Tuesday 8 June: Covid data support unlocking, but delay will harm health and livelihoods

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/07/letters-covid-data-support-unlocking-delay-will-harm-health/

654 thoughts on “Tuesday 8 June: Covid data support unlocking, but delay will harm health and livelihoods”

  3. Exclusive: No migrants returned to safe countries this year despite ‘inadmissible’ asylum claims. 8 June 2021.

    No migrants have been deported to safe countries in a new crackdown on “inadmissible” asylum claims because EU governments will not accept them, Home Office figures show.

    The disclosure came as Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, said the British public was “absolutely fed up” with the surging numbers of illegal migrants crossing the Channel to claim asylum in the UK.

    Morning everyone. This is “exclusive”? This is even news? I have never doubted that it would be so any more than that the importation of ever more “Asylum Seekers” is Government Policy!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/07/exclusive-no-migrants-returned-safe-countries-year-despite-inadmissible/

    1. It doesn’t matter to the migrants whether their claims are inadmissible.

      They are here – in free accommodation and on welfare for the rest of their lives.

      No work, no effort required. They will shortly be importing their families.

      They have truly found a golden future.

  4. Well that looks like the June 21st easing of restrictions and return to freedom is all but put off for another year.
    Did anyone out there really believe that they would?
    The public and small business owners are being punished like Sisyphus who was forced to roll a heavy boulder up a steep hill only for to watch it to roll down again for all eternity.

    1. mng bob, that was always intention. G7 circus, Cyber Polygon simulation economic warfare game, C-19 to end March 2024

    1. Lorry drivers much in demand. A pay rise of 20% has been granted. Haulage companies say they need drivers from the EU to fill the gap. The life of a driver does not appeal to our citizens. BBC report.

      1. Good Morn, Clyde

        Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. Don’t be so harsh. Slammers aren’t used to driving on the left.

        1. ‘Morning, Citroen, a slight correction, “Slammers aren’t used to driving on the left.“

  6. BBC Radio 4 News this morning reporting that the Boundary Commission is making a further attempt to change England’s Constituency boundaries.
    The prize for accepting the changes is more English constituences, not less as was my hope.

    1. 334048+ up ticks,
      Morning Cs,
      Equally divide the herd, equally shared responsibility for herd manipulation this is firmly establishing the manip & control of the peoples with many of the peoples crying out for it, as the voting pattern dictates.

    2. I’ve just been looking at the proposals. Hodnet and Tern Hill Barracks will go from North Shropshire.

  7. mng to those not liaised with earlier. As for DT letter title, opening it exposes the fraud openly in public so the harm / danger zeroes onto those who made the decisions in Govt: Diana EH Farrel has her toe in the electricity socket again, and the usual associated scribbles::

    SIR – With reference to the roadmap for unlocking coronavirus restrictions, Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, has mentioned “the number of cases”. But the Government test is that “infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS”.

    To anyone who does not wish to imagine the opposite, what is clear is that vaccination has given near total protection to those in the most vulnerable categories, who made up more than 95 per cent of hospitalisations and deaths. (Protection works against all variants thus far.) We have been in that situation for weeks.

    Since then, those only at moderate risk have also been afforded significant (one-jab) or near total (two-jab) protection against an illness unlikely to cause them serious harm anyway.

    As it stands, the very low hospitalisation numbers are made up almost entirely of non-vaccinated people and are leading to tiny numbers of deaths. (Every death is a personal tragedy but national policy must consider the macro not micro.) Thus, logically, it is obvious that even if case (infection) numbers increase, the NHS will come nowhere near the previous hospitalisation or death peaks.

    The Government must not be allowed to pretend it is following “the science”. The data show the final unlocking should have already happened, not be delayed beyond June 21.

    A “cautious approach” is dishonest doublespeak, intentionally opting for the certainty of sacrificing livelihoods, mental and non-Covid-related health and the economy for years to come.

    Jonnie Bradshaw
    Wallingford, Oxfordshire

    SIR – OK, Mr Hancock, a two-week extension from June 21 will get us to July 5. What if on July 5 the daily rate of reported infections is higher than on June 21? Christmas?

    Robert Chatterton
    Caythorpe, Lincolnshire

    SIR – On Saturday, I received an email from my sister in the Cook Islands, a tiny group in the South Pacific. Britain has raised their rating to amber.

    There have been no cases of coronavirus in Rarotonga, the main island. Vaccinations, for which people are queuing, should be complete in a couple of weeks.

    The Cook Islands form a “bubble” with New Zealand, with which there is no quarantine or other restrictions. New Zealand’s rating is green.

    What is the reasoning behind Britain’s decision?

    G V R Hollingdale-Smith
    East Gomeldon, Wiltshire

    SIR – If, as Andrew Bridgen MP has indicated, the aid provided to foreign countries in the form of provision of Covid vaccine is at least equal to the reduction announced by the Government in the overseas aid budget, it was clearly a PR fiasco ever to announce a reduction, which will not actually occur.

    Brian Whittingham
    Dorchester

    Dangerous e-scooters

    SIR – This week three electric scooter rental companies are unleashing hundreds of e-scooters on to the streets of five London boroughs under a Transport for London “pilot scheme”.

    Chief Superintendent Simon Ovens of the Met Police has been quoted as condemning e-scooters as “notoriously dangerous” and the National Federation of the Blind has written to the Department for Transport warning that e-scooters contribute to a “dangerous, frightening, intimidating and hostile” urban environment.

    Although the law is clear that riders of private e-scooters on public roads can be fined up to £300 and have their scooter impounded, I have seen no evidence of any enforcement.

    The Mayor of London’s Walking and Cycling Commissioner, Will Norman, pays lip service to walking as a “greener and healthier way of getting around”, but London’s streets have become a free-for-all, with the safety of pedestrians given the lowest priority.

    Julia Matheson
    London E5

    SIR – Here in New Zealand these menaces are allowed on the pavement as well as cycle lanes and the road.

    Rental e-scooters are regulated for speed and motor power. Private ones are meant to conform to motor power regulations, but as you can buy them online, not every device is checked. I regularly see privately owned e-scooters exceeding 20mph on the flat when I am cycling. We have had people seriously injured by e-scooters hitting them.

    Andrew Parsons
    Auckland, New Zealand

    Ollie Robinson’s ban

    SIR – I wholeheartedly agree with Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary. There is no point at all in banning Ollie Robinson, nor in carrying out an “investigation”, other than into virtue-signalling by the England and Wales Cricket Board.

    Robinson’s error was nine years ago as a teenager. As a man, he has given a proper apology, which is all he can do. If we all had to be banned for what we said as teenagers, who would be left to criticise us?

    Gordon Welford
    Portishead, Somerset

    Inaccessible GPs

    SIR – Yet another letter (June 7) from the Royal College of GPs states that “face-to-face appointments have been available throughout the pandemic”. This has been a standard response to the multitude of complaints from all over the country about the horrendous queues on the phone and serious lack of face-to-face appointments.

    Not one RCGP bigwig has explained why dentists can operate as near normality as possible, but GPs must sit on the end of a telephone.

    Alexander Simpson
    Market Drayton, Shropshire

    Lilibet won’t do

    SIR – What in heaven’s name led Harry and Meghan even to consider “Lilibet” for Archie’s sister (report, June 7)?

    Everyone knows that it’s not even a name for them to give, but a private, personal sobriquet, one that belongs uniquely to the Queen.

    Veronica Timperley
    London W1

    SIR – My nickname at school was “Hammy Hamster”, after my middle name Hamilton – but I would be mortified if any grandchildren were called “Hammy Hamster”.

    Diana E H Farrell
    Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

    Cut off from cash

    SIR – My mother is 102, lives alone, and is housebound. She is unable, even with assistance, to leave her bungalow.

    Some years ago she would write a note to her bank manager (Letters, June 2), permitting him to hand cash to her neighbour, who produced a signed cheque, but no more.

    Now, the only way she can get cash to pay for her hairdresser, food and other services, is for me to take her a large amount every so often.

    How do others in her position cope if they don’t have a regular and trustworthy visitor?

    Kate Best
    Weobley, Herefordshire

    SIR – When I tried to set up an account for our church, NatWest’s switching and mandates teams demanded I produce my details using HooYu – an online identity verification service.

    HooYu is an outside company. NatWest personnel have confirmed that they know who I am and that they do not need this information via HooYu. But HooYu says I must do it.

    After submitting five selfies, HooYu accepted my face. Then it liked my passport, my driving licence, and a bank statement as proof of address. But its demand for a further photographic proof of address meant I sent my shotgun licence, signed by the chief of police for the Thames Valley. HooYu does not recognise shotgun licences.

    I am an unknown dealing with an intransigent algorithm. Humans don’t count anymore.

    Jerry Houdret
    Farnham Royal, Buckinghamshire

    Dawn of the lawn

    SIR – Typical of our age, extreme views are now engendered even by the simple lawn (Letters, June 7).

    It was invented by medieval nobles to surround their castles and show they had the wealth to own uncultivated land to be used for pageantry and fairs. The style was later adopted by 17th-century landowners to emphasise space. Even now, owners of lawns use them to show off the size of their suburban territory.

    Not everyone has the time to indulge in gardening but, with a little imagination and a small budget, wildlife can be helped. Surround the lawn with a dense but natural hedgerow. Allow a small wild area to grow at the bottom under a couple of manageable trees. Grow a few insect-friendly shrubs around a small wildlife pond and in the sunshine grow some colourful flowers laden with pollen.

    John Hanson
    Canterbury, Kent

    Oxford’s thoughtless fashion for ‘trashing’ 

    SIR – You report (June 3) that Oxford University is “trying to stop the famous ‘trashing’ ” that takes place after exams.

    But it is the colleges of the university that are seeking to achieve this. Over the five years that I have been chairing the Domestic Bursars’ Committee we have sought the support of the central university and await a proposal that will achieve the aim.

    My colleagues and I are at the front line of arranging cleaning-up and we are fed up with the lack of environmental awareness and responsibility from students. Last week, walking through our grounds, I chased away a gosling that was trying to eat some “silly string”. I hope it has not choked to death.

    Until there is both a change of approach by the university, and by its students, the problem and resulting damage will remain.

    Mark Blandford-Baker
    Home Bursar, Magdalen College
    Oxford

    How to empty a train carriage in no time at all

    SIR – In the 1930s the Carroll Sisters – a well-known duo of the contralto composer Mai Jones and my mother (the soprano Elsie Eaves) – would go by train to their broadcasting studios. They developed a fail-safe method to ensure they had a compartment to themselves (Letters, June 7).

    On climbing aboard they collapsed into their seats, apparently exhausted and unwell, before one pointedly asked the other in a loud stage whisper whether she was still feeling sick. In next to no time the other occupants would retreat into the corridor and find themselves other seats.

    Michael Allisstone
    Chichester, West Sussex

    SIR – A relative is the Mother Superior of a Benedictine convent whose duties involve occasional train journeys.

    She has told me of two kinds of fellow passengers. The first category take one look at her and hastily move on. The second category sit beside her and proceed to pour out their troubles. Her technique is to listen attentively without attempting to offer advice.

    Invariably, her fellow passenger departs with expressions of grateful thanks for the (non-existent) advice that has been given.

    Donald Ruffell
    Taunton, Somerset

    SIR – On the train from Aberdeen once, I took a small bottle of port, a few crackers and a piece of mature Stilton.

    It was July and hot. When the train stopped in Edinburgh the entire carriage emptied. The platform was crowded with travellers who just kept walking through the carriage. Only when I heard a lady with two young children say, “My goodness, someone’s been sick in here, try the next one,” did I realise the potency of my Stilton.

