Wednesday 1 July: For the PM’s new deal to succeed, we must have more British builders

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/06/30/letters-pms-new-deal-succeed-must-have-british-builders/

694 thoughts on “Wednesday 1 July: For the PM’s new deal to succeed, we must have more British builders”

  2. It’s time to defund the BBC. Spiked 1 July 2020.

    If the BBC can no longer inform, educate and entertain, nor stick to the rest of its very noble mission statement, it ought to lose its charter. It is high time the BBC was held to account. And that is what we aim to do with the Defund The BBC campaign.

    Our aims are to educate people on how you can go about cancelling your TV licence legally, and what you can still watch without one. You don’t need a TV licence to watch all TV, but many people are frightened into purchasing one through intimidation tactics, including aggressive letters and even enforcement officers knocking on your door asking to inspect your TV. The fear of prosecution from accidentally watching the wrong thing is a risk many decide isn’t worth it, and that’s a shame.

    Morning everyone. The arguments and observations here about the BBC are familiar to all NoTTlers but it does also offer the chance to do something about getting rid of this Marxist Propaganda Mouthpiece. I’ve just contributed to what I consider to be a very worthy cause.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/01/its-time-to-defund-the-bbc/

    1. Before we can strip the BBC of its charter, we do need a public service broadcaster of merit, that will actually inform, educate and entertain the nation to a high standard and without favour. I do not trust Murdoch or Disney, Netflix, BT Sport, Google or Amazon to be capable of fulfilling this brief any more than today’s BBC is. Even Channels 4 and 5 are moulded in the BBC’s image, and use the same wretched gene pool of metropolitan wokes set to loud music who talk over the credits. ITV is an example of gross centralisation and a homage to market forces over talent.

      Perhaps we should look at the example set by Talking Pictures. In the very best British tradition that goes back to Smallfilms and Aardman, this is run from a shed by an enthusiast, supported by his family, using a job lot of archived material, much of which rescued from a skip, and is probably the best TV channel we’ve got right now.

      1. ‘Morning, JM. Bearing in mind the spectacular and long-standing failure to hold the BBC to account and to demand that it observes the requirements of its Charter, what hope is there that another state broadcaster would be any different?

        1. What hope is there that another party currently on offer would be any better at running the country?

          I fear with both broadcasting and government, we may be forced to reinvent the wheel if we are to get the cart to move.

      2. Morning Jeremy. That’s a nice idea but impractical. No government is going to set up a rival channel to the BBC for cost reasons alone. It has to go first and only then will it be possible to talk about a new one!

        1. “Talking Pictures” channel HQ is a shed in a back garden.
          Be that as it may, the cost will be related more to journalism than to broadcasting. Finding journalists of the calibre of those we knew in the past such as Robin Day and Clive James will be difficult. They also need to be objective, enquiring and unbiased. The”journos” of the MSM have sold their souls for cash. Our new BBC replacement journalists will need to be especially fearless and selfless.

        2. No Government right now is capable of doing anything in the public interest.

          In the absence of anything sensible coming from our leaders, the only option any of us have is to do what we can with the little we have and are allowed to keep. Sheds are cheap and you can even get one on a high rise balcony with a bit of ingenuity.

    1. Morning VOM. Obviously one of the main aims of BLM is the sequestration of White Assets, first public ones and then personal, as “compensation” for past crimes. The whole operation is actually a gigantic criminal exercise.

      1. Yes, but do please bear in mind what constructive use they will make of our property when they take possession of it.

          2. Plenty of homesteads in the former bread basket of what was once known as Rhodesia.

      2. Like good Thatcherites, always an eye for the main chance. Like their ancestors who sold their neighbours to the offshore slave traders in America and Arabia. If you are a criminal oligarch or one of their loyal thugs, your life matters, and we must bend our knee to them, so we are told by Our Betters.

    2. I have been wondering for a while when it would come to this. And in accordance with Agenda 21, natch.

    3. Someone needs to shoot these fifth columnists.

      It seems that, since we are lacking a Government prepared to safeguard national security or even keep the peace or protect the public, there must be a vigilante army tooled up to rid our society of this menace. Let them seek political asylum abroad if they feel their lives are at risk, as is their right under the UN convention.

      I respectfully ask David Frost to come up with a better alternative, and for Priti Patel (who ought to know what criminal gangs of factional thieves get up to in Africa) to bring it about as a higher priority to more handouts for property speculators and their contractors of bulldozer drivers.

    4. Yo VOM

      I am trying to work out where the bigot fits into the LGBTQ scale; what sex is it

    5. Good morning VOM

      The media has shown us some terrible pics of the ‘good people’ of Birmingham, England not Alabama USA) swarming to see a Rapper in the city centre, and of course every British large town and city hosts multi racial , housing multigenerations , with hordes of fast breeding immigrants, so Boris’s promise of new housing will come to fruition.., land will probably be grabbed..

      After all , Countryfile has suggested that BAME needs more access to the countryside , they won’t move anywhere without access to a Nando’s or a Kentucky Fry either , so the countryside air will pong of grease and vinegar!

      1. ‘Morning, Belle. Countryfile (aka Blue Peter In A Field) is of course just parroting the unconvincing, tired old cliche that we should bend over backwards to help BAMEs visit our countryside in general, and the Lake District in particular. If their numbers are so low then I suggest that it might be because they simply don’t like it. Well, that is tough titty for them. No one is preventing their use of, for instance, the Lake District, so I fail to see what the rest of us are supposed to be doing about it. This non-specific whine has been used time and time again by the Black Broadcasting Corpn, and by now it is wearing rather thin.

        1. It used to be said that Gordon Brown’s idea of a happy holiday was Aberdeen in February. I am not Scottish, so I do not claim to have the same predilection for bracing sea wind and the stench of fish, but I am not claiming it an abuse of Sassenach rights just because I prefer to go elsewhere for my hols.

  4. SIR – Giles Fraser (Comment, June 29) writes that there is no such thing as cultural appropriation.

    However, in 1964 I watched Macbeth staged by a girls’ school in a tribal area of India. Mostly Adivasis, the girls wore short tartan saris, their faces whited-up and cheeks reddened with rouge like ghoulish Hindi-speaking Scots. In the cauldron scene, three witches in black, faces their natural colour, cackled in Hindi: “Double, double toil and trouble.”

    Later, discussing the nature of Lady Macbeth’s madness, the doctor wore British army boots and a sola topi, and the nurse was dressed up like a St Thomas’s Hospital probationer. It was a wonderful performance.

    I was not in the least offended by this blatant example of “cultural appropriation”. Should I have been?

    Dr Christopher Maycock
    Neopardy, Devon

    Suggested cast of NoTTLers?

    1. I note its been two hours and nobody has come forward with any casting suggestions…………….
      NoTTLers have a well developed sense of self preservation.{:^))

      1. Can I be a spear-carrier, please, Rik? It would help me to check others were at least a metre away from me and take action should the other actors not comply.

        1. Lear’s Fool, Old Gobbo, Dogberry or Enobarbus for me. Juliet – what else – for my lovely Caroline!

          The mother of Henry’s godfather is a formidable personality of whom we are very fond. She was a leading light in the Boston (Lincs) Amateur Dramatic Society and each year she played in the society’s leading production. She was magnificent in the Chrous line of Cabaret when she was 76 years old! (She is now in her 90’s)

          1. I hate to put a damper on your birthday celebrations, Rastus, but I have to inform you that Cabaret was not written by Wiliam Shakespeare, nor did Macbeth contain a singing chorus.

            :-))

          1. That is cultural appropriation, Horace, and it therefore makes you a racist. I shall be round shortly to hurl abuse at you, paint “BLM and Waaycist” in black paint all over your house before pushing over any garden gnomes you have on your property, rioting, trashing your house and looting your valuables. Don’t bother calling the police, I shall simply shout “Kneel!” at them and they will then leave me alone.

            (Sarc.)

  5. Good Morning Folks,

    Not a cloud in the sky here at the moment.
    Pinch and a punch by the way

    2. I also posted on this topic, warning all NoTTLers not the make the mistake of saying “Wh**e Rabbits!” since it is waaaycist!

  6. Good morning all.
    Up a bit early for a drive to Wythenshawe to pick a couple of cabinets up, so will not be about much today.
    Nice to see so many backtracking from their earlier support of Black Lies Matter.

    1. If they’re from the right, you could send them to Boris who needs his own strengthening.

      1. 4x Bisley 10 drawer filing cabinets, intended for documents but also excellent for tools.

  7. Mandelslime’s gandpa..

    SIR – To further corroborate David Astor’s assertion that Nancy Astor did not hold Nazi sympathies (Letters, June 27), in the Thirties she befriended the Austrian émigré sculptor Siegfried Charoux and his Jewish wife, Margarethe, who had sought exile in London.

    During the war, when Charoux was interned at the Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man, Lady Astor secured his early release by arguing that the home secretary, Herbert Morrison, was “British by accident”, while Charoux was “British by choice”.

    Dr Melanie Veasey
    London E1

    1. Yo Citroen

      A bit like:

      Us ‘Natives are “British by accident”, while many BAMEs/BLM are “British by choice”.

      So, why do they want to change our way of life

      1. Because they are not British by choice. They are “Black” by choice, and will impose their choice on the Untermensch who can only pretend to be black with facepaint.

  8. Australia to acquire long-range missiles as PM warns of dangerous post-Covid-19 world. Tue 30 Jun 2020 13.30 BST.

    Australia’s defence force is set to acquire long-range missiles and research hypersonic weapons systems, as Scott Morrison warns the country to prepare for a more dangerous post-Covid-19 world and an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific region.

    The Australian prime minister will use a speech on Wednesday to outline a more muscular defence posture, arguing the ADF needs “stronger deterrence capabilities” as the Indo-Pacific becomes “the focus of the dominant global contest of our age” amid tensions between China and the United States.

    This is a smart move by the Aussies; the Chinese must look at the country’s size, population and resources like a wolf that’s been on a diet.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/30/australia-to-acquire-long-range-missiles-as-pm-warns-of-dangerous-post-covid-19-world

    2. Wales’s answer to the corporate takeover culture of what was once British industry. I wish them well.

  10. We need relevant fixes, yet Boris looks instead to Franklin D Roosevelt for solutions

    That the Tory leadership should cite Roosevelt as an inspiration shows just how far Left it has now drifted

    JEREMY WARNER – 30 June 2020 • 7:00pm

    Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, and Michael Gove, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, have discovered a new political hero. Forget Churchill and Thatcher; give it up instead for Franklin D Roosevelt.

    FDR, for heaven’s sake, who is still quite widely regarded on the American Right as the closest the US has ever come to having a full blown socialist as president. Where to start on this one?

    Why indeed are we even talking about FDR – who must have been about as familiar to the good people of Dudley, where Johnson gave his “build, build, build” New Deal speech, as Keir Starmer is to Middle America – when the country is still mired in lockdown and struggling to find a way out?

    Chaos over air bridges, renewed closure in Leicester, test, track and trace still woefully short of what’s required, confusion over when and how schools are going to reopen, an incoming tsunami of bad debt and job losses – are there not rather more pressing matters to dwell on than some kind of ill-defined, Rooseveltian vision of reform and British renewal?

    We obviously all need to keep our spirits up at times like these. To dare to dream of a better future is only natural in the depths of a crisis. But can we please focus on finding solutions to the terrible mess we have created for ourselves before relaunching the Conservative Party’s pre-existing “levelling up” agenda. Things have changed somewhat since this was written, so much so that it now seems almost wholly irrelevant. What’s needed are quick, practical fixes, not largely meaningless appeals to the spirit of FDR.

    If you are going to draw inspiration from past political titans, it is in any case as well to know something about them first. So let’s begin by exploding a few myths around Roosevelt, Thirties America, the Depression, and their relevance to contemporary Britain.

