Thursday 17 June: Vaccinations save us from Covid deaths, so why not get them done faster?

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/16/lettersvaccinations-save-us-covid-deaths-not-get-done-faster/

665 thoughts on “Thursday 17 June: Vaccinations save us from Covid deaths, so why not get them done faster?”

  2. 334434+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    I take this to mean the eu,

    Good riddance to English votes for English laws
    When this stain on the constitution is removed, Boris Johnson’s and Michael Gove’s claims to value the Union will be entirely vindicated

    T Harris Dt.

  3. Biden warns US will hit back if Russia continues with cyber strikes. 17 June 2021

    The US will retaliate if Russia continues to carry out malicious cyber-attacks against American targets, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, after holding “good and positive” talks in Geneva with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

    Speaking after their first face-to-face summit, Biden said he had made clear the Kremlin had to “abide by the rules of the road” or face unspecified consequences. Putin was aware the US possessed “unrivalled” cyber capacities, Biden stressed.

    Morning everyone. One is tempted to ask if that is true, why don’t they? In fact why have they not already done so? We know from the evidence of the former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill that the UK has already carried out a series of Cyber-attacks on Russia and since we don’t act independently this must have been on the Americans behalf. This looks to have backfired and the Russians are striking back at the source and the Americans are wilting under the pressure. It’s possible to read Biden’s words not as Red Lines:

    I did what I came to do. Certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to [cyber] attack. I gave them a list. Sixteen specific entities defined as critical infrastructure, including energy and water systems.

    …but as a plea to be let off. In fact the whole of the meeting looks more like an appeal than a threat. Asking the Russians to keep open the Syrian border crossing which allows them to supply the Jihadists? What has this to do with Superpower relations? Vlad is too smart to crow but it looks suspiciously as if he had the whip hand here and the Americans called time on the meeting because they were the ones being panned!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/16/biden-to-meet-putin-at-highly-anticipated-summit-in-geneva

    1. Araminta mng. Remember originally the meeting was supposed to be 5 hours with no breaks. All over in just under 3 hours and that included involvement of Foreign Ministers and other flunkies. I doubt Demented Joe would’ve got through 1 hour without needing his meds and underwear changed. Or wandered off. The key being it was not aired as a live event

      1. Morning Bill. I did wonder if he had suffered an “event” but he was able to speak after the meeting, albeit after a delay.

  4. Biden warns US will hit back if Russia continues with cyber strikes. 17 June 2021

    The US will retaliate if Russia continues to carry out malicious cyber-attacks against American targets, Joe Biden said on Wednesday, after holding “good and positive” talks in Geneva with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

    Speaking after their first face-to-face summit, Biden said he had made clear the Kremlin had to “abide by the rules of the road” or face unspecified consequences. Putin was aware the US possessed “unrivalled” cyber capacities, Biden stressed.

    Morning everyone. One is tempted to ask if that is true, why don’t they? In fact why have they not already done so? We know from the evidence of the former Cabinet Secretary Mark Sedwill that the UK has already carried out a series of Cyber-attacks on Russia and since we don’t act independently this must have been on the Americans behalf. This looks to have backfired and the Russians are striking back at the source and the Americans are wilting under the pressure. It’s possible to read Biden’s words not as Red Lines:

    I did what I came to do. Certain critical infrastructure should be off limits to [cyber] attack. I gave them a list. Sixteen specific entities defined as critical infrastructure, including energy and water systems.

    …but as a plea to be let off. In fact the whole of the meeting looks more like an appeal than a threat. Asking the Russians to keep open the Syrian border crossing which allows them to supply the Jihadists? What has this to do with Superpower relations? Vlad is too smart to crow but it looks suspiciously as if he had the whip hand here and the Americans called time on the meeting because they were the ones being panned!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jun/16/biden-to-meet-putin-at-highly-anticipated-summit-in-geneva

    2. Y’know what, Bob3 – it would be more newsworthy to NoTTLers were you to greet us with a bulletin about how you were rejecting the opportunity to play golf – much like Bob of B refusing to drink a pint or two of tea or me coffee.

  6. Good morning.
    On Topic – if the vaccine kills you, it is arguably true that you did not die of CoViD.

  7. Here we go from the scribblers:

    SIR – About 500,000 vaccinations a day are being administered, thanks to the NHS and volunteers. Surely we should be aiming for double the figure, so individuals are protected sooner.

    Or is there a shortage of vaccines that the Government is not wishing to disclose?

    Raymond Williams
    Chigwell, Essex

    SIR – The head of the NHS is reported as saying that vaccination cannot go faster than supplies allow. The Department of Health and Social Care said: “There are no shortages of Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine, and deliveries are on time and as ordered.”

    You also reported on the front page yesterday that ministers said Britain had enough Pfizer vaccine to jab all children aged 12-17 (even though they are not being inoculated yet).

    If the vaccine is ordered centrally, why is it so difficult to ascertain the correct situation?

    Bob Beaumont
    Shirley, Warwickshire

    SIR – As a surgeon in training in 1985, it was a requirement for me to be vaccinated against Hepatitis B, or I could not wield a scalpel or needle. This was to protect patients should a hole inadvertently be made in me while I was making a hole in the patient.

    I was then in America for a year, with a small risk of catching HIV (then a death sentence) from the American Hepatitis B vaccine available. But needs must. Since then, I have had to have antibody tests while working in the NHS and private sector in Britain.

    I would rather a shortage of staff than unvaccinated workers in situations where Covid transmission is likely to affect the vulnerable, who can neither pick and choose their carers nor give informed consent.

    That some staff might not apply for positions, or would leave if told to have a vaccine, is not a valid excuse for placing this vulnerable group in danger. Covid in this group is more dangerous than staff shortages.

    Andrew Waterfield FRCS
    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Those already vaccinated are impatient for opening. They are “safe” (Letters, June 16). However, young adults aren’t vaccinated yet. As a mother of two 20-somethings, I think it’s important to wait a few weeks in order to get that first vaccine administered and operative.

    Sue Hardy
    Hitchin, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Perhaps experience from last century’s mass polio vaccination programme is pertinent to mandatory inoculation for care-home staff. So-called infantile paralysis was rife in the 1950s, when junior schools were offered the polio vaccine.

    However, succumbing to rumours of possible side effects, and given the option of declining, as an eight-year-old I chose not to be stabbed (as I saw it). For the 70 years since, I have been constantly reminded of one of the possible side effects of not being vaccinated: I contracted polio.

    Bruce Denness
    Niton, Isle of Wight

    Pupils’ catch-up

    SIR – As a qualified and experienced teacher (now retired), I spent my last year working with special needs pupils whose reading skills were more than two years behind other children’s.

    Until March last year, I volunteered one morning a week at a local academy, again dealing with special needs children, to the satisfaction and appreciation of all.

    Having received my second vaccination, I rang the academy to say that I was happy to resume my volunteer work. I was told that no one from “outside” would be allowed into the school until September.

    I am more than a little frustrated. These children need help but my offer has been suffocated by over-sensitive Covid rules. Children don’t stop growing; needs just get deeper.

    Margaret Tansley
    Wold Newton, East Yorkshire

    Acting out

    SIR – When will objectors understand (Letters, June 16) that actors, singers and dancers represent someone, or something, else while on stage?

    For instance, neither Sir David Suchet nor Sir Peter Ustinov were Belgian, but both played Hercule Poirot to perfection. It is wokery not Covid that will kill theatre.

    David Barlow
    Cury, Cornwall

    SIR – After Scottish Opera’s withdrawal from the Sky Arts awards because white singers were cast as Chinese characters (Letters, June 14), I fear its repertoire will be restricted to Maria Stuarda, Lucia di Lammermoor and Macbeth. At least the all-tartan sets can be recycled.

    Derek Brown
    Kelso, Roxburghshire

    Negative energy

    SIR – Octopus Energy, with other advertisers, is to boycott GB News because it is supposedly promoting hate speech. I have been watching the new channel with interest and have seen no sign of any such thing.

    Octopus Energy is free to advertise wherever it likes, just as I am free to purchase my gas and electricity from wherever I choose. I am about to switch energy suppliers, but will be boycotting Octopus Energy because of its illiberal stance.

    Dr Tony McAllister
    Hertford

    Secrets and lies

    SIR – Can it be right for Dominic Cummings to publish screenshots of WhatsApp messages between him and Boris Johnson, which allegedly castigate the Health Secretary?

    If government employees do not have to sign confidentiality agreements, surely it is about time they did. This might prevent former public servants from spilling the beans on private messages in a fit of pique.

    Peter Kievenaar
    Chelsworth, Suffolk

    Short-lived bulbs

    SIR – The cost of light bulbs that conform to new regulations is extortionate.

    I have taken to writing the date of installation on a bulb when it is fitted. Not one has lasted the advertised two years, and the supplier has so far honoured this shortfall in lifespan with free replacements. The manufacture and distribution footprint must by now have exceeded that of conventional bulbs.

    Michael Marks
    Shobdon, Herefordshire

    Britain and America

    SIR – Andrew Roberts is right: despite what the doubters say, there is a Special Relationship.

    The English-speaking peoples and the Soviet Union were the winners of the Second World War. Russia had ripped the guts out of the Wehrmacht but could not have stood alone. It was the supply of limitless US materiel that enabled tanks to roll into Germany.

    The British Empire and dominions had stood alone against Hitler for more than a year, but it was America joining the war in December 1941 that enabled the Western maritime nations to mobilise fully against Germany and Japan. The only real winner by 1945 was the United States, the richest and most powerful country in the world.

    One of the Allies’ trump cards was intelligence, estimated to have shortened the war by several years. British pre-eminence in codebreaking was recognised by the United States – and, after an informal agreement relating to the 1941 Atlantic Charter, the 1943 Brusa Agreement was enacted in 1946 by Britain and America.

    After the war, the United States and the British Empire took the lead in forming a new world order – which has lasted until relatively recently, despite tensions and challenges.

    Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
    London SW1

    Migrants from France

    SIR – Perhaps Priti Patel could explain why, despite millions of pounds being thrown at the problem of Channel migrants, hundreds are still being picked up by Border Force.

    Better still, perhaps a representative of the French government could explain why the French authorities – with considerable financial support from Britain – still fail to stem the flow. Does France need reminding that it signed a joint agreement with Britain last November to prevent these crossings? France was to deploy advanced surveillance technology, with an increase in police numbers.

    Stephen Howey
    Woodford Green, Essex

    Shop and shelter

    SIR – Our wonderful village bakery and general store have had awnings (Letters, June 16) for nearly a century.

    They used to be the perfect place to stand and gossip in the shade during the summer, but recently they’ve been more useful for socially distanced queueing in driving wind and rain.

    Lesley Thompson
    Lavenham, Suffolk

    The formidable lady behind the Queen’s brooch

    SIR – You mentioned that the Queen wore the Jardine Star diamond brooch for her recent meeting with President Joe Biden.

    This brooch was given to the Queen by my great-great-aunt Eda, Lady Jardine, a daughter of Henry Johnston Younger of the Younger’s brewing family (later Scottish and Newcastle) and wife of Sir William Jardine, 9th Baronet of Applegirth.

    She was, by all accounts, an extremely formidable lady, who competed in the Monte Carlo Rally – winning the Coupe des Dames on at least one occasion. She was described by one relative as “someone who would have commanded an armoured division with distinction”.

    Lady Jardine followed the example of her father (who left much of his fortune to the Salvation Army) by funding a charitable trust. This was to the chagrin of my grandfather, her nephew, who, as she had no children, had hoped to inherit the money.

    Tim Wright
    Fernhurst, West Sussex

    Travel restrictions hamper volunteers’ work

    SIR – Every year, thousands of British volunteers travel to hospitals, schools, orphanages, refugee camps and other projects in low-income countries. Often they fly at their own expense.

    Covid-19 has given them difficulties enough, but Britain’s now near-indefensible travel restrictions have made their work all but impossible.

    The India variant has contributed to UK cases for well over a month, but France, Spain and Italy all continue to have many times more daily Covid-19-related deaths than Britain – and far lower vaccination rates. Yet it is the EU, not global Britain, that is opening its borders to travellers who have proof of vaccination. Inoculated British volunteers can travel freely to Spain or France but must pay, and half-imprison themselves, to come home.

    Vaccination has a double purpose: to protect the individual and, by reducing transmission, to protect communities – the principle of herd immunity. With Britain’s successful vaccine rollout, travel restrictions for vaccinated people should be lifted immediately.

    Professor Neil Scolding
    Universities of Bristol, UK, and Gulu, Uganda

    SIR – My husband and I flew back from Italy, where we visited our son and his family, and saw our five-month-old granddaughter for the first time.

