Sunday 31 January: Britain shouldn’t stoop to the EU’s level in the vaccine dispute

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/2021/01/31/lettersbritain-shouldnt-stoop-eus-level-vaccine-dispute/

719 thoughts on “Sunday 31 January: Britain shouldn’t stoop to the EU’s level in the vaccine dispute”

  1. The people were right. Spiked 31 january 2021

    We told you. We told you the European Union was not some hippyish, internationalist outfit but rather was a self-interested protectionist bloc. We told you it was a sclerotic bureaucracy whose centralisation of power made it more and more difficult for member states to behave as democratic nations and to respond sensitively and speedily to the needs of their own people. We told you the EU didn’t really give a damn about the Good Friday Agreement and was only using it as a weapon with which to beat Brexit Britain. We told you the EU was exploiting Ireland, cynically marshalling its concerns over a ‘hard border’ to try to further demonise Brexit, and that before long it would forget all about its concern for Ireland and relegate it once again to the status of a neo-colony. We told you all of this. And we were right.

    Morning everyone. This of course is not the worst of it. It was designed to be non-democratic. Authoritarian. A tyranny in waiting! The fourth Reich!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/01/30/the-people-were-right/

  2. Morning all. Up early to take grandson to his temp job at covid testing centre.
    Here are the vaccine letters….

    SIR – While the EU is behaving with its usual arrogance, ineptitude and lack of good faith over vaccine supplies, two wrongs do not make a right.

    Once the most vulnerable groups in Britain have been vaccinated, we should be the better person and accept a reduction in contracted supplies from AstraZeneca. It is surely better if the vaccine is used for the vulnerable in other countries rather than heathy UK residents under the age of 60.

    As a relatively healthy, 52-year-old I would prefer “my” future dose to go to someone elsewhere in greater need.

    Dr Glyn Jones

    Grayshott, Hampshire

    SIR – The UK showed great faith in the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine by buying a large number of doses early. The EU could have done the same, were it not mired in bureaucracy.

    I applaud Pascal Soriot, the CEO of AstraZeneca, for explaining the position so clearly, and for his company’s efforts to provide as many doses as possible despite the three-month delay in the EU signing a deal. Eurocrats must find it galling to see the independent UK doing so well.

    Jonathan Mann

    Gunnislake, Cornwall

    SIR – I suspect that if the boot were on the other foot, we would be told that we had made our own bed in choosing Brexit and would have to wait.

    Heather Paget-Brown

    Plaxtol, Kent

    SIR – I am 70 and my husband (and carer) is 67. I’ve been booked in to have my vaccination in early February. I am disabled and shielding.

    It is impossible to find out if my husband can have his at the same time. Our surgery cannot tell us, and neither could a person from the district council. We know others who have experienced similar problems. Why has this not been cleared up?

    Jacqueline Scoulding

    Cheddar, Somerset

    SIR – Despite being a healthy 77-year-old, I was invited at short notice to have the Pfizer vaccine, which I duly did on January 8 – well ahead of most people over the age of 80. It was all very efficient.

    On the 20th I received a text from my GP, offering me a jab on the 22nd, which I declined for obvious reasons.

    Then, on Thursday I received a letter from the NHS – dated nine days earlier – offering me the vaccine yet again. When I called the hotline, it took a while for me to establish that I was not trying to get the second jab but was calling out of politeness.

    Mike Kearney

    Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – My father, who is 101 years old and housebound, has still not heard when he will receive his vaccine. He is apparently “on the list” to receive a visit from a district nurse.

    I wonder how many other Second World War veterans are in the same position.

    Terry Benson

    London SW10

  3. In thrall to the state

    SIR – Janet Daley puts her finger precisely on the issue of our time.

    The question is not about the efficacy of this or that lockdown policy. It is about whether people’s fear has led them to value safety above all else – and to turn to the state to deliver it.

    I think this has been a process: our reaction to Covid is the culmination of a relatively short period in which people have become accustomed to demanding that the state keep them from harm. In the beginning, we had 9/11 and the fear of terror; in 2008 it was the fear of destitution arising from the financial meltdown; and now Covid has reawakened our dread of contagion. Far from reluctantly accepting the present restrictions, we expect more stringent ones.

    Margaret Thatcher’s work in rolling back the power of the state has been largely undone. We are in thrall to it.

    Gordon Bonnyman

    Frant, East Sussex

    1. Mr Bonnyman is spot on – but what do we do about it?
      The youngest generation has been taught all their lives not to trust the evidence of their lying eyes and not to fix their own problems but to run crying to the teacher for help. They’ve never participated in any group activity that didn’t involve a risk assessment. When I used to read parenting websites, there were frequent serious discussions about things like how long a 16 year old could be left in the house alone. It never seemed to occur to these parents that independence would not be achieved overnight on their child’s 18th birthday.
      How will they understand as adults that relying on the government for anything spells doom?

      1. Too right. Things have changed a lot in the last 30 or 40 years… When I was sixteen my parents sent me to Geneva for a French course at the university for six weeks; I lived in students’ accommodation (with other students around, of course) and had to fend for myself without any adults telling me what to do or trying to “protect” me. My mother insisted that I write her a letter once a week; she, too, wrote to me once a week: and that was the only contact I had with my family for that time.

        Nowadays, we get our students on our courses – same sort of age, and older. Many parents don’t want their little darlings to travel overnight on the ferry in nice cosseted cabins because they feel it isn’t safe.

  4. Demolition dog

    SIR – Your report on the naming of pet dogs reminded me of the arrival of our lurcher-cross puppy, who dashed excitedly around the living room, knocking from the coffee table a china tea-set with his tail before diving (accidentally) into the garden fish pond. My father, who was visiting, said: “That’s not a dog. It’s a tank.”

    We called him Sherman.

    Joanna Barnes

    Christchurch, Dorset

    SIR – We have always named our pets after shipping regions and coastal stations used in the Shipping Forecast.

    We have had Tyne, Lundy, Biscay (dogs) and Fisher, Dover, Bridlington (cats). No Dogger or German Bight yet.

    I’m not sure what this says about us. We live many miles from the sea.

    Adrianne Alun-Jones

    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    1. The best name for a dachshund was Truman.

      (He had four short legs and swung his balls both ways)

  5. Unfair road schemes

    SIR – Your Leading Article (January 24) rightly criticises the Government’s support for road schemes that benefit walkers and cyclists at the expense of motorists.

    Sheffield City Council has gone one worse, rushing out plans to close swathes of the city centre to buses as well as cars. This is alarming for those of us with limited mobility who depend on public transport. It will also be disastrous for city-centre retailers, hospitality providers, entertainment venues and other services that rely on our business.

    The required “consultation” was confined to an online questionnaire on an obscure website for a few weeks over Christmas and the New Year, and may well have been missed by many of those who will be most seriously disadvantaged.

    Frances Soar

    Sheffield, South Yorkshire

    1. Tch tch tch Mrs Soar, do you not yet understand? In the new normal there won’t be any city-centre retailers, hospitality providers, entertainment venues.

        1. No. It shouldn’t be.
          The Germans very sensibly settled on Frau for all women, and we should do the same when speaking English.

          1. Es gibt viele alten unverheirateten Damen in Deutschland, die viel Wert auf die Ansprache “Fräulein” legen.

          2. I liked being “Miss” too, though I’m not sure I would like it so much today. “Ms” is a made up abomination, a mean little word with no substance. It’s just an insult!

          3. Address all women as either Mrs, Miss, Ms. It doesn’t matter which, as long as there is just one title for all.
            It would be a help to get traction on this if the different options were removed from paper and online forms.

    2. Cold – when the air freezez in your nostrils, so about -12C and lower.
      Hot – when thw air scorches the rim of your nostrils, so about +36 and above
      Comfortable – between those two.
      Morning, Johnny – we have -18,5C this morning, so it’s cold.

      1. Morning, Paul.

        It’s just 0ºC this morning, here in the tropical zone of southern Skåne.

      2. I am one of the few people that thinks England has the best weather in the world. I prefere cool to hot. My prefered range is 6C to 25C.

  11. Flu is ‘almost wiped out’ and at lowest level in 130 YEARS as seasonal virus plummets by 95%. 31 january 2021.

    Fewer people are being struck down by the flu than at any time in the past 130 years.

    Experts say that the bug appears to have been ‘almost wiped out’ after the number of sufferers plummeted by 95 per cent.

    The second week of January, normally the worst time for the seasonal virus, saw the number of flu-like symptoms reported to GPs at 1.1 per 100,000 people – compared with a five-year average of 27.

    Wow! Imagine that! Whatever could have caused such a drastic decline? It’s almost as if somebody didn’t want the figures to be registered as flu!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9206071/Flu-wiped-lowest-level-130-YEARS-seasonal-virus-plummets-95.html

    1. We’ll see what happens with Delores Cahill’s court case alleging that flu is being marketed as covid.

    2. Wow! Imagine that! Whatever could have caused such a drastic decline?

      In a word, misattribution.

      1. Talking of a drastic decline:

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ac6efc11a23c3c0eee54b8eaff954d324ed857e99286d18b16015502744f9fb0.png

        What has caused the precipitous fall in “cases” in the last few days?

        1. Lockdown
        2. The vaccination programme
        3. The PCR Ct rate has been reduced – + tests down 31.3% and admissions down 16.6% in last 7 days.

        Whatever the reason a victory of sorts will be claimed, with caveats remaining to restrict the people of course. Johnson will be proclaimed as the man who beat CV-19 and despite the disasters yet to unfold with the economy, mental health etc, he will be proclaimed our saviour.

          1. Blue for triage on 999 and 111 phone calls, orange for yer actual cases. I think.
            But not clear if this is flu or covid.

          3. Blue for triage on 999 and 111 phone calls, orange for yer actual cases. I think.
            But not clear if this is flu or covid.

      3. Read that last word as describing a favourite activity of Onan the Barbarian.
        I’ll get me specsavers voucher…
        Morning, Korky. :-))

        1. Masturbating misattributors (new word)? Mind boggling but not beyond the realms of probability.😎

          Morning, OB.

    1. No she ‘s not far wrong. Perhaps a little too optimistic as to the fate of those who are now children. They will be serfs and servants to the Elites!!

        1. The struggle for freedom is eternal but never in human history have the Forces of Darkness had such scientific and technical resources to suppress dissident opinion!

          2. I think Araminta means advanced technologies like electronic payment, internet connected sensors that can be planted all over the place, thought reading, listening etc.

  13. SIR — Pfor two days, my elderly pfather has been pfilled with pforeboding at anecdotal reports of those who have received the Pfizer vaccine pfalliing down and pfoaming at the mouth, their pfeatures pfrozen in pain. He had his vaccination last Pfriday pforenoon and is now pfrightened pfor his life.

    I call upon the Scottish Government to release the pfull pfacts regarding possible adverse reactions without pfurther delay, lest this pfear spread among elderly pfolk.

    Pfergus Pfraser-Pfarquharson
    Pfreuchie, Pfife

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Gosh, some local authorities with a good idea:

    SIR – I was heartened by the proposal to name roads after those who have won the Victoria Cross and George Cross, and by the support this has received from the communities and culture secretaries.

