Tuesday 13 July: Our basic freedoms are being made to depend on how well the NHS is run

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/2021/07/12/letters-basic-freedoms-made-depend-nhs-run/

707 thoughts on “Tuesday 13 July: Our basic freedoms are being made to depend on how well the NHS is run”

  2. Can social media stamp out racist comments? 13 July 2021.

    The new Health Secretary Sajid Javid addresses the Commons this afternoon ahead of Boris Johnson’s 5pm remarks about the lifting of restrictions on July 19. And in what was an already painful night for England it was made even grimmer by the horrific, racist abuse that Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka received online from supposed England ‘fans’ after the final. James Forsyth talks to Isabel Hardman.

    Morning everyone. I haven’t myself seen one of these Tweets but would have thought that if they were indeed so horrific, (one notes the hype) and by implication blatant, why were they not stopped by the algorithm designed for that purpose? According to the Guardian there were 120 of these missives and most contained the N word; the most obvious of epithets, and yet they passed through without hindrance. How can this be, and why counterintuitively, are there so few? If there really is an army of deranged racists where are they? Did they all take a day off to bemoan the result?

    Needless to say, being myself, I suspect a False Flag operation here. That these Tweets were allowed for the purpose of the predictable furore that followed seems undeniable. The BBC could hardly contain itself. It received more coverage on the six o’clock News than the Match itself. In the Orwellian World in which we now live, anything, indeed everything, is possible.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/what-can-social-media-companies-do-to-stop-racist-comments-online-

    https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/jul/12/gareth-southgate-racist-abuse-of-england-players-unforgiveable

    1. Yes, I would have thought there would be an automatic filter on that word. Perhaps it was disguised? (it was always blanked out in the Mail’s reproductions)

        1. All the more puzzling why it was not automatically filtered out then.
          Hate not Hope feeding lies to the media again?

    2. Let’s try it out and see how far I get: nigger…wog…coon…darkie…fuzzy-wuzzy…

      [this is getting boring, and I’m running out of words. Off for a walk – I’ll be back later when I think of some more…]

        1. That is truly horrible. Just as well no-one ever calls your lot any nasty names!
          (sticks & stones is how I was brought up)

          1. Life tim5165 is not always ideal, people myself included can be downright thoughtless, nasty and crude at times (as I was in my post which was in the same style as Jeremy’s ) & I don’t really care what you call me as long as you don’t call me “Collect” ! 😇😔😢😱👹😸🙀👍👌

    3. Let’s try it out and see how far I get: nigger…wog…coon…darkie…fuzzy-wuzzy…

      [this is getting boring, and I’m running out of words. Off for a walk – I’ll be back later when I think of some more…]

      1. Morning Hatman. I note that Hate not Hope, the Mi5 front, was involved which added to my suspicions.

        1. Mi5 are the former WW2 & Cold War counter-intelligence service now engaged in making sure that Jihadi terrorists are Not under proper 24/7 surveillance & so called White nationalists are

    5. mng araminta, the usual false flag node as you say, MSM / SM / political stomachs et al all attempting the imposition of woke idealogy / culture as it’s ingrained in the same systems and below the radar, but present, all part of the attempt at Great Reset. Another import from septic land

          5. ‘Morning, Elf.

            Not surprising; she’s been dead for over 3 years.

            Date of death: 2 April 2018
            Place of death: Netcare Milpark Hospital, Johannesburg, South Africa

          11. It is evident that these blokes have never been to Ireland.

            If they had they would have learnt that the proper way to carry a pig is under the arm.

          13. Strange that there is no home for white men. The British established in Cape Colony in 1806, ten years before Chaka took control of the Zulu. The Zulus now have their own kingdom. Blacks control all of Southern Africa including South Africa, yet their contribution to the development of the region has not included industry, economy, education, law or agriculture, but only violence and tribal wars.

          15. Haven’t made much advance in technology., medicine, aerospace, environment…

  5. Morning all
    An interesting rant from Off-Guardian. There are plenty of holes to pick, but it’s hard to disagree with the main thrust of her argument which is that we should choose a more natural way of life over eating and breathing in chemicals, and becoming genetically modified, “improved” trans humans (the latter is some kind of future plan, of the sort that it is now unwise to dismiss as a conspiracy theory…it even appears on UK gov websites I seem to remember)

    https://off-guardian.org/2021/07/11/the-organic-human-an-endangered-species/

    1. 335324+ up ticks,
      BB2,
      The overriding problem is Tom, Dick,& Harry within the electorate keep coming up treacherously short in their continuing governance selection, and will remain
      in perpetuity / incarcerated all the time the three monkeys are given credence in the polling booth.

      1. This Tom doesn’t – he votes NOTA – and will do so until we get a party with a realistic, push-back manifesto and not a vote-splitter..

        1. 335324+ up ticks,
          Morning NtN,
          Those parties have to be built as was being the successful case with UKIP under Gerard Batten, only its success triggered treachery with major input from the parties nEc & farage.

          Manifesto’s via the lab/lib/con / greens, acted on honestly are NON existent.

          We really must take heed of history

    2. Re the jab, mission creep towards total control. Plans for workers who service boilers, electricians etc who are employed in care homes to have mandatory jabs. Who was it who filled the care homes with infected old people? Door, horse, stable, bolted…

      1. GM & happy Tuesday Korky. Who was it who privatized & caused the bankruptcy of many former care homes in the UK ? Tony Blair of course !

      1. It annoys me that Prince William got suckered into it.
        HM’s longstanding policy of staying out of politics has never looked better!

        1. On a good day, involvement in politics will “only” pee off 50% of the people.

  7. the usual, I guess “Brian Keeling’s” been in a very long coma:

    SIR – It seems that the basic freedoms that so many have fought and died for over the years are now to be permanently conditional on the Government’s ability to run the NHS efficiently, or – more likely – not.

    Neil Stuart
    Plymouth, Devon

    SIR – Though I am a supporter of Sajid Javid, the new Health Secretary, and wish him well, he is being somewhat disingenuous in his explanation for the explosion in NHS waiting lists.

    People did not “choose” to miss their treatments or seek help, they were forced to. Their operations were cancelled, their GP surgeries closed down.

    This was not choice, it was a failure of the NHS, Matt Hancock, the previous health secretary, and of the Government itself.

    Christopher Collier
    Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

    SIR – A very dear neighbour, not in good health, was in need of a face-to-face with her GP. The surgery reception said that it would be two weeks to get a telephone consultation, and a further two weeks for an actual appointment to see the doctor.

    My neighbour could die before getting an appointment. Is this why so many call on our hospital emergency service? GPs should be ashamed.

    G T Higgins
    Gravesend, Kent

    SIR – As a double-vaccinated adult I am now more afraid of a zero-Covid policy than I am of Covid itself.

    Suzanna Henderson
    London SW1

    SIR – According to the latest official statistics, of the almost 10,000 deaths registered in the third week of June, only 1.1 per cent had Covid-19 mentioned on the certificate.

    The vast majority therefore died of other causes, many of which, notably smoking and alcohol related, are preventable.

    If the Government wants us to continue wearing masks after July 19, why not ban all booze and fags?

    David Nunn
    Malling, Kent

    SIR – Reassuring to see Professor Sir Patrick Vallance mask-free at Wimbledon at the weekend.

    There’s hope for normality after all.

    Samantha Patrick
    Gravesend, Kent

    SIR – I am currently in Miami with my American wife. We are both double-vaccinated – my wife in the United States and me in Britain.

    When we fly back together on July 19, we will face the absurd scenario whereby I will be free to eat out, go to shops and mingle with others, while my wife must home quarantine for 
10 days and pay for an expensive series of Covid tests.

    All this is because we were vaccinated in different countries. The Government needs to sort this out.

    Jonny Ufland
    London NW4

    Sobbing for England

    SIR – The hysterical sobbing by English footballers and fans was humiliating and embarrassing.

    Football is a game, meant to be won or lost, whether on a village green, a school playing field or at Wembley. England played and lost. End of story.

    May we now concentrate on the serious continuing threat of the coronavirus and its long-term prospects for the health of us all?

    Beryl Fleming
    Worthing, West Sussex

    SIR – Why the tears and long faces everywhere? England’s overall performance in Euro 2020 was excellent and far exceeded expectations.

    It is a good philosophy in life not always to expect more. Then disappointment is avoided when things don’t turn out to be perfect.

    Peter H York
    Daventry, Northamptonshire

    SIR – Not having been keen on football, I watched it on Sunday for the first time in years I. I was horrified at the behaviour of the Italian team, constantly deliberately tripping up their opponents or even pulling them over by grabbing their shirts.

    The beautiful game? I think not. I shall not bother again.

    Tom Gough
    Leigh on Sea, Essex

    SIR – Booing during the opposition’s national anthem, as we heard during the Euro 2020 tournament, is unacceptable.

    How wonderful it would be to hear an international footballing anthem, sung by all fans and teams together, before the national anthems. Perhaps first celebrating what we have in common would solve the problem.

    Georgina Paul
    Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    SIR – The booing fans got the result they deserved.

    Barbara Smith
    Stafford

    SIR – At least our elite footballers are proud of serving their country, unlike a material number of Britain’s so-called elite, including some politicians, who seem to take every opportunity to do their country down.

    Simon McIlroy
    Croydon, Surrey

    Leaning TV reporters

    SIR – I disagree with Janet McNeill’s assertion (Letters, July 9) that television reporters are lazy by leaning on walls and other props.

    A more practical reason to have a wall or similar obstacle to lean on is that a secure background to the shot prevents idiotic gesticulating by people behind the reporter’s head, thus detracting from what is being said.

    Duncan Bradbury
    Bristol

    SIR – I share the concerns expressed by Janet McNeill over several reporters’ tendencies to lean against a wall or other convenient prop while delivering their reports.

    I have for some time been concerned about the dry-cleaning bills Laura Kuenssberg must incur for her smart and often very light-coloured coats, as she has been a culprit in this matter.

    Patricia Reid
    Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Are the BBC reporters leaning to the left?

    Brian Keeling
    Denmead, Hampshire

    Job-share NI levels

    SIR – In their letter (July 8), the parliamentary and other advocates of increased job-sharing call for reduced National Insurance contributions for employees in such arrangements.

    Under existing rules, where the annual salary for a job is below £73,951 and it is split exactly between two employees, the Government’s total revenue from employee’s and employer’s National Insurance contributions is already less than it would be if the entire salary were paid to one person.

    Only if the salary for the job is above £73,951, nearly two-and-a-half times the national median full-time salary, would splitting it in two result in greater National Insurance contributions revenue for the Government.

    Simon J Gleaden
    Retford, Nottinghamshire

    Paltry pension rise

    SIR – As a recipient of a state pension, I would like to point out that last year’s triple lock (report, July 9) gave me an annual increase after tax of £204.88. At
    the same time my council tax increased by £93.14. My broadband package increased by £42.

    This left a whopping £5.81 a month to cover every other price rise incurred during the calendar year. Needless to say, I will not be splashing out on a lavish lifestyle – again.

    C J Minshall
    Quorn, Leicestershire

    Consoling recognition of a clerical dog collar

    SIR – One stormy night I was sitting in a crowded bus shelter wearing my dog collar (Letters, July 10) when a man rushed up to me and asked in a broad Irish accent where the local Catholic church was. I told him, and he replied: “It’s too far, I have a ship to catch and I always ask a priest for a blessing before I
    sail. Sister, would you please say a prayer and blessing for me.”

    I said a Hail Mary, and, praying for a safe journey, gave him a blessing.

    Following the impromptu service, he said in the quiet which had descended: “Thank you, sister, and God bless you too.” Another man reflected sadly: “I once wanted to be a priest.” Thank God for the witness of the dog collar.

    Rev Penelope Kenward Payne
    Portsmouth, Hampshire

    SIR – It’s history that means some bishops end up in large old houses, which inevitably cost a lot to maintain (report, July 9). Our bishop lives in a very small part of a centuries-old building, with the rest used as offices by other staff.

    If the Church of England did not pay for maintenance of these buildings, there would be pressure on the state to do so – unless someone knocked them down and replaced them with modern eco-friendly alternatives.

    Bishops also pay for essential staff meetings. About the only time my clerical wife gets to meet many other clergy is when the bishop arranges it.

    Edward Chase
    Kings Worthy, Hampshire

    SIR – The only reason Noel Hudson DSO MC (Letters, July 12) lived in a small house while he was Bishop of Newcastle was that his official residence had been commandeered as a wartime fire station.

    Benwell Towers, a grand mock-medieval Victorian mansion, was abandoned by the diocese after the war. It became a National Coal Board training centre, then a pub called the Mitre, before achieving national celebrity as the location for the 1990s children’s television series Byker Grove.

    Christopher Goulding
    Newcastle upon Tyne

    The distracting effect of hand gesticulation

    SIR – In the 1940s and 1950s, the only people I knew who gesticulated when they spoke were the French.

    Turn on the television now and it is unusual to see British speakers relying on the force of words to make their point without using their hands, and even arms.

    The worst perpetrators are those who spread their fingers wide and pump their hands violently up and down as if to shake off some sticky substance. For me, this has the opposite effect to that intended.

    David Kidd-May
    Charlbury, Oxfordshire

    Canine crimes

    SIR – Like Simon Millar (Letters, July 9), I have a fear of dogs.

    If, when walking along a street, I was to urinate at every lamp post, or if I ran up to a complete stranger and yelled in their face, or if I stood in the street at night and shouted every few seconds for hours on end – I would be arrested. So why do I have to put up with this behaviour from an animal?

    Owners say, “Oh, he won’t hurt you”, but how am I supposed to know or believe that, especially when the animal is not on a lead?

    Keith Ougden
    Paphos, Cyprus

    I, robot

    SIR – I am always puzzled when filling in a form to be asked to confirm that I am not a robot. Surely it would be very simple to program a robot to recognise the box to tick next to the words “I am not a robot.”

    Cdr Vernon Phillips RN (retd)
    Mere, Somerset

    1. David Kidd-May (with that name were you a remainer responsible for the then PM’s catastrophic tenure?) Congratulations you have just experienced the phenomenon known as Testiculation – waving your arms about while talking bollocks.

  9. 335324+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Boris Johnson urges use of Covid vaccine passports
    Prime Minister says venues with large crowds will be asked to adopt certification ‘as a matter of social responsibility’

    Classic tory (ino) move laying the fear card on the herd, in the main yet another plastic tie to the much over hyped scam, if anything super flu.

    The plastic tie covid is as with the “deal” to be given political succour
    and nurtured for annual political use ie lockdowns etc,etc, as in a rhetorical cattle prod in regards to the herd.

  12. Afghanistan stunned by scale and speed of security forces’ collapse. 13 July 2021.

    Afghanistan’s army and police have long been beset by problems, both structural and strategic. The US and its allies were slow to start building the Afghan security forces after toppling the Taliban. They also turned a blind eye to allegations of serious human rights abuses by favoured partners, and corruption so bad that injured soldiers starved to death in the main military hospital.

    In return for billions in aid, Washington’s men and women in Kabul also kept a large say in how the security forces were run, including top appointments. It was the Americans who leaned on Ghani to keep Khalid in office as defence minister last year, even after old wounds from a Taliban assassination attempt flared up and he had to be hospitalised for months in the United Arab Emirates, Afghan and international sources told the Guardian. He was only finally replaced at the end of June.

