Tuesday 15 December: CEOs who are still not prepared for a deal or no deal deserve to be fired

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/15/lettersceos-still-not-prepared-deal-no-deal-deserve-fired/

824 thoughts on “Tuesday 15 December: CEOs who are still not prepared for a deal or no deal deserve to be fired”

  2. We have a Cabinet of Kentucky Fried headless chickens, is it any wonder that fewer and fewer people believe a word ministers say? 15 December 2020.

    Grim Reaper Matt Hancock prefaced his Commons announcement of yet another ruinous lockdown in London, Hertfordshire and Essex with a blood-curdling warning about a new super strain of coronavirus which has just been identified by ‘the science’.

    Presumably, this ingenious variant only attacks people in pubs not gyms, and restaurants not shops.
    Even so, it’s still not as clever as the initial virus, which ‘experts’ assure us is able to work out to the last Scotch egg whether or not drinkers are having a ‘substantial meal’ with their pint.

    It would also appear that Covid-19 will be knocking off for the holidays.

    Morning everyone. These detailed observations of the absurdities of Lockdowns have been made many times on Nottl but there seems to be a decidedly acerbic quality to Littlejohn’s article. Judging by Handcock’s pronouncement last night it looks like Government Policy is Hotel California; you can check out but never leave.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9053627/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-universe-does-closing-hospitality-sector-protect-economy.html

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      It would appear that the sudden arrival of the ‘new strain’ of the virus has saved Wankcok’s and Johnson’s bacon. The PCR fiasco was running out of steam:Drosten’s initial paper finally has been peer reviewed and found to be wanting (there’s more to Drosten floating around the internet, and the alleged information throws up some issues); the scam of cases, or is it infections today, is dying on its feet as the ONS statistics do not reflect the doom-mongers’ statements. And so, “Hey Presto”, another strain appears to put the frighteners on.

      Wankcock, I believe, has intimated that the new strain will likely be susceptible to the ‘vaccine’, if true then another indication of not only the original virus being smart e.g. can tell the time – drinking after 10 PM – know what is and what isn’t a substantial meal but that we now have a ‘vaccine’ that possibly is not specific to the disease it was designed to attack. Strange that every year the flu vaccine has to be re-engineered to cover mutant strains. Truly, we are entering a second age of miracles: we really could do with Wankcock disappearing into the wilderness for 40 days to converse with one of his deities (Schwab, Gates or Soros), or better still, disappearing forever by being carried off in a fiery chariot.

      1. Apparently Drosten is not a doctor and his paper advocating PCR testing is a Phd thesis not yet peer reviewed. He is about to be prosecuted in Germany.

        1. Morning all.

          I’m pretty sure I read recently or heard that the PCR tests was never intended to be rolled out in the hundreds of thousands. Can’t remember where unfortunately. Do you know what Drosten is being prosecuted for?

        2. From what I gleaned from the internet three signed-off copies of a person’s work for their doctorate have to be on file, apparently only one can be found for Drosten.

          His work on his PCR project was recently peer reviewed and demolished by twenty other scientists, including Michael Yeadon.
          Check out the submission and acceptance dates for his PCR project. If true, then something is very wrong in the validating process.

  4. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Some disappointing news late yesterday about the Eton fiasco, but it is early days…

    Eton College’s dismissal of a Master was justified, an appeal panel has ruled as free speech activists pledge to elevate the case to the Attorney General.

    The Head Master of the 580-year-old institution said that intellectual freedom “lies at the heart” of an Eton education but added that there are “limits to the freedoms that teachers have”.

    Simon Henderson told parents that there must now be a period of reflection on recent events and that the school will need to “consider how we continue to maintain a positive dialogue between those who hold opposing views”. He urged both parents and Eton Masters to “move forward together for the benefit of the boys”.

    Will Knowland, an English teacher at Eton, was sacked earlier this year for gross misconduct after recording a lecture which questioned “current radical feminist orthodoxy” and then refusing to remove it from his YouTube channel.

    The Free Speech Union (FSU), which is supporting Mr Knowland, said intends to refer Eton’s trustees to the Charity Commission and the Attorney General for “failing to discharge their duty to protect Eton’s reputation and to ensure it is pursuing its charitable object, which is to advance education for the benefit of its students”.

    Eton College has been engulfed in a free speech row following Mr Knowland’s dismissal. His controversial lecture, titled “The Patriarchy Paradox” was part of the Perspectives course taken by sixth form students to encourage them to think critically about subjects of public debate.

    Mr Knowland alleged that he was banned from delivering the lecture to pupils and then dismissed after he refused to remove a video of it from his personal YouTube channel.

    But Eton has maintained that the dismissal was “not a matter of free speech” but one of “internal discipline”. The £42,500-a-year school has said it was left with “no choice” but to ask Mr Knowland to remove the video from the internet as it fell foul of equality laws.

    Mr Henderson told parents on Monday night that it has been “frustrating” that an employment dispute has “played out in the public domain”.

    He added: “It has been suggested by some that intellectual freedom is somehow being compromised within eton. It is not.

    “This is such a rewarding place to work precisely because there is such plurality of thought amongst boys and staff. “This is to be celebrated and lies and the heart of the liberal education in which we passionately believe.

    However, as in any school there are limits to the freedoms that teachers have and there are professional obligations that must be respected.”

    Mr Knowland has previously said that he will take the school to an employment tribunal if the appeal panel upholds his dismissal, and he has so far crowdfunded over £60,000 for potential legal fees.

    He has also told his supporters that he may seek an Act of Parliament to reinstate him to his post by invoking an obscure branch of legislation that has not been used in over 20 years.

    The FSU said it will lobby MPs to amend the Equality Act 2010, with its general secretary Toby Young adding: “The Act was never intended to prohibit teachers from introducing their students to a broad range of different perspectives on controversial topics, such as sex and gender.

    “We will be asking an MP who is in favour of free speech to bring forward a bill amending the Equality Act so it cannot be used in future as an excuse to censor dissent from left-wing dogma in schools, as it has been in this case.”

    1. He [Henderson] added: “It has been suggested by some that intellectual freedom is somehow being compromised within eton. It is not.

      However, as in any school there are limits to the freedoms that teachers have and there are professional obligations that must be respected.”

      Two mutually exclusive positions held at the same time!

      2. “Two mutually exclusive positions held at the same time!”
        How else do you become PM without learning the basics?

        Morning Minty et al

      3. Araminta mng. This sounds like one of the house rules in the former gentlemans club – The Warble Club. Where if you had two thoughts / ideas / positions, the club rules stated one must be given to “one’s neighbour”

      4. Quite so…Trendy Hendy has yet to learn the intricacies of double-speak. (That’s a D minus for you, Hendy. See me after school!)

        ‘Morning, Minty.

    2. “This is such a rewarding place to work precisely because there is such plurality of thought ……”

      Er, 51% of human perspective is excluded from attending

    4. And, as Mr. Henderson tots up the cost of myriad cancelled payments of £42,000 and the hallowed walls ring hollow ……..

  6. ‘Morning again. Today’s Brexit letters. My heart bleeds for poor Gordon Marlow, but I like the cut of John Palmer’s jib (first letter):

    SIR – I am the CEO of a small-to-medium enterprise that trades almost entirely in Europe. A hard Brexit holds no fears for us. Indeed, our market share in Europe continues to expand month by month. So I was astounded by the insipid helplessness of other CEOs (“What would a no-deal Brexit mean for business?”, telegraph.co.uk, December 11).

    Here’s my advice to shareholders. Fire your CEO and the board if they haven’t already configured the business for a hard Brexit.

    Fire them if they only offer products and services that are so unremarkable that they can’t withstand ordinary World Trade Organisation tariffs.

    Fire them if they haven’t already developed plans for new markets and found new and better sources of materials to import.

    Fire them if they can’t run a business except in a heavily protected market.

    Fire them for still whinging four years after the vote to leave the EU.

    John Palmer
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Like millions of Britons with second homes in Europe, I used to be able to laze in the Mediterranean sun for months on end. I could then pop into Portugal for a month or two, or go on nice relaxing Mediterranean cruise.

    Those days are over if we leave the EU without a deal, because Britons will only be allowed in EU countries for 90 days at a time.

    Furthermore, we used to be entitled to state healthcare in Europe but this will disappear in a no-deal scenario, and I, like countless other elderly Britons, cannot get health insurance due to age and medical conditions.

    My life has been ruined by the Government’s inability to negotiate. This is not all about the economy – but the happiness of millions of Britons.

    Gordon Marlow
    Hornsea, East Yorkshire

    SIR – Jeremy Warner is spot on: Britain is nowhere near creating a post-Brexit vision. One crucial question is: how much manufacturing should be based here rather than our over-relying on imports? In 20 years, British goods exports to the EU have risen 70 per cent, while imports from the EU rose 140 per cent, leading to a huge goods deficit of £96 billion in 2016. Brussels must want to control events enough for this to continue far into the future.

    Let us hope that the Brexit outcome will not cut off avenues before voters and MPs get a chance to focus on this problem and start asking the awkward questions about what we really want in the next 30 years.

    Nick O’Gorman
    Kingston upon Thames, Surrey

    SIR – Does the EU agreeing to “go the extra mile” herald a shift our way? It could have said “go the extra 1.60934 kilometres”.

    Tom Merchant
    Maresfield, East Sussex

    SIR – I want to set deadlines to pay the taxman. Can you give me some advice?

    Walter Bryan Davis
    Ashtead, Surrey

    3. Some advice for Walter [Mitty] Bryan Davis. Yes if the taxman can beat his whippet in a race from the door of the house to the front gate, he’ll get paid [the taxman], in cash. If he loses, he gets the dog food, but has to collect it from the doorstep

    4. Morning, HJ.
      I thought someone would beat me to it on the John Palmer letter.
      Possibly the most forceful letter in the past 4+ years.
      I’ve copied and distributed it to friends and family.

    5. “My life has been ruined by the Government…”
      Well, that will teach you to trust the Government then, won’t it. You’ve had four years to regularise your papers in Europe, and get a permanent visa or a passport in the country of your choice.

    6. Gordon – how about sharing the blame with the EU after all there are 27 of them and only one UK…..

      1. “Dear Gordon’s” crocodile tears over the walls crumbling around his idyllic vision of his own Brittas Empire continue to swirl in his echo chamber. The words he’s waiting to be told is “jog on, foxtrot oscar”

        1. BTL he is getting a right royal pasting.
          The letter is so self-centred, I’m not sure if he’s in his second childhood or is a new manifestation of Titania McGrath.

          1. anneallen mng, agree. My first inkling with such letters is MSM choosing an emotional topic knowing it’ll get responses but is used as deception from covering more important news. And that such an approach comes from the likes of the “Editor” and puppet politicians thinking this will distract the plebs.

