Thursday 8 July: People in the street who don’t want lockdown to end must lead a thin kind of existence

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/07/07/letters-people-street-dont-want-lockdown-end-must-lead-thin/

466 thoughts on “Thursday 8 July: People in the street who don’t want lockdown to end must lead a thin kind of existence”

    1. In a sense I hope that is true – that Boris is on our side and is being impeded. He is a wiley political operator and brighter than most of them. But I think that what is impeding him is not so much present enemies as past misdeeds. They know about the skeletons in his cupboard.
      During Brexit, every time he got a bit brave the Arcuri business would rear its ugly, and more recently Cummings seems to fulfil that function.

  3. Boris Johnson ‘unhappy’ about Afghanistan and says ‘blood and treasure’ must not be wasted. 8 July 2021.

    Boris Johnson has admitted that he is “apprehensive” about Afghanistan, as he said the UK and US must work together so “blood and treasure” was not wasted

    Mr Johnson said: “If you ask me if I feel happy about the current situation in Afghanistan, of course I don’t. I am apprehensive. The situation is fraught with risks.”

    Morning everyone. Self-serving drivel! It’s over! The situation is fraught with no risks whatsoever! The Taliban have won as anyone with an ounce of sense always knew they would do!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/08/boris-johnson-unhappy-afghanistan-says-blood-treasure-must-not/

    2. When will we get western politicians who understand history?
      Still, once the Chinese are let loose on the opium fields, we can sit back and watch.

  6. Mng all:. The usual verbiage to follow. “Brian Grindall” might find it useful to actually watch the Tour De France, he might find Mark Cavendish, Thomas de Gendt [and others] demolish his waffle – if he has a tv

    SIR – Television reporters constantly interview members of the public who claim that they don’t want lockdown to end. Where do they find these people?

    If their lives have not been blighted by the lockdowns of the last 16 months, I can only assume that they don’t work or run a business; they don’t go shopping; they never eat out; they don’t have school-age children or students in their family; they don’t know anyone in hospital or a care home; they don’t have health problems or ever need to see a GP; they never go on holiday; they never go to the theatre, a cinema or to a concert; they don’t support a charity; they neither attend nor support nor try to organise a local club or organisation; they don’t go to public talks or meetings; they don’t have or want any social contact; their family never plans an event such as a wedding; they don’t wish to attend any funerals.

    This amounts to existing, not living. Some of us want to live!

    Valerie Monaghan
    Cowbridge, Glamorgan

    SIR – If lockdown, quarantine and masks were the answer, Covid would
    have been eliminated 12 months ago. So where has it gone wrong?

    Andrew Shanks
    Uckfield, West Sussex

    SIR – We learn that 640,000 children are self-isolating due to Covid but that only 4 per cent actually have a positive test. There are therefore 25 self-isolating for every positive case.

    Sajid Javid, new Health Secretary, has said that new cases could rise to 100,000 a day. Multiply that 100,000 by 25 and we might have 2.5 million people going into isolation each day.

    They isolate for 10 days so by Day 11, when the first cohort leave isolation, there would be 25 million people in mandatory isolation. Freedom?

    Dr Kevin M O’Sullivan
    Plymouth, Devon

    SIR – More than three quarters of the adult population have been blissfully unaware of the risk of being messaged about Covid contact via an iPhone either because they haven’t got one (or have one that’s incompatible) or because they didn’t download the NHS Covid-19 contact tracing app.

    My advice to double-dosed people experiencing high levels of anxiety due to fear of being “pinged” and having to self isolate is to remove the app from your phone. It’s not mandatory.

    Tony Hudson
    Woking, Surrey

    SIR – There is much fuss about thinking for yourself instead of obeying orders. If I pop into church and no one else is there (except God), there would be no point in masking – as required at present.

    If it is crowded, and I do not know most of the congregation, I might cover my mouth and nose. My choice.

    Brian Foster
    Shrivenham, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Once wearing masks is no longer compulsory, there will be a third group of people alongside liberated refuseniks and still-terrified mask-wearers, namely those who would gladly ditch their masks but fear recrimination – verbal or even physical – from those who regard refuseniks as mortal enemies whose selfishness must be publicly condemned.

    I will therefore reluctantly wear my mask to guarantee a quiet life, and put up with the pitying looks and snide remarks from the refuseniks.

    Clive Nunn
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – To raise funds, our church does the catering at a farm machinery sale. Our barbecue tent normally has onions for the sausages and burgers, but they are an added complication and this year we decided not to serve them.

    To everyone who asked why there were none, I said it was “due to Covid”. Most saw this as the joke it was, but I was shocked by how many took it at face value, shrugged and said, “Oh, right”. I shall be interested to see if it works next year.

    Christine Copeman
    Lower Boddington, Northamptonshire

    Promoting job shares

    SIR – Globally, women’s job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic have been 1.8 times greater than men’s. Working mothers were three times more likely than men to reduce their hours due to a lack of childcare during lockdown.

    After Covid-19, parents and carers will be seeking job flexibility. However, not all flexible working practices will support women, promote a healthy work-life balance and close the gender pay gap gulf. The solution is job sharing.

    Splitting one role between two people gives employers the benefits of two sets of expertise; it also increases productivity and employee retention. However, prohibitive costs are stopping employers from offering them. Currently, just 123,000 people job share in the UK.

    The campaign group Empower believes it’s time to make job sharing a mainstream practice. We agree and are calling on the Government to introduce a reduction in employers’ National Insurance contributions for those in job shares.

    Caroline Nokes MP (Con)
    Margaret Hodge MP (Lab)
    Lord Rana (Con)
    Tony Lloyd MP (Lab)
    Christine Jardine MP (Lib Dem)
    Tommy Sheppard MP (SNP)
    Lord Bird
    Editor-in-Chief, The Big Issue
    Baroness Harris of Richmond (Lib Dem)
    Wera Hobhouse MP (Lib Dem
    Dr Philippa Whitford MP (SNP)
    Charlotte Woodworth
    Gender Equality Director at Business in the Community
    Chris Ogden and Stace Wright
    Co-chairs of Manchester Green Party
    Caroline Lucas MP (Green Party)
    Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Lib Dem
    Liz Sewell
    Director of Get Ready for Work
    Tom Brake former MP (Lib Dem)
    Mark Gale
    Policy and Campaigns Manager, Young Women’s Trust
    Lord Knight of Weymouth (Lab)
    Baroness Garden of Frognal (Lib Dem)
    Baroness Uddin

    Morrisons people

    SIR – I agree with Ben Marlow’s views on Morrisons (“The mob pursuing Morrisons have no claim on its founders’ rich legacy”, July 5).

    I knew Sir Ken Morrison, and he was an honest and decent man who believed in his communities and the people who tie them together. This is why the supermarket chain became so successful and made the region proud.

    What Morrisons offers is cohesion, continuity and sustainability, which will suffer as a result of this deal. The funds see short-term profit, and a property break-up and sell-off. This was not what Sir Ken believed in.

    Peter Phillips
    Masham, North Yorkshire

    Millennial consumers

    SIR – With reference to your article on the disapproval of international capitalism among millennials (Comment, July 6), would this be the same generation that have iPhones from Apple, buy their clothes from Zara, drink coffee from Starbucks, furnish their flats at Ikea, and get everything else from Amazon?

    Robert Marchant
    Ravenstone, Buckinghamshire

    Parishes with no clergy

    SIR – The plan for lay-led parishes (report, July 6) is another ill-concealed attempt by the General Synod to neutralise and ultimately close down the traditional parish and its church.

    Not all parishioners want to attend evangelical services, nor lose access to their churches by attending services in homes, as proposed by Canon John McGinley. The claim by Dave Male, head of evangelism and discipleship, that new groups “would be under the oversight of clergy even if not led by the parish priest” is also unconvincing.

    I hold no brief for the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, but it is interesting that it is during his sabbatical that Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, is making the change.

    is introducing his blueprint during his sabbatical. Can one detect a jockeying for power?

    T J Tawney
    Hildenborough, Kent

    Resisting China

    SIR – The Government indulged in a bit of sabre-rattling towards Russia by allowing HMS Defender to sail through contested waters in the Black Sea.

    However, it is unwilling to stop China taking over our largest electronic chip manufacturer, Newport Wafer Fab (Letters, July 7), having apparently forgotten the issues surrounding Britain’s 5G network.

    How much money would have been needed to keep Newport Wafer Fab under British control, compared with, say, funding the overrun on HS2?

    Peter Wickison
    Driffield, East Yorkshire

    SIR – I fear that Chinese manufacturers have already anticipated a boycott (Letters, July 6).

