Friday 20 November: Government plans for electric cars are as ill thought out as previous policies on diesel

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/20/lettersgovernment-plans-electric-cars-thought-previous-policies/

794 thoughts on “Friday 20 November: Government plans for electric cars are as ill thought out as previous policies on diesel”

  1. Edinburgh Castle to replace sign describing British who put down 1857 Indian Rebellion as ‘heroes’. 20 November 2020.

    The causes of the Indian Mutiny which raged across north and central India for more than a year have long been the subject of Indo-British historical debate.

    “The crushing of the uprising was seen in Britain as a great victory of British civilisation over violent and barbaric Asiatics – unsurprisingly, Indians see these events very differently,” he said.

    “In 1910, Indian nationalist V.D. Savarkar called it ‘The First National Indian War of Independence’.

    “Many continue to use this term, seeing in the events of 1857 as an occasion when peoples of all classes and faiths in North India came together to fight successfully for freedom.

    Morning everyone. The headline is misleading in that the opposition to the sign was not about “heroes” but that “it pandered to colonialism” i.e. it portrayed the British as the winners and the Indians as losers. Unfortunately this is reality as witness the continuing rule of the sub-continent for the next century tells us.

    The attempt to rewrite Indian history is an ongoing project, particularly the Mutiny. It was not the “First National War of Independence” or an “uprising” and the mutineers received almost no help from the ordinary people of India. Had they done so the whole business would have been over in very short order.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/19/edinburgh-castle-replace-sign-describing-british-put-1857-indian/

  3. I remembered last nights great insight again when I woke up this morning, that’s twice this week.
    It went if I remember rightly that it has come to something when what was supposed to be the dark web has become our only source of actual news and investigative journalism while our mainstream media and press has become a fantasy world of dystopian narratives and totalitarian propaganda.

    1. mng, I understand Priti Disastrous is still floating about, doing what, no one really knows. Google’s Kenya Met forecast today is “mainly sunny with some cloud cloud cover”. Reality, it’s been bucketing down since 5am, so usual chaos on roads [no drainage of course], and it’s Friday, so most Kenyans in town will look to exit around noon. So another logjam

    2. She ain’t goin’ anywhere I’m afraid. It strikes me that her only qualification for a cabinet post is her unwavering support for Boris’s Brexit. As a Home Secretary she has been particularly ineffectual; lots of bluster and posturing but no action or accomplishments. She’s too valuable to Boris to let go.

  7. SIR – Amazon is urging us to buy Christmas presents now, so that the Royal Mail is not overloaded in December. But where do we send those meant for family hoping to be with us? To their home or to ours, only to find we are still in lockdown?

    This needs clarification.

    Charles Leith
    Fordingbridge, Hampshire

    For pity’s sake, Charles Leith, grow up!

  8. SIR – Like Trevor Jessop (Letters, November 19), I can remember making cotton-reel tanks with my brothers.

    We found that, to get traction on carpet, the edges of the wooden reel needed to be serrated. This involved (unsupervised) use of Dad’s sharp pen knife, or a craft knife. Health and safety was very different in the Sixties: the only concern our parents had was that we would blunt Dad’s knife.

    We all still possess 10 fingers.

    Dr Hilary Aitken
    Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire

    …but no thumbs?

  9. ‘Morning again.

    What a remarkable service record…I’ll bet he never expected to live to within a few weeks of 100:

    Brigadier Frank Henn, Army officer whose long career began in wartime France in 1940 – obituary

    Henn was involved in bitter fighting after D-Day and later commanded the British Contingent of the UN Force during Cyprus turbulence

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    19 November 2020 • 3:24pm

    Frank Henn: a lifelong habit was checking his barometer and pocket compass

    Brigadier Frank Henn, who has died aged 99, saw wartime action in France and the Low Countries both with the BEF and after D-Day, and later commanded the British contingent of the UN forces in Cyprus when the island was invaded by Turkey.

    At the end of 1939, the newly commissioned Henn was posted as a platoon commander to the 5th Bn, The Gloucestershire Regiment, a TA unit and part of the 48th (South Midlands) Infantry Division, then in France.

    When the Germans invaded Holland, the 5th Glosters moved forward to a position near Waterloo, south of Brussels, and then undertook a series of delaying actions as the BEF fell back.

    The Luftwaffe was dive-bombing roads that were clogged with refugees. At one stage, 95 miles were marched in 83 hours. All ranks were tired. Stragglers were detached or lost and casualties caused by enemy action were mounting fast.

    By May 26, Henn’s platoon was reduced to 10 men. He was involved in fierce fighting near Wormhoudt, and said afterwards that his small force was lucky not to have suffered the fate of some 80 men, mostly from the 2nd Warwicks, who were herded into a barn and massacred in cold blood. By the early hours of May 31, he and the survivors had embarked from Dunkirk.

    In 1941, the battalion, retitled 43rd Reconnaissance Regiment, was equipped with armoured cars and tracked carriers. Henn became the Battalion Intelligence Officer before commanding the regiment’s anti-tank battery of 12 six-pounder guns.

    About two weeks after D-Day, the regiment embarked at Tilbury but a Channel storm forced the vessel to lie at anchor off Sword Beach for three days until the weather subsided. As the ship moved to begin disembarking, it struck a mine and broke in half, with the loss, killed or wounded, of about half the Regiment.

    Henn was one of the fortunate survivors. He commanded the Headquarters Squadron and his regiment led the 43rd Wessex Division in the break-out from Normandy.

    It took part in the forced crossing of the Seine, the link-up with the Airborne Division at Arnhem and bitter fighting in the Battle of the Bulge. There it was responsible for holding all the crossings over a 30-mile stretch of the River Meuse. The division finished the war at Bremen.

    Francis Robert Henn was born in Cairo on November 20 1920. His father, Colonel W F Henn CBE, MVO, served with the Munster Fusiliers in the First World War before joining the Cairo City Police.

    Young Frank spent a carefree childhood at his family home overlooking the Shannon in Co Clare. He was educated at Aldenham School, Hertfordshire, before going to Sandhurst in August 1939. The Second World War broke out soon after and he was commissioned into the Gloucestershire Regiment after only four months’ training.

    In 1946, 43rd Recce Regiment was disbanded and Henn transferred to the 11th Hussars at Jever, a former Luftwaffe airfield near Wilhelmshaven. After Staff College, followed by two years on the staff of the Military Secretary at the War Office, he rejoined his regiment in Malaya during the Emergency. He was in command of a squadron based at Johor Baru and was Mentioned in Despatches.

    After a staff appointment at the RAC Centre at Bovington, Dorset, in 1959 he was posted to the Royal Gloucestershire Hussars as Training Major. He then returned to the War Office as a member of the Military Operations Directorate before promotion to lieutenant-colonel with the task of helping to establish a new Tri-Service Defence Operations Staff at the Ministry of Defence.

    In 1966 he was appointed to the Directing Staff of the Australian Army Staff College. From early 1969 to 1972 he was head of the Chief of Defence Staff’s briefing section at the MoD and had the exacting task of preparing papers for policy meetings at home and abroad between ministers and the Chief of Defence Staff. He was appointed CBE at the end of his tour.

    In July 1972, he became Chief of Staff and Commander of the British Contingent of the UN Force in Cyprus. UNFICYP, the Peacekeeping Force, deployed to Cyprus some 10 years earlier, was by then reduced to about 3,000 lightly armed soldiers drawn from eight countries.

    There were occasional violent incidents but the situation between the Greek and Turkish Cypriots was relatively calm. At weekends, Henn and his family left Nicosia for the village of Bellapais, high above the port of Kyrenia, where they rented the house made famous by Lawrence Durrell in his book Bitter Lemons.

    In July 1974, following growing anti-government violence within the Greek Cypriot community – in which UNFICYP was not authorised to intervene – a coup d’état instigated by the Greek military junta in Athens compelled Archbishop Makarios, President of Cyprus, to flee the island.

    Five days later, mainland Turkish troops invaded in overwhelming strength and imposed the partition which persists to this day. Henn and his family left their house just before it came under mortar and heavy machine-gun fire.

    Fighting was savage and UN soldiers were killed and wounded in an effort to halt a quarrel which was not theirs. Henn’s wife and daughter were evacuated to the British bases in the south of the island and eventually to England. In October, when his tour of duty expired, he followed them home.

    His final Army service was managing the Army Presentation Team at the MoD. He retired from the Service in 1975, but for several years lectured at home and abroad on UN peacekeeping operations, and for three years he was a Special Adviser on Cyprus to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee.

    In 1999 Henn and his family moved from Somerset to a village in Oxfordshire and he took over as president of the 43rd Wessex Division Association. In 2004 he published A Business of Some Heat: The United Nations Force in Cyprus before and during the 1974 Turkish Invasion.

    After the war, when he was stationed in Schleswig Holstein, he had enjoyed sailing in the Baltic. When cruising, he could always pinpoint his exact position on the chart. Until a week before his death, he checked the barometer every day and was never far from his pocket compass.

    Frank Henn married, in 1957, Monica Russell, whom he first met in Singapore and who had served as an officer in the WRNS and as a member of the security services. She predeceased him, and he is survived by their daughter.

    Brigadier Frank Henn, born November 20 1920, died October 15 2020

    A BTL comment:

    David Harrison
    19 Nov 2020 6:59PM
    I knew Frank Henn and he was one of life’s true gentlemen. A very gallant officer with a fascinating career.

    He would have been 100 years old tomorrow, 20th November. Thank you Sir.

    1. Pfft …. stale, male and pale.
      The Tellygraff should be ashamed of mentioning him in the same edition as Lewis Hamilton.

  10. SIR – I fear Sarah Lucas (Letters, November 18) is mistaken about the telephone number given in The Crown.

    Numbers beginning 01 were in use in London from 1966 until May 6 1990, when the codes changed to 071 and 081. On April 16 1995 they changed again to 0171 and 0181.

    Michael Bull

    Grimsby, Lincolnshire

  11. Metropolitan Police counter-terror chief Neil Basu calls for action on coronavirus anti-vaxxers. 20 November 2020.

    Britain’s top counter-terrorism officer today called for a nationwide debate on the introduction of new laws to punish people who spread anti-vaccination conspiracy theories.

    Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said that there should be a discussion about whether it is “the correct thing for society to allow” people to spread “misinformation that could cost people’s lives” as he responded to concern that false claims online could undermine the take up of Covid-19 vaccines.

    “There is a debate for society to have about free speech and responsibility and people who are spreading misinformation that could cost people’s lives… whether that is the correct thing for this society to allow to happen,” said Mr Basu.

    This would not of course have been possible before the police were politicised. Now they have become not just enforcers of the Law but creators of it!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/met-police-terrorism-coronavirus-anti-vaxxers-b73161.html

    1. Was he speaking to the “Non Confidential Helpline” after being released from the Natural History Museum’s vast array of unusual specimens?

    2. ‘Morning, Minty. I do wish that the publicity-hungry Basu would stick to his brief of counter-terrorism. In this day and age he should have more than enough to keep himself fully occupied.

      1. Maybe he’s self-isolating from his relatives.
        That makes intelligence gathering a bit problematical.

      2. His answer to counter-terrorism is to put another bone through his nose while pointing a third at counter-vaxxers.

  12. SIR – I am sure the Queen never sulks (Letters, November 18), but I am even more sure that she would never treat a guest in her house with the rudeness shown to the Thatchers at Balmoral in The Crown. They were humiliated and treated with disdain, which made us gasp with disbelief.

    Peter Morgan does not have the right to portray the Royal family in this way when it cannot defend itself.

    Jane Manley

    Byford, Herefordshire

    1. Just a thought.

      I do not watch the programme, but perhaps that’s how the Blairs were treated.

      If the screenplay was written by woke lefties they could hardly have St Tony humiliated and treated with disdain but the hated Thatcher would be an ideal target as a Blair substitute.

      1. DId Thatcher ever spend Christmas at Balmoral? I thought she was entertaining Sir Jimmy Savile at Chequers.

        1. I have no idea, but typical of a Thatcher hater such as yourself to smear by association.

          Many people were taken in by him and he did a lot for charity.

          After all, didn’t the Pope “knight” him are you suggesting the Pope also approved of what was eventually discovered?

          1. Indeed they did, which is how he got away with it until after he died. Thatcher liked his go-getting spirit and the good works he did for charity.

