Saturday 13 February: The NHS robbed patients of care by commandeering private hospitals

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/2021/02/13/lettersthe-nhs-robbed-patients-care-commandeering-private-hospitals/

601 thoughts on “Saturday 13 February: The NHS robbed patients of care by commandeering private hospitals”

    1. He is really cooking on gas.
      I wondered why his usual Friday column hadn’t appeared; presumably he was working on this corker.

    2. Morning, Hugh,

      What sickens me to the depth of my guts is the fact that I foresaw all this 43 years ago. I posted warnings then, and since, but … who am I?

    3. If one were a cynic this whole farrago would be an excellent exercise to make sure no accusations of kiddy-fiddling by the great and good were ever given credence again………
      ‘Morning Hugh

  3. Sensational Photos of Life On The Streets Of Working Class Manchester In The 1960s. 27 September 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df6429ad908e63fa6efcfc0a4c7efbdd65d10b3bc39228f167e5cd5b4ebc4785.jpg

    In the summer of 2015, London’s Photographers’ Gallery staged the exhibition Shirley Baker: Women, Children and Loitering Men. The show and accompanying book – get it if you can – featured Baker’s look at life on the streets of Manchester, England, from the early 1960s – her colour pictures from the summer of 1965 are sensational. Like Mick Hedges’ photographs of Salford slums in the last 1960s and early 1970s, Baker’s unrehearsed photographs of people in an area changing round them show us lives at at time of incipient chaos.

    Morning everyone. These are pictures not just of a vanished world but of a disappearing people. I have to confess I don’t seek them out because I find them too moving. These came courtesy of Belle via a late post last night. They illustrate the greatest crime in British History: the genocide of a whole nation; the indigenous population of these islands! The people in them are worth looking at. They may not have a great deal in modern terms but they were proud and independent; slaves to none; free to speak, if they were a little unsophisticated and gauche it was the ignorance of innocence; they were also survivors of the most terrible war in history. A War that they alone fought from the very beginning to its very end and for no purpose other than the love of Freedom. Their story is one of betrayal, of the Cancer of Westminster and its traitors and which continues even now. I don’t think we deserved what has been done to us but we will soon only be remembered in photographs like the one above. The world will be a sorrier place when we are gone!

    https://flashbak.com/photographs-streets-manchester-1960s-405734/

      1. You are too harsh on the ordinary voter who did not want what has happened. The sheer evil came from the politicians.

        And, looking at recent events in the US, it would appear that even if you vote the result will be different from that for which the majority voted. And if that it the case voting is a waste of time and makes not difference so why bother to vote?

        1. 329341+ up ticks,
          Morning R,
          You may have had just cause to saying ” to harsh” regarding major but that is where it would end because the following on of
          the likes of the wretch cameron, clegg, mayday, johnson shows to me that the real bugbear is the electorate , much to the delight of the politico’s they, the electorate, are fighting the keep in / keep out war that is eventually going to cost us a Country.

          To “look at” the USA we must first in ALL honesty look and evaluate ourselves.

    2. Good morning Minty ,

      You express tenderly and perfectly the thoughts that I couldn’t find the right words for.

      I am pleased that I posted them last night , even though I felt rather hesitant in doing so.

    3. Yes. One can catch glimpses in films of the same period, where the films have been made on location, often in colour. There was colour, notably in clothing which was smarter and more formal and worn with a sense of self-respect.
      Every day we suffer attrition of our self-respect. Basics from nowhere, and their fellow travellers, falsely claiming connections to the unfortunates of history are rubbishing every aspect of our lives and our language.
      I don’t accept it. Their lies are lies, their attacks are unfounded, their arguments specious and hollow.

      1. 329340+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        The “left” to be clear consists of currently, the
        lab/lib/con coalition in total is there any viable opposition in-house ?

    2. What that tells us is that almost everyone who posts on Nottle would be cancelled and is at risk of being “visited” by the wokestapo.

  5. I regret to say that even the erudite and fair-minded Charles Moore is not going to make much of a dent in the nonsense we call wokery, particularly when no BTL comments are allowed:

    The divisive agenda of woke activists is the very opposite of ‘anti-racism’

    Every time one of our institutions gives room to performative wokery, it denies space to genuine opportunity for ethnic minorities

    CHARLES MOORE
    12 February 2021 • 9:30pm

    The subject of today’s column furnishes so many examples that I am spoilt for choice. I think I’ll start with Winston Churchill, because everyone has heard of him.

    On Thursday, a conference was held on the “racial consequences” of Churchill. Its speakers condemned him. Kehinde Andrews, professor of Black Studies at Birmingham City University, said Churchill was the “perfect embodiment of white supremacy”. “The British Empire was far worse than the Nazis”, he added. No one defended Churchill. The conference was held at Churchill College, Cambridge, at that college’s instigation. The college was founded in 1964, with the great man’s blessing. It is also the home of the Churchill Archives, by far the most important collection of his papers.

    Here is my second example. In 2019, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO), the charity which looks after charities, chose the experienced Karl Wilding, already on the staff, as its new chief executive. It was criticised for picking “another white man”. Once appointed, Mr Wilding announced his urgent priority to improve the NCVO’s Diversity and Inclusion. He and the board commissioned “independent consultants” to report on the situation. He also met “#CharitySoWhite”, a campaign group devoted to attacking white dominance of charities. It was a pre-requisite for the consultants that NCVO should admit to institutional racism, so the eventual report was a foregone conclusion.

    In the course of its inquiries, the leading consultant claimed she had been shocked by a meeting with Mr Wilding. He was the oppressor, she judged, and had exhibited the sin of “white fragility”.

    During Covid, Mr Wilding had scored an extraordinary hit for the charity sector – securing £750 million from the Government to save it from collapse. This did not save him. He recently left his post at the NCVO. A leak of the consultants’ report this week claimed there had been “bullying and harassment” on the basis of race. The new-ish chairman of the NCVO, Priya Singh, grovellingly acknowledged it was “a structurally racist organisation” (and equally dreadful about homophobia, transphobia etc).

    Both these stories reveal organisations which are unfair and ungrateful to those who help them and indulgent to those who hate them. Churchill College could never have raised the money to exist at all without the respect in which the statesman himself was held. The NCVO would have precious few charities to oversee if Mr Wilding had not obtained that huge subvention from the Government.

    The question, then, is, why did Churchill College and why did the NCVO (including poor Mr Wilding) and why do bodies such as the National Trust or Historic England or the British Museum give room to those who detest what these organisations do and try to oust the people who run them?

    Simple fear is part of it. No one wants to be accused of racism, harassment and “microaggressions”. Most realise that, if they are, their colleagues will not dare defend them. It feels easier to give in – though it isn’t. But I think there must be another feeling in the minds of the institutions blowing with this gale. They half-believe that people like Pror Andrews and organisations such as #CharitySoWhite are right – a bit hot-headed, perhaps, but on the right track.

    It is true, as a general proposition about human nature, that people who dominate tend to exploit the rest. Western nations have dominated most of the world for more than 200 years, so there is a history of (among many other, better things) exploitation. It should be told, and that tale will involve Churchill, if only because he was the last globally powerful Englishman. Any painful consequences of the past (along with many more beneficial ones such as the spread of Christianity, the rule of law and modern medicine) for minority-ethnic people alive today should not be hidden. Wrongs that persist must be righted.

    But it is a mistake – indeed, for the institutions involved, a potentially fatal mistake – to accept all “anti-racists” at their own valuation. What is emerging as this attempted Cultural Revolution spools out is that Martin Luther King’s ideal that people be judged by “the content of their character” not by the colour of their skin has been rejected by organisations such as Black Lives Matter.

    Instead, they have set up doctrines uncommonly like those of apartheid South Africa, except that the racial hierarchy is reversed. Whereas apartheid demeaned blacks people above all, woke “anti-racism” demeans white people. It does this explicitly. The very name #CharitySoWhite is a small example. (You can prove it by imagining how people would rightly abhor an organisation called #CharitySoBlack designed to stop black people running charities.) Whiteness is seen as badness: so it must be extirpated. This is a racist doctrine. It is pretty much as simple as that.

    When our institutions accept such critiques, they are not only digging their own graves; they also ignorantly and patronisingly accepting the unwarranted claim that the authors of these critiques speak for most ethnic minority people.

    Surely anyone who wants BAME people to prosper would favour greater opportunity. And surely opportunity is less likely to open up if they are taught (literally taught, as happens in some schools) that society is against them. Every time one of our institutions gives room to this performative wokery, it denies space to genuine opportunity for ethnic minorities.

    There are millions of ethnic minority people in this country doing jobs well and, as a result, often getting better jobs. Some of them, funnily enough, are Conservative MPs, elected mostly by the votes of supposedly racist whites. Several have reached Cabinet level. One, Rishi Sunak, is even Chancellor of the Exchequer. There are no BAME politicians of comparable importance in the Labour Party.

    A more junior minister, Kemi Badenoch, eloquently defends British culture against Critical Race Theory, speaking in a language – English – which is not her first. She is also active trying to overcome minorities’ suspicion of Covid vaccines. Like Priti Patel, she suffers a flood of social-media abuse as a result, some mentioning her other “race-traitor” sins, such as being married to a white man. Despite the BBC’s strengthened impartiality policy, Emily Maitlis approvingly retweets the editor whose reporter seemingly attacks Mrs Badenoch at every turn.

    In BLM-style woke ideology, the rise of ethnic minorities is seen as a positively bad thing. The ineffable Professor Andrews puts it thus: “Do not be fooled: a cabinet packed with ministers with brown skin wearing Tory masks represents the opposite of racial progress.” He would seem to prefer an all-white Cabinet, then.

    Within government today, discussion is inconclusive. There are strong voices, such as that of the No 10 Policy Unit head, Munira Mirza, which understand exactly how wokery can intimidate BAME people who not agree with its doctrines. Dr Tony Sewell’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, expected next month, is likely to show reasons other than ubiquitous racism for some disparities. Why, for example, are young black males and young white males, doing worse academically than all other ethnic groups? Might it have something to do with weak family structures?

    Also within government and officialdom, however, are nervous voices daunted by the task of turning round the oil tanker of nonsense. They need urgently to understand that if they accept the essential woke premise that Britain is a racist state, they must accept the implied conclusion – that Britain must be destroyed.

    3. Is anyone addressing the reason that white civilisation allowed us to reach a standard of living comprising comfort, knowledge, opportunity and peace while “black civilisation” did not, and never has, anywhere?

    4. “………….that Britain must be destroyed”. The Conservatives are working on that already.

