Thursday 13 August: As economic reality hits, the folly of a nationwide lockdown is laid bare

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),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/08/12/lettersas-economic-reality-hits-folly-nationwide-lockdown-laid/

757 thoughts on “Thursday 13 August: As economic reality hits, the folly of a nationwide lockdown is laid bare”

  1. ‘Morning, Peeps and Geoff.

    This letter sums it up very nicely:

    SIR – In the Government’s approach to this crisis, balanced consideration of the overall national interest seems to have been subordinated to – or perhaps even ousted by – two questionable criteria. These are, first, to avoid – or at least minimise – any adverse public response; and, secondly, to ensure that, when the inevitable happens, politicians can shift any blame on to others.

    Thus, for example, ministers claim merely to be “following the science” – which effectively amounts to saying: “We are not responsible (unless the ‘science’ succeeds, in which case we will hog the credit).”

    A similar principle applies to the pledge to “Protect the NHS”. There are many good, and in the present instance brave, individuals in the health service – but the NHS should be judged as an organisation. As such it has shown itself to be inefficient while consuming huge sums of public money.

    Andrew Newcombe QC
    Combe Down, Somerset

  2. ‘Morning, Peeps and Geoff.

    This letter sums it up very nicely:

    SIR – In the Government’s approach to this crisis, balanced consideration of the overall national interest seems to have been subordinated to – or perhaps even ousted by – two questionable criteria. These are, first, to avoid – or at least minimise – any adverse public response; and, secondly, to ensure that, when the inevitable happens, politicians can shift any blame on to others.

    Thus, for example, ministers claim merely to be “following the science” – which effectively amounts to saying: “We are not responsible (unless the ‘science’ succeeds, in which case we will hog the credit).”

    A similar principle applies to the pledge to “Protect the NHS”. There are many good, and in the present instance brave, individuals in the health service – but the NHS should be judged as an organisation. As such it has shown itself to be inefficient while consuming huge sums of public money.

    Andrew Newcombe QC
    Combe Down, Somerset

  3. William Stanier posted late yesterday a very good article by Alistair Heath, wherein he compares our reaction to the pandemic to that of Sweden. I have not presumed to copy and paste it, but I hope that WS will do so shortly because it makes for very interesting reading.

    Sweden’s handling of the pandemic displays two essential elements; leadership and guts. Unfortunately our government has displayed neither, and the resulting damage to our economy will take many years to repair, if ever.

  4. Good Morning Folks,

    Still no thunder storms down here yet but it is raining very lightly at the moment

    1. ‘Morning, B3. Same here, and this morning the humidity feels as though it is off the scale. I would be happy to swap this light, ineffective drizzle for something much more substantial and lasting for at least a couple of days.

      1. It seems to be getting the lockdown weight off, not sure why there are so many obese people in hot countries.

        1. They don’t move, don’t stop eating, and hot countries specialise in sugary foods.
          Morning, Bob.

    2. We had the distant flashes and muted rumblings of the storm that passed over Stoke for an hour & a half last night from 10ish, including some very bright flashes that, surprisingly, were not followed by closer rumblings.

  5. SIR – Given the damage this pandemic is doing to the economy and welfare of the country, will there ever come a point at which the measures to eliminate the virus become more painful than the virus itself?

    Stephen Rees-Jones
    Dulverton, Somerset

    I think we are already there, Mr Rees-Jones.

  6. Peak Covidiocy:

    “The latest example comes to us from the Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources, who told its employees that effective August 1, they would have to wear a mask – even for teleconferences.

    Preston Cole of the DNR said in an e-mail to employees: “Also, wear your mask, even if you are home, to participate in a virtual meeting that involves being seen — such as on Zoom or another video-conferencing platform — by non-DNR staff. Set the safety example which shows you as a DNR public service employee care about the safety and health of others.”

    In days gone by chaps in white coats would have arrived and escorted him off the premises to a very safe space….

    It seems the time is rapidly approaching when we will only have one ‘Good Morning’ day a year as an opportunity to remember the arrival of a new day was something to look forward too. It seems to day is not that day but I wish you all a Good Morning for old times sake….

    1. ‘Morning, Stephen. This takes virtue-signalling to a whole new level. Preston Cole is very obviously an utter pillock.

  7. Apart from Sweden the worldwide reaction to the pandemic appears to have been very similar, some countries have been more extreme and totalitarian with the lockdown and travel precautions, wearing of masks etc, here it has mostly been left to terrified people to cooperate, the systems of counting deaths and cases of the virus are all different and cannot be compared very easily, anybody with any sense will realise that they cannot prevent the virus if it exists as a serious disease or not, everyone will be exposed to it over time as is now happening in formerly smug New Zealand and Australia.
    All this blaming our government just seems pathetic really because all they have done is what the world set out to do, bring economic revolutionary change as was promoted at Davos during the Winter. In that they have been very successful.
    Going on about what government had the worse reaction to the pandemic is just a diversionary tactic, this is what the politicians want, get the little people arguing and angry over a false argument, the LibLabCon can easily survive that.

  8. Apart from Sweden the worldwide reaction to the pandemic appears to have been very similar, some countries have been more extreme and totalitarian with the lockdown and travel precautions, wearing of masks etc, here it has mostly been left to terrified people to cooperate, the systems of counting deaths and cases of the virus are all different and cannot be compared very easily, anybody with any sense will realise that they cannot prevent the virus if it exists as a serious disease or not, everyone will be exposed to it over time as is now happening in formerly smug New Zealand and Australia.
    All this blaming our government just seems pathetic really because all they have done is what the world set out to do, bring economic revolutionary change as was promoted at Davos during the Winter. In that they have been very successful.
    Going on about what government had the worse reaction to the pandemic is just a diversionary tactic, this is what the politicians want, get the little people arguing and angry over a false argument, the LibLabCon can easily survive that.

  9. SIR – I first became aware of ring-necked parakeets in London while walking back to the Underground station from the Wimbledon tennis championships a few years ago.

    They have now settled here, in the farthest reaches of north London, and there are many more to be found at my mother-in-law’s house in Enfield. Is there a more determined invasive species in this country?

    Stephen Knight
    Barnet, Hertfordshire

    Discuss.

    1. “Is there a more determined invasive species…?” Yes, they come across the channel daily in rubber dinghies.

    2. “Is there a more determined invasive species…?” Yes, they come across the channel daily in rubber dinghies.

    3. A decade ago I gave up putting out bird feed as the parakeets simply mobbed the feeders to the detriment of the native species. So one answer might be to stop feeding them.

      (On a similar note I’m sure the population of Urban foxes (wild animals) would also decline if it was made unlawful to feed them.)

      1. Tree rats likewise…I have yet to find a bird feeder that can consistently defeat these little sods. Whereas peanut butter in a trap works very nicely…

        1. I coated the feeder pole with axle grease. It was quite comical to watch the first squirrel jump up the pole and then slowly slide to the bottom.

      2. Who is going to police that? Ickle foxy woxy is sooo cute (think people who don’t have a hen house or breed lambs).

    4. Then the green left wonder where all the garden song birds are going.. they need to be culled before its too late.

    5. ‘Morning, HK. My sister’s garden in Horley is plagued by noisy parakeets, and seemingly to the detriment of her ‘normal’ garden birds, most of which are now rather scarce.

      1. We have them here, they are not around all day though, mornings and evenings mostly.
        Horrible racket they make.

    6. Is there a more determined invasive species in this country?>

      Yes, Homo Sapiens. This species is very dangerous simply because it has the ability to hold diverse cultural and religious ideas depending on where on the planet it originates. The danger is amplified because the differing cultures etc. are generally incapable/unwilling of changing to fit in with the cultures/religions of the areas that are being colonised. In fact, the invaders, even when in a minority, insist on having their culture/religion becoming dominant and like the parakeets they are noisy, flock together and insist on continuing with their rituals e.g. street crime, stabbing, misogyny, corruption, cruelty to animals, dislike of art and music etc.

        1. I wouldn’t advocate that solution to the HS invasion, however, I do foresee major civil unrest in the UK before too long. The continuing failure, deliberate in my opinion, of successive governments to curb mass immigration can only lead to a civil uprising and mass bloodshed if the English/British culture is to survive.
          Scotland, under the crazy reign – leadership is the wrong word – of Sturgeon is going down the road more quickly than England, it would appear.

          https://twitter.com/DVATW/status/1293645655378886657

          1. Morning, Korky. When discussing Sturgeonland, words like ‘regime’ and ‘junta’ spring to mind.

          2. Is he admitting that he is using his ability to make law to specifically target those groups he personally dislikes?

            Isn’t that simply an abuse of power?

      1. 322503+ up ticks,
        Morning AOE,
        The johnson is also pro amnesty so he could be granting amnesty on arrival.

    4. 322503+ up ticks,
      Morning JN,
      Slight error I believe soon rectified done it myself many a time.
      I do wish someone would spell out the definition of “left,”
      Currently one would say, being a lab supporter defines you as “left” OK.

      Being a Conservative but continue to support a factitious,
      in name only, con party time & time again does that not have strong leftist connotations.

      I do honestly regard the lab/lib/con as a very dangerous pro eu coalition and via continuing to support them especially over the last three decades the nation withdrew it sentries leaving no opposition, ie an open goal for welfare for starters.

  11. Morning again

    SIR – I first met William Hague when he was an unusually sensible and level-headed undergraduate. Those qualities are in evidence in his advice to Conservatives north and south of the border (“The UK is nearing breaking point and the Unionists must fight back”, Comment, August 11).

    I would add only one caveat: do not neglect the emotional case for the Union. “I love you, and it would break my heart if you were to go” is a likely to be far more effective in rescuing a failing marriage than “You’d struggle without me”.

    However objectively true the latter observation might be, you will not necessarily be thanked for making it.

    Gareth Howlett

    Edinburgh

    1. Hague is an example of what happens to many people: he peaked too soon. Undoubtedly he was brilliant in his very early 20s but he is probably losing about 5 points each year in his IQ score and he is well on the way to becoming an imbecile.

  12. SIR – This week, Hertfordshire Highways gave my town a resurfaced road with a new mini roundabout that had large direction arrows round it – boldly pointing the wrong way.

    Workmen came back and repainted the arrows in super-quick time – but shame lives longer on social media.

    Quentin Hartley

    Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire

    1. Southerners. Not only do they call their kids names like “Quentin”; they don’t know their up from their down, their left from their right, their front from their back, their east from their west, their arsehole from their breakfast-time, or their clockwise from their anticlockwise.

      Shoulda got some Northern road painters in.

      [Clock’s ticking whilst Southerners try to get their brains into gear for a reply!]

  13. SIR – It seems inevitable that England will now follow Scotland, where the education secretary has reversed a policy that would have seen hundreds of thousands of exam results – awarded on the basis of teachers’ predictions for their pupils – downgraded (report, August 11).

    This shambolic retreat means that, even assuming that some normality in teaching is possible, in 2021 there will, inevitably, be a drop in exam grades. We will then hear that the 2021 cohort has been unfairly penalised, and that their results must be adjusted.

    This will ripple on until and 
unless we simplify the system by awarding top grades to all students. Qualifications will then be “fair” – and utterly meaningless.

    Richard Coleman

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    1. Surely top grades for all means more professionals such as doctors and dentists ?

      What’s not to like ?

      Ummm…..

      Oh.

    2. If I’d been judged on term work and mock exams, I’d have been stuffed.
      ‘Last Minute Dot Com’ could be my middle name.

        1. But then stuff learned for the exam is lost rather quickly, I found. It was the daft little things on the way that I ended up remembering years later!

    3. As grades have been steadily inflated since about 1997, downgrading might just bring them closer to reality.

    3. That’s in Hertfordshire (not Hampshire) according to the letter.

      Still, it’s all dahn sarf!

      In ‘Ertford, ‘Ereford and ‘Ampshire; Rahndabahts can go either way.

  16. AAAARGHH! Another blistering hot day. YIPPEE!!! After 10 minutes of thunder and lightning, the heavens have opened and rain is falling in torrents. My lawns will hopefully turn green by the end of today and it will save me at least an hour a day because I shall not have to use the hose every evening at dusk!

      1. jschechter, you are a Very Famous former Tennis Player and I claim my five bob postal order.

        :-))

      2. It’s the plants I water, jsc, although I confess in the past week I have spent a few minutes each evening watering the very narrow front lawn. The back lawn (untouched) is like a flattened haystack.

    2. Good morning, Elsie. Here in the southest of s.Cambs it is as dark as if it were twilight, 19 C of delicious cool but so far dry. There are distant rumblings of almost constant thunder in the last 15 minutes, fingers crossed for rain.

      1. No, Polly, the reason for the empty local reservoir is that – like the little Dutch boy – I pulled my finger out of the leaking hole after being promised untold millions by George Soros when I had breakfast with him in Minnesota in 1996. (Or was it Michigan in 1997?)

    4. Sadly, it was a meteorological ruse to confuse me. After 45 minutes of the downpour the rain has stopped. It’s back to “AAARGHHH!” once more.

  18. Wm Stanier posted this last night. Comments flooding in BTL

    Sweden’s success shows the true cost of our arrogant, failed establishment

    Shocking incompetence has unnecessarily wiped billions of pounds from the UK economy

    ALLISTER HEATH – 12 August 2020 • 9:30pm

    So now we know: Sweden got it largely right, and the British establishment catastrophically wrong. Anders Tegnell, Stockholm’s epidemiologist-king, has pulled off a remarkable triple whammy: far fewer deaths per capita than Britain, a maintenance of basic freedoms and opportunities, including schooling, and, most strikingly, a recession less than half as severe as our own.

    Our arrogant quangocrats and state “experts” should hang their heads in shame: their reaction to coronavirus was one of the greatest public policy blunders in modern history, more severe even than Iraq, Afghanistan, the financial crisis, Suez or the ERM fiasco. Millions will lose their jobs when furlough ends; tens of thousands of small businesses are failing; schooling is in chaos, with A-level grades all over the place; vast numbers are likely to die from untreated or undetected illnesses; and we have seen the first exodus of foreigners in years, with the labour market survey suggesting a decline in non-UK born adults.

    Pandemics always come with large economic and social costs, for reasons of altruism as well as of self-interest. The only way to contain the spread of a deadly, contagious disease, in the absence of a cure or vaccine, is to social distance; fear and panic inevitably kick in, as the public desperately seeks to avoid catching the virus. A “voluntary” recession is almost guaranteed.