        2. Good morning, Jeremy.

          HM spends Christmas at Sandringham
          so it seems unlikely Mrs T. would be
          invited to Balmoral..

          1. Maybe the royal family invited her to one palace for Christmas and then went to another palace themselves so that when Mrs Thatcher arrived she found nobody at home.

            Didn’t King Lear’s nasty daughters, Goneril and Regan, try to play the same trick on their poor old father?

    2. The defence of the producers of The Crown is that nobody believes it to be true. But people are gullible enough to believe it. I remember that film makers did the same thing when making films about the IRA: in order to ‘make a better story’ they ignored the truth completely.

      If ‘The Crown’ is fiction the writers should not give the characters in this production the names of actual people who are still alive. Surely it is libellous what they are doing?

  13. SIR — I am worried by the number of people determined to have “as normal a Christmas as possible”, after what we’ve all been through this year.

    I am 74 and have lived alone since my wife died. I try to stick to the rules regarding staying at home, and only go out to buy food and to exercise.

    I communicate with my daughter, who lives 300 miles away, by phone, email and letter. She invited me to stay for Christmas but I declined, because I am in the vulnerable age group. She understands and still loves me.

    The last thing we need is for the Government to allow a stand-down period over Christmas. We’ve come this far – let’s not go backwards.

    Peter Ellis
    Grewelthorpe, North Yorkshire

    Well, Pete lad, it seems that the government’s done an excellent job of scaring the shit out of you with its perverse propaganda and idiotic policies. As far as they are concerned, with you—and those of your ilk—it is job done.

    1. I suppose I could travel to London to be near my sister over Christmas. Of course, since they are shielding, I would be expected to “do my own thing”. I am welcome to bring my own sandwiches and sit in the garden on my own, wearing a mask, while they open their presents indoors, and they could leave mine on the doorstep for me.

      Humbug!

    3. Morning, Grizz.
      I’m wondering how far we’ve come – and from what?
      The Stone Age? Mato Grosso? Or escaped from Edinburgh before the Fishwife patrols the border.

    6. Mr. Peter Ellis, B.Ed (Hons.) Cert. of Ed. (with distinction.) TESOL (Grade A1) Certificate.
      Member of the Human Race – Teacher by profession
      Sep 1971 – Apr 2015 43 years 8 months

      Grewelthorpe, Ripon, North Yorkshire, HG4 3BS.

      I was a PE teacher in Yorkshire (1971-74,) then Germany, with the MOD (1974-80,) then Nab Wood, Bingley, Yorkshire (1981-82,) then Cambridgeshire, St. Ivo School (1982-1994,) then a Boarding Housemaster in Bakewell, Derbyshire (1995-97,) then a Housemaster in the Regents School in Thailand (1997-99,) and then a Housemaster (briefly) in Wiltshire (1999,) then Deputy Headmaster and Head of Boarding in the Kurpfalz Internat in Bammental near Heidelberg in Germany [nightmare!] (2000,) then Housemaster in The Royal Alexandra and Albert School, Reigate, Surrey (2001,) then Housemaster in Naquiah House, Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar, Mantin, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia (2001-04.) Tried to set up my own ‘English Language Tuition Centre’ on the Island of Langkawi, but it didn’t get off the ground…..but we did survive the Boxing Day Tsunami 26.12.2004. Returned to the UK, January 2006, after a few months working as an English teacher in an ‘International School’ (allegedly!) in Kuala Lumpur. Worked as an Examinations Invigilator at Ripon Grammar School for a few years (2006-2009.) Diagnosed with Prostate Cancer in 2010 and underwent a Radical Prostatectomy…..still Cancer Free after 4 years. Trained as a Luxury Mini-Coach Driver (up-to 16-seaters) and now drive intermittently for a local business/friend.

      How many thousands of innocent children has this idiot indoctrinated? Unfortunately, he is just one of many.

        1. ‘Trained’ to drive vehicles of up to 16 pax; as did I, it was called the driving test in the late 70s.

          1. I thought that; my original driving licence allowed me to drive minibuses on a voluntary basis (and I kept my C1/D1 entitlement by passing a medical after I turned 70). Likewise towing trailers and driving all manner of vehicles including steam rollers.

          2. Indeed, the ‘problem’ first came to my attention in the mid 90s, the RAF section I worked in had the use of an MT mini-bus to transport personnel around the perimeter track from the domestic site to work. Thus reducing the number of vehicles driving around the airfield.
            The snag we had was that the ‘duty airman’ often had passed his test after the automatic C1/D1 entitlement was rescinded, so MT were kept busy ‘testing’ the younger members of the section to allow them to fulfil their duties.

  14. If yesterdays press conference by Trumps legal team was such a horror show how come the mobstream media has all but airbrushed it from the dark broadcast channels

    2. I think the owners of Facebook and Twitter need to watch their steps.

      Guiliani has noted that they are qualifying and deleting pro-Trump comments with extreme bias. He suggested that they are no longer open platforms but publishers and therefore open to prosecution.

  15. Forgive me for being uncharacteristically frivolous, this frosty morning, but the very idea of career civil servants – very senior, knighted Sir Humphreys – being so intimidated by a five foot Hindoo woman that they had to take sick leave, (and, apparently, seek psychological help) is just plain laughable. LAUGHABLE.

    1. Good morning, Bill

      I must say that I know that you think that the home secretary is ‘pretty awful’ but I feel that she has had to struggle against the most obstructive, spineless and nasty civil servants and politicians who are determined to do her down.

      If anyone has been bullied it is this woman rather than her pathetic tormenters. Indeed, I would not be surprised to hear that her colleagues are actually trying to encourage illegal immigration in order to thwart her and for it to reflect badly on her.

      Britain used to have the best civil service and honest politicians. We now have the scum of the earth.

    2. Good morning Danish Pedant

      You managed to see off Ready Eddy yesterday. Whom* is your next proposed victim?

      * Yes – I know. The whom is just there to tease you!

      1. ‘Morning, Rastus.

        The least said about last night the better.

        There were Swedish Vikings, you know. In fact the first time I drove up to Örebro, taking the road from Helsingborg in the South I had tthe most extraordinary feeling of déjà vu, as though I were coming home. Sounds crazy, I know.

          1. Pedant:
            1. One who ostentatiously exhibits academic knowledge or who pays undue attention to minor details or formal rules. 2. A boring old fart.

          2. I have always loved witty and clever song lyrics written by people such as Jake Thackray, Tom Lehrer, W.S. Gilbert, Michael Flanders & Donald Swan, Jeremy Taylor and, of course, Noel Coward who used the word ‘pedantic’ rather amusingly, in his song about Nina, a girl who didn’t like dancing and thought that syncopation had a discouraging effect on procreation.

            She said “I hate to be pedantic
            But I’m driven nearly frantic
            When I see that unromantic,
            Sycophantic
            Lot of sluts,
            Forever wriggling their guts.
            It drives me absolutely nuts.”

    4. He chose an atlas and a football. He hasn’t a clue where he came from nor where he’s going and all he has for company is an inflated bag of wind. He might as well have been marooned in Westminster.

  21. I have just been on the Covid version of the worldometers.info site which was quite interesting. Some of the graphs needed careful attention but the last one showed how the present daily deaths compare with the initial death rate.
    However, attached to the Covid data was an American advert with a lengthy video promoting EZ battery Reconditioning “using tools available in most garages” Most types of batteries, it was claimed, could be revived to new condition. There were many stories from around the world praising the life changing info this marvellous technique allowed. At the end it was revealed that $47 dollars would be the cost of the pamphlets revealing the secret. I noticed in the fine print that not all batteries could be revived. A typical USA plug for something that might be useful .
    The reconditioning process, so the story goes, was invented by a person who gathered used dead batteries from golf buggies and made a lot of money reviving and reselling them.
    Do any of my fellow NOTTLERS know of a technique for reviving flat, presumed dead, batteries to a working life again? This guy is, he claims, able to revive all sorts of batteries including AA, button, electronic, solar

      2. Morning Bill – I’m already ashamed of a scam I fell for last week.. I thought I had only £1 at stake but a few days later I discovered that a subscription of monthly £50 had been set up by the scammers’ I got the £1 back into my account yesterday so the BoS fraud squad are making progress.
        I suspect the batteries this fellow is reviving have been discarded prematurely but if so he will have a disposal problem unless he fly tips the hopeless car batteries.

    4. In the 90s, I bought a digital battery charger which could safely recharge normal disposable batteries. It would briefly analyse them then would reject those which had deteriorated too much. Here’s an example: https://tinyurl.com/y3unngfa

  22. Good morning all. Quite nice just now light sky for this time of year and dry.

    Re all the letters about petrol/diesel cars being replaced with electric. My thoughts are that TPTB, following the way they’re handling the Covid epidemic, with the Great Reset in mind for next year, are doing their best to pauperise us all and in the end nobody, unless they are in “the club”, will be able to afford one. Helps with the green revolution.

    A very long link was posted on here yesterday, an article by a German health worker, about how interlinked the UN, the WHO, big pharma, billionaires and the IMF, and those owning the media are pushing us all towards dependency on the State for our income where we will own nothing, in exchange for wiping out our debts. At the rate all governments are borrowing (from where?) to make up for spending over Covid, the number of job losses and business bankruptcies etc. loss of income tax, fuel taxes, etc. , rise in unemployment we will all end up at the bottom of the pile.

    We will not be able to travel unless we have a vaccine of some sort (how have they produced it in less than 1 year, most vaccines take 10/15 years) and we will be tracked everywhere we go – well, we are now really via our mobile phones. We will be completely under their control. Only the Danes, as I understand it, have mounted a successful challenge to their government introducing draconian measures. The MSM are suppressing anything that counters the Covid measures as does social meeja.

    The latest farce here seems to be “we may be allowed 5 days for Christmas”. But will have to “pay for it” with another lockdown.

    Not a good picture is it.

    1. Is the job of BBC Head of Newsgathering advertised currently, then, with “No white males need apply”?
      If not, why not?

    2. Is the job of BBC Head of Newsgathering advertised currently, then, with “No white males need apply”?
      If not, why not?

    5. I don’t mean to offend anyone here but I see numerous complaints about the BBC which I am sure are thoroughly justified. Therefore, I don’t understand why people keep watching it. I boycotted it several years ago and my stress levels are now manageable!

      2. What pisses me off about the BBC is not the current affairs and news programmes which I don’t watch but the things I used to watch and can’t now: e.g.s Test Match Cricket and all the England Rugby XV’s matches.

      3. You and me both, Sguest. I watch very occasional documentaries on BBC4. Univ Challenge. And, er, that’s it.

        I have not watched or listened to ANY news, politics or current affairs progammes on the beeboid radio and tv nor any other broadcaster since the result of the referendum in 2016.

        And I feel much better for it.

      4. I stopped paying the bBC TV tax over 2 years ago. This meant I could no longer view ‘livestream broadcasts and/or the bBC i-player’. I had avoided the bBC news and current affairs output for many years before that. Why the bBC, with a guaranteed £4Bn+ income per year, chase ratings by joining the tv race to the quality bottom by producing poor tv shows with rich presenters is beyond me.

        I have no interest in ‘reality’ tv shows, (most, if not all, of which have the integrity of the competition to name the Blue Peter dog) ‘comedy’ panel shows (with an ever diminishing ring of ‘approved’ comedians) or soaps, which left the occasional film and some imported US series.

        My viewing consists of Amazon Prime Firestick and YouTube, on my schedule…I’ve lost count of the number of series I’ve given up on over the years as I wouldn’t sit in front of the box at the designated time.

        These days I get most of my news from the likes of this site and Going Postal, though I never click on any bBC links as I do not wish to increase their ratings.

        The media still do not get it. Falling readership and viewing numbers don’t appear to have had much affect on them but as advertising revenue drops there must be a breaking point at which they might think about reverting to reporting news, rather than ‘making’ it.

    2. ‘Assistant Director of Regulation and Enforcement’. He had better hope no one knows where he lives.

      1. Assistant director?

        That suggests there might be a deputy director as well as a director. Then of course there will need to be managers, assistant managers and officers.

        I wonder how much they all get paid.

    3. Cemetery staff playing at chasing unwelcome (to them) mourners round the grounds must have added an unexpected twist to a solemn ceremony.

