Wednesday 16 June: Extending coronavirus restrictions means ruining livelihoods and losing lives every day

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/15/lettersextending-coronavirus-restrictions-means-ruining-livelihoods/

720 thoughts on “Wednesday 16 June: Extending coronavirus restrictions means ruining livelihoods and losing lives every day”

  1. Like Moths To A Flame

    In the back woods of West Virginia, the redneck’s wife went into labour in the middle of the night, and the doctor was called to assist in the delivery.

    Since there was no electricity, the doctor handed the father-to-be a lantern and said, “Here, you hold this high so I can see what I’m doing.”

    Soon, a baby boy was brought into the world. “Whoa there,” said the doctor. “Don’t put the lantern down… I think there’s another one to come!”

    Sure enough, within minutes he had delivered a baby girl. And once again, he implored the father,

    “Don’t put down that lantern… It seems there’s yet another one in there!” cried the doctor.

    The Redneck scratched his head in bewilderment, and asked the doctor, “Do ya thank it’s the light that’s attractin’ ‘em? “

  6. Keir Starmer is alienating both sides in the Brexit debate. 16 June 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/489dc14c762e7a587f132e344ed918a42b798495288dd68ced0f6d4ba087b019.jpg

    What is it with Labour and Brexit? An issue that during Theresa May’s premiership looked like it could rip the Conservative party apart has instead made them electorally invincible – and caused huge problems for the Labour party.

    For that reason, Keir Starmer tends to avoid the topic these days, seeking to show that he and his party have ‘moved on’. But some days, he can’t help himself. Yesterday was one of those days. Speaking about the Northern Ireland protocol on the radio, Starmer said:

    We do need to remind the Prime Minister that he signed on the dotted line: this is what he negotiated. If he’s saying it doesn’t work he should look in the mirror and say, well, did I sign something then that wasn’t very sensible?…He didn’t read it, didn’t understand it or he didn’t tell us the truth about it when he said what it had in it.’

    Starmer cannot move on any more than the broad mass of the Labour Party can. They all hate Brexit and would repeal it tomorrow given the opportunity! This leaves them as a sort of political PushmePullyou; one half would like to escape to the sunlit uplands of a Free UK where they could reinvent themselves and the other half is galloping backwards to the Happy Days of the EU. There is only one solution. Slicing themselves into two different creatures and each going their own way. This unfortunately would almost certainly lead to the death of one and the other getting lost in the Wilderness. Better just to keep on and graze at both ends!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/keir-starmer-s-brand-of-brexit-cakeism-is-alienating-both-sides

    1. Araminta mng. Not helped by using a racist pic of non llamas of coloured persusaion. Given advertising executives seem to be kidnapping black people from the street and forced to be actors in TV adverts. All part of the non spoken but clear agenda to reverse Brexit of which all what passes for political parties are involved in

    2. I quote:

      “We do need to remind the Prime Minister that he signed on the dotted line: this is what he negotiated. If he’s saying it doesn’t work he should look in the mirror and say, well, did I sign something then that wasn’t very sensible?…He didn’t read it, didn’t understand it or he didn’t tell us the truth about it when he said what it had in it.’”

      On this Keir Starmer is completely correct. As I have been boring people on this ever since the “deal” was struck it was an act of intense folly and weakness by Johnson to agree to EU interference with financial services, the NI Protocol and British control over fishing in British waters. The current mess is entirely Boris Johnson’s fault.

      1. Gove’s late intervention shouldn’t be overlooked. Johnson and Frost appeared to have it covered before the back stabber visited the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train at the 11th hour to attempt to hole us below the waterline.

  7. An interesting view from the historian Niall Ferguson via Jonathan Myles-Lea..

    myleslea2 NIALL FERGUSON:

    “The people on the Left didn’t really want to have a conversation about economics, because they had lost their arguments in the 1980s, they really hadn’t been able to make the case for socialism successfully. And the conclusion was that there was more money to be made, or more power to be gained by exploiting identity politics and emphasizing cultural, racial, gender differences. And that’s where all the energy moved to. And it was bad luck for the working classes, I mean, hard luck for the economic losers from globalization and financialization, because they really cease to figure in the debates that were going on in the elite universities and then in the educational system, as a whole.

    So I think the answer is that partly, there was just a shift of strategy on the Left away from economics into what seemed like the more fertile ground of culture. But it was also partly because the people who lost out in that period that we could date from maybe 2001, that’s when China joined the World Trade Organization, the people who’d lost out, were of no interest to the academic Left, the working class of Middle America, just cease to figure.

    And I think one of the things that we don’t fully realize, although it’s becoming more and more clear, is that what the Left now offers, wokeism, is in fact, a religion. It’s not a secular political ideology. That’s why as you were saying earlier, it’s not really about economics. It is about salvation, membership of the elect of the woke. It’s about persecuting heretics. It’s about elaborate rituals of speech that can only be pursued by the believers. It’s rather cult like, Matt Yglesias is not somebody I usually agree with, but he called it the Great Awokening. This was a very astute observation.

    So we are dealing not just with the decay of traditional religion, but far worse, the rise of new fake religions, political religions, and one thing that’s very clear from the 20th century is that when people take their religious feelings, and they apply them to political ideologies, terrible things can happen. Central to what made communism so deadly, was it’s ultimately a religion”.

    1. And I think one of the things that we don’t fully realize, although it’s becoming more and more clear, is that what the Left now offers, wokeism, is in fact, a religion.

      Yes of course. At the moment it is relatively weak so we just get the preaching and the vision. In a little while we will have the arrests and the auto de fe’s!

      1. We have already had the arrests and punishments. Tommy Robinson, Paul Joseph Watson and others have had income cut off.

  9. Heard on the news this morning that the England football side wants to educate football supporters about racism, not sure how a empty gesture like kneeling is all that informative to be fair.

    1. mng bob. They’ll all have to immediately resign from clubs and go back to school and learn / get a real education, inclusive of, not limited to history.

    3. 334408+ up ticks,
      Morning B3,
      They really DO want to be educated on the powerful
      use of united boycotting, used in a fan rules the issues in a common sense manner, turnstile price,
      players wages etc,etc.

    4. Educating people about racism, is no different to indoctrinating them in racism. By nature we stick together in homogeneous societies, families, religious groups, clubs, workplaces et al. We have always accepted into these societies those who wished to belong and who have proved their willingness to belong by following the requirements for membership.
      We are called “racists” by those who are determined that those who will not accept the codes, morals, mores and enthusiasms of these societies must nevertheless be taken in by those societies, however reluctantly – “it’s the law”, and however destructively.

  10. Howdy, Comrades! Hope y’All doing well.
    Life can get rather complicated now and again. Was investigating a care home for my Mother, located on Barry Island, and was informed that yesterday it was closed by the authorities! Bugger! Not only a disaster for the inmates(?), but also the families who will now have to find somewhere new. Fortunately, I was just at the level of identifying candidates for closer scrutiny, but even so.

      1. I am, but want to see how the prices compare, as well as services.
        Seem to have found a good agency who only want a lot of money, so will be taking that forward this afternoon. The question is, how much care needed? Days only, or 24 hrs? It’s “only” 10% difference in cost.

      2. There are very variable carers and Oberst is not around to keep an eye on things.

  11. Joe Biden arrives in Geneva ahead of crunch summit with Vladimir Putin. 16 June 2021.

    Relations are at their lowest point in years, with Joe Biden labelling Vladimir Putin as a killer with no soul.

    A joint US-EU communique calls on Moscow to release all political prisoners, such as jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny and end the ”continuous crackdown” on civil society and media.

    Mr Michel, the European Council president, said the bloc was “entirely united” with the US in the face of an increasingly belligerent Moscow.
    “We are different of course but we are at one when fighting for democracy,” said Mrs von der Leyen, who told Mr Biden that EU-Russia relations remain on a “negative spiral”.

    Hollow laughs all round here! Mrs Fond a Lyin who was never elected by anyone talking about Democracy of all things. As for the “continuous crackdown on Civil Society and Media” where does this exist except in the West with its massive injections of MSM Cultural Marxist Propaganda, Lies and Fake News?

    The key to all this, as can be seen in the sub-heading, is Vladimir Putin. There is no argument with Russia, no dispute over Economic Doctrine, no Political Divide. It is all about this one man who is blocking the path to the Great Reset. Get rid of him and Russia will be brought into the fold and meet that same fate that has engulfed the UK. Its people will be told that they are racists, that their religion needs to go, that they are responsible for the Tsars and the children taught to respect sexual perversion as a natural process; all should be made guilty for being who they are. Vlad opposes all this. Vlad is a Nottler!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/joe-biden-arrives-geneva-ahead-crunch-summit-vladimir-putin/

  13. What sort of vaccination is so good and beneficial that government has to pass laws to force people in the medical profession to take it or lose their jobs?
    It’s not really a good advert for it, to be fair.

    1. I wish we had this instead of the Stonewall inspired filth that passes for sex ed in schools these days.

    2. How come these former communist countries are far more moralistically pure and civilised than us?
      Why are they unafraid to stand up to the bullying globalist agenda?

      2. When oppression is a recent memory, you are more aware of its reappearance.
        England’s greatest problem is that this country hasn’t been conquered in nearly 1,000 years. This has led to complacency.

  15. Good morning all,

    Looks like a sea fog has swept in , poor visibility , Moh off to play golf .. I wonder how many balls will be lost .

    It was a very warm and sticky night . I expect the fog horns around our coastline will be hooting their warnings.

    1. TB Mng, here’s the scribbles:

      SIR – What is the Latin for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”? Somehow we need to get through to the Prime Minister that extending lockdown is a catastrophic decision.

      More than half of voters may be happy with another month of restrictions, but that is because more than half are not significantly affected.

      Pubs, restaurants and shops have all been able to operate to some degree, but other industries have been closed since March 2020. The major live-events sector, for example, is still almost entirely shut down, and lives are being ruined and lost daily. There are no generous automatic grants and no business rates holidays for them.

      Toby Gunter
      Weyhill, Hampshire

      SIR – It is easy to support continuing Covid restrictions if you know they won’t affect your income and pension.

      To launch a business involves hard work, long hours, low (or no) pay and trust in your vision. You will have raised capital with loans against your home. If the business fails, you stand to lose everything, including self-respect.

      I propose that anyone advising measures to deal with unproven risks be obliged to forfeit their salary for the duration. This would bring home the financial, social, health and educational harm being inflicted.

      John O’Donnell
      West Mersea, Essex

      SIR – Can Boris Johnson explain the point of my receiving my full vaccination almost two months ago?

      Gordon Moser
      Barkingside, Essex

      SIR – If the Delta variant is rampant and in danger of overwhelming the NHS, why is the Government persisting with the current, apparently
      ineffective, restrictions for another month?

      J R Ball
      Hale, Cheshire

      SIR – The Government has made it almost impossible for the average person to find out which Covid rules are legally enforceable, and which are merely guidance. I’ve spent some time searching the Government’s website for clarification, without success.

      In a democratic country, such obfuscation should be unacceptable, but a ground-down public has rolled over and accepted it. I won’t any longer.

      Unable to distinguish between law and guidance, my adherence to all Covid rules will now end on June 21, come what may. I will take my chances and let nature be the final arbiter.

      David Harmer
      Horsham, West Sussex

      SIR – Boris Johnson has given government offices another four weeks to blame Covid for not doing their job while the rest of the country does its best to operate under authoritarian rule.

      Mark Batting
      Burrough Green, Cambridgeshire

      SIR – It’s time to rebel and for the silent majority to become vocal. I, for one, plan to host lunch and dinner parties for 10, no masks but hugging mandatory, with like-minded friends.

      Peter Hobden
      Eastbourne, East Sussex

      SIR – Perhaps Jennifer Harper-Jones (Letters, June 15) should consider reconvening her WI meeting (now banned from taking place) with all participants wearing football kit. They could then hug each other maskless and sing and cheer all they like.

      Marilyn Parrott
      Altrincham, Cheshire

      SIR – I have enjoyed the letters (June 14) from people who will never vote Conservative again, as the Government has failed to open up the country fully on June 21.

      Before they all change their votes perhaps they should ask themselves if a different political party would have handled the pandemic any better? I think we all know the answer.

      Charlotte MacKay
      Shaftesbury, Dorset

      The next pandemic

      SIR – As we appear to be mastering this pandemic, I’m concerned that the G7 and the Government are fixated on reacting to the inevitable next
      pandemic rather than preventing it.

      However this pandemic started, which we may never know unless the insular Chinese administration cooperates with a detailed investigation, the next one is most likely to originate from an accident or deliberate action at one of the 3,000 bio-secure laboratories around the globe that work on pathogens like Covid. We must be able to contain an outbreak to prevent it turning into a pandemic.

      We can do this if we properly regulate and police these labs by making the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention fit for purpose, and if we create an early-warning system to contain epidemics and stop them becoming pandemics.

      Hamish de Bretton-Gordon
      Tisbury, Wiltshire

      Northern Ireland trade

      SIR – There is a contradiction within the Northern Ireland Protocol, which attempts to define Northern Ireland as remaining within the UK customs area while also retaining its membership of the EU single market.

      As Professor Vernon Bogdanor explains (Comment, June 14), Article 5 and Annex 2 effectively mean it also remains within the EU customs union.

      What seems missing from the debate so far is any mention of Article 18, which requires the democratic consent of a qualified majority of the people of Northern Ireland four years after the end of the transition period (ie 2024) for the continuance of the trading articles in the Protocol.

      Should the Northern Ireland Assembly vote against continuance, then the EU-UK joint committee must recommend new trading measures to the UK
      and EU governments. What these are likely to be is anyone’s guess.

      Alan Law
      Streatley, Berkshire

      Hedgehogs’ return

      SIR – Hedgehogs are one of Britain’s most popular wild animals. Sadly, in New Zealand they are considered a nuisance and are all due to be exterminated. As these are the descendants of British hedgehogs, the obvious solution is to bring them home to Britain, where our dwindling
      population is heading for extinction.

      David Griffiths
      Cardiff

      Cambridge cancelling

      SIR – Sir Noel Malcolm (Letters, June 15) is not the only Cambridge-educated historian to experience the Cambridge vice-chancellor’s “tactic of silence”.

      I wrote to Professor Stephen Toope three months ago about the decision to “cancel” Tobias Rustat, a benefactor of the Cambridge University Library but also a director of the slave-trading Royal African Company.

      Rustat is a perfect target for the virtue-signalling cancel culture:
      an obscure 17th-century cavalier and courtier. It is proposed to remove
      his statue and reapply his benefaction.

      I pointed out that, as King George II had also been a director of the Royal African Company and a much more generous donor to the library, he should be cancelled as well. This might lead to some embarrassment for Cambridge. I have yet to receive a reply. I expect Rustat to survive the purge.

      Professor Toope seems to believe that surgical strikes are possible against offending figures from the past. This is not a sensible position for someone in charge of an ancient and complex institution like Cambridge.

      Professor Lawrence Goldman
      St Peter’s College, Oxford

      Blue trade unionists

      SIR – There is quite a history of Conservatives being involved with and influencing trade unions (Michael Deacon, Comment, June 12).

      I was a member of the (now defunct) Civil & Public Services Association. In the 1970s and 1980s there were several members of the national executive committee who were active and proud Conservative Party members.

      Conservatives at Work, formerly Conservative Trade Unionists (CTU), is a significant Conservative Party organisation made up of Conservative-supporting trade unionists.

      Before becoming an MP, Norman Tebbit was also a senior official of the British Airline Pilots Association and the CTU. In 1981, he sported a CTU badge when delivering his “My father got on his bike to look for work” speech.

      Howard Buttery
      Whalley, Lancashire

      On the move

      SIR – I was interested to read (Saturday, June 12) that moving house is a “significant life event”. By the age of 18, I had moved 21 times. My father was in the Army and, at the time, I didn’t find these events detrimental in any way. I’m sure I am not alone in this.

      Jenny Aylwin-Foster
      Clunton, Shropshire

      How opera can keep the woke brigade at bay

      SIR – Scottish Opera’s recent production of John Adams’s Nixon in China has been accused of “yellow-washing” because white singers were cast as Chinese characters (report, June 14).

      There is an easy way to avoid this accusation being made in future. Regular opera-goers will know that productions of many of the classics are often divorced from their historical contexts.

      For example, neither of the two productions of Verdi’s Rigoletto that I have seen was set in 17th-century Mantua: one was updated to the 19th century, the other to the present day.

      From now on, no production of Nixon in China should set the opera in 1972 or in the country of its title.

      C D C Armstrong
      Belfast

      SIR – So now the marvellous Nixon in China is getting the woke treatment.

      Where will this end? What about Madam Butterfly? Lakmé? The mind boggles at what those who take offence could achieve.

      Elizabeth Muir-Lewis
      Eastbourne, East Sussex

      SIR – How can it be wrong for white opera singers to portray Chinese Communist Party workers but acceptable for an African-American to play the part of Richard Nixon?

      Gill Broadbent
      Winscombe, Somerset

      Why the pie-and-mash awning hit the lamppost

      SIR – I’m afraid local councils have a lot to do with the disappearance of canvas awnings (Letters, June 15).

      We have a long-established pie-and-mash shop (Manze’s) in Deptford, with wooden roller shutters and a marble front. A few years ago, the council decided to move a lamppost outside the shop, and as a consequence we couldn’t pull down our awnings.

      The council’s justification: we don’t own the space above the pavement outside the shop.

      George Mascall
      Erith, Kent

      SIR – I grew up in St Andrews in the 1950s, and my father had a shop in South Street.

      It had large windows and a full-width awning, as did numerous shops in the town. They were a feature of the area, and each one was used as an advertising opportunity.

      For me, they were a nightmare. I was over six feet tall, and the side stiffening bars were lower than that, so it was impossible for me to walk down any street without developing a stoop. Even today, many outlets have hanging advertising signage, seemingly unaware of taller customers.

