Thursday 1 April: A BBC repeats channel provides even less motive to pay for a licence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/31/lettersa-bbc-repeats-channel-provides-even-less-motive-pay-licence/

857 thoughts on “Thursday 1 April: A BBC repeats channel provides even less motive to pay for a licence”

    3. Happy Birthday Nottlers,
      I was just a young man when when we started.

      Thanks Geoff, for all your work and time keeping this site going so well and amicably.

    4. When I was one,
      I had just begun.
      When I was two,
      I was nearly new.
      When I was three,
      I was hardly me.
      When I was four,
      I was not much more.
      When I was five,
      I was just alive.

    6. Well done, I don’t suppose you expected it to be quite to successful nor the events that unfolded over those next five years.

    8. Goodness! Really?
      Morning, Geoff, Happy Nottl day, and thanks for all the fish! (-y puns)
      :-D)

    9. Happy Nottleday.
      Thank you Geoff for giving us this every day without fail.

    10. Good morning Geoff ,

      Thank you so much for rescuing common-sense and allowing opinions by spitting in the eye of the Daily Telegraph .
      You managed to shepherd the avatars of the silent few into a safe place , and five years being here is really something to celebrate .

      Happy birthday Nottlers.

    12. 😀 well done Geoff and 🙏 thank you for this site. It’s great to let off steam at all and sundry, it greatly relieves my blood pressure, don’t know about anybody else’s!

    1. I wish that story of the headmaster in London caving in and agreeing not to teach kids about white kings and queens was an April fool joke.

  10. Morning everyone. Happy Birthday NOTTL and many regards to Geoff who daily risks his Life and Freedom for the opportunity for us to have our say!

  11. Batley Grammar School: Blasphemy debate leaves town ‘at crossroads’. 1 April 2021.

    Kim Leadbeater, Jo Cox’s sister and an ambassador of the foundation established in the former MP’s memory, says: “We believe that talking together and respecting difference is the best way forward. It is our hope that nobody wants division and polarisation.

    “In my view the main objective now should be to let the independent investigation take place in order to establish the facts around the situation, to listen to those who were involved and find a peaceful resolution.”

    This article is remarkable for its utter inability to protect Free Speech or the Guy who uttered the unwitting and offending words. It puts the pre-war appeasers to shame. I’m surprised it didn’t crawl out of the word processor and flop onto the site waving its arms in abject surrender! Make no mistake they are going to throw this guy under a bus! It’s significant that it comes from the BBC that fount of Woke and Government propaganda. It is here at Batley that Islam will publicly demonstrate its moral authority over the State and become the de facto Established Religion of the UK, replacing a thousand years of Christianity!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-56590417

      1. Morning Stephen. We will eventually see Welby recanting and joining Islam!

    2. Transpose things a little. The Nazi religionists worship Hitler as a prophet of white supremacy. At a school in Birmingham the children of the adherents of this religion are taught that Hitler was a bad person, a warmonger and a mass murderer. This is a standard part of the curricula in both history and comparative religion. As result the parents, all hard line Nazis ,threaten the life of the teacher, and mob the school gates uttering threats to all involved at the school and also against the country in general including the Prime Minister.
      What would be the reaction of the authorities?

      1. Schools are supposed to know how to deal with bullies. Trouble is, these bullies are the parents, not the children.

        1. Schools are generally in denial about bullying. They have no clue as regards dealing with it. Let me quote an instance.
          A new boy arrives at a local school. The teacher introduces him to the class, “this is little Jimmy. He has come here because he was bullied at his last school”.
          Needless to say a few pairs of eyes lit up and Jimmy’s life was misery thereafter.
          A true story relayed by my children,

    3. 331044+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      ALL the props are being established as in the instruction manual / oath taker, down to halal nosh on the parliamentary canteen menu, there will be no surprise when the dots are joined it is so blatantly obvious.

  12. Good Morning Folks,

    Cloudy start here.
    Pinch and a punch is to be banned according to this mornings papers as it promotes violence, retaliation and racism with the white rabbits defence come back.

  13. Good morning all. Chilly start to a chilly day. Summer came and went. I blame global warming.

    1. MB was watching a programme about Yellowstone Park blowing up.
      In short, we’ll not have to worry about global warming.

    2. Tuesday was the hottest March day since 1968!! More than 50 years ago…………

  14. Novichok poisoning inquest of Dawn Sturgess to probe Russian state involvement. 1 April 2021.

    A coroner overseeing the inquest into the death of Dawn Sturgess from Novichok poisoning has promised a “fearless” probe into whether the Kremlin was responsible for the chemical attack.

    Ms Sturgess died in June 2018 after coming into contact with the nerve agent at the home of her partner Charlie Rowley in Amesbury, near Salisbury.

    It is believed the deadly substance had been brought into the UK by Russian assassins, and discarded after being used to poison former Soviet agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33.

    This expanded inquiry is to smooth over the doubts about the Skripals and by a process of disinformation and sophistry maintain the fiction that Vladimir Putin personally ordered the assassination of both. The Coroner referred to here is a Baroness Hallet, a former High Court Judge who has been brought in to replace the original who was proving unreliable. Her job is to ensure that the inquiry stays on track and finds Russia guilty.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/novichok-poisoning-dawn-sturgess-salisbury-russia-b927056.html

    1. Maybe we’ll get to see the Dawn Sturgess autopsy report.
      To my knowledge it has never seen the light of day.

      1. Morning Harry. Don’t hold your breath.

        It is believed the deadly substance had been brought into the UK by Russian assassins, and discarded after being used to poison former Soviet agent Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33.

        This nonsense is spouted in every mention of Dawn Sturgess and yet the bottle itself was still sealed and could not have been used previously!

        1. As far as i’m aware Novichok is a two part solution which loses its efficacy after a few days.
          Yet this is supposed to have killed her after sitting for a month?

          2. Apparently the scent bottle was found after four months of sitting in an unemptied waste bin in Salisbury town centre.

  16. Morning all

    BBC News……

    SIR – When I saw the headline, “BBC Four to become repeats channel”, I laughed, as the majority of programmes are already repeats.

    As I read on, my amusement turned to anger, since the money the BBC hopes to save is to be spent on “young-appealing programmes”, instead of a few documentaries for the oldest viewership. Having now charged these very people the licence fee, this is the final insult.

    Linda Davis

    Shebbear, Devon

    SIR – I thought the BBC already had a repeats channel in BBC Two. On Sunday, of 24 programmes shown, 20 were repeats.

    Allan J Eyre

    Middlesbrough

    SIR – Many pensioners reintroduced to paying for a TV licence will be less than thrilled to read that the BBC’s way ahead is to focus on youth.

    Michael Nicholson

    Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Devon

    SIR – The BBC should never have been put in the position of having to pay for the over-75s’ TV licences. This was introduced as a Labour con trick. Rather than increasing the state pension for the over-75s, Labour paid for their TV licences. Then the party could always cite the move as an example of how it had helped senior citizens. An increased pension was not so memorable. The fact that council tax rose at twice the rate of the state pension was never discussed.

    The free TV licence obviously only helped those who had a television. Those without one receive no compensatory benefit.

    In 2015, the Conservative government transferred responsibility for that “benefit” to the BBC, initially supplementing its funding (by annually decreasing levels) until 2020, when the BBC had to manage it out of its own resources. In effect, the BBC was put in the position of doing what the government would have liked to do, namely scrap the scheme, but felt it could not without losing votes and face.

    Personally I support the BBC’s actions – the licence fee amounts to about 2 per cent of the state pension. Anyone who finds difficulty in budgeting for that should be eligible for other state aid – which would qualify them for a free TV licence.

    Richard Holroyd

    Cambridge

    SIR – Following on from Lord Botham’s letter (March 30), the BBC is fortunate that the over-75s are of a generation that is basically law-abiding and honourable.

    After wrestling with my conscience for six months, I paid my licence in February, having been faced with a moral dilemma that I suspect will have been shared by many.

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    Should one pay because the law requires it? Or, God forbid, decline to, because the BBC is becoming increasingly marginalised by other sources of entertainment, such as Sky and Netflix? Added to this is its unremitting political agenda, with which not everyone is sympathetic, and is surely not appropriate for a publicly funded national broadcaster.

    Colin Drury

    Dinas Powys, Glamorgan

    SIR – Lord Botham’s comments are apt. If, as reported, some three quarters of a million pensioners are refusing to pay, the BBC has a major public relations problem – a problem needing swift compromise to avoid mass disobedience. Even a fee reduced by 50 per cent for pensioners might assuage a reluctant market.

    Cameron Morice

    Reading, Berkshire

    1. We already have to pay for programmes we already paid for. Britbox is a subscription service and includes programmes made by the BBC which the licence payers paid for over the last many years. (Cake and eat it?)

  17. Sadiq Khan’s largesse

    SIR – You report that the slump in commuting may well result in Sadiq Khan raising new taxes to protect London’s transport network.

    His is the City Hall that has some 550 staff on more than £100,000 a year, train drivers on a basic £60,000 a year for a four-day week, 40,000 free Travelcards worth £160 million in total for family and friends of staff, 800 Greater London Authority staff on an average salary of £60,000 (2017 figure) and an employer (taxpayer) pension contribution of 31 per cent of salary – about seven times more than the private sector. I could go on.

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    Bill Parish

    Bromley, Kent

    SIR – If Mr Khan is going to increase taxes for Londoners to cover the mess he has made of TfL, maybe he should first cut down on the number of virtually empty buses that have been running in London for the past year.

    There do not appear to be many, if any, fewer than there were in pre-Covid times.

    Antony Japhet

    London W9

    SIR – Mr Khan would be better placed to request emergency funding if he had been more sensible. He made a rash promise in order to get elected: freezing TfL fares for four years. This has reduced his ability to raise revenue from the largest source of TfL income.

    He also bragged that “his” Crossrail project was on time and on budget. It’s now three years late and it has gone £4 billion over budget. Moreover, the delay is costing him up to £1 billion in lost revenue, despite taking over part of the income from the GWR operating company for the little bit of the project that has transferred ownership.

    Peter Owen

    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

        1. I would sincerely hope that the ballot papers would at least correct the spelling mistakes on two of the candidates’ names. They are:

          1. Sad Dick Khan, and
          2. Laurence Fox.

          1. 331044+ up ticks,
            Morning NtN,
            I do agree but by the same token hope the quality of the candidate to be of more importance than the spelling.

      2. Win, win for home owners and office blocks outside the M25.
        Not so much white flight as worker flight.

    2. 331044+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      It was surely given over to foreign bodies as an act of
      appeasement at the outset so why not give it full independence NOW.

      A state within a state, it is only hastening the governance parties program slightly.

  18. Morning again

    SIR – An investigation by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services into the events on Clapham Common during the evening of March 13 has found that police acted appropriately and their actions were justified, on the grounds that the risks of transmitting Covid-19 at the vigil “were too great to ignore”.

    However, the report goes on to say that the police “should have adopted a more conciliatory response” amid criticism after the event.

    Let me see if I have this right. The police did nothing wrong; their actions were appropriate and not “heavy handed”. Yet HMICFRS thinks they should apologise.

    Who can we ask to conduct an inspection of HMICFRS to establish when doublespeak became an approved method of communication?

    David Crinnion

    Consett, Co Durham

    1. I did post a link to the executive members of the HMICFRS. Impressive, for placemen in sinecures.

  19. For Bill……

    SIR – I have a major cat problem in my garden. They kill and drive off the birds, foul the grass and instantly dig up carefully prepared seed beds.

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    A dear aunt once had a West Highland terrier. On visiting, this splendid Scottish animal would scoot trespassing cats with alacrity.

    Now my only recourse is enraged shouting, which cats note if it is loud enough. But it is bad for my heart. I gave up hurling missiles, as it has twice been bad for the greenhouse.

    Tom Ridout

    Salisbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – Cat lovers seem totally unaware that some people prefer to have wild birds in their gardens.

    Worse, as we know, cats defecate anywhere other than in their own patch, which can make a neighbour’s garden unusable.

    Since cat ownership will inevitably affect others negatively, cat numbers should be controlled in densely populated areas. It’s extraordinary that pets are free to roam on other people’s property without limitation.

    Chris Lambert

    Tadworth, Surrey

    1. Cats are not pets. They are not covered by any law, unlike dogs. The Law decided some time ago that cats were uncontrollable and that their co-habitees, aka “owners”, could not be held responsible for their predations. However there are various options to discourage cats. These include dogs (very popular although they kill more people each year than cats), chemical stuff that gives off a smell cats do not like, and electronic noise emitters.

      1. We stopped cats digging in our garden by a dense scattering of fertiliser pellets on the surface of the soil. Guess the moggies didn’t like the smell, or the fertiliser singed their paws, or their botties… and the plants grew like fury, too, so win-win!

      2. Visiting my parents when they were alive, I was assailed by a horrible noise which made me clap my hands over my ears. My sister did the same. Turned out they’d bought one of those noise emitters. They couldn’t hear it, and the cats who strolled unconcernedly over their garden either couldn’t hear it or didn’t care. Thanks for reminding me of that; it was quite funny!

    2. Powerful water pistol / super soaker is excellent. Cats hate to be squirted, and the greenhouse doesn’t care.
      We use a plant mister with the nozzle unscrewed so you get a jet of water rather than a spray, to persuade our cats that the dining table and the kitchen worktops are not cat stands, and the scratching post is for that purpose rather than the sofas. Works a treat!

      2. Well, I can see how that would work. Does the water not make your dinner soggy?

        1. Better soggy than furry… if it’s that bad, use white wine – still wet and cat-repellent, and you get the fun of watching the cat lick itself dry and then get drunk!

  21. School children in Pimlico have gone on strike. They are furious – and they’re right. 1 April 2021.

    At a London secondary school, Pimlico Academy in Westminster, pupils went on strike Wednesday. Ostensibly they were protesting their head teacher’s new strict uniform policy banning afro hairstyles which “block the views” of others and colourful hijabs.

    It was quickly all over social media: a peaceful sit-down protest against a policy which was clearly discriminatory. There were reports that a senior member of staff had asked pupils to cancel the action the day, but that the children had refused to attend lessons alongside some of their teachers, who have since then handed in their resignations.

    I think if I did subscribe to the Telegraph I would cancel it on the strength of this fatuous, immature Woke babble alone!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education-and-careers/2021/03/31/school-children-pimlico-have-gone-strike-furious-right/

    1. The ‘immature Woke babble’ prompted me to join the ‘Cancel Culture’ – I cancelled my subscription to the DT

    2. The teachers go to school so that the children can teach them to be woke in today’s Britain, it seems.

      Nobody appears to be criticising the children for being little anti-white racists.

  22. Morning all from sunny Finland.It might only be 2C but the slow thaw continues.The big meadow down in the valley is slowly turning brown but i won’t be convinced until the council guys lift the snow poles.
    Its looking like a late harvest for cereal crops.
    I’m even thinking of changing my Winter tyres!!

      1. I’ve just arranged to change my wheels next week.The roads are clear and it buggers up the studs.

          1. Yep..the 4 not in use live at the local garage.
            When i go next week they will have been steam cleaned and re-balanced.

          3. Chalked on the inside walls.They also number them so they go back on the same corner!

        1. Cheeky!
          You offering to come round with your ladder when it’s a bit warmer?

          5. They snuggle down in their hive and wait until it’s warmer. We put insulation over the hive, but not blocking the entrance or air vents, and they wait it out until the spring. The honey stocks are also replaced by sugar, so the wee buzzers have something to eat over winter.

  24. You have to wonder how prescient that old comedy film from 1949 “Passport to Pimlico” was. I found this pearl at the end of one article about this everyday story of ongoing enrichment:

    “Labour MP David Lammy said it best: “Like so many in Britain’s black community, I’m tired! Tired of the endless debate about whether structural racism exists with little desire to actually address it. We are being gaslighted.”

