Saturday 12 September: Where is the evidence for the Government’s lockdown threats and excoriation of the young?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/09/11/letters-evidence-governments-lockdown-threats-excoriation-young/

622 thoughts on “Saturday 12 September: Where is the evidence for the Government’s lockdown threats and excoriation of the young?”

    1. Good morning Bob3. A cloudy start here too but looks like the sun may break through. I wonder what the world has in store for us today.

  2. Why are people still trying to scrutinise and find reason with the actions that our government and others from around the world in their fight against the pandemic, one has to be naive to the extreme not now to realise what is occurring.

  3. For those who follow my meanderings on ‘The Spectator’, I have just prepared a CD of a very special piece of music to be played at the funeral of the village schoolteacher in the next village to me who killed herself last week.

    They are not allowed live music, and the lady will probably have to be cremated as alone as she was when she died.

    The anthem is ‘Make Me Your Servant, Lord’, written by Tom Wells, who has dedicated his life to public service and was one of those in the search party who found the body.

    It was performed last year at Stanbrook Abbey by the Powick Community Choir, supported by the school choir of Cradley Primary School. The Musical Director of the Community Choir, Tom Wells, handed over the baton as he manned the keyboard. The conductor was the schoolteacher who died last week.

    Tom Wells told me that our friend is every bit as much a victim of the Coronavirus as someone dying of lung failure in Intensive Care, and could have been avoided if those with control over our lives had had a little more thought and compassion for those caught up in this.

    ————-

    There is a tragedy unfolding in the next village.

    A popular schoolteacher in her forties had a happy life until March, with a close relationship with her pupils in her village school and an active involvement in a friendly community choir run by a charismatic and talented composer, who also once stood for Parliament.

    Then the bottom fell out of her world. The choir was forced to close suddenly after preparing for a concert and looking forward to another happy successful season culminating in the highly profitable sell-out run of Christmas concerts at Stanbrook Abbey with professional lighting and sound, a 12-piece string orchestra and a setting in a converted Pugin chapel that would be worthy of Hogwarts. Rehearsals, with huge restrictions, were due to start up again on 6th September.

    At her place of work, the village school closed, and she was left adrift from her class, whom she worried about constantly. In the end, in her social isolation, she fell ill and had to suspend her teaching position in order to be treated for severe depression. Not that it mattered, since the school was closed anyway.

    Just before the choir was due to start rehearsing, this teacher went missing. A search party was sent out comprising her friends from the choir, who found her dead. It turns out that she turned up back to work when the school re-opened and found a replacement with her pupils, who told her to leave.

    The choir cancelled the 6th September rehearsal because those committee members were so traumatised by the experience, and the first rehearsal was re-booked for 13th September. Then came the Rule of Six, which has now poured cold water over everything, and the choir has closed down as indefinitely as Hancock’s “assurances” that it would be all over by Christmas, actually meaning that the nightmare will continue this time next year, with the added cherry of Brexit mishandling and Woke fascism to cheer us up in our isolation. At least some people get to sing ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ even though this is forbidden to our singers.

    Just what can we do about this? I can just about live with these emergency measures, but the thought that there is no end to them is intolerable.

    https://www.ledburyreporter.co.uk/news/18700244.schools-tribute-teacher-stolen-away-earth-soon/

    2. What can one say about this? It is all the more poignant for being so personal. There are greater tragedies waiting in the wings but they will simply be historical footnotes! Morning Jeremy.

  4. England ‘on knife-edge’ as cases rise and lockdowns grow. !2 September 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/247c0e860505cf69fd204e5f27e45e737b26662a162fa560182261c1292e107b.png

    After signs that the number of virus infections is accelerating sharply, the former UK government chief scientific adviser Sir David King urged ministers to improve the NHS test-and-trace system. He said England was on a “knife-edge”.

    King’s warning came as the latest figures showed another huge surge in UK positive cases on Friday – up to 3,539, compared with 1,940 a week ago. While the number of people dying from Covid-19 remains low, there has been a steady increase in the numbers of patients in hospital in recent weeks. On Friday, it stood at 863, a rise of 120 from the week before.

    Yvonne Doyle, the medical director of Public Health England, said there were signs of a worrying trend. “Although younger people continue to make up the greatest share of new cases, we’re now starting to see worrying signs of infections occurring in the elderly, who are at far higher risk of getting seriously ill.”

    Morning everyone. I don’t believe any of this! The number of “cases” can be manipulated at will either by the number that is carried out and on whom, or simply by a stroke of the pen in the office. The only real guide is the number of hospital admissions or deaths. These are still miniscule and why should they not be? We have to a large extent, herd immunity, and the peak of the epidemic is long past. More scaremongering to justify repression!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/11/coronavirus-uk–knife-edge-cases-rise-lockdowns-grow-birmingham-scotland

    2. ‘Morning, Stephen. Kindly refrain from posting piccies of Mr McBust…not a good start to my Saturday (or any day, come to that).

    9. Please don’t. That man needs to do nothing but beg forgiveness for 13 years of theft, abuse and robbery.

  6. My present view of the election scene – 11 September 2020. SST. Pat Lang. 12 September 2020.

    It should be clear to all that I am a paleo conservative and originalist in my opinions concerning the constitution of the US.

    It seems obvious that Trump is gaining ground on Biden in the shifting picture. His polling is up and the level of enthusiasm in his supporters is a crushing burden for the Biden/socialist camp to deal with every day.

    Their ops centers have a tough time getting any significant number of people to come to what few events at which they are willing to risk his patent mental decline as a public phenomenon. The man can’t answer reporters’ questions unless the question and answers are scripted and put up on a teleprompter. He also needs a list so that he knows which reporter to call on for which question. The spectacle is sad. As an old man I can say that I see that his ego is being manipulated to make him a figurehead president fronting for people like De Blasio. To use him like this is elder abuse.

    Nevertheless, I think it remains possible, perhaps even probable that the socialist/Democrat Party forces will win in November. How? Simple. The Democrats have a master plan to win by cheating their way to victory through unsolicited mail-in ballots. These are quite different from absentee ballots for which there are well established procedures for verifying identities. In the mail-in ballots now pushed by the Dems’ operations centers vast numbers of unsolicited and fully active ballots are and will be sent to every possible addressee. So far, a lot of dead people have been included in the mailings as well as dead pets. These unguided missiles can be gathered up in ballot harvesting operations and voted to provide the desired result. People are surprised that Trump said that maybe his supporters should vote early and often?

    Since the states are constitutionally in control of federal elections, I don’t see a way to stop the mail-in ballot chicanery. Pat Lang.

    The view from the States. Colonel Lang however misses an important point. That if a moment should arise where the Forces of Darkness come to believe that this plan against Trump’s election will not work. That is the same moment they will decide to overthrow or assassinate him.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

    1. Will they sink our ships and blockade our waters. The remainers should be ashamed of themselves supporting these evil people.

      1. 323629+ up ticks,
        Morning JN,
        The lab/lib/con coalition have been brussels assets for many a rubber stamping year, lest we would like to forget.

      1. Its not my post its a forwad on post from someone else, as its not my post I uptick to agree with it. Sometimes I forward on a post and tick it down as I dont agree.

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    The National Trust, presumably in a further uncontrolled spasm of self-righteous woke-ism, seems determined to take the road that ultimately leads to its humiliation and, possibly, its own destruction. It failed to learn the lesson of its own stupidity at Felbrigg Hall three years ago, preferring to ignore this and go for broke:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8724183/GUY-ADAMS-National-Trust-launches-national-witch-hunt.html

        1. So is HG, I gave it as a present on the birth of our first child to give her access to pleasant walks.
          It guaranteed access for two adults and children were free then. It also offered free parking, although they are getting around the parking bit by changing rules where they can.

          Best £50 I’ve ever spent on memberships.

          1. I’ve had it for ten years, – after my mother died..but I don’t think I’ve used it for the past five.

    2. Well it can’t be destroyed Hugh, it is now run by The Party and as such will be supported indefinitely!

    3. The families subjected to this ridiculous &unwarranted ‘shaming’ should un-gift their properties to the NT.
      Take them back into private ownership. Because the NT has completely broken the Trust….

  11. ‘Thought For the Day’ just now with a lament for the Amazon people, brutalised and murdered by Bolsonaro’s miners, loggers and ranchers in the name of settler rights we must all go on our knee for, and then the destruction by Rio Tinto Zinc of the only archaeological site with an unbroken tradition of human occupation in the world that pre-dates the Ice Age, whose chief executive apologises, while his executives pocket their bonus.

    What chance of a similar lament for affronts to indigenous people in Europe through invasive settlement by aliens?

    1. 323629+ up ticks,
      JN,
      Made to look like the governance party is fighting on two fronts,
      The virus & brussels, a right pair of viruses if ever.

      Two treacherous elements seemingly in opposition.
      This governance party was contentedly very pro eu up until the 24/6/2016, then went into Italian survival mode.

      Oh what a tangled web we weave when we continue to deceive,
      Apol, Wally S.

    2. 323629+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Did the Yanks not send us over a minute needle once Og, to which our `reply was to return it with one inside.
      In the nicest possible way anything they can do we can do better, anything we can do better than …….

      1. I understood it was a drill which they sent and we sent it back with a hole drilled up the middle

        1. 323629+ up ticks,
          Morning FA,
          Then I bow from the hips ( not kneel) to your superior knowledge.
          But they had to drill a hole to put the needle in.

    1. You’d think his first port would be to go to the police, but he knows they won’t investigate, won’t get his property back and will just give him a crime number – which will mean he’ll claim, and pay next year.

      Of course, if the bloke is identified, a bunch of chaps should turn up at his door, beat the crap out of him, take back what he has stolen and, if he’s flogged it take some of his stuff as payment – like his vehicle.

      That’s the difference between law and justice. Law sees the offender reoffending. Justice means he doesn’t.

        1. In Polish, Albanian, Urdu, Hindustani, Farsi, Arabic or whatever. If not available at taxpayer’s expense it will be against his ‘Uman Roits.

  17. Dr Sam Bailey discusses some personal observations as a trained doctor with a family on how the New Zealand authorities are managing the health of its citizens in the COVID crisis.

    She makes some interesting points in which the PCR test is being misused in the context of screening vs diagnosis and emphasises that is incumbent on individuals rather than the state to manage their own health even in the current crisis:

    https://youtu.be/kcONxyAJ8S4

    1. I nominate ogga to form a splinter group of UKIP so he can see if he can end the constant internal conflicts and make it electable.

      1. It could be called the Party for an Independent United Kingdom (PIUK) or Independence for a United Party Kingdom (IUPK).

    4. 323629+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      Now the treachery of the UKIP Nec has been revealed via the odious handling of Batten / Braine & via the court we should really be checking out those politico’s / parties that for decades led these Isles in such a manner that has left us up to our foreheads in sh!te and having to swallow political sh!t.

      Namely the lab/lib/con coalition party.

      One question, will the ovis of a future General Election
      ( if allowed) shoot the three monkeys before entering the polling booth and ask themselves honestly “what has my party done for my Country & me” in the recent past, then vote accordingly.

  21. Why are people still trying to scrutinise and find reason with the actions that our government and others from around the world in their fight against the pandemic, one has to be naive to the extreme not now to realise what is occurring.

      1. Just spotted something in my local paper about a dad in Worcester whose seven-year-old woke up with a sore throat and a temperature. He was told to drive his sick son to Inverness for a test. Presumably the motorway services on the route would be duly infected.

        In the end, he found a booking somewhere in Wales, and drove out there. The test was inconclusive. There were plenty of bookings available locally, but the upgraded exciting interactive experience kept reporting errors each time anyone actually tried to confirm their selection. Nobody knows how to work the system manually – their Diversity training doesn’t cover this.

        Wonderful what you can get for £100 billion these days!

        1. Given the unacceptable level of false positive PCR tests I do have to wonder who benefits from this?

        2. What if you can’t/don’t drive?
          I must admit with a child with a sore throat & slight temperature I would probably wait-and-see for a bit.
          Are we Not Allowed to anymore?

          1. Lemsip, strepsils and paracetomol (other preparations are available) cover pretty well all eventualities taht don’t involve bleeding. Take those.
            WE can get lemon-flavoured, zinc-stuffed colostrum “sweets” for when yu feel a cold coming on. Suck a 10-pack of those immediately you feel it starting, and 90+% of the time, it’s gone again within a day or so.

          2. Yes I always suck a zinc/vit C pastille as soon as I have even the beginning of an uncomfortable sore throat…and it’s gone in hours…
            Haven’t had a cold this century..

        3. Morning Jeremy and all nottlers.

          I’m sorry if you think this harsh but what on earth possessed the father to a) phone anyone and b) Drive his child anywhere if said child was unwell? Am I so blasé in my feeling that he should just have looked after the child at home as normal? I do question these people who place utter faith in rules and regulations about the virus.

          1. People have not been taught to think for themselves. They need someone “in authority” to tell them what to do. Common sense, as applied by our parents, has long since gone AWOL.

    2. I was thinking that whilst I was in sleeping-waking-sleeping-waking-sleeping mode during the night. Take away the dross and the panic and the emotion and there you are. Complete with updated brownshirts on the street. The problem is, the younger generations do not recognise fascism for what it is, their knowledge of history is so bad that they cannot see it when it slides in under cover and wrapped up in the trappings of a virus. It will be isis on the streets after the covid compliance officers have had their day in the sun.

