Wednesday 22 July: People remain ignorant of how to use face coverings for Mask-up Friday

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/07/21/letterspeople-remain-ignorant-use-face-coverings-mask-up-friday/

673 thoughts on “Wednesday 22 July: People remain ignorant of how to use face coverings for Mask-up Friday”

  1. The real lesson from the Russia report is that interference in UK democracy is far closer to home. 22 July 2020.

    And we should not forget that the UK has its own army of information organisations, which refer to themselves as counter-disinformation specialists. Some fall under the aegis of government. They include:

    The 77th Brigade, which specialises in “psychological operations and use of social media to engage in unconventional warfare in the information age”. The Brigade was formed from “the Military Stabilisation and Support Group, Media Operations Group, 15 Psychological Operations Group and the Security Capacity Building team”. As reported by The Canary, 15 Psychological Operations Group was headed by Steve Tatham, who went on to head the Defence division of SCL, now defunct in the wake of the Facebook data privacy scandal).

    NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden was first to expose the work of the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG). Wired asserts that JTRIG’s arsenal includes “posting negative information on internet forums”, changing someone’s social media content, depositing compromising information on a target’s computer. In January 2018, The Canary reported on a presentation by LulzSec co-founder and security researcher Mustafa Al-Bassam to the Chaos Communication Congress, summarising JTRIG’s work. He claimed that the group “is tasked with creating sock puppet accounts and fake content on social media, so as to use “dirty tricks” to “destroy, deny, degrade [and] disrupt” enemies by “discrediting” them”.

    The Rapid Response Unit is another agency, which was set up in April 2018 to “work round the clock to monitor online breaking news stories and social media discussion”.

    The Open Information Partnership (OIP) is described as the “Network Hub of the UK government Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) EXPOSE network”. It is understood that the network facilitator of EXPOSE is “a consortium led by Zinc Networks who were formerly known as Breakthrough Media. The project’s resource partners are Bellingcat, DFR Labs and the Media Diversity Institute. The implementing consortium partners are the Institute of Statecraft and Aktis Strategy (no longer operating) with risk management and security almost certainly provided by Toro Risk Solutions. Grant fund management is probably handled by Ecorys”. EXPOSE is “a project of the Counter Disinformation & Media Development Program (CDMD), currently headed by Andy Pryce”.

    There’s also the Fusion Doctrine, launched when Theresa May was prime minister as part of the 2018 National Security Capability Review.

    Morning everyone. Just a little information on NoTTLers enemies (all home grown); rather depressing when one realises that it doesn’t include the real world contingents like the BBC, Mi5-6, Hate not Hope, Antifa and of course harassment and being fitted up by regular Law Enforcement. It is rather sobering to realise that all these organisations exist for only one purpose which is to control and suppress the views and opinions of the British people!

    Makes the Russians look like pikers actually!

    https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2020/07/21/the-real-lesson-from-the-russia-report-is-that-interference-in-uk-democracy-is-far-closer-to-home/

    1. These agencies may well have people embedded in the BBC and other media houses, HnH, and the like.
      Morning, Minty.

    2. The Russians worry me much less right now, and I suspect they are being scapegoated by the real villains. We are being duped by our own people.

      The last leader of any mainstream party I would trust was John Smith.

      1. The Russians are the go-to “enemy” of choice. Bid Bad Vlad has it in for us! Oh, nooooo!

  2. Morning, all.
    Cherrypicker day today – to get at the east wall of Firstborns house, where the ground falls away and we can’t use the scaffolding or the ladder. Exciting! Never used on eof these before!
    Also, sunny night with north wind. About 4C when I got up… what was that about global warming?

      1. Well, I’m just about to find me working coat & get out there – sunny 22 July… pah.
        Anniversary of the shooting of Labour youth some years ago, by Anders Breivik. Bastard.

          1. That’s what it was about, him hindering unwarranted immigration. Problem is, it was the wrong approach – apart from shooting teenagers – and seems to have the opposite effect… poor little refugees…

          2. Problem is, it was the wrong approach

            Exactly. Apart from being a mass murderer he must also not have watched TV – ever. Or read the papers. Or listened to the whining modern political/media class.

            Otherwise he would have known his actions would be used to justify the policies he claimed to be against.

            And since he must have known all that we can infer that he was either a nutcase with no grasp of politics whatsoever. Or it was a false flag operation from the start.

        2. Brevik: “On 24 August 2012, Oslo District Court delivered its verdict, finding Breivik sane and guilty of murdering 77 people. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison, in a form of preventive detention that required a minimum of 10 years incarceration and the possibility of one or more extensions for as long as he is deemed a danger to society. This is the maximum penalty in Norway.” Not sure I understand the difference between “incarceration” and “preventive detention” under Norwegian law, but I am still staggered that someone who murdered 77 people in cold blood is still alive. If ever there was a case requiring capital punishment this was surely it.

          ‘Morning, Herr Oberst. Have fun with the cherrypicker!

    3. They missed out the printer – now they (in theory) no longer have access to our money, they are going to be short.

    1. Same for the Daily Fail. I trust that its readership figures are in freefall. Yes, the Beeb in full-on government-bashing mode this morning, even more so than usual. Still, I take comfort from the thought that their days are numbered.

    2. The Russia report has forced Remainer cranks to find new conspiracy theories

      Remainers insist the real conspiracy is not,as they long claimed, that Russians tampered with Brexit but that we weren’t vigilant enough

      TOM HARWOOD
      21 July 2020 • 3:17pm

      Remainer protester Steve Bray facing Brexiteers CREDIT: ISABEL INFANTES /AFP
      Remain campaigners were left flummoxed and scrambling this morning when their much coveted Russia Report was finally formally released by the Intelligence and Security Committee (half an hour after it had leaked its way onto the Guido Fawkes website). The fanfare leading up to this moment had been incredible.

      During the General Election Emily Thornberry was busy raising the prospect that the report could cover Dominic Cummings’ “mysterious” years in Russia as well as “links between Russia and Brexit and the current leadership of the Tory party”. Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff wrote that the report is expected to “shed light on how we ended up with Brexit in the first place”. Carole Cadwalladr described the report as “potentially incendiary”, tweeting that “it begs real questions about legitimacy of the referendum [sic]”.

      They must have all been so very let down.

      The report did nothing of the sort. Most of what the report really contains is sensible analysis of espionage, Russian money, as and oligarchs integrated into the UK business and social scene.

      In reality the word ‘Brexit’ is mentioned just twice in the fifty page document, once in a footnote denoting an example of a wedge issue, and once talking about well reported anti-EU stories appearing on Russian propaganda channels RT and Sputnik. In terms of electoral interference, there is far more categorical language in the report to describe how the Kremlin “undertook influence campaigns” during the 2014 Scottish separatism referendum. Clearly, unsuccessfully.

      After scratching their heads, the cranks and conspiracists have settled on a new line of attack. Not, as they were claiming for months, that this report would expose some sort of sinister conspiracy of Watergate proportions. Not even that the left’s hate figures Arron Banks, Dominic Cummings, and Boris Johnson were personally implicated. Instead, we’re expected to believe that the smoking gun is that the security services avoided sufficiently investigating interference.

      They are missing the point.

      Among the serious, concrete findings of the report are not Twitter bots or electoral campaigns, but the concerning power of Russian money and oligarchs. The report explains how these have succeeded in “building influence” with “PR firms, charities, political interests, academia and cultural institutions [who] were all willing beneficiaries of Russian money.” Not exactly the sort of groups you would associate with pro-Brexit sentiment.

      More concerning still is the extent to which domestic security services dropped the ball when it came to state actors over the last twenty years. At the turn of the century, 20pc of MI5 spend went on hostile state activity, a figure that collapsed to just 10.7pc by 2003/04. By 2008/09 this had fallen further, to just three per cent of effort. Interestingly by 2013/14 this had climbed back into double figures (14.7pc) – perhaps too little too late, but at least we are moving in the right direction.

      It is easy to forget that those shouting loudest about Russia now were the political clan most appeasing of that nation as its hostility grew for the majority of the last two decades. It was the Blair government in this country, now lauded by the liberal left, that took its eye off the ball when it came to Russia.

      Indeed it was only a few years ago another Remain hero, Barack Obama, harangued Mitt Romney for citing Russia as a geopolitical foe during a presidential debate. In what must now be deeply regrettable words, the Democratic president quipped that “the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because the cold war’s been over for twenty years”. It’s easy to forget how recently that the fashionable liberal opinion u-turned to see Russia as a threat.

      The Russian threat is real. Remain’s conspiracy theories are not. There are useful, reasonable, and measured lessons to be learned from this report with regard to diplomatic relations towards Russia and its oligarchs. It must be so bitterly disappointing for Remainers that none of these lessons back up their anti-Brexit fantasies.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/21/russia-report-has-forced-remainer-cranks-find-new-conspiracy/

      1. Hang on! “The Russian threat is real.”. Please explain, that is, dissect, define and enlarge.
        The presence and influence of Russian “oligarchs” is real, and has been for some considerable time. These people are gangsters and thieves. They made their fortunes by ripping off Russian assets and bringing their newly acquired money to Mayfair and to a football ground near you.
        Yet they were welcomed. “The UK is open for business”.

      2. The left missing the point has rather been ‘the point’ for the last 30 years.

        They keep spouting an oppressive, offensive assault on responsibility, dignity, freedom and liberty, the make a huge thing out of profiling and labelling people and then, then they call us the bad guys.

      3. I am more concerned about O’Barmy and his “back of the queue” interference myself.

  6. What does the Russia report mean for British people and politics? Luke Harding. 21 July 2020.

    The Russia report accuses the government of failing to investigate Russian interference in British politics – in particular during the 2016 EU referendum. The Commons intelligence and security committee’s language is scathing. It says Downing Street showed a “lack of curiosity” over Kremlin attempts to meddle in UK politics. The report doesn’t say whether this complacency was deliberate or an omission. Either way, it amounts to a stunning rebuke of Boris Johnson and his predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May. We now know why Johnson sought to bury the report before last December’s general election. It is embarrassing. He burned political capital to keep it secret.

    Here’s our Luke as forecast; Mi6’s best and brightest. He wishes the government to investigate Russian interference in British Politics though there is no evidence to indicate that this has happened. This is like sending out a copper to investigate a burglary that didn’t happen.

    “Where do I go Sarge?”

    “I don’t know Dixon. Find it!”

    “Who reported it then?”

    “Nobody.”

    “Well who was it got burgled then?”

    “That’s your job Dixon. Find somebody who’s been done and then investigate!”

  7. What does the Russia report mean for British people and politics? Luke Harding. 21 July 2020.

    The Russia report accuses the government of failing to investigate Russian interference in British politics – in particular during the 2016 EU referendum. The Commons intelligence and security committee’s language is scathing. It says Downing Street showed a “lack of curiosity” over Kremlin attempts to meddle in UK politics. The report doesn’t say whether this complacency was deliberate or an omission. Either way, it amounts to a stunning rebuke of Boris Johnson and his predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May. We now know why Johnson sought to bury the report before last December’s general election. It is embarrassing. He burned political capital to keep it secret.

    Here’s our Luke as forecast; Mi6’s best and brightest. He wishes the government to investigate Russian interference in British Politics though there is no evidence to indicate that this has happened. This is like sending out a copper to investigate a burglary that didn’t happen.

    “Where do I go Sarge?”

    “I don’t know Dixon. Find it!”

    “Who reported it then?”

    “Nobody.”

    “Well who was it got burgled then?”

    “That’s your job Dixon. Find somebody who’s been done and then investigate!”

  8. What does the Russia report mean for British people and politics? Luke Harding. 21 July 2020.

    The Russia report accuses the government of failing to investigate Russian interference in British politics – in particular during the 2016 EU referendum. The Commons intelligence and security committee’s language is scathing. It says Downing Street showed a “lack of curiosity” over Kremlin attempts to meddle in UK politics. The report doesn’t say whether this complacency was deliberate or an omission. Either way, it amounts to a stunning rebuke of Boris Johnson and his predecessor as prime minister, Theresa May. We now know why Johnson sought to bury the report before last December’s general election. It is embarrassing. He burned political capital to keep it secret.

    Here’s our Luke as forecast; Mi6’s best and brightest. He wishes the government to investigate Russian interference in British Politics though there is no evidence to indicate that this has happened. This is like sending out a copper to investigate a burglary that didn’t happen.

    “Where do I go Sarge?”

    “I don’t know Dixon. Find it!”

    “Who reported it then?”

    “Nobody.”

    “Well who was it got burgled then?”

    “That’s your job Dixon. Find somebody who’s been done and then investigate!”

  9. SIR – As Mask-up Friday approaches, my wife, a former Control of Infection Ward Sister, becomes increasingly frustrated with the lack of information available about how to place, wear and dispose of face coverings.

    Having seen the way people in shops, and in the public eye on television, are wearing theirs incorrectly, she wishes that the Government would put out a public service broadcasts to demonstrate correct methods. This could save lives.