    We are both fully vaccinated. We have jumped through every hoop and now have daily phone calls from NHS Test and Trace. The likelihood that either of us has picked up Covid-19 is tiny. Yet much money is being spent on a pointless quarantining policy.

    The emphasis on how we must now live our lives seems more and more out of kilter with the statistics. The NHS has been saved – at least from this one virus. Stop moving the goalposts.

    Ruth Leach
    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

    1. Perhaps Priti Patel could explain why, despite millions of pounds being thrown at the problem of Channel migrants, hundreds are still being picked up by Border Force.

      Better still, perhaps a representative of the French government could explain why the French authorities – with considerable financial support from Britain – still fail to stem the flow. Does France need reminding that it signed a joint agreement with Britain last November to prevent these crossings? France was to deploy advanced surveillance technology, with an increase in police numbers.

      Poor Stephen. He probably still thinks he lives in a Democracy!

      1. OMG! The DT’s Fashion writers’ disease is contagious – one can catch it even if just skipping over the sub-headings. 🙁

      2. Morning Stephen. Vlad, as Bill pointed out the other day, is turning into quite a snazzy dresser. One wonders if he has a new girlfriend!

      3. Morning Stephen. Vlad, as Bill pointed out the other day, is turning into quite a snazzy dresser. One wonders if he has a new girlfriend!

      4. Morning Stephen. Vlad, as Bill pointed out the other day, is turning into quite a snazzy dresser. One wonders if he has a new girlfriend!

        1. I’m hanging on to mine. Apparently it will soon earn me as much as Bitcoin.

  11. No illusions between the US and Russia. 17 June 2021.

    Mr Biden and Mr Putin had a litany of grievances to get through – everything from cyberattacks and sanctions to human rights abuses. Even so, the meeting resulted in some minor achievements, including the restoration of normal ambassadorial ties and an agreement for further dialogue, and no major embarrassments. But neither side appeared to be under any illusions about the nature of their relationship. The Russian president used a lengthy press conference to, among other things, defend his repressive rule.

    You have to wonder how anyone living in the present day UK Police State with its, Lies, Censorship, Program of Fear and Oppression of the People could write such a line!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/17/no-illusions-us-russia/

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      But, but, but our restrictions are only temporary, that nice Mr Johnson wants them lifted. Didn’t he say that at PMQs yesterday? In fact, nobody wants them lifted more than he does, or so he said. Being a congenital liar means that he can say that with a straight face, and still some people believe him, including MPs it would seem. Mind you, the present incumbents of the HoC are not the sharpest set of knives in the drawer.

      1. Mind you, the present incumbents of the HoC are not the sharpest set of knives in the drawer.

        Morning Korky. Traitors all!

  12. Good Morning All, another cold morning.
    We watched the Cardiff singer show. As other Nottlers have pointed out, the orchestra and singer are socially distanced and there is no audience. The singer from Iceland tested positive prior to her appearance and was dropped and substituted.
    However, a positive test does not mean that you have Covid. Moreover the social distancing is intended to prevent the spread and was devised for that purpose on the advice of SAGE. Does the exclusion of the Iceland singer suggest that social distancing does not work or just that everyone is scared stupid? If it does not work, then it has been a clinically worthless imposition on the people of the UK, although as a function of control it has worked well.

      1. Good job I didn’t mention that last night’s winner was Gotcha!. Tee-Hee

          1. I thought she chose a better programme. The others were a bit stuttery, as dialogue is sometimes no more than the bits between arias. “Lilacs” flowed wonderfully. The black woman will win though…

  13. Good morning, all. Damp. But the much heralded – and much needed – rain seems to have missed us.

    The lying BPAPM got his way in the Commons, I see.

      1. Here is the Conservative list:

        Miriam Cates

        Christopher Chope

        Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

        Elliot Colburn

        Philip Davies

        David Davis

        Jonathan Djanogly

        Richard Drax

        Ian Duncan Smith

        Mark Francois

        Marcus Fysh

        Chris Grayling

        Chris Green

        Mark Harper

        Philip Hollobone

        David Jones

        Pauline Latham

        Andrew Lewer

        Chris Loder

        Jonathan Lord

        Tim Loughton

        Craig Mackinlay

        Karl McCartney

        Stephen McPartland

        Esther McVey

        Huw Merriman

        Anne Marie Morris

        Mark Pawsey

        John Redwood

        Andrew Rossindell

        Greg Smith

        Henry Smith

        Julian Sturdy

        Desmond Swayne

        Robert Syms

        Craig Tracey

        Charles Walker

        David Warburton

        William Wragg

        Plus two tellers: Steve Baker and Jackie Doyle-Price.

        3. Is the replacement for Johnson as party leader on that list? If so, who is it?

          (as far as I know nobody in my family has ever been called Craig. However there was a chap called Richard Tracey who used to be the MP for Surbiton. He was quite an affable chap and he once came to tea with us at Le Grand Osier. When my aunt was a newly qualified doctor in the 1920’s she lived in London and was the only Tracey in the phone book)

        4. Not one single one of my contemporaries from Oxford! No surprises there.
          The only one I know personally is Jackie Doyle-Price, who is generally a good person.

  14. Don’t Get Lost

    A young journalism student at the University of Tennessee was assigned to write a human-interest story. He went into the mountains to do some research. There, he found an old farmer sitting on his porch, introduced himself, and explained his mission.

    The young man asked, “Has anything ever happened around here that made you really happy?”

    After a moment, the farmer said, “Yeah, one time my neighbour’s daughter, a fine-looking gal, got lost. We formed a posse and found her. After we all screwed her, we took her back home.”

    “I can’t print that!” the young man exclaimed. “Can’t you think of anything else that happened that made you happy?”

    The farmer thought for a minute and smiled, “Yep! One time a neighbour’s sheep got lost. We formed a posse and found it. Then we all screwed it and took it back home.”

    Again, the young man said “I can’t print that, either. Let’s try another approach. Has anything ever happened around here that made you really sad?”

    The old farmer dropped his head as if he were ashamed, and after a few seconds he looked up timidly at the young man and said, “This one time, I got lost.”

      1. Thank you, Stephen – we do try.

        In fact some might say that we are really trying!

  15. Morning all, no rain overnight, the garden is showing signs of watering being needed. Still warm though.

      1. “The smell this morning is divine”?!?!? Annie, you are really Joe Biden and I claim my five bob postal order!

        :-))

    1. Clap the git in irons and throw him into the Tower of London to rot, would be more deserving.

        1. I’m afraid that when it comes to people of Hancock’s ilk, see my comment above re ‘duty of care’, I am really nasty. Nothing so quick as what you propose but a lifetime’s incarceration in solitary. This would, before they went mad, give them time to consider their words and actions that brought them to their current pass.

          1. they tried that with the Moors muderers, didn’t work and wasting taxpayers [our] money. Alternative option is real reality tv – remake Bullseye, tie Halfock to a board and have all those who lost loved ones, use blow pipes dipped in dart frog toxins. Contestants all win a prize

      2. Surely we only clap on Thursday evenings … h’mm … 8.0 pm tonight should be interesting.

    2. It doesn’t matter what the public think of him.

      Professor Schwab is his great friend, so there is every likelihood of him being the next Gauleiter of Britain.

      Be nice to him.

  17. English Heritage labels Enid Blyton’s work ‘racist and xenophobic’

    Famous Five author in charity’s sights as it says it will review all blue plaques for links to ‘contested’ figures

    Information on the plaque provided online and on an English Heritage app states Blyton’s work has been criticised “for its racism, xenophobia
    and lack of literary merit”.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    Membership/Legacy cancellation email being prepared

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/english-heritage-links-enid-blytons-work-racism-xenophobia/

      2. A newly arrived householder in Toytown complained about the noise of the bell on his hat. Golly is merely a Noise Marshal reminding Noddy that it’s after 10.0 pm.

      3. I see no EV charging port on that car, burn them to hell for using fossil fuel!

    2. In a similar (slitting) vein:

      A lengthy but interesting read:

      “Christine Lagarde, former head of the International Monetary Fund (now president of the European Central Bank), blamed the financial meltdown on the underrepresentation of women on the boards of banks and in regulatory agencies. “If it had been Lehman Sisters rather than Lehman Brothers,” she was quoted as saying, repeating a favourite mantra, “the world might well look a lot different today.”

      Welcome to Wokespeak: Its Logic-Defying Rhetoric Is Making Heads Spin:

      https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/06/15/welcome_to_wokespeak_its_logic-defying_rhetoric_is_making_heads_spin_780731.html

      Edit to add: “In the midst of the nation’s racial upheaval last year, media outlets including the Associated Press, the New York Times and the Washington Post rushed to start capitalising the word “Black” in reference to African Americans, some announcing the move as a long-overdue gesture of respect. While RealClear has not changed its style, the change elsewhere prompted newsroom soul-searching on whether to write “white” or “White” in reference to people of European descent.

      Today’s topsy-turvy woke culture has people doing conceptual flips — leaving many confused.

      Capitalising the term made sense as a simple matter of consistency. But the argument for lower-casing “white” staked its own moral claims. One was that capitalising it would legitimise white supremacy. Another was that “white” in lower case is an apolitical description of a skin color; it doesn’t merit capitalisation because whites don’t represent a shared culture.”

      1. Interesting BTL Comment:

        “Anti-wokist
        crescentfang@hotmail.com

        1 day ago
        A contractor hired by my company kicked off a diversity, inclusion and equity training class. I raised my hand and ask that she stop appropriating my culture. She asked in what way she was doing that. I informed her that she was using English for financial gain and that English originated with the Angles who were a Germanic people that lived in what is now England. She responded tersely that, as a minority, she could not appropriate a culture. I let her know that her defensive response was a sign of woke fragility and that we should spend some time dissecting her defensiveness. She threatened to report me to my supervisor for questioning the course material. I responded that, as the instructor, she was in a position of power and privilege and so I would expect her to do just that. After all, between Hollywood, schools and universities, big corporations, sports and government, the only thing systemic in the United States right now is Leftism”.

        1. I once got into terrible trouble for questioning course material and the instructor.
          It was painfully apparent that the course had been rushed out, the material was poor, out of date, and the instructor and his assistants didn’t understand the business itself.
          Naturally he complained to my boss and I was hauled over the coals. When I explained the reasons for my dissatisfaction, with examples, the course was suspended until they put together a better one.
          It still cost me an annual bonus.

          1. Likewise, during one re-education course at work which touched upon the discrimination against travellers, it was stated that they were 70% more likely to have planning applications for developments in the green belt turned down than the general population. I queried why if they were ‘travellers’ they needed developments. I didn’t point out that most of the general population know that it is exceedingly unlikely that a green belt development would not be permitted so don’t bother to apply

          2. Likewise, during one re-education course at work which touched upon the discrimination against travellers, it was stated that they were 70% more likely to have planning applications for developments in the green belt turned down than the general population. I queried why if they were ‘travellers’ they needed developments. I didn’t point out that most of the general population know that it is exceedingly unlikely that a green belt development would not be permitted so don’t bother to apply

          4. I’ve had that happen too.
            Internal audit reporting lines and supposed independence is fine in theory. When management can find themselves under public scrutiny as a result of a report, they aren’t keen on its publication.

            Pre the days of whistleblower protection legislation.

          5. A few years ago when she worked for the Probation Service, Mrs D was sent on a diversity course. It was run by a Muslim who said the Koran was the most important book in the world.

            She disagreed and said it might be for him but she believed the most important book in the world was the Holy Bible. She then walked out and told her boss not to send her on any more diversity courses.

    3. This is nothing new, they have had EB in their sights since I was a child!

      There are one or two excruciatingly racist passages in her books, where she makes out black people to be half-wits. As a child, I found these uncomfortable.
      Not sure where they get that she was homophobic from though – she came from a generation where nice middle class women barely even knew what homosexuality was.
      She did write one awful, smug do-gooding book about the evils of divorced women going out to work, which I also disliked as a child, even though I didn’t even know any families where the parents were divorced.
      I don’t think EB was a very nice person, but she herself said that she didn’t accept criticism of her books from anyone over ten.

      1. She was no doubt influenced by her own upbringing. Divorce was only for the wealthy, so the divorced woman shouldn’t need to go out to work.

