Friday 30 October: The case for a second lockdown still fails to consider the collateral harm

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/10/30/letters-case-second-lockdown-still-fails-consider-collateral/

849 thoughts on “Friday 30 October: The case for a second lockdown still fails to consider the collateral harm”

        1. Lucky man, Annie. When Dickens invited Hans Christian Anderson to stay for a few days he couldn’t get rid of the man for months! (Good morning, btw.)

          1. I laughed when I read that.
            I imagined life chez Dickens was extremely fraught during that time.
            Hissed whispers between family members; doors quietly closed; children threatened with painful death if they repeated what their parents said. I suppose like modern Danes, HCA could speak English.

        2. Nice idea. I didn’t know he’d hosted a previous guest, was it a stage-managed token gesture for the benefit of the Meeja?

    1. I have seen someone on twitter claiming to have British west indian ancestry dating from the eighteenth century, and I know for a fact that this person is lying through their teeth. That’s how people start believing stuff that isn’t true.

  8. Nicked

    Why are we still sending foreign aid to Pakistan?

    We send them money, they send us religious fanatics.

    It’s money for old ropers…………..

    1. Overseas aid is a Soros/Open Society policy.

      Without it, there would be no rubbing shoulders with the billionaire global elite…………

      ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”.

  9. Lambs to the slaughter: the fiasco of the Dieppe Raid, August 1942. 30 October 2020.

    O’Keefe’s thesis is that a pinch was the secret rationale for the Dieppe Raid, that it was a pinch by design rather than, as with other raids, a pinch by opportunity. In the event nothing was pinched, but his reasoning is sound, his research exhaustive and his argument persuasive — almost. There remains, however, a tincture of doubt. Not because there’s some other secret explanation, but because it seems likely that the idea of raiding Dieppe — because we could, because we’d done smaller raids and because bashing Jerry was a Good Thing — gained traction with Mountbatten and others before they alighted upon a pinch as its justification.

    One may of course invent or discover all sorts of purported reasons for the raid but they are fatherless children in that no one acknowledges them. Mountbatten who was notoriously stupid and Chief of Combined Operations at the time had to have given the order to proceed, since to think otherwise is to believe that large and disparate military forces acted upon their own coordinated initiative. Though no record of it exists this is almost certainly due to the archives being searched for any such order and then removed. The reasons are not difficult to surmise. Member of Royal Family kills large numbers of Canadians would not have gone down well in Ottawa.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/lambs-to-the-slaughter-the-fiasco-of-the-dieppe-raid-august-1942

    1. I read a book about invasions from the sea – how difficult they are to do successfully, and the thesis there was that Dieppe was a pilot invasion to test how easy or otherwise it would be to invade Europe. The Allies had invaded several places by then, but none of them were the war-winning or war-losing kind of invasion that the invasion of Europe was – if it had failed, the war would likely have ended in a stalemate, all the manpower and resources wasted, and if the Allies could not get off the beaches (because, for example, the tanks couldn’t climb pebbles) that would have been the end of it.
      I can’t remember the book title, but I’ll hunt for it today and try to post it later. It was very plausible.

  10. BBC Radio 4 News reporting that a new Covid virus, which originated in Spanish agriculture workers in the Summer, has been spreading rapidly throughout Europe, probably due to holiday makers returning from Spain. What will SAGE do now?

      1. This may be what they want, but the people are already showing signs of rebelling. The second lockdown in Germany has far less teeth than the first one, for example. It’s just a show of compliance, no more. The British are rebelling too.

  11. After Corbyn’s suspension is Shameless Chukusabutty going to return her peerage??
    No.thought not

      1. Starmer is as toxic as Corbyn from our point of view. He will finish Britain off.
        I can’t help having a soft spot for old terrorist sympathiser Corbyn actually. At least he’s an honest traitor, unlike Starmer who accepted a knighthood for actively working to destroy our country.

    2. SIR – Given the findings of the Equality and Human Rights Commission into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party (report, October 29), one person who now has a lot of questions to answer is Baroness Chakrabarti, whose earlier report, commissioned by Jeremy Corbyn, found no evidence of 
 anti-Semitism in the party.

      As she has now been discredited, surely she should resign her seat in the House of Lords and, as a practising barrister, be examined by the appropriate ruling body to determine whether she is a fit and proper person to continue practising law.

      John Ball

      Shoebury, Essex

      SIR – It’s all very well suspending Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour Party, but what about all the other MPs who stayed silent while this was going on?

      Dr Andy Dyson

      Newark, Nottinghamshire

  13. Today’s ‘experts’ have replaced Rome’s soothsayers – I fled Britain for my own sanity. 30 October 2020.

    I’m sitting on a Rhodes beach basking in the late October sun. Were I back home in Lincolnshire, I would be lurking in my living room, watching the rain teem down while the radio blithers away with a barrage of Covid-related gloom. Indeed, it is almost impossible to overstate the psychological benefits of being here, strolling the quiet streets of a Greek island under the pure autumn light, at an otherwise chaotic time like this.

    As far as I’m concerned Britain’s response to this virus is entirely overblown, given its low mortality rate compared to past epidemics. In September 1665, London alone was losing the proportionate equivalent today of 130,000 people per week.

    It’s also worth bearing in mind that just 40 years ago Britain experienced, annually, around 50,000 more deaths than the current average annual rate, and had done since 1950. Before that it was even higher – the tragic paradox of Covid-19 is that it is, to a large extent, the result of modern medicine, diet and living conditions that have kept vulnerable people alive for far longer than ever before.

    A sensible man!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/comment/todays-experts-have-replaced-romes-soothsayers-fled-britain/

    1. Since the modern trend started of giving natural events a name, have you noticed how much more panicked the responses are? When storms were wind & rain, nobody really cared a damn, but now it’s called Sasha or some such crap, we all have to panic about, well, some wind & rain. Now this virus is called Covid-19, and there’s covid-21 to look forward to, we all have to panic about what’s effectively influensa – as happened every year since God was in short trousers.
      Stop naming natural phenomena, and get a sense of proportion back, FFS!

      1. Will each new panic be given a name?
        Ferguson’s Foul-Up or Whitty’s Wobble or Hancock’s Hand-Job, perhaps.

    1. No, but the lying, hypocritical, cheating, globalist Daily Mail now reports that the murdering scum in Nice shouted “God is great” in Arabic.
      He did not.
      He shouted “Allah is great” in Arabic.

        1. He also bore sacred witness to the murderous proclivities of the Prophet and his preferred mutilation, the severing of the head.

        2. Correct. الله أكبر means “God is (the) Greatest”. The word ‘great’ is كبير, not أكبر

          By the way, the perpetrator was a Tunisian, 21 years old. There is outrage about the shame he has brought on his country, even though there is a general agreement about the provocation that the drawings of the Prophet in the name of ‘freedom of speech’ in France generates. The President of Tunisia said of the perpetrator “… he does not represent Tunisians or all Muslims”.

          Is France outraged at the censorship of pro-Trump information on Twitter, Facebook, Google, CNN, etc.?

          So much for freedom of speech!

          1. Er … did he leave Tunisia to escape a conformist Islamic society or to enforce one in France?
            I’m not sure if I’m seeking clarity or asking a rhetorical question.
            Morning, Sguest.

          2. The society in Tunisia is far from a conformist Islamic one. The criminal might have been brainwashed by the dwindling number of radical Islamists who are routinely arrested and imprisoned in Tunisia. However, he might well have been radicalised in France.

            I estimate that a large majority of Tunisians do not practice their religion. You should just see the phenomenal amount of alcohol they consume!

            By the way, good morning to you too! When is Disqus going to do something about the accumulated upvotes? I recently had 25,000 deleted but I see that you don’t have any, even after 85,179 comments!!

  15. Morning all

    SIR – Project Fear is on the rise again. The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies believes that the death toll from the second wave of Covid-19 could be 85,000, and Imperial College London suggests that nearly 100,000 people are catching the virus every day (that most suffer only mild symptoms is not mentioned). The case for another national lockdown is being advanced.

    Allister Heath (Comment, October 29) is right that the Government should publish a full cost-benefit analysis before imposing any further lockdowns. Sage should also undertake modelling to illustrate (not forecast) the death toll and wider public-health consequences.

    The first lockdown only kicked the can down the road. There is little evidence that a second one will be any more effective until a vaccine is found.

    Norman Macfarlane

    Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

    SIR – With many European countries going back into lockdown, the pressure on Boris Johnson to follow their lead is only going to increase.

    Will he hold his nerve or cave in? I think we all know the answer.

    Christopher Mann

    Bristol

    SIR – I was astonished to read that NHS Test and Trace is scrambling to hire yet more consultants for its failed tracking system (report, October 29).

    Advertisement

    The right approach would be to withdraw the tool and stop throwing good money after bad. A two-week shutdown across Britain would be vastly more effective than continuing to flog this patently dead horse.

