Tuesday 15 June: Despite the vaccine success, fear is driving the country into unending Covid restrictions

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/14/lettersdespite-vaccine-success-fear-driving-country-unending/

643 thoughts on “Tuesday 15 June: Despite the vaccine success, fear is driving the country into unending Covid restrictions”

  1. The G7 and the arrogance of Covid theatre. Spiked 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b265bd369f412d99f6cb2d2b05b793bdad8fccb6c443b863aa65b35951086629.jpg

    We know that so many of the Covid rituals are pointless. Has a single life been saved by the ubiquitous elbow bump? Does social distancing in the great outdoors really stave off infection? Is there any point to wearing a mask while walking around, only to take it off as soon as you sit down? And now, thanks to the pictures from the G7, we know that our leaders know these gestures are largely pointless, too. The contrast between the official, staged, ‘Covid-secure’ photos of the G7 leaders and the rest of the footage of them could not be more stark.

    What made the G7 summit snaps all the more galling was that we all knew the prime minister was planning to announce another month of restrictions. Meanwhile, our leaders are only expected to tolerate these restrictions for the duration of a photo-op. It’s time they stopped patronising the public with these phoney Covid gestures, and let people get on with the business of living.

    Morning everyone. Amen to that!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/14/the-g7-and-the-arrogance-of-covid-theatre/

    2. The restrictions are not pointless. The point is to show us who sets the rules and who is bound by them. – Not the same people.
      Know your place, Pleb.

      Sorry. Do I sound bitter?

      2. Well said. The G7 is a perfect example of the future that the ‘elites’ have planned for us. They fly in on private jets, spout pious hot-air about climate change and are served fine food and drink by masked slaves. No rules for them and a jolly old time. Then, back home to make some more rules for the little people to follow.

        1. How else was Biden supposed to get there? There is no Washington to Exeter service and he is 178 years old – well he looks like he is.

          1. They could have just had their business meeting via Zoom, like the rest of us have to. It looked like a massive back-slapping jolly at taxpayers expense to me.

            If people were p@ssed-off about Cummings and his trip to Barnard Castle last year, they should be absolutely furious about politicians and their entourages flying in from all over the world. Don’t they know there’s a pandemic on?

  4. SIR – Six senior Cambridge academics (Letters, June 12) insist, against some evidence to the contrary, that their vice-chancellor, Professor Stephen Toope, is “committed to championing freedom of expression”. My experience lies on the contrary side.

    During the Brexit debate in 2019 I wrote an article criticising an alarmist anti-Brexit statement issued by the Russell Group (which represents Cambridge and other universities). Cambridge had a special section of its website devoted to articles on Brexit – almost all of them hostile. An official told me that those with “current links to Cambridge” could publish on it, and I am an honorary fellow of three Cambridge colleges; but my article was refused, and my requests for a reason were met first with silence, then with the absurd falsehood that Cambridge was not represented by the Russell Group, and finally with a surly dismissive message from the director of communications, Paul Mylrea.

    When I wrote to Professor Toope to complain about Mr Mylrea, he sent my complaint to be investigated by, of all people, Mr Mylrea, while refusing to answer me either then or on subsequent requests.

    Only nine months later, when contacted by Charles Moore on behalf of The Telegraph, did he quickly ask his office to send me a message, which defended the tactic of silence to “shut down correspondence” and said that it would not respond further to anything I wrote.

    That last statement was in some ways the most off-putting of all, as it meant that whatever points I made in reply would simply be ignored, even if they included (as they did) demonstrations of factual errors.

    Silence, misrepresentation and the refusal to consider reasons or facts: these are not tactics that a university should adopt.

    I sympathise with those Cambridge academics who are chafing under this yoke.

    Sir Noel Malcolm
    All Souls College, Oxford

    [foreign editor (1991–1992) of The Spectator, and a political columnist for the Daily Telegraph (1992–1995). He was jointly awarded the T. E. Utley Prize for Political Journalism in 1991.]

    1. The “no further response” tactic is also employed by commercial companies. I have one from the Building Society – a mutual company.

  5. SIR – I am responsible for scrutinising applications made by candidates for corporate engineer status through the Engineering Council. Recently one came from a Cambridge engineering academic. Listed as one of three main objectives for her professional development was “decolonisation activities”.

    Should this be a criterion by which professional engineers are judged? Surely they should be concerned with making things work rather than pulling things down.

    Professor R G Faulkner
    Loughborough, Leicestershire

    Makes one gasp. Is someone going to get a research grant for ‘The decolonisation of pre-stressed concrete’ or somesuch?

    1. Appalling.
      Perhaps she means going to third world countries and dismantling the infrastructure built by British engineers?

  6. An OK boo

    SIR – I learnt on Sunday that it’s wrong to boo England footballers when they “take the knee”, but it’s acceptable to boo the Croatian national anthem.

    Jeremy Thompson
    Braintree, Essex

    1. There is a very good reason why it is acceptable to boo Croatia – it is more than 91% Christian with less than 5% of other religions. I’ll bet they don’t even paint their police cars in rainbow colours or fish refugees out of the Adriatic and put them in first class hotels while their claims for benefits and asylum are quickly processed.

  7. SIR – Lord Young of Graffham wrote of “last-minute moves that saved her [Thatcher’s] 1987 election”.

    He writes that he grabbed me by the shoulders and said; “Norman, listen to me. We’re about to lose this f—ing election.” I certainly remember his excited concern, which I did not share.

    More objectively, in The Times Guide to the House of Commons, June 1987, Robert Worcester of Mori wrote: “The Conservative Party was never in any serious danger” (of losing the election).

    On its next page, the Poll of Polls shows that the Conservative rating never fell below 40 per cent, nor did the Labour rating ever rise above 37 per cent, leading to a final result of Conservative 43 per cent and Labour 32 per cent – a swing to the Conservatives of 2.5 per cent.

    My recollection is that Lord Young had been in America in the initial stage of the election where the UK election might not have been well reported.

    Lord Tebbit (Con)
    Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

    Nice one Norm. “Recollections may differ.”

  8. SIR – If President Emmanuel Macron really intended to suggest only that Northern Ireland was not a “geographical” part of the UK, then by the same token Corsica is not a “geographical” part of France.

    Huw Wynne-Griffith
    London W8

    He reads and plagiarises NoTTLer

    3. If Norn Iron isn’t part of the UK, then neither is Anglesey, the Isle of Wight, Skye, Guernsey, Lundy or any of the other 6000+ islands in the British archipelago.

        1. So you’re saying, Hatman, (© Cathy Newman) that your goldfish self-identifies as a bunch of roses?

          :-))

  9. SIR – The Prime Minister, being a Churchill acolyte, will understand my military analogy, emphasising the necessity during challenging times for pragmatism, courage and risk.

    Had Montgomery listened to his medical team before El Alamein, to the extent the Government is influenced by theirs, he would have cancelled the attack. Too many casualties; aid posts overrun; not enough hospital space; the shadow of further failure. You get my gist.

    Instead, the attack was mounted and the battle won, leading to the defeat of Axis forces in north Africa. Timidity now, as it would have done in 1942, will further undermine morale.

    Variants of one kind or another will come and go for years and, frankly, it’s time to put our shoulders back and get on with our lives, free of the state.

    Richard Drax MP (Con)
    London SW1

    1. A whisper of defiance from the member of the House of Commons? Surely some mistake!

  11. SIR – Tim Stanley is right. I believe 1999 saw the high tide of civilisation, with freedom and progress most in balance.

    Think what we were allowed to say and do. Go on holiday to Egypt? No problem. Use the internet without being scammed or tracked? Fine. Talk to a human being on a customer-care line? Carry drinks on to an aircraft? And, heaven forbid, smoke outside in the open at a railway station?

    And what of freedom of expression? Say the wrong thing now and you’ll be in trouble, even if it is not a crime.

    As Covid restrictions show, all that is required to eliminate democracy is for citizens to do nothing. Our leaders will take care of the rest.

    David Henderson
    East Molesey, Surrey

    1. 334321+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      As Covid restrictions show, all that is required to eliminate democracy is for citizens to do nothing. Our leaders will take care of the rest.

      They do plenty, of damage that is,and the overseeing
      parties count on it.

      Prime example being post 2016, “we” have won the
      victory now leave it the the tories (ino).

  12. TORIES ORDERED TO TAKE DOWN NATIONAL FLAG BY COUNCIL OFFICIAL

    Another week, yet more politically correct idiots intent on creating headlines. This week Guido brings you news from North Tyneside council where a top council official ordered the Tory offices last week to take down their Union Jacks over concerns that, in a publicly funded building, they are “overtly political”. Guido’s not sure why an unelected council official has any right to dictate how the Tory grouping’s room should be decorated…

    Guido’s been sent the message in question from Bryn Roberts, the head of “Law and Governance” at North Tyneside Council, noting the issue and saying he “will make arrangements for them to be removed at the end of the day”

    https://i2.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Bryn-Roberts-Whatsapp-e1623685173526.jpg?resize=800%2C1008&ssl=1

      3. Bryn is a girl’s name in Hindi ब्राइन – he could be ‘one of them!’

  13. TORIES ORDERED TO TAKE DOWN NATIONAL FLAG BY COUNCIL OFFICIAL

    Another week, yet more politically correct idiots intent on creating headlines. This week Guido brings you news from North Tyneside council where a top council official ordered the Tory offices last week to take down their Union Jacks over concerns that, in a publicly funded building, they are “overtly political”. Guido’s not sure why an unelected council official has any right to dictate how the Tory grouping’s room should be decorated…

    Guido’s been sent the message in question from Bryn Roberts, the head of “Law and Governance” at North Tyneside Council, noting the issue and saying he “will make arrangements for them to be removed at the end of the day”

    https://i2.wp.com/order-order.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Bryn-Roberts-Whatsapp-e1623685173526.jpg?resize=800%2C1008&ssl=1

  15. Two secondary school pupils are suspended after ‘ripping up the Koran’ in front of other students as teachers alert police and anti-terror officials. 15 June 2021.

    Two secondary school pupils have been suspended after ‘ripping up the Koran’ in front of other students, after they brought copies of the Islamic holy book to school.

    Teachers alerted police and anti-terrorism officials after the two incidents took place at Fulwood Academy in Preston towards the end of last week.

    In a statement, the school said that the two separate incidents ‘sit deeply at odds with everything we stand for’.

    Schoolchildren are being reported to the Security Services for ripping up a book? What next? The Inquisition? Burning at the Stake?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9685297/Two-secondary-school-pupils-suspended-ripping-Koran-students-Preston.html

    2. There’s never a mention of all teh islamic bullying that goes unpunished in British schools.

  16. Sacked to appease the snowflake sociopaths: Her striking satirical tweet sparked a social media firestorm – and cost her a prestigious newspaper column. But in this fearless and unrepentant essay, JULIE BURCHILL reveals why she won’t be silenced

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/06/14/22/44221979-9686037-image-m-38_1623705447475.jpg
    My language on Twitter was sober, wry and entirely without racist intent. But that never bothers the blue-haired, non-binary screaming mimis who infest the site, who have the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9686037/JULIE-BURCHILL-reveals-wont-silenced.html

    1. I am sure, that the (un)Empoyment for Unfair Dismissal Tribunal will be ‘Not Without Interest’

    2. Hmm. As always, mixed feelings about Julie Burchill. On the one hand, it’s outrageous to sack someone for a joke that isn’t even offensive in Britain.
      On the other hand, she’s parroting the most absurd pro-government nonsense about covid, and actively slandering Naomi Wolf as a “conspiracy theorist” “selling snake oil”, so I can’t find much sympathy for her.

      2. I agree with much of what you say, but anyone who can come up with the phrase “the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi” deserves some credit!

      3. I agree with much of what you say, but anyone who can come up with the phrase “the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi” deserves some credit!

