Sunday 29 November: The week’s Covid moves harmed both the economy and our wellbeing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/29/letters-weeks-covid-moves-harmed-economy-wellbeing/

653 thoughts on “Sunday 29 November: The week’s Covid moves harmed both the economy and our wellbeing”

  1. Tensions rise on Canary Islands as thousands of migrants seek new route into EU. 28 November 2020.

    Peering down from their balconies at the luxury Waikiki hotel, more than a thousand migrants gaze out towards the sea that carried them on their desperate journey fleeing Africa.

    But generosity is running thin as tempers fray amid a growing crisis that has split Canarian leaders from their mainland colleagues, and reopened old wounds in Europe’s hopeless attempt to control migration.

    The Canary Islands has seen arrivals increase tenfold in a year to around 20,000 by late November. Plans are now afoot to build one of Europe’s largest migrant camps, housing 7,000 across three islands.

    Morning everyone. They can build what they like, the Canary Islands like the UK, can never meet the demand. There are literally tens of millions of Africans who wish to come to Europe and bask in the Social Security Sunshine. There will of course come a moment when circumstances will force the PTB to take a stand though it is already too late! We seem to be heading for a crisis that is so profound, so complex, its strands so entangled that it will be insoluble by any normal means. Civilisations have collapsed under much less pressure.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/28/tensions-rise-canary-islands-thousands-migrants-seek-new-route/

    1. “build one of Europe’s largest migrant camps across three islands”
      That will be an intriguing piece of engineering

      Morning Minty

    2. “build one of Europe’s largest migrant camps across three islands”
      That will be an intriguing piece of engineering

      Morning Minty

    3. Social security will have to collapse at some point, better if that were sooner rather than later. But human nature being what it is, it will carry on until the ship sinks.

      1. It should be changed. Firstly it must be scrapped for anyone who has – or has a family member – never paid in.

        The long term welfareist must also face a lower pension in later life.
        They must also face a tapering off of welfare after 6 months to 80% and so on.

        Child benefit should be scrapped and replaced wiht a family allowance. Married couples (men and women, no other sort exists) should receive this when they have a child as a tax credit. No income, no money.

        However on the other hand there are now far fewer jobs. Low skill jobs are going to gimmigrants, and the state shows no sign of reducing that tsunami. With big government wedded to high taxes, big spending and state control the labour market is inflexible and low value employees are stuffed by the minimum wage.

        It’s all very well trumpeting how nice it is to pay people £10 an hour, but when 13% of jobs are destroyed to pay it, and the end result is simply net zero to the work because of taxes what’s the point?

      2. For years I have been making the point that we can have the welfare state as we know it OR we can have unlimited immigration. We can’t afford both.

        1. All part of the globalists’ grand plan, which they trusted the EU to implement until Britain wised up and broke away. Never mind, they got coronavirus instead.

    5. Hopeless attempt? It’s been very successful. The EU wanted them here to displace the natives. Now they’re here and destroying the place.

      If their journey was desperate then they shouldn’t have made it. If they are refugees then the route for application is simple. If they are economic migrants they have to show the host nation how it will benefit from them.

      Arriving in a dinghy wanting handoutsmakes you a freeloader.

      1. More likely they’d let you in and give you a hotel room for the night and a nice pad for the wives and kids and extended family and family friends with knives. Lockdown is suspended for them, because of the needs human rights lawyers (amply represented right now by the Labour Party leadership) are paramount.

        I tried and failed for five years to get a tourist visa for my Filipina girlfriend, and that was when Blair was PM. Cameron then made it impossible to contemplate marrying her. “Family Life” for my sort means living and dying alone.

    1. I had a few last and that always mucks up my sleep cycle.

      Was up at 5. No doubt I’ll crash in short order later on and rinse repeat for the week! Yay.

  3. Good morning, Chums.

    A couple from Essex were stopped by Police,
    in South Wales. This couple were taking Christmas
    presents to relatives who live in Cardiff but were
    turned back by Police, their intention was not
    ‘a reasonable excuse’ for crossing into Wales.

    Not ‘a reasonable excuse?’ ….. What are we doing
    putting up with this Government interference?

    [I would like to have said WTF but it is early and it is
    Sunday!]

    Edited.

    1. Have the Essex couple not heard of the Post Office mail service, which also includes parcel delivery?

      1. Morning Elsie. The presents were probably an excuse to get them past the Stasi to see their relatives!

      2. Morning Elsie. The presents were probably an excuse to get them past the Stasi to see their relatives!

      5. Perhaps, if the parcels were heavy, it would have been cheaper to drive to Caerdydd than to send it by Post Brenhinol.

  4. Good morning, Chums.

    A couple from Essex were stopped by Police,
    in South Wales. This couple were taking Christmas
    presents to relatives who live in Cardiff but were
    turned back by Police, their intention was not
    ‘a reasonable excuse’ for crossing into Wales.

    Not ‘a reasonable excuse?’ ….. What are we doing
    putting up with this Government interference?

    [I would like to have said WTF but it is early and it is
    Sunday!]

    Edited.

    1. This may cheer you up…did you watch Earth: One Amazing Day on BBC2 yesterday? If you can ignore the intrusive music the photography is quite remarkable. On iPlayer for now.

      1. Me? Cheer up? No I didn’t. Too much stuff recorded – we are desperately trying to catch up!

  6. Andrew Pierce.

    So i can go into a sweaty unhealthy gym with complete strangers, go there by tube train or bus with complete strangers, or a cab which has not been disinfected, But i cant hae a pint in. a pub with a chum. How does that work?

    1. See, you have to know your place in the new order of things, after they’ve built back better*

      *better for them.

    1. Dull and misty outside. Nowhere near full daylight.
      Interesting that had the clocks not gone back it would be twenty to nine!

  8. I’ve just got into bed after finishing a sixteen hour double shift at 6am.
    I forgot to reset the heating timer so the house is freezing.

      1. I worked a three-week rotating shift cycle – days, evenings, nights. The night shift was four nights of ten hours, Monday to Thursday. The good part about this was that I was travelling home for a long weekend on Friday morning when everyone else was heading into work.

        I was glad to switch to a 9-to-5 job.

        1. I used to finish five night shifts at 6 o’clock on Saturday morning and then have to go back in at two on the Saturday afternoon. The effect on my sleep patterns was devastating!

          1. Currently, owing to a prolonged bout of insomnia (not all attributable to my dog waking me up), I am effectively “working” nights. I’d love to get back to days because I do days as well at the moment).

    2. My S@H is doing nights at the moment. The company he works for has less than two weeks to complete a bloody huge cement silo ready for transporting up to Sunderland.

      The first one went up at the start of the week.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps. More letters about electric cars:

    SIR – Barbara Marshall (Letters, November 22) describes the delight she takes in her BMW i3 electric car.

    A friend of mine was similarly pleased with her i3, and decided to drive from Sussex to Leeds, rather than taking the train. A brave move, many thought – but after some meticulous planning, marking out all the charging points and downloading the smartphone app, she was eager to go.

    In theory, these cars are marvellous; in practice, not so much. My friend’s journey to Leeds was not a relaxing one, with broken charging points, occupied charging points and an app that did not always work. Eleven hours later the destination was reached.

    There was an upside, however: because of the problems with the app, the charging was gratis – resulting in a total cost of £2.50 return.

    Andrew Cox
    Petworth, West Sussex

    SIR – Some argue that, over its lifetime, an electric car will cost less than either petrol or diesel cars.

    Buyers should beware, however: as more people switch to electric vehicles, the Treasury will lose a significant amount of revenue, and taxes will almost certainly switch to electric vehicles to fill the hole.

    Phil Coutie
    Exeter, Devon

    SIR – I have been reading a lot about electric cars but very little about electric commercial vehicles.

    Will all heavy goods vehicles also be powered by electricity by 2030? What plans are there to halt the production of conventional lorries and convert them to battery-electric?

    How many electric-powered commercial vehicles are currently on our roads, other than short-haul inner-city buses? Will heavy lorries be given a dispensation to extend their working-life – and, if they are, where will they refuel when filling stations start to close? Will farm tractors be electric-powered too? If not, what will be their source for diesel.

    Is anyone thinking this through?

    Robert Wardell
    Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire

    Of course not, Robert Wardell; our government isn’t into ‘thinking’. They prefer window-dressing and box-ticking.

    1. Imagine if 11 million cars need charging points – heck, if even 1 % are in use at any one time, with each needing an hour to charge that’s an awfully long tail back.

      I’m reminded about our so called smart meters. Our electricity one is broken. The signal isn’t getting sent to the distributor. The energy company has to pay them to rent the thing on our meters yet that company doens’t fix, repair or replace the devices. The supplier does that.

      No training has been provided to the suppliers, so many are completely confused when you contact them. You can’t talk to hte distributor of the modem element for customer support.

      Then there’s the devices themselves. Reset one and both will be knocked out. Why? Who knows. The in home display simply isn’t very well designed. The software for these devices, the hardware itself is inadequate, with no self recovery methods built in.

      But hey. The state wants to push them all on us for our own good. All to combat a fictional, invented concept that would make no difference to the real pollution we chuck out.

      1. SIR – I have been reading a lot about electric cars but very little about electric commercial vehicles.

        Will all heavy goods vehicles also be powered by electricity by 2030? What plans are there to halt the production of conventional lorries and convert them to battery-electric?

        How many electric-powered commercial vehicles are currently on our roads, other than short-haul inner-city buses? Will heavy lorries be given a dispensation to extend their working-life – and, if they are, where will they refuel when filling stations start to close? Will farm tractors be electric-powered too? If not, what will be their source for diesel.

        Is anyone thinking this through?

        Robert Wardell

        Thornton-le-Dale, North Yorkshire

        1. of course they are thinking it through – the restrictions are about restricting your freedom, nothing else. Taking most private cars off the road will achieve their goal.

      2. Not a fan then, Wibb?

        Here at Janus Towers all attempts to fit dumb meters have been rebuffed. However, we should be moving house soon, and these wretched devices were accepted by the previous owners. What a treat we are in for, particularly when we try to switch supplier.

        1. Good morning!

          “The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has limitations.”

          or as software developers like to say,

          “Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.” (Rick Cook)

    3. Batteries will never replace diesel for commercial heavy vehicles, heavy machinery, farm tractors and farm machinery and more. Caravan holidays will be replaced by more static caravans. The list is enormous and Boris and his government lead the people who support such a green policy. Our PM has no common sense.

  10. Hear, hear!

    SIR – What a feeble lot we have become when a teacher can be sacked from Eton because he dares, in a lecture, to praise the masculinity in men.

    This is wokeness gone mad. The headmaster should be replaced, not the teacher.

    Camilla Coats-Carr
    Teddington, Middlesex

    1. Edit: From today’s DT…this is getting interesting:

      Eton College students are in open revolt against their headmaster as a row over free speech threatened to boil over into a major fall-out.

      Pupils at the 580-year-old school have accused it of acting in a “heartless and merciless” way by dismissing one of its masters amid a dispute over a lecture that questioned “current radical feminist orthodoxy”.

      Hundreds of students have now signed a petition accusing Eton College of “institutional bullying” claiming that it was a “gross abuse of the duty of the school to protect the freedoms of the individual”.

      It comes after The Telegraph revealed that Will Knowland was allegedly dismissed for gross misconduct following a dispute over a lecture he was due to give pupils earlier this year.

      The lecture, titled The Patriarchy Paradox, was part of the Perspectives course taken by older students to encourage them to think critically about subjects of public debate.

      But Mr Knowland, who has taught English at Eton for nine years, claimed that he was banned from delivering the lecture and dismissed after he refused to remove a video of the lecture from his personal YouTube channel.

      The students’ petition, addressed to Eton’s provost, Lord Waldergrave, said they felt the episode has given rise to “some very grave implications about the nature of freedom” at Eton.

      They said: “There is a sense that, by dismissing Mr Knowland, the school is seeking to protect its new image as politically progressive at the expense of one of its own. If this is true, it points to a complete lack of moral integrity and backbone.”

      The students went on to say that they disagreed with the Head Master’s assertion that ideas which can be deemed “hostile” to minority groups at the school could be censored.

      “We think this test is too severe,” they said. “Young men and their views are formed in the meeting and conflict of ideas. A conflict of ideas necessarily entails controversy and spirited discussion. The Head Master’s ‘hostility’ test excludes nearly all of what makes up a liberal education.”

      Last night a number of former pupils threw their support behind pupils. Douglas Murray, an old Etonian and author of The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity, told The Telegraph that Eton had “discredited” itself by failing to allow the free exchange of ideas between students and lecturers.

      “The main thing is that the prerequisite for a good education is to make the students in your care think and there’s no sure-fire way of doing it but the best way is to introduce them to ideas they otherwise wouldn’t or haven’t encountered – as far as I can see, this teacher was merely doing that,” he said.

      “Any educator in charge of informing or instructing or demonstrating how to acquire knowledge to young people ought to be able to explore such things. The fact that he did is to his credit and to the benefit of the pupils.”

      Cornelius Lysaght, the former BBC Radio 5 Live racing correspondent, added: “Once you start stifling debate, that gets concerning. It strikes me as a difficult area but one that schools like Eton should be examining.”

      Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, senior Conservative MP and old Etonian, said: “We are going far too much in this country down the path of telling people what they should think rather than allowing them to make up their own opinions.”

      On Friday Bim Afolami, the MP for Harpenden and Hitchin, urged the £42,500-a-year school not to “succumb to what it feels is an outside pressure to be ‘woke’ or to avoid controversial subjects”.

      Meanwhile, Lucy Allan, the MP for Telford and private secretary to the Leader of the House, wrote to Mr Knowland to offer her support.

      Prof Steven Pinker, an expert in experimental cognitive psychology at Harvard University, has also written to Lord Waldegrave urging him to intervene on Mr Knowland’s behalf.

      Mr Knowland said he is appealing against his dismissal and if this fails he intends to take the school to an employment tribunal.

      An Eton College spokesperson said: “The school has engaged with senior boys on the issues involved, within the limits of what is possible at this stage. In this case, Mr Knowland has chosen to publicise his version of events notwithstanding the fact that he is engaged in an ongoing disciplinary process.

      “The College will not provide substantive comments at present in order to respect the integrity of Mr Knowland’s appeal. There will be a time for Eton to say more about the issues raised by this case, but that time is not now.

      1. It’s good to know that the students aren’t taking this lying down. I watched his video and wished I’d had teachers like him when at school; there are bits I might argue with, but isn’t that the point?

  11. Belarus locks up journalists for exposing false charges against protesters. 29 November 2020.

    Members of the press have been targeted by riot police since massive protests against Mr Lukashenko’s dubious re-election began in August.

    Dozens of Belarusian journalists have been arrested at opposition rallies and thrown to jail for up to 15 days, ostensibly for taking part in illegal gatherings.

    The Belarusian Association of Journalists has recorded 77 journalists sentenced to jail time, serving over 900 combined days behind bars.

    This could never happen in the UK! Lol! I watched the 8 o’clock BBC news last night. No mention of the brutal suppression of the UK protests against Lockdown!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/28/belarus-locks-journalists-exposing-false-charges-against-protesters/

    1. Interesting that in the UK it isn’t reported, or the spin is so careful as to paint those protesting as the problem.

      No doubt some are the usual rentamob of wasters but many won’t be.

    3. Lukashenko is the good guy who refused the world bank bribe to impose a lockdown on his country.

  12. I was with Dr S until his final sentence:

    SIR – My constituency currently returns a Conservative MP, but a few years ago had a Labour and Co-operative MP. It is not a Red Wall seat.

    I am the sort of person who thinks socialism is a phase in adolescence that most people grow out of. I went to grammar school, then medical school and have enjoyed my career for 45 years as a result. I am very fortunate.

    However, we are led by an Old Etonian, and have a Chancellor who is independently wealthy. I don’t see anybody in the Government who understands ordinary, aspirational Conservative voters, the sort of people I meet in the pub. I worry about the future for lots of people, but especially publicans, whose homes are also their livelihoods. We must all get vaccinated as soon as possible.

    Dr Keith Sumner
    Castle Donington, Leicestershire

    1. As a medical professional he instinctively trusts the health service and all it’s systems. That’s expected.

      You’re right to question his conflating the need to vaccinate as if that is somehow the end of the virus. It isn’t. Pretending it is is facile.

  13. First letter:

    SIR – One day the Chancellor explains the pandemic’s dire economic consequences; the next, the Prime Minister announces months of measures that will worsen the crisis. Bring on more unemployment, school closures, bankruptcies, non-Covid deaths, and mental illness.

    The incoherent policies behind the policies are based on data known to be dubious. Yet after nine months of chaotic management, the Tories’ delusional obsession with “protecting the NHS” still reigns supreme.

    Henry Wilson
    Alton, Hampshire

    1. No one ever questions if the NHS is actually the problem if we have to adapt to it.

      When the police protected the green fanatics and ran away from the black looting mob, when the state publishes a rebuttal of a newspaper article that questioned the data and provided no sources or evidence – just refusal and demands for obedience, when you see people being hauled away for questioning and asking for information on why they must wear a mask – when it’s proven not to work and why we must stay locked down – for the same reason – you really start to wonder if the principle is obedience – nay, obeisance rather than protection.

      1. Once the first lockdown had ended any representative government would have produced changes and improvements in the NHS.

        They didn’t.

        Why should we adapt, often by living without medical care, when the NHS refuses to adapt?

    2. SIR – Following another month of lockdown, Devon has been moved from Tier 1 to Tier 2. So that worked well, didn’t it?

      Covid-19 is not the bubonic plague: the Government has simply instilled fear in order to hide its poor decision-making. It must dial this back.

      Most people are unlikely to die from this illness, and putting them all under virtual house arrest is foolish in the extreme. Focus on protecting the vulnerable.

      Tony Brown

      Torquay, Devon

  14. Nadhim Zahawi appointed minister in charge of Covid-19 vaccine rollout. 29 November 2020.

    Nadhim Zahawi, a minister for business and industry, has been placed in charge of overseeing the deployment of the Covid-19 vaccine, Downing Street has announced.

    This guy should have no problems selling this scam. He was a founder of YouGov, fiddled his expenses and at present has managed to suppress all MSM reporting on the sexual harassment charges against him!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/28/nadhim-zahawi-appointed-minister-in-charge-of-covid-19-vaccine-rollout

  15. Further to previous posts about the onset of wokery at Eton, here is Dan Hannan’s view:

    If even Eton falls to the woke, we might as well give up on education
    DANIEL HANNAN
    28 November 2020 • 8:38pm

    What is the ugliest aspect of woke culture? Is it the inconsistency: the way we are supposed to celebrate differences one moment and pretend they don’t exist the next? Is it the irrationality: the elevation of imagined grievances over empirical facts? Is it the intolerance: the high-pitched demands that people’s careers be ended over clumsy phrasing? Is it the cowardice: the readiness of institutions to drop individuals whom they know to have been misrepresented? Or is it the sheer revolutionary violence: the eagerness to tear people down simply for articulating views that were universal until the day before yesterday?

    Many of these characteristics are on display in the case of Will Knowland, a teacher who said that he was sacked following a dispute over a lecture he had prepared suggesting that the differences between the sexes are not socially constructed, and that many of the traits traditionally associated with manliness are laudable. The only unusual thing about l’affaire Knowland is that it is playing out, not in the humanities department of some ultra-liberal North American university, but at Eton. Once identity politics has captured Britain’s chief school, it can truly be said to have been “mainstreamed”.

    Eton is – quite properly – maintaining a discrete silence on grounds that Mr Knowland is appealing against his dismissal. And Mr Knowland is – again, quite properly – refusing to talk to journalists. But the facts, according to a letter by Mr Knowland addressed to the Eton Community, are as follows.

    Mr Knowland had prepared a lecture on the theme of masculinity as part of the “Perspectives” course, which is designed to introduce older Etonians to controversial issues. Because of Covid, the lecture was recorded, and sent to the various Perspectives teachers, one of whom complained. The headmaster backed the complainant (who had apparently objected to Mr Knowland’s suggestion that a world without men would be bad for women) and ordered the video to be taken down, which it was. He also told Mr Knowland to remove it from his personal YouTube channel. Mr Knowland responded that he would do so if he were given a good explanation, and was allegedly told that he would be dismissed if he didn’t comply. Mr Knowland says he did not receive an explanation, left the video up and was fired for gross misconduct.

    The video itself, though one-sided, is in no sense extreme. Mr Knowland argues that some masculine characteristics – physical courage, for example – are innate rather than being a product of what feminists call “patriarchy”. He backs up his claims with a number of academic studies. He closes by arguing that what used to be called chivalry – the expectation, rooted in biology, that men will act protectively towards women – is better for society than the pretence that gender differences are a product of culture.

    Even if he had been advancing a speculative case, it would have been wrong to silence him. The essence of education is that we test different theories and let the true ones win out. But, in this instance, what Mr Knowland was arguing was not especially controversial – at least, not among biologists, geneticists or neuroscientists. The idea that there are innate emotional and behavioural differences between the sexes is assumed by most specialists in those fields.

    As Steven Pinker, the Harvard professor who has written to Eton on Mr Knowland’s behalf, has argued for decades, equality between the sexes rests on the idea that individuals should not be assumed to hold the average characteristics of their group. It does not rest on the claim that there are no inherited psychological sex differences. Oddly enough, the idea that male and female brains differ in the aggregate is common both to specialists and to the general population.

    But it is violently opposed by a group in between – a group whom the Czech philosopher Tomáš Masaryk might have called the “half-educated”, and who dominate sociology departments, BBC editorial conference and teacher training colleges. Perhaps the saddest aspect of this whole business is that Eton is appearing to align itself with this group.

    What Mr Knowland suggested in his lecture – that boys become men by learning to channel their aggression, thus fitting themselves for good citizenship and fatherhood – would have gone without saying for the first 575 or so years of Eton’s 580-year history. Boys’ schools saw it as their task to inculcate virtue – a word deriving from the Latin “vir”, “man”, and suggesting precisely the attributes that Mr Knowland was praising.

    Were all those beaks down the centuries wrong? What fools our fathers were if this be true

    1. Men have muscles where women have babies.

      Whilst divorcing me for being inadequate, my then-wife in 1991 under the mantra from her women’s group “there is nothing a man can do that a woman cannot do better” humped the playgroup equipment out of the shed the morning after giving birth to her third child (not mine). She got a prolapse and had to have a hysterectomy.

      She went on to become the Head of a Church of England school in Gloucestershire, and then a senior education adviser with an education authority, in control of a department dedicated to Early Years with a £3 million budget and only one male member of staff – the filing clerk.

      1. My lovely niece got 2 blues at Oxford – for rowing and gymnastics. When she married her childhood sweetheart, a young doctor who had rowed in the Goldie boat at Cambridge, I was invited to join the stag party.

        During the evening one of the rowdy rabble enquired: “Joe, what is going to be like marrying a woman with more muscles than you”?”
        To which Joe replied:
        “She’s got muscles in places where I haven’t even got places!”

      2. Good morning, Cochrane

        On whose instruction was it covered up – and if there was no official instruction to cover it up why hasn’t Khan ordered the covering to be removed?

        1. The hospital decided to cover it up at the time of the BLM protests. It is nothing to do with the Mayor and he has no authority to order it covered up or uncovered. This was explained in a reply to Belle last night (by another poster), but she has reposted this dog whistle.

  18. 326933+ up ticks,
    Morning Each
    “Sunday 29 November: The week’s Covid moves harmed both the economy and our wellbeing”

    As this is the “in your face” plain to see fact then the likes of major, the wretch cameron, clegg,may the treacherous will view it with delight at seeing their campaign of treachery coming to fruition.

    Their silent thanks must also be extended to the nasal grippers, best of the worst, three monkey types, party first & foremost for their continual input without which the success of their campaign would be no where near completion as it is currently.

    How to lose a nation via the polling booth.

  19. Mail to a Con…..

    Have you noticed how they’ve lost interest in new therapies?

    It’s all about vaccines, and of course it always was.

    Thanks to Gates who is running the UK’s response.

    All Gates cares about is mass vaccination and how to force everyone into accepting it which explains your catastrophic lockdown.

    You’re wasting your time asking questions of Johnson and Hancock.

    Mail Gates for answers but if you get no reply, try Soros, Open Society or Schwab. That is where the real power lies in the UK. With the billionaires. The rest are merely pawns.

    Polly

    1. Did you see this horrific headline to a story in the DT last night?

      Britons to get ‘vaccine stamps’ in their passports before overseas travel
      The inoculations would allow tourists to avoid being held up at borders if the international travel industry starts to pick up

      So those who do not want to have the vaccine will be interred in Prison GB.

      2. Not according to the story. Without a vaccine stamp it would take longer to enter a country, probably because you’d need to take a test on arrival. Not that this would actually be anything to do with the UK government.

      3. After the news a few days ago that fake negative Covid test results were being sold – and fake passports already available – next step is fake “vaccine stamps ” in the passports.

    2. Morning P-P The next thing will be is ” how long does the vaccine immunity last ?” Boris had a serious Covid-19 infection and recovered bur several months later was “forced” to self isolate after being close to a positive case. The medics may never stop dithering about this virus. Meanwhile the country continues to suffer .

      1. Perfect for Boros’ billionaire friends to short the Pound to oblivion and buy formerly valuable UK assets dirt cheap.

        That the ”Great Reset”.

    1. Interesting info on Wiki about the power of the Czech President, “The president does not have nearly as much power as counterparts in the United States and president of France, as the Czech Republic is a parliamentary republic. However, unlike counterparts in other Central European countries such as Austria and Hungary, who are generally considered figureheads, the Czech president has a considerable role in political affairs. Because many powers can only be exercised with the signatures of both the President and the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, responsibility over some political issues is effectively shared between the two offices.”

      1. I think he speaks for most in Czech Republic, and he is correct of course, and that always helps.

  22. Good Moaning:
    This picture got me thinking (quiet at the back).
    These bollards have four spikes/screws that would make holes in the road surface.
    We all know that the smallest crack or hole allows water to pool and undermine the surface. It’s even worse if we have ice or snowy weather.
    Presumably we will soon be negotiating deliberately created potholes. And councils will be whinging about lack of money.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b61bb6e0d57469a321a38dec4ce86af9b04ba04c0626a6cfb5ed87dd0e507d46.jpg

      2. I pass a drain like that on my morning walks. It’s considerably higher than the surrounding tarmac so the water pools and then, eventually, spreads across the road before it gets high enough to reach the drain! There is also one drain that is completely blocked with soil, largely because there is always a car parked over it or near it when they do come round to clear the drains. It surely would not be beyond the wit of local council apparatchiks to have someone go round and post a note on the parked cars (no parking space on the house frontages) to say that at X time of day on Y date they will be clearing the drains, so don’t park over them.