  25. Just back from shopping in Matlock and bloody Hell, it getting cold!
    Made the mistake of not taking gloves and my fingers are frozen!

  26. After an hour on the ‘puter, then a “chat” then a long wait actually to speak to a human – about submitting my solar panel reading – I shall be going off to have a lie down.

    The human was brilliant. A sensible, white, middle-aged lady who was a born problem solver. Such an unexpected treat to be able to deal with someone like that. All sorted – and the ishoo which prevented me from entering the damned figure online was – very tactfully – explained as “operator error”. I pressed “enter” and as nothing happened after a minute pressed it again. Fatal. The info had already been accepted and processed before the little wheelie thing hd stopped turning. Pressing enter again confused it.

    Back later. Kittens to harry.

    1. I sometimes wonder if the DT is asked to commission contentious articles for an external organisation, eg.GCHQ, Stonewall , The Gumment etc, as a better and more accurate indicator of public attitudes than a poll, certainly cheaper.

      1. They actually have an article about whether COVID is racist – about the ‘person’ (using all the latest woke buzzwords on gender and race, etc) who will be showing a ‘programme’ on this on (you’ve guessed it) Channel 4 next week. Seems like the Left’s takeover of the MSM is complete, what with Fox News (admitedly sans Tucker Carlson and one or two others) going full-on Orange Man Bad.

        I here that in the US, Fox News’ (not Carlson’s) ratings are now tanking and newcomer conservative outlet Newsmax’s are taking most of those leaving. Let’s hope that Andrew Neil’s new TV News channel will do the same here.

      1. Indeed – given my own experiences of being censored on the DT, before having enough and cancelling my subs, I should’ve done that. I’m sure Rosa will post a repeat dose some time in the future, assuming normalacy doesn’t return, so we can do the same again this time next year or such ‘n’ such.

  31. BBC Radio 4 News reporting that Sunak will put public sector wages, except NHS workers, on hold again. We must remember the handsome pay rise given to MPs this year and the £10000 [ tax free] made available to them to improve working from home which I doubt most of them needed.

    1. Those whose businesses are going bust have seethed with disgust and anger at our self-serving politicians who reward themselves while others are ruined.

      I hold Boris Johnson in complete contempt.

  32. ‘Morning, Peeps and Geoff.

    I think we can say that the banning of new diesel and petrol-powered vehicles in 2030 has not met with universal approval:

    SIR – Green legislation to encourage the use of diesel cars was facile.

    Diesel was – and remains – the best “green” solution available for long-distance driving, but the law of unintended consequences reigned supreme. People started using their diesel 4x4s for the weekly shop.

    The switch to electric vehicles is equally ill thought through. How will the national grid be able to meet the increased demand with a sustainable, clean supply?

    I shall invest in keeping my very clean diesel (bought mainly for towing) in tip-top condition, as I expect it to be worth a lot of money in 2031.

    Mike Kaye
    Lincoln

    SIR – Why do politicians have so little understanding of how normal people live? Electric cars are much more expensive than petrol or diesel cars.

    Moreover, if politicians were to visit an estate of terrace houses and high-rise blocks, they would see the difficulties of charging them on roads crammed nose to tail with parked cars.

    Working people tend to buy used cars but won’t be able to afford electric ones, particularly if they have to buy new batteries. We will end up like Cuba, which for decades could not import new cars, so the old ones were kept. With creative engineering, they stayed mobile. Manufacturers in Britain must supply spare parts for some years after a model is withdrawn. After that, used-parts firms come into their own.

    The green gains of electric cars will thus be much reduced by old (less efficient) cars being driven for decades.

    Peter Amey
    Norwich

    SIR – Gi Fernando (Letters, November 18) says the number of charging points is growing faster than the number of electric vehicles.

    I don’t know about Britain, but in America this has been achieved in part by using diesel generators.

    Peter Mitchell
    Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire

    SIR – Mr Fernando says that, in 2030, there will be six charge points for every electric car, compared with one petrol pump for every 600 cars today.

    I can fill my car with petrol and pay in about five minutes, then drive 600 miles with, say, an overnight stop on the way. For how many hours would I have to charge an electric car to travel a similar distance?

    And how many charging points would a hotel in the middle of Dartmoor need in order to guarantee that I could recharge overnight?

    Richard Smith
    Romsey, Hampshire

    SIR – When pavements are strewn 
with charging leads, how are those pushing prams or buggies, or riding in wheelchairs or on mobility scooters, supposed to get about? When somebody trips over, who will be liable for any injuries?

    Anne Hayward
    Stowmarket, Suffolk

    SIR – The Government appears to have forgotten about disabled people, many of whom rely on wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

    Most of these require substantial floor modifications. With large battery packs in electric vehicles, will such modifications be possible?

    Stephen Clough
    Wilmslow, Cheshire

    SIR – The Prime Minister is clearly playing to the gallery.

    How will the current annual fuel tax, worth £28 billion, be replaced? How will all the subsidies be repaid? Disposal of all the old cars, and their replacement with new electric ones, will not be carbon-neutral.

    John McLaren
    Farnham, Surrey

    SIR – When I buy my electric car in 2030, will my non-functioning smart meters have been upgraded so that I can monitor how much power I am using to charge it?

    Graeme Williams
    West Malling, Kent

    One or two Nottlrs in there I think.

    Sorry to disappoint, Mike Kaye and Peter Amey; by 2031 the government of the day will no doubt attempt to tax all remaining diesels – and probably petrols too – off the road.

    1. Why cant the batteries be replaceable? Pop into a garage and have a low battery exchanged for a fully charged one.

          1. Time perhaps for the various manufacturers to get together to agree an international standard for a single unit, probably lowish capacity but could then be used singularly or in multiples depending on the size of the vehicle.

          2. Time perhaps for the various manufacturers to get together to agree an international standard for a single unit, probably lowish capacity but could then be used singularly or in multiples depending on the size of the vehicle.

        2. But it can’t be beyond the wit of engineers and car designers to come up with a system. I envisage a machine which one drives up to and docks onto that removes one battery and inserts another.

          I can see it perfectly. Perhaps I should find an engineering student at my local university and draw up a patent with her.

      2. There was a idea from an Isreali chap who suggested batteries should be swapped rather than charged. The batteries would be rented, thus taking a chunk out of the capital cost of the car. Not heard anything for a while, try google.

        1. Fitting the battery to the car could be tricky… and has a previous user abused said battery?

          2. Wiki has details, the company with the original idea has gone bankrupt but Tesla has run a trial but with very few takers.
            “Tesla designed its Model S to allow fast battery swapping.[51] In June 2013, Tesla announced its goal of deploying a battery swapping station in each of its supercharging stations. At a demonstration event in 2013, Tesla showed that a battery swap operation with the Model S took just over 90 seconds, about half the time it takes to refill a gasoline-powered car used for comparison purposes during the event.”

          1. Frankly, I’m glad I know how to harness up and drive a pony and trap! I think that may become a very valuable skill in the future.

    3. A tale of three classics – all currently sitting at home in various stages of disintegration.

      `The Nissan Micra is languishing on the grass sorned for lack of affordable spares. A pity, since the Sunderland-built K11 was the best car they built and far better than the horrid prestige statements they make now.

      The Peugeot 205 is still running, but since my mother used it to polish walls when she was still driving, most of the panels are in a terrible state and again cannot be replaced since they turned the old Hillman factory near Coventry into brownfield development and again modern Peugeots are horrid.

      That leaves my 1987 Citroen 2CV, about to go round the clock for a second time. Nearly all the parts are still available through three outlets – 2CV City in Yorkshire with a limited range at reasonable range, 2CV Shop in Somerset, who mostly import from the continent, and ECAS, who have the most comprehensive range and the usual place to go. Furthermore, 2CVGB has Spog, which has a number of metalbangers who manufacture discontinued parts, and Burton, a Dutch company, who improve on them and specialise in customisation.

      It means that I can keep this versatile little car, much hated by the trendy metropolitans and the bling rappers, on the road far longer than its original intended life, and far longer than anything currently being made by Citroen.

      1. Series Land-Rovers are very long-lived. All spares available, whether pattern or OEM, but you seem not to be able to get new overdrive units.

      2. A friend was involved in a head-on accident in a 2CV, the other car was being driven by a drunk on the wrong side of the road. The 2CV has all the bodily strength of a wet paper bag. The accident, over 30 years ago, put an end to her promising career as a concert pianist. She is paralysed to this day.

        2. There is a crumple zone designed into the chassis – a weak point just behind the front wheels. In a head-on, this should snap, so that the main impact forces go to folding up around the engine, rather than going into the cabin. There are limits though to the protection this can give when one is being driven into by a tank head-on.

          I am sorry about your friend, since I have a great regard for concert pianists. Regulars will know that three years ago I went to the world premiere of a new piano concerto composed by the soloist.

    4. Much energy from the car batteries will be spent driving around to find vacant charging points .
      As for Graeme Williams’s comment, his Smart Meters will probably allow the grid to drain his car batteries when the grid needs to boost its energy at busy power demand times.

      1. …and if his dumb meter isn’t working he won’t even notice that his car is being ‘siphoned’.

        ‘Morning, Clyde.

      2. Currently, you can get an app that shows the availabilty of charging points locally. Problem comes, that a quick charge takes about 30+ minutes (not a complete fill from a gas station taking 5 mins), so the time spent in charging is huge in comparison, and so there’s a good chance you’ll be waiting a long time to even get plugged in.

  33. Aid for migrants

    SIR – As you report, the cost of accommodating cross-Channel migrants has increased greatly. This is a paradigm instance of something that should be funded from the foreign aid budget. Why is this not being done?

    Angela Ellis-Jones

    Sutton, Surrey

    1. I think Angela will find this will fall under the due care and inattention of Priti Disastrous. More so as the Colonial Office is no long recruiting “Johny Foreigner” therein unable to “provide aid for migrants”

      https://www.devex.com/news/exclusive-fcdo-to-become-reserved-department-will-not-be-hiring-foreign-nationals-98589?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTlRVMFpUWmhaREJsT1RWaCIsInQiOiJrc0lRaXZRbUpJa1ZoMWFkc1ozOHdTaVNWdVp4cFhuKzhhcGlBTTQzY2tsQVVyYlVGN3JuWmtBTFZGcysyRGxCejlRbnJIcVhwdWNJM3NWSVFKc1g0MDFaZDNkbDFtbHRTNElSQU1lUFhZbUZTejdqMWxPK0xsWm5TMzArc2ZxSiJ9

      Former Dfid staff now seeking crowdfunding for new underwear and boxes of wet wipes

    2. 326642+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      Surely this is for the treachery regarding Nation department.
      All the while the strains of
      🎵
      Pavement is my pillow is rendered by British ex service personell.

  34. This climate change is getting me down.

    Already this week it has changed from cloudy to foggy to rainy to sunny to windy. Last night it changed again to thunder, frost and the first snow of the year!

    Where is Greta the bed-wetter when you need her?

    1. Oscar nominee Greta’s recovering from Carrie giving her the horse shot vax in her derriere. An imminent White Paper will declare her fit and well to provide the weather forecast. Which end will talk is still under consideration

  35. 326642+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Diesel cars, the green sh!te all thought out and delivered
    courtesy of carries tongue / johnsons ear and with brussels
    appeasement well in mind, as with HS2.

    Maybe it will really come home to the electorate that a very high % of the political fraternity are willing eu assets still.

    Maybe at long last continuing to support / vote for parties that have concealed the mass foreign paedophile rape & abuse of vulnerable children, mass uncontrolled immigration
    as Dover is QUITE CLEARLY pointing out, on the basis that
    one party must keep out the other regardless of consequence has been proven to be the wrong road to take,
    again,again,& again.

    The governing odious threesome differ only in being different grades of sh!te, so the ultimate outcome as to who governs
    it is guaranteed they will be sh!te.

    But now a major sea change is in the air for the politico’s
    are coming between a motorist / vehicle, now the above atrocities child abuse / Dover invasion can be forgiven via the ballot booth BUT woe betide coming between a motorist and their true love.

    1. Despite having voted to leave the EU, having seen the shambles Boris has made of running the country and having looked at the only likely alternative, I’m coming around to the idea that being a colony of the EU might not be such a bad idea! Maybe Angela Merkel could become our Governor.

      1. 326642+ up ticks,
        Morning C,
        She filled your requirements some time ago, may the treacherous will confirm.

