Friday 22 January: Don’t trust fickle opinion polls in setting a timetable to lift restrictions

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/01/22/lettersdont-trust-fickle-opinion-polls-setting-timetable-lift/

797 thoughts on “Friday 22 January: Don’t trust fickle opinion polls in setting a timetable to lift restrictions”

    1. SIR – Cancelling exams and letting teachers award grades is like cancelling Premier League football matches and letting each manager award his team points.

      Brian Christley
      Abergele, Conwy

  3. SIR – It is no good leaving it to the scientists. When will the Government enter into an open and honest debate with the public concerning the balance point between risk of mortality and living in a Covid-induced prison?

    R J Hart
    Newark, Nottinghamshire

    1. I think these climate change great reset backed scientists see ordinary people as the virus that has to be exterminated or mutated.

    2. BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      22 Jan 2021 7:13AM
      R J Hart should realise that the Government are not “following the science,” but are, in fact really following Scientific Opinion specially selected to support their policies.

      As with Global Warming the opinions of any other scientists, especially experts and specialists in the particular field, are ignored.

      Edit ()

  4. SIR – I thought the British were the ones noted for irony. Who, then, chose Lady Gaga to sing at President Joe Biden’s inauguration?

    John Francklow
    Ludlow, Shropshire

  5. SIR – Observers concerned that the Biden regime might be too woke should be encouraged by the inclusion of Amazing Grace in the inauguration ceremony – the hymn penned by slave ship captain John Newton.

    Peter Anderson
    Kettering, Northamptonshire

    1. I’m glad I didn’t watch the ceremony what with hearing about the poet and all the fake empathy.
      Looks like just a rerun of the old Blair tricks.

      1. This is quite entertaining…

        Melanie McDonagh
        Amanda Gorman was let down by a terrible poem
        21 January 2021, 4:33pm

        https://youtu.be/Jp9pyMqnBzk

        Congratulations to Amanda Gorman, who is, at 22, the youngest ever poet for the inauguration of a US president. She stole the show with her style and poise – fabulous look, tremendous assurance. The pundits are united in their view that a Star Is Born; Michelle Obama has given her imprimatur; ditto Oprah.

        Trouble is the actual poem.

        Amanda was given the theme of America United. The Hill We Climb is the result. Without pretending to be in the FR and Queenie Leavis league when it comes to literary sensibility, I couldn’t make sense of it. I mean, I got bits of it, I got the sentiment, I got the stream of consciousness, the emotion, I got the sub-Martin Luther King flow. But trying to make the whole thing cohere, structurally and grammatically – and in terms of sense – was another matter.

        I may be wrong, of course, and wilfully dim. God knows I get things wrong myself. Maybe this is how poetry works now. But let me show you a little of what I mean. Here’s the text, with a few comments interspersed:

        ‘When day comes, we ask ourselves, where can we find light in this never-ending shade?

        The loss we carry. A sea we must wade.

        (How does ‘The loss we carry. A sea we must wade’ follow from the first line about finding light, unless it’s simply to make ‘wade’ rhyme with ‘shade’?)

        We braved the belly of the beast.

        (Eh?)

        We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice.

        And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.

        Somehow we do it.

        Somehow we weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.

        (Alliteration – ‘weathered and witnessed’ – doesn’t mean the two verbs make sense or work together)

        We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one.

        (This is a weird sentence. You get the gist, of course. But where does the ‘We’ that begins the line go in search of a verb? If the sentence began with ‘a skinny black girl…can dream of becoming president, only to find herself…’ it could sort of work. But following on from the ‘We, the successors…’ it doesn’t. Sorry.)

        And, yes, we are far from polished, far from pristine, but that doesn’t mean we are striving to form a union that is perfect.

        (What’s with the ‘but’ here? Maybe ‘for we are not striving’? Dunno.)

        We are striving to forge our union with purpose.

        (Shouldn’t it be a comma, to make sense of the next infinitive, ‘to compose…’?)

        To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.

        And so we lift our gaze, not to what stands between us, but what stands before us.

        We close the divide because we know to put our future first, we must first put our differences aside.

        We lay down our arms so we can reach out our arms to one another.

        We seek harm to none and harmony for all.

        Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true.

        (The globe? The world, surely? And let’s lose the full stop so the next line follows.)

        That even as we grieved, we grew.

        That even as we hurt, we hoped.

        That even as we tired, we tried.

        That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious.

        Not because we will never again know defeat, but because we will never again sow division.

        Scripture tells us to envision that everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid.

        If we’re to live up to our own time, then victory won’t lie in the blade, but in all the bridges we’ve made.

        That is the promised glade, the hill we climb, if only we dare.

        It’s because being American is more than a pride we inherit.

        It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.

        We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation, rather than share it.

        Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.

        And this effort very nearly succeeded.

        But while democracy can be periodically delayed, it can never be permanently defeated.

        (This refers to the incursion of extremists into Congress, which took place while our poet was at work. But while the lines from ‘We’ve seen a force…’ try for grandiosity, they collapse with the mundane ‘this effort very nearly succeeded.’ The lines don’t hang together.)

        In this truth, in this faith we trust, for while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.

        This is the era of just redemption.

        We feared at its inception.

        We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour.

        But within it we found the power to author a new chapter, to offer hope and laughter to ourselves.

        So, while once we asked, how could we possibly prevail over catastrophe, now we assert, how could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?

        We will not march back to what was, but move to what shall be: a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free.

        We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, become the future.

        (You could just about get away with declaiming all this at a rally…but as poetry?)

        Our blunders become their burdens.

        But one thing is certain.

        If we merge mercy with might, and might with right, then love becomes our legacy and change our children’s birthright.

        (‘changes’, no?…is the subject ‘we’ or ‘love’?)

        So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.

        Every breath from my bronze-pounded chest, we will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.

        (Stop it right there. Does this sentence hang together? If it went from ‘every breath…’ to ‘will raise this wounded world’ it might make sense. If it started with ‘we will raise this wounded world’ it might make sense. But can our poet make her mind up about what’s doing the raising of this wounded world?)

        We will rise from the golden hills of the West.

        We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realised revolution.

        We will rise from the lake-rimmed cities of the Midwestern states.

        Simon Evans
        James Corden and the problem with post-Trump comedy
        From Spectator Life

        We will rise from the sun-baked South.

        We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover.

        And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and beautiful.

        When day comes, we step out of the shade of flame and unafraid.

        The new dawn blooms as we free it.

        For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it.

        If only we’re brave enough to be it.’

        This kind of poetry and this kind of emotional declamation and all the intermittently dramatic diction are very much the stuff of contemporary poetry recitals. But once you stop being uplifted by the authenticity of the emotion and the beauty of the speaker and actually try to get your head round the syntax and the sense, you just have to give up.

        The thing about Martin Luther King’s diction – and he was an orator, not poet – was that it was sonorous, beautiful and rousing but it also made grammatical sense. His sentences hung together. This poem falls down on both counts.

        Take the poem away from the moment of delivery and look at the actual text, and The Hill We Climb turns out, I think, to be just a bit rubbish.

        ***********************************************************

        Squire Western • 14 hours ago • edited
        Melanie, you are being obtuse. She could have recited ‘baa baa black sheep’ and been lauded to the heavens because she got the important things right. Let me remind you:
        1/. She is black
        2/. She is female
        3/. She is young

        Do you seriously think people were interested in the literary merit or otherwise of her poem?

        1. It is guff. Think of all those monkeys typing Shakespeare. It sounds much better as a rap and apparently T-bone Ice is going to be releasing a version very soon.

  6. ‘Stain on our history’: Statues of William Beckford and Sir John Cass to be removed from Guildhall over slavery links. 22 january 2021.

    Catherine McGuinness, the City Corporation’s policy chairwoman, said the decision was the result of “months of valuable work” by their Tackling Racism Taskforce, which was set up in June following Black Lives Matter protests in the capital.

    She said: “The view of members was that removing and re-siting statues linked to slavery is an important milestone in our journey towards a more inclusive and diverse city.

    The Tackling Racism Taskforce co-chairwoman Caroline Addy said she is “really pleased” the committee voted for the “correct response to a sensitive issue”.

    She said: “The slave trade is a stain on our history and putting those who profited from it literally on a pedestal is something that has no place in a modern, diverse city.”

    Morning everyone. Obviously the Tackling Racism Taskforce was packed with disinterested members and approached their appointed roles with impartial rigour!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/statues-william-beckford-sir-john-cass-removed-guildhall-slavery-links-b900708.html

      1. The Romans used a lot of slaves – rip up the roads, aquaducts, destroy Bath … (sorry corim )

    2. The slave trade was a wonderful opportunity for illiterate Africans who were totally devoid of any skills to make a new life in the New World. Free transport and food and clothing, and accommodation provided. Healthy hard work in the open air in a very comfortable climate.
      The real question is if things were as bad as is erroneously claimed, why are there so many of their descendants around in such large numbers.? Moreover what is the descendants’ excuse for being illiterate and totally devoid of skills after two or three hundred years of opportunity?

    1. Test monthly on 45 reps and there’s your universal basic income sorted with extra home imprisonment thrown in…………..
      Build back better after the Great Reset,don’tchaknow
      ‘Morning Minty

  9. RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Don’t clean your teeth – save the NHS… a look forward to Covid Britain in 2024

    PUBLISHED: 23:05, 21 January 2021 | UPDATED: 00:41, 22 January 2021

    The date is March 1, 2024, and Britain is about to enter its fifth year of lockdown.

    Despite the entire population being vaccinated every six months and the death toll from Covid-19 falling to zero, scientists are still warning that it is too early to ease restrictions.

    At the Old Bailey, anti-lockdown campaigner Piers Corbyn is jailed for life after being found guilty of failing to wear a mask in his own bathroom while cleaning his teeth.

    Corbyn was arrested during a dawn raid by armed police executing a warrant under the new Contagious Diseases (Safety of Ablutions) Serious Offences Act.

    A civic-minded neighbour using night-vision binoculars rang Scotland Yard’s dedicated Covid Narkline after spotting a maskless Corbyn through a frosted glass window spitting toothpaste into the sink and rinsing it down the plughole.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328948-9174105-image-a-34_1611268392197.jpg
    The date is March 1, 2024, and Britain is about to enter its fifth year of lockdown, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328530-9174105-image-m-30_1611268320645.jpg
    Despite the entire population being vaccinated every six months and the death toll from Covid-19 falling to zero, scientists are still warning that it is too early to ease restrictions. Pictured: Teenage Youtube star Canking claimed last week that up 20 police officers swooped on his apartment after receiving a false tip-off that he was holding a lockdown party

    Despite the fact that there is no evidence of anyone falling ill after contracting a toothpaste-related Covid variant, scientists have warned that if a single droplet of human saliva contaminates the water supply, it could result in hundreds of millions of horrible premature deaths.

    At yesterday’s five o’clock news conference, Prime Minister Boris Johnson declared that the blanket policy of ‘Stay Home; Stop Cleaning Your Teeth; Protect the NHS’ had been a roaring success.

    Hospital admissions and deaths from Covid have now fallen to nil for the fourth year running.

    So have admissions from all other illnesses, since routine operations for everything apart from coronavirus remain suspended — just to be on the safe side.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38329194-9174105-image-a-35_1611268547485.jpg
    At the Old Bailey, anti-lockdown campaigner Piers Corbyn is jailed for life after being found guilty of failing to wear a mask in his own bathroom while cleaning his teeth

    This has had the added benefit of freeing up hard-pressed NHS staff to do absolutely nothing, as there are now no patients in hospital anywhere in the country — a statistic which the Prime Minister boasts proudly makes Britain’s health service the envy of the world.

    Ever since everyone in Britain was ordered to stay indoors and wear a mask 24 hours a day, after the fourth spike in 2021, Covid has been successfully eradicated.

    But still the long-serving Health Secretary Matt Hancock and the Government’s top advisers insist it is too risky to allow a resumption of what we used to think of as normal life . . .

    OK, so I exaggerate. Up to a point. But how much more hysterical and illogical can the Government’s response to the pandemic get?

    There are already demands to force us to wear masks in our own homes. Some fanatics want face coverings made compulsory outdoors, too.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328540-9174105-image-a-31_1611268331105.jpg
    How much more hysterical and illogical can the Government’s response to the pandemic get? Pictured: Home Secretary Priti Patel

    Police are urging friends, neighbours, even young children to grass up anyone they suspect of breaking the increasingly bizarre lockdown rules.

    Transgressors face heavy fines, from £200 up to £10,000. How long before mandatory prison sentences follow?

    And given that most of us have effectively spent the past ten months behind bars, would we notice? Still, better get used to it.

    Case numbers appear to be falling, but sadly deaths hit record daily levels this week.

    Thankfully, vaccination is proceeding quickly, although not without hiccups, but just as we’re getting our hopes up, ‘the science’ claims this is not the be-all-and-end-all.

    Doubts are being raised over the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine if the second jab is not given after three weeks, as originally planned.

    We’re also told there may not be enough vaccine to go round for the forseeable future.

    That deceptive light at the end of the tunnel may be just another burglar’s torch.