  7. I think we all know that the NHS is not in good shape (and with that comment I claim first prize in the competition for the Understatement of the Year!):

    SIR – I admire the attempts by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, to reform the NHS to make it more responsive to the risk of future pandemics. He seems, however, to have rejected the Tories’ 1944 mixed private-state plan, flagged up by Allister Heath (Comment, February 11).

    This may be because we already have such an organisation. Local private hospitals have, for the second time in under a year, been taken over by the NHS, meaning that patients who have paid large premiums for private health cover cannot access what they have paid for.

    A first-world problem, I admit, but it is unfair that instead of building new hospitals for the NHS the Government can, whenever the NHS is at risk of being overwhelmed, commandeer private hospitals as it sees fit.

    Peter Melson
    Droxford, Hampshire

    SIR – Since I first worked for the NHS in 1974 there have been shortages of doctors, nurses, beds and funding, but never of managers or administrators. Yet in more than 30 years of working in A&E departments, 26 as a consultant, I cannot recollect a single patient saying “I have broken my leg, I want to see a manager” or “I have chest pain, I want to see an administrator”.

    Mr Hancock must ensure that attempts to reduce bureaucracy do not actually produce more bureaucrats.

    John Bache FRCEM
    Nantwich, Cheshire

    SIR – In the past 20 years the NHS’s capacity has halved, while the population and the number of managers have significantly increased. There is a huge shortage of nurses, and pupil nurses have to pay £27,000 for the privilege of being trained.

    If the politicians take over, the situation will become much worse. The only solution is insurance-led provision of all health and social care. After all, the private hospitals are saving the NHS at present.

    Frank McGinn FRCS
    Lymington, Hampshire

    SIR – Britain has fewer hospital beds than most European countries, and fewer doctors and nurses than most countries in the Western world.

    Compared with more than eight in Germany and six in France, Britain has fewer than three beds per 1,000 people.

    Is it any wonder that every January there are queues of ambulances parked outside hospitals that are full of patients lying in the corridors?

    David Partridge
    Aynho, Northamptonshire

    SIR – The NHS is in dire need of reform. There will be much talk, promises of money, expensive consultants, debates about private versus public, a big announcement, and then the Titanic’s deckchairs will be rearranged.

    I have a better idea: ask Kate Bingham, who chaired the Government’s Vaccine Taskforce, to head a small team, assess the best of the rest from around the world and get cracking on a new model.

    Mike Metcalfe
    Glastonbury, Somerset

    Just a few BTL comments from the Letters (and I like the rhyming slang from Party Pauper, although I don’t think weasels should be getting it in the neck yet again, Matthew Stuart!)

    Richard Vine
    13 Feb 2021 2:04AM
    To imply that Chuka Umanna left the Labour Party on a point of honour is complete fantasy. He left because he was a deluded as Jo Swinson in thinking the Lib Dems would sweep to victory on a wave of Remainer fury. Like her he lost his seat, a suitable reward for those who have no respect for the popular vote.

    Matthew Stewart
    13 Feb 2021 6:52AM
    Chukup is a self-serving weasel with zero respect for the ordinary plebs of the electorate.

    Party Pauper
    13 Feb 2021 7:01AM
    @Richard Vine

    Ummuna got the right job title in the end…..”Merchant Banker”…..as anybody born within the sound of Bow Bells will know!

    2. A BTL Comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      13 Feb 2021 7:59AM
      The problem John Bache FRCEM refers to is exactly what has happened in the past where attempted NHS Reforms have resulted in a huge expansion of NHS bureaucracy and the even deeper entrenching of the “Vested Interest REMFs” within the system.

      NHS Reform is desperately needed, but, from past experience, is too important to be left to the NHS Bureaucrats to organise and implement.

      1. The first thing we need to to do in thr NHS is for each Trust to form an “action committee” to arrange to hire top class consultants.

    4. “pupil nurses have to pay £27,000 for the privilege of being trained” – and the rest. Nursing and Midwifery degrees have 46 “teaching” weeks per year as compared to 30ish for “normal” undergraduate degrees – I understand that Oxbridge is even less. So no chance of supplementing the “so-called” maintenance loan with a summer job.
      Essentially they are Degree Level apprenticeships funded by the apprentice rather than the employer. Perhaps if the NHS trusts funded the training of their own medical professionals they might pay more attention to retaining them – I won’t hold my breath.

  8. Yes, the thought of Comrade Corbyn being in No 10 at this time – or any other, come to that – is the stuff of nightmares:

    Honourable members

    SIR – Tom Harris (Comment, February 11) is right: Labour cannot simply whitewash the past five years.

    In 2016 its MPs voted no confidence in Jeremy Corbyn by 172 votes to 40. Yet, ironically, in 2019 those same MPs were recommending that we, the voters, make him prime minister. If he was not a suitable Labour leader, he was, presumably, an even more unsuitable prime minister.

    Mr Harris is also right to laud the bravery of MPs such as Chuka Umunna who left the party rather than perjure themselves. John Mann and John Woodcock are now in the House of Lords. In my view, the others should also be awarded peerages. We are not so overloaded with honourable politicians that we can dispense with their services,

    Professor Vernon Bogdanor
    King’s College, London

  9. Good morning from a cold Derbyshire. -6°C on the yard thermometer and it’s looking to be a bright cold day.

  10. Holidays sabotaged

    SIR – This week, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said: “Don’t go ahead and book holidays for something which, at this stage, is illegal to actually go and do.” (Report, February 11)

    Yesterday we learned that the economy had shrunk by a record 9.9 per cent. Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said: “My focus remains fixed on doing everything we can to protect jobs, businesses and livelihoods.” He might do well to have a quiet word with Mr Shapps, who appears to be bent on sabotaging the travel industry.

    George Morgan-Grenville
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    The mention of the name ‘Grant Shapps’ has certainly taken the edge off my breakfast, George Double-Barrelled. He sits there in his study, with the Union Flag draped in one corner (we all have one of those, of course), the ever-open red ministerial box prominently displayed in the other and something on a bookshelf with his name emblazoned across it…as he wallows in his self-importance his smugness is exceeded only by the level of his own special brand of hubristic incompetence.

      1. Whatever gave you that idea?

        ‘Morning, Bill. It’s a nippy -5° in this part of yer East Sussex, due to progress to a tropical -4° shortly.

  13. Three BTL Comments from the Letters Page:-

    Edwin Pugh
    13 Feb 2021 7:33AM
    So, the penny has finally dropped. Mr. Hancock at long last has caught up with what many have been saying since last March. The covid virus is here to stay and we have to learn to live with it one way or another.

    A very expensive lesson for him to learn the obvious.

    Flag5UnlikeReply

    Chris Harris
    13 Feb 2021 7:35AM
    @Edwin Pugh
    But we can only live with it thanks to the vaccine which is his point.
    FlagLikeReply

    Robert Spowart
    13 Feb 2021 7:47AM
    @Chris Harris @Edwin Pugh On the contrary, even without the vaccine the virus we would have adapted to cope. Particularly as there appears to be a substantial amount of cross-immunity from other corona type viruses such as the Common Cold.

    Edit ()DeleteLike
    Reply

  14. Good Moaning.
    Last night I got round to reading Lady Britten’s heart rending account of her and her late husband’s treatment at the hands of the police. This morning, I’ve just read Richard Littlejohn’s clear summation of the affair.
    Taking into account the institutional cowardice of the Church of England and many major corporations, I feel we are living through the 15th Century again. I have no idea when the valve will blow, or indeed, if I will be around to see it erupt.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9255359/Scotland-Yards-sterling-reputation-gutter-writes-RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN.html

        1. Morning, Anne.

          Our parents were aware of a threat that was real, visible and external. Many people today cannot, and others will not, believe that those elected to “serve” us could turn out to be a real internal threat to our way of life. Realisation must happen if the people are to survive this nefarious attack from inside our, as Ararminta describes, “institutions rotten to the core.”.

        2. 329340+ up ticks,
          Anne,
          Patriotism was the norm, sadly now there is an abundance of political anti UK
          sh!te farmers in parliament cultivating the
          eventual downfall of these Isles.
          They are there, in place, by the peoples CONSENT via the polling booth, and returned on a regular basis.

          1. Good morning ogga.

            Come on and get UKIP to get its act together so that the people have an alternative to Lib/Lab/Con!

            It is not enough to say that the public may be complicit in treachery by voting for any party other than UKIP but UKIP has to convince them that they should vote for them.

            I fear that running a campaign for UKIP on the Nottlers’ forum may not be enough to bring about the landslide victory for your party that you crave.

          2. 329341+ up ticks,
            R,
            Do you take any note of my post at all, because the real UKIP under Gerard Batten fell foul of internal treachery via the party
            Nec / “nige” the current UKIP is now part of the lab/lib/con/ukip coalition imho.

            Batten resigned, Brain resigned along with many thousands of members me inclusive, I do believe you are very wont as many are to read up on the real facts.

            What brought a party under a patriotic leader who in a year made the party financially sound with a membership in excess of 30000 gaining daily down to it’s current membership numbering a thousand or two, read the facts.

          3. ‘Afternoon, Ogga, what do you, personally, intend doing to, as Richard says, “...get UKIP to get its act together...”?

            Continually harking back to the past, achieves nothing.

          4. 329341+ up ticks,
            NtN,
            My back post history will show you I quit UKIP along with thousands of others when Batten / Braine lost out to treachery dealt out by the ukip nec / nige.
            Richard knows this from my pat posts answering him.

            I am assuming you are a lab/lib/con supporter / voter If wrong then have an advanced apology

            The big mistake being made is the electorate continually being
            swayed in the polling booth via the three monkeys and not “harking back” and learning from the past, history ignored can mean, as seen the odious parts repeating themselves.

            The ukip party has now IMO become part of the lab/lib/con/ukip coalition.

    2. I have a special affinity with King Edward V, whom I played in Stratford-on-Avon in 1970 on the 500th anniversary of his birth.

      More recently, I visited the old monastic community in Little Malvern, which has an unbroken Catholic tradition all through the Reformation. It was far too much bother marching the soldiers up the hill to arrest a handful of recluses who were no threat to anyone.

      It was King Edward V, when he was Lord of the Marches in the reign of his father Edward IV, who set up this monastery. It soon fell into debauchery and drunkenness, and there was very little piety or righteous work going on there. In the end, the authorities had to clear out the monks into a stricter order to dry out, and replaced them with those more capable of living up to the strict standards of St Benedict.

      Maybe it is time for some 15th century administration today?

      Incidentally, Edward was 12 years old when he was charged with the administration of a large province of England. Maybe it is time to consider that a new generation may do a better job?

      1. I would nominate my grandson; 15 next month.
        He is clear eyed and a whizz with interwebby stuff.

      3. My dog is the same age and is blessed with common sense…that, and her dedication (albeit to food, swimming and sleeping).