    The Government should also ensure that statues honouring holders of these awards – such as that of General Buller in Exeter – are protected from narrow-minded, anti-British councillors who would remove them. Before any such action, there must be informed consent from local residents, whose ancestors collectively paid for them.

    Phil Coutie
    Exeter, Devon

    SIR – Halifax town council deserves recognition for its foresight in naming roads after military heroes.

    On one new estate, three roads have been named after Battle of Britain pilots, including my father: Pilot Officer Kenneth Manger DFC.

    Captain Nigel Manger RN (retd)
    Forest Row, East Sussex

    SIR – I live in Felix Baxter Drive. Felix was a VC holder, and on this estate there are several other roads named after VC holders, with details of how each was won. Future estates could celebrate heroes in other fields, too.

    Maureen Purser
    Kidderminster, Worcestershire

    SIR – Among the 82 men from our village who died in the First World War, and the 20 who died in the Second World War, we don’t have a VC or GC holder. But we do have John Hobbs MC – and our parish council has named a new close after him.

    John Bryant
    Toddington, Bedfordshire

    1. I look forward to Johnson Beharry Highway – a new name for the M1!
      There’s a young lad with balls of steel.
      Respect!

    2. Some years back I visited where the old RE Training Regiment barracks, Southwood Camp, used to be near Farnborough and was most annoyed to find that the roads on the industrial estate that replaced it are named after American Astronauts not prominent Sappers.

  15. Today’s DT Leader…along with the top three lBTL comments:

    The EU’s failure to procure sufficient vaccine doses is a tragedy for all Europeans. We must hope that it, or its member states, are able to rectify these failures as speedily as possible, and it is right that Britain is promising to help as soon as we have vaccinated our own population. The virus is inflicting a horrific death toll on the world. The only way forward is to vaccinate populations, fast.

    But the shenanigans of the past few days have forced even loyal Remainers to admit that the organisation they have long supported is deeply flawed. Its slow-moving, unresponsive bureaucratic nature – the fact that nobody is likely to get fired for the absurdity of the past few days – is especially disastrous in the middle of an emergency. Feedback mechanisms are crucial in human affairs; smaller, self-governing, entrepreneurial states are much better placed. This was one of the major arguments underpinning Brexit, and it has turned out to be correct.

    Even more strikingly, the EU is not the morally righteous, liberal, law-governed organisation (or Rechtsstaat) its British proponents claimed it to be. There was already plenty of evidence of the EU’s true nature, from the never-ending bending of treaties to the behaviour towards Greece following the financial crash and the contempt shown towards our own democracy during Brexit negotiations.

    But invoking Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, effectively imposing a land border to stop imports to the UK, will have ensured that the penny well and truly dropped for many Remainers. It wasn’t a moment of madness, either. The way the EU behaved is intrinsic to its raison d’etre, an inevitable outcome of the way it is constituted and the culture of the people who run it.

    Its supporters thought that the EU was a rational alternative to nation state competition. In a globalised world, went the theory, you need to work together to compete through economies of scale. Many in Britain and abroad severely criticised Boris Johnson when he chose to opt out of the EU procurement system, signed contracts independently and early, invested in research and established supply chains. Nimbleness and the democratic imperative, it turns out, are better motivators and enablers than raw scale.

    Remainers believed the EU was for free trade and open borders. Yet it was Brussels, not London, that turned nationalist and nasty, by intimidating manufacturers and trying to control distribution. This was protectionism, in tooth and claw. They understood the EU as a project defined by reason, yet when its leaders thought that supply of the AstraZeneca jab might dry up, some jumped the gun and declared it ineffective for the over-65s. Emmanuel Macron, sounding like an internet conspiracy theorist, called it “quasi-ineffective”.

    Cheerleaders also said the EU was a force for peace and compassion, necessary for stability in Europe – but there is nothing compassionate in meddling with the distribution of vaccines, let alone to Britain, which has one of the highest death rates in the world. As for peace, we heard for five years that a Northern Ireland hard border would undermine the Good Friday Agreement. Leavers never wanted this; Britain negotiated to try to avoid it. In a twist that turns all Remainer assumptions inside out, it was the EU – not the UK – that overrode the final deal and tried to impose a border. The very thing it accused Britain of wanting to do, the EU did itself – and then, when it realised how bad it looked, it performed an embarrassing U-turn on the world stage.

    The psychological basis of much of British Europhilia is disbelief that this country could run its own affairs, matched with the assumption that anything non-British, supranational and, at the very least, social democratic, must be better. Acknowledging the many dreadful mistakes the UK made during the pandemic, however, we are seeing the first fruits of independence, which include greater will to cut through red tape and get things done.

    As to the EU, we now see again that its narrow-minded mandarins are incapable of administering the federal behemoth they are trying to construct, that they are ready to sacrifice the well-being of smaller nation states, to bully their neighbours and have little genuine interest in universalist humanism. Brexiteers should not gloat. The past few days have been deeply regrettable, and will have saddened all well-meaning people. The UK and Europe must learn to be good neighbours, and work together to solve a humanitarian crisis that affects us all – regardless of citizenship or political identity.

    * * * *

    D Walker
    30 Jan 2021 10:33PM
    I haven’t heard a single prominent Remainer retract their support for the EU or even admit that the Kommissars have made a complete pigs ear of their vaccine procurement programme.

    Still, the Irish Government, which behaved extremely badly during the Brexit negotiations, has had a very valuable lesson in just how irrelevant they are to their Overlords in Brussels. I hope the Irish people were paying attention.

    And the Scots.

    cameron munro
    31 Jan 2021 12:49AM
    Its pretty tough not to gloat. Being told every day since 2016 you are a thick racist little Englander not just by the EU and its Lander but many in the establishment in the UK tends to leave a scar.

    Den Dron
    30 Jan 2021 11:27PM
    The EU have organised disruption to trade at our borders. They decided to close the Irish border putting peace in Ireland at risk. They have tried to take our vaccine, They are trying to facilitate the stopping of delivery of vaccine materials. They are trying to do down our financial centre.

    The UK Government wants to help them out…

      2. I have far more sympathy to this call than the call to share vaccines with the EU. The EU will get there in the end, possibly a2-3 months after the UK, but it will manage to vaccinate its population given the number of vaccines coming to the market soon. The losers are however, middle income countries like Mexico and Peru which have been hit hard by Covid, but which have not secured enough vaccines; we should lend them a hand. Incidentally Mexico and Peru are both members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is the free trade area we are applying to join on Monday.

        1. Nope. There a fair few Commonwealth countries we should help first. Then extend help to the countries of South and Central America, especially those belonging to Mercosur.

          1. Perhaps, although most African, Caribbean and many Asian countries, seem to not have suffered much from Covid.

          2. Maybe, but do we know?
            The BBC has packed its “news” programmes, day and night with social media junk* such as “How Covid-19 made me addicted to Steven Seagal films”, and “The unbearable heartbreak of transboy unable to see their lover next door”.

            * I made these ones up, bu they would fit right in

      3. I have a strong feeling that if Ethiopia had got their hands on the first supplies, he would not be urging them to share them with others.

        1. And it wouldn’t be the Ethiopian in the street who would benefit; only his chums diverting a smidgeon of their ill gotten riches from Harrods and Mercedes Benz.

    2. 328947+ up ticks
      Morning HJ,
      The shenanigans of the last near five years
      down to the political overseers has brought about much of our present plight.
      A credible Brexitexit route was offered up by a founder member of UKIP, the referendum creators, in 2014.
      Only to be rejected in favour the political peoples in power knowing better & backed
      by their membership.

      Total severance was the way to go THEN, as proved NOW.

  16. I think another gloat is in order…and there must be some Nottlrs amongst the top BTL comments as they mirror much of what has been posted here in the past day or two!

    From the DT:

    So, Lord Adonis et al, what price Remain now?
    The European project has been found horribly wanting by the Covid pandemic, which has brutally exposed its deep faultlines

    MARK FRANCOIS
    30 January 2021 • 9:30pm

    The last 48 hours have witnessed extraordinary events, whereby the European Commission has attempted to invoke a little known Article in a UK/EU treaty to somehow mitigate its own terrible failings in rolling out a discredited and faltering vaccination programme for its increasingly angry citizens.

    The Northern Ireland Protocol (NIP) is not part of the Prime Minister’s recently concluded Trade and Co-operation Agreement with the EU.

    Rather, it forms part of the earlier, revised, Withdrawal Agreement by which we legally departed the European Union a year ago today. The NIP replaced the dreaded “backstop” under which the UK could have been trapped in a trade-limiting customs union forever, without any unilateral exit mechanism.

    Instead, the NIP is intended to regulate trade between Northern Ireland and the EU but also between NI and Great Britain as NI remains part of the EU Customs Union, whereas Great Britain does not. The NIP came into force on January 1 and already there have been problems in its operation, leading to serious bureaucratic delays in both GB/NI and NI/GB trade which the European Research Group that I chair is now actively highlighting to senior ministers.

    Article 16 of the NIP (Safeguards) allows either party to adopt unspecified “safeguarding measures” to protect its trade position. If one side invokes the Article, under Annex 7, the other has the legal right essentially to retaliate in kind. It is this Article which the European Commission was citing to ban the export of vaccines from the EU to the UK.

    Time and again during what I call the “Battle for Brexit” we were bullied by the European Commission (and Theresa May) to accept the shameful “backstop”, to supposedly prevent the creation of a hard border on the Island of Ireland and thus uphold the Good Friday Agreement.

    However, in an act of absolutely stunning hypocrisy, the European Commission has just advocated creating a metaphorical hard border for vaccines, purely for its own purposes. In doing this – without, it appears, even consulting Dublin properly beforehand – the commission did not so much “throw the Irish under a bus” as whack the double-decker straight into reverse and back right over them again.

    The European project has been found horribly wanting by the pandemic. The crisis has brutally exposed its deep faultlines of massive, ponderous bureaucracy and decisions taken for EU protectionism and corporate advantage rather than the welfare of its own citizens, who are now rightfully furious with their inept political masters.

    This botched “crie de coeur” by the advocates of the project seems desperately intended to mask their own failings by somehow blame-shifting onto Perfidious Albion instead. However, this is also an opportunity. We should announce a complete review of the NI Protocol to iron out its operational problems and, if necessary, even consider replacing it entirely.

    Either way, this whole episode has starkly exposed just how brutally the European Commission can behave when its interests are threatened.

    So, Lord Adonis et al, what price Remain now?

    M Artwc
    30 Jan 2021 9:49PM
    I must admit, there is a deafening silence from Adonis, Major, Ken Clarke, Heseltine, Clegg, etc etc, and bloody welcome it is too!

    Richard Sutton
    30 Jan 2021 10:02PM
    @M Artwc

    Blair, Campbell, Hague, you boys took one hell of a beating…

    D Walker
    30 Jan 2021 10:15PM
    @M Artwc

    Adonis was hiding behind the “I don’t know what the contract says” when Julia Hartley-Brewer interviewed him on TalkRadio on Thursday. He couldn’t bring himself to say that the EU had messed up their vaccine procurement.