      2. I never warmed to her work – not because of its content but because of her very unsophisticated literary style.

        1. I never read her – I was a precocious reader and read far beyond my calendar age. I demolished Lewis Carrol at the age of 6 and later I was given a copy of Homer’s Odyssey when I was 10 (some children love dinosaurs – I was passionate about Greek and Roman mythology) which, while hard work, I thoroughly enjoyed,

        2. I think that is why she said she would not accept criticism from anyone over ten. She is a great story-teller.
          I loved most of her work as a child – it was far more vivid to me than the stuff I was supposed to like because it had literary or artistic merit. Of course, one knew perfectly well what the adults thought one should be reading!

    4. “That’s it! Noddy. You over-privileged car owning whitey. You are out! Take Big Ears with you. Gilbert Golly can stay.”

  18. English Heritage labels Enid Blyton’s work ‘racist and xenophobic’

    Famous Five author in charity’s sights as it says it will review all blue plaques for links to ‘contested’ figures

    Information on the plaque provided online and on an English Heritage app states Blyton’s work has been criticised “for its racism, xenophobia
    and lack of literary merit”.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    Membership/Legacy cancellation email being prepared

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/english-heritage-links-enid-blytons-work-racism-xenophobia/

  19. Rape and ripping out fingernails: the extraordinary violence used by county lines gangs to exploit children. 17 June 2021.

    County lines gangs are using increasing levels of violence to exploit boys and girls, including removing their fingernails, frontline medical staff report.

    Hospital staff have told researchers that they were now treating victims of county lines violence who had suffered multiple injuries, where before they may only have been admitted with one or two.

    These included fingernails being pulled out, hair being ripped off their heads and multiple stab wounds, according to the report by Nottingham University’s Rights Lab based on interviews with frontline workers.

    Ah the joys of multiculturalism! It’s a good thing really you know! All that Diversity and Inclusion. Why I’ve been known to do both on the same day!

    One could weep but it would be pointless!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/17/rape-ripping-fingernails-extraordinary-violence-used-county/

    2. The great thing about rape and ripping out fingernails is that you can’t be done for carrying a knife.

      2. When I was a boy we all carried knives. I had a particularly good one with an antler handle which was housed ostentatiously in an elaborately decorated leather sheath which I wore proudly on my belt.

        Nobody in my social circle would have ever thought of using his (or her) knife as a weapon; the knives were usually used for carving and whittling wood and gutting fish. I also had various pocket knives – and indeed I still have a stainless steel sailing knife with a sharp blade, a marling spike and a device for opening shackles. The pocket knives of my childhood also had invaluable devices for opening tins and bottles and removing stones from horses’ hooves.

        Social circles must have changed since I was snapping whippers. I wonder how and why that came about?

    3. Ripping out fingernails was the punishment inflicted on Odette Hallows in Ravensbrück concentration camp.

    4. These included fingernails being pulled out, hair being ripped off their heads and multiple stab wounds, according to the report by
      Nottingham University’s Rights Lab based on interviews with frontline workers.

      No mention of the perlice and what they are doing

    5. A chap we know , who is in the know , informed us that county lines gangs have infiltrated Dorest and rural Dorset, and the swine are bods of diverse variety are mostly from Croydon.

      Wasn’t Croydon nearly destroyed by barbaric blacks a few years ago?

  20. Good morning from a damp Derbyshire.
    The overnight rain has stopped and it’s 11°C outside.

  21. Last night was the first full rehearsal of the Elgar Chorale since March 2020. We met in someone’s garden with a lawn big enough to space the choir out the regulation two metres apart. At the start, the heat made us vocally tired, and the acoustic outside was unforgiving, but we actually sang in tune and as in time as is feasible when there is a lag between one side of the choir and the other. It was a joy to sing together again at last. We need every rehearsal for our next concert booked for the Three Choirs Festival on 25th July.

    Nobody knows whether it will go ahead. The committee met, but could resolve nothing since they simply will not know until 12th July whether or not a concert on the 25th will be legal, or whether we can rehearse indoors where we can hear each other. How does one book a venue, performers, technicians and sell tickets on that basis?

    1. How cruel it all is.
      One might as well be under the Taliban, with music, cultural exchange & individual faith (or the expression of it) forbidden.
      Well done at least for continuing to practice.

  22. Good Moaning.
    For some reason, the DT has already demoted this item.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/latest-covid-modelling-pushed-back-june-21-based-out-of-date/

    Covid modelling that pushed back June 21 was based on out-of-date data

    Government published figures to support pushing back ‘Freedom Day’ despite knowing estimates of vaccine effectiveness were incorrect

    16 June 2021 • 6:07pm

    The Government had known about the figures since last Friday Credit: Jonathan Buckmaster/Daily Express/PA

    On Monday, just hours before Boris Johnson pushed back Freedom Day by four weeks, the Government published new modelling, warning that a deadly third wave was on the horizon.

    Under the most pessimistic scenario, Imperial College estimated Britain could experience a further 203,824 deaths by next June, while even modest estimates from other groups suggested more than 50,000 would die.

    Yet it has now emerged the models were based on out-of-date estimates of vaccine effectiveness, which assumed far fewer people protected by the jabs.

    Imperial was working on the basis that the AstraZeneca jab would reduce hospitalisations by between 77 and 87 per cent after two doses, while the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) suggested 81 to 90 per cent, and the University of Warwick put it a little higher – between 86 and 95 per cent.

    We now know from real-world Public Health England (PHE) data that the AstraZeneca jab is 92 per cent effective against hospitalisation.

    The effectiveness of the Pfizer jab was also underestimated by the groups, with Imperial estimating 84 to 90 per cent, LSHTM 85 to 90 per cent and Warwick 86 to 95 per cent. PHE currently estimates it is 96 per cent.

    The distinction is important because it now means that both the pessimistic and central scenarios for all groups must be wrong. For Warwick, that would mean their death estimates could fall from 72,400 to 17,100.

    Switching to an optimistic scenario would also see Imperial’s death figures fall from 203,824 to 26,854. Even that is likely to be too high as even their best-case vaccine efficacy was out by five per cent.

    The PHE figures were made public 30 minutes after the modelling papers dropped, so it might be tempting to think that the new data came too late to make a difference.

    Yet at Wednesday’s science and technology select committee, Dr Susan Hopkins, the deputy director of PHE’s national infection service, told MPs that the Government had known about the figures since last Friday.

    It means that the Government published modelling data to bolster a delay despite already knowing it was out of date.

    All the models showed a significant wave of infections in the summer, and suggested that a pause of several weeks would save thousands of lives. Yet this was based on central estimates which now cannot be correct.

    Highlighting the data discrepancy at Wednesday’s select committee, Aaron Bell, Conservative MP, said: “The models that we seem to be relying on to justify the extension of restrictions don’t appear to be using [the PHE] numbers.

    “This is really important because the number of deaths that those numbers ultimately forecast, are for people who have had both doses, so if they have been using numbers that are now superseded, doesn’t that alter the case for the continuation of restrictions?”

    “We are voting in the House of Commons on the basis of those models. And it’s obviously very good news. These numbers are coming out so far ahead of even the optimistic scenarios that have been modelled.”

    Placeholder image for youtube video: XPYI_qYHOvQ

    The debacle was neatly summed up by committee chair Greg Clark, who asked the panel of experts: “The models would look different if we plugged in the new data? Everyone’s nodding.”

    Mr Clark, the former science minister, pointed out that the pandemic had been “beset by uncertainties and difficulties with modelling evidence informing government policy decisions” and queried why the real-world data hadn’t been given precedence.

    “Wouldn’t it have been possible given the relatively new real world data, to say actually, in the light of this data, we need a few more days to assess it, before we decide what is going to be the right implications of public policy?”

    He called for the modellers to re-run the models based on the new data as soon as possible “so that, as the Prime Minister promised, a reappraisal can be made and a change made if it’s justified”.

    Prof Hopkins said she had “no doubt” that the modellers would re-run the models based on the new data, yet it is likely to be too late to make a difference.

    Back in February, the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M) also underestimated vaccine effectiveness in models used to inform the roadmap.

    At the time, scientists believed jabs would reduce the risk of infection between 24 and 48 per cent after the first dose, and 30 to 60 per cent after the second dose.

    But real world results were already showing that Pfizer was reducing the risk of infection by 70 per cent after one dose and 85 per cent after the second dose.

    The models were indeed re-run with the updated figures, and eye-watering death estimates reduced. Yet the roadmap was never revised and the changes never acknowledged by the Government.

    We can only hope this time will be different. Although cases and admissions are rising, the numbers are still very low. Dr Hopkins admitted only around one per cent of beds in the NHS are currently being used by Covid patients, with little chance of the health service being overwhelmed.

    This is hardly surprising when you consider that in 12 of the last 13 weeks there have been fewer deaths than expected compared with the five-year average, with England and Wales currently 4.8 per cent below the five-year average for deaths.

    As University of Oxford vaccine lead Professor Sir Andrew Pollard remarked at Wednesday’s select committee hearing: “If we don’t have very high hospitalisations despite the spread, the public health crisis is over.

    “As long as people continue to get vaccinated,” he added: “We’re in a very good position.” “

    1. mng anne, sumarised as “We can only hope this time will be different & As long as people continue to get vaccinated, We’re in a very good position”

      The hope being hiding behind big pharma immunity from any prosecution.

      that’s demolished if / when people don’t play / abide by their rules

    2. If there is one bit alone that tells me that this whole data set is likely to be untrustworthy it is this:
      Under the most pessimistic scenario, Imperial College estimated Britain could experience a further 203,824 deaths by next June,

      This is totally spurious accuracy.

      1. Love the 24 – so specific. Why not 20 or 30? Out of a population of 70 million.

        1. Good will always helps.
          Do you often get people trying to come back for even less?

    1. I still have the traditional low-tech light bulbs which are working well and brightly after over 20 years.

      However the mercury filled ones lose their brightness very quickly and after six months give hardly any light at all. LEDs are better but even they do not always last as long as one would have hoped.

      The words of John Milton often come into my mind:

      ‘O dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon,
      Irrecoverably dark, total eclipse
      Without all hope of day!’

      Mind you he was speaking of his blindness rather than the quality of seventeeth century light bulbs!

      1. We have boxes of traditional light bulbs in the attic.
        As soon as the ban was announced, I nipped to a nearby wholesaler and stocked up.
        Some LEDs have a reasonable life span, others blow within weeks.
        Those ghastly greens mercury filled ones we tried in the shed and didn’t bother any more.

    1. Wouldn’t people be more eager to have the jabs if they were released from the restrictions?

      At the moment you cannot travel, you cannot throw away your mask, you cannot have a normal social and family life.

      So is it surprising that people say that the jabs must be useless and they may even be dangerous?

      1. mng Rastus, the core point is UK Govt [read big pharma] don’t have the preferred numbers, hence Red List of countries, “variants”, all part of the psy op and fear agenda while they [UK Govt] gear up to collapse the economy completely. Then will come the chipped ID [via injection], aka the EU already out the stalls with their digital ID.

    2. Wouldn’t people be more eager to have the jabs if they were released from the restrictions?

      At the moment you cannot travel, you cannot throw away your mask, you cannot have a normal social and family life.

      So is it surprising that people say that the jabs must be useless and they may even be dangerous?

  26. Anyone else seen this? More evidence that Hancock is a very, very dangerous person. Criminals, no matter how heinous their crimes are afforded duty of care by the state. It would appear that people who have exercised their right, enshrined in law, not to be jabbed with an experimental potion would be declared non-persons if this serial liar could have his way.

    https://twitter.com/TheBembridge/status/1405189436493737984

    1. The House of Commons is just a rubber stamp without credibility! Even the so-called opposition are gutless wonders.

    2. pt of that reverts back to Cummings comments that Govt in itself has no power, it’s controlled by the Cabinet Office. Halfock is also hiding behind the corporates expecting to have same immunity from any prosecution. However, UK government signed the 1947 Nuremberg statues, so he is accountable via holding a senior position within Government office. Those words and his current stance will come back and bite him. those above him will throw him to the wolves to cover themselves

    3. Well, that’s riding motor bikes, smoking, and climbing ladders off to-do list. And just about every other voluntary human activity.

      1. I’ve just managed the washing up without dropping anything heavy on my toes.
        Saving ‘our NHS’ requires a lot of concentration.

      2. Not to mention riding horses – one of the top ten most dangerous sports, apparently!

    4. If they refuse to treat the unvaccinated and the hospitals are full, won’t that send a very clear message about the nature of the vaccines?

    5. If people are going to be denied healthcare, then they must also be allowed to opt out of paying for the NHS.

  27. GBNews has improved. The sound and the synchronisation has settled in very nicely.
    Richi Sunak was very unimpressive under proper questioning – just evasive answers and sound bites. Whether through ‘loyalty’ to the current line or because he just doesn’t know only time will tell. Question: do we have that time?
    Afterwards, Michael Portillo and Liam Halligan showed that the Cabinet is mainly comprised of lightweights. The words authoritative and knowledgeable spring to mind.

