Wednesday 25 November: Only an escape route from strictest tiers can win public compliance

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/11/25/lettersonly-escape-route-strictest-tiers-can-win-public-compliance/

700 thoughts on “Wednesday 25 November: Only an escape route from strictest tiers can win public compliance”

  1. Good Morning Folks,

    Looks calm and dry outside, the birds are tweeting and the distant hum of traffic suggests the lockdown is over

  2. Suzanne Moore: ‘I was betrayed and bullied for saying that women should not be silenced’. 25 November 2020.

    As she reflects today on some of the more absurd aspects of the row about transgender rights that has ended her time at the paper, Moore, 62, allows herself a laugh, but beneath the calm exterior she is very, very bruised.

    “I feel betrayed,” she says. “We are living in a world in which it is increasingly difficult to say certain things.

    “Almost every week now a different woman is put on the pyre: J K Rowling, Rosie Duffield, Selina Todd. It’s always a woman who is some sort of heretic and must be punished. If all this is about how trans people can have the best lives they can possibly have, how does this help them?”

    Laughing myself sick! This woman and her bird brain beliefs helped put them there! Lefties go around guilting everyone and then when they find themselves on the receiving end suddenly gain enlightemment! It couldn’t have happened to anyone more deserving!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/suzanne-moore-betrayed-bullied-saying-women-should-not-silenced/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. the pic in the link looks like she was dipped in glue and dragged through a hedge, backwards.

      Noting the tone of the above [and also in the letters] are these people are so inseucre and desperate to “virtue signal” because they can no longer write to Esther Rantzen on That’s Life?

  3. Suzanne Moore: ‘I was betrayed and bullied for saying that women should not be silenced’. 25 November 2020.

    As she reflects today on some of the more absurd aspects of the row about transgender rights that has ended her time at the paper, Moore, 62, allows herself a laugh, but beneath the calm exterior she is very, very bruised.

    “I feel betrayed,” she says. “We are living in a world in which it is increasingly difficult to say certain things.

    “Almost every week now a different woman is put on the pyre: J K Rowling, Rosie Duffield, Selina Todd. It’s always a woman who is some sort of heretic and must be punished. If all this is about how trans people can have the best lives they can possibly have, how does this help them?”

    Laughing myself sick! This woman and her bird brain beliefs helped put them there! Lefties go around guilting everyone and then when they find themselves on the receiving end suddenly gain enlightemment! It couldn’t have happened to anyone more deserving!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/suzanne-moore-betrayed-bullied-saying-women-should-not-silenced/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

  4. Good morning, all. Dark; cloudy, a dour looking start.

    I see the 17th wave is on its way…

  5. ‘Morning, Peeps. Today’s DT Leader. Why did no one bring forward engineering work on the railways? Probably because our ‘leaders’ are unable to plan more than a few days ahead, that’s why. Just imagine what the roads will be like over our 5 days of (relative) freedom:

    We are used to the railways not running over Christmas. Engineering works are as traditional during the festive season as plum pudding and mistletoe. But this year, with rail travel all but decimated, it might have been thought those repairs and upgrades could have been carried out while the country was in lockdown. Instead, with people to be allowed to travel for a few days over Christmas, many trains will not be running. Services are non-existent on Christmas Day and sporadic on Boxing Day. There was a time when public transport continued to run on these two days but no longer, not even buses.

    Network Rail’s website tells the gloomy story. “A considerable amount of engineering work will be taking place during the holiday period. Network Rail carry out essential improvement and engineering work across the rail network during this time as fewer people will be travelling. Many train companies will also be making changes to their timetable, and to some train times, to match services to the number of customers travelling.”

    In fact more people, not fewer, will be travelling because hitherto they have not been allowed to. Passenger numbers in the first lockdown were the lowest on the railways since the mid-19th century and have picked up only marginally since the schools went back. Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said people should plan carefully for travel over Christmas and warned of “very long-planned engineering works” on busy routes.

    Since the Government owns Network Rail, why were these works not brought forward to avoid the disruption that will occur at the very moment people are allowed to exercise a modicum of the yuletide freedom granted them by the state?

    1. morning HJ, I presume “planned works” were discounted on grounds of social distancing. that said, would be no surprise fuel prices increase

      1. ‘Morning, AWK. Hard to say, but with much of their work taking place out of doors in the fresh air I doubt that there would be much risk. After all, the urgent rail repairs, often carried out at night, are still undertaken. Perhaps BoB will enlighten us…

      2. Fuel prices here have been dropping, but I noticed today when I filled up the petrol car that the diesel (with which I filled up the campervan on Sunday) has gone up 1p. The petrol was still the same price (108.9ppl).

    2. They say fewer people are using the railways, but it’s often those people going to see family. The last time I went home on the train it took 13 and a half hours. It’s 4 in a car.

      1. For me to get to Chester on the train it takes about an hour/an hour and a half, depending on connections. I can do it in 40 min max in the car. The railway station is out of the town, but I can use the park and ride and be in the centre very easily. It;s a no-brainer.

  6. Tiers before bedtime etc:

    SIR – The Government must clearly define and make public the triggers for movement between the tiers in its new post-lockdown system.

    These need to be directly measurable and easy for the public to understand, and they should be published on a daily or weekly basis. That way local buy-in will be achieved and the restrictions stand a chance of being adhered to.

    Roger Cliffe
    Hayfield, Derbyshire

    SIR – I note that the Government is minded to impose revised tiers of restrictions for England according to geographical regions.

    I live in a village in a rural district and am concerned that our region (East Midlands) may be allocated a high tier in recognition of the relatively high rates of infection in cities such as Leicester, Nottingham and Derby.

    Surely it makes no sense for rural areas to be assigned an economically destructive set of restrictions that might only be appropriate to cities.

    Bill Davidson
    Balderton, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – One objective of running a business is to offer an attractive proposition to customers at a profit. Drinking-up time in a pub has always been a delicate negotiation. The customer often wants one more drink and will promise to finish it quickly. Landlords want to send staff home if they can’t sell more products.

    The Government proposes stopping serving at 10pm, preventing turnover but allowing customers to hang about for an hour, with staff doing very little but still getting paid – increasing overheads. Wow.

    Roger Smith
    Oxford

    SIR – The Government’s plan to allow persons arriving in the UK to end quarantine after five days if they have a negative test is a triumph of hope over experience.

    As Sir Graham Brady pointed out, evidence suggests that those who do not receive a test or who are asymptomatic tend not to comply with quarantine and self-isolation.

    Given the cost of the test, I should not be surprised if most travellers ignored the offer to test and release and just released themselves anyway, as they have been doing. Without rigorous enforcement, the plan will fail to control the spread of the disease.

    Richard Duncan
    Guildford, Surrey

    SIR – Boris Johnson’s appearance at his Zoom briefing on Monday for once matched the status of the office he holds. He delivered his Covid update with the gravitas expected of a prime minister, and with his hair neatly brushed – extraordinary how this added to the picture of a serious man delivering a serious message.

    Norman Macfarlane
    Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

    1. More on the tiers debate…when are Conservative MPs going to have a proper rebellion instead of just talking about it? From the Tellygraff:

      Warning of ‘major revolt’ over Boris Johnson’s Covid tier system once national lockdown ends
      MPs call the Prime Minister’s post-lockdown plan into question as anger mounts on the Tory backbenches

      By
      Camilla Tominey,
      ASSOCIATE EDITOR ;
      Danielle Sheridan,
      POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT and
      Tony Diver
      24 November 2020 • 1:47pm

      Boris Johnson’s new “toughened” tier system risks reigniting the north-south divide, Tory MPs have warned, amid a mounting rebellion over the latest lockdown measures.

      Conservative WhatsApp groups have been lighting up with “fury” and “anger” over the post-lockdown plan, according to one senior Tory who said: “The idea seems to be to move everybody up, Tier 2 becomes a shady Tier 3, Tier 3 is lockdown. Tier 1 is all but abolished.

      “There’s fury and anger at Boris Johnson on the backbenches about this. He doesn’t seem to care about the economic impact all of this is having. There’s going to be a major revolt.”

      London MPs are pushing for the capital to be placed into Tier 1 because of the city’s economic significance but this risks angering Conservatives in “Red Wall” seats facing an “inevitable” return to Tier 2 and 3.

      Whitehall sources have indicated that only very few, mostly rural areas will be put in Tier 1 – the only level where indoor socialising with other households is allowed.

      Details of which areas will be placed into which tiers when the national lockdown ends at 00:01 on December 2 will be announced on Thursday.

      Five categories will be used to determine which level a region falls into: the case numbers across all age groups, cases in those aged over 60, the infection rate, the percentage of those tested who have the virus and pressures on the NHS locally.

      Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith is calling for London to be placed in Tier 1 along with fellow London MPs including Bob Blackman.

      Sir Iain, the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, said: “London is critical to the UK’s economy. Just the West End represents four per cent of GDP and it is completely dead.

      “The cavalier way we are treating the capital city is astonishing.”

      Mr Blackman, the MP for Harrow East, added: “I know public health will be battling to get us into Tier 2. They’d like to get us into Tier 3 if they could.

      “Tier 3 is way above what other areas of the country are in in terms of level of infection.

      “We are arguing that the difference between the worst affected area and least in London is a three fold difference.”

      London MPs have also been arguing for borough-wide rather than blanket tiers, although this is unlikely to happen due to the high rate of traffic between London boroughs and surrounding areas.

      London Mayor Sadiq Khan said “London going into Tier 2 next week would seem the right and sensible decision”, adding closing “London’s unique ecosystem of bars, restaurants, clubs and cultural venues” throughout Christmas would be “a hammer blow”.

      It came after Shaun Bailey, the Tory mayoral candidate, told a Zoom call of London businesses that it would be a “disaster” if London was placed into Tier 3, warning: “Many businesses will just collapse.”

      Separately, he also criticised Mr Khan for “spending the last four months calling for national lockdowns and telling people not to come into London”. A spokesman for Mr Khan accused the Government for “keeping local leaders in the dark” about the latest restrictions.

      Tories in northern constituencies are also railing against being kept in the toughest tier. Philip Davies, the MP for Shipley near Bradford, said: “Basically it’s pretty clear that every place in Tier 1 will be in the south of England only.

      “There’s going to be this major north-south divide which will fly in the face of the Government’s levelling up agenda. Did they not foresee this was going to be a problem? I won’t be voting for all this rubbish.”

      MPs will be invited to vote on the new tier system next week, with swathes of the 70-strong Covid Research Group of lockdown sceptic Tories expected to rebel.

      According to Chris Green, the MP for Bolton West, who voted against the second lockdown, “there were plenty of MPs who voted for it last time but said “never again”.”

      He said the rules discriminate against “gastropubs” which serve food and “traditional” pubs and would pit areas like Liverpool and Rotherham, where mass testing has taken place, against neighbouring areas in Greater Manchester, which is expected to go into Tier 3.

      “It’s almost written into it that there’s going to be a massive north side divide. But there’s also going to be a divide between areas which have participated in mass screening which are going to get a pat on the head, and others which are going to remain in Tier 3 having already been in a form of lockdown for months.

      “The mood among Conservatives is pretty sour. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a significant rebellion.

      Whitehall sources have suggested that the geographical borders of the new tiers will be different to the tier regions used before the latest national measures.

      One insider said there would be no “set level” for any of the criteria given the different demographics of areas, but the decision would be made holistically.

      Unlike during the previous regional lockdown, when Downing Street was locked in negotiation with local authorities over the measures, these tiers will be administered from Whitehall.

      There will not be any negotiation with councils or metropolitan mayors about the tiers areas fall into.

      The legislation mandates that the restriction will end on December 2, which is 27 days after the second lockdown was introduced.

      The Government’s local restrictions support grant (LRSG), which is administered by local councils, allows businesses that have been forced to close by national measures to claim £3,000 for every 28 days they are shuttered.

      Businesses will still be eligible for the 28 days’ payment despite the lockdown lasting 27 days, Downing Street confirmed.

    2. HJ thanks, I caught the first two virtual signalling letters before PPVW kicked.

      So, Roger Smith’s gripe. Fristly, a 2nd objective [and am sure it’s been done] open an hour earlier, but looks like he rarely visits pubs. Secondly, the pub and glasses clean themselves? Or more likely, he’s not old enough to drink in a pub, past his bedtime.

      Richard Duncan’s waffle. He overlooks one key element. Example: If I flew in from Kenya, where there is no virus, and given the tests are proven faulty in UK and where there’s no virus, to be subjected to rigorous enforcement to box tick control of a non existent virus?

      Norman Macfarlane. Either he’s on C-19 steroids or 77 Bde’s looking for overtime. WTF is Zoom?

      1. Morning AW, Zoom is a multi person online video meeting platform, Microsoft Teams is another. Think Skype or FaceTime with more participants.