    I recently bought a new case for my mobile phone. On the front of the box it proclaimed: “Designed in Hong Kong.” On the back, in minuscule print, it said: “Made in China.”

    John Newbury
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    Smooth ride

    SIR – Geraint Thomas (Magazine, July 3) is wrong to suggest that cyclists shave their legs for aerodynamic gain.

    The real reason is that smooth flesh heals faster in the event of sustaining road rash. Dressings are easier to apply and remove, antiseptic cream smooths on, and massage oil applied at the end of the ride does not clog in the hair. If shaving affected speed, there would be no bearded cyclists like Julian Alaphilippe in the Tour de France.

    Brian Grindall
    Shiskine, Isle of Arran

    Great-tasting strawberries need the open air

    SIR – It is all very well growing strawberries throughout the year (report, July 5) – but unless they are grown out in the open air, preferably in the sun, then they will not taste sweet enough.

    Marie Blanchard
    Newport, Monmouthshire

    SIR – When I told to my wife about the technique of using a sturdy straw to hull a strawberry, as described by Pamela Ashton (Letters, July 5), she pointed out that straws today must meet eco-waffle disposability standards and therefore collapse at the slightest pressure.

    Bill Todd
    Twickenham, Middlesex

    SIR – The indispensable strawberry hulling gadget in our house is a small kitchen knife with a snapped-off point, fondly called the Gouger.

    Jeannie Davy
    Morpeth, Northumberland

    The use of GB on cars caused confusion abroad

    SIR – Dr Michael Blackmore (Letters, July 6) demands to know by what right the Government dictates the use of GB plates on UK-registered vehicles in countries where it has no jurisdiction.

    He will find that the answer is quite plainly stated in international law, specifically in Article 37 of the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic: “Every motor vehicle in international traffic shall display at the rear, in addition to its registration number, the distinguishing sign of the state in which it is registered.”

    The use of “GB” when it is “UK” that is really meant is a long-standing anomaly that probably contributes to the general lack of understanding that Great Britain and the United Kingdom are not the same thing. It is high time this was corrected.

    R J Smith
    Reading, Berkshire

    SIR – Driving to Folkestone, I saw a sign for the Battle of Britain Memorial and wondered, sadly, when it would be changed to the Battle of the United Kingdom Memorial.

    B E Kerrison
    London SW4

    SIR – I have a Welsh flag logo together with “Cymru” on my number plate. If I decide to go abroad, do I have to change my number plate too?

    Edward Howell
    Bishopston, Glamorgan

    1. Television reporters constantly interview members of the public who claim that they don’t want lockdown to end. Where do they find these people?

      Well Valerie television reporters alway look for the people who have the views that they want broadcast!

    3. No, Edward Howell but you must display the regulation size GB sticker on your (car’s) backside.

    4. The Battle of Britain memorial is at Capel le Ferne. I’ve flown over it in a Spitfire (and been to Folkestone racecourse before it closed). As for
      Clive Nunn,he should just download an exemption certificate from the gov.uk website and then he could go maskless and not worry.

  7. Well done England for reaching a final, our England side appears to have lost the premadonna factor, they play as a team and not around one or two players, they appear to have sacrificed losing with the fun factor to winning with the slick boredom factor.

  9. Here’s a notable photogallery

    Enchanted forests: British woods and moors at night – in pictures

    The woods are lovely, dark and deep – at least in the images of Jasper Goodall. In Twilight’s Path, he stays awake to capture nocturnal landscapes in the forests and on the moors of the British Isles

    Wed 7 Jul 2021 07.00 BST

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/83f3e3938a7a1157f2c0bb36a181b76a97132a20/0_0_3000_1999/master/3000.jpg?width=720&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ee59c75351bff23d77d1ef2dc1376bbe

    https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2021/jul/07/enchanted-forests-british-woods-and-moors-at-night-i

    1. In 2065, Greta will be 62 years old, three years younger than I am now. Let herself go a bit?

  19. Xi Jinping’s totalitarian regime cannot coexist with the democratic world, 8 July 2021.

    Her long essay on the CCP’s ideological reflexes published by the Hoover Institution should be read with caution but it is nevertheless a seminal text for our time. It is both an exposé of the incorrigible character of this totalitarian beast but also an indictment of Western wishful thinking over forty years of failed strategic engagement.

    You cannot engage with the CCP. The party is implacably hostile, because it sees the foreign democratic virus as a threat to its own internal control of China. “The two conflicting systems cannot be reconciled, and they cannot indefinitely coexist,” she says.

    Well it looks to be doing a pretty good job to me! It’s just bought one of the UK’s most advanced chip makers! As to confrontation; where is this “democratic world” of which Pritchard speaks? The UK alone is almost a carbon copy of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The MSM in both are simply propaganda outlets. Free Speech has been eradicated. Education is indoctrination.. This is a battle between two totalitarian systems as forecast by Orwell, not Tyranny versus Democracy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/07/07/xi-jinpings-totalitarian-regime-cannot-coexist-democratic-world/

    1. UK has given a contract to China to finance and built a Nuclear Power Station in Suffolk: “Xi Jinping’s totalitarian regime cannot coexist with the democratic world…You cannot engage with the CCP”

      Either Pritchard forgot to take his woke meds, misplaced his woke mask or the Queen was still Victoria

  20. Good morning, all. So, thanks to an own goal and a disputed penalty, ‘Arry Kane’s lads is fruw to yer Final.

    I do not understand soccer. The MR (to my great surprise) wanted to watch the match. So we did, of course! It seemed to me that the England team spent 90 minutes passing the ball round in circles, apparently unaware of the object of the game.

    I went to bed then – and discovered this morning that there had been a great victory.

    Funny old thing, sport.

    1. I did similarly. I criticised Southgate for taking off Saka instead of Sterling.
      I regard Sterling as a chance wasting cheat and although we won because of his antics I still won’t change my mind.

  21. Good morning all.

    Last night I went to a local pub to watch the football. It was a very rowdy, working-class pub and the atmosphere was very friendly. But there was something strange, I couldn’t quite put my finger on it – until I realised that nobody was wearing a mask! Not one single person had a mask, people were walking around freely, hugging each other when England scored. There were no ‘stay safe’ announcements, no bossy little signs reminding us to social distance. It was like it was 2019 again.

    It was so refreshing (if a little worrying, as presumably one phone-call from a busybody could have everyone inside fined and the premises closed). This is what life used to be like, when we could be with our neighbours supporting our national team, and not constantly be reminded of the need to fear a virus and obey all the rules. Let’s hope that the spirit of rebellion I saw in this little pub spreads to the whole country.

      1. Yes, to be fair people were keeling over and a man with a cart and bell was crying “bring out yer dead!” as I left. Still, worth it to see the footie! 🙂

        1. Glad you spotted him. For months I have been worried about the putrefaction from the piles of dead bodies I find all over the town – and also just dumped beside the lane.

          2. If you didn’t someone else would.

            But it’s more fun teasing you afterwards.

    2. And the state is keeping those draconian powers instead of shredding them from statute.

      2. Yes, this is what worries me. This won’t be over until those ’emergency’ powers are repealed. We need to have a debate as a country on lockdowns, whether this is to be a one-off response to the outbreak of a virus, or is lockdown just what we do now?

        Just because they might loosen the chains on the 19th, doesn’t mean that they won’t tighten them up again in the Autumn.

        1. There is a Parliamentary vote at the end of September on renewing them for another 6 months.
          Anyone betting on which way the vote goes?

          1. Matt Hancock said back in March that the powers were likely to be extended beyond September. The government has absolute power over every aspect of our lives, from whether we can sit on a park bench to whether we can hug our dying relatives. Why would they ever give that up voluntarily?

          2. We’ll be locked down again either way, come September.

            Those of us who aren’t already dead.

    3. I’m just preparing my motorhome for a trip out (the first in eighteen months). I found items of food that were a year past their sell-by date! It really brought it home to me how long I’ve been in prison.

      1. I remember in March/April time seeing closed shops with Christmas decorations in the windows. We have been placed in suspended animation and wasted a lot of our precious time.

        1. At my age I feel that most keenly. They are months (years) I shall never get back.

  22. Elephants might not fly: confusion over Carrie Johnson charity’s rewilding plan

    Kenyan ministry of tourism and wildlife expresses concern about reports of scheme to transport herd from Kent

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/492ebd8c30ca079cb81b9706daddfd7e1d9759db/736_0_2115_1544/master/2115.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=5e2abb1029bdca84f6c61656caf6469a
    The Aspinall Foundation had announced plans to transport 13 savannah elephants from Howletts Wild Animal Park to Kenya

    Bollocks. Of course elephants can fly

    https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/6078574277.jpg

    1. usual garbage emanating from Najib Balala’s office / orifice. KWS in Tsavo already have everything required / requested – set up. More virtue signalling. Still, it keeps security costs down for Carrie Antoinette’s out of season free holiday although the wooden tops in High Commission will be tripping over themselves to participate

    1. Can’t wait for next Monday’s headline…
      “England robbed by dodgy Italian penalty”

      1. I hope England win, but I suspect that the Italians will.

        And I also suspect that the Italians won’t need any dodgy penalties, even though many are nearly in Sterling’s class on the dodgy-Daley front.