      1. Not sub-titles, but there is a running news strip along the bottom of the screen a la BBC World News.
        My other half is pretty deaf and needs hearing aids, and he had no problems last night whereas before he had become very frustrated.

    2. Pity he wasn’t asked how he felt about the continued borrowing this government undertakes whilst bankrupting the country.

      1. He was pushed on that and this is where the sound bites and evasions were deployed. I think Andrew Neill let Sunak condemn himself by omission. There comes a stage where constant questioning becomes very Laura Koonsberg.

        1. I think/hope that Neil has an audience that is sufficiently aware to see when the politicians are evasive and then draw their own conclusions.

        2. Morning Anne – I look forward to Priti Patel, Eustace and Hancock being interviewed by AN. Boris , of course, may forbid his Cabinet to appear on GB News. Sunak was struggling on how to answer questions on his future plans which he claims will be available in the Autumn review. Somehow GB News must get some of these interviews more widely out to the public. Our PM must be brought under control.

          1. It was painful to watch.
            Was he trying to avoid telling lies or giving hostages to fortune or was he genuinely that unprepared?

        3. Your original spelling of Laura’s surname would have been even better with a capital C.

          You will remember how I was howling before the election that Andrew Neil should interview Boris Johnson about the contents of his WA which he was very keen to keep hushed up?

          Johnson at first said yes, he would be interviewed by Neil but then had to withdraw from being interviewed through lack of time. Few could have been convinced by this evasive ploy.

          As you know I am keen for Johnson to be interviewed on live TV by Andrew Neil and asked why he caved in at the last minute and surrendered to the EU on financial services, fishing and the border in the Irish Sea.

          Johnson may be as thick a porcine excrement but he is not so stupid as to not realise that Andrew Neil could be his nemesis so we shall never see that interview.

  28. ‘I’ve never seen a president so protected by his aides’: CNN’s Jeff Zeleny slams Biden’s handlers for ‘screaming at him’ to stop him answering questions.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2cfe66cc3854e12cba8826781b14f818ae4cc19d68cc23f823fab317ac649109.png

    Joe Biden’s aides are preventing him from taking questions, according to CNN’s chief national affairs correspondent, who claimed that the president’s advisors are regularly ‘screaming at him to stop’.

    Jeff Zeleny spoke on Wednesday after Biden’s much-hyped meeting with Vladimir Putin in Russia.

    Biden angrily confronted Zeleny’s CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins, asking her: ‘What the hell?’ when she questioned him about the summit. Biden later apologized, before boarding the plane to leave.

    It sounds like he was quite near (look at the photograph also) to a “Temper tantrum” and they needed to shut him up PDQ. This denial of his condition is in itself quite extraordinary. They have complete control of the MSM so it doesn’t appear there, but as the perusal of any article message board (including this one) tells you that doesn’t mean that it’s a secret. In fact everyone knows who has the slightest interest in politics. Roosevelt’s Polio; JFK’s Addison’s Disease were also kept out of the news but these conditions did not impinge on their function.

    Biden to the contrary is quite clearly incapable of carrying out his role as POTUS. This must have been known before the election and concealed from the American People rendering the whole process fraudulent!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9695039/Ive-never-seen-president-protected-aides-CNNs-Jeff-Zeleny-slams-Biden-handlers.html

    1. Morning Minty..
      One thing was glaringly different between the two press conferences.
      Putin took questions from the world’s media (including a lot of US news channels)
      Biden didn’t accept one question from a Russian news outlet.

        2. Question #1: Are you a liberal minded & democratically elected president who believes in free speech?
          Answer: Yes I am a liberal minded & democratically elected president who believes in free speech and I will kill anybody who says otherwise!

    2. “……. This must have been known before the election and concealed from the American People rendering the whole process fraudulent!”

      But we all knew it but it made no difference.

      More and more of us are beginning to be convinced the the result of the election was completely fraudulent which raises the prospect of The Republicans never being allowed to win an election again.

      1. If the democrats get their way over Washington DC becoming a State and get the current election voter proposals through then it will be a certainty. They will be playing the racist card to do so, they are so desperate for it to happen..

      2. But CNN was one of the pack leaders in constantly pointing out to the American public how bad Trump was, and how very good a “leftie”

        Biden would be for the Nation.

        Other publications frantic for Biden’s election included the (very) left wing New York Times, run by an ex BBC employee.

      3. But CNN was one of the pack leaders in constantly pointing out to the American public how bad Trump was, and how very good a “leftie”

        Biden would be for the Nation.

        Other publications frantic for Biden’s election included the (very) left wing New York Times, run by an ex BBC employee.

      4. Oh, the Republicans will be allowed to “win” – but only with a RINO candidate.

  29. Good morning, my friends

    Sacrifice the green belt to solve the housing crisis
    Property owners have no right to prevent the next generation from enjoying the benefits of a stable home
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/16/sacrifice-green-belt-solve-housing-crisis/

    Comments on this article are now closed – probably because too many people are saying what I would be posting if comments were not closed!

    For over 50 years the indigenous population of Britain has not risen – the gross population rise has been due to unregulated immigration. Britain does not have too few houses – it has too many immigrants.

    Having said that both our boys (aged 27 and 25) have somehow already managed to get onto the property ladder albeit with large mortgages.

    1. They must have been reopened as I’ve just made one:-

      Robert Spowart
      17 Jun 2021 9:16AM
      We do not have a housing shortage, we have a people surplus and allowing people who arrive illegally to stay in the country is not helping in the slightest.Edit ()

    2. Is that our future – they’re going to house us in stables? 100 sq ft each and some straw.

  30. Good morning, my friends

    Sacrifice the green belt to solve the housing crisis
    Property owners have no right to prevent the next generation from enjoying the benefits of a stable home
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/16/sacrifice-green-belt-solve-housing-crisis/

    Comments on this article are now closed – probably because too many people are saying what I would be saying if comments were not closed!

    For over 50 years the indigenous population of Britain has not risen – the gross population rise has been due to unregulated immigration. Britain does not have too few houses – it has too many immigrants.

    Having said that both our boys (aged 27 and 25) have somehow already managed to get onto the property ladder with large mortgages.

    1. I thought she was very good in MRS. DOUBTFIRE, although I never realised that she now wears blackface make-up.

    4. The tech problems should have been sorted out by now. I am beginning to suspect sabotage.

  33. 334434+up ticks,
    IMO once it’s in your arm it can be doing harm, maybe a course of tablets would have been a better option, allowing a break off along the way.

    The peoples are putting a great deal of trust in politico’s not only for themselves but to also potentially condemn the children.

    The misguided trust in politico’s can be honesty judged by their / parties daily handiwork and the state of the nation, consented to by many.

    I liken the jab now & if made compulsory to the hanging of Timothy
    Evans the second the trap opens……..

    Live Coronavirus latest news: Herd immunity not possible without vaccinating children, expert suggests.

    Question,
    Why should children suffer for the proven stupidity of the electorate ?

      1. 334434+ up ticks,
        Morning AWK,
        The genuine sheep are completely innocent, the real horrifying thing is the ersatz sheep will continue to follow the same lab/lib/con coalition proven country destroying road.

        1. back to NOTA on the voting card. The usual clowns will still want to hold onto a semblance of power with only 10% of the electorate voting for them

          1. 334434+ up ticks,
            AWK,
            I will vote anything BUT for a lab/lib/con candidate then send the like of Anne Marie Waters a small donation to help support those who can vote for her in that area.

  34. I’m beginning to wonder if Geoff should change the name of this forum to Cynics ‘r’us….?

    1. If you’re not a cynic at my age there is something missing…

      The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who haven’t got it. …

    1. The Daily Star is becoming increasingly more reputable by the day (which doesn’t say much for the rest of ’em!)

  37. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “You cannot argue stupidity, you just have to accept it patiently as one of those things.”

    Nevil Shute.

    1. I am guessing that Nevil Shute was constantly pissed off by the huge number of people who could not be bothered to spell his name correctly.

        1. Very good storyteller – quite forgotten today. Foresaw the Comet disaster. Designed very successful weapons of war.

    2. Morning Grizzly

      Whadya fink of dis ?

      Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And that process is continuing day be day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except the endless present in which the party is always right.

      George Orwell

      2. Afternoon, Maggie.

        I think it’s from the hymnsheet that the current bunch of world controllers are all singing from.

      1. orig content no [see below]. Obviously had to be presented as such. Am aware all sites are tracked, the content is known

    3. Ferguson is a fraud and a charlatan but even he’s not stupid enough to put such information in a document that could seen by unauthorised eyes. If he wanted to convey such information I am sure that people aware of the future plans would communicate with each other using agreed code words/phrases.

    1. Good morning, Hatman. You just can’t resist busty lady singers, can you? {:¬))

  40. Healthcare workers today, everyone tomorrow – that’s where mandatory jabs are leading us

    They are softening us up, bit by bit, making logical and acceptable what was once unthinkable

    ROBERT TAYLOR

    What fresh hell is this? As if the unrivalled onslaught against our liberty, which they said would last three weeks to protect the NHS, but which has lasted 15 months and counting, were not enough. Now, the chilling, insidious notion of compulsory vaccinations rears its revolting head.

    With Boris Johnson’s “personal support”, the government is set to announce that the UK’s two million NHS and care-home workers will have to be vaccinated. They’ll be sacked unless they submit. No jab? No job.

    Horrible. Yet I can almost see legions of British people nodding their heads at this plan. I can see it passing the pub test. Yes, they’ll say, I wouldn’t want my elderly mum looked after by someone who might be transmitting a virus. Get ’em jabbed. Hold ’em down, if necessary.

    But consider this: does anyone think this will stop at healthcare workers? Does anyone think that once we’ve accepted compulsory vaccinations in one sector that they won’t then look around and say how about you over there? And you?

    What about visitors to hospitals and care homes? Surely it’s only logical that they too must be vaccinated, and otherwise denied entry. And since it takes three weeks for vaccines to give protection, and you never know when you might need to visit someone in hospital, that means we must all be vaccinated. It must be compulsory.

    And then there’s all those organisations, already obsessed by health and safety, who fancy saying to their customers: we guarantee all our staff have been jabbed. Before you know it, you’ll have to prove you’ve had the jab to get a job in a bank. Or school. Or restaurant, pub, local council or factory. Or anywhere you meet other people.

    We’ve seen it already with vaccine passports. Oh, they’re not compulsory, we’re told. It’s just that you won’t be able to do anything unless you have one. Oh, it’s only the vulnerable who need to be vaccinated. Then the over-50s. Then all adults. Now teenagers. And still it goes on. It’ll be toddlers next.

    Freedom destruction isn’t limited just to Covid, either. It spreads. Earlier this year, in the light of a horrible murder, the Green Party’s Baroness Jones seriously suggested curfews after 6pm for all men. That she hasn’t been roundly ridiculed and condemned says it all about our increasing acceptance of state control over our lives.

    Drip, drip. Chip away. Soften us up, bit by bit. Make what was unthinkable 15 months ago logical and acceptable now. Until finally we arrive at compulsory vaccines from birth, and men locked away by law after sunset.

    It comes to something when we have to look to Keir Starmer for reason. Having rightly stated that vaccine passports are “not British”, he now deserves praise for admitting “misgivings” about mandatory vaccinations for healthcare workers, and for saying he prefers to encourage, not force. Well said.

    In any case, why force, when British take-up of vaccines is so high? Nearly 90 per cent of NHS staff have been jabbed. We can get it even higher through encouragement and reassurance, without threats that Soviet Russia would have been proud of.

    Boris Johnson once called compulsory ID cards “a recipe for tyranny and oppression”. Yet he is now proposing something worse. Many of us will be forever grateful to him for Brexit and saving us from Jeremy Corbyn. But he’s clambering aboard a conveyor belt towards authoritarianism.

    I fancy he know this. I fancy he wakes up in the darkest hours, when Downing Street is still and silent, and thinks to himself, what monster have I created? Can I turn back?

    Yes you can, Prime Minister. It’s not too late. But every new freedom-destroying proposal to which lend your support makes the reverse gear more difficult to employ.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/healthcare-workers-today-everyone-tomorrow-wheremandatory/

    1. ‘It comes to something when we have to look to Keir Starmer for reason…..

      Is that a knee jerk reaction……

    2. I’m sure Johnson wakes up sweating in the wee small hours and so he should.

      All politicians worry about their so-called ‘legacy’ and he will be remembered, not as the Prime Minister that delivered Brexit and saved us from the plague, but as the man whose mad policies caused thousands of avoidable deaths, wrecked the economy and destroyed the very fabric of British society.