        1. thanks, I’d heard of the name. Another software app for more Talking Heads to group talk sh!te about nothing relevant. That goes straight into File 13 then

          1. I came across both Zoom and Teams when my granddaughter was having online lessons with her school class, probably one of the few useful uses of such software.

          2. understood, prevailing issue here in Kenya is stable, secure platforms / systems. For such comms, here I use Skype WITH Flexispy https://www.flexispy.com/ vpn that bypasses the tracking going on here from US Corporations which is very heavy. Especially if there’s an election looming, then it gets obscene. So basic rule of the road, I avoid them and no smart phone

          3. ‘Morning, AWK, also be aware that Zoom is of Chinese Origin with all the nasties associated with products from that country – including WuFlu.

          4. As soon as I heard Microsoft app, File 13. Most chinese tech products now have long lassed the giggly stage.

            I use Huawei here, it’s stable and secure, unlike Safaricom which is data mining as much traffic as they can.

            You may not be aware but it was US Big Pharma funding who paid for research in Wuhan 18 months ago and US Mil released agent during World Mil Games in Wuhan. That’s public knowledge

    3. It’s an illusion, Mr Macfarlane. According to the government, my county is in the West Midlands (a region with which it has next to nothing in common). If we are put in the same Tier as Birmingham, it will be a complete farce.

  7. ‘Morning again.

    The recent adoption of wokeism by the British Library is not going down well:

    The British Library’s genealogical witch-hunt

    SIR – If we go back the 12 generations that, conservatively, separate Ted Hughes from his ancestor Nicholas Ferrar, the poet has, in Ferrar’s generation, some 2,048 great-grandparents. One of these is Ferrar.

    This is a level of witch-hunting by genealogy that makes reading the entrails of chickens in ancient Rome look like a beacon of enlightenment.

    The fact that this lunacy comes from those who control one of the world’s great institutions of free thinking and scholarship should do more than concern us.

    Michael Russell
    Wicklow, Ireland

    SIR – As someone who has been proud to work within our once incomparable public and national library system, I look with dismay at the increasingly hectoring statements emanating from the British Library in its ill-thought-out attempt to become “an actively anti‑racist organisation”.

    We were always taught that the very essence of our service was one of neutrality. As such, libraries have played a major role in democratic debate and discussion.

    The British Library has now turned this principle on its head. The bewildering addition of Ted Hughes to the list of those with supposedly racist connections is farcical, morally and practically wrong, and shows that this great institution has lost its way.

    Robert Wand
    Lytham, Lancashire

    SIR – Nowhere in the British Library Act 1972, as far as I’m aware, is there any statutory obligation that the British Library should propagate a historical, political or social issue outside its primary function as a legal deposit library for public research purposes.

    Duncan McAra
    Bishopbriggs, East Dunbartonshire

  8. Kremlin and Putin will not recognise president-elect Biden despite Trump announcement. 25 November 2020.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has not recognised president-elect Joe Biden’s victory against Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election, despite orders from Mr Trump to begin his administration’s transition.

    Earlier this week, the Russian president said he has been waiting for an “end to the domestic political standoff” before he will recognise the president-elect.

    Vlad is getting his retaliation in first here. He knows that he will get nothing but grief out of Biden so why bother sucking up to him? The diplomatic and political message is that if the Unites States wants something it is going to have to make the running! There is a personal nature to it as well; he and Biden met once where the now President Elect insulted him face to face. So payback!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/nothing-has-changed-kremlin-and-putin-will-not-recognise-presidentelect-biden-despite-trump-announcement-b1761040.html

      1. Morning AW. There is an irony here. Biden as the considerable footage of him shows is a sexual pervert unlike Donald against whom it was only alleged!

        1. indeed Demented Joe’s role in the Ukraine coup, funding the downing of MH-17 etc., etc., And don’t forget Demented Joe’s boy, Hunter [his fake Ukraine deal and damaged laptop sent for repair whith his paedophilic lifestyle on the hard drive]. then again it’s the Independent [Carrie Symonds father’s creation – the paper that is]

    2. Hmm, the ‘order to being the transition was a matter of procedure. It wasn’t Trump saying ‘Cheers, I’m off, well done Joe.’ as much as the Left wing press would like to present it as.

  9. Kremlin and Putin will not recognise president-elect Biden despite Trump announcement. 25 November 2020.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has not recognised president-elect Joe Biden’s victory against Donald Trump in the 2020 US presidential election, despite orders from Mr Trump to begin his administration’s transition.

    Earlier this week, the Russian president said he has been waiting for an “end to the domestic political standoff” before he will recognise the president-elect.

    Vlad is getting his retaliation in first here. He knows that he will get nothing but grief out of Biden so why bother sucking up to him? The diplomatic and political message is that if the Unites States wants something it is going to have to make the running! There is a personal nature to it as well; he and Biden met once where the now President Elect insulted him face to face. So payback!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/nothing-has-changed-kremlin-and-putin-will-not-recognise-presidentelect-biden-despite-trump-announcement-b1761040.html

  10. Well said, Allison Pearson:

    Afew weeks ago, when Angela Rayner called a Conservative MP “scum” in the Commons, something very strange happened. Nothing.

    True, Labour’s deputy leader earned a thunderous rebuke from Dame Eleanor Laing in the Speaker’s chair. “We will not have remarks like that – not under any circumstances,” Laing bristled. Under pressure from aghast Tories, Rayner issued an apology. “I apologise for the language that I used in a heated debate in Parliament earlier,” she said unapologetically.

    And that was that. No deluge of comments on social media about what a b—- Rayner was. No #angelamustgo. No reporters furrowing their brows on the evening news and asking why such a foul-mouthed person should continue to occupy a senior role.

    Make no mistake, the reason so little fuss was made about Rayner’s offensive behaviour is because she’s of the Left. And it is one of the universe’s stranger moral laws that the Left are always virtuous even when they’re being vile.

    Increasingly, the Leftists who dominate our institutions get to define what constitutes offensive behaviour, then they come up with a new “ism” to describe that behaviour (racism, sexism, Conservatism), the better to use as a cosh on anyone who dares challenge them.

    You can see where this is going, can’t you? In the days since, a report by Sir Alex Allan found Priti Patel guilty of breaking the ministerial code after she shouted and swore at civil servants.

    I haven’t spoken to a single person who believes the Home Secretary’s conduct was “bullying”. Outside bien pensant circles and TV studios, people seem to think it’s far more likely she came up against a bunch of white male snobs who seemed averse to actual work and accountability.

    “Wish they’d leave her to carry out her deportations in peace,” sighed one farmer. (That has to be my favourite remark of the week, if not the year.)

    It does beggar belief that a woman who is barely more than 5ft tall managed to terrorise all those 6ft 3in public school mandarins. “Is this Boudica Sir Alex Allan is describing?” asked one entrepreneur who emailed me. “I don’t think so. Just a woman trying to do her job amongst a bunch of white mice who have not been up to pace for a very long time.”

    What the scandal reveals is that the term bullying has been stretched like silly putty until it has come to mean: “Someone said something to me which I didn’t much like.” For those of us who entered the world of work when a flying typewriter aimed at your right ear was considered a perfectly acceptable rebuke for a rookie error, such snowflakery seems utterly pathetic and actually rather sad.

    A colleague recalls the editor of a provincial paper standing on a chair and yelling at the assembled newsroom: “If I asked reception to be put through to ‘w—–’, all your phones would ring.” Ah, happy days!

    In his report, which was far less condemnatory than the headlines, Sir Alex said she “has become – justifiably in many instances – frustrated by the Home Office leadership’s lack of responsiveness… The evidence is that this has manifested itself in forceful expression, including some occasions of shouting and swearing. This may not be done intentionally to cause upset, but that has been the effect on some individuals.”

    Did it really make civil servants feel “uncomfortable, frightened, less respected”, which meets the Civil Service definition of “bullying”, or was it “legitimate, reasonable and constructive criticism”, which doesn’t?

    The whole thing is alarmingly subjective. If, say, you have a department which doesn’t much like your policies – be they leaving the EU or cracking down on illegal immigration – what is there to stop civil servants thwarting those policies through sly intransigence and then crying foul when the minister stamps her foot and insists you do as she asks?

    The Home Office has form when it comes to undermining its boss. Back in 2006, John Reid, the Labour home secretary, complained the department was “not fit for purpose”. Twelve years later, a report concluded Amber Rudd, who resigned after inadvertently misleading MPs over Windrush, had been let down by officials who “gave her the wrong information and later failed to clear up the problem”.

    It seems poor Priti can’t win. The Prime Minister quite rightly circled the wagons this week to protect her.

    Now, however, there are rumours she could lose her job in the next reshuffle because of her repeated failure to get a grip on the flow of migrants across the Channel.

    So, if you take a hard line with your staff because they are failing to act quickly to stop illegal migration, then you’re a bully. But, if you don’t stop the boats, you get fired which means the arrogant forces of institutional inertia have claimed the scalp of yet another home secretary.

    Yesterday, the BBC published this year’s 100 Women List of influential women from across the globe. It features the usual politically correct line-up, but there is no room for the first Asian woman from a working-class background to occupy one of the great British offices of state. Of course not.

    Ms Patel could have been an icon not a demon, if only she weren’t the wrong kind of brown person.

    It is greatly to her credit that she has played neither the race nor the gender card. If a Labour politician were facing the same allegations, you can bet there would be uproar that a woman of colour was being victimised.

    Before Boris moves to demote “the Prittster” I hope he remembers that the Conservatives won a landslide victory last December precisely because the majority of Britons want what Priti Patel wants.

    If she gets ejected from the Home Office, it’s not just a courageous female that is demoted. It’s democracy itself.

    A leading BTL comment:

    Pip Squeak
    24 Nov 2020 7:55PM
    Well said Allison. Priti Patel was not bullying, she was doing her job. She must find leftwing difficult Civil Servants, like Sir Philip Rutnam and all the rest of the jobsworths in the CS, impossible to do as she asks. If she raised her voice, so what? – are they so pathetic that they have to run to a Tribunal? The only bad thing Priti Patel did was apologise.

    Sadly, every British institution has been infiltrated by overpaid, woke Marxists, who will do anything they can to discredit a Conservative Government.

    1. 326776+ up ticks,
      Morning HJ,
      To me it is ALL orchestrated in-fighting how is it that the issues, that are the issue, like in this case the Dover invasion campaign is being kitted out accommodated & financed
      via governance employees ongoing.

      They could have brought in an emergency
      war time law months ago seeing as they are pretty sharp on incarcerating the indigenous,” watch the wall my darling while the illegal immigrants go by” is the reality.
      Truth be told the house is FULL of political treachery merchants and a bloody great anti UK ratchet, active daily.
      The major item missing in-house is a genuine Conservative party.
      Surely major, the wretch cameron, leg over clegg, treacherous may, and the turkish delight have shown that.
      Plus lest we forget the 4.5 years regarding
      the brexitexit.

      1. Maybe not even a Conservative party, but simple common sense.

        If someone arrives here in a boat, penniless then they have not applied legally and should be returned to their country of origin. If they are claiming asylum, then the UK is not the first safe haven and they should, again be returned to their country of origin.

        It isn’t complicated. Law exists to prevent this very invasion. That the civil services seem adamant to ignore this is comical.

        1. 326776+ up ticks,
          Morning W,
          In many respects it is showing complete contempt of those that support them.
          It is also a dangerous black comedy in NOT knowing what they are letting in until someone dies or is raped & abused.

  11. UK facing risk of ‘systemic economic crisis’, official paper says. 25 November 2020.

    The government has privately admitted the UK faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” as it completes its exit from the European Union in the middle of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

    A confidential Cabinet Office briefing seen by the Guardian also warns of a “notable risk” that in coming months the country could face a perfect storm of simultaneous disasters, including the prospect of a bad flu season on top of the medical strains caused by Covid.

    They think? Catastrophe is on its way! Don’t discount food shortages as well.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/uk-facing-risk-of-systemic-economic-crisis-official-paper-says

    2. “A confidential Cabinet Office briefing seen by the Guardian”. What does that tell you about the people in the Cabinet Office?

    1. It’s ‘cos he’s blaaaack. That’s all.

      If Dick Head of the Yard had half a brain – she’d tell him to shut his gob.

    2. ‘Morning, Korky…as I have been asking every time he pops up where he isn’t wanted. He is like a small child who craves attention. The top job is obviously his goal, and on the basis that, these days, it seems to be occupied by wholly unsuitable people, my money is on him to be the next occupant.

  14. I gather that the good news is that one can escape the Plague by taking a cruise – where one can look forward to catching Novovirus. Sounds wonderful.

    2. Morning Bill – if you choose your cruise carefully you could get both Norovirus and Covid-19 plus an unexpected prolonged extension to your holiday.