          3. I think a lot of expat Britons are whinging in a similar way. A group of them started organising against Brexit before the referendum, as they were concerned about their own interests (read: too lazy to lift a finger to sort out their papers).

    8. “This is not all about the economy – but the happiness of millions of Britons. Gordon Marlow” Nope, Gordie babe, it’s about democracy. We voted to leave and if the EU is such a pile of crap that it won’t play fair, then blame them.

  7. Lord Lexden and the statue of Mrs T. It isn’t going well:

    SIR – The statue of Margaret Thatcher which loyal Tories want to erect in Grantham does not deserve the support of her school contemporary, Professor M J Sewell (Letters, December 10). Whoever paid £300,000 to have it made wasted their money.

    The “state robes” that adorn it bear no more than a passing resemblance to the actual robes worn by members of the House of Lords. They turn her into a dowdy provincial mayoress.

    The face has a bland, slightly troubled expression. It lacks the rather fierce, penetrating eyes which unnerved so many Cabinet ministers. There is no trace of her resilience and determination, brilliantly captured by Oscar Nemon in his 1979 bust of her at the Carlton Club.

    Mark and Carol Thatcher have failed to give this statue their blessing. The controversy that continues to surround Lady Thatcher needs to recede before any statue is erected in a public place. Then a work should be commissioned that does justice to one of Britain’s greatest prime ministers.

    Lord Lexden (Con)
    London SW1

    1. Hugh morning. Presume given the tone of Lexden [Con..job] Lord hasn’t received any Xmas cards [or someone in 77 Bde hasn’t], so sent his missive to DT while polishing of the dregs of the port

      1. Morning, AW. Lexden can console himself with the fact that he never fails to get a letter published by the fawning letters’ editor of this sorry rag.

        1. Grizzly mng. must be the editor’s alter ego or Reggie Perrin. Was trying to see if Kenya had anything newsworthy to post. One headline of Somalia orders Kenya Diplomats out within 7 days [as usual the upload links here don’t work. The reality is Kenya doesn’t have diplomats in Mog, only aid workers. Kenya media struggling for anything newsworthy and of interest

    2. Apropos the frequent discussions, on this forum, about the pros-and-cons of prime ministers having procreated or being child-free; I would suggest that if Mrs Thatcher had remained child-free instead of producing perhaps the most execrable set of twins of all time; she would have been an ever greater stateswoman.

      1. I always felt it showed how organised she was.
        Twins and one of each. Bish, bosh, job over and done with in one pregnancy.
        Now that’s what I call organisation.
        It does seem that great people produce inferior off-spring; WSC’s sprogs, with the exception of Mary, were drunks and druggies.

        1. Is it because they grow up with an over-inflated sense of entitlement (the forerunners of todays spoilt “woke” brats) that their parents are incapable of handling?

          1. As often is the case Tom Lehrer springs into my mind:

            From the Bible to the popular song
            There’s one theme that we find right along
            Of all ideals they hail as good
            The most sublime is motherhood
            There was a man though, who it seems
            Once carried this ideal to extremes
            He loved his mother and she loved him
            And yet his story is rather grim.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6rKrO5iLZs

  8. Mng all, 2 days of big tech [Windows / M.O.] reconfiguring their software and here at least, servers [promoting Office 365 et al] – all in all a pain in the proverbial.

    Another woke strapline as header. Minor amendment would be apt: “CEOs who are still not prepared for a deal or no deal to be shot”. The 2 “senior woke” principles of the above companies would be a good place to start. Now to go through below posts and see what nuggets are in store

      1. A man who goes bald at the front is a thinker. A man who goes bald at the back is sexy. A man who goes bald at the front and at the back thinks he’s sexy.

    3. It’s just downright amazing how all we nutty NoTTLers managed to get through puberty without the advice of the Zinnia, sweet flower that it is.

      1. I have been following some of these people on Twit recently, and no, it isn’t a spoof. They are not big on self-awareness. I could tell you some of the things I’ve heard said in real life too, but it might identify me. Suffice to say, I’ve heard actual people articulating similar stuff.

      2. I have been following some of these people on Twit recently, and no, it isn’t a spoof. They are not big on self-awareness. I could tell you some of the things I’ve heard said in real life too, but it might identify me. Suffice to say, I’ve heard actual people articulating similar stuff.

    2. You’re as bad as me. I reached that nerdy fact for myself on August 4, last year!

      Tomorrow I turn 25,500.

      1. Morning, Grizz.

        I’m 28,134 days old today. It seems that bank robber Lester “Baby Face” Nelson, Michael Gordon Peterson (aka Charles Bronson), dubbed “Britain’s most violent criminal”, and mass-murderer Andrew Cuomo were also born on December 6th.

        On the plus side, so was Will Hay ….. which is nice.

        1. Morning, Duncan.

          George Washington, Bruce Forsyth, Julie Walters, Niki Lauda, Steve Irwin and a few others share my birthday. The only scumbag who also shares my birthday (that I’m aware of) is that slimy, cowardly, corrupt, cheating, murderous piece of filth, Ted Kennedy.

    1. They sell those things in our local supermarket, for eco-nuts to use for their laundry. I bought some, but have yet to give them a go.

      3. Caroline used them a couple of years ago. They did not clean the collars of my shirts properly and the laundry never smelt at all fresh. We have gone back to using detergent.

  15. I notice one part of the shower posing as a government is demanding that schools close, while Jim the fireplace sales man is “ordering” them to stay open.

    Don’t you find joined-up government so reassuring?

    1. We (the people) are having to go through all this pain and loss just to further their aims – the “Great Reset” is well under way, and the huge profits to be made and shared by those with fingers in the pharmaceuticals.

  18. BLM movement expands area of persuasion . . . . we now have the BAM. . .Black Actor Movement ! ! !

    “Jodie Turner-Smith has been spotted as Anne Boleyn for the first time while filming a Channel 5 drama that its producers say seeks to
    ‘challenge conventions’ and shine a ‘feminist light’ on her story.
    Turner-Smith, a black actress born in Britain, is portraying Anne who was the second wife of English King Henry VIII”

    History? . . . . .Humbug?

    2. There still are a couple of companies, failing to ‘challenge conventions in televised adverts. All th actors arw white, I wonder how much longer they will last,

      I am waiting for waiting for the film Film ‘The Life and Works of Martin Luther King Jr’ to be leased, with part of King being played by that giant of the screen Tom Cruise

      That should let us see how muli culti the BLM really is

    3. Theatre is the suspension of disbelief.

      But if Daniel Day-Lewis was cast as Martin Luther King or Barack Obama, to challenge conventions and shine a white light on the story there would be outrage.

        1. She’ll be similar to France’s St Denis, she’ll pick up her severed head and walk with it to what will become Tower Hamlets where a ghetto will be created in her memory.

  19. 327478+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Farage: We Will be Told a Brexit-in-Name-Only Is a ‘Fantastic Victory’

    Gettaway no,

    This has been on the cards shown in the semi re-entry campaign being waged since the 24/6/2016, 41/2 years ongoing.
    The johnson with the 80 seat majority doing his damnedest to attach the
    “any deal grappling hooks” for future use.
    Still you knew all this “nige”

    1. Our new Reverend told me [three months ago]
      that I am an ‘institutionalised racist.’
      I asked him what that is and how, on such short
      and restricted acquaintance, he felt himself qualified
      to make such a judgement;
      I still await his reply!

      1. He sounds like a ‘woke’ appointment of that dreadful Common Purpose bloke at Canterbury.

        Cantab Purpose?

        1. No, I attend a conservative Baptist Church
          [yes, there are such places!] Our Parish
          Church is a ‘Charismatic experience.’
          Although all four village Churches do
          combine for National and Seasonal
          events our individual services are quite
          different.
          [I suspect he is a ‘remainer’ but nevertheless
          a very pleasant person, :-)) ]

      3. He is prolly a trans.

        Be glad you didn’t have a female – like the Midwife Bishop of London….

        1. No, definitely not!
          He is happily married, with a
          ‘smashing’ [according to some of
          the male members of the Congregation]
          wife, four sons and grandchildren.
          He was a Submariner and became a Minister
          after his Naval career.

          2. I am waiting until we know one another better.
            He moved here at the end of April and although
            he has met some of the Congregation and villagers
            [We invited him to our VE Street Party ] He hasn’t had
            the opportunity to get to know us. I am told the Deacons
            have had ‘words’ with him!

      4. I do hope you asked him what his agenda was , and as a he is a Quasi Christian , what does he propose to do about the pressures put on us indigenous occupants who are having our white birth rights questioned ?

      1. Bloody mandarins … they’ll find some way to siphon off our money and send it back home to China.
        :¬(

        3. I wonder how many of them are best buds with those CCP members over here listed in the Mail recently?

    1. Why does the “now independent of the UK government” behavioral group have offices in Sydney, Singapore and Toronto?

      1. Glad you mentioned that… yes the GREAT RESET.. bit like Marxism and Maoism..

        I think a new philosphy is being created, the likes we have never seen before . Dangerous territory , me thinks .

    2. This ties in with my post yesterday about Dave Cullens video on his Computing Forever Channel (Bitchute only video) about the ‘seminar’ from early 2019 given by the Belgian counterpart of Prof Van Tam (who just happened to be in the audience), eseentially about a propaganda campaign he waged in 2011 for the Swine flu pandemic that wasn’t, and how to go about it ‘next time’. Apparently a lot of the audience were amused at what he was doing, but wanted to know more…

    3. This ties in with my post yesterday about Dave Cullens video on his Computing Forever Channel (Bitchute only video) about the ‘seminar’ from early 2019 given by the Belgian counterpart of Prof Van Tam (who just happened to be in the audience), eseentially about a propaganda campaign he waged in 2011 for the Swine flu pandemic that wasn’t, and how to go about it ‘next time’. Apparently a lot of the audience were amused at what he was doing, but wanted to know more…

    4. Crikey, I’d never even heard of them. Now they’re world wide and independent of the UK government, so who do they answer to?

    5. Politicians love to tell you how you must live, what your behaviour should be. They then try forcing this behaviour on you with propaganda, media attacks, fines and penalties, and taxation and ultimately if none of that works, outright Acts of Parliament.
      Psychology is useful to politicians in helping them get their coercions across.

    6. Complete and utter crock of BS designed to help, not only trigger the ‘Great Reset’ but to ensure its continuance.

      If by being concerned for the state of my country makes me a racist then I glory in it and defy anyone to tell me that I’m wrong.

