Thursday 1 July: There is not much point in replacing school bubbles with daily testing

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/30/letters-not-much-point-replacing-school-bubbles-daily-testing/

554 thoughts on “Thursday 1 July: There is not much point in replacing school bubbles with daily testing”

  2. Good morning, all. And a very happy month. Pinch and a punch. Let us hope that it’ll be a jollier month for weather.

    1. Good start here in N Essex, blue sky and sunshine at the moment. Hope it lasts as I am planning to have my first raspberry pick for jam.

      1. Drizzle! Well done with the rasps. Ours are a slightly later variety but full offlower.

        1. My early variety are later this year than last by about a fortnight but the Autumn variety are starting to flower now.

  3. Flashers’ rights. Spiked. 1 July 2021.

    So it’s come to this, has it? Trans activists are now defending the right of men to show their penises to seven-year-old girls? That is the properly mental take-home message of the Wi Spa scandal, in which a heroic woman marched to the front desk of an LA spa and demanded to know why there was a person with a penis – what we used to call ‘a man’ – parading around the women’s changing rooms. She’s been branded transphobic and a bigot. And there you have it. It’s bigotry to defend the right of women and girls not to have to look at someone’s dick and balls, and it’s progressive to defend the right of the owner of said dick and balls to show them to whomever he damn well pleases.

    Morning everyone. Just another small step on the Road to Oblivion! One is minded of G K Chesterton’s observation.

    When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.

    The Death of Christianity has left a moral void into which the West is collapsing. Its leaders are Cowards steeped in Corruption. Lies are their means of communication.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/30/flashers-rights/

    1. 334967+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Thinking outside the box and political connotations, rehashed leadership material for the lab party one anthony charlie lynton.

      Easing in a little droop in moral standards is nothing compared to the “raging plague” and the planet burning up.

    2. (Sorry AM, this is a bit of a digression)

      This reminds me of when I used to take my (young) girls to the male changing rooms at the University Sports Centre. It was fine. However, I realised that another parent had waited too long when I noticed two girls (what age?) giggling and smirking from their viewings of various young, and not at all modest**, males taking their open showers ….

      ** At my sports club, there was a stark difference between Asians, always modestly using individual cabins (installed for them) and white Brits, with the latter almost universally using the open showers.

    4. That’s why they are called ‘trans’, as in ‘transitioning’. Once their dangling bits are cut off they magically become women, albeit still with XY chromosomes.

    1. Grattis på födelsedagen, Rastus. Hope you have a lovely day. 👍🏻🎂

    4. Congratulations to you for keeping him in such fine fettle, and a very happy birthday to the old boy.

    8. Have a great day, and may your next year be better then the last one.

    14. Thank you, my love

      Diana, the late Princess of Wales, would have been 60 today.

      I am two years older than Charles, the Prince of Wales. I remember that I was 35 when he married his young bride and I thought how lucky he was and I wondered if I would ever find a beautiful young woman to be my wife.
      Little did I know that I would be so much more fortunate in love than the Prince was and that at the age of 40 I would find someone who was not only lovely to look at but someone with whom I have shared love, humour, companionship and our two sons.

      A bit naff to wash one’s clean linen in public – but what the hell – it’s my birthday!

      1. True love – some of us are incredibly lucky!
        Charles and Diana should never have married, seemed unsuited at the time. The marriage was arranged for him with a suitably healthy brood mare (I use that phrase as the Royal Family love their horses); I suspect she was dazzled by his status and her potential future status. After all, what modern girl would marry an older man she had only met a handful of times. The fairytale wedding for a naïve young girl. With hindsight, my son’s ex was more in love with the idea of a fancy wedding, complete with all the tacky modern features (sweet cart at the reception, seating prominence at the reception given to their friends, immediate family shoved in corners …..)

        1. Yet I am two years older than Charles and Caroline is a year younger than Diana would have been so our age difference is three years greater. On the other hand Caroline was a woman of 24 when she met me and not a retarded child like Diana!

          Funnily enough the difference in age is not necessarily important and several of our friends with the most successful marriages have spouses who are several years apart in age.

          2. When I was growing up, our neighbours had a ten year age gap with the husband being younger. A lovely, well suited couple. One of my son’s is six years younger than his wife. It’s simply not an issue.

        2. I have it from reliable sources who should know that Diana set her cap at Charles and was determined to get him. I never saw her as naive; more manipulative.

          1. Just like her younger son’s controller then. Mind you, I thought Diana was ‘selected’ from a shortlist of potential brides. It was certainly creepy that they only met a handful of times before the wedding. I seem to remember that Charles had dated Diana’s older sister at one point.

  5. Morning all

    SIR – What can we do to impress upon politicians that returning to normal does not mean replacing the current set of restrictions and rules with a different set?

    It is alarming that the Government is considering replacing school bubbles with daily testing of children in contact groups. That still sounds like bubbles, and a school having to line up 50 children for a socially distanced test is still disruptive to their education.

    There are nearly 40,000 words in the main Covid statutory instrument. It has already been amended so much that it is virtually impossible to comprehend. It does not need amending again. Will our ministers commit to removing it completely?

    Julian Gall

    Godalming, Surrey

    SIR – The teachers’ unions are to blame for damage done to our children’s education and their mental health.

    Over the past 18 months, the unions have deliberately obstructed the Government, and the consequences of the Leftist elite’s activities can be seen throughout our educational institutions.

    David Sisson

    Huddersfield, West Yorkshire

    SIR – The EU, the United States and Canada are all vaccinating children over 12. Why aren’t we?

    Carole O’Connor

    London SW11

    SIR – Yesterday, a full page of the paper was taken up with the grave concerns of parents and teachers about the effect of lockdown on children. While I am sympathetic, I suggest that the human species is far more robust than may generally be assumed.

    When I went to boarding school just after the last war, a number of new boys had survived some years in Japanese concentration camps. While some boys may have had bad memories, they fully integrated into school life. Years later, the evidence from some research on the matter suggests that their successes in life were just as great, if not greater, than their contemporaries’.

    R Michael James

    Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

    Placeholder image for youtube video: 5iQC_Af88xs

    SIR – Why has it taken until now for the type of face mask best suited to hospitals to be established by Cambridge research?

    Covid-19 has a particulate size measured in microns, and it can be removed by using masks to this level of efficiency, such as the FFP3. Had someone asked the authorities at Porton Down in March 2020, they would have provided this information.

    Trevor Yates

    Burford, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Given the presence of large choral ensembles in public houses during the England Euro 2020 match, perhaps the return of singing in worship could be expedited if the Church authorities applied for a temporary licence to serve alcohol in their establishments.

    John Catterall

    Preston, Lancashire

    SIR – Whatever comes up during the Prime Minister’s meeting with the German chancellor, I wonder if he will have been advised not to mention the football?

    K B Moore

    Exmouth, Devon

    SIR – What a fillip for a nation flagging during the current pandemic.

    I, not always a football fan, felt huge elation for a well-won match. Bravo and thank you, manager and players.

    Loretta Tinckham

    Lanchères, Somme, France

    SIR – It was lovely to see Prince George enjoying the game between England and Germany (report, June 30), but how sad to see him very formally dressed in a jacket and tie. He could have worn an England football shirt. This is the 21st century.

    David Gealy

    Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Why did Prince George, our next king but two, wear a tie striped in the American way?

    Diana Spencer

    Herne Bay, Kent

    SIR – When will the media – and, in particular, television channels – understand that not everyone is interested in a lot of overpaid individuals kicking a ball around?

    There also appears to be one set of rules for footballers and another for everyone else. When someone scores a goal, the entire team is allowed to hug and cuddle – yet I can only have four friends to tea.

    Other sportspeople, such as those at Wimbledon, abide by the Covid rules.

    Graham Allworth

    Warlingham, Surrey

    SIR – Did England win “despite Brexit”?

    Nick Jones

    Cardiff

    How banks grew worse

    SIR – As a retired, old-fashioned bank manager, I also lament the decline in customer service. However, I do not believe Tony Foot’s letter (June 29) tells the whole story.

    Banks need to make profits in order to pay their shareholders a fair return. If they did not do so, they would be unable to generate capital, limiting the amount of money they could lend.

    In my day, customers received very good service, but paid for it through charges. This allowed small branches to be profitable and stay open.

    Then along came non-branch banking, free of charge. Local branches became unprofitable and had to close. They were replaced by large, impersonal institutions providing complex and expensive services for businesses. What remained for most people was online and telephone banking, and cash machines.

    You get what you pay for. Or, rather, if you don’t pay for it, you don’t get it.

    John Hutchinson

    Addingham, West Yorkshire

    Wasp wars

    SIR – Ben Aldiss could not be more wrong in his defence of social wasps.