        1. It is taken for granted, like breathing. And food on the table. And peace. I think there is about to be an awakening.

          1. That’s why the former eastern bloc countries tend to be more antsy about such matters.
            Oppression is within human memory.

  22. These fires in the USA being blamed on climate change, has anyone considered yet in the MSM that some of them might be started on purpose?

    1. There have been firebugs ever since Nero was Emperor of Rome. I have been in South Australia during a spell of Catastrophic Fire Risk, when it is standard procedure to round up known firebugs and keep them in custody for the duration.

      I do believe though that there is something today that is making such antics much worse, and I do not agree with ex-UKIP national treasure David Silvester when he argues that the drought and extreme heat wave on the US Pacific states is because not enough gays are taking to the streets and dancing, as they were when the Thames flooded around Oxford once.

      1. Henley-on-Thames councillor David Silvester, who defected from the Tories in protest at David Cameron’s support for same-sex unions.
        On Sunday (six years ago) Silvester caused fresh controversy, telling BBC Radio Berkshire that being gay was a “spiritual disease” that can be healed. His remarks led Ukip’s official gay and lesbian group to send Silvester a letter saying he had “rightly attracted derision from people of all political beliefs, and once again painted Ukip in a negative light – an unacceptable act for which you cannot be excused”.. Guardian

        He did not agree with same sex marriage. I can see why the BBC went into melt-down – but why did Farage expel him from the party? Does he support ‘gay marriage’ or is he against free speech? One or both?

        1. My late father’s old drinking companion and fellow adventurer from the 1970s is the MP there (although these days he’s considered rather boring).

          I support Silvester’s opposition to same sex marriage, and was seriously dismayed when this went through Parliament without it being on any of the Party manifestos (not even the Liberal Democrats, whose leading lights traditionally self-destruct when they come out), nor in any White Paper or Green Paper, and nor in any Queen’s Speech. At the guillotined second reading debate in the Commons, two speeches from both sides of the House (Maria Miller and Yvette Cooper) were given 45 minutes each to speak in favour, whereas all speeches against were allowed three minutes in competition for the Speaker’s eye with others speaking in favour. There was no overwhelming public support for it, being about 50/50, similar to that for Brexit, which was exhaustively debated in Parliament over many years. I felt the whole thing was a travesty of democracy and has brought Parliament into disrepute and removed any confidence I once had in the election process. I do not consider any general election held since to be valid, and Government for me has forfeited its authority to govern. I submit to their rule under suffrance.

          I must say, on the other hand, that I do not agree with Silvester that homosexuality is a spiritual disease. Every coupling is unique, and each must find its own balance and way to express intimate feelings as they see fit. I am not going to start judging the taste and sexual behaviour of others, and what goes in the privacy of someone’s bedroom is no business of mine.

          A fascinating compromise in Catholic monastic circles 1000 years ago was to make the distinction between the Sacrament of Marriage, which must be between a man and a woman, and a “Spiritual Union” where homosexuality was accepted between a couple of the same sex that formed a lifelong bond with each other. This was overturned in the end by zealots in the Vatican, but it provided abbots with a neat and merciful way to serve their communities.

          I think it was a great pity that Farage was bullied by the powers-that-be into ejecting David Silvester and also Godfey Bloom from UKIP. Every party must have its eccentrics, and UKIP is no exception. Apart from Leaving the EU, UKIP’s primary selling point and a great deal of its public appeal from those who are politically fairly distant but still sympathetic, was its devil-may-care libertarianism. It is a desperately needed antidote to the authoritarian fascism we are having to contend with today.

    2. It has I believe been confirmed that La Nina is now fully in operation.
      “La Nina “triggers an atmospheric chain reaction that stands to roil weather around the globe, often turning the western U.S. into a tinder box, fuelling more powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic and flooding parts of Australia and South America,” Bloomberg said.

      More here:https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/oregon-faces-greatest-loss-life-state-history-wildfires-la-nina-threatens-bigger-blazes

    3. At least five suspected arsonists have been arrested; much like the recent fires in Australia, it appears the global warming goons want to lend nature (and their erroneous narrative) a ‘helping hand’.

      1. Are they much worse because the Greens won’t allow controlled burns or other ways of clearing the detritus?

        1. The greens in Oz and California stopped forestry managers clearing fire breaks as they claimed this was upsetting the ecosystem in the forests.
          Of course the greens overlooked that; man is building further in to forested areas, natural causes (e.g. lightning strikes) can cause fires to start and that greenwashed individuals feel that they must take it upon themselves to start fires to ‘support their cause’.
          Fire breaks make a lot of sense, giving the fire services a chance to contain the fires, especially near populated areas, helping to save the lives of local residents and those of the fire fighters faced with these infernos.

  23. OT…
    What is it with cooks and prepositions? I’m lazing on the sofa having just woken up after a night shift and am half sleeping, half listening to some cookery programme and have so far heard

    Warm up
    Reduce down
    Rinse off
    Heat through
    Chop up
    Add in
    Sieve out

    5. Cook off
      Fry off
      Boil off
      Bake off
      Roast off
      Toast off
      Grill off
      Poach off
      Sauté off
      Reduce off

      I wish they would **** off!

    6. Plate up…
      All those vector verbs – action and direction all at once.
      And Jamie, where everything is “li’ull”
      AAAAAAHHH!

          2. Oberst,

            I initially read that as ‘Stig in the lettuce;’
            I was lining up to give you a token thump
            when I reread the post!! :-))

        1. My most hated tautology is ‘new’ recruit.

          If you are recruited then it follows you are new to that job! Just ‘recruit’ will do.

      1. My mother believed for years that the BBC could tell if you switched the radio off.
        That’s one of the few advantages of the internet, they get the feedback straight away.

        1. To listen to the BBC on radio is simple and anonymous – -to listen to it on the internet you have to register. Data collection rolls on.

          1. I never asked her that, but quite possibly. She was at school during the war, and they never had proper science lessons, because all the men teachers were at war unless they were elderly or conscientious objectors. She was very naive about anything scientific.

  24. I see The Dog’s Trust has modified their strapline from “We promise we’ll never put down a dog” to “We promise we’ll never put down a healthy dog”. Maybe the RSPCA, to whom they used to shunt off dogs to have them put down so they could keep their front can no longer cope.

    1. In our quest for kittens, we have seen the RSPCA offering animals that are unwell, or malformed. The very ones that ought to be put down. They are asking people to take on a cat’s lifetime of vet’s fees.

      1. We stopped contributing to the RSPCA years ago, yet another charity with well meaning objectives when it was founded that has become little more than an enrichment means for a bunch of freeloading executives.

      2. Our cat was a rescue. He is missing a front leg and we’re fair convinced he’s if not completely, partially deaf.

        Life doesn’t ask much of him – gets up, moves from the bed to the chair and back again.

  25. My present view of the election scene – 11 September 2020. SST. Pat Lang. 12 September 2020.

    It should be clear to all that I am a paleo conservative and originalist in my opinions concerning the constitution of the US.

    It seems obvious that Trump is gaining ground on Biden in the shifting picture. His polling is up and the level of enthusiasm in his supporters is a crushing burden for the Biden/socialist camp to deal with every day.

    Their ops centers have a tough time getting any significant number of people to come to what few events at which they are willing to risk his patent mental decline as a public phenomenon. The man can’t answer reporters’ questions unless the question and answers are scripted and put up on a teleprompter. He also needs a list so that he knows which reporter to call on for which question. The spectacle is sad. As an old man I can say that I see that his ego is being manipulated to make him a figurehead president fronting for people like De Blasio. To use him like this is elder abuse.

    Nevertheless, I think it remains possible, perhaps even probable that the socialist/Democrat Party forces will win in November. How? Simple. The Democrats have a master plan to win by cheating their way to victory through unsolicited mail-in ballots. These are quite different from absentee ballots for which there are well established procedures for verifying identities. In the mail-in ballots now pushed by the Dems’ operations centers vast numbers of unsolicited and fully active ballots are and will be sent to every possible addressee. So far, a lot of dead people have been included in the mailings as well as dead pets. These unguided missiles can be gathered up in ballot harvesting operations and voted to provide the desired result. People are surprised that Trump said that maybe his supporters should vote early and often?

    Since the states are constitutionally in control of federal elections, I don’t see a way to stop the mail-in ballot chicanery. Pat Lang.

    The view from the States. Colonel Lang however misses an important point. That if a moment should arise where the Forces of Darkness come to believe that this plan against Trump’s election will not work. That is the same moment they will decide to overthrow or assassinate him.

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

    1. It is a concern what the Dems will dream up next.
      It seems the Trump supporters are getting very wise to the mail-in craziness.
      One said yesterday that he had received 4 unsolicited mail-in ballots, for himself, his deceased mother, & the two previous residents of the property.
      So the Dems have assumed they can benefit from this type of fraud…but maybe the Trumpers will play them at their own game….
      However, there’s also a strong determination amongst Republicans to vote in person, or track their vote in states where they can’t.

    2. That is a brilliant explanation.

      Which leads one more and more to realise that we have had a coup with no dissent (apart from a few grumbles/mustn’t grumble) from the long-suffering population.

        1. Longer than I thought, but yes well worth it. Some real gems in there. I have passed it on, it needs to be widely seen and heard.

  27. Morning all. What has become of us?

    SIR – There is as yet no evidence that lockdown achieves any benefit. Where is the evidence to say it does? Without it the Government should not persist in using lockdown or threatening use of it.

    The Government claims that testing shows an increase of infection in the young, despite there having been little or no testing until recently. Whether or not there is such an increase, where is the evidence that it would lead to a serious increase in the deaths among older people (those most at risk)?

    And in the absence of such evidence why are thousands of hospital beds being kept empty for weeks? And why is the Government excoriating the young for behaving as the young always have done and always will do ?

    Patrick Phillips QC

    Long Melford, Suffolk

    SIR – The Swedish government has proposed allowing social gatherings to increase from 50 to 500 from October 1.

    From Monday in England no one will be allowed to meet in groups of more than six. Who had the lockdown?

    Paul Cardew

    Cirencester, Gloucesteshire

    ADVERTISING

    Ads by Teads

    SIR – Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has forfeited all right to be thought a libertarian. As a response to rising infections among young adults having mass gatherings, no rational or clinical reason supports making it a criminal offence for families to meet.

    Dr Robert Walker

    Workington, Cumbria

    SIR – Until this week, I believed that we lived in a liberal democracy which protected personal freedom.

    The announcement that, from Monday, the law prohibits more than six people meeting socially restricts our freedom but has been brought in with no parliamentary debate.

    Do we now live in a dictatorship where the attempt to eliminate one specific risk has to take precedence over all other rights?

    Jonathan Mathias

    Hartfield, East Sussex

    SIR – The plot has been well and truly lost.

    Elizabeth Prior

    London SW10

    SIR – What has happened to Boris Johnson? Where is the positive man I voted for, who encouraged personal freedom? Now, he seems to be waging psychological warfare: raising hopes one day, denying them the next.

    We need encouragement not duress. Thousands of lives are being ruined because of the Covid measures.

    Elizabeth Trezise

    Brighton, East Sussex

    SIR – Since March the only people with whom I have socialised, mainly outdoors, have been my beloved family, including eight grandchildren. The Government is making it a crime.

    Whatever the law, I intend to make the limited number of years left to me involve contact with my precious children and grandchildren.

    Sheila Samuel

    Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

    SIR – The new ban on groups of more than six will kill village life. Village halls provide space for Women’s Institutes, Rainbows and Brownies, bridge clubs, tai chi, drop-in coffee mornings, Pilates, slimming, gardening clubs, youth clubs, craft groups and other regular hirings.

    Organisers have spent much money on Covid protection. If the Rule of Six applies to them, they will die of debt.

    His Honour Lord Parmoor

    High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – If a policeman knocks on my door and asks to come in to count the people here, I shall tell him he can’t because there are six here already.

    Philip Roe

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Why not post a snooping busybody – I mean a Covid marshal – on every street corner? With an expected three million unemployed it would solve that problem overnight.

    Anthony Annakin-Smith

    Neston, Wirral

    1. Lord Parmoor is quite right – the woman who organises and teaches the German class that my wife attends has worked hard to try to set up the class for the next term, which starts at the end of September. She has somehow managed to wade through the reams of advice [some of it contradictory], and apply what seems to be required. There are probably going to be at least 7 people who want to attend – presumably the only way to go ahead is for them to work out a roster so that only 6 people attend every class – what utter nonsense this all is! Boris and his cretinous Cabinet claim to be following the science – if so, where is the proof that the science is actually right this time?

        1. They have already tried Zoom, and it did work, but the class is also a chance to socialise properly, and that’s what is at risk with all this lockdown idiocy!

          1. It is the socialising that they absolutely do not want, not because of the covid spread, but because they don’t don’t want us talking amongst ourselves, because talking leads to plotting especially in these times.

  28. Novichok used on Navalny ‘harder’ than previous forms: Spiegel. 11 Sepptember 2020.

    BERLIN (Reuters) – The novichok nerve agent used to poison Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was ‘harder’ than previous forms, Der Spiegel magazine reported the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service as saying.