    Sqn Ldr David Higginbottom (retd)
    Bramhall, Cheshire

    Dear Squadron Leader

    This should solve your wife’s problem
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d507993e32ae0b77231037e546fc673d689f1518ef153824a09691c8a6c1f988.jpg
    [Patent pending]

    3. The bloke getting on needs a lesson too…

      Not sure why this subject should require the retired rank of the letter writer to be made known to all and sundry? Not in the slightest bit relevant.

      1. When I was working in Cambridge it was a standing joke that Squadron Leaders and ex-SLs wuld invariably announce their rank as if it made them so important that they wanted one to salute.
        Majors seemed to act similarly.

        1. I never normally put my qualifications after my name, but we had an application for a vacant council seat yesterday and the chap put all his letters after his name. When I replied to my clerk, I put all my letters after my name, too – so as not to feel left out 🙂

          1. If the title/qualification is relevant to the time and place, I don’t have a problem. I think one is right to do so.

            In a socal or business setting where the T/Q etc have no relevance whatsoever, I dislike people doing so, particularly if they appear to think it will get them extra respect or special consideration.

            I have friends who were relatively senior in the police and armed forces. On the odd times it has happened I have been very amused to watch the faces of Major X or Lieutenant Commander Y who introduce themselves as such.

            I then address my friends, Admiral A or General B, if the opportunity for introduction becomes possible.

            I can’t ever recall a former Commissioner of the Met Police, who lived in the village, ever referring to his position in any social setting and he normally eschewed his title as well, preferring to be known by his Christian name. We knew his wife far better than him through the church choir, but often met them both socially.

          2. I didn’t see that his Engineering BSc was relevant to his becoming a parish councillor and his stated desire to serve the community. We’ll give him a try in September and see how it goes; he’ll be co-opted if he does come on.

    6. I have a hard hat with face visor (and ear defenders) attached. Perhaps I’ll wear that if I do have to venture into the shops (did most of my shopping today, but one shop, annoyingly, was closed for half day).

  10. SIR – Before confirming the deified status the NHS seems recently to have acquired (Michael Fitzpatrick, Health, July 20), we might usefully recall the high proportion of its budget that is devoted to the settlement of medical negligence claims each year.

    It is sometimes suggested that the amounts paid out simply reflect the avariciousness of lawyers pursuing meritless claims on behalf of their clients. This is not so. Damages for medical negligence are not paid by the NHS unless due by law to the claimant.

    They are not paid because a procedure known to be hazardous has been unsuccessful, or because someone has made an innocent mistake. Such damages are paid as compensation to a patient who has suffered physical or mental harm as a result of a medical professional employed in the NHS doing something that no competent professional of that specialisation could possibly have done, or failing to do something that no competent professional of that specialisation could have failed to do.

    The amounts of compensation paid each year suggest that there is a significant level of incompetence embedded within the NHS at the level of those directly treating patients.

    His Honour Richard Seymour (retd)
    East Hanningfield, Essex

    The numbers are horrendous.

    1. My former wife was butchered and died having keyhole surgery for a hiatus hernia. As she had remarried I didn’t have a dog in the fight. The coroner when interviewing the surgeon made it clear that there was a case of incompetence. Her elderly and nice guy husband didn’t want the fuss.

    1. Good comment BTL to the effect that Islamic terrorism has ceased because it is no longer referred to as ‘Islamic terrorism’.

      ‘Course, terrorism by Muslims still goes on, but at least we know it’s not Islamic terrorism.

  12. Why is the Chancellor giving teachers a pay rise for failing to teach our children?

    Rewarding workers who sailed through lockdown when the economy is shrinking is sheer folly

    ROSS CLARK – 21 July 2020 • 6:00pm

    “We’re all in this together,” David Cameron liked to say in the aftermath of the 2008-09 financial crisis. It wasn’t quite true, as many senior public sector employees were allowed to breach the £150,000 a year pay ceiling which he promised to impose. But at least Cameron and Osborne made some attempt to rein in public expenditure in the face of a £150 billion deficit.

    Now, the Government is facing a deficit for this year of more than twice that. And how does it react? By awarding above-inflation pay rises to public sector workers – a group of people who have been able to sail through the deepest economic collapse in history with hardly a worry, thanks to secure jobs and pensions.

    The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, says he wants to recognise the “vital contribution” of key workers through the crisis. Fair enough, if he was handing out a bonus to emergency doctors and nurses who have been working even longer hours than normal. But dentists, who will get a 
2.8 per cent rise in spite of their surgeries being closed for months? The judiciary, who will get 2 per cent, in spite of courts not sitting?

    Most bizarre of all is the 3.1 per cent rise – the highest pay award of all – promised to teachers. Not for them the worry of unemployment or collapse in the value of their pensions – a double whammy which has struck millions of private sector workers. Nor have they had to take a 20 per cent pay cut like millions of furloughed staff. They have continued to draw full salaries whether working or not. Credit to those teachers who have exerted themselves in order to teach their pupils – and to teach them properly – during the lockdown. I wouldn’t begrudge them a little extra money. But they are a select group. Sunak’s pay rise, needless to say, will go to all teachers, including to those who, according to Sunderland head teacher Pauline Wood, “spent more time watching Netflix” than teaching their pupils during lockdown.

    According to a study by UCL Institute of Education last month, a fifth of state school pupils have spent the crisis doing less than an hour of schoolwork a day. Only seven per cent have been given more than four online lessons a day. It is hard to escape the conclusion that the Government is showering teachers with money in an effort to head off industry action in September. The National Education Union (NEU) has been particularly obstructive to government plans to reopen schools and has already rejected the guidelines for September, demanding more teachers and smaller class sizes. But ministers are fooling themselves if they think a pay rise will get teaching unions onside for long. On the contrary, it will merely encourage them to push all the harder their implicit threat to close down schools – in the same way that rail unions have managed to jack up their pay to absurd levels by constantly threatening to strike.

    What the Government should have done, right from the beginning of this crisis, was to award modest bonuses to teachers who were prepared to put in the effort to continue to teach a full timetable of lessons online or, in cases where children did not have reasonable broadband access at home, in the classroom. Any teachers who were not prepared to do this should have been treated in the same way as staff placed on furlough: their pay should have been cut by 20 per cent. As it is, what incentive do teachers have to get back to normal teaching?

    But more than anything, public sector pay needs to reflect economic reality. It is one thing handing out above-inflation pay rises when the economy is motoring along. But to do it when the economy has just shrunk by a fifth is sheer folly. Admittedly the Chancellor has said that future pay rises will be more modest “for reasons of fairness” and he is signalling pain ahead. But pay awards of any kind to public sector workers are not some one-off cost: they are a long-term burden on the public purse.

    The Government was failing to balance its books even before the recession; it is even less likely to achieve this now that it has just increased the base cost of providing public services. Far from being “all in this together”, Britain is increasingly coming to resemble an economic bloodbath watched over, from a safe distance, by a privileged class of public sector employees.

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

    jennifer mortimer
    21 Jul 2020 6:32PM
    What is Sunak thinking! Rewarding one of the key sectors of which the majority failed dismally to do their jobs during the pandemic. So many other people have lost all their income or taken large cuts, as well as so many trying to work as well as teach and care for their children.

    I fear that those being paid by the public purse are faring too well and those in the private sector too badly. This is a new divide.

    1. Very well said, Ross Clark. Johnson is spending his political capital like it is going out of fashion.

  13. SIR – The advice to observe social distancing applies to us all – except, it seems, to footballers. Why is this?

    Alan Cristall
    Gnosall, Staffordshire

    Because most of them are stupid, perhaps?

    1. A bit like some cricketers – who are so thick, they don’t believe the rules apply to them. Well, one bame one, anyway.

    2. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      Apropos sportsmen, how’s Djoko getting on with his infection?

        1. Against all advice re shielding, Djoko arranged some Balkan tennis tournament. Several players, he & ancillary staff became infected with the virus.

          1. Ah, that well known Scottish tennis player, Mr Jock O’Vich? No idea, I’m afraid. No doubt we shall be told if one or more of them snuffs it!

    3. The advice to observe social distancing applies to us all but not to fans at famous footballers funerals.

  14. Morning all

    SIR – From Friday, everyone entering the supermarket will have to wear face coverings – but not the staff. What is the science behind that?

    Gael-Anne Morgan

    Surbiton, Surrey

    1. SIR – As a couple turning 70, we have supported our local economy during lockdown, buying from excellent farm shops and visiting the village food stores and recently opened retailers.

      The wearing of masks by customers has been the exception rather than the rule. However, as the infection rate in Hampshire falls dramatically, we are suddenly to be forced to wear masks to go shopping after all this time. This seems ridiculous, and will do nothing for visits to the high street. We can shop online without a clammy piece of cloth sticking to our faces.

      Ian and Judy Goddard

      Wickham, Hampshire

      SIR – Dr Sarah Pape (Letters, July 21) must have the right sort of nose. None of the three different masks I have tried prevent my glasses from steaming up when I exhale.

      Hugh Bebb

      Sunbury-on-Thames Middlesex

    2. There is no science behind it; if it were vital, it would have been introduced at the beginning of lockdown and not when the numbers were falling. There is absolutely no justification for waiting ten days to implement it, either.

  16. Andrew Roberts. Churchill (p. 477). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

    Churchill arrived late from a War Cabinet meeting, but was ‘in fine fettle: fresh, younger, full of energy, with a spring in his step’. Pulling on his cigar, he told Maisky, ‘Your non-aggression pact with Germany triggered the war, but I bear you no grudge. I’m even glad. For a long time now I’ve felt that a war with Germany was necessary. Without your pact, we would have hesitated and drawn things out, until we procrastinated to the point when we could no longer win the war. But we will win it, even though it will cost us dearly.’ Summarizing Churchill’s remarks, Maisky concluded, ‘In peacetime the British often look like pampered, gluttonous sybarites, but in times of war and extremity they turn into vicious bulldogs, trapping their prey in a death grip.’

    As a Brit I am absurdly pleased at this comment all the more so in that it was made by a Russian Marxist in a private report that could have benefited the writer Maisky in no way. I often look for historical parallels with which to compare the UK’s present problems and the Appeasement era in between the two World Wars is not an unreasonable one. The vast majority of the Political Elites of the day were in favour of this policy and not a few in direct sympathy with Hitler while the general population tolerated it through fears of a repeat of WWI. Only a few voices, Churchill’s preeminent among them, spoke up against it and suffered for it by social and political ostracism. It is interesting to note that Lord Reith, the then head of the BBC hated Churchill and refused him access to the Radio by which he might have spread his message and fears further.

  18. Just been out to open the greenhouse- a bloody Muntjak was wandering about the garden – and left only reluctantly.

    We are plagued with these damned things. And they refuse to wear masks, too.

      1. My neighbour used to go hunting with his land rover. The beams over his patio were like Newgate with a row of “damned things” hanging on display until withdrawn to the freezer when the viewing public got bored, or he needed more space.

        Two neighbours back, a thick-set gentleman from Sutton Coldfield, who liked to holiday in picturesque Winson Green, built the patio, whose raised platform filled up suspiciously. His builders always made sure they stopped work whenever I was around, and there were rats and funny smells for a while. I do remember the crime rate in Birmingham went down significantly at that time.

    2. They are all over the place around here. Make a mess of a car radiator grille if hit. Shoot the little b*gger. There’s no closed season for them and, with careful attention, make fair eating.

      1. I have no gun. My son, who does, and who is an expert shooter, lives 200 miles away…{:¬((

        1. Morning Bill, he must be quite an expert with a hell of a powerful gun, 200 miles away, I’m impressed. 😂

    4. We have one regularly in our garden and it strips all the bark from our fruit trees. It’s an absolute biche!

  19. Teen stabbed at knife awareness course. BBC 21 July 2020.

    A young offender stabbed another teenager to death at a community centre while on a knife awareness course, a court has heard.

    The 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named, knifed Hakim Sillah, 18, twice in the chest at the west London centre on 7 November last year, Isleworth Crown Court was told.

    Prosecutors said there was “a cruel irony” that Mr Sillah was stabbed while attending a weapons awareness course.

    You have to laugh!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53487143

      1. Yes, the black looters are Mindless are stereotyping all police officers and making their lives incredibly difficult by destroying public property, vandalising, theft and violent behaviour.

        The fault lies not with the police but with the thuggish rioters. I’d bet my house the guardian took the opposite view.

    5. I don’t want to laugh. It’s too awful. Another life lost to a refusal to properly deal with the problem and the continued lauding of irresponsibility, ego, self righteousness and utter, pointless stupid pandering.

    1. We had lots of butterflies in our garden this year.
      Then a wagtail started feeding them to her two offspring. Now all we see are detached butterfly wings everywhere.

    2. Where’s the B52 sized leviathan that actively goes for me knowing I’m terrified of the things?

      These beasts slap against the windows like tennis balls.

  21. Home Office urged to correct false slavery information in citizenship test. Wed 22 Jul 2020.

    More than 175 historians have called on the Home Office to remove the history element of the UK citizenship test because of its “misleading and false” representation of slavery and empire.