      2. I rather like Putin myself, but I get your drift. It couldn’t be any worse, surely, oh hang on..

        1. Putin needs to stop posing topless and he’s basically a gangster. I’m sure there are better choices, however, my slightly tongue in cheek view is that we’re currently showing the world that we can’t govern ourselves competently.

        2. That was more or less Auberon Waugh’s point of view. It wasn’t that he thought the Common Market, E.E.C., E.C., EU or U.S.E. was remotely good but that British civil servants and politicians were even worse than European ones.

    1. 326643+up ticks,
      Afternoon N,
      No mention of her / johnson / governance
      group regarding the indigenous of these Isles, and the politico’s “final solution”
      appertaining to them.

      1. 326643+ up ticks,
        Afternoon C,
        Not odd atall, atall,where else would they get the weekly wonga they have just trousered, it is a payday smile.

        1. In my view Bergkamp was the best signing Arsenal ever made and it was the badly under-rated Bruce Rioch who was in charge and allowed him to flourish.

          Arsene Wenger may be regarded as their best ever manager, but I sometimes wonder if Rioch had been given one or two more seasons Wenger might never have arrived.

      1. 326643+ up ticks,
        Afternoon SM,
        Many do seem to think so, in a likeable manner the polling booth tells us that again & again.

          1. 326643+ up ticks.
            Evening SM,
            I am one of the worlds biggest optimist as well as being a hairy bummed industrial tramp, pipe-fitter / welder foreman, overseas supervisor, croc skinner, sense of humour very in-tacked.

            “Life is to be lived” done lots of that living and got numerous tee shirts.

            One instance of me being disappointed is to see the
            same politico’s / parties that overseen the odious issues in rotherham for years, still in power.
            Many a kid as they grow up will look back in horror
            at their teen years.

  40. British man with coronavirus suffering paralysis and blindness after being bitten by cobra in India. 20 November 2020.

    A British father is suffering from blindness and paralysis in a hospital in India after being bitten by a snake while battling coronavirus, his family have said.
    Ian Jones is in intensive care after being bitten by a black king cobra in a village in the north west of the country.

    The former healthcare worker, who lives on the Isle of Wight with his family, had been in India for months where he runs Sabirian, a charity-backed social enterprise aimed at helping people trade their way out of poverty.

    Also mauled by tiger, fell over cliff, trampled by rogue elephant. Suffering from Coronavirus!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/20/british-man-coronavirus-sufferingparalysis-blindness-bitten/

    2. mng, must be a slow news day for wokes. A “former healthcare worker training craftspeople aged between 18-87? Did they x-check birth certificates? And travelled without any health cover? Still, nice pic of snake on presumably, his desk, which is presumably in a bio secure bubble

      1. I guess that would depend on the results of the snakebite test being “false / positive”. Rest assured anneallen the snake’s now is in a care home on the Isle of Wight setting up a crodfund to keep irritating health care workers away

        1. Are you volunteering to put the cotton bud down the back of the snake’s throat? Don’t forget your mask.

          1. JM I would be first in queue but have to respect it’s signed The Great Barrington Declaration, refuses to wear a mask [understandable], but would be happy to slither to front door to clap / bite for the NHS

        2. Are you volunteering to put the cotton bud down the back of the snake’s throat? Don’t forget your mask.

        3. Are all its relatives being kept away so they don’t reinfect it?
          Imagine being the carer arguing with Nagina and her sprogs.

          1. I thought that Nagina was killed by Riki-Tiki before she could produce sprogs.

            I wonder if the blindness was caused by the cobra’s spitting before biting. It has been known.

          3. There is a Chinese takeaway in Worksop called FOO KEE. The female owner was puzzled when I called her “Nell”.

      1. I think it was Thomas Hardy’s ‘ Far from the madding crowd ‘ where in the first chapter the character sells his wife at market.

        You could have made a few bob with your spares….

    2. Is this another of those revisionist exercises where our history is made to look as bad as possible in a propaganda exercise to make our lousy present seem good?

    3. Ah, Regency England, when the poofs [sorry: ‘Dandies’ or ‘Fops’] stopped speaking proper English and strangulated their pretentious elongated A’s.

    1. “I understand the Government’s COVID-19 strategy”?
      Strongly agreed, they’re trying to screw the country over.

      That was my full comment.

  45. I came across this today thanks to a DM commenter. I have foreshortened some of the text but left some to show context. The interesting info (well, I think it is interesting, anyway!) is under ‘Short Description’; ‘Value’; Description of Procurement’ and final paragraphs following on from ‘Explanation’. I will add the web link as an edit shortly.

    Section I: Contracting authority

    I.1)

    Name and addresses

    Official name: MHRA Buyer Organisation

    Town: London

    NUTS code: UK UNITED KINGDOM

    Postal code: E14 4PU

    Country: United Kingdom

    E-mail: purchasing@mhra.gov.uk

    Telephone: +44 2030806000

    Internet address(es):
    Main address: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/medicines-and-healthcare-products-regulatory-agency

    I.4)

    Type of the contracting authority

    Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local subdivisions

    I.5)

    Main activity

    Health

    Section II: Object

    II.1)

    Scope of the procurement

    II.1.1)

    Title:

    SafetyConnect — AI

    II.1.2)

    Main CPV code

    48000000 Software package and information systems

    II.1.3)

    Type of contract

    Supplies

    II.1.4)

    Short description:
    The MHRA urgently seeks an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) and ensure that no details from the ADRs’ reaction text are missed.

    II.1.6)

    Information about lots
    This contract is divided into lots: no

    II.1.7)

    Total value of the procurement (excluding VAT)
    Value excluding VAT: 1 500 000.00 GBP

    II.2)

    Description

    II.2.2)

    Additional CPV code(s)

    48000000 Software package and information systems

    II.2.3)

    Place of performance

    NUTS code: UK UNITED KINGDOM

    II.2.4)

    Description of the procurement:

    The MHRA urgently seeks an Artificial Intelligence (AI) software tool to process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs) and ensure that no details from the ADRs’ reaction text are missed.

    II.2.5)

    Award criteria

    Price

    II.2.11)

    Information about options
    Options: no

    II.2.13)

    Information about European Union funds
    The procurement is related to a project and/or programme financed by European Union funds: no

    II.2.14)

    Additional information

    Section IV: Procedure

    IV.1)

    Description

    IV.1.1)

    Type of procedure

    Award of a contract without prior publication of a call for competition in the Official Journal of the European Union in the cases listed below

    The procurement falls outside the scope of application of the directive

    Explanation:
    For reasons of extreme urgency under Regulation 32(2)(c) related to the release of a Covid-19 vaccine MHRA have accelerated the sourcing and implementation of a vaccine specific AI tool.

    Strictly necessary — it is not possible to retrofit the MHRA’s legacy systems to handle the volume of ADRs that will be generated by a Covid-19 vaccine. Therefore, if the MHRA does not implement the AI tool, it will be unable to process these ADRs effectively. This will hinder its ability to rapidly identify any potential safety issues with the Covid-19 vaccine and represents a direct threat to patient life and public health.

    Reasons of extreme urgency — the MHRA recognises that its planned procurement process for the SafetyConnect programme, including the AI tool, would not have concluded by vaccine launch. Leading to a inability to effectively monitor adverse reactions to a Covid-19 vaccine.

    Events unforeseeable — the Covid-19 crisis is novel and developments in the search of a Covid-19 vaccine have not followed any predictable pattern so far.

    Edit: https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED%3ANOTICE%3A506291-2020%3ATEXT%3AEN%3AHTML

      1. It would seem we are to be the guinea pigs for the ‘larger group testing again and again’ which is the final stage before vaccine release. It appears to have been omitted which is why they have been able to rush this out. Otherwise the research, developing and testing takes eight to fifteen years as we now know.

      2. “it is not possible to retrofit the MHRA’s legacy systems to handle the volume of ADRs that will be generated by a Covid-19 vaccine.”
        They seem pretty certain. The scale of ADRs from some thousands of vaccinations will pale into insignificance compared with the millions that they plan to vaccinate.

    2. “process the expected high volume of Covid-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reaction (ADRs)“- well, that’s reassuring! An expected high volume from vaccines that are so safe that the manufacturers have been exempt from any claims!!

    4. I just told MOH about this. She said she heard about it a couple of days ago on ‘UK Column’, a news channel on Youtube.

  46. I care neither a jot nor a tittle for the Great Wag Lawsuit – though I am delighted that two very, very wealthy women should be providing work for a large number of impoverished lawyers.

    Should the farce ever actually reach court for a full hearing, it will be fascinating to see how these two harridans comport themselves when faced- for the first time in their under-educated lives – with searching questions, where a twot or an instagram or arsebook reply won’t do.

    Can’t wait!!

  48. Yesterday, I was at my local TESCO store buying a large bag of Winalot dog food for my loyal pet and was in the checkout queue when a woman behind me asked if I had a dog.
    What did she think I had, an elephant? So, since I’m retired and have little to do, on impulse I told her that no, I didn’t have a dog, I was starting the Winalot Diet again. I added that I probably shouldn’’t because I ended up in hospital last time, but I’d lost 2 stone before I woke up in intensive care with tubes coming out of most of my orifices and intravenous lines in both arms.
    I told her that it was essentially a perfect diet and that the way that it works is to load your pockets with Winalot nuggets and simply eat one or two every time you feel hungry. The food is nutritionally complete, so it works well and I was going to try it again. (I have to mention here that practically everyone in the queue was now enthralled with my story).
    Horrified, she asked me if I ended up in intensive care because the dog food poisoned me. I told her no, I had stepped off the kerb to sniff an Irish Setter’s arse and a car hit me.
    I thought the guy behind her was going to have a heart attack he was laughing so hard. I’m now banned from TESCO.

      1. True Bill but it’s very close to a real situation when Tescos in Dingwall had an offer on their own cat food – I filled a trolley and was at the checkout when this woman behind me said “You got a cat then?”. I said “No, I run a B & B and I make pies and stuff out of it for evening meals” Her face was a picture and it took a while for her to close her mouth.

  49. I spoke to 3 people today, husband was with me , but I chatted quite happily.

    Whilst walking the dogs , met 2 dog walkers , one women I knew , she had a large springer spaniel and a labrador ,well behaved , we put our dogs on leads before she reached us and she did the same with hers , then another person caught up with us with what looked like a tailess x between a sheep dog and Bernaise dog, very pretty large puppy, breed was Australian something or other. My dogs were curious and kind , sniffs all round.

    We then piled back into the car , rain was a heavy drizzle , spaniels happy in their travel box and headed home . Deposited them at home with the radio on for company and went back out in the car again. Heading for Weymouth .

    Real miserable drizzle with signs of a clearance out at sea, the passenger liners were still anchored , although they had moved out of the bay when we had fierce winds a few days ago . Moh says they have run to their engines and do what ever big ships do , move around abit.

    We were heading for Weymouth near the harbour entrance past the theatre , parking by the sea wall.. No Channel Isle ferries come and go anymore, just fishing boats , yachts, border control etc

    The third person I spoke to was a chap fishing , he had 4 fishing rods propped up on the railings , having cast his lines out into the bay, in fact he said hello to me, and Moh reminded me to distance myself. He was a nice chap , out for the day from Wimborne , hoping to catch some Bass.

    Usual conversations about this and that , he told us he had been there for over three hours , but … more importantly he was thrilled as anything to report to us that he had seen a pod of Dolphins chasing a fishing boat before the boat entered the harbour entrance , he said they played , and flipped out of the water as if they were playing games . He has seen them in Weymouth bay before , and the mind picture would stay with him forever.

    Moh and I studied the water and only saw seagulls cormorants diving , and a flock of little birds skimming over the sea .

    Hobby fishermen have good days and bad days . He recalled a trip to Chesil beach to catch cod , he said it had been a rough day , full waves and he said the sound of waves crashing on the shingle was loud as loud can be. He and several fishermen were taking part in a competition , and he spotted a fox sniffing around the shingle , taking an interest in the goings on , and I suspect hoping to snaffle a quick snack( his words) , he and the other fishermen were shocked to see the fox trot too close to the waters edge, because a big wave rolled in and took the fox , sucked the poor creature right out to sea.

    We said cheerio to the guy , and said good luck , he was really hoping to catch squid to use as fresh bait for the big one!

