Saturday 3 July: With teachers vaccinated, schools should be able to function normally

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/07/02/letters-teachers-vaccinated-schools-should-able-function-normally/

610 thoughts on “Saturday 3 July: With teachers vaccinated, schools should be able to function normally”

    1. Electric cars and the removal of ICE vehicles from our roads is not about the environment – it is about control. Everybody – except the very rich – will effectively lose the independence and freedom of movement that cars gave them

      1. It’s showing clearly now in Oslo, Rastus – good morning, BTW.
        The Watermelons have let slip that now they have made ICE vehicles unwelcome, they plan to ban them, and then remove all parking so that electric vehicles will be effectively excluded as well. That wee gem, having been released, has gone very quiet, but it shows where it’s all heading.
        The total lack of vehicles might be OK for Oslo-ites, as they have subway, trams, busus and trains, but outside the city centre there’s bugger-all useful public transport – and when you get to Firstborn’s place, the furst bus leaves too late for him to get to work, and returns too early for him to come home again, so no alternative to private vehicles exists.

      2. Recently a politician pointed out that to comply with British government promises about emissions, the traffic on the roads will have to be

        reduced quite considerably.

        He forgot to mention whether this proposal would include the Elite’s cars.

    2. Sorry folks, it’s NOT a petrol generator. Here is the truth:

      This particular post was shared 55,000 times, although similar ones from different pages, including in French also accumulated tens of thousands of shares.

      A reverse image search reveals that the yellow van in the photo belongs to Austrian roadside assistance association OAMTC (Österreichischer Automobil-, Motorrad- und Touring Club in German, Austrian Auto and Moto Touring Club), which uses it to charge electric vehicles that run out of battery on the road.

      The company posted the original photo on May 29, 2019 with the caption “If the battery can’t make it anymore, we’ll bring you fresh juice! Our ’Mobile Power Bank’ for e-cars has successfully completed its first test in practice. After about 20 minutes, the electric Mercedes had enough power to bring our member to the next charging station without any problems.“

      “This photo was wrongly interpreted, this is not a portable generator, but a mobile power bank for electric cars,“ Alexander Lueger, an OAMTC member, told AFP. The power bank is “made of lithium battery packs that can provide electricity for an electric vehicle for about 12 kilometers,” he added.

      The lithium batteries are produced by Australian company votexa, whose founder Stuart Davies told AFP. “Once the OAMTC has purchased a charger they could charge from any energy source.” Davies had commented on the Facebook post to explain that the batteries were not petrol-powered generators. AFP Fact Check found him by looking through the comments on the post, as we advise on our blog.

      1. 335015+ up ticks,
        Afternoon RC,
        If that be the case then having put the post up in good faith & with NO wish to deceive I stand corrected most humbly.

  4. mng to those “not shopping”. The usual smatterings of the Islingon wine cellar:

    SIR – Ensure that all teachers are vaccinated and operate as normal. Any parent who is anxious may keep their child off without penalty.

    That should do it.

    Linda Henderson
    Keighley, West Yorkshire

    SIR – Dr Douglas Jenkinson (Letters, July 2) notes that Covid vaccination in children would be extremely safe.

    However, healthy children are extremely unlikely to suffer significant illness or die from Covid infection. They therefore would not benefit from the vaccination, but would be exposed to its side effects.

    Some will argue that the unvaccinated will be able to pass on the infection. There is little evidence for this or evidence that vaccination prevents transmission.

    Dr Neil Upton
    Swansea

    SIR – The Government is trialling a scheme whereby children will be Covid tested on a daily basis, as an alternative to isolating complete classes of healthy pupils. The idea that the solution is shoving a swab down the throat and up the nose of every healthy child, every day, is abhorrent.

    At a time when things were more normal, I am sure that if I did such a thing to my child, a visit from the NSPCC and social services would result.

    Thomas Le Cocq
    Batcombe, Somerset

    SIR – Your report, “Schools told not to send home entire bubbles” (July 1), is a timely reminder that throughout this pandemic the teaching unions have appeared to hate the Conservatives more than they value our children.

    Malcolm Beaton
    Towcester, Northamptonshire

    SIR – The Prime Minister has now said that there may be a need for “extra precautions” after July 19, when we had all hoped to be free again.

    Perhaps instead of publishing daily data concerning Covid-19, he could publish each day the size of the list for patients awaiting treatment and the number of deaths for all other reasons apart from Covid.

    He might then rethink the need for taking extra precautions against Covid-19 alone.

    Paul Cook
    Hayling Island, Hampshire

    SIR – I’ve just checked the batch numbers on my AstraZenica vaccinations and found that they were not those produced in India. What a relief to know that not going to Europe on holiday is my choice and not theirs.

    Marion Draper
    Bembridge, Isle of Wight

    SIR – One of the main reasons given for delaying the lifting of lockdown was so that many more people could be vaccinated before July 19.

    Why then has the number of vaccinations per day dwindled from 506,019 (a figure published on April 30) to 230,860 (June 30)?

    Ann Murray
    Castletown, Isle of Man

    Afghan legacy

    SIR – The Union flag being lowered at Hamid Karzai International Airport (report, July 1), after nearly 20 years, is enormously symbolic.

    As the Taliban makes a push for Kabul, the West must ensure that Afghanistan does not succumb to its oppressive rule and slide back into the anarchy of the 1990s. Many soldiers, myself included, saw first-hand the improvements for Afghans, but these are in jeopardy of being reversed.

    Britain must increase its diplomatic support to the Afghan government, and, with America, continue to supply intelligence to its security forces.

    The legacy of Britain’s latest venture in Afghanistan is still to be decided. Now is the time to safeguard the advances made by heavy sacrifices.

    Robert Clark
    Defence Fellow, Henry Jackson Society
    London SW1

    Walk this way

    SIR – The Government is offering taxpayer-funded diet coaching to tackle obesity (report, July 1), while supporting the use of e-scooters for journeys that can easily be made on foot. Yet walking is a cheap and simple way of losing weight.

    John O’Donnell
    West Mersea, Essex

    NHS reform

    SIR – I applaud Allison Pearson’s reasoned appeal for NHS reform (Features, June 30).

    The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed serious shortcomings in a service established in 1948 in a very different health environment. Alternatives, such as compulsory insurance schemes, with relief for those on low incomes, have been suggested. It is time for a Royal Commission to conduct a comprehensive review of the NHS, its strengths and weaknesses, to evaluate alternative practices in other countries and to recommend either to reform the NHS, or to replace it.

    Rev His Honour Peter Morrell
    Nassington, Northamptonshire

    A word from God

    SIR – On telling my wife that a refund had arrived she replied: “Praise the Lord.” Our Google device immediately answered: “You’re welcome.”

    I can’t persuade it to repeat the trick, so perhaps the Almighty is now using modern technology to communicate.

    Kevin Croot
    Coggeshall, Essex

    An ugly by-election

    SIR – After narrowly winning Batley and Spen, Kim Leadbeater, the Labour candidate, said: “The acts of intimidation and violence by some who have come here with the sole aim of sowing division have been deeply upsetting to witness.”

    These “acts of intimidation and violence” were not widely reported, but this was the most homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Indian, violent and Islamist parliamentary election campaign in recent British political history.

    Paul Trewhela
    Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – While it is disappointing not to have another Conservative MP, the result of Batley and Spen by-election is not terrible because the biggest loser is actually the Corbynite hard Left.

    It accused the centrist wing of the Labour Party of sabotaging its radical agenda in the 2017 and 2019 general elections, but its hypocrisy in this by-election was breathtaking. Even ahead of the vote, it suggested that a Labour defeat would be grounds to mount a leadership challenge.

    The hard Left has been seeking an excuse to force Sir Keir Starmer out and was actively working towards its own party’s failure. Now, its socialist conspiracy has been frustrated.

    Robert Frazer
    Salford, Lancashire

    SIR – Matt Hancock has achieved the impossible twice. First he made me to believe that Dominic Cummings was telling the truth; then he made Labour an election-winning party again.

    Let us hope it is the last we have heard from this magician.

    Mat Newman
    Purley on Thames, Berkshire

    Captains courageous

    SIR – It used to be thought correct to keep the military rank of field officers, from Major upwards (Letters, July 2), but after the Second World War demobbed officers were permitted – even encouraged – by the War Department to use substantive ranks in retirement, including captaincy.

    Even today Masters of Foxhounds are often Captains. I myself owned flat horses in India as a Captain. There was, however, something faintly absurd about the use of Captain by characters such as Captain Peacock in the 1970s sitcom Are You Being Served?

    My great uncle Bob Abell DSO MC commanded an artillery brigade in Italy, 1917-18, as substantive Captain, acting Major and temporary Lieutenant Colonel, but after the Great War he was allowed to retain only Major.

    The late substantive Captain, Acting Major Tullet, Chairman of the Ex-Services Association Bombay, was told by Prince Philip to call himself Colonel on the grounds that the Indian military would not take him seriously as a mere Major – a royal promotion he took.

    Captain R P A Sale
    London SW11

    A waspish defence

    SIR – In defence of social wasps (Letters, July 1), the average-sized wasp colony will eat about 41lb of aphids and plant pests each year, thus reducing the need for pesticides.

    Also, as a beekeeper, I know that the robbing of hives by wasps takes place only in late summer when the queen wasp is running out of eggs. Adult wasps need honey to stay alive until the first frosts, which kill all except the new queens, which will overwinter. The honeybee colonies most at risk are invariably the weak ones that would probably not survive winter anyway.

    Ian Wallace
    Whitley Bay, Northumberland

    Slippery grass is part of the Wimbledon game

    SIR – Even though this year may be worse than usual, courts are always slippery for the first few days of Wimbledon, and very highly paid professionals should know this and adjust their play accordingly.

    Mike Hart
    Mannings Heath, West Sussex

    SIR – It is not the grass causing the slips. It’s the shoe design.

    Arthur Kidman
    Burgess Hill, East Sussex

    SIR – You report that Andy Murray complained about Wimbledon’s slippery surface. Why am I not surprised?

    Roger Foord
    Chorleywood, Hertfordshire

    SIR – What on earth has happened to Wimbledon? This week we had an infantile display of shouting, swearing and aggressive gesticulating by Andy Murray. This would not have been tolerated in previous years, and should surely have been challenged by the umpire.

    Jean M Stephenson
    Solihull

    SIR – What a pleasure to watch the match on Wednesday between Norrie and Pouille. There was little grunting; the bouncing of the ball before service was minimal; and there was no irritating adjustment of clothing before each serve.

    Margaret Forbes
    London E1

    SIR – Am I alone in finding Andy Murray’s behaviour while playing offensive? His shouting at himself after points was an appalling example to set to young players.

    Charles Quartley
    Ipplepen, Devon

    SIR – It’s not just the pointlessness of players taking three balls (Letters, June 30), none of them more than seven games old, and discarding one of them as being inferior.

    It’s the thoughtless way these wealthy sports-people tap them back along the ground without looking, for the ball boy or girl to scrabble for them.

    It took Covid to stop them throwing sweaty towels at these children after almost every point. Why not a rule to use the two balls you are given? You can’t change the ball in any other sport unless it becomes defective.

    Peter Sandall
    Ludlow, Shropshire

    SIR – How come players at Wimbledon can throw their towels into the crowd when they finish their match?

    Anne Senneck
    Hartley, Kent

    SIR – The Lawn Tennis Association has decided to issue unisex towels at Wimbledon in order to correct gender inequality (report, June 30).

