Friday 18 December: The Government’s illogical tiers of stop-go restrictions disillusion voters

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/12/18/lettersthe-governments-illogical-tiers-stop-go-restrictions/

871 thoughts on “Friday 18 December: The Government’s illogical tiers of stop-go restrictions disillusion voters”

  2. A Story for today:

    Putting the Cat Out

    We were dressed and ready to go out for a Dinner & Theatre evening.

    We turned on a ‘night light’, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet budgie and put the cat in the back garden. We phoned the local Taxi company and requested a taxi. The taxi arrived and we opened the front door to leave the house.

    As we walked out the door, the cat we had put out in the yard scooted back into the house.
    We didn’t want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to get at the budgie. My wife walked on out to the taxi, while I went back inside to get the cat. The cat ran upstairs, with me in hot pursuit.

    Waiting in the cab, my wife didn’t want the driver to know that the house will be empty for the night. So she explained to the taxi driver that I would be out soon. “He’s just going upstairs to say Goodbye to my mother.”

    A few minutes later, I got into the cab. “Sorry I took so long,” I said, as we drove away.
    “That stupid bitch was hiding under the bed. I had to poke her ar$e with a coat hanger to get her to come out! She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked! I hauled her fat ar$e downstairs and threw her out into the back garden! She’d better not shït in the vegetable garden again!”

    The silence in the Taxi was deafening.

  3. First major snowstorm of season blankets US north-east and sets records. 18 December 2020.

    The first major snowstorm of the season left the north-east blanketed in snow, setting records in some areas.

    “Williamsport regional airport made history,” the National Weather Service in State College said, reporting 24.7in of snow. Forecasters said that was the most snow in that location from a single storm on record, breaking the previous record of 24.1in set there in January 1964.

    Much of the Pennsylvania’s western and central regions saw accumulations in the double digits.

    Morning everyone. Watch out for that Global Warming!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/17/us-snowstorm-north-east-new-york-pennsylvania

  10. SIR – For weeks we have received only one postal delivery (Letters, December 16) per week. On Monday December 7, I had a telephone consultation with my GP and my medication was changed. I was told to expect a leaflet about it.

    This arrived seven days later. Admittedly, it was posted second-class, but as the surgery is only 500 yards from my house (and the postal delivery office just 400 yards) it seemed a rather long time being delivered.

    Keith Appleyard
    West Wickham, Kent

    Well now…as a young boy I can clearly recall posting a slightly late birthday card to my grandmother who lived in the next village. It was posted mid-morning in the box a few yards from our house. During that afternoon she rang to thank me for it. That is what I would call a very good postal service!

    1. Time was you could post a letter or card in the morning and it would be delivered in the 9pm post the same day!

    1. Yet only yesterday our very own cockroach was telling us excess deaths were up this year and we should leave interpretation of the stats to “experts” like him.
      That chart seems pretty damned clear to me!!
      ‘Morning Nanners

      1. ‘Morning, Rik, I’m sure that the cockroach will cream his knickers and salivate over all the statistics that he can deny, as an expert (definition, Ex as in has-been and spurt being a drip under pressure)

      2. Well, perhaps you should have believed him.

        Whilst the figures for 2013 to 2019 shown above are accurate, the supposed figure for 2020 is not.

        Actually from the ONS

        Using the most up-to-date data we have available, the number of deaths up to 27 November 2020 was 554,893, which is 64,711 more than the five-year average.

        https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending27november2020#:~:text=The%20provisional%20number%20of%20deaths,average%20(2%2C099%20deaths%20higher).

        You will find the excerpt shown about one third of the way down.

      1. Admittedly, ONS only reports deaths for England and Wales while it seems that your son’s link gives the nationwide account but – given the England/Wales deaths for 2020 – it is difficult to believe the frightening, selective figures given out by the not so SAGE scientists and endorsed by by Bonking Boris and Half Handycock.

        It all seems to add up to a hidden agenda.

      2. Further research shews that Abbas Panjwani, the author of those ‘facts’ seems to believe that the PCR tests are valid and flies in the face of most of the information verified here, vis-a-vis facemasks etc

    3. Good Morning All,
      From the wonderful Travelling Tabby website and based on government released figures:
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/39b68fc9eba3eaf7638e6663e9e2a3b96964a54459eb83d8cfbecda0ad5b7f00.png

      https://www.travellingtabby.com/uk-coronavirus-tracker/deaths

      Another interesting set of charts produced by the ONS:
      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57c8cc9704fff93efe6cbd4f7280d4d9e344ce3d1dd3ee1c086c51beed5ca3eb.png
      https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending4december2020#deaths-registered-by-place-of-occurrence

      The 800 – 1000 excess deaths per week in the home are mot likely to be caused by Covid measures rather than the disease itself.

    4. Whilst supporting the sentiment, it is a bit misleading to say 20,000 fewer deaths when still five weeks to go. At a rate of over 10,000 per week, the 2020 total will be more like 560-570,000.

      1. The ONS figures for this year show 554,893 deaths up to 27 November. I have no idea where the figure of 511,883 came from, but it was not from the ONS

        Using the most up-to-date data we have available, the number of deaths up to 27 November 2020 was 554,893, which is 64,711 more than the five-year average.

        https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending27november2020#:~:text=The%20provisional%20number%20of%20deaths,average%20(2%2C099%20deaths%20higher).

    5. This is helpful information, however the effects of postponing so many treatments will be complex. It may be that we end up with more deaths this year or next year due to cancer. Or maybe some people might even live longer without the cocktail of drugs they get from the NHS, who knows!

    7. More people died in both 1979 and 1985 in the UK than will die in 2020. I’m sure we all recall the carnage and despair. Fewer, not less, btw.

  12. US Navy to adopt ‘more assertive posture’ against China and Russia. 18 December 2020.

    The Pentagon has warned that US maritime forces will become more forceful in responding to acts of aggression, expansionism, and breaches of international law, citing Beijing in particular, which has been criticised for expansionist ambitions in the South China Sea.

    A major new report signed by the heads of the US Marine Corps, Navy, and Coast Guard warned the “rules-based international order is once again under assault”, and the security environment had dramatically changed since 2015.

    Well since both countries are unlikely to back down in defence of their own territory (there is no Russian or Chinese naval presence off the coasts of the United States) life will almost certainly become far more exciting in the near future!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/18/us-navy-to-adopt-more-assertive-posture-against-china-and-russia

  13. Today’s DT Leader:

    The map of English tiers now looks suspiciously like a national lockdown. Following yesterday’s review, hardly any area has left Tier 3; 10 will enter it; only four areas will be in Tier 1.

    Almost as disappointing as the Government’s decision to subject more of the country to enhanced restrictions is Labour’s demand that ministers rethink trusting us to do the right thing at Christmas. Britain is not having the debate it needs about the impact and usefulness of these measures. Instead, the public is blamed for policy failures, as if we were mischievous children.

    Take Labour-run Wales, which will limit Christmas get-togethers to two households only. When it imposed a two-week “circuit-breaker” shutdown in October, it was heralded as farsighted, and the fact that England imposed its own lockdown soon after looked like validation.

    But after factoring in an enormous backlog of 11,000 tests, Wales now has an infection rate that is nearly three times higher than England’s. So what did it achieve, and at such enormous economic and social cost? The First Minister for Wales, Mark Drakeford, pinned the blame on residents breaking rules, yet the idea that a few house parties could push infections that high is absurd. It is more significant that in-hospital transmission of Covid-19 was up 50 per cent prior to the start of restrictions and management of the Welsh NHS is notoriously poor.

    There is also evidence that confining people to their homes may increase the rates of transmission within families. After all these months, politicians are still struggling to track Covid’s spread, let alone control it. The opening of England’s secondary schools in the new year will not be delayed, we are told, but will be staggered, and it is widely assumed that they are now a major centre of infection. But it is obvious that the more we test there, the more disease we will find, and analysis suggests that infection rates in schools in fact reflect the rates of the wider community. To cut the former, reduce the latter.

    It is becoming ever clearer that the current strategy of repeated lockdowns is not working, and that mass testing may not be helping to bring down infection rates. All focus, therefore, should be on the vaccine, and expediting its deployment so that vulnerable people are inoculated as rapidly as possible. The country cannot wait until spring for normality to return.

    Top BTL comment (so far):

    Angela Warden
    18 Dec 2020 6:35AM

    The DT has so far endorsed the government strategies at the behest of its paymasters and it is now supporting what is little more than snake oil. The only way out of this is to let people get on with their lives and makes decisions which are right for them alone.

    * * * *

    You are forgetting one important fact, Angie: our ‘wonderful’ NHS is an expensive and inefficient monolith that has been badly run down by successive governments, which is why it is found wanting every winter.

    1. Morning, HJ.

      …and that mass testing may not be helping to bring down claimed infection rates.

      Fixed it!

      Semi-critical article but still the author is supping on the elites’ Kool-Aid re infection rates/cases. There exists a number of articles on the internet written by rational and knowledgable people: a good but lengthy one here from AIER. Research for facts and/or data analysis appears to have been dumped by the MSM.

      I am expecting mask wearing to be extended to outside the home early next year. Not to have an effect on spread but to check the sheeple’s obedience to Wancock’s demands.

      Edit: missing ” in link HTML.

      1. If we chucked illegal immigrants straight out every time they are caught, no matter how long they’ve been in the UK, without exception, the trade would stop.

        We don’t, it won’t.

        By all means welcome immigrants who come in by the proper legal routes but clamp down very hard on the others.

        1. We don’t because the French don’t let us. As soon as they get here they immediately hammer us with ‘uman rights’ and then the trougher lawyers soaking up legal aid – which is NOT what it should be for – get involved and use the rights act to force us to keep them.

          1. Unless they are French, I wouldn’t send them back to France.

            It should be back to the furthest and most inconvenient part of the place that they are claiming to have fled.

      2. It’s not OUR fault Hugh. The politicians have caused the problem and have failed to enforce our Immigration laws.

    2. No, not true at all.

      EU law demands that we treat EU citizens the same as British ones so bluntly madame, when we try to deal with your problem – and it IS YOUR problem – the EU hammers us under the useless human rights act.

      As a consequence, we can’t change our legislation because of you, and you know this. That’s why you completely ignore your duty under international law to process and return these illegal gimmigrants. They shouldn’t be able to get to us, yet you ensure they do – and keep the carrot dangling by preventing us from doing anything.

      This is your fault. Do your job. Obey the law. Stop being so useless and French.

    3. Introduce ID cards and a contributory welfare system, and the torrent would become a trickle.
      But they won’t change the system. Note that the four great Offices of State are currently occupied by people with the right to dual nationality (or who had that right until they were 18); not even Boris had four British-born grandparents.
      Raab, Patel, Sunak, Johnson.
      NB at least it shows how tolerant the Brits are.

  15. From the Tellygraff late yesterday…I remain to be convinced that any of this will effectively address the tidal wave of illegal immigrants…and the first boat we foul the propellor of will probably result in a sinking, with us in the dock for drowning the occupants – shortly to be followed by the rapid scrapping of the whole expensive charade. And as for the 18 ltr jet ski…(1.8 ltr of course) well done DT! More a case of MADFUX, surely?

    I have a brilliantly simple idea – get the French to patrol their beaches properly, a service we have paid for more than once.

    * * * *

    Home Office to deploy ‘stealth squad’ of speedboats and jet skis to catch Channel migrants

    Border Force is trialling a new high-speed boat as part of a hi-tech strategy to help detect and intercept migrant boats and catch smugglers

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    17 December 2020 • 9:00pm

    A high-speed drone boat with state-of-the-art surveillance technology is being trialled by Border Force as part of a hi-tech strategy to combat Channel migrants.

    The 41-foot unmanned boat with radar and camera and capable of speeds of more than 40 knots was tested on Thursday in the straits of Dover as a new technique to help detect and intercept migrant boats and catch smugglers.

    The boat known as MADFOX and controlled from a master vessel, comes alongside plans to deploy jet skis to help Border Force agents patrol the channel after migrant crossings this year topped 8,500 – seven times the rate of 2019.

    Border Force vessels have already conducted trials with Royal Navy experts of nets as a technique for stopping the boats at sea by clogging their propellers.

    Earlier this year, it also emerged that the Home Office was considering “marine fencing” after an appeal to the maritime industry for “water-based” technologies to block the boats.

    Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, has been pressing the French to stop the migrants at sea and return them to France as the most effective deterrent to stop the crossings.

    That requires not only the agreement of the French but also the technology to detect the boats earlier and intercept them safely.

    Confirming the trials, Dan O’Mahoney, clandestine channel threat commander, said: “We are working day and night to secure our borders and to stop small boats crossing the channel.

    “This new technology could help in our mission to make these crossing unviable by gathering evidence for prosecutions, preventing uncontrolled landings and supporting operations to save lives at sea.”

    The high-speech unmanned MADFOX boat – 41ft by 13ft – has been developed by the Government’s defence,science and technology laboratories and specialist drone firm L3Harris.