    Aside from attacking bee hives to provide food for their grubs, they are the only species other than humans to wage wars on their own kind.

    If every social wasp and hornet were eradicated from Britain, the bee and hoverfly populations – our two most important pollinators – would grow. Meanwhile, the solitary wasps, such as the wood wasp and ichneumons, could carry out their important tasks free of another predator.

    Mark Boyle

    Johnstone, Renfrewshire

    SIR – Harry de Quetteville says that the end of June – the deadline for EU citizens to apply for “settled status” in post-Brexit Britain – “marks the conclusion of one of the largest and smoothest immigration exercises conducted by any country in the developed world, ever”.

    This has not been my experience. I am a British citizen, and my wife and I have two British children, but we are still waiting for her to receive settled status, despite her continuous employment in the UK. We sent off our documents nearly six weeks ago, but have not received anything except an acknowledgement of her application.

    I have a job interview, but my passport is with the Home Office, so how will I prove my citizenship?

    The EU settlement scheme may be large, but it is anything but smooth.

    Tom McManan

    London SW16

    Preventing poverty

    SIR – Since founding The Big Issue, I have spent nearly 30 years supporting more than 100,000 vulnerable people. I believe that prevention is the key to unpicking our complicated social problems, so to lift people out of poverty permanently I have introduced a Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill. To take this Bill through Parliament, I have joined forces with Simon Fell, Conservative MP for Barrow and Furness.

    Despite the millions spent every year, people are not getting out of poverty. It costs taxpayers an average £1 million to produce one Big Issue vendor, because 80 per cent of them grew up in local authority care, which costs £15,000 per person per month.

    Prevention is the route to real social mobility. My co-sponsor knows that this Government’s ambitious levelling-up agenda will only be achieved through long-term solutions. Not only does prevention make sound economic sense, it is also at the top of voters’ concerns. This why I am hopeful that this will be the year of the Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill.

    Lord Bird

    Editor-in-Chief, The Big Issue

    London N4

    Toast technology

    SIR – For winter teatimes, my husband toasts crumpets (report, June 29) at our open fire with a fork made from an old wire coat hanger. After buttering, we grind pepper on them. Delicious.

    Annabel Bailey

    Great Shefford, Berkshire

    No champagne? Bring out the British bubbly

    grape-picking at Breaky Bottom vineyard below the Sussex Downs

    Vine intervention: grape-picking at Breaky Bottom vineyard below the Sussex Downs CREDIT: alamy

    SIR – “There may be no champagne” at a Sussex wedding, writes Charles Moore. Thanks to Brexit, Covid and customs forms, 300 bottles remain in a Calais warehouse.

    This should not present a problem. In Britain, we produce some of the finest sparkling wine in the world.

    Within Sussex, the fantastically named Breaky Bottom vineyard produces fabulous, gold medal-winning sparkling. We have the climate, the soils, the expertise and the passion. We can use brilliant hybrid grape varieties to produce deliciously diverse wines. And our boutique winemakers regularly beat the mass-produced offerings of their French counterparts in blind-tasting competitions around the world.

    Andy Mounsey

    Velfrey Vineyard

    Lampeter Velfrey, Pembrokeshire

    Why an officer retains his service rank for life

    SIR – Mech Eng Rupert Wilson (Letters, June 29) asks why military officers use their “defunct” ranks in your letters columns.

    I have used my naval rank when writing to your paper on naval and maritime matters. My commission in the Royal Navy is for life and certainly not defunct.

    Where it may benefit the Senior Service, use of retired rank is not discouraged, likewise the wearing of naval uniform (if it still fits). If it is not a sea story, my service rank is irrelevant.

    Letter Writer Lester May

    London NW1

    SIR – What Mech Eng Rupert Wilson (retd) must understand is that an officer never leaves the military; one merely ceases to be paid.

    Sqn Ldr Charles Young (retd)

    Watlington, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Retired military officers can use their defunct titles, as the military title indicates an appointment, rather than a qualification.

    Colonel Philip Barry (retd)

    Dover, Kent

    SIR – When leaving the service, I received the following: “Correspondence from the Naval Secretary’s office never uses the word ‘retired’ after the name of an officer on the Retired List.

    “This is because officers retain their Commission in the RN/RM. Retirement is the transfer from the Active List to the Retired List; both are lists of the Royal Navy.”

    Christopher Donnithorne

    Alverstoke, Hampshire

    SIR – Provided Mr Wilson continues to pay his institute fees, he can continue to use his post-nominals.

    Jim White CEng MIMechE (retd)

    Stroud, Gloucestershire

    1. SIR – The EU, the United States and Canada are all vaccinating children over 12. Why aren’t we?
      Carole O’Connor

      Well Carole, if you changed the word “vaccinating” to “sterilising”, would you be quite as enthusiastic just because those others are doing it?

      I must wonder, because we don’t really have any certainty as to the the long-term effects of this experimental treatment.

      1. Good reply, sos.

        Is Ms O’Connor for real or is “she” a government stooge deployed to push an agenda. Twitter is replete with such people.

        1. We have had both AZ jabs, because the emotional cost to me and particularly my wife of never seeing our family again in the flesh exceeds what we perceive to be the vaccination risks.

          It is a personal choice and should remain so, but the travel restrictions proposed for the unvaccinated have forced our action.

          If I was 40 years younger I would be very wary and I would have been very, very hesitant to force it on my children.

    2. “... felt huge elation for a well-won match. Bravo and thank you, manager and players. Loretta Tinckham”

      I quote, Loretta, in the final words of, Gone With The Wind, “Personally, my dear, I couldn’t give a damn.”

    3. Well Mr Yates, you ask: “Why has it taken until now for the type of face mask best suited to hospitals to be established by Cambridge research?
      Covid-19 has a particulate size measured in microns, and it can be removed by using masks to this level of efficiency, such as the FFP3. Had someone asked the authorities at Porton Down in March 2020, they would have provided this information.”

      This information has been on Wikipedia and other places on the internet for years. These masks have been available for years.

    4. “When I went to boarding school just after the last war, a number of new boys had survived some years in Japanese concentration camps. While some boys may have had bad memories, they fully integrated into school life. Years later, the evidence from some research on the matter suggests that their successes in life were just as great, if not greater, than their contemporaries’.”

      Another example of “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”

    5. John Catterall, churches used to serve alcohol (communion wine). That. like the singing, has been cancelled “due to Covid”.

  8. Why Change Success?

    Little Mary was not the best student in Sunday school. Usually she slept through the class. One day the teacher called on her while she was napping, “Tell me, Mary, who created the universe?”

    When Mary didn’t stir, little Johnny, an altruistic boy seated in the chair behind her, took his sharp pencil and jabbed her in the rear.

    “God Almighty!” shouted Mary, and the teacher said, “Very good.”

    A while later the teacher asked Mary, “Who is our Lord and Saviour?”

    Mary didn’t even stir from her slumber. Once again, Johnny came to the rescue and stuck her in the ass.

    “Jesus Christ!” shouted Mary and the teacher said, “Very good.”

    Then, a little while later, the teacher asked Mary a third question. “What did Eve say to Adam after she had her twenty-third child?”

    Once again, Johnny jabbed her with his pencil.

    This time Mary jumped up and shouted, “If you stick that damn thing in me one more time, I’ll break it in half!“

    1. And invariably a black bloke with a white woman. Never the other way round. Funny that.

      1. Invariably a scruffy black man…..the insinuation being that the white woman can’t do any better.

        1. But is the black man made out to be a cross between a fool, a clown and a buffoon, to he can be told off in a patronising way by his oh-so-clever “wife” as seen on so many Whitey advertisements? Or is that reserved for white hetero men?

      1. I like the way they can land the launchers instead of discarding them.

  14. Ukraine’s progress at Euro 2020 is one in the eye for Putin. 1 July 2021.

    Now, thanks to Ukraine’s dramatic last-minute victory against Sweden on Tuesday night, Ukraine’s dealings with Britain are set to enter an entirely new level of intensity as its footballers prepare to do battle against their English adversaries on Saturday.

    Ukrainians will see their success in reaching the giddy heights of the quarter finals of a major soccer tournament for the first time as the perfect answer to the relentless bullying the country endures at the hands of its larger and more powerful neighbour.

