Start the Week 25 October 2021

Over to you. A week to the start of the UN Green festival in Glasgow – expect an onslaught of climate propaganda from the BBC

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404 Responses to Start the Week 25 October 2021

  1. Dover Sentry says:

    I’m convinced that Rishi Sunak is Tony Blair.

    On BBC Marr today, he sounded like, delivered like and spoke like Blair. His policies are Blairite. Our BBC like Sunak.

    Are the Tories morphing into a Socialist Government? Is there a Plan B? The other Socialists on the opposite side of the House are calling for one.

    BBC Online News:

    “Covid: Labour calls for Plan B measures in England”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59027290

       32 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Catchup links to most recent posts on previous thread
      page 3 started 1:30pm Sunday
      page 2

         11 likes

    • Sluff says:

      An unexpected complementary post to Dover’s.

      Been watching a political review on TV.

      It shows a fuel crisis with big queues at petrol stations – those that have fuel, that is..
      And huge pressure on a crisis-ridden, underfunded NHS because of respiratory viral infections for which A and E can hardly cope.

      Sound familiar? A recent BBC news bulletin?
      I’m talking about the Blair government in 2000/ 2001!

      What short and highly selective memories the BBC news ‘journalists’ have.

         50 likes

  2. StewGreen says:

    Channel5 doco about Wetherspoons
    “Ben has invented an app called NeverSpoons”

    … that title looks like typical Remainer nastiness

       40 likes

    • digg says:

      The thing about the Neverspoons app is that it is targeted at the metro latte folk who would rather pay double the price for an iffy craft sludge pint with a stupid name than take advantage of the much-much cheaper and better ‘Spoons offering.

      It is of course all about Brexit. The Wetherspoons boss was a very active promoter of leave so he is now the devil incarnate.
      Probably doesn’t worry him in the slightest as these people were never his customers anyway.

      The really hilarious thing is that the app points you at pubs “nearby” the local spoons which kinda isn’t very logical to me!

      Finally it does help keep the most sneery and poncy people out of spoons too meaning a much nicer atmosphere for the regular visitors!

      Well done that man!

         24 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Sunderland businessman’s second wife website ‘benefits women’
      Published23 October 2017

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-41667070

      In the UK, polygamous marriages – where a person has more than one spouse – are only recognised if they took place in countries where they are legal.

         2 likes

  3. Guest Who says:

    Funny old world.

       10 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      So what? The PR team for Baldwin know neither Baldwin nor this poor girl can talk to the press, but they can, and they are working damn hard to shift the blame away from Baldwin and onto someone else.
      At the moment she is not guilty of anything, and she might never be charged – she might not even have been there, but that doesn’t matter. The job is to deflect blame away from Baldwin onto here, and even if you have one seeing eye, once you know you can see exactly what they are doing as they do it.

         38 likes

  4. Guest Who says:

    Springster’s boys.

       8 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      There’s a reply
      “It may well be that YOU constantly try to smear anyone with any doubts as to the government narrative as an “antivaxxer” or “denier” or “conspiracy theorist” etc etc.
      It’s pretty anooying and quite shallow tbh.

         44 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Praise be, there is even a hashtag to go with.

         8 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Dear Marianna Spring (BBC wages paid under threat of prosecution),

      As I’ve had to look at your BBC news and use other sources to determine that your news is not news but selective editorial opinion I’d like to request that I have a refund for the last 4 years plus get the BBC free from now on.

      Please let me know how I can go about this as I am willing to create a full list of articles that I’ve had to investigate plus time taken for me to check your fact checker whilst realising that the BBC intentionally removes news rather than incorrectly report on it, uses images to sway opinion or misleads with the main titles hoping no one reads the full article.

      ‘Omission is the greatest form of lie.’

      CAS-4987700-SY1FTF : BBC NewsWatch says boredom with pro-Brexit march.

      CAS-4844672-N8FDYY: Update on the MP Expenses 2009 scandal in 2018.

      CAS-4939547-J71Z1V: Here’s hoping Ireland do the right thing G.Lineker.

      CAS-4937378-YKMWBJ: BBC not reporting ‘Day of Freedom’ March 06may2018.

      CAS-4906141-BFJQL0: I take offence that presenters promote their books.

      CAS-4892811-C820SC: I am offended that I have to pay the BBC TV Tax.

      CAS-4824332-633N1P: What happened in Italy was not covered …

      CAS-4933135-ZV3V7F: The omission is the most powerful form of lie …

      CAS-6005141-S1V9D1: Not seen a report on the UK Governments Covid19 

      Let me know how to go about resolving the issue of paying for something that wastes my time as I have to check each story rather than rely on its accuracy.

      Cheers,
      Mark
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications

         10 likes

  5. Guest Who says:

    She seems nice.

       26 likes

  6. StewGreen says:

    Local BBC news opened with an org which is marching for grooming gang victims.

    Nope, cos the news usually regurgiate PR by socialist orgs
    and socialist orgs don’t march for grooming gang victims.

    Instead the item was a Hull march focused on the Sarah Everhard case
    The organiser is a community activist whose last tweet was a retweet of Jeremy Corbyn
    The voices looked the Socialist Worker types ..purple hair etc.

    FBv5RFAXEA49Juu?format=jpg&name=small

       17 likes

  7. popeye says:

    An interesting statistic. I took a random sample of about 1500 persons, with a high average age, and discovered more had been killed by an Islamist than have died with or of Covid. That’ll be the Houses of Commons and Lords. I wonder if the BBC will pick up on that?

       38 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      There’s a Fact Claim claiming to debunk the idea that ZERO American politicians have died
      but what it ends up doing is showing how rare it is
      https://www.factcheck.org/2020/09/politicians-have-died-of-covid-19/

      They didn’t give any examples of serving national politicians
      rather 1- guy who had served previously
      2 guys who were State representatives that did die whilst serving

      FFS There must be tens of thousands of serving politicians in the US

      Seems that staying away from the NHS and paying for private healthcare may mean you don’t die.

         13 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    Local news then continued
    “the DEFEATED Grimsby Labour MP, who now works promoting wind farms , was on the BBC Politics show saying there should be MORE ONSHORE wind farms”

    … Is that news ?
    Onshore wind farms are not banned
    If you want to put one up buy some land and apply for planning permission.
    What deters people is there is NO SUBSIDY for onshore wind.

    “Recent years have seen a lot of offshore, but many onshore have faced opposition from local residents”
    … Em many offshore have also faced opposition from residents too

    “Melanie Onn told BBC Politics North that public opinion was behind the expansion in wind energy”
    Tosh

    Onn “Surveys say that the public are supportive of onshore wind turbine !”
    “and people living near them support them more”
    … Tosh .. surveys have questions skewed to get the required answers
    Presenter “See BBCiplayer for the rest of that show”

       23 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Item #3 yoga for bereaved women
      then female weather presenter
      The weekend presenters are all female as well

      In the entire 6 minute programme ZERO male voices were heard
      The entire show was female faces and voices.

      During the week it’s a male presenter and a roster of 3 weather presenters 1 of whom is male
      So there are plenty of male voices

         15 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Prince Charles’ private estate held an undisclosed interest in an offshore company that could have benefited from his campaigning for changes to climate change rules, according to reporting by ICIJ’s British media partners in the latest round of Paradise Papers revelations.

      The BBC and the Guardian reported on Tuesday that the prince’s estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, “secretly bought shares worth $113,500 in a Bermuda company,” Sustainable Forestry Management, that was directed by a friend of the prince.
      https://www.icij.org/investigations/paradise-papers/another-british-royal-found-offshore-connections/

         4 likes

  9. JimS says:

    Moneybox touts for equal misery.

    Believe it or not women on average get paid less than men and work fewer hours and, shock horror, receive lower pensions.

    The Moneybox solution is for men to take more paternity leave to allow their partners to return to work sooner. This will boost their partner’s pensions but diminish their own, thus getting nearly to the wonderful ‘equality’.

    But if the average man gets paid more than his average female partner it makes sense, as a couple, for the higher earner to maximise his hours rather than try and equalise their pensions.

       24 likes

  10. maxincony says:

    StewGreen,

    Yet again today the Times book review lays into a book
    children’s book The Lion Above The Door
    ‘fun but flawed’ and says it won the Blue Peter Prize cos it is about refugees and immigration and is by a Muslim author..

