Thursday 7 January: Shambolic lockdown messaging has left people utterly demoralised

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/2021/01/07/letters-shambolic-lockdown-messaging-has-left-people-utterly/

1,222 thoughts on “Thursday 7 January: Shambolic lockdown messaging has left people utterly demoralised”

  3. Brief Encounter

    There was a knock on the door this morning.

    I opened it to find a young man standing there who said: “Hello sir, I’m a Jehovah’s Witness.”

    I said: “Come in and sit down.”

    I offered him coffee and asked: “What do you want to talk about?”

    He said: “Büggered if I know – I’ve never got this far before.”

  4. I see that Manchester City’s Colin Bell has sadly died. Should they name an end after him?

  5. Covid has again exposed the fragility of our precious, decadent West. 7 january 2021.

    It is time, therefore, for the West to become a lot more “anti-fragile”, as the philosopher and statistician Nassim Taleb puts it. Governments must focus on the modern-day equivalent of nuclear fallout shelters: we need a whole series of highly developed, well-rehearsed plan Bs with mass public buy-in. A minister for resilience should be appointed. New institutions must be developed. Our foreign policy must become far more robust towards lawless states. We need to spend much more on cybersecurity, pandemic prevention, defence and space technology.

    Morning everyone. You cannot by definition predict the unpredictable! You can prepare for known threats; the problem is to what degree and what is included. On past evidence there is little likelihood that this will happen. As to the Decadent West this is mostly a European problem where the Christian Culture that gave us everything from the Renaissance onwards is not simply dying but conspiring actively at its own demise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/06/covid-has-exposed-fragility-precious-decadent-west/

    1. Certainly lawless states exist in addition to cults that would want to do us harm. However, from where I’m sitting the major threat is from 600+ MPs to whom we gave the authority to do their best for the Country and its people. This group is failing in its primary duty, that is to protect these islands from harm by not questioning the actions of a government that is destroying the fabric of our nation. Frightened, intellectually challenged, or lazy? it doesn’t matter, they are culpable and must be held to account.

      1. Good morning Korky

        The 600+ MPS are hunkered down in their cosy zones and have lost touch with reality. They are no different to Royalty or Premier league football players or the many who have been raised to celebrity status by the media.

        1. ‘Morning, Belle.

          Spot on with your reply. The majority of MPs are mere voting fodder and those that speak out e.g. Sir Desmond Swayne are seen as mavericks to be ignored.
          To continue failing to challenge the ‘advice’ of SAGE et al displays a complete lack of intellectual rigour on the part of the majority of MPs. Whether the latter is because many of the MPs are thick; just too lazy to do research; frightened of the party machine for making a stand or angling for jobs/status in the future and do not want to blot their copybook is up for discussion. Whatever the reason they are without doubt a complete failure as a Parliament.

          1. It’s unsurprising so many of Westminster’s inhabitants were against Brexit; we’ve just made them culpable for their own actions without the skirts of the Brussels/Strasbourg gravy train to hide behind.

  6. Covid has again exposed the fragility of our precious, decadent West. 7 january 2021.

    It is time, therefore, for the West to become a lot more “anti-fragile”, as the philosopher and statistician Nassim Taleb puts it. Governments must focus on the modern-day equivalent of nuclear fallout shelters: we need a whole series of highly developed, well-rehearsed plan Bs with mass public buy-in. A minister for resilience should be appointed. New institutions must be developed. Our foreign policy must become far more robust towards lawless states. We need to spend much more on cybersecurity, pandemic prevention, defence and space technology.

    Morning everyone. You cannot by definition predict the unpredictable! You can prepare for known threats; the problem is to what degree and what is included. On past evidence there is little likelihood that this will happen. As to the Decadent West this is mostly a European problem where the Christian Culture that gave us everything from the Renaissance onwards is not simply dying but conspiring actively at its own demise.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/06/covid-has-exposed-fragility-precious-decadent-west/

  8. It’s just a shame that Trump is orange and not black, they would be hailing him as the next Martin Luther King if he was.

  10. How much longer can the press and the mainstream media get away with reporting one thing while we are all watching the complete reverse happening with our own eyes.
    I was watching some of the footage yesterday put out by real people in the thick of the so called insurrection then watching the news this morning getting a totally different account.
    We may be ruled by technocrats but technology in the hands of ordinary good people is winning the propaganda war.

    3. Democracy is pretty much dead! We are not unlike the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Much talk but no reality!

    1. Congress “riot” was BBC Radio 4 news main subject on events in Congress. John Sepol managed to notice White Supremacists among the demonstrators. One woman demonstrator shot dead, 2 others died of “medical” problems. Military brought in as politicians hid under seats. DT banned from Twitter.

    1. Good morning, Bob.

      If Sue has had snow up North and
      you have had some down South, when
      it meets in the middle the whole Country
      will be at a standstill! ……
      Oh! wait a minute….

  16. Morning all.

    SIR – No wonder there is so much confusion at the moment. Having been a jumbled-up jigsaw of different tiers, the nation now faces a lockdown whose details appear to change daily. It is as if those in power do not think their proposals through before announcing them.

    I feel truly sorry for all those affected by the schools fiasco, as well as those in the hospitality industry. The shifting goalposts make things worse: no one can know how long it will be before better times can be had.

    Colin Thomas

    Bridgend, Glamorgan

    SIR – I was recently speaking to a friend in South Africa, who told me that, every day, the government publishes the recovery rate of Covid patients, alongside the data on cases and deaths. This means that South Africans receive some good news – and are reminded that getting the virus is not a death sentence for most healthy citizens.

    Our Government, by contrast, seems intent on delivering only the bad news. It’s time that we were given some perspective and hope.

    Roger Woodgate

    Wellingborough, Northamptonshire

    SIR – At the age of 50 I was forced to close my business, which resulted in 14 employees losing their jobs. The bank repossessed our house, leaving me, my wife and our three children homeless.

    Now, aged 80, I am still working so that my wife and I can rent accommodation. I would not wish the stress and anxiety I experienced on anyone, but the same is being inflicted on the British public by a government that is using enforced lockdowns in a bid to control Covid-19.

    The harm, deprivation and eventual bankruptcy of the economy will be so catastrophic that history will show these measures were never worth it.

    John Dakin

    London SE15

    SIR – Why inflict another lockdown on the weary British people while international air travel continues? Indirect flights from South Africa are allowed, despite a ban on direct flights – a risky and bizarre decision, given that country’s Covid mutation.

    The influx by air of potential Covid carriers during the first lockdown was a national disgrace and undoubtedly exacerbated the severity of the crisis.

    Simon Hubbard

    Walsall, Staffordshire

    SIR – The NHS and all of its staff are working flat out to help save those affected by the virus. They have risen to the challenge.

    We should therefore do all we can to obey the rules. It is up to us to help ourselves, too.

    David Crawford

    Llandudno, Conwy

    SIR – In the first lockdown, while out on my daily walk, I could hear the birds sing. Now, in the third, all I hear is the drone of car engines. Have we become more complacent?

    David Pratt

    Eastleigh, Hampshire

    1. Regarding Mr Pratt’s point – in the first lockdown both manufacturing and construction was shutdown. In the current lockdown they are not which explains the majority of the difference.
      I had to go to site for work on Monday and Tuesday this week and was a significant drop in traffic on Tuesday.

  17. Morning again

    Vaccine hold-ups

    SIR – The imposition of bureaucratic barriers to the recruitment of vaccinators exemplifies what is wrong with the NHS. It is badly managed and poorly led, not because the people are inadequate but rather because it is too big to be nimble.

    When this is all over, a Royal Commission should be established to report on the services the NHS is expected to provide and manage and also how it is to be funded.

    Huw Wynne-Griffith

    London W8

    1. SIR – Just after Christmas you printed my letter on the lack of vaccines in Bedford. We are still waiting for the first vaccine to be administered.

      Meanwhile, my mother-in-law, who is 96 years old, has not even been contacted about making an appointment to be vaccinated. When I inquired on her behalf, the GP surgery merely said: “Do you know how many over 80-year-olds we have?”

      Ray Seymour

      Bedford

      SIR – Like Peter Latham (Letters, January 4), I queued up outside Bishop’s Stortford football stadium for Covid-19 vaccinations with my elderly and frail father. He had to wait, leaning against a wall in the cold and dark and in line with other elderly vulnerable people, for more than 30 minutes, with no social distancing in place.

      The lighting in the car park was very poor and the sign on the gate said it was a flu vaccination centre.

      Sandra Lloyd

      Great Dunmow, Essex

  18. The Guardian is having a party this morning with their delight at blaming President Trump for the chaos in Washington. “Pro-Trump mob storms US Capitol”.

    In other headlines: “Former FBI Agent on the Ground at US Capitol Says at Least One Bus Load of Antifa Thugs Infiltrated Trump Demonstration”

    I have no idea what the real truth is, but I would treat anything in the Guardian with not just a pinch of salt but an entire salt mine!

  19. SIR – The article “Green Agriculture Plan ‘will add to global warming’” (January 2) highlights again how the Government’s agricultural policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported food.

    Public money for public goods is an admirable starting point, but unless it is harnessed with a parallel drive to increase food production in the face of heavily subsidised international competition, the farming industry, 
the economy and the environment will be the losers.

    Importing more food may neatly export carbon emissions from Britain, but it vastly increases the carbon footprint of the food we consume here. Indeed, by reducing the agricultural productivity of British grassland – itself a sequester of carbon – we will likely contribute to the destruction of forests elsewhere. This is a bad outcome for a policy that professes to protect the environment, particularly since the average emissions from UK agriculture are already lower than most countries’.

    Beeswax Dyson Farming was the first large-scale commercial farm to become carbon neutral in the UK. We have not achieved this by planting trees or removing cattle, but through innovation and efficiency. The changes now facing agriculture provide an opportunity to innovate on our farms.

    Government policy should be aimed at nurturing sustainable and efficient domestic food production, in tandem with a responsible approach to the environment. That is the challenge. Simply displacing the former in blind pursuit of the latter serves no sensible purpose.

    Sir James Dyson
    Malmesbury, Wiltshire

    Try telling that to the Eco-Brat…

    1. Sir James Dyson is a very clever man and ideas and innovation have made him very wealthy: good on him.

      Sir James’s final paragraph is a plea to a government that has demonstrated its adherence to following the science during the CV19 period. Sadly, the CV19 period has exposed this government’s intent only to follow the science that agrees with its policies and will not change direction in the event of new evidence or in the event of abject failure being the result. It will, like the Titanic, keep to its disastrous course and wreck whatever its malign tentacles wrap themselves around.

      Sadly, Sir James’s plea is akin to pissing into the wind.

      1. He may be clever but he doesn’t know the difference between carbon and carbon dioxide.

        1. Sadly I am also guilty of occasionally and unthinkingly using using carbon when I mean CO2 even though I had a mini rant about this yesterday, telegraph poles and the MOT are also deeply engrained in our lexicon even though the poles haven’t carried telegraphy for many decades and the M.O.T. morphed into the DVSA via several iterations some time ago.

      2. I think the term “following the science” is a misnomer as what they are following is “scientific OPINION”, but only that opinion that agrees with their policies.

        2. Very good, BoB. If they are doing what they claim to be doing i.e. following the science they would be seeking to exploit the experience of the many very able scientists, doctors etc who do not sit on SAGE etc. Real science is dynamic and wide ranging: Johnson, by dismissing the collective experience of many extremely able people is doing the very opposite of following the science.

    1. I do not know what true evidence there is that there was mass voter fraud in the US elections – but I do know that the MSM proclaimed that there was no evidence for this before they could possibly have known whether or not there was any evidence.

      I do not know all the horrors that lurk in the small print of Boris Johnson’s EU trade deal but I do know that Nigel Farage gave his approval of it before he had had any chance or time to examine it properly.

      1. There are multiple media outlets, so some may have, but most I read based those comments on Trump’s side losing Court case after Court case (or having them cases simply dismissed) because no actual evidence was being presented. The idea of a stolen election just doesn’t stack up as plausible given the number of people who would have needed to be acting illegally to make the allegation true. Ultimately that’s why people like Pence and Mitchell opposed Trump last night.

        1. Was that REALLY “losing case after case”? Or was it really a matter of courts using procedural process to throw out the cases before they even got the stage of presenting evidence?

          I refer to the constant blanket whine on the MEEJAH of “unfounded allegations” without anyone actually detailing what those allegations are and then detailing why they are false.

          1. The very day that the accusation was announced the MSM – especially in Britain’s BBC – were shouting that there was absolutely no evidence of fraud.

            Maybe there was no real evidence – how can I know?

            But I do know that they were clamouring that there was no evidence before even bothering to look and see if there was.

            Remember the MSM was shrieking that Trump got the Russians to help him in the last election and continued to make unsubstantiated charges against him. At the least it makes me feel that the Left and the anti-Trumpers are hardly squeaky clean themselves!.

          3. Given the decades of infiltration by Cultural Marxist apparatchiks, that is a distinct possibility.

          4. Was that REALLY “losing case after case”? Or was it really a matter of courts using procedural process to throw out the cases before they even got the stage of presenting evidence?

            Yes it really was losing case after case.

            No it wasn’t procedural process, except in so far as it is procedural process not to hold a hearing where the complainant who can produce no evidence. Evidence is, under any legal system, a requirement before the case goes to court.

            A handful of cases challenged the electoral procedure of states – where the states have the right to make their own procedure so the claims were invalid from the start.

            The media talks of “unfounded allegations” because no allegation has yet shown a foundation.

        2. There does seem to be an odd smell hanging over the US elections, but then that has been the case for many years. The Kennedy election was probably the first time that more than a bat squeak of doubt actually surfaced.

          1. With LBJ running for VP, there is no doubt that electoral shenanigans took place during JFK’s campaign. The ‘Going Postal’ site recently had a series of articles summarising Robert Caro’s books on LBJ’s political rise.

            Suffice to say, LBJ was a man ahead of his time when it came to political chicanery.

          2. Given that every state has different rules for how elections are held, how constituencies are divided up, who gets to vote (voter suppression is rife in some states), how votes are counted and so ad infinitum; it is very difficult for anyone on the outside (or even, I suspect, on the inside) to follow what is happening. But for those very same reasons mass, organised, fraud (which would be required to give the numbers by which Biden has clearly won) would be almost impossible to achieve.

            There will be the usual numbers of small fiddles which will almost certainly balance out on both sides, but there simply is not evidence – none at all – of any overarching, organised, deception.

    2. The United States is not a democracy but a Republic. Raab is another major disappointment along with the rest of Johnson’s incompetent government.

  21. SIR – In the 2014 independence referendum, the SNP campaigned under the mantra that “this is a once‑in-a-generation opportunity”.

    It is therefore dishonourable of the party now to demand another vote, and it must be refused.

    John S Bridger
    Leigh, Kent

    Try telling that to the Fishwife!

    SIR – Charles Moore (Comment, January 5) is right: any referendum on a constitutional matter, such as Scottish independence, should involve the whole of the United Kingdom.

    He should also be aware that there are a great many in England who agree with the Scottish and will vote for them to leave the Union.

    Mike McKone
    Soulby, Cumbria

    1. I don’t think it was expressly stated what generation it referred to. That of human beings, dogs or possibly mice.

      2. Can’t be mice… you simply couldn’t organise and campaign in that short an interval.

        But if you go for sheep you could have one every year, or every three years if you choose cattle 😉

    2. Several English people would be happy to lose Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. In fact they would also be happy to lose several parts of England and set up their own independent England if they cannot take them back from the usurpers.

  22. This BTL comment on today’s letters caught my eye, and raised a smile:

    Julyan Coe
    7 Jan 2021 7:10AM
    Oxford University researchers have discovered the densest element yet known to science.

    The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pil!ocks.Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years.It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass.When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pil!ocks but twice as many morons.

  24. Children can be used as undercover spies to report on parents, covert intelligence bill reveals. 7 January 2021.

    Children can be used as undercover spies by more than 20 state agencies, guidance for the Government’s covert intelligence bill reveals.

    Covert child agents can also break the law if it means they will be able to glean information that could prevent or detect crime, protect public health, safety, or national security or help collect taxes, says the guidance quietly laid by the Government this month.

    Older children aged 16 and 17 could even be recruited to spy on their parents if they were suspected of being involved in crime or terrorism.

    Thank God I’m 74! Another 5 years and this country will make North Korea look like Butlins!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/06/children-can-used-undercover-spies-report-parents-covert-intelligence/

    1. This insidious Bill produces a conflict of loyalty in minors, whose parents have a Duty of Care over them. The minors should not be instructed by the State to betray those with care over them unless the State is prepared to remove that obligation from the parents and take these minors into the Care of the State.

    2. As a child in the 1950’s one was brought up to fear the Soviet Union because it had no respect for the freedom of the individual and because children were encouraged and then rewarded if they betrayed their parents,

      And when we became adolescents we read Animal Farm, Brave New World and Nineteen Eight Four..

      Must we forget all we ever learnt now that Britain is following the Blair (Eric) Blair (Tony) instruction manual?

    3. A nation of Pavlik Morosovs.
      Remember “If you’ve nothing to hide, you’ve nothing to fear”.

    4. Junior already spies on us and reports to gran. He tells her when we restock the gin.

      However, he also tells us he has told her. I’m wondering if it’s some sort of hustle…

  26. We need more like him!

    Rear-Admiral Robin Musson, naval logistician who won seagoers relief from the poll tax – obituary

    The deal he struck with Fife’s community charge registration officer was applied in both Scotland and England

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    5 January 2021 • 5:18pm

    Rear-Admiral Robin Musson,who has died aged 81, won relief for seagoers from the payment of the poll tax, and later became head of his profession.

    As captain of HMS Cochrane, 1988–90, the naval shore establishment at Rosyth, Musson was also flag captain to the Flag Officer Scotland and Northern Ireland, Vice-Admiral Sir Jock Slater. At their first meeting, Slater told Musson to focus on the unwelcome proposal that seagoers based in Scotland were expected to pay a proposed poll tax even when at sea.

    Musson decided to invite Fife’s community charge registration officer to lunch. He had been warned that the man was a communist, but for that reason Musson thought he was just the man to sympathise with the sailors’ lot. When Musson explained the issue, the man exclaimed: “It’s my responsibility to decide who pays, not those b——s in London!”

    Over the lunch table a rough formula was established to exempt seagoers from the burden of the new tax, and when Musson pointed out that his guest’s jurisdiction only applied to Fife, the man “warmly” responded that other CCROs in Scotland had all worked for him and would follow his lead. The deal struck irritated officials in London, but it would also be applied when the poll tax was extended to England.

    John Geoffrey Robin Musson was born on May 30 1939 in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, the son of a high-street banker, and educated at Luton Grammar School. Aged six his reading primer was Stevenson’s Treasure Island, which also sowed the seed for a naval career. His first experience of leadership, however, came as a Queen’s Scout when he was patrol leader of the Bedfordshire contingent to the 8th World Jamboree at Niagara Falls in 1956.

    Musson joined Dartmouth in 1957 and specialised as a logistician (formerly the Supply and Secretariat Branch).

    In 1961, in the commando carrier Bulwark during a deployment in the Far East, when Kuwait was threatened, Musson took part in Operation Vantage, a British military operation to protect the oil-rich state from its neighbour, Iraq.

    Later that year, Musson and two companions, instead of taking the troop flight home, drove overland from Singapore to Penang but, unable to obtain Burmese visas, shipped their Land Rover on a Dutch cargo ship bound for Calcutta. They then drove up the Ganges valley into Pakistan and down the Indus valley to Quetta.

    Avoiding Afghanistan, again for lack of visas, they drove on through Baluchistan, Iran, Turkey, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and home. After six trouble-free weeks (except for a couple of broken springs), a personal triumph for Musson was his successful submission for travelling expenses.

    In 1963-64 Musson was appointed to HMS Jufair, the shore base in Bahrain, where a British amphibious warfare squadron and a frigate kept the peace in the Gulf. Subsequent sea appointments to the destroyer Cavalier, the submarine depot ship Forth and the guided-missile destroyer Kent were followed by several staff appointments ashore, where his skill and knowledge of personnel, administration and logistics were put to best use.

    Promoted rear-admiral, Musson was the senior naval directing staff at the Royal College of Defence Studies (1990–93), and Chief Naval Supply and Secretariat Officer (1991–93). He was appointed CB in 1993.

    In retirement Musson sat on the board of the Royal Naval Benevolent Trust, was a governor of the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, and secretary of the Salisbury Diocese Sudan Link.

    Musson was handsome but never flamboyant, and possessed a universal reputation for kindness, generosity and fair-mindedness – proof, as one admirer put it, “that you don’t have to be a bastard to get on”.