    This is a truly ludicrous piece of propaganda! Is Merkel sinking into the Slough of Despond at England’s victory? The Swedes plotting their revenge? If anything this article shows the lack of any geopolitical argument with the West. What we have instead is the attempt to eliminate the leader of another country because his sympathies do not lie with the Globalists that rule the West!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/01/ukraines-progress-euro-2020-one-eye-putin/

    2. Well, Merkel is about to give-up her job as a result of the football result.

  15. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/86fa23b93d7ca700628ebb2d718f0f94d2c44e36c7deda93c6df7f7685101b66.png Do you know, I can’t actually decide if wee Markie here is genuinely clueless about the balance of nature, is uneducated, or is simply being provocative or silly.

    Sometime in the late 1940 or early 1950s the local authority at St John’s Wood decided that wasps were a nuisance. They initiated a scheme to pay schoolboys a penny for each wasp they captured in a jamjar. The scheme was so popular that countless wasps were caught and destroyed. Then, the pitch at Lord’s cricket ground, along with nearly every lawn and green space in the area, turned brown as the grass died. The reason was discovered to be the proliferation of leatherjackets, the grass-roots devouring larvae of crane flies (‘daddy long-legs’). These were normally kept in check by predation by common wasps. Removing the wasps had upset the balance of nature to such an extent that the leatherjackets proliferated and the area’s grass suffered.

    Is that what you want, Mr Boyle, in your crass [nay, idiotic] determination to unbalance nature by exterminating two necessary species in wasps and hornets?

    1. He’s obviously never watched any nature documentaries on animals waging war on their own kind, defending their territories. In some instances the wars are even against close relatives.

      1. Soon to be emulated in the UK and elsewhere against unwanted invaders and ideologists.

        1. Soon to be emulated in the UK and elsewhere against by unwanted invaders and ideologists, when their numbers are sufficient.

          1. Should that prove to be the outcome, Sos, I think that we will have to ‘Bite Back Better‘

    2. Some clown has introduced Tasmanian Devils to a small island off Tasmania, as the “mainland” devils are getting an infection of the brain.
      So far, so good.
      Problem is, the little island is the home of Little Penguins, who, as a penguin does, nests on the ground – and have now been eradicated by the Tasmanian Devils.
      Good one, that. Never saw that coming.

      1. Nor did my daughter when keeping chickens on the main island of Tasmania – they devoured them all.

  16. To market in the rain. While I am away, could any tennis player tell me why at Wimbledon, (and elsewhere, I imagine) a player takes three balls and discards one?

    Just habit, I suppose. Boring, though.

    1. The entire sport, its players, its followers and its reporters are the most tediously boring people on the planet.

      1. ‘Morning, George, as are all the deluded fools who pay fortunes to keep Wendyballers in the high-life and knee-bending to Cultural Marxists and anarchists.

          2. …and there was I thinking the correct spelling was racquet but it seems that the tennis franchise requires racket – like the racket perpetuated by Wilson and others to popularise their expensive toys.

        2. Nothing wrong with the pastime at grass-roots level, but the professional entity is nowhere near my sphere of interest.

    2. I also wonder whether it is always the same balls that get discarded when offered, as I believe the same set of balls is kept in play for up to nine games.

  17. 334967+ up ticks,
    It certainly was NOT a final benito mussolini moment was it, and certainly NOT deserving of the tin tack.
    In saying that voting for johnson was,

    Man filmed harassing Chris Whitty loses estate agent job as he apologises for ‘upset caused’
    ‘I feel very let down by Boris, for him to call me a thug. I actually voted for him as well,’ said Lewis Hughes who was with Jonathan Chew

    2. Would you, as an estate agent, hire someone who had been on the front pages of The Sun assaulting an elderly person?

      More to the point, why didn’t the police who witnessed this incident do anything about it?

      1. 334967+ up ticks,
        Morning J,
        I believe a rhetorical dressing down would have sufficed, as for the police if the alledged assaulted one had a very dark skin tone there would have been overhead choppers with coppers and a swat team in close attendance.

      1. Bamse – I thought your portrait of your godfather (?) was strikingly good.

        1. Thank you, Dukke, but you are too kind. My uncle’s portrait was all graft; this artist child has innate talent.

          1. I don’t entirely agree – some things can only be achieved by hard graft. Innate talent can do great deal, but when it goes wrong, the person concerned can’t necessarily work out why…

    2. BT’s granddaughter has managed to get a painting selected too.
      He posted it a while ago.
      The talent of these youngsters is extraordinary.

      1. The uplifting thing is that those youngsters, surrounded as we are by the most superficial, dumb, unthinking MSM and education generally – have overcome that with perception and talent like that. Hooray for their parents, hooray for their own cognitive abilities!

    6. I detect that the young man concerned may be in some way connected to you K.

      Relish the vicarious pleasure!!

        1. Well hush my mouth. Being old-fashioned, I assumed that the Christian name was a modern version of MacKenzie….

      2. I’m afraid that your detection kit has malfunctioned on this one, BT. Picked it up from Allison Pearson’s Twitter feed, no connection at all.

  21. A Covid jab and the Winter flu jab given simultaneously are being considered for the Autumn. One jab in one arm and one in the other arm. Our medical experts are worried in case Covid immunity is short lived. What have the immunologists to say about this? I am very reluctant to have these injections and may decline.

    1. I am deeply suspicious of their aims. There is too much information out there, if you care to look, that these “injections”, or experimental vaccinations, are dangerous. There has not been the proper rigorous testing to prove its safety or, indeed, effectiveness. And to mix it up with another vaccination is surely the height of madness. People must start thinking for themselves and decline any such concoction.

      1. I absolutely agree.
        And further more why are they suggesting that 12 and upward year olds have the vaccine ? Only a couple of weeks ago we were told that vaccination was not necessary for younger generation.

        1. Now people who have booked trips to Malta are finding they won’t let their kids in because they haven’t had the vaccine………

          1. What an absolute mess it all is, and a mess which changes its shape from day-to-day.

          2. And they will only be allowed a transfer, not a refund of their tickets.

      2. It is all starting to seem quite frenetic now, as if they have to get so much achieved within a certain time frame. Is this because of 5G? Are they rattled? I have read that the 2019 ‘flu jab weakened the immune system and Reiner Fuellmich says as much in his submission to the Court for crimes against humanity. Strangely, for the first time ever, I got an NHS request to make an appointment for the annual ‘flu jab back in November 2019; the covid so-called vaccination programme rolled out four weeks later. I have never had the’flu jab and I was uneasy about this at the time – like yourself I am now deeply suspicious about their motives especially in view of my age.
        https://www.aeginagreece.com/aegina-island/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Transcript-testimony-Reiner-Fuellmich-.pdf

      3. The vaccine seems to mess with some women’s menstruation. There are reports of irregular periods when they weren’t before, women towards the end of menopause suddenly getting periods back, and oter weirdnesses.

    2. Done my bit. Had jabs to add to pressure to give grandchildren a normal young life.
      I’ve never had the flu jab.

      1. Research done last winter stated that those who had a ‘flu jab in the Autumn had a lower chance of dying from Covid.

        Strangely that research now seems to have disappeared off the internet.

        Anyone kept a copy?

      2. That’s basically why we did Anne, had the Jabs and since then we have had nothing but colds caught from our socialising three Grandchildren, wye the liddle boogers ! 🤔😄

        1. It’s keeping your immune system healthy Eddy – I haven’t caught anythhing since January 2020 when I had somethingg very much like a mild dose of covid. Nothing since then so my immune system is probably shot.

          1. I’m sure as the older generation already know, when the kids go back to school after Christmas is the cold and flu season for us oldies.
            I usually have the flu jab.

      3. Last October was the first time I’d bothered with the flu jab. I had the covid jabs so I can travel…………oh.
        I don’t think I’ll bother with the boosters.

    3. Morning all, Happy Birthday to Mr Rastus 🤩

      I’m not very keen on the way this is being ‘shoved down our throats’. This sudden change of plan has a distinctly ominous feel about it all.
      And i don’t understand why there is not one vaccine now made by different laboratories from the same formula unless of course as it appears to be the case, they have no idea what they are doing nor what they are trying achieve. And surely other parts of the world have their own laboratories and can therefore make their own vaccine from a shared formula without the scepter-ed West providing everything for them.

    4. They are simply assuming it will be all right, but as has been claimed “there is no data yet…”. I wouldn’t touch with the proverbial bargepole, but it is my nature to be cautious. Why has permission been given for the population of this land to be volunteered as lab rats?

  22. Good Moaning.
    Early dental appt and i have had my head nuked by a whizzy panoramic X-Ray machine.
    My bank account is lighter by a ton.

      1. It’s all being warmed up for the process of privatisation Bill. The psychology is you will be happy to pay 50 quid to see a doctor and then the price will start to rapidly slide upward.

        1. Maybe. One advantage of that would be that the crap GPs with whom some of us are saddled (Dr Useless, for example) will find that they have NO patients at all. The unwashed will vote with their feet.