    Bruno Kahl, head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service, informed what Spiegel termed a “secret meeting” about the potency of the poison, the magazine said, but did not give any other details of the meeting.

    Oh God. These people seem to be even more incompetent than Mi6! First he’s gargled the world’s deadliest chemical weapon which is now slow acting but deadlier except that you don’t die! What can one say to this farrago of utter nonsense?

    https://uk.reuters.com/article/russia-politics-navalny-germany/update-1-novichok-used-on-navalny-harder-than-previous-forms-spiegel-idUSL8N2G848F

    1. I skip over any article where the word “novichok” features, as it’s all lying bullshit.

      1. I remember hearing Ian Hislop on HIGNFY say that when he saw the Bond film ‘SPECTRE’ he didn’t realise it was going to be a documentary.

  29. Good morning, all. A very cloudy start to the day – likely to continue – also a strong south-westerly. May be better tomorrow.

  30. ‘Morning, again. The natives are increasingly restless, and this isn’t going to end well:

    SIR – There is as yet no evidence that lockdown achieves any benefit. Where is the evidence to say it does? Without it the Government should not persist in using lockdown or threatening use of it.

    The Government claims that testing shows an increase of infection in the young, despite there having been little or no testing until recently. Whether or not there is such an increase, where is the evidence that it would lead to a serious increase in the deaths among older people (those most at risk)?

    And in the absence of such evidence why are thousands of hospital beds being kept empty for weeks? And why is the Government excoriating the young for behaving as the young always have done and always will do ?

    Patrick Phillips QC
    Long Melford, Suffolk

    SIR – The Swedish government has proposed allowing social gatherings to increase from 50 to 500 from October 1.

    From Monday in England no one will be allowed to meet in groups of more than six. Who had the lockdown?

    Paul Cardew
    Cirencester, Gloucesteshire

    SIR – Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, has forfeited all right to be thought a libertarian. As a response to rising infections among young adults having mass gatherings, no rational or clinical reason supports making it a criminal offence for families to meet.

    Dr Robert Walker
    Workington, Cumbria

    SIR – Until this week, I believed that we lived in a liberal democracy which protected personal freedom.

    The announcement that, from Monday, the law prohibits more than six people meeting socially restricts our freedom but has been brought in with no parliamentary debate.

    Do we now live in a dictatorship where the attempt to eliminate one specific risk has to take precedence over all other rights?

    Jonathan Mathias
    Hartfield, East Sussex

    SIR – The plot has been well and truly lost.

    Elizabeth Prior
    London SW10

    SIR – What has happened to Boris Johnson? Where is the positive man I voted for, who encouraged personal freedom? Now, he seems to be waging psychological warfare: raising hopes one day, denying them the next.

    We need encouragement not duress. Thousands of lives are being ruined because of the Covid measures.

    Elizabeth Trezise
    Brighton, East Sussex

    SIR – Since March the only people with whom I have socialised, mainly outdoors, have been my beloved family, including eight grandchildren. The Government is making it a crime.

    Whatever the law, I intend to make the limited number of years left to me involve contact with my precious children and grandchildren.

    Sheila Samuel
    Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire

    SIR – The new ban on groups of more than six will kill village life. Village halls provide space for Women’s Institutes, Rainbows and Brownies, bridge clubs, tai chi, drop-in coffee mornings, Pilates, slimming, gardening clubs, youth clubs, craft groups and other regular hirings.

    Organisers have spent much money on Covid protection. If the Rule of Six applies to them, they will die of debt.

    His Honour Lord Parmoor
    High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – If a policeman knocks on my door and asks to come in to count the people here, I shall tell him he can’t because there are six here already.

    Philip Roe
    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Why not post a snooping busybody – I mean a Covid marshal – on every street corner? With an expected three million unemployed it would solve that problem overnight.

    Anthony Annakin-Smith
    Neston, Wirral

    1. ” … believed that we lived in a liberal democracy which protected personal freedom…”

      Then you’re a delusional idiot. There is nothing liberal about our democracy. We are permitted to do things the state doesn’t complain about. As soon as it decides it wants, it makes our doing it impossible usually through taxes, legislation or simply making it so difficult to behave otherwise that only the very wealthy can afford to ignore the law.

      The worker is punished, the law abiding ignored, the criminal let off, the mob pandered to. Personal freedom has been continually eroded in the name of ‘rights’ – what about the rights of others not to be affected by those rights? What about the women raped, the property stolen, the children murdered? Is it right that junior had a choice of two bad schools or one full of foreign speakers or private education?

      With the erosion of freedom came laziness. If we can’t do it, it’s someone else’s job to do it for us. Without self respect and integrity went responsibility and dignity, so people litter, wallowing like excrement through their ‘rights’. Some woman lights up on a train station despite the signs saying no. She complains she won’t miss her train. Well, you had a choice not to smoke. You made the wrong choice, you pay the consequences. People believe they are entitled to do whatever they please. A yob playing loud music at 11pm. He shouldn’t be, but no one does anything because if we do, we’ll get a mouthful of verbal from scum. The police can’t be bothered. He doens’t care. He’s doing what he wants to. No one else matters to him.

      The country needs a wake up call. A short, sharp slap, Some people need to keep being slapped until they learn their place.

    2. And, mr Annakin -Smith, moving someone currently unemployed on welfare costing £250 a month – well, £2000 accounting for housing benefit and child benefit and can’t be arsed benefit – is a lot cheaper than paying £55,000 a year – counting national insurance taxes, training of the individual, equipment (sourced at the highest cost), pension and in work benefits and all other waste such a person would cost.

      Some people in the public sector return huge value. Most of them, actually. However that doesn’t change the facts that they are paid from the net taxes of other workers generating real wealth. On benefits or working in the public sector – you’re not creating wealth.

      Before people leap on me – wealth is not the same as value. A teacher is valuable, as is a prison officer but they are still recipients of tax payers money.

    3. Lockdown benefit:
      Norway deaths per 100.000 population: 5
      SWeden deaths per 100.000 population: 59
      Simiar population densities, the main difference is lockdown in NOrway, not in Sweden.

      1. I’m sorry, what’s your point?

        Are those deaths solely and only due to COVID 19? There’s a degree of paranoia here that I find intolerable. We are not given the facts to make rational decisions on.

        However, as I am repeatedly reminded, the law is there not to protect the responsible law abiding, but to stop the stupid and criminal.

    4. I can’t think what took Mr. Matthias so long to notice what most of us clocked several years ago; the last six months merely confirmed the trend.

    2. There’s another one, of a blue-eyed baby, and the caption: “Why is it my fault? I just got here.”

  32. Something inspiring for a change – Dick Jolley, MC and Bar. Such skill and selflessness is humbling:

    Dick Jolley, who has died aged 98, was awarded an MC and Bar during the Burma Campaign and subsequently had a successful career in commerce.

    In April 1944, the Japanese cut the road between Imphal and Kohima. The latter, a straggling town of thatched huts high up in the Assam Hills, subsequently saw some of the fiercest fighting of the Second World War.

    Jolley, then an acting captain, was one of 200 reinforcements rushed to Kohima and formed into a company of 3rd Battalion 2nd Punjab Regiment. He placed his men in defensive positions around Jail Hill and billeted himself in a small hut.

    That night, the position was heavily mortared by the Japanese. His hut turned out to be a chicken coop and the mess went everywhere.

    Short of sleep, water and ammunition, and much reduced in strength by three days of heavy fighting and relentless shelling, the small force withdrew to Garrison Hill. There they inhabited a landscape of charred and stunted trees and craters overrun by rats.

    He was subsequently ordered to move to the District Commissioner’s bungalow to take command of a platoon. It was of vital importance to hold this feature because it dominated the road up which tanks brought up in support would have to travel.

    The Japanese were dug into a warren of bunkers and weapon pits on the steeply terraced surrounding hillside. A series of attacks and counter-attacks had left each side holding part of the garden with the tennis court a no man’s land between them.

    At one stage hand grenades were being lobbed across like tennis balls. Jolley said afterwards that he and his men ended up in a trench, almost out of ammunition with orders to keep the last bullet for themselves. On April 17 they were relieved by the British 2nd Division.

    Jolley was evacuated to the Welsh Mission Hospital, Shillong, to be treated for shrapnel wounds. He was awarded an MC. The citation paid tribute to his outstanding leadership.

    It stated that he had done much to steady his small force when they were under continuous fire and added that after his position was overrun and some of his men had become cut off, he had led a party back there to rescue them.

    Richard Frederick Jolley was born at Dover, Kent, on July 10 1922 and educated at the Skinners’ School, Tunbridge Wells. Always known as Dick, in 1939 he joined the Union Cold Storage Company, part of the Vestey group.

    Two years later, he enlisted in the 1st Battalion The Royal Scots Regiment and, in February 1942, he and his regiment embarked for India. Based at Bangalore, each soldier was issued with a bicycle for travelling long distances.

    Otherwise, they marched. In September, he was commissioned into the 2nd Punjab Regiment at Meerut, near Delhi, and posted to the 3rd Battalion.

    After recovering from his wounds from the battle at Kohima, Jolley rejoined his regiment. On the night of March 29 1945, he was ordered to infiltrate his company into a Japanese strongpoint near Meiktila and inflict as much damage as possible before withdrawing.

    Skilful leadership ensured that they achieved complete surprise and caused the enemy considerable losses. When the defenders reacted with a hail of grenades, he withdrew his men without taking any casualties.

    In early May he was in command of a company when he was shot in the knee and severely wounded. He was lying in the open under accurate automatic fire but, realising that any attempt to rescue him would result in heavy casualties, he ordered his company to withdraw and leave him there.

    He was rescued many hours later by Havildar Major Abdul Malik, who was awarded an MM later in the campaign. The citation for the award to Jolley of a Bar to his MC stated that his readiness to sacrifice himself for the sake of his men in the full knowledge of what he might suffer as a prisoner of the Japanese was an inspiration to the whole battalion.

    He was transferred to a hospital in Calcutta. In October 1945 he was discharged and returned to England and, the following year, he rejoined the Vestey Group. In 1948, he and his wife, Jeanne, embarked for Buenos Aires. He spent many years in Argentina rising to the position of Vice-President of Frigorifico Anglo.

    On his return to England, he was seconded to Whiteabbey, Northern Ireland, in the early 1970s. There was a threat of firebombs and travelling home at night was dangerous. The level of sectarian violence was such that on some occasions the managers spent the night locked in the factory.

    As a director of the British Beef Co, he was an appointee to the Association of British Abattoir Owners, the trade association set up to represent the meat industry. He was a frequent visitor to Whitehall and Brussels and, in 1987, he was appointed OBE for his services.

    In 1988, he retired to Tunbridge Wells. In retirement, he served on a number of local committees and enjoyed watching rugby and cricket.

    Dick Jolley married, in 1947, Margaret (Jeanne) Hepworth Hudson, who survives him with their son and daughter. Another daughter predeceased him.

    Dick Jolley, born July 10 1922, died August 7 2020

    1. The Japanese were dug into a warren of bunkers and weapon pits on the steeply terraced surrounding hillside. A series of attacks and counter-attacks had left each side holding part of the garden with the tennis court a no man’s land between them.

      This is of course the infamous Tennis Court where some of the most ferocious fighting of WWII took place.

    3. Of all the Army formations I served with, the one I choose for my avatar here is that of the 2nd Infantry Division, mentioned in this article. We always commemorated Kohima day and were re-located to Imphal Barracks in York in 1983, so the associations remain strong for me.

      When I had my Sergeants’ Mess dining-out prior to discharge in 1997, I chose, as a parting gift from the mess, a print by the Military Artist Peter Archer depicting a Royal Signals LIne crew on the Imphal-Kohima road in 1945. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f9f0861c8b8cf55a4f56cc2bf9d0b7865cbacb99cf0d4dfe5a578e26143e2897.jpg

      2. God gave us hands to make beautiful things with…
        But it illustrates how if the mind is wrong, the hands are idle and of no use.

  35. Charles Moore, the steady voice of reason and good sense:

    The Government, in the form of Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, says it proposes “to break international law in a very specific and limited way”. This relates to the Northern Ireland Protocol of the EU Withdrawal Agreement.

    “Specific and limited” it may be, but it feels like a big step. In the early Eighties, Margaret Thatcher, no friend to Brussels, fought to reduce our European budget contribution. But even she baulked at the idea that Britain should refuse to hand over the money unless its demands were met, because to do so would have been to break the law.

    There is an important difference, however, between Mrs Thatcher’s government and our present one. Hers was trying to stay in Europe. Ours is trying to leave. After being pushed out of office, Mrs Thatcher came to think that Britain would be better off out; but when in power, she was always trying to make us better off in. Boris Johnson’s Government, by contrast, was founded – and then elected – on the proposition that we must leave, both in name and in fact.

    The history of the past four and a half years has shown that this is easier said than done. Parliament legislated for a referendum and promised to abide by the result, but when the majority voted to Leave, many MPs tried to block it, or nullify its meaning. As Prime Minister, Theresa May, pursued a content-free Leave, and so eventually lost power. Over prorogation, the Supreme Court did its best to outlaw Boris Johnson’s successor Government.

    Contrary to most predictions Mr Johnson then got an agreement from Brussels and won the ensuing snap election with an 80-seat majority. Britain left the EU on January 31.