    1. agree, but it’ll be painted as reducing the R number.

      Completely off the wall [must be losing the marbles here], every time you post, your name mentally triggers Duckworth Lewis Method [am a huge cricket fan] and before reading any post, am mentally thinking purely cricket terms “what’s he changing now?”. Trust you’re not offended in any way

      1. No, not at all offended, that was how I (also a cricket lover) arrived at my nom-de-plume.

          3. Lost youth? My goodness you must be young. I spent my youth watching the masterful leg-spin of Ritchie Benaud and Abdul Qadir.

          5. My mis-spent youth (dragged along by my cricket-mad mother) was watching Fiery Fred, the Bedser Twins and Godfrey Evans. I can’t stand cricket now I am free of coercion 🙂

          8. My mis-spent youth (dragged along by my cricket-mad mother) was watching Fiery Fred, the Bedser Twins and Godfrey Evans. I can’t stand cricket now I am free of coercion 🙂

  16. Good morning all.

    I wait with bated breath to see if this ‘rebellion’ will be anything more than the usual puff and wind:

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/24/mps-threaten-rebel-constituencies-put-tier-3/

    It is ironic that the the only ‘resistance’ to Johnson’s despotic government comes from his own MPs. Does the Labour party not remember that it was established to be the voice of the working man and woman in parliament? These are the people who need to be physically present to do their job, and can’t just take their laptop and work from home, and are hardest hit by restrictions. Is there not a single Labour MP who feels they should stand up for the rights and freedoms of working people?

    Please ‘honourable’ Members. Search your consciences, when it comes to vote please stand up for the ordinary people who you are paid to represent. Force the government to justify their Tiers (lockdown in name only) and vote against it.

    1. The Honourable Opposition is supposed to oppose the Government regardless. That is it’s function! When it no longer does this then we have a de facto one party state!

      1. Indeed. The only ‘debate’ we have had from the opposition benches is whether we should have locked-down harder and sooner, not whether we should have done it at all.

        It beggars belief that the government has not published any sort of cost/benefit analysis of their restrictions. From what I have read, the sole criteria for the Tier system is Covid, with no consideration of the impact on jobs, businesses, mental/physical wellbeing, civil liberties, non-Covid treatments etc.

        We are essentially living under a dictatorship.

  17. I was suspicious at the time but am just wondering now whether Macrons election was fraudulent as well.

    1. It was. It was arranged and bequeathed to him by Hollande when he saw that he himself could not win again!

      1. and Mutti wanted to keep tabs on the globalist mechanics permeating through France, directly channelled at / through Macron bypassing most of French Govt

      2. It was because of the daft French system. The (perennial) division on the left – and, now, on the conservative side, meant that other, better candidates were eliminated – and Toy Boy had only to face Marine Le Pen – and a majority of French people didn’t want her.

        If Francis Fillon had said, “Of course I fiddled the expenses to employ my wife – we all do it,” he’d be President now.

        1. Fraudulent elections would account for all the populist demonstrations all over Europe, I suppose.
          I take it they haven’t managed to fiddle the elections in Eastern European countries so much.

          1. The EU have tried it Bob but the problem is the Eastern European countries can remember what Marxism is like!

  18. SIR — Reports (November 23) that the Chancellor wants to cut foreign aid to 0.5 per cent of Gross National Income in today’s Spending Review are disappointing.

    Britain is one of the few countries that meet the target of 0.7 per cent of the national income being spent on aid to reduce poverty overseas. This is something that we should be proud of because it literally saves millions of lives, as well as enabling millions more children to flourish through receiving good nutrition and an education. We should not let it go easily.

    Now particularly is not the time to cut aid. Poorer countries’ economies and healthcare systems are being more seriously affected by Covid-19 than ours, and 115 million people could be pushed back into extreme poverty.

    As a result of Britain’s shrinking economy, the aid budget has already been cut by £2.9 billion. Reducing the dedicated percentage of GNI would mean losing a further £1.9 billion. Those figures are significant for the aid budget – which was £15.8 billion in 2019 – but they are small compared with the hundreds of billions being spent on the Covid response in Britain.

    Our approach to Covid-19 needs to be global. We should increase, not decrease, the assistance we give to poorer countries.

    Karen Downard
    Macclesfield, Cheshire

    To call you brain-washed would be an insult to the gormless: it would assume that you had a brain. You are brain-dead.

    You are way beyond the capability of rational thought if you think that continuing to actively fund the third world into breeding all mankind out of existence is a good idea. I shan’t say any more because you would be clearly incapable of assimilating it.

    1. Morning Grizz – what gets me is we borrow money to fund this scam. And the TV is full of adverts scrounging even more – the governments of these ‘poor’ countries will never sort out their own problems while some other idiot is coughing up the moolah

      1. Morning, Spikey. You couldn’t make it up. As I said yesterday:

        Grizzly’s definition of insanity: putting your faith in politicians, of any party, at any level, in any country.

      2. We gave our children pocket money when they were children and gave them a living allowance and paid their tuition fees when they were studying at university.

        The are now adults. They are well qualified and are not only independent but are making much more money than we are.

    2. Maybe the solution would be to reduce the aid package proportionately to the number of their nationals exported here?

    3. She’s Lib Dem and ex Save the Children [Shoot the Mother] Senior paper pusher [she had her own laptop, phone and pen]. You would’ve lost her with your opening sentence

    6. We should never give any foreign foreign at all when we are deeply in debt ourselves. If we have to borrow to pay it then why shouldn’t the recipients take on the loan themselves?

  20. SIR — Beer, grated carrots and apples have featured in my heartily devoured Christmas puddings (Letters, November 24) for the past 49 years.
    The recipe was provided by the nun who taught my daughter cookery. No spirits – it was a convent, after all.

    Jane Whitlock
    Hinckley, Leicestershire

    My goodness, this letters’ forum sees them all out in force today! Let me see if I can work this out. No spirits permitted in a convent since they contain alcohol.

    OK so far.

    Beer? Didn’t you know, Janey, that beer contains alcohol? Alcoholic beer in a nunnery? Heaven forfend! [I know that certain beverages described as “alcohol-free” exist; but, I assure you, they are not beer!]

    2. The Nuns could have allowed the fruit to ferment to produce the required alcohol. As they haven’t actually added alcohol they could claim it was a gift from the supreme being and an Act of God.

      Good morning.

  21. Good morning all

    I think this cheese letter is the best.

    SIR – Ewen Southby-Tailyour’s story (Letters, November 13) of performing first aid with a vintage field dressing reminded me of a Stilton cheese that we were given by the naval victualling department in Gibraltar when my ship HMS Bronington refitted there in 1975.

    The cheese arrived with the other rations that we needed for the passage back to Britain, but stood out as it was in its own small wooden crate. Inside the crate the cheese was wrapped in muslin. The date stamp on the muslin indicated that the cheese had been placed in storage in the Rock of Gibraltar 50 years earlier, in 1925.

    As the midshipman, and therefore supposedly expendable, I was invited to have the first helping. The cheese was excellent and the fact that I am still fit and well 45 years on suggests that modern best-before dates are, to say the least, a bit cautious.

    Clive Hilton
    Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

  22. ‘It’s disgraceful and un-British’: Tory MP Sir Charles Walker rages at police as they bundle spread-eagled elderly woman into a van during peaceful ‘anti-lockdown’ protest outside Parliament. 25 November 2020.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48e0925cd2a64ed8556bf9287e54d943ad71b305b81e2c194829a0eef5ca210a.jpg

    Tory MP Sir Charles Walker has raged at ‘disgraceful and un-British’ police officers as they bundled an elderly woman into a van for protesting outside Parliament.

    Raising the incident as a point of order, Sir Charles told the Commons: ‘I have just witnessed an elderly lady peacefully protesting with a handful of other people be arrested and carried spread-eagle to a police van just outside the precinct of the House of Commons.

    ‘This is a disgrace. This is un-British. It is unconstitutional and this Government, our Prime Minister needs to end these injustices now.

    Morning everyone. They have created a Police State and whinge about one incident that just by chance happened outside Parliament! They should look around! What was once a Law Enforcement body is now an instrument of oppression! They are the thought police!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8983215/Tory-MP-rages-police-bundle-old-woman-van-protesting-outside-Parliament.html

    1. I’ve only seen white people being pushed around and battered by the police of late, nobody appears to be sticking up for them for some reason.

    2. Ah, but is decidedly modern British. Ignore the criminal. Ignore the vandal, the thief, the crook, the scumbag, ignore the violent. Hammer the tax payer. Hammer the decent. Brutalise the worker. Ignore the scum classes – run away from them. Let them off. But should the decent, the honest, the law abiding majority get uppity about the state line, get them.

      Frankly why didn’t the rest of the protestors simply mob each of the policemen? Ah, because plod would then dawn raid their homes, smash in their front doors and take their children away.

      1. Good morning all. If you can’t catch the criminals criminalise those you can catch. At least Sir Charles Walker brought it up in the House. (And wasn’t it packed! 😂😂😂 ).

  23. It started out as Sportsman of the Year back in the 1950s. It was then politically corrected to become “Sports Personality of the Year” in order to include women. Now, some woman called Judy Murray wants women to have their own competition (since women hardly ever win it).

    Sorry, Judy, you won’t be allowed to get away with it. You’ll have all manner of different races and assorted weirdos demanding their very own award. In no time at all there will be prizes for:

    White Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Black Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    White Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Black Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Mixed-Race Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Mixed-Race Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Confused Status Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Confused Status Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Don’t Assume My ‘Gender’ Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Don’t Assume My ‘Gender’ Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    I Hate Sport Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    I Hate Sport Transvestite Male Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    White Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Black Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    White Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Black Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Mixed-Race Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Mixed-Race Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Confused Status Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Confused Status Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Don’t Assume My ‘Gender’ Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    Don’t Assume My ‘Gender’ Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    I Hate Sport Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.
    I Hate Sport Transvestite Female Sports ‘Personality’ of the Year.

    The next thing will be an organised march and demonstration (peaceful or not) by all those not catered for in the above list.

    1. There are two categories that the social studies-trained pundits have been studiously avoiding:

      The Indigenous Sports Personality of the Year.
      The Settler Sports Personality of the Year.

    4. You forgot the categories of Regional / County / town /Village / Postbox [if there’s any left]. Also the cardinal sin of categories for Lesbian and Shirtlifter, you’ll be handed an ASBO and an ankle bracelet in a colour of your choice

    7. Don’t fall over in shock Grizzly – – A white ( yes really ) English !!!!! teacher has won an award teaching at Spire Junior school at Chesterfield.

      1. That most be a new (or renamed) school, walter. There certainly was no “Spire Junior School” all the time that I lived there.

        1. But I’m sure, George, that the Chesterfield Spire was still crooked, awaiting an honest lawyer to pass by.

        2. On the Left as you come in on the Matlock Road, past The Blue Stoops and just before the roundabout at the top of the hill.

          1. I’ve just done some research and the school you mention near the roundabout down from The Blue Stoops pub is Whitecotes Primary School, which I’ve long known about.

            Spire Junior School is situated on Jawbones Hill on the A61 Derby Road (about a mile away). When I worked that patch it was known as “St Augustine’s Primary” (reflecting the name of the estate behind it), but that is now many moons ago.

      2. Starting a plunge implies some sort of initial control.

        Major just allowed it all to be washed away while he wasn’t paying attention.

          2. Reading her book (which I am at the moment) The Downing Street Years she was very much in control

          3. Of Major’s Government?

            Looking at the make-up of his Cabinet I very much doubt she had much influence at all, let alone being in Control.

      2. I think VAT should be abolished (we shouldn’t be sending money to the EU once we have finally left, at last). Replace it with purchase tax that goes 100% to the Treasury. We’re going to need every bit of tax revenue we can get thanks to this so-called Conservative government’s profligacy.

  25. DT Story

    Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reveals she had a miscarriage in July
    She described the experience as an ‘almost unbearable grief’ for her and Prince Harry

    Of course any kind-hearted, decent person sympathises with the grief any person has with the loss of a born or an unborn child.

    Why is that I am probably not alone in suspecting that this story may be being used to garner sympathy to counteract the largely negative opinions that the public has for this attention hungry couple who seem to know no depths to which they will not sink to gain publicity.

  26. Mng [to both of you who’ve posted so far] and others when online.

    Seems another woke opinion banner headline from the DT. Better headline would be PM formally apologises to the Nation he was completely wrong over Covid, scraps lockdown / tiers, in an attempt to win back public confidence

    First woke letter from Roger Cliffe appears to give the impression he jumped off one post his letter.

    2nd one from Bill Davidson gives impression he’s a paid up member of NIMBY.

    then PPVW kicked in.