      Fergus Nicolson
      Gowdall, East Yorkshire

      SIR – As well as no awnings, shops rarely have street numbers, or clocks showing the correct time.

      Mark Solon
      London E1

  17. We must protect press freedom. 16 June 2021.

    The hounding of BBC Newsnight journalist Nick Watt by a mob during an anti-lockdown protest in Westminster this week was disgraceful. Video posted on social media shows him being chased along the street, subjected to abusive chants of “traitor” and “scum”, and forced to flee to safety behind the gates of Downing Street.

    Astonishingly, police officers at the protest just stood and watched. The Prime Minister and Home Secretary have condemned Mr Watt’s treatment, with Priti Patel pointing out that the Government has launched a consultation to better understand the nature and volume of threats against journalists. That is all very well, but it counts for little if police officers witness abuse and fail to intervene.

    Nick Watt must be saved. Not like Julie Burchill or the contributors who are silenced on DT comment threads or the people at Speakers Corner and the Christian Street Preachers. That’s all OK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/06/16/must-protect-press-freedom/

    1. Even our dear Allison Pearson was not invited to comment last night on GB News on the shabby treatment Julie Burchill received from the DT. (I posted Ms Burchill’s article in the Daily Mail on the subject yesterday.)

      It would be very sad if even our robustly straight-talking Allison is being quelled by her employers and has to watch what she says.

  18. Morning all

    SIR – What is the Latin for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”? Somehow we need to get through to the Prime Minister that extending lockdown is a catastrophic decision.

    More than half of voters may be happy with another month of restrictions, but that is because more than half are not significantly affected.

    Pubs, restaurants and shops have all been able to operate to some degree, but other industries have been closed since March 2020. The major live-events sector, for example, is still almost entirely shut down, and lives are being ruined and lost daily. There are no generous automatic grants and no business rates holidays for them.

    Toby Gunter

    Weyhill, Hampshire

    SIR – It is easy to support continuing Covid restrictions if you know they won’t affect your income and pension.

    To launch a business involves hard work, long hours, low (or no) pay and trust in your vision. You will have raised capital with loans against your home. If the business fails, you stand to lose everything, including self-respect.

    Advertisement

    I propose that anyone advising measures to deal with unproven risks be obliged to forfeit their salary for the duration. This would bring home the financial, social, health and educational harm being inflicted.

    John O’Donnell

    West Mersea, Essex

    SIR – Can Boris Johnson explain the point of my receiving my full vaccination almost two months ago?

    Gordon Moser

    Barkingside, Essex

    Placeholder image for youtube video: EC_pofcEcWY

    SIR – If the Delta variant is rampant and in danger of overwhelming the NHS, why is the Government persisting with the current, apparently ineffective, restrictions for another month?

    J R Ball

    Hale, Cheshire

    SIR – The Government has made it almost impossible for the average person to find out which Covid rules are legally enforceable, and which are merely guidance. I’ve spent some time searching the Government’s website for clarification, without success.

    In a democratic country, such obfuscation should be unacceptable, but a ground-down public has rolled over and accepted it. I won’t any longer.

    Unable to distinguish between law and guidance, my adherence to all Covid rules will now end on June 21, come what may. I will take my chances and let nature be the final arbiter.

    Advertisement

    David Harmer

    Horsham, West Sussex

    SIR – Boris Johnson has given government offices another four weeks to blame Covid for not doing their job while the rest of the country does its best to operate under authoritarian rule.

    Mark Batting

    Burrough Green, Cambridgeshire

    Placeholder image for youtube video: NvDQft9enw4

    SIR – It’s time to rebel and for the silent majority to become vocal. I, for one, plan to host lunch and dinner parties for 10, no masks but hugging mandatory, with like-minded friends.

    Peter Hobden

    Eastbourne, East Sussex

    SIR – Perhaps Jennifer Harper-Jones (Letters, June 15) should consider reconvening her WI meeting (now banned from taking place) with all participants wearing football kit. They could then hug each other maskless and sing and cheer all they like.

    Marilyn Parrott

    Altrincham, Cheshire

    SIR – I have enjoyed the letters (June 14) from people who will never vote Conservative again, as the Government has failed to open up the country fully on June 21.

    Before they all change their votes perhaps they should ask themselves if a different political party would have handled the pandemic any better? I think we all know the answer.

    Advertisement

    Charlotte MacKay

    Shaftesbury, Dorset

    1. Well Charlotte my dear, we don’t know the answer do we. There is no valid alternative to ask because Tory voters, like I suspect yourself, will continue to support them no matter have far removed from being a conservative minded party they become.

    2. I’m certain Labour would have handled the situation equally badly, but there might be the glimmer of hope that the Conservatives would have made a far better opposition and questioned the actions instead of encouraging them.

      This in turn might have allowed more dissenting voices to speak up and be heard instead of being marginalised, censored, and eventually cancelled.

      1. I disagree. The use of ’emergency’ powers has neutered any opposition (in the case of the current Labour party it was micro-surgery) so regardless of which tribe formed HMG, there would be no viable arguments allowed.

        Labour would have been as happy to have the ‘experts’ from SAGE etc. rolled out as a defensive shield as the politicians seek to avoid responsibility for their (in)actions.

        To a lesser degree (but similar MO), Blair and co. hid behind the flawed models of Shagger Ferguson for foot and mouth as whole breeds of cattle were wiped out and farmers committed suicide based on actions pushed by his Abbottcus-like figures.

        Once the ’emergency’ powers, including furlough payments, are ended the financial catastrophe awaiting so many will be exposed to all. Even the supine meeja will be unable to cover up such industrial levels of carnage.

        1. You may well be right; but Labour haven’t really done other than act as a rubber stamp, even the current extension looks as if it will pass as a result of Labour voting with the government. One might have hoped at least some Conservatives would have raised issues.

          Looking forward. As far as any government is concerned I suspect “emergency” powers will become the norm whenever something contentious appears.

          1. I think we’re in broad agreement regarding how poor Labour’s opposing efforts have been, quibbling about doing/not doing something on a Tuesday rather than a Wednesday seems to have been their main effort.

            Yes, sadly I agree the template for this ‘crisis’ will be re-used as you suggest.

    3. Where is Duncan Mac when you need him

      SIR – What is the Latin for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”? Somehow we need to get through to the Prime Minister that extending lockdown is a catastrophic decision.

      More than half of voters may be happy with another month of restrictions, but that is because more than half are not significantly affected.

      Pubs, restaurants and shops have all been able to operate to some degree, but other industries have been closed since March 2020. The major live-events sector, for example, is still almost entirely shut down, and lives are being ruined and lost daily. There are no generous automatic grants and no business rates holidays for them.

      Toby Gunter

      Weyhill, Hampshire

      Where is Duncan Mac when you need him re his love of Latin

      victoria cladem ereptum, ex Alcorani , I Googled the translation

      I thought Boris was a Greek scholar.

      1. Government, to borrow from Shakespeare’s Casca, is all Greek to Boris.

        As I am quite happy to point out my father got a far better Classics degree from St John’s Cambridge than Boris Johnson’s humble 2.1 from Balliol, Oxford. My father was also a talented and wise man with common sense which very few of our politicians have.

    4. 334408+ up ticks,
      Morning E,

      SIR – What is the Latin for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory”?

      I believe it to be labo/libo/cono,hope this helps.

    5. I quote from John O’Donnell’s letter above:

      “I propose that anyone advising measures to deal with unproven risks be obliged to forfeit their salary for the duration. This would bring home the financial, social, health and educational harm being inflicted.”

      I have been suggesting this since the beginning of lockdowns since when MPs have not only given themselves a £10,000 bonus but a salary rise.

      Our politicians merit nothing but our deepest, most profound, truest and sincerest contempt (as well as any other tautological epithets one would like to add!).

  19. They say that they want all medical staff to be vaxxed within 16 weeks of passing the law, I guess that will take us up to the end of the year by the time it takes two weeks to supposedly start working.
    So no freedom from the 19th July then

  20. Morning again

    Cambridge cancelling

    SIR – Sir Noel Malcolm (Letters, June 15) is not the only Cambridge-educated historian to experience the Cambridge vice-chancellor’s “tactic of silence”.

    I wrote to Professor Stephen Toope three months ago about the decision to “cancel” Tobias Rustat, a benefactor of the Cambridge University Library but also a director of the slave-trading Royal African Company.

    Rustat is a perfect target for the virtue-signalling cancel culture: an obscure 17th-century cavalier and courtier. It is proposed to remove his statue and reapply his benefaction.

    I pointed out that, as King George II had also been a director of the Royal African Company and a much more generous donor to the library, he should be cancelled as well. This might lead to some embarrassment for Cambridge. I have yet to receive a reply. I expect Rustat to survive the purge.

    Professor Toope seems to believe that surgical strikes are possible against offending figures from the past. This is not a sensible position for someone in charge of an ancient and complex institution like Cambridge.

    Advertisement

    Professor Lawrence Goldman

    St Peter’s College, Oxford

    1. The Brits get dragged into it as well.
      “The Wallace’s owlet and five other birds honor Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, explorer and anthropologist credited, along with Charles Darwin, for conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. Wallace’s writings frequently used the n-word, including in reference to the “little brown hairy baby” he boasted about caring for after fatally shooting her mother during an 1855 trip to the Malay Archipelago. Some historians believe they were orangutans.”
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2021/bird-names-racism-audubon/

      2. You’re flippin’ kidding me? It’s NOT a photoshopped spoof?

        Dear freakin’ life!

  23. Countries and USA states are ‘opening up’ and moving back to something approaching normality and then add in the change of symptoms of CV-19 in the UK to resemble either hay fever or the common cold (obvious manipulation by the government as it’s very probable that the virus that caused the original outbreak has done what viruses do, that is to mutate and all but disappear but they need to keep CV-19 fear front and centre). Am I wrong to think that Johnson, Hancock et al. appear to be playing creepy teacher’s pet with their masters in the WEF/Davos: “Please sir, look at me, I’ll do whatever you say sir as I really, really want to be first and get that gold star.” Destroying your Country’s social cohesion, culture and its people’s health must take quite a twisted mentality, the reward for the perpetrators, whatever it is, must be worth having.

    https://twitter.com/AllisonPearson/status/1405050567022493697

    2. Hang on. Haaaaannnggg on. He’s just not that stupid. Surely.

      This is a man who’s spent his entire career in public office. He has never held a job in industry. Surely, **surely** he is not that fugging stupid? It looks staged, planned almost.

    3. That was the plan. Maybe the brain cells are dying faster than his puppet masters expected.

      1. I’m expecting post the Cyber Polygon simulation event on July 9th, he’ll be the next on the collateral damage list and they’ll definitely cite C-19 as the cause. But he’ll without knowing it, be on the assisted euthanasia list

  27. Shamima Begum: I was ‘just a dumb kid’ when I joined Islamic State. 15 June 2021.

    Shamima Begum has said that joining the Islamic State in Syria was a mistake she made as a “dumb kid” in comments to a British filmmaker.

    “I don’t think I was a terrorist. I think I was just a dumb kid who made one mistake,” she said of her decision as a 15-year-old to run away from home in Bethnal Green, east London, to travel to Syria along with two school friends.

    This didn’t stop her glorying in the deaths of hostages at the hands of those around her. She’s probably (in fairness she doesn’t seem too bright) just realising that unless she can somehow wangle her return to the UK she is stuck in this shith*le forever!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/shamima-begum-insists-just-dumb-kid-joined-isil/

    1. I don’t care. She should stay there. She willingly left this country to support those killing our soldiers.

    4. As Shylock was punished for wishing to have a pound of Antonio’s flesh cut from his body by being compelled to renounce his Jewish religion and become a Christian so Shamima Begum should be compelled to renounce Islam and become a Christian if she wants to return to Britain.

      Of course it would and should never happen but just imagine the outcry if Shamima Begum was made to become a Christian and regular checks were made to ensure that she attended Church services every Sunday.

      She might also be expected to write a few ‘personal experience’ articles about how children are brainwashed and recruited into Islamic terrorism.

      1. Leave her to rot; preferably die like her two chums.
        I do wonder how many “ex”jihadis are being sneaked back into Blighty while that little cow hogs the headlines.

        1. Indeed. I strongly suspect that she is the token that they will bring back last, while all the others are silently sneaking in.

    5. I realise I had a white privileged and (gasp) a Christianity based upbringing, so that could have distorted my perceptions; but I doubt that at the age of 15, I would have watched videos of beheadings and burning people alive and thought ‘Wow, I want some of that’.
      Mind you, most of the grunt level concentration camp guards were sub-normal, so you could have a point. The other point is that, whatever level her IQ, we don’t need such a thoroughly evil piece of dross infesting this country. If – IF – she had the 3 babies (we only ever saw bundles of rags) she is obviously is not very good at keeping human beings alive.

    7. Poor wee Sham, so innocent. However, I seem to recall that she managed to wangle a passport that showed she was over 16, otherwise travel would have been more difficult. So perhaps not such a ‘dumb kid’, but she must think our heads button up the back.

  28. The Gov climate change loonies on the loose again today. It seems it is settled that we will suffer heatwaves, drought and extreme rainfall. Err, really?

      1. An understatement following a very cool May for most of the country. They must have the memory retention of a goldfish and/or hope that we do.

    2. It looks as though our homes need to be fiited with external shutters to keep homes cool enough during the new expected global warming temperature rise of 4 deg C.
      Add the stilts necessary to keep rising water out after the expected deluge rate of 20mm per hour and what will home of the future look like after the new building regs?

    3. But not today. It is as dull today as it was yesterday, a day that started with high winds. Today is merely cold, dull, with a good chance of rain.

    4. It’s likely the same bunch of loonies advising the government on lockdown. I know that some of the mathematical modelling is being done by the same people.

  29. Morning from Sunny Suomi…
    Well today’s the day..
    Finland V Russia in St Petersburg.

      1. 35,000…not from Russia.I don’t know about the Finnish team.
        I really hope they don’t.

        1. The knee grovellers as I call them. Should we shoot for the knee do you think?

          1. No issue on knee capping and no benefit payments either. They’ll be easier to spot in the future, and give everyone else the opportunity to kick the other one when passing by. Merely as a not so gentle reminder

  32. 334408+ up ticks,
    Bearing in mind halal is inclusive of the parliamentary canteen menu
    as the mounting number in parliament of those requiring the animal to be brutally murdered before the fodder is edible, increases.

    https://youtu.be/HmOGQAO_Bvg

    1. Unstunned religious slaughter should not be allowed in this country. All halal or kosher meat should be clearly labelled as such.

      1. Agreed. All major religions have dietary rules of some sort. That’s fair enough but it shouldn’t affect animal welfare issues.

        On a different topic. How did your elephants in China manage to get drunk and pass out?

        1. No idea! They probably found some tasty fermenting fruit and it knocked them out.

      3. The labelling is a separate and very important issue. People who want to be able to avoid halal meat on any grounds whatsoever should be free to do so.

    2. But when will any of the main stream political parties have the courage or the integrity to tell the truth about Islam?

      You are probably right to say it will never happen – but unless something does happen soon we shall be irrevocably damned.

      1. 334408+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        I do think it is so bloody obvious that the governance overseers are running a defence of anything appertaining t o islam, the proof is there within the parliamentary chambers & canteen and their actions over the last three decades.

        May I ask, have the electorate the courage & integrity to break away from the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration ONGOING / mass foreign paedophilic umbrella coalition ?

  34. Ah! Here at last!
    Good morning all from a still bright & beautiful Derbyshire! 9°C when I got the milk in, but it’s up to over 12° now!

  35. On top of Home Office “Refugee Week”, the woke doubles up as now is Jo Cox Day https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6445cd2e974a5fe23169c3fff46777ff7cf0b5aa8c2d02a4704c4206376269dc.jpg Unfortunately as woke being reminded, Cox voted to bomb Syria, Airey Nieve, John Gow and Anthony Berry were all murdered by the IRA when they were MPs. All three had distinguished careers and lives and none covered up their spouse’s sexual assaults – not so happy Jo Cox day for the wokes

        1. There is an awfully long list of those and most of them are currently MPs!

      2. Speak for yourself Minty! Women should vote and do everything else they were barred from till the 20th century.

        1. Morning Ndovu. I have to confess that I have never sat down and thought it through but Churchill had his doubts and so do I. There’s no doubt that the Body Politic of the UK and the US is now thoroughly feminised. Both follow Feminist Agendas and eschew confrontation, leading to the triumph not of reason or necessity, but of safety.

          1. Sadly, feminism has morphed into nannyism.
            The early feminists would look on in disbelief at how their laudable aims have been perverted into shrill cottonwool thinking.

          2. The whole model of giving one group more rights based on some characteristic like sex, skin colour etc was always going to end in tears.

          3. Perhaps it if were allowed to study the long term effect of women having the vote, people might have more doubts.

            Jo Cox used to use her position as an MP to go into schools and tell children that mass migration was a wonderful, positive thing.

          4. That applies not just to women. Not forgetting the ones who think they are women.

        2. How dare you comment on this forum! Don’t you have some steps to scrub, woman?

          😘Only joking, but I do have my tin hat on!

          3. You’ll need it making remarks like that. I’ve got a nice cast iron frying pan ready.

        3. I’m on your side Ndovu although there have been an awful lot of cock ups of late. van der Leyen, Merkel, May, Sturgeon to name a few. Also don’t get me started on what is going down in Sweden. The fact is though that we also have Macron, Biden, Starmer and even Johnson to counter balance things. That’s before we get on to the many male loonies in Brussels.

          It’s a bit worrying all around really.

