Tuesday 2 June: Let migrants from Hong Kong lead a new era of enterprise in Britain

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/01/letterslet-migrants-hong-kong-lead-new-era-enterprise-britain/

701 thoughts on “Tuesday 2 June: Let migrants from Hong Kong lead a new era of enterprise in Britain”

    1. Apparently here, too. 26C forecast.
      Easier to work one’s little butt off outside when it’s cooler…
      Morning, Bob!

    2. Apparently here, too. 26C forecast.
      Easier to work one’s little butt off outside when it’s cooler…
      Morning, Bob!

  2. I was just thinking this morning how the mainstream media reaction to the killing of George Floyd by a white policeman contrasts with the killing of the soldier Lee Rigby.

    With Lee Rigby the media were very careful to play down the racial / religious angle to the crime, we kept being told that the people that do this are just mad extremists they do not represent all Muslims and to even suggest that they do would be racist, I guess the aim was to try to play down public anger in case of reprisal attacks on Muslims by right wing extremists which seems fair enough, except that we do not have a problem with right wing extremism in this country, so much.

    But with the George Floyd murder the media kept repeating over and over emphasising a white policeman killed an unarmed black man with the suggestion that racism is rife in the US police forces and all over the USA in general, the media didn’t care about reprisal attacks on innocent white people and businesses mainly by left wing extremists which we do have a major problem with in this country, it was as if they wanted it and it was justified.

    2. And having stoked up this racism element, the same media is surprised when the police and public turn on them.

  3. SIR – After buying a couple of dresses and viewing a new car, I would like to nip into church to ask God to help me pay for them. Has the Government lost its marbles about reopening churches?
    Rosemary Corbin

    Sounds like Ms C has about the same understanding of financial management as her namesake with a ‘y’.

    2. She also doesn’t seem to understand the purpose of prayer.

      Unless i am being dense and missed the joke.

      1. Shops and car showrooms are or will soon be opened but churches are still closed?

  4. Good morning, all. And a very memorable Coronation Day to you all. Rather different weather today than that in 1953.

    1. ‘Morning, Bill, I do remember being just nine years old, decked out as a pirate by my Mama in order to enter the fancy dress competition being held in Ditchingham Village Hall.

      To my chagrin the competition was won by a girl dressed as a Coronation Mug.

      Those were the days before ‘Prizes For All.’

    2. And a good morning to you, Bill. Try as I may, I just cannot recall Coronation Day. The fact that I was not quite 2 at the time might have something to do with it…but the newsreels suggest that it was a bit soggy.

      1. It was indeed but Queen Salote of Tonga insisted on riding in an open carriage despite the rain.

        Possibly because she was so large, they couldn’t close the hood.

        1. Princess Marina is supposed to have asked “Noel, who is that little man
          sheltering under Queen Salote’s umbrella?” Coward is said to have peered
          through the rain and said “Oh, her lunch, my dear.” In a later
          interview with Walter Harris, Coward revealed it had been said by
          someone at White’s Club and was immediately attributed to Coward. “It
          was very flattering of course, except that I had intended to visit Tonga
          the following winter, and after that of course it was quite
          impossible.”

          http://yquotes.com/noel-coward/35481/#ixzz6OBq6BvGX

    3. Good morning all! Has the weather got something to do with the Corona…?

    4. My parents decided that occasion was a good excuse for a camping holiday. In a field near Guildford for reasons that totally escape me.
      But I’m not bitter.

  6. Morning all

    SIR – Matthew Lynn (Business, May 30) is right. We should definitely grant a full British passport to the 300,000 Hong Kong people who currently have a British National (Overseas) passport.

    But we should go much further. We should set aside an area the size of Hong Kong as a new enterprise zone, with tax breaks and grants for Hong Kong businesses and British investors prepared to back them.

    Let’s sow the seeds for a new Hong Kong – perhaps on the Isle of Wight?

    Peter Wiltshire

    Sandown, Isle of Wight

    SIR – The Foreign Secretary is right to offer a visa lifeline to Hong Kong BN(O) passport holders.

    However, broadening the rules to the extent that he is suggesting could lead to an open-ended commitment to hundreds of thousands of immigrants.

    A better approach would be to be selective, as Canada was after the handover, when it accepted a few thousand Hong Kong entrepreneurs with “innovator” visas. Bursaries could be offered under such a scheme for those to whom our Government owes a specific debt of gratitude.

    Rupert Gather

    Chairman, InvestUK (Group) Limited

    London W1

    SIR – Democratic nations voice “concerns” but continue to do business with the brutal Chinese state, whose new law for Hong Kong is a serious threat to democratic freedom.

    Smart technology is reliant on rare-earth metals. China produces 80 per cent of these. Surely the West’s key players in technology should start trying to find alternatives, for 5G too, thus reducing our reliance on the communist state. At the very least, our Government should cancel its contract with Huawei.

    Simon Lever

    Winchester, Hampshire

    SIR – In the Seventies, a large proportion of the Indian community in East Africa came to Britain, as “Africanisation” swept across that region. My family was one of those who landed at Heathrow in 1972.

    There are several parallels with the situation in Hong Kong. The strongest I can see between the potential migrants from Hong Kong and the East African Asians is socio-economic. Both communities value education, tend to be entrepreneurial and have cultures centred on family values. They also have a prior understanding of Britain: the law, governance, ethos of free trade, and language.

    One statistic I am always struck by is that over 90 per cent of the City of London is made up of small and medium-sized enterprises. The entrepreneurial nature of Britain allowed East African Indians to thrive, and I believe it would allow migrants from Hong Kong to do the same.

    The steps the British Government is taking are welcome – and a sign that we haven’t forgotten our values.

    Shravan Joshi

    Member, Court of Common Council

    City of London Corporation

    London EC2

    1. Rupert Gather:

      “However, broadening the rules to the extent that he is suggesting could lead to an open-ended commitment to hundreds of thousands of immigrants.”

      Well, what else is new matey?

      1. Nope. It would open the borders to millions of immigrants, most NOT from HK, and those with their hands out for bennies.


    2. In the Seventies, a large proportion of the Indian community in East Africa came to Britain, as “Africanisation” swept across that region. My family was one of those who landed at Heathrow in 1972.

      Two points:
      a) the writer is writing from a position of self-interest, i.e. as a descendant of one of those families who came here in 1972, I’m guessing because India wouldn’t take them in? Another migrant of Indian descent who came from Uganda is, of course, Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I will say no more, other than that not all of those migrants are grateful to have been allowed to come here.
      b) just because we took in migrants in the past doesn’t mean we have to take in everybody else. The Hong Kong Chinese would certainly be a potential asset, but we don’t have the infrastructure or room to keep taking in hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. At some point enough is enough.

      1. ‘Morning, Ims2, “At some point enough is enough.” Personally I think we are well past that point.

        Maybe we should expel 300,000 trouble-makers to make room for the Hong Kongers.

        1. I’d happily swap the trouble makers round Rochdale, Telford etc for the Hong Kongers – I’m sure they could put the disused mosques to good use.

    3. Why is it always assumed that the 300,000 will be educated, entrepreneurial, highly skilled workers? They might just as easily be unskilled and semi-skilled workers or elderly and infirm and no longer able to work at all.

      1. Whatever they are, they will consume water and need educational and medical services. Will they bring these from Hong Kong?

        1. Where will they live? Will the Isle of Wight be built upwards to resemble Hong Kong as well? Sweatshops ‘n all? Man’s an idiot.

        2. It’s conceivable they might bring the latter two skills, but they certainly won’t bring the necessary infrastructure. It would be like having to create a city the size Newcastle to accommodate them.

          1. Well, that would do for year one. The problem we have now is that a million breeds into 5 million within 20 years. A stable and unchanging level of population is what we need and can support, at around 50-54 m.

  7. We had the same problem but were told they would all up and go….and they did.

    SIR – In a bird box in our garden, blue tits raise their young each year. But now bumble bees have taken it over. Will they want to remain long-term?

    Josephine Bones

    Stisted, Essex

  8. SIR – My five-year-old grandson is looking forward to going to a birthday party later this week. Thanks to Zoom, he will see his reception-year classmates and one of his favourite entertainers, and of course he will maintain social distancing as required.

    He was expecting to join his friends at school this week, but won’t be, as the senior management team of his primary school has decided that it can reopen Year 6 only. Other friends and family members are returning to school and it is hard for him to understand why he isn’t.

    Many schools have yielded to local council decisions, succumbed to union pressures, or simply given up in the face of the long list of measures required to ensure the safety of staff and pupils. Parents have not been consulted. They have simply been told what is happening. Many must either continue working from home or make the effort to return to their workplace so they don’t lose their jobs.

    Schools have had over two months to see what they need to do; perhaps the trial runs that started yesterday will yield enough “evidence” for them to get on with planning for a full and proper return come September. Their efforts to date have failed thousands of children, and they have lost the trust of parents.

    Margaret Powell

    St Mary’s Platt, Kent

    1. ‘Morning, Epi. Interviewed on BBC SE Today yesterday (yes, yes, I know, it’s bloody awful) a motormouth councillor, with the somewhat unconvincing title of ‘lead for education’ in Brighton, was ranting on about the grave dangers of reopening, and the advice he had was that it wasn’t safe. Even for this wretched programme the interview was exceptionally lame – most of us here would have asked where such advice had come from, but no, she remained silent and seemingly incapable of this. Anyway, I digress; it was a Labour councillor, like so many of the other anti-reopening brigade. Just a coincidence, I expect…

      1. I heard that git on Toady. Very irresponsible for a councillor to stoke irrational fears. Reminded me of John Prescott .

        1. Fatty Prescott…wow, that’s a blast from the past. Whenever his name is mentioned I still have this appalling vision of him servicing Tracy over his office desk. (I know, I should seek help as soon as possible.)

    2. and of course he will maintain social distancing as required.

      Why?
      Where is the evidence that children are susceptible to it, or that they spread it to others, including adults?

    3. “senior management team”.

      That would be the Headmaster and deputy Head would it? Or are they all run by committee now?

      1. Head, Duty Head(s), Heads of Subject and a couple of others chucked in for good measure to be inclusive.

  9. 319867+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Both sets of political treacherous jesters ( hol hol ) have totally lost the plot and created an upheaval in the jobs market with milkmen,window cleaners & coalmen quitting en masse, Also OMO shares are expected to plummet.
    breitbart,
    Having Sex With Someone You Don’t Already Live With Now Illegal In Britain Under Coronavirus Laws

      1. 319867+ up ticks,
        Morning Bsk,
        I take it as said that All paedophile / abusers will be given special dispensation via the submissive pcism & appeasement unwritten charter.

      2. Not at all – they are just going about their trade as essential workers.

  10. SIR – I am appalled that some water companies are reporting shortages and are asking customers to use less. What are they doing with it? Apart, of course, from letting up to 25 per cent leak away.

    My water gauge – which runs from September – reads about 30 inches so far this year (the annual average for the South East).

    Water companies have a lot of questions to answer and need to improve the way they run their businesses.

    Richard Finlinson

    Ashford, Kent

    SIR – We seem to have a pattern of floods followed by drought. Would it make more sense to build a new reservoir to serve the South East than a fast train to Birmingham?

    Annabel Burton

    Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

    2. As folk know I take a keen interest in rainfall in my locality. In May we had just under 8% of the historical monthly average rainfall. Two weeks ago the ’10 day’ forecast from Weather.com, [It is in fact a 14 day projection] indicated that there would be no rainfall until 3rd June (with a 40% probability). I have to say that they have been absolutely spot on with their forecast. I just hope we get some spots of rain tomorrow.

    3. As folk know I take a keen interest in rainfall in my locality. In May we had just under 8% of the historical monthly average rainfall. Two weeks ago the ’10 day’ forecast from Weather.com, [It is in fact a 14 day projection] indicated that there would be no rainfall until 3rd June (with a 40% probability). I have to say that they have been absolutely spot on with their forecast. I just hope we get some spots of rain tomorrow.

    4. Ms Burton, plans were in place to increase water storage but the plans were stopped by the action of the government of the day, an alleged Conservative government. It’s clear that providing a substance that is essential for life and a healthy lifestyle does not beat providing a minority pleasing train-set in the politicians’ kudos stakes. Surprisingly, a large reservoir near to where I live was enlarged recently. Obviously the plans were too far advanced for the government to put the mockers on the work.

      What makes this particularly odd, however, is that only a few years back, the last government was gung-ho about the companies’ plans to build five major new reservoirs in the south of England alone, where the shortage is most acute, and to extend three others. So what happened to all those plans? One after another they have all been shelved or turned down altogether by the Government, as when last year our Environment Secretary, Caroline Spelman, vetoed Thames Water’s plan for a huge £1 billion new reservoir near Abingdon, saying that there was “no immediate need” for new reservoir building. This was only months after she had sent back to the drawing board another well-advanced scheme near Portsmouth.

      Daily Telegraph – Christopher Booker

    5. We can’t. It’s controlled by the EU.

      Now we’ve left lots of things can change.

    6. Annabel- plans were already afoot some years ago to build an additional reservoir in Sussex, however the PTB decided it wasn’t needed.

  11. The restrictions on our freedom are unjust unscientific and foolishly particular.

    SIR – Two recent stories provided cheer: the marriage of two medical professionals in the chapel at St Thomas’s Hospital, London (report, May 27); and the baptism, by the Archbishop of Canterbury, of the baby of a priest recovering from Covid-19 (report, May 23).

    My church, however, remains locked. The wedding couples whose marriages were booked have no idea when, or in what manner, they might take place, and I have been unable to perform baptisms or preside at funerals there since March. This is probably the first time in a thousand-year history that such a closure has occurred.

    I understand the seriousness of this pandemic, yet it would be relatively easy for people to enter my church safely for spiritual sustenance.

    Why are some allowed the sacraments of the Church and others denied them? Why are archbishops, bishops and other faith leaders not urgently tackling the Government and Sage about reopening churches?

    Their opening must be a priority, not some vague aspiration happening months hence.

    Michael J Maine

    Vicar and Rural Dean

    Cuckfield, West Sussex

    1. In our church, “social distancing” was the norm years and years before the plague.

      An average congregation is about 10. Everyone sits in different pews, spread out in the nave. Normal behaviour!