    Kim Potter

    Lambourn, Berkshire

    1. SIR – I share the concern about the effects of a further lockdown on the economy, mental health and families.

      However, in Doncaster we now have long queues of ambulances waiting to deliver very sick Covid patients to A&E. And while the NHS struggles with the virus, patients are not being treated for other serious conditions.

      If we are to avoid further lockdowns, the NHS must be sustainably upscaled. The Nightingale hospitals provide the physical infrastructure but not the staff, who must be provided by any Trust sending patients to these hospitals – which is why they’ve hardly been used. I believe our nearest Nightingale is in Harrogate. Even if 
the local hospital could take the hit on staff numbers, it’s hard to see the justification for sending them from a Tier-3 area to a hospital 40 miles away.

      Maybe we should focus on ensuring that the NHS has the capacity to cope with both Covid and its usual workload before rejecting restrictions.

      Dr Jenny Jessop

      Doncaster, South Yorkshire

      SIR – The truth of the present situation really hits home when you start filling in next year’s diary and realise that the only things you can put in for certain are people’s birthdays – and even some of those could be doubtful.

      Barrie Freeman

      Yapton, West Sussex

    2. More people may well be catching the virus, but what is the consequence? Proportionally more people in hospital? Doesn’t look that way to me. So, if the consequence is that most people who catch the virus get a sniffle or a cold, what’s so different to last year that we all need to panic about it and hide under the bed?

      1. What percentage of COVID-19 infections are severe?

        For COVID-19, data to date suggest that 80% of infections are mild or asymptomatic, 15% are severe infection, requiring oxygen and 5% are critical infections, requiring ventilation.6 Mar 2020

        This was March. Treatment has improved considerably since then!

        1. Norway’s cumulative numbers:
          5.433 million total population
          1.646.752 tests to date
          18.976 positive results (1,1% of tests)
          1 228 in hospital, (47 still in yesterday) (0,07% of those tested)
          258 in intensive care (0,015% of those tested)
          281 deaths (0,00005% of the population) – fewer than last years influensa.

          Yet, SWMBO overheard on the train that the virus is the deadliest disease ever!

          1. I was in the queue at the chemists yesterday casually ignoring the distancing guidelines when the woman in front of me was sharply reprimanded for getting too close to the couple in front of her. She was visibly upset. The man in question clearly thought that the Black Death was running rampant!

          3. From a day or 2 ago:
            You can’t even fix stupid using duct tape, but you sure can make it quieter!

      2. You’re lucky, Herr Oberst. I ordered a new double bed in early August and was promised delivery for September the 23rd. A phone call some 10 days before changed the delivery date to next Monday (November 2nd) but yesterday this was changed again to November the 4th. If this continues, I won’t have a bed to hide under until Christmas – and Santa will probably end up stuck up the chimney with the bed itself!

        :-))

    3. A lock down will do nothing. The last one didn’t, a future one won’t. The whole situation is silly.

  16. Morning again

    SIR – It is hardly surprising there is so much fly-tipping (Julia Hartley-Brewer, Features, October 29), given the exorbitant charges imposed by recycling centres and, with a few exceptions, their generally inhospitable attitude to commercial visitors. A nearby lay-by is bound to be a more attractive option.

    Simon Harris

    Falcutt, Northamptonshire

    SIR – Fly-tipping, as Julia Hartley-Brewer says, certainly has something to do with all of us, and that includes local councils. The restrictions placed on public use of local refuse tips obviously adds to the casual dumping of revolting rubbish in the countryside and 
town streets.

    In my area we have to book online to obtain a timed slot to visit the 
 tip. For my last visit it took four – yes, four – days of laptop usage at various times of the day to obtain a booking.

    However, when I attended and raised the problem with the management, the response was: 
“Oh just come down when you like – we’re never really busy.”

    Nic Paris

    Melksham, Wiltshire

  17. Strangest letter of the week?

    SIR – Lynette Johnson’s letter (October 28) on eyebrow semaphore made me smile, not least because it sparked fond memories of the late Squadron Leader Bill Holdsworth, with whom I had the privilege to serve many years ago.

    Bill was one of a select brethren of wartime officers who would communicate across the dining table by wiggling his ears in Morse code. It was a rare skill even then, and I suspect it may have completely died out in these days of digital communication.

    Charles Ness
    Dilton Marsh, Wiltshire

    1. Well duh. Of course they are.

      This doesn’t mean COVID-19 isn’t a serious issue but counting every death which includes COVID as a COVID death is at least a distortion of the facts and at worst an egregious abuse of authority.

  19. Yesterday, someone pointed out that it is possible to get round the paywall in the DT by pressing F5 Esc as the page is loading. I tried it and it worked.

    Today, the pop-up inviting me to start a ‘free trial’ can’t be deleted so I can’t even scan the headlines! The ‘free trial’ requires a credit card – well, they’re not having mine! I cancelled my subscription some time go as the DT lurched to the left.

      2. Clearing cookies works, at least as far as the free trial rubbish. Up until now, I couldn’t get around the paywall software, although given the quality of most articles, I’m not that bothered either.

        I actually requested the DT subs people delete my account entirely, because being a ‘registrant’ counts towards their ‘registered user’ (you can read one report per week and cannot post comments) aim for 10M by 2023 – despite most obviously being former subscribers who left.

        I’ll try the Esc+F5 and see how it goes.

      3. Same here…all my theft from the DT is carried out ‘incognito’. And the free trial box has a ‘X’ top right, thoughtfully provided for cancellation.

        ‘Morning, Phiz.

          1. I prefer not to show my VPL, Phizee, so I go Commando. (I did’t realise you went to the Opera – have they re-opened?) :-))

          1. Worked first time – must be my lucky day – i’ll nip out for a lottery ticket !!!

            Wondering about something – I don’t shut my laptop off at night. It puts itself to sleep mode and in the morning, a move of the mouse or whatever and the screen comes on. What sites I left open are still there – so if I remember today I will leave the DT open and see if it still there tomorrow – and able to swap to the new day.

        2. I find that timing is important…hit ‘X’ (Android) as soon as the page starts to load. With practice it usually works first time.

    6. With some sites, like The Spectator, I select all (ctrl+A) and copy (ctrl+C) as the page opens but before the nag about subscribing pops up. Then dump the whole lot into notepad.

  20. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2749ed834767937c42ff6973c21b63bfef920be7faeac4f4896ad71efadb6d7e.png It’s a pity that neither Patel, nor the clowns running this “training school” had disciplined this rabble for being improperly turned-out on parade.

    I shudder to think what disciplinary punishments I would have received from my instructors at Pannal Ash, back in 1973, for turning out on parade unshaven and wearing my helmet cocked on to the back of my head!

    When standards slip, so does performance. Time, methinks, for a return to the 7Ps [Proper Preparation and Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance].

      1. In my short stay at RMA Sandhurst, a drill sergeant said (at noon), “You gentlemen will go to your lunch; I shall go for my dinner.”

    3. The world is going to the dogs, Grizzly. When male TV newsreaders stop wearing collar and tie when reading the news, then the human race is sunk.

      1. And singers at recitals wear white tie (undone and shirt collar open!) with a dinner jacket and cummerbund. What?

    4. Forgive me, but the 2nd fellow in, with the beard – he’s got my figure. Do the police not have quite strict physical standards?

  21. 325995+ up ticks,
    Under the Batten leadership it was once again coming to the fore, that & only that was the treachery trigger.

    In keeping with today’s treacherous political circus it was seen as out of step on the path of lies & deceit and was NOT to be tolerated.

    There are still a multitude that deny the being of the lab/lib/con coalition
    and there NOT being any credible opposition., there lies the problem.

    https://twitter.com/AgainBraine/status/1322094777849040898

  23. Good morning all.

    An early cold brunch from the doggy-bag brought from yes’day’s Turkish lunch.

      2. ‘Morning, Belle.

        Lamb güvec with couscous…

        https://www.google.co.uk/search?sxsrf=ALeKk02ESQ5t2eDgJqh1VIC9fvC3Re3Xpw%3A1604056403379&source=hp&ei=U_WbX_OwFMnWap-jh4gH&q=lamb+guvec&oq=lamb+g&gs_lcp=CgZwc3ktYWIQARgCMgUIABDJAzICCAAyAggAMgIIADICCC4yAggAMgIILjICCAAyAggAMgIIADoHCC4QJxCTAjoECCMQJzoKCC4QxwEQrwEQJzoOCC4QsQMQgwEQxwEQowI6CAgAELEDEIMBOgUILhCxAzoICC4QsQMQgwE6BAguECc6CwguELEDEMcBEKMCOgUIABCxAzoICAAQsQMQyQNQji1Y94ABYMSsAWgAcAB4AIABuwKIAbkGkgEHMi4zLjAuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXo&sclient=psy-ab

        Washed down with a couple of jars of cold Turkish beer.