    It’s hard to disagree.”

    Yes, we are all being gaslighted.

    1. How can you address something that has been shown not to exist? I’m tired about debate about what to do about something that isn’t there. AND I’m not being paid what Lammy is being paid, to say it.

      Mary had a little lammy…

  25. Putin critic Navalny on hunger strike over Russian prison treatment. 1 April 2021

    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has announced a hunger strike at the penal colony where he is held, to demand proper medical treatment.

    He has complained on Instagram of not receiving medical help for back pain and problems with his right leg, as well as being deprived of sleep.

    He’s complained on Instagram? Ye Gods the rigours of the Russian penal system! This toad is there voluntarily! He could have stayed in Germany and mooched on his Mi6 payoff.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56595560

    1. Come on Vlad..do a Maggie.
      Remember Bobby Sands?
      Call his bluff..its a win-win situation.

    2. Correction:the Russian opposition leader is Ivan Melnikov,of the Russian Communist Party.

    3. I’m sure that he will receive medical attention far more quickly than an average UK citizen calling his GP.

      2. You can’t call your GP – only the receptionist – after 30 minutes’ wait.

        1. Technically, you are quite correct. At our GP practice the gatekeeper will take your phone number, if they are not too busy “doing triage*” and the actual doctor will call you back.
          I don’t know what they are actually doing but recent call was fobbed off with that excuse and I was asked to call back the next day.

      1. Looks like she’s saying “Look at what I just hauled out of my nose!”

  27. For the past four years, Democrats and the Washington media have suspended disbelief about the Steele dossier’s credibility by arguing that some Russia allegations against Donald Trump and his advisers have been corroborated and therefore the most explosive charges may also be true. But recently declassified secret testimony by the FBI official in charge of corroborating the dossier blows up that narrative.

    The top analyst assigned to the FBI’s Russia “collusion” case, codenamed Crossfire Hurricane, admitted under oath that neither he nor his team of half a dozen intelligence analysts could confirm any of the allegations in the dossier — including ones the FBI nonetheless included in several warrant applications as evidence to establish legal grounds to electronically monitor a former Trump adviser for almost a year.”

    Full article here: https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/03/30/meet_the_russiagate_prober_who_couldnt_verify_anything_in_the_steele_dossier_yet_said_nothing_for_years_769667.html

    1. Sergei Skripal who by attempting to return to Russia and expose the Steele Dossier doomed himself to assassination by Mi6!

          1. James Mitchell, also writing as James Munro and Patrick McGuire was an entertaining author.

  29. Morning ladies and ludies,

    I went to an M&S yesterday. I know that they aspire to be of better quality than yer Tescos etc, but there were two staff outside the shop watering the potted plants on sale with bottled water.

  31. After my insomniac doings earlier, a second Good Morning to all from a somewhat cloudy Derbyshire with a somewhat cooler 4°C on the yard thermometer.

    At KenL’s request, I repeat the BTL Comment from earlier:-

    An excellent early BTL Comment this morning:-

    Colin Harrow
    1 Apr 2021 12:34AM
    A report by The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has concluded not only that there’s no evidence of institutionalised or systemic racism in the UK but that Britain is a “model to the world” as far as race relations are concerned.

    This almost certainly comes as no surprise to the vast majority of the UK population who’s views have not been warped by the increasingly strident so-called, “anti-racist” lobby or been hijacked by “Black Lives Matter”, an organisation imported from a country with an historic legacy of slavery to a country that has never experienced it and to which its black population came voluntarily and gladly.

    Of course, as in all societies, there are still pockets of knuckle dragging white supremacists to whom the internet has given an exaggerated voice. Just as it has to extremists of all ideologies including those on the other side of the colour spectrum who promulgate the specious doctrines of “white privilege” and genetic white racism.

    But what used to be known in the 1950’s as “racial prejudice” has fundamentally changed over the years. There may still be a residual wariness towards some communities, but by no means all, with immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and those of Chinese heritage, not only having integrated into the host community but having prospered to the extent where current educational and salary comparisons often put them ahead of whites.

    But where the antipathy still exists it is no longer based on colour, ethnicity or race, but on far more concrete reasons including cultural attitudes, practices and particularly behaviour. Behaviour that not only conflicts with that of the host community but often with other minority ethnic groups within it .

    In fact one might even say now that for the overwhelming majority of the population the only remaining remnant of “racism”, if it can even be described as that, can now justifiably be termed, to coin a new word, as “behaviourism” if an “ism” is required which it usually is these days.

    Not applied to all BAME groups but specifically, and here unfortunately it must be said, to members of, although by no means all, two particular communities, and even one of these can be further divided.

    Firstly there are those who espouse a certain religion and share the culture that envelopes it, and the other mainly from one particular black community, that of Caribbean heritage rather than African. And again, as always it must be stressed, that just as blanket racism was wrong so is blanket behaviourism, and not all members of any community are by any means guilty of it.

    As far as the first community mentioned is concerned behaviourism as defined above can certainly be used to describe what has recently happened to a teacher at Batley Grammar School who legitimately used a cartoon of the religion’s Prophet as an example of blasphemy in an RE lesson and is now in hiding and fearing for his life for doing so.

    Add to this the history of Islamic terrorist attacks in the UK, child sex grooming scandals, honour killings and forced marriages, even down to FGM, wearing Burkhas and other signs of their unwillingness to integrate with the host community among whom they have chosen to live, it is clear that a feeling of alienation from, and even genuine fear of them is based on observable examples of their behaviour rather than irrational xenophobia.

    As for the second group as well as the issue of black on black murder there is also their extensive involvement in gang and drug related activities. ONS statistics published in 2020 showed black murders at a 20 year high in the UK and that in the three years to March 2020 the average homicide rate per million of population was around five time higher for blacks than for whites and almost four times that of other ethnicities.

    In 2018 Sky News published murder figures for London showing that although blacks made up just 13% of the population, 44% of the capital’s murder victims were from the same community as were 48% of murder suspects. The figures for 16 to 24 -year-olds were particularly shocking and sociologists including those of colour, lay much of the blame on the lack of a stable father figure in many black families.

    ONS statistics back this up with 24% of black families being single parent compared to 10% for whites and 8% for Asians. As I’ve mentioned before on these threads much of this has to do with the idea of “baby mothers”, where women are impregnated then abandoned, which seems to be a particularly black Caribbean culture thing with some males regarding numbers left as bizarre status symbols..

    Mentioning this has nothing to do with race but everything to do with behaviour and maybe I’ll now be condemned as a “behaviourist” for saying so, attracting the ire of a whole new lobby group.

    2. “Of course, as in all societies, there are still pockets of knuckle dragging white supremacists….”

      Damn! That’s me ‘sussed-out’.
      :¬(

  32. A “Professor of Black Studies” – [just you dare try “White” studies ?] – was on the radio this morning . . .
    Ranting on, in a most exitable manner, that the report was just a fudge and
    cover up . . . of course, ending Racial Inequalities would mean the
    money for such subjects/issues as “Black studies” just dries up .

  33. Simple . .innit . . .
    No Racial INEQUALITY . . .
    No MONEY for those who claim they are dissadvantaged . .
    Keep “RACIAL INEQUALITY ” rolling . . . £..£ ..£

  34. The University of Birmingham have a Professor of Black Studies – Must then have a Department for BLACK STUDIES?

    A certain Professor Andrews who was on the radio this morning –

    he is an example of those wanting to keep the Racial Inequality train rolling . .

    Lecturers ride a gravy train of anti-racism advocacy and book deals on decolonising human rights.
    Unconscious bias training has become a multi-million pound industry.
    Those actively looking for cases of racism, have found evidence of oppression in everything from the benefits system
    to Kew Gardens’ plants.
    Money, Money, Money . . . .

    1. It is hard not to get upset .

      Remember , there are still about 85 percent of us , I hope.

      This racial nonsense , and the people who are trying to down grade our ancient history need reminding that they are here under sufferance, and our tolerance is being tried and tested .

      We should suggest they clear out of the UK for a few years to try out the heritage that they winge and whine about..

      Allow them to see how tribal Africa / Asia and anywhere else is , where the rule of the gun and beheadings and chop chop are an everyday occurrence.

      Once our own cities become over balanced with coloureds / blacks and Asians , that is when society collapses .

      Thank goodness I have memories of better times .

      2. Good morning, Maggie.

        I think I might write a letter to the Dean, Principal, or whatever the head honcho of a university likes to call him/her/itself, and offer my services as Head of Department of White Male Studies.

        I shall lucidly explain that, since humans of that sex and colour are now grossly unrepresented, I would like to attempt to fill the void. I could offer a curriculum that celebrated all the thousands upon thousands of inventions and innovations in medicine, the arts, science, sport, aviation and innumerable other areas of human endeavour that were developed, solely, by white males.

        Do you think I’m onto a winner?

        2. I applaud and am thankful for all the inventions and discoveries etc made by males Grizz, but it must be put into a context that for hundreds of years those same males denied education to women.

          1. Unfortunately, D-cup, I have no control over history. Just be thankful you live in a more enlightened time today. I would never dream of chaining you to the kitchen sink, sending you down the pit or pushing you up a chimney! 😊

          2. No problemo. As soon as I get the De Lorean fixed I’ll go back and change it.

        4. You might like to quote this, George,

          A Poem for Black History Month (October 2020)

          In the matter of racial comparisons
          The media shouts to the moon,
          About all the historic achievements
          Of the Redskin, Spic and the Coon.

          Yet strangely, when strolling museums,
          The white man’s creations stand thick;
          But all we can find of those others
          Is a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

          No telephones, timeclocks or engines,
          No lights that go on with a flick.
          No aeroplanes, rockets or radios.
          Just a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

          Not one Sioux Indian submarine,
          No African ice cream to lick,
          Not a single Mexican x-ray machine,
          It’s a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

          So, remember when history’s the subject,
          And revisionists are up to their tricks,
          The evidence tells quite another tale,
          Of a blanket, a bowl and a stick.

          A poem by A. Wyatt Mann

          1. Love it, Tom. Nicked for my collection.

            Curiously, how did they manage to invent their blanket? The manufacture of a blanket, however rudimentary, requires some form of ingenuity, dexterity and thinking! Didn’t they just nick one from whitey?

          5. It comes, George, from my ‘Common-place Book’ an idea initiated by Father (1895 – 1960) that here is a book with many blank pages, wherein you may record things memorable, speeches, quotes, poems, etc., for future perusal.

            I have taken that to todays’ technology and recorded it into a Microsoft WORD document. I could send you a link but doubt if that Apple/Beatles thingy could handle it, being of such an alien culture to Mac – whichever Jock that maybe.

        5. We don’t need a white male studies. The very facts of our success surround us.

          It bothers me more that some black people – only some – differentiate themselves solely by their skin colour and don’t look at history and say ‘that’s mine, my country’s. I’m a part of that, building the future.’

          1. “We don’t need a white male studies. The very facts of our success surround us.”

            I am very much aware of that. The whole point of my comment is that to suggest such a department would cause much incandescence among those sections of the population that are NOT white and male.

          3. Plus the fact that the Prof. you refer to can’t have much in the way of “successes” to talk about.

  35. While many people will not care for Mr Salmond the news that Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh is now a member of Alba and is a candidate for election will likely dismay honest people.
    Mrs Ahmed-Sheikh was a Tory, then joined Labour. She then moved to the SNP and became an MP. She set up a charity for muslim women. The SNP gave her £16,000 of public money. The money was spent on a launch party. She is a lawyer and actress. Two years ago she was fined £3000 by the Law Society for “borrowing” money from a client’s funds. I knew two lawyers who did similar. Both served prison terms, but they were white Christian males. This information is on Wikipedia. What Wikipedia cannot tell us is that she presumably has great charisma, probably a lot of charm, is entirely persuasive and highly manipulative, and has easy access to money. Exactly what a new republic needs.
    ( Under the list voting system people can vote for a party but have no say in the choice of candidates.)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tasmina_Ahmed-Sheikh

    1. she presumably has great charisma, probably a lot of charm, is entirely
      persuasive and highly manipulative, and has easy access to money.

      and ‘puts it about?;

    2. What, in the name of trousers has that creature done to deserve honours?

      She’s obviously a crook without morals or conviction just milking the system. In short, she’s corrupt and such must be abolished from parliament and treated so harshly they never come back.

      Crucifixion would be a start.

    3. I see that she was awarded an OBE. She is doubtless a credit to the British honours system.

      1. OBE – Other buggers Efforts. And soon to be given to all those who have a jab. In essence an updated Blue Peter badge

      2. Clear evidence that the entire system of honours is utterly dishonourable and not worth the name.

  36. A teacher’s story about stuttering

    A teacher was explaining biology to her 4th grade students, ‘Human beings are the only animals that stutter’ she said.

    A little girl raises her hand, ‘I had a kitten who stuttered.’

    The teacher, knowing how precious some of these stories could become, asked the girl to describe the incident.

    ‘Well,’ she began, ‘I was in the back garden with my kitten and the Rottweiler that lives next door got a running start and before we knew it, he jumped over the fence into our garden!’

    ‘That must’ve been scary,’ said the teacher.

    ‘It was,’ said the little girl.

    ‘My kitty raised her back and went ‘Ffffff! Ffffff! Ffffff!’ but before she could say ‘F *** off!’ the Rottweiler ate her!

  38. There is an article in the Telegraph a journalist – Yolanthe Fawehinmi
    In it she includes a statement by the MP David Lammy . .

    “Labour MP David Lammy said it best: “Like so many in Britain’s black community, I’m tired! Tired of the endless debate

    about whether structural racism exists with little desire to actually address it.”

    She ends by saying -“It’s hard to disagree” – – – Well – She would say that – wouldn’t she . . .!!

    1. There is an article in the Telegraph a “journalist”

      There, Stephen – sorted.

  39. 331044+ up ticks,
    Keep in mind these figures when you have another opportunity to vote, if
    agreeing with the mass incoming then a lab/lib/con vote is a definite for you.

    breitbart,
    20,000 ILLEGAL BOAT MIGRANTS PROJECTED TO LAND IN THE UK THIS YEAR: REPORT

    1. Perhaps comments like this explain the ban………………

      Gab
      @davidkurten

      3h
      ·
      Citizens should be able to enter and leave their own country as they please, but illegal immigrants should be denied entry.

      The Johnson regime has inverted normality – illegal immigrants can come as
      they please, but citizens are threatened with draconian fines for
      travelling.
      ‘Morning Lewis

      1. I know little about this but are not Laurence Fox and David Kurten competing for the same anti-Khan votes in the mayoral elections? Would they not be better off on the same side?

      2. Is that a lie? No. It’s clear and provable fact.

        That the state doesn’t like it is beisde the point. Again, twitter needs to decide if it is publisher, or platform as under the first, it is responsible and legally culpable. If it is platform, it is not culpable, but can be challenged if it should censor.

  41. Samuel Kasumu, who was the Prime Minister’s special adviser for civil
    society and communities, resigned last week. He had previously attempted
    to leave in February, claiming the Conservatives were pursuing “a
    politics steeped in division”
    Good Riddance . . . .

    3. When I hear such things, all I think is ‘you wanted your own way’.

      These people just need a slap.

  42. Good Moaning.
    “Bulah, peel me a grape” moment.
    Sir Kneeler is casting nasturtiums on covid passports for pubs etc….
    Whether it is a genuine concern or he is behaving like LibDem chancer, is a matter for debate.

    1. Morning Anne and everyone. Happy Birthday to us all 🍰.

      I for one am glad that someone has cast nasturtiums on vax passports. I can see Alf and I being locked in our home for ever otherwise, not even allowed to go shopping! We will just wither away and nobody will notice!

