Saturday 26 December: Boris Johnson has fulfilled his pledge to get Brexit done

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/2020/12/26/lettersboris-johnson-has-fulfilled-pledge-get-brexit-done/

538 thoughts on “Saturday 26 December: Boris Johnson has fulfilled his pledge to get Brexit done”

  1. Free us from this futile cycle of Covid contagion and control. 26 December 2020.

    Here we go again. With even tighter restrictions likely to be imposed in the New Year, Britain is trapped in a futile cycle of Covid contagion and control.

    Yet none of these authoritarian bureaucratic impositions have proved effective.

    In fact, lockdowns may be worse than just useless. There is some science to suggest – perhaps ironically – they actually drive the disease to spread more easily.

    Morning everyone. Scream! Yes it is quite obvious that they do not work! If they did we would have said goodbye to the “crisis” last year! What has happened is that the political class have hitched themselves to this idiocy and cannot admit it regardless of the cost in lives and the destruction of the economy. The path to follow was the isolation of those most at risk and allow everyone else to carry on with their normal lives!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9088271/DR-JOHN-LEE-Free-futile-cycle-Covid-contagion-control.html

    1. Morning, Araminta.

      …allow everyone else to carry on with their normal lives!

      I thought that the whole point of this charade, including the advent of regular vaccinations, was to ensure that the idea of normal lives was to end and that the ‘New Normal’ would arrive after the ‘Build Back Better’ phase had been completed. Ask Hancock, his old mates Klaus and Bill have assured him of that happening.

    2. The other possibility is that lockdowns do work – for the people who imposed them. Of course, that has nothing to do with this season’s virus.

  2. BTL Comment on today’s DT Letters:

    Terence Courtnadge
    26 Dec 2020 4:03AM
    And what better Christmas present could the British people want even in their dreams. Now Scotland should ask itself : ‘ Is it better or worse to stay with the rest of the UK or an uncertain future with continental Europe, a process that is not at all straightforward?

    On the subject of Scottish Independence and the fish-wife’s longing to take Scotland to the EU, I cannot help wondering how her imports and exports will arrive, after she has paid a massive toll for them to drive through England. A Tunnel to Denmark?

    1. No currency. no Central Bank, no money reserves, 7% budget deficit – cannot meet EU membership requirements.

      In 2014 they claimed 18 months would see a functioning Independent Govt. Since then the Holyrood Super Council has seen a catalogue of failures running National Police, NHS waiting lists, building failures, Failing schools, transport problems, late/over budget projects, IT projects .g. benefits is slowly appearing at a cost of £800m & still counting – late late & grossly overbudget –

      Thankfully State Pension is still through UK payment system.

      Scotland’s £8Bn oil “money tree” died n Alex Salmond’s garden .

      P*ss Up & Brewery come to mind

        1. The reality is that any referendum should include all voters in Great Britain as it is a vote on the break up of Great Britain.

          Unfortunately this hasn’t happened yet.

          1. They are too terrified to do that; they know if the English got a vote, they’d be gone! What, it seems to me, they are looking for is Devo Max (and still keeping English money to remain afloat).

      3. Reality is, the Scottish Nationalist Socialists would get a Chinese-backed government up and running in no time. Barbados on the EU’s doorstep.

    2. Sturgeon will do what she did with the new ferries: order two Felixstowe size ports and pay for six. (I read that the other day and so I can’t claim it as original).

  3. Two articles from the ‘new-style’ Telegraph that I won’t be rushing to read:

    June Sarpong on white privilege: ‘unfairness is baked into our system’

    The BBC’s director of creative diversity talks about race, class, and why The Archers may not be safe from a
    ‘woke’ makeover.

    Lesbians facing ‘extinction’ as transgenderism becomes pervasive, campaigners warn.

    1. Morning VOM. The Archers (which I have never listened to) have already been done over several times!

    2. I gave up on The Archers in the late 90s as it had become an organic wokefest of simple folk, lesbians and racists. My clearest memory of the stories is the sound effect used for cattle, with the same cow covering for all bovine parts.

      Eventually, someone who cared wrote in to ‘Points of View’ pointing this out and a variety of cattle sounds were promptly utilised.

      I suppose that, as it was the bBC, I should have expected repeats.

    3. If unfairness is baked into the system, how come she got a very well paid job in excess of her abilities?

  7. Morning to everyone.

    SIR – Four years on, what was obvious then is today’s reality. The EU’s negotiating strategy from the start was to cut off its nose to spite its face by threatening, and if need be ending up with, a no-deal Brexit in the hope that it would either provoke a Chamberlain moment or at the least act as a deterrent against further exits.

    This ill-thought-through strategy delivered neither result. Not only does it underline the EU’s democratic deficit and dictatorial modus operandi, it also hastens the EU’s demise, an encore of the Tower of Babel.

    Thank you to the 17.5 million who steadfastly held on to their beliefs and voted for Brexit despite relentless false prophecies of doom by Remainers. Thank you to Boris Johnson, warts and all, for having delivered on his pledge to “get Brexit done”.

    Jean Maigrot

    London SW6

    SIR – After four and a half years of MPs from both Houses blocking it, judges blocking it, and ex prime ministers blocking it, we are finally leaving the EU with a trade deal. My faith in democracy has finally been restored.

    Alan White

    Ham Green, Worcestershire

    SIR – Rejoice, rejoice!

    Mark Robbins

    Bruton, Somerset

        1. Just been looking at pictures of flooding in Bedfrdshire and Cambridgeshire – including St Ives. Not far from you?

          1. I do all my shopping in St Ives, although I live in the outskirts of Huntingdon. I’ve heard about the floods, they happen often in winter. I’ve not been there since Tuesday, but I shall probably go there tomorrow or Monday.

          2. Posted the DM link above with the photos. Floods in Glos as well, especially near the river of course, and around Tewkesbury as usual. We are lucky to live on a hill. Can’t imagine how awful it must be to have floods indoors.

          3. #Me too. I deliberately chose to buy a house at the top of a hill.
            Where we lived in Dorset was high ground, but our 1stborn’s godparents bought a nearly identical house on a flood plain of the Stour. Every winter was a nail-biting time for them, but I don’t think they were ever flooded, although the water came up to the edge of their garden.

          1. Dramatic photos! In the 1st aerial view of St Ives, the dental practice is just off the right edge of the picture. The winter I left ( 2012) the cellar flooded & we couldn’t work because the electrics were out.
            I joined the practice during a January, many of the roads leading to the town were closed. During a chat while his local was working, a patient revealed that he had to get to so-&-so afterwards, which prompted my nurse to leave the room for 10 minutes to find out how he could do it. I was furious with her.

  9. SIR – Nelson will be spinning in his barrel of rum. Boris Johnson has bowed to EU threats. He could have created 100,000 jobs in a tenfold larger British fleet, with enhanced security, new boat-building, fish processing, better food for the nation, self-sufficiency in seafood and economic growth around all ports in the United Kingdom – a Greater Britain.

    Stuart Wilkie

    Clenchwarton, Norfolk

    SIR – How soon can we get back to £sd?

    Harry Brooks

    Arkley, Hertfordshire

    1. Nelson’s body was brought back to England in a barrel of Brandy, Mr Wilkie. Doubtless the jolly jack tars had consumed all the Pusser’s Rum.

      1. Morning, Tom.

        How can we be sure what size of cask it was? I would suggest that a tun, a butt or a hogshead would have been a more suitably capacious cask size to hold a body than a barrel.

        1. ‘Morning, George, it seems that it was rather a ‘cask’ than a barrel but what size a cask is, is anyone’s guess.

          1. That’s right, Tom. The object, despite its size, is a cask. A ‘barrel’ is nothing more than a certain size of cask and not the object itself. I know that the term ‘barrel’ has taken over from cask in popular usage; however, popular usage doesn’t make it correct. Does it?

        2. I thought it was a pipe.

          Port Pipe Barrel

          Tall, elegant oak barrel originally used for maturing port. Approx. 110 gallons in capacity, approx. 57″ (142cm) high, 25″ (63cm) across top, 36″ (90cm) across centre.

          1. I had some delicious port last night, Alf. The combination of Roquefort cheese with a 2015 Graham’s LBV was sublime.

          2. We’ll be over later to join you.
            Our favoured port is Fonseca Bin 27 a brand I helped launch in 1974, I think it was. Richly flavoured with a beautiful bouquet. Only available at Majestic I think.

    2. Mr Wilkie, Boris Johnson could not have “created 100,000 jobs in a tenfold larger British fleet, etc. etc.” in the 7 days left in this year. But he can do so in the five and a half years agreed in the UK/EU Treaty. In effect, he has bought us time to re-build our fishing fleet, fish processing plants and fishery protection ships.

      1. The UK Government had four and a half years to do it. Why rebuild any boats, factories, fishing crews? In five years the North Sea and the rest of our EEZ will have been fished out by EU supertrawlers*. The government did not even manage to keep the EU out of our 12 mile inshore limit.
        Our EEZ needs to be patrolled and rules enforced from six days from now. It cannot be done.
        Not only that, while I have been able to prepare a specification and costing for a large fishing boat in 6 weeks, does anyone imagine that our Defence department and civil service procurement people can get even the tender papers together within five years?

        * see history of Grand Banks.

      2. The UK Government had four and a half years to do it. Why rebuild any boats, factories, fishing crews? In five years the North Sea and the rest of our EEZ will have been fished out by EU supertrawlers*. The government did not even manage to keep the EU out of our 12 mile inshore limit.
        Our EEZ needs to be patrolled and rules enforced from six days from now. It cannot be done.
        Not only that, while I have been able to prepare a specification and costing for a large fishing boat in 6 weeks, does anyone imagine that our Defence department and civil service procurement people can get even the tender papers together within five years?

        * see history of Grand Banks.