          1. A similar situation to what should happen to the BBC Bill,………. pay to ‘view’.
            In Australia they have Medicare or something similar and no one actually slips through the net, but as things are in the UK it actually seems that the NHS is not working as it did and has already become a similar set up. I have quite often seen advertising for private medical insurances on line. What I find annoying is people who do have private medical insurance still have to pay for the NHS through government taxes. And people who don’t work never have worked and thousands of new arrivals have never been expected to pay for their readily available free medical care at the expense of UK tax payers.

          4. Sorry about delay in replying – that’s the yrouble with zipping in and out!

            We’re tickety-boo, thanks .And you?

          5. …but those on benefits will have their doctor’s consultation/s paid for by the great washed.

          3. i realised that when clause analysis suddenly disappeared from our curriculum after just one painstaking year, probably school year 1959-60. Even at 12-13 I realised that this was the start of a long, slippery, downward slope. And we are where we are, today.

          4. I was at school and university in the ’60s. I had a pretty rigorous education. The seventies (when I did my PGCE and teaching practice), not so much.

        2. Of course – in that case the Government will be honour bound to return all our NI subscriptions to date.

          1. …I’ve been paying into the Neglect Health System since I was sweet sixteen. I want my money back….

          2. #MeToo and I may be beyond your sweet sxteen having joined up at 15½ and worked through to 74 years of age. That’s probably a lorra lorra cash!

    2. It’s usually around a hundred and fifty quid to step across the dentist’s threshold. Veterinaries are not far behind. GP practices will be next.

      1. GPs don’t need to – as they get paid on the number of registered patients they have on their books, they don’t need actually to do much after that. They just register tens of thousands of patients, and then leave it to the receptionists and nurses to do the work.

        Perhaps, in 3 weeks time, they will deign to call you from their home…

        1. Our GPs took six weeks off.

          They left a recorded announcement ” if you are ill, go to your nearest A&E”

          I wonder whether they were paid?

    3. That’s just the beginning.
      I received my dental plan, 4 apps when I’m sure 2 would do! But hey where’s the
      dosh in that….?

          1. We haven’t heard from our vet about blood tests taken two weeks ago… we are assuming that is because there was no further money involved in the results! He is usually pretty quick off the mark when there is money (further tests etc) involved.

      2. That sounds familiar. I hate the way one makes an appointment because of a known problem which you expect to be fixed. Dennist looks in your mouth and says – “You have a problem that needs to be fixed. Make an appointment and I’ll fix it”. That’ll be £40 for looking…..

          1. Wait until the NHS is the same – you’ll get an appointment within about ten minutes, but will have to pay for it. Bigly.
            Here, a visit to the Dr costs me about £65 for a 20 minute appointment. Extra costs for consumables and tests.
            But – n cowering in the office and telephone triage.

          3. Is there a state health insurance scheme (as there is in France) where you pay on the nail and then recover a proportion from the state fund?

  23. Western civilisation, and other things I like about white people. Spiked 1 July 2021.

    A few weeks ago, researcher Christopher Rufo was asked what he likes about white people or about being white, during a polite but heated conversation with television host Marc Lamont Hill. Rufo – who, for the record, I know and like – politely demurred. He said that he considers himself Italian-American rather than ‘white’, and that he doesn’t see much point to the broad labels that modern Americans insist on applying to racial groups.

    I understand why Rufo answered as he did. But I personally would have been unable to resist the temptation to answer with ‘Western civilisation’. Quite obviously, if we are going to insist on slapping broad racial tags on people, whites (in the European / Caucasian sense of that term) have done quite a few things that are likeable or worthy of pride. With a few exceptions, like Aesop (who is sometimes depicted as a black African from Ethiopia), the Ancient Greek writers who laid the foundations for Western philosophy and epistemology were European Caucasians. The Roman Empire was founded by ‘whites’, too. The Industrial Revolution and the modern scientific revolution both began in Europe. Modern jetliners, locomotives and road vehicles – literally planes, trains and automobiles – were all designed primarily by ‘white’ people.

    Well you’d better dip your bread pal because it and they will soon be gone!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/07/01/western-civilisation-and-other-things-i-like-about-white-people/

  25. On my way to bed last night, I was amazed to find pat-ball being played at 10 pm. I watched for three games.

    It seemed to me that that gawky Scots bloke gave the impression that he would LOSE every point; and one was surprised when he didn’t. I thought about Federer and Nadal (and Sampras and McEnroe etc) where they gave the exact opposite impression. That they would WIN every point and one was surprised when they didn’t.

          3. And none of those endless wash and brush up, shower and a pint sessions every two games.

          4. As I recall, ‘that match’ was the reason why Tie-breaks were introduced …

      3. I liked the cartoon poster around at the time, with both of them at the net, each crashing their racquet over the other’s head. I wish I could find it, but it doesn’t seem to be available…

        Wotcher, Plum!

        1. Hi Lass,
          Why does the aging process take so friggin’ long…..?
          I’m missing my tennis, my dog Maud and generally pi**ed off

    2. You’re absolutely right Bill. I fully expected the gawky Scots bloke to retire injured and was gobsmacked to find this morning that he’d Won!

        1. Given his injury problems of recent years it was almost a surprise he got through just the first round.

  26. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “Bureaucracies, I’ve suggested, are not themselves forms of stupidity so much as they are ways of organising stupidity — of managing relationships that are already characterised by extremely unequal structures of imagination, which exist because of the existence of structural violence.”

    David Graeber, The Utopia of Rules: On Technology, Stupidity, and the Secret Joys of Bureaucracy.

  27. Used to love watching tennis, but now seeing a match-winning point shown on the news later is more than enough.

  28. Good morning and very Happy Birthday to our dear Mr. Tastey! 75 doesn’t come along every day so have a wonderful time and enjoy every moment! Love to you and Caroline and the family! 🍾🎂🎉

    1. Is that the old birthday ‘boy’ sailor Rastus waving from the Virgin Voyages top private balcony ??

    3. Have a very Happy Birthday Rastus! With many more to come with your happy family!

    3. So THAT’S why the slammers keep invading. They see this ship and believe it is full of young females.

    5. I see capacity for 8 life boats for the peasants and 4 motor boats for the elite – assuming 50 persons per boat that’s 12 x 50 = 600. I think there might be a few more than that on board.

      2. Looks top heavy and no fun whatsoever .

        I can remember the old Union Castle days when we travelled back from Africa from Port Sudan … that was fun, of course I was a child then , but it was still great fun .. The Warwick Castle and The Braemar Castle , yes , parents did that with us twice , returning to the UK for their 3 months leave , living in Khartoum at that particular time .

      3. As far as I could see it was without passengers. A lovely warm and sunny day with not a soul to be seen on deck. Doing about 10 knots, so in no rush.

      4. Under the regulations in force at the time, the Titanic had, in fact, more than adequate life boat provision!

  30. 334967+ up ticks,
    Surely the United Kingdom governance parties are wide open to compensation claims,

    breitbart,
    PEOPLE SMUGGLERS KILL AGAIN: PREGNANT WOMAN AMONG SHIPWRECK DEAD

  31. From my home page, microsoft news: Headline: Covid UK news – “Live: New wave in Europe ‘inevitable without discipline’, amid calls to expand symptoms list”
    Not enough ‘cases’ so let’s make a few more up. Includes ‘runny nose and headache’ – sounds like the common cold to me.
    Not sure the link is pasted properly so here’s the rundown-
    Europe will inevitably face a new wave of Covid-19 infections unless the public and national governments remain disciplined in their attempts to control the pandemic, the World Health Organisation has warned.

    “The body’s European chief, Hans Kluge, said the three conditions for a wave of excess deaths were now in place: low vaccine uptake; increased social mixing; and new variants.

    It came as scientists warned that failing to expand the UK’s official list of recognised coronavirus symptoms could lead to new infections being missed.

    Unofficial symptoms like a runny nose or headache manifest earlier than the officially-listed cough, fever and loss of taste or smell, experts including Sage adviser Calum Semple wrote in the British Medical Journal.

    Key Points
    Europe faces new Covid-19 wave, WHO warns
    Scientists say UK should expand list of Covid symptoms
    Schools ‘to be told to treat Covid like flu'”
    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/coronavirus/covid-uk-news-live-new-wave-in-europe-inevitable-without-discipline-amid-calls-to-expand-symptoms-list

    1. Surprise, surprise, Microsoft News where Bill Gates will still have influence in order to push for more vaccines and much remuneration to Big Pharma and Little Gates.

      1. Interesting, Tom – though I notice that some of the MSM are beginning to report unpleasant things about the sainted pearly Gates. A bully; slagger off of staff; womaniser….

