Friday 14 August: Any teacher could see that algorithmic A-levels would let pupils down

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/08/13/lettersany-teacher-could-see-algorithmic-a-levels-would-let/

858 thoughts on “Friday 14 August: Any teacher could see that algorithmic A-levels would let pupils down”

      1. No worries, Geoff. ;-))
        Although I was a tad discombobulated by it… shows I was paying attention, do I get brownie points?

    1. Morning Citters. I can’t make out what the cartoonist has drawn in the sign 🙁

        2. A masked teacher and brat peering to see if there is a hooligan motorist set to run them down if they dare step into the road.

          ‘Morning, zx.

      2. Morning BSK, is it a parent wearing a face mask with a child below peering from the edge?

  5. Bore da pawb.

    Today’s topic for discussion – why do people in films always carry torches as if a dagger to stab with? I have only ever seen people ILR hold a torch as one would a tennis racquet.
    Discuss.

    1. (1) Is ILR really meant to be IRL (In Real Life)?
      (2) American films never feature torches (except in films such as King Solomon’s Mines where the wind making the flames of the torches flicker help the characters trapped in a cave find the air gap which helps them escape the cave). Instead they use “flash lights”.

      Good grief, I am beginning to sound light Peddy!

      Anyhow, a good morning to all NoTTLers. After sporadic thunder, lightning and RAIN overnight, today is much more bearable.

      1. 1. Yes (oops)
        2. Yer septics get confused by our use of torch, thinking we are referring to a flaming torch. Who invented the language, anyway?

  6. SIR – Allister Heath (Comment, August 13) highlights Britain’s failings compared with Sweden’s performance in the Covid fiasco, but why are we still in such a mess?

    I welcomed Boris Johnson as a strong leader after Theresa May’s dismal performance on Brexit, but what have we got instead? A muddled leader who makes pronouncements and then goes back on them; who listens to science but not logic, and who instils fear in people rather than the confidence needed to get the country out of the current catastrophe.

    Deaths from Covid are now insignificant compared with those resulting from the virtual closure of the NHS to people with other diseases. Businesses are being ruined every day that senseless restrictions continue. Prospects for the young deteriorate while education is on hold.

    Come on, Mr Johnson: get a grip.

    Rupert Godfrey
    Devizes, Wiltshire

    1. 322523+ up ticks,
      C,
      You can see straight off where roop is coming from, hard core tory, truth / fact denier, a great many of them about.

      The mays “dismal performance” in truth was /is treachery on stilts.

      The johnson is a continuation of the treacherous mayday
      THEY are ALL in it together.

      Example, priti johnson & the Dover treacherous ongoing campaign.

    2. We really do need another prime minister and another political party in charge. Unfortunately both the Labour Party and the Lib/Dems are even worse than the shambolic Conservative Party.

      Can anyone think of an alternative prime minister? Apart from Nigel Farage is there anyone who would do?

      1. A triumvirate of Uncle Bill, The Pushy Nurse and your good self would do an excellent job, Rastus. Meanwhile Caroline, the MR and I with our culinary skills (crumble and marmalade my speciality) would provide you all with the necessary support you need.

        :-))

      2. Can anyone think of an alternative prime minister? Apart from Nigel Farage is there anyone who would do?

        Neil Warnock (at present saving Middlesborough FC from oblivion)?

  10. Morning all

    SIR – Middle and higher earners pushing for the abolition of office working will doubtless get their way (Letters, August 13).

    However, business leaders should spare a thought for lower-paid office workers, many of whom don’t have a spare bedroom, open space under the stairs or cabin in the garden where they can set up shop. In crowded homes, remote working often means sitting on a bed or on a sofa shared with other members of the household.

    Individuals and businesses will suffer if working from home becomes the new normal, and we will all be poorer for that.

    Eppie Anderson

    Tansor, Northamptonshire

    1. All those middle and higher earners employers will soon find that if it can be done from the UK it can just as easily be done from India or anywhere else at half the wages and they will lose their jobs.

      They should be careful what they push for.

    2. I think it becomes particularly difficult if there is more than one person in the household trying to work from home.

  11. SIR – Roundabouts are a good and simple way to allow traffic to flow (Letters, August 13). The rules are simple: if you’re on one, you have right of way.

    While the latest innovation in Cambridge – the “Dutch-style” roundabout – has its good points, it is also very complicated. Roundabouts should not be traffic-signal controlled – any traffic-flow adjustment on converging roads should be made well before the roundabout.

    Kevin Platt

    Walsall, Staffordshire

    SIR – To encourage more cycling, it is certainly worth testing ideas developed in the Netherlands (Comment, August 12), but we should not fixate on physical solutions.

    From my experience of cycling in Washington, DC, it is the courtesy and discipline of all road users, as much as the excellent infrastructure, that makes cycling there so pleasant.

    John Kirkwood

    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    1. I agree about roundabouts, but highways departments prefer traffic lights because their favoured contractors and their executives can make more money from the Council Tax.

      With roundabouts, drivers adjust their speed on approach so that can slip in to any gaps in the circulating traffic. A good sign is someone signalling to exit, which then creates a gap that can be filled as long as the wretched car behind on the roundabout doesn’t accelerate to fill that gap. I think that accelerating on roundabouts should get three points on a licence.

      I do recall though a roundabout in Paris that was utterly chaotic when I drove through it in the 1980s. It was of course the Place Charles de Gaulle, also known as The Star. It was a six lane affair with roads coming off it all the way round. Those entering the system have right of way (under the old French <>) and were therefore going around 45mph, perpendicular to the stream of traffic, which was doing about 30. Those leaving the system, also perpendicular to the traffic, have no priority and so were stationary.

      I saw few cars without dents there.

      1. Not all roundabouts provide the best means of traffic control. Before the construction of the A1270 Northern Distributor Road to the north of Norwich, there was a roundabout at the junction of the A140 Cromer Road with the A1149 Holt Road. This roundabout was a nightmare for rush hour traffic in a morning.

        There would invariably be a mile-long queue of traffic on the A1149 that was being held up at that roundabout by a non-stop procession of vehicles using the A140 as though a roundabout didn’t exist. This nose-to-tail snake of commuter vehicles travelling both north and south along the Cromer Road would provide a continuous barrier to any vehicle attempting to emerge from the Holt Road. This was certainly a prime example of where traffic lights would have provided a solution.

        Eventually common sense ruled and the entire junction was reconfigured when the Distributor Road was constructed.

        1. A similar situation exists outside Worcester at the Ketch, where traffic coming from the A38 hit roundabout traffic destined for the Carrington Bridge and the city. There are not enough vehicles turning off down the A38 to let those in from there. One councillor suggested the only way round this was another motorway junction (Jct 7a) further down, serving Malvern, Pershore, Upton and Kempsey, so a lot of traffic crossing the river does not have to go through the Ketch roundabout.

          Another addition to the Highway Code concerns roundabouts (and for that matter other road junctions) where traffic is gridlocked. A filtering etiquette should be adopted, whereby the stream of traffic allows no more than one or two vehicles to merge in from a side road. Those coming from the side road should respect this and not take advantage once more than a couple of vehicles have merged in.

          it would be hard to establish good manners on the road, but if it could be done, filtering in this way would be much more efficient than the stop-go of traffic lights.

          I also like the idea of part-time traffic lights, to resolve the situation you describe at rush hour, but are turned off at other times. Flashing amber on pelican crossings could also be used when there are not that many pedestrians. Flashing amber means the pedestrian has right of way, but the traffic does not have to stop.

      2. The French ‘priorité à droite’ rule is simply the most stupid, ill-considered traffic rule imaginable. There are still plenty of badly signed junctions in France where it still applies, although roundabouts in France have ‘Give Way’ signs at entry points.

    2. “The rules are simple: if you’re on one [a roundabout], you have right of way.” Not round here I don’t! The number of times I’ve been on a roundabout and some idiot has cut across my bows from the entrance on the right or left is legion. Often they feel so entitled they hold their hand on the horn to signify their displeasure at my expecting them to follow the rules.

          1. Proudly not signed because it is simply encouragement for childish ‘anti-vaxxers’.

          2. Don’t worry, jsc, they usually ignore these petitions. If the numbers force a “debate” they simply hold one, then say “This matter has been debated”.

          3. I hope that most who sign it can make the distinction between the worrying opposition to MMR and this potentially sinister exercise.

  14. A parent’s anguish…
    My daughter’s A* star prediction has turned to a C : how can this be right?
    Like thousands of parents across the UK, all I wanted was for my daughter Lily to be treated fairly – but these results are ridiculous…..D/Telegraph

    Get over it…life is full of disappointments.
    I learned that lesson when I was ten years old and my little world fell apart.
    It certainly helped me take the knocks life threw at me in the real world and bounce back again.

    1. Good morning Plum

      Parents live through their children , it appears to be so socially fashionable to parcel the offspring off to Uni ..

      These children seem to believe it is a right of passage, childhood continues , when the wide world beckons!

      2. I’ve never understood that attitude.
        You love them and do your best for them; try to give them a good base so they can make the most of their lives.
        But live your life through them? Why? It’s unfair to both sides.

        1. My brother got that treatment – my father desperately wanted him to become cathedral organist. I think as a result it took him till middle age to settle down into secure work in computer programming/it. He still plays the organ & piano and sings in the church choir, but wholly on a amateur basis.

          1. Your brother probably inherited the ability. It will out eventually, but not if parents keep pushing and trying to get their children to fulfil the parents’ thwarted dreams.

          2. Yes my brother certainly inherited our father’s musical ability. After dropping out of university he spent many years entertaining on cruise ships. Hard to know whether he might have ended up as a classical musician if he had stuck out university or not, and whether that would have been the best anyway. At least working in IT means he earns enough to travel to Europe (he lives in Australia) on a regular basis (when covid restrictions aren’t hampering movement) and attend things such as the Leipzig Bach Fest.

    2. It was a prediction. A bit like the weather forecast that assured us of storms yesterday, and about as accurate.

    3. 322523+up ticks,
      Morning PT,
      If the voting pattern stays as is and the warning signs are not heeded, as in ” instruction manual” between the two dispatch boxes & the hoc canteen menu, Lily won’t have no say in the matter, Lily won’t have no say period.

      1. Lily has two chances…she can give up adopting a ‘Life’s not fair’ attitude or take it on the chin and try harder next time.

        It’s tough growing up…

        1. 322523+ up ticks,
          PT,
          But it WAS fun with Mum / Dad loving overseers in the main.
          That’s inclusive of the railway flint fights we use to have, still got one /two scalp battle scars, early hard knocks in life.

        2. She can give up adopting adopt a “life’s not fair” attitude or “take it on the chin”, surely?

    4. One grade? perhaps
      Two? possibly
      Four? something is badly awry.

      I can’t imagine that that has happened the other way around, C to A*

      1. Lily is lucky having a mother concerned about her education.

        My parents lavished their interest and concern regarding my brother’s education but I was only a girl who would get married one day and have kids!
        No point in sending her to Uni…..!

        That’s how it was….and NO I’m not a Feminist!

        1. My parents were much the same, but it didn’t stop me getting to university. In fact it left me free to make all the decisions myself, except for when my mother realised I was actually going to go to university she insisted I apply to Cambridge. I knew I wouldn’t get in and it wasn’t my own preferred first choice, though it had to top the list. Fortunately the school I was sent to to turn me into a ‘young lady’ was very accommodating of my various subject choices and after my first latin teacher (a lovely Dutch lady, who I am much reminded of by Rastus’s wife Caroline) started teaching me ancient Greek, they continued to find me teachers for Greek and A level Latin and also a teacher of ancient history for A level. The school wasn’t strongly academic but I can’t fault it for the effort it made to enable me to follow my choices.

          1. I am impressed by your determination to overcome all obstacles in reaching your choices, cynarch. However, since I have this silly sense of humour, tell me: having studied Greek and Latin (the language of Rome, now in Italy) have you recently been working to enable illegal immigrants to reach Greece and Italy? If so, then you are a Dethpicable and Very Silly Sausage! :-))

            Joking apart, what did you read at University, which University was it, and what has been your real job in adult life?

          2. I went to Bristol to read Archaeology, Ancient History and Greek – as I had only studied Greek to O level it was taking up a disproportionate amount of my studying so when a new course in Archaeology & Geology was introduced at the end of my first year I changed courses, had to redo my first year as a result. I’ve spent my adult life working as an archaeologist earning a pittance (at least by many people’s standards – the lowest paid professionals in the country!). I have been very fortunate in doing something I love, though it can be dispiriting working in commercial archaeology, where the quality of excavation and recording in the field can be very poor but some tremendous sites, which one feels deserve better before they are wiped out by housing or roads or solar farms. It makes you very aware of the vast scale of development that one doesn’t notice if it’s not on your doorstep.

          3. Thanks for your reply, cynarch. I’m sorry that your career was not paid as highly as it clearly deserved, but hopefully the job satisfaction more than made up for that. I can imagine nothing worse than working at a job for a period of up to 50 years where every minute of the clock seems to last for over an hour – what a miserable way to spend one’s life!

          4. It must be heartbreaking to investigate a site before the bull dozers and concrete mixers move in.

          5. I think what is heartbreaking is not being able to do justice to the site. The planning archaeologist will usually only require a small percentage to be excavated, as little as 10% often. So it can be frustrating having too little material to really be able to work out what is going on, or because of the budget there just isn’t the time. The great thing about commercial archaeology is that huge areas are being exposed – hundreds of hectares/acres at a time revealing whole landscapes not just part of a single site. Something like that is impossible in research archaeology. It’s at least an improvement on the 70s when much of the archaeology in out town centres was wiped out by development without any record, but I think we could be judged quite harshly by future generations of archaeologists. Sadly we are destroying a finite resource and one that reveals more about the lives of ordinary people in contrast to the powerful and famous characters portrayed in history books.

          6. My grammar school was very academic, but they weren’t keen on letting us have any choice. My choice of university course was effectively torpedoed because I couldn’t do what I wanted. No Classics because I wasn’t allowed to do Greek with Latin and no joint honours because I wasn’t allowed to do German with French. I went off and did Russian instead, but it wasn’t my preferred choice.

          7. I started out at a grammat school, but we moved at the end of my second year and at that point my mother decided it would be much better to send me to the private school run by a distant cousin. The school had no strong academic ambitions, but when a pupil turned up with particular aptitudes, they did everything in their power to enable the pupil to follow them. There was another girl a year or two above me who was very strong on sciences and they made arrangements for her to study her subjects at Colston’s Boys School. I realise how fortunate I was when I hear about young people today ‘choosing their options for GCSE’ – it always seems the preferred option is never available and the pupil just has to do what the school allocates.

        2. Agreed.

          I wonder if all that particular teacher’s predictions were similarly treated.

          There’s something odd here. I hope the mother got the predictions in writing rather than from her daughter verbally.

          1. I don’t know why they don’t all sit their exams in the autumn as the opportunity has been offered and then take a gap year before university. They might discover they can serve coffees without a degree.

          1. Mine was highly intelligent, well-read and cultured, but because she had failed maths at School Certificate level she progressed no further.

        4. This happened to friends.
          The son failed his 11+ and was sent to private school; the daughter did the same thing and was sent to the local sec.mod which happened to be the crappiest in town.
          Because … yup, you’ve got it. She married twice and had no children but harboured an understandable chip on her shoulder which still surfaces even now.

          1. For some reason I missed my 11+ my parents were too busy!
            I had to sit it in the head’s study to re-take it ….I didn’t pass!
            However I went to a good secondary school where you could take it at 14 for late developers. I passed but Uni was out and I prefered to make my own way…Didn’t turn out too badly..had some interesting jobs and met some lovely people in the music industry…….and met my soul mate…..

