Tuesday 18 August: Grade predictions can be trusted in schools with a transparent record

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/2020/08/17/lettersgrade-predictions-can-trusted-schools-transparent-record/

619 thoughts on “Tuesday 18 August: Grade predictions can be trusted in schools with a transparent record”

    2. Good morning.
      Wet in the Derbyshire Dales. It’s been raining most of the night.

      1. Pretty much what I have been saying all along, I think we have all worked out what is happening by now.

        1. 322681+ up ticks,
          B3,
          Maybe so, but to have one of the media come out so forthright, digging out their own profession in print is a moment to savour, if only a lab/lib/con politico could break ranks and follow suit.

        2. Well we on NOTTL may have already worked it out – but how many people read NOTTL? – 50, 100? The majority of the population hasn’t a clue.

          1. That’s because we are clearly above average (particularly in view of superb exam results after doing no work all term). 🙂

  6. Where are the female snooker players? Norman Tebbit. 17 August 2020 • 1:49pm

    From time to time, to take my mind away from momentous events I watch the snooker championships on television. Not being a snooker, nor even a billiards player myself I marvel at the skill of the finest of players and the occasional bloody mindedness of a ball hovering over the pocket.

    Snooker does not require great muscular strength, nor great size but I have not yet seen a woman player although quite recently a female referee has begun to appear and there are women who join in the discussions during breaks in the play.

    Surely a country which has produced female prime ministers should be able to find a few to play snooker.

    Morning everyone. Norman is being a little naughty here but nevertheless there is a troubling truth concealed in his mischief. Women at the apex of competition are essentially good at nothing. They may play or partake in any activity, but victory is always denied to them unless the rules are changed in their favour. To a large degree this has already happened in a Western Society which now largely hostile to Men, and where the Law has been invoked to ensure Female Friendly results in the Courts, Education and Employment. This feminisation of Society also explains much of what we see in the Political World, The unwillingness to Confront Unpleasant Truths, the never ending Seeking of Consensus, the Avoidance of Conflict. All this has long term consequences since it contradicts, even denies Darwinian Theory where only the most able survive to pass on their abilities. We thus now have a Society ripe for takeover by any patriarchal movement that denies these tenets.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/17/war-anniversaries-poignant-troubled-new-era/

    3. 322681+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      The current voting trend and the odious treacherous path
      the nation is being led down could a tranny imam be awaiting in the wings.

    4. The reason there are no top female snooker players is that snooker halls have historically been very male dominated places. It would be very intimidating for a fourteen or fifteen year old girl to go to a snooker hall hoping to practise or get a game.

      I’ve never played snooker but I was always quite a handy pool player. I used to try to join in in the local pub but the blokes would rarely let me get a turn. When I finally did get the odd game there were always whistles when I bent over to take a shot, or worse, some bloke would stand right up close behind me and …well I’d rather not say.

      Everyday sexism? #Me bl**dy too

      1. I’m surprised you didn’t ram the cue between the pockets and sink two balls simultaneously.

      2. Plenty of female referees now though and surely they must be reasonable snooker players too. Haven’t seen Michaela Tabb for ages – has she retired?

    6. Remember the hooh hah when a woman beat a man in an early round of an Open Darts competition? The poor, over-hyped woman was knocked out of the competition in the very next round.

      There are certain things that men do better than women just as there are many things that women do better than men. Indeed there are very few things that my Caroline does not do better than I do! To deny this is almost as silly as saying that a person with a fully operational penis is a woman.

  7. PROTECT OUR JOBS AND FUTURE CAREER PATHS

    SIR – As public health registrars – frontline professionals in advanced NHS training to become consultants in public health medicine – we are deeply disturbed by the news of another top-down restructure of the English public health system, particularly mid-pandemic, and without any forewarning for staff.

    Public Health England gives critical support to the NHS, local authorities and social care. A poorly planned and timed restructure risks undermining national and local strategy, systems and expert knowledge, damaging further the pandemic response. A myopic focus on infectious disease control is also insufficient, when health inequalities and chronic conditions increase vulnerability to Covid-19.

    The underfunding of PHE and public health more broadly harmed the pandemic response. Test and Trace (and, with it, Serco and Sitel) has been given £10 billion, against PHE’s annual budget of just under £300 million. A better-funded, politically independent and accountable public health system is essential to tackling future threats. We call on the Government to:

    1 Delay major changes to allow for consultation and to avoid weakening England’s winter pandemic response;

    2 Increase and ring-fence long-term funding of the public health system at national, regional and local levels;

    3 Ensure that keeping people healthy and tackling inequalities are central to any restructure. PHE’s deep expertise must not be lost.

    Dozens and dozens of us…all vying for the MRD award of the month.

    1. Are they all members of The Royal College of Shroud Weavers and Wavers?

      Morning Michael et al.

  8. SIR – The Government is operating on the tumbleweed principle – to be blown about by the slightest breeze. The education blob has noticed.

    G P Brown
    Norwich

    1. SIR – If the leader of the Labour Party had kept control of the teaching unions instead of playing politics, the schools could have reopened in June as planned, and pupils could have taken their A-level exams.

      Phyllis Jones
      Oakley, Bedfordshire

      1. The Labour party has a vested interest in maintaining a badly educated, dependent electorate.

  9. The Beeb can hardly contain its excitement about the Democratic ‘Convention’ which started overnight. Why should we be interested in it? We know the outcome.

    1. From what I’ve read about politics in the US and seen over the past couple of decades, it seems as unattractive as a regurgitated dog’s breakfast but with far more unhealthy consequences for the rest of the World.

      [And just in case folk are wondering that is not an invitation to learn what you had for breakfast this morning!]

      1. Morning Stephen. It always reminds me of the last days of the Roman Republic just before the Civil War and which of course ended with the extinction of Democracy and the rise of One Man rule!

          1. Yes. The American Caesar is out there waiting for his moment just as Men of Destiny always are. He’s not one of the present players since they are all largely morons of one party or another and are all civilians. The new Princeps must have links to the military since only they have the power to compel obedience. He is yet to appear!

          2. Having met this General on a couple of occasions I’m sure there must be others like him who are equally impressive:

            John J. “Jack” Sheehan (born August 23, 1940) is a retired United States Marine Corps general. His final active duty commands, culminating 35 years of service in the Marine Corps, were as the Supreme Allied Commander Atlantic (SACLANT) for NATO and as Commander-in-Chief for the U.S. Atlantic Command (CINCUSACOM) (1994–1997).

      2. Morning Stephen. It always reminds me of the last days of the Roman Republic just before the Civil War and which of course ended with the extinction of Democracy and the rise of One Man rule!

      3. Here’s an American Jim Quinn who’d easily fit the NOTTLer profile:

        “I’m convinced there will be no consensus regarding an agreed upon presidential victor on November 4th, or possibly weeks after, or possibly ever. The amount of incompetence in handling mail-in-ballots by the USPO and those tasked with counting them will be off the charts. The level of fraud in attempting to win this election will be on a level never seen before, making Daley’s shenanigans to get Kennedy the necessary votes in 1960 seem like child’s play.

        When a system is specifically designed in such a way that cheating is easy, there will be a significant amount of cheating. The stakes in this election have never been higher. The future path of the nation will be set in motion by the outcome of this election. But the truth is, no matter the outcome, the losers will not accept the verdict. That is when this Fourth Turning moves into its truly violent stage, making these urban riots in Democrat stronghold cities seem like minor league play acting.”

        “What difference does it make? An interesting read.

        https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/08/16/what-difference-does-it-make-2/

      4. Here’s an American Jim Quinn who’d easily fit the NOTTLer profile:

        “I’m convinced there will be no consensus regarding an agreed upon presidential victor on November 4th, or possibly weeks after, or possibly ever. The amount of incompetence in handling mail-in-ballots by the USPO and those tasked with counting them will be off the charts. The level of fraud in attempting to win this election will be on a level never seen before, making Daley’s shenanigans to get Kennedy the necessary votes in 1960 seem like child’s play.

        When a system is specifically designed in such a way that cheating is easy, there will be a significant amount of cheating. The stakes in this election have never been higher. The future path of the nation will be set in motion by the outcome of this election. But the truth is, no matter the outcome, the losers will not accept the verdict. That is when this Fourth Turning moves into its truly violent stage, making these urban riots in Democrat stronghold cities seem like minor league play acting.”

        “What difference does it make? An interesting read.

        https://www.theburningplatform.com/2020/08/16/what-difference-does-it-make-2/

    2. I forget what day it was – might have been Monday – but the BBC via radio 4 gave Joe Biden a good 20 minutes of uninterrupted endorsement campaigning.

      2. It is interesting that the USA for all its brainpower, computer technology and industrial might has made little innovative progress in aeronautical development. Almost everything came from the UK, and some stuff from Germany.
        Nevertheless I do think that the DC3 deserves a place as one of the most beautiful planes.

    3. Comet was barely in the air (or under the sea) when they started the Concorde project. So, they went from generation 1 subsonic jet transport that could barely hold together to that beautiful aircraft (better with the BA flappy flag tail…) in one bound of enthusiasm, technology and creativity. All using slide rules and log tables. Truly spectacular.
      Now THAT’s being creative!

  11. Completely off topic, but for those who remember “Hat”, who was at one time a regular here and a producer of numerous other blogs elsewhere; I received the following reply on another blog.

    He said he was leaving disqus permanently due to illness and also his mother is very ill…he said he would try to peak in every once in awhile.

    2. Mrning Sos,

      I was wondering where Hat had gone , oh dear , he was amusing , as were his other blogs . He offered different dimensions on life.

      Send him my best wishes please.

  12. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Despite lacking the relevant degrees and diplomas, Jon Andrewes enjoyed a successful career as a top-level hospital and charity administrator… maybe he’s just the man to run the NHS

    PUBLISHED: 00:37, 18 August 2020 | UPDATED: 00:41, 18 August 2020

    The headline in Saturday’s Daily Mail leapt out at me over my bacon and eggs. ‘YOU COULDN’T MAKE IT UP!’ I wonder where they got that idea from.

    Paul Bracchi and Tim Stewart’s double-page report concerned a man called Jon Andrewes, who had managed to obtain a string of high-profile public sector jobs based on bogus CVs.

    He claimed to have an impressive list of academic qualifications, including degrees from Bristol, Plymouth and Edinburgh universities and a diploma from the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants.

    Pure invention, but sufficiently plausible to secure him the chairmanship of two NHS Trusts and other senior posts with a health partnership and a hospice charity.

    So convincing was Andrewes that he beat 117 other candidates to become the head of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust, which has a budget of £380 million and employs 5,000 staff.

    In the 12 years before he was rumbled, Andrewes also worked as chairman of the Torbay NHS Trust and CEO of St Margaret’s Hospice, a palliative care charity in Taunton, Somerset.

    During that time, he earned £1 million in salary and benefits. When his deception was finally exposed and he was convicted of fraud and jailed for two years, he still had £96,000 in the bank.

    That was confiscated under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. But the Court of Appeal has just ruled that his prison sentence was punishment enough and he should be allowed to keep the money, since he earned it.

    The court decided he had given ‘full value’ to his employers, even though he had obtained the jobs fraudulently.

    Despite lacking the qualifications he boasted, there appear to have been no complaints about the quality of Andrewes’ work.

