Sunday 21 June: Don’t underestimate the determination of schools to reopen their doors

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/20/letters-dont-underestimate-determination-schools-reopen-doors/

822 thoughts on “Sunday 21 June: Don’t underestimate the determination of schools to reopen their doors”

    2. That must be the chief druid I voted for at the last election, but didn’t get elected.

    3. Where’s an officious Plod when you need one?
      The police have banned any celebrations; how we managed for 5,000 years is beyond me.

  4. SIR – One way to boost the fortunes of our high streets would be to increase the current VAT threshold for those who rent or own rateable properties from £85,000 to at least £130,000.

    Even in relatively deprived areas, the current threshold can stifle a shop’s turnover, allowing it to cover only the cost of rent, overheads, a few months’ stock and a single salary, with the shop owner lucky to get less than minimum wage for their time.

    At that point the business has to decide whether to shut up shop for a few months to flatline income or expand and employ additional staff but hand 20 per cent of its profits to HMRC, with additional accountant fees – and yet more paperwork.

    Nick Rose
    Chichester, West Sussex

    Meanwhile back at the ranch, Rishi has asked his officials to examine ways of making VAT more complicated and administratively onerous.

    1. Or, more accurately, his officials have asked him to let them examine ways of making VAT more complicated and administratively onerous. More jobs, goody, goody…

      1. Hmm…thinks…..how about something like, er, a Purchase Tax?

        Reduced cost of collection; less prone to fraud and error – what’s not to like!

  5. SIR – When I trained as a teacher in the Sixties, it was possible to teach a class of over 40 children, all sitting at their own desks, which contained the essential books and equipment for their lessons. Perhaps it is time to rethink the layout of the modern classroom to accommodate numbers greater than 15.

    The introduction of social grouping has meant having large tables and extra furniture for storage around the room. With individual seating, pupils are less distracted and are less likely to pass on infections. Lessons could be shorter, allowing extra breaks for games and physical activities.

    Elma Graham
    Epsom, Surrey

    1. In my first three years at school, the class size varied from 50 to 52. But at the end of it, the only pupils among us who were not literate and numerate were two boys who would now be described as “special needs”.

      1. We had slow learners. All people learn at a different rate. Some, on the other hand, never learn.

      2. There were 40 in my first 2 years. Anyone falling short were given extra tuition by a teaching assistant in the areas where they needed it. I was one. Home life was chaotic and there were no books. My reading was poor. I was given extra tuition to bring me up to speed. I now have a voracious reading appetite. All due to the dedication of my teachers. Thank you Mrs May.

    2. In the sixties, teachers didn’t have to contend with those pupils who should have been in special schools because they had learning (and/or behavioural) difficulties in the same classroom. Try teaching a class of 28 when 7 of them have learning/behavioural difficulties. Keeping them in their seats and not stabbing their neighbours with a pair of compasses was a full-time job in itself.

  6. Last week on here we had discussions on the origins of the industrial and scientific revolutions in Europe and specifically in Britain. In this, Adam Smith must always be mentioned for his understanding that wealth can be grown (unlike the idiot Marx). With the self-flagellation induced by the history of the slave trade in mind, Daniel Hannan writes with Smith’s principle in mind. It’s disappointingly short but it should be shown to any cretin who believes that white people became rich by making black people poor.

    Slavery and plunder do nothing to create wealth – only liberty can achieve that

    Slavery lingers today in the poorest places on Earth, rather than countries that embrace free markets

    DANIEL HANNAN

    Amid the rows about slavery and statues, a truly terrible idea is going unchallenged: the claim that Britain became rich through plunder. Those who defend the monuments tend to let this assertion pass, instead taking their stand on the rule of law, public order and respect for the past. But the notion that the British Empire was a racket, that this country grew fat on stolen resources and enslavement, is not just false; it is dangerous, for it encourages the delusion that the wealth depends on accumulation rather than exchange.

    If forced labour made a nation rich, history would look very different. Every civilisation – every civilisation – was built on slavery, with all its inherent horrors and cruelties. The Sumerians were slavers. The Babylonians were slavers. So were the Assyrians, Akkadians, Egyptians, Greeks, Hittites, Persians, Phoenicians and Romans. So were the Arabs, Chinese, Mongols, Turks, Maori, Polynesians, Africans, Mayans, Aztecs and Incas. None of these peoples experienced the extraordinary rises in living standards we have seen over the past two centuries.

    Empire was the normal form of social organisation from around 8,000 years ago until the late twentieth century. If annexation and looting were the way to wealth, we might have expected an industrial revolution to happen under Alexander the Great or Tamurlane. But, though empire may have suited the emperors, it brought little benefit to their subjects.

    If neither slavery nor empire made nations rich, what did? Something must have caused the 3,000 per cent increase in living standards we have seen over the past two centuries; and, as the economic historian Deirdre McCloskey puts it, it was not the gradual accretion of capital, “the piling of brick on brick or bachelor’s degree on bachelor’s degree”.

    No, what prompted “the great enrichment” was a change in our values and our behaviour. We began to think of society as being made up of individuals, not castes. We stopped disdaining enterprise. We protected physical and intellectual property.

    Matt Ridley, author of a brilliant new book called “How Innovation Works”, explains that, in primitive societies, manpower was the chief source of energy. Ancient emperors amassed slaves because it was the only way to maintain their living standards. When someone discovered that a barrel of oil could do the work of fifty men, without needing to be fed or housed, slavery became redundant. Human nature being what it is, only then did people begin to heed the ethical arguments for abolition.

    It is certainly true that individuals did well out of imperialism. India was conquered by rough adventurers who ended up seizing the tax revenues of entire provinces. The writer and politician Sashi Tharoor argues that British rule seriously impeded economic development in India – though that argument is harder to make about, say, Singapore or Hong Kong.

    The fact that the empire was bad for India does not mean it was good for Britain. On the contrary, it was a lose-lose relationship – a net drain on Britain’s exchequer as well as a burden on India. While there were individual beneficiaries, both among the British settlers and among their allied maharajahs, the arrangement as a whole was costly. Plenty of people saw it at the time.

    Lord Macaulay, for example, argued in 1833 that the sooner India could be brought to wealth and self-rule, the better for all sides: “To trade with civilized men is infinitely more profitable than to govern savages. That would, indeed, be a doting wisdom, which, in order that India might remain a dependency, would make it a useless and costly dependency”.

    Slavery lingers today in the poorest places on Earth, notably North Korea and parts of Africa. In countries that embrace free markets, servitude becomes both unthinkable (because liberal societies are based on the elevation of the individual) and uneconomic (because you activate a force more powerful than any number of slaves every time you flick a light switch). Slavery, like empire, is a lose-lose relationship: catastrophic for the enslaved, obviously; but also an economic drag on their masters. Wealth depends, now as always, on liberty.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/slavery-plunder-do-nothing-create-wealth-liberty-can-achieve/

    1. “We stopped disdaining enterprise. ” Hmm…all but yer Labour party, that is.

      Good article, thanks for posting, WS.

    2. Hannan is making the same mistake as Righties do over the NHS.

      This (apologies for the caps) ISN’T ABOUT RACISM. It’s another excuse for a bunch of anti social, violent, thoroughly spoiled thugs to vandalise, destroy, loot and rage against the society they are completely reliant on.

      They don’t care about racism. To them it’s just a weapon. Same as Labour don’t give a stuff about the NHS. They *don’t want* it to work. They just want a weapon to scare simpletons. They know that to solve the issues means losing that whip and thus their power.

      Reason and logic are irrelevant. You can’t be rational with people who don’t want to solve the problem.

      1. Indeed, W. Identifying the real issue is the first step to resolving it.
        Good morning.

        1. They just want to destroy.

          You meet that with force and stop them thinking they can bully and threaten. You don’t sodding well kneel to it or even agree with it. You say No, go away and if they refuse you bring out a cannon and say ‘Go away’. If they still mob, you fire grapeshot and leave their steaming corpses behind as a reminder of the fate of all thieves and vandals.

          1. ‘Afternoon, Wibbles, I’m so glad that there is still someone who shares my (far-right?) views.

            When I’m Prime Minister, you shall be Home Secretary with the ability to interview and select your own Snivel Serpents.

          2. Pah. When I’m emperor I’m not going to have a cabinet as there won’t be a need for departments.

            Prisons will be holes dug in the ground – by the prisoners!

            I’ve often wondered if I am ‘far Right’. I don’t believe so. I am a staunch economic libertarian – low tax, less interference. On welfare I believe that those receiving it should face those paying it. This helps those who want to work get work, provides empathy for those fallen on bad luck and ensures the loafer is given nothing.

          3. Keep digging that hole. Wibbles.

            We know you are no more reactionary than most of us,
            but the ffffffffing devil works in mysterious ways!!

      2. Just as Labour don’t want to improve the lot of the working class or the “poor”. These people are their client base and Labour has a vested interest in keeping them down; if they move up in the world, they won’t support Labour any more!

    1. I don’t fear them, I’m repulsed by them. They’ve set back racial equality by decades simply by making an issue out of skin colour.

      Worse the state supports and encourages this division with the hateful equality act.

  8. Murder inquiry launched after three killed in rampage. Sun 21 Jun 2020 02.00 BST.

    A 25-year-old man from Reading was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and is in custody, Thames Valley police said. They are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident.

    Officers and other emergency services were called to reports of “multiple stabbings” at a park in Forbury Gardens, Reading, at 7pm on Saturday . The suspect, who is understood to be Libyan, was detained at the scene.

    The National Police Chief’s Council tweeted: “Please avoid speculation or sharing of video or images of the serious incident in Reading. An investigation will be ongoing.”

    Morning everyone. Nothing to see here. Just a Far-Right Libyan in a random attack on White Supremacists celebrating their Slave Owning ancestors! Move along all!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jun/20/police-incident-reading-town-centre-forbury-gardens-park-

    1. If he is a Libyan asylum seeker, then he is certainly not “from” Reading. At most he may live in Reading. How about a very public rejection of his asylum application….

      1. The only question relevant to the authorities and the media is the Racist Imperative: “Is he black?” If he is, then those stabbed should have gone on their knee and awaited destiny as is the lot of those descended from evil white imperialists. Failing to do so is a capital offence. Otherwise, what have numerous people and organisations been campaigning for over recent days?

        It’s a moot point though whether those coming from Libya count as “black” when allocating racial privilege. Ghaddafi certainly identified with the blacks, and supported the struggles of his friends, such as Idi Amin and Robert Mugabe, who were doing their bit to address the attacks on blacks in America, such as that done by psychopath rogue cops who are racially non grata. Granting asylum to black criminals is the least anyone can do, to back up their apologies and tearing down offensive statues.

        Am I being racist here?

      2. 320437+ up ticks,
        Morning HL,
        Heard a whisper even deportation is being considered.

          1. 320437+up ticks,
            AS,
            It was a Tic post but many a true word is posted in jest.
            Conspiracy theories are rapidly morphing into reality.

      3. Go’morgen, min ven.

        Is his application still pending, or has he passed that stage? I agree he should be deported after being found guilty at trial.

      4. Morning, lass. If we had a sensible comprehensive immigration policy this would not have happened.

    2. Is he a supporter of the imminent reopening of Alan’s Snackbar??

      ‘Morning, Minty.

      1. He was distributing the leaflets, and those inconvenient old white men refused to take one.

    3. A* student.
      Loves his Nan.
      Always said ‘Good Morning’.

      Oh …. and ‘Lessons will be learnt’.

  10. DAN HODGES: Watch out Boris, some Tory MPs are starting to think the unthinkable
    *Boris Johnson may face a growing headache from his own Conservative MPs
    *The impression among many is that Johnson is starting to lose his grip
    *The government have been forced into several u-turns over the last week
    *
    *
    *
    As one Minister complains: ‘What lay at the heart of all that was that no one trusts No 10 to hold the line on anything any more. No one’s going to go out and fight for a policy – even if it’s the right policy – because they think when the heat is on, they’ll fold.

    Cummings is the only thing they’ve actually dug in over. Everyone and everything else is expendable.’

    What’s also worrying Tory MPs is a suspicion that the mayhem of the past week may not be an aberration, but a return to normality. Boris’s stunning Election triumph has obscured the fact that retreats and confused and messy compromises were features of the early days of his administration.
    *
    *
    But some Conservative MPs don’t think that necessarily means Boris is in it for the long haul.

    ‘He’s not a politician, he’s a brand,’ one Minister told me, ‘and one day he’ll just walk. People say Carrie [Symonds] will keep him in line. But you watch. He’ll just get up one morning and take the brand somewhere else.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8443851/DAN-HODGES-Watch-Boris-Tory-MPs-starting-think-unthinkable.html

    1. ‘He’s not a politician, he’s a brand,’ one Minister told me, ‘and one day he’ll just walk.”

      Oddly enough this is a thought that has crossed my mind. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he just upped and quit one morning.

      2. Morning Minty

        I have thought the same .. Tony Blair was not a desk politician and had no sincerity . Cameron was a bolter , scuttled and ran when the going got tough, escaped here there and everywhere , and Boris is a “I’m gonna do this and I’m gonna do that, and whilst I’m about it “.. well we know the rest because baby Wilfred is proof!

        Dominic Raab could be good and steady, but who knows .

  11. I have just read an open letter to the Prime Minister from the man in the hoodie who wandered into the path of the Prime Ministerial convoy leaving Downing Street the other day, forcing a rear-end shunt where the PM’s jag was damaged. I suggested it was an agent provocateur, but it seems I was wrong, and it was actually a protester.

    Here is that letter:

    “Dear Prime Minister,

    A few days ago I ran out in front of your car, unintentionally causing your car to come to an abrupt halt and be shunted from behind. I realise how serious my actions were and I’m sorry if you suffered any physical harm, I hope not. I myself had to spend the night in a prison cell, which was not comfortable for a 59-year-old man with chronic back pain.

    However, I believe I owe you an apology and an explanation for my motivation to do such a seemingly reckless thing. In return Prime Minister, I hope you would do the courtesy of explaining something for me, too.

    As I’m sure you are aware, the Kurds, numbering some 45,000,000 in the world have been the victims of a historical betrayal and denied their statehood. They have been horrendously repressed over the last century and are suffering terribly at this particular moment at the hands of the Turkish government.

    We believe Turkish President Erdogan, is trying to eradicate the Kurdish political demands for basic freedoms ahead of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Lausanne Treaty (1923) in 2023. The same treaty that your great grandfather Ali Kemal Bey was brutally killed whilst being prepared. Tens of thousands of Kurds have been imprisoned in Turkey, including elected Mayors and MPs.

