Tuesday 14 July: Wearing masks lets the country sink into a pathological frame of mind

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/13/letterswearing-masks-country-sink-pathological-frame-mind/

979 thoughts on “Tuesday 14 July: Wearing masks lets the country sink into a pathological frame of mind”

  1. Thanks to Geoff’s timely intervention I think I’m first for once! And the last shall be first it seems 🙂

    2. I wondered where all Monday’s comments had gone – hadn’t realised I had time travelled into Tuesday already. Clearly time for bed. Good night all.

    1. Good morning, Maggie. Thanks for making my day get off to a wonderful start – well worth the £10.80 you charged! :-))

  4. Last week, the World Health Organisation said there was “emerging evidence” that Covid-19 could be spread through particles in the air, and Venki Ramakrishnan, president of the Royal Society, said everyone should wear a face covering in all public places.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/13/shoppers-without-face-masks-risk-100-fine-government-moves-make/

    Jesus wept. If it’s just floating around in the air, why isn’t a quarter of the population dead?

    2. People weren’t scared enough?
      It’s appalling that organisations like the DT continue to take the WHO seriously and treat Trump like a naughty child.

    3. Flu is floating around. So is sewage. Urine. All sorts of poisons. Mold spores. All sorts of delightful poisons.

      We live with them. That we do is what keeps us alive. As soon as we stop living with them we *will* die.

  5. Shoppers without face masks risk £100 fine as Government moves to make them mandatory. 13 July 2020 • 10:30pm

    Face coverings will become mandatory in shops and supermarkets with fines of up to £100 for anyone who fails to adhere to the new rules, the Government will announce on Tuesday.

    Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, will confirm that Government guidance is being updated to make the wearing of face coverings in shops and supermarkets in England compulsory from July 24.

    Morning everyone. There appears to be no rational health reasons; the very opposite in fact, for this measure, so we must look elsewhere. Is it to extend the continuation of the sense of crisis into the autumn where the economy will come to the fore? To acclimatise the population into obeying and the police into enforcing mandatory but senseless instructions? To allow Boris to demonstrate post facto his sympathy for an incoming regime? We shall have to wait and see!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/13/shoppers-without-face-masks-risk-100-fine-government-moves-make/

    1. It brings them in line with the rest of the EU….
      I see no signs of any UK laws diverging from the EU’s.

        1. Freudian slip??
          Many of us have yet to see the UK leaving in any meaningful way.
          My prediction is punishments at the end of the year to make the British people (and everyone else) realise what a bad thing they did, whilst at the same time, our government will continue to shadow EU law.

  7. Boris and his pals adopted the ‘follow the science’ mantra in the hopes that it would shield them from accusations of political manipulation. There are umpteen ‘scientists’ proffering their views, all with the thinly disguised ambition of increasing the flow of gov’t grant dosh to their departments, their personal professional clout/standing, smearing professional rivals’ reputations, and all manner of other nefarious intents.

    Boris and crew haven’t a clue as to whose science they should follow and are completely out of their depth. They are falling back on the instincts of all politicians to want to Be In Charge. Of what? They are coming to realise that there will be more than enough blame to be spread around from the UK’s cack-handed ineptitude in the C-19 crisis and are personally scared. It’s going to get worse and, no matter what the diversionary tactics, it will linger for years to come.

    1. I’m sure you are correct, but “science” has been so hopelessly corrupted by left wing politics that they were backing a loser from the start!

    1. When the police stop you, ask them to show you a comprehensive list of forbidden face masks.

        1. Not a penny, I assume, as they will be sold by the private sector. Many small entrepeneurs should pop up making the fabric ones and selling them locally.
          Other european countries are manufacturing the paper ones now. The stupidity of relying upon China seems to have dawned on them.

          1. I’ve just ordered a pack of 5-star disposable masks from Amazon. 50 for £20. Delivery Thursday.

  11. No reason not to put delayed Russia report out next week, MPs told. Mon 13 Jul 2020 22.43 BST

    Kevan Jones said “there was no reason why” the document could not be published “before parliament goes into recess” – nine months after its release was blocked by Boris Johnson ahead of the general election. The report was sent to Downing Street in October.

    “I’d like to see that report published at the earliest, possibly next week,” added the Labour backbencher, one of only two committee members who wrote the analysis of Kremlin interference in British politics.

    Most of this report has already been leaked in the spring so we will probably just get a repeat of the shock/horror of then. In one way it is reassuring since it tells us that the Tory Party (not sure about Boris) is not yet fully under the control of the globalists since to be accused of Russia links is a sure sign of their absence.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/13/report-into-russian-influence-in-uk-moves-a-step-closer-to-release

    1. I would be more reassured if I saw other signs, eg Conservative party members being beaten up by Antifa, people being sacked for belonging to the Conservative party, things like that.

      1. There are no physical attacks on any of the Body Politic (yet) which would personalise and energise the opposition.

  12. SIR – I sympathise with Dr P S Turnbull (Letters, July 1) about his suspension from Facebook over a seemingly trivial matter.

    My wife and I have written reviews on Amazon for books, clothing, music and home appliances. Without notice, Amazon barred any further reviews from both of us, deleted those we had already written and sent a message saying we had contravened its guidelines. I requested further information and got the same message, with Amazon adding a refusal to enter into any correspondence on the subject.

    As a private company, Amazon is not accountable. If only to satisfy our curiosity, we would like to know how we transgressed.

    Gerald Lee
    Newport, Monmouthshire

    You’re Welsh – get over it. {:^))

  13. Good morning all.
    My son left an upturned cup on a piece of cardboard on the kitchen table in the middle of the night. The cardboard is labelled “Big fat little spider.”
    The last one a few days ago was labelled “Bigass spider.”

    The question is, is it the kind that will grow a lot bigger. If yes, then I will do my normal thing of taking it half a mile away the other side of a swiftly flowing river and releasing it in a spider-friendly place with a cry of “Find your way back from there, sucker”

      1. Well, we got into the car, and I asked my daughter to hold onto the spider until we passed under a bridge about a mile from our house where I could let it out.
        She did not hold onto the top of the cup and let it out in the car….

        Can’t drive in case it crawls over me on the motorway. I am having one of those internal meltdown moments where many factors combine to say “stay at home today! Do not go to work!“

        1. You should have put the spider in a screw-top jar. It wouldn’t have suffocated during a short car journey.
          Alternatively you could have squashed it.

          Moi, I have dozens of spiders in the house, not bothered by them, but I do keep my eyes open for False Widows & one of the reasons I didn’t emigrate to Chile when I retired was fear of Recluse Spiders, which are sneaky & deadly.

          1. My spider-catching cups are light plastic beakers. That’s not a bad idea actually, having screw-top jars. I’ll keep my eyes open for some appropriately wide ones. Thanks for the tip!

            Can’t squash them, it’s bad luck. Though we have now fumigated the car with insect spray to achieve the same objective….sigh.

            Just crossed Chile off the list of countries I might visit one day…

          2. It’s a wonderful country, I was there 1/2 dozen times, travelled between the Atacama & Iquique in the North & Valdivia & Pukon in the South

            A used jam or pickle jar will do. Recluse Spiders (araña de rincón) are found all along the west coast of America from California down to Chile & quite a long way inland.

            https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsrf=ALeKk00iKCuRfojpCYmjnCRTdhhvzNTKzg%3A1594642682296&source=hp&ei=-lAMX__IDpLBUs6JoNgE&q=arania+rincon&oq=arania+rincon&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQAzIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDTIECAAQDToICAAQsQMQgwE6BQgAELEDOgkIIxAnEEYQ-QE6BQgAEJECOgIIADoECAAQCjoFCCEQoAFQwqKCAliUyIICYO7MggJoAHAAeACAAYYBiAHFCJIBBDEyLjGYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=psy-ab&ved=0ahUKEwj_rfn0msrqAhWSoBQKHc4ECEsQ4dUDCAk&uact=5

          5. We started in Santiago, moved on to Concepcion and then sailed down the coast down to Patagonia, stopping off at various ports en route.

          6. Did you call in to Valdivia? I had a great time there. As I have distant family in Chile my cousin was with me everywhere, which was a big bonus with the language, although I can get by in Spanish.

          7. I’m not clicking on any link that might have a photo of a spider on the other end of it!
            I am just a tiny bit scared of them.

            Jam or pickle jars are too heavy and too narrow to catch Mr Big. The big ones are too big for my hands, hence the beakers that get wider towards the top.
            Remember, I will be using this spider catcher whilst in a state of abject terror 🙂
            If I remember correctly, that awful marshmallow fluff stuff comes in plastic screwtop jars – I’ll have a look at how big they are next time I’m in the supermarket.
            My children will think it’s hilarious if I buy five jars of it (Wherever I am in the house, I want a spider-catching beaker within easy reach).

          8. Why not use a beaker to catch the beast, then transfer it to a jar?

            Btw, fly-spray works against spiders too.

          9. It might escape! Once it’s in the jar, it stays there!
            Reluctantly I have had to spray the car with fly spray now. The risk of the spider popping out and causing an accident was too great.

          10. I used to have a Fiesta in which a small spider ensconced itself behind the dashboard. Over a number of weeks it spun webs until some of the instruments were almost totally obscured. I assume that it perished in the same Swedish Winter which killed the car.

          12. Chemical warfare, bb2. A swift, instantaneous death would surely have been preferable.

          14. I hope you are not including me in your list of “False Widows” Mr Peddy, Sir. I most definitely am a Genuine Widow. I have a death certificate from the Valhalla Department of Incoming Residents regarding my husband, the late Olaf Bloodaxe Senior.

            :-))

        2. Oh, my goodness; you poor thing! You have my sympathies; only time I ever scraped a car was when a spider dropped onto my face whilst negotiating a tricky arch!

          4. I was returning from a Masonic meeting one day when something with about a four inch wing span flew through the open window and landed on my lap. I let out a yelp and drew into the side of the road. I couldn’t get it out of the door fast enough! To this day I have no idea what it was, but I hope I never encounter it again!

        3. I do not wish to be insulting, blackbox 2, but it is my considered opinion that your daughter is a Very Silly Sausage! I suggest you stop her sixpence pocket money for at least four weeks forthwith!

          :-))

          1. She is 16…if you tell them to keep both hands clamped around the jar, they think you are fussing…I should have done it anyway…

      1. Rather those who want to consume it should pay. That’s a healthy thing in a market economy.

        If you don’t want the service then you don’t pay for it.

    2. if the BBC found out they’d double his fee because he opposed their grand vision of a united EU under one flag, for being white and a patriot. No doubt they would also hate him for killing innocent Germans fighting for the freedom of their nation from the oppression of the ‘Far Right’.

      Theirs is a twisted and demented world.

  16. Second Covid wave could see twice as many deaths and would require reorganisation of NHS hospitals. 14 July 2020 • 6:00am

    A second wave of coronavirus could bring twice as many deaths as the first, experts have warned, in a report commissioned by the Chief Scientific Advisor.

    A group of 37 scientists, from the Academy of Medical Sciences, was asked by Sir Patrick Vallance to model a reasonable worst case scenario for the upcoming winter, and advise the government on how to prevent it.

    More crisis mongering!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/second-covid-wave-could-see-twice-many-deaths-would-require/

    1. They want to keep this scam going as long as possible now they have tasted the power it brings them.
      There is going to have to be a national uprising to stop all this insanity.

      1. Morning Bob. My reading of the situation is that the Cabal behind this attempted takeover are at a stop. The Black Lies Matter operation has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams but there has been no reaction; no government clamp down, no military takeover. It’s dead in the water. They have to wait for the coming economic crisis and while they are doing that the virus provides a useful bridge.

        1. The climate change new world order is behind all of this, they have realised that they haven’t broken the will of the people to get back to work and restart the economy, the aim of all of this is to kill off all private enterprise and leave us with a world that looks like the Old Soviet Union

      3. They are desperately keeping the pot a-boiling. Like Wiley E Coyote, if they stop running they will plummet into the abyss.
        This government and its apparatchiks are frantically trying to save face. The financial, social and psychological cost to this country is now beyond computing.

    2. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      May one ask will extra coaches be laid on at Dover for
      incoming, cheap at half the price / potential carrier / workers ? ( leicester will need topping up)
      Has the pat vallance boyo given this any consideration ?

  17. So three months into the covid crises we’ve all been through lockdown, it is all over bar the shouting.

    In all that time we have all been out shopping mostly without wearing a face nappy, nobody it seems has been dropping dead or catching the virus, shop workers who must be the most vulnerable havent caught it, the only spike have been in areas where they are doing more tests and realising we have all had it and are surviving quite nicely without any problems and in areas where we have flown people in with it to work in sweat shop and on fruit picking farm.

    Now we are all expected to where the nappies in shops for no apparent reason in particular exempt for the reason that some people wont walk under ladders or tread on a cracks in the pavement.

    This idiot dystopian measure has been brought in for what, has the WHO ordered Boris to do it?

    When will the ruling be relaxed? under what criteria? will we be expected to do this forever?

    1. Ahem. Won’t, dear.

      The whole farce is now face saving. Idiots made bad decisions and caused chaos. Now they’re still spreading FUD to keep people afraid when really they’ve just screwed up.

    2. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      All the time the parties that are dispensing the political rhetorical conditioning powder are finding support via the
      ballot booth, and peoples are still writing to “their ” PMs
      YES.

        1. Let you off Bob. People not using apostrophes is a pet hate of mine and I’m far too sensitive to it.

        2. 321324+ up ticks,
          B3,
          The true feeling shows through any faults
          made in any post as judged by the reader.

    3. Morning, B3. A cowed population, uncertain what new law or plague will hit them next is easier to control.
      This is something that dictators have known throughout the ages.
      In this case, a government of quite monumental stupidity has stumbled by accident into the same scenario.

  18. So three months into the covid crises we’ve all been through lockdown, it is all over bar the shouting.

    In all that time we have all been out shopping mostly without wearing a face nappy, nobody it seems has been dropping dead or catching the virus, shop workers who must be the most vulnerable havent caught it, the only spike have been in areas where they are doing more tests and realising we have all had it and are surviving quite nicely without any problems and in areas where we have flown people in with it to work in sweat shop and on fruit picking farm.

    Now we are all expected to where the nappies in shops for no apparent reason in particular exempt for the reason that some people wont walk under ladders or tread on a cracks in the pavement.

    This idiot dystopian measure has been brought in for what, has the WHO ordered Boris to do it?

    When will the ruling be relaxed? under what criteria? will we be expected to do this forever?

  19. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Fire up the Quattro, Boris – and let’s get Britain back to work

    The lifting of lockdown hasn’t been the great liberation we were all hoping for. Ministers’ entreaties to go back to work wherever possible have fallen on deaf ears.

    Some of Britain’s biggest firms are refusing to return their offices to full capacity.

    Companies in the financial sector, including Barclays and Deloitte, will continue to let up to 60 per cent of their staff work from home.

    Only 600 of Goldman Sachs’ 6,000 employees have gone back to their desks at the firm’s London headquarters. There’s little prospect of the rest returning any time soon.

    J.P. Morgan expects three-quarters of its staff to still be working from home for the next few months. The City of London, the nation’s economic powerhouse, may not revert to normal until the New Year, at the earliest. And, maybe, never.

    It’s the same story in the business districts of cities such as Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow and Leeds. Our city centres resemble ghost towns. All that’s missing right now is the tumbleweed.

    If the great slumber lasts until 2021, it will be too late for other businesses who rely on customers from office blocks for their bread and butter.

    Companies are already reassessing whether they need to maintain expensive office buildings. The Zoom boom during the crisis has persuaded them that they can do things more cheaply.