    1. Heh, I like that. Works on many levels, esp. when compared to the criminals arriving at Dover.

  25. 335193+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Thursday 8 July: People in the street who don’t want lockdown to end must lead a thin kind of existence,

    This was made so bloody obvious on the 24/6/2016 48% / 52% just replace
    lockdown with voluntary eu incarceration.
    The political rubber stampers lab/lib/con politico’s, with their supporter voters, came close to having their anti nation needs granted but for a flash of sanity via the electoral herd winning the day.
    That “flash of sanity” evaporated rapidly
    with the electorate reverting to form as in, party before Country mode, supporting / voting for the supposedly political ex rubber stampers.

    ALL the while the internal fight among the close shop lab/lib/con coalition continues the islamic ideology followers
    build in numbers and in gaining positions of power.

    For the simple minded among the electorate, and there are obviously many, keep in mind once you replace grandads axe head and haft it can no longer be called grandads axe.

    1. I’ve long argued that universal franchise needs to end. There are far too many frightened, ignorant or simply stupid people allowed to affect the lives of those who are not.

      1. 335193+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        Sad to say that is, and has been for decades, the case.

  27. French court convicts 11 of harassing teenager who posted anti-Islam videos. 8 July 2021.

    A French court has convicted 11 people for harassing a teenager online over her anti-Islam videos in a case that has led to a fierce debate about free speech and the right to insult religions.

    The prosecutions were part of a judicial fightback against trolling and online abuse after the girl, known as Mila, had to change schools and accept police protection because of death threats.

    No chance of that here. The PTB are on the side of the Muzzies!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/07/french-court-convicts-11-of-harassing-teenager-who-posted-anti-islam-videos

    1. If the girl is not exonerated and the thugs insulting her punished, it will be yet more proof of how back to front this nation is.

    2. 335193+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      Precisely, and getting a great deal of support via the polling booth.

  29. What’s Yours Is Mine…

    A woman was out golfing one day when she hit her ball into the woods. She went into the woods to look for it and found a frog in a trap. The frog said to her, “If you release me from this trap, I will grant you 3 wishes.”

    The woman freed the frog and the frog said, “Thank you, but I failed to mention that there was a condition to your wishes (naturally) whatever you wish for, your husband will get 10 times more or better!”

    The woman said, “That would be okay,”

    For her first wish, she wanted to be the most beautiful woman in the world. The frog warned her, “You do realise that this wish will also make your husband the most handsome man in the world, an Adonis that women will flock to.”

    The woman replied, “That will be okay because I will be the most beautiful woman and he will only have eyes for me.”

    So, KAZAM – she’s the most beautiful woman in the world! For her second wish, she wanted to be the richest woman in the world. The frog said, “That will make your husband the richest man in the world and he will be ten times richer than you.”

    The woman said, “That will be okay because what is mine is his and what is his is mine.”

    So, KAZAM she’s the richest woman in the world! The frog then inquired about her third wish, and she answered, “I’d like a mild heart attack.”

    Moral of the story: Women are clever bitches. Don’t fuck with them

      1. The best laid plans of mice and (wo)men…

        …and logic invariably defeats humour.

    1. Brown already lumbered every single one of us with a debt of £200,000.

      He wasted Junior’s entire life’s tax income in 3 years. In fact, he wasted Junior’s children, their children,a nd their grand and great grand children’s entire tax income.

  33. Professor Andrew Hayward has just been on BBC R4 and concedes that Test and Trace is an imperfect solution to infection control. He suggests that those people who discover they are infectious should tell all others with whom they have come into contact to self isolate.

    The interviewer points out that self isolation is just not an option for many workers who just cannot afford to withdraw from the workplace to maintain their living standatds and who are unable to work from home.

    https://www.ucl.ac.uk/tb/people/professor-andrew-hayward

  34. Good morning my friends:

    Boris Johnson: Extending school day is ‘right thing to do’
    Most important investment we can make is in pupils, says PM, as he also updates MPs on green homes, Universal Credit and Northern Ireland

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/07/boris-johnson-extending-school-day-isright-thing-do/

    Boris Johnson talking about what is ‘the right thing to do’ is more than a bit rich coming from this immoral, dishonourable and mendacious buffoon. It called to mind the expression: ‘the louder he talked of his honour the faster we counted our spoons.‘

    My superficial ‘Wiki research’ traced this expression back to Boswell’s Life of another Johnson called Samuel who said:

    “Why, Sir, if the fellow does not think as he speaks, he is lying; and I see not what honour he can propose to himself from having the character of a lyar. But if he does really think that there is no distinction between virtue and vice, why, Sir, when he leaves our houses let us count our spoons.”

  36. Oh, Joy Unconfined! England have won the Euros!
    In breaking news it seems that after careful study of the English style of play the Italians decided that they could never hope to come close to overcoming the English team. The English use of an updated version of catenaccio, and this, together with their play-acting with or without provocation or contact, was simply so sublime that the Italians realised they would be hopelessly outclassed. Fearing embarrassment, the manager of the Italian team, Roberto Mancini, issued a brief statement to the press this morning, saying simply that Italy were not good enough and they were therefore conceding the match to England.
    In further developments it is strongly rumoured that three members of the English team have been offered contracts to appear at La Scala, Milan.

  37. Is the world going mad or am I just Confused of Colchester? Apparently last night the Big Match was full of diving – I thought it was a football match not a swimming competition. And many people are furious that even walking (ambulist) holidays will involve quarantine in the future. Finally, it appears that our chip production facilities have been sold to the Chinese. My local chip shop reckons he soon won’t be able to sell fish and chips because all the chips will go to Chinese takeaways. Is the world going mad or am I just Confused of Colchester?

    :-))

    1. Good Moaning, Old Olaf’s Relict.

      Here is an article on the subject. I am not a scientist or even a very well paid civil servant or minister, but this would ring alarm bells for me. Even if the factory is bit tired, the Chinese have bought it for a reason.
      Holy smoke, even Millipede Jnr realised this might be a bad idea.

      “https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/07/07/boris-johnson-orders-review-chinese-microchip-takeover/

      Boris Johnson orders review into Chinese microchip takeover

      Prime Minister overrules ministers to ‘look again’ at £65m sale of Newport Wafer Fab

      7 July 2021 • 6:25pm

      Boris Johnson has overruled his ministers to order a review into a Chinese-backed takeover of Britain’s biggest microchip factory following an outcry over national security.

      The Prime Minister told MPs that he has asked the National Security Adviser, Sir Stephen Lovegrove, to assess the £65m sale of Newport Wafer Fab to Nexperia, a Dutch company owned by China’s Wingtech.

      Pressure for an intervention has mounted since the deal was revealed by The Telegraph on Friday, amid fears that China is gaining access to a strategic asset during a global shortage of chips which has forced carmakers and some consumer electronics companies to slash production.

      Addressing MPs on the Liaison Committee, Mr Johnson said: “This is a very difficult business.

      “We’re looking into it, I’ve asked the National Security Advisor to review. We will look at it again.”

      He confirmed that the Government has the power to block the deal under the recently-passed National Security and Investment Act, which allows it to act if a sale is deemed a security threat.

      Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, had previously declined to intervene, saying the deal had been “considered thoroughly” and was an economic matter for the Welsh government.

      Mr Johnson said he did not wish “anti-China spirit to pitchfork away every investment from China into this country” but added that he wants to assess the implications of selling the plant.

      Speaking to Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, he said: “We have to judge whether the stuff they are making is of real intellectual property value and interest to China, whether there are real security implications.

      “I think semiconductors are of huge importance to this country, one of the things I wanted to look at immediately was whether we could be more self-reliant. We’re thinking about what to do.”

      Newport Wafer Fab in Wales is Britain’s largest microchip facility by output, producing power supply chips for cars, and is scheduled to produce sensors used in a future version of Apple’s smartwatch.

      Nexperia gained control of the plant on Monday after triggering a contractual clause allowing it to take over the facility, which employs around 400 people. Wingtech, the Dutch company’s Chinese owner, is partially-owned by state-backed investors.

      Mr Johnson said the Welsh government had “asked us to deal with it”, although a spokesman said it had not requested that Westminster intervene.