    In a speech at the weekend, Michael Gove said: “I defy anyone to say the scale of the challenges our governments face today are lesser than those faced by FDR in 1932, or the scale of change required is lesser as well.” It’s true that the size of the economic contraction is broadly similar to that of early Thirties America, but otherwise the comparison is complete nonsense.

    The Great Depression was caused by a stock market crash and parallel banking crisis in which millions lost their savings. This in turn caused demand to plummet, unemployment to surge and prices to collapse. Today’s contraction is wholly different. It is caused by the decision of multiple governments forcibly to close large sections of their economies down in response to a pandemic. The shock is not so much to demand, though that may come if we don’t get a move on in opening up our economies again, as supply.

    The importance of the New Deal in getting the US out of the Great Depression is in any case much exaggerated. We’ll ignore the fact that in today’s money, it was hugely bigger than the miserable £5bn of additional infrastructure spending Mr Johnson announced this week. Rather more important in restoring US growth was stabilising the banking system, coming off the gold standard, and reversing the ill-judged protectionism of the previous administration.

    Even Keynes didn’t think that Roosevelt’s New Deal ended the Great Depression: “It is, it seems, politically impossible for a capitalistic democracy to organise expenditure on the scale necessary to make the grand experiments which would prove my case – except in war conditions,” Keynes remarked of it.

    Growth did indeed start to come back, but it later stalled again after Roosevelt ramped up taxes to pay for it all, including the 1935 “soak the rich” Revenue Act, which raised the marginal rate of tax on millionaires to 75pc. It wasn’t really until the economic dynamo of the Second World War came along that full employment was restored. Once it had come off the gold standard, Britain by contrast had a rather good Thirties, enjoying the fruits of a number of new, high growth, consumer led industries.

    That today’s Tory leadership should cite FDR as an inspiration demonstrates just how far to the Left it has drifted in attempting to rediscover its “one nation” roots. Just as Blair shifted the Labour Party to the Right in reaching out to prosperous, metropolitan types, correctly figuring that the Left had nowhere else to go, so too does Johnson appear to be doing the same the other way around in answering the demands of his new Brexit voting, “Red Wall” constituents. Thatcherism it is not.

    The intellectual and economic confusion at the heart of this political contortion is already there for all to see. In response to the freewheeling ways of the Twenties, Roosevelt introduced myriad labour market protections, bolstered the power of the unions, and hugely increased banking, securities and agricultural regulation. He also presided over a massive expansion in the bureaucracy of government agencies. Is this not the very reverse of what we are meant to be leaving the European Union to pursue? It’s all a long way from the aims of the Vote Leave campaign.

    You cannot have both deregulation and much higher levels of state interventionism, or both a low tax and big state economy, yet it is this kind of all things to all men fusion of Rooseveltism and Thatcherism that Johnson seems to aspire to. Who’s going to pay for the “New Deal” he promises, or for the unbridled expansion in healthcare, social care and training the Government is committed to, if it is not through taxes?

    The only thing that truly unites FDR in 1932 and the Johnson Government in 2020 is the promise of change, and the sense of national crisis that can sometimes make it possible.

    Yet in addressing the Great Depression, FDR surrounded himself with some of the greatest brains in America, and acted accordingly. The UK Government’s back-footed approach to the pandemic doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that it can do the same. With the July 4 easing of restrictions in mind, there was reason to think we would soon be waking up from the nightmare of the past three months, but now we seem to be going backwards again, all hopes of a V-shaped recovery left trailing.

    As I say, there is no comparison between the Great Depression and today’s self induced economic collapse, but there soon will be if we carry on like this.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/06/30/need-relevant-fixes-yet-boris-looks-instead-franklin-d-roosevelt/

      2. Build what? More and more and more houses, roads and infrastructure for an ever-expanding population?

        What happens when all the available building land has been concreted and tarmacked over? Will you then start to build on more and more and more agricultural land? And when there is no space to grow more and more and more food for more and more and more people (and the whole country starts to resemble modern-day Bombay [sic] and Madras [sic], what will you do then; start to build on mountainsides?

      3. How many of the new buildings will have to be used to house immigrants?

        1. Exactly, Richard. The problem is not the shortage of houses, the speed of construction of new ones, but simply the excessive increase in immigration.

    2. I gave up reading this halfway through after the author contradicted Michael Gove’s assertion that today’s problems are as great as those faced by FDR. He “argues” that they are different because of how they came about: one because of the Stock Market crash and the current one because of lockdown action taken by governments. So what? That’s like saying building a new house is totally different if the old house was demolished by a tank crashing into it than if the house was destroyed by a fire. In both cases there is the challenge of building a new house to replace the old one. Such terrible logic is what stopped me reading further. I am getting rather sick of the constant nit-picking of journalists regardless of what the government tries to do. As a sign sitting next to my iMac asks “Are you part of the solution or are you part of the problem?!”

      2. Hi Elsie, I gave up on reading Warner’s articles a while ago. He is staunch EU, anti-Brexit and hates Boris. His articles all come from the same nit-picking blinkered view so have no worth in them at all.

        1. The name had not registered with me, hopon, but I shall hopefully register your comment the next time I see any articles by him.

        1. No idea, nor do I care. I simply say what I see and what I think, but I try to avoid stirring the waters when people are panicking so much.

    3. Prohibition was removed in 1933, so honest people were allowed to have a bit of fun again. That probably had more effect than all the other measures put together…

  11. Morning all

    SIR – The Government’s “new-deal” spending will be wasted if it results in increased imports of foreign steel, cement and bricks, with doors, windows, electrical and plumbing supplies manufactured overseas. British suppliers must be guaranteed the contracts for both build and supply so that they can gear up in readiness. This ramping up of the industry will need early investment.

    It is very likely that there will be a shortfall in skilled workers to undertake the projects. The Government must provide suitable apprenticeships, training and incentives at a very early stage. Unless this problem is addressed, we will find ourselves facing demands from the building industry for foreign workers to be brought in.

    I am not suggesting protectionism, but “new-deal” investment can only help with unemployment and the deficit in the economy if it is correctly managed.

    D  C Sharp

    Tickenham, Somerset

    SIR – The Prime Minister’s plan to “build our way back to health” is likened to Franklin D Roosevelt’s New Deal of the Thirties.

    Yes, President Roosevelt’s scheme built massively and brought about a huge increase in employment. But what boosted America’s economy was the Second World War. America provided billions of dollars’ worth of military supplies, food and other goods to the warring European nations and, ultimately, supported its own entry into the conflict.

    Anne Jappie

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire​

    ​

    SIR – The Prime Minister gave an uplifting speech in Dudley yesterday, rightly pointing out the value of people building businesses to provide jobs and to get the economy moving.

    And yet this Government capped the entrepreneurs’ allowance for capital gains tax at £1 million. This might sound like a lot of money, yet it often applies to a business that has been built up over decades.

    The entrepreneurs’ rate for capital gains is 10 per cent, which means someone selling a business for more than £1 million will now often be paying a higher rate than was charged under the last Labour government.

    Compare that with someone selling their main residence: they pay no capital gains tax on an asset that increased in value largely as a result of inflation rather than hard work.

    Floyd Waterworth

    Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

    SIR – Raising the taxable-turnover VAT threshold to £100,000 from £85,000 would help businesses grow and employ staff without costing much in administration. The Government could also make the first £100,000 of turnover VAT-free for companies with sales less than £1 million.

    Stephen Havill

    Torquay, Devon

    1. Ok then. We build houses and start a war. How about we conscript all th EU citizens living here? Our forebears did their bit, let the newcomers do theirs.

  12. Morning again

    SIR – Since I have cancer that has spread to my lungs, I am at high risk should I contract Covid-19 and have “shielded” since receiving a letter advising me to do so.

    Last Friday, I received another letter. It stated: “We understand that your GP or hospital specialist has reviewed your medical record and has advised that you are no longer considered to be at the highest risk of severe illness from coronavirus … This letter is to confirm, in line with this, that the Government is no longer recommending you follow shielding advice.” The letter adds that I am no longer entitled to receive food boxes, which I never received, nor medicine deliveries – a service I do use.

    I contacted my GP and my hospital consultant, and was told that neither had been asked whether I should have initially been shielded, nor whether I should now be removed from the shielding list. They both advised that I stay shielded.

    We are all being constantly advised to stay safe, wear masks and observe social distancing. Meanwhile, the Government sends out potentially misleading letters. The 2.2 million “shielders” in this country need sound advice – not this rubbish.

    Ray Ramsay

    Fareham, Hampshire

    SIR – Like Joan Dolan (Letters, June 24), I sustained a “pandemic injury”.

    After 11 weeks in isolation, it was announced that people who were shielding could finally take a daily walk. I set off enthusiastically with my husband, but after a very short time I fell over. Thankfully, there were no broken bones, but I did sustain injuries requiring hospital and surgery visits for dressings.

    An abrupt end, for a while, to our short-lived walks – and we are left wondering about the merits of not going out for months.

    Melanie Belfield

    Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset

    1. The dangers of listening to and obeying government diktats instead of using common sense.

  13. SIR – One good thing to come out of the pandemic, as far as pubs are concerned, is the ban on drinking at the bar. I always found it frustrating to go into a pub and struggle to order a drink – or even see what beers were on the hand pumps – because of people standing or sitting where customers should be served. As for eating there…

    User-friendly pubs are those that either just have serving hatches (such as the Bell in Aldworth, Berkshire) or counterless taprooms (such as Eli’s, the Rose and Crown, at Huish Episcopi, Somerset).

    Roy Bailey

    Shefford, Berkshire

    2. The bar is the place for talking and placing your beer. When standing at the bar I’m always observant enough to make room for table sitters to place orders. Of course there are louts who don’t do this, and a table sitter must be prepared to be a bit forceful in his approach.

      1. There is an art in drinking and standing at the bar. Some people have it and some don’t. I hate it when 3 people use up half the bar with no regard to others.

        1. I find it worse in those pubs where a clique of locals seem to think it is their bar (and not a public one) where they have a ‘right’ to stand (or sit) night after night, regurgitating the same conversation, ad infinitum, ad nauseam, as though they are trapped in some déjà vu time loop where every conversation has to be repeated in true Groundhog Day fashion every bloody night of the year.

          The look of pure hate (often accompanied by some puerile comment, guaranteed to make their cronies guffaw) they give you whenever you ask them for access to the bar, is de rigueur for this race of barfly.

          Norfolk seems to have many more of this type of establishment than any other county I’ve experienced.

          1. Indeed, Grizz. With you on that one.
            The Fox (King & Barnes), on the A283 (?) between Horsham & Guildford. Went in for a beer, with SWMBO. Was deliberately ignored by the landlord, who pointedly asked all the others (regulars, I expect) at the bar what they’d like to drink before serving us.
            The beer was sour, just like the welcome.

      2. See my post yes’day about chewing garlic before entering a crowded pub.

      3. I don’t normally have a problem ordering a drink at the bar – mind you, my elbows are sharp and my voice is loud 🙂

    3. Went into a pub once, in Essex, near Harwich, many years ago. Row of backs at the bar, conversation ceases as I entered, then row of backs resumed. Nobody made space for me to order, or pick up my beer, so I spilled some deliberately on the twat sitting to my left, and when he complained, told him that there wasn’t any space, so what did he expect? Drank the beer, and left.