    7. Afternoon Belle and all Nottlers.

      The government is currently waging psychological warfare on us. Classic change the “rules” every other day, confusing “instructions”, gloom and doom mongering at every opportunity in all mediums, even street signs. I have written to our MP (yet again) saying just this. I just wonder – how long is everybody willing to wear a mask, social distance, be told by the government when and where you can meet your family, how many friends you can meet and under what circumstances.

      Why is the MSM completely ignoring doctors/scientists with a different opinion to Shitty and Unbalanced? I am convinced there is big money behind what’s going on, all to reinforce the great reset, which will deny us the opportunity to travel where and when we like, eventually stop petrol/diesel car owners from using them, reduce people to near poverty (must be thousands of job losses waiting in the wings) and level down living standards. Then we really will be dependent on the state, which is what they want.

      1. I have already made a step towards breaking free; I don’t have anything to do with the MSM, I don’t wear a mask, I go out when I want to (although there are few places I can go to) and I meet whom I like (assuming they are willing). I ignore anything the government says unless I think it’s sensible (there doesn’t seem to be much that meets that criterion).

        1. Welcome to the Freedom Club.

          There are few of us but many would like to join but it takes a bit of courage.

        2. Well done. Conway, the more the merrier. I’m incredulous at the number of people who wear a mask in the street and in the car when they are alone. The government and MSM have done a real number on frightening everyone. How long are they all willing to go on like this? And now there’s talk of the “easing of restrictions over Christmas” being rescinded!

          1. Good evening, VW.
            The wearing of face masks in the
            street is very strange, isn’t it?
            I have noticed just in the last week
            that people, in the village, are wearing
            them, the first time it happened I thought
            the regulations had changed overnight.
            I suppose people will next start wearing
            sterile gloves and then dispose of them,
            along with the masks, on the streets.
            The extra weight of land-fill rubbish must
            have gone up considerably.

          2. Hi Garlands people are so disgusting aren’t they just throwing their rubbish on the ground. Makes me wonder what it’s like inside their homes!

        3. In light of a couple of police enforcers aggressively questioning people without a mask in shops I have printed off the relevant section from the government website where it states clearly that “carrying an exemption card or badge is a personal choice and is not required by law”. Furthermore you do not routinely need to show any evidence of this if you have an age, health or disability for not wearing a face covering.

          Also you do not have to wear a face covering “where putting on, wearing or removing a face covering will cause you severe distress”.

          All to be found on the government website. Go for it Conway, take courage.

          1. I printed out one of the government exemption cards. I’ve only been asked once if I have a mask and replied, “no, but I have one of these” and showed it. No problem.

      2. Hi vw..

        There is something very strange going on, buried news , they do that sort of thing , don’t they .

        Yes , similar to North Korea, and of course those of us who have heard what life was like pre the demolished Berlin Wall and who really fear the collapse of society , the thought of cabbage soup every day is revolting .

    8. The SAGE grouping has many more behavioural ‘scientists’ at any one time than either virologists or epidemiologists, I believe. Now why would that be?

      1. Apparently SAGE is so good at non-medical stuff (not they were any good at the medical stuff before) that they now pronounce on a iwde array of subjects, including the ‘bedroom tax’. I wonder how many of them and their colleagues at those two ‘journals’ calling for Christmas to be effectively cancelled will be adhering to their own advice? Rules only apply to the plebs.

    9. ‘Hell’s bells and buckets of blood,’
      Belle!’
      … Enough to make a wooden man spit tin tacks!

      1. Hells bells and buckets of blood is one of my favourite expressions, Garlands , as well as Hells teeth and Crikey Moses .

        Amazing isn’t it to think so much is going on beneath our noses .

  22. Some encouraging comment on the wokery front from Charles Moore today, although the NT has yet to mend its ways:

    When I wrote in this space two weeks ago supporting the defenders of free speech at Cambridge University, I thought they would lose. After all, the university’s vice-chancellor, Stephen Toope, had opposed their amendment. The university establishment had wanted free speech denied whenever it failed to show “respect” to the ideas and identity of others. Like so many bludgeoned by jiggery-wokery, I assumed this bad view would prevail.

    Yet the rebels won last week. The senior members of the university voted, by a margin of roughly 4:1, for three amendments which jettisoned the Toope wording. Respect, said the rebels, cannot be compelled whenever people choose to claim offence; and it is wrong to respect ideas you think are idiotic or evil. They substituted the word “tolerance”: where you cannot respect, you can tolerate.

    There are important lessons here. One is the powerfully disparate nature of the victorious coalition. Its eloquent moving spirit, Dr Arif Ahmed, is a libertarian atheist philosopher, but his cause gathered support from feminists persecuted by transgender activists, Christians, conservatives and many scientists angry that their rigorous search for truth might fall foul of identity politics. The role of the Free Speech Union was also significant. So was that of many students (not part of the senior franchise) who were angry at the lack of intellectual freedom.

    The vote proves that the wokeists are not nearly as numerous as they claim, and suffer from intellectual weakness when challenged. In academic life – as in museums and much of the public sector and big business – people are frightened that their careers will suffer if they step out of line. They may even be called racists. As a result of the Cambridge ballot – which was secret – they now know they are not alone.

    This, in turn, seems to have frightened Professor Toope. When the university disinvited Professor Jordan Peterson in 2019, he justified this, saying that “robust debate” could not happen “when some members of the community are made to feel personally attacked, not for their ideas but for their very identity”. His doctrine has been overthrown, yet Professor Toope welcomes the result of the vote as if it had been what he wanted: “Freedom of speech is a right that sits at the heart of the university. This statement is a robust defence of that right… The statement also makes it clear that is unacceptable to censor, or disinvite, speakers whose views are lawful but may be seen as controversial.” So please will he bring back Professor Peterson’s visiting fellowship?

    Professor Toope seems to see which way the wind is blowing. One must hope he will also retreat from his previous praise of the Communist rulers of China, and ensure that his university’s China projects – many reliant on Chinese money – now give platforms to critics of the regime.

    As for the wider world – including most universities, which have less democratic governance structures than Cambridge – the vote’s free speech wording should provide a template. If the idea of tolerance were to replace that of enforced “respect”, this would profoundly affect public policy.

    The effect of the Equality Act 2010, for example, is to enshrine the notion that if you say you’ve been offended on grounds of race, religion, sexuality, gender etc, you almost automatically have been. This gives huge power to activists and forces the leaders of organisations to fight endless fires of grievance instead of doing their actual jobs. It is stifling freedom and embittering the workplace.

    Perhaps that can now start to change.

    Woke activists dishonour our past
    One such stifled and embittered workplace is the National Trust, where the wokeists have recently hijacked the organisation’s attitude to its own buildings and estates. They denigrate that heritage for what they call “colonialism” – a politicised term, not a factual one. Clearly worried, the Trust’s well-meaning director-general, Hilary McGrady, put out conciliatory signals. The Trust wishes to “reflect on how [it] can best honour the mission set by our founders: to preserve our historical and natural places,” she says.

    It had better hurry. Take a look at the Trust’s Colonial Countryside Project, under the charge of Dr Corinne Fowler, author of Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections. It describes itself as a “child-led project”, but the children are under a “historical team” of nine.

    All of the team seem to subscribe to the woke view. One retweets a film of Edward Colston’s statue being toppled. Another does the same for a project showing the histories of “slavery, empire and genocide embedded in our built environment”. A third lauds “the progress made by Black Lives Matter”. Dr Marian Gwyn seeks out “assets and artefacts… connected to colonial atrocity”. Raj Pal, who says he is working on Churchill and Chartwell (a National Trust property) ranges more widely, tweeting that Denis and Margaret Thatcher loved one another because “two of the vilest human beings had so much in common”.

    Under the guidance of this team, children are invited to write stories about the colonial countryside. They are taken to the Eastern Museum in Kedleston Hall, home of Lord Curzon, one of the Trust’s greatest benefactors. Interviewed on the Trust’s promotional film, one of the little girls says she wonders if Curzon (foreign secretary, viceroy of India) “ever had a job, if he was ever just a normal man”.

    I fear Ms McGrady’s efforts to “honour” the Trust’s past have some way to go.

    3. The courage of Arif Ahmed to start this campaign and carry it through should not be underestimated. I read that he initially had trouble getting enough signatures because people were too scared of being sacked.

    4. ‘Morning, Hugh, “…but his cause gathered support from feminists persecuted by transgender activists…”

      When is this transgender nonsense going to recognised as such and ignored?

      You are what you’re born with and no amount of X and Y chromosomes you might claim, you are still the sex you were born with. Neither ‘respect’ nor ‘tolerance’ is going to change that.

      Let us also, for everyone’s sake, not shy away from the use of the word ‘sex’ in its correct context. I’ve already said it a thousand time. until I sound like Ogga1, gender is merely a grammatical construct applied to inanimate objects.

          1. It means twice but the woke snowflakes do not/cannot understand that and thrice would have them screaming for their ‘safe’ space.

    2. Question for those who once studied Eng. Lit. at school?

      Who wore a brooch with the words Amor Vincit Omnia upon it?

      The Prioress who is described in The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales.

      1. We were allowed to wear a Crucifix on a chain
        and a wristwatch ….. no other form of ‘adornment’
        was allowed!

      2. The Pardoner’s and The Prioress’s Tale(s) were my two ‘A’ level Eng. Lit. Chaucer studies. I enjoyed them both. Chaucer had such an eye for detail and characterisation which is ageless and as true today as it was centuries ago.

      3. Bint of Bath?

        Edit after reading answer. Whoops, got that wrong. I almost knew it was wrong as I remembered the incongruity. Of course, a nun and a brooch exalting earthly love….

    1. I thought that a kidney stone was the worst pain imaginable … until I got gout!

      Thank goodness for allopurinol, a good diet … and lashings of H₂O.

      1. Pneumonia was the worst pain I’ve ever had. It felt like i was being stabbed in the chest with every breath. I was actually in tears waiting for my initial chest X-ray.

      2. I’ve had gout in the past and so has my brother. What is so annoying is the presumption by others that it’s self-inflicted and oh so funny.

          1. Thanks. My brother discovered by chance that water melon is pretty fast acting (after a recommendation from another sufferer). I found rapid re-hydration to b pretty useful too. I take allopurinol regularly and haven’t been troubled for some years. But you never know…

        2. The first couple of occasions I got it in my knees They swelled up like a balloon and were filled with a green liquid that had to be syringed out with a massive hypodermic! It was nae picnic, I can tell you!

  26. Money well spent…Not! When may we expect a refund of this and previous payments?

    SIR – At the end of November, the Home Secretary and her French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, signed a £28 million deal to prevent illegal migration from France to Britain. As well as doubling police patrols of northern French beaches, the money would pay for additional surveillance tools, including hand-launched drones and binoculars.

    On December 7, 111 migrants, including five children, crossed the Channel in five small boats.