    I doubt that there is one American Administrator who has not returned from Afghanistan immeasurably richer than on his arrival. The “billions” in aid were almost totally syphoned off into the pockets of the governing elites. If you are an ordinary Afghan the best thing now is to get into the queue at the airport with as much swag as you can carry!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/13/afghanistan-stunned-by-scale-and-speed-of-security-forces-collapse

    2. If there’s one emotion that I can guarantee nobody is feeling in Afghanistan right now, it’s surprise at the speed and scale of the security forces’ collapse.

        1. Good morning & happy Tuesday Grizz, I was going to post that to Bill & by mistake pressed enter before I could down load it from YouTube.

  15. HOOLIGANS PUT WORLD CUP BID UNDER THREAT

    FA faces sanctions from EUFA after violence at final.

    Players’ families flee chaos as rioters attempt to steal tickets.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8ce47ed3ac2d9474b93adbb287705d778e789df1eb65d9f69f0ba3def416e7c.png

    To all you alleged ‘rioters’ who were arrested, don’t let your dismay extinguish your hope. A ‘Hillsborough-style’ judicial inquiry will soon come to give you and your families comfort. This will involve a Royal Commission, a ‘Justice for the Wembley 50’ campaign, and will drag on for thirty years. At the end of it you will all be exonerated of your alleged ‘crimes’ and all the police commanders who were on duty at Wembley at the time of the final will be put on trial.

    1. And Cressida Dick & her wife will retire to Praia da Luz the preferred holiday destination of the Met. Pol. detective squad since 2007

    1. Just the place for a holiday in the sun.

      Where are the bames protesting against such violence?

          1. Yes, if I lived closer to somewhere like Dungeness, I could literally pick up a decent RIB & Outboard, low mileage and one previous owner, off the beach and shove it into the van.

          2. Judging by the number of people on board (can yuo say that about a rubber boat?), you’d get the van on the boat, not the other way around.

  18. The stinking German & French bastards !

    BREAKING NEWS: French and German officials boycott event at US Embassy in Jerusalem
    By JERUSALEM POST STAFF JULY 13, 2021 09:11
    https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/french-and-german-officials-boycott-event-at-us-embassy-in-jerusalem-673671

    Senior European ambassadors to Israel, including German and French officials, boycotted the July 4th ceremony at the US Embassy in Jerusalem, according to Ynet. The ceremony was held in honor of the US Independence Day, and the ambassadors who chose not to attend did so because of the location – their countries do not recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. According to Ynet, ambassadors who did attend the event included officials from Romania and the UK, as well as Kosovo, Australia, Norway, and Canada.

  19. The World Health Organisation’s special envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, has just been on BBC Radio 4.

    He says that Governments worldwide should accept that COVID-19 still remains a serious global threat to health and should maintain control over their populations in taking measures that do not rely on vaccination alone to defeat the pandemic.

    He favours systems of identifying infected people and isolating them from the population.

    Ironically, when people die as a result of having caught COVID-19 that is precisely what happens,

    1. Concentration camps are just round the corner.
      Sorry, I meant “Quarantine Hotels.” Mustn’t scare the public!

      1. ‘Morning, BB.

        Have you been to Theresienstadt – now called Terzin? It was the Nazi ‘showcamp’.

        1. No, I’m not generally into ghoul tourism. Never went to any of those places. It’s bad enough that it happened, without wallowing in it.

          1. ‘Morning, BB2, No, it’s not an example of ‘wallowing in it.’ It was an opportunity to open one’s mind to the reality of man’s inhumanity to man.

          2. I think this is a reflection of differing sensitivities to atrocities. I do not feel that I need to go there to open my mind to inhumanity. In fact, I need to stand back to avoid being emotionally overwhelmed by it.
            Others may feel that they need to take a guided tour of the sites of atrocities, in order to fully appreciate what happened. Their feelings are just as valid as mine in this case.

          3. I’m in two minds about that.

            Auschwitz has almost become a theme park. There are coaches and cars rolling up all the time; groups of bored teenagers being escorted round; people posing for photos beside well known images like the railway truck.
            The greatest insult is the fast food being dispensed from a building that looks like a motorway service station.
            On the other hand, going round the show huts that conveniently fooled the Red Cross delegations does give you pause for thought. Did they really not twig, or was it a case of there are none so blind as those who do not wish to see?
            When you see the original buildings – they were Polish Army barracks – you can understand how early arrivals were fooled into thinking they were merely moving into flats in a different part of Poland. Remember, they came from a culture of living with arbitrary governmental decrees.

            (Something that the GBP largely haven’t spotted over this past 18 months.)

          4. I’m in two minds about that.

            Auschwitz has almost become a theme park. There are coaches and cars rolling up all the time; groups of bored teenagers being escorted round; people posing for photos beside well known images like the railway truck.
            The greatest insult is the fast food being dispensed from a building that looks like a motorway service station.
            On the other hand, going round the show huts that conveniently fooled the Red Cross delegations does give you pause for thought. Did they really not twig, or was it a case of there are none so blind as those who do not wish to see?
            When you see the original buildings – they were Polish Army barracks – you can understand how early arrivals were fooled into thinking they were merely moving into flats in a different part of Poland. Remember, they came from a culture of living with arbitrary governmental decrees.

            (Something that the GBP largely haven’t spotted over this past 18 months.)

        2. No, Peter, but after a very pi$$y week-end at the München Bierfest, I and 3 others, visited Dachau on our way home. Four, youngish guys sobered up very, very fast.

          2. That was hard, visiting Auschwitz. The cases of belongings, small stuff like combs, bigger things like suitcases with the owner’s name on them. All that was left of so many lives.

        1. or Holiday Camps perhaps?
          And this government has a great wheeze -make the inmates pay for their own incarceration!

  20. Good morning all.
    12°C outside on a damp morning. At least the overnight rain has paused.

  21. The day world famous Portobello Road turned into a stream as ‘biblical’ flash floods hit large parts of London. 13 July 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/16022bc6d6d65301716acebf35c093b4163f014244a4ab74eadc114d66c5bb13.png

    Londoners were left battling ‘biblical storms’ last night as flash floods hit the capital and left a trail of destruction across the city, with rescue teams evacuating properties amid fears of collapsing ceilings and several tube stations forced to close.

    Flood waters poured through the streets of Portobello Road in Notting Hill after nearly three inches of rain hit the capital in just 90 minutes and in Raynes Park, south London, cars were left abandoned in around 2ft of water after torrential downpours caused travel chaos and left homes and businesses flooded.

    Global Warming! The end is nigh!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9779719/Flood-warnings-issued-Met-Office-TWO-INCHES-rain-set-hit-South.html

    2. ‘biblical storms’

      Has London become a modern-day ‘city of the plain’ under Khan’s disastrous lack of control?😎

  22. Women’s revenge for all those sexist jokes:

    Q. What’s the fastest way to a man’s heart?
    A. Through his chest with a sharp knife

    Q. How can you tell if a man is happy?
    A. Who cares

    Q. Why is it so hard for women to find men that are sensitive, caring and giving?
    A. Because those men already have boyfriends.

    Q. When would you care for a man’s company?
    A. When he owns it.

    Q. How many men does it take to wallpaper a bathroom?
    A. Three, if you slice them very thinly

    Q. Why do men get married?
    A. So they don’t have to hold their stomachs in any more.

    Q. What are a woman’s four favourite animals?
    A. Mink in the closet, a Jaguar in the garage, a tiger in the bedroom, and a Jackass to pay for it all.

    Q. How do you get a man to do sit-ups?
    A. Put the remote control between his toes

    Q. Why do men buy electric lawn mowers?
    A. So they can find their way back to the house.

    Q: Why are hurricanes usually named after women?
    A. Because when they come, they’re wet and wild, but when they go, they usually take your house and car.

      1. Rumours of food shortages in a later stage of the current terror. Who is stupid enough to believe conspiracy theorists these days?😎

  31. There may be other reasons for Krankie to yearn for a move to Brussels [nudge, nudge, wink, wink for Uncle Bill]

    Could Sturgeon ‘do a Kinnock’ and go to Europe on a huge salary?
    By Ian Mitchell

    There must be a reason the SNP leadership has gone missing in action
    Is Sturgeon really going to spend her whole life pursuing the unachievable goal of independence?
    Seven years of Sturgeon has made no difference to the alignment of Scottish politics

    Out here in seaward Argyll, people often say of worrying weather, “Aye, there’s a change on”. Since the inconclusive May election, I have begun to think that this expression applies to Holyrood politicians too. Something is happening today in nationalist politics which requires an explanation but so far has not been given one. What are the signs?

    The most important one is that the SNP leadership has largely disappeared from view. Apart from anodyne Covid briefings, Ms Sturgeon has fallen uncharacteristically silent. There was even a short period when she didn’t even deliver those herself. Then, last weekend, she resurfaced, but in Oban rather than her official residence in Bute House.

    Though by herself, she said she was on holiday, going on to the mountain hamlet of Tyndrum. She presumably did not want to go further west than Oban as that would have involved a ferry trip, which would have provoked questions about the “ferry fiasco” her government has created. Briefly, two small island ferries have taken longer to build on the Clyde in a yard Sturgeon has nationalised than the aircraft carriers, Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, did at Rosyth on the Forth in a private yard under British government control. No wonder she has taken to the hills.

    Something similar has happened to Sturgeon’s dark avatar, Humza Yousaf, the former Justice Secretary, infamous for the Hate Crime Act, and now Health Minister. He disappeared too. Then he popped up at the film studio near London where the Harry Potter films were made. That was presumably ‘indy-compliant’ since, though Potter himself is English, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is plainly situated in Scotland. Nevertheless he felt the need to explain himself, tweeting: “Most important job I have is being a good father…” The Covid crisis comes second.

    Yousaf was shifted to health after the election, since when Scottish Covid cases have soared. The First Minister initially blamed soccer fans who travelled to Wembley for bringing the disease back. After it emerged that Yousaf went to England around the same time, that line of argument was quietly dropped.

    But that has not calmed the mood. Many Scottish media commentators and saloon-bar analysts have asked why the Health Minister was taking a holiday at all at a time when the Covid crisis was getting out of hand here. The World Health Organisation said last week that Scotland is now the Covid capital of Europe. Yousaf countered by saying that he had continued to work while he was on holiday. Perhaps he was consulting a professor of potions pandemic management?

    Most mysterious of all is the case of Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, Chief Executive of the SNP. He has vanished completely, and for a longer period. As with Sturgeon and Yousaf, this is noteworthy because it is so uncharacteristic. For a party that self-advertises 24/7, silence requires an explanation.

    The most persuasive theory concerns a ‘ringfenced’ £600,000 which has apparently ‘gone missing’ from the SNP accounts. It was donated to help when a second referendum was called and, since none has yet been called, the disappearance of this money has raised enough questions that Police Scotland have been making inquiries. Yet the man responsible for the money is publicly invisible.

    What is going on?

    After the May elections I wrote on this site that the SNP cannot entertain any reasonable hope of winning a second referendum (short of lucky chances in a penalty shoot-out). The arithmetic simply does not add up. Since independence is the beginning and end of SNP politics, that’s a critical consideration. Perhaps Sturgeon, Murrell and Yousaf read CapX and realise that seven years of electioneering while in power have not made any difference to the general alignment of Scottish politics. Roughly half support the SNP and roughly half do not, just as in 2014 when Sturgeon took over.

    All the work since then, all those corners cut, all the concealment of the realities (like postponing publication of a damning OECD report on education until after the recent election), has been in vain. The SNP is still a minority government propped up by an increasingly dysfunctional Green Party led by Harry Potter look-alike, Patrick Harvie. Epic fail.

    The First Minister has a panoply of problems which no sane person would want to deal with unless some great pay-off, like independence, were likely. She has been working in SNP politics since she left the law in the late 1990s. Half of her life has been spent in the same environment, with much the same people, lobbying for a single outcome. Now it appears it will never happen. She would be less than human if she looked forward to five more years of this with anything other than boredom and disgust. Is she really going to waste her whole working life pursuing an unachievable goal?

    The most persuasive speculation, from the Black Sheep to the Burnside Bar, is that Sturgeon is going to ‘do a Kinnock’, and go to Europe on a huge salary, with a copper-bottomed pension, there to enjoy her ‘winnings’. Perhaps the real reason Yousaf went south was to see if Lord Voldemort could use the dark arts to help get his leader away to Brussels and himself, faute de mieux, into Bute House?

    1. ‘Most mysterious of all is the case of Sturgeon’s husband, Peter Murrell, Chief Executive of the SNP. He has vanished completely, and for a longer period.”
      Does Bute House have a new rockery?

    2. Sturgeon going to Brussels like the Kinnock is the best possible solution – she will speed the collapse of this completely odious organisation.

    3. Ian Mitchell makes a mistake if he equates independence with the SNP. Over 20 polls carried out since last year have shown majority support for independence. That is, more people would vote for independence than for the SNP. Who would vote for the present bunch of incompetent left wing money-wasters to manage an independent country? (However a “convention” of MSPs and SNP MPs could vote to secede, if they had the guts. But they don’t. Opportunities to vote for secession have come and gone.)
      As regards Mrs Murrell the only way that she would get a position in the EU is if Hell freezes over and the EU building in Brussels falls into a giant hole.
      Humza Yousaf might slime his way into the top job as suggested, but he is an incompetent liar, and a clown, and unlikely to be able keep the ruling clique together and under control. There are more likely candidates. If Police Scotland were in the least bit competent and not controlled by the government, the financial managers of the SNP would be being questioned at police HQ on the subject of embezzlement.

    4. Foghorn Dreghorn cannot ‘do a Kinnochio’, as the UK has alighted from the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train. Hence the Nationalists push for ‘independence’, i.e. separation from Westminster while hoping Brussels/Strasbourg will pick up the tab of the Barnett formula.

  32. 335324+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    If one weeks DOVER intake are consolidated in one spot, Blackburn, Burnley,london, establishing a political power base, would they become a major threat to the indigenous electorate over a year ?

    Are the current electorate trying their damndest to pass on a toxic
    legacy to their children or can their continuing support of this odious
    lab/lib/con coalition be taken as acts via the criminally insane ?

    https://twitter.com/Mal_DuBois/status/1414834441634078720

  34. Hmmm…could we arrange some sort of swap?

    Jamaica wants £7 BILLION compensation from UK for Britain’s involvement in slave trade over hundreds of years
    Jamaica is planning to ask the United Kingdom for compensation for slavery
    Petition could seek billions of pounds in reparations for the Atlantic slave trade
    A minister said Jamaica is ‘hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect’ to ‘repair the damages that our ancestors experienced’
    Jamaica was at the centre of the slave trade with the Spanish, then the British forcibly transporting Africans to work on plantations for sugar cane and bananas
    An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil on the Caribbean island

    1. The Jamaican descendants of those slaves now “own” Jamaica. Many descendants are in the UK busy making parts lawless. Will they pay us for closing the Atlantic slave trade so that they could take it?
      No.

      Thought not.

    2. Are they going to demand billions from the African countries which sold the slaves in the first place?

      Go straight to the source – cut out the middle man!