  17. Just had a pop-up

    Firefox as blocked over 20,000 trackers, since June 20211,

    Should I open it?

  18. Happy Tuesday & Good morning all Nottlers, sunny & warm here 24’C in Tel Aviv right now at 08:53 AM . Morning music coming up
    2013 MEDITAÇAO ( A.C.JOBIM ), ANDREA MOTIS Y JOAN CHAMORRO LIVE AT JAMBOREE — Barcelona

    Andrea Motis & Joan Chamorro Quintet
    Featuring Scott Hamilton, Andrea Motis, voz ,trompeta & saxo, Joan Chamorro, contrabass, Scott Hamilton, tenor sax, Ignasi Terraza, piano & Hammond
    Josep Traver, guitarra, steve Pi, drums

    GRABADO en directo al Jamboree, Barcelona,, los dias 13 i 14 d’abril de 2013
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vunw1SurRVc

    2. So why does the Prime Minister place such trust in Professor Whitty? Well, in 2017, Bojo was the Foreign Secretary in charge of the Novichok fiasco. During 2017-18, Whitty was interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser and head of the science and engineering profession in government. During this demonisation of alleged Russian desires to wipe out Britain with Nerve Agents, Whitty chaired the government SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group in Emergencies) and advised COBRA during the “crisis”.

      In the only way he knows, Boris Johnson lied about what the UK Government nerve-agent centre (spookily close to Salisbury where the attack was discovered) had told him about the origin of the chemical. Whitty must have known that it was a Psy-Op: but was it also a “dry-run” for the terrorism used to sell Covid19 as “a deadly killer virus”?

      Morning Stephen. Not a bad sketch of Whitty though I don’t believe that Salisbury was a “Dry run” for the Covid 19 Scam. This said it certainly boosted both May’s and Boris’s confidence that they could say pretty much anything and there would be no come back from either the MSM or the occupants of Westminster!

    3. Whitty – another ‘private’ (Gay boy?) who devotes his professional and spare time to sick children. Despite his father being murdered by Communist Mooslims (Palestinian militant group Fatah) he still has a soft centre for native Africans. Given £31 million for malaria research in Africa by Bill Gates. Couldn’t possibly have ulterior motives for promoting mass vaccinations? Oh no! Definitely not!

  20. Good morning all.

    As we read about Freedom Day being delayed, let us not be downhearted! Our generous overlords have removed the restrictions on numbers at weddings. Of course, they will still need to be ‘Covid-secure’ which means no first dance for the bride and groom, but we should be grateful for such indulgences. Of course, as Janet Daley points out, the fact that the wedding industry has the ear of government but other life events do not has nothing to do with it. The virus knows the reason for your joyous life event, it is not a political sop at all, noooo…,

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/14/boris-right-need-learn-live-covid-not-now/

    A wedding with no dancing. What a strange and joyless place Covid Britain has become.

    2. 334321+ up ticks,
      Morning JK,
      What a strange and joyless place Covid Britain has become.

      The covert “reset” was triggered three decades ago
      via the lab/lib/con coalition and well supported by the
      electorate ever since.

      Seems like the islamic followers society is gaining strength via the coalition & the DOVER campaign.

      If the peoples don’t like it now then they CERTAINLY
      will NOT like the future.

    3. Puritans. Except the controls are for the little people, not the “elite” as evidence from G7 clearly displayed. I’m sure that a ban on alcohol is somewhere in their planning, hence the continued attack on the hospitality industry, but not quite yet.

      1. ‘Carbon taxes’ on meat too I believe. Flights and cars only for the ‘elite.’ This is the future they have in store for us.

        1. Insect (locust/grasshopper) and/or meal worm protein has been rumoured for the plebs. I read that the EU recently declared meal worms fit for human consumption, suspicious or what?. Get rid of red meat production and dairy will follow, ergo, no milk, cheese, yoghurt etc. How many jobs, and lives, would that move destroy?

    4. 50 shades of sharia, JK? Sorry I misdirected this previously.

      Good morning to you!

    5. Police instructions should be to leave weddings to proceed without interference unless there is a public nuisance. No one should be punished for doing what we saw our leaders doing in Cornwall at the weekend.

  21. Biden says Ukraine ‘needs to clean up corruption’ if it wants to become a member of NATO – after President Zelensky said they had been accepted. 15 June 2021.

    President Joe Biden on Monday said Ukraine must clean up corruption and meet other criteria if it wanted to join NATO.

    This is like Hitler complaining about anti-Semitism in London’s East End! Biden is as corrupt an individual; moral, financial, political, as it possible to come across. The worst aspect of this is that there is no counter-narrative; leaders can spout any trash that comes to mind confident that there will be no exposure. The Political World is to all intents and purposes a mirage, a huge fantasy generated by Fake News and the Propaganda of vested financial interests; all served by politicians with neither Scruple nor Conscience. There is probably no way out of this quagmire that does not involve the Destruction of the World.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9686081/Biden-says-Ukraine-needs-clean-corruption-wants-join-NATO.html

    2. I expect he said that with no intention of irony- he probably can’t remember having any involvement there.

      1. Morning Ndovu. I hadn’t considered that but it is certainly possible that Biden’s mental degeneration could lead to him forgetting not only where he is but whole swathes of his memory fading away as his condition advances. That this man should lead the world’s most powerful state tells you something about the situation we find ourselves in!

    3. I think it means “we don’t want Ukraine in NATO” – a rare moment of sense from the west.

  25. The change in symptoms, gone was the cough and the loss of taste and smell, was announced a while ago and the new symptoms certainly resemble a flu or cold. Rebranding any other infection as CV-19 to keep the fear factor in place is awkward as symptoms change/disappear. Did the fear of leaks from the NHS frontline re the latest symptoms prod the NHS hierarchy/government in to making this announcement.
    As we have become aware from government advice, SARS-02 is the most devious of viruses, it could infect people in the most extraordinary ways: after 10 o’clock in a pub but not before; if seated at a table you would be OK but you needed a mask if you stood up; you had to have a substantial meal with a pint of beer to stave off becoming infected; the list goes on. It really is time that more people realised that they have been played by this shower in government.

    https://twitter.com/hughosmond/status/1404522791991492615

    Oh by the way, Hancock moved his lips yesterday and truth was the loser once again.

    https://twitter.com/andrew_allison/status/1404537812612009988

  26. Good morning from a sunny Derbyshire with a pleasant 8°C in the yard.
    A run to Derby to checkup on my step-son and make sure he’s coping is on the cards this morning.

      1. Good morning.
        And Radio 3 has George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No 1 playing, so guess who’s just turned the volume up!

          2. yes everywhere indoors except the airport for outgoing flights , care homes & quarantine wards in hospitals ( we are down to 30 in hospital , down from 1200 at peak & just over 100 are in quarantine at home – all folks who were unvaccinated & most are people who recently returned from abroad )

  28. So Boris is now holding the country to ransom, accept the vaccination or no freedom or economy,
    His MSM will be promoting coercive pressure and division between those that have been vaxxed and those that haven’t.
    Once everyone is vaxxed there still won’t be an easing of restrictions, this is all part of a global reset that is going on until 2030.

    1. As soon as that, Bob3? I would have thought 2050 might be more like it. (Sarc.)

      1. It started off as crap – mikes out of sync; wobbly sets; shouty “presenters”. I watched five minutes then turned it off.

        Has it improved? = has it got any better?

        1. I’ve yet to experience the joy. I’ll report back anon once I’ve watched it.

          3. I am intrigued by your name. I live in Fulmodeston – which is half-way between Barney and Croxton.

            Are you, by chance, a neighbour?

          4. How fascinating. Indeed, I had to look up your references. However the answer is no, sir, I am not a neighbour.

      2. When they switched to the Dear Leader’s speech last night, the sound link did not work. Perhaps better that way for the BP.

    2. The BBC Radio 4 News was rubbishing it this morning with a list of its faults but eventually said that Andrew Neil was a good manager. [ I paraphrase]
      I haven’t been able to watch it yet but Andrew Neil has got plenty of material to get his teeth into. This government needs to be brought to heel before Johnson completes his destruction of the UK.

      1. I recorded last night’s Andrew Neil’s program and have watched it this morning. Still a couple of technical issues but it made a refreshing change from the BS we have been fed for years and years.
        Like all channels, some presenters and presenting styles will not be to everyone’s taste but overall I am hopeful GB News will at the very least bring about some debate and more awareness to the viewers.

    3. I suggest you watch it and see Mr Thomas, Andrew Neil between 8pm and 9pm perhaps to start with. Of course if it past your lights out time, you can record it for later viewing. Then you can make your own mind up.

  30. 334321+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Tuesday 15 June: Despite the vaccine success, fear is driving the country into unending Covid restrictions

    I have a strong feeling even counting on lab/lib/con members support
    the politico overseers are outnumbered by decent
    peoples.

    All that is lacking in the DPs brigade is unity under one banner.

    IT proved a winner on the 24 / 6 / 2016 and would again.

    Defund the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration / paedophile purveyors coalition.

    Mass fund the chosen one / party.

    The time has long past supporting the vote & whinge mode of voting
    giving a close shop party the shout, because the shout is MORE TREACHERY.

  31. “Covid restrictions are great when we still get paid and don’t have to go to work. But not so great when we cannot go on holiday to places like Benny’s Dorm on the Costa Lotta.”

    But the poet Milton had a different take on it:

    But what more oft in nations grown corrupt
    And by their vices brought to servitude
    Than to love bondage more than liberty
    Bondage with ease than strenuous liberty.

    1. Hello Rastus,

      Could you please remind of the verse (is it one of yours) that goes something like
      It’s when he thinks that he is past love
      That’s when he finds his true and last love
      And loves like he has never loved before.

      Is that correct? I do so like it and wanted to write it down.

      2. A Bachelor Gay (Maid of the Mountains)

        “A bachelor gay am I

        Though I suffer from Cupid’s dart

        But never I vow will I say die

        In spite of an aching heart

        For a man who has loved

        A girl or two

        Though the fact must be confessed

        He always swears the whole way through

        To every girl he tries to woo

        That he loves her far the best

        At seventeen he falls in love quite madly

        With eyes of tender blue

        At twenty-four he gets it rather badly

        With eyes of a different hue

        At thirty-five

        You’ll find him flirting sadly

        With two or three or more

        When he fancies he is past love

        It is then he meets his last love

        And he loves her

        As he’s never loved before.

        A girl as you’ve heard of old

        Is a kind of a paradox

        She changes her mind more times I’m told

        Than ever she does her frocks

        And a man’s like a moth around a flame

        For it’s nearly always found

        He burns his wings, but all the same

        The nicest part of Cupid’s game

        Is fluttering round and round

        At seventeen he falls in love quite madly

        With eyes of tender blue

        At twenty-four he gets it rather badly

        With eyes of a different hue

        At thirty-five you’ll find him flirting sadly

        With two or three or more

        When he fancies he is past love

        It is then he meets his last love

        And he loves her

        As he’s never loved before.”

    1. And Macron should remind his new best friend that Alaska and Hawai are considered to be parts of the USA just as the many outre-mer departments are a part of France.

    1. If only they’d landed by dinghy on a Kent beach, they could riot and claim racism.

  34. Rabbits:

    Leading drug companies have announced that live rabbits will no longer be used in scientific experiments.

    Muslims will now be used instead.

    A top scientist has stated that the advantage of using Muslims is they breed just as fast as rabbits, but you don’t get fond of them!

        1. Good morning, Hertslass. (Well, it’s really good night now – 14 hours later.)

  35. 334321+ up ticks,

    Boris Johnson Extends Coronavirus Restrictions for Another Four Weeks

    AKA tory ( ino) party games, remember may the treacherous and her
    nine month delay to combat the unexpected victory and what that has led to ?