      If 100 people can congregate (geddit it?) in Tesco, why can’t ten do the same in church?

      1. It was reported recently in the MSM that Mr Tahir Ali, Labour MP, had joined more than 100 others at a Muslim funeral.

        Perhaps the Bishops ignore reports in the MSM?

    2. It seems the Bishops are too busy playing politics to worry about reopening churches!

      1. I understood that they would, effectively, prefer the churches to close permanently. Then they can be sold, and those pesky parishoners chased away.

    3. The Vicars should revolt. They should all open their Churches and the Bishops be damned.
      They can follow social distancing rules just like they do at the Altar of Mammon. Other supermarkets are available.

      Will the Bishops have the balls to sack them all? No.

    4. Mr Maine needs to look at past Christians and how they courageously stood up to persecution.

      …..and all he needs to do is turn a key!

  12. Britain should follow Australia in returning Channel boat migrants to their start points, says ex-Prime Minister. 2 June 2020.

    “This is the fundamental truth that policy makers in Britain need to understand. To stop people from setting out for Britain in unseaworthy boats, you have to ensure that they never arrive; or that if they do arrive they are swiftly sent back.

    This is simply plagiarising, stealing would be better word; Abbott’s own words in an article in the Telegraph only two days ago. This said it still illustrates Abbotts own cluelessness about what is actually happening on the UK. The PTB, the real PTB, not the Government, approve of mass immigration and thus it continues regardless of what any Minister might say or do!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/02/britain-should-follow-australia-returning-channel-boat-migrants/

    1. Morning all 😊
      We’ve had a run of 3 lucky wins recently 75 quid. But the queues have been too long to pay it in.
      Our little village shop and tiny post office counter did the trick.
      It’s the lottery win I’m after……party time.

      2. Because I’m still under the maximum permitted, I have mine reinvested into more premium bonds.

        1. I have the max. Then i run then down throughout the year on gifts and dining out. Then when they get down to £25,000 i top it back up to max again.

          1. So that way you get a churn of numbers, presumably taking advantage of the suggestion that new numbers win more frequently than older ones.

        2. Both mine and my wife’s were our parents.
          For the money invested it’s certainly far better than the current bank interest rates.

          1. Even being at half maximum and the DT only having £8k, we’re both getting 10 times more of a return than from other savings.

    2. For instance, English car showrooms reopened yesterday, but salesmen are banned from taking you on a test drive.
      Unaccompanied test drives are permitted, but would you trust a punter, who’s just wandered in off the street, with the keys to a 50-grand motor?

      When Ford introduced a new sports car in the late ’80s (can’t remember the name) the local dealer in Germany let me have one to test drive for a whole day, without obligation. You should have seen the heads turn all over town.

      1. Firstborn got a top of the line VW Amarok for a weekend a year or so ago. Magic waggon! Something like 1,2 million NOK worth. He bought a cheaper model, on truck plates as a result.

      3. I had an email from a dealer I had used previously, part of the Sytner group.

        Subject to insurance and driving license checks being done they state test drives will be unaccompanied on a prescribed route of about 15 mins duration.
        They will supply mask and gloves for the customer.
        The vehicle will be cleaned again on completion of test drive.
        HIGH VALUE AND HIGH PERFORMANCE vehicles will be excluded from the unaccompanied test drive program at the moment.

        Darn, I was looking forward to test driving their DB11 for a weekend. 😂😂

      4. When we were moving in to our house in Germany I went to a loclal shop to buy a fridge and freezer. I took one he took the other in the backs of our cars. and he helped me set them up at home. He said he was in a hurry so pay me next time you are passing.Very trusting.

  17. Seems that Facebook employees are all a’twitter about Donald Trump posting “When the looting starts, the shooting starts” – apparently, this incites and glorifies violence. From where I sit, it is a threat that needs taken seriously, to the extent of not going f***ing looting! Maybe looters should burn facebook offices? One begins to see Trumps position in criticising social media.
    Apparently Zuckerberg won’t take the message down, as it’s freedom of speech – and the arsebook employees aren’t happy.

    1. If he gave the usual warning ‘looters will be shot on sight’ instead of the idiotic tweet, I wonder if the protesters would have been as up-in-arms as they are. Probably, because anything Trump says will inflame some people.

          1. He does rather have “Open mouth/twitter, insert foot” syndrome.
            Maybe they should take his phone away.

  18. 319867+ up ticks ,
    Is there any truth in that the newspapers are impregnating their output with a form of pepper spray
    due to the fact it is torn up into sizes to fit the occasion on being seen by many as a stand by, emergency product.
    The ultimate revenge weapon from a doomed
    reported / intentionally distorted, newscasting fraternity.

    1. An interesting theory Oggy though I would be more inclined to believe that they are injecting faecal matter into their ink!

      1. 319867+ up ticks,
        Morning As,
        Giving creadence / body to the fact they are printing sh!te.
        One good result is they cannot contaminate fish / chips any longer.
        NO self respecting cod would currently be found dead in their product.

    1. That rock looks like a dinosaur with its head in the sand (symbolic of something relevant I’m sure).

      As for the rubbish it is truly appalling. I think the change to litterbugs must have come with the change to disposable containers for everything rather than a picnic hamper and flasks, which one took home to wash up for reuse. How to change the throw-away society?

      1. It is a particular age group that do this. We should be focused on them. For every piece of recognisable rubbish the seller should be billed. MacDonalds is a culprit of rubbishing our verges. Charge them for the clean up. !

          1. The 15 – 30 age group is by far the worst. Look at the crap they buy.

            Good morning, Big Ears. 🙂

          2. And look at the waste – they’re the ones consuming it, they’re the ones creating the mess.

            It’s always the same demographic.

          3. Over here, young schoolkids do tidy-up patrol every spring, to collect the stuff that accumulated over winter, under the snow. The tidy mentality seems to stick – helped by care for the environment.

    2. I was taught by my parents, and I taught my children, to take one’s litter home if no bin was available.

      A couple of days ago, sitting in my car in a supermarket car park waiting for my wife while she did a bit of food shopping, I saw a woman in a car opposite me wind her window down and casually throw some paper on the ground – not once, but twice. At the best of times, I would be loath to reproach such a person for fear of possible repercussions, but to do so now would mean breaking the two metre rule. It’s disheartening to see such disregard for the environment and for other people.

      1. Pick it up, sneak around to the back of the car and stuff it in the exhaust pipe. When they try to leave but can’t start the car they will have to call out the AA or RAC, who will probably have to call out a tow truck.

        1. Trying to start the car will probably blow the paper out – however if you really want to thwart the start (and blow the silencer/damage the Cat) stuff a potato up the exhaust so it seals it

      2. My son worked for McDonalds when he was at school and university. Before he could drive it was my chore to drive to the site and pick him up when he finished his shift. It was disheartening to see the rubbish in the car park on the late finishes: you could tell how many people were in the car as there would be a small pile of wrappers, cups etc where each person sat in the car, they just opened the window and dropped the rubbish out. Plenty of rubbish bins within a few paces but these people were too idle and uncaring to use them. To be fair to the company they had regular trash patrols, their description, during the day to keep the site as clean as possible.

    3. I saw the rubbish in lots of places on the news last night – what disgusting people they are to do this – and closure of public toilets is only making the problenm worse.

      My mother used to say many years ago thet the British public ( and at that time they were British) were the dirtiest people in Europe. That was before I used a French squat loo.

      1. Jambo Ndovu.

        Yet squatting is said to be the best position for a good “performance”.

    4. They’d take their rubbish to the Costa del Sol if they could, Belle! If XR are anything to go by, I expect Antifa have left plenty of litter behind, too.

    5. I’d bet if you looked at who was there before the rubbish you’d find unintelligent yobs drinking and smoking.

      I’d estimate between the ages of 18-25, lower income, low intelligence.

      I told da woman who threw a cigarette but in the road ot pick it up. She looked at me as if I had two heads. People don’t seem to understand how disgusting they are, thus the punishment should be not £50 but flogging.

    6. Morning Belle. Yes though I’m not certain it was ever that pristine!

    7. Yo T_B

      They could stop a ot of the rubbish, before they get across the channel from Shariah West aka france

    8. The scum who litter should be shot on sight without prior warning.

      Their bodies could be dumped into shark-populated waters.

      1. Good morning, Grizzly

        Do you remember The Monty Python Holiday Homes for Pets Pie Company?

        Perhaps you could be a founder of The Human Flesh for Wild Animals Sausage Meat Company?

    9. Disgusting.
      Makes my occasional litter pick-up between here & Cromford look feeble in comparison.

        1. Thank you, Sir.
          Birthday was a bit hit & miss, but after feeling better yesterday, my bowels erupted again in the late afternoon.
          Feeling a lot better, if a bit knackered after a disturbed night, but still got those threatening gurgles from the lower abdomen.

      2. What is amazing is the number of Red Bull cans thrown out of cars.

        Red Bull must be a very profitable company.

        1. They drink Red Bull as a stimulant. If you drink too much of it , it can kill you. I think they should halve the price.

          1. Phizzee, that explains the wild driving along potholed roads around here.

            Very frightening to walkers, dogs and horses.

        2. Sadly with the slump in scrap prices over recent years, they are not worth picking up, squashing and bagging to weigh in for scrap nowadays.
          The last lot I took in, 3 x ¼ton builders bags full, didn’t even pay for the diesel to get to the scrappies.

  20. Andrew Neil
    A statement from the chairman of The Spectator
    2 June 2020, 7:30am

    In common with thousands of companies up and down the country, The Spectator magazine group availed itself of government funds to furlough some of its staff during the Covid crisis. We feared the impact of Covid on our finances, especially on our cash flow, as parts of our business slowed or ground to a halt, leaving some staff without work to do. We were grateful for government help, which allowed us to conserve cash and still see our people paid 80 per cent of their salaries.

    Though some parts of our business – especially the revenue lines from events, newsstand sales and advertising – have been hit badly by the crisis and ongoing economic downturn, overall our magazines have weathered the Covid crisis better than we expected. The bulk of our revenues now comes from subscriptions. They were rising strongly before the crisis and they have continued to rise strongly during it, thanks to superb editorial content and magnificent marketing.

    We have taken a financial hit but nothing as bad as I feared. We remain a profitable and growing company, now with strengthening cash flow. For that reason, we will return to the taxpayer the funds we took from government to finance our furlough scheme and withdraw from that scheme forthwith.

    We do this not to set an example for other companies to follow but because we can afford to do so. It transpired that, contrary to our earlier fears, we did not need the furlough money to survive. So it seems only fair we return what, in the end, we did not need. Many other companies will not be in the same fortunate position.

    Instead of depending on furlough money from taxpayers, I have tasked the editorial and management teams to grow sales of The Spectator to 100,000 as quickly as possible. I have every confidence that they will meet this target. Our paid-for circulation is already higher than at any point in the magazine’s 192 years of publishing. We closed last year with sales at 83,000. I can reveal that we passed 87,000 in the first quarter of this year, with growth accelerating since then. So 100,000 is within our grasp.

    Our US and Australian editions have been given new targets too.

    For those of us in a position to do so, growing our business out of the crisis seems preferable to depending on government subvention. We will begin the process of withdrawing from the furlough scheme and returning all the funds we’ve received in a phased manner over the next two months.

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

    BTL:

    Andrew Holliday • an hour ago
    An excellent, principled decision. I’m sure the Guardian will follow this lead.

    1. From one prolific and gifted btl commentator with a subscription, I gather The Spectator is only about a decade behind The Guardian in its reporting. Part of the metropolitan bubble and to be avoided.

      1. Clearly the words of one who has never read The Spectator. And possibly The Guardian as well….

        1. Au contraire and I hope he doesn’t read your comment. I said The Spectator is behind The Guardian – but as I see it making every effort to catch it up in general tone. They do have writers in The Spectator I admire but too often it’s the metropolitan political-media-arts elites taking to each other over the heads of the provincials.

          2. I wanted to like The Spectator for some of its characterful writer’s – Murray, Burchill, Liddle and particularly Shriver, who otherwise have no voice in the wider media that wouldn’t drown them out with ‘alt-right’ nonsense; but the core of the team seems to be metropolitan greasy pole climbers. The weeklies I assume are packed with these people.

    2. Forgive me but I think it’s daft.

      The furough is just giving business it’s own money back – wealth taken in tax.

      The state will continue to borrow and waste private wealth and no doubt (because the public sector doesn’t understand economics) no doubt significantly hike taxes in future. What the Spectator has done is let the government take twice.

  22. https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2020/06/01/fncs-carlson-slams-cowering-dithering-american-leaders-for-riot-response-this-is-how-nations-collapse/
    FNC’s Carlson Slams Cowering, Dithering American Leaders for Riot Response — ‘This Is How Nations Collapse’

    The Fox News Channel host hit all levels of government — federal, state and local. He urged President Donald Trump to act despite what he was being told by his inner circle, including Jared Kushner.

    Partial transcript as follows:

    CARLSON: The nation went up in flames this weekend. No one in charge stood up to save America. Our leaders dithered. They cowered. They openly sided with the destroyers.

    In many cases, they egged them on. Later, they will deny all of this. They are denying it now. You know the truth. You saw it happen.

    This is how nations collapse. With no one in authority keeping order — and so many in our professional class encouraging violence — American citizens are now forced to defend themselves. They have no choice. No one else is going to defend them. They know that now. It’s possible that more people will be hurt in coming days. That would be a tragedy. But in an environment like this, more violence could very well lead to a cascade of new tragedies — to something far bigger and more destructive than anything we’ve seen so far. This isn’t over. It might simply be the beginning. We pray it is not.

    It’s hard to think clearly about any of this. The chaos, the destruction, the relentless lying from above — it’s all too much. Americans are bewildered and afraid. But most of all, they are filled with rage — angrier than they’ve ever been. The worst people in our society have taken control. They did nothing to build this country. Now they are tearing it down. They’re rushing us toward mass suicide. So, how do we respond?

    We must protect ourselves and our families. Once again, we have no choice. But we can’t allow ourselves to become like they are. We are not animals. We are Americans. In the face of such indecency, we must resolve to be decent. We believe this country has a future. We intend for our children to live and thrive here. That is what we are defending. All our leaders do all they can to set us against each other — a never-ending national cockfight for their profit and amusement. But we won’t play along. We will love our neighbors relentlessly, in spite of all of it. Not because they look like us or share our political views. But we love them because they are human beings and they are Americans. Those are the bonds our leaders seek to destroy. We can’t let them.

