I recently returned from a visit to the United States where I noted that JFK Airport was displaying signs saying, “We respect the choice of colleagues who choose to wear face coverings.” Our visit took place over the period of Trump’s election victory. Amongst the outpourings of hate, grief and bafflement by demented Democrats was a post on X by some androgyne urging Americans to wear masks in protest, confirming my suspicion that many maskers conceal their identity just to piss off normal people. In New York City though, except for on Halloween, I saw hardly any maskers among the hundreds of thousands thronging Times Square. It was the same story all over New England, and over the border at Niagara Falls in Canada. No masks anywhere, apart from one waitress who took my breakfast order in Bangor, Maine. She sounded like a Dalek, and thanks to the combination of her accent, the mask, and the fact that I’m substantially deaf and therefore lip read, I couldn’t understand a word she said. However, she got our order right and it was a good breakfast, so no harm done.
In London for a meeting earlier this year, a masker on the reception desk directed me to the mumble-mumble floor. She was the only one of the four on the desk exercising her supposed right to conceal her identity. Three times she told me the floor number and three times I was left none the wiser. Somebody less confrontational might have spent the afternoon wandering the 20-odd floors in the hope of stumbling across their intended destination, but I told her she needed to remove her mask so I could understand her. She did so, grudgingly, and I got my directions. There was nothing obviously wrong with her, apart from her attitude. Her colleagues meanwhile were struggling to contain their delight at her discomfort. I empathise with them. For me it was a brief encounter, but they must put up with that self-centred pain in the arse all day long.
Nobody in our business has ever chosen to wear a mask. Even during the pandemic, everyone chose not to wear one in work, and I refused to wear one anywhere. Before anyone accuses me of risking employees’ lives, they were all in their 20s and fit when Covid started. Aged 56 and fat in 2020, I was the one most at risk, and happily took my chances. With no maskers currently on our staff therefore and bearing in mind that masking has become a means of having a wokie tantrum, I’ve updated our staff handbook for the benefit of any future job applicants. To respect all cultures, including our own native British culture, to avoid disadvantaging those with disabilities, and to safeguard colleagues’ mental health, thereby ensuring our workplace continues to be diverse, equitable, and inclusive, our staff handbook now reads as follows:
‘Whilst we have a relaxed dress code in our business, wearing a face covering such as a veil, mask, burqa or niqab is totally and completely unacceptable unless prescribed by a registered medical practitioner for reasons of your physical health. Note, physical health. In that event you must, at your own expense, provide medical evidence in the form of a letter from your GP.
Saying you want to wear a face covering for cultural reasons is not acceptable. This is the UK and our culture here is that we deal openly with people. We like to read others’ expressions, and we are happy to have them read ours. The ‘woke’ talk a lot about ‘respecting other cultures’ but somehow seem to think that British culture should not be in any way respected. Well, we disagree. We do respect our own British culture.
It is not acceptable to say that you want to wear a face covering for religious reasons. We are reasonable people, and we welcome those of all faiths. Head scarves are perfectly acceptable, but face coverings are not.
Saying you want to wear one for mental health reasons is not acceptable, even if it’s true, which we doubt. Anyone can claim anything about their mental health and it’s impossible for anyone to prove anything one way or another. You may say that not wearing a mask causes you anxiety, but having colleagues wear masks causes us anxiety. We are not comfortable dealing with people who conceal their faces. In any case, if you are so paranoid, weak-minded, and mentally fragile that you really feel the need to mask up, our office would not suit you anyway. We are always busy, and we work under and cope with pressure. You are probably better off getting a job as a basket-weaver, or a DEI officer, or whatever, ideally in a charity, trade union, quango, or government department, requiring little of you. Either that or just man up, women included. You can’t improve your mental health at the expense of ours, or at the expense of those with hearing difficulties who lip read. The wearing of face coverings is a form of disability discrimination against the deaf and hard of hearing.
Finally, it is not an acceptable method of expressing your political views. We are aware that some people in the United States are urging those unhappy with President Trump’s election victory to conceal their faces. This is not the United States, however, so please don’t import American problems to the UK, à la George Floyd episode. We shall not allow our workplace to become a forum for such antics, whether to protest against Trump, Biden, Putin, Kim Jong Un, Starmer, or any other dictator.
Our office is a workplace, not a woke place. We are all frank, honest, and open with each other, as we are with clients, and we expect the same in return. That is our policy, and that is our culture, so if you do not like it, do not apply for a job here.’
If that offends anyone, tough. We’ve been telling it like it is since we founded the business in 2004 – ‘Honest Advice in Plain English’, as it says on our notepaper and signage.
Neil F. Liversidge is an Independent Financial Adviser running his own firm in Castleford, West Riding Personal Financial Solutions Ltd, www.wrpfs.com. For 39 years until 2017 he was a member of the Labour Party. A Brexiteer, he voted Conservative in 2019 and is now a member of Reform UK, the New Culture Forum, and the Free Speech Union.
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Fine words butter no parsnips (if that means what I think it does). Your word salad statement will just not stand up if TPTB decide another masking episode is necessary. You ruin your case as a sceptic by talking about the pandemic as though there actually was one (of actual health and not of just over reaction/mental instability/hypochondria). Sorry but this has to be said.
Look up the definition of a pandemic. The mindset that says C19 never happened is the same kind of gaslighting as that which says a man can somehow magically become a woman, on uncontrolled immigration is not a problem. It wasn’t hypochondria or mental instability that killed a number of my friends and clients. Most of them were elderly and in less than perfect physical health, but mentally robust. One of them at least, though, was perfectly fit and healthy and in his early 50s before it hit him. He coughed and choked to death.