      1. People of our age are supposed to be the “vulnerable” ones – I can’t really see young people falling for the “pub passport” nonsense.

        2. I hope as Bill has just replied to you but it’s possible that public pressure will come into it. When we speak to people (suitably social distancing of course!) they are astounded when we say we’re not going to have an experimental vaccine (I’ve now started calling it that) and they are so proud that they’ve had it. And it seems to me the government is encouraging things that way. I think young people may well have the vax if it “allows” them quicker access to a pub.

          1. Well – it’s coercion, isn’t it? I’ve had the jab (I don’t think the AZ one is particularly experimental) because I want to be able to travel………….and still we’re banned from leaving the country.
            Young people are hardly at any more risk from the virus than they would be from flu, but people have bought into the fear factor.
            I really don’t think children should be vaccinated as they are very unlikely to be seriously ill from covid, but I’m sure the age limits will be lowered and the story will be based on “asymptomatic transmission”. People will believe anything if they think it will set them free.

          2. That last sentence is exactly my point. People have stopped thinking. At what point will these restrictions be ended? And it is absolutely coercion. According to what I’ve read so far any vax does not prevent onward transmission and doesn’t prevent you from getting “it” so what use is it at all? It’s extremely dodgy I think.

          3. Apparently it’s stopped people from being ill. And I suppose if it generates an immune response, then some sort of ‘herd immunity ‘ may develop.

          4. I think these vax over-stimulate immune responses, and the populace should be advised to take 5,000-6,000 iu of vitamin D3 every day and probably double that in the first months of winter. Three consultants have advised Alf to do this and we started taking vitamin D3 some weeks ago. Our natural immune system will do the rest. And when you think that, of those who do have this disease, 97.7% survive, I do wonder why the agitation to vaccinate everybody. Well, I don’t actually, I’ve been convinced for ages that it’s all about control and who can make the most money out of the vax. It’s coercion on a grand scale.

          5. We’ve been taking 4,000 iu vit D3 since the end of November. Whether it works or not, we’re still here and haven’t had the virus so it must do! I’ve been out to do the shopping every week as normal, but all our other normal activities have been curtailed.

          7. So it appears you’ve been conned; you had the jab like a good complacent citizen, but your reward of travel has been denied.

          8. Compliant – not complacent. I couldn’t go in March, obviously, but it’s rebooked for October. They can’t keep us all locked up for ever.

        3. My young (23) neighbour certainly isn’t in favour. He thinks people should just get on with their lives.

          1. My normally very sensible friends whom I met on Tuesday, seem to have bought into the fear factor big-time. Jane, who spent her working life as a radiographer, retiring as superintendent, and practitioner, seems to be paranoid about getting within six feet of anyone. We had a lovely day, but I did find that quite wearing.

    2. OH went for his second jab this morning and came home with a sticker -“I’ve had my Covid jab” – perhaps that will suffice for the pubs.

      1. Didn’t he tell them where they could stick their sticker?

        Good morning N.

        1. Morning Alf – no – he didn’t seem to notice he’d acquired it. I said ‘Oh – you’ve got a new badge’ and he then had a look at it, stuck on his coat.

          5. The tattoo could refer to the virus version of inoculation and be put on the inside of the left forearm.

            Where did I dream that up from…

        3. This is becoming stupid. Will these people start publishing all their medical details.

          The world has gone crazy aided and abetted by these nincompoops.

        4. As i pointed out to the tweet at the time; the pharmaceutical companies/HMG/SAGE have said that ‘vaccine’ does not stop those jabbed from contracting the Chinese flu, nor does it prevent those afflicted from passing it on.
          It therefore follows that, whilst the line ‘Got the vaccine’ is correct, the wearer does not have protection from the Chinese flu and so the line ‘Not the virus’ is at best speculation.

  43. Yesterday Labour’s shadow women and equalities secretary Marsha de
    Cordova said in the House of Commons –
    “The Government must urgently explain how they came to publish
    content which – glorifies the slave trade and immediately disassociate
    themselves from these remarks.”
    WELL . . . SHE WOULD, WOULDN’T SHE . . .

    1. am sure “what passes for” Govt has more on its plate than to respond to a pillar box. Interestingly, who is the Shadow Women and Equalities Minister given it was left to the secretary to waffle. Presumably the Shadow Minister was being kitted out for a new set of “Blackout curtains” in order for the phrase “Put That WHITE out” relevant in the HoC

  44. afternoon [here] / morning to all your end. Am sure somewhere on here BBC and April Fools Day will be within the same sentence. Your google server Kenya weather says heavy rain / thunderstorms – as usual the opposite – 28° clear blue sky

      1. as am sure you know, it’s reached the tsunami level of 0 and now into the third wave. People aren’t sure whether that means how many times Uhuru waves to the camera or he’s plugged into the mains drawing energy from the google servers. Still, you can still get tusker at Ksh 180 [or about £1.20] in local bars supposed to be closed, unless you notify the bar owner in advance and know the route via “the other entrance”. Wearing of masks strictly forbidden!

        1. If they’ve ramped up the testing then of course they will find more ‘cases’. I think Magufuli had the right idea. Shame he’s passed on. Our guide when we were there two years ago thought he was a good bloke.

          1. that’s the agenda re testing but not here [the testing here’s the cover story for the overdue pay rises in the Health Service]. agree re Magufilu, but then he was taken out and replaced by his VP, who just happens to be on the Board of Schwab’s WEF

          3. TZ’s heading that way, now Mil Ind Complex, Clinton Foundation, fossil fuel companies etc ramping up fake ISIS crap in Mozambique [adjacent to TZ border re LNG]. Magufuli blocked all that and exposed C-19 for the fake that it is. Main agenda is US attempts to try and create al shabab type angle in TZ, Mozambique as a means to block China’s Belt and Road Initiative. And here, which is key, no Presidential campaigning, the intent being to keep Uhuru holding the tiller and maintain the C-19 gig

          4. One thing I noticed in TZ was a lack of tension between Muslims and Christians – ok the people we met were reliant on tourism but it all seemed quite peaceful. Our guide was Muslim – he was with us for the whole trip and was a very chatty and personable guy.

          7. There didn’t used to be in this country, either. It’s when they get confident, and the bit between their teeth…

  45. I have an idea for a Beeb show.

    Take three uninhabited islands and put twenty males and twenty women on each – one island all blacks, one island all Muslim and one island all whites.

    Leave for a year then go back to see how they’ve got on.

    1. China will be trading with all three and the US will be trying to bomb them to freedom.

    3. I like the idea, but who are you going to put on these islands? As if it’s the sort of brats who’re wrecking that school and who left litter everywhere then you’ll get the same animalistic anarchy as they create.

      However, put ‘normal’ people on these islands, ones with pride, self respect, intelligence and competence – and you’ll get a functioning society on the white island – roads, buildings, a community.

      As soon as that islands starts to trade through the other two will want to come to it, as they’ll have built nothing where they are. Give it long enough and the immigrants to Island W will be demanding they get more because when Island M sold them after the nth Island B tribal war they’ll want to blame someone for their luxurious lot.

    4. Gather in all the wealth of the world and divide it equally between the 7.8 billion. A year later, back to square one. The egalitarian myth is just a power grab.

  46. Apart from the tourist trade, coastal regions will soon be praying for a return to lock down….

    In normal times, millions of Brits fly abroad for their summer holidays leaving busy periods at home dependent on weather conditions. Now with the ban on leaving the UK and assuming the government allow the masses to roam the UK freely (don’t count on it) then mayhem will reign at every seaside town in the country. All those unruly Brits who terrorizes the popular Spanish resorts will have no choice other than to use places like Devon & Cornwall to let their hair down.

    The very day the rules were lifted, we all saw the mess left across the country and if people have zero consideration for their own turf then would they care about trashing others? Perhaps for once, most of us might be hoping for further lockdowns or a wet and windy summer.

    1. I think True-Belle would agree with you on that score – there was mayhem on the Dorset coast last summer.

      1. I must admit that residents in places which attract grockles are very snobbish in their view of intruders. I was brought up in St Mawes and we were quite snooty towards those who arrived in char-à-bancs. The best way for an emmet (i.e. a grockle who has crossed the Tamar) to be accepted was to buy a St Mawes One Design and sail around the buoys.

        2. I’m thinking more of the kind of people who leave their litter (and worse) behind and spoil everywhere they go – rather than people who just want a change of scene.

    2. You should have seen the state of the normally peaceful and beautiful scenery in the Highlands ruined by tourists leaving litter and turds everywhere, unfortunately the scum will now be back desecrating our countryside and clogging our roads with campervans which they can’t drive.

      1. They must have been Scots as the English have been banned from Scotland haven’t they?

        2. This was last summer and, incidentally, previous ones too – and yes, they were English mostly

        3. This was last summer and, incidentally, previous ones too – and yes, they were English mostly

        4. The Scots have also been banned from going anywhere. that has been relaxed meaning that we can go out but stay local, i.e. in the home Council area only.

          1. My daughter had booked tickets for Edinburgh Zoo tomorrow. This morning I got an email from EZS to remind me that Nikeliar won’t let us travel out of our Post code area and they’d check the booking when we arrived. So we’re going to the Safari Park instead!

      2. For whom the gods want to control…

        They first make crazy.

        And soon the sane left among us will begin agreeing with the globalists. The elite are so much smarter than the plebs and boy does it show.

      3. There is no understanding of the term “Passing Place”. Such spaces are useful for overnight camping and picnics.

        1. We live in an area with narrow lanes and also a very populat ice-cream factory/shop. On Tuesday as it was a nice day they were very busy and the narrow road was clogged with vehicles as I was trying to get past. They all park in the “passing place” which is merely an unnamed slightly wider bit.

        3. Hmmm, I live in a small rural Suffolk village, accessible only by one of three single track roads, none of which have been designated as such and have a speed de-restriction sign at the entry. We have had to make our own ‘passing places’ over many years and still we get ‘white-van-man’ tearing up the road and expecting everyone to get out of his ‘effin’ way’.

          I take great delight in those circumstances in having a nose-to-nose conversation with those berks, just to ruin their time-keeping advance.

      4. There is no understanding of the term “Passing Place”. Such spaces are useful for overnight camping and picnics.

    1. I didn’t really understand it.

      On the one hand, there’s the usual rentamob hopping on the bandwagon of a death from the rape and murder of SArah Everard by *a police officer*.

      Then there’s the police, manhandling people away quite roughly under the excuse of ‘covid’ – and that is an excuse.

      Neither side dealt with it sensibly.

      As for the inspectorate, a more pointless bunch and response couldn’t be imagined. If there was no fault, there is nothing to apologise for. If there is fault, there is no apology, there is simply change of process and procedure.

      1. And of course the “racism” response from the grieving mother of two sisters who were murdered last summer. The outcry over Sarah Everard was because she was a nice white girl. I can understand that mother’s grief but I don’t think racism came into it.

        1. Of course not. Several white people were killed by US cops kneeling on their throats, but nothing was said until Floyd died (who it appears in all likelihood died because of his drug cocktail).

    2. I didn’t really understand it.

      On the one hand, there’s the usual rentamob hopping on the bandwagon of a death from the rape and murder of SArah Everard by *a police officer*.

      Then there’s the police, manhandling people away quite roughly under the excuse of ‘covid’ – and that is an excuse.

      Neither side dealt with it sensibly.

      As for the inspectorate, a more pointless bunch and response couldn’t be imagined. If there was no fault, there is nothing to apologise for. If there is fault, there is no apology, there is simply change of process and procedure.

    3. Was there a huge ‘surge’ in ‘cases’ in London after this unwise mixing of people? If not – why the worry?
      I think the police were heavy -handed.

      1. I think the police were heavy-handed too. But that is not the gist of my comment.

  48. Good morning, my friends

    The EU’s moral authority is crumbling fast
    Brussels can’t call itself a force for good when its members are prepared to deal with Putin on vaccines

    LIAM HALLIGAN DT https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/eus-moral-authority-crumbling-fast/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget

    I am heartened to see that many DT comments echo the views expressed by some of us Nottlers. Here is a BTL comment with which some of us will agree:

    Britain must withdraw from Johnson’s abysmal Withdrawal Agreement and scrap the “deal” immediately before the EU ratifies it.

    Indeed the EU’s deliberate delay in ratification should cost them the deal: Britain will be far better off on WTO trade terms.

    Even firm remainers are beginning to see that they were wrong and that the EU is a thoroughly evil organisation.

    1. Russia’s Sputnik V’s been sold to circa 20 countries around the world and designed as a type of flu vaccine. UK looks, from here in Kenya, more like an island test centre – viz lock up and the lock down, Coronoavirus Act 2019 etc. The 70 million the pharma want as guinea pigs – so
      we have to be pushed and prodded down that route. The EU’s master/mistress Germany and France are getting the current blowback, so optional available sources work politically for them. Of course it’ll get their political spin, which no one listens to

      1. The UK has done twice as much testing as any other European country, both in terms of tests per million and absolute figures. Naturally they will find more ‘cases’ as more tests are done. They can prove anything with numbers.

        1. the use of poor data in testing keeps the gravy train rolling for pharma. Despite local MSM spin, no testing here, just the usual ongoing vampire curfew. I don’t think Uhuru gives a toss about proving anything with numbers, he merely spouts any sentence he wants, depending on how much he’s drunk beforehand

    2. Good afternoon, Rastus.

      “Britain must withdraw from Johnson’s abysmal Withdrawal Agreement and scrap the ‘deal’ immediately before the EU ratifies it.”

      Agreed. Unfortunately the sad part is that we all know it isn’t going to happen. Johnson has neither the balls nor the leadership acumen.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        I am not a slave to GMT, BST, CET or UTC. (Mind you I use GMT when I am navigating by sextant wherever in the world I happen to be.)

        However, until I have had my lunch I wish people good morning.

        1. #SameHere, Richard, it doesn’t feel right until I know that the sun is over the yard-arm and I can have my midday tincture.

          1. I don’t have to have a clock on the wall, George my Microsoft driven compooter has a clock in the bottom right corner that is very accurate.

          2. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/55e6ca2700fce5fae6040ceeb7d907b1f60dfce5c070253c44dd67a10b34612e.jpg My clock was on sale in Bond’s of Norwich [sorry: “John Lewis”] for £15 about 20 years ago. I fell in love with it and snapped it up. Strangely it keeps excellent time but I do synchronise it, occasionally, with the bang-on compooter clock on the top right hand side of the screen of my Apple iMac (pictured).

            My Longines wrist-clock [used as the world standard for timing sports’ events] is also bang-on to the split-second.

            iMac and Longines: the standard in their respective fields. What could be better? 👍🏻

          1. I was just apologising for repetition (Just a Minute) and I rejoice in corresponding with people who know their mind, like you. XX

    3. Putin is a busy boy.A few days ago he was trying to breach UK airspace.He’s forever hacking computers or meddling in elections while trying to murder people abroad.Now he’s head salesman for Sputnik V.
      How the hell he has any time for sleep beats me!!

    4. Hah! You’re not thinking that Billy Bunter will get off his sit-upon and actually scrap the deal??

  49. Things I have learned:

    1. Coffee mate is no substititue for milk in cereal.

    2. I need to go shopping.

    3. 3. Margarine is no substitute for butter.

      4. Rape seed (canola) oil is no substitute for lard.

      5. Vegetable oil is no substitute for tallow (for frying fish and chips).

      2. Olive Oil and occasionally butter, as well or separate, never margarine rapeseed sunflower or veggieoil.

  50. Anyone know why I now see photos etc that are not hidden – they used to be until today and I clicked on them to view

    It’s OK I just clicked on ‘Hide media’

        1. Sometimes when your comp gets some unwanted updates, little things like that get altered. I have had several over the years. Controls for the graphics card vanished several times. Quick moan to the Feedback Hub and it gets corrected ( usually ).

