Wednesday 15 July: Compulsory face-coverings will prove another ratchet-turn in infringing personal liberties

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/14/letters-compulsory-face-coverings-will-prove-another-ratchet/

744 thoughts on “Wednesday 15 July: Compulsory face-coverings will prove another ratchet-turn in infringing personal liberties”

  2. Edward Colston statue replaced by sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester. 15 July 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/31651d6e12671070ba197ce58e7d2dfdfa7579878c244d3d9bf78fdf06a3b13f.jpg

    The statue of slave trader Edward Colston was replaced in Bristol on Wednesday morning – with a sculpture of one of the protesters whose anger brought him down.

    The figure of Jen Reid, who was photographed standing on the plinth with her fist raised after the 17th century merchant was toppled by Black Lives Matter demonstrators last month, was erected at dawn by a team directed by the artist Marc Quinn.

    Arriving in two lorries before 5am, a team of 10 people worked quickly to install the figure of Reid, who said she had been secretly working with Quinn on the idea for weeks. It came as a complete surprise to the authorities, who are yet to announce their plans for the location.

    Morning everyone. Well obviously the Guardian were in on this and the “authorities” are not yet surprised since they didn’t know about it at the time of writing. It should of course be torn down as a piece of vandalism. This woman has performed no feat or service to Bristol or the Country that justifies her being memorialised in such a fashion!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/15/edward-colston-statue-replaced-by-sculpture-of-black-lives-matter-protester

      2. Heard a rumour that after four weeks the one person to be charged so far with Colston’s statue toppling has been granted anonymity and given a warning.

        Perhaps Quinn will be dealt with in similarly severe manner.

    4. Let’s hope that some White Lives Matter Too activists tear it down!”

    5. If I go along and tear that down as criminality should not be celebrated, will I get a statue as well?

      1. It will take very little effort for some wag to attach a noose to that tree.

        1. Apols. the q is rhetorical. I’d just get arrested. After all. I’m white, male and I have a job and I don’t have a racist cause to promote.

    1. Only whites can be racist. He is just an oppressed black who is entitled to his opinion. Yuk!

    1. Boris has proved to be a disappointment – to put it mildly. I’ve made allowances for strange times and his own illness, but enough is enough. The woke fiancee is a worry.
      I think Gove’s bid for the leadership was more about stopping someone whose failings he had observed at close quarters. At the time, I thought he was behaving like a politician (I was slightly surprised, but nothing really takes me aback where pols are concerned). Sadly, his action allowed May to become the last man standing. A case of being too clever by half.

      1. At the risk (risk? It’s virtually certain) of opprobrium descending on me from all NoTTL quarters, Annie, I am prepared to wait until December the 31st before making my final decision on Boris.

      2. Substantially agree. Boris’s behaviour over the weekend following the referendum win was atrocious by any standards and supposedly this triggered Gove’s move, muchly encouraged by little wifey.

        The weakened Boris makes Carrie a greater concern.

  6. SIR – I see that the legislation for mandatory use of face masks in shops relies on an Act passed in … 1984.

    Alison Watson
    Wincanton, Somerset

  7. SIR – Antony Worrall Thompson had a restaurant in Beauchamp Place in London in the early Eighties.

    A table was booked one evening for six people. By 3am the customers had still not arrived. Mr Worrall Thompson phoned the customer to inquire if they would still need the table, or if he could let the staff go home.

    Carry Hepworth
    Petworth, West Sussex

    Is this a confession, Carry?

  9. This ludicrous mask decision shows this is a Government driven by fear. 15 July 2020.

    Behavioural scientists may have advised that masks will encourage the more wary to go out and about once more, but the policy will put just as many off. Masks are ghastly, insidious and dehumanising accoutrements. If I am forced to wear one I won’t go shopping other than to a supermarket or food store. Unless I have to, I won’t go on public transport either. How many people who could return to the office will stay working from home if the alternative means spending an hour on a bus, train or Tube in a mask?

    Yes that about sums up my attitude but then I’m retired so any trip I make is voluntary. This said it is a stupid if not sinister decision. The scientific reasoning behind it seems weak at best and its consequences may be dire to the High Street. The Government have been wrong in every decision they have made concerning the virus and there is no reason to believe that anything has changed.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/ludicrous-mask-decision-shows-government-driven-fear/

    1. What he said. I don’t want some ludicrous face covering by state mandate. It’s the terror of the paranoid and frightened. Not for the health reasons, but as a matter of face saving.

    2. It won’t affect me too much – I hate shopping, so avoid it as much as possible. My wife, on the other hand, loves it (non-food shopping anyway), and like many (most?) women sees it as a day out. She hates the idea of wearing a mask all day long, so made her last shopping trip into Maidstone yesterday and will not be going to shopping centres in future unless it is for something specific which would be difficult to shop for on-line. Is she typical of women shoppers? Am I typical of male shoppers?

    3. It’s quite clear that the government has had another Ferguson moment, spooked by another ‘prediction’ of mass deaths next winter. Ferguson was wrong yet it has caved in again.

      It appears we are condemned to live permanently in this half-world.

  11. Remember remember….

    SIR – Jane Shilling’s praise for the British breakfast made me think of the excellent ones provided by British Rail in about 1970.

    I would take the 7.28 am train from Sherborne, Dorset, to London, Waterloo. A full English, with toast and marmalade and coffee (and top-ups), would be served by smart waiters. There were crisp tablecloths and napkins. Breakfast took most of the journey.

    Don Stringer

    Shere, Surrey

  12. ‘Morning again.

    SIR – The U-turn on masks is a political decision – not a scientific one – caused by the BBC continually presenting Nicola Sturgeon in a more favourable light than the Prime Minister. The “blob” cannot accept that Boris Johnson won the last election.

    David Johnstone
    Pewsey, Wiltshire

    This, Mr Johnstone, is only natural when our ‘impartial BBC’ promotes socialism with such vigour. Of course they support Mrs Murrell; she’s busy building her socialist paradise and needs our support!

  13. SIR – Why are we not getting figures for the number of daily admissions to hospitals for Covid-19, instead of the misleading number of positive tests? This would at least give us some positive data on the current seriousness of the virus.

    Alan Billingsley

    Whitworth, Lancashire

    1. Far more useful would be a proper audit of all the dead but we will not get that now.

  14. Good morning all

    BBC Breakfast Naga Munchie has just been eulogising BLM protester Jen Teid whose clenched fist power to the people statue has replaced the fallen Colston statue in Bristol city centre…

    Artist Marc Quinn, created the sculpture called A Surge of Power. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53414463

    How dare the Naga women put forward her political views on Breakfast TV.. This left led oriface of the Labour party !

    1. Morning, Belle.
      Why on earth start your day with the Beeb? It’s bad for your health.

        1. Nice at the moment, but ‘your’ weather is supposed to get here this afternoon.

    2. Our politicians clearly want Britain to be invaded and overrun by people with entirely different values to ours. But why?

        1. Morning, Maggie!

          Sorry I posted something similar before I scrolled down. Mind you, it is frankly, atrocious. I just bet that nothing will be done.

          1. Sadly, no, nothing will happen. Vandalism, littering (as this is what leaving your waste in a public place is) will go unhindered and a great man who gave much will be replaced with a whinging racist who took everything and still complained about it.

        2. This is where the BBC should be stating the facts: that this is vandalism and littering. Yet I doubt they even bothered.

          They want to push their narrative at any cost.

      2. Because they think it will cement them in power, Rastus. Either as a result of gratitude votes, or as the outcome of revolution, they don’t really care which – except the latter leads to poverty for quite a while, thus curtailing the opportunity for personal wealth a bit.

      4. The BBC continually promoted some foreign wedding. It’s part of our ‘culcha’ came up repeatedly.

        Well dear, it’s not ours. If you want your ‘culcha’, go live in your country.

        1. Sorry mate, I think it is photoshopped (looking at the angles of light and shade). Though perhaps one of our guys might make the effort to execute it in reality?

  15. Good morning all

    BBC Breakfast Naga Munchie has just been eulogising BLM protester Jen Teid whose clenched fist power to the people statue has replaced the fallen Colston statue in Bristol city centre…

    Artist Marc Quinn, created the sculpture called A Surge of Power. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-53414463

    How dare the Naga women put forward her political views on Breakfast TV.. This left led oriface of the Labour party !

      1. Morning, Sir. I will be 84 in 10 days time and I am in excellent health and very active. All muscles and joints are working normally. I was lucky when the genes were handed out.

  17. Looks like the stats have been rigged in Texas and Florida to present a serious second wave when in reality infections are rapidly declining..

      1. Of course. To justify continuing lockdown through to the November election and to justify mail in voting which the Dems can corrupt.

        1. Have the Rashid family got their visas and esters forged lined up for their trip to the US?

  18. Why was Nick Clegg given the $700,000 VP job with Facebook ? Potentially $6 million with bonuses. Plus buying a $9 million house in California.

    Is it related to being on message with Open Society ?

    1. He isn’t the only champagne socialist who has fled to the US to enrich himself further.

      Yesterday Citroen1 reproduced an article (which I only saw this morning) “What is the point of the New York Times?”

      The NYT has been lurching to the left for two or three decades but it lurched even further for the last eight years because of its CEO. Who could this be? The former Director General of the BBC and Chief Executive of Channel 4, one Mark Thompson, no less, who is paid £multi millions.

      Thompson must bear much of the blame for the fact that the BBC is in gross violation of its charter (which requires it to be impartial). Now he is doing his worst in the US.

      Socialists are always calling for ‘equality’ and the redistribution of wealth. When will they set an example by distributing their own wealth?!

      2. Ah, no, they mean the redistribution of ‘other people’s’ wealth.

        Preferably to them.

        I don’t really understand lefties. They are proven, time and time again to be wrong. They wail about wanting ‘the rich’ to pay more. Those taxes are itnroduced and the rich simply move their money away and the poor lose their jobs. Services decline as another mouth has to be fed.

        They are shown – proven – that when taxes are cut tax revenue increases. Yet they demand that big companies pay more tax. Tax take falls. They bleat and whine that they want massive investment in infrastructure and that debt doesn’t matter… and then complain that there are no jobs. They complain bitterly and label ‘boomers’ yet ignore everything that has bought them. They don’t learn from history, they don’t understand economics, most are illiterate and yet they are convinced of their righteousness.

    2. Is the answer, Polly, that they are filming a re-make of GOLDFINGER and Nick Clegg is to play the part of OddJob? I guess that a steel-rimmed bowler hat would cost a few bob, and the $9 million dollar house would double as Fort Knox.

      :-))

    3. Err no, he’s just bent and on the take.

      Look at the taxes and access to market that Facebook buy with Clegg. He’s in there – no doubt with the eye on the EU – to prevent regulation and data protection applying to facebook. compared to the hundreds of millions garnered from selling people’s photos, lives and content a few million is nothing.

      It’s plain old corporatism. The beloved tool of big state and big business.

    1. You can be sure that even if action is taken against the slavers and the users that the wretched slaves (if illegal immigrants) will be allowed to stay.

    1. That might work if you have an orange instead of a head. Otherwise you’re just infecting your eyes.

      2. I’ll jump in before Peddy gets here… your eyes.
        You’re welcome!
        Morning, Sue.

        2. Morning! Auto correct did that, honestly! I didn’t spot it though – just shows how bad my eyesight is…:-)

          1. I always spot the typo after posting, not during my proof-read first… :-((

      1. Ditto. But there are so many petitions to sign these days that I lose track of which ones I’ve signed so I may have accidentally signed this one twice. Never mind, the Government will ignore them as usual and, after appointing a small committee of around two dozen to discuss the arguments for and against, simply send out an email stating “The petition has now been debated”.

        1. ‘Morning Elsie,

          The petition site will normally tell you if you have already signed it. I’ve done that a few times!

        3. Momentum against the outrageously biased and out of touch BBC is growing though, so I feel this one is worth signing.
          I am cynical about the whole petitions thing. Why did they start them? Very probably, to distract us from the fact that real democracy had disappeared. Smoke and mirrors. If they had any real effect, the government would have banned them!

  23. There’s no reprieve from the haters on holiday for right-wing activist Tommy Robinson. But should there be? Chris Sweeney. 14 Jul, 2020 07:57.

    Robinson is sitting at a table with his family having a meal in the sunshine. The guy who approached them clearly has no regard for Robinson’s views, as he ranted: “F***ing racist pig, you got something to say?”

    The reply was straightforward: “I’m sitting here with my kids.” But the ‘chat’ continued: “I don’t give a f**k, f**k you and f**k your family, you understand?”