    But if a drop in GDP is unavoidable, governments can influence its size and scale. Politicians can react in one of three ways to a pandemic. They can do nothing, and allow the disease to rip until herd immunity is reached. Quite rightly, no government has pursued this policy, out of fear of mass deaths and total social and economic collapse.

    The second approach involves imposing proportionate restrictions to facilitate social distancing, banning certain sorts of gatherings while encouraging and informing the public. The Swedes pursued a version of this centrist strategy: there was a fair bit of compulsion, but also a focus on retaining normal life and keeping schools open. The virus was taken very seriously, but there was no formal lockdown. Tegnell is one of the few genuine heroes of this crisis: he identified the correct trade-offs.

    The third option is the full-on statist approach, which imposes a legally binding lockdown and shuts down society. Such a blunderbuss approach may be right under certain circumstances – if a vaccine is imminent – or for some viruses – for example, if we are ever hit with one that targets children and comes with a much higher fatality rate – but the latest economic and mortality statistics suggest this wasn’t so for Covid-19.

    Almost all economists thought that Sweden’s economy would suffer hugely from its idiosyncratic strategy. They were wrong. Sweden’s GDP fell by just 8.6 per cent in the first half of the year, all in the second quarter, and its excess deaths jumped 24 per cent. A big part of Sweden’s recession was caused by a slump in demand for its exports from its fully locked-down neighbours. One could speculate that had all countries pursued a Swedish-style strategy, the economic hit could have been worth no more than 3-4 per cent of GDP. That could be seen as the core cost of the virus under a sensible policy reaction.

    By contrast, Britain’s economy slumped by 22.2 per cent in the first half of the year, a performance almost three times as bad as Sweden’s, and its excess deaths shot up by 45 per cent. Spain’s national income slumped even more (22.7 per cent), and France’s (down 18.9 per cent) and Italy’s (down 17.1 per cent) slightly less, but all three also suffered far greater per capita excess deaths than Sweden. The Swedes allowed the virus to spread in care homes, so if that major failure had been fixed, their death rate could have been a lot lower still.

    My guess is that only half of our first-half collapse in GDP would have happened under a variant of the Swedish model. This means that the other half – some £250 billion – was an unnecessary cost caused directly by the lockdown itself. The decision to shut everything down, rather than to impose and promulgate extensive social distancing, hygiene measures, ubiquitous PPE and testing, means that we have wasted a quarter of a trillion pounds worth of GDP, as well as needlessly ruined the education of millions of children and cancelled the health care of hundreds of thousands of adults. I suspect that this immense, unbearable additional cost saved very few additional lives, and that almost all of the gains came from social distancing, not the lockdown.

    Some of the lost GDP will be recovered; the intangible costs of lockdown – the cancelled weddings and sporting events, the failed IVF cycles, the time not spent with family – will remain with us forever.

    This is a catastrophically high price tag for the British state’s systemic incompetence, the uselessness of Public Health England, the deep, structural failings of the NHS, the influence of modelers rather than proper scientists, the complacency, the delusion, the refusal to acknowledge that the quality of the British state and bureaucracy are abysmally poor.

    Even more depressingly, a Swedish approach was always unrealistic in Britain. Panic and hysteria were the only possible outcome when the failure of the system became apparent. I’m not seeking to absolve Boris Johnson of blame, but he would have found himself in an impossible situation had he sought to ignore the official advice, and he inherited few, if any, working levers to pull.

    So what now? How should Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, reboot the economy? Sweden, once again, is a role model. After decades of socialist decline from the early Seventies, the Swedes slashed the size of their state (though it remains too big), liberalised their economy, reformed their schools along market principles and scrapped their counter-productive wealth tax.

    They learnt that the state cannot drive prosperity: only the private sector can do that. The Tories used to understand this: Sunak needs to take inspiration from Tegnell, and push for a Swedish, liberal approach to saving our economy, trusting individual initiative, not resorting to a top down, Whitehall-knows-best attitude. HS2 and green projects are not the answer. The Conservatives will only survive their handling of Covid if they don’t also botch the recovery.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/12/swedens-success-shows-true-cost-arrogant-failed-establishment/

    2. As this dreadful virus was a completely unknown quantity and a global event, hindsight is a wonderful thing and seemingly the substance and sustenance of extreme and subversive critics.
      Sweden’s population is far smaller just above 10 million were as the UK is getting on for 80 million and by far, massively less diverse than ours.
      I’m sure they do not have huge concentrated communities of people who just do as they please, in any said circumstances.
      And from what i can see on the internet the total area of Sweden is twice that of the UK. Greater London has a larger population than the whole of Sweden.

      1. 87% of Swedes live in urban areas – though I realise their urban areas may be a little more generous with space per person.
        In Blighty, it’s 84%
        I gather Malmö makes Tower Hamlets seem hideously white and Christian (a factoid to be confirmed(?) by Grizz).

    5. This a truly horrible thing – it has faded rather over the years as its skin used to be more flesh-toned and its head and body hair was considerably more ginger than Duke of Sussex red.

      Caroline took this photo on her mobile phone from the car window as we hurried to get through Belgium as the quarantine rules allowed us to travel through Belgium as long as we did not stop.

      Some people have suggested that a tunnel through the whole width of Belgium should be built so that those travelling from France to the Netherlands are not subjected to thisi sort of thing.

    6. What is it actually supposed to represent ?
      We drove from France through Belgium along the motorway to Tilburg about 6 years ago we didn’t notice it.

      1. This is on the motorway between Courtrai and Ghent, on the left going north.

        Goodness knows what the point of the thing is. It has been there for years and years. Someone occasionally dresses it up: I’ve seen it in a speedo in the summer, and also dressed up as a Santa Claus in December. I was expecting they might have put a mask on it this time, but presumably nobody thought of that.

      2. Giant naked cyclops next to E17 motorway in Belgium (you
        can see the motorway on the right in the second picture) – it has been
        there before, about 2 years ago, but was set alight then. Has now been
        put back but the owner of the forklift company, who is an art lover who
        did this because he wants to promote art in his industrial zone, is
        getting threatening letters again.

    1. I’ve seen the film; that is also unforgettable.
      His running mate would appear to be too old.
      Morning, King Stephen.

      1. Morning Anne – I too have seen the film. It is astonishing that so many millions of Americans are so blind that they are willing to vote for this being.

  22. Good morning all. Woke to the sound of what I thought (hopefully) was rain – nah – just the gale blowing the fog away.

    1. Good moaning, Willum.
      Hate to boast (acksherley, that’s a lie) but we’ve had a real cloudburst. Absolute bliss; except I’ve just remembered I left the cushions out on a garden seat.

      1. Go to your front door and clap for the rain, Eddy. If enough people in Herts do that then maybe the air flow caused by the clapping might move the rain clouds over to Essex!

        :-))

    3. Wind? WIND?? you mean cooling movement of air???
      You lucky,lucky b……………
      ‘Morning Willum
      Still as the grave here

      1. I am blessed wih a light cooling breeze, a great relief after yesterday, but in spite of leaving all the windows open all night it has yet to cool the main south-facing room.

  24. Good morning all , we had another very warm night here in these Dorsetty parts.

    No thunderstorms , no rain , just another hot humid morning .

    2. Morning Belle, same here in Norf Zummerzet, lots of storms promised but none arrived. I saw a couple of flashes last night, far in the distance Swindon direction.
      Looking on the bright side, as it is 8c cooler than same time yesterday, Mrs VVOF and myself just about to have a nice walk.
      If it stays dry this afternoon, I may even try a bike ride.

    1. There are lots of reasons why Cressida Dick should have resigned, but what happened [or didn’t] to Dawn Butler isn’t one of them!

      1. She is a lippy uppity bint , who really shouldn’t be an MP, the job description is beyond her capability .

        What exactly does she contribute to politics , not alot, except BLM Marxist views .

        I suspect she cruises around her patch as if she is a Gangsta Rapper!

        1. “… BLM Marxist views…”

          That’s all the Left do these days. Get the right demographic, say the right nonsense, don’t let annoyances like truth and reality get in the way of pandering to your audience. Stoke up the lies, tell them what they want to hear and when they complain about jobs blame ‘da evul Toreeees’ to keep yourself in clover.

      2. Not like Labour’s rigged votes, of course.

        She is starting to sound more and more like Abbott, both in her condescending tone of voice and words.

    3. Morning all. You still couldn’t make all this stuff up.

      Cressida Dick appears to be incapable of tackling the institutional racism in the police, and incapable of showing solidarity with those people who suffer from it the most.
      Not of course the racism that must be apparent from the formation of the ‘black police federation’ ?

  26. Did read somewhere or was i only dreaming, that the council in Bristol are suggesting that locals take in illegal migrants.
    They must be Chucking Folk in……….

    3. Bristol’s mayor urges residents to give up spare rooms for asylum seekers so that they don’t end up living on the streets
      Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees backed scheme which lets volunteers host refugees in their spare bedrooms
      Mr Rees said Bristol should be a place ‘where everyone feels welcome and safe’
      City council housed asylum seekers during Covid but arrangement ends soon
      Bristol Hospitality Network asked 20 volunteers to offer room for three months or more

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8616321/Bristols-mayor-urges-residents-spare-rooms-asylum-seekers.html

      1. Bristol Hospitality Network asked 20 volunteers to offer room for three months or more

        What could possibly go wrong?

        1. Big fat zero, natch. And Lily Allen, when are she and Yvette Cooper going to start practising what they preach…(I know, I know)

      3. Well Marv, I’ll keep my eye on the local news, they are bound to report who and how many you housed.

      5. I doubt many of Bristol Council’s desk pilots are currently infesting City Hall. Plenty of room there.

      6. There won’t be any need for them to give up spare rooms to asylum seekers as there aren’t any.

        They’re all economic migrants.

      7. 322503+ up ticks,
        Morning TB,
        If you don’t you will receive three months or more
        as quick as you can say Tommy Robinson.

    4. 322503+ up ticks,
      Morning RE,
      I updated that news item before it become news, weeks ago as in ” I can see compulsory boardering taking place
      before winter sets in”.

      In ALL fairness I think it should be restricted to those who support & vote for mass uncontrolled immigration parties
      leaving decent people aside why should they have to pay a price for others continuing stupidity.

      IMO it is on the cards compulsory lodgering will consist of
      having to feed & water three genders without question.

  27. Good morning all.

    I have just discovered that the BBC has a ” Director Of Creative Diversity “.
    She is Marjorie Hepelthwayte- Bellringer a product of Beneden, Cheltenham Ladies College and a top Swiss Finishing School.

    Oops, sorry wrong link ….

    She is June Sarpong. She has written two books on diversity issues and been a prominent advocate for change in the media and beyond.

  28. How do we know Boros is not telling the truth about the UK’s involvement with Bill Gates ?

    Because Oxford University, which is doing Gates’ vaccine research, was already doing C-19 research as early as January, and the only logical place they could have got the virus was from Gates’ set up in China…………

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/23/oxford-university-covid-19-vaccine-trial-has-50-per-cent-chance/

    Also, Chris Whitty had meetings with the Gates Foundation in November and December…… so it’s very likely the UK was part of Event 201 on October 18 in New York.

    1. Hmm, no they’re researching COVID. Of which version/variant 19 is one of them.

      Medical companies are desperate to cure the common cold so virus research is almost on going. There’s no conspiracy in all that.

      1. That’ll be why Gates and Boros closed down the Oxford hydroxychloroquine trial early before all the data was in saying it doesn’t work…. when many doctors say it does work, and was proved to work on SARS which is closely related.

        1. SARS is related to COVID 19 in the same way flu is.

          I don’t know why they stopped research. Why do you think they did?

  29. Some musings on “risk”……………….

    Chemistry lessons and the Chemistry Club,like every good chem teacher back in the day mine sparked interest in the subject with demos of what happens when largish chunks of Sodium and Potassium met cold water,reagent bottles inc conc Nitric,Sulphuric and Hydrochloric acids,Sodium Hydroxide and Ammonia lined the classroom walls on shallow shelves accessable to all

    Dabbling your fingers in the Mercury as you chased it round the dish,discovering what the ratio 75/15/10 meant,the joys of nitrating cotton wool,Ammonia and Iodine(filter residue and dry) etc etc

    Then Chemistry Club and access to the locked storeroom,bwahaahaa,my project for the parents evening science show

    First make your own Mercury Thiocyanate…………….

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dhHpHOgrUI
    Moving swiftly on to the Zoology lab an asbestos roofed outbuilding where we cheerfully handled Xylene and Picric Acid to prepare our slides…………….
    Goggles and gloves???You’re ‘aving a laff,how did any of us survive to adulthood……………

    1. Our chemistry teacher blew his finger off in the playground during one such demonstration of a pipe bomb. Some of us visited him in hospital.

    2. There were two bottles, where if you swapped the stoppers around, it would produce clouds of smoke.

    3. A guy I used to know borrowed an interesting chemistry book from his Polytechnic Library; he was surprised to receive a home visit from the Special Branch. His hobby was pyrotechnics, but I don’t think he told them about the wilder shores of his experiments.

    1. Thats all they have ever wanted. Our money . What did we get in return./answeres on a very small poscard pease.

    1. Ben and Jerry’s donate to the Tides Foundation which is linked to Soros and Kerry.

  34. You have to larrff Clammy Lammy is at it again……….

    He says that ex-offenders should have their previous records wiped out.

    © Provided by The Guardian Composite: Getty
    “Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We only have today. Let us begin.” As expressed by Mother Teresa, the idea that you cannot let your past define your future is a source of motivation for many. The problem is that not everybody has a choice.

    There are currently more than 11 million people in the UK with a criminal record. The latest research suggests that nearly three-quarters of ex-offenders are unemployed on release from prison, with 50% of employers saying they would not even consider hiring an ex-offender. This amounts to a second sentence for those who have already served their time, often trapping offenders in a cycle of reoffence. The Ministry of Justice estimates the total economic and social cost of reoffending at £18.1bn per year. The criminal records regime contributes to an extortionately expensive revolving door.

    As part of my 2017 review into the criminal justice system, I recommended the introduction of a process by which former offenders could have their criminal records sealed. More specifically, former offenders should have their case heard by either a judge or a body like the Parole Board, which can decide whether to seal their record from employers. In doing so, we’d be learning from a system that already works in several US states.

    1. As a lawyer, he should know of the Rehabilitation of Offenders act. But I do have some sympathy with the idea of getting those who have done their time back to normal life.

