Wednesday 10 February: Focus on getting the country vaccinated – not going after travellers

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/2021/02/10/lettersfocus-getting-country-vaccinated-not-going-travellers/

726 thoughts on “Wednesday 10 February: Focus on getting the country vaccinated – not going after travellers”

        1. Blood supply to the foot is now limited because of my condition. Wrapping it in a quilt makes little difference. I have to get up and walk on it which is painful.

          Good morning Elsie.

          2. At the moment the prognosis is good. I have yet to have a full CT scan which will show the extent of the problem.

            If i have many more ‘narrowings’ then surgery will be required.

          3. Good afternoon, Phizee. As tomorrow is a special day for you perhaps you could stick a number of candles in the foot and take your time blowing them out!!!

            :-))

          4. Hi Phizzee,
            Very sorry to hear mention of your condition. Without ANY clinical knowledge, I would instantly suggest that walking may be painful, but NOT walking sufficiently could make the matter worse. Solution could be a substantially heavier dose of the appropriate analgesics, but you MUST check with a professional. Remember that NHS is puritanical (stingy) about painkillers and antibiotics.
            I guess that co-codamol might help, as long as it is the 30/500 mg prescription version. Zapain is the brand name, but generic stuff available. Am not keen on naproxen.
            Again impossible to say without a diagnosis, but there is always angioplasty, which could be done in Southampton under local anaesthetic. Hopefully the ultrasound was also used to check for any risk of abdominal aortic aneurysm,
            If you get offered anticoagulant medication, be cautious about using edoxaban / Lixiana; they say there no side effects, well ha-bloody-ha.

            E&oe

          5. Hi Tim. Things are improving slowly. I am under under the Vascular Consultant and the Haematology Consultant plus my GP who is monitoring everything.

            I have co-codamol and ibuprofen but they don’t work well when the ice monster hits.

            Thanks for your advice.

  2. School drops Winston Churchill and JK Rowling from house names. 10 February 2021.

    Pupils at Seaford Head School in East Sussex stated that the wartime Prime Minister was responsible for “torturing many”, while the Harry Potter author was not “suitable” due to her “words about the trans community.”

    The letter to parents, guardians and students from members of the student leadership team said: “Churchill could be considered an important historical figure. However, we are now more aware that Churchill was a figure who promoted racism and inequality, unfairly imprisoning and torturing many.

    Morning everyone. It is not difficult to see the guiding hand of Woke sensibilities here. The teaching profession is replete with them. They and their helpmates are slowly erasing the history of the UK from the record and introducing one more to their tastes. That this will be more “tolerant” in the long run I strongly doubt since it is based not on an understanding of the world but on Doctrine, which will always require conformity. One of the perennial oddities of socialist thinking is its obsession with rewriting the past and of course the invariably violent methods it uses to attain that end!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/09/school-drops-winston-churchill-jk-rowling-house-names/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. This nonsense is just to distract us while they take away basic freedoms like the ability to travel. It won’t be banned of course – that’s so twentieth century! But if they slap a covid test tax per person on entry to the country, crossing the border will become too expensive for many.
      Just like the electric cars that they also want to inflict on us.
      In 2019, I made eight separate Channel crossings – with the approximately 400 pounds per round trip that the tests are said to be going to cost in both directions, this becomes significantly more expensive.
      And if they make being vaccinated a condition of travelling, then I guess I won’t be crossing a country border for the foreseeable future.

      1. Should we assume that these controls do not affect civil servants and embassy staff commuting to/from Brussels?

    3. They also rewrite children’s stories. Abandon long used descriptive words leading to the ridiculous ‘chestfeeding’.

      If these bozos want to build castles in the air they shouldn’t expect everyone else to rent rooms in them.

      1. I remember all too well my baby son waking up at his usual 3am “is it morning yet?” time feeling a tad peckish. “Oh, you see to him this time” moaned his mother, so in I went to offer him a bit of chestfeeding. This six-month old lad was not taken in, “You are useless” went his angry mother, who silenced him in seconds. She then divorced me for being inadequate.

    1. “A bit chilly”, Bob3? Just wait until tonight; where I live temperatures are forecast to drop to minus 7 degrees Centigrade tonight.

        1. My heating is on at 15 degrees 24/7/365. Then it clicks on to 21 degrees for a couple of hours just before the alarm clock goes off. And then back to 21 degrees in the evening. But in recent days I have been keeping it at 21 degrees all of my waking hours.

      3. For the first time in 20 years, the water pipe to our washing machine – which is in the shed – has frozen, so the ground must be frozen down to at least 6 inches.

      4. Morning, Aunty Elsie.

        That warm? It’s been -7ºC for a fortnight here. We’re forecast to have -13ºC tonight.

          1. It will indeed, Paul, but with it comes a week-or-so of clear skies, sunshine and high pressure.

        2. My mistake, young Grizzly. I’ve just double-checked the forecast here and it’s gone from minus 7 to minus 9 tonight. I do hope with a forecast of minus 13 you have remembered to wear your long johns under your nightshirt and plenty of hot water bottles tonight.

          :-))

  4. I was thinking while in the bath this morning after hearing on Times Radio about the ten years sentence for people flying into the country and then lying about where they came from, wouldn’t it be on their plane ticket and on the flight arrivals board in big letters at the airport?
    Is the headline just a soundbite?

    1. Some folk have worked out that they can return via a third non-quarantined country to disguise where they have travelled from…

      Morning Bob3 et al

        1. They should have stopped all air travel last April. They still have not. Their own likes to fly.

  5. Ten years in jail for holidaymakers who lie about going to Portugal. 19 February 2021.

    Families who lie about going on holiday to destinations such as Portugal face up to 10 years in prison – longer than the maximum sentence for sex offences with children or violent firearms crimes.

    On Tuesday, Matt Hancock announced that anyone seeking to conceal their trip to a “red list” country – from which arrivals have to spend ten days in a quarantine hotel – would face a £10,000 fine or prosecution and a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

    You have to wonder why the Government would think that ten years for lying would be more of a deterrent than for a violent offence or that hanging for the most depraved of murders is not!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/09/passengers-face-jail-terms-10-years-concealing-red-list-travel/

      1. Who cares about the morale of the people. No one in government. They did in the last world war though.

      1. Some of them have gone rogue and those that haven’t are too keen on their career prospects or too gutless to stand up and challenge the rogue element. Hancock appears to be holding sway with a useless PM in tow. Why are so many in the Cabinet keeping their heads down? The silence they are generating is deafening. May the sixth is the day to send a message to the Tories by not voting for them and sending their percentage support through the floor. It worked against May and and she was out. Nothing works better on a spineless politician than the prospect of losing their access to the trough.

        1. Morning, Korky.
          If – IF – local and regional election take place this May, they will be predominantly via postal votes. Mr. Rashid and the 4 Fatimas are v.v. busy at the moment.

    3. There’s been a new variant in Northern France.

      Who pays for 10 years in hotel quarantine for seafaring travellers from there who left their wallets at home?

        1. Why isn’t it spontaneously mutating in Wuhan? They seem to have been liberated from house arrest there.

          1. It’s a virus, mutating is what it does and it will be doing it everywhere it is present. The Chinese are already existing under a repressive regime; currently we are not quite at that point. Ergo, the dangerous people in government will continue with the ‘variant/new strain’ theme until they have us where they want us. Only the people can stop this madness.

          2. “…The Chinese are already existing under a repressive regime; currently we are not quite at that point.”
            What are we missing out on?

          4. Morning, Korky.

            “Only the people can stop this madness.”

            Maybe, but before the people start to do so they are going to need the requisite balls and brains. I’ve not yet seen much evidence (in the UK or Sweden) that any development—of such necessary organs—is apparent.

          5. Morning, Grizz.

            That’s the problem that needs addressing. Hancock and his stooges keep turning the screw with ever more ridiculous restrictions and claims, the quite stupid (but handsomely rewarded by government) MSM relay whatever Hancock utters with added glee and as a result we find ourselves where we are. I’m looking to Summer and people finally finding their nerve to break the lockdown. The terminally terrified will not but if a majority say, “enough is enough,” then we should break this cycle of madness.

          6. I agree, Korky.

            The Danish, Dutch, French and a few more have already started protesting in numbers by marching and demonstrating in the streets of their respective capitals. Its about time we followed suit and “upped the ante” as they say.

        2. Why isn’t it spontaneously mutating in Wuhan? They seem to have been liberated from house arrest there.

        1. “Help me!” “Help me!”

          “Piss off, you waste-of-space knob!”

          And some people still say that my observations on increasing human stupidity are awry.

          1. The only thing I find disturbing about that is that the Tw@ probably lost his foot and is now living on taxpayer financed disability benefits.

  7. Doctor who died after saving Alexei Navalny was ‘POISONED to stop him blabbing about Novichok attack by Putin’ 10 February 2021.

    A DOCTOR who treated poisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny was “liquidated” to stop him sharing details of the attempted assassination, it is alleged.

    Dr Sergei Maksimishin, 55, died suddenly last week at the same hospital in Omsk where the Russian opposition leader was treated after he became violently sick on a plane.

    Of course he was. Along with the rest of the ER team and the ambulance crew and the pilot and the cleaners and the Phlebotomists and the nurses. Oh wait!

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13981257/navalny-doctor-died-poisoned-novichok/

  8. A bit of a rollercoaster ride these days, emotionally speaking.
    Second Son was promised work (as kindergarten assistant) all this week – he’s on zero hours contract, as a supply assistant. Excellent! Later in the day, corona detected at school, all kids on home schooling – no work for 2 weeks. Bugger. All up & down. No work = no pay, too. Double bugger. Eff all to do at home for him – treble bugger.

  9. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A possibility that the Fishwife won’t be prepared to appear before the enquiry into the Salmond affair? She may as well hang up a large sign outside her official residence: “OK, it’s a fair cop, I’m guilty”. At the very least, it begins to look as though the useless Mr Fishwife will have to be thrown under a bus in an attempt to save her scrawny neck. Strangely, the BBC appears very reluctant to cover this – unlike her endless ‘daily briefings’ that so fascinated them…

    From the DT:

    Whitewash fears over Salmond inquiry after pro-independence MSPs block release of Sturgeon dossier

    It appeared certain Mr Salmond would not appear on Tuesday night – although court action by magazine could change matters

    By
    Daniel Sanderson,
    SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
    9 February 2021 • 8:36pm

    A Holyrood inquiry into the Alex Salmond affair has been branded a whitewash after pro-independence MSPs blocked the release of a dossier of his allegations against Nicola Sturgeon.

    The former First Minister on Tuesday night appeared almost certain not to give evidence in person to the inquiry, after all four SNP MSPs and one former Green, now an independent, on the nine-person committee voted to block the publication of a document already largely in the public domain.