    3. I have a special affinity with King Edward V, whom I played in Stratford-on-Avon in 1970 on the 500th anniversary of his birth.

      More recently, I visited the old monastic community in Little Malvern, which has an unbroken Catholic tradition all through the Reformation. It was far too much bother marching the soldiers up the hill to arrest a handful of recluses who were no threat to anyone.

      It was King Edward V, when he was Lord of the Marches in the reign of his father Edward IV, who set up this monastery. It soon fell into debauchery and drunkenness, and there was very little piety or righteous work going on there. In the end, the authorities had to clear out the monks into a stricter order to dry out, and replaced them with those more capable of living up to the strict standards of St Benedict.

      Maybe it is time for some 15th century administration today?

      Incidentally, Edward was 12 years old when he was charged with the administration of a large province of England. Maybe it is time to consider that a new generation may do a better job?

    4. Thank you Anne. Excellent article probably one of his best.

      If RL can’t get things to happen what chance do we have?

  15. Mismanagement claims against Kids Company founder thrown out. 13 February 2021.

    The founder and former chief executive of Kids Company, Camila Batmanghelidjh, has been exonerated by a court of allegations that the charity she created collapsed because she had failed to operate it on a proper and financially sustainable basis.

    After a three-and-a-half-year legal case, the court threw out claims by the official receiver that Batmanghelidjh and seven former trustees of the charity failed to properly manage the charity in the tumultuous final months of its existence.

    Does this mean that the Taxpayers will get their £3M back that Cameron so generously donated?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/12/mismanagement-claims-kids-company-founder-thrown-out-camila-batmanghelidjh

    1. Morning Minty et al

      Re your question. Let me think about that…………..hmm………….hmm…. Nope!

      1. …despite the advice given by the snivel serpents Dodgy Dave shelled out yet more of our cash. A ‘Clay Cross surcharge’ should surely be the least he can expect…

        1. When he gets elevated (assuming the Blair creature eventually gets to pass go) I shall refer to him as Lord Cameron of Clay Cross.

          1. I don’t believe that Blair is ‘bed-blocking’ other elevations, it’s merely a ploy by his supporters to boost his chances of a Garter. As a Scot, Blair would be eligible to become a Knight of the Thistle but, as ever, he and his slot-gobbed maven have their eye on the greater prize. After all, by the same reasoning, the sawn-off cuckold Bercow will also be ‘bed-blocking’ future appointments.

          2. Why cant we ennoble later PMs? Not that I am calling for GB, TC or DC to be made peers, but the fact TB hasn’t yet taken a seat shouldn’t preclude them.
            Is this law, or just courtesy?

          3. As I suggest, I believe it’s a ploy by Blair’s backers to bring pressure to bear on those who make such decisions. I do not believe he is ‘bed-blocking’ as others (not necessarily PMs) have been elevated in the time since he ducked out of Downing St.
            Of course you may have hit the nail on the head. None of them are worthy.

    3. No. Nor will the taxpayers be absolved of paying the costs of this appalling whitewash, in my opinion.

    4. Why did I think that Batman-Jelly would walk away unscathed from this car crash of a so-called charidee? Let me see now…

      1. She was interviewed on BBC yesterday afternoon. I thought the interviewer was going to kiss her feet!

  17. Dear Grizzly,

    You recently signed the petition “Trigger Article 16. We want unfettered GB-NI Trade.”:

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/573209

    On Monday 22 February the Petitions Committee will hold a virtual e-petition session to discuss the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    MPs will discuss the issue in light of the petition you have signed calling for the Government to remove barriers to trade within the United Kingdom. A Minister will respond for the Government.

    Watch live from 4.30pm on Monday 22 February:

    https://youtu.be/1Yntjci_9BQ

    Petition sessions and debates are an opportunity for MPs to discuss the important issues raised by petitions, however they cannot directly change the law or result in a vote to implement the request of the petition.

    This petition is being considered in an e-petition session because sittings in Westminster Hall (where e-petitions are normally debated) have been suspended as part of Parliament’s arrangements for adapting to the Coronavirus outbreak.

    Thanks,

    The Petitions team
    UK Government and Parliament

    1. I sign those petitions as an irritant. In themselves, individual petitions don’t make much difference, but the constant drip drip of public dissatisfaction might enter the noddles of a few more savvy MPs.

      2. 329340+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        I do the same, these politico’s are immune to drip, drip, but a more positive move surely is at hand
        regarding the 6th May when a flood of denials
        could be triggered denying the lab/lib/con coalition
        candidates voting fodder to continue.
        Ps
        “Savvy MPs” if found are answerable to the hydra heads, ie major, the wretch cameron,clegg,may,
        johnson.

        1. I’ve asked you before and not received a satisfactory answer, “Who should we vote vote for other than Lib/Lab/Con?”

          1. 329341+ up ticks,
            Afternoon NtN,
            I answer all questions put my way honestly as I see it, and to the best of my ability.
            Many do not wish to see other options.

            May I ask why since the mid 70s that the lab/lib/con coalition on proving to be not only a failure but a highly treacherous failure
            peoples would still support & vote for them ?

            The three in collusion have brought nothing but troubles to these Isles via mass uncontrolled immigration mass murder, mass paedophilia rape / abuse of children and the disintegration ongoing of a once decent society.

            Normally I would NEVER condone NOT voting but owing to the continuing voting pattern these are most definitely NOT normal times.

            I have answered before the same question I am personally looking at Lawrence Fox, Ann Marie Waters, Robin Tilbrook, if no candidate then sad to say . no vote.

            Many of us tried our best with the real UKIP but a multitude of
            lab/ lib/con supporters thought the lab/lib/con coalition a better deal, we are witnessing the result.

    2. Good morning, George

      I hope that 22nd February – the day of the virtual e-petition – will be a significant day for you!

      1. Good morning, Rastus.

        Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
        Is hung with bloom along the bough,
        And stands about the woodland ride
        Wearing white for Eastertide.

        Now, of my threescore years and ten,
        Twenty will not come again,
        And take from seventy springs a score,
        It only leaves me fifty more.

        And since to look at things in bloom
        Fifty springs are little room,
        About the woodlands I will go
        To see the cherry hung with snow.

        1. I did not marry my lovely Caroline until I was 41 but I think I got away with it! I shall be 75 this year – you’re a a youngster compared with me.

          When I was one-and-twenty
          I heard a wise man say,
          “Give crowns and pounds and guineas
          But not your heart away;
          Give pearls away and rubies
          But keep your fancy free.”
          But I was one-and-twenty,
          No use to talk to me.

          When I was one-and-twenty
          I heard him say again,
          “The heart out of the bosom
          Was never given in vain;
          ’Tis paid with sighs a plenty
          And sold for endless rue.”
          And I am two-and-twenty,
          And oh, ’tis true, ’tis true.

  19. Good morning, all. Blue skies. Sun (sort of). Snow continues to lie – like the Government.

  20. The video of a protester’s arrest Russian police ‘leaked to scare people’. BBC 13 February 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/40dd17072c1cb9272c2a946f9b1690afada9c5b6e69dbaf54a09463e266de2ea.png

    An online video shows Vladivostok protester Gennady Shulga in a headlock over his dog’s food bowl as Russian police interrogate him in his home. The BBC travelled to meet Shulga, who said he believes the video was leaked to ‘show people what the authorities can do’.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/48e0925cd2a64ed8556bf9287e54d943ad71b305b81e2c194829a0eef5ca210a.jpg

    Like this 76 year old lady for protesting alone against the Covid restrictions in London?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-56045170

    2. I thought they were pictures of people who had refused vaccine but the police decided they should have it. :-))

  21. At 13:46 today shall be offering my left deltoid to .3ml of Pfizer/BioNTech’s best, I know there’s been a lot of discussion here about the why’s and wherefores etc but having chatted with my Son in Law who is a pharmacist, his sister who is based at Porton Down but travels the world to Ebola hot spots to sort them out and my Daughter and my Wife both of whom work with an assortment of Docs, Consultants and assorted clinicians , I have happily decided to opt for the jab as they were all in favour of it and my medical knowledge peaked with my Boy Scouts first aid badge back in ’64 . I will report back if I am spared.

      1. The last time I was needled was about 10 years ago for a blood test ( PSA as I recall ,different I know being intramuscular ) the phlebotomist must have been newly trained and/or nervous or had just been taken from the waiting room at random and given a small pamphlet, a blunt needle and an orange to practice on then let loose on me, I coped with the random stabbing well enough but grew increasingly sorry for the poor needlesmith.

          1. Pharmacists seem very underrated in this country, it wasn’t until one was added to the family that I began to understand the breadth and depth of clinical knowledge required, I know now of several instances where S-i-L has questioned prescriptions that had they gone ahead would have caused considerable harm.

    2. Morning Datz – You may come across a Conservative Minister as they, according to the BBC Radio 4, will be making unnecessary journeys to Vaccination centres to meet the people. They expect the 15th million person to be vaccinated this weekend. No prizes unfortunately.

      1. We are in the land of Fox, I met him once and didn’t enjoy the experience, now rather than facing the Jab with equanimity I shall be anxiously looking over my shoulder for the little /add insult of choice here/

      1. Having spent 70 years avoiding unnecessary exercise at every opportunity and having ignored HMGs strident advice to observe moderation in food and (mostly) drink consumption I fear I might already have banked up some form of beastliness or other even without the BatFlu jab, not something to be proud of I suppose but my misgivings are usually washed away with a nice glass of red.

  22. Proof NO ONE is safe from the woke war on free speech: SUE REID investigates the pensioner publicly shamed by a drinks giant and an Asda worker who lost his job sharing a Billy Connolly skit

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9255227/SUE-REID-investigates-pensioner-publicly-shamed-drinks-giant.html

    Margaret Nelson normally tweets about far-from-controversial subjects: her quiet life in a Suffolk village where she lives in a neat bungalow, her two cats, how lockdown has treated her (she is rather enjoying the peace), and how milk used to be delivered to the doorstep in bottles with foil tops that birds would peck into to get at the cream. Her quaint views and memories have been increasingly popular during the pandemic.

    But, occasionally, she taps out a post on more contentious issues. A self-avowed feminist, she is also a humanist celebrant who conducts funerals and is, therefore, she says, interested in death. Which is what led to her brush with the police.

    In response to what she calls a ‘transgender person’s’ tweet that ‘Trans women ARE women fact’, she reacted indignantly: ‘These absurd beliefs are nonsensical and deny the evidence to the contrary.’ In another post, she wrote: ‘Death doesn’t misgender. You die as you were born.’ And then the police phoned her.

    This week she told the Mail she had got off lightly. ‘They [the police] act as conduits for complaints from trans activists who spend a lot of time trawling through the internet on the look-out for anything to complain about.’