    Rosemary Farley
    30 Jan 2021 10:17PM
    I cannot begin to describe my sense of euphoria at witnessing the humiliaton of Adonis, Sourby, Clarke, Heselslime, Blair, Major, Cameron, and all others who did their utmost to thwart the wishes of the British people. May they long languish in the cesspit they created.

  18. I had wondered where the funding came from for the NT’s nasty little programme to indoctrinate children in this country’s wicked past – now we know:

    National Trust’s scheme where children educated workers on colonial history was funded by taxpayer

    Staff and volunteers were ‘reverse-mentored’ by children so they can explain the colonial links of some of its country houses.

    By
    Christopher Hope,
    CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
    31 January 2021 • 6:00am

    The National Trust’s controversial ‘colonial countryside’ project which has examined links between the trust’s stately homes and Britain’s imperial past was funded with £160,000 taxpayers’ and lottery money, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

    The project with Leicester University – titled ‘Colonial Countryside: Reinterpreting English Country Houses’ – received £99,600 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund and £58,331 from Arts Council England.

    The Common Sense group of Conservative MPs have now written to Oliver Dowden, the Culture secretary, asking him to investigate how the funding was agreed for the project.

    As part of the project National Trust staff and volunteers were “reverse-mentored” by children so they can explain the colonial links of some of its country houses.

    The Trust arranged for staff and volunteers to be told about the impact of the British empire by so-called “child advisory boards” at a number of selected properties. None of the Trust’s team was forced to take part.

    The four year Colonial Countryside project – which has been run by Prof Corinne Fowler at the University of Leicester – has been examining “a range of colonial links, including slave-produced sugar wealth, East India Company connections, black servants, Indian loot, Francis Drake and African circumnavigators, colonial business interests, holders of colonial office, Chinese wallpaper, Victorian plant hunters and imperial interior design”, according to a description on the university’s website.

    Sir John Hayes MP, the chairman of the Common Sense group, said: “It is abhorrent that hard working patriots should fund the enormously costly, damaging and unpatriotic projects of well-heeled privileged left wing activists.”

    Tory MP Andrew Murrison added: “‘Lottery money should not be diverted from good causes to right-on pedagogy that takes as its starting point the worst possible view of this country and its history.” The National Lottery Heritage Fund said it had awarded the University of Leicester’s project ‘Colonial Countryside: Reinterpreting English Country Houses’ a grant of £99,600 in Feb 2018.

    The grant was signed off by senior staff at the fund because it was below £100,000 and so did not need to be presented at committee level.

    Inspiring the next generation
    A spokesman for the fund defended the grant, saying: “Hands-on education such as this helps to inspire the next generation of archivists, curators, historians and writers.”

    The Arts Council said it had awarded a grant of £58,331 “for this three-year creative writing and history project which finished in December 2020, through our National Lottery Project Grants programme” in Dec 2017. A spokesman said: “This project aimed to open their doors to children from different areas and backgrounds and give them the chance to get excited about history and to learn, think and question. It allowed them to examine the good and bad of our past to deepen their understanding.”

    An Arts Council source added: “Grants go through a rigorous assessment process against a criteria which measures them on quality, public engagement, finance and management, and after being awarded funding they are appropriately monitored to ensure that the project is carried out and completed.

    “As a funder, however, we do not get into the detail of how the activities that make up the project are delivered.”

    A spokesman for the National Trust said: “Exploring and sharing the history of places we look after is part of our job and completely within our charitable objectives.”

    She added: “The purpose of the project was to provide children with a unique opportunity to engage in national heritage conversations on country houses’ links to colonialism”

    A University of Leicester spokesman said: “The Colonial Countryside project has played an important role in broadening knowledge and awareness of our shared history and heritage, and has been welcomed by both pupils and schools.

    1. “A spokesman said: “This project aimed to open their doors to children from different areas and backgrounds and give them the chance to get excited about history and to learn, think and question. It allowed them to examine the good and bad of our past to deepen their understanding.”

      Excellent. If this method is successful in educating our children, perhaps we can look forward to schoolchildren lecturing doctors on, oh, I dont know, say…

      why three way mediation analyses of hospital infrastructures found that the primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia…

      …to deepen their understanding of biology.

    2. “A spokesman said: “This project aimed to open their doors to children from different areas and backgrounds and give them the chance to get excited about history and to learn, think and question. It allowed them to examine the good and bad of our past to deepen their understanding.”

      Excellent. If this method is successful in educating our children, perhaps we can look forward to schoolchildren lecturing doctors on, oh, I dont know, say…

      why three way mediation analyses of hospital infrastructures found that the primary outcome was death or major complication within 30 days of surgery for primary breast, colorectal, or gastric cancer requiring a skin incision done under general or neuraxial anaesthesia…

      …to deepen their understanding of biology.

    3. Was the other £399.00 for the tea and biscuits at innumerable desk pilot meetings?
      If they were so sure of their case, why didn’t they go for £100,000 and bust?

  19. Good morning, all. Sunny – a touch of frost, and the scene out of the window is much the same.

    Log moving and stacking today. I shall leave this forum to the experts. May look in later.

  21. SIR – While the EU is behaving with its usual arrogance, ineptitude and lack of good faith over vaccine supplies, two wrongs do not make a right.

    Once the most vulnerable groups in Britain have been vaccinated, we should be the better person and accept a reduction in contracted supplies from AstraZeneca. It is surely better if the vaccine is used for the vulnerable in other countries rather than heathy UK residents under the age of 60.

    As a relatively healthy, 52-year-old I would prefer “my” future dose to go to someone elsewhere in greater need.

    Dr Glyn Jones
    Grayshott, Hampshire

    Just wondering what sort of Dr could write such rubbish .. ?

      1. Be fair; he is charmingly bashful about his doctorate. It could be something useful, like Underwater Transphilia Basket Weaving.

    3. A Welsh one? But seriously, doctors are paid to look after people in the UK. This is typical SJW-think, that we are the guardians, protectors, rich uncles, rescuers and nannies to the entire world.

    5. Bugger that. We paid for it. I don’t see why we should help them. The EU has been incompetent. That’s the consequence of being chained to the wretched political organisation that is the EU.

    6. Bugger that. We paid for it. I don’t see why we should help them. The EU has been incompetent. That’s the consequence of being chained to the wretched political organisation that is the EU.

  22. Thank you Geoff and good morning all from a bright but frosty, -2½°C, Derbyshire.

    So the government is determined that Anti-Social Distancing is to be the Norm?

    Exclusive: Social distancing may have to remain in place all year
    Modelling suggests UK will suffer third huge spike in deaths unless vaccines cut Covid transmission significantly
    By Paul Nuki,
    GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY EDITOR, LONDON
    30 January 2021 • 9:30pm

    Britain may not be able to abandon social distancing rules this year unless a vaccine proves to be 85 per cent effective at stopping transmission of coronavirus as well as severe illness, ministers have been warned.

    Modelling commissioned by SPI-M, a subgroup of Sage, and passed to Downing Street suggests the UK will suffer a third huge spike in deaths unless inoculation cuts transmission significantly.

    Currently, most experts think efficacy against transmission will be around 60 per cent but there is huge uncertainty.

    The paper, produced by modellers at the University of Warwick, warns: “Only vaccines that offer high infection-blocking efficacy with high uptake in the general population allow relaxation of non-pharmaceutical interventions without a huge surge in deaths.”

    It makes for grim reading and goes some way to explaining why Boris Johnson has been so reluctant in recent weeks to raise expectations of an end to lockdown.

    It is understood that SPI-M’s other modelling groups – including Imperial College London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – have reached similar conclusions. “The exact numbers differ, but there is a high degree of consensus”, a source told The Telegraph.

    The paper finds that even in a best case scenario, in which vaccines stop 85 per cent of transmission in those vaccinated, lockdown would have to be kept in place until the end of May to prevent another significant spike in deaths.

    If Mr Johnson lifted the measures in mid-February – when ministers forecast that the top four priority groups will be vaccinated – the modelling suggests a third surge in infections and deaths, of a scale similar to last spring, would follow in April.

    If vaccines are 85 per cent transmission blocking, deaths would peak at just under 1,000 a day. At 60 per cent efficacy, daily deaths would approach 1,500.

    just tried posting Vernon Coles video of t’other day up, BTL but the DT’s comments censor will not allow it.
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/1KGxy1h8XHYN/

    2. The virus does not go away during lockdown, as a bored wolf might. It’s still there, waiting for folk to socially undistance, then with a small delay, it’ll blow up again. Vaccination might help, also some decent weather where people can get outside and away from each other. My opinion is, the covid will become another variant of the winter flu – some get it and die (winter 2018 – 1 400 in Norway, 64 157 in UK), some get it, and many do not. Vaccines are made and injected every year.

      1. Which is why certain billionaires have invested so heavily in vaccine producing companies.

        They realise that we’ll all need a new jab every year, and that will be very, very profitable.

    3. If you go to Vernon Coleman’s website and click on ‘health’ you will see a list of people who have died after receiving the vaccine in various countries.

    4. Government by algorithm, FFS.

      I agree with OB, below. Lockdown merely suppresses the infection rate, it doesn’t eradicate the virus. Immunity will eradicate the impact of a virus and force it to mutate and weaken. Well, that is until the nutters create one that stops the immune system from functioning as it has for millions of years.

    5. Johnston should be considering the cancellation of the G7 conference in Cornwall to avoid the army of overseas politicians and their entourage invading a county which has remained fairly clear of COVID-19 so far. He should also consider cancelling the Climate change conference in Glasgow at the end of the year. If he can’t guarantee safe conditions for the UK people this year he shouldn’t invite foreigners into this country to these conferences. He can conduct them on line.

      2. It’s got to happen in Scotland. It’s the only place in the U.K. with sufficient space for all the private jets to land and be store while they have their meeting and all fly off again.

        1. And Scotland will have paraded its global credentials by giving its vaccine quota to the EU.
          (Gosh, nurse, is it really time for my tablets again?)

        2. The Scottish government bought Prestwick airport. It is an international airport with no road or rail links to anywhere.
          Plenty of runway space and places to park Air Force One

          (Except maybe Largs, a seaside town that is permanently grid-locked but it is the home of Nardini’s Ice Cream Parlour.)

          https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrExdpupBZgrXgAlUKJzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawNpbWcEb2lkA2JjYTdlZDZhMDZiZDAyMmI5M2Y3ZWQzMTNkYWQ1ZjQxBGdwb3MDMgRpdANiaW5n?back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DNardini%2527s%2BAyr%26fr%3Daaplw%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D2&w=1300&h=960&imgurl=c8.alamy.com%2Fcomp%2FBMT8CY%2Fthe-famous-nardini-cafe-in-largs-ayrshire-scotland-BMT8CY.jpg&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alamy.com%2Fstock-photo-the-famous-nardini-cafe-in-largs-ayrshire-scotland-30036971.html&size=236.2KB&p=Nardini%27s+Ayr&oid=bca7ed6a06bd022b93f7ed313dad5f41&fr2=piv-web&fr=aaplw&tt=The+Famous+Nardini+Cafe+in+Largs%2C+Ayrshire%2C+Scotland+Stock+…&b=0&ni=21&no=2&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=KezTEzLQsYb3&sigb=T29wH.KAfIpv&sigi=Wzk6EjgvgFjn&sigt=DnXLNWkaTIuv&.crumb=KNJeO9WlUgc&fr=aaplw&fr2=piv-web

          1. Also Patten’s butcher’s shop, 2 minutes from the station, that does some of the best haggis available!

    6. So the vaccine does not stop you getting Covid-19. It does not stop you passing it on. Although it might stop you dying if you do get it.