    I believe this is called; “The Lying through your Teeth” fallacy.

    ‘The Lion Above The Door’ didn’t win the Blue Peter Prize; that was one of Onjali Q Raufs previous books, ‘The Boy at the Back of the Class’. Nowhere in the Times reviewer’s description of that book does it say, suggest or imply that the award had anything to do with the religion of its author.

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-lion-above-the-door-by-onjali-q-rauf-review-immigration-children-fiction-fw3jrbbmp

    “The Boy at the Back of the Class, the 2018 debut novel by Onjali Q Rauf, was one of those rare books that children pushed into each other’s hands — and still do. Telling the story of school life through the eyes of the friend of a refugee new-boy, it discussed immigration, bullying and how hard it is to stand up for what you believe in when you’re in a large inner-city school and don’t want to get beaten up. It did all this while remaining funny and breezy. No wonder it won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize and the Blue Peter prize.”

       5 likes

    • Nibor says:

      Well hello Maxincony , posting on an early part thread for a change . Do join more often and at reasonable hours if you can .
      If you can answer the questions put to you even better .

         27 likes

      • taffman says:

        maxincony
        Are things are hotting up at Al Beeb? Redundancies on the way ? Is Nadine scaring you?

        A simple question for a simple person – Have you paid your telly tax yet ?

           19 likes

        • JohnC says:

          maxi is not UK based – he’s almost certainly in the USA. He will be a bit worried because people like him will be first for the chopping block when the empire crumbles.

             18 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Yes you are right, by opening with a title that says the book is flawed, but then straight away going into the paragraph that says a book won the Blue Peter prize it did give the impression he was saying the flawed book won a prize.

      The review opens; there is a title then there is a sub-title
      “A story of outsiders is fun but flawed”
      The review then begins not by talking about this book, but by talking about her original book that was about refugees and won the Blue Peter Prize and she is a Muslim author
      Ah yes my mistake the reviewer does say that the book was funny and deserved the prize .
      So that book is about refugees and immigration and is by a Muslim author.. and won the Blue Peter Prize”

      He then goes on to the new book “which also focuses on outsiders”
      then he gets onto why he thinks the book is flawed.
      So he wasn’t talking about why a flawed book won a prize … my error in reading.

         13 likes

      • maxincony says:

        StewGreen,

        The review then begins not by talking about this book, but by talking about her original book that was about refugees and won the Blue Peter Prize and she is a Muslim author”.

        The review doesn’t mention the author’s religion or say she won a prize in any way because of it.

        That’s not an; “error in reading”.

        That’s you lying.

           2 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          The review uses a prominent photo that’s how we know her religion, even though the text doesn’t use the word “Muslim author”
          The words do say her original book was about refugees and won the Blue Peter Prize

          BTW here’s her giving away the book Amazing Muslims

             17 likes

          • maxincony says:

            StewGreen,

            Your squirming is truly delightful.

            You lied.

            Just admit it and move on.

               2 likes

            • JohnC says:

              The article has the headline ‘The Lion Above the Door by Onjali Q Rauf review’ then the whole first paragraph is about a completely different book.

              Why on Earth would they start a review of a book by talking about a different book in such detail ?.

              Easy to make the mistake. Everyone will assume it’s about the title of the article.

              The interesting bit is how your bitterness and spite shine through in your comment maxi. How very very left wing of you. Are things not going your way at the moment ?.

              What a miserable nit-picking existence you lead.

                 24 likes

              • maxincony says:

                JohnC,

                Easy to make the mistake.

                Cute.

                Perhaps you can come to StewGreen’s rescue and quote the part of the review were it says; “it won the Blue Peter Prize cos it is about refugees and immigration and is by a Muslim author”?

                   2 likes

                • JohnC says:

                  It won the Blue Peter prize, it’s about refugees and immigration and the author is a Muslim.

                  Go see for yourself:
                  https://islamicschoollibrarian.com/tag/onjali-q-rauf-2/

                  Which bit is too difficult for you – or are you really down at the level where you simply can’t find an ASCII character match ?.

                  I don’t have a company account for The Times so I can only see the first paragraph. So I get a headline for one book and a detailed description of a completely different book.

                  See how easy it can be to think it is referring to the title ?. Of course you do. But luckily you are a big enough hypocrite to pretend you don’t.

                     23 likes

                  • maxincony says:

                    JohnC,

                    It won the Blue Peter prize, it’s about refugees and immigration and the author is a Muslim.

                    So that’ll be a no then.

                    Excellent work, John.

                       2 likes

                    • Nibor says:

                      Maxi ,
                      What is this Blue Peter prize , who awards it and what is the criteria to enable someone to win it ?

                         13 likes

                    • Rob in Cheshire says:

                      Hi Max:

                      I would hereby like to award you the inaugural Making a Mountain out of a Molehill Prize.

                      Well done. You can put it on your mantlepiece next to your Order of Lenin.

                         7 likes

                • Nibor says:

                  Easy Maxi ,
                  Due to Wokeness especially in the artistic community , it won the the Blue Peter prize cos it`s about refugees and immigration and is by a Muslim author .
                  That`s a review for you .

                  Have you read the book ?

                     24 likes

                • JohnC says:

                  While you’re here maxi : can you do us a favour ?.

                  When the UK arm of the propaganda machine roll into work carrying their tax-payer funded coffees, can you let them know that it was a white male MP who just got murdered by a Muslim terrorist ?. Stabbed 19 times apparently.

                  The poor lambs seem to think Jo Cox has been murdered again and it breaks my heart to think of the poor little luvvies sobbing into their Starbucks, staining their free copies of The Guardian and reliving the nightmare of Brexit all over again.

                  On top of Karma catching up with their poster boy and fellow Trump-hater Baldwin, I fear they could break down completely.

                     42 likes

                • StewGreen says:

                  @Maxi what’s that claiming I am squirming and need someone to rescue me ?
                  Nope, straight away there, I checked and fessed up and wrote in my first reply “Yes you are right… my error in reading.”

                  It happens to us all every so often that we read a complicated page and it turns out not o be what we first thought as someone says “I think you have misinterpreted it, that’s not what the writer said”
                  … You shouting “liar liar” is misrepresentation
                  and reflects malice on your part.

                     14 likes

        • Richard Pinder says:

          Onjali Q. Raúf launched Making Herstory following the murder of her beloved aunt, Mumtahina ‘Ruma’ Jannat in 2011.
          Mumtahina Jannat, 29, was strangled with a scarf by her husband Abdul Kadir at their home in East Ham, east London. Later Kadir rang his brother Nural Islam to say: “I’m in trouble”.

             13 likes

          • JohnC says:

            Muslim abuse of women – while not approved by the BBC – is tolerated and kept quiet because of the higher level agenda.

            It’s difficult to portray wife-beaters and murderers as victims.

            I’m still disgusted at how little coverage the woman burned alive on the street in Manchester was given by the BBC. I can’t imagine a more horrific way to be murdered.

            I originally wrote ‘shocked at how little coverage …’ but after some thought, I realised it didn’t shock me at all. It’s exactly what I expect from the BBC. Along with Sasha Johnson and Sabina Nessa.

               36 likes

  11. tomo says:

    twice… in a couple of hours

    kamalaklimate.jpg

    blimey …. – and now this:

       9 likes

  12. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    A little bit of hope? As I said before give the girl a fair go.

       14 likes

    • taffman says:

      I have no faith in anything changing . Nothing changed when Priti took over the Home Offices except the promises , promises, promises, and threats.
      You are very optimistic Yasser .

         31 likes

      • Jeff says:

        Yes, I had high hopes for Priti when she took over at the HO.

        I think Nadine is cut from the same cloth.

        She talks a very good game.

        They all do.