    We should start by being unsparingly honest about what’s happening right now. Truth is our defense and our country’s last hope. We plan to use tonight’s hour to create a record of this moment right now — to show you what’s really going on in your country. We feel an obligation to do that before the facts are spun into propaganda by the liars, or the images are pulled off the internet forever, as many of them inevitably will be.
    […]

    The point is, this a profound national emergency. You’d never know that from listening to our elected leaders. Almost all of them pretend this isn’t really happening — or if it is happening, it’s just part of America’s long tradition of vigorous political discourse. Politicians on both sides tell us this is all about the death of a man in police custody in Minneapolis last week. The people burning our country down are “protesters,” engaged in legitimate “protest.”

    OK. What exactly are these protesters’ demands? What are they asking for? If Congress agreed to enact their program tomorrow, what would it be? Not a single person even hints at the answer because there isn’t an answer. No one had bothered to poll the guys beating up old ladies on the street, or looting Gucci, but you’ve got to wonder how many of them have ever even heard of George Floyd. And if they have heard of him, what difference would it make? Violence and looting aren’t forms of political expression. If you were killed tomorrow, how many buildings would you want burned to the ground in your memory? How many old women smashed in the face on the street in your name? None, we hope. You’re not a vicious psychopath like the people you just watched.

    In fact, what we’re watching is the opposite of a political protest. This is an attack on the idea of politics. The rioters are trying to topple our political system. That system is how we resolve our differences without violence. But these people want a new system, one governed by force: Do what we say, or we’ll hurt you. You can see it all for yourself on TV. You have. But our leaders keep lying and telling us it’s not happening.

    Some Democrats have openly embraced it. Really, they don’t have much of a choice. These are their voters, cleaning out the Rolex store. These riots are effectively the largest Joe Biden for president rally on record. In gratitude, more than a dozen Biden campaign staffers donated money to the rioters in Minneapolis and then bragged about it on Twitter. No Democratic leader can directly criticize what is happening. Some have joined in. Over the weekend, the Democratic Party of Fairfax, VA, which is an important Democratic organization, released this statement on Twitter. Quote: “Riots are an integral part of this country’s march towards progress.”

    “Progress.” Burning buildings. Tear gas. Dead bodies. The screaming injured. Criminal anarchy. To the Democratic Party of Fairfax, that’s “progress.”

    Celebrity after celebrity has weighed in to agree. From his fortified compound, basketball star LeBron James has used his social media accounts to encourage more rioting. Bernie Sanders surrogate Shaun King has done the same. So has Black Lives Matter leader Deroy McKesson. Colin Kapernick openly calls for violence. Here’s a quote: “The cries for peace will rain down, and when they do, they will land on deaf ears,” he says approvingly.

    […]

    What Americans want most is an end to this chaos. They want their cities to be saved. They want this to stop immediately. If the president doesn’t stop it, he will lose in November. The left will blame him for the atrocities they encouraged. Many voters will agree. Donald Trump is the president. Presidents save countries. That’s their job. That’s why we hire them.

    Some key advisors around Trump don’t seem to understand the gravity of this. “No matter what happens,” they’ll tell you, “Our voters aren’t going anywhere. The trailer parks are rock solid. What choice do they have? They’ve got to vote for us.”

    Jared Kushner, for one, has made that point out loud. No one has more contempt for Trump’s voters than Kushner does, and no one expresses it more frequently.

    In 2016, Donald Trump ran as a law and order candidate. His views remain fundamentally unchanged today. But Trump’s famously sharp instincts, the ones that won him the presidency, have been subverted at every level by Kushner: on immigration, on foreign policy, and especially on law enforcement.

    There is more, but I encourage you to read the whole article yourselves, and to watch a video of last night’s show.
    I’ll post a link, but it probably won’t work:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Ve8ZRI5XzE4
    Tucker Carlson Tonight 6/1/2020 | Tucker Carlson Tonight June 1, 2020 FULL
    Breaking News

    It will get taken down soon, i.e. in a couple of hours, possibly sooner.

    1. It’s simply the Left at work.

      They hate, so they destroy. They don’t care about the criminal death, they just want an excuse to destroy things.

      It’s also the underclass, the less intelligent, the thugs perpetrating the violence and destruction as it always is.

      Now, what we really need to state is that if George Floyd hadn’t committed a crime he wouldn’t have been arrested and then he would not have died.

      He made a choice. He was a victim of his choices.

    2. Very sadly you could, almost, replace the word American with the disUnited Kingdom. Whether if be from Covid-19, where real experts are ignored and charlatans given credence to Extinction Rebellion and RoP flouting almost every law we have and the Government, Police and Local Government aiding and abetting them.
      I didn’t think our western civilisation would come to an end quite so rapidly.

  23. First! The benefit of pulling an all-nighter 🙂 Off to bed now.

    1. You old devil, Sean. Hope your all-nighter gave you a good time? Whatever happened to ‘soshal distancing? Is your front door still on its hinges? (See my earlier post!)

      1. A good time – no, I’m afraid not: overnight month-end batch processing 🙁

    2. I stopped that at work the last time some idiot manager said we should work until the product was finished.

      As soon as he said that, I sent my team home. You get 6 hours of productive work out of people if you’re lucky – usually 5. The difference between a motivated team and one sat clock watching is accepting that and measuring on output, not time.

  24. YouTube is censoring lockdown sceptics. 1st June 2020.

    An interview with Peter Hitchens has been delisted from YouTube’s search function because he opposes lockdown.

    His interview on the Triggernometry podcast has been ‘shadow banned’. It has not been deleted but it cannot be found by searching for it on YouTube and Google. This move is clearly designed to limit the video’s audience as viewers need a direct link in order to access it.

    Morning everyone. There has been a change in Google, YouTube and Twitters policies though it is one of degree not of substance. They have now come fully on board the Globalists programme. Anything criticising the Neoliberal Agenda may find itself quietly disappearing. That Meanz Us as well eventually!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/01/youtube-is-censoring-lockdown-sceptics/

      2. As an astronomy student in the 1970s, I really upset my professors by suggesting that, contrary to the wisdom established since 1600, we might be after all at the centre of our observable universe. I asked whether the gravitational red shift was dependent on direction. If it wasn’t then doesn’t that imply that we are in the centre? They muttered something about balloons, and would have burnt me at the stake as a heretic had such things been legal then.

        I had another think about it when I was in a pub in Ellesmere. If the gravitational red shift is non-directional wherever you happen to be, it suggests that we are all in the centre of the universe, This must mean therefore that my universe is not quite the same as my neighbour’s. If I had the ability to see right to the horizon, it would be a different view. By moving around, we actually change the universe around us. Quite a power I have in these old legs!

        1. Morning Jeremy. I was under the impression that the Theory of Inflation explains this apparent anomaly. If the Universe is “growing” as opposed to exploding, then everywhere is moving away from everywhere else!

          1. The paradox of the singularity. If the universe started off as a point and went bang some billions of years ago, then we should be able to identify this point. However, look into the sky and the edges of the universe, observing when it all happened, is infinitely large and certainly not a point.

            Key to this is c, the speed of light. Star Trek warp technology breaks this constraint with mysterious effects on the nature of the universe. They had to do this, otherwise it would take too long for any starship to get around before the captain and crew perished of old age, and audiences got bored with waiting around for something to happen.

            I do think that mathematics will one day explain all.

          2. I do think that mathematics will one day explain all.

            I don’t. It cannot for example explain Love or Hate and in my lifetime every Theory of Cosmology has been overturned. At the turn of the sixteenth century the universe and its workings were explained by the Bible. I see no reason why Science should not also be abolished in its turn.

            It was Heisenberg who said, Not only is the Universe stranger than we think, it is stranger than we can think.

          4. I believe there is some confusion about attribution but I am more concerned with the words than their source,

          5. I believe there is some confusion about attribution but I am more concerned with the words than their source,

          6. Morning, Araminta.

            …were explained by the Bible. I see no reason why Science should not also be abolished in its turn.

            The Biblical ‘explanations’ were little more than the opinions of scientifically ignorant men. That religion has been used as probably the greatest mechanism designed to control the human species is without doubt – look at the manner of control islam has on its adherents, everything from what you are allowed to eat, to toilet habits and how to enter and leave a room, and on it goes.
            Science, however, is by its nature abolishing science, or rather its conclusions, as new discoveries are made. Religions are at best slow changing, at worst static, with change being banned on pain of death.
            Science may well be abolished as I think you mean; it will be abolished by the adherents of a religion that is unbending and unchangeable because this belief system will be held up to be the final testament of a deity that exists purely in the minds of unthinking and ignorant people controlled by devious power-hungry men. I think you know of what I write.

          8. No true scientist adheres to that nonsense statement. It’s a pseudo scientific position supported by politicians, activists and charlatans.

          9. The bible is a series of tribal survival guides passed down by the oldest man in the village which were evntually suborned by the laziest one to control that information.

            Once the information was protected the information became abstracted and lo! mythology.

          10. Love is explained through biological impulses in the brain which are merely a matter of electrical resistance.

            I can reduce my love for my wife down to an equation. It doesn’t reduce the power of that equation; it simply explains it.

          11. As I understand the situation, explained by a number of astrophysicists/cosmologists, modern technology is only capable of ‘seeing’ back to around 380,000 years post the Big Bang. Before that moment in time the Universe is not transparent. The oldest light that can be detected is the Cosmic Microwave Background:

            The Cosmic Microwave Background radiation, or CMB for short, is a faint glow of light that fills the universe, falling on Earth from every direction with nearly uniform intensity. It is the residual heat of creation–the afterglow of the big bang–streaming through space these last 14 billion years

            Scientific American – What is the CMB?

          12. So-called Dark Energy even makes things more confusing these days. I’m fascinated by cosmology but it makes my brain hurt!

        2. Morning Jeremy. I was under the impression that the Theory of Inflation explains this apparent anomaly. If the Universe is “growing” as opposed to exploding, then everywhere is moving away from everywhere else!

        3. Morning Jeremy. I agree we are in a completely different universe to our fellows [insert names of those individuals one has difficulty comprehending]

      3. “When you tear out a man’s tongue, you are not proving him a liar; you’re only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” – Tyrion Lannister.

  25. The travellers seem to be making their way to Appleby for the annual Horse Fair and horse play. Just off the Northern roundabout off the A19 at Thirsk there was a neat encampment of smart white motorholmes and at least 2 well kept gypsy wagons on the grass verge. They were still there 2 hours later when I drove back home. I hope Appleby is ready for them and watchout for the slow moving wagons if you are travelling on the A66.

        1. I think some pubs and restaurants close during the fair, anyway, because there has been trouble in the past.

  26. Two-metre rule halves chances of catching coronavirus, first major social distancing study finds
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/01/two-metre-rule-halves-chances-catching-coronavirus-first-major/

    Keeping two metres apart from someone with coronavirus is twice as effective as a one-metre gap, the first comprehensive review into social distancing has found.

    The international analysis of dozens of studies, prepared for the World Health Organisation, concluded that a one-metre distance left people at three per cent risk of contagion, but that the risk roughly halved at two metres.

    I could understand the argument for keeping the 2-metre rule if the risk at one metre was e.g. 20%, and half that (10%) at two metres, but reducing the risk of contracting the virus by a very low 1.5% – surely that is negligible? Why the report says Conclusions of analysis prepared for World Health Organisation could have major implications for plans to ease lockdown further is, to me, baffling.

  27. 319867+ up ticks,
    May one ask will these Isles ever rise again out of this
    quagmire of sh!te up to the level of decency / common sense we were known to posses prior to the mid 70s.
    Will the scales fall from the eyes of those supporting & continuing to support mass uncontrolled immigration parties and see these parties in their true colours, the treacherous destroyers of nations.
    The lab/lib/con are a health hazard, far worse than any known virus, tally up the dead, then add the raped / abused etc,etc, all via the ballot booth.
    The Dover invasion is a foghorn,klaxon, siren, flashing
    neon sign, pointer to active treachery.

  28. The B.B.C. is anxious our own BAMER’s should not miss out on the fun:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-52877803

    Shayne says although George Floyd was killed in the US, “we know that it happens here too”, citing the case of Mark Duggan.
    He was a 29-year-old who was shot and killed in 2011 while police in London were trying to arrest him under suspicion of planning an attack and being in possession of a gun.

    Things have come a toa pretty pass when a chap (sic) cannot run around with a gun in his pocket without the police stopping him (with a 9 mm s.mg.).

    1. If all disaffected black people in Europe had to go and live in Africa and all disaffected white people in Africa had to go and live in Europe then which race would be happier as a result? Neither, both, one or the other?

      Of course some immigrant people wish to integrate while others do not even want to co-exist with their hosts.

      Should global apartheid be tried again – and if so would it be the whites or the blacks who would most like to give it a go?

      1. You are following this kind of thinking to its bonkers end game and I agree. If one looks at the photographs from the B.B.C. piece – as cringe worthy as it is possible for this kind of ‘reporting’ can be – one cannot but recall Tom Wolfe’s famous remark about seeing middle class white students protesting the Vietnam War that they were not protesting but acting. As if in confirmation of this, the striking Vogue-ish poses accompanying the piece and the young lady interviewees casual give-away remark about how the black women were wearing their hair, says it all.

        The Bubble will rise up and confront racism though the power of fashion!

        1. Ayup, Maggie.

          Those graphs (by gov.uk) are flawed insomuch as they are based upon what those youngsters who were interviewed have said.

          For example: “Percentage of people aged 16 years and over who said they were victims of crime…”

          The data is far from empirical.

      3. The European nations were all hoist by their own petard when they first ventured into the dark continent in pursuit of its riches and an empire.

        Their ill-thought decision to ‘civilise’ and educate the natives is now coming back to haunt them. You reap what you sow.

      4. If they are not happy help them to return where they think home is ie call their bluff.

    2. The way our Perlice operate now, I am surprised that Private Lee Rigby was not posthumously charged with carrying bullets without a Licence’

      1. I can think of other remarks that chime with your cynicism (that I share) but out of respect – Lee has no real public memorial yet – I shall refrain from sharing them.

