The 75th Anniversary of the End of the War in Europe . We can be sure that the Far Left BBC will be rewriting British history to favour its propaganda war against its own people . Let the many of our people who had their lives taken in the cause of Freedom Rest in Peace . With Thanks . ????????
75th VE Day / Open Thread 8 May 2020
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Normally those government briefings are just filler before the weather – and As instantly forgotten as the ‘minister ‘ running the thing
But the shapps one stuck with me from yesterday . It was in the tone. Things are going to be different says shapps – you are going to have to get used to a different way of travelling says shapps . You are going to be getting on your bike says shapps .
And the government is going to spend 2,billion on giving cycles priority says shapps .
The tone was – dictatorial – and I could imagine some thick socialist standing there telling us such stuff .
Then I wondered “why?”
Is it because they are not accountable even though they didn’t prepare and still haven’t got control ?
Is it the 80 majority gone to their head ?
Is it that they can be pictured clapping every bloody Thursday night ?
Is it because they know they will never be held accountable – and created a country totally dependant on hand outs ?
Or can pass illegal laws and use dumbed down plod to clear parks , use drones and tell people what’s good for them ?
Take your pick . Personally – I’m done with their lockdown . I’ll stay away from people – I dont do crowds –
I’ll risk being a victim of the Chinese virus -I’d have stuck with government directions if I thought they would ever get control of the pandemic – but they never will –
And until a vaccine or drug comes along nothing will change .
Meanwhile BoJo can be pictured strolling in the park -.public employees can be viewed on twitter with demented dance routines and for ordinary people – stay frightened .
As for number 10 -either Cummings has lost his touch – has been ousted in a coup or the covid did for him – I don’t know – and really don’t care any more .
I’m off to get a bit of sun .
The government is not going to let the small matter of a global pandemic get in the way of their wider goals:
Open borders (hence the failure to do anything about the airports)
Immigration (hence not acting against the invaders on the south coast)
Cheap labour (hence bringing in people from Romania to pick fruit and veg)
Green fantasies (no private cars by 2050, hence the promotion of bikes and stuff)
@Ian good post
Revealing little moment in Mr Marr’s interview with statistician Prof. Spiegenhalter, on the subject of ‘international Covid death comparisons’ when he said that his article in the Guardian was the catalyst for the subsequent rumpus.
It was that ‘article in the Guardian’ line that made me wonder why it is that so many apparently non-partisan scientists choose the newspaper with the lowest actual and most artificially inflated circulation to air their views?
Is it because they believe that only the chosen readership is bright enough to understand? Is it because they believe the absurd and unsubstantiated ‘on-line’ readership figures? Figures, it would seem, based on the fact that if someone has a lap-top they must be bright enough to understand what’s in the Guardian. So that’s a tick then.
And if you take on-line readership as a reality, difficult to quantify but still a reality, and pick for instance a banal news source like Yahoo – which reproduces more than its fair share of Guardian articles – the comments are almost always universally scathing, so while it may, just, be true that the Guardian has a large on-line readership, that readership is in the main critical to the point of derision.
So, taking Spiegenhalter as an example, is his choice of disseminator based on a desire to air his views to as wide an audience as possible, or is it because his politics are in-line with the message that the Guardian gives its ‘worldwide’ audience?
Beltane
They didn’t get him on to agree with anything the Govt had done now did they 🙂
I thought Prof showed his politics..essentially he tried to knock Boris for summarising what he himself had said – Boris never said learning from the evidence was pointless he simply repeated what anyone would take from Spielgelhalter’s SKY interview about using international comparisons.
“I think this kind of Eurovision contest between who is top and who is second in Europe is a completely, pretty fatuous operation.” He added: “There are countries that have not done very well. That includes us. But trying to make these detailed comparisons is just impossible at this stage.”
At the end of the day he has spent his whole life in academia ..what do you think his politics are? He is just a tad more sophisticated than most of them…
Of course you are right JA. In fact, on the plus side, Marr almost failed twice with his clever leading questions, when Prof Peter Horby was on screen.