  51. Someone told me I had just put diesel in my unleaded petrol car.
    I knew that that was just not possible so I guessed it must have been an April fuel.

  54. Have just had a phone call from, purportedly NHS Patent Care, as my doctor has referred me for and appointment.
    I asked what the appointment was for as I had not been able to see a doctor for a year and she wouldn’t tell me unless I gave my address, postcode and date of birth. I declined
    I asked her to prove she was from the NHS. Pregnant pause. You can google NHS patient care. No thank you I said.
    I reminded her that she had used information supplied by my surgery, had answered my phone saying who I was, who did she think she was talking to?
    This continued for a few minutes until she said unless you give me your address and date of birth I will continue to receive these calls. I replied they they would continue to have the same response from me.

    Bloody cheek.

    2. That’s illogical – if she rang the number she was given to speak to you and you answered, saying who you were, why did she need any more details?

    3. I have been receiving texts from a company telling me i need a blood test, Urine test , blood pressure monitoring and cardio monitoring.

      These are all things the surgery would do in the course of the year because i now fall into the age group which requires these annual tests.

      The text tells me to download the App by clicking the link.

      I do not have a Smart phone.

      Also the surgery has outsourced this to a private company.

      I will be making a formal complaint under the Data Protection Act for misuse of my personal information without first getting my permission.

      I am inundated with appointments and tele conferences at the moment for three existing conditions. I do not need these appointments on top at the moment.

      It’s becoming quite stressful.

      1. I’ve never had annual tests for any of these – and I’m well above your age group. Block the number and ignore them. We’ve had mailshots offering these tests and OH fell for them once – the Dr said he could have had all those free at the surgery if he’d asked. These firms are just out for your money.

          1. I’ve never been offered them. Apart from a ‘well-woman’ check about 30 years ago, the onlly time I’ve been to the surgery is at my instigation. I keep away as much as possible.

          2. I recently had to have a “general” blood test, in order for my prescription medication to continue. It was done by the surgery suddenly cutting my prescription to 12 days’ worth, without informing me or my pharmacist why.

      2. That’s dreadful Phizzee.
        Things have never been so public since they introduced the GDPR.
        In the past year i have seen my doctor only once at my insistence and had a hospital referral that had now been satisfactorily resolved.
        The country is turning into Big Brother Plus.
        I am determined to resist.

        1. I was “invited” to have a covid test by the Imperial College lot – I ignored it – they tried again (by text) I ignored it again.

          As for GDPR – practically every time you go to any website now you have to tell them if you want their damned cookies.

          1. It’s only for us little people N. Big business and government can bandy your details about without fear.

      3. I’m not going to dispense any facile advice Phizzee; except to wish you well!

  56. I see that little paragraphs (hidden among the much more important fear-filled covid bollox) are appearing in newspapers saying that some countries will “welcome” UK visitors but will require PCR tests.

    What they DON’T say is that these tests are (a) unreliable (b) VERY expensive and that (c) one may need to quarantine on arrival and/or to return.

    Vermin these “reporters”

    1. Absolutely! The PCR test was devised for research purposes only and the inventor specifically said it should not be used for clinical purposes. One of the many cons perpetrated on us by this useless government.

  57. Principal caves to protesting students and removes ‘racist’ Union Jack flag. 1 April 2021.

    The principle (sic), Daniel Smith, has bowed to demands by students, who he said he ‘admired’, and has taken the flag down.

    The headteacher of Pimlico Academy has caved into students’ demands after they burned a Union Jack, as he agrees to take down the “racist” flag.

    Last September, a Union Jack flag erected outside the school was ripped down and set alight by pupils, according to The Guardian, while the walls of the academy were also vandalised with graffiti over the weekend, with messages including “ain’t no black in the Union Jack”.

    But following a protest on Wednesday, which saw police officers at the school grounds, the principle, Daniel Smith, has bowed to demands by students, who he said he “admired”, and has taken the flag down.

    One wonders who is the headmaster here? The end hurries on apace!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/principal-caves-protesting-students-removes-racist-union-jack/

    1. These “students” should be expelled from the school – for vandalism, unruly behaviour and also for despoiling the national flag. The headmaster should be sacked, as should the one in Batley.

      1. Both those headmasters and their disobedient pupils, deserve a mighty flogging (birching) in public to further humiliate them, as they’ve already humiliated themselves.

        A couple of Muzzie Imams could be thrown in as well but I guess they’d rather be stoned to death.

  58. Morning all, I have spent some time this morning reading the online versions of the newspapers.
    All I can say is that this country of ours is flucked and it is nothing less than it deserves.

    3. “It” being different from “we” ? There are plenty who don’t deserve what is happening, and have been fighting (but not hard enough) to prevent it.

  59. 140 arrived yesterday. Hope their hotels are looking after them. The govt-approved, taxpayer-funded invasion continues.

          1. Every day they are here costs us – and gives them a chance to own a cat so they can stay.

    2. That lot alone will cost the UK taxpayers £10,000 x 140 x 50 years = £70,000,000 minimum.

    3. ‘Afternoon, Walter, according to someone yesterday that 140, is Zulu time for 20 minutes to 2 in the morning ‘cos Zulu time doesn’t use colons, as is usual to shew that 20 to 2 in the morning is 01:40.

      The mind boggles.

  60. Best April Fool adverts here: and here: . Enjoy!

    Just squeezed it in before noon.

  61. Set the alarm function on your cuckoo clock for 9.00 pm BST this evening.

    Orson Welles is Harry Lime to Joseph Cotten’s Holly Martens in Carol Reed’s film about post Second World War Vienna on BBC 4.

    (I am sure that some of the vaccine pushers of today think of Harry Lime as their role model!)

    3. Wonderful movie. The copyright now belongs to the French broadcaster Studio Canal (aka Canal Plus) as they own the film library at Pinewood.

    1. On a real police prog last night 2 officers went to a flat where they believed the man they wanted had gone. They knocked and the female officer said loudly ” Police – Can you open the door please “.

    2. The socialists banned corporal punishment in schools in the sixties, I believe. Then the Children Act put all the power in the hands of pupils. There was a noticeable decline in behaviour once any sanctions had gone.

  63. I see that the man with the immense (nay titanic) intellect who is prime minister of France* is going to block access to internet sites where young people tell other about raves etc.

    That’l work well.

    * He makes the thick, useless Maire of Laure-Minervois look like a genius

        2. Oh, Sweet, Anne. Do you use them to invite all your girlie-friends for evening soirées?

  64. I think i’ve just found RTs April fool..
    Trump hotel chain to take over ‘Putin’s Palace’ – ex-US president plans glitzy, gold-themed resort on Russia’s sunny south coast

    2. I haven’t bothered looking for any April Fool stories in the papers/MSM today – frankly our government’s actions recently have been so ludicrous and bizarre that any AF story would be too hard to spot! Maybe the AF stories would be the ones that looked vaguely sensible??

      1. Yes it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell Fake from Reality. Something I’m sure the Borg have taken into account!

  65. Text message exchange between lovers:

    Him: “Babe, I have to tell you something: I cheated on you once!”

    Her: “Me too.”

    Him: “April 1st. 🤣🤣”

    Her: “July 18th.”

  66. 331044+ up ticks,
    I am assuming that ALL those in the ” my MP ” department are pressing “my MP” as in “what the puck is being done about the DOVER jumping off point in regards to the invasion” are we officially at war with the eu & can officially regard the governance parties as pro eu assets and enemas of state, or WOT.

    If at war with brussels and the internal political enemas of state let this be known officially as it could interfere with the voting pattern…. maybe.

    1. Whoever we do or don’t vote for in local elections will make absolutely sod-all difference, Ogga.

      1. You can elect the puppet but you’re not allowed anywhere near the strings.

      2. You can elect the puppet but you’re not allowed anywhere near the strings.

      3. 331033+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,
        On that issue I must sadly disagree, they the local MPs are the backbone of the party i’ll grant that but by the same token to give them support via the ballot booth is also supporting the party leader, the hierer / firer.
        Tell me what success has this had over say, the last three decades ?
        Who was voted in and given the shout, b lair, brown, the wretch cameron, clegg, may, johnson.
        If left to these type leaders we would still be serving time as an eu milch cow, not sure that we aren’t currently.
        Don’t forget the pretty one is MP for Witham and she could be the best Witham has ever had but in regards to Dover is johnson listening to her ?

        ALL party politico’s must love the three party close shop and such an obliging electorate.

        1. I’ve refused a postal vote, having returned the request marked, “I will not use this corrupted system.”

          We now have our voting cards and my ballot will enter the ballot box marked, “None of the above” in black felt-tip.

          1. 331044+ up ticks,
            Afternoon Ntn,
            We are in such a sad state of affairs as a nation that IMO the path you have chosen to take is the only logical one to
            be true to oneself.

          2. Yes, but it will also mean that people will be voted in with fewer and fewer votes. We badly need a workable “none of the above” vote.

          3. 331044+up ticks,
            Evening HL,
            2 /6/2019 G Batten ceased being leader of the real UKIP leaving behind a workable credible party on the rise, in the black financially and gaining members daily, treachery via
            the party nec / nige took it down.

            People can stand for say Anne Marie Waters as paper candidates at least she wants much of what the real UKIP under Batten wanted.

            Anything to deny the lab/lib/con candidate a vote even if the candidate is your dad or mum they are answerable to the party leader and as can be seen the lab/lib/con party leaders
            of the last three decades have been, in the main, treacherous sh!te.

            By the by,
            Fewer votes for a candidate with some political integrity imo
            is far better that the regular party before all else, resulting in more of the same odious maladies ongoing, surely.

          5. 331044+ up ticks,
            HL,
            An unknown quality sure enough but knowing the pedigree of the lab/lib/con coalition highest political echelon over decades is surely enough reason for radical change.

            More to the point will we recognise political integrity when it returns after such an absent.

      4. 331044+ up ticks,
        N,
        Then make sure your vote don’t count, deny it to the lab/lib/con candidates, if things carry on as abnormal then
        even the most hardened disbeliever will have to admit we are under a dictatorship.

    2. Whoever we do or don’t vote for in local elections will make absolutely sod-all difference, Ogga.

  67. OT – because I felt below par on Monday, I e,mailed the surgery asking for a consultation with Dr Nigeria.

    They replied saying he’d ring this morning. He did. Albeit after 12. His manner is so reassuring. He is one of the very few doctors I have known in a long life with whom one can have a conversation – and you know that (a) he has read up before he rang and (b) he listens. An amazing chap.

    He told me not to worry about what I had thought were serious BP variations; agreed that if I didn’t get on with statins I shouldn’t take them. I feel so much better just for talking to him.

    1. That’s the sort of Dr to have – our last one seems to have retired, unfortunately. He was the one who came out to see me – twice- when I had a gall-bladder issue in 2016, and while he was here, had a look at the hedgehogs as well. He also referred OH for treatment for his shoulder to the Spire hospital in Bristol – and he had the surgery on the NHS.

    2. That’s exactly the sort of reassurance we want when we speak to a doctor. The lack of care that seems to have prevailed for the last year should not be allowed to continue. My GP is wonderful but has been completely absent for quite some time. A week to get a telephone consultation with him! What on earth are they doing?
      Glad Dr. Nigeria is on the ball- wish my Dr. Norway would do the same!

      1. OH has had some problems lately and the surgery has been very quick to phone back. We’ve got no complaints about the service here.

        1. I’m pleased Ndovu, as I really think the psychological element of health care is so important. A good bedside manner may sound a bit old fashioned but it works!

          1. There was some research a while back that talking reassuringly to a patient, even if that person is badly injured, actually helps.

    3. Bill
      Have you had a previous examination and had your b/p and bloods looked at?

      It is all very well to chat pleasantly as if you are at a party , but I would rather be prodded and poked around a bit , glands felt and that sort of thing , to feel reassured .

      A phone call consultation won’t feel my breast or general aches and pains?

          1. I keep away as much as possible. Last time I went (apart from a couple of jabs) was when I had shingles two years ago.

    4. Alf has had a bad reaction to statins, you possibly have read about it on here. But it’s another case of government diktat instead of doctors prescribing for their patient individually. And I believe the GPs are paid for prescribing different drugs. The recommended bp measurements have come down over time and that’s how Alf was given statins. Turned out to be a disaster. Well done for recognising what was happening to you.

      1. ‘Afternoon, vw, Statins are menace inasmuch that several doctors I’ve been to – in France, Spain, Australia and now here in the UK – are all strenuously pushing Statins but I refuse, having had strange reactions with memory loss and befuddled thinking – more than usual – and no comment from any doctor, despite my cholesterol being at normal and lesser levels.

        I’m sure that GPs get a kick-back from Big Pharma for prescribing them.

  68. OT – because I felt below par on Monday, I e,mailed the surgery asking for a consultation with Dr Nigeria.

    They replied saying he’d ring this morning. He did. Albeit after 12. His manner is so reassuring. He is one of the very few doctors I have known in a long life with whom one can have a conversation – and you know that (a) he has read up before he rang and (b) he listens. An amazing chap.

    He told me not to worry about what I had thought were serious BP variations; agreed that if I didn’t get on with statins I shouldn’t take them. I feel so much better just for talking to him.

  69. Coroner probing death of Novichok victim promises to investigate whether Kremlim to blame. Express. 1 April 2021.

    BELOW THE LINE.

    G.C.2 HRS AGO.

    Coroner Nicholas Ridley couldn’t reach a verdict on any sort of poisoning never mind Novichok . Strange then that Baroness Hallett ( of 7/7 enquiry infamy) is picked to make sure the ‘right’ verdict is delivered and Russian Guilt’ is proven – she’s the perfect pick for a Government who is pushing an anti-Russian line.

    Wonder how she will get around the fact that the perfume bottle supposedly given to Dawn Sturgess, 3 months after the Skripal incident apparenly lying untouched in a bin 20 miles away , still had intact undamaged wrapping on it when the other bottle of ‘perfume’ had been supposedly used to spray Novichok on the door handles of the Skripals home.

    The Skripals of course are supposed to have been contaminated with the door handle as they left home, went for lunch , went to a pub and only then succumbed to this ‘deadly nerve agent’ – police of course who searched the house and went in and out before the ‘nerve agent’ was discovered on the door were all unnaffected.

    Baroness Hallett is going to have to use all the experienced she gained running the equally disgraceful 7/7 enquiry to make this story plausable.
    At the moment there are more holes in it than a Swiss cheese.

    That’s pretty succinct. In fact I couldn’t have put it much better myself. In normal times this farrago of lies would have been sunk by the Media as soon as it emerged but these are “autres temps” The reason for Baroness Hallet’s presence is that Salisbury is now of vital importance. Not only does the fate of one former (May) and one present Prime Minister (Boris) depend on it but it is also a mainstay of the anti-Putin/Russia campaign. Its collapse would undermine the whole strategy!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1417430/novichok-victim-kremlin-coroner-blame-fair-inquest-dawn-sturgess

      1. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/954965992ad55783a3d3fc5c51b5dad42fc246ecb3bc5ba7dae8acd563814035.jpg

        I’ve had some laughs out of that door handle. At the time of the photograph it was supposedly not only the “Murder Weapon” but possibly the single most dangerous object in the world. People strolled by it, guarded it, photographed it and no one so much as put up a sign saying, DO NOT TOUCH It was eventually taken away (like the Skripals themselves) to be destroyed..