  36. On top of Home Office “Refugee Week”, the woke doubles up as now is Jo Cox Day https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6445cd2e974a5fe23169c3fff46777ff7cf0b5aa8c2d02a4704c4206376269dc.jpg Unfortunately as woke being reminded, Cox voted to bomb Syria, Airey Nieve, John Gow and Anthony Berry were all murdered by the IRA when they were MPs. All three had distinguished careers and lives and none covered up their spouse’s sexual assaults – not so happy Jo Cox day for the wokes

    1. Slight over-reaction.
      We currently import meat from Ireland which is still in the EU and also from NZ which uses halal slaughter methods.
      Maybe British farmers – or, more likely, their spokesmen – should be a little more proactive and less defeatist.

      2. Too right. Our farmers may produce very good products, but my recent experiences in trying to find a butcher that can present good meat properly has filled me with despair.

    1. When I was consulting for the manufacturing industry, Lewis, both at home and abroad, we had one tool we used called Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) to identify the risk and effect of something going wrong.

      I used to remember the abbreviation as Fu**ing Mucking Everyone About and that is more like the tool this woebegone government is using.

  43. Tom Slater
    The strange boycott of GB News
    15 June 2021, 9:23pm

    GB News, the UK’s first new news channel in decades, launched on Sunday night with a monologue from the estimable Andrew Neil, setting out the channel’s philosophy.

    ‘We will puncture the pomposity of our elites and politics, business, media and academia and expose their growing promotion of cancel culture for the threat to free speech and democracy that it is’, he said.

    Just 48 hours later and GB News’s detractors have already proven him right.

    Stop Funding Hate, a pearl-clutching campaign group that seeks to deprive news outlets it disagrees with of advertising revenue, has managed to get Ikea, Nivea, Kopparberg, Grolsch, Octopus Energy and the Open University to pull their ads, amid claims GB News is somehow fuelling hatred and division with its chatty, unwoke approach to current-affairs coverage.

    Stop Funding Hate – imagine if a Guardianista with a Twitter account ran Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association – has been urging its followers to complain to advertisers about the supposedly ‘hateful’ company they are unwittingly keeping. Six advertisers and counting have now suspended their ads, pending review, most saying they didn’t realise that their ads were appearing on the channel and that they wanted to ensure GBN’s content matched their values.

    What ‘values’ they seem to be worried about isn’t really clear. Anyone who has bothered to watch GB News’s output in its first couple of days would not have detected anything resembling ‘hate’ being broadcast from its west London studio. But in the fetid minds of SFH and its social-media supporters, apparently anyone to the right of Alan Rusbridger – or anyone who just thinks the whole ‘taking the knee’ business is a bit annoying – is some kind of deplorable fascist who shouldn’t be allowed to grace the nation’s television screens.

    ‘Brands are free to choose where they do & don’t advertise, and the public are free to speak out & seek to influence that choice’, Stop Funding Hate says, rather defensively if I may say so, over on Twitter. But we all know what this is about.

    This is about a campaign group trying to cajole big business into blacklisting media organisations it disagrees with. SFH has been on the warpath with GB News even before it started broadcasting. Call me a cynic, but I think this is about more than a professed, deep concern about balance in broadcasting.

    Regrettably, woke capital is a soft target for this kind of stuff. Businesses that don’t give a stuff about politics but pretend to do so for retweets and firms that seem to confuse Twitter argy-bargy for the public mood, are cowards and are all-too-willing to give in to those who shout the loudest online.

    Grolsch, after it suspended its ads with GB News, declared itself ‘a brand that prides itself on core values of inclusion and openness to all people’. Remember: this is a beer we’re talking about. And as is so often the case these days, such calls for inclusion are essentially exclusionary – they never seem to include those who just so happen to hold a different opinion to the great and good.

    GB News may have got off to a rocky start in its first few days. But whatever happens from here, the folks over there should feel more than a little vindicated. The unhinged backlash to it proves that this news channel, trying to bring something different to a conformist media and be a thorn in the side of the enforcers of cancel culture, is definitely on to something.

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

    Chris • 11 hours ago • edited
    Under a veneer of “inclusiveness”, these kind of things are often shakedown operations. The threat is never explicit – it doesn’t need to be: nice business you got there, it’d be a shame to see you trying to defend yourselves if some folks were to be energised on Twitter to go after you … oh, and did I mention we have sympathetic media contacts?
    Stop Funding Hate has 2 part-time employees, no office and 4 Board members (bits below include quotes from their website):
    Colin Baines is an Investment Engagement Manager at the Friends Provident Foundation and was previously an Ethics Adviser and Campaigns Manager at the Co-op Bank and Co-op Group. He has sat on government, business and university advisory groups.
    Rosey Ellum has worked in human rights for a number of years, in the UK and Latin America, specialising in digital communications and fundraising.
    Alexandra Parsons has worked in the voluntary sector since 2005 … she currently manages the Public Engagement Fund at Wellcome Trust [and] formerly worked for organisations including British Red Cross and Child Poverty Action Group. She also teaches gender and sexuality studies and literature at University College London.
    Richard Wilson previously worked in fundraising for Amnesty International UK and the Child Poverty Action Group, and has been involved in human rights campaigning since 2001.
    Make of all this what you will.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/shame-on-the-gb-news-boycotters

    3. The good news though, as someone pointed out here yesterday, is that at present the non woke outnumber the woke! We now have a list of companies that don’t deserve our custom, although in my case I already don’t shop at Ikea, would never drink Koppoutberg and don’t use Nivea!

      1. We use Nivea. We like their products. But now, well. other products are available. Unfortunately, this is asymmetrical warfare. The woke do not outnumber the normal people, but they are more vicious, and more active. The active woke do outnumber the viewers of GBNews. So if every GBNews viewer boycotted the products involved, the business would not notice.

        1. Paperchase nearly went bust after their hate campaign against the Daily Mail.

      2. Boycotted Greene King pubs and products since Spring 2020 when they gave money to BLM.
        I wrote to their publicity dept. and the CEO. No acknowledgement, let alone a reply.

    4. Now the much earlier comment about cancelling Octopus Energy makes sense. However, as someone who is too idle (and somewhat old) to think about university and is a tee-total non-Nivea user, there seems to be nothing I can cancel in protest.

      1. Only last week I was looking at quotes from Octopus Energy, as Scottish Power are threatening me with a smart meter.

    6. Good Morning and where’s the damn napalm? I have an account with the co-op Bank and have had for 49 years*. Their top website page boasts of how ethical they are. Is employing blackmailers ethical?

      *SCWS Bankers. -that’s a story in itself.

  44. I am bewildered. To have a wedding one has to comply with minutely details requirements including a six page risk assessment – with £10,000 penalties for a slip up.

    But many thousands of people can go to a race meeting or a wendyball match.

    Logic, anyone?

    1. Morning Bill
      So true , and even a G7 meeting in Cornwall and thousands on holiday resort beaches and quayside pubs!

      Nothing makes any sense anymore .

    2. Marriage is so passée.
      It is one of the institutions that the left wish to eradicate in the Christian West, because it has the tendency to lead to normal, heterosexual families.

        1. True, but I’m afraid that I regard same sex marriages as another way of eradicating the institution.

    3. Call it a spousal or a coupling………I’m sure a smart lawyer will get round
      the trivial facts…..

    4. Cant have the players being turfed out of their mansions if the money doesn’t flow in.

    5. FYI in case you failed to examine the wimmin’s pages

      These laughable wedding rules will be roundly ignored

      I won’t be the only bride who looked at the phrase “advised against” and saw a loophole simply begging to be exploited

      OLIVIA UTLEY
      15 June 2021 • 3:35pm
      *
      *
      U-turns not permitting, I’ll be attending my first wedding of the season on July 17. I promise I’ll give your little rule book a glance, Boris, but I have a nasty feeling that a few Proseccos down, the finer details may start to look a bit blurry…

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/laughable-wedding-rules-will-roundly-ignored/

      1. ‘Prosecco?” Foreign stuff? Worse still, EU stuff.
        What’s wrong with sparkling Chapeldown Bacchus?”

    6. It’s nothing to do with logic. It’s all about control. Eric Blair knew this decades ago.

    7. Freedom’s an illusion.

      Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

      I remember the Monty Python sketch in which all the cast were dressed up as char women who were having a discussion of existentialist philosophy. The question that came up was: Are we free? The chars rushed off and crowded into to a public phone box and dialled an international number. They got through to the right number and the phone was answered by Mrs Jean-Paul Sartre. “Is Jean-Paul free?” they asked. “I’ll just go and check,” replied Mrs J-P Sartre. She returned to the phone a couple of minutes later and said: “He’s been trying to answer that question for the last 40 years.”.

      There was a young man who said “Damn!
      I perceive with regret that I am
      But a creature that moves
      In predestinate grooves
      I’m not even a bus, I’m a tram.

    8. Even with the restricted numbers at a wedding, there is to be no dancing or singing. Beggars belief. Now there is a suggestion that masks will be required forever too.

      2. Walked into town this morning, visited a supermarket, greengrocers, Boots opticians, Boots the chemist and a local hardware store all without a mask. I was the only person without a mask in all those places. I have kept my part of the bargain although I know masks are worse than useless, but no more.
        I’m done, perhaps Doctors Surgery, Hospital visits and the Dentist will be the exception, and then only to avoid adding any stress to others in such places, they will probably have enough to worry about without me adding to it.
        The other sheep in the town needs to wake up.

        1. #I’mdone – meeting friends for lunch today and taking my “mask exempt” badge in my pocket in case I’m challenged.

  47. The Carbon Battle Bus is on a tour of the UK and this week travelled from

    London to Cornwall but was unable to complete its tour after finding the charging points did not work.

    They came to Cornwall to tie in with the G7 summit in Carbis Bay where world leaders have been discussing climate change and the need to reach targets for zero carbon.

    Planet Mark, the organisers of the Zero Carbon Tour, successfully travelled from London to the Eden Project, a distance of 263 miles with one recharge, in the electrically powered Yutong coach.

    However, in order to make the return leg over the Tamar and through the South West of England the coach needs a recharge.

    But the five charging points that they attempted to use in Cornwall were unable to charge the bus.

    Planet Mark said that this showed why there was a need for more investment to be made in infrastructure to help meet zero carbon targets.

    Cornish Stuff Homepage

    The coach has around 60-70 miles of charge left. Steve Malkin, founder and CEO of Planet Mark, said: “The Carbon Battle Bus has the range and capability to easily make this journey, but the poor state of the UK charging infrastructure means that we only found one charger serviceable on our route from London to Cornwall.”

    “When Boris Johnson addressed the G7 , he called on leaders of the advanced economies to “make bigger commitments on… low carbon vehicles…”. To do this he must help bring together central and local government with businesses to connect policy, investment and roll out of zero carbon technologies, like EV charging, and nature-based solutions.

    https://cornishstuff.com/2021/06/14/electric-coach-stranded-in-cornwall/?fbclid=IwAR0Ae0qbP_moLmhGOSOGUWzMgeLMmTZPrGYdAZurxC7ss-py-grmXJrCvIk

    1. Morning, Maggie.
      ” … electrically powered Yutong coach …”
      H’mmm – any guesses as to the country where it was manufactured?
      Obviously Goons bought it.

    2. Imagine you have an electric car with a range of 200 miles and you need to make a round trip of 150 miles. No problem – you have a good enough range for the journey. However on the return it is dark, it is cold, it is raining.

      In order to save battery power you don’t use the windscreen wipers and you turn off the heater which demists the windows and dim the lights and turn off the hi-fi.

      You can’t see the road clearly; you are cold and miserable; you have an accident.

      I wonder if there will be many accidents caused in this way?

      1. Only the carbon-based small children in Congo and elsewhere that mine the rare earths to make the batteries in China, dying in the process.
        But hey, those little black lives don’t appear to matter.

  48. First wolf pups seen in Colorado since 1940s.

    A litter of grey wolf pups has been seen in the American state of Colorado for the first time in 80 years.

    Wolves were finally hunted to extinction in the state in the 1940s. However, two adults, known as John and Jane, were reintroduced in the past two years and appear to have had at least three pups. Voters in Colorado had backed a plan to restore grey wolves in a referendum and Governor Jared Polis said: “We welcome this historic den and the new wolf family.”

    Thank goodness the reporter had the common sense to use the correct term, ‘pups’. Wolves — and foxes — are dogs and, therefore, have pups. No one goes to a breeder of poodles and asks for a poodle ‘cub’!

    1. Good morning, my friend

      My prep school misled me when I had to join the junior section of Baden Powell’s organisation. They told me I was a cub when in fact, as you observed, I was merely a young puppy.

      1. I’m guessing that Robert Baden-Powell’s education was sorely lacking in some respects.

    2. Good morning, my friend

      My prep school misled me when I had to join the junior section of Baden Powell’s organisation. They told me I was a cub when in fact, as you observed, I was merely a young puppy.

    1. Why didn’t they just grab the mobile phones off the nauseous, vacuum-headed, Pinko cows and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine?

      1. given the Police would have been informed in advance [aka counter terrorism], where were the police? I presume Cressida Dick’s uniformed wokes were busy skateboarding

          1. woke “yoof” promoting it as part of their “Refugee Week” / Jo Cox day, so it gets the automatic pushback [no knee taking, well not via smart phones]

  50. Refugee Week! UK Celebrates Taking in More Refugees as Migrant Crisis Rages
    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/06/GettyImages-1186005801-640×480.jpeg

    Britain’s Home Office has announced that this week is “Refugee Week” which aims to celebrate the “contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary”, while the migrant crisis continues to rage.

    Rather than spending time to solve the migrant crisis in the English Channel, Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched a week of celebrations for refugees in the UK.

    The Home Secretary said: “This week casts a spotlight on all those who have enriched our communities since arriving in the UK looking to rebuild their lives.
    *
    *
    https://pbs.twimg.com/card_img/1402614500713447428/77tHoV12?format=jpg&name=small

      1. Yes, We are also paying handsomely for it Every single refugee, every single economic migrant, commits the UK taxpayer to a cost of £300,000 per head per lifetime*, and if they have families that is then in perpetuity. On an annual basis we are now accepting=g around 30,000 asylum seekers etc.
        We have in the last thirty years allowed in in the asylum/refugee etc category about 900,000 people excluding dependents. That’s a cost of around 900,000 x £10,000..
        https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/migration-statistics-how-many-asylum-seekers-and-refugees-are-there-in-the-uk/

        *Assuming a lifespan of 30 years

    3. “This week is Refugee Week – a UK-wide festival celebrating the
      contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking
      sanctuary”.

      A festival that the people of the U.K will neither be attending nor celebrating.

    5. Who knew ? What a useless bunch of morons we voted in to government at the last election. I’m never voting again. There is a whole list of most of the important things, actions taken they have never carried out. Managed anything properly, taken charge or control of obvious problems, planned any given direction, taken responsibility, no guidance, organization administered, nothing properly supervised. And will never admit their inherent faults and glaring errors and so it goes on and on and on………..

  51. Good morning all.

    US President Joe Biden and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin are preparing sit down for their first, highly-anticipated summit.

    The talks in Geneva, Switzerland, come at a time when both sides describe relations as being at rock bottom.

    Never mind chaps, this Swiss Anthem will cheer you both …. great music never fails.

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

    1. imagine the “shock and awe” to Western MSM of VVP visiting a Care Home to visit a demented old kiddy fiddler to display geo political detente

  52. This piece of Steerpike gossip is less than shattering…but a good observation BTL:

    Steerpike
    Supreme Court justice’s £104 bill for 1.4 mile taxi

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

    kowloonbhoy • 2 hours ago
    The Supreme Court were offered the open goal of creating a Republic by the back door.. and they took their chance with aplomb. Effectively, they placed themselves above Parliament and The Head of State.. for only they can decide when to prorogue a parliament in session.

    Unless they are abolished they will reappear when it matters.. probably during a constitutional crisis involving the NI protocol or Scotland’s next referendum. Which way will they lean? Well, they gave the game away on 24 September 2019 when each and every one of the eleven justices obeyed their orders received directly from Brussels.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/supreme-court-justice-claims-104-for-1-4-mile-taxi

  53. The Sumptions shall sound:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/britain-still-paying-price-original-sin-locking/

    Britain is still paying the price for the original sin of locking down

    It was clear to anybody that the ‘three week’ lockdown started by Boris Johnson would last much longer

    Jonathan Sumption15 June 2021 • 9:30pm

    “One last heave”. Where have we heard that before? Was it in March last year, when the lockdown was imposed for at least “three weeks”, just to flatten the peak for the sake of the NHS? Or seven weeks later in May when the risk to the NHS had passed, but we were told that a supreme collective effort was needed to “crush” the virus once and for all? Or in January this year when we heard that the “end is in sight” and “one last push” would do the trick?

    “Do not wreck this – we are so close,” said the deputy chief medical officer, Professor Van Tam, in February; “hang on just a few more months.” Two months later, in April, the irrepressible Van Tam calls for patience for “just a teeny bit longer”. Then on Monday, the Prime Minister extends the restrictions for four weeks (“just a little longer”). Except that it is not four weeks but 69 weeks. The Government does not get an automatic reset every time it opens its mouth.

    I remind you of these things not to mock the Government’s lack of foresight, but to question whether it has ever been straight with us. Suppose that back in March 2020 the Prime Minister had said that he would micro-manage our lives by law, not for at least three weeks but for at least 17 months. Would the British people would have submitted as meekly as they did? I doubt it.

    Is it fair to blame the Prime Minister for failing to anticipate how long this crisis would last? Yes, it is. Sage and Professor Ferguson’s number-crunchers repeatedly told him what would happen in one of their few predictions that turned out to be right. For the lockdown to work, they said, it would have to be kept in place until people had been vaccinated in, say, eighteen months time. Otherwise the virus would just bounce straight back when the lockdown was lifted, possibly even worse than before.

    There were only ever two rational choices. One was a total lockdown until all vulnerable groups had been vaccinated, which would have been politically impossible if the Government had been upfront about it. The other was a voluntary system under which people were allowed to take responsibility for their own risk assessments. Anything else just prolongs the agony.