    I had the carriage to myself for the rest of the journey.

    David Fisher
    Westhill, Aberdeenshire

    1. “What is the reasoning behind Britain’s decision?” – G V R Hollingdale-Smith

      If you read the government website, you’ll see that the amber countries are that way because they are neither red nor green – in other words, it’s a “and all the rest unclassifieds” category. I guess the Cook Islands are there because no sniver serpent can find them on the map and can’t be arsed to evaluate it properly.

    2. The “trashing” after exams in Oxford is NOT a longstanding tradition at all. It was far more restrained in the 80s. Shaving foam, champagne and strawberries was as far as it went. People didn’t get covered in rubbish they way they do now.

    3. Jonnie Bradshaw, without figures, preferably from ONS, you letter is pure, selfish garbage.

    4. Is there not something intrinsically wrong, immoral even, to investigate what people may have may have done in the past when they were children? The only exception would be if it were a serious crime investigation. Playground insults are a part of the socialisation process involved in growing up.

  8. Second England cricketer investigated over historical ‘offensive’ social media posts. 8 June 2021.
    .
    A spokesman for the England and Wales Cricket Board said: “It has been brought to our attention that an England player has posted historic offensive material on their social media account.

    “We are looking into it and will make a further comment in due course.”

    I would be more interested in knowing who has gone to the trouble to investigate long forgotten comments and their motives for doing so. This is obviously beyond the understanding, let alone the capabilities of the EWCB!

    https://news.sky.com/story/second-england-cricketer-investigated-over-historical-offensive-social-media-posts-12327444

    1. mng Araminta, as usual, no specifics re comments supposedly made when a teenager [under 18]. This sounds like the usual witch hunt to keep the issue in the news. Next a 3 yr old says “bollocks” becomes international sportsman and banned

      1. “Bollocks” is sexist as well you know. Real women have penises and don’t you forget it. By order.

        1. And all men possessors of XY chromosomes have the human right to undergo a smear test.

    2. Good Morning, Minty

      I think you’re a bit behind the curve on this topic. Umpteen postings yesterday on NoTTLers and the MSM suggesting that the EWCB were irritating and self-serving irrelevant doffers including summat from our Boris.

    3. Good Morning, Minty

      I think you’re a bit behind the curve on this topic. Umpteen postings yesterday on NoTTLers and the MSM suggesting that the EWCB were irritating and self-serving irrelevant doffers including summat from our Boris.

    4. We must try to uproot “racist” comments made in the past by major politicians, including Boris, and make them public. Then we sit back and watch the reaction. [ possibly in confinement]

        1. There must be a few women keeping quiet about Boris and his romantic approach to his prey.

      3. I cannot remember ever voting for diversity , aren’t we allowed to express anxiety at the rate that diversity is being embraced so rapidly?

        1. The Government is adopting the policy of spreading “diversity” throughout the UK in their panic to make diversity more acceptable. That is not a policy which will work. The politicians must accept responsibility for the problems, socially, environmentally, economically and criminality caused by unfettered immigration for decades now. Enoch Powell warned them and they denounced him at the time and embraced immigration with the results we are now seeing.

        2. ‘Morning, Mags it was voted for by the idiots who put Labour into government in 1997 and kept them there for 13 years.

      4. No point going after Boris. His past is littered with a lack of political correctness.

    5. Can you just imagine it? If Frederick Sewards Trueman had been playing cricket these days, instead of the 1950s and 1960s, he would have been perpetually banned from playing for the ‘colour’ of his repartée both on and off the field.

    6. I hope the old (not mature) members of the ECB have never harboured or uttered a dodgy thought in their entirely vanilla lives.

      1. Home, home on the crease, where never is heard a discouraging word?

    7. The ECB has now come clean and stated its intended aim to prevent England ever winning a Test series again. They will have achieved their aim when England is defeated by France in a series of cricket matches.

      1. it’s only aim was the focus on winning the 2019 WC. Test cricket was pushed aside, as it has been for ages. On current form, England are no better than Bangladesh

      1. I’ve lost it. It was here, I’m sure of it. So where is my mantra?

    2. 334046+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      The second coming of Trump MUST be on the cards
      Right over SH!TE must surely be in the pipeline
      the political crapoleons have had their way for far to long.

  11. Good morning, all. A sunny start.

    I told you that they’d never let us regain our freedom. A fortnight’s “delay” – then, just as the end is nigh, the virulent Cornish Variant will be identified….

    And so it goes on and on.

    1. Morning Bill. The Portugal Gambit has pretty much put an end to any sensible person trying to get abroad for a holiday!

    2. All those poor Cornish people with the obvious symptom of pasty faces…

  12. ‘Morning All

    Here we go…………

    https://twitter.com/JamesMelville/status/1402028092181336064?s=19

    http://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e2311ad88b4af5aafedd6555ecbae3592f56bb329c48464c931b3777c49774d.png

    https://twitter.com/EssexPR/status/1401824289842778112
    Florida and Texas have a combined population of about 50 million,no masks no vaccine passports no restrictions,no closed businesses
    Also fluck all Covid!!!!
    Just how big a sample size does Sage want FFS?????

  13. Until the people stop it. Far too much talk and not enough action. Start
    by not wearing a mask with an examption badge. I am the only one
    wearing one in my local supermarket. If you do not wear one stop
    moaning.

    1. I have an exemption badge. I do not wear it. I have only been asked once about not waring a mask.

      1. Similar to EA1 taking the power from the Wind farm off the Suffolk Coast to Bramford (pronounced Bromford) sub-station.

        Forced to go underground by popular objection to pylons – Another fight brewing over more electricity lines through the Suffolk countryside.

  15. Good morning all.
    Another bright & sunny start with a rather cooler 7°C in the yard.

    I will be having a run into Derby to check on Step-son later this morning.

  17. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d1b0e37c44a1a28bb2acf91a36c5ef7359bd29de7b69aac51768657e339aefb.png I can personally vouch for the pungency of Stilton cheese in hot weather, and I’m not talking about just a small portion of it.

    Back in 1974, when I was taking my five-week police standard driving course, I was driving a small Triumph Dolomite Sprint along with two male police cadets and the civilian driving instructor, himself a retired police officer. It was a sultry July day and the instructor directed me to drive on a course for Hartington in the Derbyshire Dales, location of one of England’s few Stilton creameries. At the creamery he bought two whole Blue Stiltons, and placed them in the car’s boot.

    For the rest of the shift, driving back to the HQ driving school, we had our heads out of the fully-open car’s windows trying to gasp for some fresh air. The smell from those ripe, sweating Stiltons was indescribable.

    2. That sounds as if they need another couple of months in a cool place to mature!

    4. Jerome K. Jerome unwittingly used the same ploy when he carried a couple of cheeses home for a friend. He ended up with a carriage to himself.
      “Three Men on a Bummel”, I think. An excuse to reread a couple of books.

      1. Many decades ago , I was young enthusiastic full of energy and believing I could change the world .
        Well not really

        However I used to use spare time helping out with the local WRVS, delivering meals on wheels, organising holidays for deprived children , finding hostesses , and giving a hand on market day when the old fashioned tramps used to bring their clothing chits to the second hand clothes store , for new socks and to replace their clothes .. we used t give them a cup of tea , have a chat , and hold our noses .

        The stench that the old tramps emitted was unbelievable , truthfullyso , that we used Vick and some other camphor based stuff to smear on our nostrils , the stuff that undertakers or others used to mask ghastly smells .

        Their smell was similar to rotting cheese , extreme aging rotting cheese.

        1. Off topic but has anyone else noticed that as men get older their feet become considerably less smelly? Apparently it is to do with hormones.

        2. We had a customer at the JobCentre who used to come in about every three months to collect his benefit cheque. He was a genuine old tramp and he stank to high heaven. He brought in all his possessions in plastic carrier bags and wouldn’t leave till we’d got his money authorised.

          He used to collect a large amount – I warned him several times of the dangers of sleeping rough with large amounts of money in his pockets – three months benefit was quite a lot. He would have gone up like a Roman candle if sadistic tossers set him alight.

      2. Good morning, Anne,

        Don’t forget the pineapples.

        Incidentally, did you see the film with Jimmy Edwards, Laurence Harvey and David Tomlinson?

        1. Saw the film years ago.
          I was nine when I first read TMIAB; some of it I didn’t really understand – the girl in the river, Harris’ total bodge up of G&S – but the tin of pineapple saga cracked me up.

    5. In the 1960s when returning from leave it was customary to catch the 22.30 train from Euston to Edinburgh Waverley, an overnight service which was usually quite full.

      Young well-oiled Matelots would aim to find an empty compartment early on, open a tin of Heinz Mixed Vegetable soup which they would then pour over the door threshold and then spread themselves out full length on the two bench seats and settle down for the night! The apparent vomit and smell of stale beer would ensure an undisturbed journey.

      1. We haven’t been to Britain for some time but whenever we do we buy a whole Stilton cut in half horizontally.

        It keeps very well in the freezer if covered in clingfilm. When it gets too pungent for the cheeseboard Caroline makes a sauce to go with steak which puts Roquefort sauce in the shade.

      2. The Heinz Sandwich Spread was a favourite for an Aussie prank when flying home. They’d empty a jar of it into the sick bag and walk down to the loo, spooning great gobfuls into their faces.

        Sick bags all round.

    1. Godfrey Bloom, of all people, should recognise the ploy.

      The junior policemen are being gently accustomed by the PTB to being “social engineers”, rather than police.

      Eventually they will be happy to do other “social engineering” duties unquestioningly.

      Everyone might like to consider what “social engineering” will be required?

    2. I’m past expecting anything else.
      The police are becoming an army of occupation.

    3. Fearsome looking bunch. Good thing that they stand between me and the bad people.

    1. We whities will now be accused of culling them, in a sneaky way, by not stopping the marriages

      1. Supporting the results of inbreeding is certainly culling our bank balances.

      2. We were almost getting ourselves sorted out, clean new towns , new housing , schools , hospitals and roads , a post war challeng that many of us benefitted from as we grew up . Jobs for all , and decent living standards , and the ability to achieve what ever we wanted to achieve.

        Now we are littered with underclasses of sorts of varieties , it just isn’t right , and what has everything since the end of WW2 been all about..

        I haven’t thrown my self enthusiastically into supporting Conservatism from a very young age , to seeing the mess being created underneath our noses with a Conservative government in power.

  20. Covid data support unlocking, but delay will harm health and livelihoods

    To my (feeble?) mind, the TellySubbies have struck again.

    The head line, to show a serious will for the Government to release total 24/7/52 control of us us should be

    Covid data support unlocking, AND delay WILL harm health and livelihoods

    The Government is still focussing on the NHS, not the population.

    The next time any tradgedy, either natuaral or man person-made occurs, are we going to have similar totalitarian rules, to protect one sector of the population…. thought not

  21. Time Heals All

    An elderly Italian went to his parish priest and asked if the priest would hear his confession. “Of course, my son,” said the priest.

    “Well, Father, at the beginning of World War Two, a beautiful woman knocked on my door and asked me to hide her from the Germans. I hid her in my attic, and they never found her.”

    “That’s a wonderful thing, my son, and nothing that you need to confess,” said the priest.

    “It’s worse, Father. I was weak, and told her that she had to pay for rent of the attic with her sexual favours,” continued the old man.

    “Well, it was a very difficult time, and you took a large risk – you would have suffered terribly at their hands if the Germans had found you hiding her. I know that God, in his wisdom and mercy, will balance the good and the evil, and judge you kindly,” said the priest.

    “Thanks, Father,” said the old man. “That’s a load off of my mind. Can I ask another question?”