    Slight change of context. Link found this am on CW https://hereistheevidence.com the link is unlisted by Google, supplies a compilation of crowdsourced reports, including hundreds of signed affidavit. Toxic enough, it’s not a small list and updated daily

    1. Morning, AW.

      If you have a spare few minutes this is a good read. A bit of genetic science, not too heavy, and a lot of information from official and other quoted documents. Appears that it’s very, very likely we’ve been sold down the river. If the evidence from this article re the virus and its genome is correct then that evidence must throw more doubt on the provision of vaccines for something that doesn’t exist.

      1. KtK morning, sorry got stuck reading the above stuff. Understood yr words, what’s a good read? Any link?

        That said agree re sold down the river. Send me the link. I;ve also got the back channel stuff not just on C-19, but Ebola, HIV all US created to keep Big Pharma in play from years back and links back into Fauci, Gates etc. If I appear to have gone AWOL, it’s Kenya Power going haywire again

      2. It’s spot on and correct re virus and genome. Torsten and Konstantin have been ploughing this for a while https://theduran.com/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless Torsten recently published his book on findings https://www.torstenengelbrecht.com/en/virus-mania

        As the sub header in piece sent below re Fauci says “Calling AZT trials “scientifically controlled” is like referring to garbage as “haute cuisine” is exactly on the same hymn sheet Johnson and Halfcock are singing from.

        And what makes it worse for Govt is that C-19 plan [ie; Billy Boy’s funds] was signed in Jan 2019 [Gates & Halfock]

      1. At least – for the first time – this WAS raised in Parliament – by an MP who will probably be disowned by the “Conservative” Party.

    3. Meanwhile the Migrants who have arrived recently watch it in their hotels, nice and warm, on tv’s funded by the taxpayer.

  29. Tougher Covid tiers are coming – and with them another potential Tory revolt. 25 November 2020.

    A Number 10 source said: “The Prime Minister made it clear [in his speech on Monday] that there would be more areas in higher tiers than before and that those areas already in higher tiers are still likely to be in higher tiers come December 2.”

    Tier 1. Tier 2. They are all lockdown by another name!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/11/24/mps-threaten-rebel-constituencies-put-tier-3/

        1. I’m still confused as to why conservatives might revolt over reductions to the foreign aid budget.

          This is money that we borrow – with all the negative consequences of that – and then give away. It’s deleterious effect on interest rates alone is obvious, let alone it’s simply debt handed on to our children.

          Why, please, someone, anyone; would Conservatives complain if this utter waste of money we don’t have were reduced, let alone scrapped?

      2. Perhaps because we’ve all become inured to the media “a ‘source’ says”, and realise that they’re just chasing clickbait rather than presenting any factual information. I think it used to be called reporting news.

    3. To this day, it still staggers me that the Telegraph has sifted so far to the Establishment crony Left, both here and on American politics. What staggers me more is how so many people are still paying to subscribe to the paper, given how obvious and significant their shift in alleigances are.

      1. The Spectator is the same. Having rad it since 1954 – I am thinking of cancelling my sub. They are all woke and more and more known lefties write for it.

      1. I think he is a bit confused. If the EU wants a border the EU can construct it and pay for it.

        1. And since when has the border ever been ‘closed’? Even during the Troubles it only had Army and Police checkpoints looking for terrorists, not illegal goods. I assume he’s playing to the Irish-American voters – oh, and Remainers.

    1. If she was paid for this, has she not monetized a sad event that most would surely keep to themselves? Perhaps I’m just old fashioned…

        3. They will be in trouble if its twins, what with all that virtue signalling about only having two.

  32. Funny old world as the Megraine wails about having “Lost a child” surely there will be tens of thousands of pro-abortion feminists going “Meh.it’s just a bundle of cells”
    Oh Wait………
    That’s different………………….

    1. Nice timing, just when her court case is on and when she’s been getting a LOT of negative press. Coincidence? Proof?

    3. A week or two ago my down voter said that she found the term ‘unborn child’ both offensive and inaccurate – she clearly did not believe that the process of a child’s human life began at its conception.

      A lost living foetus is of no concern to those who believe that abortion is a human right, but those who have carried a living foetus inside them which is aborted carry psychological scars which are just as deep as those who suffered a miscarriage. A close relative of mine who already had four children had an abortion for pragmatic reasons. She is now well up her 80’s and has never forgiven herself. I also know some women who had a miscarriage but in many cases this was assuaged when they subsequently had another healthy child. But even so, women who have had miscarriages usually wish to remain quiet about it.

      If it is true that the Duchess of Sussex has had a miscarriage then it would be nasty as well as callous not to feel some sympathy towards her. The problem is that she has tried so hard to milk the media that we cannot be entirely confident of the veracity of her statements.

      1. As Rose says below – an early miscarriage is a very common and natural process – but most women choose to keep it private. It must have been very early in the pregnancy, or we would have been shown the swelling belly. I was huge quite early on in my second pregnancy.

      2. I had a problem with (I suspect) the same person some time ago when I explained that my wife had had a miscarriage. My wife had lost a baby, but this person was very dismissive in that the baby wasn’t a human being and that my wife should not be upset (she was – she had counselling for several months afterwards). I’ve blocked her.

        1. As soon as conception takes place, that is a potential human being, I would have thought. It must be very upsetting for women to lose a baby, even if it was only a foetus; it was a child in their eyes.

          1. ‘Potential’ is the word with which I disagree. It is either a human being, or it is not. If not, there must be some magical process by which it transforms into a human being.

          3. What I don’t agree with is the argument that an embryo, foetus etc. is not human, so abortion is just ridding oneself of a clump of cells. I do not think this should be used as justification for abortion. There may be valid reasons for a woman to have an abortion (I don’t say I agree or disagree), but in my opinion it is terminating a life.

        2. Her response to you, at that time,
          remains with me.

          Todays online Bible reading:
          Psalm 139…v.13.!!

  33. My head hurts. I’ve been working out a Christmas cake recipe that combined Imperial measures with American cups. And then had to scale it up for one cake and alter it for nut sensitive chums to make another. I wonder how much of the booze will make it into the cakes, rather than down the cook’s gullet?
    I needed this Spiked article as a tension breaker: Oi Larfed; I’ve met Priti and she barely comes above my shoulder. Maybe she savaged Sir Poutalot’s kneecaps.

    “Priti Patel a bully? Oh grow up

    Mandarins are using the language of the playground to try to wound the elected government.

    Brendan O’Neill

    Priti Patel a bully? Oh grow up

    Just when you thought the civil service could not debase itself any further, here comes the Priti Patel bullying scandal. The competition is tough in 2020, but watching seasoned, supposedly hard-nosed functionaries at the Home Office bleat about being bullied might just be the most tragic-cum-hilarious political sight of the year. These people are in charge of securing our nation? And they can’t even handle being told to fuck off every now and then without taking time off to tend to their emotional wounds? God help us.

    The Patel bullying scandal – the real scandal is that fiftysomething adults are using the word ‘bullying’ to describe being put under pressure in the workplace – is back in the news because Sir Alex Allan, Boris Johnson’s adviser on ministerial standards, has concluded his investigation into Patel’s allegedly tyrannical reign at the Home Office. He found that she sometimes shouted and swore at mandarins. Fetch my smelling salts! She broke the ministerial code, he says.

    Boris disagrees. He’s questioning the idea that Patel is a bully and says he has ‘full confidence’ in her. Sir Alex has resigned in a huff. Patel has made a ‘fulsome apology’ if her behaviour in the Home Office caused anyone to feel offended or stressed. And the liberal media, naturally, have had a field day. They loathe Patel, jumped-up, state-educated, Indian-descended woman that she is. Or ‘madam’, as the Guardian’s resident aristocrat, Marina Hyde, tellingly refers to her. A woman of colour with right-wing views? That makes her an outrage in the eyes of the woke elites, a racial traitor, an Uncle Tom. So naturally they’ve all bought into the idea that she’s a nasty bully who needs to be kicked out of government and put back in her lower middle-class immigrant box.

    The whole thing is ridiculous. Patel is not a bully – she’s merely doing her job, which is to try to whip the notoriously dysfunctional Home Office into shape. That will necessitate shouting at people. A lot, I would imagine. The accusations against Ms Patel are painfully embarrassing, not for her but for the people making them. Apparently she has a habit of storming out of her office and asking why everyone is so ‘fucking useless’. Good question! Why is the Home Office so fucking useless? That isn’t bullying; it’s a perfectly legitimate enquiry that millions will nod along to as they keenly await the answer.

    Everyone (except the people who work there, it seems) knows the Home Office is ‘fucking useless’. Consider the Windrush scandal, that hellish act of anal bureaucracy that led to the deportation and propulsion into despair of numerous Brits from the Caribbean. In 2008 a Home Office contractor lost a memory stick containing the details of 130,000 of Britain’s worst criminals. Between 1999 and 2006, 1,023 foreign-born offenders, including five paedophiles and nine rapists, were released from British jails and the Home Office forgot to carry out the normal procedure of assessing whether they should be deported. No wonder Labour home secretary John Reid said the Home Office was ‘unfit for purpose’. ‘Fucking useless’ is just a Watford girl’s more colourful version of that.

    Patel’s real crime, as the Sun’s Trevor Kavanagh says, is that she (allegedly) said all this to mandarins’ faces. She didn’t break the ministerial code. She broke the ridiculous stricture on telling the ‘fucking useless’ civil service that it is ‘fucking useless’. The Home Office is a law unto itself; it frequently chews up and spits out the politicians that the elected government appoints as home secretary. ‘The curse of the Home Office’, as it was called when Jacqui Smith followed Charles Clarke and John Reid into the post-Home Office wilderness. In staying in the Home Office – though rumours are rife that she’ll be demoted in a reshuffle next year – Patel is defying mandarins who arrogantly see this institution as their dominion.

    This daft bullying scandal tells us a great deal about British politics in the 21st century. First, it confirms that the use of the word ‘bullying’ has reached a dizzyingly promiscuous level. My view is that no one over the age of 16 should use the word bullying. Certainly well-paid civil servants who are meant to be holding the line against crime and terrorism should not use it. If they wilt at being bollocked by a diminutive politician, how can we trust them to stand firm against nutters who want to harm the British people? Get a backbone. Occasionally hearing the f-word or being asked to work late – one of the things the mandarins have complained about! – is the price you pay for working in the Home Office.

    Secondly, there’s the hypocrisies of identity politics. Isn’t it striking that Patel enjoys none of the protections of political correctness? If any other political woman of colour was being referred to as a bully by largely white middle-class blokes, it would be thinkpieced to death. ‘She’s only being called a bully because she dared to stand up for herself against WHITE MEN’, we’d be told endlessly.

    There’s been none of that in relation to Patel. She’s just a bully, no questions asked. This confirms the ruthlessness of identitarianism. Any member of an ethnic-minority group who holds the ‘wrong’ political views is cast out, never defended, never taken seriously. Also, Patel is of Indian Hindu heritage, and to the racially myopic identitarian left that makes her ‘privileged’, and therefore bad. Identitarians’ hatred for Patel, their description of her as a minister with ‘brown skin wearing [a] Tory mask’, confirms the extent to which woke racial correctness is helping to rehabilitate actual racism.

    And thirdly, there’s the increasingly bitter role being played by the civil service. These people must think we were born yesterday if they think we won’t recognise that this is all political. The mostly anti-Brexit Whitehall machine has been bristling against Boris and his administration since they came to power last December. Many mandarins just don’t like the political views or cultural style of people like Boris and Patel and so they are resisting and moaning and claiming to feel bullied. Well, tough. This government was elected by 14million people. When its ministers tell you what to do, that isn’t bullying – it’s democracy.”

    1. There is an equivalent with the “sexual harassment” being complained about so much. Tell a woman (or, indeed, a man) she (or he) looks nice and that’s you cancelled for “sexual aggresssion, harassment, rape….” etc etc

      I do not for one minute disagree that there some unpleasant predators about – but wolf-whistling, or complimenting someone is NOT sexual aggression or harassment.

      Rant over.

    2. Caroline’s Christmas cake is delicious. It is gluten free but the prime minister would like it as it has plenty of nuts in it.

      1. I used to make cakes, but no longer sadly .

        Moh is type 2 diabetic , slim and lean , always has been , and now according to his hospital eye test , maybe developing problems with his eyes!

        1. Oh dear……. my oh is small and lean – eats his own body weight every day like a little shrew – never puts on any weight and loves cakes and puddings. He makes them in this house.

    3. Anne, I hope this may go some way to alleviating your conversion problems:

      American Cup & Liquid (and Herbs and Spices)
      Liquids can be converted to litres or millilitres with the following table. Small volumes (less than about 1 fluid ounce or 2 tablespoons) of ingredients such as salt, herbs, spices, baking powder, etc. should also be converted with this table. Do not use this table to convert other non-liquid ingredients.