    A survey of 1,250 senior managers has revealed they are happy for their staff to work remotely for the foreseeable future.

    That will sound the death knell for thousands of shops, cafes, sandwich bars and pubs, who rely on office staff for custom. At this rate, predictions of four million unemployed could soon seem like a conservative estimate.

    Boris Johnson hoped the easing of restrictions would lead to a stampede back to work.

    By now, many of us assumed most people would be bored rigid and itching to get back to the office, for a bit of social interaction, juicy gossip and a pint at lunchtime, if nothing else.

    Yet it seems ‘working from home’ has become entrenched. Many simply can’t be bothered to get back in the old routine. They’ve got out of the habit of commuting.

    The grave danger now is that when they are ready to face our brave new post-Covid world, there may not be jobs for them to go back to.

    Managers considering whether to vacate their office blocks permanently are also capable of turning their attention to whether they need quite so many employees from now on.

    They may also decide that if people aren’t having to travel to work, or look the part in business suits, then they needn’t pay them so much, either.

    Wage cuts, as well as job cuts, may well become an integral and unwelcome fixture of the ‘new normal’.

    It’s fine and dandy ministers pleading with companies to welcome staff back to the office, but the Government has to take a lead. Why, for instance, should an accountancy firm resume normal working when the Treasury building is practically empty?

    Whitehall usually teems with tens of thousands of civil servants. At the moment, though, there’s only a few hundred on deck.

    Ministers shamefully bottled a confrontation with militant teachers who refused to co-operate with the reopening of schools, citing ‘safety’ grounds.

    They shouldn’t make the same mistake with civil servants and other public sector staff, currently languishing at home on full salaries.

    The Government should instruct all civil servants to return to work from August 1, unless they have a serious medical condition certified by a doctor. Anyone who declines will be assumed to be on strike and should be sacked.

    The same must apply to Town Hall staff and those who work for other public bodies. If manual employees, like dustmen and road sweepers, can turn up for work, why not the legions of pen-pushers, keyboard tappers, compliance officers and diversity enforcers?

    Far from economising, councils are continuing to spend as if corona never happened. Councillors in Enfield, North London, for instance, have just voted themselves a £36,000 increase in allowances and have appointed an extra ‘cabinet’ member.

    It would also help set an example if more MPs were willing to travel to Westminster. Most of the time the Commons chamber is deserted, with or without social distancing. The Lords are receiving a reduced daily allowance of £150 for sitting at home. Nice work if you can get it.

    Ministers must apply themselves to the cause of getting Britain back to work with the same zeal they approached lockdown.

    By insisting in March that we were all going to die if we set foot outside our front doors, they fashioned a rod for their own backs.

    Far too many people have got used to slobbing about at home. When they’re told to return to their desks, they pretend to be paralysed with fear for their lives.

    Not that it’s prevented millions flocking to the seaside every time the sun has come out.

    Nor has it helped that the advice coming from Government has been confusing and inconsistent.

    We’re told the safest way to travel is by car, yet at the same time urged to cycle or use public transport.

    Ministers baled out London’s bus and Tube network with an emergency loan, then sat back complacently as Labour’s two- bob chancer of a mayor ‘Genghis’ Khan cynically played politics, cut services and introduced draconian anti-car measures.

    The result? You could hold a Grand Prix in Central London without the risk of crashing into anything other than an empty double decker. I’m told the picture in other big cities up and down the country is pretty similar.

    Meanwhile, the prospect of an early return to normality seems as far away as ever. As this column has always insisted, Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s decision to extend furlough until October was a serious misjudgment.

    While the Government is picking up the lion’s share of the wage bill, private employers have little incentive to bring their staff back to work.

    And when furlough payments do eventually run out, many of those enjoying a six-month subsidised summer holiday shouldn’t be surprised when they find the jobs they thought they were going back to simply don’t exist any more.

    Yes, there’s a risk that Covid-19 may make a comeback. Some Opposition MPs and sections of the media even seem desperate for a second wave, just so they can blame the Government.

    But life involves risk at the best of times. The looming prospect of catastrophic economic collapse far outweighs the dangers of a new spike in coronavirus.

    Unless Boris fires up the Quattro and gets Britain back to work sharpish, at warp factor nine, we are all going to hell in a handcart.
    *********************************************************************************************

    After four months without a haircut, I looked like a cross between the mad professor in Back To The Future and a 1970s working men’s club comedian.

    That would probably amuse those who think this column has always been written by a 1970s comedian.

    Still, after visiting my man Harry, at Ego barbers in Cockfosters, North London, I am newly shorn and fit to face the world again.

    The last time it was this short, Desmond Dekker was at No 1 with Israelites. There hasn’t been so much hair on a barber’s floor since Elvis was conscripted into the U.S. Army.

    Mind you, our usual line of communication was limited by the PPE. It’s difficult to slag off Spurs through a face mask, and Harry was togged up in the kind of visor arc welders have to wear.

    I think he must have initially misheard my instructions. ‘What was that again, Rich?’

    ‘I said: “I could do with a good crop.” ’
    *************************************************************************

    Speaking of haircuts, I read about a woman who paid £250 to get her barnet done at a flash West End salon.

    The cost included ‘cleanse and finish’. Isn’t that what used to be called ‘wash and blow-dry’?

    Still, giving it a fancy name obviously lets hairdressers charge more. I guess it’s the same as pubs knocking out beef stew for a couple of quid, but if they call it boeuf bourguignon it’ll cost you a fiver.
    *************************************************************************************

    Misread a report about Uber starting to run a boat service in London. I thought for a moment it said ‘U-boats coming to the Thames’.

    I had visions of Das Boot surfacing in St Katharine Docks, next to Tower Bridge. The Germans aren’t that desperate to stop us leaving the EU, are they?

    2. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      I am of the belief that all aspects of “conditioning” should be given a very serious coating of looking at by a group of
      real male / female peoples.
      Peoples that have proven records via party / ballot booth
      to be of a 100% pro UK first calibre.

    3. Adding in the commute, the wife’s working week is nearly 70 hours. When the trains run. We were all getting sick of picking her up from the station having slept on the train, getting into the motor, scoffing dinner – or worse, leaving it completely – and falling asleep in her chair. I’ve carried her to bed too many times to want to go back to the ‘way things were’.

      She’s heard junior read every night. has more energy and go now she gets up at 7 instead of 5:30. She stops work at 6 – because she’s a workaholic – goes for a run or takes the horsie out and eats a proper meal at 8 rather than 9. Not only that, we’re saving 10K in a season ticket.

  20. Looks like Boros might be bent.

    According to the DT, it took a Conservative rebellion to force Boros to drop Huawei.

    Why didn’t Boros do it anyway months ago ?

      1. Did you know the Chief of the General Staff has been saying things that sound like a press release from Open Society ?

    2. ‘Morning, Polly.

      When I was your age calling someone ‘bent’ meant they were gay. I don’t think Boris is that.

        1. Maybe. Before I went to Germany I always lived in the South. There is such a thing as a bent copper, though.

  22. We can’t erase outdated TV shows, but we can hold their views to account. 14 July 2020.

    We have concluded, that where old programmes contain potentially offensive material, they are generally best handled by adding warnings rather than removing them entirely. I was struck by powerful arguments put forward by some members of our employee group 4Pride which represents staff from LGBTQ+ communities. They said they didn’t want the homophobia of the past hidden. It was by fighting the attitudes shown by some characters in older programmes that minorities have achieved the rights and freedoms they have today.

    Defund Channel 4!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/14/erase-outdated-tv-shows-account-channel-4

    2. They have this warning each time they show ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’ on Talking Pictures on a Wednesday night. It was made between 1978 and 1992 and therefore you watch at your own risk.

      Sadly Talking Pictures is a family outfit run from a shed, so their budget does not extend to a counselling helpline to help one deal with issues raised in the programme, such as the quality of the chateau rouge at Pomeroy’s.

    3. Tell these demented fascist lefties where to shove it. They need to be told no, like all spoiled children who think theirs is the only voice.

  23. A Downing Street spokesman said on Monday: ‘There is growing evidence that wearing a face covering in an enclosed space helps protect individuals and those around them from coronavirus. The Prime Minister has been clear that people should be wearing face coverings in shops and we will make this mandatory from July 24.’

    Science tells us that a face covering acts as an airway obstruction.
    Science also tells us that whilst a face covering will accumulate any COVID-19 viruses in the air we breathe whilst in confined spaces it will concentrate them in one place in front of our face.

    That is why it is important not to wear the same face covering for more than a few hours and to dispose of it as contaminated PPE clinical waste after use.
    As a contaminated item the user should not touch the surface of the face covering whilst putting it on, wearing it or taking it off.

    Follow the science – you know it makes sense!
    (Ask Greta whether to burn the waste face coverings, flush them down the toilet or recycle them.)

    Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/07/13/face-coverings-made-compulsory-shops-england-next-week-12985083/?ito=cbshare

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

      1. A chum – who isn’t really very bright – is very proud that he wears a mask all the time.

        The only problem is, it’s cotton and thin. And he’s not washed it since the nonsense started – well, it has been washed once when we nicked it and did it for him.

      1. I heard someone bleating that ‘once you’ve used a plastic drinking bottle, put it in the bin’. No! Re-use the blighting thing! It’s plastic! It’ll outlive you and ten generations hence!

        Our oceans will get choked with litter for as long as the EU enforce the WEEE. We cannot simply keep shoving our waste into containers and posting it off to Africa/India/China who give us a pointless bit of paper and they dump it in the sea for us.

        We pretend to be blameless but the fundamental problem is the oppressive desperation to pretend we don’t create waste over the idiot number set by the gormless EU. We’re not a third world country – as much as they’d like to force us to be.

    3. Disposal of masks or face coverings is not going to happen. Most people will keep a mask/scarf in their pocket/handbag for use while shopping, then just return it to that place after coming out of the shop.

      1. And , like an old style linen handkerchief, it will grow its own collection of viruses etc in the collected mucus.

      3. Looking on the plus side, my bank balance will be wearing a smile.
        Toodle pip to any resumption of browsing in shops.

        1. Yep. Makes you wonder what on earth these people are thinking.

          Also – banks that require identification? bah. The whole set up is a scam. A massive bottom covering exercise to allow those who made a massive mistake to save face by continuing to spread FUD.

        2. My wife has just said the same. She’s off for a final shopping trip today before the mask nonsense comes in next week. What to her is a pleasurable day out shopping (and to me is absolute torture) will become a thing of the past. Who will want to browse in several shops wearing a mask all the time?

          1. I’m nipping into town today to stock up on half price posh soap at TK Maxx; I usually get about 6 month’s worth. If they have enough decent stuff I’ll buy even more.
            After that, a dash into the supermarket as rarely as possible and online orders.
            Morning, Aeneas.

        2. Very old joke with many forms:

          A Scottish Regimental Sergeant Major, in full dress uniform, marches into a pharmacy.
          Very carefully he opens his sporran and pulls out a neatly folded cotton bandana, unfolds it to reveal a smaller silk square handkerchief, which he also unfolds to reveal a condom.
          The condom has a number of patches on it. The chemist holds it up and eyes it critically.
          “How much to repair it?’ The Scot asks the chemist. “Six pence” says the chemist. “How much for a new one?” “Ten pence” says the chemist.
          The RSM painstakingly folds the condom into the silk square handkerchief and the cotton bandana, replaces it carefully in his sporran, and marches out of the door, shoulders back and kilt swinging.
          A moment or two later the chemist hears a great shout go up outside, followed by an even greater shout.
          The RSM marches back into the shop and addresses the proprietor, this time with a grin on his face.
          “The regiment has taken a vote,” he says. “We’ll have a new one.”

      5. Or if they do dispose of the mask, they’ll just drop it on the floor (as has been happening already).

    4. The fascist antifa wear masks. Muslims wear masks.

      In the West we typically don’t. It’s considered rude.

    5. This whole mask thing is a complete nonsense.

      If Boris & co want to destroy the economy they should stop the death by a thousand cuts and just let BLM take over tomorrow.

      1. Hong Kong uprising, skirmishes with India, dispute over Vladivostok, South China Sea dispute with US, virus pandemic, biblical floods, enormous earthquakes, festering pig flu on the way.
        I don’t the Chinese are that worried about face mask policy right now.

        https://youtu.be/OpeMaxjNXH0

        1. Which, if it is as deadly as suggested, means we should be getting wave after wave after wave of it coming through…

          1. In this light it looks as though the Swedish policy of accepting that our own natural/acquired immunity should be used to combat evolving pathogens is the only realistic way forward.

          2. My suspicion too, but you will be howled down for suggesting that route.

            All the evidence so far suggests that the very significant majority who die from the disease are elderly or already in poor heath or both.

          3. The Swedes accepted that those with existing immunity deficiences would be vulnerable to COVID-19 but they didn’t reckon for the ensuing number of deaths in the elderly and infirm even with their isolation policy in place.

            In the end though they have have survived a major economic downturn by sacrificing a sector of the population for the benefit of future Swedish generations.

            Their gamble paid off because it was predicated on the non-availability of a tested COVID-19 vaccine within six months of the outbreak.

          4. eAnd they also admit they made a mistake (the same one evryone else seems to have made) over admissions to and care within care homes.

  24. Morning all

    SIR – Dr Michael Pelly (Letters, July 13) writes that wearing masks “will send society a message that the situation is serious”. This is the problem: it is not.

    The UK is recording fewer than 1,000 infections a day and an average for the past seven days of 85 deaths. In the week ending June 26 (the most recent for ONS data), registered deaths were below the five-year average.

    Almost no one has the virus; 80 per cent of infections are asymptomatic or mild; of whose with a severe infection, almost all will survive. The current mortality rate rests between 0.25 per cent and 0.5 per cent. Of the 650 new infections recorded on July 12, at least 647 are likely to survive.

    What can be seen as serious are the repressive measures considered by our out-of-control Government and a rush to irrational, officious over-compliance by businesses and institutions.

    Iwan Price-Evans

    Croydon, Surrey

    SIR – Toby Young (Comment, July 12), discussing “herd immunity”, cites a US report from New York suggesting that 68 per cent of tests taken (at 
 an urgent care centre) in a neighbourhood of Queens came back positive. This does not mean that 
68 per cent of the population had been infected, because those seeking antibody testing due to Covid-19 symptoms have a much higher chance of a positive test than the general population of that area.

    Another point is that medical experts are clear at this time that the presence of antibodies to Sars-CoV-2 cannot safely provide reliable information on either the degree or durability of protection.

    “Herd immunity” usually refers to a population protected through successful immunisation – rather than to the idea of allowing an infectious disease to sweep through society, accepting the consequences, hoping that the health service is not overwhelmed and that the population gains natural immunity via mass exposure.

    Countries such as Scotland looked to suppress, and New Zealand to eradicate the coronavirus.

    Frances Mair

    Norie Miller Professor of General Practice

    University of Glasgow

    Dr Simon Hodes

    Bridgewater Surgeries

    Watford, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Since April I have worn a mask in supermarkets following advice on 
Dr John Campbell’s YouTube channel.

    I do not wear a mask when visiting my newsagent, as only one person is allowed in the shop at a time and the person behind the counter does not wear a mask. I feel this risk reasonable.

    I’d object strongly to a government order to wear masks in all shops.

    Robert Taylor

    Ruddington, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – Why can a socially distanced music festival take place, but a socially distanced wedding reception cannot?

    Mary Coles

    Radstock, Somerset

    A proper browse

    SIR – Guy Pearson (Letters, July 11), who is a bicycle retailer, asks if browsing in a shop is as important as we once thought. My answer is yes.