    The video has been viewed over 829,000 times, with reaction mixed. Some feel it was unacceptable and crass to approach Robinson, due to the circumstances of a private family trip to Spain. Others voiced their opinion that he’s fair game and deserves the aggro.

    The idea that Robinson might have been entitled to some downtime was quickly diluted as he quickly made his feelings clear on social media, claiming that his accuser appeared to have recently finished a prison sentence and was a follower of Islam.

    This is an extraordinarily poisonous attack on Tommy Robinson disguised as an enquiry into the morality of abusing someone when they are sitting with their family minding their own business. The author doesn’t say so directly of course but clearly thinks that Robinson deserves everything he gets and even hints that it is his fault for being abused. It’s really quite creepy. The author is obviously unhinged himself!

    https://www.rt.com/op-ed/494634-tommy-robinson-activist-britain/

    1. There is footage from a long time ago of Tommy Robinson being randomly attacked by a nightshirt wearer in Luton. It’s the insidious extreme left idea that violence against people who disagree with us is acceptable.
      Here, the Cons show their true allegiance, as they silently go along with violence against Farage, UKIP candidates, Tommy Robinson and anyone else who might challenge them.

        1. True, but they are both non-establishment figures.
          I still believe that Farage privately supports Batten and Robinson, but he recognised that we must not take our eyes off the Brexit ball. It is significant that Farage has moved on to campaigning against invasion now. But I’ve had this argument with ogga several times, and I doubt anyone is going to change their minds!

        2. They share different views. You see? Two people disagreeing with one another without the need for violence, abusive language and insult.

          It’s surprisingly easy. You simply respect the other person’s opinion and let them have their own opinion. All these abusive, ranting yobs think is that they must silence others to justify themselves. While expected – thuggery and violence being hallmarks of the Left from Mao to Stalin to the Austrian – it cannot be permitted.

    2. Didn’t much the same happen to Nigel Farage when he and his family were having pub lunch?

    3. This is where the Right differ to the Left.

      The Left put themselves and their ego first. They think they can do and say whatever they want – because they are ‘good’. Of course, as we know they’re the evil ones. If he is at a rally and actively saying things you disagree with, speak to him then. Otherwise leave him alone as a private citizen.

    1. Shame they didn’t give her another heart attack.
      Did this happen during the past few months while decent cancer patients were being told to FOAD?

    2. The political trans lobby just seems to deny that people like Julie Marshall, or that rapist sent to a women’s prison to commit further rapes even exist.

    1. Interesting.
      For young people in the UK, there is an easy route to a solid apprenticeship – go to Germany. First you can apply for a voluntary social year (FSJ) where you work in a hospital or old people’s home for a year for pocket money (with room, you’d be getting about 280 euros cash, I think), which enables you to learn the language.
      Then you apply for an Ausbilding in Feb-April – anything from nurse to tech admin to building trades. You get a good qualification and experience, plus paid for three years.
      British kids need to up their game and stop paying for the degree fraud!

      1. ‘S forrin, tho’, innit? They would have to make an effort to learn the language as well.

        1. It’s not more forrin than parts of the UK, surely…unless you go to one of the big cities like Berlin or Frankfurt.

          1. Many languages are spoken in the UK (even around here, in the sticks, and it isn’t always Welsh), but German has not been one of them 🙂

    1. Yep , morning G

      My fear is that Britain will quickly relapse into a lawless African tinpot state or even worse , somewhere in South America.

      The standard of driving is shocking , an older age group appear to have cars and 4x4s .. They don’t want to pull over on a narrow road for fear of their sparkling acquisition being scratched by hedge rows , or mucking their tyres up. Moh tells me to stand my ground when there is no possibility of me pulling over to let cars by.

      Many other age brackets hurtle along like a bat out of hell, and quarry lorries and milk tankers just thunder onwards with out a care in the world. Tractors are better mannered .

      Youngsters are drink addled wretches , and the litter problem is a different story … tons of it!

      1. Try the big trucks carrying logs down to the saw mills. You would swear that they are carrying something close to its use by date.

      2. Morning, Maggie.

        if you think that the standard of driving is shocking in the UK, you should see the general standard of “driving” over here in Sweden. They are worse than the French and Italians, and on a par with India and many other third-world shitholes.

        1. The Indians are masterful drivers. There should be corpses everywhere but there are none. After the initial terror of being driven we settled down and marvelled at our driver’s skill. Astonishing.

          1. Rather you than me. I would need a sickbag on my knee.

            Swedish drivers suffer from a number of faults, mainly tied in to their inability to concentrate on the task in hand: i.e. driving. They have no idea of lane discipline, frequently veering over to the other side of the road then sharply back again when they see an oncoming vehicle. Even when they don’t cross over the white line they hog it, even on wide roads. They pull out of side roads and onto roundabouts as you approach, and their favourite trick is to wait until they start to turn into a side road before indicating their intention. (that is, when they think to indicate).

            As an advanced driver I was taught the mantra: mirror–signal–manoeuvre–cancel signal–mirror. In Sweden it is: wonder where the hell you are–brake sharply at the junction–maneouvre–signal (optional)–accelerate. They do not have a clue why the car is equipped with mirrors.

    2. Morning Grizz – breakdown of society and widespread lawlessness? I’m just reading Black August by Dennis Wheatley – scarey reading! It shows exactly what will happen if the current political situations develop

      1. Morning, Spikey.

        Most politicians should be removed from parliament and placed into an asylum.

          2. Not physically but they appear to be in mental straighjackets and just follow the party line.

  28. Maxwell sobs as judge tells her no amount of bail can save her from a year in jail [sic].

    Aw, diddums; poor little filthy-rich, spoilt, arrogant, bitch.

      2. Mens rea?

        Does a ‘presumption of innocence’ apply to all murderers who are caught in the act and arrested? Should they all be released on bail to satisfy that ‘presumption of innocence’?

    1. 321360+ up ticks,
      Morning LD,
      I know it would be highly radical but first thing that would have to be done to achieve a “chucking out” campaign would be to vote in a 100% pro English / GB governance party.
      Currently NOT achievable owing to the fact that existing parties are running a close shop campaign with the peoples consent via the polling booth & the party comes first before ALL else voting pattern.

    2. The couple may have been born in Cameroon – where were the children born? If in the UK, then good luck to anyone trying to deport them.

      1. Have as many children as you want. You pay for them. No housing benefit, no child benefit. If you’re married and working and the child is yours biologically, you get a tax break.

        After all, you did plan your family, didn’t you?

        1. “Well we can’t understand the Tele and there’s nothing else to do in the evenings” (until the boys are old enough to stand on the street corners).

          1. Of course whistling at girls in appreciation is now considered to be sexist and reprehensible.

            My sisters were exceptionally good-looking girls and they attracted several expressions of enthusiasm from the local hoi polloi. They greatly enjoyed being considered pretty and being whistled at. Indeed the less attractive girls who did not inspire the same enthusiasm were very jealous of my lovely sisters:

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22PoWMIWn7E

            . :

          2. Yes, I’ve also noticed how many women like to be annoyingly whistled at.

        2. “Have as many children as you want.”

          In one short, pithy, sentence: all that is wrong with the world today.

        3. Yeah……planned at our expence. I don’t know why we have to keep paying these people.

          1. That used to be career planning for some of the girlies around Brentwood (other locations may apply).

            1. Leave school, find a bloke and get pregnant. As a single mom get a council flat.
            2. Wait a couple of years, find another bloke, get pregnant again and demand a council house.
            3. Live a live of relative luxury and never do a days work.

          2. Still plenty of those around. They used to be able to get income support till the youngest child reached 16. That changed a few years ago and they had to submit to jobsearch interviews etc, once the youngest was school age. Of course, they just kept popping out more.

        1. Very old map now. There’s a very complex history of colonial Cameroon. I knew the Germans had it for a while and then us and the French , but didn’t know it was at the same time.

  30. There is someone who is clearly clever and intelligent but who, as an academic, is unsurprisingly a leftist, beloved of the Guardian and the Independent, and who, therefore, can’t resist injecting her leftist prejudices into her academic work. What a pity!

    Her name is Mary Beard. She is featured in the DT today as saying that, when Boris Johnson talks Latin, it makes her want to vomit. The reason seems to be that it makes classics look “elitist”.

    Among her credentials are that she is a ‘feminist’. She said “I actually can’t understand what it would be to be a woman without being a feminist.”!

    She hates the United States. After the destruction of the Twin Towers in 2001, she said: “the United States had it coming”.

    And I hardly need say that she is a Corbynista: “Quite a lot of what Corbyn says I agree with, and I rather like his different style of leadership [sic]”!

    As for languages being elitist, this is what the Labour Party believes. Some years ago they wanted to downgrade the teaching of languages in schools! I have a European friend who, along with his wife, speaks English, French and German like a native. They speak these three languages at home and therefore their five extremely well-adjusted children are all equally fluent. What a gift they have given to their family! To he*ll with the anti-elitists!

      1. Before going opting for a black lover, Amber Rudd was married to A.A. Gill who did not please Mary Beard much by saying she was too ugly to appear on television and Clare Balding was not best pleased when he described her as the dyke on a bike.

    4. Bearded Mary had best not come round here then when the polyglot are in full flow.

    5. If you control language, you control thought.

      Grief, it’s Left wingery 101: attack the intelligent.

    6. Omnia dicta fortiora si dicta Latin. To paraphrase – introducing a Latin quote into a conversation makes you think you appear to be smarter than you actually are!

    8. I am at the bottom of the pile in the family: Caroline speaks French, Dutch Spanish and English so completely fluently that it is impossible to say what nationality she is – she can also communicate effectively with her spattering of Italian, German and Turkish: Christo speaks French and English like a native and also has good “A” level Spanish; Henry speaks English and French fluently and I speak English without a regional accent but I have a very English accent when I speak French. Fortunately the French in Brittany find the English accent charming – at least that’s what they tell me.

      1. My two lads are both bilingual English-Norwegian, with the correct voice for each – foggy for English and sharp for Norwegian. They both can get by in German and Italian, too, and Firstborn can some Finnish & Polish (due to working with Finns and Poles).
        I am OK in Norwegian & English, as is SWMBO; she also gets by in Swedish, Danish and Dutch.
        Never mind elitism, it gives you the opportunity to mingle better, and understand the other cultures better.

      2. When I was living in Germany, I always put on an English accent when dealing with the police & usually got away with it.

      3. Very good! What a splendid family you have!

        I’m afraid that those of us who learn languages later in life find it very difficult to eliminate our English accent. I started to learn Arabic when I was in my late 20s but I gave up bothering with classical Arabic in favour of concentrating on various colloquial dialects. Consequently, I can converse with the locals in most major dialects but I can barely understand the news on TV (which is in modern classical)! Although, like you, people say kind things about my Arabic, I find it embarrassing to hear a recording of myself because of my inability/failure to eliminate my Englishness!

        1. I cannot even suppress my English accent when speaking in Canadian English.

          It takes me a week or so in another country to acclimatise enough to be able to survive with basic hotel / restaurant type conversations but even then the response is frequently “Sir, I can speak a little English, shall we try”.

        2. Before going out to join the British Sudan administration my father, a first-class Cambridge graduate in classics, passed out top in his year in the Civil Service Arabic exams.

          However my mother, with no academic qualifications at all, became far better at communicating with the ordinary Sudanese people.

        3. It’s difficult to get th right voice for yer forrin language. I hear myself sometimes speaking like an Englishman, and agree, it’s embarrassing.

        4. I have the opposite problem! A good ear means I pick up the accent and rhythms of a language before much vocabulary. The times I’ve stared blankly at some poor foreigner, having to ask if they spoke English, please, as that was the only phrase I knew.

          1. I, too, have a good ear. The problem comes not so much when I speak foreign languages (although it’s handy) as when I spend time in the regions of Britain and in Canada and Australia 🙂 In no time at all, I’ve adopted the accent.

          2. I have to be very careful on the phone, especially when customer service is evidently based in India!

      4. One is British dear boy. One goes to foreign and speaks English. If the umbongobongos don’t speak English then just talk loudly.

    9. Mary Beard is also highly unattractive. Okay, that’s a sexist remark, but I mean it in the purely aesthetic sense physically and the literal sense as far as her views go.

      1. Good evening Conway,

        Yes, some people are ugly on the outside, but their lovely inside shows through and negates any outside unfortunate physical attributes., Some people are ugly on the inside, but can have the appearance of superficial beauty on the outside.. Some people are just ugly, from inside out.

        Edited.