          1. The one on the left was recently moonlighting in ITV’s ‘Unforgotten’…

          3. That ‘large policewoman’ is not a policewoman!

            She is one of David Blunkett’s police community support unit officers who does not possess the powers of a policewoman.

        2. Those two look as if they couldn’t stop a pig in a passage, though one is doing a remarkable impression.

    3. I remember the Russian Ambassador at the time,Alexander Yakavenko used to hold news conferences which were hilarious.
      He would end up asking the journalists the questions!

    4. There used to be a politician,Nicholas Ridley….in Margaret Thatchers government…always in the news.

      1. Until he left the government.

        When he was asked whether he was going to: “Spend more time with his family” – he replied that he could nothing he’d rather do less.

  70. Wareham Town Museum

    At a meeting last night, it was agreed that work can begin to flatten and remove the earth walls that surround historical Wareham.
    Spokesperson Page explained that the current walls were not fit for purpose, with uneven surfaces, and an eyesore from the bypass to all the visitors coming to the area.
    Good quality topsoil will be available to local residents once the work begins.

    One never knows in this day and age

    Because I replied :

    Is there nothing sacred in this country, our history is trashed, our Union flag is mocked, our history books are removed and censored, our national statues are defaced and demolished, and now this. I assumed Dorset would be safe and well respected .. The Walls will stay… can anyone start a petition?

    1. Are they historical walls? Like Maiden Castle? It’s civic vandalism at its worst.

      1. they’ll be repairing Corfe Castle next……….or maybe painting over the Cerne giant because he causes offence.

        1. I assume you are not jesting there Ndovu. That is just the sort of thing that is likely to happen!

          1. In this looking glass world, anything can happen – and nothing is as it seems…….

        2. I’m surprise no one in authority hasn’t suggested covering the offending article with a plastic sheath (to get across the safe sex message!)

    4. And next they will change the town’s name to Warehalal, because ham is offensive to Priti’s people.

  71. Bbc creaming themselves over a serving white Police officer being found guilty of belong to a banned neo-Nazi group. I wonder when they will start prosecuting all those in thrall to BLM or XR?

    1. We are watching the news , and did you hear the BBC say that he was anti immigration ?

      The lion is finding its roar perhaps .

      Perhaps BLM and all the other rioting anti authority Marxist groups will be slapped down as well.

      Some hope .

    2. And the droning, whining about “long Covid”! Project Fear not working so well?

    1. The April Fools in this instance are the one’s paying the BBC’s Licence Extortion Tax so the Beeb can pee it up the wall…..

    3. Still, Mags, makes of lots of work for “actors” of colour…. Hardly a white character left, so I’m told.

    4. I saw (I wouldn’t say watched, it was just on when I was living in student digs) the first episode. I don’t think I’ve seen one since.

      1. Hey Beatnik, guess you were a MInnie Caldwell fan- tucked away in the snug at Rovers, Dude.

        1. Hey, Dean. That Minnie was just a mama … anybody’s. Martha was my old lady, Dude.

  74. Beautiful warm day up here – cloudless and I’ve just cut the grass, talk about knackered!

    1. Lovely in the sun here – but a bit chilly in the shade.
      Grass brown, and mostly covered with snow. So, trimming apple trees instead.

      1. Cold and very windy here. Cats sulking indoors. Little do they know – they’ll be shoved out at 2.30 when I start to paint the sheds.

        1. Wouldn’t it be better to keep them in or they might end up the colour of the sheds and paint stripper harms cats

          4. Just a horticultural question Uncle Bill. Are they supposed to be deadheaded about now? The hydrangeas, not the kitties!

  75. The battle against the Left’s ideology of racial victimhood has only just begun

    The hostile reception to Tony Sewell’s report into race in Britain shows the scale of the fight ahead

    SHERELLE JACOBS

    We have entered the opening phase of a vicious new culture war. A Government-commissioned review, launched in the wake of last summer’s Black Lives Matters protests, has come to the heretical conclusion that race is less important than family and class in explaining the outcomes of different groups. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report is a forensic and unapologetic challenge to the liberal-Left conviction that the UK is structurally bigoted. It finds no evidence that institutional racism exists in Britain. In fact, it points out that, in some areas, such as education, particular ethnic minorities outperform their white counterparts. Even more boldly it ventures that UK should be seen as a model for other white-majority nations.

    Hours before the report was even published, it had already been trashed by the Left-wing activists who dominate discourse on race in Britain. Maurice Mcleod, the chief executive of Race on the Agenda, blasted the report as “government level gaslighting”. Halima Begum, head of the Runnymede Trust, called it a “gross offence” to grieving families of ethnic minorities who have died of Covid. Black Lives Matter, which has bloomed from a grassroots rabble into a slick establishment operation, snipped that it was “perplexed” by the report’s methodology and “disappointed” by oversight of police racism.

    A hostile reception is, on one level, a good sign. The report is a brave first step in confronting the Neo-Marxist ideology that has poisoned conversations about race. Its emphasis on concrete evidence rather than patronising theories – from critical race to unconcious bias – is radical. It is a deep rejection of “political blackness” – a post-communist doctrine seeded in the civil rights solidarity of 1960s, which lumps minorities together in a battle against capitalist white privilege. The inquiry’s jettisoning of the term BAME is not merely “semantics”, but the start of a fierce academic battle. The cliched acronym epitomises the 30-year colonisation of the cultural mainstream by the hard-Left, travelling from radicalised anthropology departments to executive boardrooms, public bodies, and media outfits.

    Tony Sewell – the Brixton-born educationalist who led the Commission – is trying to shift the debate away from victimising meta-theories towards a more nuanced discussion about race. His investigation is barbed with inconvenient facts. The ethnic pay gap has shrunk to 2.3 per cent overall and barely registers for employees under 30. Diversity is improving in professions like medicine and law. Sewell’s report dares to broach the complexity of black Britain.

    It finds, for example, that the exclusion rate for black Caribbean pupils is double that of their black African counterparts. Black Caribbean pupils are the only ethnic minority group that do not do as well or better than their white counterparts. Sewell has expressed his hope that this will go down as a landmark report which changes the dialogue over coming decades. That depends on how much fight – and skill – the centre-Right possesses.

    It will have to overthrow a hard-Left nexus of academics, NGOs and political agitators. They have been calling the shots ever since a notorious coup against the Institute for Race Relations in 1972. A three-year guerilla assault on the body, led by the novelist Ambalavaner Sivanandan, resulted in resignations, and a watershed shift in research focus from black people to white institutions. Sivanandan’s theory of “institutional racism” – that it is first finds venomous roots in the laws of the land (for example in biased immigration legislation), and then branches out to the executive and judiciary – went mainstream in the wake of the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence.

    Since then its even more ambitious cousin, structural racism, has found evidence of oppression in everything from the benefits system to Kew Gardens’ plants. Unconscious bias training has become a multi-million pound industry. Youth groups pitch themselves as intermediaries between black teens and “white-dominated” police and social services. Lecturers ride a gravy train of anti-racism advocacy and book deals on decolonising human rights.

    The only way to challenge such a vast, profitable and entrenched enterprise is to build a rival one in parallel. Funding must be secured for academic research into the challenges faced by the specific groups outlined in the Sewell report – particularly Caribbean Brits, the white working class and British Pakistanis. New NGOs and organisations with the same granular focus will also be needed. Yet this is the easy part. More difficult will be to contest a victimhood mentality that is becoming as entrenched as religious dogma. For all its troubles, America offers some inspiration here. Latinos and Afro-Americans identify as American in a way their British counterparts don’t because the country’s founding ideas – like freedom and the American Dream – are so bewitching. We desperately lack our own story of Britishness fired by energetic values.

    Winning hearts and minds will also demand sensitivity and courage. The Tories need to tread carefully as they make inroads into the political vipers’ nest of “parental responsibility”. They will also have to alter their language. We need to shift the debate, not from “inequality” to “culture” – but to “counter-culture”. The problem is not the customs of some immigrant groups per say but the toxic attitudes that have spread among second and third generation Britons. [Er, Britons have been here a bit longer than that.]

    Most controversially, it is important not to fall into the trap of downplaying Britain’s race problems. Woke teachings have enjoyed such momentum in recent years because multiculturalism has failed. The orthodoxy that tensions resolve themselves if you give immigrants cultural “space” has proved naive. Conservatives must confront the basic truth that progress can be both enriching and a destructive. They might well find more support for this revelation than the home truths of the Sewell report.

    It is no coincidence that the ethnic groups who feel the paradoxes of immigration most profoundly have rejected metropolitanland’s sunny mythology of “samba, saris and samosas” just as virulently as the white working class.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/03/31/battle-against-lefts-ideology-racial-victimhood-has-just-begun/

      1. Uncle Toms, Coconuts. We will never win that one.
        Beats me why so many chose to remain in racist GB.

          1. Still waiting to hear the media reporting boatloads of Africans fleeing south across the Med.

      2. It provided an opportunity for minorities who just want to a normal life to say to the Wokerati we are not some monolith, you do not speak for everyone.

        You see there are far, far more people who do believe in race – but they believe there is only one race, the Human Race.

    2. The Left can’t accept that Britain isn’t institutionally racist
      It is high time we faced down those who would perpetuate division to advance their own political agendas

      TELEGRAPH VIEW
      1 April 2021 • 6:00am

      How depressing, but how predictable, that the cohort of so-called progressive politicians and activists in Britain should respond so churlishly to a report that praises this country’s race relations record.

      The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities hailed the narrowing of the gap between different ethnic groups and said the UK was a model for other countries to follow. Most right-thinking people of all creeds and colours would agree, especially when it is measured against the experiences of ethnic minorities in Europe and America.

      The commission, chaired by charity leader Tony Sewell, made the hardly remarkable point that family structure and social class have a bigger impact than race on how people’s lives turned out. It did not say racism has been eradicated; it probably never will be. But it did suggest that Britain has successfully forged a tolerant society in which people of all races can get on if other disadvantages can be overcome without everything being seen through the prism of racial identity. “We no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”, the report said.

      What was the response of the Left to this conclusion? Sir Keir Starmer, Labour’s leader, called the report “disappointing”. The BBC focused on the anger of campaigners over the commission’s failure to brand the country as “institutionally racist” even though its chairman and most members were from minority backgrounds.

      An entire campaigning industry relies on the perpetuation of division for its very existence. It is high time it was faced down.

      ********************************************************************************

      BTL:

      es Kelly
      1 Apr 2021 6:49AM
      The problem with the way race has been politicised here is that ordinary decent people are forced to pretend Diane Abbott and David Lammy are not total imbeciles just in case they are accused of being racist.

      Flag203Unlike
      Richard Rawsthorn
      1 Apr 2021 6:47AM
      I’m fed up of our nation beating itself up about racism. All our racial and ethnic minorities came here voluntarily and if they don’t like it they are free to go somewhere else.

      As for the sentence “We no longer see a Britain where the system is deliberately rigged against ethnic minorities”, that’s a downright lie. Our system has never been deliberately rigged in such a way. Indeed, we’ve bent over backwards to rig our system in favour of the minorities, often at the expense of the white majority, when we’d have done better to leave the immigrants to adapt to us and make their own way.

      Flag159Like
      A Cox
      1 Apr 2021 7:12AM
      This so-called report is a total whitewash. What is needed is a properly independent, critical report prepared by a group of experts such as David Lammy, Diane Abbott, Dawn Butler, Kehinde Andrews, Nish Kumar et al, with perhaps the Rev. Al Sharpton brought in to give a transatlantic perspective. Only then will we realize that our white privilege prevents us from seeing the reality of a fascist, prejudice-riddled, oppressive British state. BTW: Today is April 1st.

  77. SIR — I have learned that there’s a village in Nottinghamshire called Rhodesia.

    Certainly the monstrous Rhodes – that racist pillar of British Imperialism and arch-oppressor of Africans – is no fit person to have a village in diverse Britain named for him. The village must be renamed and I suggest ‘Mugabeville’, after the great African statesman who freed the original British colony of Rhodesia, transforming it beyond recognition.

    Rhodesia must fall.

    Prof. Kwame Nbongo-Katanga OBE
    Faculty of Black History – Nottingham University

    2. The more black people that get into high status jobs in academia, politics and our influential institutions ahead of white people the more they scream racism for some reason.

  80. Headline:

    Pimlico Academy headmaster caves in to protesting students who burned ‘racist’ Union Flag
    School principal Daniel Smith has bowed to demands by students, who he said he ‘admired’, and has taken the flag down

    I don’t suppose anybody will be surprised by this action. Just keep surrendering the turf….

      1. If the flag is so objectionable, then so is the nation it represents- and those that have a problem with the national flag might want to consider leaving somewhere that they dislike so much. The principal clearly, like Groucho Marx has other principles when he has to show some spine.

      2. “Head teacher Daniel Smith ushered in a uniform policy last year which stated hairstyles that “block the view of others” would not be allowed and hijabs “should not be too colourful”.

        It has now emerged that members of the National Education Union (NEU) at the school “overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in the head teacher” on Tuesday evening.

        Looks like the NEU is in charge of the school.

        1. He should have said, if anything, that hijabs should be of school colours. You can’t argue with that.

          1. That was the solution back in the eighties when this first started to be noticeable.

      1. The Flag of Choice especially of those setting out from these shores on a Crusade……

      2. The Flag of Choice especially of those setting out from these shores on a Crusade……

      3. Not that long ago, when England football team reached a major final, every other car on the road flew at least one England flag.
        What changed? Emily Thornberry have more clout than we knew?

          3. You’re probably right.
            For rest of us it was the Graham Taylor/Venabales era.
            When the English FA became a complete joke.

        2. In the many photos of the 1966 World Cup final that I can find, I can see only one St George’s cross and that’s home made. Almost all the other flags (and there weren’t many because flag-waving wasn’t common back then) are Union flags (there’s one German in one photo).

          1. Different era WS. ’66 you had an England team.

            ’96 Euro’s you were relying on the likes of Gascoigne/Sheringham/McManaman.
            Times had changed.

            “After England’s defeat to Germany in the semi-finals, a large-scale riot took place in Trafalgar Square and the surrounding area. Further outbreaks of trouble occurred in the streets of several other towns. The police, German-made cars were targeted, with damage also caused to various other properties. A Russian student was stabbed in Brighton after attackers mistook him for being German.”

          2. What? You raised the subject of flags. Stick to it.

            England fans were showing the Union flag well into the 90s. It was only really with Euro96 that St George’s cross became the favoured banner.

            The Celtic fringes were quite put out by the use of the Union flag in 1966. It was part of the official emblem.

          5. “Not that long ago when England football team reached a major final”.

            England have only ever been in one major final.

            PS Poor grammar as well, Jack.

          6. “PS Poor grammar as well, Jack.”
            You’re surprised? 🙂

            Major tournaments there are the qualifying rounds and the finals.
            Northern Ireland made it to the finals of ’82 & ’86.
            Bobby Robson’s England made it to the finals of Italia ’90. Against all odds.

          8. If you’re saying England have never reached the final (singular) of a major competition played outside of Wembly then we Celts can only agree. Still you think you’re up there with the likes of Germany and Brazil.

          9. “…you think you’re up there…”

            Don’t assume to know what I think about anything. You, however, may delude yourself into thinking that anything more than a tiny minority of England supporters have any regard for the team’s chances.

          12. ‘Evening, William, may I suggest that ignoring the troll is the best way. I know that I succumbed earlier but deluging it with facts and adopting a war-like façade seemed to work

          1. When was that dewisant? A sea of England flags on the roads was a bonny sight not that long ago.

    4. It answers the question as to whether those calling for the trashing of the flag are British at heart or just residents.

    5. Breaking News – Boris Johnson to reveal the new UK flag at this afternoon’s Downing St press briefing. It consists of a white cross on a white background and, in addition to more accurately portraying our newly found national character, is also designed to make the new Briefing room look slightly less garish than the set of an ITV game show.