    3. We should pay it.

      Right after they compensate us for 50 years of Yardie problems, the foreign aid, the education, the healthcare, the debt relief, etc.

      30 billion sound about right?

      1. And deduct for a life immeasurably better than those still living in a crap village in Africa, dying of bad water and bilharzia, plagued by tsetse flies and blinded by ringworm.

          1. Necklacing…
            I was about to add “machete attacks”, but that’s Londonistan, not so much Africa.

  35. Jamaica seeking billions of pounds in reparations from Britain over historical slavery
    Jamaican lawmaker Mike Henry is asking for the same amount Britain paid slave owners after the UK stopped trade in slaves in its empire
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/12/jamaica-seeking-billions-pounds-reparations-britain-historical/

    It will be interesting to see if Mrs Carrie Symonds-Johnson tells her husband to pay it straight away. It is, after all, her decision.

    (No BTL comments under the article)

    1. Jamaica should just put an ‘external tax’ on the drug gangs, jamaican origins, operating in Londonistan

      1. I wonder how many Jamaicans would want to return either to Jamaica or the continent of their origin?

    3. Can we demand reparations for all the Jamaican hooligans they’ve exported to us over the years?
      Honestly, they are shameless. Holding out the begging bowl while ignoring the African empires that were built on trading their ancestors!

      1. “raparations” Love it! That ghastly “rap” noise they call “music”….

    1. Good morning. Sunny and a light breeze. Blood test later. They are going to see if they can find any in my alcohol stream.

    1. It’s the government’s response to this ‘pandemic ‘ that’s driving us all to drink. So if the virus doesn’t get us the drink will. 🙃

      2. My alcohol consumption has certainly rocketed since lockdown started. I have now got into the habit and am fully signed up to the view that “un repas sans vin, c’est un jour sans soleil”.

    4. He’s being sarcastic, surely?
      Or perhaps not these days. Good thing his name’s not Blue, he’d have to ban himself.

    5. Funny how you are anti-prohibition for alcohol but pro-prohibition for drugs.

      The problems are the same.

    6. A note of gentle sarcasm from a retired surgeon, but he has a point.
      There were no excess deaths in the UK last year when you look at the age-adjusted mortality statistics. Flu deaths were replaced by covid19.

  38. Parker Wilson…you won’t find his name in the MSM or by searching Google………………….yet.

  39. The Daily Human Stupidity.

    “Will this be in the examination, Mr Hecker?” was the limit of my students’ interest in any given subject. If it was going to be in the test they took notes, if it was not going to be in the test they did not take notes. Their silent, depthless stares were unnerving. I told myself that they were not stupid – for how could the final attainment of thousands of years of human progress be stupid?”

    Tod Wodicka.

    1. They were being smarter than he was – they were putting in minimum effort for maximum result.

      “Progress is made by lazy men looking for easier ways to do things.”

      ― Robert A. Heinlein

    1. Yet another promise that the Conservative Party is determined to break along with the promise of no border in the Irish Sea, an amnesty against prosecution for British troops who served in Northern Ireland, and a review of funding of the BBC.

      But seriously, is there a single positive thing that Boris Johnson’s government has achieved?

      (Logged in under my old identity – so I thought I’d give it a brief airing)

      1. I’m not needing the spotted handkerchief much this summer to protect the bald pate from the sun’s ultra violet rays as we have had so little sun.

      2. “But seriously, is there a single positive thing that any Tory administration since 2010 has achieved?”

        There fixed it for you 🙂

        1. Good morning, Thayaric. I hope all is going well with you.

          I suppose it will depend on who writes the history as to whether it was Blair’s Labour government or the subsequent ConservativeI in Name Only governments which wreaked the most damage.

          1. Blair wasn’t too bad domestically, his big issue was foreign policy taking us into an illegal war.

            Camerloon, Mayhem and Bozo however have just been truly awful. They’ve missed every target they set themselves, totally got the economics of austerity wrong, have consistently put wrong-headed ideology in front of needed action. You’d be hard pressed to find three worse administrations in even the last 70 years, let alone three that followed each other and gained votes each time.

          2. Blair wasn’t too bad domestically? I’d hate to see the result if he had been bad! Unlimited immigration to “rub the noses of the right in diversity”, spin doctors replacing truth, promotion of “alternative lifestyles”, devolution, education, shutting down free speech (all of which continued apace under successive governments, but Blair started it).

          3. Christ no one said he didn’t have his flaws. He did a lot of good too which often gets forgotten in the anger from unlimited immigration and illegal warring.

          4. I’d omitted the illegal war – thanks for pointing that out 🙂 What were you saying about doing a lot of good …?

          5. All Tories since SuperMac have been CINO administrations. Heath was a liberal, so was Thatcher. Major was even more liberal, and well you should be very up on the last ten years of liberalism.

        2. Cameron gave us an EU referendum (which he thought, in his arrogance, he’d win).

          1. That’s true, and then threw a childish hissy fit when it didn’t go his way. We’d have got a referendum sooner or later anyway, the public wanted it and all parties knew that. UKIP became vastly more popular, mainstream media were calling for the public to at least be offered the choice. It was always a question of when, not if imho.

    2. Modelling by the expert group said it was realistic to expect between 100 to 200 daily fatalities and 1,000 to 2,000 hospital admissions at the worst of the current outbreak this autumn, following the unlocking on July 19.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9780529/The-models-gave-Freedom-Day-SAGE-says-daily-Covid-deaths-shouldnt-200-autumn.html.

      That’s good!

      The UK will be replacing COVID-19 fatalities with immigrants.
      We must just use our excess stock of COVID jabs to vaccinate them as they come in.
      They can then be deployed as hospital and mortuary trolley pushers so they can appreciate their future life in this country.

    3. Yes, Nigel you are right about the disgraceful and spineless performance of the government vis-à-vis illegal immigration but your credibility has been blown out of the water (unlike the immigrants who should have been!) by your meekly saying that the Boris Bodge Deal allowing a border in the Irish Sea was ‘acceptable’ and by leaving us with a Conservative Party in the House of Commons which is still stuffed with remainers because you withdrew your Brexit Party candidates from Conservative held seats occupied by remainers and did not even ask for a quid pro quo.

      We all make mistakes. Please admit you were wrong on these two very important matters and try and regain your reputation which, many people think, is now in tatters.

  41. I’ve just watched the opening story on the BBC News, which is a continuance of yesterdays and the subject of my first post this morning; the “racist abuse” of the England Football team. It was conducted with a venom that I have never seen before. Impartiality there was none! The aim of it was to get rid of Priti Partel; an ambition that we share; though for diametrically opposite reasons. The BBC seems to think that she is a closet racist and all the worse for herself being ethnically diverse and myself because I suspect that she is an out and out Wokey in camouflage. If it were all not so dire I would probably record it and buy a tub of Popcorn!

    1. Next up:
      Demands for a full amnesty and full citizenship for all illegal immigrants, so that the white racists of the right can have their noses rubbed even further into the diversity.

    2. BBC Breakfast this morning went on incessantly about the racist abuse of the England side, then had an interview with Lewis Hamilton promoting more ‘diversity’ in motor sports. It does seem to have become the Black Broadcasting Corporation.

        1. Plenty available in Sarf Efrica – they have been lootin’ the tools and equipment.

          1. Cars or mechanics? The cars were probably torched. After they stole the tyres for necklaces.

        3. Perhaps L effing H might one day like to show and advertise his appreciation for his white mother.

    3. Gareth set the team up to fail by choosing those three black boys to take the penalties – especially the two who only came onto the pitch at the end of the match. By choosing three failures instead of the more experienced kickers he was emphasising their skin colour, which of course, was irrelevant.

    4. Morning! Remember the eleven bullet points of The Frankfurt School.

      1. The creation of racism offences.
      2. Continual change to create confusion
      3. The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
      4. The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
      5. Huge immigration to destroy identity.
      6. The promotion of excessive drinking
      7. Emptying of churches
      8. An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
      9. Dependency on the state or state benefits
      10. Control and dumbing down of media
      11. Encouraging the breakdown of the family

    5. I think all this crazy stuff is to distract attention from the unravelling Coronvirus narrative, plus various unholy power grabs that are going through at the moment – banning protests, censoring the internet, making vaccines mandatory, stuff like that.

  42. So it escalates. In my earlier post re Brian Gerrish, he talks of the monsters running this shit-show becoming frightened as more information becomes available, especially on social media. Macron has reacted as any cornered animal will by lashing out and in doing so only exposes his true target, authoritarianism and the total control of everyone’s lives. Starving people and denying medical services etc to people is the pinnacle of tyranny. How will the French react?

    https://twitter.com/SuzanneEvans1/status/1414853959110512643

    2. Seriously? 😮
      We always fill the car with groceries when we visit France! How dare Macron cut off my supply of Crémant d’Alsace!
      My decision to do some longstanding maintenance on our house in case we were unable to visit it freely earlier this year, is beginning to look quite justified.

      1. When I was last in France (3 years ago or thereabouts) it seemed to me that groceries were very expensive. My old man spent a couple of grand on food for 2 weeks for just five of us. The beef joint for a roast was over 50 quid. I was really surprised how expensive everything was although my ciggies were a lot cheaper than here, just a little over half the UK cost.

          1. I just did my first post on here in response to Damask Rose “Another snippet of international news” and it was censored. How come?

          2. You have to show a valid pass before being allowed to address any of the NoTTLer ladies – they are all very delicate {:<))

          3. We don’t have any actual censorship except for ad hominems. Did you post it correctly?

          4. Yes. I posted it twice because I thought that there must have been an error. It concerned the fact that society is breaking down in South Africa. It started yesterday with looting and burning in Durban and is spreading to the rest of South Africa. The police are in retreat, Citizens are arming themselves, firing on looters and the Army has been called out. I also posted a link to the story.

          5. We have had ongoing spam attacks for many months from spambots that post links. The only defence is that any links posted by people not on the trusted list go into pending, and the page closes sooner than previously.

          6. Welcome to Nottle.

            Did you attach a link? Sometimes the site won’t accept links.

            Generally Nottle is very open to most views, although the moderators will remove really abusive posts and if the posters continue they may be banned. It is much more tolerant than many sites nowadays.

            There are also times when posts don’t show up immediately for some reason, but then appear later, I think that that is a Disqus issue rather than a Nottle one.

          7. We don’t have any actual censorship except for ad hominems. Did you post it correctly?

          8. Did you include a link? I’ll have a look – but you need to be on the trusted list to post links.

          9. Yes, I posted a link. From: “Hal Turner Radio Show”. In the US because it seems to me that this major story has been entirely censored in the UK. Perhaps if you go over there you can post the link because people should know what is happening there.

          13. Nope it isn’t there!
            I’m not particularly bothered about my posting it. Perhaps you can? As I said, since Damasks remark was “another snippet of international news” I thought I would post it. But I’m hardly bothered about whether I post it or someone else, it just seems to me to be important that it come out.

          14. If you posted it as a reply to Damask Rose, that’s where it will go. If you made it as a new comment at the top of the page, it would probably go there, though disqus does do odd things sometimes.

          16. Nope it isn’t there!
            I’m not particularly bothered about my posting it. Perhaps you can? As I said, since Damasks remark was “another snippet of international news” I thought I would post it. But I’m hardly bothered about whether I post it or someone else, it just seems to me to be important that it come out.

          17. I’ll delete the second one then or disqus will treat it as spam. I’ve added you to the trusted list now so you should be able to post links.

          19. No – you look as though you’ll fit right in here………. welcome to Cynics’ Central.

          20. I refreshed the page and both your posts were there in reply to Rose. I deleted the second one. Should be there now if you look.

          22. It contains a video link. Now released.
            We have “send to pre-moderation” set for all who are not on the “Good guys & gals” list, as we keep getting spammed by posts with links, on a regular basis. Sorry.
            EDIT: I also found this message from Disqus just now:
            We’ve just released an enhancement to our Pre-moderation features
            This update now allows publishers to apply pre-moderation to new commenters only, specifying the number of days they remain in pending status until you feel they are safe to join your community.
            Also, we need to see your Corona passport… ;-))

        2. It is expensive, but the quality is correspondingly better.
          Alcohol is cheaper of course.

          1. Oh yes the quality of the food was totally excellent, and to be fair we ate far better than we would at home but the cost of the food was more than the cost of the gite for a fortnight.
            We were close to Rocamadour.

        3. Not in my 40+ years experience of yer France.

          Depends where (and how) you shop.

          3. Super U was our supermarket of choice – their fruit and veg was much better than Carrefour and they occasionally had exotic meats like ostrich and kangaroo as well as horse.

          4. Carrefour have the best Crémant though.
            I realise I am beginning to sound obsessed with this wine…

          6. Mostly the local supermarket, was a Carrefour i think, can’t remember. Melons from farm stalls. Bread from the local artisan baker.
            We were close to rocamadour so the area is a bit touristy but even so food was much more expensive than here but also far better quality on the whole.

        4. Maybe there’s VAT on food. There is here in Norway, doesn’t help the prices.

        6. Hi Thayaric.
          Have you tried Champix? You stop smoking in about 10 days. No Will Power required.

          1. No I haven’t. I did buy a vape because I could vape at work in a previous job and it did help cut my smoking down but I always bought cigs because I need a few to make joints 🙂

            I am glad Phil that it worked for you. Smoking is a filthy habit but I find it hard to give up when I love my joints so much.

        7. Price of 20 Rothmans Red here is Euros 10.10 = £8.63. Same thing in UK £9.50. I don’t smoke now but I have had my share in the past.

    3. We will always know where you are. for al the “Right Reasons” of course, says Boros

    4. The b*****rd is going to make injections compulsory if you want to leave the house.

  44. I’ve just received this e-mail.

    I wonder if the debate lead to anything positive or will the supine Johnson government continue to kowtow to the EU?

    You’re receiving this email because you signed this petition: “Trigger Article 16. We want unfettered GB-NI Trade.”.

    To unsubscribe from getting emails about this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/signatures/106085264/unsubscribe?token=Q6SGht_Ec1IMZz24cdMr

    Dear Richard Tracey,

    You recently signed the petition “Trigger Article 16. We want unfettered GB-NI Trade.”:
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/573209

    On Thursday 15 July, MPs will take part in a Backbench Business Debate on a motion relating to the Northern Ireland Protocol. The debate will be led by Sir Bernard Jenkin MP.

    Watch the debate (after 11.30am on Thurs 15 July, following the introduction of a Ten Minute Rule Bill relating to Tibet and Xinjiang): https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/b611720b-8a2d-42e0-818d-d4edeca33cd7
    A transcript will be published here, within a few hours of the debate ending: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2021-07-15
    What is a Backbench Business Debate?

    Backbench MPs can apply for a debate on a topic of their choosing through the cross-party Backbench Business Committee. These debates take place in the main House of Commons Chamber or Westminster Hall.