    While Boris blusters about keeping restrictions going till summer, the Two Ronnies want some kind of lockdown to stay in force until next year at the earliest. Everybody back in your box.

    That cadaverous Jeremiah Chris Whitty (and it’s goodnight from him) says that despite vaccination, we should all carry on wearing masks and maintaining social distancing until — well, how long is a piece of string?

    Apparently, once Covid is beaten, flu will make a comeback. So what? We’ve been living with flu for generations without resorting to panic measures.

    What’s different now is that too many people have tasted power during this pandemic and they’re not about to give it up any time soon without a fight.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328534-9174105-image-a-32_1611268334757.jpg
    While Boris blusters about keeping restrictions going till summer, the Two Ronnies want some kind of lockdown to stay in force until next year at the earliest. Everybody back in your box

    The scientists, so-called ‘experts’, civil servants, Toytown politicians, coppers, covid marshals and self-appointed covigilantes are having a field day throwing their weight around.

    At the beginning of June, just as the first corona restrictions were being eased, I warned you that the New Normal would be ten times worse than lockdown.

    As I’ve been telling you for decades, once you give anyone any authority, especially if it comes with a hi-viz jacket, they will always . . . well, you know the rest. I don’t want to rain on the vaccination parade.

    The scientists at Oxford and elsewhere — as opposed to ‘the science’ — have played a blinder. Funk beyond the call of duty.

    But if you think that when everyone’s had the first and second jabs we can get back to the Old Normal, I’m here to tell you we won’t. Ever.

    People will still be required to social distance in five, maybe ten years’ time. Who knows? Fancy face masks are here to stay, not just a transient fashion fad.

    Working From Home will become a way of life for millions.

    Along with long-term unemployment for millions more, as thousands of recently profitable businesses go to the wall, never to recover.

    The notion that our ghost town centres will be revived in a hurry with affordable housing and a continental- style cafe culture is for the birds.

    Even though the tree-hugging bike lane zealots suffered a setback with the defeat of London’s mayor Genghis Khan’s insane anti-car Streetspace scheme in the High Court this week, they’ll be back everywhere.

    They won’t give up without a fight, either.

    Get set to spend even more time stuck in your own backyard.

    Public transport services will be slashed to the bone and become ever more expensive.

    Air travel will struggle to recover, despite pent-up demand.

    The economist Milton Friedman got it right when he said there’s nothing more permanent than a temporary government programme.

    Dishi Rishi is already finding it politically virtually impossible to reclaim his stop-gap Covid largesse.

    Free school meals all year round and other expensive social handouts are here to stay.

    No ambitious politician dares take away anything which has come to be seen as an entitlement. Life’s a ratchet not a pendulum.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328536-9174105-image-a-33_1611268338104.jpg
    Now we’re required to do only what we’re told by ministers who make laws on a whim and hand the police new powers without even bothering to put any of it before Parliament

    Sorry if this has been a column to slash your wrists by. I hope I’m proved horribly wrong.

    The lasting, most depressing thing about this pandemic — tragic loss of life aside — is the way our assumptions about liberty and democracy have been turned on their head.

    And repeated scaremongering has persuaded far too many people to accept it’s for their own good.

    This was once a country where you could do what you liked as long as it wasn’t specifically proscribed by law.

    Now we’re required to do only what we’re told by ministers who make laws on a whim and hand the police new powers without even bothering to put any of it before Parliament.

    Covid has permitted an allegedly Conservative Government to create a punishment culture in which people constantly have to ask whether they are ‘allowed’ to do this, that or the other.

    Better brush your teeth while you still can.

    Welcome to the New Normal.

    …………………………………………………………………………………………
    Eurostar is in desperate financial trouble and seeking a British Government bailout over Covid.

    Here’s a plan. French-owned Eurostar could advertise at the camps near Calais, where thousands of migrants are waiting to cross to Britain.

    Instead of paying the people-traffickers exorbitant sums and risking a hazardous Channel crossing in a dinghy, they could be persuaded to buy a ticket and travel in style.

    One way, obviously.

    Eurostar could even cut out the middle man and build a branch line direct to the DSS in Croydon.

    ………………………………………………………………….
    On the toot at the Trumpet

    Thanks to all those of you who have written to assure me there was a royal connection behind the old Black Boy & Trumpet pub in Peterborough.

    In Tudor times, an African trumpeter called John Blanke served both Henry VII and Henry VIII, and is thought to have come to England as a valued member of Katharine of Aragon’s court.

    Katharine, Henry VIII’s first wife, is buried at Peterborough Cathedral. That would explain it.

    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/01/21/22/38328796-9174105-image-a-28_1611267910650.jpg
    In Tudor times, an African trumpeter called John Blanke served both Henry VII and Henry VIII, and is thought to have come to England as a valued member of Katharine of Aragon’s court

    Blanke was no slave, he was a free man. Trumpeters were paid ten times the wage of an average Tudor labourer.

    This (above) is believed to be a image of him, taken from a contemporary manuscript.

    So, far from being a poisonous symbol of racism, the Black Boy & Trumpet was actually an early celebration of diversity. Trebles all round!

    ……………………………………………………………………………………
    Now that formerly hard-drinking Bez from the Happy Mondays has become a born-again fitness guru, maybe other 1980s rock stars could be roped in for public health campaigns.

    How about the Pogues’ Shane MacGowan as an ambassador for Dry January?

    1. They haven’t twigged it yet why so many COVID unemployed trades need to become scaffold erectors.

      1. I have warmed to him since I first encountered his stuff about walking around the coast. He is something of a polymath and is not adequately employed by the BBC because he ain’t a metropolitan luvvie

  13. Russia detains Navalny aides and warns against Saturday protests. 22 January 2021.

    Gary Kasparov, former chess champion and now chair of the Human Rights Foundation, tweeted that the Facebook pages of Navalny supporters have been suspended. “Even small accounts like the Free Russia Forum’s on Instagram have been blocked after thousands of fake complaints from new Kremlin bot accounts,” he said, adding that there was an “unprecedented crackdown” going on in Russia.

    Pikers! They shut down the President of the United States here!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/22/russia-detains-navalny-aides-and-warns-against-saturday-protests

    1. How things change! In the cold war, we used to hear such news and feel sorry for the Russians, but it never crossed our minds that we would be subject to the same!

  15. ‘Morning All

    Mystic Rik’s crystal balls working overtime

    How long before Assad starts “Chemical weapon attacks on innocent civilians”

    Details supplied by the SOHR and the famous White Helmet productions

    (look for the new child actor the old one that appeared sooooo many times has grown up too much)

    Won’t take Biden long to start paying off his masters…………….

    https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1352474179740827655?s=20

    2. Sounds about right. Assad is the last trace of sensible and moderate control in Syria and most of the Middle East. Jordan lies low and says nothing but that may not save them.

  17. Biden’s trans rights agenda is bad news for women and girls. 20 January 2021.

    Joe Biden has wasted little time grabbing rights from women and girls across America. On day one, he signed an Executive Order on ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’. This is being hailed as a pivotal moment for transgender rights. But it’s nothing of the sort.

    Let’s be clear about what this means in reality: boys who identify as girls could soon be able to use girls’ locker rooms, even if girls using those facilities feel uncomfortable about that. And in school sports, boys who identify as girls could soon be competing alongside girls, despite often having physical advantages, such as being stronger or taller than their peers.

    We have here someone (who are themselves trans) arguing against what is the logical extension of their own beliefs. Aside from the rather twee comments about the classroom the real victims will be the occupants of Women’s Prisons in the US. They will shortly receive a deluge of applicants claiming to be female who are seeking to escape the horrors of their Male Counterparts by joining a system that is not only safer but easier. This will cater to the appetites of its most vile elements. Will Joe and the Woke worry? Not at all! HypocritesRUs

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/biden-s-trans-rights-agenda-is-bad-news-for-women

    3. Will girls that identify as boys have to complete in male sports, use male changing rooms and go to male prisons?

      Much as they might want to be boys, they would find themselves very vulnerable to assault by the more unsavoury chaps in these domains and they’ll have very little chance of success in their chosen sport.

      So I expect we’ll find that trans men (women really) are somehow able to cope in their birth gender milieu while trans women (men really) claim PTSD or some other mental abuse if they can’t join the other side.

      Edit: and if it is left to individual choice, why shouldn’t non trans women and men choose their environment as well? I mean, if we’re aiming for fairness for all …

      2. Don’t be confused, Stormy (Morning, BTW). It has nothing to do with fairness, all to do with bias and disruption.
        It’s an easier life for men to pretend to be women, and it’s easier for feminists to blame men for everything. By blaming someone else, one’s own deficiencies are made less painful.

  18. Biden’s trans rights agenda is bad news for women and girls. 20 January 2021.

    Joe Biden has wasted little time grabbing rights from women and girls across America. On day one, he signed an Executive Order on ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’. This is being hailed as a pivotal moment for transgender rights. But it’s nothing of the sort.

    Let’s be clear about what this means in reality: boys who identify as girls could soon be able to use girls’ locker rooms, even if girls using those facilities feel uncomfortable about that. And in school sports, boys who identify as girls could soon be competing alongside girls, despite often having physical advantages, such as being stronger or taller than their peers.

    We have here someone (who are themselves trans) arguing against what is the logical extension of their own beliefs. Aside from the rather twee comments about the classroom the real victims will be the occupants of Women’s Prisons in the US. They will shortly receive a deluge of applicants claiming to be female who are seeking to escape the horrors of their Male Counterparts by joining a system that is not only safer and easier. This will cater to the appetites of its most vile elements. Will Joe and the Woke worry? Not at all! HypocritesRUs

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/biden-s-trans-rights-agenda-is-bad-news-for-women

  19. Biden’s trans rights agenda is bad news for women and girls. 20 January 2021.

    Joe Biden has wasted little time grabbing rights from women and girls across America. On day one, he signed an Executive Order on ‘Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation’. This is being hailed as a pivotal moment for transgender rights. But it’s nothing of the sort.

    Let’s be clear about what this means in reality: boys who identify as girls could soon be able to use girls’ locker rooms, even if girls using those facilities feel uncomfortable about that. And in school sports, boys who identify as girls could soon be competing alongside girls, despite often having physical advantages, such as being stronger or taller than their peers.

    We have here someone (who are themselves trans) arguing against what is the logical extension of their own beliefs. Aside from the rather twee comments about the classroom the real victims will be the occupants of Women’s Prisons in the US. They will shortly receive a deluge of applicants claiming to be female who are seeking to escape the horrors of their Male Counterparts by joining a system that is not only safer and easier. This will cater to the appetites of its most vile elements. Will Joe and the Woke worry? Not at all! HypocritesRUs

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/biden-s-trans-rights-agenda-is-bad-news-for-women

  20. Good morning all from a dry but still dark Derbyshire at -1°C on the yard thermometer.
    It is 07:30. Consider how dark it is.
    Had we stayed on BST this would be 08:30.

  21. The MSM truly hates the internet…………….

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a0dfcaf0e36633c341a613035cb61baae9f66d3863a017caa15e48458a1d3b1.jpg

    Ahem

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/660e062c63e99ae97eae5bffdb6702676065c45da18e38232dabfc62735c7185.jpg
    Just like the pipeline ban all about destroying energy independence and jobs,forcing the purchase of expensive middle east oil…………….say goodby to those manufacturing jobs as energy prices soar

  22. Decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee off the cards for now, Government confirms. 22 January 2021.

    Ending months of speculation over decriminalisation, Oliver Dowden said that changing the sanction for licence fee evasion could backfire as non-payers would face “significantly higher fines and costs”.

    There are also concerns that adopting a civil penalty could involve the use of private bailiffs in the collection of money for those who refuse to pay.

    This is obfuscation and sophistry of the highest order! The separation of “decriminalisation” from ending the licence fee (which is what is needed) allows them to play with words. If the licence were to be abolished there could be no criminal or civil prosecutions!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/21/decriminalising-non-payment-licence-fee-cards-now-government/

  23. Good morning from a Anglo Saxon Queen with sharpened axe and longbow .

    A mild morning with some blue in the sky, birds are singing.. do they think it Spring.

        1. Forecast a dry day today and a mainly dry one tomorrow so I ought to be able to get the mulcher fired up and the brash from the elm I dropped chopped up together with a few other outside jobs.

      1. Morning Mr Viking. Okay thank you, hope you are doing okay too, not too much mischief 😉

  24. Looks very likely there will be great surprise when it is revealed who is really US President !

        1. Polly we already know who is in all probability the real US President. Problem is how to remove the cheater in a legal fashion.

  25. Be Sure You Know The Signs

    This guy went to the zoo one day. While he was standing in front of the gorilla’s enclosure, the wind gusted and he got some grit in his eye.
    As he pulled his eyelid down to dislodge the particle, the gorilla went crazy, bent open the bars, and beat the guy senseless.

    When the guy came to, the zookeeper was anxiously bending over him, and as soon as he was able to talk, he explained what had happened. The zookeeper nodded and explained that in gorilla language, pulling down your eyelid means, “Fuck you!”