        1. I keep shouting (I’ve given up muttering) that they’ve had FOUR YEARS to get their effing ducks in a row.

        2. “Rules [need to be] enforced from six days from now. It can not be done.’ That is exactly the point I made. Saying that the UK government had four and a half years to do it is speaking with the benefit of hindsight. And don’t forget that for three of those years, Appeaser Theresa was in charge.

          1. No, it is not hindsight. The government knew in the middle of June2016 that we were leaving. That is when they should have taken action. (I said that then btw.)
            It was treachery on a massive scale, not seen in the last 300 years.

          3. Well, Horace, if I were to take the same approach as you, I could also say that the government should really have taken action in 1972(?) when Edward Heath gave away our fishing grounds, or centuries earlier when one of our Kings gave away Normandy and pieces of France that we once owned.

    3. The agreement has still to be agreed by the UK Parliament and the EU 27 members. I skimmed through the 191 paragraphs of the UK summary of the agreement and was no wiser at the end. Plenty of words and intentions but no facts and figures, in my opinion, to clarify things. eg no clarity on Northern Ireland’s position and the implications of it. Payments for subjects like data sharing for police matters etc but no cost figures.
      This morning I looked at the EU side’s summary. If the 27 EU countries agree, the EU will sign a ” Provisional Agreement” and sort out the “loose ends after 31/12/2020. What are the “loose ends”. The EU has given itself until 28 /02/2021 to finalise the Agreement but no doubt will extend it ad finitum if they so wish. Boris has knowingly or unwittingly extended the transition period which could be detrimental to the UK.
      These are my thoughts and bear in mind my brain can only deal with so much political and legalese obfuscation before it tires out. God help the poor sods who have to wade through more than 1000 pages of such verbiage.
      edited to change number and pages to paragraphs.

        1. Morning Bill – “The law is an ass” as Mr Bumble in Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist said.
          I hope your two little treasures got over Christmas OK.

          1. They were given a present by my son. They much preferred the paper and the box in which it came!

  10. SIR – I will not be the only reader to applaud Trevor Watts’s call (Letters, December 16) for Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the House of Commons, to ban mobile phones in the House.

    Perhaps he will also review the dress code for MPs, especially for male members who attend without a necktie. They should be reminded of Bertie Wooster’s question to his valet: “What do ties matter, Jeeves, at a time like this?” To which Jeeves replies: “There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.”

    Bob Clough-Parker

    Chester

    1. Good God, Mr Clough-Parker, you expect MPs to dress correctly and actually pay attention to what’s being said.

      Another deluded one.

  11. Right I’m off to Morrisons (No buses. I have to walk) before Storm Bella arrives and inundates the surrounding area for the next two days. See you all later.

  12. Right I’m off to Morrisons (No buses. I have to walk) before Storm Bella arrives and inundates the surrounding area for the next two days. See you all later.

  13. 327826 up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    NOT THE TELEGRAPH LETTERS

    Saturday 26 December: Boris Johnson has fulfilled his pledge to get Brexit done.

    Trust re-instated in this governance party, I think not, I surely hear echo’s among the ovis of “job done leave it to the tory’s,”

    To my mind the pilot line ( the deal) is in place and with the long game in mind a re-entry campaign will commence.

    I can quite believe seeing the three monkeys invigorated & ready for action in the polling booth, along with the promise,vow & pledge ( never fulfilled) lullaby wafting over the pacified herd working it’s black magic once again.

    The close shop, the lab,lib,con coalition still in place, ALL the major players, still in place, and the look alike threat,still in place.

    The only thing missing is a true pro English / GB party.

    1. 327826+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Britain will not be tied to any future changes in EU rules or regulations, but has accepted that it could face tariffs if it does anything that could be seen to give it an unfair advantage. The deal contains a four-year review clause that means it could be renegotiated in 2024 if either side is unhappy.

      Britain could choose to walk away altogether if it does not feel the deal is still in its interests.
      Can you see the long game has been triggered Og ?

      On trust alone most certainly, I can see
      the can x road has been put in play.

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Today’s DT Leader with which, for once, I find myself pretty well in full agreement:

    The Queen brings light to Christmas
    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    26 December 2020 • 6:00am

    The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spent Christmas Day apart from their family this year, a sad compromise that many of us have had to make. But Her Majesty’s traditional Christmas Day broadcast brought a flicker of light to the coronavirus gloom. Although the season was “tinged with sadness” by separation and loss, she reminded us of the star that appeared in the sky heralding the birth of Jesus – for Christians, the “light of the world” – bringing “love and above all hope” to mankind.

    Just as Christmas has been stripped down to its essentials, this felt like a very personal reflection by Her Majesty. It addressed many of the themes we know are closest to her heart. She spoke about remembrance of war, of her visit to the grave of the Unknown Warrior in November to lay flowers on the centenary of his burial (coincidentally, the first time that she was seen wearing a mask in public). Her Majesty touched upon the Commonwealth, of which she is head, and on frontline services that have gone the extra mile to help us this year.

    She described Christianity as “my inner light”. In an age of declining church attendance, when even clerics sometimes feel nervous about articulating their beliefs in public, the Queen’s broadcast offers a refreshingly straightforward expression of faith – and the humanist values that underscore all religions, speaking to those who have no faith at all.

    The story of the Good Samaritan, said Her Majesty, was an instructive example of someone who showed “care and respect” to anyone who needs it, regardless of background. Britain is more diverse than ever; the pandemic has revealed it to be as strong as ever, too. “People of all faiths have been unable to gather as they would wish for their festivals”, she noted, including Passover, Eid and Vaisakhi, but she turned again to the metaphor of light for comfort – to the celebration of Diwali last month, when fireworks lit up the sky around Windsor.

    In a period of sometimes alarming political division, Britain is lucky to have a monarchy, to have a head of state who stands above the fray. Her Majesty spoke of eternal themes that, precisely because they are timeless, are relevant to our specific circumstances. And we are lucky to have Queen Elizabeth II in particular. She leads through example, tending for us the flame of public service.

    A brief exchange of views in the BTL comments:

    John Frankel
    26 Dec 2020 7:40AM
    A moving and meaningful broadcast, and I am an atheist.

    Andy Webster
    26 Dec 2020 7:06AM
    Christianity? The Olde Batte heads up a self-serving heretical state religion.

    Diana Partridge
    26 Dec 2020 7:52AM
    @Andy Webster

    This Country was founded on Christian principles. There is room for other religions to celebrate as they please, which is more than can be said for many other Countries.

    Your miserable and bitter comment does nothing to bring people together, but causes resentment and bitterness. Many people have found a safe refuge here. If you are one of them, you should be grateful. If not, a period of silence might be appropriate.

    1. Well I’ll have to listen again as I’d had a few when it came on yesterday.
      To me the speech felt like the nearest the Queen could be seen to be kneeling and supporting the new order that is coming.

      1. Did she really write that speech herself?

        Yesterday somebody here exculpated her for referring positively to religions other than Christianity because she is head of the Commonwealth in which several countries are not Christian. That is a fair point but it leads me to wonder whether there is a conflict of interest here.

        The Queen is the Head of the Church of England and her Nicene creed is specific that there is one true God and that is the god whose only begotten son is Jesus Christ.

        1. I thought she hit the right note – she is Christian but she recognises the fact that otthers are not. She is also head of the Commonwealth and believes in its ideals.

          1. The Queen has a difficult path to tread in these matters – religious and political traps to all sides. I believe she does extremely well in the circumstances, and cannot think of anyone else in the public eye who could do better.
            I suspect she sends speeches back to the writer, suitably annotated, to be corrected before she gives them. She doesn’t “mis-speak”.

          3. A “job” she was brought up to do. Plus service during total war, and the benefits of age and not having to be popular. And the support of a loyal husband who realised the seriousness of the position and supported, not grandstanding in his own right.

  15. Been listening to a bit of radio news in the bath and the narrative appears to have changed a bit on Brexit since Christmas Eve, now it seems that during the holiday period Boris is trying to persuade the ERG to vote for the deal / treaty, which suggests that the Rose Garden Deal is not so rosy after all.
    It’s so bad that even Starmer supports it and is trying to get Labour MP’s to back it.
    All in a period when nobody has had a chance to read and scrutinise what is in it.

      1. I can’t remember what it is which, even if plated in gold, retain the same essence as it always had beneath the coating . However Shakespeare’s words hit on a fundamental truth with the observation:

        “Plate sin with gold, And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks. Arm it in rags, a pigmy’s straw does pierce it.”

        [King Lear]

  16. TRADE AND COOPERATION AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND THE
    EUROPEAN ATOMIC ENERGY COMMUNITY, OF THE ONE PART, AND THE UNITED KINGDOM
    OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND, OF THE OTHER PART

    So who said anything about linking cooperation with trade?

    1. I think there will be numerous areas of cooperation, as long as we don’t pay more than our share.
      I don’t see that as too much different from NATO.

          1. No chance – cheese-eating-surrender-monkeys have proved to be useless at fighting, for anything.

  17. Good morning everyone and I hope you all had a Joyous Noel (didn’t wanna put it in French!). We had a fabulous meal and day yesterday with son, d-I-l and grandson, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

    A propos (oops! slipped) the vaccine. I wonder what the view is of those who are for it? Seems very odd to me that, first of all, we all needed two doses but now they are considering limiting it to one dose each.

    1. Morning, vw.

      I’m wholeheartedly agin it.
      Perhaps the second dose is the one with the really bad effect and the timeline is too long for the first dose being fully administered before the second is available. If people were badly affected by the second before the first had been completely rolled out then the PTB would have been rumbled and the remaining first and the second take-ups would be compromised.