Mandating masking was never an end in itself, and if you genuinely think it was, you are paranoid and delusional. The masking mandate was simply a ridiculous and panicked reaction by governments desperate to be seen to be doing something.
If that’s your idea of a salad, I don’t recommend you apply for a job at any vegan restaurants.
I wouldn’t apply for a job at your company that’s for sure, let’s leave it at that.
That’s nice to know. If you ran a business and employed people you’d understand why the ‘salad’ is worded the way it is, but obviously you don’t. If you want respect, have the balls to post in your own name, not one you’ve made up. I have no respect for anonymous trolls. I’ll leave it at that.
Hardly a troll when I read the articles every day and most of the time make a comment (as any regular TNC reader can see) because I believe that contributions should be acknowledged and debate stimulated. My name is my name whether you like it or not.
As for the word salad, you claim to support plain English and could have expressed your company ‘no masks policy’ in a short succinct paragraph – not a long rambling diatribe that would ring alarm bells with most would be employees (not the content but the impression it gives).
I agree with Mr. Spit on two points: your message to employees is indeed herbiage; and Covid, masks and all, was a hoax/scam. I often challenged true believers to name any one of their family or friends who actually died of Covid19 and not because of other factors that put them at risk of dying. Being 78 at the time, I should have been in the midst of dear-ones die-off yet I couldn’t name even one person I knew who succumbed to Covid. I studied the fear-inducing headlines and tyrannical measures throughout the “pandemic” and found every claim about it to be utterly false except for one — excessive deaths were indeed higher, starting mid-2021 when the jab was widely inflicted on healthy people.
There’s a type of person who we want to put off applying for jobs at our place, or approaching us as a prospective client. Your comment that “I wouldn’t apply for a job at your company that’s for sure,” and “that would ring alarm bells with most would be employees” confirms that my article completely hits the spot. (This reply is to the Spit, who, like the cowardly troll he is, has blocked replies.)
To anyone unfortunately watching this spat:
(1) There is no way of blocking replies on TNC, Frank Haviland will confirm.
(2) Click on the writer’s company link and observe the premises photograph.
(3) Nigel Farage once summed up his fan base quite eloquently.
Goodnight and, for this article, goodbye from a now rather bored and tired ‘troll’.
Can I come work for you?
Email us a CV. We’re always on the lookout for good people.
At first I welcomed the dim and arsey wearing masks – no need for me to work out whom to avoid.
But eventually I had had a bellyful and took to wearing a mask – on my forehead.
NFL, I am in agreement
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Great article 👍🏼
Add to the no mask policy “This is a high stress work environment. Anyone with mental health issues are advised against working for us. We will not be held liable for any mental health issues arising from your employment. Consider this a warning”.
Like it! The maskers will no doubt squeal ‘Discrimination!’ They can see how us non-maskers felt as we were barred from places.
I’m mystified why ‘Nathaniel Spit,’ as he calls himself, should suggests that you all “Click on the writer’s company link and observe the premises photograph.” I can’t believe he wishes me well, but as with all his other comments, it seems to be backfiring. I came into work today, Saturday, and have now taken four calls from prospective new clients wanting to book appointments. All followed his advice to click the link to http://www.wrpfs.com. So, thank you Nathaniel.
His true intention, I suspect, is to disparage us as a small firm operating from low-rent premises in a small working-class northern town. Indeed, we are, and we do, and we’re not ashamed of it. On the contrary, that’s a key component of our business model. Rather than operate from big flashy expensive premises in Leeds City Centre, we operate from Castleford town centre, where our rent for 3000 square feet is just £10,200 a year, and the business rates are zero. We don’t hand out fake leather document wallets and we don’t take clients golfing, or to the theatre, Wimbledon, or even lunch. The reality of every business is that the clients pay for everything. Therefore, the lower the overheads and the less money we waste on fripperies, the less we have to charge for our services, plus, if I’m in work instead of taking long lunches or wasting time on the golf course, I can do more for my clients. Eschewing lunches also helps my long-running fight with the middle-aged flab.
Our original office 20 years ago was in our attic. After that, before we moved to West Riding House, our office was above a sewing machine shop. (We used to assure clients that regardless of the location, we wouldn’t stitch them up!) There’s nothing the likes of SJP or Tilney or any of the big boys do that we can’t do, except that we can do it far less expensively, and without all the woke corporate bullshit. We’ve been going 20 years, and we’ve got a great reputation. Google us. I’m the guy who warned the FCA that LCF was a scam four years before it went tits up for £237m.
We fly the Union Flag you can see in the picture because we love our country. The other flag in the picture is that of the ancient West Riding of Yorkshire, after which we named our company. ‘Riding’ comes from the old English ‘Thriding’ meaning a third. The Three Ridings of Yorkshire are the ancient division of the county, the East, West, and North Ridings. The South Riding exists only in a novel by Winifred Holtby, published posthumously in 1936. ‘Riding’ also alludes to my love of motorcycling.
So, Nathaniel, thank you for drawing attention to our company’s humble abode. You really should consider a career in PR. I would send you the usual ‘thank you’ gift which we send those who refer clients to us, but when I Google ‘Nathaniel Spit’ there is nobody in the world of such a name. Funny, that, isn’t it, considering your protestations that you’re not a troll? All the best, mate!
Everything I don’t like is woke…..