    Among the examples of “falsehood and misrepresentation” they highlight are the claim in the handbook that: “While slavery was illegal within Britain itself, by the 18th century it was a fully established overseas industry.” However, slavery’s legality within Britain was still a matter of debate at that time, as illustrated by the famous Somerset case in 1772. Adverts placed in newspapers show that many black people were held as slaves in Britain.

    Slavery was illegal in Britain; that this was contravened (mostly by West Indian planters bringing their slaves with them when they returned to the UK) does not invalidate it any more than the presence of Drug Dealers nowadays implies that the activity is allowed. The “Somerset Ruling” is a particularly inept source to quote since James Somerset was actually freed by the Courts!

    The case was repeatedly adjourned. Somerset’s legal team argued that although slavery was tolerated in the colonies, the Court of King’s Bench was bound to apply the law of England. Mansfield ruled in 1772 that ‘no master ever was allowed here (England) to take a slave by force to be sold abroad because he deserted from his service…therefore the man must be discharged’. And so James Somerset won his freedom.

    https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/blackhistory/rights/slave_free.htm

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/22/home-office-urged-to-correct-false-slavery-information-in-citizenship-test

    1. From a bio of Granville Sharp…

      His interest in slavery began in 1765 after he befriended Jonathan Strong, a slave who had been badly beaten by his master. When Strong’s former owner attempted to sell him back into slavery in the Caribbean, Sharp took a successful case to the lord mayor and Strong was freed. Sharp then devoted his time to forcing a definitive legal ruling on the question of whether a slave could be compelled to leave Britain. He was involved in securing the famous 1772 ruling by Lord Chief Justice William Mansfield, which concluded that slave owners could not legally force slaves to return to the colonies once they were in Britain.

    2. 321652+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      See Gerard Battens post regarding James Somerser
      on Parler.

    1. Their relatives back in their “old ” home will have already received the phone call and suitcases are already being packed. Get your spare rooms ready, plus appropriate food in stock.

    2. Priti Awful remains silent….

      Remember her promise to stop illegal immigration at a stroke?

  23. Yo All

    Am I exempt from wearing a face mask?

    According to the official Government guidance, the below groups are not required to wear a mask:
    A child under the age of 11
    An employee of the transport operator, when they are acting in the course of their employment
    A constable or police community support officer acting in the course of their duty
    An emergency response member of staff, such as a paramedic or fire officer acting in the course of their duty
    An official such as a border force officer, acting in the course of their duties
    If you are on board public transport but remain in your own vehicle, such as a car ferry
    Other legitimate exemptions listed include those with a disability or a physical or mental illness,

    and anyone travelling with a deaf person who relies on lip reading to communicate.
    Wearers are also permitted to remove them if it is necessary to avoid harm or injury, as well as
    to eat or drink if required, to take medication, or if a police officer or other official requests you to do so.

    Customers in shops will also be allowed to remove them if they are required to present identification for

    purchasing alcohol and other age-restricted products.

    So, perlice sergeants, inspectors, all the way up Frau Dick must wear them in shops,

    Note Perlice Orficef is used in the second exemption

    Why cannot they issue precise instructions?

    It is a case of you saw what I wrote, but did you read what I meant

    1. 1) – Lie about your age – the invaders are all under 12, including their kids and grandkids.
      2) – Mental illness – All our invaders who attack us instantly get classed as “mental illness”

    2. If the government was able to give clear, precise instructions – we wouldn’t be in the present chaotic muddle…

      1. Morning Bill

        How strange that meetings are either held with social distancing strictly adhered to re village halls or the alternative is by Zoom .

        How strange though the beaches are packed out and shops have now stopped queues, and are allowing the public to shop with chaotic social distancing via arrows on the floor.

        We are indeed in a real muddle!

        1. Never mind – it’s good for our immune systems to get closer to people. I’ve never believed good health comes from too much sanitising.

      1. I’m not profoundly deaf, just hard of hearing, with tinnitus. I know I lip read a lot of the time. Perhaps I can use that as an excuse.

        1. You probably lip read more than you realise.
          MB had an infection in one ear and left the aids off for a few days (one was worse than none). We then realised just how much he was lip reading.

          1. I’ve known fo many years that I can hear better with my specs on! It’s probably why I struggle to follow drama on the telly as they mumble so much.

    4. The list has accidentally missed ‘YOU and ME’ and ‘People with an IQ over 80’ off the list of exemptions.

  24. ‘Morning All

    Dare to oppose the Leftards and they will do their damnedest to get your family murdered

    https://twitter.com/X22Report/status/1285571358357950464
    I pondered why the Guardian hasn’t done similar to the likes of Tommy Robinson but then I realised
    1 They have the forces of “Law and Order” to do their dirty work for them
    2 They’re gutless at heart,I suspect you publish a story that leads to harm of his children you’re not long for this world and damn the consequences

    2. The Woke Left is an evil incubus which seduces and corrupts the young and impressionable with its consuming desire to stamp out opinions that differ from their own.

      We certainly could do with a few more journalists like Tucker Carlson in Britain.

      1. We could do with any journalists like Tucker Carlson in Britain, certainly one with a tv show.
        There’s Brendan O’Neill, Toby Young, James Delingpole, but they get scant mainstream media coverage.

        Liked your comment in the Telegraph this morning, about the pay rises for teachers.

    3. Isn’t the NYT editor a well known leftie from the BBC?

      Anyone remember his name?

      1. Dean P. Baquet (/bæˈkeɪ/; born September 21, 1956) is an American journalist. He has been the executive editor of The New York Times since May 14, 2014.
        Born: September 21, 1956, New Orleans, Loui…
        Periodical: The New York Times
        Profession: Journalist

        Dean Baquet – Wikipedia

    4. I suspect you publish a story that leads to harm of his children you’re not long for this world

      I suspect different. They’ve not exactly been concerned about the harm done to many other ethnic Brits,e.g. rape gang victims, Kriss Donald, etc.

  25. Daily Betrayal

    But ‘the virus was already in retreat’ even before the full

    Lockdown, according to Dr Whitty! In those ‘early stages of the

    pandemic’ in January and February China and the WHO were not exactly

    preaching ‘urgency’, nor were ‘Our MSM’, as those of us with a memory

    going back further than the weekend know full well.

    Moreover, it seems possible that SAGE and especially

    Sir Patrick Vallance were a bit selective, shall we say, in providing

    that committee and thus Messrs Johnson and Hancock with papers. There

    was the report about ‘200,000 worst-case scenario deaths’ he mentioned

    in an exchange with another HoC Special Committee and which nobody was

    aware of nor could find.

    Toby Young, writing in LockdownSceptics, today provides the link (here)

    to that paper. I wonder if there are other papers which are lurking

    somewhere which neither the government or indeed ‘Our MSM’ are aware of.

    I’m not suggesting that such papers exist, that would of course be

    churlish of me and would make me into a CV-19 conspiracist, wouldn’t it!

    The last CV-19 piece of ‘news’ is that one of those SAGEs is proposing to use the elderly as vaccine guinea pigs:

    “Jonathan Van-Tam said that given that the elderly

    were much more likely to die of the virus, regulators were likely to

    need less assurance about the safety of a vaccine before giving it to

    them. Vaccinating the 20 per cent of adults most at risk could eliminate

    up to 90 per cent of deaths, his calculations suggest.” (link, paywalled)

    Words simply fail me! This is not ‘protecting’ the elderly,

    this is putting them at even more risk by giving them this new vaccine

    which may well interfere disastrously with all their other illnesses.

    Some protection, that!

    Rest of a worthwhile read here

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-betrayal-wednesday-22nd-july-2020-day-18-of-semi-lockdown-britain/

    1. 321652+ upticks,
      Morning Rik,
      Looks to me like Soylent Green ( halal) will be, in the near future, added to the HOc canteen menu.

    2. I’m an old cynic of course but a virus with a fatality rate of around 0.01% to 0.03% maximum, even supposing the figures we’re being fed are more or less correct, does not merit the meltdown. There has to be another agenda but if Covid was intended to achieve Agenda 21, it’s been a spectacular failure.

      1. Morning Sue

        I am rather cynical as well of skewed figures.

        There are 30,000 deaths from this per year

        COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, is a progressive disease that makes it hard to breathe. Progressive means the disease gets worse over time. COPD can cause coughing that produces large amounts of a slimy substance called mucus, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness, and other symptoms

        In the UK, it is estimated that 3 million people have COPD, of whom 2 million are undiagnosed. Prevalence increases with age and most people are not diagnosed until they are in their 50s.

        Dare we suggest that the figures for Covid are rather tainted?

        1. I have a friend with COPD, and her husband also was diagnosed with this a year or two ago. Both life-long smokers who met when they were in the RAF. She is younger than I am, but very thin and frail, and of course this virus would finsh her off if she didn’t take care. I don’t think she’s been out since it started.

          Quite apart from the health issues, the lack of contact with people is very isolating and depressing.

    1. Yes, of course Mr L, they would all be trooping down to the HMRC to file their returns. He should take up writing comedy.

      1. I imagine removing the phrase ‘black economy’ from the English language might in one way or another do some collateral damage.

    2. We have no journalist in Britain brave enough to address Mr Lammy as follows:

      “Why, Mr Lammy, do illegal immigrants want to come to a despicable country like Britain which is mainly populated by nasty white people and sets of values that are alien to them. Surely, Mr Lammy, you should be encouraging these people to go to places like Africa? We are expected to go along with the idea that colonialism was wrong and that the whites should never have gone to Africa – if this is true then why does it not follow logically that the blacks should never have come to Europe?”

    3. Lamy never misses a trick in underlining what a total and racist AH he really is.

    4. We have no journalist in Britain brave enough to address Mr Lammy as follows:

      “Why, Mr Lammy, do illegal immigrants want to come to a despicable country like Britain which is mainly populated by nasty white people and sets of values that are alien to them? Surely, Mr Lammy, you should be encouraging these people to go to places like Africa? We are expected to go along with the idea that colonialism was wrong and that the whites should never have gone to Africa – if this is true then why does it not follow logically that the blacks should never have come to Europe?”

      1. I read the other day that white people on the planet are only around 10% of the whole population. If that is the case, It’s more than about time this productive ethical mainly moral hard working ‘ethnic minority’, were given the break they need. Breathing space. It’s way past time to send all illegals back to where ever it was they came from. History has proven, we simply don’t need them.

        1. More like 7%. We used to be 30% of the world’s population, but our numbers have fallen while the population of the others have exploded.

          1. The report i read said 8% but i thought I’d round it up as we have three grandchildren.
            We need to stop feeding the world, it’s more than stupid.

        2. Deport all non-Europeans (5 generations required) to Africa and Asia. (According the UN this would be genocide. On the other hand whites might survive.)

          1. (5 generations required)
            That’s’ probably taking things a bit too far HP. I have met some very nice people who are descended from Indian families.
            But it just might put ‘sport stars’ who claim they are black, in a bit of a quandary.

          2. 321652+ up ticks,
            RE,
            A great deal of trouble starts & continues with “we have a very good Mp”
            First you need a good PM and that political
            commodity has been missing for years,
            We are dealing, and have been for years
            with a two for one political deal,as in cut off the current hydra head and you
            get two.
            Before you ask,
            Is the hydra male or female ? currently it is not sure.

        3. 321652+ up ticks,
          Afternoon RE,
          Leave well alone because the voting pattern would allow them a furlough on home turf then back again.
          This would then be on a yearly basis as in summer in the UK winter in the Caribbean.

    5. No problem with that at all Dave. Here’s the bill. Oh, and the one for policing costs. Oh, and whatever crime they commit, you’ll also be charged with.

      What’s that? 5 bed house you’ve got? OK, that’s 20 for you to house, rotating weekly. You of course will be moved into the same detention centre as they are – we’ll suspend any MP duties you might have. No police protection man either. Put the costs on expenses did you say? No, those will be withdrawn so you, you know, live like the rest of us are forced to.

    1. As the bloody Bbsee are wetting their pants over this, it makes me think it’s all a load of bolero.

        1. I always think something like this nonsense is just another cover story for something else stuck in the media sewage system.

      2. I’d say it’s classic deflection away from the problems our own government and its advisors have caused. If they’re pointing over there, start looking elsewhere instead.

        1. 321652+ up ticks,
          Afternoon Ims2,
          If they are pointing over there, look over here, sound advice.

      3. I imagine they get very annoyed when the facts get in the way of their narrative.

    2. If the Russians were really interfering with referenda, general elections etc…. they should be asking for their money back.
      I would be quite happy to nip over to Russia with a sackful of the readies. Moscow just to drop them off and then on to St. Petersburg for a few weeks quarantine.

      1. It was interesting to see a programme last night about Russia and how the Germans have set up VW car production lines there.
        Errrm ‘scus me but I always thought German industry was supposed to be set up within EU borders ?

    1. Ah bless, it just emphasises just how under privileged they are, i suspect they have been working so hard the shops were shut on their hour a day off.

      1. I just love watching programmes on TV about farming, they are so dedicated to their lifestyles and so hard working. But ‘hideously white’ ! What on earth would we do and where would we be without them ?