    This didn’t make the gorilla’s victim feel any better and he vowed revenge. The next day he purchased two large knives, two party hats, two party horns, and a large sausage. Putting the sausage in his pants, he hurried to the zoo and over to the gorilla’s cage.

    He tossed in a party hat, a knife, and a party horn.

    Knowing that the big apes were natural mimics, he put on a party hat. The gorilla looked at him, looked at the hat, and put it on.

    Next he picked up his horn and blew on it. The gorilla picked up his horn and did the same.

    Then the man picked up his knife, whipped the sausage out of his pants, and sliced it neatly in two. The gorilla looked at the knife in his cage, looked at his own crotch…

    …and pulled down his eyelid!

      1. Does that result in ‘bungs are us’ from big pharma ?
        It seems that there’s a squeeze on supply of covid vaccine. Perhaps it’s a bit of a ploy to get the bodies through the doors. With some people i have heard of its become a bit of a competition.

    3. “What happened this week that made this drug OK with the medical censors who run Tw@tter community?”

    4. Big Pharma have been paid. They have received fortunes from many governments. The vaccine does not need to work. If we have cheap and effective treatment the we don’t need the vaccines. We can forget them.
      It’s all good. We have a cheap fix for the virus, Big Pharma (and Bill Gates got immeasurably richer), as did others, and the government has more control over the population than they do on North Korea.

  27. The Government must reassert its authority now and reopen the economy at the first opportunity.
    Philip Duly Haslemere, Surrey

    Brewery shares hit Rock Bottom, after Government proclaims it is going to organise big parties on their premises to
    celebrate the NHS control of COVID

  29. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    What a remarkable career, tragically cut short at such an early age:

    Rob Anders, Royal Fleet Auxiliary captain who helped to bring aid after Hurricane Dorian – obituary

    His vessel brought water, food, medical supplies and prefabricated buildings when disaster struck the Bahamas

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    21 January 2021 • 6:00am

    Captain Rob Anders, who has died of a brain tumour aged 49, rose through the hawsepipe from deckhand to second-in-command of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

    In September 2019 Anders was in command of RFA Mounts Bay, a landing ship dock operated by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and named after Mount’s Bay in Cornwall, which was operating in the West Indies. When Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas, winds of 185 mph whipped through the islands, the worst natural disaster in living memory, and thousands were left hungry and thirsty and without shelter. Mounts Bay delivered water, food, medical supplies, prefabricated buildings, and hygiene kits in the six-day Operation Barytone.

    While Anders directed his own crew, which included personnel of the RFA, Royal Navy and Royal Marines, commando-trained Royal Engineers and Royal Logistic Corps, he and his ship also became the focus for operations by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamian National Emergency and Management Agency, the US Coastguard, and a range of non-governmental organisations.

    Anders readily embraced the daunting and exhausting challenge, carefully allocating the limited communications, and prioritising the needs of the Bahamians and of his own people. Using Mounts Bay’s people, her helicopter and her boats, Anders directly succoured the communities on Great and Little Abaco islands, which were worst affected, including clearing some 50 miles of blocked roads to bring aid to nine isolated communities.

    By his exceptional leadership and his energy, Anders set an example which encouraged everyone to achieve their best with humanity and humour. Modestly he recorded how pleased he was to “use our people and equipment to send water and food ashore to provide aid to the Bahamian people. We hope that our presence in the area in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Dorian will provide some peace of mind and reassurance to all those affected.”

    He was awarded the OBE.

    Robert George Anders was born at Warrington in Cheshire on September 29 1971 and educated at William Beamont High School there. Aged 17, he joined Boston Putford’s innovative youth training scheme as a deckhand and his first seagoing years were spent in coasters and trans-Pacific container vessels.

    Anders qualified as an officer of the watch in 1993, and joined the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, the fleet of civilian-crewed ships operated by the Ministry of Defence, as a third officer in 1996.

    Over the next 10 years he served in a wide variety of ships of both the Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Royal Navy, on deployments to the Mediterranean, the Gulf and the South Atlantic.

    In 2002, when Anders qualified as a Master Mariner, his potential was fully recognised by the Royal Navy, who selected him to qualify as a principal warfare officer. He gained further experience in the destroyer Glasgow before joining the frigate Northumberland on Operation Active Endeavour, a Nato patrol in the Mediterranean intended to deter and defend against terrorist activity.

    Subsequently, in the frigate Campbeltown, he attended the D-Day 60th anniversary commemoration.

    By now Anders’s card was marked for the most senior appointments, and after completing the staff course in 2005, and qualifying as a damage control instructor, he became Staff Warfare Officer (RFA), responsible for delivering warfare training to RFA vessels. On promotion to chief officer, he served as second in command of several RFAs.

    While at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire, in 2011, he achieved an MA in Defence Studies, before appointment to Navy Command Headquarters as a desk officer. Next he enjoyed a year’s sabbatical working on a semi-submersible drilling rig in the North Sea.

    Promoted to captain in 2016, Anders enjoyed several short spells in command of the tankers Wave Ruler and Wave Knight, the landing ships Lyme Bay and Cardigan Bay, and the replenishment ship Fort Victoria, before taking over Mounts Bay during her three-year deployment in the West Indies.

    In 2019 Anders led the RFA contingent at the Festival of Remembrance, reading the epitaph in the presence of the Queen, before becoming deputy assistant chief of staff afloat support, effectively the second-in-command of his service.

    Anders’s reputation was for his no-nonsense, commonsense approach, for meeting challenging timelines, and for cutting to the heart of any matter in an unflappable way with the occasional touch of dry humour. Above all, he is remembered for his personal courage and for his kindness.

    Military history was a lifetime interest alongside the Warrington Wolves rugby league side, and he was a member of the executive board of Royal Navy Rugby League

    Anders, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour in mid-December, died on the morning before he was due to undergo surgery. He married Phillipa Reive in 2003; she survives him with their daughter and son.

    Captain Rob Anders, born September 29 1971, died December 22 2020

  30. I was just thinking about this G7 meeting in Cornwall, I wonder if Charles will be there, they are bound to be discussing climate change. Will the Duchy of Cornwall be getting a boost? If he does it will be a lucky windfall for him.

    2. Of course he will be there, he is the WEF’s useful idiot on climate matters. He’s all over their website.

  31. SIR – We are constantly being told of the massive increase in worry over the coronavirus. Yet broadcast media continually screen harrowing images.

    On the 6pm BBC news on Tuesday, my wife and I witnessed the most upsetting scenes of heroic efforts by teams of health specialists desperately trying to save a dying person’s life.

    The same programme kept cameras on a nurse in a mortuary as she was reduced to tears.

    Have the producers no sense of propriety at all?

    Evan Parker
    Solihull

    Come now Evan Parker, hadn’t you realised that those annual ‘news’ awards often follow the most harrowing clips, and people deep in grief are to be exploited to this end? Where do you think “good grief” comes from…

    1. And the MSM are still focussing on deaths of younger people, without mentioning any context e.g. existing conditions. No mention of the fact that last year, more under 60s died on roads than those with no underlying conditions from coronavirus.

    2. The question must be asked and aired on prime time TV in close-up, because human drama is good for ratings: “ah, but what do you REALLY feel about being up all night watching patients die?”.

      They should then be accused of lying and not having sufficient consideration for the historically-unprivileged sections of society fighting for their rights. Unconscious discrimination I call it. Save your tears for the poor rappers, whose mansions are not quite up to the standard they are used to because they were late with deliveries. Also, there are some women presenting this show that still do not make as much as Lineker.

      1. Being asked “How do you feel?” seems to be the stock approach these days to interviews. A few years ago, I was up in the Lake District to publicise the centenary of the 1st take off from and landing on water in the Empire. My Great Uncle was the pilot who went on to have a very distinguished military career in WW1 and then was a big wheel in the London Met/Flying Squad thereafter. I was interviewed by the local BBC TV and radio for a short insert on the news. They weren’t interested in my Great Uncle as a man or his achievements – all they were concerned about was how I would have felt had I been sitting in the pilot’s seat which was completely irrelevant to anything and anybody. I tried to steer the interview back to my Grt Unc but they excised that entirely.

    3. Last night were treated to a muddy cemetery – these reports are intended to shock and keep people scared.

    4. The Beeb would, no doubt, condemn snuff movies – unless they are packaged as news propaganda.

    5. I should have thought that Evan might have twigged by now that the media have no interest in calming fears. Their task is to ramp up anxiety so that people will be easily cowed and controlled.

  32. Morning all.
    It can’t be true shirley, one day in the job and impeachment papers have been served on the Biden. You gotta laarff eh.

    1. Tit for tat. While this goes on, there will be no hope of re-uniting the American people. Trump’s impeachment should be withdrawn.

      1. Once the process starts can it be halted other than by a vote after the evidence is heard?

          1. I am sure they can, but will they? There are a lot of Senators on both sides who would be delighted to see the back of Trump permanently and a successful impeachment would serve that purpose.

            He couldn’t stand again, even as an independent.

            Biden is almost fire-proof as far as impeachment is concerned and even if he didn’t survive, Harris becomes front of house and not merely string puller.

          2. Well, maybe that is the idea. Impeachment is more messy in some ways than assassination, but equally effective.

      2. I agree. What on earth is it supposed to achieve? I suspect the prime movers in Trump’s impeachment are GOP conservatives eager to push one of their own, the nice Mike Pence to represent their interests next time.

        Biden’s first speech was about putting aside spite and vengefulness and uniting the nation. The very next thing he should do is to allow Trump to retire in peace, and not be afraid of Trump’s right in a democracy to hold the current presidency to account, and take over if found lacking in 2024.

        If there is to be a return match, may the better man win, even if one of them is a woman.

        1. He could also tell his big tech friends to stop censoring conservatives, and open up the vote to an honest investigation. We all know that none of this will happen, and his uniting the nation words are just that – words, while his side consolidates their power and distracts the nation with new wars.

  33. Just seen this, so apols if already posted. The thing is, how can a piece stating that the BBC needs to “raise its game” fail to mention its world-class wokery, and an anti-right bias that is visible from space??

    The BBC needs to raise its game and reform its funding structure
    Every time the BBC dodges a bullet on the license fee, its employees sigh with relief – yet its flaws are unsustainable.

    TELEGRAPH VIEW
    21 January 2021 • 10:00pm

    The Government has decided that the BBC license fee will not be decriminalised, but that does not let the Corporation off the hook. It still needs reform. The media market has changed radically and Netflix’s parallel decision to raise its subscription price, though welcomed by BBC insiders who insist that this makes their product better value for money, is in fact a very worrying sign for the Corporation.

    Many consumers clearly consider the streaming service worth paying more for, solidifying its position as a long-term rival to the BBC. Netflix now has around 200 million paid members globally, up more than 30 per cent since 2019, adding 8.5 million in the last year alone – and an announcement, this week, that it can stop relying on debt to bankroll operations saw its share price jump.

    A great deal of content now available online – including foreign language drama and documentaries – is better than the BBC’s, and while it is true that the Corporation continues to offer news and current affairs, its coverage is rife with bias, there are plenty of alternatives in print or online, and its plethora of channels only adds to the impression of being overstretched at the expense of quality and originality.

    Every time the BBC dodges a bullet on the license fee, its employees sigh with relief – yet the tension between trying to keep up with the competition while its revenue is dictated by politics only becomes more untenable. The BBC should be flourishing in lockdown, yet even with viewers trapped indoors, isolated from their families, TV viewing figures on Christmas Day were disappointing. The BBC needs both to raise its game and find a sustainable way of financing itself.

    1. The BBC needs both to raise its game and find a sustainable way of financing itself.

      Morning Hugh. It needs to be shut down!

      1. Not before there is a public service capable of informing, educating and entertaining the nation to a standard that cannot be achieved when the bonus package for the chosen few is the only criterion used to define standards.

        There is a limit to how far advertising revenue can support commercial TV and radio before all that is made is blockbuster dumbed-down americanized dross.

        1. Morning Jeremy. I am not opposed in principle to a State run channel that caters for minority interests, it is just that in the UK it must forever be a creature of the Elites!

          1. May I fiddle please

            Morning Jeremy. I am not opposed in principle to a State run channel
            that does not cater for minority interests, ie the White Brit it is just that in the UK it one must
            forever be a creature of the BLM and the Elites!

        2. Morning Jeremy. I am not opposed in principle to a State run channel that caters for minority interests, it is just that in the UK it must forever be a creature of the Elites!

      2. Good morning Minty ,

        On Monday evening I took part in my first Zoom meeting , an onerous task I have been trying to avoid since last year .
        I have to say I was delighted , the glitches I was worried about , didn’t exist , and about 11 or more of us discussed stuff for about 2 hours .

        The council consisted of men and women of varied ages . Last week I had about an hours coaching and lots of reassurances about how easy it was to take part in the meeting.

        Just saying everyone are volunteers who give their time willingly.

        TV presenters are rewarded with far too much money for the amount of time they are on our screens .

        The BBC need to veer away from their cult of television presenters who have been elevated to personality status .

        I would rather watch good camera work and useful programmes that inform and delight .