    “Of course, my son,” said the priest.

    The old man asked, “Do I need to tell her that the war is over?“

  22. Nuke the bastards

    Exclusive: EU threatens sausage trade war

    Writing below, Maros Sefcovic says EU will react “swiftly, resolutely” if UK unilaterally extends grace period in Northern Ireland Protocol

    By TwerpJames Crisp, EUROPE EDITOR and
    Harry Yorke, WHITEHALL EDITOR
    7 June 2021 • 10:15pm

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/07/eu-threatens-sausage-trade-war/

    This will come as no surprise to NoTTLers but exemplifies everything that is pathetic about the losers that are the EU

      1. I totally agree

        and the City of that name in Belgium

        Edit. A reminder to put the sprouts on, in the pressure cooker for Christmas2029

      2. Good afternoon, I think kinetic spears from orbit would be a better idea. They would still remove the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train from the face of the earth but are a greener alternative to all that fallout. #winwin

    2. Is there any way that DT readers can put pressure on the paper to sack James Crisp as Europe editor?

      If he must write for the DT it should be made clear that it is an opinion piece and does not represent the DT’s editorial opinion – that is if the DT is more in favour of the UK than the traitor, Crisp, who is clearly completely on the EU’s side.

  23. 334048+ up ticks,
    An anti kneeling to evilness,
    May one suggest to cap the issue of taking the knee why not take a sample number of the kneelers & kneec…. what ? worse things are happening at DOVER and throughout the United Kingdom on a daily basis.

          1. I hope inside the cover you have written….
            Ndovu,
            xx Acacia Avenue.
            Boghampton,
            Bogshire,
            Engand,
            Earth,
            Next to Mars,
            Near the Sun
            Space,
            Outer Space ……

            Or, failing that
            “Latin is a language
            As dead as dead can be.
            It killed the Ancient Romans
            And now it’s killing me.”

    1. Another direct parallel with an controlling abuser.
      They get furious if you have an independent thought, and accuse you of being brainwashed by some external influence, usually any friend that they haven’t yet managed to detach you from. Of course, they want you brainwashed, but only by them.
      Controlling abusers are all the same – the pattern of behaviour is remarkably predictable.

      1. 334048+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        The treachery via the overseers has been predictable for decades, as long as lab beats
        tory (ino) tory beats lab it is of no consequence, the blinkered herd are content.

        The background slithering sound is unseen
        foreign forces installed making room for more incoming, DOVER.

    2. Record number of deaths of old people in France who have had jabs. But this news, surprise, surprise, is being hushed up.

      Caroline is having to play at more and more funerals

  27. 8th June 2021

    Still Bleau

    A Very Happy Birthday to you

    and

    as many Felicitous Returns as you can handle!

    With best wishes from

    Rastus and Caroline

    2. Sorry I missed sending a midnight greeting – heavy work in the garden sent me to bed early.

      Birthday twins coming up tomorrow!

    7. Have a wonderful happy birthday Still Bleau! Hope it’s a good one!🎉🎂🍾

    8. Happy Birthday, SB. Since you have to include the weekend, six days of frolicking lie ahead. Tough, but someone has to do it.

    10. Happy Birthday, Still Bleau. Enjoy your day, I hope the Sun is shining where you are as well as it is here in N Essex.

  28. I missed the news yesterday, so was appalled to read this morning that the Queen and King of the Universe have had the cheek to name their baby after HM’s childhood nickname.
    Honestly, they have no sensitivity, class, judgement or discrimination whatsoever.

    1. Indeed. I started writing my post above before you posted yours, not seeing it until I’d posted, so apologies for the partial repetition.

  30. ECB investigating second player for posting racially offensive tweets while a teenager

    Investigation comes one day after Ollie Robinson was suspended for posting racist and sexist tweets in the past

    Wisden reported that another England player had posted a tweet that included a racially offensive remark, but it obscured the identity
    of the player as they were under the age of 16 at the time.

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/06/07/ecbinvestigating-second-player-posting-racially-offensive-tweets/

      1. or it’ll be Anderson / Broad to ease them off to retirement, remove another link with the past. ECB want a full “woke” XI. Strange the 1st test [and likely the next one], no player of the coloured persuasion picked to play

          1. mng sos, thanks to yday’s gig only just got to this. Wouldn’t surprise me he gets dropped [ECB term is rested], they don’t want the woke God former Eng Capt “Sir Cook” losing his place as most capped Eng player [although Anderson’s level with him]

  31. More articles on Hapless and his wife, all without comments. Now that they are taking a 5 month parental leave from their day job of running away from work, can’t the DT stop reporting on them?
    I don’t want to hear any more about their daughter, named after the great grandmother they refuse to let see her great grandchildren, as her name seems more of a marketing ploy than tribute.

    1. Perhaps the “parental leave” will mean 5 months SILENCE from the ghastly pair.

      1. Alas, their PR lackeys will have a steady stream of stored stories and recorded podcasts to leak out.

        The whole idea of 5 months parental leave for them is pathetic. They had a whole team to look after Archie for them, leaving them to enjoy the good bits and photo opportunities, so even 5 days would be enough.

    2. It’s hard work being Harry. All that complaining about privilege and demanding other people be made poorer for his ego takes it out of you.

    1. ‘Morning, Mum, done it but it would be useful to see the voting numbers.

      2. Good morning NtN. Do you still have the Adult Attention Deficit clip? I would love to pass it on to our son who was recently diagnosed AD. (I have managed – two days ago – to get the washing to make contact with the washing machine but have yet to get the liquitab into its innards and switch it on!)

  34. Whilst Jo Biden wants to pin the COVID debacle solely on China, particularly with evidence that the virus was reverse engineered to look as though it came from bats, there is still an expectation that the UK should join a global initiative to underwite the ensuing costs in trying to end the pandemic.

    https://youtu.be/9Y0TBsCwJ_I

  35. 334048+ up ticks,
    Has anyone gave a thought regarding delaying this lockdown & continuing the incarceration period the effect this will have on the likes of the child rapist killer due for release, it really could damage his mental health.

    May one ask ,
    Being an ex REAL UKIP party member ex due to treachery ( nec/nige)
    input, what has the lab/lib/con coalition brought to the table these last three decades that has been beneficial to the United Kingdom besides misery that is ?

        1. I can see you’re a “sharing caring” kinda guy..and i like that.
          Hahahaha.

        2. Is that a dig at what we used to call the, ‘Rum, Bum and Baccy Boys’, Ogga?

          2. 334048+ up ticks,
            Afternoon NtN,
            The wheelchair bound lady of the night held Chatham ratings in high regard saying they always took you down from the railings whereas then there pompey baskits always left ……

  36. I see that the statue of a monkey, associated with the age old legend of a monkey being hanged as a French spy , will now have a notice attached explaining the story . .

    Apparently the BLACK LIVES MATTER organisation had raised some objections – they said it was racist . .

    Takes one to know one ..?

      1. Archive picture, as now just over six years old – but still a great dog!

      1. “Good Evening and this is the woke o’clock news from the ladies’ part of the mosque – behind the screens“.

        There, sorted.

    2. Without a doubt, the best ‘early morning’ presenter, ever, was Ray Moore, on Radio 2.

      https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiHq7Dx1YfxAhWlEWMBHZD7BpgQFjABegQIAhAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Fandywalmsley.blogspot.com%2F2011%2F01%2Fray-moore-broadcasting-legend.html&usg=AOvVaw219tYAOwNMOvKZJJYVwU53

      https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiHq7Dx1YfxAhWlEWMBHZD7BpgQFjAAegQIAxAD&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRay_Moore_(broadcaster)&usg=AOvVaw3HjTTLn55-9T2gVb84YCA_

    3. Replacement will be Dawn Butler … named for the role. No British humour allowed … ie BBC perfect.

  41. Satire. R.I.P.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/dawn-butler-becomes-the-first-mp-to-join-cameo

    “Dawn Butler becomes the first MP to join Cameo

    Mr S both called and emailed the MP’s office to ask if this pledge meant she would be donating her revenue to charity but no answer was forthcoming – let’s hope her replies on Cameo are more responsive.

    Still there is nothing new in Butler ‘putting a smile on other people’s face.’ Just last Tuesday she ran a Twitter poll asking her followers who they trusted more: equalities ministers Liz Truss or LGBT+ charity Stonewall after Truss urged the official withdrawal of the UK government from their diversity scheme. The stunt backfired when more than two-thirds of respondents voted for Truss.

    It came after an Unplugged interview last month in which Butler expressed her concern over offensive comedies. Asked by legendary comedian John Cleese to give examples of which shows she had found offensive, the Brent MP paused and then replied: ‘I can’t think of anything.’The good news for Butler is that she is not the only political figure found on the platform. Others available for hire on Cameo include conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl, porn actress Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump’s disgraced former lawyer Michael Cohen. All in good company!”

        2. Operation today. I have recovered my composure in the garden after a somewhat fraught day. Of note my first grandchild is likely to be born today. Hoping that the my mother’s soul is not looking for a new host!

    4. If any Remainers still doubt that the EU is a petty, vindictive, and childishly spiteful group of has beens, then they must have been asleep for the last few years!

  43. Re petition posted on here and others also signed– “Do not vaccinate children against COVID-19 until Phase 3 trials are complete”. Woke Government automated response [ie; civil servant ignoring the basic question in petition: Unadulterated pure waffle / garbage

    Government responded

    This response was given on 7 June 2021

    The Government will continue to evaluate evidence and assess expert opinion before making a decision on routinely vaccinating children under 18 years old.

    No decision has been made by the Government regarding the routine inclusion of children under 18 years within the COVID-19 vaccination programme at a population level. The Government will be guided by the advice of the UK’s independent medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), whose role is to ensure medicines, devices and vaccines work effectively and are safe for use.

    MHRA have now authorised the use of Pfizer/ BioNTech vaccine in children aged 12-15. This follows a rigorous review of the safety, quality and effectiveness of the vaccine in this age group by the MHRA and the Government’s independent advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM). Over 2,000 children aged 12-15 years were studied as part of the randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials. There were no cases of COVID-19 from 7 days after the second dose in the vaccinated group, compared with 16 cases in the placebo group. In addition, data on neutralising antibodies showed the vaccine working at the same level as seen in adults aged 16-25 years. No new side effects were identified and the safety data in children was comparable with that seen in young adults. As in young adults, the majority of adverse events were mild to moderate and relating to reactogenicity, such as a sore arm or tiredness.

    Any vaccine must first go through the usual rigorous testing and development process and meet strict standards of safety, quality and effectiveness before it can be deployed. There are extensive checks and balances at every stage of the development of a vaccine. The data looked at includes all the results from laboratory studies, clinical trials, manufacturing and quality controls and testing of the product. The public should be very confident that all tests are completed to the very highest standards.

    For all vaccines authorised for supply in the UK, including COVID-19 vaccines, each candidate is assessed by teams of scientists and clinicians on a case by case basis and is only authorised once it has met robust standards of effectiveness, safety and quality set by MHRA.

    Once a vaccine is approved for use in the UK, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), an independent body made up of scientific and clinical experts, will provide advice to the Government on which safe, effective vaccines to use, and advise on prioritisation at a population level. The committee’s membership is made up of public health and scientific experts who have considered and continue to consider the impact of COVID-19 and population prioritisation as new data emerges.

    Now that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been authorised for use in children aged 12-15 in the UK, we will be guided by the advice of experts, including the JCVI, on any potential deployment of COVID-19 vaccination in children under the age of 18.