        2. 321652+up ticks,
          Afternoon C,
          Interesting, mainly found in Ireland and goes by the title
          eneemic orgcoccaroaches ( abb) on account of it’s white minute size.

    3. No surprises how they win the sprint races at the olympics with all that training.

    4. And of course, all black.

      Black looters matter, innit.

      Bloody hell. I was given £2 too much change by the co-op once. As I don’t really think about these things I didn’t check until I got home. I called them up to tell them and offered to return the money that day. They said they couldn’t take it and I should best put it in the charity box, so I did, and bought some more shopping along with it.

      Stealing is wrong. No, it’s not because you’re oppressed and slaves, you’re not, and never have been. You’re just greedy vermin – and that gives rats a bad name.

  30. Social justice activists and virtue-signalling companies have forgotten about China

    Consumers seem to care more about the self-flagellation of Western civilisation than the grotesque abuse of human lives elsewhere

    BENEDICT SPENCE
    21 July 2020 • 2:40pm

    At long last, Western governments are beginning to take the threat of China seriously. Even now, at this late stage, they are hardly moving fast enough, but the steps taken against Beijing in the wake of its actions in Hong Kong and Xinjiang are welcome.

    Still only a few, albeit powerful, governments are speaking out, while everyone from global corporations to small businesses remain, even now, remarkably silent on the issue. It’s a strange thing, given how often the governments in question, namely the UK, US and Australia, would prefer to see consumer pressure lead the way on all manner of things. On the issue of China, many businesses clearly feel it is simply a beast too powerful to risk enraging. That is a disgraceful thing.

    In the wake of the death of George Floyd, we witnessed the birth of the mass movement Black Lives Matter, and the shift in focus from thousands of businesses around the world to pander to the politics of the group. The Premier League had the slogan emblazoned across the jerseys of its players, and every email dropping into inboxes for weeks on end seemed to be press releases by companies, from artisan soap makers to stationary retailers, informing us all that they were institutionally racist, and needed to do more to end injustice and inequality.

    Nothing wrong with that sort of honesty, per se. In many ways, admitting one’s institutional racism and tacit support for systemic oppression of ethnic and political minorities might explain why none of these companies have said anything about the Uighers, Tibet or Hong Kong. They told you they’d had a hand in it, and now here it is in action. You heard it straight from the horse’s mouth.

    The charges against authorities in the US regarding race relations don’t make for particularly edifying reading. Nor, indeed, to accusations of police abusing their power. The rap sheet in Europe, meanwhile, is much less distressing. Yet the world’s companies saw fit to use them, devoid of all nuance, to make, depending on your interpretation, a moral pitch, or a business one.

    The accusations leveled against China, meanwhile, for its treatment of the Uighers alone, are far more horrifying. This is a regime not merely accused of broad strains of racism, but of actual policies designed to eradicate populations and cultures. In the Balkan conflict of the end of the last century, symbolised so awfully by the anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre this month, it was called ethnic cleansing. Nothing about this is any different — if anything, the familiarity of the mechanised, even efficient way it is being conducted makes it far too easy to equate with a previous horror. No wonder some would rather look away than behold it.

    Conservative estimates suggest hundreds of thousands are incarcerated in prison camps. Victims are put to work, ‘re-educated,’ and most abominably, it has been claimed are even used to harvest organs for the burgeoning transplant trade. That is far worse than the fate of any ethnic minority in Europe or the US today.

    That companies do not have the strength to speak out is depressing, but then, why would they? This is not the cause de jour of Western liberals or those with spending power. And even if it were, China is a powerful market. No profit will be made by angering it.

    We have already seen how this plays out. The NBA has said it will have “Black Lives Matter” painted on basketball courts across the US, but when Daryl Morey, the general manager of the Houston Rockets, tweeted “Fight for freedom, stand with Hong Kong”, everyone in the business abandoned him, with superstar LeBron James saying Morley was “either misinformed or not really educated on the situation”, and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr suggesting the issue didn’t need to be raised as “people in China didn’t ask me about people owning AR-15s and mowing each other down in a mall.”

    China’s money talks. But, we must remember, so do pounds and dollars. It is a sad situation, but the reality is, for as long as consumers care that much more about the self-flagellation of Western civilisation than the grotesque abuse of human lives elsewhere, Western businesses will continue to see taking one stand as profitable, and the other as not.

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

    BTL:

    Pip Squeak
    21 Jul 2020 3:18PM
    Excellent analysis. Every country has been complicit in allowing China total freedom, and a foothold, to do what they want in infiltrating themselves very cleverly into their country. Cheap goods have played a large part and everyone has turned a blind eye.

    Typical of the hypocrites who shout “waycist” for not supporting BLM, are the very same people who allow China to carry out their own genocide and racism on the Uighers people incarcerated in prison camps. Their silence is deafening.

    The only Western leader who has the balls to call China out is President Trump, but he doesn’t suit the leftwing, snowflake agenda

    Fred Beach
    21 Jul 2020 3:42PM
    Benedict, Trump was way ahead of the curve on this topic but don`t expect the millionaire NFL players or our own millionaire Premiership footballers to take the knee for the Uighurs because they`re all hypocrites

    **I would add Scott Morrison of Oz.

  31. This EU summit fiasco is the final proof that we need a clean-break Brexit

    Britain needs to break free from EU faux-federalism to rescue its economy from this crippling lockdown

    LIAM HALLIGAN – 21 July 2020 • 9:30pm

    Finally, they struck a deal. Early yesterday, the fifth of a two-day meeting, European leaders agreed the details of a €750 billion (£678 billion) Coronavirus Rescue Fund. Emmanuel Macron hailed the outcome of this epic haggling battle as “a pivotal moment in EU history”. It could be, but not in the way he hopes. What this half-cocked outcome certainly demonstrates, though, is that Britain was right to choose Brexit.

    The EU just took a big step towards a more federal Europe. For the first time, the Commission will borrow against the EU budget, breaking a long-standing taboo. Under the cover of the Covid emergency, Brussels has secured permission to raise large amounts of common EU debt – dividing it between the member states hardest hit.

    Millions of voters in fiscally conservative nations like the Netherlands are now wondering why, as they struggle to emerge from lockdown, their governments must spend even more to help Italy and Spain. That’s why Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte led the “frugal five” nations ­– including Austria, Denmark and Sweden, later joined by Finland ­– to protest against this previously unthinkable move.

    Rutte endured a rhetorical barrage, with Macron accusing the Netherlands of “acting like Britain” – the ultimate Brussels-based insult. By reflecting public opinion in the countries where they were elected, the frugal five were, according to other EU leaders, no longer “good Europeans”.

    After Germany switched sides, they lost – and, unlike the bailouts of 2010-12, billions will be dispersed across the EU in the form of grants rather than loans. Richer countries will give cash directly to poorer ones – just as the UK’s South-East subsidies the North-East, or Massachusetts bankrolls Montana. Such a “debt-pooling” move was on the cards long before coronavirus, given that the eurozone was already struggling for survival.

    But with unemployment in some member states now set to double, this virus has exposed the incoherence of monetary union as never before ­– with more productive northern economies set to benefit from a relatively low currency, as southern members suffer under an exchange rate which for them remains far too high. While the new rescue fund includes grant-aid of €390 billion, with the rest in loans, total cross-border flows will be little more than 1 per cent of GDP for most countries, compared to intra-state transfers of 15-20 per cent in genuine fiscal federations likes the US.

    Faced with elections next March, Rutte’s conservative VVD party could now lose serious ground to Eurosceptic rivals. The same is true in Sweden which, despite being outside the euro, will contribute to a rescue fund which, however it’s sold, is about holding the single currency together. Already, this epidemic has generated major intra-EU tensions, with some member states hoarding medical equipment. Now, EU leaders have crossed the Rubicon of fiscal integration in a way that not only bends EU treaties, but for which there is absolutely no legitimate democratic support.

    Were Britain still in the EU, we would be on the hook to pay billions of pounds into this latest rescue fund. So what if the UK Government has just borrowed a colossal £128 billion between April and June, as we’ve shelled-out to keep over 9 million workers on furlough? We’d need to take on even more loans to finance further spending by Brussels in nations by no means much poorer than us.

    Yet as the EU fiddles with faux-federalism, there is an opportunity for Boris Johnson to seize the agenda and explain not just how we’ve dodged this financial bullet, but how and why Brexit can help Britain to recover from this crippling coronavirus lockdown.

    Freed from EU “structural fund” restrictions, an active regional policy could close the income divide between the South East and elsewhere – a gap made so much worse by this Covid crisis. That means far more widespread infrastructure spending ­– diverting funds earmarked for HS2 towards regional commuter services and full-fibre broadband. A dozen low-tax “free ports” – also stymied under EU rules – would similarly help spread wealth across the regions, as would strong post-Brexit agricultural and fishery policies. Subsidies should be shifted towards smaller farmers while reclaiming UK fishing grounds, restoring modest prosperity to parts of the country that have suffered badly over the last 50 years.

    Our sovereign industrial policy should avoid “picking winners”, based instead on low, simple taxation – with corporation tax put on hold in inland “opportunity zones”, another move possible post-Brexit. Business rates should be slashed to help struggling high street retailers, amid other targeted tax breaks. As well as world-class broadband connectivity, we also need, despite incoming migration controls, a steady labour supply. That means better skills – a priority made more urgent by the jobs dislocation caused by lockdown.

    Securing a high-wage, high-productivity economy means putting vocational training at the heart of the UK post-Brexit policy mix, with its own dedicated Cabinet position. There need not be an erosion of workers’ rights and a regulatory race to the bottom and I don’t believe there will be – not least as our own Parliament will be in charge, with the Tories keen to retain support in newly-won seats in former Labour heartlands.

    The EU has agreed a rescue plan that is, at once, both incendiary and inadequate. Eurozone banks are now facing €800 billion in loan losses – and the single currency remains in grave danger. National parliaments could yet block this deal and, even if they don’t, the money won’t start flowing until the middle of next year at the earliest.

    The EU has set an end-of-October deadline for the deadlocked free trade agreement with the UK to be finalised. Despite this latest display of contrived unity, Britain must continue to negotiate on the basis that trading on World Trade Organisation terms – the basis on which we already conduct the majority of our trade worldwide – is absolutely fine.

    While European Council president Charles Michel claims that “Europe is solid”, it is nothing of the sort. Yesterday’s “deal” is less about genuine convergence around a common vision of Europe’s future than a last-ditch attempt to ensure that the “grand project” survives.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/21/eu-summit-fiasco-final-proof-need-clean-break-brexit/

      1. One can but hope so. I fear that Bojo will still seek to prop up the failing edifice somehow.

    2. “What this half-cocked outcome certainly demonstrates, though, is that Britain was right to choose Brexit.”

      Not for one moment have I ever doubted it, Mr Halligan. The icing on the cake will be the controlled departure of other countries for whom democracy still remains attractive.

    3. Watch out for the opportunists not wasting a good crisis. COVID was just what they needed for iscal union to join monetary union, and without using those words, that’s what they just agreed.
      No wonder those countries that can sort-of manage a budget aren’t happy. Their frugality gets splurged by the others.
      NEXIT, anybody?

    4. 321652+ up ticks,
      Morning C,
      ALL when rendered down shows we should have recognised the real UKIP 28 years ago as, at least,a very pro common sense UK drag anchor party.
      We have fell foul of three governance parties that have acted in the main as eu assets & rubber stamping can, and has proved to be the route to the politico millionaire status.
      The political close shop has proved without doubt to be a Nation killer & the least said about the “vote for the best of the worst / nasal gripping voter” the better.
      UKIP remember gave the country two major successes
      the 2014 EU elections & designing & triggering the referendum only to see it mutilated post 24/6/2016 at the hands of the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition & a supporting cast of fools.
      Gerard Batten on the 17th Feb 2018 demonstrated leadership and how a pro English / GB party should be run
      until treachery revealed via it’s Nec through deceit & lies
      plus a losing court case come into play.
      The close shop, submissive pcism & appeasement via the
      lab / lib / con / now + UkIp coalition win again.
      Opposition can only be achieved via people power.

    5. Everything the Eu does is a last ditch attempt. Yet it continues. The enforced welding of copper, cloth and paper was always going to fail and as time has done on more and more has to be done to force it to work and more and more often it comes apart requiring ever more money to force it back together.

      The EU itself doesn’t care. All they want is the continuation of their gravy train. The grand project must continue at all costs.

    6. “Now, EU leaders have crossed the Rubicon of fiscal integration in a way that not only bends EU treaties, but for which there is absolutely no
      legitimate democratic support.”       Situation normal, then. They always bend the rules when it suits them and as for democracy – phooey! Those nasty, inconvenient plebs? They are to be ignored as the project ploughs on.

  32. ‘Morning again.

    SIR – Defending the Royal Navy’s decision to go ahead with the purchase of £3  billion aircraft carriers, Admiral Lord West (Letters, July 21) tells us that “Britain remains a world power”.

    It is this rather inflated, and jingoistic view of Britain that enables the Armed Forces to ask the taxpayer to fund extremely expensive white elephants that are ideal for fighting the last war.