    The justification for the latest extension is threadbare. Hospitalisations are low (about 1 per cent of beds). The Chief Medical Officer admits this but says that if you double them often enough, the numbers will be high. So they will, but on that argument even one infection would be too much.

    And why should you keep doubling them? We are not told. The latest figures from Public Health England suggest that the vaccines are 92 to 94 per cent effective in preventing hospitalisation for the Indian variant after both doses and not much less after one dose. Thirty million people have now received their second dose. Everyone in the vulnerable groups that account for almost all deaths and most hospitalisations, has been offered it. For the non-vulnerable groups, the Zoe symptom app run by Professor Spector of King’s College London, suggests that the symptoms of the Indian variant are milder than the earlier variants – no worse than a bad cold. If this is not good enough for the health fascists, what will ever be?

    The Prime Minister has said that prolonging the existing restrictions for four weeks will “save many thousands of lives”. This statement does not seem to have been endorsed by the CMO, and it just does not stack up. It is reminiscent of the notorious 4,000 deaths a day peddled and then hastily withdrawn last October. I do not believe a word of it. I do not suppose that the Prime Minister would believe it either if he bothered to study the detail.

    Three things have gone wrong.

    First, the government is excessively risk averse. It accepts that Covid is here to stay, but refuses to accept the implications of that. The risk of illness is part of life. Covid is now part of life. It cannot be suppressed without suppressing life itself. Viruses mutate all the time. As Oxford’s Professor John Bell has observed, if we bolt down a rabbit hole every time it happens, we are going to spend a very long time underground.

    The second thing that has gone wrong dates right back to the original lockdown decision of March 2020. It is the Government’s abiding contempt for its citizens. It does not trust them to take sensible precautions and so resorts to coercion. The logic of coercion is that every one must be treated the same. It makes life easier for the police.

    Yet people are not the same. Different groups face radically different levels of risk, depending on whether they have been vaccinated, whether they have certain clinical vulnerabilities, whether they are old, and whether they live in a hot spot like the north-east. The only efficient risk assessments are those made by the people involved, i.e. us. With each week that passes this anomaly becomes more glaring.

    Thirdly, there is the tunnel vision which treats public health as the only relevant consideration. The Government’s four tests for emerging from this Hell are all clinical. They attach no weight to our jobs, our mental wellbeing, our culture, our emotional relationships or any other aspect of our lives as social beings.

    I recently went to a performance of Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier, a story of love in the face of convention and adversity set to Strauss’s most sublime music. Government protocols decreed that social distancing required a reduced orchestra, a financially unviable reduction in the audience, and a two meter distance between the lovers at all times. Here then was one of the highest achievements of the human spirit, and all that these miserable wretches can think about is the droplets emerging from the musicians’ mouths.

    Opera is not everyone’s thing, but I would make the same point about live sport, pop festivals, theatres, night clubs, and everything else that brings joy into people’s lives. How low have we fallen, when we treat a minimal risk of death as an excuse to empty life of much of its value?

    Lord Sumption is a historian and sat on the UK’s Supreme Court from 2012 to 2018

    1. We’ve been watching the “Cardiff Singer of the World” heats on telly this week – so far we’ve seen & heard some wonderful singers – all singing their hearts out in an empty hall – the only audience to clap their performances being the orchestra and the technicians.

      It’s so unnatural – opera is meant to be heard in a packed auditorium – the posting last night of Dmitri Horostovski reminded me of the time we were there in that hall in 1989, when he won that competition – and the atmosphere was electric – it was unforgettable.

      1. We are also watching this (in the absence of mindlessly violent shoot-em-up films, you understand) and one feels a great del of sympathy for the singers. I imagine that most singers would be quite keyed up performing in front of an audience in the normal way of things, but performing to what is pretty much a blank black wall must be unnerving in different way.

        1. I believe the prformance would be different. You get energy and adrenaline from a crowd as opposed to nobody or one or two in an audience, and will up your game.

    2. 334408+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      Britain IMO is paying the price for the right result on the 24/6/2016.

    3. “If this is not good enough for the health fascists…”

      Leave the F-word for the likes of Paul Mason. Debate is devalued by the overuse of ‘bigot’, ‘fascist’, ‘N@zi’ etc.

      “…a hot spot like the north-east.”

      North-west, surely?

    1. Sod it! i got jabbed for nothing then – no jab – no travel – but we can’t travel anyway! #I’mDone.

      1. I think the story is not about the vaccine but about an anti-covid treatment for those who have the disease.

          1. To be honest, neither did I… but I thought they were admitting what we all have come to realise about these so-called vaccines.

          2. I’m not that bothered as to whether they are effective or not – as I didn’t particularly fear catching a bug that kills less than one % of its victims, and mostly the old & frail or the obese.

          3. I’m not that bothered as to whether they are effective or not – as I didn’t particularly fear catching a bug that kills less than one % of its victims, and mostly the old & frail or the obese.

          4. Using my schoolboy French, I only read the headline. The bit about a treatment, not the vaccine is :- “le traitement contre le coronavirus qu’il développe actuellement n’a pas prouvé son efficacité sur les personnes exposées au virus.”

          5. Doesn’t that mean the vaccine? I presumed they were talking about jabbed people, subsequently catching it.

      2. Yup. We took one – or rather two – for the team to give our grandchildren something resembling a normal youth with the sort of freedom we enjoyed. We’ll not be bothering again.

    3. It suggested further reading: “Covid-19 : un traitement par suppositoires testé par l’Institut Pasteur de Lille”
      Think I’ll leave that one to our nurses.

  55. 334408+ up ticks,

    Hey politico’s,
    Leave our kids alone,
    🎵
    don’t need no arms around me
    And I don’t need no drugs to calm me
    I have seen the writing on the wall
    Don’t think I need anything at all
    No, don’t think I’ll need anything at all
    Especially another treachery brick in the wall.

    The battle over vaccinating children has only just begun

  58. Another success for the “world-beating” NHS.

    I want an “official” document showing that I have been vaccinated against covid. To get this, I must use the NHS login. And MUST have a smart phone.

    Nowhere on their voluminous websites do they actually give you a form to fill in so that one can apply for a login. I don’t have a smart phone. Thus I cannot get the bit of paper which I’ll need in order to convince some French bloke that I have been jabbed. The ticket I received from the GP doesn’t count – of course. Nor does a print out from my GP surgery NHS record.

    Anyone would think that the PTB don’t want me to travel….. Kafka had nothing on these guys.

        2. Boris’ weight doesn’t bother me. It is his life.

          If I were to become emperor, as a fat bloke would good people point at me and say ‘God he’s fat’ even if I cut income tax to 15% (and scrap all the others)? Will that be all I am? Just fat?

          What we look like is so hilariously irrelevant that being judged on it seems almost farcical.

      3. What Europe stands for? No. What the EU stands for? Authoritarianism, control, incompetence, corruption, greed, yes.

    2. PS – The only form I COULD download was one where I had to explain how my “product” would benefit the NHS….!!

    3. How about forgetting your vaccination, and travelling with only the printouts from your negative covid tests?
      You could bypass the whole vaxx-passport thing on the NHS site then.

      I just exited and entered the UK without a smartphone, with only paper printouts of the covid PCR test and the government forms.

      2. But if not vaccinated – one needs to self-isolate for a week – half the holiday!

        1. That is your punishment for not being a compliant citizen and carrying a personal tracking device for the uploading of your digital id….

    4. How about forgetting your vaccination, and travelling with only the printouts from your negative covid tests?
      You could bypass the whole vaxx-passport thing on the NHS site then.

      I just exited and entered the UK without a smartphone, with only paper printouts of the covid PCR test and the government forms.

      1. That’s what I received from the GP. It is not “official” and furrin border people wouldn’t accept it. Furriners like things with “Offical” written on and rubber stamps – and “ausweis”….

  59. Just another day in the war. Lifesite News is an an orthodox Christian anti abortion organisation.

    “In a joint statement, Media Matters for America and LGBT powerhouses such as GLAAD, the Human Rights Campaign, and NARAL Pro-Choice America said in part:
    It took pressure to get Facebook to remove LifeSiteNews’ page, including calling attention to the flagrant COVID-19 and vaccine disinformation on LifeSiteNews’ page, compiling more than 100 posts that proved LifeSiteNews’ repeated violation of Facebook’s related policies, and outreach from GLAAD, Human Rights Campaign, NARAL, and Media Matters to get Facebook to finally act.”

    1. I may be odd, but my stance on all these things is to give people the information and let them make up their own mind.

      As long as nothing is directly harmful or intentionally cruel, it is up to the individual to be responsible for their own lives.

      1. That is a perfectly reasonable approach. However the information is being censored. Those who would publish information are being denied access to the social media. I realise that the owners of the social media platforms can refuse access to whomsoever they choose, yet where else is there? We Nottlers use a platform that could be whipped from under us by the owners.

        1. Yes, that’s the fundamental problem.

          Right or wrong, agree with or disagree with, without all the info you cannot make a rational decision. Government does this a lot to force an agenda.

  60. I have a feeling that Johnson has jumped the shark, so now might be a good time to write to your ‘Conservative’ MP. I doubt the weekend’s Fȇte Champȇtre in Carbis Bay will have helped matters.
    After the better part of a year’s silence (to his relief?) I will send a short, concise letter – NOT an email – to my MP. I will send it to his home address and send a copy to his Westminster office.
    I suspect after this past week’s fiasco, and the positively embarrassing performance on Monday by the Three Shifty Stooges, many Conservative MPs could be harbouring doubts.

      1. I’ve been following his parliamentary replies on “They Work For You”, Bill, so I can well imagine what he will say to Annie: “I am unable to reply to your letter because to do so would incur disproportionate cost”!

    4. Boris Johnson only won the election because of his promise to: Get Brexit Done

      He has clearly failed to achieve an even remotely satisfactory Brexit deal and his lurch into wokeness and uxoriousness has made him contemptible to even his past supporters. He must go – but who will replace him? Rees Mogg and Baker have shown that they have feet of clay – but is there anybody else?

  61. Cressida Dick and the ‘institutional corruption’ of the Met police. 16 June 2021.

    So when in 2013 Theresa May, then Home Secretary, announced the establishment of the independent panel, the force promised to cooperate. Yet its promise was soon shown to be empty. Instead of receiving the assistance it expected, and that Mr Morgan’s family deserved, the panel found itself obstructed at every turn. For seven years the Met denied the panel access to evidence, and in particular to the vital ‘HOLMES’ computer system. The officer primarily responsible for what the panel regarded as disreputable delaying tactics was assistant commissioner Cressida Dick. She was in due course appointed commissioner. If the panel’s assessment of her behaviour is correct, she is unfit to be a police constable.

    They have just discovered this? Her very appointment was a sop to the Cultural Marxist feminists!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/cressida-dick-and-the-institutional-corruption-of-the-met-police

  62. I took the warqueen to my boxercise class yesterday as I’m fond of our plasterboard walls.

    She gets paired up with this other woman and are both happily going at it some. Then we do this chain thingy where you move along to the next person and comes up against my chum Daniel, who I normally pair with. Dan is 6’5 and 18′ wide at the shoulder and she hammers the bloke, right cross, upper cut, hooks, poor fellow takes it all.

    I’ve no idea what to say… I was next and got another barrage.

    Warqueen moves down the line. Dan leans down. He says ‘Bluddy ‘ell mate.’

      1. No, Ndovu, it’s a planet of which Ming The Merciless is the Supreme Leader.

        :-))

        1. I like that!

          Although he’s named after the bruiser from Blazing Saddles. ‘Mongo like Candy!’

      2. Mongo’s a Newfoundland. Supposed to not like heat, but is sprawled outside at the mo. I’ve put his hat over his head but he keeps bally moving.

  63. Daily Human Stupidity.

    “Stupidity cannot be cured. Stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death. There is no appeal, and execution is carried out automatically and without pity.”

    Robert Heinlein.

    2. How do you differentiate intelligence from a lack of knowledge?

      A lot of intelligent people are also malicious, using their abilities to hurt others.

      1. I’m discussing neither intelligence nor lack of knowledge. Humans may display varying degrees of intelligence levels and/or paucity of training or lack of knowledge. Those are outside my remit.

        All I am doing is showing that stupidity is endemic and ingrained within the species and it affects the clever just as much as the not-so-clever; the learned just as much as the unschooled. Stupidity is everywhere in humanity. The fact that the species has tripled its numbers within my lifetime, displacing countless other necessary organisms vital to biodiversity (not to mention necessary for human wellbeing) shows us to be the stupidest organism that ever evolved.

        That crass level of stupidity will wipe us out within the next few generations.

    1. Makes our government, the MSM and NHS responsible for many deaths due to their absolutism that ‘Trump was bad’.

    2. Ah, that was a different hydro peroxide trouser press’ chemical, so no, Trump was not right.

      Trump can never be right. He said grass was green and we dispute that as it isn’t. We looked outside. Into the carpark. Trump cannot be right.

  65. Yesterday I replied to Clydesider:

    ‘Women should remain in the kitchen or the bedroom…’
    Received 2 upticks both from women Nottlers.

    ………Men WTF are you?

    5. Still digging the trench, earthwork and splitting the wood for stakes. The concrete arrives tomorrow for the rampart.

  66. OT – the MR is having a day out with one of her oldest chums. Looking at hideous outdoor “sculpture” near Dunwich. Infuriating – I’ll have to make my own lunch!! Still she deserves a day away from me.

    Gus and Pickles are absolutely BAFFLED by her absence. They are wandering all over the house and garden, mewing piteously. So I have decided to give them a good kick and to tell them to grow up…!!

    3. And if that doesn’t learn ’em, Bill, get really nasty with them and call them Silly Sausages!

      :-))

  67. Joe Biden goes on incoherent ramble after becoming confused during EU summit. 16 June 2021.

    The US President attended a summit in Brussels on Tuesday, where he discussed ending a trade dispute between the bloc and the US, as well as the security threats posed by Russia. During an open session for the media, Mr Biden addressed his European partners but suddenly seemed to lose his way and started rambling incoherently. Realising he had forgotten to thank his top aides, he said: “And uh, I’ve said before and I apologize for the – Oh, I didn’t Jake Sullivan from the State Department.

    “I’m leaving out a lot of people here I apologize. I’m going to get in trouble.”

    Mr Biden’s discomfort continued as he struggled to get back on track.

    “But, anyway, we’ll get back to that,” he continued

    “But we, you know.. there’s a lot that, that is — It’s happening. I used to always…”

    The Free World is no longer Free and it’s leaders are either Corrupt. Perverts. Or Senile, and in this particular case all three! In some ways we should be thankfull that the MSM don’t report the Truth! You will not see this on the BBC!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1450376/joe-biden-us-president-becomes-confused-eu-summit-brussels-vladimir-putin-ont

    1. I’ve just seen that at the conclusion there will be “an unsigned joint document”..whatever one of those might be.
      What’s the point?

      1. They are on the edge Elsie. They’ve broken the rules a couple of times!

    1. We’ve seen some of these pesky little blighters running around in our garden this year.
      And some thing small ate all of my gooseberries again.

    2. They are in the infrastructure of our block. I have killed dozens of them this year.

    7. Ah a field mouse.? Better than the poxy grey squirrels that infest our gardens.

  69. Former US diplomat Victoria Nuland, best known for distributing cookies to protesters during the US-backed 2014 Maidan coup in Ukraine, has found out she was on a visa blacklist as she sought to enter Russia.
    The former US ambassador to NATO and assistant secretary of state for Eurasia is best known for supporting the coup that ousted the government in Kiev, and dismissing the concerns of Washington’s European allies about meddling in Ukraine (“F*** the EU”) in the same conversation she mentioned bringing then-VP Joe Biden to “midwife this thing.”
    She has been an outspoken advocate of anti-Russian sanctions since 2014, and just last month openly expressed doubt in Russia’s commitment to the idea of improving relations with the US, calling on Washington to “steel itself” for a “very long game that outlasts” the Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rule.

    This month she sought to take part in a closed-door conference organized by the Russian and the German councils on foreign relations.

    But the former State Department official found herself on a blacklist compiled by Russia in response to the personal sanctions imposed against Russian officials by Washington.

        1. you seen this? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/25ed9253cebc622c7ceffea0c718be3da6a3204a38cbf2fedb56280a765c1275.jpg a few in UN Gigiri HQ here had these badges on at weekend [1 UK staff and 3 from Europe]. Until it was explained to passing Kenyans what it meant. Europeans left rapidly, Engish guy tried to waffle his way out of it, but too many other English around who knew the gig ripped him to shreds. Word’s gone to Kenyans with links to high end in Govt – “Candidate for persona non grata”. Expect he’ll get retrenched, in UN jargon, promoted to another UN enclave to stare at his navel button claiming he’s saving the planet

        1. I get your point v clear!

          I’ve sent official docs / links as factual evidence to those within family since Jan 2020, who refuse to believe it. Every time we communicate [bi-weekly] they’re reminded every time and the clock’s ticking. I do ask for factual evidence to refute everything, and told “here’s the Govt info”. Usual response, get your head out of your arse, open your eyes and mind.

          None in family knew about Freedom protest marches. The usual silence follows when sending them videos and pics with the usual “signing off” that “I must be either a conspiracy theorist or imagining there a lots of people protesting.” The silence that follows is deafening

    2. Much of the metaphor would have been lost on the non-English speaking.

      References to street-sweeping would have baffled the Africans.

  71. I am watching GBNews .. and I have to say , some of the topics covered are similar to the discussions on here .

    Sounds as if it is Nottler TV.. What do any of you think?

      1. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman), Bob3, that Andrew Neil and Co. now discuss – amongst other items – Gus & Pickles, and my rhubarb crumble?

        :-))

      2. Not really, but I am wondering whether someone has taken a look at us on here , and made notes , because we used to wonder about coincidences , didn’t we, so keep going and make sure Nottler voices are heard .

      1. Get a VPN (Virtual Personal Network) and you’ll be able to watch all UK TV content on your computer. That’s what I do here in Sweden.