    We have done everything as a community to draw the world’s attention to Turkey’s crimes against the Kurds. Sending letters, signing petitions, lobbying MPs and contacting journalists. Nothing seems to work and we remain an unheard, voiceless, stigmatised and sometimes even a criminalised community.

    The other day, I simply wanted for you to hear my voice.

    A few days ago, again, Turkey bombed 81 different sites in South Kurdistan, where I am from. It targeted a UNHCR monitored refugee camp where Kurdish refugees had fled from Turkey in the 1990s called Makhmour Camp. It targeted the Yezidi town of Sengal, where Yezidi survivors of the ISIS atrocities have been trying to rebuild their lives. In Syria, the Kurds have fought so bravely and sacrificed so much to defeat ISIS and yet when Turkey invaded Northern Syria to attack the Kurds in March 2018, you defended Turkey’s actions saying at the time that: “Turkey has a right to want to keep its borders secure.”
    This, despite the Kurds in N. Syria never once being a threat to Turkey’s borders. The Kurds have always wanted a peaceful settlement to the Kurdish issue.

    This really upset us and felt like a stab in the back. Over 11,000+ of our young people have died fighting Daesh/ISIS so your streets can be safe and to defend our very existence. (8 brave young British people died fighting alongside our forces too, of which we are very proud.) Last year, in Oct, 14 civilians and 3 journalists were killed in a suspected drone attack on a peace convoy near the town of Ras al-Ain in N. Syria during Turkey’s illegal invasion and occupation of Rojava, they were allied with jihadist terror groups. Airstrikes were crucial in Turkey’s deadly assault which led to allegations of war crimes, extra-judicial executions and the displacement of more than 300,000 mainly Kurdish people.

    On the same day that I leapt in front of your car, the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign received an answer to a Parliamentary question posed by Kate Osamor MP, from your government which confirmed that you are exporting drone parts from the company, EDO MBM Technology Ltd, based in Brighton, for use by the Turkish military. We know you continue to sell many weapons to Turkey. I concluded therefore that you, Prime Minister, as Head of the UK Government, are complicit in the attempted genocide of my people, the Kurds.
    Innocent people are being killed and the UK is complicit.

    Whilst you and your nation tuck your children up into bed at night to the sounds of birdsong, our children are hearing the sound of bombs, wondering and fearful as to whether they are going to be the next to be hit. Whilst you and your nation are in comfortable, safe homes, ours are living in refugee camps, in political limbo, fearful that they may lose another child, sibling or parent to the senseless and inhumane actions of the Turkish government.

    We are not asking for much, just a safe environment for our children and our people.
    The Kurds fought and defeated the world’s most dangerous terrorists, ISIS, for you and we have given the world so much. Now we are tired. Like my own tired body I threw in front of your convoy.

    The Kurds are tired of being used when you need us, but our lives are seemingly dispensable when you might get a better financial return from the Turks. This is dishonourable. How can you maintain a shred of dignity by doing this to us?

    Your great grandfather, Ali Kemal Bey was persecuted and ultimately hung on a tree by nationalist Turks during the negotiations for the Lausanne Treaty 1923. He was a man of tremendous dignity and honour and passionately opposed the genocidal operations against the Armenians that ultimately cost him his life. He opposed Mustafa Kemal Ataturk whom along with Ismet Inönü went on to devise and implement similar policies towards the Kurds.
    I believe that if your grandfather was alive today, he would be defending the Kurds with equal passion and measure.

    You are now the Prime Minister of a great country that is home to nearly 50,000 Kurdish people who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of Turkey, Syria & Iraq’s war against us, just like me.

    I am not just the man who jumped in front of your car. I am a Kurdish man, a husband and father- just like you, who is asking you to stop turning your back on the Kurds. There is deep-seated racial prejudice against the Kurds because they have consistently refused to give up their Kurdish identity under Kemal Ataturk’s anti-Kurdish, forced assimilation policies.
    The Turkish state has criminalised our very identity and labelled us terrorists for wanting to keep our language, identity and culture. As a proud, patriotic Brit can you imagine being put into a similar situation and how you would feel if your national identity was suppressed through no fault of your own?

    The Kurds are a proud people and it is simplistic to expect any nation – with or without a state – to give up their identity, culture and language. Though the Turkish state makes claim to the fact they have given limited rights to the Kurdish people within Turkey, in fact, it has been the PKK who has tirelessly fought for these (limited) rights.

    The highest court in Belgium, after hearing all of the legal arguments regarding the labelling of the PKK as terrorists threw out Turkey’s case and labelled their arguments as cheap propaganda. The court ruled to remove PKK from the list of proscribed organisations. I implore you to do the same.

    Dear Prime Minister, I have explained my actions to you. Perhaps you would have the courtesy to explain your government’s policies in regards these matters.

    To summarise, my questions and requests are:
    • Why do you continue to sell weapons to Turkey despite 
knowing they are used against the Kurds?
    • Why is your government criminalising the Kurdish people 
in the UK for simply demanding their rights?
    • Please don’t turn a blind eye away from Turkey’s ongoing 
crimes against the Kurdish people.
    • Please use your offices to urge restraint and promote 
a peaceful and political settlement to the Kurdish issue.
    • Please follow in the footsteps of a previous UK Prime 
Minister, John Major, who created a safe haven for us in 
South Kurdistan (North Iraq) and do the same in Northern 
Syria for the Kurds.
    • Remember that the Kurds helped you to defeat ISIS and in 
return, please don’t allow this to keep happening to us.
    • Please honour the memory of your own great grandfather 
Ali Kemal Bey who was set upon by a Turkish nationalist 
mob and brutally killed for defending the rights of the 
Armenians.
    I believe that you have a historic responsibility: Turkey is a growing threat to not just to the Kurds but to the EU, NATO and the world. Kurds would be grateful and loyal if you did the right thing.

    May I conclude by apologising once again for the unfortunate accident the other day, and sincerely hope you were not injured but I’m sure you will agree there are much bigger issues at play.

    I look forward to hearing your response.
    Yours faithfully,
    Diyari Kurdi

      1. Once they send in the bill to BLM for their damage to property and to pay the fines for violating coronavirus regulations. BLM’s funders can afford it, which is more than the Kurds can.

      2. And for his airfare to Kurdistan, Armenia or wherever he claims his origins are.

  12. Peter Hitchens on the topic of Peter Hitchens. He’s becoming very boring.

    PETER HITCHENS: I’ve seen hamsters more intimidating than this mob who shouted at me – but what is frightening is their intolerance of all other opinions

    htmlwww.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8443205/PETER-HITCHENS-Ive-seen-hamsters-intimidating-mob-shouted-me.

    1. And, as I found last Tuesday, it is not enough to keep quiet. If you are suspected of thinking the wrong thing, they will come and cancel you anyway.

      I now think this is just a matter of time. Prepare to be cancelled.

      He’s right there though!

    2. What is even more frightening is the police openly siding with law breakers.
      Back to the Wars of the Roses. Brush up on your Paston Letters.

  13. Crackdown coming on statue vandalism that has caused so much disgust, pledges Justice Secretary. 20 June 2020 • 9:30pm

    Writing for The Telegraph, Robert Buckland, confirms that the Government will legislate to enable more severe punishments of those who damage monuments, in the face of a campaign by more than 120 Conservative MPs.

    Backbenchers will present a proposed Desecration of War Memorials Bill this week. Last week the Telegraph disclosed that ministers were considering changing the law to leave those who desecrate war memorials facing prison sentences of up to ten years.

    Lol! One assumes that by the time this law gets through that all the statues will have been demolished anyway. This is just bluster. If this measure does anything it illustrates the complete irrelevance of Parliament. They are simply talking heads without power or substance.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/20/crackdown-coming-statue-vandalism-has-caused-much-disgust-pledges/

    1. 320437+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      The power they do wield is certainly not beneficial to the English Nation or peoples.
      As in a post yesterday they can do a “Tommy Robinson”
      today on a token number, incarceration, prototype of
      what the future holds, only this time with decent peoples backing.

    2. This is bluster designed to deceive. I have said it before and I will say it again, the BBC local news interviewed the chap who was pulling on the ropes which toppled the statue of Colston. Still no sign of a prosecution even though his name was plastered all over the TV screen.

        1. ‘Morning, Belle. The BBC and other broadcasters are now the official opposition, or so they keep telling us. Preposterous.

          1. It might be preposterous (in a nobler and braver age) but it is now the truth.
            The BBC and the media generally are working hard to bring down a Conservative government.

          2. Any, even slightly, conservative government anywhere is under attack from their MSM..

            Just look at what is happening in the USA.

        2. Morning Belle, the BBC is there for all to see what happens when conservative thinking is too scared to make an appearance in a “Conservative “ government.

    3. Yes, a fine example of window-dressing, the illusion of activity and so on. Must have new law(s)…too little, too late as usual. The yobs have the upper hand, along with a complicit police farce. The horse is miles down the road and the stable door is swinging in the breeze.

    4. There is a law against criminal damage, Sentence can be up to 10 years, but up to 14 if racially aggravated. Passing a new law will take months, by which time this will be history as a new problem will be in the headlines. If the present law were to used it would be virtually impossible for any court to pass sentence without having to state that the crimes were “racially aggravated”. They dare not do this. So there will not be any charges brought. The provisions for increasing sentences for “racially aggravated”offences were only ever intended to be used against white people, obviously.

    5. There are – as grizz would tell us – already laws protecting such property. Vandalism for a start. All that’s missing is the will to apply them and to bring the police in not as namby pamby ‘run away!’ Monty Pythons but as the brutish riot control squad armed with bull pups. Step out of line and get a face full fo rubber bullets. Keep coming and get put down.

      It’s not difficult. Surround them, put them on *their* knees, hands behind back, handcuffed and arrest them for criminal damage.

      1. He does go on to say that the current laws are muddled and sentences are inadequate.

        Vandalising memorials is truly beyond the pale

        Tougher punishments for desecrating monuments will ensure that courts can take real action against it

        ROBERT BUCKLAND

        Like most people, I have been appalled to see pictures in the newspapers and on television of violence and vandalism at recent protests. However noble a cause, there can be no justification for assaulting police officers, daubing political slogans on the statue of Churchill or clambering on top of the Cenotaph to burn the Union Jack.

        Those who do so debase their cause and fill people who may otherwise sympathise with a sense of revulsion. The fact that people feel able to do this with impunity, even in the presence of cameras, suggests the law as it stands is inadequate.

        As promised in the 2019 Conservative Manifesto, the Ministry of Justice will shortly consult on doubling the maximum sentence for assaulting workers in emergency services such as police officers, firefighters and paramedics. They deserve extra protection when they are serving the public. But we also need to make sure the laws around criminal damage are appropriate. Presently, this area of law is broad and surprisingly complicated with penalties ranging from fines to life imprisonment.

        In cases where there is no threat to life and no arson is involved, the maximum sentence a judge can hand down largely depends on the value of damage done. If it is less than £5,000 the case will end in the magistrates with a maximum sentence of 3 months. But if it is more than £5,000, the case can go up to the Crown Court and a sentence of up to 10 years imprisonment can be handed down.

        This means that a vandal who breaks into a cemetery and destroys 9 headstones worth £500 each can only be sentenced to 3 months imprisonment. This can’t be right, especially when so many of our war memorials are modest and of little monetary value.

        But they clearly have enormous symbolic value, which is not something that can be measured in pounds, shillings and pence.

        I’ve seen from my own community the hurt and insult that can be caused when local war graves are damaged. This is not just an attack on our heritage, it is also an attack on our values of hard-won freedom and democracy and an insult to the memory of those who gave their lives for us.

        This can’t be allowed to stand. Next week, a bill backed by more than 100 Conservative MPs creating a specific offence of desecration of a war memorial will come before parliament. I met with them earlier this week and fully agree with its objectives.

        But backbench bills rarely get the parliamentary time they need to become law. The government will need to legislate.

        And now is an opportune moment to think about memorials more broadly and make sure that all acts of vandalism that cause widespread disgust can be appropriately punished by the courts.

        Everyone will have seen a local news story about a memorial to someone killed in a road traffic accident being vandalised at some point. Like war memorials, these tend to have substantial emotional and sentimental value but negligible monetary value.

        Likewise, plaques to heroes such as PC Keith Palmer, who was murdered trying to stop a terrorist from entering the Palace of Westminster are not war memorials but are surely deserving of additional protection under the law.

        There have also been appalling recent instances of religious headstones, especially Jewish ones, being smashed and vandalised. And while racially or religiously aggravated criminal damage can be punished more severely, in practice this is extremely difficult to prove and those hurt are often left with a sense of injustice.

        Later this year, I will set out my plans for sentencing reform. At the lower end, we will toughen community sentences by tightening curfews and requiring those convicted to do more hours of community payback by cleaning up our parks and streets. At the other end of the spectrum, we will end automatic halfway release from prison for serious crimes and ensure convicted child murderers spend the rest of their lives in prison.

        This provides the opportunity to make sure the laws around criminal damage are fit for purpose and that the punishment for vandalising memorials fits the crime. The families of loved ones whose memories are insulted deserve nothing less.

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/vandalising-memorials-truly-beyond-pale/

  14. Good morning, all. A bit of rain overnight.

    Welcome to the longest day. Make the most of it.

    1. Good morning Bill

      Showery morning here , sun shines brightly and the colours look good.

      The village verges were cut last week , everything was so dry and frazzled and unkempt, it was good to see a bit of order once more.

    1. Morning Ped. Sunshine here, cloudless sky and the birds are singing. Starting the day alfresco with ciabatta toast and homemade mandarin marmalade. I like the sound of those tacos though!

      1. Wholemeal soft tacos, crispy streaky bacon, sour cream, chili sauce.

        Scrumptious!

          2. An improvement. I’m not a big fan of soured cream or femme fresh (or whatever it’s called).

  16. Just some musings here my fellow NoTTlers.. The present Government is in Office but not in Power. It is a hollow shell whose members are devoid of any confidence, principle or belief. It controls neither the streets nor the borders. Its own Civil Servants ignore it. It will be gone by Christmas and the Marxist/Labour party will take over.

    There’s not a day now goes by where I don’t thank God that I am seventy three at least a half dozen times!

    PS Disqus acting up again!

  17. Morning all

    SIR – As the chair of governors of a small village primary school, I have had the opportunity over the last few weeks to see the approach and attitude of school leaders, not just at our school but across the multi-academy trust of which we are a member.

    I have been struck by the determination of those school leaders to open their schools to as many children as the guidelines allow, in the face of countless difficulties. They have recruited staff at a record rate to stand in for those medically unable to return, re-arranged their buildings and taken over village halls.