    I am in absolutely no doubt that the new aircraft carriers will never be used in the sort of major global conflict for which they are designed, any more than we will ever release a Trident nuclear missile.

    Colonel Mark Rayner (retd)
    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    I make that 30 – 15 against Admiral West. Will there be a third pro-carrier letter from Admiral Lord West? I am moist with anticipation…

    1. That is the same Admiral West who is a leftie pawn – and helped destroy the Navy when he was still serving.

  33. Oh happy days.
    I have an 11am telephone appointment with the Consultant following a knee operation in January. I am still waiting at 11.45. I have phoned the hospital and was given the old Covid runaround. I asked when they had the last case diagnosed at Ashford and St Peter’s. Didn’t know the answer.
    Told me to call back tomorrow if I don’t hear today. What a crap state the NHS is in. The hospital is virtually closed and they can’t get s simple phone call made on time.

    Probably hoping I’ll kick the bucket to save having to talk to me.

    1. Phone them back and ask for the contact details of their Chief Executive, as you wish to make a formal complaint, which you’ll copy to your local MP.

      2. As i was once told when i wanted answers from NHS management.
        “Go and stand by the most expensive cars in the car park and a manager will soon turn up”.

      3. I have her email address from the ceoemail website. I’m out this afternoon. Will write this evening.

    2. Conversely i have just phoned my car insurance company, Direct Line. I went through the initial click this that and the other. Was told due to covid and staff shortages i might be on hold for some time. But hey presto got straight though to a lovely Ozzie lady (in Manchester) we had a larff a joke and a nice chat. I also managed to get more tan 30 quid off the price.

      1. This is why I bank with First Direct.

        They’ve been slower during COVID 19 and that’s fine – half a dozen rings instead of 2. However, no faffing about. You just speak to someone. That someone then helps you.

    3. It took nearly quarter of an hour to get through to the parking team at the council today. 15 minutes of endless, pointless menus and hold messages telling me they were busy – no, they’re not. Busy making tea, maybe.

  34. Morning again

    SIR – Whatever we all think of Donald Trump, I suggest that Britain owes him a huge debt of gratitude.

    Were it not for the US president’s bullish approach to China, and Huawei in particular, we would without doubt have blindly committed yet more of our key telecoms infrastructure to a company ultimately controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party, with hugely dangerous implications for our key security and intelligence networks and relationships.

    Julian Snell

    Bishopstrow, Wiltshire

  36. SIR – It is wrong to suggest – as Brent Loken, the author of a new report on food-related carbon emissions, does – that our grandparents’ generation only had meat once or twice a week because it was expensive (report, July 17).

    My grandparents were borne in the 1860s and had meat frequently. They would have a large joint of beef, pork or lamb on Sunday, which would be large enough to be served cold with salad on Monday (washing day, no cooking), and reheated on Tuesday. The remains were hashed or made into rissoles or cottage pie for Wednesday. Thursday’s meal would be made up from half a pound of steak or mutton – steak and kidney pie or pudding – or rabbit pie. Friday was fish day: cod or plaice. Saturday was usually my favourite meal – sausages and mash – or we might have a fish supper while out shopping.

    This was maintained even in wartime. The really expensive rarities were chicken and salmon.

    Brian Smith

    Dunfermline, Fife

    1. There is nothing to beat the flavour of cottage pie made with proper minced up weekend beef joint and not that yucky ‘minced beef’ that butchers sell. Long Live Spong!

      1. Spong! That takes me back; the mincer screwed to the scrubbed kitchen table while the cooked meat was fed into the top and churned out as mince.

          1. That’s the one. You could change the bits with holes in to vary the fineness of the mince.

    2. I remember that well in the early 50s. My mum would but an aitch bone of beef that would last our family of 7 until Wednesday. That’s the 1950s not the 1850s. :-)))

      1. The family butcher in our Dorset village introduced me to the H-bone cut in the late ’70s.

        1. Can’t remember the name of the butcher mum and dad bought it from it was either in Exmouth market, EC1 or dad might have got it in his way home from work as he passed through Smithfield meat market.

    3. I can remember when chicken was a luxury. My father & grandfather went 1/2s on one of the first commercial TV sets in time for the coronation. After that my mother & grandmother would compete alternately to provide a cold buffet spread, of which a cold roast chicken was occasionally a part. Sometimes my father would spend time on a Saturday afternoon dressing a large crab, or even a lobster (we lived in Poole).

        2. We never called it “chicken” back in the 1950s. We had a “hen”, a “cock” or a “fowl” for dinner. Chickens were the little fluffy yellow things that grew up to be fowls.

        1. And?

          I take your point – but I think that Mr Smith’s forebears were wealthier than he chooses to tell; or lived on a farm…..

          1. A deficient diet…no ptarmigan, or oysters, or caviar, or venison. or….one could go on and on.

          2. No £3 designer coffee for me when Britain was proud, rather than pride. 3p from a machine and it tasted of Bovril.

          5. My school got a coffee machine in 1971. By then it took new pennies.

            I do remember an ice lolly in the 1960s, brown, pink or white called ‘3D’ which did cost 3d for a while. When they put up the price, it rather defeated the point of it, so they discontinued it.

          8. Clearly it’s not all that long ago, but my mother’s parents were relatively poor and followed that regime. Meat portions were small, vegetable portions were large.

            I can’t recall any luxuries apart from that, although he smoked she didn’t because they could not afford two smokers. And sweets were a real treat, one square of chocolate being the measure.

            Different priorities I suppose

          10. One thing was very different – meat or veg., almost all eating was done at home, the closest 90% got to eating out was fish & chips in a newspaper (not sure when such shops were invented) …

          11. Wiki:

            The tradition in the UK of fish battered and fried in oil may have come from Western Sephardic Jewish immigrants from Holland.[3][2][4][5] Originating in Spain and Portugal and settling in England as early as the 16th century, they would have prepared fried fish in a manner similar to pescado frito, which is coated in flour then fried in oil.[5] Fish fried for Shabbat for dinner on Friday evenings could be eaten cold the following afternoon for shalosh seudot, palatable this way as liquid vegetable oil was used rather than a hard fat, such as butter.[5][6] Charles Dickens mentions “fried fish warehouses” in Oliver Twist (1838),[2] and in 1845 Alexis Soyer in his first edition of A Shilling Cookery for the People, gives a recipe for “Fried fish, Jewish fashion”, which is dipped in a batter of flour and water.[7]

          12. Very true.

            And F&C must have been around a long time, I believe it was a staple during the depression of the early 30’s

            Google suggests 1860
            It remains unclear exactly when and where these two trades combined to become the modern fish and chip shop industry. A Jewish immigrant, Joseph Malin, opened the first recorded combined fish-and-chip shop in London in 1860; a Mr Lees pioneered the concept in the North of England, in Mossley, in 1863.

          13. As a hangover from my childhood, I still love cooking rolled and stuffed breast of lamb.

          15. Possibly in late 19th century when lots of Italians immigrated to the UK. Every town in Scotland had a chip shop and Italian cafe. Many still do. Wonderful!

  37. HS2 is just one huge money laundering exercise for Russian Mafia business opportunists, bankrolled by British public debt and from which corrupt metropolitan professionals have a generous take to fund their cocaine-and-champagne lifestyles.

    The plebs better keep their mouths covered. By law, as from tomorrow.

    1. Morning Jeremy. It’s quite obvious that HS2 is a scam. Not unlike Foreign Aid which once it leaves these shores vanishes into the bank accounts of the dictators and their western friends!

      1. Morning Minty

        If more and more people are working from home , and using ZOOM, why on earth is this expensive HS2 white elephant necessary?

          1. Promoted by civil engineering consultant and construction firms with tireless lobbying – they have already made loadsa moolah out of it….much the same story for the Swansea barrage…more disingenuous B/S.

        2. It’s there to make money for those that matter, and to take it from those that don’t.

        3. It isn’t, not really.

          However it’s part of TENs, the EU rail project. For some reason communists love railways. Maybe it’s something to do with moving all the bodies they slaughter to the furnaces. Who knows? The Left wing brain is unfathomable.

    1. Some of those are probably the very people who think all the rest of us should wear them for their protection.

      1. Yes, I know someone on the autism spectrum who’s become fanatically obsessed with having everyone gagged. Currently protecting him by “un-following” on FB, lest I feel tempted to respond!

  39. Andrew Roberts. Churchill (p. 477). Penguin Books Ltd. Kindle Edition.

    Churchill arrived late from a War Cabinet meeting, but was ‘in fine fettle: fresh, younger, full of energy, with a spring in his step’. Pulling on his cigar, he told Maisky, ‘Your non-aggression pact with Germany triggered the war, but I bear you no grudge. I’m even glad. For a long time now I’ve felt that a war with Germany was necessary. Without your pact, we would have hesitated and drawn things out, until we procrastinated to the point when we could no longer win the war. But we will win it, even though it will cost us dearly.’ Summarizing Churchill’s remarks, Maisky concluded, ‘In peacetime the British often look like pampered, gluttonous sybarites, but in times of war and extremity they turn into vicious bulldogs, trapping their prey in a death grip.’

    As a Brit I am absurdly pleased at this comment all the more so in that it was made by a Russian Marxist in a private report that could have benefited the writer Maisky in no way. I often look for historical parallels with which to compare the UK’s present problems and the Appeasement era in between the two World Wars is not an unreasonable one. The vast majority of the Political Elites of the day were in favour of this policy and not a few in direct sympathy with Hitler while the general population tolerated it through fears of a repeat of WWI. Only a few voices, Churchill’s preeminent among them, spoke up against it and suffered for it by social and political ostracism. It is interesting to note that Lord Reith, the then head of the BBC hated Churchill and refused him access to the Radio by which he might have spread his message and fears further.

  40. Furious eurosceptics launch Italexit campaign this week after talks with Nigel Farage. 22 July 2020.

    ITALY will officially launch a campaign to unshackle itself from the EU on Thursday as the Mediterranean country looks to follow in Britain’s Brexit footsteps.

    The EU has another crisis on its hands after Italian politician Gianluigi Paragone, a former senator for the anti-establishment 5Star Movement, said it was time for Italy to launch its Italexit campaign ‘ No Europe for Italy’ on Thursday, July 23. He said Italy would no longer be “blackmailed” by the Brussels bloc.

    He also revealed he has met with Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage to discuss Brexit and get advice on unshackling his own nation from the “EU cage”.

    This of course is what the EU always feared about Brexit. Not our leaving but that it would encourage others to do the same!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1312247/Italexit-latest-campaign-Gianluigi-Paragon-Italy-leave-EU-Nigel-Farage

    2. Brexit would have gone far more quickly had we had prime ministers who had the wisdom to put Nigel Farage in a top executive position.

      Unfortunately Nigel Farage makes most Conservatives look and feel completely inadequate and they cannot forgive him.

      We certainly need a new political party – the Conservatives have shown themselves to be almost as pathetic as Labour and the best thing that one can say is that they are not as bad as the Lib/Dems.

  42. Well, I have a copy of the Russia report. I have not yet read it all. It opens with many assertions and assumptions that are not annotated. I have yet to see if they are in an Annex or supported by any facts.
    I had barely started when I came across this paragraph:
    “We are grateful to those outside the Intelligence Community – in particular Anne Applebaum, William Browder, Christopher Donnelly, Edward Lucas and Christopher Steele – for volunteering their very substantial expertise on Russia, which provided us with an invaluable foundation for the classified evidence sessions.”

    My highlighting. This must surely be the same Mr Steele who cooked up the duff dossier to discredit President Trump? I may have got that wrong as I have not closely followed all the detail in the goings-on in the USA. A credible witness?

    1. I noticed that name when I read a report on this the other day – surely he’s been discredited as an unreliable witness?

      1. I think that was the general view after the Trump dossier hoo-ha. One of the members of the committee that produced the report is Admiral Lord West who got a bit of a pasting on here in the last week (if memory serves -although it often does not).

    2. Afternoon Horace. Actually all these people are virulent Russophobes. Browder is a thief who should be in a Russian gaol. Lucas has earned a living for the last thirty years under the same auspices while the less said about Anne Applebaum the better!

  43. There is something puzzling me , if COVID 19 has gone quiet here because it doesn’t like warmer weather , how and why has it accelerated in spread in warmer climates ?

    3. Hothouse living conditions are the most probable cause. We’ve seen it over here in farmyard dormitories and Asian sweatshops and bunkhouses. Brazil has its notorious slums (the favelas).

  44. If any of you like music and missed the “Being Beethoven” on BBC4 – DO watch it on catch up. Three spell-binding episodes.

    Only maddening thing – there was no list on screen(or on the beeboid website) telling who the excellent talking heads were. Apart from the three I recognised, I would have liked to have found out more about the others.

    1. If all white people should feel white guilt because – over two hundred years ago – some white people traded in slaves, then why should not all black people be expected to feel black guilt because some black people sold their own black compatriots into slavery far more recently?

      Aren’t we being racist in expecting lower standards from black people?