    Mr Salmond wanted to expand on his claims that Ms Sturgeon repeatedly broke the ministerial code over her handling of sexual harassment complaints against him, which if established, would see her expected to resign.

    He claims the refusal to publish the information means he will be unable to give a full account of his position, and is putting in place plans to hold a press conference to set out his claims against Ms Sturgeon instead.

    However, there remains an outside chance that Mr Salmond could yet appear, with The Spectator magazine, which has published the dossier on its website, to seek a ruling from the High Court in Edinburgh on Thursday which would put the legality of publication beyond doubt.

    Sturgeon and the impunity of the SNP: leading article in this week’s Spectator. To be continued… https://t.co/3OEj6JDGhJ
    — Fraser Nelson (@FraserNelson) February 9, 2021

    It is understood that the application, if successful, could also see other documents withheld by the committee enter the public domain, including potentially explosive evidence from Mr Salmond’s former aide, Geoff Aberdein.

    Mr Aberdein was one of the people in the room with Ms Sturgeon in late March 2018, when Mr Salmond’s camp claims an investigation into Mr Salmond was discussed. Ms Sturgeon maintains that she did not learn about the probe until early April 2018, something she has told Holyrood and Scotland’s highest court.

    The Holyrood committee has refused to publish the document citing legal concerns. However, should a court rule in The Spectator’s favour, it would increase pressure on the Holyrood committee to perform a u-turn.

    Murdo Fraser, a Tory committee member, said: “The Salmond Inquiry without Salmond will be viewed by the public as little more than a sordid SNP whitewash.

    “It is hugely disappointing that some of my fellow committee members have failed to back my call for this vital evidence to be published – with appropriate redactions – despite much of it already being in the public domain.”

    Ms Sturgeon insists she stands by her statements to parliament and has said she is looking forward to refuting the Salmond camp’s “ridiculous” claims when she appears before the committee on Tuesday.

    Mr Salmond insists she misled parliament over when she became aware of the investigation against him and by failing to record the meetings in her official diary. He also believes she fell foul of rules by fighting a legal case he brought even though it was unwinnable, increasing costs to taxpayers.

    He was awarded more than £500,000 in legal costs when he successfully challenged the legality of a Scottish Government probe into two sexual harrassment complaints against him in court. Mr Salmond was later cleared of all 13 sexual assault charges at his trial last March.

    Alex Cole-Hamilton, a LibDem member of the Holyrood committee, said: “With Salmond now unlikely to deliver his version of events and avenues of questioning closed off to us by legal restrictions, the committee is now dangerously exposed to accusations of whitewash.

    “If we are to understand why the Government failed the women at the heart of this, we have to find a way to break through to the truth.”

    A Holyrood spokeswoman said the publication of Mr Salmod’s dossier was “impossible” for legal reasons, and that it would instead rely on other written submissions he had provided.

    An SNP spokesman said: “It is deeply troubling that opposition committee members voted in favour of publishing Mr Salmond’s submission contrary to legal advice that to do so – even in redacted form – would be in breach of court orders regarding identification of women complainers.

    “The decision to support publication against legal advice is made all the more incomprehensible in light of the views expressed by Rape Crisis Scotland and others over the past days and weeks.

    “The committee must now get on with its important task with the precious little time it has left. Only by doing so can its work be an asset in ensuring that future complainers are not let down.”

    1. Scottish politics. Even by the universal standards of politicking, the Haggis Hunters can be guaranteed to sink beneath that very low bar. It’s a great shame, because many of our most innovative and brave Britons have been Scots.
      Shakespeare may have been somewhat imaginative, but he caught the flavour of North Britain.

    2. “Legal reasons”. This is a clever contrivance to cover up what actually happened. It looks if women who conspired to pervert the course of justice are being protected. Those in positions to take action are not doing so as they might lose their jobs. If only we could grow bananas in Scotland.
      Keep in mind that the “committee” is dominated by SNP members. Also note that whenever hard facts have been scrutinised by a real court the SNP government cabal has lost spectacularly.
      FOI = Everywhere blocked in black.

    3. I’m still bemused by the thought of female civil servants not only dining with the First Minister but wandering round Bute House with him and ending up in a bedroom.

  10. Morning all

    SIR – Policy Exchange (report, February 2) says the country will need 400,000 public charging points for electric vehicles within nine years, due to the ban from 2030 on the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

    Before we cover the country with expensive charging points, has anyone thought what will happen if hydrogen is the “green” fuel of the future?

    Paul Knocker

    Bembridge, Isle of Wight

    2. I think that there will be a greater number of public charging points required for electric vehicles if Johnson’s mad environmental policies come to fruition.

      1. Based on the time spent in recgarging, I agree.
        I can add 500km of diesel to my car in about 5 minutes or less. 5 minutes will get an electric car to the end of teh road, even with a quick charger. Each recharge is at least a lunchbreak in time (so, over 30 minutes), and so the queues will be horrific!

    3. How much generating capacity will be needed? UK doesn’t have enough already.
      How much transmission capacity will be needed?
      The investment will be enormous.

      1. At the moment, 8.30am, Gas and Nuclear are providing 63% of demand, coal 7%, wind 12%, biomass 7% and solar 0.1%

      2. At 40kW to 100kW per charger, this means upwards of 16 000 MW just to run the chargers. Not counting losses in transmission. That’s 4-5 new Drax power stations on their own…
        Current demand in the UK is 42 GW and is close to the yellow marker – so, car chargers could need another 30% generating capacity in the UK – plus transmission capacity… good luck with that.

      3. ‘Morning, Paul, a recent survey (and I can’t find the link again) identified that even at maximum demand currently (forgive the pun) the grid was capable of producing 158%. In other words there was a further 58% available.

      4. No Herr Oberst, the new Green will mean that many people will no longer own cars, whether through legislation or taxation.

        On this morning’s Business News the head of Alsthom was explaining why they will be building ever more train carriages.

        He understands the big plan!

        1. So what happens to those people who live out in the sticks with no railways (thanks, Reggie and Dr Beeching) and no bus services?

          1. Conway, we live out in the sticks too

            To us a very worrying prediction.

            The head of Alsthom explained that there would be many more people on staycations in the future who would be travelling by train.

            I don’t think that he would be building fleets of railway carriages unless he had definite information from the Government.

    5. This line of thought assumes the increasing level of private car ownership to continue unchecked, very tempting for a Government of the near future to tax private ownership to oblivion in the name of “green” , Welcome to the ZIL Charging Network citizen

    6. This line of thought assumes the increasing level of private car ownership to continue unchecked, very tempting for a Government of the near future to tax private ownership to oblivion in the name of “green” , Welcome to the ZIL Charging Network citizen

    7. The ‘hydrogen’ fuel is, at least at present, a no-go, because it is either sourced from natural gas (the vast majority) – hardly ‘green’, or via splitting it off from water.

      The problem with the latter is that it requires pure water to do so, and whilst we in the UK have relatively a decent amount of railfall, especially the further north you go, much of it tends to either be in certain areas (up North) and also it comes in very large doses, whereby we don’t have the capacity to store enough to get through the drier months if we used the huge amounts of it to produce hydrogen.

      Sea water can be used, but the salt has to be removed first, which is a very energy intensive (never mind costly) process, drastically reducing the net gain in energy.

      In addition, because the hydrogen sourced from seat water would only be able to be made near the sea (pumping salty water is probably not viable due to its corrosive nature on pipes, pumps, etc, as well as the huge amount of infrastructure needed to do so plus high maintenance), and this the issue with getting the hydrogen to inland areas and storing it (either via huge storage tanks in gaseous form – inefficient and the obvious safety/security concerns, or in liquid form [VERY energy-inefficient as it has to be cooled to VERY low temps]) is similarly difficult in the extreme.

      Whilst towns/coal gas had around 50% hydrogen, that was limited to where the coal came from and now a completely new distribution and storage system would need to be built – at huge cost – everywhere. Modern boilers do not say whether they can take hydrogen as a fuel source – the latest ones only say they can take natural gas or LPG. They might be able to be modified, but again at a large cost. WHo would pay for all this – and within the next 10-20 years to accommodate all those electric cars?

      Both battery ‘fuelled’ EVs and hydrogen fuel cell cars are, in my view, many decades away in being viable for the masses because of the technical and logistical reasons mentioned above (battery materials are also scarce and often sourced using near slave labour). Sadly, such ill-thought-out policies, such as the EV-only policy by 2040, never mind bring it forward twice to 2030, are par for the course, rather like the dash to diesel in the late 90s when a blind man could see the problems with particulates, and more latterly with reliability when used for short urban journeys only.

      Not trying to blow my own trumpet (there are loads of better enginers than myself in the UK and around the world), but if parliament and the Civil Service had more engineers and who have a significant amount of private sector experience, the less problems we’d be facing at the moment. We need people with common sense who live and work in the real world, not some theoretical and/or ideological bubble.

  11. Morning again

    Ride of a lifetime

    SIR – When my father and I were driving to church on my wedding day (Letters, February 9), we travelled in a (hired) Rolls-Royce.

    My father turned to me and said: “Enjoy this. The next time you ride in one of these you’ll be in a coffin.”

    That settled the nerves.

    Barbara Southward

    Southend-on-Sea, Essex

  14. The only thing I find mildly amusing about trans blokes being allowed to use women’s toilets/showers, “chest feeding” etc. is watching women’s stunned reaction to having everything that belonged to them stripped away by the woke crowd. By and large they saw nothing wrong when this was done to men over the past 40 years and all I can say, “This is how it feels girls”. You will have to learn how to defend yourselves, as we had to. It was your world for 40 years and now suddenly it isn’t anymore. They are experiencing the same rules as we did, men are allowed to object about on their behalf,; they are not allowed to object themselves. Wait until the trans mania over takes the Family Courts, then you will discover how much it can really hurt.

    I don’t even slightly approve of it though, but some good might conceivably come out of it.

    1. Morning Rodger. It is difficult to avoid a sense of Schadenfreude when you see all the same tropes being trotted out in favour of Trans that were used for Feminism!

      1. Not from me, schadenfreude is way way to strong. Mild amusement, but absolutely no approval of what is being happening.

        1. You don’t hate Feminism enough which is one of the most poisonous doctrines ever to have infiltrated Western Society!

          1. In its earlier forms I agreed with it. Equal pay, maternity leave and some other things. What it has become I don’t support at all, and if a woman says “Well I’m a feminist!” it is a huge turn off these days.

            The only exception is when they are talking about parts of the world where the situation of women is bloody awful. Africa most obviously.

            OTOH, I am no longer entirely sure that women should have the vote. They are just so astonishingly gullible, collectively.

          2. 329273+ up ticks,
            Morning RtD,
            Does that mean that nasal grippers, best of the worst, party before Country, male voters are not ?
            We could NEVER got into such an odious state as a nation without them.