        Unfortunately…

           24 likes

        • Doublethinker says:

          I think that the problem goes well beyond Peitti and Nadine , it becoming increasingly apparent that government ministers are almost irrelevant to the way in which the country is governed . This especially apples to Tory ministers with mildly right of centre views. The civil service , which has been captured by the liberal globalists , simply blocks or ignores whatever the minister wants unless it complies with the views of the mandarin class. I also suspect that these right of centre ministers are ‘set up ‘ by the civil servants and are led up the garden path. How else do you explain why the DVLA has been sat on 50,000 HGV License applications for months? Details such as this ought to flagged to the minister by the civil servants , whose professional job it is to foresee such problems, well ahead and suitable mitigating steps proposed for sign off by the minister. I simply don’t believe that this happened but I do believe that any remotely competent civil servant would have been well aware of the problem and it’s consequences. Of course the civil servants escape scrutiny and accountability and yet it is they who run our country. Democracy is dead.

             19 likes

          • BRISSLES says:

            I have a civil servant two doors up from me. Her normal workplace is north London, so its a commute every day. She has worked from home since March 2020, and has no desire to continue making that journey, but its now been requested that she attends the office in Kings Cross at least ……….. twice a month.

               3 likes

            • Doublethinker says:

              Brussels,
              Surely the general public can now see that Britain is divided into two employer related classes , those who work in the private sector and those who work in the public sector. In the former you work or eventually don’t get paid, in the latter you don’t even need to bother turning up and you still get paid and your job is secure with a gold plated pension. And its Not just your neighbour , nor the rest of the civil service and local government, but even GPs who the public must now see as nothing more than exceptionally well paid work shy scroungers.

              PS . My tablet changed your name to Brussels . I apologise on its behalf!

                 4 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      She is in the Conservative.

         0 likes

  13. Nibor says:

    Here`s a thought for Boris Johnson , the Conservative party , the Labour party ( give up with the LibDims ) , the civil service , the Exctinceous Rebellion , the Home Improvement Britain et al.

    How about governing Britain for the British people ?

    Not, being the first in combatting climate change , most students into universities , being the foremost in research , having a percentage of our supposed wealth sent overseas , being at the top table , making our voice heard , soft power diplomacy ( for that read shovelling money ) , having the most productivity per worker (?) leading edge in this tat or the other .

    Just run the country normally , as every others do .

       29 likes

  14. StewGreen says:

    Any agenda pushing shows on Sunday night ?

    9pm BBC1 Ridley Road a fictionalised version of British National Socialist organisation and the Jewish Groups that quite rightly opposed it.

    9pm BBC2 Romesh’s show and cos the BBC is diverse it has Richard Osman on

    10:20pm ITV’s black gameshow
    10:45pm ITV Benjamin Zephaniah’s doco “Football’s Windrush”

    9pm Channel4 Joe Lycett’s hit job against Shell Oil

    11pm C4 repeat of Jermaine Jenas doco, where black guys talk bout Stop and Search

    BBC4 African Issue Night
    #1 repeat of prog where David Olusoga selects African novels
    #2 Play based on Selina Thompsons pilgrimmage about the British African slave trade
    #3 Repeat of Alan Yentob’s doco about Bernadine Evaristo

    Again the BBC is very diverse
    Last Saturday Radio4 had a tribute show to Evaristo
    and then during the week they had her biography on twice a day
    The BBC search on her name seems to go on for 10 pages of 10 items with shows that feature her.
    Even on later pages some shows feature her
    That looks like 100+ BBC appearances
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=evaristo&page=1

       19 likes

  15. taffman says:

    They are at it again………………..
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-59028256

       7 likes

  16. JohnC says:

    BBC news UK front page : I can see 16 faces and the only white male is Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s husband.

    Is this is the racism and sexism free society the Left are striving to create ?. I admit I have trouble working out what logic they have behind all of this.

    A more cynical person than myself might think they are simply racist and sexist against white males.

       41 likes

  17. StewGreen says:

    Harassing protests outside a school to be banned by special new laws.
    I immediately think of the angry Muslim protests outside a school in Batley, that lead to the school closing and a teacher going into hiding
    ..All because he did a lesson about blasphemy which he had done a few times before
    and which harmed no one cos pupils were told they shouldn’t stay in the room if they were offended by cartoons of Muhammad.

    … but they are thinking of antivax protests at schools
    … I hadn’t heard there had been any.
    All I have found so far have been at US/Canada schools.
    And isn’t it half term in the UK ? well England ..I guess elsewhere has different term dates.

       28 likes

  18. Zephir says:

    As some conservative commentators have observed, there are striking similarities between woke militants and the Bolsheviks

    https://unherd.com/2020/06/the-woke-have-no-vision-of-the-future/

    “The woke generation have learned a similar lesson from their elders, this time about the failings of American democracy. Rejecting old-fashioned liberal values as complicit in oppression and essentially fraudulent, they extend their power not by persuasion but by socially marginalising and economically ruining their critics. As in the show trials orchestrated by Lenin’s disciple Stalin and Mao’s “struggle sessions”, woke activists demand public confession and repentance from their victims. Like the communist elites, woke insurgents aim to enforce a single worldview by the pedagogic use of fear. The rejection of liberal freedoms concludes with the tyranny of the righteous mob.

    Yet the impulses that animate the woke uprising are different from those that energised Lenin or even Mao. For the Bolshevik leader — an authentic disciple of the Jacobin Enlightenment, or so he always insisted — violence was a tool, not an end in itself. In woke movements such as Antifa, on the other hand, violence seems to be mainly therapeutic in its role.

    One may abhor the type of society Lenin aimed to construct as much as the methods he adopted to achieve it, as I do myself. Tens of millions were enslaved in forced labour camps, executed or starved to death in pursuit of a repellent fantasy. Even so, Lenin attempted to fashion a future that in his view was an improvement on the past.

    Woke activists, in contrast, have no vision of the future. In Leninist terms they are infantile leftists, acting out a revolutionary performance with no strategy or plan for what they would do in power. Yet their difference from Lenin goes deeper. Rather than aiming for a better future, woke militants seek a cathartic present. Cleansing themselves and others of sin is their goal. Amidst vast inequalities of power and wealth, the woke generation bask in the eternal sunshine of their spotless virtue.”

       26 likes

  19. Zephir says:

    “The history of the medieval millenarians illustrates this process. They were antinomians, heretical believers who anathematised the Church and considered themselves released by divine grace from any moral restraints. While asserting their superior virtue, their signature practice was self-flagellation. Forgiveness — whether of themselves other others — was notably absent.

    As Norman Cohn writes in his seminal study The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (1957), “in Germany and southern Europe alike flagellant groups continued to exist for more than two centuries.” Probably originating in Italy in the mid-thirteenth century, the flagellant movement reached a peak in Germany in 1348-9 when it was inflamed by the Black Death. There, as in other parts of Europe, the flagellants turned on sections of the population they accused of conjuring up the pestilence, particularly Jews, many of whose communities were wiped out.

    Two hundred years later, the Anabaptist prophet Jan Bockelson seized control of the city of Munster, turning it briefly into a communist theocracy in which forcible baptisms and public executions became daily spectacles. Bockelson’s rule ended when, after a long siege, the city fell to armies acting for the Church. He was tortured to death in the town square.

    For Cohn, the study of medieval millenarians was an essential part of understanding modern totalitarianism. It is also useful in understanding the woke movement. Medieval flagellants and woke militants combine a sense of their own moral infallibility with a passion for masochistic self-abasement. Medieval millenarians believed the world would be remade by God when Jesus returned after a millennium of injustice (millenarians are also known as chiliasts, chiliad being a thousand years), while the woke faithful believe divine intervention is no longer necessary: their own virtue will be sufficient. In both cases, nothing needs to be done to bring about a new world apart from destroying the old one.”

       12 likes

  20. Zephir says:

    “Tearing down statues, renaming streets and ‘decolonising’ lessons is altering history ‘without due process’ and decision-makers should stand up to ‘partisan’ pressure groups, report by ex-racism watchdog Trevor Phillips finds

    The Policy Exchange think tank released the paper written by Trevor Phillips
    The report claims there is a ‘growing trend to alter history without due process’
    Three museums have backed the paper including Victoria and Albert Museum”

       17 likes

  21. Zephir says:

    “Extremely offensive house on the prairie: Cambridge University archive slaps ‘trigger warnings’ on classic children’s books because of potentially ‘harmful content’

    Cambridge archive to label classic texts with ‘harmful content’ warnings. In online versions, words, phrases and images deemed harmful will be flagged. And warnings about their content will be placed at the beginning of each text

    Offending authors include Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote Little House On The Prairie, for her ‘stereotypical depictions of Native Americans’.