    In 1965 Musson married Joanna Ward, who survives him with their two sons and a daughter.

    Rear-Admiral Robin Musson, born May 30 1939, died November 23 2020

    1. A pity officers like him do not go into politics at the end of their careers. They’d be a breath of fresh air amongst all the dross we currently have.

      1. Chief Constables used to be retired Forces officers.
        I remember a generally happier and better run country under their sway.

  27. Gosh, a right wing Chairman at the BBC…get the beers and popcorn in, this could be fun:

    A new broom at the BBC

    The incoming Chairman, keenly aware of the Corporation’s centre-Left bias, understands the need to make it genuinely independent

    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    7 January 2021 • 6:00am

    An opinion poll earlier this week suggested that a growing proportion of the country does not regard the BBC as representing their values or outlook on the world. Roger Mosey, a former head of TV news, observed that the Corporation “is more in tune with a metropolitan and more liberal audience than it is with the rest of the country”. Against this backdrop, Richard Sharp is to be appointed chairman of the BBC, with the task alongside the new director general, Tim Davie, of placating those disgruntled viewers while seeking to maintain the Corporation’s pivotal position in British public life.

    Mr Sharp, a banker, has donated considerable sums to the Conservative Party and was until recently an informal aide to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, who in turn had once worked under him at Goldman Sachs. Mr Sharp was also on the board of economic advisers to Boris Johnson while he was Mayor of London. This is, in other words, not the usual chattering-class appointment.

    The two figures now at the top of the BBC are keenly aware of the way the Corporation’s inherent centre-Left political culture has coloured its news coverage of events like Brexit and the pandemic. This is not to say it should be dragged off to the Right, either. Mr Sharp’s remit is to uphold its independence not to make it parti pris in another direction. He will oversee the negotiations now under way over the future financing of the BBC at a time when there is pressure to scrap the licence fee in the face of competition from streaming services.

    Those who want to maintain its traditional funding mechanism may have cause to be thankful that the new chairman has the ear of the people who will make the decision.

    The leading BTL comments:

    Martin Selves
    7 Jan 2021 6:29AM
    One of the first to be shown the door is Andrew Marr. This ex Communist who now holds the Conservatives and Brexit in contempt, and shows it every Sunday on his Show, must be removed and a neutral presenter found. That in itself will be difficult because a political cancer is embedded in the Corporation.

    The crisp eating, overpaid, ex footballer should be close on his heels.

    1. Are you sure he is Right Wing, the USA is waking up to the fact that they have been conned by their elected representatives.

    2. They need to get a move on.
      I saw Beeboid news last night, the first time for weeks.
      I’ll not bother again; MB can stick to watching it on his laptop with earphones firmly clamped to his bonce.

    4. I don’t recall such concerns about impartiality when James Purnell was appointed the BBC’s Director Of Radio despite having no broadcasting experience. Purnell was previously a Labour MP and junior minister.

    7. Happy Birthday, Lotl, enjoy your special day. It’s Thursday, so you can stretch this one through the weekend!

  29. In my best mock-German accent, courtesy of ‘Allo ‘Allo: “Papers! Vere are your papers?” But it is no laughing matter:

    Police to question people who are outside during lockdown

    Scotland Yard warns that people will face fines if they do not have a legitimate explanation in new hardline approach

    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR
    6 January 2021 • 9:00pm

    People who are outside during the new coronavirus lockdown will be questioned by police and those not wearing masks in places in which they are required will be fined, police chiefs have warned.

    In a new hardline approach to enforcing the third lockdown, Scotland Yard said officers will stop people in the street and ask them to explain why they are out.

    Those without a lawful reason face fines of £200, potentially doubling for each subsequent breach up to £6,400.

    There will also be no second chance for people caught not wearing masks where they should be worn as the Met warned that officers will not be reasoning with offenders but will impose fines straightaway.

    The new instructions to officers – replicated by forces across England and Wales – say they should issue fines more quickly to anyone committing obvious, wilful and serious breaches of the regulations.

    The message was underlined by Martin Hewitt, the chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, who wrote in an exclusive article for The Telegraph that there were few excuses for breaches because “everyone should now understand the rules in their area”.

    He wrote: “Forces will continue to bear down on that very small minority who flagrantly and selfishly breach the regulations, such as those that organise unlicensed music events or parties.

    “This behaviour puts others at significant risk, and it’s right we patrol in potential hotspots and that officers are inquisitive when they see something out of the ordinary. This will offer both reassurance to the public and act as a deterrent to those who think the measures don’t apply to them.”

    Evidence of the tougher approach was seen on Wednesday when police arrested 21 anti-lockdown protesters and supporters of Julian Assange, including a 92-year-old, for breaking lockdown rules in central London.

    Officers were filmed chasing protesters through Parliament Square before putting them in handcuffs and telling people gathering illegally: “I’m going to issue you a fine if you don’t return home.”

    In a statement on the eve of Wednesday’s Commons vote on the new Covid rules, the Met Police said: “With fewer ‘reasonable excuses’ for people to be away from their home in the regulations, Londoners can expect officers to be more inquisitive as to why they see them out and about.

    “Where officers identify people without a lawful reason to be away from home, they can expect officers to move more quickly to enforcement.”

    The Met said officers would still apply the “four Es” approach – engaging, explaining, encouraging and only finally enforcing – but would move more quickly through the process to fines.

    It follows a New Year crackdown that saw the force break up 58 unlicensed music events on New Year’s Eve and fine 222 people, including five for a possible £10,000 each.

    It follows a New Year crackdown that saw Scotland Yard break up 58 unlicensed music events on New Year’s Eve, fining 222 people including five for a possible £10,000 each.

    Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist revealed that the force had issued more fines in the last month than the rest of the year combined as the pandemic had surged and officers had moved more quickly to crackdown on breaches.

    “The critical situation our NHS colleagues are facing and the way the new virus variant moves through communities means we can no longer spend our time explaining or encouraging people to follow rules where they are wilfully and dangerously breaching,” he said.

    It came as Thames Valley Police apologised for the behaviour of an officer who they said was “a bit keen” in handing out leaflets asking drivers “why are you here?” as part of a crackdown in Maidenhead on travel during lockdown.

    Meanwhile, David Jamieson, the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, urged the Government to give officers power of entry to homes to help “enforce the new regulations more easily” if there is an illegal party.

    * * * *

    A couple of the leading BTL comments:

    Dave saysit
    6 Jan 2021 10:01AM
    I am sure such draconian and intrusive restrictions upon our freedoms prove that Covid is a fraud and an excuse for mass control. The logic is insane. During what is supposed to be a highly communicable pandemic the police are going to stop possible carriers of the disease and question them. What a risky procedure unless, of course, the disease is not as infectious as we are told.

    I am sure mental health will NOT be a reasonable excuse.

    Get indoors, stay indoors, do not move outside without permission, commit suicide by yourself, do not involve others.

    I knew this happened under Stalin and Hitler, but the Conservatives?

    Alex Lo
    6 Jan 2021 10:40AM
    Just say you’re heading to a Black Lives Matter protest and they’ll kneel in font of you.

    1. Well, that is Londonistan sorted by the Met

      I truly hope that those ‘laws do not apply elsewhere

      The next question

      Who will be checking on off duty pollis
      Catching crooks
      Stopping drug runners
      Ensuring non BLMs are safe
      etc

      1. ‘Morning, Tryers. You are just being silly now…ordinary crime stops during a pandemic.

    2. I need gluten free flour for my bread and the nearest place I can get it is Inverness, 80 miles away. I contacted Police Scotland to ask if this was an ‘essential’ journey. They referred me to their advice page on their website and to the governments web site. Both these sites say essential journeys only (I’d already read these). Their stock answer was that I am responsible for assessing whether a journey is essential or not. This is just passing the buck as my reasoning might not be the same as a police officers who has stopped me. As this ruling is now in law how can the police, who are tasked with administering the law, not know whether I am breaking the law or not. Not that any of this surprises me as nobody seems to be able to understand what all the conflicting information means. I will be travelling next week to get some of my flour and look forward to an discussion with any police who stop me.

      1. ‘Morning, Spikey, my attitude if stopped by the police for not wearing a mask (I’m mask exempt) and they want to fine me, on the spot, would be to refuse and tell them that I shall await a court summons. I’m confident that I can fight my case in court.

        1. Morning Tom, that is my intention following the exchange with the Police Scotland advisor – I have it on an email…the decision whether it is essential is mine

        1. Amazon. Sorry, I know lots of people hate the idea but if you’re prevented from getting it and locals won’t order it, they’ll provide it.

          It’s called market capitalism. Funny how the state fails so completely and businesses step up, then people whine that businesses are getting rich.

          3. Thanks Anne, they’re out of stock at the moment and the price is a little higher than Tescos but I’ve saved the link for future use.
            Have you received the forks yet?

          2. Thanks Phil but it’s 30% dearer plus delivery charge
            I used to get it from Amazon until they trebled the price and put it on Prime only

    3. I think that this gross over-reaction by the police has its origins in BLM, and Green protests plus restrictions on stop and search.The police have been forced by their political masters to ignore such public disorder due to political correctness.

      They are now getting their own back with a most unpleasant relish.

      1. ‘Morning, Sos. I see that Mr Waitrose is flogging Easter Eggs. If last year is any guide Plod will shortly be deployed on trolley searches…

        1. In the future, when police ask for the assistance of the public I suspect many who would normally have been willing will no longer do so.

        2. I still have 50 of the 100 Creme Eggs I bought last year (they only make them once a year for Easter), mainly due to the people who I gave them to not visiting me now

      2. Cressida Dick’s new recruitment poster:

        You don’t have to be a sadist to join the police force but it certainly helps if you are.

    4. Yesterday evening I spent a lot of time with friends of mine who are on the knife edge of surviving.

      They don’t have the resources I do, nor the money, frankly and when he was made redundant as soon as furlough money ended he tried to hang himself. Thankfully he failed but he’s since been in supported housing type thing (which itself nearly gave me a stroke due to the infuriating, insultingly ignorant and convoluted mess of the state machine – he spent two nights in a sodding prison cell. 2 damned nights! Alone, frightened, because they couldn’t ‘put him anywhere’ as if he were a box to store.. Gah.

      She simply cannot cope on her own. With few skills, with rent to pay and being totally bewildered by this situation she’s stuffed. Her agents were sent packing by the warqueen but this usually bright eyed and bushy tailed charmingly innocuous person has been completely abandoned by the state. We are making plans to ‘take her in’ as she likes brushing the horses but our only spare room is currently the warqueen’s office. That and taking over seems completely wrong.

      Lots of people live hand to mouth, without a garden, with difficult neighbours reliant on a monolithic state machine. Having a low IQ shouldn’t be a death sentence. If the government is going to so thoroughly destroy our lives, it needs to fill the gap with a better system than ‘oh, it’s so hard to make social services step up a bit, after all, there’s a virus on…’ That’s your sodding job. Do it, or go. Work 23 hours a day. Don’t sleep. Work weekends. Serve. For once, earn your money.

  30. Good morning all.
    A bright but cold start to the day, -3°C in the yard.

    Just saw a video of the shooting in The Capitol and it appears the shooter fired blindly through a barricaded door into a group of people.
    Will not post a link but it’s on a post by @dancohen3000.

  31. Yo All

    SIR – The NHS and all of its staff are working flat out to help save
    those affected by the virus. They have risen to the challenge.

    May I fiddle a little

    SIR – Depite the NHS Management (Oxymoron!!), all of its staff are working flat out to help save
    those affected by the virus. It is they have risen to the challenge.

    2. ‘Morning, OLT, I agree but you have missed the adjective ‘nursing’ before staff.

      The administrative management have been proven to be inept, lazy and incompetent.

  32. 328228+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Come on now, there has been three major elements needed four when including peoples participating in this demoralisation of the peoples,namely the lab/lib/con coalition party and the peoples willingness to adhere to their three monkey, Stockholm syndrome voting pattern.
    They have brought it on themselves via the polling booth surely.

    Ps,
    Thinking it was fiction after missing the very start I watched
    ” The colony” only to realise I was watching in reality what could very well be our near future.

    The colony Chile Movie
    The film is set against the backdrop of the 1973 Chilean military coup and the real “Colonia Dignidad”, a notorious cult in the South of Chile, led by German lay preacher Paul Schäfer.

    Thursday 7 January: Shambolic lockdown messaging has left people utterly demoralised

    1. Morning all.
      I remember seeing a travel prog about 6 months ago, some of if was filmed in Chile. And the local guy made a pointed remark that Adolf Hitler actually died in the mid 50s in Chile. Maybe the two stories are linked some how.
      It was often expressed that AH escaped to south America after the never really scrutinised ashes were found by the Russians in the Berlin bunker.

      1. The Russians wouldn’t allow the Allies to test the ‘remains’ that they found near the bunker.
        Oneupmanship by Stalin, or?

        1. He was whisked away across the Atlantic in sub and settled in Argentina with Dr Joseph and then boys from Brazil.

    1. Except that Andrew Neil (if it’s the same one) is British and to date we don’t (yet) have a President – we have a Monarch.

    2. Morning ogga and Nottlers.

      Andrew Neil may well be right. However what about our own democracy? A vote in Parliament yesterday to “legitimise” what had already been imposed on us.

      And I read that “lawyers” say that companies can get round laws by using unemployment legislation that will oblige employees to have either a “test” or “the jab” before being allowed to work. What has this country come to.

      1. They get round any criticism by insisting that we agree to these things. A bit like agreeing to malware, spyware and adware being installed and updated at will, or we don’t connect.

        1. I once decided to check the cookie list that I had to accept or not for a site. It turned out to have over 400 different compamies my info was going to be passed to.

        2. I once decided to check the cookie list that I had to accept or not for a site. It turned out to have over 400 different compamies my info was going to be passed to.

  34. Just back from the ghost town that is Fakenham. Thin market – just three stalls. Carpark almost empty. Only busy shop was Lidl.

    Jolly cold, though. Hovering around 0ºC

      1. Hi Belle! Have just fed the birds their porridge, lard and sultanas! Plus fat balls and nuts! (Don’t even comment!) There are now 12 blackbirds, 2 robins, several spuggies, a load of starlings, 2 jackdaws and some crows and a couple of wrens, plus great and blue tits! And the beautiful thrush has just appeared with some chaffinches! Lovely morning with the snow!

      2. Looked out of the bathroom window this morning to find at least half a dozen blackbirds pecking away at the fallen apples, a bloody squirrel having a go at the birdseed feeder at the top of the line path and a second squirrel feeding its face from the peanut feeder that they’s yet again managed to destroy!

      3. Hi Belle! Have just fed the birds their porridge, lard and sultanas! Plus fat balls and nuts! (Don’t even comment!) There are now 12 blackbirds, 2 robins, several spuggies, a load of starlings, 2 jackdaws and some crows and a couple of wrens, plus great and blue tits! And the beautiful thrush has just appeared with some chaffinches! Lovely morning with the snow!

        1. The fat balls are frozen , and the seeds have already been devoured. I scattered some Atora because the fat balls were too hard, and the sunflower seeds are being relished by doves and pigeons .

          My holly tree berries were stripped back last week by thrushes and redwings etc.

          The black birds are hopping around in pairs , I slice apple up for them which they love as well as soggy over ripe pears!

          I doubt whether the frost will thaw today.

          4. There are still loads of holly berries about here. Normally it’s a battle between birds and Christmas decorators.
            I have left the holly twigs I used for decoration out on a garden table.

          7. The ground beneath our bird feeders is becoming carpeted with, I think, millet seed.

            We’ve also got a grey wagtail attacking the kitchen window.

        3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/71538c2a649b149c27b65efebc25f18afb70026de77f4961061fb0196bd5f3ff.jpg The birds in my garden love the feeding-station cage I built for them a few years’ back. It is covered in a thick 2″ mesh that will not permit any bird larger than a great spotted woodpecker to enter. The rooks and magpies, which were stealing all the fat balls, are now sulking! I hang feeders containing sunflower seeds and peanuts, a small table with mixed seeds, and fat balls hanging. On the floor I scatter some mealworms for the softer billed birds (robins, dunnocks, wrens, chaffinches, bramblings, redpolls etc) and they also hoover up the bits of seed and nuts dropped by the tits, sparrows and greenfinches.

          In the summer the cage is hidden by the green branches of the lilac bushes.

      4. I just got back from a bit of shopping to find a buzzard on a fence post in the garden, eyeing up the wood pigeons for an early lunch.

        1. Every so often there is a panic call, and they all disappear as the sparrow hawk swoops down the lane and over the garden!

      1. I’d make a small wager that the fog goes well before the end of lockdown, even though the latter is working so well!!

      2. Bright sunshine here, but Student Son, who went back to his digs yesterday because it’s too cold up here, sent a picture to the DT of how foggy it is in Derby.

    1. That does rather point up the nonsenses being imposed by a headless chicken government.

    2. And President Trump’s plans to fly to Scotland before the Inauguration are criticised by Queen Nic?

        1. And he just happens to own the business, but she’d never let that get in the way of her bigotry!

          1. I first heard of DT on a TV programme about building one of his golf courses in Scotland. He wanted to get an old crofter off his own land because it spoiled the out look enjoyed by the golfing fraternity. My first retraction was get yer gun our Mr and tell DT to clear off. I’ve never liked him, but i respect the people of the US when casting votes for a new president. However I’m not sure this time things are all above board, there are so many stories about fake votes. But it’s hardy surprising Sue.

          2. We had friends who lived in Balmedie when Trump first wanted to build a golf course there. The hatred towards him was horrific and the lies regarding what he had (apparently) said/threatened/done were quite startling! The “old crofter” story was just one of them and turned out to be an SNP cultist from leafy Berkshire who just happened to be in the right place! Then the woman who relieved herself in public, in the dunes, then wondered why she was publicly shamed also turned out to be an English nutter with a grievance!

          3. So, the “Old Crofter” was an SNP supporting English woman from Berkshire with some VERY strange habits, who just happened to be living in the right place?

            I always thought there was more to that story than we were being told!

          8. Not going to argue the toss Jennifer, as I don’t need the ensuing abuse. However, I do know what I’m talking about and don’t need to be shown anyone’s house, thanks or tell you who was at college with who. Perhaps I might be correct?

          9. You’ve never had a word of abuse from me, and you won’t now. But you’re not correct. That’s my neck of the woods and your stories are just that – fictional ones.

          10. As I said, I do know personally and I’m not going to argue. And I know you haven’t said anthying offensive to me. So thanks for that and take care.

          12. Your friends are telling you porkies Sue. Michael Forbes the owner of the small-holding (it isn’t technically a croft) is a Scotsman who had been there for decades. He’s a scruffy old tyke but that was no excuse for Trump to behave as he did. Rohan Beyts was born and raised in Aberdeen and later lived in Balmedie. She had moved away from Balmedie but was visiting her ex-neighbours when the incident happened. I know this for certain as her younger brother was a friend of mine back in my student days and I had met her on several occasions. Her father was a senior librarian at Aberdeen City Library and I could take you to the house they used to live in.

            Lots of people have peed in those dunes for lots of years (probably most of the kids who grew up in the area at some time or another) and no intrusive American has ever bothered to film them before, she got no compensation but they were made to remove the cameras. If you’ve ever “gone behind a bush” when out walking you should understand.

            The claims against him were 99.99% accurate.

          13. “I first heard of DT on a TV programme about building one of his golf courses in Scotland.”

            Was it the 2009 BBC series ‘Off Kilter’, a tour of Scotland by Jonathan Meades? That was the first time I was properly aware of Trump. The episode concerned featured his plans for his Aberdeen golf course. He was filmed arriving in typical style. “What a dick,” was my immediate impression. “No chance,” was my response when he announced he would run for the presidency. Only in America?

            I didn’t think he’d win. At first there was some satisfaction to be gained from the failure of the appalling Clinton and, over here, the horror of the Left; additionally, he was encouraging about Brexit. Overall, though, enjoying a bit of TDS wasn’t enough. Even his own party didn’t like him. However, the charge that some have made that he was responsible for ‘unleashing chaos’ is just hogwash. That happened in Democrat cities and was years in the making – Long March, anyone?

          14. The yanks tend to be a tab insular when if comes to the reality of wgat happens in other cultures.
            My thoughts were where’s a deer hunter when you need one.

    3. That does rather point up the nonsenses being imposed by a headless chicken government.

    4. Why on earth should they, Belle? They don’t really don’t inhabit the same world as us plebs…

      1. They would have more lawyers than you could poke a stick at lined up to justify and excuse what they did.
        And conversely at least Lewis Hamilton stayed at his luxury home in tax free Monaco to avoid personally receiving BBC ‘Sport personality’ of the year. He already had a trophy at had, I wonder how that happened ?