          3. That’s because they must suck up to the female vote to win. Was it like that before 1930?

          4. 329273+ up ticks,
            RtD,
            Personally cannot answer pre 1930.
            But my view today and with damning proof at hand as the eye can confirm, NO one of the male / female / it’s sexes, supporting the lab/lib/con coalition party should be allowed to vote.

        1. For sake of argument, if I was Roger Federer at the end of my male career and decided that I was a woman after all, I very much doubt any real woman would stand a chance against me.

    3. I have to agree. The Feminazis could not follow the logical development of their hysterical behaviour.
      The sexes are complementary.

      1. Absolutely. Step outside. Everything you see was built by men. Women can now become bricklayers, but there are almost none – they don’t like it.
        Step outside. Everyone you see was birthed by a woman. Man aren’t good at that.

    4. Humans are stupider today than they were yesterday. There’s no accounting for how much stupider they are going to be tomorrow.

      1. Dunno, “Avec moi, le deluge”, as it’s my generation that are substantially responsible for this stuff.

      2. Morning, Grizz.
        It could be argued that’s the down side of medical advances. Darwinism has been subverted and more humans are kept alive to breed.
        Looking at Darwinism dispassionately – I would have died before my 40th. birthday from a (then) benign tumour; going back a generation, I wouldn’t have been born because my father had diphtheria at 15, and my mother had appendicitis at 14.

        1. Morning, Nursey.

          Medical advances are, have been, and continue to be, a wonderful thing.
          Selfish, out-of-control human breeding is, has been, and continues to be, a deplorable thing.

  16. The BBC licence fee hike adds insult to injury. 10 February 2021.

    Part of the criticism stems from the perennial complaint that the BBC wastes money on things the audience does not value – overpaid stars are an affront to many, while high executive salaries sullied the organisation’s good reputation. The ‘squeeze’ on the BBC’s finances, which so alarms its defenders, dates from a period when, under director general Mark Thompson, the BBC showed how public service broadcasting became a vehicle for a self-serving, public-sector, boss class. Subsequently governments showed themselves less willing to indulge the broadcaster.

    But those who are now agitating for reform should understand what they are up against. There is a large constituency in the country which is very well-served by the BBC and which couldn’t be happier with its output. For Remain-inclined social liberals what is not to like? They see and hear their own views and prejudices reaffirmed and reinforced on a daily basis by an organisation that has a well-polished veneer of authoritativeness.

    Yes and it’s called Westminster! Hopefully Andrew Neil’s new channel will give us something nearer to reality and we can shut this Woke Propaganda outlet down!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-bbc-licence-fee-hike-adds-insult-to-injury

    1. They are between a rock and a hard place. The seniors who they thought would all obediently cough up are not doing so in large numbers. Having completely neglected this market for decades who they knew they would get the money from because the govt. was paying, they now find that actually find that whilst they might be “completely loyal to the BBC” as they so fervently believed, they are not loyal to the tune of 157 quid.

      Now that brings on the schadenfreude. Budget cuts? What are they? They will find out.

    2. Mark Thompson became the President and CEO of the US Guardian-equivalent, the New York Times, until last year. His compensation in 2019 was $6.1 million! A true champagne socialist!

      As for Andrew Neil’s new TV channel, the Guardian has already accused it of being an ‘assault on impartiality’, and it hasn’t even started yet! The Guardian talking about impartiality has to give new definitions to hypocrisy and temerity!

      The BBC doesn’t have to worry too much about financial discipline because it does not have to earn its money.

      I have boycotted the BBC for a long time, so nobody can accuse me of helping to finance its blatant contravention of its charter, namely its own lack of impartiality!

  17. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/408bf7c08b84ab4ce572580629624217a2d4fa01b0a63cddb8a8faeb6352da92.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d3e9cc43faf53dddbec4047d2c1b7a85534896c55f66681713fbd3a66f0f4a3c.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc81c82a637aa4deab79233062c3ea9ce497247028751cb3343a2a0e94355883.png Our good friend, Spikey, has asked me to post these photographs that he took yesterday of the newly-cleared roads in Wester Ross, where he lives, that were closed by massive snow drifts a few days back.

      2. It’s the road from Dundonnell to Braemore Junction and is commonly known as The Fain or Desolation Road

    2. “This is what Global Heating looks like!”. Especially in a solar minimum. The Sun was ‘spotless’ again yesterday and is all around looking a bit quiet.

  18. Moment gym is raided by police in Liverpool for breaching Covid rules by refusing to close as officers PIN man to floor and wield batons at ‘customers and staff’ attempting to flee. 10 February 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1325aacf1d61672621d6c33f0cb0d3907659c835b489a514424941a9f24bed72.jpg

    A police raid on a gym in Liverpool which breached Covid rules by refusing to close saw officers pin a man to the floor and wield batons at customers and staff who attempted to flee.

    Three people were arrested and 52 people were fined when police raided Prophecy Performance Centre in Speke, Merseyside, on Sunday afternoon.

    CCTV footage from the scene, shared on social media, shows gym goers trying to escape out the back of the gym before police officers try to stop them from getting away – with one appearing to swing a baton.

    I had fewer coppers turn up for a torture and false imprisonment offence I reported!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9241895/Moment-gym-raided-police-Liverpool-breaching-Covid-rules-refusing-close.html

    2. Of course, no comments allowed.

      Report a burglary and they’ll be no where. Disobey the state and they send the attack squads in.

      Was the police dog really necessary? I’m sure they wanted it to be but really wouldn’t a quiet word a notice of the law and advisory request have more effect?

  20. The Spanish Maid.

    The Spanish maid asked her boss for a pay increase. The wife decided to question her about the raise. She asked: “Now Maria, why do you want a pay increase?”

    Maria: “Well, Señora, there are tree reasons why I wanna increaze. The first ees that I iron better than ju.”

    Wife: “Who said you iron better than me?”

    Maria: “Jor hozban he say so.”

    Wife: “Oh yeah?”

    Maria: “The second reason eez that I am a better cook than ju.”

    Wife: “Nonsense, who said you were a better cook than me?”

    Maria: “Jor hozban did”

    Wife increasingly agitated: “Oh he did, did he?”

    Maria: “The third reason is that I am better at sex than ju in the bed.”

    Wife, really boiling now and through gritted teeth asked “And did my husband say that as well?”

    Maria: “No Señora… the gardener did.”

    Wife: “So how much more do you want?”

  21. MB was born 80 years ago today – that is in the midst of WWII.
    We have put any celebratory bunfight on hold.
    Little did our parents think that their sacrifices would be devastated by a flu bug and an hysterical government.

    2. 329273+ up ticks,
      Morning Anne,
      Difference being ” the bug” was never given succour as the current governance group has been, as was their predecessors, recurring, for decades.

      “The flu” will play a major part on the 6th May as a vote winner for those wanting more of the same and supporting “their MP” I fully expect the threats & incarceration to ease of, the pubs IMO were closed so they could be used
      as a gift to the peoples tool on re-opening in this case prior to the 6TH.

  22. Good morning, all. A cold day – more snow – and half the house (where AGA is dead) very chilly. Other half OK – thanks to stove.

    Why only ten years for travellers? The damage they do all over the country deserves life…!

  24. That’s strange; all day yesterday I had the ‘New Comment’ banner at both top and bottom – but couldn’t see downvotes despite the extension being activated in Chrome.

    Today, no ‘New Comment’ banners but I’ll have to wait until the resident downvoter appears, to see if they are visible.

    Ha, c’est la vie.

    1. 329273+ up ticks,
      Morning TB,
      IMO if ONE lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration MP
      has any sort of victory on the 6th May then that surely shows the peoples are NOT angry enough.

    2. How many “red countries” did they travel through on their way here? Will they be imprisoned for 10 years as a consequence?

  26. England cricket captain, Joe Root, said (on television) yesterday about the team’s win in Madras:

    “They’ll come back hard at us, but to be sat here 1–0 up is really good — I’m very proud of the way we’ve played this week.”

    From that you’d hardly believe that Root attended a fee-paying school (Worksop College).

    3. Good morning, Grizzly

      Have you ever spoken to a PE teacher in even a good private school?

      When searching for good collective nouns we came up with: a thicket of PE teachers.

      Of course this does not always apply but you can see where Joe picked up his bad habits.

      Off subject. The chaplain at the school in Bideford where I had my first job as a teacher moved to become chaplain at Worksop College. His son, Jack, won the European Athletics Championship gold medal at 5,000 metres in 1986 having put in a final lap of 56 seconds setting the championship record of 13:10.15, which still stands to this day. The following year he got a bronze medal at the World Athletics Championships. Can you tell me who he is?

      1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

        I was a schools’ liaison officer for a number of schools, both public and state, during my police career. I was invariably invited into the staff room for a coffee and a chat. I have to admit that I didn’t ever come across any PE teacher such as the type you mention.

        As for your athlete. That sounds very much like the excellent Jack Buckner, whom I remember very well.

        1. Yes.

          Richard Buckner, his father was the chaplain at Grenville College when I taught there in the 1970’s. He moved to Worksop College in 1974.

          Richard was a tremendously cheerful and amusing man who was very much loved by both the pupils and his colleagues. Richard played the ukelele and I played with him on the guitar. When he left Grenville he bought all his colleagues a present: he gave me a book he had picked up at a second-hand bookshop in Westward Ho! called ‘Songs For Youth’ by Rudyard Kipling. I have just looked looked at it in my library – the inscription he wrote reads: “To The Merry Minstrel Richard Tracey from a fellow artiste.” His sons were children who went to a different school and I did not get to know them very well.

          Very sadly Richard died of cancer when he was at Worksop and still relatively young.

          1. Between 1991 and 1999 I lived just over a mile down the road from Worksop College at Carburton, just outside Clumber Park.

      3. ‘Afternoon, Richard, apropos of your first three sentences, when in the Royal Air Force and under training for the first 18 months, we were often subjected to the sadism of Physical Training Instructors (PTIs) and was often heard that they were:

        PTI born, PTI bred,
        Strong of the arm
        And thick of the head.

        it seems to be a prerequisite.

    4. To be honest, I see nothing wrong with that. Language is never stationary and the rules of grammar simply reflect language as it was when those rules ware formulated.

      I like it, and I like it because it is more expressive than what I was taught, “to be sitting here”. The use of sat gives emphasis and conveys a degree of surprise, and has a different meaning than ‘sitting’ would have given.

      Language exists to express ideas and emotions; grammar is secondary and to some extent fluid.

      1. Now you see, Rog, this is where you and I differ in our opinions. My take is that the English language is not progressing; it is regressing back to the grunts of the creatures that first emerged from the primordial soup.

        All you need to do is listen to the paucity of vocabulary of the young these days, their over-reliance on slang (especially execrable Americanese) and foul language. This is not helped by them having idiots as parents and cretins as teachers.

        I shudder to think where this invidious regression will take us to in around 100 years hence (that is, as long as we’ve not self-destructed as a species before then).