    Sensors on board the vessel are able to pick out and identify specific vessel types, such as yachts, fishing vessels, ferries and cruise ships as well as migrants’ boats.

    “MADFOX could play a valuable role in protecting lives by detecting and tracking small boats, as well as capturing vital evidential material to support criminal prosecutions,” said a Home Office source.

    Drone experts said MADFOX boats could be deployed remotely for hours to detect migrants’ ribs and then alert a master ship to intercept them.

    “It’s a great idea,” said Rick Gill, a former British intelligence officer who heads Drone Defence. “You get the information much, much earlier without the manpower bill. You could have a number of these with a master boat. They can operate in all weathers with persistence.”

    MADFOX took part in exercises earlier this year with the Navy’s HMS Albion and the Royal Marines 47 Commando in sub-zero temperatures in Norway. It was integrated into the ship’s computer systems and remotely entered and retracted from the HMS Albion’s dock.

    A new stealth boat to potentially combat miogrant crossings in the the English Channel by the Royal Navy
    The new stealth boat will potentially combat migrant crossings in the the English Channel CREDIT: Steve Finn
    It will supplement the aerial drones already deployed in the Channel against migrants. The Tekever AR5 fixed wing drone can cruise at 60 mph at heights of hundreds of metres with cameras and radar, played a key role in helped track and arrest a Channel migrant trafficking gang this summer.

    It has been used by the coastguard alongside the Ministry of Defence’s Watchkeeper drone, which can reach 16,000 feet with a range of 100 miles and was used by the Army in Afghanistan.

    Border Force is also looking to buy or hire two jet skis to patrol the Channel which have to be “powerful enough to tow if required,” according to an official tender document.

    The Yamaha jet skis under Home Office consideration typically cost between £15,000 and £20,000. Officials want the vessels to be significantly adapted for use in the Channel, including adding GPS systems, cruise control and an 18,000cc engine.

    2. Border Farce deploy these innovations to catch the smugglers and intercept the immigrants. What then?

      Seen to be doing something even if the result is the same as doing nothing i.e. immigrants are brought ashore rather than choosing their own landfall.

    3. 327533+up ticks,
      Morning HJ,
      Spent the outlay of the clone campaign on private ops.
      for the indigenous needy and stop ALL types of welfare for ALL illegals.

      As in the far east “You smuggle drugs, you die” warn first then act on the 1/1/2021.

      For this to take place you first need a pro United Kingdom
      party in power replacing this treacherous overseeing political sh!te we have suffered under for the last three decades.

  16. Does Putin admit any responsibility for ‘new Cold War’? 18 December 2020.

    During his annual end-of-year news conference, Vladimir Putin was asked about relations between Russia and the West.

    The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg asked the Kremlin leader whether Russian authorities consider themselves “white and fluffy” – a Russian expression which means squeaky clean – when it comes to accepting responsibility for worsening ties.

    You can see in this short clip why Putin is hardly ever seen answering questions personally and his speech is always edited and misreported by the MSM. He is a master of the form and far more convincing and human than our own home grown product!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-55356699

    2. This could be entitled the “Evelyn Beatrice Hall Charter“, since it was she who first uttered the immortal words: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

    3. Oh, George, now you’ve taken advantage of your ex-pat status to offend more than a couple of woke lefties.

      1. “Ex-pat”? I’ve never been a Pat, Tom.

        I did have an ex- called ‘Pat’ once-upon-a-time [Sigh!]

          1. Prevaricate means telling lies or untruths. I’ve done neither.

            Did you mean “don’t procrastinate”?

          2. No, George. Not lying necessarily:

            prevaricate
            [prɪˈvarɪkeɪt]
            VERB
            speak or act in an evasive way.
            “he seemed to prevaricate when journalists asked pointed questions”
            synonyms:
            be evasive · be non-committal · be vague · be ambiguous · evade/dodge the issue

          3. That’s correct, Tom; however prevaricate is not (as many people believe) a synonym for procrastinate, which means to defer action, or putting something off (dithering) that should be done immediately.

      1. Because I Met them once and they were of a far lower intelligence standard than real policemen.

        Coincidentally, at the same time I met some officers from the smaller, and independent, City of London Police, and they were a smashing group of chaps. I still have some gift souvenirs of my meeting with them (badge and armband)

        1. It costs me £26 each month (for 30–31 editions) and I can turn the pages with a click (and zoom in for a clearer view). It is much more intuitive than the normal online DT. In fact it is just like reading the real paper.

          2. I’ve never eaten chips that were directly in contact with newsprint. There was always a sheet of clean paper between the chips and the newspaper.

            I only get ink on my fingers when changing a dicky cartridge! :•)

  19. Good morning on a dull and wet Friday morning.
    A little while ago the gathering daylight had a VERY red tinge to it.

  20. SIR — Professor Chris Whitty advised us to use common sense regarding Christmas celebrations. Well done him for letting us take responsibility, but, as for common sense, in words attributed to Mark Twain: “There’s not enough of it about to be common.”

    Barbara Dennis
    King’s Lynn, Norfolk

    No doubt Frank Zappa was minded of this when he uttered the equally sensible and prescient words: “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

    Not enough common sense: too much stupidity? Yep, I go along with that. The proof is all around and it is becoming more and more evident with each passing second.

  21. SIR — Professor Chris Whitty advised us to use common sense regarding Christmas celebrations. Well done him for letting us take responsibility, but, as for common sense, in words attributed to Mark Twain: “There’s not enough of it about to be common.”

    Barbara Dennis
    King’s Lynn, Norfolk

    No doubt Frank Zappa was minded of this when he uttered the equally sensible and prescient words: “Some scientists claim that hydrogen, because it is so plentiful, is the basic building block of the universe. I dispute that. I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.”

    Not enough common sense: too much stupidity? Yep, I go along with that. The proof is all around and it is becoming more and more evident with each passing second.

    1. As modern fishing boats are capable of higher speeds than our patrol boats and we have only a couple of patrol boats between the Faroes and Dover, foreign fisherman can keep on smiling snd waving.

    2. It was. Sonobuoys too. Could be equipped with depthcharges, IIRC.
      Could also drop lifeboats.

          1. ‘Morning, Spikey.

            I had four C-130 Hercules’ flying low in close formation over the house yesterday. I wonder what they were up to?

          4. Morning Grizz – training for low level close formation flying? :o)
            The RAF do it where I live. When you drive along the road by Loch Glascarnoch you could look down on Tornedos and Typhoons and on the same level as C130s

  23. Equalities Minister Liz Truss is bone-headed for suggesting that gender equality is a woke cause
    In dismissing the push for equality as ‘fashionable’, she has undermined her role as well as the work of predecessors like Theresa May

    ROSA PRINCE
    18 December 2020 • 6:00am
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/equalities-minister-liz-truss-bone-headed-suggesting-gender/

    Rosa Prince is a twerp, and so is the editor of the DT for allowing her to write such twaddle.

    DT/Guardian , what is the difference , and why has the DT adopted woke journalism?

    1. Yes, Liz Truss has certainly undermined the work of predecessors like Theresa May – and a good thing too!

      2. Reginald D. Hunter: “Margaret Thatcher rose to the top of what’s arguably a male-dominated profession, and she didn’t shake her ass one time”.

        2. She was very, very well known to be exceedingly flirtatious. There are more ways to flirt than “shakin’ your ass”

    2. So, because Liss Truss wants gender equality she’d better talk to the French Academie Nationale and get tables and chair all equal as are penis and vagina.

      When will these twerps bite the bullet and use the correct word. Sex defines the difference between humans, Gender is a grammatical concept, only used in English for ships and maybe cars and/or aeroplanes. What the continentals do with ‘gender’ is their own linguistic business.

      1. I remember trying to explain this to Jill Backson who was completely wooden-headed and could not understand that the two words had separate meanings.

        Although we Spoonerised his/her/its name we never knew anything about this person apart from the fact that he/she/it used to work for HMRC. We do not know how he/she/it identified his/her/its own sex and with whom or what he/she/it had ‘genderal’ relations if any.

    3. The DT employs some completely terrible writers.

      I don’t know why they still employ William Hague. He used to be quite amusing, witty and bright. Now he is a dim-witted dullard.

    4. Depends what’s meant by “equality”. Everybody should have equality of opportunity. What they choose to make of it should be up to them, and the best suited to the task is the one who gets to do it. Being chosen on the basis of some other attribute is no longer equality – should I be chosen to play League football if I am physically disabled? If not, isn’t that discrimination and a failure of equality?

      2. Read Ayn Rand’s ‘Atlas Shrugged‘ (1957) wherein there is a socialist government in power in the US, bringing forward an ‘Equalisation of Opportunities’ bill with the subsequent collapse of the American Economy

      3. Even equality of opportunity is creepy if taken to its logical conclusion. You’d have to take children away from their parents in order to ensure that they have the same opportunities. Those pesky middle class parents will keep giving their children privileges!

        1. Morning black box and Nottlers all.

          Isn’t that what governments over the past few years have been doing, trying to gradually remove children out of their parents control? Children go much earlier to nursery school now, so that Mum can go back to work, and straight on to primary/first school, and now not out of schooling until 18 at the earliest. And there are even “goals” for the nursery school children to reach. Instead of them being allowed to play and learn, as used to be, they are now all being shoehorned into the government’s idea of upbringing/indoctrination.

        2. I think it’s enough that the opportunity is there. If people do not want to take the opportunity before them that is their personal choice.
          Despite what many think yo cannot force people to take an opportunity.

          1. Indeed. My brother, being the first-born, was offered all sorts of educational advantages and spurned them all. I took full advantage of mine.

          2. I’m the youngest of five and we all left school aged 15. We weren’t an academic family but we’re brought up with a can do attitude. We were born and brought up in, what is now, Islington. These days we would have been told we were deprived a told we could not succeed . We all made our way in the world successfully.

            In our granddaughters’ junior school in Dubai they have the inscription

            It is your attitude not your aptitude that will determine our altitude.

            A useful saying for all children today.

        3. But of course , a black footballe’rs mother ( who couldn’t keep her legs together ) a black single mother of many different children , has been appearing on our media screens praising her son for his humanity re feeding hungry British school children .

          1. ‘.. his humanity re feeding hungry British schoolchildren.’

            Not that he personally is paying. Rumour has it he pays very little tax anyway.

          2. Only “little people” pay income tax.

            I am waiting for his reply to my question:

            How many starving children are you feeding in your multi-million mansion this Christmas, Arsehole?

          4. In footballers defence – I assume because it’s so lethal a touch point – they pay full tax on their incomes.

            However – the rest, the trusts to create ownership, property sales, returns… those are all put in vehicles.

            The wife summed this up (it shuts me up). If there were a 5% tax on companies, shares, dividends and all other tax receipts instead of 40 the government would raise 4 times as much money.

            It’s because the thick people – Lefties – complain when the normal, intelligent people suggest cutting the rate of tax to 10% and the fools wail that this helps the ‘Tory rich friends’. Well, yes, it does. It’s called common fricken’ sense.

          6. Bad luck Belle if you’ve seen this woman. We don’t watch the news and turn off the radio when propaganda comes on – too depressingly often!

      5. Well a wheelchair (and the need for one) is a requirement to play wheelchair basketball or rugby… but that is a slightly different game.

        Anyone who pretends that women in the 50s, 60s, 70s or even 80s had equality of opportunity is kidding himself (remember that Mrs T had a very, very wealthy husband who undoubtedly opened a great many doors to her ambitions). This have improved a great deal since then but, in the main, because women kept on kicking at the door until it opened… not because it opened by magic.

  25. I’m not “disillusioned” about “illogical tiers” – I’m [expletive deleted] angry!

    1. Shouldn’t that be “furious” – to get some alliteration?

      I am just grieving for my lost country. Sold down the river for an untested vaccine, when hydroxychloroquine was good all along.

        1. My cousin, C.G. Tracey, was a very prominent businessman and farmer in Rhodesia at the time of UDI and, at the request of Ian Smith, he came to Britain for diplomatic talks with the British government.

          He was interviewed by the BBC but when this interview was transmitted the answers he gave to the questions were edited and the questions were edited and changed as well in a determination to misrepresent everything he said. He was furious and refused to be interviewed again by the BBC unless the interview was going out live – the BBC even then could not be trusted with recorded interviews.

          I think you will find copies of ‘All For Nothing – My Life Remembered‘ by C.G. Tracey at AbeBooks or Amazon:

      2. The only reason that hydroxychloroquine was forbidden was because Mr Trump advocated its use.

        I am not a particular fan of Mr Trump but the way he has been treated by the MSM and his political opponents has been disgraceful. Indeed it is this that convinces me that the election which produced Biden was a fraudulent swindle.