      1. It depends on the offence and length of time in jail, but some offences can be treated as “spent” after a certian length of time. Others will be dredged up each time a DBS check is made.

      2. A single offence, depending on issue should always lead to the offender being given every opportunity to rehabilitate.

        A second offence should result in hard labour. Third and subsequent offences should be met with a lump hammer. Far too often you hear about a scum bag having raped/assaulted and having 50 prior convictions.

    2. No, every conviction an individual has, from whenever it was gained adds to a longer sentence until after the third offence you’re dropped in a well and forgotten about.

    1. In 2 weeks I am due a Diabetic review, meaning blood taken and sent away to the lab. I am fully expecting Dr Acula at the surgery to say, “We”ll give you the anti-covid injection while your here, just to save another trip”. NOT A CHANCE.

        1. I’m assuming that is their aim. All the new English arriving daily need housing and as a pensioner, classed as a burden on the NHS, then the govt get a win-win by killing me off. It saves the NHS cash AND gets an empty house for the govt to shove the newbies in.

          2. I am NOT shocked or surprised at that, Not at all. Neither will millions more of us be. Shows what this country has been turned into – and it is going to get worse as more and more arrive.

      2. I was due a review in late March.
        Also supposed to be monitored to see how my kidneys are coping with the post heart attack drugs.

        1. Good luck BoB. I got a list of Do’s and Don’ts told to me when making the appointment. I sarcastically offered to stick my arm through a window for them, It may come to that yet.

  36. So 6% of the population in England has COVID antibodies.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-13/mass-antibody-study-finds-3-4-million-in-england-had-covid-19

    Hang on a bit.
    This doesn’t mean that this proportion of the community has COVID immunity.
    The Swedes have concluded that T- cells are the significant measure in the determination of immunity.
    The snag is that a T-cell test is far more difficult to do than the existing ‘cheap and dirty’ test.

    So where does this get us?

    Well nowhere.

    1. Another bunch of freeloaders – -families already had phone calls to tell them to start packing for their new work free, benefits, house and healthcare supplied – -UK taxpayer funded life. . . . .35 seconds in – the one- grey top – helped out is by a person with NO protective gloves on. Tut tut.

    2. I don’t understand Boris any more. I suspect that he is under the thumb of his liberal hand-wringing wifelet!

    3. “and more healthy males !” – – strange how, despite supposedly being penniless and living rough for months as they get to Calais from wherever, they all appear healthy, fed, and clothes aren’t in rags.

      2. 322503+ up ticks
        Afternoon W,
        Young male troops in the being and females baring troops in the waiting womb

        1. They only count as fifth columnists if they are Russians and cannot afford property in London.

  38. If Joe Biden becomes POTUS, the world is going to be a much more dangerous place. I’m not only referring to BLM, which is supported by his ‘black’ VP nominee, who is not black but who approves of BLM’s far left credentials.

    I am referring to a remark that Biden made yesterday in which he accused Trump of “coddling terrorists and thugs”.

    This is the same BIden who did not agree with taking out Osama Bin Laden and who disagreed with Trump over getting rid of Soleimani and al-Baghdadi.

    It is the same Biden who, along with Obama and Hilary Clinton, hosted members of that malevolent terrorist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood at the White House. And whose Ambassador to Cairo, Anne Patterson, became the most unpopular woman in Egypt because of her close relationship with the MB – so much for her supposed diplomatic impartiality. (The MB is banned in Egypt and several other countries but allowed to operate with impunity in the UK).

    It is the same Biden who was part of Obama’s appeasement of Iran over nuclear weapons without doing anything about Iran’s support for both Shia and Sunni terrorism in many parts of the world, especially the northern half of Africa.

    Biden and Harris are more dangerous than I initially thought.

    It is a pity that the US elections can affect so many of us outside the US but we don’t have a say!

    1. Just hyperbole. Trump calls the lefty demonstrators terrorists, Biden calls anyone to the right a terrorist.

      1. I think this is far too dangerous to be dismissed as hyperbole. It should be taken very seriously in my opinion.

        If Trump is referring to ANTIFA, he is right to call them domestic terrorists since they use violence to achieve their ends. But Biden’s appeasement of Islamic terrorism could be a disaster on a much wider scale.

      2. The fascist Left are terrorists. Look at how they’ve behaved.

        Biden might call anyone he disagrees with a terrorist – that doesn’t make them so. As we know, the Left comfortably use abuse and insult in an attempt to control who can speak.

        1. The fascist Left are terrorists.

          The communist left you mean.

          Occam’s razor (or Ockham’s razor) is a principle from philosophy. Suppose there exist two explanations for an occurrence. In this case the one that requires the smallest number of assumptions is usually correct. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation.

          So we have communist leftists behaving like communist leftists. There’s no need to invoke another entity, one which plays no part in their thinking at all.

          1. Communist or fascist, they’re the same sort. One is an economic policy, the other social.

            Most communists are also fascists – otherwise their ideology would be overthrown in moments.

    2. If elected, Biden will relinquish the Presidency within four months. Harris will take over. Sorted!

    3. 322503+ up ticks,
      Afternoon S,
      By the same token our elections can affect many of them
      with issues such as hauwei etc.

      Bare in mind we also have a trio of dangerous treacherous parties that are up for dining with the devil
      check out the HOC menu.

      All of our elections have affected us in the UK in a non beneficial manner especially over the last three decades
      & we DO have a say.

    4. Form an orderly queue, wear mask, expect to get looked over, get overlooked.

      Return in a huff.

  40. Thunderstorm just arriving in N Essex. No wet stuff as yet.
    Edit: wet stuff is now falling from on high and by golly do we need it.

    1. That is racist, Korky! Instead of hiding your offensive remark, kindly take the knee when mentioning a certain Silver Shred and Golden Shred manufacturer. :-))

    2. Good morning.
      After the near miss by the cracker of a thunderstorm in the small hours of yesterday morning, we had the distant flashes & faint rumblings of another late on last night.
      So far dull, dry & muggy this morning.

    3. Morning, Korky,

      Same here in Sweden. A fortnight plus of hot dry weather with no wet stuff in sight yet. The lawn and trees are all suffering.

  41. Morning all

    SIR – The true folly of lockdown is now hitting home; it was clearly motivated by panic on the part of the Prime Minister.

    The Tories have destroyed the very reason for their existence – a strong economy. Recovery will be long and hard, as people are now so scared, and so work-shy, that it will be years before normality returns.

    F P Forbes

    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    1. SIR – I am a chubby white bloke in his early 70s with a mild disability. I feel appalled and guilty that the economy and the prospects of people much younger than me are being needlessly damaged. Come on, Boris, be bold: rigorously safeguard old people’s homes, and trust my generation and vulnerable people to take the necessary precautions – assisted by mandatory, regular testing.

      Jonathan Rush

      Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire

      SIR – It is undoubtedly a mistake to engender conflict between young and old, since all of us will suffer the economic and health consequences of a rising infection rate. The only way to prevent this is renewed vigilance, and avoidance by politicians of policy based on false optimism rather than realism.

      Allowing the young to acquire herd immunity, although it may have seemed an attractive option earlier in the pandemic, is not now tenable because, inconveniently, a significant proportion of symptomatic infections – even among the young – are proving to result in long-term health consequences.

      Dr David Shoesmith

      York

    2. Ably supported by the “opposition”. This is what happens when Conservatives fail to live up to their name, Labour despises the working classes and Liberals become wholly illiberal.

  43. .Morning All

    “The Government has asked offshore wind farms to switch their

    giant fans into reverse to create a cooling breeze for sweltering

    Britain.

    Rather than turning clockwise to harvest the wind for energy, bosses will switch the turbines to anti-clockwise for three days.

    Once

    they get up to speed, it is expected much of coastal Britain will feel a

    breeze within hours. Inland areas will be an hour later.

    Currently in the grip of a heatwave, with sticky hot air and no wind, Brits are unable to sleep or function.

    Government renewable energy minister Lorraine Fisher, 34, said: “We have plenty of electricity stockpiled currently.

    “With enough to keep the lights on, it makes sense to reverse the turbines and use them as giant fans.”

    https://www.suffolkgazette.com/news/wind-farms-ordered-to-create-breeze-to-cool-down-britain/
    Snigger,I wonder how many MP’s would fall for it……………………….

    1. 322503+ up ticks,
      Morning Rik,
      If it results in the English Channel trebling, then some, in width I’m all for it.

    2. Will probably end with heart-warming BBC articles about the life-long friendship that develops between Gary and his hand-picked migrant.

  47. Excellent Lockdown sceptics article

    The truth is, and it’s one most governments won’t admit, is that

    COVID-19 is ultimately beyond our control. It was already out of control

    before anyone noticed it even existed.

    It fascinates me that in our own time the idea that we might ever die

    has become unacceptable, that the minimum standard of life to which we

    should all aspire is zero risk. This is in spite of the bizarre delusion

    that all the normal risks of life can not only be ignored but actually

    made worse by dispensing with some of the precautions we already had –

    like cancer screening, to take a single example. One of the reasons the

    Government has descended into such mercurial mayhem is because of its

    fixation with trying to convince us all that risk from the virus can be

    all but eliminated and that it alone has the powers to achieve that if

    we’d only bow down and obey its every command.

    Part of the reason for the current fear and despair, especially in

    Britain right now, is because far from creating a sense of order,

    control and competence the Government is magnifying our sense of

    dislocation and disorder by revealing that it isn’t the powerful force

    it has been pretending to be. The recent abrupt U-turns are dressed up

    as the result of science-driven changes intended to demonstrate control,

    but it’s also true there are plenty of scientists falling over

    themselves to come up with new reasons for everyone to be terrified out

    of their wits in the name of making us feel ‘safer’.

    https://lockdownsceptics.org/government-by-chaos/

      1. But hang on a mo Bo ……….the opposition have all the right answers. You must have noticed.

      2. Morning, BoB. We are convinced that MB had it last January. And if it’s as catching as the hysterics make out, I must have had it by virtue of proximity.
        Or the thread of RNA looked at me and thought ‘Nah …. I like a quiet life”.

        1. I think cross-immunity from other corona type viruses plays a huge part in deciding who is to isn’t immune to the disease, so given your time in the wards exposed to God knows what….

          1. I rarely catch colds; after a bout of glandular fever when I was 40, it was several years before I caught another. Strangely enough, I began to feel like some sort of freak, and was glad to return to ‘normal’ and catch one.
            I have a friend who’s had both types of meningitis; she made the same comment. Her first cold was a return to normality.

        2. I had ordinary ‘flu in January and all the C19 symptoms in February. MOH never had so much as a sniffle either time.

        3. Just before Christmas last year i had a terrible cough and upper respiratory infection.
          A stronger than usual dose and longer course of antibiotics sorted it out eventually.
          Only one other person in our immediate family group has been slightly ill with a cough in recent months.
          Perhaps i passed on the immunity to them ???
          And I’m not volunteering for a test.

          1. MB had a dreadful cough; for ten nights he slept the spare room. And I could still hear him. What really frightened him was having to pause for breath halfway up the stairs.
            We have a sensible GP who discusses things and MB decided to see how he got on, rather than automatically gulp down the anti-Bs. He wos rite.

          2. From over 50 years of working in the construction industry. I have scar tissue in my lungs, after years of inhaling many types of dust and other things such as asbestos fibres. I have already had mild one sided pneumonia.
            No chances can be taken Anne.

          3. I had the Terrible Cough in November (approx). I had a test recently, negative, But who knows how long the antibodies stay detectable?

      3. The very idea that governments of any country can control a virus is the ultimate in hubris. Prepare healthcare systems, yes. Orchestrate testing and vaccination policies, yes.

        Rather raises the question of why we had to pay for the incompetence of the Statists who couldn’t operate the few levers they had effectively.

    2. For some time I’ve been saying that we have reversed the Victorian idea of taboos. Now, sex is everywhere, but death is the great unmentionable.

    1. The boats must have been bought in France , surely the distributor of semi rigids and the engines , which aren’t cheap , should be investigated , and the buyers of the boats tracked and hauled in by the police .. simple isn’t it ?

  50. Joke time…

    A shopkeeper was dismayed when a retailer just like his opened a branch
    in the adjacent terraced unit; they put up a big sign saying “best
    quality”.
    He was horrified when another competitor opened a new branch in the
    adjacent terraced unit on his other side; they announced their arrival
    with an equally large sign that said “lowest prices”.
    The shopkeeper despaired, but then had an idea. He put up a sign over
    his own shop unit, which read “main entrance”.

  51. Dolly swallowed the TV remote. Now i have pat her back to get BBC. Rub her neck to get Sky. Stroke her belly to get ITV. I’ve decided to give channel 4 a miss.

  53. BBC bans Rudyard Kipling’s Mandalay from VJ Day commemoration after performer complains that one line is ‘derogatory to people of colour’
    By SEBASTIAN SHAKESPEARE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    PUBLISHED: 23:37, 12 August 2020 | UPDATED: 09:30, 13 August 2020

    His verse evokes the sweat and suffering of Tommy Atkins — the ordinary soldier who risks his neck in battle only to be consigned to oblivion in peacetime.

    But that has not prevented Rudyard Kipling’s celebrated poem Mandalay from being expunged from the BBC’s showpiece commemorating the 75th anniversary of VJ Day — much to the distress of veterans’ organisation the Burma Star Association.

    The poem was first set to music in 1907 and was to have been sung for inclusion in the evening segment of VJ Day 75, to be hosted on Saturday night by Joanna Lumley on BBC1.

    ‘Sir Willard objected to the line “an wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot”,’ I’m told. ‘He felt it derogatory to people of colour.’

    Mandalay, in which Kipling imagines a British soldier fondly recalling his days in Burma, has been criticised in the past as a vehicle for colonial thought.

    Sir Willard’s manager, Julia Maynard, confirms that the star was scheduled to sing Mandalay.

    ‘Sir Willard was invited by the BBC to sing Mandalay,’ she tells me, though declining to say whether Sir Willard, 73, voiced any objections to the poem or any particular line within it. ‘In the end, another choice of song was made.’

    The BBC also declines to explain why the poem was dropped. ‘Many songs and contributions are considered when planning events such as this, with the final running order only being confirmed shortly before recording,’ says a spokesman.

    The poem’s omission dismays the Burma Star Association, still numbering 1,400 members worldwide.