  23. Adrianne Leijerstram, if you go to the Government website or Google ‘winter fuel payment’ you will find instructions how to return your unwanted payment. If you are too thick to do that then send it to me and I’ll dispose of it for you

    1. She could send it straight to Calais to help the poor ill-treated and abandoned “asylum seekers”….

    2. For those were as confused as I was by Spiky’s comment, it emanates from a DT Letter, thus:

      SIR – I have just received a winter fuel payment of £100 for me and my husband. Although I am grateful for the Government’s generosity, we are fortunate not to need it in order to survive.

      Surely, in our current financial situation, these payments should be means-tested.

      Please, Rishi Sunak, advise us how we can return this payment to help alleviate the massive government debt. If I do not hear from you, I will continue to send your generous contribution to charity.

      Adrianne Leijerstam
      Cosheston, Pembrokeshire

    3. I have the attitude that the government takes as much as it can from me in the form of income tax and other taxes, so I will take as much as I can from the government in any form of benefit to which I am entitled.

    5. Oh not these over-privileged idiots demanding that the winter fuel payment be made means-tested again!

      1. I wonder if they realise that means testing universal benefits actually costs more than the amount clawed back from the better off?

        1. It probably does. Personally I think all the extras, which were all originally bribes to one or other part of the electorate, need to be wrapped up in a single benefit aka Universal Credit or in this case the State Pension.

          1. I do wish they would stop using the word ‘credit’ in benefit schemes. It implies the money has to be paid back. Then again, the Government never pays back the money it borrows…

    6. For those were as confused as I was by Spiky’s comment, it emanates from a DT Letter, thus:

      SIR – I have just received a winter fuel payment of £100 for me and my husband. Although I am grateful for the Government’s generosity, we are fortunate not to need it in order to survive.

      Surely, in our current financial situation, these payments should be means-tested.

      Please, Rishi Sunak, advise us how we can return this payment to help alleviate the massive government debt. If I do not hear from you, I will continue to send your generous contribution to charity.

      Adrianne Leijerstam
      Cosheston, Pembrokeshire

      2. Virtue signalling smuggie!

        And also naive – once the government assumes ‘special’ powers to impose a means test they will never surrender it.

        1. You took the words out of my mouth. And nobody will ever get a penny again, apart from “The Poorest in Society” ie the same ones who are already supported from cradle to grave!

      3. Means testing will create a huge bureaucracy which will cost more than any money sent to smug gits like you Adrianne. Give it to a local charity.

    2. Had the pleasure of meeting him several years ago at a special screening of the original trilogy at my (then) local cinema, a year or so before the remastered films were released (back when Star Wars was still great and not woke). A really nice chap, who will be sadly missed (and for his great work as the Green Cross Code man).

  25. Will history repeat itself? Is it in his genetic make-up?

    “Ali Kemal was kidnapped in Istanbul to be brought to Ankara for a trial of treason, on the government’s orders. However, while on his way to Ankara by train, Ali Kemal was lynched by a mob, organized by Sakallı Nureddin Paşa, in İzmit on Nov. 6, 1922.”

    Ali Kemel was Johnson’s great-grandfather.

    1. 326933+ up ticks,
      Morning PM,
      The slip knot in the well deserved noose will be the “deal” ( imo already done) & the
      official handing over of our fishing waters or best part, under the submissive, appeasement rulings from a political pretendee tory group who NEVER stopped being an eu asset.

    2. Very naughty

      PLEASE DO NOT REMOVE THE SPOILER COVER IF YOU ARE EASILY SHOCKED

      Where will the PM’s mistress get the electricity to charge up her vibrator when he is no longer up to the job?

  28. There was a black woman (MP I think) on BBC Radio 4 this morning who said she admired Margaret Thatcher. I could hear several studio staff fainting in the background and others shouting for medical assistance. I am assuming she will never be invited back – if she even got out of the studio alive.

    https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/128630268_1837970903019915_2476843750280401819_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=2&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=5I0U0ed8EQUAX8isgQM&_nc_ht=scontent-cdg2-1.xx&oh=d542d414d69cf057cec8e8f54e9d4851&oe=5FE8578C

    1. Reginald D Hunter did a comedy piece about how women get on in life, citing how everone thought Madonna was so fantastic with her sexy (?) routines, & how Margaret Thatcher rose to the top of a male-dominated profession, and “didn’t shake her ass one time” through being the best for the job.

  29. I had hoped for a Calm Sunday. I was instructed to deal with the rest of the pictures that need hanging. Then discovered that I had insufficient hooks. And so to B&Q. Heart sank as carpark completely full. Never seen it like that. Expected massive checkout queues. Shouted at for standing in the wrong place – twice. Found hooks – straight through the till. Out and back in half an hour.

    Lunch waiting – but no respite. So I am off for the next few hours, making holes in walls (and my hands). You’ll prolly hear the swearing…. Each time I hammer something, I’ll think of Halfcock.

    2. Because I am so incompetent, I am unable to complete any household task involving the use of my hands without copious amounts of swearing and injuries to said hands. My wife and children learnt long ago to make themselves scarce when I was attempting to perform any DIY jobs.

        1. Yep, that just about sums up my DIY skills. My wife is much better at things like paper-hanging etc., and even built a small wine-cellar in the garden. I mixed the mortar but she did the brick-laying.

  30. It’s one thing to utter a few swear words when things go wrong but it’s quite another for people in the public eye who are incapable of expressing themselves without using foul language.

    One such person is the cook, Gordon Ramsay. I wouldn’t go into one of his overpriced restaurants if he paid me to eat there!

    Overpriced? It is reported today that he has opened a new restaurant in Harrods: One hamburger, (potatoes separately priced) £80!

    Pretentious rubbish brought to a new level!

    1. Nice work if you can get it, but he won’t be getting any from me. Besides, I have never eaten in any ‘fast food’ restaurant in my life and I’m not about to start. The foul-mouthed Ramsay is the very last establishment I would dream of visiting.

      PS I see he’s got an OBE in swearing…

    3. I don’t care how accomplished he is, nor even if his public persona as a foul-mouthed bully is a concoction for the delectation of a particular segment of the television viewing public. Like you, I will not frequent any of his establishments nor will I willingly watch any television production in which he’s a participant.

  32. DT Leader for today…it’s about Brexit. Remember that? I have no confidence that Johnson will hold out; hope I’m wrong. If he fudges this then his fate is sealed, ‘cos he’s already on borrowed time:

    Michel Barnier is in London for “intensified” Brexit talks: both sides are calling for the other to back down on state aid, the resolution of future disputes and fishing. Boris Johnson must hold the line. Reasonable compromise is always possible and a deal is there to be struck, but core issues that Remainers deride as petty, or the EU pretends have no real salience, are in fact critical to the whole enterprise. Actually, they are definitional. The story of fishing, in particular, illustrates how we got into this mess, the damage it’s done to our country and why millions of Britons voted to get out.

    Soon after the UK, Ireland, Denmark and Norway began their application to join the European Economic Community in 1970, the fear of a gold rush in their fishing waters became common knowledge. The Norwegian public voted against EEC membership partly over this issue; the British establishment quietly disregarded it. Our negotiators, in the words of their leading diplomat, were “uncertain” and “faulty” on fishing, and it didn’t help that Ted Heath, desperate to join the EEC on schedule, told them to “swallow” every Community rule “and swallow it now”.

    Heath’s critics say he got around popular resistance by lying. The 1971 White Paper stated that Britain would seek changes to the then European fishing policy; behind closed doors, Britain’s head of negotiations gave way, but the House was reassured that nothing substantive or long-term had been surrendered. This was plainly untrue. Britain joined the EEC in 1973 committed to opening its waters to anyone flying a community flag, bar the fig-leaf of a coastal monopoly, and the effects on coastal areas were devastating.

    In 1970, the total number of fisherman in the UK was around 21,000; today it’s about 12,000. Our European membership was unquestionably a factor. Grimsby, by the middle of the 20th century, was the largest fishing port in the world and the workers who returned with a good catch were known as “three-day millionaires”. With Britain in the EEC, they were able to apply for grants to purchase new ships or new gear – but so were Spanish or French competitors who were suddenly on the horizon, competing for profit. In 1983, recognising the growing danger of overfishing, the Europeans imposed a quota system that was itself riddled with unintended consequences: as smaller, traditional fleets declined, fish caught in excess of the quota by behemoth trawlers were returned to the water, usually dead. In 2007 alone, 23,600 tonnes of cod and 31,048 tonnes of hake were dumped in the North Sea.

    And Britain had to swallow limited rights to work. Today it is estimated that France enjoys 84 per cent of the quota for cod in the English Channel; Britain, just 9 per cent. Europeans catch up to 173 times more herring in UK waters than we do, along with 45 times more whiting. No wonder our fishermen feel so aggrieved, and no wonder the Europeans, affecting to see fishing as a matter of wounded British pride, are fighting tooth-and-nail behind the scenes to retain the status quo.

    Fishing is a material issue and it’s a totemic one, too: correcting this injustice has become something of a covenant between those who campaigned for Brexit and those who voted for it. Europe is used to repeating votes until it gets what it wants, or ignoring votes it doesn’t like, but Brexit is about charting a very different course – restoring sovereignty and democratic participation. The pledge that Britain will one day regain control of its fishing waters was a key component of the referendum. If that referendum is to mean anything, then Mr Johnson must see that it is honoured.

    1. Totemic and democratic – perhaps the same thing. We have a lot of coast relative to size. This represents a lot of parliamentary seats that depend on our waters. Any government must factor that in the balance irrespective of the size of the industry relative to GDP. So politicians that do not deliver can and should get sacked.
      This is not something that needs to concern Barnier – his livelihood does not depend on any democratic mandate.
      But I am afraid that these principles are anachronistic. Boris is young. He can go on to become a multi-millionaire like Blair or others for services-rendered if he drops the British ball in front of the goal for Barnier to kick it – or he can live off his baby-mother’s sinecures if she is rewarded for driving him towards eco-fascism.
      Boris does not need to worry about becoming toast unless he really wants to do something for the nation and has a legacy in mind. I am uncertain about that.
      But I think that he has skeletons that need to be kept in the cupboard and the EstabLishment has him over a barrel, so I am not optimistic.

    2. Ever since I first voted on my 18th birthday in 1974, I have always thought hard about my choices. In 2001, I voted UKIP specifically over EU Fishing Policy, and despite being a committed Europhile, I voted against membership in the referenda of 1975 and 2016 for much the same reason.

      That French spokesman made it quite clear. Unless we agree to the letter to EU demands over British territorial waters, there will be penal sanctions against the UK imposed on 1st January 2021. It is an offer we cannot refuse.

      I hope we are prepared to take our punishment and make it rebound on them. I know that I may have to give up medication I have relied on since 1998 to control depression and insomnia, and it may shorten my life by twenty years. This medication, a cheap generic, was made unobtainable by the NHS because of corporate profiteering and U.S. style ethical standards and “Free Market” doctrine founded on permitting gigacorruption by Thatcher’s Government and perpetuated ever since by all the major parties. For as long as the Germans recognise prescriptions from a British doctor, I can get it from one of their High Street pharmacies, but the French, the Dutch and the Spanish may take this from me because they want to wipe out our fish with their factory trawlers.

      2. It is an offer we MUST refuse – it’s nothing short of blackmail. If they seek to penalise us it WILL (not may, might or could) rebound on them. We are a major market for the EU (which itself is suffering from internal stresses).

  33. Events in London yesterday left me fuming

    https://twitter.com/MetPoliceEvents/status/1332631402144296960

    https://twitter.com/banthebbc/status/1332708990850101248

    https://twitter.com/BreesAnna/status/1332781846644535298

    But (if accurate) this is the one that bought me to tears of rage………….

    https://twitter.com/CharlieVeitch/status/1332735371977830401?s=20
    The contrast of this and the pictures of BoJoke and Mancock gurning,grinning and laughing as they drag us down to ruin fills me with thoughts I dare not express

      2. One and only one did just that, Bill. He saw the video of an elderly woman being carried spreadeagled and thrown into a van. He was livid with anger. Sir somebody, I can’t remember his name.

        1. He didn’t see a video, he was actually there, outside Parliament, as the event took place.
          Sadly, I can’t recall his name either.

      3. Why would MPs protest when those—who are currently masquerading as the police—are operating at their direction and carrying out their diktats?

    3. Funny – they didn’t bother to do that when the black looting mob were out and about, did they?

      1. Blacks are quite literally far more likely to be stopped and searched by the police than any other ethnicity and there are plenty of Asian men in prison for ‘kiddy fiddling’.

    2. Interesting that the “policeman” actually doing the violence isn’t wearing numbers on his shoulders.

      Could any ex-police on here explain why?