        Halo has certainly slipped.

        1. There is a story today that he rejected diversity quotas when recruiting people into top management positions, something unthinkable like demanding they hire the best person for the job.

    2. Good morning, I recently received a letter from the NHSS informing me that I can arrange to be tested even if I showed/felt no symptoms.
      With the following passage highlighted in bold;

      ‘Please remember also even if you have been vaccinated, it is still important that you get tested regularly.’

      They really are desperate to keep case numbers up, by hook or by crook.

      1. This country has wasted more millions on millions of tests than any other country in the world. I will not be getting a test until I have to – ie when I eventually get to travel somewhere. What’s the point getting tested when you don’t feel ill at all, or even slightly off-colour – it’s absolute madness.

      2. Afternoon Feargal.

        Here in Woking we have a “Symptom free testing centre”. People who are healthy must be loony if they go and have a test. Why on earth would anyone subject themselves to a test? I just cannot fathom it out at all. Sheer lunacy.

      3. The only reason I would get tested would be if I had to go into hospital or could finally fly to Canada to see son and grandchildren.

        1. Don’t book your tickets yet, the Indian variant in the UK is seen as the excuse for keeping things closed down. Travel to some provinces is still not permitted and the rules for international arrivals are contradictory and unworkable.

          1. No intention of booking until at least next year – couldn’t be doing with the compulsory quarantines, masks for most of the day while travelling, excessive testing and so on. Son has had a refund for last year’s postponed flights once it became clear this year was a no-fly situation.
            Thank goodness for Skype!

        2. I am no longer going racing, even if I have a runner, because I don’t want to have to subject myself to the nasty test.

      4. Difficult in this area.

        The Government removed the testing station a fortnight ago

    3. If healthy people are asymptomatic spreaders then breathing is the problem. Dratted peasants should do their overlords a favour and just drop dead!

      1. And they huffed and they puffed, (just like the big bad wolf) and they sang and they shouted …..and ……. they infected nobody because they weren’t carrying the plague in the first place.

  32. Oxfam is “white” to its core. If it can’t deal with that, it should close down. 1 July 2021.

    So if the powers that be at Oxfam really believe this anti-whiteness stuff the solution is clear: they must terminate their charity in an act of mass execution, making room for more modern and less compromised alternatives.

    The executive team should give up their remuneration packages and just generally get out of the way. If they lack the nerve to take such drastic action they shouldn’t worry too much as the British public will probably do it for them over the next few months – just as they did to Ratner’s jewellery all those years ago.

    And good riddance!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/01/oxfam-white-core-cant-deal-should-close/

    1. David Lammy has already shown Oxfam the way forward – “The world does not need any more white saviours”. Either close down the charity, or staff it entirely with non-white people.

    2. My family never gave a even a sulphurous fart to Oxfam after they discovered the management flying to Nigeria BOAC First Class, whilst we (who lived there and were not going back to UK for 10 months) slummed it in Economy. Such a waste of charitable donations, both parts of the plane even arrived at the same time!

    3. Since it is terribly patronising of whiteys to help blacks (thank you, Cur Lenny) there is no reason for Oxfam to exist.

  35. Well here we are, post national great reset status.

    Canada day is normally a loud ebullient occasion with parades, fireworks and street parties but this year our reviled leader has decreed that it should be a day of quiet reflection. On our day of national celebration, flags are to be flown at half mast.

    God I loath that effeminate excuse for a P.M.

      1. The golf club has bought hundreds of Canadian flags to decorate the course, we are going there.

        There is lots of push back against what is happening but where there should be a leader we have the black face groper.

    3. Happy Canada Day, richard. Quiet reflection on how your country has been ruined by the woke?

  36. We are hearing that the positive tests for covid are soaring among the football supporters that travelled down to London for the England v Scotland match last week, now call me cynical if you want but football supporters do not seem the type to rush off for a covid test the minute they get home.
    How did the authorities know, did they round up football supporters for testing?

    1. A colleague who went to the England/Germany match says testing negative and reporting via the NHS app was a condition of entry. Sooo, these are testy type people daft enough to download the thingy?

        1. My feeling is that if they’re willing to test to get in, they probably do it again when they get home, to be sure…

      2. Sorry pal, I’ve no idea how to do this download thingy. No, you can’t do it for me, as you’d have the code to get into my phone. So forget it you bureaucratic idiot.

    2. You’ll probably find that Knickerless Krankie had them stopped and tested at the border before she’d let ’em back in.

    1. I’ll go for normal – when do the doughnuts and cute stickers arrive, even though I am both a conspiracy theorist AND a critical ant-vaxxer?

  38. Afternoon all

    I saw this in the Speccie , although I haven’t got access to the whole article , I felt that poor old Dylan Thomas would turn in his grave if he knew that leftie type people were mucking around with Under Milk Wood .

    Before the National Theatre produced Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood they had to make a decision. How could they stuff this dazzling, rapturous comic tone-poem with misery and pain? The policy at the NT is that ticket holders must endure a play rather than enjoy it. They had four options. Racism, homophobia, misogyny and mental illness are the sources of woe most favoured by modern theatre-makers. The NT duly ticked box four, mental breakdown, and hired a writer, Siân Owen, to supply the necessary dollops of torment by penning a one-act melodrama as a preamble to the script itself

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/enjoyable-in-spite-of-the-nationals-best-efforts-under-milk-wood-reviewed

    Black faces sadly!

      1. Your taxes do, but you needn’t add to their pile of dosh by actually buying tickets.

    3. ‘Yer ’tis:

      Under Milk Wood
      Olivier Theatre, in rep until 24 July

      Before the National Theatre produced Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood they had to make a decision. How could they stuff this dazzling, rapturous comic tone-poem with misery and pain? The policy at the NT is that ticket holders must endure a play rather than enjoy it. They had four options. Racism, homophobia, misogyny and mental illness are the sources of woe most favoured by modern theatre-makers. The NT duly ticked box four, mental breakdown, and hired a writer, Siân Owen, to supply the necessary dollops of torment by penning a one-act melodrama as a preamble to the script itself.

      The setting is an old folks’ home which looks like a branch of Wetherspoons or an activity centre for pensioners. A real care home is full of colourless wilting old wrecks, chiefly female and mostly deaf, who do nothing all day but sit in chairs staring straight ahead of them. Activity is rare. Conversation rarer. But in this place everyone buzzes with energy and purpose. The women quarrel over the TV set and clack away at their knitting needles making scarves and tank-tops. The men, who are as numerous as the women, fill in crossword puzzles and build complicated model ships. Everyone is Welsh, including the employees. That seems wrong. Where are the Poles, the Slovaks, the Filipinos? Many care homes in Wales have difficulty recruiting local staff.

      Only one of the inmates suffers from a disability. His name is Richard Jenkins, which is a joke for the cognoscenti. Richard Burton, who narrated the play for the BBC in 1954, was born with the surname Jenkins. The old chap is told that a visitor is due to see him but he doesn’t understand because dementia has stolen his memory. In bursts a fat angry man from Port Talbot (Michael Sheen), who demands to be taken to his estranged father. Some obscure historic event has prevented them from meeting earlier and the son appears to be racked with guilt and remorse. He takes it out on his poor dad, ranting at him furiously and forcing him to look at an ancient photo album. This scene is gruesome to watch but it does the trick. It makes the audience squirm in agony. Then the lights change. The torture is ended and the play starts. The idea is that the script will jog the old man’s memory and cure him of Alzheimer’s.

      Thomas located his play in an imaginary seaside town, Llareggub, populated by crowds of warm and vivid personalities. On stage, the elderly thesps who played the old crocks in the care home have to impersonate much younger characters. This gives an odd flavour to some of the innuendos. ‘I don’t care if he’s common,’ says a prim old actress, ‘I want to gobble him up.’ Thomas clearly had sex on the brain when he drafted this play and he smuggled a schoolboy gag into the title. Milkwood is a species of tree that secretes a polymer used in the manufacture of condoms. The script is full of erotic hints and allusions. Organ Morgan, the chapel musician, is up all night on his ‘organ, organ, organ!’ His wife, Mrs Organ Morgan, seems perpetually tired. ‘I’m a martyr to music,’ she says with a crafty grin. The joke still works superbly.

      The visuals in Lyndsey Turner’s production are very effective and Thomas’s rhapsodic, lyrical language is indestructible. Sheen plays the First Voice with all his customary wild-eyed passion. Perhaps he overdoes the fruitiness at times. This is a decent and enjoyable show despite the NT’s attempts to punish the audience for turning up.