    In lockdown, his customers had to know what they wanted when they arrived because browsing wasn’t an option. But many people can’t shop that way. My husband wanted a bike, but only bought one when lockdown eased and he found a shop that had a few in stock and let him ride them.

    Book lovers make their best finds browsing. Others can’t buy clothes without touching them and trying them on. Browsing is vital to shopping and to the community life of our towns.

    Mr Pearson’s idea of a shop “more like a depot” sounds bleak, and excludes people with no computer. Here’s another idea: a shop where you can browse, but only samples are stocked. The item is ordered for you, and then delivered to your home or collected later. You can still see and try things, and enjoy that crucial aspect of a real shop: personal service.

    Whatever adaptations shops make, I hope they will always welcome us in person and allow a proper browse.

    Christine Whittemore

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

  25. SIR – Ministers want me to start using trains and buses again to go to work (report, July 12).

    By working from home, I save three hours a day of travelling time, my productivity has increased, I save a small fortune, and I have time for more exercise. I feel so much better, and it is also beneficial to the environment.

    I fully intend to work from home permanently from now on, and I know I am not alone in this.

    I R Harris

    Swindon, Wiltshire

    2. By retiring at home life hasn’t changed much except that we don’t use the car now except for one weekly shop to Waitrose.
      We don’t go for walks in case we meet someone and almost everything we need gets dropped at the front door.

      The money we save can go towards paying for the reintroduced TV licence for over 75s.
      It’s a pity though that only repeats are being shown on the box.
      Got a nice mattress though!

  26. Morning again

    SIR – The Turkish court’s decision to allow Hagia Sophia in Istanbul to be converted into a mosque (report, July 11) is what President Erdogan has wanted all along. The court was merely carrying out his bidding.

    This is a blow not only for Christians but also for all those who marvel at the art and architecture of Hagia Sophia. What will happen to the fine Byzantine mosaics? Will they be destroyed, covered up or taken down to be put in a museum?

    This is a sad day for secularists in Turkey and a good day for Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning supporters, who will see this as a victory. Kemal Ataturk would be disappointed to see what kind of society Turkey has become. This act will be seen as a further move towards intolerance.

    Brian Hoffmann

    York

    SIR – Why is Turkey still a member of Nato?

    Jocelyne Perks

    Newbury, Berkshire

    1. Why is Turkey still a member of Nato?

      Well Jocelyne Turkey is the lynchpin of NATO, it guards the Southern flank and provides most of its muscle. Without Turkey it would be meaningless and so they have to keep it or dissolve.

      1. Britain realised that propping up the Ottoman Empire was not worth it at the end of the nineteenth century!

      1. Even more correctly, the Megale Ekklesia.

        The structure originally erected on the site of the Hagia Sophia was a Christian cathedral called the Megale Ekklesia, which was commissioned by the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I. Prior to that, the site had been home to a pagan temple. It went through another religious conversion after the conquest of Constantinople by Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453, when it was designated a mosque. It would remain so for many centuries, until being secularized in 1934 by the Turkish Republic’s first president. It was converted into a museum a year later, a decision which remains controversial.

          1. You’re welcome.

            I visited Istanbul just over 20 years ago. Absolutely fascinating.

    3. “Why is Turkey still a member of Nato?”

      Because the entire planet is ruled by imbeciles.

  27. SIR – The British military appears to be leaking misleading stories on cuts (report, July 7) that it knows will be unacceptable to the public, as a shield to avoid meaningful reform.

    The reality is that the British defence establishment is top-heavy with senior officers and officials, does not always spend taxpayers’ money terribly well, acts in a way that is contrary to the public’s interests, and lacks the dynamism and flexibility needed to counter emerging threats.

    Dr Mark Campbell-Roddis

    Dunblane, Perthshire

    2. There’s no disputing that fact. However the MoD purchases military equipment. That’s why we get the kit for the war we’ve just lost, not the war we will be fighting. One of the things – perhaps the only thing – Brown did right was abandon FRES and push for mine protected vehicles using emergency funding.

      What Dr Campbell Rodds doesn’t mention is that *every* government department is massively top heavy and overmanned. None spend tax payers money well and none are interested in public need. They’re all too big and too remote. The entire public sector functions on inertia. That’s why it can’t adapt.

      Just look at the NHS and COVID. An utter mess. Education – a disaster. Transportation – HS2, smart motorways anyone? Fibre roll out. The whole thing is hindered by back handers, corruption, fraud and plain incompetence.

        2. I only know those dates because of birthdays. My Pa-in-Law was the 12th and my father’s the 14th.

      2. He has been too busy dealing with his French guests. I was thinking, while reading his gripe about them not replying to his requests for time of arrival.

        As he would have contacted them in English (he has no French) and asked for an “ETA” – I am surprised they arrived at all.

        In yer French, ETA is the Basque equivalent of the IRA. The people might have assumed that sos was a terrorist – and stayed well away!!

        1. I sent the request in both English, the language they initially wrote in to make the booking, and also French.

          Since they arrived, 90% of communication has been in French. They are very pleasant people and even asked us across for an apéro on their second evening, which was a nice surprise.

        1. According to Beeb weather, you will get a mixture of rain and sun. Or sun and rain…. wotever.

  30. My annual gripe about University Challenge.

    It began last night and will run for 36 more weeks. But only 28 teams are taking part. So we will see some teams time and again – up to four times, I seem to recall.

    What the hell is wrong with a simple knockout competition?

    In the days when tennis was played, Wimbledon didn’t have some players appearing again and again. If you lost, you were out.

    Is this something to do with the fact that there are so few higher educational establishments which have undergraduates with general knowledge?

    1. My biggest gripe about University Challenge is the way the slobs appearing on the programme, nowadays, introduce themselves with a vacuous, “Hi!” instead of the traditional, “Hello!” And the way that fewer than 5% of contestants tell us which subjects they are reading (a time-honoured UC tradition) and instead inform us what they are “studying” or “doing”.

      1. Hi, Grizz…..{:¬))

        An interesting fact about the Glasgow team – (from a university population of 28,000) – not ONE was Scottish.

        1. I noticed that too. One Yank, one Englishman, one Canadian and one Irishman whose accent was indecipherable!

    2. My college reached the finals undefeated and had already beaten the other finalists in the earlier rounds and they should have been eliminated.

      They played the final and lost to them.

      Odd that. Why wasn’t it even best of three?

    3. Exactly that. Each establishment has to pre-qualify otherwise it would turn into a comedy show. Nevertheless that doesn’t answer the simple knockout question. Possibly something to do with Paxman’s contract.

    4. Bilty, you’ve forgotten that today’s participants come from the generation that isn’t used to competition and so mustn’t be allowed to lose so they’re given theee bites at the cherry.

      2. Except finalists who get through undefeated, yet can still lose the final to someone they’ve already beaten in an earlier round.

  31. It seems from the comments on the BBC “news” web page that the compulsory face mask idea isn’t that popular! Most think it’s way too late anyway and the benefits aren’t proven. This is one of the more popular BTL offerings; “That’s the High Street gone then. Online sales will boom. If you own a small independent shop I’d just give up now“

    2. Just waiting for Keir Starmer to go down on one knee, and the entire sporting establishment to hold a minute’s silence in memory…

    3. I see that Hamilton, who has grown very rich on the back of Jewish slave workers, is now trying hard to get all the F1 drivers to grovel to black tyranny at the next race.

      I think it was BT who suggested that Hamilton should drive for an African team in an African car, with only black mechanics in the pits.

  33. Some one suggested a way to read a whole DT article was to jab away at the control button and press the reload key.. I did that for the letters , and now I have a problem.. I have shrunk the page totally, and cannot get back to how it should be, despite trying to reload the page , all the DT articles need a magnifying glass, HELP please.

  34. Researching how best to deal with the latest legal directive not to enter a shop without scaring children.

    I have a stock of dancing hankies in my morris drawer. A simple knot around the back seems to hold it place and covers the nose, mouth and beard and I am no more suffocated than I deserve. The knot may come undone, so I am playing with a clothes peg, a twist of solder or a hair band to keep it in place. Then I carry two carrier bags, one for fresh hankies and one for used ones, which can be hung on the line for a couple of days while any virus drops to the ground to be consumed by worms.

    3. I was temporarily charmed by the idea of dancing hankies, until I realised what you meant 🙂

    5. I’ve seen people walking about in gas masks. One bloke had a welding mask on.

      I think I’ll go for a Batman Bane affair.

    5. Sink me the ship, Master Gunner, sink her and split her in twain………………..

  36. Nigel Farage can’t have known how right he was…

    Nigel said “George Soros has spent billions to undermine the nation state, this is where the real international political collusion is”,,,,,

    ….and now we find out part of those billions apparently ended up in David Cameron’s wallet !

  38. Salisbury attack: inquest must look into role of Russian officials, court told. Tue 14 Jul 2020.

    The barrister [Mansfield] said: “The public are likely to be most concerned about the issues the senior coroner has ruled out of scope – namely the source of the novichok and the responsibility of senior Russian state figures who authorised and directed the operation – rather than the actions of the two subordinates who carried out its final stages.”

    Mansfield argued the inquest should also look at issues such as:

    • Whether the novichok that killed Sturgess was exactly the same as that used in Salisbury.

    • Whether the perfume bottle was used in Salisbury and if so, how it survived unopened, for nearly four months.

    • Whether further novichok could remain in the UK.

    Mansfield is simply using these arguments to have the inquest reopened and frighten Mi6 into paying out loads of cash to the Sturgess family! If the Judge has already been nobbled (the hearing itself suggests that he has) there will be no new inquest and thus no settlement. On the other hand if the proceedings are cut short we will know that the judge is straight and a deal has been done!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/14/salisbury-novichok-attack-dawn-sturgess-inquest-must-investigate-role-of-russian-officials-high-court-told

    1. They don’t give up, do they. I thought it was only Orban in Hungary who’d outlawed the Soros clan and all related operations but apparently Putin has too. Added to which of course 70% of Russians are orthodox Christians. The devil especially hates that. My paternal grandparents though they were leaving Russia to find freedom in Britain and at the time, 1899, of course they were.

  39. Maggie’s nifty investment opportunity?

    The UK’s ‘most expensive’ beach hut sells for £330,000 after bidding war breaks out to buy wooden cabin in Dorset for more than the average house price in England
    *A cabin at Mudeford Spit in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset, was listed for sale
    *Four potential buyers put in offers on the hut – two without even viewing it
    *Last week a second hut, also listed for £325,000, sold for just under that amount

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/07/14/10/30744370-8521059-image-a-22_1594720646811.jpg
    The wooden cabin at Mudeford Spit in Christchurch Harbour, Dorset, was listed for sale for the same asking price as a five bedroom detached house in Hull last Friday

    2. When I was digging at Hengistbury Head in the early 80s I seem to recall they were selling for about £30K.

    3. Good heavens! My aunt and uncle had one like that at Dawlish in the fifties. I hope they kept it. My cousin would be rich.

  40. Oh my goodness me….. about Nick Clegg……………

    ”His lavish new home is thought to reflect his new bumper pay packet, rumoured to be worth up to £7million including bonuses.”

    I think this likely has Soros written all over it !

  41. Well, just back from my first foray into Colchester town centre for months; actually before the carpentry on my hip, so early March.
    What a dispiriting experience and one not to be repeated for a good long time.
    Don’t bother to visit TK Maxx for half price posh soap unless your tastes run to Rose or Tropical scented (i.e. heavy and sweaty): I now have nigh on a year’s supply of anything that smelt light and fresh. And I’ve also cleared Boots of facial scrub for sensitive skin.
    Next job; dump a load of tut collectables at the local charity that’s still open.

    1. Oh no! The worst news ever. TK Maxx was the place for posh soaps. Except for the place in Florence that I cannot remember the name of (Santa Elizabetta or something).

      2. Maxx is a Swedish burger chain. Make some rather good burgers, and have been so successful that McDonalds have changed their concept to match.

        1. “Maxx is a Swedish burger chain. Make some rather good crap burgers.”

          Sorry, Paul, Max hamburgers are disgusting. They are like the Swedish pizza parlours, they make everything taste of dill (Swedeweed).

          2. They have them on Swedish pizzas too and call them “fefferoni”. I ordered a pizza once expecting pepperoni on it, which I love. I was incandescent when I found the bloody thing was covered in pickled peppers instead!

    2. You’re obviously a faster shopper than my wife – she’s still not back from Maidstone, and she left before you!

      1. Sheer grumpiness gave me wings. There is no pleasure in shopping at the moment. It was the pottering around plus lunch/coffee/drink that made it a pleasant experience.
        I’ll not be bothering with the town centre now until things return to normal; and that doesn’t mean the Orwellian ‘New Normal’.

        1. When I was in town earlier I noticed some of the cafes had tables outside. Now all we need is continental weather …

  42. If the government said that everyone had to hop on one leg while out shopping to prevent the virus spreading it would be no less idiotic than wearing masks.

    Yet people would still obey it, I expect.

    1. Presumably Boros is an importer of Chinese masks and gets a nice kickback ?

      2. The Prime Minister wears a mask with the colour of the flag of Israel, which might conceivably signal his support of the occupation.
        Others wear black masks in order to show their enthusiasm for the Islamic State.

      4. The Prime Minister wears a mask with the colour of the flag of Israel, which might conceivably signal his support of the occupation.
        Others wear black masks in order to show their enthusiasm for the Islamic State.

  43. Morning all, a couple of thoughts regarding masks, will all shop workers have to wear one whilst in the building now. If I am expected to wear one as a shopper, I expect to be served by staff wearing one. We will observe staff covered in skin spots etc very soon.
    How will staff who are hard of hearing cope, I meet one yesterday who told me how much lip reading she discover she does.

  44. Good morning, all. A dull looking day. But no rain (despite the forecast).

    Is the government deliberately masking the news?

  45. Just been looking round other sites and people still beleive that the government wants to re-invigorate the economy.

        1. 321324+ up ticks,
          PP,
          An up date on the old change / cash tubes
          in department stores.

          3. No, this wasn’t a system for individual customer transactions, it was simply a system to remove cash to a central secure point. It was a vacuum -tube system with travelling shuttles full of readies! Years ago there was a less sophisticated set-up in a store in Ealing (Saunders?) involving overhead wires and pulleys with a catapult launcher!

          4. 321324+ up ticks,
            The in-store one was my meaning.
            I lived in Kew, went to school in
            Richmond moved to Kent saw setup in Featherstones the furniture store in Chatham, long ago during the age of sanity.

          5. ‘Er indoors grew up in Richmond. We went back there for a long weekend last year, stayed in The Orange Tree and had a great time.

          7. The days when shopping was interesting. I can remember being mesmerised by both the overhead cable and vacuum systems.

          8. Our Co-op had the wires and pulleys and the haberdashers where we bought my school uniform had the vacuum system. Ah, those were the days when the customer was always right.

  46. Gooofff mmmffffffffiiiimmmgggg …… Sorry, folks. This face nappy is paying havoc with my diction.

    1. Morning Anne

      If one is deaf and dumb, but trying to shop , how can the poor customer understand , because usually they can lip read even though the sales assistant doesn’t understnd signing ?

      We all might as well buy Burkahs, and poodle around that way.

      I need a new pair of shoes , my old walking pair have holes in the soles, they were expensive Ecco shoes, but the wet weather and rain of last Autumn and Spring have really ruined them, and especially when we were shielding and taking our daily walk around the village , which has stuffed my hip up( moan moan) I haven’t been into Dorchester since Marks and Sparks closed in February, so I haven’t a clue whether there are any shoe shops open !