    Another is Dr Theodor Seuss Geisel, author of the Dr Seuss books, for ‘overt blackface’ and cultural insensitivities.

    The Water Babies, Charles Kingsley’s 1863 children’s classic about a young chimney sweep, is described as having the potential to ‘harm readers without warning’ for comments about Irish and black people.

    L Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz, is also cited for ‘white supremacy’ in his Bandit Jim Crow, written under the pen name of Laura Bancroft

    The project is being paid for by a £80,633 grant from the taxpayer-funded UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.”

       21 likes

  22. digg says:

    A textbook example of how the BBC conjure up a cause out of nowhere if it has the slightest smattering of Labour spin.

    Apparently Starmer has “demanded” that laws be enacted to prevent anti-vaxxers from gathering outside schools to intimidate children.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59032991

    Using the usual tactic of a scare headline and a lazy Getty image they try to push the idea that schools are surrounded by baying mobs of neanderthals trying to scare children and intimidate staff.

    Of course if you read the story it very quickly becomes apparent that the “problem” is at best highly exaggerated and at worst simply a lie.

    Whereas Starmer is quoted as saying in doom-laden style….

    “Councils should be able to stop anti-vaccination protesters from demonstrating outside schools by using exclusion orders, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has said.
    Sir Keir said it was “sickening” that protesters were spreading “dangerous misinformation” to children.”

    The story goes on to say…

    “Almost eight in 10 schools said they had been targeted by anti-vaccine protesters in a recent survey by the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) union.
    Most of this had been through emails threatening legal action, but the ASCL said in some cases staff had been threatened with physical harm and on other occasions protesters had gained access to school sites.”

    So the truth is that probably some parents had requested that their children not be bullied by school staff over vaccines and masks etc. mainly via personal requests to school staff but the BBC prefers to paint a picture of schools surrounded by nasty activists threatening staff and children which is an obvious and blatant lie.

    To add perspective..

    “13% (of how many asked?) had reported seeing demonstrators (otherwise known as the children parents) immediately outside their school. One in five (of how many asked?) reported protesters in the local area.

    Some 18 schools said demonstrators had gained access to the school and protested inside the premises (shades of the storming of the Capitol in that statement!), and 20 said they had received communications threatening physical harm to staff.”

    According to Statista there are around 32,000 schools in the UK so the BBC “examples” of between 18 -20 schools is hardly a balanced one and probably gained along the usual practice of having a straw poll around the BBC offices.

    And all this to arm Starmer in his attacks on the Government.
    I realise that Starmer comes from a legal background but this knee-jerk reach for legal action every time is a dangerous and very soviet route for civil liberty.

    They really think we are all idiots the weasles!

       21 likes

  23. theisland says:

       15 likes

  24. Scroblene says:

    On the recommendation of Brissles and other friends here, I watched ‘Margin call’ last evening…

    What an incredible flim, the tension is almost tangible in the room, possibly because the film music score is so original, but fits the story incredibly well! Ten years old too!

    I suppose some other people watched Man Utd, so won’t be as delighted and well-entertained as I was!

       12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Scroblene

      Well done – considering it is a ‘dry ‘ subject and low budget its quite a film eh ?
      I did miss the woke theme in everything else these times ..

         5 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Thanks Fed!

        Some years ago, a great chum used to work on the trading floor of a big firm in the city.

        I met him at his desk one evening, before we went out for a few pints, and he had to explain that it was incredibly quiet, but sometimes it was total mayhem, with people yelling all over the place, and it’s that sort of scenario which was portrayed so well last night!

           7 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          Glad you enjoyed ! I did mention the Company Men – on similar lines, so look out for that one too.

          Always happy to oblige in the recommendation department Lol !

             1 likes

  25. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    Warning ! Implied bad words. Not actual.
    Don’t look, Deborah.

       8 likes

  26. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – they think its James Bond, it is all Imperial Force Star Wars now

    The Bee Lady interviews Professor Sir Peter Openshaw from Imperial College. He tries to start off low key but gradually he reveals the dark side of the Imperial Forces massing against the UK: compulsory facemasks leading to compulsory working from home leading to compulsory vaccine passports. Who will be our Princess Leia?

    Sadly, not Martha Kearney. The Bee Lady has lost her sting. She could have challenged Peter Openshaw on each of those points and pointed out the failures of facemasks, damage to the economy and the insufficiency of vaccines that are not really vaccines and that don’t work for many people. But the dark side of The Imperial Ferguson Force had taken over Peter Openshaw; it was obvious from his sinister dark Ashworth-black list of ‘suggestions’.

       10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Tis strange that year in year out NHS specialist units are overwhelmed when someone sneezes . 1.7 million employees and they cant do their basic job .

         30 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        I’m having to go to Tunbridge Wells ITCU, as Senora O’Blene is having a bit of a bad time, and as far as I can see, for such a huge hospital, there’s absolutely no sign of any panic whatsoever, in fact, it’s more relaxed than the last time I went in late 2019!

        The only grief is trying to get the blasted car-park payment machines to take my card – I haven’t handled any pocket-cash for over two years now, and the machine also spits out the plastic tenners!

        (Luckily it was broken at the previous time and I saved a fortune!)

           24 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          I always keep change in the car for such eventualities, particularly as hospital appointments are so frequent now I could be on the invite list for the Christmas Party !!!!

             2 likes

  27. AsISeeIt says:

    Health Bodies & Children’s Commissioners – whatever they are?
    I certainly don’t remember ever voting for them.

    Celebrity obituaries are one entire genre of news report. Now from our BBC we’re getting regular celebrity medical headlines: ‘Radio 1 DJ Adele Roberts has bowel cancer‘; ‘Ed Sheeran tests positive for Covid-19‘; ‘Friends star, James Michael Tyler, dies aged 59. The actor who played Gunther on the hit show, had been diagnosed with stage four bowl cancer‘ – Friends star is putting it a bit strong… Joey, Ross or Chandler he wasn’t. He was the bloke in the coffee shop who had one line every three episodes or so.

    Did you spot the odd one out? The giveaway Metro gives it away: ‘Cov-Ed! Sheeran is self-isolating‘ – oddly this report appears to be combined with their: ‘Guilty pleasures‘ page 9 feature. All the same, one wishes all the best to the young chap and of course all the above who either had or have something serious.

    Rish and Rash clash over meal deal‘ (Metro) – this is another policy clash between our Chancellor of the Exchequer and Manchester United’s number 10, who was subbed off in the 62nd minute in his team’s 0-5 defeat at home to Liverpool yesterday. Bad day at the office for the lad.

    So far we’ve yet to hear Rishi’s opinion on whether Ole Solskjær should quit, whether United will really benefit from their marquee Ronaldo resigning, or whether they have the right squad yet to play the high press?

    Meanwhile the advert-funded Metro’s frontpage advert wishes us: ‘Happy world pasta day. Look inside for your free Rana Recipe Kit‘ – reasonably priced healthy food is widely available – as are booze and fags.

    The row seems to be that Rishi is under fire for not maintaining the emergency benefits bump ups: ‘“We should not be simply returning to normal…”‘ – says Anne Longfield, a former children’s commisioner, who backed Rashford – perhaps the long up-field punt is United best hope?

    Our BBC gift top billing in their online high press frontpage review to the left-leaning ‘i’ newspaper. A brief survey of that organ’s several headlines will tell you all you’re supposed to know: ‘Health. Government urged to press ahead with “Plan B” as cases rise‘ – it’s here that I’m oddly distracted by recalling that classic shlock horror movie title “Plan 9 from Outer Space” (1957) – aliens arrive on Earth and try to raise the dead in hopes of taking over the planet while the military tries to keep the aliens’ activities a secret. Let’s hope that scenario doesn’t really happen – these days I wouldn’t trust out modern PC compliant military even to take on the “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” (1978) – reasonably priced healthy food is widely available.

    I digress. Back to the BBC’s pick of the ripe news bunch – the left-leaning ‘i’: ‘Culture. Campaign for more diversity on school bookshelves

    Opinion. Ian Birrell. How I became a convert to the idea of covid passes

    And their main headline, proving if nothing else that politicians think voters love seeing their good hard-earned tax money thrown carelessly after bad: ‘£6bn plan to clear NHS Covid backlog‘ – that’ll be the Lockdown backlog.