        1. You should have heard me when I was 16. Every other word was effin’, an activity I was keen to start on. Grunts were primary communication, words were not.

          1. I wanted to be like that when I was 16. The threat of a sharp back-hander from my dad made me think otherwise.

        2. I should add to that, every grammatical construct I used in essays that my English teacher objected to, I could always find it being used in either Austen or Wilde. “Which one is it this time Rodger?” with a big sigh. “When you can write as well as Wlde, you can break the rules like Wilde”. “But breaking the rules is the essence of Wilde, sir”. Sigh. By Christ I was a little shit, as an adolescent boy should be.

          3. Though rebellious it does show you had an enquiring mind.

            I have never met a teacher who didn’t dislike their judgement being questioned.

          4. Didn’t teacher explain that you need to learn the rules and show you have learned the rules before you break them?

  28. Yo all

    My broadband is running slow: when i clicked on the Boss’ link to today’s Nottler page, it stayed at yesterday

    I cannot even log onto Wednesday’s DT Letters page: stuck on Tuesday

    I know we are two miles to the East of the back of beyond, but this is ridiculous

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH

    1. Morning OLT

      The same thing happened to me , I clicked on the new link and nothing happened .

      I had to guess who else was up first other than Geoff ,on the new page this morning .

      1. I just type in nttl.blog in my browser, click on enter, and hey presto! There we are. It presents each day’s listing down the screen.

      2. You can pick up the new day’s page from the banner at the top above the blurb – that’s how I find it on my phone – though I eventually figured out I could put a short-cut on the screen.

    4. My bad, OLT. Somehow I managed to paste the URL of yesterday’s page rather than today’s.

      Here’s a tip, though. On each day’s page, just above the Disqus content, there’s a link to the previous and following day’s pages, thus:

      (Damn, Discurse won’t let me post an image)…

  29. WHO says ‘extremely unlikely’ virus leaked from lab in China. 10 February 2021.

    International experts investigating the origins of Covid-19 have all but dismissed a theory that the virus came from a laboratory in China.

    Peter Ben Embarek, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) mission, said it was “extremely unlikely” that the virus leaked from a lab in the city of Wuhan.

    He said more work was needed to identify the source of the virus.

    The investigation could now focus on South East Asia, one expert said.

    How is it possible to trace the path of a virus by interviewing individuals at random in the streets of Wuhan? Are we to assume some serendipitous collision? “It wasn’t me sir! I’m just a poor Chicken Farmer! It was Mr Wang. He’s always been into bats!” No! I don’t think so!

    It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that this puerile pantomime was constructed for the specific purpose of waylaying suspicion. It’s just the sort of thing that would appeal to the Chinese. It’s stupid and humiliating and they have an even lower opinion of western intelligence than our Elites. This is not to say that it was deliberate, an accident is quite possible. But here’s the rub. No one, and I do mean no one, is interested in proving that the Chinese are responsible. It would open up a can of worms that might prove unstoppable. Biden for one would have kittens!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-55996728

    1. The French know it was started in shellfish, harvested by UK boats, off our coast

      Shellfish poached by the Frogs is/are OK

      1. With a handpicked WHO investigative team, I doubt the Chinese needed to bother with cleaning up.

    3. Amazing how it took 9 months and more to be able to ‘gain access’ to the part of China in question, but took less than a week to come to this conclusion. No conspiracy there then.

      In other news, ‘Honest’ Joe Biden has been reported to have rescinded the orders from the Trump administration stopping the buying up of and supply of equipment to utility companies in the US by/from hostile foreign countries – mainly China and Russia. He has also rescinded Trump’s policy to stifle any ‘buying influence’, propaganda fronts or using academics to pass on sensitive information via universities to similar nations.

      Amazing also that Biden already knew that ‘China will be exonorated’ over the ‘Wuhan flu’ and thus has said it cannot be called the China Virus or suchlike by anyone in government.

      Ker-Chin(a)g!

      Other news on the China front: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/09/chinese-firm-linked-countrys-intelligence-agency-worked-bbc/

    4. They’ll pick on somewhere successful like Singapore. Not Indonesia unless they can pin it on Bali.
      Of course, there are also a couple of successful western economies south of the Equator.

    5. “WHO says ‘extremely unlikely’ virus leaked from lab in China”. Today’s MRD award.

  30. Good morning, my friends

    Are we going to be lumbered with this nonsense for ever or will a proper politician – if any still exist – free us from these woke absurdities?

    DTStory:

    Midwives told to stop using terms such as ‘breastfeeding’ and ‘breastmilk’
    Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) NHS Trust is the first to implement a gender inclusive language for its maternity services

    Midwives have been told to stop using terms including “breastfeeding” and “breastmilk” as part of a new trans-friendly policy at an NHS trust.

    Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals (BSUH) NHS Trust is the first in the country to formally implement a gender inclusive language policy for its maternity services department — which will now be known as “perinatal services”.

    Staff have been told to avoid using the word “mothers” on its own and have been given a list of alternative terms to use when addressing patients including “mothers or birthing parents”, “breast/chestfeeding” and “maternal and parental”.

    Instead of saying “breastmilk”, they can choose from “human milk” or “breast/chestmilk” or “milk from the feeding mother or parent”.

    The language changes will be implemented in the trust’s webpages, leaflets and communications such as letters and emails. Staff will be asked to use language which reflects people’s “own identities and preferences” when talking to patients.

    Other changes include replacing the use of the word “woman” with the phrase “woman or person”, and the term “father” with “parent”, “co-parent” or “second biological parent”, depending on the circumstances.

    There has been fierce debate around attempts to reduce the use of the word woman in discussion around subjects including pregnancy and childbirth, and any move to do so has provoked ire from some feminists.

    Author JK Rowling was vilified last year after she questioned a decision to use the term “people who menstruate” in a headline.

    In a policy document, released this week, the BSUH said staff should not stop using the word “woman” or other terms describing motherhood but they should consciously start adding in the word “people” and other more inclusive language.

    It said: “Gender identity can be a source of oppression and health inequality. We are consciously using the words ‘women’ and ‘people’ together to make it clear that we are committed to working on addressing health inequalities for all those who use our services.

    “As midwives and birth workers, we focus on improving access and health outcomes for marginalised and disadvantaged groups. Women are frequently disadvantaged in healthcare, as are trans and non-binary people… By continuing to use the term ‘woman’ we commit to working on addressing health inequalities for all who use our services.”

    The policy was written by Helen Green and Ash Riddington, described as “Gender Inclusion Midwives” at the unit.

    Ms Green, who uses the pronouns she/they and describes herself as non-binary, wrote on social media: “The work is for us and by us, developed from grassroots research and lived experiences in the trans and non-binary community.”

    Freddy McConnell, the transgender man who in 2019 lost his High Court battle to register himself as the “father” on his child’s birth certificate, is listed as an external advisor of the document.

    Brighton and Hove NHS Trust has long championed itself as a “leader for LGBT inclusion” after receiving a number of accolades from the controversial charity Stonewall.

    Show more
    It is listed on Stonewall’s website as a member of their Diversity Champions Programme. It has been questioned in court whether membership of the scheme, which is paid for, is compatible with public bodies maintaining impartiality.

    Stonewall is currently lobbying for self-identification of legal gender, which is a disputed concept, and it has come under fire for its stance on transgender issues with one of its founders Simon Fanshawe claiming it had “undermined women’s sex-based rights and protections”.

    The guidance from BHSU follows a 2017 dictate from the British Medical Association which said pregnant women should not be called “expectant mothers” but “pregnant people” as it could offend intersex and transgender men.

    Telegraph columnist Suzanne Moore – who resigned from The Guardian last year after colleagues criticised the newspaper for publishing “transphobic content” following an article she wrote about sex being a biological classification “not a feeling” – said: “I’m worried that women will lose the capacity or ability to even name our own body parts or our own biology.

    “Why must this language be applied to all women who clearly do have breasts and are mothers? Why must the average woman suddenly not be able to call herself a woman or call her breasts breasts? These are biological facts.

    “I just don’t see there is this massive demand to call breasts ‘chests’. I think it’s an insanity.”

    An estimated one per cent of the adult population in Britain identifies as transgender or non-binary but the trans population in Brighton and Hove is thought to be larger.

    Although no official figures exist on the trans community, research has shown nearly 10 per cent of the population of Brighton and Hove identify as LGBTQ+.

    3. “As midwives and birth workers ……. blah, blah… “

      That sentence is clearly sexist and transphobic. Shouldn’t “midwives” be referred to as “midspouses” to avoid any hurty feelings?

        1. If we go by the old eleven bullet points of the Frankfurt School, because it further weakens the fabric of society on the road to imposing communism – or Islam perhaps, in which case all this stuff will be very rudely swept aside?

      2. Are middle classes not being unfairly treated? Not all midspouses are middle class. What about leftspouses and rightspouses? Where are they in this? Surely the term “any” should be used, as in “anyspouses”? Is the use of the word “spouse” not limiting in that it refers to those who are married, rather than in partnerships? A term such as “connection” should possibly be used.
        The sexist, socially defining word “midwife” should be replaced by the new word “anyconnection”.

          2. Rather too specific, don’t you think? It would seem to exclude those who do not assist at the possible event, although referring to it as an “event” may suggest a degree of importance that excludes other happenings. The use of the word “happenings” may itself be rather ambiguous as it is used to refer to stuff in the 60s involving mind-altering substances, as well as sudden bursts of nudity at Edinburgh Festival performances. (Keep in mind that the previous sentence may need to be extensively modified in the light of what we know about San Francisco – Spanish colonialism and imposed Catholicism etc – the definition of “nudity” and relationship to theatrical context as well as an investigation into the behaviour of the historical antecedents of the patrons of the Edinburgh International Festival. The use of the word “International” needs to be reviewed also. Apparently, there were no participants from Indo-China or Bhutan.)

    5. Wow. I didn’t know men didn’t have breasts. They really haven’t thought this through, have they?

      1. Truth hurts so we must all pretend. “That’s a fine suit of clothes you are wearing my Emperor….”

    7. Anyone (and I mean anyone) attempting to tell me that I may no longer speak standard English will be told, forcefully, where to go.

  31. The plot thickens……… someone replied to me on ”Conservative Woman”……. (who worked for the Rothschilds? Sir John Redwood ! )

    ”Yep, In between contracts, I used to drive for a firm and they had a contract to transport guests to the Rothchild’s pile at Waddesdon manor (Aylesbury). It was supposedly a Middle East ‘peace’ forum yet I had a butchers at the guest list, it was largely CEOs of very large multinational corporations, MPs, Ministers, Blair and Bill Clinton and of course, the Rothchilds too. I couldn’t understand why a ‘peace’ process had so many corporates then after talking with a few, it transpired that it was largely a networking forum.