        1. One might say she has “ugly” written through her like a stick of Blackpool rock 🙂

      2. Ears.
        Mug shots enabled the capture of some alleged daesh bloke who tried to live in Spain.
        Ear recognition is the way to go, unless you are a Dutch artist.
        Seriously, the software will be examining all sorts of stuff, not just front of face.

    2. Apparently good if you have to take a flight somewhere, just pull the mask up over your eyes to help with a bit of shut eye.

    3. Now imagine those police officers properly laying into the crowd of thugs and restoring order to our streets.

    2. You inconsiderate bounder, Sir! If, as a result of your maskless post, I contract Covid-19 and die I shall sue you until the pips squeak.

      1. Elsie, surely you realise that if you read my comment wearing a mask you will be fully protected.
        I may be a bounder but by gad, I am a character!

        1. Dear Mr VVOF, I was very very cross after reading your post but having since studied your new avatar more closely I can say that the beautiful bunch of flowers you have sent me as a mark of contrition has melted my heart and we are now friends once more. :-))

      2. ‘Morning, Elsie.

        If he has pips, it suggests he could go into one of your crumbles.

  33. Masketeers like Mayor Khan and Boris in the past have made peoples lives a misery in London with all these traffic calming measures, taking away road space and adding cycle lanes in order he says to give us all cleaner safer air to breathe and obey EU regulations
    Now They both want us all to wear silly masks that makes us re-breathe our own poisonous exhaust gases with unknown health side effects.
    They will be asking us to bottle our farts next and breathe that in too.
    You couldn’t make it up.

  35. Morning all. The absurd face mask letters….

    SIR – I regard the mandatory use of face masks in shops as a massive infringement of my personal liberty.

    I also suspect that the requirement will not be rescinded for a long time, if ever, as is the nature of these things.

    Once again, the Government has given in to pressure from some of the media and others. Sadly, it is becoming a habit.

    Peter Johnson

    East Preston, West Sussex

    SIR – I see that the legislation for mandatory use of face masks in shops relies on an Act passed in … 1984.

    Alison Watson

    Wincanton, Somerset

    SIR – A report commissioned by the chief scientific adviser has set out a wide range of potential outcomes of a winter surge in coronavirus. The experts have said the impact could be anywhere between 1,300 and 119,000 deaths (report, July 14).

    The Government has consistently told us that it is following the science – if the advice has been this vague, no wonder it got in such a mess.

    Roger Gentry

    Sutton-at-Hone, Kent

    SIR – The U-turn on masks is a political decision – not a scientific one – caused by the BBC continually presenting Nicola Sturgeon in a more favourable light than the Prime Minister. The “blob” cannot accept that Boris Johnson won the last election.

    David Johnstone

    Pewsey, Wiltshire

    SIR – Hand hygiene, social distancing and the correct wearing of an efficient face covering in shops, by both customers and retail workers, seem sensible at this time, although the efficacy of a face mask does remain controversial.

    However, after governmental delay in making face coverings compulsory in shops, the addition of monetary punishment for non-compliance seems ridiculous. The majority of the public should, by now, be used to following instructions without being warned of a fine.

    Professor Julian Verbov

    Liverpool

    SIR – I am at a loss as to how face masks are to give me confidence when shopping. I do not know when other people last washed their home-made masks, or how many times a disposable mask has been used.

    Perhaps shops should provide all customers with new masks as they enter, and make them dispose of them when they leave.

    Sylvia Smith

    Great Moulton, Norfolk

    SIR – On a short walk yesterday morning, I counted 17 discarded face masks littering the pavement. Apart from being unsightly, do they constitute a health hazard?

    David Lane

    Birmingham

    SIR – My wife is pregnant and easily becomes short of breath. Will she be given an exemption from the face-covering law? What will ensure that she is protected from threatening behaviour from shoppers or from staff refusing her service because she is unable to comply with these rules?

    Benjamin Miles

    Andover, Hampshire

    SIR – Spare a thought for those with hearing problems. Since I began losing my hearing I taught myself to read lips. Now profoundly deaf, I watch the whole face. The wearing of a mask will make it very difficult for me to make sense of any conversation.

    Dr Bill Teatheredge

    Wix, Essex

    SIR – Goodbye high street. Hello internet.

    Charles Penfold

    Ulverston, Cumbria

    SIR – Can I wear my full-face motorcycle helmet in the bank now?

    Michael Heaton

    Warminster, Wiltshire

      1. I don’t think people realise the extent to which even those with normal sight and hearing read lips to make sense of who is talking and what they are saying. Combine this with deafness and or sight deficiences and people with these disabilities will be further disadvantaged.

        1. You can see how disturbing it is when a video is slightly out of synch with the sound, when the lip movements don’t tally with the speech.

          2. Agreed. There’ good & bad dubbing. The Germans are amazingly good at dubbing American & British films & TV programmes; it’s sometimes hard to believe they’re not the original productions.

        2. 321360+ up ticks,
          Morning AOE,
          Going on these governance parties past
          record / actions I do see it as a divide &
          conquer exercise taken to an individual level.

      2. I love the one about “washing their home-made mask” – no doubt, Aunt Agatha’s recycled underpants tied to someone’s face. With a mesh size vastly greater than the virus, and bearing in mind that virus seems to travel as an aerosol (so, effectively vapour), it will easily pass through the mesh. Additionally, as mentioned last night, he virus can settle on the eyeballs – so, how about a pair of Uncle John’s pants over the eyes.
        Even those with surgical masks don’t know how to use them – short time only, make it fit around the nose, and DON’T TOUCH! Fiddle not. Dispose of properly, too.
        Why is it necessary to use a mask now, rather than when the virus was rampaging – and people were still allowed to fly in without hindrance?
        So – it’s all bollocks.
        😷

      3. I understood Epidermoid’s use of the adjective ‘absurd’ to be applied to the enforced wearing of face masks, not to the letters about them.

        1. No, it is the letters, otherwise he would written ‘the letters about absurd face masks’.

          1. I don’t think so. He made a post two days ago in which he said “Morning all. These useless masks again….”

          3. It is relevant. It gives an indication of his view on the matter. The latest post may not be grammatically correct (although that is debatable) but in any case can be read either way. I interpret it as a criticism of the face mask policy, given his earlier remarks.

      4. I love the one about “washing their home-made mask” – no doubt, Aunt Agatha’s recycled underpants tied to someone’s face. With a mesh size vastly greater than the virus, and bearing in mind that virus seems to travel as an aerosol (so, effectively vapour), it will easily pass through the mesh. Additionally, as mentioned last night, he virus can settle on the eyeballs – so, how about a pair of Uncle John’s pants over the eyes.
        Even those with surgical masks don’t know how to use them – short time only, make it fit around the nose, and DON’T TOUCH! Fiddle not. Dispose of properly, too.
        Why is it necessary to use a mask now, rather than when the virus was rampaging – and people were still allowed to fly in without hindrance?
        So – it’s all bollocks.
        😷

  36. SIR – The Royal Navy’s aircraft carriers (report, July 13) are defence assets of great importance to Britain.

    It was reported that the Prime Minister’s chief aide Dominic Cummings claimed the carriers “cannot be sent to a serious war against a serious enemy”.

    This may or may not be his view, but I have no doubt that, as he addresses the issue of defence more closely, he will realise their importance. They are already capable of humanitarian operations. When they have their full air group and task force (which can already be formed), they will be, along with our deterrent and nuclear attack submarines, the only British defence capabilities that can, in fact, take part in a serious war against a serious enemy.

    This capability makes it less likely that we will have a war, but also means that, in a confrontation with Russian, Chinese or another nation’s naval power, the result would be, to quote Blackadder, “victory and home in time for tea and medals”.

    Admiral Lord West of Spithead

    London SW1

    1. “When they have their full air group and task force” and there’s the problem! As for confronting Russia or China – the man’s lost it [just like that file on the towpath!!]

      1. When is “when”? Are there enough vessels of any type that can form a credible task force and protective flotilla for even one carrier? When do the aircraft arrive?

        1. For the proposed deployment of Queen Elizabeth to the Far East, I read that they will have two type 45 destroyers (i.e. a third of the fleet, not all of which are working at any one time) and two ASW frigates, plus supply vessels. No mention in the announcement of any Astute class subs but one would expect at least one if not two. One flight of RAF F-35 Lightning IIs and possibly another flight of F-35s courtesy of the USMC.

        1. “They are already capable of humanitarian operations”
          Exactly, now those poor young men won’t have to get their feet wet in dinghies while crossing the Channel.

    2. “When they have their full air group and task force” and there’s the problem! As for confronting Russia or China – the man’s lost it [just like that file on the towpath!!]

    3. Given the speed, range, power and accuracy of cruise missiles one wonders why these vessels were built at all. Our light carriers and our assault ships were flexible and powerful and were not individually critical. They were the vessels that reclaimed the Falklands and mounted Operation Palisser.
      The new aircraft carriers are three times the size of Hermes. They are too big and too prestigious to risk in battle. Rather than being ships that would lead in a battle they would be targets that every other asset, destroyers, frigates, planes, submarines, would be expended to protect.

      1. What is needed is logistics. carriers are good at , err, carrying things but their main use is as a base of supply.

        However, if instead of sea going carriers we had instead bought aircraft and big old bulk haulers we could move materiel around far more quickly and with less pomp. 5 Super galaxy carriers would get troops around along with vehicles and support elements.

        A dozen drones and foxhounds with troops carrying heavy weapons and portable launchers are far more effective against our current threats than monolithic carrier groups.

        1. They are repeating the mistakes of ’39-’45 when we had virtually no transport aircraft, unlike the Germans.

    4. Yesss…. but Russia won’t attack by sea. It’ll just turn off the gas taps. Besides, it’s invaded Ukraine. A carrier didn’t stop that, did it?

      As for China – it’s deploying the military in Hong Kong and building Islands out to sea. You’re not stopping that, either.

      By all means be gung ho and fly the flag a lot, but the reality is you’re lying. we’re woefully unprepared for the modern battlefield and the carriers were a waste of money. As mobile fortifications for small teams of heavily armed special forces, maybe but they’re glorified transit vans. They were, as always, the weapon for the war we’ve just lost.

    6. 321360+ up ticks,
      Morning Epi,
      We can have a bakers dozen aircraft carriers all fully kitted out & the same nuke subs, all cancelled out by internal treachery.
      The governance parties have shown us quite clearly
      especially these last two decades their intended submissive, knee bending, white flag waving way of going.

    7. “… their full air group and task force which can already be formed”? They haven’t been, though, have they? If you haven’t got the aircraft (even WW2 aircraft took time to build) and the ships (do you think we’ll be going cap in hand to the USA for lend-lease again?), never mind the man-power, they aren’t going to be ready when they’re needed. Sometimes I think DomCum has a better grasp of what’s required than the Admiralty.

  38. I wonder what that Bristol statue is made of?

    It’s certainly appeared in double quick time; one might almost think this stunt was in prepartion before the protests.

    Next up, a petition to put it (or similar) on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar square?

    1. I assume they are doing this to make some sort of point, do they really think that people support slavery and that by doing this the slavers are going to be annoyed, or that people wanted the old Colston statue to remain to glorify the slave trade of 200 years ago.
      It seems like they are trying to pick a fight with something that no longer exists and then expect to be lauded as heroes.
      If they really wanted to do something about slavery they would be up in Leicester protesting.

          3. Next might be taking down all the Pre-Raphaelites or all the classical sculptures in our art galleries – likely to be replaced by photo exhibits of “our changing demography”.

          4. That will upset all the arty farty Lefties, so I guess they wont be doing that.
            They want to antagonise and stamp on the faces of the supposedly centre right white people for some reason, stir up civil carnage on the streets, lets not play their game.

          6. Well the Lefties have already been attacking these artworks – they object to the sexism etc. Incidentally, all the representation of Shakespearean scenes (apart from Othello/Cleopatra) tend to be of noticeably European figures.

          11. They already locked up David Hamilton, the photographer, for making images of children.

            Edit – he actually committed suicide.

          12. I have three beautiful mental images worthy of a David Hamilton photograph, one from the 1970s, one from the 1990s and one from the 2010s.

            The first was when I was invited to my French girlfriend’s brother’s wedding near Armentières in Northern France. At the time, my girlfriend, the bride and two of the bride’s sisters all had wonderful unspoilt long hair, and I recall seeing them all brushing their hair in preparation for the wedding.

            On twenty years, and I encounter a family of sisters, English girls living in the Netherlands. They were pentecostalists, and so all of them had long hair, completely unspoilt from infancy. It was like being in heaven with the angels.

            Finally, on another twenty years, I have this YouTube home video of two beautiful sisters in elegant simple white frocks in Salzburg playing Mozart’s own violins, a duet composed by one of them, and yes they too have long, unspoilt hair. There is actually a Hamiltonesque photograph of these two waltzing together alone in their music room whilst locked down not long ago.

