I have had a number of emails from people understandably concerned about the death of George Floyd and the riots in the various US cities.
Before replying I decided to read what the President and what Mr Biden said to have some greater understanding. These are matters for the USA to resolve. As their friend and ally we wish them well in doing so.
The words of the President capture the problem. He said:
“All Americans were rightly sickened and revolted by the brutal death of George Floyd. My administration is fully committed that, for George and his family, justice will be served. He will not have died in vain. But we cannot allow the righteous cries and peaceful protesters to be drowned out by an angry mob. The biggest victims of the rioting are peace-loving citizens in our poorest communities, and as their President, I will fight to keep them safe. I will fight to protect you. I am your President of law and order, and an ally of all peaceful protesters.
“But in recent days, our nation has been gripped by professional anarchists, violent mobs, arsonists, looters, criminals, rioters, Antifa, and others. A number of state and local governments have failed to take necessary action to safeguard their residents. Innocent people have been savagely beaten, like the young man in Dallas, Texas, who was left dying on the street, or the woman in Upstate New York viciously attacked by dangerous thugs.
“Small-business owners have seen their dreams utterly destroyed. New Yorkâs Finest have been hit in the face with bricks. Brave nurses, who have battled the virus, are afraid to leave their homes. A police precinct station has been overrun. Here in the nationâs capital, the Lincoln Memorial and the World War Two Memorial have been vandalized. One of our most historic churches was set ablaze. A federal officer in California, an African American enforcement hero, was shot and killed.
“These are not acts of peaceful protest. These are acts of domestic terror. The destruction of innocent life and the spilling of innocent blood is an offense to humanity and a crime against God.
“America needs creation, not destruction; cooperation, not contempt; security, not anarchy; healing, not hatred; justice, not chaos. This is our mission, and we will succeed. One hundred percent, we will succeed. Our country always wins.”
He went on to offer National Guard help to State Governors, urging them to enforce the law and protect people and businesses from violence.
Mr Biden said:
“These last few days have laid bare that we are a nation furious at injustice. Every person of conscience can understand the rawness of the trauma people of color experience in this country, from the daily indignities to the extreme violence, like the horrific killing of George Floyd.
“Protesting such brutality is right and necessary. Itâs an utterly American response. But burning down communities and needless destruction is not. Violence that endangers lives is not. Violence that guts and shutters businesses that serve the community is not.
“The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest. It should not drive people away from the just cause that protest is meant to advance.
“I know that there are people all across this country who are suffering tonight. Suffering the loss of a loved one to intolerable circumstances, like the Floyd family, or to the virus that is still gripping our nation. Suffering economic hardships, whether due to COVID-19 or entrenched inequalities in our system. And I know that a grief that dark and deep may at times feel too heavy to bear.
“I know.
“And I also know that the only way to bear it is to turn all that anguish to purpose. So tonight, I ask all of America to join me â not in denying our pain or covering it over â but using it to compel our nation across this turbulent threshold into the next phase of progress, inclusion, and opportunity for our great democracy.”
This was a more dignified statement than Mr Biden’s comment “you ain’t black” if you vote for Trump.
June 3, 2020
I too was appalled at the actions of the policemen concerned but it did not make me feel I should go out and riot and loot.
Overprotective employment laws which prevent people being fired or allowed them to get the courts to reinsate them are often to blame. It seem 46% of police who were fired in that area the court force them to be reinstated. It is not a good idea for incompetent people to remain in a job be it police, nurses, doctors, drivers, builders or most other jobs.
So the Public Heath England confirms that the risk of dying among those diagnosed with Covid-19 is higher in those in BAME groups than in white ethnic groups. But they fail to compare like with like by adjusting for the areas these victims live, the jobs they do, the housing they have etc. I suspect if you do this there is rather little difference at all. What is the point of the report without such adjustments? It just does huge harm, creates fear, encourage the dire Lammy agenda and sheds no light at all.
They cannot stop it killing more men, more fat people, more blood group A people or more older people either.
June 3, 2020
Matty said that the government would try to make the death rate more equal during his presentation yesterday. Other than giving non ethnic patients worse treatment or keeping BAMEs in lockdown permanently it’s hard to think of s way to do so.
June 3, 2020
The way to do it is to be more detailed in the data: to give the other factors besides race. Habitation, occupation, comorbidities, wealth, etc. Then you might find there aren’t any real differences. The advisers said as much at the press briefing but these interesting points are never reported by our crass media.
Today, for example, Sir Patrick Vallance had to explain several times something he has already explained to us several times, the reason why they advised not checking flights once our domestic infection rate was high, and why, now it is low, it is a good idea to reinstate that.
The crass media still won’t get it. They will still continue to inflame the populace on the matter.
June 3, 2020
I admit I also find it hard to understand Mr Vallances argument. On the 23 March the official figures were 976 new cases. Today there were 1,876 new cases.
June 4, 2020
To support Patrick Vallances comments y sterday and the view SAGE had in February it was absolutely clear quarantine, checks and testing should have happened to slow the spread of Chinese virus in January or February. The fact it was alleged to be too late by alleged scientists by March graphically illustrates how the govt scientists and govt failed the nation. Countries near China were demanding travel bans on Chinese from 21/01/2020! They performed better and had fewer deaths. UK are part of five eye intelligence, New Zealand and Australia closed their borders to China, ours kept open. Vallance, Johnson and others who answered on this are utter rubbish.
June 4, 2020
because the 976 weren’t the only cases in March just those tested, the number of tests were a lot fewer 100,000 of thousands fewer, and the new cases are from a higher tested sample.
June 3, 2020
John doesn’t seem to have the confidence to publish my earlier comment.
Its main point was that commenters here took a rather different attitude to the hi-vis protesters in France, and to the rule-of-law there.
Could one of those please explain why they did?
June 3, 2020
Yes. I can explain. No-one here ever supported violence. Brexit voters chose the ballot box and despite being pilloried for the past 4 years and denied the result have kept peaceful and law abiding.
What we did notice regards the hi-vis protesters was the complete blind spot the BBC had for them. No reporting whatsoever of discontent in the EU.
Contrast this with how the BBC have been virtually inciting violence in the UK this week. Several times in their output you would have thought that the Minneapolis incident had happened here.
Police officers and white people have been beaten up here as a result and I expect widespread civil disorder within these shores this summer.
June 4, 2020
Sorry – people here absolutely did support the hi vis rioters.
And that is my point – whether the BBC gave them the prominence and promotion that you craved is besides that point.
June 4, 2020
Martin, Evidence?
June 5, 2020
Which people here Martin?
June 3, 2020
Probably for the same reason you support the Chinese communist party, Martin.
June 4, 2020
I don’t.
There are facts as to what has happened in China, and I am interested in those, not in some fanciful nonsense however.
June 4, 2020
Martin, Anon (9:55pm) makes a far better (and much less cynical) comment than mine. I agree with him that commenters here did not support “yellow vest” protesters’ violence.
George Floyd was killed whilst in USA police custody, and that was quite wrong. Yet it is not the policy of the USA government to kill arrested suspects. Moreover the figures of people who are killed by the USA police do not bear witness to race being the motivation. So protesters can only legitimately have protested against an appalling aberration, not a policy.
In contrast the “yellow vests” were protesting at the national policies of the French government. That is a considerable difference. Moreover it was widely accepted that French police were disproportionately brutal across the country towards protesters who were originally peaceful. That is in contrast to the USA where some protesters there seem to have set out to be violent from the start.
June 3, 2020
An incident in a minor city in the USA. Then the race hustlers get hold of it and fuel the flames. There is no excuse for looting. A concern to maintain law and order is under stable. It is difficult to calm things down though. Agitators are too crafty.
So it goes nationwide. Then it goes international. Lewis Hamilton seems to think all Formula 1 drivers must express an opinion on it – or else.
A teenage girl in London makes the front pages by claiming blacks in the UK are in more danger of dying at the hands of the police than of corona virus. As the cowboy used to say, if that was really true then itâs time to get out of Dodge City.
A few years earlier in Minneapolis a young Australian woman was shot and killed by a policeman from a Somali background. She was not being arrested. She had no criminal record. She had simply called the police for assistance. There were no riots or looting after this. Just a dignified protest march.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Justine_Damond
June 4, 2020
Peter “A teenage girl in London makes the front pages by claiming blacks in the UK are in more danger of dying at the hands of the police than of corona virus”. Where did she say that, all newspapers or just one? Was she challenged about this and ‘fact-checked’ at the time? Have the police answered this publicly if it went public? We cannot allow lies to be spread as a new sort of truth that then becomes a narrative and belief.
June 4, 2020
It was one newspaper, probably The Daily Mail, though I cannot find it now.
Most newspapers printed similar rawmaish.
Police are too busy prosecuting youngsters in Newcastle for making fun of the George Floyd photo. Thatâs far more important than arresting those throwing missiles into Downing Street.
The fact that the schoolboys are an easier target is neither here nor there.
June 3, 2020
Good morning.
Shades of 2011 me think đ
I detect two noticeable differences in both those speeches. The first is, that President Trump clearly condemns violence and separates those who wish to protest from those who are clearly out to break the law. Biden only states that protesters must not use violence.
The second is that President Trump makes clear the loss of others, especially from the less privileged in society. Biden says “He knows” as if he was personally affected.