    1. Brexit should have been done and dusted within 6 months of the referendum and WTO arrangements in place. As you rightly observe Evila May’s treachery and the duplicity and mendacity of politicians of all the main parties has ensured that we are in the mess we are now in.

      1. 334321+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        ALL still supported by the vote & whinge brigade who, when the sh!te shortly hits the fan and they hear the call of the muezzin nationwide will complain to ALL & sundry that more whinge should have been the order of the day.

      2. 334321+ up ticks,
        R,
        The reason can now be seen why the REAL UKIP was assassinated, under the Batten leadership it was becoming to dangerous.

  36. Gove- only an exceptional event will prevent reopening on the 19th July and I bet he already knows what that will be.

      1. 334321+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        They still have the Midsummer tags yet don’t forget.

          2. I watched the Scottish/Czech game and the commentary was very annoying , particularly the female commentator who rarely ceased chattering away during the game. It might have been BBC Scotland. I stopped watching after the second goal because the commentary was getting on my nerves.

          3. “…the female commentator who rarely ceased chattering away during the game…”

            Like TMS where the cricket interrupts the chatter.

          4. She was staggeringly awful, wasn’t she? She very obviously doesn’t like “dead air” and was determined to fill every available space with inane chatter! Very annoying and unintelligible at times! And I live here!

          6. One halfwitted commentator came out with a gem that Czechia’s second goal would be “the goal of the tournament”. How did the clown work that out? Scotland’s idiot goalie was standing just outside the bloody centre circle when the Czech striker noticed a wide-open and very empty goal! I would have scored from there.

        1. Here’s hoping.

          I think it is the duty of the kneelers to back up their fellow genuflectors in Rugby (lost to all three British Isles sides: Wales, Ireland and Scotland, for the first time in over 40 years) and the cricketers who have lost their first home test series since 2014. It would be deeply treacherous for the footballers to win when the others have lost so abjectly.

          Come on boys. Remember the reward for grovelling is to be beaten – so do your duty and take a damned good thrashing when you go onto the football field. Your country demands that you fail at the same level as the politicians have failed. Would any politician with any integrity or self-respect have agreed to a border in the Irish Sea, the betrayal of British fishermen and the British financial industry? You must show that you can match Boris Johnson for sheer incompetence and flabby cowardice.

      1. Hello Lass. Pulled a tendon or muscle in my right arm playing bowls. Can’t play, arm in a sling and very painful. I can, however, still lift a pint pot with my left arm.😀

        1. Sorry to hear about your right arm, DB. How long is it going to be slinged and isn’t there anything that helps the pain (apart from pints)?

          However, re pints, there is light behind the clouds… :o)

  39. Daily Human Stupidity.

    “Human beings always do the most intelligent thing … after they’ve tried every stupid alternative and none of them have worked.”

    Richard Buckminster Fuller.

    1. Morning Grizz!

      But, but…Bucky Fuller was a full-on globalist who believed that all national boundaries could be wiped from the map, all people could move freely and there should be one world governance sharing all resources. How dumb is that?

      1. Morning, Sue.

        Old Buckyballs might have been looking in the mirror when he made his pronouncement. He’s not far wrong in his observation, though, despite his Globalist credentials.

      2. That would only work if all the other ‘nationals’ were exterminated first… then it would all start over again with the internal ‘tribes’.

  41. The Daily Telegraph hit an all time low in sacking a long established columnist for her tweet saying that it was bizarre that Gringe and Cringe should name their daughter after the head of the detested, racist royal family and that they had missed their chance in not to naming her Georgina Floydina after the black criminal George Floyd.

    Here is Ms Burchill’s response in today’s DM

    Sacked to appease the snowflake sociopaths: Her striking satirical tweet sparked a social media firestorm – and cost her a prestigious newspaper column. But in this fearless and unrepentant essay, JULIE BURCHILL reveals why she won’t be silenced
    By JULIE BURCHILL FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    Ten days ago, having read that the Sussexes (in the latest foray of what I coined ‘The Grabdication’) had named their baby after someone to whom they have brought nothing but grief this year, and that they apparently bought the website lilibetdiana.com two days before the news was made public, I called them out on their sanctimonious virtue-signalling with a pithy tweet: ‘What a missed opportunity — they could have called it Georgina Floydina.’

    What Woker wouldn’t choose to name their child after a martyr to systemic racism rather than after a woman who heads a racist organisation intent on inflicting genetic damage on its hapless members?

    Ms Burchill posted on her Facebook page that she had been let go from her position at the Daily Telegraph +4
    Ms Burchill posted on her Facebook page that she had been let go from her position at the Daily Telegraph

    My language on Twitter was sober, wry and entirely without racist intent. But that never bothers the blue-haired, non-binary screaming mimis who infest the site, who have the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi +4
    My language on Twitter was sober, wry and entirely without racist intent. But that never bothers the blue-haired, non-binary screaming mimis who infest the site, who have the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi

    When an amusing discussion about the likely first words of the new baby ensued (baby Archie having blessed us with ‘Drive safe!’ and ‘Hydrate!’) I suggested ‘Free Palestine!’

    I can’t stress enough how much I deplore the murder of George Floyd: if I made the laws of the U.S., I would unhesitatingly hand out the death penalty to the policeman who killed him.

    What I was mocking was the type of people who — like H&M — live in gated communities while espousing BLM’s politics of social upheaval, without giving any thought to the damage that pro-BLM riots do to poor and black Americans.

    ‘Defund the Police’, for example — a slogan shrieked by BLM’s Marxist leaders in the wake of Floyd’s death — causes huge harm to vulnerable minorities, as the orgy of looting and violence in U.S. cities such as Portland, Oregon, has shown.

    My language on Twitter was sober, wry and entirely without racist intent. But that never bothers the blue-haired, non-binary screaming mimis who infest the site, who have the attitude of Violet Elizabeth Bott if she’d joined the Stasi.

    In 2015, I wrote: ‘This is the age of the Cry-Bully, a hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper. They are everywhere, these duplicit Pushmi-Pullyus of the personal and the political.’

    They were soon flocking to accuse me of racism, but as they probably accuse the milkman of racism for daring to deliver only white milk, I thought no more about it and went out to stimulate the economy.

    Imagine my surprise when I returned to Twitter the following morning to find I was ‘trending’. When I was a girl, trending would have indicated something pleasant, like scoring a new chain-belt from Chelsea Girl.

    Now it means being hunted by a bunch of inadequates waving their pitchforks in cyberspace to compensate for a lack of bulk in other departments, from the brain downwards.

    People all around the world were calling me a racist — I’d even made Newsweek! I’ve always been an attention-whore, but this orgy was too out of hand even for me.

    The fact that I had called the baby ‘It’ seemed to trigger the snowflake sociopaths particularly, so I put that straight, posting: ‘I called the baby it as a nod to non-binary BS — and if you think you can make me respect a violent criminal who once held a gun to a pregnant woman’s stomach, you’re in for a very long wait. Have a good time with your pearl-clutching life-wasting woo-woo, clowns!’

    As it turns out, I was wrong about this — Floyd was convicted of threatening a woman at gunpoint during an armed robbery in 2007, but there is no evidence to suggest she was pregnant.

    And, to be fair, after his release from prison in 2013, he did become a Christian, post anti-violence videos to social media and volunteer with charities — even if he struggled to hold down a job.

    In the meantime, my newspaper, the Telegraph, asked me to write about the American academic Dr Naomi Wolf being suspended permanently from Twitter for spreading anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the arrival of their second child this month +4
    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced the arrival of their second child this month

    As I wrote the column, I thought of my own current kerfuffle and I wondered, not for the first time, if I should jump before I was pushed.

    I felt a jolt of sheer envy at the thought of all the life Dr Wolf would get back — even if she would spend most of it looking at nutty videos on YouTube.

    That would be the way to do it — bow out like a smug old Frank Sinatra rather than having to be led away by the authorities because you live in a loopy-loo land of your own, in which you’re making such a racket you’re disturbing others, as had happened to Wolf for selling snake oil on our mutual drug of choice. There’s the rub.

    When I call Twitter a drug, it felt more intense than cocaine, which I took for 30 years and gave up overnight five years ago.

    I don’t believe in addiction — it’s just a word that people use when they’re too weak to take responsibility for their actions — yet here I was, craving a hit whenever I was separated from my laptop.

    Surely it was time to stop? When I returned to the scene of the thought-crime, I was still trending — and my supporters and detractors were going at it like corgis on crack.

    All the usual bottom-feeders had come out of the sewers to taunt me about my son’s suicide.

    And although I feel oddly impervious to this (with monstrous detachment, I found myself correcting their cretinous spelling and grammar — ‘you’re ded son’ — rather than reacting in the approved manner), many of my followers were becoming upset as they, too, had experienced loved ones taking their own lives.

    One very young lady in particular was so protective of me and seemed so distressed on my behalf that I finally felt emotion, wondering what she’d been through to make her feel that way.

    I went to the Deactivate page — and I clicked. A decade of boasting and beastliness disappeared!

    ‘I’ve come off Twitter!’ I told my husband, and we had the most gorgeous evening. I didn’t miss it at all, and when I got home felt no need whatsoever to reactivate. I was free!

    A bit too free, it turned out. Two days later — last Tuesday — I got the heave-ho from the Telegraph, my innocent quip having gone viral and been denounced as ‘disgusting’ and ‘despicable’.

    A barrister — the mother of mixed-race children! — who had joined my merry online throng was suspended from her job for saying that Meghan should have named the baby after her mother, Doria, or maybe her best buddy Oprah — ‘Doprah’ being a compromise. At least I had company on the Naughty Step.

    While this was happening, the naughty cricketers’ tale was unfolding, wherein young athletes including Ollie Robinson were being lambasted over tweets they had posted as teenagers.

    Their excuse was youth — but what was mine? Well, for a start, humour is rarely gentle and when it is, it’s rubbish; I do wonder how Dorothy Parker’s acid tongue would have fared if she were starting out today.

    As with much of wokeness, there seems to be a sexist and misogynist element, in this instance towards witty women who have a savage streak.

    Another ‘excuse’ — really, just a fact — is that I grew up in wilder times, when anyone could say anything to anyone without them running to tell Teacher.

    I went from the English working-class straight into journalism at 17; that’s got to make you tough. I despise the current wisdom which fetishises feelings and believes that vulnerability makes you virtuous.

    It doesn’t; it makes you self-centred, boring and wet. I was formed in a time when being offended was something to mock rather than respect; when a cat may look at a king, or a bitch diss a duchess.

    I’m not upset in the least about losing my Telegraph column. I’ll always be grateful to them for ending my Wilderness Years; however, I’d be lying if I said that I hadn’t often moaned to my husband about them rejecting my more provocative ideas and giving me more pedestrian topics — which I did splendidly anyway.

    I even thought about resigning a couple of times, so I’d be a hypocrite to wail about being sacked.

    But generally, for journalism, and for young writers with spirit, it’s a very bad thing indeed — and it’s been happening for quite some time, since the unique interviewer Lynn ‘Demon’ Barber was sacked by the Sunday Times in 2018.

    Newspapers with no original voices will decline even more rapidly than they would anyway in the digital age.

    It’s ironic that a conservative newspaper which castigates cancel culture cancelled me for castigating wokery. (Sounds like a tongue-twister!)

    Of all my sackings this is the most illogical; all the people who demanded my sacking would never dream of buying the Telegraph anyway.

    We live in an age of cultural insanity, a topsy-turvy land where men are women, harassment is justice and the Left are jostling to tug their forelocks and call for those of us who criticise royalty to be punished.

    As Sex Pistol John Lydon put it: ‘I never thought I’d see the day when the Right would become the cool ones giving the middle finger to the Establishment and the Left become the snivelling self-righteous ones going around shaming everybody.’

    I grew up being told ‘You can’t say that!’ by bourgeois people older than me: as a sexagenarian, little has changed except the fact that the bourgeois bed-wetters are now younger than me.