    Having already started to call female players by their surnames alone and given them equal prize money, why don’t they go the whole distance and have just one gender-neutral championship?

    Rodney Silk
    Billericay, Essex

    3. “These “acts of intimidation and violence” were not widely reported, but
      this was the most homophobic, anti-Semitic, anti-Indian, violent and
      Islamist parliamentary election campaign in recent British political
      history”.

      No prizes as to why it wasn’t widely reported. The media and government can bury their heads in the sand for now but it will eventually explode in their faces.

      1. LTA have their own woke set of rules. When they get no crowd and no one watches on tv, they might figure out they’ve got something wrong. But won’t admit that. Usual minority rule being played out

        1. Morning…
          How does it work on center court when it starts as an open-air event but they have to close the roof,which makes it an indoor event.
          Do they ask the crowd to leave?

      2. You don’t even need a badge, Johnny.
        https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own/face-coverings-when-to-wear-one-and-how-to-make-your-own
        “Exemption cards
        If you have an age, health or disability reason for not wearing a face covering:

        you do not routinely need to show any written evidence of this
        you do not need show an exemption card
        This means that you do not need to seek advice or request a letter from a medical professional about your reason for not wearing a face covering.

        However, some people may feel more comfortable showing something that says they do not have to wear a face covering. This could be in the form of an exemption card, badge or even a home-made sign.

        Carrying an exemption card or badge is a personal choice and is not required by law.“

        1. I went online and, as per one of the options, downloaded an exemption for my phone as a screensaver.
          It’s simply a matter of using their own silly guidelines against them.

        2. I know but it is easier to wear one. have not had a single problem. Ifyou do not have them you will be asked all the time.

    2. LTA are probably insisting those poor kids wear gags. The punters are showing a sensible example.

      2. Nobody responds to my tweets, ever. I assume that no one actually sees or reads them. I’ve probably not got the correct technique.

      3. Lefties don’t care about other people’s opionions. They just want to control what they can say.

  9. Time to wear your mask exemption badge. They are pushing to keep masks for another year. You do not have to wear one if it gives you distress. I had mine on for my visit to the Docs for my blood test and no one said a thing to me about it. I hate wearing the badge but I hate the mask more.

    1. I stopped wearing my mask a few weeks ago – the exemption card is in my pocket but I haven’t had to show it yet. Still the only unmasked shopper in Morrisons yesterday.

    2. I stopped wearing my mask a few weeks ago – the exemption card is in my pocket but I haven’t had to show it yet. Still the only unmasked shopper in Morrisons yesterday.

      2. There were more mask free shoppers in Lidl yesterday. Nobody said a thing or even looked.

    4. Evening JN. Our bloated GP centre sent out messages via text and their facebook page that anyone honoured with a real appointment who wouldn’t/couldn’t (not even genuine reasons excepted) wear a muzzle would only be seen in the flimsy little tent that is in the car park! So much for patient confidentiality in there.

  11. Good morning, all. Yesterday afternoon’s sunshine was obviously a mistake…{:¬(((

    Any more cabinet members split up over night?

  12. Good morning all from a damp Derbyshire. The rain appears to have paused and it’s 12°C in the yard.

  13. If the West wants to protect itself, it must face up to the reality of China
    Our elites believe we should take a ‘nuanced’ approach to a dictatorship bent on world domination

    CHARLES MOORE
    2 July 2021 • 9:30pm
    Charles Moore

    It is my privilege to be sent (I know not why) free copies of the “global weekly” version of China Daily, the mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist regime. Its variation in tone always amuses me. On the whole, the paper promotes what you might call peace and love with Chinese characteristics. Its favourite word is “harmony”. This week, celebrating the 100th birthday of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), it carries headlines like “Saga of renewal, common prosperity” and “Distinct, exemplary leadership” (the latter introduces an interview with the silver-tongued British Marxist, Martin Jacques, who attacks the “so-called democracies” of the West).

    Now and again, however, anger suddenly bursts out. “Witnesses at ‘Uyghur court’ just actors. Pseudo tribunal in UK fabricating lies that hurt feelings,” spits the China Daily headline. Claims of genocide in Xinjiang “can be called the biggest false accusation in human history”, says its report. I think this tonal mixture authentically reflects the approach of the CCP leadership. In his centenary speech on Thursday, “the core navigator and helmsman”, President Xi Jinping, repeatedly used the phrase “national rejuvenation” which he has long made his own, but reverted to Communist type by wearing a Mao suit instead of the Western outfits which Chinese leaders have in recent years adopted. He promised to “develop whole-process people’s democracy, safeguard social fairness and justice.” It sounded very nice (though being “whole-processed” by the CCP is an experience that killed tens of millions).

    But then Xi got tough. He would uphold Marxism-Leninism, he promised. The party “was chosen by history and the people”. He would not accept “sanctimonious preaching” from outsiders. He would “enhance the political loyalty of the armed forces”. Anyone attempting to bully China would “find themselves on a collision course with a great wall of steel forged by over 1.4 billion Chinese people”. “Collision course” was the official translation offered for international consumption. The more accurate one, I believe, is that such people “will have their heads bashed bloody against a Great Wall of steel”.

    Under Xi, China has employed both tones. Mostly, it has used the “soft cop” one. Encouraging “dialogue” and technological development, the CCP has worked its way into hundreds of Western universities, businesses and other institutions. The early years of its Wuhan “gain of function” experiments with viruses, which may eventually have led, by a leak, to the spread of Covid across the world and four million deaths, began life in co-operation with the University of North Carolina

    The infiltration of numerous institutions in Cambridge University, for example, which this column has reported from time to time, have always been presented in a kindly way. Shortly before Covid, the university’s vice-chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, praised China’s programme of “Greater Opening Up for Win-Win Co-operation” (Chinese slogans love initial capital letters), contrasting it with “angry isolation” (code words for Brexit).

    Despite Covid, this tone persists, with Western connivance. In March this year, Cambridge University Press (CUP) published a book by three Chinese academics about dispute resolution in Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, sometimes known as “One Belt, One Road”). BRI, say the authors, is “a key platform for building a community of a shared future for mankind, and a public good for the world”. CUP happily nods it through. Cambridge even has its own One Belt, One Road think tank (OBOR International@Cambridge), set up by Professor David De Cremer, author of a book with the cringemaking title Huawei: Leadership, Culture and Connectivity, though I notice his think tank has gone rather quiet lately.

    The Belt and Road Initiative, I should add for those still unaware of it, is more accurately described as a massive imperial project, involving 140 countries, by which China gains control of sea-lanes, ports, land routes and natural resources in Asia, Europe, Africa and even the Arctic and the Antarctic. If anyone raises questions, however, about China’s pursuit of world “harmony”, the tone changes to “hard cop”. Look at the angry threats and boycotts made by China last year after Australia called for a proper inquiry into the origins of the Covid outbreak. Look at the treaty-breaking destruction of the liberties of the people of Hong Kong, now almost complete in fewer than 18 months.

    There are many, conflicting Western analyses of what is going on. Some argue that Xi’s stance reveals a fear that China’s economic and political gains over the past 40 years are stalling. It is certainly true that his speech for the centenary is much harsher than his honeyed “win-win”, “golden era” words to Davos in pre-Covid 2017. Others think he is gaining all the time – on track to attain the CCP’s great dream of overtaking the United States, and therefore controlling the world, well before its target date of 2050. It is even possible that the truth combines both theories and that China, rather like Britain in the years before Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897, is simultaneously becoming top nation and starting to fail.

    It is hard to judge, but it should not, surely, be so hard for the West to get a clearer view of how the CCP is behaving, and how it thinks it must behave in order to survive.

    One of the key concepts in CCP thought is “unrestricted warfare”. This does not necessarily mean actual fighting – although of course it would involve that if ever considered necessary. It means that the party wants all areas of life organised in such a way that they can, whenever needed, engage with the enemy – the enemy being us. There is therefore no concept of disinterested scholarship, scientific endeavour, artistic expression or even normal commerce, an idea which is basic to Western civilisation.

    Instead, everything is a potential tool of the party. It is not just (as it might be in our system) that some professors, businessmen, etc, secretly undertake inquiries on behalf of the state. Snooping, theft and organisational capture are the duty of all loyal Chinese. Steal intellectual property, spy on Chinese students in Western universities who might have subversive ideas, conduct scientific research for undisclosed military uses, buy up companies – even, in some cases, whole countries – for their strategic assets, censor media, infiltrate online communications, fight cyber wars, suborn executives, former civil servants, green groups, higher education and museums with money, tie down poorer nations with debt and take control of international institutions to serve Chinese ends.

    Xi has almost literally weaponised this doctrine of “unrestricted warfare” with his own concept – “military/civil fusion”. Even after Covid, we find the single-mindedness of Chinese aims very hard to accept. The Government’s Integrated Review in March declared that China presents a “systemic challenge – to our security, prosperity and values – and to those of our allies and partners”. Which is another way of saying that it wishes us ill and has the power to inflict it. Yet we dislike facing that challenge. Boris Johnson, after a briefly hawkish period, has now reverted to emphasising trade links.

    On the same day that Xi was addressing the centenary merriment, the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, was speaking to the City of London, “Too often,” he said, “the debate on China lacks nuance.” He seeks “a mature and balanced relationship”. It would indeed be nice to trade peacefully in such an enormous market; but where is the maturity, balance or nuance in a regime entirely controlled by a totalitarian party trying take control of the world?

    1. Marx, Lenin. Good Chinese names, those.
      But who is Win-Win, and in what are they co-operating?

    2. “He would “enhance the political loyalty of the armed forces”.
      That means purges – getting rid of anyone with any spine or imagination. This will weaken their army. Keep at it Mr. Xi – anyone with those characteristics should be leaving anyway.
      The problem is, I am not sure any Western government would now welcome them as enthralled as they are by China.

    3. Oh the irony. A Chinese dictatorship saving the West from a global Caliphate.

        1. The third option is the Gates/Soros/Rockerfeller version of world dominance.

          Choose.

    4. If only China’s natural adversary, the US, had a strong leader like, like, a Donald Trump.

    5. Geographically China is not well placed to control the world. Mackinder’s Heartland remains key.
      “Who rules Eastern Europe commands the Heartland,
      Who rules the Heartland commands the World Island.
      Who rules the World Island commands the world.”
      Now if one cannot rule Eastern Europe, destroying Europe is the next best thing. The destruction of Europe continues apace. A dissipated Europe is leaving the world open to the Chinese. The US has proven itself to be both diplomatically and militarily inept.

  14. BTL gossip elsewhere suggests that Glove moved in with a “spad” some weeks ago. Male or female?

    If true – it makes nonsense of the “no one else is involved” statement in their cosy announcement…

      1. His is a face which I have always wanted to punch – hard.

        She is just smug and self-satisfied. She desperately wanted to be Mrs No 10.

        1. Ah yes, there’s a German word for that ‘backpfeifengesicht’ – A face badly in need of a fist

    3. There is as great deal of slimy and smelly pond life which is considerably more attractive than either Gove or his wife.

    1. We were warned the other day to keep away from cats & dogs if we catch covid as we could make them ill.

      1. I work in a London suburb where there are now common arguments between dog walkers on the basis that
        – “You might have asymptomatic CoViD. Your dog might be carrying your CoViD. My dog might pick up your CoViD from your dog – so don’t let your dog sniff my dog.”
        People need help learning to think again.

      2. 335015+ up ticks,
        Morning N,
        I can understand the warning in regards to wild cats, large cats, ( tigers etc etc) mad dogs & most certainly ALL political governance Englishmen keep well away from each.