    4. Afternoon Belle. There are no subtitles and since my hearing is deteriorating there’s no point my watching!

      2. That is a total off-put for me, too. If I could be arsed, I’ll mail them and ask why they are blanking out a good section of potential viewers.

        1. Thanks for that Belle. I’ve just tried to email them and that failed as well!

        2. I’ve just watched some GB News.

          Ho hum, it was like watching news on any other channel. A tedious and boring waste of my time. I have a life and I’m buggered if I’m going to squander it watching television news.

  72. It takes one to know one, Bonjo. If he was so useless, why didn’t you sack him when you said that 15 MONTHS AGO?

    Boris Johnson called Matt Hancock “totally f—— hopeless” in a WhatsApp message to Dominic Cummings, screengrabs released by the former aide have suggested.

    In a blog post exceeding 7,000 words, intended to provide the long-awaited evidence to back up his testimony to MPs, Mr Cummings revealed a series of explicit messages apparently from the Prime Minister damning his Health Secretary.

    In response to one message from the ex-chief of staff on 27 March last year, saying DHSC had turned down ventilators at this critical point because prices had been marked up, a contact appearing to be Mr Johnson replied: ‘It’s Hancock. He has been hopeless.”

    In another, responding to criticism of Mr Hancock’s work building the UK’s testing capacity, he said: “Totally f—– hopeless”.

    A third message called the situation regarding PPE “a disaster” and said: “I can’t think of anything except taking Hancock off and putting Gove on.”

    Mr Cummings, who left Downing Street in November during a bitter power struggle in No 10, has targeted much of his criticism since leaving at the Health Secretary.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/16/lockdown-roadmap-news-vote-boris-johnson-brexit-eu-australia
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-57498845

  73. It doesn’t matter what you say, Prime Minister – June 21 will still be our Freedom Day

    All sensible nations accept that full vaccination works. Why must our country be the hysterical outlier?

    ALLISON PEARSON

    I promised my friend Catherine that I would walk naked down Whitehall with a flamethrower if her wedding had to be postponed again. I know, I know. Haven’t the British people suffered enough? But things have reached a point where the reluctance of the unelected junta of scientists and modellers to restore our precious liberties seems to call for a little light civil disobedience. If your columnist has to channel Lady Godiva and Arnie’s Terminator on June 21 (it will always be Freedom Day to me), well, you will bring me a lemon drizzle cake when I’m banged up in Holloway, won’t you?

    My fretful bride-to-be friend adores Boris and has been counting on him to make sure her big day would actually happen on July 10. “It’s torture. I don’t know what he’s playing at,” Catherine sighed.

    That makes 50 million of us, darling. Judging by the anxious, err-ing (so many errs for such a fluent man) state of the Prime Minister at Monday’s media briefing, it’s not clear he knows what he’s playing at either. Whatever the game is, he’s doing a good job of looking miserable about it. Having said, quite correctly, over the past fortnight that there was “nothing in the data that leads me to believe we can’t keep to our roadmap”, the PM put his foot on the brake, swerved into a layby and all of his passengers staggered out of the car and threw up their barley sugars onto the verge.

    We are so sick of this. Having confirmed that the “cautious but irreversible” return to normal life was off, Boris then failed to explain how a world-beating vaccine rollout, currently protecting almost everyone who might succumb to Covid, could be outrun by the virus – so restrictions must stay until July 19 to avoid potentially tens of thousands of deaths.

    Really? Where are we going to find fatalities of that magnitude, Prime Minister?

    Certainly not in English hospitals, where Covid occupies a mere one per cent of beds and only younger age groups are seeing small increases in the number of inpatients. Meanwhile, admissions of patients in the three oldest categories are far below their October 2020 levels, proving, beyond reasonable doubt, that the jabs are working. And death shall have no dominion.

    “Rejoice!” as a great prime minister once urged. Ah, but she wasn’t frit, was she? I have never missed Margaret Thatcher more in my life. Imagine the withering appraisal of her successors who somehow manage to be both draconian and timid. You just know Mrs T would have told Sage to get stuffed.

    This past week, I even found myself in the previously unimaginable position of wishing Theresa May were still at No 10. Mrs May gave an Exocet of a speech in the Commons in which she told MPs that coronavirus would never be eradicated from the UK, and it was “incomprehensible” that “one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world is the most reluctant to give its citizens the freedoms those vaccinations should support”. You tell ’em, madam!

    I have no doubt that both women leaders would have cast a beady eye over the current hospital figures and realised they are below even the most optimistic scenarios presented to the Government by Sage back in February when the roadmap was drawn up. The British people have done our bit and met the criteria. No wonder the Brothers Grim, Whitty and Vallance, looked ill at ease as they attempted to pass off hugely encouraging charts as looming calamity. Because the physical Covid numbers are now so low, they resorted to percentages instead. Hospital admissions had increased “by 50 per cent in a week”, warned the Chief Medical Officer.

    A 50 per cent increase in Covid patients sounds really bad, doesn’t it? Well, it isn’t. NHS England reported 137 Covid admissions on June 12. If you compare that to the number of admissions reported seven days previously, on June 5, it was 96. So, in one week, the number of Covid admissions did rise – but not to a vast figure, given England’s entire population of 56 million.

    When Sage presented the PM with the data to persuade him to delay Freedom Day for another month, do you reckon they mentioned that? Or that the discharges from hospital of Covid patients over the same period outweighed the admissions?

    I have my suspicions. I hear there is growing disquiet within NHS England itself at the way Whitty and Vallance deployed the numbers to delay reopening. “They’ve pushed it too far this time,” says a source. “Everyone thinks it’s gone far enough, even people who were obeying all the rules previously.”

    Amid Monday’s farrago of manipulation and spin, the keen-eyed among you will have spotted that, unusually, the Brothers Grim chose not to scare the pants off us with a “deaths” graph. Why, if they showed the plummeting fatalities, people might start getting the idea that this virus should now be very far down the list of threats to public health.

    Ah, but what about all those cases? The UK is testing nearly one million healthy people every single day, yet stubbornly few of the positive cases they find are translating into serious illness.

    None of it makes sense. None of it. In one breath, Boris says we “must learn to live with Covid”, in the next he takes away our ability to even try. Whatever the opinion polls may say, this feels like a bad misjudgement of the public mood. Even the Nervous Nellies and Cautious Colins I know realise that we have to stop disinfecting the sweetcorn and just crack on with it.

    We Double Jabbers would now like to enjoy the same benefits our status would bestow in France, Germany and Switzerland, where proof of two doses gives you unlimited travel without quarantine. Denmark throws off its masks this week. All sensible nations accept that full vaccination works. Why must our country be the hysterical outlier led by theoretical oddballs who seize on each new scariant with barely disguised enthusiasm and think they can tell the public fibs for our own good?

    Once the over-70s are vaccinated! Fifteen million jabs to freedom! Once the over-50s are vaccinated! Once you’ve had your booster! Once your guinea pig has been jabbed! Once every one in Ulan Bator is vaccinated! Twice! July 19 is definitely the terminus! I don’t believe a word they say any more. Who does?

    Those pictures of world leaders schmoozing at a beach BBQ in Carbis Bay tipped many of us over the edge. It was the gilded insouciance. Rules are for the little people. Like the school leavers who today are mourning their cancelled Prom. The students whose graduation ceremony will be online. The backslapping bonhomie we witnessed indicated they knew they were safe. And so are we.

    The good news is my friend Catherine’s wedding can go ahead, so I don’t have to strip off and buy a flamethrower (although if I hear one more Radio 4 interview with Professor Ferguson…). Boris wisely removed the 30-person cap, perhaps realising that being mobbed by 50,000 furious women in bead-embellished lace with silk organza underskirts might be less fun than it sounds.

    “Rules on singing and dancing remain,” snaps the revised guidance from Sage. But who now cares what they say?

    There will be so much singing and dancing and laughter at the wedding. Let them try and cancel joy if they like: June 21 is our Freedom Day.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/06/15/doesnt-matter-say-prime-minister-june-21-will-still-freedom

    1. I suspect that after the police farce stood by and watched as more than one thousand muslim mourners were attending a funeral only a few days ago, i expect Boris found him self in a bit of a predicament.

    2. There’s an interesting article in the Telegaffe today about the brothers Grim and the way they present data to give entirely the wrong impression – sadly I can’t access it online, but it’s basic data manipulation 101 – aka lies!

    1. Brexit was only allowed to happen because the scamdemic was in the pipeline. The EU was a useful way of controlling European nations, but the technocrats don’t need it long term. When they have enough control, they’ll ditch the EU, and the poor saps who vote out will think they’re getting freedom.

      1. agree re Brexit and scamdemic. Conversely and completing the circle, and I agree totally it was established as a proxy tool to conotrol European nations. One can’t create a national “soul” based on historically unproven ‘European values’, based on 20th century secularisation. It was conceived as a political idea to overcome the ‘deficiencies’ of democracy through rule by unelected technocrats who can’t be voted out and evidence of their failings would fill an EU Food Mountain. Add in the proposed Great Reset agenda, Europeans won’t be thinking politically. The EU and Great Reset will fail, then failing politicians / technocrats will know the writing’s on the door for themselves.

          1. Using the political talking heads approach, I’ll pluck a number out of the air between 50k – 100k [across what passes for the EU] as I don’t see any seismic shift until after the cyber polygon gig. As you know, once resistance mounts, rapidly, MSM will ignore it until it’s too late

      2. agree re Brexit and scamdemic. Conversely and completing the circle, and I agree totally it was established as a proxy tool to conotrol European nations. One can’t create a national “soul” based on historically unproven ‘European values’, based on 20th century secularisation. It was conceived as a political idea to overcome the ‘deficiencies’ of democracy through rule by unelected technocrats who can’t be voted out and evidence of their failings would fill an EU Food Mountain. Add in the proposed Great Reset agenda, Europeans won’t be thinking politically. The EU and Great Reset will fail, then failing politicians / technocrats will know the writing’s on the door for themselves.

      3. Brexit happened and the state is now determined to prevent any of the benefits from it. In fact it’s hell bent on signing up to every single stupid policy the moron globalists chuck out.

  75. “It’s always awkward when a mad conspiracy theory turns out to be not so mad”- especially when you’re a woke journalist seeking redemption https://unherd.com/2021/06/the-truth-about-the-great-reset/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups%5B0%5D=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=db15cf566b&mc_eid=f8bf59e7dc

    BTL Comment from Lesley Nails it:

    Lesley van Reenen

    Just remove some of the fringe waffle and a whole lot of conspiracy theories are sounding and proving evermore credible

  76. Facemasks forever, WFH, self-isolation and travel quarantine to stay, and MORE restrictions in winter? Leaked Step 4 Whitehall document reveals how ‘new normal’ could look even AFTER July 19 new Freedom Day – as Boris faces Commons revolt in vote tonight
    Boris Johnson is facing the prospect of a damaging revolt by dozens of MPs in crucial lockdown vote tonight
    Government all-but guaranteed victory as Labour is backing the move but opposition seems to be growing
    Leaked Whitehall document has suggested that a number of restriction will stay even after new July 19 date

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9692209/Leaked-Step-4-Whitehall-document-hints-new-normal-July-19.html

  77. Injections (immunisations, inoculations, vaccinations) and me.

    As an infant of 18 months, I apparently contracted a nasty dose of whooping cough, much to the distress of mum. During my childhood I suffered from bouts, at various times, of: measles, mumps, rubella and chicken pox; the only common childhood ailment escaping me was scarlet fever. Those childhood illnesses were difficult to avoid due to the necessary physical closeness in large classes at school, Sunday school and the playground.

    There wasn’t a combined ‘MMR’ vaccine available in the 1950s but routine immunisation against poliomyelitis and diphtheria was standard. Also the application of a tetanus toxoid (‘lockjaw’) injection following injuries requiring a visit from a doctor or a trip to the hospital casualty department was de rigueur.

    At age 11, after failing the Heef (indicative) test, I was given an injection of the BCG vaccine to prevent against tuberculosis. Routine vaccinations against smallpox had, by that time, been discontinued.

    At age 13, prior to going abroad for the first time (a Baltic cruise), on medical advice I received two injections (for typhoid and paratyphoid) from my GP.

    At age 20, at my place of employment, I was given my first anti-influenza injection. Within ten minutes of receiving the jab I collapsed at my workplace from a severe anaphylactic reaction. This was utterly terrifying (I reacted in a similar way to a further influenza jab many years later and, on another occasion in my mid-50s, I collapsed from a severe anaphylactic reaction on the only time in my life that I ate a whole kiwi fruit).

    Curiously, I was never offered any immunisation programme against any disease that I may easily have contracted during my career as a police officer.

    At age 52 I underwent a course of three injections against hepatitis ‘B’ as a prerequisite for working in an environment (airport screening) where I was in close physical — and very personal — contact with travellers to and from worldwide locations.

    Every injection that I have undertaken during my lifetime was of tried-and-well-tested vaccines. However, administering vaccines that had not undergone extended clinical trials prior to universal adoption has not always been the norm in UK medical history. In recent memory the drug thalidomide was given to pregnant women, ostensibly to prevent or cure colds, influenza, nausea and morning sickness, with devastatingly unforseen tragic results.

    The MMR vaccine for children, an unholy concoction of viruses designed to prevent against three different childhood diseases was, in its early days, thought responsible for causing autism. Even today, suspicion remains even though its use has been officially “cleared”.

    The current vaccines hurriedly brought out to, ostensibly, prevent the contraction of the several mutations of the SARS Cov-2 virus group, have been introduced without first undertaking the prolonged and extensive animal trialling that is commonplace with such medication. It would appear that the trialling was conducted over an even shorter duration than that which took place before the introduction of thalidomide; and we all know all-to-well what went wrong there!

    As a dual consequence of a personal history of anaphylaxis following taking an injected prophylactic serum, and innate concerns over governments’ almost hysterical insistence of injecting everyone with goodness-knows-what, I shall not be partaking in the current programme of mass-immunisation.

    1. I’ve had various “childhood” diseases. I have been vaccinated against polio, TB and influenza. The influenza jag was from Crookes Laboratories and was arranged by my then employer, the Standard Life. It was a “jet injection*”. The RB/BCG caused a sore arm for a few weeks. The ‘flu vaccination appears to have worn off after 40 years.
      We did not get our children vaccinated with MMR in the early 80s but insisted on separate vaccinations for rubella etc. This was some time before Dr Wakefield publicised the connection to autism. It was a simple proposition, if you inject a triple dose of stuff won’t that be more difficult for the immune system to cope with? If something goes wrong, which one was it? Our GP was quite happy to assist, as he was of a like mind (Initials BMA -his father was also a doctor).
      Why are the authorities so keen to inject everyone. If you don’t get the jab and subsequently get Covid and die, well that is your choice? Is it not allegedly the case that if you have no symptoms you don’t have it and cannot pass it on, or has that been changed again?

      *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_injector

    2. I experienced an acute allergic reaction to a drug that had actually been withdrawn during trials because of a higher level of morbidity.

      I pointed this out to the manager at my prescribing GP’s surgery but was told that because the adverse reaction only affected one in ten million people it was impossible for me to blame the drug for such a response.

    3. Re MMR vaccines. Given that for around 2 years following Dr Wakefields allegations, the number of children given MMR dropped quite significantly. If the vaccine had as Dr Wakefield postulated caused autism in some children one might expect to see a pro rata reduction in the number of children diagnosed with autism either during or shortly after this period. I would have thought it would have been in the DoH’s interest to publish the figures but I haven’t seen any published.

      PS I am aware that recording cases of autism is a bit of a mindfield.

      1. One of my nephews now aged 50, was badly affected with his childhood MMR vaccine. He’s never been able to hold down a job or support him self with out government help. There was no redress for his parents the NHS just denied all responsibility.

      2. New research indicates a possible link between gut health and autism. If that is the case, then a link with a powerful vaccine may not be that far-fetched. I don’t think we’ve seen convincing evidence yet.

        1. That’s not new, bb2. That theory was around 25 years ago, particularly in relation to male autism sufferers – and other conditions arguably on the autistic spectrum: hyper-activity etc.

          1. Interesting. I read about some new research last year that showed that autistic symptoms could be switched on and off by adjusting gut health.
            All these things are found in different parts of my family (autism, trans, poor gut health, hyperactivity) so it is quite interesting if there is a link.

          2. That was mostly for boys, with Autism (which preents differently with boys, or ADD.

          3. Anything on this subject interests me. Most doctors in Britain know less than nothing about it in my experience.

          4. Lots of literature about it all, thankfully.

            You’re right about the doctors – our GP admitted that my husband and I knew far more about it than she did.

          5. I started replying off-line, so what I wrote might make this garbled.

            Anyway, gut health was being looked into decades ago. It most affected boys with autism (who presented with different , and more aggressive, symptoms than girls) and boys with ADD.

      3. Andrew Wakefield has moved to the States and has noted the increase in autism as a consequence of MMR vaccination by referencing the yearly increase in the numbers of autistic children requiring special schooling.

        The States now have schools dedicated solely to autistic children.

        As Grizz has posted the present ‘vaccines’ have been rushed and have bypassed animal testing. The coercive actions and rush by the SAGE advised UK government to jab everyone, including children, is deeply suspicious. Dark forces are at work.

      4. It was, and no doubt still is. Often, if the child is a high-fuctioning autistic sufferer (or aspergers), it is not easy to tell untill a few years into the child’s life.

      5. It was, and no doubt still is. Often, if the child is a high-fuctioning autistic sufferer (or aspergers), it is not easy to tell untill a few years into the child’s life.

    4. You certainly had a rough time with anaphylaxis, thank goodness you are still with us .

      The Kiwi fruit incident must have shocked you rigid, is that a known irritant .. They uses Kiwi fruit in juices , breakfast cereal and other such edibles .