    Find out more about the Backbench Business Committee: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/202/backbench-business-committee/

    Thanks,
    The Petitions team
    UK Government and Parliament

    2. Read that as “Watch the debate debacle (after 11.30am on Thurs 15 July”

    3. Read that as “Watch the debate debacle (after 11.30am on Thurs 15 July”

    1. More often than not, alleged racial abuse is held firmly in the eye and mind of the beholder.

  46. Southgate showed us a new England. But the old one hasn’t gone away. David Olusoga. 13 July 2021.

    The toxic racism and swaggering hyper-nationalism that has for decades accrued around the English game has contaminated our national symbols, left millions feeling excluded from the national game, and damaged our reputation abroad. The rot has grown deeper in recent months, in part because our political leaders have allowed that poison to fester and – when they calculated that it was in their electoral interests – cynically refused to condemn it.

    This tournament has been a tale of two Englands. In one of those Englands the national anthems of other nations are booed and fans from rival nations, some of them women and children, are abused in the stadiums and on the streets. In that nation, thugs throw bottles across Leicester Square and storm Wembley itself. In that England some “supporters” believe it is acceptable to boo our own young players, for deciding to support one another in the face of racist abuse ceaselessly directed at the black members of the squad.

    Olusoga so hated that Old England that he decided to live there and sponge for a living off the BBC!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/13/southgate-showed-us-a-new-england-but-the-old-one-hasnt-gone-away

    2. Olusoga completely misses the point that it is the blacks and virtue-signallers (like himself) who openly support the new BLM Party that incite racism.

      He is also the hypocrite who lambasts the BRITISH EMPIRE for it’s supposed historical misdemeanours, yet happily accepts the Order of the BRITISH EMPIRE.

      1. Another of ‘god’s creatures’ who would not exist if it had not been for the British empire. ………..there’s a lot of it about.

        1. Yep, I’d love to give him the ‘Order of the Boot’ right up his stupid ar5e where he obviously keeps his brains.

    3. ‘Morning, Minty – I note that no comments are allowed, otherwise I would have posted the remarks I made earlier.

      I suppose that ‘No Comment’ is the cowardly Graudian’s protection against the downpour of comments, like mine, that would have ensued

    4. Why doesn’t Olusoga listen to what the fans are saying about kneeling? Booing ‘taking the knee’ is not a statement of racism – it is disapproval of a gesture in support of a political organisation – Black Lives Matter – which is purportedly an anti-racist movement but is in practice a Marxist, anarchist body which is diametrically opposed to many of the values which British people of all colours hold dear.

      Southgate and the England players have chosen to adopt a gesture which they think is anti-racist but is actually an expression of support for BLM. In doing this, they have caused division between England football supporters and indeed nationwide.

      1. He has nailed him self to a wheel of the band wagon and had no alternative but to continue with his mindless fervour, If he listened and actually considered what he is saying he might not know which way to turn and could possible develop anxiety from this and never recover.

    5. I think that Marcus Rashford, who I believe was behind the kneeling by the England Team before matches, would have not have attracted the booing had he made it absolutely clear that he did not support the political agenda of the Black Lives Matter Party.

      And has anyone at the BBC ever interviewed Rashford and asked him whether he believed:

      i) That the police should be defunded;
      ii) That capitalism should be replaced by communism;
      iii) That the family unit should be destroyed?

      It is all very well to want an end to racial discrimination but if the kneelers are kneeling in support of a political party with such extreme views then it is bound to attract some adverse attention.

      1. And of course there is always the possibility that this might just have been yet another disguised set up to promote BLM and as usual it failed absolutely miserably, but in hind sight it’s the managers fault ! Who just happens to be white.

    6. David Olusoga…….the door is open Dave, bugger off if you don’t like it here. We wont mind the insult.
      Perhaps in the next line up the England manager might be allowed to omit the players he finds do not or have not come up to certain expectations.
      What might be a better way to clear up all this nonsense is to publish the previous penalty taking success rate of the late substitutes. And why Sterling the previous man of the match several times over and wonder player did not step up to take a penalty.

    7. I wish David Olusoga would go away. He is a product of the BBC and various projects that enable the sponging off taxpayers.

    1. Morning Bill. A Bonfire of the Vanities would be nice. Every stupid law passed since, oh, when did it all start to go serioulsly pear-shaped?

      1. …. when did it all start to go seriously pear-shaped?

        16th April 1746
        :¬(

        1. Nearly tea-time?
          I’ll get me antimacassar…doily was what I was thinking of…

        4. We all have had our Waterloos, Duncan, yours just happened to happen on Culloden Moor.

  49. Another real humdinger…

    U.N. Rights Chief Calls for End to ‘Systemic Racism’ – Seeks Reparations, Funding of Black Lives Matter

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2018/09/High-Commissioner-for-Human-Rights-Michelle-Bachelet-91018-Getty-640×480.jpg

    The U.N. human rights chief on Monday called on the world to immediately dismantle systemic racism against people of African descent and “make amends” to the oppressed — including reparation payments, while groups like Black Lives Matter should receive “funding, public recognition and support.”
    *
    *
    https://twitter.com/BreitbartNews/status/1386122478452449280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1386122478452449280%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Fpolitics%2F2021%2F06%2F28%2Fu-n-rights-chief-calls-for-end-to-systemic-racism-seeks-reparations-funding-of-black-lives-matter%2F
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/06/28/u-n-rights-chief-calls-for-end-to-systemic-racism-seeks-reparations-funding-of-black-lives-matter/

      1. Only for today.

        Tomorrow’s level of stupidity will be much higher … exponentially higher … and so it goes on, and on, and on …

    3. Goodbye technology, science and engineering graduates from Virginia.
      Maybe all that Shine has rotted their brains?

    4. This ‘Human Rights’ twonk cannot see that Buy Large(r) Mansions is actually promoting racism at every turn.

      1. They know the agenda perfectly well. It is my belief that they are all corrupt and being paid to promote it. Nobody could look with a straight face and believe that BLM plays any positive role in society.

      1. Indeed not, the very idea is divisive, plus it doesn’t address the root of the problem.

    7. Call it ‘remedial math’ instead, and then the BLM crowd will be happy that only white kids do it.

    2. “I shall ask for permission and forgiveness if I use black notes on my pianoforte.”

      I would suggest that if you don’t see sharp, you will soon be flat.

  51. Guido’s Quote of rhe Day

    Paul Goodman on the relationship between the Prime Minister and the Chancellor…

    “The Prime Minister may be a “Brexity Hezza” whose instinct is to spend, spend, spend. But the Chancellor must follow his incontinent horse with a dustpan and brush. The Treasury never had much room for manoeuvre, and that space it has is vanishing.”

    1. B..b..but hurty tweets posted by five hour old accounts are so much more important!

  53. (I tried to print the table but my computer was uncooperative.)

    Biden’s tax plans risk bursting Ireland’s bubble
    After years of luring the world’s biggest firms with the promise of low tax, the Irish economy will soon be heading for uncharted territory

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/07/13/bidens-tax-plans-risk-bursting-irelands-bubble/

    Why has Boris Johnson pledged to raise corporation tax in the UK from 19% to 25% in 2023? Surely one of the greatest benefits of Brexit was to be free of EU tax harmonisation? Is Johnson completely mad or has his dominatrix wife decided the Conservative Party should no longer even pretend to be the party of business?

    But however hard this hits UK the effect on Ireland will be even greater when the EU determines that the same tax rates will apply throughout the EU

    BTL Comment

    Ireland will become the 2nd biggest contributor to the EU budget and I think on a per capita basis – more than Germany

    But not for long as all the international companies will leave Ireland as quickly as I can.

    Response

    I suggest that Wales becomes a sort of ‘free port’ and charges 5% in corporation tax and attracts all the companies leaving Ireland to go to Wales instead. That would be good, opportunistic, pragmatic, common sense which is why it will never happen!

    2. He certainly does not deserve one for the most divisive football campaign ever!
      No doubt he will get one though, and the Royal Family and the BBC will be drooling all over it. Probably be used to bury the news of the first Coronavirus Holiday Camps being opened and inmates being transported there.

  55. 335324+ up ticks,
    I believe the governance parties coalition member / voters have been informed that a remedy is in hand and will be activated shortly, this acts as a salve for the lab/lib/con coalition supporting members.

    Any continuing to question “the (ino) party” will be told to rendezvou
    with the local mobile shower unit ( anti covid) prior to writing a rhetorical question.

    https://twitter.com/paulafr68963440/status/1414878571068366850

    1. Afternoon, Maggie. Silversurfers are occasionally funny, if not too bright.
      I shall add a few amendments to their list.

      8. Brown bread was considered ‘posh’ in our house and was made for parties.
      9. Olive oil was warmed and put in the ears to soften the wax. It was never used as food.
      10. Tea is STILL made properly in a pot using tea leaves.
      13. Sushi is NOT raw fish: the fish used is always cooked! Japanese raw fish is called sashimi.
      21. Prunes were invariably served at school dinners with semolina.

      It’s always good to be funny, but not if it comes along with patently erroneous data.

      1. My school served prunes with more prunes.
        Semolina was yesterday’s pudding.

      2. You are incorrect that the fish in sushi is always cooked.

        I’ve worked in Japan and had both raw and cooked fish as well as other ingredients.

        Sashimi although thin tends to be chunkier than when in sushi, depending on the fish used.

        https://sushi.pro/history.html

        1. Well, all I can say is that I have eaten sushi all over the world, including Japan, and invariably all the accompaniments to the sushi (which refers to the rice) have been cooked. In my (limited) experience, the only time I’ve been served raw fish is with sashimi.

          The point I was making is that most people think that sushi equates to raw fish when that is far from the truth. Moreover, fish packed in cooked rice and permitted to ferment undergoes a chemical reaction (cooking is a chemical reaction) which changes its nature.

          1. I was very lucky.

            The Japanese I worked with went out of their way to introduce me to as many ways of cooking and preparing food as they could.

            I attended multi-course banquets that had stomach churning dishes and others that I would have enjoyed as part of my final meal on earth.

            I went to very formal restaurants and traditional, non-tourist, yakitori (sp?) bars, you name it they took me there.

            If I now had to choose only one cuisine to live with it would be a tough choice between Italian and Japanese, much as I love my French existence.

        1. And my mother used olive (small bottles from Boots) oil as a suntan lotion, in the summer she had a wonderful tan.

      4. There was always a Hovis brown loaf, which we loved as children cut into slices , then into soldiers to dip into our boiled eggs.
        You are quite correct about olive oil, bought from the chemist shop for our ears.

        Prunes and custard , still delicious.
        Semolina and Tapioca not so keen .

        Kippers , phew the smell , but still tasty , and smoked haddock .

        We used to cringe at roast beef and lamb .. which always appeared rather bloody when we were children , and Grandpa used to scrape the marrow out of the beef bone and make us eat it from a spoon .

        Those were the days when Yorkshire pud was served first with beef gravy as a starter before the meat and veg !

        All I can remember from those childhood days was nearly raw meat apart from pork !

        Even lambs kidneys on toast , and lambs liver were slightly bloody .. a shake of Worcester sauce disguised the blood .

        Roast lamb or mutton served with cooked beetroot and leeks .. an acquired taste . and piles of cabbage and a few roast potatoes .. The red of the boiled beetroot added to ones facial expressions , and then we would be ticked of for grimacing!

        Grandpa used to say let they meat stop thy mouth !

        1. Every bloody dinner at our house commenced with a Yorkshire Pudding course. I got so sick of it I refused to eat it again until I was in my twenties.

          All roast meat done in our house was cooked until nearly cremated. I didn’t sample the delights of a medium-rare steak or roast, again until I was in my early twenties.

          I have just eaten one of mum’s specialities: A bacon cob with pickled beetroot. This has always been a favourite.

          Hovis (and Turog) was delicious though I seldom tasted them. Mum did all the baking and, when I took a packed lunch on school outings, all the other children wanted to swap their shop-bread sandwiches for one of mine. I didn’t have a problem with that since shop-bread was a novelty to me.

        2. At school we’d have curried what we’d dissected that morning in biology.
          Who could forget the frogs’ eyes, carefully mixed in with sultanas in
          the hope that we wouldn’t notice.

          1. 🙂 The whirlpool effect. The jam – type unknown – was always red. Probably came out of 7lb tins.

          2. We also had jelly and blancmange. The jelly was a deep red, cold, sweet and of indeterminate flavour. By contrast the blancmange was a yukky pale pink, devoid of any flavour, and lukewarm!

          3. School blancmange was disgusting – pink with a thick skin of a darker shade of pink. It left stains on the plate.

          4. We also had jelly and blancmange. The jelly was a deep red, cold, sweet and of indeterminate flavour. By contrast the blancmange was a yukky pale pink, devoid of any flavour, and lukewarm!

          5. 🙂 The whirlpool effect. The jam – type unknown – was always red. Probably came out of 7lb tins.

          6. Of course.

            Do you remember granite pie? This was Christmas pudding, cut into squares, baked for six months and served in June. It required the spoon to be used as a mallet, with the knife as a chisel. They were Sheffield steel in those days and could take the punishment. Shards would then fly across the room. With any luck, someone else’s fragment would land on your dish. It would then break your teeth.

    2. Pasta was eaten but it was called spaghetti or ravioli and it came in cans with the tomato sauce already added.

        1. Yes, macaroni! I knew I’d forgotten something. I remember all these canned specialities being enjoyed as toast toppings.

    3. Looks like something my father-in-law would write.
      He doesn’t touch any of “that foreign muck”. Makes it difficult to go out for a meal or cook at home, since the choices are somewhat limited to boiled green things and bloody (expensive) meat.

      1. I remember one sailor heading “ashore” after deciding that the food on offer from the galley wasn’t to his liking making the remark “I’m not eating that foreign muck [food with a hint of chilli], I’m going ashore for a Chinese”.

        1. Paul, I don’t need green tea for me to do that – anything I eat does it

    8. 8. Brown bread was eaten only by eccentrics.
      There was a boy in my class in primary school, who always brought brown bread sandwiches for lunch. It was thought that he must have weird parents, but they were not poor.

    9. 8. Brown bread was eaten only by eccentrics.
      There was a boy in my class in primary school, who always brought brown bread sandwiches for lunch. It was thought that he must have weird parents, but they were not poor.

  57. Courtesy of Jonathan Myles-Lea, here’s a review of “Royal Navy versus the Slave Traders” by Bernard Edwards

    myleslea2 Highly recommend for crashing through through social engineering and BLM propaganda that has flooded western society, culture and every one if it’s institutions:

    The acclaimed naval historian sheds significant light on the Royal Navy’s role in fighting the African slave trade through years of bitter battle at sea.

    On March 16th, 1807, the British Parliament passed The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act. The following year, the Royal Navy’s West African Squadron was formed for the purpose of stopping and searching ships at sea suspected of carrying enslaved people. But with typical thoroughness, the Royal Navy took the fight to the enemy, sailing boldly up uncharted rivers and creeks to attack the barracoon’s where slave traders prepared their shipments.

    For much of its long campaign against the evil of slavery, Britain’s Navy fought alone and unrecognized. Its enemies were many and formidable. Ranged against it were the African chiefs, who sold their own people into slavery, and the slave ships of the rest of the world, heavily armed, and prepared to do battle to protect their right to traffic in so-called “black ivory.”

    Bernard Edwards pursued a sea-going career commanding ships trading worldwide. After nearly forty years afloat. Captain Edwards settled in a tiny village in rural South Wales, to pursue his second career as a writer. His extensive knowledge of the sea and ships has enabled him to produce many authentic and eminently readable books which have received international recognition.
    (end of review)

    Written by a Real Expert rather than an academic!