          2. I passed my 11+ and my Mum was glad as she valued education. My grammar school was an old-fashioned academic school. I did reasonably well until A levels, when I was too busy going out and about to bother with revision so I did badly – all my own fault.

  16. I have just read this on F/B.. unbelievable .

    **SUCCESS** Farmer arrested over early morning noise pollution.

    I am fed up with the whirring through the night of farmers evil contraptions next to my village. So I called 999 last night to report the disturbance.

    Thankfully the police turned up in force and shut down the evil farmer and arrested 2 workers that got emotional about the situation.

    Us vegans will no longer sit and watch, whilst polluting farmers flout the law. All food is available from supermarkets! Farming is outdated!

    2. Margaret Beckett, whom most of us would prefer to forget, once asserted that “this is a rich country, we can import all the food we need”.

    4. 322523+up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      Not so long ago we would take that as someone having a George Raft but now it can, in all seriousness, be taken as a genuine complaint.

      1. The trouble is that they come from a suburban area which is eerily quiet at night (or even in the day) out into rural or coastal areas, where you have all the noise of nature and our food producers, as well as the distant, or not so distant, hum of motorways etc. I’ve just swapped homes with my d-i-l and moved to one of the eerily quiet locations. Fortunately there is still the noise of fighters taking off from Boscombe Down, shelling on the Plain.

        1. I like it being eerily quiet! All I can hear at the moment is my tinnitus.

          My n-d-n was away last weekend and said the B&B was so hellishliy noisy she checked out early.

          1. Yes, there’s noise and noise – the clock striking the hour is perfectly acceptable whilst the neighbours having a noisy party or something going on too late is extraordinarily aggravating.

      2. I was born and bred at the coast in Lancashre, I now live at the coast again in Sussex. I do not like these sea gulls that live round dustbins, never have, never will.

        2. Not ‘seagulls’, just gulls, eg herring gull. They were on the UK coast long before us humans, and they play an important role in the ecosystem (they eat yukky stuff, not just chips and pigeons). Also reasonably intelligent, care for their offspring and can live 30 years.

    8. And i was under the impression our Police Farce and their cousins Border Farce were all too busy on the coast.
      See above YouTube clips.

  17. Morning all.
    Having seen all the poor students so upset by their ‘results’, i was thinking perhaps it would have been a better idea to have let them ‘sit the exams’ at home.
    Free to look up the answers and attaining 100% results, at least it might they some may have learned something. And there might now be less obvious display of growly vowels and victim pouts………even some tears.
    And appeals WTF ??

    1. Some are talking about legal action! Good luck with getting a result before all the university places have been filled.

    2. This year I sat an A level exam on Crumble Making, just so that I could receive a certificate to show at my interview for working at the Ritz hotel in London. Unfortunately I was only awarded a 100% pass. I shall be appealing as clearly I deserved at least a 120% pass.

      :-))

          1. How DARE you, Annie, suggest that I am of a certain faith who points their bottoms in the air on five occasions daily? :-))

          4. A certain program for the Beeb. Strictly – with social distancing AND panders to a certain culture.

      2. You forgot to bake the mixture in the oven for 15 minutes before crumbling it over the fruit. Epic fail.

  18. Wonderful. It’s cooler and we’ve just had another downpour.
    I know I am definitely not cut out to be a Daughter of the Empire. I’d have been one of those Mems lurking in a gloomy bungbelow, permanently stewed on G&T and yelling at the punka-wallah to up his game.

      1. During the summer. They were supposed to be the respectable front for their husband’s activities for the rest of the year (or sometime simla).

          1. My first school was in Poona. My sisters and I were the only white girls at the school. While this had its limited advantages (we were usually given the lead roles on stage: I played Cinderella, one of my sisters was Goldilocks) it was also a bit of a pain as our Indian friends experimented on us to see if we reacted as they did: squeezing orange peel in our eyes, pinching our skin until it turned blue, etc.

          2. How long were you there? Do you speak Hindi? I can order food & go shopping, but I didn’t learn the script.

  21. I hope BT has had a reasonable night and that the hospital will discover what the problem is.

      1. I usually go early afternoon, when it is quiet, but today I wanted to be early to catch a romanesco on the market, but the market was closed.

        1. No romanesco then? The greengrocer used to sell them here but they closed a few years ago. Morrisons veg variety is very basic but I’m too lazy to go to the farmers’ market on Saturdays. I haven’t been into Stroud since February.

          1. The Monday market was always bigger; I can ty again then, as I’m going that way to lunch.

      1. No, it was good. Went straight in, fewer people about, staff still morning-fresh, got everything I wanted, including the last bottle of white port. What’s not to like?

        1. I wonder how many vain female pensioners deliberately avoid going during “pensioner’s hour” as it shows their age?

          2. I was NOT meaning, in any way, that you are vain, Ndovu, apologies if you saw any offence. It was a general comment.

          3. Not at all – I didn’t take it as a personal insult!
            But to categorise people as pensioners for a particular time slot is what i meant by being singled out.

          4. But it is entirely voluntary to shop in pensioners’ hours, if you are a pensioner. I can shop at any time when the store is open; I’m not restricted.

          2. That’s what I’m finding so wearing (among other things) about many of my contemporaries. They have become so OLD and risk averse. They weren’t like that when we were younger; what is the matter with them? There is a helluva difference between living and existing.
            And no, I’m not one of life’s geriatric bungee jumpers but I do like to question received wisdom and make my own decisions.

          3. My ol friend has become a quivering heap of jelly. A teacher, she is terrified of going back to work, and so whimpery it’s no pleasure to call her any more – I just get an urge to bellow “Pull yourself together, woman!” at her.
            Yet, years ago, she was a roughy-toughy type who amongst other things, went on a solo (!) walking tour of Nepal for a year. Now she won’t go near a school…
            :-((

          6. Visits to several long term friends now means having to bite my lip, change the subject (avoid absolutely anything to do with health) and, if necessary, cut the visit short. (Dog needs to be let out. Don’t mention that he’s totally chilled and probably completed the crossword in our absence.)
            My nearest cousin proved to be an hysterical wreck when we visited her last May. Judging by her attitude I can only assume that the Stasi have relocated to rural Suffolk. She used to be far more kick-ass that me – she used to make me look like Goody Two Shoes. The conversion to a paranoid jelly was extremely sad.

          7. My colleague is also that way inclined.
            Daily he rants about an uptick, and how it’s all he fault of youth going to summer parties. Yet the data (yesterdays) shows that, out of a population of 5,433,000, a total of some 407,311 (7.5%) felt bad enough to have a test (including Firstborn, who seems to have a mild pneumonia), 9,638 (2.37% of tests, 0,17% of the population) have shown infected, there are now 12 in hospital and 1 on respirator. And he wants a curfew and colossal fines for those not following “guidance”. A wonder he doesn’t want them shot at the side of the road.
            What a hysterical git.

          8. I had to restrain myself last week from biting off a friend’s head. He was in full DM moan mode about people heading to the beaches … blah, blah, blah ….
            I pointed out that we were sitting in a very nice Suffolk village, in the beautiful garden of a largish house and it was easy to be more relaxed about restrictions on personal life. However, for those living in tower blocks or cramped accommodation in city centres life was somewhat different.
            I was extra annoyed as I knew enough about his background to realise that he had totally lost any empathy with those from his London origins. He and his wife have worked for their success, but the lack of imagination – the sheer bloody smugness – really got to me.

          9. Yet another manifestation of telling other people how to live their lives. Drives me apeshit.

          11. To be fair, I can’t understand why a young chap, like me, spends so much time on this forum with all you old farts.

          12. I’ll accept the fart bit – difficult not to, given the circumstances… but I’m about the youngest here! (I’m only here for the discussions about marmalade and tartan bog-paper).

          14. Is Delboy the father of the house? He was born in 1936 and so he is 84.

            Can anybody beat Delboy (who must be on the very brink of becoming a Dellman!) and who is the baby of the house?

            Who is prepared to give the year of his/her birth?

            Rastus 1946
            Caroline 1962

          17. You come here for the lively conversation, and the repartee. Not to mention the puns, and the laughs and the pictures of food.

          20. Good afternoon, Grizzly

            Each year, in the course of running our business we have about fifty intelligent and pleasant people aged 17 or 18 staying with us for a week or more at a time which is why Caroline and I remain so refreshing good-humoured, intellectually lively, witty and modest!

          21. Good afternoon, Rastus.

            I have always suffered from Peter Pan Syndrome: I steadfastly refuse to “grow up” (whatever that means). I have always been comfortable in the presence of younger generations and, in common with Sir Stanley Matthews when he was 80, I can still run down the wing, wrong foot eight defenders before cutting inside to score — all in my head, of course! 🤣

          25. The weekly shop is almost my only outing these days. I hate shopping but I do like to see what I’m buying so have avoided ordering food online.

          26. Snap. A couple of days ago, I was discussing clothes shopping with my sister-in-law and niece. In short, we hadn’t bothered; we had enough for the limited amount of socialising we were likely to do this summer; possibly even longer.
            I did splash out on a pair of half-price trainers from Hotter, but online.

          27. I lost a jacket in Kenya – left it on a plane by mistake, so I needed a replacement, which I ordered online from Mountain Warehouse. Hardly worn it yet. Might do today though as it still looks pretty threatening (weatherwise) out there.

          28. I’ve just splashed out on a pair of crops online for 1/2 price, but they haven’t arrived yet & now the heatwave is over.

  23. SIR – The substitution of an algorithm for the professional judgment of teachers has had predictably unfortunate consequences for some 
A-level students because it is a mathematical construct that does not consider individual circumstances.

    Whatever the inadequacies of the public examination process in a normal year, it is a system in which one group of human beings is judged by another.

    The algorithm itself remains shrouded in secrecy. We can be confident, however, that it resembles the one applied so disastrously in Scotland earlier this month.

    If Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, believed in his algorithm he would not have offered to accept mock grades in place of the ones it had generated. And if he had spoken to anybody who has ever worked in a school about his proposal, before sharing it with the BBC, he would have been swiftly dissuaded from advancing it.

    Richard Russell
    Headmaster, Colfe’s School
    London SE12

    And

    SIR – Universities, schools and parents are now trying to pick up the pieces of shattered dreams because our children, it appears, are just numbers to be processed through an algorithm.

    Life can be unfair, but why deliberately make it so? Students didn’t choose not to study, and they have been robbed of the chance to work hard to exceed expectations. We should at least let their futures be shaped by those who saw their work.

    Rosemary Drinkwater
    Coventry, Warwickshire

    Moaning Minnies – almost as bad as Angela Rayner on the Beeb.

    1. BTL:

      Tom Archer
      14 Aug 2020 5:23AM
      Richard Russell

      If teachers had assessed their students responsibly, instead of inflating grades by an average of 20% as happened in Scotland, the use of an algorithm would not have been necessary.

      A 20% elevation is not a rounding error – it is a gross lack of professional discipline.

      – The teaching profession should be thoroughly ashamed of itself – it has failed repeatedly during this crisis..

      Phnom Penh
      14 Aug 2020 6:44AM
      @Tom Archer The irony of the situation in Scotland is that it suggests the raise in standards has occurred because of the absence of teachers rather than in spite of it.

      1. SIR – It feels inevitable that the “class of 2020” will forever have to tolerate a raised eyebrow when they present their qualifications. Let’s hope that any employer worth their salt takes these grades with a large pinch of the same.

        Kate Pycock

        Ipswich, Suffolk

        1. Mind you some people with poor academic results at “A” level end up with outstanding degrees and qualifications while others with straight “A” s fall flat on their faces later on. There have always been late developers as well as those, like William Hague, who burn out and becomes systematically more stupid with each passing year.

          1. ‘Morning, Rastus.

            Yes, I’m on form today. Is that a deponent ‘s’ on the end of ‘becomes’?

        1. Good morning, Peddy

          Glad to see you’re on good form and still one of the rays of sunshine on the site.

          (We raise the standard – or to be more precise the red ensign – on Mianda each morning but Boris and Co have thwarted us this year.

          1. My oven raises my home-baked cakes – provided I use enough self-raising flour in the mix.

            :-))

    2. 322523+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      I see their future as being well & truly shaped and that has been in the pipeline for a long time, but not the way Rosie
      would like it.
      All the props are in place, the working manual lies between the dispatch boxes to the fodder on the HOC menu.
      lab/lib/con coalition the future shapers, black comedy ho,ho,ho,my aching -ucking sides.

    3. This wave of angst about A level results baffles me. If a group of pupils might have all got a grade B had the virus not occurred, then does it matter if instead they all get a grade A or a grade B or a grade C? They will all be at the same level compared to each other when they compete with each other during their time at University.

      It reminds me of apologetic announcements in the London Underground that “trains are running an hour late”. Since trains arrive at roughly five minute intervals, it simply means that those hoping to catch the 9 am, 9.05 am and 9.10 am trains will in fact catch the delayed 8 am, 8.05 am and 8.05 am trains, each “running an hour late” but arriving at the platform at exactly the times expected by passengers.

      1. Some of them will not get into University as their grades have been bumped downwards based on where they live -the Scottish algorithm.
        Nice areas got upgrades, council schemes got downgrades. Scottish students have always beneath disadvantage as all Universities have favoured English qualifications. Scottish education was based on a broad range while the English system preferred to concentrate on fewer subjects.
        These are simply examples of State interference and social engineering. Dystopia in the making.

        1. Many of them will have had a lucky escape not being able to go to “uni”. They will perhaps learn a trade without being lumbered with a huge debt.

          1. They won’t feel like that now. Society has set hurdles that have long ceased to be sensible. It is a way of avoiding responsibility for appointing staff, “they seemed well qualified…”.

    4. All pupils that gain A or O levels this year should be obliged to annotate their CVs with CV to warn potential employers.

  24. Going to see Step-son in hospital this afternoon. Face nappies compulsory and in a private room!

    I’m not sure how much longer he’s going to be in for, but Student Son gave me a hand tidying his flat up and it looks a lot better.

    Looking at his neighbours the failings of Don’t Care In The Community are obvious. One poor bugger t’other day was wandering round the courtyard totally out of his brain with a lump of expanded polystyrene & bottle of white lightning in one hand, whilst crumbling the foam with the other hand and spreading it over the ground with the other.

    1. Don’t even get me on to that subject. Nigh on fifty years later, and still a medical fad taken into the realms of stupidity holds sway.
      Good luck, BoB.

  25. SIR – Last week my wife rang our GP. After seven minutes of recorded messages she gave up, having not even managed to speak to a receptionist.

    On the same day, Bertie, the labrador, swallowed his teeth-cleaning finger pad. The vet surgery answered on the second ring and the nurse sought guidance from the vet, who advised either letting nature take its course or bringing him in so they could make him sick. We decided on the latter, took him in immediately and were back home within an hour. Yes, it cost £150, but the NHS is hardly free.

    Simon Strudwick

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    1. Morning Epi – I don’t know how big a teeth cleaning finger pad is but if is small with no dangerous projections I would have let nature take its course and only go to the vet if complications arose. £150 sounds an exorbitant amount to make the dog sick

      1. And the dog would have had the freshest smelling and cleanest rear end that you ever did see.

    2. ‘Morning, Epi.

      Where does Simon get the idea that the NS is hardly free (at point of use)?

        1. #Me too. That’s why I don’t write NHaitchS. 😉

          My worst sin was saying ‘f’ for ‘th’.

          1. A pretty young girl with a lisp attended an orgy of the Gods. When she came out of her orgasmic reverie she looked at her stern-faced paramour who declared:

            “I am Thor – the God of War”

            “Tho am I but I’m thatisthied,” she gasped.

          2. Dirk Bogarde in Doctor film to buxom young patient: “Now, big breaths, Eva”.

            Eva: “Yeth, and I’m only thixteen”.

