Monday 22 February: NHS leaders must do more to address the needs of non-Covid patients

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/2021/02/22/letters-nhs-leaders-must-do-address-needs-non-covid-patients/

687 thoughts on “Monday 22 February: NHS leaders must do more to address the needs of non-Covid patients”

  1. Good morning all,

    So a second P&W on a 777 has blown up, this time over the Netherlands.
    Given the number of flights over Bonsall, should I be getting worried?

    1. The DT article states the flight was to New York, in which case it would have passed over Derbyshire!

      US orders emergency inspections after two aircraft shower engine debris on the ground
      Both planes, one in Denver and the other in the Netherlands, had to make emergency landings after the same type of engines failed

      By David Millward,
      US CORRESPONDENT 22 February 2021 • 1:09am

      The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency airworthiness directive calling for the inspection of Boeing 777s after two aircraft using the same family of engines showered debris on the ground shortly after take-off.

      United Airlines said it was grounding its fleet of 52 Boeing 777s that used the Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engines, of which 24 were in active service.

      In a separate move, the Japanese authorities grounded 32 Boeing 777s also using Pratt & Whitney engines.

      The moves follow two separate incidents on Saturday which saw air safety investigators on both sides of the Atlantic open inquiries.

      In the Netherlands, one of four engines on a Boeing 747-412 cargo plane failed within minutes of its departure from Maastricht on Saturday.

      Blade fragments were ejected from the Pratt & Whitney 4056 engine, coming down on the Dutch village of Meerssen. Two people were slightly injured, with the debris also damaging houses and cars.

      The plane, which was en route to New York, made an emergency landing at Liege airport in Belgium.

      Within hours, one of the two Pratt & Whitney 4077 engines on a United Airlines Boeing 777 exploded shortly after it took off from Denver en route to Honolulu.

      The United aircraft’s engine explosion scattered debris over a Denver suburb of Broomfield. Nobody was injured.

      Engines on both aircraft are drawn from the same family, with the 4077 being a new a more powerful version than the 4056.

      Saturday’s incidents came less than three months after the failure of another Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engine when pilots on a Boeing 777 were forced to turn back after an engine explosion six minutes after taking off from Okinawa en route to Tokyo.

      And in February 2018 another Pratt & Whitney 4000 series engine failed when a blade broke off on a United Airlines flight from San Francisco to Hawaii.

      In all four incidents, the pilots succeeded in making an emergency landing without anybody on board being injured.

      The FAA’s inpection order only applies to US-registered Boeing 777 aircraft.

      In addition, the National Transportation Safety Board, the US aviation watchdog, has already announced an inquiry into the weekend’s incident in Denver.

      Pete Buttigieg, the newly-appointed US Transportation Secretary, said he would work with the NTSB to “understand any lessons learned in a way that will maximize the sense of safety every time we get on a plane.”

      Passengers on the flight from Denver to Honolulu feared the worst as the right engine exploded.

      “I can honestly say I thought we were going to die at one point – because we started dropping altitude right after the explosion,” passenger David Delucia told The Denver Post.

      “The pilot did a hell of a job,” New York-based aviation consultant Bob Mann told The Telegraph.

      Mr Mann believes investigators will focus on the design of the engine blades.

      “There is a working theory that these very large, light blades may be migrating forward as they fail, which causes them to escape from the containment ring.

      “Regulators and designers should be looking at the fan case and containment ring. The idea is over time these blades have become much lighter: it may be that the failure modes aren’t the same.

      “Everything is lighter. The whole game is to get as much thrust possible – and these failures generally occurred at takeoff thrust – with the least amount of mass.

      “I think the technology has outstripped the standardised testing regime which was designed in the 1960s.”

      The Telegraph has approached Pratt & Whitney for comment.

      After the 2018 incident, Pratt & Whitney said it supported the NTSB investigation and had taken corrective action.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/20/plane-debris-falls-denver-suburbs-fiery-emergency-landing/

      2. Why have the engines become lighter? To maximise fuel consumption.
        Why do that? To avoid fuel and aviation taxes.

        If folk started to realise the consequences of their actions, they’d stop trying to legislate air travel out of existence.

      1. Good morning m’Dear.
        Unlikely not to be an accident. P&W have had problems with that series of engine for a while, as indeed have the RR Trent Series and GE with their equivalent engines.

        1. Years ago, we had a motor mower with a P&W engine.
          Thank goodness the grass never grew too high.

    2. There’s no chance the lock up will ever end. We’re stuck with it. A boot stamping on a – masked – human face. Forever.

  4. Morning, all.
    Cool, damp, foggy here. Rain over the weekend, temps hovering around zero. Dull as f**k, it was, nothing attractive about going outside at all.