Fed the line: ‘You advised the government back in June to stockpile gowns, which they ignored…’ there was a noticeable pause when, my guess would be, he thought about saying ‘Well, we advised the NHS, actually…’ before going down the BBC road left open to him.
And later when Marr quoted from Lancet ‘editor’ Richard Horton, questioning the impartiality of pro-government scientists on SAGE and Cobra committees, his polite: ‘I think he’s mistaken there….’ was not simply far from what Malicious Marr was either expecting or hoping for, it made his whole line of questioning transparent – but that’s what Sunday mornings on the BBC are all about.
Yes Beltane I noticed he deferred from answering some questions directly and actually went off topic to avoid any follow up. So you may well be correct in that the BBC, in their haste to criticise the Govt, actually got it the questions wrong.
I really struggle with Marr – ever since Brexit when he showed his true colours and lack of impartiality
@Beltane Spiegenhalter is OK
(BTW he messaged me at 6:21am in the morning a couple of weeks ago
to say my maths was right, when I had to ask him about why something he said on radio where his own maths didn’t add up.
I don’t know why neither the presenter nor thousands of listeners seemed to notice the slip.)
Well the Guardian did used to be a good paper he’s been quoted by them since 2001 and has written a few articles since 2010.
By 2003 the Guardian had already gone bad with libmob trolls being in charge of deleting reader comments.
So Spiegelhalter basically wanted to make a point that with Covid people shouldn’t be comparing data from country to country as if it were gospel.
He wrote a blogpost & the Guardian took that as an article
He doesn’t have a relationship with other newspapers, cos basically he doesn’t have a political stance.
He’s just the country’s top medical statistician and sits on Sage.
So when Boris was annoyed about gotchagang journos saying ‘look Britain is overtaking Italy in terms of deaths’
he was right to be annoyed cos Italian figs are not on the same basis as the UK’s so he quoted Spiegelhalter.
Boris was not saying ‘this is in the Guardian, so it must be right’
but rather it’s the weight of Spiegelhalter’s reputation.
I think you made a good point
Is there a trick whereby Guardian content is syndicated through YahooNews and MSN and those clicks are what gives the Guardian it’s unbelievable claim of 9m/week unique UK adult readers ?
I looked at hundreds of tweets about the Marr show
and hundreds of libmob cherrypicked Spiegelhalter’s words to support their own case.
In fact he did not give a lefty line.
They did quote him saying Boris was mistaken in saying never compare countries.
But they didn’t quote him on why some comparisons are bad.
If we are both right and the Guardian resort to tricks to artificially inflate their circulation and inferred impact, doesn’t that make their whole position facile and morally questionable?
The same old same old of ‘We’re right because we know best’ seems to apply.
Fair points Stew
I still believe he was being disingenuous with some of his comments and is political
I didn’t enjoy his book though 🙂 so maybe I am biased 🙂
Spiegenhalter’s latest gov-nok interview might suggest that he’s not quite as a-political as you think Stew.
“Police in Norwich have spoken severely to a teenager for going round the suburbs in a 17th Century plague doctor’s mask, like a huge crow’s head, and a long black cloak.
Citizens are said to have claimed he was frightening people. ”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-52533718
So where are the Fascist Left defending his right to wear what he pleases and the right to cover his face.
Muslim women wearing the Niqab frightens people, but the Gestapo would never dream in stopping the brown eyed favourites doing exactly as they please.
This young man has been severly discriminated against by the Gestapo simply because he is not a Muslim. He has done nothing illegal and yet he has been treated markedly differently on the gounds of his race and his religion, and those who claim ‘ekwalitee’ say and do absolutely nothing.
Is it illegal to have any fun now? What a miserable, sanctimonious world the youth of today suffer.