  26. The Christmas issue of The Spectator has a recipe from Treason May – for “Fruit Cake”…..

  27. Yo all

    Having the chaps coming to ‘The Box’ today to cover the top in binbags,.as it let in the rain

    Last night was comfy(ish)

  28. Record snowfall in Japan forces hundreds of drivers to sleep in their cars. 18 December 2020.

    More than 1,000 people in Japan were forced to spend the night in their cars on Thursday after record snowfall blanketed parts of the country.

    The first few motorists traveling on an expressway connecting Tokyo with Niigata on the Japan Sea coast found their route blocked on Wednesday evening, according to media reports.

    The number of trapped cars grew quickly on Thursday as huge quantities of snow fell on central and northern Japan. At one point the line of vehicles stretched for 10 miles (16.5km).

    That damned Global Waming. Time they did something about it and bought some more snowploughs!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/record-snowfall-in-japan-forces-hundreds-of-drivers-to-sleep-in-their-cars

    2. I spent a year (92/93) in Kanazawa, on the west coast of the main island …. from December through March there was a heap of snow and it never cleared. Snow tyres were regarded as essential.

    4. It’s a well-known fact that most body heat is lost through the head, rather than the genitals. When it happened to me once, I managed to overnight in the car by putting my underpants on my head. Nice and toasty!

        1. I remember someone once telling me that very little body heat is lost through the head if said organ is placed in a pan of boiling water.

  29. Victory in the war on woke: Judges’ landmark ruling in case of mother who called trans woman ‘he’ on Twitter means freedom of speech DOES includes the ‘right to offend’
    Two judges have ruled that free speech encompasses offensive language
    Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Warby presiding over case in Court of Appeal
    Ruling came in successful appeal decided last week in favour of Kate Scottow
    Feminist prosecuted for calling a transgender woman a man and ‘pig in a wig’
    She had been found guilty under the 2003 Communications Act this year

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9066069/Woke-folk-beware-Freedom-speech-includes-right-offend-say-judges-landmark-ruling.html

      1. ‘Morning, Belle.

        I have neither seen nor eaten a sprout so far this season. I’m getting worried, as I have some interesting recipes to try out.

        1. They have appeared in the shops in this area Peddy. Perhaps Waitrose have decided they are too plebeian; they have withdrawn the hem of their garment from the town of Shrewsbury and closed the nice little shop which they used to have in the town centre.

  31. Brave wife, 56, used her husband’s samurai sword to confront masked burglars trying to steal their £42k Audi supercar – and almost killed one of them when he grabbed the razor-sharp blade
    Miriam Carrington pointed blade at Rehan Malik and told him to wait for police
    Malik, 22, grabbed the blade with his bare hands to try and wrestle it off her
    Sword slices through Malik’s hands during the struggle and left trail of blood

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9064995/Woman-armed-samurai-sword-confront-masked-burglars-trying-steal-42k-Audi.html

    I feel nothing but admiration for this very brave lady , however one wonders why she didn’t persuade her husband that a £42 K Audi super car wasn’t a good idea .. and how do people afford cars like that?

    1. Morning Maggie, many people have these expensive cars on a lease and never own them – it’s showing off!
      I was in a Merc dealer the other day and they had a Merc SUV at £83k but you could lease it at £1k a month

          1. I have a brilliant economical 12 year old Peugeot 307 SW/ diesel, still over 60 miles to the gallon and 140,000 on the clock .

            My dogs have a comfortable secure box in the back , and I haven’t seen a newer car with so much space .. Most modern estates or similar have high tail gates and smaller bootspace. Moh has a Laguna saloon , fits his golf bag and trolley comfortably in the boot .

            We have to visit the tip 6 miles away , and we canpile bags of garden stuff up in the Laguna

          2. An old friend of mine once insisted that it is futile and pointless stating how many miles a car does to the gallon (or kilometres to the litre for that matter).

            He went on to tell me that since the price of fuel fluctuates wildly, it only makes sense to know how many miles (or kilometres) your car does to each pound spent!

            I think he had a valid point.

          5. Mines got over 146k on the clock and does 61 mpg average, original exhaust and battery. Just a few suspension parts changed thanks to our crap roads up here and the usual tyres. I change the oil and filter every 5000 miles

          7. We now have a white diesel Peugeot Van. We bought it on the internet from a dealership in Nottingham that is owned directly by Peugeot. It was pre-registered and we bought it for a very good discount. (2nd hand as 5 miles on clock!). A driver from a delivery company drove it up to the Borders, handed it over and walked off to the bus stop, whistling. It is a very nice van.
            Previously we had a Suzuki Wagon R. It was essentially a biscuit tin with a 1600cc engine and it went like a rocket. The back seats folded flat and you could get the content of a student flat in it. It broke after 265,000 miles. It had replaced the Mercedes estate which broke after 260,000 miles. That had replaced the Citroen which broke after 270,000 miles.
            As we no longer provide daily taxi services to a fleet of children our mileage has dropped to 13,000 a year.

          4. A 1953 Ford Anglia (often wrongly called a Ford Popular) fitted with a Chevrolet V8 in a custom-built chassis.

          5. Many years ago we owned a Ford Escort estate which had been the racing services manager’s car for Renold, the chain and gear people.
            No badges, no fancy lines, and absolutely nothing to show that it had been really “breathed on” by experts. Too fast for our driving skills but it certainly used to embarrass the boy racers.

          11. Alf and I had a Ford Popular bought in 1966 for £5, 3rd party insurance, fire and theft cost, 17 Guineas! Had it for about three months then it went to that big scrapyard in the sky. Did about 50mph with a following wind, 1172cc engine had 3 gears, crash first one. I’d passed the driving test but Alf was learning and once, at Piccadilly Circus, a bus actually pushed us along as the lights changed.

            Memories eh.

          12. My first car was a 1961 Goodwood green-and-rust Ford Consul 375 (Reg No 260 DYR) which I bought from a friend in 1971 for £40. It had a large bench seat in the front, padded armrests on the doors, and a three-speed column gear change. I had it for around a year when another friend, who was driving it, hit the pillar of a bridge during a rainstorm, pushing the front wing into the tyre and puncturing it. He was dazzled by the lights of an oncoming car under the bridge.

            I was lying on my back, in my best suit, in the rain pulling the wing away and changing the tyre. It didn’t go much further after limping home. I scrapped it soon after before wasting a lot more money on a Hillman Imp (!).

          13. Our first car was a Hillman Imp.
            We went camping in the Lake District and our sons travelled up the A1 lying across all the gear.

          14. Did you have any problems with the aluminium engine block warping? I did! The head gasket kept blowing and the engine oil mixed into a sludge with the water coolant. I couldn’t get rid of the damn thing quickly enough.

          15. My ex ‘s mother bought a red Hillman Imp. We bought it from her and took it on honeymoon to the Lake District. The head gasket blew on Hardknott pass – we came home by train. He had to go up a week later to collect it. A few months later we traded that one in for a slightly newer dark green one.

          16. My first car was a ’63 Mini. Solenoid starter on the floor, wire handles to pull down to open the doors, press button catches on the sliding windows, a petrol gauge that read 1/4 full when it was empty and the disconcerting habit of cutting out and refusing to go if the rain was in any way heavy and splashed through the grill onto the distributor. It also ended up with only one windscreen wiper (on the driver’s side) after the synchronisation system gave up and the wipers tangled themselves up. Ah, those were the days! Motoring at its finest 🙂

          17. The father of one of our friends bought him a banger.
            We had to place our feet carefully either side of the rusted floor so they didn’t drag along the road.

        4. I’m content with my ’06 C-Max 2L TD, 66,000 miles on the clock (that’s less than 5000/year). Never a day’s trouble. apart from when the battery went flat while I was in hospital. Can go like a dingbat, but mostly I just potter to & from W/rose twice a week, covering about 30 miles.

          1. I’ve never found a Ford which was really comfortable to drive… they all seem to have been built for tall men with short arms. As a rather shorter than average women with a long reach no amount of adjusting ever seems to get things quite right.

            My 2011 Skodia Fabia estate (diesel) has just about 80,000 miles on the clock; from 7,500 when I bought her in 2014, my local garage does a good line in picking up low mileage second-hand cars. Apart from a blown fuel injector at 19,000 miles she’s given me no more bother apart from the odd puncture… Shropshire and Montgomeryshire are full of hedges and the current environmental trend is to cut them only every 2 or 3 years – resulting in thorns which closely resemble 4 inch nails!

            I’ve done very little mileage in the past year, but most years still see a couple of trips “home” – a round trip of about 1,000 miles.

            I learned in my father’s Hillman Hunter estate. 15 feet long, rear wheel drive, and no power steering; once you’ve mastered the three-point turn in a narrow street in one of those who will never blink at the prospect of a tight turn again. I sometimes wonder how the slips of lasses of today would get on in such a car, I confess that I would not be happy to lose my power-steering now.

          1. Decapotable, for me.
            Excellent choice, HP. I assume you mean the 1960s version, not the modern?

          2. Oh, yes! The Chapron version, of course.
            A friend’s dad had a DS21 in 1965. I’d only ever been in a Ford Popular. The DS was indeed a “Goddess”.

            That the modern cars are given the DS designation indicates a paucity of imagination and a lack of respect for the past.

        9. I’m happy with the one I’ve got. It gets me from A to B and is economical. My days of playing the boy racer are long gone.

        2. Agreed. However, this video asks more questions than it answers.

          1. Why (as Tom says) no screens? In a BANK?
          2. Why was an “off duty” police officer armed and in full uniform?
          3. Who gave him authorisation to be behind the counter in a bank?
          4. Could he justify shooting someone in the back?

          The US of A is a place of weird and strange contradictions. I’m very happy that I do not live there.

          1. Listening to the commentary it would seem for 2 and 3 he was moonlighting for the banks security provider, so a uniform and gun were reasonable, as for 1 ? and 4 certainly not if he was a druggy criminal POC.

          2. I also listened to the commentary but, since it was not in English (it was in gobbledegook pidgin-Americanese), not much of it made sense!

      1. Look at the pointy head on the burglar, Rehan Malik, the result of generations of Paki Muslim inbreeding.

        3. Surely, a citizen who has brought a wealth of enrichment, diversity, and interesting culture to our isle?

    6. H’mmm …. I can be pretty persuasive, but I doubt if MB was minded to acquire a four wheeled penis extension, I could get him to do otherwise.
      Fortunately, he is about as interested in cars as I am.

    7. But Belle if they had only wanted to steal the car why break into the house? And, as usual, the newspaper has slanted the story – had to put the price of the car in the article. What has that to do with the price of fish as it were?

      I’m glad the court decided it was self defence – because it was.
      Edit: if instead of I’d

      1. Modern cars have so much safety built in that you need the keys to get into the car and start it hence they break into the house to steal the keys, it’s called a Hanoi burglary

        2. The area to the south and west of Aberdeen (an area of sizeable homes and distinctly pricey cars) had a spate of incidents some 5 or 6 years ago. In an area where many, even rich, people still don’t lock their doors when they were at home the keys would be whipped from the hall table (or similar place) and the first anyone knew of it would be the car being driven away.

    9. A £14,950 reduction off the list price because the car had been in the showroom and hadn’t sold for a year…..

      1. I have never seen it other than in brief moments between switching from channel to channel.

        Les Dawson was quite funny in ‘drag’ and I once saw a very amusing production of Charley’s Aunt with Danny La Rue in it.

    3. Never watched it – but sometimes it’s not quite finished when OH puts the 10pm news on. He turns the sound off and I go back to my laptop. How anybody can enjoy that crap is beyond me.

    4. I can’t remember the last time the BBC produced a comedy show/sitcom that actually was funny. We need to keep pushing to either defund the BBC or decouple the licence fee from general TV watching to just a BBC subscription only. Anyone with freeview / freesat should be free to delete all their BBC channels (there should be one remaining for emergency broadcasts) from their TV or PVR and then not have to pay the TV licence, whilst still enjoying content from the other channels.

  33. I see a former policeman has been condemned for calling a colleague “an Asian Babe”. A kangaroo court tribunal sad that had he still been serving he would have been sacked.

    So, presumably, I could be cancelled if I referred to a “Geordie Babe”…..

    2. What was the point of holding a tribunal at all if the person was no longer a serving officer? Even if he was still serving and said that, it certainly isn’t a sackable offence. At most, his superior officer should’ve sat him down in private for a quiet word about being a professional and respectful to other officers whilst on duty.

      Let’s also hope that the colleague called an ‘Asian babe’ learns how to take such things like an adult, rather than as some kind of snowflake millenial SJW. I mean are they going to have some kind of meltdown every time some criminal or drunk calls them ‘mean names’, let alone finding them sexually attractive and saying so? Let’s hope that this lady hasn’t ever found a male colleague attractive or ogled some man in the street whilst on duty.

      1. He probably resigned rather than risk losing his pension.

        (Assuming pensions can still be taken away for being sacked.)