      1. Weird wind they must have had way back then, where both ships have their sails set completely opposide to each other. A kind of pushme-pullyou wind…

        1. Not unusual on a golf course where playing 18 holes into the wind appears to be the norm.

          1. Many years ago when on a course near Delft, borrowed a bike & went for a cycle. Down the drive, turn left, cycle a few km, take a left, cycle a few km, trun left, cycle a few km, turn left, left again, cycle a few km back to the hotel.
            And it was downhill all the way. Just like the trompe l’oeil of the stairs going in a square and ending up back at the start…

          2. Many years ago when on a course near Delft, borrowed a bike & went for a cycle. Down the drive, turn left, cycle a few km, take a left, cycle a few km, trun left, cycle a few km, turn left, left again, cycle a few km back to the hotel.
            And it was downhill all the way. Just like the trompe l’oeil of the stairs going in a square and ending up back at the start…

          3. A word of advice to all Nottler golfers and their friends, what every else you might think of doing on a golf course DO NOT go and play Tenby Links if their is a slightest chance of rain or if it’s very windy, or both . It will destroy you. And I have played some very tough courses in my time.

        2. A pessimist moans about the weather
          An optimist hopes it will change
          A sailor adjusts the sail

        3. Funnily enough on the river I used to sail on it was quite possible to have such a situation – boats going up [or down] river with sails on opposite sides but both moving well!!

        4. Funnily enough on the river I used to sail on it was quite possible to have such a situation – boats going up [or down] river with sails on opposite sides but both moving well!!

        5. Wasn’t it a tactic for disabling the enemy? Actually blocking or distorting the wind to slow down the opposing ship?

        6. Wasn’t it a tactic for disabling the enemy? Actually blocking or distorting the wind to slow down the opposing ship?

    2. “Barracoon” is a new word for me. I wonder whether that’s the origin of the term coon?

      2. Probably as worthless a word as racoon because it will be automatically censored by many web sites.

      4. Gone coon (1839) was used of a person who is in a very bad way or a hopeless condition – a good description of the BBC.

    3. In 1807 we also had a lot of Continental nonsense going on as well.
      Obviously Parliament in those days could think about more than one thing at a time.
      Remind me again about the benefits of the universal franchise

      1. It shouldn’t have been reduced to 18 – but on the other hand, women should have as much right to vote as men. Perhaps it should be limited to home – owners over 30.

        1. I suggested that on here once and Geoff reminded me that some people prefer to rent. Householders perhaps, as in people who pay council tax?

      2. It shouldn’t have been reduced to 18 – but on the other hand, women should have as much right to vote as men. Perhaps it should be limited to home – owners over 30.

    3. Thank you. The BBC’s coverage is pathetic – it’s almost as if they can’t bear to show ‘people of colour’ behaving like animals…..

    1. As I have said elsewhere the questions that are never asked and ought to be are:

      As a supporter of Black Lives Matter does Marcus Rashford believe in its key beliefs:

      i) Defunding the Police;
      ii) Replacing capitalism with communism;
      iii) The break up of the family unit?

      Another question that we should consider is:

      Has Black Lives Matter improved or worsened relations between people of different races?

    3. With far too much emphasis on it, let’s leave his heritage and everything else out of the equation out of all this, if we can…….. But It makes a complete mockery of his alleged talents, he couldn’t even hit the target when it came to the test. He dribbled.
      I must insist that he must have actually know what he was suppose to be doing with that football.

  60. Warsi is in on the act as well:

    Sayeeda Warsi, a Conservative peer and former co-chair, sent a public message to Patel, the home secretary, calling on her and all Conservatives to “think about our role in feeding this culture in our country”.

    “If we ‘whistle’ & the ‘dog’ reacts, we can’t be shocked if it barks & bites,” Lady Warsi tweeted. “It’s time to stop the culture wars that are feeding division. Dog whistles win votes but destroy nations.”

    She added: “As a proud centre-right politician, as a proud part of a diverse, vibrant nation that produced a football team that spoke to and represented England in all its modern diverse glory, it shames me that in 2021 some in politics are still playing fast & loose with issues of race.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jul/12/tory-mp-sorry-jibe-marcus-rashford-euros-penalty-miss

    One has to ask who the real troublemakers are in all of this.

    1. When did we become diverse , was it five years ago or last year .

      The overcrowded inner cities are now wild places , gangs and knife and gun culture are the fright that people are trying to escape from .

      1. “White flight” has been the response of people ever since the Windrush people moved into London.

        1. Fleeing in our own country, from people who didn’t even conquer us – except from the bottom

          1. They may not have conquered by military means – but they have taken over our towns and cities. The frantic house-building around the villages and on the breen belt has ruined the countryside.

    2. One bl**dy well knows. It wasn’t us. It is those who foisted ohers upon us without asking.

    3. Warsi isn’t a real Conservative party politician, she’s just someone Cameron met at a party and promoted to the Lords.

    4. Warsi isn’t a real Conservative party politician, she’s just someone Cameron met at a party and promoted to the Lords.

  61. As I enjoyed the bonfire, I pondered on the hurty words to bames.

    If St Marcus of Brashford had not canonised himself, and had he not troubled himself by interfering in government – and had he scored the sodding penalty – there might have been far fewer hurty words…..

    1. Tch tch Bill, that’s a future Labour Peer of the Realm that you’re speaking of.

  62. Priti Patel bans US white supremacist group The Base accusing it of preparing for ‘race war’ with weapons and explosives training – as members face a maximum 14-year prison sentence. 13 July 2021.

    Home Secretary Priti Patel is asking Parliament to proscribe ‘the extreme right-wing terrorist group’ which she says is ‘seeking to establish a white ethno-state.’

    ‘I am committed to making it as difficult as possible for these organisations to operate in the UK, both by banning them and increasing the penalties for membership or support, in order to protect the public and our national security,’ Patel said in a statement.

    Yes let’s ignore all those people coming in across the Channel that we know nothing about and ban this organisation that no one has ever heard of and has no presence in the UK anyway!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9780623/The-Base-Priti-Patel-bans-neo-Nazi-group-accused-trying-incite-violent-race-war.html#comments

    1. Is she going to ban BLM as well? Or XR?

      Funny that we never have any far-right terrorist attacks or disruption.

  63. 335324+ up ticks,
    All these predictions, one could almost believe he is on the (ino) tory planning committee.

    Farage Predicts Govt Could Bring Back Restrictions by September

        1. Was thinking about moving to the Moon, but I don’t want bluddy Elon Musk as a neighbour!

        2. Was thinking about moving to the Moon, but I don’t want bluddy Elon Musk as a neighbour!

  64. 335324+ up ticks,
    All these predictions, one could almost believe he is on the (ino) tory planning committee.

    Farage Predicts Govt Could Bring Back Restrictions by September

    1. I have already forwarded the article to family and friends.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/anyone-thinks-covid-certification-would-temporary-measure-fooling/

      “Anyone who thinks that ‘Covid certification’ would be a temporary measure is fooling themselves

      There are too many vested interests to allow the idea to die a death with the pandemic

      13 July 2021 • 12:50pm

      Like Covid itself, the idea of vaccine passports just won’t seem to go away. It subsides for a while, suppressed by the realisation of what it would mean: that a small proportion of the population, concentrated in some ethnic groups, would be constantly discriminated against. But then it creeps back. Confirming that the lifting of many legal restrictions would be lifted next Monday, the Prime Minister encouraged nightclubs and other large venues to insist on vaccine certification “as a matter of social responsibility”.

      Don’t think it will end there – it transpires that ministers have been discussing making vaccine passports a legal requirement at such venues. And once they have become established at nightclubs and concert halls, just wait until they become legally-required at all hospitality venues: pubs, restaurants, hotels – just as it seems they will such establishments in France and Ireland.

      Vaccine passports are only a temporary measure, we will be told – just to protect us during the pandemic. But you can bet that they will soon morph into a smartphone-based ID card which we are expected to carry wherever we go – at least if we want access to any commercial premises or public building. There are too many vested interests to allow the idea to die a death with the pandemic. There are huge fortunes to be made for the tech industry if it can persuade governments and commercial organisations to force on us electronic ID cards which can then be used to collect, store and access our personal data.

      “Welcome to the shop, madam, but we just need to check your creditworthiness first, so if you can please check in with your phone here”; “yes, the swimming pool is open but in order to ensure everyone’s safety we’ll need you to check you against the sex offenders’ register”; “your seats are in aisle 10, sir, but first we’ll just need to check that you haven’t been censured for anything you have said on social media.” There will be enthusiastic support for many potential uses of an electronic ID cards, and only in time will the oppressiveness of an electronic ID card system creep up on us. And of course, tapping our phones against a reader will be so easy that it will hardly register as an inconvenience – until, that is, we personally get ‘pinged’ on the grounds that the venue has taken a dislike to some aspect of our character or history.

      There is a model for what will be coming our way if we do not resist vaccination passports and electronic ID cards: China’s social credit system, which blacklists people for numerous antisocial offences, from crossing the street on a red light to failing to sort their recycling, and uses the information to deny them the right, for example, to buy rail and airline tickets. The adoption of lockdowns has shown just how pernicious is the influence of authoritarian China on the West. No-one should fool themselves that Britain and other ‘freedom-loving’ western societies have some sort of cultural defence against over-bearing surveillance. We don’t. A combination of authoritarian-minded government ministers, greed on the part of big tech and apathy on the part of many citizens will ensure that vaccination passports quickly evolve into a permanent surveillance infrastructure.

      What purpose do vaccination passports serve in any case? Vaccination rates among the upper age groups are already up above 95 percent. Those who are vaccinated will be at little extra risk from the odd unvaccinated individual they encounter in a bar or some other venue – it is mostly the unvaccinated people who will be at risk to each other. Do we really need to persecute those who, for whatever reason, have chosen not to be vaccinated? They are not all anti-vaxxers. According to an ONS survey, only nine percent of those who have rejected the vaccine have an opposition to vaccines in general, and three percent of them said they has been advised by their own doctors not to be vaccinated.

      Vaccination is working in reducing Covid to an endemic disease which causes a manageable number of hospitalisations and few deaths. There is no need to try to make effectively compulsory by insisting on vaccination passports that will make life a misery for those who, for whatever reason, have not been jabbed.”

      1. Some people will choose not to be vaccinated for moral and/or religious reasons. Maybe they could wear special badges?

    2. A very enterprising people, the Honkies. They work hard and don’t believe in handouts. I think they’ll prove to be an asset.

  70. This is what has happened to a population bombarded with fear propaganda. I bet the SAGE people are proud of the way thy have turned this country into a nation of wusses.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9783781/Covid-UK-Polls-Britons-anxious-return-normal-Freedom-Day.html

    We’ve enough ‘Freedom’ ALREADY: Anxious Britons vow to avoid pubs
    and restaurants after July 19 while a third of staff are ‘uncomfortable’
    with return to office and 120,000 sign petition demanding masks remain
    on public transport

    New poll finds that four in 10 adults support compulsory mask-wearing in public spaces indefinitely

    Ipsos Mori found quarter of people would like nightclubs and casinos to remain permanently closed

    Around a third of the 1,025 adults interviewed said they would support permanent social distancing

    1. So, They Die polled a carefullly selected 1,025 using carefully framed questions and we’re to accept the result as 100% representative of the entire adult population of Britain.

      1. I think it’s all part of the fear propaganda that we’ve had inflicted on us for the past 18 months. They ask a carefully selected group of people leading questions, phrased in such a way as to generate the required answers. Then they tell us that this is the majority view.

      2. I think it’s all part of the fear propaganda that we’ve had inflicted on us for the past 18 months. They ask a carefully selected group of people leading questions, phrased in such a way as to generate the required answers. Then they tell us that this is the majority view.

    2. Everyone I talk to here is champing at the bit to be back in the office. Expected August 16. A few dimblebrains still wearing facenappies in their car and the car-park, but they are everywhere.

    3. It all makes one wonder, J, how thick are the unthinking?

      Why do they accept this idea that masks protect them, when it is patently obvious that masks are absolutely unable to protect them?

      I don’t know how many are able to recall a comic called ‘Radio Fun’ from many, many years ago but there was a little dog-like character that popped up at various point to mouth the epithet, “Daft, I call it.” and that’s what it is today

      2. Most people are fundamentally stupid.

        Almost everyone that comments here has above average IQ.

        I doubt the electorate as a whole though breaks 100 as an average.

    4. It all makes one wonder, J, how thick are the unthinking?

      Why do they accept this idea that masks protect them, when it is patently obvious that masks are absolutely unable to protect them?

      I don’t know how many are able to recall a comic called ‘Radio Fun’ from many, many years ago but there was a little dog-like character that popped up at various point to mouth the epithet, “Daft, I call it.” and that’s what it is today

        1. Really? Is that why Boris was so slow locking down 50k people died before he even considered it, and flights were coming in daily from countries where covid was rampant. I’m pretty sure that was against the advice of SAGE. We’re reopening against the advice of SAGE.

          1. “…50k people died before he even considered it…”

            On March 23rd, when it was announced, the official death count was 938.

          2. You’re right and wrong. I overstated deaths somewhat but the 938 is a daily figure. We lost 938 souls on the day of lockdown. We had lost somewhere around 4 to 5k at lockdown and hit over 20k deaths within a fortnight of lockdown. We were far too late because we were pursuing a ‘herd immunity’ strategy without a vaccine and following an unproven hypothesis as herd immunity effect has never actually been proven.

          3. 938 is the cumulative total on March 23rd.

            https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/deaths

            “Herd immunity effect has never actually been proven.”

            Really? It’s funny how herd immunity by infection was on the WHO website until last summer then suddenly disappeared. There are plenty of other references out there still.

            Johnson was in favour of a light touch at first, as was SAGE (or at least some of its members, notably Vallance) but when Neil ‘Pick a number, any number’ Ferguson came up with his half-a-million dead by Christmas, it was time to scare the crap out the of the nation and nail society and the economy to the floor. Look what that’s done to us.

          4. Herd immunity is just a hypothesis and forgets how vaccines actually work. There’s a reason we’ve only eradicated a single disease despite knowing about vaccination for a couple of hundred years. Vaccinated people still catch and transmit disease. They aren’t ‘immune’ and so there can’t be ‘herd immunity’. The bugs don’t die out because they can’t find hosts which is the theory. The bugs do find hosts and the hosts don’t notice or barely notice that they’ve caught it because their immune system is primed to fight back quickly.

          5. “Herd immunity is just a hypothesis and forgets how vaccines actually work.”

            The subject was herd immunity by infection. We might quibble that it’s an unfortunate term because not all become immune but enough do so that the vulnerable are protected. It was notable how few children and young people were made ill by this virus yet they were locked up. That was a genuinely stupid decision.

            It’s thought the Zika virus died out by herd immunity.