        1. I used Zoom for the first time on Wednesday- just a girlie chat with the ladies I would have been having lunch with in normal times. It was much easier than I thought.

          1. Amazing isn’t it J.

            I was encouraged last year, but felt really awkward and unsure . My lap top screen is cracked and half my lettering has faded , and as I am unable to get things fixed at the moment , I thought that the Zoom appearance would be affected , no such thing .

            Glad you had a an enjoyable catch up.

          2. I used my phone as I haven’t a clue how the camera works on my laptop. Had to lie on the bed as it doesn’t pick up the internet in the older part of the house.

          5. No, Zoom turns it on, There is a little light top centre of the screen frame when it is on. It goes out as soon as I leave Zoom.

          6. I don’t have a camera on the laptop I use for Zoom (the other one has fallen foul of a glitch in a Windows update and is U/S at the moment). Zoom still works.

          1. I cannot see who down votes me , but quite frankly if that person called Jennifer has been so spiteful to all other Nottlers , I think the ire from others will have the desired effect on her .

          2. Sometimes I can and at other times it won’t show the name. I really can’t see the point. If you object to something, why not say what you disagree with?

    2. Britbox. A streaming service for which you are required to pay in order to watch programmes you paid for the BBC to make ten years ago.

        1. But how would Pyramus have communicated with Thisbe without the chink?

          Is it surprising that the Chinese have moved with the times and are now trying to sell Huawei to the world?

          2. There’s a pub called The Hole in The Wall in Ashby-de-la-Zouche and one in Bury St Edmunds, I lived near the latter and it was a cash machine all right but a reversed one – it took all your money ( and in return gave you a headache)

          5. Ah, the Mercury; one of the back stage bods used to live in the same lodgings as me and I used to get free tickets when they wanted to paper the house.

    2. Yo T_B

      In days of your, there used to be a transport cafe, aboout 400 YARDS down the road from Heron’s Main gate

      Behind it were old caravans, occupied by even olderladies of the night

      Cup of tea, two slices of bread and a warm sausage, for £I/00/00 allegedly

          1. Not too bad thanks Bill – the side effects of jab have nearly gone. Thanks for asking

      4. More than a few transport cafes had similar arrangements and no doubt a few of those that survive still do.

      1. …and apparently, she’s been allowed to leave the country. Surely it should have been chink in the clink.

        ‘Morning, Anne.

        1. On the plus side, she won’t be costing the taxpayer 50,000 oncers per annum in perpetuity.
          Or 12 weeks as it’s now called.

  36. Good morning, all. Terribly late on parade – mainly because, as I was dealing with lighting the stove, the GP rang to enquire how I was getting on….

    For the first time in yonks (apart from Dr Brilliant last August) there is a GP who is actually interested in my slight health problem. Sort of reassuring.

    The £500 gift from the money tree is a wonderful idea, n’est-ce pas? Those who will have no plan to self-isolate will take the money and party….

    Fishy Rishi is round the bend.

    1. Good Morning Bill

      I hope the sun is shining over there in those Norfolky parts , but because here the sky is bright blue and not a contrail to be seen in the sky .

      Fishy Rishy , I love it .. the money is a lure for a sprat to catch a mackerel.

    2. We can have Covid parties; chicken pox parties with added benefits.
      I’ll provide the jelly and fairy cakes.

  38. CNN, sometimes known as the Communist News Network, has been fighting the 2016 election until now with its 24/7 anti-Trump diatribes. With Biden as President they have gone berserk.

    For example, during the inauguration ceremony, CNN’s political commentator Van Jones said that he was crying with joy. He said “It’s just memorizing (sic) to watch a functional government doing functional government type things. I mean, just a press conference, and there was a human, and the person said words, and the words made sense. Then somebody asked a question, and then the person answered the question, and you are just crying. Oh my God. It is wonderful. Thank God, hallelujah, and Jesus, I’m so happy.”

    He added, “Then you had Biden literally was just swearing in the people and telling them to be nice to each other, and if you don’t, I’m going to fire you. That was powerful.”

    Are they going to be nice to those with whom they disagree? Not if CNN has its way! “After spending five years attempting to claim President Trump stole the 2016 election, after five years of pushing the Russia Collusion Hoax, after five years of promoting and encouraging violence against Trump and his supporters, the far-left CNN is now demanding that its competition at OAN and Newsmax TV be blacklisted.”

    I think that there are countless millions of people crying and many more who will join them over the next four years, but for a very different reason!

    1. I think Mr (?) Van Jones has just nominated and seconded himself as Dickhead of the Year!

    2. “Oh my God. It is wonderful. Thank God, hallelujah, and Jesus, I’m so happy.”

      From the Sermon on the Mount:

      “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    1. Anthony Fauci…who, oh the guy that subtitles on the News last night described as Antifa Fauci. That guy?

    1. Doxycyline is a generic antibiotic. I was put it on for a time. Didn’t help, needed clarithromycin.

      1. 328713+ up ticks,
        Afternoon SE,
        Wheat from chaff wanted to get George’s message out before completing the indoor tunnel.

    2. How about ‘British Alba’ be made to pay them?

      Some people truly are evil. Obsessive fanatics so frightened they demand ever higher walls be built to satisfy their terror.

  44. Good Moaning.
    I have a cunning plan.
    Once my hair’s dry, I’ll nip off to cough my heart out at a testing station.
    Kerchinnnggggg …. 500 smackers for doing s0d all. Extend that to family and who says Grannie is a useless lump?
    Fortnight later – rinse and repeat. £1,000 per month, per person. One husband, two sons, two daughters-in-law and four grandchildren. Luvvely jubbley.
    At this rate, my granddaughters’ university debts will be be settled.
    p.s. Can I sneak Spartie onto the records?

    4. Mr Rashid of Hyacinth Close has already sent for samples from his extended family in the Kutch.

  46. Welcome to the Free Speech Union’s weekly newsletter. This newsletter is a brief round-up of the free speech news of the week sent to our members.

    The Value of Life

    Lord Sumption, former Supreme Court Judge, has faced criticism for articulating his view that “the older you are, the less the value of your life because there’s less of it left.” When challenged by a woman with stage four cancer on BBC’s The Big Questions, who accused Sumption of claiming her life was not valuable, Sumption interrupted: “I didn’t say it wasn’t valuable, I said it was less valuable.” Some commentators came to his defence, and Sumption himself clarified on Good Morning Britain that he was making a point about the value placed on lives by health economists and policymakers, not expressing a judgement about a person’s intrinsic value. He said: “It doesn’t mean that people are morally worth less, it doesn’t mean that they are worth less in the eyes of God or in the eyes of their fellow citizens.”

    Spiked editor Brendan O’Neill argues that the persecution of lockdown sceptics has become a new form a demonology. As in past times of plague, which saw any who expressed unorthodox opinions accused of being “agents of the kingdom of evil”, today’s “lockdown fanatics” seem to think that, as bad as Covid might be, “the plague of heresy is greater.” But, O’Neill concludes, “the destruction of free discussion harms society far more than incorrect opinion or predictions do, because it limits the space for critical interrogation of public policy and for entertaining the possibility that what we are doing is wrong.”

    Free speech on campus

    Twenty-one Conservative MPs signed a letter to Boris Johnson asking him to reform public funding for Students Unions, which, according to the MPs, are at the “forefront of efforts to limit freedom of speech variously by censoring poetry and publications, barring speakers or insisting on approving their speeches in advance.” In a parallel move, MP David Davis called for the government to bring forward a bill to protect free speech on university campuses, pointing out that great scientific advances come from challenging orthodoxy: “The cancel culture, the unwillingness to hear uncomfortable opinions, the refusal of platforms to people you disagree with, puts all this at risk. Universities, of all places, should never allow the suppression of free speech.” He gave a ten-minute speech in the House of Commons which can be watched in full on YouTube.

    Sir Michael Barber, outgoing Chairman of the Office for Students, had some strong words for university vice chancellors, cautioning them against “the pitfalls of rigid intellectual orthodoxy, groupthink and ‘won’t fit in here’ mindsets. If universities come to be seen as intellectually intolerant hot houses for mono-perspectives, they will not thrive, nor represent society.”

    The right to offend

    UnHerd this week published several excellent pieces related to free speech. French journalist Agnes Poirer explored the continuing fear among French teachers following the beheading of Samuel Paty in October; trans writer Debbie Hayton defended Abigail Schreier’s book Irreversible Damage, after the Trans Writers’ Union denounced a favourable review of the book in the Irish Independent as “harmful to transgender people”; and Andrew Doyle defended obscenity. Editor Freddie Sayers also interviewed FSU member Will Knowland, who stands by his decision not to remove the YouTube video of the lesson he was forbidden to teach his students – a decision that ultimately got him sacked from Eton.

    North America

    New York University Professor and FSU member Mark Crispin Miller is bringing a defamation lawsuit against 19 of his colleagues who wrote a letter calling on the University to conduct an expedited review of his conduct, with the aim of removing his academic freedom. They accuse him of “intimidation tactics, abuses of authority, aggressions and microaggressions, and explicit hate speech”, with particular reference to his suggestion that students look at the science behind mask mandates. Prof Miller discussed his ordeal in a podcast this week. A petition in support of Prof Miller’s right to academic freedom, which we have already circulated once to FSU members, has reached nearly 30,000 signature, and donations to his legal fund can be made here. In his own words: “This is not just about me. We’re living in a moment when academic freedom and free speech are at grave risk.”

    The Eyeopener, a student newspaper at Ryerson University in Toronto, has ignored the deadline of 14 January to respond to the human rights complaint made by FSU member Jonathan Bradley. Bradley, a journalism student, was sacked from the newspaper after a former classmate shared screenshots of tweets in which he expressed his Catholic beliefs. The editor told Bradley that the LGBT community “would no longer feel safe if you are associated with the publication.”

    Parler rises

    After being barred from Amazon Web Services, Parler has found a new home with Epik, a web hosting company that also hosts rivel platform Gab, and video hosting site Bitchute. Meanwhile, Twitter has been accused of a double standard for banning President Trump from its platform, while allowing the Ayatollah Khamenei to continue tweeting.

    Tesla founder Elon Musk, who last week called Big Tech the “de facto arbiter of free speech”, endorsed the suggestion that Big Tech “has to make the distinction between banning hate speech and banning speech it hates.” Historian Niall Ferguson argued in the Spectator that the excessive power now wielded by FATGA (Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Google and Apple) in the public square was inevitable and said that what’s needed is “some kind of First Amendment for the internet.”

    Joe Biden inaugurated

    Joe Biden made his first speech as President of the United States, calling for tolerance and humility, but as the Chicago Tribune pointed out, the speech was as notable for what it lacked: “A full-throated commitment to defending the core values of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, which include the right of all Americans to speak their minds without fear of retribution.”

    1. If Twitter blocked the ayatollah, the Muslims would bomb them. If they block Trump all they risk is hindering free speech and personal liberty.

      The Left have never bothered about that.

    1. The real costs of mass migration are paid by the poor, the benefits accrue to the rich. The rich just had the clever idea of blaming the poor for being racist….

  48. I see the Aussies are giving Google a hard time.
    “We are the masters of the Universe! No one can touch us! We will censor who we want, buy who we want, do what we want, we can’t be stopped!!!!”
    “So pay up for the material that makes money for you”
    “What? This is totally unreasonable, we are withdrawing from your country”
    “OK, FRO then”
    Sometimes I really like the Aussies.

  49. Not sure whats wrong with this web site again but i can’t see any of the links with the comments just a blank space.

          1. I always say yes, ‘cos they get deleted with the ‘history’ when I close down and when I run Ccleaner.

            SUPERAntispyware then gets rid of any tracking apps.

            Both these applications are free.

          3. I don’t use those. I don’t shut the laptop down when I leave, just close the lid. So I don’t want to delete useful cookies.

          4. I do the same. Even at night. Laptop puts itself to sleep/hibernate. In the morning it wakes up straight onto this site again. I “refresh” the page then I open up the new day in a new window – add it straight onto the favourites list, then close the previous day’s page. Don’t have to login to Disqus. Occasionally Disqus will close me out just to check I am me.

    2. Try deleting your cookies and your web history. (This is a pain as you will lose your automatic passwords facility on, for example, sites like Amazon). Deleting cookies and history usually solves problems like this. Or perhaps there is a recent ‘update’ that you have not yet allowed? That may well be worth investigating first. It sounds like it is a problem with your computer software stuff rather than a site problem.

      I found I could post photographs if I deleted cookies and history before opening a disqus session but it was a real nuisance every time so I have given up on that.

      2. ‘Afternoon, Mum, you can do that, without losing password, by downloading, free, an application called Ccleaner that allows you to identify what has to be analysed and identified for ‘Cleaning’. It will also allow you to clean the Registry of any unused or obsolete items. All these, hanging about on your hard drive and being churned through every time you want to do something, will speed up your PC/Laptop.

      3. The last time i deleted things like that PPM i could no longer log in to Nottlers it drove me mad for a few weeks.
        But i suppose i’ll give it a go again.