    Woke is the revenge of the dullard on the wit, the curtain-twitcher on the hedonist, the wallflower on the whirling dancer. I may be sacked, but no sackcloth and ashes for me. I’m looking forward to a gorgeous summer in Brighton, writing for anyone who’ll have me.

    I can also be my outrageous self on my new Substack subscription account, Notes From The Naughty Step — for which, incidentally, I briefly revisited Twitter in order to post a link. I felt no urge to hang around — I’ve kicked the habit!

    In the autumn, I’ll be back with my book, Welcome To The Woke Trials. And thanks to Twitter, the Telegraph and a pair of hypocritical fibbers whose fantasy land is so fragile brilliant journalists (me) must be silenced in order to maintain the illusion — it will have a whole new ending.

    1. She might also wish to hand out the death penalty to the drug dealer that got Floyd to ingest all those drugs and took the Fifth Amendment.

  43. 334321+ up ticks,
    Thinking on it there is a very powerful tool a unified peoples can use TODAY if a mind to, boycott en masse any named product / issue a list of BIG corps, with a promise of YOUR corps name WILL come off
    of the business list for X amount of weeks.

      1. 334321+ up ticks,
        Morning AWK,
        Exploding with joy,
        On par with ” giving your loved one an, exploding waistcoat for eid will go down a bomb”.

  45. Joe Biden to put on show of Western strength in Brussels ahead of Vladimir Putin meeting

    Joe Biden will use summit talks in Brussels to put on a show of Western strength ahead of his showdown with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday.

    Mr Biden will meet Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, and Charles Michel, the European Council president, for the first EU-US summit since 2014.

    When exactly were Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel elected by the people of Europe? Just who do they represent? What military force do they command? On whose behalf do they speak? Why were they at the G7?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/joe-biden-put-show-western-strength-brussels-ahead-vladimir/

  46. Foreign Affairs Select Committee today…
    Subject: Situation in Belarus and the FCDO’s response
    Witness(es): Victoria Fedorova, Head of Legal Initiative, Belarusian Human Rights NGO; Philippe Joseph Sands, QC, Professor of the Public Understanding of Law, Faculty of Laws, University College London, Samuel and Judith Pisar Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard Law School, British and French Lawyer, Matrix Chambers
    Witness(es): Dr Nigel Gould-Davies, Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia, International Institute for Strategic Studies; Andrius Kubilius MEP, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament
    Witness(es): Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Leader of the Belarusian Opposition
    An interesting witness is Andrius Kubilius MEP.Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs,European Parliament.
    But Andrius is so much more…He’s the former Prime Minister of Lithuania (with a population the size of Birmingham) from 2008-2012.
    Lithuania,where the Belarus “opposition ” are encamped and,if i’m not mistaken,Mr Navalney’s organisation is based.
    I’ll bet the area around the US embassy in Vilnius is a busy place.

    So,all you witnesses…come and tell us what we want to hear!

  47. Today Tuesday June 15th 2021 is “Freedom Day” here in Israel
    https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/masks-to-be-allowed-on-public-spaces-starting-tomorrow-health-ministry-671028

    Israel unmasks: Face-coverings no longer required in enclosed spaces
    People in coronavirus isolation who are on their way to their quarantine location are still obligated to wear masks, as well as passengers on flights.
    Israelis are no longer required to wear masks in enclosed spaces, a year and three months after the public was instructed to do so amid the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
    Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Chezy Levy signed an amendment to the Public Health Order on Monday evening, which abolishes the obligation to wear a mask in closed spaces as of Tuesday, June 15.
    With the signing of the order, businesses and venues around the country will be able to resume operating as they did before the pandemic, as masks will no longer be required in places of commerce, workspaces, educational

    Free at last, free at last !
    A face mask is seen on the street in Jerusalem amid the coronavirus pandemic, on February 2, 2021.
    (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/137a39be5ef8a6219fd6166c5fc4734f959d6e40bf64dd29f65b72cb344ca326.jpg

    1. Interesting, Hatman.

      Are there Covid-fanatics in Israel who will carry on masking and keep apart notwithstanding the lifting of the rules?

      1. Unlikely Bill – we had a few left wing & other crackpot anti-vaxxers attending demos months ago but that all stopped when the results of the mass vaccination campaign proved that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and in general the public did not buy the anti-vax conspiracy theory that spread in the USA, UK & other countries where the Globalists successfully used reverse psychology to get the right against vaccination

          1. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-begins-coronavirus-vaccination-campaign-for-12-15-year-olds-1.9878193

            Israel has begun vaccinating teenagers aged 12 to 15 against COVID-19, following the publication of a promising study that demonstrates the vaccine is not as harmful as initially thought for young males.
            There are 600,000 12-15 year-olds in Israel, and 10,000 vaccine appointments have been booked for children in the age group so far.

            The Health Ministry announced the campaign will go ahead last Wednesday, after a study on a possible link between the vaccine and heart inflammation in young males, a condition known as myocarditis, found that the risks of myocarditis are minor compared with those of COVID-19.

            According to the study’s findings, which were delivered to the Health Ministry yesterday, the second dose of the COVID vaccine was linked to cases of myocarditis in males aged 16-30, with the risk decreasing with age. Most myocarditis cases linked to the vaccine were mild and lasted only a few days.
            The Health Ministry’s decision was made after a conference between the ministry’s immunization committee and the epidemic taskforce. The Health Ministry also decided to immediately allow the vaccination of youngsters with underlying medical conditions, those who live with relatives who are at a higher risk from the coronavirus, as well as youngsters who will be travelling abroad.

      2. Probably some of the ‘oppressed’ Arab bints whose male owners have unaccountably chosen to live in Satan’s very own country.

    1. Don’t you mean the £billions deliberately provided to cronies to eventually line the pockets of the MPs and civil servants authorising the giveaway.

  51. After all the hype,its NOT a meeting between Putin and Biden!
    To be honest,i never thought it would.

    When Presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden meet in Geneva on Wednesday for their eagerly awaited summit, they will discuss a wide range of topics, including coronavirus, the war in Donbass, and the fight against cybercrime.
    That’s according to Yury Ushakov, a Russian diplomat and long-time aide of Putin on foreign policy matters, who announced the plan for the summit on Tuesday. The two heads of state are due to meet at 1pm local time at Geneva’s grand and historic Villa La Grange.

    The meeting will be the first encounter between the two presidents since Biden ascended to his post earlier this year. Alongside the two leaders will be their closest advisers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov.

    According to Ushakov, the Russian delegation will also include Anatoly Antonov, the Russian ambassador to Washington, as well as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov, among others.

        1. But most of the Americans were sane enough to vote for Trump – it is only due to duggery around the skulls that Biden became president.

    2. Did Biden without realizing his mic was on promise Putin that he will be more flexible with Russia after he gets elected for the 2nd term just like the promise Obama made to Putin?

      1. “MOSCOW — It’s known as the “special highway” — a wide, flat road, with a lane down the middle, that links the Kremlin with President Vladimir V. Putin’s residence in the pine woods, 14 miles outside of Moscow.

        Reserved by law for emergencies, the median lane is used mostly by Russia’s wealthy and privileged to bypass traffic. To have access to the lane has become a status symbol, the main currency in Russia today.”

        2. Formerly known as Zil lanes.
          Didn’t Brown propose something similar for the road to Heathrow?

      1. Sadly, this seems to be the only way to get the government’s attention – let alone any action.
        As the poll tax riots showed us 30 year ago.

      2. Not good to see but a lot less threatening than Gary Kibble’s enemies…

        1. Gary Kibble is the headteacher of Batley Grammar – he issued a craven apology when one of his teachers used a reference to the Charlie Hebdo cartoon.

      1. I thought he was being got at because he was wearing a mask – and none of the mob were.

      2. That’s wrong. At the end of the day we’ll solve this – and anything like it -not through violence and verbal but dignity and communication.

    6. We were amused to discover that Mr Hancock’s official car is a BMW.

      British cars not good enough for The Elite?

      1. Trouble is, Janet, that apart from sporty marques like Morgan, I’m hard pushed to identify a British Car. We sold them to the Krauts and Chinks.

    7. That’s just stupid. He’s not responsible for it, he’s just a bloomin journalist. What he says might be unpopular but chasing the man down the street is idiotic, immature and daft. It’s just intimidation by not very bright people.

    1. Happy Tuesday Rik, first the Pfizer vaccine is as safe as vaccines for other diseases are, second Epstein was under very effective 24 hour surveillance by Hillary’s hit team!

    2. I wondered if the Danish footballer Christian Eriksen had been for his jab just a few weeks before his collapse on the pitch.

      1. There are conflicting accounts, but surely if the Euros involve travelling to foreign stadia, then all involved would have to be vaccinated.

  55. There is so much guff talked about wearing masks to protect from the covid virus.

    The covid virus is physically so small that if one were to make a mask with a mesh fine enough to stop the virus, it would also stop one breathing.

      3. He’s the Foreign Secretary, the third most senior Cabinet member after the PM and Chancellor of the Exchequer, I believe. And yet through all the last sixteen month’s upheaval he’s been very much out of the picture. On his rare appearances he hasn’t been very convincing and has cocked up at least twice, this latest episode being the second that I can recall. Is he not a true believer in the direction of travel of the government? In the past I always thought that he sounded interested and quite rational on issues but now he seems to have all the enthusiasm of a ventriloquist’s dummy.

    3. Or…if a virus were the size of a golf ball, the latter would be almost 10 miles in diameter.

    4. Please see my similar comment of last year. Why is it that facts, basic, unarguable scientific facts are being shoved behind the curtains and under the carpet? We see, from a couple of decisions made in respect of Cinderella and Wimbledon Final, that neither the PM or any member of the Cabinet has the guts to drive lockdown as it has been driven. This is, aside of any other indications, highly suggestive that the driving force is coming from somewhere else.

      1. Thank you, Horace, did that comment last year include the graphic shewing that even three masks wouldn’t stop the little blighter?

        If so, I’d appreciate a copy, please.

        1. Ooh… No, I’ve not seen that graphic. I did see the smoking man a week ago or so. The point is that despite all the facts being around and available everywhere, except the MSM, the majority are still wearing masks. Moreover if the information on masks is transparently untrue, what faith can we put in the things that we cannot check, such as the safety and efficacy of vaccines?

    1. Hang on… if you get seriously ill you go to hospital. The intent is to prevent people using the NHS, or to ensure the NHS has spare beds for people who might need them?

      Surely – and just throwing this out – isn’t that the responsibility of NHS capacity planning? You know, to ensure there are enough beds? As if they can’t properly plan then… shouldn’t they be doing something else?

  57. A belated thank you for your kind words on my depressed relative. He’s perked up substantially despite the disappointment of his support group’s postponement due to Johnson’s lockdown continuation (I spoke to an organiser and he sounded quite upset at the delay; reading between the lines, they rely on government and lottery funding and fear repercussions if they defy government instructions).

    I’m optimistic that he will be well enough to return to his place at the weekend and travel to us every other week until his normal life returns. I’m lucky to have a supportive wife; she’s perked up having a new purpose. Also, the group organiser passed his details onto others in the group, albeit after a pfaff over data protection, and some have agreed to meet up informally.

    I hope to have the time to be back here regularly after the weekend. Reading and posting here helps to keep me sane.

    Cheers all,

    D

    1. Keep us posted. The government now just disgusts me and has betrayed people like your friend.
      This morning, my hairdresser suddenly realised she wasn’t wearing a mask and hurriedly put one on.
      I hadn’t noticed and told I wasn’t bothered, but she wears one for fear of someone peering through her shop window and grassing on her to the authorities.
      When I remarked that it was like East Germany, she admitted that her husband had said the same thing.

    2. All the best to you and to your depressed relative. It is an awful affliction.
      Someone in my family is long term depressed.