I blush to admit it, but when I was about that lad’s age I vaguely recall dressing up in a black, leather trenchcoat, T-shirt sporting a picture of Hitler and a swastika, suspenders and a bra and ‘mincing’ around town with my mates (all equally ludicrously dressed) in the name of ‘letting off steam’ after exams at uni.
Somewhere there is a faded photo that could probably be used for blackmail purposes.
I’m quite sure the locals thought us crass and immature (which we were), but I don’t recall them ever objecting to our money when they sold us beer and kebabs, and we were never given a ‘talking to’ by the plod.
Am sure ‘the Tomster’ (over six foot and twenty stone, with beard, make up, wig, and sequined dress) terrified some of the local kids, dressed like that he sure terrified me, but, not half as much as some of the ‘transitioning’ who dress like that all the time and yet expect to be taken seriously (why aren’t the plod talking to them?)
BBC, I don’t know about it being illegal to have any fun, but I’ve noticed that those on the Left – be it columnists or authors have no sense of humour, and are so bloody serious all the time. I’m talking about Christina Patterson, Afua Hirsch, Rachel Shabi – who sneers a lot, and Alibaba Brown who only giggles when she’s proved wrong. And as for Owen Jones, although he might giggle a lot in private when he has his fancy tickled.
Think I saw the video on here after someone posted a link, I thought it macabre but it made me smile. Is it any worse than this?
“Jo Brand to face no action over acid joke, police say”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-48640411
Six days thou shalt labour and on the seventh …
I managed six days without BBC Radio 4 News this week although I caught a glimpse of a TV Press Conference when taking some food to an elderly friend. Socially distanced conversation became more important than BBC or whatever channel it was on and TV was switched off.
This morning I listened to the R4 7 a.m. News. Big item: failure of test centres (note the plural) and UK Covid-19 tests have been sent to the USA for their non-NHS system to fix.
What was notable was no reference to the central UK testing centre in Milton Keynes. The Government is having to resort to the private sector in the UK to save the NHS’s ass and those of the bungling Civil Servants and Health Chiefs who, apparently, still cannot get Milton Keynes working to capacity, nearly seven weeks on!
‘…apparently still can’t get Milton Keynes working to capacity…’
I’m quite sure they could Up2. If they wanted to.
Bel, BBC – overmanned (other genders are available) by at least 450 journalists and the BBC should be finding an answer to your implied question and to satisfy your doubts. But no. A guaranteed income of £3.2 billion and falling* but, despite the difficulties of lockdown, the BBC cannot be bothered to find that information.
After all, the BBC know everyones’ telephone number, including that of Burberry and other garment manufacturers ….
…. they must know the telephone number of the Department of Health and the Permanent Under-Secretary in that Department.
(* Cannot guess how many households have cancelled their TV Licences since March 24th but I’ve seen a figure of 200,000 suggested – rounded up or down perhaps?)
IMHO
The higher echelons at Al Beeb are allowing their junior employees free-rein with their Lefty Yoonie politics so that antagonised Tory Party shuts the Biased Broadcaster down. Think of the massive ‘Golden’ Redundancy Payments to the long serving bosses awaiting their ‘Golden’ Pensions will get ?
The junior staff will go to the wall looking for jobs picking fruit in Kent ?
Just a thought.
This is a top theory.
Now to pop that on BBC Young Reporter… and let the fun begin!
maxi, maxi…………. where are you ?
Kent ?
taffy, poot frickin’ is all the Beeboids are good for, judging by their present output.
[H/t (ie. = that is, Fed, H/t = hat tip) to W A Spooner.]
Be a ‘Lert’ , yes that is what our Border Farce should be , full of ‘Lerts’ running a Channel Taxi service. While our Naval Services sit in harbour twiddling their thumbs under the ‘watchful eyes of our ‘Compliance Minister’ .
And so they come ………………………………..