        2. I found a wonderful acronym for a detestable person. It’s CUAC (pronounced almost like a duck) and it stands for a Complete And Utter See You Next Tuesday.

          1. One of mine re cyclist on foot paths as you can see is BoB’s the second B is for bikes, or it can be fittingly stretched to CoB’s, DoB’s.

        3. As per the ‘competition’ to name the Blue Peter dog, I assume that ALL bBC ‘reality shows’/competitions are pre-scripted in advance of filming.

  36. Good morning all.

    I’m going to be forced to take a “lateral flow” test twice a week and wear a “social distancing proximity device” in order to be allowed to work. The only thing worse would be being forced to have a pcr test. I’m not happy.

    1. Will that apply to everyone who enters the hallowed halls of the BBC or merely the “back office” employees?

      I can just imagine such devices beeping constantly through all live broadcasts.

      1. “Lateral flow coronavirus tests will be introduced from next week for everyone coming into a BBC building on a regular basis. Those of you who come in for four or more days a week, will be tested twice per week, and those of you who are regularly in for three days or less will receive one test a week”.

        1. I am surprised that they can insist on everyone having a medical procedure that the individual does not wish to have. Who going to do the testing and what happens to people who might keep getting a false positive, are they laid off on full pay?

          What a rod they are making to beat themselves with.

          1. It is contrary to international law? It seems like a breach of the Nuremberg Code.

          2. I don’t know, but it strikes me as being very close to medical experimentation on unwilling victims.

          1. I could, yes. Trying to work at home is very difficult but I could cope with maybe two days each week. It will depend on the first test I think. My health is steady so I figure if the first test is negative then the rest probably will be but I don’t trust any of these tests not to deliver a false positive.

          2. I think the lateral flow test has been shown to produce false negatives, rather than the PCR test which produces false positives. But mass testing of healthy people is only going to keep the pandemic going with “cases”.

        3. I will wager that the tests will not taken on your days off…..

          but when they are Beebing and spreading the Good Word and that Word shall be Covid, to all

    2. Sue – that is awful. What an invasion of your personal privacy. I suspect that this is a trial run which will be extended to the whole population in some way before not too long.

    3. We all a have social distancing proximity device fitted. It’s all a matter of using it correctly. The best method is the double Hitler salute. If the fingers touch, you’re too close.

        1. Thanks for the link, Peddy. This statement jumps out…

          “As noted, the test given in Liverpool will be based on a nose or throat swab, similarly to the commonly-used RT-PCR test that’s seen as the gold standard for its accuracy”.

          PCR accurate?

    1. Clowns like Starmer making these statements should convince even the most thickheaded clot that taking the vaccine is a political decision and not a medical one. Listing the vaccine’s shortcomings re CV19 and hinted at side-effects as well as the long-term unknown effects of this genetic potion should deter any sensible person from having it in their body.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        Morning KtK,
        I agree but am very dubious about the lab/lib/con
        coalition current membership, and counting on them for once to see issues in a common sense light.

      2. Morning Korky, I consider myself fairly sensible but if taking this vaccine will mean I can see my wife in the care home rather than being excluded then I will take it regardless of the possible side or long term effects

    2. I may have to make a decision to visit Starmer and machete his gormless head from his useless body BEFORE he gets his henchmen to stab me against my will.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        G,
        Better take sandwiches to sustain you he is currently TOP of the lop list.

    3. Surely Starmer’s proposal is contrary in the extreme to the Nuremberg Code of Ethics, the first of the ten principles being that voluntary consent to any procedure is essential? Or don’t we bother with things like that any more? This is tyranny, this is where we are today with lockdown and face coverings.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        Afternoon PM,
        I believe in many cases face coverings as with burkas etc, are so that you cannot see the enemas smiling.

      2. 328228+ up ticks,
        PM,
        The starmer response I believe would be.
        Nuremberg, ethics, principles, what on earth is this woman on about.

      3. It’s for your own good. The words used by all tyrants throughout history.

        Besides, if you don’t want the vaccination then you’ll never be allowed on a train, plane or bus, will have trouble buying a home, won’t be seen by a doctor and not admitted to hospitals. Various insurances will be denied you and you won’t be allowed to join a gym, go to a concert or attend parents evenings at schools and will have to drop your kids off down the road.

        But it’s for your own good.

    4. If the vaccines eventually turn out to be harmful, and given that the drug companies are enjoying legal immunity, will he accept that the politicians who voted for his proposal should be prosecuted and imprisoned if people die?

      1. Government will give themselves an indemnity against prosecution. Easy peasy. Well, they will just have to prosecute me then.

        1. A couple of comments from twitter :

          “Look at Holland a group nurses and doctors are refusing the vaccine, taking court action. NHS workers of child bearing age have the wind up about taking it and are expressing their reticence.”

          “Pity he wasn’t so forward with demands for prosecute the now 350 convicted member of over 50 separate child rape gangs he kicked the investigation of, into the long grass on Bottler Brown’s orders as PM.”

      3. 328228+ up ticks,
        S,
        The only occasion he would do that is in a manifesto if a GE was due, luvvly grub fodder for the ovis, palatable BUT, NFAN.

      4. The problem is that lack of legal immunity is seriously hampering the deployment of new drugs. We all know what is happening to antibiotiics, but there are several good ideas for new ones, and no one is interested in developing them. Ever since the US Courts decided that even if a drug is not licenced for the US, is clearly marked as not for sale in the US, if a US citizen is damaged by it (allegedly) then the company is fully liable.

        So drug companies only like drugs that cost a lot of money and are either aimed at old people who will die fairly soon, or have to be taken forever. An entirely new drug that you give to a 7 yo for just a week is not worth the litigation risk. So no new antibiotics. It will stay that way until either China dominates pharmaceuticals and they have drugs that have been used for decades in China and can be guaranteed totally safe, or the US Courts adopt a ‘reasonable risk’ view in drug compensation cases.

        1. The difference with this current set of vaccines is that the approach is novel. We have a fairly good idea of how antibiotics work and how older vaccines, for diseases act and react.

          There are proposals that the majority of the planet gets them, so the financial incentive is huge.

          What testing there has been is pretty much limited to younger, healthy volunteers with little if any testing of drug conflicts.

          The pharmaceutical industry has a very poor track record on admitting and highlighting problems, to the extent of denying such problems exist or doing cover-ups.

          I agree the courts need to look more carefully at damages awards and what is “reasonable risk”, but these current proposals in my view are bordering on reckless.

          1. The two best ideas for antibiotics are entirely novel and completely un-related to existing drugs. They look good in the lab, but progressing that first stage to full extensive lab work and then trials is very expensive. The numbers just don’t add up.

          2. They will if drug resistant infections take off.

            Until then, I think it is extremely short-sighted to rush any drug onto the market.

            There is an enormous difference between getting a new anti-biotic for those few people that existing ones don’t work for and setting about vaccinating millions, if not billions, with something that has only been tested on a tiny and not particularly representative part of the entire population and potential long-term side effects having not cha ce to present.

            Unlikely, I know, but just imagine if this new anti-covid vaccine causes numerous people’s existing immune systems to go crazy if they get infected by a common cold or their hay-fever suddenly becomes life-threatening.

            If it’s so safe, why is it being advised against for pregnant women, or women wishing to become pregnant?

          3. You are thinking of it from the point of view of the buyer, but from the supplier point of view it will remain not worth the risk.

          4. Indeed I am.

            Which should one be considering foremost, the long-term well-being of patients or how much money can be made from a marginal improvement?

            Where would you draw the line on this?

            The pendulum on immunity from prosecution has swung too far over the new vaccine and I fear it will set an unwelcome (ho ho) precedent.

          5. I am not drawing lines. As you say the patient interest mandates the introduction of new drugs, but as a supplier you have different perspective. Why bring a new drug to market that will not make much money and if it turns out 5 years down the line to have some unfortunate consequence for patients will bankrupt your company? The Risk/Reward balance says no. The current indemnity for vaccine suppliers highlights that this far out of balance. Without the indemnity – no vaccines.

            What would I do? Legislate a framework for what drug companies must do, and if they comply fully then indemnify them against all except direct costs if things go wrong. That is approximately where I would draw the line.

          6. Fair enough.

            I agree the damages are completely out of hand.

            I would cap them at a similar level of compensation that one might get for an industrial accident and certainly never give them in total as a lump sum, cost of care basis would be my route with a reasonable amount for psychological damage and pain.

            However, the reward for the vaccine, even without the indemnity is out of all proportion to the risks. One only has to watch what is happening to share prices of the big pharma companies to see that it is estimated that they will make untold billions of dollars of the back of them.

            Do you genuinely believe that people were not searching for a cure before the indemnity was announced, and had they found one that they would not have taken the risk of rolling it out if the PTB said go?

          7. To get a drug to market, you need the support of a drug company, that is at present the only route. There is a huge chasm of cost between ‘having a drug you have discovered’, and bringing it to market. That is why Oxford signed up with Astra-Zeneca. Drug companies are companies, they are there to make money. Would they have moved without the indemnity? Personally I doubt it.

          8. My view?
            Given a potential market of 5 billion people, at $10 a jab minimum, twice a year for eternity , they would have gone for it.

          9. What testing there has been is pretty much limited to younger, healthy volunteers

            41% of the the 43,000 adults in Phase 3 of the Pfizer trial were aged 56 to 85.

            The Moderna third phase included over 7,000 aged 65+

          10. I was referring to the initial stages, which then allowed the further testing; but also knew that the secondary and tertiary tests are majority younger fitter people.

            And just how many of those in the secondary and tertiary tests that you refer to had underlying problems, let alone severe underlying problems?

            And how long has it been since the first of those tests, let alone the later ones, have been done for adverse reactions to appear?

            And as to the Moderna tests, 7,000 65+ :
            same questions re underlying problems plus how many of the overall total were younger and fit?

  38. As a keen cyclist, one of the irritations of lockdown is that all the pretty back roads I usually ride are clogged with traffic, actual traffic jams, because the rozzers are stopping people on the main roads. It’s worse than Christmas, a time of year when there are lots of drunks sloping off home on the back roads, but not so many.

    1. Two of our sons are keen cyclists.
      But also are sticking to the road, it is a much better idea than riding the foot paths, expecting pedestrians to get out of the way as they pass closely, breath puffing and blowing.
      It’s not a comfortable experience.

      1. Plus some other cyclists, inexperienced newbies riding ‘no hands’ to show how clever they are and taking up the whole path as they weave along (slowly) chatting to their mates.

        1. I’ve had a few close encounters from BoB offroaders, no bells coming up behind flat out and once even brushing my shoulder nearly hitting our dog. But of course it was our fault for me not having the dog on a lead.

          1. Bells are completely useless, nobody ever pays the slightest attention. I have tried every sort over the years and none had any useful effect. A horn works but it is aggressive and disturbs everyone’s peace. A friendly shout works best, and it can convey degrees of urgency. From the cyclists point of view, walkers who are unpredictable are the biggest problem. Someone walking on the cyclists part of a divided path (which happens a lot) who suddenly turns through 90 degrees, that can be very hard to handle.

            Shared paths with no division you have to try get some form of acknowledgement before you pass. A group of women talking is the worst, nothing, absolutely nothing, penetrates. Lads impressing each other is the next worst, closely followed by young lovers. I don’t find dog walkers a huge problem, whatever they think of cyclists they don’t want their dog hurt so they try to accommodate.

          3. Pedestrians hear the 2nd type but don’t react because they assume it is a small child going slowly. I had one for a few years but gave up with it.

          4. “Pedestrians hear the 2nd type but don’t react because they assume it is a small child going slowly.”

            Eh? It’s just louder.

            They don’t hear the first because it’s barely audible – imagine someone striking two spoons together at 50 yards. It could be mistaken for a bird chinking away in the bushes.

            Sound something loud but at a good distance to give walkers a chance to react. And slow down as you pass them.

          5. Nope, as you said, it was the bell you had as a child, it was the bell most people had as a child, it is assumed to be a bell on a child’s bike. So it is not effective as a warning device.

            You will end up with all cyclists using horns. They work because even for pedestrians with headphones blasting 90dB into their ears.

          6. Just about everyone who had a bike when I was a schoolboy, including adults, had a bell. No one considered it to be exclusively a child’s device. A few had a horn.

            You come across as exactly the type of cyclist to be avoided.

          7. A long time ago. You come across as someone who thinks the world has not moved on since you were a schoolboy.

          8. Grow up. You’re behaving like the schoolboy. I simply pointed out the difference between audible and inaudible devices.

          9. No you very rudely insisted that I should use mechanism that I know from experience doesn’t work, and you insist on that because it was what was used successfully when you were a schoolboy. I have to live in the real world, you are unwilling to do that.

            If you start riding a bike then you can give lectures about how it should be done and how the problems be solved. Until you do so I suggest you wind your neck in.

          10. Goodness, what a petulant little boy you are. Right from the start you showed your cyclist’s intolerance to the world and you continue to do so. I merely made a couple of perfectly reasonable observations about equipment and behaviour and you reacted badly, as the righteous do.

            “Sound something loud but at a good distance to give walkers a chance to react. And slow down as you pass them.”

            How is that rude?

          11. I had a “Comet” Silver and black and streamlined with a red lever. It was loud. The picture is pinched from the internet. Mine was new and shiny.
            https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrExdzODvdfRBcAghGJzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawNpbWcEb2lkA2JjYWE4MjdlZGZlZTc0MDg4ZWI1OWZjZTNhODUwZTZiBGdwb3MDMTAEaXQDYmluZw–?back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DComet%2Bbicycle%2Bbell%26fr%3Daaplw%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D10&w=823&h=720&imgurl=i803.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fyy315%2Fmynholme%2FEbay2%2FDSC08050_zpsadd8535e.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Febay.co.uk%2Fitm%2Fvintage-lucas-comet-bicycle-bell-scarce-retro-space-age-bell-60s-design-%2F310698619644&size=74.7KB&p=Comet+bicycle+bell&oid=bcaa827edfee74088eb59fce3a850e6b&fr2=&fr=aaplw&tt=Vintage+Lucas+Comet+Bicycle+Bell+Scarce+retro+space+age+…&b=0&ni=160&no=10&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=d.wzzyUQ7g3D&sigb=uXH5E6mI6rJP&sigi=JkaUn5mM0.LO&sigt=hdbKB.oNeKL6&.crumb=0hjb97XwWgu&fr=aaplw

          12. Bells are at least polite and better than “get out of the effing way, were coming through” !
            The biggest problem is ‘footpaths’ are only usually about 1.2 m wide or narrower. But most roads are at the very least double width. Breathing hard as they pass as i said, can be quite objectionable.
            I have often seen a group of local ladies (no offence meant here) out walking with their clicky sticks and the chat is quite deafening, also often seen them out in the evenings head lights glowing and jogging in groups of around 8 still chatting as they run it’s quite amusing to see. Best to cross over and keep out of the way. Where as the blokes ( no offence meant here either) are competitive and keep quite as they push for a better position. 😉

          13. I have never said “get out of the effing way, were coming through” or anything remotely approaching it, and I don’t care for your insinuation that I have. As a matter of logic, the fact that some cyclists are rude and inconsiderate does not demonstrate that all cyclists are rude and inconsiderate.

            Cyclist would use bells if they actually had any useful effect, we don’t use them because pedestrians pay no attention, whatsoever. You hear “Oh I thought it was a child”, “I would be good if you had a bell” when you have been ringing it solidly for the last 5 seconds, “This is a shared path!!!!!” so why were they taking all of it. As I I said, a friendly shout works best, but you don’t like that, sadly.

          17. I’ll let families with small children cycle on the path and I’ll let those past if they’re polite. But adults? Bug off. It’s a path. Use the road.

          18. So cyclists should not ride on a path that is divided with a white strip and marked Pedestrians|Cyclists? An awful lot of drivers would disagree with you, as they tell us loudly. We shouldn’t us a path that is clearly marked by the Council for shared pedestrian & cyclist use? There are many that agree with you actually, except when driving their cars, then they get annoyed if we don’t use it.

          19. Most cyclists are polite I’m not really complaining, but sometimes they don’t care and make me feel quite uncomfortable.
            But they do know when they are on a publc footpath.
            Aye oop 🚲😎

          20. Oh certainly, some cyclists are completely inconsiderate, but young men tend to be that way. I can’t claim I wasn’t, just didn’t think about think about things from the other perspective.

          21. Roger I don’t know if you know north West London at all, when I started work in 1962/3 I use to cycle via Cannons Park nearly every day from Mill Hill to Harrow. I must confess that I often had a lift home with my old Raleigh fixed wheel in the back of a van.
            But as a young man I was quite a humble person. And there were not nearly as many cyclists around as there are now. And I was never threatened by anyone. In fact I quite enjoyed it. I even had a mate with a tandem and we rode to Harrow from Mill Hill together for a few months. It was great fun. We even cycled the length of the Edgware Road and around Marble Arch for fun. Can you imagine that today.
            But unfortunately cycling as have so many other aspects in our lives, for some people has become seriously ‘weaponised’.

          22. To ride on UK roads, you are much safer if you ride quickly. It is noteworthy that the people most likely to be killed are women mildly obeying all the rules and riding in the gutter. It pays to ride where the Highway Code shows, 1.5m out from the curb, and keep it moving. Unfortunately that level of effort gets your blood up, and if you are nor aware of that problem it can lead to starting arguments. I have seen other cyclists pick arguments that were entirely senseless; as the less protected person on the road, you will get bullied, you will be put at risk by other people’s selfishness, so there is no need to go picking argument with someone who hasn’t actually done anything.

            Also, you get a lot of insults, you get a lot of ‘punishment passes’ from people who last read the Highway Code 30 years ago, but ‘know’ that you are doing it wrong. It leads to anger, but there is no sense in it, drivers not infrequently ‘weaponize’ their 1.5 tonne cars, and they are always going to win.

          23. Bells are a legal requirement, as are reflectors. They may be practically useless, but having them is a good idea.

          24. No they are not, they are recommended. The draft of the new Highway Code recommends using a bell or voice. Reflectors are not a legal requirement either. The only requirement is that they be fitted when a new bike is sold. If you don’t ride in the dark they perform no useful function.

          25. Surely a cyclist shouldn’t be on the path?

            One bloke tried to cycle practically through Mongo one evening. Dog yelped, I turned, cyclist went into the road. Thankfully there were no cars coming and, to be honest, I wouldn’t have cared. It just takes some decency and respect.

          26. If it is marked for use by cyclists, then the Highway Code recommends that we do use. Still, what does the Ministry of Transport know? Nothing apparently.

          27. One of the biggest problems is that not all cyclists slow down when approaching pedestrians.

            I have some balance problems and make some ‘unscheduled’ movements that I have no control over.

            Be rather thoughtful if all made some effort but many Lycra Louts invariable want to hog either the road or the pavement.

          28. Personally I give all pedestrians at least a metre unless they are grooved joggers who are totally predictable and in their own effort drenched world. Otherwise I slow down. It doesn’t always help. Any cyclist who rides more than short distances will discover that lycra makes the whole thing far more comfortable, so most wear lycra. That doesn’t makes them louts, thank you very much.

          29. “…no bells coming up behind flat out and once even brushing my shoulder…”

            Likewise. I’ve had a few confrontations with the more dangerous specimens over the years. They think they own the tarmac on which they ride.

  41. Morning, Campers.
    Off to do my troglodyte act in the attic.
    Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to crack my head I go ….

      1. We had a squirrel problem some years back. A whole bag of curtains shredded to make a comfy nest.
        For several weeks after the hole in the soffit was located and blocked, we had squirrels lining up along the garden fence and holding indignation meetings.
        Spartie takes care of mice; they’ve even learnt to avoid the conservatory in the autumn – unless they’re feeling suicidal.

    1. I don’t mind the vaccine. What I mind is it being sold as a silver bullet. Our own immune systems will do the work. The vaccine is simply giving them the libraries to do that. This pretence it protects you permanently, or stops it spreading is a lie.

      Ultimately all a vaccine is is accelerating infection response – which we could have done in March last year!

        1. Kerr Starmer service ? They l know everything in hind-sight but don’t have any advice before the event.

        2. Kerr Starmer service ? They l know everything in hind-sight but don’t have any advice before the event.

    2. After defrosting the car, my wife went out to help with our son and daughter in law this morning, he has been working from home up to 12 hours a day 5 days a week. She is very depressed at the moment and has MS and they have a 5 year old son and a very motivated inquisitive ‘carpet turbo’ in the form of a gorgeous 11 month old daughter. But D i L is an ex primary school teacher so she’s right on the game.