    1. Happy birthday, Rastus!

      PS – I see that to celebrate you have swapped your spotted handkerchief for a trilby whilst you sit in an armchair reading the Racing Times! :-))

    2. I would never have thought of that song for a birthday, but it’s an inspired choice, Caroline!

        1. He could kill two birds with one stone by washing his hands at the same time, Sos.

      1. I’m 74 – not quite in my prime but at least I’m twice 37 which is a prime number

    5. That’s lovely. Hope you’re cooking up something special for him. Second thoughts, you are that something special.

  15. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Oh, so it’s obviously the government’s fault for not providing translations of the Lockdown requirements? I’m assuming that compulsory education doesn’t apply to Leceister’s yoof then, because if it did I imagine that lessons are conducted in English most if not all of the time and therefore they would have understood only too well what was required. By inference their parents do understand English, so someone in the household should have explained the situation? What a pathetic, pandering ‘explanation’ for non-compliance:

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/06/30/language-barrier-partially-blamed-coronavirus-surge-uk-city-forced-back-lockdown/

    1. Sebastian Kurz, Chancellor of Austria, has a policy of not accepting anyone as an Austrian citizen until they are proficient at German, certainly to a standard whereby they can take in official notices. This is applied without exception.

      When the English composer Alma Deutscher settled in Vienna in 2018, she had to be fluent in German as soon as possible. She loves reading, and can consume a book in a couple of days. For a year though, she gave up reading any book written in English, and only allowed herself to read books in German, with the help of a dictionary and any other help she could muster. It took a lot longer, but she persevered and her German today is excellent. When she won the European Culture Prize, at the presentation in Vienna, she gave one of the best acceptance speeches I have ever heard entirely in German.

      Likewise, never mind “British Values” (which has come to mean supporting single gender marriage or else), anyone ethnically alien who wishes to consider themselves British should learn the official language before they can be proper citizens.

          1. I was suggesting that many of today’s “youff” are semi-illiterate, Jeremy.

          2. And if I am not likewise semi-illiterate, I am deemed not to have “British Values” and must be cast into the void of the ex-person.

  16. Happy July the 1st to all NoTTLers. Don’t forget to say “A pinch and a punch!” but whatever you, do NOT say “Wh**e Rabbits!” or you might end up getting a REAL punch.

        3. I hate the vermin in every way you can think. They are an infestation brought over by the Romans and then the Normans. They look idiotic, are beyond stupid, eat your crops, and taste utterly vile!

          My dad would occasionally bring one home that had been shot (hooray!) by a friend. I was invariably sick after being forced to eat the bloody thing (not to mention breaking my teeth on lead shot!). I was once served Chilli-con-coney by a “friend”. I took him off my Christmas card list.

          They do not belong in the country (nor in Australia where they have wreaked even more havoc).

          The now-habitual use of them to advertise Easter (imported by vacuous Yanks — Easter is for fluffy, yellow chicks) and as “cuddly” and “cute” soft toys for children is an abomination since they are neither.

          Did I ever mention that I hate, loathe and detest fooking rabbits.

          [Rant not yet over, it can go on …]

          😘

          1. Clucking bell. Even after two buckets of coffee, I can’t top that.
            Respect.

          3. Ah, thanks, Grizzly! Nothing like a good rant to get the day going!!

            Morning, all!

        1. Good morning and thank you. Having escaped from the London Safari Park (where wild animals are free to roam) I’m now resting outside the confines of the M25. Sadly where I’ve landed isn’t completely free of the modern lunacy that seems to be gripping sections of the population egged on by the asinine media. However, it is a friendlier part of the World and long may that continue.

  18. I dare you…

    From Guido:

    During today’s “Build, Build, Build” speech Boris told the nation that while the nation has, rightly, applauded health workers over the past week, it is was also a clap those who make the NHS possible; the wealth creators, innovators, capitalists and financiers. Guido completely agrees, Thursday evening cheering for him was all about recognising the hard-working money-makers, without whom the NHS would not exist. You can download the poster for your living room window here…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/01ea9ba9b798a96c651394bb5cf673030aca3e86657d9e6274c2f533d9530147.png
    https://miro.medium.com/max/1240/0*137Rdxbt6h9elBhx.jpeg

  19. 320828+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    The fans have the perfect opportunity to benefit from the football issues
    as in halve the turnstile fee then some, also moderates the players, monetary insult to the game/ fan via their weekly wage.
    People power CAN work to benefit the herd as averse to people power
    in the polling booth as showing complete success in their country demolition campaign.

    https://twitter.com/GerardBattenUK/status/1278219280094572544

      1. ‘Morning, Issy. You’ve just introduced me to someone I’d never previously heard of. Thank you.

  21. Good morning, all. Happy month. Pinch and a punch – and all that.

    Cloudy and still very breezy.

      1. Now look here, Annie, I think your post has upset Grizzly. (See his post elsewhere.)
        PS – Good moaning, btw.

        1. Hurrah. My morning isn’t wasted.
          Talking of which …. plastic gloves etc…. as I’m off for another bash at Elderly Chum’s house.

        1. So, Grizzly, (© Cathy Newman) you are telling us that your real name is Elmer Fudd.

        2. Saw Firstborn’s hare last weekend. Magnificent animal, huge, so it is. Would be a pity to shoot it, nicer to see it lolloping around.

  22. Word on the street is that Bend a Knee Starmer is quickly rowing back on his Black Lies Matter support following private polling which has shown a disastrous effect on Labour’s chances.

    Who would have thunk it?

    1. Yah. Well one cannot expect a millionaire lawyer to understand such complex matters as BLM’s real agenda.

    2. The damage has been done. The photos of Starmer “taking the knee” will haunt him and deservedly so. I wonder if all the F1 drivers at the line up for the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday will all”take the knee”. I think not.

      1. Well it’s done the power of good for Hugo Boss and Mercedes sales.

        Mind you – not the first time those companies have been on the side of fascists.

        1. I imagine lots of Hugo’s clothes have been stolen – all in solidarity with ‘da cors, bruv, innit’.

      2. The photo will almost certainly guarantee the Conservatives will win a second term of office.

    3. Are you suggesting that his attitudes and opinions are formed solely from political advantage? Say it ain’t so!

      whatever happened to conviction, to integrity, to having a basis for why you act in a certain way and using that as your moral compass?

  23. 320828+ up ticks,
    There is talk of lock down returning to Kent, tell me, have the governance
    party via their agent priti sorted out an alternative landing site for the
    incoming “guest’s”.
    Because in a short space of time Dover will be the hotel California of the South East and as such will become a very solid entry bridgehead ie a sea bridge to Europe

      1. 320828+ up ticks,
        Afternoon SE,
        It was on sky newspaper review this morning so you are probably right.
        Folkstone & Dover seem to be high spots not Medway, so in conjunction with “we nigh on eradicated TB within GB & that has returned with a vengeance” has any lessons been learnt ?

    1. Much as I would like to claim credit for the dooble ontong, it was Allison Pearson who drew it to my attention.

      1. And Toby Young is also doing his bit on some lockdown blog. These are journalists who have socialised with Boris, and he should be worried.
        How do I turn bogrolls into bullets?

        1. Papier mache. It can be made into furniture, so should inflict a nasty wound.

  25. ‘Morning All

    Takimag is on fine (if Scary) form

    “I didn’t want a race war. No one I know did. But one has obviously been declared.

    I didn’t want to be right about all this.

    Just as everyone knows they’re going to die but kind of has to

    pretend they aren’t just so they can get out of bed in the morning, I

    knew this was coming but I tried to pretend it would happen after I

    died.

    And now it’s here. So what do you do?

    Do you shut up? Doesn’t work anymore. Even “white silence is

    violence” now. First, they made it so that every word out of your mouth

    is “hate speech.” Now it’s “hate speech” even if you don’t say anything.

    They aren’t making it easy, are they?”

    https://www.takimag.com/article/gradually-then-suddenly/

    “This is all going to create a whole new breed of white people, though.

    The avowed enemies of All Things White seem to suffer the delusion

    that they’ve already tattooed a permanent fatal stigma onto the soul of

    white folks.

    In reality, they may have given them a much-needed gift.”

    https://www.takimag.com/article/a-whole-new-breed-of-white-people/

    1. In reality, they may have given them a much-needed gift.

      One hopes so!

    2. SWMBO is a kind, tolerant lady – hell, she even married me, FFS!
      Her patience with all the BREXIT whining (she was mildly Remain) and now BLM is at an end. She is utterly fed up with it all – and woe betide anyone who starts giving BLM to her, they’ll hear about it!
      The good Lord made her small, so she wouldn’t take over the world, but in the words of one of the biggest military Policemen you ever saw, “Your wife frightens me!” – and he was in Kenya during the Mau-Mau wars.

    3. “The dumber the idea, the more fiercely they will cling to it like a monkey trying to crack open a coconut by smashing it on his balls.”

    4. I’m tired of people complaining about colour. If they want to label people racists to further their own agenda then label me, go on. I care not what spoiled children say. You have no power over me.

    1. Must be hard making a living as a comedy scriptwriter nowadays. Can you imagine having to top that exchange?

      Even if it isfake news it is so believable.

      1. Morning Minty. Following months of reading dross I needed a break from the inanities produced daily by those theoretically in Government and Her Majesty’s Opportunism (sic). I’m fine – finally having moved home (after a 3 month Covid imposed delay) I had to wait 2 weeks for a new internet service so I got that much needed break. All being well I hope to get some unrestricted boating in during July the waterways are now opened but with petty rules Grrr!

      1. “Wonderful! The ignorance of some people most Yanks never ceases to amaze.”

      2. “Wonderful! The ignorance of some people most Yanks never ceases to amaze.”

  29. I’m confused. When I make the mistake of reading 2001 AD – or the BBC website – I see fascist police officers killing poor innocent blacks everywhere.

    Then I read a newspaper and it shows me police officers running away from a violent, criminal mob, or kneeling to their demented ideology – in effect agreeing with being made redundant.

    I read that New York is (using smoke and mirrors) giving the police less money and caving in to the criminal, violent, rioting, vandalising mob’s demands. The very people it needs to combat the menace, the very group who will restore order are being reduced. I understand the democrats like all this chaos and carnage, using it as a political weapon but they don’t seem to understand reality. The criminals won’t stop there. Who will these rich, remote lefties run to when the thugs come for them?

    If the state – in the form of the police force – won’t restore order and reason and rule of law, then the public has to. That’s just a militia band. have we really got to turn vigilante to enforce the law?

    This is utter madness. It’s a B movie plot, a surreal, bonkers insane up side down world.

    This nonsense must end. The children must be sent home and put to bed. Get out there with rubber bullets, flash bangs and water cannon. If that doesn’t work, use live rounds. Bottle them in, hammer them. Remind them they are in the wrong and will not be tolerated. Then impose a curfew. Anyone breaking it 1 year hard labour digging those reservoirs we need.

    End this nonsense.

  30. Put on the tv this morning, the BBC were on about a 1920s footballer with dark skin that never got picked for England and Sky were on about the Belgians in the Congo and King Leo, anyone would think that they were deliberately trying to stir things up.
    Since when has history become News?

      1. BBC News increasingly reminds me of reading Judge Dredd comics. The eternal conflict between the lawless painted as righteous characters and the lawman, promoted as the fascist oppressor with the BBC lying about both sides.

    2. Who controls the past controls the future.

      [George Orwell]

      As I said at the time, one Blair wrote a novel giving a nightmare vision of the future, another Blair took it to be an instruction manual.

    3. Quite so, B3. And did I hear that some kind of statue/memorial is in prospect? If so then will members of WLM be destroying it?

      Defund the BBC, and as soon as possible. It deserves nothing less.

  32. Mail to a Conservative MP……….

    It’s interesting that Prime Minister Johnson should evoke Franklin D. Roosevelt who was probably the US President closest to being a socialist, instead of following the philosophy of President Ronald W. Reagan who said……..

    ”The most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

    A few years ago, one of my cousins remarked that Boris Johnson is a buffoon. I replied that I thought he would be UK prime minister some day. Sadly we were both right, and now we both agree with James Delingpole who said…..

    ”What I note in Boris’ pronouncements.. is a remoteness from reality at once breathtaking and terrifying”.

    I think the UK government should have majored from the beginning on rapidly finding a viable therapy for C-19, but instead they messed about with a ”global government” shared response as desired by Prime Minister Johnson’s multi billionaire friend Bill Gates who now controls pretty well the entire UK C-19 R and D which looks almost completely seized up with complex rules and procedures. Perhaps deliberately to favor vaccine development.