            Only the truly mean-spirited and perverted would regard any of these romantic images as pornographic, but sadly such folk are in the ascendancy as they go down on their knee to worship instead a black American street thug.

          13. Grief! I need to take more water with it – I read that as “our changing pornography”!

          14. This is the problem. They won’t stop until they are stopped. These people have no consideration outside of their own hubris.

      2. Colston lived his life and worked according to the moral standards of the day.
        In doing so, he used his fortune for the benefit of the City of Bristol, providing many facilities for the people of the town.
        Judging the actions of the past by today’s moral standards never gives the correct answer.

        1. Indeed the questions should surely be about mistreating slaves. Were slaves treated less well than working class employees?
          That would be hard to believe, if the horrors of the early Industrial Revolution with which our teachers regaled us, are true.

      1. Now look here, Mr Aeneas, Sir, this is a family website. Don’t you dare to tell me what to do with my bloomers (and I’m not talking about the flowers in my garden)!

          4. You might think so, Peddy, but I was responding to the urgent pleas of the entire NHS staff in the early days of lockdown and just one pair was sufficient. I have plenty more left to protect my modesty.

            :-))

      1. So nothing that an angle grinder can’t take care of. Straight through the ankles!

      1. I’m sure some of those pretty girls would be up for a ‘no strings’ relationship.

      2. The first comment has an interesting name:-

        Finasol
        2 years ago
        This is such a beautiful performance, and it makes me sad that half the comments are about how pretty the girls are? I didn’t even notice the girls because I was so captivated by the performance.

        sapper82
        1 second ago
        I think the beauty of the music is enhanced by the beauty of the young ladies.
        And vice versa.

      3. I love the way those girls apply tremolo to the violins, violas and cellos :o)

      4. The very first thing that I noticed.
        That comes from part of the brain associated with our reptilian ancestry.

  40. Mandatory masks are a matter of politics, not public health

    Today’s announcement neatly coincides with a new report issuing dire warnings about a ‘second wave’

    TOBY YOUNG

    It cannot be a coincidence that on the day the Government announces that face coverings in shops will be mandatory from 24 July, a group of scientists led by Sir Patrick Vallance has issued a dire warning about the risk of a ‘second wave’ unless we “get on top of things”.

    According to this group of 37 scientists from the Academy of Medical Sciences, 119,000 people will die from Covid-19 in hospital this winter. In fact, the death toll could be even higher, they warn, because they haven’t factored in likely deaths in care homes. In the executive summary, the list of steps we need to take to “get on top of things” includes “wearing face coverings in settings where physical distancing is not possible”, i.e. shops. You don’t have to be David Icke to wonder if there are signs of collusion here.

    But how robust is this report? It is remarkably similar to the infamous March 16 report issued by Professor Neil Ferguson and his team at Imperial College, warning of the imminent “surge” in demand for critical care and predicting the NHS would soon be overwhelmed unless the Government took immediate steps to mitigate the impact of the virus. The following day, the head of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens, ordered NHS trusts to “urgently discharge all hospital in-patients who are medically fit to leave”, a diktat that we now know led to some elderly patients who were still infectious with Covid-19 being discharged into care homes.

    It was because of fear that the NHS would soon by overwhelmed with Covid-19 patients, based on the modelling of Professor Ferguson and others, that the absurdly extravagant Nightingale Hospital programme was launched, prompting the Government to commission and build seven new hospitals in England.

    In fact, at the height of the crisis, most NHS hospitals were operating at no more than 50 per cent capacity and the Nightingale Hospitals, which cost hundreds of millions of pounds to build, proved unnecessary. Most of the Nightingales remained empty or almost empty at the peak of the crisis and at least one didn’t bother to open. The predicted “surge” in demand for critical care, which the scientists were so confident about four months ago, never materialised.

    Is it likely to materialise this winter, nevertheless, as this latest group of boffins are predicting? One reason to take their doom-mongering more seriously is that hospitals suspended all surgery that wasn’t “essential” during the crisis – again, due to fears of “the surge” – which means that millions of scheduled operations have been cancelled in the last four months, as well as screening programmes and outpatient care. Consequently, the NHS will be dealing with a huge backlog of patients this winter as a result of unnecessarily turning all those people away this spring. The Academy of Medical Sciences predicts hospital waiting lists could increase from 4.2 million to 10 million by the end of the year.

    However, the scientists also predict a massive resurgence of Covid-19 infections if we don’t “get on top of things” and that part of the report is unconvincing. For one thing, the paper seems pessimistic about the level of immunity that the UK population has already acquired. They put it at between five and 10 per cent, based on the antibody surveys carried out by the ONS. But there is evidence to suggest that people can become infected and still test negative for IgG antibodies. A recent seroprevalence survey in Spain found that only 16.9 per cent of symptomatic Covid patients went on to develop IgG antibodies, suggesting that the number of people who’ve been infected in the UK could be five or six times higher than the five to 10 per cent with antibodies.

    How can someone have been infected but still test negative for antibodies? Sometimes because the level will be too low to show up on the standard tests, and sometimes because the patient has what’s known as “T-cell mediated immunity”, whereby they’ve been able to fight off the virus without developing the antibodies for COVID-19.

    According to a recent scientific study in Cell, ~70 per cent of recovering COVID-19 patients had CD8+ T cells and 100 per cent had CD4+ T cells, both of which help fight the virus, particularly CD8+ T cells.

    In addition, the researchers detected SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cells in ∼40-60 per cent of unexposed individuals, suggesting cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating “common cold” coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.

    To put it in layman’s terms, if you’ve fought of a cold recently you may have sufficient antibodies in your system to fight off Covid-19.

    We don’t yet know how much protection T cells provide, but the fact that the number of infections and deaths is falling in all European countries that have eased lockdown restrictions, as well as in those European countries that avoided lockdowns altogether, in spite of most seroprevalence surveys showing that <10pc of the populations in those countries have IgG antibodies, suggests something is functioning as a prophylactic against the disease – referred to recently as immunological "dark matter" by Professor Karl Friston.

    T-cell mediated immunity could be that immunological dark matter. It could partly explain why young people are less susceptible to the virus – the reservoir of programmable T cells declines with age. In a recent article in the Conversation, a Professor of Genetic Epidemiology and a Professor of Epidemiology speculate that T-cell mediated immunity could mean a "population can achieve some sort of immunity to the virus with as little as 20pc infected – a proportion well below the widely accepted herd immunity threshold (60-70pc)."

    If that's the case, the UK could have achieved herd immunity already – remember, seroprevalence surveys only measure the percentage of the population that has developed IgG antibodies, not the percentage that's been exposed to infection.

    But what if these scientists are wrong and the Academy of Medical Sciences are right in saying between 90-95pc of the population is still vulnerable to the disease? Even then, their prediction of 119,000 likely hospital deaths in the absence of things like mandatory face coverings is an exaggeration. Why? Because they've over-estimated the infection fatality rate of the disease, which they claim is 1.1 per cent, and built that assumption into their model.

    The World Health Organisation initially estimated it at 3.4 per cent; Neil Ferguson and his team estimated it at 0.9 per cent; the Center for Disease Control's best estimate was 0.26 per cent, and it will likely continue to fall (although the CDC did raise its estimate on July 10th).

    As Dr John Lee, a former Professor of Pathology, wrote recently in the Spectator: "It could yet settle closer to 0.1 per cent – similar to seasonal flu – once we get a better understanding of milder, undetected cases and how many deaths it actually caused (rather than deaths where the virus was present)."

    There's one final flaw in this doom-mongering report: the scientists' "reasonable worst-case scenario" assumes the reproduction rate of the virus, absent special measures, will be 1.7, meaning that 10 people that are infectious with Covid-19 will go on to infect a further 17. But according to Professor Carl Heneghan and others, the R number had fallen to below one in the week leading up to the full lockdown on March 23 because the more modest social distancing measures that had been introduced already, which did not include mandatory face coverings, were effective. So why have these 37 experts assumed that the same more modest measures would mean the R number climbing to 1.7 this winter?

    I'm afraid that this report looks suspiciously like a propaganda exercise to try and make compulsory face nappies appear more reasonable. The scientists are right about the stress that's likely to be placed on the NHS this winter from the backlog of patients who weren't able to access hospital care this spring. But they would do well to remember that the reason those patients were turned away was because of apocalyptic predictions about the "surge" in demand for critical care that turned out to be wildly inaccurate. Let's not repeat that mistake.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/14/mandatory-masks-matter-politics-not-public-health/

    1. Toby Young is just an anti-semite. All the Jewish journalists (in the Telegraph) want us to wear masks. I wonder why, as Polly would ask.

    1. Might the mayor call for committee hearing after committee hearing so that no immediate action is required?

    2. And if a group of right wing extremists topple it will they receive the same treatment as the left wing extremists who toppled the statue of Colston and dumped it in the water – i.e they will not be charged, fined nor imprisioned?

      If not, why not?

    3. Two hundred years from now apparently. A full H&S assessment to be considered as well as the opinion of the Chief Constable that immediate removal might cause disturbances.

    6. The ‘artist’ Marc Quinn is the chap who sculpted the repulsive white stone Alison Lapper Pregnant ‘sculpture’ which occupied the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square a few years ago.

      As with that slick opportunistic work, so too this purposefully black effort is propaganda pretending to Art.

      Edward Colston did a lot of good in Bristol and was a prolific benefactor to the city. I would question what this black woman has contributed but suspect she is a taker and not a giver.

  42. SIR — Can I wear my full-face motorcycle helmet in the bank now?

    Michael Heaton
    Warminster, Wiltshire

    How the hell do we know what you are capable of?

    [Apart from, of course, the ability to get a witless letter published in what passes for the Daily Telegraph these days.]

    1. You are my Mother-in-Law, and I claim my £5. She bangs on about it all the time, also the use of “Can I get…” rather than “May I have…”, and “I’m good, thanks.” after an enquiry about one’s health.
      Sigh
      Edit: Manners, Timothy. :-(( Good morning, Grizz. I hope it’s dryer in Skåne than here in Buskerud. Man, I’m glad I sleep upstairs…

      1. Tell your M-i-L that she has moral support in me, Paul.

        Anyone using the fashionable but gormless “Can I?” to commence any question deserves all they get from your M-i-L and me.

        “Can I get a coffee?”, that now ubiquitous and cretinous worldwide request — emanating from that deathbed of the English language, the US of A — grates on the ear, the brain, and the soul.

        1. My mother in law has become a barmy eccentric. I woke early to find her drinking some bizarre cocktail while feeding the dog cheese.

          2. I wouldn’t mind, but it was about 4am and cheese gives him tremendous gas.

            And if you’ve never had a flatulent near 80kg dog, it’s a room clearer.

          3. I don’t believe in schadenfreude, wibbling, but the thought of you experiencing that sort of thing from a near 80 kg dog had me in fits of laughter.

          4. He’s a fluffy floofy plop is Mongo. Needless to say he’s spent a lot of time outdoors today.

      2. Edit: Good morning, Paul. Yesterday was bright and sunny, with zero wind. I was able to mow the lawn for the first time in three weeks. Good job I did since it pissed it down all night long and today is a dull but dry day (but with a soggy, though freshly-cut, lawn).

        1. “Manners, Timothy” followed by “Good morning, Paul”. Is it Timothy or Paul? No wonder I am often confused. I think I’ll stick to Herr Oberst as usual.

          2. Ooh, The Master (Mr Harry Lime) will be cross when I tell him wot you rote, Alan.

            :-))

        2. Today, the rain finished about 04:00 or so, and it’s been dry enough to work on the roof all day. Stopped for lunch 14:25, then back up.
          It’s bleedin’ hard work. I have new respect for taktekker (roofers). Everything you need to get at is over a precipice and awkward at best, if not making you lean out into space. Eek! Me no like.
          If this is my last post, prolly means I fell off and 10 metres to the ground…

  43. George Soros wasn’t a Nazi, he was a 14-year-old Jew who hid from them. 31 May 2018.

    Of all the conspiracy theories spun around the 87-year-old Jewish billionaire George Soros – that he is the “puppet master” of all liberals, that he owns Black Lives Matter, that he is secretly building a new world order – the most demonstrably insane may be the claim that he was a Nazi.

    That is: That the 14-year-old boy who had to hide from his own government during the German occupation of Hungary was a war criminal who sent his own people to gas chambers.