    No decisions have been made by the Government on the routine COVID-19 vaccination of children. In line with the advice of the JCVI for Phase One of the vaccination programme, children/young adults aged 16-18 could be offered a vaccine if they have an underlying condition that put them at increased risk from COVID-19. However, the JCVI currently advises that children under 16 years of age, even if they are clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), are at low risk of serious morbidity and mortality and given the absence of safety and efficacy data on COVID-19 vaccines, are not currently recommended for routine COVID-19 vaccination.

    Following infection, almost all children will also have asymptomatic infection or mild disease. Therefore, only children under 16 who are at very high risk of exposure and serious outcomes, such as those with severe neuro-disabilities that require residential care, may be considered for a COVID-19 vaccination. This is given the very high risk of exposure to infection and outbreaks in residential settings. Decisions to vaccinate such children should be made on a case by case basis, with consultation taking place between clinicians, parents/carers and children. The MHRA updated its authorisation guidance in relation
    to the currently approved vaccines in February to allow this approach.

    The JCVI continues to look at the emerging evidence on COVID-19, and will offer further advice to the Government if and when evidence is found that routinely vaccinating children under 18 years old would further reduce overall mortality, morbidity and hospitalisation which is the overarching objective of the COVID-19 vaccination programme.

    Department for Health and Social Care

    1. Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
      Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
      To the last syllable of recorded time;
      And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
      The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
      Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
      That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
      And then is heard no more. It is a tale
      Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
      Signifying nothing.

      Enough said about government responses.

    2. I got that response – so they conducted tests on 2,000 children………… I’m glad mine are old enough to make their own decisions.

      1. Tests are conducted with volunteers. How else would you imagine adequate testing could be done?

      2. Tests are conducted with volunteers. How else would you imagine adequate testing could be done?

    2. Meanwhile, the Spanish have been active in trying to exclude UK expats from receiving the Covid Vax.

  45. French set to replace English as EU’s ‘working language’

    EU affairs minister Clement Beaune and secretary of state Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said in April that the presidency created “an opportunity to hold high this vital fight for multilingualism.”

    In an article for Le Figaro, they said the use of French in Brussels “had diminished to the benefit of English, and more often to Globish – that ersatz of the English language, which narrows the scope of one’s thoughts, and restricts one’s ability to express him or herself [sic]”.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/brexit-france-eu-french-english-b1861087.html

    Even the least well-read Englishman never had any difficulty expressing himself in English to the French…

    1. Worth remembering that up till the mid-1870s all international conferences were conducted in French … presume this is how we got the term “lingua franca” …

      1. A stripped-down Italian peppered with Spanish, French, Greek, Arabic, and Turkish words, probably is from the Arabic custom, dating back to the Crusades of calling all Europeans Franks. Also known as Bastard Spanish.

        Little connection with the Frogs apparently.

    2. Good idea.

      After all there are 1 million plus words in English and only 130,000 in French.

      1. I think the EU ought to turn and turn about with languages – just as the “presidency” changes every six months , so should the language.

        Six months of Irish Gaelic should do the trick.

    4. Have the Frogs asked the Krauts, the Wops, the Spics, the Cloggies and the Horse-Munchers how they all feel about that?

        3. That’s wonderful, John. I’ve never managed to visit Esperant yet. Maybe one day? ;•)

  47. Good morning & Happy Tuesday all Nottlers, yer mornin music : Fats Waller – Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Lena Horne, dancer Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, drummer Zutty Singleton, bassist Slam Stewart, Trumpeter Benny Carter…in “Stormy Weather” (1943) by Andrew L. Stone, for Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSNPpssruFY

  48. Difficulty with Disqus – it won’t connect from comments received (but not visible as they used to be) in e-mail.

    Still no ‘New Comments’ banner above or below.

    Grrr

    1. Now it won’t load more comments.

      See you later when disqus have sorted themselves out – it may be a long wait.

    2. I think it’s more likely to be your computer settings than Disqus itself. You often seem to have these problems.

          2. Oh yes we can!!…..if I can’t blame Disqus then it must be Uncle Bill’s fault

  50. I’m off to cut the hedge……..somehow!

    There’s never a man about when you need one is there?

    2. Global outrage – that’ll be the BBC meltdown after the increase in booing at wendyballers performing the ‘Kneestika’.

  53. Phew – the US securiddity for the G7 is working well. I thought you had all gone to hell in a handcart.

    1. That’s no way to refer to Cornwall; you’ll have PT setting about you with her tennis racket.

  54. Priti Awful speaks for the nation:

    “Public are fed up with migrants arriving in small boats, says Priti Patel”

    The Grimes today.

    1. Does it really take our useless political classes that long to get with it ???

      1. Yep. It’s almost two years since her “promise” to stop cross-Channel traffic in its tracks….

        1. Same old same old, everything they come into contact with they eff up ………absolutely everything without fail.

    3. She does not speak for me.
      I am fed up with incompetence at the Home Office, Border Farce, Downing Street etc.

    4. It’s not the Home Secs’ fault. They’ve been hamstrung by their colleagues in government, the HRA, scumbag lawyers, feather-bedded judges and other countries’ shirking their responsibilities.

      The only way is to repeal the HRA, deny legal aid, and dump them back where the invaders came from, keeping them in camps in far-off places in the interim. This may seem cruel, but it’s the kindest option in the long run.

      1. 1st thing, Dale is the UK must leave the ECHR then repeal the Act. Then stop ALL benefits and medical aid.

        If Europe refuses to take them back as the first safe country or countries, my solution should then come into play.

        They are loaded onto some ropey old rust-bucket, in the hold, all together and taken via the Cape of Good Hope, up the eastern side of Africa and put ashore at midnight on a deserted Somali beach clad only in their underpants.

        The rust-bucket will rendezvous way out at sea with a Royal Navy vessel that has been tracking them and takes off the crew immediately after all the sea-cocks are opened.

        Problem solved, word will quickly get round and no more gimmegrunts will arrive as they are assured of the same treatment.

          1. Don’t think so, Horace, one hold full of gimmegrunts should prevent any further incursion and those left will be fleeing for their miserable lives.

    5. …and, Bill, what does she propose to do about it? The usual, talk about it and then do 7/8ths of 3/16ths of eff all!

    6. Translation: “We risk losing the Red Wall if we don’t do something”.

    8. Then stop it, Patel!

      Do your job! If the entire edifice is fighting you, sack them! Deport those who are here, by force if necessary. Get rid of this invading criminal force. No one cares. Just get rid of the foreign excrement.

  55. Bom Dia. 😎🤩Anyone else heard that after their holidays were destroyed by sudden and new government regulations, people who couldn’t book flights are by other means still making there way home from Portugal and have arrived at Dover in their hundreds, aboard small seagoing craft. But they have been turned back to drift in the channel by our extremely plucky and efficient border farce,….. job’s worth’s. Many travelers have been seen with no masks and of course justifiably identified, it’s been confirmed by checking their passport details who they are and where they come from, but still they cannot be allowed to enter the UK as they have not followed the newly imposed and recognised government procedures. Some of the ‘new boat people’ have now applied for foreign aid…………….Just askin’ 🤔

  56. Fastly announced on Tuesday that it had identified the problem allegedly responsible for a mass internet outage which took Amazon, Reddit, the UK government, and dozens of news outlets offline, and is currently fixing it.
    The cloud computing services company, which is used by many websites across the world, revealed on Tuesday morning that the “issue has been identified and a fix is being implemented,” under an hour after it first announced it was investigating the issue.

    A glitch in Fastly’s system was allegedly behind the mass website outage, which took some of the web’s most-visited domains offline, including Amazon, Reddit, Twitch, GitHub, eBay, Etsy, Pinterest, Stack Overflow, and the UK government, as well as dozens of news outlets, such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Independent, FT, CNN, the Atlantic, the New Statesman, Le Monde, New York Magazine, and the New Yorker.

      1. The hackers will be looking at that and thinking…”that looks like a candidate”

          2. If you can watch yesterday’s Channel 5 Traffic cops. Absolutely crazy car chase ( on A38 ? ) where a BMW driver was determined NOT to get arrested. He wrecked his BMW in the process.

          3. Hi Walter, and thanks. I’ll look that one up tonight. I’ll probably not know any of the officers involved though. All my generation are now retired.

  62. Theresa May saw that the Irish Protocol was a toxic trap. Why couldn’t Boris?

    Agreeing to a deal which drew a border down the Irish Sea was pure Johnson: no attention to detail

    ROSS CLARK – 8 June 2021 • 12:48pm

    It is hard to remember now the sheer ennui which existed towards the end of 2019, when Conservative MPs were desperate to get Brexit done, to use their own electioneering slogan. So long had the process dragged on for that you can see why they fell for Boris Johnson’s ‘oven-ready’ deal, without taking the trouble to read the E numbers. Had they done so, they would have realised there was an ingredient so toxic that it was inevitably going to produce vast clouds of cyanide gas as soon as it was taken out of the microwave.

    That toxic ingredient was the Northern Ireland protocol, whose full consequences are now becoming clear as the EU threatens punitive tariffs unless Britain enforces its terms. Well might Environment Secretary George Eustice tell us that rules such as the ban on transporting sausages from Britain to Northern Ireland are “bonkers” and that it is “impossible to comply” with them. But then why did he and every single one of his Conservative colleagues vote for the withdrawal deal which brought the Northern Ireland protocol into effect?

    It should have been obvious that the protocol had little to do with its stated aim to preserve the peace in Northern Ireland; a border down the Irish Sea could not be better construed to inflame tensions in the province. The protocol was yet one more device dreamed up by the EU to try to punish Britain, to make life so miserable that other countries would think twice before emulating Britain and holding an in-out referendum. Boris Johnson resigned as foreign secretary in 2018 to frustrate the Chequers agreement because he could see Theresa May was falling into a trap – the backstop – which would enable the EU to keep Britain within its regulatory orbit. But then he stumbled headlong into a trap that was just as deep, and contained just as many sharpened sticks.

    To agree to a deal which drew a border down the Irish Sea was pure Johnson: a lack of attention to detail. With his usual taste for grandiose gestures, he thought any rift between Northern Ireland and Britain could be filled by building a bridge or tunnel to the province. He didn’t stop to think that it is customs formalities and paperwork which make borders a nuisance, not the need to take a ferry.

    Had Johnson refused to countenance the protocol, would the EU have folded and agreed to a withdrawal agreement and trade deal which excluded it? We will never know, but if we had ended up leaving without a deal, that would have been a better outcome than the one which we are now facing: an all-out trade war with the EU as we attempt to wriggle out of the protocol. Had we left without a deal we would at least have been on an equal footing with the EU. Efforts to forge a deal could have continued with both sides as equal players. Now, the EU can quite accurately point out that we will be breaking an international agreement by refusing to enforce the protocol beyond the end of the current grace period. The EU hardly deserves to occupy the moral high ground, but will be how many people – including President Biden – will see it.

    A no-deal Brexit would have been a horror, a shock to the system. But once the shock was over we could have rebuilt relations with the EU as an independent nation. Now we have been left with part of the country in a strange hybrid position, whose right to trade with the rest of the country has been ceded to a foreign entity. It is an occupation, albeit one involving customs officials rather than military personnel.

    Just like fast food for real, Johnson’s over-ready deal was superficially appetising but ultimately ruinous to the health of the United Kingdom. As Eustice intimated this morning, we can’t live with the protocol; somehow it will have to go. But getting rid of it is going to be a lot more painful than would have been refusing to sign up for it in the first place.