    There wasn’t any media, no scrutiny, Cabinet Ministers were put up in plush hotels nearby and were block booked to keep out the ‘peasants’. Very enlightening to me. The people only have power at election times, otherwise the real power is with the corporates and the establishment.

    Oh, and one other thing I remember from it, was that one of our drivers had to drive in a police convey, at high speed, taking Bill Clinton’s golf clubs to Chequers!”.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/74ed779f8bcc2c481cc730ad719da1cdfbe766d24c65a9f30ba811fa7af35fe9.jpg

  32. Interesting last sentence from Ambrose Evan ‘Elpus writing in the DT:

    “Tim Bond from Odey Asset Management says governments face a choice between inflationary deficit spending and the easier path of one-off confiscation.

    Fed analysis shows that the richest tenth in the US had a net worth of $80.7 trillion late last year, or 375pc of GDP and far above historical levels. A 5pc raid would generate $4 trillion, covering a fifth of GDP. It would pay for the pandemic nicely. The expropriation could perhaps be spread over several years to avoid tanking the market.

    Mr Bond says it is much the same picture for the UK. If you wanted to focus only on the plutocracy – the 1pc – it would in theory generate the equivalent of 1.6pc of GDP annually for five years.

    Whether you could in fact haircut the rich in this way without all kinds of political consequences and evasionary counter-moves is an open question. But the axe is going to fall one way or another. And it is happier end than dangling from a lamp post.”

      1. …and that’s AFTER his (uncontested) divorce, where has gave a huge amount to his ex-wife.

          1. Nah! Putting sherry into a trifle simply ruins it. Mum couldn’t hep herself and she ruined every trifle she made with sherry. Since I left home I’ve never trashed a trifle with sherry.

            Sherry on it’s own (especially a decent fino or oloroso) is another matter.

          3. Trifle isn’t trifle without sherry.

            What Grizz is describing is jelly and custard with a bit of cream on top.

          4. I was not being ‘dismissive’, Garlands (and you know so). I was just explaining my dislike of it, in common with the conventions on an open forum.

  34. The farce goes on and on

    School drops Winston Churchill and JK Rowling from house names
    Students at the East Sussex school have objected to the former Prime Minister and the Harry Potter author

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/09/school-drops-winston-churchill-jk-rowling-house-names/

    How does Wokedom exert so much influence beyond the wishes of the vast majority of the population?
    Are we going to be lumbered with this sort of nonsense for ever?
    Why do we not have any politicians of integrity any more?

      1. In primary education there are schoolchildren. They move up to secondary education and they become school pupils.

        If they ever go on to higher education in colleges or universities, then – and only then – they become students.
        ;¬)

        1. I agree up to a point and I certainly think of children in schools as pupils rather than students.

          However the young people who come on our courses are 17 or 18 years of age and about to take their university entrance exams so I am happy to call them students.

          Of course we have great difficulty deciding when a person has grown up and can take responsibility for his or her actions. He or she has reached the age of sexual consent at 16, he or she can drive a motorbike and can marry with parental consent; at 17 he or she can drive a car; at 18 he or she can vote; but it is not until a person is 21 that he or she can apply to adopt a child, hold an airline transport pilot’s licence for an aeroplane, helicopter and gyroplane, apply for a provisional licence to drive a large passenger vehicle or heavy goods vehicle, and supervise a learner driver (providing he or she has held a full licence for the same type of vehicle for at least three years.

    2. Does the vast majority of the population even have a voice in these matters? Are many people completely ignorant of what is happening to our country and culture? Do they care?

      People these days even if they are politically aware, are so brainwashed by trivia that they are sleepwalking to oblivion and do not know it.

      1. 329273+ up ticks,
        Morning N
        The vast majority of the electorate ( peoples) have a voting voice the consequences of which
        we have / are, been suffering for decades.
        I am in agreement if applied to the lab/lib/con member / voter but not ALL peoples can be tarred with the same brush.
        Currently since UKIP as a patriotic party was once again becoming a credible player until falling foul of treachery leaving me
        ( non brainwashed) the choice of Lawrence Fox, Ann Marie Waters,Robin Tilbrook and a pair of clean hands.

    3. 329273+ up ticks,

      Morning R
      Politicians of integrity, Gerard Batten for a proven example, were kicked into touch in the main by the lab/lib/con / supporter / voters close shop, in preference for proven treacherous politicians lacking integrity.
      Not once but again & again.

      If a current member best to ask internally.

  35. When I looked at the main BBC News website “news” page this morning there was not a single headline that I would not classify as unimportant, irrelevant, social media slush. Nothing.
    When one considers that the majority of the headlines on all the subordinate pages, England/local news/regions/Devon for example, are links to local newspapers one wonders what the approximately 8,000 “journalists”* do?

    *I struggled to find an accurate number. I’ve seen the figure of 3,000 in the past. I suppose you do need to be a qualified journalist to post a link on a BBC website.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-56007991

  36. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/02/09/business-elites-fear-revolution-hand/

    I’m not sure, even after reading this article twice, whether AEP (who is sly, given his anti-Trump rhetoric) is saying that globalism is effectively on the wane (all evidence to the contrary) or at least the public are fed up enough to incite riots and more, but he appears to be endorsing the agenda of Klaus Schwab who, in in my interpretation of his words is ‘trying to change globalism’ (stakeholder rubbish) when in reality it is just giving the masses a bone to placate them during the last phase of the permanent transfer of wealth and power.

    I’d be interested to hear everyone’s thoughts, especially in concert with reading the other article about governments not giving back COVID-era powers after the pandemic ends, if it does at all (because the establishment changes the goalposts, as the are currently doing):

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2021/02/09/state-making-huge-power-grab-wont-giving/

    I still find it amazing that some of the DT’s staff write some pseudo-anti-establishment pieces whilst not critcising those from their colleagues who are seemingly the mouthpiece OF the establishment enacting the very same transfers.

    1. I read the article and concur with your suspicions.

      I did wonder if it was written on request to prepare wealthy folk for a forthcoming wealth tax. hence the last revolutionary sentence……

      1. Like many a tax on the rich (including firms), most can be overcome by the use of fancy (expensive) accountants. After all, the tech/social media giants and Amazon have been doing that for years now in the UK. Sorry to essentially repost this story/comment – I must have missed yours further down.

        1. Then very clearly, taxes are too high. Trying to tax the very well off simply doens’t work. You end up trying to tax assets which only have value when exercised.

          No tax is raised, the state comes after those with less money. The ultimate goal – of consuming wealth – fails.

          Governments in western, advanced societies forget that they are not the centre of the world and merely a tiny, irrelevant part of it whose duty is the provision of essential services – not management of the economy and ‘fairness patrol’.

  37. A tune from my youth. In the background, my parents are saying “Of course, that could never happen here”.

    Premier Inn Rock

    Hancock threw a party in the Premier Inn
    The tourists was inside ‘cos they had done a sin
    The Covid marshals smiled and they began to swing
    You should have seen them knock them heads right in.
    Let’s Lock,
    Everybody let’s lock.
    Anybody who dared to flock,
    To the sun is safely under lock.

    The PM was squashing the hat right down
    Patel was busy banning any trips to town
    Whitty and Valance sang “Doo wop wop
    The whole Cabinet is in a frightful strop.”
    Let’s Lock
    Everybody let’s lock
    Anybody who dared to flock
    To the sun is safely under lock.

    Room 47 said to Room Number 3
    “All I ever did was visit Clacton-on-Sea.”
    Room Number 3 said “We booked a week in Praia”
    Room 47 said “You are a Covid denier.”
    Let’s Lock,
    Everybody let’s lock.
    Anybody who dared to flock,
    To the sun is safely under lock.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/518026bbea6c6fc5b2999bdadfed280d37fec3ed55b9fcd6082ca5c08e7d3d44.jpg

      1. No exercise hour.
        And meals are left outside the door; like condemned cells but without the human interaction.

  39. Politics latest news: Courts won’t impose 10-year sentence for lying about travel, claims former attorney general
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/10/lockdown-news-schools-quarantine-hotels-boris-johnson-uk-latest/

    British courts are “simply not going to impose” a 10-year sentence for people lying about where they have travelled from, a former attorney general has said.

    Yesterday Matt Hancock announced that anyone seeking to conceal their trip to a “red list” country such as Portugal – from which arrivals have to spend ten days in a quarantine hotel – would face a £10,000 fine or prosecution and a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

    This morning Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, defended the new enforcement, telling Sky News: “We think it is appropriate that prison sentences for lying about where you have been are imposed.”

    But Dominic Grieve told Radio 4’s Today programme it was “entirely disproportionate” suggesting the 10-year period “had been plucked out of the air.”

    He added: “This is a regulatory offence, and no regulatory offence I can think of attracts a 10-year sentence. The reality is that nobody would get such a sentence anyway, the courts are simply not going to impose it.”

    The former MP for Beaconsfield urged those in the Commons to “to pay attention to what the Government is doing on this”, saying: “The Government should not be abusing the powers it has taken through Parliament for this emergency to create offences which are subject to that kind of penalty.”

    It is pretty obvious that no judge would ever impose a 10-year sentence for this type of offence. Everyone must know that, so by coming up with this ridiculous punishment all it does is to undermine the government’s credibility (if it has any left).

    2. “We think it is appropriate that prison sentences for lying about where you have been are imposed.”
      Blimey, if government ministers think lying deserves a 10 year sentence, what do years upon years of blatant mendacity deserve?

    3. 10 years for lying sounds like an excellent idea
      Let’s start with politicians shall we??
      Oh Wait…………..

      1. If only………….my suggestion would be cut the opposition benches to 50 occupants, as they are they do absolutely nothing for the general well being of the people of this nation.

    4. I can’t see the telegraph article. But this as suggested, arrest and possible imprisonment is wholly against the concept of any proportion of previously known common sense.
      This whole bunch (every last one of them) of self righteous political morons who are jointly bleeding the countries coffers dry with their collective salaries expenses payments and gold plated pensions. While they again collectively, have allowed tens of thousands of illegal unidentified invaders to land here and again bleed the hard working tax payers dry. If any of the cost came directly from their pockets it would never have happened.
      It’s the same old story in this moth holed social structure, if you know who some one is and where they live, bleed them dry, rip them off, lock ’em up and the law (tough supping legal aid solicitors, wealthy barristers and out of touch judges) will stand by aloofly with its collective nose in the air and devious hands in its pockets.
      Do something seriously dangerous and as recent arrival you have a decent chance of getting away with it.
      I’ll bet there are hundreds of well heeled people arriving from foreign parts, by private planes at small airfields all across the country from many different parts of the world. And being whisked off in to their destinations. Because they can afford to pay for the arranged deception.
      I don’t live a million miles from Luton airport and recently there has been a a lot of small private aircraft traffic in the area and a lot of helicopter flights over head.
      It doesn’t take a lot of working out what might actually be going on. Especially as we already know of all the bare faced lies our politicians are capable of and expertly avoiding by not explaining to the British voters why they have not put the lid on all this disgraceful illegal immigration. There are enough people in the UK who due to the current circumstances are unemployed. There is absolutely no gain by allowing this to continue.