    That was a political triumph, but the joy on the Brexit side was not unconfined. Our departure came at a cost. In order to get a quick Brexit, Boris ditched assurances given to Northern Ireland, and settled for the semi-impossibility that the province would remain part of the United Kingdom and its customs territory, yet have a de facto customs border not between it and the Republic, but down the Irish Sea. This is unstable, not only for Northern Ireland, but also for the rest of United Kingdom.

    The Government now rightly states that, in the event of a breakdown by December 31, it cannot allow a state of affairs in which, by the famous EU principle of “direct effect”, EU decrees automatically become our law. The EU could then, if it chose, decide to classify all goods crossing from the mainland to Northern Ireland as “at risk” of ending up in the Republic of Ireland, and therefore slap tariffs on them. Then the United Kingdom would no longer be a united kingdom, and the principle of consent in the Good Friday Agreement would have been violated. Hence next week’s legislation that empowers ministers to prevent this, in defiance of the Protocol.

    The Government should have seen this problem coming, people say. Actually, it did see it coming, but was in too desperate a position to act at that moment: it needed Brexit fast. Politically, that was understandable – even essential – but it is extremely awkward now.

    One feels this is not being well presented. No offence to Mr Lewis, but he is not possessed of a rapier-like jurisprudential mind. Despite his job title, he is not in charge of these matters. It would have been better if the first government minister to deal publicly with this issue had been more senior and/or more legally qualified.

    Such a person could have put it differently. “Yes,” he or she could have said, “the legislation we propose will conflict with Article 4 of the Protocol, but we fully intend to negotiate with the EU in good faith to achieve agreement. All we are trying to do is protect our positions.” Then that alarming phrase about breaking international law would have stayed in the mouths of others. Instead, it now gleefully leads every BBC news bulletin.

    The context could also be better presented. The breaking of international law is a sport at which the EU itself often excels. Whether failing to implement WTO obligations, or state aid rules, or to punish member-state breaches of its own pact about debt ratios and budget deficits (remember that EU treaties are themselves international treaties), or to comply with laws about migrants and refugees, the EU has, as they used to say in police circles, a record as long as your arm. Yet it suffers much less finger-wagging than Britain.

    It is also strongly arguable that the EU’s sequencing of the whole negotiating process from 2017 was in breach of Article 50, and that the sequencing of fishing and state aid as levers in Withdrawal Agreement negotiations lacks good faith. These examples illustrate that international law is usually tangled up with issues of politics and diplomacy. The EU often plays rough, always plays politically, and usually gets away with it.

    Britain is not being wicked if it tries some of the same. When David Cameron refused, contrary to international law, to comply with the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights which gave prisoners the right to vote, the sky did not fall in. Besides, Parliament is sovereign, a fact reiterated in Section 38 of the Withdrawal Agreement Act itself. Our domestic law does not just track international law. It is an important principle of our constitution that Government and Parliament can decide what the law is.

    The Government’s opponents need to understand something. Mr Lewis’s controversial announcement this week was deliberate (though its timing was rushed forward by a newspaper leak). The Government is determined not to repeat Mrs May’s fatal mistake of making vaguely tough-sounding noises and then giving in. By announcing its proposed breach of international law, it intended to cross the Rubicon with 
the EU and make it clear where it stands on the other side. It believes this will bring clarity, even respect.

    The truth is that no independence struggle can be conducted with perfect decorum. All such battles necessarily involve a dispute about legitimate authority. When they get going, the ruling power starts with the advantage that the legal order is skewed in its favour. Before the United States of America existed, its leaders were “rebel colonists”. Even before Britain existed, England experienced this problem. When Henry VIII wished to break with the Pope, he asserted in the Act in Restraint of Appeals to Rome that “this realm of England is an Empire”. In speaking thus, he did not mean our modern concept of a colonial power. He was simply asserting that England was sovereign, and so the Pope had no authority over him. Out of this dispute grew the English Reformation, and the rise of what eventually became the United Kingdom and the doctrine of the Crown in Parliament. Henry’s motives were largely base and the process was not pretty, but it helped create an independent nation which we came to prize.

    The current process of recapturing that independence is not pretty either, but that is unavoidable. The EU itself is still fighting to retain control in all but name. In Britain, its allies in significant sections of the Civil Service, the legal profession, the BBC, etc, are mutinously determined to assist it. From its earliest days, “Europe” has used its system of courts and of law as the key to advancing a political project which has always lacked a full democratic mandate. Britain today has the full democratic mandate to overcome this, but not yet the right people in the right places.

    1. “… It would have been better if the first government minister to deal publicly with this issue had been more senior and/or more legally qualified….”

      I disagree here. There seems to be a prevailing concept that ministers actually do things. They do not. They merely ask for policy to be enacted. The enacting is done by the millions of bureaucrats employed at great expense. It is time that the burden of failure were properly placed on the shoulders of the civil service.

      It’s funny that when the UK sets out to ‘break’ international law no one ever mentions that all those boats getting here with France doing the exact same thing, or listing the hundreds of times – mainly regarding it’s budget – that the EU has done the same, nor the lies, cheats and frauds it has encouraged.

      The media – almost entirely Left wing – refuses to place the facts in front of the viewer for fear of disrupting their narrative. If they’re going to blame Boris, they must also list the times the EU – and obviously, France has broken the law. No doubt the BBC would weasel this as ‘not illegal’ but that needs to change.

      If we are to be free, we must also be responsible. Sadly, that’s going to need unravelling the last 25 years of hard Left control freakery from big state.

  36. Good morning and a lovely morning it is too!

    The bright shining morning shines over the hills,
    With blushes adorning the meadows and rills.

    1. The publisher of an Air China in-flight magazine has apologised after the airline became embroiled in a race row.
      The magazine warned passengers to take “precautions” when visiting parts of London mainly populated by “Indians, Pakistanis and black people”.
      It was distributed on Air China flights in September.
      Air China Media, which publishes the Wings of China magazine, said it wished to apologise to “readers and passengers who are feeling uncomfortable”.
      It added: “This inappropriate description… was purely a work mistake by the editors and it’s not the magazine’s views.
      “We will immediately recall this entire issue of magazines and draw lessons from this incident.”

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-37307602

      An old 2016 article, but they aren’t all that wrong, are they!

  38. Well said Tom Samson. Royce’s experience with small reactors could get reliable power stations up & running in a couple of years:-

    Levelling up with nationwide nuclear power
    SIR – Michael Shellenberger and Christopher Barnard (Comment, September 4) highlight the importance to Britain of nuclear power, but they misunderstand the opportunity presented by small modular reactors.

    We are using well-understood energy technology to create a low-cost power station that is easier and faster to build and achieve scale than traditional ones. It offers Britain a low-carbon opportunity that must be grasped.

    We have decades of infrastructure and power experience and have invested significantly to bring about this opportunity, with government support.

    Our design is focused on de-carbonising future energy needs by providing secure and reliable clean power at a price comparable with intermittent offshore wind, while creating an estimated 40,000 high-skilled British jobs. We will support the vital levelling-up agenda by establishing new factories and industrial activity across Britain, and we will target billions of pounds in export revenues.

    Our design will contribute to a low-cost nuclear future. We are reducing construction and delivery risks by using a factory-built modular power plant. Our approach drastically reduces site-based construction activities and results in a more predictable, controllable and faster outcome, with a target build cycle of four years per 440 megawatt unit.

    We have established a credible domestic response to a domestic challenge – one that finally displays Britain’s nuclear credentials – and we are proud to stand at the forefront of the country’s nuclear ambition.

    Tom Samson
    Rolls-Royce plc
    Lancaster

        2. Last autumn, I recorded a a few snapshots from Gridwatch. Wind varied from 2% of 40GW demand (daytime, calm) to 42% of 25GW (late evening, windy). Half a dozen other figures were below 12%; actual outputs varied from 0.76 to 10.88GW.

          Electricity is about 1/5 of our energy usage.

          1. Until we are forced into electric cars and our gas boilers and cookers are banned.
            We are in for interesting times.

          2. Our gas supplies are running out fast anyway. It is that fact which prompted the 2025 ban on new installations.

        3. Percentages are used by lobby groups to make a point, the circumstances under which that figure is derived are conveniently hidden. Wind may well provide 35%, but for example at 3am when demand is miniscule and the supply chain is arranged such that other forms of generation are selectively used. Only absolute figures show the real picture.

    2. If nuclear power stations can be made small enough to put in a submarine, surely many smaller stations dotted over the country would be a better bet than half a dozen stonking great targets.
      To avoid them being wiped out by a cyber attack, they should be autonomous.

      3. There is (or was) one near Warrington over 40 years ago run in conjunction with Liverpool University, it was there when I left 27 years ago

    3. Aeronautical sector business going down the drain, lets start the marketing for this opportunity.

    4. I’ve long been of the view that that might be the way to go. Of course security will be paramount geven that we have thousands of commited jihadists who would deliht in causing a major nuclear incident.

      1. Which raises a question – why the feck are they here? We don’t want them, they don’t contribute to the country, they all say they hate the place and everything we stand for.

        As it is, a nuclear reactor is a very difficult target. It’s lot easier for a nutcase Muslim to hoof over a rucksack of explosives to a concert to kill people en masse. After all, it is our own decency, tolerance and kindness that allows those vile serpents to cause so much death.

      2. An issue Mr Samson does not address is a reliable supply of water for cooling. I wonder if he is writing in an official capacity. While the concept of micro nuclear reactors is appealing, the reality is there are very few places other than on the coast they can be deployed.

          1. Molten salt is the coolant fluid which transfers the heat from the core to the cooling mechanism, the installation still needs a method of dissipating the transferred heat.

        2. There was a Victorian worthy (one of those revs with lots of time and money on their hands) who remarked at how thoughtful it was of God to make sure every town and city had a river running through it.

          1. Indeed, like the American who on landing at Heathrow remarked that is was strange the Queen had her caslte built under the flight path to the airport.

          5. Potentially catastrophic for a whole variety of life-forms (though by no means all) it would certainly make a major impact on the flora and fauna. But, though I’m not pretending to be an engineer, I’ve worked fairly frequently in dairies and learned a bit, perforce, about heat exchangers.

            Water would need to be diverted from the river for cooling purposes rather as it always has been for milling. Could it not be returned to the river via a system of plate-coolers or pipe coolers such as are in daily use in dairies – using the heat from the chilling milk to warm the washing water for the whole dairy. If you ran a heat exchange with clean water it would provide the community with pre-warmed water for any one of a number of purposes.

            It could easily be regarded as part of the whole installation and the on-cost should not be prohibitive.

        3. Perhaps connect to a local heating system providing free hot water to the district. The downside being that the cooling system would be vunerable.

        4. Fin-fan air coolers. Established technology, work well, used in the deserts for production plant.

    5. This misunderstands the UKs energy policy though. The intent is not to meet demand – we could do that with fracking or the micro reactors.

      No, the intent – coming from the EU, UN and extra global entities is to force down our energy use to meet utterly nonsensical targets.

      Yet the government is obsessed with bringing in ever more people to use up that incerasingly scarce resource. Same for fuel. It’s all a con, a scam and a deliberate assault on private wealth for pointless statist arrogance.

  39. David Starkey: ‘Our universities have become woke superspreaders’. 12 September 2020.

    “There is an attempt at the obliteration of European civilisation. This seems to me to be the end of everything. In the name of acceptance, of broadening, of anti-discrimination, we’re at the risk of undoing what is our only claim to survive in the future. The only thing that’s made these little islands what they are is this astonishing burst of creativity of the last 500 years.

    “It is our individualism, it’s our bloody mindedness, our awkwardness, our refusal to fit into categories that has made us, dare I use the word, great. And if we lose that we are lost, we have absolutely nothing else.

    “The world that my enemies are trying to create is one that we will just go down the tubes, we are finished. I believe in going down fighting.”

    It’s amazing how many people can see this except those in Government or Power!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/thinking-man/david-starkey-universities-have-become-woke-superspreaders/

    3. 323629+ up tiicks,
      Morning AS,
      Plus let us not forget those that continue to put them into power in a party before Country mode of voting.

  40. I see that the BBC has announced that Mrs Murrell’s Daily Grandstand is to end. They will only cover these if she has anything significant to say. Consequently, a blessed silence should ensue!

    In other news, the Shetland islanders are seeking independence. Oh the irony…let’s see how she deals with that.

    1. Home rule for the Isle of Wight; Home Rule for Lundy, Home Rule for the Channel Islands, Home Rule for Eel Pie Island and the Isle of Dogs.

      1. The way I’m feeling about Wee Krankie and her neo-Nazi government, I’d be more likely to join the Shelties, Bill.

        (Good morning BTW)

      2. The way I’m feeling about Wee Krankie and her neo-Nazi government, I’d be more likely to join the Shelties, Bill.

        (Good morning BTW)

    3. I think the Shetlanders have never been comfortable with Scottish rule.
      Up helly aa … so’s to speak.

  41. I have just listened to (had on in the background) BBC’s Radio 4 News Quiz.

    A satirical review of the week’s news with Andy Zaltzman and guests Hugo Rifkind, Angela Barnes, Athena Kugblenu and Alun Cochrane.

    It was similar to hearing a series of jackals and gibbons taking it in turn to fart louder and longer than the previous contestant. 0/10 for information or entertainment. Defund the BBC.