    The UK thereby missing the valuable opportunity to end the crisis through medical advance, and missing the opportunity 3 months ago to build stocks of Remdesivir which President Trump has now requisitioned almost in it’s entirety.

    In the UK, 1945 marked the advent of socialism but, imho, what happened in mid April 1996 was just as pivotal and significant. Namely the meeting at the New York Plaza Hotel between Tony Blair and a certain multi billionaire. This led to the gradual introduction of what I would describe as liberal progressive globalism in the UK from 1997, the aims and policies of which I believe were agreed at the 1996 meeting.

    Although some individuals dismiss this as a ”conspiracy theory”, perhaps understandably due to it’s complexity, I believe it looks increasingly true, especially as events unfold and the jigsaw is gradually completed.

    I think former Prime Minister May has inadvertently explained how it works in her virtually identical $150,000 plus expenses, free to attend, US speeches.

    1. President Roosevelt got on well with Joe Stalin, and he was anti-British Empire.

    2. Boris Johson is a busted flush, a broken reed, he’s lost the lead in his pencil, the bee in his bonnet and the ants in his pants – to sum up he is a severe disappointment. In spite of his past history as a fornicator I doubt if now he could even raise a stiffy on a honeymoon!

    3. During his address to the nation, Boris gave a rundown of things which this country is measurably worse at than comparable countries, for which I commend him.

      1. Does living up to expectations come into it? Boris was the bees knees in these parts just a few years ago, he is now compared to Blair and may.

  34. SIR – In his article on school closures (Comment, June 25), Allister Heath asks: “How can all of those that are colluding in this madness not grasp the damage that they are inflicting?”

    The answer is that many do grasp it. It is one of the gravest mistakes made by defenders of freedom to doubt that there could be others even more determined, more numerous and in stronger positions to deprive us of it.

    Dr Max Gammon

    London SE16

    1. SIR – I am writing in support of Pauline Wood, a primary head teacher who was suspended after commenting that some of her staff were “doing nothing during lockdown” (report, June 27).

      My grandchildren are at separate secondary schools. They have both been set work to do during lockdown, though in a somewhat half-hearted manner. Now, after inquiries about their progress, it has transpired that the work had not been marked or even looked at. It is very difficult to keep the children motivated with no schooling – especially when the schools themselves are not interested.

      Alan Taylor

      Salisbury, Wiltshire

      1. Most independent schools continued to offer a full programme of lessons to their pupils.

        Just before lockdown we realised that we could not have our students with us during the Easter school holidays and so we offered them six hours tuition a day by internet at a quarter of the course fee.

        We are delighted that, with the air bridge between France and England, we shall be running our summer courses in France and the first of five weeks of courses starts this coming Sunday.

        The virus has dampened down things a bit but we hope we shall be able to make up some of the lost ground by running two courses rather than the usual one during the October half-term.

        1. Well done to you and Mrs Tastey! You demonstrate the “can do” spirit that we need so much. (And for the second time, a very happy birthday to you.)

    1. ‘Morning Hugh
      Yesterday I posted his tweet about the abuse he received and overnight I thought “hang on a minute no-one is saying this to his face,they’d get a swift punch on the snozzle wouldn’t they?”
      So it’s social media of course which begs a question “where are the new SS (spineless stasi) in all this?”
      Imagine if you tweeted “House Nigger” or “Coon” to the likes of Lammy or Abbott your feet wouldn’t touch on the way to jail
      I suppose “That’s Different”……………………

  36. Up here in Scotland our Controller is threatening further lockdown. It is now a legal requirement to wear a mask on public transport. Any mask will do apparently. Our eldest Kindly made us cloth masks after the surgical pattern. Very nice. However, the DM published a review of masks. In summary, they are all useless. So this is about control of people not control of the spread of disease.
    We are now allowed to travel more than 5 miles. That’s nice. As the supermarket is 18 miles away in one direction and the fishmonger 22 miles away in another direction, we have completely ignored this instruction from its introduction. As regards the travel limit of 5 miles , one must ask if one becomes more infectious by travelling further? Do our cars spread Covid-19? What is the difference in terms of disease vectors if you leave your house and go to a shop 3 miles away, or to a shop 40 miles away? I would suggest that there is no difference.
    So, where is the supporting science in respect of these two major life-changing instructions from our government?
    There is none. None at all. As the DM article makes clear.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7989225/Which-masks-REALLY-safe-against-rapid-spread-coronavirus.html

      1. Just don’t pull up the entire kilt/spartan ensemble before checking what if anything is protecting the family jewels.

      3. Yes, of course. Getting your bawbees out for your bus fare might be awkward though.

    2. If you only travel a short distance, wouldn’t the spread of superbug be slowed? You could only infect people within your immediate travel are, further spread would depend on a new carrier with a different travel zone? This would give the powers that be time to move away from danger.

      Enough of this bullshit on masks. Either they work or all of those doctors in operating theatres have been dressing up like real Charlies for no reason. People invent conspiracies, the biggest problem is uninformed second guessing and politicizing basic health care.

      1. The surgical masks may be effective – especially if worn with a perspex shield as well – but the cloth masks are useless and just for show.

        1. Surgical masks are also used for a short time only and in sterile conditions. I put a chiffon scarf around my neck at the weekend and pulled it up over my nose as I walked through the tube stations but put it down again on the train. There were very few people around and it’s hard to tell whether someone in a mask is giving you a funny look. I did notice that the people not wearing masks were mostly “bame” males.

          1. They also make it difficult to lip read if you’re hard of hearing. They hide facial expressions and make it hard to communicate.

      2. If I don’t get out of the car during a two mile, journey and don’t get out of a car during a 30 mile journey, what is the difference? Are you suggesting that the car leaves a viral trail in the air near the road for the length of the journe?. If so, better tell the Governments.
        Surgical masks are worn so that surgeons do not dribble into their patients while opening them up during surgery. They offer no protection against viruses moving in either direction.
        Also, of course, viruses can enter via the eyes.
        Have you actually looked at the link? I quote:
        “Public Health England says there is little evidence that masks worn outside the clinical setting will protect the public.
        Dr Manal Mohammed, a lecturer in medical microbiology at the University of Westminster, says that viruses are mainly spread by droplets expelled from infected people, which can travel up to 6ft — so surgical-style masks would have limited benefit.”

        1. I am suggesting if that you only travel five miles, be it by camel, car or helicopter, then once you leave your transport you will only be infecting or be infected by someone within that five miles of where you started. For the disease to travel twenty five miles, it would take five transmissions, not the one that would have happened if you had travelled twentyfive miles in your car. If you wish to control the geographical spread of the disease, control movement.

          As for masks, as I said I have had it with this ongoing BS about masks. There are so many experts being dragged out with contrary opinions that nothing can be believed any more. The consensus here is that masks help stop the infection spreading, if you have CV the mask prevents some of the snot droplets reaching others. That is enough for considerate people to wear masks in public places.

          The US is doing well with their leader eschewing the very idea of masks, only 40,000+ new cases a day.

  38. My diary says that this is the 183rd day of the year and that there are 183 days left in 2020. And so … Happy Mid-Year, everyone.

    1. Late last night, there were a couple of posts stating that it was now too late for further extensions of post-Brexit negotiations. Can anyone on here explain this to me?

      1. I think if there was to be an extension it had to be in place by midnight 30th June.
        Open to correction.

        1. “Open to correction” – Miss Whiplash will be with you shortly, Alf!

  39. July 1st : Canada Dominion Day

    But after Trudeau bent the knee it is more like Canada Submission Day.

      2. Very Many Thanks – what a fantastically good video and what a extraordinarily talented pianist Nicole Pesce is.

    4. Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns.

      I know someone who emigrated to Canada years ago.
      At interviews in Canada House (or similar) it was made clear that they wanted to know what he could do for Canada, rather than what Canada could do for him.

    5. Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns.

      I know someone who emigrated to Canada years ago.
      At interviews in Canada House (or similar) it was made clear that they wanted to know what he could do for Canada, rather than what Canada could do for him.

    6. Happy Birthday! I’m quite loud so you can probably hear me singing it over there.

    13. Happy Birthday and Many Happy Returns.

      I know someone who emigrated to Canada years ago.
      At interviews in Canada House (or similar) it was made clear that they wanted to know what he could do for Canada, rather than what Canada could do for him.

    2. The archangel is not even kneeling, FFS these people can find ‘offence’ in anything. What if more people said they were offended by changing the design, would that get as many lines in the MSM? I doubt it.

  42. 320828+up ticks,
    Be very wary of the small print ie “for the PMs new deal to succeed it must be British builders”

    Having witnessed the capabilities regarding treachery of this, in name only, tory party then MASSIVE wriggle room is given to the word British.

    Be on the safe side, the labour force should consist of English/Scottish
    Welsh & Irish, first & foremost, as with many other issues.

    The world plus must surely have a British passport by now.

      1. 320828+ up ticks,
        Morning TB,
        It must have bypassed Leicester then in one respect.

    2. The muslim attacker in Glasgow is Glaswegian according to a local MSP (a muslim).

      1. 320828+ up ticks,
        Morning HP,
        Is he a political Glaswegian, or convert,
        As in a prior post join the dots nationwide of those in power positions, I wonder is halal haggis is on the Scottish parliaments canteen menu yet ?

      1. Zero per cent of fuck all.

        To be a folk hero in this day and age you have to be a scumbag of the lowest calibre. David Dorn didn’t (couldn’t) sink to those depths.

    2. That is absolutely obscene. I hope they are prevented from accessing the money and it goes to the victims of his crimes.

      Proceeds of Crime Act if they have one in USA.

    3. “… obviously didn’t learn from our penal system.” – maybe not, but his family (or advisor) are obviously pretty smart!

      1. … however, the career robber himself will not benefit from this largesse!

      2. … however, the career robber himself will not benefit from this largesse!

    7. “… obviously didn’t learn from our penal system.” – maybe not, but his family (or advisor) are obviously pretty smart!

    1. I was disappointed when I didn’t see any shrubs, herbaceous perennials or bedding plants.

      After all what else would I expect from a Royal Horticultural Society video?

    1. Fabulous watching their tiny hate-filled heads exploding with impotent rage!

        1. here’s a nice one, from Wikipedia, in response to terry crybaby:
          “Unemployment in the United Kingdom is measured by the Office for National Statistics and in the three months to May 2017 the headline unemployment rate stood at 4.5%, or 1.49 million people. This is a reduction in unemployed people of 152,000 from a year earlier, and is the lowest jobless rate since 1975. ”
          When did the UK join the Common Market? 1975, wasn’t it? Awkward…

          2. Took a year or two of lead time to happen.
            ;-))
            At least, that’s my explanation…

        3. Think of all the money wasted in continued payments to the EUSSR over the past 4 years Terry; we could have saved that and more if people like you had actually respected a democratic vote and actioned it to get us out years ago!

        4. Ah! Terry Christian. I remember seeing hime as child presenter on TV long ago. Has he been let out? Will Matron continue to supervise him?

        5. We’ve paid through the nose for those things *because of the EU*.

          Half a million jobs lost in quangos and Euro jobs are not jobs lost. The pound was devalued by your arrogance.

          The benefits? Scrapping VAT. Global trade. Lower taxes on energy, food and fuel. Not wasting 500bn a year on statist taxes.

          I appreciate Terry Christian, vaunted political mind that he is having fronted a ‘talk show’ two decades ago probably thinks htose things irrelevant but they’re not.

    2. ‘Morning, Rik. Your post has reminded me that today we are at the point of no return in our lengthy and painful attempts to leave the EUSSR. What a good day this is.

      Bloody marvellous!

    3. These folk claim to be democrats, which puzzled me for a long time but it seems that they distinguish between the populus and the demos. To them, the demos are the people entitled to vote and they would actually exclude most of the populus.