        Otherwise divide & conquer in play entering people’s comfort zone driving rhetorical wedge betwixt pet owner / pet.

      1. 335015+ up ticks,
        Morning WS,
        “Labour is calling on Ministers to look at giving the coronavirus vaccine to animals once the human population has been dealt with”

        A much superior action would be, give ALL lab/lib/con coalition candidates the boycott jab in the polling booth
        to instant cure 90% of the Nations maladies.

      2. I’d also recommend that you keep your pet away from other people and pets. While the evidence that pets can pass the virus on to other pets is limited, it can’t be excluded. Similarly, although pets have not been shown to pass the virus back to people, the possibility can’t be completely ruled out.”

        Professor Bienzle

        https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210701/People-with-COVID-19-frequently-infect-their-pets-and-cats-are-particularly-at-risk.aspx

        Having pussy in your bed is not a good idea at the moment,

        I think there are mounting concerns that with rising infection levels in the UK, whilst the populace is becoming increasingly immunised against current strains, there is recognition that there can be significant reservoirs in the animal world to allow further virus variants.

      1. 335015 + up ticks,
        Morning W,
        Agreed as with sheep, I have yet to see one in a polling booth kissing X a lab/lib/con candidate for more of the same political tripe.

  16. 335015+ up ticks,
    To return to place of origin would fly in the face of the lab/lib/con coalition keep & nurture policies, thereby would upset their supporter / voters,

    So, suffer little children, ongoing.

    https://youtu.be/VhzVYnM2_RY

    1. And not one of the members of the government or the opposition gives a damn.

      And why were neither the Conservatives nor Labour candidates prepared to condemn the treatment of the Batley teacher in the recent election? And the public are also at fault in that so few of them rallied behind people such as Anne Marie Waters.

      1. 335015+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        As with the real UKIP under Batten leadership being a success
        it instilled fear into the electorate who it is so obvious are
        locked into tactical, vote in to keep out regardless of consequence voting mode, then whinge, repeated decade on decade.

        The UK electorate seemingly cannot get these Isles down on both knees, forehead nutting the deck, quick enough

        1. A public car park beside a public building and the officious twat deliberately interposes himself between her and the unloading car.
          Hmm. What was he trying to stop he seeing?

  17. Good morning, my friends

    Labour’s weak leader is not out of the woods
    A feeble victory in Batley has not solved the fundamental flaws in Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership

    Sherelle Jacobs : https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/03/labours-weak-leader-not-woods/

    A BTL comment by a poster who often shares my opinions:

    Many people are coming to the conclusion that Boris Johnson is not just as weak a leader as Starmer but that he is completely confused, incoherent, muddle headed and uxoriously in thrall to his most recent wife.

    Not only has his Brexit been a disaster with regard to the Northern Irish Protocol, fishing and the financial services industry but his green agenda has come from nowhere and nobody voted for it.

      2. Hi Phizzee,

        Sticky night , and we had some rain , sky was blue earlier now pretty gloomy .

        The type of weather that encourages mildew , greenfly and lts of slugs.

        1. I’m supposed to be doing afternoon tea for some friends on Thursday in the garden :@(

          Good morning.

          1. We’re going to a garden day for swifts tomorrow. We won’t see them flying if it’s like this.

          3. I do have enough outside seating undercover i was just hoping for sunshine. :@)

          4. We and you will be the sunshine, you daft Pip! Who do you think everyone is coming to see – Mr. Sun?

      3. Why? Is it going to be baking hot, uncomfortable and airless?

        It’s quite nice here. All the windows open, a nice cool breeze, temps about 18 inside. Lovely.

  19. ‘We’re in a war for survival’: Onboard the cash-strapped Lebanese army’s fundraising helicopter flights. 3 July 2021.

    From the air, Lebanon looks like a tourist paradise.

    From above though the azure of the Mediterranean gives way to cedar-clad mountains and then the Beqaa Valley, where the Romans built their largest temples and vineyards border cannabis farms in the birthplace of agriculture.

    Lebanon is a probable paradise! Sun. History A place on the Mediteranean coastline. It was once a thriving financial centre. It should be making Spain look sick! To understand why it’s not, you just have to mention one word, Multiculturalism. Instead of uniting the country in blissful acceptance of its Diversity and Inclusion, the people; like every other place where it occurs, hate each other. This of course renders cooperation impossible. Their diversity makes them prey to meddling from every source since weakness begets need. They are no longer Masters of their Fate but perpetual victims seeking some sort of safety. The condition of all Multicultural states!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/03/war-survival-onboard-cash-strapped-lebanese-armys-fundraising/

    2. No wonder the Chinese want to get rid of the Uyguhers. Just as the Burmese got rid of the Rohingyas.

      1. We should be doing the same with our lot. The alternative is civil war with our towns looking like bombed out Syria.

        Muslims do the same thing where ever they settle.

      2. And the European countries who don’t get rid of those who wish to impose their alien and barbaric practices upon them are already paying a very heavy price. And unless something is done about the problem then the Judeo Christian ethics upon which our civilisation is founded will be swept away.

        This is, of course, what the criminal maniac Blair had in mind from the beginning.

        That Rotherham child rapists can protest that their human rights would not be respected if they were deported tells us more about the disintegration of our society than about the rapists whom, we already know, are not only uncivilised barbarians but uncivilised barbarian parasites intent on destroying their gullible hosts from within.

        1. Of course, Rastus, we’re paying for their legal fees.

          Truly, this country is insane. The social workers ignored it. The police ignored it. The councils hid it. The MP told the girls to shut up and be raped ‘for diversity’, now we’re paying their costs and they’re using our laws to force us to keep them fed and watered.

          All the while, the state finds that white men rape more than Muslims – when this is a fabric of statistics.

          Everything is back to front in this country. The Left’s demented crusade always ends in war. Maybe this time they can be oblitered permanently and sense restored.

    3. The Lebanese committed national suicide when they allowed Arafat’s PLO to be a law unto itself and remain as an armed terror group on Lebanese soil using Lebanon as a base of operation for worldwide terror, it sparked the Lebanese Civil War & eventually a war with Israel in 1982 which drove Arafat & the PLO out but then the Lebanese let first Syria take it over & then Iran via its proxy terror group Hezbollah. IMO Lebanon is a failed state & since its an artificial state created out of Greater Syria by the French after WW1 it is unlikely ever to regain its former tourist paradise & international financial centre status as the Switzerland of the Mid-East as that by & large has moved to the UAE

  20. HSE’s loss of over €370m on buying personal protective equipment
    Clinical demand indicates health service is carrying up to 41 years’ supply, notes report

    Looks like the Irish bought an awful lot of Covid-related PPE without realising there is a use-by date.
    Should have asked every publican and supermarket manager how to manage that.
    Must have been a political thing, overruling their supply chain professionals “Just buy stuff so we look like we know what we’re doing!”
    https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/hse-s-loss-of-over-370m-on-buying-personal-protective-equipment-1.4609221

    1. “Just buy stuff so we look like we know what we’re doing!”

      That and the transfer of large amounts of taxpayers’ cash to companies. Follow the money and investigate those whose signatures are on the deals.

  21. 335015+ up ticks,
    Old Steve has just got to be a far right racist surely trying to stem the much needed flow of doctors, nuclear tecs,
    entering the Country, may one ask “where would we be without them”.

    Steve, the daughters will have to be, as with thousands more put down as collateral damage, friendly fire like.

    So yet another reason to support / vote lab/lib/con coalition for more of the same.

    https://twitter.com/Steve_Laws_/status/1411226135913013249

        1. Trojan Horse?
          England has been stuffed with foreigners since Julius Caesar, but most of them integrate. Some aspire to the glittering prizes, others just enjoy life.
          It was uncontrolled Russian & Eastern European Jewish immigration (due to pogroms & traditional persecution) at the end of the 19th century that led to the first immigration law in the UK, the Aliens Act of 1905. There is an element of snobbery in the Jewish community between recent arrivals, post 1900, and those whose families were well established in the UK back in the 19th century or earlier.

          Boris of course is a Roman Catholic, born in the USA, with both muslim and jewish ancestry.

          1. Looking at the Indian, Muslim and the Jewish communities I am absolutely certain I know which have brought more to the party and equally certain which is doing least to integrate and contribute.

          3. I wonder if he would have felt the same about Islam, unless one believes that Islam is the sin.

          6. On my mothers side of the family we go way back to the late 1700’s or early 1800’s & on my fathers side to the mid-1880’s . Most Jews who fled Tsarist pogroms in the 1880’s arrived in the UK then went on to America, the rest formed the core of todays 250K community. Jews have been in England continuously since Roman times & except for the period of expulsion in the late middle ages until the restoration of the monarchy and have integrated well.

          7. And how many, as they disembarked were told they were being landed in “New York” only to be greeted with something like “Hello, bonnie lad/lass, are ye keeping canny?”
            Apparently that is how the Jewish community on Tyneside began!

          8. My great grandfather on my fathers side was brought as a babe in arms by his parents from Tsarist Russia, not sure if they landed in Liverpool or not, they too were on their way to America but after walking on foot from Russia through Poland then Germany they could not afford even 3rd class passage from Hamburg to New York so they settled in England in London’s East End. Two of their older sons worked hard & saved up and did in a few years go to America promising to send for the rest of the family but never did.

    3. Yesterday the BBC stated that there are over 33,000 who have been here for over a year on benefits that the Government hasn’t yet bothered to

      decide whether they can remain.

      1. 335015+ up ticks,
        Afternoon J,
        If the finance for their keep came from the politico’s personal purse it would be decided just offshore of DOVER same minute of arrival.

    4. It’s funny in a way. My friend Imran says the same thing, and he’s a Muslim. Whenever there’s a bombing, a knifing, or a .n. other Islamic atrocity, he keeps his 7 year old son at home. He drove over to us with both son and daughter and asked if he could play with Junior for the day.

      His worry? The media excuses the slaughter of innocents and that inflames people who are sick of it and decent family men take the flak.

      1. 334015+ up ticks
        Afternoon W,
        That is the way of things, I do believe there were germans helping Jews escape during the war, the sad thing is all must suffer one way or tother.

  22. It’s The Way I Tell ‘em

    Little Johnny was sitting in class one day. All of the sudden, he needed to go to the bathroom. He yelled out, “Miss Jones, I need to take a piss!!”

    The teacher replied, “Now, Johnny, that is NOT the proper word to use in this situation. The correct word you want to use is ‘urinate.’ Please use the word ‘urinate’ in a sentence correctly, and I will allow you to go.”

    Little Johnny thinks for a bit, then says, “You’re an eight, but if you had bigger tits, you’d be a ten!!!”

          1. A new body would be perforable. I have had numerous tests & treatments over the last 30 years for my Sciatica but none seem to work for long.

        1. The BBC doesn’t lie.

          It just leaves out inconvenient facts and deliberately avoids discussing the wider reasoning.

          The guardian does the same. examining why there is so much knife crime always ends up as ‘racism’ whereas it’s vastly more complicated and really the creation of single parent families and a lack of integration, but the Left don’t like that evidence, so they ignore it.

      4. As a further point, banned by the BBC, but never off BFBS in Germany in the mid-’70s.

  24. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “…it’s just another one of those things I don’t understand: everyone impresses upon you how unique you are, encouraging you to cultivate your individuality while at the same time trying to squash you and everyone else into the same ridiculous mould. It’s an artist’s right to rebel against the world’s stupidity.”

    E. A. Bucchianeri.

  25. Just wandered round the garden to see if the rain has stopped. Large bit of an as tree has broken off – must be because of the rain caused by global warming…!