    Headteachers are conducting daily risk assessments, inducting new staff, instituting new school routines, communicating those routines to parents and, in some cases, even carrying out midday cleaning duties.

    There has been much criticism of the approach of some of the teaching unions. Please do not allow that to taint the extraordinary work being done by school leaders up and down the country who are resolute in their resolve to allow as many children as possible to return to school.

    John Hallissey

    Husbands Bosworth, Leicestershire

    SIR – On my daily walk or run, I regularly see groups of around 10 teenagers in the (nominally closed) playgrounds, skateboarding and socialising (though not distancing) and obviously without home schooling.

    Then on television we see the ludicrous efforts in schools to keep teenagers two metres apart. Where is the logic in stopping schools reopening when pupils outside are neither distancing nor learning?

    It’s time the British and Welsh governments, the teaching unions and some teachers and local councils stopped politicking and simply got all pupils back into full education.

    Dr Brian Wareing

    Chester

      1. Because the previous one of 58 pages was found wanting by the teachers’ unions?

        ‘Morning, Oberst. It is high time this government pulled the rug from under them by relaxing the current limitations, thus finally depriving them of the means to disrupt the education of our youngsters. Against this disaster nothing else is as important.

        Fat chance!

      2. Because the previous one of 58 pages was found wanting by the teachers’ unions?

        ‘Morning, Oberst. It is high time this government pulled the rug from under them by relaxing the current limitations, thus finally depriving them of the means to disrupt the education of our youngsters. Against this disaster nothing else is as important.

        Fat chance!

        1. We have had daily updates emailed at work – every time the government makes some new pronouncement on the subject it seems all the risk assessments have to be revised. There have been days with no new updates, but there has been a regular stream of emails on the subject over the past 3 months, most of which I ignore as I’ve been working from home.

          1. Welcome to the world of education since the eighties! The goal posts kept changing with regard to SATS and Ofsted inspections. You’d just get all the protocols in place and they’d tear them up and put in a new set!

  18. Morning again from Marble Arch where we spotted the start of yesterday’s weekly BLM march. A few hundred baby adults and oddities jumping with delight in the sun but this time heavily cocooned by police. Huge traffic jams behind them of no concern naturally and off they went with their bits of cardboard and blissful ignorance.

    SIR – It has become clear that the classic antibody response to Covid-19 is lacking, with numerous infected patients having no lasting antibody response – as noted by Harry de Quetteville.

    This fits in well with the observation that I made in the Telegraph (March 31), pointing out that patients on a cancer immune booster called IMM-101 reported that they no longer get previously routine viral infections such as the seasonal flu. This agent uniquely activates the first line of defence by inducing T-cell activity which can protect from viral infections without antibody responses.

    For this reason the agent has been adopted as the preferred adjuvant by the Norwegian biotechnology company Bionor for its Covid-19 vaccine. It was offered as a first-line preventive for exposed health workers. Sadly, our Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) and other official advisers failed to understand the importance of this association, which fortunately has been recognised by others in the United States and in Canada.

    Angus Dalgleish

    Professor of Oncology, St George’s, University of London

    1. I was speaking with 2 NHS workers yesterday. One an ambulance driver/medic and the other an army sergeant nurse seconded to the NHS for the Covid-19, regarding the antibody test. Both he and she can’t believe they have not been infected during the last 3 months but both of them are still testing negative for the antibody test after 2 and 3 recent tests.

    2. It sounds as though T-Cells are an all purpose tracking and zapping system.
      Those with more naturally produced T-Cells have greater natural immunity.
      Would exposure to normal life help with their production – “You need to eat a peck of dirt before you die”.
      (Historical note: 1 peck is 10-12 lbs. Which sounds about right if you think of children playing outside (gasp!) and the number of unwashed apples etc… that people ingest in their lifetime.)

      1. Not just T-Cells, but antibodies built up from infections by other Corona type viruses appear to impart some cross resistance.

  19. SIR – Janet Daley encourages us all to “get out there and shop for Britain”.

    But with queues, gloves, masks and the constant anxiety induced by “social distancing”, shopping hardly looks like a relaxing or pleasurable experience. Shopping online, with quick home delivery and an easy means of returning unwanted items, seems preferable.

    Helen Webster

    Woking, Surrey

    1. When has shopping ever been a pleasure – to me it is a stressful chore to be endured. Capitalism would probably come crashing to the ground if everyone did as little shopping as I do.

      1. While pubs, restaurants, theatres and shops are forced to treat me like a plague bacillus, they will not be getting my custom.
        It may not be their fault, but so long as the government and insurance companies inflict this puritanical nonsense on businesses, my money stays in my pocket or goes elsewhere.

  20. SIR – Emma Soames wonders what line “purist” protesters would take on the pyramids.

    In fact, the pyramids have been under threat for some time. In 2012, during the ascendancy of the Muslim Brotherhood, the jihadist activist Murgan Salem al-Gohary called for their destruction, as did the Bahraini politician and expert in Islamic law, Abd al-Latif al-Mahmood.

    Closer to home, Anjem Choudary said in 2015 that when the caliphate came to Egypt, there would be no more pyramids.

    David J Critchley

    Buckingham

    1. Yes, the MB has long wanted to destroy the pyramids because they are pre-Islamic. They also wanted to destroy the Cairo Tower (Borg El Qahira) because they said that any woman who sees it will think of a certain part of the male anatomy.

      The only people with such a perversion are members of the MB themselves!

    3. The question then is:

      Who will Ali and the boys use to depyramid Egypt

      1. Local men with big machines
      2. Bring in outside contractors, with big machines
      3. Subjugated Egyptians with shovels like how they were built

      I reckon on No 3

      or

      When is a slave not a slave When he is working for you</spoiler

  21. My last word (I promise) on TV documentaries. I told the MR last night that if I heard one more arm-waving “presenter” look at an object, picture, view etc and say, “WOWWW!” I shall vomit over the carpet.

    4. amazing astonishing, awesome, awe-inspiring, beautiful, empyrean, ethereal, exalted, exceptional, exciting, fabulous, fantastic, grand, hair-raising, heart-stirring, heart-stopping, heavenly, inconceivable, incredible, inspiring, magnificent, marvellous, moving, out-of-the-ordinary, outstanding, overwhelming, particular, phenomenal, remarkable, spine-tingling, stunning, stupendous, terrific, thrilling, unheard-of, unimaginable, unprecedented, unusual, uplifting, wonderful.

      [Roget is your friend]

  22. Has anyone here moved from Twitter to Parler? What’s it like? Lots of tweets saying tw@ts are transferring following the deplatforming of Katie Hopkins.

          1. Inky, pinky parlez-vous?

            A song about German officers for Lewis Hamilton to sing in his bath in Monte Carlo when he thinks of how the German motor car industry was built on Jewish slave labour in living memory.

        1. Could it be that all the problems encountered by our NoTTLers are caused when Pa papered over the site’s working parts? (When Pa papered over the parlour, Ma was stuck to the ceiling).

          :-))

  24. 320437+ up ticks,
    Please enlighten me, we have a parliament reminiscent of the bloody arabian nights so what else do these tw@ts really want.

      1. 329437+ up ticks.
        Morning PTV,
        Difference being all that glistens is certainly not gold.

        1. Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare) Act 2 Scene 7:

          “All that glisters is not gold…”

          1. 320437+ up ticks,
            Morning NTI,
            Quite so, I had him in court over that, bloody plagiarism.

          2. Sad to think that I remember that not because of having watched or read the play, but from Helen Mirren’s character quoting it in Lindsay Anderson’s “O Lucky Man!”…!

          3. Sad to think that I remember that not because of having watched or read the play, but from Helen Mirren’s character quoting it in Lindsay Anderson’s “O Lucky Man!”…!

          4. Sad to think that I remember that not because of having watched or read the play, but from Helen Mirren’s character quoting it in Lindsay Anderson’s “O Lucky Man!”…!

          2. I had a vey interesting time researching the background of the play. It was a red-hot political satire in its day, featuring a lot of recognisable leading public figures & their financial scandals & misadventures. Previously I thought it was just a play about antisemitism, but that was just on the surface.
            I expect Rastus knows a lot about it.

          3. 320437+up ticks,
            PTV,
            So playtime in history repeated currently in
            reality, yet another bloody repeat.

      1. 320437+up ticks,
        Afternoon JoD,
        Because the purveyors of submissive pcism & appeasement lab,lib.con would not hear of it thereby via the ballot booth nither would the peoples.

      2. The law would be used to arrest little white grannies carrying a canteen of fish knives and forks they’d bought for a wedding present.

    2. It looks to be fake news and reposting it as if it is real harms your position.

      It’s little different from what Left do to Trump

    3. Got no idea who she is but it sounds like she wants to be the victim in all of this and what goes around comes around

      1. “Mental health is being considered a major factor in the incident, security source said.”
        Would that remark refer to the mental health of the PTB, eg Miss Priti Patel?

        1. Mental health etc…..
          We could have told them years ago that they’re all bloody nutters.

        2. Of course, had he been white, there would have been no mention of his mental health – merely that it was a “typical” far-right attack.

    2. Ah, but what kind of “terrorist”? Nothing to do with islam for sure, as I’ve commented in a post below, otherwise islam would certainly be proscribed ?
      “Chief Constable John Campbell said it was a “truly tragic incident”.
      “Incidents of this nature are very rare, though I know that will be of little comfort to those involved and understand the concern that this incident will have caused amongst our local community,” he said.”
      My highlighting. Does this police person mean rare in Forbury Gardens? Rare in Reading? Rare in this country? Does he know where Manchester is, or London? Can he find his own arse with both hands?

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-53127095

      1. He means rare in the world which he inhabits. For the rest of us, living in the real world, such incidents are only too common.

    3. It was self-expression. Their lives matter don’t they, and so does their right to choose? Besides, you can only be a victim if you identify with one of the approved list of oppressed minorities, such as Islamists and drug-dealing black gangsters.

    1. I am on a diet to eliminate this problem. No exercise of course, because that’s uncomfortable. But lunch is now an apple and 2 M&S breakfast biscuits.

      1. I do not know what goes into an M&S biccy, so I need to ask if a nicely chilled chablis would go with lunch?

        1. It certainly would with mine. Dressed crab and a side salad. ‘Bends knee to Waitrose’.

        2. Sugar, or sugar substitute mainly I think, it’s called honey and oatmeal. But wine is full of calories, so I decline to test the combination. One cup of tea is all I permit myself.

  31. Interesting to see the new Police Play-Book in action after the Reading stabbings.

    They didn”t bother with “Nothing to do with Islam” but went straight to “Nothing to do with BLM demo” adding that “This may be a terrorism act.”

    The Muzzies will be pissed off at being downgraded and losing the limelight.

    1. That was earlier it seems. The police are now distancing the crime from terrorism.
      “Thames Valley Police said a 25-year-old man from Reading was arrested at the scene and is now in custody on suspicion of murder.”
      “Police say they are currently treating the attack as a murder investigation, not a terrorism incident.”
      “Eyewitness Laurence Wort, 20, told the BBC…”The park was pretty full, a lot of people sat around drinking with friends when one lone person walked through, suddenly shouted some unintelligible words and went round a large group trying to stab them.””

      Ah, “unintelligible words”. Probably Norwegian for “I’m going to get you people for making arabs into slaves. This has nothing to do with islam.”?
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53124359

      1. They were ‘I need the loo and a snack bar.’

        I expect they don’t want to suggest it is racially motivated or a terrorist act because that’d annoy the natives.

  32. Just some musings here my fellow NoTTlers.. The present Government is in Office but not in Power. It is a hollow shell whose members are devoid of any confidence, principle or belief. It controls neither the streets nor the borders. Its own Civil Servants ignore it. It will be gone by Christmas and the Marxist/Labour party will take over.

    There’s not a day now goes by where I don’t thank God that I am seventy three at least a half dozen times!

    PS Disqus acting up again!

    1. Morning Minty, I agree with what you say apart from it will be gone by Christmas.

      Never underestimate the Conservative Party and its ability to use smoke and mirrors to cling to power. The last Euro elections is a perfect example, when they saw the writing on the wall, they suddenly became eurosceptics.

      I predict it more likely they will deliver just enough of a Brexit to avoid political suicide before the liberal element regain control in 2021.

      I can’t see them in power after 2024 though, they have lost the support of the country, kowtowing to BLM, BBC as just 2 examples.

      Time for a new true conservative minded party, where it comes from though I do not know.

      1. I was just taking a punt on the date VVOF. In a way it is much more important what happens in the United States than here since no UK government can rule without American approval. There is also the World situation where China is becoming increasingly belligerent. If they decide that The US is too divided to defend Taiwan they might very well give it a try. Never in my lifetime have things looked so bleak!

      2. 320437+ up ticks,
        Morning VVOF,
        We had the makings of one with UKIP under the Gerard Batten leadership.
        Batten had to be stopped hence the NEc
        treachery.

        1. Morning Ogga, the need for an alternative is still there, I feel UKIP will not be able to provide it.

          1. 320437+ up ticks,
            VVOF,
            The current UKIP under the ersatz NEc is now an establishment type party, they witnessed the success of Batten and found it to be unacceptable.
            Batten / Braine were the men for ALL reasons going forward.
            Is there any leader today that could match Batten
            when on taking over he asked the membership for £100000 and received near £300000 in reply.
            Well placed confidence being shown.
            The UKIP ersatz NEc got,are getting, away with political murder.
            The same will happen to any new party currently.
            The major, major, fault commenced on the 25/6/2016 heralded by ” job done leave it to the tories” rhetorical mass stupidity.

    2. Half a dozen times 73? You are 438 years old?? Blimey, Noah just managed to get past that!

    1. In Scotland, we English do not stand a chance of Equality, with even the Blacks, let alone Murrels Millions of Minions

    2. All they can come up with are trivial excuses.

      Does he not realise that ALL children have a streak of cruelty in them and they often revert to tribal ways – particularly when they spot differences in others from other tribes.

      1. That is so. When all the boys are white the same things happen. The jibes relate to the size of noses, the colour of hair, haircut, expertise/ lack of at games. The list is endless and meaningless. Just something to hang an insult on. The activiites swerve from teasing, to bonding to bullying.

    3. I expect he protested vehemently when the Pakistani rape gangs were about. Nah – thought not.

  36. It appears to me that in every town and village , the government have allocated students/ migrants/ illegal migrants to be housed by councils .

    People who don’t share our values ,who don’t like us and who are determined to inflict harm on our culture , history and us.