    Soros gets quite a beating on this blog so I thought that I would look at him myself. One of the reasons I chose this article is because it was cited here only the other day to exonerate him of charges of assisting the Nazi’s during their occupation of Hungary and thus by extension could not commit any other crime. This is the same technique used in the quote where the charge of his being a Nazi (a patent absurdity) is employed to delegitimise the others. It has other features, the links enclosed within it (Black Lives Matter etc.) are updates and not concurrent with the article which implies that it was written for the purpose of reference for those defending Soros.

    The main defence of Soros from the charges of assisting the Nazi’s is that of his age, that at fourteen he could have had no understanding of what he was doing. This is frequently run alongside the alternative that he did know but that he was simply trying to survive. Winner takes all here!

    To try and arrive at the truth we have to look at things that are missing from this narrative. The first thing is that Hungary was an ally of Nazi Germany for two years and only wavered when its losses against the Red Army became insupportable. Now we have to ask ourselves here; was the Hungarian Jewish community unaware of what was happening in Russia and the rest of Eastern Europe during this period? The Third Reich took over Hungary in March of 1944 when Soros was 6 months short of his 14th birthday. The Jews were already subject to anti-Semitic measures from their own government and all Jewish men of age were conscripted into the Army’s Labour Battalions. Was Soros even at fourteen, unaware of all this? What of the rounding up of the Jews of Budapest for the final journey to Auschwitz in the summer of 44, did this escape him, or even the mass rapes and murders carried out by the Hungarians themselves that took place when these were curtailed by the advances of the Russian Army? Of course he knew, how could he not, and took part in it; this is backed up by the decision to disguise himself as an ordinary Hungarian.

    To try to save one’s life is not an ignoble aim, to try and evade the responsibility for what he did is.

    All this begs the question of what effect this had on Soros and how it bears on his subsequent behaviour. That he suffers from Survivors Guilt would seem to be undeniable but has this made him a benevolent supporter of Democracy, over anxious not to repeat WWII, or an evil mastermind that is suborning governments and destroying the West. My view is that he is the latter because one cannot use evil means to achieve good ends. I think that he hates the West with its white civilisation and his aim has always been to destroy it. It is his revenge for the Holocaust which he sees, as does Susan Sontag, as an inevitability of white supremacy and civilisation.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/george-soros-nazi-jew-conspiracy-theory-roseanne-barr-twitter-rant-a8377301.html

    1. But is he a bitter and twisted old man that seeks vengeance for the past by trying to destroy what was the old white western civilisation?

    2. The CBS 60 Minutes interview with Soros is still on Youtube. He admits what he did and says why.

    3. Contrast that with the children of Warsaw who took up arms against the Germans.

    4. I fully accept that he did what he had to to survive and, so far as there is evidence, did not actively assist the Germans more than he had to.
      However, I believe it has been reported from his own words that he made the most of the opportunities he had to build up the start of his fortune from the goods he was handling & sorting for the Germans.

  44. 321360+ up ticks,
    Isn’t this sweat shop protectionism under a council umbrella along the lines of rotherham & the mental scarring of 1400/1600 pakistani playthings ?
    Lest we forget.
    Does any of the electorate notice the power position placements countrywide does any of the electorate care as long as their party gets the shout ? because……….. you will shortly.

    https://twitter.com/SocialM85897394/status/1282964125925220352

    1. Same old. They try to wriggle out of it by stating that they’re anti-Zionist not anti-Semitic but all that means is that they’ll tolerate left-leaning secular Jews but not religious Jews. So Soros good, Rabbi bad.

  45. Are Macron and Johnson working in tandem? From 1st August face masks will be obligatory in ALL enclosed places to which the general public has access in France. This will give Johnson the excuse to extend his draconian rule in Britain beyond shops.

    1. Also cross channel. Macron has strong Open Society connections. Why not Boros too ?

      After all, it’s beginning to look that the CGS might have !

    3. The theory is that if you put your specs on top of the mask that won’t happen but all it actually achieves is to send the steam straight into your eyes.

      1. As I’ve found……. very odd walking around with it on as I can’t look down to see where I’m going.

        1. The unintended consequence will be that you keep falling over and bumping into people you should be keeping six feet away from.

    4. There is no new normal all we have is normal and abnormal.
      We are in abnormal times and only we can change it back to normal.

    6. With that glare and the wild animal fur everybody will make way for you sharpish!

        1. I did say my hair was not this gentleman’s colour. It was once upon a time, in a land far far away…

          1. Ah – but I didn’t see your edit till I refreshed the page and had a look at notifications ;0)

      4. #Me Too. I’m going to try on the look ready for Friday and the visit to the phlebotomy team (aka the Vampires).

    8. Your specs aren’t misted, the mask is 1/2 covering your eyes. How much did they rush you for that?

      1. I only had it on for a moment while I took the photo. It’s well- made – good quality. I thought I’d support a small trader. £8.50 including postage.

  47. After all, we know David Cameron is receiving Open Society money..

    So it would be logical for Nick Clegg to be receiving it too.

  48. 321360+ up ticks,
    Could it be possible at any of the future anti English / GB marches, meetings, protest put in a squadron of SAS in police uniforms, nudge,nudge
    wink,wink.
    The anti British brigade governance parties inclusive can & do use all manner of odious tools.
    If society can close it’s collective eyes especially when voting so can I when it comes to well deserved fractured limbs.

    3. Yo T_B

      Edward Colston statue replaced with sculpture of Black Lives Matter protester

      Two telling fings about the above ‘article’:

      1. It is not behind the normal Paywall

      2 He (jen the scupltor) said his team had carried out surveys, as well as health and safety checks and installed the sculpture in a way that made it “extremely difficult to move”.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/15/edward-colston-statue-replaced-sculpture-black-lives-matter/

      2. Alright, throw him in the harbour with a weight around his ankles instead.

        It’s just vandalism. He’s a criminal and should be jailed – then he can meet all the black lives matter protestors – over 30% of the prison population.

  50. Time for a grown-up conversation about population change. 15 July 2020.

    “It has been said”, as Winston Churchill famously noted, “that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”.

    For much of the 20th century this was an uncontroversial sentiment, especially in western liberal democracies. But it has fared less well this century. Increasing levels of dissatisfaction with democracy in a number of western countries, including the UK, have coincided with, in China, the emergence of a new superpower with a fundamentally different system of government.

    The causes of this dissatisfaction are myriad and complex but the common thread is a breakdown of trust in government due to a persistent and growing gap between the actions of government and the expectations of the settled population. We have all witnessed the short term implications of this – more volatile politics and unexpected democratic outcomes – but the longer-term implications could be much more serious, since they represent a threat to the very system and values, shaped in this country, that have spread prosperity throughout much of the world.

    The political impact of demography is a case in point. Population growth has a profound and lasting impact on communities who feel they have little control over its management and inevitable consequences. It has proved a particularly acute issue in the UK which has some of the most densely populated regions in Europe and where polling indicates a significant gap between government policy and the electorate’s views. In a recent poll, 74 per cent thought the UK was overcrowded and that the Government should have policies in place to consider and address those challenges. However, there is no part of the Government charged with examining this critical issue and as such no thinking or analysis being undertaken about population change, its desirability, and longer term implications.

    Much sense here and little chance of it being listened to!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/15/time-grown-up-conversation-population-change/

      1. To be fair, Phizzee, most do believe they are working for their country; it just so happens it’s the EU not the UK.

    3. They are the ones that do no advertise jobs at the BBC, the remaing 5321 Beeboiders have jobs for life

  52. “Arise Sir Tom: Queen will knight Colonel Tom Moore on Friday at
    Windsor Castle after 100-year-old veteran raised more than £32million
    for the NHS”
    Good,finally someone worthwhile honoured

      1. I understood that the money was going to NHS charities, not the NHS itself.

  54. Russia Moves to Ban Gay Marriage. Moscow Times. 15 July 2020.

    Russian lawmakers have swiftly moved to ban same-sex marriage in line with President Vladimir Putin’s recent changes to the Constitution.

    Seven senators submitted a draft bill late Tuesday to amend Russia’s Family Code and legally ban gay marriage and adoptions, including, according to its authors, by transgender people. The move comes two weeks after voters overwhelmingly approved a set of constitutional amendments that include a provision defining marriage as a “union between a man and a woman.”

    We can see who won the Cold War here!

    https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2020/07/15/russia-moves-to-ban-gay-marriage-a70878

    1. Thinks: Must check the Guardian for commentary on this, the woke must be crying into their chai lattes.

      1. Summary: awful, evil, dictator, abusive, cruel, horrible people, aren’t we wonderful, how enlightened we are, great heroes of the revolution unite, yadda yadda drivel drivel self righteous egocentric arrogant pap.

        Probably ending with ‘we should bomb them to remind them how righteous we are’ or some such tosh.

    2. Presumably this legislation is unnecessary/redundant in Chechyna, Dagestan and some other parts of Russia.

    3. “Russia Moves to Ban Gay Marriage.”

      Does this mean that only miserable marriages are now permitted? 😠

    4. It’s interesting that a nation regularly described as brutal and a dictatorship offered a public vote – which was respected over gay marriage.

      Cameron knew he would lose it and as it was an EU regulation didn’t bother with the niceties of choice. Gay marriage is a nonsense. A twisting of the term.

  55. 321360+ up ticks,
    May one ask, as the peoples in the main have been calling for controlled immigration for nigh on 4 decades can the electorate supporters of lab/lib/con assure me that their party is listening ?
    Or are they beginning to suspect they are being taken for a ride ?

    1. “In 2019, several key figures suggested he should receive a knighthood, not just because of his sporting triumphs, but also his tax and charity contributions.”

      Tax contributions? What “contributions” would they be? He lives in Monaco in order to avoid paying taxes, FFS!

      1. If he was offered a knighthood….would he refuse? I doubt it.

        What would Brenda say to him?

        ” I see you have been bending the knee in preparation for your knighthood
        Sir Lewis “

        2. She would say, “Did I tell you to get up again? You remain on your knees until it no longer pleases me!”

      2. I see that among the supporters of a knighthood for the half wit, is “Lord” Hain – that’s reason enough for Hamilton not to get one!

    2. As knghthoods are now worthless, then they should be abolished. And leave Her Maj out of it.

    3. Every Tom, Dick and Harriet has an “honour” these days. They’ve become worthless.

  57. We expect to still have the freedom to put anything we like over our faces to conform to a face covering law.

    If we wish to protect ourselves from inhaling the COVID-19 pathogen then an N95 mask whilst still not perfect is way ahead of anything else we might put over our mouth and nose. The science says so but the Government is not asking us to protect ourselves to that level.

    Here’s the science of why the N95 is not just a face covering:
    (Warning: BLM preface)

    https://youtu.be/eAdanPfQdCA

  58. Brian Kilmeade (not very good) standing in for Tucker Carlson on ‘cancel culture’. Interesting interview with Bari Weiss whose spectacular resignation letter from the NYT I posted yesterday afternoon.

    https://youtu.be/_sjq2OVWH1k

  59. Good morrow, dear NoTTLers,

    This has gone beyond all reason (well that’s not new). What the heck? From UNN News – I’m afraid I can’t provide link.

    A Black Lives Matter statue has replaced that of Edward Colston in Bristol

    We are in the midst of what can only be described as a global culture war. Nothing is more symbolic of who the victors are in this by the statues that occupy our towns and public places.

    In the dead of night a statue of a Black Lives Matter protestor [sic] called Joy Reid was put up where she is giving the Black Power salute. The sculptor says it will be staying put.

    Reid said that the sculpture was important because it helped “keep the journey towards racial justice and equity moving”.

    “On my way home from the protests on 7 June, I felt an overwhelming impulse to climb on to the plinth,”
    she said in a statement on Mr Quinn’s website.

    “When I was stood there on the plinth, and raised my arm in a Black Power salute, it was totally spontaneous, I didn’t even think about it. It was like an electrical charge of power was running through me.

    “This sculpture is about making a stand for my mother, for my daughter, for black people like me.”

    1. Yo lass

      a Fiddle, if I may

      “keep the journey towards racial justice and equity moving further and further away”.

      Now if only ‘Blacks’ would/coul integrate life would be swell

      1. Wotcher OLT,

        Fiddle away!! Not just “Blacks” – Ropers too (I know they also overlap)

    3. 321360+ up ticks,
      Morning HL,
      Surely it is not beyond these governance chaps to overnight transport her, her mother, & daughter plus three stands to say nigeria, they fast tracked Tommy Robinson.
      Give Hereford a call.

    4. The sculptor said it would be staying put, did he? Who made him boss?

      It should be torn down immediately and destroyed.

    5. A few years ago, when Europe’s Muslims were demonstrating their driving skills on the pavements and market squares of the continent and the UK, we mused on the possibility of them causing a societal meltdown. They’ve gone quiet but it looks like it might happen for a different reason.