    Chesil beach is steep and dangerous and people know not the dangers of a rogue wave .

    Back home for a cup of tea , and prepare the beef casserole for the oven , now cooking!

    Sorry if I have rambled on , these are strange empty days.

    1. I thought Bass came in bottles….

      I’ll get me coat.

      Nice story, Mags. “Strange empty days” sums it all up.

    2. I for one enjoyed your post. Don’t be shy to do it again. We all need the diversion.

      I remember seeing pods of Dolphins frolicking in Cardigan Bay. The memory does remain.

      Weymouth is full of childhood memories for me. Swimming in the Bay. Fishing on my Uncles boat. Picnics on the beach. Watching Ian Lavendar acting in his Y fronts in ‘No sex please, we’re British’ at the theatre on the pier. That was a laugh.

      The wonderful food my Grandmother made for us. It was the first time i had crab salad. Sublime.

      1. I am glad you read my post Phizzee.

        We all need diversions, I am always worried I might sound childish writing about my day.

        Everywhere is so quiet , yet a fish and chip was open ..and one or two people by the big clock sipping from carry out coffee containers .

        We all remember the first time we ate this that or the other, and I do love a decent crab sandwich .

        Moh is constantly moaning about the fact the driving range is closed , swinging his arms playing air golf!

        1. The clock on the esplanade was our meeting point. One time when my Mother was speaking to Grandmother on the phone i asked if i could go and visit. Mum relayed my request and Gran said yes. I hitch hiked. I was 14. Two lifts and i was there !

          Coming back was a little more difficult. I had to walk about 10 miles to get on the Dorchester road. When i finally got there a MGB GT stopped two minutes after i had stuck my thumb out. Result ! Got all the way to Southampton on that leg.

          Talking about your day isn’t childish. We are entertained by it.

          We can all sympathise with ‘wannafight’s’ frustration but isn’t he always moaning about something or other? 🙂

          3. St. Mary’s?
            SO14 according to Duck Duck Go. Looks like the area may have been totally redeveloped.

          4. One street back from the Weymouth sea front. They were substantial houses.

            Oh dear. They do say you can never go back. It looks horrific now.

        2. Keep reporting your visits TB, it brings back happy memories of Punch & Judy on the beach with the words from my parents “if you get lost go stand under the clock on the front”
          Of course time moved on and if I wanted to find them in later years the Black Dog at lunchtime was a good starting point.
          At times I wish I could go back to those earlier carefree days when I could have a pint with father, we had a government working for us and project fear had yet to be discovered by the powers that be.

          2. Bit of a dampener i know but. One day when i was watching that Punch & Judy someone approached me with the wooden collection box and i told them i didn’t have any money. They said ‘Why are you watching then?’

            The sand sculptures were brilliant.

    3. Good aafternoon Maggiebelle

      Have you read Ian McEwan’s novella On Chesil Beach and seen the film? It is a strange and sad story of a couple who are very much in love but cannot consummate their marriage?

    4. Good report, Maggie. I’ve always found Chesil beach very scary. Just cooking a roast chicken dinner.

      2. This is possibly the East Fleet behind Chesil Beach. I saw what looked like a bouncing bomb at the Weymouth end when I was on a geology expedition with the Open University c1985. It was made of concrete with reinforcing iron bands. I believe it eventually fell to pieces and a local history group removed what was left of it. The first part shows an early ’round’ prototype which I believe is now at the Swannery at Abbotsbury. The one I found is probably the second one in this film.

        https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bouncing+bomb&&view=detail&mid=0C4C96B9A3BD74E0B9C70C4C96B9A3BD74E0B9C7&&FORM=VRDGAR

        1. I lived in Teddington for a while and was within a pebble skip of the lab where BW tested a miniature bomb in the long tanks there.

        2. I also had geology around there and all over the SW. With Kingston Poly, and ’85 was my last year there. With the OU you must have been meeting fellow students for the first time maybe,I bet it was fun.

    5. Wonderful words Belle, You should keep a note of your thoughts, they are so in keeping with others everyday experience. You take the mundane and turn it into a story. 😄

    6. The only time I’ve been on Chesil Beach was doing a HAFB build at Wyke Regis Bridging Hard in ’71.
      That was the time I dropped a panel pin into the oggin and had to go in to recover it!

    9. That’s Darwinism in action, T_B. The smart (who don’t go too close to the water’s edge) survive.

  50. Marvelous,just bloody marvelous
    Letter through my door
    URGENT CASE OF COVID
    Old boy into hospital for kidney stones op,came out bit knocked sideways quiz team mates rally round with a few home cooked meals(two curries and some leek and spud soup) pop in every couple of days to check on him
    Yesterday he was pretty dicky not really coherent,no bloody chance of even speaking to a doctor let alone a visit so an ambulance was called and they decided to take him in again
    Promptly test positive for the ‘Rona
    Mandatory Lockdown for all of us helping him,interestingly enough only for 7 days not 14 I suppose they expect us old farts to either be dead or well in 7…………….

    1. Gates’ vaccine(s) will do for us all if the madman is not stopped in his tracks.

      Edit: Lockdowns are killing more people than the flu and killing both our economy and tens of thousands of businesses. This is pure evil intent from the Davos global elite monsters. They want our money and our property to take to themselves and leave us all in perpetual subservience to their cartel.

      It is shameful that our corrupt politicians are going along with this globalist agenda.

      1. I would rather they didn’t travel in our direction at all. I’m sick of this “silent invasion”

          1. A bit more optimism, our Bob! There are a great number of us who will not be subjected to some 7th century murderous sect.

          11. Absolutely pm. I was talking to my (previously sensible) sister in Athens today and she appears to have lost her marbles! (Not Elgin!) Masked up and worried! She did mention that I was a bit gung ho but I think I got away with it! She was a pharmacist, head girl at school and used to have an enquiring mind!

          12. Ditto my cousin….. although she has a degree she deffo doesn’t have an enquiring mind, just good at regurgitating received info. I might post a paragraph from her email I received today. For your eyes only, you understand…! Oh, here goes…… although I feel guilty…

            “Trust you’re both managing to avoid the dreaded Virus? It’s seeming to go on forever, isn’t it? I think the government has in mind to release restrictions over the Xmas period, and then initiate them again shortly after that, as the LIFTOFF infection rate will be high. I don’t agree with that method …… it will, eventually, cost more lives: I think that restrictions should be applied quite strongly …. even over Xmas ….. and continued afterwards until the virus shows evidence of being massively phased out and more easily coped with. When the first LOCKDOWN came in during Feb/March, people were following guidelines closely … and there was a drastic drop in the R Factor after that. Nowadays, each time restrictions are imposed, less and less people are conforming, and this will be especially so during the Xmas period. But …. lives are more important than the economy!!”

            Goodness knows how ultimately she thinks govt is going to pay our pensions and her private pension when the economy and stockmarket collapses. Everything she has said I think the complete opposite. (I have other probs with that paragraph but they are not relevant to this conversation.)

            I am somewhat timid and reserved but I go without my mask; I have to take a deep breath first and gather up my courage. I was challenged in Waitrose yesterday when asked if I had a mask and I said ‘No! I am exempt!’ In tones of ‘don’t mess with me!’ – it was a member of staff – and he deflated instantly. If I can do it, anyone can. And I do like to ‘fit in’ because I prefer anonymity. I was the only one without a mask, and I saw more Waitrose employees were wearing face mask.

          13. “Goodness knows how ultimately she thinks govt is going to pay our pensions and her private pension when the economy and stockmarket collapses.”

            Exactly the same way it does now!

            Do you really think the British government can run out of Sterling??

            Do you think they borrowed 100 billion pounds from bankrupt banks to bail out said bankrupt banks?

            You have to learn, the government can’t run out of pounds, ever!

          14. I know it is all electronic finance but one day the house of cards really will come tumbling down.

          15. What house of cards will come tumbling down?

            You think debt is an issue? Take a look at Japan who have around a 300% debt to GDP ratio yet have one of the most advanced economies in the world. Even with two lost decades and the Abenomic splurge Japan is still a healthy economy.

            On the other hand we thought Japan was an outlier, we had to take the German route of self-flagellation through repeated bouts of austerity and privatisations. Did that work? Did it heck! It just made everything worse.

            We have a limitless currency but we act like we are still on the Gold Standard or part of a currency union using a currency we don’t control. Idiotic politicians with more ideology than sense have ruined this economy.

            Now Rishi is talking about more hard austerity, freezing public sector workers pay for starters. My God they’ve just had a painful 25% wage cut from inflation and no pay rises for most of a decade. This is ideology. There’s no need for this. Inflation is 0.7%. Cut money from the economy and he’ll push us into deflation making the debt to GDP ratio go even higher. They don’t have a freaking clue.

          16. Well done pm! Little things really can make a big difference. Isn’t it strange that people who you have known for ages suddenly act completely out of character! It seems that my sister and your cousin have swallowed the “party line” and really aren’t thinking for themselves. Baa baa! And I don’t think you’re timid at all – nobody wants to be different!

          17. I really don’t think my cousin looks beyond the headlines – the msm is her gospel. As we never listen to the bbc (I will not dignify it by giving it upper case) or usual press sources in any way these days I have to search elsewhere. I do not know what I would do without this site, and the lovely people on it. I long to say baa! baaaaa! Meeeeeh! to all the people who pass me by in masks in the supermarket. KBO, Sue, it is all we can do.

          18. Less and less people? Tsk! Fewer and fewer 🙂 This is the pedants’ revolt, after all! 🙂 Keep it up, pm. You are taking care of your health by not wearing a mask, I think. Be brave.

          19. I know…. I also disapprove of Christmas being abbreviated to Xmas. There was for me quite a lot wrong with that paragraph but it was the downright acceptance of the propaganda without any vestige of thought that something didn’t seem quite right with the propaganda and exploring that thought further.

            If anyone says to me to me that I am being selfish for not wearing a mask I will tell them that they are being selfish in expecting me to wear one! One has to have the replies ready.

          20. I don’t like Christmas being written as Xmas either. I prefer to leave the Christ in Christmas, rather than an unknown quantity.

          21. Just stick to telling them you’re exempt and if they ask on what grounds, say you don’t have to discuss your medical history with anyone, but you tick one (or more) of the boxes on the government’s exemption list. I have to say, nobody so far has challenged me, although I do wear a lanyard with “I am exempt from wearing a face covering” card which I downloaded and printed out from the government site.

  52. 326642+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Macron Gives Muslim Council Two Weeks to Agree to ‘Republican Values Charter’

    They either shape up or ship out on the next Dover tide inflatables supplied.

      1. Mine are trained…..!

        That is the window ledge above the sink. So far – so far – they have been unable to get to that level. Only a matter of a few weeks, I fear!!

    3. We have 3 poppies one is in full flower and the other two perhaps in the next day or two, frost permitting. Unfortunately can’t post photos no matter how many times I try.
      We also have a Sorbus Hupehensis Kashmir. Multi coloured leaves have almost gone but there are masses of white berries. Our usual mistle thrush has been to inspect his domain therefore I presume they’re not ripe yet.

  54. Nicked from the Spectator competition – to produce a “prequel” to a well known poem. This was Sylvia Fairley’s effort – which will ring plenty of bells round here:

    I remember, I remember
    Much less, as time goes by,
    Increasingly I find that I’m
    Forgetting when and why.
    Instructions that are given me
    I struggle to retain,
    The budgie’s in the fridge — I fear
    I’ve lost the plot again.

    I remember, I remember
    Briefly, then it’s flown,
    The list of things I have to do —
    Yet, strangely, I can own
    That, though I seldom can recall
    What happened yesterday,
    Those childhood memories remain,
    They’ll never go away.

    1. Because of the state of my short term memory i find i can watch films and read the same books endlessly. Not joking.

      2. My old man (I was obviously a child bride) says exactly the same thing! I find it very annoying!

  55. Car batteries seem to be no better today than they were when I first stated driving over fifty years ago. The cold weather means that I have to put my car on trickle charge if I want it to start easily on a cold morning just as I used to park on a hill in cold weather when I was younger. The best batteries I had were a pair of lorry batteries for Mianda which I bought in 2004. They were the cheapest old-fashioned lead acid batteries on the market which one topped up with distilled water from time to time. They lasted well for ten years but the more recent and expensive un-top-uppable batteries with acidic gel I have bought recently have been pretty useless.