    1. 320437+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      Thereby teaching a lesson on how to spread the mass uncontrolled immigration plague via the polling booth with the peoples blessing.

      1. Yep and enhancing the black lives matter mantra.. when a noisy black family causes mayhem re parties into the wee small hourse , so we hear , or the whiff of curry 24/7

        I have heard such stories and feel so sorry for those who have to put up with issues like that.

  38. Exclusive: ‘One metre plus’, the new rule that will reopen UK. 21 June 2020.

    The Prime Minister is believed to be preparing to make an announcement on Tuesday, and the “one metre plus” branding under discussion will be designed to help reassure customers and workers that the rule is safe to observe. Officials are understood to have concluded that observing one metre with appropriate “mitigations” would equate to two-metre distancing without any such measures.

    BREAKING NEWS! Bear shit found in woods!

    2. The cheque is in the post
      Cors I’ll luv ya in the morning (before I leave)
      Ov cors I won’t…….

  39. So, a stabby deranged Methodist alive and well in Reading. Nice to be back to pre-plague normal.

    1. Dreadful though this episode is, I would be pleased to read that the man in question had come in on one of the cross-channel invasion boats.

      It might wake the government up to what is likely to be arriving amongst these convoys.

      1. Morning Sos. They already know. There’s just nothing they can do about it!

          3. Priti Patel tried and soon discovered that being a Government Minister means nothing at all. Civil Servants currently rule the UK.

        2. They could do plenty, they just don’t care. They think we’re stupid, ignorant and impotent. They could intercept them and turn them back then sink the boats (like the Aussies). They could make an effort to track down illegals and deport them along with foreign criminals. They could ensure that immigrants have worked and paid taxes for five years minimum before they are eligible for any benefits and if they become a drain on the state before then, they are deported.

    2. Today’s Ponder

      Yo Mr T

      Some people are a bit self centred, almost like nobody else’s Lives Matter

      Nieema Hassan, one of the organisers of the peaceful demonstration,
      said: “In terms of the protest and the people who attended from Black
      Lives Matter, we’re all safe      .”

      “None of us are affected. We had all left by the time this happened.”

      Colour me Blick, but I am sure I would have been a little affected if I had been
      at a gathering and people were killed, at that location, after I left.

      I would also wonder if the murders would have happened, if the organised march had not taken place

      Nary a word about the those murdered, their Lives Do Not Matter

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/reading-stabbings-three-people-feared-dead-least-two-injured/

      1. Just copied and pasting that when I saw yours. Whew, I was thinking, that’s alright then.

      2. I think that what she meant, if it was a “she” – was that as the victims were white, she didn’t give a toss. Indeed, was quite chuffed.

        1. I’m no victim. I am pissed off, however, and becoming more racist by the day!

          2. Those inconvenient whiteys; they keep getting in the way of knives, bombs, over-active penises …. are they doing it deliberately?

        2. Victimhood is a state of mind. I am increasingly angry – and am starting to notice just how privileged the bleks are in our tolerant country which they appear to despise.

    2. Good morning, Citroen

      I posted this yesterday. It would seem to chime with what this intelligent lady has experienced.

      This racism must be on an epic scale.

      I
      lived in both Birmingham and London and never saw any. I’m not saying
      it doesn’t happen but it was never an issue. I mixed freely with people
      of African/Asian and Chinese heritage. They never mentioned anything.

      Has anyone else on here witnessed any?

    3. A BTL comment that will never see the light of day:-
      Sadly, far too many on the Left will view her as a “Coconut” or, to use the racist parlance of the American Democrat Party, an “Aunt Jemima who should git on back to the plantation”. The Left is already intolerant of opposing opinions but, as we have seen over the Munira Mirza furore, a non-White person opposing their views with well reasoned intelligence has them in hysterical paroxysms.

  41. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “If there are lessons that we need to learn about how we
    handle such cases we will learn those lessons and we will not hesitate to take
    action where necessary.”Oh how we laughed………..

      1. Probably inherited her briefing sheets. After all, they know this particular one has to be wheeled out on a regular basis!

    2. I have in the course of my life run across more than my fair share of liars, mountebanks and nutters but even I have to pause on occasion and wonder. What goes through their minds? Do they know that we know? Do they even care? I remember on one occasion working with a compulsive liar who would dream up the most incredible fantasies without effort of any kind, they simply fell off the end of his tongue without the slightest sign of hesitation or doubt. This particular time he was telling me a story about his time in Vietnam as a mine removal expert (I never gave any signs of scepticism) when another colleague came up to whom he had clearly told a different story. He had to somehow transpose these two very different narratives into one coherent whole as we both listened. It was wonderful to behold!

    1. Afternoon Richard. I have always considered school homework to be cruel and morally unjustifiable. Home schooling on the other hand should be compulsory.

      1. Home schooling may well have worked for Rastus and his children but how would the uneducated stereotypical chav manage to educate thei sprigs?

        This extended school holiday has harmed the prospects for many underprivileged youth who depended on school for an opportunity to grow out of the rut their parents wallow in.

      2. I found homework a welcome relief and escaped to my bedroom asap after doing the dishes.

      3. I had no problems with doing homework. I was never that enthusiastic about six days a week school though. Besides in those far off days, we could not have passed “O” and “A” levels without homework.

  43. You know what to do, my fellow NoTTLers. That A Allan chappie who often posts BTL@DTletters has just declared (8:35 am) that he likes to be addressed as ‘Madam Chairman’.

    1. Yo Citroen

      Tha rules out our annallan

      She has bigger balls than most men on here

    1. Funny that a almost non-existent “organisation” called National Action has its silly members jailed for years because, erm, they were members. The members of islam in this country frequently carry out horrific attacks, murdering and maiming. Yet islam is not proscribed.

      1. You might have to use the volume control on your PC the youtube volume seems only to be at one level.

        1. It’s strange how he volume of TV programmes varies. I think some, e,g, TOTP, are deliberately muffled by the sender.

          1. I find that the main problem, more so than just volume, is the poor diction of so many of the people on TV nowadays.

          2. It’s the new realism. So many people muffle their voices when divulging personal matters such as name & occupation – a good example is the candidates on Pointless or UC.
            I remember sitting through a live show in Sweden featuring a well-known comedian. I could just about keep up with him but EVERY time he delivered a punchline, he would sink his head & mumble into his chest. Completely lost on me. Fortunately I did not pay for my ticket, otherwise I would have bellowed, “Prat högare!” (Speak up!”)
            In the U3A German discussion group, which I have just quit, nearly everyone in the small room stared at the carpet & mumbled as though they were frightened of being heard.

  46. The BLM spooksperson said that the ‘organisaion’ is exstatic over Swing Low Sweet Charity’ being banned.

    The spooksman went on to say that the Hymn “All Things Bright and Beautiful” must now be banned as

    it excludes the vast majority (for being either Not Bright, Not Beautiful or both) of BLMers

  47. Modi advocates yoga to combat coronavirus as India reports record rise in coronavirus cases. 21 June 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b10a53fab20cc68e1bfcac428d8dff64d589c54a7b3f444ccf2bd18d0c75f9b8.jpg

    Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, has extolled yoga to build up a “protective shield” against coronavirus, as the country reported a record daily jump in the number of new coronavirus cases.

    It’s obviously a new strain. At least we will be able to tell who has it!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/19/modi-advocates-yoga-combat-coronavirus-indiareports-record-rise/

      1. Velly inelsting. How is daughter today? And where’s my card? 😢😢😅😅

    2. Where do I buy on of those “masks”. Would get a lot of attention in the supermarket, methinks. e

  48. The helicopters are circulating above here at Marble Arch presumably for another demonstration of the determination of the young to blight their futures.

    4. To be fair, many of these people have nothing. SFA. Nada.
      In the words of a Spectator columnist, their lives were doomed from the moment of conception.
      If you want to help, there are endless schools across Africa that could with a little support (after the hedgehogs have been rescued).

      1. At least you can see hedgehogs improve when they are saved . 60% of those children don’t have fathers , nor know who their fathers are .. They are probably the products of mass rapes!

      2. Change of despot needed.
        They can swop tax haven bank numbers while the starving sum up enough energy to riot.

        1. The truly starving do not riot. They do not have the strength.
          The rioting and revolution comes when a successor has alleviated the famine and is trying to improve conditions.

      3. Tim, a fair comment, but why, in a continent with so many natural resources, are there so many in need?
        Other than provide the WaBenzi with new Mercedes cars and create a vast increase in population, what has all the foreign aid achieved to date?
        It seems the only African leader talking sense today is Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo.
        https://youtu.be/aPEeiFBUwM4

        1. “… why, in a continent with so many natural resources, are there so many in need?” – and what happened to all the government, NGO and charitable donations made these last 50+ years?

  50. Today is the longest day ( no Druids at Stonehenge ) as it’s been banned
    this year. From now on the nights draw in ( less then cheery note ).

    2. There haven’t been any real Druids at Stonehenge (if there ever were) for thousands of years. The current bunch are following a made-up ‘religion’ invented in the 20th century.

        1. Tell us about it. MB and I were engaged when we went to see that film. We had just found our little house that we would eventually buy; I wanted to chat and plan, he decided he wanted to see that interminable film.
          We ended up walking out: him because he could sense the unenthusiastic vibes; me because I was sick of watching Robert Mitchum winning the War.
          The bus conductor on my silent and lonely journey home had known me since I was about nine. He winked at me, smiled and said “Cheer up. He’ll be back.”

          1. Can’t quite remember when we saw it, but as it came out in 1962, which was the yearn we met, it had to have been before we got engaged.

          2. I remember seeing it, but not who I was with! Must have been gripped, like the bloke who landed on the Church tower!

  51. Gor God’s Sake ! –

    They are doing the job they are paid to do ! – enough of this kind of language when the police are called out –

    “There are barely words to describe their bravery – officers who ran towards
    danger with the sole thought of protecting the public we serve.
    Other colleagues valiantly rushed to the scene to try and save and preserve life.”

    Th other day, they were all seen running away from the BLACK Lives Matter participants!

    1. That video clip showed that they were retreating to form a defensive line further back. If you watch the clip you will see the police lined up facing the BLM mob. Such tactics are normal in wartime.The police obviously had instructions from on high not to use force on the BLM protesters and not to wear protective gear. I cannot accept that they were cowardly. They were doing their job as instructed.

      1. What kind of instructions were those? What kind of Police commander thinks an angry black mob won’t go on a rampage of destruction, and fails to provide enough policemen to do their job of enforcing the law?
        You and stu may be commenting on different video clips, though. (There was a general clip of lots of police “retreating” in the Italian fashion (reculer pour mieux sauter) and a clip of two officers running away from a number of black citizens.)

    2. Good job they were out and about, there’s a lot of them standing around the plinths of statues at the moment.

    3. People who chant ‘F*ck the Police’ or ‘All cops are bastards’ should ponder the fact that at some time in the future they may need the services of the Police in just such a case as the one at Reading.

      1. I received those very words, frequently, during the miners’ strike in 1984–85.

        At one stage I was despatched, along with six others, to try and bring some semblance of peace to a small mining village in which nearly everyone was on strike except one miner. This individual was a large powerful character who none of the striking miners would take on, so they sent out their wives each day to scream abuse at him and we police officers. One of the women’s cheerleaders was a particularly gobby individual who took every opportunity to scream abuse at us police officers. One day I approached her and calmly told her that one day she may need our services. She just screamed more abuse back at me.

        A few weeks later there was a tentative knock on the door of the village police station and standing there, red-faced and chastened, was the same woman. She spluttered out that her home had been burgled during the night and wanted to report it. Without further ado I accompanied her home and noticed that her house was spotless and tidy. After I’d arranged a visit from scenes of crime and started my investigations I resisted the urge to tell her, “I told you so.” I had no need to since she, sheepishly and without prompting, apologised for her previous behaviour.

        As a result of this I arrested the burglar (the son of a fellow mining family) and from then on, she smiled and waved whenever I passed in the street. She must have passed the message around because this was the start of getting back to normal and our police presence in the village was then universally welcomed instead of being resented.

        2. I wonder what those who think defunding their police will do when they get burgled, have lost their cat, think someone is stalking them, or 101 myriad things that Police officers do… like accompany the priest home to someone who doesn’t know yet that they are a widow… who will take care of those things? who has experience in managing RTAs? and so on.

          1. Well, Paul, they’ll soon find out, won’t they?

            That’ll be when they realise what kind of hell they’ve released upon their sorry selves.

          2. Well, round here they won’t notice much difference if they get burgled or broken into! We are lucky to see a police officer or even a PCSO! We get a crime/incident number for the insurance and that’s it!

    4. Quite so. One wonders what people think that individuals sign up to when they become police officers.

    5. One tends to forget, these days, that there still ARE policemen who wish to do their best for the rest of us.

    7. It’s the same with the NHS eulogies. These people are doing the job they signed up to do and are being paid to do. When I was at Little Rissington during the Cold War, the CO made it plain that if we were called upon to deliver the nuclear deterrent, then that’s what we’d do. Fortunately, it never came to that, but that’s what signing up would have meant.

  52. Someone mentioned Blair below, I nearly dropped my eggs before scrambling..
    ‘the most rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended a nostril’
    as the ruff wearing one would’ve said. Blair really is a loathsome snake from the bowels
    of hell and the mention of him makes my teeth hurt.

    2. Morning Ethel! As a nottler said to me the other day “don’t sit on the fence! Tell us what you really think!”

  53. Totally bored, I turned on the telly and started to watch ‘Couples Come Dine With Me’

    In total on the show there were Five wiv Dangley Bitz, Three without

    Modern Britain………

  54. In 1968, as a newly qualified chartered accountant, I was posted to the small office of the international firm that employed me in Tripoli, Libya. I soon befriended someone who lived close to our office and who was the meteorologist at Tripoli Airport. His two charming daughters later obtained degrees from Cambridge University. After all this time we are still friends despite being rather elderly.

    In the early 2000s I needed a Saudi to sponsor me in Saudi Arabia. This was soon arranged. When my Egyptian business partner came to visit me I introduced him to my sponsor. A couple of days later we flew to Egypt and were joined by my sister in Sharm El Sheikh where we had a small business. One evening we went to dinner at the best hotel in the area. When we passed through the lobby to the restaurant, my partner nudged me and said: “Isn’t that your sponsor over there”? We had met him only a couple of days before but I didn’t recognize him because it was the first time I had seen him in Western dress. He hurried after us and we were received in the restaurant like royalty because it turned out that my sponsor owned the hotel! I later told my sister that she had shaken hands with the wealthiest person she had ever met!