    When it is dry, I’ll attack it with my trusty Japanese hand saw. Ladderwork, unfortunately.

        1. Ah!
          ‘Arry “ad an ‘awk in a ‘andbag,
          The ‘awk made a ‘orrible row,
          “Arry hit the “awk with an ‘eavy ‘ard ‘ammer,
          ‘Arry ain’t got the ‘awk now.

    3. Good morning Mr T.
      With all due respect thou art not a young lad any more, at least not on the outside. Could I ever so ‘umbly suggest that you shop around for a silky pole saw, or even a cheaper chinese version? One of the best tools that I possess, along with my Stihl forestry hard hat. Yes, pole saws can get stuck, but that’s another story.

    1. That poor, captive elephant is doing it for comfort. It’s stereotypical behaviour, like swaying from side to side.

        1. Tried Viagra recently, but the pill got stuck in me throat. Had a stiff neck for ages!
          :-((

      2. Captive animals should’t be allowed…..only humans!

        I hated circuses and zoos since I was a child…

  27. If the UK Government wishes to oppose anti-semetism, why does it retain diplomatic relations with so many anti-Israel Arab states?

  28. 335015 up ticks,
    We don’t want to be upsetting them what with more being ushered in daily
    with governance consent, and keep in mind shortly they ARE consolidating and the time WILL come they rule many a roost.

    Rochdale Child Grooming Gang Rapists Still Appealing Deportation on Human Rights Grounds

    What about the victims ?
    The what ?, are you trying to blacked the parties name, bloody far right racist.

  29. Today’s vain, posturing, preening, squabbling, petulant and barely literate sportsmen should take a moment or to study the example of the great Sir Richard Hadlee, a New Zealand cricketing hero and 70 years old today. Self-effacing and hard-working, he showed you can reach the top without making a noise or hiring a media/PR company.

    If you were to say ‘Happy birthday, Sir!’, he’d probably say quietly ‘Er, thanks, but the ‘Sir’ isn’t necessary.”

    One of the greats.

    2. I shared a lunch table with him at the NZ High Commission when we launched Montana New Zealand wines in the 80s.
      Very down to earth chap.

      1. Four very similar cheeks.
        Seriously, I do wonder if you showed photographs of their two naked bottoms whether it would be possible to say which belonged to which.

          1. I thought she had bought a retirement home in Brazil? When in Brazil, have a …

        3. She reminds me of some one we know, similar shape and i only spoke to her in passing on Thursday.
          We went to a 60’s garden party at mutual friends a few years ago and the lady in question wore a miniskirt !!!🤔
          I mentioned to another friend, if she does actually drop anything don’t panic i’ll rush and pick it up.

        4. Well that’s where most of the pronouncements come from.
          When he was born they got the a*se and the mouth at the transposed.

    3. Vell Borrus commizerationz to you regarding ze football today I have chozen ze referee, ze heir doctor vill see we haff revenge for Tuesday’s loss.

        1. Zis time the dog is the hero, realizing that all the bombs have missed he drinks 50 gallons of fuel & throws himself out of the Lancaster into the dam causing it to overflow & a when a German sentry lights a cigarette – boom the damn catches fire!

    5. So why are they not wearing masks? Why are they not social distancing? These people make me sick, telling us what to do and what not to do, all the while being above such things.

      2. I hated hockey when I was at school – the only sport I’ve ever enjoyed is table tennis – no good at it but it keeps me moving.

  32. New Government slogan”
    “1,2,3, will make you free!”
    Of course there will continue to be follow up “boosters” next year, and the year after that… We need to be sure….

    1. He was not the only faker last night, I have never seen such simulating time wasting BS by any other teams so far, only the Italians could do this they love their own drama.
      I think i have discovered who the little boy on the right hand of Princess Diana statue is. It must be our football hero number 10 as a youngster.

    2. Yer Dagoes are yer Spics. Yer Wops are yer Eyeties. Different brand of Latino. Allegedly!

      Next week you’ll be even more confused when they play each other.

      1. Will the score be 0-0 because they are all rolling around on the ground crying?

      1. We called the Ities when I was a child living near Little Italy in Clerkenwell.

        1. 1978 when the commonwealth games was in Alberta Canada , we were treated with a red nosed boozy Ozzie on the TV actually referring some Italian/Australian cyclists as the Spaghetti brothers, his disdain was quite obvious. But they started to become successful in their efforts to represent their adopted country and latterly became referred to as ‘Australia’s own spaghetti brothers’.

          Which in turn reminds me of a joke. the added a is the Italian accent.
          Luigi was sitting at the counter of his local Melbourne suburbs pub and slowly sipping his beer.
          The bar man says hey Luigi what’s up mate you seem down in the dumps.
          Luigi replies, 45 years I’ve been in this a country and a I have designed and built a several buildings of a merit. Huh do they call me Luigi the architect ? ……….do a they bloody a hell.
          Never mind Luigi have another beer on the house mate……
          45 a years I have a painted many a portraits of local a people and the a paintings have a been hung a in a public a buildings all over Vic a toria . Huh do a they cal me Luigi the artist do a they bull a shite ?
          Oh cheer up mate says the Bar man.
          Luigi ….45 a years I’ve a lived here a and I have a shagged only one a bloody sheep.

  34. SUE REID exposes THREE shocking new revelations about our border policing that Priti Patel simply cannot ignore. 3 July 2021.

    The traffickers have increased the efficiency of their operations. The length of time a migrant has to wait between reaching the north French coast and getting a place on a boat to the UK is now just a few weeks, compared with months last year.

    The people smuggling operations are slick, professional — and bewildering our Government.

    Home Secretary Priti Patel warned this week that, because of the failure to stop migrants, she plans to put a new supremo in charge of stopping Channel crossings.

    They are not revelations to me. If you do not know that the UK Government is complicit in bringing these people into the country you are a fool!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9750655/Migration-madness-thats-radar-THREE-revelations-border-policing.html

    1. It was interesting that RT news had an analysis of crime in Sweden today.

      Not good.

      Why did Sweden let so many criminals in?

      Meanwhile, the BBC shows “Fugitive neo Nazi arrested in Greece” and “Brexit has destroyed hope for young musicians” on its website.

    2. Just as the EU is using the tactic to flood Britain,i see that Belarus is doing the same to the EU.
      They allow flights from the ME,transport them to the Lithuanian border and show them where to cross!
      Of course,Brussels can’t send them back because,as everyone knows,Belarus is not a safe country.

    1. I agree the whole mask thing and all other inhuman restrictions of our liberties shows how really stupid people can be.

      It seems it’s only officials and ushers who wear them but the ball boys and girls do not when on the court.

    3. The thing is people should just NOT WEAR THEM. What is the matter with people? Why don’t they accept the evidence of their own eyes and DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

      Sorry for shouting but it makes my blood boil. Unlike some I don’t rail against “rich people” not wearing masks but against people who do!

      2. I have just returned from our local farm shop, not my usual one which is further afield, this local one is large and is too commercial for my liking. It was so depressing – everyone but everyone dutifully was wearing a face mask, except me. And it was really busy. If I can do it (not wear a mask) anyone can.

      5. Particularly, vw, since the mesh on masks is not small enough to prevent the covid virus from getting through. If it was, you couldn’t breathe so every which way, masks are USELESS and only good for virtue-signalling.

  36. 335015+ up ticks,
    Listening to channel four singing the praises of labour with honesty, integrity
    mentioned time and again, words quite alien to the lab (ino) brigade.

    What they are going to do about children’s education is nobody’s business.

    Not a mention of what they have already done as in, opening the country
    up to many a child sampling foreign PIE
    leaving them scarred for life courtesy of one anthony charlie lynton initial latch lifter, prior to the tories (ino) accepting the ongoing baton.

    How they are still operating outside of jail is beyond me, do parents have a voting input ?

  37. So Morrisons has been bough by asset strippers.

    I wonder how long before this excellent business deteriorates to cheap and nasty?

    1. Something fishy going on eh Bill.
      A few Stores will be bowled over and many houses/flats will built on the prime land.

    3. Did Robert de Bruce bend spoons?
      Not a hugely useful skill when you think about it.

    4. Did Robert de Bruce bend spoons?
      Not a hugely useful skill when you think about it.

  39. Good Moa Afternoon.
    Sorting out the shed – work still in progress; it feels like an opening scene in Friday Night Dinner.
    Still haven’t come across boxes of science manuals c. 1985.

      1. I know my limits. I leave that to Mr Hendricks/ Mr.Bombay Sapphire / Herr Lidl etc….

    2. I feel your pain. I have to empty my conservatory to have it replaced. The sitting room is already nigh on full of boxes and I’m barely half way in moving stuff! Then there are the filing cabinet, bureau and bookshelves to accommodate!

      1. Each job leads inexorably to another. I now have sort out part of the kitchen to accommodate the organised bits from the shed.

      2. After the past couple of months of the DT sorting out her mother’s place we’re lucky to have somewhere to sit.

    3. Don’t remind me Anne, I have yet to tackle the garage – in the face of Best Beloved’s chaotic objections.

  40. There’s a programme on Channel 5 tonight entitled Mountbatten: Hero or Villain? I’ve set it to record and I’ll watch it tomorrow. In my own opinion Mountbatten is neither of these. He was quite simply a moron. His Royal Status and Cinema Star looks (He was played by Noel Coward in In Which We Serve) were used to conceal from the public his shortcomings. He was almost certainly fully responsible for the Dieppe fiasco which unfortunately led to the deaths of better men.

    1. I am unable to find the quote but I recall reading FM Montgomery allegedly described Mountbatten along these lines, “A brave man, a very brave man. Had three ships sunk under him. Doesn’t know how to fight a battle.”
      Montgomery was very unfairly tarred with some responsibility for the Dieppe fiasco. He was the Area Army commander when the original plan was put forward. After the decision to cancel was taken Montgomery wrote that the plan to attack Dieppe should be dismissed for all time. It wasn’t, and a catastrophe, especially for the Canadians, ensued. When the raid took place Montgomery was in Africa but anti-Montgomery historians etc have tried to point the finger at him instead of the real culprit. As you state, Mountbatten was fully responsible for the Dieppe failure but tried to wriggle out of carrying the can.

      1. Read a book that had that the Dieppe raid was essential in learning how to come ashore against opposition, and one of the learnings was – don’t do it on pebbles, your tanks don’t like it! In this case, neither did the poor Canadians.
        But at least they didn’t make the same mistake on D-Day.

    1. Nissan first invested in the UK in the early 1980s following protracted negotiations over the deal it could extract from the British government. Declassified memos from the Thatcher administration paint a picture of a company of skilled negotiators on the one hand, and a government desperate to win much-needed investment to prop-up its ailing automotive industry on the other. The original deal between Nissan and the UK was worth £124 million in 1984 (equal to more than £380m in 2017) made up of regional development grants, selective financial assistance, and heavily discounted land. Fast forward 30 years and Nissan has amassed £800m in corporate welfare. Yet, despite this generosity of the British taxpayer and the dedication of the Sunderland workforce, Nissan is using Brexit as leverage to extract even more from British taxpayers.

      https://www.corporate-welfare-watch.org.uk/2017/09/26/nissan-nearly-1bn-corporate-welfare/

      Edited.

      1. The Canadian government have invested given several hundred million to Ford for a new EV plant, the trouble is that none of the vehicles that Ford produce there will qualify for the EV rebate scheme.

        Joined up thinking?