    3. Try this,it worked for Hertslass
      At the top iof the thread is a grey/red circle by your name,click on your name and a drop down menu will appear
      Counterintuitively select “Hide Media” links may then appear,right click,open in new tab and hopefully Robert’s your mothers brother

  50. BREAKING NEWS (from The Grimes)

    “The three wise monkeys have been a cultural trope throughout the world for centuries as a symbol of seeing, hearing and speaking no evil.

    Academics at the University of York have decided that they are, in fact, an oppressive racial stereotype, and pulled an image of the animals from their website to avoid offence.

    Organisers of a forthcoming art history conference apologised for using the picture in their call for submissions. “Upon reflection, we strongly believe that our first poster is not appropriate as its iconology promulgates a longstanding visual legacy of oppression and exploits racist stereotypes,” they wrote. “We bring this to your attention, so that we may be held accountable for our actions and, in our privileges, do and be better.””

    2. Thanks for the ‘heads up’ Bill did you mean this 🙈🙉🙊 ?
      And break through in Birmingham today on the news vaccinations are now being administered in a cities mosque, i expect it must be halal.

    3. Have these lunatics completely lost touch with reality; have they nothing more important to concern them??

      2. Those that associate monkeys with black Africans need to look at their own racism – and get a lfe.

    4. They obviously think blacks resemble monkeys, can’t imagine how they came to that conclusion. Spose bananas will be off the canteen menu next.

      1. One chap at a place I worked had the lower half of his face protrude forward. His mouth regularly hung partly open. His eyes always had that vacant look that chimps do – and his ears were small and round. He looked so similar to a chimp it was ridiculous. He was as white as they come.

    5. So the Academics at the University of York have concluded that blacks are closely related to monkeys? Well, humans evolved* in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, so maybe they are right. They are academics after all.

      *If you believe that evolution baloney.

      Edit. Oops Kaypea, your comment had not appeared while I was scribbling mine.

          1. Possibly if their descendants stay in the northern climate for several thousand years, they will?

    6. So the Academics at the University of York have concluded that blacks are closely related to monkeys? Well, humans evolved* in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya, so maybe they are right. They are academics after all.

      *If you believe that evolution baloney.

      Edit. Oops Kaypea, your comment had not appeared while I was scribbling mine.

    7. The idea that academics consider black men look like three monkeys is surely an evil racial stereotype?

      I am appalled.

      1. Quite.

        There are, BTL, some very good comments (unusual for The Grimes) on the origin of the 3 WM.

        Needless to say, nothing whatever to do with black people.

    8. There is also traditionally a fourth wise monkey.

      See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, have no fun…

    9. So, remove the monkeys and substitute people of colour.

      You know, the resonance of the jungle and rabbits.

  51. Amazing absence of seasonal ‘flu.

    Can’t imagine why – unless the thousands of covid “cases” are people with, er, seasonal ‘flu…(sarc)

    1. Up to a point , Lord Copper. The steps which we have been taking for nearly a year now must have had some affect on the transmission of infections other than Covid19.

      1. You will not be surprised to learn that I am unconvinced.

        Until very lately, we have been doing sod all – apart from wearing masks and avoiding close contact. That didn’t stop the spread of covid. Why should it have prevented seasonal ‘flu, Doctor?

        1. Maybe the covid is more transmissible than flu. That said, I’m sure that quite a lot of flu is being misdiagnosed as covid, possibly wilfully

          2. Interestingly, the poll in my local rag on everyone getting £500 if they have to isolate has about 75% saying no!

          3. Covid Death Figures are given as “So many deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test result”. Can’t get much more vague. If you test positive, then die in a car accident – it is in Covid results. Plus figures are also given as ” per 100’000 ” – so many people do NOT convert it to a %age. When 30’000 deaths were initially announced the papers were screaming the figures. In an estimated population of 75 million it worked out as 4% of 1% of 75million. And a country trashed !

            Figures are now given in another format to promote fear which promotes control.

          4. I keep my own spreadsheet (yes, I am that anal) with comparisons with other causes of death that nobody cares much about. Like suicide, influenza, general accidents.
            COVID is way behind all of them in Norway, not so in UK.

    2. Up to a point , Lord Copper. The steps which we have been taking for nearly a year now must have had some affect on the transmission of infections other than Covid19.

    3. What I’m wondering is whether vulnerable people really sick with the flu just get put in COVID wards or even just in hospitals where they more easily get COVID (given at least 20% of cases eminated from being in hospital), who then get COVID and then are just another statistic for the lockdown proponents.

      1. One of my colleagues admitted to having a cold a few weeks back. Amazingly he didn’t get hysterical, quarantine his family or rush off for a “covid” test. Just a few days of sniffles as per normal.

  52. Amazing absence of seasonal ‘flu.

    Can’t imagine why – unless the thousands of covid “cases” are people with, er, seasonal ‘flu…(sarc)

  53. Our justice system is in crisis, so why not abolish jury trials? Simon Jenkins. 22 January 2021.

    After three terms as a juryman, I am convinced that juries are a costly indulgence. They have nothing to do with justice except often to distort it. One of our cases was of drunken assault, with the guilty being “bound over to keep the peace”; my fellow jurors were furious at spending so much time on the trial. Another was a fraud case in which most of the evidence was a total mystery. A third was a blatant attempted murder. We listened for two days as young barristers were corrected continuously by the judge, who eventually declared all relevant evidence “prejudicial” and told us to acquit. It was a farce.

    Few countries any longer use juries, and most of them are former British colonies, such as the US, Canada and Australia. They are a relic of medieval civic duty that once embraced compulsory service as constables, vestrymen and dog-catchers. A few European countries call on juries in matters of public opinion or taste – which is why I would use them for local planning disputes where lay opinion is entitled to a view.

    This is idiocy. Two of the faults he lists in the first paragraph were not the fault of the juries but of the actual judges and the other of prosecutorial incompetence. The few countries that do not use juries include luminaries like North Korea and China. One suspects that Jenkins love of Judges stems from the fact that, unsupervised by juries, they could all be chosen for their political and social views, something impossible with trial by peer.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/22/justice-system-crisis-abolish-jury-trials-covid

    1. No juries to summary trials is an easy step, then who is there to catch the blatant injustices?

      2. Next step – guilty/not guilty by thumbs up/down votes on social media. As depicted in the (excellent) TV scifi show, The Orville.

      2. …or if a Social Media giant, activists on their platforms in sufficient numbers screeching away, opposing politician or MSM pundit says you are (sans-evidence), then equally you MUST be guilty, when it’s a political opponent or someone not agreeing with their views, or if they are on the same side, an ‘ally’ or a ‘useful idiot’, then it’s a default not guilty and their opponent’s fault for making them do it.

        What a world we live in today.

      3. …or if a Social Media giant, activists on their platforms in sufficient numbers screeching away, opposing politician or MSM pundit says you are (sans-evidence), then equally you MUST be guilty, when it’s a political opponent or someone not agreeing with their views, or if they are on the same side, an ‘ally’ or a ‘useful idiot’, then it’s a default not guilty and their opponent’s fault for making them do it.

        What a world we live in today.

          3. When I was a teenager, I was shown a ducking stool over a river in the middle of Canterbury. Does anyone know if it’s still there?

      5. I secured prosecutions against drivers who were speeding in excess of 60mph in a 30mph zone. I had no means of measuring their speed and the prosecution was based solely on my professional opinion.

        None ever appealed.

        1. That was back when Police officers were still respected by most of the public. Nowadays they seem to be more interested in whether we mis-gendered someone, a driving legally along a road minding our own business or conversing with a friend and keeping warm by drinking a hot beverage in a park whilst standing 2m apart.

          I bet you’re glad you left, tinged with sadness at how far it has fallen and likely further to go.

          1. I am a product of my time. A time of discipline (both self and organised), good manners, respect, etiquette and duty. I am more than happy that I lived (and served) when I did. I couldn’t wear today’s excuse for a uniform for all the tea in Lipton’s.

    3. Have you noticed how leftists, especially middle class ones, always believe that ‘The people’ should always decide, until that is the very same People don’t share their world view. Then they infiltrate the decision-making organisation – now the judiciary and previously the Home Office and Justice Dept, and thus they know that their views can be carried by judges and a good number of magistrates, so why bother with pesky juries and just do everything ‘in-house’?

      At least the letter from the JP on today’s DT Letters Page shows that not all magistrates are woke leftists like the ‘chair’ of magistrates. On the other hand, the Supreme Court certainly is.

      1. As I’ve said, countless times, Andy it is time to reform the Lords to consist ONLY of the hereditaries, except for the Law Lords as the highest court of appeal and the abolition of Bliar’s ‘Supreme Court’.

        It cannot happen soon enough and should send a salutary lesson to the Judiciary and not least to those political stooges currently ‘ennobled’ with meaningless peerages.

    4. ‘Afternoon, Minty, it is a common cry in our house, on hearing of the paucity of a sentence passed down for what we considered a heinous crime, “What?” and a wondering just what training Judges and Magistrates had had. It all seems very woke to us.

    5. It is well known that Simon Jenkins’ opinions and judgement are fundamentally unsound.

      He reminds me very much of William Hague who was also quite reasonable, humorous and intelligent in his 20’s but has become progressively more stupid and wrong-headed as he has aged.

    7. I was an expert witness at the trial of a senior employee in our wine business who was charged with fraud and theft. Neither the judge nor the jury of plumbers, costermongers and public sector clerks had the least idea about administration, or invoice processing or anything else. The judge asked me a number of entirely irrelevant questions about vintage port. The fraud charge was dismissed. However we did get a conviction on the theft charge. The accused claimed that the cases of whisky found in his unlocked car parked in the warehouse yard had been planted by management! The jury chose not to believe him.
      On a lighter note, the judge was subsequently convicted of smuggling port into the UK.

      1. But port makes me fart ….

        A wealthy playboy met a beautiful young girl in an exclusive lounge. He took her to his lavish apartment, where he soon discovered she was
        actually well groomed and apparently very intelligent. Hoping to get intimate with her, he began showing her his collection of expensive
        paintings, first editions by famous authors, and offered her a glass of wine.

        He asked whether she preferred Port or Sherry and she said, “Oh, Sherry, by all means. To me,
        it’s the nectar of the gods. Just looking at it in a crystal-clear decanter fills me with a glorious sense of anticipation. When the
        stopper is removed and the gorgeous liquid is poured into my glass, I
        inhale the enchanting aroma, and I’m lifted on the wings of ecstasy. It seems as though I’m about to drink a magic potion, and my whole being
        begins to glow. The sound cat a thousand violins being softly played fills my ears, and I’m transported into another world.” She continued.
        “On the other hand, Port makes me fart.

      2. But port makes me fart ….

        A wealthy playboy met a beautiful young girl in an exclusive lounge. He took her to his lavish apartment, where he soon discovered she was
        actually well groomed and apparently very intelligent. Hoping to get intimate with her, he began showing her his collection of expensive
        paintings, first editions by famous authors, and offered her a glass of wine.

        He asked whether she preferred Port or Sherry and she said, “Oh, Sherry, by all means. To me,
        it’s the nectar of the gods. Just looking at it in a crystal-clear decanter fills me with a glorious sense of anticipation. When the
        stopper is removed and the gorgeous liquid is poured into my glass, I
        inhale the enchanting aroma, and I’m lifted on the wings of ecstasy. It seems as though I’m about to drink a magic potion, and my whole being
        begins to glow. The sound cat a thousand violins being softly played fills my ears, and I’m transported into another world.” She continued.
        “On the other hand, Port makes me fart.

    8. “Why not just throw people in to a pond and see if they float or not?”

      Excellent BTL comment.

  55. Yesterday the weather forecast promised us a heavy snowfall. Instead we had bright sunshine. The previous light covering of snow mostly disappeared. The lake in the field behind us drained away and today has disappeared. Today is another day of bright sunshine.
    The lake, a large puddle really, only appears if it is really wet. Two days ago it was about 200 yards long and 50 yards wide, as big as it ever gets because if it spreads further it spills over the road and into the next field. Around five years ago this lake appeared quite often and persisted for most of the winter and during other periods of continual rain, such as summer. It reduced crop production in the field, and major drainage works were undertaken. Blue pipes were installed under the soil to improve drainage and they do work quite well.
    A reminder that fields are often not just fields but are a carefully managed environment for crop production. That applies across the Merse which is one of the richest arable areas in Scotland.

    1. Sounds like one of our local roads! Yesterday it was too deep to walk through in walking boots [and I don’t like walks in wellies] but today it has drained nicely!

    2. All our courts are Common Law ppm. It’s our system of law by precedent. You can do anything you like unless there is a law against it.

      Quite what that link is I”m not sure.

      1. While we were in the EU, that wasn’t strictly speaking true; EU law took precedence and EU law is corpus juris.

        1. Good evening Conners. Yes that’s correct for those things to do with the EU but the main body of our law is still common law. Although I’ve been retired 9 years from the Court service I saw reference to case law almost every day as an Usher. Mist of our law is Statute Law but offences such as murder and perverting the course of justice are covered by precedent not statute.

        2. Forgot to add that we still have habeus corpus. If remanded in custody a prisoner must be produced in court, either in person or by video link, at least every 8 days until convicted or released. We still have trial by jury.