      Volume Conversions: Normally used for liquids only
      Customary quantity Metric equivalent
      1 teaspoon 5 ml
      1 tablespoon or 1/2 fluid ounce 15 ml
      1 fluid ounce or 1/8 cup 30 ml
      1/4 cup or 2 fluid ounces 60 ml
      1/3 cup 80 ml
      1/2 cup or 4 fluid ounces 120 ml
      2/3 cup 160 ml
      3/4 cup or 6 fluid ounces 180 ml
      1 cup or 8 fluid ounces or half a pint 240 ml
      1 1/2 cups or 12 fluid ounces 350 ml
      2 cups or 1 pint or 16 fluid ounces 475 ml
      3 cups or 1 1/2 pints 700 ml
      4 cups or 2 pints or 1 quart 950 ml
      4 quarts or 1 gallon 3.8 litres

      Note: A pint isn’t always a pint: in British, Australian and often Canadian recipes you’ll see an imperial pint listed as 20 fluid ounces. American and some Canadian recipes use the American pint measurement, which is 16 fluid ounces.
      Americans always give short measure. A Day Late and a Dollar Short. The American Way

      Sorry but disqus doesn’t seem to do tables.

      1. Ta ever so.
        I found a conversion table. All I need to do is print it off and stick on a kitchen cupboard door.

    5. 326776+m up ticks,
      Afternoon Anne,
      This in-fighting is this prettendee tory group
      at it’s deceptive best, dropping eye catching chaff to divert from the Dover invasion front & the need to build,build,build to house the potential troops escalating daily, plus “the deal”, etc,etc.
      I believe you must have bona fide political credentials from Port Harcourt and a prior grounding in treachery before they will entertain you in the present governance
      body.

      Ps
      P.O.R.Gs can also be dangerous.

  34. The EU (remember that?) was supposed to be all sweetness and light once the disruptive United Kingdom was out of the way…

    Jonathan Saxty in today’s DT:

    The clock might be running down on Brexit but the EU may now have a more serious problem on its hands.

    Last week, Hungary and Poland vetoed the bloc’s €1.8 trillion budget and recovery package, responding to plans for a new mechanism which would allow for the reduction of funds if member states violate ‘rule of law’ principles.

    Poland and Hungary claim this is a power grab, and that Brussels is trying to bully conservative eastern and central European states. The rule of law mechanism only requires a qualified majority to pass. However unanimous backing is required to allow the EU to raise funds to finance the recovery plan and budget.

    France and the Netherlands suggested pushing ahead with an intergovernmental plan which excludes Hungary and Poland. This however is considered to be complex and possibly premature.

    Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union allows for the suspension of certain rights, such as voting, from a member state. However, there is no mechanism to expel a member state.

    Many businesses are depending on the cash and, given the ‘second wave’ of coronavirus hitting the continent, concerns are mounting that the Visegrád Group allies could undermine a recovery in the bloc.

    The veto is likely to exacerbate tensions not just between central and eastern European member states and those in the West, but among Western European member states too. Already this year, ‘coronabonds’ were shelved after heated debate, while financial agreement was only reached after concessions to the so-called ‘Frugal Four’.

    Without a December deal, the EU would have to resort to an emergency spending programme which would extend 2020 spending ceilings but allow money to flow only to some ringfenced areas.

    The veto is yet more evidence of a new Iron Curtain coming back down the spine of Europe. This Iron Curtain is however cultural, not economic. Brussels has made no secret of its displeasure that many central and eastern European states will not sign up to ‘progressive’ values.

    For the likes of Hungary and Poland, their view of the EU as a kind of EFTA-plus organisation runs counter to the ambitions of Berlin and Paris, never mind the goals of federalists.

    For all the talk of certain south European states being the Achilles heel of the EU, central and eastern Europe states – most having retained their own currencies – are generally better placed to extricate themselves from the bloc.

    While it is commonly believed that central and eastern European states will not leave the EU owing to the financial benefits, evidence suggests these countries are benefitting less from the EU as their economies grow (ironically the EU may have helped them get to the point where they have less need of the EU).

    According to the European Commission, GDP forecasts for this year suggest that Hungary (-6.4pc) will fare better than both France (-9.4pc) and Italy (-9.9pc), and even the EU27 (-7.4pc). Meanwhile Poland (-3.6pc) will fare better than Germany (-5.6pc).

    When it comes to budget balance as a percentage of GDP, Hungary’s figure of -8.4pc is the same as the EU27 for 2020, while Poland’s figure (-8.8%) is better than those for both France (-10.5pc) and Italy (-10.8pc).

    In terms of Government debt as a percentage of GDP, Hungary’s figure for 2020 (78pc) is not only lower than those for France (115.9pc) and Italy (159.6pc), but the EU27 as a whole (93.9pc). Moreover Poland (56.6pc) again fares better than Germany (71.2pc).

    Anyway, money is unlikely to induce Hungary and Poland to change their beliefs. A victory for the two states may in fact encourage other central and eastern European states, not least Czechia, Slovakia and Slovenia.

    Indeed, while not actively joining the veto, Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa wrote that it would not be appropriate for a body to adjudicate in disputes over the rule of law. No doubt other central and eastern European leaders sympathise.

    Central and eastern Europe states are particularly sensitive to perceived infringement on their sovereignty. While Western Europe is de-Christianising, central and eastern states are re-Christianising, the faith having been a rallying point against communism.

    Central and eastern European member states want a better standard of living, but not at any price, least of all (as they see it) at the cost of their sovereignty and identity. Brussels may now have an even bigger problem than Brexit to deal with.

    2. they won’t break the Visegrad bloc however hard they try. Looming on the EU [read Germany / France] agenda but not touched upon in article is the widening of Nordstream II as all pipeline routes due to go into full flow. And Central Eastern blocs don’t want illegal immigrants, Hungary being vocal case in point

  36. Private Frazer’s great-granddaughter, Cassandra, predicts our doom if we enjoy a family Christmas. If it’s going to be my last then I’m definitely going to open that 3 litre bottle of Italian red wine that’s been sitting around for a few years and go out disgracefully. Of course, the poster just may be a trolling/parody account. Whatever!

    https://twitter.com/HollieTheCard/status/1331546273846075392

      1. Clicked the link and the thumbnails on the opening page scared me to death. I don’t think that my BP would take reading any of those.😎

        1. The privacy form was baffling, too. I turned off all the ad ones and there was still a long list that didn’t seem to have an off button.

  37. Senator Diane Feinstein, Democrat deputy chair of the Senate Judicial
    Committee has resigned. Now why would that be? Coincidence
    her husband has 60% shareholding in Dominion voting machines?

        1. They are all corrupt. It would be hard to find any government procurement that does not have a surfeit of lobbyists, family associations and other ties to politicians of one side or another.

    2. The same person who tells everyone to ‘mask up’ and then doesn’t herself. Seems hypocrisy and cronyism go hand-hand for the Dems over The Pond.

    1. Er … Batty Batten says it has existed for 90 years. The notice says it has existed for 5 years. Something’s not right.

      1. According to local reports there has been a chip shop on the site since 1931. The recently ceased management has only been in control for 5 years.

      2. 326776+ up ticks,
        G,
        Very quick on the Batten battering I see, still after major, cameron,
        clegg, may, johnson someone outside of the coalition must suffer.

        1. I prefer to have my cod (or haddock) battered.

          And served with mashed spuds, mushy peas and parsley sauce.

          1. 326776+ up ticks,
            G,
            My hidden pun was intended plus the original owner I do not believe would be in a fit condition to continue, on health & safety grounds.
            Ps that Batty Batten gave us a
            credible route out of the eu two years before the referendum.

          2. Double carbs. No wonder you had to diet !

            Steamed Haddock, buttered new potatoes and asparagus tips. Served with a Mornay or butter sauce. Eaten off a plate. With cutlery !

            🙂

          4. Fish ( only hadddock) chips and mushy peas ( only if they are done right ).

            Parsley sauce —- you are getting soft Griz.

          5. This was my favourite meal of the week when I was a nipper. The summer version had freshly-dug new spuds and freshly-podded peas.

            It will still be my “last meal” if I’m ever to face a firing squad.

  39. Husband told the surgery he didn’t want a flu jab, so today he’s received the bullying one from the NHS somewhere in London. Together with another page telling us to scan a QR code and tell the NHS to communicate with us that way and stop spending money on letters! Good job he hasn’t got a smart phone or he might have fallen for that trick!

    1. Use the second page (with blank back) for the printer. Use the second half of the first page for shopping lists… Recycle the rest!

        2. Same here. Any one-sided sheet of paper (other than my bank statements) is likely to be used for shopping lists or lists of things to do (I have a LOT of those!). Ditto envelopes without writing on them and old Christmas cards.

    2. I got the same letter and tried doing exactly what it said on that second page. Unless you have a QR READER app or a VERY modern smartphone, either nothing happens or you just take a picture of the QR code.

      The covering letter was obviously targeting older people as it mentions: It’s important that you get vaccinated, as your age means that you are at greater risk of complications from the flu’

      I wrote an angry letter to the software developers after testing the data entry error trapping, which is VERY patchy – viz: you can type in 31 2 1900 as a Date of Birth and it doesn’t get trapped until you finish all the data entry. The footnotes are in a font size that I measured with a graticle to be 1.2 mm high on an iPhone 7. How about those with poor eyesight?

      Got a reply from the developer taking my points on board, but saying that his firm had built the app for free and not charged the NHS. Good!

      1. I wouldn’t load any app promoted by the Government/NHS. Why help them snoop on you they will do no good. Similar to “Smart Snoop meters.

      2. That’s ageist. You are discriminating against anyone who is 120!

        Quite a few apps will only do data validation when you press the magic GO button. Very inconvenient to the user but do you think that anyone cares?

    3. MOH got the same letter, despite having had the ‘flu jab the previous week! Joined up thinking? What’s that?

  40. The other day, Poland and Hungary blocked the EU budget because they won’t accept the EU’s forcing them to admit unwanted immigrants and they totally refuse to accept illegal immigrants.

    The British accept illegal immigrants with open arms. The Democrats in the US want open borders to the south so that illegal immigrants can enter the US.

    There is widespread illegality in the US election that favours the Dems. In fact the illegality is so blatant that even if only 10% is true, it is an outrage in a country that is supposed to uphold western ‘values’. The MSM, such as CNN, barely mention these travesties.

    What is it about illegality that the Left doesn’t understand? Could it be that the Left is all in favour of illegality if it advances their cause? I’m afraid so!

    I discussed this and other issues affecting the UK, (such as the racism industry, the attempts to undermine our heritage and culture by re-writing history, destroying statues, etc., the poor Christian leadership and the appeasement of Islamic terrorism), in a lengthy conversation with a learned Muslim Egyptian friend. He has long been especially critical of the UK for allowing that terrorist organisation, the Muslim Brotherhood, to operate with impunity.

    My friend summed it up by saying that we are witnessing the inexorable decline of Western civilisation. I think many of us have suspected this, but coming from an Egyptian with no axe to grind, I found it especially pertinent.

    1. My main bleat is the conversion of illegal in to legal migrants .

      Then they become untouchable , they start their own politial movements , whine and shreik when the law comes onto them strongly .. they enter politics , they achieve huge political prominance, become Mayors of cities, and retain their own cultural peculiarities.

      Why are they here complaining about slavery etc when they could be back in the country of their own bloodstock , putting their own mark say on the West coast of Africa or further afield!

        1. Our Deep State overlords constantly mess about with the terminology. All that matters in the end for them is to get as many incompatible 3rd worlders into white nations as possible – to destroy us.

          Sometimes they are illegal immigrants, sometimes legal. Sometimes asylum seekers or economic migrants. Or guest workers. Or tourists, or students. Or even Olympic athletes!

          The main thing is to get them across the borders then get them breeding, voting etc. Thats all that matters. They don’t care what terminology is used and nor should we.

    2. Sguest try this re Muslim Brotherhood https://www.oxcis.ac.uk/about-us It has a Royal Charter and its UK Govt connections are deeply embedded in the system, which is why it operates with impunity and tier 1 level cover. One of the few good things it did recently was kicking out a bisexual employee

    3. It seems that most migrants don’t want to stay in Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary where they are treated very badly. Some of them reported that it was their worst experience. They prefer going to Western Europe where they are accepted with open arms.
      So Poland and Hungary are making a big fuss over nothing – it’s just political posturing to gain voters for the parties in power.

  41. The England XV will be playing Wales this weekend.

    I see that Bill Thomas’s MR’s former English pupil will be getting his 102nd cap at scrum half. The DT article gets several pundits to choose their team for the match: they all now go for Ben Youngs at No 9. Maybe he has found the magic potion?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rXhXLsNJL8

    1. Yeah, right. His potion is simple. Kick ahead and lose possession as many times as you can.

      Why the Japanese coach sticks with him is beyond me.