Others might read something different and it is clear whose side I am on but I suspect there are forces hard at work making sure President Trump does not get a second term đ
June 3, 2020
Unfortunately the Democrats perpetuated two myths about Donald Trump: Russiagate, and electiongate. Now that both have foundered as the lies and hoaxes they were, the left in the USA is bereft. By fostering both, the Democrats have created the conditions for rioting by their more emotionally incontinent followers.
And that’s what has happened. The extremists have used the homicide of George Floyd as the excuse they needed to wreck their own country. The fact that the lives and businesses the leftists have chosen to wreck are innocent always passes them by – because only their emotions count.
The vast majority of Americans are rather more sensible than Joe …….. Biden, and can see the rioters for what they are: in the main, white privileged virtue-signalling selfish violent neo-marxist jerks.
June 3, 2020
Some dope on the BBC yesterday was reporting on the Nationwide house price news. The average UK house price fell by 1.7% month to month in May to ÂŁ218,902, according to Nationwide.
He said lower house prices were a good thing other than a small minority who were in a position to down size. Complete drivel lower prices mean fewer houses are build (as it is less profitable, people then have less valuable assets to borrow against (perhaps to help children buy homes or for their old age care or to invest in businesses), people then inherit less, some people are forced into negative equity and cannot then move plus it damages overall confidence.
June 3, 2020
The main thing hitting house prices is excessive taxation (the taxing of profits not even being made and excessive stamp duty and 28% CGT (even on non real gains), absurd over regulation of lettings and very poor management of the economy. With a bloated and largely unporductive state sector.
Good to see Rabb considering letting more people in from Hong Kong. Can we import their tax levels and size of government too please. Their health service seem rather better too.
June 3, 2020
The main thing hitting house prices is an expectation that people will have lower incomes in future, and thus will not be able to afford to pay bubble prices. That includes many who have over extended themselves and risk becoming unemployed, and thus they will be forced to sell, adding to supply. In extremists that will be through repossessions.
June 3, 2020
Again, complete balderdash. Taxation might be putting off landlords like you but, for most people, stamp duty is a minor consideration. What is a MAJOR consideration is the many HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS demanded for something which was built not so long ago for a few thousand.
3 bed semi in a West London suburb in the 1950s – 3 grand. Price now – 500 grand.
New 4 bed detached near Slough (bought by my wife’s father new in 1957), ÂŁ2600. Price now, ÂŁ650 grand.
Virtually everyone I went to primary school with in West London bought their own home. Now, most of my sons’ generation are renting – paying sponges like you so that they have no chance of ever owning their own home.
June 4, 2020
Well you either rent the property or you “rent” the money to buy the property. (Unless that is you are lucky enough to have the cash in the bank or have inherited it or a property).
June 3, 2020
Non resident enjoy CGT dated from April 2019 on Commercial property. I think residential property from a couple of years previous. Foreigners always have a tax advantage over we natives. Is that why they are calling for âHong Kong Chinese to come to the U.K. and lead the recoveryâ.
Letâs tax aliens and non residents on the same basis as natives. A âlevel playing field so beloved of these anti-British activists. How they will fight it!
June 4, 2020
Some taxes such as SDLT are already higher for non residents. This damages the UK and deters inward investment. As did the changes to the Non Dom rules pushing wealthy people out of the country often taking their investments with them. Osborne and Hammond shooting the country in the foot as usually.
What we mainly need is the government spending and taxation at about 20% of GDP like Hong Kong rather than the 45% we have in the UK (45% and yet we get so little of any real value from this expenditure). Even a few decent public loos seems to be beyond them.
June 3, 2020
Also damaging housing is incompetent and misguided government regulation of the banks and restrictions on property lending.
June 3, 2020
Too many EU rules and regulations on housebuilding have made them not cost effective in the North…hopefully that can be addressed once we complete leaving .
And in the 1930âs masses of houses were built st affordable prices. Currently there are too many people causing the prices to rise and thus being out of the reach of many people, forcing couples trying to buy, to have to both work once families come along. Itâs complicated!
June 3, 2020
Your self-interested, landlordy views on the housing market are laughable. Yeah, let’s get back to Northern Rock 5 x joint income, 110% mortgages at once.
At the end of day, most gardens are tiny – many people live on less than a tenth of an acre. Some on a lot less. The house itself – I’ve built plenty. Some concrete in the footings. Some drainage. Some bricks, blocks, timber joists, plasterboard, roof trusses, roof tiles on felt and batten. Some (usually cheap0 kitchen units) – cheap bathroom fittings, some pipes and cable. We used to throw up 4 bed detacheds in 12 weeks – and that was with wet trades (sand and cement on the walls with sirapite and sand/cement floor screeds). Add up the labour and you’ll probably get to about 70 weeks for 1 man.
Add up the labour and materials and you’ll get to feck all. The land and the developer’s profit is where the money is. And the fact that the banks lend so much money out into the housing market that no-one can allow it to fall – as it would take the banks with it.
The whole thing is madness and, for landlords like you, has become a sort of religion.
June 4, 2020
Thanks for that – now we are informed how Persimmon could reward management so well!
June 3, 2020
Well, a lot of news is getting buried at the moment.
Take, for instance, that from Nissan re their factory here.
They say that it is not sustainable with a no-deal situation re the European Union.
Seventy percent of their production is presently exported there, and they say that that market would collapse if subject to the ten percent tariffs under WTO rules.
Now come on, what for your flagship taunt about “project fear”?
Even your own tame economist, Minford, said that this would happen, didn’t he?
June 3, 2020
I thought you would bring this up with your customary glee at any news that suits your purpose Martin.
Have you ever considered the CEO of Nissan is fishing for State aid?
PS
Prof Minford never said what you claim.
More fake lefty news from you
June 4, 2020
No, Minford said that pretty well ALL UK manufacturing and farming would be thrown under the HGV’s wheels.
Thank you for the reminder.
June 4, 2020
No wrong again.
He was asked if the UK could survive without certain industry sectors.
He correctly said yes it could.
Adding that instead of the State spending billions supporting lame duck industries it re invested those billions in new age businesses.
But the myth has been spun by the left and become your reality.
June 3, 2020
Martin, The 10% tariff for cars is an EU tariff, not a WTO tariff. The WTO does not levy tariffs. You need to have a word with your masters in Brussels.
June 4, 2020
Doesn’t change the fact that the CEO thinks that it would finish the plant.
It would be consequential on a WTO rules based exit – no deal – that is the point.
June 4, 2020
We will collect many hundred of millions more from the tariff on cars should it become a reality.
Those hundreds of millions could be given to Nissan and other automotive companies.
You would support that I presume?
June 4, 2020
Martin, Doesnât change the fact that you claimed the cars would be “subject to the ten percent tariffs under WTO rules”. The 10% tariff is an EU tariff, not a WTO tariff. If you don’t like it, complain to your “friends” in the EU.
June 3, 2020
It’s not being buried. I heard about it on BBC news.
Who’s going to be buying cars now anyway ?
June 4, 2020
Funnily enough, I’m after one.
June 4, 2020
“Whoâs going to be buying cars now anyway ?” The British taxpayer via motability schemes, just give them a shorter picklist from predominantly built in Britain factories.
June 4, 2020
May’s sales show 89% down on May 2019.
June 3, 2020
‘….lower prices mean fewer houses are build…’ Surely this is a good and desirable policy. If the number of houses are too few for people it will bring home the fact that the UK is grossly overpopulated and steps needed to address this.
Of course this fact is obvious today.
As sacrifice is no longer in the consciousness of the UK population now, nothing will be done to affect our standard of living unless enforced as it was and accepted in the case of 80 years ago.
June 3, 2020
Where to start replying to this load of nonsense? Okay, let’s start with ‘lower house prices means fewer houses are built’. Complete and utter baloney. Lower sales prices means builders will bid less for their bit of development land. Constantly rising prices must means developers bid more and more for land.
And ‘people then have less valuable assets to borrow against (perhaps to help children buy homes or for their old age care or to invest in businesses)’
Yes, it is VITALLY important that people have assets to BORROW against! Perhaps to ‘help children buy homes’. Here’s a weird thought – maybe house prices should be such that children can buy their own homes – just like their parents did. I bought my own home without any help from my parents. I was brought up in a council house and yet – strangely – I managed to buy a house. How did I achieve this? Was I in the top 5% of earners as youngsters have to be these days to afford a home? No, I wasn’t. House prices were reasonable when I was a kid.
And how about having an asset ‘for their old age’. What gibberish is this? House prices are to rise exponentially forever so that each generation can fund their retirement by downsizing! Think about it for a minute before you post.
June 4, 2020
Mike W, The planning system makes land for housing costly.
June 4, 2020
This high price bubble isn’t all over the UK Mike, you can still buy a brand new four bed detached where I grew up for ÂŁ200,000, you can get a 2 bed starter home for less than ÂŁ100,000.
June 4, 2020
and are there jobs?
June 5, 2020
Well all of my extended family and friends work full time yes, not at London rates of pay.
June 3, 2020
Agree, Sir John. True democracy and freedom are ever vulnerable to the latent forces of lawlessness. The enemy of all Christian virtue revels in destructive revolution, and is always working towards that end. We live in perilous times.
June 3, 2020
What has virtue got to do with Christianity – the font of so much evil it is hard to understand why anyone professes it.
June 3, 2020
Mike Wilson, Would you like to explain why you think Christianity is the font of evil? Or are we meant to take your word for it?