      They’re up to something with this mania for full vaccination: it just doesn’t make sense and with the WHO changing its herd immunity description from the natural immunity that has served us well for millions of years (how else would ‘homo’ have survived?) to one of vaccination is required for herd immunity indicates they’re up to no good. The smirking Hancock and his similarly smirking mate, Bill Gates, have gone some way to letting the cat out of the bag.

      1. I have been vaccinated against diptheria, smallpox, polio and TB, maybe more. To honest, I’m glad it wasn’t all left to herd immunity.

        1. But as far as I understand it these were all “proven” over many years JB. I find it rather worrying that a) a vaccine has been developed within 9 months, with immunity from prosecution guaranteed to the producers and b) I believe we don’t need a vaccine at all. Of course they are now scaring us all with a “new variant” without ever really having isolated the first.

          1. Oh, boy, are people scared.
            Had a call with a female teacher friend living close to Belle yesterday, who desperately doesn’t want the schools to reopen as “it’s awfully dangerous”, and “people are dropping like flies” – can’t wait for the vaccination, outraged that others might be offered it before teachers…
            Where do you start? Logic was deffo not the place.
            Norway has a death rate of 0,008% of the total population, or 0,02% of those testing positive. 1,28 croaked per day so far, compared with 1,84 suicides per day in 2018.

          2. UK has a death rate of roughly 0.1% of total population. That’s a lot of people and a lot too many. Excess deaths are over 70,000 and most of those (not all, but a very large majority) are down to SARS-CoV-2. And although some of them were very old (and we should have been able to do more to protect the very old) far too many are between 45 and 65 and that’s not old!

            I agree with you about excess fear, but if you have been up close and personal with a bad case (or a serious conversation with someone who has been working in a big city ICU for 9 months) then it’s a bit harder to be scornful.

          3. Indeed. Finally found the statistics, and how unclear can one agency (ONS) make them? No nice table, just paragraphs of blah blah to hunt through. I was staggered at how many have croaked in UK – a rate nearly 10x that here! It’s still nothing to be terrified of, though – just wary.
            Evening, BTW!

          4. If you are old and already suffering from a variety of ailments I think that it definitely is something to fear… unless you’ve had enough of the old mortal coil. My mother would be quite happy to live a bit longer, even with her varied discomforts, dodgy ticker and slightly (but not badly) slipping memory – but she would, undoubtedly, succumb were she to catch it; her heart doesn’t proved her with enough oxygenated blood as things are.

            But it is much harder to understand why some of the younger and much fitter succumb, whilst others do, indeed, shrug it off. Those with clear co-morbidities might be obvious as are those who, working in hospitals, are exposed to heavy viral loads; but many who have been very ill, and who have died, have not had any clear co-morbidities. Until we can understand who is, and isn’t, truly vulnerable it behoves all of us to take a degree, at least, of care.

            That’s not to be in favour of lockdowns or separating families, but masks in crowded places (if we were a bit more careful about using them properly) probably do make sense as does avoiding crowded places if we can… density of population is one reason why our death rate is so much higher than yours.

            Vaccination is the obvious route out. I am, entirely, in favour of that being a personal choice; but I also believe that those who choose to be unvaccinated may well have to accept a degree of limitation on their lifestyles. If the airlines don’t want to carry you, or a country doesn’t want you as a visitor, unless you are vaccinated… then they have that right. Many may think that is a reasonable compromise to make.

          5. PS. ONS don’t really set out to provide stats for lay people and there are some fairly useful tables (I was digging in there last week) but I agree that a more coherent summary (in the nature of an abstract perhaps) at the top of the page, would be useful.

            Goodness: how many abstracts did I read back in the day when trying to decide how many, and which, whole papers I could get through and still manage to get a bit of fresh air* and a few hours of sleep. The library had volumes of abstracts to save one from having to find all the relevant papers… but it was a slow business and I found it even harder when the abstracts moved to fiche – the screens were small, the print was horribly bright, but not very distinct, and the focal length was all wrong for my eyes (with or without my specs). I’m glad I don’t have to do that nowadays. At least with internet I can govern the brightness of my screen, and the size of the print – and I have a pair of specs specifically made for the correct focal length for my laptop.

            *At least the air in Aberdeen was very fresh. Most of the university is within a quarter mile or so of the beach, so a brisk walk down to the sea and back again was enough to blow a lot of cobwebs away.

          6. This is turning out to be even more divisive than Brexit! Logic has deffo fled. If only people would look at the figures/stats they surely would realise lockdowns are useless and the scamdemic is just that – a scam.

        2. Me too – but those vaccines were tried and tested. I am not anti-vax – just anti being REQUIRED to have a new untested and unknown fluid pumped into my unwilling arm

        4. I have been vaccinated against diptheria, smallpox, polio and TB, maybe more.

          As have I. However these were true vaccinations that informed your immune system to prepare for infection. Hancock’s current potion doesn’t contain any dead or weak virus/bacteria to stimulate your immune system. It contains a lab designed piece of mRNA i.e. genetic material. This idea has never been used on humans before. I’ll not have anything, especially lab produced genetic material, from Hancock.

          1. It has been in use, very successfully, in the treatment of cancer for a considerable period. So yes, it has “been used on humans before” without any significant problems.

          2. Me too. There is a difference between these tried and tested vaccines and the cobbled together version that’s being peddled for Covid 19.

      2. They certainly are up to something. It looks like they are trying to verbally re-package The Vaccine now as a ‘drug which is injected’ for an instant miracle cure – we have known for some time now that this so-called vaccine does not prevent you from acquiring the virus (such as it is) nor does it stop you from passing it on. That information has become widespread now so they are having to change the message. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9088217/British-scientists-trial-new-Covid-antibody-therapy-patients-INSTANT-immunity.html
        It sounds exactly the same to me but in new packaging. Not enough people are biting and there is something in this jab they really want us to have and it is not out of the goodness of their hearts.

        I agree with your comments about the second vaccine in the series, Korky. That is where the bad side effects lie.

        1. yes, I noticed that in the Daily Mail today too!
          It would be nice to return to the days when reading the paper wasn’t an exercise in spotting the propaganda.

        2. This is not the same thing at all. It is a trial of laboratory produced antibodies. The vaccine stimulates our own cells to produce antibodies which takes a little longer and, therefore, cannot act as a cure for those who are already ill.

          There is no “miracle” involved. This treatment follows on from the successful use of plasma from survivors which contains antibodies but a laboratory grown antibody is clearly easier to obtain in reliable quantities. The direct introduction of antibodies gives the patient a better chance of fighting off the illness… I’m quite sure that if someone close to you was in ICU with SARS-CoV-2, needing oxygen and round the clock care, you would be relieved to be offered the chance of this treatment.

          No vaccine has ever prevented anyone from acquiring a disease – it simply fits you to fight it off with either no illness at all or very minor illness… that is what vaccines do (all of them). The same applies to transmission, all vaccines are the same. It is just that for many reasons far more questions have been asked about this vaccine and scientists have been honest enough to answer them fully.

        1. And a continuous river thereafter of income for big pharma derived from the medicines required to alleviate the illnesses caused (contained within?) the vaccine. Big pharma is not in the business of curing illnesses as it would lose its income stream. It is time to examine the converse.

          Good afternoon vw and happy Boxing Day everyone!

      4. Just a reminder Korky that Singapore Airlines have stated that they refuse to carry anyone without a vaccination certificate.

        1. JanetjH, I’ve never flown in my life and I have no desire to do so. Other people will do as they see fit and if some can be coerced into taking an unproven potion being sold by the likes of Hancock, then so be it. Hancock is an apologist for the WEF and its boss, Klaus Schwab. I wouldn’t take the time of day from Hancock.

          1. We agree about Hancock.

            He is a grovelling creep to the NWO in the hope of getting a few crumbs from the top table.

        2. How will they know that every one is genuine? Will every certificate from every country be the same design? Great for fraudulent certificates.

    2. Good enough is good enough.
      That is why I avoid GPs as much as possible. They look for perfection – ordered, I would imagine, by central authorities plaguing them with all sorts of boxes to be ticked…. It is noticeable that consultants are nowhere near as obsessive over these things.

      1. GPs are very variable. Over the years I’ve encountered everything from excellent to ghastly – and most points in between.

    3. I am not at all keen on having it but as I want to continue travelling while I can I may swallow my pride and be coerced into having it. I think it may become a requirement like the Yellow Fever one for certain places.

      1. I agree, Missus. But, one can choose not to go to a country where a YF jab is required. It looks as though one will be locked into Norfolk unless one has a Covid jab…and trains, hotels, boats and furrin places will be verboten. That – to me – is tyranny.

        1. We will not be having this jab. For some reason ‘they’ are desperate for us to have it and that makes me very suspicious of their motives. Government never does anything in the best interests of its people unless it happens to coincide with even better interests of the government. Our heels are firmly dug in. We will resist coercion until life becomes intolerable eg buying food.

        2. Yes – it is – but one can cut off one’s nose to spite one’s face as they say. I’ve booked to go back to Kenya in March – for which I have to pay for a negative PCR test. It might be easier to just take the vac.

      2. I think it will only take one regularly visited country to declare you must have it or no entry and the rest, like dominoes, will follow suit, if I may mix my metaphors!

        1. I think so, too. Hopefully, it will be a one-off. The virus is endemic now, so perhaps once the hysteria dies down, life can return to somewhere like normal.

      3. It has been said that it will take 2 years to vaccinate everyone. I can’t see mandatory vaccine certification before there is about 60% completed. They call that herd vaccination………. oh that rings a bell.

        1. I think there is very little need for young people to be vaccinated – I don’t think flu jabs are routiniely prescribed for anyone but the old and ill. Hopefully once the elderly have been done for this, the hysteria might die down. But it will return each year like flu.

          1. Ah, now you’re applying logic and the assumption that protecting the population from a virus is what it’s all about.
            If they start trying to make the jab mandatory for younger people, then that will be a pointer as to what the agenda is.