  25. I. Get a deal and offer concessions to the EU on fishing:

    Result :

    i) EU effectively bans British fish by imposing absurd checks and regulations.

    ii) But the EU consumer is not affected because there are enough EU boats fishing in British waters to ensure that their domestic supply and consumption is not reduced. I can confirm that fish has not gone up in price in Brittany and there is as much choice and quantity as always.

    iii) The British fishing industry may well collapse completely.

    II. Leave the EU without a deal.

    Result

    i) EU boats no longer allowed to fish in British territorial waters.

    ii) Fish supply in the EU badly affected and prices will have to rise dramatically – EU citizens will be very disgruntled

    iii) After initial disruption the British fishing industry survives and prospers.

    It makes me furious that I can work this out for myself and yet Boris Johnson and Michael Gove cannot do so and are too callous to give a damn that they have sold British fishermen out completely with their bogus deal. It also infuriates me that Nigel Farage and the neutered E.R.G (European Research Group) have meekly and naively given in.

    1. They got what they wanted.
      As I keep repeating, and it’s like I talk to myself, if folk say one thing but consistently do something else, then that something else is what they actually intend, not what they say they intend.
      So, the EU agreement bollox, rubber boats across the channel, to name but two.
      If they actually wanted something different, they would have got it. The bla bla is just for show.

      1. Good morning, Oberstleutnant

        By ‘they’ do you mean Johnson & Gove or the EU or both?

        I am perhaps being charitable is supposing that Johnson and Gove are stupid, outmanoeuvred dupes rather than your more sinister supposition that they are malignant fiends who deliberately wanted chaos in Northern Ireland, attacks on the British finance industry and the demolition of our fishing.

        Of course if you are right then both Johnson and Gove and many of their colleagues are guilty of high treason – but is there a court to which they can be brought to trial or is our judicial system now as totally corrupt and treacherous as our politicians?

        1. Unfortunately, Richard, the biggest traitor of all, knowing himself to be guilty, repealed the Treason Act.

          Time to re-impose it but, like all the other things Bozo Johnson is supposed to do, Carrie won’t let him get around to it.

          Amusingly, he displays all the attributes that ‘A Johnson’ does in the USA – a prick!.

        2. The EU seem to be more honest than the UK politicians. They are open about “ever-closer union”, for example, it’s only the UK that deludes itself that that isn’t what they mean.

    2. Strangely the government is not offering assistance to people to open fishmonger shops. Or promoting sales of UK fish by advertising. Maybe even shops on the High streets as part of a plan for towns centre renaissance. (What happened to Macfisheries?)
      Nor are they offering any assistance to any new entrepreneurial activity, it seems.

      1. I would be impressed if they announced that everybody in the public sector took a substantial pay cut as a sign of solidarity with the poor sods in the private sector who are going bankrupt and have no income at all.

        As I have said many times virtually no politicians have the experience of starting up their own businesses from scratch and have no clue as to what this entails.

        1. That would be an extremely broad and unfair brush, Rastus. Not everyone in the public sector is well paid and there are some very wealthy private business men and business women.

          Socialists would surely argue that there needs to be transfer of wealth from rich to poor but that must be regardless of employer.

    3. Strangely the government is not offering assistance to people to open fishmonger shops. Or promoting sales of UK fish by advertising. Maybe even shops on the High streets as part of a plan for towns centre renaissance. (What happened to Macfisheries?)
      Nor are they offering any assistance to any new entrepreneurial activity, it seems.

    4. The trouble is, many Brits will only eat fish if it’s in a finger or a cake or a filet o’

  26. The Blind Cowboy

    An old, blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker bar by mistake.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1130daf5d327b72247d96401062c99777336ea172f982474ef3f94759620d2ea.jpg

    He finds his way to a bar stool and orders a shot of Jack Daniels. After sitting there for a while, he yells to the bartender, ‘Hey, you wanna hear a blonde joke?’

    The bar immediately falls absolutely silent.

    In a very deep, husky voice, the woman next to him says, ‘Before you tell that joke, Cowboy, I think it is only fair, given that you are blind, that you should know five things:

    1. The bartender is a blonde girl with a baseball bat.

    2. The bouncer is a blonde girl with a ‘Billy-Club’.

    3. I’m a 6-foot tall, 175-pound blonde woman with a black belt in karate.

    4. The woman sitting next to me is blonde and a professional weight lifter.

    5. The lady to your right is blonde and a professional wrestler.

    ‘Now, think about it seriously, Cowboy. Do you still wanna tell that blonde joke?’

    The blind cowboy thinks for a second, shakes his head and mutters …

    ‘No, not if I’m gonna have to explain it five times.’

    1. The second from the left is certainly not a true blonde – the photograph does not give me the necessary information to tell if the others are or are not.

      1. The two in the middle – peroxide, def
        The one on the left – blonde dye
        The one on the right – looks natural

    2. Two Blondes going down the street walked into a building.
      You’d have thought that at least one of them might have noticed!

  27. A year ago, it was the governement and the People against the virus.
    Now it’s the government and the virus against the People.

  28. “Covid: We could live with virus ‘like we do flu’ by end of year, says Hancock” BBC
    And I thought it was deadlier than the plague.

    1. That’ll be after he has been refreshed by his holiday – the one we are not allowed, of course.

      1. If you hadn’t sold your house in France you’d have been locked down there……or never able to visit it.

        1. It was a miracle that we were able to escape when we did. Another week – and we would have been trapped…for months, in an almost empty house.

    2. What a pity she didn’t come to that point of view 12 months ago. ( “she” is a typo but I think I’ll leave it in, it is probably quite apt.)

  29. Last year I bought (from Amazon) a new teapot from The London Pottery Company. I have a few of their teapots and they’ve always served me well.

    This morning I got an email from Amazon asking me if I could help answer a query from a potential custonmer.

    He wrote: “This teapot is designed in England, but where is it made? China by any chance? Someone please give a straight answer.”

    I gave him the ‘straight answer’ he craved: “I haven’t a clue if this teapot is made in China or not. What I do know, though, is that almost certainly the tea used in it will have come from China (where tea originated) or some other tropical country where China wields a huge influence.”

    I’m always willing to help the Woke.

      1. The slag heaps – the inverted cone shaped white mounds – are known as the Cornish Alps.

      1. It’s been obvious since last year that this virus is now endemic – it’s never going away and will probably replace flu. It will be a normal seasonal virus and it’s time we accepted that and got back to normal. Governments obviously have another agenda. “Great Reset” anyone?

          1. It was new when it arrived here last winter/spring. It then followed the seasonal pattern- retreating during the summer and back in the autumn.

          2. I’m not sure one year is enough to base an assumption of a seasonal cycle. The pattern would have to persist over three or four years to demonstrate that.

    2. What I’m surprised at is how the Telegraph has kept him on as a cartoonist, given they are seemingly all for the authoritarian regime, despite their lily-livered attempts to say otherwise. Their ‘Global Health Security’ section is clear evidence of that, especially as it’s funded by The Gates Foundation to the tune of $3.4M.

    3. What I’m surprised at is how the Telegraph has kept him on as a cartoonist, given they are seemingly all for the authoritarian regime, despite their lily-livered attempts to say otherwise. Their ‘Global Health Security’ section is clear evidence of that, especially as it’s funded by The Gates Foundation to the tune of $3.4M.

    4. Each migrant had $11k ready to hand? better off than me. Then they want all that – and more in benefits – back from whichever country they get to.

  34. Putin and Russia being resurrected as the big bad bogey-man,I wonder why that would be…..

    “In terms I can only describe as unfailingly polite, Putin

    told Klaus Schwab and the WEF that their entire idea of the Great Reset

    is not only doomed to failure but runs counter to everything modern

    leadership should be pursuing.

    Putin literally laughed at

    the idea of the Fourth Industrial Revolution – Schwab’s idea of a

    planned society through AI, robots and the merging of man and machine.

    He flat-out told them their policies driving the middle class to the brink

    of extinction over the COVID-19 pandemic will further increase social

    and political unrest while also ensuring wealth inequality gets worse.

    Putin’s no flower-throwing libertarian or anything, but his critique of the hyper-financialized post-Soviet era is accurate.

    The era dominated by central banking and the continued merging of state and

    corporate powers has increased wealth inequality across the U.S. and

    Europe, benefiting millions while extracting the wealth of billions.

    Listening to Putin was like listening to a cross between Pat Buchanan and the late Walter Williams.

    According to him the neoliberal ideal of “invite the world/invade the

    world” has destroyed the cultural ties within countries while hollowing

    out their economic prospects. Putin criticized zero-bound interest

    rates, QE, tariffs and sanctions as political weapons.

    But the targets of those weapons, while nominally pointed at his Russia, were

    really the West’s own engines of vitality, as the middle classes have

    seen their wages stagnate, and access to education, medical care, and

    the courts to redress grievances fall dramatically.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/great-reset-putin-says-not-so-fast
    Now THAT’S Awkward…………..

    3. Whilst there’s a lot to agree with there, Putin gets a LOT wrong, both at home and abroad, such as the disappearing and imprisoning of political rivals and those uncovering corruption, using chemical weapons, using state media, internet trolls and hackers to undermine rival (democratic) nations and artificially bolster his own standing back home, enriching himself with money stolen from political rivals or syphoned off from various government projects. Amongst many other things he’s done over the years.

      We should always be wary of people like Putin who, like Klaus Schwab, have their own agenda.

      As the character ‘Deep Throat’ from the ‘X-Files’ once said: “A lie…is most convincingly hidden between two truths”

      1. Putin has praised Stalin too, which is beyond the pale in my view. He is often right, and he has a very Russian attitude towards things. He is a patriot though, and I wish we had such in Britain.

    1. Good morning Bill
      That looks like a very cruel jigsaw, cruel and demanding .

      Top marks for completing it , you must have the patience of a saint .

          1. The MR found a piece downstairs, under the dining table that one or the other had half-inched from the upstairs room where we do the puzzles!

    2. MoH worked at a branch of Norwich Union. When her boss heard on the news that Lowry had died remarked “Oh I’ve got one of his paintings up in my loft……”

  37. Just to add to the general miseries of lockdown and cold weather – a power cut this morning!

    At least it’s back on now or I wouldn’t be here.

    6. But he really doesn’t look totally black, I wonder what happened there ?
      We have a friend who is totally white but her great great grandfather was a black Caribbean man.
      At the end of the day, It depends who you mix with,………. I suppose.

      1. If you went further back to Africa, you’d probably find that a few of them were also slave dealers! Thank goodness the British banned this abhorrent practice in those parts of the world that were under their rule.

    1. Morning Phizz.
      I was very tempted by that. I have just signed up but I have clicked through the entire site and I’ll be damned if I can find anywhere to place an order.