        1. That is the carrot dangled in front of you to persuade you to take part in their experiment. The carrot can be withdrawn at any time.

          1. …and almost certainly will be once the Great Reset has finished.

            However by that time we will be too old to travel.

      2. In some cases it can also make the symptoms worse. We don’t hear much about that as they don’t want us to know. So what it the point? The point is it is a huge experiment under the guise of a vaccine. Vaccine, it is not.

      2. Delivery is of course, everything. But a FTA with rapidly growing Far Eastern countries such as Vietnam and Malaysia, old friends like Australia and NZ, and Latin American countries we’ve ignored for almost a century, is a good thing. The HK offer pokes a stick in the eye of those who accuse the UK of being a narrow-minded racist country, sticks two fingers up to China, should attract the industrious type of immigrant we want and does the right thing.

        3. We have simply never stopped trading with our friends in the Australia and New Zealand, but we did open the massive EU market to them too – where they now have very large tariff free quotas for several foodstuffs which they did not have before 1973. Our own trade with them diminished only slightly. We still have large trade with Canada and whilst our trade with South Africa diminished, that was due to the apartheid related boycott, not to our EU membership. The reduction in trade with the Caribbean was largely driven by US forces, not those of the EU.

  24. The Pearly Gates

    A Muslim dies and by some error in his handling, ends up in heaven.

    He’s stopped at the Pearly Gates by St Peter who says:

    “Sorry, but we don’t allow Muslims into Heaven”.

    “What?” replies the Muslim, “and why not”?

    “Well, we just don’t! And that’s it… we’re short on Virgins”.

    The Muslim complains and carries on until St Peter gets fed up.

    “Well” says St Peter, “have you ever done anything good in your life”?

    “Ummm” the Muslim replies, “yes, the other day a lady stopped me on the street collecting for a children’s charity so I gave her ten pounds. Last week I donated ten pounds to the Cancer Society and a couple of weeks ago a tramp asked me if I could spare any money…so I gave him ten pounds too”!

    “Alrighty then”, says St Peter, “wait here and I’ll have a quick word with God”.

    Five minutes later St Peter returns and says to the Muslim. “Listen, I’ve spoken with God and he agrees with me.

    Here’s your 30 quid back… now bugger off!”

    1. The other day I came across a Muslim drowning in the river so I did what any civilised person would do and contacted the emergency services. They’ve still not turned up and I’m beginning to think I wasted a second class stamp

      1. It’s a classic joke, however we should remember that two of the Biontech founders are of Turkish origin and they tick two nottler boxes, immigration and islam.

    2. From my perspective, being a truly grumpy old man I don’t care what religion someone is, how tall, short, fat, thin they are. What matters is who they are. Nothing else. How they behave.

      2. Darth vada, former Irish tealeaf, saying lockdown and social distancing will have to last forever.

          4. I stopped buying anything Irish. I’m not sure about Guinness as it is brewed in Park Royal* by Diageo. (My first alcoholic drink in a pub.)

            Erratum: On checking my facts I learned that Park Royal has been pretty much demolished and Guinness for the UK is once more brewed in Dublin. Well, that’s that then.

  26. 328947+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Exclusive: Britain ready to help out EU on Covid vaccines,

    Repeating late last night post, are we, via these political overseers still an offshore brussell milch sow ?

    No one would deny helping when home base is satisfactorily catered for only approach the countries individually NOT via brussels.

    1. I agree – as I have posted above it would be a grave mistake to grant any concessions to the EU. Allowing the EU to administer anything is the equivalent of giving foreign aid to African despots who use the money to buy Mercedes limousines.

    2. Morning Anne

      My goodness you are still that little toddler who padded along Weymouth seafront, re your sweet photo on here a couple of days ago .

      1. I think my family are horribly aware of of the over sized toddler in their midst; the only difference is that I’ve learnt a weapons grade tactic known as “Mother going quiet”.

        2. I’ve learned that one too! Instead of a grumpy retort I just don’t say anything. It’s amazing how many people are intimidated by it!

          Even the dog went from overexcited tail wagging to sitting down looking sheepish.

  29. DT Columnist Alan Cochrane:
    “Confidence in one’s own infallibility is a pretty conceited state of mind, but it was my almost permanent feeling after what I saw as the disaster of 2016 when Britain decided to leave the EU. As a dyed-in-the-wool Remainer, I was convinced that in the long run I’d be proved correct and all those Leavers would live to rue their mistake.

    But look what’s happened. Shock. Horror. After the last week, they’ve been proved right and I now wish I’d been a Brexiteer. I wonder if it’s too late to join them”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d234c4a18c5116f95f26a4485344f5f8e63afff62758a55f728ca50315373387.png

    2. “Cockers” as I addressed him when I had access to DT comments, has generally been way off beam.

    3. A chum is an ardent remainer. I wind him up a lot with quotes from Lenin and Junker, Hitler and A N Other eurocrat.

      He doens’t appreciate them, but he’s getting them anyway. When the vaccine issue came along I just sent him:

      “Ha hah hah ha ha ha ha haaa!”

      Rather morbidly he said I was an evil Right winger who would see millions dead because the selfish hoarding of vaccine by nationalists

      1. Try the “I’d love to see your point of view but I can’t get my head that far up my ar5e….”

    1. Ursula von de Leyen has succeeded in doing what Brexiteers have failed to do – she has convinced remainers that the EU is rotten to the core.

      (A BTL comment which a fellow Nottler picked up yesterday referred to her as Ursula Fonda Lying. An excellent jeu de mots.)

  32. ‘Morning All

    Nicked Top Tip

    “The police powers for COVID mean they can demand your name and address IF
    they are to write out a fine notice. To refuse to allow them the
    information in order to complete the Notice means they can arrest you.
    Also if you say you are Donald Duck then they can arrest you.

    Therefore never refuse. Tell them you will gladly give your name and address if
    they fill out the rest of the Notice first. To do that they need to
    provide reasonable belief that you have committed the COVID offense, and
    reasonable belief that no exception applies.

    Apologise in advance
    that you might be laughing too hard to answer when they tell you the
    reasonable belief that has promoted them to stop you in the first place.

    It is not a fishing exercise. The apology from the police in the tweet recently about the guy going to work confirms this”.

    1. The UK abandoned a masculine Christian culture for a weak Marxist PC culture. Nations with strong Christian cultures, like Hungary, Russia, & Poland, have preserved their identity.

      A quote I grabbed from Twitter.

      1. ” Nations with strong Christian cultures, like Hungary, Russia, & Poland, have preserved their identity”. But would you want to live in any of them?

    2. At least they will speak English, most will have had a good education, and most have ambition built in.

      Much, much better than the illiterate peasants that the Government is encouraging to settle.

      1. Yeah… I’d imagine how many will come here? Almost none. Why give up higher pay, lower taxes, cheaper transport, ten gigabit broadband, a government that leaves you alone for the tosh we have here?

        It’s important to remember, those who want to come here don’t want to work. They want a free ride!

  34. Exclusive: Britain ready to help out EU on Covid vaccines
    Nadhim Zahawi says focus now on ‘collaboration’ with bloc, adding that Britain has helped Brussels with production problems

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/01/30/exclusive-britain-ready-help-eu-covid-vaccines/

    A BTL Comment

    Is this silly chap, Nadhim Zahawi, trying to play the ‘we are morally superior’ game?
    Have we never learnt?
    Give any concession to the EU and they will slurp it up and then come back with even more blackmailing demands.
    The EU must not be trusted one inch.

    1. 328947+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      Precisely what the patriotic members of the
      REAL UKIP, swimming against the lab/lib/con pro eu anti UK tide, have been
      trying to get across for 25 years.

    2. There are a few conservative Canadian premiers desperate to bypass Trudeau and buy vaccines.

      It might make a few more liberals wake up to the mess that he is making of everything he touches.

      1. I saw a few days ago that not many vaccines have been given yet in Canada. Is that down to pretty boy Trudy?

        1. If only it was that simple.

          The federal government are responsible for buying the vaccine. They have screwed up royally and only ordered vaccines after Trudeaus deal with China fell through.

          After that the provinces are responsible for the actual vaccinations and they have barely kept up with the limited vaccine supply.

          They haven’t finished vaccinating care home residents yet and haven’t started on people not in homes.

          So a total mess with no end in sight.

  35. Batch left over from yesterday

    https://ih1.redbubble.net/image.360238640.4012/pp,840×830-pad,1000×1000,f8f8f8.u3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c370fd19219c266b4ce7633bbb9b9cd71e5fedfd0df278a366fb329e52d8d7ff.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/19267151c1dde07404928e94070667ca9161267152ceab2cc9a976338a729a04.jpg

    Finally,for Willum

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6ac692a12942b5cb6ff7a2c075fdc354bfa33c25850cc3b756b13d505cf1a0a2.jpg
    Edit
    Dammit missed one
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9315069d7cd6dea6e718a87eab0bd975d835b55b21b778d9d03529826e22f4d0.png

  36. Was going out the garden, filled up the birds seed feeders and came back in, freezing out there.

    1. The Internet is certainly very against Vernon Coleman. Look at his wiki entry where he is principally described as a conspiracy theorist.

      Of course anybody who does not follow the official line is going to suffer opprobrious comment.

  38. Mail to a Con MP who wrote about Solidarity………

    Solidarity seems to have worked well to increase wealth for certain very well known politicians and billionaires in recent times.

    The billionaires provide the money for the politician and his party to be elected, or to make the politician rich, and the politician then pays back the favor by providing the laws and policies the billionaires want. As well as selling off state assets cheap where everyone in on the deal gets a cut.

    Also when a special situation arises such as a bank going bust, the politician provides billions in federal funding to his billionaire sponsor and asks him to fix it. Needless to say, there are billions in profits at the end of the fix and everyone laughs all the way to another safer bank where they stash the loot.

    Solidarity between politicians onside with billionaires leads to inevitable election cheating because interlopers at the ballot box must be kept out or everyone faces exposure, and worse.

    It’s all happened in recent years, except the exposure.

    Maybe one day soon, someone will relate the true story so that voters can pass their verdict on what certain politicians have done to increase their wealth?

    After all, surely it can’t be covered up forever?

    Polly

    1. The billionaires provide the money for the politician and his party to be elected, or to make the politician rich, and the politician then pays back the favor by providing the laws and policies the billionaires want. As well as selling off state assets cheap where everyone in on the deal gets a cut.

      Italics not working today ???

      Don’t forget that during certain periods in other forms of office, the ‘politicians’ could be or might be involved (for certain and undisclosed favours) in paving the way for certain developments involving lucrative building projects for said billionaires.

      1. The government has imposed a ceiling of £1m upon the amount of money people can accumulate in their pension funds and this had led to many doctors retiring from the NHS under the age of 60. Indeed, my nephew is a very fit and healthy GP but he retired at 58.