  6. Well I’m off to the dentist this morning! Oddly enough I’m feeling some slight trepidation; odd because I usually feel none at any medical requirement. They are usually a necessity and I know nothing in depth about any of the subjects in question. It would be like arguing with Einstein about Relativity! Is this an emotional residue of the last year with its endless health issues?

    1. You will be perfectly fine. Regular breathing helps to keep me calm. In through the nose and out through the mouth. Nice and steady.

      Good morning.

    2. You’re visiting a dentist. These are people who put sharp metal objects into people’s mouths and scrape them about.

      It’s normal to be afraid of that. In other countries it’s called torture.

  7. It is 0715hrs GMT, the time of my birth, 70 long years ago. And I am reminded, again, that this is the only date in the year that is represented by two little ducks and two little fishes. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c557e862d7447bd4cfc6dbc848819a9f0d19c5541787b9ff648e80cb4c6ddd13.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bde45ad01f35dd00c8be9ec92205c395e31d232734a345bc06464279e96978a4.png

    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.

    Many thanks to all you lovely NoTTLer well-wishers! 😘

    2. Happy Birthday Grizz Welcome to the 70s. but perhaps you never left, if you understand my drift.

      1. Many thanks, Stephen. 😉 I’ve had a handful of bramblings on my feeders, on and off all winter, but nothing like 100 of them. Wow!

        1. Happy Birthday you old B*****!
          And don’t worry, I’m catching up, it’ll be my 3 score & ten next year!

          Regarding garden birds, as the weather has warmed up I notice they are not making as much use of the feeders.

          1. Why-aye, ye bugger, mar! Many thanks, Bob. 😉

            Same here. Not so many on the feeders since the snow started thawing.

          2. The only feeders we can photograph are the couple in the yard with a dish of mealworms on an old bird table.
            Here’s a not very brilliant shot mistle thrush feeding on the worms:-
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c4abd9c88724cd39e8356cac547a2d8bdf2c1e18e3027da9079f19bcfd369426.jpg

            And there’s a grey wagtail trying to bash his brains out on the kitchen window:-
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d53e49febc6d7c6126207f2be9b6d3e6692646eb745e3dc22df74dc1d3fe34fd.jpg
            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ebb78e10e12f361d46330f3dac7d474d8bd7b3db15e337ac016f3ba9fef65f50.jpg

          3. A grey wagtail on your garden list?

            I’d love one but there’s no water around here. Your mistle thrush looks a bit like an immature blackbird; but it could be that the photo’s been taken through a window.

          5. Yesterday I found a blackbird in my garden gathering bits of straw from decayed plants to built himself and his mate a new nest. And incidentally, Bob, I now know you were born in 1952 – but on which date?

    9. I was a little premature by sending wishes yesterday, George, so, apart from yesterday’s un-Birthday, have the very best day today.

  8. No tennis or golf until April, gives us barely six months to get fit and back in the swing of things until the next winter lockdown

  9. Morning all

    NHS letters….

    SIR – I fear that my cousin, Professor Stephen Powis, national medical director of NHS England (Letters, February 19), is being disingenuous when he implies that NHS cancer treatment has been satisfactory during the pandemic.

    The statistics he cites do not reflect the misery that thousands of patients have suffered as a result of their treatments being postponed. I should know. My own treatment for prostate cancer was delayed by six months and wasn’t completed until nine months after diagnosis.

    The specialist hospital that provided my care was largely mothballed. Staff later told me they had spent months twiddling their thumbs, as they had not been needed to look after Covid-19 patients. I’m assured that my prognosis will not be affected by the delay – but many people’s will be.

    Nigel Tipple

    Great Coxwell, Oxfordshire

    SIR – I attended a pre-op for a heart procedure on April 6 last year and was told that it would be carried out within 10 days. After several weeks I telephoned and was informed that all appointments had been cancelled.

    Last week I received a call asking me if I still wanted the procedure.

    Two other appointments for lesser treatments were also cancelled and have never been followed up.

    Brian Donaldson

    Wigan, Lancashire

    Advertisement

    SIR – On December 3 2020 I went to my GP after suffering from what I thought was a frozen shoulder – certainly not life-threatening, but extremely painful.

    Within four weeks I was given a consultation at the Royal Surrey Hospital for less than two weeks hence. I arrived at 17:45 on January 14 and was back in my car 15 minutes later, having had a CT scan and a steroid injection. Amazing service.

    Jeannie Long

    Wisborough Green, West Sussex

    SIR – Professor Powis encourages people to come forward for NHS care when they need it. However, one reason that patients have not come forward is the risk of contracting Covid-19 while in hospital.