    4. I sometimes feel sick upon leaving the vet, accompanied by a distinct pain in the wallet.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

        1. I have Denplan insurance at £30 a month. Covers everything but Lab work. My hygienist over one year is £160 so i feel i’m getting good value.

          1. Same here, and recently just after dentists were allowed to re-open, one of my crowns came out. I phoned at 9am and was told to come in at 3:45pm. In and out in less than 30 minutes.

    5. One wonders why Bertie had a teeth-cleaning finger pad when gnawing a bone (or even a Dentastix) would have done the job just as, or even more, efficiently and certainly more naturally.

  26. Hear hear. And the bin collectors and the postman and…..

    SIR – NHS and key workers have, quite rightly, earned our eternal thanks.

    Can we now spare a thought for all the couriers and delivery drivers out there? During this unprecedented period, we have made increasing use of internet shopping, and these workers have responded to this new need.

    They are out in all weathers – imagine delivering 150 parcels during a heatwave, or battling high winds and torrential rain – and, in the main, they receive little pay and, sometimes, abuse. Let’s give them a break.

    Ann Cutting

    Storrington, West Sussex

    1. God bless them all , the long and the short and the tall!

      Good morning … no rain , nothing but warm and sticky with a slight breeze , and very low cloud..

      We had another very warm night.

      1. ‘Morning, Belle. Cool and misty here, and STILL no ‘organised’ rain. The ground is like reinforced concrete. We shall shortly be away in the tin snail for a week…that should do it.

      2. ‘Morning, Belle. Cool and misty here, and STILL no ‘organised’ rain. The ground is like reinforced concrete. We shall shortly be away in the tin snail for a week…that should do it.

  28. Morning again

    SIR – Dr Hilary Lovelock (Letters, August 11) is exceedingly fortunate to be able to see her mother once a week, even with Covid-19 restrictions.

    My mother, who is 103, is in a private home in Buckinghamshire. She is in good mental health but needs to use a wheeled walker. I am registered as her “single constant visitor”, but I have not so far been permitted to visit. I was recently allocated a 30-minute slot on September 30. My mother wants to see her children, grandchildren and a new great-grandchild, but the home shows no compassion.

    Other care homes have transparent screens, 30-minute visitor slots and socially-distanced garden and window visits. My mother’s home seems to be interpreting the rules in an unnecessarily stringent way that is most convenient to them and, as Dr Lovelock suggests, aimed at avoiding embarrassing statistics at all costs.

    Barbara Vernon

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

      1. Not that easy, Peddy, as the upheaval of a move at that age doesn’t usually end well.

        1. I can well imagine. I hate moving, although I’ve had to do a lot of it in my life.

      2. Not that easy, Peddy, as the upheaval of a move at that age doesn’t usually end well.

  29. 322523+ up ticks,
    Just a thought Lest we forget,
    On the said day we should really crowd fund the biggest sound blaster available and be stationed in an area adjacent to the commemoration as in a,
    wogbox
    A large stereo carried held to the ear by some tinted folk. Also 3rd world briefcase. I saw one of those new wog boxes in Dixons that puts out about 100 watts.
    1/2 dozen should suffice, blasting out “The road to Mandalay” on VJ day.

      1. The teeth might not be the best but the common sense that emits from between them is top notch.

  32. Splendid report about a misdesign of an American doll by Hasbro.

    One of their ‘Trolls’ series, the idea was that she would giggle and sing when sat down. So they put the button between her legs, in an anatomically-correct erogenous zone. Some moral uplifting parents in America complained that it was giving their kids the wrong idea about when it was age-appropriate to giggle and sing, so Hasbro has been forced to recall the doll from sale so they can reposition the button.

    Get them while you can! I must see if they’re still selling golliwogs in the ironmongers in Bromyard.

    2. The manufacturers clearly hit the wrong note if they were were looking for the G spot!

    3. With the original and the redesigned models, concerned parents can play G-spot the Difference…..

    1. A prediction.
      Joe Biden is elected.
      Within a matter of weeks, probably before his inauguration, Kamala Harris takes over as President Elect after Biden is removed “with extreme prejudice”.

      The method of his removal will be so contrived as to give Harris the apparent grounds to invoke sweeping changes to US legislation and possibly even the Constitution.

      1. Should Biden win, I see him retiring (or being retired) because of health problems (either mental or physical) in the very short term, leaving Harris to pursue the Dem’s plans.

        1. That is too easy and fails to create the shock effect that would allow her to force through a raft of draconian measures in a very short time.

      3. Mine, repeated from yesterday:

        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.

        1. Both your and BoB’s predictions have left me profoundly depressed, Sos. I would hate to lose the £20 I placed at the bookies on President Trump being re-elected. It would knock a big hole on my housekeeping money and I wouldn’t be able to treat myself to a slap-up celebration dinner (supper? Grizzly may be reading this). That would just break my heart!

          :-))

          1. Don’t forget the tenner off on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
            That should help your housekeeping budget during August.

          3. I’m being taken to a Turkish restaurant on Monday, but I don’t think it is in the scheme.

            Btw, it’s 50% off food & soft drinks up to £10.

          4. I’m hoping that she might put off a sufficient number of proper old fashioned Democrats to allow a Republican to scrape home ahead of Biden.

          6. In the worst case scenario I won’t be out of pocket, cynarch, because four years ago I placed a bet of £10 on Trump winning at odds of 2 to 1.

      4. He’ll trip on the steps going up to the podium, fracture a femur and the trauma will speed up his dementia.

      5. Morning Bob – The American Presidency is beginning to resemble the American version of “House of Cards.” Was the recent “shooting” outside the White House whilst Donald was talking to the Press and had to be spirited off the podium to safety by his security guards – was this a Donald ploy? I think not as the shooter was shot but not fatally. Frank Underwood [FU] sacrified his presidency to allow his Vice – President
        , [his scheming wife] to become President. It all sounds so familiar when fact imitates fiction. edited to change Boris to Donald

      1. once again: a recent report in the NFU magazine identified some convicted rustlers as being of eastern European origin. True, they might have been intending to supply a dodgy restaurant, but most muslims are townies.

          5. Not Reggie Dwight ?
            In hind site i was thinking of suing him for long standing grief and possible emotional issues. In the early 70s my mate and I drove all the way from Whetstone in North London to Brighton to see him and his band. But he wasn’t feeling too well and didn’t turn up. It got up our nose, but probably not the same sort of stuff that might well have been up his.

    5. Let’s ban halal slaughter without delay. It is time the Animal Rights activists got to grips with the problem.

  35. Interesting programme ‘Life and Times Captain Sir Tom’ last night on ITV. It was preceded by text that read:

    ‘We must learn

    We believe Black lives matter

    Find out more at itv.com/BlackVoices’

    Not sure if anything preceded the ‘We must learn’ line as that is where my recording
    started.

    In addition, on section involving employment of immigrants (Moore was very complimentary about West Indian workers) they showed a couple of white Brits from probably the 50s
    or 60s, one of whom said “I think all immigrants coming into this country should be controlled” and another who said “Half of them are coming over here without jobs, consequently they are making it very hard for our own people to find jobs”. The historian Dominic Sandbrook commented that “They’d been raised with an unthinking sense of superiority and a whole set of attitudes that would now seem quite shocking”.

  36. And so it goes on………..seemingly the same common denominator.

    A Yorkshire town on lockdown reportedly now has a higher infection rate than Leicester – the first region to be placed back into stricter coronavirus measures.

    The borough of Calderdale is experiencing the fastest rise in infection rates across Yorkshire, according to its Public Director of Health, Debs Harkins.

    Areas around the market town of Halifax now have infection rates higher than key hotspots such as Leicester, Blackburn and Darwen and Luton, she said.

    Government data shows the ward of Pellon East has seen a stark rise in cases, with 30 recorded between August 3 and 9.

    Pellon West and Highroad Well had 26 cases of coronavirus recorded across the same week.

    Debs Harkins has now appealed to the people of Calderdale to in a desperate bid to get help from residents to bring the rate back down again.

    1. The ‘government’ has now decided to try to scare us with ‘infection’ rates now the death rate is so low.

      How long will the onslaught against the electorate continue.

      1. 322523+ up ticks,
        Afternoon ATG,
        Leave it in the hands of the electorate Alf
        underpants major, the wretch cameron, leg over clegg, treacherous mayday, yet to be finalised
        johnson, they are really defying the law of averages.
        Maybe next one a ?
        We could NOT have got to where we are without them.

        1. Good afternoon ogga

          The problem is, ogga, that no matter what any government or party does most people vote for the same party time and time again.

          You know all about that because that’s what you do.

          Why do you expect others to be different to you.

          1. 322523+ up ticks,
            Won’t wash Alf knowing the difference between right and wrong would be a great help to many.
            To continue to support and vote for the same parties that have slapped the peoples silly with their treacherous actions, not once or twice,thrice even and ongoing is surely proof of insanity.
            I cannot remember a time in the past when mass
            rape & abuse of children, mass knifings, acid scarring, etc,etc, ever had such a grip of this Nation
            as it has over the last three decades , deteriorating
            on a daily basis.
            Who is to blame then Alf who puts these people in power again,again,& again, maybe their mums a ?

          2. Votes can only be cast for the candidates standing at the time ogga and quite a few constituencies will never change because of where they are. What happened at the GE where some Labour supporters voted against their real inclination was down to their Brexit feelings. I wish UKIP were as popular as they were in the European elections but they need to sort themselves out.

          3. 322523+up ticks,
            Afternoon VW,
            You are obviously not keeping apace with the
            UKIP treachery meted out by the party NEc start
            with Gerard Batten 17th Feb 2018 leadership building successfully the return of a credible party.
            Asking the membership for £100000 & in return receiving £300000 13000 new members ,going up daily.
            As agreed a leadership elections took place, Batten was standing but was judged by the NEc to be not
            of good standing within the party.
            Read up on Batten / Braine / court case etc, a party of decency / integrity was NOT to be tolerated.

            All on record.

          4. I just don’t vote when there is nobody worth voting for. I refuse to be complicit in putting the likes of May, Cameron or Johnson in power.

          8. 322523+ up ticks,
            Ajf,
            In a nut shell the peoples have been knowingly
            supporting & voting for pro eu political rubber stampers to keep their party in power regardless of the outcome, we are ALL suffering now as a result.
            That’s the difference

      2. I took a look at the area on Google earth and i look along Gibbet street, it’s all very obvious.

  37. 322523+ up ticks.
    May one ask are, or could, these algorithm jobee contents be set up via pillow talk ? as with seemingly other issues, the sorely abused good ship
    Great Britain is in dire danger of colliding with yet another iceberg of solid sh!te.

    1. Yes, that was grim event. We all now know that not all lives matter to a certain sector of society.

      1. 322523+up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        Five year old Cannon Hinnant was cycling in his yard / garden when he trespassed onto a black neighbours garden who shot him.
        An unforgettable sad day for the family & the world.

        1. And the rest of the effing leftwaffe world media has turned a blind eye….
          Excuses will be made that the vile POS has BS mental heath issues.
          Calls for the banning of all legal fire arms will ensue.
          Of course this excuse for a human will not have had a permit anyway.
          Never the less the left will attempt to turn this on it’s head.

          1. 322523+ up tick
            Afternoon RE,
            To me in many respects there is no L/R wings ALL are too integrated, right / wrong in my book.
            We most definitely have a very serious mental health problem and it is within the righteous side of society more than any other.
            Voting in proven treacherous failures again & again
            surely is not a sign of sanity, is it ?
            Also,
            Someone explain to me why the shooting dead of sixteen children in Dunblane has a 100 year lid on it ?

            Currently the party comes first in ALL things, the mindset of dangerous fools.

        1. I assumed it was something on those lines.
          Presumably the marksman was ‘known to the authorities’, has a string of by-blows by a variety of baby mothers and lives off the state taxpayer while earning a wodge as a drug dealer.

          1. It makes me feel very sad indeed Anne.
            Perhaps the people who are trying to so desperately promote BLM should take an education break (for ten years) and try to revamp their seemingly lost and far fetched ideals.

          5. It’s a really worrying aspect of society, that we are not really surprised about such things any more.

    3. It made me feel sick when i read about that earlier this morning. He looks like our own lovely 5 year old grandson.
      But it still seems only BLM eh !

      1. And in another incident, in the USA a mother of 6 was shot dead whilst one of her children was participating via Zoom in a school lesson.
        Fortunately the teacher was able to mute the call so that the classmates didn’t hear what was happening. Alleged assailant an ex boyfriend. In accordance with EU media guidance to guidelines, I won’t mention ethnic origins. Victim was Maribel Rosado Morales, aged 32.

        1. It’s unfortunate but i have to say this, their reputation goes before them.
          all the education in the world doesn’t appear to cling anywhere.

    1. 322523+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PP,
      Tell me is that an omen, HR 6666, how many permutations could one get regarding 666 ?

  42. MSM will not make these points; quite the opposite:

    Hearing that Dawn Butler MP had been pulled over by the Metropolitan police, I briefly hoped the taxpayer might get back the whirlpool bath she charged us on her parliamentary expenses. But the officers skipped the boot and went straight to the passenger side, where they found the member for Brent Central recording them with her phone and looking pleased as punch to audition as the new Rosa Parks.

    As it happens, the footage she released showed the police being deeply polite, and they subsequently explained that the pull-over had been due to a registration-plate mix-up. But Butler claimed it was a case of the dreaded ‘stop-and-search’ and within hours she was on Channel 4 News, being grilled by one of their crack interviewers.

    Fatima Manji asked Butler how such a thing could happen to someone who a day earlier had been ‘declared one of the 25 most inspirational women in Britain’ by Vogue magazine. The questions on Channel 4 News seem to have got easier since I last went on. A smiling Butler explained that this was all par for the course for an ‘African-Caribbean woman’. She then claimed that the Met Police is ‘institutionally racist’ and that Cressida Dick ‘should spend all of her waking moments trying to eradicate institutionally [sic] racism from the Met Police’.

    A day earlier, a black teenager had been macheted to death in broad daylight in front of shoppers on London’s Oxford Street. Three men aged 18 were arrested after arriving at hospital with stab wounds of their own. What normally happens at this stage is that politicians and pundits debate the utility of stop-and-search. Some people say that stop-and-search saves young black lives. Others — like Dawn Butler — declare that stop-and-search is racist because it disproportionately targets people of the racial background who disproportionately do the stabbing. Then the stabbing continues.

    I don’t mind admitting that I am growing tired of all the allegations. When Butler tagged the Met Police as ‘institutionally racist’, I noticed myself for the first time vaguely shrugging — not because actual racism isn’t a horrible and ugly thing, but because the currency appears to have been inflated out of use. Over recent months absolutely every-thing has been declared racist: our entire history, our whole society and every white person in it. So allegations about the Met have lost the piquancy they once had.

    Meanwhile news of just how racist and awful the UK is appears not to have spread across the Channel. Between Thursday and Sunday, 700 illegal migrants arrived in the UK by boat, largely courtesy of the UK Border Force. The authorities help the people-smuggling networks by meeting the migrants a little way out in the Channel, assisting them off their flimsy vessels, and depositing them safely on British soil, where they can recover from the ordeal that is France.

    Like the debate over stop-and-search, the discussion of what to do about law-breaking on this scale is hobbled at the start. Because unless you say ‘let in these tired and huddled masses’ then you will be accused of racism. Ponder out loud whether everyone from the developing world who wishes to move to the developed world is absolutely the same as a Jew fleeing Nazi Germany, and you will be accused of this same appalling vice.