    ‘Under Jon’s leadership, we achieved a hell of a lot. He got things done,’ said a Lib Dem councillor in Brixham, Torbay, where Andrewes was credited with bringing in millions of pounds of investment.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/08/18/00/32067104-0-image-m-28_1597706817944.jpg
    The court decided he had given ‘full value’ to his employers, even though he had obtained the jobs fraudulently. Despite lacking the qualifications he boasted, there appear to have been no complaints about the quality of Andrewes’ (pictured) work

    ‘I don’t agree with anyone forging qualifications, but I suspect he got frustrated with people less able than himself getting promotions because he did not have the right piece of paper.’

    Andrewes started life as a builder before training as a social worker. And although he lacked the relevant degrees and diplomas, that didn’t stop him enjoying a successful career as a top-level NHS and charity administrator.

    Which begs the question: are any of these fancy qualifications worth the paper they’re written on?

    After all, the panjandrums running Public Health England are dripping with degrees — for all the good that’s done us. When push came to shove, the body charged with preparing for a pandemic proved worse than useless. There’s no need for me to detail again the well-documented multiple failures over the provision of protective equipment and track and trace.

    This column has been on Public Health England’s case for the past six years, since shortly after it was established. Instead of concentrating on the primary job it was set up for, most of the time PHE has been engaged in ridiculous displacement activity.

    Past initiatives have included instructing us to stay indoors and draw the curtains whenever the sun shines; banning supermarkets from selling daffodils alongside fruit and veg, just in case Chinese shoppers mistake them for spring onions; and organising a campaign to hand out free rubber johnnies at food banks to the over-60s — patronisingly dubbed ‘Silver Singles’ — to encourage them to have safe sex.

    Lately, they’ve been beavering away (from home, naturally) drawing up a list of banned substances under the Government’s fatuous anti-obesity drive — including outlawing daytime TV advertising of killer foods such as cheese and mustard.

    Yet while PHE has been nannying us to distraction, it has failed spectacularly in its principal task of protecting us against genuine threats to our health.

    For instance, in the midst of the Covid panic, it is easy to forget that in 2015 PHE frittered away £100 million on an expensive influenza vaccine, which proved effective in just three per cent of cases. That winter 20,000 people died of flu, which puts the number of people dying from (not with) corona this year into some kind of perspective.

    Finally, PHE is being put out of its misery. But who would bet against those responsible for the Covid clustershambles ascending seamlessly to similar elevated positions in the super new agency which will replace it — especially given this Government’s fatal attraction to ‘experts’ and ‘following the science’?

    It’s not as if our hapless Health Secretary Matt Hancock is over-qualified when it comes to running the NHS.

    Yes, he’s got a degree in PPE. Unfortunately that stands for Philosophy, Politics and Economics, not Personal Protective Equipment. His brief real-life experience before entering politics full-time was limited to computer software and analysing the housing market.

    Still, soon-to-be-sacked Education Secretary Gavin Williamson is a former fireplace salesman, which helps explain why he’s done such a magnificent job sorting out the GCSE results.

    Fraudster Jon Andrewes was caught when study of his various CVs revealed that he had adopted three different identities.

    That may have earned him two years in jail, but it would have been no bar to advancement in politics.

    Grant Shapps invented a second persona for himself as an alleged millionaire internet marketer called Michael Green, charging clients £183 for tips on making money from the world wide web.

    That didn’t stop him later rising to become Tory chairman and, currently, Transport Secretary, in which capacity he is pursuing a demented anti-car, pro-bike agenda guaranteed to cripple freedom of movement and kill off city centres.

    When you look at the pig’s ear Hancock and Shapps have made of their respective portfolios, does anyone seriously believe that Jon Andrewes could have done any worse — fake qualifications or otherwise?

    He seems to have made a reasonable job of running all the hospital trusts and charities he’s been involved in.

    Now he’s out of prison, maybe we should put him in charge of the NHS. After all, before he got his collar felt, he had accumulated 12 successful years’ solid experience.

    What have we got to lose? This is the kind of outside-the-box thinking Dominic Cummings is always banging on about.

    He advocates hiring ‘misfits and weirdos’ to shake up Whitehall.

    Why not fraudsters and jailbirds, too?

    As someone once said, you couldn’t make it up.

    **********************************************************************************
    A cornucopia of daft animal stories today for Gary to get his teeth into. But where to start?

    There was the Humboldt penguin detained by police after it was spotted wandering the streets of Nottingham. Perhaps it was looking for a pelican crossing.

    Then came news that, having toppled numerous statues of racist historical figures, the woke brigade are now turning their attentions to the names of birds and other flying creatures they consider offensive. They have circulated an online spreadsheet entitled Problematic Common Names. Nurse!

    In their sights is the McCown longspur, an obscure brown bird named after a Confederate general. Who knew? The Hottentot teal is history, obviously. And the gypsy moth’s days are also numbered, on account of disrespecting the vulnerable travelling community.

    Top of the list is the Hitler’s Eyeless Beetle, presumably not the same as Hitler’s VW Beetle? To be fair, who thought it was a good idea to name a beetle after Hitler?

    Does it have a small moustache and an inclination to invade Poland every summer?

    My favourite story came from Sea Life Manchester, where two turtles have been given counselling because they have grown apart during lockdown.

    Let’s hope they’re Happy Together!

    ****************************************************************

    My summer holiday this year consisted of a day trip to Sheringham, Norfolk, thanks for asking. Walking along the front, eating chips, I spotted this painting of a typical British holidaymaker taking a well-earned nap — part of a terrific mural on the sea wall. All that’s missing is the knotted hanky.

    On closer examination, it’s Iain Duncan Smith. Always knew he was a secret Kipper!

    **************************************************************

    It’s Noggin the Non-binary Nog

    Disney has just unveiled its first bisexual lead character in an animated series called The Owl House. Have there been bisexual supporting characters in the past?

    To be honest, I always wondered about Woody, in Toy Story. There’s a definite touch of the Village People about him.

    Will Disney now be updating its back catalogue to reflect modern LGBT sensibilities? Maybe the new-look Seven Dwarfs will feature Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Julian and Sandy.

    Ooooo, ’ello!

    Elsewhere, a history professor is claiming a recently discovered female skeleton in a Viking warrior grave may have been gender fluid.

    If cartoon characters can be updated, does this mean that we can look forward to Noggin the Non-binary Nog?

  13. Exams……

    Morning all

    SIR – As headmaster of a large, selective, socially and ethnically diverse co-educational day school, I had to present its predicted grades, by department and student, to the governors before the summer recess.

    These were closely analysed with the actual grades once published. This process was very useful in that my teaching colleagues knew there was a measure of accountability. It was often helpful where we felt that there was inconsistency or unfairness in the way papers had been marked.

    Where institutions can demonstrate ongoing evaluation of their predicted grades, surely these can be used with confidence and trust. If not, it is inevitable that doubts will arise.

    Stephen Davidson

    Headmaster, Bradford Grammar School, 1996-2011

    Ilkley, West Yorkshire

    SIR – Assuming the exam system returns to normal next year, how will students sitting A-levels in 2021 compete fairly for scarce university places against deferred applicants from this year’s cohort, with their inflated teachers’ estimates?

    Guy Lachlan

    Caxton, Cambridgeshire

    SIR – It’s not the algorithm’s fault. It was only doing as it was told.

    Peter Burroughs

    Felpham, West Sussex

    SIR – It’s typical of Labour’s front bench, and in this case Angela Rayner, to criticise the Government on teacher-assessment when in April, after Ofqual announced how grades would be allotted, Labour did not trust teachers to do so. Mrs Rayner said: “We have always said predicted grades are not always accurate and can disproportionately affect children who need the most support.”

    Bill Todd

    Whitton, Middlesex

    SIR – My first experience of social distancing was in 1968 when I sat my O-levels, in the gym and the school hall. We were separated sufficiently to make seeing anyone else’s papers impossible. Am I alone in wondering why this year’s wretched A-levels and GCSEs had to be cancelled?

    Keith Sumner

    Castle Donington, Derbyshire

    1. Mr Davidson, did you not notice the general lowering of standards, all must win prizes, and expansion of tertiary education in the years 1996 – 2011?

      I know that BGS would have been near the top of the tree, but even you must have seen what was happening in education generally, with the strengthening of the unions, the introduction of political correctness and special needs pupils, physical, mental and ethnic/language; together with revisionist history and faux science into mainstream education.

      BGS might still be a beacon in a fog, but I suspect that it too is no longer as you claim to have left it. Blair and the wrecking crew, ably supported by the coalition and wet-wing Conservative Governments have seen to the continued demise.

      Were you asleep on the job and have you ceased to take other than a cursory interest?

  15. NationalTrust behaving badly as usual

    SIR – Clumber Park, a National Trust property near Worksop, is 4,000 acres. There is no building to visit: the space is simply used for walking and picnicking. Yet there is a booking system here, too (Letters, August 12).

    At the start of lockdown, we understood that the park would stay open. It did not. The National Trust has prevented many people from taking socially distanced exercise.

    David Smith

    Worksop, Nottinghamshire

    1. Clumber park is known for exertive activities that don’t involve social distancing.

  16. SIR – Am I alone in thinking it unfair to have the name of the defendant in a rape trial (report, August 12), who was found not guilty, splashed all over the newspapers, while the other party was allowed to keep her anonymity?

    Sylvia Sandall

    Sturminster, Dorset

    1. I have been banging on about this for many years. Keep names of both accuser and accused secret until the trial has concluded. Then, if found guilty, name just the accused; if found innocent, just name the accuser.

  17. Pinched off Faceache:-

    The aircraft carrier U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln was finally inching up to the pier at homeport when the Captain of the ship noticed a sailor on the flight deck gesturing wildly with semaphore flags. He then noticed an attractive young woman standing on top of a station wagon, also waving semaphore flags.
    Always concerned about security and never having seen something like this, the Captain barked at his Bridge Signalman, “What message are those two people sending?”
    The Signalman concentrated intently and soon reported, “Sir, he is sending FOXTROT-FOXTROT and she is sending ECHO-FOXTROT.”
    Not having any clue as to what these messages could mean, the Captain dispatched an armed Marine to escort the sailor back to the Bridge.
    The sailor arrived, out of breath from running up the many ladders to the bridge, and saluted smartly. “Seaman Endicott reporting as ordered, sir!”
    “Seaman”, shouted the Captain, “Who is that woman on the pier and why are you exchanging signals FF and EF?”
    “Sir, that’s my wife, Sir, and she wants to eat first!”

  18. Three top producers ‘part ways’ with Ellen show after internal investigation. 18 August 2020.

    Three top producers on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show have exited the popular television talkshow, Warner Bros said on Monday, after an internal investigation into complaints of bullying, racism and sexual misconduct against them.

    A spokesperson for Warner Bros, which produces the show, on Monday said that three senior producers had “parted ways” with the show.

    The departures followed weeks of turmoil backstage that has undermined the show’s public message of spreading kindness and happiness.

    I see. They’ve shot the Generals instead of the Boss. Lol! Hitler used to do that of course. Tell them what to do and then sack them when it all went tit’s up!

    https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2020/aug/17/ellen-degeneres-ellen-show-three-producers-leave

      1. Looks like the crack in the dyke is unstoppable and all the truth behind the smug looks will out.

    3. … and here’s one for you.
      Surely a radio show should be called a “radio tell”?

    1. What do you call a dog with no legs?
      Woodbine so you can take it outside for a drag

      Boom tish

    1. Perhaps someone could show that video to that clown Hamilton – what she did miss out though [as far as I could see] was that most of the violence against black people in Baltimore comes from other black people!

    2. We don’t need token blacks but we do need people like Candace Owens and Kimberly Klacik not because they are black but because they are highly intelligent and competent people.