    6. 321360+ up ticks,
      HL,
      This sculptor is going to be hellish busy two more stands & I take it two more statues to knock up.

    1. Cultural. They tend to live in multi-generational households and extended family ties are very strong, meaning that there is probably a lot of inter-household contact as well.

      2. Mind you we have several priests from Burkina Faso and the Congo in the Dinan diocese. .

        As one of them said – “French missionaries came to Africa to instruct the people on the life and teaching of Christ; now we from Africa are doing the same for the people of Europe”

        1. We have an African RC priest in this area.
          Nice man, but his spoken english is ‘challenging’ to many older parishioners
          (and everyone else; it was some Latin Americans who politely mentioned it).

          1. Not in Latin, then? The use of Latin was always explained as being because it was the same everywhere, and being technically “dead” the language did not change.

    2. Good morning Caroline

      So really what is required is a VERY strong CHRISTIAN leader who will challenge the AFRICANS who are slaughtering Christians in Nigeria, Mali , Uganda, Sudan and just very recently South Africa.

      1. Good Lord, No! They want someone who will continue the lefty march through institutions here.

  62. Yesterday we drove the van to Peebles to pick up an item we had bought in an auction. an online auction and we had not seen the item in real life. The “Pig in a Poke” Pendletons they call us. The item was buried at the back somewhere and the porter was on his own while the auctioneer was out making a delivery. Could we wait for an hour or so until the auctioneer returned? Yes, a one hour trip for nothing would not be good.
    So we had a walk along Peebles High Street. Peebles High Street is known for being one of the most thriving and popular High Streets in Scotland, with a good mix of local shops of all varieties as well as hotels and a couple of chain outlets such as Caffe Nero.
    The street was not crowded but there were many people there of all ages including family groups. Nevertheless there was a rather gloomy air. Many of the shops were still closed, hairdressers and cafes. Others required masks as demanded by law. Some had large instruction panels advising customers how to enter, how to progress around the shop, how to purchase and how to pay. Many had floor markings. Caffe Nero had lots of lines and the seating area was closed off. One shop had a sign that would have baffled those involved in unravelling the secret interiors of Egyptian pyramids.
    Some people wore masks but most did not. I noticed that the shoe shop had two assistants in plastic visors but no customers. It was rather a dismal experience. Not one that would invite you to return. There was a universally pervading smell of dog poo. We checked our feet a number of times. There was little evidence on the pavements, so it may have been a general pong from the drains.
    All in all, we wondered if we were looking at the final run down of the High Street as a venue for shopping, meeting and wandering around.

    1. People have got more and more used to online shopping during the last four months. There is hardly any need to go into town any more, apart from basic supermarket shopping, or meeting friends for a coffee.

      1. Meeting friends for a coffee is not an easy matter still. I feel less and less inclined to go into town unless I have to, whereas previously I would have wandered in, had a browse and possibly bought something on a whim. It no longer appeals to me – and once I have to wear a nappy muzzle it will appeal even less.

        1. I’m meeting two friends on Friday morning – instead of the usual six ex-colleagues, most of whom are still not ready to go into town as we used to.

          1. I am contemplating taking MOH in for a drink in town now that they are starting to put tables and chairs outside, BUT that depends on the weather. As it’s been raining today (St Swithin’s Day) that doesn’t bode well for the next forty days 🙁

    2. That is all so very sad, Horace.

      It leaves me wondering if we are looking at the final run down of society in general.

      2. Yes. As we know it. The “new normal” is nothing like normal, nor ever can be. The social aspects are dreadful in long and short term.
        Just one example is that the Government now feels free, and empowered, to not only tell us how to behave in our own homes but yo pass laws on the matter.
        Neither the UK Government or the Scottish Government have made public what the cue will be for completely abandoning masks. On the basis of what has happened so far I’d be surprised if masks ceased to be compulsory by law before next Easter.

        1. Apparently masks are to be worn “for the foreseeable future” according to one Govt mouthpiece.

          3. I thought it might have been him, but I couldn’t be bothered to look it up (and I know what sticklers Nottlers are for getting things right ).

      3. When Lefties lament the ‘evil’ rise of Trump and the Polish fellow, they look back at the wonders of their creation…

        And we shudder: taxation, economic collapse, societal oppression, erosion of basic freedoms, fear of speaking out against the insanity, an onslaught from pathetic weak minded cowards, silencing, cancellation, racism, vandalism, crime… anything to destroy decency and different opinions.

        They must be so proud of the hell they have wrought. Why don’t they just shove off to the moon and live in their demented utopia and the rest of us can get on with our normal, tolerant, out spoken and dissenting mature ways?

      1. Yes, thanks. Still not 100% sure of the nature of the pig but it is a nice colour.

    4. Get rid of the pubs, close down the high street, the coffee shops and conversing, chattering Britain has gone. Oh, add into the mix, ‘working from home’ – and we have been silenced.

    1. I saw John Barnes on the TV recently. It was only when he said he was from Jamaica that i realised he was black.

      1. A while ago, I would have been in that state. Now, the first thing I notice is “effnicity”.

      1. I believe that RCT has taken on several of the layabouts that it produces and tried to drum some learning into them….all for a modest fee. {:^))

  65. So Covid is a racist disease , and if you live in a larger richer household one will not affected by the virus … Hang on, one will still see multi generational houses.. and blow the post code data..

    It is Asian landlords who squeeze South Asian people in like rabbits .. They don’t mind that they don’t matter .. More huddle more dosh . I watch HOMES under the hammer sometimes and it is all Asians and blacks who buy up property at auction to squeeze people in. as many as they can.

  66. French Prime Minister (Monsieur Inconnu):

    Jean Castex: “Lutter contre l’islamisme radical sous toutes ses formes est et demeure l’une de nos préoccupations majeures”

    “Fighting radical Islamism in all its forms is and remains one of our major concerns””

    If ONLY we had a PM who spoke out in this way……………….

      1. Unfortunate slip with a dog end. One of those things… pity there was a strong wind…(yawns…)

    2. Speaking out is all very well (look at Pretty Patel), it’s actually DOING something about it that’s the important thing. Monsieur Caste X will be useless if all he does is TALK.

      1. Good evening, Conwy. Indeed. He speaks very firmly – but whether his firmness is translated into action remains to be seen.

        Please don’t spoil my afternoon by mentioning Priti Awful…..

    2. Oh dear, the first comment that I have seen today.

      Hint to self: press Load more Comments button gently.

  68. Social inequalities are a self made problem , another 100 came in by boat to Hastings .. there is an excess of poor ethnics who are not fitting in and costing councils £millions ..

    No wonder we will be bankrupt soon!

  69. Brendan O’Neill
    What’s up with Banksy’s mask propaganda?
    15 July 2020, 12:01pm

    Is Banksy a Tory propagandist now? His latest juvenile stunt suggests he might be. On the day the government announced that it will soon be mandatory to wear face masks in shops, Banksy released a video showing himself daubing a Tube train carriage with pro-mask slogans and images. Way to stick it to the man, Banksy!

    Banksy’s latest act of politicised vandalism really sums him up. He dressed up as a cleaner, went Underground, ordered Tube passengers to move out of the way, and then got to work on his latest sneer at the masses. He stencilled rats inside the Tube carriage. One rat is sneezing. Another is struggling to put on a surgical mask. Another is clinging to a bottle of anti-bacterial gel. That’s us, that is: rats.

    What a terrifying, possibly unwitting insight into Banksy’s brain. We now know what he thinks of us. We’re diseased rodents. Rats who must have our infected mouths gagged. ‘If you don’t mask, you don’t get’, Banksy wrote in his Instagram post promoting the video.

    We shouldn’t be surprised by the rats, of course. He’s always drawing rats, to symbolise the dehumanising impact of 21st-century consumer society or something. He’s sending up the ‘rat race’, innit? That mad, rushing, conformist world us tragic normies inhabit. A few years ago in a busy part of London he painted a giant rat telling the dim workers who passed by it every day: ‘It’s not a race.’ Well, that’s easy for a graffiti artist whose work sells for millions to say.

    Banksy has been an establishment figure for a long time now. The Hollywood elite loves him. Art dealers spend a fortune on his stuff. The stiff art world squealed in delight when his painting ‘Girl With Balloon’ self-destructed in Sotheby’s shortly after selling for £1m. Of course the shredded painting will be worth even more than the intact version. This is irony, I think. Someone at Goldsmiths is probably writing a PhD about it. Banksy mocks his own establishment status and that makes the establishment love him even more and it’s all such a pile of self-congratulatory awfulness that you find yourself wishing for End Times.

    But now, with his haughty instruction to the Tube-using masses to mask up, Banksy’s position as a stooge of the elites has been well and truly confirmed. Witness Transport for London fawning over his vandalism. Yes, TfL cleaned up the Tube carriage, but it also praised Banksy for his ‘sentiment of encouraging people to wear face coverings’. It also invited him to do a repeat of his rat-infested mask propaganda in a different place: ‘We’d like to offer Banksy the chance to do a new version of his message for our customers in a suitable location.’

    This is bonkers. I thought it was illegal to daub graffiti on TfL property? And yet TfL responds not by condemning Banksy for polluting a Tube carriage with his sixth-former-style blather, but by pleading with him to do it again somewhere else. If other people get the idea that it’s kind of acceptable to scrawl messages on Tube trains, it will be TfL’s fault.

    Of course, the reason TfL loves Banksy’s latest piece is because the message in it is entirely in keeping with theirs, and with officialdom’s outlook more broadly. Banksy is essentially a government graffiti artist, or at least the vandal of choice of the chattering classes. From his anti-rat-race stuff to his consumerism-bashing to his utterly inevitable mockery of Brexit, he has been the mysterious mouthpiece for the cultural elite’s prejudices for ages.

    And now he’ll probably do something having a pop at TfL for inviting him to do an officially approved piece of graffiti, and TfL suits will chuckle along, and Dalston youths will say it’s all so meta, and the rest of us will carry on dreaming of End Times.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-s-up-with-banksy-s-mask-propaganda-

    1. Banksy, needless to say, has never stuck it to The Man. Everything he does is completely in line with elite thinking.

    2. “What a terrifying, possibly unwitting insight into Banksy’s brain. We now know what he thinks of us. We’re diseased rodents. Rats who must have our infected mouths gagged. ‘If you don’t mask, you don’t get’, Banksy wrote in his Instagram post promoting the video.”

      It occurs to me that Banksy is not far wide of the mark. Rats are, by a billionfold, far less injurious to the planet than humans are.

    1. It won’t look cool when someone comes along with a chainsaw and takes its head off.

  71. Again, catching up on ‘The Spectator’, an interesting article:

    This ‘revolution’ isn’t what it looks like

    We’re really witnessing a counter-revolution of the neoliberal class

    America is not in the middle of a revolution — it is a reactionary putsch. About four years ago, the sort of people who had acquired position and influence as a result of globalisation were turfed out of power for the first time in decades. They watched in horror as voters across the world chose Brexit, Donald Trump and other populist and conservative-nationalist options.

    This deposition explains the storm of unrest battering American cities from coast to coast and making waves in Europe as well. The storm’s ferocity — the looting, the mobs, the mass lawlessness, the zealous iconoclasm, the deranged slogans like #DefundPolice — terrifies ordinary Americans. Many conservatives, especially, believe they are facing a revolution targeting the very foundations of American order.

    But when national institutions bow (or kneel) to the street fighters’ demands, it should tell us that something else is going on. We aren’t dealing with a Maoist or Marxist revolt, even if some protagonists spout hard-leftish rhetoric. Rather, what’s playing out is a counter-revolution of the neoliberal class — academe, media, large corporations, ‘experts’, Big Tech — against the nationalist revolution launched in 2016. The supposed insurgents and the elites are marching in the streets together, taking the knee together.

    They do not seek a radically new arrangement, but a return to the pre-Trump, pre-Brexit status quo ante which was working out very well for them. It was, of course, working out less well for the working class of all races, who bore the brunt of their preferred policy mix: open borders, free trade without limits, an aggressive cultural liberalism that corroded tradition and community, technocratic ‘global governance’ that neutered democracy and politics as such.

    Conservatives generally don’t tend to pay much attention to class analysis. But in this case, it does help to explain what’s going on. And it helps to illuminate the true nature of social movements that pose as, and can get mistaken for, revolutionary leftism.