June 3, 2020
‘Mr Bidenâs comment âyou ainât blackâ if you vote for Trump.’
What an appalling thing to say identity politics is surely just as or perhaps even more evil as the politics of envy.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Martin Luther King, Jr”
Biden has a dream that all black people will vote for his economically disastrous and appalling policies. Many black people are far too bright to do that mate. Trump deserves support just for his sensible stance on energy and climate realism. Depressingly Biden now is slightly the favourite. I still think Trump (for all his many faults) will win. Biden sounds absolutely appalling even worse than Obama.
June 3, 2020
It is âdivide and ruleâ.
So near the truth that Diane A was attacked for saying that the British establishment is very good at it!
Relentlessly divide people into groups ( obviously mass immigration helps here)…stir them up against each other and THEN you are begged to impose draconian laws.
Martial law.
The Marxist politics of envy are a similar strategy and they have seen this country split from top to bottom …as effectively as the Civil War did.
June 3, 2020
Divide and rule…it suits!
June 3, 2020
Do you really think there is any difference between Trump and Biden? They are the same as every Dem. Reb. president since 1945 except for the tiny Kennedy blip who was bumped off for it were the same.
The USA policies of all of them is to keep it on top, control every country it can by whatever means foul or foul. Corruption rules.
June 4, 2020
Trump for all his many faults is at least sound on energy and climate alarmism. He is far preferable to the dire Biden.
June 4, 2020
Kennedy was no paragon of virtue – and neither was the Kennedy ‘Clan’
June 3, 2020
Nearly as dire and Hillary Clinton. All three of them Law graduates which is usually a good warning not to elect them. The last thing we need is more laws and more lawyers.
June 3, 2020
The mind really boggles. You mean you don’t actually cringe when you see him on the box?
June 3, 2020
Mike W, No, I don’t. Should I? Trump seems to be a very astute politician with the right policies for America. And quite rightly he is fed up with the blatant bias of the American MSM, and the ridiculous Democrat paid for Russiagate hoax. As I am too.
June 4, 2020
I don’t cringe but do occasionally wince. However, I’m also minded that what I see on TV is often a carefully edited version of what the man actually said or intended – which (I think) is the point made by Sir John by publishing the full text of his speech.
And having watched a British police woman get punched in the face yesterday (live on television) by a (peaceful?) protester – I have some sympathy with much of what he actually said.
June 3, 2020
I have now read through the SAGE briefing minutes to determine whether the Cabinet acted proportionately by locking the whole country down. (See link below). These minutes were forced out of the Government by the urgent judicial review currently being undertaken by CrowdJustice.
Any form of deprevation of liberty should have been considered against risk. That is what is the risk compared to other risks that the population faced. For example accidents or illnesses.
My view is that the Cabinet did NOT act proportionately because the briefings focused soley on keeping the R0 (contagion) number down and treated the whole population as one unit. The SAGE committee did not consider the known fact that for those tens of millions of people under the age of 65 without medical conditions the virus posed no risk (compared with other risks). On that basis the Government breached the human rights of the majority of the population by depriving them of their liberty and freedom.
The Cabinet stayed focused on the R0 number as a monolith measure and did not consider the duality of liberty and risk as required by law. The Cabinet appear to have been led by the inflexible poorly designed scientific models rather than the science itself.
For any judge to agree that the Government acted proportionately and faily it would set a president that would render the Human Right of liberty as one that should not be considered even when other options were available.
https://www.gov.uk/search/transparency-and-freedom-of-information-releases?keywords=sage&order=relevance
June 3, 2020
I read through after you posted link last night.
Very interesting too.
Obviously on a scale of 0 to 100 one could put poor judgement at 0 and out and out manipulation ( or worse ) at 100.
Assuming a misinterpreted health threat/ genuine overreaction is it not still an INCREDIBLE step for govt to poke its nose into personal health issues and then use that to control and incarcerate?
We blink in disbelief.
Human âRightsâ do not protect us. Not like Common Law did ( I have read).
June 3, 2020
There is a lot of talk in the media about avoiding quarantine for air travellers by using ‘air bridges’, or even dispensing with quarantine altogether on the grounds that it is ‘good for business’. Will these visitors be restricted to within 5 miles of the airport, and if not how can you justify restricting the indigenous inhabitants of this country in such a manner? Why not ‘rail bridges’ between selected cities to restore some of our liberty? The more I see of these plans, the more convinced I become that our leaders have lost the plot.
June 3, 2020
And yet a large number of people well under the age of 65 have been severely attacked by corona. There is a clear link to the early co-morbidities caused by the largely self-inflicted obesity/ overweight factor in the population, also to poor bodily immunity, which can often (not always) be linked to alcohol abuse, drugs, and other ‘lifestyle’ choices. These are all fairly typical most western countries; in a country such as the UK where the health system is free at the point of use, ‘poor choices’ (passed over by politicians who need votes), have consequences for us all.
June 3, 2020
Mancunius, It’s also linked to being male because females (XX) have twice the immune system (in general terms of course) of males (XY) given the immune system is mainly on the X chromosome.
But you are right about “poor life choices”. It’s funny that schools now teach the 1000 names of gender (when it used to be the 1000 names of God) but don’t teach washing hands, and only getting pregnant when you’re married (to take two random examples).
June 4, 2020
I put a link to a paper by Oxford researchers on here which showed that the excess death rate for England for the under 64s was way higher than in other European countries, but it was moderated. Google vox. eu. org. The deaths by occupation has also been worked out.
June 3, 2020
Decisions are not being made in Cabinet. They have been sidelined almost completely.
June 3, 2020
What if this virus had been ten times worse? What if it killed children like it is killing we old farts? What if it was a real plague? Would you still be whining about ‘deprivation of liberty’? Most people think the government acted ‘too slow, too late’.
June 3, 2020
Mike Wilson, You don’t think liberty matters? But if it doesn’t, and it’s ok to deprive people of their liberty, it must be because the government knows better. Oh . . . but you say government doesn’t know better? Shouldn’t you make up your mind? Whilst remembering that government – all governments – are made up of fallible, not to say power-crazed, people.
June 3, 2020
A single image of wrongdoing triggered multiple reflections of more. Revenge aimed irrationally at many innocents added much worse. Images of prompt justice at source could have prevented added suffering and destruction.
Image capture, which escalated the original severity of wrongdoing may also provide the solution toward better. Good people tend not to cause harm to others. Some who cause harm may do so intentionally, yet are less inclined if their malevolent actions risk being seen and captured for wider exposure.
Wide mobile phone camera ownership and police bodycam usage are helping secure evidence, discouraging criminality. Killing, rioting and looting would not occur so widely if all perpetrators knew they were creating instant evidence with justice rapidly following.
However, all citizens should maintain high standards of probity naturally. Many folk opine that they do not steal because the penalty for theft is too high. An ordinary good citizen would say that he does not steal because stealing is wrong.
The quality of many police officers seems too low. Proper screening should prevent bad officers from such power before recruitment. Punishing after the event instead of preventing damages us all. It is better to have one fence at the top of a hill than seven ambulances at the bottom. Peace is understanding.
June 3, 2020
The extinguishment of someone’s life is rather more than “wrongdoing”, such as littering, and the fact that you do not draw the distinction could be, I think, revealing?
What horrified and appalled all decent, civilised people was, that the perpetrator of this crime knew that he was being recorded, and yet seemed, if anything, emboldened by that.
His evident assumptions, as to the prejudices of the watching public and of the authorities would have been unlikely groundless either.
It is perhaps as much about those that people rightly protest, and since many here seem to accept – willingly – the US as a kind of global authority – and for some bizarre reason a moral one too – it is hardly surprising that those here and elsewhere join the rightfully outraged.
Recent demonstrations have been entirely peaceful, it is important to note.
June 3, 2020
Recent demonstrations have been entirely peaceful…..have you got a TV?
June 3, 2020
Police officers and white people have been beaten up in London today.
The George Floyd incident has been hijacked by Antifa activists here and by those who wish to depose a government that they couldn’t beat at the ballot box.
June 3, 2020
Martin, No police force is infallible. Any more than any other man-made system. But you seem to think the Chinese communist police are better than the USA police. I have to disagree with you.
June 4, 2020
I have never commented on policing in China.
But according to qualified observers from around the world, who have been to China to study their handling of the covid19 epidemic, it appears that they may well have mounted a pretty effective response.
If so then the people of this country, of the US, and of Brazil can only look on in envy on that point.
Their atmospheric pollution levels have returned to pre-lockdown levels, which does suggest that life is getting back to normal there.
June 4, 2020
Martin, You have very frequently commended the Chinese lockdown, and the Chinese handling of the “Wu-flu”. That lockdown was enforced by Chinese police, often quite brutally, as you can see on videos smuggled out. You can’t cherry pick.
So, your choice: USA police with all their faults, or Chinese communist police.
June 4, 2020
Martin in Cardiff:
Synonyms for wrongdoing include crime, offence, misdeed, sin, violation, evil, iniquity and others. Your interpretation is littering.
June 3, 2020
It has been reported that the policeman in question had 17 previous complaints against him. The police chiefs cannot apparently get rid of such men because the Union is very strong and gets them reinstated.
Has anyone actually established that this was a racial attack? I ask because the previous attacks were not, apparently. And there are data which show you are twice as likely to be killed by the police in America if you are Caucasian as if you are African American.