  21. SPOT THE DIFFERENCE: DEMOCRACY DELAYED, OUTRAGE & DELIGHT

    When the London Mayoral elections were delayed Guardianistas barely raised an eyebrow. Sadiq’s extra unmandated year was a necessary pandemic consequence. When Donald Trump suggested something similar the Guardian’s editorial railed that “it’s what autocrats do”, Donald was trying the same kind of trick that the Beijing-backed regime in Hong Kong is playing, using a public health emergency as the justification. However when New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern decides to delay the general election for a month amid rising infection rates, she’s not being autocratic. She’s being magnanimous and conciliatory. What a load of hypocrisy…

    https://order-order.com/2020/08/17/spot-the-difference-democracy-delayed-outrage-delight/

    1. 322681+ up ticks.
      O2O,
      Was this his doing OG ?

      The Road to Freedom: How Britain can leave … – Amazon UKwww.amazon.co.uk › Road-Freedom-unconditional-uni…
      With uncanny accuracy, UKIP MEP Gerard Batten made the following prediction in this book: “’For two solid years (or much longer) we will have the BBC, elements …

  23. Next backlash to be expected from pupils who had been awarded higher grades by Ofqual than had been predicted by their teachers.

    A*s all round would be the simplest solution. Its o ly a couple of years away anyway with the steady history of grade inflation.

  24. 322681+ up ticks,
    Ultimately these Isles will succumb via all youth with Uni paper qualifications and not an English speaking plumber, chippy, sparky in sight.

    So due to the overloading of the education ( indoctrination) system with paper ginger beers, plague / pestilence will take a grip.

    In short, for want of a tap washer / blocked bog fixer a nation was lost.

    Amen.

  25. SIR — Julian Tope (Letters, August 13) worries that companies are passing costs to employees working at home.

    Where I live, most London commuters are working from home. They are saving travel costs and more by not buying coffees and sandwiches. Many are also saving on childcare.

    Such people are substantially better off by not going into the office, and do not need the reimbursement of additional costs, which employers can ill afford at this time

    Ted Shorter
    Hildenborough, Kent

    Ted Shorter, who must enjoy a nepotistic relationship with the DT Letters’ Editor since he never fails to get a letter published, seems to be clueless about the concept of a society and how it works.

    All those coffees and sandwiches that are not being bought are sealing the fate of the establishments which provide them. If everyone stayed at home then there is no society to speak of. No one out and about, purchasing things from local businesses, and keeping the economy going. Is this the kind of society you wish to create, Teddy boy?

    1. Morning Grizzly, no need for Ted Shorter to try to create that kind of society, Johnson has the task well in hand by introducing a climate of fear in the high street with face mask wearing and other little gems of closing roads for pedestrian areas and cycle paths.
      How many times have you come across such comments such as I only shop for essentials and get out ASAP or I try to do online shopping if possible.

  26. Good Morning, my friends

    The Trial of Alex Salmond, review: Kirsty Wark gets personal in this strange documentary

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2020/08/17/trial-alex-salmond-review-kirsty-wark-gets-personal-strange/

    What a thoroughly foul woman this Kirsty Wark woman is – indeed she is just as foul as Salmond is himself, if not more so.

    But why should the BBC think that when they disapprove of a court judgement they can use licence payers’ money to reopen the trial by media on television?

    2. I found the whole thing mystifying.
      Bute House is a large des. res. It’s not a small pebble dashed bungalow where you could mistakenly open the door to the loo and find yourself in a bedroom.
      So why were so many female civil servants taking the wrong route and finding themselves in a bedroom? Didn’t the flight of stairs suggest they might have taken a wrong turn?
      Is it a common practice for civil servants to whoop it up with ministers of an evening or is it strictly a Scottish custom?

      1. My old man and I watched “The Trial of Alex Salmond” aka “The Kirsty Wark Show” with utter disbelief! Wark acted as judge, jury and executioner and even had the BBC Scottish editor (surprise!) to agree with her! There was absolutely no attempt at even-handedness and the agenda was set from the opening scene. A travesty all round, and although I don’t have any time for sleazy Salmond, the way the verdicts were treated was appalling. So much for the idea that the BBC “do” objective reporting. Oh wait…they don’t!

        1. I agree that Salmond was obviously not the type with whom any sensible woman would allow to find her alone; he is a creepy mixture of false bonhomie and a bully.
          However, I think the jury got it right in March.

          1. Absolutely Anne! One of the most annoying things was the way credibility was given to the accusers stories, but none at all to any opposing view! Warks petulant display of incredulity was a sight to behold! My old man has actually complained to the Beeb, much good that’ll do, but it makes him feel better!

      2. Yes, all good points. The Sultana wonders why these career women could not simply tell him to get lost, or else. He was not the boss, as these women are civil servants with their own managerial hierarchy and an HR department with an overwhelming supply of women ready to take on any bloke.
        Not to mention the Scottish tradition of having the boyfriend/significant other do a bit of sorting out.

      3. Certain women are attracted to powerful men; male politicians may be old ugly fat and married, but they can occupy positions of power. Did you innocently imagine that LibLabCon Party Conferences were all about politics?

    3. As I posted last night, one needs to look at the relationship between Wark and the BBC. After being employed by the BBC for many years Wark set up her own production company. The company was commissioned by the BBC to make programmes for the BBC. We have to remember that the BBC is not a monolith but is made up of people, including commissioning editors and the like, hereinafter referred to as “chums”.
      “The Trial of Alec Salmond” was made by Two Rivers Media Ltd which was set up by and is owned by Wark’s husband Alan Clements. Nor should it be forgotten that Wark is pro-Labour.
      Scottish business and politics is a very small pool.

      See also the disaster that is Muriel Gray. Compared to these two Gary Lineker is a rank amateur, and apart from costing us money is comparatively innocuous.
      https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/SC605895. Note that small company accounts allow some exemptions and so P&L etc can be concealed. I think that the big sums are loans extended to Two Rivers ( by investors), but money in/money out is not obvious.

    4. Ah yes, Kirsty Wark – herself no stranger to controversy and no friend of Salmon! From Wiki – “In June 2007, Wark clashed with Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond in an interview,[17] over his response to a memorandum of understanding between the UK Government and Libya regarding prisoner exchanges. Salmond feared that this could include Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, who was convicted by a court in Scotland, for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie.[18] The BBC and received 120 formal complaints, issued a public apology to Salmond regretting Wark’s “rude and dismissive” tone. Alex Salmond accepted the BBC’s apology.[19] According to the BBC, viewers questioned the premise of the interview and that Wark’s line of questioning was too aggressive and therefore discourteous.[20] The biggest controversy, however, regarded how the interview ended. According to Newsnight editor Peter Barron, time constraints forced Wark to end the questioning abruptly, leading him to perceive her behaviour as “rude and dismissive”.[20]
      In October 2013, Wark interviewed Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald about his reporting of the NSA and GCHQ cyber-spying programs leaked by Edward Snowden.[21] The interview was seen as openly hostile in which “Wark unabashedly made the case for the prosecution, interrogating Greenwald about his reporting and Edward Snowden.”[22] Greenwald later wrote that Wark and other journalists have focused “almost entirely on the process questions surrounding the reporting rather than the substance of the revelations” about NSA surveillance and privacy invasions “and in the process made some quite dubious claims that come straight from the mouths of government officials”      .” More detail here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_Wark

  27. More cases of Covid-19 in meat processing plants in Scotland and Anglesey. This follows on from cases in the Sandwich making plant in Northampton and other meat processing plants in the UK. Is chilled meat in and from chilled premises now a hazard to public health? As far as I know no worker in these affected premises has died from Covid-19 infection.

      1. Morning Bug – Having looked up Pangolin , I don’t think there would be much demand for that type of sandwich.

        2. It was thought to be one of the vectors for the whu’flu. It appear that the Chinese regard eating it as a delicay or medicine or aphrodisiac or other some such nonsense.

    2. There was a theory that the latest outbreaks in New Zealand may have arrived by that route. Chilled/frozen meat brought in from infected areas.

    3. Good morning clydesider

      A cautionary lesson there, not to linger very long in butchers shops nor looking at the chilled food aisles in supermarkets!

    4. Quite a few covid deaths in US and Canadian meat packing plants

      Cold, humid, crowded. That could be any form of public transport in Canada when winter arrives.

      1. …and a lot in Germany. One of the biggest abbatoirs had to be closed because so many workers had Covid-19

    5. Quite a few covid deaths in US and Canadian meat packing plants

      Cold, humid, crowded. That could be any form of public transport in Canada when winter arrives.

  28. 322681+ up ticks,
    I don’t know if it is a needless worry or not but I do believe that continuing the lab/lib/con voting pattern with no credible pro UK opposition.

    This in turn will mean we have had our chips in regards to our fishing waters & that could result in meaning we are paying £25 a pound for cod.

    Still on a nautical theme how is the invasion coming along, seeing as Kent has declared they are full to capacity I assume an emergency hotel building program will be triggered via johnson triggering the build,build,build plan.

    Truth be told we as a nation are building our downfall & that is fact not fiction.

  29. I was up in the night feeling lonely and wondering why it’s so very hard these days to engage with anyone socially or emotionally, so decided to fire up a debate about the rituals of courtship and whether we could make them better. This was on an American forum dedicated to such things, known as Loveshack.org.

    Really, I should have known better, got my fingers seriously burnt, and have now deactivated my account, asking that my presence and contributions be deleted forthwith. They won’t be, of course, because I suspect that the moderators themselves are behind much of how the site has deteriorated from its original intentions, violating its own codes of conduct with impunity.

    Here is a copy of an email I sent them, when they warned me about posting “inappropriate” material (i.e. arguing with the mods):

    Hi Loveshack

    Further to my previous message, I have now posted this review on a Reviews website, and will continue to warn the emotionally vulnerable about trusting Loveshack as a safe environment in which to explore and exorcise their inner demons. I was disappointed that you responded to my flagging up an abusive post from a member by scapegoating me, effectively blaming the victim for opening up where he thought he would be safe from such bullying.

    Please take note. It is a pity, since such a service, run as it should be, is very much needed, and the internet should be an ideal medium in which to achieve this. I have always felt we need to explore the positive sides of human relationships, rather than constantly harping on about abuse. It is also something I have taken the churches to task over, as they seem so preoccupied with Safeguarding that they forget why they are there.

    Best regards
    Elmbeard

    “I wanted to find a forum where I could discuss relationship issues with others in a safe, friendly and supportive environment. This is how it is advertised. While there were some members who were supportive and helpful, and some challenging, but not threatening, it quickly descended into a hatefest against me, including some quite serious defamations and libels that were not being tackled by the mods, and may even have been perpetrated by them. For example, my admission that I find a 24-year-old woman attractive was turned into suggestion that I was creepy and a paedophile. This is the level it descended to.

    Many people who frequent sites such as these are emotionally vulnerable, and while it may be gratifying to demolish them in public, it is really quite harmful, in violation of their own terms of use, and probably verging on the criminal. I dread to think how many suicides these people are sparking off by their nasty comments.

    I had deactivated my account and asked for all my records and the thread I initiated to be deleted from their server. Whether it will be or not remains to be seen. My guess is that they will crosslink the vile things said about me across social media, and I could face a Twitter storm of hate in due course, which is perhaps what these people enjoy doing to others.

    Avoid this forum like the plague!”

    1. I would suggest the internet is not the place for deep and meaningful discussions. I was thrown off Twatter, for what I considered to be pointing out the truth about Islam, I have found it to be a blessing in disguise and have remained off. Stick with fishy and doggy puns and the occasional thoughtful piece on here, and keep true discussions to your close friends who will provide the best advice. Now, I’m just off to Plaice a bet on where Boris is hiding!