    3. Best wishes, Dale. Depression is a terrible thing. So many necessary services have been suspended “due to Covid”. I’ve just been sent a list of Age UK respite groups – but it’s no use because none of them is meeting “dtc”.

      1. Had a very brief visit from North Yorkshire family farming younger members .. so sweet and nice to see them, they commented on the heat , traffic , huge volumes of visitors to campsites etc , difficulty getting bookings .

        Boris has betrayed the farmers .. making life very difficult , and not worthwhile for the youngsters who will inherit vast acres of farmland eventually.

        The young man also commented on the swathes of illegals who are coming into the country .. and their dietary requirements are upsetting many farmers who rear good animals , but are then sold on to an aweful death .

        The young man commented that the illegals are almost now at invading army stage , and even his part of North Yorkshire hasn’t escaped the diversity problems that have wrought havoc on many towns .

        I thoroughly enjoyed seeing them and their little toddler daughter , and gave them some little gifts to take back home.

        People always say “Thank you so much, but you really shouldn’t have , and I said but I wanted to, and in particular there will be something for you to remember me by” and of course the little family was no exception .

        Why on earth did I say such a gloomy thing like that ?

        We are living in times of great uncertainty , and that little bit of fear in side seems to be truly embedded in Moh and myself.

        I am being silly, of course . (As usual)

  62. Do not adjust your sets. Anyone tuning in to see Hungary take on Portugal in Euro 2020 will be confronted by the rare thrill of a capacity sporting crowd. No computer trickery, no holograms, no artificial soundtrack, just the fabulous Puskas Arena playing host to 61,000 football supporters as Cristiano Ronaldo and the European champions launch the defence of their title against the home nation in Budapest. The Hungarian FA have taken the decision to pack their national stadium for its four Euro 2020 fixtures.

    4. Suspect the Hungarians won’t be grovelling to Marxism. Think the crowd will let the Portugal team know of their displeasure if they try it.

  63. OK “I’m Spartacus Lloyd Webber!” Let that be our cry, each and every one of us.
    Let some entrepreneur start selling Andrew Lloyd Webber masks and we can all wear one. That will demonstrate to the government exactly what we think and the options that we prefer, surely?

  64. In the report of the ripping of the Koran, this paragraph caught my attention:

    In a joint letter to parents and carers sent out on Sunday, June 13, Principal Dave Lancaster and Joan Dean, Chair of Governors, said it is ‘not our intention to hide or shy away from these acts and we can reassure everyone that we will work together to further strengthen our community and build on our deep commitment to inclusion, diversity and equality’.

    A teacher who gets down with the kids by telling them to “Call me Dave” is bad enough but I wonder if he’s ever done any research on the inclusion, diversity and equality of an Islamic society. And clearly ‘Headmaster’ isn’t inclusive enough.

    This is the modern world.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9685297/Two-secondary-school-pupils-suspended-ripping-Koran-students-Preston.html

  65. I am off for a spell. The Arts Society has a chap giving a talk about Giles (the cartoonist, not the farmer).

    Back later.

  68. Phew , yes it is a warm day ..

    The tourists are still flocking down from Covid areas. a woman was killed at Durdle Door yesterday , she fell down a crumbling cliff ,

    2. Does any woman viewing those photos not have a sneaking desire to try that in the privacy of her own home??

    4. Safer than using two bricks – don’t have to worry about ‘banging’ your thumbs.

    5. Gosh – I expect Mrs Murrell would like to be able to that to Wee Eck’s heid…

  70. BBC Newsnight presenter chased by anti-lockdown mob. 15 June 2021.

    It appears there was a nasty atmosphere down on Whitehall yesterday, where an anti-lockdown demonstration took place. Footage has emerged today of the BBC Newsnight presenter Nick Watt being pursued by an unpleasant mob at the event, with a group screaming at the journalist and calling him a ‘traitor’. Eventually, Watt was forced to run away from the group and finally found refuge behind a line of police.

    Update: Earlier footage of the incident appears to show that the police did nothing to protect Watt from being harassed. Instead, officers stood by as the presenter was chased on the doorstep of Parliament.

    What it is to be popular hey?

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/bbc-newsnight-chased-by-anti-lockdown-mob

  71. A comment in the Daily Fail:

    The BBC – Where liars go when they can’t get a job in politics or law.

    2. But Ped, the Palace of Westminster is choc full of liars – or would be if they got up off their backsides and went to work.

      1. That’s why they can’t get jobs there, it is already full of liars. They do employ many others in government and the Civil Service but there is only room for so many.

  72. That’s me back from Derby!
    Stepson decided to get a new mobile from TESCO’s and after he bought it we went for a mug of tea so i could have a look at it and get the thing going.
    Bloody thing didn’t have a flaming SIM card, so traipsed back to TESCO’s to find out why.
    We were given a new SIM and, as my parking time was running short, SS went to ask his neighbour to help him get it ready for use.
    He’s just phoned me up. Apparently the person on the TESCO customer service desk put the bloody phone back into the box without the chuffing back cover!

  73. Hungary passes law banning LBGT content in schools. 15 June 2021.

    Hungary’s parliament has passed a law banning LGBT content in schools, as Viktor Orbán’s ruling party intensified its campaign against gay rights.
    The national assembly passed the legislation by 157 votes to one, after MPs in the ruling Fidesz party ignored a last-minute plea by one of Europe’s leading human rights officials to abandon the plan as “an affront against the rights and identities of LGBTI persons”    .

    Good on Orbán! This will send the EU into one of its PC tantrums!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/15/hungary-passes-law-banning-lbgt-content-in-schools

        1. As we have seen…when they don’t get their own way they go all over fascist.

      1. Hungary is a wonderful place to holiday. Beautiful countryside and the Cities are safe to walk around. Oh, and the beer is cheap !

      2. So do I VOM. It tells you a great deal that there is no one like him in the West!

        1. Unlike a great many of our MP’s and Ministers and BBC journalists, Victor Orban can walk the streets with a minimal escort. Mostly to stop the crowds from crushing him accidently.

          Chew on that Hancock…….

      1. That is just obscene. Children have no need for such details. As for them being taught about all the alleged different ‘genders’ at young ages, words fail me.

    4. It isn’t ‘against gay rights’ it just not indoctrinating children about it.

      The guardian is just being disingenuous.

    5. Orban seems to be the only leader with balls in the EU. When does he and Hungary leave.

    1. In its own way, the Mirror is as bad as the Express. ‘Rampaging’, FGS…

      1. Daily Mail is just as bad. ‘People reacted with fury’…no they didn’t. ‘People were outraged’…no they weren’t.

    2. Does the editor want to keep tourists away from his holiday home or something? Pathetic!

    3. Cornwall, eh? Now let me see – didn’t they have a massive influx of unmasked, non quarantined, freebie seekers from Amber countries just recently!?

  75. I note much hysteria,moaning wailing and gnashing of teeth over the treatment of Nick Watts a scumbag traitor political journalist of the Al-Beeb

    Suck it up churnalists,after all “It was a largely peaceful protest”

    1. Surely there wasn’t enough looting and burning for it to be “largely peaceful?”

  77. Small things are often very pleasing. We have a fig tree in a pot in the bathroom. It arrived as a stick in a Tesco pot, not much more than a foot tall. We repotted it about ten years ago. It was in a medium sized pot until a couple of weeks ago. It had long outgrown it and it needed to be repotted. The plant is now seven feet tall but was looking a bit sparse and bare. It should have been repotted a few years ago. It was not really possible to obtain a suitable pot until two weeks ago.
    We then repotted it into a much bigger plastic one with fresh compost. Then it would not stand up as it was unbalanced. We got a heavy earthenware pot from the garden. A pot that was chipped and broken all round the rim and was empty.
    The new pot was wrestled into the heavy pot and the result is stable. We had had to cut away a pad of air roots including some live ones.
    I was a bit worried that it would not survive. However, it has perked up and there has been an overall flush of new leaves. It is looking good. We are pretty pleased.

  78. Cancel Culture: Cider Company Pulls Ads From Anti-Woke GB News Network

    The Swedish cider producer Kopparberg has announced that it will be pulling advertisements from the recently launched ‘anti-woke’ GB News after left-wing activists compiled a list of the network’s advertisers to boycott.

    Following the initial broadcast of GB News by former BBC presenter Andrew Neil, leftists began a Twitter campaign to target their advertisers.

    On Monday, the Twitter user Lloyd Hardy compiled a list of GB News advertisers including Kellogs, Starbucks, Google, Benadryl, and Kopparberg, among others.

    Hardy said that the companies must “stop funding hate [and] propaganda, stop advertising or we stop buying,” pointing to the networks decision to interview Brexit leader Nigel Farage.

    “Tell them we need #HopeNotHate, tell them they must stop IMMEDIATELY to make it right,” he urged his 11.9 thousand followers.
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/06/15/cancel-culture-cider-company-pulls-ads-from-anti-woke-gb-news-network/

    1. In a bizarre business move, Swedish cider company Kopparberg has suspended all their GB News advertising after a left-wing Twitter user complained they’d hosted Nigel Farage as a guest. Guido has no doubt Kopparberg will also be suspending ads for BBC, ITV and Sky, who have all interviewed Nige’ on numerous occasions…

      If boycotts are Kopparberg’s thing, Guido can only oblige and encourage its readers to abandon the Swedish brand. Guido will instead happily recommend several British cider companies that won’t leave customers with such a bad taste in their mouth…

      Dunkertons black fox organic cider, is a delicious cider from the Cotswolds. The perfect drink to enjoy throughout this glorious British summer
      Jack Ritesparkling cider will go down a treat with friends on the July 19th
      Henderson’s Toffee Applecider is the brew for readers with a sweet tooth
      Brexit Bellevie is a beautiful, refreshing drink that champions the cause close to co-conspirators’ hearts. Readers could crack open a bottle in celebration of today’s trade deal with Australia…

      1. Write to Tim Martin,’Spoons sell a lot of this stuff,time to find a new supplier

      2. If you don’t like Kopparberg intrusion into politics, don’t buy it.

        Boycotting Walkers crisps has had a successful outcome.

        You all have a choice!

          3. I like Harry’s too. What annoyed me most about Gillette was every time they brought out a new razor they dumbed down the old one. Probably using a grade of steel slightly lower.

      3. If you don’t like Kopparberg intrusion into politics, don’t buy it.

        Boycotting Walkers crisps has had a successful outcome.

        You all have a choice!

      1. Aldi do an excellent alternative, so that’s what my family will be getting in future! Arrogant blooming Swedes!

        1. The Swedes make an abomination called “pear cider” which contains apple juice! A proper cider-type drink made from pears is called perry and is only made in Herefordshire and Somerset. The real stuff, which contains only the juice of perry pears (no fillers) is divine but the pastiche junk is undrinkable, no matter where it is made.

          1. Oops Mr Grizz! What is up with the bluddy Swedes? IKEA have just joined the boycott! Along with Grolsch and Nivea and the Open University!! What a hopeless bunch of wets!

          2. These lists of scaredy cat companies make it easy to avoid their products. There are more of us than the wokists.

          3. IKEA, be on notice that that which we collected yesterday in Norwich is the very last IKEA item that I shall ever buy.

        2. The Swedes make an abomination called “pear cider” which contains apple juice! A proper cider-type drink made from pears is called perry and is only made in Herefordshire and Somerset. The real stuff, which contains only the juice of perry pears (no fillers) is divine but the pastiche junk is undrinkable, no matter where it is made.

        3. I make my own but it doesn’t last long, hopefully this year i have found someone with a usually well laden tree, who never uses his apples. Help your self he told me a few months ago.
          I was having to use cookers for last three years and because it can be sour, i needed quite a bit of help with brown sugar but it was a challenge to be dryiiinnnkklink a pint and still be standing. It was round 15%

          2. Goodness gracious, Mr Effort.

            I’ve not had a pint of Robbo’s since the 1970s. It was popular then in a number of Peak District pubs, especially one in Great Longstone (the name of which escapes me), which was a Robbo’s tied house. Happy days.