Only by asserting that this was a racial attack are the organizers of the violence able to justify to the media what they are doing. Will this ever be scrutinised?
June 3, 2020
Image capture did not escalate the severity of the original wrongdoing. It simply showed it to the whole world and the whole world was appalled.
June 3, 2020
Mike W, The whole world? I very much doubt that. You and I may be appalled but I suspect that the police in Iran, China, Russia, and many other places, are not. I am also appalled by the 9 (reported) other innocent people killed by the rioters.
June 3, 2020
Trumpâs statement is a model for calm and firm leadership and he is entirely right that radical left, terrorist elements are seeking to exploit the situation for political aims. It is revolting behaviour. But you wouldnât know any of this from the BBCâs reporting which has been a partisan anti-Trump disgrace. There are some subjects where you simply cannot now get unbiased news from the BBC. US politics has become another. Time to boost the National mood by decriminalising non-payment of the the license fee.
Bidenâs comment was as you say more sensible than his ludicrous if you ainât black remark.
June 3, 2020
Curiously, when the President made his moving walk to St John’s Church and spoke outside it, the BBC man on the spot – not one of the usual Trump Deranged ones – appeared moved too and gave a faithful account and commentary. But by the next day a different version of history had been concocted back in London.
June 3, 2020
Agreed.
The entire fake news media are misrepresenting the facts in order to attach President Trump, I’ve yet to hear them criticise the “Democrat” mayor of Minneapolis whose police department is responsible for the conduct of it’s officers.
The peaceful and lawful protests by BLM have been hijacked by the Democrat supporting “Antifa” who will provoke the police in order to provide news clips for the anti Trump MSM.
June 3, 2020
Not just the BBC. ITV is just as bad, you will not see Trump’s response quoted, but you will see Biden presented as the voice of reason.
June 3, 2020
Leaving the issue of US riots aside I am more concerned with the UK governments removal of civil liberties. The new lockdown rules are as absurd as the previous ones and just as disturbing. They no longer even make the pretence of asking parliament before dictating what people can do in their own homes and with whom. The measures make no scientific sense and can only be seen to make any sense at all from the perspective of authoritarian control. No doubt the entire political establishment will continue to ignore the rules because they know they are a joke and only for the little people. I hope that millions of people will ignore them too just as they have the previous set, I certainly will.
June 3, 2020
Do they have a minus rating on those ridiculous poll things regarding PM popularity?
To watch oneâs party destroyed like this? Or maybe not…does it all suit?
Such a muddle. It is all like a different universe.
Down a big,deep,dark rabbit hole.
June 3, 2020
I wholeheartedly agree. The theft of our freedom has been the most significant and terrifying political event in my lifetime.
June 3, 2020
With scant means of detection and as yet no vaccination what brilliant suggestions do you have for combatting Covid 19. While you are all for flaunting the rules of contact with your fellow citizens, bare a thought for their welfare were you to be found a carrier. I accept that at the end of this epidemic we may decide in wisdom after the event that we could have gone about it differently, but we are where we are. The political establishment are small in number and just as vulnerable, so think in terms of what is good for the majority.
June 3, 2020
I have had a sample of life without pubs, cinema, theatre, socialising with friends… all the things I love.
But for there being no Room 101 this is a life even more shit than 1984.
I’d rather die and soon. With or without COVID-19
You’d think they’d give us a choice and treat us like grown ups.
And keeping the pubs closed is pure spite against the working classes.
June 3, 2020
…….the entire political establishment will continue to ignore the rules…….
Almost amusing that MPs have had to act like most people by queuing to vote in a similar manner to queuing to enter a supermarket. It won’t last long – too embarrassing.
June 3, 2020
I haven’t seen why covid should now be treated as an STD.
We should be allowing those who isolate to visit others who have isolated. People without the virus will not infect each other. The elderly could do with the morale boost of visits from family and some assistance with domestic chores, etc.
June 3, 2020
I am also concerned. Sadly, others are not – Ahem ! đ
June 3, 2020
I agree; the lockdown has given government a dangerous level of control over the people.
June 3, 2020
Jess, Indeed. For some people – the curtain-twitchers – the lockdown has become an end in itself. However, according to Christopher Snowden (IEA) even Prof Fergusson did not call for a full lockdown with closed schools, offices and factories. There must of course be a full and unbiased public enquiry. I won’t hold my breath.
June 4, 2020
The government followed the sage advice throughout and still is with regard to compulsory face masks on trains and buses. The request for distancing and avoiding unnecessary shopping and entertainment was ignored by a minority in London, even going into clothes shops and trying on the merchandise. The same happened in Paris and both governments then went for full lockdown following the Italians. Both went over the top, which is what happens when officials anywhere are given total control. Having the heir to the throne, the minister for health, the chief medical officer, the chief civil servant, the chief wonk and their families go down with the batclap didn’t help either.
June 4, 2020
And the Prime Minister of course.
June 3, 2020
Good piece, Sir John. Itâs a pity the BBC would never report President Trumpâs speech in that way, but instead selectively picks its quotes to suit its agenda.
Top news today though is surely the PMâs suggestion of a route to UK citizenship for around 3 million Hong Kong residents. Heâll never be forgiven (or forgotten) for it, if the Party lets him go ahead. Get rid of Huawei, but donât open our borders! Maybe you could address that issue in a future article?
June 3, 2020
Boris was always suspect on immigration, but none of us could have possibly realised how suspect. He is doing nothing to limit the mass immigration taking place, there is a quarter of million people a year that they will admit to, though its probably a lot more. He is completely failing to stop the boat people, with Priti Patel’s Channel taxi service running fullbore, without there being any prospect of sending them back. He wants to give a million or so illegal migrants an amnesty, and now he wants to add another 3 million people our population. Where is is going to put them? WHERE? What part of England is he going to annex and ethnically remove the population to fit them in? Just a sunny May and they are already talking of a hose pipe ban, where is he going to get the water for all these people, let alone the housing, the roads, the schooling, the healthcare and so on?
The British establishment are a liability to England, they are here to destroy us, not help us.
Meanwhile , while they overload the country with people, they are inflicting this green rubbish on us, wittering on about sustainability and littering the countryside with wind turbines. How is adding 3 million people to our population sustainable?
And finally , we are seeing in the USA the breakdown of a multicultural society . They are unstable constructs, and at times I feel its a tinderbox here as well, with more and more of the Government’s time taken trying to appease these tribal groupings which means the Government isn’t looking to our future, and Boris wants to add another facet to this Tower of Babel.
June 3, 2020
If they stay in Hong Kong they might be killed by the Chinese government.
But as long as youâre alright ……
June 3, 2020
The CCP is civilised ! How dare you !!!
June 3, 2020
Hankering after the British Empire, are you, Andy? You know the one where we could force Jonny Foreigner to treat his natives with decency? That’s the trouble with you little Englanders, you think you can still boss the world around.
June 3, 2020
They should all have got passports in 1997. If we can import their low tax high prosperity model as well it will be most beneficial.
June 3, 2020
You are correct about Huawei but not about 3 million political refugees from Hong Kong. In fact many would opt to go to the USA where the president has also expressed a welcome. Remember the Ugandan Asians who have since made an enormous contribution to the success of the UK. Also bare in mind that these Chinese will be well educated, largely enterprising contributors to society who already speak English. They are welcome for their contribution to the cuisine of the UK apart from any other enterprising talents they may have.
June 3, 2020
By the end of Boris’ term this country is going to be a burned out wreck.
Mass unemployment and poverty.
He (and we) have a miserable time ahead. He’s shaping up to be the worst Prime Minister in British history at the very time we needed the best.
Starmer Vs Johnson at the despatch box in a quiet Commons is excruciating to watch and is showing how overrated he is.
June 3, 2020
Anon, Yes, Starmer is much overrated. I had expected better of him but his double questions when he’s already got the answer is excruciating. Perhaps he’s nervous? Or just not up to the job?
June 3, 2020
We had many reports of people using fake ID and passports to enter Europe through Turkey/Greece. How many Chinese will use this HK route with fake documents to get here?
June 3, 2020
As written previously the UK should have offered full UK passports to Hong Kong citizens pre 1997 as part of the handover. The two systems route was clearly a sham. I am surprised it has lasted until now.
We would have been a much more dynamic country with them and maybe out of the EU earlier as a consequence. Now we remain on project fear from London Mayor and the other usual suspects egged on by Barnier.
June 3, 2020
But I thought that you were proud of the UK’s once having had an Empire?
Isn’t it only proper that the PM should say such things, if he believes that his followers are?
June 3, 2020
Martin, Believing in your own propaganda is fatal.
June 4, 2020
Please clarify – are you proud of the UK’s imperial history?
If so, then why do you not accept that the PM should say what he did, on the reasonable assumption that you are?
June 4, 2020
Martin, Remains invented a convoluted theory that Leaves voted Leave somehow ‘because of the British Empire’. It was yet another Remain fabrication. You have now tied yourself in knots because you believe Remain propaganda.
As for your comment, it is truly amazing – I think this is the first time you’ve actually asked what a Leave supporter thinks, rather than telling us what we think. I am disinclined to enlighten you. But if you read my other comments you will see my answer.
June 3, 2020
I endorse fully your criticism of the BBC, BeebTax. It is time its radical leftist agenda and wasting of licence money on ‘sunshine swans’ in winter was stopped.