      2. My discussion though was about how to find these close friends in the first place. Most of us have been in solitary confinement these last five months, and even the socially adept are getting out of practice.

        Must stop now, the garden is collie me.

        1. Know what you mean.
          Most of my friends have vanished into the darkness, several are dead (one by their own hand), and the remainder of the list would just about fit into a matchbox. Still, partial or compete confinement is proving harder going than I thought. The re-emergence of the virus and the emphasis on face nappies actually gave me a kick in the brain – I thought it was all over, so to restart all this shit has been mentally taxing. I find my booze consumption is up and my good humour is down. :-((

          1. Careful with that booze consumption. You don’t want to end up like me !

            And now……time for a drink.

            Sorry to hear about your friend.

          2. That’s a tough one. Happened in the early 2000… I still think of her, often. I wish I had known she was struggling, maybe I could have done something useful – who knows?
            The lesson is, to care more about others, and keep a close eye on how they are doing. I’m better at that, now. Stable doors, though.

          3. Admirable thoughts but we don’t know what is going on in the minds of everyone around us. Even Jesus couldn’t save all the ones he loved. We have our paths.

          5. Oberst, it is not possible to know.

            [I am not in the least, denying
            your intelligence, unfortunately
            it is something quite
            beyond our understanding.]

          7. I was supposed to be having lunch with former colleagues tomorrow – but that is now cancelled as the weather looks as though it will be wet and several people were reluctant to sit indoors for lunch. So back to where we were – no social contact except on here.

            My booze consumption is up too.

          9. I booze because I’m stressed and, except for here, my social life consists of talking to people I meet when I’m out walking my dog. Quelle vie de chien!

    2. Lordy, sounds like you are well out of there, Jeremy. Places like that can be very damaging when one feels vulnerable.
      If it helps (and I don’t suppose it does), I am powerfully attracted to a bright Irish lass who is now 33 (and I’m older than her father…), and that started when I first met her aged 21. It went, and is going, nowhere, but it doesn’t stop her being attractive.
      Hopefully, you feel you can open up to NTTL, though being an open forum (if not advertised), all sorts post here. Mostly kindly.

      1. Just before he died, my father had a Japanese girlfriend. I was about the same age as her parents. It was a lovely relationship. He was dead chuffed (literally so in the end!) still to be able to attract young women in his eighties, and for her, he was a vast improvement on the jade Buddha statue on the mantelpiece, having at her disposal a real-life fat old man dispensing wisdom.

        My mother didn’t mind in the slightest – it kept him frisky and interesting, and she had the staying power.

      2. Plum, there’s nothing to stop us logging into the NoTTL site, checking any late posts we haven’t read, commenting on them, etc. This is exactly what I did in the early hours of this morning. I was intrigued to find that a post from a blogger I had blocked sparked off a lot of comments about what a fascinating film it was, how the two main actors were exceptionally good and saying what a pity it was that it had not won many awards. At first I thought they were talking about STAN AND OLLIE, but I unblocked the original poster and discovered that they were talking about THE TWO POPES, with Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce. I had to agree it was an excellent film which had actually been shown at an early date at my local cinema and which I had raved about to my friends at the time. This led me to the IMDb (Internet Movie Database) site to refresh my memory of the finer details of the plot and re-watch the trailer and read some reviews. Before I knew where I was two hours had elapsed so I returned to my bed.

        Hope this is helpful on your next spot of mid-night insomnia.

        1. Morning Elsie. Woke up at two this morning, Checked out Nottl and last nights headlines. Went back to bed at three and resumed normal service.

      3. I do wish sometimes I could be more like Diane Abbott when doing sums. However hard I try, I can only see one sheep, and counting sheep here is not taking me long enough to nod off again.

        1. While I was cooking breakfast, I was wondering if you are allowed to count the same sheep more than once?

          Then there are all those creatures that might one day identify as a sheep. Blades of grass, perhaps? Should I count them too?

          It’s getting like counting Covid casualties in a ward where they cleared out the cancer patients and put the old dears and sheep in a home.

          1. No, I agree with you but I thought it
            was almost satirical with all the signs
            being erected!
            I also watched ‘The Seventh Veil’…..
            for probably the tenth time over the
            years.
            Good morning.

        2. I dreamt I was watching a film about coals falling off the fire. It was called ‘The Grate Escape’.

      5. It’s usually pretty quiet cruising around Nottland after midnight – perhaps it should be compulsory to announce yourself so the few nightowls and insomniacs know they have someone else to engage with.

      6. I was awake between 2.00 and 4.00 am. It is either I can’t get off to sleep and I am awake for hours or I awake between 2.00 am and 4.00 am and cannot get back to sleep. One or the other. Very, very occasionally I sleep through the whole night.

        2. I am similar. I can’t normally get to sleep before 04.00 these days, if then. I still have to get up to do the chores, though. Today (about the fifth day of little sleep), I did miss something I should have been involved in. A guard of honour of ex-forces was required to see off an old comrade on the way to his funeral (only a handful of actual attendees allowed). I didn’t sign up for it because I couldn’t guarantee that I’d be able to make it, but I would have liked to be present. In the event, life got in the way.

      7. I am frequently up at the same time for the same reason (as I was this morning). I tend to sleepwalk to the bathroom then sleepwalk back to bed.

        Since embarking on a one-meal-a-day diet and drinking lots of water, I no longer suffer from insomnia.

      8. I was up and down four times as was OH – beating a path to the loo one after the other. What with itchy bites I couldn’t sleep – finally nodded off as it was getting light.

  30. Council warns it has reached max capacity for migrant children and can no longer safely look after anymore while Home Office books 4,000 hotel rooms for asylum seekers after record number of Channel crossings
    Kent County Council has reached capacity to care for asylum-seeking children
    It comes as Home Office has booked 4,000 hotel rooms to house asylum seekers

    Hotels in Hull, Birmingham, Nottingham, Southport and Glasgow have been used

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8637457/Home-Office-books-4-000-hotel-rooms-asylum-seekers.html?ito=social-facebook&fbclid=IwAR0WT9grdg1EadcYIpq_O-qKvrbFVrFrB7UwMiKdS7K1cWbZOuRZfzrQ-i4

    1. Looking at the pictures of those coming in, the vast majority are adults. Where are all the unaccompanied children arriving from, or are they the usual 14 going on 30’s?

      1. As we all know the “unaccompanied children ” are neither. Their families are in Calais waiting for the inevitable phone call to “come on over, I’ve got us a four bed detached on a new estate”.

      2. I now wonder if Farage is seeing the whole picture, and that perhaps some under-40 children are being imported elsewhere?

        1. It means checking their teeth which against their human rights.
          Unless, presumably, they have toothache.

          1. If they really wanted to they could do it by insisting on universal health checks on all immigrants, to include a dental check. I don’t see why it should be against their human rights. It’s also possible to get a general idea where people have lived at various times of their life, but they may be more averse to giving up bits of tooth, rib and femur for analysis, though it might make them more inclined to hang onto their passports.

        2. I wonder why?

          No doubt that some “children” might arrive toothless and the NHS would have to supply dentures.

    2. There are homeless people in all these places. Homeless Britons, many with mental health concerns. Why are they not being given a free hotel and house?

      I hate government. It acts maliciously, arrogantly and deliberately against the public, abusing taxes to pursue it’s own petty, vengeful agenda.

  31. 322681+ up ticks,
    I can honestly see EVENTUALLY a English version of the “Rising of the moon” party forming.

    The lab / lib / con / others for & against current issues have proved beyond doubt to be treacherous.

    People Smugglers Using Facebook To Advertise Fake ‘Cruises’ To Europe.

    UK tax payers footing hotel bills via government…. forever,

      1. 322681+up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        The real UKIP under Gerard Batten leadership for 18 months was showing a good fist of supplying
        both, then orchestrated treachery was triggered.

  32. Good morning everybody.
    Yesterday, or on Sunday, a Nottler mentioned that no comments were allowed on the obituary of a certain Mr Clive Ponting. Originally there were loads of BTL remarks, generally negative.

    1. I’m an idiot – However did the Argies not realise their boat had been sunk?

      The bit that gives him away is he became a member of the Scot Nats government and campaigned against Brexit on the basis it would reduce Scottish government power – power which the nationalists don’t use because if they did they’d be responsible for the mess rather than blaming England.

      1. Someone who betrayed trust as he tried to prove that the PM, Mrs Thatcher, lied about the Belgrano. The evidence is that she was misinformed about the matter, during the conflict.

      2. He was a whistleblower/traitor (call him what you will) of a snivel serpent who “leaked” details of the sinking of the General Belgrano.

      3. ex snivel serpent. Sold secrets, IIRC.
        Clive Ponting (13 April 1946 – 28 July 2020) was a senior British civil servant and historian. He was best known for having leaked documents about the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano in the Falklands War. – Wikipedia

    1. The Chinese can accurately measure water flow of “50,100 cubic metres per second” but cannot makeup a clear story about where a deadly virus came from?

  35. Melbourne’s slide into Covid dystopia. Spiked. 18 August 2020.

    In fact, that’s what we have been asked to do for this whole pandemic – trust the elites. The government doesn’t need to be held accountable, apparently – it has our best interests at heart. Don’t question whether the restrictions are proportionate to the health risk – the governments’ advisers know best.

    Back in May, Australian prime minister Scott Morrison famously said ‘we’re all in this together’. What was cringeworthy then is now completely disingenuous. Mainstream Victorians have paid far more of a cost for these restrictions than the elites of society have.

    The view from Oz which appears to be worse than here!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/08/18/melbournes-slide-into-covid-dystopia/

    1. The ignorance and malice of these people is humiliating to society at large. I suggest they be deported without trial to France and left for them to deal with.

      1. 322681+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        I agree to the foreign sounding chap, but leave the judge in the barrel.

  37. Those achieving at least a grade A have risen by 12.5 percentage points from 2019 on teacher assessed grades
    Difference between 2019 results and centre assessment grades in 2020 (pp)
    https://cf.eip.telegraph.co.uk/illustrator-embed/content/6076ce9fc63dee7dcd869871d9f9a660f72be35a/1597679315738.jpg
    A* A B C D E

    SOURCE: OFQUAL

    Edit: This illustration of Grade Inflation is from Charles Moore’s article
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/18/britain-should-abandon-shielding-iran/
    But has become distorted in transferring it to this blog. Sorree

    1. One aspect that troubles me is that, when there was a large difference between predicted and teacher grades, there seemed to be no investigation as to why. Was Teacher at fault? Was the computer algorithm at fault? Was dodgy data used? Nope, just believe the computer.

    1. Royal Scot pulling Britannia? Is there some political significance in that specific coupling?

          1. That Brunswick Green and Black British Railways’ livery is the best there ever was.

            Strange to see an ex-LMS and an ex-LNER double-heading on God’s Wonderful Railway.

      1. 322681+ up ticks,
        Afternoon WS,
        We showed you the way against ALL odds but then we were taken to be a “one trick pony”

  40. Top comment BTL@DTletters

    Incognito D W
    18 Aug 2020 7:28AM

    How screwed up is Britain?

    Shortest academic year = Greatest achievement in grades ever

    Worst performance by a health service = clapping, more funding and pay rise

    23% of people on BBC are BAME = invest £100M in more diversity

    0.0002% infection rate of Covid = local lockdown and masks

    0.2% infection rate at start of Covid = Open borders, masks are not required

    No money for homeless British = 4 star hotels for illegal immigrants

    80% salary up to £2500 per month – but you CANNOT work at your own job (you can do another persons)

    £57 a week unemployment – you must be looking for work and find it to survive

    1. 322681+ up ticks,
      Afternoon C,
      The mass rhetoric that really did me being a
      “real UKIP”member for many a year was on the 24/6/2016
      the victory verdict then hearing “we have won now leave it to the tory’s”,
      NOooooooooooooooo.