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

    Stuart Ashen
    8 Jun 2021 1:04PM
    So many of us here wanted no deal for these very reasons. The DUP made it very clear that the NIP was unworkable. The EU have been a hostile adversary since 2016 and it is no surprise that they, with French encouragement, are applying maximum provocation. The whole deal needs to go, back to trading on WTO and restart from there. I understand that either side can walk away on a 12 month notice period legally. Time to take it?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/08/theresa-may-saw-irish-protocol-toxic-trap-couldnt-boris/

    1. The NIP violates the GFA. It is therefore invalid, which is why there is a court case slowly going through the system.

      1. In what way, please? The GFA makes no reference to the management the border?

    2. 334048+ up ticks,
      Afternoon C,
      Check my back post they have been at it since the exit result was known,
      A semi reentry, damage limitation to brussels, money’s still going out potential foreign troops still coming in, the ” deal” was / is the drag anchor for the UK.

    1. 334048+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Been running as a coalition for decades Og with the consent also of the peoples.

      If this be it then that leaves the opposition to be down to the islamic ideology followers or the triads, hard choice for the electorate who have worked so hard to get us to where we are today.

  65. Deleted – the MR solved the problem by turning everything off at the mains – leaving it for a minute – then turning on.

    All working fine. What would we do without our womenfolk?

    1. Women are born with an ability to turn on and off the main services. I shall go for power by the hour in the next life.

  66. Just received this from a chum:

    “This is a graveyard near Paris, France with hundreds of electric powered cars.

    These are cars used by the City of Paris – not personal vehicles.

    All of these have the same issue,…. the battery storage cells have given out and need replaced.

    Why not just replace the batteries ?

    (1) The battery storage cells cost almost double what the vehicle cost new

    (2) No landfill or disposals will allow the old batteries to be disposed of there.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f97aaabe0cc7e4b4422708f1f7c66984582618a61219f24a21af3c2a3e9c4f7.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6e5304336e2ebb0bf778779fa594522532cd70b3ca54e53effb494045a6f6c70.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a963a0d424a3f610ba3f423502e725966f12c01ac5dcffc9ed94d5711694d2a6.png

    …discuss

    2. Solution – make a hole in the floor of the car and use your feet to propel it à la Fred Flintstone.

    4. Fake news. A company called Bollore ran the scheme, somehow said scheme was not profitable, and was stopped in 2018.
      ” One thousand cars stored south of Paris
      As early as November 2018, a hundred BlueCars were parked in the car park
      of a supermarket in Romorantin-Lanthenay, 200 km south of Paris, and put
      up for sale. The cars were sold for between 3,700 and 4,700 euros
      each. About 3,000 of these cars were stored in Romorantin-Lanthenay,
      according to Actu Paris. Later on, “other sales of vehicles took place, in batches of 50, at very affordable prices,” Actu Paris reported.
      But about 1,000 of these cars still haven’t found a second-hand owner. They
      have been stored “on two nearby sites: a car park and a cleared area of
      an industrial zone in Romorantin.” The misleading photos that have been
      circulating online in the United States were taken at the second site.
      The cars in question are currently owned by the company managing the
      vacant lot, and we were not able to verify what they intend to do with
      them.
      The conclusion: the presence of these cars on a vacant lot
      has nothing to do with dead batteries which would have been too costly
      to replace – in fact, the cars are still operational. Rather, these
      photos illustrate the failure of a public car-sharing service launched
      in Paris and neighbouring cities, operated by a large transportation
      company.”

        1. I’ve reached the stage where nothing and everything is credible. The process started on 1st. January, 1973, but these past few years have given my cynicism wings.

      2. the two at the front of the first picture don’t look terribly roadworthy to me!

        1. loads more detail available on the web. The scheme racked up debts of 330 million euro over 7 years, resulted in a court case with Europcar, and once again demonstrates a key weakness of shared ownership & usage. If you pay a small sum to hire a vehicle for half an hour, why would you bother to clean it?

  67. Curious item on Bbc News about the heated outdoor pool in Cornwall. It’s not heated by electricity or gas, but by ‘hot rocks’. Presumably they are radioactive, so do they have the appropriate warning signs around the pool?

    1. Won’t the Wunderkind who are our “leaders” be far too busy saving the planet and crushing the spirit of their citizens to find time to swim?

    2. AA – – Some years ago I was sent to the hospital for “a test”. When there I was given something to drink, then told to come back at 3pm. As I walked away, the nurse shouted ” Oh – – and don’t go near any pregnant women ” – my expression said it all then she said ” You’re radioactive “.

    4. The swimming pool at the Matlock Bath Hotel just on the other side of Masson from me has geothermal heating as has the Fishpond beside the pub of what ilk and the water in the town’s aquarium.

    1. Should have sent a regiment of trans women to land on the Normandy beaches, but they would probably have tripped up running in high heels.

      2. I do think the trans lobby – all 50 odd of them – should be sent into a warzone. They’ve enough time to indulge their demented fantasies and demand society approve of their madness, they should repay it back to society.

    2. Bravery: Wearing a skirt or advancing on a MG-42 manned by a crew who have fought for years all over Russia, Southern Europe, and possibly North Africa too.
      Difficult call…

      1. “all over Russia”…are you sure?
        I doubt many from the Eastern Front made it to Normandy…they were still a tad busy!

          1. If the historical accounts differ from mine,i’d be interested to know.
            Operation Bagration was in full swing..the Soviet armies were rolling through Poland,Ukraine,Belarussia.
            If anything,the German reserves were going East..not West.

          2. But they were rotated for a “rest”. By 1944, there was no respite to be found anywhere – still, they weer highly experienced and effective troops. I’d not like to have gone up against them.

        2. They were rotated.
          In any case, the Wehrmacht knew a thing or two about war and fighting by 1944.

    4. Afternoon Rik. Well it’s nearer to North Korea than the country I grew up in!

      1. Maybe thr Nottlers could come up with a “Goebbels Prize”. A certificate could be sent to the Home Secretary?

    6. No, you are criminalised for embarrassing the state.

      What’s going on? Authoritarianism. Far easier to hide the truth than have the officials confronted with their incompetence.

    7. The PTB do not want the footage on nonutube being used as publicity for Border Force and its affiliates.

  71. Well I am so touched by the generosity and kindness shown by all my good friends The Nottlers in the card and cheque received today. The cheque brings the total so far to £325 for Alzheimers Scotland, it will go towards combatting this cruel disease. I hope we can meet up sometime in the future, in the meantime I’m trying to get back to normal inspite of solicitors, probate and Scottish law . Barbara’s ashes are now back home waiting to be mixed with mine and scattered in the Highlands. Thank you all once again

    1. Dear Alec,
      I would be most grateful if you could delay the mixing of ashes for as long as possible.
      Of course, I dare not speak on behalf of other Nottlers.

      A friend’s father died some years ago and wanted his ashes to be scattered over France from an aeroplane.
      He had particularly enjoyed being in France in his youth, and had served as a parachutist. One little problem.

    2. Dear Alec,
      The disease is cruel , and we all do what we can down here to help locally with what needs to be done .

      I do hope you are not too lonely and out of sorts .. These things take time . Take care.

    3. I hope you get some comfort from all your friends best wishes, Alec. Even though most are remote.

  72. Foreign aid isn’t about helping the world’s poor. Spiked. 8 June 2021.

    That’s what this is about. This isn’t about helping the world’s most in need. It’s about the self-esteem of the UK’s political and media class. It’s about keeping up appearances. Foreign-aid contributions figure here as the international-relations equivalent of virtue-signalling. They are being used as a big neon index of a nation’s moral worth – a chance to claim that the British state is, to use the government’s own neocolonial terms, a ‘force for good’ in the world.

    Absolutely true of course. It’s about backslapping your international buddies and virtue signalling to the ignorant mugs who pay for it. None of the African countries we have “helped” has benefited in the slightest from it. They are Aid Junkies always begging for their next “fix!”

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/08/foreign-aid-isnt-about-helping-the-worlds-poor/

    1. And what a (pathetic) slap. The PSIGS were too stunned to draw their weapons and gun down the assailant. I don’t often laugh at film clips but that one got me going. 😃😃😃

    2. Arresting the bloke and manhandling him is out of order though. Macron is a public servant.

      OK, slapping him was wrong as it’s assault, but he would be better off engaging with the bloke to understand why. Although, as we’ve seen with Prescott logic doesn’t come into it.

      2. I liked Prestcott’s response. Macron just went away to have Maman kiss it all better.

    4. Sultana wonders if the name “Gendarmerie PSIG”. might be a misprint?

    6. Excellent!
      Reminds me when Berlusconi got a faceful some years ago.
      Couldn’t have happened to a smaller prick!

  76. A British defense analyst has suggested that an incident involving misbehaving soldiers stationed in Estonia may have been “constructed” by Moscow’s spooks as a means of discrediting NATO and its operations near Russia’s borders.
    Last weekend, six British troops were kicked off a train in the Estonian town of Jogeva, 30km from the border with Russia. According to London-based tabloid the Mirror, the soldiers were removed from the locomotive after fellow passengers complained about their drunken debauchery. Rail staff had to tell them multiple times to stop intimidating civilians by being loud and aggressive, the paper claimed.

    After being thrown off, the soldiers were handed over to NATO military police. The squaddies are part of the military bloc’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup, located in central and northern Europe.

    Putin will be really worried now!

    3. I have been on many train journeys, on the East Coast Line, which featured an appearance by these soldiers. They were not arrested. They were not removed.

      1. Russia have started a recruitment campaign in Spanish holiday resorts offering ex-policemen lucrative contracts to patrol the Estonian border.

  78. How strange…
    At the MH17 “trial” in The Hague,the Judge has announced that the US has refused to share satellite images of the missile launch.
    I wonder why?

  79. Rochdale grooming gang member, 51, who got girl, 13, pregnant and trafficked a 15-year-old says ‘we have not committed that big a crime’ as he says it would breach his human rights to be sent back to Pakistan

    Adil Khan, 51 and Qari Abdul Rauf, 52, were served deportation order last July
    Pair, who were part of notorious Rochdale grooming gang, are appealing order
    Khan claims to have renounced his Pakistani citizenship, making him ‘stateless’
    He told the tribunal hearing today: ‘We have not committed that big a crime’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9664343/Rochdale-grooming-gang-member-says-not-committed-big-crime.html

    1. Cultural norm. We should stop being so …. Christian? White? Colonialist? Judgemental? Racist? Islamophobic?

      1. If we were more like them they would have been stoned to death by the family of the assaulted girls – or their neighbours who thought it should have been their turn first.

      2. I shall have to stop this mindset I am stuck in .

        After my quick day surgery on Saturday , and feeling very grateful for an uplifting experience that the cheerful African nurses seemed to be blessed with .. just very happy capablequalified women .. who DID not agree with the knee bending fiasco , it is an American thing, because American blacks do not think about poor old Africa, so they said , and the struggles Africans endure . Secondly their opinion on the people flooding into Dover , who will be Muslim and many many black Africans do not like Muslims , and the submission that Muslim women have to put up with .

        They declared that the British government will end up with problems of partition in Britain , and race wars amongst other religious factions , not good at all , because they experienced similar problems in the country of their birth , Zimbabwe , Kenya and Zambia .. Them talking , not me , because they just love to talk , and many of them were down here in Dorset from London hospitals for extra money and a stay in a hotel for the week end , a change of pressure and some sea air .

        Absolutely true .

        1. I had the pleasure of being looked after by a lovely black nurse too.

          It is not about the colour of the skin it is about IQ and attitude.

          Hope you have things sorted out now. I’m still waiting for my routinesurgery. :@(

          1. They are so caringly cheerful and full of chatter , clever and as you say great attitude.

            All fine here , antibiotics and sometimes a couple of paracetamol.

            When do you think they will call you , you have had a really rough time , I feel really sorry for you x.