      1. Morning T-B, why don’t you give yourself a treat and go to the big city of Bath.
        They have an Ecco shop and judging by my experience of 2 visits, they desperately need more shoppers, and this is pre face mask covering.
        Rest assured that since they have blocked on street parking bays, you will have plenty of walking space avoiding the non existent crowds and lots of spaces in the car parks. ( bring healthy bank account balance to cover charges).
        Remember to do your bit for Boris, high streets matter. Sarc meter overload.

        1. I absolutely despise that Google hijack every URL and force their drivel javascript in there to track your every click.

          It slows everything down.

          2. Bit like the present Government’s handling of Covid-19

            PS Was I right about the Lone Ranger?

          1. Are you telling me he sold newspapers, books (and similar literature) and distributed bibles?

  48. The amusing thing about Treasa’s $20 a second speeches is that she still gets the dough even if she doesn’t do the speech.

    1. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning PP,
      Political lifestyles MUST be upheld, where would we be without our current MPs, I ask you.

  49. Maxy says maybe everyone agrees with Open Society which means Open Society is the uniparty and consequently the global government.

    Job done !

      1. Provided George runs the democracy otherwise the democracy is wrong and must be changed.

        See also Brexit.

  50. How much more clear evidence is required to support my theory that human intelligence is now in the advanced stages of a retrograde progression?

    1. I think it looks that way because leaders have been bribed into illogical and destructive policies.

      1. The decline of democracy is inevitable. No democracy in history has lasted more than a few hundred years. They always fail when the voters realise that they can vote themselves the contents of the Treasury. In our case, that happened just after the war. Society has rotted since then.
        In addition, the more migration we have, the more a democratic government has to pander to rising levels of foreigners. No surprises here.

  52. So I’m going to take a guess that virtually every major UK policy since 1997 has come from the Open Society machine, including the Withdrawal Agreement.

    Also that each one has been designed as a poison pill 💊 to undermine the nation state.

  53. Please, someone explain to me why a smoker puts a coat on when they go outside to puff?

    They’re putting a poison filled paper tube in their mouths, setting fire to it and ingesting toxic fumes into their lungs. Getting wet is the least of their problems.

    When I am emperor I am going to impose bubbles for all smokers. A human shaped sealed environment that smokers are required to stand in until the stench has dissipated. They could be in there all day. Oh well.

    They’ll also be required to eat their cigarette ends as well.

    1. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning W,
      Could this be extended to all drivers exception being
      emergency vehicles.
      They pump poison out ongoing, whereas the smoker does have a break.
      And have you given any thought to
      smoking jacket tailors ? I very much doubt it.
      You could very well be depriving their children of food on the table.

      An ex smoker.

    2. Please include those dopes who suck on ‘vapes’ as well. The fumes those clowns emit are as obnoxious as those broadcast by smokers.

      2. It’s not the cough that will carry you off,
        It’s the coffin they’ll carry you off in.

    4. Time for a kipple:

      A woman is only a woman – but a good cigar is a smoke!

  54. Some one suggested a way to read a whole DT article was to jab away at the control button and press the reload key.. I did that for the letters , and now I have a problem.. I have shrunk the page totally, and cannot get back to how it should be, despite trying to reload the page , all the DT articles need a magnifying glass, HELP please.

    1. you press the Escape button

      Try F11

      Edit Top RH corner, 3 horzontal bars

      Click on that icon
      4th block down ZOOM
      click + button

  55. Nicola Sturgeon is complaining that NOT getting cash from England is an assault on devolution.

    Now, I find it difficult to think like a Lefty, but this is blatantly illogical. Devolution was to allow Scotland to make it’s own choices. The Scottish parliament has tax raising powers to manage this.

    It seems that wee crankie is suffering from the usual Lefty cognitive dissonance. Surely not being reliant on English cash is a reinforcement of Scottish independence? Or is this just another ‘waaggh want da munny, waaagghhhh’?

    1. I think Nicola is a Soros plant based on the fact she was pictured smiling alongside a Soros emissary, and her policies are the same.

      Not surprisingly as Tony Blair’s devolution plan looks deliberately designed to break up the UK which it largely has.

      1. I’m not convinced on the ‘Soros’ angle, and her idiotic policies are those of most other demented Lefties and have been proven to not work.

        Did devolution break up the UK? Maybe, but while they are dependent on English cash they’re chained to us. Only by adopting Right wing policies will they be able to stand as equals, let alone move away.

        1. Well, two parts out of three are present. Soros emissary and same policies.

          We won’t know about rewards until she retires.

      2. She didn’t need any brainwashing, just winding up and pointing in the right direction.

        1. Thing is, if you analyse national leaders as best as one can, Soros has gone after every one useful to him. Incl the UN guy Antonio Guterres.

          So why not Nicola ?

          She’s an obvious, particularly in view of her re-settlement plans for the islands.

          1. I am sure you are right and she is a fully paid up member of the great replacement plan. I just don’t think she needed any persuading, because she was already as mad as a box of frogs!

    2. If Scotland had got independence they would have been bankrupt by now – they wouldn’t have had any financial help like furloughing etc during the pandemic although to be fair Queen Nicola has outshone Boris in her handling of the Coronavirus situation.
      Slightly off topic, why is it that the compulsory wearing of face masks is to be introduced in the future – if it’s that important then why not immediately? Again QN is ahead of the game

      1. Scotland would have been bankrupt a week after leaving. It’s a basket case.

        Not because it doesn’t have resources or because the Scots are lzazy – they’re not. It’s a mess because the attitude of those pretending to run the country is that of tax and waste big state socialists.

  56. Has the DT given any explanation as to why it is so afraid of allowing readers to comment on the articles?

    I am sure that I cannot be the only one to have written to the DT Letters editor posing this question but such a letter has never been posted and no reply given as fars as I know.

    For example an article in today’s DT has the headline:

    Lewis Hamilton hoping to unite the grid and persuade all drivers to take the knee in upcoming grands prix

    And I am not allowed to comment on the article making the point that Mercedes Benz – which opays Hamilton extragantly – used Jewish slave labour in living memory while Britain started the war against slavery over 200 years ago. So, in attacking Britain’s past, isn’t Lewis Hamilton aiming at the wrong target as far as slavery is concerned?

    1. Use subterfuge and wiles, Rastus. Look at the BTL comments below Charles Moore’s article – posted just above.

    3. Rastus – I have always admired Lewis Hamilton’s ability as a driver but I am afraid if he asked me to t”ake the knee” I would tell him to get lost. He is doing himself no favours. I would also tell Toto Wolf to get the Mercedes cars back to their usual racing silver colours.

      1. I used to admire Hamilton as a driver too, although I always thought he was a bit of a prat – I now think he’s a spoiled brat, without the intelligence to realise that he’s a useful idiot!

    4. I filled in an on-line survey they sent me and I made the point that they should not publish any article unless it had the ability to comment on it.

    5. It isn’t just the DT. My local rag has had some articles from Labour MPs – effectively party political – and none of them has allowed comments. They don’t like it up ’em, Mr Mannering (sic).

  57. Time for a white-haired revolt against the BBC

    The shock of being mugged for £157.50 a year will encourage the old to ask whether the BBC is giving the service they deserve

    CHARLES MOORE – 14 July 2020 • 7:00am

    With due apologies to readers whom this may annoy, I have always been against free TV licences for the over-75s. They began life as a transparent electoral bribe by Gordon Brown. There was never a good reason why all old people (as opposed to poor old people) should get special treatment.

    My main objection, however, is that the period of free licences let the BBC feel even freer than usual to ignore the voice of the old. If they’re not paying, it said to itself, what does it matter if they complain? Now that it desperately needs the money of the over-75s, it will have to listen a bit harder.

    The shock of being mugged for £157.50 a year will encourage the old to confront the question which younger viewers have long faced: is the BBC giving us a service that respects us and the traditions of public service broadcasting?

    It blatantly is not. The Corporation has chosen this year of all years, when virtually the whole world is gripped by a pandemic, to launch a cultural revolution against being white, being British, being male and taking pride in our history and culture.

    An agenda of recruitment and programming has promoted “diversity” – by which, I suspect, is meant ideological uniformity – as a higher value than truth or news, education or entertainment. That agenda is actively hostile to the attitudes of most of the elderly. Spending is being splurged on the indifferent young.

    From August, the over-75s will find themselves persecuted, as is everyone else, by TV Licensing. It demands money with menaces from all without a licence, regardless of whether they ever watch live television. Time for a white-haired revolt of all those who have been bored, ignored and insulted for too long.

    President Erdogan is throwing a match on the dry kindling of religious hatred

    Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was a great Christian church for almost 1,000 years, until Mehmet the Conqueror turned it into a mosque. Almost 500 years after that, Kemal Ataturk’s modern, secular Turkey turned it into a museum – a peaceful solution to a thorny problem. But now, after a court case, Turkey’s would-be Mehmet, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says he will make it into a mosque once more.

    People in Britain may not realise what a provocative decision this is. Orthodox Christian countries, however, such as Greece and Russia, are deeply upset. Istanbul is the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Church. To understand their feelings, we must imagine the call to prayer coming from a minaret stuck on top of Canterbury cathedral. (I hesitate to draw this comparison in print lest the present Archbishop of Canterbury, who protests against images of a white Jesus, decides it would be a brilliant idea.)

    President Erdogan produced two statements about his decision for foreign consumption, one in English, the other in Arabic. The visual impression conveyed on the website is that they are the same. Not so. Whereas the English version speaks of the place being “the shared heritage of humanity”, the Arabic version lauds its “resurrection” as a mosque. This “lights the fire of hope” for great mosques from Bokhara in Uzbekistan to Andalucia in Spain, and for Al Aqsa, the endlessly disputed mosque in Jerusalem, says the latter-day Caliph. This is a “holy path”, says holy Recep, as he chucks a match on the dry kindling of religious hatred.

    Hagia Sophia is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Unesco is warning against unauthorised changes to the building. But Erdogan invokes his country’s sovereign rights. His dominant, puritanical version of Islam tolerates no representational art. One suspects the world will stand helplessly by as the frescoes of Christianity – and of tolerance – are wiped out.

    Never before have I been so thrilled by Battle

    Back in Britain, our own heritage has taken a severe knock because of Covid-19. English Heritage has recently reopened wherever it can. It kindly invited me to come and have a look. I chose Battle Abbey, because I have known it all my life, and live nearby.

    I was interested to discover from my hosts that my instinct is part of something wider. The people most eager to get back into the place are the locals. This is exactly the opposite of the well-known, usual phenomenon that one does not bother to go and see what is on one’s doorstep. Somehow, one feels more excited now. I must have visited the abbey nearly a hundred times. Never before have I been so thrilled to survey the scene from the roof of the gatehouse and see where our nation experienced its bloody birth.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/family/2020/02/14/TELEMMGLPICT000224599698_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqzZqOgOJXOqkE_ZaqGDwVPIDFpkJIALGJc3DI2UF95ng.jpeg?imwidth=680
    I must have visited the abbey nearly a hundred times. Never before have I been so thrilled to survey the scene from the roof of the gatehouse and see where our nation experienced its bloody birth

    At the height of the plague, people felt sadly cut off from the comforting places of beauty near home. Now they are the first inside them. Battle, at this time of year, usually sees 600 people a day pass through its gates. Currently, the absence of coach parties and foreign tourists reduces this to just under 300, mostly local residents. The social distancing arrangements in such a large and mainly open-air place are very easy and free-flowing. Almost every element is available except the interactive “visitor experience”. The only other difference from the usual is that you must book your place.

    It is worth remembering that English Heritage these days is a charity, not an arm of government, so it needs visitors’ money. It also looks after many buildings for which entry cannot be charged – such as the recently defaced Cenotaph. So go into battle – and Battle – for it.

    *********************************************************
    BTL:

    Joint Account
    14 Jul 2020 7:10AM
    I’m no longer interested in what programmes the BBC provides at what price; its output has become a poison which acts against the national interest. It is constantly negative and hellbent on destruction. Its celebrity propagandists spread their contempt for anyone who disagrees with their groupthink and mock the public. They have spent the last month deliberately spreading anarchist propaganda on primetime TV. Yesterday, its website called the celebrity hypocrite Hamilton a “statesman”. They are spending £100m on “diversity” when the output is already horribly warped and biased in favour of fringe activists.

    No matter what the price or the promises, the BBC is beyond reform and must be stopped. The country can not thrive with this malign influence.

    Joint Account
    14 Jul 2020 7:48AM
    One further thought: Yesterday the BBC promoted Lewis Hamilton as a statesmen. Today, this newspaper spreads the myth via its sports pages. The reach of the BBC and the pernicious impact of its lies cannot be overstated.

    Bianca Mitchell
    14 Jul 2020 8:15AM
    @Joint Account

    Spreads the myth and compounds the insult by preventing comments – they know from pieces allowing comments the general consensus is LH is a useful ejit virtue signalling bully who is turning a great many of his fans into former fans. His politicising of F1 should be stopped with immediate effect but instead he is being encouraged to escalate to the point of demanding Ferrari and the other teams be forced to pander to his agenda. Shameful – and the BBC, who no longer broadcasts races at all, is giving him too much attention in the process.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/time-white-haired-revolt-against-bbc/#comment

    2. Hamilton a statemen, eh? I thought he was a driver. How silly of me not to realise the effect of celebrity status in making all one’s pronouncements wise and urgent.

    3. The BBC is reneging on the agreement that they could increase the licence fee (which they have done twice since) provided they kept the free licence for over 75s. A pox on them. I’ve cancelled my (free) licence and they can visit me as much as they like they won’t get past the front door without a court order (unlikely to be granted) so phukkem

      1. Sorry, replying to Aeneas!

        There’s talk of lighting effects that would blot them out during the bums up sessions. Can’t remember whether I saw that on RT or Al Jazeera but it would be one or t’other since they’re the only news channels I still occasionally look in on.

    4. Hagia Sophia – since no mosque can have icons or depictions of people – what is going to happen to the frescoes showing Christ and saints? Will they be whitewashed, plastered over or even destroyed?

  58. A puzzled pensioner writes:

    If the wearing of masks is so vital to our survival….why does it not become compulsory for another ten days?

    1. I can only conclude that it is to give time for the ‘second wave’ to develop so that those in charge can say “We told you so – now do as you are told or else”…..

      1. Good Lord, Maggie.
        The police enforce the law on that stroppy revolting lot when there a white haired little old grannies to intimidate? Whatever next?

      2. Who’s going to explain to Jack of Dorset the difference between whose and who’s?

        1. At the same time they can explain why ‘a’ is not a plural indefinite article.

        2. Somebody who is not going to loose their dictionary and will have to search for it.

          1. He and Jill of Dorset can look it up when their sat in the library!

            (Sorry Peddy, I seem to be poaching on your territory.)

          3. And who, once they have found it (hint: have you looked in the fridge), can pour over it.

    4. Eustace was interviewed this morning and failed to satisfactorily answer that question, instead waffling about ‘time to adjust’ etc.

    5. Why did it not become compulsory in March? Maybe shops could have stayed open?
      As:
      a) Masks work so disease will not be spread. Everything stays open.
      or
      b) Masks are useless*. So why wear them at all, anywhere?

      *According to most reviews by medicos.

    6. Good morning Mr Bill, Sir. I think it is to give me time to stock up on another six months of food, loo rolls, etc. I must remember to order another half dozen fridge-freezers and must not / cannot / dare not forget to get in a good supply of 250 face masks. Imagine the horror of running out of face masks and not being allowed in a shop to buy a further supply – with a £100 fine to boot.