    2. Can someone please explain what ‘took a knee’ means – it was in the Tucker Carlson video posted earlier in relation to some police force.

      2. It probably comes from the same stable as “give it up for” (to indicate it’s time to clap like mad).

      4. From the time 3 black American athletes refused to stand to the USA anthem aa the Olympics . . .since then it’s become a general sign of civil disobedience .

    4. What is it that makes this particular family “middle class”? Where are the clues that clearly show us which demographic of the British caste system they belong to?

    5. Pathetic nothing but virtue signaling ie look at me I am so good. Makes me feel sick.

    6. Poor burggers cannot afford to get their lean-to shack roof repaired

      I saw lots of homes like that in Karachi, in mid 70’s

    3. “The Police Federation of England and Wales had said in April that it wanted increased powers to forcibly enter private houses to see if there were illegal gatherings.”

      There’s a surprise!

      1. ‘Voyeurism:

        the practice of gaining sexual pleasure from watching others when they are naked or engaged in sexual activity’.

        So that’s their game. The Police Perverts Federation of England and Wales, more like. Whoda thunkit?

        ‘Morning, JBF.

          4. ‘Morning, Sos, you need to be in Brighton for that and, preferably, a mouthy Labour Councillor.

  31. Britain should follow Australia in returning Channel boat migrants to their start points, says ex-Prime Minister. 2 June 2020.

    “This is the fundamental truth that policy makers in Britain need to understand. To stop people from setting out for Britain in unseaworthy boats, you have to ensure that they never arrive; or that if they do arrive they are swiftly sent back.

    This is simply plagiarising, stealing would be a better word; Abbott’s own words in an article in the Telegraph only two days ago. This said it still illustrates Abbotts own cluelessness about what is actually happening on the UK. The PTB, the real PTB, not the Government, approve of mass immigration and thus it continues regardless of what any Minister might say or do!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/02/britain-should-follow-australia-returning-channel-boat-migrants/

  32. Quick look at the BBC this morning. The BBC has become just another social media outlet with brainless morons spouting emotional gibberish. On and on.
    I caught a brief glimpse of some young whining negresses from the USA (isn’t technology wonderful?) blatting about prejudice and the lack of black role models. Dearie me. I’m fed up with this.
    Everything blacks have, apart from tribal scars and the like, they received from the generous hand of the white man. When the standard mantra about “slavery” is trotted out, it is never challenged or analysed.
    I have never seen anything resembling a cost/benefit analysis of slavery at the macro or micro level. Plantations were hard work. however, if you plant cotton, cotton grows, if you plant tobacco, tobacco grows. The impetus for creating and establish plantation came from white men. Many of the workers were white, indentured workers from Ireland and Scotland, for example. Blacks were bought from arabs and to imported to the Americas. They were mostly male. This is because the white man made a huge mistake. In Europe, men worked, and they worked very hard. There was something called the “Protestant work ethic”. (Catholics worked hard, too). In Africa men did not work. So there was a huge culture shock on both sides, the new owners expected workers, the new owned had no concept of working. The purchase price of a slave was quite high, being the equivalent of the price of a car in today’s money.
    I would like someone to prove/disprove the assumed contribution of slaves to the UK economy. This would be helped by:
    1. A cost/benefit analysis for a slave including a lifetime ROI.
    2 A full (management accounting) analysis of the profitability of a typical plantation, cost centre by cost centre. (Given that tobacco grows as a result of soil, sun and rain, and management by white men.)
    I suspect that the financial contribution made by slaves was only a fraction of the total. (Tobacco was hugely profitable 100 years after the end of slavery.)
    Is there any real, objective, information?

  33. Brendan O’Neill
    The double standards of the London protestors
    2 June 2020, 11:12am

    So now we know. All the things said about Dominic Cummings – that he shattered the lockdown, that he thinks it’s one rule for him and another for everyone else – are far truer of those protesting at the big Black Lives Matter demo in Trafalgar Square on Sunday, than they are of Cummings.

    The demo’s message was clear. It shouted to the nation that the virtuous and right-thinking are more important than the rest of us. Their views and their rights count for more than ours. So while people will be shamed for sitting on a beach or taking part in VE Day celebrations, those who have the right opinions can press the flesh in a huge public gathering with seeming impunity.

    Politically, the gathering on Sunday was a confused affair. Quite what the British government can do about the brutal killing of George Floyd in a country 3,000 miles away is anyone’s guess. Shouting ‘Fuck the police’ at the cops at Downing St, who bear no more responsibility for police brutality in the US than the protesters themselves, was particularly bizarre. It was hard to escape the conclusion that the protest was tweeting made flesh, a noisy display of virtue disguised as a radical assembly.

    But at least one clear statement shone through this disjointed display of rectitude: ‘We can do what we want.’ It was a genuinely remarkable sight: the same people who have been raging against Dominic Cummings over a mere car journey to Durham were now thronging together in spectacular defiance of the lockdown guidelines. It’s one rule for them and another for the rest of us.

    Many of those on the left were at the forefront of demanding the lockdown. They sneered at people in Warrington who did a socially distanced conga line to celebrate VE Day and mocked anyone who attended anti-lockdown protests. ‘Second spike!’, they cried.

    But the massive crowd in Trafalgar Square and along Whitehall? That’s fine. Because they’re good people, you see. They have the correct views. They’re nice. Not like those vulgar suburbanites who danced to celebrate Victory in Europe or those frightful chavs who drink bottles of beer on Brighton beach.

    The double standard was made crystal clear by Labour MP Dawn Butler. When in mid-May Boris Johnson relaxed the lockdown rules and said some people could return to work, Ms Butler fumed. She said the PM was being ‘reckless’ and, get this, was ‘sending people out to catch the virus’. And yet when Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake criticised the BLM demo on the basis that it could cause a second spike, Butler responded: ‘Don’t you dare! Don’t even go there!’

    There you have it, clear as day, the hypocrisy of those on the Labour left. When Boris says workers can start to return to their jobs, they kick up a storm. When the middle-class descend on Trafalgar Square to advertise their awareness of American racism, it’s absolutely fine and in fact these people are beyond criticism.

    For weeks, people who protested against the lockdown have been mercilessly criticised. Americans who rallied against lockdown measures were mocked. They were depicted as dumb rednecks and cranks whose reckless assemblies would help to spread the virus.

    Brits who gathered in Hyde Park to express their opposition to the lockdown were similarly denounced. Now is not the time for political assemblies, we were told, not least because the Coronavirus Act effectively bans such gatherings.

    And yet when Black Lives Matter protest, virtually nobody criticises them. Hardly any politicians are condemning them. No doubt they will say it’s because this public gathering was important: it was about police racism in the US. That is indeed an important issue. But to many people, celebrating VE Day is important. And opposing the lockdown is important. And going to the beach to escape your tiny flat is important.

    We need to come out of lockdown. We should have come out of it weeks ago, in my view. We need the schools up and running, workers back on production lines, and our right to protest reinstated. But this reinstatement of liberty must be for everyone. To celebrate gatherings of the self-righteous while shaming people who want to return to work or hold street parties is to create a dangerous new divide between the virtuous and the sinful.

    That’s what the double standards on display over the past few days really capture – that many on the left see themselves as morally superior to the rest of us, and therefore deserving of more rights. It is elitism in radical garb.

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

    BTL:

    .Robinson • an hour ago
    Thanks, Brendan – never a truer word written!
    The police’s part in all this also needs to be condemned. They are deciding which demonstrations must be broken up and which must be allowed to continue, and they don’t usually choose to break up the ones the majority of decent people disagree with.

    me • an hour ago
    One of the placards reads ‘stop killing black people’ The only black person killed by the UK police in the last twelve months was that lunatic from the Fishmongers Hall.
    Having said that knowing how he brainwashed the woke semi literates who were trying to ‘rehabilitate’ him I’m not that surprised to see such a thing

    Yom Kippax • an hour ago • edited
    Will Social Justice Warrior Lewis Hamilton be boycotting the Chinese Grand Prix? #UighurLivesMatter

      2. When I joined, in 1973 (I know, a lifetime ago), we had to learn the following mantra, verbatim:

        “A constable is a citizen, locally-appointed, who derives his authority under the Crown.

        His prime remit is:

        The protection of life and property.
        The preservation of order.
        The prosecution of offenders against the peace.”

        How much of that has disappeared today?

    3. “Will Social Justice Warrior Lewis Hamilton be boycotting the Chinese Grand Prix and all the extra lucre it brings him?”

    4. “And yet when Black Lives Matter protest, virtually nobody criticises them.”. Nor do the police arrest them. Violent foul-mouthed scum breaking any number of laws. The police at Downing Street just stood there smiling at them.
      If the Countryside Alliance carefully organise a legal march, with a note of th planned route given to the police, a march where people are well-behaved and good-natured, with stewards appointed and identifiable, ah, that’s different. Then the riot squad move in, laying about them, breaking the marchers into groups and illegally detaining them for hours (kettling).

  34. I remember when nttl was an offshoot of the Conservative Telegraph letters, it appears to have been taken over by Breitbart.

    Yes the media are playing up police aggression and downplaying the looting that is taking place but do you really think that Trumps ‘leadership’ is helping the situation?

    The US is a bloody mess, maybe an open mind would see that Trump is still stirring the flames.

    Good day.

    2. Do you really think that the Democrats’ approach to the problem is any better?
      Both sides are inflaming the situation, the diference is that Trump is speaking for law and order the Democrats are fanning the flames.

      1. The Democrats don’t have a solution. They just have the luxury of being in opposition and so being able to carp about whatever Trump does or doesn’t do.

        1. My view is that the Democrats positively welcome this and even revel in the escalation.

          Covid, riots, the potential of temporary martial law in the worst affected areas. Followed in turn by economic collapse, unemployment and with Trump being blamed, a Democrat will become President.

          1. Just about every city that’s had rioting has been run by the Democrats. If there’s an exception to that, I haven’t yet heard about it.

          4. I am nauseated by the “Blue Tick Liberal Slebs” who are raising bail money for the sort of vicious thugs that happily gang attack an old woman defending her business (no doubt the work of a lifetime)
            All too many similar vids about on twitter to deny the reality unless you are a TDS sufferer who prefers to close your eyes put your hands over your ears and go la la la until the MSM tells you what to think

          5. I know I should not, but I’m looking forward to the mob invading the gated communities of the slebs and trashing them, after looting the contents.

          11. You mean like NBA sports writer, Chris Palmer, who was cheering the rioters on, on Twitter, until they got near his gated community:

            https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/former-espn-nba-reporter-criticized-192748843.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAN3ZAuOOaRm6x87u_srnvDuwOUnkIDwU0b4nEPyQw1FKAXnij-COSglxE3jmm_BkIr_EIWerL2WZIiYRqzkKOuvgxSBMQpKH1YlsXqC-uyc9WoHpN3rmTplA-vVMe6Q6LJptaWR1q0Q20Zj6weT8jd4FjqLiL3C2seoQgTARbffW

            Former ESPN NBA reporter criticized for hypocritical tweets about George Floyd protests
            Palmer was offering his thoughts on the protests across the United States in the wake of George Floyd’s death. On Thursday night, Palmer quote-tweeted a photo of a burning building with the caption, “Burn that s— down. Burn it all down.” But shortly after midnight on Sunday, Palmer had a change of tone once protesters showed up closer to where he lived.

            The apparent hypocrisy was not lost on Twitter

    3. As we get nothing but negative news coverage in the UK about Trump, it’s very difficult to make an informed judgment.
      Are you referring to the article from Breitbart that I posted earlier today, which was actually pretty critical of Trump and his inaction.
      If you can tell us how he is still stirring the flames, as opposed to everyone else, we’re all ears.

      “RT @bharatkrishnan9: When President Obama included the Stonewall Riots in his 2nd inaugural, he didn’t make that decision lightly. Riots are an integral part of this country’s march towards progress.
      — Fairfax Democrats (@FairfaxDems) May 30, 2020″

      “Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) issued a joint statement Monday evening condemning President Donald Trump for his statement on the ongoing nationwide violence.
      Earlier Monday evening, Trump declared in the Rose Garden at the White House that he would end the riots that had sprung up around the legitimate protests against the death of George Floyd in the custody of Minneapolis police.”

      So Trump shouldn’t end the riots? Is that what they’re saying? Rioting is acceptable? Pelosi and Schumer aren’t “fanning the flames”? America should disintegrate into anarchy instead?

    4. P.S.: we take our news from a variety of sources, not just the Telegraph, or Breitbart.

        1. We make an educated judgment about that, whether it’s fake or not, e.g. the Syrian gas attack.

    6. Certainly looks to be turning pear-shaped pretty quickly.
      Calling in the Army would definitely be A Bad Thing.

      1. What’s the alternative? Allow it to continue, when the cops are outnumbered, and the rioters are looting, ransacking, and destroying businesses and buildings?

        1. National Guard, I would have thought. I have a vague memory that the Army isn’t allowed to operate on US soil, but that may well be bullpoo. Also, for political reasons, Trump may be better off if the Governors take the heat for the inevitable shootings that would result from armed deployments.

          EDIT: From Wikipedia:
          The Posse Comitatus Act prohibits the use of active duty personnel to “execute the laws”; however, there is disagreement over whether this language may apply to troops used in an advisory, support, disaster response, or other homeland defense role, as opposed to domestic law enforcement.
          ‎Insurrection Act · ‎Posse comitatus · ‎Enforcement Acts

          More edit:
          Domestic deployments are often controversial due to the Posse Comitatus Act which limits, but not entirely prohibits, active duty military deployments on U.S. soil. States can make requests for civil assistance to the Pentagon and there have been exceptions. https://connectingvets.radio.com/articles/news/legality-of-us-military-deployments-for-coronavirus

          So, the State Governors should ask the Federal Government for military personnel in aid to quell the riots. Will they ask??

          Note: “”The Posse Comitatus Act states that ‘Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both
          https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=818852

          1. The National Guard had been deployed in a couple of areas, but I don’t know what the results have been. There’s been a dearth of news over here about it, apart from the usual anti-Trump, pro-BLM stuff, still calling the rioters “protesters.”