  41. The recent shambles about “A” level grades and the damage it has done to so many young people shows that the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson is not fit to govern.

    Here is a post from late last night:

    But not in independent schools – most of which have provided their pupils with a full programme of on-line tuition.

    Indeed, to take our business running residential courses in France as a microcosm:

    As soon as it became evident that students would not be able to come to us for our Easter holiday courses we upgraded our internet connection and gave our students up to six hours tuition a day on an internet conference link throughout the time they would have been with us.

    If so many state school teachers had not been so lazy and if these schools’ headmasters had not been so incompetent then their pupils would not have suffered as much as they have done.

    The moral is, as always, that private businesses do far better than state run organisations do. You might have thought that a Conservative government knew that but Boris and his brigade of bumbling buffoons clearly do not.

  42. Afternoon all.

    Listening to BBC R4 lunchtime I heard this [ regarding high streets/shopping ] … ” This is unique , we have never been here before ” …
    Well, frunk me static … is that what yooneeck means ? … hey ho …

    1. Well at least they didn’t witter, “this is unique; we haven’t been here since 1970” 🙂

  43. Words fail me.

    Britain is broken.

    DT Story (No comments allowed as you would expect)

    Rapper who filmed girlfriend dying after taking drugs has manslaughter conviction overturned
    Ceon Broughton was jailed for eight and a half years after a court heard how he filmed his girlfriend as she lay dying

    By
    Martin Evans,
    CRIME CORRESPONDENT
    18 August 2020 • 11:35am
    Rapper Ceon Broughton was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter
    Rapper Ceon Broughton was convicted of gross negligence manslaughter
    Rapper Ceon Broughton, who gave his girlfriend drugs at a music festival and then filmed her as she lay dying rather than getting help has had his conviction for manslaughter quashed by the Court of Appeal.

    Louella Fletcher-Michie, the daughter of Holby City actor John Michie, died after taking the hallucinogenic class A drug 2-CP at the Bestival music festival in September 2017.

    Her 31-year-old boyfriend was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison after he was found guilty of gross negligence manslaughter in February last year.

    But the Court of Appeal overturned the conviction after his lawyers argued that the jury could not be sure Miss Fletcher-Michie would have survived if she had received medical attention.

    Louella Eve Fletcher-Michie died after taking drugs at the Bestival music event
    Louella Eve Fletcher-Michie died after taking drugs at the Bestival music event CREDIT: Zoe Barling/PA
    During the trial, Winchester Crown Court had heard how Broughton filmed her as she lay dying from a drugs overdose rather than going to a nearby medical tent to get help.

    Prosecutors claimed Broughton had failed to take “reasonable” steps to seek medical help for Miss Fletcher-Michie because he had been given a suspended jail term for possessing a lock-knife and a Stanley knife blade a month earlier and feared the consequences.

    But at his appeal hearing Stephen Kamlish QC, questioned whether jurors could have been sure that Miss Fletcher-Michie would have survived if she had she received appropriate treatment.

    He also argued that the sentence was “excessive”.

    Quashing the conviction at the Court of Appeal, Lord Burnett said: “In our view, this is one of those rare cases where the expert evidence was all that the jury had to assist them in answering the question on causation.

    “That expert evidence was not capable of establishing causation to the criminal standard.”

    Broughton was also convicted for supplying Class A drugs and he did not appeal that conviction.

    The appeal was heard before The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, Mr Justice Sweeney and Mr Justice Murray.

    In a statement issued after the appeal ruling , Broughton said he remained devastated by the death of his girlfriend.

    Louella Fletcher-Michie and Ceon Broughton
    Louella Fletcher-Michie and Ceon Broughton CREDIT: Instagram
    A statement issued by Birnberg Peirce Solicitors said: “The Court of Appeal has today found that Louella’s death occurred not as a result of criminal negligence but was instead a tragic accident.

    “Ceon remains devastated by her death. He has always wished that he could have done more to save her. He loved Louella and she him, but he knows that no words will ever be sufficient to convey his sense of responsibility for what happened or to begin to remove the pain that others have been caused.”

    Broughton’s trial heard how he gave his girlfriend a “bumped up” dose of the Class A party drug 2-CP.

    Medical experts told the jury she could have been saved if he had walked just “30 or more steps” in order to get her medical help from a nearby hospital tent.

    But the Appeal judges ruled that the expert evidence was not capable of establishing causation to the criminal standard.

      1. If you assume that they are all stark raving bonkers you will not be far wrong with the majority. They no longer uphold the law of decent society and do not seem capable of applying common sense which seems to have been eradicated from UK law. A society is not able to function with a legal system that deals with etherial points of law rather than reality. Just don’t pee against the wall if you are white, male and stale and have had a few pints.

        1. Indeed. It’s OK if you riot, destroy statues or other property, or throw missiles at the perlice and if you’re black, obvs. Then the perlice, or some of them, will kneel down with you., and dance with you.

    2. The judges seem to have ignored the fact that he gave her the fatal drugs, which is surely grounds for manslaughter?

      1. I wonder what those drugs are supposed to achieve.
        If they were expected to make her more receptive to sex/date rape then he must surely be guilty of supplying with intent to do her harm.

    3. Words fail me too, Rastus. “He has always wished that he could have done more to save her.” (Well, he could have, couldn’t he?) Is the statement that “no words will ever be sufficient to convey his sense of responsibility” not an admission of guilt?

    4. Unterlassene Hilfeleistung (failure to render assistance after an accident or similar emergency) is a criminal offence in Germany.

  45. Isn’t the Government just wonderful? Taking all our cares away…

    NANNYING TO BE EMBEDDED “MORE DEEPLY” ACROSS GOVERNMENT

    Matt Hancock launched Public Health England’s successor organisation today – the National Institute for Health Protection. Unlike PHE, the new organisation will not have any distractions around nannying ‘health improvement’. A tacit admission that PHE spent too much time devising tax hikes on sugar and booze, and not enough on pandemic preparedness. Hancock announced that instead the only job of the NIHP will be to “focus focus focus” on external threats, such as pandemics…

    The bad news is instead a nannying culture will now be “embedded right across government… and in the work of every single local authority“. Hancock will be announcing new plans to spread the worst instincts of PHE into every nook and cranny of government and the health system over the coming weeks. In a hammer blow to those who like freedom, Hancock announced that “We will use this moment to consult widely on how we can embed health improvement more deeply across the board.” Be afraid. Be very afraid…

    18 August 2020 @ 12:17

    https://order-order.com

    ********************************************************

    BTL:

    Marcus Leach

    Reading between the lines it looks more like that this new National Institute for Health Protection is just merging PHE and NHS Test and Trace while keeping all the same dross on the pay roll and appointing Dido Harding, who has been in charge of the test and trace app debacle, to run it.

    Does the Government think that two negatives make a positive and that putting together two failed Quangos under failed leadership will produce a better result?

    Notional Trust

    It’s not just the nannyism. They are starting to get my goat.

    1. This morning I was bombarded with risk assessments, public liability insurance requirements, safety guidelines etc etc, just to get our table tennis club back to playing in the hall we’ve played in since 1975, with none of those.
      All this nannying is certainly getting my goat.

      1. I run a Curry Night group for my local U3A which has obviously been on hold since the lock-down, Ndovu. This morning I received an email telling me that “Head Office” has now authorised “Eating Out” groups to resume activities provided that I carry out a Risk Assessment, ensure that all members have up-to-date membership, that the curry houses have hand sanitiser at the entrance to their business and in their loos, signs up to ensure the correct social distancing, etc. etc. including adequate insurance for all members. And if necessary, it is up to me to contact each member, give them a menu in advance in order to find out what they wish to eat (this will undoubtedly involve “chasing” them when they fail to let me know their choices in time) so that it can be prepared just before we arrive; should one or more fail to turn up then the cost of the prepared meal(s) must be borne by me, etc. etc.

        I suspect that I shall not be re-starting the Curry Night group, neither now nor in the future. Such a difference from the lunch I enjoyed today with Annie and Korky at a local pub. We sat down at a large table, consulted the menu, placed our orders for food and drink and had a very happy couple of hours chatting over a delicious lunch. What a contrast! Imagine what that would have been like if we had had to submit a Risk Assessment to Geoff before setting out for our meal.

        The only criticism I could find was that Korky’s fish was not as large as the Australian Mackerel shown on these pages a day or two ago, nor was there any crumble on the dessert menu (although the three of us settled for a delicious tasty Eton Mess).

        Heigh-ho!

        1. Lass die Finger davon, Elsie. They are obviously looking for a scapegoat if something goes wrong.

  46. Guido’s QUOTE OF THE DAY

    The Adam Smith Institute’s Dan Pryor on what falls into the Government’s ‘junk food’ ad ban:

    “The Government’s barmy ad ban plan doesn’t cut the mustard. Well, technically it does.”

    1. I don’t understand why mustard is on the hit list. Even if it is loaded with sugar and salt (not the mustards i use). You only use a small amount.

      1. My guess would be that they look at %-ages and don’t think about the quantity actually consumed.
        Actually, they don’t think, full stop.

        1. My guess is that they want to make life bland for everyone. First sugar, then salt and now mustard. I’m surprised they haven’t already banned tomato ketchup.

          5. As long as they are de-stoned……..
            both black and green!
            I really do find the stones to be
            some what of a deterrent!

          6. Sometimes. But if the waiter has been a bit slow you can always take a deep breath and fire the stone at the back of his head….

          8. What about horseradish plant,
            dear one?

            Probably too difficult…..it grows too
            naturally in ‘yer country-side’ to
            effectively eradicate!!

          9. Next on the list, I’m sure. Anyone having a roast beef dinner will get words of advice. Lamb is fine though because that’s what the invaders eat after they have stolen them. I wonder if there has been a single prosecution over all the sheep rustling prior to Islamic celebrations. Doubt it.

            Oh dear……

        2. Even the whole amount dollop end on the plate rarely gets used. My Dad used to say that that was how Mr Coleman made his millions!

          1. Yes he made his money not by people eating mustard but what is left on the plate. My dad used to say that as well.

          2. There’s never any wasted in my house. Colman’s English is the tracklement of Kings. I always wipe my plate clean.

          4. I tend to scrape the remins of mustard off wth a fork & eat it on it’s own… I always was crass, but it’s tasty!

        1. I spent a really interesting couple of hours in a mustard museum/factory on the Mosel, I think it was in Cochem, including a tasting & chance to buy any of the many varieties. I provided a simultaneous translation for my tour manageress, who spoke no German.

          Things to Do in Cochem
          Visit Reichsburg (Castle) …
          Explore the Market Square. …
          Go Taste Some Wines. …
          Visit the Christmas Market. …
          Things to Do in Cochem: Visit Senfmühle. …
          Take the Seselbahn to the Pinnerkreuz Mountain. …
          Ride The Mosel-Wein-Express. …
          Stroll along the Mosel Promenade.

  47. Morning, Campers.
    Apologies for starting in such a down beat manner, but this disgusted me. (And yes, I realise it could be classed as a First World Problem.)
    A friend had to have her dog put to sleep last week.
    Because of Covid-19 restrictions, they were not allowed into the building. They had to stay in the vets’ carpark and little Harry was put down in the car while my friend held him.
    Now I have held dogs in my arms in such circumstances, but at least it was in their own home.