    3. I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair,
      They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,
      Then like my dreams they fade and die.
      Fortune’s always hiding,
      I’ve looked everywhere,
      I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair.

      I’m dreaming dreams, I’m scheming schemes,
      I’m building castles high.
      They’re born anew, their days are few,
      Just like a sweet butterfly.
      And as the daylight is dawning,
      They come again in the morning!

      I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair,
      They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,
      Then like my dreams they fade and die.
      Fortune’s always hiding,
      I’ve looked everywhere,
      I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair.

      When shadows creep, when I’m asleep,8
      To lands of hope I stray!
      Then at daybreak, when I awake,
      My bluebird flutters away.
      Happiness, you seem so near me,
      Happiness, come forth and cheer me!

      I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair,
      They fly so high, nearly reach the sky,
      Then like my dreams they fade and die.
      Fortune’s always hiding,
      I’ve looked everywhere,
      I’m forever forming bubbles,
      Covid bubbles in Despair.

  45. I notice I can only go out on my bike once a day. I usually do 2 miles around the block 3 times per day. I can manage that comfortably but I will have to go twice round now in one go. The more professional cyclists in this county can go 60 miles in a morning but now cannot leave the town without a good excuse. How many times can dogs be taken outside for a walk. I was furious when I read the “prison” sentence I have been given by this unfit for purpose Government . My health matters require regular exercise.

    1. The state isn’t interested in that. It simply has set what you can and can’t do: in a confusing, contradictory, mismashed mess of double speak.

      As, in theory you could go as far as you wanted on your own or with someone else. You can also exercise as many times a day as you want. What you can’t do is stop on the way around. It’s absurd. If the NHS is about to be overwhelmed, then that’s because it’s incompetent and not fit for purpose.

      1. Yet every time the occupants of yet another rubber dinghy are ferried into Dover there are taxpayer funded ambulances and crew waiting to meet them. Plenty of staff for those who haven’t paid in a penny and who will probably need translators as well.

      2. I have just checked and the wording by the LA is “should” not “must” so you are correct. I will continue happily as before. I looked at the legislation voted on by the MPs this week and it was just gobblededook as in most amending legislation. Thanks fpr putting me right wibbling.

      3. My local authority interprets the law as only one exercise outside/ day. I will double check. I hope you are correct

  46. 328228+ up ticks,
    May one ask,seeing as only 12 tory MPs voted against lockdown obviously in it’s present form with every chance of getting worse, make any difference to those who continue to correspond with “their MP” ?

    1. I wrote to my MP before the last vote when we were being moved into a higher tier. I got a very long and incoherent reply justifying her vote. I’ve given up trying with her.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        Afternoon N,
        In this instance give up the trying / party would be a winner, the present voting pattern is surely
        condoning annihilation as a Nation.

          1. 328228+ up ticks,
            N,
            In the nicest possible way I do not support the Carborundum party of three coalition & submitting to being ground down is in point of fact supporting these governance party’s hidden agenda, check out the oath taker between the dispatch boxes and the politico’s fodder on the
            parliamentary canteen menu, the Dover invasion campaign etc,etc.

            As a Nation we are already, due to the governance coalition down on one knee, it is work in progress to get us down on two.

    2. I wrote to both local MPs last September.
      In fairness, our local one did come and see me and the other replied to my email.
      I can’t do any more.
      I am now sitting out this madness, rather like watching the citizens of Florence in 1497 piling their books and furniture onto public bonfires. I just have my fingers crossed for my children and grandchildren’s futures.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Anne,
        This madness has been openly, clearly shown as getting worse daily since major last had a curry it is not new.
        Legacies are being constructed via the ballot box as we type.

    1. I have no complaint about the way we were dealt with at A&E the other night but it’s not going to get me clapping.

      1. It’s called doing your job.
        We could line up outside a local supermarket and clap for their staff.

        1. I did take out cases of coca cola,
          to our dust-bin men last Summer
          during the heat-wave, but I didn’t
          do any NHS clapping.

          2. I thought ‘tinnies’ would be
            easier to manage with their
            big gloves.
            They are so pleasant and
            helpful.

          4. My heavens – when the Thomas clan splash out they stop at nothing when it comes to tasteful modesty – they don’t want to be seen to be ostentatious by splashing out 55p being half a guinea, their more customary unit of currency.

          5. I think you’ll find half a guinea is 52.5p Citroen. 55p would definitely be vulgarly ostentatious!

          9. Found a small plastic container in the back of the draw – got 8 of – one peseta coins – -and 1 of 1958 tanner.

          10. If that’s what you found in the draw; think of what you might find in the win or lose. 😂

          12. Our postie got clap from a lady in the next village (and you thought I’d missed an ‘a’ out)

        4. I went one better – gave a Christmas present to my Mother’s local grocers for stepping up with food deliveries when nobody else would.

          1. Good. I give Christmas presents to local providers. We get a good service from the ‘little people’.

        5. I always say “thank you” as I leave… both in the supermarket and when I was in the eye clinic last summer.

          I did not stand on my doorstep and applaud.

          2. If it’s the village shop, they are not busy, and I’m not rushing, then I might even have a wee chat before I leave.

    2. Won’t they be breaking the law?

      Is it essential?

      I might go outside and say a silent prayer for all those who have died through lack of treatment.

      1. Well I think I got away with Bill.
        Evelyn Hall was no where to be seen. 👮‍♀️

    2. Just finished a long walk with the Springer. She started out black and white and returned black only. She is a mud magnet.

      1. I’m so happy with my much needed new wellies and long woolly socks I had for a Christmas present.
        My walking boots were covered in mud every time I went out and had to be cleaned. But wellies straight on the rack by the back door. Much better.
        Do have to wash it all off when you return home ?
        We have a river close by which our lab loves but I have to put her on the lead after because she runs off and rolls in the playing fields on the way home. Wet is easier to deal with than very muddy.

        1. She would normally go under the hose but in these freezing temps she is washed in warm water in the bath. It’s a dog’s life.

  50. ‘Morning, Peeps. I don’t think Allison Pearson was posted here yesterday, but apologies for missing it if so:

    * * * *

    The BBC doesn’t represent me – or half the country

    Auntie’s constant desire to fight a bitter rearguard action against Brexit is why so many are leaving the corporation behind

    ALLISON PEARSON
    6 January 2021 • 6:00am

    Only seven days into 2021 and already we have a strong contender for least surprising survey result of the year. Nearly half of Britons think that the BBC no longer represents their values. Asked how good the corporation was at reflecting their point of view, 48 per cent said “fairly bad” or “very bad”, against 29 per cent who said “fairly well”.

    And, lo, there came the Beeb’s coverage of the final stages of Brexit. Children’s choirs across the land performed popular British songs from Bobby Shafto to All You Need is Love. Newsnight’s Emily Maitlis donned Geri Halliwell’s iconic Union Jack dress and giggled: “Hey, maybe things outside the EU won’t be so bad after all.” The spectacular New Year’s Eve fireworks over the Thames featured well-loved faces and landmarks to convey a sense of national unity and dawning possibility as we became a sovereign nation once again…

    Well, a licence fee-payer can dream, can’t she? Obviously, none of the above appeared on our screens, although they may well have proved popular. More popular, certainly, than the Black Lives Matter fist that featured in Sadiq Khan’s taxpayer-funded firework extravaganza. Instead, Eeyorish remainers, oops, sorry, reporters, went looking for evidence that, despite our surprisingly good trade deal, there would be major hold-ups at Dover. Imagine the poor dears’ distress when freight was seen to be moving smoothly and there were no queues on the M20 to gloat over.

    Of this extremely promising start, we heard nothing. If there had been any problems, I guarantee camera crews would have been camped out at the roadside 24/7 interviewing peed-off Pierres.

    Nor did the BBC deign to put Boris’s New Year message on its website. Lucky he’s not the national leader or anything.

    It isn’t long since Tim Davie, the BBC’s new director-general, said he wanted to bring in “a better balance of satirical targets, rather than constantly aiming jokes at the Tories”. Perhaps Tim should have a word with Nish Kumar.

    On Graham Norton’s New Year’s Eve special, the “comedian” called Nigel Farage “a sack of meat brought to life by a witch’s curse”, adding: “Now we have finally completed Brexit, I predict we will have a taste for leaving things and will vote to leave more stuff, starting with the continent of Europe, then the United Nations and finally the Earth.”

    Funny to think that “Busy Lizzie” Truss, the International Trade Secretary, has managed to secure 63 trade deals in two years. The UK seems to to be joining more than leaving.

    Here’s my new year reduction: if BBC glums continue to fight a bitter rearguard action against Brexit (and, incidentally, against a big chunk of its audience), we know who will have the last laugh. And it won’t be Frankie Boyle.

    Leading BTL comment (out of nearly 1,800):

    Gillian Waterhouse
    6 Jan 2021 9:15AM
    I used to listen to Radio 4 every day from the Today programme to the Book at bedtime, until 2016 when I realised that as much as I loved the BBC, it despised me. Now I enjoy the silence.

    * * * *

    I’m surprised she lasted that long!

    1. “We leverage policy, legislation and political influence and build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors”.

  51. A new broom at the BBC. 7 january 2021.

    An opinion poll earlier this week suggested that a growing proportion of the country does not regard the BBC as representing their values or outlook on the world. Roger Mosey, a former head of TV news, observed that the Corporation “is more in tune with a metropolitan and more liberal audience than it is with the rest of the country”. Against this backdrop, Richard Sharp is to be appointed chairman of the BBC with the task alongside the new director general, Tim Davie, of placating those disgruntled viewers, while seeking to maintain the Corporation’s pivotal position in British public life.

    How is he to do this? The BBC is to cobble a phrase “institutionally Marxist”. Its staff are unanimously of the left! You quite literally cannot get a job there if you are for anything remotely of the right! He would need to sack everyone, which is clearly impossible. The only real solution is to shut it down and cancel the licence fee!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/07/new-broom-bbc/

    1. Will the BBC continue to spend 86% of its recruitment advertising budget on the Guardian? If so, “The only real solution is to shut it down and cancel the licence fee!”!

      1. Morning, I don’t think where the BBC spends its advertising budget actually matters. If it did you’d surely expect most teachers to be right of centre given the Times Educational Supplement being where many teaching jobs are advertised.

    2. I’m not for banning things, I leave that to the Leftwaffe. The bBC should be put onto a subscription model, where those ardent followers of the ‘institutionally Marxist’ company can fund it’s onward journey of woke.

      Subscription would also, at a stroke, remove the tv taxpayer support of The Gruadian and/or any other favoured groups. The Leftwaffe are always banging on about how wonderful the bBC is. Fine, let them and their co-dependent luvvies support their noble cause whilst the general public carry on viewing the myriad other channels, which are currently ‘blocked’ without paying the bBC TV Tax.

    1. It should be investigated and if there’s a case for prosecution, so be it. However, this tweet is no more than I’d expect from a hardcore Trump supporter who in this Trump becomes no different from the more extreme BLM supporters who demand every black person’s death in Police custody results in prosecution. It’s fascinating how the two extremes mirror each other in their rejection of democracy and legal process.

      1. It’s amazing to me how people like you want to make it an issue about skin colour for some reason, or call good people fascist for trying to defend democracy against what is fascism.

  53. SIR – At the age of 50 I was forced to close my business, which resulted in 14 employees losing their jobs. The bank repossessed our house, leaving me, my wife and our three children homeless.

    Now, aged 80, I am still working so that my wife and I can rent accommodation. I would not wish the stress and anxiety I experienced on anyone, but the same is being inflicted on the British public by a government that is using enforced lockdowns in a bid to control Covid-19.

    The harm, deprivation and eventual bankruptcy of the economy will be so catastrophic that history will show these measures were never worth it.

    John Dakin
    London SE15

    And there will be plenty more like him.

    1. No, no, no. He’s got that all wrong.
      As Thayaric has told us time and time again, Governments can not go bankrupt, hence the economy is safe.
      All the Government have to do to save the economy is continue printing, or rather creating, money!

      1. It’s already an old one but I’ll do it again anyway – Modern Monetary Theory = Magic Money Tree.

      2. And Walter Wriston (Chairman of Citibank 1967-1984) said exactly the same long before Thayaric expounded his theory of money and banking. Most other bankers in NYC and other international markets thought Walter was delusional, not very bright, and certainly didn’t understand what he was talking about. Unfortunately Citibank went on to lose more money than any other bank in the world in the subsequent Latin American debt crisis. {:^))

  54. This is specially for Minty. From The Grimes today:

    “Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told state TV that the Russian leader was a “good man”.

    But he added: “If we take betrayal, if we take theft, he is cruel and he is merciless.””

    1. I always relished the subtlety in the language of the great Russian novels once translated.

  55. Another view from an infrequent contributor:

    A day of infamy. But what next? First, Trump should be removed from office this day: he’s obviously unfit. Second, the Twitter and Facebook ban should be extended for the rest of his troubled life. Third, as there was a programme of de-Nazification following Hitler’s end, so should there be a programme of de-Trumpification to ensure that those millions who were bewitched and hoodwinked by this crooked charlatan of limited vocabulary and less honesty can be cleansed of Trump’s filthy influence. And those in this country who were touched and infected by Trumpery should be shunned at the very least. Naming names, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. There are others. They also should be de-Trumpified. And the Western world should breathe a sigh of relief – after four years – and return to some semblance of normalcy.

  56. 328228+ up ticks,
    My belief is the Chinese will have a great deal of competition from the islamic ideology regarding
    England/GB as a governance element nige, niGE, NIGE, hell’s bells. that bloody dust.

    Farage: European Union’s Greed Is Helping Communist China ‘Take Over the World’

    1. “Nigel is the only honest politician…only Nigel can save England/GB…Nigel should be PM.”

      Remember ogga? It’s posting that nonsense all day every day had you banned from Breitbart.

        1. Nowt w. Just reminding ogga how gullible he was/is when it comes to who he sees as the solution to our problems.

          1. And how does that add to the discussion, apart from indulging your childish need to needle other people?
            It is valid to change one’s opinion when the available data changes.

  57. The South African Covid-19 variant of which we are all being made very afraid arrived in the UK from South Africa. Did it walk here? Or is it the case that the airports are still open to anyone, citizen or stranger, to fly here from anywhere? Those arriving may quarantine themselves wherever they like, or not, just as they choose.
    Yet instead of strict control of all people entering the country, the government has chosen to sentence sixty-six million people to house arrest. That may be because their early attempt to place new arrivals in a quarantine hotel for medical supervision was a pathetic failure? As useless as all their feeble and incompetent attempts to simultaneously deal with a virus and keep things running.

    Compare and contrast this fascist farrago with the competence of the wartime government which kept the country going, and managed a world war, while around 9000 V1 cruise missiles and 3000 V2 supersonic ballistic missiles crashed down on London, in addition to the general bombing of the country by squadrons of enemy bombers.

    2. There use to be a lady who worked in the front office at a local timber yard. She kept two Shires on a local farm, one was named Winston. They were superb when standing along side them, they oozed power but were very gentle at the same time.
      I haven’t seen her or the fantastic horses for years.

      1. Judging by the size of that beautiful animal, that’s about 2 alone! If that bloke is 1.8 metres tall, and assuming he’s not miles in the background at the shoulder the horse is close to 2.5m, nearly 25 hands!

        1. and turbo-exhaust
          Talking of which a friend of mine hired one of these Gypsy caravans for a family holiday in Norfolk. The horses name was Spatter. They asked why such a strange name. The owner told them they’d find out soon enough – sure enough after a couple of miles the horse lived up to its name…..

      1. Apparently the productivity is pretty low and it’s not economic to use horses, but the owner likes it, and they can get places machines can’t – also, they don’t cut up the ground anything like a machine when it’s wet. Magnificent horse.

        1. Young’s Brewery in London used horses to pull drays for deliveries within a few miles of the brewery. They had calculated that it was more cost effective than using lorries. That ceased in 2006 when the Wandsworth brewery closed.
          I can remember Clydesdales pulling St Cuthbert’s milk carts in Edinburgh. One of their horses, Cicero, went on to become famous as the drum horse of the Life Guards.

          https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-the-queen-has-bought-cicero-an-edinburgh-co-operative-society-milk-20361738.html

          1. Samuel Smith’s in Tadcaster still use Shires to make regular local deliveries. Hook Norton Brewery in Oxfordshire have Shires for occasional local deliveries. A magnificent sight (and beer).

          5. Possibly Harry – they didn’t sell much of it in Stowmarket Golf club so maybe it’s that or they didn’t keep it properly. That’s the only time I tasted it – obviously put off by my first pint (which I didn’t finish). My favourite beer when I lived in that area was Greene King draught Abbott

          6. Strange thing about Adnam’s, Spikey, is that it doesn’t travel. My first sampling of a pint, in Norwich, was the same as yours. Years later when I travelled to Southwold I had a pint in the town and it was utter nectar.

          8. There you go. Golf clubs are notorious for not knowing how to look after their beer properly. Almost as bad as workingmen’s clubs! 😉

          10. Stowmarket Golf Club has no cask beer, only keg. This suggests low turnover and poor cellarmanship.

          11. I guess so Harry, this was nearly 50 years ago. The GK Abbott was good though.
            Do you play there? I used to have RAF 5 day membership there as I was at Wattisham – I’ll tell you a tale of one of my visits…
            I was on the first tee between the red womens markers (blue was men and white competition) and was addressing the ball when some guy came rushing out of the clubhouse and said “You’re obviously a visitor but the men play from the blue markers” I thanked him and continued to address the ball. Again he came running over and in a raised voice said ” Play between the blue markers”. I thanked him again and continued to address the ball. He was apoplectic by now and shouted “Play from the blue markers or I’ll have you thrown off the course”
            I said calmly ” Why don’t you fuck off and let me play my second shot”
            I’d topped my ball from the blue markers which he hadn’t seen, the guy I was playing couldn’t hit a ball for laughing

          12. A friend has a similar tale.

            He topped his first and duly lined up on the lower marker. He promptly sliced his next shot, hit a metal bin and his shot rebounded back on to the rear of the competition tees. I wasn’t sure if that put him technically out of bounds, but suggested that it had.

            He game went from bad to worse and I don’t think he hit the fairway more than a few times the rest of the afternoon.

            Later on I was approached by a member who told me that if my friend didn’t stop swearing we would be thrown off the course

          13. Last golf I played, I bought a box of six beautiful, expensive new balls, and lost the lot on the first 4 holes.
            Not to worry, I’d collected a number of practice balls (painted with yellow emulsion paint) as I’d gone along looking for my beautiful, new, expensive balls – and I lost all those, too.
            I was so humiliated, never played again.

          14. My golfing ended in a similar way, I put all my balls into a lake on a short hole, the clubs bag and trolley went in next. Retrieved bag , retrieved car keys and threw bag back in. Never touched a club since….I was playing off 12 under the old system so I wasn’t exactly a learner and my progressive worsening got to me

          15. I was once fortunate enough to play a round of golf at the Royal & Ancient, St. Andrew’s, where I was delighted to record a sixty-five.

            Sadly, it didn’t last, as on the second hole my game just went to pieces.
            :¬(

          16. That is the delight and misery of golf. Being erratic. Hitting a 5 at a par 4 and feeling well pleased. Then going onto a par 3 hole and hitting a 9.

          17. The way I played, the par number should have been squared – and I’d still have been over par.

          19. Budweiser still use horse drawn delivery so you canot tell a good beer by its horsepower.

          21. The Young’s drays were a common sight on the roads in Battersea, Wandsworth and Clapham when I was living in that part of London. They were a good advert for the brewery.

        2. There are still quite a number of people doing horse work in UK woodlands too.

          One of the local estates used to run a Wood Fair and over the years a chap with a Percheron and a girl with a mule were regular visitors who demonstrated their abilities with a variety of obstacles.

          As Stig says it has to do with terrain, but also with what job you are doing. A horse isn’t going to be economic if you are clear-felling but very useful if you want to winkle single trees out a standing wood. I had a chat with the mule owner one year and she said she’d been working in a big oak wood where they were removing single trees, or small clumps of trees, and they didn’t have to fell other trees to make roads for the mule as they could pick their way through. Instead of ending up with a churned up forest floor there was almost no sign (except for a few tree stumps) that the job had been done. That oak has a high value helps of course, you can afford a bit more for getting it out.

          1. That’s what the operator (is that the word?) said. Picking individual trees out of the forest as you wrote.

    7. Good morning, Obs.
      That is marvellous and very evocative,
      I well remember horses being used for
      the same purpose.

      1. I believe horses are being used here once again as much forest terrain is unsuitable for mechanised vehicles.

        1. Yes, they were used because hardwood trees,
          in forests, are often felled individually with
          surrounding trees left standing; in World Warll
          two elephants were used [they were evacuated
          to the forest, from a Circus,] they had their own
          pond!!