      2. I’m amazed, but the blecks here are beginning to push back. There’s been a few aricles in the press now where they are saying that the offended ones should grow a pair, and just because one has more of a suntan than the average, doesn’t mean you should be offended on every damn thing. And the last one I read was written by a 20-year old, too!

    4. That’s it, Uncle Bill! You are clearly a sexist & racist Silly Sausage. Go to the naughty step and stay there until the MR rings the dinner gong. :-))

  35. Whats this Xmas day bubble mean, what is it. ? does it have a proper name.? I do not like slang.

      1. Same for me Grizzly. And don’t get me started on testing as “asymmetric” (instead of positive or negative) and other such terms. Lots of work for the “Plain English” society to tackle.

        PS – Mind you, time was – just after the Remain/Leave vote in June 2016 – that a lot of people confused “Brexit” with “Breakfast”.

        1. Talking about ‘asymmetric’, what happened to assymetric the old DT and NoTTL commenter. Is he still around?

    2. its bubble and squeak to be made from Christmas day leftovers . So called because you serve it to your everyday bubble on boxing day.

      OK, this makes no sense but nor does your governments inability to set clear guidelines / rules.

      2. Really. Richard? I thought it was what you got when you dipped that small circular metal hoop into a small tin of concentrated washing up liquid and blew through the hoop.

        :-))

    3. I simply do not understand “bubble”, anyway.

      The use of imbecile language is part of the plan to infantilise the population.

      1. It’s a new twist on Darwin’s famous axiom, Bill, intended to ensure the survival of the thickest.

      2. In yer Lunnun it means you have to invite a gentleman/woman of Greek heritage to Christmas dinner
        ‘Morning Bill

    4. Don’t you mean ‘The Five Days of Christmas Bubble’? Strangely enough, the government decided that the ‘rollback’ in lockdown measures for the Christmas period is from Wednesday 23rd to Sunday 27th December, but not the bank holiday Monday on the 28th.

      Right up there with my council area being put into Tier 3 when another one about 50 miles away still in Tier 2 has exactly the same ‘infection rate’ with both being well below the government’s own threshold to go into Tier 3. Not as bad as Sir Kier Kneelsalot and his cronies wanting Christmas cancelled on the one hand and his chum the Manchester Mayor wanting them downgraded from Tier 3 to 2 at the same time.

      All the while, the DT goes for clickbait and keeps up the ‘social justice’ narrative. Today’s ‘articles’ by Judith Woods and especially Rosa Prince take the biscuit. I’m glad both, especially Rosa’s, is getting absoluted slated in the comments sections. More and more DT subscribers thoroughly peed off with the paper’s content – so why continue to subscribe? I also have to wonder at the ‘accuracy’ of the figures given on the Telegraph Corporate website as regards online subscribers. Also, the number of ‘registrants’ (they still have an account but aren’t subscribed) has now started to fall in recent months.

      [update 13:03] The DT mods have deleted BOTH reader comments sections from these two articles. Quelle surprise!

        1. It’s apparently the entire household in each of the three allowed to meet up in one of their homes over the 5 day period – and ONLY them, not one set per day, etc. Then there are the ‘support bubbles’ – something that can include different people, mainly a single person (or a widowed person) who can legally visit (or the other way around) another household at any time – so they can have some interraction with family or friends, or they need or provide care, except during periods of full lockdown.

          1. Quite frankly, in a month where I’ve seen a friend (a year younger than me) die of ovarian cancer and also learnt that a former classmate – who was part of our group of school chums – is is now in a home with advanced Alzheimers, I am prepared to take a risk and LIVE ….. not exist.

          2. Exactly. Assuming the pandemic actually ‘ends’ (in the eyes of those in control), I believe they’ll be far more people who will have died because of not being diagnosed or treated (at all or in good time) for other diseases, especially when all those who’ve been classified as dying ‘from’ COVID are properly classified as dying from something else but who just had COVID, if at all.

            My 80yo uncle was fine as of early 2020, now because of lockdown restrictions is now going downhill fast mentally because he cannot go out as he used to, interract with family and friends, etc. The strain on my aunt could also have a serious impact on her health as well.

            ‘Just surviving’ through something that kills at best 0.3% of people where 95% of them already have one or more co-morbidities in later life is no life.

          4. Christmas will be what we always do. I hope it bursts their bubble.The whole thing is just a complete con. Haveing seen the number of deaths for this year its less than “normal”

          5. Exactly – I just looked up my area (roughly 100k people in the borough) and 8 people have died either with or of COVID since early July and 6 since the start of October.

            98 died from Feb – end of June. Like your area, the overall death rate (and I suspect the number of people in hospital and ICU) has been below (and still is today) that of last year and compared to the 5 year average too.

            Are politicians and the MSM so naive/stupid/easily scared/spineless that they think that trashing the economy and people’s livelihoods (and probably leading to loads of deaths as a result of that and non-care of other medical needs) as well as hand the West on a plate to China is a wonderful thing, just to save a few more people where 95% would’ve likely died in 2020 or 2021 anyway?

            That being bad enough, I get to listen to the hypocrisy of my neighbours rudely telling everyone to ‘stay 2m away’ and ‘don’t touch that door handle’, blah, blah, blah (Karens) then when they think no-one’s watching, they socialise with multiple friends and family in direct contradiction to their own pontificating and often the lockdown rules.

            I’ve also see children obviously who have been sent home to self-isolate going out and about during the day – one delivering the local free paper to the entire hosuing estate this morning.

            At least the less well-off working class are honest enough about their ‘rule-breaking’.

  37. First crop of Covid letters:

    SIR – The new Covid-19 tier assessment by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, really just underlines what the public has known since the spring – namely, that most of what he announces is the result of illogical reasoning.

    Why establish new tiers for four days, then release them for five days, only to reimpose them thereafter? If the Government can trust the public to be careful for five days over Christmas, why not the preceding four?

    A somewhat confused and disillusioned electorate would have far better understood the imposition of new tier levels from December 28.

    Kim Potter
    Lambourn, Berkshire

    SIR – Government rules for Christmas are realistically based on the “lesser of two evils” principle. It knows that trying to stop families gathering would fail and would criminalise millions.

    Therefore it is provides guidelines that will minimise the threat.

    Andrew Wildblood
    Crantock, Cornwall

    SIR – I am aware that it is not a competition, but many television commentators and even some MPs keep telling us how badly the United Kingdom has fared in the pandemic and that we are the “worst” in Europe.

    Using current data, in gross terms Italy now has higher total deaths from Covid, Belgium has for some time had the highest rate per capita, while Germany, held up as a great example, has experienced some of the highest daily death rates.

    I suggest that when this is all over, figures across Europe will be remarkably similar and it will be fairly obvious that figures are more dependent on genetic distributions, levels of poverty and obesity, plus willingness to follow instructions, rather than on action by governments and leaders (male or female).

    Fortunately, we now have vaccines that will help to curb the figures worldwide, and we should all support our governments wherever possible.

    Lawrence Palmer
    Edinburgh

    SIR – I travelled on a busy c2c rail service of about 45 minutes. Posters stated that passengers not wearing a face covering could be fined £6,400.

    Despite this threat, throughout the journey several unmasked passengers ate takeaway food, presumably purchased at stations.

    Vanessa Holt
    Leigh-on-Sea, Essex

    SIR – I came out of my office yesterday to find six school-age children (four without masks) hugging each other.

    Does our highly efficient hospitality industry really have to suffer?

    Keith G Pittis
    Chislehurst, Kent

    SIR – Professor Chris Whitty advised us to use common sense regarding Christmas celebrations. Well done him for letting us take responsibility, but, as for common sense, in words attributed to Mark Twain: “There’s not enough of it about to be common.”

    Barbara Dennis
    King’s Lynn, Norfolk

    Sorry, Lawrence Palmer, but I suspect few of us believe that any of these figures are accurate. Therefore, such comparisons are unreliable until there is a common method of counting – and that isn’t going to happen.

    1. Deaths (total) and death rate (åer 100.000) will be quite different, due to population differences.

  38. SIR – It was with great concern that I read Jeremy Warner’s article, “Thatcher would never have backed sanctions against delinquent China” (Comment, December 16).

    Mr Warner’s assertion that “we do not ban countries simply because their regimes don’t share the same liberal values as our own” is ostensibly correct, and British businesses understandably want to trade globally, with minimal interference.

    But blatant breaches of the Sino-British Joint Declaration, disregard for freedom and democracy, and the attempted genocide of the Uighur people go far beyond an absence of liberal values. These are the actions of a brutal dictatorship, and an appropriate response is required.

    Targeted, Magnitsky-style sanctions against individuals in the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities are a means of taking a stand without compromising trade. As a result of US sanctions, the Hong Kong chief executive Carrie Lam has been forced to stockpile cash.

    Cultural relativism is not an excuse to do nothing while China imposes a totalitarian regime on Hong Kong and enslaves, tortures and kills the Uighur people. If we fail to act, it is we, as well as China, who will be lacking in liberal values. Our integrity, and the lives and freedoms of millions of Hong Kongers and Uighurs, depend on us standing up to China – before it’s too late.

    Andrew Rosindell MP (Con)
    Vice Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong
    London SW1

    More to the point, when will we be submitting the bill to China for our wrecked economy??

    1. It’s an inadvertent admission that climate change is due to natural forces. In the case of Venus it was probably volcanoes spewing out SO2.

      1. Also, it doesn’t help that Venus is 26 million miles closer to the Sun than the Earth and that each day is the equivalent of 116 Earth days. On Earth the eruption of the Siberian Traps is connected to the end-Permian extinction event. Now that was climate change writ large. Now only if Bill Gates had been alive then…

          1. Annie, you have replied to Korky by mistake. If you must print the formula for creating a bubble you need to send it to Johnny Norlolk.

            PS – Or, looking at the final letter, perhaps send it to Pluto.

  40. “Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.”

    No,you wouldn’t be would you as this piece of Moslem filth is inflicted back on us

    “He was one of two ringleaders of a sexual grooming gang that preyed on

    girls as young as 13 in Telford resulting in the Operation Chalice

    investigation and an independent child sexual exploitation inquiry.

    MP Lucy Allan confirmed that Ali, now aged 32, was released on Wednesday.

    Known

    as Eddie he was given a 26-year extended sentence – 18 years’ immediate

    custody with an additional eight-year period on licence after release,

    meaning he will be subject to monitoring.”

    https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2020/12/18/telford-child-abuse-gang-ringleader-freed/

    2. Excellent analysis of the overall situation and the government ‘report’ (that has finally been published more than a year on the shelf) by Carl Benjamin (aka Sargon of Akkad) on his Podcast of the Lotus Eaters YouTube channel:

      Excerpt of the podcast from podcast #27 from 16/12/20

      https://youtu.be/12mW_CeLwxs

      1. So any government will distort the results of any survey and investigations for its own political ends.

      2. When an earlier group of child abusers was readily identified as belonging to one particular religion, their was no hesitation in pointing out that they were Catholic priests. Clearly this was considered a significant factor.

    3. For a moment I thought you meant NoTTL!! Panic stations!!
      Can you please put up a donation link,lost the last one I had

      1. Thanks Rik – there’s a PayPal donate button on our home page http://www.helpahedgehog.org/index.php but if you’re not a PayPal user, I can give you bank details. The JustGiving page reached its target and has now closed, and I’ve sold out of calendars and Christmas cards – so we’ve done ok.

  42. Strange results on that Grooming Gangs petition – 710 signatures from Barrow, 200 from Oldham, and most everywhere else below 50.

    1. 327533+up ticks,
      Afternoon LD,
      So paedophilia is not jennyrating a great deal of
      disquietment then ? remember three monkey mode rules,
      ” it’s not our kid”.

  43. Good morning all. Grey and dreary – and the weather isn’t any better.

    Watched the last prog of the “Roosevelt” series – we both thought, “Where is FDR’s equivalent today?” Anywhere.

  44. And now for some good news today.

    From the Tellygraff:

    Right to offend’

    Two judges have struck a blow to enemies of free speech after ruling people should have the right to offend and even abuse each other without facing a police investigation. Presiding over a Court of Appeal case concerning the misgendering of a trans woman on Twitter, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Warby said: “Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.”

  45. Such a coincidence that Hancock was appointed Health Secretary just as the CV-19 crap hit the fan. How prescient of Johnson(?) to make that decision.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/04b5364a0e812704cd0fe8ac63bfd05701871f73102667699c12062fd452238b.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6fbd985afcd9f6ae755611c407da2916dd26bb88ab1d0245fab9396feb61edf.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/deb1bf896dd3582013de215196165d36d380a1727e23cd90057fe3de4b94abf5.png

    3. Hancock praises Soros. I’m speechless. Has he had his head in the sand for the last few years?

  46. Cyber-attack is brutal reminder of the Russia problem facing Joe Biden. 18 December 2020.

    It is Joe Biden’s biggest foreign policy headache. As well as confronting the Covid pandemic, the president-elect has to deal with a more familiar problem: Russia. Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election cast a shadow over US politics for four long years.