      :-))

  59. 321324+ up ticks,
    Friday week kicks off the destruction of the high street, the following Monday will see demolition of the butcher/baker& of course the candlestick
    maker.
    Not long to wait before the build,build,build campaign kicks in, there is going to be an awful lot of available space shortly, the intake of very cheap labour regarding Dover so we must supply accommodation to man a sweat shop in every town knocking out button to the chin tunics, chinese style.
    Many will say conspiracy theory maybe so not so long ago, BUT not now.

        1. As I mentioned earlier, some of ours have started putting tables and chairs outside – socially distanced, of course. No canopies, so the moment it rains, that will be a non-starter.

  60. The woke tragedy of RADA
    By David Cann – July 14, 2020

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/masks.jpg

    LAST week I received an email letter from the director of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Britain’s world-renowned school of acting and my own alma mater. It horrified me. Drawn up in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, it set out a revisionist plan to turn RADA from a school for acting into a school for activism.

    You can read it in full here, but here are some highlights. The format of confession, contrition and penance is frighteningly reminiscent of China’s 1968 cultural revolution when Chairman Mao’s Red Guards pulled the professional classes from their offices, beat them, forced them to cry on their knees in public and made them apologise for their ‘sins’, then sacked them and made them do menial jobs while kids were made to inform on them. RADA’s director, Edward Kemp, has followed the Little Red Book script down to the last bullet point.

    *The public confession

    ‘We recognise that RADA has been responsible for maintaining structures that are systemically racist. We are aware that RADA has been and currently is institutionally racist.’

    *The abject apology

    ‘We are profoundly sorry for the role we have played in the traumatic and oppressive experiences of our current and past Black students, graduates and staff . . . We apologise unreservedly for failings of action, leadership and our systems in making RADA a safe and inclusive environment for Black staff and students.’

    *Re-education for all

    ‘RADA needs radical change and must work together as a community to achieve it. We are forming a dedicated Anti-Racism Steering Group (of students, staff and Council) that will work with independent advisers to establish the next steps in both immediate change and a root and branch structural reform to end institutional racism at RADA.’ There is a pledge to ‘decolonise the curriculum and pedagogy’.

    *Student power

    ‘Students request that their plan takes priority in any work we do next, and we have agreed it will be central to the continued work on the Academy’s anti-racism action plan.’

    *Institutionalised informing

    ‘During the last weeks we have heard from students, staff and graduates about their experiences of racism at RADA. We acknowledge and apologise for those experiences and their impact. We are establishing a process for historic feedback and reporting and specialist support in managing this process. We ask anyone who wants to share their experiences with us to do so.’

    *Unfinished revolution

    ‘These commitments are the beginning of the process and we will keep you closely informed on progress.’

    So woe betide any fools (teachers or students) who are not mindful of their white privilege, however poor or disadvantaged they may be. Needless to say I was appalled and wrote to the director accordingly.

    This is part of what I said:

    ‘The BLM movement is a Marxist organisation hiding behind an anti-racist mask. This has been well known for many weeks now.

    ‘The correct response to their vandalism, violence and thuggery should have been outright rejection of their false claims and the exposure of their true agenda: the destruction of civilisation.

    ‘You state that “RADA has been and currently is institutionally racist”. This is not true, indeed, it is an outright lie.

    ‘If BLM cared about black lives what are they doing about it apart from pressurising you to conform to their propaganda? How many of them have volunteered to help out in primary schools to help black kids improve their literacy skills? How many have volunteered at youth clubs to get young black men off the streets and into sports teams and training programmes to keep them away from drugs and knives and crime?

    ‘Your long list of bureaucratic bullet points is a pretty clear illustration of how you see RADA’s future. An administrative exercise in “virtuous” box ticking in order to kow-tow to the politically correct bullies who have intimidated you.

    ‘For you to have aligned the finest drama school in the world with such an ideology is a disgrace.’

    The truth is that RADA has an excellent track record. I have often been back there for readings, script development workshops etc. and to watch the students perform. The atmosphere is still one of creative companionship, hard work and fun. It is quite obviously not a racist organisation. The number of Jews and Indians and West Indians and Africans and Chinese and Turks and Arabs and others who have successfully passed through their portals over the last hundred years or more – to say nothing of the Irish, Welsh and Scots – is testimony to that.

    Stirring up racism whilst pretending to oppose it is an obvious trick that must not be fallen for. But I fear that is exactly what the cowardly director of RADA has done – which is probably why I have not heard back from him.

    It’s a tragedy worthy of Shakespeare’s pen.

    https://conservativewoman.co.uk/the-woke-tragedy-of-rada/

    2. The whole media industry is inherently racist – it features far more bleks than is warranted by their percentage of the population. Not to mention the disproportionate number of mixed race families in advertising.

    3. From Wiki; “In 2019, RADA graduate Laurence Fox criticised RADA’s diversity policy on script submissions. Kemp defended
      the policy, stating that RADA must reflect a diverse society      “

      1. The thing is, society is nowhere near as diverse as RADA and other woke institutions would like to represent.

        2. I just don’t care. It’s so utterly irrelevant.

          Every time someone is labelled as black, or green or puce or orange whatever – they are dehumanised. Rendered down to suiting the prejudices of the labeller. If the script is good nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter who wrote it. Equality of opportunity. Anything else is prejudiced, offensive and insulting.

  62. Back from Narridge. Strangely eerie. Didn’t go into the City Centre – just the outskirts – very few people. Panks were their usual unhelpful selves (good that some things never change). Didn’t have the part I wanted; suggested an alternative- which I bought. You don’t go in – just stand in the shed while a bloke finds the stuff, does the bill etc. A small plastic cap to close the water outlet. About £3 on Amazon etc. A snip at £18….!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  63. ACTORS can film kissing and sex scenes once more after broadcasters drew up new Covid-safe rules to allow touching.

    The guidelines were established after it became clear that socially distanced filming would ruin intimate scenes.

    Cast members who need to be in close screen proximity will be grouped in “close contact cohorts” and asked to undergo a swab test before filming starts. They must then observe social distancing rules until they obtain the test result, at which point they can go on set.

    During filming, tests will be retaken at least once a week and temperatures taken every day. The cohorts will be identifiable by coloured armbands or wristbands.

    The guidelines have been developed by the BBC, ITV and others and are for scenes which “unavoidably require interaction” within the two-metre boundary and “where all other options have been considered and discounted”.
    If a member of the cohort displays any Covid symptoms during the production, all members will need to selfisolate and be tested. A BBC spokesmann said: “Getting TV production back up and running safely is our priority.

    “The BBC has already produced popular shows during lockdown following social distancing – from Have I Got News For You to Talking Heads. But if we are to get back to producing the range and quality of programmes that the public love which reflect real life interactions, we are going to need to film scenes and shows where people are closer than two metres apart.

    “There will be increased screening for these groups, alongside daily symptom checks, and close contact periods would be restricted on set.”

    As well as drama, the rules could be followed by shows such as Strictly Come Dancing, which is returning in October. Soap operas recently resumed filming with the two-metre rule in place. Before the guidelines were issued, productions were working out how to film sex scenes between actors who had to remain two metres apart.

    Ita O’Brien, the intimacy director on the BBC’S Normal People and other shows, recently said: “There is so much intimacy that we can still tell – through intention, sculpting the gaze and perhaps a movement towards each other that might not require actual touch but which can still generate intimacy.”

    Let me get this right. Actors can snog and bonk actresses but poor old Minnie Higginbottom cannot go and buy a bag of spuds without dressing up like a bank robber?

    2. Yo Mr Grizzle

      But if we are to get back to producing the range and quality of programmes that the public love which reflect real life interactions, we
      are going to need to film scenes and shows where people are closer than two metres apart. change BBC Management, ethos, writers and presenters

    3. Sounds like a right old palaver, though. Will mean that any actor with vulnerable relatives is out of work, too.

    4. Good morning, Grizzly

      Have I got News For You has become tedious and is no longer worth watching since Hislop gave up satire in favour of having the BBC bias.

      2. I haven’t watched HIGNFY for several years. At one time, it was a Friday night must watch.

    5. That will ruin movies for me now, Grizzly. Often in a film two males are romantically pursuing the same female. If they wear coloured armbands then the ending will have been revealed right at the beginning. What next? The whodunit where the killer and his victim wear the same coloured wristband? Are the BBC taking a leaf out of Mr Schickelgruber’s ancient wheeze of making those he disliked wear the same yellow star sewn on their clothes?

      1. Where will it all end, Ms Bloodaxe?

        We will soon have good cowboys wearing white stetsons and bad cowboys wearing black stetsons.

        1. Will the good cowboys be forced to “take the knee” when the bad cowboys ride into town?

          :-))

    6. ” programmes that the public love which reflect real life interactions ”

      From the BBC? That’ll be as detached from real life as it can possibly get.

  64. Around 200,000 Hong Kong citizens set to move to UK after citizenship offer, Foreign Office says. 13 July 2020 • 8:51pm.

    The Foreign Office has a working estimate that 200,000 people in Hong Kong are likely to take up the British Government’s offer and move to the UK.

    One source told the Financial Times that the exact number was in a state of “flux”, with an average of 180,000 expected. Another said the department predicted that more than 200,000 would move.

    Assuming the Chinese let them leave, and one can see no good reason why they would prevent them, this will probably total a couple of million. The UK that we Nottlers grew up with has already been destroyed and this will finish the job.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/13/around-200000-hong-kong-citizens-set-move-uk-citizenship-offer/

      1. Although ten countries became EU member states in 2004, attention focused on the “A8 countries”. These were Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

        While the number of migrants from Central and Eastern Europe into the UK was predicted to be in the region of 5,000 to 13,000 on the assumption that other member states would also open their labour markets, most didn’t. And the flows turned out to be over 20 times the upper end of this estimate.

        https://theconversation.com…

    3. It will certainly feel like HK soon. But with bats being a protected species, maybe they miss home.

    4. Will that be similar to the working estimate over the likely numbers from Eastern Europe, where that particular guess may have been out by a factor of 20?

  65. Boris has turned out to be a follower not a leader. He was not voted in to mask the population. He will pay for it.

    2. 321324 +up ticks,
      Afternoon JN,
      Many of the peoples have kept saying that since
      M Thatcher received the order of the knife.

        2. I am very worried that you are probably right.

          Toyboy came from nowhere with a brand new political party and even though you don’t think much of him we need a new man or woman at the top of a new party. The alternative is Boris Johnson, Keir Starmer or Ed Davey who will put us on the Armageddon express to oblivion.

    4. The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity

      (Y.B. Yeats – The Second Coming)

      Boris Johnson has turned out to be a damp squib – full of fizz and froth for a moment or two and then petering out completely.

      The only two reliable MPs in the Tory Party who might have made decent leaders are John Redwood and Owen Paterson. It is a sad fact of life that the best leaders are often people who do not push themselves forward. Johnson was far to keen to be the party leader and has proved not to be up to the job.

      We shall probably get a Labour government in the next election and that will prove to be just apocalyptic.

    5. The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity

      (Y.B. Yeats – The Second Coming)

      Boris Johnson has turned out to be a damp squib – full of fizz and froth for a moment or two and then petering out completely.

      The only two reliable MPs in the Tory Party who might have made decent leaders are John Redwood and Owen Paterson. It is a sad fact of life that the best leaders are often people who do not push themselves forward. Johnson was far to keen to be the party leader and has proved not to be up to the job.

      We shall probably get a Labour government in the next election and that will prove to be just apocalyptic.

      1. Paterson was recently bereaved – but not much info since then about what happened to his wife.

        1. No. As you know, he’s my MP. Some of us are reading between the lines. The inquest was opened and adjourned, I believe.

  66. I see that there is a very disappointed person in Australia today by the name of Hocking. She has been battling for four years to have the documents relating to the dismissal of Gough Whitlam released in the hope of embarrassing the Queen and furthering her agenda of abolishing the monarchy. According to the DT: “Archive letters reveal that Governor-General did not forewarn the Queen about one of the most controversial moments in Australian history”. It seems that there were no breeches of the constitution.

    Hocking is an embittered socialist. Here is a photo of her. Need I say more?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ff3e1d3a7cb1c8915af3214e640a368cc62a0be90e0a3186ed9a4400195786a2.png

          1. Did you know there’s a “sauce war” going on in the USA? The Leftwaffe are calling for a boycott of Goya, a company that produces sauces, marinades and all manner of other goodies. made to authentic Spanish-American recipes. Goya’s crime? Its CEO, Robert Unanue, praised Donald Trump’s presidency.

            But Goya is a Hispanic-owned company and the backlash has started among patriotic Spanish Americans.

            ♫ “José, can you see,
            By the dawn’s early light,
            What so proudly we hailed,
            At the twilight’s last gleaming?” ♫

        2. ‘Morning, Harry.

          Yes, I have several different chilli sauces here. Thanks for the heads-up.

          1. If you can find it, “Dave’s Insanity Sauce” was excellent. I was visiing a specialist hot sauce store in lower Manhattan in the early-mid 1990’s and picked up a bottle of the sauce advertised as the hottest in the shop, to look at the ingredients. When I left my fingertips started to tingle!

            I went back and bought a bottle and would confirm it’s the hottest sauce that I’ve ever sampled. As the slogan said at the time “Hotter than Hell”

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave%27s_Gourmet

            It’s probably now been beaten, but I can’t imagine enjoying something that is hotter.

      2. You think that’s bad? Jeffrey Epstein bears a passing resemblance to my ex! Creeps me out every time there’s an article in the paper.

    3. Scary woman! She rather resembles our Communist Scottish health secretary, Ms. Freeman aka Fagash Freeman!

          2. But otherwise useless.. No, worse than useless. We have two new hospitals, built at a cost of around £1bn that are “not fit for purpose” as Mr Reid used to say. One in Glasgow kills patients. The other, the new Sick Kids in Edinburgh has not opened as it will kill patients.
            Waiting lists stretch to a far distant future and many will die before their turn comes, figuratively and literally.

          4. Call in for a cuppa!
            I’ll even clear a space amongst the junk for you to sit down!

    7. I’m not surprised the Queen wants to abolish the monarchy. She’s probably sick of it.

  68. In other news, and in relation to the Facebook oversight board……. Judicial Watch alleges………..

    ”More than half of the members have ties to George Soros”…………..

    ”The recently appointed Facebook oversight board that will decide which posts get blocked from the world’s most popular social networking website is stacked with leftists, including a close friend of leftwing billionaire George Soros who served on the board of directors of his Open Society Foundations (OSF). Judicial Watch conducted a deep dive into the new panel that will make content rulings for the technology company that was slammed last year with a $5 billion fine for privacy violations. The information uncovered by Judicial Watch shows that the group of 20 is overwhelmingly leftist and likely to restrict conservative views. More than half of the members have ties to Soros, the philanthropist who dedicates huge sums to spreading a radical left agenda that includes targeting conservative politicians. Other Facebook oversight board members have publicly expressed their disdain for President Donald Trump or made political contributions to top Democrats such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. As one New York newspaper editorial determined this month, the new Facebook board is a “recipe for left-wing censorship.”

    https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/most-of-facebook-censorship-board-has-ties-to-leftwing-billionaire-george-soros/

    1. Not good. But nobody has to use Facebook or any other organisation linked to it.

      1. No, but, like Twitter, it’s easily the best in the sector and so obviously peeps use in their billions.

        Clearly this is mass global opinion laundering.

        1. I joined Parler, being silenced on Twitter, but I find it is quite clunky. I don’t post anything political on Facebook.