    1. Morning Anne,

      I have also heard of similar miserable final goodbyes.
      A carpark being a miserable souless cold place for any treatment . My elder dog needs his anal glands emptying , but a cold car carpark with none of the medical equipment required , unless they take him into the surgery to do the procedure , whilst I am waiting outside.

    3. This happened to neighbours and their King Charles’s spaniel back in June. I agree, it is disgusting.

      1. Mine is sixteen and a half. I am dreading the fateful moment, particularly under covid 19 conditions.

  48. Dido Harding’s unstoppable upward rise is an egregious example of the chumocracy at work

    Harding’s career has been dotted with failures, yet she is part of the club, so on she goes

    ROSS CLARK – 18 August 2020 • 12:35pm

    I guess there will have been few tears shed around the nation’s breakfast tables this morning for the demise of Public Health England – a quango which proved to be more interested in hectoring us over our diets than in preparing for a pandemic. But, really, can’t the government find someone better to lead its successor body, the Institute for Health Protection, than the woman who set up the government’s dysfunctional test and trace system?

    Dido Harding is the modern day equivalent of Gilbert and Sullivan’s First Lord of the Admiralty – the one who polished the knobs so beautifully that he became leader of the Queen’s Navy. She has enjoyed endless promotions and fancy new jobs, but why she has been offered them no-one seems to be quite sure.

    Or perhaps that comparison is not fair to the First Lord. If Harding was given a job polishing brass knobs they wouldn’t end up beautifully-polished – they would fall off and yet still she would be booted upstairs.

    Harding, you might remember, was CEO of TalkTalk in 2015 when 157,000 of its customers had their data stolen – including names, addresses, telephone numbers and bank account details. Asked whether the information was encrypted, at first she said she hadn’t a clue, and then tried to dismiss the whole idea of encryption by saying it wasn’t a ‘silver bullet’.

    I can’t for sure connect the two things, but I was a TalkTalk customer at the time and I am still receiving daily phishing emails and regular calls from scammers, in spite of keeping my telephone number out of the phone directory. I also went three months without a functioning phone line, after being passed from one TalkTalk call centre to another and speaking to what seemed like the entire population of Bangalore. TalkTalk regularly tops the polls of the most-complained about telecoms companies.

    What better candidate, then, to run a test and trace system which relies on cutting edge phone technology and 25,000 call centre staff? Her first effort, a phone app which was supposed to tell us if we had come into close contact with an infected individual, disappeared without trace after a trial on the Isle of Wight. People in the technology industry had warned that the system was flawed, but Harding ploughed ahead anyway.

    In place of the app, Harding was then charged with creating a manual test and trace system, which has proved no less farcical. A report by the Independent Sage Committee last week revealed that between the end of May and the end of July those staff succeeded in contacting 51,524 close contacts of people who had been diagnosed with Covid 19. That is a grand total of one call per month – and there is no guarantee than any of them actually did what they were told and self-isolated for 14 days.

    Harding’s main qualification for her new role seems to be that she studied PPE at Oxford alongside David Cameron and went on to marry former Conservative MP John Penrose. She is part of a club. While other businesses and organisations have to leap through hoops when they recruit anyone, to make sure they are achieving diversity and are free of unconscious bias, entirely different rules seem to apply to government (and Labour was just as bad in this as are the Conservatives, if not worse) – ministers just pick up the phone and fill important jobs with their chums.

    We will find out in due course Harding’s plans to prepare for a future pandemic. But I wouldn’t even trust her to get the ‘bring out your dead’ carts onto the street without their wheels falling off.

  49. Sajid Javid, Bromsgrove MP and ex chancellor has taken up the post of adviser to Wall Street giant J P Morgan. He already once had a lucrative career in finance. A by-election probably on the horizon.

    1. Why? Like most troughers they take these jobs to get paid to promote ‘business friendly’ – i.e favourable loopholes – for their clients.

      It’s corruption, same as Major lobbied in favour of Credit Suisse. Javid will desperately want to remain an MP – that’s why he’s got the job, after all.

  50. Breaking News Just out – Those people now catching the virus are only suffering the very mildest of symptoms, most experience nothing untoward at all.
    The Prime Minister has said that We have Never had it So Good.

  51. A reminder – How Neil Ferguson of Imperial College, London, who is financed by the Vaccine Alliance, GAVI, a pharma company making Covid-19 vaccines and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, took the world into lockdown on the flimsiest of evidence, but with the greatest possible conflict of interest.

    A thread – Prepared by mathematician Graham Neary………..

    https://twitter.com/GrahamNeary/status/1294645063985836032

    Let me tell you a story. It’s about six passenger flights from Wuhan that led to an unprecedented global disaster. These six flights help to explain why the entire world was gripped by fear, with consequences that we’ll be living with for many years to come.

    In 2020, the world became convinced that a deadly coronavirus was plaguing the human race. A virus that could kill nearly 1 out of every 100 people it infected, or so we were told. Come with me, and I’ll show you where that belief came from.

    Remember that in March, Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London predicted 510,000 Covid-19 deaths in Britain and 2.2 million Covid-19 deaths in the US. Healthcare systems would be overwhelmed. This could only be avoided by “non-pharmaceutical interventions” (lockdown, etc.)

    As an influential member of SAGE, Ferguson’s predictions were crucial in triggering the UK government into imposing lockdown. In early May, Boris Johnson insisted it was a “fact” that half a million lives were saved by lockdown, compared to the “reasonable worst case scenario”.

    At the heart of Ferguson’s predictions was the estimate that Covid-19 could kill 0.9% of the British people it infected, and could infect up to 80% of the population. The source for this belief was “an analysis of a subset of cases from China”. Let’s go down the rabbit hole…

    The analysis of Chinese data was carried out by Robert Verity (also of Imperial College) and others, in February and March 2020. But it was originally conceived by Neil Ferguson (“NMF”), who also contributed to the study.

    Taking the age of the Chinese people into account, this study estimated that the infection fatality rate in China was 0.66% (and was probably between 0.39% and 1.33%). Covid-19 was “a major global health threat” that would overwhelm “even the most advanced healthcare systems”.

    They had a number for how many people died of Covid-19 in China (mostly Wuhan) as of Feb 11th (1,023 deaths). That’s the numerator in the IFR calculation. What they needed was an estimate for the total number of people had who been infected.

    That sounds like something it would be very difficult to estimate, since you don’t know how many people with the virus are asymptomatic or haven’t been tested. They came up with a solution for Wuhan: count how many people escaping the city by plane tested positive for the virus.

    This clever idea gave them an estimate for the prevalance of Covid-19 in Wuhan. To match up with the timing of the death data, they used passenger test results from flights that took place over two days in late Jan/early Feb. How many flights, you might ask? Six.

    Extrapolating from six flights might sound questionable to you. But it gets better. Out of 689 passengers, only six people tested positive for Covid. These six people were crucial for estimating disease prevalence, the IFR, and ultimately forecasting death all around the world.

    As we live through the consequences of economic depression and the (hopefully temporary) destruction of our way of life, remember that it all comes back to the belief that finding six people with Covid on six flights was a good way to estimate how many people had the disease.

    I could end the thread now, having highlighted the flimsy basis on which the entire house of cards was built, but there’s more. They admitted that their conclusions were inconsistent with events at the Diamond Princess cruise ship – the best real-world Covid-19 experiment.

    And they also admitted that if some Chinese Covid-19 cases outside of Wuhan in the 50-59 age category had not been recorded, then the IFR “might” be lower. They assumed the near-perfect recording of Covid-19 cases outside of Wuhan for everyone between the ages of 30 and 59.

    Despite all of the uncertainties, they were still pretty sure that their work would be used to influence government decisions – and they were right about that.

    Finally, for those of you who wear tin foil hats instead of face masks, you’ll appreciate the acknowledgement by Ferguson that he works for the Vaccine Alliance, a pharma company which is now making Covid-19 vaccines, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Graham Neary.

  52. Just been down to the local shop where outside a Police Officer has set up his Speed Camera to monitor traffic in a 20mph zone. In the 16 minutes he has been there he has filmed 4 cars doing 30 mph…. I suspect that’ll be 4 new members of the UBC (especially if they’ve already had the joy of attending a speed awareness course…)

    1. I’d be tempted to keep driving round the block to keep going through – well under the 20 – holding the traffic back. Putting a sign up or warning other drivers about the trap is illegal – but I don’t think driving round the block is.

      1. walter – try walking round in front of the traffic holding up a red flag. It’s an old method of slowing the traffic.

      2. If you tried that they’d definitely stop you.
        We have a 20 mph limit sign in our village high street, on the down hill section the worse offenders are cyclists.
        Some of them ignore the pedestrian crossing.

      1. He explained he was being reasonable. I expect he would have booked over 95% if he stuck to the strict 20mph limit!

    5. I reported – as have most of the neighbours – kiddies driving their very noisy pringles tube cars up and down our properties. The police aren’t bothered. Thus I am going to destroy the vehicles.

    6. Glad to see our noble crime fighters are busy doing their bit.
      Did he fail to catch any dinghies breaking limits off the Kent coast so moved onto a “target rich environment” instead?

        1. Our government wallahs are running around like headless chickens.

          I wouldn’t have given into those students , they are having an unfair advantage , which will be challenging for the next batch of 6 th form students next year who will probably really have to struggle more formally.

          These 6th formers have stamped their feet too noisily. Blimey , they are capable of bringing the government down, then recruited into Momentum , thus becoming putty in Labours hands.

        1. They were given the Vote but nothing else went with it……….hang on a mo, that’s very similar to the UK.

      2. In what way did it not work?

        By any utilitarian measure it worked better than the replacement – a reversion to Africa version 1.0.

        It certainly didn’t fail on it’s own terms, it was constantly undermined by outside forces in the West.

        What will the UK be like when it has a minority white population?

      3. In what way did it not work?

        By any utilitarian measure it worked better than the replacement – a reversion to Africa version 1.0.

        It certainly didn’t fail on it’s own terms, it was constantly undermined by outside forces in the West.

        What will the UK be like when it has a minority white population?

      4. In what way did it not work?

        By any utilitarian measure it worked better than the replacement – a reversion to Africa version 1.0

        Its not an arrangement I like. SA would have been far better off as an all-white state. And they were far too relaxed about African immigration. Disparate white/black birth rates plus black immigration turned out to be a very bad deal. As we’ll be finding out.

        It certainly didn’t fail on it’s own terms, it was constantly undermined by outside forces in the West.

        What will the UK be like when it has a minority white population?

    3. Lets have a white only one then. We will end up with voluntary segregation. People like to be with their own its human nature. They maybe very nice peole but have different way of life to your own that you do not liked

      1. Global Apartheid now:

        Send Blacks to Africa
        Send Browns to Middle East and India
        Send Yellows to Far East
        Send Whites to Europe

        Who knows? Is this why God made us in different colours to begin with?

        2. I think our different colours are the result of divergent evolution in conjunction with the environments in which our ancestors lived. So basically your plan is a natural solution.

    4. A step in the right direction.

      Then their own schools, colleges, laws, police, courts, prisons, TV, films, towns, cities. Even their own countries. Which could be in . . . Africa! Which happens to be one of the largest continents and has relatively low population density.

      Then we could have the same.

    1. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. The above path has no good intentions, but it is still the road to hell on earth.

    1. His conviction was overturned because they couldn’t prove she would have sruvived if he had called for help.

      Thus:

      He supplied her with drugs
      He left her to die without getting help.