      The Welsh government loaned the plant’s previous owners more than £15m and this money will be repaid as part of the sale.

      Beijing has made it a national priority to be self-sufficient in semiconductors, the building blocks of modern electronics.

      The country fears that it is overexposed to US superiority in the field, but multiple attempts by Chinese-backed companies to buy foreign technology have been blocked on security grounds.

      Ed Miliband, Labour’s shadow business secretary, had called the plant a “vital economic and technology asset”.”

      1. This country is “open for business” is a government mantra. Actually everything is for sale to anyone who wishes to buy (and make the appropriate donations).

    1. The Leftwaffe, with their constant badgering wokeness, are too dim to realise the wisdom of letting sleeping dogs lie. I only hope that it comes back to bite them, hard.

          3. One of my chums in the long ago was a criminal layer. (Always handy, just in case.). At that time the HQ of Lothians & Borders Police was in the High Street. The holding cells were well below street level. Many of my chums clients fell down these stairs, literally and metaphorically. A different police force to that of today.

        2. Because, brat boy, you are the Nazis. You Lefties are the fascist thugs. You’re teh enemy normal people resist. You’re the scum. You beat people up. You smash, loot and steal. You abuse. We do this. Be grateful, because We are better than you.

    2. I am a man who wanted to be left alone to live life with family and friends.

      I am a man who is prepared for what is to come.

    2. Is our countryside 98% white? I thought it was mostly green, except at harvest time, when some of it is wheat-coloured.

      3. We get a lot of white countryside in Norway, from autumn to spring.
        Just saying.
        I’ll get me coat…

    3. It is the BBC that is racist. Not the countryside or the people who live there.

      It is obvious to me that Bames prefer the vibrancy of the city. Plus there are more job opportunities. Unlike the countryside.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Philip, “Plus there are more job opportunities” or

        Plus there are more job stab and grab opportunities.

    4. “Why is our countryside 98% white?”

      ‘Cos at night it’s all black and you cannot see who to stab.

      Get over it Black Broadcast Clots and send someone to interview me at 22:00 in rural Suffolk – don’t send a black person, I won’t see he/she/it.

    5. Louisa Adjoa Parker, a writer and poet of English and Ghanaian heritage, was born and raised in the UK and has lived in Devon and Dorset since she was a child – but seemingly innocent comments from others are a reminder that she is seen by some as an outsider.

      You don’t have to be black to get that look that says: “You’re not from round here, are you?”

      Phil Young, a campaigner and sports enthusiast who wants to bring more diversity to outdoor spaces,said: “When I go to the countryside I have a fantastic time and most of the people are really friendly and happy to see you but it’s still very difficult if five young black men wearing hoodies go into a country pub.”

      Five young white men in hoodies might get a frosty reception.

      He goes on to say:
      “…it was white men from Dorset and the west country who left the area, travelled around the world, colonised other countries, set up plantations, enslaving people, and they were some of the first people instrumental in setting up the systems of white supremacy that we see today.”

      Carrying on talking like that, matey, and white people will cross the road to avoid you, thus satisfying your own trouble-making prejudice.

      1. I really think she needs to learn some blasted gratitude. Lazy waster is probably on welfare.

    6. HERE IS WHY THIS COUNTRY IS 98% WHITE . . .
      England is the home of cream teas and Cheddar cheese, a pint of bitter and a cup of tea, farms and factories, honest coppers and straight judges. It is the Wars of the Roses and the Reformation, Roundheads and Cavaliers, rebellions and strikes, Industrial Revolution and a Glorious Revolution. It is the home of Magna Carta, Locke and Burke, Churchill and Attlee, and long lines of kings and queens.

      1. I am mirroring your passion .

        But I said county not country ..

        It seems clear to me that there are manywho want to monster Dorset , the way they have done with Hampshire, Kent and Sussex , Somerset and Gloucester and of course Yorkshire!

    7. Why is it racist for a predominantly white country to remain so?

      Look at the stabbings, the crime, the drugs that black yobs have brought to London. Who’d want that in their society?

    8. The countryside is one of the few remaining bastions of non-diversity. Of course the Bbc will be all out to destroy that.

  41. Papers full of Harry Kane and his outstanding contribution to the England win . . .
    Just left the following remark on the piece in the Telegraph .

    “He missed the penalty . . scored from a lucky rebound…”
    Within a couple of seconds the remark was highlighted and then removed . .??

    1. The media like to build people up into heroes and tear them down again. They don’t need any help from the hoi polloi. It spoils their fun.

          4. To go with my formal dinner suit.

            But tonight they are going with black jeans and a sparkly dinner jacket a la Liberace. :@)

    2. They’re cleaning up in case England win the final, thus earning him a knighthood and the team a George Cross (Malta got one for the same feat of beating the Germans and Italians and Johnson needs another distraction)

      1. The Independent reporting that Eufa is opening disciplinary hearings against England after the Denmark match.
        Use of laser by its supporters
        Disturbance by English supporters during National Anthem
        Lighting of fireworks by the English supporters
        The case will be dealt with by EUFA in due course.

        1. I wouldn’t be surprised if Uefa awarded the game to Denmark. Seriously. Just think what happened after the Hysel incident.

          1. I blame it on Brexit and global warming. In fact I am sure that the root cause of global warming is Brexit.

  42. From The Grimes today – quite good view of the BPAPM:

    “All prime ministers face criticism, some of it rough. This is as it should be, since they wield a lot of power and spend a lot of other people’s money. But what is being done to Boris Johnson by Dominic Cummings, one post at a time in his addictive pay-to-read online newsletter, is in a different category entirely.

    Few prime ministers have had their character, psychological profile and core personality so comprehensively trashed while they are still in office. It’s brutal and disturbing, like watching a psychiatrist set about a patient with a baseball bat.

    The assault is merciless, the lampooning Hogarthian and the detail and judgments devastating. The prime minister is presented as someone who is operationally useless: an out-of-control trolley who cannot be trusted with the country.

    In his latest instalment, published this week, Cummings paints a convincing portrait of a leader who cannot even do the basics of chairing meetings: “He has no idea how Whitehall works and has no interest in it.” Says Cummings: “He rewrites reality in his mind afresh according to the moment’s demands. He lies — so blatantly, so naturally, so regularly — that there is no real distinction possible with him, as there is with normal people, between truth and lies.” The prime minister always tells people what they want to hear and never means it, says Johnson’s former guru.

    Cummings is fascinated by the inherent oddity of the Johnson persona. He will use anybody for anything, it is claimed, but is more polite than most top politicians towards junior staff. “He [Johnson] is totally untrusted by anybody in No 10 yet has a superpower for making people feel sorry for him — ‘I feel sorry for him like my old dead-beat boyfriend, I hate myself for it but I can’t help it,’ said one in despair after a particularly dreadful meeting.”

    Johnson is no fool, so he must have known that something like this would come after he had allowed himself to become too dependent on his senior aide. Clinging to Cummings after the “testing my eyesight” imbroglio mid-lockdown may have been partly about putting off the day when this stuff would be unleashed.

    The establishment view is that the Cummings broadside means nothing and has no implications. He’s whistling in the wind, wasting his time writing tens of thousands of words on his laptop, wild-eyed and demented. Hardly anyone is listening, it is said. For all that journalists are fascinated, few voters trust anything Cummings says after the Barnard Castle breach of lockdown rules and his departure from No 10. Cummings is hated by many ministers who were appalled by his arrogance in government.

    I’m not so sure the conventional wisdom is correct, though. For Cummings has, perhaps accidentally, revealed a great and strange truth about the weirdness of the Johnson circus. It is this: the prime minister lacks any meaningful support in Westminster and Whitehall, by which I mean he lacks the solid support of friends and senior colleagues prepared to defend him when times are tough.

    The Tory party is travelling under a flag of convenience. While he is ahead in the polls, as he is now, that doesn’t matter much. Eventually it will matter a lot when times get tougher again, as they always do for a leader.

    At a moment of crisis, when his enemies come for Boris, there will be no echo of the scenes in November 1990 when tearful Thatcherites turned up at No 10 begging her to stay. Indeed, it is one of the most notable aspects of the Johnson-Cummings falling-out that no one in a position of authority leaps to make a convincing public defence of the prime minister. The best he gets is standard-issue waffle from a minister on the radio who, when asked, will witter that Johnson is “getting on with the job”, a platitudinous response usually delivered by someone whose prime concern is avoiding the sack.