      I am allergic to MSG and many types of foreign spices and colourings .. it is as if my head goes ‘ PING’ and my heart races.

      Aren’t allergies strange things .. and there are also some people I am allergic to as well!

      1. It was nae picnic, I can tell you, lass. I’ve eaten the odd slice of kiwi fruit in fruit salads on many occasions without mishap; however, on the occasion of my collapse, I had—for the first and last time in my life—eaten a whole one! Now forewarned, I avoid them at all cost.

        As far as I am aware, that is my only known allergy (unless you count ‘flu vaccine).

        1. It’s always sensible to avoid such things as soon as an allergy becomes apparent.

          The process of sensitisation can be slow, without one realising it’s happening, and then a major intake of whatever was causing the problem can produce the type of reaction you had.

          I’m getting close to the point of needing to carry an epipen for bee stings. I always carry antihistamine tablets when travelling.

      1. Nor I. My children had MMR injections: my little girl (one of twins) had autism.

        To be honest I think it was the anaesthetist when I had the caesarian. It was the consultant, at my lower half, who had to ask “how is it up there”? when delivering my daughter. My son had already been delivered, and there was no problem then, or later. She replied “not so good” and I was given oxygen. Why the heck had the anaesthetist not worked that out for herself. Anyway, my daughter was whipped away the minute she was born and something was done…

        But I had also had vacination against whooping cough when I was little. I caught it when pregnant nd was really frightened of coughing the babies out!

        Medics are so full of themselves when they preach their newest thinking to us (before it is retracted a few years later), I really don’t know what to believe any more.

    6. I whole heartedly agree. Every medical procedure – in fact, every bloomin’ thing you do should be at your consent, with full knowledge of the facts.

  78. Right, time to sort out the wee one’s supper. Thanks to all for their posts and exchanges today, as usual fully appreciated. Have, if possible an enjoyable afternoon / evening

  79. I’ve tended to support the Co-op all my life. We insured our car with the Co-op for ten years. This year they changed their underwriters. We nearly fell over when we received the renewal quote. A big increase. We asked the NFU for a quote as they do all our other insurance. Their quote was £400 a year less. We queried this, like for like, etc etc and they confirmed it.
    As businesses like the RAC and AA offer cheap membership to new members and then raise prices thereafter, year on year, it seem that remaining as a loyal and unquestioning customer is maybe not a sensible approach.

    1. I believe that legislation is being considered so that companies can’t charge renewals more than they would charge a new customer. I’m never keen on new laws for “fairness” but that actually seems a good idea.

      1. Good!
        We were in the AA and the price went up year on year, regardless of our use of the service. We were then members of the RAC for 12 years or so, until 2018. We had a breakdown and the Sultana called them. They told her she was not a member. The RAC person was very rude. Eventually I spoke to the person and they accepted the callout from me. They arrived over six hours later. We were probably repeatedly pushed to the bottom of the queue, for spite. Previous call outs over the years never took more than an hour and a half before the engineer rolled up.
        We looked carefully at the membership documents. The information on the members covered had changed around ten years previously. It had been HP and Sultana, then it changed to HP ” and other if appropriate” or some such obtuse and ambiguous phraseology that I cannot now remember but which suggested that another was covered. We had received these documents, checked the subscription and filed them. This is just what we do when we have made no changes.
        I then carried out some research. At that time ten years ago the RAC changed its computer system. Subsequently they were fined by Ofcom for bad practice or something, related to that changeover.
        Anyway they had dropped the additional named person, the Sultana, and we had not noticed. However in those ten years the Sultana had called on them twice and they hd responded each time with no quibbling.
        I then had an argument with them that they had charged us for double membership for ten years when they were not giving us the cover. It was not possible to determine how much we may have paid over the odds as historical information on subscriptions is not available. They offered us a small sum and we accepted. Not worth the hassle.
        We moved to GEM. Cheaper and all good so far.

        PS The main driver name was just random, sometimes it is myself, mostly it is the Sultana.

        1. There used to be a rule that women on their own were prioritised, no doubt equality changed all that kind of thing.

      2. Good!
        We were in the AA and the price went up year on year, regardless of our use of the service. We were then members of the RAC for 12 years or so, until 2018. We had a breakdown and the Sultana called them. They told her she was not a member. The RAC person was very rude. Eventually I spoke to the person and they accepted the callout from me. They arrived over six hours later. We were probably repeatedly pushed to the bottom of the queue, for spite. Previous call outs over the years never took more than an hour and a half before the engineer rolled up.
        We looked carefully at the membership documents. The information on the members covered had changed around ten years previously. It had been HP and Sultana, then it changed to HP ” and other if appropriate” or some such obtuse and ambiguous phraseology that I cannot now remember but which suggested that another was covered. We had received these documents, checked the subscription and filed them. This is just what we do when we have made no changes.
        I then carried out some research. At that time ten years ago the RAC changed its computer system. Subsequently they were fined by Ofcom for bad practice or something, related to that changeover.
        Anyway they had dropped the additional named person, the Sultana, and we had not noticed. However in those ten years the Sultana had called on them twice and they hd responded each time with no quibbling.
        I then had an argument with them that they had charged us for double membership for ten years when they were not giving us the cover. It was not possible to determine how much we may have paid over the odds as historical information on subscriptions is not available. They offered us a small sum and we accepted. Not worth the hassle.
        We moved to GEM. Cheaper and all good so far.

        PS The main driver name was just random, sometimes it is myself, mostly it is the Sultana.

    1. “As young people, as future generations, we are being denied our right to life because of the government funnelling billions of dollars back into the same carbon economies that have caused this crisis,” she told the Guardian. “We’re in the epicentre of destruction. It’s almost about weaponising the privileges we have of being in the global north.”

      The world is doomed if a majority of today’s young think like this. Harry Enfield couldn’t have written satire to match it.

      2. Humans awarding themselves ‘rights’ in a spectacular display of preciousness, self-centredness and vanity is why we, as a species, no longer inhabit this small planet.

        We infest it!

          1. Yebbut … animals and insects don’t enshrine it in law to exclude all other living species, Lass. Only Homo idioticus does that!

    2. The cancer from the third world digs a bit deeper into its host. Meanwhile, back in their own countries, people suffer the real problems of life.

  81. Rewilding v. farming leaves no room for nature’s compromises

    There can be a beautiful synthesis of agriculture and the ancient wild wood

    JAMIE BLACKETT

    Tony Juniper, Head of Natural England, wants cultural change so that thorny scrub, rather than green fields, becomes our ideal of natural beauty. As the Government-appointed curator of the nation’s environmental conscience it is entirely correct for him to say this, just as it is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s duty to speak out on spiritual matters. But is he right?

    As a farmer with deep conservationist anxieties I find that the more I examine the question of our relationship with the land, the more complex I find it is. Yet there is now a polarising effect in the countryside where we are presented with an “either/or” choice.

    Juniper is a leading light in the wilding movement that wants a laissez faire approach. As has happened with startling results at Knepp in Sussex, agriculture is reduced to grazing by herbivores at very low densities so that the ancient wild wood – in reality a savannah landscape of thorn scrub – allows the return of endangered birds like the nightingale. Any human intervention is frowned upon and the countryside would be peopled by a different set of actors. Out would go most farm workers, tree surgeons, fencing and drainage contractors, hedge layers et al. In would come forest rangers, ecologists and workers in a larger tourist industry catering for a people wanting to reconnect with pre-agrarian Britain in its primal state.

    At the other end of the spectrum we have farming unions who point out, also correctly, that the UK is only 50 per cent self-sufficient in food. They argue that farming underpins not only the whole rural economy, including an already significant tourism industry (catering for people who enjoy seeing sheep in green fields), but also our food and drinks industry employing millions. They defend indefensible practices that are damaging to wildlife – silage cutting in early spring, annual hedge trimming before the fruit has ripened – because they see a rural economy based on food production as a public good that is worth the compromises.

    Somewhere in the middle are an increasing number of us who see the best as the enemy of the good at both ends of the argument.

    My most intense wildlife experience recently was watching a blackcock lek on a grouse moor. Grouse moors are assiduously managed and the iconic purple carpet of heather moorland is artificially maintained and perpetuates a landscape that only really existed as the glaciers of the last ice age retreated. Yet can we not celebrate it? It would disappear under scrub in many places and the blackcock would soon be predated along with the curlews and the hen harriers if Juniper’s hands-off doctrine prevailed.

    On our own farm I take great pride in our bluebell woods. Yet the beech trees are not native here and are frowned upon by the Green State, and the bluebells were sparse until we raised the canopy to let in light, artificially replicating with chainsaws the work once done by bison and woolly mammoths. And this spring we had our first successful brood of lapwings for a decade, not because we have wilded – we are producing more food than ever – but because we chopped down some trees to create a bare expanse of cultivated farmland they like and trapped the crows. It’s complicated.

    Jamie Blackett is the author of Red Rag to a Bull, Rural Life in an Urban Age (Quiller)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/rewilding-vs-farming-leaves-no-room-natures-compromises/

    A very short walk from where I live is a piece of open land owned by a property developer. Wellingborough BC recently turned down a planning application from the developer for 100 houses on about 6 acres of the land. If anyone wants to see what happens when land is left to nature, the short five-minute walk through the area will inform them.

    I’ve been here more than 20 years and in that time much of the land has been taken over by hawthorn, bramble, thistle, nettle and rose bay willow herb; that which hasn’t is covered by very rough and coarse grass. Ecologically it’s very poor. I used to see weasels and kestrels but they’ve disappeared along with the small mammals (voles and shrews) that were their prey. A few rabbits survive in the bramble. The only small birds are common town and garden species, although we do have a few green woodpeckers, a pair of kites and a buzzard that roosts in the ash trees along the boundary.

    It’s not a good advert for unmanaged ‘rewilding’.

  82. Rewilding v. farming leaves no room for nature’s compromises

    There can be a beautiful synthesis of agriculture and the ancient wild wood

    JAMIE BLACKETT

    Tony Juniper, Head of Natural England, wants cultural change so that thorny scrub, rather than green fields, becomes our ideal of natural beauty. As the Government-appointed curator of the nation’s environmental conscience it is entirely correct for him to say this, just as it is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s duty to speak out on spiritual matters. But is he right?

    As a farmer with deep conservationist anxieties I find that the more I examine the question of our relationship with the land, the more complex I find it is. Yet there is now a polarising effect in the countryside where we are presented with an “either/or” choice.

    Juniper is a leading light in the wilding movement that wants a laissez faire approach. As has happened with startling results at Knepp in Sussex, agriculture is reduced to grazing by herbivores at very low densities so that the ancient wild wood – in reality a savannah landscape of thorn scrub – allows the return of endangered birds like the nightingale. Any human intervention is frowned upon and the countryside would be peopled by a different set of actors. Out would go most farm workers, tree surgeons, fencing and drainage contractors, hedge layers et al. In would come forest rangers, ecologists and workers in a larger tourist industry catering for a people wanting to reconnect with pre-agrarian Britain in its primal state.

    At the other end of the spectrum we have farming unions who point out, also correctly, that the UK is only 50 per cent self-sufficient in food. They argue that farming underpins not only the whole rural economy, including an already significant tourism industry (catering for people who enjoy seeing sheep in green fields), but also our food and drinks industry employing millions. They defend indefensible practices that are damaging to wildlife – silage cutting in early spring, annual hedge trimming before the fruit has ripened – because they see a rural economy based on food production as a public good that is worth the compromises.

    Somewhere in the middle are an increasing number of us who see the best as the enemy of the good at both ends of the argument.

    My most intense wildlife experience recently was watching a blackcock lek on a grouse moor. Grouse moors are assiduously managed and the iconic purple carpet of heather moorland is artificially maintained and perpetuates a landscape that only really existed as the glaciers of the last ice age retreated. Yet can we not celebrate it? It would disappear under scrub in many places and the blackcock would soon be predated along with the curlews and the hen harriers if Juniper’s hands-off doctrine prevailed.

    On our own farm I take great pride in our bluebell woods. Yet the beech trees are not native here and are frowned upon by the Green State, and the bluebells were sparse until we raised the canopy to let in light, artificially replicating with chainsaws the work once done by bison and woolly mammoths. And this spring we had our first successful brood of lapwings for a decade, not because we have wilded – we are producing more food than ever – but because we chopped down some trees to create a bare expanse of cultivated farmland they like and trapped the crows. It’s complicated.

    Jamie Blackett is the author of Red Rag to a Bull, Rural Life in an Urban Age (Quiller)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/rewilding-vs-farming-leaves-no-room-natures-compromises/

    A very short walk from where I live is a piece of open land owned by a property developer. Wellingborough BC recently turned down a planning application from the developer for 100 houses on about 6 acres of the land. If anyone wants to see what happens when land is left to nature, the short five-minute walk through the area will inform them.

    I’ve been here more than 20 years and in that time much of the land has been taken over by hawthorn, bramble, thistle, nettle and rose bay willow herb; that which hasn’t is covered by very rough and coarse grass. Ecologically it’s very poor. I used to see weasels and kestrels but they’ve disappeared along with the small mammals (voles and shrews) that were their prey. A few rabbits survive in the bramble. The only small birds are common town and garden species, although we do have a few green woodpeckers, a pair of kites and a buzzard that roosts in the ash trees along the boundary.

    It’s not a good advert for unmanaged ‘rewilding’.

  83. Rewilding v. farming leaves no room for nature’s compromises

    There can be a beautiful synthesis of agriculture and the ancient wild wood

    JAMIE BLACKETT

    Tony Juniper, Head of Natural England, wants cultural change so that thorny scrub, rather than green fields, becomes our ideal of natural beauty. As the Government-appointed curator of the nation’s environmental conscience it is entirely correct for him to say this, just as it is the Archbishop of Canterbury’s duty to speak out on spiritual matters. But is he right?

    As a farmer with deep conservationist anxieties I find that the more I examine the question of our relationship with the land, the more complex I find it is. Yet there is now a polarising effect in the countryside where we are presented with an “either/or” choice.

    Juniper is a leading light in the wilding movement that wants a laissez faire approach. As has happened with startling results at Knepp in Sussex, agriculture is reduced to grazing by herbivores at very low densities so that the ancient wild wood – in reality a savannah landscape of thorn scrub – allows the return of endangered birds like the nightingale. Any human intervention is frowned upon and the countryside would be peopled by a different set of actors. Out would go most farm workers, tree surgeons, fencing and drainage contractors, hedge layers et al. In would come forest rangers, ecologists and workers in a larger tourist industry catering for a people wanting to reconnect with pre-agrarian Britain in its primal state.

    At the other end of the spectrum we have farming unions who point out, also correctly, that the UK is only 50 per cent self-sufficient in food. They argue that farming underpins not only the whole rural economy, including an already significant tourism industry (catering for people who enjoy seeing sheep in green fields), but also our food and drinks industry employing millions. They defend indefensible practices that are damaging to wildlife – silage cutting in early spring, annual hedge trimming before the fruit has ripened – because they see a rural economy based on food production as a public good that is worth the compromises.

    Somewhere in the middle are an increasing number of us who see the best as the enemy of the good at both ends of the argument.

    My most intense wildlife experience recently was watching a blackcock lek on a grouse moor. Grouse moors are assiduously managed and the iconic purple carpet of heather moorland is artificially maintained and perpetuates a landscape that only really existed as the glaciers of the last ice age retreated. Yet can we not celebrate it? It would disappear under scrub in many places and the blackcock would soon be predated along with the curlews and the hen harriers if Juniper’s hands-off doctrine prevailed.

    On our own farm I take great pride in our bluebell woods. Yet the beech trees are not native here and are frowned upon by the Green State, and the bluebells were sparse until we raised the canopy to let in light, artificially replicating with chainsaws the work once done by bison and woolly mammoths. And this spring we had our first successful brood of lapwings for a decade, not because we have wilded – we are producing more food than ever – but because we chopped down some trees to create a bare expanse of cultivated farmland they like and trapped the crows. It’s complicated.

    Jamie Blackett is the author of Red Rag to a Bull, Rural Life in an Urban Age (Quiller)

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/15/rewilding-vs-farming-leaves-no-room-natures-compromises/

    A very short walk from where I live is a piece of open land owned by a property developer. Wellingborough BC recently turned down a planning application from the developer for 100 houses on about 6 acres of the land. If anyone wants to see what happens when land is left to nature, the short five-minute walk through the area will inform them.

    I’ve been here more than 20 years and in that time much of the land has been taken over by hawthorn, bramble, thistle, nettle and rose bay willow herb; that which hasn’t is covered by very rough and coarse grass. Ecologically it’s very poor. I used to see weasels and kestrels but they’ve disappeared along with the small mammals (voles and shrews) that were their prey. A few rabbits survive in the bramble. The only small birds are common town and garden species, although we do have a few green woodpeckers, a pair of kites and a buzzard that roosts in the ash trees along the boundary.

    It’s not a good advert for unmanaged ‘rewilding’.

    2. They are such amazing companions for you both and a joy for all of us to witness their progress from kittenhood to adulthood.

      Cats are so different to dogs. I love my spaniels , but they anticipate every move , and seem to mind read , and I sometimes feel exhausted

      Visit the loo or mutter something about car keys or even put on a jumper .. and they are there leaping around waiting for their leads to be put on

      The strange thing is though , when I gather my shopping bags together and place them in the hallway before a last minute penny spend , the dogs seem to understand , and never make a fuss or get excited , because they know they won’t be accompanying me on a shopping trip .

      Cats seem so laid back and indifferent to fuss.

      Your cats have become even more attractive as they have become older .

      1. My Oscar is standing in the doorway trying to make himself look thin and half starved with a pathetic look on his face. He needs a treat. He wins.

      2. You need a dog that’s horrifically lazy, docile and stubborn. They don’t move until you’re practically closing the door on them.