    Despite reassurances, hospital infections have been unacceptably high. They should be included in the daily reported figures so that we, the patients, can make informed decisions.

    We now have a similar situation with vaccination rates among healthcare staff. Unless our local health trust can state that all staff have been vaccinated, we are faced with a lottery.

    Clive Gough

    Buckland Common, Hertfordshire

    Advertisement

    SIR – No one is a greater supporter of the medical profession than me: six family members are NHS doctors and one is a nurse. But now is the time to reassess and to learn from how other countries (such as Israel) organise their healthcare. Yes, build back better – but build back differently.

    S A Hughes

    London SW13

    1. Jeannie Long, no that is not “amazing” service. You had a delay of five-six weeks! What is “amazing” is that you think that’s good!

    2. A damning indictment of the (IMHO) lies and very selective figures coming out of the NHS management from the cousin of Professor Stephen Powis (national medical director of NHS England), Nigel Tipple.

  10. Freedom passports

    SIR – Juliet Samuel feels that vaccine passports are an invasion of privacy.

    This pandemic has severely limited our personal freedom, as well as our ability to travel. These passports are our get-out-of-jail-free card and are likely to be required by other countries. The bigger picture is more important.

    Christopher Learmont-Hughes

    Caldy, Wirral

    SIR – A vaccine passport is simply a statement of fact. When I travelled in Africa several decades ago, such passports (ie, evidence of vaccination) were frequently required as a condition of entry so some countries.

    The purpose was to control such infectious diseases as yellow fever and to protect both me and the residents of the country I was entering. It was not an invasion of my privacy, but a passport to freedom of travel.

    Terry Lloyd

    Darley Abbey, Derbyshire

    SIR – The road out of lockdown cannot come soon enough for me.

    As a Scot living in England for the past 44 years, I have never quite lost my native burr, though not many people would immediately identify my Glaswegian origins.

    Over the last few months, however, with my social contacts and opportunities for conversation restricted, I have reverted to type, becoming almost incomprehensible even to my husband. Apparently I need to get out more.

    Betty Macey

    Clare, Suffolk

  11. Iron rule

    SIR – I always iron tea towels. I was told in school domestic science lessons that a freshly ironed tea towel was germ-free and therefore the best emergency dressing for any kitchen knife accident.

    Maureen Liggins

    Coventry, Warwickshire

    2. My emergency dressing for kitchen knife accidents is “Bugger” followed by cold water and grabbing whatever is to hand.
      I must have built up one helluva immune system.

      1. Good morning, Annie. With all these greetings to Grizzly on his 70th, some of us may have forgotten that today is your wedding anniversary. I do hope that you are both able to enjoy it, either together or perhaps still apart – is your Bill back from hospital yet?

        1. We were allowed to collect him last week.
          He is pottering about, and, apart from a slight blip on Saturday, is improving.
          Your card was much appreciated.

          1. Happy Wedding Anniversary, Nursey, to you and Bill.

            I wasn’t aware you shared this day with me! 😘🥂

      2. Sorry to be late to the party, Anne! A very happy wedding anniversary to you and Bill! Sending good wishes and love to you both, and blessings for being together after he last couple of weeks (years?)

        1. Some things never change. At 14.00 hours on Saturday, 22nd February, 1964, my father, the car driver and I were sitting in a lay-by because we were were too early and had time to kill. The subject of our conversation?
          House prices.
          I will be walking Spartie past that very lay-by this afternoon as a homage.

    3. Gawd ,

      I cannot believe my sensible letters are never considered by the DT.. I mean , I always carry a clean hanky just in case I need to remove someone’s false teeth before I administer CPR!

  12. And another good morning to all.
    A bit of a nasty start out there this morning, 3°c in the yard and a cold steady rain.

    I’ve a trip to Twiggs in Matlock with my new Bosch chainsaw this morning.
    When I bought it I noticed the trigger was a bit temperamental, occasionally needing to be released & repressed to start. It’s got worse now so it’s going back.

      1. 98% of the time I only use the electric chainsaw clamped into my saw horse, but over the weekend I did try clamping my petrol saw in. I was not at all happy as, with the engine coughing and spluttering when idling tends to intermittently snatch the chain meaning that I have to remember to put the anti-kickback brake on whenever I move the log I’m cutting.
        At least with the electric saw, as long as my hands are clear of the trigger switch, there is no chance of the chain moving.

          1. Can’t say I blame you.
            I first had a go with a chainsaw when I was 14 and the farm had some men in felling some of the big trees round the place.
            In those days they didn’t even have kickback protection!