    1. The News Quiz used to be good value until it was turned into the Jeremy Hardie show. I’ve listened only a few times in recent years.

      1. 16 in today’s DT Pub Quiz.

        OK, D-cup, you’ll have got 21 again! :•(

        I did the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? quiz, which was won yesterday, and was reprinted in today’s DT. I got all 15.

        [I only struggled a bit with one question but worked it out by process of elimination.]

          2. It’s the pressure of being on TV though. Not sure I could get my own name correct if asked while sitting in the glare of the spotlight.

          1. The one I had to guess was the Diwali one. I knew that Lent and Ramadan were not the shortest festivals but I guessed (luckily) that Hannukah was longer than Diwali.

  42. BBC hero, Toots ‘Monkey Man’ Hibbert has snuffed it. Hibbo, hero of Regie song, was in hospital “fighting for his life” in a medically-induced coma aka, a massive drugs overdose. All BBC staff will ‘give the knee’ in respect of their deceased hero at midnight tonight – and every night after until another BBC hero snuffs it. Let us hope they don’t have to wait long.

  43. Rarely are BTL posts in the Mail funny or noteworthy, but this one is rather good.

    “There are THREE certainties in life. Death, taxes and Blair would have somehow made millions out of this farce!”

  44. I see the print version of the DT has some daft old bugger from a telly dancing programme telling us all to pull together to defeat the plague.

    Uplifting…(sarc).

  45. 323629+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    British Authorities ‘Overwhelmed’ by ‘Absolute Mayhem’ as 200 Illegals Land.

    That would be with joy, no doubt now about that.

    3. if one does not accept the original premises in this then the rest of the argument is not valid.

    4. From that website:

      COVID-19 is the biggest threat this country has faced in peacetime history – Big fat lie, the spanish flu & the black death spring to mind as being worse.

      , which is why the UK government is working to a scientifically led, – Bwahahahaha! oh you comedians!

      step-by-step action plan for tackling the pandemic – taking the right measures at the right time. – Lie. Wrong measures at the wrong times.

      Effective COVID-19 vaccines will be the best way to deal with the pandemic. – Lie. Vit C & D, Zinc and Hydroxychloroquine, plus a few other cheap, well known things.

      Any vaccine must first go through the usual rigorous testing and development process and be shown to meet the expected high standards of safety, quality and efficacy before it can be deployed. – Right, let’s stop there. You’ve just told me three lies, so why should I believe this statement?

      1. Anyone insisting that I get vaccinated had better get themselves a good dentist.

        Anyone attempting to vaccinate me against my wishes had better get themselves a good undertaker.

        3. I had the ‘flu jab last year, but I still got the ‘flu. I am not going to have it this year (despite having been reminded by my surgery).

    5. This is a consultation document, the main purpose of which is to transfer authorisation to certify vaccines from the EU to UK post Brexit. However there are a number of issues of concern buried in the text which propose to increase the powers of the government in relation to management and adminstration of vaccines in the case of pandemics. I think compulsory vaccination may be on the Government’s agenda. Be very, very careful.

      1. This governmental panic, IMHO, is all about the future direction of asymmetrical biological warfare.
        This is not the place to discuss bio-terrorism, but since 9/11 it has been a hot topic.

      2. This governmental panic, IMHO, is all about the future direction of asymmetrical biological warfare.
        This is not the place to discuss bio-terrorism, but since 9/11 it has been a hot topic.

      3. Remember the shot in “On The Beach” of the endless queue in Collins Street, Melbourne – of people waiting patiently for their lethal injections?

    2. This must stop. They’re obviously illegal gimmigrants. Probably Romanian. Get rid of them. If another boat heads this way, destroy it.

      1. Tony Abbott* solved the problem for Australia : all illegals were taken back to the starting point of their voyage and put in a dinghy with only enough fuel just to reach the shore.

        End of problem.

        No wonder the woke leftists do not like Tony Abbott and why we need him in charge of illegal immigration.

        * Typo corrected.

        2. 323629+ up ticks,
          Morning R,
          The “woke” lab/lib/con coalition would be more honestly apt.
          We HAVE honest Englishmen no need to go foreign.

          1. Good morning

            New internal struggles in UKIP – I have recommended that you form a splinter group to end the constant internal problems in the party and make it electable.

          2. 323629+ up ticks,
            As has been witnessed, a party led successfully under the Gerard Batten leadership no one can deny that, and they have tried, will NOT be tolerated.

            The trouble is currently external seeing that the real UKIP is a lost cause due to treacherous Nec orchestrated actions.

            The external trouble is from misguided allegiance to the
            lab/lib/con very recently brussels rubber stamping assets, and a section of the herd putting party before Country regardless of causing detriment to the nation, as we have / are witnessing.

            ALL the time you have FPTP close shop and a herd willing to
            support the lab/lib/con coalition party we WILL stay in the sh!te as a Country.
            I do honestly believe the end result ( not long now in coming) will NOT be very pretty & I don’t believe there will be empty hospitals for long.
            A very sad situation all round that could have been avoided years ago.

          3. 323629+ up ticks,
            As has been witnessed, a party led successfully under the Gerard Batten leadership no one can deny that, and they have tried, will NOT be tolerated.

            The trouble is currently external seeing that the real UKIP is a lost cause due to treacherous Nec orchestrated actions.

            The external trouble is from misguided allegiance to the
            lab/lib/con very recently brussels rubber stamping assets, and a section of the herd putting party before Country regardless of causing detriment to the nation, as we have / are witnessing.

            ALL the time you have FPTP close shop and a herd willing to
            support the lab/lib/con coalition party we WILL stay in the sh!te as a Country.
            I do honestly believe the end result ( not long now in coming) will NOT be very pretty & I don’t believe there will be empty hospitals for long.
            A very sad situation all round that could have been avoided years ago.

          4. Good morning

            New internal struggles in UKIP – I have recommended that you form a splinter group to end the constant internal problems in the party and make it electable.

    3. 323629+ up ticks,
      AS,
      Once more we are to hear the sound of marching feet as the occupation WILL take over, overseen once again by a vichy government, check out history, nothing new.

    5. In any millennium prior to the current one, such an invasion would have been thwarted by use of deadly force. Banks of troops with slingshots/bows and arrows/muskets/machine guns would have strafed the insurgents.

      Since the turn of this current millennium, however, all sense of nationhood and home security has been lost. We, as a nation, are much punier in mind, body, resolve and spirit. A pathetic shadow of our ancestors.

      1. Six in a boat doesn’t give the Albanian crime lords in Calais enough profit – they care not for the safety of those they pack into the RIBs.

  49. I made a facetious comment the other day about Blobby and STASI ( STAy safe, Stay Indoors) but today’s Grimes has just that as a headline (Stay indoors or be fined). The STASI connection is frighteningly real as “Ministers are also considering plans for a hotline to report those who are breaking quarantine rules to the police.”

    This is beyond a joke. Where is the Parliamentary accountability for such gross intrusions into liberty?

    2. 323629+ up ticks.
      Morning R,
      Parliamentary accountability was got shot of decades ago when the electorate went into party before Country mode and continued in that mode to give the politico’s carte blanche.
      Who, via the ballot booth created these type party’s ?

      Ps I can still hear the call ongoing from the 24/6/2016
      “job done, leave it to the tories”

    3. We had an email newsletter from the leader of the city council last night. This is someone who has publicly pledged support to BLM (in Bristol).
      She churns through all our latest Instructions.
      Then says how Bath University is now all prepared for the new term; how all students will be required to sign up to the 6-person limits…AND any student not happy that others are not obeying the dictum, should send in details of the disobedience to……& they will be fully investigated.
      This in a university with one of the highest proportion of Chinese students.
      *
      More despair. ‘We instruct you to be a good snitch.’

    1. While the behvaiour is true, the EU is fundamentally afraid. It’s cash cow is leaving. The lingua franca is leaving. The cachet and respect the UK has is leaving. The EU, without us is really, truly just a bunch of foreigners.

      Who would you rather trade with? The UK or Slovenia?

      1. 323629+ up ticks.
        Afternoon W,
        I would NEVER have left the Commonwealth
        to start with.
        Plus I would have left ,total severance on the 25/6/2016.
        The lost four plus years would have had us
        well in front & dictating our own future & showing the way for others to follow.
        Instead we are suffering yet another treacherous tory lookalike gang in parliament.

        We will NEVER , ever completely shake the eu sh!te of our UK shoes all the while the
        lab/lib/con coalition have a following.

        1. Well, Glove (sic) claims to be Scottish – so I don’t want to upset any Scots NoTTLers…{:¬))

      7. Seconded. And that’s his good side. Why are most politicians shits and two faced barstewards, is it because it is such a discredited calling that only shits are attracted to it?

      8. I don’t care if he is an obnoxious little shit, if he led the country away from this calamitous decline that Johnson is bringing about he can, as far as I am concerned, have the job.
        Only last year people were saying nice things about Johnson, that hasn’t worked out so well.
        Bring on the biggest bastard we can find, we will not be any worse off than we are now.

        1. But Glove could NOT lead the country out of this mess. Much of the present chaos has been directly created by him.

          1. I agree with you.
            I think he is slightly unhinged, partly because he lacks ‘ordinary’ good sense or intuition, partly because he has an obnoxious & ambitious wife (also poor judgement), and lastly because he idiotically venerates the Asperger kid.

          2. The man responsible is Johnson, and only Johnson. He is PM, he is leader of that shower Westminster. He knew exactly what the WA was all about and still went with it, now he is trying to be clever to cover up his shortcomings.

  53. R.I.P Sir Terence Conran.

    He will probably redesign Heaven now. Some nice fabrics… a few throw cushions.

  54. With this irrational crackdown, the government has undermined itself. 12 September 2020.

    In fact, my (and quite possibly your) experience of talking to real people gives a very different picture of the public state of mind from the quiescent one that official figures might suggest.

    Even before last week’s bombshell announcement, I was struck by how widely the true facts of the current situation had permeated the popular consciousness. Casual conversations with neighbours in the street, with people in shops and at the hairdressers’ revealed that almost all of them had taken in the important anomaly: that while numbers of “new cases” (in reality, just positive test results) were increasing, hospital admissions and deaths were not.

    Something truly awful is going on here that will have ramifications far beyond the immediate Covid crisis. The government has become trapped in a fear loop of its own creation in which all the processes of parliament have been devalued.

    Janet is assuming here that the government is acting in good faith. A doubtful proposition at best!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/12/irrational-crackdown-government-has-undermined/

    1. I think there is a serious power struggle going on in the Cabinet – and they are using the Plague to blind us to it. I abhor Johnson (for whom I voted in good faith) – but I think he is a very unwell man – who is being led by the nose by those who will stab him in the back – again.

      1. Johnson has lost it, and is taking the advice of Marxists and Communists (Susan Michie, Trisha Greenhalgh – two that I know of for sure). Hancock is a sociopath who is relishing his current level of unrestrained power.

        As for why so many governments are following this illogical path:

        https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/world-bank-offered-belarus-940-million-coronavirus-loan-locked-destroyed-economy/
        World Bank Offered Belarus $940 Million Coronavirus Loan But Only If They Locked Down and Destroyed Economy

        I don’t know how true it is, but what’s the betting it is…??

        2. It would fit in with everything that is happening elsewhere…. instinct tells me that this is true.

      2. Name a recent or contemporary politician who would not lay down his friends for his life. They smile while they slide the stiletto in.

      3. The 2 in the Cabinet who wanted the 6 person restriction were Gove & Hancock….
        WHY isn’t Boris telling THEM what to do?
        The only conclusion is that he has been left seriously affected and is unwell…

  55. ‘Thought For the Day’ just now with a lament for the Amazon people, brutalised and murdered by Bolsonaro’s miners, loggers and ranchers in the name of settler rights we must all go on our knee for, and then the destruction by Rio Tinto Zinc of the only archaeological site with an unbroken tradition of human occupation in the world that pre-dates the Ice Age, whose chief executive apologises, while his executives pocket their bonus.

    What chance of a similar lament for affronts to indigenous people in Europe through invasive settlement by aliens?

    1. I read the article. You can get a good idea where the author’s sympathies lie when he calls President Trump an “Orange Fascist criminal” and the only quotes from the MSM are those of the far left, CNN, the Washington Post and the NY Times! He writes about Libya but can’t help mentioning “Black Lives Matter and police murder of Black youth”.

      The article is factually incorrect in a number of respects but it is woefully prejudiced and one-sided when it talks about the present situation, in September 2020. The author obviously loathes General Haftar but fails to even mention the so-called government in Tripoli (supported by the UN). This is led by Turkey, financed to a large extent by Qatar and other proponents of the Muslim Brotherhood. In fact, Turkey has imported thousands of mercenaries from Syria, many of them members of ISIS. Erdogan’s ultimate aim is to consolidate his position as the new Caliph, having neutered any opposition in Turkey, and to grab the Libyan oil resources.

      I lived in Libya from 1968 until 1974 and saw Gaddafi’s revolution and the demise of his Late Majesty, King Idris the first and the last on September 1st 1968. Gaddafi was a tyrant by any standards, and he left a legacy of chaos which won’t be solved any time soon, especially if Biden and Hilary have anything to do with it.