    1. This was brought up briefly on GB News last night.

      It is early days yet but it does seem that the new channel is trying to get people with differing views to discuss topics.

      The fact that the Left howls that it is a ‘right-wing’ organisation shows how deeply the left resents any attempts at trying to give balance.

      1. GM Rastus, a channel employing Ex-BBC & Ex-Sky News ( a BBC Clone ) hard left pro-Muslim & pro-Diversity liberation theology Catholic Colin Brazier cannot be described as being right wing & besides it has a number of obligatory Black “Wimmins” to give it “balance” . Fortunately its just another UK channel that is not in my cable TV subscription.

      2. I agree, it’s not particularly right wing. It ain’t woke is what’s upsetting them.

  42. Morning All,

    The storm has missed us here , no rain, no thunder and no lightning , just a cool breeze , fresh air , and dry.

    Moh was up early again, more golf , an away match , prob 30 miles away westwards , so I hope he has a good day..

    Sadly I am with out my car again , so although I am grounded , have a few tasks to do later.

    1. The novel was absolutely terrible so I’ve never bothered watching the film.

        1. I have thought all along that Biden will last just to the point where when she takes over she can still get another two full terms.

    2. Does Herts l
      Lass have you email Hatter? I have a wonderful photograph you would love to see but i don’t have a link to open it and cant post it on this page.

  46. ‘Morning, all.

    Bumped into a friend of Mrs. Mac the other day who owns a holiday-home in Southern Spain and she told us of a dish that provides certain protection against the dreaded Covid-19 plague. It is a simple soup called ‘Ajo Blanco’, which is made from nothing more than fresh garlic with crushed almonds and is eaten cold, in the manner of the French soup, ‘Vichysoisse’. She said that she and her husband had taken a bowl of ‘Ajo Blanco’ every morning since the start of the pandemic and had remained free from the disease.

    Personally, I doubt that garlic soup could protect against any virus. My theory is that its apparent efficacy lies in the fact that nobody dare get close enough to infect her.

      1. All’s well here thanks, Jules, and I hope all’s well with you and yours.
        :¬)

    4. Good morning DM

      Good to see you are in full fettle and alive and kicking with your usual wisdom .

      Have you enjoyed your sabbatical?

  47. You think Hancock is repulsive…

    Leo Varadkar accused of stoking tensions with ‘united Ireland’ comments

    Politicians condemn the former Irish prime minister’s ‘unhelpful’ push for unification

    By James Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR • 16 June 2021 • 10:01pm

    Britain criticised Leo Varadkar on Wednesday after the Irish deputy prime minister said that a united Ireland could be achieved in his lifetime. The former prime minister urged his Fine Gael party to work with a growing middle ground of voters in Northern Ireland to reunify the island, which was divided a century ago this year.

    Mr Varadkar, who will take the top job in Irish government again next year under a coalition agreement, said at the annual Fine Gael party conference: “It is a legitimate political aspiration. Unification must not be the annexation of Northern Ireland. It means something more, a new state designed together, a new constitution and one that reflects the diversity of a binational or multinational state in which almost a million people are British. Like the new South Africa, a rainbow nation, not just orange and green.”

    Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, said that the comments were “ill-advised” and “unhelpful” in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He urged all sides to “dial down the rhetoric”, as Northern Ireland struggles with a burgeoning political crisis and turmoil caused by Brexit. Mr Lewis later held talks with local leaders in an effort to bridge bitter divides over Irish language legislation that threatens to collapse the power-sharing government in Stormont.

    The UK and Sinn Fein reached an agreement on the law at about 1am on Thursday morning. If no solution had been found before June 21, early elections would have been triggered.

    Unionists criticised Mr Varadkar, 42, for adding to the tensions, which have been further stoked by British and EU clashes over the Irish Sea border. Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist party leader, told the RTÉ broadcaster: “Good man, Leo, for bringing up Irish unity again when we are in a crisis.”

    Talks between Mr Varadkar and Boris Johnson were crucial in sealing the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, which includes the Northern Ireland Protocol, in 2019.

    Street protests

    There have been loyalist street protests against the Protocol, which prevents a hard Irish border by introducing checks on goods from Britain and keeping Northern Ireland aligned to EU rules. The EU has threatened Britain with trade tariffs if it unilaterally extends a grace period in the Protocol to ensure that British sausages can still be sold in Northern Irish shops from July 1.

    Mr Johnson has vowed to act if he feels that the UK’s territorial integrity is at stake by triggering Article 16 of the Protocol, which Brussels warns would break international law.

    The UK and EU have both accused each other of jeopardising the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, as Northern Ireland braces itself for the start of the marching season.

    The 1998 treaty that ended the Troubles states that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland can call a referendum on Irish reunification if it appears “likely” a majority would back it. The Good Friday Agreement is unclear as to how the Secretary of State would judge public opinion.

    Protestant majority

    Both Ireland and Northern Ireland must support reunification in separate border polls for it to go ahead. A poll for the Irish Independent newspaper showed that about 66 percent of Irish voters backed the move but only just more than a third of Northern Irish voters did.

    Northern Ireland has historically been dominated by a protestant majority that identifies as British. Academics predict that Catholics, who are more likely to support reunification and have closer ties to Ireland, will soon outnumber protestants in Northern Ireland. The threat of Scottish independence after Brexit is also sapping support for unionism, it is suggested.

    Mr Varadkar said: “There is no majority anymore in Northern Ireland. There are three minorities: one that defines itself as British and Unionist, another as Irish and Nationalist, and a third and growing middle ground – many born since the Good Friday Agreement – who refuse to be defined in this way.”

    He added that his centrist Fine Gael party should build its presence in Northern Ireland but not put candidates up for election there.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/brandon-lewis-criticises-varadkar-united-ireland-comments

    It’s notable that the Bombay Bogshite was happy to have talks with HMG that resulted in a bad outcome for the north but, two years earlier, was quick to pull Ireland out of the discussions that would have led to sensible border arrangements that would have benefitted both countries and would have stymied the EU’s troublemakers.

    BTL:
    Frabjous Day • 17 Jun 2021 • 10:03AM

    If it’s the expressed will of the people of Northern Ireland then more power to them.

    If Varadkar and Dublin think that the 11 billion or so UK subsidies to Northern Ireland will be coming with them then dream on.

    And you can have your Travellers back too.

    1. What is the great objection to a border poll(reunification)?
      The UK government rant on about democracy at every opportunity..surely this would be democracy in action.

    2. Without knowing exactly what ‘Article 16’ of the Protocol is, I cannot see how triggering it would break International Law, otherwise, why is ‘Article 16’ in the Protocol at all?

        1. Article 16 Safeguards
          1. If the application of this Protocol leads to serious economic, societal or environmental
          difficulties that are liable to persist, or to diversion of trade, the Union or the United Kingdom
          may unilaterally take appropriate safeguard measures. Such safeguard measures shall be
          restricted with regard to their scope and duration to what is strictly necessary in order to
          remedy the situation. Priority shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the
          functioning of this Protocol.
          2. If a safeguard measure taken by the Union or the United Kingdom, as the case may be, in
          accordance with paragraph 1 creates an imbalance between the rights and obligations under
          this Protocol, the Union or the United Kingdom, as the case may be, may take such
          proportionate rebalancing measures as are strictly necessary to remedy the imbalance. Priority
          shall be given to such measures as will least disturb the functioning of this Protocol.
          3. Safeguard and rebalancing measures taken in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be
          governed by the procedures set out in Annex 7 to this Protocol.

          1. Thank you, Paul. It seems very clear to me that, by invoking it, NO International Law is broken.

  48. You think Hancock is repulsive…

    Leo Varadkar accused of stoking tensions with ‘united Ireland’ comments

    Politicians condemn the former Irish prime minister’s ‘unhelpful’ push for unification

    By James Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR • 16 June 2021 • 10:01pm

    Britain criticised Leo Varadkar on Wednesday after the Irish deputy prime minister said that a united Ireland could be achieved in his lifetime. The former prime minister urged his Fine Gael party to work with a growing middle ground of voters in Northern Ireland to reunify the island, which was divided a century ago this year.

    Mr Varadkar, who will take the top job in Irish government again next year under a coalition agreement, said at the annual Fine Gael party conference: “It is a legitimate political aspiration. Unification must not be the annexation of Northern Ireland. It means something more, a new state designed together, a new constitution and one that reflects the diversity of a binational or multinational state in which almost a million people are British. Like the new South Africa, a rainbow nation, not just orange and green.”

    Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland secretary, said that the comments were “ill-advised” and “unhelpful” in the House of Commons on Wednesday. He urged all sides to “dial down the rhetoric”, as Northern Ireland struggles with a burgeoning political crisis and turmoil caused by Brexit. Mr Lewis later held talks with local leaders in an effort to bridge bitter divides over Irish language legislation that threatens to collapse the power-sharing government in Stormont.

    The UK and Sinn Fein reached an agreement on the law at about 1am on Thursday morning. If no solution had been found before June 21, early elections would have been triggered.

    Unionists criticised Mr Varadkar, 42, for adding to the tensions, which have been further stoked by British and EU clashes over the Irish Sea border. Doug Beattie, the Ulster Unionist party leader, told the RTÉ broadcaster: “Good man, Leo, for bringing up Irish unity again when we are in a crisis.”

    Talks between Mr Varadkar and Boris Johnson were crucial in sealing the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, which includes the Northern Ireland Protocol, in 2019.

    Street protests

    There have been loyalist street protests against the Protocol, which prevents a hard Irish border by introducing checks on goods from Britain and keeping Northern Ireland aligned to EU rules. The EU has threatened Britain with trade tariffs if it unilaterally extends a grace period in the Protocol to ensure that British sausages can still be sold in Northern Irish shops from July 1.

    Mr Johnson has vowed to act if he feels that the UK’s territorial integrity is at stake by triggering Article 16 of the Protocol, which Brussels warns would break international law.

    The UK and EU have both accused each other of jeopardising the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement, as Northern Ireland braces itself for the start of the marching season.

    The 1998 treaty that ended the Troubles states that the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland can call a referendum on Irish reunification if it appears “likely” a majority would back it. The Good Friday Agreement is unclear as to how the Secretary of State would judge public opinion.

    Protestant majority

    Both Ireland and Northern Ireland must support reunification in separate border polls for it to go ahead. A poll for the Irish Independent newspaper showed that about 66 percent of Irish voters backed the move but only just more than a third of Northern Irish voters did.

    Northern Ireland has historically been dominated by a protestant majority that identifies as British. Academics predict that Catholics, who are more likely to support reunification and have closer ties to Ireland, will soon outnumber protestants in Northern Ireland. The threat of Scottish independence after Brexit is also sapping support for unionism, it is suggested.

    Mr Varadkar said: “There is no majority anymore in Northern Ireland. There are three minorities: one that defines itself as British and Unionist, another as Irish and Nationalist, and a third and growing middle ground – many born since the Good Friday Agreement – who refuse to be defined in this way.”

    He added that his centrist Fine Gael party should build its presence in Northern Ireland but not put candidates up for election there.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/brandon-lewis-criticises-varadkar-united-ireland-comments

    It’s notable that the Bombay Bogshite was happy to have talks with HMG that resulted in a bad outcome for the north but, two years earlier, was quick to pull Ireland out of the discussions that would have led to sensible border arrangements that would have benefitted both countries and would have stymied the EU’s troublemakers.

    BTL:
    Frabjous Day • 17 Jun 2021 • 10:03AM

    If it’s the expressed will of the people of Northern Ireland then more power to them.

    If Varadkar and Dublin think that the 11 billion or so UK subsidies to Northern Ireland will be coming with them then dream on.

    And you can have your Travellers back too.

    2. I actually remember a time when we had good standards and decorum. Not to mention good grace, decency, good manners, etiquette, concern for others, and self-discipline.

      Self-interest has destroyed all that.

    1. No one or ‘any thing’ in its/their right state of alien mind would want to come and make their home on this planet. 🤑😱

      1. Its not well known but aliens landed in London a few years ago right next to the Labour party HQ, they went inside where Corbyn & Abbot were giving a speech setting out Labour party policies if they were to get elected. The aliens fled post haste back to their ship & took off having concluded that intelligent life has yet to emerge on Earth.