    1. I give up, how could this happen, the law really is a ass.
      “If the law supposes that,” said Mr. Bumble,… “the law is a ass—a idiot. If that’s the eye of the law, the law is a bachelor; and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience—by experience.” They don’t have an effing clue Mr Bumble

      1. I just hope common sense actually prevails and they are on the way to the airport. And arrested in Lagos.

      2. Will remain detained – – until a taxpayer funded lawyer gets them released to “vanish”. Then to commit a crime that will get them jailed, then a claim against deportation because of “persecution back home” for what they deliberately did here ( to ensure the claim ) then claim for Right to family Life – and then wives and kids arrive smiling. JOB DONE.

    2. If they keep pushing their agenda, they’re going to get pushed back.

      If your role model is a rapist paedophile who encouraged the murder of those different, you’ve got a sick sense of what roles to follow.

        1. Never mind the spavined politicos, Anne, despite our wrinkliness and crumbliness, it might well be we who make the running.

  26. Police threat of fines falls on deaf ears as large groups in fancy dress descend on Nottingham. 30 October 2020.

    Large groups of young people in fancy dress drank alcohol and chanted near police vehicles on the streets of Nottingham last night – hours before the toughest coronavirus restrictions were imposed on the city.

    This just confirms what I suspected. Hardly anyone believes this twaddle!

    https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-police-threat-of-fines-falls-on-deaf-ears-as-large-crowds-in-fancy-dress-descend-on-nottingham-12118420

      1. Yes, it’s funny how often corona restrictions turn out to be sharia compliant, isn’t it.

        2. Perhaps as well as masks everyone should be compelled to use the alcohol based sanitser to enter a shop.

          Next time one goes out, watch how many obvious Muslims bypass the hand gel.

          1. Please don’t even think that way. I have no religious scruples whatsoever, but if I have to use that stuff more than twice a week I rapidly have skinless hands.

            Lots of Muslims (obvious and otherwise) working in healthcare and using hand sanitiser all day long.

    2. The Police seem to be threatening the general population on a regular basis over some crap or other, but not threatening those who disrupt life by blocking the streets or blowing up little girls. No wonder they aren’t being heeded.

  27. I’m embarrassed how parochial I am.
    Yesterday, I had to visit a village on the other side of Colchester.
    I hadn’t been there for years, and that time was to go to the pub.
    I actually had to speak to people to find the address.

          3. Now you are going beyond my ken altogether. I reject the term “philistine” but being a science student meant reading a lot of very dense practical stuff… not 16/17th century Spanish. Can’t (ever) have everything in this world.

          4. It’s about El Draco (the Dragon, aka Sir Francis Drake, Scourge of the Spanish). I share a home-bred colt by Lope de Vega so I’ve been researching in the hope of finding a good name 🙂

          5. I had heard of Lope de Vega – and I did know that someone had named a horse after him. Good luck with finding a name for your colt, just don’t make it too unpronounceable 😉

          6. There is already a horse (by Lope de Vega) called la Dragontea. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find acceptable names, sadly.

          7. There are so many horses in training that it can never be easy to find a name.

            Wiki says that Lope de Vega had 15 children – any inspiration to be found there?

      2. Being a jolly clever person, I actually understood them. Still couldn’t find the mentioned landmark.

  28. An obvious cut and paste article in the DT concerning a man trapped 15 feet down in New York:

    The 33-year-old was hospitalised with a broken leg and arm after firefighters worked to extradite him from the pit.

    He remains in St. Barnabas Hospital and is in a stable condition, but family members have stressed the mental impact of the incident.

    “He’s traumatised,” Mr Shoulders’ Mother Cindy White said.

    “He was like, ‘Ma, the rats down there were ridiculous.’ He was like, ‘They were like so big’,” she added.

    Even if it was cut and paste, Verity Bowman could have cleaned up the English – bad even by the low American standards.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/30/man-falls-new-york-city-pavement-rat-filled-chasm/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    2. 325995+ up ticks,
      Morning
      NtN,
      Regardless though, I got the message, many years ago if my memory serves me right a lady & child were walking down an alley in Strood Kent when the ground opened up, I believe the child was safe but they never found the lady.

    3. That is cleaned up anericanese.
      It probably started with a few more filler words.

      Umm, Like you know they were like you know big!

      It really grates when a news announcer starts going on like that. If I know, why are the wasting my time telling me.

    2. I very rarely eat biscuits but I used to like malted milk with the cows on – especially the ones with chocolate.

    3. home made digestive. The spectator (maybe) published a recipe for the original digestive a few weeks ago, absolutely wonderful.

      Jammie dodgers and fly cemeteries as well, oh hell almost any of them.

      1. It is a brilliant recipe. I’ve made them and MB wolfs them down.
        And yes, it was the Spekkie.

    6. Lotus biscuits, delicious with coffee, a good dipper. I have one with my mid-morning coffee each day. Also rich tea biscuits, a veritable life saver after food poisoning……

    7. Hobnobs at a push, but I still prefer the Oatmeal Blocks from the 1960s & ’70s boxes of compo rations.

        1. That sounds like the 1 man 24h pack.
          The tinned ones in the 4 & 10 man packs were MUCH better.

    8. 1. Jaffa Cake
      2. Maryland Cookie
      3. Ginger Nut
      4. Cadbury’s Finger
      5. Lotus Caramel Biscuit
      6. Nice.

      You may keep the rest.

    10. None of the above… any more. We do not knowingly buy anything containing palm oil.

  30. well it didn’t take long.

    Cbc radio broadcast a BBC podcast this morning. The announcer was making the case that the Nice murderer was suffering from discrimination, just like other “refugees”.

    So it is all your fault.

    2. So it’s OK to cut heads off because one feels discriminated against? What appalling acts can I commit for being jostled in the underground?

    4. The headless torso of that French Christian should be ashamed of denying unconscious bias against oppressed children.

          1. Not my part of France.

            I’d take mine over almost anywhere in the UK other than deep countryside.
            Every time I return to the UK I am dispirited by how it has gone downhill; and that’s only since the previous visit.

  32. I tried to upload a short video that the MR made just now of Pickles and Gus – but Discurse wouldn’t accept it.

    Sorry about that – it was very good!

    2. I got around that by opening a youtube account (free) and uploading it there and posting the link to it here.

  33. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – It is hardly surprising there is so much fly-tipping (Julia Hartley-Brewer, Features, October 29), given the exorbitant charges imposed by recycling centres and, with a few exceptions, their generally inhospitable attitude to commercial visitors. A nearby lay-by is bound to be a more attractive option.

    Simon Harris
    Falcutt, Northamptonshire

    As so many of us have been saying for so long…

    Edit: With apols to Epi.

    1. Didn’t Gordon Brown introduce some additional taxes on rubbish disposal too?
      People said at the time it would lead to an increase in fly-tipping.
      Yet more long-term damage from that Labour administration.

        2. Indeed.
          But undoing so many of the Blair Brown wrecking policies is actually a lot more difficult to achieve than one might imagine.

          So much is inter-linked and then underpinned by EU legislation. Add to that the huge growth in the welfare state, huge growth in low skilled and unskilled immigration and any downward adjustments to the tax base have to be compensated for by rises elesewhere.
          It will require root and branch reform and a lot of people who benefit from the State will find their jobs gone and/or their benefits slashed.

        3. None of the destructive, egregious regressive taxes have been revoked.

          They can’t be. Under Labour the state grew by nearly 30%. Salaries – the real cost – more than quadrupled, especially at the ‘management’ end. All to entrench a massive, hard Left grateful state machine.

          Cameron’s government was too weak to radically overhaul the system and, really he didn’t see any reason to. He far preferred the big state comforts as well. Then we had May and now Boris having wona thumping majority seemed to be starting the dismantling of Labour’s nonsense and all hell broke loose with COVID.

    2. What folk don’t realise is that this sia consequence of the EU’s WEEE directive. Same reason bin collections have halved. The EU decided we had to throw away less and set about telling us what we could put in the bin and when it would be collected.

      Same applies with industrial waste. By adding a charge to tipping the state assumed it would result in more waste being dumped. They were – as was obvious – wrong. The additional taxes simply meant the waste disposal facility was used less, not that less waste would be produced.

      Doesn’t matter to councils though. They slap the tax on and claim the cash which the fat cats pocket.

  35. Yesterday, I decided the time had come. That is, not to ‘wear’ a face mask when shopping. I almost chickened out, even as I opened the car door I was looking for the wretched thing in the side pocket, but in the same instant I gathered up some resolve (where it was lurking in my toes) and said firmly to myself ‘NO’! I will no longer signal compliance and obedience to this regime. So off I toddled, expecting the sky to fall in. It didn’t. Nobody confronted me, or even looked at me. It is not going back on, these things are unhealthy – I will no longer use this symbol of oppression. I had my polite verbal reply at the ready, should I need it, which boosted my confidence. Neither do I conform to the hand gel ritual regime either – this is simply to reinforce the obedience. Hopefully not using the mask will get easier as time goes on, much depends on how I feel on the day, whether I am feeling confident or wimpish, but it is not going back on. And the sense of freedom was amazing. Which just shows how this has affected us psychologically in just a few weeks. Intentionally.