    3. It is as if everyone is dressed up as Leclerc from Allo Allo.

      I actually replied “hello back but who are you” to someone at the weekend.

  70. So a majority of George Soros linked individuals are on the Facebook censorship board according to Judicial Watch….

    https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/most-of-facebook-censorship-board-has-ties-to-leftwing-billionaire-george-soros/

    Who took a top Vice President position at Facebook with a vast pay check ?

    None other than Nick Clegg, deputy PM to David Cameron who has recently been discovered to likely have George Soros money in his pocket !

    ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”

    https://powerbase.info/index.php/David_Cameron

    What a small world it is !

      1. And to a woman. Where does the money come from to pay Teraita May enormous sums of dosh for her ‘free’ lectures?

  71. 321324+ up ticks,
    Could the governance party make it clear “are people smugglers operating on the daily Dover route insisting on invaders wearing masks”
    Or are they covered by the submissive pcism & appeasement unwritten farce.
    Are the UK governance parties monitoring this invasion closely as in making sure ALL incoming boats are full to capacity.

    is priti pet still pledging to keep NI numbers to under a zillion for this year anyway.

    1. Priti Patel threatening to deport immigrants who commit petty crimes. If that is the case why aren’t the invaders ,who are arriving at Dover and elsewhere illegally , not being deported immediately on arrival? Their offence is a major one and a threat to the UK.

      1. 321324+ up ticks,
        Afternoon C,
        What they say & what they do are totally different things, they
        speak truth but guaranteed act treacherous.
        This priti pet. person is part of a political group that are aiding &
        abetting the importation of illegal immigrants in collusion with the old enemies of England
        ie the french at mid channel.

      2. That’s all she does do, though – threaten. She never actually DOES anything practical to back up her words.

      2. The clip prompted me to have a look at Dick Emery’s entry on wikipedia. Surprised to find he held a pilot’s licence from 1961 onwards and used to make scale models. He was president of the Airfix modeller’s club!.

    7. Not combat-fit, then? Although combative, clearly unarmed combat is her forte.

  74. The last few months have shown us that Boris Johnson is not up to the job – but neither is Keir Starmer nor Ed Davey.

    Will somebody emerge out of nowhere in the way that Macron did in France?

    Any suggestions or are we irredeemably lost?

  76. It seems from the comments on the BBC “news” web page that the compulsory face mask idea isn’t that popular! Most think it’s way too late anyway and the benefits aren’t proven. This is one of the more popular BTL offerings; “That’s the High Street gone then. Online sales will boom. If you own a small independent shop I’d just give up now“

    4. Annoying though. Shopping used to be fun where you’d interact with – you know – real people.

  77. So how did Nick Clegg manage to land the Facebook Vice President position with a basic salary of $656,000 which could be as much as $6,000,000 with bonuses?

    https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/3002680/nick-clegg-facebook-salary

    and buy a $10,000,000 house in California ?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/26/nick-clegg-swaps-putney-townhouse-7million-california-mansion/

    Was it a reward for political services rendered to George Soros as might have happened with David Cameron now we know Cameron likely has Soros money in the bank ?

    Especially as Facebook allegedly has loaded up Soros compliant personnel on the censorship board to ensure Soros compliance for billions of worldwide comments.

    Is this what it’s all about ?

    A form of global domination ?

    1. Does the mansion have high walls, armed guards and third world domestics in the usual style of the we love open borders, want to defund the police and encourage migrants brigade?

  78. Afternoon, all. I don’t know about pathological, I’m feeling psychopathic at the thought of having to wear a mask to shop. I’ve been to the supermarket today (no queue, even to pay) and stocked up as far as I can to put off the evil moment as long as possible.

    1. I don’t think it’s a mandatory issue until the 24th. I’m very unhappy about it.

      1. It isn’t mandatory until the 24th, which is why it’s ludicrous. If it’s necessary, why wait 10 days? I am hopefully putting off the moment when I shall have to wear one to get supplies.

        1. I’m having my hair cut on the 23rd, so I might do the shopping then instead of Friday next week.

          1. Good idea. If the footfall drops appreciably, they might, just possibly, begin to wonder why.

          2. The only shopping I’ve done for months is in Morrisons – only a couple of mask-wearers in there lately. i ordered a jacket and trousers online today. I don’t see my self going “shopping” ever again if masks become permanent.

          3. I don’t like shopping for food (I rarely do any other sort) on line. I like seeing what I’m getting and prefer not to let someone else make a choice for me.

          4. I don’t enjoy it but like you I like to see what I’m buying, and choose my bit of meat, see what the vegetables are like, though too many are packaged in there.

          5. I think you may have missed that it’s on line food shopping I don’t like. Simply because I have no control over things like how ripe bananas and tomatoes are (I don’t like them ripe at all).

          6. I thought that was the point – I’ve never done online food shopping as I like to be able to make a choice between one item and another. If there are three joints of lamb or portk, I choose the one I want. Also I gather they are likely to substitute unwanted things if there is an availability problem.

            Bloody Disqus thinks I ‘ve already made this comment and refuses to post it!

          7. I had that problem yesterday. I changed a word here or there or moved phrases around and it relented. I may have misread your meaning. I agree about substitution – if I’m going to buy something I want to buy the item on my list, not some substitute chosen by somebody else, which may not taste as good, or worse, have onion or garlic in it (problematical because of MOH’s allergy). Choice seems to be something we are not allowed to have these days.

          8. There are two shops that I like to go in to, that don’t sell skis/guns/car parts. One is local to me and is a Turkish-run greengrocer, the other local-ish to Firstborn and is an Indian-run greengrocer.
            Both have the most enormous selection of lovely fresh vegetables and fruit, lots of pickled stuff in Cyrillic, amazing selections of pasta and rice, spice, sauces… I could stand and drool there for hours.
            They also do service, a concept missing from Scandinavia, as well as cheerfulness. Hard working, “open all hours”, good prices… what’s not to like.

        2. A butcher friend of mine is getting burkas in for his male staff. It’ll be interesting to see if he gets away with it.

        3. I suspect it provides wriggle room.
          Many ministers are unimpressed – and their MPs will be receiving torrents of emails and letters.

          1. I’m not sure that mine is functioning at the moment, given the loss of his wife.

          5. The cynic in me wonders if that was deliberate. She had stopped working with him on his Parliamentary business some time ago and gone off and done her own thing.

      2. Yes the virus isn’t infectious until 24th July. Not sure which scientist it who told Boris that if if it was one of the team of comedy/farce scriptwriters who are now churning out government policy.

  79. ‘Morning, all.

    I know that the Covid-19 panic has played havoc with many delivery services. For example, I’ve heard that Amazon is taking an inordinately long time to fulfill its orders, but enough is enough.

    Back in April, Mrs Mac, deeply saddened to hear of the plight of African Elephants which apparently are fast becoming an endangered species, persuaded me to adopt one through the World Wildlife Fund.

    I sent off the £36 required for the adoption to go through but here we are – three months later and…. nothing. So come on WWF, this is unacceptable. You’ve got my money. Where’s my bloody elephant?
    :¬(

      1. Fair play. During the last 3 months I have bought over a dozen books from Amazon, some German, all individually. They have all arrived on time or even ahead of time.

        2. One I ordered took some time but they all arrived, mostly well within the expected timeframe.

    4. 321324+ up ticks,
      Morning DM,
      The delay will be something simple and can be easily
      rectified by buying a saw also via amazon and enlarging your low level letter box.
      Thanks are not necessary.

      1. 321324+ up ticks,
        DM
        I did say thanks was not necessary …… but if you insist.

        1. Why do elephants have grey trunks? – because they’re all in the same swimming club

        2. The thought of painted elephant’s toenails always turns my stomach since working with my morning nurse in Sweden. She was so fat that I mentally nicknamed her ‘Jabba-the-hutt’ & her feet were fat stumps like an elephant’s, made worse by the fact that in Summer she wore open sandals (which were proscribed in the surgeries). These enabled her to display her bitten toenails which she painted some hideous metallic peach colour. Apart from that she was as thick as shit.

          1. Well that’s nice Peddy! Did she have any redeeming features….facial warts and hair, BO, halitosis? You know, the usual stuff!

          2. She developed some sort of lesion in her right ear, which had to be the one facing me as we worked. Whatever it was, it was receiving treatment, which took some time, meanwhile it looked like a fat, engorged tick. Yuck! Imagine my predicament: when I looked down at the patient’s mouth, the elephant’s feet were in the background; when I looked up, I was confronted with a ripe tick.
            She had appalling table manners, but that applies to many Swedes.

          8. Many people think that Sweden is rich, all Volvos & ABBA – it’s not, by a long way.

          10. Good Lord!! That should really come with a health warning! “This man used to be a dentist – this is what NO2 and amalgam can do! Stay alert!”

          14. Aha! I learn something new every day! Yesterday I got entangled with a loony troll on Consevativewoman and learned that I shouldn’t have fed him! But I really want to bait cochrane!!

          15. The only problem with baiting someone like that is that most of what you say goes right over their heads. They are incapable of rational discussion. Get them into the chamber at the Oxford Union and you would make mincemeat out of their pitiful attempts at “debate”.

            They do not exist to debate: they know not how. All they are capable of is uttering nonsensical gibberish, intended to provoke a reaction. It is not dissimilar to running around the playground pulling little girls’ pigtails then running off again.

            Trolls (what a kind, benign word for twats) will always exist because there is simply no point to their empty, pathetic little lives.

          16. Looks like Saddam Hussein. I think Peddy’s smartened up a bit since he started going to the Turkish barber. Of course, since lockdown………..

    7. WWF is the last organisation to which she should have sent her money. Founded by trophy hunters, still supporting trophy hunting and dedicated to the support of their CEO and underlings, they do very little for wildlife. See their report and accounts on the Charity Commission website for details.

  81. Who would be a satirist in 2020 Blighty?

    “A man walks into an electric fence…

    A popular pub in Cornwall has gone one step beyond to enforce social distancing guidelines – and erected an electric fence at its bar.

    Staff at The Star Inn in St Just had grown tired of people doing as they pleased and ignoring the one-metre-plus measures, so they have put up the wired electric fence.

    Bringing a whole new sort of shock to the pandemic, landlord Johnny McFadden said “now people take heed to the guidance around social distancing”. Which isn’t too surprising, what with the fully-charged deterrent in place.”

      1. “World domination: that same old dream. Our asylums are full of people who think they are Napoleon … or God!”

      2. “World domination: that same old dream. Our asylums are full of people who think they are Napoleon … or God!”

        1. Never mind asylums – what about the UN and World Government – naturally, with them as the government.

          1. That’s what I was alluding to, Paul.

            Those in real asylums are much less of a threat to us all.

    4. In August, landlord Johnny McFadden said “I can’t fathom out why nobody is coming into my pub and enjoying our fine beers and excellent pub grub. We may have to shut up shop if this carries on.”

    5. Satire, as a concept, is dead. Killed off by what now passes as normality.

      If stupidity was available for investment on the stock exchange, I would have made a killing by now. Soros would have to watch out.

    1. Do religion and politics (time-honoured mind-controlling concepts) need some help?

          3. The inhalation is very much like the air ram for the Vantage. A joyous noise that continues into the hypersonic.

            I really should put the engine back together. Annoyingly you can’t build it clean. It has to be ‘dirty’ with lubricant and grease to work.

      2. The govt has completely lost the plot. If masks are necessary why are they not necessary until ten days’ time? They are starting to tick me off big-time.

    3. I think there is confusion between the performance of a face covering and that of a mask.

      A face covering is taken as something that covers your mouth and nose but not your eyes. As such it does not have to conform to any performance specification and is potentially useless or counter productive and possibly even dangerous.

      Masks on the other hand are required to meet a rigidly controlled specification like the N95. Even a similar type may not be used by health professionals who are required to wear an N95.

      An example is the load of masks shipped for the Government from Turkey that were assumed to meet N95 but did not meet the required spec and ended up in a Heathrow warehouse. Because they were not acceptable for use in UK hospitals they were eventually declassified and issued in nursing homes where they were used as face coverings.

      I know because my granddaughter who is employed in a nursing home was issued with one.

  83. Bari Weiss
    Twitter is editing the New York Times
    14 July 2020, 4:50pm

    Dear A.G. (Sulzberger),

    It is with sadness that I write to tell you that I am resigning from the New York Times.

    I joined the paper with gratitude and optimism three years ago. I was hired with the goal of bringing in voices that would not otherwise appear in your pages: first-time writers, centrists, conservatives and others who would not naturally think of the Times as their home. The reason for this effort was clear: The paper’s failure to anticipate the outcome of the 2016 election meant that it didn’t have a firm grasp of the country it covers. Dean Baquet and others have admitted as much on various occasions. The priority in Opinion was to help redress that critical shortcoming.

    I was honoured to be part of that effort, led by James Bennet. I am proud of my work as a writer and as an editor. Among those I helped bring to our pages: the Venezuelan dissident Wuilly Arteaga; the Iranian chess champion Dorsa Derakhshani; and the Hong Kong Christian democrat Derek Lam. Also: Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Masih Alinejad, Zaina Arafat, Elna Baker, Rachael Denhollander, Matti Friedman, Nick Gillespie, Heather Heying, Randall Kennedy, Julius Krein, Monica Lewinsky, Glenn Loury, Jesse Singal, Ali Soufan, Chloe Valdary, Thomas Chatterton Williams, Wesley Yang, and many others.

    But the lessons that ought to have followed the election—lessons about the importance of understanding other Americans, the necessity of resisting tribalism, and the centrality of the free exchange of ideas to a democratic society—have not been learned. Instead, a new consensus has emerged in the press, but perhaps especially at this paper: that truth isn’t a process of collective discovery, but an orthodoxy already known to an enlightened few whose job is to inform everyone else.

    Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor. As the ethics and mores of that platform have become those of the paper, the paper itself has increasingly become a kind of performance space. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions. I was always taught that journalists were charged with writing the first rough draft of history. Now, history itself is one more ephemeral thing moulded to fit the needs of a predetermined narrative.

    My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m “writing about the Jews again.” Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly “inclusive” one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.

    There are terms for all of this: unlawful discrimination, hostile work environment, and constructive discharge. I’m no legal expert. But I know that this is wrong.

    I do not understand how you have allowed this kind of behaviour to go on inside your company in full view of the paper’s entire staff and the public. And I certainly can’t square how you and other Times leaders have stood by while simultaneously praising me in private for my courage. Showing up for work as a centrist at an American newspaper should not require bravery.

    Part of me wishes I could say that my experience was unique. But the truth is that intellectual curiosity—let alone risk-taking—is now a liability at the Times. Why edit something challenging to our readers, or write something bold only to go through the numbing process of making it ideologically kosher, when we can assure ourselves of job security (and clicks) by publishing our 4000th op-ed arguing that Donald Trump is a unique danger to the country and the world? And so self-censorship has become the norm.

    What rules that remain at the Times are applied with extreme selectivity. If a person’s ideology is in keeping with the new orthodoxy, they and their work remain unscrutinised. Everyone else lives in fear of the digital thunderdome. Online venom is excused so long as it is directed at the proper targets.

    Op-eds that would have easily been published just two years ago would now get an editor or a writer in serious trouble, if not fired. If a piece is perceived as likely to inspire backlash internally or on social media, the editor or writer avoids pitching it. If she feels strongly enough to suggest it, she is quickly steered to safer ground. And if, every now and then, she succeeds in getting a piece published that does not explicitly promote progressive causes, it happens only after every line is carefully massaged, negotiated and caveated.