        How about a ceiling imposed upon the personal wealth anyone entering politics as a career can accumulate? This should immediately be applied to Blair and to both Clinton and Obama in the States.

        1. 1M these days in a pension fund is quite a low figure when you think how much proprty prices have gone up in most areas – a 1M house in London wouldn’t be exactly palacial. That really was a short-sighted policy of Osborne’s – Rishi Sunak should adjust that if he wants doctors to carry on working.

          1. There is, of course, no limit to how much money you may save for your old age. The amount is limited only by the amount you can afford to set aside from your income. For those with large incomes that is a lifestyle judgement, for those with low incomes it’s often a matter of survival, workplace deductions are insufficient to provide a significant pension income, but there’s no other money to set aside. Most of those who have opted out of the recent auto-enrolment pension fall into two categories; those with the lowest incomes and those who were already very near to pension age and saw no benefit in starting such a fund.

            There is simply a limit on how much of those savings you may shelter from tax. The implementation of the policy – and particularly the way in which the NHS has dealt with pension deductions – has been poor. The policy itself is perfectly reasonable.

        2. That’s why it will never be done Rastus.

          Even discounting the inevitable exaggeration from the MSM, the Blair family have become breathtakingly wealthy.

        3. Since more affluent times began the rich crooks have ben finding ways around paying their dues.
          In my working life in North London i met and worked for quite a few rich people and only met one who qualified as a nice guy.

          Our own GP did the same.
          We were at the Boat Show a few years ago and were looking around one of the German built Boats used for cruising the Med. I had to wait on deck as there were limited numbers allowed at one time. My wife came back on deck and said you’ll never guess who i have just seen below ? I then went to view the cabins etc and there he was………….Every time after i saw him, i asked him if he’d bought his yacht yet.

    2. The billionaires provide the money for the politician and his party to be elected, or to make the politician rich, and the politician then pays back the favor by providing the laws and policies the billionaires want. As well as selling off state assets cheap where everyone in on the deal gets a cut.

      Italics not working today ???

      Don’t forget that during certain periods in other forms of office, the ‘politicians’ could be or might be involved (for certain and undisclosed favours) in paving the way for certain developments involving lucrative building projects for said billionaires.

    1. Piers Corbyn is a great guy, shame he’s not Prime Minister instead of Gates and Soros.

    2. “73 year old weather forecaster and climate change denier”. The Grauniad doesn’t do irony?

  40. I see that Marcus Rashford [Proud to be Black] is at it again – complaining about “racist” remarks on the social media circuit.
    Well – maybe if the BLACK LIVES MATTER organisation and their followers stopped the farce of kneeling and raised fist saluting, at the beginning of football [ and now rugby] matches, we might just let the issue fade away?
    It is the BLACK LIVES MATTER organisation, who insist on ramming their sob story down our throats at every opportuniy, who have created this situation . . .

    2. Black people have had opportunities in the West for hundreds of years. After millennia in Africa during which they accomplished nothing in science, nothing in mathematics, nothing in metallurgy and engineering, next to nothing in agriculture, nothing in glass, nothing in architecture and next to nothing in art, why would anyone think that they would be any different here?

      1. We should have a concerted ALL LIVES MATTER drive

        If the BLM do not agree, they are at fault and want ethnic division

      2. They are great traders, which I suppose is one reason why the slave trade was so big there.

    3. Surely as so many have also done in the past, he is maligning at least one of his parents.

    4. Most of these BLM antagonists should be more than grateful for their present and mainly comfortable positions, if this ‘bad practice’ had not taken place all those Hundreds of years ago, they might still be living where their ancestors first came from.

  42. 328947+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Pathway to UK Citizenship Now Open to Millions of Hong Kongers,

    Under lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration and with membership agreement it has always been worldwide open,
    ongoing.

    Does anyone know the date of when the indigenous social housing waiting list was, at long last, for-filled ?

    1. I have just moved out of a very clean cardboard box, which is available for a nominal rent

      It has a kitchen and a garage (for supermarket trolley) and is close to a Public Loo (if you were an
      officer A Gentleman’s re Harry Worth)

      Edit My keyboardi playing up letter SSxxxxcxWWW only work under duress

    2. 328947+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Ere Og, you could also be open to umpteen millions via Hong Kong from china
      an Odessa line in reverse, triads nationwide, can very well put the Dover invasion in the shade ALL condoned by the overseers & supporters.

    3. Ogga

      Dorset Council has presented us their plans for about 50,000 homes through out the County , maybe more .

      Our poor muddled village has grown in the 21 years we have lived here , now 5,800 population or more .

      Dorset Council wants over 800 homes to built in our rural idyll ..

      Have you ever argued with idiots?

      3. 328947+ up ticks,
        Afternoon TB,
        What I consider to be dangerous idiots, YES,
        every chance I get to vote.
        Them being in the main those trying to return the
        lab/lib/con treacherous coalition back into power
        after seeing what those party’s have done/are doing to these Isles, meaning the vote party first then whinge brigade.

        Old Nappy Hill had it right “you are the master of your own destiny” collective people power via the
        the polling booth have proved, beyond doubt to be a successful force in the failure department time & again just think if that force, just for once, was used in a beneficial to Country manner.
        There is many an idiot out there who would accept a party manifesto that was inclusive of saying ” we will in future on new builds, mosques etc, insist on green bricks & concrete”.

  43. Gosh – stacking logs is hard work. They may say logs warm you three times – (felling, stacking, burning) -but they stop you losing all sense of feeling in the fingers…

    Thank God for a warming kitten…

    I see seasonal ‘flu no longer exists. Amazing. The curative effects of Covid-19……

    2. Sadly, yesterday’s originally predicted heavy snow falls in North Herts never materialised – just a bit of sleet. It looks like the same goes for today as well. I’m glad, as last week’s snow (not that we got much, more west of where I live) led to our recycling bin collections being delayed from Monday to yesterday, which mean loads of bagged and sometimes loose recycling (which won’t be taken) strewn all over the gaff.

      1. As I am retired, I can view the snow the right side of the window and it has little impact, although I know I am lucky in my circumstances.
        I am not so keen on wet snow, the likes of those in Norway etc. probably has the drier version, real snow I like to think!

        1. It’s ok from this side of the window – until we have to go somewhere – not that we’re going anywhere much at the moment…….

        2. Wet snow is awful. Ours is usually dry & light, except at each end of winter when it’s warmer.

          2. Unfortunately down here in this part of the UK, wet snow seems to be the first choice of the weather Gods.

  45. Dinosaur footprint spotted by four-year-old girl on Welsh beach hailed as the ‘finest found in a decade’. 31 January 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/039e0116fb49ccab121b389d5eb05e46f3f2afee650b2544f2af4bd86a822e31.jpg

    A dinosaur footprint found by four-year-old girl on a Welsh beach has been hailed as the “finest found in a decade” by experts.

    Lily Wilder was walking her dog with her family at Bendricks Beach in Barry when she spotted the fossilised footprint in the rocks.
    I’m not four years old but that looks fresh enough for them to be eaten by its owner!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/01/30/dinosaur-footprint-found-four-year-old-girl-welsh-beach-hailed/

    1. I reckon I could make a dinosaur footprint as convincing as that one, given a hammer and chisel!

    3. Excellent clip – a shame that the type of clip doesn’t allow the person watching to upvote it or go to the channel. I’m wondering if that’s deliberate from YT (yesterday’s one of NZ medic Dr Sam Bailey had the same features missing) so we don’t go to their channel (some form of shadow banning?).

      I agree that, rather like with Laurence Fox, I doubt if the (even more based) Mr Johnson (shame he can’t be PM) will be invited back on the panel. If I were Nigel Farage and Richard Tice should snap Johnson up as a candidate for parliament asap. The more people like him are with them, the far better chance they have breaking through at both local council and more importantly General Election level.

  47. As the EU has just broken Article 16 of the withdrawal Agreement that renders the entire agreement null and void.
    Once “signed off” treaties and agreements are a seamless garment. Either everything applies or nothing applies (I may have heard something like that before).

    I would hope that our Prime Minister will tell the EU that the UK considers that the EU have abrogated the WA, and the UK will now continue to follow what is set out therein, but will not consider itself to be bound by any part of it.

    Now about the Trade Agreement, which is being laughed at by EU Customs officials gleefully destroying millions of pounds worth of UK exports…

    1. The EU parliament has still not ratified the Trade Agreement and is unlikely to do so before the end of February at the earliest. So it’s time Boris ditched the whole thing and went WTO.

      1. Good afternoon, Ndovu

        I agree – but do you seriously believe that Boris Johnson has the testicular strength to do so?

    2. And what will the misnamed ‘Democrats’ try to do to Texas if the Texans decide democratically to leave the US.

      1. Hopefully move en-masse to California, NY or Seattle, where things are currently going downhill at an increasing rate.

  48. BLACK LIVES MATTER organisation making yet another move into UK politics –

    Mr Gordon, whose sister Nicola Zingwari is registered as the leader of TTIP, arrived at his party’s London launch in November in a Rolls-Royce
    with personalised numberplate.
    The Taking The Initiative Party (TTIP) launched in the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, with policies including the creation
    of a race offenders’ register, paying reparations to black people for historic slavery, and fining the police if they wrongly stop and search
    people.
    The party intends to field candidates in this year’s local elections.

    1. They’ve got a nice bunch of money from their woke and naive corporate backers. Let’s hope that it splits the Labour/Lib Dem vote. Ironically, it may even allow many former Tory supporters to vote Brexit/Reform Party should they put up candidates.

      2. Her greatest achievement ever must have been to inspire lust in Jeremy Corbyn. And his greatest achievement was to put her off white men for good!

  49. Good afternoon peeps. Only access the following link if you are feeling strong. Contained within is a long list of ailments which, should you be unfortunate enough from which to suffer, you should not remotely consider having the vaccine. It probably covers just about everyone one way or another.. Some of the comments btl are interesting. It is a US site. https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/01/31/covid-19-vaccine-gene-therapy.aspx?ui=4697793730bd3463975d8bacf9d5a20a4aa7029902e3afe3b899f7d660c3b478&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210131_HL2&mid=DM784143&rid=1072043406

    1. Thanks for the warning, PM – I think I might not look, as I will be having the first jab next weekend. I’m not yet ready to give up on travel and I’m sure it will be made mandatory for flying, etc. My trip to Kenya planned for four weeks’ time will have to be rescheduled.

      1. A friend of over 40 years said from the start he definitely wasn’t having the jab for any “travel passport certificate”. – so no more 2 cruises a year. Yesterday he sent me a text – “just had jab” – My reply was “what happened to NOT having it”? – -Still no reply.

        1. If he wants his cruises he would have to have it. Sometimes you have to compromise to get what you want.

  50. Ursula von der Leyen has always left a trail of disaster. 31 january 2021.

    The German Army had to join a NATO exercise with broomsticks because they didn’t have any rifles. It’s special forces became a hotbed for right-wing extremism. Working mothers were meant to get federally-funded childcare, to help fix the country’s demographic collapse, but it never arrived, and the birth rate carried on falling. Every child was supposed to get a hot lunch at school every day, but somehow or other it didn’t quite happen. There is a common thread running through the career of Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. A series of catastrophic misjudgements, and a failure to deliver.