  82. Metropolitan Police officer found guilty of being a member of banned neo-Nazi group. 1 April 2021.

    Pc Benjamin Hannam was a member of the extreme right wing group National Action, which was banned in 2016 for its white supremacist ideology, and is the first serving British police officer to be found guilty of terrorism offences.

    The 22-year-old, who joined the Met Police in 2018, was arrested last year at his home in north London where police seized far-right material including Benito Mussolini’s book, The Doctrine on Facism, posters of German Nazi soliders, and the manifesto written by the Norweigan terrorist Anders Breivik.

    Police also found a guide on how to use knives and weapons in combat, alongside an image with the caption ‘make genocide great again’ on a USB stick.

    The much vaunted National Action has never, that I am aware of, killed anyone or blown anything up. I think Disturbing the Peace is the limit of its criminality. It only rose to the Terrorist Watch List because there were no representatives of the “Far-right” in the top twenty! It’s interesting to see how reading habits have become evidence in these “trials”. Essentially, according to the PTB, you are what you read. There must be some sort of trade off. Possession of the Anarchist’s Cookbook, despite being an outdated and rather boring tome is probably worth two years in chokey, while I would guess top spot is held by Mein Kampff, which one supposes has probably never even been read by 50% of those people who own a copy, will get you ten. Mussolini in a sane world would probably get you remission.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/metropolitan-police-officer-found-guilty-member-banned-neo-nazi/

    1. Pc Benjamin Hannam was a member of the extreme right wing group National Action Metropolitan Police.

    2. I have Gaddhafi’s Little Green Book, in all three volumes, and Mein Kampf on Kindle.
      All unreadable drivel, but the LGB is hilarious in patches.
      I also have several Bibles, and a Koran.
      All the above equally unbelievable.

        1. The LGB came from the Libyan Embassy in Copenhagen, when I was there collecting a visa.
          Marx – wasn’t he some kind of a comic?
          ;-))

  83. First wasp of 2021 has just flown in through the window and is buzzing around the lounge.

    2. First butterfly – a tortoiseshell. Parked on the wall, sunbathing. And a bumble-bee (humlesnurr) yesterday.

        1. Saw both male and female Brimstones on Tuesday and OH saw two Peacocks in the garden here. He released an overwintered Tortoiseshell last week sometime.

    3. Just spotted the first swallowtail butterfly this year.

      Judging by the number of different varieties seen already this is going to be a bumper year for butterflies.

          2. They have a different shape – look them up on google and you’ll see Brimstones have an attractive leaf shape. They are also usually the first ones we see in spring, apart from the ones which hiberate – normally Small Tortoiseshells and Peacocks hiberate so will be out with the first warm weather. Male Brimstones are a vivid lime-green/yellow, while females are vey pale.

          4. Please may we deploy some of those in and around, Avenue d’Auderghem 45, 1040 Bruxelles, Belgium?

  84. Off topic.
    A great article.
    https://www.connexionfrance.com/People/Interviews/Meet-the-French-man-who-saved-the-peregrine-falcon?utm_source=Master+List&utm_campaign=c3f87b70c2-newsletter-march-23-2021_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9b5fbe85b4-c3f87b70c2-357910569&mc_cid=c3f87b70c2&mc_eid=aff7a838e5
    Brilliant line:

    In the past five years, we have been the only zoo to have second
    generation birds born into captivity, in particular 10 young condors.
    I think we have been successful because we constantly observe the birds, rather than follow advice from scientists.

  85. 331044+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Obviously a bitch then ?

    Delingpole: Woke Army General Nicknames His Dog ‘Greta Thunberg’

      2. 331044+ up ticks,
        Evening S,
        More so because it swallows its own regurgitated puke again
        and again as with many of her followers.

        1. How’s Batten doing these days? Seems even most of the “Care In The Community” brigade have given up on him.

          .

    3. I do wish that racist black would just bugger off. He’s the problem. One day he’ll grow up and realise just how pathetic he is and take responsibility for his actions.

      1. I think, Wibbles, that that applies to all three of these traitors to the English way of life.

        I can only repeat my comment vis-à-vis taking up the sword against the Muslim invader. perhaps the same applies here and these idiots are promoting an all-out war against those of a darker skin.

  90. Rod Liddle
    Why will nobody publish my religious cartoons?
    From magazine issue: 3 April 2021

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/bltec0dece2b0e79b80/606599ae5a2a3210a63a9601/battle-1212.png?format=jpg&width=1920&height=1080&fit=bounds

    I am having very little success in getting my collection of cartoons of great religious founders published. Perhaps it is because I am not known as a draughtsman and publications are notoriously conservative in hiring new talent. It is all very dispiriting. My drawings are, I think, puckish and yet respectful. For example, there is one of the Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, the man somehow regarded as divine by Rastafarians. He is depicted in a game of ten-pin bowling with Benito Mussolini, the controversial former leader of Italy. Both men seem to be enjoying themselves — Benito is holding a pint of lager while Selassie is biting into an almond Magnum, waiting their turn to roll. They are part of a foursome with Charlie Stayt, the hugely talented BBC Breakfast presenter, and Walter Ulbricht, the widely admired former leader of the German Democratic Republic. Walter has just rolled for a strike and is looking very self-satisfied, as his side are now well in the lead. But Benito and Selassie do not seem to mind.

    Friends looking at these cartoons describe them as ‘Hogarthian’ and are astonished and depressed nobody is prepared to publish them. There is a more sombre drawing of Buddha attending a counselling session for the morbidly obese — but that cartoon is the exception. Most of the vignettes show these great figures engaging in cheerful leisure pursuits, to advance the agreeable notion that no matter how eminent, wise and godly these people were, they valued a bit of ‘down time’ and ‘chilling’, as modern parlance has it. So, Zoroaster is skateboarding with members of S Club 7, Jesus Christ is threatening to lamp an opposition supporter during a tense local derby game and Mohammed, PBUH, is shown on a Ryanair Weekend City Break to Paris, posing for a selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower.

    Frankly, it beggars belief that anybody could find these sketches offensive. I have heard murmurings that Muslims are not always happy when their prophet is depicted by human hand. But surely they could not object to my respectful representation of Mohammed, PBUH: he looks a little like Peter Bowles, star of the situation comedy To The Manor Born, except a bit swarthier, and is wearing leisure gear — an acrylic Adidas tracksuit over a humorous top which reads: ‘My parents went to Mecca and all they got me was this lousy T-shirt.’ If they don’t like that drawing, they’re really not going to appreciate the one I did of Allah.

    I may resort to sending these drawings to local schools, for I think children would enjoy them. I will begin with Batley Grammar School, in West Yorkshire, where there have been daily protests by what I hope is a tiny minority of Muslims in what is a heavily Muslim area (i.e. under the new definition of the word, ‘diverse’). In truth not many Muslims have complained about the fact that a religious education teacher showed pupils a depiction of Mohammed, PBUH, reportedly as part of the school curriculum. Those protests seem to consist of a handful of pig-ignorant men — where are the women protestors? I suspect that the gentlemen outside the school gates are people who like to be called ‘community leaders’, along with their gibbering, idiotic wannabes. How much happier would the world be if we could retire all self-appointed community leaders, starting perhaps with the Reverend Al Sharpton.

    This, I think, is the core of the dilemma. In attempting to improve integration among ethnic minorities in this country the authorities, naturally enough, reach out to the worst people possible — ‘community leaders’. These people are almost always puffed up, splenetic and toxic and do not remotely reflect the views of the majority. They are almost always cossetted in their radicalism and sense of victimhood by white liberals, who hate the United Kingdom far more than do most people in our minority communities. The protests remind me of those outside Drummond Middle School in Bradford nearly 40 years ago: a few handfuls of men screaming abuse about the headmaster, Ray Honeyford, whose wickedness in suggesting that maybe the Asian kids should master English and also learn to swim was enough to have him removed in the end. All spurred on by the unions and the far left. Honeyford was right then and few people now would contest that suggestion — and I wonder how many Muslim parents were really inflamed back then, and how much it was a case of left-Islamic rabble rousing?

    Compare the protests at Drummond School and Batley Grammar with those at Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham in 2019 over the teaching of progressive LGBTQI drivel to very young children. The latter, I would suggest, was a genuine outpouring of anger from a local community which, while largely Muslim, gained the support of plenty of non-Muslim parents. A sincere expression of disgust at boneheaded liberal overreach — and the majority of the protestors were women, i.e. mums, not community leaders. At Batley Grammar some Muslim parents have written in support of the suspended teacher and pupils have got up a petition to have him reinstated ASAP.

    Which leaves us with the unspeakably pathetic Batley headmaster, Gary Kibble — Mr Dogfood — and his ‘unequivocal apology’ for that depiction of Mohammed being shown to pupils. Sack this moron. He has no respect for freedom of speech and no respect for his teaching staff. The unions, natch, offered precious little support to the teacher after his suspension; he now fears for his life. It is the likes of Kibble, the left and ‘community leaders’ who exacerbate the cultural divides in our society: a corrosive alliance.

    *****************************************************************************8

    BTL:

    headteacher • 8 hours ago • edited
    I’d like to think, if I were still a practitioner, that I’d resist the pressure to humiliate myself, as the headteacher at Batley has apparently done. I am pretty sure he is as disgusted with his actions as are the rest of us, and as mortified at what seems to be the abandonment of his teacher. But this is to miss the point, specifically with regard to this headteacher, this school, and community high profile public servants – and many in the private sphere, too.

    During my time as a headteacher, I discovered (to my horror), that the boundary between the passage of a successful (nay, Outstanding) career, and the ignominy of victimisation, the moral paradox of operating morally in an immoral organisation, and the loss of purpose that entails, can be wafer thin. All it takes is attracting the attention of a corruptable process, and in pragmatic terms, a corrupted individual. What follows is horrific, unbelievable, and deeply disturbing. Much like what the headteacher at Batley discovered, I imagine.

    If we are serious about changing this disaster, we have to ask why a headteacher and a school can be so undermined, and why the headteacher must so pathetically prostrate himself, when they are doing their job. What is it that Good Men choose to look away, and sacrifice another principle without a fight?

    The answer is, of course, as I discovered, that corrupted organisations continue until challenged. But that takes determination, support, and courage. None of which are much in evidence among our media, government or public services. I won. I fought. The organisation lost. But the battle should never have been a possibility. And neither should this one. We either live in a western democracy, or we don’t. It is that simple.

    1. “3 teachers now suspended at the Batley [ISIS] school – the other two
      have been suspended because they knew in advance the teacher was going
      to show the cartoon. So the teacher asked the advice of two other
      teachers who all said it was OK to show the cartoon as an example of
      what causes extremists to behead people. It seems we now officially have
      Blasphemy Law in some/all parts of the UK….”
      TPTB are frit,in fact they’re bloody terrified,I see no way to avoid a defacto Caliphate over large swathes of what was once our land {:^((

      2. ‘Evening, Rik, “I see no way to avoid a defacto Caliphate over large swathes of what was once our land”

        The only avoidance appears to be a bloody war, waged by crusaders, within the UK who will put ALL ideological Muslims to the sword wherever they may be found.

        Were I just 20 years younger, I would seek a sword that fitted my hand on a Friday Evening.

    2. What is it that Good Men choose to look away, and sacrifice another principle without a fight?

      There are no good men among the Elites! They are all Liars or Traitors! Scum without principle and Cowards without conviction!

    3. It’s difficult to be a lone challenger. If you don’t get plenty of backup, you get filleted.

    4. Thanks Michael for posting. Hoorah for Rod and all Good Men & Women (whatever their political, religious or non-religious leaning…)

    5. As I said the other day, I’ll bet that there is a majority of slammers on the Governors at Batley Madrassah.

      1. …and a follow-up is required, bb2, apropos Pimlico and its debase Heatmaster.

  91. A quick thank-you to Sue MacFarlane for her upvotes over on Breitbart I need them all 🙂

    ETA: Not forgetting Sue Edison’s upvotes here on NTTL. Appreciate them all.

    1. Pleasure all mine Jack! Those merkins need a good slap sometimes! I got a lot of nasty remarks and down votes on Tuesday!

      1. They seem to be quite reasonable today 🙂
        Last time I looked, one of my replies to the parrot had attracted 28 down votes.
        Who knew she had so many braindead American fans
        The occasional down vote is nowt 🙂

        1. Excellent work! Have an upvote!
          It doesn’t bother me – at least someone is reading my work!

    2. Having reviewed the video – I’d say prolly yes. Though he did lick his lips a lot….

    1. Philistine that I am, the only Fauré I’m familiar with is his Pavane.
      I’ll have a listen.

        1. One of the attractions of NTTL SR.
          Nice tune, but I’ll stick with “Chorus Of The Hebrew Slaves..” And Pavane of course.
          I did say I was a bit of a philistine when it came to classical music.
          Radetzky March/William Tell Overture/Pomp And Circumstance more my style.

          2. In Paradisum is pencilled in for when I croak. The only music that brings a tear to this cynical old eye.

  95. Just back from painting the front of the two sheds. (a) it was freezing cold (b) it is a very boring job.

    Now to try to recover feeling in my hands….so I’ll leave you until Good Friday.

    A demain.

    1. Once you’ve finished doing yours, we have an array of sheds that need painting here. Best rates offered including lunch.

      1. Gus helped, briefly. He was hoping I’d let him back in the house. I didn’t!

  96. Yo All

    We have had a day shopping in the most aptlyerester named town in Uk

    First Note the suffix to a Place name : ‘by’.

    From Old Norse, meaning ‘settlement’ or ‘village’. Since this is at the end and weak, we don’t say /baɪ/, we say /bi/ weakly instead: ,ie Derby, Rugby. Wragby

    We went to Grimsby and by heaven it was Grim.

    3. Plenty “-by” in Norway. “-torp” (thorpe) too.
      I’m told that you can draw the boundaries of Viking ettlement in the UK by the towns called -by and -thorpe.

        1. Thwaites are mainly in the North West due to the Norwegian Vikings. who settled there.

      3. If you draw a line from around Chester to Suffolk, the place names ending in -by and-thorpe are mostly east of the line. My Standley ancestors were from Besthorpe/Attleborough in Norfolk, both Norse suffixes. It’s also a sort of accent boundary. In In the West Midlands, we say “foive” and “loike” which has a slight West Country sound to it, Go 20 miles into Worcestershire and it starts getting western rural but go East, say to Coventry and it’s more East Midlands, tending towards Northern English.

    1. Not so much Churchill’s “We’ll fight them on the beaches!”
      More Dad’s Army’s “We’re doomed!”

        1. We “brainwashed masses”, “sheeple” are still waiting for our self-defined “leaders” to show themselves 🙁

          1. I think there is evidence of fightback, whether those doing so will be encouraged to fight each other is a different matter.

          2. “I think there is evidence of fightback,…”
            Our media seem to shy away from reporting on those parts of the UK right enough.

          3. Not really Sue. We “sheeple” are still waiting for our self-defined “leaders” to show themselves.

        1. We were ferried about in Hueys when I did a training excercise in Pennsylvania (Yer septics don’t walk if it’s more than half a mile)
          Couldn’t help but have that music in my head on every flight 🙂
          The Yanks don’t half get a shock when they come to us on an exchange exercise and have to tab everywhere.

        2. The book ‘The Bright Shining Lie’ is a commendable read about the appalling conduct of the war in Vietnam.

    3. In 4% inflation and QE.

      However, a part of me says that’s what tax is for. The common good. The real question is why the feck is the BBC and any other media outlet not pointing out that this is what Brown spent every quarter of his destructive tenure. The debt he ran up before is why the covid debt is now so terrifying.