          1. We do still, by the skin of our teeth, have trial by jury and the presumption of innocence, although the right to remain silent went, I believe. Unless they have rescinded the European Arrest Warrant, however, we no longer have habeas corpus.

  57. For those with a passing interest in the creekit who may not have been listening to TMS

    1st day, 2nd Test at Galle

    Close of Play

    Sri Lanka 229 for 4 (Chandimal 53; Mathews 107 n.o.)

    This is the remarkable bit…38 year old Jimmy Anderson now has 603 Test Match wickets and, despite the 85+F heat and unbearable humidity, ten of the nineteen overs he bowled today were maidens!!

    James Anderson….19….10….24….3….(Economy 1.26)

    Burnley should be proud!

      1. Grizzly – bit of info you may find useful. If you listen to UK radio over the internet and want some “local” voices try Radio Sheffield ( Beeb ) from tomorrow – (10am – 2pm UK time ) -till at least end of next week. Presenter Becky Measures. Born around Monyash/Bakewell area. Lives in your old patch of Chesterfield.
        Have a look on internet for her. Even been a tv prog on her opting for double mastectomy, then after two kids, opting for hysterectomy. Gene checks show she had a faulty gene that affected her mother/aunt too.
        And still she comes across as a great lively presenter.

        1. Thanks, Walter.

          Back in the early 80s, Lynn Mullen, a newsreader on Radio Hallam, would ring me at the police radio room on a Monday morning to ask about anything of interest happening over the weekend. We frequently had a long chat. I used to look forward to her call.

  58. I did an E-Consult with my GP Practice last night and explained my symptoms.

    I found it easy to use and much better than receptionist wrangling.

    My Doctor called me a 9 A.M and told me to come in immediately.

    After some tests and questions she believes i have an acute embolism and contacted the vascular registrar for an appointment. Monday morning. They don’t work weekends apparently.

    🎵 wish me luck as you wave me goodbye 🎵

          1. I posted this song just 12 days ago with hopon’s birthday greeting. It is always a bit of fun trying to think of what to add to the birthday greetings. I thought about posting a recording of the Hopalong Cassidy TV programme signature tune. (I have already got some ideas for tomorrow’s event)

    3. We wish you luck as we wave you goodbye
      Blood group O? there you go, on your way
      We wish you luck as we wave you goodbye
      Not a tear, but a cheer, (but no so gay)!
      Have a smile you can keep all the while
      If your heart’s right anyway
      Phil we’ll meet once again, by and by
      We wish you luck as we wave you goodbye

      1. Thanks FA. Worst case scenario I might be changing my name to Hopalong Cassidy. Probably won’t come to that though.

    5. Good luck Phil. Everything crossed that you’re OK.

      Is that a Pulmonary embolism? If so you should have gone to A&E.

      1. Doc believes it is a blood clot that formed in my calf muscle and moved down to my foot. She did say that if the symptoms worsen to call an ambulance.

        Thanks.

          2. I only mentioned that as, back in 2009, I had a DVT and Pulmonary embolism. It was not a pleasant experience.
            The doctor diagnosed my DVT, 2 days later I went to the Walk in Centre and told the receptionist my symptoms. She told me not to move and then rushed me in to a nurse immediately. She, and the receptionist, thought I should go to A&E immediately. vw took me and it was confirmed by way of blood test.

          3. That is similar to when I saw my doctor about what he immediately diagnosed as angina. He just turned to his computer screen (how rude), typed for a few minutes before turning back and telling me that I was booked into A&E for tests did I want an ambulance to take me?

          4. It goes to show that doctors are not always right and that lay people sometimes recognise the symptoms as happened to me.

          5. I don’t mind GP’s looking at their screen as long as it’s not google. Which did happen to me once with a locum. I thought……..I can do that.

            I do think this GP has the nous.

          6. I had an undiagnosed one in 2002 .. my thigh swelled up, and silly idiots said it was hip etc , I was sent to a hospital appt after waiting for 3 months , and I collapsed in the doctors office at the hospital , couldn’t breathe etc .. I coughed horribly , and it was very frightening experience. .. DVT and PE.. was put on Warfarin for about five years.

          7. That’s dreadful Belle and thankfully you survived. I’m on Rivaroxaban for the rest of my life as i was, later, diagnosed with a blood condition where my blood us more likely to clot than most other peoples.

          8. Oh dear . are you Liden 5 , Alf ?

            We all walk a dodgy tight rope when things start to go wrong .

            An Aunt of mine collapsed and died a week after completing a long haul flight .

            Air craft seats are so cruelly tightly spaced these days , I would love to know what the figures are for DVT’s and PE’s.

          9. Yes I am. Apparently it’s inherited. Our children know and it’s up to them if they get tested.

          10. Who knows what lurks that’s why I’m determined to live my life to the full. No hiding just in case.

          11. Glad you are okay. I have faith in my Doctor so will wait.

            I am not depressed or anything but i am sanguine.

          13. Good luck with it.

            HG has had DVTs and was injected with anti-coagulants immediately and sent straight to the hospital for scans, followed by a few months of treatment. She’s been fine since.

            She now has to inject herself before flights as well as taking aspirin, wearing special tights, walking around a lot and exercising, etc. but can still do long haul as long as she monitors her situation.

          14. I’m not supposed to fly longer than 4 hours but we always travel Premium Economy – 38 inch pitch as opposed to 29 in Economy. Worth the little extra.

          15. Not being very tall myself i don’t tend to have those problems. When a fellow passenger is walking up and down the aisle i always ask them to bring me another drink. It works more often than it doesn’t. :@)

    6. E consult might be easier but did it give the right results?

      At least keep the jokes coming so that we know you are OK.

      1. The E-Consult to the practice generated the call from my Doctor.

        The Doctor did think an examination was important. So called me in. She also described over the phone to the vascular registrar my symptoms.

        I found it much faster than in ordinary times.

      1. Wot? Like this?

        A pikey knocked on my door

        ‘Tarmac your drive for free mister?’
        ‘For free? You taking the piss’ I asked
        ‘No,’ He said, ‘We will do it for free.’
        ‘You better do a good job’ I said, closing the door.

        Within 2 hours he had dug it up, placed the tarmac, and finished. I was impressed.

        ‘How long until it can be driven on?’ I asked.
        ’20 minutes’ he said.

        20 minutes later he and his family turned up with their caravans.

        :@)

      1. It is of course camouflaged (Turquoise and orange) and is located a fraction to the right of where the two diagonals would intersect.

  60. I really shouldn’t have jumped to the conclusion that this was a roper shindig, bad Datz

    “Police in London break up wedding with 400 guests”

    it was a “Strict Orthodox Jewish Community” thing

    2. If it was roper the new would have faded into obscurity very quickly.

      Because it was Jewish the BBC are whining on and on about it.

  61. Got my telephone invite to my GP surgery in North Yorkshire to get my Oxford vaccine jab tomorrow. Any time between 10am and 7pm. I’ll be there at 10am and get it over with.

    1. MB had a last minute invitation this morning. He checked that it was Oxford/AstraZeneca. Jabbed at 2.0 pm this afternoon. The surgery will contact him about the booster.
      Apparently his appointment was a fill in; 10 people had turned down the vaccination. The nurse also admitted when MB checked the vaccine, that the Pfizer one was proving unpopular.
      In fairness to the surgery, I gather it was all set up and raring to go.
      It’s box ticking exercise, but if it frees people – particularly our grandchildren – then let’s get the damn thing over and done with.

      1. Just back from shopping in St Ives. Beautiful day, no wind, traffic light, store quiet.

        Passed a gurt long queue of wrinklies outside one of the GP surgeries. Most wearing face masks but no social distancing.

      2. I fear it won’t free us….. it is barely hinted, a carrot dangled before us. Two things: a) buyer beware and in this case do not trust Greeks bearing gifts and b) freedoms relinquished to government will seldom be returned without struggle. How we have betrayed our ancestors.

        1. I agree. Thank goodness Hilter was born in 1889. Seventy years later and we’d have been stuffed.

  65. And………………how about this for a coincidence.

    Here’s an interesting one:
    Conspiracy realist or Coincidence theorist?

    What’s the difference? I’ll show you this is a coincidence theory:
    The Chinese biological laboratory in Wuhan is owned by Glaxo-smith-kline who (by coincidence) owns Pfizer! (the one who produces the vaccine for the virus that (by coincidence) started in the biological laboratory in Wuhan, which (by coincidence) was funded by Dr Fauci who is (by coincidence) promoting the vaccine!

    Glaxo-smith-kline (by coincidence) is managed by Black Rock finances who(by coincidence) manages the finances of the Open Foundation Company (Soros Foundation) which (by coincidence) serves the French AXA!
    By coincidence Soros owns the German company Winterthur which (by coincidence) built the Chinese laboratory in Wuhan and was bought by the German Allianz which (by coincidence) has Vanguard as a shareholder which (by coincidence) is a shareholder of Black Rock which (by coincidence) controls the central banks and manages about one third of the global investment capital.
    Black Rock (by coincidence) is also a major shareholder of MICROSOFT, the property of Bill Gates, who (by coincidence) is a shareholder of Pfizer (which – you remember, is selling the miracle vaccine) and (by coincidence) is the first sponsor of WHO!!!
    So now you understand how a dead bat sold in a wet market in China, infected the ENTIRE PLANET!!

        1. Not always. KenL’s response shows that, and I suggest that he’s correct.

          However, there is a lot of interaction between big investors and companies and divisions get bought and sold constantly.

          1. An awful lot of back scratching. Trying to keep track of company mergers, buy outs etc… is a game of Splat the Rat.

          2. I used to do internal audits of mergers and acquisitions departments in banks.

            There was always a great hoo-haa about being “behind the Chinese Wall”, (how appropriate) and it was a real eye-opener what deals were being proposed.

            Many never saw the light of day but others started domino effects. The risk was insider dealing, but you can guarantee information leaked out to certain favoured investors.

          4. Its probably why most people in our political circles own at least two properties.
            Their salaries are not that brilliant.

          5. Odd that, I thought I was actually very well paid until I worked out the total value of the salary, perks and pension rights that actually overflow from the political troughs.

          6. You can get your sweet boots there has been a an awful lot of money being used as bait in all of these types of industries where political classes are involved.
            Conspiracy theorists or not.
            This sort of scurrilous behaviour goes a long way back in the history of the human race.

          8. I read the post a few times, because that was my first reaction, but I don’t think there were insults aimed at RE, just the source of the observation.

    2. Clearly conspiracy idiot.

      Glaxo does not own Pfizer. They are public companies, Pfizer being about 20% larger than Glaxo. They happen to have a joint venture for their consumer healthcare business (eg, toothpast, aspirin) which is a small part of their overall businesses. BlackRock ows a large chunk of Pfizer shares but are not Pfizer’s largest shareholder; they don’t even make into the top 10 of Glaxo’s largest shareholders.

      As for the rest of this rubbish, life is too short to bother correcting it.

      1. Certainly one or the other. Unless one can see their heads close up, they are virtually identical.

        1. Gus seems to have more clearly defined stripes on the side of his face. Or that may just be because he is closer to the camera.

        1. Most, but not all. The ‘ginger gene’ which produces the orange colour is on the X chromosome. Females have two X chromosomes and so need two copies of this gene to become ginger, whereas males need only one. This means there are roughly three males to one female ginger cat.

          Is it true that most ginger cats are male? – BBC Science Focus …

    1. According to Google maps, there’s a couple of paths well behind the windows with some bushes/trees in between. It could be a mock-up, possibly whilst the remainder of the redecorating work in the Oval Office is going on. It would be ironic if it was and take from the basement…

    2. To my mind, that is a studio set of the Oval Office – i.e. a ‘fake’ or ‘virtual’ Oval Office …

  69. There is an article in the DT (which I hasten to add did not read) about, whisper it softly, – Ladies’ undergarments one of the ‘Top’ comments is:

    Fred Beach
    22 Jan 2021 10:14AM
    I was quite fond of the old Rawhide bra the one that headed them up and moved `em out……

      1. Had to think for a couple of minutes,…..yes I think I recall there might have been one or two. To be fair I did think that it was a promotional piece for IKEA given the title of the article:

        “Goodbye to the male gaze: how our underwear drawers have been transformed in lockdown…”

        1. Ah yes – my friend tells me that a couple of the pictures were slightly suggestive – though appropriately diverse, of course.

          3. Part ici pants – is that what Sue is referring to above: “The original “draws” were two tubes of fabric strung together at the waist but without a crotch seam, so that it was only necessary to part”

    2. Another BTL Comment:

      Peregrin Phuddle
      22 Jan 2021 2:38PM

      kerriste what happened to MnS Wincyette?

      btw its Draws – not drawers – why – cos in Victorian times ladies had bloomers with “draw strings”

      1. Indeed. The original “draws” were two tubes of fabric strung together at the waist but without a crotch seam, so that it was only necessary to part and not pull down.

        Prior to the introduction of flimsy frocks at the end of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth century, ladies knickers as we know them simply didn’t exist. The bra is an even more recent invention, dating only from the 1930’s. Corsets and petticoats were the norm in previous centuries.