          2. Kind of you to say so but others have had it worse.

            Pain has reduced to manageable levels. I even walked across Asda car park today after visiting the Pharmacy (maskless). Longest i have walked in months.

            I am also now a non-smoker so drinks all round ! :@)

            I called the department twice last week and got a call this morning. Nurse Christine says that they are short staffed and some were on holiday which was why the phone wasn’t being answered.

            Also they do not consider me important/rich /handsome enough so i shall just twiddle my thumbs ’til they get round to me.

    2. Cultural norm. We should stop being so …. Christian? White? Colonialist? Judgemental? Racist? Islamophobic?

    3. Send them back a bit at a time. Start by returning their ‘terrestials'(sic) – the rest will follow.

    4. Last July. That would be July 2020. Ten months and few days in the past. Call it 300 days. Three hundred days when the authorities did not enforce the deportation of these two men. Is it beyond the capability of our authorities, to amend their practice by setting a time limit for appeals of 48 hours and a hearing within seven days?

    6. 334048+ up ticks,
      TB,
      surely they can find them something to do around parliament with the rest of the sh!te, halal cooks in the parliamentary canteen for starters.

        2. Castration with two bricks and an effin great, sharp knife (no make that blunt).

    8. Not that big a crime? Rape, child abuse and paedophilia? Dear life, they’re savages.

      Here’s an idea. Do the same to them – use a spear for the peetration, jam expanding foam into their stomachs and flay them.

      See how they like it.

      1. To muslims, it isn’t that big a crime. Their “perfect man” was a paedophile who stated that slaves should be raped. They have no place here and should be removed like the cancer they are.

    9. So, twatnik, go back to Paki-land as a stateless individual and see how well that serves you among your Mohammedan brethren.

  80. Great news everyone

    Breaking News – The great June 21st unlocking will go ahead as planned all except for the mask wearing, the social distancing, not meeting indoors of more than 6 persons, no holidays no sporting events or theatres weddings or socialising, other than that people are back to normal.

    1. Is this according to Grant Shapps, Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath or Sebastian Fox?

      1. Anyone would think the slimey little bottom feeding scum sucker had something to hide.

    2. Is this according to Grant Shapps, Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath or Sebastian Fox?

      1. I will let you in on a little secret.

        If every member of every choir and singing group in the land ignored the spouted nonsense from Government and went ahead, there is nothing the security forces or police could do about it except threaten with fines.

        Then if everyone refuse to pay…again, nothing they could do about it.

        Rise up and sing !

        1. Totally agree, Phil. Unfortunately, church choirs / congregations are subject to the rules passed down by the clergy, who in turn feel obliged to obey all the gold-plated nonsense handed down by the CofE hierarchy, via the dioceses. All are risk averse, and at parish level are loath to risk their nice free houses.

          Secular choirs have a similar problem in finding venues which are prepared to turn a blind eye to those breaching “advice” (for that’s what it is).

    1. All of them are such twerps, but tongue in cheek , Boris is no better

      Does he know what is happening in Dover .. he could be in an absolute froth re the G7 , and is being fibbed to by Patel

      1. Why is he being fibbed to by Patel…If you and the rest of the country know why wouldn’t he?

      2. 334048+ up ticks,
        Afternoon TB,
        In the eyes of his role models major, clegg, the wretch cameron, may the treacherous ,he has NOT put a foot wrong.

      3. Good afternoon T-B – I think our PM is part of the collusion with the French to permit the Dover invasion. Johnson is hiding himself in the Covid
        shenanigans but once Covid abates he will have to face the public to explain his many mistakes or u-turns and his destructive and unnecessary policies on the environment which will take us back a hundred years or more.

        1. Of course he won’t. There’s no opposition. We’ve got years more of this garbage to look forward to. Even by 2030 many will still blame worsening and existing problems on Blair’s New Labour.

      4. I mentioned it often enough, Belle, the UN Global Compact on Global Migration, signed by the UK, requires the orderly and safe migration of people to be facilitated. So, IT IS OBLIGATORY! It’s not up to Patel or any other flucker in Government to decide! Why otherwise do you think it contuinues, day after day? That the Coastguard GO TO FUCKING France to collect them? It’s because the Government agreed this should happen!
        AARGH!

      5. I mentioned it often enough, Belle, the UN Global Compact on Global Migration, signed by the UK, requires the orderly and safe migration of people to be facilitated. So, IT IS OBLIGATORY! It’s not up to Patel or any other flucker in Government to decide! Why otherwise do you think it contuinues, day after day? That the Coastguard GO TO FUCKING France to collect them? It’s because the Government agreed this should happen!
        AARGH!

    2. All of them are such twerps, but tongue in cheek , Boris is no better

      Does he know what is happening in Dover .. he could be in an absolute froth re the G7 , and is being fibbed to by Patel

    3. 334048+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Anne,
      ” Vote labour” (ino) or tory (ino) lib/dems are of no consequence.
      A coalition is a coalition is a coalition.

  82. Fings ain’t wot they used to be

    Standoff at the Serpentine: Moment angry mother confronts ‘travellers’ as shirtless men ride ponies in Hyde Park lido meant for SWIMMERS
    Police officers were called to the Serpentine lido in Hyde Park, London, last week
    Horses were taken into the water to the shock of families cooling off in the lake
    Footage taken by an onlooker showed a mother shouting at a group of men

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9664201/Standoff-Serpentine-Moment-angry-mother-confronts-travellers-bring-ponies-lido.html

    1. “…shirtless men ride ponies in Hyde Park lido…”

      The Russians are here!

  83. Fings ain’t wot they used to be

    Standoff at the Serpentine: Moment angry mother confronts ‘travellers’ as shirtless men ride ponies in Hyde Park lido meant for SWIMMERS
    Police officers were called to the Serpentine lido in Hyde Park, London, last week
    Horses were taken into the water to the shock of families cooling off in the lake
    Footage taken by an onlooker showed a mother shouting at a group of men

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9664201/Standoff-Serpentine-Moment-angry-mother-confronts-travellers-bring-ponies-lido.html

  84. G7 tax deal tramples on the nation’s right to decide

    Britain’s taxes should be decided by our own Parliament, not an international directive

    CHARLES MOORE

    The primary purpose of Parliament is to vote “supply”. In other words, it is for the elected representatives of the people, rather than for government, to decide how much of our money is spent. Hence the cry which helped found the United States of America: “No taxation without representation!”

    Anyone who believes in this principle should not be pleased by the G7 announcement at Lancaster House on Saturday, that the biggest Western nations now want a uniform, global 15 per cent minimum rate of corporation tax. Tax is a global phenomenon, but its rates must be decided nationally if citizens are to retain power over who raises what, where.

    There are, of course, serious problems about how to get a fair tax-take out of the global tech giants, but these are not best solved by a conference of politicians. If – which is unlikely – the G7 idea is approved by the G20, and then by the “inclusive framework” of 139 countries, Big Tech will be just as good at gaming the system as it is today. Getting round politicians – sometimes even buying them up – is something it knows how to do.

    A related problem is that the 15 per cent, if achieved, is bound to become a floor, not a ceiling. It will be against the rules to lower it, and lobbyists will immediately start pushing to raise it.

    It has always been a great feature of the European Union to complain about “unfair tax competition”. By this it really means tax competition, pure and simple. Yet it is competition which will encourage tax restraint. And it is much better for good corporate behaviour that legitimate governments offer low taxes than that offshore arrangements offer opaque deals. The G7 agreement of 15 per cent shows that the influence of Davos man is still much too great.

    For similar reasons, it was good to hear yesterday that the Speaker did not call the amendment which would have allowed MPs to vote to reinstate the law that says Britain must spend 0.7 per cent per year of Gross National Income (GNI) on overseas aid. That rule has proved an open invitation to spend up without any incentive to spend wisely. Like the G7 decision, it was international, not parliamentary, in origin.

    With Brexit done, this is no time to bring it back from the dead.

    The “golden era” is in full swing at Cambridge

    This column has commented before on the elusive behaviour of the China Centre at Jesus College, Cambridge. The centre is run by a long-time supporter of the Chinese Communist regime, Professor Peter Nolan. On Sunday, notes of a meeting, leaked to Open Democracy, quoted Prof Nolan as saying privately that discussion by students of China’s human rights record would not be “helpful to advancing mutual understanding”. If they debated the persecution of the Uyghurs or Hong Kong, he added, it would be “difficult to contain the sentiment”.

    When challenged after the leak, Prof Nolan seemed to have changed his mind, asserting that the China Centre has, since November last year, “hosted events covering topics including human rights, the Uyghurs, Hong Kong, and potential war with China, with speakers representing a wide range of opinions”. This does not seem to be the case. All the platform speakers at all the centre’s events appear to have been sympathetic to the Chinese regime. No critic has been given a platform there.

    Neither the Uyghurs nor Hong Kong have ever been the stated subject of any meeting of the centre. People attending the meetings by Zoom tell me they have tried to raise these matters in questions but were not called.

    As for forthcoming events at the centre, only two are listed. One is about how well China has handled economic reform. The other, about “Sino-Western detente”, is by Lord (Jim) O’Neill, a well-known advocate of the “golden era” of relations with China and critic of Western suspicions about infiltration by Huawei.

    Must setting up a new bank account be so taxing?

    Several readers responded to my mention last week of how hard it has become for a not-for-profit organisation or small business to set up a new bank account. One says that even existing bank accounts are weeded out by confronting the account holder with a fiercely complicated “safeguard review”.

    Better news, however, from a gentleman who had a rough time trying to open an account for a new charity. “It proved impossible to find anyone at Barclays anywhere in the world that could respond properly to my enquiry,” he reports, and “Lloyds Bank refused outright to entertain anyone opening a new account with them”.

    The Charities Aid Foundation Bank in Maidstone, however, was marvellous: “They answer the phone promptly and you actually speak to knowledgeable, friendly, helpful human beings”, and they “came up trumps” with an account. He tells me they will be equally helpful with non-charitable not-for-profits, “subject to the provision of a tax exemption certificate from HMRC”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/08/g7-tax-deal-tramples-nations-right-decide/

    1. What were the conspiracy theorists saying about globalisation and Soros and his cronies.

    2. These people all talk as if business somehow owes them money.

      It doesn’t. We, the tax payer, do not. There are some essential services for which the state has a role, but the endless nonsense, especially when it gives money away is simple greed.

      Government is incompetent, wasteful and expensive. It keeps borrowing ever more and not one monolith considers the need or return of value these tombstones to failure represent.

      Until government can prove it can live within our means, it doesn’t deserve any more money. It is not the centre of the economy, it is a small part of it. The problem imbalance and expense of the public sector is staggering, and destroying our economy.

      1. they do it because there is no personal consequence of getting it wrong.
        If they were personally responsible for the debt, they would be ruined if they wee scheme went wrong (like the shoe-shop owner who personally goes bankrupt when their wee business goes tits up) then they’d be a tad more careful! Bastards.

    3. Fear not – none of the countries who so keenly agreed will do anything about it once they escape from Cornwall.

        1. Silly me. Of course we will – and be the only one – and suffer as a consequence.

    1. What are the chances of The Barmy Army turning up on Thursday morning to boo the England cricketers onto the field?

      1. It would be truly splendid if they did.

        How about arming them with water pistols and let them chant the slogan as they squirt:

        SOAK A WOKE BLOKE & DRENCH HIS WENCH

    2. Public order offences can cover anything. I suppose there are too many at the moment, but cuffing a few and making an example of them will do the job.

    3. The quickest way to end the Knee Jerks is for all those who rightly boo to stop paying to go to, or watch the matches…..