    4. Many vaccines (including a lot of the infant/young children ones) require two doses for full protection but a lot of protection in the short/medium term is gained with one dose.

      Tetanus vaccine may require quite a number of doses for those who work in trades where injuries are commonplace (I’ve lost count of how many I’ve had over the years).

      So limiting it to one dose until there is time and availability to give everyone the second should be perfectly viable.

      1. I know the PTB are pretty incompetent but surely even they could have worked out the number of people multiplied by the number of doses needed, how long it would take to distribute them, etc. That is, of course, if you actually believe the vaccines are necessary in the first place.

        1. Supply is not unlimited, and there is competition for supply. So it isn’t just down to “how many we need” or “how quickly we can distribute” but also to “when can we acquire”… and that last is not within the gift of the PTB.

          If you had seen what this thing can do to a fit chap in his fifties (with no co-morbidities) then you might well understand that a vaccine is needed.

          1. As I understand it this particular virus which, btw, has not been isolated is of the coronavirus family which includes flu and the common cold. And predicted deaths from the so called sarscov2 have been wildly exaggerated by our so called SAGE scientists. ONS figures of deaths, all causes, do not support excess numbers.

          2. Your understanding seems to be very far to seek.

            1. The virus SARS-CoV-2 was isolated many months ago. The tale that it has “not been isolated” is simply a fiction… a rabid one. The truth is that 10s of thousands of mutations have already been isolated and sequenced and there is no doubt whatsoever of its existence.

            2. The common cold is a coronavirus, influenza is not a coronavirus.

            3. The number of deaths is well known and very high.

            4. ONS figures are quite clear. Over 70,000 excess deaths (excess above the 5 year average) in the UK this year, mostly from SAR-CoV-2

  18. Good moaning, fellow NoTTLers. A story for to day:

    Five Surgeons

    Five surgeons are discussing who the best patients were to operate on.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/99baaac666bee8a9bf78de8d343e0333529a34c9d6f97a07bf29eff87ab27123.jpg

    The first surgeon says, ‘I like to see Accountants on my operating table because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered.’

    The second responds, ‘Yeah, but you should try Electricians! Everything inside them is colour-coded.’

    The third surgeon says, ‘No, I really think Librarians are the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order.’

    The fourth surgeon chimes in, ‘You know I like Construction Workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would.’

    But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed, ‘You’re all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There’s no guts, no heart, no balls, no brains, and no spine, and there are only two moving parts – the mouth and the arsehole – and those are interchangeable’

  19. George Blake, notorious cold war double agent, dies aged 98. 26 December 2020.

    In an interview with Reuters in Moscow in 1991, Blake said he had believed communism was “an ideal which, if it could have been achieved, would have been well worth it. I thought it could be, and I did what I could to help it, to build such a society. It has not proved possible. But I think it is a noble idea and I think humanity will return to it.”

    Ironic really. He would probably be right at home in the modern UK.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/26/george-blake-mi6-spy-cold-war-double-agent-dies-aged-98

    2. Yes, if he had hung on a little longer he would have been greeted rapturously when returning to Britain.

  20. China to overtake US as world’s biggest economy by 2028, report predicts. 26 December 2020.

    China will overtake the US as the world’s biggest economy before the end of the decade after outperforming its rival during the global Covid-19 pandemic, according to a report.

    The Centre for Economics and Business Research said that it nowexpected the value of China’s economy when measured in dollars to exceed that of the US by 2028, half a decade sooner than it expected a year ago.

    In its annual league table of the growth prospects of 193 countries, the UK-based consultancy group said China had bounced back quickly from the effects of Covid-19 and would grow by 2% in 2020, as the one major global economy to expand.

    Though this is almost certainly true the United States along with its allies, who are also hostile to China, will still be for some considerable time the world’s most powerful military force on the planet. This does not however preclude the possibility of war between the two under the Thucydides Trap theory which would be catastrophic to both states.

    PS. Worth reading for the other forecasts some of which are quite surprising!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/26/china-to-overtake-us-as-worlds-biggest-economy-by-2028-report-predicts

    1. Morning Minty. Some of us are beginning to get a bit worried about you – recommending we read The Guardian – a number of us have weak constitutions…… (or none at all in the case of the UK….)

      1. I enjoy clicking on Grauniad articles, just to see the plaintive message that says “you have read xxx articles this year, please give us some money”. I probably will soon, because there is nothing clever about freeloading. And journalists have to eat, even the ones with whom I disagree.

        1. Hang on, that makes no sense.

          If they printed content worth paying for, people would pay for it. That’s a market. Their market share is negligible and falling, proving people DO NOT want to pay for them.

          While they bleat about poverty begging is pathetic. Let them eat into the capital of their trust fund and the profits – used through a clever tax vehicle – from auto trader.

        1. “Sea levels are expected to have risen by 45cm from the 2000 base by 2035. This compares with the smaller 20cm rise by 2030 predicted two years ago.”

          Clearly some of us are going to have to invest in Waders……..

      3. Actually, it isn’t true that we (ie the UK) don’t have a constitution; we do, but it isn’t written in one document.

  21. Goodbye to Catholic Ireland. 26 December 2020.

    Rarely has a religious culture collapsed more rapidly than that of Catholic Ireland, which just 30 years ago seemed indestructible. Incredibly, it looks as if the Irish Church will have ordained more bishops than priests in 2020. It goes without saying that the Irish abuse crisis has hugely accelerated the process of secularisation in what was once the most Catholic of countries. Young people in Ireland now refer to the clergy with a withering disdain verging on hatred.

    There seems little doubt that Catholicism in Ireland was a particularly malignant force fostering intolerance, hatred, bigotry and opposing any change for the better throughout its long history.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/goodbye-to-catholic-ireland

    1. ‘Morning, Minty, one cannot help wondering if the slammers have invaded RoI yet. If they do/have, I wonder how many of the indigenous population will convert.

      2. A quick google indicates that there are at least 3 mosques in Dublin – my interest went no further.

    2. It is the same pattern as here really just a few decades later, first destroy the native religion then slowly bring in the preferred option replacement before destroying their old culture completely.

    3. Had, perhaps, Elizabeth I done the same to the Irish as she did to the Welsh, then perhaps the Irish would not have been so troublesome.

      And what did she do to the Welsh?
      She gave them the Bible, or at least parts of it, in their own language, thus weakening the influence of the Catholic Church.

      1. Over a period of centuries, the indigenous Irish population was treated abominably by the English government and by the Anglo-Irish settlers and satraps. The very earliest settlers (Normans, IIRC) were able to integrate, but later on the situation became akin to apartheid, or worse.

        A key factor in the British occupation of India was that no individual colonist was allowed to own freehold land or property; in Ireland, the land was effectively confiscated from the Irish and distributed to the soldiers and settlers.

  22. You would not beLIEVE the BTL vitriol by the Remainiacs in The Grimes. They just won’t give up.

    1. I’m sure that they will continue to do everything within their individual power to ensure that Brexit is a failure, just so they can say “We told you so”.

    2. If they love the Continent so much, why don’t they just go and live and work there?
      Oh silly me, they would need to speak at least one other language.
      Funnily enough, I know, and know of, quite a few Brits who made the move, and they are generally apolitical.

      1. Many people who live and work in the EU are very happy with the countries in which they live. This does not by any means suggest that they are pro-EU. Indeed many British people in Brittany are very much in favour of Brexit.

        One thing that Caroline and I find alarming is that so many British people living in France cannot speak French and make no effort to do so. In Britain many people resent people who settle in Britain who cannot speak English. Pots and Kettles.

        1. In Düsseldorf I knew an US teacher who taught English (!) in a private school & who, after 11 years’ living there could not put a simple sentence together in German, nor understand one when he heard it. Mind you, he was a Yank.

        2. Same here in Norway, Rastus. Many cannot speak any form of Norwegian, and (this amazes me) cannot even pronounce the words! Despite having lived here for decades, they don’t know that Å (or å) is not the same character as A (or a), the letter combination Gj is not pronounced “Ger jer”, and many, many more…. ARGH! They just don’t hear the differences, it’s weird.
          I’m not perfect in Norsk by any means, as until I’m mostly pissed, I can’t do the flurr di burr intonation properly, but I can at least communicate socially, technically and legally!

          1. My mission is to civilise the world and that means everyone should speak English. Learning and using another language to foreigners merely encourages them not to change.

        3. My French friends are generally pro-Brexit. The ones who weren’t have changed their minds over the years.

      1. I think that, as with the bames, they never will. Bames will NEVER “integrate”. Remainiacs will continue to bleat and demand a third/fourth/fifth referendum…

  23. Charles Moore today:

    Boris succeeded where others failed because he accepted the logic of Brexit

    The Prime Minister has got us out, enormously assisted by enemies in his own party and outside too angry to perceive his skills

    CHARLES MOORE
    25 December 2020 • 9:30pm

    EU negotiations are secretive. They dawdle for months, then rush to agreement so fast that no one really knows what has been agreed. All this means that commentators on Boris’s Christmas Eve deal must preface our remarks with a warning. On hearing the announcement on Thursday afternoon, we felt a bit like Bethlehem shepherds abiding in the fields. Angel voices (or rather, spin doctors) had told us about a birth, but we had not yet been allowed to see what was in the manger. Even on Boxing Day, we cannot give an absolutely full report.

    So it may yet turn out that the level-playing-field arbitration mechanisms are sneaky forms of Brussels control, or that (apologies for my wildly mixed metaphor) the ban on selling seed potatoes in Northern Ireland will turn out to be a Trojan horse for the break-up of the Union, or that the eight EU coastal nations have devised some cunning way of stealing our mackerel in perpetuity.

    We all know that EU small print can come, over time, to bulk very large indeed. But, but, but – I think that the Leave cause has now won (or, at least, we will have won once Parliament approves the deal next week). It has not won on everything, nor as swiftly we hoped in 2016. But the victory is real.