  85. Post today came a letter from my hospital cardiology department. My appointment is 4 months after I first went to A&E short of breath and pounding heart. Although the (in mho the twice reaction to the jab) problems have now subsided and i’m getting back to what ever normal is or was. I am quite convinced they know both bouts were reactions to the the jab and it would pass in time if not i would have had to go back to A&E.
    There is a distinct ‘whiff in the air’ that the NHS is now on it’s way out, I think that so many more people will be paying health insurance before the next 5 years has passed.
    I have visited the Spire hospital twice during the past 12 months and previously but a few years ago the car parking there was always quite sparse. But now it’s been rammed at each visit and others i know have verified this.

  86. Wendyball. Is Azerbaijan in Europe? Iran is closer to Europe than Azerbaijan. Baku, the capital, stands on what is left of the Caspian Sea. Then there is Turkey. Hardly part of Europe, really, even you do count the portion on the European littoral.

      2. Yes. Funny how the NI border is insurmountable, but a country a world away is easy.

  88. so – © telly totty – BPAPM said that Halfcock was “effing useless” but, natch, did sod all about it.

    1. He is keeping him in place as he has a special last task for Halfcock – he is to take the blame when the SHTF.

  89. A bit more space in the van!
    The DT decided a couple of our fireside chairs needed to replaced by a couple from her Mother’s place, I will concede that she did have a point, they were a more than a bit tatty, so I put them onto Faceache as free to be collected and a lass from Matlock Bath has picked them both up for her daughter to renovate.

    1. Would he like a four-drawer filing cabinet, too?

      I have been trying for two weeks to get rid of one. Freecycle; zero; Gumtree; zero.

      2. If it is a metal cabinet, bung it down near the entrance to your grand estate..

        It will be lifted in no time ..

        Moh was clearing away stuff in the garage including 2 sets of very old golf irons in bags ..

        He had just walked up the drive way , in through the garden gate , in through the house , visited the loo and my goodness , they vanished, just like that!

        2. Yes, I’ve got rid of various office bits and even a chocolate fountain by putting them out at the gate with a ‘free’ notice on them.
          And this is not exactly a busy highway.

      3. Put it by the side of the road with a sign saying £50 ono. It will be gone in 5 minutes.

        2. Where he lives that will be seen as an invitation for the gypos to invade his house.

      4. Keep it listed. someone will eventually take it off your hands!
        I must admit that I was expecting to be cutting the chairs for firewood, but they were on Faceache for less than a week!

  90. It’s thought that 20,000 ticketless Jockos will turn up in London on Saturday for the England v. Scotland match in the Euros. I look forward to the reactions of Bonjo and Wee Krankie. I suspect they’ll be looking the other way…

  91. “Covid vaccine to be compulsory for England care home staff”

    Don’t the effing idiots in charge realise that most care homes are struggling to find sufficient staff as it it without putting this unicornesque desiderata stumbling block in their way. (Most residents if not all have been vaccinated). The message seems to be we can’t trust the vaccines!!!

    2. Perhaps they are trying to bring down the care homes. When there are no care homes, there are no fees to be paid by the council (and indirectly central govt). The elderly can fade away at home.

          1. My company restaurant would provide refrigerated food when I was hosting late night working with overseas members on a collaborative project.

            Unconsumed food had to be binned two hours after removal from fridge.

          2. The homeless people are probably not used to getting donations of caviar and champagne.

    4. I quite like that they’ve done something positive.

      Although, my minnd twitches that we can afford to host idiots determined to impoverish this country, give away billions to foreign countries, borrow and tax even more, bombing our economy back to the dark ages and yet there are people reliant on food banks in one of the genuinely richer parts of the country.

      1. So are the PCR tests. Never mind – the makers of these things are making a bomb at public expence.

  94. Whether or not Labour wins Batley and Spen, the party is in deep trouble. 16 June 2021.

    I meet Hasan Badat in a takeaway across from Batley town hall. He remains a Labour member, though probably not for long, given he is campaigning for Galloway, and he tells me that Muslims are “treated like dirt” by the party. Resentment over the selection of the Labour candidate has not helped. Kim Leadbeater bursts with charisma – her campaigning zeal leaves her team exhausted – and she has impeccable local roots; but Muslim party members resentfully mutter that candidates from their community were overlooked because Leadbeater is the sister of former Batley and Spen MP Jo Cox, who was murdered by a fascist terrorist five years ago.

    You should try being Working Class White Pal! They hate us like poison!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/16/labour-batley-and-spen-jeremy-corbyn-scottish-voters

      3. Or the VERY slightly veiled threats to Police Officers families as regularly seen when the police stop a muslim law breaking driver.

    3. What’s this “murdered by a fascist terrorist” carp? Oh, wait it’s the Grauniad – ’nuff sed!

    4. Oh! Is this a hint that the guardian is finally realising that the Nazis were Left wing, and they’re scared folk will notice that SO ARE THEY?

  95. Boris Johnson has had Covid. He has also had two doses of the jab.

    Surely the very fact that he ostentatiously wears a mask proclaims loud and clear:

    The Vaccinations do not work:
    You can still get the disease;
    You can still spread the disease .
    So the vaccinations are a waste of time, effort and money.

    Surely it would be far better propaganda for Boris Johnson to abandon wearing a mask altogether and to allow others to do so?

    1. He said some time ago he was “bursting with antibodies”. #i’mDone with this charade.

        1. I don’t know why he does all that fatuous “running” and exercise – he seems fatter (and more disgusting) than ever.

          1. He is the greatest argument again jogging.
            Bu88er up yer joints but still keep the flab.

    2. Has he really had the jab, though? Alternatively, did he really have Covid. That man lies so much I don’t believe anything.

    3. Vaccinations don’t make you immune, nor do they stop transmission.

      They do give your own immune system a chance to respond, helping you not get as unwell. You know this Rastus, so does Boris. The vaccine is not a guarantee, just ‘basic training’ for your antibodies.

  96. Back from lunch with old work friends in Cirencester – lots of empty shops in the once prosperous town.

    I walked into the cafe – maskless – the waitress who welcomed me was also maskless, though the others weren’t. After lunch, while walking back through the shop to the street, I was challenged by a bloke sitting at another table – he said something and gesticulated – “mask” – I said “I’m exempt” and walked on! Went into Specsavers (maskless) to make an appointment and nothing was said.

    Some of my friends also are wavering and realise it’s a charade, but still wore their masks, and one said it helps with her hayfever. I guess pollen particles are a bit larger than a virus.

    1. Good for you. People are clinging to all kinds of reasons to use the masks – I haven’t had a cold this year being the most common that I’ve heard.
      I think that is more to do with not socialising or going out as much.
      Masks are completely against our culture.

      1. One of my friends agreed with me that we should be exposed to germs to keep our immune systems primed.

        I haven’t had any sort of bug since January 2020 – when I probably had a mild dose of covid. It’s not good for our mental or physical health to be kept confined like we have been for the last 16 months.

        I asked the hayfever sufferer friend to take hers off at the table as i have to lipread and couldn’t hear what she was saying.

        1. My hairdresser wears a hearing aid. She can’t manage glasses, hearing aid and mask in her job, so the hearing aid has to go. You can imagine what that does for her confidence and happiness at work.

      2. In my case it was not seeing my grandchild over the winter virus season, three year olds are walking bioweapons all by themselves. Nothing to do with a mask or otherwise, I don’t use one. I fell over a stand in Waitrose after my (reading) glasses steamed up in the very early stages of mask wearing. That was it. When I tried again hyperventilation, panic and suffocation set in.

        1. They are awful. I have sometimes just gone out of a shop because I couldn’t stand it any longer.

    2. ‘I was challenged by a bloke sitting at another table – he said something and gesticulated – “mask” – I said “I’m exempt” and walked on!’

      I would have looked him in the eye and told him, FUCK OFF!

    3. I no longer wear a mask. I was challenged and asked if I was exempt before entering the shop.

      ”Exempt …..? I’m bluddy well extinct.”
      I replied….

      2. Good retort – I enjoyed walking past the bloke who challenged me.
        It’s so ridiculous that you can take it off while seated at a table but as soon as you stand up you are a disease vector.

  98. Envy of the World…………
    My BiL has a worsening hernia,told 6 months to a year for a hospital consultation and a 2/3 year wait for an op
    Decided to go private,consultation is tomorrow…………
    Carry on clapping…………..
    Edit
    Every single MP and senior Snivel Serpent should be denied private treatment and only have access to the same NHS as the Hoi Polloi THEN we might see some changes

    1. Last year the NHS seemed to’ve requisitioned all the private hospitals as well, to make sure that even that route to treatment was closed. Has that, at least, gone now?

    2. Seems to depend where you are – OH has had plenty of appointments over the last few months.

    1. If this is true I would never ever have dreamed I would witness the Nazification of the UK under a ‘Conservative’ government.

        2. Do not go gentle into that good night

          Do not go gentle into that good night,
          Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
          Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

          Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
          Because their words had forked no lightning they
          Do not go gentle into that good night.

          Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
          Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
          Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

          Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
          And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
          Do not go gentle into that good night.

          Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
          Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
          Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

          And you, my father, there on the sad height,
          Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
          Do not go gentle into that good night.
          Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
          Dylan Thomas – 1914-1953

    2. Better get used to ‘phone consultations. It’s all you’re going to get.

      Soon they’ll be outsourced to India, and the NHS will be able to get rid of a lot of overpaid GPs.

    3. Only six and a half days late, then. Even in the absence of face to face consultations, one is constantly reminded of why the NHS calls its clients “patient(s)”.

    1. So, won’t treat sports injuries, lung and throat cancers, obesity, and more self-inflicted problems. But that’s only because the NHS is incapable.

    3. Well that’s not quite, “If you don’t take the vaccine we will have you shot” but it’s not far off!

      1. If you are double vaxxed they’ll let you into hospital but that won’t necessarily stop them killing you.

    4. Well that’s not quite, “If you don’t take the vaccine we will have you shot” but it’s not far off!

    6. Pure evil. These bar stewards need stringing up. It will be mandatory for all care home staff to have the jabs too – that will do wonders to deal with the staffing shortages many of them have.

    7. Halfcock, “We Have No Duty Of Care At All To Vaccine Refuseniks!”

      I’m sure you will be able to fund all the compensation sought to decry that statement – with a bit of luck and a fair wind, I look forward to you trawling the streets looking for a doorway to doss in, after your bankruptcy, public shaming and ‘out of office’ kicking.

      1. But it wouldn’t surprise me! Nothing surprises me now, they have lied and lied and lied throughout this, and by omission and deceit. The Liar-in-Chief is in charge rubber stamping.

    3. Nah, putting that on paper or sending it electronically would be their death sentences. Someone having a giggle.

    4. Oh dear, I will believe anything now .

      I mean who would believe this little gem.

      Britain’s Home Office has announced that this week is “Refugee Week” which aims to celebrate the “contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary”, while the migrant crisis continues to rage.

      Rather than spending time to solve the migrant crisis in the English Channel, Home Secretary Priti Patel has launched a week of celebrations for refugees in the UK.

      1. Good evening Maggie!

        I mean who would believe this little gem.

        Don’t you mean “I mean who would NOT believe this little gem”.

      2. Good evening Maggie!

        I mean who would believe this little gem.

        Don’t you mean “I mean who would NOT believe this little gem”.

      4. There seems to be a rhyming facility here, what with Priti Shitty Patel and Dr Shitty Whitty, who can believe any of the excrement churned out by these people?

      5. Words fail me, Belle. I am exhausted by it all. I fear these really are our replacements

    5. The fact this is even being discussed shows that half the country would go along with this if it were genuine.

    6. Too blunt and too close to the truth I think. The PTB deal in doublespeak and obfuscation. It ought to read more like an essay on critical theory. The kind of stuff that gets the likes of Michie into academia.

      1. Yes, I agree. The sentiments are spot on, but the slithy toves would never be that direct.
        Sadly, in our sour and twisted society, it sounds all too believable.

    7. Good evening Poppies Mum, If there is any truth in that, it is monstrously evil. The way we have been controlled this past 16 months with project fear and terrify, nothing would surprise me. The muppets who wear their muzzles in quiet streets, their own cars and probably at home will declare to be ‘the right thing to do because we must stay safe from this rampant killer virus’.

      1. Yep, when we all stop shopping at these virtue-signalling shops and tell them that we quit.

    5. I wouldn’t have bought them anyway as I prefer Aldi to the pretentious Waitrose.

      1. I get about 95% of my groceries from Aldidl. I have never shopped in Waitrose.

  106. That’s me for the day. A VERY hot afternoon – too hot to do any proper work in the garden.

    Welcome rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow. On and off for the following days.

    Have a jolly evening … plotting.

    A demain.

  107. There seems to be a distinc lack of MPs in Parliament for an important debate on our liberties. The Opposition benches are all but empty. Talk about an echo chamber.
    Is the HoC bar having happy hour?

    1. Nah…….we’re paying them all a fortune to “work from home”. Plus an extra £10,000 for new laptops.

        1. My perfectly adequate laptop – lots of memory – cost less than £400 three years ago. The only problem is Bill Gate’s Effing Windows 10 …

          1. That’s why, lacoste, while I’ve had my hard drive updated to 1 TB but I’ve retained Windows 7.

            The brief encounter I’ve had with W10 was horrific, however, if you’re stuck with 10 then ClassicShellSetup_4_3_1.exe might sort the problem for you.

            While it operates on 10, it looks and feels like 7. Go find it on Google.

  109. Dozens of migrants including young children and a baby have been picked up in the English Channel this morning after it was revealed the number arriving in the UK since January has topped 5,000 – more than double the same period last year.

    The latest arrivals included toddlers who, if unaccompanied, will be relocated to other local authorities by the Home Office after Kent County Council said it could not accept anymore unaccompanied asylum seeking children from Monday.

    Around 100 migrants have been intercepted so far today, according to eyewitness estimates, with more making the crossing set to be detained this afternoon.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9692631/Dozens-migrants-including-young-children-baby-picked-English-Channel.html

    1. Word must be getting back to the 300,000,000** in (mainly muslim) Africa and the Middle East that if they can make it to Calais they’re as good as there …. that is, HERE.

      = 60,000 times 5,000

  110. Good Evening Nottlers, I’ve been out & about today now that masks are a thing of the past here in Israel ! so here is my belated morning music choice:
    Who Wants to Live Forever – Queen (‘West Side Story’ Style Cover) ft. Morgan James
    Morgan James returns for her 10th PMJ video in this orchestral, “West Side Story” style remake of Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever.”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ttx0gHKfY8

    1. So how did he/she/it get up in the air to start with?

      It is like all of those damned pipeline protesters that are plaguing us over here, do they not see their hypocrisy in using oil get to their protests in outer Minnesota or wherever?

      1. 334408+ up ticks,
        Evening B3,
        Its labs turn next, I cannot work out as of yet, which party is wearing the sheepskin over the burka.

    2. Jonathan Ashworth MP (Lab): “They failed to prevent this variant from reaching our shores.”

      Yeah, but ‘they’ didn’t fail to prevent a different ‘variant’ from reaching our shores in large numbers each day, did ‘they’? How do you think these variants are entering the country, you cretin?

      1. If the latest variant seems to be akin to a cold, who cares? Everyone catches colds all the time and nobody cares. Why care this time?

        1. It seems to be more akin to hay fever than a cold – runny nose, sore throat and headache were the symptoms I read about this morning. The variants lose their potency as they go through the population; a rule of thumb seems to be that the more infectious it is, the less lethal it is. Dr Mike Yeadon, a former CEO of Pfizer, said that that there could be 8,000 variants loose in the country because that is what viruses do, they vary themselves as they go from person to person. They most likely don’t differ very much from each other by more than 0.3% and would be easily recognised by our immune system and dealt with. Even if it differed by 30% it would not cause a problem for the immune system. I think we are being told a pile of lying bs by our govt.

          1. I liked the DM strapline on a graph “Deaths increase 50%”. Which is true, the death count rose to nine from six! Almost as bad as the hospitalizations count going from 120. to 170.

            You must be really proud that you saved the nh just to be scared by such media stories. .

          2. I suffer from hay fever each summer (I’m suffering right now) but the only symptom I get is painful eyes that are red, irritated, itchy and constantly watering. I never get a runny nose, sore throat or headache. Just eyes that feel like someone has thrown hot sand in them.

          3. Unlucky, Grizz. I had awful hay fever from my early teens for 20 years or so and then it gradually faded away to, today, an occasional slight nuisance.

          4. I’m the complete opposite. I never had any occurrences until 14 years ago (when I was 56). I’ve had a recurrence every year since then.

          5. I used to get that too, it started during my first year of rural living but over 40 years it has simply dwindled away.

          6. You are lucky. I first experienced Hayfever aged 18 whilst taking a short cut to a bus stop, across a field of Barley, at Castle Howard in Yorkshire.

            Hayfever has been a pain in the arse ever since. I was up most of last night with blocked nostrils, itchy eyes and a dry throat from breathing through my mouth.

            My late mother in law had effective treatment for her Hayfever at Old Addenbrookes in the centre of Cambridge in the sixties.

            The NHS treatment for Hayfever was cancelled years ago when some poor sod died allegedly from reaction to the treatment. Treatment for Hayfever is still available in Germany under their health system simply because they have evaluated the economic losses caused by potentially incapacitated workers.

            Instead, millions in the UK have to confront this treatable allergic condition because, frankly, our government does not give a toss about its cost in productivity and inconvenience to sufferers.

            I truly believe that our government actually hates and despises us. Accordingly I confess to hating and despising our government.