          2. “18,000 National guard troops deployed:

            At least nine dead, +4,000 arrested, riots rage in 140 cities as riots rage for the seventh day

            National Guard deployed in 29 states

            40 cities to impose strict curfews”

            Lots of reports over on ZeroHedge

          4. In May 1970 the National Guard were called out to deal with a demonstration of around 300 students at Kent State university. Four students were shot dead, two of them were observing from a distance and not taking part in the demonstration. Nine others were injured. The dead students were white.

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

      2. Why would that be if it is to stop locals being killed by the anti democracy mob.

    7. Sometimes, Richard l_, one has to fight fire with fire, otherwise it’ll degrade into civil war and unlike the American Revolution for the black slaves, this time it’ll be white versus black with the death of any Hispanic or Muslim that gets in the way.

      1. 319867+ up ticks,
        Morning Jbf,
        Then if he didn’t I am certain it was never far from his mind as in
        he was just going to say it, the defence rest it’s case.

  37. Blackout Tuesday: What is it – and why are people posting black squares on Instagram?
    Celebrities, corporations, music labels and sports stars vowed not to post on social media in support of the Black Lives Matter movement
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/02/blackout-tuesday-people-posting-black-squares-instagram/

    You may be wondering why your social media feeds have been engulfed by black squares.

    Celebrities, corporations, music labels and sports stars have vowed not to post on their accounts on what is being called Blackout Tuesday following the death of George Floyd.

    Demonstrations have broken out across the US following the death of Mr Floyd and other allegations of police brutality against people of colour.

    Amid a febrile atmosphere, police have clashed with protesters in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Minneapolis, while Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the country’s military unless state authorities stop ongoing demonstrations.

    What is Blackout Tuesday?
    The idea is to fill Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with black squares, freeing up the time usually dedicated to social media for people to educate themselves on the Black Lives Matter movement.

    More virtue-signalling by the usual suspects. Perhaps they should all make it a Blackout Year and give everyone a decent break from their pointless twitterings.

    1. Fortunately I do not have any ‘social media feeds’. In fact I have no feeds at all, I decline to sign up for them.

    3. Already been done in the 1990s. Wasn’t there an episode of a popular Irish sitcom where they stuck a black square on a window, giving the hero a chance to display his solidarity when confronting a Chinese person?

      Father Ted is not a racist.

      1. “Should we all be racist now father? What’s the official line the church is taking on it?”

    4. Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the country’s military unless state authorities stop ongoing demonstrations. – does POTUS have the authority to do that? Surely that is a State issue, not a Federal one?

      1. He can where it can be seen the local people have failed. Or he is asked by the State Governer to do so.

    6. Could someone with an instagram account start posting white squares for whiteout Wednesday?

    8. If they were only able to blackout the CCTV, it would be an opportunity to go shopping again.

    9. I recommend downloading a sample copy of “In Their Own Words” from Amazon

      “Freddie Gray Police in Baltimore were very familiar with Freddie Gray as they engaged in a foot pursuit of him on an April evening in 2015. When Gray was finally captured and placed in a police van for allegedly possessing a switchblade knife (illegal under Baltimore law), he suffered a spinal cord injury on the way to jail. He died several days later. Rioting broke out in Baltimore for a number of days, as the police tried to control the crowd, while pelted with rocks and bottles. Looters ransacked businesses and set buildings on fire at the height of the violence. But the police were ordered from the highest levels of city government to stand down and not react.

      Marilyn Mosby, Baltimore’s City Attorney took to the microphones as the city was being attacked. She announced in a fiery and impassioned voice to the crowd, “I heard your call for ‘No justice, no peace.’ Your peace is sincerely needed as I work to deliver justice on behalf of this young man. … Our time is now!”
      Within two weeks of Freddie Gray’s death, Mosby filed murder and manslaughter charges against six Baltimore police officers. Her conduct led famed Harvard Attorney Alan Dershowitz to say, “these…officers may have made a mistake, but they are not guilty of criminal conduct…she’s a part of a larger problem…Black Lives Matter is endangering the fairness of our legal system. Because they’re rooting for outcomes based on race. Started a long time ago. Started with the O.J. Simpson case.”

      After a mistrial was declared in one of the officer’s trial and three officers were found not guilty, the trial judge dropped all of the charges against the remaining officers. The Federal government also declined to file any civil rights related charges. Five of the officers caught up in Mosby’s prosecution recently secured a victory in Federal Court, with a judge ruling they can proceed with the Discovery process in a malicious prosecution case against Mosby.
      Prior to the officers being charged, President Obama told the country, “this has been going on for a long time. This isn’t new and we shouldn’t pretend that it’s new.”

      Black Lives Matter are not improving the lives of blacks in America. They’re race-baiting and promoting a racial divide, and feeding the ongoing narrative that blacks are being actively discriminated against. It’s all based on feelings and false narratives, not on real data. They think it’s only blacks being targeted by the police, because they’re the ones that hit the headlines, usually for the wrong reasons.
      They should be listening to the likes of Larry Elder, Candice Owens, Brandon Tatum, etc, not to all the usual suspects.

      1. Similar to over here when blacks complained about stop and search and Theresa May virtually stopped it. More’s the pity. It’s still mostly blacks killing blacks but that’s not the way they see it.

        1. They will have to learn, then. If they keep their violence to themselves, let them get on with it, if that is what they want to do.

    10. They even had a 2 mins silence on Radio 3 – I don’t know why I’m surprised.

  38. In years to come, how will British people cook their haddock and cod which should be plentiful thanks to Brexit ?

    Apparently not by gas, which must be used by at least half the population of the UK at present, but by super expensive ”green” electricity as a result of Prime Minister Johnson’s determination to ”Build Back Better”.

    According to James Delingpole, ”Build Back Better” comes from the UN and like so many cozy sounding globalist slogans is ”the latest code phrase for green global tyranny”….

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/05/31/delingpole-build-back-better-the-latest-code-phrase-for-green-global-tyranny/

    Globalists are supremely proficient at inventing attractive sounding ”code phrases” which really are propaganda terms designed ultimately to bring about global government. Such phrases appeal directly to the uninformed who are immediately drawn in to believing the proposition sounds highly desirable and is deserving of their support. Whereas the reality is exactly the opposite and contrary to their interests.

    ”Build Back Better” looks likely to mean a huge increase in wind and solar farms across the UK and more vastly expensive and technically troublesome nuclear power stations similar to Hinkley Point which may never work at all. Also the replacement of every gas cooker and every gas boiler in the UK with an electric equivalent and ultimately the dismantling of the UK’s gas supply network.

    So while British people may welcome the return of British fish to British shops, cooking it looks likely to be an extremely expensive operation which might even be impossible. Thanks entirely to Prime Minister Johnson and his insane ”Build Back Better” UN globalist obsession which really should be renamed ”Destroy Everything Which Works”.

    Of course, destroying everything which works would undermine any nation state and set the stage for global government.

    What a remarkable totally unconnected random coincidence. That fits in exactly with the aims of ”Billionaire Influence” which appears to affect virtually every aspect of UK government policy !

    1. Finland has nuclear power stations built by Russia. Could we, as a country that cannot now build the technology that we invented, maybe ask the Russians to build us a few reactors?

        1. Do you mean that we should become closer to the USA? Brexit is posited on the basis that we trade freely around the world. Although I’d boycott China.

          2. I thought that. That would be perfectly fine. But who comes after Present Trump?

        1. But they are Chinese. I am against everything Chinese now, except silk.

    2. I think all the little phrases people come up with these days sound trite and superficial, as well as usually being meaningless and ungrammatical. I particularly dislike school ones that never mention learning or education, even tangentially.

          1. Glad it missed the dog’s mouth. It’s too small and could have choked him.

  40. Afternoon all.

    Earlier, I caught a few minutes of BBC R4’s moan-in – Call You And Yours.

    A woman was moaning about her delayed infertility treatment ,,, ” I’m awaiting medication to improve fertilization “.

    Sounded like a Paddy Roberts song to me.

  41. Quarantine plan for UK arrivals could be ditched as MPs revolt. 1 June 2020 • 9:19pm

    Ministers are working on plans to replace quarantine for arrivals to the UK amid signs the troubled policy could be phased out within weeks of being brought in.

    The “unworkable” plan could be largely superseded by so-called air bridges by the end of June, with officials working behind the scenes to strike multiple deals with foreign countries to make them exempt.

    There is no doubt that this is a deeply stupid plan, the problem is that it is not alone. Most of the rules and regulations currently being implemented are equally dumb. Even the Lockdown has now been abolished by public consent, though the Government continue to talk about it as if it were a reality, when it is as dead as the Proverbial Dodo!

    What we see here (Labour would be no different) is a Political Class that has no experience of the real world. Usually it just passes Laws and forgets about them, leaving it to others to take the Flak over a long period. Here the consequences manifest themselves at lightning speed leaving them forever trying to find a foothold in the Coronavirus quicksand.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/01/unworkable-quarantine-plan-uk-arrivals-could-ditched/

    1. The quarantine is pointless – unless they are trying to kill off the travel industry entirely. It’s already in its death throes.

      As for the ban on meeting non-live-in partners – how are they going to enforce that? What people do in private is none of their business.

        1. The only lockdown now should be voluntary for the frail and ill, and the rest of us able to live our lives with commonsense.

          1. That applies until you realise that most of the population are selfish, lazy or thick

  42. BBC News at One

    Nick Triggle talks about the PHE report on why people in the BAME communities are at a greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than other people.

    http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/phe-to-report-on-bame-coronavirus-death-review-this-week-claims-dhsc/20040908.article

    Some think that this may be an inappropriate time to release this report seeing that some members of the BAME community are feeling that Black Lives Don’t Matter by taking it out on what they see as police states.

    I feel that the Government’s intervention in funding the NHS to meet the task of prioritising treatment of COVID-19 illnesses at the expense of people who need its services and who are not of colour could well fuel the feeling that White Lives Matter.

    1. The news comes as 11 out of 12 GPs who have died with Covid-19 in England so far were of BAME origin and practices have been told they should risk assess staff

      Question: where were those GPS practicing, i.e. which part of the country? Where have the outbreaks been concentrated, and was that where they had their GP practices? I’d like to have more information to see if it’s really that they’re more susceptible, or whether other factors are at play.

    2. Given that BAME folk are evidently more susceptible to Covid-19 than white folk it seems madness to have so many working in our hospitals and care homes. They are presumably passing the virus around and should not be put on the front line.

      I just wish some politician will use the phrase ‘All Lives Matter’ as opposed to falling into the trap set by ‘Black Lives Matter’.

      1. The Health Secretary has fallen into the trap:

        “Black lives matter, as do those of the poorest areas of our country” and health outcomes need to be “levelled-up,” he added.

        The NHS has always adopted an ‘All Lives Matter’ with regards to the health of the nation.
        However, trying to treat all races to a uniform health standard as prescribed by the World Health Organisation is impossible due to differences in their genetic susceptibility to disease.

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-52889106

    3. Solution: total lockdown for all BAME people. That will save lives in two ways – a) They will not catch the virus and b) There will be fewer stabbings.

    4. Solution: total lockdown for all BAME people. That will save lives in two ways – a) They will not catch the virus and b) There will be fewer stabbings.

    5. Ah, but the slogan “Its okay to be white” is a white supremacist, racist term, so White Lives Don’t Matter…

      1. Let’s stick with “Its okay to be right”.
        Oh dear, that’s racist as well!😟

  43. Afternoon everybody hope you’re enjoying/coping with the heat. Just done some hoeing but had to come in it’s too hot for me.

    We have a couple of free local magazines delivered which I’ve looked at just now and they are both full of “our wonderful NHS staff” or helpers thereof. Is anyone else getting fed up with the constant hero worship? Perhaps I’ve just become grumpy grey but you can have too much gratitude!

    1. Interestingly (for a pointy-head like me) the Englsih style of hoe, with a narrow horizontal flat blade that is pushed through the soil to cut weeds off in their prime, isn’t seen here in Norway. The closest we get is a hoop-shaped blade that is similarly used, but goes quite a bit deeper.
      Now you know. I’ll get me anorak, the one with the fur-trimmed hood…

      1. Yes, it’s the same situation in Poland – and I do so prefer the English hoe.

      4. I have 2 hoes (only because we had one of our own and the other was left when we moved in), our one is, as you say, a narrow horizontal flat triangular blade but I actually prefer the older one which is difficult to describe. It may be called a Dutch hoe, ie, two cutting blades one for pushinh the other when pulling it back and dit works really well. At the moment the weeds aren’t growing too much, thank goodness, other than the blasted bindweed!

          1. Do you grow them in your garden or on an allotment? We tried growing spuds in bags once, a few years ago, they were very nice but I’m afraid too much trouble. We get them from our local greengrocers and actually we don’t eat much potato.

          2. Used to in the garden. In fact growing potatoes is one of the best ways to to break up new land.Its was always are first crop on a new garden. We had ove half an acre at our last place in Norfolk.

        1. It’s quite satisfying chopping the tops off and leaving the shrivelling remains on the growing bed though.

        3. Roundup is about to be added to the banned list courtesy of the E.U. Apparently 2 people died in the U.S.A.

          They were probably drinking it.

          1. As Tom says, it is a Dutch hoe, Paul, and is designed for weeding. It is much more efficient than the draw hoe (aka “swan-neck” hoe), which is better for earthing up spuds.

            As in Norway, you can’t find a Dutch hoe for love nor money here in Sweden. Good job I brought mine here with me.

    2. I feel their glorification is like that of the Charge of the Light Brigade where cavalry soldiers carried out their duty to King and Country against overwhelming odds using inappropriate weapons. The survivors would have probably had severe injuries as well as PTSD as we now know it. Clapping in the street would probably not have even been appreciated after being deafened by cannon fire.

      1. The NHS is now utterly untouchable whereas before it was just a sacred cow.

        1. Until the lawsuits start coming in from relatives of those infected by the NHS…

          1. I would say that will be impossible to prove but I’m sure some in care homes were given it by people sent there deliberately.

          3. I remember that one. It applied to the hospital kitchens when someone pointed out that having sparrows perched up in the rafters and crapping into the tubs of boiling vegetables was not a good idea.

    4. There are a lot of rap songs that include hoes…
      I’ll get me Gannex mac.

    5. I’ve passed loads of signs saying “thank you NHS” and I couldn’t help wondering what exactly they are thanking the NHS for? Its employees doing their job?