        1. You certainly did.

          The problem there was that Labour had infested the state with an entrenched voting block. That group, welfare dependent, state dependent of course voted Labour. Their livelihood dependend on it.

          Cameron’s majority – or minority, more like – was wafer thin and he couldn’t – perhaps wouldn’t – do the right thing to shred the state, radically cut taxes and repeal all of Brown’s malignant legislation.

  99. Like shooting ducks in a pond…

    Jack S Filthy_T_Shirt • 2 hours ago
    Take it you call your dog Kamala.
    1•Edit•Reply

    Filthy_T_Shirt Jack S • 2 hours ago
    No. I like my dog. Calling her Kamala would make me want to kick her daily.
    3•Reply•Share ›”

    1. Nah – it’s only a first instance court. The Govt will appeal AND WIN. (A lawyer writes).

    2. I bloody hope so. We have all been lied to for a year and more by cretins, faux scientists at SAGE and corrupt political pygmies like Hancock and Johnson.

      The whole debacle has been orchestrated by globalist Bankers about to go bust, supported by the corrupted World Health Organisation, financed by the ignorant megalomaniac Eugenicist cretin Bill Gates.

      Good grief. Anyone missing these connections and adhering to their ‘solutions’ is likely to be disabled or die from their poisonous injections.

  101. LAST POST

    Apropos the Toy Boy lipstick ishoo (raised by Our Susan).

    Remember that he spent at least €26,000 on make up last year. More than his Mum wife, I shouldn’t wonder.

  102. VERY LAST POST

    I meant to mention – LIVING WITH HITLER – a 2-part doc on Yesterday Channel. VERY GOOD STUFF.

    2. Nazi’s in Northern Europe in the ’30s on the Yesterday channel. Who would have guessed.
      Contrary to what the Yesterday channel would have us believe, WW2 involved more than Northern Europe.

  103. In an article headlines “Parents need to stop blaming schools for their children’s behaviour and start taking responsibility”.. this little gem…
    “All schools support mental and pastoral welfare with PSHE lessons and in 2019, Relationship and Sex Education classes became mandatory. In independent schools, these lessons are supplemented by brilliant and caring role models; housemasters and mistresses, as well as tutors, who in boarding schools are caring for our children 24/7.”
    Therein lies the problem possibly – unless they mean housemasters and housemistresses.

  104. An interesting assessment of the Covid response by a retired dentist, published on Lockdown Skeptics:

    What They Don’t Talk About on the BBC
    31 March 2021
    by Dr Mark Shaw

    I watched BBC Question Time on the TV on Thursday then listened to Radio 4’s Any Questions the following Saturday (27th March). I could not believe what I was not hearing. Not to worry, I thought, just ring in to Any Answers immediately following. Having got through to a call handler, I described my astonishment that, in the debate on vaccine passports, the single most important view (concerning medical ethics), had not been discussed. I explained that I would like to talk with the presenter (Anita Anand) about this glaring omission and that, if not able to do so myself, would be happy if at least one person was invited to air that view in the 45 minute programme. The lady acknowledged this and asked me to stand by for the duration of the programme in case I was invited. Almost the whole of ‘Any Answers’ was devoted to the vaccine debate but I didn’t receive a call and no one else had been allowed on, for even a minute (out of around three hours of airtime over the three programmes), to bring up a matter that the public so rightly deserved to hear.

    The issue I refer to is that the Government, by not immediately outlawing vaccination passports, is implicitly coercing the public into being vaccinated regardless of their individual risk of suffering from the effects of catching Covid. This issue was brought up passionately in Parliament recently by two politicians (Sir Desmond Swayne and Steve Baker) but got scant, if any, media coverage. The subject becomes more significant as the programme of completely unethical blanket vaccination is offered (without properly informed consent) to an increasingly younger population. For the vast majority of those that catch Covid it is nothing more than a mild irritant and, for every 1000 people under 50, virtually none will die. The under-50s are less likely to die from Covid than they would be from an accident or injury in a typical year.

    So the question has to be – “How can the BBC get away with pumping out the exact Government Covid line when it comes to lockdowns and vaccination?”

    In the dental clinic it was my duty (of care) to present risks accurately so that patients could make informed treatment decisions. My experience also tells me that the public sometimes prefer not to be offered this informed choice but instead to allow a person in position of responsibility to simply prescribe a treatment on trust.

    The BBC has a similar duty of care with regard to health reporting and should present relative risks proportionately. The public might be too trusting in the BBC and MSM for their own good as polls show the average Briton massively overestimates the risk of dying from Covid. Recently, the BBC has reported that ethnic minorities and some of the more socially deprived communities have been much more reluctant to be vaccinated. The BBC has (very disrespectfully in my opinion) implied that these groups need to be better educated and more savvy. Isn’t it more likely that these communities have more reason to be distrustful of Government and are therefore being more cautious?

    Polls show that the hard-earned trust the BBC used to enjoy is rapidly slipping away. Surely, there must be some in the BBC who feel very uncomfortable with the current state of affairs? Would any (either past or present) BBC employees be willing to come out (in person or anonymously) and expose what is going on?

    In the meantime, to restore balance and perspective, the BBC could debate (among many topics) the following:

    The scandalous failure and cost of NHS Track and Trace and the serious inaccuracies of the PCR and lateral flow tests upon which lockdown strategy were/are based.
    Why broadcasters have not been reporting over the years how lethal and devastating flu is and how serious its post-viral effects are; and that flu kills far more young people than Covid.
    Why the BBC is not reporting projections of the non-Covid death toll resulting from lockdown.
    While I believe informed adults should be able to choose to smoke, why are reporters not drawing attention to the fact that, despite a global annual death toll around three times that of Covid, the Government does not ban tobacco use to “save lives” and “protect the NHS”?
    Why has the BBC given so little time to discussing lockdown alternatives, the lack of evidence of the effectiveness of lockdowns and mask wearing, the HART Report (“COVID-19: An overview of the evidence”), and the enormous influence and control that SAGE has in Government policy making.
    Why, in discussing the pros and cons of this particular vaccine rollout, has the BBC submitted nothing but the ‘pros’ and virtually nothing of the risks?
    Why has there been no comprehensive investigative journalism into the scientific and healthcare authorities that prevent their employees from speaking openly about the effects lockdowns are having on their institutions, their patients and themselves?
    Unfortunately the BBC will need to air these issues and stats every hour of the day for the next 12 months to make up for the biased Covid reporting of the last year. But, as Mark Twain said, it is easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.

    Dr Mark Shaw is a retired dentist.

    2. “I watched BBC Question Time on the TV on Thursday then listened to Radio 4’s Any Questions the following Saturday …”
      Why???
      What is this “BBC” the further-right keep referring to?

      2. Another attempt at labelling.

        It’s boring. There is no ‘far right’. There’s only the vile Left. The rest of us are normal.

    3. There was a letter in my local rag claiming that vaccinations must be made compulsory! What?

      1. I lost another friend over that issue today. People have been so terrified by the government that they really think my declining the vaccine will put them at serious risk. Despite being vaccinated themselves.

        Most people I talk to actually believe that bodily autonomy is just some fuzzy concept that can be quite happily abandoned in the name of people feeling ‘safe’. Extremely disheartening.

        1. There is no logic to it. People seem unable to seek out facts themselves and make up their own minds.

          1. You’re right Conway. My sister is a prime example – she seems to have lost the ability to think sensibly and she has a scientific background. She was a pharmacist, now she teaches English at a private school in Athens, has a husband and family but is absolutely doom laden about covid! I know the Greeks are a bit OTT with their fake news but I honestly think she’s lost her marbles! I had to zip my mouth when she was ranting!
            How are things with you?

          2. Okay at the moment, thanks – apart from the minor irritations due to MOH’s lack of consideration for anyone in the real world (as opposed to the dementia world).

        2. The globalist plan is to both disable and divide society.

          This is why all of a sudden we contend with Black Lives Matter, Antifa, antagonistic Policing, black paramilitaries marching through Brixton, exemption of Pakistani rapists and paedophiles from prosecution and justice, acquiescence in black on black knife crime, acquiescence in illegal boat people migration and excusing of hate crime of blacks on indigenous white people.

          I could go on.

      2. The imposition of laws to require compulsory vaccination is against the Nuremberg Code 1947.

        People of this country need to be very sceptical about our present government’s programme. Our government are consisted of corrupt individuals, glad to take bribes from globalist sponsors and more directly from big pharmaceutical companies themselves under the ownership of the same globalist sponsors.

        This fact is as plain as day. Nobody but a fool would ignore the reality. We are being manipulated, day after day, to submit to poisonous experimental vaccines combined with ever more restrictions on those freedoms assumed and enjoyed from birth.

        1. Corim, you know it’s against the Nuremberg Code and so do I, but tell that to the brainwashed, ill educated sheep and they don’t have a clue.

          1. I doubt, Conners, that they’ve even heard of, or understood, what Nuremberg was and certainly will have no knowledge of the Nuremberg Code.

          2. Those who know nothing of history are doomed to repeat it, unfortunately. For years I have felt that I’m re-living the thirties (and economically, re-living the seventies).

    4. The last sentence captures what has happened in a nutshell. Great foresight by Mark Twain.

    1. “Take to the streets and make them pay for their tyranny and tax rises”

      As I reply to Breitbart regulars, to my cost, “After you McBluff.”

      1. If you call yourself a right winger, why do you try to deliberately wind up real right minded people?

        The bloke is sick of taxes and the pointless waste of time this year has forced on us. Unless you’re truly obnoxious you’d sympathise.

        1. If you believe you are the voice of the “silent majority” why do so few of us centre-right vote for the fringe parties you appear to support?

    2. Good-night, Rik, sleep well. We’ll take care of the Westminster bogey-men with step-ladders and piano-wire.

  106. Evening, all. I wouldn’t mind the repeats (the old programmes are much better than the new rubbish), if the beeb weren’t so woke.

    1. Watching Dibnah “Made in Britain”.
      So nostalgic, it brings a tear to the eye, so it does.

      1. Okay at the moment, thanks. How is Lincolnshire treating you? Found the hill yet? 🙂

          1. I was thinking of Lincoln – there’s a fairly steep drop down from the IBCC memorial.

          2. Gringley:

            “From its situation on the loftiest of the promontories which overlook the wide extent of Misson and Misterton Carrs, it commands such extensive prospects, that the minster of Lincoln may be seen from it on a clear day, across the vale of the Trent, whilst in the nearer distance, the Chesterfield Canal appears emerging from the tunnel at Drakeholes, and winding under the long ridge of hills which extends eastward to the Trent.”

          3. Crikey, there are some memories. I went to the Blue Bell in G-o-t-H in the spring of 1980 and what a splendid little village inn it was. About 18 months later I returned and was appalled by what had been done to it. It had been refurbished i.e. sterilised. The old tables and chairs, pews and settles and all kinds of knick-knacks had been removed and stud-back velour seating installed all around. The young couple running it stood pensively behind the bar, waiting in vain for the return of the customers who had abandoned it. They were embarrassed and we felt sorry for them.

            I haven’t been back since but I’m told that it has had most of the damage undone, even if some photos and videos suggest an IKEA influence.

    3. Good evening Conner
      A few days ago we watched a 1982 BBC production, on DVD, of the Barchester Chronicles.
      Really good from the days when the BBC hadn’t forgotten how to make quality programmes.

  107. No more lockdowns – Britain will treat Covid like flu, says Chris Whitty

    Accepting some virus deaths is price of allowing people to live a ‘whole life’, says chief medical officer

    By Sarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR • 1 April 2021 • 4:43pm

    Lockdowns are unlikely to be needed again as Britain learns to treat coronavirus like flu, Prof Chris Whitty has said. The chief medical officer said that up to 25,000 people die in a bad flu year without anyone noticing and that accepting some Covid deaths would be the price of keeping schools and business open and allowing people to live a “whole life”. Prof Whitty, speaking on a Royal School of Medicine webinar, said the Government would only be forced to “pull the alarm cord” if a dangerous variant arrived, against which people had no immunity and which sparked exponential growth.

    “Covid is not going to go away,” he said. “You’ve got to work out what’s a rational policy to this and here I would differentiate quite a lot between a pandemic environment and what you get with seasonal flu. Every year, somewhere between 7,000 and 9,000 citizens die of flu, most of them very elderly, and every few years you get a bad flu year where 20,000 to 25,000 die of it. The last time we had that was three years ago and no one noticed it. So it is clear we are going to have to manage it, at some point, rather like we manage the flu. Here is a seasonal, very dangerous disease that kills thousands of people and society has chosen a particular way round it.”

    Prof Whitty said it was important to bring Covid deaths as low as possible, but warned that society would not tolerate being locked down to prevent similar numbers of deaths to those from flu.

    “We want to get as close as we can [to zero] but the question is how do you balance that against other priorities?” he said. “What are people prepared to put up with? What we’ve demonstrated in the last year is we don’t have to have flu at all if we don’t want to, because the things we’ve done against Covid have led to virtually no influenza. If next year we say ‘we can deal with flu, everyone lock down over the winter’ I think the medical profession would not make itself popular with the general public. We need to work out some balance which actually keeps it at a low level, minimises deaths as best we can, but in a way that the population tolerates, through medical countermeasures like vaccines and in due course drugs, which mean you can minimise mortality while not maximising the economic and social impacts on our fellow citizens.”

    Prof Whitty said although there would always be more measures that could be put in place to save lives, such as shutting schools and universities or preventing relatives visiting the elderly in care homes, such restrictions prevented people from living a “whole life”. Asked by Sir Simon Wessely, professor of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London, whether lockdowns would be reimposed if cases rose, even in local areas, Prof Whitty said: “No, I don’t think so.”

    However, he added: “Society will not tolerate more than a certain number of people being ill, even if they know it’s going to go away come the spring, and the area where we’re going to have to pull the alarm cord is if a variant of concern comes in that we can see is now back to a situation of unconstrained growth because the immunological response to it is just not there.”

    Boris Johnson has previously vowed that the current unlocking of restrictions is irreversible, and next week the Government will determine whether shops can reopen on April 12 as planned. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that infections in the community are continuing to fall, dropping eight per cent in a week.

    However, Mr Johnson warned last week that cases were rising in Europe and a third wave may spread to Britain from the continent. Latest data from the King’s College ZOE symptom tracker app also suggests the ‘R’ number may now be at one, or even above in some areas. The ONS warned that cases may be rising in the East of England. Prof Whitty said that it was impossible to prevent variants from coming into the UK, and argued that shutting the borders would be unlikely to prevent new infections.

    The Government has been strongly criticised for keeping the borders open during both lockdowns, even though studies have shown that the vast majority of Britain’s cases were imported from countries like Spain and Italy.

    “We have to accept the idea that stopping variants coming to the UK is not a realistic starting point, but you can slow it down,” he said. “Anyone who believes you can put up some border policy that stops it is misunderstanding the problem completely. While the ‘R’ is less than one, which it has been for two or three months, then new variants don’t have much of a foothold. Once we start to open things up, then if a variant comes in it has the opportunity to spread and the more cases you import the quicker the starting point. What we’re trying to do is slow it down.”

    Prof Whitty also said that it was sensible to keep an “open mind” on whether the AstraZeneca vaccine caused blood clots until it was proven otherwise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/01/no-lockdowns-britain-will-treat-coronavirus-like-flu-says/

      2. Assuming this is a real post and not another April 1st joke:

        This effing Joker Whitty and his chums Vallance snd Ferguson have almost destroyed our economy with the connivance of the effing politician dolts Hancock snd Johnson.

        A bit late for this Whitty prat to change his tune. The git should be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity along with Vallance, Hancock and Johnson.