    1. If the weather was better, PM, you could also go shopping without clothes on! I’m told nudity is very liberating… ;-))

          1. But you never know, in twenty years’ time when I no longer remember what clothes are for…..

        2. Have to go to a bigger town than my local one (or one with bigger branches of supermarkets) to find undies. But all the fun things in the middle aisle at Aldi will be available again on Monday November 9th… if the silly old fool in Cardiff doesn’t go back on his word.

      1. Thank you. And if I can do it, anyone can. I don’t like confrontation and I much prefer anonymity to drawing attention to myself, but a stand has to be made. I was truly horrified when the ‘experts’ declared a week or so ago that these things should be worn outside when going about our daily business. I saw a youtube video recently where someone with a very calm voice was saying all you have to do is to take off your mask. I could hear his voice reverberating in my head all week with this message. I wish I could remember who it was.

        1. I am exactly like you in preferring anonymity and avoiding confrontation. For about a week or so my husband did the shopping and he went without a mask. Then I went with him also sans mask but felt extremely self conscious. My next step was to go alone and it took a lot of nerve but it’s ok now. I just ignore everybody else (unless I know them of course!) and press on. And I have my little badge to flash if a “guard” steps forward.

          As we don’t watch or listen to any news I had no idea someone said that masks should be worn outside. But people are already doing that anyway. If anyone cares to delve into the published ONS figures re deaths it is obvious that the number of deaths is no more than usual for this time of year. The recent spike in deaths I reckon is caused by those dying from cancer, heart disease and every other disease not being treated by the NHS. Anyway well done again I congratulate you.

          1. Thank you for your support. It means a lot. Some days I feel more confident than others but I will not go back – I have to be true to myself or otherwise I will despise myself. After all, I do not have to scale the cliffs of Normandy as in WWll. We don’t listen to the news either, we haven’t watched tv in years apart from the very occasional programme e.g. something like Rick Stein’s Secret France. Ditto the radio. The only source of our information is the internet, and I trawl all types of sources.

            I will download the gov. exemption info – I had a look and it is illegal for a representative of a supermarket etc to ask what is the reason for your exemption. A friend was recently challenged about not using the hand gel on entry to the supermarket, she had used her own in the car a minute or so earlier. She informed the n.a.$.i. on duty of this, who informed her that “We prefer customers to use ours”, to which my friend informed her she preferred to use her own, and she strode past her. I don’t go along with this ritual of hand gel, though, anyway.

            Oh, I found it helpful not to make eye contact with anyone and I also wore my reading glasses as it blurred people’s outlines and features! I think the article (DM of course, which I read online because it’s free!) regarding the wearing of masks outside was of the nature of dipping a toe in the water to gauge public reaction. It may well have been considered a step too far at that point. I suspect it will return for a further airing. I cannot understand why people are wearing these things already outside, they are disgustingly unhealthy.

            Thank you and we must all stick together in these unprecedented times.

    3. I wash my hands regularly but have not used hand sanitiser. I will never wear a mask. I am supposedly in the high risk group by age but I have no underlying medical problems. The so-called pandemic is over. It is now about exercising complete control over the population. Unless we push back the elite will win.

  36. Tier 4 restrictions not ruled out, says minister as he warns second wave is ‘serious’. 30 October 2020.

    Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, said the Government is “always ready” to impose stricter measures on the population if deemed necessary.

    When asked if highest tier restrictions were being considered, Mr Raab said: “We do think the situation is serious.

    “Having said that, we’re confident we’ve got the right measures and framework in place -not to have a blanket approach but to target measures on the areas where the uptick is the highest.”

    He added: “We’re always ready for further measures that we can take.”

    Hmmm. Sounds like the leader of some occupying force! Perhaps he is!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-covid-lockdown-restrictions-cases-deaths/

    1. Tier 4 – everybody in Parliament can do whatever they want, go wherever they want, buy whatever they want, meet whoever they want in whatever numbers and NOT be prosecuted or even criticized by anyone else. Everyone else has to do whatever we say – OR ELSE.

      1. It’s not unusual …..but You didn’t watch it did you.
        He speaks and confirms most of the worries most people have to with this virus.

        1. I’m afraid I tend not to watch videos. For the avoidance of doubt, do you mean the (genuine) worries people have about the fakery of this virus and its reporting, or the “worries” stoked up by the MSM and project fear about this virus?

          1. I understand what you mean but when you see some of the people less promoted experts, who are very concerned about world affairs and put two and two together, some times it makes four.

    2. I suppose that the French will be expected to send aid, this will not be in proportion to that Turkey provided to France after the recent flooding there.

  40. Mail to a Conservative MP………..

    So the issue of irregular migration is the fault of the individuals in parliament such as your good self who have consistently looked the other way since 1997 instead of exposing the conspiracy between George Soros and Open Society London and a succession of UK Prime Ministers.

    Not just migration of course. It’s virtually every major UK policy and virtually every major UK item of legislation. All of it came from Soros. The whole thing is beyond reasonable doubt and there’s a huge amount of varied supporting evidence.

    No wonder certain individuals in UK politics want to censor the past.

    Polly

    1. Problem is, without that evidence it’s umm, a statement.

      Rather better to point to is (I think, I can’t remember) the treaty of Malta which discusses bringing a lot of Africa in to northern Europe whether we wanted it or not, specifically to destabilize the natives for political gain.

      1. There’s a stack of evidence. All major UK policies are identical to Soros policies since 1997. Four UK PMs in a row omitted Soros from their autobiographies despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent in London by Open Society specifically to get what Soros wants. Jobs and rewards in retirement from Soros for Blair and Cameron. It’s beyond reasonable doubt the UK has been traduced by Soros.

    7. Lovely pastries there – looks like doughnuts? – is that a diet coke or one of the other ones?

  50. 325005+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    Could this “pushing the mask or else” campaign be getting the peoples use to face coverings as in a mini burka kind of way, an introduction to
    the burka becoming a fashion, must have item.

    If the lab/lib/con coalitions bent, treacherous political shepherds go for it
    as their pro islamic ideology leanings are showing they would, many of the ovis WILL go for it.

    1. There’s actually a good degree of face mask resistance among the mohammedan ladies of Shepherds Bush. They wear a hijab and abaya but not the gag so much.

      1. 325995+ up ticks,
        Afternoon SE,
        It is on the politico’s menu.

        Is the Empire / market still
        going ?

        1. Still there. Not sure how much is open. When I was a wee kiddie it was a Jewish market but it’s been the place to buy a burqa for some years now.

    2. I have been thinking this for some tiime as well, Ogga, especially as there was a cry from the “experts” a few weeks ago that the masks should be worn when outside at all times. I think they were dipping a toe in the water to test public reaction. It was perhaps a step too far at that time. Nevertheless I think it will return as an issue. These people should not be inhibiting or meddling with our most basic right and necessity for life to exist – the right to breathe.

      I no longer associate the words ‘science’ with ‘truth’ and ‘excellence’. It is now firmly fixed in my mind that it is synonymous with ‘bodge’ and ‘agenda’.

      1. 325995+ up ticks,
        Afternoon PM,
        I have NOT for years, associated the lab/lib/con coalition party with truth,honesty, & patriotism
        towards the Country / peoples.
        The politico’s took to the road of treachery mid 70s.
        It is hard to convince the ovis that the political shepherd is as bent as a nine bob note.

    3. Saw a raghead in the local town today when I went in to get MOH’s pills. It was waddling along, swathed from head to toe AND wearing a mask!

  51. Confined to camp for 30 days minimum with possible review after two weeks – and the sentence may be extended until January. I could blacken my face, grow a beard and burn down a Christian church and get a shorter sentence. I don’t drink at home but there’s plenty of wine, beer and spirits I keep for guests. I may have to steel myself and try a sip or two.

    https://image.shutterstock.com/z/stock-vector-drunk-man-beside-champagne-bottle-vector-271215851.jpg

    1. France are about to go into a four week lock-down.

      It’s hoped that this will get the beheading rate under control.

      1. It seems the intention of government is to spread ‘it’ far and wide in their efforts to contain ‘it’ – millions clogging the roads up as they make a dash for the country and rural France before noon today. Government forgets about the details when It embarks upon deceit, doesn’t it?

        I wonder where all these millions will be staying? With family?

        1. Ah, that’s what we learnt as children. Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive?

        2. Every Franch person has a maison secondaire….

          Of course, all the people leaving the cities will carry the plague with them – and set the country ablaze with it.

          There were protests in villages when the last confinement began because of “outsiders” coming in.

          1. An elderly couple we know have been meticulous with masks hand wash etc. Confining at home and shopping only for food. They are both vulnerable with underlying conditions. The other day, she fell and had to go into hospital. On arrival they were tested and both came out positive. They didn’t have a clue they had it, let alone how they caught it.