    2. He will stop the Democrat riots, They cannot beat him so now they have prompted all these riots. this will confirm him as president for four more years.

    1. Him

      When you have finished the

      Laundry
      Washing Up
      Oovering
      Window Cleaning
      Gardening

      Car Cleaning
      Cooking
      Ironing
      Doing the Finances
      Bed Making
      Polishing

    2. Just as soon as you join Antifa, the press, the police or the NHS and can do as you please without censure.

  46. Ross Clark
    Why can’t Neil Ferguson’s Imperial model be replicated?
    2 June 2020, 12:55pm

    Professor Neil Ferguson has been a little elusive of late – ever since he was forced to resign after he was revealed to have entertained his married lover at his home, thus breaking lockdown rules. But he did emerge from the woodwork this morning to give evidence to the House of Lords select committee on science and technology. In doing so he succeeded in walking into a fresh controversy.

    One of the first questions he was asked was by Conservative peer Viscount Ridley, who brought up (10:40) the subject of a Swedish study which sought to apply to Sweden Ferguson’s infamous mathematical model which forecast 250,000 deaths in Britain if the government continued with its mitigation strategy. In response to the modelling – presented on 16 March – the government changed course, telling people to stay away from crowded places. A week later a full lockdown was introduced.

    Viscount Ridley: ‘Uppsala University took the Imperial College model – or one of them – and adapted it to Sweden and forecasted deaths in Sweden of over 90,000 by the end of May if there was no lockdown and 40,000 if a full lockdown was inforced. In fact, there have only been 4,350 deaths in Sweden until the end of May. This does seem to be a huge discrepancy and suggests there was something wrong with the model…’

    Professor Ferguson: ‘First of all, they did not use our model. They developed a model of their own. We had no role in parameterising it. Generally, the key aspect of modelling is how well you parameterise it against the available data. But to be absolutely clear they did not use our model, they didn’t adapt our model.’

    Trouble is, the Uppsala team say they very much did use an adaptation of Ferguson’s work. Their paper states: ‘We employed an individual agent-based model based on work by Ferguson et al…’

    Maybe they didn’t employ Ferguson himself to ‘parameterise’ it, but then Ferguson ought to be reminded of one of the basic principles of all scientific work: that it must be possible for other scientists to reproduce your results. You shouldn’t need the original scientists to come and tweak its mathematical model for you. Ferguson is behaving like one of those car manufacturers that tries to insist that its vehicles can only be serviced by its own approved mechanics. Besides the Uppsala team, others have also attempted to replicate the Imperial College model and have found themselves struggling – an Edinburgh University team found that it gave different results when run twice with the same data.

    Professor Ferguson surely has some further questions to answer on this subject. Neither the Uppsala University study and the original Imperial paper of 16 March, it ought to be added, have yet been peer-reviewed. It will be interesting to see what happens when they are.

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

    Jolly Radical • 2 hours ago • edited
    “So, Professor, what was it about your links to Extinction Rebellion which motivated you to create a model that scared the government into abolishing the UK economy?”

    rosie Jolly Radical • 2 hours ago • edited
    And how did your links to the Anti Brexit movement affect your motives in discrediting the Government?

    2. I am a fan of Matt Ridley; he is the guy who dared to mention the levels of Vitamin D in Chinese virus victims.
      And he works as a science journalist and writer, although he runs an extensive family estate and thus has no need for petty cash.

  47. Is it legal for shopkeepers to refuse to take cash in payment for purchased goods.?

    1. The legal position is that a display of goods and prices is “an offer to treat”. We offer the amount on the price ticket and a deal can be done. It is entirely up to a trader, whether grocer or restaurant or TV shop, to decide if they want to trade with you at all. They can refuse point blank. If they are smart they will refuse to give a reason. Some hotels are an exception in that they are required to accept guests. So the payment method is up to the trader.
      Addendum: We may be looking at the end of cash. The present situation is a golden opportunity for cash to be withdrawn from use. Electronic money is ideal for the State. Our access to everything via money can be cut off completely at the press of a button. soon.

      1. Thanks Horace – it looks as if cash is heading the way of postage stamps,

    4. Yes. The contract is not fulfilled until payment is made. If the retailer chooses not to accept cash, that is his/her prerogative. If it’s an existing debt, then cash must be accepted if tendered.

        1. Interesting – I didn’t know that. Does HMRC have so little confidence in the coin of the Realm?

          1. I think it’s a convenience thing, otherwise disgruntled ‘customers’ might turn up with a wheelbarrow full of small coins to pay a disputed bill of several £k.

  48. Two-metre rule halves chances of catching coronavirus, first major social distancing study finds
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/01/two-metre-rule-halves-chances-catching-coronavirus-first-major/

    Keeping two metres apart from someone with coronavirus is twice as effective as a one-metre gap, the first comprehensive review into social distancing has found.

    The international analysis of dozens of studies, prepared for the World Health Organisation, concluded that a one-metre distance left people at three per cent risk of contagion, but that the risk roughly halved at two metres.

    I could understand the argument for keeping the 2-metre rule if the risk at one metre was e.g. 20%, and half that (10%) at two metres, but reducing the risk of contracting the virus by a very low 1.5% – surely that is negligible? Why the report says Conclusions of analysis prepared for World Health Organisation could have major implications for plans to ease lockdown further is, to me, baffling.

    1. Today’s Rant

      Whatever ‘social distancing’ measure is adopted, it is,and will be total Krap

      Have all the likkle Ovid germs been schooled that they will be able to climb on a person 72 inches away from where it is lurking, but not to 78 47/64 inches, (78.74015748031496 ie 2 metres) Hands up those who knew about the odd 47/64ths of an inch. (we do not use ‘decimal inches, but fractions)

      It is all a ‘generalisation. if you have proof, that you have carefully maintained the ‘social distance’and still get Covinated will you be able to sue the HMG for negligence in demanding too small a distance.

      Too small a distance will

      Make no difference

      Kill us the economy

      Kill us all

      1. The whole social distancing is bollox anyway. If someone 50 yds away sneezes in still air those droplets don’t fall to the ground within 2 metres but they hang around in the air for someone else to walk through and inhale. Liken it to a fart and you being able to smell it minutes later as you walk into it.

    2. Hope you’ve read William Stanier’s post just after you posted this. It’s by a real expert and will, therefore, be totally ignored.

  49. Black people can’t be equal to White people.

    TTP is just one of the diseases that COVID-19 is more likely to trigger in Black people. They have a problem with their ADAMTS13 gene.

    Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura in Black People: Impact of Ethnicity on Survival and Genetic Risk Factors

    Interestingly, other diseases were also found overrepresented in Black people, such as arterial hypertension, systemic lupus erythematosus and monoclonal gammopathies. Of note, it was shown that these diseases may be more severe in Black people than in White people, and may therefore require a specific management. arterial hypertension, systemic lupus erythematosus and monoclonal gammopathies. Of note, it was shown that these diseases may be more severe in Black people than in White people, and may therefore require a specific management.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4934773/

    ADAMTS13 gene

    https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/gene/ADAMTS13#

  50. Posted again today for those who haven’t been back to yesterday…
    ___________________________________________________________

    “Hugh Pennington? What does he know about diseases?”

    Thus spake Wee Krankie…

    There is no evidence to suggest a coronavirus ‘second wave’ is coming

    Misleading models based on the Spanish flu cannot be allowed to dictate our policy on lifting lockdown

    HUGH PENNINGTON

    The functions of a Covid-19 press conference seem to be to transmit information, praise the indefatigable, and brandish a doom-laden cudgel at the public. A common theme is that if virus-control measures are not observed, or are relaxed too soon, there will be a second “wave” or “peak” of infections.

    In the UK, an often-repeated prognostication has been that this second wave might be more virulent than the first and that the NHS would be overwhelmed. The message from Geneva during the World Health Organisation’s press briefing on May 25 was more nuanced, but of the same ilk. The point was made that the decline in cases in many countries has been due to the control measures, rather than to the virus running out of steam of its own accord, and that relaxing them could lead to an immediate second peak for which we should get ready.

    I am a second-wave sceptic. I said so in evidence to the Scottish Parliament’s health and sport committee in April, and was criticised by Nicola Sturgeon for it.

    I started my virological career working on viruses spread by the respiratory route and was mentored at that time by June Almeida, the discoverer of human coronaviruses. I consider that the evidence supporting the notion of a second wave or peak of Covid-19 infections in the UK that would swamp the NHS is very weak. If we get the easing of lockdown wrong, far more likely would be a continuation of infections, many in the form of localised outbreaks, but not waves or peaks.

    The idea of a devastating second wave comes almost entirely from the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic. The first wave occurred in June and July and the second in October and November. The first was mild and the second was lethal. It is yet to be explained why the infections occurred in waves and why the virus faded away after the first and then returned.

    Mathematical modelling textbooks do not discuss it. There was no effective social distancing in 1918 and it had nothing to do with herd immunity. It is possible that the first-wave virus differed genetically from the one that caused the second, but this is an entirely speculative theory because no virus samples from the first are available for scientists to test – influenza virus wasn’t discovered until 1933.

    Subsequent flu pandemics have been much less lethal. The Asian flu second wave was less lethal than the first. Hong Kong flu in 1968-69 caused fewer deaths but had a second wave that killed more in Britain than the first (though the first was more lethal in America). And swine flu in 2009 killed 10 in its first wave and 137 in its second.

    Flu is very different from Covid-19. Although both are commonly spread by the respiratory route, and both have infected prime ministers (David Lloyd George got the Spanish flu), the more we learn about Covid-19, the less its biology and epidemiology resemble that of flu.

    There have been no flu-like second waves (or even peaks) in China, South Korea or New Zealand. There was no second wave with Sars, another coronavirus.

    In the absence of controls, flu has an R rate of seven; Covid-19’s is between two and three. And far more than with flu, Covid-19 cases have very commonly occurred in clusters. In New Zealand (which may well have eradicated the virus), 41 per cent of cases occurred in 16 clusters of 13 or more cases in each. And, sadly, in the UK the virus has taken an enormous toll on residents of care homes, many of which have had multiple cases.

    The only country so far to have made a good start with virus control and then suffered a relapse has been Singapore, when the virus got into the migrant-worker dormitories in which infection control and social distancing was almost impossible (just as in British care homes).

    Defeatist flu models still lurk behind current Covid-19 predictions. That the virus will persist for ages is a flu concept. These predictions should be put to one side. Like Sars, and unlike flu, the virus is eradicable. If China and New Zealand are striving to be free of it, we should be, too.

    Hugh Pennington is emeritus professor of bacteriology at the University of Aberdeen

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/01/no-evidence-suggest-coronavirus-second-wave-coming/

    1. Hugh Pennington is probably the best-informed, most hard-headed, most intelligent and experienced voice in the country as regards this. So no surprise that no one is listening.

        1. Indeed. As are all well-informed, hard-headed, intelligent and experienced workers.

          3. As an exiled Geordie of 40 years residence here, I rarely talk politics!!

    2. Well done William. We read this from your post last night.
      As he is a real expert he will be ignored and will probably be deleted from all media platforms.
      What strange times we’re living through.

      1. There was an eminent scientist that said a while ago:
        “Better the question that cannot be answered than the answer that cannot be questioned”
        EDIT: More accurately, “I would rather have questions that can’t be answered than answers that can’t be questioned.” – Richard Feynman

        2. Apparently, that’s a pithy distillation of what he said in a rather more roundabout way, similar to BJ’s (reputed): “I didn’t know it would be so easy to take away people’s freedoms nor so difficult to give them back.”

        3. Apparently, that’s a pithy distillation of what he said in a rather more roundabout way, similar to BJ’s (reputed): “I didn’t know it would be so easy to take away people’s freedoms or so difficult to give them back.”

    3. So basically what he’s saying is that since COVID-19 isn’t like flu it won’t be as bad. That’s probably what they said back in 1920 about the Spanish Flu.

      1. No. He’s saying you can’t draw conclusions and make forecasts based on one epidemic of a different disease 100 years ago in a very different world.

        1. He’s also saying no-one knows what will happen with the current pandemic. In that case, isn’t it best to plan for the worst case, i.e. a second wave, and hope that it doesn’t happen?

          1. You do not plan for the worst case, you plan for a “mid-range” situation, but ensure that plan has the built in flexibility to either cope rapidly with an escalation towards Worst Case or, equally important, to relax & ease should the situation turn out to be not as bad as first thought.

          2. I agree. What you do is make sure you are geared up for the potentially worst case scenario, by making the public and private sectors agree to work hand-in-hand if and when necessary, and not engage in a ‘not invented here’ p*ssing contest, which we have seen already.

          3. It’s also possible that the second wave of Spanish flu was made worse by its treatment, e.g. lethal doses of aspirin.

          4. Planning for the worst case has brought us to where we are. It’s a bloody disaster, a self-inflicted death sentence on the whole of society. We know enough about the disease to be able to return immediately to something near to normal.

          5. We haven’t planned for the worse case scenario at all, otherwise the findings of the Swan Study would have not been buried and we would have had plenty of PPE and testing kits, which are the two main reasons for the care homes fiasco.

          6. Johnson lost his nerve and ordered ‘lockdown’ when Ferguson said that more people could die in this country than in the whole world in a typical bad flu winter. I’d say that was planning for the worst.

          7. The Swan Study? That’s an American research project into women’s health. You mean the Cygnus report of October 2016 that was buried by May’s government because of other distractions. The inadequacies of the NHS described in that have been made apparent this year, notably PPE and critical care capacity, so in that sense you are correct that there was no long-term preparation. The report was just guesswork but has been described by some as ‘terrifying’. Who knows if that’s an overreaction. You appear to think it is.

            My point is simply that Johnson & Co panicked when Ferguson presented his worse case scenario. That’s what their subsequent tactics were and they were based broadly on the report. They then spent the next three weeks scrambling madly to make up ground.