    As it happens, a certain amount of vice, or at least vice-signalling, is good for stopping illegal migration. When faced with a surge in illegal migration earlier this decade, the Australian government let it be known that anyone trying to break into the country would see their boat repelled and spend months on a lonely island. While the international media decried this decision, attempts to break into Australia dried up. Similarly, in 2016 the Danish parliament voted in a law that made it possible to take valuables from an illegal migrant up to the amount that their stay would cost the Danish taxpayer. There were howls from the foreign media, and while I don’t know of even one case where the law was enacted, it proved very helpful in sending a message.

    In recent days some Tories who wanted to sound tough have talked of sending in the Royal Navy. But on current performance that will simply allow more British vessels to pick up more migrants. Of the thousands who have broken into Britain already this year, all are put up in hotels and other accommodation at taxpayers’ expense and no one — not one — has been returned.

    Of course, at this stage people tend to bow to the magisterium of the law. But immigration law has become a charade. By law none of the recent arrivals should be here. According to the Dublin Regulation, genuine asylum seekers ought to have claimed asylum in the first safe country they entered. By rights every arrival should be returned to France, who should return them to Italy (or whichever country they came in from), who should return them to the country in which they started.

    None of which happens. It is a pretence, happily nodded along to by people who think they can afford it. We have an asylum system which the British public actually support, but we also now have this strange, bonus system where so long as you complete the assault course and make it to Kent (or the sea near it) then you’re in.

    The only way to stop the crossings would be to let it be known that everyone who tries to enter this country illegally will be returned, having risked their lives and wasted their savings. But no politician will suggest it, for the same reason that they fear discussing stop-and-search and other policies. Because to do so risks accusations of racism from insincere actors.

    Personally, I start to feel myself getting past all this. When everything has become ‘racist’ then nothing is, and the government should ignore the critics and just do whatever will stop the law-breaking, on land or sea.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/when-everything-is-racist-nothing-is

    1. There was a good article in yesterday’s Murdoch Rag, featuring a senior Met officer criticising Butler. Just for once, the Met has not automatically ‘taken the knee’ in response to a wholly bogus complaint from this daft BAME/BLM bint. There is hope for us yet if I don’t read tomorrow of his early retirement.

      1. And me Obs the photo shown earlier of that poor little lad, he looks a lot like our eldest grandson, same age.
        The bastard who did that should be pegged out naked and pecked to death by vultures.

  45. Delingpole on Breibart

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/08/14/britain-is-now-the-sick-man-of-europe/

    Top rated comment from Paul Weston

    Is it
    really possible that the long list of catastrophic mistakes and apparent
    denial of reality from Boris and co is just an example of stupidity so
    surreal it goes beyond the comprehension of the sane?

    I don’t
    think so. Something else is going on, and it has nothing to do with a
    virus. Where Covid is concerned, nothing makes sense, but where various
    “conspiracy theories” are concerned, they all make sense one way or
    another.

    When fantasy collides with reality, a forensic detective
    would always advise you to look for the reasoning behind both and then
    draw the logical and inevitable conclusion.

    1. The thing to do is fill in the track and trace form as Michael & Michaela Mouse, Buckingham Palace Gardens…

      1. If it really is as serious as the authorities state, one should be honest.

        If not, use the name of the village gossip.

        If they get approached they will let everyone know and then you can ‘fess up, if they are not approached you’ll have saved a lot of hassle.

        1. There are very mixed reports online. Some have obeyed dutifully and regretted it as no-one has checked and others have disobeyed and been chased. Our smart phones are tracking devices? Perhaps the answer is just to leave them at home. Surely anyone who actually showed symptoms would ‘fess up?

          1. If anyone tried to track me using my mobile they would wonder why I seemed to spend 99·9% of my time (day and night) in my workshop.

          2. So you’re saying, Grizzly, (© Cathy Newman) that you spend your time using carpenter’s tools to make beds and then test them overnight.

            :-))

          3. No, what I’m saying is that I’m a bugger for leaving my phone in my apron pocket and forgetting where I put the bloody thing!

          5. Same here; it’s rare I remember to take it with me. That results in lots of missed calls!

          7. One might hope so, but if they had given a false name I would not be surprised if they lied again.

        2. There are very mixed reports online. Some have obeyed dutifully and regretted it as no-one has checked and others have disobeyed and been chased. Our smart phones are tracking devices? Perhaps the answer is just to leave them at home. Surely anyone who actually showed symptoms would ‘fess up?

    1. This reminds me that now that we do not have a cat anymore we have many more birds visiting our garden and plenty of finches come to us.

    2. ^^^THIS^^^

      Every day this Covid “Crisis” gets more sinister worldwide,”Quarantine Camps” in NZ,Papers required to leave your house in Australia…………….

      Now this from the clown BoJo

      https://twitter.com/La_Abejita_/status/1294184123502940161?s=19
      As Bojo and Mancock babble ever more illogical and unscientific claptrap including knocking HCQ again it is very clear they are just parroting orders at someones behest!!
      I’m MAD AS HELL INDEED
      ‘Morning All

    1. Those fish are black bream and farmed bass. Or are they just ‘stock’ photos?
      Edit; Very fishy.

    3. Those fish are black bream and farmed bass. Or are they just ‘stock’ photos?
      Edit; Very fishy.

      1. No idea. My wife told me that earlier on BBC ‘news’ they had said the fish came from Norway ???
        I can’t see how a virus could survive months of being in a frozen state.

  49. My dear Nottler friends, I’ve just come back from the care home where my wife is a resident. It’s her 80th birthday today and among the presents received was a gift from a group of Nottlers. I’m very touched by your thoughtfulness and generosity and a special ‘thank you’ to Garlands for making it happen. I cannot upload a photo but have sent one to Garlands. Barbara had a lovely day with loads of presents and good wishes plus a big cake made by the staff at the home. I was separated by an open door and 2 metres but it was nice to see her obviously enjoying the occasion if a little overwhelmed. Thank you once again, FA

    1. So pleased to read that Barbara enjoyed her 80th birthday, Alec. I’m afraid that I was unaware of this, and of the kind organising of a gift from NoTTLers by Garlands. My thoughts are with her (and you of course) on this special day. And I am so glad to read of the supportive and considerate staff of the home where she lives. And of course all of the continuing support you give her yourself.

    3. Delighted that you and your dear wife had such a lovely day. Best wishes to you both.

    4. I am not a very consistent Nottler, I’m afraid, but it is heartwarming to see what a splendid bunch of people grace this site!

        1. Hi Spikey. Apologies for not posting before – I’m not at my best (when was I ever, they chorused?). I’m very pleased that you were able to celebrate Barbara’s milestone birthday. Good on yer, as always. J

          1. Sorry to hear that you’re feeling a little peeley-walley.. One hopes that it is not continuous.

      2. Nottlers have formed sub groups. Probably because of geography. We are all of a similar mindset though. Obviously the sub group that i am in is the most stylish. Goes without saying really. 🙂

        1. The reason your sub-group is the most stylish is
          because the members of said group are………….
          well…..words fail me really!! :-))

        2. You’re right and it’s special for at least one other reason.

          It’s the only sub group with only one member

          1. Sorry Sos,
            I cannot agree with you,
            our last meeting had to be cancelled
            but the previous one was hugely enjoyed
            by the seven of us [Dolly included, of course! ]

          3. No, the dear Boy tried to rule the roost
            [ably assisted by Citroen]
            but Nags soon had them both in order!

    5. Hi, Spikey.

      Like Elsie, below, I was also unaware of this. I would have loved to have contributed towards a present for Barbara. Please wish her a very happy 80th from me. I am glad to hear that she enjoyed a lovely day. Best wishes, Grizzly.

    6. Lovely story, FA. Well done you and all those who contributed. I’m in Grizz’s and Elsie’s position of not knowing anything about this celebration.

        1. Bearing up is, I suppose, the phrase to use. Getting used to being lonely most of the time is difficult.

    8. Glad she had a good time, Spikey. I guess the hugs are on account, to be delivered later.

    10. Well, Spikey, seduce me old maritime footware, I am so delighted to hear that your dear lady has had a wondrous 8oth and that ye and she have been bonded (at a distance) in the joy that you have both experience. Full marks to Garlands for her initiative in setting it up. My best wishes to the both of you and a huge uptick to Garlands.

      Proof that we are family. Tears in my eyes. Love and hugs to you both.

      1. 322523+ up ticks,
        Afternoon VOM,
        Being a practitioner of the faith I cannot comment
        but your post has been duly noted for future ref.

    1. There is another message there, the intelligent, questioning one is shown as being brown skinned, the wimpy nervous one is a whitey sheep. I suppose it had to be to get it past the censor; the subliminal message.

  52. Regarding the ‘A level’ results, I am reminded of the times, many years ago, when I used to recruit people for my firm. Applicants used to arrive for the interview with sheaves of certificates, recommendations, etc., deposit them on my desk and expect me to sit there and read them. They were shocked when I said that what I really wanted to know is whether they can do the job or not.

    I used to receive applications in the mail, some of which were very amusing.

    For example, one told me that “I ought to help others”. Another assured me that he had “hidden assets” and a further one said that he “has a good physique and active habits”!

    These days, recruiters seem to have to bow to PC, human ‘rights’, LGBTXYZ and ‘diversity’. I doubt if you have to take much notice of ‘A level’ results because you either hire the BAMEs or be accused of racism!

    1. Nowadays, it seems that recruitment is by checkbox, as far as qualifications goes. I caused much upset last year by asking taht all applications were passed to me, as (apart from basic technical BSc, that demonstrates a knowledge of units and ability to do simple mathematics), I was looking for attitude. If the person doesn’t know, but has the right attitude, they will find out. Also looking for a willingness to step out of their comfort zone, and when asked how do I find that out, one measure is to see if the candidate has lived and worked abroad. Candidate must also fit into the team
      It works every time. A tiny racing-snake of an Irish lass with BSc I hired in 10 years ago was awarded a Dr Ing title from Hamburg University yesterday. Fantastic job!

    2. South Africans were forced to take on people of colour, no matter how bad or good they were , and getting rid of useless staff was very difficult .

      The same will happen here in the UK.. many examples are now sitting in Parliament and with the police and as Mayor of here there and everywhere .. useless to the core .

      I guess the same applies to all areas of work , there must be many employers who rue the day regarding bad decisions.

      1. When interviewing, I always tell the candidate to be sure to interview us (the company) as well, as if either of us make the wrong decision, it’s bad for us both. For Company, there’s the delays and expense in going through the process all over again, for the individual the same, but getting a short lived job on your CV doesn’t look so good at the next application.

          1. Getting recruitment wrong is a disaster for all concerned. Better to hire nobody than have the wrong person in the job, as it’s really difficult to fire and hire again.

      2. Tokenism will finally ‘finish’ the economy. Recruit the best, nothing else matters. Look at the loathing in which the B’stard Broadcasting Corporation is increasingly held in its manic hiring of colour and its hatred of anyone remotely white.

        1. Yup.
          My last hiring included native Norwegians, a Pakistani and an Iranian. All were the best of the applicants, and worth hiring.

        2. Or the blacks who are trying to bring the police and law and order down . It is so frightening , and things are changing far too quickly for us to get our wits together and fight back.

          Our own politicians don’t appear to care about us . Especially the younger lot and the marxist Starmer and co .

      3. A friend of mine in Johannesburg has a small company that is involved in supplying and fitting industrial electrical wiring. In order to compete for government contracts (the bulk of his business), he has to have a black partner with a 50% ownership of the business. He gave up looking for one with a) business smarts and b) capital to invest in the business and had to settle for a bloke who had no business experience, no money and, as it turned out, no interest in anything other than leeching off the business. This bloke is gradually bleeding the company dry and my friend is powerless to stop it. He is desperately trying to sell the business but he needs his partner’s agreement to do this and it isn’t forthcoming. His only option is to walk away from the business and join his brother here in the UK but he is loathe to do that because his widowed mother still lives in Joburg.

        2. A very sad situation. You all have my sympathies. The inevitable end result is that there won’t be a supplier of those products – and everyone loses.

  53. I DO NOT think that in this terrible year that parliament should have shut down, there’s too much going on .

    I see that Starmer is getting his feet under the table pratting on about the exam results .. and taking sides with yooves who are so bigged up about themselves re their dismal results and gradings ..

    University is similar to a nanny service , an extension of the 6th form .

    I thought all students had to be IQ tested during their interviews to see if they are suitable for the rigours of Uni life .

    2. I don’t recall an IQ test when I went to University, Maggie. And Boris has enough on his plate with the Press and the Public constantly complaining about his actions vis-a-vis the Brexit Transition and the Covid-19 Pandemic without having to face unending criticism in Parliament over the summer. January 2021 is soon enough for him to bear the full weight of opprobrium which will rain down on him whatever happens over the next five months.

      1. I had to undergo an aptitude test when I applied to King’s Dental School*, which involved intelligence & manual dexterity. I lost my place because my grade on Physics (useless requirement) was too low. When I reapplied a year later, imagine my surprise at being confronted with the identical test, which I completed with full marks in 1/2 the time.

        *Now combined with Guy’s.

        2. That wasn’t a Physics Test you attempted the second time, Peddy. It was a Memory Test. :-))

          1. It was an aptitude test, Elsie. Nothing to do with Physics. I had to carve a cube of wax into a pyramid shape & bend a length of wire to a given pattern.

    3. I see that Starmer is getting his feet under the table pratting on about the exam results .. and taking sides with yooves who are so bigged up about themselves re their dismal results and gradings

      This, like most issues these days, has a racial dimension. Around a third of school children in Britain are non-white minorities (in other words: local reps for the global majorities). A clear majority of them will always vote left. i.e. anti-white. Labour need to be placed to capitalise on and get out in front of any non-white resentments to make sure they remain the anti-white party du jour.

      They only need to hang on a few more years and the majority of 18 year olds will be non-white. Then the majority of under-25s and so on. Then the Conservative party will doomed for good. Clock is ticking.

  56. Just been on BBC news. The govt has ordered another 90 million doses to protect us from Covid. We appear to be getting a stock of 340 million – of many different jabs. Though they admit they don’t actually know if any work !!! . . . Enough to give everyone 5 jabs – Are they trying to ensure at least one of the jabs will kill us – or just a projection of one jab each for their intended population of the UK?

    1. I expect that having put Covid on the death certificate if you’re run over by a bus, when the Covid vaccines kill, the death certificate will say run over by a bus.

    1. Lovely piece of music but unfortunately PT that building is where the muslims use to keep captured white children as slaves, for the use of. Those they didn’t like they fed to the in house the pet lions.

      1. I have a recording of him playing with John Williams – both brilliant guitarists.

        However, Julian Bream was also an exceptionally good gurner.

        1. We watched a very old recording of them playing together quite recently. As you say Rastus, both excellent guitarists. My old man thinks they’re nearly as good as him!

        2. I frequently play “Together” – their musicianship is superb. John Williams interviewed on Radio 3 this evening said they had known each other for 70 years and in all that time never a cross word.

  58. The problem I see with the A level fiasco is that teachers gave their students higher grades than they deserved, maybe it was unfair to ask teachers to grade their own pupils who knows what pressure they were under from pushy parents or if they were offered any inducements, also it makes them look like they are better teachers I suppose.

    1. Problem is, Bob, nobody knows what the pupils deserved, since it wasn’t measured. The IB (see above) are struggling, as there’s no meaningful appeals process, either – like appealing the Ferguson/Imperial College covid modelling – no details given, nothing to base an appeal on except a strong feeling of being cheated.

    2. Separation of powers is one of the most important political principles in a democratic state.

      As a teacher I wanted my pupils to get the very best results they could possibly get.

      But when they introduced GCSE with teachers assessing the coursework of the pupils they taught I had an immediate conflict of interest: should the pupils I taught and wanted to do well be more important to me or should the impartiality of the system be more important?

      Caroline and I left teaching in Britain the year GCSE came in.