        1. Don’t know where she died but I believe she is buried in a large undercroft in Wapping. Wapping great lies.- It is a place often frequented by politicians.

        2. It went out with the European Arrest Warrant (no evidence necessary to be presented in order for suspects to be extradited; all that is required is that the paperwork is correctly filled in).

    5. I’d point out that these sentences are imposed specifically because they oppose the state line. Big government cannot be opposed and will punish you if you disobey.

      The same applies to tax laws. They aren’t there to reflect the offence, they exist to punish those who dare to oppose the state machine.

  41. 329273+ up ticks,
    May one ask, what happened to the “no welfare payments to illegals” ? is the amnesty the answer to that ?

    This “road to freedom” tory style I do not believe is working out to well, we will be able to see better after the May elections.

  43. Has the BBC lost its sense of humour? Why British TV comedy is in decline. 9 February 2021.

    Our sitcoms and sketch shows were once the envy of the world. But as a new report declares it an ‘at risk’ genre, can UK comedy be saved?

    Not by the BBC!

    To quote Ruskin; “ No great art ever yet rose on Earth, but among a nation of soldiers” and might well have added “And no comedy from Socialism”. To make comedy you have to have a sense of humour and the Beeb abandoned that in favour of Social Justice. On the bright side I am re-watching my boxset of Blackadder which I am informed is to be rerun on BBC shortly. With a warning for the sensitive! Says it all really!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2021/02/08/has-bbc-lost-sense-humour-british-tv-comedy-decline/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr

    1. BBC comedy peaked in the late 1970s with wonderfully hilarious stuff, such as: Ripping Yarns, Fawlty Towers and Porridge.

      Since then it has been all downhill.

        1. I never watched it. Mainly because I was working 12-hour shifts when it was on so watching anything was very much out of the question.

          1. I laughed a lot at the early series probably because it was new and different. I still enjoyed all the scrapes they got in and out of later.

    2. In 1970 I was told by a Polish guy that “Gomulka is a very clever man. He is so clever that by the time he was 5 he knew as much about economics as he does today”

  44. Just looking up the G7 details in advance of the meeting at Carbis Bay on June 11 to June 13th.
    The 7 are actually 8. They are the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, USA and the EU. Australia, India and South Korea have been invited as guests. Carbis Bay is quite far west in Cornwall and I understand that the participants will in the main be delivered by helicopter There will be many civil servants and journalists spread around the hotels in that area which includes St Ives and other towns and villages. There will probably be the usual hangers on e.g Tony Blair.
    Biden’s massive security detail will cause disruption in the area. “Visit Cornwall” thinks the locality will benefit by £50 million as a result of the visit.
    Cornwall has been the least Covid affected English County. Does Johnson still intend to go ahead with this conference and if so what Covid precautions will apply. There is a strong possibility that the virus could be introduced by the participants and spread quickly through the community thus rendering Cornwall as unsuitable for holidaymakers as a consequence of this gathering.
    The Glastonbury festival in Somerset a week later has been cancelled.
    Be afraid, Johnson, Whitty and Van Tam.
    Just a thought.

    1. They are the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, USA and the EU.

      The EU is not a country. It should not be there!

      2. And as I noted the other day, laws are being used for purposes for which they were never intended.

        The grim comments came amid anger at the extreme border crackdown unveiled by Matt Hancock yesterday in an effort to stop mutant coronavirus strains.
        Former Supreme Court justice Lord Sumption branded the mooted maximum 10-year prison term for travellers who try to hide their movements ‘inhumane’ – pointing out it is longer than for some sex offences.
        And ex-Attorney General Dominic Grieve said courts would never impose the 10-year sentence, which he branded ‘draconian’.
        However, questions were raised this morning over whether the law is going to be changed at all – with some Cabinet ministers suggesting Mr Hancock was just pointing to the current provisions in the Forgery Act.
        And Mr Shapps insisted the move was ‘appropriate’.

        my italics and underline.

      4. My son and daughter in law are intending to come here from Texas in late September. I have warned them of the pitfalls. I am very keen to see them, other than on my i-pad, but I fear their visit will not happen.

        1. We have not seen our grandchildren or children in Oz for two years. We have not seen our other son in 18 months. My wife hasn’t seen her mother for over a year. It would appear it will be at least another year and I suspect that prices will have risen so far that we won’t be able to visit Oz.

          It is breaking her heart.

          2. I haven’t got grandchildren or parents to worry about but I haven’t seen either of my sons for over a year.

          4. Guess her mother isn’t too happy, either.
            Fortunately, mine seems to have forgotten who I am.

          5. Saw grand-daughter in November 2019. No 2 grandson came up in September. Son and d-in-l came up in July. Other than that – zilch. Thank God for zoom. It is not the same, but it helps.

      5. I despise this government with a passion for what they are doing to our country.
        My contempt for them is only matched by my determination to express my thoughts at the ballot box in May.
        I pray many others deliver the same message.

        1. I just spent half an hour on the phone to British Airways to rebook our flights from March to October. This government has no right to keep us all prisoners indefinitely.

          1. Maybe not, but they have got the power ands have pre-empted “rights”. They will keep us prisoner indefinitely. In a year or so there may be a slight relaxation with a move to it being an open prison scenario. The reality is that the restrictions continue to be increased and tightened. Flouting the rules, regulations, and laws now means fines, prison and possibly a beating.

          5. No, however our votes are simply to give them power, it has nothing to do with them serving us by doing what we want. The Manifesto promises are as vague as can be. I’ve written to Douglas Ross on this.

          6. Unfortunately unless Westminster is stormed by thousands with pitchforks only decimation at the ballot box will possibly bring about change.
            Wait until after the May elections and the sheep still giving them their support, then we can say all is lost for the country.

          7. Can’t vote Tory – the party has become a leftard eco-freak outfit;
            Can’t vote Liebour – all Marxists in wolf’s clothing
            Can’t vote Limp Dumb – leftard eco-freaks
            Can’t possibly vote Green – leftard, eco-freak marxists.
            No other candidates available…..

          8. It is a bit of a bug*er. Have you considered standing as a “Don’t Vote For Me, I Won’t Attend Meetings” candidate, or perhaps bring in a Handforth Parish Council ringer.

    3. Presumably all these visitors will have to quarantine in hotels at their own expense on arrival????

  45. AGA man been – despite getting stuck in the snow twice. Filters. Black as a Lammy. That was the problem.

    Promises that all is well….

  46. After a terrible car crash a man wakes up in hospital to a doctor standing over him.

    “Good news and bad news sir. You’re completely fine accept you lost your penis in the crash.”

    The man pulls back the bedsheets and the doctor is right, there’s nothing down there at all.

    The doctor tells the man there’s more good news and bad news.

    “You’re in the only hospital in the world that can do penis transplants and we have three in the fridge waiting for you now. The bad news is these are very expensive and have to be paid for privately .

    There’s a English penis that costs £5000. There’s a Scottish penis that costs £6000. Finally there’s a West Indian penis that costs £10,000.”

    The man says “Wow that’s great news! But I have to run any financial decision past my wife first, she’s in the corridor if you could send her in.”

    The doctor goes out to the corridor to send the wife in and tells the man he will return in 10 minutes.

    After 10 minutes pass the doctor returns and asks the man “Have you decided what you’re going for?”

    The man responds “Yes, a new kitchen.”

  47. Got to laugh………….

    This is the Great Reset.. and it’s happening by stealth…….

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9243979/Lord-Sumption-blasts-inhumane-10-year-jail-terms-travellers.html

    No holidays, foreign or UK, in 2021……..

    10 year jail terms for not doing what Hancock wants……..

    No end to lockdown………

    It’s the Great Reset, folks, and it’s here right now !

    PS Boros will send someone round to collect your car and boiler later……

  48. For those here who agree about the dodgy COVID testing as yet unproven (long term safety) vaccines (see posts earlier about Dr Sam Bailey’s videos and that from Dr Simone Gold, please ask about the concerns (especially those about permananet infertility in previous failed COVID-1 vaccines that these are apparently based on) that these doctors have been raising.

    There’s a Q&A from the DT’s ‘Science’ team: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/08/coronavirus-vaccine-qa-ask-questions-south-african-variant-jabs/

    1. Am I the only one growing a little weary of the straw man argument that the amount of money thrown at this exercise has anything to do with the timescale. Do side effects become manifest more rapidly when the pharma companies have more to spend?

      1. I think they’ve just deliberately said nothing – they know full well that the public ARE the next phase of the trial, hence why the governments around the world have had to indemnify them against any future lawsuits if side long-term effects present themselves.

        None in the media has asked the questions about that, including the previous failed attempts at COVID-family vaccines that couldn’t get round permanent infertility.

        The video by Dr Gold specifically deals with that, noting that no-one has as yet come up with ANY evidence to prove that such side effects have been removed from the latest vaccine.

        1. The infertility is probably planned as part of the Great Reset – the population reduction part.

        2. I watched Dr Gold’s video last night. Most of it I already knew, but I was shocked that she lost her job for treating her patients with a remedy that worked.

  49. We are back .. we have had our jabs ..

    No queues, wonderfully organised .. All had allotted times .. Easy to park , lots of marshalls , Temperature taken by a marshall.. young doctors book you in, look at the letter , confirm who I am , then reassure you, and talk about allergies and possible side effects and other things .

    Sign posts everywhere , spotless attention to detail .. ushered into a large room with about a dozen or more jab stations , more laptops and questions before jab ..take off jacket , roll up loose jumper sleeve and in it goes .. more questions .. after jab , I had to sit in another room for 15 mts .. all timed , just in case of a reaction. Moh didn’t have to be timed .. then we walked back to the car .. A steady flow of baby boomers walked through , in the brief time we were there , must have been a large amount being processed before jab.

    I reminded Moh , the last time we were were amongst so many greyish heads .. was at the Manfred Mann concert we went to a few years ago , oh yes and ELO concert which was only 3/4 full, that was a while ago as well.

    I tried to reassure myself with the thought that as my dogs are microchipped and up to date with their jabs , well what the hell with us .

    2. 329273+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      In the near future there could, in many a household, extra mouths to feed.

      1. How was that, OLT ..

        Were there many there ?

        I see from the news that the uptake at the BIC in Bournemouth has been pretty miserable. .. Huge conference centre , and no takers.

        Apparently the local Bournemouth GPs are encouraging their patients to visit their surgeries , and they charge the NHS £20 per patient jab.