    3. Why do they so fear a dissenting opinion? Do they not realise that trying to silence dissenting voices is the very epitome of fascism?

      The Left never change. They are evil through and through.

    4. To paraphrase Orwell…

      When telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. Boycott all companies that kowTow.

    2. “Brexit is done and that’s good …..”

      says Farage in this interview.

      Bollocks.

      Why did Farage say the deal was good when financial services, the NI Protocol and British control over fishing were not properly sorted out and why is he never questioned about this or about him allowing sitting Conservative remainers to be unopposed at the 2019 general election?

    3. “Brexit is done and that’s good …..”

      says Farage in this interview.

      Bollocks.

      Why did Farage say the deal was good when financial services, the NI Protocol and British control over fishing were not properly sorted out and why is he never questioned about this or about him allowing sitting Conservative remainers to be unopposed at the 2019 general election?

  80. Jacob Rees-Mogg DEFENDS England fans who boo ‘Marxist’ players for taking the knee claiming it is ‘pushback against wokeness’ – despite Boris Johnson urging fans to get behind the team at Euro 2020
    Rees-Mogg said fans were opposed to the ‘underlying political message’ of BLM
    Comments suggest Cabinet rift over the anti-racist protests by England team
    Yesterday Priti Patel rebuked by PM for accusing players of ‘gesture politics’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9688591/Jacob-Rees-Mogg-defends-England-fans-boo-players-taking-knee.html

    1. J Rees-Smug has been very quiet lately. Perhaps he is plotting…

      Priti Awful just sees a band-wagon and leaps aboard. Anything to deflect the public from her appalling inactivity as Home Sec.

      1. I had great hopes for Rees Mogg – but he must have got wind of the fact because he wnet off the boil as did other people in whom I had some hopes such as Steve Baker.

    2. The bottom line is that woke England teams lose when they kneel in honour to a violent black American criminal. Look at the England rugby team this year; look at the cricket team. I expect the football team to lose shortly.

  81. Lovely male names on here will soon become a rarity .. and names like mine Maggie Lizzie , are so old fashioned now.

    The most popular baby names of 2021 revealed: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are in good company as Lily steals the top spot – while Muhammad is still number one for boys
    Top British baby names of 2021 have been revealed by report from BabyCentre
    Lily was the most popular name for girls and Muhammad remained top for boys
    Royal-inspired name Elizabeth appeared on the list as a new entry this year
    Sophia, Olivia remained in top five for girls alongside Noah and Oliver for boys
    By MONICA GREEP FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 14:32, 14 June 2021 | UPDATED: 16:58, 14 June 2021

    1. Why are people so painfully unimaginative and slaves to fad when choosing names for their offspring?

      2. Hasn’t it always been the same. Think of the number Johns, Arthurs, Margarets and Elizabeths around the late 30s through to the 50s.

        1. It’s the same in all countries, Alf. Sweden is full of Lars’s, Pers, and Svens. Not a Miguel, Giovanni, Pushpinder, Bruce or Hakimoto anywhere to be seen.

      3. We have stuck to family names: my father was called Christopher, Caroline’s father was called Lourens – our first son is Christopher Lourens; my paternal grandfather was called Henry, Caroline’s maternal grandfather was called Pieter – our second son is Henry Pieter.

        1. Us too.
          Old-fashioned names that weren’t either in or out of fashion, didn’t make an embarrassing word out of the initials, and, in the case of Firstborn, has been in the family for endless generations. Second Son was named after SWMBOs grandfather, one of the nicest men you ever met.

  82. Russia manager Stanislav Cherchesov says it isn’t his place to tell fans not to boo players taking a knee, after sections of the stadium in St. Petersburg were heard jeering when Belgian players performed the gesture.
    Before the game kicked off, sections of the 26,000-strong crowd booed as Belgian players dropped to one knee in a show of support linked to the Black Lives Matter movement.

    The jeers drew grumbling from members of the Western press and criticism from footballing anti-discrimination group FARE.
    However, when asked about the incident at a press conference as his team prepare to face Finland in St. Petersburg on Wednesday, Russia manager Cherchesov said he would not dish out advice to fans.
    Cherchesov’s approach comes in stark contrast to the likes of England manager Gareth Southgate, who has been vocal in urging Three Lions fans not to boo players performing the gesture.

    The England team were jeered when they took a knee during two warm-up games for Euro 2020, while a smattering of boos were also heard at Wembley during their Group D game against Croatia on Sunday before being drowned out by cheers.

    A small protest was seen outside Wembley before the match, including banners reading ‘Don’t kneel for Marxism’ – a reference to the radical left-wing political views held by some elements of the BLM movement.

    On the eve of the game against Croatia, the English FA had also issued a desperate plea to fans not to boo players when they carry out the gesture.

    Regarding whether the scenes in St. Petersburg could be repeated when Russia face Finland on Wednesday, Finnish manager Markku Kanerva said during his press conference on Tuesday that it would be up to his players to decide whether they take a knee or not.

      1. …and that’s without mentioning his paedophilic marriages and the strange voices in his head. The mutterings and examples of this old idiot put one in mind of our modern-day muttering, stuttering paedophile posing as a world leader.

        What goes around, comes around.

    2. And the same common denominator. I can’t find the news report on the thousand plus (I mean who counted them) people that attended a funeral two days ago, I was trying to tell a friend about it and between us we couldn’t track it down. I did see footage on Anglia news.

    1. I’ve been saying for years, never mind oil, the next war will be about water.

      The Mekong that runs through 5 countries is being dammed and diverted by China to add to their hogging of the Yangtse and Yellow Rivers.

      The Aral Sea has just about dried up because the rivers supplying it have been dammed upstream by Russia and others.

      I’m sure there are plenty of other examples. I don’t care too much about California’s droughts because the next good earthquake will see the whole place slide into the Pacific – it won’t be missed.

      1. When Gadhafi was alive he installed a system where his country pumped water from the huge underground aquifers on the Libya, Sudanese border. He built a pipe line and pumping stations over 2 thousand kilometres long to supply water to his towns. NATO Bombed it. Just after he was dragged from his hiding place in a drainpipe and knife was inserted into his anus.

        1. He had a scheme to dig a canal from the Mediterranean to parts of the desert that are under sea level apparently.

      2. Control the water – just like the Bond film. – – -Global govt – just like the Bond film.

    2. I did email our water company and asked them if along with all thousands of the new homes being built in our area, were they going to be building a new reservoir ? No reply of course. Straight into the too hard basket.

    3. Another thing that has been in the making for years. Our own government has deliberately not built up water stocks in order to artificially create shortages so that we can be lectured on saving water.
      This was covered in the mainstream media a few years ago. They wouldn’t give planning permission for reservoirs.

      2. If you don’t build the reservooirs – import millions more people for the same effect.

      3. Good evening. At the risk of being even more boring than usual – ref the trips to France – could you possibly give me a link to the Govt website where, apparently, one MUST register an account in order to be able start the wearisome process of going on holiday…?

        I have no mobile phone – so the whole kit and caboodle is filling me with death inducing anxiety.

        If you would prefer to deal with me off-NoTTL – that can be arranged My endless question must be even more boring to NoTTLers than my tedious posts.

        1. Not tedious. I feel your pain.

          Misunderstanding, I think – the online account that we had to start before leaving Britain belonged to the covid test company “screen4” – it was so that we could access our results online.
          They gave all the instructions on how to set it up with the test pack.

          You do need the internet while you are abroad, in order to fill in the online form for re-entering Britain, but it’s got to be done and printed out shortly before you cross the border, if I remember rightly. I also don’t have a phone, so I just print everything out – it’s easier anyway than trying to get people to squint at a small screen.

          Have you got the original checklist that I posted for travel in both directions? If not, I can post it again.

      4. God knows what is in store for the future of mankind. They keep building thousands of homes for people who will never contribute to the system of our economy. We are about to have flash flooding according to the weather forecasters and once again most of the water will end up in the sea.

      1. I wonder whether the hands, knees and bumpsadaisy by England, which will be roundly booed, will be excused as normal Scottish crowd anti-Engllsh sentiment?

        1. The boos at Wembley will be drowned out as before by the PTB turning up the fake audio clapping.

          If the Scots fluke a win expect a pitch invasion, the destruction of the goalposts and later on some kilted Scot moron diving head first from one of the basins on the Trafalgar Square fountains and landing on his head in one foot of water.

          We have seen it all before.

          1. Scotland beating England is such a rarity that that’s why they go so crazy.

            Here’s to a repeat of 1961

  87. According to the Speccie, the symptoms of the delta variant are a headache, sore throat and runny nose. In hay fever season. Who’d a thunk it?

      4. No such thing. There can be a range of ethnically diverse candidates, but one candidate alone can’t be diverse.

        1. I thought that today when watching the racing. Despite having two knowledgeable women as paddock commentators, they brought in a “paddock expert” (who frankly spoke a lot of rubbish – but he was blek, so that’s alright).

          1. Unfortunately such cases emphasise the affirmative actions and in my view do more harm than good.

    3. Should this advertisement not be illegal and whoever was responsible for it should be taken to court and prosecuted?

    5. Yes. It is illegal. Historical research is NOT a protected characteristic, such as being a woman for a women’s shelter.

      Heck, I remember when we did a wireless network for those guys we had to be accompanied and very carefully monitored.

      However, that’s pointless as a man in a dress got into a women’s shelter and raped one of the women there to avoid her abusive husband. Until the state learns that a man in a dress is A MAN we’re on course for utter, abject insanity and the end of rational, civil society.

      1. 334321+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        If a bloke IDs as a women and enters a women’s shelter there should have to be a padlock on his toolkit.

        1. It was absolutely, genuinely bonkers. I honestly don’t understand the mentality.

    7. Ethnically diverse… sums up all the Whiteys in UK

      We the Mixture Men and Women

      Angles, Saxons, Romans, Vikings, Scots Yorkies, Kernows, Oirish, French Swidish, Normans etc

      Get more diverserester than that BAMES

      OR DO THEY JUST MEAN COLOURED

    8. I would love it if a white person with a disability (or whatever the current woke term is) sued them for discrimination.

      1. Could I, as a crumblie who’s bad at maffs, complain about ageism and some newly invented form of discrimination against a mental defect?

      2. Could I, as a crumblie who’s bad at maffs, complain about ageism and some newly invented form of discrimination against a mental defect?

    1. I don’t have a lot of time for Mr. Waters, but in this case I’m going to say “Bravo Roger!”

  90. The woman who fell 100ft to her death off a cliff at a coastal beauty spot after attempting to take a ‘short cut’ to the beach has been named as a Birmingham mother-of-five.

    Tahira Jabeen, who was in her 40s, is believed to have died in front of her adult daughter, as they walked near to Durdle Door in Dorset.

    Witnesses say Ms Jabeen was attempting to take a ‘short cut’ to the beach at the popular tourist site when she fell.

    This is the tragedy, the poor lady was from Birmingham, would have set off so early in the morning , hundreds from that area travelling in glorious up market cars.. all for the Bollywood experience , because Durdle Door has a special symbolic attraction, and lots of people do not wear suitable clothes .

    Really and truly heart breaking .

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9687859/Durdle-Door-cliff-death-Woman-dies-falling-100ft-Dorset-beauty-spot-Monday.html

        1. I had a look at the pictures – she was quite mad to attempt it. Her daughter had more sense.

        1. Only if she landed on a kafir. Does her name mean she’s a Muslim though? I feel sorry for her daughter and any others who saw it happen.

  91. Nicked………Wry Laff Time

    “According to Samizdat reports the Freedom demonstrators turned on a
    State news service reporter who had become separated from the protection
    of security forces in the central Government district of the capital
    city.