    And as the army drill sergeant would say… “wait for it, wait for it…” let’s give the honour of the last editorial word to our BBC: ‘Health bodies welcomed the cash, but said staff shortages need to be fixed.

    Wasn’t it the departed lamented prince of pop Prince who once sang the line “Maybe you’re just like my mother, She’s never satisfied

       19 likes

  28. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Online News Headline:

    “Budget 2021: NHS in England to receive £5.9bn to reduce backlog”

    “More than five million people are waiting for NHS hospital treatment in England, with hundreds of thousands waiting more than a year.”
    “The NHS is facing sustained pressure as it grapples with an unprecedented backlog of procedures put on hold due to the pandemic.”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59030945

    Our BBC are pleased. Very pleased. Their favourite socialist organisation is getting more free money. Our BBC called for and loves lockdowns. But does our BBC question the consequences?

    In a word….

       24 likes

  29. Fedup2 says:

    Today
    A laugh out loud item . It seems the book industry is run by wimmin – authors and publishers are all now wimmin . Men dont write novels or get them published .

    And men don’t read novels .

    Is there any surprise ?

    They had a tick box women editor on who spoke pure ‘tick box ‘ ‘inclusive ‘ ‘diverse ‘ – the language of woke where humanity – humour – sincerity – honesty – is just sieved out and the English language bleached …
    Ha ha

       15 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I read quite a lot – or should I say I used to. All the latest books are ridiculously woke now – to the point they are no longer believable in their context. We have women heroines going up against a men in fights and always winning. And at least one of the main characters is hiding the fact that they are gay. Invariably we also get some parallel to slavery in there and the main character remarks to themselves how bad it is.

      I used to get right into the story and lost in the book. Now I force myself to read a couple of pages then I just can’t be bothered.

         24 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        JohnC
        I only read either fiction or non fiction military stuff now – i cant think of a reason for going into a a non charity book shop .

           10 likes

        • Zephir says:

          I recommend the book “Lone Survivor” which I have recently read:

          “At the beginning of the book, Marcus Luttrell describes his childhood and his training to prepare for the Navy SEALs with Billy Shelton. After joining the U.S. Navy and completing SEAL training, Luttrell describes his posting in Afghanistan, in the Hindu Kush mountains of the Kunar province. With him are the rest of SDVT-1 (SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1), except Shane E. Patton, for whom Danny Dietz was substituted. Their mission, Operation Red Wings, was to capture or kill a leading Taliban member thought to be allied with Osama bin Laden.

          At an early stage of their mission, the team encountered three goatherds, including a boy. They debated whether they should kill the goatherds to avoid being exposed to the enemy, but after a vote, team leader Michael Murphy decided to uphold the rules of engagement and let the goatherds go. About an hour later, the four SEALs were surrounded by a number of Taliban warriors. The New York Times sums up the story:

          Mr. Luttrell was the only one of four men on the mission to survive after a violent clash with dozens of Taliban fighters.

          Eight members of the SEALs and eight Army special operations soldiers who came by helicopter to rescue the original four were shot down, and all died.

          Luttrell was then rescued by a group of Afghan Pashtun villagers who harbored him in their homes for several days, protecting him from the Taliban and ultimately helping him to safety.”
          — The New York Times, August 9, 2007[2]

          Hospitality as understood by the Pashtun culture is a central theme”

          One of this book’s most important statements is that the current rules of engagement soldiers are required to adhere to are irrational and are the product of politicians who are far from the action. “Any government that thinks war is somehow fair and subject to rules like a baseball game probably should not get into one. Because nothing’s fair in war, and occasionally the wrong people do get killed.” American soldiers are being forced to fight in situations where they are almost guaranteed to take casualties because of restrictive rules of engagement. These rules may make sense to politicians safely ensconced in their Washington offices, but they are utterly unfair and unsafe on the battlefield. Luttrell states clearly and emphatically that these rules are costing lives and that the United States should not be willing to fight wars that she cannot fight to win.

          The other important statement is about the role of the media in modern warfare. Luttrell’s disgust for the media knows no bounds. “It’s been an insidious progression, the criticisms of the U.S. Armed Forces from politicians and from the liberal media, which knows nothing of combat, nothing of our training, and nothing of the mortal dangers we face out there on the front line.” “I promise you, every insurgent, freedom fighter, and stray gunman in Iraq who we arrested knew the ropes, knew that the way out was to announce that he had been tortured by the Americans, ill treated, or prevented from reading the Koran or eating his breakfast or watching the television. They all knew al-Jazeera, the Arab broadcasters, would pick it up, and it would be relayed to the U.S.A., where the liberal media would joyfully accuse all of us of being murderers or barbarians or something. Those terrorist organizations laugh at the U.S. media, and they know exactly how to use the system against us.” Those of us who have watched recent wars from afar can attest that this is exactly the case. The media, and particularly the liberal media, seems too often to side with the bad guys. Soldiers are fighting brutal warfare, all the while more terrified of their own nation’s press than the guys shooting at them. They hardly know who the real enemy is.

             26 likes

          • JohnC says:

            I’ve read that and it is indeed thought provoking.

            One absolute fact I have learned in my travels and observations in the world : A Muslim will never, ever side with a non-Muslim against another Muslim.

            We assume they think the same way as us. They don’t. They are mentally conditioned from birth.

            But could you shoot a poor boy whose only ‘crime’ was to see you ?. Then try to imagine what kind of person can set off a suicide bomb in an arena full of children with the intent to blow them to pieces. That’s the difference between them and us.

               20 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            Rule One for any special forces mission: always kill the shepherds if they find you. Bravo Two Zero was a case in point. It’s harsh on the shepherds, I grant you, but war is not a game.

               13 likes

    • Zephir says:

      F2 a quick look in Waterstones will confirm your observation

         7 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Zephir – I saw the film version which just re enforced my view that afgee wasn’t worth a toenail ….. – I see they are after money for food again …

        As for books I picked up a new hardback of ‘Arnhem ‘ by A beevor in a charity shop for 50p … it’s a painful read and describes an operation which Attenborough didn’t treat with the truth it deserves … although boy browning is rightly shown as a twat .

           12 likes

        • Eddy Booth says:

          Nice to see Fedup2 embracing bawdy Anglo-Saxon English here!

             4 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            Eddy – I was struggling with an appropriate word for Browning – the most immediate and accurate one began with c … and had four letters ….
            …..even hindsite doesn’t offer forgiveness for his frankly mad market garden plan which cost so many allied lives avoidably … another groupthink job ….

               6 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Well, my marathon read of 3,000+ pages of Anthony Powell’s ‘Dance to the music of time’, has now reached a sixth of the whole quadrology. And Tim Weaver’s got a new ‘Raker’ book out too…

          I’ve also acquired the entire set of Charles Dickens, and, Brissles, Deporah, Seppers ‘et al ladies’, Senora O’Blene will be re-reading all the Jalna sories, all the Katie fforde books, and also for light relief, the whole lot by Rebecca Shaw.

          She devours books like something out of Startrek…

          Who needs woke new rubbish on the TV anyway? Kids certainly don’t! So I will see ‘Philadelphia’ again_ on my own this evening (S O’B still in ICU), but will sob at the fabulous music by The Boss and then especially, the Neil Young song at the end!

          It breaks your heart…

          In fact, the sobbing juice is being lined up as we speak!!!

             3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Seems there is is a bidding war for the rights to Claudia’s proposed novel to be written in chokey, written in the original Klingon, entitled ‘M’ejn K’empf in Beeroos’.

      Set to be a bestseller.

         14 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Men on Strike: Why Men Are Boycotting Marriage, Fatherhood, and the American Dream – and Why It Matters Paperback – Illustrated, 9 Dec. 2014
      by Helen Smith PhD (Author)

      As Men on Strike demonstrates, men aren’t dropping out because they are stuck in arrested development. They are instead acting rationally in response to the lack of incentives society offers them to be responsible fathers, husbands and providers. In addition, men are going on strike, either consciously or unconsciously, because they do not want to be injured by the myriad of laws, attitudes and hostility against them for the crime of happening to be male in the twenty-first century. Men are starting to fight back against the backlash. Men on Strike explains their battle cry.