      2. Nissan are clearly focused on what’s good for Nissan, and have professional negotiators – as opposed to the amateurs in government. Anyhow, it’s not their money.

  42. Afternoon, all. I have some emails to send, so I’m popping in briefly while I wait for the valves to warm up 🙂 I thought being cowed and hiding in a bunker was the new “functioning normally”!

    You might like to see Oscar’s further progress; it was wet this morning when we set out, so I tried him in Charlie’s mackintosh coat. It fitted him better than Charlie, who was a longer dog! Very smart he looked, too:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dda57e2920159cee5569ca4552c8733978408fce6e9d240361e11d7991201c96.jpg

      1. No. I think you may be confusing the white parasol base under the table with his right ear 🙂 Both his ears are facing forward. I admit, I didn’t compose the photo very well; it was a case of snap it quick before he moves!

    2. Good boy and doing well ………and Oscar 😉🤩 your a star Conners.

    3. Well done, Conwy. He looks like one of those dogs on wheels we had as children!!

      1. He was clipped when I got him, but it’s growing out now (that’s the next thing to accustom him to – they had to take him to the vet’s to have him clipped, apparently!). His belly was shaved (under sedation) for him to have a scan.

      1. That’s nice, Phizzee. I’ve sent Plum some links to dog rescue centres. It will take time and lots of disappointment, unfortunately.

    7. How are both of you now – any residual stuff from the trips to the vet? It’s really lovely to know that he has found a loving home.

      1. I feel so much better now I’ve got a dog. Oscar is enjoying T touch on his body – so much so that today he was so chilled he fell over! Then he wanted his tummy rubbed. We are making progress; he played with his tug and was very careful where he put his teeth today. That is a massive step forward! I am pleased to say that we had a terrific clap of thunder and he slept through it. I hope he reacts the same way when he’s awake because Charlie was a nightmare with loud noises like thunder and fireworks.

  43. A little news story crossed our woke media today. Apparently two Namibian runners have been banned from competing in the Olympics because they have high testosterone levels.

    I merely made a comment that it is a strange world when they were banned but pretendy women could compete in weightlifting.

    I have never managed to be banned before 8AM before, I must be doing something right to get under their skin like that.

    Ah well, another ID cometh.

    1. I do believe another world is needed where all the idiots can live. No doubt they’ll want to invade normal world and demand a say, but then they can be reminded that they’ve their own entire planet to themselves.

      Which rather begs the question – when they’re ruined everything for everyone and have usurped normalcy, when the next lot of nutters want their own way and their own special treatment what will the last generation who’ve wrecked the place do?

      1. Perhaps, Wibbles, we, normal people, need to have a movement to counter this LGBQT bunch of weirdoes.

        Have our own parades, websites, flags et al – see how they like that, when the majority turn on them – and the virtue-signallers.

        2. I do think these nutters need a slap. Some whinging bint was complaining about a straight white male having built a world by him for him and how awful that was.

          You rather want to point out to the dumb black lesbian slapper that she’s the one using that world, with the tv crew, the cameras, the studio behind her doing the interview. Having said he built it, is she totally, utterly and completely blind to her abusing it as the ultimate in hubris?

          but that’s the problem, isn’t it? They’re so utterly and completely self obsessed, stupid and devoted to their own spite that they have forgotten that they should be living on their knees in gratitude for the life they have.

    2. I do believe another world is needed where all the idiots can live. No doubt they’ll want to invade normal world and demand a say, but then they can be reminded that they’ve their own entire planet to themselves.

      Which rather begs the question – when they’re ruined everything for everyone and have usurped normalcy, when the next lot of nutters want their own way and their own special treatment what will the last generation who’ve wrecked the place do?

  44. No rainbow-colour ads at Euro 2020 in Russia, Azerbaijan. 4 July 2021.

    UEFA has asked its main sponsors, including carmaker Volkswagen, not to display advertising banners in the rainbow colours of the LGBTQ community in Baku and St Petersburg for Euro 2020 matches, citing compliance with local laws.

    “UEFA’s audacity and deceit are boundless. With this action, it is betraying not only lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans and intersex people in Azerbaijan and Russia, but also in the whole of Europe,” said spokesman Alfonso Pantisano.

    With a name like that one would have expected him to finish with “I am so vexed Darling.” Anyway one assumes that here in the UK it is compulsory to display these items of praise for Sexual Deviancy!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/uefa-says-no-rainbow-color-ads-at-euro-2020-in-russia-azerbaijan

    2. St Pete wasn’t on the original list to host matches but they stepped in to help when Dublin wouldn’t allow spectators.

    3. Alfonso has got his pantisano’s in a twist. Is he? in charge of the advertising agency or just an ordinary gobshite?

    4. No, you want your own way because you’re selfish and spoiled and think demanding your life choices are promoted is acceptable.

      Other people have the right to ignore you and more, silence you. That you think they don’t shows just how little you deserve recognition.

  45. No rainbow-colour ads at Euro 2020 in Russia, Azerbaijan. 4 July 2021.

    UEFA has asked its main sponsors, including carmaker Volkswagen, not to display advertising banners in the rainbow colours of the LGBTQ community in Baku and St Petersburg for Euro 2020 matches, citing compliance with local laws.

    “UEFA’s audacity and deceit are boundless. With this action, it is betraying not only lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans and intersex people in Azerbaijan and Russia, but also in the whole of Europe,” said spokesman Alfonso Pantisano.

    With a name like that one would have expected him to finish with “I am so vexed Darling.” Anyway one assumes that here in the UK it is compulsory to display these items of praise for Sexual Deviancy!

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/7/2/uefa-says-no-rainbow-color-ads-at-euro-2020-in-russia-azerbaijan

    1. It’s been warm and muggy here but dry , with some sunshine. We got the band of rain overnight.

      1. Plenty sun here, about 27C. Just in from very sweaty hard farming, nursing a cold beer. Utterly pooped, not used to hard physical work in the warm… but the cold beer makes it worth it!

        2. It was quite warm work playing table tennis this morning – but one chap there was wearing what looked like a bullet-proof vest. He said the padding was weights – to make him work harder to get fit.

        3. Golly! I have to admire man who can carry out farming while holding a beer.

    1. 335015+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Divide & conquer tactics, by the time a General Election comes around if over a week away their member / voters will have forgotten.

    3. The state has thought like this for the last forty years though. It thinks it is our master, not a temporary manager of our property.

      That needs to change, and it will only do by crushing it underfoot. However, suggest that and the gormless proles will whinge and whine about companies paying less tax, how big government must do more and more – for them.

      It’s utterly idiotic. People are stupid, wilfully so.

  48. The stoats turned up in our back garden this morning. We had not seen a stoat for a while. There were four of them. Two were obviously kits. The parents vanished, leaving the kits to play.The kits ran, jumped, tumbled, played “tig” and “hide and seek”” and wrestled each other. Wonderful.
    I managed to take a number of poor photos, many of them being of the place where the kits had been five seconds previously.
    They improved the day no end.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1ccd9926e5587f2a6ff1916a3d8ff0515f88fd515d8ac5b72025f5f3d2451267.jpg

    2. I expect the parents were watching from cover. Not like mine pissing off to the pub at the earliest opportunity.

      Stoatily wonderful.

  49. Ollie Robinson clear for cricket return after ban over racist and sexist tweets. 3 July 2021.

    Ollie Robinson is free to resume his England career after receiving an eight-match ban – three of which have been served, five of which are suspended – for the offensive tweets that emerged during his Test debut last month.

    The Sussex fast bowler, 27, accepted two charges from the cricket discipline commission relating to the social media posts written between 2012 and 2014 and, on top of his ban, will pay a £3,200 fine and undergo training from the Professional Cricketers’ Association.

    Over the next two years Robinson will also work with the players’ union to educate others about both “the use of social media” and “anti-discrimination”, the tweets written aged between 18 and 20 having been deemed “racist, sexist, disablist, Islamophobic and offensive” during his hearing last week.

    He must be a young man of boundless ambition to endure such treatment. It is either that or he is completely devoid of any sense of self-worth! I would be incandescent with rage at the Injustice and Humiliation of this judgement, but then I am not made of the stuff that rises to the top in sport.

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/03/ollie-robinson-clear-for-cricket-return-after-ban-for-offensive-tweets

    2. The absurdity is comical. A bitter, nasty Lefty, deliberately looking to hurt someone they hate, unthinkingly, blindly. That the cricketer was punished is wrong.

    4. “racist, sexist, disablist, Islamophobic and offensive”

      Yes, these are the very features that permit comments to be acceptable in this forum.🤔

      2. Because we care that we don’t care – so long as it’s the truth and needs to be said, like it is.

    5. I think he should change his nationality and play for another country which then thrashes England.

    1. More patrols ON THE STREET might be the answer.

      Come on Plod, get off your arses in front of your computer screens and get out there and start catching criminals of all races and none, without fear or favour. We might then start to believe that we have a police FORCE, rather than a Keystone Kops FARCE.

      1. Darling, you sweet little old fashioned thing; it’s a Police SERVICE! I’ll leave to your imagination as to who they’re screwing.

  51. The birdies are eating all my strawberries.

    Do I…

    A. Put up a scarecrow.
    B. Load the shotgun.
    C. Net them.
    D. Put out punnets of shop bought strawbs.

    :@(

    1. I had a good crop of cherries (Stella), but before they were ripe enough for me to eat, the birds stripped the tree! 🙁 I don’t like netting them because I trapped a bird one year when I did it.

      2. Can’t you use very fine nets, like net curtain? Or get one of these poles that support a hawk-like kite on a string, so it flies around entertaining the wildlife…

        1. I might invest in a hawk on a string and see how that goes. I do have buzzards and kestrels locally, though, so they might take on the opposition 🙂

      3. Plant more cherry trees. Birds leave my apples alone, because they are outnumbered.

    2. I’m keeping an eye on my greengages – trying to pick them when they’re ripe but before the wasps get them.

      1. I’m convinced the wasps start on them before they’re ripe, just to be sure of ruining as many as possible!

        1. They did well last year and I had quite a good crop. Lots of little green bullets up there at the moment.

      1. Local farm shop is a good idea.

        That’s the cherries, the apples and the strawberries all failed this year to add to my woes.

        I give up.

    1. They have no intention of stopping these people Nigel! The very opposite in fact!

      1. Why do the politicians even bother to pretend that they want to do anything about the problem? They are encouraging the illegal immigrants to come to Britain. Why? There must be something in it for them and what is it? And who organised the luxury coach to come and collect them – should they not be prosecuted? And should they not also prosecute the Border Farce and the RNLI for encouraging criminal activity?

        We are being betrayed by the Conservative government at every turn but would any of the other main parties be any better?

        Politicians never have the integrity to admit they were wrong so if Nigel Farage wants to redeem himself at all he must admit that he was wrong about the deal and apologise for the fact that he said that Boris Johnson’s deal was acceptable when it is a completely unacceptable.

        1. Afternoon Richard. The enemies of the indigenous people of these islands reside in Westminster not Moscow! There are 650 MP’s in Parliament. All support Mass Immigration! Not one of them has spoken up for the teacher in Batley! The vast majority have supported Lock Downs and the extra-legal measures to suppress dissent. None believe in Free Speech!

        2. Who benefits? There are large companies, such as Serco, who control properties in which immigrants are housed. They are paid the housing benefit directly by the government. The companies do not have do go round the doors collecting the rent. The same companies act as employers, placing immigrants in unskilled jobs that do not require any knowledge of English, such as labourers, cleaner, immigration officials, and the like.
          Thus if the immigrants are unemployed the companies make a profit. If the immigrants are employed the companies make a profit.
          Additionally these companies receive very lucrative government contracts to carry out these enterprises.
          If I am mistaken I am sure that Mr Soames will be quick to correct me.
          Overall these activities are capable of providing many well paid sinecures and consultancies to MPs and ex MPs. Thus the circle is completed.