      1. You find swiftly that the Left are democratic until their views are rejected.

        At which point they become very selective in their concept of democracy.

    4. It even made the CBC news, no doubt copied from the BBC!
      majority in the UK now want to stay in the EU

    5. “…all chances for an extension vanish
      Nope. Wrong. Anything can be done, at any time, if the EU and parliament wishes it. Including extension of deadlines.
      The only effective blocker is the rescinding of the legislation that enables EU membership. The rest is smoke ‘n mirrors.

      2. They would need to repeal the withdrawal agreement law that was passed in January stating there would be no extension. With an 80 seat majority that is unlikely.

    6. Ha ha! ha ha ha! Oh it’s lovely to see their bilge and hatred on display.

      In the majority? 80 seat majority. You’re a tiny, irrelevant minority who do not matter.

      No respect for democracy? Having just won an eleection by a landslide? With the rioting, vandalising thugs on the streets it’s the government who have no respect for democracy? It makes your head spin the knots they tie themselves in. They’re desperate.

    7. Despite forty years of evidence to the contrary, they are still clinging to the hope of “reform”. Delusional doesn’t even come close!

    8. “…little respect for democracy..” What hypocrites, you lost the referendum vote you cretins, get over it!

      1. This is where their view of democracy narrows to ‘only we should get a say’.

        The Left are fascists. Always have been, always will be.

      1. Performed on the Vrijthof, Maastricht, Rieu’s home town. I was stationed in Maastricht for two and a half years. Great place.

  48. 329828+ up ticks,
    May one ask does anyone else but me see a chink in johnsons
    build,build,build proposed program.

    1. Very definitely, although I rather think they will be staying in London. Still, someone has to roll over and move out to a new build to make room.

      1. 320828+ up ticks,
        Evening PM,
        Some time back I was jesting when saying mandatory lodgers could be on the cards, currently many a true word is spoken in jest..

    2. Hand sanitizer is flammable. We had several fires started by patients on psych wards using this as an accelerant.

          1. I think flammable is increasingly being used, largely due to dumbing down (people not understanding the different uses of the prefix in-). It used to be inflammable and non-inflammable, but then the dumbers started using flammable and non-flammable.

    1. As I’ve already pointed out, the decision to put CV19 patients into nursing homes only occurred in Democrat states. It’s been described as government-mandated homicide.
      And the same thing happened here, in this country. That is no accident or coincidence.
      I’ve not lost my mother, who’s still in a care home where there’s been no cases, but if I had, I’d be using, as should everyone who’s lost someone this way.

  53. The UK is 874 miles in length and 300 miles in width .. How on earth can we comfortably sustain another 3 million people .

    2. We can save money on flood prevention schemes and develop paddy fields instead……

    3. 320828+up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      You know as well as I know you cannot have comfort and support / vote lab/lib/con coalition.
      You are another that has seen the chink in the bojo’s build,build,build program then.

    4. We should have a deportation list which includes all those who were given residence rights in the years since 1990 or who got in via sham marriages and have a criminal record or have no evidence of gainful legal employment in the last 5 years.

      1. Great idea .

        As well as the grandchildren of the Afro Caribs who have caused so much nausea in recent years, the druggy stabby stabby brigade , and the Muslims who are buying up properties and turning them into multi tenented hovels !

    5. Especially considering some of the area is taken up with mountains and fens.

  54. I Khan’t say that I’m sorry I left…

    From the DT:

    “In the wake of the coronavirus crisis, the Greater London Authority faces, we are told, a whopping £493 million black hole in its budget over the next two years. It means for the first time as Mayor, Sadiq Khan must save money, rather than spend it. (some hope!)

    Unfortunately for Londoners, the Mayor is already lining up cuts to his budget for London’s emergency services. On Friday Khan unveiled his plan to balance City Hall’s books by cutting £109.3 million from Metropolitan Police and £25 million from the London Fire Brigade.

      1. Sadly it will be those that can’t get treatment who end up paying for inane policies….

          1. I reckon the following changes should be made in the voting register for mayoral elections:

            1. Include those who work in London in the month of the election (and their spouses or partner and those dependants above 18 in their household)

            2. Exclude those who are unemployed (unemployable), but resident in London (and spouses and dependants etc.)

          3. Agree re people who work in London.

            The difficulty would be reciprocity for people who, say, live in London but work in Cambridge.

          4. There, the relative scale of the problem (external stake vs. resident stake) is much smaller. In the provinces also mayors tend to represent the whole of the conurbation and most of the regional commuter area.

  55. Sky news reporting that 36 areas including Bradford and areas in London are on the verge of lockdown.

      2. Morning T-B – these lockdowns are going to cause much confusion and irritation. I had 2 Pakistanis from the Leeds Bradford area in my house yesterday. One could hardly speak English and the other didn’t appear to know any English. Fortunately we all kept our distance and I had every window in the house open for hours before they came and left.

          1. They were delivering a heavy and bulky item which had to go upstairs. I had been asked to take reasonable precautions to safeguard the health and safety of myself and the delivery men. My solution was as much ventilation of the house as possible and social distancing.
            Apart from the language difficulty all went to plan. The men had done several deliveries before they came to me. I shall be keeping a careful eye on my temperature and blood oxygen levels for the next week or so.

          2. Oh well – at least they were working! How on earth do they manage with hardly any English? I hope you stay well.

    2. I know that this may be seen by many as callous and self-serving, but I sincerely hope that lockdown – if it comes to my neck of the woods – does not happen for another week. I have booked an appointment to have my locks trimmed by a local hairdresser next Tuesday!

      :-))

    3. I see they’ve put Gloucestershire in as one of 36 areas where cases are rising. The DM reported a 300% increase – that’s because it’s had three cases last week – up from one the week before!

  56. L.A. City Council Passes Motion to Replace Police with ‘Crisis Response’ for ‘Non-violent’ Calls. 1 July 2020.

    The Los Angeles City Council passed a motion Tuesday to replace Los Angeles Police Department officers with unarmed “crisis response” personnel to be assigned to “non-violent calls for service” such as “neighbor disputes.”

    These jobs are open to all LGBT oriented persons and those tired of breathing and too stupid to tie their shoelaces. Lol!

    https://www.breitbart.com/crime/2020/06/30/l-a-city-council-passes-motion-to-replace-police-with-crisis-response-for-non-violent-calls/

    1. The requirement to be able to walk and talk, concurrently, will not be a requirement

        1. Optional. They can stick it behind their ear when doing one of the other things.

    2. And what could possibly go wrong with that policy?
      Neighbourhood disputes may not start out violent, but can quickly turn that way in a very short space of time.

      The Capitol Hill Occupation Protest zone in Seattle has been dismantled after more deadly shootings, including the latest, being a 16 and 14 year olds, one dead, one badly injured. Oh, and a mob descended upon the local mayor’s home, which she didn’t like. Just a short while ago she was berating Trump for telling her she should take back the zone from the protesters, and she was saying it was like a peaceful block party, a “summer of love.”
      Funny how these socialist communes collapse into violence so quickly, especially when you get rid of the regular police and have armed militia instead.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53224445
      https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/01/us/seattle-chop-protesters/index.html

      This account didn’t age well:
      https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/06/15/dont-listen-to-fox-heres-whats-really-going-on-in-seattles-protest-zone-321507
      Don’t Listen to Fox. Here’s What’s Really Going On in Seattle’s Protest Zone.
      What’s happening in these four blocks that shook the world is indeed an occupation, but it looks nothing like the “totalitarian takeover” touted on the conservative network.

  57. The latest Musk Have craze…

    From ZH:
    “It seems just earlier this week that Tesla surpassed $1,000 per share, which it did… on Monday.
    Fast forward 48 hours when the stock which has now become a poster child for everything that is berserk in our banana markets has sprinted from $1,000 to $1,117 this morning on absolutely no news just more daytrading momentum, its market cap rising by $20 billion in two days..
    its market cap now surpassing $203 billion – making it not only more valuable than oil E&P giant Exxon, a company which literally moves the world -but also surpassing Toyota’s market cap, making Tesla the world’s most valuable car maker.”

    Shoeshine moonshine?

    1. Tesla have a shop unit in Westfield White City. I’d love to know if they ever actually sell anything.

      1. I recall seeing a few Teslas being driven around London….and I have a banker friend living in HK that’s just purchased one….

        1. Our next-door neighbours have one.
          I’m sure they’re doing their bit for the environment, reducing their carbon footprint etc, etc, and all the electricity they use to charge it comes from unicorn farts….

    4. If they were tailors, they would be making

      the Emperor’s New Clothes, to be worn only to South Sea Bubble Land, when wearing Ratners jewelery

      1. Mind you his Space X is rather special (if somewhat heavily subsidised by the US Citizens).

    5. What a lot of money can be made off the backs of government subsidies aka taxpayers eh.

    6. Buy one day and sell the next? Sooner if you’re becoming twitchy.
      One failing wind farm ….

  58. Harpers Wine website bleating about post-Brexit horror. I commented and they edited my comment, removing “if the EU wish to sell us wine they must meet our rules, or we go elsewhere”, and ” Remainers continue to whine about leaving”.
    The report was of a conference under “Chatham House rules”, that is, anonymity for speakers…I wonder why?

    https://harpers.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/27387/Self-imposed_regulations_risk_UK_92s_standing_as_fine_wine_trading_hub.html

    1. The ptb seem dedicated to the Rousseau idea that the state should take over from parents in raising their children. The establishment forces have screwed up over the past three months so it’s full on propaganda for the autumn term?

    3. Linked up from a post on that thread is this Conservative Woman article:-
      https://conservativewoman.co.uk/headteacher-who-says-respect-all-views-no-smash-them/

      Two BTL Comments from it:-

      Bill E Rubin • 3 days ago
      Re-posted from shred (for which thanks!)
      Unfortunately, the education system in the UK is is riddled with other wan kers like Doherty, from the teacher training lecturers to the ministry of education civil servants and even those inspecting standards. And of course the MPs, ministers and lawyers who put this stuff into law. It must be awful for parents who are not cultural Marxists and LGBTQerty weirdos.

      1 • Reply• Share ›
      −
      Avatar

      Bob of Bonsall Bill E Rubin • a few seconds from now
      All part of the “Long March Through The Institutions” that has been going on for the past 50y. Ever since the Student Radicals of the ’60s/’70s Protest Movement, realising they would never get their Marxist ideology accepted by the electorate, began gaining footholds in the different pasts of the Establishment with Education, along with Social Work, being one of the first targets.
      There is a lot of filth to be cleaned out of the stables.

      • Edit• Reply •Share ›

    5. They are not “de-colonising” anything [I could easily do that for them by shoving a powerful vacuum hose up their rectums (recta?)].

      They are implementing their (illegal?) Common Purpose agenda by brainwashing their pupils. I would love to read what the Education Acts say about failing to properly educate children (with the empirical proof of scientific facts) and filling their developing minds with all manner of ideological bollocks instead.

    6. No doubt the pupils will think their grandparents kept slaves and will set about killing them all off because of it..

      Still. it will save on pensions and health care so that ever more BAMEs can be imported.

    1. Is this ‘knee’ nonsense still taking place at football matches? Thought most of those who thoughtlessly jumped on the bandwagon have now – belatedly – seen the error of their ways and are trying to extricate themselves.

      1. It appears so, although they may be looking to stop without showing “weakness” to the mob.
        Sir Cur Stammer is rowing back, it has affected his poll ratings. 😂

    3. I wonder if they would be good at that famous Olympic sport of back-pedalling? Brits are splendid at cycling! And rowing back!

    4. I wrote a letter to the DT a couple of days ago about the fact that they now refuse comments on virtually all the topics which require proper debate.

      Of course they didn’t publish the letter.

      1. Morning Rastus, their new editorial policy, you can say or write what you like but we only publish what we agree with.
        It certainly is not worth a subscription fee any more. See my previous comment this morning ref Firefox.