        1. They probably saw Lammy, but although he looked and looked, he didn’t see them.

          1. And we can supply the bullets, let’s have a whip round….send you cash to………

          1. Drop, you say, you soft-hearted old thing? Let ’em dangle and strangle.

    2. That’ll mean more Pubs are to be shut and turned into kneelers. Right up their street.
      They don’t like Dogs Phizz.
      A few years ago walking my dog I passed a bus stop with a female in a headscarf standing waiting to use her free bus pass. And my Black Lab strayed a little too close to her and the woman backed away very rapidly. I mentioned that my dog was free of religion and she just being friendly and liked every one first contact. Not sure by her reaction she understood me. Oh well.

        1. They don’t like dogs, music, dancing, women’s rights, homosexuals etc. etc. etc.

          Is there anything they do like?

        2. It always makes me larff whilst dog walking when a family approach on a narrow footpath and the children are scared stiff of the dog, and hide behind the adults I always say don’t worry she loves children ….but she couldn’t eat a whole one.
          We have three grandchildren and they love to stroke her but the very waggy tail can sometimes put them off.

          1. I have been a dog lover all my life, but two years ago, I was walking across a car park minding my own business when a dog on a lead jumped at me and bit my arm as I was passing its owners, drawing blood.
            Now, I watch approaching dogs very carefully for signs of friendly labrador blood, and if they don’t look sufficiently labradorish, I give them a very wide berth.

    2. Hi Spikey! Lovely to see you! How are things going up in your Highland eyrie?

    3. Welcome back, Sir! How are you coping with your new situation?

      I don’t suppose the shock has fully worn off yet.

        1. A bloody big hole in your life. It’ll take a while for the edges to heal.

    5. Good to have you back, our Spikey. I miss the odd blue joke of a morning.

  55. News of national importance:

    “Now Enid Blyton is cancelled: Children’s author’s work is ‘racist, xenophobic and lacking literary merit’ says English Heritage in ‘re-appraisal’ sparked by Black Lives Matter protests”

    Time to cancel your subscription to English Heritage.

    1. We are going to need a dedicated website to list all the organisations and companies that need to be blacked at this rate.

    2. Without Enid Blyton I would have been a very lonely, only child. Bug*er lacking literary merit. Indirectly, they directly (I know, I know) introduced me to other lands and hobbies and different families and ‘lifestyles’.

      1. I enjoyed quite a lot of her works – I was also an only child, and read a wide range of books.

    3. Literary merit is hardly something that BLM can take issue on. Even if it could recognise literary merit in the first place.

      As for the rest, naff off. I enjoyed Enid Blyton as a child – and at least Julian, Dick, George and Anne knew what good manners were. I doubt if the same can be said of the BLM lot.

    1. I am firmly against mandatory vaccination but people do need to realise that there are consequences including losing ones job.

      1. What if I have a religious belief against vaccination. Will I lose my job for my beliefs, I’ll just ask a slammer…

    6. 21,263.

      They may be a waste of time but we still need to let them know that we are out there, biding our time.

      1. And more and more people are having their eyes opened to the fact.
        What exactly makes us so vulnerable to a GLOBAL virus that keeps us locked down in these restrictions, Texas, Florida and even France today has dumped face masks, perhaps being SAGEless works for them.

        1. France? Perhaps they realised how stupid all those people looked at the tennis last week.

        2. In yer France, school children still have to wear them and everyone in shops etc.

          1. Yes you are correct Mr Thomas, I should have read further down the article. Will slap my wrist. 🤭

  59. Another example (if any were needed) that this is not a Conservative government. The right to work from home could be made law:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/16/cheaper-parking-outdoor-dining-plan-lure-workers-back-offices/

    I am all for working from home as an option, it does cut down on travel time/costs and pollution. But what business does the State have interfering in the relationship between employer and employee? Don’t Conservatives belief in small-State, low-regulation and free markets? Or does this authoritarian government simply want to remove another way in which people can socialise and mix with others? We should be a nation of lonely drones, completing tasks via Teams and never seeing another human being face-to-face.

    1. Of course “Conservatives” believe in what you say – but the present BPAPM and his gang of wanqueurs are NOT Conservatives.

    2. From under my tinfoil hat.

      This is being done deliberately to break up our way of life.

      The knock on effects will ensure that small businesses in the hospitality sphere, pubs, shops and the like, close. Then big businesses will export work from home jobs to much cheaper areas such as India.
      Unemployment will rise and tax revenues fall.

      Everyone apart from the upper echelons will become dependent on the state. Most housing will be allocated by the state and there will be a universal basic income and probably price controls over basics.
      Only the upper echelons will afford travel, cars, their own homes.

      More immigrants will continue to pour in for their housing and income.

    3. It’s utter rubbish isn’t it. If any such legislation sees the light of day then Boris is finished. I will off him myself if necessary.

    4. They want remote working to be very remote. In the early 90’s when I first started at the BBC, the finance department was in Sulgrave Road W6. It’s now split between Madras and the Philippines.

  60. Well, I sent a message to Nivea asking why they have pulled their advertising from GB News and actually received a response:-

    NIVEA

    Dear Mr. ,

    Thank you very much for reaching out to us with your concerns.

    Media buying algorithms mean our adverts are automatically allocated across a wide selection of channels often without our knowledge, which is what had taken place in this instance. Typically, we would wait for a few months after a new channel or publication has launched before advertising with them. At the moment we have paused our advertising with GB News in line with this policy and will review this decision in 3 months.

    We acknowledge your feedback and hope our explanation in relation to our advertising policy offers you some reassurance.

    Should you have any further queries at all, we’d be happy to help you. Our Consumer Careline can be reached from Monday to Friday by calling 00800 49 40 1911 or you can visit us at http://www.NIVEA.co.uk.

    Kind Regards

    NIVEA Team

    Beiersdorf UK & Ireland
    Consumer Interaction Team

    Thank you for responding.
    I will be honest and admit I did not expect my query to be answered.

    So, because of an orchestrated campaign by Left Wing extremists against a news broadcaster, which incidentally began before the broadcaster had even transmitted a single word, you have paused your advertising and will review that decision in 3 months.
    Thank you for making it obvious where you stand on the issue of Free Speech.

    I am sorry, but I will be looking for alternative to your products in the meantime.

    1. Bravo Bob! I am waiting for responses from Bosch and Octopus but won’t hold my breath!

    3. Sorry Bob, but their stated policy ‘Typically, we would wait for a few months after a new channel or publication has launched before advertising with them. At the moment we have paused our advertising with GB News in line with this policy and will review this decision in 3 months.’ seems sensible to me. They need to see whether a new channel or publications is one they are comfortable with before advertising their products on it.

      What’s wrong with that? (other than the fact that you might not believe them).

      1. Fair point. But having had their adverts screened, giving in to the Wokestapo was an error.

  61. Well, I sent a message to Nivea asking why they have pulled their advertising from GB News and actually received a response:-

    NIVEA

    Dear Mr. ,

    Thank you very much for reaching out to us with your concerns.

    Media buying algorithms mean our adverts are automatically allocated across a wide selection of channels often without our knowledge, which is what had taken place in this instance. Typically, we would wait for a few months after a new channel or publication has launched before advertising with them. At the moment we have paused our advertising with GB News in line with this policy and will review this decision in 3 months.

    We acknowledge your feedback and hope our explanation in relation to our advertising policy offers you some reassurance.

    Should you have any further queries at all, we’d be happy to help you. Our Consumer Careline can be reached from Monday to Friday by calling 00800 49 40 1911 or you can visit us at http://www.NIVEA.co.uk.

    Kind Regards

    NIVEA Team

    Beiersdorf UK & Ireland
    Consumer Interaction Team

    Thank you for responding.
    I will be honest and admit I did not expect my query to be answered.

    So, because of an orchestrated campaign by Left Wing extremists against a news broadcaster, which incidentally began before the broadcaster had even transmitted a single word, you have paused your advertising and will review that decision in 3 months.
    Thank you for making it obvious where you stand on the issue of Free Speech.

    I am sorry, but I will be looking for alternative to your products in the meantime.

  62. 334434+ up ticks,
    OK, you have me stumped , which politico has the new
    uniform / blackjack boots franchise ?

    & what’s the craic with the crackdown, why are the lab/lib/con coalition
    still flooding the country with mass uncontrolled immigrants inclusive of
    potential troops , murderers, paedophiles etc,etc, who are still funding these parties ?

    https://twitter.com/MigrationWatch/status/1405435048350957574

  63. Hunter Biden: a highly collectible artiist. Guess what is being sold here:

    A New York City art gallery owner predicts that Hunter Biden’s latest venture as a full-time artist will prove to be profitable, with his art selling significantly over its actual value because of his family name alone.

    Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s scandal-ridden son, is now reportedly engaged as a full-time artist and is already working with a Soho art dealer, who reportedly has some ties to China — Georges Bergès.

    Bergès is expected to hold a private viewing displaying the president’s son’s work and will hold an exhibition in New York in the coming months. Prices for Hunter’s artwork range from $75,000 to half a million dollars, according to Artnet.

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/15/nyc-gallery-owner-hunter-biden-artwork-sell-double-family-name

  64. I thought that, yet again, Putin played a blinder yesterday. He could see that Biden is a demented old idiot who presents no threat a all. He could have been all sarcastic and condescending – but simply treat Biden as an old man who had been let us (with his nurses) for an hour or two. A couple of nice comments – and then his typically Putinesque press conference where he deflected any awkward question by reference to what the West is doing.

    Would that we had such a person running England.

    1. Whatever he may have said to Putin, Biden sent a very clear message to Russians during his press conference. In the early 1990s, he said, “Russia had an opportunity, that brief shining moment… to actually generate a democratic government” and “it failed.” Instead, Biden argued, Putin united Russia around government power, which has not helped its prosperity, power or standing in the world.

      Needless to say, actual Russians have a different recollection of that “shining moment” as one of rampant crime, oligarchy, pillaging, poverty, and humiliation at the hands of US ‘advisers’ propping up President Boris Yeltsin’s government – to the point of helping him, shall we say, “fortify” the 1996 election.
      And now all those jolly Russian oligarchs live the high life in London.
      The reason the US hates Putin is because he put a stop to the pillaging…American businessmen were set to make absolute fortunes but he chased them out of Russia.

      1. You are a recognised Kremlin watcher and your views very helpful.

        Speaking as a pleb who scans one newspaper a day, I’d say that whatever words may have dribbled from Biden’s mouth – they were not his. Putin knows that. He knows who are the string pullers in Washington, and is not afraid of them.

        He could have been very rude about a demented idiot, but deliberately chose not to be. Very good move.

      2. In the 1990s, the west had an opportunity to help Russia – country that, although stifled by communism for 70 years – was still country based on Christian culture.
        Let’s be polite and just say that the west flunked it.

  65. 334434+ up ticks,
    This odious group AKA tory ( ino) are a self contained for / agin political group with NO bona fide internal opposition.

    As with the makeup of the lab/lib/con coalition ALL for one & one for ALL … within the coalition.

    breitbart,
    Lockdown ‘Dystopia’: Dozens of Tories Rebel – But Not Enough to Save ‘Freedom Day’

    And there never will be enough.

    The real treachery merchants are those that recognise the tory ( ino)
    governance gang for what it really is, treacherous sh!te, but continue to support & vote for them.

  66. This situation is beyond disgusting but I do not think things will improve under the present regime. Part of the plan, as I see it i.e. run down everything that makes our lives enjoyable and/or bearable in circumstances of stress and illness.
    Take a look at the header on the letter for the absolute epitome of bullshit.

    https://twitter.com/LeesaHarker/status/1405120532111151104

    2. How can they even have the nerve to send out a letter telling people who are paying for the service, that there’s a six year waiting list?
      Unless it’s typo and they mean six months?

    3. I am sorry to say that the H in NHS should be read as National Hearse Service as IMO the NHS is no longer geared up to provide health care for the ordinary tax payer but to speed up the demise of the elderly & infirm whilst providing maternity services for illegals as a path to British residency & citizenship so that they can stay in the UK with their UK born offspring.

      1. I’ve long considered it to be the National Death Service. The recent pandemic has not changed that opinion in the slightest.

    4. I am sorry to say that the H in NHS should be read as National Hearse Service as IMO the NHS is no longer geared up to provide health care for the ordinary tax payer but to speed up the demise of the elderly & infirm whilst providing maternity services for illegals as a path to British residency & citizenship so that they can stay in the UK with their UK born offspring.

        1. Lets face it you are here to spread pro-Russian propaganda, whatever they are paying you is far too much as you are totally ineffective & your script is just a re-hash of Soviet era Kremlin issued lies & disinformation.