        2. Ladies draws were the way they were because it was necessary to get as much flow of air as possible. Thrush was endemic and the only treatment available was oxygen. There were a variety of other nasties about as well where oxygen was the only option.

        1. Like the flat chested girl who was looking to buy a bra and got no joy from any of the usual shops so ended up at Boots where she lifted her top and said “Have you got anything for these?” to which the assistant replied “Have you tried Clearasil?”

          1. Cruel. Reminds me of that film actress Cara Daley who is, I believe, George Cole’s niece.

      3. My mother’s generation often referred to these garments as BBs – Bust Bodices.

        It reminds me of Joyce Grenfell’s dancing partner, Mrs Tiverton, with whom she danced bust to bust.

    1. Weirdly, there is a massive demand in the Paris accord that the lie of green be promoted in the curriculum.

    2. Except that it won’t happen world wide, just in our countries.
      And this is the madness that Biden rushed to sign the US up to!

    1. Well, who’s fault is that then? It’s not ours. The Eu forced the limitiations deliberately to try to punish a successful free country it was frightened of. For once, will these eurocretins actually blame the people responsible?

      1. Ms Abbottopotamus’ Flash will remove 170% of grime

        Excluding Bill’s newspaper of course

    4. If I produced such guesswork with sweeping statements, I’d be sacked as an engineer. Yet ‘science experts’ get to decide the economic fortunes of the nation. Unbelievable.

  76. That’s me for this exciting day. G & P outdoors – briefly. They were very nervous – I suppose a great raft of brand-new, unknown smells must have overwhelmed them a bit. Pickles found the catnip very quickly…

    Still, they went back in, and then spent the next half hour looking through the windows watching the MR and me at work clipping a hedge.

    I’ll join you tomorrow when more gardening is proposed (ordered) by the MR.

    A demain.

  77. RT-PCR detects presence of viral genetic material in a sample but is not able to distinguish whether infectious virus is present. The quantity of intact virus in upper respiratory swabs will be affected by factors that are endogenous and exogenous to laboratory methods.

    This link to the government website about the RT-PCR test.

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/926410/Understanding_Cycle_Threshold__Ct__in_SARS-CoV-2_RT-PCR_.pdf

  78. Ahhh – our ‘amazing ‘Chief Scientist’ has proclaimed that despite ther being ‘uncertain data’ abou this new ‘Kent’ strain of COVID-19, it IS 30% more ‘deadly’ than before (10 in 1000 to 13 for a man in his 60s). Presumably because people are, once again, getting fed up of lockdowns and wanting reopening of the economy, so he has to yet again ramp the scaremongering. Remember the ‘hockey stick’ (a-la Al Gore) graph of his saying 4000 deaths per day unless we locked down back in November? Which was a LIE, but actually put over as a ‘mistake’?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/coronavirus-news-covid-vaccine-cases-deaths-strain-lockdown/

    1. I thought the acquired wisdom was that viruses mutate to become less deadly rather than more deadly, otherwise all the hosts die and thus the virus dies.

        1. And what do i continuously keep harping on and saying about or political classes ?
          THEY EFF UP EVERYTHING THEY COME INTO CONTACT WITH !

          2. Between them they cost us more than 127 million every year and rising. Their salaries are more than doubled with expenses perks and benefits. Bungs and gold plated pensions abound. And most of them are not worth a bag of rotten carrots.
            And that doesn’t include all their staff and the senior civil service. It’s a bloody disgrace.

      2. So did I – normally the easier a virus is to transmit, the less deadly it is, because it’s always a balance between it surviving in another host long enough to spread to another, and its destructive power in that host. If it kills more, it has less other hosts to infect.

    2. Would that be the Calais to Dover rubber boats strain,…….. now freely walking our streets and demonstrating about their free food and free lodgings ?

      1. Maybe, although that would mean its more of French strain, which wouldn’t go down well with the public.

        1. I read that the French so far haven’t been too keen on ‘taking the jab’.
          Would that be due to their well known Insouciance ?

    3. We have ased a bit. It’s now allowed to have alcohol with your restaurant meal! Yaay! (Just back from pizza and a bottle of inderterminate red, but YAAY anyhow!)
      That pesky virus must be fed on alcohol, since banning a beer with dinner out has clearly had a colossal effect in reducing virus transmission…

          1. I listened to the whole thing, and yes it’s an alternative view, but the presentation does his case no favours whatsoever.

          2. 49 minutes of what feels like a tape on fast forward? Credit to you. I skipped through. He’d do well to chapter up the content and have clearer arguments in a more structured format.

      2. I think he drinks way too much coffee from his ‘leftist tears’ mug! You certainly get your ‘money’s worth’ with Ben.

          2. I have replied to my source for the earlier comment, she is getting it check out.

            I don’t know whether you have watched Foyle’s War but i have several recorded it’s get rid of the adds. I watch one last night called The French Drop. There was not much wine about, but it was a brilliant story. Also featuring Timothy and Prunella West’s son Simon.

          3. We watched last night . I do think Michael Kitchen is so cool , he doesn’t say very much, he grimaces beautifully .

            Such an excellent quality series , isn’t it.

          4. We got a boxed DVD set some years ago.
            Excellent programmes, a nice change from the usual detective story. And Kitchen is superb, Honeysuckle Weekes is cute… Sigh

          5. I have them all on my computer somewhere. If only I could get rid of CBA syndrome I might watch them again.

        1. They don’t even have to go abroad; we’ve got the Kent variant (which is probably really the Calais variant ex the Middle East) and we have lots of other counties, never mind countries, to choose from.

    3. “Dr Mike Ryan – head of the WHO emergency programme – urged people to ‘remain calm around the issues of these variants’.
      He added: ‘There is a big difference between the lethality of a virus, how many people on average a virus kills, versus the morality of the virus.”

      Blimey, the coronavirus now has ethics!

  83. This afternoon out of the blue, i had a phone call to give me a date and time for the jab. But i had to decline because i have to attend the funeral of a dear old childhood friend the day after. I really couldn’t take the chance of an adverse reaction and miss saying good by to K S.
    But i’ll be very careful all the same.
    She didn’t die from Covid, cancer took her life. She may even have been deferred treatment, which i guess is the same as dying from covid.

    1. I’m sorry for the loss of your friend, Eddy. That’s hard, so it is. My condolences.

  84. This afternoon out of the blue, i had a phone call to give me a date and time for the jab. But i had to decline because i have to attend the funeral of a dear old childhood friend the day after. I really couldn’t take the chance of an adverse reaction and miss saying good by to K S.
    But i’ll be very careful all the same.
    She didn’t die from Covid, cancer took her life. She may even have been deferred treatment, which i guess is the same as dying from covid.

  85. I’ve had enough today, slayders peeps,…………. off to get a tipple and sit and listen the our Labrador snoring.

    1. The former Royal Observer Corps Monitoring Post, near St Agnes, Cornwall, was built in 1961
      15ft long, 7.3ft wide, and 8ft high, it is one of over 1,500 posts built around Britain’s coasts during 1960s-90s
      Site was used in Cold War to keep track of aircraft and potential nuclear threats, said auctioneer Adam Cook
      Has an ‘old bunk bed’ and toilet ‘I don’t think you’d fancy using but certainly gives you atmosphere’, he said
      Room for a case of sherry …

      2. I used to belong to the ROC Norwich group 6. I still have my uniform. They used to keep track of aircraft during WW2 but those bunkers were for nuclear monitoring during the cold war. ROC ceased in 1981 I think. Only one entrance to the bunkers plus an air shaft – very claustrophobic

          1. And in the foyer, there is a big ROC display claiming “the nation’s first line of defence”. Rather grandiose for the crew I served with, I think 🙂

        2. I think it was the early ’90s when it was knocked on the head; I was still serving in 1986.

          1. You could be right – I’d moved in 1980, thought of joining the local branch but I was sure it was being wound down

        3. A house round the corner from us was an ROC post: a very basic Victorian semi. I always wondered, if they wanted to keep it secret, why it had a flag outside.

        1. Ours was dark and dank and it didn’t half dink
          There’s a derelict one not far from me in Gairloch

          1. Ours had a notice by the Elsan stating “Action to be followed in case of hearing the warning. Bend over, put your head between your knees and kiss your @rse goodbye” 🙂

        2. In my youth I had to visit such AOC posts to carry out routine WB400 tests.
          They were frequently located in isolated locations and very often the WB400 units were fed by overhead lines on telegraph poles to the site.
          They would have been the first to go in any explosive blast, nuclear or conventional.

          1. Mine was in the middle of a field in the back of beyond. I think the lines were underground, though.

          2. It seemed the AOC posts were always in the back of beyond, although other WB400 receivers were in varied locations, village post offices, little local schools, the village police house, doctors surgery’s and of course large police stations.
            Strange to think these days, most of the places no longer exist, when did you last see a village with an operational police house still there?

          3. Even before I left home for university (at the age of 17) our police house had been sold off.

  87. Why is it that if I’m 99 years old and get Covid and die within a four weeks I’ve died of Covid; but if I get the injection and die within four weeks I’ve died of old age?

    1. Well I just cannot believe that the human race has survived for hundreds of thousands of years without face masks, I’m sure if it was necessary for the survival of the species we would have evolved a loose flap of facial foreskin that could be flapped over when we approach other humans.

      2. Has anyone started to bury the Time Tombs, ie sealed boxes relating to life in UK in the early 2020’s, but not to be opened ’til 2120

        PS will Biden still be POTUS then?

    1. Greetings Sos. (Haven’t been here in a while – family bereavement, very elderly, NOT bat flu, lots to deal with.)
      It seems that virtually any symptom can be Covid. Who’d have thought it.

        1. Cheers! I don’t feel very articulate or knowledgeable compared to most on here but reading the comments helps me express myself better to others!

      2. Got to get the whole country tested y’know. Got to get those false positives, got to get those numbers, got to get the dna. Oh, my little toe is itching. Must be covid… oh, it’s a chilblain. Panic over.

        Nice to see you back here, MiB.

      3. Hallo MumisBusy, you’ll be pleased to know that the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has dared to upbraid the Government over its false Covid (scaremongering) adverts. Government has agreed to withdraw them.

        So, who was telling porkies?

    1. Snow falls in Norway.

      Who’da thunk it?

      If you show the girls your Igloo do you think they’ll show you their fur muffs?

      };-O

  90. Evening, all. Don’t trust opinion polls for anything. The answers they get depend on whom they ask and how they phrase the questions. Meanwhile, some unsurprising, but depressing, reading: https://www.brexit-watch.org/billions-more-pounds-set-to-fly-to-brussels-will-it-ever-end

    https://www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/1381858/Brexit-latest-news-eu-deal-fishing-quotas-Nigel-Farage-Michel-Barnier

    https://getbritainout.org/eu-attempts-to-brainwash-young-people-continue

    1. 328713+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      What were you expecting, they were 100 proof pro eu prior to 24/6/2016, I see it as like the gas employees dilemma,current contract terminated return under a new contract, only this on a bigger scale.
      These ex pro eu political assets will continue as was prior to 2016 ALL under the umbrella of “the deal”

    1. Looks to me like what is going on here. Tell the people there is something to fear (CV/Trump) and persuade them you are the new messiah and you must obey. That many troops indicate to the masses that there was a great threat to the nation and after the faux horror of Jan 6, that threat must be Mr T. They will not stop until the coffin is firmly nailed down. Pelosi is high priestess of the undead.

    2. National guard are part time, they have been there about two weeks now.

      Time to rotate them out, o conspiracy.

    3. Comments from btl of the link:

      politically incorrect • 3 hours ago • edited
      Something very strange is going on,and in my view, it’s one of two things – One,(and most likely),due to policies the left are going to enact in the near future,and the possibility that absolute proof of the massive election fraud might be forthcoming,the left are bringing troops in to protect them from and enraged populace.Number Two,(less likely)-the military has enough incontrovertible evidence to make massive arrests of the elites,and overturn the fraudulent election.Unfortunatly,I seriously doubt number two for a vareity of reasons-one,I think the military leadership is in bed with the deep state,(to put it simply),and two,if this were to be going to happen,there’s no way the top dogs in government wouldn’t be aware of it,and these gop senators,(like the murder turtle)wouldn’t be openly supporting the other side.Sorry,quanon people,it’s all a pipe dream,what’s NOT a pipe dream,is you are going to see the USA turn into a fascist state literally overnight.v

      IPray4LibsItBugsThem
      Gotta be for the second shampeachment. Nasty Nan thinks they’re going to be successful this time, and we are going to be more pisssssed than we already are.

      H. Hawke IPray4LibsItBugsThem • 14 minutes ago
      Good guess.
      Especially with Mitch onboard with the illegal impeachment of a non-sitting ex-president.

      Ol Blood&Guts
      Nancy Piglosi is going to create another false flag emergency to keep the troops in DC.

      H. Hawke •
      Sorry but the sight of those “Guards” doesn’t fill me with optimism.
      They look disorganized, out-of-shape, undisciplined.u

  93. Good night all.

    prawn & crab risotto.