          6. Infection or vaccine is just the same. Either a real pathogen, a synthetic one, an inactivated one, etc. they all achieve the same result to our immune systems. The herd immunity hypothesis is based on vaccination and the fact that bugs can’t find hosts but really it’s the same as being infected, fighting it off and can’t find hosts.
            Vaccines don’t make us immune they prime the immune system so that it can fight back against that particular bug, or any other with similar genetics enough to be affected, can be killed quickly. Now quickly for our immune system is 4-7 days. It takes about a month to fire up to maximum response to a bug that’s not been encountered before. Vaccines make us much more likely to have less noticeable disease and so much less likely to need medical intervention. They help cut the transmission rate and transmission periods for sure, but at no time is immunity conferred. The bugs can still find hosts, they can still replicate and spread, just nowhere near as optimally as in an unvaccinated population. Our immune systems have a lot of latency. It’s all disease dependent too because some are very rapid and infectious quickly while others take much much longer to get to that stage.
            Zika is an animal virus that has at times crossed the species barrier. It’s an RNA virus so it will rapidly mutate and those mutations could just as easily stop it affecting humans as the ones that gave it the ability to infect humans.

          7. There’s no need to write in such an egg-sucking manner. I know what vaccines are, thanks very much, and I know that they have different levels of effectiveness on the individual and, therefore, the population. That effectiveness is related to the stability and/or singularity of the pathogen, whether viral or bacterial.

            Quibble away all day if you will over the meaning of ‘herd immunity’. The government’s initial strategy was aimed at that because it was known very early on which sectors of the population were worst affected by the disease. Ferguson spiked that approach with his absurd forecast.

            This argument started because a member of the forum asserted that Johnson & Co did everything that SAGE told it to do. You disagreed, citing the ‘light touch’ approach and claiming that it killed 50,000 before lockdown. Both of your claims were wrong. The criticism that should be properly aimed at the government is its inability to assess relative risk in both the short and the long term and to trust the objectivity and lack of political bias both in SAGE and the wider medical and scientific establishment. Susan Michie is dangerous and the government is as scared of criticism as it has made the majority of the public scared of shedding their masks. I hope we can agree on that.

          8. You’re right and wrong. I overstated deaths somewhat but the 938 is a daily figure. We lost 938 souls on the day of lockdown. We had lost somewhere around 4 to 5k at lockdown and hit over 20k deaths within a fortnight of lockdown. We were far too late because we were pursuing a ‘herd immunity’ strategy without a vaccine and following an unproven hypothesis as herd immunity effect has never actually been proven.

    6. I went to the pub for a coffee this afternoon when I took Oscar for his second “meet and greet” with the groomer. The pub is dog friendly; we sat in the beer garden and the young waiter who brought my cappuccino asked if I’d like some water for the dog. When he brought it, he put it down with his left hand and before I could say anything, scuffled Oscar’s head with his right! Amazingly, no reaction (and the waiter still had his fingers!). I can only assume that Oscar was so fixated on the water bowl, he never noticed. Either that, or the socialisation is finally working 🙂

  71. I see the temperatures in Vancouver, LA and the West coast of USA and Canada are now in the 20s. Global cooling?

  72. Covid Passports, Masks, (anti)Social Distancing, Lockdowns etc

    rThe laws of our country operate on precedence, ie how people were prosecuted, taking circumstances into account.

    1. The laws must be set in stone and policed, by the Perlice, not reformed dog wardens

    2. If Josephine Bloogs has to abide by the laws (notice I did not say Rules) so must Boros and Co, sad Dick Kant, those e of all religions, colour and creed,without exceptions, ie Equality

    3. New arrivals on the 8:29 from Calais MUST be tested for Covid and abide by the same laws that govern anyone else arriving in UK, including quaratine and testing.

    4. Regardless of the fact that MPs etc (look at the Wombles of Wimbledo/G& ) think that they are exempt no one may be excused . If HM the Queen can, eveyone can

  73. Just back from the hospital. Blood test done to see if the polycythaemia has come back.

    I decided to walk rather than use the chair as my Doctor says i have to walk as much as possible.

    Limped to reception and booked in. Went to sit and wait for Nurse to call me and do a phlebotomy.

    Nursie comes out of her treatment room. Calls a couple of names. No answer.

    She asked me who i was and she said i wasn’t on her list and would have to go up to the third floor with miles of walking to that clinic.

    So, like a footballer i threw myself on the floor and started crying loudly. Not really.

    I said i couldn’t manage it and she relented and did me anyway.

    Not as if she had anything else to do at the time.

      1. The place i was directed to go was the first clinic i went to on the advice of my GP. January.

        They were most upset that i hadn’t made an appointment even after my GP had hotlined the Consultant.

        I said i have been trying to phone you since Friday morning.

        The vampire said ‘We don’t answer the phones on weekends’.

        Duh .

  74. Good piece from Lockdown Sceptics showing just how far we have come over the last few years.

    https://lockdownsceptics.org/

    We are publishing an excellent comment today by reader Jimi Cazot that he wrote in response to a Telegraph article on the introduction of Covid vaccine passports. Jimi

    asks: “If you could go back 10 years and speak to your former self,

    what would you tell that unsuspecting fool?” His answer below is bound

    to resonate with many readers.

    1. It’s pretty harsh stuff.
      The previous article with the substance of the new French laws is depressing too. They are denying hospital care to the unvaccinated, it seems. Will the French really put up with that? Or will they either fall back on the standard French action (riots, burning blockades, guillotines…that sort of thing) or sneak over the border into Spain, Italy, Switzerland or Germany for treatment?

      1. I hope it will get Gilet Jaunes out again. Who does Macron think he is that he can impose draconian rules like that on people?

        2. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is Macron testing the water.

          It’s a while away, and further Covid increases with deaths and hospitalisations, particularly amongst the double vaccinated, and project fear will kick in again hard and people will comply, unless it gets stopped in its tracks now.

        3. Over the past 20 years or so we have definitely moved from ‘they work for us’ to ‘we are sheared for them’.

          Sheeple are well-named.

      2. How about denying hospital treatment for other voluntary non-actions? No seatbelt in a car, too much alcohol, smoking, sporting injury, the list is endless.
        And what about those that cannot take the vaccine?

        1. What worries me slightly is the possibility of waking up in hospital having been vaccinated against one’s will and without explicit consent.
          All hospital consent forms will have to be carefully scrutinised for small print.

        2. I don’t think we should rely on arguments like people who cannot take the vaccine, or that the vaccine has not finished its tests.
          The powers that be can get round all these arguments.
          We have to go directly to the most important argument which is It is my right to refuse a medical treatment I do not wish to have, and any law that contravenes that is unacceptable.

          2. Will only happen if we make it happen.
            Donate to Fuellmich, get involved in local demonstrations – they’re pretty active in my area.

          3. I’m booked for my first jab tomorrow. I don’t want it but I need it to stay in employment.

          5. I work in care. So yes, it’s been made compulsory even for current employees.

      3. At present yer French are “advised” to avoid Spain and Portugal. Soon to become mandatory, I reckon.

        1. That’ll need border posts, won’t it?

          That will sit well with the Schengen Agreement.

    1. We had a stronger, more self reliant population. We had problems with class, but fundamentally we had a group who understood what they had risked during an awful war against Left wing fascist. We understood sacrifice and want.

      In contrast, we have a nation of spoiled, indulged, feather bedded irresponsible louts who’ve never earned anything, never suffered, never sacrificed who do not value the incredible gift they have been gifted. That same group are driving us to war.

    1. ‘Evening, Sos, “This man should have been executed. But that option no longer exists.”

      It’s now the time to re-introduce capital punishment and it should include rape.

      1. That would almost certainly reduce rape convictions. Too many opportunities for false accusations, but if a murder includes a rape then certainly that should be regarded extremely adversely.

  81. EU holds up Hungary’s recovery money in rule-of-law standoff. 13 July 2021.

    Budapest has clashed with the EU on multiple occasions over Orban’s treatment of migrants and gay people, as well as the tightening of curbs around the freedom of media, academics and judges.

    Orban portrays himself as a crusader for what he says are traditional Catholic values under pressure from the liberal West.

    The EU here means the executive, those appointed, not elected. They act as an extra government above those elected by the people. They are responsible to no one other than their paymasters. They cannot be fired or deselected. They are a law unto themselves.

    Orban was elected by the people of Hungary. He stands for values that his people and ours understand; values that have existed for a thousand years. The EU seeks to destroy these principles and impose a Cultural Marxist hegemony across the whole of Europe and create a continent of slaves.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-eu-recovery-hungary-idUKKBN2EI1FM?edition-redirect=uk

    1. Ada ” what is this BLM they are all on about, Bert”.
      Bert ” Bacon, lettuce and mayonnaise, I think Ada, if you want to make one”.

    2. Ada ” what is this BLM they are all on about, Bert”.
      Bert ” Bacon, lettuce and mayonnaise, I think Ada, if you want to make one”.

        1. We’re sending most of it to India for three reasons:

          1. To supplement their space programme.
          2. To assist the growth of the nuclear bomb making.
          3. To help them grow more quickly and beat China in the population race.

    1. Afternoon Ndovu. Yes. It’s an old trick. If the child has any genetic faults the UK taxpayer picks up the bill!

      3. Cousin marrying cousin, going back several generations to keep a patch of scrubland in the family.

      4. Cousin marrying cousin, going back several generations to keep a patch of scrubland in the family.

  89. For those of you who have an interest in English history*, I commend:

    The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England by Marc Morris. We have it as an audiobook, and, driving to Narridge this arvo (a worse nightmare than usual) we listened to the bit where there is a description of how, after yer Romans left, the indigenous (forgive the word – I know it cases great offence) population was quite rapidly overwhelmed by invaders crossing the Channel and the North Sea. The locals began to adopt the invaders’ language, styles of dress and religion – EVEN THOUGH the outnumbered the new arrivals by 4 to 1.

    Ring any contemporary bells?????

    It is an excellent book – and the audio version is very well read (except for one niggle (which applies to another one we have on the go about the Mediterranean): the narrators pronounce “frontier” in the American way – emphasis on the second syllable).. Grrr

    * Yes you, Mrs Allan

      1. I used to like him – but he allowed his STRONG political bias to show – so I stopped listening.

    2. Wonder what he does there all day. There’s only so many paper aeroplanes you can make.

  92. Yer French double-standards. Ban French unvaxx from everything – but moan about another country doing similar to, er, yer French:

    “Covid: France condemns Malta’s decision to bar unvaccinated tourists
    Senior politician says it is against EU rules and the move could encourage other countries to do the same, rather than using the EU health pass”

    1. I was wondering what the French Imaams had to say about it all. Probably something along the lines of ‘abbadabbadoo n’est pas?….and ‘give me your daughters or we vote Micron in again’….

    2. I was wondering what the French Imaams had to say about it all. Probably something along the lines of ‘abbadabbadoo n’est pas?….and ‘give me your daughters or we vote Micron in again’….

  93. That’s me for a very good day. Bonfire just a small heap of smouldering ash. Time for a little drinky-poo.

    I was DELIGHTED to see my friend Mr Rashid’s boy doing so well for Kings on Univ Challenge last evening…! Thanks, Harry, for the tip off!!

    A demain – in the rain – fr the last time for several days.

    1. It was the dullest, lack lustre Uni Challenge.
      Paxo seemed thoroughly bored throughout. Mr. Rashid’s boy had a wonderful smile, I was quite smitten….

        1. I was a fan of ‘Only Connect’ but no more..
          V.C.Mitchell talks too much, typical woman……the programme is not about you dear!

        2. I was a fan of ‘Only Connect’ but no more..
          V.C.Mitchell talks too much, typical woman……the programme is not about you dear!

  97. One day International cricket.

    Ireland (290-5) beat South Africa (247 all out)

      1. The South African cricketers were hoping their gated communities would hold out against their bretheren.

        1. There are 2020 estimate: 4,679,770 (7.8% of South Africa’s population) white South Africans .

          There are thousands of black South African millionaires … and Zuma who is in jail is probably a billionaire!

    4. The Edgbaston crowd have had plenty of beer and are giving a far better rendition of ‘Sweet Caroline’ than the mob at Wembley on Sunday.

      Pakistan knocked up 331-9. England now on 213-5, requiring 119 from the remaining 18 overs to make highest winning one day score at Edgbaston. Running out of recognised batsmen

  101. Wembley 2021: what can we learn from 1966

    In atmospheric terms – from waving Union flags to singing Rule, Britannia – 1966 felt like a jollier occasion than 2021

    CHARLES MOORE

    I had the good fortune to be a football fanatic at the time of the World Cup of 1966. (I was nine years old.) Then, and for about five years after, I paid religious attention, listening to every obscure result of all the English and Scottish divisions (“Stenhousemuir, 1: Queen of the South, 3” etc) as they were solemnly intoned on television early each Saturday evening. And, of course, I remember the great day at Wembley when England won the World Cup. When boys at school shyly asked if my father was involved in football, I did not discourage the implication of my surname.

    In the ensuing half-century, I have paid almost no attention at all, tuning in only when momentous events have been afoot. The famous “years of hurt” more or less passed me by. So when I watched Sunday’s game, it was that day in 1966, rather than anything in between, which made the most vivid comparison in my mind.

    Here are some of the differences between the two occasions. In 1966, fans waved the Union flag: in those days, “England” meant “Britain” to many more people than it does today. In 2021, they waved St George’s one. After victory in 1966, the crowds spontaneously sang Rule, Britannia.

    Although, in that World Cup final, it was only just over 20 years since the end of the Second World War, there was very little made of this. The German team was scarcely booed at all. It was unpleasant, on Sunday, to hear Italy booed whenever it was succeeding (i.e. more than half the time). Our crowd has become more unsporting.

    The game more than half a century ago seemed a much more precise expression of urban, male, working-class culture than it does today, though the class backgrounds of the players have probably not changed much.

    My hero, the toothless Nobby Stiles, resembled someone in an Ealing comedy. You could easily imagine the players kicking balls around in back streets. In 2021, they are much more groomed, coiffed and glamorous. Instead of looking like the lads who went off to fight in two world wars, they nowadays seem more like members of a world elite.

    In atmospheric terms, therefore, 1966 feels jollier to me than 2021. But there is an important point to insert on the other side of the argument. Seen from today’s vantage point, the 1966 play looks inelegant.[†] Today’s teams are dramatically faster and more athletic and therefore more fluently beautiful in motion – on the fairly rare occasions when their opponents fail to contain them – than they were 55 years ago. Much greater professionalism has contributed to this, as has the power of money.

    Modern football has a much more technological appearance than the more earth-bound game of the past, and the feats performed are ever more prodigious. Perhaps, in another 55 years, it will be played by the creations of Artificial Intelligence.

    Football and politics are very different beasts

    One reason for sadness at losing was the sense that victory would have helped unite the nation. I suspect this feeling is exaggerated. In the first place, Britain – unlike all other participating nations – fields four teams. So three of the four are not heavily invested in an England victory.

    Besides, football unity does not necessarily produce unity of any other kind. You quite often hear it said that Harold Wilson’s Labour Party swept to its landslide victory of 1966 on the back of the result. But this is quite untrue – the election was in March, the World Cup in July.

    Look at Sunday night’s winner to reinforce my point. Italy has always had some trouble thinking of itself as a nation. It has been formally united only since the middle of the 19th century and remains more severely split even than we are between north and south. There is a strong tradition of great football across the country and a genuine enthusiasm for the success – much more frequent than ours – of the national team, but this never seems to translate into manageable politics.