    2. Black Looters are Mindless don’t care a hoot for the facts. Those don’t agree with their narrative.

      1. Yo Mr Grizzle

        Naval gazing is no longer possible, after the demililtrisation of UK by Blair, Brown, Cameron, May and Boris

          3. But, then he was watching yer Froggies and he was telling UK, by sattelite phone

    3. Good afternoon, Our Susan. I thought you’d like this:

      “The Rev Bill Scott, late chaplain to the Queen, whose obituary appeared yesterday, was an exotic priest who served kir royale after Mass to his flock at St Mary’s Bourne Street in Belgravia. One Gaudete Sunday he ascended the pulpit wearing a glorious pink chasuble with gold trim and began his sermon with the words: “This is the time of year when I like to dress up as a Quality Street.””

    4. You need only look as far ahead as your belly button to realise the importance of strengthening the country’s ability to deploy an effective navel task force.

  47. Nice little read about one of the last Jumbo 747’s

    Secrets of the Boeing 747: on board the last Qantas jumbo jet
    Qantas’s last remaining Boeing 747 jumbo jet prior to its departure out of Sydney for the final time. Photograph: Carly Earl/The Guardian
    A small bit of aviation history is made as the Australian airline’s last 747-400 flies for the final time to its resting place in the Mojave desert

    by Brigid Delaney in Sydney. Photographs by Carly Earl

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/22/secrets-of-the-boeing-747-on-board-the-last-qantas-jumbo-jet?utm_term=Autofeed&CMP=twt_gu&utm_medium&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1595405045

    Edited!

  48. Just back from W/rose. No restriction on pasta this week. but no goat’s milk or lemon sole.

      1. I’ve discovered Duchy full fat cow’s milk, complete with a layer of cream on top. I’ve been pouring that on my Shredded Wheat this week.

        1. I’ve been getting full cream Jersey gold top delivered for years now – the creamy top always goes on my muesli for breakfast. I never know how you can face the array of bizarre (to my mind) breakfasts you describe. The only variation to my breakfast has been in Spain where I have tostada con aceite y sel o miel – one of the few alternatives I can face first thing.

  49. Nantes Cathedral Fire.

    “Nothing to suggest that there was anything criminal….” (Prosecutor)

    So that’s alright, then…..

    1. One fire is an accident. Two fires are coincidence. Three fires are hostile action!

      2. It doesn’t belong in the kitchen; it clearly states that it’s for chopping wood.

        1. Surely it’s better to dribble them about like a football. Or use a croquet mallet.

        2. When they get to that size, the mother leads them out to forage – but she won’t find much there!

    2. It’s not a wooden chopping board that you shouldn’t use as a chopping board that gets me.

      It’s that a rigid lump of wood and metal has been made for the soft furnishing department. Just how confused are they over there?

    3. That label was printed by the same company that makes the bags for salted peanuts with the logo, “Warning: may contain nuts.”

    2. Well, I hope they don’t come running to us for a trade deal. Let them eat potatoes!

  53. British security services to get extra powers in wake of Russia report. 22 July 2020.

    Legislation to clamp down on foreign spying is being considered by Downing Street in the wake of a damning report laying bare the impact of Russian influence in Britain and accusing the government of “badly” underestimating the threat posed by the Kremlin.

    Under the new legislation, foreign agents would have to register in the UK in a move modelled on similar requirements in the US and Australia.

    Dear Mi6. I have come to the UK to spy on your almost non-existent defence forces and space program. Vlad has also instructed me to drop off a few bottles of non-lethal Novichok just to keep the pot boiling.

    Yours Sincerely. Felix Dzerzhinsky. 13, Nevsky Prospekt, St Petersburg.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/22/british-security-services-to-get-extra-powers-in-wake-of-russia-report

  54. UK mulling spy register among new laws to deal with Russia, minister reveals. 22 July 2020.

    BELOW THE LINE

    Delphian Contrasts 22 Jul 2020 11:20AM.

    Just as we thought our leaders could not be any more incompetent, it seems they have risen to the challenge.

    Border control: What is the purpose of your visit to the UK?

    I am a spy.

    Thank you. Have a good stay.

    Truly unbelievable.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/22/politics-news-boris-johnson-russia-china-brexit-trade-deal/

    1. 321652+ up ticks,
      Afternoon AS,
      A spy / terrorist a ? get yourself along to the welfare office
      there is a special payment for you type ask for the slush department, you can’t go wrong it’s in 27 languages.

  56. The fatal cost of lockdown. Spiked 22 July 2020.

    The report, produced by the Department of Health, the Office of National Statistics (ONS), the government’s Actuary Department and the Home Office, concluded that the disease itself would kill 50,000, but delayed healthcare would kill 12,000 to 25,000 in the short term and 185,000 people in the long term. On top of that, recession could kill anywhere between 600 to 12,000 people, suicide would claim 500 lives, domestic violence about 20, and accidents at home would cause deaths in the ‘low tens’.

    In short, perhaps 200,000 people or more could die as a result of the lockdown, according to these estimates.

    During this panic over a disease that is less lethal than the Common Cold millions of really sick people suffering some of the worst medical symptoms imaginable have been abandoned to their fate!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/07/22/the-fatal-cost-of-lockdown/

    2. Your hyperbole ruins a good argument. How many people are hospitalized, placed in intensive care or die of (or with) a common cold? Over CV 1,000 deaths in the US yesterday.

      1. No it doesn’t. For a start I am talking about the UK and there were 25,000 excess deaths last year. Lastly none of this invalidates my argument that those with far worse conditions have been left to their own devices!

        1. How many of those excess deaths were common cold related? The US figure was given to show how CV is not the harmless little case of the sniffles that you claim – or do they have a different type of CV?.

          I agree that there were and will be many deaths in the UK as a result of shutting down the NHS, that was a stupid move.

      2. No it doesn’t. For a start I am talking about the UK and there were 25,000 excess deaths last year. Lastly none of this invalidates my argument that those with far worse conditions have been left to their own devices!

      3. If Minty had said “flu” instead of common cold, would you still call it hyperbole? Flu kills many people every year. But the NHS, although stretched, still manages to treat cancer patients and do routine surgery.

        1. If minty had said flu, it might be closer but to say no worse than a common cold is too much.
          I just golfed with a friend whose partner caught CV while they were in Portugal. She was in hospital for fourteen days then isolated in a hotel room for three weeks while she recovered enough to fly home. Even now she is not fully recovered and is suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. Is that how the common cold effects people?

          1. No – it’s definitely more than just a cold – and it seems to affect some people more severely than others.

      4. On average, about 8,000 people die every day in the US, from all causes.

        I suspect that many people are being put down as dying “of” Covid where in reality many of those were already close to dying before they contacted covid and saying they’re dying “of” rather than “with” is totally misleading.

          1. Particularly those places where there might be a financial incentive from declaring Covid as a cause

        2. 8.,000 die every day from all causes, so 1,000 associated with CV sounds rather a lot to me. Why the continuing refusal to accept that there may be something going on?

          Yes, UK deaths from / with covid are low nowadays, insignificant compared to other causes but that is not the case worldwide.

          1. I’m not refusing to accept that there is something going on.

            What I am refusing to accept is that EVERY case where someone dies and they have shown signs of Covid, that Covid was the sole cause, the principal cause, or even for that matter more than a minor factor where the patient was going to die fairly soon anyway or the patient dies later and Covid appears on the death certificate

            Look at the demographics of who is dying and stop swallowing the party line; hook, line and sinker.

    4. We are now learning the cost of failing to implement a statutory lockdown by monitoring what happened in Sweden.
      The Swedes based their decision to carry on as relatively normal on the presumption that a COVID vaccine would not become available after six months. Now, six months later, there isn’t one so the Swedes can rightly say that that they implemented the right strategy.

      What they weren’t bargaining for however is the disproportionate number of deaths in nursing homes which led them to conclude in hindsight that a moderated lockdown strategy like that used the UK would have been preferable.

      But that’s all water under the bridge. The critical question now is what are the relative degrees of protection provided by being infected by the virus and being immunised by a vaccine that has yet to be developed.

      The Swedes could still have made the right decision if they believe that sacrificing their elderly was worth the price of saving their economy.

      Here’s the latest from Sweden:

      https://youtu.be/ZpBX_qqfC0M

      1. Isn’t the care home error separate from lockdown? Surely it would have been possible not only to have had the modest restrictions that they did but also to have prevented so many care home deaths.

      2. Isn’t the care home error separate from lockdown? Surely it would have been possible not only to have had the modest restrictions that they did but also to have prevented so many care home deaths.

      3. Sacrificing the elderly was a bad mistake made here as well by PHE. A total lockdown could have been avoided here, too, if the elderly had been properly shielded.

  58. Sudden outbreak of worms reported in South Korea’s water supply

    A week after the first reports of small worms or larvae being discovered in tap water in the South Korean city of Incheon, the problem has spread to towns and cities across the country and the prime minister has ordered an urgent investigation.

    Water officials in Seoul collected a larva measuring nearly half-an-inch long from a home in the centre of the city, reporting that it was about the thickness of a human hair and still moving.

    Sounds suspicious! I’ll bet it’s the work of Kim Ill Wotsit and his pals! I put all my drinking water through a Brita Filter!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/21/sudden-outbreak-worms-reported-south-koreas-water-supply/

    1. Sound like thread worms.

      I blame the outbreak on people rinsing their dentures (see my post from yes’day.)

  62. Nicked,Oi Laffed

    Dear Lewis Hamilton, I have just realised how wrong I have been. I

    thought you were someone who has had it all on a plate since an early

    age but, it turns out that you were the viciously oppressed victim of

    horrendous racism in the infamous ghettos of Geneva and Monaco.

    Whilst

    I leveraged my white privilege to pass the 11 plus and go to grammar

    school, you were being cruelly forced to travel around Europe, competing

    in go-cart races, a nightmare for any boy. How lucky I was to be born

    the right colour to learn Latin!

    At age 12, I used my racial

    advantage to get a Saturday job, mucking out the duck sheds, at Cherry

    Valley Duck Farms, for the princely wage of £5, for a mere 6 hours of

    wading through stinking duck shit. If there had been any persons of

    colour in North Lincolnshire at that time, I would have surely stolen

    that job from them.

    Meanwhile, you were taking the vicious body blow

    of being signed up by infamous slave owner, Ron Dennis and forced to

    accept McLaren sponsorship for the next 10 years of your motor racing

    career.

    Whereas, with my privilege, it was easy. I just had to

    finish O Levels, go to college and work in a factory doing an

    apprenticeship.

    Now after a life time of never ending privilege, I

    only have to work and pay taxes for another 9 years before retiring on

    my pension, estimated to be up to £900 a month before Swedish taxes

    whereas you have many more years of stressful (and probably racist!)

    meetings with your accountants about where to move your huge pile of

    money to, to avoid paying your way.

    I can only say that I’m sorry,

    Lewis. Please forgive us for oppressing you. Just think of what you

    could have achieved if you had lived my advantaged life.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e73d8a02b30eb8f7cacfedb62579b435e128dc59691837d00fc149f55ab7adb7.jpg

    1. MOH had the Bbc on while I was cooking lunch today. It was, needless to say, full of BAMEs claiming how they had been subjected to racist attacks and one blek complained that he was the only blek person there (I missed where, but I doubt it would be prison). I realise after that how I have been subjected to racism. After all, I am accused of having “white privilege”, even though I’ve worked for everything I’ve got; I’m blamed for the slave trade even though my ancestors banned it and policed the ban; and sometimes, on a bus in the capital city of my own country, which is white (noticeably with a small W) and European, I am the only white person there. I wish the whole lot of them would eff off to Africa. Then they wouldn’t be the “only blek there” and they’d have to sink or swim by their own efforts. As if that weren’t enough, the next item was the same effniks pontificating on Russian interference in the Scottish referendum (it “didn’t work” because people voted to stay) and the EU referendum (where clearly it did, because without Vlad pulling the strings, nobody would have voted to leave that perfect institution). I was relieved when MOH finally switched it off. The screen was in severe danger of having a shoe thrown through it!

    1. Several of those in the hospital today – and they were just the NHS staff………………..

        1. There will be no presents, the elves are all self distancing and present production is down.

      3. You’re not wrong, your worship.

        According to the World Population Clock, between now and the end of the year, 24,688,800 people, worldwide, will perish from all causes.

        That is around 152,400 deaths … every single day!

        [More than balanced out, though, by the 364,200 that are BORN every day!]

    3. Looking forward to September. They’ll take one look at our world and wish they hadn’t.

      1. I shouldn’t let it worry you, Sue. I’ve seen them flying saucer things: they’ll never get off the ground.

    4. You missed out a tsunami or two. Mind you todays large earthquake of the coast of Alaska failed to produce a tidal wave today so maybe next month.

  65. Lovely day here. Naggers came over for a leisurely lunch at The Swan. Then we mounted a major assault on W/rose, Marlborough to stock up on everything we could think of before becoming masked on Friday. Rounded off with lemonade and W/rose Columbian Coffee ice cream in the garden with swifts darting around and lots of chalk uplands butterflies.