      1. Good morning Stormy.

        I think they send an email about what has been caught. I’m new to it too.

    1. To be regarded with credibility and be ever present in the visual media these days, one needs ones lips seriously enlarged.
      For goodness sake left hand person thingy, get it sorted.

      1. Lefty Girl should worry about her male hair loss patt ….. what, really? Well, you coulda fooled me.

  43. Morning all. Regarding Richards post below:

    projection

    noun
    1.
    an estimate or forecast of a future situation based on a study of present trends.
    “plans based on projections of slow but positive growth

    forecast
    2.
    A forecast is a prediction of what will happen. … While often used in the context of weather, forecast can also be used for other types of predictions such as those related to financial or political outcomes. Note that a forecast is typically a prediction made by experts

    Don’t really see an awful lot of difference. In any case “experts” … pah!

    1. Just soak up all that diversity and multiculturalism – it’s good for us – or so we are told.

      In REAL terms – THIS is what our taxes are being used for – to import THIS.

    1. Well, General – have a shufti at today’s Daily Telegraph:

      “British Army to shrink by nearly 10,000 troops over the next decade
      It’s thought the MoD is not looking at redundancies, but instead some personnel will not be replaced when they retire or leave the army”

          1. Shhhh! Some British tanks were named after colonial demons of our disgraceful past (Churchill, Cromwell etc)

    2. Essentially the same article as in the Telegraph earlier in the week. Well worth reiterating though, given what the man is saying, though not because he thinks ‘nationalism’ (read ‘far right’) is going to be a bad thing, but to me the civil service and their media friends are already trying to demonise anyone on the political Right, plus lumping people with genuine concerns about privacy, authoritarianism and the grab of wealth and power from the masses under the guise of the pandemic response with the actual (few) nutjobs, whilst simultaneously avoiding all critcism of the nutty Hard Left, who are in much greater numbers and have far more influence, including the many who work for the civil service (and in other countries too) and the MSM.

      1. We need to keep calm and carry on..
        It only takes one nutter to kick off and there are plenty of them ….to create bloody carnage.

    3. Does anyone dispute any of the points he actually makes?

      He may, like Tommy Robinson, appear to be a bit uncouth, but that does not mean that he is wrong.

      [Typo corrected – Tommy for Tony]

      1. This woman moved to Cornwall from Lunnon – then moaned about people from Lunnon moving to Cornwall. Slagged off her friends. Nasty piece of work.

          1. Hello Plum!

            That reminds me of the story about the man who was tired that his wife made no signs of pleasure when they had sex.

            “I wish you would show that you like it” he said to her ” couldn’t you moan a bit or something?”

            Next time they were in bed, and he was getting down to it…

            “There were such long queues in Tescos yesterday, it was a pain” she started.

          2. Hello Plum!

            That reminds me of the story about the man who was tired that his wife made no signs of pleasure when they had sex.

            “I wish you would show that you like it” he said to her ” couldn’t you moan a bit or something?”

            Next time they were in bed, and he was getting down to it…

            “There were such long queues in Tescos yesterday, it was a pain” she started.

        2. Note also that the ‘article’ has no reader comments, no doubt because, like with the equally awful Bryony Gordon, everyone saw through her in short order and started to vigorously say so in the comments.

    5. I think women are pragmatic, and not in the least motivated by the same things that motivate male homosexuals.

  48. BBC director general warns of ‘global threat’ to media freedom after China bans British broadcaster. 13 February 2021.

    The BBC’s director general has warned of the “growing global threat to the free media” after the corporation was banned from broadcasting in China and Hong Kong.

    In his first intervention since Beijing announced the ban, Tim Davie said that countries such as China were now trying to expand their “control of information”. Mr Davie, who took up the post of director general in the autumn, said it was of “deep concern” that China was preventing the BBC from doing its job.

    Mr Davie last night told The Telegraph: “Media freedom matters. The latest developments in China, including the banning of the World Service in Hong Kong, are deeply worrying developments. The BBC should be able to do its reporting without fear or favour.

    Talk about cutting your nose off to spite your face! The BBC have sacrificed a huge potential market for one that not one person in fifty ever looked at! Do these people have no sense of irony? This is the perennial hypocritical whinge of the left. We will censor everyone else but no one can do it to us! The Chinese have responded pretty much as one would have expected them too!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/12/bbc-director-general-warns-global-threat-media-freedom-china/

    1. It’s the inability to see the stark, staring obvious that would be funny if it wasn’t so serious.

  49. Have medical advances like weakening the human immune system as part of the cancer fighting initiative really been society’s downfall by trying to preserve life in the face of the natural preservation of the human species through natural selection of the fittest?

    People with weakened immune systems provide viruses like Sars-CoV-2 with a unique environment. Instead of clearing an infection quickly, an immunocompromised person might only partially wipe out an infection, leaving behind a population of genetically-hardier viruses that rebound and begin the cycle all over again. In these people, a virus can evolve at remarkable speed. “The whole time, their immune system is effectively beating [the virus] up. So the virus has a chance to learn how to live with the human immune system,” says Emma Hodcroft, a postdoctoral research at the University of Bern in Switzerland who works on Nextstrain – an open-source project that tracks the genetic changes of Sars-CoV-2 and other pathogens.

    https://www.wired.co.uk/article/chronic-infection-uk-coronavirus-variant

    1. He let himself, and all who believed in The Brexit Party, down. He has a lot of making up to do – I’m not sure that many trust him any more.

      1. How’s it going HL ?
        I am afraid you might be right, but it’s quite possible his proposed Thanet local election was tampered with and he had one nasty flying accident and found his Volvo wheel nuts loose once as well. And also quite possibly, we know what our political AHs are like and capable of, might have been ‘leaned on’.

        1. Hi Eddy,

          Busy doing nothing. It’s amazing how time-consuming it is becoming.

          Whatever has happened to Farage, and whether or not he has been leant upon, he still has a lot of making up to do before people like me, at least, will trust him.

          1. Why on earth did he approve of the deal before he had a chance to examine it properly and see the disastrous consequences that are already showering down upon our fishing, in Northern Ireland and all EU customs barriers?

            Is he totally naive and just plain stupid or is he cravenly not prepared to stay in the fray till the end? He seems to have suffered from a metaphorical premature ejaculation and finished before the battle was properly won.

            As Sir Francis Drake said in his famous prayer:

            There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.

            There is not much to cheer and not much glory in the shabby, limp dud deal Boris Johnson has given us and Farage can hardly stand erect either.

          3. He lacks judgement – in people and actions. And, politics. He threw away an excellent position, now he’s worthless.

      3. Good afternoon HL

        His first big betrayal was to remove candidates from contesting seats held by Conservative Party remainers.

        Just as the Conservative Party has no gratitude or respect for him doing this so the EU has no respect for the UK for signing up to a dud
        deal and will do its very best to screw us.

        1. Good afternoon, Rastus

          I agree – but a big difference is that Farage stood down his candidates to help the Tories supposedly get us out of the EU. They should be grateful. The UK signed a dud deal because of our politicians’ incompetence – that it helps the EU may be a motivating factor behind the scenes. But the EU see that as weakness, so we are in their eyes eminently screwable…

    2. As far as I am concerned Nigel Farage will only regain his credibility when he admits that he should not have expressed approval of the Brexit deal so quickly.

      Fishing, Northern Ireland and the Financial sector are in a total mess because of the dud deal. If Farage wants to regain any serious respect he must admit that he was wrong and exert as much pressure as he can to get the deal nullified because of the EU’s complete determination not to act in good faith.

      1. I think he saw a route to make Brexit hapen, He took it with alll the problems but we are out. I think he did the right thing at the time.

    1. Harrumph, in order to watch it I have to disable my VPN. Why? So that the local Stasi can track and trace me – not gonna happen, Sorry William, I have an idea already what you’re hinting at but that’ll have to wait.

      BBC – go away in short jerking motions.

          1. It was the matter-of-factness of it all. BAMEs usually get the trumpet fanfare treatment as they combat the racism of the very soil on which they are encouraged to walk but here there was no mention of the story in the opening sequence (it’s not even mentioned in the website programme blurb). Instead, later on, presenter Helen Skelton just talked of her familiarity with the countryside but how “…for others, falling in love with the great outdoors can be a hill to climb…a few miles south of here is Ashton-under-Lyne, near to which is Hartshead Pike, a popular destination for walkers from the surrounding areas, including Rehna Yaseen, a youth worker and trainee mountain guide.”

            We were told that Rehna was Ashton born and bred. We saw pictures of her family including her four sisters in those colourful but modest, full-length clothes so typical of, er, Pakistan. In the characteristically flat tones of those parts of England’s old industrial north infused with the Indus, Rehna told us how she came to love walking and mountaineering.

            She was encouraged to do this by members of a youth project. Were the mountaineers in the project Mancs or Moghuls? We weren’t told that. We had only a fleeting glimpse of any of these people but I doubt there were Bagshaws or Hickinbothams in their family trees, although we do know that one was called Adnan.

            Was there a surprise about the choice for her first big mountain trek? Not Scotland or Scandinavia, nor the Alps or the Pyrenees. No, Morocco, which is, of course, a bit warmer. Then she raised £20,000 to take ‘a group of young ladies’ on a three-week jaunt to Nepal (the outing was cancelled by Covid). Anyway, hats off to the girl for getting stuck in to something that many natives would shun.

            Then I googled her. Surprise, surprise – Rehna has quite a presence in mountaineering circles, both with societies and equipment retailers. A BBC presenter of the future, perhaps?

  53. I am supporting Italy today.

    Pathetic wokery has cost England dear – Italy scored a try after the first couple of minutes.

    The wokists deserve and need a damned good thrashing.

    1. Bugger. A penalty and try have put the knee grovelling wokists into the lead. I shall now go and do something else.

  54. The Dearly Tolerant went off for her Mum’s funeral and then to assist her sister in sorting the house out.
    I’ve had a walk into Cromford & back and unloaded & stacked ready for sawing a van load of firewood and am not going to log off so I can move my computer into the room with the woodburner.

    Might be back later.

    p.s. Still chuffing cold up here!

  55. Trump’s mob sinned against our nation. That cannot be forgotten. 13 February 2021.

    So was this all just a show with an inevitable ending? A bit of party political gamesmanship designed to divide the Republicans for a generation – or to alienate them from their largest constituency? Possibly, but it was a show worth having nonetheless.

    If enough conscientious Republican voters wake up from their trance and think again about what their party once stood for, they might, after all, save themselves. The process of exorcising the Trump phenomenon, perhaps by finding solutions to the problems of the devastated Rust Belt states, could even reinvigorate American political discourse. Or then again, this might be just the beginning of an intractable political nightmare.