          1. I’ve enjoyed several holidays on the Turkish Mediterranean coast, and also visited Istanbul on a school cruise on the SS Uganda in 1971*. It seemed to me that Kemal Mustafa Ataturk had founded a secular Muslim country, rather in the same way that we’re now a secular Christian country. The amplified call to prayer merely served to reinforce the fact that one was a long way from home, in a different culture. I find the Turks delightful people (perhaps because they rely on tourism). I imagine the Traceys will agree.

            Under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, it has become a different place. I’d love to go back, but I have severe reservations.

            *The night before we were due to set sail from Istanbul, we were teased that there was civil unrest in Ankara, and we’d probably be incarcerated for the foreseeable future. We should have departed overnight, but we woke to find ourselves still in the Port of Istanbul. Panic ensued, till we were assured that a supplies barge had collided with an open door in the side of the hull, which wouldn’t close as a result, but it would soon be fixed, and we’d be on our way…

          2. Yes, absolutely did not mean the Turkish people, just our political relationship.
            As also the Iranians or Persians…I have met or know of lovely people.
            So sad for them that their regime has gone backwards.
            I’m sure they’ve suffered tremendously under the COVID-19 too…far more than we’re permitted to know.

      2. He may have been a tyrant by Western standards but all objective accounts of the country in recent decades spoke of raised standards of education, public works, rule of law, health and prosperity. The legacy of chaos was surely created when Gaddafi was deposed by the US, UK and France? Amazingly, we did it all over again in Iraq and Afghanistan and tried hard with Syria. I am not some bleeding-heart, left-wing liberal and generally view Attila as a pink and fluffy softy but the West must learn that to interfere in Arab/Muslim internal matters is a recipe for disaster.

        1. I feel really sad for Libya and the Libyans. They don’t deserve what’s happened to them since Ghaddafi was killed. Libya when I was there (early 2000s) was quite civilised, but now… Sigh.

        2. I’m afraid that the reality for the population was far different from that supposed by Europeans who hadn’t spent much time in Libya and who had not had the opportunity to speak to locals (not those educated in the West) – difficult because the locals were terrified of speaking to foreigners.

          The education was nothing but brainwashing according to Gaddafi’s own warped view of life as described in his ‘Green Book’. This was described by the BBC thus: “The theory claims to solve the contradictions inherent in capitalism and communism… In fact, it is little more than a series of fatuous diatribes, and it is bitterly ironic that a text whose professed objective is to break the shackles… has been used instead to subjugate an entire population”.

          I lived in Libya previously and I spend much of my time in Tunisia these days and still meet many Libyans. The old guard were educated and civilised by European standards but those born during Gaddafi’s rule are uncivilised and empty-headed.

          The inhabitants of Libya lived in terror, whatever the health and other benefits Gaddafi might have introduced to subdue them. Every village, parts of a town, business etc. had to have a اللجان الشعبية (Lejna shaabya – peoples committee). These were manned by Gaddafi’s henchmen who monitored the activities of the entire population and anyone out of line could expect some nasty things to happen.

          Yes, it is a recipe for disaster for the West to interfere but countries ruled by tyrants are disasters anyway. However, the tyrants keep the lid on unrest – no wonder things go wrong when the lid is removed!!

          1. I was not suggesting that Gaddafi’s regime was a beacon of democracy and harmony but that, as you suggest in your final sentence, progress in Arab countries needs a lid to be kept on things.

      3. I thought he was laying the blame squarely at the door of Obama Biden, Clinton and European Leaders. I’ve no doubt Gaddafi was a tyrant but was the regime he controlled better or worse than the conditions that prevail today?

    4. That’s just the queue for the gents’. Where is the ladies’?

      Very few bitches ‘cock their legs’.

  58. I will only write just a couple of thoughts about this article.

    Her first mistake in this article occurs in her first paragraph, the DT has not been a “Right-wing newspaper“ for some time now.
    I find it deliciously ironic that XR has turned and has bit the hand that has been feeding them for so long, serves them bloody right.

    Elon is changing the world far more than Greta ever will

    Extinction Rebellion has made itself very unpopular with all of us who care about the environment

    Juliet Samuel12 September 2020 • 6:00am
    This time last week, you were no doubt sitting down to breakfast with a curious feeling of incompleteness. There was the toast, the tea and the milk, but where was your Saturday Telegraph?
    There was a reason for this unhappy situation: someone – a group of someones – had decided they didn’t want you to read any “Right-wing newspapers” last weekend, because your exposure to the news, fashions and values they contain might fill your head with wrongful thinking and bring on Judgment Day, Ragnorök, or whatever the right term is for the coming climate catastrophe. In an act that would have made Metternich proud, this group of Extinction Rebellion radicals blockaded the road out of the printing presses to cut off the flow of subversive ideas at source.
    This week, for good measure, the same group vandalised Winston Churchill’s statue by spray-painting the usual denunciation (“was a racist!”) onto his plinth. Perhaps instead of scouring this stuff off every time, we could just erect a little plaque beneath it that says: “You don’t like Churchill? Check out the other guy!”
    These damaging acts both point to the biggest peculiarity of the Extinction Rebellion movement, which is the gap between how appealing its cause ought to be and how thoroughly unappealing it manages to make itself.
    The UK is a country of conservationists across the political spectrum. It’s true that conservatives tend to care more about rubbish dumping and land use, while Lefties tend to worry more about carbon emissions and resource use, but these concerns overlap so much that they are often different aspects of similar problems. Broadly, all groups care a lot about waste, clean air, wildlife and habitat loss.
    Even on climate change, supposedly one of the most contentious issues, the evidence suggests there isn’t actually a massive divide. The British Social Attitudes Survey found in 2019 that all age groups and voter groups have a lot of views in common. For example, 85 per cent of over-65s think climate change is at least somewhat caused by human activity, not far off the 90 per cent of those under 34. When it comes to fretting about it, young people worry more (74 per cent are “somewhat”, “very” or “extremely” worried), but most of the elderly do, too (65 per cent).
    There isn’t even a political huge gulf on policy. Just over 40 per cent of Labour voters are in favour of a fossil fuel tax, but so are 35 per cent of Tory voters. Similarly, 68 per cent of Conservative voters are in favour of subsidies for renewable energy, versus 72 of Labour voters. So, yes, there are some differences in degree and intensity of belief, but they don’t look insurmountable.
    All of this makes intuitive sense. By and large, we trust scientists (Covid forecasts notwithstanding). More importantly, it is a basic human instinct to care about the health of our habitat, to love nature and to revile the sight of huge, polluted wastelands, trash-filled oceans and skies blazing orange from wildfires. Yet if all of these attitudes are so broadly shared, why has the debate turned into a toxic culture war, rather than a pragmatic argument about trade-offs?
    The problem is that environmentalism as a political movement isn’t just about the environment. It has hitched its wagon to all sorts of other weird and wonderful vehicles, almost all highly unpopular, like anti-capitalism, anti-Americanism, Europhilia, class war, radical feminism, the trans movement, anti-Israel activism, pro-migration advocacy, universal basic income, votes for 16-year-olds, drug liberalisation and so on.
    For any conservationist with broadly mainstream political views, these radical, tag-along vehicles are big, red flags. If you believe that capitalism, finance and technology might be part of the solution to environmental problems or that policies based on a severe cut to living standards and universal veganism are simply not realistic, there is no place for you in this environmentalist brigade. Extinction Rebellion’s leaders don’t want to hear your arguments or find common ground. They want to ostracise and denounce you, impugn your motives and paint you as a dupe of the “billionaire media” and its “capitalist vanguard”.
    Furthering this impression, the movement’s imagery seems deliberately designed to portray it as a cult. Personally, I find the strange coven of XR mime priestesses with white face paint and red robes rather wacky and amusing. And if topless rebels want to chain themselves to the gates of Parliament, their nudity doesn’t especially worry me – certainly not in comparison to the idiots blocking roads in a stricken city centre during a recession or the authoritarians intent on censoring a free press. Whatever their motives, however, can these exhibitionists and obstructionists really blame the media if their image and methods put off potential supporters rather than recruiting them?
    By and large, I would like to support Britain’s environmentalists. I worry about habitat loss and pollution, I don’t like receiving deliveries rammed with polystyrene bits and I think the sound of birdsong is a tonic more powerful than most touted mental health therapies. I don’t think any of these views are radical.
    But I also don’t believe that the precursor to addressing any of these issues is some sort of political revolution or economic reversal. I don’t believe that populations will ever choose to live in some strange extension of a lockdown economy, where loo paper is rationed, transport restricted and wages capped. And I think that if you tell people that all these things are required to solve our problems or that they are disgusting for eating meat and going on foreign holidays, they will simply shrug their shoulders and tune out.
    Extinction Rebellion and its leaders need to decide what they really care about. Is their movement about improving the environment, even if that means working with “the enemy” to explore policies like a workable carbon tax, nuclear power development and profitable ways to improve land use? Or is it about a culture war on people and communities whose life choices don’t fit with their idea of virtue? Put another way, who is a more effective promoter of clean transport: Greta Thunberg, who took 15 days to cross the Atlantic on a zero-carbon yacht only to find she needed to be in Madrid, or Elon Musk, who has made electric cars look cool and luxurious? Even the most devoted XR radical knows the answer to that.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/12/elon-changing-world-far-greta-ever-will/

    1. RAGNARÖK

      “Brothers will fight
      and kill each other,
      sisters’ children
      will defile kinship.
      It is harsh in the world,
      whoredom rife
      —an axe age, a sword age
      —shields are riven—
      a wind age, a wolf age—
      before the world goes headlong.
      No man will have
      mercy on another.”
      — Völuspá

      1. And don’t forget Mark Antony:

        A curse shall light upon the limbs of men;
        Domestic fury and fierce civil strife
        Shall cumber all the parts of Italy;
        Blood and destruction shall be so in use
        And dreadful objects so familiar
        That mothers shall but smile when they behold
        Their infants quarter’d with the hands of war;
        All pity choked with custom of fell deeds:
        And Caesar’s spirit, ranging for revenge,
        With Ate by his side come hot from hell,
        Shall in these confines with a monarch’s voice
        Cry ‘Havoc,’ and let slip the dogs of war;
        That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
        With carrion men, groaning for burial.

    2. My only comment is that there is virtually nothing to choose between Labour voters and Conservative voters.

    3. Ah, but when you’re asked ‘do you care about th environment’ for me that means yes, I want an end to the EU WEEE regulation. Yes, man creates it – but only, again; through the WEEE regulation.

      There’s much we could do about it but don’t. That doesn’t mean I am bothered by the environment or believe in climate change being caused by man. It isn’t. It’s caused by natural phenomena. Pollution is caused by man.

      1. I have always taken the stance that reducing pollution is a worthwhile aim, bowing down to the false God of climate change is not.

    4. Extinction Rebellion and its leaders need to decide what they really care about. Is their movement about improving the environment

      No. It’s not about the environment. It’s about socialism and ending capitalism. Climate change and the environment, like CV19, is just the excuse and means to do it.

  60. Has this been discussed today?

    National Witch-hunt: Some of Britain’s grandest families have bequeathed their homes to the National Trust – now hijacked by the PC mob. Their reward? To be publicly smeared over dubious links to slavery, writes GUY ADAMS
    By GUY ADAMS FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    PUBLISHED: 23:38, 11 September 2020 | UPDATED: 15:16, 12 September 2020
    ————————————————————————————————————————————-
    Now, say its critics, the Trust’s apparent desire to portray so many key properties as monuments to slavery provides more evidence of a general antipathy to country homes.

    ‘This is typical of the National Trust’s obsessive politicisation over the past nine years,’ says Harry Mount, the author of How England Made The English.

    ‘It has replaced scholarship and intellectual high-mindedness with political lectures and badly spelt, low-IQ signs and displays.

    ‘According to the National Trust Act of 1937, the Trust’s explicit aims were the preservation of buildings of national interest, along with their furniture and pictures, and the preservation of beautiful landscapes. The Trust is betraying that original duty.’

    Many of Britain’s grandest families will feel that they, too, are being monstrously betrayed.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8724183/GUY-ADAMS-National-Trust-launches-national-witch-hunt.html
    Share or comment on this article: GUY ADAMS: National Trust launches a national witch-hunt

    1. Yes, quite early… it’s dreadful. Wish one could take the properties back, they’re supposed to be for the people of the nation, not for the elite virtue signallers…

    3. It isn’t a new thing; back in the nineties the National Distrust was riding roughshod over the requests of those who left their properties to the nation.

    1. Stopping the illegals isn’t what the govt want – – controlling the public is.
      Also.
      I can see someone trying to tell a group of hoodie/face covered youths to break up and go home ending up in hospital, courtesy of those same youths.

        1. More bothersome is that these people are allowed to vote.

          I imagine though a lot is down to using a mobile device to post the message.

    4. The appalling grammar detracts from the message. It plays right into the Left’s message that all Ringer wingers are illiterate thugs.

      1. Just peruse the appalling grammar on any comments forum on ‘social media’, on YouTube videos, or on popular ‘memes’. It is seldom that you will find one that is written in proper English or, indeed, any that make sense to read.

        1. I’d be happier if the simple stuff, like spelling and punctuation, was reasonably correct, before more esoteric things such as grammar.

          1. The lack of shame over their own illiteracy is more worrying. Most know they’re wrong, but don’t care about it. To them it’s not important and other people are wrong for pointing out their stupidity.