However, you are wrong on the issue of Hong Kong residents. They would enrich our country immeasurably. Intelligent, entrepreneurial, industrious and innovative they would be an asset and example. They should have been allowed entry in 1997.
Thank you, Sir John, for your usual balance and sensible assessment.
June 4, 2020
Well, we have room for seventeen million who are mostly none of those things whatsoever, so, absolutely.
June 3, 2020
This should have been done in 1997 but the Tory govt at the time didn’t want to queer the pitch with the CCP. Since the CCP have not honoured the Joint Declaration we should do the honourable thing and provide a safe haven for the BNO passport holders and their families.
The Portuguese govt granted EU passports to all of the residents of Macau prior to their handover in 1999.
June 3, 2020
Bob, Quite right, we must offer a safe haven.
June 3, 2020
For what it’s worth, I’m lobbying hard on both sides of the Atlantic for the UK to ditch the Huawei deal. We should be very suspicious of China’s motives. China doesn’t want to be part of the family of nations, but master thereof. Communism always has been a bad idea and if we choose to sup at its table, we will need an exceptionally long spoon!
June 3, 2020
When Mrs Thatcher did a similar thing for Hong Kong, there was a large Party rebellion. She reduced the measure somewhat but it had the effect of reassuring Hong Kongers and thus, paradoxically, persuading them to stay, knowing there was an exit.
June 3, 2020
We STILL have high levels of immigration. Why you think the Tory Party will EVER do anything about it baffles me. Why do you think they will?
June 3, 2020
Mike W, They won’t. But at least the Tories have high levels of immigration for money (well, the money of the employers who are too idle and avaricious to train native Brits); whereas Labour has high levels of immigration for ideological reasons – much more dangerous.
June 3, 2020
The Hong Kong people should never have been abandoned – a strong historical link and respect for freedom. I have indicated previously that rejecting the people of Hong Kong, particularly when PM Thatcher was threatened by Deng, and then later accepting predominantly white Eastern Europeans has always appeared a little on the racist side from the London elite.
Deng wanted HK’s wealth and dynamism, he wouldn’t have had it without the people.
June 3, 2020
Harrowing footage of the extrajudicial public execution of George Floyd is freely available on news websites globally. All eight minutes of him pleading for his life and gasping for air.
The vast majority of Americans were enraged, many choosing to excercise their right to protest. Whilst I do not condone the violence, the looting or the breaking of legally enforced curfews, the footage shocked me.
RIP George. I would like to see justice for you.
June 3, 2020
Sakara Gold, I am sure that most Americans were shocked and appalled that George Floyd’s was killed (not a “public execution”) in police custody. But polls indicate that a majority are appalled at the violence and looting and killing unleashed by the privileged white middle-class young lefties using Floyd’s death as an excuse. Are you?
June 3, 2020
Antifa has shown itself to be a terrorist organisation – It may not have a central office or a fancy address, but it is organised along the lines of paid terrorism. This isn’t just an American phenomenon.
Antifa needs to be declared as a terrorist group in all countries – then those that support and fund it can be brought to justice, for it is very clear that the thugs are being paid well by vested interests.
I hope we can follow Trumps example and start attacking the real enemies of democracy.
June 3, 2020
I wish the USA well too, and although I i understand the reason for the protest, I dont understand why burning and looting , while talking about âjusticeâ is necessary.
Lives are important, but so are livelihoods. Some of the innocent people anticipating going back to their jobs, when shops reopen again, may find that there are no jobs for them. What about âjusticeâ for them, not to mention many small shops that may have been damaged beyond repair, after a lifetimes hard work for the owners,
The Media give us one side only. . The BBC are particularly guilty in this regard. They are happy to blame President Trump for everything, while endlessly asking for the opinions of the protesters.
I just have to switch off the news now, and I resent having to pay my licence again later this year.
And all this on top of the Corona virus crisis that the USA suffered so dreadfully from!
June 3, 2020
“And all this on top of the Corona virus crisis that the USA suffered so dreadfully from!”
But that is a BBC fiction too. They abjectly refuse to report deaths per million in which case the USA has 330 which is almost exactly the same as the EU’s.
This is done deliberately to report the USA as the worst and Trump’s presidency a disaster.
June 3, 2020
Odd how a single death in USA (before the riots) got so much coverage here from people who tell us our future lies in the EU – a similar death in, say, Romania would have got zero coverage. The chattering classes here are absolutely in thrall to the USA news and culture despite their constant sneering about it. It is very strange. Even the USA riots get blanket coverage whilst those in France got far less over many weeks.
Anyway, here’s what the Archbishop of Canterbury thinks about it:
âI pray that those of us who are white Christians repent of our own prejudices, and do the urgent work of becoming better allies to our brothers and sisters of colour.â
Very bold of him to admit he’s prejudiced – I suggest that is incompatible with his job and he should resign.
June 3, 2020
You mean President Trump actually said rather more than simply, I will bring in the military and sort it out for you, good grief, anyone would think the very fair, un biased and balanced BBC, and other news media, had some sort of reporting agenda against Mr Trump.
The BBC and other media outlets seem to have a lot of form on taking words out of context, and selecting just a few lines of a much longer presentation, discussion or speech.
All rather worrying the way so called news is now generated and reported.
June 3, 2020
Both gentlemen were correct in what they have said, but Mr Biden sounds a little more ambivalent. It is probably asking too much of him when an election in looming. Mr Trump was comprehensive and correct in all he said. It is a long time past that the Tuskegee airmen and the Red Ball Express proved that African Americans were the equal of European Americans or any other ethnic grouping of Americans. It has not as yet entered the minds of all Americans, which it is why George Floyd was murdered and so much mayhem has ensued. Protesting peacefully is legitimate, but riot, wanton destruction and anarchy are criminal and have to be dealt with as such. Ultimately I think most American citizens will understand this because extreme behaviour threatens every citizen.
June 3, 2020
Not as if nobody knew about all this!
So why is nothing ever done about the extreme far Left/anarchists? They are useful?
I understand that a whole load of them broke â Lockdownâ and rioted in London? No doubt with complete impunity.
Seems to me that someone somewhere WANTS chaos ….the more the merrier.
And having let it go this far the powers that be can now start to talk about âlooting and shootingâ. Let it all get out of control and then…fire!! Long predicted …like all of this!
3 millions Hong Kong refugees? Will they be told what they are coming to? Frying pan and fire? Can we do an exchange maybe?
June 3, 2020
O/T I despair at watching an MP vote yesterday wearing shorts! Can we not uphold standards and dress codes!
June 3, 2020
As a white person, I am tired of being demonised and portrayed as the source of all evil. This is the progressive’s one aim, the silencing of anyone who doesn’t conform to their racist worldview
The left are now in control of the media. Non-ethnic people who refused to conform will be slandered again and again and then they’ll be silenced again and again
This is now political not human
Labour and the democrats will make hay from human differences. they are both pure scum parties and they know it
When’s the Grooming scandal report being published by Patel?
June 4, 2020
If you are tired of talking about racism and being blamed for it then imagine how people of colour are feeling. Imagine how tired they are of experiencing racism. You will never know what they are going through and how we are all contributing to it.
June 3, 2020
One of the main jobs of a leader is to bring a country together when events divide it.
You look through American history and the greatest presidents were the unifiers.
Washington – united the country in the first place.
Lincoln – brought it through the civil war.
Roosevelt – unity through the depression and WW2.
Trump is the opposite of this. He is the worst president in American history. It is not even a close contest. He is a dangerously unstable and unpleasant man. Completely useless.
I am not a Joe Biden fan but he sounded presidential yesterday – and he is a sensible man who will surround himself with experts and who will listen to them. The orange goon in the White House at the moment would have us all inject disinfectant.
June 4, 2020
Trump ….worst president ?
Take a critical look at the last few – plenty to choose from.
June 3, 2020
Not condoning the action of the Policeman but am I right in thinking the Now Saintly figure of Mr Floyd was trying to use forged currency effectively in time of War, What would have been the sentence here in WWII?
June 3, 2020
That was an excellent speech from the President.
What a scandal it is that the reporting on it by the MSN has been so misleading and hostile. Even Julia Hartley-Brewer was at it this morning. I’m disgusted.
June 3, 2020
Brexit Last Week
âBut Nissan – closing Barcelona and focussing on Sunderland, it was all Project Fearâ – every Brexiteer.
Brexit This Week
âWe will close Sunderland if there is no tariff free trade deal with the EUâ – the actual boss of Nissan.
June 3, 2020
That’s isnt what the CEO of Nissan actually said.
I thought you would be hot on the story Andy.
Fishing for State aid is what is going on.
June 3, 2020
So nothing to do with a global slump in car demand then.
Does Japan now determine how we are governed ?
June 3, 2020
Andy, So you believe a conditional threat, but don’t believe an actual plant in Barcelona is being closed in preference to closing the Sunderland plant despite Brexit? If Nissan were as hysterical about Brexit as you are, they would have kept the Barcelona plant open, but shut the Sunderland plant.
June 3, 2020
Mr Biden is a godsend for President Trump’s election hopes.
The Democrats realise this, which is why former president Mr Obama often feels obliged to weigh in with comments that he feels will improve Mr Biden’s election prospects.