    With the sole exception of one female supervisor who is excessively bossy, the staff at W/rose are all delightful, especially the ladies of a mature age at the check-out tills. One told us that when staff at John Lewis, Swindon, were furloughed at the beginning of Our National Farce many were sent down to help out at W/rose, Marlborough who were struggling to keep their shelves stocked and customers moving through the store. After three days several of the Swindon John Lewis wimps wrote to ‘management’ to complain about the amount of work they were expected to do and asked to be put back on full time furlough.

    Hats off to all the people in supermarkets for doing their utmost to keep shelves stacked, shifting all the pallets around in the store rooms, driving lorries from the warehouses in the middle of the night, and generally being thoroughly good and cheerful eggs.

      2. Evening, Bill. They were within normal parameters, but as I can’t get MOH to eat greens, six months’ of folic acid tablets have been prescribed. No need for an appointment (quelle surprise).

    2. Watch out with that Columbian Coffee ice cream. It’s delicious but packs a caffeine punch. Hope you sleep tonight.

    3. I wonder whether, if the supervisor had been male, you’d have mentioned his sex.

    4. Our Waitrose has been exceptional throughout lockdown.

      …and I’m pleased to tell you that none of the staff have contracted Coronavirus.

  67. That’s me for the day. A much better day on all fronts. No dizziness. X-ray clear.

    I even managed to lash up the raised bed frame that the MR had requested. The engineers among you would have wept to watch my pathetic bodgery. I had everything apart from 4 inch screws – I couldn’t be arsed to drive 15 miles to find some – so used rawlplugs! Still – it is in one piece and the MR is happy (the main thing, any time any day). And we are on the lookout for a pair of kittens….We have been without pets for 11 years – and miss them very much.

    So – I’ll say farewell and go and get a glass of reward.

    A demain

    2. Grandson, whose cat died a month or so ago, now has a pair who are brother and sister. I don’t particularly like domestic pets but he wad really cut up when Jasper died. He’d had him around for about 11 of his 16 years. It’s great to see him, an only child, cheerful again. That’s qualified by the fact that he’s a teenager, if you know what I mean.

      1. Cats are lovely. We have BIG cats – Norwegian Forest cats – and they are nicer than the average moggy. Hardly ever make a noise, intelligent, very people-friendly, masses of hair to get evrywhere and need brushed. Lovely animals.

    3. Kittens are lovely – but older rescue cats even better! We wouldn’t be without our lovely Lily now.

      1. Over the years, we have had six wonderful cats, all adopted from the local rescue center, the advantage being that they were housetrained!!

        1. Lily uses a tray, though when it’s fine she likes to be outside. She’s never done it elsewhere in the house, even when she arrived here and was traumatised by the move. My friend next door has had trouble with hers going in odd places.

        1. Wotcha mean “eeek”? They’re glorious!
          Is it the Artex? We hate it too!

          2. Thank you so much Poppiesmum! We’ve had them since we moved here 34 years ago! Still love them!

          8. A curtain place in Glasgow! They have weights in the hems and wash like rags! I remember them being quite expensive!
            My wedding dress was Laura Ashley! £99!

          9. Their own materials or bought in? The pattern looks similar to a “vintage” Laura Ashley that we had made up many, many years ago.

          10. Probably bought in. It was a big warehouse type place and they were all made to measure.

          11. Sorry – the bald one is (to me) off-putting

            Artex? Obligatory in yer Scotland… Never seen a hoose without it…!

          13. He (Dobby) is a sphinx and gets very chilly, hence the radiator and jumper! He has a wonderful Christmas one!

          14. Yes, I knew he was a Sphinx. I was trying to get Bill to appreciate his cosiness 🙂

          15. He has the nicest nature! And really smart! Not the prettiest but lovely!
            The Artex we can’t get rid of other than plastering and the room will shrink!!

        1. Phoebe was given to us aged 4 weeks, by vet daughter! She’d been found by some students in Durham and was tiny! She needed bottle feeding every 4 hours and had to go to work with my old man if I was working!

        2. Phoebe was given to us aged 4 weeks, by vet daughter! She’d been found by some students in Durham and was tiny! She needed bottle feeding every 4 hours and had to go to work with my old man if I was working!

    7. On I do hope you find some kittens, Bilty, they are a source of joy. Take and post lots of pics if you do.

  68. Back from Narridge. X-ray clear. Only had to wait 30 mins after the time of the appointment. How does that measure on the NHS Clapometer?

    The only thing that irritated me was that I was there spot on time – but lots of people arriving up to 25 mins later were seen before me…!

  69. Tortillas, with Firstborn’s excellent refried beans, followed by homemade raspberry ice cream. Chianti to wash it down.
    Bliss!

    3. Mexican food is moreish. Especially with a top-notch home-made guacamole to go with it.

      1. You are welcome to come and catch the moles which are causing havoc here…

      2. Whatever I order in a Mexican restaurant it always comes out looking the same. The best guacamole I ever had was in a Mex. joint where they prepared it in front of you at the table. One could specify exactly how it was to be, how much chilli, coriander etc.

      4. Do you whack your moles in your own garden, Grizzly, or do they inhabit the neighbour’s gardens?

        :-))

        CORRECTION: Drat and double drat! Bill Thomas beat me to it by 3 hours.

        :-((

    4. Ate out for lunch, so tonight we will finish the gazpacho wot I made at the weekend!

  70. An interesting BTL comment now that Covid cases worldwide have reached an insignificant 15,000,000 out of a world population of 7,500,000 000,000.

    COLIN Pearson 22 Jul 2020 6:04PM

    Ok legality regarding face coverings in shops and supermarkets.
    Here is the link to the statutory instruments that have been used to amend Acts of Parliament.
    https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi
    2020 592 is an pertinent one; made on 14th June and introduced to Parliament on the 15th June, coming into force 15th June 2020. It contains the text that makes wearing a face covering on public transport a legal obligation.
    However, nothing has been brought forward to Parliament pertaining to the wearing of face coverings in shops and supermarket.
    Who knows why the government have not brought it forward.
    Whatever the reasons, it is not law.
    Unless it gets brought forward today in parliament, before recess (and it is not on the HOC agenda), there will be no law to break on Friday.
    Sorry to those who were hoping to show some sort of civil disobedience by breaking the law on Friday.

  72. Two Royal Navy ships intercept missile-carrying Russian Soviet-era submarine in the English Channel – as Moscow is accused of meddling in UK. 22 July 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1b04ca2d0cacef4a5864526824d8b557f5136e97ee08ceb681a3fd4e96d91ec9.jpg

    The Krasnodar sub was spotted passing through the Dover strait, close to UK waters.

    It is feared it may have breached treaty rules that forbid the route except for exceptional repair reasons.

    It may have breached the Montreux Convention which stops submarines and boats going through the Bosphorus Straits, from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, unless heading for repairs.

    The Bosphorus Straits, a new name for the English Channel. Lol! Probably explains all those dinghy’s crossing!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8548361/Two-Royal-Navy-ships-intercept-missile-carrying-Russian-Soviet-era-submarine-Channel.html

    1. Yo Minty

      a fiddle, if I may

      The two remaning seaworthy Royal Navy ships intercept missile-carrying Russian Soviet-era
      submarine in the English Channel – as Moscow is accused of meddling in UK. 22 July 2020.

      The Ruskies made it easy though as the submarine stayed surfaced, so the Calais – Dover ‘ferry ‘ route for illegals was not delayed

    2. The press seem to forget (if they ever knew) that the Channel is international waters….. The Red Navy has complete right to pass through the Straits of Dover.

    4. Another laugh from my inadvertent listening to Al Bebera this morning; the government is going to introduce legislation to make spies register! Ha! Profession? Spy. That’ll be you employed in MI6 then, sonny.

    1. They’re not called “Biased Broadcasting Corporation” for nothing – that was one of the most blatant.

  74. Apropos the earlier discussion on Fish & Chip shops. About a decade ago I interviewed a Polish woman who in February 1940 as a toddler had been deported (without more than 2 hours warning) with her family by cattle truck – along with hundreds of thousands of other Poles – to various labour camps in Siberia. Due to Stalin’s forced switch of sides in 1941, the half of the Poles who survived found their way to Britain (after the war) or various parts of the Empire (many spent years in Africa, India, Lebanon, Israel). In a grim 1940s Lancashire, the woman recalled one of the most amazing discoveries of her life – her eyes shone as she recalled “Cod and chips, wrapped in newspaper(!!!!), with vinegar and salt”. After Siberia that was tasty.

  76. Evening, all. Am on a high today; the Connemara excelled himself. He has never put in such a fluent, rhythmical and soft performance since I’ve been riding him. I put it down to the fact it’s only three days since I last gave him a work-out with the emphasis on suppleness. I shan’t see him now for a week, so I expect he’ll have forgotten everything and stiffened up by then.

    1. If we must do it, I would be a little happier if it was slashed to £2.9 rather than by.

      1. Don’t know if you left off the ‘B’ after ‘£2.9’ intentionally, but certainly £2.90 would be the maximum figure I’d have in mind for foreign aid.

        1. I did leave off the “Bn” intentionally, to put the thought there, but I hoped the Bn was implied.

          Trying to be over clever…

        2. I’ll be generous and throw in an extra 10 pence, making a nice round 3 quid. Sounds better than £2.90!

    2. 321652+ up ticks,
      Evening TB,
      Build,build, build, allocated for the Dover invasion units
      do not think for one moment the indigenous will benefit.

    3. Ooh, it should be fun to read the Guardian on Thursday, I bet that the commentariat won’t approve of that cut.

      Why not add insult to wokeness and up the police budget by £3bn.

    4. Cripes, that is not a lot in the overall scheme of things. We should monitor the share price of Mercedes to see whether it has any actual effect on those corrupt African recipients.

  80. A former police colleague posted this on a retired officers’ FaceBook site:

    “This is a post I received from the Warwickshire Police Friends FB site. Says it all really.”

    I don’t think I have ever related any of my professional experiences, certainly in detail, on my personal Facebook page, but the ‘fuck the police’, ‘ACAB’ [All Coppers Are Bastards] and ‘unfund the police’ attacks on my ex-colleagues, including family members and close friends, has angered me no end.

    Of course rotten corrupt police officers should be held to account, and let me assure you that nobody resents a corrupt police officer more than honest officers. It makes their job even more challenging. Most joined to help other people.

    Let me give you an insight into just some of what I experienced.

    I have been first on the scene of a rape. I won’t describe what myself and my colleague saw in detail because it is too harrowing. I was first on the scene of a domestic murder where a man had been stabbed by his wife, after years of physical and psychological abuse. None of this is remarkable.

    I have come across a naked man in a phone box who had smeared his own shit all over the inside. Clearly he had mental health issues and was a danger to the public and to the NHS staff when we finally got him to hospital. My colleague who was young in service was brilliant. This is not remarkable.

    I have had to vary my route home from work because my life and that of my family has been threatened. Usually such threats can be dismissed. Some cannot. This is not remarkable.

    I have been the first on the scene of a great many sudden deaths, including suicide and badly decomposing bodies. Worse, I have had to deliver dozens of death messages to relatives who were not expecting it. I had to console an elderly lady for two hours while waiting for relatives to arrive. She was distraught. This is not remarkable.

    I have witnessed a colleague taking a beating whilst I was fighting off others. His head was kicked several times like a football. I managed to get to him by beating my way using my torch as a weapon. My friend and colleague was so badly beaten he never returned to frontline duties. I had to endure a complaint made about me because one of these cowards sustained stitches in his head from my torch. This is not remarkable.

    I have been involved in quite a few firearms operations, where the subjects were known or strongly suspected of carrying guns. One was a plain clothes op and one of the subjects spoke to me and stroked my Police dog! One such massive operation involved special forces, as well as our own very professional firearms team. This is not remarkable.

    I have been able to pull a hosepipe from the exhaust pipe of a car and prevent a suicide. Close call. This is not remarkable.

    I took a bit of a beating while off-duty stopping some low lives stealing a van belonging to a self- employed builder. This is not remarkable.

    I once had to arrest a drunken drug-fuelled mother late at night on Torquay harbourside. She had her seven-year-old daughter with her. This little girl was amazing. She basically looked after herself when her mum was drunk or hungover. It was close to Christmas and she didn’t have one toy in her dingy flat. Colleagues popped home and delivered some presents meant for their own kids to social workers who had arrived to take her into care. The girl’s dad? In prison for murder. This is not remarkable.

    I have faced large scale disorder, where things have been hairy to say the least. I have been involved in cot deaths. I have been to squalid houses where young children have been crawling through dog shit. To serious injury road traffic collisions, where motorists have been unconscious or crying out and moaning in agony. this is not remarkable.

    I spent a 16-week stint in the custody centre on ‘light duties’, dealing with, and having to be professional with all manner of low life including paedophiles and people who had abused elderly citizens. This is not remarkable.

    I have received a Commendation for courage and professionalism, and seen other officers do far more and not receive any. I have known friends and colleagues who have tried unsuccessfully to remove occupants from a burning car. Some have been involved in a fatal shooting. One had his police dog shot. This is not remarkable.