    Do not expect football-victorious Italy to arise glorious and united as the nation to provide the future leadership of Europe. Just expect it to go on winning football matches.

    The danger of magnifying social media abusers

    After every major match, racist insults are made on social media and these insults are duly condemned by the football authorities. The same pattern was followed yesterday. [‡]

    Such insults are indeed disgusting, but does it help to publicise them? In pre-internet days, racism was often visible on the terraces. This was rightly suppressed. Better control at matches was clearly possible (though often far from easy) if those in charge were prepared to make the effort. As with the war on hooliganism – a fight which, in the 1970s and 80s, seemed almost unwinnable – a real determination to stamp out racist behaviour eventually made a difference.

    In the case of Twitter and other social media, however, the anonymity/pseudonymity of the medium means that we cannot know whom we are up against, or how many of them there are.

    The legal and practical difficulties of trying to make all names online real and traceable are surely insuperable. Why should we dignify the ravings of people who will not identify themselves by drawing attention to what they say?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/wembley-2021-can-learn-1966/

    † Watch a longer recording of the 1966 and you’ll see some really poor quality football at times from both teams.
    ‡ Once upon time it was pub talk and usually forgotten the next day.

  102. Hang on a minute…..I think I’m going to puke…..the entire fiasco was rehearsed FICTION

    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey is nominated for an Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding Hosted Nonfiction Series’
    Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s interview with Oprah Winfrey aired in March
    The US-based Duke and Duchess of Sussex laid bare their rift with Royal Family
    Explosive Two-hour tell-all has now been nominated for an Emmy Award

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-9784661/Prince-Harry-Meghan-Markles-interview-Oprah-Winfrey-nominated-Emmy-Award.html

    1. What nonsense. Apart from being an open attack on the stability of our country via an attack on our Head of State, it was also poorly researched and did not challenge any of the ludicrous assertions.
      Outstandingly bad, in fact.

      1. That’s enough to give it an Emmy. We saw what Yanks value when that dreadful Meghan was here – and afterwards. No style, no taste, no clue.

          2. Even so, she was hardly known here in the US until she latched onto Harry and the rest is history….but most Americans have little time for either of them, it’s all about PR.

  103. England may have lost the EU Cup, or whatever it’s called, but there is always a bright side. Team Engerlund has been awarded the weeping and sulking trophy for the fifth year running – something to celebrate, surely?

  104. The BBC has shown that it still doesn’t get it

    The possible appointment of a Left-wing journalist to a senior position exposes the myth of its impartiality

    ROBIN AITKEN

    The BBC decides that it needs another senior journalistic post; it looks around and invites applications. To no one’s surprise, the candidate they like the look of best is a woman with a long track record of taking Left-wing positions. Normally this appointment would have taken place behind closed doors; all we might have noticed was that the Corporation had added yet another highly -paid individual to the swollen ranks of its news executives. But this story – about appointing a journalist called Jess Brammar to the newly-created role of executive news editor – has taken an unexpected turn.

    At the weekend, reports surfaced that Sir Robbie Gibb, a former head of communications at No 10 under Theresa May who now sits on the BBC board, had intervened to try to prevent Ms Brammar getting the job. Sir Robbie reportedly warned the BBC’s director of news, Fran Unsworth, that a Brammar appointment would shatter the Government’s “fragile trust” in the BBC. Cue outrage from the Left.

    Whoever tipped off the press evidently wished to send out a rallying call to the BBC’s allies to circle the wagons. The Guardian framed a story condemning government interference at the Corporation. Alastair Campbell took the prize for hyperbole, labelling Sir Robbie’s intervention an example of cronyism amounting to “Putinism with posh accents”. Labour’s Angela Rayner called for Sir Robbie to resign.

    The BBC’s defenders like to claim they are standing up for “impartiality” against a government intent on dismantling it. But the universally “progressive” politics of those who make this argument gives the game away. For years, the BBC has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the broad Left. The Brammar episode tells us less about a Tory “plot” to undermine the Corporation, and more about what is still wrong with the broadcaster, and the nature of the struggle faced by director-general, Tim Davie, if he is really serious about ending its endemic soft-Left bias.

    Decades of appointing people like Ms Brammar to senior positions have rendered the BBC a political monoculture – the domain of the soft-Left where “woke” culture is now mainstream. The BBC’s appointment system is a self-replicating mechanism which ensures that those who are appointed are always “PLU” – people like us. The idea that Ms Brammar – who, despite deleting many of her old online posts, has a long track record of anti-Tory statements – would be a suitable person to be the “executive news editor” could only be entertained by people who saw that track record as entirely unexceptional.

    Yes, Ms Brammar would be bound by the BBC’s code of impartiality. But does anyone seriously imagine that Ms Brammar’s decisions – about which stories to cover and how – would not be influenced by her own biases and prejudices? From long study and personal experience, I know that the “impartiality” of the BBC is a fairy tale fiction regularly trotted out by Corporation apologists on the basis that, if you tell a Big Lie often enough, some people will come to believe it.

    The problem for the BBC is that the threadbare myth of “impartiality” is wearing very thin indeed. Its biases are damaging the Corporation. Its inability to understand the country outside London left it blindsided by Brexit and Boris Johnson’s 2019 election victory. It is becoming harder not to overlook the slant in its output, permeated by middle-class guilt, dislike of free markets, and trust in the state.

    The appointment of Sir Robbie to the BBC’s executive board was a sign that the Government is serious about making change happen. As a former head of BBC Westminster, overseeing the Corporation’s political output, he knows where the bodies are buried. He is not an enemy of the BBC, but I am sure he is under no illusions about its internal political culture.

    The attempt to insert yet another Left-winger into a senior editorial position, however, is a sign that significant parts of the BBC are still impervious to the concerns of swathes of the public and determined to keep its “business as usual”. There’s a real chance that this time they’ve misjudged things. It would be in the BBC’s best interest to take note of Sir Robbie’s warning. Not because it would further damage the Government’s “fragile trust” in the Corporation, but the trust of the wider British public.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/bbc-has-shown-still-doesnt-get/

    1. Just make the BBC subscription only. Then the viewers/consumers can decide what they want to watch.
      Enough of this hand-wringing bollox.

    2. Didn’t Johnson promise to do something about the BBC?

      Another promise broken just as he broke his promise to give NI veterans immunity from prosecution and his promise that there would be no border in the Irish Sea.

    1. But grooming gangs prey mostly on vulnerable white girls. Officialdom doesn’t give a shit. But – hurty words…

    3. How many kneelers did it take to subdue the 12 year old then?
      Perhaps they are working their way up to Rotherham and the like.

    5. I cannot find any mention of this in either DT or DM, despite it happening yesterday.

        1. Thank you, Mola, it just shews how this insidious information creeps in by over-whelming one with the actual horror.

  107. So it REALLY begins…………

    “Mandatory medical treatments on pain of not being allowed to work in

    your chosen profession and not a peep out of the MSM. I wouldn’t have

    even known the vote was going to happen if I had not seen it here. A

    step so big it cannot be over stated in the least and I suspect the vast

    vast majority of the population will not even have known about it

    until after it has happened. A huge line has been crossed.”

    https://twitter.com/FrontlineFree/status/1414684988130344965

  109. Lovely record run chase by England 2nd/3rd stringers to outdo Pakistan’s 331 in the last ODI.

    1. Just as impressive as England’s last win in their 5-0 beating of Australia (2nds admittedly) in 2018.

    3. I was given my granddaughters’ end of term reports to read earlier today. The five year old’s (in Reception Year) contained the following sentence “She explained to the class how an odd number cannot be divided by two…” There is hope yet.

    4. I was given my granddaughters’ end of term reports to read earlier today. The five year old’s (in Reception Year) contained the following sentence “She explained to the class how an odd number cannot be divided by two…” There is hope yet.

  113. Here comes the nightmare…..[no comments allowed]

    Vaccine passport firm says system could be ‘redeployed’ as a national ID card

    Previous identity card plans were scrapped in 2011 after an outcry over the intrusive nature of the scheme and its impact on human rights

    By Hayley Dixon, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT ;
    Lucy Fisher, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR and
    Tony Diver, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    13 July 2021 • 9:00pm

    One of the companies involved in the Covid-19 vaccine passport has said that the system could be “redeployed” as a national ID card, amid concerns over “mission creep”.

    As Boris Johnson urged nightclubs and venues with large crowds to adopt Covid-19 certification as a condition of entry, MPs and campaigners warned that the system was “intrusive” and raised the possibility of discrimination.

    Concerns were raised that people will be forced to share sensitive information to participate in normal, everday life, particularly as the Government has reserved “the right to mandate certification” at a later date.

    Fears have been fuelled by the fact that the £250,000 contract to provide the cloud software for the certification system was handed to Entrust, an American IT firm which has previously been involved in rolling out national ID systems in Albania, Ghana and Malaysia.

    In a blog written shortly before it was awarded the contract, Jenn Markey, product marketing director, Entrust, commented that “vaccine credentials can become part of the infrastructure of the new normal”.

    She said: “With the infrastructure and investment necessary to ensure a viable vaccine passport, why not redeploy this effort into a national citizen ID program that can be used for multiple purposes, including the secure delivery of government services, secure cross-border travel, and documentation of vaccination.”

    In the UK, controversial identity card plans were scrapped by the coalition government in 2011 after outcry over the intrusive nature of the scheme and its impact on human rights, including from Mr Johnson who said he would “eat” a card if required to produce it.

    However, it is feared that the draconian requirements to prove health status will allow “mission creep” into other requirements, according to Silkie Carlo, director of Big Brother Watch.

    Security experts warned that in order for the passport to be linked to an individual and avoid fraud they would also have to show identification.

    “This is a giant leap towards ID cards,” Ms Carlo said, adding that if the “Government goes ahead with mandated Covid passes it is likely we will look to bring legal challenges.”

    The findings of a Cabinet Office review also said the passes could allow businesses to stay open “if the country is facing a difficult situation in autumn or winter”, suggesting they may be utilised in any future lockdowns.

    Pubs and nightclubs on Tuesday night said they would refuse to introduce the system, as leaked modelling suggested it would only allow them to reach 71 per cent of their pre-pandemic turnover, a loss of £3.5 billion.

    But the possibility has been raised that the use could be widened out to other sectors, with the Cabinet Office review saying a ban on other companies requiring certification would “be an unjustified intrusion” on how they keep their premises safe.

    Government commissioned research on the vaccine pass, seen by The Telegraph, also shows that focus groups were asked about the possibility of them being used for weddings, funerals and work events.

    In the December focus group conducted by Zühlke Engineering, a Swiss company involved in the contract tracing app which has staff working within the Department of Health, participants were also asked about it being used for builders attending their home.

    Tory civil rights champion David Davis, a former cabinet minister, told The Telegraph that domestic Covid passports are “a very bad idea”, “intrusive” and “completely out of the tradition of Britain”.

    Pointing out there were 9,000 data leaks last year from government records, he said: “There are very serious civil liberties issues, serious issues of practicality, and serious issues of discrimination.”

    The Government has denied any suggestion that the pass will be used as a national ID system.

    It comes as a poll released on Tuesday showed a third of adults aged 18-34 had deleted the NHS Covid-19 app from their smartphones, with more intending to remove it after “Freedom Day” on July 19.

    Overall, less than half of adults have the app installed, Savanta ComRes found.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/vaccine-passport-firm-says-system-could-redeployed-national/

    1. I have always said that there would be mission creep once ID cards got the go ahead.

  114. News from across the pond:

    The Texas Legislature, which currently has a Republican majority (18-13 in its Senate and 83-67 in its House), is poised to pass a voting reform bill. As with similar bills across America, the point is to ensure that the people voting have a legal right to vote and are, in fact, who they claim to be.

    The most contentious issues for Democrats are cleaned-up voting bills and, especially, photo ID. The problem is that most Americans support photo ID. According to a Monmouth poll, when it comes to photo ID, 62% of Democrats, 87% of independents, and 91% of Republicans support it. Texas, with a strong Republican majority, is intent upon passing a bill that the vast majority of Americans would back.

    So what do the Democrats do? Like Brave Sir Robin, they run away to prevent a quorum..

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/texas-dems-fled-state-private-jet-over-voting-rights-bill-abandon-democracy

  115. Utterly off topic.
    Just in from the first commune function for over a year. Music, dancing, no masks, songs taking the piss out of masks.

    200 + in the salle de fetes, if it’s there we’re all gonna get it.

    Great food, great company, lots of fun; every age from 18 months to 80+ just having a very good time.

  116. Evening, all. Our basic freedoms are being held to ransom by control-freak politicians.

  117. 335324+ up ticks,
    Seemingly it’s a below stairs staff successful coup then no longer asking but setting out the orders of the day.
    If it be the case then surely before blood is shed a boycotting campaign
    by the tradesmen / shop keepers of Olde England must be set up against ALL lab/lib/con coalition politico’s, see how they get by without the butcher the baker the plumber & spark, the mechanic, the dustman,
    the Countries backbone.

    https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1415016133422419974

    1. These MPs are unspeakable. I loathe them all. Whatever has possessed them to vote this in? This is worse than North Korea or China. Please, all you who realise what’s going on, demonstrate and protest in no uncertain terms. This should not be happening.

      1. I wrote to our MP at lunchtime today, I only heard about it late last night. Apparently it had been dropped in on the sly yesterday. Absolutely, utterly disgusting. It is of course the thin end of the wedge to set the precedent. Of course our treacherous, treasonous MP voted for it. Media v.v. quiet about it.

      1. 335369+ up ticks,
        Morning AA,
        Obsolete, no need, been eradicated along seemingly with many other maladies.

  118. Goodnight all Nottlers . Bedtime music: Really Don’t Care – Vintage Motown – Style Demi Lovato Cover ft. Morgan James
    We took it back to Motown this week, and Morgan James joined us to lend her incredible vocals as we reimagined Demi Lovato’s “Really Don’t Care” as a classic Motown record. We even included Cher Lloyd’s rap. Oh yeah, and Tambourine Guy (real name: Tim Kubart) dropped by, too.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EddjOiFcp9Y

  120. Mr Lilico in a bit of a froth…

    The appalling Twitter attacks on Priti Patel only prove how out of touch social media can be

    Those who dwell in bubbles of their own creation are unlikely even to be able to comprehend that Tyrone Mings was wrong

    ANDREW LILICO

    One of the curious features of modern life is the narrow-casting of information to small social bubbles. In some senses that is a reversion to the past. Centuries ago, ordinary people probably knew fairly little about what was going on across most of the country. But they probably had fairly detailed knowledge about what was going on in their own village or neighbourhood – probably rather more than many of us do today.

    Then, for a century or two, there was an era of broad sharing of knowledge. People heard about the wars of the world – not least because people in almost every town participated in them. People heard about the mastery of flight, or men landing on the moon. They heard about famines and civil wars across the world. And they knew who had won the FA Cup Final or the Grand National – because we all watched together.

    Now, instead, we all create our own narrow-cast news, events and political debate feeds, via Facebook or Twitter or other such media. One consequence of this is a common delusion about the status of one’s beliefs. If everyone in my social media feeds says the same thing – because that reflects the choices I have made – I can easily assume that almost everyone agrees with me. That can also spill over even into physical encounters. People used to finding everyone agrees with them in being for (or against) Brexit or for (or against) wokeism may express themselves so forcefully even in person-to-person contacts that anyone who disagrees shuts up to avoid conflict, and the myth that everyone is on my side perpetuates.