         6 likes

    • BigBrotherCorporation says:

      “men don’t read novels .”

      All my family read (the males and the females, the young and the old – including my sisters, their children, and our parents), the number of books we turn over as a family keep the local charity shops going, I’m sure, and whenever I take a car boot load in, we seem to walk away with as many more – my house is more like a library than a home, seriously!

      Every year we get a comment from my son’s latest English teacher, about how ‘great’ it is to meet a teenage boy who reads and is enthusiastic about language – they’ve asked me before what the ‘secret’ is. My answer is simple (but, not always what they want to hear), he knows what he likes, and that’s ‘old’ (e.g. pre 2000, e.g pre woke) Fantasy and SciFi, and can’t get enough of it – usually bought secondhand on Ebay/Amazon, most weeks he’ll demolish at least one such novel (as I did at his age). My daughter is even more into reading if anything, but like her mum, she’s passionate about the ‘classics’: Jane Austen, Dickens, Shakespeare, and always top of her year in English.

      Interestingly, no one in the family seems to like anything published in the last decade, or so, and ‘contemporary authors’ are a definite turn off. I have one aunt who always sends the kids something from the latest ‘top 10’ Guardian reading list for Christmas and birthday, and those always seem to end up in the charity box unread.

         3 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    BBC knows who it wants screened at W1A

       6 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      How her bank balance must suffer …

         14 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Do they still make a beeline for the other one, female, of Asianness, who is also a Labour MP, and prone to saying things the bbc finds quote worthy?

           9 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          To be fair, BBC GPs are balanced by BBC wimmin of blonde…

             4 likes

          • Old Goat says:

            These silly people live in Cloud Cuckoo Land. ‘Carbon footprints’ are imagination run riot. The best way to reduce one’s own, is to die, and rot quickly.

               20 likes

          • Scroblene says:

            Yeah right.

            ‘Public figures’, paid for by the private sector.

            Will they pop down to Cardiff to ask why most of the DVLA ‘staff’ are ‘working frorm home’ or still getting a wedge for doing very little?

            Probs not…

               2 likes

  31. StewGreen says:

    Local radio Twitter account wakes up
    See the strange priorities in their tweets
    #1 Sunak is to give the NHS a £6bn boost

    #2 Some actor from American show Friends has died
    (Hiws that count as news for our region ?)

    #3 That they have a podcast with a local gay single man who wants to have a baby and is searching for a surrogate mother
    …That is the fifth time in 4 days they have tweeted that
    So some stories get more attention than others.

    #4 That the government has set aside £2bn for new homes on derelict or unused land.

       12 likes

  32. Guest Who says:

    Graun challenges BBC LGBT Money Box graphics Dept. to up their game…

       9 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Be strange if recession wipes away ‘woke ‘…

         11 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Recession … Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
      Job Reference: 213-CORP-1321
      Employer:King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation TrustDepartment:EDILocation:Denmark hill, LondonSalary:£61,861 – £70,959 per annum, inc HCA

         8 likes

    • JimS says:

      As per Prince Philip:

      “Don’t let the Cowboys screw your finances, hire an Indian!”

         6 likes

  33. Fedup2 says:

    I scanned some msm and it seems kill Alec Baldwin is to ‘step back ‘ from killing people / ‘ acting …. some get what they deserve…. No doubt he will be resurrected if the true president tries for office again . …

       13 likes

  34. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #2 – suddenly the Bee Lady lady gets stung into action

    But it’s too late to be Princess Leia now, Martha. You should have tacked Prof. Openshaw about his beliefs. Now that you are talking to the Secretary of State for Health and you are keen for him to have a guess at how many people will be removed from waiting lists after the Conservative Party Government’s generous hand out of taxpayer cash – again – to the NHS. There are specific numbers available to challenge Prof. Openshaw with, you don’t need wild guesses, B Lady.

    I expect Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth to prove that he is a complete waste of space on Labour’s Opposition front bench the next time he is on RadioFlaw. He will say the multiple £billions is not enough.

       9 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Sticking plaster
      Too little too late
      Should never have cut in the first place
      Cautiously welcome ( a shed load of borrowed money )
      Yeah but what about our payrise?

      …. I don’t get how NHS employees can morally refuse the vaccine . Surely if they object they should go find another non public facing job – HGV driving springs to mind …

         10 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        No one in a free society should be forced to take an untested unproved drug which has in fact been shown not to work. Those people who have had the covid have a natural immunity and do not need a fake vaccine anyway.

        I have two elderly friends both double jabbed, she caught the covid, and passed it onto him – both recovered. Colin Powell was double jabbed and died from covid.

        There’s the moral objection the ‘vaccine’ which isn’t a vaccine doesn’t work and there is no compensation if it badly affects your health or kills you. This virus has a 99.8% survival rate and mostly affects the sick and elderly.

        I’d reverse the question to you and ask yoou where the hell in a so called free society is the moral imperative to force anyone who doesn’t want or need a vaccine to be made to have it?

           14 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          What free society ?
          If NHS won’t take the jab they should be removed from public roles .
          I would not want to engage with an unjabbed NHS and stand a higher chance of covid infection because of it .

          As I say – good luck if you think you live in a free society .

          The mayor of Londonistan is making me pay another £12.50 each time I drive in my home town… you are naive to say the least
          Keep campaigning for MPs to get even more money eh ?

             10 likes

          • Thoughtful says:

            So you think Biden and Clinton are right? They have done this illegally probably as they are being sued over it.

            Statistically it is the other way around jabbed people are much more likely to be infectious than the unjabbed. You can see the proof of this by just looking at the governments own covid map. The area where I live, the highest infection rates (by a country mile) are in the areas of highest 95% uptake, the lowest are in the ‘Asian’ areas with a 60% uptake.

            There are an estimated 100K unjabbed NHS workers if you remove them all you won’t have an NHS to engage with and how will that help anyone?

            You are placing far too much faith in a vaccine which provably does not work as a normal vaccine would do. natural immunity gained by infection is the best way as those who have this are never contageous, and why would you insist on being seen by someone with a massively higher chance of infecting you?

            What has the nutcase mayor of London got to do with NHS vaccines and how does that make me naive?

               14 likes

            • Fedup2 says:

              Your naivety is saying this is a ‘free society ‘.

              As for what Obama / Clinton are doing – I don’t know or care because that is another country .

              I’m glad that you think there is a functioning NHS – the picture painted by the medical mafia is a different one .

              I switched subject at the end on my comments . I’m sorry you can’t handle more than one .( I was sort of giving a literal example where tax can be inflicted on people without challenge ).

                 2 likes

              • Thoughtful says:

                I never said this is a free society! I like you don’t believe it is! Read it again it doesn’t actually say this is a free society.

                Yesterday Clinton issued a directive to Boris telling him to make vaccination mandatory and here we are with a step in that direction.
                Might be living in a different country but they are talking about this one.

                As for a functioning NHS, in what ever capacity it is functioning at the present time, it certainly won’t be if it loses over 100K workers!

                   11 likes

          • Sluff says:

            I’m pretty much with you on this one, fedup.

            But the picture is not absolutely clear.
            There is no question in my mind that the covid vaccinations work well at preventing serious disease, hospital admissions, ventilator usage, and death. If they did not work, our current daily death rate would be around 1000. Of course for any individual the experience may be different; tiny numbers may be adversely affected by the vaccine, nor does it work for everyone. But the big picture is unarguable.

            On balance I also agree that care workers should be vaccinated, especially as a precaution to keep safe those for whom they care.

            The bit that is missing however is the extent to which vaccination prevents transmission. I believe that figure is harder to prove and the media is not exactly awash with regular data on the topic. My working hypothesis is that transmission is reduced but only at quite low levels, under 50%.

            So care workers may benefit from vaccinations but the residents will only fully benefit if those care workers ruthlessly obey the hygiene rules- masks, ventilation, hand washing etc. Which takes us to masks, Personally I would advocate being less ‘free’ and would and do happily wear a mask in crowded settings. Why? To stop giving covid to someone more vulnerable than I am should I be carrying the disease asymptomatically. It’s not deep science or statistics, it’s common courtesy, just as I try and sneeze into a hankie rather than all over my fellow passengers.