    This is not usually how it works. Most prime ministers have their doughty defenders, who genuinely believe even in tricky times that the leader is a person of great worth and must be backed. Margaret Thatcher had disciples. John Major had adherents. The Blairites and Brownites were tight-knit and dedicated to protecting their men. During David Cameron’s time there were convinced Cameroons. Even when Theresa May was in the most severe trouble respected colleagues such as David Lidington would defend her robustly on the basis that he, and others, believed there was no one better placed to try to unscramble the Brexit mess.

    “It’s never nice with Boris,” a minister told me recently when I inquired how it was going in his department. “He’s not nice.” That minister is not some softie who expects sweetness and ego-boosting charm. He simply makes the point, as others do, that the atmosphere is perpetually unsettling and suspicious, to the detriment of effective work, and on a human level not enjoyable.

    They do fear Emperor Boris, certainly, as Romans feared their emperors. Johnson’s conception of power is Roman, pre-Christian, involving bread and circuses to entertain the masses and a ruthless attitude to senior colleagues. He may be chaotic but he has the power of patronage and a poll lead. There’s an emptiness to it, though.

    Which of his colleagues playing the long game would lay down in front of an oncoming train to protect Boris Johnson? They would all gather nearby to watch and point, certainly. But I cannot think of one among them who would try too hard to intervene.”

    1. “The prime minister is presented as someone who is operationally useless: an out-of-control trolley who cannot be trusted with the country.”
      And?

        1. I’m afraid, AWK, that the mention of ‘Donald Duck Trump’ was enough for me to see that Veterans Today is a lefty publication and I see enough lies from them to not want to read more.

          3. I shall be impressed if anyone can recognize from where comes the observation that Mr Harcourt, sober, occasionally resisted the temptation to try to be funny – rather drunk, never.

            I sometimes remind myself of Mr Harcourt.

          4. I remember this being read to me in class when I was at prep school by a man called d’Arcy Hughes who had not been kindly treated by life or he would not have ended up at St Christopher’s. When I became an usher (as Schoolmasters are sometime pejoratively called) I used to read it to some of the boys in my lower school classes and it was as popular with them as it had been to my own generation.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8SskHNaIIQ

      1. both refused US money, more so Haiti which is pretty much a revolving door for the Clinton Foundation slush fund. Magufuli also refused any US interference

          1. Magafuli was both well educated and regular half marathon runner. Now replaced by Schwab puppet Rais, another useless specimen

      2. both refused US money, more so Haiti which is pretty much a revolving door for the Clinton Foundation slush fund. Magufuli also refused any US interference

        1. Some of the Comedians from Greeneland are living with the Tonton Macoute in the Dominican Republic.

    4. Now we know what happened to Boris when he wasn’t keen on lockdown and supposedly caught covid.

  44. Just back from a busy market – not helped by the PTB deciding to have roadworks on one of the only two roads int Fakenham! Very few masks. Morrisons much as usual. Most masked – I wasn’t. Neither was an elderly friend who simply said she couldn’t be bothered.

    Couple in front at the checkout were Full Covidians. Masks AND gloves. Husband handled the bag-packing. Wife avoided touching anything except her credit card – and then ostentatiously applied chemical liquid to her hands in order – I suppose – to protect herself from her own germs..

    And on our return a very kind neighbour was on hand to take the damned filing cabinet away to a scarp merchant. The end of an era. I bought it second hand in 1977!

        2. With the added advantage of voluminous bags UNDER the binbag covering in which to stash stolen goods.

      2. How wonderful. A bit of logic and common sense. (Whatever next!). We have both been shopping in all the supermarkets without masks for ever.

        ATE. Just to be clear neither of us has worn a mask throughout this whole scamdemic.

          1. Oh no – she bought lotsa hooch – or, rather, her husband did. There is a 25% off offer just now. I think she would prolly have a very small sherry a Christmas, and leave most of it…

      1. Thank you for that. I had seen it. The MR – who is G & P’s principal slave confirmed that we do not buy any of the suspect items.

        Very thoughtful of you to raise it.

  45. The pension triple lock may be broken: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/08/boris-johnson-shapps-holidays-vaccine-quarantine-covid-tests/

    It was an election bribe that avoided annual scrutiny with those responsible long gone with money in their bank accounts when youngsters realised they were being shafted and the problem was someone else’s.

    The idiots clearly couldn’t see the obvious that with an economic shock wages could fall in one year only to rebound the next to long-term trends, generating a fall ignored by the lock then a massive rise raising the pension artificially high.

    1. This is the only Deal that seems to be working as planned. The Brexit one isn’t unless – like the thwarting of the import of illegal immigrants – it was never intended to work from the very outset.

        1. Brexit, Global Warming and Covid are the three great confidence tricks of our age.

      2. I believe that the state is deliberately, intentionally trying to oppose absolutely everything people wanted from Brexit out of sheer spite, all the way down to deliberately destroying the economy with high taxes and more waste.

  48. Good gesture but not nearly enough

    More than £35k Raised for Teacher Forced into Hiding over Mohammed Cartoonhttps://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/07/08/more-than-30k-raised-teacher-forced-hiding-mohammed-cartoon/

  49. 335193 + up ticks,
    This regular milking of the herd will surely unsettle even the most hardened
    core members of the lab/lib/con close shop coalition.

    The overseers know that to go after the
    child abuse jab is a jab to far, many of the parent.member / voters just might start asking questions.
    This jabbering is to my mind a building block regarding the reset / replace campaign, with many of the herd addicted as will be seen on July the 20th.

    Covid stewarts can IMO be classed as
    milk monitors.
    People who have had both doses of the coronavirus vaccine will be able to enjoy quarantine-free travel to amber list destination – but will still face costly tests on their return.

    Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, is setting out plans to free holidaymakers from England who are fully vaccinated from the 10-day self-isolation requirement.

    Children will be exempted, even though they are not vaccinated, but will still be subject to the PCR tests. It could add up to £400 to the cost of a holiday for a family of four with additional pre-departure tests.

      1. I’ll have you know that
        A) My cousin is a SHE and teaches English and RE in a wop school
        B) It’s not stolen
        C) There is no broken chain

        1. A) I admire people who go abroad to teach.

          B) So you say…!

          C) What’s that hanging down by the rear wheel, then?

          1. C) It’s the stand to keep the machine upright when parked – ask Phizzee who knows all about this stuff

    1. No problem launching the lifeboats, just make sure they run their lifeboat up the French beach so they can disembark their passengers back to France.

      1. If they intercept them in French waters then the RNLI is logically obliged to land them in France, otherwise they are endangering their passengers by travelling a longer route to the UK.

  53. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “The more often a stupidity is repeated, the more it gets the appearance of wisdom.”

    Voltaire.

    1. He makes most people’s skins creep and especially women who find the thought of even slight physical contact with him vomit-inducing. How does his wife, Celia, bear him touching her?

      2. She closes her eyes and thinks of her bank accounts and other assets.

    1. How about backdating the start to, say, Christmas, then running the model and seeing how it compares with the historic data? That would be interesting, see the accuracy of prediction. Maybe some assumption or real-life measurement will be wrong, and tracking that would be fun!

      1. Up until now I have been discovering how the input variables change the shape of the graphs and have yet to get finer contol of the model using a tablet.

        The model shows high sensitivity to the time of intervention measures and the target R0.
        I have yet to work out the necessary conditions to get a model that reflects a commonly held view that the effects of the virus will eventually decay.

        One emerging finding is that the number of initial delta infections may have been a lot higher than originally thought at the beginning of 2021.

    2. Assuming I read the graphs correctly and the daily fatalities do not rise to 5, to put it into perspective 15 people a day committed suicide in 2019, and after the lockdowns that may well be higher.

  57. Being public-spirited, I thought I’d let the world-beating NHS know about the two side effects to my second Astra vaccination.

    You have to do it on line. Fair enough. Started – then became completely bogged down because, in addition to the two simple things I wished to report, they had compulsory boxes where one had to add all sorts of other details – which I simply could not arsed to look up and fill in.

    I wanted to help. The badly designed form was a complete turnoff. Brilliant way of making something simple bewilderingly complicated.

    2. One side effect of the vaxx is shortened attention spans, the NHS has noticed that people can no longer fill in their forms.

    3. Just give me your bank details, NI number and dob and I’ll do it for you.

      1. You know perfectly well – my friend Mr Rashid has all those details at his finger tips.

    4. May I ask what sort of details they wanted? We’re they ones where you could simply make up a reply or was it personal details they were after?

      1. Nothing personal, vw – just boxes asking about any medication one is taking – which I had no problem with – but each question had a large ADD and there appeared to be no mechanism for saying NONE or N/A.

        This is the form: https://coronavirus-yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk/

        It may be that it is just me, but after attempting it twice I just gave up.
        I then discovered that the MR had also tried and abandoned.

        Pity, really. One might think that they don’t really want to know….