  62. Afternoon All

    Poland has a better class of Covid Marshals

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/00bf63012b99302777d552fa5536e9d74ae8e44ecf16b0464493174d86e4fba0.jpg

    and some laffs

    https://scontent-lhr8-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/119097465_10220815534489822_1413207017722917179_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&_nc_sid=8024bb&_nc_ohc=hAIZceKOGZAAX9JyRVJ&_nc_ht=scontent-lhr8-1.xx&oh=38739f2e350a16ecc6864d8f555390f5&oe=5F8185AE

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/56fd5a5cb863d05160667a10bc183c85880d6f2af369d6ed7eeaa790a702f05b.jpg

    1. So the female marshals all got the same outfit – but presumably the budget didn’t have enough to buy them all matching boots.

  63. I just heard a rather strange story from Germany.

    Last week, a sixth form student was in a class where the English teacher was going on about BLM. Teacher was saying that white lives don’t matter as much as black lives, because of white privilege.
    Not a single student disagreed (it should be added, that part of the marks in the final exam are awarded by the teacher for what the kids say in class, so clearly nobody is going to say any controversial opinions).

    Then the teacher introduced them to the racist insult “WASP” and explained what it means.

    The kids are apparently mostly German, with a few foreigners. There are two part British kids in the class, as well as several from other countries.
    One of the Britons is dark haired and slightly brown-skinned, the other is blonde and blue-eyed.

    The teacher then singled out the blonde British kid, and asked her whether she was WASP. The kid said she was not Anglo-Saxon, as she is Irish, and so they agreed that she is just “W”.
    The teacher did not discuss the ethnic origins of any of the other students.

    Singling out one child, to discuss whether she conforms to a term that is a racist insult…when has that happened in Germany before?

    But here’s the real kicker:

    Both the British kids probably have the same percentage (roughly a quarter to a third) of Anglo-Saxon blood.
    But the blonde kid is in fact Jewish.
    Her great grandparents left Germany in the 1930s, in order to escape Nazi persecution. She has part Irish and part British blood.
    She did not admit any of this information in front of the class (I wonder why!)

    I think this is an appalling story, however my informant says nobody will complain, because of the marks for the Abitur (A levels).

    1. If there’s really so much white privilege, why do so many white people pretend to be black, and so many mixed race people also identify as black (Obama, Lewis Hamilton, etc) ????

      If the kids don’t complain, the parents certainly should. This is nothing more than pseudo science, Marxist critical race theory, specially designed to oppress people and show division. The parents need to read up on it, understand what’s going on, and challenge it.

    2. The UK is on “the edge of losing control” of the virus and people who can work from home should continue to do so, according to Sage adviser and former Government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Mark Walport.

      Who?

          2. It’s looking that way with the Consultation Document below posted earlier. And don’t forget the producers of said vaccine will have immunity from prosecution for any adverse effects.

            https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/distributing-vaccines-and-treatments-for-covid-19-and-flu/consultation-document-changes-to-human-medicine-regulations-to-support-the-rollout-of-covid-19-vaccines

            We seem to have seamlessly morphed into a police state. I wish we were a revolutionary people.

          3. Hi Maggie. Bread and circuses have had their effect. But I sense from BTL comments that we’re slowly waking up. It may be too late. I’ll resist compulsory vaccination, I refuse to wear masks, and claim (spurious) exemption. Church tomorrow (our first service since Mothering Sunday in March) may be a problem. We’re banned from singing, so there are three recorded hymns. I’ll prolly {©BT} have to wear a face nappy. I’m far from happy, though.

          4. Geoff I’m so glad to hear that at least one other person refuses to mask up other than John and I! I was challenged at Waitrose yesterday and just said “I’m exempt” and walked in. John just walked straight through and not many have the nerve to say anything to him. I’m sorry to hear there’s no singing at church. Try not to give in to masking. Enjoy the service.

          5. I’ve done the same at Waitrose, Guildford. Mostly, I refuse to shop. I’ve submitted to masks on one train journey, two bus journeys, and at two funerals. Each time, I’ve ended up with health issues, so I’m about to declare myself exempt. My friend in Devon has genuine anxiety issues, and refuses to wear one. She attended a demo in Bristol last weekend. I’d have gone to the London bash, but it’s a little tricky with my disability. Haven’t ruled it out, though.

          6. No mask for me, excpt when flying, or you can’t get on the plane – and I am very reluctant to fly, puffing in my own exhaust…

          7. Last time I was on an aeroplane I got a 4-week dose of flu. They can keep flying abroad as far as I am concerned!

          8. It’s the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain tomorrow. I contemplated putting on my hard hat with visor to comply with the mask wearing diktat, but I’ve decided to stay away; services aren’t what they were and having half the pews cordoned off, no choir (the organist does play and we have one chorister singing from by the altar) and no singing in the congregation doesn’t make it the pleasant experience it once was.

          9. I am making my own protest by wearing a bandanna in shops and banks. I look like a bandit, but who cares; it satisfies the “mandatory face covering” requirement.

          10. I have been talking about our becoming a police state since 1997 – MOH thinks I’m deluded. The government seems determined to prove me right.

          11. Then I’m deluded too Conway. Certainly since this whole lockdown business began it seems to have accelerated at warp speed!

          12. I told my father 50 years ago that we were living in a Police State. He derided me. I wonder what he would say now.

          14. I AM NOT going to have a vaccine , so the government may bump me off with a bar of Novichocolate instead


    4. the study from Imperial suggested that the doubling time was about seven days.”

      Ah. Imperial College again. The same team that forecast half a million dead, who are alleged to have mixed up Case Fatality rate with infection fatality rate, the latter being ten times that of the former

      https://drmalcolmkendrick.org
      COVID – why terminology really, really matters

      Every day we are informed of a worrying rise in COVID cases in country after country, region after region, city after city. Portugal, France, Leicester, Bolton. Panic, lockdown, quarantine. In France the number of reported cases is now as high as it was at the peak of the epidemic. Over 5,000, on the first of September.

      But what does this actually mean? Just to keep the focus on France for a moment. On March 26th, just before their deaths peaked, there were 3,900 hundred ‘cases’. Fourteen days later, there were 1,400 deaths. So, using a widely accepted figure, which is a delay of around two weeks between diagnoses and death, 36% of cases died.

      In stark contrast, on August 16th, there were 3,000 cases. Fourteen days later there were 26 deaths. Which means that, in March, 36% of ‘cases’ died. In August 0.8% of ‘cases’ died. This, in turn, means that COVID was 45 times as deadly in March, as it was in August?

      This seems extremely unlikely. In fact, it is so unlikely that it is, in fact, complete rubbish. What we have is a combination of nonsense figures which, added together, create nonsense squared. Or nonsense to the power ten.

      Plus:
      https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/when-is-covid-covid/
      When is Covid, Covid?
      The definition of suspected cases resembles what we would normally expect for making a diagnosis based on a set of clinical criteria. This is, however, discarded when it comes to a confirmatory diagnosis and replaced by a single PCR test result. However, there is no guidance providing details on the specific RNA sequences required by testing, a threshold for the test result and the need for confirmatory testing. It is therefore not clear to us what constitutes a positive result.

  66. I’m doing a Grizzly – putting up a letter here which I have sent to the DT which I do not expect them to publish:

    Sir,

    Am I alone in finding it strange and sinister that so many former Conservative Party leaders: Theresa May, David Cameron, Michael Howard, William Hague and John Major – would prefer the United Kingdom’s territorial integrity to be destroyed by the EU’s machinations rather than to support the current prime minister in his determination not to let this happen?

    Rastus C. Tastey

    1. I’m doing a Rastus C Tastey and commenting on this letter.

      No. You are not alone.

      However, increasingly and exponentially stupider humans get the politicians they deserve. If you are as thick as two short planks then you deserve politicians who are as thick as two short planks.

      3. Funnily enough the brilliant* satirical song I wrote about Blair in about 1999 was called Just Deserts.

        The last two lines:

        I’ll be so slick and plausible on me you’ll bet your shirts
        And with New Labour endlessly, you’l get your just deserts!

        * A matter of opinion I admit. My sycophants thought it was brilliant but others may not have thought so.

    2. 323629+ up ticks,
      Afternoon R,
      With all due respect to yourself this has been known and quite plain to see especially since major, & getting
      progressively worse by the day, ongoing.
      Never believe the latest one, johnson has broken the treachery mould he is, IMO still in a highly suss. state of being.
      As we have seen you do NOT get to the top of the political treachery pole within this treacherous group
      without having good sound anti UK / pro eu feelings.

      1. 323629+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Ims2,
        It poses the question though, openly, and deserves an honest open answer from the overseers.

        After all the peoples fight the political overseers conflict issues for them, and die.

        1. You’ll never get an honest answer from the CCP, but many have already said it could not have been a natural virus, and had to have been bioengineered.

          1. 323629+ up ticks,
            Ims2,
            They are not alone in the non answering honestly department
            we have a multitude politically in-house.

      2. 323629+ up ticks,
        Ims2
        There are many at the guessing game very few will voice their feelings openly, as with many issues.

    3. The CCP at least made sure everyone else is suffering as well.
      The WHO and Democrats are still on their side.


    1. Joe
      @josephmarsh
      ·
      11 Sep
      Replying to
      @illdiscourse
      no undocumented wildfires crossing the borders to just make a better life for itself???

  70. That’s me. Harvested the first two rows of potatoes. Small crop – but an excellent variety. Nice evening – may risk having a drink outside.

    Will miss the Porms last night – first time since 1956. Can’t be doing with blecks and wokes. I can just imagine what the Ukrainian Finn will pontificate about.

    A demain.

  72. ‘Look at the size of this queue!’: Shocking footage shows hundreds of people being forced to wait for FIVE HOURS to get a Covid test at a walk-in centre in Bury. 12 September 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3a39426745b54491d8befeed3cfb635f31b31129aa0b3fff4c8129887afd5b03.jpg

    A father was left stunned after seeing hundreds of people standing in a ‘five hour’ queue waiting for Covid tests at a walk-in centre in Manchester.

    Tony Kirvin, 43, needed to get his son Michael tested after the 14-year-old started showing mild symptoms and was sent home from school.

    The nearest testing centre was a 120-mile round trip, which he said was not feasible, so Mr Kirvin instead drove to a walk-in centre near their home in Bury on Thursday.

    The only question I have to ask is. Why?

    Suppose they say yes. What do you do? Throw a hissy fit? Call in the exorcist? Hang yourself from the nearest lamppost? It’s utility escapes me. If he’s really sick surely the first thing to do is call an ambulance and if he isn’t kick him out of the house!.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8725287/Hundreds-people-forced-wait-FIVE-HOURS-Covid-test-walk-centre-Bury.html

    1. With this sort of level of fear, those of us who dare to question the official narrative, will not be allowed to “pass freely without let or hinderance”

    2. If he’s sick, put him to bed. The need for an ambulance is highly unlikely. All those who were under the age of sixteen who died were severely ill before contracting CV19.

      As for mild symptoms, i.e. sore throat, cough, etc, that could be any one of various viruses that do the rounds.

      1. Sage advice to the Government was to ramp up fear to get more compliance. This is the result.

        There is nothing sage about these charlatans.

        The question remains…Why is the Government spouting new diktats on a daily basis unless there is an agenda they are not telling us about.

    1. 323629+ up ticks,
      Evening PP,
      Citizen ovis submitting to compulsory needlework is a shot in the @rse for democracy that is an unavoidable FACT.

  74. On a different note 50+ members of the choir began rehearsing Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius earlier today which subject to the ending of Covid Interruptus we are due to perform in Bath Abbey at some point in the future. We are also going to record a movement from Rachmaninov’s Vespers:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEudRRiF7Us

        3. Thanks, Stephen. V8 are superb. They have a fairly high turnover of members. Robert, my old Assistant Organist was one of their tenors for 3 or 4 years. Apart from Barnaby and Andrea, they’ve all changed. No matter…

          1. I’ll add that I attended Robert Smith’s 30th birthday party some years ago. Andrea handed me a slice of birthday cake. I haven’t washed that hand, since…

          3. Hmmm. That would be the left hand. As it happens, I’ve been on the phone to Robert this evening. Things are pretty dire for professional musicians, but it seems that St John, Wimbledon is beginning to raise its head above the parapet. Unlike here. We have our first service in six months tomorrow morning, and all music has to be recorded. Don’t know why, but I’m a mere functionary.

    2. I’m not yet allowed to do what I normally do for the Church. I’ve been told in no uncertain terms that I shouldn’t ask the members of our two choirs whether they’re willing to return. Three pre-recorded hymns. I might be permitted to play before and after, but it”s by no means certain. I suspect that the towel will be firmly chucked in, soon.

      1. Hi Geoff. I perhaps should have made it clear todays rehearsal was via ZOOM. However, we might get to practice as a Choir in the flesh so to speak in a week or two in a local Football Stand subject to members being ‘comfortable’……

      2. Refer your common purpose “priest” to the choir of St Martin in the Fields – whose choir performs live …..

        And burn your bishop at the stake. Should attract a large – socially distanced – crowd.