      1. I think he is trying to push forward what they call the ‘game’ line. The chance of winning a maul 15 metres further forward is, they think, worth temporary loss of possession.

        What has happened to rugby at Grehsam’s – it is not flourishing while I note that my old school, Blundell’s, is doing very well with both rugby and cricket and is well above Gresham’s in the table of top “A” level grades.

      1. Obelix would be better placed at No 1 or No 3 but Asterix might be a handy No 9 and Cacaphonix could lead the supporters in singing. .

    1. Dear Mr Johson,

      Thank you for your reply.

      As I told you, I am 8 years old and thus no longer believe in Father Christmas.

      Your letter tells me that you are too stupid to understand that I was being sarcastic.

      From Monti

    2. Dear Mr Johnson,

      Thank you for your reply.

      As I told you, I am 8 years old and thus no longer believe in Father Christmas.

      Your letter tells me that you are too stupid to understand that I was being sarcastic.

      From Monti

      1. Little boys – and girls – or any other ( PC correctneess ) should keep away from old men with long beards. Who knows what may happen?

      2. Our boys continued to pretend to believe in Father Christmas when we told them he only gave presents to children who believed in him.

    3. “Monti’s” parents need bullwhipping for two reasons:

      1. Giving their child such a pretentiously idiotic name.
      2. Teaching that child that a biscuit is called a ‘cookie’.

  44. Just back from the vet – we thought the kittens had ear mites. They don’t – according to the Polish vet (who is a cat specialist!).

    Anyway, took advantage of the wait to pop next door to Lidl for some of their excellent 74% plain chocolate. Walking back along the pavement (it’s only 200 yards) a woman was approaching me. She veered off the path on to the grass so to pass me by at last 4 yards. I almost said “wazzock!” – but manners overcame me!

    Do you reckon this sort of lunacy is here to stay?

    1. anything’s possible. Try the same routine tomorrow and see if same woman approaches you and veers off again. Could be a split personality disorder. Suggest take a klaxon and if same event happens shout and point “Breaking Social Distance” aka Invasion of the Bodysnatchers.

    2. I do the same “veering off” whenever a person of a certain culture walks toward me. Mask or not. Nothing to do with any virus.

    3. Morning Bill,

      Once, very early on in the madness, a man stepped on to a busy road to avoid me while walking along a wide and empty pavement but most people around W12 and the City seem to have regained their senses in that regard.

      I like to stare at people who wear masks outside, with an expression intended to suggest that they’ve grown two heads or some other strange disfigurement.

      1. Snap. So do I. I concentrate on an expression of amused puzzlement with a top dressing of condescension.
        The thought bubble over my head says “Bless”.

        1. I stare at the ones who sit in their cars in Morrisons’ carpark – masked up against the return of their shopping relative. And who wipe their own car door handles INSIDE as well as out! And I smile understandingly….

        2. I have one of those lanyards saying that I’m face mask exempt. I’m thinking of changing it to say that I’m stupidity exempt.

          1. We use them as well.
            People avoid you because they’re afraid you either suffer from something embarrassing or are a mental case and will do something embarrassing.

          2. Yes, I’ve found the same thing. I wear a lanyard and a card with the message “I am exempt from wearing a face covering” when shopping and I’ve noticed that people spot me, turn round and go via a different aisle!

      2. Morning Sue. I had one couple who jumped into a hedge at my approach! The first inkling I had that some people actually believe this guff!

        1. In the early days, when this madness was at its height, I would deliberately indulge Spartie’s desire to take what seemed like half an hour to decide where to pee.
          In the meantime, quivering wrecks would be left standing in boggy ground and/or bramble hedges.

    4. Morning, Willum.
      I prefer it when they leap out into the road. Where’s Darwinism when you need it?

      1. Good day, dear heart

        It could, of course, just be me they are trying to avoid; rather than any risk from the plague!

        1. It’s sad when we’d rather such behaviour was a personal insult than a display of mass stupidity.

          1. Still, it is better than being stabbed to death by a friend (see yesterday’s NoTTL)….!!

    6. We were out for a walk a couple of days ago and ‘wazzock’ walked out into a busy road to avoid walking straight past us. Obviously we were far more dangerous to him than a ton of metal travelling towards him at 50 mph was.

    7. I suggest that if you are wearing a mask you should lower it and grin, in much the same way as one might lift one’s cap.

  45. Good moaning and I expect the Lark NOTTLers to have beaten me to it.
    However …. I think I’ve stepped into an alternative universe. Channel Four allowed a white male to win Bake Off.

  46. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/46d749be94ac0bdabf7444de07b38f8729e33475b99c796082840cf5fdb76a26.png The idiot, Don, is urging people not to use peat in their composts in order to “save the environment”. Yet the same two-faced cretin urges people, every single week on his Gardeners’ World BBC programme, to use copious amounts (as he does) of “horticultural grit” (i.e. gravel). I wrote to him about this appalling habit a couple of years’ back but my letter was not even read. The quarrying of gravel is equally as detrimental to the environment as the digging out of peat is. However, to eschew the use of gravel would seriously inconvenience this tedious BBC virtue-signaller.

    https://www.torontoenvironment.org/gravel/impacts

    3. Funnily enough, I check for peat in compost in order to avoid it; now I’ll make sure to buy it.

  47. “Meghan, my miscarriage” shouts the Wail. My breakfast nearly saw the light of day again. Maybe she felt that her popularity was flagging.

    2. Kate and William lost Lupo the other day. Just saying and some may understand exactly what I am saying…. my observation is not what it seems on first reading. . Ask yourself why it reads like a novel and as it happened in July, why go public now? She’s certainly got public sympathy on this occasion, judging from the comments in the DM. What I don’t understand is why the RF don’t get the media to put an embargo on stories like this. Perhaps they want us to see her for what she is, whatever that may be.

      1. Talking of the Duke of Woke – I can’t recall The Queen going public when one of her corgis pegged out….

      2. Morning PM,

        I have just said the same thing, and have just refreshed the page to find identical thoughts to mine .

        She never stops being the actress, and my goodness what a fibber and manipulator of facts she is .

        1. Hello Belle, I didn’t realise you had said the same, I do try not to tread on other people’s toes. Honestly, what an emotional manipulator this woman is. She makes me cringe with embarrassment. I wonder what Harry really thinks of it all? I wonder if he is gay and this is simply a convenient cover for him. I read somewhere at the strip poole event that there were no women there, they were all blokes. He also gave Diana’s engagement ring to William for Kate which he had inherited, perhaps safe in the knowledge he wouldn’t need it.

          1. I just think they are all a weird bunch , with the most peculiar voices .

            The grunts.

            I have come into contact with two of them on two different occassions years ago ( The Princes, Heir and his younger brother ) .. I shan’t say where or when , but I was shocked and not impressed .

            I also nursed Lord M of Burma when I was a student nurse .. People like that are so different from the rest of us , they have their own grunty language and GREAT GRANDIOSITY..

            I watched a programme about him a couple of weeks ago , and all my inner instincts proved correct , sadly .

          2. In my catering days…….we used to do Gatcombe – so the pre-event cocktail parties; Badminton, again the Royals were there…… Charles & Di had a little fracas after a tree-planting event at Highgrove. We also did a couple of other events there. Also Di came to the Polo Club at Cirencester – she wasn’t into horses and just wanted a drink and a sit down.

          3. You must have had a very intersting time , J . We all have to behave like the three monkeys sometimes !

            I can imagine Di being very bored by many things , probably the chaps kept her interest up!

    3. Language was never their or her forte. “Meghan my missed carriage”. Great, keep walking. Trust you enjoyed the rest of your breakfast in peace?

          1. “My Struggle for Possession of Windsor Castle”.

            “My Fight for the Throne”.

            The end is listless……………

      1. Those things are offender tracking devices – one from Wormwood Scrubs the other from the new women’s prison/rest centre.

    6. T_B, you’d understand if, like me, you’d been in the branch of Tesco’s in the Hythe area of Colchester this afternoon. I do not often frequent Tesco but they had a good deal on Canon printer cartridges.

    1. Quite the opposite, I’m afraid.

      Not only won’t the courts allow it, any such animals that flee here won’t be sent back either.

    6. Can we deport all those Rotherham rapists … oh never mind. Probably against their yooman rites, they must be allowed to carry on raping…

    8. 326776+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      ALL the time the lab/lib/con memberships have rear exits, NO.

      Plus the fact that undertaking will make pakiland free of such odious tripe & the UK
      overflowing.

  52. A reminder to you all of the 10 most frightening words in the English language.

    I’m from the Government and I’m here to help you.

  53. 326776+ up ticks,
    So many do NOT see it as a lab/lib/con coalition a,

    breitbart,
    Labour Leader Starmer to Back Boris Johnson’s Brexit Deal: Report

    1. The pro-Remain leader of the Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, will reportedly back Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prospective trade deal with the European Union in an attempt to put the battle over Brexit behind the party.

      The move to back Mr Johnson is widely seen as an attempt to mend ties with so-called “Red Wall” voters who abandoned the Labour Party in last year’s election, with many crediting their departure down to the Remain stance of the party.

      While there has been no final decision by the Labour leadership on whether they will whip votes to support Mr Johnson, sources within the Shadow Cabinet said that Starmer would back “almost any trade deal” with the EU, according to The Sun.

      On Monday night, Shadow cabinet office minister Rachel Reeves said in a meeting of the parliamentary Labour party (PLP) that the leadership will scrutinise the deal before signing off, saying per HuffPost: “Keir and I will read the deal. We are not being bounced into this decision.”

      However, following such scrutiny, Reeves said that the current position of the leadership is to support the prime minister’s deal.

      Something very worrying about this agreement.

      1. I have no doubt he will, Ped;
        after all those ‘effing remainers all
        feed at the same table!

        [I wanted to say troughers but thinking
        about it, troughers=remainers …….

      2. 326776+up ticks,
        Evening P,
        I have always seen it as a three tier semi re-entry missile the 9 month delay following the may
        orchestrated placement confirmed it.

        The wretch cameron launch, may the treacherous intermediate, johnson nose cone, deal done yesterday, forgotten tomorrow if there was a GE.
        ALL those miles tramped for the party that got us the referendum
        only to have it abused by a
        multitude of fools, job done,leave it to the tories.

        Heartbreaking to a lesser mortal.
        My belief is we as a Country, will
        NOT require 12 baskets for our remaining fish stocks.

      4. I cannot understand why the British public and the MSM allowed Boris Johnson to tell us nothing about his WA before the generasl election.

        The evidence was there before the election that Boris Johnson could not be trusted – he had, after all, along with Greaseball-Smogg, voted in favour of May’s surrender WA.

        That Boris Johnson was considered the most suitable person in politics to Get Brexit Done defies belief.

    2. There was a letter in one paper saying, “As an Anglican, I am very relieved that the AOC will be away for a long time.”

      Prolly written by Our Susan!

  56. DT Story

    Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, reveals she had a miscarriage in July
    She described the experience as an ‘almost unbearable grief’ for her and Prince Harry

    Of course any kind-hearted, decent person sympathises with the grief any person has with the loss of a born or an unborn child.

    Why is that I am probably not alone in suspecting that this story may be being used to garner sympathy to counteract the largely negative opinions that the public has for this attention hungry couple who seem to know no depths to which they will not sink to gain publicity.

    1. The cold hearted bastard in me asks:

      “Was this before or after their two children only, to save the planet, announcement?”

    2. Morning Richard,

      Of course the Megain is an opportunist, the Cambridge’s have just lost their beloved dog Lupo, and that woman has climbed on board needing a sympathy vote . She is competing with them, and seems to me to be very needful of the limelight .

      What on earth is she doing exposing their dirty washing in public , the couple moved to the states for more privacy , and we then read she is being theatrical and actressy over a personal and private issue.

    2. Oh, they are so sweet and look so cosy……. I could gaze at them forever. The purrfect antidote to these times, nature continuing as normal. Wait until they are coming in after a good day’s foraging with mud up to their arm pits…. cats have hollow paws, you understand!

      1. {:¬))

        They were very young when they arrived 30 days ago. And healthy baby kittens eat voraciously. They are beginning to ease off the big feeds (and are already hinting at fussiness over what is offered…. !!)

        They do use an enormous amount of energy racing all over the ground floor of the house and play-fighting each other. It is exhausting just watching them!

  58. The Hindoo Chancellor tells us that the economy is in a disastrous state.

    Well spotted, Fishy. And just remind us – who created this disaster?

    Wanqueur.

      1. 326776+ up ticks,
        O2O,
        Og, I do put the current police force actions down to being on par with an UXB specialist in so far as their abusive use of power in regards to the peoples,and not realising a wrong move could very well have very nasty after effects.