    When can we expect action that works? This would include constant patrols of French beaches with light “spotter” aircraft, together with drones such as the Tekever AR5. These already patrol the Channel, but on the wrong side of the median line.

    Only when the French beaches are monitored effectively from the air will the land patrols – paid for by Britain – be in the right place at the right time.

    Sqn Ldr James A Cowan RAF (rtd)
    Durham

    1. How about a rebate for our payment to the French to stop these illegal immigrants? The French should give us back a million pounds for each migrant we have to ‘rescue’ from the Channel.

  27. Amongst all the angst and turmoil of Brexit and a pandemic, it is reassuring to see that Robert Purry has a good grip on our priorities:

    SIR – Two great public servants, brothers Charles and Jonathan Powell, cannot agree upon the pronunciation of their surname (Leading article, December 11).

    I suspect this may have something to do with their respective political leanings. Their parents and mine were great friends and I can tell you that John and Ysolda pronounced their name poel, not pow-ell.

    Robert Purry
    Ringwood, Hampshire

    1. Surely pronounced in the same way as the former US secretary of State, Coal-in Poh-well?

      1. That’s Yank-speak for you. Similarly Dion War-wick.

        But that’s not to say that we are not guilty; as the secretary of a tit-nosed Gentlemen’s Club in the West End, we had
        Powell = Pole
        Leveson-Gower = Lewson Gore
        Viscount Abergavenny = Aber-ginny (with a hard ‘g’)
        There are others but it was over 40 years ago and memory for such trivia fades with age.

    2. Morning, Hugh.

      The pretentious invariably insist upon having a risible pronunciation. Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester (Holkham Hall), insists on “Cook”; Lord Home insisted on “Hume”.

      St Johns demand “Sinjun”; Cholmondeleys throw a tantrum if you don’t call them “Chumley”; and Featherstonehaughs get haughty if you fail to address them as “Fanshaw”.

          1. Thank you, Anne and Good morning.

            I’m now going to breakfast on my voiced velar fricative. I’ll let you know if it was a feast.

      2. There is a reason for Alex Douglas Home being pronounced Hume.
        One of his predecessors was involve in a battle – a war cry of HOME resulted in some of his side taking it literally & leaving the battlefield!
        Well that was the story I was told / read about in the early 60s when he became the PM.

        Memory – Fascinating how I can remember trivia, as above, but not what I did yesterday!

  28. Today’s DT Leader, a study in the bleedin’ obvious? Anyway, a combination of short-termism and incompetence is coming home to roost:

    Given the UK’s commitment to non-carbon energy generation by 2050, nuclear power will be an essential part of the mix if the lights are to stay on. News that the Government has opened talks with the state-owned French company EDF for a power plant in Sizewell, Suffolk, is welcome. EDF is already building a power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset backed by Chinese investment. Another is planned at Bradwell in Essex using Chinese technology.

    Each plant will produce seven per cent of the UK’s energy requirements and will take up the strain from closing fossil fuel sources. Even so, many of the campaigners who have pressed for the eradication of carbon are perversely opposed to nuclear power as well, imagining that the nation’s needs will be met by renewables such as wind. They will not be, not least when most cars are required to run on electricity.

    There are understandable economic misgivings about nuclear because the massive costs have to be underwritten by the taxpayer since investors will not accept the risk. There are also political considerations in view of the diplomatic froideur with China and the UK’s departure from the EU. Since nuclear power is being provided by state actors in China and France, it must be asked why the British state does not take on the projects and remove the involvement of foreign powers entirely. Part of the reason is that dithering by successive governments has allowed the expertise required to build nuclear power plants to dwindle. The Thatcher government in the Eighties envisaged building eight new stations but only one was ever commissioned. It has been one of the great failures of public policy of the past 40 years.

    And a BTL comment to cheer us all up:

    Andrew Macswayed
    15 Dec 2020 6:10AM

    One massive poilicy failing of many

    The UK public sector is not fit for purpose.. Grenfell, Baby P, Rotherham, financial crisis, Covid, Brexit bungling, hospital infections, blundering NHS, over paid public servants, trashed university system, apalling immigration record, sub standard education, congested roads, exploited benefit system, abused asylum system, debauched housing market, bungled PPE, toff arrogance, failed IT roll outs, extortionate cost of public works, pointless foreign aid, weakened armed forces, expenses scandal, abused pension system, foreign owned utilities, no accountability and the best we can put faith in is Boris and Sadiq Khan ?

    I think you all get the picture

    1. I think you all get the picture.

      Yes it’s the sort of picture you get at the end of all civilisations! Incompetence. Dishonesty. Weirdo’s. Corruption and Venality!

  29. China says that allegations of it using forced labour to harvest cotton used in a third of the world’s clothing are fabricated….according to Radio 3 News

  30. Keir Starmer under fire for failing to challenge radio caller’s racism. 15 December 2020.

    The caller to his LBC phone-in said she opposed footballers taking a knee in solidarity with antiracism “because if anything the racial inequality is now against the indigenous people of Britain, because we are set to become a minority by 2066”.

    The claim is a feature of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory that claims elites are using migration to make white people an ethnic minority in Europe.

    He was probably stunned that someone would come on and have the chutzpah to tell the truth!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/14/keir-starmer-under-fire-failing-challenge-radio-caller-racism

    1. thx again for sifting through the Grauniad.

      Grauniad would have increased number of readers if Keir Starmer was thrown on a bonfire for having the temerity of challenging a radio caller, who presumably, was using her own money to make the call, regardless of the point

    2. 327478+ up ticks,
      Morning AS,
      The truth of the matter is that fictional conspiracy theories have become fact & genuine facts are cried down as fiction.
      Example, observe the grip the three monkeys have on the polling booth ovis.
      You couldn’t make it up could yer ?

    5. I know, Peddy, that I have posted this quotation before but it is as relevant today as it always was:

      That the truth should be silent I had almost forgot.

      [Enobarbus – Antony & Cleopatra]

      P.S. Good morning Minty. That means that I shall have something to look forward to when I am 120 years old

      1. ‘Morning, Rastus.

        So are commas in their right places:

        I know Peddy that I have posted this quotation before but it is as relevant today as it always was:

        I know, Peddy, that I have posted this quotation before but it is as relevant today as it always was:

          3. We are all fallible, Peddy and, should it be that pointing out a mistake makes one repeat it ad infinitum as a mark of cussedness, then so be it.

            Note the second missing comma but you may be an aficionado of the ‘Oxford’ comma. I prefer to let the conjunction do its work as a pause instead.

  31. Yet another Paki Paedo rapist.

    A man who proudly proclaimed himself to be

    the great-great grandson of Queen Victoria’s confidant Abdul Karim is

    in court facing multiple child sex offences.

    Nabeel

    Syed, 39, is charged with 11 counts, including three rapes, against a

    girl who was just eight years old when the abuse is alleged to have

    started.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9051233/Great-great-grandson-Queen-Victorias-Indian-confidante-court-child-sex-charges.html

        1. You cannot hang someone like him until he’s been subjected to weeks of incessant torture first.

          1. But Grizzly, most Britons do not think
            like that, we are generally kind, generous
            and magnanimous …. make it short!

          2. I am a bit more mediæval than most, when to comes to deserved punishments, Garlands.

            Most sensible Englishmen who lived before 1965* would tend to agree with me.

            [*The year when the limp-wristed, idiotic. socialist MP, Sydney Silverman, had his abolition of capital punishment bill enacted!]

          4. What about, Garlands, the weeks (months, years) of sexual torture inflicted on countless young girls by this c*nt and his brethren?

          5. But who would inflict the punishment?
            do we expect others to carry out such
            atrocities, against these evil, twisted
            sub-humans, which are not natural to us?

      3. 327478+ up ticks,
        Afternoon AA,
        In America yes, in the UK multiple life sentences to run consecutively.

          1. 327478+ up ticks,
            Evening AtG,
            I am looking at the life sentence in the UK can work out to be 10 year say, then I would say multiple 5/6/7 to run consecutively, as one finishes the next starts.

          3. 327278+up ticks,
            AtG.
            That is how it could be if Country was put before party in the polling booth .

    2. 💀😁🦂🦠
      Pakistan has brought in new laws that will see some rapists chemically castrated following public outcry against sexual violence in the country.

      Prime Minister Imran Khan and his cabinet approved the legal measure last month, and President Arif Alvi signed it into law on today.

      Chemical castration involves using medication to reduce testosterone and has been used for paedophiles in Indonesia since 2016 and child rapists in Poland since 2006.

      It comes as part of a series of measures that will be introduced in Pakistan to tackle sexual abuse – including the creation of a national sex offenders register and the protection of victims’ identities.

      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9055561/Pakistan-brings-new-laws-rapists-chemically-castrated.html

  32. Now, on a second laptop that DID, for a while shew the ‘New Comments’ banners, I have just refreshed and the number of comments has increased from 230 by 130 to 360 without a single ‘New Comment’ banner appearing.

    I’m sure some have answered my comments but there is nothing in my Inbox.

    Anybody else finding this?

    1. Disqus has been playing up for ages. I clear cache and cookies and reboot. Works most of the time. I’m on Firefox.

          2. Thank you, Janet, though I don’t know why it had to change its name from Crap Cleaner, ‘cos it does what it says on the tin.

          2. Good lad. If you get crumbs you’re not a ‘dunker’. You don’t get crumbs from soggy biscuits.

          4. Dunkers get deservedly punished when they risk having a sludge at the bottom of their mug.

    2. Disqus gave up sending me mails when there was a response some years ago, and never restarted. Frankly, it’s easier to refesh & se if the wee red blob had appeared.
      Penicillin makes it go away again!

    3. I’m on Firefox and apart from the annoying shooting up and down when I try to up vote something or post a comment, I haven’t had any problems with the new comments banner or the notifications. Sometimes I have to try twice to post a comment.

  33. Putin finally congratulates Joe Biden on his election victory and says he is ‘ready for interaction’ with the president-elect after the Kremlin said he would wait for the official result. 15 December 2020.

    Russian leader Vladimir Putin finally congratulated Joe Biden on his US election victory today, hours after America’s electoral college rubber-stamped the results.

    Putin was one of the last world leaders who had not acknowledged Biden’s victory, with the Kremlin saying it would wait for the official results of the election.

    But after Monday’s procedures which formally elected Biden, Putin ‘wished the president-elect every success’ and said he was ‘ready for interaction and contact with you‘, the Kremlin said.