      3. For what it is worth I learned today that a number of ‘professional’ church choirs are now performing again

  75. Have you noticed how Major, Blair, Brown and May suddenly pop up to sing praises to the EU and Global Government ?

    They remind me of Switzerland where little figures every hour chime, bow and pirouette… and in their case, it’s surely George Soros who is winding up their cuckoo clocks..

    1. Blair stands to lose a lot of money if we leave the EU.

      Where the press is failing us is in making that fact public.

      1. If only he could persuade the UK to remain, the EU would probably make him President and the Cardinals might even make him Pope at the next opportunity…

  79. So all you little englander gammon racist climate denying brexiteers thought we would let you win over over Rule Brittania??
    Just because you protested in your hundreds of thousands??
    Hah enjoy your African Jerusalem………..
    Signed the “Maximum Marxist Woke”
    Kill them,kill them all with hammers

    2. Well Rik, at least we are not seeing any EU flags waved around by the Anti Brexit mob like we did last year.

      Night night.

      It was a feeble effort… I could hear the African singer’s multiple RRrrrrs in her voice , so even with my eyes shut I knew she was African, lovely voice that she had!

  80. A brighter side of life:

    I release another trapped swallow today. That makes three in two days. Two in the house (or the same one twice) and a baby swallow trapped in some lace curtains in the ‘barn’ next door. I love the birds but they make an awful mess when they set up home in the barn. They are definitely not house trained.

    PS They don’t struggle if you pick them up carefully and they don’t mind being stroked.

  81. BBC hero, Toots ‘Monkey Man’ Hibbert has been mentioned about 30 times on the radio today. He didn’t die of a drugs overdose after all – it was coconut virus or something similar. He is to be accorded another ten eulogies today and a dedicated programme in the near future.

    Never heard of him before today. He must have been important to the BBC hierarchy – personal drug dealer to the big wigs perhaps?

    1. He introduced reggae music, apparently.

      The Dictionary of Jamaican English lists reggae as a variation of rege-rege,a word that means “rags, torn clothes” or “a quarrel, an argument”. It could be from “streggae”, which refers to a person who is ill-dressed or under-dressed, like a prostitute. So reggae music is the sound of a Jamaican punch-up or a street walker. Very apt!

    2. I am confused ‘. Only black people can say that other black people are n*gg*rs and only a black man can call himself a Monkey.

      Indeed, having people been told they were racists for even mentioning primates in the presence of a BAME. Remember poor old Alastair Stewart, the ITV news reader? He quoted Shakespeare’s words when speaking to a non-white and was suspended for being a racist.

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

      An what about Ray Davies and Co:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRHqs8SffDo

  84. HAPPY HOUR – at the Co-op..

    I was shouted at again today whilst shopping for comestibles.The other week I was told I was going the wrong way up the aisle by a deranged elderly woman.
    Walking past the sanitizer after entering the Co-op a very aggressive male told me
    to disinfect my hands.
    After catching his ankle with my trolly I headed towards the fish counter and told him to grow a pair ……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a85c7cf3365b015e556119704fe6d81487cb174e4bbd882b3b19a67c3cfbb2d8.gif

  86. Although choice of ‘Last Night’ presenter guests is of no personal concern, thought it typical of woke BBC to choose a black and a gay. Was there also any significance in men dressed in tuxedos and women wearing their own choice (?) of clothing – some message there?

    Found it surprising that conductor hadn’t thought to change out of her dressing gown.

    Agree with others that new version of ‘Jerusalem’ was totally painful.

    1. Yes. I thought it was one of the most insipid concert performances I have ever seen

      The rendition of Jerusalem was an insult to Elgar and as for the stupid woman in her dressing grown, I can only say that Sir Malcolm Sargent must be turning in his grave.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0fbcc65709a77961fa603ae71b00141289c5a3d5762094c5955e7b696651bcb5.jpg

      Sorry – I know that I am an old fuddy duddy out of touch with modern Britain but there ought to be a limit to the decline in our culture and traditions for which many brave people died in two world wars. But then, if we don’t have any robust leaders….

    2. I caught the Morgen from Strauss’s Four Last Songs. Nowhere near the performances of Renée Fleming, Jessye Norman and my favourite Gundula Janowitz.

      I particularly question conductors unable to commit a score to memory. I have noticed the occasional pianist having a score when called in at short notice but contrast this with a real maestro such as Daniel Barenboim.

      I am not sure quite what the ugly toothy creepy gay priest brings to proceedings either. Diversity quotient I suppose.

      The appearance in commentary of the ghastly Lesley Garrett was absurd for the reason that she could not match any of the great lyrical sopranos. She should have stuck to Batley or Leeds Variety.

      After the appearance of Garrett I switched off.

    3. Yes. I thought it was one of the most insipid concert performances I have ever seen

      The rendition of Jerusalem was an insult to Elgar and as for the ridiculous woman in her dressing grown, I can only say that Sir Malcolm Sargent must be turning in his grave.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0fbcc65709a77961fa603ae71b00141289c5a3d5762094c5955e7b696651bcb5.jpg

      Sorry – I know that I am an old fuddy duddy out of touch with modern Britain but there ought to be a limit to the decline in our culture and traditions for which many brave people died in two world wars. But then, if we don’t have any robust leaders….

      1. I would rather abandon the prom concerts to the BBC vultures and start new patriotic traditions. Our strength lies in our ability to start such things – once they are started, they are targets for the enemy to take over.

    4. I went to several prom concerts one summer years ago. I don’t think I could bear watching them through the twisted lens of BBC propaganda.

  89. Tonight’s Last Night of the Proms is a grim vision of the BBC’s sclerosis

    Our annual national sing-song is an act of joy, not jingoism – and the Corporation should have left it well alone

    SIMON HEFFER

    The debate about the Last Night of the Proms raises the question of what sort of event it is. It has passed from mere music into that field we call tradition, and like most traditions dates back only to just beyond living memory. We may be an old country, but few of our “traditions” would have been familiar to the average Victorian or Edwardian, the generations most assiduous in creating them.

    However, some take hold strongly in what by historical standards is a very short time precisely because they are so popular. All Proms apart from the Last Night are musical events; but the Last Night has a broader cultural resonance. It has become an annual national sing-song, the songs sung heartily with little regard for the lyrics by people who are not jingoists, racists or white supremacists. Over the past 60 years or so, since the Last Night was first shown on television, the BBC has cultivated it as a celebration of national identity, and rightly so. Therefore the corporation has only itself to blame if it attracts opprobrium by tinkering with it.

    I do not hold the director of the Proms, David Pickard, responsible for the recent farrago, which has damaged the BBC, I fear, far more than even the new director-general, Tim Davie, yet realises. (Full disclosure: Pickard and I have known each other for 40 years and I have the highest admiration for him; he is a brilliant impresario.) But it is a rare senior BBC executive who has complete autonomy. He or she is usually surrounded by box-tickers who ensure compliance with whatever the ruling orthodoxy of the moment happens to be. When Pickard’s formidable predecessor, Roger Wright, resigned and went to make a conspicuous success of Britten-Pears Arts at Snape, it was reported that he had had enough of interference by people largely ignorant of what he did. I fear Pickard (who has not discussed this with me) has experienced something similar.

    This moment’s ruling orthodoxy for the BBC’s compliance commissars has been Black Lives Matter. Tonight’s Finnish conductor, Dalia Stasevska, was quoted by a BBC source in August as being a BLM supporter who thought this an ideal moment to “bring change” to the Proms. Neither Stasevska nor the BBC seems to realise that the local iteration of BLM is an anarchist organisation including numerous white people committed to the destruction of capitalism.

    It was initially rumoured that neither Rule, Britannia! nor Land of Hope and Glory would be performed, because of an alleged association with the “imperial” past. Then it was confirmed they would be played but without the words – for artistic reasons, since the Albert Hall will be empty, precluding a sing-along. There followed a largely ignorant debate on the meaning of the lyrics. Various prominent and thoughtful black people said this absurdity was not in their name. Even Keir Starmer said not singing the words was nonsense.

    Perhaps fortified by this pronouncement, coming from the spiritual leader of so many BBC executives, it was then announced the words would be sung – moments after Davie took over. However, those who listen tonight will suffer an arrangement of Jerusalem “dedicated to the Windrush generation”. Hubert Parry, more genuinely liberal than any BLM fanatic, wrote a perfectly good arrangement when he composed the song: it is ludicrous posturing not to play it.

    What’s more, there doesn’t seem to me to be a good reason to have no audience tonight – other than the can’t-do compliance culture of the BBC. I went recently to a superb concert at Snape, one of many this autumn organised at short notice by Wright, featuring Antonio Pappano and the strings of the LPO, that enraptured a sell-out socially distanced crowd in the hall. The BBC could easily have done this in the cavernous Albert Hall. The organisation’s sclerosis has seldom been so visible, nor the distance at which the compliance commissars put themselves from those who pay their salaries through the licence fee.

    The BBC is not the broadcasting wing of BLM, as a senior corporation figure has mordantly suggested. For most Britons the national sing-song is about their history, not about the mindless oppression of minorities. Dissenters have the choice of doing something else, should exercise it, and leave the majority alone.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/classical-music/tonights-last-night-proms-grim-vision-bbcs-sclerosis/

    1. Stasevska subsequently claimed she did not say what has been quoted.
    2. There were two UK BLM websites the last time I looked and one of them wasn’t quite so politically strident.

    2. We didn’t bother with the Last Night. What we did watch last night, recorded from Friday evening was a lovely concert of cello and piano music played by Sheku Kanneh-Mason and his sister Isata. It was a shame the hall was so empty.

  90. WSJ reported Saturday that the company is nearing a deal to sell British chipmaker ARM Holdings (a wholly owned subsidiary) to Nvidia Corp for more than $40 billion. As we tweeted earlier, such a deal could certainly free up substantial capital to sink into Nasdaq calls. A sale in the low-$40-billion range actually wouldn’t be terrible for SoftBank: The company bought the stake just 4 years ago for $32 billion.

  91. The ERG – it lives!

    We are right to reject the Withdrawal Agreement’s worst excesses

    Britain will gain international respect by trying to extricate itself from the most unacceptable elements of this agreement

    BERNARD JENKIN

    The government, by accident or by design, has created a huge furore, not just in the UK but around the world, about the key clauses in the UK Internal Market Bill. The Bill says the government “may make provision that is incompatible or inconsistent with any domestic or international law”. Is the wave of extreme anxiety justified? We should note that the EU has not broken off the negotiations, as many thought they would.

    The EU Commission’s statement carries threats of legal action, fines or worse, but how credible is it for the EU to try to impose its own laws on a member state after it has left the EU? Their rulings could include declaring tax cuts as illegal state subsidies, or blocking state rescues for sectors like aviation (so hard hit by Coronavirus), or requiring tariffs to be paid unnecessarily on trade within the UK, or even blocking food exports from GB to NI. Perhaps the government recognises how most voters will react to such impositions against our will. These voters were so poorly understood at the time of the referendum by many now shouting loudest in favour of continuing EU rule. Watch Boris Johnson’s poll ratings start to rise!

    We always knew that the EU Withdrawal Agreement was little better than the one inherited from Mrs May. We had to accept what was on offer at the time or risk losing Brexit altogether. The EU cynically exploited the Remain majorities in both Houses of Parliament to sow discord and chaos, and to poison the deal for the UK.

    So any unreasonable enforcement of the Withdrawal Agreement by the EU would lack all moral authority. The Agreement has even less democratic legitimacy than the EU treaties we have now left.

    Today the government has a strong mandate and a secure Commons majority. We can protect what the Conservatives 2020 manifesto promised above all: to take back control.

    If the UK extricates itself from the worst aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement, we will gain international respect, not lose it. The real context for this is explained by Sir Christopher Meyer, John Major’s press secretary and Tony Blair’s Ambassador in Washington, who has tweeted, “International law is here a red herring. The problem is political not legal: the failure of the EU to negotiate in good faith the future relationship, with the result that, absent an agreement, NI becomes by default a gateway for EU law into GB, unless Parliament takes pre-emptive action.”

    Parliament will only ever vote to allow the exercise of these powers if it is evident that the EU is acting in ways which undermine the integrity of the UK’s Union, or unreasonably threatening our future independence and prosperity. This may in fact prove to be less a breach of international law: more a different interpretation of it. The UK is no longer represented in the EU Commission or Court, so how else can Parliament look out for our interests while the EU can act unfettered to advance its own interests?

    People will come to accept that such provisions in our domestic legislation became inevitable. We are in transition: from the complete subordination of the UK legal order; towards the restoration the UK’s full legal independence. Our other allies and trading partners will have far more respect for the UK if we stand up for our interests in this way, than if we again submit and remain a non-member subsidiary of the EU.

    Sir Bernard Jenkin is Chair of the ERG Steering Committee

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/09/11/right-reject-withdrawal-agreements-worst-excesses/

  95. Good night all.

    Smoked salmon, grilled lobster tails with herb butter, a creamy Camembert – the white Burgundy held up right through. Finally chocolate fondant with thick cream, chilli chocolate.

    The unusual Last Night of the Proms was exhilarating, without the usual contributions from the audience.

      1. Very, very good, but all too soon vorbei. The food was good, the restaurant was doing a roaring trade, family-run & very friendly.

          1. I fell asleep in this armchair & the whole bottle of white Burgundy, together with the chocolate gave me a raging thirst.

Comments are closed.