  62. 320828+up ticks,
    The 3 million new guest’s are the thin end of the wedge now factor in the
    six million at least dependants.
    That equates to nine million so the build, build,build, program takes on a whole new outlook as in 24/7 construction for at least a decade, with no tea breaks.

  63. The Sweep has just left … he cleaned/ cleared our chimney .. The jackdaw ‘s abandoned nest was huge and constructed 6 foot down the chimney . I am full of admiration for the method and for the use of their beaks for gathering complicated materials .. twigs , lots of them as a base, then sticks , moss, lichen, hay, more twigs , fluff / hair from animals … incredible size of nest , it filled a compost bag when it was dragged down the chimney .

    The jackday abandoned the nest because it was probably constructed too deeply, it’s mathmatical little brain deduced that the babies would not be sheltered from the rain , so it moved to the empty house next door and used their chimney which has a rain guard over the top.. it fledged three babies nicely , and I put little snacks on my front lawn to watch them chatter over the bits and pieces.

    The sweep will be returning later to put a gadget on top of the chimney to stop birds nesting and to keep the rain out !

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b90f01abc92ffa3ae787dd150f356e3ccbe0b84b2d0c5fd08e6696473ce80ebf.jpg

      1. Lovely, I will watch it properly later ,thanks for posting it.

        Interesting to see the chap driving the landrover near to the end has a spaniel identical to one of mine !

    2. Good. While we didn’t like frustrating the jackdaws’ home making instincts, we did need a working chimney.

    3. Goodafternoon, Maggie

      We have stainless steel tubes fitted in both our chimneys which are connected to clean glass woodburning stoves, They have hats to minimise birds and rain entering the chimneys. Soon we shall be pushing up the rods and brushes through the stoves and up the pipes and with luck shall not make a mess doing it ourselves.

      1. Ours is just a medium size coal fire with a back boiler for emergencies,, it sits in a huge tall wide Purbeck stone fireplace , looking like Fred Flinstones house , quite a few small fossils embedded, it looks dated and ugly , but I love it and every time I look at it I imagine I can see more fossils , tiny shapes etc.

        1. We have a big stone fireplace which was an open fire when we moved here 25 years ago – but we had the woodburner installed ten years ago (January2010) on the advice of the sweep as most of the heat from the open fire was going up the chimney. It was a good move, as it was installed just the day before we were snowed in!

      2. Take care over that.

        I have a sneaking suspicion that in France you need a qualified ramoneur to do it annually, otherwise your house insurance is invalidated in the event of a chimney fire. I would certainly check your policy.

          2. 60€ last time it was done. It’s probably 65€ here as well by now. We have 2 woodburners and the sweep wouldn’t give me a discount for doing both (only one travel expense) so I told him to just do one of them.

            If you burn properly dried wood (oak or chestnut) and avoid pine like the plague there shouldn’t be a problem. We have friends who light theirs in October and it’s kept in until March.

          3. We’re much the same.

            We take down an oak every year in winter for the following year, it seems to work well.
            I do use pine andother branches that fall from the trees, they make excellent kindling.

          4. Pine can leave a tarry deposit up the flue/liner which, if the fire is hot enough, can ignite. Pine cones make good kindling!

          5. Good squirrel food too.

            We had one eating the plums today, first we’ve seen so close to the house for ages.

          7. LOGS TO BURN!

            Logs to burn! logs to burn!
            Logs to save the coal a turn!
            Here’s a word to make you wise
            When you hear the woodman’s cries.

            Beechwood fires burn bright and clean,
            Hornbeam blazes too –
            If the logs are kept a year
            To season through and through.

            Oak logs will warm you well
            If they’re old and dry.
            Larch logs of Pinewood smell,
            But the sparks will fly.

            Pine is good and so is Yew,
            For warmth through wintry days.
            But Poplar, and Willow too
            Take long to dry or blaze.

            Birch logs will burn too fast,
            Alder scarce at all.
            Chestnut logs are good to last,
            If cut in the fall.

            Holly logs will burn like wax,
            You should keep them green.
            Elm logs – like smouldering flax –
            No flame is seen!

            Pear logs and Apple logs
            They will scent your room.
            Cherry logs, across the dogs,
            Will smell like flowers in bloom.

            But Ash logs, all smooth and grey,
            Burn them green or old.
            Buy up all that come your way –
            They’re worth their weight in gold.

          8. Blimey! That’s cheap! Mine cost me getting on for £90 a chimney last year and no discount for multiples.

          10. Seems a lot, Conway. Did you shop around? Try parking the Jag round the corner. ;@)

          4. Sense of humour failure here, I’m afraid.
            :-((
            Sorry. Holiday needed – or copious quantities of booze…

  66. Q: Where do Africans/”Middle Easterners” go to after they land?

    A: I’m not sure, but eventually some of them end up in mixed housing estates in Solihull.

    Q; How do you know?

    A: Well there are some snowflaky/lefty friends of my wife who live in Shirley and they have just complained to my wife about a new Sudanese family in the small block who keep peeping out from behind the bedsheet in their window and also that there are an increasing number of brown faces around them.

    Q: How do you feel about this?

    A: Mixed, because I remember his declaration in front of company, after I complained about muslim behaviour, that I was “such a racist”. I asked him then why his family had moved from Sparkhill (now Islamic/Asian) to Solihull. I doubt they can afford to engage in further “white flight”.

    1. Saucy !

      I have heard the arguments from feminists about the objectification of women. If these women choose to work in this type of industry then it is up to them. Feminists should concern themselves with women being trafficked into prostitution. But that’s a bit harder than wagging fingers and moralising.

        1. Yes. Being a redhead with freckles put the kybosh on my modeling career.

          Who do i sue for compensation?

          4. Whom, Phizzee! And please capitalise the I. The Russians make much of having a lower case letter for the personal pronoun – we’re better than them 🙂

    1. That’s easy. It’s the towns with the people that wipe their arses with their hands.

      1. We’re trying to teach them the southern way: licking their neighbours’ arses with their tongues!

        [I’m not biting! 🤣]

    3. Insufficient command of English to understand government instructions for social distancing …

    4. Areas where there were some big family parties about a month ago (but nobody from outside attended, honest.).

          2. I’m stumped…… why isn’t Birmingham on the list? And some of the London boroughs?

          3. West midlands would be, but amalgamated with other areas to lessen the obvious impact.

    9. And to date, the area with the highest infection rate in the UK is Brent, North London. This also includes Harrow which has a massive problem with overcrowding housing caused by illegal immigrants living as many as 20 to a two bed terraced house. Not including out many out buildings.
      Quite often the neighbours call in the council when the drains become blocked and further investigation leads to finding dreadful filth and squalor in side the property. The illegals just pack up and leave, but the councils do absolutely nothing such as arresting them and checking their ID.

  70. Just to keep in touché, we have been helping our middle son, his wife and 4 month old son move into their lovely new home. Exchanged keys at 1pm yesterday. Lots of little jobs to do for them today i might pop in later. 🛠

      1. It’s lovey.
        Our son bought his bachelor pad after he split up with a girlfriend. But then he met his future wife and with a the baby its become a little crowded.

    1. Having met the costs of two weddings six weeks apart I have a good deal of empathy with this…..

    2. Could this be the start of sanity returning to weddings and funerals? If overpriced extravagant parties are not allowed, maybe people will start focusing on the meaning of the celebrations.

  72. The Premier League should have thought twice before getting into bed with Black Lives Matter
    Virtue signalling is a dangerous game for organisations that jump on bandwagons without properly researching the movements they endorse

    CALVIN ROBINSON

    The problem with virtue signalling is that, at best, you’re appeasing a vocal minority and at worst you’re alienating the silent majority. I’m certain most Brits are already against racism, making the moral grandstanding we’ve seen from organisations such as the Premier League over the past few weeks utterly pointless and, as it turns out, rather counter-productive.

    Quick to jump on the Black Lives Matter bandwagon, the Premier League supported footballers getting involved by taking the knee and wearing BLM slogans on the back of their shirts. Had they taken some time to research the Black Lives Matter movement upfront, considered the people behind the campaign and the message they’re trying to portray, perhaps they wouldn’t have been so hasty.

    At last, some of the prominent people who leapt to back the movement in this country have woken up to the fact that Black Lives Matter UK is an anti-capitalist, anti-democratic organisation – just as many of us have been warning for weeks. The signs were there in the disturbing manifesto published on their website for all to see.

    Its abhorrent views were further highlighted this week when the BLM UK team published unmistakably anti-Semitic messages online. On their Twitter account, they posted: “As Israel moves forward with the annexation of the West Bank, and mainstream British politics is gagged of the right to critique Zionism, and Israel’s settler colonial pursuits, we loudly and clearly stand beside our Palestinian comrades. FREE PALESTINE.” A message taken straight out of the Corbynite handbook of anti-Semitic tropes. If it walks like Momentum and talks like Momentum…

    Who exactly is “gagging” anyone’s “right to critique Zionism”? Not only did BLM UK refuse to recant or apologise for the statement, they doubled down with a timeline full of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist tweets. Zionism is not racism, fascism or colonialism, nor is it about endorsing the policies of every Israeli government. Zionism is the movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people around the world, and their yearning for a safe homeland, against the backdrop of persecution and genocide. Regardless, what does any of this have to do with black lives mattering in the United Kingdom?

    The former Southampton player and now Sky Sports pundit Matt Le Tissier was one of the first to question the organisation, saying he would “review” whether or not to wear BLM badge on television. Stronger condemnation came from former Wolverhampton Wanderers captain Karl Henry, who tweeted: “I think the majority of the UK have now had enough of that organisation… Black people’s lives matter! The divisive #BlackLivesMatter organisation, however, DOES NOT.”

    Sir Keir Starmer is another who was quick to subjugate himself by taking a knee for Black Lives Matter, only to say later that its desire to defund the police was “nonsense”. As organisations begin to wake up to the foul, racist and un-British undertones of the BLM movement, I suspect we’ll see many more begin to distance themselves.

    We all agree racism has no place in British sport. There are some fantastic movements around, including Show Racism the Red Card, or Kick It Out, with whom I did some work when I first moved to London fifteen years ago. These are mature organisations with respectable goals. There was no need for the Premier League to get into bed with BLM.

    Let’s hope the Premier League and other equally silly organisations learn from this mess. Do your research. Don’t fall foul of social-media peer pressure to back a political campaign, especially one that’s quite openly calling for capitalism to be smashed. Black Lives Matter defiles British values and should be ignored and disregarded as the opportunistic and extremist Marxist organisation it is.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/01/premier-league-should-have-thought-twice-getting-bed-black-lives/

    1. So many people in public life leap immediately on what they think is a trending bandwagon – only to look extremely foolish when the real story behind the bandwagon is made public.

      Cur Ikea is just the most recent….

      1. While the rest of us who already know the real story behind the bandwagon, which is usually available to everyone who can read or watch a few videos within a short space of time, are initially met with derision and insults. Then they all go silent with embarrassment and rush off to the next story which surely must prove that we’re all racists or something.

    2. I assume that there will be no thought of contrition at Football HQ, more likely endless meetings to discuss how they can worm their way out of the situation. Wouldn’t be surprised, for example, to hear that players giving the black power salute were, in fact, checking wind direction – a vital element when taking free kicks.

    3. But as usual, the courageous and direct action taken by the white working class man is ignored by the hypocritical, lefty pearl-clutching Telegraph. They can applaud the timid protests of wealthy TV commentators, while not mentioning that Jake Hepple and his girlfriend lost their jobs because they spoke the truth.
      The Establishment is terrified of the working classes – always has been, always will be.

  73. Ahem

    “A powerful body of business and political figures dedicated to

    stronger ties with China is taking legal action over a book which claims

    that President Xi’s government is grooming British elites.