    My money is on the intractable political nightmare!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/13/america-cant-simply-move-trumps-crimes-against-democracy/

    1. It is my view that any Senator who votes to convict can forget about running in 2024. I suspect his former allies who have come out against him e.g. Nikki Haley, because they only feel the breeze in Washington, can also forget about 2024,

    2. Trump’s lawyers are finally getting their act together. Schoen has debunked the ‘fight like hell’ accusation by showing Democrats using the same phraseology in supporting riots in major cities and endorsing actual violence, Pelosi and Harris among them. Quite comical actually.

      2. From what I saw of the proceedings, the Dems’ ‘prosecutor’ was absolutely terrible even when compared to trump’s latest set of lawyers. Speaking personally, he should’ve used the same lawyer that Steven Crowder uses, though admitedly he’s currently a bit busy suing Facebook.

    4. Oh Janet, what has happened to you? You’ve gone all Establishment. Trump committed no sin at all.

      1. And applying religious language to politics is disgraceful. “I do not agree with you” is not at all the same as “You are committing a sin.”

      3. She’s been like that for a while. Pro-EU, Orange-man bad etc. It’s probably the company she keeps!

        1. She started out as extreme left wing before becoming right wing. She is now regressing and returning to where she started from.

  61. After a lot of faffing about, that’s me relocated and the woodburner lit for the evening’s hot water.

  62. In Bath (city) at the moment it is 1oC (-5oC with the wind Chill) Forecast for noon on Monday is 12oC. Roll on Monday!

      1. Ah yes ‘February fill Dykes’.

        The Telegraph seems to have got the message: “Here in Cornwall, women vastly outnumber men. Should I become a lesbian again?

        1. Ah yes – that “article”. Was it in the print edition or only on-line?

          A very unpleasant young woman.

          1. Certainly on-line (although I couldn’t be bothered to read the ‘lifestyle’ drivel. The Headline & Photo was enough to discourage me and Mr Callan.

    2. It’ll be 13degC in my area by the middle of next week. -9degC this Wednesday evening. What a turnaround!

  63. Busy heating Firstborn’s house with solar power just now, and it’s -18C outside. Been a beautiful sunny day, too.
    The sun comes out and the trees grow.
    We cut the trees and split & stack the wood.
    The sun makes warm and the wind blows, thus drying the wood.
    We then burn it in a fireplace, making the house warm.
    Solar power. What’s not to like? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ba38a06ea0695abfde3ec437c78933fbc0080bda5e745751236b7669750f8b8.jpg

  64. Busy heating Firstborn’s house with solar power just now, and it’s -18C outside. Been a beautiful sunny day, too.
    The sun comes out and the trees grow.
    We cut the trees and split & stack the wood.
    The sun makes warm and the wind blows, thus drying the wood.
    We then burn it in a fireplace, making the house warm.
    Solar power. What’s not to like? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ba38a06ea0695abfde3ec437c78933fbc0080bda5e745751236b7669750f8b8.jpg

  65. Busy heating Firstborn’s house with solar power just now, and it’s -18C outside. Been a beautiful sunny day, too.
    The sun comes out and the trees grow.
    We cut the trees and split & stack the wood.
    The sun makes warm and the wind blows, thus drying the wood.
    We then burn it in a fireplace, making the house warm.
    Solar power. What’s not to like? https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4ba38a06ea0695abfde3ec437c78933fbc0080bda5e745751236b7669750f8b8.jpg

  66. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-i-dread-the-next-coronation/

    Why I dread the next coronation!

    Charles is a fussy landlord of all he surveys . He cares not a jot about the countryside. He has ruined our County town of Dorchester , Dorset .. He has allowed a town larger than Dorchester to be built on the West side of the town within in viewing distance of Maiden Castle … What is it’s name … Poundbury .

    https://poundbury.co.uk/

    It is faux and soulless.. full of financial experts, white flight from the home counties and many many restrictions .. woe betide if you are a plumber with a van with lettering .. you would be outcrowd .

    https://poundbury.co.uk/wp-…

    Page 47 and downwards…

    We are in danger of ending up with a finickety fussy spoilt humourless King .. who has rules for others and not himself .

    1. I don’t mind him being a prat, what I am afraid of is that the next coronation will be some ghastly meaningless, virtue-signalling multi-faith jamboree.

    2. [Not to use the Property for the carrying
      on of any trade or business whatsoever
      and will use the same as a single private
      dwelling house for the occupation of one
      household save that the Property may be
      used for business on the following terms:
      a. The business use must be ancillary to the
      principal use of the Property as a single
      private dwelling house
      b. The prior consent of His Royal Highness
      must be obtained
      c. The business must be capable of being
      carried out in accordance with the
      principles of the Estate as set out in
      the Code and without detriment to the
      amenity of the Estate by reason of noise
      nuisance or otherwise and
      d. The appearance of the Property as a
      single private dwelling house must not be
      affected or altered]
      [Not use the Property otherwise than as
      [shop][office][light industrial purposes]
      within Class [A2] [B1] of the Town and
      Country Planning (Use Classes) Order
      1987]
      8 Not to mutilate or remove or otherwise
      harm or permit to be mutilated removed or
      otherwise harmed any trees and/or shrubs
      which may be planted within the boundary
      of the Property
      9 Not to erect or put or permit to be erected
      or put a signboard advertisement plate or
      placard of any kind in any window of the
      Property or on the exterior of the Property
      or so as to be visible from the outside of
      the Property other than:

      10 Not to keep or permit to be kept any bird,
      dog or other animal on or in the Property
      (other than the usual domestic pets) and
      not in any event to keep any bird dog or
      other animal which may cause a nuisance
      or annoyance to any owner or occupier of
      any other Property comprised in the Estate
      or to the general public.
      11 Not to obstruct or permit to be obstructed
      any common areas or roads or accessways
      or footpaths on the Estate.
      12 To use the allocated parking space or
      garage as the primary parking area for
      the Property and not to park or permit to
      be parked on the Property or any parking
      space any vehicle other than a private
      motor vehicle and not to carry out any
      works of repair to such motor vehicle.
      13 Not to allow any trailer caravan motorised
      caravan or boat or other similar chattel
      to be brought onto the Property or to be
      parked in any such parking space without
      the consent of His Royal Highness.
      APPENDIX
      Design & Community Code
      49
      14 Not to erect or permit to be erected
      any television wireless or other aerials
      or satellite dish on the exterior of the
      Property.
      15 Not to use or permit any parking space
      designated by His Royal Highness as a
      visitors’ parking space to be used otherwise
      than for occasional visitors’ parking.
      16 Not to keep or leave any rubbish or
      refuse in front beside or to the rear of the
      building erected on the Property other
      than in a proper receptacle and then only
      on the day stipulated for the collection of
      the same by the local authority and to store
      such receptacles in the designated areas
      other than on the day of collection.
      17 To perform and observe all conditions
      contained in any planning permission or
      Building Regulations approval or consent
      issued by His Royal Highness affecting the
      Property

      1. Sounds like the same rules and regulations that are in place in some of the ‘planned’ communities here, T-B. Which is why we decided to retire to West Virginia where restrictions on what you can do with your own property are much less.

      2. Prince Charles is a dull dolt; he has always been a dull dolt; and I cannot imagine he will ever be anything other than a dull dolt.

      3. When a student of Architecture I read an article by Christopher Alexander entitled ‘A City is not a Tree’. It had a profound effect on me because it demonstrated that our towns and cities have grown organically.

        We have seen various attempts at planning cities snd most have failed. We need the vibrancy of those happy accidents, the survival of ancient roads and lanes and the interweaving of buildings of different ages.

        My own birthplace of Bath is one of the few places which until the sixties harnessed the grandeur of the Terrace facades with a delightful jumble of different backs built by the landowners. There were thousands of solid artisan dwellings which formed approaches and backdrops to the grander buildings.

        Town planners have steadily interfered with the places we know and love. In Bath many delightful historic artisan buildings, pubs, cobbled lanes and ancient pathways have been lost and often replaced by cheap and nasty commercial and council developments.

        You cannot make a convincing town or city from scratch on the basis of one landowners peculiar preferences and lack of taste. For this reason Poundbury is a stunted and soulless place.

        1. I remember moving to Essex in 1969 and thought Basildon was very much a stunted and soulless place. So we chose to live outside Bradwell and put up with the 30minute commute to work.

          2. The only elegant erection in Basildon is the glass and steel Bell tower where the carillon and workings are visible. I contend that this is an improvement on the usual sculpture or what my friend Eduardo Paolozzi once described as ‘A turd in the piazza’.

            There is a dreary municipal square where a Wates’ Wine Lodge sits directly opposite a Wetherspoons. At closing it takes about ten minutes before the smell of broken glass combines with the backdrop of approaching emergency ambulance sirens.

            Basildon is soulless because it was planned by town planners. The youth living there are feral.

      4. Belle, many of those conditions are
        standard Contract clauses, they apply
        equally to many other areas of the
        Country.

      5. I find this awful as well. I loathe the concept of dormitory villages that is so popular in Britain. It’s nicer in France or Germany where a village will have a supermarket and several businesses in.

          4. Bavarians are Celts, not Germanics. They are very laid back and jokey. You can banter with them as you would in Britain.

      2. They had to scrape the barrel when placing George I on the throne. There were 50 members of the Royal Family with a better claim to the throne than the House of Hanover – but they were all Catholics.

        1. Quite so. Let us raise a glass to the King Over the Water.

          “Neither time nor statute law can ameliorate the sin of usurpation”

          1. Stinking Billy (no relation!)

            Edit – sorry – wrong king! You mean the chap who made it all the way to Derby – then ran out of fuel…?

          2. Many people have got to Derby and been overcome with a feeling of pointlessness. Many of them live in Derby.

          1. Since the original King John was considered so useless, I believe that some decree exists, in Royal circles from way back, that forbids the UK from having any further kings bearing the regnal name John.

      4. Up the Stuarts !.. When are you going to take back the Americas? :@)

        They did rebel against their lawful king ! They need their bum smacked.

    4. Yes, I’m afraid things are going to go rapidly downhill once he accedes to the throne. I think his son William is of similar ilk.

    5. You may object to new towns being built, but built they must be, given the circumstances. Poundbury is vastly better than any of the alternatives I have seen, or do like modernist bleak?

      In my view Elizabeth should have abdicated at 80, she hasn’r been up to it for some years now. Charles would have been far better, in fact I think he will do very well if he gets there. Charles is not clever, but he thinks, he works his intellectual capacity and gets more out of it than clever men who are lazy. William does worry me, but at least he has the down to earth Kate behind him, who he seems to work with.