    Well Vlad has left it till the last possible diplomatic opportunity and the double entendre tells you what he expects from Biden.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9054473/Putin-congratulates-Joe-Biden-election-victory.html

    1. Araminta, am sure what he expects from Biden [the whole family] is a public trial and rest of life in gulag for the Ukraine coup. Which he won’t get, but Biden Snr wouldn’t have a clue, he’d think he was on a health farm

        1. Morning, Araminta,

          “The President Elect of the United States is a senile geriatric hair sniffing latent paedophile”

  36. Last week on “University Challenge” the team from Glasgow University consisted of four chaps none of whom was from Scotland. This illustrates in microcosm what is happening across the country. Foreign students bring in money to universities. The going rate for the lead recruiter, aka Vice-chancellor. is around £400,000 per year.
    Many universities send recruiting teams to China and Asia each year in order to sign up students.
    These students have an opportunity cost in that they take up places that British students might otherwise occupy. Foreign students return home and apply their knowledge in the same competitive market in which the UK participates.
    If our UK athletic coaches only trained athletes from foreign countries, and none from the UK, the results would be obvious in the results at the Olympics. This is what is happening in commerce and industry and it is encouraged.
    We are also doing it on the cheap. The fees for a degree course are around £20,000 per year. By contrast the cost of a one week course at the London Business School can be around £5000.
    Why are we giving very cheap education to foreigners at the expense of our own native children?

      1. That position is usually the chief recruiter and the person responsible for keeping the money rolling in.

        1. Well if the great unwashed would stop paying for Sky Sports and football shirts it would soon drop.

      4. That position is usually the chief recruiter and the person responsible for keeping the money rolling in.

    3. Over 31k students, over 8k staff, managing complex and diverse relationships that are often diametrically opposed, liaising with a multitude of partners, managing research goals, finances. It’s a much more complex job than you seem to give it credit for. What would a CEO of that size company earn?

      1. Please re-read. My point was about cheap education being made available to foreigners at the cost of the exclusion of UK students.
        Universities should not be focussing on maximising income, should they?

        1. Cheap?

          Foreign students pay 30k a year to our 9.5k. Their fees are literally triple ours, and we are free to study abroad too and many do avail themselves of that opportunity.

          Maximising income is a good idea. It allows for expansion, job creation, new courses, new research.

          There are plenty of university places for people that meet the course requirements except for a few courses such as medicine where there are limited placements.

          In general 15% of places are kept available for overseas students.

  38. 327478+ up ticks,
    breitbart,

    EU Fishermen Threaten to Blockade Ports If Not Deals End Their Fishing Claims,

    I have a very strong feeling they might not have to, then again if justice prevails they must learn from history & remember July 1940.

    1. Good Morning, and it’s a lovely one up here in Derbyshire!
      Just been down to Cromford & back for the paper & a bit of shopping. Very pleasant and another couple of loads of logs dropped off at the concentration stacks for picking up later with the van.

    2. Perhaps you should not have rolled in the puddle to keep the dog company!

      Good that you are out and about.

    1. Where does the “free” world go from here when everyone knows it’s controlled by a cabal of globalists who decide who win elections? Biden won’t “deicde” anything, he will do as he’s told.

      2. Well that is what half of the world eagerly votes for year after year since roughly 1975. It’s long past time that economics became a staple part of the curriculum and that classes take in very different schools of thought and not just teach one set of ideas. Most of us vote based on economics that 99.5% of people voting really don’t understand so they believe what the MSM tell them. In general the electorate is very easily led to vote against their interests.
        Look at the deficit alarm forcing us into austerity causing a lost decade of growth and leaving us in a worse position than when we started it. That wasn’t an economic necessity as even the IMF, the most neoliberal organisation on Earth, has admitted. It was pure ideology. Hold wages down for a decade, let inflation cut purchasing power and laugh as the value of the assets held by the rather well off shoot up in value. Welfare was cut drastically. Services were cut. The NHS was put in an appalling state. Unemployment was cut by a massive rise in self-employed earning almost nothing, and full time jobs cut into multiple part time jobs to save employers NI. The electorate lapped that up thinking it was a good thing. Why? Simply because they believed what the papers told them and they didn’t have the education or research and critical thinking skills to see that most of it was bullsh1t.
        We really have become sheeple, and we deserve to be sheared.

    2. Good morning.

      I don’t expect America to withdraw into itself. I expect they will go to war with someone.

      1. Preferably a Middle or Far Eastern country where all their whizzbangs and PXs prove to be an aggravation rather than a solution.

      1. I know Trump was getting out of unwinnable situations, but at least he appeared to be trying to establish dialogues.

        I don’t see the “new America” taking a united front on anything and I trust the Democrat hierarchy as far as I could spit them. Corrupt to the core.

        1. interesting times ahead, will those moves by some Islamic countries to accept Israel bear fruit or will the progress be allowed to die?

          Afghanistan in particular appears to be an unwinnable war. Why would the US expect a different outcome, unless there is a genuine wish by afghan citizens for change, just leave them to their barbaric ways.

          1. Agree re Afghanistan.
            In my view, if Iran gets its bomb the whole dynamic will change. Pakistan and India is bad enough, but the Ayatollahs are an even worse and more ruthless proposition. Israel will be on a permanent war footing beyond their current state of readiness, pre-emptive strikes by either side could be back in play.

    4. I read “The Death of the West” by Patrick J. Buchanan. Appears to be no longer for sale on Amazon.

      1. It should have been called “The Suicide of the West” because we’ve done this to ourselves by wilfully and eagerly free trading with low income countries.
        It was totally foreseeable. Even Sir James Goldsmith the billionaire banker foresaw the issues and wrote several books which were not received well but turned out to be highly prophetic.
        This was 1994….
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwmOkaKh3-s

          1. Well yeah he was a financier and asset stripper, but I just worked a 14 hour shift, fairly knackered, mistakes can creep in.

  42. 327478+ up ticks,
    I suppose there is time left yet for johnson & co to slip in another couple of
    rhetorical down-graders concerning deal / no deal as in ” we could always go for the no deal option as a very last resort, no deal is still on the table”
    right up to & astride the wire ( the wire that is cutting the balls off of United Kingdom trawler men).
    before last minute breaking the truth of the matter, it is in our interest …….

  43. Jodie Turner-Smith has been spotted as Anne Boleyn for the first time while filming a Channel 5 drama that its producers say seeks to ‘challenge conventions’ and shine a ‘feminist light’ on her story.

    Turner-Smith, a black actress born in Britain, is portraying Anne who was the second wife of English King Henry VIII, whom he famously had beheaded in 1536.

    Boleyn, who was the white daughter of English nobility, is also one of the key causes of the English Reformation and the mother of Queen Elizabeth I.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-9051419/Jodie-Turner-Smith-seen-Anne-Boleyn-time-convention-busting-Channel-5-drama.html

    1. Ah, cultural appropriation allows for blacks to play whites but not vice-versa. The Great Equalisation.

    2. FFS, don’t TV and film historians know that there have been more than five monarchs in these isles.
      Why can’t they make a prog/film about anyone other than H5, H8, E1, V, or E2?

      Edit: And I expect to see a film about Martin Luther King, played by a white woman, in production any time soon.

    7. Wadda load of bolero, there’s no let up from all this stoopid woke crap is there.
      I suppose when she appears in the scene of the beheading the BLM idiots will be claiming it’s effing racist.

    8. Yeah. Let’s “challenge conventions”.

      While we’re at it, why don’t we just rewrite all history?

  44. Husband – The postman just told me he has slept with every woman in this street except one…..

    Wife – I bet it’s the stuck up bitch at No. 5.

    =========================

    Do you ever wake up, kiss the person sleeping beside you and feel glad that you’re alive?

    I just did that and apparently will not be allowed on this bus again……

    1. Give up polly, Trump LOST.

      Everyone rightly criticized the “not my president” protesters after Clinton lost to trump. The only difference between their actions and Trumps hanger on actions is the harm that is being done to the American democratic system.

      1. Give up richard, President Trump WON.

        All the evidence shows this is true. He was cheated. You know that as well as I do.

        The harm to the American democratic system is being done by people like you.

      1. Do you know that the election was true, honest and produced the right result?

        Do I know that it was not honest and produced a false result?

        How can either of us know for sure?

        1. The outgoing Attorney General stated there was no evidence of voter fraud. The electoral college has voted. Trump is history.

          2. Yet they have already voted for Biden in the college.

            Trump is history. He’s well and truly beaten.

            There’s no evidence of voter fraud. Most of his attempts to block the democratic will of the people have fallen flat through lack of evidence.

            Even his own AG, William Barr, a republican, says there’s no evidence of fraud. Barr has enthusiastically supported the Trump agenda.

        2. Hundreds of Republican judges, politicians and electoral officials have accepted the result, acknowledging that it was not rigged to switch millions of votes.

          Unless you believe last night’s wild claims that the supreme court judges and all senior state politicians have received and caved into death threats if they did not toe the line, they should be believed rather than Trumps sycophant followers.

          2. Why have they ”accepted” the result?

            Because in most cases their jobs depend on the individuals at the top of the tree who arranged the steal, and in other cases it’s intimidation and/or blackmail.

            But don’t worry. President Trump isn’t going anywhere to please people like you.

            He’s staying on as President of the United States to 2024.

          3. Well it beats death threats all round as a reason however, it is still total bs.

            Many would suggest that threats from the top is the reason that many are staying loyal to Trump. However, even an Attorney General can see the light.

          4. Have you studied the evidence ?

            No, of course not.

            All you’ve read is the MSM and glossed over everything else.

            To start, what about the statistics ? The stats clearly show there is massive fraud, no other explanation is rational.

          5. Is that the evidence that you claimed would see all of those court cases succeed? The evidence that never appeared when it mattered?

            No I have not personally overseen every election side, I have not disassembled the voting machine code to analyze the workings, have you?

            Statistics show that Biden took a lot more votes than Trump. Next!

          6. Do answer my question…..

            Have you examined the statistical evidence ?

            No, because you know perfectly well it blows Biden’s claims right out of the water.

            What’s more, as this is so contentious, why don’t PA, MI, WI and AZ open up to stringent investigation ?

            If they’re so sure everything is ok, that’s the obvious route to go. To put this to bed once and for all.

            But no, what is actually happening is the states are doing all they can to obstruct stringent verification.

            This means they all have a lot to hide.

    2. I’ve always had a soft spot for you Polly, but come on surely you don’t still believe this nonsense?

  49. Had a scare with G & P last evening. I was stroking Gus – and, to my horror, found a lump. Did the same to Pickles and he, too, had one. Went cold all over. Rang vet for appointment – late this afternoon the first. Meanwhile, the MR, having shared my anxiety, googled away – and discovered that these lumps occur at the place where vaccinations are done. Phew. Rang vet – and they said, “Oh, yes – perfectly normal – can take three months to go away…..”

    Gee thanks for the warning….