  68. Cancelled! The 10 great comedies they wouldn’t make today
    Jennifer Saunders thinks Ab Fab wouldn’t be made now. But from Fawlty Towers to Father Ted, which other shows wouldn’t get off the ground?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/cancelled-10-great-comedies-wouldnt-make-today/

    No mention of the late great Warren Mitchell who played Alf Garnett and Dandy Nicholls who played his long-suffering wife!

    I am still waiting optimistically for a new version of Till Death Do Us Part. In this version black characters will say how nasty, oppressive and horrible white people are so it will have no trouble with the censors. Lenny Henry could be given the lead role but sadly Cheri Blair’s father is no longer with us to recreate his role as a dated scouse Leftie git.

    1. The Woke version would have a Rees-Mogg-alike as a dated right wing Etonian git.

          1. Clear cookies for that page/site so it looks like you’re a virgin. Then try the escape key.

          2. I’m not bothering Phil, I’ve gone from being a longtime daily DT reader up to the time they got rid of Disqus commenting to a being now a once in a blue moon glancer at that EU Globalist rag.

          4. Reading the DT only aggravates me nowadays, its journalistic standards have declined considerably ever since Conrad Black sold it to the Barclay Bros.

          5. We no longer have the equivalent of our broadsheet newspapers. Probably why the Daily Mail is the most read paper online. Not that that is saying much.

    4. Dad’s Army;
      “Earlier this year, a showing of the sitcom’s 1971 movie on the BBC was preceded by a warning about “discriminatory language”. That one of the most beautifully crafted, most loved sitcoms ever made should require a reminder that attitudes were different 50 years ago seems itself laughable, but it underlines the fact that in 2021 it’s unlikely that Captain Mainwaring and his all-white Home Guard would ever make it to the screen.

      Clive Dunn’s character L-Cpl Jones regularly used the phrase “Fuzzy-Wuzzies”, a derogatory name for a black person, the cast was predominantly male, and Mainwaring’s wife, never seen on screen, is depicted as both neurotic and bossy. What’s more, the underlining message (of how the Germans, to borrow, Jones’s other catchphrase, “don’t like it up ’em”) sounds jingoistic to Gen Z ears.”

      It’s sickening, and anyway, “Fuzzy-Wuzzies” was not derogatory coming from Jonesy as he’d fought in the Sudan.
      “The term “Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels” was used by Australian soldiers during World War II to describe Papua New Guinean stretcher bearers. The term was not widely deemed to be problematic when it was used by Rudyard Kipling and British soldiers during the Sudan Campaign or by Australian soldiers in the 20th century, however many contemporary commentators deem it to be a racial slur.”
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzy-Wuzzy

  69. The full list of advertisers who have pulled their ads from GB News includes:

    Kopparberg
    Grolsch
    Nivea
    Open University
    Ikea
    Octopus Energy
    Ovo Energy
    Indeed
    Vodafone
    Specsavers
    LV
    Bosch
    Moneysupermarket
    Pinterest.

    You know what to do folks if you believe in free speech!

          1. A couple more of them seem to have spent their entire working? lives with NGO’s!😱

          4. That would be [sensible shoe]-wearing women, I take it, rather than sensible [shoe-wearing] women 🙂

    2. I wonder if GB News offer subscriptions? I haven’t even watched it yet, but I would be tempted to pay £5/10 per month just to support them and show them that they don’t need the support of Woke corporations when they have ordinary people behind them.

    3. Vodafone have already changed their minds, also Moneysupermarket according to the post above!

      1. Another nasty American import – a jumble of ‘free’ or ‘for nothing’.

        1. Moving forward, Sean, I’m reaching out.

          If I didn’t, I’d never manage to grab that can of beans off the top shelf!

  71. Oops…
    – The Dutch prosecutors added the Russian arms industry company Almaz-Antey’s report on the photographs of the wreckage found at the site of the MH17 plane crash to the case file, prosecutor Manon Ridderbeks said on Thursday.

    “All the wreckage found at the crash site underwent a forensic medical examination. The Russian defence concern Almaz-Antey assessed photographs of the wreckage found at the site of the tragedy. Their conclusions on the photos and reports were attached to the case,” Ridderbeks said.
    Almaz-Antey, the Russian maker of advanced anti-aircraft systems, whose products include the Buk type air defence missile, carried out its own investigation into the MH17 crash, examining forensic evidence, declassifying secret information about its military hardware, and conducting a complex experiment based on ballistics, flight trajectory and other pertinent information. The Russian investigators concluded that an older variant of the Buk missile which was built in 1986 and had been phased out of Russia’s arsenal during a military modernisation campaign in the early 2010s had been used to target and destroy the plane.

  73. Moneysupermarket climbs down over GB News boycott.

    Moneysupermarket has become the first company to end a boycott of GB News as the price comparison website reversed a decision to “pause” advertising on the new Right-leaning channel.

    A spokesman tweeted: “Just to confirm that Moneysupermarket is not boycotting its advertising on GB News, sorry for any confusion caused.”

    The move comes as Andrew Neil, the lead presenter and chairman of GB News, took Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson to task over his decision to pull advertising from the channel.

    In a tweet, Mr Neil said: “Have a look at our content. You’ll find no hate. Let me know if you want to advertise. And I’ll let you know if we want your ads. Or whether we organise a boycott of you.”

    Neil is no pushover!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/06/17/gold-dealer-rejects-gb-news-boycott-buy-ads/

    2. Hurrah! Vodafone changed their minds too according to the Mail. It’s lovely to see the cancellers cancelled for once.

    1. I do have a heated mat for my feet and i am ‘dating’ three Nottler ladies next month.

        1. Not you Belle, unfortunately. I did offer that we meet for afternoon tea at the Moonfleet or the Smugglers some time ago and not to bring Richard. :@)

      2. Blimey, there are three Nottler “ladies”, who knew?

        Sorree girls, too tempting…};-))

    4. This is letter am planning to send to all the cowards who have ‘pulled’ advertising:

      Dear Sir or Madam,

      I write to express my considerable disappointment concerning your ‘pulling’ of advertising from GB News. I understand your decision was based on tweets and emails received and it is likely that many, if not all, originated from the same two people using various aliases.

      I gather they purport that GB News’ output consists of ‘hate’. To quote founder Andrew Neill “Have a look at our content. You’ll find no hate”. This would be echoed by all those who have watched their programmes.

      Unfortunately you have been deceived by the aforementioned duo. My hope is that you will be able to reconsider your decision in light of this. If not, I fear your reputation will suffer – along with sales.

  82. I almost feel sorry for England – they have no idea how much Scotland want to beat them

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/euro-2021/2021/06/17/almost-feel-sorry-england-have-no-idea-much-scotland-want/

    BTL Comment:

    I was supporting Scotland when England was the one team kneeling to honour the organisation which supports defunding the police, destroying capitalism and celebrating the violent black dead American criminal. Now that Scotland has decided to join England in this kneeling nonsense I can support neither team and can only hope that both are knocked out of the competition.

    So a 1-0 win for Scotland followed by both sides losing heavily in their final match would be the best result as both sides would be eliminated.

    1. BBC lunchtime news – the presenter said that the FA had ‘warned’ football fans not to boo the national anthems or taking the knee. If this ‘warning’ is not enough to cause fans to boo when both sides kneel down, I don’t know what is.

      1. The good Captain (who was, in real life, only a Lieutenant!) was dubbed racist in the ’70s. The librarians of the time cancelled him. Fortunately, I read most of the books from the library in the ’60s.

  84. Sabrina Verjee sets record for running 214 Wainwright peaks in less than six days. 17 June 2021.

    The British ultrarunner Sabrina Verjee has shattered the record for completing all of the Lake District’s 214 Wainwright peaks in less than six days – making her the fastest athlete, male or female, by more than six hours.

    The 40-year-old veterinary surgeon from Ambleside finished the 325-mile route, which included the summit of England’s highest mountain, Scafell Pike, in five days, 23 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds to beat the previous best, set by Paul Tierney in 2019.

    Pah! Only took me twenty five years!

    https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jun/17/sabrina-verjee-sets-record-for-running-all-214-wainwright-peaks-in-under-six-days

    2. Took me all day just to go up and down a cuillin. And then i slipped on a flat wet rock and chipped a bone in my ankle. :@(

    1. If only i had known. I could have been Dean of Faculty by now. Being a ginge an’ all.

    2. Employers will be wary of any well tanned applicant with a degree from Goldsmiths.

    3. Surely this is simple racism? Surely even these idiots can see that? Discrimination on the basis of colour or religion.

      Racism. The Left are racists.

    3. In my first year teaching at Allhallows the school had a very strong rugby team and several members of the side were in my UVI English set.
      In those days girls did not play rugby but I was speculating with the group as to which positions the girls in my English set would play if they did. In all innocence and before thinking what I was saying I said to a very pretty girl sitting in the front row of my class – who was going out with the school rugby captain: ” Angela – as you are in the front row perhaps you should be the hooker?” I don’t know who was the more embarrassed – myself or Angela – but the rest of the class certainly enjoyed it!

    1. “Someone may telephone you sometime next week to see how things are going.”

    2. “Can you send us a photo of the fire so that we can establish what the problem is?”

    3. “… in the meantime you could try downloading the Sprinkler app on your Smartphone”

      1. That’s where I went wrong.
        “”In five years, I’ve no idea what I’ll be doing. If I could forecast that I’d be a professional gambler living in Monte Carlo, not sitting here applying for a job with a job title far bigger than the salary.”

    2. Job? Interview? Appraisal?
      Luxury. ….But you try and tell the young people of tomorrow that… and they won’t believe ya’.

  90. Beginning to think I’ve qualified for ‘Miserable Old G*t’ status as cannot quite
    understand the continuing reaction to the Christian Eriksen on-field collapse. I realise it was an extraordinarily serious matter, but gather Eriksen is well on the road to recovery.

    The talk on TV was all about the players’ mental state. When the Danes scored early on, the player looked to the sky and pointed upwards, rather as though Eriksen had died and was looking down on the match. At the 10 minute mark (time of Eriksen’s collapse in previous match) ball was deliberately kicked out of play so that players and crowd could applaud.

    Is this somewhat OTT, or am I viewing this through the eyes of a wizened and jaundiced
    curmudgeon?

      1. Think only Belgium team kneeled, although a bit hard to tell from the long shot on TV.

    3. No you are not viewing this through the eyes of a wizened and jaundiced
      curmudgeon.

      What we have now is footballers paid a weekly salary beyond the dreams of avarice because of advertising of a sport that people love.

      ‘They’ will do everything they can to protect the golden gooses, even overlooking or covering up drug tests.

    4. The fingers-pointing-up gesture upon scoring is a widespread affectation that has been around for a good while.

      Kneeling down and kissing the turf is less common and is performed without a mat…

    6. I made a similar remark a few days ago. Its as if they think tragedy only strikes the great unwashed and the stars of the pitch are immune. The army is going to need a big padre’s section if there is ever another war.

    7. Following Wendyball is bound to turn you into an irascible old git.

      Get over it and start macrame.

  91. I shall leave you after this odd day. Drizzle; mist – dry patches – rain expected (but they said that this time yesterday)….. Useful ladder work.

    My final gift to you is this heartening news from Witless.

    “The winter will see a further wave of Covid-19 cases, the government’s chief medical adviser said today, adding that the virus “has not thrown its last surprise at us”.

    Chris Whitty told the NHS Confederation’s annual conference that while the forecast was “a lot better than it was”, there were “really quite a lot of things that we need to worry about, particularly I think this next surge, and then going into the following winter”.

    A demain

    1. The only thing Whitty needs to worry about is how to keep the circus going indefinitely.

    2. I wonder, how many Nottlers will ascend to the Lord High Telly Subbie’s cloud, without ever experiencing freedom again in UK

      1. St. Peter at the pearly gates – “You can’t come in unless you’re wearing a mask”.

        2. Me, at the Pearly Gates, “Don’t be such a twat, a mask does nothing except identify you as part of the sheeple flock!”

  92. Catch 22…Russia style.

    To be eligible for prisoner swap with US, Washington would have to confirm Navalny works for American intelligence, says Kremlin

  93. Just spotted this BTL posting on White Privilege in the Tellygraff

    “Both my grandfathers had white privilege.

    Their white privilege meant they could leave school at 14 in the 1920s with no qualifications and commit to spending a working life underground in a coal mine in South Wales.

    Their white privilege meant in the early ears they had to work often on their knees, in stifling heat, in near darkness with coal dust in the air. Pick axes and shovels were used by the miners to dig out the coal. This was deposited into wagons on rails and pushed to the pit shaft. Mechanization with drills and conveyor belts didn’t arrive until WWII.