    2. Just as well it is, Mola,
      otherwise we would be in
      deep sh..te, … hang on a
      cotton-picking minute …

  62. I turned the telly on at 5pm to hear about the Chancellor’s statement today. Instead, endless footage of some drug-taking footballer who croaked today. Once again the media loses its head. What a circus!

    1. Funny thing – if that petrol head tax dodging white and England hating wazzock IS knighted – he’ll have to kneel…..

    2. Jethro and his friend Penberthy wish us all a ‘portion’ of good will at Christmas!

    4. Jethro and his friend Penberthy wish us all a ‘portion’ of good will at Christmas!

  66. 326776+up ticks,
    breitbart,

    Jihadi Bride’s Lawyer Admits ‘There’s Always a Possibility’ She’s a Terror Threat,

    what’s new ? the UK governance politico’s know this as is everyone who steps ashore at Dover, but the politico’s don’t give a sh!te.

    1. Their slant will be that there already loads of threats in the UK so adding another one to the list to be monitored is not going to change things.

      1. 326776+up ticks,
        Evening KP,
        If that was the case then they would be condoning the actions of a highly suspected associate of known terrorist, as in aiding & abetting.

  67. Researchers warn that Covid vaccines could cause virus to mutate
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/11/25/researchers-warn-world-needs-remain-vigilant-covid-vaccines/

    Coronavirus vaccines could cause the virus to mutate, meaning new forms of jab would need to be created, scientists have said.

    Researchers at University College London (UCL) warned that the world needs to remain vigilant for genetic changes to Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.

    They said the imminent introduction of vaccines may “exert new selective pressures on the virus” that could lead to mutations that do not respond to jabs.

    Their comments are based on analysis of genetic material from more than 46,000 people with Covid-19 from 99 countries.

    First, create your market, then exploit it. A bit like car manufacturers bringing out a new version of a model every few years.

    1. Using the same argument one could say that lockdowns will cause mutations in the virus.

        1. The mutations needn’t necessarily be as bad as the current ones. In fact, isn’t that how they eventually die out?

          1. I am afraid to say that the next round of Corona virus will also have its origins in a laboratory somewhere. Bill Gates has intimated as such with that superior smirk of his.

      1. Same designer.

        I rather hope that Gates will shortly receive a version of his most irritating Windows 95 message: ‘Your software has performed a fatal exception and you will now be exterminated’.

  68. That’s me for this damp overcast day. Had hoped to see the ISS but it is too cloudy.

    Market day tomorrow – I’ll go and cough over people. Have a jolly evening.

    A demain.

      1. True.
        But with the best will in the world, each moderator works to their own standards and prejudices.

        As most mods here probably know, I’m a contrarian.
        I bite back when bitten, very rudely at times, but also take the view that all posts should be allowed to stand, and let readers judge.

        I don’t block, I don’t downvote and I will upvote things I agree with no matter who posts them, even people I regard as ignorant/biased on other matters.

        I salute those who are prepared to moderate, but I also think that there is a lack of consistency over removals.

        Hey ho….

        1. There have never been any particular house rules, apart from the one against rudeness to other posters. I tend to leave posts up, though I have been known to remove occasional out and out attacks.

          But others do things differently, some are lenient and others not so much.

          I have only ever blocked one person, and that was temporarily. I have never banned anyone – I leave that to Geoff to decide. I don’t think I’ve ever deliberately downvoted, either, though occasionally fingers can slip.

          But we’re all adults here, and although I dislike the use of some words – none are actually banned.

          1. I follow your method, N, except in the earlier days I have blitzed and banned a few who come on, from nowhere, spitting insults and trying to sell sex. Otherwise, normally let things ride, unless it gets really unpleasant (usually after my bed-time – nine o’clock is the new midnight…).

          2. Oh those trolls get banned – I mean real people. We had an attack of sex trolls some months ago – I stamp on those as soon as I see them.

          4. It’s a wonderful place to debate, to be frivolous or even to let off steam.

            But like it or not there is no question in my mind that some posters get treated more harshly than others.

            As to rudeness, again that’s a very subjective issue. If one believes the complaints ( I don’t, mostly) some posters think some of the moderators are biased against them.

          5. We’ve always been accused of bias – I don’t think we are, really. That was a favourite complaint of Gedore.

          6. We’ve always been accused of bias – I don’t think we are, really. That was a favourite complaint of Gedore.

          8. On balance, in total, neither do I.

            But as an observer, I think that there are times where personal preferences are allowed to reign.

            Just sayin’ and not aimed at anyone.

        1. Not aware we will be using moderator bots to moderate the site, even though it looks like it’s possible. Problem with the automation is that it isn’t sensitive enough, nor does anybody have the time to teach it to respond correctly to the style on NTTL – it would either be useless or kill the comments, neither of which is the intention.
          It would have one advantage though – it would address your comment about consistency in moderation – it would be consistently wrong!
          ;-))

    1. I cannot understand why any sensible person should be upset by Jordan Peterson’s books. I found his 12 Rules for Life extremely interesting and I gave copies to my sons for birthday presents and both of them enjoyed it.

  74. Serial killers receive pandemic aid in ‘biggest fraud’ in California history D Torygraph

    California prisoners including high-profile serial killers and murderers on death row received hundreds of millions of dollars in pandemic relief funds in one of the biggest frauds in the US state’s history. Payments had been sent to “rapists and child molesters, human traffickers and other violent criminals in the state prisons. The fraud was possible because California did not cross-check lists of inmates against unemployment claims made for lost income since the coronavirus lockdown began in March.

    The same is happening in the UK. The only difference is that the recipients are not in jail, only on the dole or awaiting UK citizenship and passport.

    3. “North Yorkshire Police have incorporated a hijab into their official uniform.”

      With whose authority?

        1. Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing:

          PRINCIPLE 1 “The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.”

          PRINCIPLE 2 “The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval of police actions.”

          PRINCIPLE 3 “Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.”

          PRINCIPLE 4 “The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes proportionately to the necessity of the use of physical force.”

          PRINCIPLE 5 “Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to the public opinion but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.”

          PRINCIPLE 6 “Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.”

          PRINCIPLE 7 “Police, at all times, should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and the public are the police; the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence.”

          PRINCIPLE 8 “Police should always direct their action strictly towards their functions and never appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.”

          PRINCIPLE 9 “The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with it.”

    5. It will be interesting to see how many muslim drivers committing driving offences she arrests. I hope someone in the force keeps tabs.

    6. …and, of course, they face to the East and pray 5 times a day, after daubing themselves and their cars with LGBTQXYZ rainbows, polished their nails and put on their high-heels. The Imams will be incandescent.

    7. Are there plans for other religions to be recruited? Would be nice to see a few nuns in blue.
      (No blue nun jokes)

          1. Many years ago, at Christmas, my father tried opening the Mateus with a CO2 sparklet pump-opener, and burst the bottle over the Christmas dinner.
            :-((

          2. I think people forget that MR was/is slightly bubbly.

            It really wasn’t as dreadful as it’s cliché.

          3. Also the non-cylindrical bottle isn’t designed for much pressure.
            But yes, it was actually OK to drink. No so much fun picking glass out of the potatoes & gravy, though.

    1. The Oxford vaccine is so good, its better with half a dose than one. Imagine how good it’ll be if you took 1/1024th of a dose or less?

        1. I was not in favour of taking a vaccine until the NORMAL testing period (5-10 years) was up, but now I see that if I take a dose of 1/1073741824 th, I will be completely safe for life. Where do I sign up?

    2. Afternoon all. Only 95% effective. Don’t bother – if you catch the virus you have a 99.95% at least of recovering from it. Beats all your vaccinations.

      1. Copied mail in votes or votes put through the voting machines multiple times.

        Over 600,000 more mail in votes were received in PA than were issued.

          2. Yet this morning there is still nothing in the mainstream media. What is the source for these numbers, Polly?
            This fraud is so large scale, it looks desperate. of course, if one fears that one might not live another four years to the next election, i suppose one would get desperate at any further postponement…

          3. An awful thought has just occurred to me. If these developments aren#t reported in the media, or given only very slight coverage, then the eventual Trump victory will be presented as an illegal coup. And voters will swallow that lie, because they never saw the evidence as it went along, of how the fraud was exposed.

  81. Drat and double drat .
    Piled the dogs into the car , lovely weather window for a decent non village walk and an excuse not to get bogged down with PMQs .

    Shut the tailgate of the car , and saw that the rear offside tyre was very flat .

    We have an electric gadget that plugs into the thingy in the car , attach the line to the car tyre, turn on the engine and the tyre reinflates.. clever eh.

    Tyre reinflated , Moh rang local garage intending to buy a new tyre , they were busy , and didn’t have one in stock , so we gave the dogs a quick run, leaving the gadget in the car just in case , and of course the drizzle started .. tyre remained inflated . We then drove to a timber/ out door clothing/ animal feed place at Bere Regis , passing Monkey World Rescue Sanctuary where one solitary chimp was sitting high up on the top of the huge wooden climbing frame , they usually sit nice and high,
    I expect they watch the traffic / visitors , we usually spot a few on sunny days as we drive by.

    PMQs on the car radio had just finished , thank goodness. Boris and his Uhms and Ahhs annoy Moh like mad , and Moh in turn annoys me by copying Boris to make the point!

    I had to find some warm work socks for son , who is now working again after a 2 week break .

    The large store smelt of leather, fresh wood , and is the sort of place where you can buy your riding kit, shooting stuff, out door overalls , warm Loden jackets , rat traps , everything for your ferret , food for pet rabbits , pigs , chickens , dogs and much more … and warm socks and wellie boots of all different varieties ..The sort of place that doesn’t mind muddy boots!

    I bought a pack of warm socks and some dog food , Moh felt tempted by the smell of a mobile food van selling what looked like delicious burgers and hot dogs … I said we have soup and fresh bread at home ( bread maker )

    On route home via the long way around , we called into another local tyre place , and it was full of cars waiting to have new tyres as well. The chap suggested we call back tomorrow.

    There seems to have been a run on replacing punctured tyres .

    Still some drizzle , had the soup , sad to see the sky looks quite gloomy far too early.

    2. All those council staff on 100% pay otherwise doing nothing at home during the lockdowns rather than repairing potholes, etc. Besides, during the first lockdown, anyone not using their car should’ve been (not accusing you of this) keeping their car’s tyres properly inflated – in fact to the maximum the handbook says (then reduce back to normal when you are about to use it again), as it reduces any flat-spotting and damage caused by the tyres being left to go flat.

      I saw someone on a regular walking route who’d left their car for 6 months with completely flat tyres (they were fine beforehand). I suspect they’ll have problems sooner rather than later, and made worse by the cold weather because it make the tyres harder/more brittle and prone to damage, especially on the sidewalls. Not good in the wet, ice and snow (if we have any of the latter two this year).

      1. The holes in the road around here are dreadful , and the manhole covers, drain covers, have sunk and are sharp.

        Our roads are an absolute mess. councils are short of money because they have migrants to home , and lots of spare child they are obliged to take and foster out.

        1. They have no money for your roads because they are sending it over here to repair our colonial roads.
          Our main road junction in town (well it has a traffic light) was under repair all of last year, all of this summer and they have just now dug up a pavement that was laid earlier this month.

          Try getting a tyre fixed round here this month. It is snow tyre season so every garage is booked solid swapping out summer tyres for the winter ones.

      2. Bizarrely, an unused tyre deflates quite quickly, but use it and it’s fine forever… wonder how that works?

      3. Hmmm, might try that on our summer tyres, they are just sitting in the garage until next szpring

  82. A rather dreary Choral Evensong on R3 just now.

    How come choirs which are “professional” can sing – but congregation of plebs cannot?

      1. Yes, there is no doubt that Mr Biden was giving good, well-argued support to the UK. Apart from his remarks about his Irishness (almost obligatory for any US politician), and his concerns, shared by many on this side of the Atlantic, about the AI Agreement, what evidence is there of any hostility to the UK now? Frankly, I trust him a lot more than I trust some of our current leaders.

          1. I have never knowingly downvoted anyone. On a couple of recent occasions, I inadvertently downvoted someone but, as soon as it was pointed out, removed it and apologised. What on earth has caused you to make such offensive remarks.

          2. Good evening Corim
            Re the pedant…..
            “I found him to be a spiteful character masquerading under the cosy ‘peddy’ name”.
            I think he knew exactly what he was doing and deliberately focused on anyone he thought was of a lower echelon or social standing than himself. I would stick my neck out and say that everyone makes spelling mistakes or typos, it’s human nature, it even happens in books from time to time, but there is no need to dwell on it, you just turn the page and forget it enjoy the read. But his attitude and nature was of a bullying kind. I for one found it rather waring, I really don’t think there is any excuse for it.
            Hopefully, give it a week I’ll get back, it’s is really enjoyable sharing comments with like minded people. I have recently recommended Nottlers to people I know, but haven’t noticed any of their post ….yet.