          1. It is voluntary. Up to you. If you wish to waste a couple of hours and end up throwing your PC at the dog – go to it….

  58. Pakistan 101 for 7. ‘Our’ Pakistani, Saqib Mahmood, 4 wickets…so far

    1. There has been a good number of Pakistanis play for England recently, some of them successfully, others less so. Sajid Mahmood (2004-10) was a trier but never quite made it, Moeen Ali makes the occasional brilliant contribution but too often plays as though his mind’s somewhere else, while Adil Rashid looks as though he’s enjoying every minute of it, even when he’s been smashed for successive sixes.

      I wonder what’s going through the heads of these players and some of the younger Pakistani supporters.

      And I’m far from convinced about Jofra Archer.

      1. “…plays as though his mind’s somewhere else...” Praying, I shouldn’t wonder. He is very “devout”.

  59. British forces have withdrawn from Afghanistan after 20 years. 7 July 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1160f1e8423cb3c393bd373ffc4f318de8aad60251952c2aa2c286449a970b1.jpg

    Brigadier Olly Brown, the outgoing commander of Operation Toral, the UK’s contribution to Nato’s mission in Afghanistan, handed it to Sir Laurie Bristow, the UK ambassador, in a final ‘flag-lowering’ event conducted without media for security reasons.

    A small number of British troops will remain in the country to train the Afghan army, with additional military support available should the region pose a security threat to the UK in the future.

    However, he insisted that the country was now very different to 2001 when British forces first deployed, and paid tribute to veterans, saying they can “hold their heads up very high”.

    Gen Sir Nick said: “I am immensely proud of the tactical excellence that our military showed on the battlefield. They were never defeated on the battlefield. They showed extraordinary adaptability [and] phenomenal courage throughout that campaign.”

    Different? How? This is of course a mixture, not only of face-saving twaddle but absolute lies to avoid stating the obvious truth that the whole thing was a complete misjudgement by the Elites and that our troops were defeated by better soldiers. If the Afghan Army ever needed to be trained by anyone (an unlikely proposition in itself in a Society where all are Warriors) surely it should be by winners! Look at the picture. These are five Taliban fighters. None of them are young. They have all probably been fighting since they were around fourteen or sixteen. They are all hardened veterans practiced and experienced in War. They each of them almost certainly, have what the West calls PTSD. I doubt that they know what fear is, or possess a sympathetic bone between them! The extraordinarily low numbers of NATO prisoners over the last twenty years would suggest that they never bothered taking any and killed them even when wounded.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/08/british-forces-have-withdrawn-afghanistan-20-years/

    1. Afghanistan is not worth fighting for. Leave them to their mediaeval ways and religion.

    2. They will no doubt come in handy the next time a superpower wants to detract from it’s own moral bankrupcy. None of them looks likely to land an aeroplane on its wheels..

    3. “The country is now very different to 2001”
      Yes, it is less secure, has no effective government, no education system to talk of, infrastructure bombed to smithereens and internal rivalries which didn’t exist before 2001. The entire episode since 2001 has been no more than a political ego trip by a bunch of US and UK politicians and supported by a NATO elite who were searching for a post cold war role.

    4. “The country is now very different to 2001”
      Yes, it is less secure, has no effective government, no education system to talk of, infrastructure bombed to smithereens and internal rivalries which didn’t exist before 2001. The entire episode since 2001 has been no more than a political ego trip by a bunch of US and UK politicians and supported by a NATO elite who were searching for a post cold war role.

      1. The Chinese will just pay the Taliban, the local warlords, tribal leaders, policemen and imam suitable protection taxes. It’s far easier and cheaper working with their culture than trying to impose ours on them.

        1. Except that they loathe slammers…. Should the odd – drugged up – talibanista set a roadside bomb, they may find that the Chinks respond in kind – but several thousand fold. One lives in hopes.

    6. If there are no foreigners to fight, Afghans will fight each other, just to keep their hand in.

    7. I submitted a FOI request to the Ministry of defence asking how many British soldiers had been captured by the Afghans. The reply said “none”

        1. Yes, I was thinking of the last verse. I did think it odd that in all those years not one British soldier was captured. The notion of “prisoner” does not apply as being cut up while alive is not how “prisoners” are treated.

          1. I also think that the use of IEDs, designed to cripple as much as to kill, was a particularly dirty aspect of the “war”.
            No doubt British servicemen and women can look forward to many prosecutions.

          2. Look at it from the Afghan side.
            Outclassed in “normal” miltary behaviour, by well equipped, well-trained, well fed professional soldiers, they could not undertake a face-to-face fight, they lost every time the tried. So, unless they actively wanted to lose, they had to play to their strengths – ability to move around unrecognised, knowledge of the terrain, and an endless supply of morale-sapping IEDs that slowed NATO down out of all proportion to their cost and complexity.
            It worked, too. So, their tactics and strategy was right, and NATOs was wrong.
            What prat, having seen how the British were seen off a century or more ago, and the Russians a few decades ago, would suggest another armed foray into the Stan?

          3. All of that is true.
            But by adopting those tactics they became Franc-tireurs and the “rules of war” ceased to apply and they should have been shot when captured

    1. Be careful. Despite what she says, the principle has been accepted. For decades it has been acceptable practice to bar people from travelling to certain countries or doing certain jobs without required vaccinations, eg for Yellow Fever or Hepatitis B. Time to get off high horses and focus on practicalities not emotions: what environments, travel or jobs require a Covid vaccination?

      1. No; ALL that it is necessary to know is that these jabs do not provide sterilising immunity. The vaccines you mention prevent the relevant illness being caught and transmitted. As transmission is still possible, the passports fail on their own logic.

  62. A bit early but I’m saying, Good evening and God bless, happy NoTTLers and I may be back but, please, don’t hold your breath.

      1. I’m OK, Mags, just bored silly. Has anyone got a spare Bren gun and about twenty full magazines?

          1. We are now fighting on 3 fronts – Enso (Australian) EDF (France) and Stakraft (Norwegian). I think this policy of covering arable land with Solar Panels is Government backed.

    2. Good night Nan. If it should happen, may flights of Angels sing thee to thy rest.

    2. BBC report: A couple of dozen far-right, foam-flecked people take part in a protest against vaccination.

  64. 1. LACKING INTELLIGENCE

    AT&T fired President John Walter after nine months, saying he lacked intellectual leadership. He received a $26 million severance package.
    Perhaps it’s not Walter who’s lacking intelligence.

    2. WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS

    Police in Oakland, CA spent two hours attempting to subdue a gunman who had barricaded himself inside his home. After firing ten tear gas canisters,
    officers discovered that the man was standing beside them in the police line, shouting, ‘Please come out and give yourself up.’

    3. WHAT WAS PLAN B?

    An Illinois man, pretending to have a gun, kidnapped a motorist and forced him to drive to two different automated teller machines, wherein the
    kidnapper proceeded to withdraw money from his own bank accounts.

    4. THE GETAWAY

    A man walked into a Topeka, Kansas Kwik Stop and asked for all the money in the cash drawer. Apparently, the take was too small, so he tied up
    the store clerk and worked the counter himself for three hours until police showed up and arrested him.

    5. DID I SAY THAT?

    Police in Los Angeles had good luck with a robbery suspect who just couldn’t control himself during a lineup. When detectives asked each man in the
    lineup to repeat the words: ‘Give me all your money or I’ll shoot’, the man shouted, ‘that’s not what I said!’

    6. ARE WE COMMUNICATING?

    A man spoke frantically into the phone: ‘My wife is pregnant and her contractions are only two minutes apart’. ‘Is this her first child?’ the
    doctor asked. ‘No!’ the man shouted, ‘This is her husband!’

    7. NOT THE SHARPEST TOOL IN THE SHED!

    In Modesto, CA, Steven Richard King was arrested for trying to hold up a Bank of America branch without a weapon. King used a thumb and a finger
    to simulate a gun. Unfortunately, he failed to keep his hand in his pocket.

    8. THE GRAND FINALE!

    Last summer, down on Lake Isabella, located in the high desert an hour east of Bakersfield, CA, some folks, new to boating, were having a problem.
    No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t get their brand new 22 foot boat, going. It was very sluggish in almost every maneuver, no matter
    how much power they applied. After about an hour of trying to make it go, they putted into a nearby marina, thinking someone there may be able
    to tell them what was wrong. A thorough topside check revealed everything in perfect working condition. The engine ran fine, the
    out-drive went up and down, and the propeller was the correct size and pitch. So, one of the marina guys jumped in the water to check
    underneath. He came up choking on water, he was laughing so hard. Under the boat, still strapped securely in place, was the trailer!

    *Now remember, these are all true stories, these people vote [in America] and most have children!

