israel’s air attacks ignore the fact that Hamas has fired thousands of rockets into the Jewish state, with the death toll kept down only by the existence of the Iron Dome security umbrella.

    It is noteworthy that whenever there are clashes in the Middle East, the UK becomes a hotbed of anti-Semitic invective or worse. Many thousands gathered in London to protest specifically against Israel. Nine police officers were injured in clashes with protesters who seemed intent on attacking the Israeli embassy in Kensington. One rally was addressed by the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott.

    Criticism of the Israeli government is one thing. After all, Benjamin Netanyahu is unable to secure a parliamentary majority after a succession of elections. But the unbalanced nature of the debate on the Left in this country encourages those for whom legitimate political dialogue is anathema. Mr Corbyn has saddled Labour with a baleful legacy which Sir Keir Starmer is struggling to discard.

    He has rightly denounced the “disgusting” outrage in north London but his party needs to abandon its knee-jerk response whenever Israel shows its determination to defend itself. It might help if party statements on this issue were accompanied by an acknowledgement of Israel’s right to exist.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/05/17/uk-toxic-politics-have-poisoned-discussion-israel-palestine/

  94. 332844+ up ticks,

    Variant caution risks becoming an excuse never to return to normality
    Sage and swathes of the public are united in not wanting to confront the damage done by lockdown

    So will we soon witness the march of the Dildos, this non confrontation is not new it is a long standing electorate
    malady that is, if you are supporting lab/lib/con there lies the problem as being fact dodgers.

  96. Whenever I see a piece by Ruth Dudley Edwards, I find myself thinking it surprising that she is still alive…

    Ireland has realised it over-reached on Brexit

    A new DUP leader and the anger of Unionists have opened Dublin’s eyes to its border miscalculation

    RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS

    “My message to our friends in Europe,” wrote Brexit minister Lord Frost on Sunday, “is: stop the point-scoring and work with us. Seize the moment, help find a new approach to Northern Ireland, and then we can build a new relationship for the future.”

    But will the EU listen? The stakes, now, are very high. Brussels has chosen to implement the Northern Ireland Protocol in the most damaging manner possible. And it’s not just the UK that is concerned about the effect this is having on Unionist opinion. After spending the Brexit talks acting as a cheerleader for the EU’s most hard-line demands, the signs are that, under the eminently reasonable Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil’s Micheál Martin, the Irish government has come to recognise that it overreached disastrously.

    It was under Martin’s predecessor, Fine Gael’s Leo Varadkar, and Simon Coveney, his foreign minister, that the Irish government helped to create the mess that is the protocol. At a period of resurgence of Anglophobia – paradoxically because of a feeling that Britain had betrayed Ireland by abandoning it – and afflicted by the frequent Irish mistaken belief that if you do what Brussels tells you, you will be rewarded, the two politicians overplayed their hand and unintentionally undermined the stability of the Good Friday Agreement.

    The straightforward solution would have been to cooperate on technical fixes and put any customs hardware on the Irish side. Instead, the Irish raised the spectre of Republican violence, which Michel Barnier seized on to present the EU as defenders of the Good Friday Agreement. It was a nonsensical argument. But it was so successful that some loyalists have now concluded that it may only be violence that can get rid of the border in the Irish Sea.

    While the Unionist community is law-abiding, the perception that Northern Ireland has been sacrificed by the British government, and that there is a chance – as nationalists remind them daily –it could be forced into a United Ireland, strengthens the hard men who are encouraging protests and threatening worse.

    The Republic knows this would be a disaster, and if it were left to Martin, Brexit-related problems would be being amicably sorted out. But Brussels is making it clear that Ireland is only one of 27 voices in the EU. And there is fear in the Republic that the European Commission will use as a bargaining tool its support for President Biden’s push for a 21 per cent global corporation tax rate, which will strengthen the EU drive for tax harmonisation and threaten Ireland’s 12.5 per cent corporation tax rate on which its prosperity over the past few decades has been largely dependent.

    Martin has other troubles. Last year’s general election was disastrous for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, lifelong enemies who have alternated in power ever since Ireland got its independence. Horrified by the prospect of allowing Sinn Fein into power, they made a deal to form an unprecedented coalition. Martin became Taoiseach in June with Varadkar as deputy and Coveney again as foreign minister: Martin and Varadkar will swap jobs in December 2022.

    Sinn Fein are now the energetic and articulate official opposition, inspiring a young electorate with promises so reckless they would embarrass Jeremy Corbyn. Few under 40 care about the horrors of the Troubles, and they appear unreachable by the argument that a party that still extols IRA murders is unfit to govern a democracy. And Martin has a very active green opposition in his own party, and is in no position to risk another election.

    There is some hope. Varadkar is subdued by an inquiry into a leaked document and even Coveney seems less gung-ho about the border than he used to be, so neither is likely to fight a compromise.

    There is regret that the protocol helped defenestrate the approachable Arlene Foster of the DUP and nervousness about how intransigent her successor, Edwin Poots, will be. There is also a new leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Doug Beattie, a war hero, who, though liberal and non-sectarian, is a true Unionist and very tough.

    Will Brussels grasp that if it doesn’t accept Lord Frost’s invitation it may destabilise the peace it has misused to its advantage? If not, the implications for the future of the island of Ireland are frightening

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/17/ireland-has-realised-over-reached-brexit/

    1. ““My message to our friends in Europe,” wrote Brexit minister Lord Frost on Sunday …” There’s your first mistake, Frosty, old chap; the EU is not “Europe” and its members are most definitely NOT our friends.

  98. Gone midnight and I too, even though pumpkin-shaped, have gone. Good night and God bless, Gentlefolk.

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