“Migrant crossings: Another boat intercepted amid lockdown spike”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52605310
Is this all a result of ‘Tweezer the appeaser’s’ work a few years ago ? She sold us down the Brexit Swaney then , Is Boris about to do the same ? The acid test will be on June 1.
https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/migration-compact
IMHO Tory voters should get hold of their MPs or their Brexit Party representatives . The ‘Liblab snow flakes’ are about to weaponise Covid in an attempt to override democracy and stop Brexit.
The beeb will soon be demanding a second referendum on the grounds that all those fascist oldies who voted Brexit have now been wiped out by Coronavirus.
(They won’t say it of course, because they’re ‘unbiased’, ha ha, but they’ll give airtime to those advocating it. Some might say…)
As usual the beeb and msm have gone straight for the jugular and heavily criticised the new “Stay Alert” Covid slogan as woolly and meaningless. How can you continue to use “Stay at Home” if you are going to allow everyone to go outside more than once a day for relaxation or for a gradual return to work? If Stay at Home was retained the media would say it was a mixed message and inconsistent with allowing increased activity outside the home.
The idea is that by relaxing some of the lockdown measures people could easily become complacent and forget all about distancing so need to concentrate and stay alert. This is especially relevant to the hordes that descended on parks, cycleways etc. in large groups over the weekend most of whom appeared to be under 35.
Now the Scots and Welsh are complaining they were not consulted about the new message and are sticking with Stay at Home! They were fine with coming out with their own strategies for easing lockdown measures without consulting Bojo!
Doesn’t matter what initiative the Government announce, the msm fall over themselves to find fault with it, e.g. the Mirror and the I.O.W. tracing app. Kevin Maguire, what do you not understand by the word “trial”?
Bulldog
Whilst I agree with your comments about Al Beeb and the MSM , hasn’t the Tory Government laid themselves wide open for attack? Take the Lockdown of all of the people of Great Britain whilst every Tom, Dick, Harry or Covid have been flying in, unchecked until a day or two ago ?
What’s more , the ‘Nelsonian Blind eye’ being turned to Dover – ” I see no ships only our Border Farce Taxi Service” ?
Taffman
Can someone on here with more knowledge on these things start a people’s vote campaign against the Illegals coming across the Channel ?
It’s an insult to the previous generations sacrifice who kept the Fascist hordes away
We all need to contact our MP’S with constant questions on a regular basis…..I did but only had the standard reply card back ……only just better than nothing …something at least !
Charlie Farley
Nigel Farage & Brexit Party .
Simples.
In view of the fact that large numbers of African and other third world types are hitting the shores along the south coast – I wondered why we don’t hear about it . ?
I’m not talking about the lefty MSM – but there does r seem to be an whistleblowers or any one involved directly saying what is really going on .
Is there a news blackout ?
Have they all taken a bung ?
Are they all part of the illegal import industry ?
Is it really all about drugs ?
We don’t even hear about those washed up drowned – or is the operation so well controlled that no one dies ?
I don’t get it ….
Taffman,
Re your point on migrants, can understand your frustration on this subject which includes me along with many others.
Although Priti Patel could hardly be described as one of our most effective Home Secretaries in recent years (were any really effective?) and her maths skills leave much to be desired, she is not in a position to do anything to stop the influx of migrants into Dover without better support from the French and is reduced to uttering that hackneyed Ministerial phrase “it is a challenging situation”. Once these boats get one inch beyond the half way point in the Strait of Dover they become the U.K.’s responsibility and migrants can then rely on the Border Force to “escort” them into harbour whereupon they immediately claim asylum. They are safe in the knowledge only a very small percentage will ever be deported due to our cumbersome appeals process and the assistance of an army of human rights defence Barristers of whom Surkeer was once a shining example.
I believe there still exists a formal co-operation agreement between the U.K. and France specifically dealing with the problem of migrants crossing the Channel in small boats which was signed in January 2018 (the Sandhurst Agreement) by one T. May and President Macron during his red carpet visit laid on for the signing ceremony at Sandhurst Military Academy. This cost us a trifling £44.5m to help pay for various “improvements” in France, in return we will be loaned the Bayeux Tapestry in 2022 to display. Sounds like quite a good deal for Monsieur Macron!