    You can see this in the reaction of the Remainers. Their crazy rage against Boris Johnson, which goes right back to the referendum itself, had persuaded many of them that he was going for no deal, whatever the cost. In fact, no deal was only his last resort – the backstop necessary for any successful negotiation.

    On these trade talks, they have made the same mistake they made last year when they cried that Boris would never achieve a Withdrawal Agreement. He achieved it on January 31. Now that the trade deal has been made – despite Covid, for December 31, as he promised – the wind has dropped from their sails. With tight lips, Remainers call this a “thin deal”. That may sound an odd description of an agreement supported by about 2,000 pages of legal documentation, but in a sense they are right.

    The deal they wanted was Britain’s continuing acceptance of the trading and market rules of EU membership. That would have been a fat deal – exactly as fat as all the treaties and acquis communautaire which have accumulated since the Treaty of Rome in 1957. That was what Theresa May meant (possibly without quite knowing it) when she wasted years searching for a “deep and special partnership” with the organisation we had just decided to divorce.

    Yes, the deal is quite thin. It is supposed to be. It follows the logic of our original vote to leave whose result was declared exactly four and a half years before this Christmas Eve.

    The British people voted to leave the European Union, taking back control of laws, borders, waters and trade. By doing so, we were not saying to the other member states that we wanted nothing more to do with them. We wanted the close, friendly relations which you would normally expect between independent, neighbouring democracies. This deal, with its absence of tariffs and quotas, is a good basis for such relations. There will be blockages at first and numerous frictions for years, but the framework is acceptable for both sides. Some credit must go to the 
 EU itself.

    In recent weeks, the behaviour of President Macron of France has turned erratic. He felt the political need to be hyperactive on behalf of French fishermen and appear tough with the rosbifs. He is a great one for melodrama. During the referendum campaign in 2016, in the relatively humble post of economy minister, Mr Macron even threatened that France would somehow relocate its famous migrant camps to Brexit Britain. I suppose you could say he succeeded in creating a migrant camp for lorries in Kent this week, as he theatrically closed the border over mutant Covid.

    In quieter reaches of the EU, however, wiser leaders learnt from last year’s ejection of Mrs May and Boris’s consequent election victory. They understood that Brexit was not a gigantic charade which the British ruling elites should be helped to circumvent, but an irreversible democratic decision. They therefore moved to make peace with it, without sacrificing the integrity of their single market. They sensibly understood that imposing tariffs on us meant imposing tariffs on themselves.

    One wonders whether such a wise result could have been achieved, especially after lunch, under the erratic Commission presidency of Jean-Claude Juncker. His successor, Ursula von der Leyen, strikes a dignified balance between quiet sorrow at the parting of ways and practical co-operation about a friendly future. At home, the political effects are profound. Most immediately, they are that Nicola Sturgeon’s efforts to incite secession at the Scottish Parliament elections in May now look more obsessive and pointless. She really was longing for no deal.

    More generally, the deal challenges all the parties of the Left (nowadays all the mainland parties in Parliament apart from the Conservatives). They have spent nearly five years fighting Brexit, in vain. If they are sane, they will realise they cannot go on like this. They would quickly dwindle into modern-day Jacobites, gathering for nostalgic dinners and weeping as they sing the Ode to Joy.

    The question now is: “What are all these parties for?” Labour, in particular, has almost completely lost the patriotic vote on which Clement Attlee depended and which Tony Blair temporarily revived. Sir Keir Starmer is undoubtedly sane, but he is also one of the most ardent of the most Remainery class of all – London human-rights lawyers. He has a huge amount of ground to make up.

    The only dangerous political effect now apparent lies in the continuing ambiguities about Northern Ireland. Expect Dublin, Brussels, Sinn Fein and President Joe Biden (whose secret service codename is Celtic) to try to internationalise the province further and foment trouble in the cause of “peace”. They will exploit Mr Blair’s Good Friday Agreement against Mr Johnson’s Christmas Eve one.

    But I come back to what I keep calling the logic of Brexit. Rather like the rise of colonial independence movements in the first half of the 20th century, it represents a desire for liberty to which world leaders should respond. In modern international rhetoric, we never stop talking about democratic rights, but Brexit has shown how international elites – the modern equivalents of imperial powers – can turn nasty when real, live voters assert those rights. If the EU does not learn its lesson, further wars of independence become possible, and the drive towards “more Europe” becomes ever more contentious.

    The world needs to recognise that Boris Johnson is succeeding. When – after some havering – he threw in his lot with Leave in 2016, he accepted the Brexit logic. The way in which he has ensured that the logic works itself through over the past 18 months has been, despite his intermittent appearance of chaos, masterly. Early on, he said that failure to reach a deal would be “a failure of statecraft” on both sides. He has proved statecrafty.

    Boris has got us out, enormously assisted by enemies in his own party and outside too angry to perceive his skills. We should acknowledge that, in our strange post-modern politics, no one else could have done it.

    The leading BTL comment which, for me, sums it up pretty well, although I would add that Lord Frost should be recognised for sticking to his task like glue and without the craving for self-publicity, and obvious bias, displayed by Oily Robbins, his useless predecessor:

    R Md
    25 Dec 2020 9:59PM
    I shall reserve judgment until the ERG have done their full review, but in the meantime it looks like Boris has delivered the goods against all odds and should be congratulated.

    All we need now is the cycle of lockdowns to be brought to a halt and the BBC defunded, and I shall be a happy chappy.

      1. As always the devil is in the detail.
        At a reported 2,000 pages long it’s four time longer than the Lisbon Constitution. To expect this to be scrutinised in 2 days stinks of another attempt at treason or at the very least obfuscation.
        Barge poles spring to mind.

          1. That may be because she knows that other fronts have opened up in Kruschev’s Conquest without War plan.
            Why bother with the EU to flood countries with migrants when their leaders have signed the UN Migration pact?
            Why bother with regulations from Brussels that people have seen through, when you’ve got coronavirus regulations?

            PS: she is not Hitler. There is an ongoing debate about whether she’s a Communist sleeper.

          2. Good morning everyone.

            Bill. with all due respect, to thus describe the EU Commission’s President is beneath you.
            The young lady speaks english and is bilingual in french and german, believes in Christian culture, trained and practised as a physician and popped out seven children. And she likes horses.

          3. That may be because she knows that other fronts have opened up in Kruschev’s Conquest without War plan.
            Why bother with the EU to flood countries with migrants when their leaders have signed the UN Migration pact?
            Why bother with regulations from Brussels that people have seen through, when you’ve got coronavirus regulations?

            PS: she is not Hitler. There is an ongoing debate about whether she’s a Communist sleeper.

          4. Good morning everyone.

            Bill. with all due respect, to thus describe the EU Commission’s President is beneath you.
            The young lady speaks english and is bilingual in french and german, believes in Christian culture, trained and practised as a physician and popped out seven children. And she likes horses.

          5. I think BT may be referring to Mad Mullah Mutti Merkel, the Grand Mufti of Europistan by Grace of Erdogan piss be upon him.

          8. Just remember that she is an old-fashioned, unreconstructed Soviet Russian sleeper – then all will be explained.

          9. I try to pitch the respect I have for politicians at the same level as politicians have towards us – in other words very low.

          10. I will agree that Frau von der Leyen has many admirable qualities, including being of a quite presentable appearance for her years, but I will state that these qualities, as we saw from her brief tenure as German Defense Minister, do not include competence and organisational ability.

          11. That may all be true. But she was a poor Defence Minister whom Merkel couldn’t wait to get rid of – and had dodgy dealings when in that role.

            Being polyglot does not stop one being a tyrant. And those who run the EUSSR are tyrants, determined to crush the nation state.

          12. Apart from the children and practice as a physician, the same could apply to me; I am not so happy about the “deal” – I want to see the devils in the detail.

        2. Good morning ATG

          Of course this explains why the announcement of ‘deal’ was delayed until the last possible moment.

          Boris Johnson is very keen on keeping the details hidden. We must not forget his determination not to let us know about the nasty bits in the WA until it was too late.

        4. It’s funny, the WTO trade agreement is barely 55. According to wikipedia, it employs 640 people and has a budget of 210 million dollars. There are 164 member nations.

          The wretched EU, by contrast has 27 oppressed vassal nations, 55,000 staff and wastes 165 billion.

          Now, someone tell me it it’s a trade organisation. It’s a political entity dedicated to dictatorship.

          2. The Germans are constitutionally incapable of producing an agreement of 55 pages. They can’t help it, they just can’t use 1 word where twenty will do.

          3. The EU has never been about trade; that was the way it was sold to us. It has always been a superstate in the making.

    2. You’re absolutely right about Lord Frost. What a difference it makes when you have someone who believes in what they have been appointed to do, and knows how to go about it.

      1. Mrs May must go into the records as the prime minister most determined to betray her country and destroy it.

        If Boris Johnson – or his successor – has the temerity to elevate this traitor to the House of Lords when she finally stands down as an MP it will be a disgrace. It would be rather as if Burgess, MacClean, Blake and Philby had been rewarded for their contempt for Britain.

    3. “…I think that the Leave cause has now won (or, at least, we will have won once Parliament approves the deal next week)…”

      Charles, leaving without approval of the deal is still leaving.

      “More generally, the deal challenges all the parties of the Left (nowadays all the mainland parties in Parliament apart from the Conservatives).”

      Are you sure about that?

      2. Morning WS – Leaving without approval of the deal, to my belief, is leaving with No confirmed Deal and it’s consequences. The EU’s approval is only “Provisional” if it gets it but Macron may veto it.

        1. Expect one or more parliaments to veto it, then it will be back to the negotiating table demanding more concessions from Britain.