            It’s not wrong to limit personal freedoms in extremis when others can be materially harmed as a direct result. It’s why we drive on the left as opposed to where we’d like.

            Thoughtful mentions natural immunity. I don’t share his whole hearted support for it but it does have its place. I suspect this is the government’s unstated policy for schools. Let it rip among an age group where risks are very small – the infection rate is currently comparable with the vaccination rate.

            Declaration of interest. I and Mrs S have both had covid – after two jabs but probably as a result thankfully with very mild symptoms hardly worth mentioning. Mr S junior, young, fit, and unjabbed, had it earlier in the year. He felt awful, and was really quite ill, staying in bed for several days.

            Only three data points. But when added to all the other data no-one is going to persuade me that being unjabbed is the recommended way to go.

               6 likes

            • Fedup2 says:

              Stuff
              I’m glad to hear you both recovered from the Chinese virus .

              As well as face masks – my big bug bare ( pun) is the need for hygiene and ventilation. The latter will be limited in cold weather …. But transmission through cross contamination can be more strictly enforced .

              My views are based on gut reaction as opposed to some high minded stuff about a ‘free country ‘ which is a term used to obscure reality .

              It probably was never a free country – except for the wealthy – but certainly isn’t now – where – for example – the use of a single word can end a career or even lead to the end of a life .

                 6 likes

              • BRISSLES says:

                I’m with you on this Fed. Apart from a close circle of friends – who I still do not hug on greeting or leaving – I keep my distance from everyone else, and I cannot remember the last time I mixed in a closed space socially.

                Its a no brainer if you want to stay ‘bug’ free. Flu on its own can be a b…….d to endure, and I’m too old to wait until my ‘natural immunity’ kicks in (if it ever does) to combat Covid. So I’ve had all the jabs. Time is not on my side, and if healthcare workers in care homes and hospitals refuse to take the inoculation, then when treating us they should be made to wear full head to toe protective wear. It protects us, and has given them a choice.

                Oh and I STILL cannot stand David Beckham or his family, and I hold him responsible for all the stoooopid haircuts that have inflicted the young middle aged who look like Edwardian granddads !

                   8 likes

              • Up2snuff says:

                Fed, you should try living under Communism if you want to know whether the UK is a ‘free country’ or not! I think you are living in cloud cuckoo land on mandatory vaccines for NHS workers. I’m surprised, in a way (in another I’m not) that the NHS hasn’t explained that at a point in the future they want to wean the public off the vaccines and build up natural immunity as the virus starts to weaken.

                   4 likes

                • Fedup2 says:

                  Up2
                  I was waiting someone to use the ‘ communist regime’ line . I may not have lived in a communist regime but i have known people who did . I know the consequences of being a Party member or not …
                  ….. the UK is no longer a free country . What is ‘ permissible ‘ by the year . The consequences of being on the non approved side becomes bigger .

                  There is a limited democracy – and when democracy actually happens – in that rarity that was brexit – it comes as a surprise which is never to be repeated.

                  If you think its free – good luck.

                     4 likes

                  • Up2snuff says:

                    Fed, we are starting to lose freedoms, true. And there are some who would like to take away more – eg. Prof Openshaw and the Imperial Force. But to compare to what I saw in the East of Europe in 1990 to now in the UK is laughable. Just the newspaper/broadcast media fear campaigns are demonstrably false by anyone. Who is stopping you going into a supermarket to check and buy the mince pies? Or stopping you voting, if unjabbed, like Macron is in France. Have you forgotten that enough people voted Conservative – against the prevailing wind – to give that Party an eighty seat majority just under two years ago.

                    Do pay attention and keep up.

                       0 likes

            • Thoughtful says:

              “On balance I also agree that care workers should be vaccinated, especially as a precaution to keep safe those for whom they care.”

              Please can you expand on this as to how you think this will keep anyone safe ?

              “The bit that is missing however is the extent to which vaccination prevents transmission.”

              This information is not missing, the vaccine does not prevent contageon in any way, all it does it to reduce the symptoms (and not in all cases as we know) and that it. It does nothing else, and it is a sad state of affairs when the media have misinformed people to such a degree.

              “I and Mrs S have both had covid – after two jabs”

              Well there’s your very own evidence the fake vaccine did not prevent you from catching the covid, and it would not have prevented you from transmitting it to others either, however now you have had it you are according to the Israeli study 27 times better protected than the ‘vaccine’ gave you.

              So again I ask the question, given the fact that the vaccine will not stop you catching covid or being contageous to others, why do you think we should force the NHS into collapse just before its busiest period – the run up to winter by the pointless forcing staff to take a vaccine they don’t want to take?

                 14 likes

              • Sluff says:

                I just don’t think your absolutism cuts it, that’s all.
                Descriptions of the vaccine as ‘fake’ are absolutely pathetic. Why are UK current deaths not at the 2.1% level of infections as in pre-vaccination times? Why did elderly deaths decline as a proportion of total deaths as the vaccine was rolled out?

                No vaccine as far as I know is 100% infallible. That does not make them useless or fake, it makes them vaccines.
                Just as antibacterials don’t work all the time on all bacteria. It’s a balance of probability game.

                If your life could be saved by an injection with a success rate of 50% would you really say ‘no it’s fake’? Or would you take it?

                Maybe I should take Invermectin for my corns. It won’t do any good but hey, success factors don’t seem to matter any more.

                   3 likes

            • Sick of it all says:

              Unless you end up in hospital you have very little to worry about. This is where much of the fatalities originate.

                 1 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Fed, I expect him (Ashworth) to bang on about ten years of austerity …. despite the evidence (from TOADY) that it wasn’t austerity and the UK economy recovered faster than anyone realised. Cannot remember exact date that was refered to but the ex-Editor of the Evening Standard came on to give a sound-bite that will take a chunk out of Asworth’s backside.

           5 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Up2
          I think Blighty is about to experience true austerity – once borrowing becomes more experience the knock on effect will be traumatic – particularly if rates stay up for a while and hit mortgage repayments where – I think – people have either chosen – or been allowed to take out big big borrowings which could push them over the repossession cliff .

          Goes around comes around – but mst favourite is ‘this time it’s different ‘.

          I realise I write from the view of a pessimist – but that’s what I am and will be glad to be wrong ….

          By the way
          2 budget forecasts now

          1 – big winter fuel payment
          2 – sunak nicks the 5% vat cut to fuel costs ….

             3 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Fed, we are about to experience tax rises, not austerity (exempt are OAPS + children at school until they leave and go to work) unless the present Government take a leaf out of Labour’s old play book, ‘kick the can down the road’ and waltz out of office in time for Labour to impose tax rises and austerity.

            You could be right, however, on your two extra Budget forecasts – they have been mooted/called for already.

               3 likes

          • Garry Lavin says:

            I hope you are right. In fact..I’m counting on it…

               0 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    A very bbc question.

    Maybe less so if driven poorly up and down Westminster Bridge?

       10 likes

  36. G says:

    Did the current Social Dem Government just kill off one of their own?

    “Why the British government’s Prevent and Channel Panel programmes are flawed”

    It appears the Government are responsible for the death of David Amess MP.

    Under pressure to reduce the number of muslim candidates to join the “Prevent” strategy course, (to make the numbers seem better) it was decided to increase the number of spotty youths who enjoy dressing up in Nazi uniforms and photographing themselves in the mirror i.e. the most extreme Right Wing whites. Amess’ murderer escaped the Prevent ………….
    and went on to………..

       18 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Jo Cox was murdered by a right wing type? Think he’s been drinking the media Koolaid, because there is not one shred of evidence to support the lie Thomas Mair who was provably mentally ill was in any way a “right wing type”!

         5 likes

      • BigBrotherCorporation says:

        Didn’t Mair have a copy of ‘Mein Kampf’, or something? Wonder what they would have made of my grandfather’s library. He was a reporter for a local newspaper, whose hobby was writing about the World Wars – which he lived through, and particularly about the rise of the Nazis in Germany.

        On the other hand, weren’t the Nazis technically ‘left wing’?

           3 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    We* are saved!

    *not men, obvs,

       8 likes

    • tomo says:

      Since even the people proposing Net Zero can’t explain what it means in practice, I fail to see what some aspirational fantastical fact free wittering on Radio 4 contributes to the matter.