    And now the Kremlin appears to have struck again. This week details emerged of an unprecedented cyber-attack against US government departments. Beginning in March, suspected Russian hackers penetrated Washington’s signature institutions..

    None of these hacking charges can be proved of course even if they actually occurred. I am assured that it is literally impossible to tell who by, but not if, you have been hacked. This recent upsurge in anti-Putin/Russia propaganda which has risen from about two or three articles a week to around the same per day is of course in preparation for Biden taking up his post. What he has planned, if he is indeed capable of planning, we must wait to see. Certainly Putin is prepared; his previous meeting with and his long delayed recognition of Biden’s election is an indication of their mutual antipathy. It is from such small beginnings that great events grow that consume whole nations!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/cyber-attack-brutal-reminder-russia-problem-facing-joe-biden

  48. 327533+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Iran General Sees Islamic ‘Superior Power’ Ruling World Trade, Banking, and Energy Supplies.

    The lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration./ paedophilia umbrella party
    are well prepared for it.

    1. In the name of free speech and open debate upon which this nation used to pride itself, we already have parties in our democracy prepared to advocate both the pros and cons of uncontrolled immigration.

      Isn’t it about time we had a party prepared to advocate the pros of paedophilia?

        1. Didn’t Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman want it reduced to 12 to give more legitimacy to the Paedophile Information Exchange which they supported?

          1. If I recall correctly, I think that they got caught up in a legal quagmire, representing a group of which PIE was an associate.

            When jumping on a bandwagon it’s usually a good idea to check out who is driving it and who the other passengers might be.

            They distanced themselves pretty quickly

          3. Like so many of such left-wing mantras they will carry on under the surface until it suddenly becomes mainstream.

      2. 3275533+ up ticks
        Afternoon JM,
        It is only of late that serious actions have been taken we had a rapid succession of chairpersons
        regarding historical alledged paedophilia within westminster political circles that died a death, and
        IMO if the same zest was shown as was in covering it up we would be close on eradicating it now.

  49. BBC reporting sticking points:

    They include rights to fishing waters from 1 January and what is known as the “level playing field” – where the EU does not want UK businesses to get an unfair advantage by moving away from its rules and standards.
    On fishing, Mr Barnier said if the UK wants to use its “sovereignty” over its waters to cut access for EU fisherman, “then the European Union also has to maintain its sovereign right to react or compensate adjusting conditions [to access the] single market”.
    And on the level playing field, he said there needed to be “fair competition” in place, adding: “If the sovereign United Kingdom would like to depart from those standards, that is their right, but it brings with it consequences when it comes to access to our markets without tariffs or quotas.”

    Why does the BBC, or anyone go along with this terminology? Foreigners can have no rights in a sovereign state, only privileges.

    My highlighting.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-55358963

    1. What compensation was given to British fishermen from the EEC when Heath betrayed them?

      Those running their own businesses know how devastating the effects of government policy can be. So I can sympathise with the French fishermen – but that does not mean that I think they should retain their rights to fish in British waters. As I have said before they should be given 3 – 5 years to phase out their activities completely after which they can apply for fishing permits from the British government for which, of course, they will have to pay.

      If M. Barnier and M. Macron thinks this is unreasonable and the EU will not accept a plan like this then I cannot see how Britain can honourably remain in the EU.

      1. From Day One, they will insist that one condition of being eligible to their tariff-free Single Market is to comply with their standards. Very well.

        Then equally from Day One, we will reciprocably insist that one condition of being eligible to fish in our territorial waters is to comply with our standards.

        Scooping up all life from the sea and throwing it back dead simply to comply with quota rules is not acceptable (and in fact never should have been).

    2. The Bbc goes along with it because it is remainer through and through. It loves everything EU and hates Britain. The thought that we might become independent keeps it awake at night.

  50. Showing gratitude for a living choral tradition

    The following world renowned musicians have been omitted from the list

    Widdecombe Abbey

    Tom Pierce

    Bill Brewer,

    Jan Stewer,

    Peter Gurney,

    Peter Davy,

    Dan’l Whiddon,

    Harry Hawke,

    Old Uncle Tom Cobley

  51. I was watching an episode of ‘Father Brown’ just now, where there were eight people gathered indoors around a Christmas tree, not observing social distancing, not wearing masks, and including a police officer and a priest.

    Why aren’t they all locked up like the rest of us? Humbug!

      1. Set in the 1950s, but that’s no excuse. Historic unlawfulness. Tear down their statues!

    1. Like this BTL comment.
      Tony Rawls
      @TonyRawls4
      1m

      Replying to

      @MayorofLondon

      Is that the same as #internationalparasiticspongeingscumbagday

  53. A friend’s brother has just been released from hospital. Nothing serious or Covid related. She saw on his paperwork that it now had DNR on it. Strange that he hasn’t expressed that in any way or form. Only thought from her is that it may be because he is over 65.

      1. Unless it’s the patient’s uncoerced express wish.

        When I was in hospital 2 years ago, an attempt was made by 2 members of staff to coerce me.

        2. It’s a difficult area. My late mother had a DNR during what turned out to be her last hospital admission (she was actually transferred to a care home for her final days). She was incapable of giving consent because she had dementia and delirium so the decision was made by myself and my father. When my father was dying, there was no discussion of a DNR, although he did die in hospital. Unfortunately this subject gets spun as ‘medical murder’ by people who have little understanding of the subject.

          1. I regard the DNR is a blessing for those with no quality of life and those who have to watch them every day. The one I carry for a relative is actually labeled DNR CPR. So its not as if the patient is not given appropriate medical care when needed but they will not be revived with CPR.

          2. Exactly, both my parents had ‘good deaths’ in that they were pain free and cared for by the staff of the hospital and in my mother’s case then the care home. In both cases they were clearly about to die and prolonging life, particularly through aggressive actions such as CPR (which often breaks the ribs of elderly patients) or extensive surgery (a theoretical option for my mother), is not something we should automatically do. So when I see DNR referred to as ‘murder’, well what can I say without being banned?

          3. I regard the DNR is a blessing for those with no quality of life and those who have to watch them every day. The one I carry for a relative is actually labeled DNR CPR. So its not as if the patient is not given appropriate medical care when needed but they will not be revived with CPR.

  55. One doesn’t expect to have to set traps for mice brought INTO the house by the cats! Argh! It’s now by the front door, under the shoe rack, being started down by one of the cats.

    1. I do – Gracie just plays with them and then gets bored. While D. rushes around at 3 a.m.. trying to catch it to take it outside

    2. Our vet once told us that your cat treats you as its kitten and expects you to catch and kill them.

    3. Try putting a wellington boot on its side against the wall either side of the mouse. It will likely run into one to hide. Gotcha!

  56. Halloo, all!
    Laptop on one of its sporadic working periods (i hope) so here a little something from BTL DT letters which sums up my experience with medics recently :

    Barrie Newton
    18 Dec 2020 11:42AM
    @M E Greaves

    Garage man :Morning Doctor.To what do I owe this honour >

    Dr : My car seems to have lost power. Can you look at it please ?

    GM : Certainly Doctor. Our next free appointment is in two weeks. Shall I book you in ?

    Dr : That’s rather a long time. Could you do it sooner ?

    GM : Not a chance, I’m afraid. We’re very busy. I’m so exhausted I can only work two days a week. Take it or leave it.

    DR : I’ll take it. I think there’s something wrong with the heater, too.

    GM : The appointment can only take ten minutes, and in any case we can only look at one fault at a time. The following appointment will be two weeks after the first. Should I book you in ?

    Dr : The car might break down totally by then.

    GM: It’s going to die one day anyway.

    1. It would be interesting to see the number of PCR tests conducted over the same period along with figures for ITU Confirmed Covid admissions.

      2. Yes indeed. Quoting cases per 1,000,000 is pointless if it isn’t normalised with respect to the number of tests.

  59. We the British People Request a Public Inquiry into Grooming Gangs
    The Home Secretary said what happened to victims of child sexual exploitation gangs was “one of the biggest stains on our country’s conscience.” Last year local authorities identified 18,700 suspected victims of child sexual exploitation. We want an independent public inquiry into Grooming Gangs.

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/327566

      1. Signed and distributed.
        I doubt much attention is paid, but let’s hope the nag factor kicks in.

  60. Scientists looking for aliens investigate radio beam ‘from nearby star’. 18 December 2020.

    Astronomers behind the most extensive search yet for alien life are investigating an intriguing radio wave emission that appears to have come from the direction of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the sun.

    The narrow beam of radio waves was picked up during 30 hours of observations by the Parkes telescope in Australia in April and May last year, the Guardian understands. Analysis of the beam has been under way for some time and scientists have yet to identify a terrestrial culprit such as ground-based equipment or a passing satellite.

    It said thanks but no thanks. We’re going back home!

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/dec/18/scientists-looking-for-aliens-investigate-radio-beam-from-nearby-star

    1. The astronomers could look much nearer home for aliens – most government heads and globalist would qualify I think. Not least the Graudian and most, if not many of its readers

      1. A good film about the first step for man on the moon . Australia managed to get the picture down to earth for the world to see.

    3. Any alien investigating woke earth would probably decide to give us a miss in case stupidity is catching!

    4. They got very excited about the data from another transmission. The Scientist said it was proof positive of an alien species trying to contact us.

      It turned out to be the microwave oven in the kitchenette along the hall.

    5. Given that star is around 4 light years away, that means TV signals reaching there are from 2016. That means they probably saw the MSM’s coverage of Brexit and the US elections and thought better of contacting a species that was slowly going insane.

    6. Hope that they don’t discover life there, otherwise our Government will be anxious to send money to them.

      1. If they want us to eat their fish, they must let us catch their fish (or words to that effect).

        1. If they want our fish they must buy from our fishermen, and the price has just gone up.

    3. Ignoring its political agenda; the whole point of the EU is to create for itself a competitive advantage against the rest of the world.

  62. Walked to a local pub this lunchtime. At this time of year it should have been heaving with Office Christmas parties. Apart from half a dozen tables in the main bar only two tables were occupied in the main restaurant section. Such a shame for the owners and staff who work there. The food was excellent and I will certainly visit again.

  63. Apropos Toy Boy “catching” the Plague – despite ostentatious mask-wearing: I have a theory.

    He and his fellow “world leaders” take off said masks as soon as they out of sight of cameramen. And they shake hands and “hug” (this strange new pastime for so-called grown ups) and prolly kiss each other, too.

    No wonder they are all dropping like mouches

    1. Interesting

      Bad Request
      SVL-0002 Categories=ERROR Message=’Missing cookie: open-xchange-public-session-efNwVvOQFjOBkGHQmvDFUw. Please re-login.’ exceptionID=618247574-88441929

    3. Perhaps she’ll start to ask some searching questions about how the place appears to be run by woke luvvies for woke luvvies, instead of for the benefit of the licence fee payers.

      1. My impression is that she’s a member of the Davos set, therefore will be on board with that agenda.

    1. Get everyone used to having a vaccine top-up, with them believing that they’ll die if they don’t. . . . When they are conditioned to willingly accepting the jabs, slowly alter the content to something that becomes addictive, stronger dose every top-up . . . . . A whole world of drug addicts – -with one supplier?

    1. Reminds me of our school lunches where we were asked to think of the starving kids in Efrika, before tucking in to the usual amount of grub.

    3. Looking at the “spread” they have laid out on the table, I reckon I’d stop-off for a haggis supper carry-out on my way to this “Feast” – and the planet be damned.

      1. Haggis is offal. Offal are left-over bits they don’t eat in Islington. Eating offal is good for the planet. Aye, and a haggis supper is braw!

    4. Sometimes there are advantages to being five hours behind you.

      Oh sorry, I would have loved to but I missed the meal

        2. I recognise all the faces except the woman standing in blue. Can’t put names to them though.

          1. The only two I recognise are on the right: Harry Hill (standing) and Frank Bough (seated).

    9. I think that Matthew Fort would be a witty and knowledgeable dinner companion… but I can’t say I would particularly want to meet any of the others and Wallace is a revolting specimen.

      So it would have to be a very polite “thanks, but no thanks” from me.

  69. Just before i nip off

    Those who jump off a bridge in Paris are in Seine

    A man’s home is his castle, in a manor of speaking.

    Dijon vu – the same mustard as before.

    Practice safe eating – always use condiments.

    Shotgun wedding – A case of wife or death.

    A man needs a mistress just to break the monogamy.

    A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

    Dancing cheek-to-cheek is really a form of floor play.

    Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?

    Condoms should be used on every conceivable occasion.

    Reading while sunbathing makes you well red.

    When two egotists meet, it’s an I for an I.

    A bicycle can’t stand on its own because it is two tired.

    What’s the definition of a will? (It’s a dead give away.)

    Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

    In democracy your vote counts. In feudalism your count votes.

    She was engaged to a boyfriend with a wooden leg but broke it off.