    ‘We were certainly not consulted,’ Phil Crawley, the Association’s administrator, tells me. He adds that Mandalay — a favourite marching tune for the men of the 14th Army in Burma — has intense emotional significance for them.

    ‘In 2015, a major part of the Service on Horse Guards Parade was a reading of Mandalay by Charles Dance. Many members have asked for it to be played at their final commitment.’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8621367/SEBASTIAN-SHAKESPEARE-BBC-bans-Rudyard-Kiplings-Mandalay-VJ-Day-commemoration.html

    1. “an wastin’ Christian kisses on an ’eathen idol’s foot”

      Once again, confusing religion (or lack of it) with race or colour. From dictionary.com, a Heathen is:-

      noun, plural hea·thens, hea·then.
      (in historical contexts) an individual of a people that do not acknowledge the God of the Bible; a person who is neither a Jew, Christian, nor Muslim; a pagan.

      Whereas a Christian can be any race or colour.

    3. Maybe our military could refuse to take part? Show a bit of moral backbone and have nothing to to do with it. Just for once show the SJWs that the people of the UK are not to be treated as doormats and that our military are British and proud of our heritage.

        1. Oh, I suppose… Must be after some of the darkies the RAF is actively recruiting…

          1. That video of Carter links in exactly with what his boss back then, Cameron, said in 2012 which almost certainly came from Open Society.

            So who runs the army ?

      2. With the never ending stupidity of the H&S rules being churned out I fully expect any future wars to include us sending messages to the enemy where and when an attack from us will take place, just so they can go elsewhere. After all – we don’t want anyone to get hurt do we?

        4. Perhaps Sir Willard White should think about changing his hideous surname as well.

    5. As the Cambridge police fellow told us from earlier, it’s free speech. They are not excluded from being offended.

    6. Isn’t it a bit racist to assume that a heathen idol is necessarily blek? It could be made of ivory.

  54. I saw a stat in last weeks Spectator, Barometer section that all the rates of death for serious illness and diseases have dramatically dropped in June, does this mean that Covid is a cure for all other known diseases?

    1. It’s just been pre-culling the weakest of the herd. Flu deaths next winter will be low too.

  55. Scottish power foolishly asked my opinion:

    “…

    I’ve given Scottish Power a 3 not because you as an individual supplier deserve it but because the entire energy sector is a cartel.

    Winter hits and energy prices spike. Summer hits and you reduce them a fraction – all of you. At the end of the day, the price of energy has gone up, hurting hardest at the time we need energy most and deceitfully cheating people when they want it least.

    Comically, every single provider does this practically at the same time so all the blither about switching providers is utterly pointless.

    I qualify for no grants or assistance because, stupidly I work for a living and pay for myself and family. I shouldn’t have bothered. I urgently want roof insulation to stop my house becoming an oven in summer – it’s 37’c in here at the moment without the AC going – but I’ll be forced to pay top whack for that and I won’t get to choose the type that gets installed.. I pay green taxes for a policy I don’t agree with but are forced on me. My bill would be £6 cheaper a month without those taxes – taxes that – comically! Are being used to pay for the smart meter roll out.

    Of which, I’ll end this uninteresting, unread rant with: mine hasn’t worked for 4 months.

    1. I had an advert for “green heating” in the post this morning. It included the “welcome” news that gas, LPG and oil boilers are to be phased out in a few years. Welcome to the new Ice Age. We had all better pray for Global Warming to kick in big time or we’ll all freeze to death.

      1. They don’t care. The intent was always to ration heating by massive, punitive tax hikes to force down demand.

        The green taxes will increase to 20, then 30% until they’re higher than fuel duty taxes, then VAT on energy doubled, probably quadrupled. There’s no intent to meet demand. The entire state is foaming fanatic about ‘climate change’.

        1. It’s like a cult. The end justifies the means. I’ve got a multi-fuel stove. If need be, I shall go foraging for wood and bring it home in a pram! I don’t know if you saw what I posted yesterday about the big “success” of the EU Water Directive being pricing so as to reduce demand. The same thinking obviously applies to energy.

        2. It’s like a cult. The end justifies the means. I’ve got a multi-fuel stove. If need be, I shall go foraging for wood and bring it home in a pram! I don’t know if you saw what I posted yesterday about the big “success” of the EU Water Directive being pricing so as to reduce demand. The same thinking obviously applies to energy.

      1. I’d be far happier if instead of Mr Farage when these scum gathered half a dozen decent people rocked up with mini guns and drove them back into the sea.

    2. You’d think that the council – a group of wasters so monumental in their hubris and arrogance – would have prevented this sort of farce by using oh, I dunno, a group who’s job it is to, what’s the word? Ah, yes. Police.

    1. We have a cool, cloudy morning after last night’s downpour. Not much thunder but some lightning.

      1. We had no rain. Evening temps were 600’c and 800’c respectively. Humidity 500%. There was a slight coughing of thunder, no lightning. Rain – if it can be called that, was a gentle pattering that evaporated as soon as it got within 3 metresof the white hot molten lava of the pavement.

    1. Of course she will need the income to maintain it in the state to which she (and Archie, as an afterthought, but prominently displayed) will by then be entitled by “their position” (hers being on her back, or whatever, Archie’s being out of sight until needed for a press photo). Poor little soul (meaning Archie – Ginge deserves whatever is coming to him).

    2. Just in amongst her mates, how nice. Small-talk over the garden fence with Ellen Mcdyke should be fascinating for our royal ginge. Better not mention her plums.

      1. Rain has gone away .. yes very muggy .

        I feel half asleep , more than usual , and really lacklustre.

        I still haven’t been in to the choice of towns near here since February .. although I visited Dobbies garden centre just down the road .. they are getting ready for Christmas !

        Has anyone on here bought a pair of shoes from a shoe shop since all this nonsense happened .. How many pairs can we try on , and can one browse around first?

        Hardly any plants sold , loads will go to waste , hanging baskets, masses of Bizzie Lizzies, Dahlias , Petunias and those sort of bedding ideas .

        All the customers had masks on including me , so you just cannot smell the plants outside . The temperature was just too muggy and hot . I couldn’t cope , and didn’t bother to look around at all the other non garden centre stuff, I was glad to get nack to my car and drink water from my reusable bottle , which I keep in the fridge untill I head out in the car.

        1. Apart from the weekly shop, I just can’t be bothered to go anywhere now unless I’ve arranged to meet someone.

        2. I have plenty of shoes already. Though my chiropodist is going to go apeshit when she sees the state of my feet. All her good work and my money gone to waste…………

          I suggest you think of less stressful pursuits and chill a bit more. Sod everyone else. Look after yourself first.

        3. I can’t remember the last time I bought a pair of shoes; I tend to get mine re-soled and re-heeled.

          2. I have more than one pair of shoes, so I tend not to wear the same pair all the time and so spread the load, so to speak. Often I will wear hiking boots, as I did this morning to take my dog for a walk.

    2. Very warm (27ºC), dry, cloudless skies, no mugginess, no rain forecast, for 15th consecutive day now.

      April: warm and sunny. May: warm and sunny. June: warm and sunny. July: cold, wet, windy and miserable. August: hot and sunny.

    1. No need for them to bother, when Border Farce do the job anyway.
      Or maybe, just maybe, Channel Rescue is taking people’s hard-earned cash on a scam……

    3. “Channel Rescue are asking for financial contributions to help us purchase a boat and humanitarian supplies booze, so we can go fishing in aid migrants in distress who have undertaken to cross the English Channel.”

      1. They should go over to France to buy one – they’re obviously very cheap there

  63. I had to chase up my formal complaint to Cambs police about the hate speech Dr Gopal (her of Cambs Uni). Of course, no offence has been committed and much law was quoted in the consideration of the multiple complaints made. The response talks about free speech and that there is no right not to be offended. Hmm, that’s just soo last century, but then it was only whites who would be offended; so thanks for your concern but just suck it up. Here is an extract from the investigation…

    “The relevant case law in relation to standards of what is ‘insulting’ can be found in Brutus v Cozens 1972 where the House of Lords held that:
    “Behaviour which affronts other people or shows disrespect for their rights so as to give rise to resentment or protest on their part, was not necessarily ‘insulting behaviour’.”

    The question of whether behaviour is insulting is a question of fact looking at the particulars of an offence. In considering this tweet I also have to give due consideration to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights which allows for a wide range of freedom of expression save in very select circumstances. On balance, I do not believe that Professor Gopal’s tweet was so insulting as to meet the tests set out above, particularly given that she was addressing an abstract rather than insulting an individual or group directly. It is important to note that the test for this act is not whether a person takes offence- the law does not provide legal protection against views or expressions of those views that merely cause offence- to do so would be deeply injurious to the freedom of expression and thought within a democratic society.”

    I might just keep the letter from James Sutherland Area Commander responsible for policing in Cambridge City, in case I should be challenged for ever presenting my views!

    2. If the Holyrood Parliament is foolish enough to pass Nasty Nicola’s Hate-speech Bill into law, the time will surely have come to expel Scotland from the United Kingdom.

      1. She wants a second referendum – all she has to do to be free of England (if she wants to stay in the EU she’ll never be independent) is offer the English the vote. Gone in an instant, would be my guess.

    3. Hang on. What about calling her a racist and that Indian lives don’t matter? How about black lives don’t matter?

      Blacks are offended, you say? So? That’s all legal, as far as you say. How about Muslim lives don’t matter? Oh, what’s that? Banging on my door to arrest me, are you?

      It’s blatant hypocrisy.

      People have said white lives matter – the police investigated that desperately. The person saying it got sacked, as did their partner. The radio presenter who said all lives matter was sacked and reinstated only after legal action.

  65. Forwarded to me by Nagsman

    I really wish I had written this.

    Original Sender

    In these days of supposedly free speech it’s good to read of a point of view that differs from the one that appears to be getting the most media attention.

    I suspect that this article reflects the opinions of many in the UK , the silent majority, that they would be branded as racist if they even spoke these views let alone put them into writing. The lesson here is one cannot change history. Letter from the Chancellor of Oxford University England. This letter is a response from Oxford to Black Students, attending as Rhodes Scholars, to remove the statue of Oxford Benefactor, Cecil Rhodes.

    OXFORD – THE FIGHTBACK HAS BEGUN

    Interestingly, Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes), The Chancellor of Oxford University, was on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday on precisely the same topic. The Daily Telegraph headline yesterday was “Oxford will not rewrite history”. Patten commented “Education is not indoctrination. Our history is not a blank page on which we can write our own version of what it should have been according to our contemporary views and prejudice” Rhodes must fall ???”

    Dear Scrotty Students,

    Cecil Rhodes’s generous bequest has contributed greatly to the comfort and well being of many generations of Oxford students – a good many of them, dare we say it, better, brighter and more deserving than you.

    This does not necessarily mean we approve of everything Rhodes did in his lifetime – but then we don’t have to. Cecil Rhodes died over a century ago. Autres temps, autres moeurs. If you don’t understand what this means – and it would not remotely surprise us if that were the case – then we really think you should ask yourself the question: “Why am I at Oxford?”

    Oxford, let us remind you, is the world’s second oldest extant university. Scholars have been studying here since at least the 11th century. We’ve played a major part in the invention of Western civilization, from the 12th century intellectual renaissance through the Enlightenment and beyond. Our alumni include William of Ockham, Roger Bacon, William Tyndale, John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Erasmus, Sir Christopher Wren, William Penn, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Samuel Johnson, Robert Hooke, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Emily Davison, Cardinal Newman, Julie Cocks. We’re a big deal. And most of the people privileged to come and study here are conscious of what a big deal we are.

    Oxford is their alma mater – their dear mother – and they respect and revere her accordingly. And what were your ancestors doing in that period? Living in mud huts, mainly. Sure we’ll concede you the short lived Southern African civilization of Great Zimbabwe. But let’s be brutally honest here. The contribution of the Bantu tribes to modern civilization has been as near as damn it to zilch. You’ll probably say that’s “racist”. But it’s what we here at Oxford prefer to call “true.”

    Perhaps the rules are different at other universities. In fact, we know things are different at other universities. We’ve watched with horror at what has been happening across the pond from the University of Missouri to the University of Virginia and even to revered institutions like Harvard and Yale: the “safe spaces”; the ?#?blacklivesmatter; the creeping cultural relativism; the stifling political correctness; what Allan Bloom rightly called “the closing of the American mind”. At Oxford however, we will always prefer facts and free, open debate to petty grievance-mongering, identity politics and empty sloganeering. The day we cease to do so is the day we lose the right to call ourselves the world’s greatest university.

    Of course, you are perfectly within your rights to squander your time at Oxford on silly, vexatious, single-issue political campaigns.(Though it does make us wonder how stringent the vetting procedure is these days for Rhodes scholarships and even more so, for Mandela Rhodes scholarships) We are well used to seeing undergraduates – or, in your case – postgraduates, making idiots of themselves. Just don’t expect us to indulge your idiocy, let alone genuflect before it. You may be black – “BAME” as the grisly modern terminology has it – but we are colour blind.

    We have been educating gifted undergraduates from our former colonies, our Empire, our Commonwealth and beyond for many generations. We do not discriminate over sex, race, colour or creed. We do, however, discriminate according to intellect. That means, inter alia, that when our undergrads or postgrads come up with fatuous ideas, we don’t pat them on the back, give them a red rosette and say: “Ooh, you’re black and you come from South Africa What a clever chap you are!” No. We prefer to see the quality of those ideas tested in the crucible of public debate. That’s another key part of the Oxford intellectual tradition you see: you can argue any damn thing you like but you need to be able to justify it with facts and logic – otherwise your idea is worthless.

    This ludicrous notion you have that a bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes should be removed from Oriel College, because it’s symbolic of “institutional racism” and “white slavery”. Well even if it is – which we dispute – so bloody what? Any undergraduate so feeble-minded that they can’t pass a bronze statue without having their “safe space” violated really does not deserve to be here. And besides, if we were to remove Rhodes’s statue on the premise that his life wasn’t blemish-free, where would we stop? As one of our alumni Dan Hannan has pointed out, Oriel’s other benefactors include two kings so awful – Edward II and Charles I – that their subjects had them killed. The college opposite – Christ Church – was built by a murderous, thieving bully who bumped off two of his wives. Thomas Jefferson kept slaves: does that invalidate the US Constitution? Winston Churchill had unenlightened views about Muslims and India: was he then the wrong man to lead Britain in the war?