    Does anyone seriously believe the American establishment — Walmart, Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, the trustees of Ivy League universities, the major sports leagues, even Brooks Brothers, for God’s sake — would sign on to a movement that genuinely threatened its material interests? And yet these and many other firms and institutions are falling over themselves to express solidarity with the ‘uprising’, some going so far as to donate millions of dollars to Black Lives Matter, an outfit that lists among its objectives the abolition of the nuclear family.

    Over the past four years, every trick in the book has been used to end the ‘nightmare’ of national conservatism and populism. The methods deployed by the elite reflect its tendencies and preferences as a class. Just think of recent skirmishes. A decisive majority of British voters resolved to leave the EU and then had to spend three years fighting a political establishment that marshalled all its vast resources to thwart Brexit. It failed. In America the liberal establishment tried harder, failed harder, but learned more. From the minute Trump won the presidential election, Democrats, elements of the security apparatus, and their media allies set out to undo the result. The marquee events were the ‘collusion’ probe and an impeachment push that was perhaps the single biggest insult ever to the intelligence of the American people. There were also countless smaller attempts to unseat Trump and destroy his entourage.

    Trump survived it all. Now comes the new wave of rioters and mad iconoclasts, which many corporates and Democratic governors and mayors have actively encouraged, even as they continue to bar children from public parks and families from holding outdoor funerals, citing Covid-19 risks.

    But wait: riots and statue-toppling — such things aren’t congenial to establishment figures, are they? The logic becomes apparent when you see it as a form of class struggle. For all its fury, the storm of the riots ends. There is little resembling demands for ongoing redistributive justice of the kind the old left championed. No labour solidarity, nothing to do with wages and job security. Just demands for ‘representation’ or diversity (on corporate boards, in university curricula, etc). And, of course, the firing of those who say the wrong or awkward thing in the digital public square, in workplaces or in classrooms.

    The goal isn’t to rectify concrete economic injustices: massive inequalities in wealth, health and job security. The goal is precisely the opposite: to mitigate, to defer, to smooth over, to mask these substantive disagreements and instead have battles on procedural mechanisms for upholding manners.

    Which social class most excels at politically correct manners? That would be the professional-managerial class, the laptop class. Its children learn the patois for discussing ‘issues of race, gender and sexuality’ from an early age. They’re expected to have mastered it by the time they take their entry-level jobs. It’s a skill that private schools are doubtless teaching already.

    Working-class people, meanwhile, are most likely to struggle with this language. Even when they mean well they don’t always get it right, not least because the rules constantly shift with the vagaries of critical race theory and LGBTQ acronyms. By fortifying the requirements to speak and think correctly — and raising the stakes for failures — the neoliberal class has now built a repressive new mechanism for staying at the top and keeping the oiks down. Especially those who voted the wrong way in 2016.

    So whatever you do, don’t call it a leftist revolution. With the flags, the protests, the kneeling and the new language, it’s a counter-revolution. The outcome remains uncertain, but the class war is well and truly under way.

    Sohrab Ahmari is op-ed editor of the New York Post. His next book, The Unbroken Thread, will be published in spring 2021.

    2. It is what it has always been. A desperate struggle to control. Control language, ideology, thought.

      It is simple, boring Left wingery. Punish and attack, divide and conquer. It’s boring and it needs to stop but they think they’re the heroes in their own demented narrative. Being historically ignorant they don’t understand – and would never accept – that they are the enemy, the fascist, the abuser.

  72. Delingpole: Boris Muzzles Britain’s Bulldogs; Poodles Yap Their Approval

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

    BTL:

    auntyedna • 3 hours ago
    “Excuse me sir. Going shopping without a mask, are we? I’m afraid that will cost you £100.”
    “No officer. I’m on my way to join a BLM protest, beat up some migrant rape gang whistleblowers, and pull down a statue or three.”
    “Oh! That’s fine, then. Sorry to have troubled you. Have a nice day!”

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/15/boris-muzzles-britains-bulldogs-poodles-yap-their-approval/

  73. It won’t stop a virus but these are quite good. You can also wear them as a hat. https://www.amazon.co.uk/HOOUDO-Headwear-Men-Multifunctional-Hairband/dp/B087MXT947/ref=asc_df_B087MXT947/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=439186154288&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3893097574789453586&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-915000924718&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=97188198850&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=439186154288&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=3893097574789453586&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006886&hvtargid=pla-915000924718

          2. Yes, it should have been Guns and Roses, but it was clearly a dog, not a firearm 🙂

          4. Bare hands? Or beige gloves? Tried diving without gloves in UK, had to give up at 30m, too effing cold.

  74. Afternoon, all. I think our compliance is being tested to breaking point now. On a completely unrelated (or perhaps not) topic; there have been sightings of “dangerous racoon dogs” (an Asian species which, like mink, escaped into the wild) in Carmarthen. Apparently, there is an “Intrusive Non-Native Species Secretariat” to deal with non-native species that cause problems. A pity they only deal with non-humans.

      1. A reference to the appearance at Pret
        As if these tosspots shop for their own lunch

        1. I remember the Labour ministers trying to look normal and going to a take away and nobody had any money on them. Typical of the troughing shits.

        2. I’d have thought that Glove’s fat wife would have made him some sandwiches.

          All these ars*holes go to coffee shops on the way to work. The concept of travelling prepared (or of having had a decent breakfast) seems not to occur to them.

          Some woke bint in the paper last week boasted that she spent £300 A MONTH in Pret…..

          2. I end to get my lunch at Subway. make good baguettes with an interesting range of fillings. Sub-of-the Day is Kr 39, so thats what I normally have.

  78. GRAYLING FAILS TO BE ELECTED SECURITY COMMITTEE CHAIR AFTER COUP BY JULIAN LEWIS

    Failing Grayling has lost his bid to become Chair of the prestigious Intelligence and Security Committee after a successful Labour-backed coup by MP Julian Lewis. Only Grayling could lose a rigged election…

    A statement just released by the Cabinet office confirms Dr Julian Lewis’s election as Chair:

    The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament (ISC) today elected Rt Hon Dr Julian Lewis MP as its Chairman.

    You’ve got to give it to Grayling, at least he’s consistent…

    https://order-order.com/2020/07/15/grayling-fails-to-be-elected-security-committee-chair-after-coup-by-

    1. Crikey, it’s not often the nation has to be grateful to the Labour Party.

      2. OK. you can have the middle one, I’ll have the other two; but only if HG lets me.

        And she won’t.

  80. BLM statue in Bristol will be taken down, says mayor

    5:00 pm update on The Grimes website

    I wonder….

    2. The Council will probably give it retrospective planning permission.

    3. Story was reported in the Sun who to start with allowed comments. About 99% of the considerable number received were opposed to the new statue. Curiously, can now no longer see any of these comments. Perhaps they were all my imagination!

    4. It should be destroyed and the person who shoved it there fined with the costs of the workmen – on double time.

      A bill for half a million would shut him up. (£10,000 for 4 men for 3 hours, the rest for council trougher back handers).

  81. That’s me for this damp day. It looked so nice, first thing – and has just drizzled most of the day.

    Hope to have a bonfire tomorrow. The MR has been going mad with my very neat Japanese saw…..and the stuff is piling up.

    So I may not be around. Have a cool evening designing replacement statues.

    1. 私はシーソーの上に座っているエサウを見ました
      Watashi wa shīsō no ue ni suwatte iru esau o mimashita

  83. Space will be a battleground in future wars – and China and Russia are already developing weapons that work in zero gravity, claims UK Defence Secretary. 15 July 2020

    Britain needs to be prepared to defend itself in space, as future wars will be fought above the Earth using zero gravity weapons, says the UK Defence Secretary.

    In a speech on air and space power in the ‘age of constant competition’ Ben Wallace said China and Russia were already developing space-based weapons.

    Beyond space, Wallace said the country should also be prepared for ‘constant competition’ from outside forces including possible ‘high-level cyber strikes’.

    ‘Today we’re facing coronavirus, tomorrow it could be a cyber strike. It’s clear the binary distinctions between peace and war have disappeared,’ he said.

    “Britain needs to be prepared to defend itself in space.”? This is a schoolboy fantasy! The UK cannot fight off an internal Marxist coup! It’s a disgrace. The only bright spot in the UK’s defence posture is that the Russians are not actually hostile! If this changed for some reason we would be up the creek without a paddle!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8525567/Space-battleground-future-wars-claims-UK-Defence-Secretary.html

    1. Have no worry. As many claim the Chinese can only steal and copy, the West must already have space weapon depolyed.

  85. The New York Times is an American equivalent to the Guardian, both have developed into Left wing, liberal mouth pieces, unaccepting of any alternative view or opinion. The BBC is the same.
    Bari Weiss recently resigned from the NYT and her resignation letter accurately identifies all that is wrong with these organisations and how they stifle free speech or even free thought.

    https://www.bariweiss.com/resignation-letter

    1. Weiss’s description must be applicable across the board in all the MSM.

    2. Hi, Hoppy. That is all so very true and also very sad.

      My two radicalised nephews (courtesy of Manchester University — one now works for the BBC) avidly read both The Guardian and the NYT. They never tire of banging on about the “qualities” of those disgusting Leftist rags.

      The saddest aspect is that their maternal grandfather was the chairman of the local Conservative Club (where their parents met). I bet he is squirming in his grave.

      Their Common Purpose, Frankfurt-School, Critical Theory indoctrination was so complete that they are incapable of rational discourse on any topic. They find a way to bang the socialist drum on whatever subject you may choose. The concept of Free Thought is beyond them.

      1. Hi Grizzly, it’s difficult at times to remain calm with my niece & nephew. She is full on woke (ex-Oxford) whereas he is more relaxed and prepared to discuss other viewpoints – he is currently studying medicine at Manchester. Unfortunately their father is a fully paid up member of the Guardian club, he has earned a six figure plus salary for most of his life and his wife is a teacher.
        I’m just a trouble maker 😂

        1. They already are. They’re broke.

          Without the massive funding from an off shore tax haven trust (oh the irony) and tax avoidance through Autotrader the Guardian wouldn’t exist. Of course, they are good, so them avoiding tax is right and proper. It’s not at all hypocritical. Oh no.

      3. Hi Grizz

        I flicked over to the online Guardian .. has it become a BLM news rag.. loads of BLM content and discussion , it is pandering to the Marxist movement .. Their journos must be so excited .. well at least they were when the Bristol statue was erecteed at 3am this morning ..

        Seems to me that the Guardian and Beeb are hand in hand with dismantling traditional structures and are sucking up to BLM Marxist brotherhood!

        1. When the Marxist take over of the planet is complete, Maggie, I wonder how Polly Toynbee (and her ilk) will feel about having her Tuscany villa sequestered by those who she currently pays homage to?

          1. She thinks, like Philippe Egalité, that it will never happen to her because she’s sided with the mob.

      4. Ask them which Guardian policies and opinions have been successful.

        It’s a short list. If the grauniad supports it, do the opposite.

    3. Listening to R4 Toady, most mornings, the newspaper/website revues often stray to HuffingtonPost/NYT items … NEVER Breitbart.

      BBC – so full of lefty bias they should be shut down.

      1. The BBC doesn’t lie. It just presents only the opinions it wants to.

        As long as it uses a ‘broad representation’ – all saying the same thing, of course – it gets away with it.

    1. With a little piece of editing of names and institutions it could be a commentary on the current war between the majority of people versus the U.K. government over Chinese Flu.

  88. Just back from W/rose & dodged the showers. Everything normal & no queues BUT, although there was plenty on the shelves, pasta suddenly was limited to 3 items per customer again.

  89. Back to masks.
    yes, GROAN

    France is ramping up the number of places they should be worn from 1st August. Essentially it would appear to be compulsory in pretty much all spaces where the public can have access.

    I’ve just been shopping, and watching the various approaches, various types, various gaps left, etc if strikes me that instead of stopping the virus they might actually vocus it on vulnerable points, particularly the eyes and several times over for people wearing glasses. Worn for any length of time and warm, moist, areas appear round the edges, there are visible gaps for most wearers and I strongly suspect that that acts rather like a hose nozzle to spray the air and any droplets further whenever they breathe out.

    It’s all well and good suggesting that the public will obey the rules, but it strikes me that everyone wears the wretched things differently. The variety of materials used is astounding and I doubt that even 1 in 10 meets any sort of safety standards.

    We’re being taken for mugs.

    2. It’s meant to encourage people to go out and go shopping etc. It wouldn’t do that for me – it would deter me from going shopping (not that I need deterring anyway).

      1. If everyone is in a mask, I suspect that they could get away with blue murder!
        I also suspect that a lot of “undesirables” will be doing just that.

        1. Well, selon la presse française, they had a go yesterday. It being a bank holiday. And Toy Boy’s confession that he is hated…!