    1. The whole of the UK pollution will soon have lumps Bill, well most of them except of course those in the know.

  52. Afternoon all, I have been busy gearing up for Christmas and have not had time to follow the comments.
    Have I missed much, did the buffoon call a halt to the negotiation farce, has Sleepy Joe been found out, is pantomimes still being played at West End theatres or is it still only on in Downing Street?

      1. Oi, Grizzly, what have you been doing with your “marbled rack of beef” suggestion for Christmas? Good job I went to the local Layer Marney Butchers this afternoon, since all orders have exhausted their stock. Fortunately I was able to buy the very last rack of beef on display which is now sitting in my freezer until December the 23rd when it will be removed to de-frost in time for a slow roasting on Christmas Day!

        1. “Rack of beef”? I think you’re getting your meats confused, Auntie Elsie. It is rib of beef (rack of lamb).

          It is even more difficult for me to order one over here since they are not something anyone had heard of [I’ve actually educated three butchers and dozens of Swedes, about rib of beef on the bone, and they are all highly delighted that I did].

          I shall order mine next week for collection in the New Year [my “Christmas Dinner” is always taken then] since Christmas is given over to the Swedish way of doing things.

          1. You’re quite right, Grizzly, (I looked in the fridge to check the label). So I guess that makes me a Silly Sausage; no wonder some of my friends call me “Confused of Colchester”.

            :-))

          2. The only silly sausages are those made in Sweden. They call them “korv” and they are inedible! That’s why I make my own (my pork and tomato are legendary). :•)

        2. I can only thank God that we laid out a fortune (£151.45) to Donald Russell in Aberdeenshire for a five-rib to be delivered on 19th – no defrosting necessary.

          Cooked, sliced and stored with gravy, it will supply us with many meals throughout 2021.

          2. Best Beloved tells me that the package also includes a rack of lamb. She has subsequently order 2 x beef trimmings and a loin of pork. That’s roast dinners for the whole of next year as well as a Christmas and New Year feast.

          4. Can’t fault Donald Russell. I have quite a lot of their stuff in the freezer. Won’t be ordering before Xmas. Assuming we’re not locked down, I’m spending Christmas Day, after Church, with former neighbours. Call it a bubble, if you will.

            Failing which, it’ll be egg and chips..

          5. Can’t fault Donald Russell. I have quite a lot of their stuff in the freezer. Won’t be ordering before Xmas. Assuming we’re not locked down, I’m spending Christmas Day, after Church, with former neighbours. Call it a bubble, if you will.

            Failing which, it’ll be egg and chips..

          6. I’ve often stored slices of medium-rare roast rib of beef in the freezer; though I never freeze gravy.

            When it comes to eating it, I make fresh gravy, then warm the meat up by placing the slices in the pan of gravy just before serving. That way they remain succulent and medium-rare.

        3. Thank goodness for you and three cheers for LMB. Businesses like theirs have had the year from hell.

          1. Butchers haven’t done so badly this year. Being food shops, they have never been closed down. And in the absence of much of the hospitality trade they’ve been able to call the shots a bit more with the wholesale butchers/abattoirs and source more of the prime stuff (which normally goes straight to higher end catering), for less. That “less” was not reflected in the counter price… so they butcher hasn’t been getting any thinner.

        6. I ordered mine , ribs in (x2) , £40 .. will pick up on Tuesday .. Devon Red beast or something like that .. i would rather not know that my meat has a shape colour and form in the living .

          Sadly rather sensitive as I have become older ..

          3. ‘Evening, Mags, no sensitivity here (country born and bred) so just get stuck in and enjoy – I’ve not too many more Christmases to come.

          4. I am country born and bred , and I can hear the early lambs in the fields adjacent to us , and further on down the road , the lowing of the dairy cattle as they call for their babies , who are put into calf pens !

            Who knows how many Christmases we have left, I have had 73!

  55. Ursula von der Leon says that a ‘compromise’ over fishing is needed if a Brexit trade deal is to be reached.

    What does the word compromise mean to you?

    To me it means both sides adapting their position to one which is acceptable to both sides.

    The trouble is that both Mrs van de Leyden (and Theresa May and most remainers would agree) seems to think that ‘compromise’ means that Britain should always surrender completely.

    What does Boris think? What is the EU prepared to give as their part of the ‘compromise’?

    I think that the compromise should accept that international laws about fishing rights should apply because Britain is a sovereign state but that Britain should be generous and give the EU fishing industry time – perhaps a specified and enforceable maximum time of 3 – 5 years – in which to withdraw completely from fishing in British waters. After that EU countries which wanted to continue to fish in British waters should have to apply for permits from the British government and pay a rent to do so. (This is far more generous than what happened to British fishing when Mr Heath betrayed the fishermen)

    1. Can’t we make them fishers of men? Those in rubber dinghies for which they’ve already been given 28 million smackers.

    2. We should insist the EU applies the same methodology as what happened to UK fishermen, viz, compensation to be paid by the host nation, not the UK taxpayer, and redundant boats to be scrapped.

    3. We could compromise by offering the crew safe passage back to port when we scuttle their ships.

      Such a pity Margaret Thatcher got our navy sunk back in 1982.

    4. Totally agree, Richard, except that I think that EU fishermen & their governments should pay for permits to fish from Day One (i.e. January the first 2021) to concentrate their minds on withdrawing completely and not waiting until the maximum expiry time you suggest approaches.

      1. Afternoon, Elsie.
        See my reply to Rastus and the film of the raping of the seas by EU super-trawlers. That must not happen.

      2. Permits require enforcement otherwise they are just a waste of time.

        Does anyone think that theeuropean fishermen are doing anything to conserve fish stocks in a region that they might lose access to in just a few weeks time?

        No way will the EU accept losing control even if they castile pillage the waters.

        1. I think, the should mind their own business in EU waters, or will mine it, when they encroach into our terrortorial waters

      3. Good morning Elsie

        What a shame it is that you and I are not in control of the negotiations.

        Perhaps we could compromise. I suggest that we give the EU fishing industry a year before we charge them but reduce the maximum time they can stay without a permit to three years rather than five.

        Does that compromise work for you?

        1. In answer to your question, Richard: you do realise, don’t you, that I have embargoed any products from the EU 27 ever since the “negotiations” (i.e. humiliations) with Mrs May began. Tangle with Mrs Bloodaxe at your own risk!

          :-))

        2. No Rastus, they’ll just scrape the sea clean.

          They won’t worry about legal size nets, why should they when they know that they are going to lose all in a few weeks.

          Yet another Barnier trap our naive civil servants have fallen into.

          The Europeans must be laughing themselves silly.

          1. We should ban all tthe large trawlers from our waters, but offer the small boat fishermen access on our terms.

      1. If the EU refuses to give any leeway on anything at all then all we can do is try to appear rational and reasonable withour caving in.

        But I do take your point about the EU’s scorched earth policy.

        It reminds me of the case of the mayor of Symi, a Greek island in the Dodecanese, whom the occupying Nazis executed even though the war was over. And remember that after the First Gulf War Saddam Hussain emptied billions of barrels of oil into the Gulf just out of spite.

        The sad truth is that many of those in high positions in the EU are no more civilised than the Nazis or Saddam Hussain.

        1. Scuttling any of these ships that trespass into our territorial waters is the only rational or reasonable thing to do here.

          1. To scuttle, one has to get on board and open the sea-cocks. A well-aimed shell or torpedo will achieve the same effect. We’ve fought off the Dutch before now, let’s not be faint-hearted now.

      2. Best Beloved tells me that one of these Dutch Super Trawlers has been registered as a British Trawler by a recently set-up company. Does anyone have further knowledge or know how we may object to this?

    6. 327478+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      Give them NOTHING, did the extra millions to stem the flow entering the country via Dover work ?

      Currently with the fishing issue the super trawlers are tipping the arse out of the seabed in a scorched seabed policy, we would be condoning that, I do not believe that even lab/lib/con coalition current supporters would agree to that.

      1. Any ship caught dredging all life from our waters will be scuttled. End of story.

        Can someone please tell Michel Barnier?

        1. 327478+ up ticks,
          Afternoon JM,
          I insist on one amendment and that is, we first
          scuttle michel barnier.

  56. This website is up the creek again i just posted added another above the the previous post has vanished.
    Slayders………

  57. I wonder how many starving people Brashford will be inviting to his multi-million pound mansion?

    3. Sacked Cobra, SAGE, Hancock, Vallance et al and had Ferguson parachuted into Germany after telling him he was going to France.

  59. BBC Radio 4 news this PM reporting that there is a number of MPs . Brexiteers and Remainers, who are suggesting there is a deal in the making from info coming from the Cabinet which will be acceptable. Very skimpy information and Bernard Jenkins has reported that he is unaware of such an impending deal.
    I just think the BBC is stirring things up.

      1. Acceptable to the unnamed Brexiteers and Remainers who are suggesting there is a deal in the making. the Cabinet is the source of their opinion but Bernard Jenkins has doubts about the matter.

  60. A BTL Comment from a J.A. Carter under Charles Moore’s article on free speech in today’s DT might well strike a chord with one of two of us here:

    It’s been difficult to meet and speak to friends over the last few months but it has been my impression that the majority of ordinary folks still think there are two sexes, taking the knee is just plain weird, Trump wasn’t all bad, Corbyn is a fool, Ms Begum does not deserve a passport, prosecuting elderly paratroopers while giving terrorist “comfort letters” is wicked and children shouldn’t be given puberty blockers. I think the Press, TV and social media present a dreadfully skewed view because they, and their target audience in metropolitan London are just talking to themselves.

    Could we have some reporting from the real world – you know that place outside most people’s front door?

        1. Not many strangers ’round ‘ere. Last night wasn’t very busy, maybe 30 people, but I knew every one of them.

        2. You know, George, that to be accepted in Norfolk you either have to have been born there (as I am, he said, proudly as any Derbyshire oik would) or have lived there continuously for at least 40 years.

          You also need to know the answer to the question, “Heh ye fa’er gotta a dicka, bor?”

          1. I’d not lived there very long, Tom, when I went into Archer’s wonderful butcher’s shop, on Plumstead Road, in Norwich. The owner, an old boy, looked at me and said, “You not be from arahnd ‘ere, boy?”

            I told him that I was a “newbie” and had moved there only a few month’s previously.

            He gave me a smile and, with a twinkle in his eye, said, “Another twenty-foive years, boy, an’ you’ll be one of us!”