      3. I’ve said it before and I’ll say again untl I go blue in the face from CO² poisoning:

        I also have to dispute all this nonsense about climate change being caused by man-made CO² the facts are:
        1) CO² is a trace gas.
        2) At 0.04% it is 1 part in 2,500 of the atmosphere.
        3) But 24/25ths of atmospheric CO² comes from nature,
        4) From rotting vegetation, volcanoes, wildfires and the oceans.
        5) So manmade CO² is 1 part in 2,500 x 25 of the atmosphere
        6) That is 1 part in 62,500 of the atmosphere.
        In terms of Statistical Thermodynamics and in terms of Common Sense, that is insignificant.
        I think the slight increase in CO² is CAUSED by global warming, warming up the oceans and driving out dissolved CO².

        I also wonder which of the idiots who promulgate the idea of CARBON production could realise that we are not producing CARBON which is a solid. Their beef seems to be with CO² which is adequately debunked above.

        Wake up World and breath you virtually CO² free atmosphere.

  54. Do we need an English Parliament?

    Devolution has let down the English. Their voices can’t be ignored, Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones argue in an excellent new book

    VERNON BOGDANOR

    In 1741, David Hume, in his essay “Of National Character”, declared that “The English, of any people in the universe, have the least of a national character, unless this very singularity may pass for such.” Part of the reason for this is that, until recently, “England” was used indiscriminately to refer to Britain. Englishness came to be intertwined with Britishness, and in consequence, England seemed to have no political personality of her own. As one political scientist declared 40 years ago, England was “a state of mind, not a consciously organised political institution”. While of course there was always politics in England, there did not seem be a politics of England.

    Devolution was confined to the non-English parts of the United Kingdom. England, though comprising 85 per cent of its population, was not a beneficiary – but she was deeply affected by it. Devolution aroused English resentment at privileges being given to Celtic neighbours – parliaments enabling their voices to be more effectively heard, and governments enabling them to prise more money out of Whitehall. There was already a constitutional and economic imbalance in favour of Scotland and Wales – over-represented in the Commons, with their own Secretaries of State in the Cabinet, and extra money under the 1978 Barnett formula – but devolution accentuated it. As Ailsa Henderson and Richard Wyn Jones point out, in their excellent new book, Englishness, it had become a cliché to rehearse the opening stanza of G K Chesterton’s poem “The Secret People”:

    Smile at us, pay us, pass us, but do not quite forget:
    For we are the people of England, that never have spoken yet.

    The English began to speak in the 2015 general election when David Cameron won a surprise victory, largely because the alternative – a Labour minority government dependent on Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP – was deemed unacceptable by many English voters. A focus group of swing voters in England showed, unsurprisingly perhaps, that Sturgeon was viewed negatively, while Alex Salmond was regarded as “poison”. Many will remember the brilliant Saatchi poster of Ed Miliband, the Labour leader at the time, perching in Salmond’s pocket. There was also a less-remembered poster of Salmond “nicking” money from the pocket of an English voter.

    Significantly, it was in that same general election that the Conservatives published their first specifically English manifesto. Then, in 2016, Brexit was carried largely by English votes. Nigel Farage called it “our very English rebellion”. Euroscepticism came to be intertwined with English nationalism.

    How should English needs be recognised by government? That is the question that Henderson and Wyn Jones, professors at Edinburgh and Cardiff, seek to answer using the tools of survey research. But can surveys really penetrate the mysteries of national identity, which perhaps lie below the surface of consciousness? In response to an earlier survey, one angry interviewee expressed the hope that “Scotland would bloody well hurry up and become independent so that everyone would shut up and people would stop doing all this stupid research about bloody national identity”.

    The work of Henderson and Wyn Jones, however, is far from “stupid”. They have been carrying out sophisticated research on English attitudes since 2011. Their resulting book – full of insight, and with a clarity not always present in the work of social scientists – leaves the reader in no doubt as to the growing strength of English identity as a factor in British politics.

    The most popular option for the English, they discover, is “English votes for English laws”, introduced by Cameron in 2015. This device gives English MPs a veto on “English legislation” on such matters as health and education, even if such legislation enjoys the support of a majority of MPs in the Commons as a whole. The effect has been to create a kind of English Parliament within Westminster, parallel to the legislatures in Holyrood, Cardiff Bay and Stormont. But such a rejigging of the legislative furniture was always likely to prove, in the authors’ words, “a political slogan” rather than a solution to the English problem. The arrangements have proved incomprehensible to most MPs, let alone the wider public, and the discussion on English bills has been perfunctory, most lasting for around two minutes. So this device has not remedied the sense of powerlessness felt by the English; and Boris Johnson proposes, rightly in my view, to repeal it.

    What about a full-blown English Parliament? Henderson and Wyn Jones find only minority support for this, even among those identifying most strongly with Englishness. An English Parliament would be just as remote from voters as Westminster, and there is little enthusiasm for a new layer of politicians and officials interposed between Whitehall and local government. If the answer is more politicians, as John Major once said, you are asking the wrong question.

    Even less popular an option is regional devolution, dividing England into seven or eight regional authorities. When, in 2004, Tony Blair called a referendum in the North East, the region thought to be the most sympathetic to devolution, it was rejected by a crushing majority of four to one. In England, the regions are ghosts. Few of those living in Canterbury or Bristol, say, feel they belong to a region. Federalism does not suit the English, and they have always resisted it.

    Unfortunately, Henderson and Wyn Jones do not investigate what I consider the most practical option, the new combined authorities with “metro mayors”, such as Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester, established by the Cities and Local Devolution Act of 2016. Even though this does not yield legislative devolution parallel to that in Scotland and Wales – but who in Exeter wants to see laws different from those in Newcastle? – it offers a means by which the voices of English voters can be more effectively heard, while the directly elected mayors offer a clearly accountable figurehead, hitherto lacking in local government. The mayors are much more likely to be able to attract investment than traditional local councils, and that would help England in the competition for funds.

    Perhaps Henderson and Wyn Jones feel that the “metro mayor” experiment is too recent for survey research to yield solid indications of attitudes towards this reform. In any case, all the surveys in the world cannot quite dispel the puzzle of Englishness, which, one suspects, will forever evade even the most sophisticated of social scientists. Perhaps the last word should go to Kipling:

    If England was what England seems
    And not the England of our dreams,
    But only putty, brass an’ paint,
    ‘Ow quick we’d drop ‘er! But she AIN’T.

    Vernon Bogdanor is the author of Devolution in the United Kingdom (Oxford, £16.99)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/do-need-english-parliament/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f1d86d95f1750d4edfde23e13823e5ab9cfc430bf0735f253fbdb9381794d48c.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed0320e5598c227614bc04d14789739803b229ab5e12095de4287635728eef71.jpg

    2. Well, jolly hockey sticks! Bogdanor makes no mention that the UK Parliament discusses things like cemetery provision in Croydon and the like. These English issues are not voted on by Scottish MPs. That is the standing policy of the SNP. This question, or issue, or problem or unfairness, is of the same type as the West Lothian question, and the hard Irish border. That is, it is illusory.

    3. No, we don’t need an ‘English Parliament’ there is a perfectly good model at Westminster provided we dissolve the Assemblies and the wee Pretendy Parliament and bring back both the Responsibility and ACCOUNTABILITY to the various Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland Minister.

      Maybe a Minister for England as well, whose powers allow him to bring the PM to book for any transgressions.

      1. There are mixed views BTL, with a good number suggesting the Commons becomes the English house and the Lords the Senate in a federal set-up but there is an obvious problem here, namely size:

        John Gray 2 Jul 2021 6:58PM

        A federal solution is worse than devolution and worse than a simple breakup, with England able thereafter able to exploit its advantage of size and location.

        The best solution…put the Scottish and Welsh administrations back in their boxes (if they can’t be dissolved) and make them work within the boundaries of the devolution settlement rather than unilaterally extending their mandate and acting like renegade organisations.

    1. Lewis beat you to it!

      I have to stop watching reports like this. They make me sick with anger.

    2. Nigel, put up or shut up.
      You had the makings of a political party which could have put real pressure on those scum sat in Westminster selling out the country, but you chose to pack it in.
      I understand why you made that choice, after all you have given I think you were entitled to step back, but it is no good for you to post these reports and expect anything to change. The only way change is going to come about is when the voters have a real choice at the ballot box.
      If you are not going to provide an alternative (and that is a lot to ask I know,) who?
      And Nigel, don’t get me started about what I think of you and your pronouncements on Johnson’s Brexit deal.

        1. As I have said before Nigel Farage needs to be taken to task on GB News about:

          i) Withdrawing Brexit Party candidates from Conservative Part seats held by remainers without getting a quid pro quo of any sort. The consequence is that we still have a HoC stuffed with Remainers who will ake us back into the EU at the drop of a hat when they get the chance.

          ii) Why did Farage say that Boris Johnson’s completely useless surrender to the EU deal was acceptable. It is not acceptable – it is a catastrophe and anyone who seriously believes in a proper Brexit can see that WTO terms were the only sensible answer.

          Just as Boris Johnson made sure he was not grilled by Andrew Neil about his WA before the election, Nigel Farage needs to be grilled – not by the normal journalistic band of remainers but by a sincere believer in Brexit who is deeply shocked at how this fake Brexit has sold us down the river.

  56. Draconian restrictions on schools are pointless

    July 19 is a moment to reboot public understanding and expectations about Covid. The Government should be bold and press the reset button

    ROBERT DINGWALL

    Any chess player will tell you that the end game is the trickiest part of the match. So it is with the Covid pandemic. How do we get from the fears and anxieties of the past 15 months to living with endemic Covid just as we live with the 30 other endemic respiratory viruses that humans have evolved with?

    The experience of living with viruses such as influenza should give us a benchmark for what measures are acceptable from July 19 onwards. If we were not doing something in September 2019, as the respiratory virus season approached, why would we be doing it in September 2021? All pandemics come to an end because of population immunity. The virus runs out of people to infect, either because the population is vaccinated or because so many people have acquired immunity through infection.

    When Covid-19 first appeared, it presented a different challenge from the other viruses. Human populations had little or no prior immunity. We had never been exposed to the infection as small children. Our immune systems had never learned to respond to the virus, with that learning topped up by repeated exposures and mild infections. Vaccination has effectively taken the place of that process.

    Lockdowns bought time for vaccines to be developed and rolled out, although they came with many economic and public health costs. Whether they were worth the economic and health cost will be debated for years. What matters now is how we deal with now a mild infection that has a fringe of consequences in terms of hospitalisation, deaths, and post-viral syndromes comparable to familiar respiratory viruses.

    When schools return in September, for example, there should be no question of mass testing or children having to self-isolate. If it is unwilling to bring the relaxation of rules on schools forward, the least the Government can do is be unequivocal on this point. We cannot allow the return of schools to become another “June 21” moment of slippage.

    We have never been concerned with the specific diagnosis of any common respiratory condition in children. If parents do not think a child is well enough to go to school because of a fever then the child should stay at home. Our mothers would certainly have sent us to school if we only had a runny nose and a bit of a sniffle. Every teacher who wants to be vaccinated will have had the opportunity to be.