      2. Jeez. Does this retard think that no viral respiratory tract infection ever mutated on this island?

  115. Andrew Neil was in top form tonight and asked the Chancellor the questions I and other NOTTLERS wanted to ask him. The triple pledge will be kept on Pensions but there was some doubt that if wages rose by 8%, would the pensions rise by 8%? Rishi Sunak was a bit doubtful
    Who was to pay the cost of removing gas boilers and fitting new heating equipment?. Only the poorer would have the cost paid but for others that would be looked into.
    The Chancellor, my MP, answered the questions directly without waffling.
    AN covered a lot of ground and made sure RS got the chance to answer the questions.
    Well worth watching and I don’t think anything went wrong with the presentation.
    I don’t think our PM could cope with AN’s questions

    1. Rishi Sunak did not impress. Whether it was because he was being tactful or genuinely didn’t have answers, he seemed to be spouting soundbites.
      Michael Portillo and Liam Halligan were authoritative and knowledgeable.
      And – hoorah – the sound and sync are now sorted.
      Well done, GBNews.

  116. What the GB News boycotters find ‘offensive’ is the very concept of a non-woke TV channel

    Beware, big business: boycotts, and any kind of obstruction to free speech, are an anathema to most conservatives.

    ROSS CLARK

    It is a bit like a Whodunnit where the murderer plans the perfect crime but then gives the game away by making one stupid mistake. I say a ‘bit like’ a Whodunnit because in a good Agatha Christie novel the error occurs only to the detective and to the most astute of readers. The one made by campaign group Stop Funding Hate in its attempted vilification of upstart TV channel GB News, on the other hand, was glaring and obvious.

    Had the group left it until this week to begin its campaign against GB News it might have got away with it. It could have picked out a few comments made in the interviews over the first few days of broadcasting and used them to try to claim that the channel was pushing a certain agenda. Many people who had not actually watched the shows in question would have chosen to believe Stop Funding Hate. A few advertisers – including Grolsch lager, Nivea, Ikea and the Open University – have indeed fallen for its campaign.

    But in its enthusiasm, the group couldn’t wait – and started tweeting under its #Don’tFundGBNews hashtag last February, before GB News had broadcast a single word. So, a group whose whole purpose is to supposed to be to fight prejudice was caught out committing that very offence. Stop Funding Hate’s premature campaign to turn advertisers away from GB News reminded me of the time when John Major rose to the Commons dispatch box for the first time and, before he could say a single word, Dennis Skinner shouted “resign!”. The former Labour member for Bolsover intended it, of course, as a joke, but I fear that Stop Funding Hate’s campaigners don’t even appreciate the irony of trying to accuse a TV station of spreading hate before it has put out a single programme. Theirs is an attitude which has sadly become all too common on the Left in recent years: where you don’t try to engage with the arguments of people with whom you disagree – you merely try to close them down instead. This they try to achieve through boycotts, Twitter storms, trying to implant a sense of shame into anyone who advances ‘incorrect’ views.

    I mention John Major because the war against conservative media really began back in his day, when he unexpectedly won the 1992 general election and the Sun published a gloating headline ‘It was the Sun Wot Won It’. It wasn’t really the Sun’s doing – more a case of Kinnock losing it through his triumphal Sheffield rally and of the opinion polls simply being wrong in suggesting that Labour ever had a chance of winning. Yet it sowed in the heads of some on the left the idea that they could not win unless they could somehow silence what they saw as conservative-dominated press. Hence the dirty tactic of trying to portray any conservative organ as an instrument of fascism. Stop Funding Hate’s claim that conservative newspapers are trying to “boost their readership with ever more extreme coverage” is an oxymoron – pandering to an extreme fringe, by its very definition, offers few potential readers.

    GB News isn’t a newspaper, of course. It is regulated by Ofcom and is subject to that regulator’s rules on impartiality. Yet from the moment GBNews was proposed it has been seen on the left as a threat which must be neutralised – hence the attempt to dissuade advertisers from allowing their ads to be associated with its output.

    The question is how to respond. It is very easy, as we have found on numerous occasions, to frighten corporations by the threat of consumer boycotts – generated by a few dozen activists manically tweeting away. Boycotts, and any kind of obstruction to free speech, are an anathema to most conservatives. But I have to say that, following the absurdly premature campaign against GB News, I am rather pleased to see that there is another hashtag trending on Twitter – #GoWokeGoBroke – set up to persuade people to boycott the companies which have made a show of boycotting GB News.

    Twitter is for the most part a sewer, but for the moment it is showing something to which GB News aspires: balanced coverage. Advertisers should take note – and stop pathetically grovelling to Stop Funding Hate.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/gb-news-boycotters-find-offensive-concept-non-woke-tv-channel

  118. It’s taken a long time to get around to Enid Blyton…

    English Heritage labels Enid Blyton’s work ‘racist and xenophobic’

    Famous Five author in charity’s sights as it says it will review all blue plaques for links to ‘contested’ figures

    By Craig Simpson • 16 June 2021 • 9:30pm

    Enid Blyton’s books have been linked “racism and xenophobia” in updated Blue Plaque information produced by English Heritage.

    The heritage charity administers the Blue Plaque scheme which has installed more than 950 signs in London commemorating historical figures.

    English Heritage vowed to review all plaques for links to “contested” figures following Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, stating that objects “associated with Britain’s colonial past are offensive to many”.

    Blyton’s work has now been linked to racism in updated information on the Famous Five author following the review of historic legacies.

    The prolific writer composed over 700 books after beginning attempting her first work in 1922 at 207 Hook Road in south west London’s Chessington, where she worked as a governess, and where in 1997 a blue plaque was installed in her honour.

    Information on the plaque provided online and on an English Heritage app states Blyton’s work has been criticised “for its racism, xenophobia and lack of literary merit”.

    Visitors using the official app to learn about blue plaques they encounter in London will be told about the charges against Blyton’s work.

    These include the 1966 book The Little Black Doll, with its main character “Sambo”, having racist elements because the eponymous doll is only accepted by his owner “once his ‘ugly black face’ is washed ‘clean’ by rain”.

    English Heritage’s updated information also cites the occasion her publisher Macmillan refused to publish her story The Mystery That Never Was over its “faint but unattractive touch of old-fashioned xenophobia”, as foreigners characters were framed as bad in the book.

    Claims that Blyton was “not a very well regarded writer”, as suggested by the Royal Mint committee for a commemorative coin in 2016, have also been added to the information.

    Prior to this update in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests the information simply outlined Blyton’s career, which began when she wrote the poetry collection Child Whispers while working as a governess for Horace and Gertrude Thompson.

    She went on to be a prolific writer of best-sellers, including hit series Secret Seven, the Famous Five, the Faraway Tree, Malory Towers, and Noddy before her death in 1968.

    The vast bulk of her hundreds of publications were produced before 1960, and certain features like the “Golliwogs” in Noddy have been edited out in later editions to become “Goblins”.

    Her work continues to be read, and in a Nielsen BookScan list of the top 20 bestselling children’s writers of last ten years, Blyton remained in 11th place ahead of many modern competitors.

    English Heritage notes in its new information that some “have argued that while these charges can’t be dismissed, her work still played a vital role in encouraging a generation of children to read”.

    The charity’s contextualising of Blyton follows as part of a raft of projects undertaken in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests, including a review of all figures commemorated by the Blue Plaque scheme.

    Anna Eavis, English Heritage’s curatorial director, said in June 2020: “We need to ensure that the stories of those people already commemorated are told in full, without embellishment or excuses.”

    The charity said at the time that its priority was to add more information about those “whose actions are contested or seen today as negative”.

    The charity has undertaken work to improve representation of groups historically marginalised by the scheme which was founded in 1866, with its first plaque being dedicated to French emperor Napoleon III.

    Plaques honouring BAME historical figures have since been unveiled, following calls from the charity’s former trustee Prof David Olusoga to diversify the scheme.

    Plaques, intended to highlight historical properties, must first be nominated by the public before being evaluated by an English Heritage panel.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/06/16/english-heritage-links-enid-blytons-work-racism-xenophobia/

    1. It will not stop until blacks and their leftwing foot soldiers have reduced the country to a seething mess of racial conflict.

      1. Just watch Canada, we are way ahead of you on institutional self loathing and destruction of society.

        We are now at the point where Canada Day celebrations are being canceled because according to the scum, there is nothing in Canadian society to be celebrated.

      1. There’s a bust of Karl Marx in Highgate Cemetery……But, Highgate Cemetery has a resident vampire….Allegedly

    3. absolutely absurd when famous five and nodded are considered unsuitable but school kids are taught all about lgbtq perversions.

  119. I’m shocked, shocked I tell yer! I’d never o’ thort it!

    Britain faces power cuts as electricity begins to run everything from cars to boilers

    Climate change advisers urge Government to ensure energy systems can cope with extreme weather, as future outages will have greater impact

    By Olivia Rudgard, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT • 16 June 2021 • 6:00am

    Britain faces catastrophic power cuts because of an increasing reliance on electricity to run everything from cars to home boilers, the Committee on Climate Change has warned.

    Decarbonisation plans, which involve switching transport and heating away from petrol and gas, will mean outages in the future have a greater impact, the Government’s independent advisory committee on climate change has said, as it urged the Government to make sure the system could withstand extreme weather.

    Incidents such as floods and storms, potentially made more intense by climate change, could leave thousands without power unless the Government prioritises adaptation, something it has so far failed to do, the committee said.

    Electricity currently provides 15 to 20 per cent of the UK’s energy, but by 2050 this could rise to 65 per cent, a trend mostly driven by a switch from petrol and diesel-fuelled transport to electric power, and from gas boilers to electric alternatives such as heat pumps.

    Power cuts such as those seen across England and Wales in August 2019 could become more frequent, and the risk of this is “not currently being managed,” the report found.

    In that incident, caused by a lightning strike on an electricity circuit, more than a million people were hit by blackouts, with many more stranded on trains or at stations after the network ground to a halt.

    “These risks will become more common and more damaging as our dependence on electricity grows and the variability of our weather increases,” the report warns.

    The analysis of Britain’s readiness to deal with climate-related risk was compiled by over 450 scientists and reviewers from around the UK, and comes ahead of the Government’s upcoming risk assessment around climate change, which is due to be laid before Parliament early next year.

    Prof Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, and deputy chair of the committee, said: “Somebody needs to be taking an overview of the whole system, right from our house and our car through to the new renewable energy that’s going to be built, and not the individual pieces of the system that different private companies run.

    “Planning for our all-electric world has got to take into account the much bigger impact a failure in any part of the system can have.”

    The risk was one of many identified by the committee, which also said buildings should be designed to cope better with heatwaves, and warned that the UK was less well-prepared for climate change than it was five years ago.

    Further climate change is “inevitable” even if emissions fall, it said, and the Government needed to be “realistic” about threats to food and water supplies, infrastructure and public health.

    Chris Stark, the chief executive of the committee on climate change, said: “Our preparations for climate change in this country are not keeping pace with the extent of the risks that we face.

    “That is a very concerning conclusion, particularly since we’ve been raising our concerns consistently with the Government for some time now. They find it, I think, far too easy to dismiss those concerns. And we would like to see that change.”

    Dr Doug Parr, policy director and chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s time the Government pulls its finger out to ensure we’re ready to face the challenges the climate crisis poses.

    “That means bringing forward detailed, well-funded measures on everything from proper housing standards making them fit for living in a warmer world, to investment in soils and nature restoration.”

    Responding to the report, a Government spokesman said: “The UK was the first major world economy to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our plan to further reduce emissions in 2035 by at least 78 per cent compared to 1990 levels is the highest reduction target by a major economy to date.

    “As we work to eliminate the UK’s contribution to climate change and build back greener after the pandemic we will increase biodiversity, protect and restore our peatlands, clean up our country’s air, and help protect our waterways through our landmark Environment Bill.

    “We welcome this report and will consider its recommendations closely as we continue to demonstrate global leadership on climate change ahead of COP26 in November.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2021/06/16/britain-faces-catastrophic-power-cuts-electricity-begins-run

    “…our all-electric world…”

    A dream world!

    Despite the warnings, it’s all the same old fantasy. And yet, even if thousands were to die in power cuts in a long and bitter winter, you just know that the green loonies will lay the blame on the lack of action on renewables: “More, more, we must build more!”

    Next winter, be afraid of a big and intense anticyclone centred on the North Sea (no wind), dragging in polluted air from central Europe.

    1. That’s what happens when you have PPE graduates in charge of scientific and technical challenges.

      1. I think it is a deliberate part of the technocrats’ plans to have everyone under control.

    2. My sister lives outside Cape Town , and oh my goodness they are suffering severe power outages , some times with no warning .. Businesses are suffering, security alarms start whining away, computors are rendered useless, lights go out … utter madness and so frustrating .

      The idiots in charge of our government are gradually turning us into a 3rd world country … we will soon be the tribe that lost our head!

      1. Luckily we have significant amounts of hydro electric and nuclear power but oh my our powers are trying to drag us down to dependence on wind and solar.

        Then we have the minor issue that the main pipeline feeding western gas and oil to eastern provinces is under threat so we will also be pulling up the blankets and lighting candles.

  120. I’m shocked, shocked I tell yer! I’d never o’ thort it!

    Britain faces power cuts as electricity begins to run everything from cars to boilers

    Climate change advisers urge Government to ensure energy systems can cope with extreme weather, as future outages will have greater impact

    By Olivia Rudgard, ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT • 16 June 2021 • 6:00am

    Britain faces catastrophic power cuts because of an increasing reliance on electricity to run everything from cars to home boilers, the Committee on Climate Change has warned.

    Decarbonisation plans, which involve switching transport and heating away from petrol and gas, will mean outages in the future have a greater impact, the Government’s independent advisory committee on climate change has said, as it urged the Government to make sure the system could withstand extreme weather.

    Incidents such as floods and storms, potentially made more intense by climate change, could leave thousands without power unless the Government prioritises adaptation, something it has so far failed to do, the committee said.

    Electricity currently provides 15 to 20 per cent of the UK’s energy, but by 2050 this could rise to 65 per cent, a trend mostly driven by a switch from petrol and diesel-fuelled transport to electric power, and from gas boilers to electric alternatives such as heat pumps.

    Power cuts such as those seen across England and Wales in August 2019 could become more frequent, and the risk of this is “not currently being managed,” the report found.

    In that incident, caused by a lightning strike on an electricity circuit, more than a million people were hit by blackouts, with many more stranded on trains or at stations after the network ground to a halt.

    “These risks will become more common and more damaging as our dependence on electricity grows and the variability of our weather increases,” the report warns.

    The analysis of Britain’s readiness to deal with climate-related risk was compiled by over 450 scientists and reviewers from around the UK, and comes ahead of the Government’s upcoming risk assessment around climate change, which is due to be laid before Parliament early next year.

    Prof Dame Julia King, Baroness Brown of Cambridge, and deputy chair of the committee, said: “Somebody needs to be taking an overview of the whole system, right from our house and our car through to the new renewable energy that’s going to be built, and not the individual pieces of the system that different private companies run.

    “Planning for our all-electric world has got to take into account the much bigger impact a failure in any part of the system can have.”

    The risk was one of many identified by the committee, which also said buildings should be designed to cope better with heatwaves, and warned that the UK was less well-prepared for climate change than it was five years ago.

    Further climate change is “inevitable” even if emissions fall, it said, and the Government needed to be “realistic” about threats to food and water supplies, infrastructure and public health.

    Chris Stark, the chief executive of the committee on climate change, said: “Our preparations for climate change in this country are not keeping pace with the extent of the risks that we face.

    “That is a very concerning conclusion, particularly since we’ve been raising our concerns consistently with the Government for some time now. They find it, I think, far too easy to dismiss those concerns. And we would like to see that change.”

    Dr Doug Parr, policy director and chief scientist at Greenpeace UK, said: “It’s time the Government pulls its finger out to ensure we’re ready to face the challenges the climate crisis poses.

    “That means bringing forward detailed, well-funded measures on everything from proper housing standards making them fit for living in a warmer world, to investment in soils and nature restoration.”

    Responding to the report, a Government spokesman said: “The UK was the first major world economy to set a target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Our plan to further reduce emissions in 2035 by at least 78 per cent compared to 1990 levels is the highest reduction target by a major economy to date.

    “As we work to eliminate the UK’s contribution to climate change and build back greener after the pandemic we will increase biodiversity, protect and restore our peatlands, clean up our country’s air, and help protect our waterways through our landmark Environment Bill.

    “We welcome this report and will consider its recommendations closely as we continue to demonstrate global leadership on climate change ahead of COP26 in November.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/environment/2021/06/16/britain-faces-catastrophic-power-cuts-electricity-begins-run

    “…our all-electric world…”

    A dream world!

    Despite the warnings, it’s all the same old fantasy. And yet, even if thousands were to die in power cuts in a long and bitter winter, you just know that the green loonies will lay the blame on the lack of action on renewables: “More, more, we must build more!”

    Next winter, be afraid of a big and intense anticyclone centred on the North Sea (no wind), dragging in polluted air from central Europe.

      1. Samson Posey also sang … especially when being throw about by Maj. John Reisman.

  122. I have just catched up with Hopeless Hancock who has ‘mandated’ vaccinations of care home staff as a condition of employment. This small man is apparently determined to either ignore or else rewrite the Nuremberg Code 1947. His arrogance and stupidity knows no bounds.

    Hancock, you evil monster, you and your cohorts will be held to full account for your crimes against humanity. Untested experimental vaccines are precisely that: experimental.

    We already know about the consequences of mass ‘vaccination’ of healthy people and that the main ‘vaccine’ pharmaceutical manufacturers, Astra Zeneca, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer have hideous records of malpractice and multi millions, billions even, in claims against them for the deleterious effects of their potions.

    Moderna appear to be accepting the same risks whilst also sheltering behind supposed government granted immunity from prosecution.

    Anyone submitting to this vaccination regime want their heads testing.

    I have no words to describe my loathing of Johnson, Hancock and their SAGE advisors. These are criminal networks whose collective aim is to enrich themselves and deprive the rest of us of our health and wealth. Bastards all.

    1. One can only conclude that Hancock has been offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams.

    2. Have you considered asking for help, your anti psychotic medicine is obviously not working/

    1. Everyone should watch that video. This is how concentration camps, sorry quarantine facilities start.

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