      Staircase, written by Charles Dyer in 1966, is about a persecuted gay couple living in Brixton. Charles is a fading actor who runs a barbershop with his lifelong companion, Harry. Both men accept their status as criminals and they adopt the insulting language of those who condemn them. ‘The trouble with our sort is we’re never left with anybody,’ says Harry, as if he suffered from a deformity or a disease. Charles recalls making an unwise quip when appearing in the dock. ‘In the theatre, are you?’ said a sneering judge. ‘Yes. And which panto are you in?’ He now faces a fresh charge for propositioning an undercover policeman and if he’s convicted Harry will be left on his own. Dyer’s language would have delighted Quentin Crisp. ‘We’ve got some marzipan roll from yesterday’s elevenses,’ says Harry. He dreads the thought of a geriatrics’ home: ‘Eight cubic feet for dying in.’

      This is a solid rendering of a tricky and sometimes overly static drama. The design is good and the acting is executed with a brilliant and intelligent understanding of the characters’ dilemma. Social anthropologists will find the show fascinating. Theatre geeks will regard it as a must-see because it inspired Jean Poiret’s cult hit, Les Cages aux Folles. But as entertainment it can’t help but lower the spirits.

      2. I also meant to say thank you for providing the article .

        I should really subscribe to the Speccie , but I am going to have to save some pennies in order to employ a window cleaner once a month!

        2. Serious question, Maggie. Do you need a window cleaner that often? Our chap cleans our windows once every two months.

          1. I was thinking about that 2 months sounds better or even 3 months , this is such a dusty area , I probably haven’t cleaned them since early spring .. feel so worn out these days .

          3. Mine charges £20 to clean my windows. Not that I have them done very often – I keep forgetting to book him.

          4. £12 every six weeks, Maggie. Was £10 but I put it up when we added some windows and patio doors.

        1. Being a short@rse with arthritic knees and hip, I need a stepladder (or equivalent high mounting block) to get on the horse. I am not quite yet at Henry VIII crane requirements, though.

  40. 334967+ up ticks,
    Seamless, in a misguided sort of way one can derive a certain amount of pleasure watching political treachery artist in action the “killer plague” has run its course, the envelope stretched far beyond the politico’s wildest imagination, just stopping short of having the peoples
    when masked up, slapping their arses and breaking into a gallop.

    The plague now enters the future use department until needed.

    The big mean green machine is kicking in, carrie, on conning is about to commence in earnest and will knock spots of the plague.

    The seamless transition from the NEW health minister really is a sight to behold.

    https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1410576427838230532

      1. 334967+ up ticks,
        Afternoon TB,
        They are so bent could be johnson driven by the fact that digit dick eats ALL the ginger nuts at tea-break.

      2. Who cares, Mags? It did a good job by getting rid of the hopeless and hapless hypocrite.

      3. Dominic must have at least one friend in the corridors of lust.
        Supposedly all the staff knew about the Uganda situation, and what with Miss Sicily being paid £15,000 by the taxpayer, I guess they thought like Spartacus.

      4. Taste of their own medicine.
        For thirty years British governments have inflicted more and more surveillance on what used to be a free country.
        Apart from China, we now have the greatest saturation of CCTV of any country in the world.

    2. Rather like “The fate of the Roman Empire depended on the length of Cleopatra’s nose”.

    1. Thank God we rarely fill at any station other than our local guy in order to help keep him in business.

    2. That’s me avoiding Sainsbury’s and Tesco petrol stations, then. I use my local Texaco; competitive pricing and I’ve got a loyalty card.

    3. I filled up once at Frankley Services on the M5 and they refused my card. They syphoned the fuel out!

    4. This has long been the case in France at automat pumps. They take about 100 euro from your card and return it some days later. And they charge you for the gazole.
      Do that a few million times and the interest mounts up somewhere.

    5. Our son was talking about this today. We’d never heard of it. We always use the pumps that don’t take cards.

  42. Ministers have been urged to help efforts to recover a ship’s anchor to create a Windrush monument as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations in 2023.
    Labour MP Helen Hayes led the call to ask for Government support in raising the anchor, which currently lies off the coast of Libya on the Mediterranean seabed.
    She said it was “a tangible piece of that famous ship which can be used to tell the story of the remarkable Windrush generation for years to come.”
    Sir Peter Bottomley, father of the House and Conservative MP for Worthing West, backed the call.
    Meanwhile Labour MP Abena Oppong-Asare demanded the compensation scheme for victims of the Windrush scandal should be “removed from the Home Office” and handed to an independent agency.
    The Government should include a “full apology letter” with every compensation award, she added.

    Yeah right.

    We apologise for dragging you, kicking and screaming, from the Islands of the Caribbean. We apologise profusely for giving you the opportunity to have a more prosperous life in the UK with your families.
    We also apologise unreservedly that, because you couldn’t follow the straightforward rules, that there was a threat that you might be sent back.
    Please accept shedloads of money and feel free to carry on complaining forever, while your feral descendants continue to terrorise our cities and enjoy their drugs and stabbing festivals.

    1. As a someone from West African MP Oppong-Asare is very likely to be descended from slave traders.
      She should write a letter of apology to all Caribbeans, and then another one to us for imposing her own stupidity on our parliament.

        2. There’s going to be a point where parliament is chock full of non-native Britons and utterly dedicated to irrelevant minority causes using the white population as tax cows and nothing else.

    2. “Independent Agency” obviously must not have any whites in it – that would be rascist and biased (whether conscious or unconscious or not at all). How about letting some of the Windrush people pay for the damage and cost their offspring etc. have cost us?

      1. How about people taking responsibility for their own actions and lives?
        Radical thought.

  43. Afternoon, all. There is not much point to anything this government is doing about Covid, to be honest.

    1. Good day Conwy

      There is not much point to anything this government is doing…Full Stop.

      2. “There is not much point to anything in this government is doing…Full Stop.”

    2. I hope that Galloway wins in Batley and Spen and that everyone else loses their deposits.

      It is that kind of response that is needed to shake the complacent politicians into seeing how despised they are over the recent episodes.

      Won’t happen in a month of Sundays of course.

      1. I think he has the muslim vote nailed and you know how they lie and cheat.

        Batley has a population of 20,000 muslims and i expect all 30,000 of them to vote.

      2. I would be wholeheartedly on Galloway’s side were he not on the side of the Muslims.

        Why is the Conservative candidate not prepared to say unequivocally that the treatment of the Batley teacher is unacceptable?

        3. I don’t see what the Conservative candidate’s got to lose. Muslims wouldn’t have voted for him, anyway.

          Edited to make it plainer that I was referring to the Tory candidate.

        4. I’m not sure he’s totally on the side of the Muslims, more anti the way the US and UK has behaved in the Middle East.

        1. He’s a good speaker, seldom gets sidetracked, and tends to know his subject.
          Love him or hate him, I wish there were far more of his ilk in Parliament.

    3. Scotland is swamped by Covid cases due in main to the Scottish fans returning from Wembley. A number of deaths as well.
      I wonder how Cornwall is doing with cases and will Wembley attendances at the semis and final be reduced?

  44. I had no idea that Diana Spencer had two other children – one a bame. She kept that quiet….

        1. GB News was screening the revelation. I don’t know whether Harry or William were the children in the statue. A person emailed GB News to say the statue was more like Theresa May but to me it was a good sculpture of Dianna.
          Harry and William are both going bald but were talking to one another.

          1. Did Diana also have a girl child is that just Harry growing up to be a trans?

          2. Probably symbolises her “caring nature” – for anyone but her own family. I have to say they’ve caught the sulky look very well.

          3. Why can they not both accept that their relationship as friendly brothers is over?

            Yes, we always should forgive if we can – but what Harry did to his family is unforgiveable and unless he is capable of seeing what he has done there can be no resolution.. There must be a forgiver and a forgivee.

    2. And one would appear to have four legs or there is a third child behind the little girl.

      I wonder what’s going through their minds when they look at the three children who are obviously more important to her in the sculptor’s view than are her own sons. I’m guessing it’s a representation of her in her role as the people’s Princess.

      Were they aware of it all I wonder, presumably they must have approved the concept.

      2. Blair appropriating the Princess of Wales for New Labour was a sign of how low the slimy monster could go. As some of the words of the 1st person satirical song about Blair put it:

        The People’s Party, People’s Dome, the People’s lottery
        I am the People’s laxative so the People swallow me
        Pragmatic opportunism has given me success
        A sad girl died and so I dubbed her: “The People’s Princess.”

    3. Mediocre. The little girl looks like a miniature adult, and the eighties fashion and hair dominates, as I feared it would.

      Should have got Alexander Stoddart to do it. Best sculptor in Britain by a country mile.