    2. They’ll just invent a new dreadful strain.

      This episode has taught me to be even more cynical than I used to be.

    4. I wonder what has brought this almost u-turn on? Is he trying to be the first to point out what lots of us on here have thought almost from the start, that we have to live with this virus just like the flu? We cannot lives like this any longer. All the authoritarian restrictions should be lifted immediately. The problem will be convincing the sheeple to go back to work as they used to without wearing masks or social distancing.

      Some of what he has said is still rubbish as far as I’m concerned, I.e. “society will not tolerate more than a certain number of people being ill, even if they know it’s going to go away with spring …”. If they stop shoving it in our faces every five minutes no one will even know how many become ill.

      He also says “while the R rate is less than 1, which it has been for two or three months” … that was supposed to be another milestone in the “fight” against the virus which, when achieved, would lead to easing restrictions. Funny how every time we achieve what they’re aiming for the goal posts move further away again.

      Wonder what his thought s now are on vaccine passports? They are all charlatans and frauds.

      1. We got their number months ago. We now need to hold them to account.

        I have long advocated a Nuremberg style trial for these bastards. Crimes Against Humanity has nothing on this shenanigans orchestrated to benefit globalist billionaires and their Pharma investments.

  108. One of the delights of living in Bath (and to some extent large parts of the Capital) is the fact that all the minor roads have a 20mph speed limit. This means that they are mostly empty as folk in a hurry tend to avoid them. However, the local traffic Policeman is keen to ensure that the limit plus10% isn’t exceeded. I’ve discovered that the cruise control is perfect for monitoring one’s speed when travelling along these roads. It certainly pisses off those behind who’d like to press on. Given the majority of the locals voted for the councillors who imposed these speed limits I’m delighted to demonstrate democracy in action….

    1. Yo Sr

      Mr T(humb) has been my co-driver for the last 15 years, when I got my second Disco

      He works well when we tow the caravan as well, it has never tried to overtake us!!

      He does upset Merc and BMW drivers though as we go through quiet country towns and villages

          2. There was a shop in Mablethorpe called Chizzits

            Most holiday makers came from Leicester/Nottingham area and that was the firat thing that they asked

    2. I use cruise control when going through long road works it amazing how many people go so slow up inclines.

    3. Same here. I also use cruise control for long main roads in France with an 80 kph speed limit and fixed cameras.
      People overtake me fairly regularly!

      1. A year or so ago the London Borough of Croydon introduced 20mph limits on its side roads. I found that when travelling at 20mph some drivers would overtake me at ?40 mph – so much for safety!!!

          1. I agree in part. However, I understand that cars travelling slowly generate more pollution ( I may of course be wrong).

          2. Londonistan, everything is anti-motorist

            Trafficlight timing
            Speed limits

            To name but two

          3. That is an interesting point. I have never driven at 20 mph long enough to get a reliable fuel consumption number from my car compared with say, driving at 30 mph, but it could very well be true.

      2. Years ago I set the cruise control on my Saab Turbo at its maximum speed of 126 mph on the M6 motorway between Grenoble and Orleans.

        My wife was thankfully asleep at the time and I needed to make rapid progress.

        The road was straight but then suddenly I encountered a sharp bend. Fortunately a press on the brake pedal enabled me to decelerate and negotiate the bend.

        Even with cruise control you have to remain alert.

    4. Dad has various old cars with non reflective number plates and he says cameras won’t catch him !

    5. Remind me what report was it that cast doubt on any perceived improvement to road safety as a result of the 20mph limits in that city of Bath, indeed they were supposed to be detrimental to road safety.
      Can you remember the response of the Limp Dum council at the time, something along the lines of the report may well be true but the 20mph limits will remain as they can’t afford to remove all the signage etc.
      Still as you say, if the daft buggers of Bath keep voting them in, they must learn to accept the consequences of their actions.
      The same argument could be made a the national level, keep voting for the clowns, keep watching it all go to hell. A mixture of not enough people voting for meaningful change when they had a choice and these newer political parties for whatever reason delivering what we desperately need, for example Farage standing down candidates at the last GE. We can’t vote for change when there is no box on the ballot paper that even holds out the hope of it.

  109. Mr Somewhere has his say.

    Any BLM activists reading this race report will find their beliefs shredded

    Tony Sewell’s report is the honest version of Britain’s race story that many of us have been waiting years for

    DAVID GOODHART

    No single government commission report can usually claim to have vastly changed the political narrative. But a few were big enough to stick in the memory – Beeching on railways, Fulton on the civil service, Scarman on the Brixton riots, Taylor on football stadiums.

    Let’s hope that Tony Sewell’s report on race in Britain, published on Wednesday, joins that pantheon. It is the liberal-minded but honest, evidence-based story on race that many of us who have been writing about this subject for many years have been waiting for.

    It pays proper homage to the Macpherson report of 1999, on the Metropolitan Police’s failures over the Stephen Lawrence murder. But it also draws a line under it, not least in its scepticism about the casual use of the term ‘institutional racism’ that was popularised by Macpherson.

    The Sewell commission was called into being last summer at the height of the Black Lives Matter demonstrations by a nervous Government that was not by instinct friendly to the protests but keen to be seen to be doing something.

    But if any BLM activists dip into the 264-page report they will find their beliefs gently shredded by an older generation of accomplished ethnic minority professionals, who say this: “Our views were formed by growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. And our experience has taught us that you do not pass on the baton of progress by cleaving to a fatalistic account that insists nothing has changed.

    “And nor do you move forward by importing bleak new theories about race that insist on accentuating our differences. It is closer contact, mutual understanding across ethnic groups and a shared commitment to equal opportunities that has contributed to the progress we have made.”

    The anti-racist Left has deplored this report ever since one of its most powerful opponents, Munira Mirza, now running No 10’s policy unit, chose another leading voice of the free-thinking ethnic minority intelligentsia, the British Caribbean educationalist Tony Sewell, to head it. Of the 10 commission members (only one of whom is white, and five of whom are black Caribbean or black African) there is not one who might be described as having orthodox Left-liberal views on race. But the report is not just a counter-polemic to the BLM rhetoric of endemic racism, it is a serious, evidence-rich case for shifting the debate about race and racism on to a new and more objective footing.

    Will it cut through? It is important it does because last summer’s eruption illuminated just how large the gap had grown between reality and a racism discourse that verges on the paranoid.

    Many of us familiar with the data about ethnic outcomes found ourselves shouting at our TV sets last summer as this relatively open country was constantly mis-described as a racist tyranny. Do you not know, I bellowed, that almost all big minority groups outperform white British pupils in school? That black Caribbean women earn on average more than white British women?

    These factoids and more are on display in a report that celebrates the underplayed story of ethnic minority achievement. It also stresses how differentiated the minority experience has become, hence the well-trailed advice to dump the BAME acronym.

    But what is so radical about the report is not just the optimism and the myth busting, but rather the explanation for ethnic minority failure.

    Racial disadvantage, the report says, is real but not generally caused by white racism. There can be racial disadvantage without racists because of a legacy of distrust and lack of opportunity in the past. And it often overlaps with social class disadvantage. Disadvantaged white people are held back by many of the same obstacles and most recommendations in the report are sensibly aimed at disadvantaged people from all groups.

    Moreover, as everyone knows but is rarely stated, different group outcomes are heavily influenced by the histories, parenting styles and educational aspirations of the different ethnic groups themselves. It is not a coincidence that British Indians and British Chinese are at the top of all the education and average earnings tables. It is also not just a coincidence that the family life of those two groups is characterised by stable, two-parent families, while in the least successful groups, British Caribbeans and poorer white families, around two thirds of children are being raised in one-parent families.

    The report is unusually honest about crime, too. How often does one read reports about disproportionate levels of stop and search in black communities without any mention of the disproportionate levels of violent crime? Not here. Indeed, one can feel a barely suppressed anger about the scourge of knife and gang violence and the lack of leadership from black politicians on these issues.

    The report could be criticised for being rather too black and London-centric, reflecting the background of Sewell himself, and rather too little concerned with anti-Muslim prejudice.

    It acknowledges the persistence of racial biases and welcomes the greater sensitivity to racism but is more interested in tackling particular obstacles – for example, the “affinity bias” that can block the progress of minority professionals – rather than waving around generalised accusations of systemic racism.

    For, as the report notes, we have come a long way and, in this respect at least, the rest of Europe could learn a lot from post-Brexit Britain.

    David Goodhart works for Police Exchange and is an EHRC commissioner but writes here in a personal capacity

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/04/01/blm-activists-reading-race-report-will-find-beliefs-shredded/
    ________________________________________________________________

    Key facts from the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report

    The report finds that while there remain disparities at the top of public and private sectors, it is an improving picture and there are increasing levels of diversity in elite professions such as law and medicine.

    The report also notes the pay gap between all ethnic minorities and the white majority population has shrunk to 2.3 per cent and in 2019, among those younger than 30, there was no significant pay gap for any ethnic minority group and the white majority in employment.

    The Commission highlights a growing divergence in educational achievement between Black Africans and Black Caribbeans.

    New analysis commissioned for CRED found that in 2019 GCSE exams, the Black Caribbean group was the only ethnic group who performed lower than White British pupils.

    Black African pupils performed above the White British average.

    The percentage of those from a Black Caribbean background achieving GCSE A*-C in both English and maths is 50.3 per cent, whereas it is 61.8 per cent for White British pupils and 62.7 per cent for Black African pupils.
    ________________________________________________________________

    1. We are recording it, Mags, to view at leisure. Best Beloved wants to watch MasterChef. In that I don’t share her taste.

    2. Very hard to follow – but gripping, atmospheric and I loved the photography too. I must have seen it before sometime, or maybe only bits of it. Some parts were familiar.

    1. “Seemingly we the peoples are our own worst enemies,…”

      You Batten fans speak for yourselves.
      Rest of us are busy getting on with our lives.

      1. How come the further-right are so keen to quote the BBC as source for their “facts?”

          1. “How come the further-right are so keen to quote the BBC as source for their “facts?””

          5. You keep on believing what the BBC tells you then WS.
            Rest of us will continue to ignore them.

          6. Read the article, follow the link in it (about the new Gov UK guidance) to relieve yourself of your ignorance, then come back and (a) explain your ‘further-right’ reference and (b) provide your evidence that keep on believing what the BBC tells me.

          9. Water off a ducks back WS 🙂
            When it comes down to it, abuse and ad homs are all the further-/far-right have to offer.

          10. It wasn’t abuse. It was an accurate description of you. You offer nothing to any debate on here. You just make a noise.

            And I expect we’ll be waiting for years to get an explanation of ‘far-right/further-right’ from you.

          13. Like Andrew Neil to Labours Anna Eagle on the Daily politics…

            “You still haven’t answered the question!!!

            Reminder of the question: “You regard the BBC as a reliable source of facts?

          16. 1. There’s much on the BBC that should be regarded with scepticism but not all BBC articles are inaccurate.
            2. Referencing a BBC article doesn’t indicate a keenness on the BBC as a source, whoever’s doing the referencing.
            3. Tell the forum what is inaccurate about this:
            Under the new guidance, every customer aged 16 and over will have to check in to NHS test and trace before entering a venue, or give their contact details to staff.

          17. I think that’s what we had to do last summer, when they let us out for a few weeks. As I refuse to use the NHS app, I remember leaving a phone number at a couple of places.

          18. 1. There’s much on the BBC that should be regarded with scepticism but not all BBC articles are inaccurate.
            2. Referencing a BBC article doesn’t indicate a keenness on the BBC as a source, whoever’s doing the referencing.
            3. Tell the forum what is inaccurate about this:
            Under the new guidance, every customer aged 16 and over will have to check in to NHS test and trace before entering a venue, or give their contact details to staff.

          19. Your punctuation is also shit, gobshite, spend a half-hour mulling over that comment, correct your poor grammar and then we will continue to ignore you.

          21. I haven’t even started, But I think that you’re finished. Go away and pull your foreskin over your head. Disqus has now become remarkably slow, perhaps that’s due to the gobshite mill.

          23. It wasn’t abuse. It was an accurate description of you. You offer nothing to any debate on here. You just make a noise.

            And I expect we’ll be waiting for years to get an explanation of ‘far-right/further-right’ from you.

  113. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Surely in our sophisticated information age, no one could be tricked by obvious stunts… yet we are taken for April Fools every day

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9428589/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-taken-April-Fools-day.html

    That’s how you end up this week with the crazy scenes at a school in Pimlico, London, where the headmaster has caved in to pupils’ demands to take down the Union flag and review a curriculum based on ‘white kings and queens’.

    You couldn’t make it up.

    Then again, you couldn’t make up most of the proselytising and propaganda which passes for ‘news’ these days, especially on TV. In post-truth Britain, it’s virtually impossible to tell fact from fiction.

    The plain fact is we’re living with April Fool’s madness every day of the week, from multi-millionaire professional footballers ‘taking the knee’ in empty stadiums to coppers skateboarding with Extinction Rebellion protesters.

    So why shouldn’t we take everything we read as gospel? One newspaper claimed yesterday that a statue of the Prime Minister’s former adviser Dominic Cummings is to be erected in Barnard Castle, his Covid Waterloo.

    Far-fetched? But then again, the University of Winchester has just spent £24,000 on a statute of Greta Thunberg. Yes, really.

    As David Brent from The Office would say: FACT!

    We live in a world of fake news, in which everyone is now allowed to have their own ‘truth’.

    If Meghan ‘Thee Stallion’ Markle announced on the Oprah Winfrey show that spaghetti grows on trees, who would dare contradict her? They’d be denounced as ‘racists’, cancelled and cast into the outer darkness.

    Young people may be bombarded with ‘facts’ on social media, but that doesn’t mean they’re any better informed than their grandparents.

    2. Don’t worry. In my home city of Worcester, reported yesterday, they are planning yet another footbridge over the Severn. The city elders identified a problem with the lack of a safe wildlife corridor for the rats west of the river to fraternise with those in the city centre, east of the river, and have therefore designed a bridge for them to pass safely without disturbing the traffic or worrying human residents.

      This was after a successful underpass for fish to get from the racecourse to the Severn after a flood. In 2007, punters were able to substitute fish racing for horseracing, and enabled business to be carried on as usual, but when the course dried out, there were animal cruelty issues at stake, and fish flapping and gasping for air in the mud was not good for the tote’s image. The underpass put that right, and council officials could get on with the more important task of chasing seagulls out of fast food outlets.

      1. Well that is very kind of the city council to care so much about rats. I assume the corridor starts in the Council buildings?

    3. Gosh! Will he get away with “Meghan ‘Thee Stallion’ Markle?” I mean, it’s not likely to be “Her Truth”, is it.

      This column sums up how I feel about the news now. I couldn’t have cared less about stupid April Fools jokes on a day when a headmaster caved in and promised not to teach about “white kings and queens” in history lessons.
      Since the reset got underway, the news has been dire, every day. Covid, vaccine passports (will never be introduced says forked-tonged Minister), BLM, 84 million Americans allegedly voting for a candidate whose incompetence is deliberately covered up by the media, hate against Trump, hate against Christians, hate against white people etc etc etc.

    4. Gosh! Will he get away with “Meghan ‘Thee Stallion’ Markle?” I mean, it’s not likely to be “Her Truth”, is it.

      This column sums up how I feel about the news now. I couldn’t have cared less about stupid April Fools jokes on a day when a headmaster caved in and promised not to teach about “white kings and queens” in history lessons.
      Since the reset got underway, the news has been dire, every day. Covid, vaccine passports (will never be introduced says forked-tonged Minister), BLM, 84 million Americans allegedly voting for a candidate whose incompetence is deliberately covered up by the media, hate against Trump, hate against Christians, hate against white people etc etc etc.

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