    It took the paper two days and two jobs to say that the Tom Cotton op-ed “fell short of our standards.” We attached an editor’s note on a travel story about Jaffa shortly after it was published because it “failed to touch on important aspects of Jaffa’s makeup and its history.” But there is still none appended to Cheryl Strayed’s fawning interview with the writer Alice Walker.

    The paper of record is, more and more, the record of those living in a distant galaxy, one whose concerns are profoundly removed from the lives of most people. This is a galaxy in which, to choose just a few recent examples, the Soviet space program is lauded for its “diversity”; the doxxing of teenagers in the name of justice is condoned; and the worst caste systems in human history includes the United States alongside Nazi Germany.

    Even now, I am confident that most people at the Times do not hold these views. Yet they are cowed by those who do. Why? Perhaps because they believe the ultimate goal is righteous. Perhaps because they believe that they will be granted protection if they nod along as the coin of our realm—language—is degraded in service to an ever-shifting laundry list of right causes. Perhaps because there are millions of unemployed people in this country and they feel lucky to have a job in a contracting industry.

    Or perhaps it is because they know that, nowadays, standing up for principle at the paper does not win plaudits. It puts a target on your back. Too wise to post on Slack, they write to me privately about the “new McCarthyism” that has taken root at the paper of record.

    All this bodes ill, especially for independent-minded young writers and editors paying close attention to what they’ll have to do to advance in their careers. Rule One: Speak your mind at your own peril. Rule Two: Never risk commissioning a story that goes against the narrative. Rule Three: Never believe an editor or publisher who urges you to go against the grain. Eventually, the publisher will cave to the mob, the editor will get fired or reassigned, and you’ll be hung out to dry.

    For these young writers and editors, there is one consolation. As places like the Times and other once-great journalistic institutions betray their standards and lose sight of their principles, Americans still hunger for news that is accurate, opinions that are vital, and debate that is sincere. I hear from these people every day. “An independent press is not a liberal ideal or a progressive ideal or a democratic ideal. It’s an American ideal,” you said a few years ago. I couldn’t agree more. America is a great country that deserves a great newspaper.

    None of this means that some of the most talented journalists in the world don’t still labour for this newspaper. They do, which is what makes the illiberal environment especially heartbreaking. I will be, as ever, a dedicated reader of their work. But I can no longer do the work that you brought me here to do—the work that Adolph Ochs described in that famous 1896 statement: “to make of the columns of the New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.”

    Ochs’s idea is one of the best I’ve encountered. And I’ve always comforted myself with the notion that the best ideas win out. But ideas cannot win on their own. They need a voice. They need a hearing. Above all, they must be backed by people willing to live by them.

    Sincerely, Bari

    Bari Weiss resigned today from her position as staff editor and writer at the New York Times opinion desk. Her letter explaining why originally appeared on her website.

        1. Fortunately, Conwy, yer Yanks are in a far away country of which I know little!

    3. Forwarded to our American friends and await their comments with interest.

    5. Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.

      All the MSM!

      1. He has the nigh infallible knack of alighting on whatever are the innermost daily thoughts of the (rational component of the) nation and highlights our sense of the absurd. Even the lefties on the Today programme can’t resist telling their audience about Matt’s daily dose of raw sanity although it is never flattering to their stance. His economy of penmanship is awesome and the true mark of a cartoonist. The rest of the UK’s ‘cartoonists’ use colour and elaborate their work so as to brag that they went to art school and are all the less for it. He’s a genius, never stops working, is always modest, and is quite rightly the highest paid bod at the DT.

        This is a quote from his Sunday Newsletter

        The cartoon on Wednesday, about the bank phoning to say there had been some unusual activity with investments in green jobs and the arts, was inspired by my children. I receive texts like that all of the time because the kids have learnt my credit card number off by heart. They read: are you currently in an Uber in Shoreditch, getting a Deliveroo in Edinburgh and ordering trainers online? So that was my favourite cartoon this week. I haven’t told my children yet but I probably should and give them the credit for the joke!

        1. “Even the lefties on the Today programme can’t resist telling their audience about Matt’s daily dose of raw sanity…”

          I wish they would STFU …cartoons are visual you morons….

    2. Left wing hypocrisy on display.

      The thing I don’t really understand is how they don’t go stark staring mad at the cognitive dissonance in their tiny minds.

      1. They don’t have minds of their own. They have to be told what to think by the tw@tterati.

  86. For F wording, p wording sake.

    Read this folks:

    https://twitter.com/Sirwanks1/status/1282867052697378816/photo/1

    This insane, demented, bonkers Lefty is trying for World War 2 again. Dear life. I despair. The Left are utterly psychotic. Yes, he has called for – I still can’t believe it – Germany to invade Poland to impose his Left wing will on a free, democratic people.

    And they think they’re not Nazis? They think they’re the ‘good guys’? Nutters. These fools.. I can’t. I’m too shocked at the blatant fascism.

    1. just to note – I’m not talking about Rollo’s post but the demented Lefty moustachioed NUTCASE promoting – I still can’t fething believe it – world war 2.

      1. Just to point out that I think you mean World War 3, wibbling – WW2 ended some 75 years ago!

        1. I think he means a re-run of WW2 where Germany invaded Poland and kicked it all off.

  88. A pub landlord has put an electric fence in front of his bar to encourage customers to keep social distancing. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/644d8ae22730e1af1f89287747b86761ab5042976f445ac7ae92bc2fde13823a.jpg
    Jonny McFadden, who runs the Star Inn in St Just, Cornwall, said there was limited space in his bar which only served drinks and no food.
    He described the barrier as “just a normal electric fence that you would find in a field”.
    Asked if it was switched on, Mr McFadden said: “Come and find out – there is a fear factor and it works.”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-53389977

    Why not use a cattle prod Mr. McFadden…..?

    2. “A pint of YEEOWWWW!”

      Of course it’s not switched on (or even plugged in) – he’d be in trouble with Elf’n’Safety.

    3. There was a time when only the threat of a cattle prod would make me drink St Austell beers…

        1. As I said: “There was a time.” My first encounter with St Austell beers was in 1983. They weren’t good. Cornwall was a bit of a beer desert back then. It’s hard to believe but Devenish beers were a better bet.

          St Austell’s beers are vastly improved but the modern ‘IPA’, with its over-reliance on citric American and New Zealand hops, sets my teeth on edge. The great change was wrought by Roger Ryman, a Yorky who trained at Heriot-Watt and brewed at Maclay’s before moving to St Austell in 1999. He died last month aged just 52.

          I went to the in-brewery beer festival in 2004 and noted the improvement even then, before some of today’s range had been produced.

          1. The only time in my life I got rat-arsed was with a group of heavy drinkers (I’ve never been one) on St Mary’s, Isles of Scilly. We were drinking St Austell’s Hick’s best bitter in rounds. The first few tasted excellent. I cannot remember the next two days!

  89. Here we go again!

    Winter wave of coronavirus ‘could be worse than first’

    The UK could see about 120,000 new coronavirus deaths in a second wave of infections this winter, scientists say. Asked to model a “reasonable” worst-case scenario, they suggest a range between 24,500 and 251,000 of virus-related deaths in hospitals alone, peaking in January and February.

    Prof Stephen Holgate, a respiratory specialist from University Hospital Southampton NHS Trust, who chaired the report, said: “This is not a prediction but it is a possibility.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53392148

    I’ll be generous and say it’s sensible to suggest the nation be better prepared but chucking around numbers like this is dangerous scare-mongering.

          1. And then the third wave might be worserer. And, and, what is it that they say about the Seventh Wave? That’s the really, really big one.

    2. OMG!! The only solution is to cancel Brexit! The panic so much, one shits onesself.

      1. I happened to catch one woman on TV (I suspect it was the beeb as MOH is such a devotee) going on about how coining the word Brexit made learning the language more difficult because learners heard Brex and were expecting breakfast! I kid you not! Who she was I have no idea, but the thought forced itself into my head that there must have been many neologisms that began like other words but nobody thought fit to go on TV and pontificate about them. What do I know? I only have an MA in Applied Linguistics.

        1. More like a chocolate bar than brekker. IMHO.
          What does a MA in Applied Linguistics cover? Sounds interesting!

          1. All sorts of things; phonetics, history of language, sociolinguistics, comparative linguistics, theories of the acquisition of grammar, how to teach MFL and devise syllabi among others. I particularly enjoyed sociolinguistics because I am very sensitive to styles and registers and vocabulary choices. It’s why I know that the b’stards are saying one thing, but we are expected to understand another. Always look at what they ACTUALLY say, rather than what you are intended to hear. Cameron was full of it, but he wasn’t the only one. I had a prolonged conversation with the chap who wrote about UKIP and the rise of the Far Right in the run up to the referendum (he was from Nottingham) because his language was value-laden rather than neutral. He just couldn’t see it. It’s the difference between died, was killed, was murdered and was slaughtered. The outcome is the same, but the paralinguistic features (the response it evokes in the listener, often unconsciously) are completely different.

          2. Fascinating!
            Now I live away from my mother tongue, I find I listen (and read) what is actually said as opposed to what is meant because I mentally translate and got in the habit of paying attention, and very often it’s as you wrote.

          3. Using language to manipulate perceptions – and what one thought one heard, one hadn’t really heard at all.

          4. Exactly. I used to have quite heated arguments with MOH who would swear blind that Cameron had said one thing whereas I looked at the words and knew he’d said nothing of the sort!

  90. Time for this again

    “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims
    may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber
    barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s
    cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated;
    but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end
    for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be
    more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell
    of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be
    “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard
    as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the
    age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants,
    imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

    C.S. Lewis

  91. This country cannot ever afford another Lockdown The NHS and patients with non COVID-19 type conditions cannot suffer another devastating period when a single condition takes up so much of the NHS responsibilities. Threats of another more deadly wave of COVID-19 in the Winter, if it happens, should be dealt with less severely and left to peoples common sense .

      1. Good afternoon Anne – Boris is now living in fear of Starmer’s relentless attack on his frequent U-turns and incompetence. His u-turn on the Chinese 5G equipment and belated application of compulsory face coverings in shops will no doubt feature scornfully in Starmer’s questions tomorrow. He should have stuck to his guns on the futility of face coverings – people up here are wearing them on the streets now. The government is not in control at the moment and needs to pull itself together.

        1. I’ve just walked into town (sans mask) and done some shopping. I saw people walking down the street, well away from anybody else, wearing masks. The funniest was a woman who was wearing a mask under her chin – presumably because otherwise the person on the other end of her phone couldn’t hear her properly.

    3. I don’t understand why the NHS doesn’t shunt all COVID patients into the Nightingale Hospitals and leave the normal hospitals for everyone else. And what exactly are private hospitals being used for?

  92. The next stage will be to categorise types of people with a particular design of mask.
    Bames and Jews, key workers, Brahmins etc, it will all be detailed in a Statutory Instrument.
    Offensive masks will be forbidden and any offenders will have to wear plastic bags while citizens are invited to kneel upon them.

    2. Exemption badges in the form of a yellow six point star are already in circulation. The new Nazis need to be reminded.

    3. Someone was wearing an NHS rainbow mask in town today. I thought she looked an idiot.

  94. I think that since the birth of the baby Boris’s paramour has had headaches every night so Boris is no longer Boris the Bonker and has become Boris the Bungling Buffoon.

    1. I had qusetions about Boris and how good he would be, and those have now been fully answered.
      He is not a man but a mouse.

      1. Why any half-decent woman with any self-respect should subject herself to the foul embraces of such an ugly lump is completely beyond my understanding.

        He looks as if he probably has bad breath and BO – I rather think he probably does.

        1. There’s no rhyme or reason. Over the years I have seen several clean, respectable women of good standing divorce their equally respectable husbands only to take up with stinking louts.

  95. The Saxon Queen is very fond of her America friend and indeed Americans
    but i had to bite my tongue when my friend was rattling about America being
    the least racist country in the world and in her own words ..
    ” if I say America isn’t racist they look at me as if I’m a member of the klan”
    How on earth can a country who’ve had the KKK claim to be the
    ” least racist country in the world. I think we are the least racist country in
    the world. The UK has always been very welcoming, we have not had segregation
    ( to my knowledge) and all those BLM people in this country have never ever
    had parents or grandparents living with fear of their lives due to someone
    knocking on the door at midnight wearing a white hood.
    America is a racially divided country, and that Floyd business happened In
    another country, not here, we shouldn’t be paying the price for the problems
    of other country . I am very fond of my American chum and of course Americans
    but they must accept they are racially divided on all sides.

    1. We’ve been pretty mean to the Jews from time to time since the Norman conquest.

      1. I shall do so. She knows that I don’t support BLM or
        feel guilt for Colonialism, it was a different time
        but she also knows I think all people are equal.
        And that i think we are over crowded and can’t be the
        worlds saviour, but I am not full of bile against those
        less fortunate then me nor do I think them savages.
        But that doesn’t mean I’m on the side of BLM nor
        their victim complexes .

  96. Ghislaine Maxwell wants out of jail with a personal recognizance bond and an ankle monitor! 14 July 2020.

    In the face of agitating propaganda pushing a marxist cultural attack and conditioning the public about a virus, a little humor is always welcome. After Ghislaine Maxwell’s lawyers filed their memorandum in opposition to the government’s motion for detention, I eagerly looked for their proposal for her pretrial release from jail, and there it was on page four. When reading number one I started laughing and could hardly stop, at their bulls**t that would make Donald Trump blush: “(i) a $5 million personal recognizance bond, co-signed by six financially responsible people, all of whom have strong ties to Ms. Maxwell, and secured by real property in the United Kingdom worth over $3.75 million ….”

    In short the bonds posted for Maxwell would be supported by property in the UK. What this property is or where is unknown or even whether the cash could be recovered were she to abscond!

    https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

    1. Radio 4’s PM programme has just run a feature on this. Interviewee Jessica Levinson of the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles effectively accused Trump of preparing to ignore the election result. The presenter: “We all know what kind of president Donald Trump is for better or worse…”

      If anyone has doubts about the criticism of the BBC, they should listen to this.

      2. Wasn’t there something recently that the Republicans were afraid Trump would challenge and refuse to agree to a rejection at the election this autumn? Looks like scare stuff to me. Orange man bad.

        1. I think that might go back to a little quip he made: “Eight years? Why not twelve?”

      3. I have just been speaking to a TDS individual, they were quoting things that were taken utterly out of context and limited to only a small part of what he said. A complete waste of time trying to explain otherwise.

    1. “Have some madeira, m’dear.”
      p.s. just remembered the victim was 17, so far too old.

    2. It’s about time we stopped calling them Grooming Gangs and call them what they are – Pakistani Rape Gangs.

      1. 321324+ up ticks,
        Evening AtG,
        The time of enlightenment was when the JAY report revealed the truth the same umbrella holders that covered it up for 16 plus years are still operating.
        The three monkeys are still a strong element in the polling booth, party before all else is still the name of the game on GE day.
        The raping abusing paki cartel
        are an end product of a supported mass uncontrolled immigration party, voting pattern.
        Mass uncontrolled immigration parties AKA lab/lib/con.

      1. 321324+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        Heard to say ” these paki tourists peoples must like it here
        I recognise some from last year & the year before that” and the
        year………

    1. In many ways I’m sorry for the younger generation, but there are times when I would like to see them get precisely what they are wishing for, having not been careful about just what they were wishing for.

      Lots of open borders, white and educated black jobs disappearing, police non-existent crime out of control, warlords running their neighbourhoods etc etc. It will be particularly salutory when they discover their homes and their parent’s homes are taken over by the State and benefits, health care, education and facilities are slashed because there are no taxpayers to pay for them, the wealthy have left and the big businesses won’t care, or will go to the wall.