    On another occasion, when Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer, I was honored to meet the finance minister of a certain country in his office. He was eloquent, perfectly dressed, and extremely polite. We had a fascinating discussion and I later commented that I wish he could be finance minister of the UK.

    I could relate many other similar anecdotes but the point of them is that every person I mentioned, except for my sister and Gordon Brown, is black. But yesterday I stupidly tuned into Sky News for a couple of minutes. There was a young white woman in Hyde Park interviewing a huge black gentleman wearing only shorts and who was barely coherent. He said “This is revolution and we are winning”.

    Conclusion: the BLM activists have allowed themselves to be duped by the far left which has prevented them from trying to make even a modest success of their lives. And they call people like me a racist!

  55. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy damp start here.
    Got a new Nespresso coffee maker with all the bells and whistles for Fathers Day

  56. We have just had our dinner, a take away, from our local pub. Twice cooked belly of pork with red wine gravy (jus), crackling, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and mixed vegetables (broccoli, broad beans, French beans, red cabbage and mashed carrot/swede). Enormous portion and saving our afters, sticky toffee pudding with cream, for tea. Had a bottle of M&S South Australia Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon. Surprisingly imported and bottled by French company then imported to U.K. by M&S. another EU import? Good meal.

      1. Forgot to add that the profit From the day is being donated to the Prostate Cancer Charity as it’s Fathers Day.

        1. ‘ere!…less of the good….and upon reflection,
          I ‘ent no lady…..but I do try! :-))

    1. Neil Oliver, you are a very intelligent and exceptionally presentable man. Thank you for showing such common sense.

      [Ogga: can you please teach me how to post Twitter videos (such as this one ) onto this forum?]

      1. 320437+ up ticks,
        G,
        First get your notebook out,
        Approach the item in question in a cautionary
        manner then select and copy the location of the tweet from the address bar then (I go via ctrl key then c) transport to required area hit the ctrl key again then v.
        Get back if not clear.

        1. I think you might have to explain where to find the “address bar”. I’ve tried copying various things on that video to no avail.

          I have no trouble at all posting YouTube videos but Twitter continues to defeat me.

          1. 320437+ up ticks,
            G,
            My approach is I put cursor on required item anywhere then left click, link appears in address bar ( address bar is under where you open new window) I put cursor on anchor symbol at start of link then hit ctrl key followed by c transport to desired site hit ctrl key again followed by v.
            Keep within the speed typing limits.

          3. 320437+up ticks,
            G,
            For the best inner picket of the blueflade pick flowers, no problem.

      2. I copy the URL of the post containing the video and then paste it on here.

      3. His programs about Scotland are second to none, I never miss them.
        Morning Grizz

    2. Morning all 😕
      Well he’s absolutely spot on isn’t he. He nailed it.
      I suspect that his career is now over. But well said Neil.

      1. Britain is doomed unless we can recapture free speech and allow all sides of a debate to be heard.

        Politicians and the MSM – especially the BBC as well as many on-line forums – are determined to destroy Britain. But why do they want to do so?

        1. Free speech was fought for. Time to stop all the jaw jaw and start the war war.

      2. 320437+up ticks,
        AS,
        Then he will make a fortune from writing a sequel
        to his travels, win,win.

  58. Counter-terrorism police storm a flat after a frenzied stabbing spree by a ‘Libyan’ man, 25, on middle-aged men drinking in a Reading park left three dead and another three seriously injured before attacker was rugby-tackled by hero lone policeman

    1. Three white families now without a father, son, husband, well done MSM, you have got what you wanted.

      1. And well done the politicians. They are not just loathsome they are completely irresponsible in creating what they have built on the putrid foundations laid by the evil monster Blair.

      2. And well done the politicians. They are not just loathsome they are completely irresponsible in creating what they have built on the putrid foundations laid by the evil monster Blair.

    2. Reading was my home town. There is a photograph of me, aged about two with my grandfather in Forbury Gardens by the Maiwand Lion which commemorates the men of the Berkshire Regiment killed in Afghanistan. I suppose there are those that think this lion should be removed. A number of years ago, two girls were attacked and one killed in Prospect Park in Reading. It’s hard to square this all with my childhood memories- playing pitch and put in that park back in 1966. In fact, one of the victims was raped and tortured before being murdered, having been promised a slow death but not so unusual in our wonderful new world of tolerance which embraces all manner of horrors so readily.
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1507784/Raped-tortured-then-told-You-are-going-to-die-slowly.html#:~:text=By%20the%20time%20police%20found,been%20dead%20for%2015%20minutes.&text=They%20found%20the%20two%20girls,guest%20house%20in%20the%20town.

        1. We cannot continue to pretend that Islam is just another religion worthy of respect when its content is wildly opposed to our long established moral and ethical standards.

          1. Any Western Government worth the name and heritage would ban islam and its followers from it’s country. The actions of muslims are so heinous they should all be banned permanently, from residence and from visits of any kind. Yet the UK Government and others continue to ignore atrocity after atrocity, claiming that these are separate to islam, whereas they are typical and in total concurrence with their book.

          2. The Elites have adopted a belief system to replace Christianity, it is called Cultural Marxism and its main tenet is that all humans are equal and that regardless of their race, religion or sex they would all achieve identical outcomes if it were not for socially constructed oppression and privilege.

            This lie has to be maintained at all costs since it is the raison d’etre for their political existence. Those who do not subscribe to this utter nonsense are not merely wrong but heretics and unbelievers.

          4. It seems so. But why? Appeasement is only useful to buy time to build up the armoury. Fear needs to be faced. It is normal. It cannot be made to disappear but it can be overcome.

          5. We need to resurrect the Test Act and the Clarendon Code (but allow RC and non-conformist communion as well as CoE).

          1. Utterly. I ask the question elsewhere, “Why has islam not been proscribed in the UK?”

          2. Because Muslims have managed to equate dislike of Islam into both racism and a phobia.

          3. Well, that is superficially so. But how have muslims “managed to equate dislike of Islam into both racism and a phobia”? In a sane logical society, it could not have happened. We see now that our society, at any rate those holding the strings of power and influence whoever they may be, are acting illogically and perniciously. Their plan is not ours.

          4. It is not superficial at all. It is true. Our craven Politicians, MSM and Church and for that matter ourselves as the general public, have not pushed back.

          5. I did not say that it was not true. My point, which I may have expressed badly, is that there must surely be some underlying reason. The chaps from schools such as Eton can hardly have been brought up to respect sharia law, for example? My question is, again, “why have they not pushed back, with great force”?

          6. And I’ll answer the same way. They have managed to equate dislike of Islam with both a phobic hate crime and racism.
            In the UK now an accusation of racism trumps all, and the accusers don’t even have to prove racist intent, the accused has to prove they did not.
            .
            Unfortunately

          7. Because they will kill us, murder us ,knife us, bomb us, issue fatwas against us and rely on the Left for defence.

          8. Because the worst, worst possible thing you can be is a racist. Mass hypnosis?

          10. And our useful idiots have gone along with it. Enoch was right; we are heaping up the fuel on our own funeral pyre.

    2. Not the mental health of the Libyan, the mental health of our police, politicians and MSM

    3. Are they suggesting that Muslim piety is evidence of mental instability? I would agree but it is enough to say this was a terrorist attack on behalf of a religion which we will never be able to accommodate because of its profound intellectual and moral deficiencies.

    4. Afternoon AS – they also described him as a refugee. Was he a genuine refugee from Libya or a criminal illegal immigrant? I hope we are told the facts about his history.

  60. A black man with a long criminal record dies while being arrested by the police many thousands of miles away and the UK is in uproar.

    Three innocent white people are deliberately killed by a criminal member of the ROP. Silence!

    Am I missing something here?

    1. By some evil mischance of Fate we find ourselves in a sick Society and Civilisation that is just about to go down the tube. There is nothing we can do about it. Just sit back, drink as much as you can and wait for the Four Horsemen to come and take care of everything

    2. Yes. The endemic racism of the Left wing media – against white folks.

      Accuse others of that which you are and all that.

    4. A Communist takeover. This cover up is just part of it, by a compromised left-wing media.
      And while all this has been plotted and is near completion, the Conservatives and Republicans have been sitting on their ideological ars**, letting it happen, presumably because, bar Thatcher and Reagan, they had/have no real ideology of their own, except gaining power, with all that comes with it.

        1. Antony Powell would approve and say that books do furnish a boat as well as a room!

          We kept spare sets of clothes on the boat so when we travelled home we could fill our cases exclusively with books: on the way to the Med we had the books we were about to read and study; on the way back to Brittany the ones with which had finished for the time being.

          1. Filled with the right kind of books, of course. No Rover and Hotspur annuals, the Complete Works of James Hadley Chase, the Playboy magazine collection, Betting on Horse Racing for Dummies, A Young Man’s Guide to Picking Up women, Football League Yearbooks and the like…

  62. The Metropolitan Police have arrested a woman for allegedly trying to set fire to the flags on the Cenotaph war memorial.
    The woman was questioned by the police on suspicion of criminal damage to the Cenotaph during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 7th, after an incident in which an individual was seen attempting to set fire to the flags hanging from the Cenotaph.

    The 20-year-old woman was released on bail and will appear before the court late next month, according to The Telegraph.

    Compare and contrast with the buffoon who urinated next to a plaque.

      2. No order for costs or compensation; and definitely no “victim surcharge” because it was a crime (a very petty crime) that had no victims – except the great, silent majority of people who still respect those who died in wars, and, amazingly, still love their country.

  63. Posted earlier…….. reminded me of the following poem

    Araminta Smade • 3 hours ago • edited
    Just some musings here my fellow NoTTlers.. The present Government is in Office but not in Power. It is a hollow shell whose members are devoid of any confidence, principle or belief. It controls neither the streets nor the borders. Its own Civil Servants ignore it. It will be gone by Christmas and the Marxist/Labour party will take over.

    There’s not a day now goes by where I don’t thank God that I am seventy three at least a half dozen times!

    ————————————–
    Let me die a youngman’s death
    not a clean and inbetween
    the sheets holywater death
    not a famous-last-words
    peaceful out of breath death

    When I’m 73
    and in constant good tumour
    may I be mown down at dawn
    by a bright red sports car
    on my way home
    from an allnight party

    Or when I’m 91
    with silver hair
    and sitting in a barber’s chair
    may rival gangsters
    with hamfisted tommyguns burst in
    and give me a short back and insides

    Or when I’m 104
    and banned from the Cavern
    may my mistress
    catching me in bed with her daughter
    and fearing for her son
    cut me up into little pieces
    and throw away every piece but one

    Let me die a youngman’s death
    not a free from sin tiptoe in
    candle wax and waning death
    not a curtains drawn by angels borne
    ‘what a nice way to go’ death

    Roger McGough

    1. I am 73, nearly 74.

      My father died at 85; my mother at 97.

      Should we Nottlers be following Dylan Thomas’s advice and kicking against the pricks and fighting against the slings and arrows for as long as we can?

      Do not go gentle into that good night,
      Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
      Because their words had forked no lightning they
      Do not go gentle into that good night.

      Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
      Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
      And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
      Do not go gentle into that good night.

      Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
      Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      And you, my father, there on the sad height,
      Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
      Do not go gentle into that good night.
      Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

      I remember being moved by this poem by Siegfried Sassoon Base Details when I was a schoolboy and the contrast between the deaths of those fighting in the front line and the scarlet major at the base and the pun on the word ‘base’:

      Base Details
      If I were fierce, and bald, and short of breath
      I’d live with scarlet Majors at the Base,
      And speed glum heroes up the line to death.
      You’d see me with my puffy petulant face,
      Guzzling and gulping in the best hotel,
      Reading the Roll of Honour. “Poor young chap,”
      I’d say — “I used to know his father well;
      Yes, we’ve lost heavily in this last scrap.”
      And when the war is done and youth stone dead,
      I’d toddle safely home and die — in bed.

      1. It is very hard to get over the superstition that one will die at the same age as one’s parents did.

        1. My father died at 68, my mother at 90. I suppose I could split the difference 🙂 I aim to live longer than my mother at least. I’ve already lived longer than my father.

      3. I lost the rage some time ago Rastus…I’m raged out…

        I’ve had my three score years and ten which was more than enough for me but lack the courage of doing a Wolfie!
        Anyway the water is far too cold…..!
        Just glad I’m on the way out and not on the way in….roll on Happy Hour.

  65. Systemic racial injustices and hatred condemned on third anniversary of Finsbury Park terror attack. 19 June 2020.

    They added: “Three years ago, the Finsbury Park terrorist set out to divide our communities with their abhorrent far-right extremist views. They failed. Instead, they brought us closer together, standing united as one Islington to say there is and will never be a place for hate and racism in our communities.”

    The irony!

    https://www.islingtongazette.co.uk/news/crime-court/finsbury-park-terror-attack-third-anniversary-1-6708537

  66. I know it is the Daily Fail but a couple of things to take note of, the first is the following sentence in the report,

    https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-8444409/Terror-attack-Reading-Suspect-Libyan-asylum-seeker-released-prison.html

    Police are considering mental health to be a major factor, according to security sources, the Press Association reports.

    Get your excuses in early eh boys!

    The second thing to note is how Khairi Saadallah became an asylum seeker, did he arrive in the back of a lorry or in a rubber boat or some other way.

    I’ll wager that information will not be given up voluntarily.

    I see others are asking the same questions.

    1. Have they said that he was acting alone or is that implicit in him being considered a nutter?

      Yes I know that mental illness should not be mocked but the police started it by instantly declaring it a mental health issue.

      1. The police will have standard operating procedures and check lists. One of these is certainly to deny the possibility of organised terrorism by muslims. In line with that an immediate declaration that the perpetrator is insane and acting alone cuts off any need for intrusive and thorough police work in a section of the public who are implacably hostile to us, our country, and most especially to our laws. Our laws are not their laws.

    3. Or

      The families of the three white suicide victims, who threw themselve on the knife (being used to slice an apple) by a Libyan Cleric,
      will each be made to pay a £1,000,000 in compensation to the apple eater, for the stress he has had to endure over the last 24 hours

      Mr Corbyn has put his name forward for a knighthood

  67. Following on from Madeleine Grant’s article, there will only be a recovery when (a) a majority of the population is finally persuaded that the virus is not a deadly toxic killer cutting a great swathe through the population, young and old, but a respiratory virus and (b) someone in HMG has the guts to say “Freebies stop now”.