    Perfect President for the European Commission !

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/ursula-von-der-leyen-has-always-left-a-trail-of-disaster

    1. That is pretty much a lift from a German paper, if I remember rightly. Of course once you step into the EU Circle no one can touch you.

    2. She produced seven healthy children. Two centuries ago she’d have been the perfect aristocratic wife. Fertile, and presentable. Nothing else required.

    3. It’s always Right wing extremism. NO one discusses antifa as Left wing fanatics, do they?

      I ‘hotbed for Right wing extremism’ became what most would simply call a need for order, structure and discipline.

      1. I suppose if you think you are going to a place where the streets are paved with gold and have free houses on them and the Cashpoints never run dry the reality must be something of a disappointment!

    3. It looks like the il-legal aid lawyers have moved in with them already. Think of the moneee.

    4. So, they’re sorry. That’s all right, then.
      If it’s so awful, they can go live somewhere else. Plenty rubber boats at Dover, one careful user.

      2. They CAN go and live elsewhere – but we all know they have absolutely NO intention of ever doing so.

        1. Norway reduced the flow by advertising in the parts these folk come from what the process is to get settled – cold, dark, snow, ice, camps – no immediate access to blonde girls, no Volvo, no 200 m^2 house, no bugger-all, for years. Amazingly, the flow almost stopped!

          3. “Mohammed’s story

            Mohammed (not his real name) came to the UK from Sudan and was a detainee in Yarl’s Wood in August 2020. He talked about his experience there and how he would feel were we forced to go back:

            “There are barbed wire fences surrounding the site with only one small place to see the sun. The nights were long because we had to return to our rooms at 9pm, after that you can’t do anything but think. I couldn’t sleep while I was there, I was depressed and alone. There is no mental health support, only a GP who gave me medication for my anxiety and depression.

            “If I had to go back to Yarl’s Wood it would be terrible. I know people who would take their life if this happened. Whilst we were there everyone was hoping they would be released every day. I would worry for anyone who stayed there, it is a prison. Nobody deserves to stay there unless they are criminals.”

            It sounds pretty much like Lockdown UK 2021 to me. He was fortunate indeed to see a GP.

        1. That also happened in the camps on the island off the north coats of Oz they burnt the whole place to the ground.
          But as usual there is no lesson for them to be learned. Just a shrug of the political shoulders. It’s not their money after all.

      1. What on earth makes you think that they have the skills to do that?

        I would love to know precisely what skills they think they have brought us and what work they think they can do.

          3. My obvious bias on this score would suggest that the Napier types are more likely to be in your face muggers, without the subtlety of the dippers.

      3. Make them live in the mess and deduct any charges from monies being given to them

        Do it to all,epecially those not involved, so that they will prevent a repeat of the damage

    7. “Dear all

      We’re sorry about the fire, but it was really your fault because we felt we weren’t getting enough free stuff.
      If you don’t give us what we want, this is only the start, and there will be more violence coming

      Asylum seekers of Napier Barracks”

      A55holes.

      1. “We promise not to burn anything else down once we all have our own brand new 5-bed detached houses, fully furnished and a new luxury car on the drive – all on the taxpayer.”

    8. THEY ARE NOT ASYLUM SEEKERS.

      They are illegal economic migrants who should be deported immediately.

      1. We are now treating our own people far worse than these people. Just seen the man arrested put in handcuffs for serving hot soup for free to cold people.

        1. I wonder what would have happened if Marcus Rashford had been doing it.

          SFA I suspect. In fact he would no doubt have been praised to the rafters and the pestapo would have been helping and taking selfies..

      2. They are illegal migrants who have already proved that they are unwilling to obey the laws of our country,

  52. I got an invitation to a Vaccination Ball the other day – the Frogs won’t let me out of the country. Cinderfella will not be going to the ball.

  53. 328947+ up ticks,
    Lockdown UK: Social Distancing Could Remain in Place Until End of 2021,
    Which must lead to a pavement widening scheme countrywide, prior to lock-down there were @rses out there you could lay a wedding breakfast on, NOW already some need beepers when backing up.

  54. 328947+ up ticks,
    The politico’s are quick of the mark with triggering the blame game,

    60-DAY STUDY SUGGESTS COVID MAY CAUSE SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO MALE FERTILITY

    1. …..triggering the blame game away from the ‘vaccine’…. and preparing the public. Honestly, how old do they think we are? Any parent will see through these sort of tricks straight away.

    3. 328947+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Surely we must have a positive answer to this before continuing, at the moment they doing the study do not seem to know whether they are coming or going.

  55. The idea of a compulsory “vaccine passport” leaves people who wish to travel abroad – yet don’t want the Covid vaccine – facing a difficult choice.

    As if air travel was not already enough of an ordeal because of the security procedures at airports, brought about entirely by the threat of Muslim terrorists. One can spend longer queuing and going through security for short-haul flights than one spends in the air. Domestic flights especially, are a nightmare. Now passengers will be subjected to even more checks while their vaccine status is confirmed, probably both before departure and upon arrival at their destination.

    Ah well, if not being vaccinated means I can no longer fly then so be it. I’ve been abroad and as far as I’m concerned, it’s overrated.
    ;¬)

    1. You have no need to go abroad Duncan – -the govt is letting “abroad” come here instead and turn this place into a 3rd World.

      1. So true .

        The NHS Covid vaccine leaflet had advice in many many different languages . We were shocked!

        Don’t politicians understand that although the population grows, and has many many different nationalities jostling for space and housing , the blinking length of Britain isn’t going to stretch further than 850 miles ..

        Abroad has come to the UK . Degradation causes impacts to the UK’s native wildlife and availability of the vital goods and services provided by natural capital, including food, timber, and fibre, as well as clean water, and the cultural benefits derived from landscapes.

    5. Snap DM, I have been lucky enough to fly in all sorts of aircraft from the age of 4 years of age and I have a log book to prove it , and then when choices became better , chose some nice airlines to travel with . That was long ago .

      Parents carted us off to Africa from Blackbush .. in an Airwork Vickers Viking … took 2 days to get to Khartoum.. 1951!

      The palavar of a long check in and security checks , and the experience of cramped seats and indifferent service in recent times and the yobs who travel has ruined airtravel .

      I just want to be protected because the thought of being asked whether I want to be intubated and fiddled around with is a horrifying prospect .

      Hospitals these days are horrible .. why, because when you reach a certain age , you are just an NHS number .. and your status as an older person just isn’t important enough.

      1. In the mid-70s I flew to Kenya in the first 707 which flew round the World (not non-stop). It was a bit of a rattle-trap.

      2. OH got excellent care and attention at A&E the other week. We have no complaints about our local surgery either.

    6. I have my yellow fever vaccination certificate still, Cholera, diptheria and summat else all in my passport. No problems. I’ll not show them to get into a shopping centre, though.

    8. I suspect that in the not too distant future only “special”people will be allowed to fly anywhere. And you and I won’t be them!

    10. Holidays would be optional, plenty of lovely places to visit within these shores. Unfortunately I will need to get the jab if I want to see my son and young grandchildren in Canada.

    1. Republicans “lurching” to the Right?
      Or perhaps, holding to their core believes whilst their opponents lurch further to the Left?

      1. I don’t think that they are particularly lurching anywhere, just abandoning the middle ground and appealing to their grass roots.

        1. Explain why the Republican’s grass roots supporters are not in the middle ground.

          The Democrats have moved so far to the left, and so deeply into wokery, that they have become a parody.

          2. And what makes you utterly certain that none of the conspiracy theories are wrong?
            Too many whistleblowers over the years have shown that what were thought to be conspiracy theories have turned out to be correct, with companies and governments going to great lengths to cover things up or lie about what they are doing.

          3. If two years ago any Nottler predicted that we would be locked down for a year or more and coerced into accepting dodgy flu vaccinations and that croaking Joe Biden would be the most popular US President of all time, you can bet that we would have been shouted down as conspiracy theorists.

          4. If someone had suggested that the main online platforms would be silencing anyone who wrote about things the owners of those platforms disagreed with, they would have been thus labelled.

            If anyone had suggested that the Democrats would encourage the defunding of police it would have been a conspiracy.
            If anyone had suggested that the EU would unilaterally invoke a hard border in Ireland, to stop vaccines getting into the rUK it would have been howled down.
            Time and time and time again, yesterday’s conspiracy becomes today’s truth.

          5. Precisely so. The left are very fond of labelling those with opposing views. We are climate change deniers, anti-vaccers, racists, slave traders, colonialists, Little Englanders, swivel eyed loons and most insulting of all: conspiracy theorists.

          6. well climate change, vaccine and conspiracy are frequently dismissed here and there have been more than a few comments that would be deleted on other sites for being racist.

          8. Precisely so. The left are very fond of labelling those with opposing views. We are climate change deniers, anti-vaccers, racists, slave traders, colonialists, Little Englanders, swivel eyed loons and most insulting of all: conspiracy theorists.

          9. Nowhere in my post did I say that I was utterly certain that none of the conspiracy theories are wrong, but Occam’s razor suggests that the vast majority are wrong.

          11. No, but neither is demanding a massive state that lumps a country heavily in debt.

            Neither is supporting obviously failed policies just to appear ‘correct’.

          13. When I look I see that Biden and his supporters are suggesting that Trump’s MAGA supporters need re-education even to the extent of compulsion and camps, that reminds me more of North Korea, Mao’s China, Ho’s Vietnam and Pol Pot.

            To me that makes even Trudeau look a right winger, are you suggesting that Trudeau’s politics is the centre ground?

          16. oh thank heaven for that.

            Although there are a few over here that think he has gone too mainstream

          18. Quebec we could manage but it is the big cities that always vote liberal. Toronto elects 25 MPs, that’s more than many provinces.

            Just like the US where New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta and so on are full of democrats.

          20. Crazy people are both at the outer ends of the distribution curve and in the middle.

            Quite an achievement

          21. Most people want security, a job, a decent income, fair taxes that are spent on shared services they need. They expect the state to help those who need it, but to help them, not carry them.

            Those are – bluntly – Right wing values. Or ‘normal’ values.

            The Left seem to want a massive state that does whatever it wants, incredible amounts of unaffordable spending… for no known reason, over throw everything good about the nation, sell us out to communist bodies, tax everyone into the ground – but not themselves, pollute the environment (somewhere else) while shutting down the economy here, pervert language, thought and destroy individuality, liberty and common sense.

          22. You are a poster who has been living amongst lefties with his eyes open.

            I claim my 5 bob.

      2. Seriously? Trump has been condemned by past Republican presidents. The party has lurched to the right and some want it to double down on those policies which will make it unelectable.

        1. When ever there’s a ‘lurch to the right’ one notices that there is never a lurch to the Left. This is because those people defining the ‘lurch’ are hard Left nutters desperate to demonise anyone they disagree with.

          Often – as Bob has said – when someone with the character of Owen Jones determines a lurch he really means ‘we’ve become even more fanatical, but we can’t admit we’re the problem, so we’ll say that everyone else has gone away from us.’, continuing their delusion.