June 3, 2020
As is clear, America has deep problems with race and gun ownership that are rooted in its history and shape its culture, sociology and politics. So from time to time an appalling incident like this with George Floyd and the Sandy Hook massacre of infants occurs, followed by condemnatory proclamations, much head shaking and calls for it never to happen again â and so it does not, until the next time.
It is disturbing to witness attempts by some people in this country to interpret what happens here through the prism of Americaâs problems, bizarrely supposing for themselves that the culture of American society prevails here too.
June 3, 2020
All cops act heavy handedly when they are challenged by argumentative suspects. A sole person sunning himself on Brighton beach argued when told that he was breaking the rules and s number of police handcuffed him, laid him flat on his face and marched him off. He may have caught Covid in the process.
The event in the US was similar and it is reported that the man who died had traces of drugs and s heart condition. He was also a large man and the police would have been using the practice of holding him down until subdued. They made a mistake in not listening to him saying that he couldn’t breathe and this may have been because they thought that he could breathe if he was talking.
This may eventually be judged to be manslaughter by accident.
The protests are organised by far left anarchists who play on the inequality and racial agendas. They sre rife in the universities. If they try to start riots and looting again in the UK in the middle of the epidemic the police and army should be called to act more firmly than they did last time, when people died during the arson attacks.
June 4, 2020
It is disgusting to compare the incident on Brighton beach to that of George Floyd. The knee tactic used is illegal In many states and discouraged in others because it is known to cause damage to an individual. Even in Minneapolis it should only ever be used when an individual is aggressive. George Floyd was unarmed and pinned to the ground – there was nothing Necessary about how they acted. Not listening to someone say they canât breath once may be a mistake, but listening to them say it for 7 minutes and then stop moving is not mistake. It is homicide (as determined by a medical examiner) not manslaughter or an accident. Even within the U.K., whether an individual has underlying health conditions which caused injury or a death to be more likely – you are still responsible for their death regardless so his underlying health issues are irrelevant as the police officer blocked all oxygen going to his lungs causing his death. The fact you are even trying to justify the polices actions Is unbelievable. You may not agree with the riots turning violent but violence has been the only way any message has got across to people. Without the violence, the other 3 police officers may not have been brought to justice in a court room. They are not just protesting one death, they are protesting hundreds of years of racism and oppression and unlawful killings of people of colour (many of which by the police) and it is not your right to determine what is âtoo farâ for them to get there message across because rioting and looting is nothing in comparison to what people of colour have had to endure on a daily basis.
June 3, 2020
I didn’t know this was what Trump said, it hasn’t been reported by our media like that.
I don’t know how it works in America for sure but I thought each State was a similar size to each independent Country in Europe and had their own Mayor, Chief of Police who has similar powers to which equivalent position in the UK e.g. is a State’s Chief of Police in a similar position of power to Priti Patel or lower. What decision-making power does the Mayor have similar to Boris Johnson or Nicola Sturgeon or say, Sadiq Khan?
June 3, 2020
I fear that MSM have already decided whoâs to blame and are support just one elementâŠ..I pray that one day, both here and in the USA, we might have an unbiased news reporting
June 3, 2020
the first small step is easy……Close down the lies (what passes for news coverage) from the BBC. Ban them portraying ‘news’ it is largely biased propaganda.
June 3, 2020
Did Matt Hancock really follow up his Black Lives Matter speech with the segment on how the Coronavirus was racist like Trump?
June 3, 2020
London protests are planned today says Guido Fawkes with a disturbing piece if true about George Osborne’s advice to protestors.
I would like to know what Sadiq Khan has done about getting the protection in London as “The organisers also envisage the need for âshatter resistant Swimming Gogglesâ and âshoes you can run inâ for a planned âpeaceful protestâ⊔
I would also like to know if he has put up those big signs he has available to say “COVID19 keep your 2m safe distance from each other protect your community”.
June 3, 2020
The quality of many police officers seems too low
>
yes, but that’s been the case for decades
The global Left have locked us down to start this riot
June 3, 2020
Amidst all the doom mongering and negativity, the suggestion of a route to UK citizenship for Hong Konger BNO(P) holders is very positive and welcome, particularly if it extends to their families and then others who meet immigration criteria.
Hong Kongers are well educated, industrious and enterprising, they would be a very welcome addition, certainly compared to all the surgeons and engineers paddling across the channel and stowing away on lorries from the EU.
June 3, 2020
The fascist left couldn’t care less about human beings and their safety. Their only concern is total POLITICAL domination over those who refuse to see the world in the way they do. Terms like equality are nothing less than a deceit. Their true objective is the abuse of the idea of equality as a pretext for oppressive political action, social destruction and the silencing of their political enemies
All human beings are victims of left wing hate and left wing authoritarianism of which Labour and the Democrats are the true disciples
June 3, 2020
Yesterdayâs voting farce in Parliament demonstrates everything that is wrong with politics in this country.
A silly idea, pushed through by an incompetent minister in a failing government with many of the MPs who backed it doing so despite knowing it was mad.
June 3, 2020
Polls show the Conservatives even higher than at the point of the last election.
June 3, 2020
not everything Andy – you mention just a small part of it.
June 4, 2020
Agree it was a complete farce
June 3, 2020
This is organised, anti-government, malevolent, dark forces at work. These organisations, like Antifa, just wait for a trigger to rally their cause. They donât care about George Floyd or obtaining justice through the proper channels. This is why there is never any outrage when a white person is killed. I think it will backfire for them as the American people will see it for what it is. Trump has to tread a fine line between protecting his people and being seen to suppress the protesters. He seems to be doing a good job so far. In our country our authorities need to be ready to quell any rioting that kicks off. We know from past experience that only zero tolerance will succeed.
June 3, 2020
Some media outlets have have for years covered news stories in a divisive way.
The BBC for example often portray a “black versus white”, “male versus female”, “able- versus disable-bodied” school playground version of events.
I believe the U.S. also has this element in their media. To what extent has this divisive attitude contributed towards the troubles we are now seeing?
It’s about time the BBC realised that no-one is “black” or “white” and that we are all different shades and hues. It’s about time they grew up.
June 3, 2020
THE GLOBAL LEFT ARE TRYING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING, STOP VIRTUE SIGNALLING TO THEM AND FIGHT BACK.
June 3, 2020
The ones that get me are the people moaning on about their “white privilege”.
Frankly, my dear, I don’t give adamnâŠ
June 3, 2020
Let them give it up! Easy.
June 3, 2020
Thank you sir John.
The broadcast media and in particular the BBC should be ashamed of themselves of giving such wickedly edited and biased reports on what was said. They do it in their desire for sensationalism and ratings but all they are achieving is complete disbelief in anything they report.
June 3, 2020
Absolutely no point in commenting on this unless we can draw a sharp comparison to our own situation- for instance it would be hard to imagine the same happening on the streets of UK- but then why not- only a few short decades ago it was happening on the streets of NI- and then we think the same couldn’t happen in England?
June 3, 2020
We are in the end times, Hitchens is going to tell you and call for MPs to repent.
June 3, 2020
I don’t even bother to listen to the utter crap that the BBC put out when reporting about Trump. For God’s sake give tge man a break. It doesn’t matter what he tries to do, he is criticised. They never show his whole speech so the context is lost and always detrimental to the man. Yes, he has his faults just like many leaders but I firmly believe he wants the best for his country even if it takes radical change. Radical change is needed within our politics too.
June 3, 2020
I cannot find uncensored footage of US police officers being killed (there have been 24 this year so far.)
There is a reason it isn’t and that’s because it would be deemed too provocative – the same with scenes of terrorism or knife crime against whites. You can’t find any of it on YouTube but the horrific video of George Floyd has been deemed safe.
I note that the BBC One Show ran an article about black inequality and disadvantage in the UK and then straight afterwards did a group chat with Maureen Lipman, Giles Brandreth, Martin Kemp and… Martin Kemp’s son !
I commented that three of the four had got there by their own merits. What an opportunity for The One Show to have put a young accomplished black man on there but there is nothing like the white Left and their nepotism for hypocrisy.
Virtue signalling showbiz is full of it.
Martin Luther King would be walking around Britain asking what the problem is ?
June 3, 2020
JR
“This was a more dignified statement than Mr Bidenâs comment âyou ainât blackâ if you vote for Trump.”
Shouldn’t you have pointed out that that ‘statement’ was made at a different time and had nothing to do with the current protests?
June 3, 2020
Margaret H, It was made a few days ago and has everything to do with the current violence.
June 4, 2020
It was a shocking (racist?) comment. Whether people are Trump/Rep supporters or not he gives a clear message to earn votes – more jobs in and throughout the USA will help more people – one can argue whether he has the economics to achieve it, one xan argue about the safety net, but it is clear that he offers something in return for a vote. Biden simply expects Black Americans (as a group) to vote for him and the Dems without offering a reason. It is nothing less than shocking, he takes a group of people, identifies them by phenotype, assumes they are all the same and cannot think about policy and thus choose how to vote. It is a sad reflection on how some of the left behave, and I think is reflected in how some try to associate the current USA police problem with the President.
June 3, 2020
Today’s subject is a serious one and there is much misrepresentation on the broadcast media about it. I would day they have an agenda in sympathy with the rioters and their rioting. I’d like to think this government would require action on their buas and lack of impartiality but I’d be wasting my time.
However I want to raise an off-topic matter. I saw the vote in parliament yesterday where MPs filed in to indicate their votes.