    A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

    If you don’t pay your exorcist, you get repossessed

    With her marriage, she got a new name and a dress.

    The man who fell into an upholstery machine is now fully recovered.

    You feel stuck with your debt if you can’t budge it.

    Every calendar’s days are numbered.

    A lot of money is tainted – Taint yours and taint mine.

    A boiled egg in the morning is hard to beat.

    He had a photographic memory that was never developed.

    A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

    Once you’ve seen one shopping centre, you’ve seen a mall.

    Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead-to-know basis.

    Santa’s helpers are subordinate clauses.

    Acupuncture is a jab well done.

    The horse injured in the earlier race, is now in a stable condition.

  70. Joe Biden says tax fraud investigation into son Hunter is ‘kind of foul play. 18 December 2020.

    US President-elect Joe Biden has expressed full confidence in his son Hunter, calling the allegations of tax fraud against him “kind of foul play”.

    “We have great confidence in our son,” Biden said, sitting next to his wife Jill, in an interview on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” which aired Thursday on CBS.

    Hunter, 50, now an artist based in Los Angeles, has admitted to displaying “poor judgment” in some of his business dealings, but denied any wrongdoing.

    An artist! Lol! The Munster’s have taken over the White House!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/18/joe-biden-says-tax-fraud-investigation-son-hunter-kind-foul/

    2. That’s a bit unfair on the Munsters Minty. If I remember correctly they were genial and certainly not grasping….

    2. “We Remainers have become the the silenced people of Britain”. If only. They were doing enough shouting up until the December 2019 General Election, especially the Twat in the Hat.

    3. I thought she was going to leave if the UK left the EU? Not long left to get the Pickfords men in, Yasmin.

    6. HA! HA! HA!, Suck it up, bitch. Been dealing it out long enough, boot on the other foot now.

      1. How different Radio 3 would be without Jessie Gillam wittering on over music being played…

  78. That’s me for the day. Grey and overcast all day – and the sun never shone.

    They say tomorrow and Sunday will be nice. I hope so – Sunday we are having an outdoor playing of recorded carols – in the churchyard. Plus mulled wine if you bring your own mug. No singing allowed, of course – but no one will be shot if they join in….

    This morning Gus was standing on a chest of drawers beneath the festive foliage, looking up and plotting…..

    A demain.

    1. Dear Uncle Bill.

      We are holding our annual
      carol service OUTSIDE because we
      can sing outside, … has the info.
      not reached you?

      1. G – the MR has just told me that I was talking bollocks (again).

        We ARE having a sing-a-long. That’s why it is outside!

    2. “Grey and overcast all day – and the sun never shone.”
      You wor locky. Force 9 here, with horrendous rain, all day.

  79. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d09ea3f10161c9931bc929f7bb971af73591e9b2404ae431edba110444513c39.png The DT letters’ Editor told a friend in an email that, “no one gets favouritism when it comes to selecting letters for publication”.

    Hw, then, it is possible that Mick Ferrie gets a letter published every single week (and others in the sports’ letters forum) without fail?

    Philip Duly, Lord Lexden and a handful of other chosen favourites of the editor, who never go more than a week without having a letter published, are evidence of his lying.

        1. Some bods believe it to have fishy connections .

          Decades ago when Moh was flying in the RN , there were four pilots with fishy names .. Funny that they were all flying fish!

          4. I remember when they thought they were very extinct [until one was caught off Madagascar in 1938].

          5. Didn’t think you were that old, Grizz. I seem to remember, maybe early 70s, when they started catching them on a semi regular basis. Port Elizabeth museum had the ‘first’ 1938 specimen I recall.

          6. I was bought a set of eight encyclopædias (The Book of Knowledge) when I was a sprog of five in 1956. My nose was never out of them (I still have them) and I was fascinated by the story of the coelacanth therein.

          7. Did you also have “Enquire within about everything”?

            My grandfather gave me two volumes and I loved those books.

          9. Yeah, I was a natural history geek from a very early age. Mind you, the average boy back then knew 10 times more about nature than they do now.

          13. Plus, for me and a few friends at least, there would be woods and the river to catch lizards and fish, and bird spot.
            Edit; Also lots of disused sand pits and wasteland to explore.

          15. Plus, for me and a few friends at least, there would be woods and the river to catch lizards and fish, and bird spot.
            Edit; Also lots of disused sand pits and wasteland to explore.

          25. I’ve seen then in northern and southern latitudes, about 15° to 25°, and they’re brilliant to see. Even people on the same vessel as me assumed they were flying fish. They leave a trail of shit, piss and water, as they are jet propelled.

      2. Write in as Lady Muck-Brass and see what happens!
        I tried this some time ago at work. I was getting the brush-off from IT No-Helpdesk, so I sent the next mail as Vice-President, rather than Senior Specialist. Worked a treat, so it did.

    3. ‘Sports letters’ are invariably trivial and boring; they should be confined to the ‘sports pages’ …

  80. The closer we get to a no-deal “deadline”*, the more likely it is that we accept the EU position. This will happen when there is no time left for this acceptance to be rejected by Parliament.
    Like a sniping bid with a second to go on eBay, there will no time left for a response. The negotiations will be seen for the charade that they are and our Prime Minister confirmed as the catspaw of a foreign power. (I’d be delighted to be completely wrong.)

    *Choose any deadline, as there will be another one soon.

  81. Evening, all. Just watched the racing from Ascot – Berkshire is now in Tier 3 so no spectators and back to virtually no handlers and owners. The management have indicated that they don’t expect crowds back until 2022! This government needs to be roasted over live coals!

    1. Nut allergy is the get-out-of jab card for me….. I seem to be ‘allergic’ only to Brazil nuts, it is more of a skin sensitivity than an allergy, but ‘they’ are not to know that.

  83. Cyber-attack is brutal reminder of the Russia problem facing Joe Biden. 18 December 2020.

    It is Joe Biden’s biggest foreign policy headache. As well as confronting the Covid pandemic, the president-elect has to deal with a more familiar problem: Russia. Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election cast a shadow over US politics for four long years.

    And now the Kremlin appears to have struck again. This week details emerged of an unprecedented cyber-attack against US government departments. Beginning in March, suspected Russian hackers penetrated Washington’s signature institutions..

    None of these hacking charges can be proved of course even if they actually occurred. I am assured that it is literally impossible to tell who by, but not if, you have been hacked. This recent upsurge in anti-Putin/Russia propaganda which has risen from about two or three articles a week to around the same per day is of course in preparation for Biden taking up his post. What he has planned, if he is indeed capable of planning, we must wait to see. Certainly Putin is prepared; his previous meeting with and his long delayed recognition of Biden’s election is an indication of their mutual antipathy. It is from such small beginnings that great events grow that consume whole nations!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/cyber-attack-brutal-reminder-russia-problem-facing-joe-biden

    1. As our security services, police, 77 Brigade, Special Branch and MI5 seem incapable of tracking down and putting out of business the many amateur hackers and conmen that pester us daily, why would anyone think that they know anything in relation to any, professional, expert, hacking enterprise?

      1. I recall being told that the danger is not in the hacks that you know about but the hacks that you haven’t detected.

      2. As our security services, police, 77 Brigade, Special Branch and MI5 seem incapable of tracking down and putting out of business the many amateur hackers and conmen that pester us daily..

        They are the people who pester us daily!

      1. Apparently, it was the retirement concert of the leader of the band and the guests appearing are all well known and popular Japanese musicians.

      2. I can’t understand that, if i click on it, it goes straight to the recording.
        I was sent this by WhatsApp and tried to copy it from my phone.
        It’s really funny about changing the way we pronounce words because of spreading the virus.
        It’s called Stay Sane and Carry On
        I’ll try something else later.

  88. BBC reporting that NHS is at a dangerous point with 90% bed occupancy – clearly they have no experience of hospitals at 100% occupancy and beds being made up in day rooms as a temporary measure.

    1. My elder daughter was delivered in 1958 on a board placed on a bath in Redruth Hospital. People today don’t know they are born!

      1. Pity water births weren’t in fashion at the time – the midwives could have done away with the board….

  89. Completely and utterly off topic

    Red lentil penne.

    It looked interesting, I like penne pasta.

    Revolting doesn’t even start to describe it.

    Caveat emptor.

          8. If it was Cochrane rather than BT, I would write:

            A thorn by any other name is still a prick..

    4. We get lentil fusilli and they are nice with a tomato sauce. I don’t like penne at the best of times, it reminds me of the drainpipes we used to get served at primary school.

      1. It was the texture of the pasta that was initially off-putting, and the flavour for my taste, was foul.

    5. I can’t eat penne. It’s like chewing on sections of hosepipe! Macaroni is just as disgusting.

      Now: linguine, fettuccine, lasagne and cannelloni and you’re talking.

      1. I find it very much depends on what it’s served/coated with.

        I like any of the pastas served with meat/tomato sauces, I’m very fond of lasagne and cannelloni.

        One of the very few dishes that my mother produced that was enjoyable was macaroni cheese.

        We get particularly good chestnut linguini on the market here, I can happily eat it on its own with a bit of butter.

        1. I like to mash and reduce down a tin of Italian tomatoes. I make it into a type of Amatriciana sauce by adding chopped onions and mushrooms, bits of crispy fried bacon, a dash of balsamic vinegar, a little sugar, celery salt, black pepper, oregano and a touch of tomato purée.

          This goes very well with Italian meatballs on linguine, covered with a good grating of fresh parmesan.

          1. Coincidence then.

            That was pretty much what we had with the penne.

            We tend to prepare the main bits for two or three days, three in this instance. Yesterday it was eaten with fusilli, and it worked very well. Tomorrow I’m on duty, but Sunday it will probably be with spaghetti.
            We often add cream to the sauces and, like you, lots of parmesan. We tend to buy that pre-grated, because the quality here is excellent.

          2. ‘Ang on, Grizzly, ‘ang on! I’ve got to try out the beef rib before I move on to other culinary delights!

            :-))

      2. We use penne to get quite large pills down the throat of our arthritic Lab! However lentils make him a bit windy!

      3. We use penne to get quite large pills down the throat of our arthritic Lab! However lentils make him a bit windy!

  90. In a previous posting I told of the “random” letter from NHS imperial college regarding a self-swab for Covid – -and my phone call informing them I did not wish to take part. Surprise surprise – earlier today, I get a text from the local surgery asking me to make an appointment for my annual review. Wonder what the chances are they want a swab?

    3. From my personal viewpoint, not the worst year of my life (yet – it’s not finished!) by a country mile. The first forty years were far worse!
      From a viewpoint of world events, profoundly depressing. As ogga says, a lot that we have seen building up appears to be coming to fruition. The theft of the US election brings the era of comfortable post-war democracy to a close.

    7. 327533+ up ticks,
      Evening B3,
      A year for clearly showing the ovis the governance party’s political @rseholes in action, an accumulation of three decades of treachery being revealed.

  94. The PM must set an end date to the inevitable cycle of lockdowns

    The year 2025 AD, also known as

    Woke Year 6

    Post Lockdown Epoch 164

    2025 CE

  97. Here’s a little diversion. This video is from BBC2’s ‘One Foot In The Past’ series. The edition is almost 25 years old but one of its subjects is topical: statues of controversial characters. The monument to the Duke of Sutherland was in the news in the mid-1990s because of a campaign to have it demolished. The Duke still stands. You’ll recognise the presenter (and I don’t mean Rupert Graves). Contributor Sandy Stoddart comes across as a bit of a dick.

    The feature starts at about 9:30. The sound is poor and only on the right channel so don’t listen through headphones.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxhoZcF_P9o

  98. Disqus temperamental and, deep joy, the central heating in my building has gone off. The duty porter has checked the boilers and they seem to be OK. The building manager is on his way home to Pakistan for his Christmas holiday. I thought international travel was still off the menu, or is it only for some?

    1. Look on the bright side.
      Proper Brits, like you, will put on another woolly jumper, the slightly huskier hues may return to their homelands.

    2. That is a real nuisance for you, the weather is mild at the moment , but you do not need a broken system .

      I also thought international travel was off limits.. no wonder the virus is here there and everywhere!

    3. No, there is no ban on international travel. The Foreign Office recommends against all but essential travel to most countries, but it is not illegal to travel to those countries.

    4. You need to have a sufficient period of leave to cover any quarantine in the country to which you are travelling and any quarantine required on your return… as well as your holiday. So foreign travel is not a practical possibility for most people. But if the building manager lives and works in the building he may be able to dodge (albeit not truly legally) the requirement on his return.

        1. So provided he doesn’t come into anyone else’s home during his quarantine period he will, probably, be meeting the requirements.