  35. 326933+ up ticks,
    Delingpole: Eton Sacks Teacher Who Dared Question ‘Toxic Masculinity’
    The answer in kind, anything appertaining to eton, SACK.

    More ways to skin a cat, any future student seeking employment must been seen as carrying the ST stigma.
    These student types are in point of fact getting peoples support whilst try out & training up for the very anti UK re-set.

    ST = sacked teacher.

    1. The bottom part was hidden on my computer screen. I laughed out loud when i uncovered it. The Guardian really has no idea do they.

      1. “The Guardian really has no idea do they?”

        Oh, I think they do have an idea … very much indeed. It is all part of their determined programme of spreading Leftist propaganda, no matter how vacuous, no matter how abominable.

        1. The writer’s photo does not give me great confidence in her intellectual abilities. By intellect, i mean of course old-fashioned far right wing stuff like drawing logical conclusions from facts, attempting to understand opposing views – you know, dangerous nonsense like that.

          2. Anyone who is convinced that such a concept as the “Far Right” actually exists, let alone print their belief that it exists, has lost all manner of credibility.

          3. Well we all know that in the Guardian, it means everyone who rejects global, communist government!

          4. One such posts on here frequently and becomes very abusive when you explain the absurdity of his position.

    3. Where does this myth of the “far-Right” come from? I’d loke someone to name them. BY definition, right-wing types go for individual solutions, not collective, so they don’t tend to band together in violent political movements, instead look after themselves and their family. All the rest is left-wing perversion.
      Grr!
      Morning, folks!

      1. “far-right” is a pejorative term used to describe normal, sensible, middle-of-the-road people.

        1. It’s worse than that, Bill – if the Black Broadcasting Corporation so much as mentions the term ‘right wing’ you know that it has been used to denigrate everything that is not left wing.

      2. Morning OB, the problem is the use of a one dimensional description to distinguish political views. If we must stick to this, we should use the ‘horseshoe theory’ which recognises the similarity of far right and far left views. But the more accurate representations of viewpoints use two dimensions.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_spectrum#/media/File:Political_Compass_yellow_LibRight.svg

        I know you didn’t mean it, but unfortunately the statement “right-wing types go for individual solutions” is a good description of far-right terrorists.

      3. Left & Right. The more state control you want is what the left want. Total state control is far left.

        Minimum state control is what the right want.
        Hitler was of the left not the right just like Stalin. far right would be wanting no state control whatsoever.

          1. All those absolute monarchs we had back in the day (like William I or Edward I) where absolute power rested in the state, in the person of the monarch – left wing were they?

            No. There’s a flaw in your argument. Neither Hitler nor Stalin were “of the left” either. The were all about state power invested in the individual. You can call it whatever you like but it’s not left wing. Any more than communist China is “left wing” – again it’s about power resting with a small group in the supposed name of the people – but truthfully nothing to do with the people.

          2. They certainly were not of the Right. Collectivism, as the Left like, is all about centralising power (and with it, wealth) into a few hands, who then tell the rest of us how to live our lives and what to do next. Much as Stalin (communist) and Hitler (National Socialist) did. None of it was about leaving folk to get on with their lives, unmolested by busybodies who, apparently, know better what should be done, and why.
            China started communist (probably so they could gather power & get support from Russia), but seems to have instead become statist.

          3. No it’s absolutist – as was Stalin (and Putin still is) it’s their individual power – not the power of the state, the people or anyone else. And that is far more right wing than left wing, though I would largely agree that it doesn’t really fall within either. Dictatorship is something of a law unto itself – but left wing it most certainly is not.

    4. Those ladies doing an American smile with gaffer tape on their bits are dressed appropriately, but might need to get out in the sun more to get a respectable tan and enough health-giving Vitamin D.

    5. Is that one of those made up headlines like ‘Kill all the Tories’ often seen attributed to Toynbee or a real one?

      As it’s typical Lefty: attack a group, label and then blame them for a problem that exists only in the Lefty’s hate fuelled mind.

  37. Simon Heffer today (no BTL comments allowed):

    Many of you will know the immortal Ealing film The Blue Lamp. Shot in 1949, it is an ultra-idealistic story of the police and their fight against Britain’s post-war crime wave. It revolves around a loathsome thug, played by Dirk Bogarde, who shoots an avuncular policeman, played by Jack Warner.

    The very idea that something so dreadful could happen shocked audiences when the film was released; they knew it was too close to the truth for comfort. The film’s opening sequence shows various newspaper headlines about gangsterism, thuggery, delinquency and a rise in crime compared with the orderly years before 1939. Everyone who read a newspaper knew these were not pure invention.

    Mostly, when we think of the war’s end, we think little beyond the jubilation of VE and VJ Day. But the mood quickly turned restive: rather than a return to ‘normal’, the years immediately following were marked not just by a crime wave, but by cracks in society. Both were a reaction to the public’s loss of liberty during total war. The family unit especially suffered: births out of wedlock rose during and after the war; so did divorces, especially when men came home and found they were married to total strangers.

    Many Britons had had enough of an authoritarian, repressive state that had, to secure national salvation, taken over their lives. For six years the state had directed people as part of a war machine. It had controlled where they could go, and when they could go there. It had censored their newspapers, rationed their food and fed them a diet of propaganda on their regular visits to the cinema. By the time the war ended they were ripe for rebellion. In many respects they – especially the younger ones, most of whom had been under military discipline – simply stopped obeying.

    Today, we have endured state-imposed restrictions for less than nine months, and comparisons can sound excessive. But the society that confronted the Covid pandemic was far less used to authority, deference and conformity than its forebears who went to war in 1939. Nor, in that war, were people controlled to the extent where they could not visit their families and friends; could not go to the pub; could not run a basic business such as a café or a clothes shop; could not meet more than a limited number of people outside, or visit them indoors.

    Nor was there any doubt about the strength of the enemy; blitzed towns and cities, and until El Alamein in the autumn of 1942 the strong possibility that a German invasion would be launched against the United Kingdom, were proof enough. Today, thanks to conflicting scientific evidence and a lack of transparency in decision-making, the enemy is more questionable. The level of authoritarianism in the Covid crisis is unprecedented in peacetime.

    There is reason to hope we may soon return to ‘normal’ now a vaccine is imminent, and this was supposed to be the last weekend of the second lockdown. However, the latest restrictions, announced on Thursday, are even tighter for most than those before this lockdown began and have been greeted as excessive by many on whom they will be imposed. The reasons for them are vague and based on data open to more than one interpretation.

    The public are not stupid; they increasingly feel they are being governed not by politicians exercising the judgment they are elected to use, but by politicians doing as they are told by scientists. Unlike politicians, scientists have no direct responsibility for the economy, and their advice takes no account of it. The result of this abdication by politicians could well be turbulence in the future. History suggests that life after the pandemic will be more troubled. Suggestions that if people spend what they have saved during lockdown there will be a ‘Roaring Twenties’ consumer boom assume they are confident enough for the future to spend now. It is far from certain that will be the public mood.

    The reaction to the new tiers proves that acceptance and endurance of this authoritarianism is near to snapping. There has been more traffic on the roads during this lockdown than in the first, a sign that some have ceased to take ministerial rhetoric seriously. The arrangements proposed for Christmas have already caused family disputes, and will bring widespread flouting of the law. There being no central register of bubbles, and, indeed, the whole bubble concept being entirely unenforceable without a military-style organisation to police it, many will simply ignore the rules. There will be a bubble for Christmas Day, a bubble for Boxing Day and a bubble for the Sunday after Christmas as people move around family members, and treat the sermonising of pompous ministers with a track record of failure as just so much crying wolf.

    Most people dislike and resist breaking the law because they understand that laws usually have a sound foundation in morality and reason. There are very good arguments for obeying them that go far beyond the likelihood of punishment. That is why society overwhelmingly abhorred those who went wild after the Second World War. But, unlike in 1945, once people regard laws as arbitrary, unjust, intrusive and infantilising, and when they can break them and almost certainly not be caught, it degrades the whole rule of law.

    This is what we stand to lose when all this is over; through the excessive, confused and largely panic-stricken response by ministers to this pandemic, fatal mainly in the cases of the already vulnerable, we are sacrificing respect for legitimate authority. People who become used to evading regulations now will find it easier to evade other, less arbitrary regulations in the future. They will find it easier to ignore and even to dismiss the idea of authority; they will hold politicians who make arbitrary laws in even greater contempt than they do already.

    The spirit of the black market, of casual promiscuity, of breaking constraints, outlived the repressions of the Second World War and took root. The spirit survived because it was a means of asserting the individual against the state. So many of their basic freedoms having been denied them for so long in the interests of beating Hitler, many people went a little mad when the tyrant and his regime were in ruins. In 1945 the people elected a Labour government largely to punish Conservatives whom they held responsible for appeasement in the 1930s, and thereby causing another dreadful war.

    They soon realised how that government’s promises of a new Jerusalem were built on unprecedented levels of state control through higher taxation, continued rationing, a ballooning bureaucracy and a major attack on private enterprise. They almost wiped out its massive majority at the first opportunity, and a year later removed Labour from office for 13 years.

    In a society such as ours, with long traditions of liberty and freedom, the natural reaction to the suppression and denial of those liberties is to fight back. Britain has a long history of this, which can be traced back not just to the Glorious Revolution of 1688 that reversed an attempt to undo the Reformation, but to the Civil Wars and, more than 80 years before that, the reaction to the burning of Protestants by Bloody Mary.

    People were so restive after the Napoleonic wars that Lord Liverpool’s government felt forced, after Peterloo in 1819, to pass the Six Acts. These gave the authorities huge powers to move against any person or organisation considered revolutionary or seditious, and to suppress freedom of speech. The result was years of civil unrest, leading to the Great Reform Act of 1832, the Chartist movement and the repeal of the Corn Laws.

    The unprecedented constraints placed on Britons in the Great War – including conscription, food shortages, censorship and restrictions on movement – caused the period of decadence and self-indulgence we call the Roaring Twenties. At one end of society, recreational drug abuse and extra-marital sex became commonplace, and at the other, industrial unrest and demands for a better standard of living culminated in the General Strike.

    Our own Twenties have yet to roar. But the relentless suppression of individual freedom, and the inevitable determination to reassert ourselves over the agents of the state, means that the day will come when they will. How the government manages the remainder of this crisis, and how it exercises its judgment and not simply that of the scientists whose word it has made law, will shape whatever becomes the new normal. Only then will we discover whether the roar of the 2020s is one of joy, relief and optimism – or anger, resentment and a possibly destructive determination to challenge an idea of a tainted, arbitrary and discredited authority.

    1. When WW2 ended the UK and the United States were still the world pillars and examples of Freedom and Democracy. This is no longer true. The UK in particular is now a totalitarian Police State. To think this is going to end with the demise of the Virus is naive in the extreme!

        1. What makes you think that our government could run a national identity card scheme? They couldn’t run a bath without flooding the place.

        2. What makes you think that our government could run a national identity card scheme? They couldn’t run a bath without flooding the place.

        3. Good morning Cochrane and other Nottlers.
          Part of the state’s ‘totalitarianistic’ behaviour is to insist on the need for ‘ID’ in many aspects of daily life without entitling the UK populace to the benefits of an ID system as used in EU member states such as Spain.
          For example, if you wish to hire a motor vehicle, a UK driving licence is insufficient as an identity document; you must also provide a National Insurance number. Why?
          If you wish to employ a non-British national, you are expected to verify their identity etc, which is now possible via a Biometric Residence Permit; how can you check the identity of a (British) non driver who has no passport?

          1. I don’t disagree, but the absence of a national ID card indicates that the UK is not quite what Minty thinks it to be. Maybe she doesn’t live here?

          2. Indeed. If you ask any resident of Salisbury, you are unlikely to hear anyone sympathise with pro-Russian conspiracy theories. Local businesses suffered a form of ‘lockdown’ long before the concept was rolled out across the UK.
            And btw, if the UK had the sort of ID & health insurance systems used in continental EU states, it would be much easier to roll out a comprehensive vaccination program.

          3. Thank you. I do think we need to always ask why data is being collected and there has to be democratic oversight, however, so many of the claims I read here are fantasy.

        4. We do not now need them do we they know who we are. Our black shirt police are more like a Police State than ever before.

        5. But a couple from Essex were thrown out of Wales for breaching lockdown… so we must be totalitarian!

          I think that the police could handle things better and our democracy is badly in need of a facelift, but we’ve got a long way to go to reach that description.

        7. Yet. How many people have been advocating them? The only way to ensure voter ID, the only way to ensure people have paid into the NHS so they can be treated, etc, etc.

          1. It’s a paradox. As a believer in personal liberty, I recognise that ID systems have become necessary, in a similar way to mobile phones: the advantages outweigh the impositions.

          2. There’s something ‘un-British’ about ID cards as they conjure up pictures of the authorities randomly stopping people to demand ID. If there was a law outlawing that (which would be unworkable), I’d be inclined to accept them.

    2. Interesting how the character of PC George Dixon, played by Jack Warner, became the first murder victim in history to be fully resuscitated and placed back on duty in a television series.

      The character probably dreamt his murder; much in the same way that Bobby Ewing, played by Patrick Duffy, did a few decades later in Dallas.