      1. I was once invigilating an exam and saw a colleague give an answer to one of the candidates! When I remonstrated, he said, “I forgot to cover that in the syllabus!” What can one do?

  59. Interesting article from Harvard Business Review on machine setting of exam grades, and how well it worked for the International Baccalaureate.
    https://hbr.org/2020/08/what-happens-when-ai-is-used-to-set-grades?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=dailyalert_not_activesubs&deliveryName=DM92398
    In summary: under over 50 years of operating the manual system, the relationship between predicted and final grades has been tight. At leading IB schools over 90% of grades have been equal to predicted, and over 95% of total scores have been within a point from that predicted (total scores are set on a scale of one to 45).
    …
    Using its trove of historical data about students’ course work and predicted grades, as well as the data about the actual grade obtained at exams in previous years, the IBO decided to build a model to calculate an overall score for each student – in a sense predicting what the 2020 students would have gotten at the exams. The model-building was outsourced to a subcontractor undisclosed at the time of publishing this article.
    A crisis erupted when the results came out in early July 2020. Tens of thousands of students all over the world received grades that not only deviated substantially from their predicted grades but did so in unexplainable ways.
    …
    what’s more, schools, students, and families involved in other high school programs that have also adopted AI solutions are raising very similar concerns, notably in the UK, where A level results are due out on August 13th, 2020.

    Seems nobody thought how to appeal a mathematical models evaluation of your performance based on the past markings…

  60. I will go to Hull! This made me really laugh.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/biography-books/finding-freedom-makes-one-thing-clear-americans-know-nothing/

    Finding Freedom makes one thing clear: the Americans know nothing about us Brits

    Don’t the Americans get it? We don’t care about Meghan’s perfect packing, faith or ‘work ethic’. We want the ugly, fun and real

    If Finding Freedom was designed as a piece of PR for the Duchess of Sussex, then her team needs sacking. Because once again, the people trying to make Meghan “likeable” have done a woeful job. Her characterisation in the book is painfully earnest, and eager, and completely – sorry, friends across the Pond – American.

    Finding Freedom doubles down on this characterisation, using anecdotes and descriptions that I would never dare use in fiction for fear of the red-pen treatment my editor would give me. Case in point: “Theirs was a love story that took hold in Africa – where now Meghan, on the last day of an incredible three-week stay, stretched her body into the perfect warrior pose.

    “She quietly took in her surroundings from the grounds of their final home away from home on this trip, a modern villa in Livingstone, Zambia, just under ten miles upstream from Victoria Falls. The rising sun washed over her makeshift yoga garden, while an exotic flock of birds that looked as if they had just had their tails dipped in pots of colourful paints serenaded her.”

    Authors Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand have been working the royal beat for years, but without wanting to question their expertise, I’ve got some thoughts on how they could have done it.

    Let’s take a line about Meghan’s childhood. Finding Freedom reads: “Meghan’s willingness to help others and her drive to excel meant she often was deemed ‘fake’ by classmates at school who felt it was impossible for anyone to be that ‘perfect.’”

    A more Brit-friendly line would have been something like: “Meghan’s willingness to skive lessons and share her stolen Marlboro behind the PE block, or use her older sister’s ID to buy bottles of White Strike, meant that she was deemed a ‘total legend’ by classmates at school.”

    Can’t we hear the real stuff? Meghan Markle, as she once was

    Can’t we hear the real stuff? Meghan Markle, as she once was Credit: Mark Large

    Finding Freedom tells us: “A good friend of Meghan’s called her Grace Under Fire, because despite whatever pressure she was under, she didn’t fall apart.”

    Her work ethic is described thus: “From the time she was a student, juggling school and jobs, through her years grinding out auditions for bit parts, to her becoming a successful TV star who continued to push the boundaries of her career by launching a popular lifestyle website, Meghan always had a plan.”

    In my Meghan propaganda, it’s slightly tweaked to read: “From the time she was a student, she knew how to do the absolute bare minimum and get away with it. She’d turn up to work half an hour late for work, carrying an industrial coffee and swallow down a fistful of paracetamol. But she always knew which bars would have creepy old dudes who’d ply you with free drinks – Meghan always had a plan.”

    The line that many Brits will find hardest to read without squirming is when the book dips into issues ecumenical: ‘‘Part of what helped Meghan get through this difficult time was her faith. Her relationship with God and with the church is extremely important to her,” a close friend said. “That’s something most people do not know about her.”

    A proposed rewrite on the topic of spirituality would go something like: “She probably believes there’s something up there – I mean it’s a nice thought isn’t it? Anyway, how have you been? Terribly hot recently isn’t it? More tea?”

    It’s not Meghan’s fault that we’re a nation of horrible cynics who only really like watching other people fail, and it’s not the book’s authors’ fault either. But the woman presented in Finding Freedom, however accurate a portrayal it may or may not be, is not the kind of woman the British public were ever going to be able to hold to their chest.

    We don’t like people who do yoga and look at sunsets on holiday. We like people who drink three double gin-and-tonics before dinner and then try to speak Spanish by doing English with a slightly offensive accent.

    We don’t like people who pack their suitcases using dryer sheets (a story recounted in the book). We do like people who shove two outfits into a duffle bag and turn their pants inside out if needs be. The only part of the book that seems to do the Duchess any real favours is the bit where they claim she was very happy to urinate in the bushes on a camping trip with Prince Harry.

    Because the Sussexes have become earnest LA types, they’ve become more and more like characters in the kind of soap opera that the middle classes who consider Hollyoaks beneath them can permit themselves to enjoy: entertainment puppets, who are useful given that The Archers is currently unrecognisable, but not an ideal outcome for a couple who seem to crave the affection of the world.

    If they’re reading any news at all, they can’t be unaware that the tide of public opinion is often against them, which must be a miserable thing to live with. Despite the fact that both the couple and the authors have been clear that no interviews were given for the book, it seems plausible that they hoped Finding Freedom might help their popularity.

    It is, on the face of it, a very sympathetic portrayal of a beautiful young couple in love, striving to find their place in the world. But then, perhaps the misplaced belief that the characters in this book are likeable to your average Brit is born of the same thinking which caused some of the Sussex Royal problems in the first place.

    1. I had been assuming that Meghan didn’t give two hoots about the British, and has always been targeting the American market.

        1. I read somewhere that her target market is little girls who buy into the rags to riches, hardworking American heroine becomes a real Princess story. Plus of course men.

    2. Ah; that made me smile – thanks! I’ll join you in Hull (sadly, it’s nearer than I would wish).

      1. I rather like Hull. It has a wide industry base, an interesting geography and some nice people. And some decent pubs.

        1. I spent a year there (it’s where I did my PGCE) and couldn’t wait to get away. It was before the building of the Humber Bridge and it was clear that nobody ever went THROUGH Hull; they just went there and back.

        3. I’m half joking – it’s the nearest city to where I am living, which is traditionally its rival 🙂

    3. Do you ever wonder if that whole prenuptial African trip was contrived, to look like the then Princess Elizabeth’s trip when she was informed of her father’s death?

      I think meagain was/is a scheming little bitch.

      1. Although this poem, A Meditation on the A30 by John Betjeman is about the road rage of an inadequate man there are one or two apt lines which Harry might like to bear in mind as the future years unroll:

        She’s losing her looks very fast,
        She loses her temper all day;

        and

        I’d like a nice blonde on my knee
        And one who won’t argue and nag.”

      2. My Uncle Barry was serving on HMS Vanguard on that trip. He wouldn’t have been impressed with her either.

          1. I think so. The new sundeck was named the Quarterdeck in his memory and a plaque was made. The deck adorned with the White Ensign and also the Sea Cadet flag of Weymouth and Bridport who he bequeathed £5000 and £2,500 respectively.

            I sent to my remaining Aunt the pics as she was the executor of his Will.

            Commander Kristiansen performed the ceremony.

          2. Brilliant. ( a word chosen carefully!)

            It’s one of those things that one hopes will pass down your family as memories, and many years from now distant relatives will take pride in having someone who served on Britain’s last battleship and recall a small gesture to his life made by someone who cared and respected him..

    5. The above descriptions of Meghan Markle sound like the type of self-identification found in a CV. I’ve read enough of them to realise that they are bullshit.

  61. Guardian Mods are slipping. Put the following up on their only open BTL and has been there for more than an hour:

    ‘Can’t see any mention in the Guardian of Cannon Hinnant. Why is this?’

    1. Perhaps we should send all ours to Northen Ireland and stop all their benefits.

      They can head for Eire if they wish.

      It’s fair exchange for all the pikeys Eire sends us

  63. Well, that’s likely to be the rest of the cottage guests cancelling.

    If the quarantine is really needed, they should have made it immediate.

    What they’ve done is ensure that the travel companies can charge extortionate amounts to the few that can get seats. It’s a farce.

    1. I don’t believe it’s necessary. The numbers testing positive are increasing because more people,are being tested. Any Tom, Dick or Harry (including tourists) can now get tested free of charge in France. So of course there are more positives, regardless of the seriousness of symptoms of those being tested.

      The important figure is the number of hospitalisations with Covid and that figure has remained consistently low.

      Having said that, the behaviour of some of the tourists around here is as if there has never been a pandemic at all. No social distancing, no masks unless absolutely mandatory and no manners. Mostly Parisians and the Dutch.

      1. I completely agree re the necessity and the reasoning.

        Either it’s so deadly that one needs to stop travel immediately, or it’s not worth bothering.

        It’s a jerk, knee jerking.

        As to tourists, it’s pretty much the same here. (For those who don’t know, HK and I are about 50 miles apart in the general Dordogne valley area but with a slightly different tourist make-up).

        Our locals don’t really obey the social distancing recommendations outside. but do wear masks as required. They still enjoy an evening out and will sing and dance between tables at the night markets without masks.

        BUT, they wear the masks under their noses or very loose, so I doubt they are any use whatsoever.

        Our Dutch & Belgians are similar to yours. Our Brits tend to be cautious, certainly at the Saturday and Wednesday Bergerac market.

        1. But,but,but,surely all these newly positive testees are even now overwhelming the hospitals,the ICU’s using every ventilator available and dying in droves
          Oh wait………………….
          It’s all utter utter bollocks ain’t it

      2. Ontario has just changed criteria for receiving a covid test, it is no longer “I want one”, you now need some reason or other. So I guess that our count of infections might go down a bit.

        I am not sure tha number of hospitalizations is completely accurate, some will have been sent home to recover (or die) and they keep saying that treatment options are improving which will surely cut hospitalisations but as a gross measure it’s a damned sight better than a simple count of those found to be infected.

    2. B.A Paris to London was £66 now £452. That is gouging. Plus, IAG have already been bailed by the Tax Payer.

      I have lost £1,100 this year because of stupid decisions made by what we used to call a government. I can’t think of any reason why this Conservative government would win the next G.E.

      Most of those ‘Red Wall’ voters are the ones that holiday abroad.

      1. Agreed.

        This government will get what it deserves.

        Sadly, the county doesn’t deserve what it will get.

          1. I fear that this whole exercise is to force us to stay in.

            I hope not, but if I was playing that particular game, the moves thayare making are similar to the ones I would make.

          2. Lot’s of criticism of the government. PM decides to seek a mandate from the people to endorse the actions being taken to defeat Covid. Persuades his party & opposition to go for a general Election. PM loses his majority. Opposition claims it’s proof the people want an EU approach to tackle Covid – Brexit abandoned…..

          5. Except, much of the world is doing the same sort of stuff. Clearly not for Brexit. Or Trump, for that matter. The World Economic Forum website leads with “The Great Reset”. Along with Agenda 21 / Agenda 2030, it’s hiding in plain sight.

            It’s easy to criticise our own governments, but – with a few notable exceptions – they’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. (Which is fortunate, since no-one else is allowed to sing any more…)

          7. Is China playing the game or are they busy making inroads into the World’s markets and raw materials?

      2. The recently, prematurely retired, BA Jumbos – Boeing 747s – could have provided cheaper returns fares from France …

    3. I really don’t know how the government expects people in general – and businesses in particular – to plan anything for the future.
      But then how many politicos and their hangers-on have ever run a business or held down a proper job?

      2. That is not a proper question, Anne,
        you already know the frigging answer!
        [Whoops!…..wash ma mouth out.]

      3. I find that now the lockdown is over and we’re allowed to go out again, I just can’t be bothered to, when factoring in the mask, the tedious rules and the potential refusal of proper money. It’s all so complicated. The Government has bored the economy into ruin.

        1. I’ve given up physically shopping. Three hours on a train with a mask produced hypoxia symptoms. Attended only our second funeral since January today. Still limited to 30 mourners; all the music was pre-recorded, but this time masks were compulsory. Happy to use masks if I’m creating dust, fumes or the like, but for an hour, whilst socially distanced by at least ten metres from people who are utterly unlikely to be carrying or susceptible to the virus (which has largely gone away) is just bloody ridiculous. I view the wearing of masks as a sign of submission to the New Normal. Which I reject, totally.

          I have 70-odd quid’s worth of paper money (OK, plastic) in my wallet. It’s been there since February; and survived a trouser wash accident. No-one will accept it.

          1. Geoff!

            Calm down…..on no account must you let the
            bastards grind YOU down; you are holding
            [through us]this FU Country together……….
            If You don’t rally I shall set Phizzee and Dolly
            on you!!

          2. Yo, G. I’m calm, thanks. I’ve been quite laid back about shopping, till the mask requirement was enforced. Since I had my ‘extreme chiropody’ session, I’ve largely relied on online shopping, but delivery slots became hard to get. I’m quite willing to let the High Street collapse, rather than succumb to the mask nonsense.

            But today was the first service in Church since the introduction of masks, and I felt obliged to comply, being in a position of some responsibility.

            I hated every minute. I’ll either invent a reason for being exempt, or absent myself from the proceedings.

          3. That’s why, after being really pleased to be able to attend church again, I have now stopped going. I sent my apologies to the Rector until such time as they stop this mask diktat. Being law-abiding I may feel the need to comply if I’m in a situation where it’s mandatory, but if I can avoid putting myself in that situation I most certainly will.

          6. Last time I was in Guildford,, I looked in to HSBC, only to find the paying-in machine was broken. I could have passed the notes over the counter, I suppose, but I have a quantity of coins which are best machine counted.

          8. That is very depressing about the money. I have made a point of using cash since this thing kicked off. I don’t believe it’s a risk, or supermarket workers would have been dropping like flies.

          9. They are accepting real money here. I have had several friends do essential shopping for me (I refuse to wear a mask as well) if they were going to the shops anyway and I’ve paid them in cash in advance to buy the stuff. Wherever possible I am not going in shops, or even into town.

          10. I’ve got £25 or so in my purse, which I’ve stopped carrying, and just have my cards in my pocket.

      4. Believe it or not, I have some (very limited) sympathy with the polticians.
        Who wants thousands to die on their watch if they make the wrong call?

        So of course they go the better safe than sorry route.

        The fact that their short term concerns will ruin the lives of millions, just a few years down the road, escapes them

  65. 322523+ up ticks,
    Just a thought Lest we forget,
    On the said day we should really crowd fund the biggest sound blaster available and be stationed in an area adjacent to the commemoration as in a,
    wogbox
    A large stereo carried held to the ear by some tinted folk. Also 3rd world briefcase. I saw one of those new wog boxes in Dixons that puts out about 100 watts.
    1/2 dozen should suffice, blasting out “The road to Mandalay” on VJ day.

    1. The NHS staff are just reading though his Nottler comments and determining whether he will get the full angel treatment or the lumpy bed and porridge.

          5. Perhaps one finds friends where one least expects them?

            I’m very pleased that you dipped a toe and eventually plunged into the Nottler experience.

            Cheshire Lad, are you listening?
            We’d love it if you dipped a toe too!