    Forget the doom and gloom. The retreat of Covid-19 is a great cause for optimism

    Provided we learn the lessons of the first wave we will have little to fear as we reopen our economy

    MATT RIDLEY

    It is now three weeks since thousands of protesters first gathered in Trafalgar Square, and two weeks since London filled with even larger crowds, few of whom wore masks or kept two metres apart, and some of whom got involved in fights, resulting in arrests and injuries: a perfect recipe for spreading the coronavirus. Yet there has been a continuing decline in new cases of the disease and no uptick in calls to 111 or 999 about suspected Covid-19. By now, some effect should have shown up if it was going to. In June, London has seen fewer deaths from all causes than in a normal year. Why is this?

    While respiratory viruses nearly always evolve towards lower virulence, essentially because the least sick people go to the most meetings and parties, this one was never very dangerous for most people in the first place. Its ability to kill 80-year-olds in care homes stands in sharp contrast with its inability to kill younger people. Fewer than 40 people under the age of 40 with no underlying conditions have died in Britain. On board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, 1,100 sailors tested positive, many had no symptoms and only one died.

    The summer weather is helping. Viruses are not easily caught outside, where ventilation, high temperatures and strong sunlight kill the virus. In addition, sunlight boosts vitamin D, which is protective against respiratory viruses; average vitamin D levels are especially low in Britons in winter because our public-health service does less than, for example, Germany’s to redress this deficiency.

    The assumption expressed in the very term R0 was that everybody would initially be susceptible to catching this virus. But it soon became clear that this could not be the case. Frequent cases of family members not passing it on to each other baffled scientists. It turns out that there is lots of pre-existing immunity to the virus. Some seems to be generic protection conferred by so called innate immunity.

    There is growing evidence that live attenuated vaccines such as polio and BCG have protective effects against other viruses by stimulating the production of interferons. More specific T-cell immunity resulting from previous infection with other common-cold coronaviruses is also widespread. Around 70 per cent of children under four show evidence of resistance to such coronaviruses.

    This was a big part of the explanation for the vast over-estimates of death rates based on mathematical models. The virus was spreading like wildfire in hospitals and care homes where elderly people were far less resistant than the population at large. The modellers assumed these cases were coming into hospitals from the community when actually many were already in the care system. This wildly distorted their estimates. Outside such settings and large indoor gatherings, as the commentator Hugh Osmond has put it, the tinder was damp.

    The influential Imperial College modellers have recently published a justification claiming that compulsory lockdowns are mainly responsible for the death rates being so much lower than they forecast, with other measures including school closure, public event bans, social distancing and self-isolation only contributing 5 per cent of the infections averted.

    However, they assumed, unrealistically, that all the reduction in coronavirus transmission was due to interventions. In reality people would have changed their behaviour anyway, and variability in people’s susceptibility to infection and number of contacts with others would have slowed its spread, as the pool of uninfected people most likely to become infected diminished.

    Moreover, an expert scourge of dubious models, Nic Lewis, has shown that with arguably more realistic assumptions about the time between infection and death and how quickly interventions worked, their own model implies lockdowns did not make the largest contribution towards ending this wave of the pandemic. That is consistent with lockdown-free Sweden having also experienced a big reduction in transmission. Japan has one of the softest lockdowns and lowest death tolls.

    Will there be another wave in the autumn? Most medics think so. But if we learn the lessons of the first wave – mainly that shielding the old and vulnerable is key – and we manage at least some effective contact tracing, then the winter wave should be more like a series of small, local outbreaks. A second national lockdown would be a huge mistake, given the harm the first one has done to everything from cancer diagnosis to mental health, let alone employment.

    Matt Ridley’s new book ‘How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom’ is out now

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/forget-doom-gloom-retreat-covid-19-great-cause-optimism/

  68. Following on from Madeleine Grant’s article, there will only be a recovery when (a) a majority of the population is finally persuaded that the virus is not a deadly toxic killer cutting a great swathe through the population, young and old, but a respiratory virus and (b) someone in HMG has the guts to say “Freebies stop now”.

    Forget the doom and gloom. The retreat of Covid-19 is a great cause for optimism

    Provided we learn the lessons of the first wave we will have little to fear as we reopen our economy

    MATT RIDLEY

    It is now three weeks since thousands of protesters first gathered in Trafalgar Square, and two weeks since London filled with even larger crowds, few of whom wore masks or kept two metres apart, and some of whom got involved in fights, resulting in arrests and injuries: a perfect recipe for spreading the coronavirus. Yet there has been a continuing decline in new cases of the disease and no uptick in calls to 111 or 999 about suspected Covid-19. By now, some effect should have shown up if it was going to. In June, London has seen fewer deaths from all causes than in a normal year. Why is this?

    While respiratory viruses nearly always evolve towards lower virulence, essentially because the least sick people go to the most meetings and parties, this one was never very dangerous for most people in the first place. Its ability to kill 80-year-olds in care homes stands in sharp contrast with its inability to kill younger people. Fewer than 40 people under the age of 40 with no underlying conditions have died in Britain. On board the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, 1,100 sailors tested positive, many had no symptoms and only one died.

    The summer weather is helping. Viruses are not easily caught outside, where ventilation, high temperatures and strong sunlight kill the virus. In addition, sunlight boosts vitamin D, which is protective against respiratory viruses; average vitamin D levels are especially low in Britons in winter because our public-health service does less than, for example, Germany’s to redress this deficiency.

    The assumption expressed in the very term R0 was that everybody would initially be susceptible to catching this virus. But it soon became clear that this could not be the case. Frequent cases of family members not passing it on to each other baffled scientists. It turns out that there is lots of pre-existing immunity to the virus. Some seems to be generic protection conferred by so called innate immunity.

    There is growing evidence that live attenuated vaccines such as polio and BCG have protective effects against other viruses by stimulating the production of interferons. More specific T-cell immunity resulting from previous infection with other common-cold coronaviruses is also widespread. Around 70 per cent of children under four show evidence of resistance to such coronaviruses.

    This was a big part of the explanation for the vast over-estimates of death rates based on mathematical models. The virus was spreading like wildfire in hospitals and care homes where elderly people were far less resistant than the population at large. The modellers assumed these cases were coming into hospitals from the community when actually many were already in the care system. This wildly distorted their estimates. Outside such settings and large indoor gatherings, as the commentator Hugh Osmond has put it, the tinder was damp.

    The influential Imperial College modellers have recently published a justification claiming that compulsory lockdowns are mainly responsible for the death rates being so much lower than they forecast, with other measures including school closure, public event bans, social distancing and self-isolation only contributing 5 per cent of the infections averted.

    However, they assumed, unrealistically, that all the reduction in coronavirus transmission was due to interventions. In reality people would have changed their behaviour anyway, and variability in people’s susceptibility to infection and number of contacts with others would have slowed its spread, as the pool of uninfected people most likely to become infected diminished.

    Moreover, an expert scourge of dubious models, Nic Lewis, has shown that with arguably more realistic assumptions about the time between infection and death and how quickly interventions worked, their own model implies lockdowns did not make the largest contribution towards ending this wave of the pandemic. That is consistent with lockdown-free Sweden having also experienced a big reduction in transmission. Japan has one of the softest lockdowns and lowest death tolls.

    Will there be another wave in the autumn? Most medics think so. But if we learn the lessons of the first wave – mainly that shielding the old and vulnerable is key – and we manage at least some effective contact tracing, then the winter wave should be more like a series of small, local outbreaks. A second national lockdown would be a huge mistake, given the harm the first one has done to everything from cancer diagnosis to mental health, let alone employment.

    Matt Ridley’s new book ‘How Innovation Works: And Why It Flourishes in Freedom’ is out now

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/forget-doom-gloom-retreat-covid-19-great-cause-optimism/

    2. “Freebies stop now”.
      Ha ha,
      The problem with all benefits offered at a point in time, for whatever reason, is that they then become rights and are next to impossible to remove.

        2. Now regarded as a good reason to go to the beach etc but claim to be too scared to work.

      1. Foresight though for those who predicted fairly early on that the virus would soon run its course.

  69. In the UK we have to be put away when our mental health is deemed to present a significant risk to oneself or society.
    This is.what happens when we are sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
    The bar chart below shows the relative proportions of barmy people ranked by ethnicity up until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Interestingly there is a correlation between the levels of insanity in each group and their corresponding levels of morbid and mortality events arising from infection by the COVID-19 virus.

    https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/health/mental-health/detentions-under-the-mental-health-act/latest

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/294428ed48c31443d3c40a78e63825e80cc005ecf77e2ffa90dfe79c74a026fb.png

    1. Average IQ?
      Vit D deficiency related ailments?
      Genetic predisposition to certain ailments?
      For sure there won’t be an unbiased discussion to try and find the real causes.

    1. 320437+up ticks,
      O2O,
      Mass rhetorical knifing 30000 plus takes place on media platform,
      Yes, prior to the gathering this media type “nige” gave
      his take on it, that was after writing to the UKIP NEc
      condemning Gerard as the leader, in point of fact the best leader UKIP ever had.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

      1. 320437+up ticks,
        O2O,
        There there I know the truth in the showing is going to hurt a great many people but better out than in, besides think of the benefits, the more you cry the less you wee.

        1. Mr Silverback Ape, dear old friend from way back when during the Tim Montgomerie
          days of elsewhere. Might I ask If you have an infestation problem ? You keep counting
          your t1cks .

          1. 320437+ up ticks,
            Afternoon A,
            Not atall atall, it is for my own satisfaction in a way
            of NOT submitting to the tick rustler if it was done
            out of manipulation, to many were accepting what was happening and that could become a habit with other issues.
            Going with the herd could have serious side affects
            may even lose one a country.
            Besides mental arithmetic does no harm, one abbot per country is enough.

      2. I was on that march. I saw a lot of normal, decent people.
        I bet the police that were accompanying us were happier with their lot then their collegues who got to guard the baying antifa mob up the road.

        1. 320437+ up ticks,
          Evening BB2,
          The real “nige”showed out prior to the event.
          I was at Birmingham on the 17 Feb 2018 when Batten took the leadership, displacing the farage conduit bolton.
          Gerard Batten a lost asset regarding these Isles.

          1. Hope you didn’t vote for Bolton!
            I think that was the election where I voted for Kurten IIRC.

          2. I didn’t vote for Bolton, but I was sure he would get the job and said as much to a colleague at the conference. If I’d been into betting I would have put money on it and won! I voted him out in Birmingham (although I never met ogga).

          3. I thought his CV was thoroughly untrustworthy! Way too Establishment. But his carwreck performance was incompetence in the face of a level of attack that only Farage survived rather than malice, I think.

          4. 320437+ up ticks,
            BB2,
            No , it was the EGM meeting that was called to vote bolton OUT he had to go.
            To me Gerard was a complete welcomed surprise on taking on the leadership.
            The bolton chap was a 100% farage man.

          5. Farage has made a few mistakes, but by judiciously double-dealing, he has made far more progress than anyone else.
            Without Farage’s single-mindedness, we would never have got as far as we have.
            But we’ve had this argument before!

          6. 320484+up ticks,
            Morning BB2,
            The farage chap is a one member party ( farage)
            There is no excuse for his rant and treatment of
            Gerard Batten / UKIP membership.
            He had the loyal backing of the party for years his own rhetoric ( video)once left showed his true appreciation towards the platform he was given and the memberships loyalty.
            Gerard Batten showed out to be a successful respected leader from day one.

        2. I chatted to one who’d been at the boy Owen’s little gathering.
          He was not very complimentary about them.

  71. Time for a fat G&T. At the moment I’m drinking Copper House dry gin, which has an interesting aftertaste. Slightly floral.

  72. Time to leave you (thank God, I hear you say…)

    Flatiron steak for supper washed down (I use the term advisedly) with Chateau Léoville Barton 1986. It’s prolly past it – but what the hell. It is red and alcoholic…..

    A demain.

    2. The wine will probably have legs. I saved a bottle of Cantenac Brown for thirty years and it was past it on opening but still drinkable.

      1. I’ll shake it up and put it in a bucket of warm water – to bring it to room temperature…{:¬))

    3. Send the bottle to me. I’ll let you know if it was worth drinking. Others sample wine so you don’t have to…

      1. I have about 15 classic clarets left. I thought last year of selling them to one of those outfits that buy vintage wine. They offered me £1,500 for them all.

        The MR gave me one of her looks. So I didn’t sell…..

        1. Give them all to me. You’ll feel so much better knowing they are going to a good home.

          1. Sorry – the MR would give YOU one of her looks – and you’d remember a pressing engagement…

            She has the most amazing palate – and has made sommeliers quail.

            Must stop now – she’s is calling………

          4. I have made little Champagne jellies before with a raspberry in the middle when the fizz wasn’t to my liking.
            And of course there is always Dover Sole cooked in Champagne.

        2. If the others are like the one you are having tonight then they were trying to rob you.

    4. You are quite OK with the Chateau Léoville Barton as, in the advice a father gives to his son at age 21, note the following:

      Don’t drink any claret under 10 years old
      Don’t hunt south of the Thames – the bastards use wire (in the fences)
      Don’t marry a woman with big hands – it’ll make you feel inadequate.

      Can’t upvote you old troop – disqus problems – again.

  73. Time to leave you (thank God, I hear you say…)

    Flatiron steak for supper washed down (I use the term advisedly) with Chateau Léoville Barton 1986. It’s prolly past it – but what the hell. It is red and alcoholic…..

    A demain.

  75. Rather than defeat racism and racial tension, Black Lives Matter will increase it.

    The BLM people do not want Racial Equality, they want Racial Superiiority.

    We Honkies in UK will ‘lose’ our country and rights and why, because we fully accepted BLM, instead of fighting for All Lives Matter

    1. It’s quite possible that the BLM protests/riots in this country have put back the progress towards integration of the different races in the UK by decades. Black people may be feeling a sense of discrimination which they may not have had (or to a smaller degree), whilst white people will at best be feeling a sense of ‘mind what I say’ or at worst a resurrection of racism which was on its way to dying out.

      1. Why integrate? Integration is a TV ad. Living side by side in peace would be good enough.

        1. It’s what has happened with centuries of previous immigrants. They have become British. Not gone out of their way to remain as what they came from.

          1. Hence my reply. I have said here, on previous occasions, that in my maths class at school one third were of Irish extraction, one quarter of Italian extraction, one fifth of Polish extraction and the other half were Scots.
            I do not recall any arguments or problems related to any aspect of this.
            Now, on the other hand, there was a sometimes a certain amount of tension with the Protestant school 300 yards along the road.

      2. After all the shenanigans I no longer want any integration; I want them to p1$$ of back “home” where there’s no whitey to blame.

    2. Racial tension is what they want. The resulting violence adds to their “case”, and in the disruption, allows for more of their marxist fascist influence to take hold.