      He’s so obviously guilty it’s hilarious. Providing the murder weapon and refusing to get help – no doubt to save his own skin. A coward and a killer. He shouldn’t be arrested, he should be flogged, flayed and thrown into concrete to starve to death.

    2. Blick lives matter, init.

      Without knowing the evidence it could be he wasn’t guilty. Sadly, in this era no one trusts the judiciary because every decision the state enforces is politicised.

    1. And your song will play on without you
      And this world won’t forget about you
      Every part of you was in your song
      Now we will carry on…
      Never Without you..

      Thanks grizz…

    1. I t looks as if they have been taking steroids and now taking the coloured liquid.
      Why is this happening ?

      1. 322681+ up ticks.
        Evening RE,
        Well padded brown envelopes commands re-set.
        Re-set = submissive psiam & appeasement to all things of a political nature as seen via governance party politico’s eyes.

    2. 322681+up ticks,
      Evening Rik,
      Starving kids anywhere on the planet is well out of order
      and must be rectified.
      Starving the msm is well in order and should be the order of the day, every day.

      To buy a paper regular then whinge about the contents is very strange and on par with supporting / voting lab/lib/con, then once again whinging about the outcome
      to me is stranger still, then some.

  58. If some of you are wondering why dear Gavin is still in post perhaps this may point the way:

    “Chief Whip (2016–2017)
    Following David Cameron’s resignation, Williamson “privately vowed” to stop the front-runner Boris Johnson from becoming Conservative Party leader. He assessed Theresa May to be the likeliest candidate to defeat Johnson, offered his help to her, and was invited to be her parliamentary campaign manager.[8] When May became prime minister, Williamson was appointed Chief Whip.”

    On a completely unrelated subject is an Undertaker someone who knows in great detail where the bodies are buried?

  59. Matt Hancock unveils National Institute for Health Protection. 18 August 2020.

    The government’s new public health agency will protect the public against external threats to the UK, pandemics and infectious diseases, Matt Hancock has pledged.

    Speaking at the Policy Exchange thinktank, Hancock said: “To give ourselves the best chance of beating this virus once and for all – and of spotting and being ready to respond to other health threats, now and in the future, we are creating a brand new organisation to provide a new approach to public health protection and resilience.”

    Really? Lol! A Turkey by any other name is still a Turkey!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/aug/18/matt-hancock-unveils-national-institute-for-health-protection

      1. What it smacks of is a minister has said ‘This intolerable. You’re all hopeless.’

        A civil servant on a six figure slary has (quietly) sighed deeply and said ‘Yes, minister, something must be done, minister’.
        Said Minister said yes, we should change PHE.

        Civil servant said ‘Yes, how about diversifying the portfolio to better suit an ever changing narrative and centralising responsibility?’
        Minister says ‘err, yes.’
        Civil servants sighs again, grins and creates another quango with even more money soaked into it from the same failures. Nothing changes except more money is wasted.

    3. Nonsense. You’re moving the same useless idiots who let us down from Public Health England into this new quango.

      No doubt you’ll also create an obesity quango and A N Other quango, all quietly soaking up tens of millions in salary while achieving absolutely nothing – just as public fail England did only at greater expense.

      1. You’re moving the same useless idiots who let us down from Public Health England into this new quango.

        Of course. It would take ages to create an entirely new organisation. They’ve simply given it a new name and new CEO!

    4. Hey Matt, here is the first thing you can do with your organisation, test every illegal channel crosser and then send them back immediately anyway.

        1. To massage the figures. All good government departments like to have figures handy to reinforce project fear.

    5. Matt Hancock, Minister of Bullsh1t (specialities: House Arrest and ruined Foreign Holidays) – the man who followed the science and promised to “stamp out” the Covid19

    6. And in Coming Attractions, next week “War with Turkey”, a film about everyday muslims seizing other peoples belongings…

    7. “A Turkey by any other name is still a Turkey!”

      Don’t worry – it will be over by Christmas.

    8. And who will be the employees, the self same PHE staff, CEO, etc? Same group thinkers?

      And when will they acknowledge that this virus cannot be beaten. It will be with us always like colds and flu and every other virus floating around. You cannot “control” a virus. This terrible over reaction has been a brilliantly successful attempt to control us all and boy have they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams!

    2. Reminds me of an uncle who would only tell jokes about his grandmother. We got sick of his gran related jokes.

  61. Catching up with ‘The Spectator’, I came across Rod Liddle:

    Radio 4 recently ran an adaptation of Albert Camus’s The Plague in which the protagonist, Dr Bernard Rieux, was transformed into a woman. A woman who was enjoying a lesbian ‘marriage’. Of course they did, you will be muttering to yourself. If the BBC can transgender a rabbit in Watership Down they can certainly put a lesbian in The Plague.

    The boss of BBC audio drama, Alison Hindell, explained that the masterpiece had been altered to provide ‘contemporary resonance’. Does it resonate with you? Drama invites us to suspend our sense of disbelief for a while but needs to have at least a slender connection to reality. The original story is set in Oran, Algeria. Yet nobody thought it a bit rum that this well-to-do doctor batted for the other side. Openly. She was not harangued in the street, imprisoned, fined or assaulted. Her sexual preference was of no consequence at all — it was as if the drama took place at a dinner party in Muswell Hill in 2020 consisting entirely of BBC commissioning editors and their cringing catamites. It made one kind of urge the plague to hasten its arrival: come, friendly rats!

    Hindell was interviewed on the BBC’s Feedback programme and tantalised listeners about a new series she had just commissioned. It’s called A Season of Nigerian Literature. Can you wait for autumn? I can’t. I hope one of the plays is about the bloke who contacts me via email every so often requesting my bank details so he can give me some money. Hindell had been asked if she was aware that some people thought BBC radio dramas a little metrocentric. A little bit too London. The Nigerian literature stuff was her answer to that accusation. If they ain’t Muswell Hill, they have to be Nigerian, then.

    The irony is that she had a very non-London drama right before her eyes in The Plague, but managed to make that every bit as London as the rest of the stuff she commissions. To her credit, Hindell did announce a new Agatha Christie drama. But I will bet that in this episode Ms Marple (previously Bob Marple) will be hot on the trail of horrible mask-deniers and people who use the wrong pronouns: ‘A misgendering is announced.’ We all need a bit of contemporary resonance, after all — and there is no reason why Agatha Christie should be spared. Other commissars have already ruined Midsomer Murders. Nowadays there is no question of whodunnit — it is always the only member of the cast aside from Inspector Barnaby who is a straight white male.

    ….

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/my-pronouncement-on-the-bbc

    1. She will probably excel herself with Agatha Christie in the same way that Ten Little Niggers was first transmogrified into the bland Ten Little Indians and then, because that was also deemed inflammatory, into the pointless and anodyne And Then There Were None.

          1. Not quite, but two of ITV’s Marple stories with Geraldine McEwan turned some prominent characters into lesbians.

  62. I’m a tad p*ssed of with these moaning snowflakes who had their future stolen from them….
    What were they doing when schools closed during Covid19? Some may have got their heads down and continued studies however I saw numerous youngsters on sktateboards in my local park.
    I would have willingly paid a fit young man to tidy my garden whilst I was incapacitated. Several of my neighbours are elderly and cannot find a gardener to do anything which requires muscle… Women gardeners dead head and tidy up hedges but alas little else.
    Youngsters with a bit of nous could have earned £10-12 an hour if they got their act together
    and sussed out the market…
    Opportunities rarely arise but when they do, recognise them and grab them with both hands….they may never come again!
    Sermon over…

    Now where did I leave that spade…..

    2. 322681+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PT,
      Careful, gardening tools can bury you rhetorically speaking.

    3. “Some may have got their heads down and continued studies however I saw numerous youngsters on sktateboards in my local park.” – looks like they were the smart ones, Plum. Grades awarded anyway, based on who-knows-what, except not on hard work and academic performance.

    4. Hi Plum. Great idea. But perhaps those same elderly people would have been unhappy for some stranger to come to the house on spec and be rooting around the tool shed/garage. And maybe those kids’ parents would have been scared to let their kids do just that. People all round have been made paranoid by all the doom laden warnings still being broadcast such as “be alert, control the virus, save lives”. We’ve seen parents whose children are wearing a mask when shopping. Used to be that kids could get a Saturday job, or deliver papers daily, when they were about 12/13 but not now. Our grandson, 17, wants to get himself a job but supermarkets/diy stores won’t accept him til he’s 18. Things have changed but not necessarily for the better.
      Edited to make sense

      1. Hi vw,
        ” Our grandson, 17, wants to get himself a job but supermarkets/diy stores won’t accept him til he’s 18. ”

        Fame and fortune awaits….he could be the next budding Alan Titchmarsh!

        Where does he live………………….I’ll sharpen my spade!

        1. I didn’t explain, did I. It’s a temp job he’s after, he actually wants to become a surgeon.

    1. “Eye test? I thought I was hear for my rear.”

      Yes pedants I meant to write “hear”.

  66. The twitter Gestapo are on the march again

    Friend Lefty was a very occasional poster here…………

    “Titania was not the only victim. The Babylon Bee, a US satire site, was also temporarily locked out,

    though it has since been restored. Other satirical accounts – Jarvis

    Dupont, Guy Verhoftwat, Tolerance Police, Liberal Larry and Sir Lefty

    Farr-Right QC – all remain suspended. Sir Lefty revealed on Parler that

    the only reason given for his suspension was ‘platform manipulation and

    dissemination of spam’.

    All the accounts did was make fun of wokeness. But it seems

    virtue-signalling Silicon Valley nerds can’t take a joke. Apparently,

    this kind of comedy needs to be silenced.”

    Ironically, Twitter’s purge of the anti-woke satirists is a complete

    vindication of their work. In banning those who make fun of wokeness and

    criticise its censoriousness, Twitter has made it even clearer how

    authoritarian that wokeness is.

    It has also shown wokeness to be totally humourless. Silicon Valley nerds need to lighten up.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/08/18/twitters-purge-of-the-anti-woke-satirists/

    1. Haven’t twatted for weeks now. No point. As you write, humourless and totalitarian.

      1. I had an extremely funny attack on my Tw@ter feed last night.
        Lots of insults and sod all debate.

    2. They’ve banned Titania? She was evidently hitting the target way too often for their comfort.

      I have had the misfortune to have to spend time on Twit recently. Some of the stuff I’ve seen is so ludicrous that I’ve taken to reading it out loud in a PJW voice. My children assure me that there are several very popular youtube channels that consist of mocking lefty nonsense in this way.

    3. I was suspended in April for no good reason and they’ve ignored every communication I’ve made to them since. I don’t like Parler much but I’ll follow Friend Lefty.

        1. It might be just my ageing laptop, but I find it very slow and clunky and it won’t do what I think it will. Also the main reason I was on Twitter was to share petitions and animal things and there are no buttons for Parler on those.

          1. Ah, OK. All I use it for is to browse contributions and add the occasional comment myself. Hadn’t occurred to me to think of trying anything beyond that, not that it would do that anyway from what you say!

          2. I haven’t even figured out how to add aphoto to the top of my profile in place of the red bar. Other people seem to have sussed that one.

    4. Silicon valley nerds need to be visited by the BLM anarchists and be looted and then burned out of their homes, in the same way that they are encouraging it to happen to the rest of us.

    2. I am getting f-ing bored with people writing ‘bored of’ instead of ‘bored with’.

    1. If Biden gets in, that’ll be overturned in double quick time.

      People need to attack now, hard. and with lethal force in the figurative sense.