Over the last 10 years the French have had over £500m in taxpayers money to improve border and port security at Calais and Dunkirk including the removal of the Calais jungle. This includes the 2018 £44.5m deal plus a further £6m in 2019 for a “plan of action” to increase French beach patrols and surveillance operations as migrants had moved away from the ports to various beaches further along the coast.
The Sandhurst agreement does not oblige France to take back migrants that have made it to British waters. Section I subsection 10 para. c) states:
“Migrants rescued at sea will be taken to a port of safety in accordance with maritime law. The respective maritime authorities will liaise with each other about rescue operations …..and to determine the appropriate port of safety for a rescued migrant”. So for “appropriate” one may as well substitute “nearest”. At the time the agreement was concluded the Home Secretary was Amber Rudd. The agreement is therefore completely toothless as far as the U.K. is concerned.
The French sea and beach patrols do manage to stop the occasional boat before it gets to U.K. waters to make it appear they are earning their keep but with modern surveillance technology supposedly funded by our £6m, e.g. night vision goggles, drones etc they should be doing a lot more to apprehend the criminal gangs that are raking in millions from their activities. The French give the impression they are more than happy to see migrants off their pitch and for all we know are turning a blind eye when it suits them.
I am surprised France hasn’t demanded another payment from the U.K. as they must have run out of cash by now . No doubt after the recent increase in crossings they are preparing a bill in order to “improve security” at a more appropriate cost, £10m this time?
We keep hearing how dangerous it is to cross the Channel in small boats but there only seems evidence of one person that has unfortunately lost their life in recent years and nearly all crossings are made in fine weather with light winds and calm seas so the danger level seems vastly exaggerated. Nobody wants to see loss of life on a large scale which will happen eventually, these crossings must therefore be stopped at source.
There is no simple solution to this problem unless the French suddenly agree the U.K. Border Force can patrol inside French waters and have our people checking their beaches. Easy to guess this will never happen even after we fully exit the EU at the end of 2020.
The main problem is we are leaving the EU and France does not want to be seen allowing the Brits any special favours.
I stand ready to be corrected following any fact checks you might want to carry out!
Poor sods also have a dedicated bbc reporter too.
Might be the first time he has mentioned the place.
Guest Who
“Woken in New York not by the sirens but the high and freezing winds of a polar vortex – in May.”
Whatever happened to all that Global Warming malarky ?
Likely he is still trying to work that and TDS into the next one.
Guest Who
Sorry, I am a bit slow today – TDS ? 😉
TDS – Trump Derangement Syndrome. ????
Me neither Taffman –
As for today – PM – to announce what ? Extension to Brexit – he’s chucking in the towel ? Don’t waste the last 2 months like the government has ? Watch for the churchillian line ‘sunlit uplands ‘ ‘the few ‘
‘Darkest hour ‘ or that other lie ‘we re all in it together ‘…….
Global warming is being revised. As everyone has succumbed to the lockdown, the media and the BBC’s Tory Government are ready to switch from the China virus to the climate emergency.
Be a Lert, stay indoors, obey the cops and save the world.
Guest, is poor old Nick ‘stranded’ there? Having been added to the overlarge BBC team for US Presidential Election coverage?
Oh dear.
How sad.
Never mind.
Dear Nick, Who runs New York City and New York State? Since you are not saying, let us assume they are the ones you and your fellow beeboids quote endlessly as the gospel of all US news.
Have they considered that God is telling them something?
I thought I’d put the ‘start the week ‘ thread up a bit early so that those who want to comment on the BoJo speech and any changes to the removal of our liberty can do so .
The first report of the day I saw on the BBC celebrated ‘Victory in Europe Day’ the next report was ‘Europe Day’ with all the same film excluding Churchill, the Royal Family and the celebrations in London.