      I’ll be long dead, civilisations come and go and something will crop up, I suspect it just won’t be quite what they were expecting.

      1. Since when were you so optimistic?

        The decline of civilization as we know it is well under way, we wi, probably live to see Orwells books being burnt.

      2. The younger generation will have to fix it like generations before them.
        I wish them well, thankfully I won’t be around.

      3. I frequently say I’m glad I’m old (and don’t have any children). Après moi le déluge, I’m afraid.

    2. It caused apoplexy in a considerable number of US citizens but they were Democrats so I suppose that is a good thing to many of this parish.

      Yes he said a lot of things that need saying but he did nothing to unite his country, nothing to heal the alienation of the moderate left. It wasn’t a bloody election campaign speech, it was supposed to be a speech to the American people.

      1. Perhaps because I am detached and don’t follow American politics, I read it precisely as a speech to the American people; it was telling them how great they are and what a fine shared history they have. Is there such a thing as “the moderate left”? Seems to me to be a concept like “moderate muslims” – the ideology precludes moderation.

    3. It is a bit longer than the Gettysburg Address, but he had more to say. He said it very, very well.

      1. As far as I’m concerned he said all the right things (not necessarily in the right order ). Just a few things; Bob Hope was actually born in London, England, the Englishman Tim Berners Lee invented the world wide web and the rocket technology was pinched from the Germans via Werner von Braun. Still, it’s the positivity and belief in his country that I admire.

          1. Von Braun went to the US to work, though, didn’t he? I expect he took his expertise with him, which is what I was referring to.

  104. I’ve got a Hotmail email account and it’s complaining it needs to be ‘fixed’. I don’t trust any of this shit and wonder if anyone else is seeing this.

    1. My Hotmail acct played up first thing this morning but after rebooting it a couple of times it was OK.

    2. No hotmail warnings here for a long time although about a month ago I did receive a couple of unexpected password reset emails. They looked genuine but I ignored them

      The only warnings I normally get are when I use a new device to log in, it gets really cautious with unknown devices.

    1. 321324+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PP,
      Was the cheque in the post as promised, we will never know.

  106. I see the first scam e-mail offering one year of free TV licence has arrived. Just give them your personal information and credit card number. Sadly, some will fall for it.

    1. Dr Denis Rancourt holds the WHO culpable in panicking governments into viral response measures which in themselves have distorted the natural human response in adapting immunity of our species over five million years.
      Bad science he concludes has dictated ineffective and potentially dangerous policies for combatting COVID-19 particularly in the public use of masks.

      1. Trouble is when was the research done. I see a document dated April 2020, experience and views have changed recommendations since then.

        Current mainstream thinking in Canada is wear a mask, protect others but this has become just like the Brexit debate – I will dispute your nay saying expert and reply with my two yes mongering experts.

        In your YouTube clip, Rancourt is from University of Ottawa, there was another so called expert from the same university on the radio today and he was fully supportive of wearing masks.

  108. Drink o’clock just struck.

    Will push off now and give the MR a glass of something soothing..

    A demain.

      1. Wearing a mask helps with the dribbling!

        The real sod was that they don’t sell the plasticky type washers. I’ll have to rootle around for them.

  109. As a small child during WWII, I was allocated a gas mask; it became a plaything on VE Day.

    I have never been a mask enthusiast …

    1. I used to wear a dust mask when making moulds from plaster of Paris (you really don’t want to get that in your lungs) and I always wear one when dealing with clearing ash out of the Rayburn (for much the same reasons). As soon as I’ve finished I take it off; I find them very uncomfortable.

      1. I used to use mercury to analyse rock porosity and permeability. No masks no gloves, and I’ve still got a medical certificate stating my blood mercury levels are worrying. Mad as a hatter is what my family says.

        1. That’s very appropriate since it was the mercury vapours from hat making that made them mad – erethism mercurialis 🙂

        2. We used to play with mercury at school. If was great fu rolling the little silver balls around, breaking them I to smaller balls, merging them I to one big globe that we could return to the container.

          No controls, no warnings and no effect on . . . Who what, where am I. Lah de dah de dah

  110. Somewhat off-topic, but why is the label always “Extreme”, “Far” for political standpoint? Does nobody stand in the centre any more – or sshould that be extreme centre? Likewise, anything disliked seems to be “vile”.
    Surely the English language has more nuanced words than these? As all the superlatives are used up, how does one express things that are “vilest”, “über-Right”, and so on?

    2. Fairly moderate terrorists, extreme middle of the road democrats, or if referring to vilest, “über-Right” and so on we could just use the word “British”.

    4. Don’t forget heroic which is now used to describe any activity that might have an element of risk attached.

    5. Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile;
      Filths savour but themselves…’

      [King Lear]

      1. For some reason known only to God and my subconscious, I was thinking a lot yesterday about Geoffrey of Monmouth’s history of Britain, written in 1136. Geoffrey was Shakespeare’s source for the story of Lear. Likewise Cymbeline.

  111. UNHAPPY HOUR – I despair….

    BBC News –
    Idiot criticizing the government for not bringing in masks earlier.

    Why wait for the government to decide you moron…it’s your decision….

    1. Most of the world needs told what to do – like, come in out of the rain.

    2. People seemingly need to be told what to think.

      I’m also not surprised the BBC found the one person demanding this. I do wonder what it cost them though.

    3. The news reports today featuring vox pops (outdoors of course) have been overwhelmingly people wearing masks. Guess what they have to say about the ruling for it to be compulsory?

        1. It’s people nudging and it will continue until the populace is fully subdued.

          2. Today I went shopping (now back to weekly from fortnightly). Hardly anyone entering my local supermarkets compared with the numbers leaving with their shopping. But I still had to join a very long queue whilst the person at the front of the queue spent a good 2 or 3 minutes wiping their trolley with sanitiser, then entered and stood inside blocking the entrance whilst they chatted with other customers and staff.

            Shees!

    5. Newton’s Third Law of Motion: “To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

      Elsie’s First Law of Corona Virus: “To every person’s reaction to Government advice there is an equal and opposite reaction.”

  113. Went for my first dystopian haircut today,
    Been going there for about twenty five years.
    Instead of the normal grubby sheet he stuck a plastic disposable covering round my neck and over my lap.
    Then he insisted I wear a mask, first time I have ever put one on, it felt a bit stuffy and prevented the normal banter.
    he wore what looked like a welding helmet.
    I said cut it short, I want at least another 3 months before I come back.
    Prices had gone up as well to pay for the PPE I suppose.
    I offered him the mask back for the next customer.
    He declined, said I could have it.

    1. I had my first cut in ages (have been cutting it myself long before lockdown) – having swopped residences with my potential D-i-l, it transpired that the next door neighbour cuts hair. All three of us went round yesterday and had our hair cut – no masks, no social distancing and I think a plastic bin-bag cut open to spread over our shoulders. I expect to survive the experience.

      1. I’ve been chopping bits off the front so I can see out, but the rest is a mess. Will be an experience when I go next week.

  115. “So the huge Florida ‘surge’ in COVID cases now appears to be FAKE, based on cooked #’s from 30+ FL labs! @GregAbbott_TX must IMMEDIATELY INVESTIGATE to ensure many Texas labs didn’t also end up reporting fake #’s.”

    From the amazing Brian Cates.

    1. What you omit is the minor point that they are not reporting negative test results, the positive count remains valid as far as these tests go. So it may not be that 98% of those tested have the bug but the 15,000 new case count per day remains.

      Breaking news. Fl labs faked free capacity in ICU all across Florida. Oh no, that right, they are just filling the beds with almost dead bodies to harm Trumps re election prospects.

      1. The death toll is way down.

        There appears to be widespread falsification to embarrass Trump.

        Let’s wait a while until the Governors report.

        Meanwhile, keep monitoring that TDS. If you get the shakes, take a lie down.

  116. Douglas Murray
    What is the point of the New York Times?
    14 July 2020, 5:50pm

    Earlier today, Bari Weiss resigned from the New York Times and published a devastating letter of resignation on her website (also available here). There will be those who try to pretend that this is no big deal, or that it is just a storm in a journalistic tea-cup: they would be wrong.

    For several generations now the New York Times has been seen as America’s ‘paper of record’. You might have appreciated some aspects of it more than others, and it may have been a little dull, but it was reliable; even necessary. A sort of journalistic fibre. Then at some stage in recent decades, it started to exemplify a rot which has wormed its way through much of the legacy media. Its reporting became unreliable and its comment pages monotone. The paper became increasingly unreadable. If there was one reason above all, it was that it became untrustworthy.

    It first passed through a stage of appearing to believe that its job was to stand equidistant between the facts and the public. Then – and never more so than in the era of its nemesis, Donald Trump – it just came out for a particular side on issue after issue. It stopped being a newspaper and became an organ of opinion for one set of political positions.

    Some time ago I became aware that I no longer trusted it even on issues that I didn’t know about. Because on every issue I did know about, I discovered that the paper was spreading untruths and lies. Take the bizarre animus against Britain (which I have written about a number of times here). It appears that the NYT at some stage made a decision that Brexit had something to do with Trump, and since the NYT hated Trump, it must not just report negatively against Brexit Britain, but campaign against it. Its London ‘correspondents’ must be among the least informed and most campaign-minded journalists in the paper’s history. The misinformation that the NYT has now published against this country is so extraordinary that nobody who actually knows the UK could possibly trust its coverage. And if you see that this is the case with things you do know about, then why would you remotely trust the NYT on things you don’t know about? And at that stage, what is the point of the paper? It’s not as though it is worth reading for the wit.

    Anyhow – after recent sackings at the paper (relating to the publication of a perfectly reasonable opinion piece by Senator Tom Cotton) it became clear that Bari Weiss was one of the last couple of liberal voices (in the true sense) left at the paper. And as you could see from the deranged online behaviour of her colleagues towards her, it was clear she was not going to be long for the role.

    Her resignation letter is damning. She alleges ‘constant bullying by colleagues.’ And in a memorable line she says, ‘Twitter is not on the masthead of the New York Times. But Twitter has become its ultimate editor.’ Ouch.

    Of course there will doubtless now be more bullying and hectoring. All once again done by ‘liberal’ voices presuming that they are acting in the name of good. It is an extraordinary thing this, and in some ways emblematic of the age. Publications like the NYT, who profess to be most opposed to ‘fake news’, continuously turn out to have been the era’s biggest purveyors of the thing they complain of. And campaigning journalists, imagining that they are acting in the name of decency, turn out to behave so indecently that they bully out a minority, dissenting opinion from their ranks.

    Bari Weiss has a bright future ahead of her. The same cannot be said of the paper she has just left.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-is-the-point-of-the-new-york-times-

    1. The New York Times is the paper that invented the Russian Bounty for killing Americans in Afghanistan. It’s just a propaganda mouthpiece devoid of any truth!

  117. Looks like the Cameron/Clegg government was corrupt.. loads of evidence is coming out….

    Political earthquake soon ?

    We’ll see……

      1. ”Goodness me, Holmes, look at these two jobs which David Cameron picked up, one of which means he’s apparently receiving Soros money….”

        ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”

        https://powerbase.info/index.php/David_Cameron

        and..

        ”Inside the mysterious world of AI firm Afiniti which boasts David Cameron and Princess Beatrice as recruits”

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2019/11/02/inside-mysterious-world-ai-firm-afiniti-boasts-david-cameron/

        ”I think both those jobs are called ”funnels”, Watson, and are likely highly paid positions, as indeed is probable in view of Mr Cameron’s stated intent ”to put some hay in the barn”. What would be more logical for him than to accept any offers his billionaire friends might have made him ? Certainly I suspect his ”barn” could be filled up very quickly with ”hay” in view of his apparent contacts. I also note, Watson, that Francois Fillion, former Prime Minister of France, who was also employed by Afiniti alongside David Cameron has recently been convicted of fraud…………

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fillon_affair

        ”Did you also notice that Theresa May received approx $1,250,000 plus expenses recently for just eight free to attend speeches of about one hour each, Holmes ?”

        ”Imho, that looks like another funnel, Watson”, they seem quite popular in certain circles in the Conservative Party as indeed historically in Nu Labor. Perhaps related to the claimed ”leveraging of policy and legislation” by a certain billionaire(s) for ”three decades” no less, as in fact I remarked to Inspector Lestrade and my esteemed client Lord Archibald Lockemup in Pentonville only yesterday morning.”

        ”Now, Watson, if you would be kind enough to engage a hansom, we will be leaving for Davos immediately where I have an important interview with an individual who very likely can help us with our enquiries…..”

      2. How did Nick Clegg land the Facebook Vice President position with a basic salary of $656,000 which could be as much as $6,000,000 with bonuses ?

        https://news.efinancialcareers.com/uk-en/3002680/nick-clegg-facebook-salary

        and buy a $9,000,000 house in California ?

        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/26/nick-clegg-swaps-putney-townhouse-7million-california-mansion/

        Was it a reward for political services rendered to George Soros while in office as likely happened with David Cameron now we know Cameron has Soros money in the bank ?

        Especially as Facebook has loaded up Soros compliant personnel on the censorship board to ensure Soros compliance for billions of worldwide comments.

        As explained here in ”Corruption Chronicles”……..

        https://www.judicialwatch.org/corruption-chronicles/most-of-facebook-censorship-board-has-ties-to-leftwing-billionaire-george-soros/

        What might be a circle of corruption in the Cameron government, imho, looks ever more apparent….

        Then there’s the little matter of Theresa May’s series of eight one hour free to attend speeches for which she received approx $1,250,000 plus expenses….

        Is that a reward for selling government policy while in office ?

        1. Thank you, Polly. At last a few serious links instead of assertions which you used to reply to (when queried) of “It’s up to you to find out” (or words to that effect).

    1. Three women stabbed in Sarpsborg, one dead. No description of the attacker yet. Apparently broke into one house & attacked the occupants. The husband managed to avoid the knife, but his wife was stabbed in the arm.

  119. Brian Cates…

    And now 30+ labs in FL are found to have NOT had their COVID positive test #’s reported accurately. It appears somebody at the state level cooked the numbers. A lab that reported only 7% new positive test cases ended up having that # changed to 76%, etc.

    1. No big surprise but what has emerged is that Rishi should have excluded foreign buyers from the stamp duty holiday.

      1. Should he also have excluded buy-to-let?
        The sale of the house next door should complete within a month or so. Hoping it’s not for renting we had some horrendous renters on the other side a few years ago. Also hoping whoever lives there doesn’t have any blasted garden-fouling cats – this part of the village is overrun with felines.

        1. I’ve had some bad renting neighbours in the past & complaining to the landlord brought no joy, until one tenant went too far & the landlord got a wrap over the knuckles from the council. Since then he has been much more careful in vetting his customers.

          1. The rented house was sold to a family a few years ago. Professional couple with four school-age children in a 2-up, 2-down. Feral would be a kind way to describe the children though mainly because they seem to always be fighting and bellowing amongst themselves. Otherwise, they are friendly! Garden went from being plain but well kept to decidedly wild and overgrown.

          2. The rented house was sold to a family a few years ago. Professional couple with four school-age children in a 2-up, 2-down. Feral would be a kind way to describe the children though mainly because they seem to always be fighting and bellowing amongst themselves. Otherwise, they are friendly! Garden went from being plain but well kept to decidedly wild and overgrown.

          6. Where I used to live, the house next door was sold, and renters moved in. The first lot were ok , then as they moved out and others moved in, they got noisier and noisier. Then one moved out, to be replaced by a woman – she got the whole lot sorted and the house was then sold again, to a couple.

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