          7. He’s looked for years, but as far as I’m aware has never posted.

            A great pity.

            He may even have pre-dated you and Feargal (?) who also joins in every so often.

            It’s always good to see new people; and I particularly like those who will debate the opposing view, unless it becomes very abusive; we don’t need an echo-chamber.

          8. He often upvotes! I called him in the same day I called you but he decided not to bite that day!

    2. “That Thomas chap” – I thought that he was yer boarding school contemporary/ mate – but that he had been a prefect ?

          3. Ugliness is only skin deep.

            Unless you look like Quasimodo or the Elephant man then just use soft focus… 🙂

    3. Just popped in here to find out if anyone has heard from Bill or the MR, but it’s my birthday today and family are about to turn up (I hope!) so can’t stay. Will check in tomorrow.

    1. No point in shouting “Where’s the women?” – – all their multiple wives and multiple kids are already packing their suitcases for their trip to Freebie land.

  69. Apropos the Nottler “subscription list” which has been referred to today and on previous occasions.

    I’m sure there are many, like me, who would like to make contributions to Nottler gifts but have no idea how it is done.
    Any hints?

    };-))

    1. The first step is being informed that a whip-round is taking place. It seems to be always bathed in secrecy. I wonder why.

      1. It’s done in secrecy so that it comes as a surprise, perhaps?

        I’ve never seen one, so must assume it’s done via HL and the e-mail list.

    2. And to all you Nigerian princesses out there: no. I won’t give you my bank details.

      Who do you think I am Phizzee?

    3. Please apply through the Boss.
      It really isn’t necessary though.
      All gifts etc are sent from:
      ‘Your friends on the NoTTLers,’
      and when push comes to shove
      we are friends,,,,,we have examples
      of kindness and friendship most days.

      1. When Geoff was having hi Bi-Lateral, Bill Thomas wanted to send him a bottle of Malt. As i was visiting the next day i took a bottle (£35 reduced to £25 Tesco) on his behalf. Boy did he kick up a stink when i told him he didn’t need to refund me ! He made me give him my bank details. 🙁 Nods to Sos….

      2. I was thinking today that we have seen hatch, match and despatch here. We have lost, in no particular order, Grantchester Meadows, Bill’s son, Korky’s wife and Geoff’s feet. We’ve witnessed, in a manner of speaking, Lotl’s marriage and then experienced the vicarious birth of twin grandsons. We are a close-knit community and very supportive. Long may it continue and thanks, Geoff, for making it happen.

        1. Speaking of whom, GM’s untimely demise was three years ago, yesterday. No sign of activity on Helen of Tuskegee’s profile in the meantime.

          Setting the site up was relatively easy. Stig did much of the work in noting many of the regulars from the DT site. These days, as long as I remember what day it is, it takes around a minute to post the new day’s page. Otherwise I’d prolly stay in bed until late morning. So you’re all doing me a favour, by being here…
          ;-))

        2. That is a wonderful sentiment, Conway and I will join you in thanking Geoff and the rest of this happy band, for making it so enjoyable!

          3. Thank you for your good wishes. One just has to get one’s head down and carry on. If I got a good night’s sleep it would help, but it’s been so hot and humid (and the poor dog, in his fur coat, has been, understandably, so restless) that I am having real difficulty getting to sleep. Then, of course, I have to be up early to cope with everything (people cutting my hedge, painters preparing the woodwork, the MO, etc, etc …). I don’t do early mornings at the best of times (I am very definitely a night owl), but not getting to sleep before 04.30 at the earliest and then having to be up at 08.00 is a bit of a strain 🙁

          8. Hopefully. Not having to get up early (unless MOH decides that I shouldn’t be sleeping and wakes me up) will be a help. I can make up later in the morning the hours I have missed in the immediate aftermath of midnight.

          9. A cold hot-water bottle under the pillow sometimes works – for you and the dog!

    4. Different groups of Nottlers have each others email addresses. Give yours to Hertslass and you might hear some gossip.

      1. It was given years ago.

        I’m not really a sociable creature.
        I suspect only a handful have it.

        Now who’da thunk that?

        1. Not me. ‘innocent face’.

          I have had some pleasant encounters socially with a few on here. Obviously alcohol is an absolute must otherwise why bother talking to strangers? 🙂

          5. Chicken feed, Harry!! :-))

            Though not all have been as pleasant
            as meeting you and Mrs. Harry.

          15. Top notch thanks. Went to Chateau de Terre Vieille afterwards, they weren’t closed as I feared, just cautious. Bought some Pecharmant, a glass of which is 6 inches away as I write.

          16. Lucky man. Very high quality Pecharmant.

            If you ever have guests who are keen on “bio” wines I recommend Chateau La Robertie Bergerac red, one we had was exceptionally good, much much better than the usual bio ones, Jaubertie, Tap etc.

            https://www.chateau-larobertie.com/

          18. Usually twice a year, but as we can’t quarantine anywhere, we have not been back since January.
            We hope to do a flying visit in October, but it’s not looking promising with the current covidiocy.

          19. I am beginning to wonder if my trips to France will go ahead next year! This year has been a dead loss.

          21. I go to stay with friends, so it’s rather dependent on how well placed they are to host me. Also, if I am required to quarantine when I get back, that will pose problems.

          22. We take the view that if friends arrive: brilliant.
            We’re all gonna die some day, let’s enjoy each other’s company while we can.

            Although to be fair, HG isn’t quite as GungHo! as I am.

          24. The way things are going that will be the earliest
            we are able to re-schedule our 01-04-2020
            luncheon, should the dates work out I will [if you
            like] check with The Boss to make sure you can go
            on the guest list.
            We do have more, very distinguished people already
            on the list of new members.

          25. The more, the merrier. I managed to eat at Elstead Mill once the pubs were allowed to open. Outside, widely spaced tables, and a somewhat simplified menu, but good to be back to something resembling normal.

          28. I’ve never been in the right place at the right time – apart from meeting Hertslass and Mr Lass for lunch one day.

          29. I live on the fringes anyway (you can’t get much more peripheral than the Marches!) so I’m unlikely to come across anybody.

          31. Not true…on the way to Father Christmas in Lapland…Phizzee goes every year (don’t tell him yet)

        2. Same here. You & I are just not in the right clique. Not that I’d want to be in that clique anyway.

          1. To bowdlerise Groucho Marx

            Any club that would have me as a member is likely to be very strange.

    1. Don’t get miffed with the government, Rik. Let your anger flow and called them Silly Sausages!

  71. Update on Stepson.
    Saw him for 45 minutes in the main hospital where he’s been taken because of low blood pressure.
    It seems his problems might be more serious than they are letting on to him. As well as a pulmonary embolism, his X-rays have shewn a small shadow on one lung.

    2. That’s dreadful news.

      I hope he’s being cared for appropriately given his other problems.

      I’m sure that those who do will pray for you all.
      Good luck.

    3. BoB, I am sorry. At the moment, you do seem to be having a very rough time. Thank you for keeping us posted.

    5. Wish him well For us Bob.
      I sympathise with PEs having survived two. I hope he is as lucky as I have been.

    9. Oh Bob! So sorry to hear that, but he’s in the best place. Good wishes to you all.

  73. SIR – My former energy supplier, Eon, persuaded me to replace my old simple gas and electric meters with smart meters (Letters, August 12). That worked well until I did what we are encouraged to do – that is, to shop around for a cheaper supplier.

    I switched to EDF, then discovered that my meter is not that smart, and EDF can’t receive its signals. I therefore have to take readings myself again, which I eventually found out involves pressing nine (six for gas), waiting for the screen to scroll through a list of numbers, and writing down the reading when it appears. When will smart meters get smart?

    Chris Vincett
    Leamington Spa, Warwickshire

    How complicated.
    Our smart meters communicate with the company who owns the wires, sends them the readings, and they pass it on to the company who we buy the ‘leccy from. So, you can change ‘leccy company as often as you like, and the meter still works fine.

    1. EDF is one of the largest suppliers of electricity in Britain.

      We have supposedly very bright young people aiming for the top universities on our French courses in Brittany and yet very few of them are aware that EDF stands for Électricité de France and the company certainly does not publicise the fact in the United Kingdom.

      In the days when nuclear energy was frowned upon EDF kept pretty quiet about the fact that the vast majority of the electricity it generated came from nuclear energy.

      1. Have you seen the EDF glass & concrete tower in La Défense, Paris? They must be raking it in.

    2. We just send a reading once month. Our power company even reminds us a couple of days beforehand.

      2. We switched last December from Scottish Power to Bristol Energy, because BE was cheaper. They then promptly increased the prices to more than SP. OH does a reading (quarterly I think) but they bill us for a standard fee monthly. Not sure if we are in credit at the moment – but we should be as we don’t use much in the summer.

        1. We pay by DD. Currently (ho, ho) we are in credit, which should cushion the winter cost.

          3. “I surprised”
            Am? Was? Am not? Was not? Used to ne?
            Snooker has become very boring … snooker’s sad …

    2. BBC Scotland had a segment on VJ Day. They interviewed a man who had been in Singapore when it fell and who subsequently worked on the Burma Railway and who also spent time in Changi Jail. I was surprised. When I went to work in my first proper job he was the office supervisor. I thought that he was old then! He is a good person. He put up with me.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53751773

      1. They had an old Chindit on last night’s news – he got very emotional talking about his experiences.

    3. Good film. CF was good (as usual), but I was pleasantly surpised by Nicole’s excellent performance. Alex’s book is worth reading too.

  75. My faith in (some) human nature has been restored somewhat today.

    A couple of weeks’ back I ordered some carnauba wax pellets from Amazon. I use them, along with beeswax and mineral spirits, to make a selection of wood-finishing polishes. Making one’s own polish means you can change the formulation to suit your purpose, and you know what is in them. Amazon use a British company to supply the wax pellets. I was somewhat disappointed, yesterday, to discover that I’d been sent the wrong product. They has sent me the similar candelilla wax which, though good for certain uses, was not what I had ordered or wanted. I contacted Amazon and printed the returns forms to send the stuff back for a full refund.

    This afternoon, I decided to telephone the company making and supplying the wax directly. This was mainly to inform them of the mistake and tell them that I had received a more expensive product than I had ordered. I explained that if it was my company then I would love to know if expensive mistakes were being made by my staff that cut into my profits.

    The young lady on the line immediately apologised for the mistake, told me to keep the package of the wrong product, “since it will cause me much trouble and expense in returning it”, and that she would immediately put a package of the carnauba wax in the post for me. She went on, “It is our mistake so I’d like you to have the packet of wax you already have, on us.”

    I thanked her for her top notch customer services and assured her that I would be a customer again since I will have a need in future for their excellent products and I always like dealing with companies that put their customers first.

    It fair put a smile on my face.

    1. Hi Grizz! It’s amazing how a little gesture, and a dollop of common sense and thought, can change the day! As I commented last week, Spear & Jackson made my day with their customer service.

      1. Hi, Sue.

        It is also a pleasure to deal with a friendly voice who genuinely cares about customer service. You don’t often get that these days. I always find, though, that if you ring up in a pleasant manner — and don’t jump down their throats — you can achieve so much more.

        2. And it is typical of you, Grizzly, that you expressed your thanks and continuing support for the firm. So many people seldom do that. Well done, mate.

          1. Thanks, Else.

            That’s very true. Hang on to the companies that look after you. It sounds old-fashioned these days but that’s how it ever was, back in the days when we had a much better world to live in.

          2. The current farrago is causing quite a shake out in retail and services.
            Some large, complacent companies are getting a shock. Problems were appearing before 2020, but this palaver is really testing them.

      2. Hi, Sue.

        It is also a pleasure to deal with a friendly voice who genuinely cares about customer service. You don’t often get that these days. I always find, though, that if you ring up in a pleasant manner — and don’t jump down their throats — you can achieve so much more.

    2. The cord on my Fiskars branch lopper broke last week, you can’t get spare cords and even if you did it’s doubtful if you could replace it without the jigs that they use in manufacture. I rang their customer service and although the lopper was old they are sending me a new one, all they wanted was a photo of the old one and no receipt. I am now awaiting the courier delivery. That is great service and I have to say Fiskars are great products.

      1. Fiskars are, indeed, top-quality kit, Spikey. Coming from Finland, which is next door, their products are everywhere here and I too have a selection of garden and kitchen implements of that name, all very reliable.

      2. The same comments I made to Grizz apply, Spikey, it’s good to know that some companies care about their customers., It goes beyond customer service and borders on what I would call, ‘Customer Delight’ – in other words, “I never expected that!”

      1. Thanks for that Phil. I’ve not heard of them but their produce looks tasty.

        I buy most of my bacon- and sausage-making equipment (rusk, cures, skins, seasonings etc) from Weschenfelder, whose products and service are first class. https://www.weschenfelder.co.uk

    4. I had a similar experience with Jacksons Art Supplies; friendly and knowledgeable customer service makes ALL the difference. I’m now a loyal customer, happy to wait for quality.

      1. I am a regular customer of Jacksons. They are a wonderful firm to deal with and have a huge knowledge of their products. Their delivery charges abroad are also cheap.

        I wasn’t aware that you are an artist, ATD. What is your area of expertise?

        1. I’ve been focusing on portraiture mostly since I came back to care for my mother. Hoping to make my living from some aspect of it (probably pets; that seems a steadier market) in future, since my previous profession has disappeared from under my feet!

          1. Portraiture? I have a competitor!

            I’ve wager a fiver you’re much more experienced and accomplished at the genre than I am ( a mere novice). I would love to see your works, ATD.

            And I also bet that you are a million times better than me at animals, especially pets, which I just can’t get right so I don’t bother.

          2. Not sure I’m at competitor status yet, LOL! And I wouldn’t bet on the experienced bit either – I completed my first portrait (of my mother, and in defiance of my teacher, but he understood) just in time for Christmas. Does that mean I get the fiver? 😉

            Given that you don’t actually paint pet portraits, mind, I am content to claim superiority in that respect.

            I’d be happy to share some of my daubs with you by email. Not sure how one goes about that securely. I *think* I remember your name (initials AB?) – so if that forms part of your email address, give me a bit of a clue and we’ll see if I’m compos mentis enough to get it before you delete the post.

          3. Have you given your email address to Hertslass? She has a catalogue of the addresses of many regulars. If you ask her she will give you my address.

    5. Good for you, Grizz. However, I have the opposite of good service and it doesn’t revolve around some wax but my dear wife’s remains. I have been expecting a call from the undertakers to inform me that Lizzie’s remains were ready for collection. I heard nothing for over three weeks and so decided that I must contact them – with most things at the moment CV-19 is a good excuse for delays in just about everything – so I had cut them some slack. However, her remains were with the head office within a couple of days of her cremation and they sat on a shelf because no one at the head office had the wit to inform the branch where I ordered the funeral that her remains were ready for collection. The branch manager couldn’t apologise enough when he delivered her remains this afternoon. I was too upset to berate him but surely he should have kept a check on the delivery of the remains ordered through his branch. He knew from my demeanour that I was extremely annoyed with him and his company and he left with his tail between his legs. Shocking service for such a delicate situation.

      1. No excuse for that.

        I hope someone senior will write you a suitable apology.
        It won’t change the situation for you but it might make them think about the next one.

      2. Good evening, Korky.
        Without wishing in the least to upset you
        I think you will have more trials to overcome;
        unfortunately it seems beyond the wit of man
        [or woman] to realise that when someone has
        died then that person’s name needs removing
        from various documents, i.e. House Insurance,
        Car Insurance and Council Tax for starters
        [Not Starting the envelope and letter with:
        Dear Mr P. M. E….. [deceased] and Mrs. J. E…..

        These failings are not easily forgiven…..nor
        should they be!
        KBO.