    Unless battery technology improves dramatically – which it does not seem to have done for over 50 years – electric cars will be a disaster for all those who cannot store them in a garage overnight. And imagine the fun vandals with wire clippers will have with cars charging up on street machines!

    1. My car, a Renault Megane Coupe is nearly 11 years old, still on the original battery and exhaust. The only parts I’ve renewed have been suspension parts but that’s down to the terrible roads we have up here. The life of a battery now is usually 7 years

    2. It’s yer car alarm wot does it. It drains the battery, and then when the voltage drops below a certain level the alarm – which has its own internal battery – goes off.

          5. ***shocked face…

            I am sorry that my behaviour in the past has upset people. It has never been my intention to cause upset to anyone.

            And i mean that as much a Priti does. 🙂

          1. I am more interested in keeping the sun off my pate than in wearing a more fashionable headgear! A cotton handkerchief with a knot at each corner is ideal and, if the day is hot one dips it in cold water and it is deliciously cool.

          2. I’ve kept my pate shaved pretty close for the last 40 years and always have a head covering at sea. Far too easy to burn when on the old briny.

          1. Never go to a Lord’s test. Major is always there, you’ll bump into him, not smack him around and it’ll ruin your day 😀

          3. I’ve never been to Trent Bridge. Had a few days at Lords, and a couple of Oval tests. Every single time I’ve been to Lords I have bumped into John poxy Major.

        1. Chapel hat-pegs? Look at the Bruce and Jackie on her!

          Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan: two hard nips! 😏

      1. The world needs to wake up to the evil that Bill Gates and the WHO are inflicting on Africa and India with their dangerous untested vaccines. Fauci is as Trump discovered a danger to humanity.

        I am reminded of a pamphlet written by Ivan Illich entitled ‘Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health’. In it Illich says that mortality rates decline with improved sanitation, the chlorination of water supplies and proper nutrition, in particular vitamins A and D.

        He writes that the greatest danger to health are the pharmaceutical companies’ products such as vaccines and drugs. He prophesied that the real determinants of good health were being expropriated by drug companies whose products were marketed as essential for good health when the opposite is the case.

        We see this with the Pfizer MRNA vaccine which is sponsored by Fauci and liable to destroy countless lives of those whose immune systems will be permanently switched off by it.

        We saw a good doctor in Bath hounded out of the country because he saw a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children so vaccinated. Independent studies in the USA have proven the link but their papers are suppressed and never published in Elsevier or Lancet because those are owned by the Pharma companies.

        These are worrying times. Bill Gates is the most evil person on the planet and should be stopped before it is too late.

      2. The world needs to wake up to the evil that Bill Gates and the WHO are inflicting on Africa and India with their dangerous untested vaccines. Fauci is as Trump discovered a danger to humanity.

        I am reminded of a pamphlet written by Ivan Illich entitled ‘Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health’. In it Illich says that mortality rates decline with improved sanitation, the chlorination of water supplies and proper nutrition, in particular vitamins A and D.

        He writes that the greatest danger to health are the pharmaceutical companies’ products such as vaccines and drugs. He prophesied that the real determinants of good health were being expropriated by drug companies whose products were marketed as essential for good health when the opposite is the case.

        We see this with the Pfizer MRNA vaccine which is sponsored by Fauci and liable to destroy countless lives of those whose immune systems will be permanently switched off by it.

        We saw a good doctor in Bath hounded out of the country because he saw a link between the MMR vaccine and the development of autism in children so vaccinated. Independent studies in the USA have proven the link but their papers are suppressed and never published in Elsevier or Lancet because those are owned by the Pharma companies.

        These are worrying times. Bill Gates is the most evil person on the planet and should be stopped before it is too late.

    2. Could you copy and paste, please, Corri, for those of us who don’t have an instagram account (and don’t want one).

    3. I especially liked the part where he said that one restaurant expected diners to wear their mask as the table and remove to take a bite, and then replace. That really caught my imagination…..!

          2. And me too, Ndovu. Please send my best wishes, we had a chat about Argeles when we lived in Céret over the summer months.

  61. That’s me for another day. Cold start – chilly day – so stayed indoors, cat-sitting. Made a much better looking loaf. Funny how each one differs. Glass in hand, I shall look forward to fish pie (Cook uses the excellent recipe from the cap who was Chef at Fishmongers’ Hall).

    I shall join you on the morrow. Play nicely in the meantime.

    A demain.

      1. I’m willing to bet that there are numerous woke “Christian forgivers” who would cheer about how “good we are” to do so.
        I would send her, and her “husband”, straight to Assad to deal with.

      2. It is a racing certainty that she will be allowed back, given luxurious accommodation and allowed to bring the husband too. They will then proceed to set up a terrorist cell and target the Albert Hall on the last night of the Proms.

  65. LAST POST – Fish pie in oven.

    “Coronavirus vaccines will start to roll out next month if one is approved by the British drug regulator, Matt Hancock confirmed today. “

    Anyone care to bet that the “independent” drug regulator will conclude: “Do not touch with bargepole”?

    What? None of you???????????

    TTFN

    1. Strange how when the great search began, they talked about the many false starts vaccine development normally takes.

      How many of these proposed treatments have failed? What none of them?

  66. In an attempt to up my cynicism level:

    A covid pandemic hotspot lockdown has been lifted at a nearby hospital. Now that the panic is over, case details show that two members of staff tested positive and have been isolating at home.

    Unlike some round here I do believe that there is a virus spreading like mad and it can have disastrous effects on ill and elderly but come on, only now saying that it was a grand total of two cases is pushing the panic button a touch too hard.

    Our boyos are in synchronized panic inducing mode today, it started with Pretendy PM releasing the latest projections guesses about what might happen if we are naughty boys and girls. Now the provincial premiers are ramping up the worries. Time to stock up on toilet rolls.

    1. Mass testing of healthy people should stop and the only ones we need to worry about are the people who are ill enough to be treated in hospital.

      1. Manitoba doesn’t do mass testing, just targeted testing of covid suspects. Now they are in a panic because 40% of tests are returning positive results.

        To me that sounds like good use of testing facilities, however that is not what is happening.

          1. But over here our masters tells that they only buy the most effective test kits after independent verification. Surely I should sleep soundly at night!

            Well I do sleep at night because I ignore their words.

    3. This virus that has disastrous effects on the ill and elderly missed out on my neighbour’s daughter-in-law’s Nana. She had Covid and recovered, but has just died of old age, a few weeks short of her 100th birthday. I told my neighbour that it would be put down as a Covid death and we both gave a hollow laugh, because we know the chances of that are extremely high. Higher than the risk of dying from the blasted bug.

      1. I think that in correct speak, we should say that the virus is only 99% effective, she never really recovered so became susceptible to other causes.

        MILs death certificate listed every illness that she had been diagnosed with in the last ten years so if that is standard practice, anyone that was diagnosed positive will have it listed as a cause of death.

        1. As high as that? I doubt it. All the people I know who’ve had it (and many are over 70, never mind over 60) have recovered.

          1. What about all of the deaths in homes? Several homes were just about wiped out over here as apparently the same happened in the UK.

            Could it just be a case of those magical co-morbidities or is there some other factor at play.

            P.S a local home is offering trial stays, I think I will pass.

          2. That was scandalous – they cleared the old dears out of hospitals and sent them to care homes to infect the others.

  67. I think I have solved the riddle of why for decades people have wondered how Hitler managed to seize power in Germany and why people didn’t people realise what he was about and why good people didn’t do something before he took complete control are the questions often pondered over.
    Well the answer is quite simple, he never left any evidence.
    There were millions of unconcerned Germans beating off the few that did say something, where is your evidence they said? we don’t go in for conspiracy theory.

    1. Anyone who thinks it couldn’t happen here only needs to look at the curtain twitching neighbours who report to the police someone who has someone in their house.

      1. That’s where the odd housebrick lobbed through their window comes in handy. Under cover of darkness a week later.

          1. Does anyone else remember the full body condom that Lesley Nielsen wore in Naked Gun? That the kind of PPE you need for such nefarious acts.

          2. Does anyone else remember the full body condom that Lesley Nielsen wore in Naked Gun? That the kind of PPE you need for such nefarious acts.

      2. I remember being double-crewed with a policewoman back in the 1970s on New Year’s Eve. We attended a report of a “noisy party” in a close. The hosts opened the door and invited us in where I told them of the complaint by a neighbour (apparently the only neighbour in the close who hadn’t been invited!). They then asked me what I was going to do.

        I told them that I would urge them to carry on enjoying themselves. A very attractive young woman then approached me and said to me, “Do you realise where you are standing, officer?” By the time I noticed the mistletoe above my head it was too late! My policewoman colleague had to suffer the same fate from a male partygoer.

        2. I hope, despite reports to the contrary, Grizz, that many coppers would take the same approach. Message received, nobody royally pi$$ed off.

          1. I used to employ a technique known, back in the mists of time, as “common sense”. It served me well.

    2. But when do wild conspiracy theories automatically become truth?

      I see that Venezuela is now involved in the great Giuliani conspiracy against Trump. Chavez died in 2013.

        1. you think that Mr Dressup is a disguise?

          Not needed, Trudeau follows the great reset / green / global economy disciples with glee.

          2. Could you please post a warning before showing a picture of boy wonder.

            While receiving instructions, PM and Deputy PM stare lovingly into Soros eyes.

          4. Yes it is one approach, one solution from all of them. At least our conservative (ish) premiers mention keeping the economy going before they impose lock downs.

            Like in the UK there has been no discussion of anything but the approved approach.

          5. Millions thrown out of work – small and medium businesses and even some large ones going under. Retail, hospitality, theatre, musicians, travel, all trashed. But the MPs award themselves more money for not even attending parliament.

        1. I will listen to plausible rumours, much of what is floating around now is no more than the ravings of troublemakers and that ends up hiding any viable reports.

      3. No-one is saying that Chavez set this up. They are saying the same mechanisms were use for him (and Maduro) – machines that could be knobbled as they counted.

    3. According to the Mitford sisters, Hitler was a charming and very well mannered guest for afternoon tea. Debo Devonshire claimed she’d questioned his politics but her mother and sisters were completely taken in.

    4. 326643+ up ticks,
      Evening B3,
      Plenty of evidence of evil wrongdoing.in rotherham alone, multiply that multiple times.

      1. Bill Gates’s expression says ‘seen it all before, been there, done that, bored out of my mind but trying’ whereas Hancock looks like a delighted labrador puppy finally in with the big dogs.

        1. that is the same expression that politicians used when they swooned over the doomgoblin last year.

        3. Hancock is about the worst fool, of many illustrious fools, whose strictures ultimately led to the downfall of governments.

          The guy is truly begging for it.

          1. I cannot bear to see his face. It is writ large with overbearing arrogance, entitlement and pomposity.

        1. Good evening, Corim.
          We have a fairly relaxed
          moderation policy but that
          word is not acceptable;
          please alter it, I have no wish
          to delete your post.
          Thank you.

          1. Agreed, although in the light of things going on at the moment, a 4 letter word is the least of our problems!

            But, yes, not a nice word.

          3. It not just words, it is the aggressive put downs by a few favorites. Not everyone believes hat there is a great conspiracy that involves every politician and government official in the world, they should be allowed to express their views. Isn’t this a right leaning group,not something extremely right of Brietbart?

            As has been mentioned, it starts with the drinking hour.

            I have tried little digs to calm down their posts, I get insulted in return (who was it stormed off the other day? I think that I had just suggested he calm down his vitriolic attacks on Jennifer.
            I have now started to delete some of the most offensive attacks, all that has achieved is that I have started to be attacked any time I post after about 10pm.

            Time to start banning a few that become uncivil at night, no matter how frivolous and fun they are during the day.

          4. I prefer to just delete the more offensive posts, rather than going down the banning route.

            “The Great Reset” is not a conspiracy theory, though, it’s in plain sight and all the world leaders have bought into it. Didn’t you see Justin’s speech? And he’s just one of the minor players. Why do you think they have this coordinated response to a virus that has killed approximately the same number of elderly and sick people as flu does in a bad year?

          5. We noticed in the latest Borisgram that he was saying “Build Back Better” which is Justin’s and Jacinda’s constant refrain.

            We could be impressed, however we’ve heard Professor Schwab say it first……so it’s very creeepy!