    It is thought he was operating as an agent provocateur but became separated from his minders.

    He was unharmed and seen being allowed by police to return to the Government HQ building.”

    Various news agencies : somewhere in Eastern Europe.

  92. Look at this ..

    Isles of Scilly: Egyptian vulture seen in UK for first time in 150 years

    An Egyptian vulture has been seen in the UK for the first time in what is believed to be more than 150 years.

    Described as a “once-in-a-century” sighting, it is thought it may have come to the Isles of Scilly from Northern France.

    If the “incredibly rare” sighting is confirmed to be a wild bird, it would be the first since 1868, say experts.

    Birdwatchers are expected to flock to the isles for a chance to spot it before it moves on.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-57483562

    1. Feed Boris Johnson to it.

      It would keep it on location for weeks; assuming he didn’t poison it with a dose of liar’s tongue and bullshitter’s bulimia.

        1. They were after your autograph but didn’t realise that you were the legal beagle not the legal eagle.

        2. ‘Committee’, ‘volt’, ‘wake’ or a ‘venue’. Flocks are woolly and four-legged. And tasty with mint sauce. Speaking of collective nouns, two of my favourites relate to ‘ladies of the night’. “An anthology of pro’s” and “a fanfare of strumpets”. I’ll get me coat…

          2. Prolly. I refer you to a former vicar’s favourite (OK, only) organist joke: Q. “What’s the difference between an organist and a terrorist?” A. “You can negotiate with a terrorist”.

          3. You wouldn’t happen to have their phone numbers would you? They sound like fun.

  93. That’s me for the day. Very good talk about Giles (cartoonist). Gosh what a long time ago it all was. Then some gardening – water carrying.

    Tomorrow I have a day of leisure(!!) with the cats as the MR is going to some God-awful exhibition of “outdoor sculpture”. Very diverse, I have no doubt…

    I shall pick the first of the roses and tie up the outdoor tomatoes – Thurs/Fri/Sat lotsa rain AND strong winds forecast..

    Now for my evening medicine.

    A demain

    1. I just knew our children were going to embarrassed by your side of the family…

          2. That’s pretty common. During the eighteenth century loads of Germans came to Britain. We’re only unaware of it because they “disappeared” in 1914. Before that, there were German bakeries in London to serve a thriving community.

          3. However hard I try to hush it up my great, great grandmother on the distaff side was a Welsh girl called Myfanwy Bowen who married with an English man called Cooke. This mean that I am one sixteenth Welsh.

        2. I’ve wondered how many marriages DNA testing has caused to break up with children having different results from parents or siblings.

          I’ve never taken one because my sister has and so either I’m the same so I don’t need to know, or I’m not and I don’t want to know.

        3. Just finished reading a book where that was the theme. “The Family Tree ” 99p on Kindle. Quite a good read.

  98. 334321+ up ticks,
    Yes priti it is alright to call the supporter / member / voters Dickheads
    right up until a 48 hours prior to a General Election.

    breitbart,
    Refugee Week! UK Celebrates Taking in More Refugees as Migrant Crisis Rages

      1. 334408+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        Many of the electorate must be feeling like well scalped @rses by now.

      1. Yes. It’s called tides. Seeing as the Chinkies now own the moon we will probably have to pay for them !

    2. It just shows how times change.

      In 1925 people didn’t allow their dogs to shit on the beach.

      1. I wish it would. Still rattling around in my head. I can sing it for you if you want. :@(

  105. A question too far:

    Lord Hall faced MPs’ wrath over the Martin Bashir scandal… and it was painful to watch

    The Culture select committee demanded answers from the former director-general – and couldn’t seem to believe what they heard

    MICHAEL DEACON
    PARLIAMENTARY SKETCHWRITER
    15 June 2021 • 6:09pm
    Michael Deacon
    Lord Hall during his time as BBC director-general
    Lord Hall during his time as BBC director-general CREDIT: LEON NEAL/AFP/Getty Images
    What a clobbering. Today (Tuesday) the BBC’s director-general and two of his predecessors were interrogated by MPs about the Martin Bashir scandal. All three had a torrid time. But the one who suffered most was Lord Hall, the director-general until last year. The man was like a piñata, dangling helplessly while MPs swung at him with furious relish.

    He certainly had a fair few questions to answer. He’d been the BBC’s director of news when Mr Bashir conducted his infamous 1995 interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. The following year he investigated claims that Mr Bashir had achieved this coup by underhand means – only to conclude that Mr Bashir was “an honest and honourable man”. Twenty years later, he was director-general when Mr Bashir was unexpectedly rehired by the BBC as religious affairs correspondent.

    Kevin Brennan (Lab, Cardiff W) wondered why on earth Mr Bashir had been appointed, and to such an improbable role: had he promised to land an exclusive interview with God?

    Meanwhile, Julian Knight (Con, Solihull) acidly noted that in three years in that job, Mr Bashir had appeared on air on only half a dozen occasions. Which, given the size of his salary, worked out at “about £40,000 a time. Quite nice work if you can get it, isn’t it, Lord Hall?”

    His Lordship expressed regret that he hadn’t sacked Mr Bashir in 1996 – he’d simply been too trusting, and wanted to give the chap “a second chance”. To various other questions, though, he protested that he hadn’t been involved, or couldn’t have known, or couldn’t remember. He was quietly spoken, and often had a vague, apologetic, rather naive air. He came across like a little old lady who spends the morning hunting fruitlessly for her glasses, only to realise that she was wearing them all along.

    The most fearsome of his interrogators was the SNP’s John Nicolson – himself a former BBC journalist. He set about Lord Hall like a bulldog sinking its fangs into the seat of the postman’s trousers.

    “Don’t you think,” he snarled towards the end, “that perhaps a forfeit of some of your lavish BBC pension would be appropriate?”

    Suddenly, something in Lord Hall seemed to snap. The piñata fought back.

    “Let me just say,” he retorted, stiffening defiantly, “that I have been a public servant at the BBC for 35 years!” Originally, he went on, he’d left in 2001 – but, after the Jimmy Savile scandal, he’d agreed to return to the BBC in order to “rescue” it. All right, so he’d “made a mistake” over Mr Bashir. “But please don’t let that colour the other things that I’ve done, which I could enumerate but obviously won’t… I’ve done a hell of a lot for the BBC, and, I think, for the arts…”

    His Lordship quivered with righteous passion. He’d been willing to come and face the music. But touch his BBC pension? This time, these MPs had gone a step too far.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/15/lord-hall-faced-mps-wrath-martin-bashir-scandal-painful-watch/

    1. Oh how sad. How shocking that someone (prolly on the fiddle) had touched his Lordship’s nerve…

      1. Not his nerve. His wallet.

        He’s just another statist. Doesn’t want the blame, won’t make any changes but is happy to pocket the cash.

    2. From memory Lord Hall made a mint as director or whatever from the last major reconstruction of the Royal Opera House. (Operas for the Elites but paid for by the taxpayer).

  107. Doubt many are watching France vs Germany, but anyone who is, listen out for Ally McCoist’s commentating tic.
    Whenever anything noteable happens, he says it twice.
    e.g. What a pass that was, what a pass.

    It is very annoying. Very annoying.

    5. I wonder why the bods at ITV would employ a Scot as match commentator for a match between France and Germany. I cannot understand what McCoist is saying at the best of times.

      1. Well there’s no less logic there than having an English commentator for a Fra – Ger game

  108. Primary school pupils should learn about white privilege, says RE teachers’ organisation
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/primary-school-pupils-should-learn-white-privilege-says-re-teachers/

    Primary school pupils should be taught about white privilege, religious education (RE) teachers have been told in new curriculum guidance.

    Lessons should introduce children aged 8-11 to the “key concept” of white privilege, described as invisible benefits that society affords to people “because of their whiteness”, according to the National Association of Teachers of Religious Education (NATRE).
    .
    .
    .
    A section on the legacies of slavery tells teachers “the complicity of Christians in the enslavement of millions is an untold story” because of the “sugar coating” of Christian history which has a “shameful stain” of the Atlantic slave trade.

    I wonder if any mention will be made of the fact that Mohammed was a slave-owner, and that the Islamic slave-trade pre-dated the Atlantic slave trade. Indeed, it is still going on today.

    1. We need to put a stop to this Critical Race Theory bollocks. Slavery has been endemic in Africa for centuries and persists to this day.

      1. There is a theory that one reason why the American cousins have so much crime is that criminality is genetic and that the African elites were exporting their own criminals as slaves.

          1. The transatlantic slave trade got s big boost when the UK stopped sending convicts to the American colonies and sent them Down Under instead.

        3. I doubt that criminality is genetic although any behaviour potentially can be. What I do know is that it was largely Africans selling Africans to the slavers. It makes sense that they were selling those that they didn’t want around anymore. That would be their own undesirables and rival tribes etc.

          1. I seem to remember reading that most violent crime is committed by males with an IQ in the range 80-89.
            The average IQ in sub-Saharan Africa is about 85.

          2. I was offered the theory about 20 years ago by a Nigerian and he made the same point you did as well. I was amused but have read similar comments since.. I think on balance I would still plump for nurture over nature on this, but if so many other human traits are claimed to be genetic why not criminality.

      2. 334321+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        The political overseers don’t see it that way and via the electorate they have the shout, again & again.

      3. Just given it the once over and you are right. It is just bollocks. It is basically another case of somebody coming up with a theory and then trying to bend the facts to fit it.

        1. Yup. The Barbary pirates were responsible for coastal invasions of our southern and eastern coasts, the kidnapping of thousands of blue-eyed children into slavery on behalf of Arabs.

          We have to put a decisive stop to the narrative that the ‘whites’ were responsible for every slavery ill. The reverse is the truth. Slaves were purloined from African tribes and sold by Arabs to the slave traders.

    2. Also teach them that it is no use building your country up over a few hundred years, giving it a water system , sewage system, roads, rail, power, etc etc, done by work and taxes – -because then people who didn’t bother with their country just decide to come and contribute nothing and enjoy what WE built over those years. Eventually all that will be left is a 3rd world hell – just like the one they came from. – -of course – -it will be whitey’s fault – it always is.

    4. I posted that on the GB news supporters facebook group along with the comment that after over ten years of conservative led government that this madness was still going on, the response was that I got kicked off.

        1. I’ve been kicked off two GB news facebook groups now, if you criticise the government they don’t like it.

          1. Are they pro-lockdown as well, or did you not last long enough to find out?😱

          2. All was going well the consensus was a bit like on here, a few laughs a bit of covid bashing getting lots of likes and positive comments, then the site started to get heavily trolled the last couple of days, the mods on these sites seem really strange, got asked whose side I was on, that sort of thing, I do not really understand what is going on with facebook.

          3. Is it FB or that particular group? FB is really left wing, woke leaning but they generally close groups themselves down when they don’t like the content.

          4. All the groups I have been on will not allow much in the way of criticising the mainstream narrative for very long, they just kick you off.

          5. Maybe the admins are getting warned by FB then. I hate the damned thing anyway.

          6. Yes I only went back when the GB news groups started up, I hope the news channel is more open and fair than the support groups.

          7. Yes I only went back when the GB news groups started up, I hope the news channel is more open and fair than the support groups.

          8. The DT story about the companies boycotting GBN with their advertising had over 2000 comments when the trolls turned up! There was a suggestion that the “against hate” people have used the companies Twitter accounts to rally the anti GBN message! As expected, I suppose but very depressing.

  109. I appeared on the launch night of GB News – and realised I wasn’t alone

    It may feel strange to see people on screen who actually agree with your views, but please don’t adjust your sets

    ALLISON PEARSON

    I had a slightly odd feeling when I appeared on Tonight with Dan Wootton on Sunday, the launch night of GB News. It took me a few seconds to realise what the feeling was. I didn’t feel odd at all. I was just among people who considered my opinions to be perfectly fine. Normal, even.