    The 48 Group Club of which the former deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine is a

    founding patron took down it’s website after Hidden Hand, an expose of

    Chinese influence networks , was published.”

    The rats are scurrying as light is shone into the dark corners….

    https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/48838251-hidden-hand

  74. Right: hands up. Who knows what ‘Barnett consequentials’ are? They’re something to do with Scotland, but nothing to do with kilt wearing.
    Tom Harris in the DT. It’s actually very funny.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/01/keir-starmers-lawyerly-shtick-starting-fall-flat/

    “Keir Starmer’s lawyerly shtick is starting to fall flat

    Amid wifi-impaired SNP histrionics at PMQs, the Labour leader won’t have convinced many he was PM-in-waiting with his Eeyorish questions

    Once again it was Britain’s broadband network that proved inadequate to the task of our part-virtual Prime Minister’s Questions.

    Specifically it was the wifi speed in Ian Blackford’s Highlands constituency that meant that although we could hear him perfectly well, the SNP’s Westminster leader clearly couldn’t hear parts of Boris Johnson’s answers.

    Bizarrely, he started off in statesman mode by referring to the knife attacks in a Glasgow hotel last Friday. Fair enough, you might think. Except he started by assuming that the thoughts of everyone in the House “will be with me and those who were caught up” in the violent events. Why would MPs’ thoughts be with Mr Blackford when, we must assume, he was self-isolating in his simple croft somewhere in the back of beyond at safe remove from Scotland’s largest city? Should they automatically think of him every time any news emerges from Scotland? And if he was actually in the hotel when the attacks happened, is publicly inviting everyone’s thoughts really the thing to do? Perhaps the dodgy broadband connection is to blame after all.

    But it was playing up again by the time he got to his main thrust. “Barnett consequentials” is one of those weird, obscure phrases that mean nothing to most normal people but which are bred into Scots from nursery school onwards. Ask any Scottish six-year-old when the battle of Hastings was and you’ll be met with a blank stare. But ask them about Barnett consequentials and you’re likely to get a stream of facts and figures about relative capital spending in England and its impact on Scotland’s budget.

    Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, is rumoured to be considering achieving her life’s ambition by finally closing the border between Scotland and England, ostensibly in order to stop Covid-infected southerners spending their money here. But while English people in general are not to be welcomed by the SNP, their tax revenue will face no border controls, it seems. Following the prime minister’s “build build build” speech yesterday, Blackford asked: “What are the Barnett consequentials coming to Scotland?” Good question, was the murmur among Scotland’s infants as they watched telly chewing on their banana sandwiches while waiting for Bob the Builder to come on.

    Mr Johnson responded: “£3.8 billion.”

    If only that broadband in Loch Ootrage was working properly! “The prime minister simply could not answer the question!” Mr Blackford thundered. So, just another PMQs outing for him.

    The main event, the sparring between Mr Johnson and Keir Starmer, was a pretty dull affair, which will suit Mr Johnson just fine. The problem for Sir Keir is that he daren’t sound too pessimistic just as the country seems to be slowly emerging from its Covid hibernation. So he focussed on the extended lockdown measures in Leicester. He revealed that he had, only this morning, spoken to the city’s elected mayor, Sir Peter Soulsby – a dangerous admission, since a more lively House would surely have brought cries of “You’re lucky you caught him in!”

    And blaming the prime minister for the large and aggressive crowds who flocked to Britain’s beaches during the recent hot weather will have little purchase either. The Labour leader was on safer ground by challenging the government’s efforts on track and trace, asking why only a quarter of those who have into contact with Covid sufferers had actually been contacted. But here Johnson was able to brush off the accusation by accentuating the positive. Starmer needs to be wary of this pattern: it’s his job to oppose the government and to warn of the dire consequences of its policies. But he’s starting to sound like Eeyore.

    That may be a bit unfair on Starmer, given the requirements of his job. But being cleverly and lawyerly isn’t going to be enough if he wants to depict himself as the nation’s obvious alternative leader. No one wants to feel depressed every time the PM speaks to the nation – remember Gordon Brown?

    Starmer’s tactic of complaining about the government’s alleged lack of generosity when it comes to spending won’t work either, given the £600 billion already committed to getting the country through this crisis. Yet that’s what Starmer attempted to do, pointing out that commitments in the prime minister’s speech yesterday amounted to £100 for every person in the UK, or just 0.2 per cent of GDP.

    What message should we take from this? That national debt – now at more than 100% of our GDP – is not high enough and will rise under Labour? That would be a bold message indeed and would at least make him more popular with his hard Left faction.

    Still, at least Starmer refrained from asking the prime minister to pay tribute to him. We’ll leave that to the Laird of Ootrage, if his dial-up internet is still working.”

    1. Barnett consequentials = Scotland splurges money and the English pay for it.

    1. From Al Beebjeerus:

      “Up to three million Hong Kong residents are to be offered the chance to settle in the UK and ultimately apply for citizenship, Boris Johnson has said.
      The PM said Hong Kong’s freedoms were being violated by a new security law and those affected would be offered a “route” out of the former UK colony.
      About 350,000 UK passport holders, and 2.6 million others eligible, will be able to come to the UK for five years.”

      2. And After 5 years you can apply for citizenship and stay forever. Didn’t think Hong Kongers were known as good builders.

    2. That’s a good idea, because of course, there is a huge surplus of housing in the UK, together with an over-abundance of school places and far too many hospital beds.

      1. Out of 3M, some must be qualified teachers. Replace all those who have blocked plans to reopen the schools with teachers from HK. Then the kids would definitely be back in school in September.
        If we are really lucky there maybe some who could replace Dick of the yard and Khan’t of London.

        1. Wrong kind of teacher, the Hong Kong system expects disciplined classes and a desire to learn.

          Wasn’t there a program recently where Hong Kong (or maybe it was Singaporean or even Chinese) teachers came to the UK and tried teaching in a UK school

    4. 320828+up ticks,
      Afternoon OLT,
      Now do you see the chink in johnson’s build,build,build,
      program ?

    5. Two and half million! What’s that? A drop in the bucket. Lol! Perhaps Dylan should have sung The End Times Are A’comin!

    6. Yay ! We get to import ready made crime gangs. The Triads and the Yakuza. That should give the county lines boyos a run for their money.

  77. Evening, all. I’m not sure it’s builders we need (we ought to severely limit immigration and get rid of the foreign criminals and foreign dolees to reduce the population). What we need are engineers, scientists (but not of the Ferguson type), manufacturers, ship builders (especially in view of the French stamping their feet over being shut out of hoovering up our fish) etc.

    1. Good evening, Conwy.

      Tomato problem.

      We followed your feather tip. The MR went out first thing – but after five minutes thought she didn’t have the hang of it – so looked online. She found a video from the USA in which a chap said the best thing to use was an electric toothbrush. One of the reasons given was that the vibration simulated what bees do. Anyway, the MR found an old electric toothbrush – and set about her task. Now we wait and see.

      But one of the unexpected side effects was that BEES suddenly appeared and followed her around, both in the greenhouse and outside!

      1. That is incredible , where did the bees come from.. had they been busy doing other things .. buzzing on your flowers perhaps?

      3. Ah, well, my gardening knowledge comes from the time when one didn’t have electric toothbrushes. Quill pens and chewed bits of bark were the rage then 🙂

      5. What you need to do is mover some flowers into the green house.
        Next time grown some sweet peas in there.

        1. Companion planting for tomatoes suggests mint (but keep it in a container or it will get out of control).

          1. I guess Sweet pea scent could over powering. We have mint, in an old kitchen sink, but my tommies are flourishing already

      7. Another tip about companion planting for tomatoes is to grow asparagus. Apparently, it prevents nematodes from attacking the roots. As well as mint (see earlier in my reply to Ready Eddy), you can also use basil, chives and marigolds to help control pests.

    3. Farm equipment builders, don’t forget farming. Since todays youth have been classified as too feeble to work the fields, a big investment in automated crop planting and harvesting equipment is needed.

      Probably a decent export market for machinery as well.

      1. I live in a rural area; I don’t forget farming, although we are mainly beef and sheep (particularly the latter). My grandfather worked an arable farm – he ploughed with horses (obviously where I got the connection from!).

        1. I was thinking about all the soft fruit and vegetable farming that needs large numbers of immigrant workers to do the back breaking work planting and harvesting.
          Even at my tender age I can vaguely remember wheat being cut by hand using big scythes, nowadays very complex combines spit out cleaned, dried wheat into trucks for transport to market.

          It seems that the strawberry harvest is still completely manual, just think of the cost savings if a machine could do the work.

          1. Farming was always labour intensive, but nowadays not so much. The fruit harvest used to be done by the indigenous (I was brought up in Worcestershire). If we didn’t have such a feather-bedded welfare system and people had to work for the dole if they were capable, we wouldn’t need to import foreigners to live 10 to a room and send their money back home.

  78. I am off for the evening – glass of medication to hand. I may join you tomorrow – though it is market day and I am under instructions to be there in good time….

    Anyway, have a jolly evening planning your next month of quarantine….

          2. The young character in The Perishers (Daily Mirror) cartoon strip known as baby grumplin’ [always in lower case] used to carry around a teddy bear known as “Gladly” (my cross-eyed bear).

          3. “He who would valiant be………..Gain stole his aster”………. (me, aged 6).

          4. When I used to go to Sunday School I hated that modern travesty of Bunyan. Both versions were printed adjacent to one another in the hymn book and, being a rebel, I would sing, “Who would true valour see…” to the consternation of the congregation and ministers.

            Bunyan’s original had “hobgoblins and foul fiends” and “lions fighting”, but the new, antiseptic, version had had them expunged. I would think “How dare they?”

  80. Good night all.

    Lemon sole fillet a la meuniere with lemon-butter sauce washed down with a NZ SB.

    Early to bed because last night I started a new German thriller & before I knew it I was 12 chapters in at 02.30.

      1. Yes, quite often. Last night for instance, but it had nothing to do with the book.
        Goodnight, Belle. Glad you have a happy chimney.

    1. Hopefully they won’t all come…….. but at least they will bring skills and education with them – and they speak English.

  84. Well, blow me down.

    I am just back from actually SEEING a doctor. He looked like a 6th former – but was very thorough and filled me with confidence. The lad arranged an immediate blood test, done there and then, for new anti-biotics – which were brought out to me in the car – and is chasing the “urgent” X-ray. He wants a sputum sample in the morning.

    SO refreshing to come across someone who gives the impression of knowing what he is on about. Quite the opposite of my usual GP, Dr Stupid. I just hope he doesn’t move on – they have quite a turnover at the practice – perhaps, I wonder, because of Dr Stupid – who is the “senior partner”.

      1. You can’t do that, apparently. He sent an urgent request a week ago to the radiology unit. I should hear by Christmas – it being “urgent”…

    2. It’s good to see you so positive, Bill!

      The last doctor I saw was one who looked like a schoolboy, when I had shingles last year – he was thorough, though, and made the right diagnosis, confirmed by his supervisor, a few years older.

      But the senior partner at our practice is good, too.

      Unfortunately, at the moment they can’t even answer the phone.

      1. Our old senior partner was an old school GP – who spoke in formed sentences, knew his limitations, called his patients by their proper names and recognised that people often have a better instinct for what they need than the white coated.

        What I am pleased about is that, in addition to the chap today, the lady doctor (who was under 30) whom I saw last week at the plague-test hot-spot – was equally efficient and knowledgeable.

        1. Glad to hear you so upbeat, Bill.

          The last time i went to see a GP he looked like a spotty teenager. When i described my symptoms he accessed WebMD.com on his laptop.

          We are advised to not self diagnose. Well, my diagnosis of him was poor. He was wearing clogs and a cardigan !

          1. Hi Belle,
            Not good. I’m waiting for a referral to the pain clinic. Fat chance!
            Hopefully find a physio (private) sometime soon now they are open.