    3. People will be spending their savings because a) interest rates will almost certainly go negative shortly and currently any interest is derisory, b) the imminent inflation will wipe out the spending power of the said savings and c) the relentless Project Fear is engendering a sense of impending doom, so why not carpe diem? Then there is the thought that if you have savings you’ll be paying for everything if you need care, while those who’ve blown it all will have everything paid for them. The whole message from this government is “don’t be frugal, don’t provide for your future – because if you do, you’ll be shafted”.

    1. Thanks, Ogga, I know what to do and have done it on Ar5eBook, where I have many American friends – all Republicans I trow.

  39. From the Tellygraff…is the NT feeling the heat, or is this just the start of a PR blitz?

    Woke’ National Trust seeks Vote Leave help. Hanbury Strategy, run by a former Vote Leave executive, has been hired to help resolve a row following a controversial report on colonialism

    By
    Christopher Hope,
    CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    28 November 2020 • 9:30pm

    The National Trust has hired a lobbying firm run by a former Vote Leave executive to “de-woke-ify” the charity in an apparent admission that it needs to cool the political row surrounding its controversial colonialism and slavery report.

    Hanbury Strategy – whose company motto is “The world is changing. We can help you understand it, navigate it, shape it” – is understood to have hired in recent weeks after the publication of the 115-page report in September.

    The Trust hired the PR firm after its members condemned the study which implicated Winston Churchill.

    The charity commission also raised concerns about it and ministers said in a Commons debate this month that the report had been “unfortunate” and “caused offence” and urged the Trust to focus on its “core functions”.

    Hanbury Strategy, a strategic advisory company, was co-founded four years ago by Paul Stephenson, a former communications director in the Vote Leave campaign, and Ameet Gill, director of strategy in 10 Downing Street when David Cameron was Prime Minister. On its website the firm says that “whether you’re an investor who wants to measure political risk, a CEO facing a difficult communications challenge, or a political leader who wants to better understand public opinion, we bring unparalleled experience to your most complex and challenging problems”.

    The Trust declined to say how much it was paying Hanbury, although industry sources said it was likely to be tens of thousands of pounds.

    The news of the appointment comes just as the Trust is making redundant nearly 1,300 staff including curators to fill a £200million revenue shortfall caused by the pandemic.

    Tory MPs questioned why the Trust had decided to spend large sums on the advisers to deal with a problem that its own executive team had caused.

    Conservative MP Andrew Murrison said: “The Trust leadership shouldn’t need to hire an expensive PR consultancy to dig it out of a mess of its own making.

    “The expenditure will distress hard working staff sacked by the Trust and members and volunteers who have seen properties close.

    “This latest adds to the impression of an organization that’s out of touch and, to be honest, all over the place.

    “The Trust’s leadership needs to get back on track fast, reconnect with its members and rediscover its simple, honorable task of being Clerk of Works to our most precious structures, artifacts and landscapes.”

    Another Tory MP added: “It’s clear that the clueless National Trust leadership has totally lost touch with its own membership.

    “That they’ve got to hire premier-league outside help just to de-woke-ify themselves shows just what a hole they’re in.

    “To ordinary members this just goes to show how urgent change at the top of the National Trust now is.”

    A National Trust spokesperson said: “The National Trust cares for many hundreds of places and collections, welcomes millions of visitors every year, and communicates with a huge range of stakeholders and audiences.

    “To be as effective as possible we sometimes need extra support from external organisations and agencies.

    “All spending decisions go through a rigorous procurement process to ensure best value for money and long term benefit to the organisation.”

    A spokesman for Hanbury Strategy declined to comment on its work with the Trust.

    1. Their ‘procurement process to ensure best value for money’ can’t have used a very good tendering process.
      I could point out the NT’s problems to it for fifty quid

    2. So the National Trust thinks that the answer to making itself more popular is better PR. Rubbish.

      1. That certainly exposes their mindset. If a business reputation has been sullied a PR company would advise them to change their name. Fire a few underlings and pretend everything has changed.

      2. They say that there is no such thing as bad publicity, but the NT, the BBC, Eton, the British Library, the C of E, the police farce and many more have shown otherwise.

    3. Their ‘procurement process to ensure best value for money’ can’t have used a very good tendering process.
      I could point out the NT’s problems to it for fifty quid

  40. Low blood pressure? Never fear, Bleau is here with a couple snippets from today’s Telegaffe!

    – Boris says the Tier regulations “have a sunset of Feb 3” [although he doesn’t seem to specify the year] Cost of Tier system estimated at £900 million per day!
    – A company that employed private investigators to probe the conduct of British troops in Iraq has been awarded contracts to recruit Covid marshals.
    – British travellers who have been inoculated against coronavirus [sic] could have their passports stamped!
    – Students want to ban the word “black”
    – TfL urged to review railway stations’ names over “offensive” associations with slavery!

    – GCSE’s and A levels to be marked “more generously”.

    How’s that – veins throbbing nicely again??

    2. But , but , but , they can’t do that , can they?

      How do we stop all of that nonsense?

      I have had my breakfast , probiotic crunchy cereal and a couple of freshly chopped apricots..

      1. 326933+ up ticks,
        Morning TB,
        They can only operate with peoples consent via the polling booth, does that help ?

  42. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb1dc494ca419596dbae53c88a5303dbe5b38e04324be60dd54be7db8e212b3d.png Everything you have said in your letter about Eccles cakes is true, Lynette; a properly made one is, indeed, a tastier delicacy than a mince pie.

    You are also spot-on in stating that an Eccles cake is filled with currants. Pity that the letters’ editor decided to show a photograph of some clueless muppet filling theirs with raisins!

    Oh, by the way. The recipe for Eccles cakes made by Marcus Wareing (a Lancashire man), when he prepared an English afternoon tea for HM the Queen, is far superior to the one provided by Delia Smith.

          1. I once commented on the Masterchef Facebook page that Marcus’s hair piece looked as if it had slipped and he need stronger glue. I also said that William Sitwell should try brushing his hair before going in front of the cameras.

            I’m glad to see they both took my advice. 🙂

    2. My grandfather was the rector for the church at Eccles, on the coast of Norfolk, Unlikely they made cakes though, since the village was swallowed up by the sea and all that was left of the church was the top of the steeple pointing out out of the beach.

      1. Morning, Philip.

        On your recommendation I watched last weeks’ Masterchef: the Professonals on BBC iPlayer last night and I thoroughly enjoyed it. That Luke dude (from Sheffield in Yorkshire, not Derbyshire) was impressive as was the bloke who impressed fat Rayner and that haggard-looking woman. To be fair, all four contestants were good but they judges made the correct choice.

        Get a bottle of Henderson’s Relish if you can. It is surprisingly good for a product that contains no fermented anchovies.

        1. Good morning.

          I realised my mistake when i watched that episode for the second time. My local Sainsbury’s sell Henderson’s so i will include it in my next shop.

      1. Apparently, that was the funniest thing since Jesus skidded on a banana skin. Don’t see it, myself.

      2. Bluebottle: Little does he know that I am as clever as the next fellow.

        Eccles [Aside]: Little does he know that I am the next fellow.

      3. Bluebottle: Little does he know that I am as clever as the next fellow.

        Eccles [Aside]: Little does he know that I am the next fellow.

    6. I like Eccles cake and chose that for a dessert at a rather nice restaurant just across the border in Suffolk. This much modernised hotel/restaurant was our local when we were first married. The novel idea of the dessert was the choice of a serving of cheese to accompany the cake. Being a blue cheese lover I chose the Cambridge Blue Baby and it worked so well; the slightly salty/acidic cheese offset the rich sweetness of the cake perfectly. As I was the driver I couldn’t indulge myself with a glass of tawny Port which I think would have gone down very well with the dessert.

      1. That sounds delicious, I will make that at Christmas for our DiL and ourselves. DiL is allergic to many of the Christmas ingredients but not to currants. She does indeed have a problem as she carries an epipen with her. She will love the addition of the accompanying cheese.

        1. Cambridge Baby Blue – made in Lancs IIRC – is very nice but if you are able to find Suffolk Blue or Binham Blue (Norfolk) they are equally delicious.

  44. Prof Fergusen – I think Boris thought I said that we must depubulate the country to save the planet

          1. Particularly country pubs where you had to travel to reach them. No public (sorry!) transport and the drink-drive laws made life very difficult.

    1. 326933+ up ticks,
      O2O,

      🎵
      They’re Coming to Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
      we won’t be laughing then Og.

    1. My mate had that problem some years ago, bringing his Malay wife to the UK. The hoops to jump through, you wouldn’t believe – despite his position as a very senior engineer in a major engineering company, with commensurate salary, all kinds of obstacles were put in his way, including losing his passport for him.

  48. Under new management: is Carrie Symonds the real power at No 10? 29 November 2020.

    Symonds’s influence over policy decisions is clearly sometimes overstated, either by those who underestimate the role played by elected MPs lobbying for change, or by those seeking someone to blame for Johnson’s apparent reversion to his socially liberal roots as he looks beyond Brexit. “He’s a one-nation Tory really. The idea that he’s done something on the environment now just because Carrie told him to – it’s ridiculous,” says one MP close to her. “She’s bright, she’s kind, and I suspect she’s deeply hurt by this.”

    Well she got rid of two of the most powerful and influential figures at No10 so she’s clearly not just washing the pots!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/29/carrie-symonds-profile-boris-johnson-fiancee-dominic-cummings

    1. She is also a hypocrite. She claims to be a Catholic (having her son Wilfred baptised) while living in an adulterous relationship with Boris Johnson.

      1. “Qui autem adulter est propter cordis inopiam perdet animam suam”
        — Prov. 6:32

        (Notate bene, Boris)

      1. It was not a nice episode, but some of my work colleagues were of the opinion that they’d done Derby a favour by reducing the number of wasters reaching breeding age.

        2. It was an appalling case, but reading about the whole family, the louche, sex obsessed atmosphere would sadly have only produced another generation of the same low lifes.
          The parents, and the adults in their social group, really were the scum of the earth. Those children never stood a chance of leading a decent productive life.

          1. Some of the politicos tweet at such a rate they would never sleep or get anything done, and they certainly have no interest in any contrary views. Its a method of getting out their views. However, my lowly butcher’s boy of an MP in South Wales did use to to respond to me, him being a leftie narked by my extremist, off the scale views. Also some police responded! Having been banned, for reminding a slammer (MBE) of the views of her god, I thought it best to stay off the platform for arguing. I can still see links but can not respond.

          2. Banned or suspended? I was suspended from April to September but am back there now. I did join Parler, but it’s very clunky.

          3. Suspended, until I complied with some request of theirs. I thought It best if I just let it be, and have not regretted it.

          4. I was unable to comply with their request to send a code to my phone, as I didn’t have one at the time. Later, after I’d replaced it, they still took months to reinstate my account.
            Edit: – not moths!

          5. I was unable to comply with their request to send a code to my phone, as I didn’t have one at the time. Later, after I’d replaced it, they still took months to reinstate my account.
            Edit: – not moths!

      2. The quid pro quo when they abolished the death penalty was that life in prison would mean the rest of the culprit’s life in prison.

        Is there a single example that anyone can think of of the state actually keeping its promises?

        3. At the 100% level, no.

          What happens is that a few cases, be they legal, medical, deportations, the ratcheting Of EEC to EU etc do “go the distance” but those that do become fewer and further between until eventually they either go into abeyance altogether or are diminished to the point of being worthless.

          4. 326933+ up ticks,
            Evening GG,
            “Great Mother” Orchestrated homicide via polling booth & gullible ovis year after year, a political whittling job.

        5. The quid pro quo when they abolished the death penalty was that murderers could expect to have a life of warmth, shelter, food, exercise, education, entertainment, varied interests and a life-of-Riley all at the expense of the taxpayer to the tune of millions of pounds per year.

          1. Curiously, there is no record of that promise ever being made in Parliament, according to Hansard. Whether a Minister did so outside Parliament is another matter, but we know they cannot be trusted to keep their word.

          3. Thanks for that, Walter.

            I actually know Peter Joyce QC. He acted for me in a case, many moons ago, well before he took silk. He was recommended by my solicitor who advised me, “Peter Joyce will be a QC one day, I cannot recommend him more.” He is a formidable legal brain.

  50. Indonesian volcano erupts forcing thousands to flee as ash and smoke spew four kilometres into sky. 29 November 2020.

    Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes in Indonesia after an erupting volcano sent ash and smoke four kilometres into the sky.

    Officals said activity from Mount Ile Lewotolok volcano had left 2,780 people from 26 villages seeking refuge.

    The volcano is situated in Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province, about 1,600 miles east of Indonesia’s capital of Jakarta.

    I was only just thinking this morning that on the principle that when things are really dreadful they can only get worse, that all we need is a supervolcanic eruption or a megaearthquake to cap it all off. The ideal place would be under Tokyo since this would trigger world economic collapse all on its own. We must keep our eyes open and our larders full!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/indonesia-volcano-eruption-lewotolok-b1763506.html

  52. Ahahahahaha

    In a most delicious irony this is #UKWindWeek

    “Sat under an anticyclone, Britain’s contribution from wind power

    since yesterday has been less than 1GW, around 2% of the total

    electricity generated. This situation is expected to last a few more

    days yet.

    As ever, it is fossil fuels which have come to the rescue, with gas

    currently supplying 60% of the nation’s power, and even coal, which has

    been fired up to give 7%.