    8. One horse can go where no mechanised vehicles can.

      Goes to show that not everything can be ‘modernised’.

      2. Indeed. Modern textiles still don’t give the combination of insulation and comfort that down or animal fur do.

  59. Just back from w/rose, Store quiet. There was ice on the car when I left home & there was still ice on the car when I got back.
    I didn’t take the car! Yes, I did, really.

    1. I got my car back today so I did the shopping, as snow is forecast for tomorrow. The fog stayed all day here, though there were some clear patches on the way home.

      1. My car has failed it’s MOT , emissions and headlights .

        I hope our chap will be able to correct things so that it can be tested again. It isn’t a smokey car , and very economical on fuel , and I love driving it even though it is 12 years old .

        1. Oh no……. our Peugeot garage is the main dealer and not the cheapest but they do a good job, and if anything needs doing during the MOT they will ring and tell me and fix anything as necessary.

          2. My local people are not a main dealership. But I’ve bought 6 cars from them over a period of 25 years and they give me an excellent standard of service. The current chaps are the third generation but it doesn’t look as if the next one is going to follow on.

      3. Was your car being fixed , J.

        Really foggy and frosty here , no sign of any sunshine . Walked around the village on wonky pavements , I need my country walks to feel comfortable under foot .

        I can remember when Foot and Mouth broke out decades ago , it was okayish here , but we were all confined to the village for six months , surrounding countryside was out of bounds .

        1. Did I tell you I had to abandon it on Tuesday morning and walk home? Fortunately only a couple of miles – I was on my way to Cirencester when the clutch failed.

          I remember the foot and mouth outbreak but don’t remember being confined to the village – it did mean there were no cattle on the common for a long time. But I was at work, so not really going for walks much.

          1. My goodness , that must have been a real nuisance for you , and a real fiddle faddle getting the retrieval sorted out .

            That happened to me 2 years ago !

          2. I phoned the garage, they arranged for the recovery driver to come and pick up the key – he phoned to let me know it was on the trailer and on its way – then they phoned to say it had arrived and it was definitely the clutch.

    3. Tut, tut, Peddy, since you’ve lived in both Sweden and Germany (as have I) you will be aware that it is dangerous to drive a vehicle that still has ice or snow on it, in case it slides off and does damage to another vehicle behind.

      Driving pedantry over.

      1. You are quite right, Tom. I always keep a hand-brush in the car to sweep snow & heavier ice off the outer surfaces, including all lights & trafficators. The risk is greater for cyclists & pedestrians being hit by flying clumps of snow. Today’s coating was more like a heavy frost. The side windows were unaffected & the heated screens front & rear dealt with the rest.
        Apart from the danger to other road users, a heavy layer of snow can alter a car’s centre of gravity, making steering & braking even more unpredictable on icy surfaces. Furthermore, snow on the bonnet & radiator can lift off & land on the windscreen, blocking visibility until the windscreen wipers remove it. A lot can happen in those few seconds.
        Now, was there anything else?

        1. “… trafficators …”

          When I were a lad, my father used to stick his hand out if he was going to turn right and told me to put mine out if he was going to turn left. It were cold in winter.

          1. I remember having to stick my head out of the passenger window oop north when it was foggy, before the Clean Air Act, in order to detect the whereabouts of the kerb on behalf of my father, when one got caught out by sudden November fogs. It seems hard to imagine that now, almost like living in a Narnia land.

          2. On a particularly foggy night near Cambridge we were driving on the wrong side of the road, I was looking at the ditch to guide me, when HG said:
            “You realise that a lorry has just passed us doing the same thing on the other side of the causeway?”
            We turned around and went home.

          9. I think they turned into indicators when they started to use blinking light instead – trafficators were the term used for the little orange arm that sprang forth from the bodywork area on a level with, but just behind, the driver’s head between the front and rear side windows. I haven’t heard the term trafficator for many years.

      2. When it snowed last week, I remembered that and had to pull over to get the snow off the roof. That was when I discovered that, although it’s a small car, my arms don’t reach into the middle of the roof.

  60. DT Story:

    Workers refusing vaccine or testing could lose wages, lawyers warn

    Boris Johnson is trying to decide who would be the best person to take the minister’s post in his new Miinistry: The Ministry of How Best To Get People By The Short and Curlies or, as it will be colloquially called : People Under Boris’s Extra Sanctions (PUBES)

  61. Biden is president (well, almost) and democracy is alive and well despite the reputed attempts of some to kill it off last night. Meanwhile, the world’s politicians expressed their outrage (though probably not a few were struggling to contain their delight):

    Sir Keir Starmer called it a “direct attack on democracy”.

    Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said: “I have trust in the strength of US democracy. The new presidency of Joe Biden will overcome this tense stage, uniting the American people.”

    The Turkish foreign ministry said it invited “all parties” to show “restraint and common sense”.

    The Venezuelan government said that “with this regrettable episode, the United States experiences the same thing that it has generated in other countries with its policies of aggression”.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55568613

    Starmer is obviously unaware of the contradiction in his stance. Sanchez is unaware of the danger of making predictions. The Turkish and Venezuelan quotes are each, in their own way, grimly comical.

  62. Donald always planned to wait until Lieden was certified before he revealed what he had……….

    Imagine the fallout !

    General Flynn said weeks ago that Donald would wait until the constitutional process was totally played out before he acted, and he’s right.

    Then nobody can say that Donald subverted the electoral system.

    The incursion into the Capitol building will be forgotten as soon as Donald starts revealing……….

    So cheer up, the best is yet to come !

    1. I hope so. The incursion into the Capitol building was likely caused by Antifa infiltrators. Either way such incursions are nothing new. Democrats are famous for such protests when Republicans win.

    2. An easy solution to the situation: call a recount. simply say ‘we will hold a recount of the votes to end the contesting. That recount will be binding and will have international invigilators present.’

      It’s a massive cost, but the alternative is decades of discontent.

    4. We all enjoy a cliffhanger and I admire your confidence, but now the Dems have full control of lawmaking all opposition will be banned in whatever form. Big Tech have done what they can in the form of suppression now lawmakers will just plug any gaps. No one was going to be allowed to cut the strings of the chief puppeteer. Bolly all round on Soros at Davos, I imagine.

      1. 328228+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Kp,
        Sadly that only leaves one option open to the peoples.
        When the smoke / dust of battle clears we might, just might, reconsider our voting pattern that led us to the field of combat.

  63. Good morning again, my friends.

    A busy month for birthdays so please excuse me posting the updates. And please let me know if you have anything you would like me to add to the list:

    Some people have pointed out the errors and omissions in this list. Please let me know if there are any errors or omissions below so I can try to correct them:

    02 January – 1947 : Poppiesmum
    07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
    08 January – 1941 : Rough Common
    09 January – **** : thayaric
    10 January – 1960 : hopon
    16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
    18 January – **** : Stormy
    23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
    27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
    10 February -1949 : Korky the Kat (Dandy Front Pager)
    11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
    22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
    24 February- 1941 : Sguest
    28 February- 1956 :Jeremy Morfey
    29 February- **** : Ped
    05 March—– 1957 : Sue MacFarlane
    08 March—– **** : Geoff Graham
    26 March—– 1962 : Caroline Tracey
    27 March—– 1947 : Maggiebelle
    27 March—– 1941 : Fallick Alec
    19 April——- **** : Devonian in Kent
    26 April——- **** : Harry Kobeans
    24 May——– 1944 : NoToNanny
    08 June——– **** : Still Bleau
    09 June——- 1947 : Johnny Norfolk
    09 June——– 1947 : Horace Pendleton
    23 June——– **** : Oberstleutnant
    25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
    01 July——— 1946 : Rastus C Tastey
    12 July——— **** : David Wainwright
    18 July——— 1941: lacoste
    19 July——— **** : Ndovu
    26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
    29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
    30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
    01 August—— 1950 : Datz
    03 August—— 1954 : molamola
    10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
    18 August—— **** : ashesthandust
    19 August——- 1951 : Hugh Janus
    04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
    07 September- **** : Araminta Smade
    11 September- 1947 : peddytheviking
    12 September- 1946 : Ready Eddy
    13 September- **** : Anne Allan
    15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
    26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
    30 September 1944 : One Last Try
    07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
    11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
    25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
    12 November- ***** : Cochrane
    01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
    06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
    10 December– **** : Aethelfled
    16 December– **** : Plum
    21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe

    (E&OE)

    1. Rastus, you can add 10/02/1949 to your list.

      My avatar is KtK in early 1967 and I haven’t changed one bit except for the beard, dark hair now silver and…😎

      1. Thank you. (You’ve been Gilberted & Sullivanned – We’ve got you on the list!)

    3. I believe I’m the youngest, and by far the grumpiest. I lack the wisdom and calm others have cultivated.

      2. I know you were on the list but are you down as Wibbling or ourmanin munich dob 10.08.67??

        I can’t see wibbling on the list – please update me.

      4. You ‘lack the wisdom and calm others have
        cultivated.’ Well, yes some have…. I wish I
        was one of them!

      5. I know you were on the list but are you down as Wibbling or ourmaninmunich dob 10.08.67??

        I can’t see wibbling on the list – please update me.

  64. Demands are growing for clarification of how many folk are permitted to attend a funeral in the new Tier 5 restrictions. This from the Daily Express :

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3dea47192f74f934b555691b1b2bcf75821d379397ced02cb8a6fbfccbdae0d6.png

    In a statement, the Secretary of State for Health, Mad Handjob, said today, “We are not heartless, we are simply following the science. Of course you will be permitted to attend your own funeral, provided you are in a sealed coffin and maintain social distancing, i.e. six feet down.”

    “Only the dead have seen the end of lockdown.”
    — George Santayana

    1. Last evening I caught most of a PBS programme dealing with King Athelstan presented by Michael Wood. Stirring stuff about our heritage from the
      10th century. A clever, educated and pious King who knew how to kick arse when the need arose as the Scots, Viking Irish and Viking/Danish in the North found to their cost.

      1. I think there are three in that series. We watched them with great interest.

        One thing that fascinated me was the way he arranged “meetings” hundreds of miles away from his base. I wondered how on earth people from, say, Essex, knew how to get to Cornwall…!

        1. Don’t remember that name being mentioned. Closing minutes were devoted to the last great battle oop north somewhere. Wood thought it was close to the Great North Road but it’s not certain where. That’s where the alliance of the Scots, Viking Irish and Viking/Danish was crushed,

          2. ‘Afternoon, Horace, I don’t doubt the battle but, “The next morning the Picts saw a white cross formed by clouds in the sky” is rather similar to the story of the Swedish Flag but with a gold cross in the sky.

    2. Last evening I caught most of a PBS programme dealing with King Athelstan presented by Michael Wood. Stirring stuff about our heritage from the
      10th century. A clever, educated and pious King who knew how to kick arse when the need arose as the Scots, Viking Irish and Viking/Danish in the North found to their cost.

    1. West Midlands. Isn’t that where the police are poised to bust into people’s houses without a warrant?

    3. West Midlands. Isn’t that where the police are poised to bust into people’s houses without a warrant?

      1. He should be charged with multiple counts of GBH with intent,16 years on each count to run consecutively……..
        Riiiiight,and then I woke up

        1. no need to be malicious, 2 years on each count to run consecutively would lock him up until he was about 130 years old.

      2. Good God. Looks like another roper. Evil bar stewards. I have no great feeling about circumcision per se but I think he looks more like a butcher.

          2. I expect he’ll be put on probation – “Didn’t understand different culture….pillar of society….only doing what his fellow slammers wanted…”

  68. Surgery just phoned to ask if I wanted the vaccination. I said I didn’t. He said can you tell me why. I said yes and I did!

    1. I’m not keen but have decided to take it when offered as the only way we get out of this miserable existence.

      1. What if a new “variation” is found? And the current ” vaccine ” is judged to be ineffective?

        1. I’ve got absolutely no confidence it will do any good at all. But it’s the only “get out of gaol” card we’re offered. I hope they’ll have run out of the Pfizer ones by the time they get to me.

          1. As the Pfizer one is expensive, the NHS will jab us with the bargain basement Oxford vaccine.
            Fine by me. It will save a lot of arguing.

      2. It is a box ticking exercise. MB and I – if ever offered a vaccination – will insist on the Oxford jab and for the very reason you give.
        The mRNA maybe a huge step down the road to possibly a more effective solution, but it has been produced in a panic. The Oxford injection is based on tried and tested technology which has been used for 70 (?) years.

      3. I am not so sure they will let us out of this existence anyway, Ndovu. It will be Variant C, or mutant ninja covid, or some such early next autumn. I cannot understand why so many have such a blind faith in Government and the media when the facts are out there.

  69. Patriotism
    Sir Walter Scott

    Breathes there the man with soul so dead,
    Who never to himself hath said,
    ‘This is my own, my native land!’
    Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d
    As home his footsteps he hath turn’d
    From wandering on a foreign strand?
    If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
    For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
    High though his titles, proud his name,
    Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
    Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
    The wretch, concentred all in self,
    Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
    And, doubly dying, shall go down
    To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
    Unwept, unhonour’d, and unsung.

    1. I wonder if fellow P.G. Wodehouse enthusiasts will remember that this poem reflected the view of Mr Cornelius the house agent in Valley Fields who could not understand why anyone should ever want to live anywhere other than in this delightful leafy suburb in South East London.

    3. A luxurious garden shed would be appreciated,especially at the far end of the garden so that I can travel.

          1. I wouldn’t know, I just trying to be helpful, well I’m almost teetotal – no, really I am, officer.

          2. especially if the shed is at the end of a warm garden somewhere, not our frozen wilderness.

          5. Very nice, Grizz. Even I have made trifle in the past (in the days when we were allowed to invite people round for meals).

    6. 1) A luxurious drone (catch me if you can, officer !)
      2) To the sunshine – the Canaries, perhaps
      3) With you, sweetie ! … x

      PS: Only won £25 in Jan …

    7. Replace the horrible hard 4year old kingsize bed that Moh loves so much .

      What hotels have the most comfiest beds in the world , I would love a good nights sleep away from fidgeting dogs , just one night would be sufficient .

      Replace the old internal sapele doors, need 14 ! Nope, we don’t have fourteen rooms , and 4 elderly misted up mild dewed draughty Velux windows !

    10. Apart from the boring, obvious – money to children, cats home etc etc – on thing I would do (when travel becomes possible again – if ever) is arrange private aircraft flights. Limo from the house to Narridge International Airport (RAF Horsham St Faith) then private jet to destination. Limo to final destination. Loooxery.

      1. private jets do not live up to expectations.

        Just do long haul first class with limos to the airport. If you pick the right airline and play up your legal beagle celebrity status, you will never need to see or hear the riff raff.

        1. You would still have all the buggerment of airports, security, delays, hanging about, Private – just walk from limo to steps of jet;…..

          1. The food and drinks in the First Class lounge could make a delay quite interesting. Some really good wines.

        2. “Celebrity status”?? You must be joking. There is hardly anyone left alive who remembers that I was once well known. I stopped Beagling 19 years ago….

          8. I recall someone was Eagling alternately….. Andrew….? It really foxed me for a while, I was thinking but, but, I thought it was a Beagle and his name was Bill…… but no, it’s a legal eagle they have….. this was obviously confirmed the next week “yes, I was right!” And then the confusion crept in when I listened in again three weeks later. And so it went on for a while because, as I was usually driving the car at that time I was listening with only partial concentration.

          10. Andrew Phillips…Total dickhead…and I proposed him, not realising that he was a Libturd…!

            I went off him when I discovered that he referred to me as “My stand in”…..

            Then he acted for Pantsdown and allowed his office safe to be broken into and Pantsdown’s adultery to be exposed.

            Then he was made a Life Peer. When JY asked me about that, I replied, They asked me, but I turned it down…”…!!!

          11. Oh, gosh – I wish I hadn’t said anything now! I am sorry to have prodded bad memories into life. But good for you for turning down the Life Peer thingy. Best to be free of all that stuff. There is a lot to be said for anonymity.

          12. Used to listen to you regularly when travelling as a salesman. Best part of the JY prog.

      3. They had university residences on the old RAF quarters at Horsham St Faith – I spend a couple of years living there in the 1960’s before spending my final year on the University Plain at Earlham.

        They took over the grounds of a Norwich golf club as the site on which to build the new University of East Anglia. As they said at the time: they destroyed a second rate golf course to build a third class university.

        Mind you, I greatly enjoyed my three years studying Philosophy, Phornication and Economics (PPE) there as did my son, Henry, who graduated a few years ago with a far better degree than I did.

  73. Much spinning in graves amongst the Citroen forebears…

    British army recruits rise as Covid seems to act as ‘rallying cry’

    Promise of secure career and chance to help out with UK testing and vaccines may be behind rise

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bccf5baffddf300f4b9101daa714e187120683bb/0_0_2560_1536/master/2560.jpg?width=620&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=ea28802a8bef713d168ab2bd18c60967

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jan/07/british-army-recruits-rise-as-covid-seems-to-act-as-rallying-cry

    1. No chance of a job leaving school ?…….. Join up. Free clothing, free meals, free accommodation, daily exercise, feel bullied, mental ‘elff issuoos, don’t like certain things ….. You’ll have all the hoomun riaghts lawyers in the land to count on. They are rubbing their hands.

      1. …especially when you get posted to a foreign country and accused of mistreating the natives.

      2. I belief the forces are now given an allowance as part of their salary and they have to pay for accommodation and meals, catering services are now contracted out and you only pay for what you eat

        1. For most of my 31 years in the RAF, meals and accommodation were paid at source, i.e. the money paid into your bank account at the end of the month was all spending money.

          Pay as you Dine, came into being at my last unit in the last working month before I left the Service in 2008. As per the previous system I’m sure it has it’s pros and cons.

          My only concern was for people like the infantry who, having such a punishing daily ‘workout’, would obviously need more than the recommended 2000 calories a day to feed their bodies. As I understood ‘Pay as you Dine’, the basic menu was indeed basic and that servicemen and servicewomen could pay extra for ‘top ups’ or other menu items.

          All well and good, yet this former airmen remembers that in his very early days somehow the money didn’t always stretch beyond the third week in the month but at least he (and others in a similar self-induced financial straits) could always be guaranteed three meals a day.

        3. For most of my 31 years in the RAF, meals and accommodation were paid at source, i.e. the money paid into your bank account at the end of the month was all spending money.

          Pay as you Dine, came into being at my last unit in the last working month before I left the Service in 2008. As per the previous system I’m sure it has it’s pros and cons.

          My only concern was for people like the infantry who, having such a punishing daily ‘workout’, would obviously need more than the recommended 2000 calories a day to feed their bodies. As I understood ‘Pay as you Dine’, the basic menu was indeed basic and that servicemen and servicewomen could pay extra for ‘top ups’ or other menu items.

          All well and good, yet this former airmen remembers that in his very early days somehow the money didn’t always stretch beyond the third week in the month but at least he (and others in similar self-induced financial straits) could always be guaranteed three meals a day.

          1. I’d left well before you started your service career. Once I was in AMQ I had to pay for any meal taken on camp although sometimes I forget to write my name in the book. The only time I didn’t officially pay was when on QRA , Orderly Sgt or night flying.

          2. Ah, good point. Perhaps I should have clarified that food and accommodation were only taken at source whilst the airmen and/or WRAFs were living in the barrack block.
            Like you, I had to pay for any non-duty meals once I lived off base/in AMQs…

    2. Are those real posters or fake ones? As surely – surely fakes? Whatever happened to ‘Be the best’, joining an elite army of self reliant, tough fighting men, learning skills and driving tanks?

      One of my oldest friends is an ex navy combat engineer. She joined up for a job. It gave her a career. Another is now a pilot, a life long ambition. Any blasted Lefties joining the military need it drummed out of them and made to grow up.

        2. You’re fooking joking? Seriously?

          Sod compassion. The job of the army is to kill the enemy. Hell, when I was working for the MoD one of my tactical plans was to go in and kill absolutely everyone. Shoot the lot of them – men, women, children to destroy their will to fight and end the conflict.

          Even I balked at it but the point was to stop the war. It wasn’t my finest hour as a strategist. If we’d sent this lot in they’d just wet themselves, complain about ‘wights’ dwibble their hands a bit and come running away.

      2. My next door neighbour is retired Chief Engineer HMS Illustrious. His daughter joined up and now out ranks him. 🙂

        1. The Canadian minister of defense is still an active army reserve officer, he is outrank by the defense chiefs that he is supposed to direct.

          I wonder who salutes who?