         18 likes

    • JimS says:

      Stop importing people from Asia and Africa, fill up all those Emirates Airways monster planes and send them on a final one-way flight to Pakistan?

         22 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Net Zero … no people.

         9 likes

      • G says:

        A range of Zero’s?

           2 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        I made that point earlier, in a way – but the comment seems to have been disappeared.

           1 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        MM, no that is Zero Carbon – slightly different from Net Zero. Under the first all human, animal, insect and natural life has to be eliminated.

        Net Zero means you can offset building all those heat pumps, electric cars, vans, trucks, taxis, motorcycles, articulated lorries, railway locos, railway carriages, railway lines, PVcells, mobile phones, tablet computers, laptop computers, desktop PCs, computer chips, homes for the homeless, food for the hungry, powerstations for the powerless by doing something like sucking CO2 out of the air and not farting.

        OK everyone, breathe in, now!

           4 likes

    • BigBrotherCorporation says:

      A weirdly distorted world map for a weirdly distorted world view?

         6 likes

  38. tomo says:

    Twitter just auto-scrolled away from this 3 times in a minute

       6 likes

  39. Dover Sentry says:

    The Spectator:

    “Will Sajid Javid really fire 106,000 unvaccinated NHS workers?”

    “The portion of unvaccinated staff tends to tally with the portion of BME staff, given the close link between ethnicity and vaccine take-up”.

    “The figures show there are about 106,000 unvaccinated staff of which 32,000 are in London (the capital has one of the lowest overall vaccination rates).”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/will-sajid-javid-really-fire-106-000-unvaccinated-nhs-workers-

    If nothing else, it should cut the costs of the NHS considerably.

       22 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Yet another triumph of multiculturalism.

      Sad dick Khan has been all over the BBC telling us today how marvellous his low emission zone is.

      No- one asked this question
      ‘Mr Khan, why do so many non-British people living in London oppose vaccination’

         13 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      (the capital has one of the lowest overall vaccination rates).”
      So london must be suffering the highest Covid-19 infection rates? 🤔

         9 likes

  40. Eddy Booth says:

    (the capital has one of the lowest overall vaccination rates).”
    So london must be suffering the highest Covid-19 infection rates? 🤔

       2 likes

  41. Fedup2 says:

    Eddy – I reckon that because the real population of London is unknown it is impossible to produce remotely accurate stats for covid infections –
    I’d love to see an estimate of the numbers ‘not on the books ‘ … I bet it’s as high as 10% – about 800k to 1 million abovd the recognised ( taxed ) population ….

       14 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      The Home Office has lost track of more than 600,000 foreigners who should have left the UK, according to a report that lays bare Britain’s “shambolic” border checks. … Home Office staff admitted that they lacked confidence in the system, with one saying it had been “mis-sold”.29 Mar 2018

         7 likes

  42. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    In Breitbart (London) today there’s an article about Putin where he’s saying the West is falling apart because of all the woke, LB G&T, virtue signalling and green rubbish.

    ALL the comments are supporting him against our useless MPs.
    They want him rather than our lefty government.
    They mention Orban as well for doing a much better job than our miserable lot.

    How things have changed when the Russian Government is seen as more right wing than our pathetic bunch.

       41 likes

  43. MarkyMark says:

    If you feel confused about your gender identity, you’re not alone.

    In the past few years there has been a huge increase in the number of teenagers questioning their gender, whether they feel female, male, non-binary or any of the other diverse terms used on the gender spectrum.

    Some experts believe this is because society has become more accepting of differences in gender identity. Others believe young people in particular are rejecting male and female genders as the only identities.
    https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/healthy-body/trans-teenager/
    Does it make me gay, lesbian or bisexual?
    Gender identity isn’t related to sexual orientation in a direct way.

    Young people who are questioning their gender may identify as straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, polysexual, pansexual or asexual.

    Some people describe their sexuality and gender identity as being fluid – that is, they change over time.

       1 likes

  44. JimS says:

    Catching up with Radio 4’s Last Word they had a piece on Myriam Sarachik, a female scientist.

    No doubt she was a talented lady but I can’t help but think that she was included just because she was female.

    We were told that she had discovered certain properties of metals, well actually she hadn’t, a Japanese man had made a theoretical prediction that these properties should exist, she just did the experiments to show that it was true.

    Did these properties have any practical use? Apparently not, but don’t worry they said the same things about Michael Faraday and electricity!

    Instead of reporting the deaths of notable people Last Word is just another vehicle for the BBC’s agenda.

       17 likes

  45. Zephir says:

    The libmob are sooo concerned about historic slavery ?

    What about this then ?

    muslim extremists are still selling chidren as slaves

    German ISIS bride who chained up five-year-old Yazidi slave girl in the sun and let her die of thirst as punishment for wetting the bed is jailed ten years for ‘war crime’

    Jennifer Wenisch, 30, converted to Islam in 2013 and went to Iraq to join ISIS
    She was found guilty of allowing a slave girl to die of thirst in the scorching sun
    The court said Wenisch, from Lohne, had committed ‘crimes against humanity’
    Her husband is also on trial and will be sentenced in November

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10127821/German-ISIS-bride-let-five-year-old-slave-girl-die-thirst-Iraq-jailed-ten-years.html

       18 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Many societies throughout history have practised slavery, and Muslim societies were no exception.

      It’s thought that as many people were enslaved in the Eastern slave trade as in the Atlantic slave trade.

      It’s ironic that when the Atlantic slave trade was abolished the Eastern trade expanded, suggesting that for some Africans the abolition of the Atlantic trade didn’t lead to freedom, but merely changed their slave destination.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/slavery_1.shtml

         7 likes

  46. MarkyMark says:

    “We could feed some of the human beings to the animals.”
    (c) Boris Johnson

    NET ZERO CARBON BASED HUMAN LIFE.

    Name of donor: Mr David Ross
    Address of donor: private

    Nature and value of benefit in kind (or amount of any donation): accommodation for a private holiday for my partner and me, value £15,000

    Destination of visit: St Vincent and the Grenadines

    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10999

       4 likes

  47. MarkyMark says:

    order-order is a free speech site … oh wait …
    4df088ea-a2bd-4e5a-9a27-e8d14bfdebbc-bd3e29f6-b17d-4aa5-bfda-cadc744b750d

       4 likes

  48. taffman says:

    \\During the special event organised by Downing Street, Mr Johnson also jokingly suggested feeding human beings to animals to “bring nature back”.//
    “Instead, he said, “we’ve all got to cut down our use of plastic”.”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-59039155
    Who is the “we”. We do not have a choice , he needs to speak to the manufacturers of the products .

       9 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      ” jokingly suggested”

      Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has said Libyan city Sirte could be the new Dubai, adding, “all they have to do is clear the dead bodies away”.

      Johnson then offered the limerick: “There was a young fellow from Ankara, Who was a terrific wankerer.

      “Till he sowed his wild oats, With the help of a goat, But he didn’t even stop to thankera.”

      Protecting a statue of Winston Churchill from potential vandalism by boarding it up is “absurd and shameful”, the prime minister has said.

         5 likes

  49. BigBrotherCorporation says:

    Climate change: How do we know it is happening and caused by humans?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-58954530

    I should probably start with a disclaimer: I’m open minded about the cause(s) of climate change, and open minded about how serious it actually is as well.

    However, there is only so much BS I can stomach, and I don’t think silencing the ‘deniers’ (or even those with more moderate views) is productive. It converts ‘science’ into ‘religion’, and could actually be counter productive (if we actually do want to do anything about reducing pollution/human impact on the planet, as opposed to running around like headless chickens squawking about the ‘sky falling in’).

    The article above includes this bold statement:
    “In fact, scientists estimate the Earth hasn’t been this hot for about 125,000 years.”

    Really?

    So what about when the Norse settled Greenland in the 10th-15th Centuries?

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/why-greenland-vikings-vanished-180962119/

       19 likes

  50. taffman says:

    Covid?
    Take a peek at this ………….https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/behavioural-insights-team

       3 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Explains how to change people’s behaviour in subtle but profound ways. Politicians of all parties could learn from this book ― Guardian

         8 likes