    1. Considering it’s basically the grand flippin’ canyon of fail that the Mail has just caught up is no surprise.

      Green nonsense, affairs, hypocrisy. You keep hoping that this time it’ll be different and with a majority of 80 it could have been, but no. The same prats doing the same things the wrong way.

      1. Hope triumphs over experience, again and again. When will the demos learn? Ever?

    2. Pure opportunism on Starmer’s part; next, he might get a heft on this politics thingy.
      But the case he raises is distressing; many others have gone through this, but if my last memories were of a son surrounded by unfeeling automata, then I too would kick up a stink.
      This is a typical case of what happens if you give a bit of power to the successors to failed German chicken farmers.
      And Johnson’s attempt to sidestep the issue was despicable.

      1. Johnson could have squashed Starmer flat.

        “I agree with my Right Honourable Friend that the circumstances of the young man’s death are most unfortunate and that what Hancock did was wrong, but to attempt to make political capital out of this death is utterly despicable, and I have nothing further to add at this time.”

        1. He might also have added that Cur Ikea Slammer BACKED AND VOTED FOR the very system that prevented the patient from seeing his family.

          These MPs are utter hypocritical charlatans. Filth. All of them.

  47. Boris Johnson used a helicopter to travel to Sunderland to bask in the Nissan plan to build batteries for electric cars. Apparently the taxpayer is spending £100million to support the project.
    A bit naughty of our PM on by-election day.

    1. Obviously as PM, Boris is extremely busy and has many demands on his time. That, coupled with the fact he is a fat lazy bastard.

        1. He should travel by train.

          Plenty of opportunities for him catch up on the Red Box stuff.

          Post pics and videos of himself working assiduously and shagging his latest squeeze.

          I hear Mrs Hancock is available. I’m surprised at Boris letting the opportunity go to waste.

          1. Once HS2 is up and running that’s what you’ll be seeing constantly, with captions saying how good it is to access the northern power house so conveniently.

          2. No I won’t. I stopped watching commercial TV a decade ago.

            I watch selected programs on Iplayer.

            I neither listen to the radio nor buy newspapers. Any crap that comes through the letterbox goes in the bin unread.

            The door goes unanswered to anyone who isn’t expected.

            I’m polite to neighbours though. Nod, smile, nod, smile…

          5. What’s the betting the trains will be the wrong size or the power supply inadequate…?

    2. Stick to the gin palace, because with the increase in electricity charges no-one will be ironing.
      Of course, official inflation rates will remain extremely low.

    1. Prit Patel is a liar and a charlatan. Any decent detective could work out who the traffickers are. Unlimited new inflatables. New lifejackets. Mobile phones and western clothing and haircuts.

      1. We are being governed by those who have their own self interest invested.

        It is so strange to see such a MOTLEY crew in charge of the sinking ship GB… I feel really helpless actually… everything is in slow motion .

        1. Take heart. Though you get hordes of tourists the majority of the slammers can’t afford to buy property where you live.

          1. I suspect they live in grand country homes like the chancellor .

            They all drive really beautiful cars , and I suspect they are the types who invest in property that you see on Homes under the Hammer (BBC )

  52. Yaay!
    At home, we’re back on t’web. Finally. What a bunch of buggeration that was.

    1. Tennis fatigue here. I went to sleep for a while and the two girls were still at it when I woke up.

          1. “…the two girls were still at it…”

            (School “humour” I am afraid…!

          4. Separate sentence.

            That’s the trouble with Lawyers, very precise on the attack.

      3. Tennis fatigue here went to sleep during the Murray match last night , and couldn’t believe it when the dogs woke me up and MOH was snoring after a long golf day , and there was Murray still playing , and how did he do that with dodgy knees and a repaired hip?

    2. Bert “Try Heineken, Refreshes the Parts Other Beers Cannot Reach and dulls the pain”

  55. OT this evening we shall be having some of our own asparagus. 25 years ago, our Spanish neighbours in Laure gave us a little tin of seed which they had saved from their own plantation. I sowed the seed, nurtured the seedlings and transplanted and 20 years on, they produce a fantastic crop. I suspect the variety is Martha Washington – very popular in Spain.

    The MR prepares it to perfection. She also uses the “hard” bits to make an excellent soup. Out of curiosity, I looked at my Mother’s 1920s Mrs Beeton. Her recipe for asparagus soup includes spinach – and the method says that one should BOIL the spears and spinach for AN HOUR….before sieving it…. AN HOUR!!

    One sometimes wonders what food 100 years ago tasted like…{:¬)

    4. I planted two long tubs of Asparagus and though it will be a few years for a decent crop they have gone crazy. I had a dozen shoot straight up two feet high and all have feathery fronds and little bell flowers and now another lot have followed them.

      Cell replication is astonishing. You can almost watch them grow in real time.

    5. MB’s late Auntie Agnes used to boil veggies to death, and then add soda bic. to restore the colour.

      1. I think that’s what our school cook used to do, as it never tasted anything like the cabbage we ate at home.

    6. Do you know whether slugs eat asparagus?
      If not, it might be a possibility for the slug reserve around my house.

    7. One hour is hardly enough to soften it. I boil my soup for three days before passing it through the sieve for the badgers up the lane.

  56. Time for me to go. Another cold, wet, dreary, sunless day. Stove on all day. They say that it will be sunny tomorrow. But they said that all plague restrictions would end for good on 19 July – and already that “decision” is changing.

    I shall join you tomorrow to let you know whether it IS sunny.

    A demain.

    1. That will teach you for living on the East coast. Lovely and sunny in Hampshire all day. :@)

        1. Foxtrot Oscar…!! Lucky you, Conwy – you – and the hound – deserve it.

          1. I sat out with a glass of wine, enjoying the sunshine and thought of you, Bill 🙂

    2. It’s been lovely here; slightly muggy this morning, but otherwise a very nice day.

      1. I know, normally I’m never remotely hostile.

        Just a punishment sent to try the unwary.

          1. It’s not my fault that there are so many unwary out there waiting to be tried, in the legal rather than the sexual sense, of course…

    3. Sorry, Sos, since it was all about the ridiculous Wendyball, I speed-read the first paragraph and then binned it.

      1. Jumping to over quick conclusions is always a good way to miss the important bit.

    2. Interviewer: “Should the teacher go back to the classroom?”
      Leadbeater: “That has to be a decision for him.”

      Err…no, it’s not. Not in that place.

      1. If he went back to that school he would probably he harmed, possibly killed.

        He wouldn’t even have the satisfaction of knowing the perpetrators would be caught, let alone be given exemplary sentences.

        And that, in a nutshell, is what is wrong with the way the UK is moving.

  60. Jesus H ….. am I bloody sick of sodding programmes about the Royals or am I bloody sick of sodding programmes about the Royals!
    MB is effing obsessed with them; WE HAVE SEEN THIS BEFORE ….. Darling …….

    2. He probably thinks it’s a fly on the wall documentary of life at Allan Towers.

    3. I know how you feel Anne.

      My late father in law was totally obsessed with Diana.. The spare bedroom was full of paintings he did of her , portraits etc,

      I am sick of all the Royal exposure, I fear the media are trying to bury bad news by distracting everyone .
      Last week i had a dream that Harry shot William , it was a really bad dream .

      My take on the Diana thing is ..

      Why do they need a statue, they have their memories which I hope are good, as she exposed her young sons to her many boyfriends , and she was too busy having a good time on yachts and exotic places with out them . She was definitely not the saint she was made out to be ..

      1. My mother has a vhs recording of Diana’s wedding.

        She’s not watched it in 30 years. In 20 of that time it’s been in a damp garage.

      2. A slapper was what I’ve always thought of her after her children were born and she started carrying on.

        1. I always thought she was vastly overrated. My favourite has always been the delightful Katharine Worsley, Duchess of Kent (who once shook my hand and thanked me for looking after her). She was utterly gorgeous as a young woman and has retained her good looks even though she is now 88.

          4. I thought she had impeccable pedigree and had worked at Woolworths. I might be wrong of course.

            Mind you a prospectus where any Royal worked anywhere would be remarkable.

    4. Divorce for the elderly is very simple…a lawyer writes…………….

    5. I’m a supporter of the Monarchy – it suits us in Britain – but I couldn’t care less about any detail of the private life of any of the Royal family. The more we know, the less we respect.

  63. Heads up on this one

    Ministers are considering raising the age people are eligible to get free prescriptions by six years to claw back cash for the NHS.

    People over 60-years-old are currently able to avoid prescription charges in England, with exemptions also applying to anyone under 16 or teenagers in higher education.