    6. If the boilers look OK (no fault codes showing), the it could be any of the following:

      Failed circulating pumps (primary or secondary system);
      Failed or faulty boiler/heating system controls (electronics and/or software – even due to a power spike or cut);
      Failed control valve on the main boiler system pipework or secondary diverting/mixing arrangement – heating water won’t flow and/or to the areas needed if they stick open/closed when the opposite is required. This also includes when the heating water is used to heat central hot water cyilnders, which often get priority over the heating of the building (it does in a domestic boiler/heating system);
      A major loss in heating system pressure due to a pipe leak;
      A loss in gas pressure below the threshold that the boilers need to operate correctly;
      Sensor malfunction – any of the above or that showing what the temperature or pressure is anywhere in the system or, if it has one, outside.

      Hopefully the emergency backup technician will be able to diagnose the problem and fix it. Sometimes on larger systems, spare for certain parts are kept in the boiler plant room store just in case, but most don’t keep any for the expensive parts like pumps, valves and controls electronics.

      Lets hope that any fault or failure can be repaired or the part replaced in short order – i.e. items required are in stock and can be fitted quickly – never good for such problems to happen over the Christmas break, made worse by staff and equipment shortages from the worldwide consequences of COVID infections and lockdowns (many manufacturing plants were closed for several weeks or months earlier in the year and have been struggling to catch up ever since – I’ve noticed shortages [and thus higher prices] of computer parts after I started to look to build/buy a new PC recently).

      I hope you can resolve your issue soon. Best of luck.

      2. That all makes very good sense. Thank you. The boilers were replaced this year so all the parts should be new but we’ve had leaks in the system a number of times before.

    7. If you’re there for Christmas is it worth buying one of those fan heater type jobbies just to be safe?

      1. I have an electric heater – try not to use it if possible but I will, rather than freeze! I’m heading up to York on Weds, till Monday. This has happened a few times before. I’ve lived here since 1994. It’s almost guaranteed to happen in December and January too. Sod’s law.

    8. Christmas in Pakistan?
      Hope to goodness there is a boiler chap on call; why is it always Christmas? We had the same trouble about 3 years ago and were carrying heaters from room to room. Fortunately, we have a back up immersion heater.

      1. My younger niece is married to a plumber. No holidays between September and April except the briefest of visits to family over the festive season (in normal years).

      2. This is an accurate summation and mirrors what some of us have been saying all along.

        Avoid any of these vaccines at any cost. They are untested, foisted on an unsuspecting populace who believe that the government and its advisors represent ‘the science’ and miss the point that the vaccines are being deployed as a political tool.

        The Covid scam is costing our country hundreds of billions most of which is being diverted to hopeless causes and the corrupt friends and donors to our politicians.

        We shall insist on a full Public Inquiry and gaol the lot of them, Johnson, Hancock, Whitty, Vallance, Van Tam, Dido Harding, the bosses at Astra Zeneca and GSK and their accomplices in the University of Oxford and others.

        It cannot come too soon.

        1. Almost all of the vaccines were developed with foetal stem cells. They are therefore untouchable by Catholics. Of course, the authorities are not giving out this information, thus depriving citizens of the possibility of giving informed consent.

          2. It’s not stem cells it’s fibroblasts.

            Viruses need cells to replicate. We need replicated viruses to make vaccines.

            I suppose no catholic anywhere has ever been vaccinated then against viruses such as measles, mumps, rubella, flu, covid-19, polio, hep-A, hep-B, hep-C etc.

            They’ve all been through the same process.

          3. Catholics would not accept such vaccines. However refusal depends on knowledge and information.
            There has never been any information.

          4. My wife is catholic and has had all of them vaccinations even knowing that foetal cells from an elective abortion in the 60’s were used to grow the viruses needed.
            She was also on the pill for many years and would prefer condoms to unplanned pregnancies.
            People don’t always follow the rules if the rules ain’t sensible.

        1. And one that would have been avoided by any half decent private company buying a product, because they would have done basic checks and inspections of the supplier!!!

  100. ‘Prince Charles confirms he will take the coronavirus vaccine’ – DT

    Whoopee doo….

    2. I thought they were using eminent actors to persuade the herd to submit to the actual vaccination.

      Of course the actors are not even being injected with saline solution and the nurses glove covers the capped syringe. We saw this with Mayor Khan in the most blatant disinformation clip.

        2. It is the way he has managed to make himself look (and sound) much older than his father that gets me…

      1. Perhaps Trump could offer Maxwell a Presidential pardon, subject to her spilling ALL the beans about Epstein and the others involved.

        I suspect that such a testimony would do the Democrats a lot of harm.

        1. In the distant past, Trump was seen with Epstein, there are photos of the event

          In Pollys world, photos if soros or gates with politicians is proof perfect of corruption and bribery, so maybe perhaps by the same criteria there will be no pardon.

          1. Trump distanced himself from Epstein almost immediately. I suspect that he had a fair idea about what was going on.

            I was joking about the pardon, but not about it doing the Democrats a lot of harm.

          2. You think that Trump distancing himself will stop the rumours and innuendo?

            Maybe Biden should issue pardons to Trump as a time to heal gesture – no guilt implied, just start looking forward, breaking the never ending backward looking vendetta.

            Not that it will ever happen. Lefty OAC and co would be apoplectic if the descent into the gutter isn’t continued.

          3. I agree that the shitocrats will do anything they can to smear Trump.

            Apart from the risks to the world as a whole, I hope that America gets everything it voted for. AOC, Biden, drugs, criminals, the whole kit and caboodle.

          1. I doubt it would particularly harm the HoW; the brand is almost fire-proof, thanks to the Queen.

            If Di de God couldn’t, Handy Andy hanky-panky won’t.

          2. Charles made it clear a long time ago that Andrew would play no role when he (Charles) became King.
            Now we know why…

        1. There’s a story doing the rounds that people can tell whether or not public vaccinations are kosher. If the serum in the phial is clear it is fake; the genuine solution has a milky look to it. I can’t confirm and I can’t remember where I read it – doing too much surfing for my own good at the mo.

          1. Relying on my clinical experience, I would be suspicious if any material for injection were cloudy or had particles floating in it. I always checked vials of local anaesthetic before using them.

        2. Under the old parlour game classification of “animal, vegetable or mineral”… I think that saline solution would have to be in the “mineral” category 😉

    1. I suspect that that label will have been done by a dealer/the seller; and from recollection of your initial post “Strand” will have been the address, not the artist. Even dealers make mistakes.

      Does it not translate as “exquisite colouring by hand”, which would almost certainly be a sales pitch.

      I’ll still claim 5 out of 10 for my suggestion it might have been coloured in.

      I continue to think it might be worthwhile looking under the mount for a signature, if they can do so without damaging it.

      1. I have a number of illustrated French books. Some have had the outlines of the drawing printed and then a studio coloured in the stencils by hand. These were generally short print runs. This went on into the 20th century. Just saying.

    2. As mentioned before, Strand could be the address of the printer. I couldn’t make out the word/name that preceded it. Perhaps a better image would help.

        1. I gave up smoking cigarettes in 1988 -the year I married. I used to smoke Dunhill International and cannot remember how much they cost then but looking on the Internet today a packet of 20 would cost £13.30 now.

          I now smoke a pipe but I only buy tobacco which I can get at Duty Free Shops.

  102. So you think the covid vaccine is dangerous? We are now getting warnings about a fake vaccine that is being peddled to the wealthy but not wise.

    Just send your credit card details and $1,000 later, you too can have your own vial of something unknown.

  104. President Donald J Trump has halted Pentagon transition briefings to Biden.

    Let’s roll…. start the arrests !

    Where’s Andy ?

      2. Say it any three ways you want, it still means the same
        Say it any three ways you want, it still means the same
        Say it any three ways you want, it still means the same

    2. Me too. I think it will be Beethoven’s violin concerto played by Arthur Grumiaux (Concertgebouw Orchestra
      Amsterdam) under Sir Colin Davis.

      New Philharmonia Orchestra, (Edo de Waart) and the Romances No.1 in G major and No.2 in F major.

  107. Why haven’t airports been closed .

    If this new covid variant is as bad as it sounds , why are travellers like Kay Burley flying back home from South Africa , why are there flights in and out from India and Pakistan .. why are people still holidaying here there and everywhere .. Have the illegals brought the new variant into the country .

      1. It is the season of colds, ‘flu and assorted odd winter viruses. As is usual at this time of the year.

    2. Over 4 million lives in Atlanta, someone has mighty deep pockets to offer that much.

      There again it is (naturally) not quite what it seems. They are pushing Bidens promise to give people $1,200 covid relief funding as opposed to the Republicans refusal to help out the little guy.

      Not quite the open bribery that the believers think it is. It certainly gets attention, maybe a bit too much.

      But I was right about the need for deep pockets but its not the reviled duo, just the taxpayer.

      2. The way it’s written, it’s bribery though, because people are likely to believe that they will personally get 1200 as a direct reward for voting Biden. Yes, I do believe there are plenty of people foolish enough to believe that!

        1. Oh I agree, that ad is not exactly clear but as political advertising goes it is acceptable in the US.

    1. Is that the same Paul MuckCart who, if he’d never been lucky enough to have met a certain John Lennon, would probably now be a retired farm labourer?

      1. And vice-versa.

        John Lennon, the most over-rated musician of all time, had he not met McCartney he would still be a scouse git.

        1. Over-rated? He was a communist, revered by Fidel Castro, and a financier of the IRA. He was over-rated as a human being.

          How anyone can ‘enjoy’ his ‘music’ is beyond me!

          1. And probably been found out.

            I mean, “Plastic Ono Band”?

            Gawd they make Wings look like the Rolling Stones.

          2. Paul actually made a video with the parody name ‘The Plastic Macs’ where he played all the instruments under various disguises, including a besuited 1960s moptop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d_Wv-gkHts Someone played the video to John in New York, by then a retired househusband, who groaned and said “I’m not having this – I’ll have to get back to work now”. Out of it came ‘Double Fantasy’ released just before he was shot dead.

        3. I disagree. Lennon wrote and sang lead on all the best singles and album tracks of the early years. It was only post-1967, after his head had become addled with LSD and Yoko, that his early inspiration dried up.

          I would debate this point with you with vigour at The Oxford Union.

      2. Au contraire, John Lennon, realising his spent force, broke up the Beatles – and ran away with Yoko – Can you Imagine ?

        1. It was Brian Epstein’s death that started the breakup. They were musicians, not managers, and Apple Corps was a disaster, nearly running them out of money by 1969. It was John, George and Ringo who appointed a brash New York businessman, Allen Klein, and who also preferred Phil Spector’s “Wall of Sound”, which completely trashed a Paul song ‘The Long and Winding Road’. Paul wanted his father-in-law Lee Eastman to be manager, since he was family and could be trusted, whereas Klein was a crook. Paul also much preferred the cleaner sound of George Martin, and continued to use him for his solo work.

          Ringo was actually the first to walk out after Paul suggested that he wasn’t even the best drummer in the Beatles. During the making of the documentary film ‘Let it Be’ in a grim studio in Twickenham, George walked out. George was constantly frustrated that his songs were not getting onto Beatles albums, and felt patronised by Paul. Then John and Yoko started drifting off in their own bubble, leaving Paul to do the pushing to get the filming done. The single ‘The Ballad of John and Yoko’ released in mid 1969 was done without George or Ringo, just John and Paul, with Paul on drums. Abbey Road was an initiative from Paul, who wanted them all to get together with George Martin, and do an album just like the old, happier days, but I think they all knew it was over, when they did ‘The End’, where they tricked Ringo into doing a drum solo, something he resolutely said he would never do all the time he was with the Beatles.

          Paul then retreated to his farm in Scotland to make a solo album, which he released a week before John’s to John’s fury, and then quit the band saying he wouldn’t work with Allen Klein.

          John and Yoko then got involved with politics and George with religion. Ringo was quite keen to get into acting and did ‘That’ll Be The Day’ – a feature film about rockers in the 1950s. Paul went down with severe depression and had to be nursed back to health by his wife. In the end, it was Paul who didn’t want to mope around the house any more, and just wanted to go back to work, which meant performing. So he hired a minibus, just like the old days before they were famous, with a few mates and some guitars and drove up north. They had this idea that every university has a students union that organises gigs, and they were passing Nottingham, so Paul sent the driver in to find the students union. “Hello, I have Paul McCartney in the back of this bus. Do you want us to play for you tonight?” “Oh, yeah?!” came the response from the students union wallah, well used to practical jokes. “No, really, it’s the real Paul McCartney, come and see for yourself”. So they wandered out and Paul waved to them. That was the start of Wings. It was Alan Partridge who once said of Wings “it was what the Beatles could have been”.

          What brought the Beatles back together in the end was a chum of George’s Jeff Lynne, who was in the ELO, and then formed a supergroup with George, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty – The Travelling Wilburys. Jeff Lynne was always a Beatles fan and eager to get them back together. Ringo was always close with George and was happy to join in, and they managed to persuade Paul to get involved with the Beatles Anthology in the 1990s. John by then was dead, but they did produce a couple of singles using some of John’s old demo tapes.