  76. Jesus.
    SWMBO is watching a programme about a trans man being pregnant and the birth scene is on now… so the poor little buggers father is also his mother… it’s whimper TV on steroids…

          1. This was made by the BBC!
            Utter drivel & whimper.
            I may need a new wife… :-((

    5. What shocks me most is that many people accept this as normal. No surprise that human society is in trouble and ‘mental illness’ is on the increase.

  77. Seven paintings re-hung. Still no blood and no swearing. I am beginning to wonder what is wrong with me!!

    Off for a walk in the sun.

    2. I get the Impression that you are happy with the progress made in hanging your paintings.

  78. Totally bored, I turned on the telly and started to watch ‘Couples Come Dine With Me’

    In total on the show there were Five wiv Dangley Bitz, Three without

    Modern Britain………

    1. So why hasn’t the Sad Khant recused himself from office?

      Ooh…look at me…i’m a victim too….

    3. So he’s been wandering around Tooting Common wearing no trousers? What about the poor horses? Frightened horses matter!

      :-))

    4. His ‘problems’ don’t appear to have prevented him from spouting his usual provocative nonsense at regular intervals.

    5. Another one with mental health issues. They’ve all got issues – it’s in their book.

  80. Just to let you know that the hanging of pictures from France is taking place in Fulmodeston.

    I have managed to put two up so far; no blood; no swearing. 25 left to do….

    I may be away some time………………..

    2. No swearing? Evidence from this house suggests no type of DIY can be carried out without the air turning blue.

  81. Shall be eating chicken breasts stuffed with goats cheese and rosemary,
    wrapped in Parma ham. Served with roasted new potatoes, onions, garlic, courgettes,
    aubergine and peppers. Lemon cheesecake for dessert .

    1. I’ve been at work all day, and will be having a drink of water.
      Not that I’m jealous or anything.
      Dear me no.

      1. Should’ve gone to furlough’s. };-O

        Are you on call, sticking to water, or is that a euphemism for GIN.

        1. Nope, it’s the only way I can keep a handle on my weight, not to eat after 5 pm.
          Can’t be bothered to drink most of the time. I have a drink whenever I feel like one, which is about once a month I suppose on average. Life’s too short.
          At least I am freelance so they will be getting a bill in due course.

    2. Grilled rump steak, onions, garlic & mushrooms with thyme, mini roast spuds.
      Washed down with a red, probably a vintage rioja.

      Pudding not decided yet, maybe soured cream whipped with honey.

      1. That sounds delicious Mr Viking . I natural Greek yoghurt with a spoonful of honey
        with fresh raspberries.

        1. I like only thick Greek yoghurt; I hate the runny stuff.

          I used to enjoy yog & honey for breakfast on Crete

      2. I shall be trying a new recipe for bacon wrapped filet mignon, topped with a blue cheese vinaigrette, a side of mushrooms and green salad.

        We very rarely have pudding, have to watch the waistline!!

        1. My advice is to save the blue cheese vinaigrette for the salad – I don’t like it on meat.

    3. I honestly don’t know how you young people manage to eat all that at one sitting.

      1. Tomorrow will be just pasta tubes with a tomato and basil sauce with parmesan cheese,
        try and not eat rich foods two days in a trot .

    1. Black buns matter.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=To7tuB5j2Gs
      Turns out Count Dankula’s longsuffering wife (he of the nazi pug fame) makes rather good cooking videos.

      What I found particularly interesting, is that the Scottish black bun is basically a Bavarian Kletzenbrot. In parts of Bavaria, they wrap the Kletzenbrot in pastry, just as she does.
      They also eat porridge with salt in the Bavarian Alps.
      Common Celtic heritage.

    3. Those look absolutely frazzled. Do you sell them to the local clay pigeon shoot?

      1. Completely the wrong shape for ‘clays’
        What are you on about…..you townie! :-))

        1. Townie? The one & only time I used a shotgun I brought down a real wood pigeon.

          That same evening I made 7 diamonds doubled against all expectations. That was a country w/e I’ll never forget.

          2. I was shit scared, with the sweat running off me. My partner, who was dummy, couldn’t stay in the room while I was making it.

          3. Was there a lot of money involved?

            I once got caught by the Duke of Cumberland hand.
            Doubled and redoubled.

            Silly sod who had set me up made and error and I took two tricks!

          4. I was staying in a former vicarage, so no money involved. 😉
            I had never played with those at the table before so it was ‘uncharted territory’.
            It’s great if you have a regular partner & can get on the same wavelength.

          5. Very true.

            I once had the great privilege of playing with a close relative of one of the Italian Blue team of the 1960’s. He was extremely skilled and his explanation of some of the newer systems was a real eye opener.

  83. Gosh – what a relief. The Reading slaughterman was a Christian. So that’s alright. I was so worried that the slammers might have been unfairly blamed.

    1. Good point, I thought, from someone at Parler:

      “Have I got this right?

      #BLM are in no way responsible for the stabbings in #Reading as it happened two hours after their “protest” ended.

      But somehow all of us white people are still responsible for slavery 200 years after it was ended.

      Is that about the gist of it?”

    3. A convert from Islam, after he arrived here. Clearly he missed the relevant bits about thou shalt not kill and love thy neighbour.

      He probably realised the error of his ways and this was his atonement

    4. In the Daily Fail, he was a “christian” (small C), while the word “Islamist” got a capital I. No genuine convert would behave like that, therefore I smell a fake conversion to try and keep his papers, given his criminality.

      1. They so often do.

        The fact that the man is a converted slammer will enable those who believe that slammers are peace-loving, happy–go-lucky people who wouldn’t hurt a fly to deflect us from reality by saying, “Christians are terrible”.

        That’s all.

        Had he been a paid-up, exploding vest wearing slammer, the press would have searched far and wide to find excuses: mental ishoos in spades (sic); unfamiliar with the customs of his new country; etc etc

        1. To convert from slammerism is punishable by death.
          Sure he converted, and it isn’t just blowing smoke up?

        2. The BBC will be telling us there are Christian terrorists too forever now.
          I could cheerfully kill the a’hole just for that alone!

  84. We must resist the statist culture sweeping lockdown Britain

    A submissive national mood is allowing a damaging over-reliance on government to take hold

    MADELINE GRANT

    The latest US employment figures make grim reading. The Covid-19 recession has prompted 46 million new applications for unemployment aid in just over three months and heartbreaking news footage shows mile-long queues for job centres and food stamps. In Britain, furloughed workers still count as “employed” so don’t register on our own official statistics. But our day of reckoning cannot be far behind.

    The furlough scheme is a sensible concept – when the state bars workers from their livelihoods, it is naturally obliged to support them. But this well-intentioned policy has cushioned us from reality. It reminds me of one of the Looney Tunes skits from my childhood; Wile E Coyote runs off the cliff, defying gravity for a few seconds, only to fall when he looks down. Soon we will all look down and the sight will be horrifying.

    Politicians have barely acknowledged the perverse incentives of paying people 80 per cent of their salary not to work, move jobs, or start a business, or the risk of throwing good money after bad – either by propping up “zombie” firms or simply postponing necessary economic readjustments. An allegedly Conservative Government has decided that prosperity lies in shovelling ever more QE onto an increasing debt load at the expense of future generations.

    With the economy still mothballed, the risk of permanent scarring, and a wholesale change in attitude rises by the day. Given the looming social disorder – the widening inequalities caused by depriving our poorest pupils of an education and lumbering future generations with a cheque it will take a lifetime to repay – the damage will be with us for years.

    Yet opinion polls suggest many are relishing confinement and dependence on the state. The furious reaction to the merger of DfID with the Foreign Office shows how quickly policies can metamorphose into inalienable rights and institutions. All year round school meal vouchers may soon be seen in the same light. Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government programme.

    The sense of welfarism appears endemic; Cornish councillors are urging tourists (and their money) to stay away all summer, insisting that the taxpayer will pick up the tab for any lost revenue. Even the public’s cries for ever-more clarity from the government (“What does ‘stay alert’ mean, anyway?”) suggest a reluctance to exercise rational thought. Some seem to hold Ministers directly responsible for every death

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/20/must-resist-statist-culture-sweeping-lockdown-britain/

    1. 320437+ up ticks,
      Evening WS,
      The current politico’s are flummoxed in so far as using the eu as a rubber stamping crutch supporting their treacherous lifestyle for decades.
      As E coyote runs off the cliff the last thing he will see will
      be the daily incoming invasion fleet heading for the Dover welfare office.

    3. Of course people are enjoying getting paid to do nothing. It’s a holiday. A three month holiday!

      Yet what it really exposes is how little people understand where government money comes from.

      What wories me is the government response will be simply to hike taxes and idiots will agree with that. It’s a great opportunity to shred the state, not expand it.

      1. When I was written off as sick in Sweden I had 3 months off on 90% pay. I was faking it because I hated the work.

          1. I was on the highest rate of tax, but had plenty left over. Sweden is not as expensive as Norway by a long way.

          2. indeed, and lots of Norwegians used to cross the border to shop in Sweden – and will again, once the border is open.
            Pay is higher in Norway generally, to match the prices. Purchasing power is likely similar between both countries.

          3. When I told friends that I was going to Sweden they always said, “Why don’t you go to Norway; you’ll earn so much more?” Little did they know.
            It’s like cabbages in the Gulf costing £5 each 30 years ago.

          5. Ich selbst trage keine Schuld, weil ich nie im Mittelosten gewohnt habe. Ich könnte mir gut vorstellen, daß Datteln billiger wären.

      2. When I was written off as sick in Sweden I had 3 months off on 90% pay. I was faking it because I hated the work.

      1. Spot the matching dentures? When my late FiL worked in a car home one of the carers used to wash all the residents dentures in one go.

      1. Ada, ” It’s a bit boring on tv tonight”.
        Bert ” I was just thinking the same thing , Ada”
        Ada ” Shall I ask nursey to turn it on when she comes in “.

      2. Bert ” Why the over 75’s?”
        Ada “Good point, it’s the under 75 IQ’ers who are the ones TV is aimed at.”

    4. It’s a step in the right direction, but I want to see the TV tax scrapped altogether.

  87. Evening, all. The schools can’t reopen without the staff and the Teachers’ Unions don’t seem at all keen to get back to work. I only ever joined a union for the legal protection (and when it came down to it, they weren’t even any use for that!). On a more cheerful note, the dressage test I rode yesterday went very well and we had a real laugh today trying to do pole work on the ground.

      1. Bit of Reaganomics required. Sack those who don’t want to work and get them to reapply for their jobs under a new contract.

        1. I am 68 on Thursday. I have taught and educated architects in several offices for most of my mature career which is about 40 years.

          I would happily take classes in the Sixth and Upper Sixth (do they still exist?) if some school would have me. I could teach Maths, Physics, Chemistry, English Literature, Art and have a stab at History and Political History. Those interested in architectural history or even draughtsmanship will have hit the proverbial jackpot.

          Unfortunately, I suspect that these subjects are no longer on the curriculum.

          1. Many happy returns for Thursday, corim. I suspect you’d soon be disillusioned were you to teach those subjects unless you were very lucky in the school you chose.

          2. You might be right. I was never one to doubt my ability to keep people on side. This is the principal reason that I managed to achieve the projects I have over many years.

            People only respect you if you are able to demonstrate that you too are prepared to get down in the hole with the foundation team and yet speak for them at the suited board room meetings. It used to be called the Common Touch.

          3. I fear you’re right, corri, but I must say our grandson’s school is really top notch and his interest in the sciences is ever increasing. He’s in the lower 6th and looking forward to taking his A levels next year. His aim is to become a Surgeon.

      2. I agree absolutely, Johnny. As it says in the Bible, he who will not work, shall not eat. (2Thessalonians 3:10)

  88. Watching Sky News I saw a reporter saying that the Reading attacker may have been one of the “potentially vulnerable” who’s been tipped over the edge by lockdown forcing him to spend too much time on the computer.

    This is contortion and distortion beyond belief.

  89. https://www.blacklivesmatterexposed.com/reds-exploiting-blacks-the-roots-of-black-lives-matter/

    https://www.aim.org/special-report/reds-exploiting-blacks-the-roots-of-black-lives-matter/

    In case anyone is still unsure what BLM is really all about:

    Reds Exploiting Blacks: The Roots of Black Lives Matter
    by James Simpson on January 12, 2016

    This is a report from the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism

    The Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) casts itself as a spontaneous uprising born of inner city frustration, but is, in fact, the latest and most dangerous face of a web of well-funded communist/socialist organizations that have been agitating against America for decades. Its agitation has provoked police killings and other violence, lawlessness and unrest in minority communities throughout the U.S. If allowed to continue, that agitation could devolve into anarchy and civil war. The BLM crowd appears to be spoiling for just such an outcome….[continues]

  90. Good morning from the Saxon daughter of Alfred of Wessex .
    Just about to make brunch, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs ( still soft and fluffy )
    to eat with German rye bread and decent Italian coffee.
    The sun has decided to peek through the clouds which is very lovely, it’s a glorious and
    beautiful Sunday ( not watching the news or looking at newspapers atm ).

      1. Morning, I do try and be positive, everything is chaos, the husband
        seems to make himself ìll over the news but I do try and empty my
        mind of such things and potter around from time to time, it’s
        rather important to be able to do that or you’ll drive your self up
        The wall. Thank you, breakfast was nice and I hope you have
        a lovely day too, it’s still bright for now.

        1. Very wise. Now – about that string of forts you’re building across England: any problems with the building supplies?

      2. The key to being positive, T_B, is to avoid listening to the Bbc or accessing any of the MSM! Enjoy the open air, your dogs (and in my case, the Connemara as well).

  91. SUMMER IS HERE, and it’s time to bring out the Summer playlist.

    Here are my Top 20 Summertime songs:

    Groovin’ — Young Rascals
    I Live For The Sun — Vanity Fare
    Summertime — George Gershwin
    Summer In The City — Lovin’ Spoonful
    Time For Livin’ — Association
    Roll Out Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer — Nat King Cole
    Sunny Afternoon — The Kinks
    Summer Breeze — Seals & Crofts
    Island In The Sun — Harry Belafonte
    Always The Sun —The Stranglers
    California Girls — Beach Boys
    Beyond The Sea — Bobby Darin
    Sunny — Bobby Hebb
    Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay — Otis Redding
    The Boys Of Summer — Don Henley
    Lovely Day — Bill Withers
    June Is Busting Out All Over — Cast of ‘Carousel’
    Here Comes The Sun — The Beatles
    Here Comes Summer — Jerry Keller
    Sunshine Superman — Donovan

    [I have no room on my list for dross like “In The Summertime” by Mungo Jerrycan, or “Summer Nights” by the Cast of Slime Greece!]