      1. Only up to a point. Clarithromycin – prolly be the death of me…{:¬))

      1. She’s getting on with her life by not shutting up – that was obviously her plan from the outset – to gain her platform and exploit it.

  87. “The great white hope ” is archaic language, according to Evan Davies, who I thought had more sense.

    2. I had a splendid conversation baiting the old leftie Evilthatmendo over that one by telling him that Michelle Obama would be the Democrats next great white hope..
      He very nearly self destructed.

      edit typos.

  90. What’s to stop the people of Leicester ‘doing a Cummings’?

    Call me a cynic, but I fear the Government is trying to set an example ahead of Super Saturday celebrations

    ALLISON PEARSON

    Poor old Leicester. The East Midlands city is the first in the country to be put on the Naughty Step after seeing a “dramatic surge” in coronavirus cases. Lockdown is back for Leicester before it’s even lifted.

    Non-essential shops, which have only recently opened their doors, had to pull down the shutters again yesterday and schools will be closed from tomorrow. In Blaby and Birstall, they were dreaming of a blow-dry and a pint of bitter at the end of this week – well, you can forget that now, me duck.

    This is what Jeremy Hunt, talking to the Today programme, called “a necessary puncturing of the elation building up to July 4th”. He sounded like a Victorian father sending the children to bed without supper. In the Commons, Matt Hancock set the same censorious, authoritarian tone, insisting that the drastic move was necessary because Covid-19 cases in Leicester “accounted for 10 per cent of all positive cases in Britain over the past week”.

    It sounded ominous. But how bad is it really? From June 20 to 26, there were 41 new corona cases in Leicester (compared to zero cases in the City of London and Scotland). Not so much a rampaging plague then as a virus that appears to be weakening and on its way out. Seriously, I’ve seen more dramatic surges in a bidet.

    And those 41 are just people who tested positive and are likely to make a full recovery, not cases serious enough to be put on a ventilator. One nurse, reflecting the national picture, told me her hospital was so quiet “it’s like Christmas Day without the bacon rolls”. Frankly, you could see where the bewildered Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, was coming from when he claimed ministers were imposing new restrictions “based on data that doesn’t add up”.

    The Government has been secretive about its test results, but Toby Young, who runs the excellent Lockdown Sceptics, managed to do a rough calculation: “135/100,000 are infected in Leicester. Leicester has a population of 329,839 so that’s 444 infected people in Leicester. The fatality rate of Covid-19 is 0.25 – so, of those 444, 1 person will die.”

    Let’s express that in human terms. An awful lot more businesses will go under, thousands of children will lose yet more schooling and many more men and women will not get tested for cancer and other serious diseases in order to save one individual, or a very small number at most.

    And that’s if the good burghers of Leicester choose to cooperate with the second lockdown, having watched their Southern counterparts protesting illegally in Whitehall. Is the Government planning on putting tanks on the road to Oadby to prevent citizens escaping? What’s to stop people doing a Dominic Cummings and driving to Market Harborough to “test their eye sight”?

    The town’s delightful Three Swans Hotel, where your columnist enjoyed her first romantic dinner at the age of 16 (thank you for the prawn cocktail and steak and chips of blessed memory, Andy), will be open from Saturday, hopefully doing a roaring trade. Does Matt Hancock really believe no one will travel the 16.9 miles from Leicester to Harborough to join in the fun?

    It’s absurd. About as absurd as telling people they are permitted to have a wedding, but the bride’s father can’t link arms to walk her down the aisle and the happy couple must wash their hands before exchanging rings. Oh, and “organs are allowed but must be cleaned before and after”. Who needs a best man’s embarrassing, smutty jokes when you’ve got the clowns at the Department of Health?

    The cynical view, and after three months of isolation I’m afraid I can hardly muster any other kind, is that the Government is making an example of Leicester “pour encourager les autres”. (As Voltaire slyly put it, “it is thought wise to kill an admiral from time to time to encourage the others”.) If the Leicester “spike” was evident over seven days ago, why didn’t ministers act before the weekend? Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that July 4 is our independence day and shutting down a city this week is a draconian way of warning everyone not to go mad, could it?

    Of course Leicester needs to take care. It has one of the most diverse populations in the country with white British (45 per cent) and Indian (28 per cent) comprising the largest ethnic groups. As we have seen during the pandemic, BAME citizens are more susceptible to Covid. The city has had a problem with tuberculosis (around 40.5 per 100,000 compared with 10.9 in England and Wales), there was a serious outbreak in one school years ago, affecting both staff and pupils. I can’t remember anyone suggesting Leicester should be put into quarantine.

    The Secretary of State for Health seems to be under the curious impression that a greater number of Covid infections is a problem. They’re not if the person who has the virus is asymptomatic, as most young people are, or if they make a good recovery, as nearly everyone does. Only corona cases that require hospitalisation are a worry, and they are mercifully few.

    “A lot of people will be irritated, a lot of people will be puzzled and others quite angry, particularly businesses that were opening,” says Mayor Soulsby. Can you blame them? The prevalence of the virus in their city is 0.135 per cent, only slightly higher than the national figure of 0.09 per cent. That’s not an epidemic. Sensible hygiene measures, and determined shielding of care homes and the vulnerable, should be enough to keep it at bay.

    On Saturday, many of the restrictions we have endured as a nation for three months are to be lifted. It should be a joyous day of release for the British people, but one city is excluded from the celebrations. Leicester is being treated as a social experiment, a cautionary tale for the rest of the country, not a city of individuals whose happiness and livelihoods depend on getting their freedom back. It’s hard to suppress suspicions that this is for reasons of social control, not health.

    Put it this way: if I lived in Leicester, I might find myself in urgent need of an eye test. At the Three Swans Hotel in Market Harborough.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/poor-leicester-treated-cautionary-tale-enjoy-independence-day/

    1. “Seriously, I’ve seen more dramatic surges in a bidet.” – ha ha! – I like that one!

    2. The really stupid bit is the street where they drew the line – one side locked down and the other one free to go out.

    3. I would remain in lockdown in the Mercure Hotel (formerly the Grand Hotel) dining at Marco Pierre White’s restaurant in that establishment.

      When I stayed there I expressed an interest in viewing the Grand Ballroom. I thought the enormous ‘marble ‘ columns must be scagliola (imitation marble made from plaster on a wooden lath). I rapped my knuckles against them and bruised them. The columns were over fifteen feet in height and over a foot in diameter. They must have been shaped on some massive lathe.

      I just wish people would appreciate the truly wonderful historical artefacts we have around us instead of allowing the Mob to destroy them. Hitler tried it and managed to destroy a lot before we destroyed him and his repulsive racist regime.

      We should be wiser to the threat of Antifa and Black Lives Matter, both insurrectionist movements who would do us serious harm if left unchecked.

    4. Most diverse and the highest rate for tuberculosis. We have been enriched all right. With infected phlegm.

    5. WS..

      Good morning .

      “Of course Leicester needs to take care. It has one of the most diverse populations in the country with white British (45 per cent) and Indian (28 per cent) comprising the largest ethnic groups. As we have seen during the pandemic, BAME citizens are more susceptible to Covid. The city has had a problem with tuberculosis (around 40.5 per 100,000 compared with 10.9 in England and Wales), there was a serious outbreak in one school years ago, affecting both staff and pupils. I can’t remember anyone suggesting Leicester should be put into quarantine.”

      What nationalities make up the remaining 30% . Are these figures now typical of all big city statistics?

  91. A test for you all. Can anyone identify this heraldic device? The only clue I have is that the photo was taken in Normandy. The lion and unicorn are, of course, associated with the English and later British crown but this is not that. There are two lions in the bottom right quadrant of the shield, possibly two more top left. That might be an anchor top right but what are the two symbols bottom left? Two lions feature in Normandy’s heraldic devices and also in early English (an obvious link there).

    Over to you.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/11c82bfe2b3b1da226ca7aa29b88afffff082f00b4195cb274aedf35430defa6.jpg

    1. The paired lions and leopards are similar to that of William of Normany.

      The whole is very similar to the Royal arms of the UK 1837, so I’m guessing there is a connection somewhere.

        1. Possibly.

          In heraldic terms they often look similar.
          Lions tend to be male, female lions tend to be leopards (seriously!).

          It is an incredibly arcane activity.
          If you e-mailed the Garter King of Arms you may well get a definitive answer. they are very helpful people.

          https://www.college-of-arms.gov.uk/contact-us

    3. I used to be quite good at heraldry, but I have never seen anything like the charges in the lower dexter quarter. They appear to be roundels of some sort. I don’t think they’re mullets. It’s an anchor on the upper sinister. It could be French.

      1. The curious part is that the shield appears to have been sewn over a ribbon or scroll with a motto, some of the letters of which are partially visible.

    4. Two pairs of rubber dinghies each pair one being towed one behind the other, with rampant migrants and border force (over the horizon) pursuant…..

      1. Ironically the emblem of Catherine of Aragon! Pomegranates are emblematical of fertility.

  93. With the curtailment of furlough payments it would appear that many businesses, having benefited from the furlough scheme, are not retaining staff but using the post pandemic climate to alter their business models and release furloughed staff in numbers.

    Many who thought that they were receiving a free lunch at the expense of other taxpayers will find themselves unemployed. I cannot think of a worse scheme than one which promised employed staff 80% of their wages without securing guarantees from their employers to reciprocate. Absolutely shocking government incompetence.

    Meanwhile the self employed have received short shrift and obstacles have been placed in their way throughout. It is blindingly obvious that a self employed person will seek every opportunity to stay in business after furlough.

    1. It is clear that nobody in the government has any idea about the practical realities of running your own business.

      In my view a large percentage of Conservative MPs should have spent at least five years in self-employment before entering politics.

      1. I agree. I was employed for several decades and made millions for my employers. I should have moved to separation and self employment sooner than I did.

        I could not command the massive fees my earlier employers enjoyed nor the scale of project but I experienced a much easier life and did a lot of very satisfying work over which I had more personal control.

        I also developed as an Architect and architectural historian and was able to develop my own personal theories regarding Architecture and Art.

        This process is ongoing.

      2. By the by I referred Caroline to an American composer whose surname is not David Russell as stated but David Johnson.

        The organ piece was Trumpet Tune in D Major as played by Andrew Cantrill on the Grand Organ at Holbrook Royal Hospital School. There are lots of American recordings on the web.

        Please convey my apologies.

  94. The Summer of Love: How Hippies Changed the World

    https://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail/2704234/28294547/the-summer-of-love-how-hippies-changed-the-world

    The first of a two-part documentary recounting the 1967 coming-together that would change the world. The film traces the roots of the hippies to a 19th-century German sect of wandering naturalists that brought its freethinking ideas to California after the Second World War. There it merged with people expressing an interest in Eastern mystical concepts of human nature expounded by thinkers like Aleister Crowley and Aldous Huxley. Added to the mix was the CIA-developed drug LSD and a wave of student activists and anti-war protestors. The outcome was San Francisco’s Summer of Love.

    Peace and Love Brother…….
    Catch it on IPlayer

    3. I think you may have a typo there:

      The Summer of Love: How Herpes Changed the World

      1. Not a lot…..

        Black Panthers and the civil rights movement.
        The Ten-Point Program called for an immediate end to police brutality; employment for African Americans; and land, housing and justice for all. The Black Panthers were part of the larger Black Power movement, which emphasized black pride….

    1. Drat and double drat, Geoff. Just when I’d set my alarm for 6.45 am in order to be first! At the risk of being banned for life from this site I have to say: “You, Sir, are a Silly Sausage!”

      :-))

    2. On a flight from the captain…….”ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking, on behalf of myself and our crew, we wish you a safe and comfortable journey to Boston. I am switching to auto pilot and can assure you that nothing can go wrong”…..scht ⚡ ….can go wrong… scht ⚡ …. can go wrong ⚡ ……

Comments are closed.