  65. That’s me for this day of alternate rain and very hot sun. Hemingway No 2 to watch tonight. What a disgrace that a wendyball “fan” should think it a brilliant wheeze to shine a laser at the Danish goalie. I hope they find the bastard and ban him for life.

    Sunlit uplands tomorrow….or the day after. I’ll just give Whitty a ring, he is always full of good news.

    A demain.

    2. If Boris Johnson had any integrity he would gracefully apologise to the Danes and surrender the match.

      And if the Danes responded in a gentlemanly manner they would agree to another match but on a sudden death rule so that the first team to score won.

    4. Cluck off, I’ve got a fitbit. I did 4000 calories yesterday and Monday, 3000 on Tues. I eat fruit and vegetables. I have one proper dinner a day. I’m bloody trying, so just bug off.

      3. I averaged 13 stone until 35, between 35 and 40 i put on 3 stone and between 40 and 50 another stone. It doesn’t seem to matter what I eat from fried breakfasts to salads. Exactly the same thing happened to my dad and brother. My wife is less than impressed and constantly tells me im obese and it’s my own fault yet she knows how much I’m eating and it isn’t much and I walk every day as i haven’t had a car now for 4 years almost.

  67. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b2715ed6402b48363dc051f0a623d041691fbabb26845a714d3dda64820599ef.png

    England charged by Uefa after laser pen incident.

    Uefa have opened proceedings against England over the “use of a laser pointer” which appeared to be shone in the face of Denmark goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel before Harry Kane’s semi-final-deciding penalty. The spot-kick was already the subject of controversy after Raheem Sterling was accused of diving in the first half of extra time at Wembley last night. Television footage later revealed that someone in the crowd shone a green laser pen in Schmeichel’s face in the moments before Kane stepped up to take it. The incidents have left a bitter taste for Danish fans today. Read how the country’s newspapers reacted – and the rest of the world.

    Stupidity is having the cleverness to invent a laser pointing device, then permitting it to go on sale to the general public.

    3. I wonder what the England team could have done to prevent it, that results in them being charged?

    4. Electric scooters spring to mind. They are legal but you can not ride them anywhere (unless you have land).

  68. Evelyne Hall 😊

    Just returned from our staycation in West Sussex. It was only about 90 miles from where we live and the hotel was excellent. In case any one wants to visit the area it was the High Down (interesting history) Hotel. And superb walking areas surrounding, but remember to take a dog it seems to be the trend. We left our with our neighbours. We discovered the number 700 bus route, it’s absolutely brilliant we parked for free along the marine drive up just outside Worthing and went to Brighton for free with our bus passes. Weather wasn’t too bad we didn’t get wet at all, but it was extremely windy we only spent 15 minutes on the beach at West Wittering and it took the rest of the day to get the fine sand out of our hair etc.
    Oh well off to some friends now for a curry.
    A lot of controversy over England’s win as well imho they should have had two penalties before the one given that won the match. Much silly talk about a laser beam shone in the face of the Goal keeper. The only evidence i have seen was a phot of the keeper with a square green reflection on the RH side of his face. Laser beams are with out exception a red dot. I might have been a refection from his jersey.

  71. On the one hand, on the other, on the one hand, on the other…

    The mask row is in danger of descending into a very British culture war

    To what extent do we let our inclination to be sticklers for courtesy override our common sense?

    ELLA WHELAN

    I have always struggled with the English sense of propriety. Growing up with an Irish family, I’ve long felt suspicious of those who can’t handle mick-taking, straight talking or blunt interruptions. We wear our hearts on our sleeves, and our views on our foreheads. Dealing with the (often awkward) silences at the dinner table with my teenage English boyfriend was torture for a wannabe seanchaí (†) like me. As my granny’s friend once said at a polite and particularly stifling tea party she was invited to: “Wouldn’t you love to say ‘shite’?”

    But where the banality of difference in manners might make for a funny anecdote, there is an aspect of English reservedness which has become a problem during the pandemic. The ‘don’t cause a scene’ attitude of stuffy Britishness, in particular, has come to frame responses to the pandemic less in terms of logic, reason and science and more in terms of table manners.

    One of the clearest examples of this has been masks, and the tiresome to-wear-or-not-to-wear debate. Despite the science around masks being both conflictual and simple (it’s obvious face coverings give some protection, but how much protection and whether it’s worthwhile is up for debate), the mask row seems to be the most divisive aspect of the last 15 months. Politicians get more flak for their stance on PPE than their decisions about emergency laws, care-home regulation or indeed Do Not Resuscitate orders. With the end in sight, and vaccines coursing through the veins of millions, the almost Stockholm-syndrome-like clinging to mask-wearing reveals something peculiar about the British response to the pandemic.

    From Sadiq Khan to Susanna Reid, politicians commentators and Twitter celebrities often laud the idea that masks are really a means of altruism (‡) – designed to protect the other, rather than yourself. The social and collective responsibility of fighting the virus was often lost on anti-lockdowners during the height of the pandemic, who bleated about personal risk in denial of its consequences more broadly. But, if we are to believe our wise sages and chief medical officers that the vaccine truly is as good as they say it is at fighting not only transmission but the effects of the virus, the actions of altruistic mask-wearers start to become more virtue-signalling than virus-fighting.

    And so the very British sentiment of avoiding conflict at all costs could lead us to a position in which we’re living in bad faith. On a bus in Hackney a week ago, I watched as a mother with two kids had a friendly tussle. The older lady next to her objected to the fact that she was sitting near her, with a child on her lap with no mask. The mother asked whether she’d been double-vaxxed, and when it had been established that all were adequately protected she asked what the need was to force her (admittedly rather boisterous) son to cover his face. It was an awkward, tense but necessary example of informal boundary-pushing – the old woman replied that she’d really rather everyone be wearing a mask. But to what extent do we let our inclination to be sticklers for courtesy override our common sense?

    There are disabled and immunosuppressed people arguing that the removal of masks will make them feel less comfortable going out into society after months of self-isolation; others argue that lipreading or trying to interpret people’s faces has been made impossible by the imposition of masks. Isn’t there a danger in allowing a bit of (often ineffectual, unwashed and worn improperly) material take the place of moral and ethical debates about weighing up the needs of the minority and the freedom of the majority?

    The Government’s lacklustre approach to freedom is in part to blame. Depressing stats have emerged showing just how damaging the last few months of often press-conference-induced terror have been for our approach to safetyism – many Brits are hesitant about celebrating the reopening of society for fear of being burnt and re-locked-down as has happened before. And yet, there seems little appetite to challenge the irrationality of holding on to practices like mask-wearing when they’re unnecessary. For a government so committed to following the data, Boris Johnson and his cabinet have time and again relied on behavioural science, manipulation and what will get them least media backlash than prioritising the (often difficult) truth of what risks are necessary when coming out of a pandemic.

    Perhaps being rule-obsessed is not just an English thing – for all their pretences at independence, Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have often tried to outdo the British precautionary principle in their approach to opening up. But we can’t let the obsession with mask-wearing turn into another very English quirk like queueing unnecessarily and apologising for everything.

    While a desire to prove oneself as righteous was in the past displayed by the wearing of a cross, the now almost religious need to be seen as on the ‘right’ and ‘safe’ side of the Covid debate has taken shape in the form of masks. When necessary, in crowded tubes or perhaps until every adult is vaccinated, there will be a place for mask-wearing in certain contexts on the basis of personal choice. Personally, I’d prefer to be licked head to toe on the Northern Line than be faced with a germaphobe flinching every time I sniff. We have too many culture wars raging as it is, there’s no space for one built around a rectangle of blue fabric and elastic.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/07/mask-row-danger-descending-british-culture-war/

    (†) story teller

    (‡) It’s not altruism but sanctimony, a word which doesn’t appear in online dictionaries of Irish Gaelic.

    BTL:
    Zebedee Mason
    If masks worked, the government would have ordered me to shave my beard off.

  72. Utterly off topic.
    I accidentally disturbed a wasp’s nest earlier in the week and was attacked by several wasps and stung many times. Initially the reaction was, as it usually is, a little mild swelling at the point of the sting.

    This time the later reaction has been very unpleasant and has lasted several days. Swelling on the arms and extreme itchiness all around the stings. My lymph glands peaked today, my usual 16.5/17 collars could not be done up, itching scalp and intense nausea.
    None of the usual home treatments worked and neither did my anti-histamines.

    I must wonder whether the second injection AZ, that I had this time last week changed my “normal” response. Either way, I don’t think I’m keen on any more stings this summer.

    Ho hum, such fun…

    3. That is horrible , poor you .

      Were they wasp wasps or those Asian wasps , we have seen some really huge wasps recently, I hope they weren’t those Asian things.