    Indeed, in the last day we have had more power from coal than from wind.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/11/29/coal-outperforms-wind-power-during-uk-wind-week/
    You couldn’t make it up could you?? Still that never stopped them before……………..

    1. Pathetic.
      The City of Munich gets 3% of its power from turbines on the river and even that is more than the 2%!

    2. Even Ontario is running 18% wind and solar combined at the moment, Nuclear and hydro generation being the largest contributor.

      Not sure about the value of solar at only 1.6% even though the sun is shining brightly at the moment.

  53. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-i-can-no-longer-police-the-coronavirus-restrictions

    “Why I can no longer police the coronavirus restrictions

    Earlier this month I resigned as a Special Constable, after serving for ten years as a volunteer officer in three different police forces. Policing has been an important part of my life for a long time, and I will miss serving my community and working with extremely dedicated, brave, and caring officers. But I have long been disturbed by decisions made by the government during the coronavirus crisis, and have decided that I can no longer in good conscience play any part in enforcing the restrictions.

    I have had concerns about the government’s coronavirus policies since the first lockdown. While I have volunteered as a Special Constable, my full-time job is as a scientific researcher, and I have long felt that lockdowns may cause more global harm than the virus.

    But I am also worried about the impact that the government’s coronavirus restrictions are having on the police tasked with enforcing these regulations. I want to be very clear that the police, and in particular my previous force, are doing their best in incredibly difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, they are being instructed by the government to take a heavy handed and punitive approach to public health – based primarily on leveraging huge fines for non-compliance – that may ultimately damage public confidence in the police.

    Since the beginning of the UK epidemic, the government has introduced a number of new measures and restrictions which it has claimed are highly certain to be effective. Over time though, it has become clear that there is not only debate amongst experts about the effectiveness of such measures, but about their wide-ranging harms. I believe that lockdowns are at best unnecessary, and at worst (and now increasingly likely) more damaging to long-term public health than the coronavirus. Eventually, as the public are slowly exposed to such counterarguments, the government runs the serious risk of undermining public confidence. This of course does not just reflect poorly on government – it is also damaging to the work of the police tasked with enforcing the restrictions, posing the very real risk of social unrest.

    Many people who support the restrictions will argue that they are protecting the most vulnerable in society. But they forget the damage the restrictions are causing. Vulnerable people have been left behind – in March and April, thousands of patients were turfed out of hospitals without a Covid test. Too many died, in extreme pain, with some care homes unable to provide higher doses of pain killers at the end of life. Excess deaths due to dementia are also currently above the five-year average. Many care home residents have not seen their relatives for nine months, and any ‘visits’ have been by video call, or through a window, with masks obscuring communication. At the other end of the lifespan, children’s social and emotional development, health, and education have all been put at risk. The restrictions are having a disproportionate effect on disabled people; increasing anxiety and loneliness, and impeding access to healthcare. Autistic people, and people with learning disabilities, have been largely excluded by the constantly changing government guidance, leaving many confused and isolated. As this cartoon by Bob Moran shows, love should not be a crime:

    It has been left to the police to manage these restrictions that are causing so much misery. During the first lockdown, I spent around 30 hours each month in my policing role. I did not enjoy having to stop people enjoying a picnic on a bench in spring, including, nonsensically, when they were all from the same household. There have also been more worrying cases of enforcement – in Manchester, a man received a fine for going to his mate’s for a cup of tea, and there have been increasing curbs on the right to protest. This shows how easily the current measures can lead to a creeping authoritarianism.

    The unintended consequences of the regulations must not be ignored. Making the wearing of face coverings law, regardless of one’s view on their effectiveness, has led to some vulnerable people being excluded from society in order to avoid confrontation. Some say that those who are exempt should wear a badge. There are very important moral reasons why we must not force people to wear a symbol to indicate a protected characteristic. We ignore this at our peril.

    I am very aware that I am in a privileged position compared to most officers – I have a full-time job, so resigning will not ‘cost’ me my income or career, as it would for a regular officer. But we should not be forcing any officers to enact these measures. Regulation after confusing regulation will only continue to foster fear, anger, and division. Instead, we should focus on providing people with accurate information on risk and mitigation, as well as working to prevent the physical and mental health impacts of lockdown, remembering the disproportionate impact restrictions are having on the most vulnerable.”

    1. As many of us are banned from the pub, seems like scoffing a load of toast might have the same effect and cheaper. Trouble is that Mrs Pea is unlikely to become any more attractive.

        1. It’s one of those wonderful polls where, whichever way you vote, they can be used against you.
          If you think there is little evidence for either, by voting at all you are implying that there is evidence one way.

          “New poll shows 75% of respondents believe there was …..”

          As opposed to the potential reality:
          “New poll shows 75% of respondents believe there is no evidence of either…..”

    2. Any idea who is behind that survey?
      You may as well just ask an American if they are a Republican or a Democrat.

  56. Tellygaffe article about Cathy Newman’s nemesis. (Strangely, she hasn’t interviewed him again since):

    How did Jordan Peterson become one of the Left’s most maligned figures?
    Liberal young men trying to fit in on ultra-woke campuses are flocking to him, much to the chagrin of those who want to shut him down

    ZOE STRIMPEL
    29 November 2020 • 9:00am

    My first encounter with the straight-talking Canadian superstar psychologist Jordan Peterson was in the Mumbai airport domestic terminal a couple of years ago, where his books were stacked high. I opened the bestselling 12 Rules for Life – whose sequel Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life was announced last week – and read a few pages.

    I wasn’t impressed. It seemed conservative and obvious at the same time, and I couldn’t stomach the comparison of human mating rituals along sex-based lines to those of lobsters.

    But since then I have come to regard Peterson as an interesting figure – as several unlikely friends have privately agreed.

    He’s hardly a first-rate thinker, but you can’t deny his powerful appeal which unites an enormous audience – largely men and boys – across the political and emotional spectrum, in a way that deserves respect and interest.

    Peterson has caused controversy for his views on identity politics, but he fills a chronic ideological void, providing an intellectual refuge and place of growth and discovery for many who otherwise have nowhere else to turn. Liberal young American men trying to fit in on ultra-woke college campuses are flocking (in private) to him and other so-called Right-wing thinkers because they offer the only proper refutation of identity politics that these boys have ever encountered. I know a number of young, highly educated and perfectly decent young men here too who are grateful to Peterson for encouraging them to hold their “white” “patriarchal” heads high.

    In critiquing two shibboleths of our time – the sanctity of trans pronouns and the idea of “white privilege” – Peterson has become one of the Left’s most-maligned figures. And when the New Left doesn’t like something, it gets scary and often violent. Last year, a documentary, The Rise of Jordan Peterson, resulted in death threats. A pastor who agreed to screen it at his church outside Portland was threatened by local Leftist thugs: “As much as we joke about it, we really don’t want to have to bring out the guillotine to fix society.” Cinemas in Brooklyn and Toronto cancelled showings in fear.

    When Peterson was offered a two-month fellowship at the Cambridge Divinity School last year, the university gave in immediately to the complaints of staff and students who took umbrage with his plain talking on Leftist orthodoxies, and disinvited him. His crime? Critical debate.

    Since the Left-dominated cultural and institutional sphere has only become more intimidating, and more oppressive, Peterson’s sequel to 12 Rules will surely be a bestseller. Never have the champions of free speech and identity politics been needed in bookshops more.

    But even the promise of millions of hard-to-come-by pandemic-era dollar signs isn’t enough to silence the screams of the righteous. The announcement of the book at Penguin Random House in Canada prompted staff to confront management, demanding for it not be published. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

    At a company meeting, some employees reportedly cried “about how Jordan Peterson has affected their lives”. I can well imagine that for these types any dose of reality about the harmful bunk peddled by generation woke is tear-inducingly painful.

    Peterson has been admirably clear and brave in his condemnation of the ludicrous, scheming idea of white privilege. “The idea of collectively held guilt at the level of individual is dangerous… precisely the kind of danger that people looking for trouble would push,” he says on a YouTube video.

    He’s right. This obsession with collective guilt, regardless of individual action or belief, is having a ruinous effect on society. An almost comically grotesque example surfaced recently when the British Library plonked Ted Hughes on a slavery watch list. The library, despite being one of the nation’s key guardians of our history, has become utterly obsessed with “decolonising” it. Head librarian Liz Jolly made the mind-numbingly stupid – and dangerous – comment: “Racism is the creation of white people.”

    Last week, the library was forced to apologise to Hughes’s widow after linking him to the slave trade through a distant colonialist ancestor called Nicholas Ferrar who died in 1637, a connection that even the library admitted was “tenuous”.

    If only it, and all the many, many institutions, workplaces and brands that think the same way, would realise that this pathological obsession with rooting out all signs of historical moral tarnish and hanging out the “guilty” for public shame is an exercise entirely without meaning – unless you consider the rampant curbing of free speech and thought meaning.

    But they won’t. At least not yet. Which is why, love him or hate him, Jordan Peterson performs a vital service and, to use the lingo of the righteous, is a genuinely important “voice”. Attempts to muzzle him only prove the point – and so does the fact that his book, assuming it is published, will be snapped up by millions.

    1. This is why we are hearing about a growing right wing movement. They are not right wing. They are normal.

      1. On here I have been called a lefty far too many times. I normal society I am castigated for being extremely right wing.

        That shows how far left the middle ground had gone.

      2. The Left do love to label. As with Stalin and Lenin before them they seek to control the language used to attack those they hate.

        1. He who controls the language, controls the narrative. Once you control the narrative, you can shut down contrary opinions.

    1. Fat bastards, hope they have a stroke from all that exertion and find themselves in a Covid ward. Then they might just see what reality is.

    1. Very fond memories of hearing this sitting in the wings immediately before my solo during the run of six Christmas concerts at Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire, a beautiful converted Pugin chapel.

      Alas, this year’s concerts had to be cancelled.

  59. These Stasi thugs are completely out of control

    “Shocked pastor wins an apology after nine police officers stormed

    his church and wrongly threatened him with a fine in a raid Tory MP

    calls ‘the sort of thing that goes on in China’

    Daniel Mateola had to abandon his congregation at a church in Milton Keynes

    Police officers later even turned up on his doorstep to threaten court action

    Pastor ‘is the first religious leader to have faced prosecution under virus laws'”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8997221/Shocked-pastor-wins-apology-nine-police-officers-stormed-church.html

      1. It is sickening – and to me inexplicable – that our police force and politicians favour Muslims over Christians in a constitutionally Christian country such as ours which has an established church.

        The Saudis lock up Christians for being Christians, allow no churches in their land and owning a copy of The Holy Bible is a criminal offence,

        And the politicians, the police and the wokery keep completely silent.

        Would these people still remain silent if Britain behaved towards Islam in the way that Muslims behave towards Christianity in much of the Middle East?

        1. “The Saudis lock up Christians for being Christians”, are you sure about that? Aren’t there thousands of ex-pats working in Saudi any number of whom could be Christian?

          1. Have you ever tried to enter Saudi Arabia carrying a Bible and wearing a crucifix?

            Perhaps you could give me a guide as to the best churches to visit and pray in if I ever go to the country?

          2. The Saudis do not lock up Christians for being Christian. Furthermore, Bibles are allowed if purely for personal use. I was once in prison in Jeddah and there was an Egyptian Christian in my section who had a Bible with him – even in prison!

            A client of my company made an innocent error and we were wrongly implicated. As the senior representative of my company, I was put in the central jail of Jeddah, with people waiting to have their heads chopped off among many others. After two months I was released by Royal Decree. I was probably the only person in Saudi Arabia thereafter who had a letter from the King to say that I had done nothing wrong! I have been dining out on this experience ever since!

          3. Wonderful story. Out of interest (because I have a trip booked to Saudi – we should have been going this week) did you get to the Nabatean sites and the old town in Jeddah?

          4. Yes, I did indeed. I also went to parts of Jeddah where I doubt if a European had ever been! I once went to a Yemeni party in a traditional house, down a winding alley in the very old part of the city. There was some music and singing, a wonderful spread of food and plenty of wine! I happened to know a member of a European Royal Family who was visiting Jeddah at the time. The next day I mentioned my fascinating evening to him. He begged me to arrange for him to be invited to such an evening, without telling anybody who he was!

            But Jeddah has been modernised so much in recent years that it has lost its aura of antiquity. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting city and the locals are welcoming and friendly despite popular myth!

            I hope you get to Jeddah safely and enjoy the experience!

          5. Yes, I did indeed. I also went to parts of Jeddah where I doubt if a European had ever been! I once went to a Yemeni party in a traditional house, down a winding alley in the very old part of the city. There was some music and singing, a wonderful spread of food and plenty of wine! I happened to know a member of a European Royal Family who was visiting Jeddah at the time. The next day I mentioned my fascinating evening to him. He begged me to arrange for him to be invited to such an evening, without telling anybody who he was!

            But Jeddah has been modernised so much in recent years that it has lost its aura of antiquity. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting city and the locals are welcoming and friendly despite popular myth!

            I hope you get to Jeddah safely and enjoy the experience!