            Just another quote from The Great Reset.

          6. Why not discuss it with the ‘Boss,’
            Richard? the vitriolic attacks are not
            only aimed at Jennifer.

          7. We’ve got used to them but it’s not a word I’ d use. Nor is the F word for that matter – but Cor often does.

          9. I think so. It surprises me rather that an educated man like Cori should use words that belong in the gutter, as he does not lack suitable vocabulary.

          13. I think Geoff said the other day he’d removed the mods’ ability to amend posts – perhaps he should restore it and we could amend posts like that.

    2. He’d happily take the Liverpool pathway, his problem is that he can’t find Liverpool on a map.

    3. The flucking amateur is of course Hancock. It is fraudulent to claim that a Pfizer MRNA vaccine is safe after less than a year’s manufacture and insignificant testing. It is wrong to push for vaccinations to be administered to an unsuspecting population when its long term effects are not known.

      What we do know is that the MRNA vaccine has to be inserted into the bloodstream (it likely as not will require more than a needle) and that whilst generating antibodies will commensurately shut down the immune system of those taking the vaccine.

      After a year or two the effect of the vaccine will wear off and more of the same will have to be taken. This cycle will be repeated throughout the patient’s life. The manufacturers of the vaccine will rake in billions. That is the dastardly plan. Not only that but they have been indemnified of any liability for any side effects of the treatment. They therefore do not care whether the vaccinated develop serious life threatening disabilities and do not seem to care about the claims they make for the vaccine’s effectiveness which in truth cannot be determined in so short a timespan.

      Anyone taking the Pfizer vaccine needs to have their head examined. This is a money making racket of enormous proportions.

      There are several more sinister aspects to the rush to vaccinate the world. A word of caution: Bill Gates has a history of illegally vaccinating children in India and Africa viz. without parental consent. The side effects of his vaccination programmes are only now being understood. None of it is good. The man Gates is a megalomaniac and certifiably mad and deluded. He is not saving the world with his technology but destroying human life and pretty much everything else he touches.

      1. Totally agree. However those like you and I who refuse to have this vaccine will be penalised by not being able to travel. The propaganda will be ramped up so that other people will also exert pressure to have it. And of course all public “dissent” will be smothered as has been the Great Barrington declaration.

        1. On the plus side we will die in our own country. The Johnson government stand no chance at the next election and hopefully he and Hancock will be shunted aside before then. They are quite clearly very ignorant and utterly corrupt.

          A leader should open himself to advice from all quarters not put all his eggs in one basket, particularly so when the basket is the basket-case Bill Gates.

          There are many accomplished and knowledgeable scientists and clinicians who understand the dangerous folly we see before us but the medical journals are suppressing their views and many in ‘our’ NHS are too frightened to speak out under threat of the rotten and complicit management.

          1. Did you see this rather long piece by a former Parliamentary adviser to the Bundestag? Pulls all the threads together about the great reset and what’s really going on behind the scenes. And shows us what is in store for us if we don’t put up some sort of a fight.

          4. Welcome to the final game of neoliberalism. Corporate power, sheeple, transnational governments and federal superstates.

            This is what the Boomer generation has mostly voted for over the past 40 years.

          6. No you vote neoliberalism. Well this is it.

            People mostly vote on economic lines. What they think will be best for the economy. You’ve decided over the years to support decreased direct taxation, heavily increased indirect taxation, heavily increased VAT, taxes removed from land, privatisations, globalisation, free trade with as many poor countries as possible, destroying collective bargaining, heavily increased taxes on anything deemed unacceptable or polluting, deregulated capital markets, deregulated mortgage markets, monetarism. In effect you have voted to socialise losses and privatise gains which has never been more clear than in 2008, what should have been a watershed moment for nearly all, but then you voted for more of the same as if it was going to be some sort of remedy.

            I warned everyone that Osborne was going to drive us to deflation. I was laughed at, told I was wrong, told i was clueless, that QE was going to cause inflation. Then i watched the inflation rate drop to 0.0%. The number of unemployed came down but mostly because so many people only had part-time hours not because so many people had found proper full-time jobs in a booming economy. We only exceeded 2% growth in 2014 and 2015. In 2014 austerity was put on hold because of an election coming up. By 2016 we were back in austerity enjoying 1.2% growth rates.

          10. Yes I did read that piece. The German authorities were deploying water cannon against anti-lockdown protesters. Given the collective guilt of the post war generations over the complicity of their forebears in mass murder I believe the protesters will never put up with a return to national socialism.

            Merkel is a marxist and should move on into comfortable retirement in one of those villas formerly owned by the expelled Jews in Potsdam.

      2. “After a year or two the effect of the vaccine will wear off and more of the same will have to be taken.”

        That shouldn’t happen. The vaccine will cause our cells to produce the covid-19 spike protein which the immune system will recognise as an invader and will conjure up antibodies to deal with the invader. Our B cells will remember this protein as an invader and should generate antibodies to lock onto the protein so that T cells can kill it off.

        As long as the spike protein doesn’t mutate the vaccine if it works should continue working.

        I’m not having it. Like you I see the risk of an untested vaccine just not worth it.

      1. I tried to post an image but simply get a message to say I must be logged on to do so. I am logged on. Disqus has issues. Having tried to reply and failed to post the image you are obliged to enter a minimum of two characters to escape. I chose irritated dots.

        The image I wished to post was of Begum, whatever the evil bitch was called, sitting on a bench clothed with robes which were drenched in the blood of her victims and asking for a quiet life. Someone else might have captured it.

        2. Cori. When i try to post a pic from my files it takes me 3 or 4 goes. It does load eventually. That’s on firefox but the fault is with Disqus.

          3. He is – he and his brother Lolparpit are legends. Sadly Lolparpit died this week of old age – 15 is very old for a wild lion. Olbarnoti is still alive, but possibly not for much longer, now without his brother. Until recently they were still in charge of a pride. They’ve had lots of offspring to carry on their genes.

        3. It’s very annoying when that happens!

          If by any chance she is allowed to return and then kills or orchestrates the killing of someone, I hope that the lawyers, judges and charity people involved lose as many close members of their own families as she or her accolytes kill.

          1. Why give her the opportunity? Actions have consequences – rush off to the Stan or wherever and participate in barbarism, you can eff right off, and preferably never be seen again. One develops sympathy for the Mossad assassinating enemies of Israel.

    1. Don’t worry, this selective virus is programmed to kill off anyone nearing old age.

      Forget Gates, this virus follows the IBM approach to aging employees – at55 you get cut before becoming a pension liability.

      1. A company, cannot remember which, has purchased the plant and patterns required to press the steel bodywork of the E Type.

        A friend of mine ordered one in racing mode. I will ask him for details and post later.

        Classic cars are big business in America and this caught on in this country a decade ago. Classic cars are believed to be a solid investment vehicle (sic) and were bought and cherished in anticipation that they had investment value. Inevitably, some appreciate in value and others are worth less than paid for.

      2. It is a lovely E type , but where do people find the space and security to store them properly , the thought of mice chewing bits and pieces is horrible.

        1. Looking at the clean suspension, the only thing that they can do with it is store it.

          Does it come with snow tyres, I could use one for my trips into town.

          1. I had a few trips in a ‘purple’ one if that is the correct colour shade , maybe violet, during the early seventies , a friend borrowed one and we whizzed around Cornish lanes .. so never saw any real potential, no decent roads then for a fast car , except hearing the sound of the engine , the dog enjoyed it so did my young toddler son!

          2. Never had one probably never will. I these parts, anything low sprung and sporty only comes out in summer.

            It could be interesting when the snow starts this year, many Townies have fled the big city and are now out here in summer cottage country and still driving their BMW, Alfas and Miatas. Our roads don’t get the tender loving care that cities have.

          3. Don’t they drive Chelsea tractors? Too big for the narrow lanes, so if you come across one you have to reverse, because they never do.

          4. So true. The Chelsea tractor drivers around these parts, mostly bandy legged men and diminutive school run women with small heads just assume dominant road position in the centre of the road and then oblige you to take a detour or make a diversion through a flooded field to give them priority access.

            When we meet them my wife remarks “how does that dwarf see over the wheel or see the road”. I remark “they do not want to go off-road because their tyres might get dirty” and if they drive in the centre of the road in their battle wagons they survive and you die in a collision.

          5. Chelsea tractors are standard round here. Range Rovers for the posh, Ford trucks for the rest.

            They would make sense in town as well but it seems that the best way to show your virility is a nice small sports model.

          7. So true. The Chelsea tractor drivers around these parts, mostly bandy legged men and diminutive school run women with small heads just assume dominant road position in the centre of the road and then oblige you to take a detour or make a diversion through a flooded field to give them priority access.

            When we meet them my wife remarks “how does that dwarf see over the wheel or see the road”. I remark “they do not want to go off-road because their tyres might get dirty” and if they drive in the centre of the road in their battle wagons they survive and you die in a collision.

      3. A company, cannot remember which, has purchased the plant and patterns required to press the steel bodywork of the E Type.

        A friend of mine ordered one in racing mode. I will ask him for details and post later.

        Classic cars are big business in America and this caught on in this country a decade ago. Classic cars are believed to be a solid investment vehicle (sic) and were bought and cherished in anticipation that they had investment value. Inevitably, some appreciate in value and others are worth less than paid for.

  76. Good evening, everyone. The claw-back from the Covid profligacy has started: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/11/20/households-face-extra-21-coronavirus-charge-on-energy-bills/

    On a lighter note, for corim – how will Sinbad like this?

    https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/first-ever-christmas-song-dogs-19304274?utm_campaign=1614606_20%2F11%2F20&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside+Alliance&dm_i=44G9%2CYLU6%2C1MJH5T%2C4BBOJ%2C1

    I have to say, mine was distinctly unimpressed.

    1. Sinbad is asleep but much improved with the change in his anti seizure medication. Eating well too.

      The only thing which animates him as ever is my American neighbours’ enormous Collie, Jackson, who has a deep throated bark and barks with authority. Although a twentieth of his size Sinner can match him for ear piercing intensity.

          1. Our old 86 year old pal thinks that bods like that are not of this earth , but have arrived from other worlds,

            He says , they walk amongst us.. he watches alot of sci fi stuff.

            We just nod our heads knowingly !

      1. Apparently early 18th century “girly” necessities. Used, approximately, 13 times per annum.

        3. I was sent by my sisters to the shop across the street to ask for a box of ‘ST’s’. The miserable old hag would vanish and come back with the box but wrapped in brown paper.

          Later I saw one and thought they were hammocks for white mice.

          1. Little girl goes into the pharmacy and asks for a box of Tampax. The lady behind the counter, rather surprised asks “Are these for your mummy, your sister or grandma? You seem very young to want these”. “No” replies the girl, “they are for me”. “Goodness me, are you sure, you are very young for these, do you really want them, does your mummy know?” “Mummy doesn’t know, and yes they are for me because the television says if I use these I can run, jump, ski, swim….”

        4. I was sent by my sisters to the shop across the street to ask for a box of ‘ST’s’. The miserable old hag would vanish and come back with the box but wrapped in brown paper.

          Later I saw one and thought they were hammocks for white mice.

    3. Having a large hooter myself I’ve noticed they can limit visibility I’ve found, especially going down steps.
      I know how they must feel in Israel.

      1. They limit visibility for those of us who wear specs – it’s tricky going downstairs when you can’t see!

  79. The day should not pass without a few words of congratulations to the Queen and Prince Philip on the occasion of their 73rd wedding anniversary.

    I was unable to find the amusing speech on YouTube that the Queen gave on the anniversary of her silver wedding. It started: “I think everybody will concede that on this of all days I should begin my speech with the words ‘My husband and I’…” When the thunderous applause had died down in the Guildhall she continued: “We – and by that I mean both of us …”

    2. Funny that – I had a surf and couldn’t find it.

      Once upon a time, yer beeboids would have the whole speech available on YouTube. Not any more. They are just waiting for the first bame Queen.

  80. spiked

    The devastating effects of lockdown continue to be felt, among them the severe impact on mental health. Restrictions on social contact, disruption to education,
    the closure of workplaces and an overriding narrative of fear mean many
    people are stuck at home feeling lonely and scared. Emma Kenny is a
    psychologist, TV presenter, writer and commentator on mental-health
    issues.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/11/20/this-is-an-abusive-government/

    1. I heard it was just $20,000 a day but whatever, he is making big money by stringing out the wild goose chase appeals.

      1. I agree, but to date, no actual evidence has been presented and yesterday had been billed as Trump’s team presenting the evidence to the world. they didn’t.