    4. I tend to agree with Charles Moore. There might be unforeseen consequences, or attempts to trip us up hidden in the detail, but I think we have emerged clutching our sovereignty, as much as is possible in this globalised world.

    5. Remember that Oily Robbins was greatly rewarded, and I understand is now an highly paid member of a merchant bank.

      I’m sure that a well paid job in Brussels awaits him too.

      For Lord Frost…..disdain from the Elite.

    6. Yet the remoaners have not given up their pathetic fight. They do not accept their defeat, they don’t acknowledge their failure. They put forward no case for remaining chained.

      It’s going to take a long time to properly see the benefits of Brexit and then only with an absolute shredding of the state machine and the idiotic laws they’ve clung to for so long.

    7. De-Funding the B.B.C. should be a priority. Let it become a subscription channel so that those who wish to be subjected to endless anti-British, indeed, anti-white, propaganda, can pay for the pleasure.

      3. A coincidental great juxtaposition:

        Phizzee Plum-Tart • a minute ago
        Caligula uncensored is good.
        Ndovu Plum-Tart • 14 minutes ago
        That’s another film my Mum took me to see!

        1. I did like Ben Hur but i enjoyed the brutality and the naked bodies more in Caligula. Am i wrong to feel this way?

          1. Still a good film though with lots of chariot racing and the naked bodies…ahem…

            Hence Sos’s Juxtapositioning i suppose. One wholesome and religious and the other depraved.

        3. I was quite shocked – shocked, I tell you! – by L’incoronazzione di Poppea. That Nerone was a one, for sure!

  27. My forecast three weeks ago:

    “1. UK agrees to allow EU access to UK fisheries for one year on current CFP terms/quotas.
    (UK fish exporters will face a tariff of 15% on all exports to EU.)

    2. UK government aid to UK businesses, either directly or via local authorities, trade organisations, and statutory bodies will require to be scrutinised and approved by a new EU regulatory committee to ensure that the notion of a “level playing field” is maintained.

    3. All trade and commercial transactions within the UK and between the UK and third parties (EU and all others) will be subject to laws and regulations determined by the EU. All transgressions, disputes and conflicts will be adjudicated by an EU tribunal. Note that the UK will have no say in the formulation of the laws/regulations and no membership of the tribunal.”

    A pretty good bullseye, I’d say except that our fishermen are far far worse off than even I expected.

    (NB We have no means of enforcing EU quotas. We don’t have the oversight or planes, drones and fleets of patrol boats required. Nor do we have the guts.)

    1. Just do what canada did with the cod fisheries, declare an emergency and shut them all down while stocks recover.

      Oh, they agreed EU quotas on volume not percentages? Shame then.

      1. Could be a few centuries before the Grand Banks recover. But that’s not the point! The objective must be to keep our fish, build our stocks and revitalise our entire fishing industry now, not just catching the fish but the downstream industries and exports.

        1. If the EU can keep their 50% of bugger all, their trawlers might sail off to greener pastures for their catch.

          spend a couple of years building new trawlers under the guise of fisheries protection vessels and then you might suddenly discover that your scientists projections wee wrong and fishing can resume. Slowly though, must limit catches to domestic quota for a while.

          1. All quotas should be dropped by 50%. Why? Because they haven’t worked so far. Best things that happened for fish in the last 106 years were 2 world wars.

    9. No, Plum. Also not seen It’s a Wonderful Life or Mary Poppins, along with many other popular films.

      1. Same here; I am not a great film watcher. Seen the Dambusters (original) and the Battle of Britain and a couple more and that’s it.

    11. Seen it several times on tv but saw it first with Mum and Dad when it was originally released and in a cinema with what I remember as an enormously wide screen that I think was on a curve. When the organ struck up for the wedding scene we almost jumped out of our seats.

  29. Yo All

    Life is back to normal in UK

    Hot Cross Buns on sale in the Co-op

    Today buns, tomorrow Easter Eggs

  30. A Happy Boxing Day to you all.

    Today, for the third day running the same picture of a smiling Boris Johnson has appeared on the front page of the DT. Not a good advertisement for his dentist as his teeth are terrible. He should make an appointment with Peddy who corrects faulty teeth as well as faulty grammar!

    1. It was obviously in their interest to keep their largest market onside – common sense broke out in the end. Perhaps Macron’s blockade helped too.

      1. Lots of drivers who were stranded came from countries “closely aligned” with the 4th Reich.

        1. Yes Bill, and the 4th Reich were quite prepared to inconvenience them in order to show Boris who is in command.

      3. We are, by no means, their largest market. That would be the US of A, closely followed by China, between the two they buy more than 2½ times as many German cars as we do and that’s not including the ones they make overseas. BMW’s largest factory is in California.

    2. I suspect the Germans understand us better than many European nations.
      We both share the annoying tendency to blindly adhere to rules and take logic into the realms of insanity.
      I just hope, after these past months of masked sheep and local snitchers, that we still retain the bloody mindedness that stopped us going down the German path during the C20.

      1. We mostly come from the same root-stock as the Germans, so have an affinity there.
        We have some good long-term friends in Germany who are “people like us”.
        This year of sheeplike behaviour has given us an insight into how the law-abiding Germans got sucked into Nazism.

          1. There seem to be two kinds of people in this country – dissenters and conformers. I suspect that was always the way. Recent political divisions have brought that to light as well. Leavers/remainers; maskers/nonmaskers, etc. Lefties and righties. The Woke brigade, and BLMers. The shout loud people and the quiet ones.

          2. We played that game a couple of weeks back while sitting in a town centre restaurant – window table, ideal for gawping. Any masked walkers we’d score as Remainers, unmarked as Leavers.

          4. Though you have no logical reason, whatsoever, for doing so. I know plenty of leavers who are scared stiff of SARS-CoV-2 and plenty of remainers who are not.

      2. Up to a point, Lady Copper.

        I recall having a chat with a German bloke who had just moved house to a different town in Chermany. He said he had to register WITH THE POLICE…. I said why on earth should one wish to/have to do that? What is my change of address to do with the plod.

        “Why should a good citizen NOT wish to inform the politizei” Was his chilling reply…

        1. Similar in Sweden, Bill, but it reaches outside the country. My ex informed Sweden’s Folkbok every time we moved, from Gosport to Wales, to Suffolk, to Essex, to Australia, to France, to Spain and then we split.

        3. We have to register in the population register – done online, or by putting a form in at the police office.

          1. It’s odd that voring registration is not yet enforced by law here. But I suspect that our identity is traced in many other ways – driving licences, pensions & benefits, etc. We’re all on record somewhere.

          7. My last one died while I was away last February and I managed quite well without it – but decided to buy another at the end of May. So far I’ve hardly used it for calls at all. Possibly because we’ve been stuck at home all that time.

          8. I read the paper, get the weather forecast, traffic news, it has my bus ticket, I do internet banking, while away time with Sudoku, yada yada yada. Occasionally, I call someone if it can’t be avoided. Oh yes, and tell the time.
            Put it in for repair, couldn’t get home (no bus ticket) nor call home for a lift. Bugger!

          9. I prefer to use my laptop for most of those things – I haven’t developed the thumb skills people have for typing on a tiny keyboard.

          14. They should only be offered to people who need tham as they were previously. And ID should be a requirement now when voting in person. Most people have something they could use, without going the whole hog to ID cards.

        4. “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.”
          Yup. Sadly, we know that there are many Brits who think the same way. As Channel Islanders discovered.

    3. “Your Prime Minister has achieved a deal which is nothing short of sensational: Legally out of the EU but with full economic access to it – which is the best possible news for the members of the EU, too.”

      1. Al Jazeera’s tame professor says that we only have tariff free access for goods, but not for services.

        As services are 80% of our exports to the EU, it doesn’t strike us as a very good deal.

  33. That’s me for today. Illegal assembly taking place with a neighbour shortly. Have a jolly evening. BTW, watched Death of Stalin the other night. I can see why Vlad banned it in Rooshia…!

    A demain/

  34. The great thing about the Boros Johnson oven ready Christmas Turkey Deal is that it bakes in Net Zero and Build Back Better, and consequently Great Reset, because the UK is prohibited from diverging from EU environmental rules.

    So, far from becoming an ”independent coastal state” with loadsa fish as Chief Turkey Johnson originally claimed, the UK is about to sign up to the biggest subjugation ever with no possibility of escape, with sky high energy costs… and not much more fish, if any at all after the French and Spanish have taken the lot.

    1. I think it’s a reasonable deal, but only because they know they have us via multiple other ways.
      I would feel happier if the Prime Minister’s girlfriend was not working for a soros front group.

    2. He was never British by birth, upbringing, much domicile or heritage. In his own words he never belonged. He became a Communist after his capture during the Korean War and, by all accounts, it was a genuine conversion. There is no suggestion that he betrayed Britain for other than purely ideological reasons – he was not blackmailed, paid or otherwise coerced into it. Flip the story so that he was Russian and he would have been applauded as a hero. Of course, we cannot allow such acts to go unpunished and, legally, he was a traitor but whether or not he escaped “justice” is questionable. As someone who was borne in Britain of British parents and who served for almost half a century the defence and security interests of the country, I am surprised at myself for having some respect for Blake.

      1. Not so sure. By that argument many of the British Muslims who fought for ISIS aren’t traitors either. I’ve no doubt that Blake did what he did for ideological reasons, but is that really any different from someone betraying the country that gave them sanctuary, work, a life, for religious reasons? I can’t be as sympathetic as you regarding Blake.

        1. I actually said respect and not sympathy, and I never said that he was not a traitor as he clearly was. However, Blake knew that exposure would result in the most severe penalties and his life would be ruined so there must have been some bravery and willingness to make sacrifices on his part. Additionally, he was working to provide a better life as he saw it for the world and the means was not likely to bring direct harm to the people of his adopted country. In contrast, many of the people who went and fought for ISIS were born and bred in the UK and were fighting for an organisation that unashamedly put cruelty, terror, intolerance, war and conflict at the heart of its ethos.