          6. Yes, I did indeed. I also went to parts of Jeddah where I doubt if a European had ever been! I once went to a Yemeni party in a traditional house, down a winding alley in the very old part of the city. There was some music and singing, a wonderful spread of food and plenty of wine! I happened to know a member of a European Royal Family who was visiting Jeddah at the time. The next day I mentioned my fascinating evening to him. He begged me to arrange for him to be invited to such an evening, without telling anybody who he was!

            But Jeddah has been modernised so much in recent years that it has lost its aura of antiquity. Nevertheless, it is a very interesting city and the locals are welcoming and friendly despite popular myth!

            I hope you get to Jeddah safely and enjoy the experience!

          7. Thank you, it sounds like you had several great experiences there. We did think long and hard about going to Saudi because of the link to militant Islam, but ultimately, perhaps selfishly, it sounds intriguing. I find the rest of the ME fascinating and have enjoyed trips there and I’m quite a ME history buff – currently reading about Captain Shakespear.

          8. Have you ever tried to enter Saudi Arabia carrying a Bible and wearing a crucifix?

            Perhaps you could give me a guide as to the best churches to visit and pray in if I ever go to the country?

          9. I’ve never been to Saudi, however I have been to most other ME countries and many of them have lots of Christian churches. In respect of Saudi, I understand there to be some wonderful pre-Islamic sites to visit. None of that justifies the Saudi’s attitude towards other religions, however you routinely take a simplistic approach to a complex subject by ignoring the myriad of differences between Muslims countries and Muslim sects. Your post above is a good example of this, not least because as another has pointed out, it is factually incorrect.

          10. I have not been to Saudi but I spent a couple of years as a child in Libya and we keep our boat in Turkey where we have some very good Muslim friends.

            I admit that I am no expert on the matter but this extract form wiki is interesting:

            Saudi Arabia allows Catholics and Christians of other denominations to enter the country as foreign workers for temporary work, but does not allow them to practise their faith openly. As a result, Catholics and Christians of other denominations generally only worship in secret within private homes.[1] Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited.[2] These include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols, and others, although the government’s stated policy was that such items were allowed for private religious purposes.

            The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam.[3] Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy, which, along with proselytising by non-Muslims, is prohibited, and can lead to the death penalty. The government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country for the purpose of conducting religious services.[4]

          11. I have not been to Saudi but I spent a couple of years as a child in Libya and we keep our boat in Turkey where we have some very good Muslim friends.

            I admit that I am no expert on the matter but this extract form wiki is interesting:

            Saudi Arabia allows Catholics and Christians of other denominations to enter the country as foreign workers for temporary work, but does not allow them to practise their faith openly. As a result, Catholics and Christians of other denominations generally only worship in secret within private homes.[1] Items and articles belonging to religions other than Islam are prohibited.[2] These include Bibles, crucifixes, statues, carvings, items with religious symbols, and others, although the government’s stated policy was that such items were allowed for private religious purposes.

            The Saudi Arabian Mutaween (Arabic: مطوعين), or Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice prohibits the practice of any religion other than Islam.[3] Conversion of a Muslim to another religion is considered apostasy, which, along with proselytising by non-Muslims, is prohibited, and can lead to the death penalty. The government does not permit non-Muslim clergy to enter the country for the purpose of conducting religious services.[4]

          12. Yes, I’m familiar with Saudi intolerance and I’m equally familiar with Turkish secularism, the Omani version of Islam, the Syrian version, the Lebanese Shia version and so on – there’s no one Islamic view. I have also visited Libya (where I can across nothing but welcoming locals, although the man who made a pass at me in a Haman was perhaps too friendly).

          13. My father worked in Libya in the early 1950’s. When we returned one of our servants returned to live with us in Cornwall where he was, in effect, my nanny.

            He was very much loved by the family and in the village he was most popular. He greatly enjoyed his time in England and my parents made sure he learnt to read and write properly by arranging lessons. The fact that my father had passed out top in the Civil Service Exams in Arabic the year he joined the Sudan Political Service also helped.

            When he returned to Libya our family kept in touch with El Hardi for many years and sent him presents, cards and letters at Christmas.

          14. My father worked in Libya in the early 1950’s. When we returned one of our servants returned to live with us in Cornwall where he was, in effect, my nanny.

            He was very much loved by the family and in the village he was most popular. He greatly enjoyed his time in England and my parents made sure he learnt to read and write properly by arranging lessons. The fact that my father had passed out top in the Civil Service Exams in Arabic the year he joined the Sudan Political Service also helped.

            When he returned to Libya our family kept in touch with El Hardi for many years and sent him presents, cards and letters at Christmas.

      1. They are ratcheting up spanungsbogen to justify the taking of more of our freedoms when people stop listening to them.

      1. have you ever sat back and wondered how big the soros Christmas card list must be? He appears to know and control everyone.

        It is not just Britain that billionaires rule, politicians the world over are effectively controlled by the billionaire class industrial tycoons.

        1. A head man makes decisions for the good of the tribe.
          The tribe becomes successful and becomes too big to manage.
          A council is formed to make decisions for a larger group.
          Other groups form and a government is required.
          Those groups become too large to handle and so associations of governments are formed because
          they require funding these larger groups then morph into corporate groups.

          Or something like that.

          Corporatism in the technological age was always going to rule. Like a natural force it is unstoppable.

  61. I am signing off – after this grey, damp, miserable day – enlivened by a trip to B&Q – and by hanging 8 pictures. Many more remain – but have to go on solid walls – which means drilling – and more swearing. Tomorrow, perhaps….(since I will be going to the NNUH to sell them some blood in the afternoon!)

    Gus and Pickles are “helping” the MR with her crossword. They really have grown in the five weeks they have been here. More than doubled in weight. Now have free run of the house…..(their decision…). Such wonderful bundles of joy.

    This is they – the MR prefers to remain anonymous!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f478e8fe4195a011a16656c095f38d1213e369df283efd574651619032e2b8d3.jpg

    A demain.

    3. Bill , I cannot believe five weeks have flown so quickly , it seems only five minutes ago since you introduced your new kittens .

      I have enjoyed following their progress , and am delighted they have brought you both so much joy and amusement .

      1. You remind me of a small joke.

        A guy walks into a bar with a paper bag. He sits down and places the bag on the counter.

        The bartender walks up and asks what’s in the bag.

        The man reaches into the bag and pulls out a little man, about 9 inches high and sets him on the counter. He reaches back into the bag and pulls out a small piano, setting it on the counter as well.

        He reaches into the bag once again and pulls out a tiny piano bench, which he places in front of the piano.

        The little man sits down at the piano, and starts playing a beautiful piece by Mozart!

        ‘Where on earth did you get that?’ says the bartender.

        The man responds by reaching into the paper bag.

        This time he pulls out a magic lamp. He hands it to the bartender and says: ‘Here, rub it.’

        So the bartender rubs the lamp, and suddenly there’s a gust of smoke and a beautiful genie is standing before him.

        ‘I will grant you one wish. Just one wish… each person is only allowed one!’

        The bartender gets really excited. Without hesitating he says, ‘I want a million bucks!’

        A few moments later, a duck walks into the bar. It is soon followed by another duck, then another.

        Pretty soon, the entire bar is filled with ducks and they just keep coming, duck after duck after duck!

        The bartender turns to the man and says, ‘Y’know, I think your Genie’s’ a little deaf. I asked for a million bucks, not a million ducks.’

        ‘No shit!!’ says the man, ‘do you really think I asked for a 9 inch pianist?’

        2. I’ve always liked that one.
          A rewriting of the Midas story.

          I’ve often thought that the correct response to: “You only have one wish” should be:
          “My wish is to have as many wishes as I want”.

  66. A polite question, why is it acceptable for one poster to repeatedly reply to people, who have replied to a comment of mine, with the abbreviation ‘DNFTT’? This is a forum for debate, so surely debate is to be encouraged, not discouraged.

        1. My view is that if someone makes a statement which is proven to be incorrect then they should concede the point. As i saw you do earlier.

          1. Omniscience is hard to maintain!

            When we were bringing up our children we tried to teach them the difference between the attributes of a God who is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.

            With reference to omnipresence our son, Christo, said: “I don’t think God can be very well organised if he is all over the place!”

      1. Sometimes maybe, not this time though. The individual does it periodically. I’m flagging it for the Mods to deal with because it represents targeted harassment in my view.

          1. Thank you Johnny, as, sadly, I assumed, you’d approve of the targeted harassment. Bet you’re glad you declined the bet on the US election!

          3. Perhaps Phizzee, but talking of ‘self-awareness’ I was stunned to read some posts a couple of days ago where a regular here blamed his previous leaving in a huff on ‘trolls’ ignoring the fact that he’d received an overnight ban for posting a picture of a lynching and had been roundly criticised for doing so! Now that is someone who lacks self-awareness!

          4. Post earlier.

            Also, the evening Mod is in a different timezone and won’t necessarily be aware of the tensions that gave rise to said post. Someone posting a meme of a black man hanging from a tree is in extremely bad taste. But that is all it is.

            I now tend to leave the site earlier because i am also one of those who will and has been banned for being offensive.

            Spanungsbogen.

        2. This continual denigration is annoying but for real harassment, try this comment that was made to m eseveral weeks ago:

          Do not try to denigrate me personally or any other posters on here who have seen through the corruption. We could eat you alive if you wish to pursue that path. This is not a threat but a promise.

          2. Pinch of salt. Cori has been under the lash recently. Not that i would agree with such a comment.

          4. He says no but i am concerned. He is articulate, well educated and intelligent. His posts other than those are informative.

          5. In all seriousness, I also suspect something isn’t right as well. His posts about architecture are interesting, but some of the late night posts are extraordinarily bitter and angry.

          6. The change in personality looks like (I cannot tell for sure, as I’m not in his house) the effects of alcohol.

          7. Corimmobile has stated several times that he is not a heavy drinker.

            He has considerable expertise across a few areas and does not take kindly to people contradicting him over things he knows a lot about, particularly when there is no evidence that the person sparring has specific relevant qualifications and experience.

            He is certainly very robust in his opinions, but that isn’t unique on Nottle.

          8. It confuses me that he is civil and knowledgeable until mid-evening, when the claws come out and the accusations fly.
            I respect his opinions on architecture, as one much more knowledgeable than I am, but the sudden bursts of nastiness make me avoid him.

          11. We all have other things going on in our lives which can make things difficult. Not least what the government is doing to everyone. I am not making excuses for poor behaviour but sometimes it is difficult to see clearly.

            Which is why i am signing off now before i put my evil troll hat on. 🙂

          13. There have been similar comments to others. I have been told that I am “full of hate” – though, in fact, to waste energy in hating such a person would be ridiculous… I have real things to worry about.

  67. English NHS still short of more than 36,000 nurses
    26 NOVEMBER, 2020 BY MEGAN FORD

    The number of nurse vacancies in the NHS in England “remains stubbornly high”, the Royal College of Nursing has warned, as latest figures reveal more than 36,000 registered nurse gaps.

    I cannot access the rest of the article , but I saw another article where the NHS was trying to encourage nurses from India over here.

    We should be training our own, but most modern girls don’t want to ruin their long nails, make patients comfortable and do the tacky things that women with strong stomachs can cope with. Men make excellent nurses , in the RN they used to be know as Sick berth attendants, and then laterly Medical assistants , and they were even capable of doing small operations on board warships and submarines in my day.

    https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/workforce/english-nhs-still-short-of-more-than-36000-nurses-26-11-2020/

    1. That’s the reason the Nightingales are not operational – not enough staff – and quite a lot are off at any one time as they are ordered to isolate if they’ve come into contact with someone who tested positive.

      1. In our area of Dorset , I have heard that our County hospital has great difficulty recruiting doctors and nurses.

        House prices are higher than normal , cost of living may be a bit higher than in conurbations .

        Nurses from Spain and Poland have been recruited , but sadly Brexit has been so uncertain and inflexible re people staying in the country, that I am not surprised there are problems with recruiting staff.

    2. This is an over exaggerated issue. It can be sensible to keep flex in a system by not filling all vacant positions with permanent staff and instead filling vacancies with temporary bank or even agency staff. 36,000 might not be the right number of positions to keep free, but it isn’t zero either.

        1. Which is why the answer is hospital ‘bank’ staff first and foremost. Agency staff are the last resort.

    3. I would imagine many potential nurses are put off by the debt created by nursing becoming a degree subject.
      The pay may night have been brilliant, but at least after the 3 years we were not £30,000 in debt.

    4. Time to abandon the degree requirements and revert to on the job training. Once through initial training and they want to specialise give them day release. Some my just want to continue with general nursing. Allow healthcare assistants to be trained as nurses.

      They tried to mend the old system that wasn’t broken.

  68. 326933+ up ticks,
    This surely points out that the current governance group is an eu fund raiser, the remaining UK workers must consider
    compulsory 7 X 12 hour shifts.

    breitbart,
    Shakedown: Boris Govt to Pay France £28m to Start Stopping More Boat Migrants.

      1. 326933+ up ticks,
        Evening N,
        I would like to know what lab/lib/con coalition politico’s
        have the hair shirt franchise they must be making a mint.

      1. 326933+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        The eu needs funds, an appeasing way of saying sorry for the 24/6/2016

    3. We paid them before. They don’t keep to their side of the agreement. They never did. The French are totally untrustworthy .