            If it blows into the full thing I fear that they won’t survive.

          4. Interestingly – throughout the plague – in the Dordogne only 17 people have died in hospital from it.

          5. “From it” or with it?

            Given the number of expats, British, Dutch etc, who live here and run gites and have friends and family visiting one might have expected it to be a “hot spot” for infections.

          7. I can’t see any details of whether those dying had other underlying conditions.

            There’s also no indication of numbers dying at home nor in care homes.

            I trust these figures more than those in the UK, but not much more.

          8. The EHPAD figures are below – in the graph.

            The Ministry claims that the figures are those who died OF – and not with. I tend to believe it – because the “dying WITH” would be in their hundreds.

          9. My take on it is that the overall figures for France suggest the opposite, that deaths “with” are being combined with deaths “of”.

            If they are not, the total deaths “of” which are very high in total, plus “with” would make France possibly one of the hardest hit anywhere. As it is they are comparable with the UK where we can be reasonably certain the two are combined.

          11. I think they want to spread it around the country to justify the next power grab, just as they did with the ‘eat out to help out to spread it about’ which happened only a few weeks afterwards here in the (dis)UK.

    2. I’ve just come back from an “MoT” at the surgery; the nurse asked me if I drank alcohol. “Depends on how stressed I am!” I replied.

    3. 325995+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      The beard & burka along with the
      submissive,pcism & appeasement are their armour
      supplied by the governance party’s.

    5. For goodness sake, you’d think they were the ones wrronged.

      They need beating. If they refuse to stand up and apologise for their religion then they really should be keeping quiet and out of the public eye.

  53. Finally, a bit more clarity on what’s an “essential good” in Wales:
    From https://www.penarthtimes.co.uk/news/18826560.essential-items-can-buy-wales-fire-break-lockdown/

    What can you now buy in a supermarket?
    Food and drink
    Products ancillary to the sale of food and drink, primarily disposable items used for the preparation and storage of food (such as kitchen foil, food bags and cling film) but also basic products necessary to prepare and eat food and drink.
    Toiletries and cosmetic products, including toilets rolls and sanitary products
    Pharmaceutical products
    Baby products including equipment, clothes, and nappies
    Stationery and greetings cards
    Pet food and other pet supplies
    Products for the maintenance of bicycles and cars

    Fire-break restrictions began in Wales at 6pm on Friday, ending on November 9, meaning non-essential retail had to close.
    Shops that could remain open were told to only sell essential items – which according to the Welsh Government was that “which would normally be sold in pharmacies and chemists.” The ban on supermarkets only selling ‘essential’ items caused outrage across Wales – which led to a petition being made, signed by more than 67,000 people, calling for it to be reversed.

    A pisser if you need a new pair of boots, or a winter coat. Or fusewire, underpants, or …

    1. After the Welsh Police broke up a chapel service, I’ve been waiting for the breaking up of Prayers in the Cardiff and Swansea Mosques….

      ….still waiting, ho hum…

      1. It wasn’t a chapel service. It was something called the New Hope Community Church – one of the very modern “happy-clappy” versions of Christianity, not at all like chapel.

        Cardiff and Swansea mosques had Friday prayers last week before the lock-down began and have, almost certainly, told the faithful to conduct their prayers at home this week and next week. No need to break up anything that isn’t breaking the law… however much one may, or may not, condemn the present laws.

    3. greeting cards? I wouldn’t have thought Halloween cards came under essential goods.

      Honest boyo, my baby is big for his age, he needs size 9 shoes.

  54. You want the truth?

    1. Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
    2. The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it’s still on my list.
    3. Since light travels faster than sound, some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
    4. If I agreed with you, we’d both be wrong.
    5. We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
    6. War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
    7. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit.. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
    8. To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
    9. I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
    10. In filling out an application, where it says, ‘In case of emergency, Notify:’ I put ‘DOCTOR’.
    11. Women will never be equal to men until they can walk down the street with a bald head and a beer gut, and still think they are sexy.
    12. You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
    13. I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not so sure…
    14. To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
    15. Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
    16. I’m supposed to respect my elders, but its getting harder and harder for me to find one now.
    17.You’re never too old to learn something stupid.

        1. Seeing as the elderly are being denied treatment over covid hysteria and at any other time the over 75’s are denied it at all i nominate ‘Logan’s Run’.

          9. And of course Brave New World, Aldous Huxley’s tour de force, Brave New World is a darkly satiric vision of a “utopian” future—where humans are genetically bred and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively serve a ruling order.
            1984 Animal Farm etc etc.

          10. Whatever happened to that? It used to be regularly repeated. Perhaps they are afraid people will join the dots.

          6. Hislop is no longer impartial and he is no longer either clever or funny. As a satirist he is the pits.

            He ought to be sacked.

      2. As a happily married very heterosexual male, dear life jack Nicholson is really quite something.

    2. I can identify with 4, 5, 16 and 8 🙂 I would never dream of jumping out of a perfectly safe aeroplane 🙂

      1. I did like 5.

        Yet, it’s a pretence. When we forgot that what we are is that child and the teenager and the adult and the baby toddler and all the ages in between and just say ‘I’m a grown up’ then we’re pretending to be something we’re not, like squashing 90% of our existence in a cupboard and ignoring it.

        Which means tomorrow junior and I will be sat watching He Man or Thundercats or Thunderbirds. We are complicated, onion thin matrushka dolls. Not hollow shells.

    3. On the other hand…

      Definitely not PC

      If you are easily offended please refer to your offensive counsellor and contact the local thought police

      A twin-engine passenger plane has an engine failure and the altitude and speed are both decreasing rapidly. The pilot speaks over the intercom…
      “I’m sorry it has come to this ladies and gentlemen, but unfortunately we are going to have to jettison the luggage in order for the aircraft to remain airborne”.

      Baggage is thrown out but still the plane’s speed continues to decrease. Once again, the pilot gets on the intercom, “I hate to do this, folks but in order to save the majority we are going to have to start off-loading some passengers. The only fair way is to do this alphabetically, so we’ll start with the letter ‘A'”.

      “Africans? Are there any Africans on board?” There was no answer so the pilot calls, “Black people, are there any black people on board?”

      Again silence. “C – coloured people? Are there any coloured people on board?

      Still there is silence. A little black boy sitting near the rear of the plane turned to his mother
      and whispers, “Mum, ain’t we African? Ain’t we black? Ain’t we coloured?”

      She replied, “Yes, Son but for the moment we is Nïggers. Let them do the Muslims first. If that don’t work, we is Zulus”.

    1. 325995+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      IMO firstly & foremost sack every serving lab/lib/con
      coalition politico, then start a deportation campaign
      appertaining to the islamic ideology followers back to their muslim origins, with a set amount of compo, no comeback then, no come back ever.

      People power denies political rodents access to parliament, a silent standfast vigil.

    3. The ingrained inertia of the Anglo-Saxon will quickly lead to his self-inflicted extinction. Where did this death wish come from?

    1. So convenient was Kary Mullis’s death for the Establishment in August 2019, although I realise he was in his early mid-seventies.

        2. Half way through his eighth decade – not exactly young either.

          After my grandmother – then aged 90 – had been in a care home for a little while (because my aunt could no longer cope) she asked my aunt whether she couldn’t come home as she didn’t like “being here with a’ these auld wifies”. My father and aunt (who knew most of the residents – or at least their families) worked out that with only one exception she was older than all the other “auld wifies”.

          Just because we see age from a personal view-point doesn’t change the number of years – or the fact that anyone who has passed three-score-and-ten is old… even if not “old enough”.

          1. That’s why I’m on my second book, temporarily titled, “Passing Three Score Years and Ten”

    1. Oh!
      :-((
      My youth is rapidly running through my fingers, like sand in an hourglass…
      All my heroes are croaking!

        1. Moh and I have become that, just like that, in a few years , there is just he and I, the living memories , and we aren’t ancient either.

          1. All three are in their 90’s but from long-lived families.

            It could easily be another 10 years before we take top spot, and that’s assuming we live that long.

          2. Depends how far you spread the “family” net. J & I are the oldest in our immediate family, but the other week I went to meet two ladies who are my 3rd cousins, and in their mid 80s. We had a great day catching up and looking at photos etc.
            I also have a 1st cousin once removed who is 94. She remembers my father who visited them when she was a child. He died in 1953.

        2. On my Mum’s side of the family, we cousins realised that we only all got together at funerals. So, in 2003, after her funeral, we resolved to meet once a year, taking turns to organise it. This we have done, until this year. Lockdown prevented us from meeting (in Stratford upon Avon, as it happens). Now, the oldest cousin has passed away. I’m the youngest, Mum having given birth to me at 43. Lockdowns, underlying health conditions, Great Resets and pandemics notwithstanding, when I’m the oldest, I’ll also be the only one left…

        4. Hmm, I reached that dubious stage in December last year, being the youngest of 9, I’m now the only one left of Generation 50.