            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/28/exercise-cygnus-uncovered-pandemic-warnings-buried-government/

      1. 319867+ up ticks,
        Afternoon A,
        It is my true belief that a multitude are doing that now via the polling booth, and the politico’s are well versed in it.
        The footings are being laid in parliament as we type what with the instructing manual resting between the two dispatch boxes
        and the halal menu next will be the conversion kits, mats,beard growing, speaking via letter boxes etc,etc.
        The end game, the ultimate treachery,

    3. If it were Keir that was struck there most definitely would be a prosecution. The CPS is not fit for purpose.

      2. 319867+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Ims2,
        The President Trump type will be remembered far into the future, his name will not be a forerunner to a spit as with many of the UK politico’s.

      3. And, why don’t the worlds black population protest when farmers and their families are raped and brutally murdered in South Africa ?

        1. Because that’s OK. It’s whiteys who are being killed. Apparently the nastiest “guards” of slaves under the Ottomans were – yes – blacks.

  56. Good Afternoon, Peeps.
    Thanks to my Apple Mac Guru, I am contacting civilisation via a borrowed laptop.
    Thank you for all the kind inquiries.
    I was fine; my laptop had the last rites pronounced over it. Age and a series of accidents overwhelmed it.
    Covid 19, of course.

    4. Ah, a virus! Have you tried washing the keyboard with chlorine? ;@) Welcome back.!

    7. I’d like to say it’s a pleasure….

      It has been quiet since you stopped paying the electricity bill!

    8. ‘Afternoon, Anne, good to know you’re back.

      I trust you now also have an external hard drive to which you can back up all the valuable docs, photos and music to.

      Do it daily, for your own peace of mind should the whole thing go t1ts-up (technical term) in future.

    9. Great to see you’re back – we wuz worried – till Elsie told us what the problem was.

      1. When Lennon was questioned about the words, their profundity yada yada yada, he replied, ‘they’re just words, man, just words’. Just tools in a psychopath’s toolbox to exploit the sheep.

        1. I could do with a bit of ‘Peace and Love’ right now. I’ve had a sh!te day!

          3. Oh dear what can the matter be?
            PT’s had a sh!te Tuesday,
            No one there to soothe the troubles away
            And only remote Nottlers care….

          4. Oh dear what can the matter be
            Plum spent the day locked in the lavatory
            No tennis for her…. she’s in terrible pain
            With the players on court enjoying a game
            I wish it would bloody well rain

          7. Sorry to hear about the pain and the TWS (Tennis Withdrawal Symptoms). Get well soon.

          10. I’m very sorry to read that, but I always look on the bright side, life can always be worse.

            It might be me

  58. Just back from looking at a replacement car for the dear old Kangoo.

    Needless to say, the car we would like is not made anymore….

    Tedious business. Good thing is that the MR does all the research, watches videos etc etc.

      1. When I asked about a brand new car – I was told there was a six month waiting list. Which surprised me. I have seen snaps of fields stuffed full of brand new unsold cars….

    3. We found a 2007 Toyota RAV4 for £4,300 and with a capacious back, it is very lively, roomy and comfortable.

    6. Get a hearse, lots of space, luxurious, plenty of respect from other road users and likely low mileage.

      1. You might think it was his car keys, the truth is he’s misplaced his car…

      2. A car that is no longer available in the UK – worse luck.

        A new, RHD Kangoo 1.9

        Easy to buy in France – but they stopped making RHD ones some years ago – for reasona quite beyond me.

        1. Given how few miles you drive in the UK and the likelihood you’ll probably drive longer distances in France/ Europe, why not buy a LHD one?

          1. Because they don’t sell them in the UK – and the MR, anyway, wants a RHD one.

          2. What is it about the kangaroo you like?
            Can you find something else like it?

          3. Economy; high (and ever so comfortable) driving position;l The marvellous rear sliding doors – which makes shopping and parking a treat instead of a ghastly squeeze.

            There ain’t nuffin like it made any more in the UK. Dagnabbit. Most second hand ones on the UK market are the vintage of our car – 2009.

            There used to be similar vehicles by Fiat, Peugeot, Citroen, VW – and Skoda… Not any more.

            From what I gleaned today, the problem was that the cars were too damned successful. People (such as us) bought them and kept them for ten- 15 years. I have had two Kangoos – the first, UK version – 120,000 mies; the present, LHD 150,000 miles.

            I shall be really sad to let it go.

          5. Nope – only 150,000 miles on the clock. French plates; French insurance.

            My last car but one, a Golf – I sold after 266,000 miles….

            It is getting on….

            Has to be be re-plated, MOT’d and insured in the UK.

            Life’s too short.

          6. Shouldn’t be that hard. A matter of paperwork.
            A pity to say goodbye to the car just ‘cos of that.

          7. None of my business, but worth looking at autotrader.co.uk, where you can set up ‘filters’ and be notified if any desirable vehicle appears on their database.

            I am glancing at a Skoda Roomster 2014 1.6 turbo diesel , 27 thousand miles, £6495. (but 3 owners, dodgy) Believe that Roomsters have a rear sliding door. If you can stomach a Japanese car, Mazda produce stuff with lots of fold-flat rear space.

          9. What about a Ford B-Max. A high driving position a sliding doors I think.

          10. Errr, since when did the chauffeuse tell the boss which car he would be driven in?

            Hides in bunker, awaiting Hellfire missile.

  59. SIR — We seem to have a pattern of floods followed by drought. Would it make more sense to build a new reservoir to serve the South East than a fast train to Birmingham?

    Annabel Burton
    Winchcombe, Gloucestershire

    That suggestion is, Annabel, —without a shadow of a doubt — the most sensible plan I have heard for many a year.

    If the entire area within the bounds of the M25 was excavated to a depth of a quarter of a mile, and then filled with fresh water, that new reservoir would serve the whole of the Home Counties. Drought, in the region, would be consigned to history.

    1. 319867+ up ticks,
      G,
      She is on the right track and along the same lines as my post yesterday signaling the need for more
      pro English / UK beneficial input.

          1. No. Lass. I’d get a tractor and drag Hertfordshire clear of the morass. 😘

        1. They are usually kinder and more successful at what they do than our useless snivelling political classes.

        1. Trump.

          You heard it here first. If it’s bad it must be Trump.

          He caused the American Civil War, don’tcha kno.

    2. It’s a great meme but it’s not actually true.

      What she said was that people shouldn’t have to go into agriculture for work.
      Equally silly, in my view.

    1. Tom: “You could try Nottle, but you’ll need to move slightly to being right”

    2. Tom: “You could try the House of Piers, Harry; they’re all burnt-out wets …

    3. Tom: “we never had corona virus before they built all those bird chompers”.

    4. I’ve written this emergency paper on COVID-19 for the NHS – can you give me a pier review?

  63. That’s me for what has been a trying day. In addition to the car buggerment, most of the vegetable garden has been taken over by moles. They have uprooted the onions, some tomatoes, beans. Very dispiriting.

    Have a jolly evening explaining how YOU calculate the number of deaths from the plague.

    I’ll look in tomorrow if I am spared.

        1. It is difficult to get a soldering iron deep enough….oh, “singing”…{:¬))

        2. That well-known Italian aria “O Mole Sio” by Dr. Spooner should do the trick.

    2. That’s terrible Bill.

      I use raised beds with layers of chicken wire through them. Though i don’t have moles i do have squirrels that dig stuff up and of course Dolly the minx.

  64. Just heard LBC’s headlines: one item was about BAME people being more susceptible to CV-19. Response from government was, “black lives matter,” and that they would work towards, “levelling up outcomes.” Presumably the government are going to march out sufficient numbers of old whitey and shoot them to even up the score. God – and I’m not in any way religious – save us from these morons.

    1. God is a waysist; he dishes out the genes …

      Mathew Hancock can level the playing field by reducing white survival rates …

      His Final Solution ?

    2. Very disappointed with Hancock repeating the mantra ‘Black Lives Matter’, as though people of beige don’t. Still he has form, given his praise of Muslims struggling through Ramadan.

    3. All lives matter equally

      if some ethnicities/cultures think that theirs matter more, they are the Troublemakers

      The only ares, where fewer BAMEs die, than Honkies, is the stabbings in Lunnon

    4. similar on the BBC R4:
      Interview with Rushanara Ali, an eloquent MP who was dancing on the point of a needle as she explained why Bangladeshis in her constituency need more support (£££) and that there is basically no genetic reason as to why BAME people catch the Chinese virus, just socio economic and deprivation etc.

      But if they are Bangladeshi, why didn’t they go home for the pandemic? And if they are British, why do they want to be treated differently from fellow Britons?
      The (obviously intelligent) lady arrived from Bangladesh circa 1982, aged 7, and read PPE at Oxbridge.

        1. They had one essay a week in their first year. Everyone else had two or more.

      3. P*ss Poor at Everything, as it is called by non-Oxbridge types.

    1. Handovah gobf ge snot und schnit I trembla tuba ooveret.
      Dering inst sore, its my ouun fault ate oberst’s curry nicht bufore.

          3. Remember the map, with the little hole, and the flame that got wider and wider….

          3. Yep and he agreed it’s gastroenteritis and that it sounded like the symptoms were on the wane, though it might take a couple of days to fully abate.

            This morning, i’m glad to say, I’m virtually back to normal.
            I only hope I don’t replace the 6lb I’ve lost during the five day fast.

    2. When i lived in Southsea i shopped at the Liptons store.

      I knew one of my brothers-in-law had a hobby playing in Oompah bands but it was still a surprise to see him early on a Saturday morning playing in full costume in the Veg aisle.

      He was a very successful insurance salesman and drove a Lexus.

      He would also go to those Time Share presentations just for the crappy carriage clock.

      He was then and is now a tight fisted git.

    1. Production line tarts, no brain, all the same.
      I’ve even heard little girls talking with growly vowels.
      Moms so exercising their so perogatives so.

  67. I’ve been making our bread for five years. I became so pissed orff looking for and hoping to find flaar on the empty supermarket shelves, I found a company on line near Margate in kent.
    Ordered on Saturday morning arrived at 9:30 am today. Great bake before 2 pm today the best I’ve ever made. 40% better than packet shop bought.
    And enough for more than 40 loaves. For 25 quid.

    1. Good for you. Bear it in mind with other things you use regularly.

      I buy dishwash, Tablets, Salt and Rinse aid in bulk once a year and it works out less than half the price of supermarkets.

      I buy big rolls of blue kitchen paper from Nisbets rather than the 10 times more expensive over advertised rubbish.

      Lots of other things too.

      1. Ditto here Phil. An annual visit to Costco for all those non-perishable consumables saves a fortune. Razor blades, dishwasher tabs, water filters, shampoo etc. Even some foodstuffs: tinned tomatoes, peppercorns, oils and more. Their meat is second to none but I can’t transport that!

          5. He probably uses some ghastly electric contraption that doesn’t shave nearly close enough.

          8. Tried those. They always leave me itchy and scratchy. I suppose they work if you have a skin the texture of desiccated crocodile or retired lawyer.

        2. Check online prices against Costco, Harry. Don’t know if it’s cheaper but worth a look.

          1. Online where, in the UK? That wouldn’t work for me. Besides, there’s all sorts of other stuff in Costco and it’s an annual one-stop shop.

          3. Yes of course, but they are still more expensive. I just worked out a couple of comparisons – 20 Gillette Mach 3 blades are 23% more expensive from Amazon.fr than Costco UK. 6 Brita water filter cartridges about 10% more expensive. I have taken into account VAT and an exchange rate of 1.12 € to a £.

            Another serious consideration, my income is in Sterling.

    2. In Tesco tonight for the first time in ages. Hardly anyone there and loads of 10/20 kg bags of bread making flour.

    3. I’m thinking of buying a large bag or two but am worried about storage and use by dates. Got 2 plastic 1kg bags strong white from Morrisons with a 3 week use by date. Normally a 7 or 8 month sell by. What is the use by on your acquisition if I may ask? I imagine if it’s from a mill it will have a good lengthy use by date.

          2. I would be careful, yes, but would probably purchase some nice airtight containers for an opened 20kg bag.

      1. A bit heavy duty for me Bill I’d have to get up early to cope. Fook dat I’m not that needy 😆

    6. Whilst in France decades ago I watched a programme about the life of a French baker. He had wished to become a philosopher but wound up as a baker.

      He supplied the best hotels and restaurants (in Paris or perhaps some other French city from failing memory) and was devoted to supplying a perfect range of loaves to his prominent clients. Accordingly, having put the tins in the ovens, he slept in a sleeping bag on the tiled floor of his bakery, ready to release the varieties of bread from the ovens in time for delivery.

      The baker took great pride in his Art. It was an Art, and he opined that the hours spent contemplating his perfect product and the thinking time it allowed actually made him a philosopher.

      I feel much the same about the stuff I produce. I often solve conundrums in my waking sleep and rush off early to put the ideas generated into effect.

      1. So interesting Corim.
        I must admit i do really enjoy the whole process.
        Sour dough is quite a challenge.
        It’s not as easy as some people might think.
        I honestly have never tasted such delicious bread as this batch.
        I cut the loaves in half and freeze them in plastic bags until we need them. A 4 minute defrost and a few minutes standing does the trick.

    1. Any chance of him losing his job? His pension?
      Any government action against him or Imperial College?
      Would the College governors close down that department?
      Is there a chance of the money being raised to sue the @rse off him and the numpties who went along with it, thereby causing financial ruin and probably thousands of avoidable deaths?

      1. The politicians are, ultimately, responsible. And the politicians (nearly) all have arts degrees.

      2. Ferguson has been a government stooge for decades. He is utterly reliable and will always deliver on what the politicians and their globalist masters want.

        Edited.

    3. But didn’t we hear that Sweden had the highest per capita death rate in Europe? Don’t tell me they were mashing the stats again…

      1. Last I read, Sweden had about 5,000 deaths. We’ve had about 37,000. They didn’t trash their civil liberties and economy, we did. They may be committing cultural suicide, but on this issue I think they were bang on!

          1. Quite a few I imagine. Apparently they did have a lot of deaths in care homes like we did. I imagine the vast majority of deaths are of the elderly and infirm rather than the young and healthy, just like us.