          1. Even cnn has noted the dems move to the left but apparently lurching is a right wing trait.

          2. To make myself feel better about making the wrong decision, I say ‘you have changed’. It excuses my behaviour by blaming you.

          1. Yes Sos, the news from the “People’s Democratic Republic of America” is as expected.

            Edited

      3. Often when the Left say ‘we’re going to unite the country’ they tend to mean ‘do whatever they want to, and if anyone disagrees, shoot them.’

  57. Just treated ourselves to a pub lunch.
    Starters, roast + and pud.
    A quick nip down the road, pick up a couple of bags ….. they were incredibly busy. People rolling up to collect, plus a delivery driver flying in and out with insulated boxes.
    Let’s hear it for private enterprise.

          1. Not so. I unwrap & stick them in the oven at 210 for 15 minutes. Crisps them up beautifully, & no, it doesn’t cause the fish to dry up.

          2. Ours are perfect like yours. So many chips that I crisp them up in the oven and eat with plenty of salt and mayonnaise.

          3. Although I ask for the smallest portion, I get enough chips to have with lunch the next day as well.

          5. My Mother’s local gives you so much food, one portion fits 3 – no wonder the Welsh tend to overweight.

      2. I guarantee that anyone having fish & chips delivered to their home are going to be eating soggy batter and chips.

        Ugh!

        1. We haven’t ever had a takeaway delivered .. The thought of delivered fish and chips , no . I don’t like battered fish any way, prefer pan fried haddock , lightly dusted in egg and seasoned flour .

          1. We’re not into takeaways either – though I do hope there are enough customers to keep our local places going. They are all working hard to keep their businesses running as best they can.

          2. When I am walking home from work, there are bicycle delivery men zooming around everywhere. Apparently they are often delivering McDonalds! bonkers!

          3. Ordering ready-cooked ‘food’ to be delivered is an utter No No for me.

            I always cook my own (British, French, Italian, Indian, Chinese …) since it is better and I know what’s in it.

      3. We do our best to visit one of our favourite reastaurants weekly. We’re both lucky enough to be in full employment, and believe that local industry needs supported in these difficult times, and so we give them money – they give us food & drink. Enjoyment both sides.

        4. Beavers don’t eat hedgehogs (being vegetarian sort of beasties) but badgers do – in large numbers.

        5. Beavers don’t eat hedgehogs (being vegetarian sort of beasties) but badgers do – in large numbers.

    2. It appeared to be a good presentation for the charity, I hope it brings in some money and makes people more aware.

      I’m fortunate that the hedgehog population in our garden seems to be increasing, judging by their calling cards.

      On balance CF must have been on target this evening; I was shouting at it and agreeing with it in roughly equal proportions.

      3. Yes, very good but didn’t mention the predation by badgers, which is the main cause of the near extinction of hedgehogs around here.

        1. Badgers are a most favoured nation beast as far as country file and the various “watch” programmes are concerned and thus beyond criticism.

    1. IGWOS that Nigel Kennedy is a talented and privileged musician; however, I cannot share your enthusiasm for this spoilt, scruffy, socialist enfant terrible, sweetie … x

    1. My wife is fat. I think she’s lovely that way – cozy, cuddly and feminine. Lots of lovely woman!
      :-))
      Sighs contentedly

          7. Yes.
            Big Cat (the grey) is about 10kg of aloof, snooty cat. Little Cat is about 7kg, and thinks he’s a dog.
            Both lovely & snuggly when the jump onto the bed, both switched-on to people.

  63. I have tried LBC a few times over the weekend, it has been about the vaxx non stop, there must be something major happening they want us to know about

  64. Doncha just luurrrve positive people ?
    Suugested to MiL that, as this year she is 80, as is FiL, SWMBO & I make 60, 40th wedding anniversary, Firstborn hits 30, Second Son hits 20, SWMBOs sis-in-law will be 60, their daughter 20, that we should all plan to meet up somewhere the food is good, the weather sunny, and the booze tasty, for a knees up.
    Well, what a litany of problems she comes with – we KNOW the govt restrict travel, but Jesus, Mary and Joseph and all their carpenter friends, surely to Christ we can find a hotel with a function room to rent out? Every hotel has these, and kitchen and bar, too, and will be desperate for our money!
    God give me strength.
    :-((

    2. They expect restrictions to last all year?
      Pick the right day in June and even Norway can be sunny.

      1. We’re thinking July, and Firstborn has cast his vote for Sicily (Hotel Posta, Siracusa).

        2. Ahem; my 80th will be – Deo volente – on 18 July; may I join the ‘Decadians’ in Siracusa ?

        3. Assuming that travel restrictions will be lifted at some point you can, at the very least, make happy plans. I expect it is sensible to remember that they may be thwarted, but then again they may come to fruition. Given the coincidence of so many anniversaries in one year it seems sad not even to try.

    3. Stupid Boy – the UK is closed. The plague will ensure that the present restrictions will continue for AT LEAST another year.

      We are planning trips in 2023 (I kid you not…)

      Apart from that – an excellent suggestion. May the MR and I join you? I am 80, you know…{:¬))

      2. I sincerely doubt these restrictions will lift in 2023. I think as soon as the mortality number rises we’ll be locked up again. And again. And again.

    5. We have celebrated our Ruby Wedding anniversary this month. Can we come? Or press our noses against the window?

  65. I am off – exhausted from log stacking- plus knowing that three times as many are waiting out by the new wood-sheds to be arranged neatly in the next few days.

    Tomorrow – an “essential” trip to the Garden Centre to get seed potatoes AND eight bags of compost on special offer.

    By the way: Fans of the excellent – nay, brilliant, – documentary maker Ken Burns may be interested that there is, on PBSAmerica, on Thursday early evening, a prog about him. Humax set to record.

    And so to bed (almost.)

    A demain

    2. Our Humax is also set, Uncle Bill.

      If anyone has not already seen it, KB’s excellent series The Vietnam War starts a repeat run on PBS this week, sadly without subtitles. It is a must watch!

  66. This is from my Twitter feed yesterday .

    https://twitter.com/ezaap/status/1355444020001075201

    Protests from black communities demanding access to the beaches in Muizenberg nr Cape Town … Everyone is locked down , the rules are very strict , the weather is hot … and my sister is in the far background behind the police car , just briefly .

    Just imagine my surprise and shock .. I contacted my sister and she confirmed she was present , she lives 3 mts from the beach , so how frustrating not to be allowed to even walk on the beach with out recieving a fine .

    1. Lockdowns cause unrest as well as mental health issues. I hope she and her family are well and ok.

      1. She is a single , and was a high flyer .. she belongs to so many walking groups, she hikes and cycles , as they all do in SA .. most are all fitness fanatics . Other sister and brother live outside JB and near the Kruger park .

    1. Dr.
      Oh really?
      If you’re commenting on the NHS and pretending to be an MD., show us yer patients.

    2. I commented on here about Dr Jones this morning , and thought … What ?

      Dear Bill suggested he might be a sociologist .. what an utter twerp Dr Jones is , and a danger to everyone , ignorant lump of malarkey!

    3. “…achieve the three pillar of sustainability through combining bottom and top-down decision making approaches under rapid socio-economic changes…” (sic)
      Just like underwater basket weaving, really.

    4. One of my son Henry’s godfathers is a doctor – but he is has a Ph.D as a result of his musical studies; Henry’s girlfriend is studying for a Ph.D. in Epidemiology. My Uncle Hugh was also a Ph.D but he was a well-known musicologist. None of these ever claimed to be medical practitioners .

      However my paternal grandfather, two of his sons and two of his daughters were the real McCoy and medical doctors!

      Johnny Silvo came and sang at the university Folk Club my first year at UEA.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHEf68p5PY8

      1. SIR – While the EU is behaving with its usual arrogance, ineptitude and lack of good faith over vaccine supplies, two wrongs do not make a right.

        Once the most vulnerable groups in Britain have been vaccinated, we should be the better person and accept a reduction in contracted supplies from AstraZeneca. It is surely better if the vaccine is used for the vulnerable in other countries rather than heathy UK residents under the age of 60.

        As a relatively healthy, 52-year-old I would prefer “my” future dose to go to someone elsewhere in greater need.

        Dr Glyn Jones
        Grayshott, Hampshire

          1. It would be a very good idea if we were to reclassify doctors ..

            It seems that any self entitled non medic is really out of their league commenting like that in a national newspaper.

          2. I’ll stick my neck out what again!! and disagree.

            The opinions and observations of PhD “doctors” who have a genuine knowledge of the subject they are writing about, eg the construction and preparation of the vaccines, are worth a bit more than those of medical doctors whose specialities are outside the disease in question.

          3. I think it’s the automatic assumption in this country that Doctor means a medic.
            Is that the situation in other countries?

          5. I have friends in Berlin who are Doctors, one is Head of the Technological University and is a biochemist by training, the other is a Herr Professor Doctor and structural engineer.

          6. I have friends in Berlin who are Doctors, one is Head of the Technological University and is a biochemist by training, the other is a Herr Professor Doctor and structural engineer.

          8. Thank you.

            There’s never, ever, a need to apologise to me.

            I’m thick skinned and sometimes wrong, but not as often as I’m right, right? (IMHO)

            Everyone is entitled to their views, it’s why I never down vote and never block anyone other than the obvious spammers

            {;-))

        3. Obviously a Remainer.

          I’m sure we will be sending lots our ‘our’ doses overseas – once our people have been done (twice).

        4. ere is wot i wrote earlier

          SIR – While the EU is behaving with its usual arrogance, ineptitude and lack of good faith over vaccine supplies,
          two wrongs do not make a right.

          France will never let us forget the adage ‘No Good Turn Goes Unpunished’

          I am quite sure that their input had great deal to do with the EU policy about the vaccine ‘war’

          We should respond to their threats in a similar manner, but with ‘(k)nobs’ on, as we used to say as kids

          This should apply to all our dealings with the EU

          Or are we going to be the Appeasers II, the difference being that first time around, it gave us time to re-arm

    7. I’m pretty sure you’ve got the wrong man.

      The LinkedIn profile for him (connected through your link to Fera) says that he lives in the Leeds area, works for Fera Science Ltd in York and for Newcastle University. Also he attended Prestatyn High School from 1975 to 1982 making him too old to be the 52 year from Hampshire as well as being in quite the wrong part of the country.

  69. Oh dear. That’s not good news:
    Captain Tom Moore admitted to hospital with Covid
    The 100-year-old, knighted for his fundraising during the pandemic, is suffering from pneumonia and has tested positive for coronavirus

    1. Hard to give that post an upvote.

      I hope he pulls through.

      If I were a betting man, I’d put a few bob on him surviving the Covid, but not the pneumonia.

      1. Even if he did, that would’ve been only the first dose of two, the second being the one that (supposedly) really jump starts the immune system.

        1. In the elderly the second jab will assuredly kill you. If Pfizer or Moderna injections we are not talking about vaccines but genetic implants. The Astra Zeneca concoction is ostensibly a defined vaccine but unlikely to be any more effective than current flu jabs.