  74. Its all over for the US
    The Dems now have full control of both House and Senate. Their politics and media are utterly
    corrupt but Donald Trump had the legal and moral high ground . Because of what happened yesterday now the Dems have taken that moral high ground. Iran and China are laughing at
    ” Western Democracy ” and mocking the US . Trump could have remained dignified and come back in 2024 and rescued the US from the utter disaster which will occur now that Biden / Harris have taken control, especially Harris.. just wait, she’s the real President in waiting and will be such in a year or two and Trump will be stained with this.. never put any weapons in the hands of the enemy. As Thatcher said, a true leader stands back from a crowd .
    Sorry America, you ‘ll soon be a Banana Republic ..

    1. that is worthy of a disagree down vote but I won’t.

      Yesterday wax just extreme Trump, he has been wound up ever since he screwed up the election. Even mainstream conservative media are now talking 25th amendment.

      In addition to dem/rep differences, yesterday has stirred up the racial distrust. Compare yesterdays policing to the gung ho baton swinging militia in the Sumner when Trump went walk about, that gives them cause to complain.

      1. I’m not so timid. The amount of nonsense on this subject is unbelievable.

        The Democrats will only have a casting vote in the Senate and a small majority in the House so, with luck, they will need to seek co-operation to get things done and won’t be able to do anything very extreme as I understand that would need a 60% vote (which they don’t have).

        Trump has managed to make a complete fool of himself on plenty of occasions, but this time he’s made a fool of his country and I doubt whether that will be quickly forgiven.

      1. Trump’s legacy will be stained with this, all he did will be overshadowed by yesterday.
        Never underestimate the ruthlessness of the left and never allow them to think they have the moral high ground . Of which they now do.

        1. After almost a full year of rioting, violence, arson and murder throughout the US, because of the events of ONE day, the Left have the moral high ground?

          I think not.

          1. I didn’t say they had the moral high ground, I said they think they have the moral high ground and will never let this go. Trump’s ego and thin skin played into their hands . He needed to keep a cool head and keep a distance .

    5. It is not over yet. My American neighbour from Atlanta says we should watch Italy in the next two weeks. Something to do with vote counting and foreign interference in a Presidential election.

      Obama has Mafia links but who knows.

      1. It’s rumoured that Biden has links to the Irish Mafia but it’s difficult to get to the truth because of the code of silence, known as O’ Murtagh.

  75. A bust day, dropped an elm that unfortunately needed to come down. Had to pull it in the direction it needed to come down with some ratchet straps to make sure it went the right way.
    A bit of a bugger though as the top of the tree was tangled with the adjacent ash trees that also need to be dropped.

    2. We had to cut down two 60 foot + Lombardy poplars yesterday. They were close to a neighbour’s house and would have smashed his roof had they fallen badly. He requested we did so because the roots were causing structural damage to his property. They are/were about 100 yards from our house and HG said the whole house shook each time one fell.

      It was a very nervous couple of hours, but all ended well and I will have at least two years worth of wood for the stoves..

      1. We had a couple of those when we lived out in the country. The wood was so light that it was like balsa.
        Not much use for the fire.

        1. These are very heavy and the logs burn well.

          The smaller branches are as you describe and useless other than kindling.

      2. It needs seasoning so after I cut it into 4 or 5′ lengths, it’ll be at least 2y before I cut it to size to stack for the fire.

  76. So it appears I’m always on the wrong side of the argument –

    Support the Brexit referendum and the will of the people – get called Right Wing, Extremist, Uneducated and Fascist.

    Deny the Brexit referendum and the will of the people for five years – get called, Moderate, Centre Left / Liberal and intelligent.

    Support Trump, fair free democracy, the will of the people and the nation state, the right to peaceful protest – get called Right Wing, Extremist, Uneducated and Fascist.

    Support Biden, Antifa, BLM,deny election fraud, anti the will of the people, support totalitarian globalism – get called, Moderate, Centre Left / Liberal and intelligent.

  77. That’s me for this curious day – made tolerable by it being lighter until about 4.30…

    A demain.

    1. Not here it wasn’t 🙁 I needed the light on to see what I was doing (and I have good night sight!) by 15.45.

  79. Its – 4c here atm . A Saxon Queen could freeze, I think she needs a full length mink coat to keep warm ( but not one with diseases attached. I’ll pop the oven on for dinner too..
    ( lasangna ) .

        2. That’s my job here.

          As a result, HG gets a fish pie with prawns, shrimps, smoked haddock, cod, sometimes squid, depending what’s on the fish counter or anything else that looks tasty to me.

          No complaints so far.

          1. Mine was cod, smoked haddock and big prawns! Shouldn’t say it myself but it was pretty yummy! The bay leaves make a big difference!

          2. Funny that. I hate bay leaves and can’t see the point of them. It cracks me up when people put lots of strong spices and herbs in a recipe and then, almost as an afterthought, chuck in “a couple of bay leaves”.

            Why? They can’t compete with the other flavourings and what they do contribute is not very nice (in my humble opinion, of course!).

          3. I always use bay leaves from my tree in an infused bechamel sauce using the poaching milk.

          5. Bay leaves are an odd one for me. Usually I’m not keen.

            However, HG uses them more than I do, and I must admit that in our

            Christmas duck they were a huge success.

            For my FP, I put in lots of shrimps, plain and Louisiana style; we get several different types here, pre-packed.

            I rough mash the potato used for the covering and then create waves with a wide tined fork.
            I put a little butter over the surface so that we get rich browned ridges.
            Even my M-i-L says I make a good fish pie.

          6. Bay leaves for a super Bechamel! I never use cheese but instead of covering the fish etc. I do it like my Mum in a big nest!

        3. Have you seen the fishes, in their little dishes,
          Have you seen the fishes, when the booat comes in?

          1. Perfectly true external temp gauge on the Saab. Took me several hours of motoring along snow covered roads to get to West Wickham perhaps no more than 8 miles away.

          2. If this was around 10 years ago, I don’t doubt it. I woke to around 250 mm of the stuff. IIRC, we had around three snowy winters. By the second of those, I had an old Landy Discovery 2, and suddenly discovered I had lots of new friends. It wasn’t the 4×4, so much as having decent winter tyres. But I never had time to put the tow rope away, between rescues…

    3. The Irish Times Mon, May 26, 1997, 01:00

      “During the election campaign, Mr Major’s offer to advise Mr Blair on negotiating with EU leaders was immediately ridiculed by Labour. However, Mr Blair has publicly admitted he admired Lady Thatcher’s style of leadership and has stressed that he would not reverse her main Thatcherite policies. Lady Thatcher believes Mr Blair to be “great patriot” who would “not let Britain down”.”

      Strange bedfellows?

    1. For what it’s worth…

      “Jack S L Garou • 2 hours ago
      We Brits had a choice of Boris or Corbyn.
      You Americans had a choice of DT or Harris/Bidet.
      You’re in an even worse state than we are.
      3 Edit Reply Share ›”

      2. On the contrary I would have voted for Trump any day. I just wish we had a Trump in the UK instead of the pathetic directionless bunch of wasters we have suffered for decades.

        1. The loons have the likes of Nigel/Batten/AMW/Laurence Fox/David Kurton et al.
          The rest of us have a choice between Boris or Starmer. No choice at all cori.

      3. 67 million people had a choice of Johnson or Corb Jong-yn.
        350 million people had a choice of Bidet or Trump.

        If that doesn’t tell you anything about the terminal case of stupidity in humanity then nothing ever will.

        1. 2019 GE 10 million+ voted for Corbyn/Momentum.
          Referendum 13 million opted for Don’t Know/Don’t Care.
          I can only agree with you.

          1. Indeed.
            And the cartoon caption competition was entertaining.

            Being a political cartoonist has certainly changed over the years.

            Has there been any news on you son’s friend’s print/etching?

          3. I like Scarfe’s interpretations, but overall, his cartoons are too angular for my taste.

      2. Do grow up. It’s extremely boring to read day after day, your childish abuse of every single person you disagree with and/ or dislike.

        1. I think it was a fair comment.

          I’m a great fan of Adams and I agree that the quality has changed for the worse.

          I won’t go quite as far as corrimobile, but to appreciate that cartoon one had to have seen a lot of the pictures taken from the “invasion” to see how Trump had been over-written on one of the protesters.

          I’ve seen lots of articles but only a very few with pictures of the protester who was dressed like the cartoon.

          3. I will defend Davey, I like his contributions, but the quality/approach overall appears to be deteriorating; and not just on the Standard and DT.

        2. You need to wake up. I find your posts worse than boring and designed to provoke a response from those for whom you seemingly bear a hatred.

          You are a very stupid person and have always been abusive towards me. You have constantly referred to me as a “failed architect”. Go and examine your own conscience you silly little man.

          If you disparage and dislike my comments so much then simply block me and spare yourself the embarrassment of a robust response.

  82. Another casualty of Covid.

    Our garden waste collection has been cancelled due to the plague. Whatever next?

      1. Nowhere to have it in our garden and I dislike creating smoke on nice sunny days. I consider it to be antisocial.

          1. I have no intention of doing so.

            Did you leave and move to East Sussex because of too many bonfires? :-))

  84. Apologies if this is repeating commentary much further down the forum today, but has anyone noticed that the vast, vast majority of the ‘articles’ about the events in Washington, D.C. yesterday have no reader comment facility?

    No coincidence that the DT and its activist ‘journalists’ are sticking the boot in and pretending Capitol Hill is in flames (it isn’t – some protesters broke in and a few people got hurt, away from that, a handful of people were shot dead. And yet the MSM, sadly including the DT, make it out to be a mass riot, whilst ACTUAL RIOTS in Portland and many other Dem-controlled areas and BY leftist activists from Antifa and BLM are dismissed as ‘mainly peaceful protests’.

    The MSM is broken. Politics is broken.

  89. I read somewhere yesterday a person make an accusation that the Telegraph’s ‘Global Health Security’ section was funded by The (Bill & Melinda) Gates Foundation. Being a skeptic, but still suspcious (given the Telegraph’s output over the last 5 years or so, and especially since the pandemic broke) I assumed this was fake news, but looked into it further.

    I was astonished to find out that it was entirely true – the evidence is on The Gates’ Foundation’s website (what’s the odds it gets deleted soon, rather like the WEF’s video about owning nothing and being glad by 2030):

    https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2017/11/OPP1179441

    They gave the DT $3.4M in 2017 to develop that section of the paper. No wonder they are so keen on the vaccine and not raising the genuine concerns about past failures of quick to market ones (e.g. Swine flu) and the numerous ethical and even legal transgressions of Gates Foundation-funded ‘vaccine’ projects in India and Africa.

    Remember those videos I recommended from the other day you watch?

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZUZ1zkxC4GP1/
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/uqu5rR8JK5YV/

    Anyone think that we’re being manipulated?

      1. Not exactly sure what you are trying to say – that the BBC are Gates’ lapdogs or that they didn’t accept any money from them? The thing is that the proof of them accepting vast amounts of money from Gates, and the DT is on the Gates Foundation’s own website in black and white.

    2. I think certain DT journos have had a lot more than that under the radar, and I suspect little Willy is one.

      BBC Media Action has had about $100,000,000 from Gates in the last few years.

      1. About 4million, Don’t exaggerate.

        Not that a US philanthropist giving that much to a foreign news outlet is anything to shrug off.

      2. Just looked it up on their website – Holy ****! They’ve been shovelling money their way for nearly 20 years! And to get into India, who (watch those videos) chucked out The Gates Foundation and their drug company cohorts when illegal testing went on that killed over 20 and left hundreds of thousand with debilatating side effects of drugs not even tested under Western regs.

        1. If you check out SAGE, most have Gates funding links, present and past. Incl Whitty and Ferguson.

          Why didn’t Johnson convene a meeting of UK consultants and doctors last Jan/Feb to draw up an action plan, and instead surrounded himself with Gates linked civil servants?

          Because he’d already given C-19 control to Gates who took over fully on March 19.

          Involving consultants and doctors earlier would have lead to conflict, and they were in fact prohibited from trying new therapies.

    1. What happened to all the revelations you said would be coming out about Obama and Clinton.

      Bit late in the day now.

        1. I do read your posts and did but I can’t do anything about it.

          I thought Donald was going to have them prosecuted, that’s what I was alluding to. What happened to that?

          1. Donald found Deep State to be a lot deeper than anyone imagined, so a lot was held over to his second term.

            That explains the massive fraud as the swamp rushes to protect itself.

            Still, don’t give up. Rabbits do jump out of hats!

          2. Are the clinton prosecutions coming before or after the great revelations about election corruption? I get confused waiting for all of these great events that we are promised.

          3. I have little interest in the politics of other countries as I have no say in the outcome of elections. However after all the suggestions that PP made about the corrupt Democrats I was hoping for something spectacular to happen. I waste confident anything would happen because all their judges are political appointments.

            I fear the same could be said, and I do, about the lack of action by our MPs about ruining of our country.

          4. The Clintons and Obama are too big to be prosecuted. I think we’ve just seen that demonstrated.

          5. Spot on. The greater the crime the lesser the penalty. Our own (spit) b liar is proof of that.

  91. Today I received a letter from my Best Man who has been resident in California the past 45+ years. He has a daughter who’s a doctor at UCLA. “She has seen many Covid cases and seen many patients suffer and die from it, so we take it very seriously” He & his wife have adopted siege conditions. I daresay he will be aghast to learn that I’ve been out and about shopping and to restaurants since the outbreak last March!

  92. So this current lockdown will last, at least, until
    Easter; the son of a friend has been told not to
    return to his College [Durham] as has the
    grandson of another friend [Swindon.]

    1. Second granddaughter is in the same boat.
      Last year (her first at university) the bloody lecturers went on strike. Hardly had they dragged their sorry @ses back to work than the Bat Clap struck.
      I have forwarded the petition to our son and his wife.

  93. The past 24 hours have been deeply sad. Trump brought this on himself, he has destroyed his Presidency, and destroyed his legacy. Early on, when he fought for and got the Georgia recount in certain counties and that gave him nothing, at that point he should have given up and accepted the inevitable.

    Nobody familiar with the US legal system thought the Courts were going to help him, that was just a dream.

    1. Has Trump destroyed the republican party as well as his legacy? Big splits are appearing between pro and anti Trump factions, will they be papered over in time for the mid term elections in two years. Trump Junior threatening senators and congressmen if they did not support Trumps election campaign does not help.

      The whole intent was to get to the courts where Trump appointees ruled the roost and he hoped to pressure them into seeing things his way. Trouble is they stuck by the letter of the law, hence the subsequent accusations that they were nobbled by the democrats..

      The only real investigations were at the state level, several legislatures did hold hearings but even Giuliani could not paint a suitably dark picture.

      After this month it would be good to see a bipartisan committee investigate these fraud claims but that is unlikely to happen and I doubt that an all clear finding would satisfy those around here who believe all they are told.

      1. SCOTUS appointees always rat on the President that appointed them – making it clear they are not poodles.

        Edit: Further to that, it is clear in the Constitution that the conduct of Federal elections are a State matter, so investigations would be conducted at State level. That was why the SCOTUS refused to consider the Texas case.

        1. It could well be his own party as well, he has lost a lot of republican support.

          It could be just like when the Canadian conservative party split, the divided vote gifted the liberals a long spell in power.

      3. No, he hasn’t destroyed the Republican party. Now that the principle has been tested that an election can be stolen with openly unbelievable results – vote graphs with vertical steps for the favoured candidate, for example – and no court will touch an investigation – the Republican right will never win again.
        Similar to the UK since 1997, the Republicans will be allowed to win, as long as they don’t upset the globalist apple cart. The Presidency will be passed to and fro between Dems and Reps, but the reality is that the Presidents will all adhere to the same globalist policies.
        Slowly, people will realise that their democracy is a sham, as so many in Britain have realised that they are effectively disenfranchised because no political party represents them.
        But the Republican party will carry on “winning” elections, while the disenfranchised grow increasingly bitter.
        That’s not Trump’s doing.

    2. I think he will be judged better when the dust clears after the Democrats have done their worst.

    3. That is what I thought earlier, but later in the day, when Trump conceded, I realised that it was just classic logical Trump strategy. In other words, he tried every possible opportunity until none was left, and then he abandoned the attempt without a second thought.
      You may be right about stopping earlier, especially if one considers the PR aspect to be the most important – but I think we’ve had plenty of examples of how Trump thinks, and this is perfectly consistent. The left always go into mocking and sneering overdrive, but hopefully the emotion will die down in a few years.

    4. He was fighting a losing battle from the get-go. Looks like the Swamp swallowed him eventually.

    1. Big coat? You must be a softy Southerner…

      Seriously though, have you seen images of Geordie clubbers in the depths of winter? I’ve had a few long walks home in the early hours of New Year’s Day, at the same latitude, and I needed more than shirt sleeves…

    2. Northerners are tough enough not to have to rely on a big girl’s blouse to brave the weather.

    2. It is the smirk that Hancock cannot control when the interviewer asks him if this is the last of the lockdowns and Hancock replies ‘yes’ that gets me. His expression tells you all you need to know. Hancock must go.

      1. Generally, I’m non violent, but if ever there was a face that would benefit from liberal application of a crowbar across the gob, it’s his.

        1. In my case, a frying pan comes to mind followed by the heel of my shoe. And I am a mild, peaceable person with usually no violent thoughts.

          3. As if.
            My smallest is the standard blunt split end version. The largest is about 2 metres in length and used for digging fence-post holes and levering out tree stumps.
            It would remove lips, teeth and the tip of the tongue…
            And jaw, skull and most of the neck!

  96. Another view from an infrequent contributor:

    A day of infamy. But what next? First, Trump should be removed from office this day: he’s obviously unfit. Second, the Twitter and Facebook ban should be extended for the rest of his troubled life. Third, as there was a programme of de-Nazification following Hitler’s end, so should there be a programme of de-Trumpification to ensure that those millions who were bewitched and hoodwinked by this crooked charlatan of limited vocabulary and less honesty can be cleansed of Trump’s filthy influence. And those in this country who were touched and infected by Trumpery should be shunned at the very least. Naming names, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. There are others. They also should be de-Trumpified. And the Western world should breathe a sigh of relief – after four years – and return to some semblance of normalcy.

          2. I apologise if this is odd Mr Woollard, but your photo always reminds me of Charles Dance.

            Chaps can still produce viable semen at any age – so no bonking Tatiana down at the club!

    4. Tolerant aren’t you.

      No doubt you would have done the same to all people who voted Brexit too, had you been given half a chance.

      Whilst I agree that Trump should now go, I’m afraid that bile such as you have just written here is typical of the intolerant left that have just seized power in America.

        1. I recall GW positively foaming at the mouth over Brexit and arguing that the vote should have been invalidated. A remainer of the worst and least democratic kind.

          The rank hypocrisy of his post, given his earlier stance on Brexit, certainly annoys me.

          How would he feel, now that now Brexit has finally happened, if the Brexiteers did to him and his ilk what he is suggesting for Trump’s supporters.

          He epitomises what I despise about the left.

          2. That wouldn’t even get close to restoring me above zero, but thanks anyway.

            Assuming every single one of Biden’s and Trump’s votes were honest, the ratio was ~ 52.80 : 47.2.

            And that’s ignoring the other candidates in the race, the vast majority of whom would have gone for Trump rather than Biden

            Do you recall how GW was apoplectic that the Brexit vote should be allowed to stand at 51.9 : 48.1.
            He was all for a second referendum and all for preventing Brexit.

            And if you take another strange statistic, (yes I know the voting population has increased)

            On the lifetime votes, Trump has most at 137.2 million, against Obama’s 135.4.
            So much for him being extremely unpopular.

          3. GW speaks of searching out and punishing Trump’s supporters. Whatever happened to bridging the gap, healing the wounds?

          4. I fear that the wounds of this election will take a long time to heal and I also fear that what will be inflicted on America by the Democrats might make the election look like a Buckingham Palace garden party

            Cancelled for the foreseeable future.

          5. Geoffrey is entitled to his view and such sparks debate. The bit I find funny is that when Trump loses by 0.4%, that’s a clear and obvious victory for democracy.

            When Brexit is passed by ten times that margin, it’s so narrow as to be irrelevant and should be run again – because they didn’t like the result.

            I don’t *mind* the anger. I can tolerate the hypocrisy. What I find laughable to the point of psychosis is that the Left won’t see it in themselves. They’re utterly wedded to their own convoluted doublethink it ties them in Gordian knots.

          6. As far as I recall, you were not here when GW was a regular poster. The post today was utterly different from his posts back in the day. He has become extremely bitter it seems to me. Trump may not have been a wonderful choice, but how anyone rational could be unhappy that Clinton did not become President is a mystery to me.