    2. Take this bastard’s every cent and all his possessions and put him in an African or South American slum to see out his days.
      People like him are never affected by their grand schemes, they still live in their mansions, enjoy opulent existences and travel in luxury, wherever they wish.

      The great reset will merely usher in the 1000 year reich; with creeps like him enjoying the fruits of everyone else’s labours..

  64. You’ve heard of Sharknado, the daft movies about sharks? Well, here it’s “Mousenado – revenge of the traps”.
    I can’t set the traps quickly enough before there’s a “Scuffley scuffley CLACK!” from under the ssink, and another corpse can be added to the pile.
    Pity I don’t know anyone who keeps constrictor snakes. They’d be delighted!

    1. Can’t you just pop a cat into the cupboard under the sink – and leave it there for a while…

      1. We’re in a rented cottage, the cats guarding our house.
        Also, the amount of banging and thumping there would be… likely break the wastepipe!
        Magic traps are much quieter, and don’t leave a half mouse at the foot of the stairs to show their love…

        1. Drains still not fixed? How much longer?

          Poor, lonely (I was going to type “little” but that’s not really appropriate) puddy-tats – left all by their lonesomes. Still, I don’t suppose they would really enjoy a short-term house move either.

          1. We’re round there twice a day, play with the cats, top up their food. Also. make sure the sofas don’t feel lonely, too! And remove the corpses, half-consumed, that they leave just where a bare foot might be placed… mice, rats, traffic wardens…
            We can now put water down the drains, just no solids… Monday, they’ll crane a digger into the garden downstream, and start digging there. Potentially, alles in ordnung in a fortnight. I effin’ hope. Whilsy Goldilocks Cottage is nice, home is best.

          1. Rats we have had.
            One early morning, there was the hell of a kerfuffle downstairs, thuds and bangs, followed by a shriek.
            When we got down, there was a HUMUNGOUS rat, like a woolly mammoth, dead in the sitting room. Big Cat (for I’m sure it was he) had despatched it with a couple of swipes of paws the size of garden spades…

          2. Rats we have had.
            One early morning, there was the hell of a kerfuffle downstairs, thuds and bangs, followed by a shriek.
            When we got down, there was a HUMUNGOUS rat, like a woolly mammoth, dead in the sitting room. Big Cat (for I’m sure it was he) had despatched it with a couple of swipes of paws the size of garden spades…

    1. Why is the reply above the main content? It is subsequent to it, so should be beneath and indented.

      The I is atrocious.

      1. That happens when you cut and paste but you can click on the main content and it reverses as the new window opens.

        1. Very possibly. The “Christian” government of this “Christian” country can be sworn in on the q’ran.

  68. Re the slammer outside the French Embassy in London: According to LBC website:-

    “A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “The group failed to produce a sufficient risk assessment to the local authority and so, their protest has been determined unlawful.

    “Those participating in the protest are currently being advised to disperse. Officers will be engaging with crowds and informing them of this development.

    “Where necessary, enforcement action will be considered and taken.”

    It comes amid rising tensions between France and the Islamic world after a Tunisian man killed three people in a church in Nice this week and, earlier this month, a history teacher was beheaded on the streets of a Parisian suburb.”

    I am not holding my breath about “enforcement action”.

    1. Ever since the protests over Salman Rushdie and the Satanic Verses, the police all over the UK have been pussy-footing around any gathering of the Religion of Hate.

    3. The problem should have been obvious with Salman Rushdie coming here under a fatwa.

      I remember thinking how silly it was to threaten a man for writing a book. Suddenly these nutters are everywhere and not only behaving like the savages they are, but instead of being hounded away they’re lauded and protected by big state.

    2. Beautiful, very relaxing, maybe a bit too relaxing for this time of the eveni……zzzzzzzzzzzzz

          2. Some days are diamonds, some days are stone, unfortunately. I seem to be having more stony days than sparkly ones at the moment, so I hope things brighten up for you.

  71. Powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake destroys buildings in Turkey and sends people fleeing from their homes.

    It’s probably Erdoğan having a temper tantrum because ‘Toy boy’ Macron has profaned his favourite Holy Godiwog(sic).

  72. Now (IMHO) loony pansexual ‘Liberal Democrat’ (neither liberal or democratic) MP and former hopefull for their leadership Layla Moran (great surname) is now being given a platform by the Daily Starmergraph to spout her nutty pro-lockdown views:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/must-control-suppress-eliminate-break-cycle-create-covid-secure/

    For once, non-subscribers can actually read the entire piece, not that it’s any good. No reader comments allowed, as per usual (likely either at her insistence or virtue-signalling by the editorial team and mods).

    What a shower this paper has become. I also see that Am F is back on the Letters Page spouting their usual rubbish after a month’s absence. I wonder why? I still think they are a DT mod (troll) in disguise.

          9. Oh yes, but you probably can’t even begin to imagine the physical toll that they all took…

            Since “not heaven itself upon the past has power” my comment was intended to be entirely tongue-in-cheek though.

          11. As one pupil once wrote. Bach wrote a lot of music; in the meantime he practised on the spinster in the attic.

          12. I think that comes from the same book of howlers as “the eyeball is surrounded by the scrotum”. One can never quite decide whether they are real or invented.

  75. The local council where I live have been closing roads and putting in new cycle lanes all over the borough all through the covid pandemic, but at least cyclists can pass through here now without a Keir in the world.

    1. They are doing that everywhere ..

      Cycle mania rules , and no wonder town centres are suffering . People don’t cycle in order to shop, they cycle to exercise , and fingers up to car users who have elderly people to transport around , councils have forgotten to whom they should be serving!

      1. It’s like nobody has to travel to work or needs a vehicle to transport tools and materials, they think the world can function with everybody out on a bike.

          2. I think the plan will be car sharing, like in the old East Germany. In big cities, there are already randomly parked vehicles on the streets with “Rent Me” (via an app) painted on the side. You pay, and the app tells you the location of the vehicle nearest to you.
            All part of the Great Reset.

          3. I suppose that’s a natural progression from the Boris bikes – but not for people who need their own space.

            The Great Reset seems to include depriving people of their hard-earned property.

          4. Sorry, reply split in two…working from home is BS in my opinion. I have been back in the office since April. Too much distraction at home, plus I need test equipment, I need access to a Mac as well as my Windows computer. Who can afford a house with a separate room to work in these days? We are a family of five in a two bedroom cottage in a very expensive area! My children are all grown up, but for various reasons they all found themselves back at home this year – no way can I work from home under those circumstances! Working from home is for people who fit into the modern plan that nobody is supposed to have more than two children!

            I don’t know why people accept clothes shopping online which is clearly such a poor experience compared to real shopping either.

          5. I don’t buy many clothes – but earlier this year I bought a jacket – which I like and fits well, and some trousers, which are a trifle tight round the bum – so it’s a mixed experience.

            Working from home is fine for those with the equipment and the room, but obviously not so good if there are too many distractions. Both my sons are working from home – one in Basel, and one in Swansea – locked down again. Both are loners by nature. Not sure it’s good for their mental health.

          6. I think this whole lockdown nonsense is terrible for young single people – they are losing valuable socialising time, particularly young women, for whom the clock is ticking.

          7. Yes – it must be very hard for any single people. At least I’m not alone here. And as a pensioner I’ve not lost any income. I feel very sorry for those who have lost their jobs and businesses.

      3. In Thornbury – not that far from here down the A38, the’ve made the main street pedestianised, and huge plant tubs everywhere. So the elderly and disabled can’t get to the shops at all.

    2. They haven’t done that in Woking but the town is in a bloody mess with hideous tower blocks under construction and, I expect, with more towers in the offing it unlikely to be completed in my lifetime. I think they say by 2030 but theses things always overrun. It’s not architecture it’s more like they drew a sketch on a B&H fag packet, drew up the plans, threw them away and built the fag packet.

    3. That’s one of the first stages of the “Great Reset”. Wait for the next phase. There will be massive new building works – homes for all the incoming hordes.

      1. Providing he is not running round in circles – I suspect a tow to the nearest repair shop…..

  77. Where Belgium leads: Herge’s Adventures of Covid 19 Tin…..

    ” As was widely expected, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced a nationwide coronavirus lockdown that will apply to the entire nation, and last for at least 6 weeks.

    He said he imposed the lockdown to try and avoid a complete collapse of Belgium’s health-care system as more than 6,000 patients are currently occupying the country’s COVID-19 beds.

    Per the lockdown, which will be more restrictive than the ‘lockdown-light’ imposed by France and Germany. Belgium will extend a school holiday until Nov. 15, while ordering hairdressers and all nonessential retailers to close. Outdoor gatherings will be limited to 4 people (despite researchers repeated claims that outdoor gatherings are largely safe).

    The lockdown will start at midnight Sunday, and continue for at least 6 weeks.”