    Actually, we’ll go further than that. Your Rhodes Must Fall campaign is not merely fatuous but ugly, vandalistic and dangerous. We agree with Oxford historian RW Johnson that what you are trying to do here is no different from what ISIS and the Al-Qaeda have been doing in places like Mali and Syria. You are murdering history. And who are you, anyway, to be lecturing Oxford University on how it should order its affairs? Your ?#?rhodesmustfall campaign, we understand, originates in South Africa and was initiated by a black activist who told one of his lecturers “whites have to be killed”.

    One of you – Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh – is the privileged son of a rich politician and a member of a party whose slogan is “Kill the Boer; Kill the Farmer”; another of you, Ntokozo Qwabe, who is only in Oxford as a beneficiary of a Rhodes scholarship, has boasted about the need for “socially conscious black students” to “dominate white universities, and do so ruthlessly and decisively! Great. That’s just what Oxford University needs. Some cultural enrichment from the land of Winnie Mandela, burning tyre necklaces, an AIDS epidemic almost entirely the result of government indifference and ignorance, one of the world’s highest per capita murder rates, institutionalized corruption, tribal politics, anti-white racism and a collapsing economy. Please name which of the above items you think will enhance the lives of the 22,000 students studying here at Oxford.

    And then please explain what it is that makes your attention grabbing campaign to remove a listed statue from an Oxford college more urgent, more deserving than the desire of probably at least 20,000 of those 22,000 students to enjoy their time here unencumbered by the irritation of spoilt, ungrateful little tossers on scholarships they clearly don’t merit using racial politics and cheap guilt-tripping to ruin the life and fabric of our beloved university.

    Understand us and understand this clearly: you have everything to learn from us; we have nothing to learn from you.

    Yours,

    Oriel College Oxford

      1. No, Horace, but this a silent Riposte:

        In Praise of All Lives Matter
        In the matter of radical 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, time clocks or engines,
        No lights that go on with a flick.
        No aircraft or 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. Wyatt Mann
        June 2020

    2. 322503+up ticks,
      Morning C,
      What I cannot get my cannister around is the “silent majority” staying silent by submitting to the empty
      threat of being tagged racist, WHY?

      I know a great many are showing the after affects of being
      neutered, the polling both shows me that on a regular basis & in odious actions taken, but name calling is physically harmless.

    3. It doesn’t matter where it is actually from. The content is direct and to the point. It is we, the amiable Brits, who have been bullied and vilified for opening ourselves to people who despise us and all we have done in all spheres – our white privilege. Well, no one gave us any privileges. They have of course tried to overturn those intellectual advantages our own endeavours have produced for our society – that we share – and still do. Oxford is more than a collection of libraries and studies, lecture theatres or laboratories; it is an institution, an exemplar. Before he died Roger Scruton, a man blackguarded by a scoundrel in the last months of his life, pointed out that a country, a society, indeed a civilisation, is not simply abut powers and wealth, but institutions that embody ideas and beliefs, ones that transcend the moment and are representative of universal values greater than we individuals alone. I do not claim you do not realise this, even dimly. You do. And so to assert yourselves, your own vaunting ambitions and temporary obsessions you do see how essential it is for your own vanity that the institution must be, as the world knows it now, cancelled and nullified. As long as these institutions stand your own manifest egotism is just that, the power of a child shaking its fist in the face of lasting value.

    4. Is that letter genuinely from Chris Patten? Standby for an apology and a big knees down mother Brown from the university.

      1. No-one from the University Academic staff would ever have the guts to write that type of letter, even if they agreed with the sentiments (which they probably don’t).

          3. But people who are given to/saved/fought on behalf of etc. etc. are almost invariably ungrateful little shits. Look at France…

            (edit I mean the governments principally, but not always exclusively).

          4. But people who are given to/saved/fought on behalf of etc. etc. are almost invariably ungrateful little shits. Look at France…

            (edit I mean the governments principally, but not always exclusively).

          5. When I was a student I remember being treated like royalty by an elderly French waitress on my birthday in the Beaujolais region. She would have lived through the war & subsequent liberation.

      3. 322503+ up ticks,
        Morning Kp,
        Things being bad enough please refrain from besmirching Mother Browns name by linking it to the one knee down proven prats.
        Even innocent inquiries well meant gives ammunition to the uni twatologist.

      4. I doubt it very much. No one who has the power to do anything ever speaks or writes in such direct terms

    5. Only one thing I’d take issue with; “Winston Churchill had unenlightened views about Muslims”. I think he had seen the light about islam, myself.

  67. This is a shocking but enlightening video about the downfall of Seattle, if anyone is interested. Made in 2017; the situation has got even worse since then. Ironically, I was directed to it by a dyed-in-the-wool leftie friend who has reached the end of her tether and is moving away from Seattle in despair. A useful look into what happens when you cease to prosecute antisocial behaviour. Not for the faint of heart!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpAi70WWBlw&feature=youtu.be

    1. I’ve seen it before,indeed a hell-hole CREATED by “died in the wool Lefties”
      I wonder if your friend has learnt the lesson?? Or like so many Leftards that flee the chaos they create will she try to impose her uber liberal views on the community she seeks sanctuary in??
      Voting for the same type of politicians that have wrecked places like Seattle and Portland??
      This time it will be Utopia comrades!!

      1. Lefties never seem to realise that it is their leftism that creates the hell-holes they then want to leave.

  69. Very rarely do I react seriously to weather, but this morning I felt really ill when I first woke came to.
    Maybe I need to add salt to my food. And … more rain, please.

    1. I felt bloody rough last night before bed, VERY hot & sweaty. nauseous & unable to relax comfortably.
      Then had one of my infamous cold baths and immediately felt much better.

      I FINALLY managed to get the DT to locate the summer quilt after struggling with the winter one, and had a much better sleep after swapping them over.

      1. Bob, you swapped your DT for a summer quilt …. so brave !

        I realy do enjoy your photos. Thank you for them …. please keep ’em coming.

      2. Try just having a cotton sheet instead of a quilt (summer or winter) covering you, BoB.

      3. If we still had our tent i might have been sleeping in the garden over the last few weeks.
        Mind you i might have had to drill the holes for the tent pegs.

      4. Last night I felt thoroughly drained, but this morning was feeling drained ++++++
        Fortunately, MB has been churning out the rocket fuel.

        1. I’ve been liberal with the salt on my food and been having a cold shower morning and evening – well as cold as modern technology will allow you to have it. Having recently moved to a modern flat there is only one tap with the second ‘tap’ that controls temp and only allows you to have a tepid shower instead of cold. Fortunately the gas boiler can’t keep up and intermittently the water goes cold for a brief few seconds. Clearly the people now running the plumbing industry cannot conceive that anyone might actually want a cold shower.

  70. It depends on your point of view I suppose.

    A report is showing that the pandemic wage replacement handout is not being wasted, many canadians are using the freebie to pay down debt and about $13billion has been paid of in the past few months. Wonderful they are saying.

    How the hell are we paying out so much money that people can use the surplus to pay off outstanding debts?

    1. It also suggests that people who aren’t in debt are being given a nice little nest egg, courtesy of those who are carrying on working.

  71. 322503+ up ticks,
    This political geezer AKA the turkish delight, amnesties R me really does take the Tuc he beats shirt in underpants major, the wretch cameron, and
    mata hari may hands down.
    These counterfeit tory’s cannot be faulted for turning out leading treachery
    jockeys.
    Seemingly the electorate cannot get enough of them, hair shirt guaranteed.

    https://twitter.com/AmandeepBhogal/status/1292098335529152520

    1. The legal issues are that France hasn’t obeyed international law.

      The operative is that the coast guard/border force won’t turn them back.

      Legislative is bizarre. The Treaty of Denmark forced on us by the EU specifies that immigrants are dealt with at their point of ingress into the EU. They simply should not be here.

      Our ‘help’ should be to tow them back to France. If we’re the only country bothering to enforce those laws then sue the EU, sue France and destroy those damned boats. Stop the illegal gimmigrants getting here. Kill them in the channel ! Hang them from those hateful, wasteful windmills. Seeing the fate of their chums will stop the thieving, violent, rapist illiterate, innumerate pointless drain on society trying to get here.

      1. 322503+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        First the three main trouble creators lab/lib/con,
        must be radically changed or eliminated in their present form, via the polling booth.

    1. Harris is another “came out of nowhere” Democratic lawyer in the Obama mould.
      If the Democrats win, here’s my prediction:

      Biden stands down or dies, she serves two terms.
      Borders and voter rights are eased.
      The Democrats become unassailable.

      Obama is proposed as a member of the Supreme Court and selected.

      She then gets proposed for the supreme court and selected too.

      The Democrats control the USA for the foreseeable future until the NWO globalists take over, either directly or through controlling the Democrats behind the scenes.

      3. If she takes over before Biden has served for two years, she will only be able to stand for one more full term. But even so, she could do a lot of damage, as you say.

      1. Good One Geoff,pulls together a lot of info that’s been posted here in bits and pieces

  74. Rob Baxter believes Premiership Rugby has ‘hung players out to dry’ in not taking the lead on how to support BLM

    Baxter also argues that pre-match gestures should not continue past the first round of matches, invoking a comparison with Remembrance Day
    By Daniel Schofield, Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent

    Rob Baxter – Rob Baxter believes Premiership Rugby has ‘hung players out to dry’ in not taking the lead on how to support BLM

    Exeter begin their Gallagher Premiership restart this weekend at home against Leicester Credit: GETTY IMAGES

    Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter says that Premiership Rugby has “hung players out to dry” by failing to take a lead on how to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

    Baxter also argues that pre-match gestures should not continue past this weekend’s round of matches, invoking a comparison with Remembrance Day. After a five-month hiatus, the Gallagher Premiership returns on Friday night with Harlequins’ match against Sale Sharks. Unlike the Premier League, where all players were instructed to take a knee in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Premiership Rugby has left it to the clubs’ discretion to decide how to “honour equality, under the banner of Rugby Against Racism”.

    This has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Harlequins, Leicester and Wasps will take the knee synonymous with the movement while Sale’s squad will wear ‘Rugby Against Racism’ T-shirts in the opening match. Meanwhile, Bristol Bears intend to form a heart shape before kick-off against Saracens while Gloucester and Worcester players will line up in a V-shape.

    Not only does that have the potential to create a confusing rather than unifying image but Baxter believes that it represents an abdication of responsibility by Premiership Rugby. “I am a little surprised that Premier Rugby went this way,” Baxter said. “Just dropping it on clubs and saying “there you go, do what you like” is like hanging some players out to dry. I don’t know how much positive press players will get if they have a different opinion, which is something we should embrace.”

    Asked whether he would have preferred Premiership Rugby to have issued a central directive, Baxter said: “100 per cent that would have been my preference. The big problem is that it seems to have come into the picture so late in the day it has kind of scrambled through a bit. I think most clubs would agree.”

    In Exeter’s case, they will be “showing their full support for Rugby Against Racism” before their match against Leicester but have not confirmed whether this will amount to a physical gesture. “This hasn’t been forced by us as a club, it’s been led by the players and we will support them in whatever they choose to do,” Baxter said. “Whether they do the same thing or different things we will support them.”

    However, with no further direction from Premiership Rugby over how long the solidarity gestures should last there are already further seeds for controversy. In the Premier League, players took a knee for every single match when the season resumed, despite the Black Lives Matter movement becoming increasingly political.

    Baxter argues, however, that pre-match gestures cannot continue indefinitely. “There is a time and a place for every kind of marking,” Baxter said. “At what stage would you stop marking something, bringing awareness to something. This might be the wrong way of looking at it, but at the end of the day, we mark Armistice Day for one minute of one day of the year – and that was a pretty big thing. So if we are going to get some balance in all of this. Let’s remember: We are a sport, we are here to entertain people, let’s get back to being a sport and not trying to be a political tool. Let’s get back to what we are about.”

    Exeter were engaged in their own recent controversy after the board rejected calls to drop its Chiefs branding which critics claim is racist towards Native Americans. The club did decide to retire their ‘Big Chief’ mascot which “could be regarded as disrespectful”, however Baxter backed the club for not bowing to pressure largely centred around social media.

    “All I can say about the branding is that the club have made a detailed decision about that and it is not something I want to expand on further,” Baxter said. “Whatever criticism we might be getting we always discuss, ‘Well, whose opinion is it?’ Are they allowed a valid opinion? Of course they are. Are we allowed a difference of opinion? Of course we are – unless we’re doing something illegal.

    “There are laws in this country that are designed to protect people, and we’re not breaking any of them. Sometimes it becomes an opinion piece, which I’m more than happy to have. Respecting differing opinions will make the world a better place. Feeling like you’re getting forced into things by social media pressure is the absolute worst thing we should try to create at the club.”

    Meanwhile, Premiership Rugby announced that on Monday, 989 players and club staff were tested for Covid-19 and four people, including one player, tested positive.

    I have mixed feelings about this article, IMHO Baxter is correct when he say the Premiership should have issued a directive on how to deal with BLM gestures. The trouble is nobody, Baxter included seems to have the courage and come out and state the obvious that sport have no place in giving any support for a Marxist organisation. How my local club conducts itself over this issue will help decided my season ticket renewal for next season.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2020/08/12/premiership-rugby-teams-will-take-variety-approaches-marking/

  75. Raining now and forecast to continue for 30 mins, no thunder and lightning though. I got a feeling that is not going to fill the water butts.

  76. Raining now and forecast to continue for 30 mins, no thunder and lightning though. I got a feeling that is not going to fill the water butts.

    5. By that logic all places of worship – including Mosques – should be closed down too.

      1. We have a funeral tomorrow. Maximum 30 attendees, no singing, masks mandatory, enforced social distancing. Recorded music only. May as well be closed down, it seems to me.

        2. The C of E seems increasingly active in wanting to be utterly pointless.
          A pity: they have sone good music, nice poetry and beautiful buildings. Pity they don’t want to minister to people’s souls. Typical British establishment. Weak as piss and twice as useless.

        3. The C of E seems increasingly active in wanting to be utterly pointless.
          A pity: they have sone good music, nice poetry and beautiful buildings. Pity they don’t want to minister to people’s souls. Typical British establishment. Weak as piss and twice as useless.

    8. It’s going to be enforced eventually and with tacit agreement form our own Lefty government.

      Hell, they’re outbreeding the natives at a rate of 4:1.

      1. Not just here, Wibbles but as a starter for the Great European Caliphate, 2035. Germany the first victim; well done Merkel!