            GW was on daily telling everyone that the entire Brexit campaign was founded on lies and the referendum should be re-run, and as you observe, too close to be allowed to take us out, although I’m not sure your figure re Biden’s margin of victory is correct, O.4%.

            I agree re the left’s convoluted doublethink.

    5. “And the Western world should breathe a sigh of relief – after four
      years – and return to some semblance of normalcy.”

      You mean after the pogrom don’t you.

      You Liberals are all the same, scratch the surface and you find malevolance.

      1. What though, is normalcy?

        Massive tax hikes to push through energy reductions that will force rolling blackouts – hell, California already has those.
        Incredible spending on government programmes that return no value except to government box tickers?
        War with other countries? Trump is the first president who hasn’t started one.
        Huge intergovernmental agreements that achieve nothing precisely because they’re for governments, not people?
        A massive increase in the wealth divide?
        Huge off shoring of businesses to avoid high corporation taxes?
        More crumbling infrastructure because of corrupt Left wing officialdom?

        Just because the Left like it, does not make it normal – nor welcome.

        Trump stood up for the little guy. The normal, tax paying, home owning, honest Conservative fellow. The Left, the media, the entire political estate set about trying to destroy him. What does that say about how they view – well, me?

    6. Hi Geoffrey,

      Although I am seeing a lot of talk from republicans about getting rid of Trump immediately, I would bet that inertia takes over and they just let it ride for another two weeks during which time they try to isolate him in the white house. Quite a few white house staff resigned last night and this morning,

      Deradicalisation can only come from the Republican party, Romney and Bush seem to be taking a lead on moving back to traditional republican roles.

      I doubt that anything will persuade them that the election was not fixed or that Trump was bad. Republicans are pushing for a committee to investigate what happened which would be a good thing but it will not convince most, just look at comments around here, minds are closed against the demon left even if those they call socialists are normal right of centre conservatives.

      Welcome back though, even if it is a short visit.

        1. I think that Bush might have mellowed in the past few years.

          He was always regarded as an ignorant buffoon in Canada until he made a state visit and spent a few hours at the national museum. His knowledge of the arts and local history astounded many.

          With the Trump family talking about resuming their dynasty in 2024, a return to normalcy may be a long way away. Hopefully the Democrats can select a powerful centrist candidate

          1. I was living near DC at the time of the Twin Towers attack. There is no doubt in my mind that Bush said all the things that average Americans (and plenty of Brits living in the US) wanted him to say. He was a steadying influence on the country yet also rallied people to retaliate without over-reacting. Anyne who was not there at the time cannot fully appreciate how frightening things were and Bush, for all his other flaws, reassured us. There will be those who say he did nothing but sometimes the best course of action is inaction, particularly in the US where there is a culture of shooting first and asking questions later.

          3. There were legitimate grounds to attack Afghanistan where the Taliban were giving AQ all kinds of support (training facilities, safe haven, equipment etc) but none to attack Iraq. That was, in the US, due to pressure from the likes of Rumsfeld and Cheney, and hubris on the part of the US military.

          2. You are aware it has not been fully tested and they have had their Indemnity removed.

    7. A sort of purge then?
      People should know their place and that is to meekly obey their masters while they slowly deconstruct their country and parcel it off to China.
      Sounds like a good deal

      1. Bob I think IMHO that Obama’s America would have been far worse than Trump’s. But although I have never been a fan of DT, he’s been forced out by something up until the technology age would never have been considered. Except or course in other parts of non western cultures. He’s been roasted alive by the lying cheating Democrats. But unfortunately he was never the right person to be chosen as POTUS. The electorate of the US have hung out to dry.
        America and the world is going to suffer if front man Biden lasts longer than twelve months. His Democrat compatriots are already know for their dastardly actions and other types of politica skullduggery.
        That’s why the US electorate voted for a change. But it looks as if they are back in Obama/Clinton land.

    8. I follow your pattern, but why single out Trump?

      More, why not look at the wider scenario of why Trump was elected. What were the socio-economic reasons for his promotion to that office?

      He rode on a platform of:
      Anti immigration
      Jobs for American workers
      America first

      He withdrew from policies (like the Paris climate accords, that are and will continue to do so much damage to our own economy) that damaged American people – the normal ones, not the very rich, spoiled, struggling in their 8 bedroom houses ones. He didn’t play identity politics, he simply stood up against a monolithic state machine and said ‘You, Jo worker. I’m for you.’ and was attacked, relentlessly for doing so.

      Why are those bad things? Why are his enemies, those spoiled brattish, statist, tax wasting hangers on to be praised? They’ve built nothing, achieved nothing and live incredible lives of luxury off the state and worse, by pandering to all those things that make Jo Worker poorer and unhappier.

      Why is big state good, Trump bad?

      1. I totally agree. Anyone supposing that a continuation of the Obama years by a crooked demented old man was wished for by the majority of the American voters has a screw loose, that or they have skin in the game.

        The electoral fraud was on a monumental scale and everyone knows it. Those with eyes to see have realised the malevolence of Pelosi and Schiff, the visceral hatred of Trump shown by Deep State Republicans such as Romney and McConnell, the innate corruption of the Biden family, the corruption of the Clintons and Obama’s and the protection from prosecution they were all given by corrupt officials.

        1. I had a heated discussion on FB last night with my nephew. He is blind to Biden’s faults but blames Trump for the US covid statistics. I pointed out that the primary response to any such emergency lies with state governors, not the President. I gave examples of South Dakota and several other states having very limited lockdowns. Florida abandoned all restrictions two months ago with no adverse effects.

          My nephew is doing a Masters in American history and affairs!

    9. Should you not be looking to our own countries problems when you have no idea about America.

          2. I have lived in Greater Manchester. Nothants,Hertfordshire,Cambridgeshire,Essex,Hants Norfolk, Sussex, Germany, France and Born in Lancashire.

          6. Yo JN

            You do not ‘travel’ with/by horse drawn caravan, do you

            I ask smilingly……

    10. A Happy New Year to you Geoffrey!

      We may not agree on anything very much – but it is good to see you.

        1. Would the world be a happier place if everybody thought as you do or if everybody thought as I do!

          One thing that we should all try to remember on this forum is that we may disagree with each other but we should play the ball rather than the man and not descend to personal abuse.

          4. My word long time absent.
            I hope you are well. And happy new year.
            And I suspect your first ever down voted GW certain changes have taken place.

          6. As you might have noticed there are now some nasty trolling pests on the Nottlers comments site.
            A few of the oldies have packed it in.

    11. Yes, by all means let us all rejoice that Trump is leaving office after four years of not starting wars, brokering middle east peace deals and creating jobs, and a candidate who “won” with dodgy unexplained vertical steps in his vote graphs, and whose son is a drug-addicted Chinese puppet is about to become President. Truly a cause for celebration.

    12. Good to “see” you Geoffrey, but I fear that you will get little support here for that, eminently sensible, point of view.

  97. The NHS has been reducing the number of beds available for years. We now see the results of that failed policy. The NHS management must stop being protected and faced the the truth of total failure. This is all abour protecting the NHS not the people.

    1. Given the chances of picking up infections in hospital and better surgical procedures, it makes sense to kick people out ASAP, hence the reduction in number of beds required. For instance, my two major ops ( tumour removal via keyhole surgery and liver resection ) meant I was in for three days and three weeks respectively.

        1. It depends what one means by ‘reduction in beds’. Most hospitals mothball wards when not needed so they can concentrate patients in fewer wards, but reopen them if required. With the advent of COVID, the other reason for opening wards is to separate COVID patients from non-COVID patients – a tactic that didn’t quite work for my late MiL, as she contracted COVID when placed in a ‘hot’ ward, i.e. one where suspected COVID patients were put all together to endure they did contract it if they didn’t already have it.

      2. I was in hospital a lot longer the first time for breast cancer surgery in 1997 than I was the second time around in 2010 – that time I was a day patient.

    2. Reducing beds, but increasing the size of the population via immigration. It’s a winning strategy!

    3. Just a few days before Christmas a very dear friend of mine died of cancer. Only her daughter is left now. But I can’t directly contact her to ask for details. Not that I should.
      But I rather suspect that her treatment was deferred which may well have been the case of her early demise. I wonder if the public will ever be informed of this possible cause of death. We know to the exact number who have been found positive or vaccinated daily. And sadly exactly how many have passed away.

      1. Ahh, I am reminded so often during this nonsense of Yes Minister: The Compassionate Society.

        [Minister]: ‘A hospital is not a source of employment it is for healing the sick!’
        [unionist]: ‘It’s a source of employment for my members!’

        1. It’s still one of the best and sharpest comedies ever written and just as watchable today as it was in the eighties. I have them all.

          2. Things have calmed down. We still don’t know if Amy has to go back to uni or not. But things can change in minutes here.

      2. I think I recall one of John Winton’s very humorous books about the Royal Navy where someone suggested that the whole affair would be far more easy to administer if there was only one ship, and it never went to sea! It seems some parts of MoD are still working towards that state!

        1. The Compassionate Society.
          Minister complains that there are no patients: Nurse replies: It’s the most efficient hospital in the county. It’s won the Florence Nightingale award for cleanliness!

          It is a beautiful episode, made more so because it was based on a true story. Seems nothing changes.

  98. Alex Massie

    After Trump’s carnage, Joe Biden is the president America needs

    7 January 2021, 2:08pm

    A day of infamy but also a clarifying one. The scenes at the US capitol building yesterday were both a wholly predictable and a predicted finale to Donald Trump’s wretched presidency. Predictable because it was obvious four years ago – at least it was obvious to those who cared to open their eyes – that Trump was a festering threat to America’s great democratic experiment. And predicted because everything Trump has said and done since losing the presidential election in November led inexorably to this final, shabby, shameful coda to his presidency.

    For if you spend years lying to people and years telling them they are being cheated, you cannot feign surprise if they subsequently take you at your word and act in ways that could only – and even then only tenuously – be justified if you had actually been telling them the truth. The storming of the Capitol was not an aberration; it was the final proof of Trump’s presidency. The ruin to which all roads led.

    And what a mortifying era it has been. A third-grade huckster somehow assumed the world’s greatest democratic office and, as was inevitable, disgraced it. Not the least of Joe Biden’s responsibilities to to oversee a cleansing fire to eliminate every last trace of Trumpism from the federal government. Once more, we may be thankful that the Democratic party was prudent enough to vote for an electable moderate rather than a nominee who might, despite everything, have lost to Trump.

    This is where identity politics leads, however, and this is something all those who trade in it might care to ponder. That does not make every peddler of half-truths and imaginary grievances a mini-Trump, it merely places them on the same spectrum as this disgraceful president. It remains a warning, however; a glimpse of a cliff from which it is still possible to retreat. Not every American import is worthwhile.

    Equally, those who too readily share Trump’s assessment of Boris Johnson as ‘British Trump’ might also, perhaps, dwell on the inadequacy of that charge. For all his failures, for all his shortcomings, indeed for all his manifest inability to perform the tasks ascribed him, the Prime Minister is not Trump and never has been. It debases our arguments to pretend otherwise. Here too, some perspective might be useful.

    Biden’s presidency was not short on justification before yesterday but overnight it has cornered the market in that precious commodity. This is an opportunity and, perhaps, even a promise. Normalcy was reason enough for a Biden victory but reform has a fresh urgency today. For without reform, the American republic will not be renewed. Trumpism was always a whimper of decline, not strength; Biden’s task is to reimagine that American renewal.

    To that end, the Republican party’s willingness to disgrace itself is ultimately an advantage, for it clears space in the centre of American politics where grown-ups may gather to mend matters. Biden has a freer hand than he did last week and he has greater moral authority too. If the Republican party – no longer the party of Lincoln – must be destroyed in the service of that renewal, then so be it. A sufficient portion of it is there to be taken anyway. A party which has space for Ted Cruz is beyond the pale in any case. Those who aided and abetted and excused and otherwise rolled the pitch for Trump should neither be forgotten nor forgiven. (That verdict might also be extended to Trump’s overseas admirers too. We saw you then and we see you still.)

    It is, it should now be clear, over. Yesterday’s events were the last hurrah; a loser president leaves office on a losing note. But he, more than anyone else, has succeeded in marginalising his own keenest supporters. Until yesterday there was an argument for listening to and empathising with them. But they have torn down that case for sympathy or understanding themselves. For not everything may be accommodated.

    The road to the presidency is so long and so haphazard that in a sense every president is an accidental one, for the journey to the White House depends on a greater measure of dumb luck than anyone cares to appreciate. But it may be that Joe Biden, a milquetoast president in so many ways and an improbable one in plenty of others, is also a fortunate one. Why? Because it seems possible that, in this crisis, the United States has stumbled upon a president unusually qualified for the moment in which he serves. Biden is a happy warrior but also a moderate one and it is this combination of attributes that America sorely needs now: a president who insists upon certain first principles of decency as an entry-level qualification but also one who is not by nature a partisan, less interested in his own victory than his opponents’ defeat.

    After the inferno, there is the opportunity to plant again. Grow back, and grow back better. There are smaller challenges than that but also worse ones.

    WRITTEN BY
    Alex Massie

    Alex Massie is Scotland Editor of The Spectator.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/let-s-stop-pretending-boris-johnson-is-like-donald-trump?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=BLND%20%2020210107%20%20House%20Ads%20%20SM+CID_ab3a925409414015600effb71755f3ea

  101. 328228+up ticks,
    Some people just cannot conform for their own good, many of them know that sitting on benches is a no,no, on Tuesdays, Thursdays,& Saturdays, they know they should be standing on one leg.

    Home Secretary Backs COVID Cops Interrogating Brits Sitting on Park Benches During Lockdown

    2. Use a DNS lookup server to check the registered owner of the IP address. This one appears to be a site in China, with no other DNS info, which immediately raises a red flag.

    4. I’ve had a few of those, but I ignore them if I haven’t used Paypal – or at least they send a code, which I ignore.
      I’ve noticed they seem to have stopped the auto -login.

    5. We are getting three or four of those emails every day. Strange but whenever you inspect the link it is never a PayPal/eBay/Amazon site.

      At least if they had hacked into the real site they would have done some work for their living, this simple masked address is so basic.

      1. Indeed so, Richard. I’m now also plagued by unwanted landline calls. At the old place, I had practically none – except when the previous Rector was away, and he diverted his calls to me. Then, it was 1-2 dozen calls a day. My response was usually “I’m terribly sorry, but Mr H@rbidge has sadly passed away”. I suspect that the previous, now deceased, tenant here was in the directory, and being in an advanced state of dementia, might be on a list of ‘suckers’.

        Bought a call blocking phone yesterday. Leaving aside the fact that I ordered it from Currys/PC World at Guildford, and when I arrived there, they told me it was at Farnborough (long story – don’t ask), I find it doesn’t work. I’ve had dodgy internet since October. Vodafone – my broadband / phone supplier – acknowledge this, and are granting a substantial discount while the matter ‘is being investigated’. For the last week, the landline has had loud crackling, and Caller Display doesn’t work. Hence why the call blocking phone doesn’t either. To cut a long story short, I eventually managed to speak to a sentient being, albeit in India, and Openreach are sending an engineer out on Tuesday to deal with the obviously faulty line. Their initial offer was to send someone out in two months, so I feel I’ve got a result. Why does no company just do it’s bloody job anymore?

  103. 328228+ up ticks,

    UK’s Covid Cops Call for Power to Invade Private Homes to Break up ‘Illegal Gatherings’… Again

    They also have I believe a list of untouchables, paedophiles
    ( foreign) terrorist suspects, & any of the criminal fraternity of a young / elderly nervous disposition.

    So no conflict of interest takes place.

    1. Nothing to do with “nationalism” yer daft Liebour wazzock. Simple common sense.

        1. Nah – he spikka da Inglis. When it suits him.

          Funny how his “Covid” just went…..

          1. Same as Boros, and all the other dignitaries who need to remind the public they are still fleecing the taxpayers.
            All this panic seems to be mainly caused by positive tests. I know of at least 20 people who have tested positive over the past six months and have never been near a hospital as a result.
            I’ll post an interesting list of Grindian facts on the past winters and hospital conditions.

    2. That’s bollocks. I chatted to a ‘Lab rat’ who was a willing participant in the informal trials in the Lab that showed Asprin stopped blood clotting and therefore contributed to the award of a Nobel Prize for the lead scientists. Asked whether she would prefer the Pfizer or Oxford vaccine she replied Oxford….

      1. Given that the Pfizer vaccine needs maintenance at minus 70, there is a risk of deterioration in transit …

        FTR alone, I would prefer the Astra-Zeneca-Oxford version.

      1. Doesn’t seem to produce the expecteded result.
        Ethiopia population figures:
        1970; 28.5 million
        2018; 109 million

      2. Well at least one position worked, how else could you account for him being ten months pregnant?

  106. Bitcoin Surges Above $40k As Crypto Assets Top $1 Trillion

    When it’s Spring again I’ll bring again Tulips from Amsterdam…

    1. I fear that If the US election was corruptly stolen then Biden and the Democratic have got away with it and nothing can or will be done to change the result.

      Treason doth never prosper: what’s the reason
      Why, if it prosper none dare call it treason.

      [John Harrington]

      1. Maybe nothing will change this result but if a bipartisan committee looked at the suggested fraud, they might start rebuilding trust acceptance of the system.

        No point turning around and complaining about voting machines in two years time when they have their mid term elections.

        Not a cat in hells chance of an independent review though, it goes against separation of state and federal powers but more important than that would be the fear of revealing how corrupt the whole system is.

        1. You would have to take in the whole business. Constant gerrymandering of constituency boundaries, voter suppression, scarcity of polling stations… everything. And, like you, I can’t see it happening because the ones who are screaming “cheat” are just as likely to be the ones who are cheating and they don’t want their own scams to be dragged into the light of day.

          1. We think alike on that.

            There was one case that reached the Supreme court a few years ago. The Republican state government were changing voter registrations in a way that was disenfranchising many democratic voters. The Supreme court ruled against the state government and forced them to reinstate the voters.

            That kind of thing plus the money involved would make any investigation very shallow.

          2. I wonder what it will take to make them think more clearly about it? A fifth death has just been announced from yesterday – but life still seems to be appallingly cheap to so many of them.

    2. I wonder how much McEnany is paid to stand in front of a scrum of braying newspaper hacks and just keep repeating the party line. It can’t be worth it.

      1. She didn’t hang around this evening by all accounts, and she didn’t take any questions. Do you suppose that her boss the blundering buffoon has actually realised that he’s overdone things?

    1. Lutfur Rahman/Tower Hamlets Bob.
      The Americans seem to be having problems finding the same their side of the pond.

  109. Good night all.

    Cassoulet, wholegrain mustard on the sausage & duck lifted it to Wowee!

    A ripe Brie, a simple Bordeaux red.

    Bakewell pudding.

    1. Liver and bacon, fried onions, mushrooms and fried potatoes.

      The last of the slab of flapjack from my Christmas goodie box.

          2. Yes it is (though mine was lambs liver tonight) but it is rather a “love it or loathe it” sort of dish.

            I’m inclined to the view that if they don’t like… then there’s all the more for us 😉

          4. Not for me. I was force-fed offal as a child, I hate the stuff. My parents love it but I’ve always hated it. I don’t eat liver, but I do like pate normally. I eat steak pies, and not steak and kidney. I won’t touch stuffed hearts. It’s just not for me.

          5. The flavours tend to be quite strong and if you don’t enjoy it then you don’t. I’ve never believed that if you keep making a child eat something then he/she will “learn to like it” – or at least not beyond half a dozen “just try a little bit” efforts. As has been said here before, life would be very dull if we all enjoyed the same things.

          6. I was brought up to eat plaice & hate cod & to despise those who ate the latter – cat food at best. Now I love cod & plaice is just OK.

          7. I was brought up to eat what I was given – but fish was mainly haddock, which is far more popular than cod in Scotland.

            Now I will eat almost anything fishy… except scallops to which I am, sadly, allergic.

          8. The one fish that I really hate is the German Seelachs, which translates as pollock.

          9. I’ve only ever had pollock in a fish pie (in someone else’s home) with other assorted fish. I can’t say that I was impressed but with mixed fish and a nicely cheesy sauce it wasn’t distinctively horrible. On the other hand I haven’t been tempted to buy any to try again.

          10. I wasn’t long out of hospital with all its ‘delightful’ food 3 years ago when I was confronted with the most disgusting fish pie in my own home. It consisted of dry mashed salmon, dry mashed pollock, thankfully kept separate, dry mashed potato topping, cooked without salt, & no other ingredients or sauce of any kind. I just about managed to get some of the salmon down. No need to guess who created that little culinary miracle! I wouldn’t feed pollock to the cat. That made me determined to take over in the kitchen as soon as I was fit enough.
            My own fish pie has cod/haddock, prawns, perhaps a little salmon, capers, copped gherkins, 1/4’d hard boiled egg, chopped tarragon & parsley & a rich fish & white wine sauce under a pastry crust.