          I took the last flu jab a month or so ago. The jab was into the muscle whereas previously my flu jabs were given sub-cutaneously because I take blood thinners. The nurse ignored my comments.

          Within a week my arm was inflamed and bruised and I developed an itchy rash which is different to my psoriasis and closer to Dermatitis. This has covered my upper chest and back. I have never experienced this sort of rash before. The Psoriasis is mostly confined to my lower legs and controlled by Dovobet ointment and non-cortisone applications of Dermaflex which serve to confuse it.

          I will not be accepting any further vaccines.

      2. I read he has pneumonia and had not taken the vaccine. The Covid diagnosis is by now discredited as everyone knows that the PCR test is inappropriate and grossly misleading.

        The German responsible for promoting PCR as a diagnostic tool is likely to be arrested and prosecuted for the great damage which has occurred arising from his prognostications. His name is Drosten. Those that followed and instigated the PCR testing regime are equally liable to prosecution.

        Edit: Oh look another downvote. The truth hurts some.

    3. Not that he is suffering from coronavirus, and has tested positive for pneumonia? Most strange…

    4. If you have a lamppost through your heart but are infected with covid, your cause of death is covid. Ignore the concrete, it’s covid.

      Here’s hoping he pulls through but yes, it will be pneumonia he dies from.

    1. “Free crossings, step up, step up. Free crossings here…”

      They are like the old fairground “barkers” selling whatever freak show they were promoting.

    2. Rather than an advert, why do they not simply tow the illegal immigrants back to France?

      It’s no good working with France – they’re not interested in doing their job.

      It’s pointless fighting the gangs as they’ll just pop up again.

      The flow must be stopped. The gimmigrants prevented from getting here at all. Eventually, once the message sinks in, they’ll stop trying.

    3. If I had been out in the Channel in an MTB then those ‘people smugglers’ would have been the least of their worries.

        1. As I recall from my history lessons, Sir Francis Drake didn’t escort the Armada into port and put them up in hotels. Nor did Churchill invite the Luftwaffe to stay at Chequers.

          1. You’ze never read rewritten woke history; shame on you.

            Every modern History professor agrees that Drake and Churchill woz wrong.

            {:-((

    4. The French govt. just take our money and everything stays the same. Intercept them before they get into our waters, and turn them round.

    1. Orange man bad.

      Unfortunately,Trump was his own worst enemy, whatever he said was going to be wrong in the eyes of the MSM.

      1. He isn’t a professional diplomat or politician, that’s why. What he did, as opposed to what he said, was absolutely fine.
        If we criticise him for saying the wrong thing and being harassed by the media, then essentially we’re saying we want a bog standard lies-r-us politician.

          1. That was his appeal, a loose cannon against the self serving establishment.

            When you are on minimum wage with no healthcare, those fat cats just don’t appear to be fighting for you.

        2. If you study Trump’s speeches they are very precise. His speech at Davos, which inflamed the globalists the EU and the bankers, was a very carefully composed discourse and denial of the climate change nonsense and the WEF agenda.

          Trump had it right then and hopefully will be able in the future to stop this takeover of the US by communistic capitalists.

          Likewise his speech to hundreds of thousands of his supporters in January where he explicitly asked for a non violent approach to the Capitol by a peaceful assembly. Long before his speech concluded the evidently staged ‘insurrection’ occurred, which was anything but a real insurrection and had been pre-arranged by Pelosi and her gang of Mafiosi self interested grifters. Even the pipe bombs were planted the day before.

          Edit: Oh look another downvote.

          1. His speech at Mount Rushmore was also very measured and statesmanlike.

            I was impressed too by Melania’s speech at the the White House. She was not just a clothes horse.

          2. I agree. The Trumps strike me as a remarkably intelligent couple.

            What you see is what you get. So different from the Democrat elites who appear by comparison to be full of deceit and downright lies. Trump worked as President for no pay. Can anyone imagine the grifters such as Obama, Clinton, Biden Incorporated Gangsters, and the rest of the Deep State Swamp providing their services for no pay. Those bastards are on the make and have already started to roll in the corrupted millions from their backers.

            Thought not.

          3. The media can make anyone look stupid by consistently twisting what they say. But the fact that in about five years, they never managed to make any charges stick to Trump, and had to manufacture “crimes” that he is supposed to have committed, is further proof that he is very clever. He was thinking about running for President since he was a young man, and has taken great care not to leave anything lying around. Unlike the biden family, but then they of course, have the media in their pockets.

          4. She’s an unbeliever and can only downvote because the arguments would be authoritarian – and fallacious.

            Quick to accuse others of ‘Not Thinking’ when she must, by the absence of argument, be the one unable/unwilling to think.

      2. He isn’t a professional diplomat or politician, that’s why. What he did, as opposed to what he said, was absolutely fine.
        If we criticise him for saying the wrong thing and being harassed by the media, then essentially we’re saying we want a bog standard lies-r-us politician.

      3. “Unfortunately, Trump was his own worst enemy …. “

        Not while Hillary Clinton breathed, he wasn’t.
        ;¬)

      4. Turning the media even to neutrality would have been one hell of a task, they don’t do neutral in the US.

        Even so he had four years to try and woo the main outlets but all he did was chastise them.

      5. He is a business man not a politician. He said what he thinks, got things done so they hated him. he was not one of them. He has not gone away.

        1. ‘Evening, Johnny, a bit like Churchill’s “Action This Day”.

          In other words, JFDI.

          2. Just effin Do It.

            Sorry Bob, I thought it was one of those abbreviations like OMG, WTF and SNAFU that was universally understood. I was wrong.

    2. Unfortunately there were a lot of quack doctors and scammers who were bandying about using aboslutely huge doses of the stuff (amongst quite a few other medicines, etc) when they were just guessing. But you’re right in that the MSM took everything that Trump said as wrong and bad – just because he said it and, more importantly (as sosraboc says), how he said it.

      It already appears that quite a number of Americans – ordinary voters (many of whom now know about the Hunter Biden laptop saga, amongst many other unpleasant things about Biden Snr – I believe 10% of Biden voters would’ve switched to Trump, changing the result of the election even with all the voter fraud), unions and many other groups who already – after just a week of a Biden presidency, now feel betrayed and used.

      1. But you’re right in that the MSM took everything that Trump said as wrong and bad – just because he said it and, more importantly (as sosraboc says), how he said it.

        But also because the MSM is part of the ruling matrix. It’s not an independent entity that can form its own policies on the big issues.

        “It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t feel pity of remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop. Ever.”

        You can’t finesse the message, not much anyway, if the the reality conflicts with the ends they have in mind. Trump was damned not because of presentation or style but because he represented, almost unwittingly, the core white US population, the ones who are targeted with humiliation, plundering and later – termination. We’re in line for all the same here of course.

        many of whom now know about the Hunter Biden laptop saga, amongst many other unpleasant things about Biden Snr

        I fear that’s a lot to do with greasing the skids under Chairman Biden and legitimising the coronation of Kamala down the line and very little to do with discovering a new commitment to journalistic integrity.

    1. I bet it must be very lonely for that Guardian reader to have that attitude amongst all those remoaners posting on their comments sections…

        1. Or shunned. It gives the same effect if no-one bothers to respond to a ‘troll’. The Dt does this ‘shadow banning’ of people or posts on the Letters Page – people say “how come I can see my post, but others can’t?” Normally this is because they’ve criticised the paper, especially calling out their hypocrisy on censorship, amongst many things (sadly) nowadays.

      2. I remember JackCade from the DT comments days, he certainly did not hold Guardian-type views. Perhaps he is a mole.

        1. Maybe. rather like Am F on the DT Letters Page, or that other person (now no longer posting there) who always took the lefty view whose name escapes me.

          Most of the lefties only come to the DT in the run up to a General Election or in periods of serious instability, like when Mrs May was PM after the 2017 General Election right through to the 2019 one. Then 99% of them left within a week. No funding from Labour/Momentum for subs.

          2. That’s the one. Am F is just a contrarian troll, and doesn’t like it if you call for other readers to ignore them – they tried to report me for saying as much on many occasions. Unfortunately, many readers (especially newbies) still rise to Am F’s bait. I found that the best thing, other than ignoring them, was to do was refer to them indirectly (as I’m sure you’re aware, Am F likes to put the person they are ‘replying to’ in almost every sentence of the post). Sort of reverse trolling, which they don’t like at all.

    5. I would ramp up production of the vaccines and charge the EU for them.

      None of these vaccines will be effective anyway so we would stand to gain and offset the enormous cost of their production.

  74. Here’s an excellent article in Forbes magazine which argues that Klaus Schwab’s Great Reset (based on stakeholder capitalism) is doomed to fail – because this kind of thing has been tried before. A long article, but well worth reading.

    Highlights:

    “Yet stakeholder capitalism is not a new idea. It was launched by the 1932 management classic, The Modern Corporation, and Private Property by Adolf A. Berle and Gardiner C. Means. The idea was that public firms should have professional managers who would balance the claims of different stakeholders, taking into account public policy. For the next 40 years, it was the general approach of big business in the U.S.
    When many big firms attempted to implement it over decades, the perpetual need throughout the organization to keep balancing conflicting claims among stakeholders led to mass confusion and what came to be known as garbage can organizations.”

    “What the original founders of stakeholder capitalism overlooked was that big firms are comprise coalitions of participants and groupings whose personal goals, attitudes and values often conflict…. Actual decisions are compromises among these different and often conflicting elements.
    “Stakeholder capitalism” with its call to balance the claims of different stakeholders on a case-by-case base was an invitation to allow innumerable decisions in this morass of differing viewpoints, values, attitudes and ambitions, to be made by different people at different levels of the organization.
    In the absence of clear prioritization among different stakeholders, the result was what management theorists called “garbage can organizations.” These were organizations that couldn’t make up their minds. Goals wandered in and out meetings and decisions happened randomly, depending on who was present. The organization often had no explicit preferences or guidelines. It frequently operated on the basis of inconsistent and ill-defined preferences, goals, and identities.”

    “The attraction of stakeholder capitalism as a public stance is that it doesn’t commit big business to do anything in particular. Firms can go on privately shoveling money to their shareholders and executives, while maintaining a public front of exquisite social sensitivity and exemplary altruism.”

    1. I think stakeholder capitalism is just the acceptable face of the great reset. The ideas that lie behind it are far more sinister, such as digital IDs, losing cash, the idea that the planet is over-populated, and that the West must become part of the third world.
      What characterises the third world? A small privileged class and the masses living in poverty.

      1. ….and I’m sure that you saw on the BBC last night the comment that in the next couple of decades there will be tens, and possibly hundreds, of millions of people wanting to leave the Third World and settle here.

        1. I didn’t, but it was in the WEF video – the one that starts “You will own nothing and you will be happy…”
          One of the points is that we will be invaded and like it.

  75. There is no such thing as ‘Left-wing extremism’.

    I have read the papers, attended lectures, listened to the news, searched the internet and in more than twenty years research I have never found anything about so-called ‘Left-wing extremism’. You can all sleep easy in your beds knowing it is a myth put about by ‘Right-wing extremists’ who are to be found in every corner, crevice, niche and cranny of political and public life. What a relief!

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