    Then, when they finally do encounter someone prepared to gainsay them, people are astonished and assume such a person must be morally deficient or wildly out of touch – even if their views are in fact quite normal or even majority opinions. Twitter mobs dogpiling people whose opinions – even if perfectly normal – are not shared by the subset of individuals exposed to them are just one symptom of this.

    An example of this today has arisen with the spat between Home Secretary Priti Patel and England defender Tyrone Mings. Mings over the symbolic “taking the knee” custom England have adopted before matches. In line with many other people, some weeks ago the Home Secretary said she did not consider this the best way to tackle racism in society in general or amongst football fans in particular. Yesterday Mings publicly accused Patel of stoking the fires of racism through her opposition to that custom.

    Debates about how appropriate or otherwise it might be for an England defender to make such remarks are made very difficult by narrowcasting. Many supporters of Mings are so used to everyone around them agreeing with taking the knee that they consider it simply axiomatic that anyone opposing taking the knee is stoking the fires of racism. They consider the claim that Patel did that is simply a fact. Others consider that if the Home Secretary had indeed stoked the fires of racism that would be an appalling thing for her to have done, and that one should not make such a strong allegation about her without equally strong evidence. That someone disagreed with you about the best way to tackle racism did not constitute such evidence.

    Those who dwell in bubbles of their own creation are unlikely even to be able to comprehend this case. Everyone they know or who appeared in their social media feeds supported taking the knee. Everyone they know or who appeared in their social media feeds said the only reason one could have for opposing taking the knee was racism. So of course Patel stoked the fires of racism by opposing taking the knee! They consider that to be the obvious, unquestionable belief.

    Such intellectual self-isolation is dangerous, both for us as individuals and for us as a society. Moral certainty turns into aggression, and the assumption that we can shun other opinions into oblivion even if they are majority opinions. It’s tempting to say “We all need to reach out beyond our self-made bubbles”, but a problem with that is that we shall rapidly encounter other folk who disagree with us and consider us, in turn, the moral deviants. Instead, perhaps, the answer lies more in a thick skin.

    Being targeted on Twitter doesn’t mean most people don’t agree with you. It just means someone else’s bubble briefly bumped into yours, and the dwellers in that other bubble didn’t like the experience.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/appalling-twitter-attacks-priti-patel-prove-touch-social-media/

  121. Right, Best Beloved has retired to bed and taken a sleeping pill after feeling bad all day – I shall join her shortly, so I wish all my fellow NoTTLers, Goodnight and God bless.

    Bis morgan fruh.

    2. Morgen bruh fruh, wenn Got will, wirst du wieder geweckt. Good night, Tom. (Corrected 10 hours after original post.)

  123. The disgraceful scenes at Wembley prove England isn’t ready to host the World Cup

    It was only when I left the stadium that I saw riot police with dogs in position. Why weren’t they there earlier?

    NIGEL FARAGE

    There has been widespread shock and disbelief that, once again, the England football team lost a major match on penalties. The great dream that united the country is over and the recriminations have begun. That three of the players who failed to score a penalty goal happen to be black, and have been racially abused on social media, is awful, though, to be honest, I think any player who missed a penalty would have been targeted. Football attracts a certain kind of yob. Nasty, extremist elements of society also lurk on the internet, particularly on Twitter. The two together make for a toxic brew.

    Yet while I condemn in the strongest terms the way that certain players have been abused, I don’t think the full story of what really happened at Wembley on Sunday night is being told. Given that the government is considering launching a bid for the UK and Ireland to co-host the World Cup in 2030, I would urge everybody concerned to think hard before lodging that application. In my view, Britain is in no state to host this or any other football tournament. What I saw at Wembley was the worst organised and most dangerous sporting event that I’ve ever attended. I write that as a sports fan who goes to as many matches as possible.

    After the train pulled into Wembley Station at 5pm, I walked out onto Wembley Way and was astonished by the sight before me. The crowd was huge – some estimates say it was a quarter of a million strong – and bottles and cans were being thrown around the smoke-filled air. The prospect of making my way through that heaving mass of people was intimidating. Given I am often recognised in public, and was conspicuous by my wearing a Cross of St George waistcoat, I will admit to feeling slightly nervous. Why were there no police with loudhailers telling those gathered that unless they had a ticket, they should disperse? Where was the crowd control?

    In fact, I saw hardly any police anywhere. [Of course not! They were at their desks, monitoring Twat World!] My host did manage to find two officers and asked them whether they would escort me through the throng, but they were not really interested. In some ways it took me back to 2014, when I was the leader of UKIP, and I had to face baying mobs with frequency. Fortunately for the group I was with on Sunday, we had a private security detail. Had it not been for them, I would not have attempted the route. Most of those who spotted me and shouted my name were friendly, but some were not. It felt something like walking through a rugby scrum that was several hundred yards long. Thankfully, the worst that happened was a can of beer hitting me on the back of the leg.

    Wembley’s own security guards stood their ground all along the route. As we got to the ticket entrance, mayhem broke out after several dozen people smashed down barriers and ran into the stadium. The stewards, many of whom were older than me and who certainly carried a few extra pounds, did nothing. Frankly, it was a shambles. Some friends of mine who undertook the same assault course an hour later told me some of the crowd surges that they experienced terrified them to such a degree they thought they might be involved in something like the Hillsborough disaster. How could UEFA, the FA and other authorities get this so badly wrong?

    Did nobody stop to consider that the Kick-Off time of 8pm was ill-advised? For all the talk of a change of culture being desirable, the fact is that young English men attending an event like this will inevitably drink to excess. They have done so for centuries and are not about to change now. Of course, 2pm would have been a far more sensible time to begin the match, but that would not have satisfied the global TV audiences and visiting dignitaries. Aside from the yobs’ drunkenness after hours of heavy drinking, the other case for international football matches being staged at lunchtime springs from the length of the match. It went to extra time and then penalties, and didn’t wind up until about 11pm. This meant thousands of people were stranded in London having missed their last train home.

    I would describe the atmosphere outside the ground as similar to that given off by an army facing possible death in the morning. A sense of danger, of violence, of abandonment of common sense hung in the air. This instilled in the many parents attending with their children a genuine feeling of fear. I spoke to one well-known female celebrity who was subjected to very unpleasant sexual taunts as she made her way through the crowd. But whether it was sexism or racism or sheer outright yobbery, what happened at Wembley was completely unacceptable.

    Nobody involved in organising or monitoring this major public event seemed to care much for genuine football fans, who had paid extortionate prices to attend it. I wonder where, in this story, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan fits? He has ultimate responsibility for overseeing big events in the capital and for transport. Shouldn’t Khan have had the tightest possible grip on how this occasion was run?

    In security terms, it is a miracle that only a few dozen people were badly injured. During the Paris terror attacks of November 2015, one suicide bomber was prevented from entering the Stade de France thanks only to proper security guards doing their job. On Sunday, a drunken mob with no tickets managed to break through the security barrier and enter the ground. One shudders at the ease with which these people did exactly as they pleased. Mercifully, nobody at Wembley detonated any explosives, but if Boris Johnson is serious about launching a bid for the 2030 World Cup, there should be an immediate inquiry into this potentially disastrous failure.

    The UEFA European Football Championship final was managed abysmally. Wembley was not fit for purpose. I was, of course, pleased to be there to watch the game, but it was only when I left that I saw riot police with dogs in position. Why weren’t they there earlier?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/13/disgraceful-scenes-wembley-prove-england-isnt-ready-host-world/

    1. I don’t know why he should think there is shock and disbelief that the England team lost – it seems to be a habit that’s hard to break!

  127. It’s time to rebel – the Church of England is abandoning its flock

    The things which most Britons still value about the CofE are about to be destroyed by the very people who are meant to be its custodians

    ALLISON PEARSON

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/63ff2da5720e2204940969d92b8a495ac20502d9c40064f5cb8927939a7db41b.jpg
    Why has Joanna Penberthy still not been sacked? Back in May, the Bishop of St Davids, the most heavenly small cathedral in the world, wrote a post on Twitter about perceived threats to the Welsh Assembly from the Conservative Party: “They say that this is not true, but we know better. Just think of the lies of #Boris Johnson. Never trust a Tory.”

    It was the most appalling comment imaginable from a person whose job it is to bring comfort to all of God’s children. I shuddered when I read it, thinking of the many Conservatives who would have received Holy Communion from a woman who was capable of such a hateful and un-Christian statement.

    Following hundreds of complaints, Penberthy closed her Twitter account, apologising for this and other tweets “which may have caused upset and offence”. The bishop posted under the name Joanna Penberthy WeAreRemain #GTTO (Get the Tories Out) #FBPE (Follow Back Pro-European).

    Anyone guess what the bishop’s political views are? If you’re struggling, let me direct you to her reaction to the general election result: “A very sad indictment is that so many still want to vote Tory. Absolutely appalling. I am ashamed of each and every one of you.”

    If anyone should be ashamed, bishop, it’s you. In a letter to Conservative Welsh Secretary Simon Hart, the Archbishop Justin Welby said he was “deeply embarrassed” by Dr Penberthy’s tweets and the language used was “absolutely unacceptable”. Still, she remained in her job. Meanwhile, the most senior bishop in the Church of Wales, Andrew John, said: “I regret the impression that has been formed that we favour one political viewpoint over another.”

    Impression? The contempt for Conservatives could not have been clearer or more wounding. If Bishop Penberthy were a lone example of a rabid, Compassion-R-Us Leftie malcontent in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, that would be one thing; sadly, she appears to be in the majority.

    Lately, the Church of England has been hellbent on a course which is almost designed to cause distress to traditionally-minded vicars and parishioners: the lowly footsoldiers who do the flowers, run the choir and generally keep their beloved old church going while raising money to send a “Parish Offer” to fund the dioceses with their cloth-eared management jargon, their painfully woke initiatives and proliferating job titles like Mission Enablers and Director of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, with hefty salaries to match.

    Some of us were under the impression that the Director of Creation job was filled rather successfully over two thousand years ago. Having lost faith in the eternal verities, the CofE now makes stipendiary clergy redundant – some rural benefices of 10 churches have to share one vicar! – while lunging for relevance with lectures like the one immortally entitled The Church and the Clitoris. Er, it’s been a while since I was a Sunday school teacher but isn’t the G in “G-spot” supposed to stand for God?

    In a nutshell, the things which most Britons still value about the CofE are about to be destroyed by the very people who are meant to be its custodians. Parish priests and regular worshippers are up in arms over the “Vision and Strategy” plan which was unveiled by the Archbishop of York at the General Synod at the weekend. The new “growth strategy” is called Myriad. It means getting rid of the clergy with their tedious theological knowledge about, you know, the Bible.

    Flog the vicarages! Abandon the churches, centre of our communities for centuries and a beloved part of the spiritual geography of these islands! Dispense with those annoying old parishioners, the ghastly people probably vote Tory anyway! Then – hey presto! – have 10,000 new pop-up churches led by lay people in their living rooms.

    This is not a joke. Canon John McGinley explained: “Lay-led churches release the church from key limiting factors. When you don’t need a building and a stipend and long, costly, college-based training for every leader of the church… then we can release new people to lead and new churches to form.”

    As a church warden, one of many to write movingly on this topic to the Telegraph’s Letters Page, said: “Our incumbent vicar will be retiring soon. He will not be replaced. In return, for our generous Parish Offer, a church with a 1,400-year history will expect to have a clergy-delivered act of worship once every six weeks. I fear the end of worship is nigh. I will become a steward of an empty, soulless medieval building, haunted by the echoes and shadows of past congregations. What has the Church of England come to?”

    Good question. Some vicars may be frightened into complicit silence, but they are deeply offended at being called “key limiting factors”, while their loyal parishioners are sneered at as “passengers”. Increasingly, prominent clergy like Marcus Walker and Giles Fraser are speaking out against the idiocy of pretending you can simply “plant” 10,000 lay churches without any proper structure or safeguarding measures. Let alone the worry of allowing over 12,500 listed buildings to fall into disuse while potentially permitting untrained shysters to instruct vulnerable people in the faith in their sitting rooms.

    What the hell are the Archbishop and bishops playing at? It is a bitter irony that those who have presided over the decline of the faith now indulge in this sort of displacement activity to distract attention from their own ineptitude and extravagance, indulging in empire-building while allowing the vast practical good done by the parishes to wither on the vine. During the pandemic, millions craved a place of reassurance, a slender handrail of belief to cling on to. Churches were the ideal refuge, but the Archbishop didn’t fight to keep them open. A vital opportunity for spreading Jesus’s teaching was lost.

    If you are anything like me, you will have fallen out of the habit of religious attendance while still valuing the profound and comforting role the Church plays in our national life. For so long, we have been able to take it for granted. No longer. Very soon, there will be no trained priests to preach, teach, to marry couples, to christen their babies or bury the dead.

    What can we do? The clergy and the people do have a say and this is the moment for rebellion. We need to assist the parishes to withstand the assault from the dioceses which are better described as the “key limiting factors”. You can go to savetheparish.com, which offers a number of ways to help. Write to your MP. Parochial Church Council consent is needed for the closure of churches – don’t give it. The church building belongs to the parish, so does the vicarage, if they haven’t sold it yet.

    You can ringfence your parish assets and put them in a trust out of reach of the diocese. The Parish Share is voluntary – a “free-will offering” – so you definitely don’t have to give it to a hierarchy that wants to starve your parish and its wonderful church of resources so that Ray and Brenda can host Holy Communion in their hot tub.

    I come back to my original question. Why has Joanna Penberthy still not been sacked as Bishop of St Davids? Apparently, there is no easy mechanism for sacking bishops, even ones who despise half their congregation. How terribly convenient. Make no mistake, the Church is in the process of abandoning its flock and expects to get away with it.

    Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
    Forgive our foolish ways.
    Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
    In purer lives Thy service find,
    In deeper reverence, praise.

    In deeper reverence, praise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/07/13/time-rebel-church-england-abandoning-flock/

    I was faintly surprised to find that Joanna Penberthy is married to a man.

  128. Popping back in…….

    “MPs back mandatory Covid vaccinations for care home staff

    Commons votes to support new regulations despite concerns that the policy could lead to staffing shortages in social care sector”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/13/mps-back-plans-care-home-staff-vaccinated-against-covid/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1626207544
    The comments are interesting,wonder how long they will last??
    Meanwhile,your concern is STAFF SHORTAGES you evil bastards!!
    319 MP’s breached the Nuremberg Code tonight,they deserve to be taken out and shot!!

    1. “… could lead to staffing shortages in social care sector”.

      We need more immigrants!

  129. Popping back in…….

    “MPs back mandatory Covid vaccinations for care home staff

    Commons votes to support new regulations despite concerns that the policy could lead to staffing shortages in social care sector”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/07/13/mps-back-plans-care-home-staff-vaccinated-against-covid/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1626207544
    The comments are interesting,wonder how long they will last??
    Meanwhile,your concern is STAFF SHORTAGES you evil bastards!!
    319 MP’s breached the Nuremberg Code tonight,they deserve to be taken out and shot!!

Comments are closed.