          11. Mine’s not as posh as yours and I do like a mashed potato topping. I can buy mixed fish “bits” in Morrisons which usually include cod/haddock (fresh and smoked) and salmon, then I can add a few prawns if I feel like it. I’ve got a bagful in the freezer which probably ought to be used soon. I like to put tomatoes in it and my sauce has just a smidgen of cheese.

        1. My liver (local lamb) was delicious thank you – and the onions were just nicely crispy.

  110. Anyone who’s up to it and still a DT subscriber please let everyone over there know (on the comments sections of the DT) about The Gates Foundation funding the DT ‘Global Health Security’ section to the tune of $3.4M in 2017. I’m sure that will open their eyes to the paper’s ‘impartiality’ concerning the pandemic and the vaccines currently on offer to the public but which are indemnified by the taxpayer.

    1. The Open Society and the Gates Foundation fund the guardian too, via guardian.org. I wonder how many other UK media outlets they support as well? The FT, perchance?

      1. Soon it’ll be that the MSM are the media equivalent of LibLabCon. Probably why a good number of telegraph journos and columnists are ex-Graun employees.

          1. Only to silence the non-mainstream (Establishment) outlets. Those who control the Internet – essentially big tech, the social media giants and their payment processor/banker chums, can silence who they like and get away with it, thanks to Section 230’s poor wording.

            Small independent channels and especially proper news reporting get almost zero traction – most of the popular outlets are essentially news commentary, not factual reporting. It may take them decades to gain the same level of funding (if ever) as the big boys if those controlling things I mentioned stay in charge, which they will now that Biden and the Dems have ‘won’ and Boris has been effectly put on a leash by the Civil Service/media and cowardly colleagues.

            If any of the REAL journos left (not Left) at the DT from the ‘good old days’ before Chris Evans took over and the Barclay Bros bought the paper had any honour, they’d all leave en-masse with a the few good younger ones and start up their own outlet. I personally cannot see the TV station being started by Andrew Neil being like that – it’ll be, in my view a ‘lite’ Tory outlet which won’t go anywhere near anything deemed ‘controvercial’ like immigration, corruption in politics, the civil service, links to big business between politicians, activist groups, billionairres and the shadowy schemes that many intertwine with the pandemic.

            Essentially, I think it’ll be like Sky News used to be before Comcast took over and (IMHO) made it a British version of their MSNBC. That’s fine as far as it goes, but we need the Old Telegraph back. Most people still get their news, other than from terrestrial TV, from newspapers, and none of them can be trusted to either do a proper job or not pander to the establihment/woke brigade, as that Gates funding shows.

          2. Yes, it is not the same as having an independent media. But Paul Joseph Watson for example, can get over a million people watching his videos. Youtube is not the only platform. Competition is the way forward.
            Of course, the internet can be shut down by government, as china has demonstrated.

    2. There is probably no news outlet or institution in the world that has not been infiltrated by either Gates or Soros or both. From where do you suppose Theresa May’s £1 million came from for giving no speeches.

      Tony Blair is rolling in it and has a property empire supposedly ascribed to his lucrative speechifying. I would not pay to listen to his lies. Someone pays him.

      It is just as bad in America if not worse. The original philanthropists gave money to build libraries and organs for churches. The present supposed philanthropists such as Gates give no money but profit from their faux philanthropy, financial interests in pharmaceutical monoliths and vaccination programmes being a case in point.

      1. If the vaccine goes ahead, and is a success, and has to be done twice a year forever, Gates will make more from that than even Microsoft.

        Lots of “ifs” but what do you think?

        1. I think you halve put your finger on it so to speak. Gates made a lot of money from distributing crap software prone to viruses. He made a lot of money from investments in anti-virus software. It is his modus operandi viz. cause a problem and offer to fix it for an additional fee.

          The same method is deployed in his vaccination investments. First, in collusion with boughten politicians, oblige people to accept the vaccinations and make the takers dependent upon twice yearly ‘booster’ vaccinations until they die.

          A peculiar twist this time around is that the vaccines will probably kill you if you have the slightest susceptibility from old age and co-morbidities (no blame attached to beneficent Bill Gates) you will have died anyway. The bonus is that even if millions die from adverse reactions you remain untouchable.

          The indemnities granted by idiot governments will ensure the taxpayer will foot the compensation bill.

      2. I’m always hearing about ‘political action committees’ (PACs) and other dodgy vehicles for politicians to fundraise where they have almost zero scrutiny of where the money’s coming from and what it’s used for.

        The money given from Big Tech and the social media giants etc and spent by the Dems (paying off local cheating officials?) in the 2020 election was staggering, and makes what ours raise/spend at election time seem small potatoes (even accounting for the population difference) in comparison.

        The problem I see is that it’s all well and good the ‘respectable’ commentators and politicians wanting everything to essentially accept defeat (e.g. in the US) when blatant cheating, corruption and tactics worthy of the USSR are used to subvert democracy and elections, because it’s the ‘honourable thing to do’, but there comes a point when your country either falls into the grip of totalitarianism – possibly for decades and more – or you pull back from the brink.

        Unfortunately, the latter sometimes does require the people to do more than just shout and wave banners. Unlike with the fall of the Soviet Union and other dictatorships, this time, we don’t have a respected Superpower democracy on the doorstep of the US, UK or other Western nations currently near the tipping point to play World Policeman, thus the people and organisations behind the authoritarian moves will feel emboldened, and it’ll only be up to us to push back, with no-one to help us – espeially the mainstream media who appear to all be behind the moves, albeit to varying degrees.

    2. Hello, Geoffrey! Glad to see you’ve survived (Brexit, the virus, lockdown – insert any permutation here) 🙂

    3. Hello Mr Woollard

      Where have you been lingering all this time?

      Nice to see a familiar face , even though I don’t agree with everything you comment on .

      Take care.

    7. Long time no see Geoffrey.

      Happy New Year to you and your family.

      I hope you are all well.

  113. Thought for the day…

    The Donald has been and gone and the 2nd oldest ship on the current US Navy List is still a tourist attraction on the Pyongyang river.

    1. Perhaps that’s why DT wanted a piece accord (sic).

      To bring back all pieces of Americans abroad.

      1. USS Pueblo sailing into San Diego harbour might have been a vote-winner for The Donald. Had he pulled it off.

        1. I liked the 1966 film, ‘The Sand Pebbles’, USS San Pablo set in China in the 20s. Fictional, but a good film.

    2. 35,063

      The way students have been cheated and exploited in recent years is a total disgrace.

    4. I have huge sympathy for the students.
      My view is that they should all tell the universities:
      “We’ve dropped out of your useless home tuition, we won’t pay any fees and nor will we pay for accommodation. If you don’t like that sue us.”

    8. My advice to anyone who wants to go to University has for some years now to go to Nederland or Germany. You will get far better tuition and it will be a lot cheaper. Plus you will have the priceless experience of learning to ‘live’ in a foreign language.

      Three years ago I interviewed a Dutch lad on Skype, IT graduate, and I was deeply impressed. All of my tricky techie questions, he had good answers to. Unfortunately he had thought we were ‘close to London’, so we didn’t get him. He went to work for a bank, so we had no chance. The IT graduates from UK Universities that we have interviewed in the past 5 years have all been very disappointing. All geared up to write the next Facebook and not much else. Good luck with that.

        1. Yes for 42 weeks. That’s £7014 on top of £9000+ each year. That’s for Halls and it’s obligatory for the first year.

      1. I have signed it, but my email is playing up so I haven’t received the mail to click on the link yet. Will do so as soon as Outlook plays ball.

    1. I made a (hidden) reference to them recently but only one person got it. Perhaps the others thought I was winding them up.

    2. Safely sat on the sofa in front of the woodburner with my cocoa and slippers.

      I find it very hard not to imagine tensioning the tape by turning the pencil. It was ages before I thought of writing with it.

  116. Solid Stuff …

    Julyan Coe
    7 Jan 2021 7:10AM
    Oxford University researchers have discovered the densest element yet known to science.

    The new element, Governmentium (symbol=Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called pil!ocks.Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact.A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2 to 6 years.It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganisation in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganisation will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.This characteristic of moron promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration.This hypothetical quantity is referred to as a critical morass.When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium (symbol=Ad), an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium, since it has half as many pil!ocks but twice as many morons.

      1. That’s good Bill.

        There’ll be adequate housing for the Dover landing contingents without concreting over more Green Belt.

    3. All the government needs to say so everyone knows where they stand is to reiterate – whatever you do, if it gives you any sort of pleasure, it’s banned.

  118. Evening, all. Been bitterly cold all day (ice and snow warning issued for the next few days), but it was at least sunny at first. It isn’t just the messaging that has been shambolic; I had a call from my social worker this afternoon and when she said “it [the lockdown] was necessary, I suppose” I asked her, “was it really? It didn’t work the first time” and she agreed that it hadn’t. Einstein springs to mind.

  119. Now thawed out. Spartie had his weigh-in this evening.
    Thanks to the latest panic, you can’t even enter the reception area at the vets, so had a jolly half-hour sitting out in the carpark.
    On the plus side, they can’t take payments, so I’m hanging on to a bit of dosh until they ring me tomorrow.

    1. My aged hound has his MoT and service tomorrow afternoon (annual check up and boosters). I’d better wear my sheepskin if it’s as cold as it’s been today. Waiting in the car park is the standard modus operandi since the Covid panic set in.

      1. I have a full on John Motson.
        I doubt I’ve worn it more than half a dozen times since I bought it, probably 40 years ago, it’s like dressing up in a portable oven, it’s so warm.

  120. A certain person stated: “Last night was the dark denouement of a disgraceful Presidency”

    This same person used to be a journalist at the BBC and worked for Hilary Clinton. So her credentials as a socialist are clearly established.

    Guess what? She is a British ‘Conservative’ MP by the name of Laura Ferris.

    She is obviously an imposter trying to undermine her party and the heritage, culture and traditions of two great countries.

    If Boris doesn’t dismiss her forthwith, then shame on him. As for her, I have nothing polite to say.

    1. Why was it disgraceful? Because she didn’t like it. Not because it was, but because of her prejudices.

      Yet again, we see people projecting their own bigotry and spite on to those they hate.

    2. I’m very slightly to the left of centre.
      and if you believe that you’ll believe anything
      Last night certainly was a dreadful mistake for Trump’s supporters, it can only have provided ammunition for the Demonrats.

      1. But, in other news: “Former FBI Agent on the Ground at US Capitol Says at Least One Bus Load of Antifa Thugs Infiltrated Trump Demonstration”.

        2. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least, given they also are the lot that turned up with vans loaded with bricks and encouraged BLM rioters to use them a few months ago, or bussed in Antifa agitators who riled up crowds of protestors to riot. Of course, the MSM won’t bother looking into that, given what they’ve covered up and lied about over the past 4 years and more. Sadly, I include the DT in that group.

      2. It was and it was also entirely predictable given the way Trump has acted since losing the election. The POTUS should act on behalf of all Americans and should seek to unite the country – Trump simply never did that and he paid the electoral price.

        1. Indeed.
          But in a few years time, when Biden and Harris and then Harris and the squad, have wrecked any possible reunification, America will get what they bought.

      3. Sadly Trump has became more petulant and difficult in recent weeks .

        I wonder whether his marriage is holding up .

        I hope he doesn’t start a war , by pressing the button and wiping out N Korea, Iran, Mexico, oh alright , everywhere.

        1. Curiously Belle he’s been the one US President recently who has not instigated a major war. I believe he has also been bringing troops home from the World’s trouble spots…..

  121. Rather a LOT of peed off DT subscribers on the Letters Page comments are today – many not taking kindly to the US election coverage and lack of any investigations into the alleged voter fraud and pro-Biden agenda of the paper, plus the silencing of readers by very little reader comments sections being available on that subject (and yesterday’s events at Capitol Hill) and, apparently, the mods deleting reader commentary critical of the paper’s coverage, both specifically and more generally.

    Sounds like things have gone back to they were back in March – May last year when I had enough and told the DT to stick their subs where the sun doesn’t shine. I know from experience that readers cannot change what the paper puts out or behaves if they just complain – they are royally ignored, so they ONLY option left is to vote with their wallets and unsub and completely cancel their account one the subscription runs out, because the DT is now starting to lose ‘registrants’ (which includes both subscribers [about 550k by their ‘reckoning’] and mostly people who unsubbed but haven’t cancelled their account [about 6M+]).

    All you can get being a ‘registrant’ is one free article per week – but no comments facilities. You CAN, however, get full access to the content of articles, including being able to read the reader comments (when available) just by going to the pages and either quickly using the cancel (X) button of your browser at the right moment, or as I’ve discovered the toggle reader view (at least on Firefox).

    I find that my ‘vintage’ (2014) tablet ironically is slow enough that the X method works 99% of the time, whereas it only works once in a blue moon on my older, but far faster desktop PC. The toggle view method appears to work on my PC, at least on the Letters Page. Let’s hope the DT doesn’t do something about that, although given the quality of most articles nowadays, it won’t be the end of the world. That’s more Mr Biden’s forte.

    Signing off for today, assuming I’ll have something to watch on TV when eating me tea.

    Ta-ta.

    1. The beauty of that approach is that they sell advertising off the back of subscriptions and readers.

      No readers/subscriptions; no advertising.

      1. Still here (just) – before I unsubbed in June 2020, I was always telling other subscribers to use ad-blocker ad-ons on the browser to stop 99% of the ads. It makes the experience far better for us but not for the DT.

    2. All appropriate investigations of voter fraud have taken place. That is not hard to understand. The only remaining possibility would be Congressional Committees, but that won’t happen.

        1. The States have conducted such investigations as they want to conduct, they have taken place, they are finished. The Federal authorities have no jurisdiction to investigate elections in the States, so the FBI cannot get involved. The SCOTUS had it decided to has the authority to conduct investigations and can co-opt whatever resources it requires, but they chose not to.

          That is all the investigative resources that have jurisdiction and they are all done. You seem to understand very little of how law and jurisdiction works in the US. Read a proper commentary on the US Constitution, it will be very enlightening.

          1. You seem to ignore breaches of the Constitution by multiple states and ignorance of its safeguards.

            Edit: before arriving here with your pro Biden views had you a former identity. Just asking.

          2. I am not remotely pro-Biden nor pro Harris. What breaches of the Constitution were there? I am not aware of any and neither is the SCOTUS. Had there been breaches of the Constitution put before them I am quite certain that SCOTUS would have ruled to correct them.

            I have been using the same identity for many years. It must be said that given the past few days my enthusiasm for Trump has diminished sharply. I share that feeling with his allies in the GOP, who are all horrified.

  125. I am definitely not going out in support of the NHS. I kid you not, the last time I went for a health check the doctor sent me for a blood test for the clap. It came back negative – I don’t know whether to be ashamed or relieved.

  126. Off topic a bit. Did everyone who normally has an annual medication review get one last year? I receive a letter usually but did not receive one.

    1. I had one in September. Next one due in March, although I requested 12-monthly reviews. Bin gespannt.

        1. New surgery. Saw a practice nurse – bloods, *weight, *height, foot check (that could have been fun), then a phone call from a DSN, to say Hba1c had improved, cholesterol fine, and kidneys only slightly sub-optimal. Thank God they didn’t test my liver…

          *It seems that no-one in the NHS understands that a standard BMI chart (useless at the best of times) is somewhat meaningless for a bilateral below-knee amputee…

          3. Ah, the lungfish, a remarkable animal. Only 6 species left in Africa, S America and Australia. They go back a long way.

          6. I tend not to eat them – as you know KIngs don’t come off to well eating Lampreys….

          1. Described by my mother’s friend in an email as the “flea botanist”. Took me ages to work out what she was on about.

    3. The problem is as I have previously found. The review usually takes place in a half converted store room at the rear of the pharmacy. Not a good place to be, especially now.
      I organised my own annual blood tests and appointment, but haven’t had the results. I might try in the morning by phoning my local GP surgery.
      I shove a reminder letter through the letter box of my surgery.

      1. After advice from a medic I bought my own BP monitor a couple of years ago. I take every few months. Three times over 15 minutes and send the BP results and heart rate in after they contact me with a text message.
        I had bad news from the orthopaedic surgeon re a possible hip replacement. Spire think it’s a bit dodgy carrying out the op because they don’t have full A&E back.
        Too many previous medical problems. Oh dear.

        1. Oh dear, sorry to hear about the hip operation Eddy, that’s tough for you.

          On the BP front we have a monitor at home but our D-I-L, a nurse, says it’s more accurate on the sphygmomanometer at the surgery and, as it was an annual check up, I thought it a good idea to go along. As it happens my BP was sky high but that was because I’d been talking to another patient about the effing Covid scamdemic and they prescribed another medication in line with ramipril. However, I decided not to take it immediately. I monitored at home for a week, steering away from Covid news as much as possible, and the results were fine. So I didn’t take the extra meds.

          1. Thanks for your concern VW. Dodgy hip joints are part of the makeup of my maternal side of the family………..if only they’d mentioned that at the interview 😄
            You have to monitor BP medication, some of it can make you have a tickly cough, I had my GP change mine to Losartan from lisinopril. A cough is not good in the present climate. But other beta blockers can do the same thing.

          2. That’s interesting what you say about tickly coughs, I’ve had that for ages, never thought it might be the ramipril. Still I don’t think it a good enough reason to try to make an appointment with the Covid health service just now so I’ll carry on sucking mints and drinking champagne 🍾 hic!

      1. I just thought it was going to be a bit delayed, but I haven’t heard a thing. Usually occurs near my birthday, but that was 5 months ago. I think I’ll call them. You should too, Belle.

  129. 8th January 2021

    Rough Common

    Happy Birthday

    and

    Many Happy Returns

    We haven’t seen much of you recently but we hope you’ll make more visits this year!

    With best wishes,

    Caroline and Richard

    1. Gordon Bennet, Rastus. You should have typed that in the morning after you’ve had a good night’s sleep.

      1. As I have mentioned to you before, I post and then check for typos after I have posted as many of us here do.

        If you spot a typo in my posts you will have to refresh in order to see whether or not they have been corrected. I corrected this post straight away so you saw my uncorrected post which would only have been unamended for a few moments.

        You may remember I was extremely pissed off when you accused me of lying before. I am not a liar and I don’t take kindly to your insinuations.

        So, next time you see a typo in someone’s post give that person time to edit his or her typos out and then refresh before criticising him or her.

        1. It would be better to carry out corrections before posting, n’est-ce pas? That is the logical thing to do. When you were teaching, I’m sure you didn’t tolerate it if one of your pupils handed in an essay full of mistakes with the comment, “Please, Sir. I’ll do the corrections later.

          I have never accused you of lying.

          1. Good morning Peddy

            I would never dream of telling you how to do a filling or extract a tooth. I have my way of editing my typos which many others also use. I admit that my keyboard skills are very poor so I need to re-read my posts after putting them up because, when they are up, they appear more clearly to me.

            I suggest that when you see one of my posts that has been up for some time you refresh – then you can see if I have left typos up or if I have corrected them.

            When I have left a typo or an error up without correcting it I am grateful to those who point it out. When I have corrected a mistake as soon as possible it is very off pissing to be corrected for something I have already corrected!

        2. I would not normally get involved, however, I do not want to break my rule of upvoting someone who gets a senseless downvote, so…

    2. Don’t forget: it’s Elvis Presley’s birthday too, & that of my paternal grandmother.

  131. Good morning all

    Another frosty morning here. All quiet and still, although the birds are feeding , family of longtailed tits have appeared and are pecking at the frozen fat balls.

    Not that it matters , but I submitted a letter to the DT on Sunday night ..

    Sir

    Daffodils are flowering here now in these Dorsetty parts before any signs of snowdrops appearing.

    Does this count as one of the first pointless letters to the DT of 2021?
    ……………………………………………………………………………………………..

    No sign of my letter, but I expect a few of you have noticed daffodils flowering long before the snowdrops appearing ?

  132. A BLM

    IR – Please would someone explain why a country with apparently nothing to hide refuses to co-operate?

    Elizabeth Prior London SW10

    As a reminder to the world, why is COVID-19, not just called The China Flu
    The world had no qualms about calling an ealier pandemic The Spanish Flu

  133. Extrovert parakeets

    SIR – The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs proposes to cull ring-necked parakeets,

    as they allegedly threaten native species (Letters, January 5).

    A process which seems to be working with the BLM influence on our British way of life

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