          2. That is an interesting essay and most of it is confirmable as fact. However, the bit where you claim that it was Paul McCartney who stated that ‘Ringo was not the best drummer in the Beatles’ is provably untrue. Even John Lennon, who was most frequently reported as being the originator of that comment, wasn’t culpable.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDXaq6c_UWY

        2. Imagine is on the same list of emetic and execrable ditties along with My Way, I Will Survive, The Living Years (among others).

    3. As a nearly-eighty-year-old celeb, Sir P Mc C is taking a responsible stance by advocating vaccination – our only hope of a return to erstwhile ‘normality’.

  112. “Oops we’re having trouble posting your comment. Please try later”

    Well, that’s that then.

  113. oh bless.

    One of our ministers is suggesting that Canada and the US work together to enforce a move to electric vehicles.

    Rather than waiting for Biden, I can only hope that Wonderboy decides to phone Trump directly to make his case. That would be a conversation to hear.

  114. So that’s two interesting developments in 24 hours……….

    1) Lin Wood, one of President Trump’s attorneys, accused Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts of corruption.

    2) President Trump has halted Pentagon tranition briefings to Biden.

    There was a John Roberts logged on Jeffrey Epstein’s 727 to his island.. but we don’t know if it’s the same John Roberts.

    Maybe not, but at the same time, Jeffrey Epstein only invited the rich and the powerful to his private island so he and his accomplances could blackmail them…. so that narrows the field hugely of the potential ”John Roberts” who would have been on that airplane……….. and Chief Justice Roberts has been making some apparently illogical decisions recently…………………..

          1. Why are you such a doomer planting false stories, Sosy, too much of that cheapo red maybe ?

          2. If Trump is still President in 2023, I will be pleased; but, unfortunately, Kamala will be in charge.

          3. No way. Anyway, Sosy, I’ve decided to block you along with certain other trolls… bye………….

  118. The PM must set an end date to the inevitable cycle of lockdowns

    The year 2025 AD, also known as

    Woke Year 6

    Post Lockdown Epoch 164

    2025 CE

    Also known as

    Woke Year 6

    Post Lockdown Epoch 164

    2025 CE

    The year 2025 AD

    Also known as

    Woke Year 6

    Post Lockdown Epoch 164

      1. In the year 3535
        Ain’t gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lie
        Everything you think, do and say
        Is in the pill you took today

        2021 I suspect…

  119. Comments are allowed with this piece, unlike that by Rosa Prince who appeared to interpret Liz Truss’s announcement as suggesting that men should earn more than women and white people more than black.

    The new Tory equality agenda is far more than a victory over wokeness

    A fresh way of looking at opportunity in this country could help guide Britain out of the Covid wreckage

    FRASER NELSON

    After a decade of pointless Tory “equality” speeches, it’s rare to come across one that’s worth listening to. In her role as equalities minister, Liz Truss announced yesterday that it’s time for a counter-revolution: to move away from seeing everything through the prism of race, sexuality or gender and to start seeing inequality in all of its dimensions. So also looking at north vs south, rich vs poor, city vs country. This matters because, if the Tories get it right, it could add up to a new modernisation agenda to guide them through the wreckage of Covid and lockdown.

    The plan has been building for some months, and it starts with an analysis of where the Tories have got things wrong. David Cameron had nothing to say on equalities: worse, he told his party not to oppose Harriet Harman’s Equality Act and adopted her agenda wholesale. Theresa May was no better, exaggerating police abuses of stop-and-search and even inviting David Lammy, one of Labour’s most energetic culture warriors, to lead a review into racial injustice in the courts. He found no evidence of discrimination, but still pretended otherwise.

    The Tory way, it seemed, was to try and beat Labour at its own game. Cameron once announced it was a scandal how young black men in Britain are more likely to be in prison than at a good university. The problem was that his statistic was nonsense: whites are the demographic least likely to go to university. All this baffled his new MPs, many of whom were brought in as part of Cameron’s A-list but were deeply uncomfortable with what they saw as tokenistic, patronising language. “Our whole equalities agenda was driven by a feeling of Old Tory guilt,” one Conservative MP tells me. “They’d tell the non-white MPs what to say, rather than ask their opinion. The conversation is finally changing.”

    It started to change when Boris Johnson was elected and brought in Munira Mirza as his policy chief. Her views on all this were outlined in a Spectator cover story attacking Mrs May’s equalities agenda. It’s possible to acknowledge that racism still exists, she said, “without turning its waning influence into the pretext for a bogus moral crusade”. She made the case for a rival approach – which now seems well under way. Ms Truss’s speech is the latest in a carefully planned Tory counter-attack.

    Kemi Badenoch, Ms Truss’s deputy in the equalities brief, went viral on YouTube after a speech declaring “critical race theory” to be the new Tory enemy. This marked, in effect, the Tories joining a battle that they had spent 10 years running away from. She also denounced the rise of “unconscious bias training”, where employees are encouraged to think of ways in which they might be unknowingly bigoted. Julia Lopez, a Cabinet Office minister, announced this week that such “training” was to end in the civil service. It’s not just pointless, she said, but it reinforces damaging stereotypes.

    This is the new Tory theme. To reject the old equalities agenda as the disease of which it purports to be the cure – promoting stereotypes, discrimination and division. It also means talking more warmly about Britain. Rishi Sunak told me recently that he’s in politics to repay the country that gave his family every chance in life – a country, he says, that thinks nothing of having a Hindu Chancellor placing Diwali lights on the steps of Downing Street. From any background, it’s not hard to see Britain as one of the best places in the world to live, he argues, if you look at the facts.

    In her speech, Truss said her new equalities agenda would involve “facts, not fiction” – which will likely mean publication of studies to open a new conversation about race and culture. Why do those from Indian, Chinese and African backgrounds tend to do better than whites at school and on pay, while Bangladeshis and Caribbeans tend to do worse? The simplistic “BAME vs white” narrative has never stood up to scrutiny in Britain, but Tories have always shied away from applying that scrutiny. No longer. Truss says she’s setting up a new scrutiny unit, based in the north of England.

    Which, of course, is her final point. Seeing equality the old way – denouncing discrimination where it really exists – but broadening the debate to take in the north-south divide, the white working class and other left-behind groups. This matters because Covid (and lockdown) will have just torn open inequalities that had been closing for a decade. Studies already show disadvantaged pupils in England are now 18 months behind their peers by the time they finish their GCSEs. Almost a third of pupils applying for university say they had no contact with their school during lockdown. Will they ever be given support to make up this lost ground?

    The coming wave of redundancies – already bigger than in the last crash – will hit men harder than women and the young harder than the old. Then comes the likely increase in family breakdown (Citizens Advice has reported a spike in divorce inquiries) and the health effects of isolation, especially on the elderly. These are all problems that have not been properly measured, but if Ms Truss’s new equality scrutiny unit can do the job, at least ministers will know where the damage is to fix. It would rejuvenate the idea of an equalities agenda, giving it an urgent and deeply practical relevance.

    Tories tend to dislike talking in such language. Their “Equality Act” was the Academies Act, which did so much to liberalise schools and close attainment gaps. Welfare reform led to a jobs boom that lifted the earnings of those at the bottom faster than anyone’s over the last decade. But as far as I’m aware, not a single Tory minister has ever pointed this out. The party has always seemed blind to – or, at worst, disinterested [sic] in – its own social justice achievements. Too many Tories still see “progressive conservatism” as a contradiction in terms.

    Ms Truss called her speech the new “fight for fairness”, something that will be needed more than ever after recent devastation. The economy may well make a speedy recovery, but those abandoned by their school will need the kind of help that won’t show up in GDP figures. All told, it’s the perfect time for the Conservatives to reclaim and revive the equalities agenda: there is all too much work to do.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/17/new-tory-equality-agenda-far-victory-wokeness/

    1. Rosa Prince’s article was allowed comments when first published, but after the vast majority trashed the article with reason, the entire comments section (and on Judith Woods’ article) was deleted around lunchtime (see my post this morning further down with the 1pm update). The DT mods at it again after a woke journo or 3rd wave feminist gets their rubbish shown up for what it is. And they wonder why people unsub…

      1. What the remainers are probably too young to remember is that the cost of food shot up when we joined the “common market”. Leaving it can only be a good thing.

      2. And under WTF rules, French farmers will be wrecking Spanish produce that might have gone to the UK but will instead undercut French producers,

          1. WTF = what the fcuk.

            The French have form on destroying Spanish fruit and vegetables where they think they are being undercut in the markets. If it can’t get to the UK, it will be sold in France.

      3. Lots of fruit and veg can come from thoise areas and via air/sea as approriate. Similar for higher end things like wine and even meat. We need to be looking to South America in particular for uprating our food-related trade there, similarly to Commonwealth countries generally, before the Chinese get their mitts into them further.

      1. That was the time when our government (and media) were on our side. They do things differently now.

    5. My local Morrisons was ok on stock on Tuesday, though I have noticed the quality of the bananas (no joke!) going downhill – poor taste and they go off VERY rapidly. I suspect some people are again panic buying due to concerns over lockdowns and buying more for Christmas before their area goes up one Tier prior to the 5 day Christmas relaxation.

      What I HAVE noticed in other shopping aspects is the significant shortage of high tech manufactured goods – kitchen appliances like fridges and freezers, PC components, home AV equipment and even mobile phones. Prices are, as a result (and as we’re seeing at our ports due to people self isolating and some businesses stupidly stockpiling for the end of the Brexit transition period at the last minute) a lot higher on many goods or just not available at all.

      When my fridge essentially packed up in late August, it took Argos THREE WEEKS to source and deliver the replacement – luckily, the old unit hadn’t completely broken (leaking refrigerant [not toxic] meant it only cooled down to about 10-12degC) and I have a freezer, so I bought some more ice blocks and kept swapping them over from the fridge to freezer and back to keep the fridge down at around the 4-6degC mark. A real pain as this had to be done every 6-8 hours. Luckily it happened just after the August heatwave.

      1. I bought a replacement fridge-freezer in early March just before lockdown. It took months for it to arrive (from Italy, apparently). Fortunately, my old one was still working, but ancient.

        1. You got lucky. Glad you did. I got lucky last year that my old boiler broke and wasn’t economic to repair, so I replaced it entirely and one that has a 10 year warranty. I feel sorry for anyone who has major breakdowns of their boiler, fridge or freezer at the moment. Sourcing replacements (including parts) and technicians/plumbers to fit/repair is hard.

          1. I also had to replace my washing machine earlier this year. I just hope the dishwasher doesn’t go belly up as well!

          2. We ordered kitchen appliances in September and are still waiting. Maybe January is the latest estimate.

            New lounge chairs are even slower to arrive, ordered in July and maybe perhaps early next year.

            Nothing is coming from China – well just say that the items will have made in the USA stamped on them, who knows where the gubbins are assembled..

      2. Yep, glad you have noticed things like that , so have I.

        We have a week to go before Christmas day, yet fruit and veg are in short supply as are chickens and turkeys and all the bits and pieces of chicken meat .. probably the disease that is affecting fowl has taken a hit .

        I am glad I have ordered a piece of beef .

    7. if they are queuing in Kent, aren’t they already on the UK side of the channel?

      If they are trying to cross to France then drive down to Southern Europe, load up with healthy food before making the trip back might I suggest that the goods don’t have much chance of being on supermarket shelves before next Thursday.

      1. They are waiting to make their last trips with a view to being back in the UK and unloaded by Thursday night – and many of them will be. We bring in produce of all sort from northern Europe as well as southern – lots of glasshouse in the Netherlands for example. Very UK truckers won’t be home for Christmas, it’s the one holiday that sees most firms shut down and give their drivers a few days off.

        Others in that queue are EU hauliers (Vos, Mammoet, Kuehne und Nagel, Dentressangle etc) who are returning home for the holiday.

  121. They are getting lockdown happy over here as well.

    In our health district there are 35 active cases, just 3 are in hospital. The district is big, over one hundred miles to the northern boundary, so 35 cases is hardly overwhelming us.

    Now they are talking lockdown for Christmas with details to be announced on Monday.

      1. But not until boxing day, we are so lucky.

        These politicians must all have shares in Amazon, they are certainly screwing small business.

  122. I am convinced that if Hancock and Johnson and their useless government had the power they would construct gigantic wheels scaled up from those we have in hamster cages.

    We would be trudging away to generate electricity for their electric cars and other elite privileges and begging for morsels, the odd nut, grain or dead husk.

    To keep us in barely functioning condition we would be vaccinated at regular intervals, at least twice yearly and die at the age of two…er after the first year of vaccinations. Our hamsters will meantime enjoy their brief lives on our planet whereas we will be summarily terminated, 20 years before our time.

    Give me the jab equipment with the Pfizer vaccine and I would happily give it to the aforementioned. We would probably have to restrain them because they know that the vaccine is potentially very dangerous, but they care not as long as they can go on living the high life.

  123. “Oops we’re having trouble posting your comment. Please try later”

    Well, that’s that then.

Comments are closed.