    1. Wonder how the London slammers in front of the Franch embassy would have managed in the Land of Moules Frites?

  79. A day or two ago there was a link posted to an article on”MEAN” an acronym for the stages in the waging of psychological warfare against the people of this country.
    In one very specific area this started some time ago. The use of the expression “new normal” implies a different set of living and socialising arrangements to those we have been used to for much of the last 400 years. The division the country into different “tiers” has suggested that these are all conditions above and beyond normal.
    In Scotland there are now five tiers, with restrictions imposed on all five layers.
    The least restricted tier is Tier 0. From the description given by the Scottish government this seems to be the blueprint for the “new normal”. There is no Tier -1. My guess is that we will be so pleased to be in Tier 0 that we will accept it permanently without demur.
    Level 0
    No local authority has been assigned this level. Scotland’s councils have been told by the government that “it would not be safe to move any area straight to the lowest level”. At Level 0, hospitality would operate “almost normally” – subject to rules on physical distancing, limits on numbers and other rules, such as table service.

    So in Level 0, normal means “almost normally” which really means a million miles from normal.

    BBC Summary: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-54703899

    The full horror on the Scottish government website: https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-protection-levels/pages/protection-level-0/

    1. I have seen another document (I think from the UN) which mentioned continuing with Covid until 2025.

        1. It’s bad enough already. People will be dropping like flies before then from boredom and suicide.

      2. I thought it was going to be Covid-21 next year. etc. Rinse and repeat until the West is bankrupt and fully mixed race.

    2. They are all backing off on dates. The vaccine is now supposed to be available in the middle of next year at the earliest, herd immunity now required 75% uptake on vaccinations which will not happen.

      So most countries wil be forced into general elections before the beast is under control,that could be interesting.

    2. The erstwhile ‘United Kingdom’ and its institutions are lying supine to mollify – and subjugate itself to – a malign and dangerously alien culture.

  85. Got these graphs from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/ I hope it all comes out ok. Looks like we might be heading for a full lockdown again, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54750775 why?
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e493d544fb8a648e14f2552c523ddcd513280b71e9a66eb79243e5ee2dfc0f72.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f8634861a2e2f8875ddf6b5962707b3bbc08a6bfce8da9ee97a0db1271b3e1a8.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1eb40ed748687125f19a8056bce4dc53947572fc68261fa32102b56dbceb8d28.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6feac9e75c1da55f3e1928cc79faea2ca9d3c2f1803a0cb57df393112a305754.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/939d6f9d0a5c8eda7d4345b07b4e885b075b8ba85673adda297bda323bdd62fe.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee082a794256d8534ca2895d68dc897869f4f3b0fdbe006085939cf31f9e37db.png

    1. It’s a “casedemic”.
      The only figures that matter are the deaths, and they are in line with the usual respiratory illnesses which go up at this time of year. People go into hospital with one thing, are tested, and subsequently die, they are counted as a covid death even if they died of terminal cancer.

      1. The number of people requiring respiratory assistance is an equally significant number. Our lords and masters reduced the capability of our hospitals to provide such care – meaning that it becomes overwhelmed very easily. Our numbers of ICU beds are pathetically low for a supposed first world country.

          1. I know. But it’s turned out (as such decisions so often do) to be a gross-inefficiency measure.

          2. And, ironically, because the hospitals have worked out how to save rather more people than they could in March/April/May they need more beds for longer because people have to stay in them for longer if they don’t die.

          6. That’s really not an attitude that medics like to take, or do take.

            Since CPR is only applicable in a very narrow range of cases then DNR is simply logical – but I’ve never heard a doctor refer to patients as “expendable”, and I very much doubt that you have.

          9. Have you had a sense and reason bypass?

            I thought we were having a conversation about hospital capability, but now it’s a joke. Not a very funny one.

          19. My apologies. I meant it as a general insult to someone that has never had to support other regions.

          20. How many left on this forum until we all emigrate and it’s just you, the lefty librarian and the misogynist ?

          21. That is clearly what down voters want. I have lost count of how many downvotes I have received but I never react to a down voter and I never down vote anyone myself. I don’t know what the etiquette is but I think down voting is unspeakably common for those who wish to participate on a friendly and civilised site such as this where we can express our points of view without being trolled or insulted.

            I once suggested that the mods applied a 3 strikes and you’re out rule.. Once a person has used his or her quota of 3 down votes he or she is expelled the site.

        2. Is that perhaps why the media give the percentage of ICU bed occupancy rather than the actual numbers. I mean, if you have the same number of patients but fewer beds, the occupancy percentage rises, no?

          1. Shh! You’re not supposed to work that out – and especially not to compare percentages of occupation from a range of previous years.

          2. Percentage occupancy is a useful figure – but it also helps to disguise how few beds there are. Particularly in the light of our increased population; regardless of how or why that happened, we are where we are, and we are woefully short of ICU beds.

      2. That’s kind of my point. The graphs show that lockdown was futile, as would more lockdowns be.

        1. So the powers that be – knowing lockdowns don’t work – propose another one. Do they expect a different outcome this time?

      3. That’s kind of my point. The graphs show that lockdown was futile, as would more lockdowns be.

      2. Just say it how you really mean it.

        Oh, and I agree. All water off a duck’s back. The harder they try to scare us, the more it makes me laugh, now.

  86. Here’s another one for you… What piece of music do you associate with close friends, or loved ones? The music that makes you think of them the instant it starts? Even from the first note…

    1. It’s been a hard day’s night.
      The first chord gives me a shiver and I think of my old dad.

        1. After being lighting technician for Die Meistersinger von Nurenberg, there was a “name that tune” from the opera. First “ding”, and I was there – overture to Act Two. Spot on. named in one…
          And that, Ladees an Gennemun, is my claim to fame!

          1. Not a lighting tech, Paul, but much of my mis-spent youth was dedicated to running a mobile disco. I was never your archetypal DJ, being more interested in maintaining, and building the kit. And several Transit vans. “Northern Lights” had a good reputation in north Cumbria, and beyond. I’m still interested in the techy stuff. Perhaps this is reflected in the fact that the new place now has smart control over all but three of the lights, and they’re scheduled for replacement/modification…

          4. Ah. Bugger. Someone with a similar name did. An excellent show, it was – about 1978.

        1. That recording was made in 1981 – so Placido was just 40 and coming into his prime as a singer.

    3. Sadly, it isn’t music, but places, that I associate with close friends or loved ones. The odd combination of Hampton Court Palace and Colchester Zoo do it for me. I am more into music now that I was in the seventies.

      1. When I lived in East Anglia, I visited Colchester Zoo once. What a depressing place. I felt desperately sorry for the Ndovu’s. all of which seemed to be mentally disturbed. Don’t have an opinion on HCP, which I’ve driven past on countless occasions…

        1. It was who I was with at the time which makes the connection. I agree that Colchester Zoo was depressing even then.

          2. Indeed. I went with a second cousin and his colleague, both Plods. We had an interesting night in Thetford, since, on the way to the pub, they felt the need to investigate the sound of breaking glass from a decrepit, disused property, but they didn’t object to the pub lock-in…

        2. Sounds like a zoo I once visited. The only animal was a mangy old dog. It was a Shih Tzu.

      2. I never understood poetry, until I was middle-aged. I guess it takes a spark of something to get you going.
        I have a few favourite pictures that remind me of people I care for – including those who are dead.

      1. Been here before… a Scouse lass I met in Sicily, tall, slender and grey-blonde, married to a fine Sicilian gentleman of the Mafia. A very few years after I moved to Norway, she killed herself, leaving husband and two small boys. Maaybe, just maybe, if I’d been a better friend… wo knows?
        This always reminds me of her.
        https://youtu.be/7O049oi2Dxw

          1. I think I agree, Belle.
            I got a lot of learning from that. Take care of your friends and those you love. Be sure that they know you care. Be there for them when they need you. And, if you can’t stop them self-destructing, at least work to be in the position that you can tell yourself “I did my utmost”.

    5. …None. I am completely unmusical. Our cars were too old to have radios when we were growing up, and in any case, the radio in our house was permanently tuned to Radio FourFour.

      1. As am I, BB2. I still found some aspects of relationships (chiefly nothing to do with blood relatives, of whom I have almost none) still associate themselves with music. Some, when the individual died, and I had to mourn their passing. The Mozard Grosse Messe I find helps (at high volume) – together with a suitable toast.
        This last is getting too much exercise just now.
        https://youtu.be/KsiP4-mCnQ0

    6. My late younger son used to give me – for birthdays and Christmas – a CD compilation* of the sort of music he thought I should know about.

      One of them starts with Joe Brown singing “I’ll See You in My Dreams”.

      The second I hear the first notes – Jim is sitting there…

      * We call them Jimpilations!

          3. Lovely. Thanks for posting, Jennifer. I’m puzzled by the image, which bears no resemblance to the ‘Ecclesiastical Power Station’ which is Guildford Cathedral. Also, I fear that the choir under Barry Rose was a different animal to that which currently graces the choir stalls. But that’s just me…;

          4. I picked it for the sound, not the image. And as I don’t know Guildford Cathedral at all I wasn’t aware it was a mis-match.