    4. Not nice.
      I disturbed a nest a few years back, fled up about 20 yards away, but one individual wasp still went straight at me and stung me on the top lip.
      Luckily the rest of the nest failed to follow his lead!

    5. Don’t read too much to it. I had the same reaction 2 years ago, before Covid. The bumps and itching from the 3 stings lasted for well over a month. I was surprised as I’d been stung many times previously with no effects lasting over a day. It may be old age or nastier strains of wasps.

    6. Don’t read too much to it. I had the same reaction 2 years ago, before Covid. The bumps and itching from the 3 stings lasted for well over a month. I was surprised as I’d been stung many times previously with no effects lasting over a day. It may be old age or nastier strains of wasps.

      2. The formidable gentleman with the Abraham-like bosom who played at the Fordenden cricket match inspired great awe in the local team until it was discovered that his university blue was in rowing and not cricket!

  74. Evening, all. Maybe I just associate with a lot of cynics, but my friends seem to expect us to be locked down again in time for winter, regardless of the damage to the economy. I sense a slow simmer of resentment building. We’ve had enough.

    2. I don’t think the economy is the no 1 concern any more of our politicians, Conway. The greater the damage, the better and easier we will slide into their global communistic plans.

      1. I don’t think our economy has been the concern of our politicians for some considerable time, pm. After all, for decades they just let the EU run it.

        1. The Conservative Party has had no interest in private businesses and those who set them up and run them since Margaret Thatcher was stabbed in the back.

          A decent Conservative government would have a high proportion of people in it who understand how to set up and run profitable businesses.

      2. It’s not even communism, Mum, it’s bloody Islam and the Western Caliphate they aim to set up.

    3. How old are these ‘rebels’, Conway? They don’t put much weight behind old white people’s opinions or complaints.

        2. Please encourage them to take some physical action, now. Before it’s too late.

          We, who would lead the fight, are now too old and infirm to do anything other than bump our gums about it and the New Caliphate know it.

          1. I keep urging them to rebel and assuring them that only by mass protest and rebellion can we win back our freedom.

    1. That’s utterly disgusting. End it now. Just stop feeding, housing and paying for these wasters.

      2. It’s a pity that the war on terror is NOT coming home – we have to learn to live with it under the new Caliphate.

      1. In another place and time he’d have done very well.
        On Der Stürmer.

    1. Did they ever face prosecution? After being brought in by seagoing limo, courtesy of the taxpayer.

    2. Since none of them seem to have been prosecuted, let alone deported, that’s hardly news surely? It is of more concern that the CPS [Couldn’t Prosecute Satan] seem to think that doing something illegal is no grounds for prosecution.

        1. Not idiots. It is run by traitors with an agenda against the indigenous.

    3. For crying out loud. Don’t prosecute them, DEPORT them! Get rid of this dross!

    4. Its all a result of the UN migration pact. We are signed up. They dost protest too much.

    5. 335193+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      Question is, “who wants to do that and why?”
      The UK electorate, for them party before Country wins the day and eventually will lose a nation.

      1. Ooh, Plum! 🙂 How is the dog search coming along? Any luck? Oscar sends his best.

        1. I’m not too sure Conway….I want my little Maud, my best friend! We faced a lot together and got through it somehow…

          Trying to move on…..

          1. Yes, I know. I miss Charlie terribly, but he’s gone and there’s no going back. I do find Oscar a great help. I think of it as Charlie’s legacy; he’s bequeathed Oscar his mac, his coat, his bed, his collar and lead and the happy memories I have of him.

      1. I like Buxtehude. When I started to play this, Oscar woke up and ran around with his nose to the floor as if looking for a spider! He’s settled again now.

    1. I love Perry Como! Fabulous voice! And Matt Monro – in my opinion better than Sinatra! Both sadly missed!

          1. A favourite in this house. Dean Martin had a wonderful voice, so melodious.

  80. Testing is encouraging Covid paranoia

    How can we live with the virus when the self-isolation policy suggests cases are still to be feared?

    JILL KIRBY

    Whatever happened to Freedom Day? Throughout the pandemic the Government has been accused of sending out contradictory messages, but this week’s announcements must surely take the prize.

    On Monday, the Prime Minister – finally – had a clear and confident message for the country: it’s time for us all to take back responsibility and use our own judgment, instead of relying on the Government to control our every move and monitor our day-to-day activities. Everyone over 50 or with particular vulnerability has been offered double vaccination and the take-up of jabs has been outstandingly high; the threat from Covid has been reduced to the level of flu. As the Prime Minister remarked “it’s now or never.” If the country doesn’t retake its freedom in the middle of summer, reaping the benefits of a brilliant vaccination programme, then when will we ever be free again?

    But no sooner had we begun to digest this message and prepare to pick up the threads of normal life than the brakes were slammed on. Anyone who comes within range of an infected person and who receives a notification via Track and Trace must still go into isolation for 10 days, regardless of their vaccination status. This restriction will not be lifted until August 16. After that date, the twice-jabbed – and all under 18s – will no longer have to self-isolate, although may still be required to undergo regular testing.

    With infections rising, the likelihood of coming into contact with an infected person is also growing, and likely to go on doing so for months to come. On the Government’s estimates, more than 2 million people could be infected in the next six weeks, leading to millions more being told to self-isolate.

    Every owner of a business desperate to re-open, or to operate at sufficient capacity to return a profit, is in despair. Who will risk going back to the office, or into a crowded pub, or book tickets for the theatre, and face being told the next morning that they sat near a reported case of Covid and must stay at home for the next ten days? How will restaurants be able to function with staff being sent home because they served an asymptomatic customer whose subsequent lateral flow test delivered bad news? Worst of all, how will the NHS begin to get through its huge backlog of cases with thousands of staff at home in isolation? None of these sectors can afford to lose another month crippled by self-isolation rules.

    It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the Government is trying to justify the billions thrown at the test and trace app by prolonging its use past the point when it is relevant or helpful. [No flies on you!] Last spring and summer, when vaccines were still a distant hope, a swift and effective test, trace and isolate regime could have saved lives. Now, with most of the population protected against serious illness, it is holding captive vast numbers of individuals and families unnecessarily.

    Not only has this brought misery and frustration, it goes against the entire logic of learning to live with Covid. Thanks to the vaccines, the number of cases is almost entirely irrelevant to the danger posed by Covid. Yet instead of encouraging us to view a case of Covid as we might a case of any other respiratory virus, the ongoing isolation policy is doing the opposite – setting the virus apart as a special threat and encouraging an unjustifiably fearful focus on case numbers.

    As the periodic leaks have indicated, arguments have raged within government over the extent to which freedoms should be curtailed during the pandemic. Those in favour of maximum restrictions, regardless of the side-effects, have generally won the day. In accepting those restrictions, the majority of the public has seemingly been content to hand over many of the decisions which guide our daily lives. Fear of the virus, stoked by unending announcements of deaths and infection rates, has strengthened the Government’s hand.

    Now that it is clear that Covid has been tamed but not eradicated, scientists and ministers agree that we must learn to live with the infection. But in order to do that, and restore some kind of normality, the Government must stop feeding the fear and switch to a message of reassurance. Continuing to treat every reported infection as a threat to public safety will only prolong the paranoia.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/07/testing-encouraging-covid-paranoia/

  83. Morning to those up early. Transgender lobby wants to rewrite the law https://unherd.com/2021/07/the-transgender-lobby-wants-to-rewrite-the-law/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=f3419c8f84&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc another minority group barking from the Islington Wine Cellar. Another one also seeing it’s role reduced: the Church is abandoning it’s flock https://unherd.com/2021/07/the-church-is-abandoning-its-flock/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=f3419c8f84&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc thanks to woke Welby

    1. Yes I have been following this. At last lawyers with integrity and spine. They could teach our bought-and-paid-for-shysters to stand up for the system that feeds them.

      1. mng, totally agree. I expect in UK, they’ll run for cover and the muzzle put on MSM, usual suppression for truth, facts to be aired

        1. There might be a behind the scenes reaction – Trump’s mate Mohdi is going for Twitter and Trump is attacking the FB-Twitter-Google censorship.
          There must have been considerable pressure to get rid of Hancock because it was obvious that he, Whitty and Vallance had been TTP from the beginning.

          1. for sure there’s more to come.I know Trump [and his supporters] are peeling the layers of Biden and his cohorts. UK side fully agree re Halfcock and his associates were / are deemed collateral damage. Not helped by Johnson hoped and failed to get consensus at G7 to vaccinate world by end of 2022. All topic convenient which acts as another smokescreen for today’s start of cyber polygon webinar

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