    4. i don’t believe Biden ever does anything except to gain political ground. Principles? Yeah, he’s got any number of them for sale!

  88. BBC R4 news announcer just said “The world has lost a leg end”. Poor old Maradona, off to heaven in bits and pieces.

  89. Sorry, been out all day so arrived late to this, but has anyone ‘in power’ explained why 2 of the 5 days that they have magnanimously granted us for our festive celebrations are days when many, many people are still at work? And why the 5 day sop to us ends the day before a bank holiday?

    Could it be that the powers that be, happily immersed in their extended, taxpayer-funded break, haven’t given a thought to the poor bloody workers who pay their wages?

    No, thought not.

    Edit – And reading the DT just now, I find ‘Instead, with people to be allowed to travel for a few days over Christmas, many trains will not be running. Services are non-existent on Christmas Day and sporadic on Boxing Day.’

    I am becoming more than impatient with this Government that I voted for, I am becoming positively livid.

    1. Every time I think that the politicians are gorging themselves on a £10,000 bonus, a 4.1% salary increase, and an excessively generous expenses package while businesses such as ours risk bankruptcy I want to vomit.

      1. Just to add to the gloom and senses of disgust I have for Hancock:

        “Health Secretary Matt Hancock has defended spending almost £50,000 on takeaways for his staff from just one London restaurant during the peak of the Covid crisis.

        The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spent a total of £47,528 on takeaways from Bong Bong’s Manila Kanteen earlier this year, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

        Just nine orders costing £43,348 were placed at the fashionable “Filipino-inspired” eatery during April – and another £4,179-worth of orders placed in March, according to spending data requested by the Daily Mail and the TaxPayers’ Alliance.”

    2. I am surprised that they did not offer you staggered festive times, spreading the holiday rush over three or four weeks.

      You know it makes sense!

      2. double blimey, a dozen years younger than me.

        Apparently had surgery for a blood clot on the brain a few weeks ago. Obviously covid related.

      1. Good evening G. It is a shame that an otherwise accomplished and some would say great footballer was prepared to cheat so blatantly and get away with it.

        I could not imagine Tom Finney, Stanley Matthews or John Atyeo punching the ball into the net and claiming to have scored. Nowadays it often seems as though most are cheats, feigning injury to be awarded free kicks or penalties and trying to get the opposing players sent off, writhing on the field in agony only to miraculously recover within seconds after the card has been shown.

        1. David Beckham reacted petulantly when he was tackled in a World Cup match against Argentina. He was sent off and England with only 10 men to Argentina’s 11 lost the match and were eliminated from the competition.

          I have never understood why David Beckham is so idolised. He has never been part of an England team which has won an international football competition.

        2. Cheats often prosper – just look at the American election which looks like going to Geriatric Joe the Democratic Dodo.

          1. Biden is OK, what worries me is that Biden will do the job for six months then retire on mental health grounds and boom President Cuckoo Clock.

    5. Heart attack. Must have been all that heading and handling the ball.

      Diego – one source says deriving from Ancient Greek Ἰάκωβος (Iákōbos), from Hebrew יַעֲקֹב‎ (ya‘ăqṓḇ, “Jacob”, literally “heel-grabber”
      “Diego” as a generic name or term for a Spaniard is documented from around 1615, and “Dago” is used as such still in the 19th century. By the early 20th century, the term “dago” became an ethnic slur chiefly for Italian Americans, besides also for anyone of Spanish or Portuguese descent.

      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/12/10/article-1093424-0195B0810000044D-971_468x559.jpg

    6. St. Peter: “Now, about this hand – my boss is sure he was using both hands for something else that day…”

  91. The “testing” has been a massive fraud from start to finish………

    Just starting to unravel in Italy

    Italian newspapers are reporting that legal action has been started

    against Covid testing under charges of fraud to procure public funding,

    false alarm and manslaughter. Italian Nobel Prize nominee 2018, Dr

    Stefano Scoglio, says there is more to this fraud than the 95% false

    positives.

    “Today I discovered a new element of this real fraud,”

    Dr Scoglio reports. He refers to the choice to alter the result of the

    swab by detecting only one of the three genes that would define

    SARS-CoV-2. “Swabs look for 3 genes characterizing SARS-CoV-2: E gene,

    RdRp gene & N gene. If the virus were present, all 3 would have to

    be found, because if the virus is intact, the only case in which it can

    have a pathogenic role & infect, the test must find all 3 genes … In

    fact, this was initially the case and the results of the swabs were

    only positive if all three genes were found. But everything has changed

    since last April.”

    https://twitter.com/robinmonotti/status/1331500903564775426

    1. Hooray. Matt Hancocks’s tests give almost 100% false positives. The entire regime is a fraud on a monumental scale. Their proposed vaccines will alter our DNA and scupper our immune system, making us prone to any number of infections and dependent for the rest of our lives on Gates’ vaccines.

      1. I put up earlier today, well, eventually after being informed I’d forgotten the link, an excellent article on why the testing regime etc is a huge fraud. The genetic bits and pieces that the boffins try to piece together is mind boggling. We have been taken for a ride and Johnson & Co will have to keep this nonsense running until they believe that the population has been sufficiently cowed. Expect Lockdown 3 or whatever they brand it in the New Year or early Spring. They are in too deep to stop now.

      2. Just by completely innocent, randon, unconnected coincidence, Mat Hancock is very friendly with Soros’ assistant, Klaus Schwab, who organises the World Economic Forum, Davos……. and Bill Gates………….

        ”Terrific to meet Bill Gates”…………..

        https://twitter.com/matthancock/status/1088390904858202112?lang=en

        Apparently terrific to meet Klaus Schwab……………..

        https://twitter.com/DarrenPlymouth/status/1328422535680192512

        Why do politicians love billionaires ?

  92. I believe that there are parallels between the fraudulent Presidential election in the United States and the fraudulent exploitation of the Covid-19 scam around the world.

    Both tell me how utterly corrupt the global elites are in achieving their Eugenicist agenda. The funding of the WHO is by Gates boosted by additional more secretive funding most of which can be traced to Soros through myriad organisations.

    Edit: Trump cancelled WHO funding because he is smart. Biden promised to reinstate WHO funding because he is corrupt. Trump withdrew from the Paris Accord because he is smart. Biden promised to rejoin the Paris Accord because he is corrupt.

    The medical advice provided by scientists and Public Health stooges such as Whitty and Vallance has been false all along. We watched these sweaty buffoons teamed with our own Prime buffoon and his lapdog. We always knew it was about transference of our wealth to the already wealthy coupled with a desire to control us all. The vaccines patented by Bill Gates include some whereby a microchip is injected with extreme force into our bodies thus enabling tracking and monitoring of our every activity for the purposes of control.

    They need 5G for the realisation of their plans. The clever bit is that we pay for the 5G and the Covid ‘response’ the useless PPE, and the Nightingale Hospitals which were always intended as mass vaccination centres from the start of this farce.

    The inevitable conclusions are that our government advisor medicos and politicians are corrupt and do not have our best interests at heart. Let us face it, nobody could be that stupid.

  93. The MSM is obsessed with the demise of a short, tubby, alcoholic, cocaine-addict and friend of the Mafia – coz he played football …

    3. They must be relieved that they do not have to report on the other things goings-on in the world, M. Lacoste – hence the obsession.

  94. Goodnight, Gentlefolk, with the wish that the Election fraud blows up in Biden’s face and that the Covid lies blow up in Johnson’s face.

    Off to bed and say my prayers.

  97. Why are so many NOTLrs getting so sniffy lately?

    Edit – We’re all going to die, let’s not get too maudlin about it.

    4. I think it may be the result of rising tensions caused by the Goings-On in the our country and the world, ItP. It is out of our control, thus the stress levels rise. The last three mornings I have been waking with a feeling of dread, and for a few moments, close to tears. What is going to happen to us all?

      1. Hi, PM, chill. Don’t try and overthink this. At the moment, it’s annoying and inconvenient, but nothing more than that. If it becomes worse, then I think the Great British Public will have their say.
        We’ll be fine.

        1. Thank you for that. I do over-think things – I take things to their conclusions and all the ramifications en route not to mention the lay-bys and footpaths. I have a friend whose daughters work for the nhs, physio and radiographer, and she says they have never seen so many sick and ill people (one of them works in Leicester) as they have this year. I spoke to her on the phone this evening and even she is coming round to admitting there is something odd about this. Especially when I told her that Portugal were abandoning the pcr test because it was effectively rubbish (she has a holiday home in Portugal and thinks they are sensible people). So we are getting there with the GBP, there is hope. I have to say I was sceptical from the first, from Boris’s first speech when he said ‘some of you are going to die’ and I thought why is he ramping up the fear instead of trying to calm a nervous population? And from then on I was watching for the anomalies. It is the fear of compulsory (or coerced) vaccination that gets me, for me and for our boys and their families – to be honest although well qualified our sons pay scant attention to what is going on and if I start explaining they think I am paranoid, it is just mum again and her over-active imagination. We try to skirt around anything political because both their wives are lefties. I am grateful for the support we all get on here. One day at a time.

          1. My elder son is even more sceptical than I am – staunch Brexiteer as well. The younger one – not sure. Anti -Brexit and we fell out over that over two years ago when I was staying with him in Switzerland. Only seen him once since then – last Christmas. Not expecting he’ll be over this time. He’s been working at home since the spring but he went on his cycling holday in the summer.

      2. A few months ago I developed a terrible pain in my hip and knee. Caused I think by walking around the village during lock down , hard uneven surfaces are horrible and other things.

        My preference is walking on grass , softer surfaces . Had a phone call consultation with Doc who put up a prescription for me . he said what he was prescribing would help with the pain and give me a good nights sleep . I take one at night , and I feel totally different , still have an ache , but nothing like before .

        Perhaps you need the same sort of thing PM, which will help you relax?

        I still worry about things , but am just about coping .

        2. Yes, you are right, Belle. I find it difficult to make that opening move, picking up the phone and having to articulate my problem especially when it comes under the category of ’emotional’. What was the name of your prescription? I was weeding back in August, great brutes of things, stalky with small dandelion heads about 3′ – 4′ high and I have had pain in my wrist since, worst in the morning and subsiding then through the afternoon and evening, (but never quite going away) – only to start up again next morning. I will use that as my introduction.

      3. It even appears to be affecting my dog. He could not sleep last night – he got me up to let him out on the hour, every hour 🙁 By the time I’d got him settled it was about 06.00 – and the builders started at 07.30! I fell asleep in the bath tonight – no doubt I shan’t sleep when I go to bed.

      4. Yes, I know exactly what you mean.
        Being realistic, I know most of my and MB’s lives are behind us and I resent what time we have left being totally buggered up by hysterical dunderheaded politicians. Add to that I’m worrying about what the future holds for my family, especially the grandchildren.
        The icing on the cake was the death a month ago of a friend who was a year younger than me.
        Tempus fugit and I’m marking time that I can’t spare.

        1. Oh Anne, that is horrible. Realistically it can happen any time from one’s mid-forties onwards, but it’s never good.

        2. We have just come to an absolute halt , or rather I have .
          I have organised a veterans group for 17 years , they are in their late eighties now, I have lost many members, sent flowers and cards and letters to their families , my last meeting was in February , those who are remaining cannot meet up , and I doubt we will ever meet up again . All good people . We have met up 6 times a year for years , and Christmas will be a no go for everyone .

          Life is just not fair.

        3. A while ago, the Chairman of our British Horse Society County Committee died – he was in his forties! That was a real wake-up call. Now, like you, I am aware of how little time I potentially have left. I don’t want to waste it.

  99. Evening, all. According to my local rag, Sunak is warning of problems with the economy due to Covid. You don’t say! Who could possibly have imagined that shutting everything down, locking people in their homes, making shopping such a vile experience to be avoided at all costs and borrowing billions to pay people not to work would cause any problems at all?

    1. The billionaires directing UK policy and wanting to make more billions by shorting the £ look perfectly placed……….

      Oh…… I wonder if that’s what it’s all about ?

  100. This has been a day when the whole corruption has begun to unravel publicly.

    In the US Biden’s voting crime is ruthlessly exposed and his Presidential ambitions truly shot. Meanwhile in the UK Hancock and his mad testing regime is shown to be a sham and his Vaccination regime truly shot too.

    I expect resignations given the debilitating sums Hancock and his medico fools have cost this country with monstrous lockdowns and attacks on our civil liberties and for what? A particularly infectious flu virus no worse than many other flu viruses down the years. It is not to be judged by faulty testing but by actual morbidity. What utter fools we have representing us.

    Happy days!

    1. Our government will cruise on regardless. Laws punishing us for not being vaccinated will have to be fought next, I fear.

    2. Sadly, they have terrified too many of our fellow citizens into believing all this nonsense is “to keep us safe”.

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