  70. Whilst other factors are also likely to bear on the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths amongst the BAME community I think that severe deficiency in the von Willebrand factor (VWF)‐cleaving protease ADAMTS13 in these sections of the population is a major factor in their rate of mortality:

    Thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) is a severe form of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) resulting from a severe deficiency in the von Willebrand factor (VWF)‐cleaving protease ADAMTS13…

    Arrow points to the genetic location:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f131e3b3907fb299feac77376dffa91f601aa3990c996939fccd663a5dec51c4.jpg

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/02/why-bame-people-dying-coronavirus-black-ethnic-minority-background/

    1. Well, are grooming gang members deficient on the von Williebrand factor?

      1. There’ll be a full report on the subject that won’t get released so they won’t get their comeuppances.

        1. Well, if I had my way no grooming gang member would ever have another comeuppance.

    1. Good night Peddy; I’m off to bed myself just now. Sleep well all NoTTLers (and Missy).

  72. Just before I pop off to bed.
    ITVs Juliet Bremner is in Brazil reporting on the virus. !!!!! WTF ?
    You really could not make any of this absolute media stupidly up could you ?

    1. TBF, she was originally slated to cover the US riots, but wimped out.

      1. They are quite pathetic.
        I don’t understand why and how they are allowed to be travelling to known hot spots when at home the rest of the pathetic bunch report from cupboards under the stairs.
        It’s really where they all should be.

          1. No, it’s a different make but with both dust and vapour filters in each cartridge it must be far better than an N95.

            P,S, I don’t use it for having sex or performing operations other than applying highly volatile liquids.☺️

  74. Evening, all. It’s been a scorcher here today again (although rain is forecast for tomorrow). Had an adventure returning from the vets whence I went to pick up the pooch’s medication; the main street was blocked, so I thought I’d return cross country. I must have missed a turning because, although I’d ridden round there years ago, I couldn’t recognise anywhere and there were no signposts. Hence I put the satnav on. What an experience! It took me down a road which had the warning ‘NO HGV DO NOT RELY ON SATNAV!’ As I was in the car, I carried on – it was like being back in Australia! The metalled road petered out and I ended up on a very rutted dirt track, going up hill and down dale. I eventually came out on the Wrexham Road! I had certainly never been along that road before! When I did eventually get back, some friends came over for tea. Very pleasant and almost normal.

    1. Frustrating if you are busy and have things to get on with.

      I have returned to the area of my birth and as a child would wander hither and thither. It can be fun to discover places i didn’t know were there.

        1. I was born in my mother’s bed at 11.02pm.

          I wish i had left at 11.03pm.

          Hence all the long walks.

  75. The Government’s insistence NOW (after ignoring calls for over 10 weeks) to impose a quarantine on all those flying in from abroad** is rather like a promise that when the horse returns, after you left the stable door open, you will shoot it.

    ** This quarantine requirement does not apply to those coming across the channel by dinghy.

    1. Not in a simple dinghy. The travellers set out in a RIB tender under the orders of a French Navy export vessel, and are then transferred to a Border Farce high speed patrol boat. Are they searched for drugs, including cavities? I doubt it.

  76. I refuse to abide by these bonkers rules any longer. Allison Pearson. 2 June 2020.

    “BORIS BANS BONKING!” Yesterday’s shock headline in The Sun drew attention to new Health Protection Regulations which forbid gatherings of two or more persons from different households indoors and make it illegal to stay overnight. As the pun-tastic paper marvelled, “You can go for a jog but not get jiggy.” Confronted with this latest idiocy on Good Morning Britain, that charming, commendably human MP, Tobias Ellwood, admitted with a wry smile, “It is ridiculous.” But, he insisted, ministers were following the advice of scientists.

    In which case, may I respectfully suggest to Captain Ellwood and his government, that the scientists are bonkers. Or not bonkers because that’s now illegal. At least you mustn’t bonk indoors with one or more people you don’t live with, unless you count Professor Neil Ferguson who presumably was bonking his mistress at home in flagrant disregard of the lockdown measures drawn up by SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies). Under the new rules, bonking in the garden may be permitted with groups of up to six persons, but only if you bring your own chair and, whatever you do, don’t get in a paddling pool! Or share a tennis racket! If you must answer a call of nature, please go behind a designated bush, not in a loo. Do as Matt Hancock tells you and mind your pees and queue.

    Got that, Marjorie? It’s all perfectly clear. Perfectly clear, at least, if you’re a member of SAGE with an IQ of 160 and the common sense of a dormouse who has fallen into a barrel of beer. I mean no offence to our scientific experts, but are people who seem to have no idea how normal people behave really best placed to offer guidance on how the general public should live their lives? Pleasure seems to be optional to these Gradgrinds. Car showrooms are open, toilets at the beach are closed. Swimming and romance are risky, work is not. So focused on the R number are the wonks that they don’t grasp the urgent need to lift a lockdown which is wrecking the mental health of millions and will soon claim more lives than it saved.

    Thanks to them, over the past few days a national pandemic has been reduced to the condition of farce by illiberal and nonsensical rules which have given rise to more laugh-out-loud moments than Hancock’s Half Hour. Better known as the Downing Street daily Press Briefing.
    Heaven knows the Secretary of State for Health has an unenviable job but, after ten weeks, his determination to treat the British people like a remedial basket-weaving class does begin to grate. On Monday afternoon, Mr Hancock outlined changes to the changes which had been “very unusual in English law”. By unusual he meant horrifyingly authoritarian. Now, he said, with the benign condescension of a teacher giving out sweets to children who had been good, “instead of saying that you can’t leave your house except for reasons that are specifically set out” the law would tell us things that we could do.

    Well, whoopie do. I don’t know about you, but I voted for a Conservative government which promised freedom, personal responsibility and economic competence not a draconian cabal paralysed by fear and secrecy which doesn’t trust people to inflate their own paddling pool.
    Confession time. On Saturday, I hit a wall. Uncontrollable crying jags, sadness rising like a flood within me, a bleak sense that the life I loved was finished. This was the wretched state that the mad, upside-down world we are now told is ours (it isn’t) had reduced me to. And I live in a nice house with a garden, have rewarding work and people who care about me. How do you suppose the millions who have none of those things are doing?

    I had reached the end of my resilience, driven out of my wits by official obfuscation, a refusal to tell us the truth. The Secretary of State looked a bit sheepish as he boasted about his “successful” test and trace system. No wonder. A woman I know who is running a test and trace operation says there are “very slim pickings”. Out of 100,000 people, they’re “lucky” if they find 3pc infected with the virus. The only thing Mr Hancock is testing is our patience.
    I’m sick of it. Sick of the shroud-wavers warning that a “premature” easing of the lockdown could see R go over 1. (The truth is Covid19 now exists almost exclusively in hospitals and care homes. If you take them out of the equation there are entire stretches of the country where R could be 0. Yet men, women and children in those blameless areas are treated as if they’re carriers of bubonic plague.) Sick of young people, who are at no risk at all from the virus, being denied an education and the precious milestones of their youth. Sick of Tory-hating teaching unions saying schools aren’t safe enough (funny no other European country has seen any spike in infections after reopening classrooms, isn’t it?). Sick of the two-metre distancing rule which is a death sentence for tens of thousands of restaurants and pubs. Sick of a 14-day quarantine for airline passengers, starting next Monday, which is being introduced three months too late as if specifically to lay waste to a £200 billion aviation and tourism industry which provides work for four million men and women.

    By the 14th April, as minutes of meetings reveal, SAGE knew full well that the problem was predominantly “nosocomial” – that means arising in hospitals and care homes. They knew there was minimal threat to the community. And still the lockdown went on, and on and on. And still people were taught to be afraid. And still scientists continue to come up with more bizarre, contradictory constraints on our lives. All to prevent us getting a virus which researchers are struggling to locate.

    Do they even know what they’ve done? A card arrived in the post yesterday from a friend. She and her husband-to-be were sadly announcing the cancellation of their wedding which was to have taken place in mid-August. Alice and James had held on for as long as they could, hoping against hope that the Government would allow gatherings by that date. They waited and waited, but the announcement came there none. The vast church where they were to have made their vows told them they “might be allowed fifteen to twenty guests”. So it’s off. Not just a loss for that beautiful young couple but for the vast, interconnected web of suppliers whose existence depends on the great public enactments of human celebration. The limo company that would have provided the bride’s car, the jeweller, the dressmaker, the shoe shop, the florist, the hairdresser, the make-up artist, the band, the DJ, the marquee hire, the small business that makes personalised wedding favours, the caterers, the barmen, the girls and boys who would have picked up casual work as waiters and waitresses, the travel agent who arranged the honeymoon, the photographer and the printer who prints the photographer’s pictures. All innocent economic fatalities of a virus which will be long gone by high summer.

    Sorry, I’m not doing it any more. Lockdown is over for me and for millions of others I’m quite sure. Sanity demands it. We must go on making sure that the most vulnerable are shielded, of course we must. But any chapter in our national story which contains the phrase, “BORIS BANS BONKING” has well and truly lost the plot. So, to the scientists of SAGE, we say, Thank for your advice, Brains, but there are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Like sex with a person you don’t live with and schools where children can hug each other and a Briton’s inalienable right to pee in a loo not a bush.
    They have taken a liberty with us. Now, we take our liberty right back.

    I went to the village at Lunch Time today and it’s back to normal. Or more Normal than Normal. There’s no work for them to go to so people were just strolling around with the kids and generally enjoying the Sunshine. On my way back I came across a motor cycle accident which had six Police Cars in attendance and not one copper paying any attention to the rules. Lock Down is over!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/refuse-abide-bonkers-rules-longer/

    2. Really this government’s pandemic effort deserves a Carry On film …

    5. “instead of saying that you can’t leave your house except for reasons that are specifically set out” the law would tell us things that we could do. We used to be able to do anything unless there was a law forbidding it. Then along came the EU.

    6. “instead of saying that you can’t leave your house except for reasons that are specifically set out” the law would tell us things that we could do. We used to be able to do anything unless there was a law forbidding it. Then along came the EU.

      1. Fine thanks, John. A bit busy. Estate agent coming Thursday, so i’m trying to make the place relatively photogenic. Spent the day cleaning windows. And painting…

          3. We have it bookmarked alternatively type nottl.blog into the address bar.

  78. CHARLES MOORE

    Was it really illegal to intern Gerry Adams?

    The Supreme Court ruling in his favour raises troubling questions about the role of ‘lawfare’ in our society

    While most people were thinking about other things, the Supreme Court decided last month that Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein/IRA veteran, was not legally interned in the early 1970s. It had also been unlawful to punish him for attempting to escape, the court found: his internment order should have been signed by the secretary of state (Willie Whitelaw) in person, but was not.

    The consequences of the decision are clear enough – a compensation case for Mr Adams and a slew of other lawsuits. Already more Irish Republicans and Loyalists from the other extreme – about 50 in total – are suing the British Government for everything they can think of. Yet again, “legacy” issues in Northern Ireland are being used to re-fight the political questions the Good Friday Agreement was supposed to settle.

    Well, if that’s the law, that’s the law. But is it? A learned paper just published by the Judicial Power Project at the think tank Policy Exchange casts doubt. It suggests that the Supreme Court does not understand this aspect of public law. It is a long-standing principle that the legal duty of a secretary of state to sign off on an administrative decision can lawfully be delegated to a junior minister. This is known (after a specific case) as the Carltona principle, but it was also provided for in the internment legislation. Parliament was told so at the time. If there were no such principle, secretaries of state would spend every waking hour personally signing orders for this and that, instead of governing the country.

    The court decision is a mini-repeat of the attitudes displayed in the famous prorogation judgment in September 2019. The leading judge in this case, Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore, is considered one of the most interventionist of the Supreme Court judges and was cheerleader for Lady Hale in the judgment she gave last year. In that case, too, there was a curious judicial insensitivity to the law as it touches politics. The court held that the prorogation of Parliament was not “a proceeding” of Parliament. This view allowed it to ignore Article 9 of the 1689 Bill of Rights – crucial to our constitution – that the proceedings of Parliament are not a matter for courts.

    The former cabinet secretary Lord Butler knows what it is like to try to make government work. He argues the only quick and sure way out of the trap created by Lord Kerr and friends is legislation now. Otherwise, yet again, Northern Ireland – and the whole kingdom – will be caught in the crossfire of “lawfare”.

    More travelling and less settling, please

    The Easter weekend this year was disturbed for the residents of Netherfield, a village near us in Sussex, by the sudden occupation of a field. It is part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Although the occupiers had bought the site, they did not have planning permission. Nevertheless, they installed hard-standing, placed two mobile homes on it, parked a couple of caravans, sunk a drainage site and chopped down the trees, swearing at protesting residents as they did so.

    They erected menacingly high gates at the entrance, and brought in a number of large cock-birds. Despite the occupiers’ lack of legal permission, UK Power Networks is proposing to connect their electricity soon, closing the public road for five days.

    The new arrivals are from what is often called “the travelling community”. Nowadays, they seem to go in for less travelling and more settling.

    I shall not weary readers with the details, which matter only for those directly concerned. But there is a wider point. Residents have, of course, complained to the planning authority, Rother District Council. The official reply is that while the travellers’ behaviour could “be subject to formal enforcement action”, it “would not be proportionate” to serve an enforcement notice because of the circumstances, “including human rights, Covid-19 pandemic guidance and the submitted planning application” (which, it should be noted, was sent only after the occupation had begun).

    The council might as well stick up a large public notice which says: “Dear travellers, if you want to put up permanent buildings without planning permission during the lockdown, please be our guests.”

    A comforting sight

    How many 94-year-olds do you know who still ride? Yesterday’s press photographs of the Queen on her fell pony Balmoral Fern in Windsor Home Park revealed one who does.

    I have not been able to establish exactly when Princess Elizabeth first sat on a pony, but since she was always mad keen on horses and was born in 1926, it could well have been in the 1920s – which is longer ago for us today than Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne was then. By the early 1930s, the mounted princess rode out, also at Windsor, accompanied – then as now – by a bowler-hatted groom.

    Ninety or so years ago, the population of the world was a quarter of its present size, there was no television in Britain and Hitler had not yet reached the front pages. If the coronavirus lockdown follows its expected course, it will have taken up just over 0.3 per cent of the life of the woman still in the saddle. Somehow that is a comforting thought.

    Lost in translation

    Newspaper headline: “Singing hymns could spread virus, says minister.” That’s right: it can spread the virus of Christianity, a greater threat to the mighty than any discovered or invented by science.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/02/really-illegal-intern-gerry-adams/

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