          1. His case raises the question of what we should be loyal to. He put a political belief ahead of country, perhaps easier to do when it was his adopted country. Religious fanatics put their religion before country; being agnostic (at best), I struggle to understand that view, but it’s not limited to extremist Muslims e.g. there’s a well regarded occasional poster here who is British Jewish and who is proud of his service in the IDF, yet never served in the UK armed forces. If we look at recent events, the word ‘traitor’ has been used frequently on this forum to describe people whose loyalty appears to be more to the EU than UK. I guess loyalty is complicated.

          2. I share your views about religion – it has been the cause of more pain, suffering and death than any amount of viruses. Yes, loyalty is complicated – I cannot understand how people can hold two or sometimes more passports and have the multiple nationalities that go with them. To me, one is either British or something else but not the two together.

  36. HAPPY HOUR – Royal Quiz

    NoTTlers are welcome to make up their own answers…

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7751c317f45968220bbd0a64e1b4894f4fc172aaf137589fd00a3353c2b1aa6a.jpg

    1) What did the Duchess of Cambridge give the Queen during her first Christmas spent with the Royal Family?
    A. Hand-knitted scarf.
    B. Scented candle.

    2) Which member of the Royal Family once claimed: ‘I’m not going to be some person in the Royal Family who just finds a lame excuse to go abroad and do all sorts of sunny holidays and whatever’?

    A. Duchess of York.
    B. Prince Harry.
    C. Princess Beatrice.

    3) A glass of what cocktail is the Queen said to have before lunch each day?
    A. Gin and Dubonnet.
    B. Pink gin.
    C. Whisky sour.

    4) Which American president was an 11th cousin twice removed to Princess Diana?

    A. Bill Clinton.
    B. George Bush.
    C. Donald Trump.

    5) At the opening of an exhibition of which artist’s nudes did the Queen tell one of her aides that she must avoid being ‘photographed between a pair of those great thighs’?

    A. Lucian Freud. B. Tracey Emin. C. Jenny Saville.

    6) What colour of spare outfit do royals routinely take with them on foreign trips for use in an emergency?

    A. White — for use on particularly hot days.
    B. Black — should mourning attire suddenly be needed.
    C. Purple — an ecclesiastical shade for church services.

    2. 1. A statue of Dionysus.
      2. The chief Dorgie in waiting
      3. A Bloody Cherie Blair
      4. Barack Obama
      5. A Mike Tyndall self portrait

      6. Who knows? Emperor’s new clothes.

  37. 327826+ up ticks,
    May one ask, has this johnson chap opened a second Pandora’s box, my way of thinking is over the last 4.5 years
    hope has played a big part, NOT certainty, hope, plus hope was the last thing out of the box, and hope is a very
    fickle character.

      1. 327826+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,
        I do agree but, it is wise I believe to be very wary
        when dealing with such a proven treacherous group.

        Lest we forget early post referendum when “we”
        should have chosen the road to freedom “we” chose otherwise, putting the party first, hence 4.5 years of unnecessary rhetorical conflict & financial loss.

          1. 327826+ up ticks,
            Afternoon N,
            By the same token “we” surely knew or very strongly suspected that the three governance party’s were pro eu and would not, a proven pro UK home defence party be a good idea as an anti treachery unit ?

            Knowing what we knew ( party pedigrees ) and willingly accepting it without genuine backup
            was the downfall.

    2. It’s an odd one – Pandora held the box that contained all the woes of the world. When she unleashed it, all but hope escaped.

      Does that mean that hope is the cruellest of woes, or that there is no hope in the world?

      1. 327826+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        I find hope to be fickle and not a basis to cast a vote on, as for years this in many cases, has been the course taken.

        Hope is used many times seemingly by the electorate when honest certainty would be of far more benefit.

          1. 327826+ up ticks,
            N,
            Then I am glad for you but, it does not change the fact that hope can prove fickle.

          3. 327826+ up ticks,
            Atg,
            I will agree when, in my experience it is applied to horses.
            Otherwise no, for instance if we continue along the same voting pattern lines lab/lib/con coalition we WILL be answering to an imam, the thin edge of the wedge is on the parliamentary canteen menu already and I don’t mean cake, that is a certainty,
            for sure.

            There are many politico’s inhouse who WILL swear by it on the instruction manual resting between the two dispatch boxes, that is a certainty, also the truth hurts is a certainty.

            for sure

        2. We’ve had this discussion before ogga.

          At the last GE I voted for UKIP and hoped he would win but he certainly didn’t.

          Is that the sort of certainty you are talking about?

          1. 327826+ up ticks,
            Afternoon Atg,
            The three monkeys demand that the take down of
            the real UKIP under a years successful run as leader by Gerard Batten be adhered to, and it was.

            The treacherous input by “nige” / Nec was enough to put paid to the ONLY proven true anti eu, financially sound, membership mounting party of that time.

            Then that “I want my life back” chap started his vote splitting campaign giving johnson his 80 seater win.

            The political world within these Isles ie lab/lib/con
            and followers were against the real UKIP because the way it was going under GB it was on track to do real damage to the close shop coalition.

            The “certainty” is in my book following a proven pro UK party you believe in an NOT being a papillion, nasal gripping, best of the worst, party first voter.
            Do you find that any clearer ?

          2. What do you suggest the electorate do when there is no choice by the 3. Spoiling your ballot paper will still let them in as would not voting.
            Why didn’t GB start a new party with all the loyal, to him, party members, following him?
            I won’t take this any further as we’ll only be going round in circles.

          3. 327826+ up ticks,
            Atg,
            You do NOT quench a fire by continuing to drip feed it petrol, as is happening via the polling booth
            much to the delight of the close shop politico’s.

            It is plain to see that vote & whinge is the order of the polling day.

            Consequences = mass uncontrolled immigration,
            mass uncontrolled paedophilia etc,etc.

            Batten showed the way & not only in going forward
            but in the past IE “the road to freedom” written two years before the referendum, he has sadly retired from active party politics but his honest comments still has a mass following, as in, he CAN be trusted.

          5. 327826+ up ticks,
            Atg,
            In my honest opinion, when entering the
            polling booth ask themselves in all honesty what has the lab/lib/ con parties done to benefit the Country & protect my children’s future if the answer is a negative then starve the party’s candidate of a vote, I found very few peoples give sandwiches to crocodiles.

            Currently I see us as on, via the lab/lib/con governance over the decades, a one way street to desolation.

            The electorate is on a self destruct voting campaign these Isles could NEVER have got into such a run down odious condition without their input.

            We imo must hit the very near rock bottom & realisation before we make a long return trip to honest reality.

  39. So far, quiet on the moderation front. The pre-moderate-with-link filter has, so far, only caught Damask Rose – sorry, Rose, approved after a delay.
    Edit: It shouldn’t happen again. Sorry, Rose.

      1. Ah, well, I went looking in the settings and found it totally by accident.
        Should we release the premoderate link – or wait a bit more?

        1. You could always slap it on again if they come back. It seemed to stop the linkers and their followers.

          1. There is a happy Christmas message from hugh janus (checks spelling carefully) that was deleted yesterday. It shows deleted by user, could that be a false flag or did he really delete the message himself?

      1. For example: “Meanwhile the SNP MP who took a train from London to Edinburgh knowing she had tested positive is quietly forgotten and she is free to pursue her anti-English agenda.”and “The DT still thwacking this deceased equine, then. I don’t recall a media tsunami over, say, Nicola Sturgeon going against government advice. Yet a leftist mob, shouting about death, can set up a huge video screen blasting out stuff about Covid funerals outside the home of a four-year-old boy. A scrum of journalists and photographers can then pursue Cummings, not one of them observing social distancing. It just stinks of hypocrisy, based on partisan politics.”

        1. And, one I missed, but which maybe deserves air time; “Can’t wait for the the sequels…Fatmans travels around the Highlands, COVID Busting Party Girls of Sky & The Redemption of Ferguson, the man who could not forecast his way out of a paper bag.“

        2. And, one I missed, but which maybe deserves air time; “Can’t wait for the the sequels…Fatmans travels around the Highlands, COVID Busting Party Girls of Sky & The Redemption of Ferguson, the man who could not forecast his way out of a paper bag.“

        3. I think that video screen outside the Cummings house summed up the hysteria and hatred of the press. It was absolutely disgusting!

    1. As I said the other day, what is it that makes people believe they can drive through three feet of water in a car?

        1. As the old, old story of the French driver in Kent with his car stuck on top of a pile of stones: “It said “Road Up” so I rode up…” Untranslatable!!

          1. I once did something similar on the way to work; the road was closed just outside school, but I was in a 4×4, so engaged granddaddy low and mounted the pile to get into the gate 🙂

      4. Problem with water is judging the depth before driving into it – and hoping there’s no potholes hidden there..
        Get out, shoes ‘n socks off, roll trousers and wade.

        2. Or know the road well enough. Most of the bits which have shallow lying water around here I can judge simply by looking at the depth of the water against the roadside verge. All the lanes near the Severn have flood signs which can be opened or closed and someone local who deals with them.

          As always the “when in doubt, don’t” rule applies. It’s also a good idea to let any other vehicles be clear and let the waves settle – you can see how far up their wheels the water really is. I can trundle my Skoda safely through six to eight inches, I won’t go deeper – and I won’t go through that much on the way out if the water is still rising.

          NRW’s flooding page is bookmarked and referred to regularly (very regularly when there is need).

    1. I agree with her about starting the meal, but really….going for a nap?? How daft is that?
      Maybe even dafter than contacting the Daily Fail!

      1. It’s understandable, a little power nap after working all morning. She is absoluto in the right, but, Oh that grammar!