        1. Punters there at 0815,

          Pouring with rain and freezing. Rain shelter for only 10 (with anti-social distancing)

          Queue builds up. II go and ask why

          List of punter had not been put on computer

          At 0905jabs start. I get done by 0930

          Happy Bunny I am not

          Get home, phone call asking SWMBO to go at 1400

          Queues still there but moving

          AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH

    5. When I asked about sitting down for 15 minutes afterwards I was told it was unnecessary with the AZ vaccine, but not to drive if I felt dizzy. I had a few minutes’ walk back to the car and was fine.

    6. Don’t do anything too strenuous TB, we both had a bad a day after our AZ Jab last Saturday.
      And my elder sister was unwell. Head ache and feeling uncomfortable.

    1. If there are 25 million taxpayers in the UK that works out at £140 more each – about the price of the TV licence…..

      2. The other problem likely to occur in this box ticking politically correct country is, thousands of people have had loft conversions and single story extensions to their homes most of these structures would have included Foam cladding especially in the roofs. Just expect some sort of follow up on this from the woke PC greenies and know it all ‘doogooders’. Fortunately the cladding has never been known to self ignite.

    2. Well if Thayaric is right – the government can just magic up the money from nowhere. indefinitely.

      1. Well if Thayaric is right ?? did I miss something ?

        Problemo Ellie the government don’t have any money.

        1. Just increase the number in a bank account. Shift the decimal two or three to the right. Who needs money?

        2. Thayaric has said for a long time ( and popped in to repeat last night) that currency is fiat and if the government want to produce a few billions then they do – the tax we pay has nothing to do with anything. I’m beginning to think he may be right.

          1. What he forgets is the government doesn’t produce anything of value (red tape and regulations to stop people running their businesses efficiently don’t count) that can generate revenue. If nobody paid taxes, I suspect government would grind to a halt in no time, money printing notwithstanding.

          2. He seems to think it can just be picked off the magic money tree – though Rishi seems to have found one.

      2. Well if Thayaric is right ?? did I miss something ?

        Problemo Ellie the government don’t have any money.

      3. tht is new economics, do keep up.

        bank of canada is warning of interest rate increases soon, that will upset a few govrnment apple carts.

        1. I didn’t tell them how to run it though i did make it clear i was unhappy about having to wait so long after my allotted time. He apologised.

          1. NNUH has little signs saying that if your appointment is delayed it is because everyone is far too busy to keep to a timetable (or words to that effect).

    4. And then claw it back from whatever cladding installers and manufacturers still trading one hopes.

          24. I think you lot will all be changing rooms soon 😉
            I’ll get me Box………………………………………………..

  52. 329273+ up ticks,
    If the same voting pattern is adhered to in the near future that has got us into our odious state as a state it will be inclusive of Zil lane & fast train.

    London central main mosque to Birmingham central main mosque
    HS2 = 45 minutes.

    The rotherham odious issue was only a prototype in sentencing the guilty
    pakistani offenders, since then it seems very much like it has been work in progress to reduce the time spent incarcerated to a point where supporting these mass uncontrolled immigration party’s can get many of the supporters parents, doing more hard time than the proven paedophile felons.

    breitbart.
    Short Sentences for Two Paedophiles Hunting for Girls as Young as 10

    So keep in mind if giving succour to paedophilia is your bag then a lab/lib/con coalition candidate is a must for you in May, while looking for more of the same.

  53. Marine Le Pen faces three years in jail for tweeting images of Isis atrocities.

    Same with Tommy Robinson harassment.

    They really do want to sweep it all under the carpet though the atrocities are never ending. The very people who wish to shut people up for whatever reason have blood on their hands and should be forced to see this fact.

  54. Email from Life Site News:

    “YouTube just completely removed the LifeSiteNews YouTube channel. This isn’t a ban, every single one of our videos is completely gone.
    Thankfully, we have backups of all our videos, but this means hundreds of thousands of people have lost access to our truth telling content.
    You can watch our current videos on Rumble, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNews
    Or on our LifeSiteNews Catholic Rumble channel, here: https://rumble.com/user/LifeSiteNewsCatholic.”

    1. Can I meet up with other friends who have had the jab?
      NO
      Can I go out whenever I want and drive wherever I want?
      NO
      Can my parents come and see and hug the Grandkids?
      NO.
      Can I get my haircut?
      NO
      Can I go to the pub for a pint?
      NO

      1. You know why. It has yet to be proved that the jab stops transmission. It has been rushed and everyone that has had it is a lab rat, as they have no idea of the long term affects. Its just 1% of people that die from the virus so why all the panic.

    2. Thisk twice before you say yes. only 1 % die from Corvid ( flu) The government has over reacted to it all and is just frightening everybody.

  56. Discurse appears to have come to a g r i n d i n g h a l t.

    So I’ll risk a turn round the garden (where the snow is a foot deep). I may be some time.

  57. This is the latest World Economic Forum – Davos Agenda 2021 – ”Great Reset” promotional video………

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPYx12xJFUQ

    This is exactly what the Johnson administration is forcing on the British people.

    No vacations.

    No travel.

    Lockdown forever.

    10 years jail for travel violations.

    All done by stealth and happening right now under cover of C-19………..

    Surely nobody can deny it now ?

    1. 329273+ up ticks,
      Afternoon PP,
      There is nothing lab/lib/con coalition members / voters
      cannot deny under the shadow of the three monkeys umbrella they have had decades of practise.

  58. Just back – gorgeous sunshine – pity about the snow. Curious prints. Not rabbit, cat, deer or badger.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/73889524c608e5baa70be471bf9f807d6e700dcaad0725fe06f98be2add79d46.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c1a3674ec44b912c3487dece739b1bcdfd56b5e0298efcf37e9700e8a15a923.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c6215e5e14944816684e9f2cec4a7fa8e8302eeeb90bed816b0c25e562a4b021.jpg

    The woodshed one is for Robert!

      1. Looks to me the tracks were made by a cat weighing less than a puma, probably an ounce.

        I’ll just go…

  59. Afternoon all.
    Good news/bad news here.

    Just had my OXAZ jab from a home visit nurse. Total time: about 6 minutes.
    This morning LK discovered a third, but small, bedsore on my rear end, coccyx this time. Two down, one to go … bah !

    1. Sorry to hear that issy. No chance of bedsores for me. I’m turning so much it’s like being on a rotisserie.

    2. Afternoon Issy

      That must be so uncomfortable and what a nuisance .
      Do you have all the pressure relief mats fleeces and creams … I expect you have .

      People do forget how delicate our tender skin can be . Please be careful .

  60. Richard II

    This royal throne of kings, this sceptred isle,
    This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
    This other Eden, demi-paradise,
    This fortress built by Nature for her self
    Against infection and the hand of war,

    This happy breed of men, this little world,
    This precious stone set in a silver sea
    Which serves it in the office of a wall
    Or as a moat defensive to a house,
    This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,

    This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
    Feared by their breed and famous for their birth,
    Renownèd for their deeds as far from home
    For Christian service and true chivalry
    As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry

    Of the world’s ransom, blessèd Mary’s son.
    This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land,
    Dear for her reputation through the world,
    Is now leased out – I die pronouncing it –
    Like to a tenement or pelting farm.

    England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
    Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
    Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
    With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds.
    That England that was wont to conquer others
    Hath made a shameful conquest of itself.

  61. Chills, headaches and loss of appetite should be added to Covid symptoms list, say scientists
    Imperial College study of more than one million people finds 60 per cent diagnosed with virus not experiencing ‘classic’ signs
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/10/chills-headaches-loss-appetite-should-added-covid-symptoms-list/

    Loss of appetite, chills, headaches and muscle aches should be added to the list of coronavirus symptoms to look out for, with scientists saying infected people are suffering a wider range of complaints.

    A study of more than one million people by Imperial College found that 60 per cent diagnosed with Covid are not experiencing the four “classic” symptoms – loss of smell and taste, fever and a new persistent cough.

    Why not just say that if you have any symptom of any nature – you have Covid-19.

    1. I suspect it’s a way of pretending that there is no such thing as an asymptomatic carrier and that people should self-isolate as soon as any symptom appears.

    2. Perhaps that 60% suffered from the good old flu: you know, the one that has disappeared this flu season. Can’t believe that the government have been misleading us.😎

    1. I have noticed that our local butcher has become busier in these past months even after moving to new premises; and their meat is more expensive than the supermarket.

      1. On the plus side – it shows how good the internal insulation is!

        It is on the side of the house facing the easterly wind and the snow.

      3. Neither, they are icicles.

        Stalagmites and stalactites are limestone accumulated from dripping water over a long period.

    3. WHEN icicles hang by the wall,
      And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
      And Tom bears logs into the hall,
      And milk comes frozen home in pail,
      When blood is nipped, and ways be foul,
      Then nightly sings the staring owl,
      To-whoo;
      To-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,
      While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

      When all aloud the wind doth blow,
      And coughing drowns the parson’s saw,
      And birds sit brooding in the snow,
      And Marian’s nose looks red and raw,
      When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
      Then nightly sings the staring owl,
      To-whoo;
      To-whit, to-whoo, a merry note,
      While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

    5. Just to complicate matters, when I was about 14 I went caving with a rescue organisation and one of the wonders I came across were helictites. There were dozens of them. Two in particular were impressive, one a horse resting on the ground (a small ledge) and the other a cat hanging from the wall of the cave by a connecting rod. Small but beautiful.

  64. That Shapps flucker has a sneering, arrogant, entitled face I’d like to hit very hard with a hammer.

    2. Shapps’s use of the names Michael Green, Corinne Stockheath and Sebastian Fox attracted controversy in 2012. He denied having used a pseudonym after entering
      parliament and, in 2014, threatened legal action against a constituent
      who had stated on Facebook that he had.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Shapps

      Slithy toad.

      2. “However, in March 2015, Shapps admitted to having had a second job whilst being an MP, and practising business under a pseudonym”
        Same Wiki article!

        1. Obviously not all hypocritical liars are the domain of the labour party.

          The question is why do shits like him get advancement under Boris in the Conservative party.

        1. A few years ago he was trying to get on the right side of people before an election and was photographed in his ‘local pub’ he had a pint of Guinness with about 20mm of it gone, as he sat posing at a table and there was no one else to be seen in the pub. The real regulars probably had taken a look through the window. I don’t know which Hatfield pub it was, but it wasn’t his local he doesn’t live in Hatfield. He lives in very leafy and green open spaced Brookman’s Park, not in over developed Hatfield.

    4. I could tell you a story about him but i might get sued.
      Remember he was the housing minister, well……………….

        1. Well,… I once had an interesting phone conversation from a guy I went to junior school with, he was for a long term a senior in local council planning departments. When I was a contracts manager for a building company, I suspected one of the building inspectors of being (A Mr Bung as Dickens once penned) dodgy, I said I can’t be distinct as I don’t remember his name, but he came back with a name, but no the one I was thinking of. That confirmed that at least two of them at it.
          He also took the trouble to tell me how lot’s of ‘things’ (certain sequences of events) work inside the council offices. And how the civil service aka the government take planned action against even very knowledgeable (real experts) people who are standing against certain large planning applications and the continuation of Corporate greed.
          It’s no surprise it’s something I have suspected for many years. Landed gentry and their influence is often connected to public ‘servants’ who seem to sometimes prefer to amend their thoughts and come to different conclusions which do not have the respect of the objecting public.