My overwhelming impression was how appallingly scruffily dressed so many were, and disrespectful. I was disgusted.
June 3, 2020
We are fortunate that things have not spilled over into riot here. Although the US rioting us extreme, there has been plenty of protest, at times violent, on the Continent. Again, poorly reported by our media. The dangers of media controlling the mood of the mob are significant. We have been lucky that they haven’t been able to foment the revolution that many of them seem to believe in.
June 3, 2020
Was President Trump talking about the lawless situation, and the authorities efforts to tackle it, in USA – or Hong Kong?
Quite clearly, Americans and American policies have created both.
June 3, 2020
Take note Boris and deal with the violent protestors.
June 3, 2020
Khan has sold Boris’s two water cannon at a loss. And boasted about it.
June 3, 2020
proceeds ÂŁ11,000. Mr Khan ‘I am pleased we have managed to finally get rid of them and I made an election promise to Londoners that I would claw back as much of this cash as possible, and pump it into helping young people at risk of being affected by crime and giving them better life opportunities.â
Pumping ÂŁ11k into that cause will make a world of difference!
June 3, 2020
I notice JR left out the part of Trump’s speech when he said,’when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ – that’s the US for you.
Also no mention of, altho perhaps very small, the awareness that some police and/or their friends are, undercover, doing a lot of damage around towns to put much blame on peaceful protesters.
June 3, 2020
That was in a tweet, not the speech. And it is out of context.
June 3, 2020
I didn’t see any direct reference to the need to fight racism in the President’s words. Surely that’s the nub of the problem.
June 3, 2020
David L, No, the nub of the problem is the phenomenon of mainly white violent neo-marxist thugs roaming the streets.
June 4, 2020
Really?
I thought that they were all “snowflakes” on the Left?
I haven’t seen any Labour Party or red flag head tattoos, like we get BNP and George Cross ones.
Are you sure?
June 3, 2020
Why is rent-a-mob out and about protesting this?
Are they saying our police force are the same? I would like evidence of that.
I was going to say something about furlough payments but then realised that rent-a-mob don’t work anyway so it is the benefits system that allows them to be so angry. And they call me privileged.
June 3, 2020
Just one thought John, why can’t our MPs organise themselves so they don’t have to stand in the queue for one hour as all the twitter MPs are crying about, you’re telling me that all you intelligent people can’t agree a system e.g. those with surnames A-E will be first in line start at x time F-J to join the queue at calculating the time it will take for the first 20 to go through etc. seriously us plebs sorted this out at the shops weeks ago to find quiet times of the day to join a shopping queue. Obviously, it will take a bit of time for Ikea queuers to decide how to work this out and when the best time to go lol.
June 3, 2020
George Floyd died as a consequence of the application of a law enforcement technique used by Israeli security forces in whose methods many US police departments have been trained. The US police have become progressively more militarised and more aggressive in their methods in recent years and it time for the US to take stock of what policing methods are appropriate in country where everyone is equal under the law.
What is clear from this is applying laws equally to all citizens of a country when many belong to different races with their accompanying differences is difficult; in the circumstances, the suggestion by Boris Johnson who is not English that he would invite to England three million Chinese from Hong Kong is bizarre.
June 3, 2020
The 750 MPs snaking their way through Parliament yesterday reminded me of M Gove’s 70 million Turks on the poster snaking their way to Britain- emphasis on snaking
June 3, 2020
I still cannot believe that anyone with a modern mentality can use colour as a mechanism to divide. There are many more things which give us a group distinction such as eye colour , hair colour, IQ , etc so why pick on the various shades of white and brown.Who infiltrates these morons with unacceptable prejudice .
I do believe that children all over the world ought to be taught how to reason and not just the objective pursuit in maths, but analytical skills which don’t rely on religion and ideology to refer to. A reasoning from a sense of ‘let us see it how it really is.’ The Jean Jaques Rousseau child is probably the nearest to this.
June 3, 2020
Thanks to a previous link by ed2, I discovered the site http://www.aier.org.
Two items by Max Gulker might be relevant to Sir Johnâs today posting:
âPresident Trumpâs First Year Included Setbacks for Libertyâ, 2018-01-03
âPresident Trumpâs Threatened Tariffs Would Wipe Out 2007 Tax Cutsâ, 2019-06-05
and that from a website (American Institute for Economic Research) promoting the value of personal freedom, open markets, free enterprise, property rights, limited government and sound money.
June 4, 2020
Im just so pleased I’ve been of help to you hef.
June 4, 2020
ed2 not Edward2. Anyway it could not have been Edward2 who seems only able to bite heels as a little pug.
June 5, 2020
Gosh how unpleasant you are hef.
You try to appear all intelligent with your posts but underneath you are just a troll.
June 3, 2020
I totally reject the need to riot and loot where ever this happens. I am applauded at the way the person in question was held down by the Police as shown on film.
I don’t know enough about the inequalities or Policing of the US to make reasoned comment about this specific incident other than what was filmed, so I will avoid comment.
Right now the USA is a tinder box of problems that appears to be exploding like never before. Covid 19, unemployment and the economy.
The wider concern outside the US is around the future of trade, the Politics after November, stability, currency valuation etc.
Unless Britain can get a free trade with the US before elections, there is a 50/50 chance of the election going either way.
Ive written before that I believe based on Democratic comments from the US that the EU will be center stage for US economic policy and free trade not Britain.
If Britain has no deal done with the EU this will be a double blow to the economy by that I mean Covid 19 and substantially lower EU trade inc no finance trade.
I feel the Brexit economists never factored in problems with the USA and Covid 19. They did not do a proper risk assessment and this will push Britain GDP into 12 place world wide.
It can also push Britain into a bail out by the IMF and significantly higher direct taxation as part of that bail out ( actually I see the GOV is already considering increasing direct tax to pay for social care)
June 3, 2020
Amazing that these two noble statements were never aired on MSM like BBC !
Having worked in Africa and the Caribbean I know the one word they all warm too just like any human being all the world over and that is the word “R e s p e c t” and if you give it as everyone trying their best deserves it then you will be rewarded with it too – just like folks on this blog.
Unfortunately there are a few unenlightened folks who hijack, subvert and corrupt a genuine movement for their own selfish ends no matter how many are impacted. They teach us to guard our freedom with vigilance and never take it for granted.
June 3, 2020
Here are some other words (from 2015) you won’t see in 2020:
“President Barack Obama broke his silence this afternoon on the riots that devoured Baltimore last night and led to more than 200 arrests, shaming looters and saying they should be treated as ‘criminals’ and ‘thugs.’
‘There is no excuse for the kind of violence we saw yesterday,’ Obama said during a joint presser with Japan’s Prime Minister. ‘It is counter productive when individuals get crow bars and start prying open doors to loot.’
‘They’re not protesting. They’re not making a statement. They’re stealing,’ he said. ‘When they burn down a building they’re committing arson.’
Obama is strangely quiet on the violence in 2020, preferring instead to mount what looks like a sort of Jacobite rebellion.
June 4, 2020
Kneeling on any person’s neck = lack of that keyword âR e s p e c tâ.
That is the crux of this.
The police officer totally lost this vital understanding bringing his uniform and colleagues into disrespect. Also opening up old memories and other wider issues like a powder keg of perceptions.
Very difficult to deal with esp in hot weather and CV19 until everyone calms down.
June 4, 2020
Looting violence and wanton destruction = No respect.
But two wrongs “Don’t make it right” either…
Compassion, understanding and patience required all round.
June 3, 2020
The suspect has been charged with murder and rightly so in my opinion, so it should be the end of the matter except for due process in court.
Never the less, anyone can see this has been hijacked by lefties who don’t like Donald Trump. Seems they’ll use anything they can to complain about fair democratic election. DT was elected fair and square, they should get over it.
But then shouting and balling is the new tactic of the left when they don’t get their way.
We also have the BBC getting in on it to peddle more anti – Trump bile, and guess what follows….demos in London.
It is an American matter for America to resolve, nothing to do with us.
June 3, 2020
You do realise a speech writer wrote that for Trump. You should try explaining the nonsense he actually writes himself on Twitter.
June 3, 2020
was any President in the last 2 centuries capable of writing such a speech?
June 4, 2020
See âWhite House Ghostsâ by Robert Schlesinger, 2008.
June 3, 2020
Sir John
This is off topic, but may I draw your attention to the plight of zoos in the UK and Chester Zoo in particular.
Zoos are banned from opening by the government due to the Covid crisis, and are therefore deprived of their income. Many are now at the point of insolvency and staff redundancies are imminent.
Chester Zoo for example faces the anomaly of being allowed to open it’s shop, but not the gates to the zoo. It is effectively a 28 acre park but unlike parks, Kew Gardens and Alton Towers it is not allowed reopen despite having put in place all social distancing measures.
Zoos not only provide recreational facilities for the public but also vital breeding programmes for endangered species.
Please could you raise this most urgent issue
Thank you for your continuing efforts
June 4, 2020
Pat: ” It is effectively a 28 acre park but unlike parks, Kew Gardens and Alton Towers it is not allowed reopen despite having put in place all social distancing measures. ”
Thus demonstrated, the insanity of the command economy, instigated by our Glorious (Tory) Leader. Kim Il Johnson
June 3, 2020
760,000 National Insurance numbers were registered in the year to March 2020: a 17% increase on the year to March 2019. source govt website DWP Published 21 May 2020
June 3, 2020
Whilst I appreciate your engagement on this topic, I think that, if you wish to gain a greater understanding on what’s happening to Black people in America, you research and quote Black people from America. This is a time for their voices to be heard.