  86. 334048+ up ticks,
    The lab/lib/con coalition have successfully orchestrated the rape & abuse of these Isles and the Isles children in a paedophilic manner clearly seen these past three decades, and have now taken to the
    decimation of the seas after first crippling the indigenous trawlermen
    and appeasing the foreign seabed rapist.

    https://twitter.com/BernieSpofforth/status/1402275144488341514

  87. Good afternoon all.
    Ollie Robinson being hammered by ” authority ” and the MSM.
    Tommy Robinson hammered by ” authority ” and the MSM. And always will be.
    Swiss Family R. had better watch out …..

    2. All name association , isn’t it . Robinsons Orange and Barley squash will never ever be the same again when viewed at…. tennis matches !

    1. Have you noticed how many of those doing the kneeling thrust their jaws out and puff themselves up in a “look at me, how worthy I am” fashion.
      I’d have a little more respect if they were lowering their eyes as if they were actually thinking about what the gesture means.

          1. What’s wrong with the old Harvey Smith? We seem to have lost that quintessentially English gesture.

    1. When does this G7 thing, in Cornwall, start?

      Boros will be told then, what to do

    2. When does this G7 thing, in Cornwall, start?

      Boros will be told then, what to do

    3. As soon as the 14 ” extra” days are nearly ending, the brand-new “G7 Cornish Variant” will be spotted – and lockdown will continue for ever.

      Talking of Cornwall – there are thousands of people at this farrago. I wonder how many of them have the disease or will be passing it on – especially in close confinement on that ridiculous “police” cruise liner. Just think how fast gut problems speed round a cruise ship….

    6. Indigenous Brits will grumble and just get on with it. I can’t see the wog and nignog recent arrivals complying. Too many girls to rape, drugs to sell and shops to burgle.

    7. “New variants occur naturally and those that have an advantage will spread. We now have the ability to quickly adapt our vaccination strategies to maximise protection where we know people are most vulnerable.

      “Keeping track of these evolutionary changes is essential for us to retain control over the pandemic and return to normality. This work is a powerful example of effective collaborations between NHS and academic colleagues, that can help us to navigate changes in this new phase of the pandemic.”

      https://www.crick.ac.uk/news/2021-06-03_pfizer-biontech-vaccine-recipients-have-lower-antibody-levels-targeting-the-delta-variant-first-discovered-in-india

      We must realise that whilst we have the resources in the UK to control the worst effects of the virus in this country, the world is not able to do the same for the Earth’s population.

      For as long as the UK does not have the control over its borders to that which we implemented in WWII there is no hope for what a lot of us expect as a return to normality.

  91. Ollie Robinson’s sporting show trial is yet another example of cancel culture gone berserk

    Haste to judge Robinson’s teenage idiocy as a transgression to define him forever reflects a society that has become corrosively judgmental

    OLIVER BROWN, Chief Sports Writer

    The treatment of Ollie Robinson seems to be inspired less by civilised sport or restorative justice than by a North Korean playbook for punishing the ideologically impure.

    First he has to beg for clemency on live television with a pre-prepared statement, using such phrasings as “deeply regret”, “thoughtless and irresponsible”, “unreservedly apologise”, as if accepting that public humiliation is the price that must be paid for tweets dug up from nine years earlier on what should be the most auspicious day of his career.

    But then the England and Wales Cricket Board take his career away regardless, suspending him for an indeterminate period. It all smacks not of a fair hearing but of a modern-day show trial.

    One supposed justification for sanctioning Robinson so severely is that he was 18, the legal age of responsibility, when he posted his fateful messages online. But this rationale crumbles as we learn that the ECB is now investigating a tweet, uncovered by Wisden, containing a racist term by a 15-year-old.

    It does make you wonder about the direction in which this is heading: is it now a requirement by all prospective England cricketers to have negotiated adolescence without saying anything that they later deeply regret?

    Nobody disputes the crassness or the offensiveness of what Robinson said. In 2012, as indeed today, Twitter could be a refuge for the intellectually incontinent, a place for teenagers posting mindless graffiti and somehow forgetting it is a public forum searchable by future employers.

    It is also true that the ECB has a duty to ensure that its players can compete in an environment where the values of tolerance and acceptance are recognised. What is worrying, though, is the haste to judge Robinson’s teenage idiocy as a transgression that should define him forever.

    I listened with some incredulity to a BBC interview this week with Michael Carberry, the ex-England opener, that suggested the only palatable outcome for Robinson now was his total ruin. Carberry depicted the bowler as beyond hope of rehabilitation and, asked if he would be comfortable with the potential devastation for Robinson of his career being prematurely ended, said: “Absolutely. Weed them out of the game.”

    An important point to make is that Carberry, as a black player, has endured instances of racism first-hand and is thus privy to a pain that colleagues without the same personal experience cannot comprehend. But his prescribed solution, to brand Robinson as irredeemably racist, to shun him and hound him out of professional existence, is alarmingly extreme, revealing the bloodlust that this latest obsession with historic tweets can unleash.

    It reflects a society that has become corrosively judgmental, deeming Robinson’s bovine Twitter use as more telling of his character than the testimony by Moin Ashraf, his Pakistani team-mate at Yorkshire, which read: “Having roomed, shared the field and gone out for dinners and socials with him, I know full well he isn’t a racist. He has apologised. We should forgive, and move on.”

    The fetish in sport for endless inquisition will not allow it. The discussion around Robinson dwells not on how he might be rehabilitated, on the useful lessons he might now have to impart to younger players about how a mobile phone can be a career-destroying weapon, but on the myriad ways in which he can suffer retribution, from sackcloth-and-ashes TV confessionals to indefinite England exile.

    Traditionally, England cricketers, especially fast bowlers, have hardly had to satisfy the standard of being morally unimpeachable, their every past utterance raked over for potential controversy. But the Robinson saga indicates we now inhabit a vastly different world, where almost decade-long tweets invite less the language of atonement than another case of cancel culture gone berserk.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/06/08/ollie-robinsons-sporting-show-trial-yet-another-example-cancel/

    1. “Nobody disputes the crassness or the offensiveness of what Robinson said. In 2012,”
      He didn’t say it.
      Have theyr read the tweets? No? Surprise. It’s all utter bollox. Read the tweets and tell me WGAF?
      Oh, yes.
      Fuck Carberry.

      1. Bravo Oberst! He never made it as a great cricketer so just had to stick his beak in and try and remain relevant!

    2. I am reminded of my oft quoted response:
      Wog’s the matter? Feeling browned off?
      Nigger mind, go black home and maybe you’ll feel all white.

    3. I just thank God that I’m not a supporter of English Cricket or Wendyball and have now given up supporting England’s Rugby Team because of all this kow-towing to the woke, the woeful and the awful.

      All of whom just wish to destroy the English way of life, our culture and our long, long history.

      I despise them all to the point of hatefulness. Yep, try taking that to court and see the publicity you get.

  92. Residents in Greater Manchester and Lancashire have been urged to “minimise travel” to stem rising cases of the Indian/Delta variant.

    New guidance for more hotspots says travel should be reduced in and out of the areas and people should meet outside where possible.

    It comes as military personnel and rapid response teams a re being drafted into the parts of northern England as part of a “strengthened
    package of support” for councils.

    Still, the NHS is shirking its’ responsibilities

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-covid-vaccine-lockdown-june-restrictions-indian/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  93. It is not all bad news:

    Torygraph

    French President Emmanuel Macron was slapped in the face on Tuesday by a man in a crowd of onlookers while on an official visit in southern France, in a filmed incident that quickly went viral online.

    The video shows a masked man in a green t-shirt slapping Mr Macron in the face before his security team quickly intervenes to separate them and whisk the president away.

    A government source confirmed to The Telegraph that the incident occurred on Tuesday during his official visit to the Drome department in southeastern France.

    “Democracy is debate, it is dialogue, it is the clash of ideas, but it can never be violence, and verbal or physical aggression,” Prime Minister Jean Castex told the National Assembly to claps by MPs. Lawmakers across the political spectrum have echoed his stance.

    https://youtu.be/lhni6Ytde0I

    1. No, democracy is not debate and dialogue – it is your obedience to our will. You are our servants and take great pleasure in ignoring that.

      You don’t get slapped when you obey.

    2. The only thing that will ever grab their attention is a good slap.

      Macron would never give that man 10 seconds of discussion and neither would any senior politician anywhere.

  94. That’s me for this gorgeous day. All of it in the garden. Ending up with a haircut, a shower, clean clothes and a GLASS of medicine.

    Enjoy making your holiday plans…..

    A demain.

          3. Err…..
            1 and 2, yes but 3?
            A Librarian in a Primary school, are you sure?

  95. 334048+up ticks,
    I like the cut of their jib these far right racist must surely be given a platform for a shout after decades of treachery via the lab/lib/con and
    the consent of gullible fools, that is the nicest description of the multitudes I can muster

    .https://youtu.be/2WKvXMf3Tp8

    1. 334048+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Og, there are a great many politically right NOT sh!te peoples looking to support their own down to earth kind after decades of witnessing broken vows,promises ,pledges and NOW open political treachery courtesy of the oxcam political fraternity
      mass murder, mass paedophilic rape & abuse, the DOVER illegal intake,etc,etc.
      Supporting the likes of Anne Marie & Tommy works for me that cannot truly be said of the lab/lib/con coalition politico’s.

    2. The candidates for the Batley & Spen by-election:
      Paul Bickerdike – Christian Peoples Alliance
      Mike Davies – Alliance For Green Socialism
      Jayda Fransen – Independent
      George Galloway – Workers Party
      Tom Gordon – Liberal Democrats
      Thérèse Hirst – English Democrats
      Howling Laud Hope – The Official Monster Raving Loony Party
      Susan Laird – Heritage Party
      Kim Leadbeater – Labour Party
      Oliver Purser – Social Democratic Party
      Corey Robinson – Yorkshire Party
      Andrew Smith – Rejoin EU
      Ryan Stephenson – Conservative Party
      Jack Thomson – UK Independence Party
      Jonathan Tilt – Freedom Alliance
      Anne Marie Waters – For Britain Movement

  97. OT. My BP medicine is three days late. Sent by Echo thru Royal Mail 48 hour guaranteed.

    I have watched/tracked it going backwards and forwards between NW London and Southampton.

    Royal Mail and the Post Office have a backroom agreement and they front for each other. If you have a complaint they fob you off and blame the other lot.

    I am sick to death of hearing ‘it’s because of covid’. Fucking useless liars.

    1. No, Phizz, they aren’t useless liars. They’re Premier League liars.

      Credit where credit’s due.

      1. I suppose there is irony in the fact that my BP has risen because my BP medicine hasn’t arrived.

          3. When I read the catalogue of Nottler ailments and medications I’m so very grateful not to have had to take medicine of any kind for the past 5 years and decades before that.

          4. Good for you. For what it’s worth, I have a few diabetes meds, and it’s much easier to have them delivered, than taking three buses to collect them from a rural pharmacy.

          5. Is there no kind of delivery service, Geoff? someone who will collect & bring them round?

          6. Since moving, my local surgery also does meds, and they’re a mile’s walk away. But P2U is pretty efficient. At the old place, I had to pick up the meds at the next village. Three buses, one taxi, or 3.3 miles’ walk. Both ways. I’ve done them all. I’m happy with P2U, who send out the meds via Royal Mail…

          7. Is there no kind of delivery service, Geoff? someone who will collect & bring them round?

          8. Lucky for you, Geoff, that you have a bus service – we don’t.

            They wouldn’t dare drive anyone of the three single track roads into and/or out of our delightful little rural village.