        1. Garlands, with the help of our son I have been through all those loops and only today many weeks after informing our bank of my wife’s passing did I receive their closing account statements. In addition NS&I have been very tardy and took five weeks to reply to my correspondence with them and now after furnishing them with the additional documentation they requested I expect another month at least before a reply. I cannot start probate proceedings until NS&I reply and transfer the money. Nearly every body or concern one contacts plays a recording informing one of the delays due to CV-19. It’s as if the World has stopped revolving. KBO is what I’m attempting to do but today’s cock-up really took the biscuit.

          1. Your Son is a great help to you and yes,
            to-days cock-up is disgraceful. These
            ingrates have no conception of the hurt
            [and anger] they inspire.
            Covid19 is a very handy excuse for inefficiency
            but the worm does turn, however slowly.
            I had no wish to demean your pain but
            rather to warn you of further fences to cross.

          2. Good morning, Korky, it must be dreadful to have to get through the incompetent machinations of what passes for business today.

            I can only wish you well with your dealings and trust that your knowledge of what’s right might just trickle down through these organisations and give them the necessary bum-kick to get it right next time. As Garlands says, “KBO”.

      3. Absolutely dreadful.
        You would have thought that if all people they would have understood. Shameful.

      4. That is indeed a shocking tale, Korky. Good customer service is what we used to expect as standard. It’s a real shame that a little more effort wasn’t put into this in your situation, especially as they couldn’t fail to realise how sensitive a matter this was. Oh for the days when people were more compassionate to the needs of those experiencing a sad time in their lives.

    6. Not such a good result but good service never the less.

      I want some touch up paint for my mower, it is readily available in the US but not Canada. So I whined at the company about this lack of product. Within two hours I received a nice personal email explaining why they cannot sell the product here and passing the blame to government regulations.

      So at least I now know that I have to wait for the border to open before I can go and buy a few cans to smuggle back. Not a good result but at least they responded.

    7. It’s an exceedingly good idea to let a company know that you appreciate the efforts they make on behalf of the customers who keep them in business. Top marks, Grizz.

  77. OH just back from his trip to the tip with a carload of garden waste. He’s full of praise for the new system – bbook a time slot online, turn up, no queuing, directed to your space. There used to be queues at all times of the day, and traffic jams.

  78. The comments are mixed!

    Boris Johnson to stamp major Scottish projects funded by UK Government with Union flag

    Douglas Ross, the new Scottish Conservative leader, urges Tories north of border to be ‘unashamed of our investment in Scotland’

    Christopher Hope, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

    Boris Johnson will stamp major schemes in Scotland that are paid for directly by the UK Government with a Union flag from next year, The Telegraph can reveal.

    The flag will replace the European Union symbol, which has been used to denote when a bridge or road has been directly funded by Brussels.

    The idea has been backed by the new Scottish Conservative leader, Douglas Ross, who said Tories north of the border needed to be “unashamed of our investment in Scotland”.

    But it was greeted with dismay by senior SNP politicians, with one accusing Mr Johnson’s Government of “posturing of the worst order” and “trying to force the union flag down people’s throats”.

    The Union flag will be used to highlight when UK central Government money has been spent in Scotland. It will not apply to Scottish government spending, even though a proportion of that derives from an annual block grant from London.

    Mr Ross said he wanted to show the “visual connection” between UK Government money and schemes in Scotland.

    In an interview with Friday’s edition of Chopper’s Politics, which you can listen to on the audio player below, he said: “We should be unashamed of our direct investment in communities across Scotland. We will see that, through the shared prosperity fund, that is the money that the EU used to earmark for projects in Scotland and other parts of the UK. If they could have an EU flag on it, why not have the United Kingdom flag on it to show that here is an example of our two governments in Scotland, working together, and the UK Government delivering for individual communities and projects the length and breadth of the country?”

    Mr Ross said UK support “has seen us through the Covid pandemic by supporting local economies… the VAT reduction to five per cent is as welcome to tourism and hospitality companies in Shetland as in south Cornwall”.

    On Thursday night, Alister Jack, the Scottish Secretary, said the plan had been signed off by both Mr Johnson and Michael Gove, the Cabinet Office minister, and would start next year after the end of the Brexit transition period.

    Mr Jack told The Telegraph: “Where there is direct investment or joint investment between the two governments, you would expect to see the Union Jack sitting alongside the Saltire.”

    However, he admitted that SNP supporters were likely to be put out by the appearance of union flags on bridges and roads in Scotland. “They never got upset about seeing a European Union flag sitting alongside the Saltire – it is the only the Union Jack that upsets them,” he said.

    Tommy Sheppard, a senior SNP MP, described the plan as “foolish, and political tokenism and posturing of the worst order”.

    He said: “It would probably be counterproductive because there is no point trying to force the union flag down people’s throats in the hope that they would like it. If the Union is so great, they should not need constantly to use the flag to promote it.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/13/boris-johnson-stamp-major-scottish-projects-funded-uk-government/

    1. And yet when it was the EU flag advertising “their” contribution (in fact from our own EU payments) they didn’t think to protest then.

    2. “…directly funded by Brussels.” Translation: Paid for from funds contributed to the EU by the UK, from which the EU has taken deducted 10% commission which it keeps..

    3. Boris Johnson to stamp major Scottish projects funded by UK Government with Union flag

      Is he redirecting current Kent traffic to the highlands ?

    5. But it was greeted with dismay by senior SNP politicians, with one accusing Mr Johnson’s Government of “posturing of the worst order” and “trying to force the union flag down people’s throats”.

      Boo-hoo.

        3. The Bag Pipes would be more apt.

          When will you be cleaning windows ?

          Reminds me of a joke……..
          The window cleaner was hard at work up and down his ladder all day, he moved on to the next house and as he cleaned the bathroom the lady of the house came out of the shower and stood naked looking at him.
          He carried on with his work trying not to notice. Moved across the the bedroom and cleaned the windows the won man appeared again in front of him.
          Round to the front bed room two and there she was again……..he finally reached the kitchen an low and behold there she was again standing naked in the kitchen. The window was ajar and he pulled it open and said in a very loud voice………
          What is the matter with you lady,…………. ain’t you never seen a window cleaner before ?

      1. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

        Go away. You could have applied legally and then your life wouldn’t have been destroyed. Instead, you paid a trafficker a lot of money to get here illegally.

    3. What value is her being in Dover?

      Today, from my office I flew a drone over Saudi Arabia plotting sand dune movement. Location is irrelevant. All that’s needed is the will to refuse these boats and their passengers entry to our waters.

      That’s what’s lacking.

      1. 322523+ up ticks,
        W,
        Tonguework ,all rhetorical, no action taken… ever.
        was my way of putting i

    1. At last I understand all the reaction to my comments on the Saturday morning NoTTL cartoon.

    1. On covid I don’t believe he could have done any differently except to get multiple opinions.

      Yet first it was the greenie weirdos blocking London, then it was seeing the forces of law and order kneeling – kneeling! to a violent mob and then, as was infuriating running away from them.

      Of course, the Hard Left media ignored the police casualties. Far more interested in promoting the vandalising, rioting, defacing thieves of Labour’s children.

      No. The only thing that should have been said to the black looters are mindless mob was ‘Five rounds rapid.’ The only kneeling done to absorb the recoil of the firearm. Round them up, kettle them, if they get uppity, smash their heads in.

      Immigration into this country has been a farce for 20 years. Well over 5 million unemployable dross have entered this country, sat instantly on welfare and contributed nothing except more mouths to feed – just as Labour’s Andrew Neather wanted.

      Rather than accept this fact the Left desperately do everything they can to promote the criminality, difference and intrusiveness of this layer of wasters. There’s absolutely no interest in stopping them or enforcing integration, instead big Left prefers that these sub cultures remain extant, gnawing away at society and replacing us with them.

      The obvious question is what happens when there are so many of them and so few of us (we are being out bred at a ratio of 4:1, mostly because the white, working population has one child – and both parents then work to support it because of Labour’s tax laws that the ‘Conservatives’ have not undone) who will pay for these sub cultures who share none of our values, contribute nothing to our society and have no respect for our work ethic?

      Who will feed them when we’ve been crushed by the momentum and not merely endorsement, but rampant encouragement of destroying the country *we* built and *they* are tearing down?

      1. On covid he could have closed the borders and quarantined newcomers from the very beginning. Then he need only have locked down the truly vulnerable, letting everybody else get on with life. It’s been an ill-managed farce (not that Labour would have been any better).

      1. I think that Farage is rather silly in casting T Robinson among the skinhead type population.

        Farage is going to need all the support available, in order to secure sufficient support in the 2024 elections.

        We need a government strong enough to ensure British Values are identified, adhered to and voted for and, sorry to say but that means isolating the Muslim jihadis, the BLM and Antifa fascists in our midst and making them very well aware that they are not welcome here.

        I am interested to know how many would support this point of view.

        1. 322561+ up ticks,
          Morning S,
          I beg to differ slightly I know farage is dangerous as his rant proves also his input castigating Gerard Batten sent to the treacherous UKIp NEc.
          Batten was a founder member of UKIP27 unbroken years service and in short,as his 18 months in the office of leader shows a leader of merit.
          Batten put UKIP back on it’s feet financially the party was in the black, he gained 13000 new members increasing daily, gave up the leadership as agreed put his name forward to stand in the leadership elections and was denied standing by the NEc reason being “not of good standing within the party”
          And so the take down of a successful building party
          with the farage input begins.
          It is all on record.
          The farage pursuit on feeding his ego has cost us
          dearly the brexit group is good in itself
          ( no members) but IMO misled.
          The “nige” split votes & returned a party of proven treachery to power aiding & abetting johnson by
          standing down a high % of his opposition group
          ( manipulation) in my eyes he is at heart a covert
          tory coxswain.
          In my personal view you cannot have a credible
          opposition with a highly suspect leader.
          Not only Tommy Robinson was maligned but also
          30000 plus members will bare witness.
          Batten was warning of islamic ideology rhetorically & in book form back in 2005 ongoing, the “niges”
          lips are sealed on that very,very important issue.

  83. Good night all.

    The snooker was great, but now it’s time for some bedtime reading – “Past Imperfect” by J. Fellowes, which I’m enjoying.

    1. we’ve tried. The state stops us.

      These illegal gimmigrants are getting here with the endrosement of the Lefty statists.

      1. 322523+ up ticks,
        W,
        They are getting here via the polling booth & support / votes for MASS UNCONTROLLED IMMIGRATION party’s decade after decade.
        STOP investing your vote in proven treachery parties, put down the bloody shovel we are up to our foreheads in sh!te now.

    2. Problem is that we seem to allow them to ‘take the piss’.

      When will we see some really positive action to prevent this increase in the Islamic vote for Sharia and the Great British Caliphate in 2035 and thereafter?

  88. Evening, all. It’s been a long day; up at sparrowfart so as to be ready to field a call from the MO re MOH’s medicine review. Doc rings and asks “what can I do for you?” Um, your surgery rang me to arrange this call! After I’d explained in words of one syllable, Doc then said, we need to check BP, do you have a BP monitor at home? No. Would you consider getting one? No. Why is that? Long silence on my part while I thought, “I’ve paid in oodles of cash over the years, why should I fork out more to do your job for you?” Eventually Doc asks, “is that because you think you shouldn’t have to?” Give the man a coconut! After more wittering on his part and sticking to my agenda on mine, the upshot is, we’ve been referred to the “multidisciplinary team” to see what help they can give (I’m not holding my breath), the memory team will be jogged to give me a call (I haven’t heard from them for weeks) and lo! We have an appointment for a face-to-face consultation on Monday, albeit at the crack of dawn. Phew! It’s a result, but not as we know it, JIm. The rest of the day was taken up with dealing with the painters (trying to get recalcitrant windows open and then close them again as they won’t be back until Monday) and my Treasure who came to clean and then came back to clear up after the painters had finished. As this comes after four days of not sleeping very much due to the heat, humidity and general stress levels, I feel sub-human 🙁 Tomorrow is another day, thankfully.

    1. Dr sosraboc prescribes red medicine.

      If you take too much you might have adverse effects.
      On the plus side you’ll feel better before they kick in.
      Good luck.

    2. Dear Conway, Good Evening to you/

      ‘No day is so sad that it cannot be
      salvaged in some way.’

      1. I thought for a moment you wrote, No day is so sad that it cannot be SAVAGED in some way! 🙂

    3. Take some of Dr Sos’ medicine. At least Mrs Treasure came to help.

      I hope the consultation on Monday will help. Why do they think you’d want to get a BP machine and do their job for them?

      1. They don’t want anybody visiting the surgery. The first option (before the telephone “consultation”) was to defer the review for six months. MOH could be dead by then! Certainly worse (dementia doesn’t get better the longer you leave it).

        1. They should be doing their jobs. If supermarket staff can do theirs and see hundreds of people without becoming ill, then certainly those who are charged with keeping people well, should at least make an effort.

        2. Some surgeries loan out blood pressure meters, but that may just be for a couple of weeks. If you need it long term they may not be so keen.

          1. Given my problem with numbers, I am not sure any readings would be either accurate or worthwhile, anyway!

    4. Dr sosraboc prescribes red medicine.

      If you take too much you might have adverse effects.
      On the plus side you’ll feel better before they kick in.
      Good luck.

      1. Thanks. I have knocked back a few glasses of Shiraz and now [hat tip to Plum] I am indulging in sherry 🙂

    5. Blood pressure is that which is measured in the aortic arch.
      The nearest measurement has to be made by invasive test at a central line ( in an artery close to the aorta).

      Medics are taught that the nearest approximation to aortic blood pressere derived from brachial artery measurements is

      bp = (systolic + 2 * diastolic) / 3. (1)

      but they also know that aortic blood pressure can be estimated as

      bp = 2 * heart rate in bpm. (2)

      These two equations have three unknowns so there is no single solution.

      Blood pressure derived from brachial artery measurements are therefore meaningless due to the endless number of solutions to the above two equations.

          1. It’s worth buying one. They’re only about £25-30 and well worth being able to keep an eye on the family’s BP.

          2. There are only two of us and only one of us has BP problems. I have paid substantial amounts in NICs over the years. I feel it’s time I got something back!

    5. As molamola correctly states (below) it is one of four species of true burying beetles, often known as ‘sexton beetles’ [Nicrophorus vespillo, N. investigator, N. interruptus, or N. vespilloides].

      They are harmless to humans but useful in dragging the corpses of mice, small birds, etc, down shafts which they dig. They are often seen flying in spring and summer and, like moths, may be attracted to light.

      I wonder what your specimen had been doing to cause you grief.

    1. Th picture is too small to have any hope of recognising who appears in it – I presume afuture politicians.

      1. That isn’t the full photo , Cameron , Boris and Osborne and a few other worthies , not sure whether Clegg is there or did he go to Eton.

        1. Does anyone else share my contempt for the sort of clubs and their members shown in these photos?

          1. I was a member of a gang when I was at school.

            We were a bunch of well ‘ard characters. Although I was 7 and we all played the recorder – atrociously.

  91. French quarantine is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut

    The decision is just the latest example of British ministers overreacting

    TOBY YOUNG

    On July 25, the French government changed the rules on testing. Hitherto, the only way to avoid paying for a standard PCR test, in which your nose and throat are swabbed, was to get a prescription from your doctor.

    But after the rule change, anyone could get a test free of charge. Not surprisingly, the number of people getting tested jumped – more than 600,000 people in the past week – and case numbers duly increased.

    We’ve seen exactly the same pattern in parts of the UK: community testing increases and there’s a corresponding rise in recorded infections.

    A half-way competent government would look at the testing data and contextualise it. You don’t need a degree in maths to compare the rise in the number of cases with the rise in the number of tests. Is the percentage in both cases the same? If so, you probably don’t have much to worry about.