    One of my grandfather’s white privilege gave him arthritic joints by the time he was 40. He kept working though until he lost 2 fingers and a thumb and was a given a surface job (earning less money)

    The other of my grandfather’s white privilege gave him pneumoconiosis – coal dust in the lungs – so that by his mid 50s he could hardly walk without wheezing and being in pain.

    Their white privilege paid them a pittance until WWII.

    Their white privilege caused them to die at a relatively early age: both in their early 60s.”

    1. And now they are being damned because they had the temerity to black up daily.

    2. Hmm, should have recruited more black men – they wouldn’t need to shower/bath more frequently.

  94. 334434+ up ticks,
    That could be the plea of the odious twosome who took away James Bulger to be tortured & murdered.

    ISIS Teen Bride Claims She Was Just a ‘Dumb Kid’ When She Joined Terror Group

    Lest we forget.

  96. Oh dear. Communication from a Conservative Association.
    All complaints to be addressed to the Boss.

    “I am very sorry to advise you that, due to the extension of Covid restrictions, the Association has decided to reschedule the Open Gardens & Family BBQ for Saturday 14th May 2022.

    If you have already reserved tickets for the original date of 17th July 2021, we hope you will consider transferring your booking to the new date. If you would like your payment returned, however, we will of course be happy to do this.”

    1. I’d be tempted to reply – “Given the government’s thinking how can you possibly be so optimistic – refund now!”

      1. Believe you me; I was tempted. Very, very tempted.
        But we hadn’t planned to go anyway.

    2. I now understand the molitof cocktail. and also why we don’t get our milk delivered in glass bottles.

      4. Ha, we do, Philip, should I now start saving them rather than returning them?

    3. You could reply and say: “I hope 14 May 2022 will be the WETTEST day ever recorded.”

    4. They’ve postponed the (retiring) Rector’s Lunch (which was being held outdoors) from the end of June to the beginning of September. I hope we enjoy a St Martin’s summer and it isn’t cold, damp and very, very miserable.

      1. Why, for God’s sake? It is allowed even under the current fatuous regulations…

        1. They seem to have interpreted the fatuous regulations as meaning it’s verboten.

    5. Evening Ann. That a con association is postponing an event until next year, really inspires confidence that the 19th July (2021!) ending of restrictions will happen ……..

  97. Well it looks like the USA are getting rid of all the mad covid restrictions, no other country is kneeling to BLM fascism, yet in the UK we are still obeying all the globalist codswallop to the letter, when will our powers that be realise that it is all over.

    2. 334434+ up ticks,
      Evening B3,
      I do believe that herd husbandry / manipulation is ongoing & will be until the herd is weaned off of the
      lab/lib/con coalition loco weed vote.

      It really is their addiction that has got us into the odious state as a state we are in today.

  98. Completely and utterly off topic.

    I’ve just been sent a photograph of those who joined my first year in college.

    Blimey O’Really, hideously male and white doesn’t even start to describe us all.

    1. There’s an advert on TV about the Wendyball match; it says, “that was then” showing an all-white England team and “this is now” and guess what – full of dindus.

        1. I’m not sure – I didn’t have the sound on. It may have been Scotland-England (that flashed up at the end of the advert), so I haven’t a clue who won that match. It was, as far as I’m concerned, an unwelcome intrusion into the racing programme.

      2. Thanks, Connors but after PC training on how we should address and refer to our coloured brethren, we all decided upon ‘Stills’

        No matter what or how you address them they are still Niggers.

    2. Advice I was once given: “if you ever get married, throw away all your encyclopaedias, reference books etc, because you know nothing, and are completely wrong”.

      2. Hello, Bill. I’m getting on better now I’ve got a dog again, thanks 🙂 Oscar is settling in, pushing the boundaries and having to learn new rules. I am getting to know what he’s asking for (but I suspect I am much slower on the uptake than he is!). Today, for the first time, he asked to go out to wee (I have been taking him out at regular intervals to encourage him to do it before) by going to the back door. I often take him for two walks a day, which is good for my health and sanity. He walks to heel most of the time and just needs an occasional reminder.

        1. Delighted to see a good-news story. Although I’m a cat person, I am always taken by the fact that dogs are eternally happy.

    3. Wear wellies, and just kick it gently into the nearest stream or pond. Believe me, it works. (a landing net should be available)

    5. Wearing only her dressing gown, at the sight of the black cock she turned and fled……

    6. She must have some experience in the art of liberating cocks from cages because she checks to see if the camera is rolling before releasing the lock.

    2. Note that the bad guy is the white man, and the victim is the mixed race girl.

    3. Actually, they missed out a lot of data that is available if you never use cash for financial transactions. Healthcare records, 15 minute reports of electricity usage from smart meters.
      They know more about us than we know ourselves, if all this data is added up.

  104. Email from Smile Free, which is a campaigning group attached to the HART group – Send your mask to Boris!

    >>> Probably like you, we hoped for the best but suspected the 21 June “Freedom Day” might be a mirage… and so it has proved.

    We hoped Smile Free would be the shortest campaign in history… but were always prepared, in case it wasn’t.

    So here’s today’s quick action to help us get rid of all mask mandates as soon as possible…

    Let’s let Boris Johnson know exactly we think of his backsliding – by filling his letter box with masks:

    1. Find a mask.

    2. Write “I’M DONE” on it.

    3. Pop it in an envelope and post it right now (so it gets there for Mon 21 June) to:

    Boris Johnson, 10 Downing St, London SW1A 2AA.

    4. BONUS POINTS if you take a photo, and @mention us on Twitter with it (we’re @SmileFreeUK)

    Now, while we’ll keep trying with politicians and MPs from time to time, the reality is…

    – with a few exceptions –

    …they haven’t cared about the clear evidence that mask mandates are totally unjustifiable for a whole year now.

    Either they’ve bought in to the groupthink, or are too fearful to raise their heads above the parapet.

    So, we aren’t going to limit the campaign just to trying to influence politicians.

    In addition to spreading the word, there are other avenues we can go down.

    ..

    Thank you so much for your support and we’ll be in touch again soon with updates and more ways we can get this done.

    Keep smiling 🙂

    The Smile Free Campaign

    smilefree.org

  105. Well, since the newsagent in Cromford closed I’ve been having a bit of trouble stopping my weight from creeping up.
    So I’ve just had a walk to the Barley Mow via Slaley, then across to the King’s Head and, after a pint in each dropped down home.
    Going for a quick bath and thence for an early night.
    Good night all.

    1. For future reference – Two pints of beer contain the same number of calories as a cheeseburger & chips…….

      2. Anyway, “I’ve just sunk 8 pints of Guinness.” has more cachet to it than “I’ve just wolfed 4 cheese burgers and 4 portions of chips.”

    3. Good night, Bob. I have lost a lot of weight this year – well over 3 stones in 5 months. But today I was ravenously hungry and just couldn’t resist numerous trips to the fridge. I dread when I shall step on the scales this Saturday morning for my weekly weigh-in.

    4. I have also gained weight since last year, when after taking daily exercise around the village on our first lockdown, the hard wonky pavements jiggered my right hip .. because we weren’t allowed to travel apart from shop.. I felt terrible, then the stress re shopping on my own because Moh was shielding, so therefore treating myself to nice chocolate as a comfort delight , and maybe something else .

      Moh hasn’t put on a single pound , he has been playing golf 3 or 4 times a week , the course is about 6 miles walking I guess, so extreme exercise , lots of walking is the key to weight loss.

      He uses a step counter app on his phone , I am not a fidgetty character , but Moh can be rather hyper sometimes , I must be a very irritating companion , I am the tortoise and he is the hare.

  107. Just watching A Town Like Alice while I wait for my sourdough loaf’s final rise in the Le Creuset before an hour in the oven. Started the damn thing at 0800 this morning. Oh well, still have most of the 2nd cold bottle of Grillo to go.

  109. Good night, fellow NoTTLers at 0:04, ’tis time for bed with no ‘boing’ but just a God bless you.

  110. mng. Comparison of Parliaments / MPs. UK – Halfock hints NHS has a decreased duty of care for anti-vaxxers [lying again] and Finland MP https://off-guardian.org/2021/06/17/matt-hancock-hints-nhs-has-a-decreased-duty-of-care-for-anti-vaxxers/ If UK had one MP like Finland https://www.globalresearch.ca/member-parliament-finland-warns-government-guilty-genocide-misleading-public-covid-19-injections/5747930 airing this during PMQs or any other live talking head coverage, walls come tumbling down

  111. mng. Comparison of Parliaments / MPs. UK – Halfock hints NHS has a decreased duty of care for anti-vaxxers [lying again] and Finland MP https://off-guardian.org/2021/06/17/matt-hancock-hints-nhs-has-a-decreased-duty-of-care-for-anti-vaxxers/ If UK had one MP like Finland https://www.globalresearch.ca/member-parliament-finland-warns-government-guilty-genocide-misleading-public-covid-19-injections/5747930 airing this during PMQs or any other live talking head coverage, walls come tumbling down

  115. Building up a head of steam but MSM mute. UEFA threat to strip UK of Euro 2020 final unless its VIPs are spared quarantine.

    Ministers are set to bow to football chiefs’ demands and let 2,500 in while millions of Brits are unable to holiday Uefa have threatened to relocate the Euro 2020 final to Hungary this summer.

    This will happen unless the UK Government provides a quarantine exemption Ministers are discussing a proposal to exempt 2,500 officials from isolating But move would be likely to spark a furious public backlash amid holiday row.

    Was on ESPN at 06.15 [local time here] now as with Christian Ericksen info, no longer aired.

    Expect Mr Symonds to get onto both knees on this

  116. Why Remain Lost https://unherd.com/2021/06/why-remain-lost/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=dfafa706fa&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc

    BTL comments outstript the piece

    Jorge Espinha

    Fitan still don’t know why remain lost. And that resistance to acknowledge the problems of the EU will be EU’s downfall. There was a great case to be made for remaining in the EU but it was too late. For decades Europeans have been treated by their leaders as children “take it, it’s good for you!” . The European issues, be it the monetary integration , the EU constitution or a common immigration policy are always too complex for our little narrow minded brains. And if
    everything fails, we are called racist, and that’s the end of it. I’m Portuguese and I was sad to see the Brits go, but I understand their reasons and it seems that the EU are like the old Habsburgs, they forget nothing and have learned nothing. So did Fitan, apparently.

    Eddie Johnson

    Branding 50 millions people as racist extends slightly beyond exposing the “occasional blemish”.

    But I think it’s clear to most posters exactly what sort of person we are dealing with.

    Ian Barton

    This article only needs to contain one word …. arrogance.

    The main reason the Remain campaign was so awful is that they were so detached from “normal’ people, that they couldn’t even contemplate that others would retain their opposing opinions – even after being “educated’.

    This article is just one of many that fails to acknowledge this.

    Eddie Johnson

    And the fact that we treated, free-of-charge, without any questions, recriminations or accusations of “sin”, thousands of young Irish girls and women who desperately needed terminations – for a variety of reasons.

    Never once heard an Irish person thank the NHS for performing that so badly need service, when Ireland abandoned its own.

    Cheryl Jones

    My parents voted to Remain in the EEC in 1975 and both voted Brexit in 2016. My mum is adamant that they were promised it was a ‘trade only’ arrangement and that any suggestion to the contrary was decried as lies paranoia and xenophobia. When Major took us into the EU without a referendum her mind was made up. Very principled my mum

    Matt B

    Opportunists on all sides, all sides will say. But the bigger and more concrete story for OToole – 5yrs on – should be this: gross Irish tax haven activity further dividing society by removing its tax base (with inequality also feeding into unexpected electoral outcomes in Ireland). The rising perception of corporate capture of the EU, notably post-Greece crisis, also relates to this. https://euobserver.com/opinion/151169

    Martin Adams

    Very well put, Mr Twomey. I lived in Ireland for 40 years, and was trying to put together something along these lines. You’ve captured the complexities of Ireland’s relationship to England (and yes, it’s always “England”) better and more succinctly than I. Thank you!

    Dsvid Giles

    But Fintan O’Toole’s attitude towards England isn’t complicated at all.

    Rasmus Fogh

    As a fellow remainer – I do not think this is the best way to win friends and influence people:

    Yes, actually, that’s what most of the rest of the world has been trying to tell you for the past 80 years or so. Why do you find it so hard to accept?

    Jon Redman

    You’re aware the UK did not exist in 1169?

    Eddie Johnson

    Branding 50 million people as racist extends slightly beyond exposing the “occasional blemish”.

    But I think it is clear to most posters what sort of person we are dealing with

Comments are closed.