    Most theatrical hygiene measures can be discarded – cleaner school toilets are certainly a good thing but we do not need the sort of sanitising regime that made my little grandson cry over his sore hands. Mass testing must not be maintained just because the Government has bought huge stocks of kits.

    What is true for schools is also true for workplaces, retail and hospitality. The vaccines do not completely prevent infection but they keep it to a low level of severity. In population groups with less robust immune systems, protection may need to be topped up but others might be better protected by periodic reinfections, as with other viruses. We must trust the vaccine to keep people safe.

    July 19 is a moment to reboot public understanding and expectations about Covid-19. The Government should be brave enough to press the reset button.

    Robert Dingwall is Professor of Sociology at Nottingham Trent University and a member of government advisory groups

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/02/draconian-restrictions-schools-pointless/

  57. Talk about a bit of luck. In the field around the chicken (ex)concentration camp, there has been a great deal of chainsaw din since 8 am.

    As I was planning to tackle the fallen branch – a chap walked up the drive, It was Colin – who does OUR tree work. He is doing the fir trees in the field and had run out of water to drink. So he came and asked us. Showed him the problem – he’ll deal with it this evening when he finishes in the field. Phew!!

      1. Where do you think Colin’s wife is employed?

        That happened to a mate of mine years ago; he was ‘adjusting’ an invoice for some work when he discovered exactly where the husband & wife customers were employed. Quickly he snatched back the invoice and ate it; they burst out laughing and said that they had bigger fish to fry.

        1. The nephew of a friend of mine was paying his guest house bill for a week’s holiday stay on the N Yorkshire moors. He came out chuckling. When queried what had induced such merriment, he said that he had asked how the owner wished to be paid, cash or cheque? (This was about thirty years ago). “Ooooh, cash, please” she said, “and then the taxman won’t know.” He duly obliged and kept his chuckles to himself until he was out of the door. Because he was the taxman. On holiday, he said, so it didn’t count.

  58. Good afternoon, NoTTLers!

    A piece from the excellent Frederica that puts its finger on it. The BTL comments are worth reading.

    A GRUMPY OLD WOMAN WRITES: On Law – What is it good for?

    Written by Frederica

    Politicians are fond of ‘law’. They constantly quote ‘law’. They have a distinct predilection for making new laws rather than invoking laws already in existence that would probably still be appropriate. When new laws are made we never hear of the old ones being repealed!

    Many politicians are ‘lawyers’ themselves. This appears to give them the belief that they are so much more ‘clever’ than the rest of their fellow countrymen. Thus they prate about law and lawmaking as if it confers upon them the status of supreme beings. Thus, hubris gathers them in and imbues them with the excess of ambition and pride that we see before us in their daily posturing. Eventually, ‘Hubris’ leads them all down into the arms of Nemesis – the goddess of retribution and vengeance.

    Unfortunately, during their time on Fortune’s Wheel, they often contrive to wreak catastrophic levels of damage upon the populace to whom they pledged allegiance at the time of their preferment.

    Over the last several decades the electorate appears to have abdicated its responsibilities toward those whom they choose to represent them and their interests in the Mother of Parliaments. Why has this occurred? Perhaps partly because of ‘unconcern’ (times have been relatively good for most people in terms of consumer goods and standard of living) and partly due to apathy. But mainly it’s to do with the fact that they have not been encouraged to participate actively in the democratic process and to monitor the activities of the elected. Education has not encouraged either scrutiny or debate regarding the dealings of the 3rd Estate!

    Thus, the elected have taken shameless advantage of the electorate. They see no reason to moderate their self-absorbed, vaulting ambitions. Today, they appear to consider themselves superior beings, totally above the laws that are supposed to govern everybody regardless of their place in society.

    An elected MP caught breaking the ‘rules’ expects their grudging, half-hearted apology to be instantly accepted and for life to go on just as before. A Minister caught flagrantly breaking the rules that he himself was instrumental in implementing for the masses, had to be ‘persuaded’ to ‘resign’ his post. No other action has been taken against that person even though they ‘broke the law’. One might expect that that person might also feel that they now should resign their seat in the House (but – lets not hold our breath!). Retribution is only to be visited upon the proletariat.

    Reference to Magna Carta (that fundamental guarantee of rights and privileges) reveals that the Great Charter is the ‘Symbol of Justice, Fairness and Human Rights’. It posits that no-one is above the law – not even the Monarch. Yet over the last sixteen months we have been witness to the fact that the ‘lawmakers’ consider themselves to be a group apart. They consider that the laws of the land do not apply to them. Laws are for the ‘peasants’ to follow slavishly and ‘to the letter’, according to the whims of the day, which politicians have sought to impose upon the ‘cowed and obedient’ electorate.

    The ‘lawyers’ (and significantly those of the legal fraternity who specialise in ‘Human Rights’) have been deafeningly silent on the subject of the ‘rights’ of the general populace whose lives have been blighted by the imposition of nw ‘laws’, hastily contrived, poorly constructed and significantly unscrutinised and debated – laws that have been foisted upon the people of Britain by what can only be described as a ‘Government Coup’.

    In fact, challenges against what have been described as ‘emergency legislations’ – last seen enacted in time of war – have been ruthlessly and summarily ‘put down’. One must therefore infer that the law practitioners are complicit in the removal of rights and privileges of the population of Great Britain which have been enacted during the last sixteen months.

    The Police, whose role is to uphold the law fairly and without favour, have embraced their new State-given powers as enthusiastically as if they had been transposed in their entirety from the Communist Stasi State that was once East Germany. They have largely abdicated their traditional role of preventing and solving crime, ensuring that all may live freely and unfettered ‘within the law’. Instead they have embraced with alacrity the new emphasis on ‘hate crime’ and ‘racism’. Criticism and ‘law transgressions’ of the new government diktats are of greater moment than dealing with burglaries or violent affray. Rather than protecting the law abiding against the criminally intent, the reverse has become the ‘new normal’.

    If anyone breaks the current ‘politically correct’ rules, whether knowingly or in genuine ignorance, the might of the heavy handed Police ‘Force’ (appropriate word, that!) falls upon the unfortunate transgressor like a block of concrete.

    Conversely, the actions of the openly criminal fraternity and the anarchically inclined troublemakers are treated as ‘normal’. They must not be criticised in any way! The Police Force is not concerned with offering the protection of the law to ‘long-standing’ British residents, from the depredations, harassment or hostility (often involving the production of a blade as a show of intent) shown by those newly-come to the United Kingdom. Any complaint made against these potential ‘brain surgeons and scientists’ is met with disbelief and accusations of ‘hate crime’ and ‘racism’.

    Yet Chris Whitty, being accosted by two men in a London Park and made to feel ‘uncomfortable’ brings forth howls of outrage and cries of ‘thuggery’ from the Establishment. They demand ‘protection’ for the man who has done so much to make the lives of many citizens of Britain unbearable over many months of enforced incarceration! Who defines thuggery?

    I always understood that, in law, knife crime, given the extreme prevalence of knife crime and death amongst the youths of London (although less reported of late!) merited robust application of the law!

    Therefore, the question is – ‘what is law’? To whom does it apply and in what situation? Is the law actually impartial in the 21st century? I would suggest that it is anything but! When politicians – the lawmakers – are seen to be flouting the laws that they themselves have ‘crafted’ (take the G7 and the UEFA exemptions for VIPs as example) where does that leave the rest of society? Does Magna Carta still hold good, or has the law, as with so many things in the uncertainty of current life, become more equal for some than for others?

    My questions are, of course, rhetorical. I think we all know the answers!

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/a-grumpy-old-woman-writes-on-law-what-is-it-good-for/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDEPENDENCE+Daily+Newsletter1

    1. Come on! Own Up! Which one of you is Frederica? It was obviously written by a Nottler!

      1. There was a disqus poster of that name who used to post regularly on Breitbart, I think, and possibly TCW as well.

      2. I am a bee tee eller and although I agree wholeheartedly with Frederica I am not she. I thought it could be Minty, Maggiebelle, Anne or Rosie.

  59. Following the earlier hyperlink about mudskippers at Dungeness, I spotted this ancient gem:
    “Breaking News:
    After a Nigerian man dies, authorities find £27 billion pounds in his apartment.
    Apparently, he had been trying to give it all away for 15 years, but no one ever responded to his emails.”

    1. William: “And this is how mummy pictured her grandchildren, wasn’t she prescient?”
      Harry: “She knew I’d inherit her predilections”

    1. Just imagine how confused the aliens would be if they landed in Saudi Arabia. Or Florida.

  64. Latest News

    The Prime Minister has just announced that he has changed his name by deed poll to Symonds-Johnson.

    (It is, as we know, the spirit of the truth rather than the actual truth itself which is important. Why should the BBC and most of the MSM have the monopoly on releasing fake news. I want my share!)

      1. Sad but true. It was always supposed to be about freedom of expression and then people did and then they said they need to protect children.

        Look how well that went. Liars !

  68. A very apt BTL comment on Simon Heffer’s article about the statue of the People’s Princess:

    She looks like a social worker taking two children into care with a third one out of sight lurking behind about to make a bid for freedom.

    1. They should have either shown her sparkle and glamour or kitted up walking through a minefield.

      The statue is dreadful and needs throwing into the nearest Diana memorial fountain.

      Designed by committee obviously.

      1. Spot on. As it is, the sculptor has just made early 90s fashion the main subject of the piece.

        1. I expect she would be spinning in her car if she saw that…what am i saying !

    1. I think i would enjoy his barbecue to the other type of gluten free and non-meat to the tofu and lettuce leaf variety.

    1. Unacceptable – and they should be paid for the number of patients they see face to face not the number on their lists!

      1. One is able to remove oneself from their list.

        Problem being if you booked a private Doctor at a private hospital it would likely be them.

    1. So……They own their own homes. Any savings? Not like any of the casino’s or whorehouses have been open recently.

      Just because you are not being paid doesn’t make you POOR !

    2. Immigration judges are living on a diet of baked beans and pot noodles, and claim they would fare better if they worked at McDonalds.

      Six judges who spoke to the The Times claimed they and their colleagues had been forced into debt, or have had to sell or remortgage their homes as a result of their contracts.

      I would have thought the bribes would have paid for everything possible but they can hardly acknowledge those!

      1. Wait until I get into power and cancel their ‘Supreme’ court and send them all for re-education a la WW2

  73. Question.

    Nothing would induce me to have anything to do with Facebook (or similar).

    I notice that “important people” (those to whom their covid rules do not apply) are always sending out instant tweets about everything.

    If a pleb responds – do the wanqueurs ever reply?

    1. There are some very nasty people on facebook, I keep getting thrown out of groups for some reason.

  74. That’s it, belly of pork, extremely slow-cooked calls.

    I might CU later, alligator.

      1. Of course, Bill our Aberdeen supplier wouldn’t have it any other way. They even used the dying shriek of the poor bluddy pig.

    2. Nanny sez don’t forget your 5 vegetables. And no, i am not referring to your guests !

      1. Hmm, guests, what are they? everyone treats me like a leper, as I refuse the untried and untested vaccine – I get a yellow star next week.

        1. Slow-cooked belly of pork should overcome most potential guests’ fears; they’re fools. I’m finding people forget their disdain of me as a refusenik when they think of me as a cook.

  75. So we are not very far off from the Chinese surveillance style bio tech vaccine passport control that was always predicted by the tin foil hatters at the start of the pandemic by the looks of things.

      1. I’ve never been that good at negotiating mazes, although I do like hedges. But not butlers.

    1. How do you know? I see no figures.

      Do these tosser MPs have nothing better to do than tweet stuff?