            Lovely bloke and his cooked meats were heavenly.
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e7cb4d60367aabfe03bf3c89d60fae0b06f91c0b0221dc6740922881320ef5ef.png

          2. My Uncle Basil married a woman called Kitty Scott the daughter of the engineer of the engineering family Laurence and Scott and became a well-known figure in Norwich. He was a surgeon as well as a GP with his own private practice and he was the prison doctor as well as the chap who organised the medical examinations for the Norwich Union Insurance Company. He sang in the Cathedral choir and was at one time the commodore of the Norfolk Punt Club which sailed at Barton Broad so, even though he was born near Cullompton where his father, my grandfather, was also a GP, he became an honorary man of Norfolk until he died at the age of 92.

            I spent three years living in Norwich when I was at UEA in the 1960’s and my son, Henry, completed his degree at UEA 2½ years ago.

  61. It appears that the new virus strain is infecting and causing many deaths amongst the officials who have been investigating violent, unnatural or sudden deaths of unknown cause. They’re naming it the Coroner Virus.

        1. From gfjb.jp:

          Gentle Forest Jazz Band

          A big band of 21 people led by modern Vaudeville Performer Gentle Kubota. Since its formation in 2005, it has been developing new entertainment by incorporating a modern perspective into danceable swing jazz. The exciting and laughing live performance of the 17-member musical instrument corps and the 3-member vocal “Gentle Forest Sisters” is a masterpiece.

    1. I doubt it.

      He’s showing the new President some courtesy and respecting his position.

      I think Biden stole the election, I think he’s a revolting creep, but he is POTUS and should have the respect shown to that position.

      I feel equally about several politicians around the world. I respect their position, not them as individuals.

      Unlike utterly ignorant and rude bastards like Sadiq Khan and Meghan Markle when they snubbed and insulted Trump.

      1. ” but he is POTUS and should have the respect shown to that position.”

        Any respect due to to the position of POTUS is surely diminished by the subversion of the Constitution, the fraud and criminality employed by Biden to gain that office.

        Why should anybody respect an office so easily won through corruption?

        1. Spot on, DM. Biden is a criminal creep of the first order and his mere presence in the White House will demean the office of POTUS.

        2. That will be a corrosive effect as President after President gets elected via the voting machines, and slowly it dawns on Americans as it has on the British, that whoever they vote for, the government will always get in.

        3. And the way Donald Trump has been treated in the last 5 years? The bastards wouldn’t know “respect” if it bopped them on the nose! Double talk and double standards!

        4. I agree with your sentiments, but the same almost certainly applies to China, the EU, Russia and many others, all of whose Presidents I would have to acknowledge.

          If the Queen can hold her nose, so can I.

          1. Be careful about that. Your holding the Queen’s nose might be construed as lèse-majesté. You could end-up in the Tower.
            ;¬)

          2. That will not be too bad, he will be in
            good company … think how many more
            are likely to be there, for one reason or
            another!

        5. It is not over yet.

          Edit: He is now President Elect but not yet inaugurated. His election and the fraudulent means by which it has been achieved stinks to high heaven. The last time I looked the USA was founded on Christian principles. Trump is a good man and will prevail.

  64. Apropos Christmas food – Cook has just told me that, if it is fine and sunny on 25 December, we will take a flask of Trombetti* soup and some sandwiches and go to the coast to see the bitter, uninviting grey North Sea. Can’t wait….

    But we will behaving flat iron steak and our own potatoes and green vegetables in the evening. I hope….

    *We kept four jumbaling sized trombetti – and they are just brilliant. The velouté just brings back memories of summer.

  65. Looking at the ghastly, smirking Hitlerine the other day, I was reminded of some words referring to her recent fellow Hun, written in 1942:

    “Across the sea … a small and envious mind, a meanly ascetic mind, a creature of the conifers, was plotting the destruction of her home.”

    2. Here’s a health to them that’s awa – by Robert Burns
      { Poem }

      Here’s freedom to them that wad read,
      Here’s freedom to them that wad write!
      There’s nane ever fear’d that the truth should be heard,
      But they whom the truth would indite.

  66. I am off – time to cuddle a cat. And have supper. Hope tomorrow is as nice as it was today.

    Have a soothing evening.

    A demain.

    1. Bill, please be correct.

      You are to see your master/mistress/ to see if they will accept your homage

      Signed

      A cat owner of long standing

        1. Me. or the cats.

          They are now in little urns (very Morecambe and Wise) on the dressing table

          Well they will be when we three, cats/us/dressing table are reunited

          2. Move on Thursday, then…………………. who knows,

            The solicitors (only they are prostitutes have clients {sorry Bill}) are on hols from Thursday til 04.01.2021, so we are going into Limbo
            a small town near Loughborough

          3. What a lovely thought! The dressing table is a favourite of our two! Step up – step down!

  67. We have been urged by polititians today to do the minimum to follow the rules but surely we should be doing the maximum to follow the rules! 🤔

  68. Man travels from Scotland to Isle of Man on a jet ski to see his girlfriend is jailed for breaking covid rules.

    111 illegal immigrants travel in 5 boats from France to UK and are put up in 4star hotels.

    There is something seriously *ucked up about this.

          8. Please describe, in the minutest detail, what you do with it – or what you think you do with it.

          9. Instuctions for use:

            1. Connect the clip to the partner who is likely to go overboard when the going gets rough.

            2. Install the ‘kill’ switch on the partner who is unlikely to able to control themself at full throttle.

            3. Feed the lanyard between the couple ensuring the coil will not get entangled in any body parts.

            4. Start off slowly and build up speed until you are both comfortable about completing the journey to your satisfaction.

    2. The Isle of Man is self-governing and has little to do with domestic UK policy. Its government decides its rules for coronavirus not Boris. Currently non-residents may not enter the Isle of Man.

      1. If that is the case, let’s transfer the seat of power for the UK from the House of Commons to the House of Keys.

        2. The Isle of Man does have a way better fiscal system than ours, far from perfect mind you, but a hell of an improvement over ours.

        1. Yeah they have pretty much cleared up bar some scarring thanks. Feeling a lot better. Took 3 weeks of antibiotics and months of dressings though.

          1. Thayaric, I am pleased for you.

            Have you tried Dermol 500 to use
            as soap or moisturiser, it doesn’t
            get rid of the scars but it does stop
            dry skin forming,

          3. We’re still top of the league.

            We are the premier league champions at being top of the league at Xmas though. We always throw it away in the last few months and always the last game is an utter balls up no matter who we play. Freaking Newcastle slapped us 5-1 in 2016 costing us the title. Our run in that year was 2 draws and 2 losses and leicester nicked the league and even Arsenhole crept above us.

          4. Absolute pain in the bum to have to keep changing dressings over a long period. Glad that things have settled down. Is there a surefire way of avoiding it happening again?

            I don’t remember now what it was called but i had two chemicals that had to be mixed together. They formed a foam which as it was expanding needed to be poured into an open wound. Of course it heated up as it expanded and was bloody burning agony. That went on for 3 months ! Twice weekly. 🙁

          5. The first hospital visit they used some gel that was £15 per tube and they said this is strictly 1 tube per patient. They used half and gave me the other half for redressing, then next visit they used intrasite gel. That was used 2-3 times then manuka honey dressings which did sting like hell and the honey melts out of them making socks and trousers and the bed a mess, then finally a dry dressing with a bandage. All worked out.

  70. VERY LAST POST – just looking at the Nice evening news.

    The frontier between Menton and Ventimiglia is closed by the Ities because of – guess what – the Plague.

    “If only they were so zealous with the illegal immigrants” moaned a lady from Cagnes.

    Well – suck it up, pet. Ask what your compatriots are doing in Calais…….

    TTFN

    1. Ah, le trajet Menton-Ventimiglia; je l’ai fait tant de fois, mais il y a des années, des années.

  71. Completely OT but we have just had haggis, neeps and tatties! For no other reason than that we love it! Yummy!

    1. SWMBO hates haggis, so we don’t have it often (about every 2 years). I love it, me, as do the boys.

      1. We don’t have it very often either, but when we do its a real treat! My (Greek) BiL studied in Glasgow and has it every time they come over! Unfortunately they can’t get neep in Greece!

    2. George Cockburns in Dingwall have won prizes for their haggis – try them Sue they do mail order

      1. Thanks Alec! We have an excellent butcher literally 100 yards away. He has his own herd and local pig producer, but we are always looking for new suppliers.

          1. Thanks OLT! We have used them for a long time but their prices went up and up, and their quality seemed to go down as their product range (fish and seafood) expanded.

    3. So do I Sue .

      I was invited years ago to a Burns night do by the military .. It was a very grand occasion, what an incredible ceremony, and the noble haggis was celebrated in an amazing way.

      I have eaten haggis many times before , but that special meal was delicious.

      1. Indeed Belle! It’s a strange and cheap thing to celebrate, but the ceremony is amazing!

        1. How long before, Burns Night is made illegal and they praise Jimi Hendrix and pipe (or strum) in

          –Flying fish & Cou Cou–

          1. Or they have a black piper ?

            Did you ever see this film?

            The Last King of Scotland is a 2006 British-German historical drama film based on Giles Foden’s novel The Last King of Scotland (1998), adapted by screenwriters Peter Morgan and Jeremy Brock, and directed by Kevin Macdonald. The film was a co-production between companies from the United Kingdom and Germany.

            The film tells the fictional story of Nicholas Garrigan (James McAvoy), a young Scottish doctor who travels to Uganda and becomes the personal physician of President Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker). The film is based on events of Amin’s rule, and the title comes from a reporter in a press conference who wishes to verify whether Amin, who was known to adopt fanciful imperial titles for himself, declared himself the King of Scotland.

            The film has an approval rating of 87% at Rotten Tomatoes, and Whitaker won Best Actor at the 2007 Academy Awards, among other accolades

      2. A friend of mine who was very keen on highland dancing ( and taught it for years) organised a Burns Night do some years ago which I went to – I have to say i didn’t really appreciate the haggis or the neaps…….and I don’t like whisky either – but it was a good night!

    4. If we’re into disclosing meals, I’ve just had a chicken stir fry with a couple (so far) of glasses of Californian Zinfandel rosé. The boycott of EU wines continues apace 🙂

      4. I did a curry for the S@H & myself, largely to use up a jar of curry sauce I had in the pantry for rather a while that the label had come off.

        Chucked a few things together with it and it was very nice!