    Finely chopped onions & garlic, olive oil, pinch of chili flakes, Tbsp dried tarragon, !/2 glass dry Vermouth, veg stock, 1/2 cup Arborio rice, white crabmeat, prawns, handful grated Gruyère.

    You know the words…

    1. Good, God, Peddy, no downvote for taking food from the sea and starving the East of rice?

  94. Ventilator-associated lung injury

    It is now recognized that lung damage indistinguishable from ARDS may be caused by certain patterns of ventilatory support

    https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/167981-treatment

    Today we heard that a COVID variant is resulting in a higher mortality rate than the original COVID-19 virus primarily ensuing from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).

    But we already know that the massive investment in ventilators has never been matched by the required level of nursing and anaesthetic care required for patient ventilation in intensive care units. The level of expertise and patient handling required to avoid further lung damage is illustrated in the above article.

    Could the increasing levels of stress amongst medical professionals and the consequent staff isolations from ICUs account to some extent for higher mortalities during the increased pressure on the NHS duing this second wave?

    2. I see you have attracted a downvote.

      I think we all now know that Covid and the response of governments to press for (compulsory) vaccinations is a gigantic scam. The reason the medical and clinical staff are so nervous and uneasy is because they know it is a scam and can do nothing about it for fear of losing their livelihoods.

      In addition those clinical staff, who have devoted years of their lives to the care of the sick, now oversee empty wards where seriously ill patients with other illnesses would otherwise be receiving treatment.

      In my view the perpetrators of this scam should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. Hancock in particular should be prosecuted and gaoled. Much the same applies to the scientific advisors whose silly predictions have proven again and again to be entirely false.

      1. “ I think we all now know that Covid and the response of governments to press for (compulsory) vaccinations is a gigantic scam”. “We” is a tiny minority of deluded conspiracy theorists – the vast majority of the world, let alone this country, do not think that Covid-19 is a gigantic scam.

        3. Covid is a nasty but relatively harmless flu virus manufactured in a Wuhan laboratory owned by Glaxo Smith Kline. Follow the money as they say.

          It is the weakest of arguments to answer that those with opposing views, to your own blind acceptance of the MSM narrative, are conspiracy theorists. You are comparable to a sheep taking direction from a sheepdog but with less independent thought or analysis.

          1. The Wuhan Institute of Virology is not owned by British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline, which does not own rival Pfizer.

          3. And since flu viruses and corona viruses are very different – SARS-CoV-2 is not a flu virus – neither is it “relatively harmless”. If it were the death rate amongst those hospitalised would not be running at over 25%.

            Keep up the good work!

        4. Whether it is a scam or not it has destroyed the successful and worthwhile business Caroline and I built up over the last 30 years and if there are any people responsible they deserve to rot in Hell.

          1. My heart genuinely goes out to people like you who, through absolutely no fault of your own, are paying a high price in this crisis. The Government has made bad mistakes and deserves criticism for them but, even though I have little regard for the PM and most of his Cabinet, I can’t see that any Government anywhere in the world would have done much better. I agree with you that the people responsible deserve to rot in Hell but I think that they can be found in China. I abhor Trump but he was right to call it something like the “China virus”. My sincere wishes that you and Caroline can manage to salve your business and restore it to good health.

          2. I don’t think that anyone is responsible for the fact that the virus happened – there has been very little evidence put forward that it was created artificially (I gather that those who are sequencing it know what to look for to detect whether it is “man-made”). Clearly the Chinese did not, at least initially, deal well with what they found and our own government have not done any better.

            Those who are losing jobs and businesses are suffering horribly (and probably more so than is strictly necessary) … but not as horribly as those who are losing husbands or wives, parents or, and yes it is happening, children. A friend rang me today to say that a mutual acquaintance – in his fifties – has died of it; and his elderly mother (with whom he lived and for whom he was the main carer) is utterly distraught. There a lot of victims of this pandemic and those of us who come out of it healthy along with our nearest and dearest will have a lot for which to be thankful.

        5. Not a tiny minority, and not conspiracy theorists, but people who look at the facts, and realise that the response to a genuine virus has been disproportionate.

          1. What would be proportionate? Is this a virus no more dangerous than common ‘flu or a virulent, highly-contagious indiscriminate killer? Almost every country in the world believes it to be the latter and, moreover, employs much the same restrictions as we do. Those that do not, tend to have far more cases of infection and death that we do. I say “tend” because different countries have very different population densities, varying standards of public health, different social conditions as so on.

          2. At the beginning, we saw what looked like alarming data from Wuhan and northern Italy.
            This was not duplicated in Britain, where there were fewer deaths in 2020 from all causes than there were in 2006.
            At this point, the panic measures should be rolled back, not doubled down on.

            Several cheap and easily available drugs have been shown to be effective in treating the virus – these should have been used at the earliest possible opportunity. Instead, they were sidelined and mocked as “treating the virus with bleach” as part of the political campaign against Trump.
            This interference of politics into medicine was an appalling disgrace.

            Scientists and doctors who disagree with the “virulent, highly-contagious, indiscriminate killer” version have been trolled, sidelined and ignored, including Dr Mike Yeadon, Dr Sunetra Gupta and some 13000 others. Closing down scientific debate is not a proportionate response.

            It is not true that “almost every country in the world” employs much the same restrictions as we do. My son is working with people from various countries, who report that things are very different back home for them. One colleague returned from holiday last week, and said nobody knows or cares much about the virus in his country. Of course you can always argue that they have different social conditions, but remember that you yourself claimed that the virus is an “indiscriminate killer.”

            Notably India is not going down the mass vaccination route. I doubt this is due to the cost, as the Gates foundation would certainly step in and perform mass vaccinations if the Indian government let them.
            According to recent photos in the press, China is back to normal – did they vaccinate? It was not reported in the press that they did.

          3. This was not duplicated in Britain, where there were fewer deaths in 2020 from all causes than there were in 2006.

            I do not know whether this statement is a blatant lie or an egregious error. Whichever is the case it is untrue.

            Total deaths for England and Wales in 2006 = 502,599
            Total deaths for England and Wales in 2020 = 614,114

            There are more than 100,000 excess deaths in 2020 over the 5 year average 2015-2019.

            Yes, there are varying scientific opinions and yes, debate should continue. Untruths about the number of deaths should not be any part of that debate, or opinion.

          5. You were looking for an excuse, you found one. Comparisons to 1918 are clearly based on very different population. Comparison to 2006 is not. Your comment is designed to boost the fallacy that SARS-CoV-2 is trivial. It is not. No apology is due to you for this specious use figures.

            I will accept your apology for trivialising facts – but, of course, I won’t get it.

          7. I don’t drink alcohol. My downvote, when given, is a measure of your comment, nothing more.

          9. I repeat. Read your own nastiness – including the shouting.

            Probably best to leave my reasoned comments for those with reason, since you clearly demonstrate that you have none.

          11. I’ve haven’t insulted you yet. I don’t intend to. Expression of obvious truth is not an insult.

            You on the other hand have made several very insulting comments based on random speculation and direct falsehood.

          13. Notably India is not going down the mass vaccination route. I doubt this is due to the cost, as the Gates foundation would certainly step in and perform mass vaccinations if the Indian government let them.

            India is indeed planning mass vaccinations. They anticipate vaccinating over 300 million people by August. Furthermore they are manufacturing enormous quantities of vaccine for distribution to other countries. India has a large vaccine industry.

            According to recent photos in the press, China is back to normal – did they vaccinate? It was not reported in the press that they did.

            China has certainly produced a vaccine, it has been approved by some countries and is presumably intended for use on their own population (why else produce it). Data, as is common from China, is not widely available, they do not report in the press in the manner of other countries so the fact that something “was not reported” tells us nothing at all.

          14. You have a fair point about India – I should have said “vaccination-only” route, as they have not rejected cheap drugs to treat the virus, in the same way that the West has.

            “the fact that something “was not reported” tells us nothing at all.”
            Yes, Jennifer, that is why I asked the question about whether China was vaccinating, you know, the sentence that ended in a question mark.

          15. There is, as yet, no reliable evidence that the “cheap drugs” actually have any effect on the virus. The West is using dexamethasone which is effective and as cheap as chips. I’m still waiting for the link that demonstrates that ivermectin is effective in vivo. In vitro studies are hardly relevant. I’ve asked on several occasion – but none of the apologists for ivermectin have produced a word.

          16. There are several studies showing the effectiveness of various cheap drugs, and the Indian government based its drug packs on these. You can find the information on the internet.
            I do not want to get sucked into a conversation with you.

          17. I cannot find the information on the internet. It isn’t there. Lots of in vitro data, no in vivo.

            I do not want to get sucked into a conversation with you.

            Of course you don’t, you would have to look your balderdash in the face and accept it for what it is.

          18. What an unpleasant post. Can you understand why people don’t want to exchange conversation with someone who makes posts like the above?

            Look for papers on hydroxychloroquine successfully treating covid, in combination with other things. They are there. I’m not going to do the work for you. When you have found them, you can write to the Indian government and tell them that their treatments are balderdash. I’m sure they will be happy to be corrected by you.

            By the way, I noted the downvote, which confirms my suspicions – hands off the Cherry Brandy, Jennifer!

          19. You want to see nasty? Read your own comments. The one above is a good example.

            No, they are not there, not if you really read. There’s no evidence at all for HCQ, and no data for ivermectin.

            As mentioned already, I don’t drink.

          20. If you think my comments are nasty, then please do as I do….I avoid you.

            This is the oldest trick in the internet argument book – sucking more and more proofs out of the other person. Commonly used by trolls, and when the proof is supplied, you’ll go off on another tangent, accusing me of lying, or not providing enough information.

            I have open in my browser, a paper showing that Hydroxychloroquine, Azithromycin, and Zinc were successfully used to treat Covid-19 patients. It is one of several that were done last year.

            If you can’t do a simple search to find this paper and others….please don’t talk any further on this subject.

          21. There is no proof. It does not exist. That you refuse to supply it simply proves, beyond all doubt, that the troll (though I would not have chosen that word had you not thrown it into the mix) is the person looking at your screen, not the one looking at mine.

            Provide the evidence – or “please don’t talk any further on this subject”.

          22. Don’t be shy – let it all out. You’ll feel much better after a good rant at a stranger on the internet! Keep going!

      2. It’s surprising how little the ardent’ pandemicists’ have any thoughts for those who suffer serious illness and have died through withdrawal of treatment. Obviously, to them, a person dying WITH Covid is far worse that another dying from cancer, heart disease or any other life threatening illness or disease. But they see themselves as the compassionate ones. Herd immorality dressed up as virtue.

    3. Why would medical professionals have increased levels of stress – according to some of the posters in this forum, the Covid-19 crisis is a gigantic scam and there is no second wave (or first or any wave)?

      1. If you read Angie’s history, you’ll find she’s not one of those upon whom you heap your scorn.

        1. My post was intended to be ironic support to Angie’s contention by scorning those who claim that there is no Covid-19 crisis. I know for certain that the pandemic is indeed causing very severe stress to medical professionals.

          3. Hm! Looking at your posting history, I see that we have crossed verbal swords before. I subscribe to codes such as the Clonmell one so I won’t respond to your post above.

      1. …and your own downvote because you dared to question it. I won’t, I’ll get one, yippee!

  96. Saturday 23rd January, 2021

    Damask Rose

    Have a brilliant and Appropriately Epic Birthday

    and

    Innumerable Happy Returns

    With very best wishes,

    Caroline and Rastus

    We hope the new piano is joyous and life enriching and you have enjoyed the score we posted earlier!

    We were going to paste in Don Partridge’s Rosie but we have been listening to a mammoth evening of Neil Diamond songs so we are posting this one for you which was recorded when you were Sweet 19!

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

  97. “Kent Covid variant ’30 per cent more deadly:

    That wouldn’t be a variant coming across on dinghies would it?

    1. You would need to find out where the first sample came from to know that – and I don’t think that the people who are isolating the variations (tens of thousands of variations) are told the origin of the samples… so I don’t think it will ever be anything other than speculation. It could just as easily mutate in person A as in person B or person C – regardless of their origins.

        1. By late April over 1350 distinct strains had been identified as coming into the country in British people who were ill. Since then the mutations are almost beyond counting. It’s certain that it has mutated with Britain, just as it is certain that mutations keep arriving (by whatever route). I suspect that one could drive oneself mad if one speculated too much.

          Because a lot of the sequencing is being done in UK labs it is possible that more mutations are being found here, but samples are coming in to be sequenced from all sorts of places.

          Lots of people losing jobs, but plenty of opportunities for lab technicians with the right skills.

  98. One for William and Corim

    “It is usually futile to try to talk facts and analysis to people who are
    enjoying a sense of moral superiority in their ignorance.”

    Thomas Sowell
    Don’t waste your breath(or keyboard)

    1. As a Moderator for this site, shouldn’t you be promoting its ideals (“differing opinions are encouraged” etc) rather than demeaning the character of posters and denigrating their views when you disagree with them, and, moreover, inciting others to do the same?

Comments are closed.