      1. If I tap on it, it does show, Bill. It’s 68.9% not installed, from a reasonable number of responses. Another huge waste of public money?

        1. Perhaps that’s because you belong to FB. If I “tap” it invites me log in or sign up.

    2. I might be tempted to buy an app enabled smartphone but there are so many available being sold off by the new arrivals because they are upgrading their phones thanks to UK taxpayer largesse. Can anyone recommend one that isn’t all in Arabic?

        1. Okay Uncle. The only reason i blocked Mr Hat was because he was sending all the ladies floweragrams and it was slowing down my online betting !

          I love Hat. The bigger the better.

          No snoodies !!!

  78. That’s me gone for this eventful day. Colin the Tree Man duly turned up and did the needful in 15 minutes. It took me two hours to shift all the debris! Amazing how much stuff there is in one branch…..

    Have a jolly evening.

    A demain (in the rain…)

    4. Speak for yourself Plum, on a personal note I could not give a toss how the kneelers do. They lost my support the first time they decided to pay homage to a career criminal who was reputed to hold a gun against the belly of a lady, pregnant or not makes no difference to me.

      1. I’m disgusted with the kneelers, politics should be kept well out of sport.
        I hope England play with more passion and a desire to win….

        1. What the F*** are England players kneeling for a US scum criminal for anyway?

    5. All the match officials, including VAR, are Cherman.
      “Your name also goes on ze list.”

      1. And yer Chermans invaded the Ukraine and used lots of their “volunteers” to run concentration campz – jawohl.

  80. Janet Daley in the DT.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/03/government-has-exploited-humanity-create-inhuman-system/

    “The Government has exploited our humanity to create an inhuman system

    Our sense of responsibility has been ruthlessly used to establish a regime devastating to communal life

    3 July 2021 • 1:00pm

    Sometime early next week we will learn whether the prison has been demolished or we have just been given time off for good behaviour. Or maybe we won’t. If the wording is, in the great Boris Johnson tradition, sufficiently ambiguous we may not have any clear idea of whether the Government really meant it when it said that this wretched roadmap we are sick of hearing about actually is “irreversible”.

    The latest prime ministerial pronouncement was a master class in covering your bets: life should “pretty much return” to pre-Covid normal on July 19 but “further restrictions” might be necessary and – most infuriatingly – children and parents will have to “be patient” about a return to any sort of normality at all in schooling. This last point is critical. I cannot understand how the consequences of this appalling disruption not only to formal education, but to the social and emotional development of the country’s children, could have been so completely disregarded for over a year.

    Way back in the innocent era of the second lockdown, this column pleaded for the intervention of those who knew and understood the dangers of what was being done. Now that we seemed to be governed by epidemiologists, I wrote, could experts in the psychopathology of childhood and adolescence please speak up?

    Well they have now, and precious little effect it seems to be having, what with a know-nothing education secretary and a government which appears to be afraid of – what exactly? The teaching unions? Some undefined threat that children could be at risk, or present an imminent danger to fully vaccinated adults? Rising case numbers which are largely a product of its own obsessive testing of children? Its own shadow? What on earth is this about? And how could a collection of supposedly responsible grown-ups not have seen this coming?

    Huge numbers of infant school pupils now afraid to mix with other children? No kidding. What did you think would happen after months of isolation at precisely the age when they should be acquiring social confidence? A great cohort of adolescents disappearing from school registers – presumably permanently – most of whom come from the most disadvantaged sectors of the population? You don’t say.

    Vast numbers of teenagers, facing crucial examinations that will determine their life chances, now requiring psychiatric treatment for debilitating anxiety and depression? Who would have guessed? Answer: pretty much anybody who has raised a child, or known somebody who has raised one, or vaguely remembers what it was like to be an adolescent.

    Considering that this is such a child-centric age: that the care and mental well-being of children is now the subject of voluminous study and popular media attention, rather than simply the natural function that it was regarded as being in earlier, more callous generations, this blind spot was peculiarly inexplicable, not to say unforgivable. But here we are with all the evidence of damage that should scarcely have needed to be adduced – and the probability that we have not seen the worst of it yet.

    This urgent personal experience by countless families of the effects of lockdown is going to be a huge factor in the public reaction to whatever it is that the Prime Minister announces next week. There will be a far greater inquisitorial inspection of every evasive phrase, every ambiguity, every refusal to make an unqualified commitment.

    What do these promises of freedom mean in real terms? How does “advising” people to stay distanced differ from requiring them to do so? What exactly does “guidance” amount to: is it just a continuation of regulation without the responsibility of enforcement? They might have got away with this a few months ago: pretending to unlock when you are really just privatising the task of maintaining restrictions. But the country is in a different mood now. We have had the Hancock fiasco in which everyone who had been dutifully following the official rules was made to feel like a mug, and something in the public consciousness snapped.

    Perhaps surprisingly, what may have been an even more significant turning point were those revelatory magical experiences at Wembley and Wimbledon. Important note here: I speak as somebody who once thought that the three most depressing words in the English language were “Summer of Sport”. Not this year. Watching those crowds share, in their physical presence, the thrilling tension of Andy Murray’s heroic struggles, or the terrible disappointment of Serena Williams’s injury, or England’s tumultuous, historic win over Germany, didn’t some voice at the back of your mind say, “Oh yes, I remember this. This is life.”

    That connection between the players and the crowd – the rapport and the sympathy that was almost palpable. Yes indeed, this was life as it used to be, not the non-corporeal half-life that has been serving as a substitute, complete with fake football crowd noise like the canned laughter on old television comedy shows. There it all was, for real: the sense of occasion and collective excitement, the companionship of strangers, and, above all, the communal jubilation. Didn’t it occur to you then, if it hadn’t already, just what had been lost over the past year – which many people were apparently ready (or so they said) to give up indefinitely?

    It is in this mood, and with these experiences fresh in the national mind, that Mr Johnson will step forward to tell us what we can and cannot expect to do in the future – maybe far into the future since his solemn advisors are already popping up on the news outlets to warn that this whole nightmare might have to return next winter and every winter thereafter.

    Until now, the Government has been able to exploit the people’s humanity – their conscientiousness and responsibility – to maintain an inhuman system. But that moment has passed: someday in the not too distant future we will wonder how it happened at all. The country has had enough. This is, you might say, the beginning of a brand new game.”

    1. Johnson is a globalists’ puppet whose days are numbered. The whole evil global network will fall, hopefully this year, as yet more misery is inflicted on the people by the paid stooges in governments around the world.

  81. Thunder is rumbling in the distance. Getting closer, but looks like the main centre is going to bypass us.
    No rain yet beyond a few outlying drops.

    1. An adaptation of a Don Bradman joke – and he might have got it from someone else…

  84. From BBC.
    Emma Raducanu’s dream debut run at Wimbledon continued into the fourth round with victory over Romania’s world number 45 Sorana Cirstea.
    The 18-year-old British wildcard, ranked 338th and fresh from completing her A-Levels, impressed in a 6-3 7-5 win.

    From Wikipedia.
    Emma Raducanu (Romanian: Emma Răducanu; born 13 November 2002) is a British professional tennis player.
    Raducanu was born in Toronto, Canada to a Romanian father and a Chinese mother. Her family moved to the United Kingdom when she was aged 2 and she grew up in London. She started playing tennis at the age of five at the Bromley Tennis Academy. She was a pupil at Newstead Wood School, a state grammar school in the London Borough of Bromley.
    She visits her paternal grandmother in Bucharest, Romania several times a year. She is fond of Romanian cuisine.

    Why is it so easy to get British citizenship when everyone and his aunt can waltz in? Pick any other country at random and discover just how difficult they make it. Not only that, consider the difficulties put in the way of an actual British citizen with British lineage going back centuries when they try to bring their foreign-bon wife or husband into the country.

    1. Emma Raducanu (Romanian: Emma Răducanu; born 13 November 2002) … was born in Toronto, Canada to a Romanian father and a Chinese “mother.” Typically “British” then – little or no connection to this country for any noticeable length of time.

      1. Like our wonderful Sir Mo who lived in the UK just long enough to pick up a honour before legging it to a lower tax regime.

    2. If you are an International sportsman you will be naturalised everywhere as fast as they can.

    3. I started to write about this earlier and then lost interest! At least she grew up in this country, unlike Johanna Konta, Hungarian parents and arrived here when 14.

  85. STOP PRESS: Some of the England footballers remained standing while the others were ‘taking the knee’.

    2. Had a look at the video (recorded for this very reason) and, as far as I could tell – one or possibly two – didn’t kneel. Commentator confidently stated ‘all England players will take the knee’.

      1. There were at least two players who remained standing, out of the ones who were visible in camera shot at the kick-off. Half the team were not visible, so I don’t know if any defenders remained standing. What it does show, however, is that the solidarity among the England team with regard to kneeling has cracked. Good.

    1. I just tried watching for a few minuses and they are right,it is boring.

      How did they manage to score a goal when all they Cando is pass the ballsideways and backwards.

      OK good, they control centre field but now for heavens sake, do something with the advantage.

  88. Another goal , Maguire, bit of action now, but still trippy trippy boring . … goodness me and another one … Kane ..

    Can England beat Denmark .. oh dear me, the conversation here is priceless .

  89. Hold Up!! Trouble Ahead !!

    EUEFA has declared the game void – the Ukrainian center-forward Tyklii Chestikov has tested positive for the Coof!

      1. Excellent. Move over Corim. Hello Carol it’s your lucky day !

        (slaps wrist)…

        1. I am happy to receive anything which exceeds the monthly interest I would otherwise expect from a bank savings account for a similar investment viz. 25 pence or thereabouts.

          I have noticed that NSANDI have altered the odds in order to reduce prizes so we are both thankful for anything at present.

  93. I HAVE REPOSTED THIS TO THESUNDAY NOTTLERS

    Sausage wars truce is just a sticking plaster, warns Lord Frost
    Northern Ireland Protocol is not working, and short-term fixes with EU fail to deal with the underlying problem, says Brexit minister
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/03/sausage-wars-truce-just-sticking-plaster-warns-lord-frost/

    When is Lord Frost going to spill the beans and say what really happened when, just before the deal was struck, Gove arrived in Belgium and Boris Johnson capitulated on Fishing, N Ireland, and the financial sector?

    I suspect that this BTL comment gets very near to the truth.

    BTL

    I am convinced that Lord Frost was determined not to agree to the N Ireland Protocol. Indeed he seemed resolute and it looked as if we were headed for WTO terms and no EU deal.

    And then, at the last moment, Gove arrived in Brussels, and with Cummings gone and ‘Carrie’ in charge Boris capitulated and Lord Frost had to cave in and we have the unholy mess that the EU wanted us to have and which they could exploit.

    I wonder if History will tell us that the prime minister’s wife is a traitor who has achieved complete dominance over her pathetically weak husband?

    1. Carrie Symonds is tied up with the globalists and has the globalist Johnson by the short and curlys.

      The aspect of the Covid and vaccination regime most ignore is that there is a spiritual dimension behind the actions of governments around the world. Klaus Schwab and those multi billionaire bankers and corporate giants are Satanists.

      Ultimately those Satanists, Bezos, Gates, Zuckerberg, Dorsey, Rockafella, Rothschilds, Obama, Clintons, Biden puppets, and the politicians going along with this globalist power grab will be brought down.

      The fight is not even about property and wealth accumulation but a religious one, God versus Satan.

  94. Goodnight and God bless happy Nottlers, I’ll see you all later during Sunday’s day of worship (hic).

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