          1. I know.

            When they were setting up in one of the lounges i asked them what they were doing as it hadn’t been advertised. He said they just thought the guests might like it.

            I grabbed every member of staff and told them to tell all the other guests in the public rooms. We got quite a crowd in.

            He thanked me at breakfast the following morning. I was quite chuffed.

      1. Leon Redbone – yes. Saw him live in Virginia around 2005 – a unique performer.

    4. A good selection, Grizzly; I would add ‘Summer Wind’ by Frank Sinatra …

      Originally released in Germany as “Der Sommerwind” and written by Heinz Meier and German language lyrics by Hans Bradtke.

      1. Absolutely, the list could be endless there is so much good stuff.

        I’ll have to make a playlist for the car.

          4. Stink?

            You should try Limburger. It’s one of my favourites; but I’m a great fan of most of the soft, stronger cheeses, epoisses, old brie de meaux, pont l’eveque etc.

            I’ve been sold on frittata with roundels of goat’s cheese since we moved to France, initially I wasn’t keen on goat’s cheese but the great selection of flavours here has converted me.

          5. My SiL lives in Meaux. That old Brie really is disgusting when first tried but grows on you! Epoisses is wonderful if you get a good one, like Camembert on steroids!

    2. Unbeknown to me at the time. I had one land in my glass of shriaz on Wednesday evening.
      Unfortunately I hadn’t noticed until i felt it in my mouth.
      Grapes of wrath came to mind.

      1. Happened to me with a fruit juice. Very unpleasant. But at least it wasn’t a wasp.

        1. Gardening, I did once get a bee sting in my mouth as I ducked to skirt around some flowering shrubs. Antihistamines were prescribed.

          1. Bee/wasp stings in the mouth are no joke. Any swelling can lead to closing of the airway.

  96. Last post. I’ll really leave you with this gem from the beeboid telly website: Tuesday night BBC4

    Athens
    Ancient Invisible Cities

    Classical historian Dr. Michael Scott takes us on an extraordinary journey through the often-invisible treasures of one of the greatest ancient cities in the world – Istanbul.

  98. My son in Texas tells me that George Floyd’s cause of death was drugs, not asphyxiation. He was taking Fentanyl and Ice which is a dangerous combination.
    If this is the official cause of his death then BLM and the “Take the Knee brigade” will have some explaining to do. [ I was going to say red faces but…………….]

    1. The Hennepin County Medical Examiner released its toxicology findings and say George died from cardiopulmonary arrest … which complicated law enforcement’s subdual, restraint and neck compression of him. That is critical, but the report also says this under “how the injury occurred” — it says George experienced “a cardiopulmonary arrest while being restrained by law enforcement.”

      They agree he had fentanyl in his system and signs of recent meth use, but they were not causes of death.

      1. Especially when they’re sitting on park benches in English cathedral towns.

    4. They will not be interested, as we all know, the agenda is well beyond George Floyd. It will be a brave Judge that finds the police officer not guilty. I would put in a black judge and jury and see what happens. There has already been disagreement on the cause of death from 2 different autopsies.

  99. Worth joining ‘Parler’ if for no other reason than to see Katie Hopkins’ contributions, now that most other platforms have banned her.

    Her excellent ‘Three Questions to BLM supporters’ video might well stun most of them into silence.

    1. If I wanted to and had access to Parler, I might copy her post and paste it into tw@tter! Except I’ve ‘deactivated’ my account.

      Anybody up to get themselves banned – the more that do it the less credible tw@tter becomes.

  100. From DW,

    Stuttgart: Police probe ‘unprecedented’ night of rioting

    Police have said hundreds of people tore through the
    southwestern German city overnight, clashing with officers and looting
    shops. One regional politician described the violence as “civil war-like
    scenes.”
    https://www.dw.com/en/stuttgart-police-probe-unprecedented-night-of-rioting/a-53891111?maca=en-newsletter_en_bulletin-2097-xml-newsletter&r=5716051186524692&lid=1518692&pm_ln=34313

  101. “Neil Basu, the head of counter-terrorism policing has said that police have found no evidence to suggest anyone else was involved in the Reading stabbings, which left three people dead and three injured.”
    He also said that they have stopped looking for anyone else. Gosh, that was quick. Less than 24 hours have passed and you’ve got it all wrapped up.
    Good Work! I say.
    But surely unreasonably quick work, Mr Assistant Commissioner Specialist Operations of the Metropolitan Police Service? If one gets burgled the police don’t turn up for around 3 days, if they turn up at all. But you’ve got this all squared away, as a lone loonie terrorist incident within 19 hours?
    Either this is exceptional police work, or you are covering up, and have not bothered to do anything that would spoil the narrative? I’d be more impressed if you had kicked in a couple of dozen doors, dragged fifty or sixty in for questioning, but no. What you have actually done is nothing at all.
    That makes us all feel safer. Not.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-53126616/reading-stabbings-police-say-nothing-to-suggest-anyone-else-involved

    1. Now, just say to Basu, that you have seen a photo of Tommy R and you will be lounded to/till your death

    1. Might prove to be our (only) go-to site if the squeeze is put on Nottl in the future!

        1. Main page is: https://parler.com/feed

          As it was yesterday when I joined up, I now, of course, have no recollection if I had to register in order to see any pages at all or if registration is purely to make posts.

  104. IMPORTANT NOTICE TO ALL NOTTLERS I have been in touch with Korky the Kat, who sadly lost his wife of 50 years yesterday (Saturday). He has asked me to let you all on here know that he is “bearing up” but will not be NoTTLing much for some time. I promised to do so and will re-post this on here early tomorrow (Monday). I suspect that his loss will hit him hard in the days to come. Both Anne Allan and I live nearby and will give him all the support we can over the coming weeks and months.

    1. He put up a very eloquent post last night. I have found that in case of loss, its good to talk when you are ready (or write letters).

    4. Thank you, Elsie. That is thoughtful of you, both to us and, also of course, to Korky. It will, without doubt, be a tough time as he tries to come to terms with his loss.

    5. Thanks Elsie. I’m sure the support that you and Anne can offer will be appreciated.

    6. Thank you, Elsie. I was thinking about Korky today. He will need lots of support during this difficult time.

    9. Thank you Elsie

      It is so reassuring to know you have been in contact with Korky , the support of a friend is what is so important
      Poor Korky will be in a state of shock , he must have been frantic. .

      Please convey our heartfelt condolences when you next speak to him.

    11. That is a comfort, Elsie. I’m sure you and Anne will let Korky know how much support there is for him from everyone in this forum.

    12. Really sorry to hear that. I will be thinking of him from far, and I’m glad he has some support close at hand at this bleak time.

    15. Dreadfully sad news, Elsie. Please pass on my condolences to Korky.
      Thanks to you and Anne for your [ our ] support.

  105. Nick Timothy says Conservatives can’t win the culture wars while Blair and Brown’s legacy remains intact……….

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/21/conservatives-cant-win-culture-wars-blair-browns-legacy-remains/

    So why don’t the Conservatives reverse Blair and Brown’s legacy, or at least water it down instead of meekly accepting it and so becoming Nu Labor themselves ?

    Likely because they can’t. Reading between the lines, I think every major policy Blair and Brown enacted was ordered and paid for by Soros, and the Conservative Party is probably just as linked to Soros as Nu Labor.

    After all… who really wanted the Marriage Act 2013 and Maastricht…….. and who really wants Net Zero and ”Build Back Better” ?

    1. I suggest, Polly, that the reason why the Conservatives don’t reverse Blair and Brown’s legacy is because at present they have much more important things on their plate, starting with the Corona Virus and also negotiating future trade arrangements with the EU. All of the other things, from major Blair/Brown policies down to minor potholes in local streets, are items to be tackled at a later date.

      1. So busy, Elsie (Good Evening) that this is their timetable for tomorrow (note the start time):

        2.30 pm

        Oral questions

        Education (including Topical Questions)

        Legislation

        Extradition (Provisional Arrest) Bill [Lords]: Second Reading

        Motion

        Draft Greater Manchester Combined Authority (Fire and Rescue Functions) (Amendment) Order 2020 – Priti Patel

        Adjournment

        BBC regional politics coverage – Neil Parish

        https://calendar.parliament.uk/calendar/Commons/All/2020/6/22/Daily

        1. I wonder what the Education topic is? My granddaughter’s is deserts this term. Maybe Bojo will talking about deserts or is he still on last terms ancient Greece?

          1. Topical questions such as “how best can we teach only black history?” and “how can we erase all mention of any good the whiteys have ever done?”

        2. Good grief, No to Irma, how dare they start at 2.30pm?!?!? If only they had neglected to eat or sleep this could all have been dealt with already. (Sarc.)

      2. I should like to point out, Elsie, that the Conservatives have had since 2010 (albeit then in a coalition) to start reversing the Brown/Blair damage. Even Bojo has had since 2019 to make a start, before the Covid-19 panic got under way. The faffing around with the EU should have been sorted long since by realising that WTO is the way to go and making it clear that if the EU weren’t going to give us a trade deal, that’s what it would be then finishing the “negotiation” and turning their minds to other business.

        1. 320437+ up ticks,
          Evening C,
          It puzzles me how you can reverse another segment of a coalition ?

          1. A coalition is rarely equal, ogga. The one with the majority should lay down to the supporters what they intend to do and make a few concessions to keep the others on side. The problem with Call Me Dave was that he was a Limp Dim at heart, not a Conservative. I don’t think we’ve had a Conservative government since Maggie was knifed in the back for seeing the light about the EU.

          3. I watched the first part of the series on Margaret Thatcher on BBC this evening. You rightly applaud her brand of Conservatism but what struck me was that she was surrounded by men and a few women of genuine experience and quality. They didn’t all like her but she built a truly formidable team that served the country well. What a contrast to what we have now!

        2. “The faffing around with the EU should have been sorted long since.” Conners, politics is the art of the possible. With “colleagues” such as the LibDems (Nick Clegg), leaders such as Cameron and May, and Remainer MPs in their ranks, it is a miracle that Boris has been able to bring us to a place where we are almost at the end of a true escape from the EU’s clutches in just over six months’ time. If he were to play hardball now and simply walk away on the grounds of the EU’s obduracy then he would unleash a tsunami of criticism from Remainers which would make his tackling of the Corona Virus doubly difficult. Step by step he is getting us where we want to be.

          1. I admire your optimism. If Bojo had drained the swamp of the civil service to get Brexit done (it was, after all, the slogan he was elected on and why he had a majority) and removed the TV tax to neuter the Bbc, the Remainer hard core would have been spavined.

      3. Maybe…. but what has Soros’ ”leveraging” organization ”Open Society” situated 5 minutes walk to Downing Street been doing for the last ”three decades” ?

        Endowed with $60,000,000 by Soros in 2018 alone… and why does Conservative Party policy look virtually identical to Soros policy, including the Marriage Act 2013 and Net Zero ?

        Where did that $60,000,000 in 2018 go ?

    2. I am bloody sick of the appeasement to sexual deviants, to social justice warriors of all persuasions, of Black Lives Matter and of Antifa. The Black Lives Matter movement is divisive and pits blacks against whites and deliberately so.

      We in England are not racist and have always been welcoming to those seeking refuge from foreign less hospitable lands. This relaxed attitude is now seen to have been a mistake. The people imported hate us and should be sent back to the places from which they originated.

      This seems a simple enough remedy to me. If you do not appreciate the UK and object to our laws then it would be better for you to go away (and not darken our doorstep for any longer).

      2. May I suggest that the government are a bunch of kids , educated by closet socialists , with left leaning degrees regarding their acquired PPE’s.

        They are the products of liberal thought and deed .. left centered middle of the ground politics.

        They are all Europhiles and not a patch on their Grandparents (I assume ) Most of them will not remember the British striving hard to succeed and rebuild Britain after the war.

        They haven’t learned to be wary and alert to the plots and plans of ALL strangers ..I mean not the usual ,Russians and Chinese etc.. but the influence America has over us, sometimes not all good , their weather, their politics and their hysteria and more often or not their meaness and lack of diplomacy?

        Our politicians bow and scrape to many , it is so demeaning . We do not bend and touch our forelocks to anyone ,

        What has happened to our pride .. We should be telling this BLM movement to bugger orf back to their KFC’s and stuff themselves stupid with coke and fries. .

        We had the Bulldog spirit once , we are now behaving like cowering whimpering street dogs ..

        How dare these various trouble makers threaten and cajole us into being submissive to a slain black American who had a drug habit and a nasty record of brutality .

        That’s enough , sorry to rant.

        Goodnight all x

  106. Morning, all.
    03:18 bst. Woken by cats fighting, can’t sleep. Daylight doesn’t help…

  107. U.N. Shares Antifa Flag, Tells U.S. Antifa Has Right to ‘Freedom of Expression’, ‘Peaceful Assembly’

    United Nations “experts” slammed President Donald Trump’s call to label Antifa as a terrorist organisation, claiming it will undermine Antifa’s right of “peaceful assembly” — despite many instances of violence by the far-left anarcho-communist group.

    On Friday, the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) posted the flag of Antifa on their official Twitter account, saying that a group of human rights “experts” at the globalist organisation had expressed “profound concern over a recent statement by the U.S. Attorney-General describing Antifa and other anti-fascist activists
    as domestic terrorists, saying it undermines the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly in the country.”
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/06/20/un-shares-antifa-flag-tells-u-s-antifa-has-right-to-freedom-of-expression-and-peaceful-assembly/

    1. I am surprised that ISIS was not asked to become a security council member.

      (Still gloating over ztrudeaus failure to get elected).

    3. If they were assembling peacefully, I’m not sure there would be so much objection. Problem is, they ain’t peaceful!

    5. Okay.
      Will the UN defend my freedom of speech if I nip down to the High Street and begin calling for Guy Gibson’s dog?

    1. Morning, Geoff. 24 June, 08:11
      Was it you banned NotoIrma just now? There’s no explanation on the Mod page, just that he is banned.
      His picture on Tuesday night is rather disturbing, but no more so than others we have had posted. Personally, I don’t see it as incitement (as alleged by the dog), but if you or another mod has banned him, I don’t want to reverse that.

      1. Morning, Paul. Wasn’t me. I’m reluctant to override the actions of another mod, but in this instance I’ve made an exception and lifted the ban. This does not mean I approve of the lynching pics, which remain deleted. That sort of thing could get this site into all sorts of trouble…

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