          1. I hate it when guests arrive early. Once in Germany we invited another couple to dinner. 30 minutes before the appointed time we were in the shower together & things were getting ‘interesting’. Then the bloody doorbell rang & it was them. Not a good start to the evening.

      2. Dear life. Can she not string a sentence together? Where did this lazy ‘im’ come from? The correct term is I’m. It’s not difficult. I despair. Truly.

        As for getting upset because people started eating before you got there – good grief woman. Grow up.

    2. He was wrong for not waiting to tuck in, but she was wrong for asking the world and his wife whether or not she did the right thing. Clearly she has no confidence in herself. She needs to stop cooking for him, or leave him – preferably both.

      1. I posted it as an example of the utter crap that is in the DM today. Nothing relevant to people in this country.

        1. I have never bought the DM; I have occasionally picked up a discarded copy on a train – and discarded it – ‘utter crap’ indeed, Ndvu …

          1. Oh – I certainly wouldn’t buy it and never have – but it’s still free to read online with no paywall and they seem to have stopped the anti adblock wall. Some of their writers are good.

    1. Very good! I feel that Starmer is a much under-estimated boil on the nose of the United Kingdom.

        2. I was trying to keep the tone up!
          Also, Starmer is hiding in plain sight – because he looks like a normal person, people tend to believe that he is, whereas in fact he is an evil Blair disciple with a proven track record of helping to destroy Britain during his time as DPP.

    1. A good haircut, a smart suit, brilliant lighting, a great photographer.

      Hell’s teeth, I could look good.

      Or, maybe not…

      1. He looks as though he might suffer from rosacea. This can be aggravated by drinking, but not necessarily so.

    1. Both would betray Britain in a heartbeat for causes they both believe in…oh, wait a minutes, it’s same cause as BLM is marxist.

  47. Repeated from late yesterday evening.
    ______________________________

    Two more England cricketers return to the pavilion for the last time.

    John Edrich:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55445972

    Robin Jackman:
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/55447494

    Edrich averaged 55 in Tests in Oz. In one match out there he returned to the crease from hospital after having had two ribs cracked by Denis Lillee. He was one of the bravest (maddest?) cricketers ever and was with Brian Close at Old Trafford on that infamous Saturday evening against the West Indies at Old Trafford in 1976. How appropriate it was that he should have accompanied hardman Close on that shameful occasion. No protective gear back then.

    Jackman’s career was tainted by his links with South Africa, leading to the cancellation of a Test in the Caribbean in 1980. A fine county bowler but perhaps not quite Test standard.

  48. Streets turn to rivers as thousands are forced to evacuate from their homes in Bedfordshire after widespread floods with Storm Bella set to bring 70mph gales and heavy rain tonight. 26 December 2020

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/15c82551b4b2daff0b4ab52a2f422cbd05844eb20d2d04e632e4ee85f0fb0262.jpg

    Widespread flooding wreaked havoc in parts of England on Christmas Day, forcing residents to evacuate their homes ahead of further bad weather expected with the arrival of Storm Bella later tonight.

    The storm will bring severe gales and heavy rain, with winds expected at speeds of up to 70mph.

    There’s a certain quality of satisfaction in looking at scenes of disaster.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9088227/Storm-Bella-brings-gales-70mph-TODAY-people-evacuated-homes-Christmas-Day.html

    1. Schadenfreude? (“A complex emotion where, rather than feeling sympathy, one takes pleasure from watching someone’s misfortune.”)

    2. Bedfordshire Police said people could take refuge in homes of friends and family after the flooding, despite Tier 4 coronavirus rules banning household mixing indoors.

      The Chief Constable might be feeling nervous…

      1. Oh my, thank you, thank you for letting us escape the flood waters. Truly the government is merciful.

      3. Mmmmmmm. In an emergency we can ignore the law says the Chief Constable.

        I’ll put that in my book of no rubbings out.

    4. Wonder what the flooding will be like once the countryside is covered with housing for half of africa – plus millions of Hong Kongers – plus Millions of Afghans, Vietnamese, Pakistanis, Eritreans, Somalis etc etc.

        1. Don’t the Chinese also have fish in their rice growing areas on the slopes. – The EU trawlers will be going round the backs of our houses.

    5. The pictures from Bedford show it to be only slightly worse than September 1992, when I was living there. That was severe enough but it didn’t make the headlines then that it is making now.

      1. Climate change hadn’t been invented in 1962, it was what happened when all we had was weather.

          2. Yes, that was still going strong in 1978/79, then it all went quiet and lo and behold! global warming popped up a couple of years later.

          5. And now, conveniently, it’s turned into “climate change” to cover a multitude of eventualities.

          6. I recall Al Gore claiming in his film that because global warming would cause a huge shift in the Gulf Stream, London would by now be permanently freezing cold and submerged under water. No one seems to have told Old Father Thames. He just keeps rollin’.

          1. I nearly applied to become a cadet in the City of London police but it snowed on Boxing Day and the ice was still on the ground in March.

            My application was not made. TBC (too bloody cold).

  49. Death of one of Theresa May’s heroes, idols, soulmates and kindred spirits.

    I wonder if she will be able to break corona restrictions in order to go to the funeral?

    DM Story

    Notorious British traitor George Blake who betrayed 600 agents to the Russians as a double agent during the Cold War dies in Moscow aged 98

    The 98-year-old spy had been living in Moscow since he escaped from Wormwood Scrubs in 1966.

    1. I downloaded a 37 page version yesterday. I have not read it all yet, maybe next week. Then on to the full 1264 page edition.

      One thing that I have not seen mentioned, is how it will all work in respect of us buying stuff from the EU direct. I buy stuff frequently from the EU, either from eBay, or direct from shops and producers. Will these be charged duty, or a tariff? If so when will the government mention it?

      1. Who knows? But I would assume, that if we have tariff-free trade, then no tariff would be charged.

  53. 326826+ up ticks,
    May one ask, will we see the Dover crossing daily invasion
    legalised on the 1/1/2021 ?

  54. Evening, all. Well, the year continues as foul as ever; I was resigned to no hunting and my meal cancelled, but when I got home from tea with a friend, I found that the racing hadn’t recorded (Kempton on Boxing Day is the biggest event in NH outside the Cheltenham festival) and MOH had let the dog upstairs (I’d left him in the dining room) and let him shut himself in the computer room (he’d already woken me up early this morning because he’d shut himself in the downstairs cloakroom). Poor dog was very distressed and had ripped my headphones out of the computer, knocked over a spare monitor which was on the floor and pulled the mouse off the table. I could hear him crying the moment I got in and it took a while for him to stop panting and settle. Now, I am wondering whether I dare go out for any reason without taking the dog with me.

    As for the “Brexit deal”, here are a couple of articles from my local rag: https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/12/26/tory-eurosceptics-examine-brexit-trade-deal-with-eu-after-pms-plea/

    https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2020/12/26/what-we-know-so-far-about-the-brexit-trade-agreement/

    To these I comment that it’s a bit rich Sturgeon saying that the British government has sold out Scottish fishermen when she wants to stay in! Also Ursula has it wrong, as usual; our future is with the world, not with “Europe” (by which she means the 27 of the EU).

    1. And I was bored today… sorry you had a lot to take care of, Conwy. Hope the dog settled down – if we shut our ginger can in the bedroom (by accident), he almost always takes a dump on the bed. Ukk.

    2. Today I heard and saw about a dozen hounds in the far distance break out of a covert, but no sign of any horses. Boxing Day meet has lost its sparkle because almost all the old familiar faces have long departed.
      Telegraph has printed an obituary of Hugh Dalgety.

      May I recommend a couple of cctv cameras connected to the web and viewable on your mobile phone? Nestcams are good quality.

      1. My hunt has suspended activity “for the duration” (in other words, until government guidelines are less restrictive).

          1. Hound exercise is continuing, I believe. Huntsmen are often on bicycles for this exercise, but by now they are probably mounted.

        2. Our hunt in South Somerset was out but had apparently been advised not to wear the usual scarlets. I hadn’t expected to see them so it was a nice surprise.

    3. A word to the wise.
      Next year, don’t break any mirrors!

      Sorry you’ve had such a rotten series of days.

  55. DT Articles

    i) Camilla Tominey: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/25/lesbians-facing-extinction-transgenderism-becomes-pervasive/

    Gay rights Lesbians facing ‘extinction’ as transgenderism becomes pervasive, campaigners warn

    ii) June Sarpong on white privilege: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/12/25/june-sarpong-white-privilege-unfairness-baked-system/

    ‘Unfairness is baked into our system’
    The BBC’s director of creative diversity talks about race, class, and why The Archers is safe from a ‘woke’ makeover

    No BTL comments allowed on either sexual or racial matters. The Telegraph is vehemently in favour of free speech and free expression as long as you do not wish to comment on either of these two taboo subjects

    1. they probably realized that there was no need to open comments, they could see what would be said.

      A few comments in the letters about extinct lesbians earlier on, the comments have probably been censored by now.

    2. There is nothing pervasive about trans people. It’s a form of mental illness, nothing else. Such people need treatment, not pandering to and certainly not praising.

      As for gay rights – a nonsense. You don’t have any rights simply because of where you stick your privates. If you choose to be, that’s fine, but it’s a private matter that no one else cares about – or should be made to care about.

    3. I know someone who used to be a hunky, good looking type in his youth.
      On the subject of ‘tortilleras’ *, his stock reply was “Hmm, I’ve never met a lesbian”.

      * omelette makers.

    4. They didn’t realise they were being used merely as a stepping stone en route to the public’s acceptance of the leftists’ transgender utopia? Sorry, gays, your job is now done.

  58. Good night all.

    just enjoyed some Victoria Wood, a great artist, snatched from us all too soon.

Comments are closed.