    The Government has launched a consultation on whether to raise the cut-off point to 66-years-old in line with the state pension age.

    But the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) said it was “deeply concerned” by the plan – and warned it could leave people without the medication they need.

    RPS chair in England Thorrun Govind said: “The proposal to raise the age at which people can access free prescriptions from 60 to 66 means that many more people will be affected by this tax on the sick at exactly the time at which they may be needing more medicines.

    “It is unacceptable to raise the cost of prescriptions in the current economic situation when many have been disadvantaged by the pandemic.

    1. This is the price of acquiescence to the lockdown – the chancellor has to use all the underhand tactics he can to regain sufficient to fill the coffers and balance the budget.

      Stupid boy to agree (or get steam-rollered) into it by the bumbling buffoon and his cohort of simple witches on SAGE.

      1. There are no ‘coffers’ and the budget doesn’t need to be balanced.

        Everything the national government spends is freshly created.

        Taxes simply destroy previously created money.

        We live in an era of spreadsheet monies, where government spending is as easy as altering a few linked spreadsheets.

  64. I had the letter I’ve been dreading for a long time.

    I have been on a Zero Standing Charge with Ebico for some years. Their contract with SSE was terminated and they made a deal with Robin Hood Energy, who went bust last year. All customers were transferred to British Gas, who put me on a contract until the end of July 2021.

    I now have to navigate the nightmare that is to renegotiate an electricity contract. The internet has got much harder to use since the last time, with “upgraded Smart” website design, with all its screen hogging, popups, terms & conditions, endless scrolling and dripfeeding of information. I hate it so much.

    First off compulsory smart meters or the possibliity of them being imposed on me are a deal breaker. That rules out Pure Planet, Ovo, Eon, SSE, Scottish Power at first glance.

    Octopus has a BLM support policy, so that rules them out on ethical grounds.

    I have solar panels on the roof, so my usage varies according to the season and the weather. Monthly direct debit on a set monthly charge is a horror that is the very devil to amend. At least when I pay a proper bill, I can pay what is due, rather than effectively handing out free access to my bank account for them to take what they like. However, that rules out pretty well everyone. They call it a free market, but it’s a very complicated cartel. They make it as hard as they can to get a reliable price.

    Is there anyone here who has already done this wretched exercise, and can help me not have to reinvent the wheel?

    My old Ebico contract was zero standing charge and 24.855p/unit. British Gas is offering a 2 year fixed contract for 31.044p/day standing charge and 19.905p/unit.

    2. Can’t help you with that but we also need to find another supplier. SSE keep hassling us re a smart meter. Apparently, our electricity meter is out of date (25 years old) and under no circumstances do we want a smart meter.

      1. My mother has just left SSE. She was paying £250 a month. We have just found they took £750 in direct debit just after her last payment. I called to find out what this was for and they said she had been under paying for the last year or so. I don’t believe that, but then I know she does need the heating on a lot more than I do. She moved into a retirement flat a couple of years ago so its not like its a big property to heat. Its just electric, no gas.

        Could I ask some of the older Nottlers how much you pay per month so I have an idea?

        1. That sounds ridiculous Stormy,my latest monthly bill for my studio in a retirement complex from United Utility was £61.86 that’s for Power,Broadband,Mobile and landline
          That’s about average over the last two years and yes the meter has been read.

          Someone is taking the piss!!

        2. I’m with British Gas and at the moment pay just over £45 each for electricity and gas per month by Direct debit.

    3. Don’t worry about scottish power. Their smart meter roll out is incompetent and non-existent.

    4. You can have a fixed price contract from Scottish Power that doesn’t require a direct debit. I doubt they will be the most competitive on price, though.

      Edit. They haven’t managed to make me have a smart meter yet (and my meter is ages old). I just ignore their texts.

    5. I’ve been with Coop Energy for a few years. They have since partnered with Octopus, and I take your point re. BLM, but I have found OE very efficient to deal with. They ask for monthly readings, and there’s no pressure to have a smart meter. I had an email reminder from them today, uploaded my meter readings, this morning, and received my energy statement this afternoon. My electricity bill for June (excluding VAT) was £30.48. The equivalent figures for the tariffs you quote are Ebico: £43.99 and British Gas: £44.54. Do it through Coop Energy, and you’re not necessarily supporting Burn Loot & Murder.

      1. Thanks, Geoff, not just for the energy reading but Burn Loot & Murder is even better than Buys Large Mansions.

        Much more inclusive across the whole spectrum of the Brain-washed masses.

    6. Go to ‘Look after my Bills’
      They find the cheapest and will do all the legwork for you.

    7. EDF allows me to pay quarterly in arrears. They also would ‘prefer’ me to have a smart meter, but accept I don’t want one.

    8. I use AVRO, good rates and no requirement for a smart meter. They do ask for a reading every month but if you dont give one then they will estimate. Rates vary by area but below are mine for a one year fix.

  66. Am I being and old septic, I had to frown in puzzlement today when I saw the excellent statue of Princess Diana unveiled by her two sons. And also in contact with the two children, the little chap on her right hand side had obviously just been for a hair cut and a perm how did that happen with a 24 year gap ? Unless there was another reason for the defining presence.

    1. I thought it was a bizarre representation. I thought the two children should have been her sons rather than random and diverse children. What will future generations think? – assuming, of course, they haven’t pulled it down along with the monarchy.

      1. And me PM I had to look twice before I realised it wasn’t her two sons but some sort of unnecessary woke statement.

      2. And me PM I had to look twice before I realised it wasn’t her two sons but some sort of unnecessary woke statement.

    2. I thought it was a bizarre representation. I thought the two children should have been her sons rather than random and diverse children. What will future generations think? – assuming, of course, they haven’t pulled it down along with the monarchy.

    3. There are actually three children. One is not apparently visible, being behind and to the left of the figure of Diana.

    4. There are actually three children. One is not apparently visible, being behind and to the left of the figure of Diana.

  67. Not much happening, i’m off, I awoke at 3:50 am. I’ll have a well needed and deserved oily knight. Sir Prise Dé Pillow.

  68. Not much happening, i’m off, I awoke at 3:50 am. I’ll have a well needed and deserved oily knight. Sir Prise Dé Pillow.

  70. I remember in the mid-1960s travelling between Sheffield and Leeds (probably after watching Don Revie’s thugs at Bramall Lane) the train travelled slowly the 35 miles through a landscape scarred by slagheaps and mine subsidence. Some of the small coal-mining towns, such as Normanton and Castleford, struck the visitor as backward and poor. But there were no mosques ….

    1. When husband was flying on a new helicopter squadron in the very early 1970’s nr Prestwick , we lived in a rented house near a mining village , of course the miners strike hit every one hard , electric cuts , mining families going short etc . They were the nicest people ever, and even though they suffered huge financial hardship , they knew how to survive on the basics and many of us learnt that by keeping a hot leek and tattie soup going , and sometimes a mutton broth , and lots of pearl barley , and a strange bread which people spread with condensed milk, or made a condensed milk cake , a five recipe cake and lots of sustaining strong tea really proved how resilient and strong people were .

      The people were very poor , but my word they were strong and stout hearted .

    1. Good grief. Rees Mogg has lost his marbles. Unless Sajid Javid cancels the vaccination initiative in its entirety and makes plans for the NHS to deal with the outcomes from toxic vaccinations, the Tories are dead in the water.

      The NHS should be reformed so as to reinforce the weight of clinical opinion and the discard of the opinions of a corrupt management system.

      When I read that the impish jockey Dido Harding was angling for the top NHS job my heart sank. How be much lower can the goons and stupid Oxford elites sink?

  74. Goodnight all and God bless – especially to Elsie who I see has retired already.

  75. Goodnight, all. My internet has slowed to a crawl for some reason, so I’m calling it a day (or rather, night).

  76. I will tell you what I miss.

    I miss the tobacconist shops with their glass jars of different tobaccos and mixtures, the brass scales where whatever you ordered was measured by weight, the ‘Greigs’ where a little old lady could order a quarter pound of butter and specify how many pieces of bacon she could purchase, the Woolworths where you could buy a pot of paint as well as a packet of broken biscuits.

    I miss the sweet shops where you could buy a packet of Pear drops, Gob stoppers, Everton mints, Lemon drops, Trebor mints, Spangles, American Hard Gums, Black Jacks and varieties of Liquorice and that is a compendium just from fond memory.

    Where are we now? Lost, fucking horribly lost.

    1. Found a traditional sweetshop, with boiled sweets in jars on the shelves, Sherbet dips, rhubarb & custard, and many more. In a town south of Fremantle, so no easy access.

          3. JUst looked. Lovely! Link forwarded to family, we’ll put in an order soon!

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