    I have helped put errant teenagers back on the straight and narrow. I have located vulnerable missing people. I have talked ‘jumpers’ down from the Tamar Bridge. Helped extricate a maintenance worker from a sewage tank, where his co- worker had asphyxiated because of the toxic fumes. This is not remarkable. I could swing the lamp for a great deal longer. This is not remarkable.

    What IS remarkable is that nearly all my colleagues up and down the country do this and more, on a daily basis in the face of fierce criticism and dwindling resources and man power.

    What IS remarkable is the seeming lack of support from large swathes of the country, who would not cope if the police were disbanded. Trust me, I know this from experience, those who complain about the police are the first to call them, often for minor complaints.

    What IS remarkable is the silent majority being quite so silent.

    What IS remarkable is successive Governments stifling the police with political correctness. Poor leadership from some senior officers and politicians of all colours, has not helped.

    Let’s get behind our police and give them the support they need. Give them the resources they need. That would be remarkable.

    Edd Meakin (Retired Police Officer)

    1. Let’s get behind our police and give them the support they need. Give them the resources they need. That would be remarkable.

      Hear, hear.

      A hundred times hear, hear.

    2. I am not sure that the silent majority is that silent; it’s just their voice isn’t being heard.

      1. No they’re not that silent, but it’s probable that the police and the PTB don’t like what they are saying. Until the political correctness and politicisation is rooted out, everyone is treated equally, they spend more time dealing with real crime than hate crime, stop painting their cars and themselves in rainbow colours and doing stupid things like taking the knee, they won’t regain respect from many people.

        1. A few tidy uniforms and police visibility on the street might help as well.

          Oh and stop pampering to the minorities.

        2. I had more or less the same conversation with the chap who came to service my boiler this morning. He said he enjoyed coming to me because he could have a good chat. So many people that he knows are remainers. We dealt with the perlice and their antics (and consequent loss of respect), political correctness, the coming backlash, the need to be circumspect about what one said and to whom, the shameful shenanigans following the vote to leave and how Boris was a sore disappointment because he could do something and he hasn’t …

    4. It would be good to see this receive widespread publicity through one or more of the newspapers.

      It should be mandatory reading for the BLM defund the police scum although I suspect that the duties would be ripped into little pieces to justify social workers and woke shoulders for crying on.

    5. To paraphrase Orwell: “People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because the police stand ready to do whats necessary on their behalf”

  81. 321652+ up ticks,

    Report: UK Close to Abandoning Brexit-EU Deal, Will Likely Leave Bloc Fully in December.

    Would I be super cynical in believing the deal has had the last stitch put in & done long ago.

  83. Patricia Janečková, the young Slovak operatic soprano publishes one of her lockdown videos where she accompanies herself on her portable grand piano.

    She sings Rossini’s song La Danza:

    https://youtu.be/Xy4bFpaGnII

  84. The link below will take you to a document produced by the Football Association for the leagues and clubs below the Football League. It’s well meant but just look at all the ‘considerations’ for a return to competitive football. Only a small number of the clubs (almost all in the top two levels) are full-time or have some full-time administrative staff. The rest are run by volunteers. Many are increasingly professional and well-organised but nevertheless their boards/committees will be looking at this and drawing a deep breath. The clubs at the bottom are mostly park and village affairs with very limited resources and some will find this very difficult.

    The FA has done only what will have been expected of it but it has been driven by the government’s Covid madness (though the disclaimer at the end could be interpreted as a criticism of that). There’s not even a guarantee that clubs will be allowed to have spectators.

    If all social organisations are subject to this, life will be very dull and colourless for a long time, especially where the organisers are not the youngest of individuals. Many will throw in the towel.

    https://www.swpleague.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NATIONAL-LEAGUE-SYSTEM-CLUB-GUIDANCE-FOR-RETURNING-TO-FOOTBALL-18-July-2020-Low-res.pdf

    2. Interesting. Erdogan: “There is no fun in islam.” So, no music, no dancing, no fashion, no SPORT…. are we being manipulated into becoming islamo-sharia compliant?

    3. The rules for return to curling are having quite an effect over here completely changing the way the sport is run. As a result clubs are considering shutting their doors.

      One of the least appealing suggestions has been to move the bar outside, install a few patio heaters and we can all continue to socialise after a game. Someone forgot that it can be a nice bracing minus twenty in mid winter.

    4. The Welsh are getting restive about the restrictions their government has imposed (serves ’em right for voting for devolution). They are only allowed 30 participants for outdoor events. As the Wales and West Show-ground people pointed out, they have more than a hundred acres for people to move about in. They are NOT happy that their show jumping events can’t go ahead, especially when the English guidelines are allowing venues to open up.

    5. I used to be part of a youth club, for nearly 20 years, if presented with all that crap now I would resign.

  86. Pick a number! Any number!

    “Another 79 people have died after testing positive for coronavirus, taking the total for the UK to 45,501. Separate figures from the UK’s statistics agencies show that more than 56,000 deaths mention Covid19 on the death certificate.”

    R4 news at 8pm. Which agencies? No explanation was offered.

    No overcounting for the BBC, only undercounting.

  87. The descent into madness continues apace as Dick of The Yard sanctions vigilantism.

    Face masks to become compulsory in takeaways as Government tightens law

    Cressida Dick, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said she hoped people would be “shamed” into leaving stores if they did not comply with the rules to wear masks.

    She told LBC radio: “Calling the police should be a last resort for dealing with a mask issue. But the law is a law. My hope is that the vast majority of people will comply and people will be shamed into leaving the store.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/07/22/face-masks-become-compulsory-takeaways-government-tightens-law

    1. Bringing Portland back under control is absolutely the right thing to do, they have had long enough to sort themselves out. Chicago, I am not so sure.

      However, he would get a lot further working behind the scenes twisting (hard) the arms of the mayors and jointly announcing that the national guard were going in – that would have cut the rioters off at the knees.

    1. School in Birmingham praised by OFSTED for being totally BAME and no whites

      01 Jan 2022

    2. 321652+ up ticks,
      Evening LD,
      The lab/lib/con coalition who have been running an anti English / GB campaign for decades and still receive massive support.
      White kids have been raped & abused in bulk, wholesale
      & the same political tripe are returned to power.
      Time & again & again,

    3. Those that can, do; those that can’t, teach. Those who can do neither join Ofsted.

    1. The Tories have not been conservative (with or without the capital C) for some considerable time.

      2. 321652+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        Really the same could be said about lab, the most honest has been lib/dems always been pro eu
        no pretence.
        All you have to do now is convince the electorate.

        Will come hard to convince them that they have been supporting / voting for an anti Brit sh!te party especially since Maggie got the knife treatment.

    2. Don’t insult the liberals. Our Canadian minority liberal government haven’t gone that far – yet / openly!

    3. 321652+ up ticks,
      Evening Rik,
      How else would they act but as a coalition being that they ARE a coalition, & have been since mass uncontrolled immigration first put it’s foot on this nations road to ruin.

    5. Unbelievable. Priti Patel says one thing and does the other. My question is: how on earth does a supposedly Tory government with a workable majority so readily signal its death wish.

      There are just too many contradictions between its stated policy and its implementation of said policy, or lack of.

      This Boris lead government is no different to Cameron’s shoddy set up. We might just as well all emigrate and leave the country to the wogs and Muslims and all the other shite BAMEs they have allowed in to defile our country over decades.

      1. 321652+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        They know the strength & mindset of the electorate & the voting pattern as in, party first no matter of the consequences, keep in / keep out has been the order of play for decades.

        We would never have got to where we are today
        without this mode of voting.

        The electorate has been voting for the demise of the nation for years.

        1. Why has a workable alternative to the excremental existing parties never emerged?

          Both UKIP and then the Brexit Party triumphed in the European elections and then fell flat on their faces. It is all very well to blame the electorate but how can the electorate vote for a credible party that does not exist?

          1. Ogga made a comment this morning about the ongoing court battles between UKIP leaders of months gone by.

            That kind of discord within UKIP and then with the Brexit party is damming the UK to ongoing main stream party dominance. Very few will stand behind a future independent party.

          3. Not daft, just seeing it for what it is. Do you think that the Tories or Labour would let a new party gain traction? They will attack the unreliability and lack of staying power of any new party, linking it to UKIP and its internal wars.

            The only option now is to join the small c conservatives and take them right.

          4. 321662+ up ticks,
            R,
            Yet another who has not read up on the orchestrated take down of real UKIP Gerard Batten/Richard Brain.
            It was 28 years old with two major successes and NO treachery against the state on it’s books.
            “The only option now is to join the small c conservatives and make things right”
            hence “don’t be bloody daft”
            That option is recognised rhetoric of the major, wretch cameron,mayday & keep it all in-house, as things deteriorate daily.
            The remaining sane of this nation has had a gutfull of the
            toxic trio and trying to rectify a
            politico entrenched treachery party is nonsensical.
            Your option is to keep the same
            political reptiles in power after they have had at least 3 decades of rubber stamping deceit is beyond the pale, all the time they will be in the nation destroying mode as you try to right wrongs, never happen.
            A new bigger force is needed with clear political water between it & the ersatz tory party, as is.
            By the by have a nice day.

          5. Whether or not we have ‘read up’ about the woes of UKIP it seems to the public that however much they agree with UKIP’s policies a squabbling bunch of feral cats in a sack are not likely to be capable of governing.

          6. 321662+ up ticks,
            Morning R,
            ” Whether we have read up or not”
            Surely one MUST have ALL aspects of a case before making an honest judgement.
            I have tried my upmost to explain that the real UKIP was treacherously taken down via actions taken by the ersatz UkIp Nec due to the success of the
            Gerard Batten leadership year.
            Your description of the CURRENT UkIp nec is correct but do not try to tell me that any of the lab/lib/con coalition are
            suitable political material to govern these Isles, because that is complete & utter bollocks as has been proven over the last three decades.

          7. 3217652+ up ticks,
            Evening R,
            As with many you have not read up on the
            criminal take down of the real UKIP, you as many have put your faith in the treachery politico’s one after the other my back posts concerning your views are open to read.
            As I say like many you have gone through a catalogue of con party saviours only to be shot down even with people telling you they were wrong uns.
            As for “nige” I will put this link up one more time, keep in mind also he recommended
            a six month extension.
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

        2. I was discussing this with my wife earlier. We both believe that we need a new party that represents our national interest. UKIP has unfortunately failed us on so many levels with its internecine fighting and factionalism.

          Nigel Farage could do the job with the team he had behind him the last time around. But as long as the former UKIP ‘cabinet’ keep fighting like rats in a sack we have little hope of salvation from the present three party stitch-up.

          1. 321652+ up ticks
            C,
            Please read up on the court case UKIP nec / Richard Braine and what proceeded that back to the 17th Feb 2018 when
            Gerard Batten successfully led UKIP for a year.
            When he re-stood as a candidate for leadership he was knocked back by the nec as ” not of good standing ” within the party who then went full treachery with a take down Batten campaign leading to the court case.
            As for “nige” I will let him have the last word about the peoples that worked & gave him a platform, he put a hole in the back of about 30000 plus jackets.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fc7iuUHk3Yk

          2. UKIP could have become something more – but in the alleged words of WTC owner Larry Silverstein regarding Building 7, the order was given to “Pull it!” Elements of the current leadership are fighting tooth and nail to stop what remains of UKIP becoming relevant.

            There is an emerging entity, though it’s very much at the meta-political level currently. Not a formal party yet:

            https://www.patrioticalternative.org.uk

            For it to succeed many people are going to have divest themselves of certain mental and emotional traps. These have been constructed over a long time. In many cases before we were even born. Its not easy and we don’t have much time. In fact there’s a clock on the homepage there.

    2. Geoff I know this is short notice but the weather forecast for Thursday 30th is looking pretty good.

      Might you be free for a day out on the boat and if so can you get to The New Inn Send by 09:30 a,m Postcode GU23 7EN?

      Please let me know.

      Kind regards,

      S

  94. I know I am beating on my same old drum but today’s young people seem to be under threat once more from the avaricious politicians.

    One in four millennials will inherit £300k or more, but experts warn of tax grabs
    As wage growth stalls, inheritance is becoming a key determiner of wealth but young people relying on this may be deprived of their windfall

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/one-four-millennials-will-inherit-300k-experts-warn-tax-grabs/

    The absurdity is that many of our young people will be in debt for virtually all their working lives because of the usurious rate of interest charged on student loans – currently over 20 times the Bank of England’s base rate – so to have homes like the ones they grew up in they will have to wait until their parents die.

    I am not against student loans

    It is quite reasonable to expect students or their parents to pay for their university education.

    BUT What I am vehemently against is their being robbed by usury.

    A healthier future would be assured if, as is the case in more civilised countries, student loans were interest free. In addition repayments of capital should be charged against income tax and employers given tax advantages to help pay off their employees’ loans.

    1. What the yoof dont seem to realise though hs that their parets an grandparents lrobably didn’t own their own homes until in their thirties. They all, seem to want their own house straight after leaving school or college.

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