          2. I wonder why The Prince of Wales is not much liked in Cornwall or in Dorchester – or anywhere.

          3. This guy told me the they hire in special ‘agents’ in to ride rough shod over the experts and publicly ridicule them.

  66. That’s me for this rather better day at the end than the start. AGA man been and – apparently – cured the problem. At least there WAS an obvious thing wrong….

    No more snow forecast – though low temps until Sunday. At least when the sun shines, the house warms up.

    Now have live lecture from Rome to listen to.

    A demain.

  68. After a month of nothing we are finally allowed out of our houses and can actually dine in a restaurant and drink wine. What a strange feeling to see other people!

    No vaccines of course, that supposed PM of ours has totally screwed up on that. It is strange how the infection rate here is going the same way as in other countries where they are pumping out vaccines as quickly as possible.

    3. The curve is the same in countries which locked down (with all the collateral damage) as in those that didn’t.

  71. Went for a walk this afternoon with next door neighbour – perishing cold!

    Didn’t really want to go but she dragged me out and at least it got the circulation going and we caught up on the gossip. Picked up a bit of firewood on the way back – contractors have made a huge mess tree felling due to ash die-back disease. Lots of mud and muck everywhere.

        2. This
          One-word response placed after a quote on a message board as an affirmation of the author’s agreement with the quoted person’s view or opinion.

          27. Red is ruz in Breton. I went to Gogo once, there was only a station with a nameboard longer than the village. The nearby tower dedicated to Henry Paget was open but in a poor state. Paget is one of thousands of British heroes who would be lauded to the heavens in other countries. Perhaps we have so many the British are blaisé of them – or ignorant through lack of patriotic education.

            One of Paget’s descendants inherited a faulty gene. He could have been a BBC personality if he had lived:
            https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/93d3322d-426b-48bf-afdd-2fd6163ad4ae/d7kyx7r-b310db35-7f14-4275-9638-f4b193ee023c.jpg/v1/fill/w_1247,h_641,q_75,strp/inspirational_nincompoop__henry_cyril_paget_by_chronorin-d7kyx7r.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi85M2QzMzIyZC00MjZiLTQ4YmYtYWZkZC0yZmQ2MTYzYWQ0YWUvZDdreXg3ci1iMzEwZGIzNS03ZjE0LTQyNzUtOTYzOC1mNGIxOTNlZTAyM2MuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTEyNDciLCJoZWlnaHQiOiI8PTY0MSJ9XV19.EVS60kDzE8IJOI3KKeNw3UQjJSzTziQ7B9khdfmvAIA

          29. I believe he was. Got his leg shot off at Waterloo. “One of the last cannon shots fired that day hit Paget in the right leg, necessitating its amputation. According to anecdote, he was close to Wellington when his leg was hit, and exclaimed, “By God, sir, I’ve lost my leg!” — to which Wellington replied, “By God, sir, so you have”. Typical squaddie humour. You have to have serve, as you have, to appreciate it.

          39. Quite so, Bob. But I was castigated earlier this week for putting a hyperlink in the weekly parish newsletter, as half the congregation didn’t appreciate that “Virtual Communion Service” in blue, underlined, was clickable. I’m close to giving up…

          40. Except that being involved in the railway industry the glaring errors could not be ignored!

    3. 328273+ up ticks,
      Evening Rik,
      Will a pudding basin haircut suit johnson, will it damage his street cred, will the pillow whisperer go for it ?
      These are questions that must be asked.

  73. Good evening all

    Sometimes bad English can be a life saver …. 😀😅🤣

    One evening on the outskirts of London, a millionaire Englishman was walking with his dog when suddenly a Pakistani came out of the bushes and fired three shots and killed his dog.

    Surprised and shocked, the Englishman said: “Why did you do that ?”

    Pakistani: *”Your wife gave me 5000 Euros and said Kill the son of a bitch”*.

    There were tears in the eyes of the Englishman and he hugged the Pakistani and said: *”I will never forget the kindness of your English teacher for the rest of my life!”*

    😂😂😂😂😂😂

        3. Never saw the film, but the book was total crap. the author didn’t have the foggiest idea about railway operations.

          3. Speaking of railways, Bob, my new place is two minutes’ walk from Wanborough Station. Which isn’t actually in Wanborough, but Flexford, or Normandy if you prefer. It’s on the North Downs Line. Apparently, when it was constructed, Lord Somethingorother of Wanborough paid to build the station, so that all his weekend visitors could more easily get to him.

            They’ve been reinforcing the permanent way embankment just West of here with sheet steel piling. Unfortunately, Storm Bella dumped a lot of rain on us, and the un-reinforced bit of the embankment decided to go AWOL. Trains are now restored, thankfully.

            There are no shops in the village, but I find I can jump on a train to Guildford, take a short walk to Tesco Metro, walk back to the station and take a seat on the same train, still waiting on Platform 6. All for £3,20 return. From leaving my front door to stepping back over the threshold takes around 40 minutes. I couldn’t do that by car…

          5. Disabled Person’s if you don’t mind. Aldershot is further away, in mileage and stations, but only £2.20 return, but who would want to go there? Actually, me. The bus station is adjacent to the rail station, and bus services from there are pretty good. And deserted at the moment.

      2. With all the ‘transhit’ going on, perhaps the ‘androgynous strain’ would be more appropriate.

        1. A beautiful G Meteor. Do, or did, the Brits make the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft, as well as some of the most deadly ones?

    1. https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/19079810.seven-arrested-portland-port-border-force-called-ship-chise-bulker/

      – Police and border force called to Portland Port
      – Seven individuals believed to be of Albanian origin arrested after being removed from commercial vessel Chise Bulker
      – Police first alerted to the situation during early hours of yesterday morning after ambulance crews attended
      – Noone reported injured
      – Investigation underway after arrestees detained

      1. All released with an apology and £100 to keep them going until their flat is available tomorrow.

    1. She should resign – right now. Without any pay-off. A couple of days ago BJ said words to the effect of we had the “toughest border controls on the planet”. I suppose these seven are already tucked up in a hotel and being waited on. They’ll have already phoned their families to tell them they are here – and to start packing their suitcases. This country CANNOT get any lower – rewarding criminals while punishing us.

      2. “toughest border controls on the planet”.

        The borders are so tight it is not possible for a ‘born here Brit’ to get out of their house to meet family 100 YARD away,
        never mind, in another country

        Now if you want to get into UK, easy peasy via Dover, with a French Naval Guide

  80. Evening, all. Freezing cold today here, but lovely and sunny and if you could get out of the wind, almost warm. The dog excelled himself on the day’s walk. We negotiated the swamp (flooded bit of the footpath which has receded but left deep mud at the side), took the footpath across the field, down the RUPP and back onto the path again. When we got to the turn off for home, the dog decided he wanted to go farther, so we ended up doing nearly another mile! I think I’ll have what he’s having (half a steroid every other day).

    1. Acc Google: Road Used As A Public Path ?

      I thought RUPP was something dodgy in a Rugby scrum, Conway …

      1. Sorry, I thought everybody was up on Rights of Way 🙂 It’s a RUPP (as you say) rather than a BOAT (Bridleway Open to All Traffic).

      2. Not to be confused with a RURP – realised ultimate reality piton! A hangover from the heady days of Yosemite aid climbing!

      1. No animals are harmed in the clip – except for a bunch of thickies who haven’t a clue what a triceratops or a woolly mammoth is or was.

    3. Naughty boy. Perhaps he was on the horns of a dilemma – to shoot or not to shoot – but got confuse when he saw the third one.

    4. Bugger, Geoff.

      That bloke must be at least 67 million years old. I think this proves that Liberals evolved a very long time before humans did.

  82. 329273+ up ticks,
    Is this really the voice of the party that along with the other two thirds of the lab/lib mass uncontrolled immigration ( still) inclusive of many
    members / voters castigated the real UKIP members / voters over
    the years, calling us out as fruitcake, far right, racist, funnily treachery
    concerning the realm was never used.

    One may well ask, have the electorate been intentionally building these type party’s towards this end because if NOT what then has brought us to such a pretty pass ?

    Some member / voter must have the answer after all it is your creation.

    Delingpole: Ten Years’ Jail for Lying About Your Holiday? This Is Pure Fascist Insanity.

    1. 329273+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      Why has it never been attempted to radically change the voting pattern Og after seeing treachery dealt out to the peoples via the polling booth time after time after time.
      Could it be the electorate is riddled with fools or they are content with the status quo ?

      1. Ogga,
        Perhaps they are scared that their vote won’t count if they vote for a smaller party like UKIP or Brexit Party (yes I know…don’t laugh)

  86. Although our press and worse, our phoney Prime Minister and his cabinet of eunuchs, are trying to embrace Biden with his mad CCP boughten policies, making him and his family as rich as Croesus, middle America is waking up.

    There are a number of lawsuits in Georgia and Pennsylvania, and other swing States, which are yet to be heard. States are obliged to keep records of voting for 22 months following elections and these can by law be examined at any time for electoral irregularities. If some States have destroyed voting ballots after audits have been required they will find themselves in gaol.

    I believe this electoral fraud, evident to anyone actually paying attention on election night and the inexplicable week thereafter, as further bogus votes for Biden were compiled, will have observed this discrepancy.

  87. Thursday 11th February 2021

    Phizzee

    Have a very enjoyable birthday

    and

    Many Very Happy Returns

    With very best wishes from

    Caroline and Rastus

    And we wish you good health in the coming year.

    57 today – and you are still almost the youngest on the birthday list!

        1. Good morning Phizzee! Wishing you a very happy birthday and hope you feel much better and continue to improve! Sending love and best wishes for a wonderful day! 🎉🎁🍾🎂

        2. Good afternoon, Pip!

          Only just come here, so hope you have a Happy Birthday and many happy returns. What has Dolly got in store for you??

          1. Thanks Herts.

            Dolly…looking at her empty bowl thirty seconds after i have fed her. Then looking pitifully at me.

            Stealing my socks and hiding them under her bed.

            Snoring loudly every night.

            All normal. :@)

    2. Hear, hear, Happy Birthday, Philip and it comes with the best wishes of your NoTTLer family, I’m sure, and includes wishes for a speedy vascular recovery.

    3. Happy birthday Phizzee!! Now don’t let Dolly have too much cake…….hope its a good day for you.

      1. Good morning Phizzee.
        Wishing you a very happy birthday and hope your current ills will soon be a distant memory.
        Have a really great day.

Comments are closed.