          3. It’s a pity they aren’t for hire.

            I’m sure they might make a few extinction rebellion and Blammers wish they had learned French at school.

  90. Well,that’s me for today on the roof – it’s nice and sunny, making it awkward on a hot pantile roof… Now relaxing in a pool of sweat, with a cold beer, shower once I can stand up again.
    Roofers – too much like hard work, but at least t’job is done and nobody fell off!

    2. Next – the same job, south end of the house – but not today. Too tired to be safe.

  91. Not often I agree with anything that even smacks of more imposition of the nanny state but I do with this article.
    The author is dreaming if she thinks meaningful change is coming her way, plod loves cameras, councils love blanket 20MPH speed limits, even when figures suggest they have done more harm than good, Bath being a case in point.

    Why the road deaths toll isn’t falling faster
    Vicky Parrott 15 July 2020 • 5:30pm

    The Mk7 Volkswagen Golf was sold between 2012 and 2019. It had seven airbags, braked automatically if it sensed an imminent collision and would tell the driver if it thought a coffee break was needed. The majority of models sold in the UK would also tell you the speed limit, keep a safe distance from the car ahead when cruise control was active and automatically apply steering force to keep from straying over a white line without indicating.

    Cars are becoming safer. Of that, there is no question. So why have the number of deaths on UK roads ‘plateaued’ in that time, at some 1,800 per year? A new report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Police looking into just that question comes to the fairly obvious suggestion that sweeping cuts to the numbers of road traffic police may be to blame.

    For some context on the severity of the situation, the report highlights that deaths associated with drink-driving rose by some 25% between 2015 and 2018. Astonishingly, deaths of occupants who weren’t wearing seatbelts rose by 8% to 26% between 2013 and 2018. Think about that. That means that more one in four people who died in a car accident in 2018 was not wearing a seatbelt. It gets worse, since in 2019 31% of people killed in road traffic accidents weren’t wearing a seatbelt.

    Now look, these figures are among the most morbidly depressing Darwin Award statistics I’ve ever read. I don’t even think about the action of putting on a seatbelt when I get in a car – it just happens. Like breathing, and closing your eyes when you sneeze. To my mind, choosing not to put on a seatbelt ranks up there with choosing not to put on oven gloves when you stick your hands in the cooker.

    Similarly, with the breadth of information and awareness out there on the hazards of drink- and drug-driving, why anybody chooses to take that risk is also beyond me.

    Nils Bohlin of Volvo invented the three-point seatbelt in 1959 – so why, more than 60 years later, do some people not wear them?
    But while it’s easy to roll your eyes in defeat and resignation at the general stupidity and lack of self-preservation inherent in the human condition, we all know that there is more to this.

    Predictably, the report points a finger quite squarely at the sweeping cuts in roads policing. In that same period that the numbers of seatbelt-less people dying rose so drastically, the number of fixed penalties being issued for not wearing a seatbelt fell from 85,000 to 20,000. The number of breath tests issued between 2015 and 2018 dropped by 25% – the same proportion by which drink-drive deaths rose.

    Astonishingly, the number of penalty tickets issued to motorists using their phones illegally while driving dropped from 160,000 in 2011 to only 40,000 in 2018. While I’d love to think that this is a result of the rise of Bluetooth and advanced smartphone integration, the number of people I see driving their cars while holding a phone in their hand suggests otherwise.

    Far fewer drivers are being penalised for offences such as driving while using a handheld phone and not wearing a seatbelt Credit: Chris Rout/Alamy

    This report is well overdue, and it’s no surprise that it concludes that fewer traffic police has resulted in an erosion of driver standards.

    I am not the only voice that, with the rise of the speed camera, pointed out many years ago that cameras are not a replacement for proper policing. It’s why I have stated often that I’d far rather see money spent on more traffic officers than more cameras. A police officer can see when a car is being driven dangerously even within the speed limit. When its driver isn’t paying attention or isn’t in control. When its occupants aren’t wearing seatbelts or drivers are using their phones. When the driver might be so nervous or so brazenly over-confident as to be a danger to themselves and others. And, indeed, when the car itself might not be roadworthy. Speed cameras don’t see any of that.

    All the evidence unearthed in the watchdog report shows that people are dying because money is being taken away from traffic policing. It’s even more frustrating considering how much money is being made by the cameras that police officers have been replaced with, although it is refreshing to hear that Inspectors are calling for greater transparency over the criteria used for choosing where to install road cameras, and where the money is spent.

    The revenue from speed cameras should be ploughed back into effective traffic policing Credit: Danny Lawson/PA

    It absolutely should be going on improving road safety. On training and employing more officers to police our roads, on clearer signage and better road surfaces – and also on educating drivers. While it feels like banging your head against a wall to those of us who wear seatbelts and don’t get stoned before hopping in the car, maybe we do need to go back to widespread campaigns highlighting the need to use seatbelts and to stay sober behind the wheel.

    Even with improved educating, it seems that while drivers believe they can get away with being a total Neanderthal about things like seatbelts, or texting while doing 70mph, they’ll carry on doing it.

    We need more police. It’s that simple. Unfortunately, common sense didn’t say it clearly enough many years ago, so now the numbers have said it as well. Keep the cameras if we must, but not at the cost of proper policing.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cars/comment/road-deaths-toll-isnt-falling-faster/

    1. Die whilst refusing to wear a seatbelt – I should care why? Removes some of the stupid from the gene pool.

      1. The stupid may well take you out whilst killing themselves. Better to get them off the roads.

        1. Yes, true, but those dying because they don’t wear a seatbelt are only doing themselves a disfavour – the crash was already happening.

      2. My understanding of the seatbelt rule was that it would reduce the workload of the emergency services by causing fewer deaths, which also reduces the financial burden on the state.

        1. Isaw the seat belt law as one of the first steps to remove our own decision making. It should be that seat belts have to be fitted but its your choice if you want to use them . Same for crash helmets.

      3. Unfortunately the taxpayer has to pick up the enormous costs of hospitalisation, inquests, post mortems etc., not to mention the police time tied up with forensic investigation. Otherwise I agree!

    2. Someone heading to work at 3am doing 35ish in an otherwise empty 30 limit, but otherwise driving sensibly, will get picked up by a camera.
      However, the drunk driver weaving about the road at 29mph will not be picked up.

    3. I wonder if there is any interesting ethnic variation in the wearing of seat belts. I would guess most whites were brought up to wear a seat belt and it’s virtually automatic to use it, but I suspect others come from cultures where the attitude was much more lax.

      1. The “stupidity” gene knows no ethnic or colour boundaries, however your theory regarding cultures and different attitudes is probably correct.

    4. “So why have the number of deaths on UK roads ‘plateaued’ in that time, at some 1,800 per year?”

      A useless stat without qualification. How does it relate to the number of cars, drivers and miles driven?

      1. The point being made in the article was the lack of road traffic police contributes to poor driving on our roads.
        I am no statistician but I would guess that more cars on the road with more miles being driven should result in more deaths. The safety improvements now built into today’s cars likely offset the likelihood of any increase, hence the plateau.
        In essence I agree with the main thrust of the article, a lack of road traffic police does nothing to improve standards of driving.

        1. I agree and would add that I am now personally more worried about drug driving than drink driving.

          I pass drivers regularly who stare widely and often hold seat positions where they cannot see over the steering wheel. I sometimes wonder whether the approaching vehicle has a driver at all.

        2. “I am no statistician but I would guess that more cars on the road with more miles being driven should result in more deaths.”

          Not necessarily. The writer asks the question about the number of deaths because he appears to believe it should fall continuously. It might if the improvements that contribute to such falls continue but that would also assume a constant or decreasing volume of traffic. The number per passenger mile might well be falling but the total is steady because of the increase in the volume.

  93. Why do I get the feeling, that you are all somewhere (on another site) else and I am not invited

    Bye

    4. Come on, Tryers!……by the way, ……Yo!!

      We are all [I think] fairly f*cked orf but that is no excuse to
      ‘Abandon Ship’………!!!

  94. Afternoon all, Jack and I masked up and went out for a birthday lunch today, (his birthday was yesterday, but restaurant of choice only opens Wednesday through Saturday). It is an independent, family business that has been operating for 40+ years, always coming in top for quality of food and service. The staff wore masks and gloves and the tables are spaced the required distance by law with table linen changed for each customer. We had an excellent lunch, now I need to rest!!

    1. What is going on withDiscus? Tells me that my post cannot be posted, to try again, so now you have it twice!!

      1. It’s being pesky. Again. Works for me on the PC, but not on the phone.

    2. Lunches that require a rest afterwards are the best!
      Many happy returns to Jack!

  96. Afternoon all, Jack and I masked up and went out for a birthday lunch today, (his birthday was yesterday, but restaurant of choice only opens Wednesday through Saturday). It is an independent, family business that has been operating for 40+ years, always coming in top for quality of food and service. The staff wore masks and gloves and the tables are spaced the required distance by law with table linen changed for each customer. We had an excellent lunch, now I need to rest!!

    1. Flipping heck Jill!, I apologise for
      missing the hint!…….

      ‘Happy Birthday Jack.’

    4. Happy birthday to Jack , glad you had a lovely meal.

      I’m a curious to hear what you had to eat.

      There are lots of foodies on here you know !

      1. Okay, Jack had Atlantic Salmon with lump crabmeat and a lemon butter sauce and roasted asparagus, I had chicken with crabmeat and asparagus, both accompanied with Mediterranean rice. Starters were a couple of Greek salads and freshly baked bread rolls. No room for dessert!!

  97. A BBC report that tells you, well, nothing.
    Some workers with Covid-19 were flown into the UK, from somewhere.
    The workers then travelled to some farms, somewhere.
    It’s a secret. No one would want to know that a greengrocery item was picked by someone with Covid-19. They might not want to buy it.
    How coy can reporting by the BBC become? When they have wind of some sex scandal there are are names, dates, photos, blow by blow accounts.
    I wonder what the difference is?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-53423903

    1. Blow by blow accounts of sex scandals are titillating, less so someone picking lettuces with Covid.

  99. Extract from latest governmenr regulations on wearing masks in shops.

    ou do not need to wear a face covering if you have a legitimate reason not to. This includes:

    young children under the age of 11

    not being able to put on, wear or remove a face covering because of a physical or mental illness or impairment, or disability

    if putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress

    if you are travelling with or providing assistance to someone who relies on lip reading to communicate

    to avoid harm or injury, or the risk of harm or injury, to yourself or others

    to avoid injury, or to escape a risk of harm, and you do not have a face covering with you

    to eat or drink, but only if you need to

    to take medication

    if a police officer or other official requests you remove your face covering

    There are also scenarios when you are permitted to remove a face covering when asked:

    If asked to do so by shop staff for the purpose of age identification

    If speaking with people who rely on lip reading, facial
    expressions and clear sound. Some may ask you, either verbally or in
    writing, to remove a covering to help with communication

    2. I would need to remove my mask to expose a big, luxuriant beard confirming my identity as a woman.

    1. Sorry to spoil your fun, but this is somewhere they drive on the left….Leicester?

      Jack

  101. DT Story this evening:

    Marc Quinn’s Bristol statue is a vainglorious stunt
    This sculpture is a literal-minded snooze by an artist who caters for the one per cent. Bristol’s mayor should pull it down

    This conversation is currently closed to new comments.

    Need I say more?

    1. As I mentioned In an earlier post, the ‘artist’ responsible has form in promoting propaganda under the pretext that his constructions are Art.

      The same chap made the repulsive Alison Lapper Pregnant ‘sculpture’ which occupied the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square a few years ago.

      I keep wondering whether there is something in the water in Bristol which has given us Banksy, Marc Quinn, an idiotic black mayor, a useless local police force, thousands of unemployed and unemployable BLM nerds and what seems to me to be an intrinsic hatred of white people.

      1. Objectively, both Banksy and Quinn are good artists. You may not have liked the Alison Lapper statue, but it was a very competent piece of sculpture. Banksy has produced a lot of good images.
        Banksy is now running out of ideas I think, hence repeating the rat theme too often. And woke politics is doing neither of them any favours.

  102. A pleasant walk.
    Up the Via Gellia to Tufa Cottage, then up the grueling climb to Dunsley Springs and hence onto Bonsall Moor.
    Along the road towards Slaley, diverting onto the road to top of The Dale and dropping down to the sadly shut Barley Mow.
    So over the Hump to the King’s Head for a couple of pints.
    Got chatting to a bunch of the local young’uns and did a couple of songs for them.

    All in all an enjoyable night.

    1. 321360+ uo ticks,
      Evening TB,
      Murdered most foul by axe would be more descriptive.

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