      1. I totally disagree regarding the Queen.

        She has shown a dignity and understanding of current affairs that His Wokeliness the Pap can only dream of.

        EDIT
        And PS, I have a lot of respect for Charles apart from the Woke aspects, of which there are far too many creeping in.

        1. No she has not. She allowed the Speaker of the HoC and an election frit HoC to reduce her PM to a delegate of the HoC. That was a huge constitutional change that she had it in her power to oppose, but she did nothing. If you want the title of Monarch, you must be the Monarch, even when it means a political fist fight.

          Following that fiasco, Charles and William read her the Riot Act over Andrew. She saw no need for action and saw nothing wrong in the actions of her favourite. Similarly with Harry. Junior members of the Firm have been taking the piss for years in ways that would never have been let by in the 60s. It was Charles and William who forced a tougher line.

          She was very good when she was good, now she is just past it.

          1. Again, I totally disagree.
            Her position is Constitutional Monarch.
            Following your line, she should always veto things that she may disagree with, which would place her firmly in the political arena..

            Your claims are no better than the Parrot’s; if she had stepped in at that point, she would have completely undermined the Monarchy and ensured that there was an excuse for the nihilists and the Republicans to abolish the Monarchy and replace it with a Presidency.

          2. As Constitutional Monarch her one duty is to protect the Constitution. She did not. She allowed our Constitution to be debased to the point of “The last vote of the HoC”. That is very dangerous and completely unforgivable. She has shown that she can no longer do the job; she must go, or the Monarchy, having been rendered pointless, will go.

          3. Wrong.

            If she should have done anything along those lines, she should have done it when Blair created his supreme court, because that is where the problem really arose. That was when the Veto was needed.

            She is one of the very, very few people in Britain that when she gave her oath she meant it, and stood by it.

            I rather suspect that (even though I like Charles) she knew he was too easily manipulated by the people who are now known as the woke.

          4. I have learned to distrust certainty. In myself and in others.

            You are unfamiliar with the history of the Supreme Court, as created it was a perfectly reasonable, although wrongly named organization. The power of a name, Judicial creep has made it exactly what it was called. Fail to she how the Monarch could have justifiably objected to it.

            It was set up to be the top court for Criminal cases, because the ECHR would not accept the Law Lords, and to resolve disputes concerning matters of Devolution. That was all it was for.

          5. If you cannot see anything that Blair did, didn’t have an ulterior motive to wreck Britain, there is little I can do to persuade you otherwise.

            The Supreme Court was a politicised outfit from the start. All Blair’s “reforms”, from allowing lawyers to nominate themselves to courts of interest, to the clearly political laws enacted, were designed to ensure left-wing demagoguery would triumph and so it did, when the Speaker connived to emasculated the Government over so many Brexit issues.

      2. William has no muscle, he is similar to his father .

        William and Harry, Edward and Andrew and Charles have inherited no strong manly attributes from Prince Philip.

  67. Just stumbled on to this. I do hope that it is true and if so it shows that all is not well across the pond. (strong language at one point)

    DeSantis is Governor (R) of Florida. Full article here

    DeSantis told Dr. Fauci he trusted his own state health authorities over financially incentivized federal officials.

    “How much do you stand to earn from these vaccines, Dr. Fauci? And, Joe, if you continue with this course of action, I will authorize the state National Guard to protect the movement of Floridians,” DeSantis said.

    “Address me as Mr. President or President Biden,” Biden said.

    “I will not, and you can go fuck yourself,” DeSantis said before hanging up.

    3. Let’s hope it’s true. Biden and his Dem colleagues deserve a tongue-lashing for what they’ve done to the US over the last 4+ years, especially in the last year.

      Given the very high percentage of edlerly people living in Florida compared to other states, and that they are (according to Ben Shapiro) roughly in the middle of the pack as regards ‘COVID deaths’ (and that’s with the dodgy PCR test) per 100k (or whatever) of population, then that’s far better than NY and California. In fact, the best states by that metric are in general those run by the GoP. What a shame that people living in blue states don’t see that.

  69. There was a news item yesterday that stated Stonehenge was originally erected in Wales. Was this a trial prefabrication before it was shipped off to the paying customers? Or more worryingly was it half inched and will we see the Welsh demanding their stones back along the lines of the Greeks and the Elgin marbles?

          2. I wouldn’t mind but we’ve been hanging on to the customer help Lline for over 5,000 years….

          4. Don’t I know it! We sent our driving licences off to the DVLA in September in their prepaid envelop for a change of address, they still haven’t been returned. Maybe given our age they are expecting Coviditus to take its toll rendering any new driving licences obsolete….

          5. Driving? What’s that? Since June, I have done just under 2,500 miles – 800 of which were 50 miles round trips to the horsepiddle. One 200 miles trip to (shhh) Essex and back – the rest 12 miles trips to Fakenham. Normally, I would have done getting on for 12,000. Weird.

          6. I was invited for the Covid Jab (Pfizer as it turns out) the bonus being it was a 300 mile round trip to the designated Vaccination Centre.
            No ill effects. Injection painless but the site became tender for 24 hours… during which time I kept telling myself: “Tender is the site….”

          7. I was invited for the Covid Jab (Pfizer as it turns out) the bonus being it was a 300 mile round trip to the designated Vaccination Centre.
            No ill effects. Injection painless but the site became tender for 24 hours… during which time I kept telling myself: “Tender is the site….”

          8. Re your driving licence saga. Write to your otherwise useless MP. He will have had bugger all to d since March. No Parliament; no debates; nothing. So he may welcome the opportunity to justify his extra £10,000 for “working from home.

            I made this suggestion to another NoTTler before Christmas and his problem was solved in a couple of weeks.

            There is no charge for this information!

          9. Thanks. And many thanks for not charging. As I’ve been awake since 4:00 am I thought I would contact the Complaints Team at the DVLA. Their website offers a contact email address. My Safari browser warned me this site was not secure and point blank refused to connect me. (I expect the SSL certificate has expired or something technical). Anyway since I had some time on my hands I typed a suitably worded letter and stuck a stamp on the envelop. It will be my third attempt at getting our licences renewed. If this one fails then I will pester my local MP who is fraught with ‘following the science’…..

          10. September? Which year? I applied to renew my driving licence towards the end of 2019. I had allowed it to lapse, mainly because DVLA omitted to send me a reminder, but also because my eyesight was a bit marginal. My application has disappeared into the furthest reaches of Swansea.

            DVLA are all working from home. Anything involving paper is rejected. I’m entitled to a Motability car, but not without a licence. Happily, since I’ve moved, a car becomes an expensive looxury ©BT. I’m two minutes’ walk from Wanborough Station, from which I can get to Aldershot, Guildford or Farnham for between two and three quid return…

          11. The default grumpy in me asks though – what’s changed to ensure that such a screw up doesn’t happen again?

            A good company doesn’t have a complaints department. You ring up, ask for help, you get it.

          12. You could try this https://www.complaintsdepartment.co.uk/dvla/ They responded very quickly last year when they had been sitting on our DL renewal applications for four months. We had a letter within three days to inform us they were ‘dealing with this matter’ – we couldn’t believe it – and our DLs arrived in the post ten days later. I don’t think they like complaints, the efficiency of that department may be judged by the number at the end of the year. My thanks must go to Mr J Norfolk of this parish for the information; he had had a similar experience.

          14. I wouldn’t mind but we’ve been hanging on to the customer help Lline for over 5,000 years….

    2. Nah mate. It was built in Sarf Wales and then we flogged it off to the gullible English as genuhine Egyptian stuff from their earlier invasion. They thought it was completely wonderful, we thought the price was wonderful.

      Actually, what do Germans and the Welsh have in common? They are the only permissible targets of racism.

        1. When have the Welsh ever demanded anything back from England? And yet you don’t bother to distinguish between us and the Scots, and suggest that we might. The comment about racism had a more general basis.

          2. They would like to have the three counties back,taken by England.Hereford refused and Monmouth said no, we prefer to be Welsh.

          3. I grew up in Cumbria. One of my uncles (on my Fathers side) moved to Rhosneigr long before I was born. In fact, I was conceived there. I never managed to visit said uncle while he lived, but I made the effort to attend his funeral. I turned up at the house, and was welcomed, and introduced to the officiating Minister. In Welsh. OK, I thought, there may be a few non English-speaking folk in these parts. Yet the service was conducted partly in Welsh, and partly in English. In perfect English, which was denied to me beforehand. Make of that what you will…

          4. That’s the Northies. They don’t like the English, they don’t like us from the South, they don’t like people from south of Machynllech. they don’t like … I could go on. Wales is really two different things, the south and the north, plus all those lovely farmers in the middle who just want to be left alone with their land and their animals. The genetic maps show a clear split as well.

            If you want a laugh, the Northies get very upset about how we from the south speak Welsh, and we can’t understand their Welsh, it’s just stupid. Hold the top of your nose, speak with a Liverpool accent, you’ll fit right in.

            But they are brothers, pain in the arse mind, but brothers.

          5. Mt grandfather wouldn’t let the Welsh language be spoken in the house.I have a cousin who went to her mums family
            in Aberporth Cardigan and she speaks Welsh perfectly…..

          6. In mid-Wales it is just very relaxed. They use English for technology, law, football, Welsh for family, land, animals, rugby, mixing the two in the same sentence. It’s lovely.

            Women are definitely discussed in Welsh.

            Cardiff is the biggest joke. They make up ‘Welsh’ words to replace English that has been imported into Welsh, and people who live i the language can’t understand them. They’ve got a word for computer, which nobody understands.

          7. I’m from London,I know if they are talking about me if Ihear the word,Sais…I have friends here with Welsh mums
            and the gran.They speak Welsh and I like it I say bore dda Mrs Davies or Nos dda when I leave.

          11. Popty-ping is a myth – a joke that got taken seriously. There is Welsh word for microwave, meicrodon, but whether anyone outside Cardiff uses it I don’t know. The ones that annoy me are things like nwdls and snwcer. The whole world calls it snooker, they do in Hungary, in Russia, in Saudi Arabia, in Singapore, but no, Welsh has to do the ‘not English’ thing.

        2. I didn’t think he was suggesting any.

          It was a joke.

          It’s rather like saying only the British Empire was evil, which is acceptable, but try saying similar about any Bame equivalent and you are a racist.

      2. … and ginger-haired folk… and men.
        It’s a bastard being a ginger male of German descent with parents in Wales…

    3. Nah mate. It was built in Sarf Wales and then we flogged it off to the gullible English as genuhine Egyptian stuff from their earlier invasion. They thought it was completely wonderful, we thought the price was wonderful.

      Actually, what do Germans and the Welsh have in common? They are the only permissible targets of racism.