          1. Donald won’t let them.

            Anyway, Donald has had built a computer record of every eligible voter in the US so illegals need not bother trying it on because their votes will be eliminated at source.

          2. It’s not so much the illegals that he should be bothered about as those whose votes are hijacked by “community organisers” who tell “their people” how they should fill in the voting papers and check them before they are posted if Dem or binned if not.

          3. Mass mail in won’t be permitted. Donald will stop that by executive order if necessary. Plenty of cards to play yet.

          4. Pelosi appears to be trying to allow it. Time’s running out.

            If Biden, and far more worryingly Harris, gets in America will get what it deserves. I sincerely hope that Trump doesn’t say “to Hell with it” and refuse to stand.
            If that happens it isn’t just America that’s on the line.

          5. No way is Donald going to do that. Polosi is irrelevant, she has no cards.

            In any case, the polls are fake. Ignore them and await a 40 state plus Donald victory.

      2. The Supreme Court is appointed on a dead man’s shoes basis, so it won’t be overturned unless a Republican judge pops his or her clogs.

        1. True.
          But given other Democrat proposals re Constitutional change what makes you think they won’t try to change those rules too and put an age or term limit in place?

      1. Yes, it only seems to have surfaced recently but at least it’s a step in the right direction.

  69. Mail to a Conservative MP…………………

    Of course, it wasn’t only Tony Blair who forgot about his best friend, George Soros, when he wrote his autobiography… because David Cameron forgot about poor George Soros when he wrote his autobiography too.

    Despite giving $774,000, no less, to Open Society in 2012 and despite delivering a very highly paid speech to Soros funded ”Transparency International” shortly after he retired when he was paid an estimated $125,000 for one hour of work. Despite also being handed a directorship of One Foundation which is funded by Open Society, and despite having a Soros book on his bookshelf which is likely a signed copy given to him at Davos. Despite Open Society being just 5 minutes away from Downing Street and ”leveraging” a whole range of policies with David Cameron as the Open Society mission statement admits.

    After all, what is Open Society London for exactly but to ”leverage” Downing Street?

    Yet nobody ever mentions them….

    So why did Tony Blair and David Cameron both forget poor George Soros?

    Because it was a……Cover Up !

    No wonder your ”Bruges Group” tweeted as they did………..

    https://twitter.com/BrugesGroup/status/1181569492792598531

    Polly

  70. Evening, all. If the grade predictions are so dodgy, whatever happened to mock exams. They, together with marked exercises/coursework, would have given a reasonable indication, I would have thought. It was extremely rare for somebody who had done badly in the mocks and scored low on weekly tests, exercises, etc to come up with a brilliant exam result.

    2. I had a terrible English mock result – got an A grade in the “real” one. Hated the subject, too full of pretensions.
      Thereafter referred to by the sarky bastard of an English teacher as “A Grade Oberstleutnant” every time he talked to me in class. Cnut.

        1. Back then, it didn’t count, but yes, it was. I had absolutely no interest, but decided just before the exam that I’d better pass it, and so put in some effort & got lucky with the questions.

          3. I scraped through all my English Law II tests in pre-exam CA finals by no more than 5 marks. I came first in the actual exam!

      2. All my mock results were down, because I did no work for them. Teachers & parents flew into a panic, but I knew what I was doing.

          1. Or awkward squad! I was told I would fail all my “O” levels after the mocks so I thought “sod them” and put in an awful lot of work! I was desperate to leave school and get to college!

          2. My memory of the Technical School was of my determination to beat the system and come top of the class. I managed this in the third year by deliberately doing extra swotting and getting into the Cricket First Eleven.

            Having proven my exam technique I took the foot off the pedal but never came worse than the top three thereafter and achieved top grades when necessary in order to get into University and study my interest.

            I attended several University interviews with the train travel and subsistence costs paid for from the school’s hardship fund. In those days the University chose you and offered places with low grades in order to attract you and ease the exam pressure on you, knowing that your grades would be higher.

  71. Why the likes of Stonewall are so down on Britain. Spiked 18 August 2020.

    It seems paradoxical. At a time when British society has never been more tolerant of LGBT people, LGBT advocacy groups have never been so keen to emphasise the threats LGBT people face. Yet this paradox makes sense when one considers that today’s public enthusiasm for rainbows, sparkles and RuPaul’s Drag Race risks rendering LGBT advocacy groups redundant. They need to cultivate fear in order to justify, not to mention fund, their existence. Indeed, as Britain has become more tolerant, Stonewall, for instance, has seen its income rise from £583,256 in 1999, to £8,697,350 in 2018. And so an organisation that employed seven people two decades ago is now staffed by over 130 today.

    You can buy a lot of influence with £M8 quid!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/08/18/why-the-likes-of-stonewall-are-so-down-on-britain/

    1. “At a time when British society has never been more tolerant of LGBT people”
      Is it tolerance they receive now, or adulation?

      1. This movement was influenced by arty farty types, pop singers, TV soap programmes and camp programme presenters who gave off signals to impressionable young people who were probaly just slightly effete , and uncertain of their own feelings, many people kept their sexuality private .. But how strange that so many people are in that category now , many though don’t make a song and dance about it .

  73. 322681+ up ticks,
    Over the years the lab/lib/con supporter / voters most hold the record for being world beating Asp to boob claspers,

    ‘Are You Loyal to Britain? No!’ — Black Lives Matter Protesters Chant at London Demo.

    1. Well, you know what , those that live by the sword will surely die by the sword.

      Good luck to them , because as sure as eggs they are murdering each other inthe USA, Africa, Asia and of course Britain.

      Me thinks they shout and chant too much , let them scream and get stabby with each other , that’s what they do everywhere else .

      2. 322681+ up ticks,
        Afternoon TB,
        Wherever they kill each other is not really the point
        TB because that then begs the question why do our politico’s want them here ?
        Which then leads to why are the politico’s that want them here find support via the polling
        booth ?

        Since b liar lifted the latch and triggered mass uncontrolled immigration the parties that pursued that policy have never been without support.

        Funny that because the very same peoples that were supporting those party policies were also castigating the likes of me for being a member of a party that always called for controlled immigration.

  74. Good night all

    Crab & avocado tacos, some ripe Brie & some Summer Pudding for supper.

      1. Crabmeat, chopped avocado, a leetle coleslaw & chopped coriander. What’s not to like?

          1. When I was a postgraduate student at University College London one of my favourite eating venues (on a budget) was the Bhelpuri House in Euston. Their dishes were all delightful but the Bhelpuri dish with Coriander was my favourite.

            Another favourite eating place was the Men’s YMCA just off Tottenham Court Road, near Warren Street, provided you were prepared to forego utensils and eat with your fingers.

            Edit: immigration did not seem so bad back in the early seventies but it has been downhill ever since.

          2. We used to get a “Stereo Saveloy” carry-out from Cyril’s, just off Mile End Road, at Mile End.

        2. All of it?

          I’m having focaccia with salsa di pomodoro, salsiccia Napoletana picante, and mozarella di bufala.

          Yup that’s right. Pepperoni pizza again 🙂

          1. Homemade tacos are a million times more tasty than those silly cardboard things in a packet, Sue. They are also bendy and not rigid.

          2. I know but you’re not going to convince me! They are merely a vehicle for the delicious stuff!

          3. Is that not the same case for a sandwich, a pie, a pasty, a pizza, pasta, and any number of carbohydrate “fillers”?

            My “tacos” (more like a tortilla) are in the same league as the above.

          5. I use soft corn tacos. A quip flip in a dry pan to warm them through & they stay soft.

    1. An American virologist has said that the test will not identify Covet 19 but just whether a corona virus is detected. There are many of these.

    2. They also found that the PCR test can pick up traces of the virus long after the infectious stage has passed.
      This may explain why they are picking up so many positive results, and also why people do not appear to be ill – because they have already had the virus and are no longer infectious.
      So people have been locked down , businesses ruined and holidays curtailed all for nothing.

    1. I love his description of the BLM demonstrators as “stinking to high heaven, like they licked one another clean”.

  80. I just read a piece about ‘Big Mike’ Obama’s speech rubbishing President Trump. These democrats have a cheek. It is they who are the fraudsters. Barack Obama came from nowhere, had no great financial wealth, was questionably American but left office with millions. His wife is probably a trans male judging by her ‘Mike Tyson’ neck and muscular broad shoulders.

    If President Trump is not re-elected there will be no hope for America.

    1. If you don’t like Michelle Obama rubbishing President Trump (I don’t like that either) then please don’t rubbish her by suggesting she is “probably a trans male”.

  81. The sort of inverted snobbery from Scyld Berry which one now expects from the DT.

    School of hard knocks: Why England would be a better team with more state school players in it
    All of the top six picked for the second Test against Pakistan were privately educated, and nine of the XI – reported to be a record high

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2020/08/18/school-hard-knocks-england-would-better-team-state-school-players/

    As my old school has a representative in the current England cricket team (Dominic Bess) I thought I should stir things up a bit. This is what I posted:

    I think it is absolutely shocking that so many English football players were not educated privately. No wonder the football team has not won a major trophy since 1966 – 54 years ago while both cricket teams and rugby teams – both stuffed with privately educated players – have fared very much better.

    When England were the best football team in the word 120 – 150 years ago one of the most formidable teams which won the FA Cup in 1882 and appeared in several other FA cup finals was the Old Etonians.

    Don’t be an inverted snob. If the Yobs can beat the nobs then good luck to them but if the nobs beat the yobs they too deserve credit.

    1. Snobbery apart, plenty of comments make the obvious point that hardly any state schools have provision for cricket. Any state-educated youngster who wants to get noticed by the first-class counties has to be lucky enough to live near to one of them or at least to find his way into a well-equipped local club.

      1. Precisely. The wealthy can afford proper equipment, decent bats, gloves, pads and whites and studded boots. These items are way beyond the average state school student, even those whose schools have retained their sports grounds.

        Most sports grounds were flogged off to housing developers under Blair and Brown.

      1. Perhaps you can chase down the quotation for me: Every person receives two educations: one that he receives at the hands of others and the other which he finds for himself. It is the second which is far the more important.

        2. “Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.”

          Edward Gibbon

    3. Nobs v Yobs? It used to be called Gentlemen v Players.

      I wasn’t privately educated. Does that automatically make me a ‘yob’?

      Personally speaking, I believe that a system that chooses the best players, regardless of their background, is a certain recipe for success.

      1. So old-fashioned, Grizz. ;-)) Nowadays the choice is based on all kinds of irrelevant characteristics.
        Where you were educated.
        Colour of your skin.
        Bla, bla, bla…
        No wonder there’s no winning any more.

        2. Do they no longer whistle down the nearest mineshaft in the hope of discovering another Harold Larwood?

      2. As they say some of my best friends were not privately educated – but some of my best friends were.

        I think that both you and I, Grizzly, establish a rapport with certain people which transcends where they come from and it is this which makes them our friends.

        1. That’s true, Rastus. I’ve never encountered snobbery from the nobs and seldom from the yobs; and I’ve met a few of both.

          I’ve only encountered it from Belloc’s pretentious wannabe lot in the middle.

  85. “SIR – My own bags for life continue to be a worthwhile investment, 20 years after I bought them.
    I have lived in Sweden since 2011 and I never go shopping without one of my three old bags from Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and Tesco. I get a number of strange looks from local shoppers in ICA Kvantum and Willys, but my bags continue to give good service.

    Alan G Barstow
    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden”

      2. How on earth did that get past the editor? Probably one of the schoolchildren they employ nowadays.

      2. He gets lots of letters printed. It’s just that he and Rastus bellyache about not getting more.

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