    5. Efter the style ‘o Rabbie Burns

      Oh whit a sleekit horrible beastie
      Lurks in yer belly efter the feastie
      Jist as ye sit doon among yer kin
      There sterts tae stir an enormous win’
      The neeps ‘n’ tatties ‘n’ mushy peas
      Stert workin’ like a gentle breeze
      But soon the puddin’ wi’ the sauncie face
      Will hae ye blawin’ a’ ower the place
      Nae maiter whit the hell ye dae
      A’bodys gonnae hiv tae pay
      Even if ye try tae stifle It’s like a bullet oot a rifle
      Hawd yer bum ticht tae the chair
      Tae try an’ stop the leakin’ air
      Shify yersel fae cheek tae cheek
      Prae tae God it disnae reek
      But aw yer efforts go assunder
      Oot it comes like a clap o’ thunder
      Ricochets aroon the room
      Michty me a sonic boom
      God almichty it fairly reeks
      Hope a huvnae s**t ma breeks
      Tae the bog a better scurry
      Aw whit the hell, it’s no ma worry
      A’body roon aboot me chokin
      Wan or twa are nearly bokin
      A’ll feel better for a while
      Cannae help but raise a smile
      Wis him! A shout wi’ accusin glower
      Alas too late, he’s jist keeled ower
      Ye dirty bugger they shout and stare
      A dinnae feel welcome ony mair
      Where e’er ye be let yer wind gang free
      Sounds like jist the job fur me
      Whit a fuss at Rabbie’s party
      Ower the sake o’ wan wee farty

        1. Don’t worry, I nicked it from Mudcat years ago!
          Over those years I’ve printed it out and handed it to butchers a few times when I’ve been buying haggis!

          1. Blowin’ in the wind? What sort of reaction do you get from the butchers? I make skirlie and mealy duff for my old man, to go with chicken, pork and turkey. They both contain the same ingredients – pinhead oatmeal, chopped onion, suet, and salt and pepper, but are cooked differently.

          2. The butcher in Paton’s of Largs was laughing his head off and actually recited it during the Burns Night to great acclaim.

      2. It’s blowing a hoolie in Cornwall all night. Southerly, so can’t blame the haggis, neeps and tatties!

  72. I’ve just come in from recovering a car whose occupant had taken his own life in it in a quiet layby at a tourist spot – been there 3 days. This recovery business has its downside!

        1. A couple in BAOR during the mid-’70s slit their wrists in a VW. Because it was under HP from NAAFI and the damage was not covered by insurance, NAAFI put it up for sale at a VERY low price.
          It actually sold too!

          2. Friend of mine’s father ws a railwayman. Got caught by a locomotive near Loughborough and torn to pieces. Friend had to identify the remains. He didn’t look well afterwards, not surprisingly.

          3. A few years ago a chap accompanied by his carer attempted to cross the road at the lights opposite the Gainsborough monument and Winch & Blatch. He fell under the wheels of a grain lorry and was wrapped around one of the wheels before it stopped.

            Staff in Winch & Blatch gazed down on a pool of blood. The Police and Fire Brigade arrived quickly snd placed large barriers around the accident site to protect pedestrians who will have been shocked by this sight.

            The Chief Fire Officer gave his Firemen a choice as to whether they would extricate the flattened corpse or not.

          6. I don’t know Maggie as the firemen/ambulancemen had removed the body – I didn’t see it

          8. The batteries in Electric vehicles are very dangerous and mechanics who want to work on electric cars have to get some sort of certification apparently (yes I know you were joking)

          9. Yes, they do. Firstborn has such certification. There’s plenty safety routines too, involving much disconnection and huge rubber gloves.

    3. Very, very difficult for you.
      Without diminishing the tragedy, the probability is that the reality is that is it death by Sturgeon/Hancock/Whitty/Vallance.
      They will never look in the mirror and ask what could they have done differently.
      I hate them.

      1. Could be – it’s the second one in the area in the last few days (alas I knew the other one)

        1. I’m not sure that isn’t worse if you know the deceased. It’s the sign of the times – I hope Whitty and co. burn in hell for what they have put this country (the UK) through.

    4. Lordy. That’s really sad. How awful to be in the position where you feel that dying is the best solution.

    7. Oh dear, and how dreadful , that is so tragic . I bet you were really cut up about everything .

      Poor you , and in particular there was nothing you could have done to change things, and sometimes we say to ourselves if only, or did I pass that way .

      I was taking the dogs for a walk in a remote area , it was a cold miserable gloomy afternoon , and I saw a car , the interior of which WAS NOT foggy ..

      A man was sitting in the driver seat, head lolling . I was so worried , I tapped on the car window several times .. and my heart was thumping hard , I banged the door , and he suddenly woke up, I apologised , and said I was a nosey creature . He thanked me for caring .

      1. I’d seen the car during the last 3 days, didn’t know there was someone in it – I thought the occupant(s) had parked up and gone camping. The windows were blacked out too.

    9. I guess that if you are going to end it all, the Highlands would make a good background to say goodbye to the world to. With a bottle of something good.

      2. Now more than ever seems it meet to die;
        To cease upon the midnight with no pain
        Ode to a Nightingale

    1. I was wondering. I even refreshed a couple of time (both me & the page) in case there was a constipation in the system, but no.

    2. That’s all right until the big bad wolf comes along. Then you’ll wish you’d built the house of bricks.

  76. Evening, all. Everybody should have prepared for a no deal (ie WTO terms) exit as soon as we voted to leave. That they didn’t (if they didn’t) shows they were clinging on to the belief that the government would stuff the voters and keep us in. I see the govt has produced a “worst case scenario” about no deal to frighten the sheep; no medicines, no this, no that (I couldn’t be bothered to read it all). How do other, non-EU, countries who trade under WTO rules manage, I ask myself. Fine, appears to be the answer. I am pig sick of all this doom and gloom. Where would we have been if, in 1940, Churchill had said, “we will be all alone and can’t fight the Germans. We’ll have supply difficulties because of the blockades and the U boat wolf packs. Let’s give up.”? A pox on them and all their (many) houses!

    2. 327478+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      I don’t think the averages can be compared 39/45 to
      24/6/2016 at 48/52 we were lucky in one respect, where our luck run out was with the continuation of the UKIP party’s work over the years being given over to this make believe tory party.
      Treachery ALL the way but that was well sign-posted over the last three decades.

    1. Did he even remember that “the next one” involves people dying? What was that smirk that he couldn’t control all about?
      Weird and creepy.

  78. A question to those with gmail accounts, do these current outages include people not being able to reply to your gmail a/c?
    I just ask because I hit return on an email to someone’s gmail account, and I get “not deliverable, address doesn’t exist.”

  79. My laptop keyboard recently lost a key or two, so I’m using a plug-in one.
    My children have started ribbing me about how many comments I make on the internet.
    Son just said “It’s like we’ve attached a bell to you, Mum, cos we can hear you typing now….”
    🙁

    1. It’s usually pretty easy to replace a laptop keyboard. The cost is usually around the 20-30 quid mark and you generally only need a spudger and a small phillips screwdriver. Takes 5 to 10 mins tops.

      Unless it’s a mac. They require complete disassembly and the new keyboards never fit perfectly.

      2. PS: I may have made a few mistakes in my time, but buying a mac isn’t one of them! Had to use one at work, everything goes ten times slower than any other work, and it’s not only the problems of communication between the mac and windows.

  81. DT Article today by an Anglican priest, Rachel Mann: “I’m self-evidently a woman – but I’m glad I was once a man’

    We never had a person like this teaching us Sunday school. Mrs Corbett, the vicar’s wife, used to get us all to sit on the floor while she read from a great big book full of Bible stories with pretty illustrations. After a story we would all sing songs like Gentle Jesus, meek and mild look upon this little child and All things bright and beautiful.

    Here is a song by Ralph McTell – I do like the guitar bit at the end of the song.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWo0UzV-5Lo

    2. Oh dear, Rachel (whatever) Mann’s diatribe doesn’t alter the fact that, born as a boy, it is now a man (Mann) that might have had bits removed, transmogrified and boobs added but…

      …it is still a man ( the DNA will confirm this).

      As per usual the puff is all about promoting its book – I shan’t be buying it.

  82. Goodnight, all. I’m going to stoke the Rayburn and then listen to a bit of music before turning in. Music, for a while, doth all thy cares beguile.

    1. Can’t be – nothing has escaped from the Bermuda Triangle – I managed to escape from B. St Eds

      1. Alec, I’ve just looked more closely at your avatar. Have you kidnapped Uncle Bill’s two little rascals?

        3. Our ginger & white Little Cat vanished for a few days in the summer – we suspected he was shut in a garage, but just recently we saw a TV commercial with a ginger & white cat that looked suspiciously the same as Little Cat.
          So, he may well have been moonlighting as a film star. Cheeky bugger!

        1. Yes they are my two cats, unfortunately the one on the right is no longer with us – she went out one night and never came back. That was 4 years ago and the other one still misses her I’m sure (so do I)

          1. I remember that sad loss – a ginger female is quite unusual.

            All our late and much loved cats are still missed and never forgotten.

            A similar disappearance happened to our 17 year old Suzie last year, but I think she may have been snatched up by a fox – she was deaf and wouldn’t have heard anything coming.

    2. When I first came to Colchester from Colchester almost 30 years ago I was convinced that the town was situated in the Bermuda Triangle since the heat was oppressive.

    4. I worked there for a few years. Enjoyed the Dog and Partridge on Friday lunchtimes (next to GK’s brewery, and the location for early Lovejoy episodes). Later, the Linden Tree became the Friday lunchtime watering hole of choice. I played for half a service at the Cathedral once. But now, I’ve disappeared, so you’re prolly correct…

        1. …although St Edmundsbury is the Diocese, not to be confused with the town. Which remains a town, despite having a Cathedral. To all intents and purposes, the Diocese is based in Ipswich, around the church of St Mary le Tower, which acts as a proto-cathedral.

          2. If I was really nerdy, I’d mention John Cooper, who was the brilliant organist at St Mary le Tower, until a new evangelical happy-clappy vicar arrived, and forced him to retire. This is not uncommon in the church. Meanwhile, both my choirs have been stood down for much of the year, and my role is reduced to downloading hymns from Bezos’ website. I’m just a bloody DJ.

          4. A bit like Nottinghamshire. Nottingham is the county town (city) but the diocese is that of Southwell, a small village with a big cathedral (not to mention the origin of the Bramley Apple).

          5. I have a copy of Pevsner’s ‘The Leaves of Southwell’.

            He photographs the fabulous leaf carvings of the capitals in the Chapter House at Southwell Minster.

          9. That’s what my friend insisted. He gritted his teeth when Peter O’Sullevan (among others) routinely called it “Suth’ll”.

  84. BREAKING NEWS – The cashless society is coming ……

    Danish Banks have announced they are closing down their high-street branches to halt the spread of krone virus.

  85. Oh dear! I have been speaking
    to the step-mother who, pleased as
    punch, told me she is having her covid19
    vaccination next Monday.
    I heard the contempt in her voice, when in
    answer to her question about when I am
    having mine, she suggested I am being my
    usual stubborn self! …

      1. She is not stupid, by a long way
        but she does read the DT and
        believes the BBC!

        [ Trusting and naive rather than stupid, perhaps?]

Comments are closed.