    6. The great problem with archaeology is the under estimation of the intelligence of our past masters. The only difference between Megalithic man and our current brainiest is that we have more developed industrial technology.

      As such we would find little difficulty in moving large stones from Wales to Stonehenge using modern excavating, lifting and transportation technologies.

      The notion that Megalithic man was unable to achieve the same by other means is a mistake. The technology may have been more primitive but the capacity to work out the appropriate methods is no different and will have been derived by a similar brainpower.

      The brain size of Megalithic man is no different to that possessed by Modern man.

  70. There was a news item yesterday that stated Stonehenge was originally erected in Wales. Was this a trial prefabrication before it was shipped off to the paying customers? Or more worryingly was it half inched and will we see the Welsh demanding their stones back along the lines of the Greeks and the Elgin marbles?

  71. How is it possible that a “universal vaccine” that can conquer all variants may be produced within a year? How is it at all possible when we don’t even know the other variants? If people don’t start to question the rubbish being spouted we really are up the creek without a paddle.

    1. Quite.
      How is this possible if we can’t even prevent ‘flu 100%, not even close, which has been a scourge for a lot longer.

    3. Many eminent scientists have raised serious questions about the virus and the vaccines formulated from information from the Chinese.

      Regrettably many voicing concerns have been de-platformed (cancelled) by Big Tech and the MSM. This raises suspicions and indicates that larger forces are at work.

  72. Time for me to sign off.

    I hope that tomorrow will see the last of this damned cold, snowy weather. “Massive flooding” expected come Tuesday, of course, “Police warn motorists to stay at home” (you read it here first).

    Have a smooth evening.

    A demain.

    2. He doesn’t fund the WHO or SAGE. Both are government organisations funded by tax payers. He might contribute to them through philantropy but doesn’t own them.

      2. He is the second largest contributor to WHO funds after the Biden USA. Regrettably the idiot UK are also one of the highest contributors to this CCP controlled organisation.

        Another reason, along with so many others, to ditch Boris Johnson and his useless government at the soonest opportunity.

      1. 329341+ up ticks,
        Evening JN,
        Sad to say, one of many, talking of which bliar was on the radio today being give a 5/6 minute platform.

      2. We don’t get the Seville oranges at all here in the US. Any suggestions for a substitute?

          1. Do you remember when Golden Shred and Silver Shred used to be the best, a long,long time ago.

          3. I remember sending off the labels from the jars and collecting Golly badges when I were nobbut a lass.

      1. Herself has just finished making a batch , normal sugar and a couple of jars with a capful of Famous Grouse, a spoonful of that on the breakfast toast makes me feel almost benign towards the fishwife., almost .

    3. We made our batch last week. The equivalent of about 20 standard jars. Enough for a year or so. We still have a few jars from last year when we made around 2 dozen jars. We’ve been eating more pastries for breakfast. We use raw cane brown sugar and it has a wonderful deep colour as a result.
      We cut half the orange peel into goldfish and the other half are chopped very small in the blender.
      We just had an offer on a marmalade making set from Kilner (of the jars). I’ve suggested to them that they need to get their offer out much sooner as everybody has made their marmalade by now!

      1. That’s far more than I made – though I hardly eat any of it – not that I don’t like it, but I just don’t have anytthing other than muesli for breakfast. So husband eats all of it, and the rest of the year makes his own from Marmaid.

    4. I finished making 25 jars of marmalade (and enough Seville oranges in the freezer to make another 25 jars) just before I started my Keto diet (no sugar allowed). Aaarghh!

      1. Gosh – that’s a lot! I only made six jars from 1 kilo. How long are you going to stay on the diet?

        1. Until I get to a reasonable weight, which probably means another 6 to 8 months! I have just found a cream cheese and egg recipe for pancakes which I hope to try out on Tuesday. (Flour is out!) But the recipe states I need a kitchen blender, which is something I don’t have. More news on how things go on Wednesday.

    2. Indeed – and 99% of us don’t need a vaccine or quarantine to go about our daily lives with that. I’ve taken the flu vaccine (yes, I know they often guess wrong with the variant each year) 4 times and got the flu twice after taking it – on one occasion I was off work for two weeks. I’d never had the flu before getting vaccinated.

      I only got the jab because my GP surgery offered it when I all asthma suffers were allowed it (only chronic sufferers now – I have always used a blue reliever inhailor and have a mild form of asthma). I haven’t had a jab for it since 2017, no flu either. I though why bother, as it didn’t seem to help me much, and my breathing was never an issue even when I had the flu.

      I’m no anti-vaxxer (having recently had a tetanus booster and have all other normal jabs over my lifetime), but I won’t be considering getting the COVID vaccine unless and until long term testing (5-10 years) is complete and it is given a clean bill of health by truly independent organisations. If that means I am restricted from certain aspects of life, then I will make my views known on the restrictions of civil liberties involved, especially where governments deliberately outsource things like vaccine passports etc to the private sector to pretend they haven’t instituted any laws.restrictions themselves.

      2. Never take a vaxine if the makers indemnity has been removed. Like they have for Corvid Flu.

      3. I took the flu vaccine. The nurse ignored my request that it should be given incutaneously and instead jabbed it into my muscle. I take blood thinners.

        As a result I had a bruise and developed a skin condition which I am struggling to control, being allergic to a number of things.

        I have received three invitations to take a ‘free’ vaccination (who exactly is paying for this ‘free’ vaccination?) and now a letter suggesting I might go to our GP surgery for the jab. I have no intention of having any jab on the basis of my research into this Scamdemic.

    4. Don’t like the look of him, he’s got a very un-British countenance. Looks to me as if he has a touch of the Chinaman about him ….

      ….. maybe his name was originally Han-Kok?

      2. 329341+ up ticks,
        Evening DM,
        You could be on to something there DM, I tagged him some time ago as digit dick.

    2. I just finished watching the Beiderbecke Trilogy last week. Brilliant! (And I agree with you about Barbara Flynn.)

    1. Again and again.
      Import the third world, use affirmative action to get them promoted and then express surprise when third world practices appear.

    2. There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
      He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
      He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
      and they all lived together in a little crooked house.

    3. There was a crooked man, and he walked a crooked mile.
      He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.
      He bought a crooked cat, which caught a crooked mouse,
      and they all lived together in a little crooked house.

      1. Impeach Pelosi, Harris and Biden and the rest of their wicked cabal.

        On impeachment prosecute them for treason and confiscate their assets. Then go after Ringmaster Obama and Hillary Clinton.

    2. And although the Democrats will never admit it, what that means is that Trump has NEVER been impeached.

      1. Not correct.

        He has been impeached twice, that is what congress does.

        The republican senate have voted on party lines and not convicted him based on the articles of impeachment submitted to them by congress.

        Mute point really

        2. I disagree.

          He was not convicted and thus was not impeached.
          The actual impeachment is the end of the process which leads up to the impeachment itself, if found guilty.
          All this has achieved is to ensure that in the future both sides of the House will use the impeachment process as a disruption for any President.

          I note that the vindictive, country splitting, hypocritical Democrats and their lackeys in the MSMare still carrying on attacking Trump regardless.

          What they are doing is ensuring that divisions will be longer and harder.
          Good luck America, they are going to need it.

    3. It was always inevitable. The entire affair was a desperate machination by those who hate him.

      Now who should be impeached is Pelsoi. Her attitude has created 4 years of discontent and abuse.

    2. Of course he was he had no case to answer. He will return stronger than ever with the Dems tanking the country.

      1. he will be 78 in four years.

        Remember how Biden has ben insulted because he is 78? Will a big mac eating overweight golfer fare as well?

        1. My late boss Sir William Whitfield was as bright as a button up until he died aged 98 years.

          Trump appears a very healthy individual whereas Biden resembles his own horrid death mask. Natural justice.

        2. My late boss Sir William Whitfield was as bright as a button up until he died aged 98 years.

          Trump appears a very healthy individual whereas Biden resembles his own horrid death mask. Natural justice.

          3. he doesn’t play rugby, he sits in a golf cart and eats big macs.

            None so blind as those that don’t want to see.

  82. Extract of Essence from The Slog:

    ““There is no doubt,” said sources close to desperation, “that we are turning the corner and winning this battle against the greatest threat to reality since Big Bang, but it seems highly likely that we shall all be wearing masks forever – and cursing the day that we trusted Russian leader Rasputin and his evil creature Trumpo ‘Rapist’ McDonald”.

    Globalist detergent manufacturer Proctor & Gamble immediately announced a newly segmented range of handwash gels available in seven fragrances – South African Redbush, Brazilian Mango, London Armpit, Wuhan Wetfish, Manchester Raindrop, Spanish Flue and Seattle Smoke.

    Head of the US Center for Disease Control Dr Antonichrist Faustus commented, “It’s beginning to look like our strategy of weakening Covid19 by turning it into Covid7.9billion is working well to ensure that the philanthropic Pharmaceutical space will be kept busy matching swab results and symptomology and flogging rigorously tested experimental not-very-vaccines from now until the sun is a red dwarf in approximately 17 billion years time”.

    But plucky British Health Minister Mateus Rosé (left) was clearly feeling in the pink, taking a different line. “I hope that Covid-19 will become a treatable disease by the end of the year,” Mr Halfcock told The Dreary Twinnygraph, “New treatments will be important in turning Covid from a pandemic that affects all of our lives into another illness that we have to live with, like we do flu. That’s where we need to get Covid to over the months to come, but none of us should forget that without these vaccines we would all have died at least twice and the nightmare isn’t over just yet, oh no, everyone should remain vigilant, and preferably become vigilantés ripping the heads off all those domestic terrorists dicing with death by not wearing masks. Chiefly however, we should all give thanks to me, put my statue at the top of that tall thingy in Trafalgar Square, and rename it Han’s Cock.”

    1. The NHS paid £2.4bn in clinical negligence claims in 2018-19, according to NHS Resolution (formerly the NHS Litigation Authority). This sum equates to about 2% of the entire budget for the NHS in England (roughly £115bn). But even these startling figures do not provide the full picture, since NHS Resolution also has to account for claims likely to be received in the future. Now standing at £83.4bn, the amount “set aside” for such claims is among the most substantial public sector financial liabilities faced by the UK government, second only to nuclear decommissioning (£131bn).

      The NHS bureaucracy covers up its mistakes; whistle blowers are ruined or sacked.

      This is in sharp contrast with the safety conscious philosophy of the airline industry which encourages reporting of mistakes and errors in the pursuit of ever increasing customer safety.

      Perhaps we should appoint our beloved Michael O’Leary of Ryanair to run a safer and more productive NHS ?

    1. What happened, Richard? I’ve just checked and Simon was born in October and Garfunkel in November. Are you suggesting that today (Feb 14) is your birthday? I thought it was on July the 1st.

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