    3. Did you see the replies? I know Trump writes some crass tweets, but at least give the man some credit for doing something useful!

    4. The anger at Trump isn’t because of what he does, it’s at who he is – someone the Left cannot control or understand. They hate and fear someone who when they squeal waycist! doesn’t immediately shut up and obey them.

    1. Don’t fancy being a passenger on the Channel Tunnel train halfway across when an earthquake strikes. Let’s see what good a face mask would do then, I would need a pad!

  81. Looks like Ginge and Cringe have bought a house. $14m or there abouts, but they can only afford to pay us back the £2m Frogmore renovations a bit at a time over the next eleven years.

    2. What I read was that their spokesperson claimed they “like most people” will have a mortgage on the house (as well as the Frogmore renovations).

        1. 322503+ up ticks,
          Afternoon BSK,
          I am led to believe that many do the same with mine, thereby NOT taking in the whole picture, in many cases the truth can
          be extremely painful.

          1. Perhaps if you took pains to write more clearly with correct spelling & grammar, & not constantly repeat yourself, more people would read your comments

          2. 322503+ up ticks,
            Afternoon PTV,
            By your rather juvenile reply I do ascertain that you
            put correct spelling & grammar as in a well couched sentence, regardless of honest content before true facts that are extremely painful to bare.
            You do omit letters regarding words yourself as happened yesterday, before you throw the stone get out of the greenhouse.

          3. If you can’t express yourself clearly, your points are not worth considering. Presentation is key.

            If you want juvenile, I can do that too: 7 people have agreed with me, so there! 😉

          4. 322503+ up ticks,
            Evening Ptv,
            You have proved juvenile why reiterate, you surprise me only seven I expected a great many more,goes to prove there are a great many understanding folk out there.

          6. It is not a question of not facing facts. You sometimes make good points, but they are usually so badly presented, that one loses the will to read them. Every student used to be taught that for good communication you must present your argument in such a clear way that it is easily understood. Otherwise there is no point. Alas, those days seem to be over.

          7. 322523+ up ticks,
            Morning Ptv,
            It is in no way compulsory to read my post so you can use that option.
            As I said a couple days ago you truncated a word
            leaving it to me / others to interpret your meaning.

            You say seven agree with you which tells me that
            many on GG blog understand shop floor patter
            and my presentation of it.

            Being of the pipefitter / welder/ alligator skinner foreman/ overseas supervisor fraternity able to
            ask for water in multiple languages I survive.

            Facing facts must be fought against by many for the good name of ” the party”

            Have a nice day.

          8. Meeow!

            I read every post. Sometimes I jump to the wrong conclusions Every comment deserves such and if disagreed with, it should be challenged.

          9. Ogga’s constant repetitious style does cause my eyes to glaze over, even though he does have some point, sometimes.

          10. Ogga’s constant repetitious style does cause my eyes to glaze over, even though he does have some point, sometimes.

        2. But, but, but… in these trying times, BSG, don’t you feel the need for a good laugh? Or did Uncle George give you a million onecers over breakfast some time in the mid 1990s?

  82. I have been looking at some of the details of the train derailment South of Stonehaven. The train was the 6:38am train to Glasgow from Aberdeen. It had nine people on board, described as crew and passengers. (There is some confusion as to how many of each, and it may be that some of the passengers were railway crew relocating for work.). Three were killed and six injured. So no one escaped unscathed. The derailment was “reported” at 9:43am. This is half an hour after it should have arrived in Glasgow. This train stops in Perth, and was due in Perth at 8:10. The train was one and a half hours late arriving at Perth.
    So why did it take so long to identify the non-arrival and identify the reason? It is true that there are some 10,000+ occasions of late trains in Scotland each year, so there is surely some complacency among rail staff, “oh, the Aberdeen train is late again, ho-hum”. Yet landslips are quite common. There had been a slip on a rail line quite recently, and a road closed a couple of days earlier. Landslips are an ever present danger.
    There seems to be no train monitoring. I’d have expected that monitors would be in place on all trains, just as they are on many goods vehicles.
    The injured have been taken to hospital in Aberdeen. Their families and friends will not be allowed to visit them, in an insane enforcement of the Covid-19 “rules”

      1. Yep. It also caused the fatal accidents near Reading in 1841 (landslip) and Carrbridge in 1914 (partial bridge collapse).

        There are dozens of cases over the decades of serious railway disruption caused by flooding.

    2. Extreme weather had an impact on the train derailment in Aberdeenshire which left three people dead,

      Scotland’s transport secretary Michael Matheso has said

      Wot brainpower ! Tis .Engerland/Tories fault.

        1. It wasn’t an embankment. It was a cutting (the opposite of an embankment). A railway line rides across the top of an embankment but in the bottom of a cutting. Cuttings are (and always have been, due to their intrinsic nature) invariably prone to landslips, in which the slipping earth has nowhere to go except onto the line.

    3. The train was heading back to Stonehaven when it was derailed. The location of the crash is four miles south. Further on, something (flooding?) caused the driver to stop and request permission to return. There is a crossover at Newmill, 1½ miles south of the crash site. Presumably the train had used this and was travelling northwards ‘right line’ when it was derailed on the bridge over Carron Water at Carmont.

      We can make an estimate of the time of the crash. Departure from Stonehaven at 6:54, 6-7 miles south (beyond Newmill) would have taken an HST about 8-9 minutes, a stop of 10-20 minutes for permission to reverse and then the return, running slowly ‘wrong line’ to the crossover before accelerating to the crash, say another 5-7 minutes. This gets us to about 7:30. The question is what happened next. How long did it take the survivors to make a phone call?

      1. Yes, thanks for expanding on the detailed timing. I was aware of the train reversing back. It is the time factor that attracted any attention. There is a two hour gap between my/your timing of the crash and the “reported time”. As the train would be in communication with the track controllers to make the crossover and return, how could a two hour gap occur?
        That is the point I’m highlighting. If a train stops communicating, one would have thought that the police would have been immediately alerted to actually go there at once. (Keeping in mind the atrocious weather, propensity for landslips, and it’s being a main line.) They do have a helicopter. Even by car it is about twenty minutes, although finding the crash site and approaching on foot would take longer.
        If the driver is going South and realises that he can go no further, then reverses back towards Stonehaven as you say, he would be reversing along a line he had already passed. He may have been reversing because of the line being flooded rather than because of a landslip. He would therefore have noted it as being clear? So was there a landslip immediately before the crash? That is, did the driver hurry back thinking the line was clear because it had been clear 15 minutes earlier, per your timing?
        Do mobile phones work in that area? Not all of Scotland has mobile coverage – our front has coverage our back garden does not.

        1. What does “not reported until 9:43” actually mean? Not reported to Control or by BTP to the media?

          Assumptions are being made that the derailment was caused by a landslip that occurred between the train passing the crash site southbound and returning to that point northbound. Other causes should not be discounted.

          1. It is a BBC-ism. Their reporting is sloppy and careless. Very little of their report has a source or attribution, even now. Their first reports quoted 9:43 and that has not changed.

          2. One report apparently included the phrase “the driver was trying to find another way through…”

        1. …or shocked. Can’t help feeling that the train must have been going too fast in the prevailing conditions.

        2. Indeed. Too much is being read into the phrase “not reported until”. It’s a fairly remote spot.

          1. This type of train is a refurbed InterCity – a lot of trains in Scotland have a “Train Tracking” system but I understand this was not fitted to the train during the refurb, which would have been sensible to most people.

            The tracking system was to be fitted to the whole refurbed fleet in the coming weeks & months. There were no installs during lock down apparently – whatever happened yesterday could have been more closely monitored if it had been fitted in the 2019 refurb.

            The refurb was not a thorough as it should have been – toilet waste is still flushed on to the tracks – cost cutting?.

    4. It used to be that many Scottish lines had landslip warning – a wire run alongside the track that, when pulled by a landslip, would raise an alarm & stop trains.
      I assume the Scottish rails are also track circuited – so that the signalman could at least see which block a train is in, and would be aware that it had stopped – or the track circuits all showing open, as the train was off the line.
      It looks like they were travelling at some speed, with the waggons scattered all over like that. Surely, if the train had reversed due to landslips, the driver would have been running slowly in case there were more?

      1. Yes, as I respond to William Stanier below, the 2 hour gap is unaccounted for. However, the train may have reversed because of flooding, or other reason, and the fatal landslip may not have happened at the time the train went past the first time on the route South, but happened shortly thereafter as the train went back North.

      3. The train had passed that point safely not long before. The driver might have assumed that it remained safe.

  83. Afternoon, all. Apropos the headline, it seems we aren’t in for a second wave after all: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/08/13/latest-figures-confirm-uk-not-at-beginning-of-second-wave-says-expert/

    I thought this was worthy of note: “… the hot weather which caused concern by making many flock to crowded beaches and parks doesn’t seem to be having the predicted negative impact.” So when can we be unmuzzled? Don’t hold your breath.

  84. Nicked

    With highs of 33° expected AGAIN today, it’s time to ask “could the
    government have done more?” Downing Street knew about this heatwave
    weeks ago and have done nothing. Shipments of 400,000 pairs of Speedos
    and 500,000 bikinis, sun cream and Cornettos have reportedly been sent
    back as unsafe after media claims the shipment was quarantined a month
    ago and Boris did nothing.

    Karen from Chavington said, “We just
    don’t know if it’s safe to go outside and sunbathe because we can’t
    function or think for ourselves. Boris hasn’t told us either way and all
    my obese kids need ice cream and sweets, the Hubby can’t get out to rob
    anyone so we’re out of lager and weed, I blame the government entirely”

    Meanwhile,anti- heat protesters dressed in thick jumpers chanting “cold lives
    matter” have marched on London, Big Ben has been removed and a giant
    Mint Feast put in its place by protesters.

    The BBC reported earlier, ‘clearly the sun has come out and Downing street have done nothing to prevent it.’

    A second heat Wave is expected to hit the UK in 4 weeks time .

      1. Good afternoon Peddy

        It was a great shock to find as I grew up that my surname had become a girl’s Christian name.

        How did you feel when you learnt that the best cook in Asterix’s village was the wife of the chief Vitalatistix and was called ImPEDDYmentia?

        Caroline gets most miffed when people think her first name is Tracey – but the Dutch are quite snobbish from time to time.

        1. I’m gonna tell you a story…

          Where we lived in a Dorset village, we became friendly with a couple of our age via Kindergarten, who lived just up the road. Sarah was a bank-manager’s daughter & quite cut-glass, which she played down. Once when she was with us for coffee she told us about the time when she was expecting No. 1 (a daughter). As her time approached, her mother asked her if she & hubby had thought about names. Sarah replied that she & Peter had given it some thought & had decided on Theresa (Tracey) for a daughter. Her mother was horrified, “You must think again! No way am I having a granddaughter called Tracey.”
          “No, Mum, we have given it a great deal of thought & Tracey it will be. I’ll give you a taste of the forthcoming everyday life. Imagine she is playing in the garden & lunch is ready & I’ll want to call her in. I’ll stand on the back doorstep & shout, ” Oi, Tricey! Come ‘ere!”

          No 1 turned out to be a daughter & they called her Fiona. When she & her brothers came to my firstborn’s birthday party, I caught her biting the heads off all the cake frogs. Nasty little bitch.

  86. There has been much comment on the Stonehaven accident in connection with climate change: more rain means more landslides. What we haven’t heard is the influence of vegetation and how it stabilises soil. The views of the site of the landslip show the slope to be well grassed with plenty of scrub and small trees yet this wasn’t enough to prevent a small slip.

    Network Rail has come in for a lot of criticism in recent years for an extensive programme of trackside tree-felling. There are obvious safety and operational reasons for doing this yet some environmentalists regard it as an act of sacrilege. Expect to hear more on this.

    The view below is of the bridge in the days of steam. It’s looking northwards with the photographer standing on the side of the landslip (to his right). Not so much vegetation back then…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8aaa0d208953d45f1d907c640d91882b7452e85384693413f52c2440f6d6e99.jpg

    1. Quite often the problem isn’t so much what type or amount of vegetation is on the surface – it’s the nature of the sub-soil and underlying geology that determines whether heavy rainfall will cause a land slip.

      1. I know but it’s a consideration that escapes the environmentalists and theorists.

        I have heard once more the phrase ‘Victorian infrastructure’ and how it wasn’t built to cope with the heavy rains of the global warming age…

        1. Our local railway cutting had lovely 100-year old trees lining it, which were pollarded every few years, but with the recent electrification they all had to go. Now we have a forest of grey metal poles and wires. 🙁

  87. One for Duncan Mac.

    The Scottish are certainly realists.
    Look how the men always turn up at weddings dressed for battle.

    1. Ironic that he claims the BLM gesture is ‘disrespected’ and ‘misunderstood’ by the crowd, whilst the players are disrespecting the national anthem by kneeling and giving black power salutes.

    2. “You can’t even have support from your own fans in your own stadium. It’s baffling to me.”

      He’s easily baffled.

      1. Probably one of the first times they have had true fans in the ground who let them know what virtue signalling t****s they have become.

    5. Time they stopped this pointless gesture. It’s not that the fans don’t understand it – most probably understand it all too well and want it stopped.

    6. “They don’t understand why we’re
      kneeling. They can’t see the reason. They think we’re the ignorant
      ones,” says USA international Cannon

      Nowhere does he explain why they are doing it. Does he even know?

        1. So…a successful sportsman no doubt paid very well is whinging about the response from fans. Sounds familiar.

    7. Are they truly so oblivious they cannot see how utterly disgusted we are with their arrogant, racist cause?

      2. As my old granny used to say, you can’t argue with a zealot. They are unwilling to even consider an alternative point of view could be valid.

  89. Atmospherics playing havoc with our satellite reception. Thunder and heavy rain now.

  90. Not much about this on the MSM….wonder why?

    David Patrikarakos
    The Israel-UAE peace deal was made in Iran
    13 August 2020, 6:09pm

    The last time I was in Israel people were preparing for the worst. ‘This crazy bastard is going to annex the West Bank and then we’re all screwed,’ my Israeli friend bemoaned to me. It turns out he was wrong. The United Arab Emirates and Israel have just agreed to normalise relations. In return, Israel has agreed to suspend its plan to annex large chunks of the West Bank.