June 3, 2020
But why is this being made into a British issue by the BBC ? They are inciting violence in the UK.
June 4, 2020
I don’t think this is being highlighted by just the BBC, or just mainstream media for that matter – just take a look at the trending areas of any social media platform. Indeed, I was surprised that it took the BBC so long to give it more coverage, and was frustrated that it was initially reported at as just another part of the Trump Vs Twitter story, rather than the murder of yet another unarmed Black American. This is being covered by media not just in America and the UK, but all over the world. Whilst we do not suffer the extreme racism that is seen in the States, racism certainly exists here as well, and it is timely reminder that we also have work to do. Giving visibility is not inciting violence. It is prompting people to educate themselves.
June 3, 2020
(1) Yes President Trump has spoken intelligently and with compassion on the direct issue. He has also been clear that the USA needs to maintain order for the well being of all. It is disheartening to see those with extreme views, opportunistic rioters, opportunistic politicians and opportunistic influencers, luvvies, sportspeople etc. causing direct deaths, injury and damage and distracting from identifying the levers that can help more people have better lives.
(2) I think those protesting in the USA that believe they can do a better job than the existing police, and those who believe the same here should put up or shut up. In England, at least, people can apply to join the police degree apprenticeship (subject to visual acuity) â if all the people marching in the UK applied then there would be a much broader intake â I certainly think that British luvvies, singers, sportspeople, news readers etc. who tend to bandwagon jump should make a real difference by joining up and doing the job (I know that I could not face the daily uncertainty of what I would meet in a street police role, for those who live in the safe leafy suburbs it may well be a shock). I do not know the process for joining the police in the USA but I would hope those who march there would also take the step of joining.
(3) I have tried to imagine, but just cannot, how Mr Floyd must have been feeling when the police arrived on the night in question. To have been âgoing straightâ and rebuilding oneâs life for a number of yearâs after release from an armed robbery prison sentence, to then lose oneâs employment due to a coronavirus lockdown and then be confronted with the threat of arrest on that night must have been, at the least, disorientating. It is just too hard to imagine the feelings prior to the tragic events. During President Trumpâs tenure the livelihoods of many low income groups had been improving, even as recently as February the NY Times begrudgingly admitted âFor now, the evidence supports Mr. Trumpâs contention that an improving economy is more responsible for falling food stamp rolls than Mr. Trumpâs attempts to limit access.â Given the lockdowns destroying lower income employment in various USA cities and states there will be many more who could be in awful and challenging positions â the rioting will slow the recovery in many places and do so much more harm.
(4) Justice being served does not mean randomised acts of vengeful violence. This will not help solve underlying problems. I would want to see problems at least identified even if they take time to solve.
(a) In the âfighting artsâ (the unpleasant glamorised violence of the octagon) carotid strangleholds take 10 to 20 seconds to render an opponent unconscious. These are performed on other athletes (who undergo health checks before fighting) under controlled conditions â not with a knee, aiming to keep hands free whilst projecting some body language message. Why the **** are such techniques being used by some police forces; are the cardiac risks less than a Taser? And if they are necessary surely they should be done for a time less than the even more dangerous air choke would take â how can even a responsible police officer know exactly what he/she has done in a pressure situation? Whilst the officer(s) involved in the current USA case must be (fairly) tried, surely somebody is accountable for the use of such techniques. I appreciate that the Executive Director of the Minnesota Police Chiefs claimed such techniques go against current training, but it did not look like the other officers were surprised. If I were in Minnesota Iâd want to know more about the historical use of such techniques, how long has it been against training, whether other officers use/need such techniques (for 20 seconds not 6 minutes) etc?
(b) Following the 2014 shooting of Michael Brown case in Missouri, an argument was made that Black Americans are only disproportionately killed by police if ratioed to percentage of population not percentage of criminality. UKâs ChannelFourNews ( https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-black-americans-commit-crime ) fact checked this claim at the end of 2014 and commented that data âdoesnât support the idea that the police are unfairly discriminating against the black population when they make arrestsâ, if this were the case then the question of the distribution of crime reappears, ChannelFour struggled with this mentioning the evidence for poverty effects and potentially cultural effects. As ChannelFour concluded â there are few simple answersâ. Well six years on, single cases aside which must be prosecuted, I would want to know (a) are USA police killing more people than they need to irrespective of ethnicity, if so why (attracting the wrong recruits, training, pressure, having to work two jobsâŠ)? (b) are police actions towards black Americans and non-Black Americans proportional or not proportional to levels of crime (did ChannelFour get it right / has it changed)? (c) if black Americans are committing more crime than non-Black how much is explained by poverty, location, culture, education (- culture has been offered as a reason for differences in educational achievement as even controlling for poverty the differences still exist)?
The marching, political opportunism, influencing moments and the like do not stop people being killed, understanding the systemic effects might.
(5) We cannot deny the existence of racism in the U.K. tensions abound between many different groups but the fragmentation does offer richness so I will hope for the best.
(6) Partial aside â I do not think that U.K. police should be taking the knee in front of crowds that are shouting **ck Boris, **ck Trump (if I have understood the reports correctly). I cannot claim the P.M. is a free world leader as we are not free, but he is not responsible for what has happened in the USA. In the case of Trump, as Sir John has highlighted, he said the right things and wants to get the economy working to help everyone again â he is being unfairly labelled.
June 3, 2020
It is amazing that we are with the current intake of ministers and politicians gifted with making profound statements such as diesel cars, zero carbon emissions and now offering upto 3 million residents of Hong Kong sanctuary. Al of them made with no consideration on the impact on an already creaking infrastructure. Extra homes, schools, public services , power supplies, water, sewerage and waste disposal and don’t even take into account the 1.5 million extra vehicles on our roads. As noble as the offer is can the country really afford it ?
June 3, 2020
If you are sincere, I suggest you go to the Founder and put your question direct to him!
June 3, 2020
Let’s just stick to the bare facts:
– ONE black man has been choked to death by ONE white police officer with three others standing idly by. All four have been charged and will face a trial.
– In response there has been so much arson and looting that a State of Emergency has been declared in 30 of the USA’s 50 States.
Is that proportionate?
June 4, 2020
One black man, George Floyd, was killed last Monday. One Black man, Amaud Arbery, was murdered for going out for a run. One black woman, Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by police in an unannounced raid in the middle of the night at the wrong address. All in just the past couple of months. All of these cases were only followed up when people started protesting. Sadly, this isn’t just one case, it’s a pattern.
June 4, 2020
Lindsay
Ever heard of the final straw that broke the camel’s back?
This is just the latest in a string of incidents dating back generations. The descendants of slaves still second class citizens in the world’s most powerful country. Where is the justice in that? Without their labour America could not have risen to its present status.
June 4, 2020
Does it not strike you as needing an investigation that all these protests appear to be coordinated in the same way across multiple cities and multiple countries.
What is the NSA and GCHQ doing to monitor and report on this?
Every protest has the same pattern
1) legal support at police stations
2) medical support at protest sites
3) transport / cars parked in same location
4) sudden stopping of printed placards
5) police distracted before looting elsewhere
6) Antifa protests by middle class types
7) Looting starts by people jumping out of vans
8) Looting then continued by locals
It appears to be a well coordinated attack rather than genuine spontaneous protests.
June 4, 2020
Why is the Government allowing all these protests when we are still being kept away from our friends and families? This whole social distancing is a joke.
June 4, 2020
Why is the Government allowing all these protests when we are still being kept away from our friends and families? This whole social distancing is a joke.
>
The govt are marxist destroyers.
June 4, 2020
Christine at least the protesting people going back home having broken all the physical distancing rules have no-one to blame but themselves for shouting in each other’s faces, however, getting too close (within 2m of) Police officers is not peaceful – it is confrontational and is endangering the police officers lives, the total and utter hypocrisy of this is unbelievable.
June 4, 2020
Whereâs all the outrage for David Dorn an elderly ex-policeman gunned down by looters whilst trying to defend his friends shop? I donât know whatâs happened to our society where these thugs and criminals are lorded and innocent, kind, law abiding citizens are forgotten as if they are just acceptable collateral damage. I’m disgusted.
June 4, 2020
They hate Trump so much Christine, they will have us on lockdown until he is gone and set the world on fire.
Pathetic isn’t it.
June 4, 2020
Christine, sadly you do know what has happened, you described it. I think “character” as part of education began to fall away in early 20th century (WW1?). I think it has been half heartedly picked up in the 21st century, but it will take a long time.
June 8, 2020
There can be no justification for crowds here in the United Kingdom defacing the Cenotaph and other public buildings.It is a mostrous thing to see Churchill’s statue defaced in the manner in which it has been.
There really cannot be any debate about this if we are to continue to live under law as opposed to rampant chaos.
Every violent reckless offender should be prosecuted forthwith and there should be no pretense that we excuse or apologize to rabid cultural Marxists and unthinking followers who feign the reason for their abhorrent behaviour is because of a death abroad (in the USA) or because they judge men of yesteryear by the tenets of this age.
Let us be in no doubt about it,if we show weakness now we will reap a whirlwind soon enough!