    Unfortunately, the geniuses at the head of our Government seem unable to do this. Instead, they apparently look at the raw case data and fly into a blind panic.

    According to ministerial statements, at least, that appears to be what’s behind the last-minute decision to remove France from the “Green List” of countries you’re allowed to visit without having to quarantine on return.

    There’s precious little evidence that France is currently in the midst of a “second wave”. On the contrary, if you look at Covid-19 hospitalisations, the number has remained largely stable for the past month.

    Another example of this failure to contextualise the data was Boris Johnson’s decision to “squeeze the brake” on lockdown easing at the beginning of the month and impose local lockdowns on four-and-a-half million people in the North West. The reason for this, we were told, was because the number of infected people was on the rise again.

    But Carl Heneghan, Oxford’s professor of evidence-based medicine, looked at the Pillar 2 data – based on testing in the community – and concluded that the rise was due to a combination of increased testing and false positives. “Inaccuracies in the data and poor interpretation will often lead to errors in decisions about imposing restrictions, particularly if these decisions are done in haste and the interpretation does not account for fluctuations in the rates of testing,” he wrote.

    Not only do the Government’s decisions to impose new restrictions seem to be based on an inability to do basic maths, they’re inconsistent. Why has France been removed from the “Green List”, but not Gibraltar, where the rate of infections is higher? And why hasn’t Portugal been added, given that there were only 325 new cases in Portugal on Thursday compared to more than 500 in Italy?

    Another example: in recent weeks, the percentage of the population testing positive has been higher in London than in any other English region. Yet while Leicester, Manchester, Preston, Bradford and Oldham have all had to suffer second lockdowns, London has not.

    You might think there’s some economic logic behind this – after all, London is responsible for 22 per cent of the UK’s GDP. But the Government hasn’t paid much attention to such considerations before. When Michael Gove told a meeting of Cobra that a decision had been made to place the entire country under virtual house arrest on March 23, Jesse Norman was reportedly the only person present to ask whether a cost-benefit analysis of a full lockdown had been done. His question was met with blank, uncomprehending looks.

    Was any thought given to the economic impact of adding France to the growing list of “no-go” areas? There are hundreds of thousands of UK nationals currently on holiday in France. How many of them will be forced to take time off work if they have to self-isolate for two weeks? France is the most popular holiday destination for Brits after Spain. With both countries now on the quarantine list, what will be the effect on the airline industry?

    Such crazy, knee-jerk responses to undigested infection data suggest the Government is wildly over-estimating the risk posed by Covid-19. According to the ONS, flu and pneumonia killed five times more people than coronavirus last month and if you’re under 65 you’re more likely to die in a road traffic accident. In Germany, more than twice as many people died from seasonal influenza in 2017-18 than have died of Covid-19. [Hmm. Germany’s virus figures are suspiciously low.]

    At the beginning of this crisis, those of us who believed the Government was over-reacting were in a tiny minority. But as its decision-making loses all touch with reality, and the economic impact of the restrictions becomes clear, that number is growing. Once it climbs above a certain threshold, it will be impossible for the authorities to enforce their ridiculous, arbitrary rules.

    How many of the thousands of Britons returning from France will tell the officials insisting they quarantine to take a running jump? How many “spot checks” can be realistically conducted? We’ve been treated like lobotomised sheep for long enough. It’s time to take back control.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/14/french-quarantine-using-sledgehammer-crack-nut/

    1. Those who returned in a blind funk are those who confirm the worst fears and justify the government’s decision.

      They will be the ones who get themselves tested, and any positive test will be used to justify the quarantine.

      The fact that the holidaymaker might well have had it before they went to France will completely escape the morons in charge.

      1. I cannot understand anyone having a test. They should, if they feel they may have the virus, (BTW seems to be fading away) just follow their own common sense. If it’s bad then stay at home. For goodness sake tell everyone to go back to work and lift all restrictions.

        I’m utterly amazed at people wearing masks out in the street. It’s awful how they have allowed themselves to be so terrified. I’ve even seen children wearing them. My God what kind of a world is being shown to them – and there are notices all over the place even on the roadside “be alert, control the virus, stay safe”. Government cannot remove all danger from this world and shouldn’t act as if they can.

        1. I went to do my usual Friday shop this afternoon – never my favourite thing, but it’s even more joyless now – masked up, sweaty and hot; every breath steamed up my specs; nobody speaking to anyone else, all intent on getting what they needed and out as soon as possible. I sadi to the girl on the checkout – “I’d speak to you if I wasn’t wearing this thing!” – she’d taken hers off, but most of the staff were wearing them.

          If you lipread, as I know I do, it makes it hard to hear what people are saying, as they mumble into their muzzles.

          1. When I bit the bullet and did a shop on Wednesday, I said to the girl behind the checkout, “I’m smiling behind this mask”. It was SO impersonal.

          2. I too wear glasses and lip reading is essential (extremely short sighted me!). Had new glasses last week and picked them up from Asda (was so much cheaper than Specsavers my usual place). I told them I was not wearing a mask as it gives me a panic attack. OK. The lady was wearing a cloth mask, also had a plastic visor and was behind a Perspex screen. Every time she spoke to me I had to ask her to repeat it and she eventually came round the other side of the screen.

          4. Good for you. To date I and Alf are the only people not to wear a mask when out shopping, he because he suffers from shortness of breath and I because it brings on a panic attack.

          5. When I take MOH out to the bank, which will be necessary shortly, I shan’t be wearing one because it’s legal not to if one accompanies a deaf person who relies on lip reading.

          6. Oh I didn’t realise that. I did note that one of the acceptable reasons for not wearing one was if it causes extreme distress. I reckon we all feel extreme distress, I certainly do.

          7. Oh I didn’t realise that. I did note that one of the acceptable reasons for not wearing one was if it causes extreme distress. I reckon we all feel extreme distress, I certainly do.

          8. It causes me extreme distress, too, which is why I avoid going to shops if I can. I have given up going to church since they brought in the requirement for face coverings.

          9. Would you consider slipping into the church right at the last minute without wearing one? It seems awful to me that those who find solace in their church have not been able to do so for so long and now are supposed to wear a mask? Can you not have a quiet word with the vicar/priest/celebrant? It seems cruel.

          10. I have emailed the Rector to let him know why I shan’t be there. He isn’t happy with the diktat, but, being a “man under authority” he can’t go against the Bishop and the government. I do get the sermon and the collect and readings for the day. Even before the mask imposition, it wasn’t a church service as I understand it, but considerably better than nothing.

      2. And why not enjoy the rest of their holiday since they were alrready there? It seems pointless to dash home, unless there was no way they could do their jobs from home.

    2. Covid is still spreading but is it losing some of it’s power , is it weakening .

      There are things we should be told .

      We are getting mixed messages , but no real facts, why?

      2. Fear sells papers.

        A frightened people are easier to manipulate and control. COVID isn’t weakening any more than flu is. We’re adapting to it.

      3. As people get out and aabout more, they are more likely to come into contact with someone carrying the virus. It’s a good thing if younger people spread it around a bit and catch it, as they will then spread some immunity. It’s no good everybody hiding away for ever. It’s out there, it’s not going away and we need to develop some resistance to it.
        They are doing far more testing than back in April whan many people were dying, most of them frail, elderly people or those with other illnesses. So obviously they are going to pick up more positive cases. It doesn’t mean more people are ill.

        As we know from the stats, there are more recent deaths from flu than covid.

        1. There are a lot of people who have died because their cancer treatments or dialysis has been stopped.

          2. Not to mention those who were sent back to the care homes to be finished off. The whole thing has been a complete and utter shambles.

          3. That was criminal and should never have happened. When they finally get round to having a post-mortem on how they handled things, heads should roll and PHE disbanded.

          5. Have been informed by ‘someone-in-the-know’ that for the past month or more there has been an enthusiastic ‘conspiracy’ amongst various related Government entities to blow up and eradicate PHE as being wholly unfit for purpose (with the flimsily hidden agendas of (a) deflecting blame from their own gov’t Departments/Quangos, and (b) grabbing as much as they can of PHE’s £4+billion budget for themselves)

            As a consequence PHE have all but thrown in the towel as regards Protecting the Health of England and are fighting full time for their own survival against the onslaughts by their fellow civil servants.

        1. Nope, Windows 10 is going to be the last variant of Windows released.

          What a legacy: utter, complete, overblown tripe that’s a mismash of UI, a confusing jumble of styles and configurations. An expensive, advert ridden, bloated, lumpen, slow ‘operating system’ that is nothing more than a bolt on of a bolt on of a bolt on of something far cleaner, simpler and more elegant.

          How to make it crash: turn off a network share it’s connected to before disconnecting the drive. Then in explorer try to disconnect the drive. Windows 2000 would interact with that drive and it’s sudden absense causes a panic. Windows 10, because it is nothing more than a jumble of excrement on top of that older OS does exactly the same, just takes longer and will likely BSOD. No amount of hardware resolves the problem. It’s just atrociously handled.

          2. Win 7 worked OK. Microsoft should know when to stop – I’m experiencing major problems with my new laptop even though I’m running it with Windows Clam Shell that imitates Windows 7.

            I’m seriously thinking of junking the whole kaboom and looking for a refurbished Windows 7 Pro laptop. 10 is a nightmare!

          3. W7 has proved to be very stable and reliable. Dreading the day I look to upgrade, if only to ensure that whatever I use is secure.

      5. Why?
        Because they don’t have a clue what’s really going on, so they react to every minor tremor.

        1. I think the government would be better informed if the just read NOTTL. Every move the government makes seem to speak of gross ignorance on the subject.

          1. Problem there is that *we* don’t know. We want to, we want to make information based decisions to lead our lives. Big state is terrified of that.

            Arguably the real danger is someone using that information and making their own decision and not having the brains or consideration for others the more reserved might.

  92. We can no longer escape from the necessity of borders

    Without borders, we cannot protect the people who live within them

    CHARLES MOORE

    When I was a boy in the 1960s, very old people used to talk about the joys of travel before the First World War. You could go from London to St Petersburg without a passport, they recalled. One could understand their nostalgia. Even in the peaceful Sixties, and even when a traveller was entering allied countries, the formalities of entry were tedious (often including strict currency controls). As for the hostile countries of the Communist bloc, entering and moving round them was such a struggle that most people avoided that half of Europe altogether.

    With the end of the Cold War, and the EEC moving towards becoming the EU, this changed again. Freedom of travel expanded. The Schengen Agreement of 1985 (in which Britain and Ireland did not take part) stopped border controls for participating states. In the 1990s, even the former Soviet Union opened up. St Petersburg reclaimed its original name. Although you did still need a passport, you could get there very easily.

    These developments were welcome. Personally, I liked getting my passport stamped as often as possible and enjoyed the bit at the border when a chap in the silly uniform of one country hands over to a chap in the silly uniform of another country, but even I could see it was civilised that people could move freely without – as it still says on our passports – “let or hindrance”.

    More recently, things went awry. The strains of mass migration, which include increased threats of imported terrorism, proved too great. Schengen still exists and its range is still, in theory, expanding, but there have been more and more instances of border controls being temporarily reintroduced within it. Visas for Russia have become onerous once again.

    Here, Brexit is about to protect Britain’s own borders more strictly. The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, is striving to prescribe the categories of immigrant entry. She also seeks to overcome the situation by which those in Channel boats trying to enter Britain illegally cannot, despite their illegality, be turned away.

    And now we have Covid-19; and with it, coming into force early today for those arriving from France, we have quarantine.

    This is sad, and highly inconvenient. For more than half a century, a holiday in France or Spain has come to have the status of a birth-right among millions of British people. A significant proportion of our fellow-citizens even own houses in such countries. There have been downsides, of course – the attritions on environments and indigenous cultures caused by too many visitors – but on the whole the phenomenon has been benign. It has broadened minds, distributed wealth and allowed millions of workers happy recreation of which their ancestors could only dream.

    Now a disease, and the political tensions which its arrival has involved, have meant more let and hindrance. Quarantine – a word originally referring to the 40-day plague isolation imposed on ships docked in Venice in the 14th century – is indeed a medieval concept. Unfortunately, it does have real, modern application, though 40 days have come down to 14.

    These changes are having a massive psychological effect on the Western way of life. You need to be over 50 to have adult memories of when the world was a much less open place and travel was an almost automatic problem. If a young British man attended a riotous stag party in Tallinn or Prague 25 years ago, he had the exhilarating sense that he was exercising a previously unthinkable freedom. Twenty years later, such ease had come to seem the natural order of things. It is only recently that we have been reminded it is not.

    Our growing lack of ease reflects reality. People who refuse to recognise this are like people who complain about locks on doors. Yes, it would be nicer to live in a world in which no door needed to be locked, but such a world does not exist.

    Nations, by definition, must have borders. Whenever borders are not properly defined and policed, they become the object of dispute. Border disputes are a famously neat way of starting wars. If international affairs are well run, borders are not prominent: each nation recognises the rights of each. But borders always matter, because they define legality. We all need to live under the rule of law, and so we need to know what law, whose it is and who will enforce it. Fuzz it up, and you get trouble.

    Globalisation has fuzzed it up. The post-Cold War vision of a world open to trade and widespread democracy was admirable. The post-Cold War loss of a sense of threat was disastrous. The “End of History” brought about the end of vigilance. So it was with the brewing of Islamist extremism in the West which led to 9/11.

    So it was with global finance too. At the time of the 2008/9 financial crisis, I remember Mervyn King, then Governor of the Bank of England, telling me with bitter perceptiveness, “The trouble with these global banks is that they are global in life, but national in death.” Our nation had to pay out back home for gigantic errors made across five continents.

    So it is with mass immigration. Those UKippy types who believe that a sophisticated country like ours could thrive without quite high levels of immigrants bringing in their skills are fantasists. [That’s quite a serious misrepresentation.] But so are those human-rights lawyers who see immigration control as racism and want our borders thrown open. No welfare system could survive such a thing, and nor could civil peace. The human-rights lawyers invoke a grandiose, global idea of law. It could have been specifically designed to undermine the only form of law that can work – one that has a clear jurisdiction.

    In her speech accepting Joe Biden’s invitation to be his Democrat vice-presidential candidate this week, Kamala Harris praised the “DREAMers”. She was deploying the collective propaganda noun (derived from Congress’s DREAM Act of 2001) to describe illegal immigrants to the United States who entered as minors. No doubt she is right that they have great aspirations, but is it right to laud people who entered your country on the basis of unlawfulness? What message does it send to the millions who try to enter legally? What does it do to the “cultural lawfulness” upon which free societies must depend?

    So it is with infectious diseases. There are fewer clearer examples of a situation in which only a government can act and where it might decide it must act fast and alone. The improvement in modern medicine is a great benefit of the globalisation of knowledge. The fast spread of Covid-19, however, is also the direct result of globalisation.

    If the Chinese engineering of a virus in a lab, or inattention to animal diseases which can spread to human beings – we still do not know which it was – had happened 40 years ago, the illness would have reached the wider world far more slowly. China was then a poor, isolated country. In 2020, however, all that was needed to spread illness and death worldwide was for a few infected persons to jump on one of Wuhan’s many daily intercontinental flights without its government telling the world what was happening. If we don’t protect our borders, we cannot protect the people who live within them. The cost of pretending otherwise keeps growing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/14/can-no-longer-escape-necessity-borders/

    1. The borders point is well made. The EU has striven desperately to destroy borders because doing so gives it power and utterly unearned legitimacy.

      Yet here they don’t seem to mean very much. The Left are still intruding and promoting the invasion of this country by an unwanted, completely illegal invasion force. It’s as if having failed to destroy this country through it’s beloved communist EU it is trying to force criminals on us.

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