    1. My deep feelings on this are that the health and well being of BAME has become a toxic subject .

      Ruin the economy to protect ourselves from being called racist .

      Natural selection will always be the same , either we are winners or losers , depending on our health level .

    2. A friend has just sent me this email – her FinL went into hospital last week with a UTI.

      He was tested when first admitted over a week ago and was clear.

      A’s
      sister and hubby went to pick him up yesterday and were on their way
      home when the hospital rang to say he’d been tested again and was
      positive. They just forgot to mention it! Looks like he contracted it
      from one of the nurses.

      They failed in their
      duty of care to pass on that bit of information and now they
      are having to self isolate just in case.

      No-one
      at home. He can’t cope on his own. A week in hospital has left him
      weak. He can’t be relied upon to remember to take his medication. He was
      discharged because the Dr felt he was sufficiently recovered from the
      reason he was admitted in the first place which was a UTI and minor
      chest infection.

      A has spent a lot of time of the phone to different authorities today and has managed to arrange for home help this weekend.

      We
      just have to hope he doesn’t present symptoms and deteriorate because
      at 89 and diabetic, his chances of survival are not great.

          2. We were exposed to some lethal chemicals like carbolic , phenol etc and our hands were virtually raw because we washed them so frequently , and every one was tested for strep and staph , to see if they were carriers , no jewelry , makeup or nylon underwear!!!!

          4. Some swear by nylon facemasks, but I have found clingfilm to be more effective in stopping the spread of disease without having to resort to my local Special Measures PFI installation.

      2. Sorry to hear that, J.

        The family must be at their wits end .

        When you see nurses in their uniforms shopping , or lolloping their youngsters off to school dressed for work, one begins to wonder !

      4. Really sorry to hear this, the family must be at their wits’ end. My friend’s daughter, a radiographer, had some of the symptoms of covid at the very start of all this back in March. She phoned in to her dept and she was told she must come in regardless, they were short-staffed. This was before they were issued with ppe. Weeks later, June or July, she tested positive for covid antibodies. She wonders now how many people she passed this virus on to. The nhs has lost touch with its primary objective.

        1. I still think it was here months before then – I’m sure I had it in January, and a lot of people were ill last winter. Even if it wasn’t, it probably gave us some immunity.

          1. Some have reported an ongoing reaction to dead virus producing Covid-like symptoms for a very long time.

            I think I went down with it first when I caught it during a choir rehearsal on 12th November 2019, recovered quickly and then had a second bout of it in December. The sore throat, cough and fatigue lasted months.

            Even now, a year on, I wake each morning with a cough, bringing up small quantities of sticky, white mucus from the lungs. This suggest there is something still there, which the body’s natural immune system is clearing out each night, and could be residual dead virus. It may also be keeping me immune to the thing.

            The fatigue is ongoing. All I can do is to pace myself and to protect myself from depression by deviating bad thoughts, especially in the small hours, but then I’ve been having to do that long before I caught the virus. I think most of us insomniacs on this board are in this condition.

            The NHS response is to allow the cartel to profiteer from my medication, and when it overwhelms the budget of my GP, to stop my medication and scapegoat the local clinical commissioners, who are only obeying orders (they are bound by the NHS Drugs Tariff, set by Whitehall). Luckily, the Germans are not so brazenly corrupt as the British, but it is a real devil getting out to Germany to pick up my medication before a No Deal Brexit removes this option.

          3. No. I tried that.

            They passed a new law recently forbidding export from Germany, I believe. Apotheke-online refused to ship to England after I asked them. They would not even post to a friend living in Germany, since the billing address was in England, and their website insisted on Direct Debit, rather than Mastercard (which works fine in Germany).

          4. They’v Gotcha then, haven’t they? Unless you get your friend to order & pay, and you reimburse them.

          5. We think we had it end of December, I suppose I mean by ‘when it all began’ was when the media started their onslaught end February/March. There are reports drifting in now of people coming down with it in September and October 2019 and pissibly earlier than that. But that doesn’t fit the govt narrative – nobody noticed the deaths then.

      1. Remember a few years ago it was MRSA or septicaemia, or even surgical errors , misdiagnosis, . https://www.medicinenet.com/mrsa_infection/article.htm MRSA is antibiotic resistant.

        A good few years ago I was admitted to hospital for something or other , and I was put into a 6 bedder ward, a woman in the far bed was very ill , she had developed MRSA, very badly .. She was moved to a single room , but the remaining 5 patients , me included were quarantined for a week. the deep clean people took over the ward changed curtains , scrubbed beds , floors , lights and equipment , and we were all swabbed to see if we had contracted it , it was a very long week, but what would have happened if I had developed it , or anything else like D+V.

        What made me furious , the poor woman had symptons long before she was moved , and why were patients still being admitted to the wards , and the staff were not using PPE either,

        2. And necrotising faschiitis. We don’t seem to hear of that one now.

          I came out of hospital with an infection in the wound – that was more than 20 years ago.

        3. People in hospital tend to show symptoms, it’s why they are in hospital in the first place.

          What symptoms did this person show that should have told staff immediately hang on this is MRSA?

          Was it the itchy skin, the odd zit or the high temperature? Come on what gives it away? A person with a high temperature is common in hospitals and itchy skin is also common. It could be anything from a sweat rash to contact dermatitis to MRSA or even skin cancer. And well zits, i’m 50 and still get the odd one.

          Diagnosis takes ages too. Samples have to be cultured and tested against methicillin and observed and identified as Staph.Aureus.

          Not quite sure what you were expecting?

          1. The ward was quarantined for a week.. delayed pateints going home . 7 extra days of hospital grub, no sleep , and the fear of catching something worse !

          2. yes whilst all that is true i’m not sure what you expect.

            The symptoms of MRSA are not particularly outstanding in a hospital environment and the test for it doesn’t come back in an hour or two. In most cases it’s just a skin infection with a slight fever. It’s also fairly easily dealt with if it’s just a skin infection and not a full body colonisation via the bloodstream. Clindamycin or Trimethoprim will get rid of it.

            These things happen, they are annoying for sure, but I don’t see how it could have been avoided.

  85. BBC News Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, head of the civil servants’ union FDA Dave Penman “What is the point of the investigation if… Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, top civil servant at the Home Office Sir Philip Rutnam. Sir Philip – suing the government for constructive dismissal – Ms Patel had “created fear”.Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Priti Patel, Labour called for his report to be published in full, Priti Patel,Priti, head of the Committee on Standards, Lord Evans, “serious questions” about the process for investigating breaches of the ministerial code – must be “urgently” looked into, Priti Patel,Priti, Patel, Priti Patel. Next news at 9pm – Priti Patel.

    2. Is there an equivalent Civil Service code, i.e. one that allows for sacking of people who fail to carry out their bosses’ instructions?

        1. Nah, just a 2 week luxury course to get that silly ‘do something’ notion out of your head.

      2. “fail to carry out their bosses’ instructions” That’s protecting the minister from an egregious mistake.

    4. I think she’s great. Probably an unpleasant hard nosed b1tch but intelligent and upsetting exactly the right people.
      And probably also loyal and coherent with democratic principles – something the civil service hates.

  88. That’s me for the day. A gut full of telephone pizza and cheap vino, time for a zed.
    Have a good evening, folks!

          2. Yes a heavy drizzle , saturating, but much milder than yesterday which was fine .

            Mizzly weather this evening … the damp air seems to get into my back and hips .. not felt that so intensely before.

            What did you manage to do today , anything energetic?

          4. I can’t cope with TENS machines, Phizzee. I’d rather put up with the pain than the sensation they produce 🙁

          5. Sorry to hear that Conway. The one i use can be programmed for intensity and also different effects like gentle massage or being beaten into submission ! Sorry.

          7. After an MRI to discover where my problem was it became clear that one of the discs in my upper spine/neck has collapsed. The opinion of my Nuffield Doctor was that it wasn’t serious enough for an operation to correct or support it.

            His opinion which by this time had cost my insurance £9,800 was a course of Tramadol. Without any end date. I knew that if i took his advice i could very easily have to rely on strong painkillers and become addicted to them. Just like so many people had become addicted to Valium.

            I googled alternatives and one of them was Yoga which worked for a while and then i discovered Tens. My Tens can be programmed and works well for me.

            Just to be sure i bore you totally i will tell you what my symptoms are.

            Tingling in my fingers.

            Then an ache spreading up my arms into my shoulders.

            Serious tightness in my chest.

            Then coughing and feeling nauseous.

            Disorientation which makes me unstable on my feet.

            My Tens is the only thing that works for me.

            My health and condition is not that serious compared to some on here and i ask for no sympathy. I have found something that works for me.

          8. If it works for you, that’s all that matters. I tried it for my arthritis (I have it in the joints of my hands – pain and difficulty grasping things securely). It just made me feel sick and didn’t seem to touch the pain. Everybody’s different, thankfully.

          10. Unsure if you can get them locally but mine is called ‘Premier Tens Plus’. They are safe and also programmable. Though you might need someone to position the pads for you. The instructions tell you where to place the pads for all sorts of pain areas. Worth googling.

          11. No – not at all – just sat around here till I had to go shopping. Yesterday I went over to Cirencester to the printers – quite a nice drive in the sunshine. There were a few people in town, although most of the shops and cafes must have been shut. Life’s pretty dull at present and I’m not getting enough exercise.

          12. Just read your description of the trip to Weymouth this afternoon! Sounds a bit more exciting than my day today.

          13. Weymouth was miserable and wet, J. So we headed for the sea wall near the harbour and there was just one man fishing .. and I think he was very relieved to chat to us , anyone ! He had been there hours .

            He told us he had a plumbing business, and had had a very hectic week , and needed time out to fish, away from the phone and family !

            So there were just 3 of us socially distanced scanning the bay for dolphins , in strong salty drizzle , having a natter.

            Everyone of our near neighburs keep to themselves during these strange times, people wave as they go by in their cars . Believe me people are taking this very seriously , it is the age group.

            Hey ho , that’s about it!

        2. Maggie’s started a daily log. Look at a couple of hours ago. Much more entertaining than any TV show. Interviewing fishermen, all sorts.

      2. Cold & cold. Minus a couple degrees C, and windy, but not properly cold yet. Nearly a sunny night…

          1. Very similar here; 10 degrees C, but very wet early on. Managed to get a bit more tidying up done in the garden. Slow and steady wins the race, I keep telling myself. Read a piece in a free mag about “mindful dog walking”. Number one was “take your time” – ha, ha! I’ve always got my eye on my watch. Having said that, we did have a decent walk (today is a steroid day for pooch), although there was no sunshine.

          2. ‘Evening, Connors, because I cannot walk any great distance and Best Beloved is laid low after food poisoning, we are so grateful to a Swedish next-door-neighbour who loves to walk Dotty and Dotty loves to go with her. I cannot begin to imagine how we would manage without dear Pernilla. God bless her into eternity.

    2. We watched a lovely programme earlier where Gordon Buchanan was in Russia, with some Lynx being rehabilitated for release in the wild.

        1. Two were released into a protected forest in Siberia. The rest would be released in the spring. The Russian guy was very gentle.

      1. Artichoke, anchovy, boiled egg slices, jalopeno, diced tomatoes and cheese sprinkled over and Burnt on the edge.

          1. Tosh ! I don’t put them on. 🙂

            It is a traditional Sicilian pizza but i can’t give you the recipe or i would have to kill you.

            I’ll get me concrete wellies….

    1. Well he didn’t have any legal challenges rejected today, that beats most days.

      His apparent attempt to arm twist Republican state senators into ignoring the vote results and having a pro Trump selection might be gaining traction, that’s a plus for his chances, all in all a good day.

    2. Dear life, what a nutcase.

      No dear, history teaches us that all the danger, threat and conflict comes from the Left. You don’t seem to understand this but for your advice, The Nazi’s were Left wing. So was Lenin, Stalin, Pot, Mao, Mussolini (although being Italian he was so inept he was the safest of the lot).

      The screaming ranting is also indicative of significant mental illness. You’re just a bit potty. It really is time you grew up.

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