          9. …and I’m very happy that presenting my repeat prescription needs to my surgery, 6 miles away via e-mail, 3 days later a charming chappie from their local pharmacy delivers the requirement to my door – no need for Pharmacy2U

  98. For your amusement… (DT, just now)

    ‘The Bench review: the Duchess of Sussex’s semi-literate vanity project leaves Harry holding the baby

    The Duchess’s first children’s book is all bland parenting ‘wisdom’ and no story – and it’s hard to imagine any child enjoying it
    Claire Allfree
    8 June 2021 • 9:22am

    Poor Prince Harry. He’s moved half way across the Earth, leaving behind everything he has ever known, and for what? A humble bench in a garden, according to the opening line of The Bench (Puffin, £12.99), his wife’s debut book for children, published today and addressed throughout its 34 pages to him.

    “This is your bench,” it begins, accompanied by a watery illustration of a man with ginger hair sitting on a bench looking adoringly into the eyes of a baby. “Where life will begin/For you and our son.”

    Leaving aside that unfortunate image – did the Sussex’s family life really begin on a bench? Surely not – the connotations are clear. Poor Harry’s role in this marriage is to sit on his bench holding the baby while Meghan gets on and conquers the world, one act of compassion at a time.

    The Bench, published worldwide today and apparently based on a poem Meghan wrote for Harry on Father’s Day, is presented as a story for children. But it’s nothing of the sort, not least since it’s not a story. Rather it’s a series of imperatives disguised as loving verse in which Meghan offers words of wisdom to Harry (represented throughout as a sort of racially inclusive, everyman paternal figure) and by implication to the rest of us, on how to handle the tricky business of loving a child.

    Each page consists of a generic “bonding” moment between father and son on a different bench (park benches, garden benches, random grey benches), illustrated by Christian Robinson’s amazingly benign water colours and accompanied by a couple of tender lines of advice. So, after a hard day tending the chickens, our father figure Harry will “rest” on his bench and “see the growth of our boy”.

    As the “son” learns to ride a bike, our hero Harry will “watch on with pride”. And should the son playfully pop on a tutu, our father is helpfully told to be his “supporter”. Because any male child who playfully dresses up in a tutu obviously needs support, right?

    Sometimes, the demands of scansion and rhyme defeat Meghan, so she resorts to either reconfiguring words or mutilating them instead. “He’ll run and he’ll fall/And he’ll take it in stride,” reads one line. Eh? “With daddy and son/where you’ll never be ‘lone,” goes the book’s immortal final line. Oh ouch!

    Meanwhile, Meghan herself pops up at the end, tending the vegetable patch (I just don’t believe this bit – surely the Sussexes have a gardener to pull the potatoes?) and, natch, holding a child, presumably young Lilibet.

    One wonders how any publisher could have thought fit to publish this grammar-defying set of badly rhyming cod homilies, let alone think any child anywhere would want to read it. But that’s planet Sussex for you, where even the business of raising a family is all about the brand.’

    Are you not amused!?

    1. One wonders how any publisher could have thought fit to publish this
      grammar-defying set of badly rhyming cod homilies, let alone think any
      child anywhere would want to read it.

      A publisher who is almost guaranteed publicity beyond the dreams of avarice, just for printing it?

      Who are they kidding?

      1. The trouble is thousands of middle class parents will buy it – and bore their offspring to death by reading it to them.

    2. I thought it was funny. Meagain will now try to sue the publishers, distributors, ghostwriters and the publicists. That is HER truth. Fecking Gaslighter.

  99. 334048+ up ticks,

    New £200m Royal Yacht Britannia’s successor may have to be built abroad
    World trade deal signed last year threatens Boris Johnson’s hope of constructing the Britannia’s successor in the UK.

    Scrap it via the peoples reset, for a win accumulator scrap it along with the lab/lib/con/ coalition.

    1. Apparently if they describe it as a potential military ship they can swerve the WTO rules.

      I watch with interest.

      1. 334048+ up ticks,
        Evening ITP,

        Been more fitting if it was a coastal protection vessel stationed in the English Channel ” The prince Philip”
        That would have been heavily frowned upon via the current governance which would make it all the more pleasing to decent peoples.

  101. Thought for the day

    If every attendee at the G7 meetings all over the UK, (It ain’t just Cornwall that is paying the price you know) caught a new variant Covid (we could call it the manure variant) and died:
    Would you care?
    Would the world be worse off?
    Would we re-open on 21 June?
    Would you laugh?

    Come on now, one out of four’s not bad!

    1. Wouldn’t it be loverly to be pleasantly surprised for once – just the once.

  104. The sultana anD I were discussing various things at tea (English: “dinner”). One of the topics was “the Broons” and this led ineluctably to Oor Wullie. His friends include Soapie Souter and Fat Bob. Now the theme of the discussion was whether it was acceptable to call him “Fat Bob”?
    My conclusion is that it is now illegal to call someone a “fat bastard”, even if they are somewhat obese.

  105. Evening, all. If Covid data support unlocking why is anyone even considering delay? As if I didn’t have enough worry, I had a phone call from Dudley social services to say my brother had been taken into hospital and the neighbours were worried about his sons being alone (they are both visually impaired). I asked about my sister-in-law, but they didn’t seem to have that data (if she’s died and he’s never let me know, that’s his hard luck). Did I have a phone number? Well, I might have somewhere, but I never phone him and he never phones me. We exchange Christmas cards and that’s it. I had to point out that I live in Shropshire and that’s a long way away from where he lives. Frankly, I can’t take on any more responsibility. The woman from SS was possibly West Indian and I had great difficulty understanding what she was saying because of her accent. Shropshire may be part of the West Midlands, but it’s a world away.

      1. My sister-in-law has family (sisters, their husbands and children) in the area. There is only my brother and I.

      1. He’s fine, thank you. Getting more chilled, I think. We spent most of the day in the garden – yours truly on the sun lounger and he lying on the lawn. At least he had the sense to lie in the shade and move into the shade when the sun moved round. My Patterdale cross used to move out of the shade into the sun when the sun moved round! I’ve taken him for a couple of walks today and he’s learning to walk to heel.

  106. What fuckwittery is this…………..

    In new guidelines, Govt drops use of Ivermectin, HCQ, Favipiravir for COVID treatment

    The Union Health Ministry, in its latest set of guidelines,

    has dropped the use of Ivermectin, HCQ, Favipiravir from COVID-19

    treatment.

    https://www.indiatvnews.com/news/india/govt-drops-use-ivermectin-hcq-favipiravir-covid-treatment-no-steam-health-ministry-new-guidelines-latest-news-709869
    India has done very well with the Ivermectin/Zinc/ Antibiotic kits
    Someone hjas been leaned on to promote the “Jab”

    1. It’s after the jab was promoted in some parts of India that the death tolls started increasing.

    1. Ah a politically motivated dog eh. Boris ?
      And it’s strange how we all are mainly ‘sound minded’ now, after living most of our lives. Although we had probably been effected, if not suffered very similar distressing circumstances and problems our younger generation allege they are suffering today,……… but hey we got over it. But it wasn’t then a daily discussion on social media and a front runner on the MSM.

  108. Well peeps in our phone call Friday my GP promised he’d ring or at least contact the Cardiology department where i was registered for treatment. I was hoping to hear from someone today regarding an appointment. IMHO it’s quite possible they already know about the reaction to AZ and how it can cause Afib as it has with me, for the second time within three weeks after the first and second Jabs. Maybe i’m wrong, but I guess they must have already known on both occasions that i would get over it and my heart rhythm would return to normal as in resting, one beat per second, or as i imagine the reason for none contact is that they simply don’t give a sh1 t !
    I also had a very distressing telephone conversation today in a call from our lovely old neighbour. Her husband H who suffers from Parkinson’s as well as other problems, fell over and broke his hip and fractured his shoulder. After the Hip Op in Lister Stevenage. The NHS shoved him to be isolated is a respite care centre in Boreham Wood for a proposed period of 7 weeks. He had his son pick him up and take home home after two weeks of what he called absolute hell. In the next sentence she told me about another mutual friend who had suffered a serious stroke and my old golfing mate P has lost the ability to verbally communicate. These incidents are not directly connected with the jab, but they both would have had the same AZ Jab as i did, around the same sort of time. And are a similar age group.

    1. Need a symbol for “sympathy”, Eddy.
      Uptick isn’t right, but it’s all I have.

      1. It’s difficult not to be annoyed Ellie, strange how the only way you can get medical advice is via a phone call from your GP but when it matters most you have to wait for a snail mail letter.

  110. The Danes can do it – so why are you so pathetic, Doris and Priti Useless?

    The Danish Parliament has passed a new law that will allow the government to deport asylum seekers to countries outside of the European Union to have their cases considered abroad. The legislation is widely seen as a first step toward moving the country’s asylum screening process beyond Danish borders.

    The law, proposed by the Social Democrat-led government, is aimed at discouraging frivolous asylum applications. It has been greeted with fury by those who favour mass migration, presumably out of fear that other EU countries may now follow Denmark’s lead.

    Denmark, which already has some of the most restrictive immigration policies in Europe, is at the vanguard of European efforts to preserve local traditions and values in the face of mass migration, runaway multiculturalism, and the systematic encroachment of political Islam.

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17450/denmark-mass-migration

    4. It’s not just that they can’t do it – they don’t want to do it.

  111. I’ve had such a busy day today, i’ll be turning in soon, i’ll probably read about 6 pages of Spies By Michael Frayn and have to put the book down. I’m sending my self to sleep now…………………..

  112. That’s me for today.
    Good night, Gentlefolk. Hope to continue dialogues tomorrow, God willing – or even Ins’Allah.

  113. “Queen’s portrait removed” is a shocking example of how mob rule is running society. On what authority does a group have to dictate policy. How does the ruling body of Magdalene College allow a group to remove a portrait of the sovereign by anyone. Why does anyone in public office seem to have absolutely no patriotism or backbone to stand up to activists who wish to destroy our history and culture. I suspect that I know the background of the group that instigsted this move. Yes, the very ones who want our money for ‘aid’ because the poor countries cannot get off their backsides and work towards their own solutions. Rant over.

  114. It seems the DT has sacked Julie Burchill for tweeting that Hapless’s daughter should have been called Georgina Floydina. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15205842/telegraph-columnist-julie-burchill-sacked-tweet-meghan-lilibet/

    And that England bowling legend James Anderton is in trouble for likening Stuart Broad’s haircut ages ago as looking like a lesbian’s. I wonder if the ECB will cancel him too. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9664739/James-Anderson-deletes-2010-tweet-telling-Stuart-Broad-lesbian-haircut.html

      1. 334048+ up ticks,
        Evening Kp,
        “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

    2. FFS. Is it the players or the authorities that need to be told to grow up?

    3. Sacking Julie Burchill is disgraceful; the DT should climb out of the Wokepit!

    4. The ECB is not interested in cricket any more.

      Forget the ECB. All England cricketers should refuse to play in their teams. Let the cricketers form their own selection committee with the one stipulation that a person’s political opinions past and present are irrelevant. What is relevant is his ability to play cricket.

  116. Wednesday, 9th June 2021

    Horace Pendleton and Johnny Norfolk

    Born on the same day and the same year!

    A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

    and

    MANY MEMORABLE RETURNS

    to you both and long may your comments keep coming as they are much appreciated by the Nottlers

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus.

    2. I add my greetings to both Horace and Johnny. Noting also that on this memorable date in 1865 Charles Dickens was involved in a major train crash at Staplehurst; exactly five years later, on the 9th of June 1870, he died of a stroke at his home in Gads Hill, Kent.

  117. Good night and God bless, fellow NoTTLers I feel better having vented my spleen on these pages.

    My one, big wish is that it would have some effect on the way we are.

Comments are closed.