      1. 326933+ up ticks,
        Evening HL,
        I do agree, by the same token none, neither French / English are trustworthy in regards to the
        English Channel issue.
        AKA by many “the invasion”

  69. A bit passé now but, to follow Grizzly’s practice, here is a letter I sent to the DT when I read the account of the Eton master being sacked:

    Sir,

    I have taken the Daily Telegraph as my daily newspaper paper for the last 55 years and in that time many of my letters have been published. Now that I am resident in France I subscribe to the on-line version of the paper and I very much welcome the opportunity this gives for readers to air their views.

    As a former English teacher in a public school myself I was interested to read that an English teacher at Eton has been dismissed for his attempts to encourage freedom of speech and thought amongst his pupils. I was saddened to see that the Daily Telegraph did not want its readers to express their views on this matter and so did not offer the comments facilty underneath the story.

    Richard Tracey

    People who follow my views on this site will know that I have been arguing for some time for all those planning to go to university to be obliged to study objective and rational thought for something like the old General Paper which students of my generation had to take along with The Use of English Paper

  72. ‘I was born British, and this is my island’: Broadcaster NEIL OLIVER says politicians are ‘temporary tenants’ of this 300-year-old Union of nations… and no referendum will have ‘any effect on where I belong’. 29 November 2020.

    I don’t base my decision on politics or economics or even history. I make my choices based on the responsibility I feel for people – alive now and yet to be born.

    I love Britain more than anywhere else in the world. With all my heart I declare that those of us born here, or who have made a home here by choice, are the luckiest, most blessed of all people.

    I am British. I will always be British.

    No more BBC for you Oliver my lad!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8998215/Broadcaster-NEIL-OLIVER-says-politicians-temporary-tenants-Union-nations.html

      3. The Elite don’t want to get back.

        Look at Communist Russia, the German Democratic republic, North Korea.

        All are the same. The Elite don’t want to get back.

  73. These are accumulating today so I’ll just drop off a batch,all fresh picked daily
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d2f485b354588c08c17e42473037adfcaa6f41a220d1f3b2a7f518e31e340e8.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/61b12e9789630764ad70fc06aee83acbbf3fc862fbb79555893979411a5d242b.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f07f6905df4381f780c3f3e90a8c7ffe4dec66d0faa455beb495f4865381bcb4.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/db43bb5ce75d40cd311d1730f3a021d92bb6013a1c701e1642b39b323a575116.png
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d935dcd3661d1b24254d8200a18e9acaa79e58aee482aaa4da2057767a1f556d.jpg

  74. Advent Sunday Choral Evensong spoilt by Janet and John Bible. Why ruin language that has stood the test of time?

    1. Yet another thing that endears me to St Barts, Bill. All readings from the Authorised Version.

    2. …and the Janet and John Lord’s prayer. It was deliberately taught as, “Our Father, WHICH are in heaven…” because to refer to Him as WHO is to bring Him, in whose image we are made, down to being mankind, which He certainly is not.

    3. If I want to go to services (I won’t because I’m not wearing a mask and ending up wheezing like an asthmatic) now they have restarted, I have to book a seat and places are limited! I was just thinking this afternoon that there is little point in going to Church at the moment – no carol singing, everything at arms length and people masked up, not to mention no communion wine – I could stay at home, watch a service on YouTube and drink my own wine.

  76. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-i-can-no-longer-police-the-coronavirus-restrictions

    “Why I can no longer police the coronavirus restrictions

    Earlier this month I resigned as a Special Constable, after serving for ten years as a volunteer officer in three different police forces. Policing has been an important part of my life for a long time, and I will miss serving my community and working with extremely dedicated, brave, and caring officers. But I have long been disturbed by decisions made by the government during the coronavirus crisis, and have decided that I can no longer in good conscience play any part in enforcing the restrictions.

    I have had concerns about the government’s coronavirus policies since the first lockdown. While I have volunteered as a Special Constable, my full-time job is as a scientific researcher, and I have long felt that lockdowns may cause more global harm than the virus.

    But I am also worried about the impact that the government’s coronavirus restrictions are having on the police tasked with enforcing these regulations. I want to be very clear that the police, and in particular my previous force, are doing their best in incredibly difficult circumstances. Unfortunately, they are being instructed by the government to take a heavy handed and punitive approach to public health – based primarily on leveraging huge fines for non-compliance – that may ultimately damage public confidence in the police.

    Since the beginning of the UK epidemic, the government has introduced a number of new measures and restrictions which it has claimed are highly certain to be effective. Over time though, it has become clear that there is not only debate amongst experts about the effectiveness of such measures, but about their wide-ranging harms. I believe that lockdowns are at best unnecessary, and at worst (and now increasingly likely) more damaging to long-term public health than the coronavirus. Eventually, as the public are slowly exposed to such counterarguments, the government runs the serious risk of undermining public confidence. This of course does not just reflect poorly on government – it is also damaging to the work of the police tasked with enforcing the restrictions, posing the very real risk of social unrest.

    Many people who support the restrictions will argue that they are protecting the most vulnerable in society. But they forget the damage the restrictions are causing. Vulnerable people have been left behind – in March and April, thousands of patients were turfed out of hospitals without a Covid test. Too many died, in extreme pain, with some care homes unable to provide higher doses of pain killers at the end of life. Excess deaths due to dementia are also currently above the five-year average. Many care home residents have not seen their relatives for nine months, and any ‘visits’ have been by video call, or through a window, with masks obscuring communication. At the other end of the lifespan, children’s social and emotional development, health, and education have all been put at risk. The restrictions are having a disproportionate effect on disabled people; increasing anxiety and loneliness, and impeding access to healthcare. Autistic people, and people with learning disabilities, have been largely excluded by the constantly changing government guidance, leaving many confused and isolated. As this cartoon by Bob Moran shows, love should not be a crime:

    It has been left to the police to manage these restrictions that are causing so much misery. During the first lockdown, I spent around 30 hours each month in my policing role. I did not enjoy having to stop people enjoying a picnic on a bench in spring, including, nonsensically, when they were all from the same household. There have also been more worrying cases of enforcement – in Manchester, a man received a fine for going to his mate’s for a cup of tea, and there have been increasing curbs on the right to protest. This shows how easily the current measures can lead to a creeping authoritarianism.

    The unintended consequences of the regulations must not be ignored. Making the wearing of face coverings law, regardless of one’s view on their effectiveness, has led to some vulnerable people being excluded from society in order to avoid confrontation. Some say that those who are exempt should wear a badge. There are very important moral reasons why we must not force people to wear a symbol to indicate a protected characteristic. We ignore this at our peril.

    I am very aware that I am in a privileged position compared to most officers – I have a full-time job, so resigning will not ‘cost’ me my income or career, as it would for a regular officer. But we should not be forcing any officers to enact these measures. Regulation after confusing regulation will only continue to foster fear, anger, and division. Instead, we should focus on providing people with accurate information on risk and mitigation, as well as working to prevent the physical and mental health impacts of lockdown, remembering the disproportionate impact restrictions are having on the most vulnerable.”

        2. Like when you deleted two of my posts as being a “racially offensive” attack on your favourite US politician, Baroque O’Banana?

          Sad to say, you’re not the only politically-correct moderator – there’s a lot of it about. Why, just a couple of days ago, I had a post on Breitbart deleted for referring to a nigger as a “jungle-bunny”.

          Ochòin! These days, it’s getting so one cannot call a spade, a spade…
          :¬(

          1. If you want to post unnecessarily racist comments, a moderator has every right to delete them.

            There are ways to show strong disapproval of politicians such as Obama whilst remaining civil.

            Your current comment would also be deleted in many communities, inflammatory words only showing ignorance.

          4. You, on the other hand , have been using inflammatory words all day long, with your little pal Cochrane

          5. Not everyone has unconditional belief in the claim that democrats have stolen the US election by outright fraud. Not everyone believes that Gates has invented the non disease covid to further his aim to inject everyone with microcomputer control chips.

            Time to get over it and allow / support discussion without just denigrating others.

          6. You have absolutely no idea what I believe so keep your smart remarks and implications to yourself. It has been unpleasant here today because of you and your sidekick.

          7. So where did I state that you share those views? Views that are frequently made on this site.

          10. Sue has always tended to upvote numerous comments. She did it long before she decided to join in by posting.
            There are plenty of people who upvote because the comment was funny, pertinent, struck a chord at the time or was a good retort.
            I’m one of those, I give upvotes all over the place, even at times on comments where I disagree.
            If it appears like “hail fellow well met” so be it.

          11. Indeed she did for ages, but my point is her lack of self-awareness in complaining about RichardL when she has a track record of upvoting abusive posts about others. Another who needs to remove the plank from her own eye.

          13. An ellipsis has three ‘…’. If you are to be an abusive troll, at least get the punctuation right!

          18. There are times when I agree with her regarding richardl, in the same way that there are times when I disagree with others who I regard as friends on Nottle.

            An individual taking a great delight in stirring up the regulars, as you do, will not endear anyone to them.

          20. Do try not to be a fool.

            Your first post, almost every day, is to try to get a reaction here.

            As the day goes on you continue to try to stir up trouble.

            When the evening arrives you get progressively more abusive.

            Then you wonder why you got banned.

          21. “Do try not to be a fool”…

            “Your first post, almost every day, is to try to get a reaction here”, yes this is quite literally a debating forum.

          22. But you can contribute to a discussion without trying to make people small. You can disagree without trying to make other people look stupid.

            Example: a typical Cochrane reply to that would be “I don’t have to make other people look stupid, they do that for themselves.”

            But at the end of the day, we’re not here to make each other look stupid. I often see what I consider to be logical errors in your posts, but I don’t point them out because I prefer to live and let live.

            Discussion is not about “getting a reaction” when one is older than about twenty years old.

          23. Indeed, but there is a difference between debate and deliberate provocation, which is what you set out to achieve.

          24. “Sadiq Khan didn’t order the statue to be covered up”, my first comment today, clearly provocative!

    1. Dr Roper said: “Hull is already a City of Sanctuary for migrants and refugees and has been at the forefront of supporting them as well as in emancipation movements for many years. We wanted to be the first to do this and we’ve already drawn up a charter, we even got to chose the name.

      “This will make NHS services in Hull a welcoming place for people fleeing violence and persecution, it’s really important. It will provide a template for other areas and NHS organisations to use if they want to go down this road.”

      Dr Roper said he also wanted to use the status to share stories about migrants coming to and settling in Hull.

      The doctor added Abdul, who settled in Hull after fleeing from Eritrea as a refugee for his own safety, was someone whose story fit with the mission of the status.

      Dr Roper said Abdul now works for the Tigers Trust charitable foundation for Hull City FC after volunteering there and getting to know people through football.

      The doctor said: “There’s some really positive stories around the contribution migrants like Abdul have made to Hull, there’s been some real successes. Those are going to become increasingly important.

      “I met Abdul about a year ago and he told me his story, he experienced extreme loneliness when he first arrived in Hull. He went and volunteered at the Tigers Trust and it was through a common love of football that he met new people and he now works there full time.

      “His story stuck in my mind because it incorporated what we wanted to do with the Sanctuary status.”

      The CCG is working on its sanctuary status alongside the Refugee Council and Migration Yorkshire.

      So then , France is a warzone?

      ———————–

      1. I always thought Hull was dire, even back in the ’70s. It looks as though it’s got a lot worse nowadays.

      2. ” Abdul, who settled in Hull after fleeing from Eritrea as a refugee for his own safety, ” – -and the proof is ??? – – He told you A story. He came through what other European countries to head here. WHY ???? Has Abdul got all his family here yet – to also get a free life on the taxpayer ??

        A hospital full of foreigners – they won’t be able to stop laughing !! And what is the translation costs going to be ???

        It honestly would not surprise me if that hospital went up in flames. I am NOT saying it would be right – just understandable.

          1. Of course – how forgetful of me. Everything must be for the immigrant freeloaders. Then when it is – they’ll be living in the same type of ****hole they left.

    2. 326933+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      They pass through safe country after safe country to get to hull, THAT is totally unbelievable.

  81. Goodnight all – time to see to the dinner, eat it, have a glass or two and then watch The Bridge.

    Try not to upset each other.

  82. ‘Turning and turning in the widening gyre
    The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.’

    Sorry, just seemed appropriate the way things are at the moment.

  83. Well I thought we had it bad but guessing not many Americans are looking forward to 2021, Biden, Obama, Kerry, lockdowns, businesses closing, jobs moving back to China, rust belts getting fatter, mandatory vaccinations with a little extra.more wars in the Middle East, loss of freedoms etc, and they are just the good bits, it just goes to show that however bad things get there is always someone worse off than you

  85. ‘Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee6a8b5809f86fb280aef9ade85b1e04b7496e615c4b4cd9b389601aa62c86ac.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fac7abbbb9d5f06c94a7612ea8a62cb8c68d4a4ad08e9dc937311887251cf499.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/316f260357d1e8df95a4563e9e89955b189b71125ba07cd2c80a0753c74e1d7a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9a12eb1cd4fb7c3521decf5832fe2c408968a5c4c28b9a18e4323130707fedb2.gif
    Edit,just got to add this
    https://twitter.com/AussieVal10/status/1332854075902230531

  87. Evening, all. Just about everything the government has done since March, never mind last week, has harmed both the economy and our wellbeing.

Comments are closed.