    That doesn’t happen very often on British TV or radio these days. If you think Brexit was a good idea, if you suspect Priti Patel has a better instinct for what voters feel about immigration than Keir Starmer, if you believe Prince Philip was (as Joe Biden said) “a hell of a guy”, if you don’t think this country is guilty of systemic racism and is actually a pretty decent place to live, while still having considerable room for improvement (on social class as well as race), if you don’t feel comfortable bending the knee to the latest fashionable idiocy, if you worry lockdown may end up killing more people than Covid, if you (look away now) vote Conservative, then your average current affairs panel can be a pretty lonely place.

    I have a distant memory of appearing on Radio 4’s Any Questions and breaking off in the middle of an answer to assure the audience – a coach-party of foam-flecked Corbynists – that the opinion I was expressing was quite possibly held by a majority of people in the UK. I didn’t get a single clap, not even from Himself who shrank into his Barbour and pretended he didn’t know me. Judas!

    Being Right (or not being Left, anyway) is considered to be controversial by the broadcast chattering classes who somehow manage not to notice that they live in a country which has returned a Conservative government for the past three general elections and will probably vote the same way at the next one, too.

    I guess that’s a slightly long way of saying that GB News is a most welcome addition to our screens. The channel’s first few days have been a mixture of inspired and shambolic with sound and vision occasionally out of sync. An appearance by Julie Walters, pushing Mrs Overall’s trolley, would have complemented the slight Acorn Antiques vibe. But Andrew Neil’s opening statement was masterly and reminded you what a giant hole the great interviewer left in the BBC’s output. What fools they were to lose him.

    Neil couldn’t resist a dig at his old employer, saying that GB News “will not come at every story with the conviction that Britain is always at fault, usually to blame when things go wrong… We won’t forget what the B stands for in our title”. Not like some he could have added, but didn’t.

    Will the mainstream news channels lose audience share to the cheeky, patriotic upstart? I reckon so. The opening show, hosted by Neil, drew an average audience of 262,000 compared with 100,000 for the BBC News channel. Critics from The Guardian and The Independent were unanimous in predicting failure for a station which refuses to be “an echo chamber for the metropolitan mindset”. So roaring success is practically guaranteed.

    I will be popping up there myself occasionally. If you see people on the screen who actually agree with your views, and don’t make you feel like a pariah, don’t panic. The feeling of alarm will diminish over time.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/06/15/appeared-launch-night-gb-news-realised-wasnt-alone/

    1. I had the same disconcerting feeling when I first saw Sky Australia. It just could not be possible to be hearing common sense and conservative values coming out of the mouth of a professional TV presenter.

  110. Britain’s Home Office has announced that this week is “Refugee Week” which aims to celebrate the “contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary”, while the migrant crisis continues to rage.

    Rather than spending time to solve the migrant crisis in the English Channel, Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched a week of celebrations for refugees in the UK.

    The Home Secretary said: “This week casts a spotlight on all those who have enriched our communities since arriving in the UK looking to rebuild their lives.

    “Thanks to the generosity and support of the British people, thousands of refugees from every part of the world are here making enormous contributions to our society, culture, economy, and we are a better country for it.

    “I am moved hearing about the incredible stories of those that have overcome hardship to not just live, but to thrive and call the UK their home.”

    The Home Office boasted that it has resettled more refugees than any other European country between 2015 and 2019, stating that over 25,000 people have been granted asylum in Britain since then.

    The announcement also revealed that some 29,000 people were resettled in the UK during the same time period under the refugee family reunion scheme.

    “Our new global UK Resettlement Scheme which is currently actively resettling refugees to the UK will continue to provide refuge to those in need who are fleeing persecution,” the Home Office said.

    The government said that it will look to ensure that more refugees are settled in the UK through community sponsorship and vowed to speed up the refugee process for those deemed to be at “urgent risk”.

    The Immigration Compliance and Justice Minister, Chris Philp, who has been tasked with the Channel boat migrant crisis, said that the updated refugee scheme alongside the New Plan for Immigration will break the incentives for migrants using people smugglers to enter into Britain. However, he did not expand on how exactly this will happen.

    So far this year, the Home Office has failed to prevent nearly 5,000 illegal migrants from crossing the English Channel in small boats from the beaches of France, with another 110 arriving on Monday, according to BBC reporter Simon Jones.

    The British government has also failed to come to an agreement with France, or indeed any other European nation, on the return of failed asylum seekers.

    The result has seen the Home Office unable to deport some 1,503 illegal migrants who claimed refugee status after passing through a safe third country since the UK officially left the European Union at the beginning of the year.

    Despite leaving the European Union, the UK is still bound by the European human rights regime, under which migrants can also appeal their deportation on humanitarian grounds.

    According to Home Office figures, British taxpayers are currently supporting some 61,241 asylum seekers in direct payments and other forms of welfare. At present, there are over 66,000 awaiting the result of their asylum claim to be decided upon.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/06/15/refugee-week-uk-celebrates-taking-more-refugees-migrant-crisis-rages/

    And this is the reason why our green countryside is under assault with Boris’s ideas of build build build… and why the bloody fool wants to IMPORT meat from Australia , so that our green fields will be sacrificed .

  111. Surely they couldn’t be misleading us?

    Fear over freedom: Here’s what the doom-laden government graphs didn’t show us

    Putting the data in context, it is clear that the scale of a ‘third wave’ is not in the same league as those we have already faced

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/fear-freedom-doom-laded-government-graphs-dont-show-us/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d1fa63f44890f64b3df227611caf0a5f96a3bf3a11a258670253b82e5049d398.jpg

    There are more graphs but I can’t see them.

    Posted at 1pm, more than 2,200 comments…

  112. Good night all Nottlers. Bedtime music: “Sunshine” is a song by Irving Berlin. It was interpreted by Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra in 1928, featuring Bing Crosby on vocals. Vocals – @Tatiana Eva-Marie ,Violin – Gabe Terracciano, Guitar – Vinny Raniolo,Rhythm guitar – Sara L’Abriola,Bass – Wallace Stelzer
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_4CgHT95-E

  114. Here’s Johnny!

    Britain is still paying the price for the original sin of locking down

    It was clear to anybody that the ‘three week’ lockdown started by Boris Johnson would last much longer

    JONATHAN SUMPTION

    “One last heave”. Where have we heard that before? Was it in March last year, when the lockdown was imposed for at least “three weeks”, just to flatten the peak for the sake of the NHS? Or seven weeks later in May when the risk to the NHS had passed, but we were told that a supreme collective effort was needed to “crush” the virus once and for all? Or in January this year when we heard that the “end is in sight” and “one last push” would do the trick?

    “Do not wreck this – we are so close,” said the deputy chief medical officer, Professor Van Tam, in February; “hang on just a few more months.” Two months later, in April, the irrepressible Van Tam calls for patience for “just a teeny bit longer”. Then on Monday, the Prime Minister extends the restrictions for four weeks (“just a little longer”). Except that it is not four weeks but 69 weeks. The Government does not get an automatic reset every time it opens its mouth.

    I remind you of these things not to mock the Government’s lack of foresight, but to question whether it has ever been straight with us. Suppose that back in March 2020 the Prime Minister had said that he would micro-manage our lives by law, not for at least three weeks but for at least 17 months. Would the British people would have submitted as meekly as they did? I doubt it.

    Is it fair to blame the Prime Minister for failing to anticipate how long this crisis would last? Yes, it is. Sage and Professor Ferguson’s number-crunchers repeatedly told him what would happen in one of their few predictions that turned out to be right. For the lockdown to work, they said, it would have to be kept in place until people had been vaccinated in, say, eighteen months time. Otherwise the virus would just bounce straight back when the lockdown was lifted, possibly even worse than before.

    There were only ever two rational choices. One was a total lockdown until all vulnerable groups had been vaccinated, which would have been politically impossible if the Government had been upfront about it. The other was a voluntary system under which people were allowed to take responsibility for their own risk assessments. Anything else just prolongs the agony.

    The justification for the latest extension is threadbare. Hospitalisations are low (about 1 per cent of beds). The Chief Medical Officer admits this but says that if you double them often enough, the numbers will be high. So they will, but on that argument even one infection would be too much.

    And why should you keep doubling them? We are not told. The latest figures from Public Health England suggest that the vaccines are 92 to 94 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisation for the Indian variant after both doses and not much less after one dose. Thirty million people have now received their second dose. Everyone in the vulnerable groups that account for almost all deaths and most hospitalisations, has been offered it. For the non-vulnerable groups, the Zoe symptom app run by Professor Spector of King’s College London, suggests that the symptoms of the Indian variant are milder than the earlier variants – no worse than a bad cold. If this is not good enough for the health fascists, what will ever be? [Tsk – leave the ‘F’-word for the likes of Paul Mason.]

    The Prime Minister has said that prolonging the existing restrictions for four weeks will “save many thousands of lives”. This statement does not seem to have been endorsed by the CMO, and it just does not stack up. It is reminiscent of the notorious 4,000 deaths a day peddled and then hastily withdrawn last October. I do not believe a word of it. I do not suppose that the Prime Minister would believe it either if he bothered to study the detail.

    Three things have gone wrong.

    First, the government is excessively risk averse. It accepts that Covid is here to stay, but refuses to accept the implications of that. The risk of illness is part of life. Covid is now part of life. It cannot be suppressed without suppressing life itself. Viruses mutate all the time. As Oxford’s Professor John Bell has observed, if we bolt down a rabbit hole every time it happens, we are going to spend a very long time underground.

    The second thing that has gone wrong dates right back to the original lockdown decision of March 2020. It is the Government’s abiding contempt for its citizens. It does not trust them to take sensible precautions and so resorts to coercion. The logic of coercion is that everyone must be treated the same. It makes life easier for the police.

    Yet people are not the same. Different groups face radically different levels of risk, depending on whether they have been vaccinated, whether they have certain clinical vulnerabilities, whether they are old, and whether they live in a hot spot like the north-east. [North-west, I think…] The only efficient risk assessments are those made by the people involved, i.e. us. With each week that passes this anomaly becomes more glaring.

    Thirdly, there is the tunnel vision which treats public health as the only relevant consideration. The Government’s four tests for emerging from this Hell are all clinical. They attach no weight to our jobs, our mental wellbeing, our culture, our emotional relationships or any other aspect of our lives as social beings.

    I recently went to a performance of Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier, a story of love in the face of convention and adversity set to Strauss’s most sublime music. Government protocols decreed that social distancing required a reduced orchestra, a financially unviable reduction in the audience, and a two metre distance between the lovers at all times. Here then was one of the highest achievements of the human spirit, and all that these miserable wretches can think about is the droplets emerging from the musicians’ mouths.

    Opera is not everyone’s thing, but I would make the same point about live sport, pop festivals, theatres, night clubs, and everything else that brings joy into people’s lives. How low have we fallen, when we treat a minimal risk of death as an excuse to empty life of much of its value?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/britain-still-paying-price-original-sin-locking/

      1. I recently signed up with AVRO – one of the companies that came out reasonably well according to Which . Their customer website is straightforward. In these Woke days, straightforward is to be welcomed….

  117. Evening, all. Late on parade today; lots of racing to watch from Royal Ascot. Good to see crowds in the grandstands at last.

  118. Jesus looked across the table and asked “Where have you been for the last twelve months?”

    God replied “I’ve been in Wales.”

    Jesus was shocked. “There’s been a pandemic for a year and you’ve been in Wales. What were you doing there?”

    God smiled and quietly replied “Working from home,son, working from home.”

    1. Morning Bob and others. Wednesday’s page is up and running – the Boss forgot to provide a linkage hereon – click on ‘Not the Telegraph Letters’ above and then the page for Wednesday 16th

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