    Make no mistake: what has happened is historic. The UAE has been politically hostile to Israel since even before it gained independence from Britain in 1971. There has not been a single day in its existence where it has not officially called for an end to the Jewish state. Now the two are allies – and no one saw it coming. In politics pretty much everything leaks, but sometimes it doesn’t.

    The US-brokered deal – known as the Abraham Accords – was announced today in a joint statement by Donald Trump, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed. They hoped, they said, the ‘historic breakthrough will advance peace in the Middle East.’

    This is a story of many levels. As ever, with foreign policy breakthroughs much of it is about domestic concerns. Donald Trump, just months away from the November presidential elections, gets to tout a major – indeed his greatest – foreign policy triumph to the American electorate. Abu Dhabi gets to be the state that stopped Israel’s drive to annexe the West Bank – a move reviled in the Arab world – while gaining the economic and security benefits of formal ties with Jerusalem.

    And Israel? Well, it gets yet more regional acceptance and, vitally, to dodge actually having to annex the West Bank. A move its leaders knew would bring down universal condemnation (and possibly even sanctions) but dared not abrogate without good reason for fear of alienating the Likud party’s religious base.

    Netanyahu is deceitful and oleaginous, but he is surely one of the most politically able leaders of our age. Having not won a clear victory after three elections, awaiting trial for corruption, and in a supposed power sharing agreement – he has almost certainly disposed of the political threat from the hapless Benny Gantz. Oh, and he’s sent a message to Joe Biden: you can do business with me.

    But beyond political self-interest the geo-strategic possibilities are fascinating. What is so interesting about this is what happens next. There is simply no way the UAE could have done this without approval from Saudi Arabia, and for Israel that is the big prize. Riyadh is the Sunni Lion, the custodian of the Two Holy Places, and, since the slow implosion of Egypt, the regional Arab leader. First Abu Dhabi then Riyadh? It’s not as crazy as it would have once seemed. The Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman has already made encouraging noises of goodwill toward Israel. In an interview in 2018 he said Israelis were entitled to live peacefully on their own land. It was then an unprecedented thing for a Saudi leader to say.

    I remember reading the words and wondering if they might be the green shoots of détente between Israel and its remaining Arab enemies. It seems they may well have been. Things are moving fast in the Middle East. What was once unthinkable let alone unsayable no longer is. And it is vital to understand why.

    Why are Israel and its enemies coming to terms at a time where the Israeli government is the most reactionary and hawkish it has ever been? The answer is simple: Iran. The Middle East is a region where principles are a luxury and realpolitik and the survival of the fittest are what counts. It is a place where history has shown, from Kurdistan to the killing fields of Iraq, that while treaties can be abrogated and alliances spurned what remains throughout the centuries is the law of an ancient proverb: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    Ever since the Islamic Republic’s ruling clerical class came to power in 1979 their desires to export their Shia revolution have frightened the Sunni Arab powers around them. Iran’s nuclear program turned fear to terror. And in that they were joined by Israel, which repeatedly vowed it would never allow Iran to gain nuclear weapons.

    Both the Arabs and Israel watched with horror as Barack Obama struck his nuclear deal with Iran in 2015. They saw a convergence of interests. They saw no help from Washington: it was time to talk. The Palestinians could wait, Iran was a threat to everyone.

    For once Donald Trump spoke the truth: this deal is unprecedented and it is historic. And it was made in Tehran.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-israel-uae-breakthrough-was-a-deal-made-in-tehran

    1. I doubt there will ever be peace in the Middle East – not while Islam has so many schisms in its own ranks with Shia, Sunni, Whabi to name but a few. While they carry on slaughtering each other it can only be to the benefit of preventing the Great British Caliphate by 2050.

      Time to send all our Islamists home, so that they might fight the good fight on their own ground? Just asking!

  96. Had a shock today. We took my MiL to eye casualty yesterday because she was seeing black spots and they did a blood test on the spot, so to speak, and her GP phoned with the results today. Minutes later the eye dept phoned to say we now have an appointment at a private hospital tomorrow to see an NHS consultant. Looks like the NHS is actually working!

    2. These could be floaters, caused by the ‘scaffolding’ of the eye breaking down. It can occur at any age and it is not of any great significance apart from the fact that these things floating across your vision are really annoying. After a while you don’t ‘see’ them any more unless you remember and tune in to them. These are often accompanied by flashing lights at the peripheries of the vision when dark. This happened to me six years ago. On the other hand, it could be symptomatic of a detached retina and it is good news you have an appt for tomorrow.

      1. My Aussie oppo has occasional detached retina problems. The last time, they swilled his eye out, changed all the fluids, and that washed out all the floaters – he said he’d never been able to see so brightly, it was quite a strain!

      2. Accompanied by flashes of light at the extreme periphery of your vision, especially noticeable when it is dark.
        6y ago for me.

      3. Accompanied by flashes of light at the extreme periphery of your vision, especially noticeable when it is dark.
        6y ago for me.

    3. I have been seeing black spots all over the telly too but I have been advised it is quite normal and to expect the affliction to increase.

      3. I am seeing more and more black spots on the telly .. Every time I turn it on, adverts, or news readers , entertainment , countryfile, sofa adverts.

        Black spots everywhere!

          3. I’ve not come across that piece of information in my reading, but if his way of walking was anything like mine, I can well believe it 🙂

    1. Seriously? People think it’s OK to shoot a little child on his bicycle? What kind of bastards are they?

      2. They’re the same as the bastards who fed Jews and others, of all ages, into the gas chambers. Unthinking, callous and literally dead behind their eyes. Only following orders i.e. brainwashed. The World is heading for big trouble and decency must prevail or…

        1. In the end, decency will prevail, but between now and then, it’s likely to be a tad uncomfortable.
          Me & family – we’re all tooled up. Suppressors, too.

          1. I hope you’re right that decency will prevail, Ol, but given the amount of brainwashing that’s been going on over the decades, I have my doubts.

          2. “Good will prevail”.
            It’s the pattern so far. Mr Hutler learned about it.
            As I wrote, there always seems to have to be bouts of serious unpleasantness to do so.

          3. What it likely means, is that a load of us have to lay down our lives to sort the mess out. Deliberately created, too – so I’ll haunt the bastards that did it.

          4. Don’t you need a sense of moral certitude to do the “right” thing? If people have been told that anything goes and one shouldn’t be judgmental, there is no right or wrong, that leaves them on shifting ground.

          5. The place where that theory breaks down is that in the run up to the last spat in ’39, not many years had been spent in brainwashing our youth to hate the country, to feel guilty about being English, to feel a sense of inadequacy due to our rich history. Rather the contrary, as I understand it. In those days, to have been born an Englishman was to have won the lottery of life and one had an obligation to live up to that and be thankful for it and to remember that it brought obligations.

          6. What about the Great & Good, at Oxbridge in the 1930s, saying they’d not fight, that they preferred to be Stalinists? In the end, the decisive factor is the working class – there are more of them than the others, and they are typically conservative and patriotic. When you look at history, you only see what was written by the glitterati about their relatively small circle of mutual wankerati, not what the “ordinary” person was thinking. The result was, in 1939, the “ordinary” man joined up to fight, and did so in numbers, and effectively.
            Just see what fuss there was some years ago about the disparaging of “White Van Man” by that idiotic wonam politician. That’s what I mean.
            EDIT: Look at BREXIT, the last election as well. The press & wankerati were well wrong-footed there, too!

          7. Yes, the notion that this House would fight for King and Country was defeated and a few years later those very same people stopped Hitler. Today, however, the “working class” is too busy trying to keep its head above water and body and soul together while the PTB aren’t in the least interested in being on the side of this country (even the appeasers thought that giving in would be best for the nation, even though they were wrong). I have absolutely no faith in the majority (they aren’t ALL bad) of today’s yoof. Too many have been brought up on a culture of “I know my rights” (they’d be barrack room lawyers of the worst sort), “the world owes me a living”, “it ain’t my fault” and “I’m entitled, innit?”. There is a substantial underclass which didn’t exist in the same manner ’19-’39. While it wasn’t fashionable to be openly patriotic in the inter-war years, it was latent. It certainly wasn’t the case that anti-patriotism was the way to go.

          8. My glass is half-full, Conners. Yours seems to be half empty.
            My round, I believe!
            ;-))

          9. Perhaps it’s because WW2 is one of my specialist areas of history and I am acutely aware of the sociological differences between the twenties and thirties and the current era. Even the fifties had a different Zeitgeist, then came the sixties, seventies and things started to disintegrate. It’s been all downhill from there. My first degree was in sociology and I can’t help looking at history in those terms. Society has been so diluted since 1997 that we aren’t comparing like with like. Many people these days have no connections with place, culture, community (in the real sense) or social cohesion. They are rootless, shiftless and don’t know where they belong. They have no boundaries, no red lines, no sense of belonging.

          11. What people say and what they actually do has been shown many times to be different.
            I believe taht, when it comes down to it, the “people” will sort it out, as they always have, to give the right answer – inevitably, involving violence and misery.

          12. Wow, Oberst, are you inciting violence?

            I, personally, think that that is what is coming. It’s called a backlash to the educated among us.

          13. Sadly, things do not always return to the centre ground. Zimbabwe is a prime example of keeping a despot in power even though the country is destroyed. Mugabe’s popularity being helped by a BLM type approach, black good white bad. Following on, there is a leader who is known as the Crocodile and does not seem to have changed things very much. Good luck to the people with him in charge but the culture in Black countries or indeed ghettos is to hope for help whilst putting in absolutely nothing to improve their own collective situation. Gangsters and thugs rule in Africa as the do in London and the cities of the US and I don’t see them voting for change anytime soon. Its a cultural thing which our leaders have decided that we must accept without question. The same case can be made for Islam, they will not give it up and import its vile practices. Even Malala Yousef, shot by the Taliban for going to school, is still beholden to the ideology that attempted to kill her. There are few countries outside decedent Europe that would accept an alien culture over riding its own, our politicians are frogs enjoying the warm water. Rant over, and no, I haven’t had a beer yet… but I think I can hear a Brains Gold calling from the cooler…

        2. “So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun”

          2. Agatha Christie wrote a novel entitled ‘Evil Under the Sun’ – it would be a good title for a programme about that evil woman May.

  101. Good afternoon all. May I recommend an absolutely blistering article from Alister Heath:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/12/swedens-success-shows-true-cost-arrogant-failed-establishment/

    How much better off would we have been if the government had followed the Swedish approach of trusting people to make their own decisions? We now have the highest death rate and worst hit to the economy of any European nation, the worst of all possible worlds. By any measure those two ‘headlines’ show the utter disaster that the Johnson government’s handling of Covid-19 has been. That is even before we get into the details e.g:

    – Why was no action taken on the back of Operation Cygnus’ findings that the NHS was unprepared for a pandemic?

    – Why did we abandon test and trace, leaving only the sledgehammer policy of blanket lockdown?

    – Why all the problems with sourcing PPE?

    – Why were care homes forced to take in Covid patients?

    – Why did the NHS shut down for everything other than Covid, thus condemning tens of thousands of people to unnecessary deaths?

    – Why did schools shut down and remain closed when all the evidence shows that children are at little risk of either contracting or transmitting the virus?

    Is this utter disaster a cock-up, or part of some more sinister agenda? Either way, Johnson and Hancock should be arrested for malfeasance in public office.

    1. “…
      liberal approach to saving our economy, trusting individual initiative,
      not resorting to a top down, Whitehall-knows-best attitude. HS2 and
      green projects are not the answer. The Conservatives will only survive
      their handling of Covid if they don’t also botch the recovery….”

      They will. You can already see the big state, high tax attitude they’re desperate for. It’s as if they’re all stood in a bucket and trying to lift themselves out of it by synchronised handle lifting.

      The solution – the ONLY solution – is to cut taxes. TINA. However, the state wants to keep taxing, keep spending and worse, control spending on things it approves of. This statist, command economy approach is doomed to failure. They don’t care. Thus the recession will last and last and last until we come up with a wonder technology or sheer blind luck that will get us out of it – then these fools will tax it to oblivion.

    2. I’d also add that having seen the reaction of many people to COVID they simply *can’t* be trusted. Too many people are morons.

      You keep pretending people around you are a bit like you, that they have somewhat rational responses, that they are driven by logic and reason… and then they speak and you realise they’re dumb as rocks.

    3. The answers to your questions….
      1. Don’t be silly, we are only here to produce reports on racism, that is what we were trained to do at university.
      2. It was easier.
      3. See 1
      4. See 2
      5. We wanted to the make the evil Tories look bad.
      6. See 5.

      1. Just as the pandemic was heading into Europe, Public Health England was eagerly hell bent on promoting a sugar tax.

        A campaign it has shoehorned in to the tail end of this covid mess. A massive quango completely unprepared and worse, utterly uninterested in performing the duties expected of it.

        1. But hey, they managed to produce a report blaming higher numbers of ethnic minority deaths on racism.

    1. White Russia is a far away country of which I know little and care even less – I’ve only passed through it, not visited for any length of time (the longest I was there was for the train to be adjusted). We should put our own house in order first. Nobody made us world policeman (and the PTB have been steadfastly destroying any capability to be so for decades).

      1. 322503+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        You would think there would be no appetite to return the same ptb to being ptb again, year on year, but the peoples seemingly have a ferocious
        appetite for failure, why ?

    2. Why fuss just now? The prison (and screams) have been there since Beria was secret police chief.

    1. An inconvenient truth. Of course, the black brothers can’t pay reparations because they don’t produce any wealth.

      1. Then they could at least go down on one knee in recent time honored (sic) tradition.

  104. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob-fP7BfXhs&list=WL&index=37 This brainwashed bitch, and millions like her, are beyond education, beyond reason, beyond common sense, and beyond worth bothering with. They should be herded up and put on an enclosed and escape-proof reservation where they may while their time away pondering over why they were born and the point of their futile existence.

    1. She has no interest in listening to an opposing argument. The way she deals with it is to keep talking – a bit like sticking her fingers in her ears and saying “la-la-la I can’t hear you”.

  105. The MR, who has no idea at all how NOTTL works and whether or not she has posted this appropriately, writes:

    Bill’s in hospital overnight while the good people of the N and N University Hospital try to get to grips with what’s been causing him to cough his lungs to shreds for the last few months.

    1. Thank you for letting us know. If Geoff is The Speaker of this House then I suspect many of us here regard Bill as The Father of the House. please pass on our good wishes and let him know we are rooting for him

    6. Ahem, I’m no doctor. But there’s a lot of that Covid around which makes you … Hope he perks up and rejoins the shoal here.