            I’ve sung it, with something of a stretch, and love it.

          7. Having spent some years as a Sunday chorister I can appreciate just how much good music happens every week in little churches.

            The diocese of Hereford used to do an annual choir service – sending out music to all the churches with choirs at the beginning of summer and gathering all the little groups together in the cathedral in September to sing, with the cathedral choir and organist, a special service. For most of us it was the only chance to sing in that sort of amazing sound-space.

          10. SWMBO sang with her choir a few times in Guildford Cathedral, a building that looks like a cathedral, but except for a few notes, was completely acoustically flat. The few notes weer amplified beautifully, then the song fell flat again. Weird, that.

          12. Not so much to my taste, and I’m inclined to feel that the harpsichord is a bit overwhelming, but definitely worth a second listen.

        1. Do not stand at my grave and weep
          I am not there. I do not sleep.
          I am a thousand winds that blow.
          I am the diamond glints on snow.
          I am the sunlight on ripened grain.
          I am the gentle autumn rain.
          When you awaken in the morning’s hush
          I am the swift uplifting rush
          Of quiet birds in circled flight.
          I am the soft stars that shine at night.
          Do not stand at my grave and cry;
          I am not there. I did not die.
          – Mary Eizaberh Frye

    8. My second sister is Eileen Frances, she is 11 years younger than me .

      She came over here on hol from SA decades ago , her clothing was very daring , even by my standards , very lively , self opinionated and noisy! Hot pants that sort of thing, and performed double jointed acrobatic moves in the garden , in front of MOH!!!

      This reminds me of her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbpnAGajyMc

      2. Was a Beatles fan, rather than Stones.
        Was delighted to find, in the gents in The Long Bar, Samara (Russia), a urinal in the form of Mick Jaggers mouth in Forty Licks. Several excellent wees had there!

    10. Sorry Obs, too many to list properly. My mother dancing to Wishbone Ash “Where Were You Tomorrow”, my father singing “Oh Danny Boy” every Christmas night for the family, “Heart Of Gold” by Neil Young with my wife, any Glen Miller song makes me think of my Uncle George. If I hear “Ticket To The Moon” by ELO it reminds me of a drive down to the Costa Brava and back one summer holiday.
      I could go on but you get the idea, different songs for different people and different occasions, and nearly every time it stirs happy memories.

      2. When I hear “Wonderful World” by Louis Armstrong, I recall the birth of Firstborn (now 29), and the relief from the stress of it all. Still makes me tear up, so it does,

        1. that is what we played at my mothers funeral, a big mistake because it brings back unhappy memories.

          She would have been one hundred today if she had lasted a few more years. Her biggest concern about reaching 100 was to receive a telegram from Charles, the Queen yes or William would be OK but not Charlie boy.

  87. With the progressive lockdowns one only needs to research torture techniques. They don’t work in the long run but it buys ‘them’ time to break us.

      1. We have read on this site that it could be either incompetence or a cock up. There is a higher order interfering and making use of that.

        1. The coordinated global response is all part of the agenda – the incompetence is seen in the way the instructions have been applied.

          1. It does make one think given how the worldwide responses have been so similar. They don’t all follow SAGE.

    2. We know that lock ups don’t work.

      For some bizarre reason, the state continues to do the wrong thing.

      Although, if you think about it, it’s not very surprising. Government is full of fools with an agenda opposed to the public.

        1. I don’t honestly know why they bother writing them. They’re irrelevant. No party ever keeps to them.

          They may as well be described as valueless marketing puff.

  88. I am off. I am teaching the MR how to do cryptic crosswords. She started six weeks ago with the small one in The Grimes. She is improving week by week.

    And – to my total amazement (as I have been doing cryptic crosswords since 1948) – I find that I am a patient teacher. Never thought I’d say that!!

    Glass in hand, I bid you good evening.

    A demain.

    PS She completed it in 20 minutes – a record; and only a couple of hints from me!!!

    1. I don’t think they mentioned it on the News, but I only half listen to it, as it’s the same every night these days. The only other news this time was the earthquake in Turkey.

  90. Victoria Derbyshire said on a tweet that she would be having seven people for Christmas dinner and not the legal maximum of six.
    She was doing some rapid back-pedalling and grovellingly apologising as is now standard. See BBC internet page below.
    But, big OOPS! She gave an interview to the Radio Times and her words have hit the newsagents this week.
    “If the rule of six is still in place at Christmas, we’re breaking it to have the rule of seven. We just are.”
    Will the Commissioner of the Met be popping in to Ms Derbyshire’s London gaff, with a few colleagues in riot gear this coming Xmas Day? (Hint and tip for Ms Dick – the best time to drop in will be during the Queen’s speech as they will all be gathered round the wireless.)

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54685296

    2. Surely they can only do her for conspiracy, given she hasn’t had six guests over yet?

  92. 325995+ up ticks,
    May one ask after hearing on the 5 o’clock news that France had declared war on islamic ideology, what side if any, will the United Kingdom governance party’s be taking , if any, and will they repeal the unwritten but adhered to submissive pcism & appeasement rulings on making a positive decision.

  96. There seems to have been some outbursts of emotion on here tonight. I accept that all can express their pov but I don’t have to agree with it or even read it or respond if I don’t like the poster. But that is no reason to throw in the towel if you enjoy the general discussion on here. Life has its ups and downs and we learn how to accept in our day to day lives. There are far more important things to worry about.

    1. This is really rather sad. Down voters want to drive away many of those whom we consider our friends.

      I have lost count of how many downvotes I have received but I never react to a down voter and I never down vote anyone myself. I don’t know what the etiquette is but I think down voting is unspeakably common and uncivilised. Most of us wish to participate on a friendly and civilised site such as this where we can express our points of view without being trolled or insulted and where we can express different points of view without seeking to cause offence..

      I once suggested that the mods applied a 3 Strikes And You’re Out Rule.. Once a person has used his or her quota of 3 down votes he or she is expelled from the site and banned from returning..

      2. There is no etiquette for downvoting and we all can see who does it – so just block that person Rastus.

  98. Tomorrow I must go out and buy a disposable cigarette lighter so that I can sterilise the sodding contaminated face mask that I’ve been obliged to wear….

          1. There’s posh you’ve got a proper cloth one ..I’ve only got a useless paper one that definitely needs sterilising…

          2. I got a couple more but they are synthetic material and I have trouble breathing through them.

            You could get another one.

          3. From what I’ve read any face mask as a method to stop the transmission of virus is like the equivalent of using chicken wire to stop midges….
            The only real protection is a Category 4 Lab airtight full body protective suit with oxygen feed…

          11. Just think of all the millions of masks that have been sold around the world in the last few months – a whole new industry.

          12. I think you mean billions. Plus the clean up from the pollution. Follow the money.

            Meanwhile we ban drinking straws and cotton buds to clear earwax and then give the go ahead for enormous wind turbines that cannot be recycled and have to be buried at the end of their short life in places where no one notices.

          13. Not to mention the rare earth minerals used in the manufacture of the gigantic batteries for electric cars – dug out of the ground by hand by impoverished children in the Congo.

          14. Aw, Bless! On the other hand I suppose that they get paid and the family keeps from starving.

          15. Actually no. They get poisoned by the work they do and starve to death. All those new lovely Iphones that people virtue signal on.

          17. Why thank you, Horace.

            Don’t forget not so long ago we were supposed to feel guilty about buying things that came from poor countries making things like T-Shirts. That also was supposed to be an earner for granny.

            We now have those same ‘cotton mills’ here too. Exploited by their own people.

            I haven’t heard a word about this modern slavery from Len McCluskey.

          18. We have been told for many years that coal and oil would run out and we needed to prepare for the future.

            It hasn’t.

          22. Your down vote comes from someone who knows everything about everything about farming except for the rustling of sheep at the end of Ramadangadinglong.

          23. I can’t imagine such a person, they’d have to go around with a cucumber stuffed up their ar5e…

          24. The Lady…and i say it in an advisory capacity… probably has that recourse. Hopefully not to provide a salad for the unsuspecting after… 🙁

          33. I think it comes from an an annoying person who thinks they know more about everything, than we, who know it all.

          36. If you cannot breathe through them then they may be working. If you can breathe through a mask, the mask will not stop viruses.

          38. Well, yes. But you will be saved from Covid-19. Anyway wearing a mask reduces oxygen levels in the blood thereby depriving the brain of oxygen. Brain damage caused by oxygen deficiency is permanent.
            In Scotland the brain damaged government has now decreed that schoolchildren must wear masks all day, including in classrooms.

          40. They evidently want the population to be permanently brain-damaged. So long as they are compliant. And Independent.

          48. The ‘sauce’ which is left after boiling & removing snotty hankies from the saucepan.

            I’m 1/2way through my next Jessica book.

          53. I have two clean ones every day – one for my glasses and one for the designed purpose I never get them mixed!

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