    7. Ahem, I’m no doctor. But there’s a lot of that Covid around which makes you … Hope he perks up and rejoins the shoal here.

    9. Take care Bill; I recommend hot juice of lemon, cloves and honey for the lungs – added whisky optional …

    10. Poor Bill

      I hope they don’t find that you have a Trombetti seed stuck where it shouldn’t be .

      Best regards and sleep well in the crinkly sounding hospital bed .x

    15. Thank you for letting us know. If Geoff is The Speaker of this House then I suspect many of us here regard Bill as The Father of the House. please pass on our good wishes and let him know we are rooting for him

    17. Just this minute picked on this news. Please wish him all the best and to get well soon.

    21. Please wish him well from vw and gg.
      Hope he’s better this morning.
      Thinking of you both and wishing him a speedy recovery.

    22. Thank you, Carolyn. I have just caught up with your news; I’d noticed that Bill wasn’t around today (Friday) and trawled back through Thursday evening’s postings.
      Please give him all my best wishes and we all look forward to hearing from him.
      But, thank goodness the hospital is giving him a thorough check over as this cough does seem to have hung around for rather along time.

  107. From Saturday holidaymakers returning from France will have to quarantine for 14 days. The Independent.

  108. Thanks all. I’m sure he’ll be glad to receive these messages – even the somewhat Methuselan proposal that he’s the Father of the House

    2. We might tease him, but he’s popular and highly respected.

      Thanks for posting on his behalf.

    5. Just picked up on this.
      Hope to see him back on here soon.
      In the meantime we’d love you to keep us up to date.

    6. Thanks MR – we all worry about him sometimes! Give him our best wishes and a speedy recovery.

    7. Good evening MR.
      Do you have any news of our good friend Bill?
      Hope you are coping well.

  109. SKY news reporting that nearly 300 workers at a Greencore Sandwich factory in Northampton have tested positive for Coronavirus. 79 tested positive through NHS tests and 213 positive results came back from Greencore’s private testing. This will cause massive track and test.

    1. If they do more testing they will get more results – how many of these people were ill? How many were asymptomatic? This is just scaremongering.

      1. Evening Ndovu – It may be scaremongering but it is very worrying. Who are the workers and which retailers sell the sandwiches.

        1. Well hopefully they wear gloves when preparing the sandwiches. I would rather make my own.

          1. I never buy sandwiches. I suspect that 79 were showing symptoms and were tested by NHS and the company got the others tested by the company’s private laboratory but something among the workers seems to have gone wrong. Is this another Leicester?

          2. Just like the US meat packing plants. Workers jammed in as close as possible and I expect cool, not very warm atmosphere. Supposedly the ideal CV breeding ground

      2. Evening Ndovu – It may be scaremongering but it is very worrying. Who are the workers and which retailers sell the sandwiches.

    3. Don’t ever buy prepacked sandwiches from anywhere. These places employ people on the minimum wage.

      3. I’ve just looked at the Greencore site and the workers views. Most are quite happy with the company but some are negative about the managers who can hardly speak English.

        1. I am not prepared to accept at face value their hygiene standards. An independent bakery that also sells fresh made up sandwiches and rolls yes. A factory production line definitely not.

      1. There was a program(me) about Hungary on the radio early this morning,, so biased that it must have been from the beeb.

        Talk about Orban bad, EU good. The presenter and selected guests were going on about how unfair the Hungarian government were, blockingall of those refugees from finding a safe haven. They did include a few minutes about the wish to keep the Christian culture intact but that was naturally discriminatory.

        Just the thing to wake up to, it reinforced the oh God, nothing has changed sinking feeling to start the day.

        Spelling fixed again

        1. See also…………

          ”We leverage policy, legislatiom and political influence… through strong relationships with politicians, officials, NGOs and other actors”. Open Society.

    2. …and all the illegals will face 14 days quarantine?

      Hmm, thought not, even though they are a disease in itself!

      1. But the governor mandatex face masks, I was just following orders.

        The same negativity is now discussing schools opening and how they can avoid risk.

        Assigned seating on school buses, no moving around on the bus, driver wearing full PPE, kids wear facemasks, stay in your seat until told to get off the bus then line up with six foot spacing .
        Hell, the kids are being forced towards breakdowns before they even get to school and are met by a no touchy, no hugging mask wearing, visor protected teacher.

    2. TBF, the reason given is sensible. However, it also shows what the authorities think of the public’s intelligence.

      2. If the police have enough time and man power to visit every single home then let them arrest me. It’s my home.

    2. We have a few of our drive in cinemas holding concerts, you stay in your car during the event.

      Equally unsocial but it doesn’t quite look so bad.

    1. Most leftards are in complete agreement that it was wrong for the white man to go to Africa in the first place. Why cannot they use a bit of joined up thinking, be logically consistent and say that it is now just as wrong for the non-white man to come to Europe?

      1. 322503+ up ticks,
        Evening R,
        A magnet is needed such as open up a welfare office in Central Africa, it will be a damn sight cheaper than the ongoing return of lab/lib/con
        again, again,& again with mass uncontrolled immigration policies.

        I have done enough time in Africa to realise they are NOT here for the climate but for the bounty
        supplied by a multitude of milch cows vie the polling booth.

    2. They don’t care. For them, it’s all about control. The eradication of culture and society is their end goal to be replaced with their own vision.

      Of course, none of these wretched vermin have to live where the immigrants cluster so they never see the misery their demented arrogance creates.

      1. He’s spoilt for choice with so much rich material coming out of Whitehall and Government.

  117. The Damned United – 9pm. BBC4
    Michael Sheen brilliantly portrays Brian Clough – Leeds United 1974.

    Not a footie fan but one to record…

    1. There was a photo in a newspaper some years ago of an incensed and infuriated football enthusiast attacking Brian Clough. The caption under the photo was: “The fan hits the shit!“

  118. One I haven’t heard for a while…
    https://youtu.be/ZVuYd_uzGYA

    Singalongalyrics:
    Sittin’ in a sleazy snack-bar suckin’
    Sickly sausage rolls
    Slippin’ down slowly
    Slippin’ down sideways
    Think I’ll sign off the dole

    ‘Cause the fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine

    Could a copper catch a crooked coffin maker
    Could a copper comprehend
    That a crooked coffin maker is just an undertaker who
    Undertakes to be a friend

    ‘Cause the fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine

    Tell the truth tomorrow
    Today will take it’s time to
    Tell you what tonight will bring,
    Presently we’ll have a pint or two together
    Everybody do their thing

    We can swing together
    We can have a wee wee
    We can have a wet on the wall
    If someone slips a whisper
    That his simple sister slapped them down
    And they slavered on their smalls

    ‘Cause the fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine, all mine
    The fog on the Tyne is all mine

    1. They could have made it rainbow coloured while they were at it, thus killing two birds with one lump of asphalt.

      1. That would have doubled the cost – think of all that paint and all those colours….

        1. Cost is no object when it comes to virtue signalling. Surely you know that by now, Stephen!

      1. I dunno, the first time a motorist comes across it they will either plough straight over or stop for 10 minutes to figure out if they have to go into quarantine for 14 days…..

        1. What about an artic, stopped at the motorvehicle stop line? It’ll stop everything.

          3. What I didn’t see was the exit to the right – give-way, for traffic leaving the roundabout. That’ll either be missed (= squashed cyclist), or the traffic will stop and the roundabout seizes up immediately.
            And, why only that exit?

          4. Of course it will. It’s a Dutch design. Probably only works if you’re driving on the right.

          6. When this first aired a night or two back I didn’t notice that there was only one explicit give way for the motor traffic I assumed all exits were give way to cyclists, which is what it must look like on the cycle path as there are no stop/give way indications on that, so possibly lots of squashed cyclists.

          7. Don’t worry “Greased Lightning” will bring out a new automotive cleaning product guaranteed to shift squashed bugs and cyclists in seconds….

          9. Especially if it were an artic full of monkeys. I bet that wouldn’t look good on the roundabout.

    3. Looks like one of those complicated crop circles , doesn’t it?

      We are fed up with cyclists down here on our narrow roads, Cycle lanes do not accomodate the speed trial lycra clad fanatics

      Cycle lanes start off with good intentions .. and then go nowhere.

      Years ago , the loony Liberals on councils promoted all sorts of crazy ideas that cost an absolute fortune, and then drop kerbs , cycle lanes, and traffic lights took over from roundabouts.

      1. Read that as “…then drop kebabs…” – no wonder there’s lots of rats and mess. Pavement kebab is also slippery…
        I’ll get me coat.

      2. I have a special dislike of the Lycra-clad push-bike owners who infest the roads down here in the summer. They arrive from all over Europe and clog the roads up, often riding in packs of 12-16 and two-abreast meaning they are impossible to pass safely. They are a bluddy menace and I would like to see the local plod sort them out. Don’t get me going on campervans.

          1. No they don’t. They need to learn to drive the bluddy things properly and at a speed that doesn’t irritate everyone else. If they’re not capable of that they should sell the wretched thing and stay in hotels like civilised people instead of kipping in a van in a field.

          2. Not all campervan drivers are like that. I love mine and I mainly have problems keeping down to the speed limit!

          3. But it’s the quantities of them here’s in the summer season. Thousands of them (literally) come from all over the place. The Dutch are the worst, creeping around in their plastic boxes overladen with potatoes and Heineken to minimise their spend locally. They’re a pest.

      3. I have a special dislike of the Lycra-clad push-bike owners who infest the roads down here in the summer. They arrive from all over Europe and clog the roads up, often riding in packs of 12-16 and two-abreast meaning they are impossible to pass safely. They are a bluddy menace and I would like to see the local plod sort them out. Don’t get me going on campervans.

    4. The only inflation that is concurrent is the inflation of stupidity in the species. It is careering out of control.

      1. As a smallish example I give you the forthcoming Med Wars starring Turkey & Greece with the helpful pot stirring by Boy Wonder La France Profonde Bellend

      1. I’m fairly certain I have this on one of their LPs but can’t remember which one….

          1. Thanks. It’s in storage at the moment but I plan to get my ancient Hi Fi system up and running again.

          2. I got mine out only t’other day. Pro-Ject turntable, Denon Receiver, Mission 700 speakers, Technics CD player and Yamaha Cassette player. The last two items are a bit decrepit and need replacing. I would love a Revox (or Teac) reel-to-reel or even a Nakamichi cassette player, second-hand of course, but those are pipe dreams at the moment.

            I’m currently using my little matchbox-sized bluetooth thingy to play my Spotify collection, from my iPhone, over the Hi-Fi.

          3. I have a Pionner P11D turntable, Kenwood Amp, NAD receiver, Maranzt CD player & Wharfdale Glendales from the 1970s. Mission speakers good – always fancied some Tannoys…

          4. You have an amp AND a receiver (a ‘receiver’ being a combined amp and tuner)? Is your Kenwood amp a pre-amp?

            My first set-up, from 1976, was a Trio turntable, Rotel amp, Sony cassette deck and Goodman’s speakers. Those Goodman’s were nearly as good as the Missions.

          6. Ah! I thought you might have had one of those high-end set-ups that had both a power amp and a separate pre amp.

    6. The whole point of a roundabout is to keep traffic moving on it. By having to give way ON the roundabout, it negates its purpose, leading to the roundabout becoming clogged.

      2. Surely to avoid the confusing markings, it’s easier to go straight through the middle.?

      3. Surely to avoid the confusing markings, it’s easier to go straight through the middle.?

      4. Vehicle traffic leaving the roundabout has to give way to cyclists and pedestrians. But they will be relatively few and far between so it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s no different to so many town centre roundabouts which have pedestrian crossings across the junctions.

        Your point is valid, nevertheless it’s an experiment and as such it needs a fair trial. If it proves to be a turkey I’m sure it will get canned, particularly for safety reasons.

      5. Don’t tell the traffic planners, they might just have melt-down at any challenge to their nonsense.

    7. I hope it isn’t anywhere near an airport; those crossings look suspiciously like threshold markings at first glance 🙂

      1. Or a town planner (not a lot of difference!). I say that as a failed town planner – they would never have accepted me because my ideas are too rooted in what would suit people. No wonder I kept getting rejected when I applied!

  122. Thats me for tonight. Just started thundering, gotta go & shiver with fear under the bedclothes…
    Goodnight, all Y’all!

  123. I posted earlier The Damned United – 9pm. BBC4
    Michael Sheen brilliantly portrays Brian Clough – Leeds United 1974.

    Not a footie fan but one to record…
    ————–
    Although a repeat I was looking forward to it…..and guess what….the b*stard BBC
    ditched it in favour of the bloody snooker! No apology…or explanation as to when it will be shown….!!!
    They did the same with a war film about Burma scheduled yesterday ……FCK the BBC..

        1. Some people think that the licence fee is a price to pay for ad free channels. I think it is too high a pice to pay for gonad free channels.
          Get well soon.

          1. BBC4 is the only channel worth the licence fee. Good mix of documentaries, music, wildlife etc but 3 hours of snooker also shown on BBC2 is a bridge too far………..excuse the pun!

          3. I’m surprised the sport is shown on the Beeb given its Imperialistic associations with the British Raj….

          5. OH has been watching the snooker……….and the cricket………..and he watched the repeats of Wimbledon………it’s helped to keep sports fans sane I think.

  124. Our last 2020 summer French course ended on Saturday and we took all our students to the airport or railway station to make their trips home – all have arrived back in England safely.

    On Sunday we drove from Dinan to the Netherlands and spent the night with Caroline’s sister, Pierette.

    An early start on Monday – we drove from the Netherlands to Calais and took the tunnel train with the car to England with Pierette and her husband in time for a family funeral lunch party in Canterbury at Caroline’s 91 year old aunt’s house. After lunch we went to the crematorium for a service for Caroline’s uncle who died a week ago aged 93. After the service we returned to Caroline’s aunt’s house for a tea party. There were fewer than 20 people and only family members at these events because of corona virus restrictions. After tea we returned via the tunnel to the Netherlands arriving at midnight.

    A quiet day on Tuesday and yesterday we drove home to Dinan and, en route Caroline took the photo she posted earlier this morning for the Nottlers which celebrates Belgian culture.

    It looks as if we only managed to do all this in the nick of time as here is the DT Headline Live News

    Coronavirus latest news: France among six nations placed on UK travel quarantine list as cases rise.
    (The Netherlands have also been added to this list)

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