    1. Why has the moron second from the right got a walking stick? Is it to smack old ladies round the head with, inoffensively, of course?

      1. Looks as if he has scrambled egg on his hat, so probably a senior twat. He needs the walking stick to prop up his authority as he hasn’t adequate strength of character to do it by himself.

      3. Morning, Sue. He may think it’s a swagger stick, denoting authority, but as a moron he probably thinks if he has one longer than the accepted length it would afford him even more authority.

        A swagger stick is a short stick or riding crop usually carried by a uniformed person as a symbol of authority. A swagger stick is shorter than a staff or cane, and is usually made from rattan. Its use derives from the vine staff carried by Roman centurions as an emblem of office

    2. Good God. And how much has been spent on that totally over the top display? Is being offensive an actual offence?

      1. What happens when you park it outside a mosque? They’ll find it offensive. Dear life. It’s time people stopped looking for things to get upset about and focussed on what they can affect in their own lives.

    4. Presumably as I was offended at what they did – including the waste of public money, these police officers need to be arrested?

    8. How can being offensive be an offence? I find that banner offensive. I find the waste of money offensive.
      I find the demand I agree with them offensive. Have the police committed a crime?

  14. Up until the virus struck, the NHS used to look down their noses a bit at healthy people that pestered the doctor and the NHS, maligning them with the term ‘ the worried well.’
    Now that has all turned on it’s head, the worried well are now the people that never went to the doctor or hospital until they really were ill, the worried well are healthy people worried about an experimental vaccination, but they are still being maligned, now they are ‘the anti Vaxxers’ and the ‘the selfish well.’

    1. Morning all.

      You are so right. When I first found out my BP was high, a couple of years ago, was put on medication of course. We bought one of those home BP machines and I became one of the “worried well” as I kept taking my BP each day. When I realised this I stopped taking my BP. Then some time last year I had a (delayed) annual review. I’d been sitting in the waiting room with another patient discussing the COVID situation. When I went in it was 200 and was immediately given a prescription for additional meds. It is so easy to become a worried well. However I didn’t take the new meds at all. I just knew what had caused the BP to go up so high. Don’t think I’ve taken the BP since.

  17. Pissed-off Toff reviews Ross Clark’s Orwellian new novel entitled The Denial, and concludes that if he could leave this country, he would do so, immediately.

    ‘There was no absolute ban on eating meat,’ muses the central

    character, a retired meteorologist called Bryan Geavis, ‘but in practice

    it had become difficult for ordinary folk to procure it. For most

    people, the only option was to down the officially approved vegan food

    and keep on popping the vitamin pills.’ And oh, how he misses meat, and

    how he hates the disgusting beetroot steaks and the haloumi and

    aubergine rissoles and the sorghum porridge that have replaced it.

    * * * * *

    As with meat, so with cars, ownership of which is now out of the

    question for ordinary citizens, not just because of the increasingly

    tight restrictions imposed by ‘carbon allowances’, but because of public

    disapproval. ‘Sometimes activists would surround a private car, or lie

    in front of it and invite the driver to run them over if he dared.

    Usually, the motorist would be shamed into submission, and would emerge

    tearfully from his vehicle, to be comforted by the crowd as he confessed

    to his selfishness.’

    https://pissedofftoff.com/reviews/the-denial-a-review-or-leave-this-country-now/
    Lots more here to make us squirm,all too easy to see this dystopia overtaking us!!

    1. Is he referring to North Korea, or the UK?

      As if you restrict people’s choices you end up enforcing how they can live. The next step from protest is enforcement, and the Left do so love to force.

  18. Pissed-off Toff reviews Ross Clark’s Orwellian new novel entitled The Denial, and concludes that if he could leave this country, he would do so, immediately.

    ‘There was no absolute ban on eating meat,’ muses the central

    character, a retired meteorologist called Bryan Geavis, ‘but in practice

    it had become difficult for ordinary folk to procure it. For most

    people, the only option was to down the officially approved vegan food

    and keep on popping the vitamin pills.’ And oh, how he misses meat, and

    how he hates the disgusting beetroot steaks and the haloumi and

    aubergine rissoles and the sorghum porridge that have replaced it.

    * * * * *

    As with meat, so with cars, ownership of which is now out of the

    question for ordinary citizens, not just because of the increasingly

    tight restrictions imposed by ‘carbon allowances’, but because of public

    disapproval. ‘Sometimes activists would surround a private car, or lie

    in front of it and invite the driver to run them over if he dared.

    Usually, the motorist would be shamed into submission, and would emerge

    tearfully from his vehicle, to be comforted by the crowd as he confessed

    to his selfishness.’

    https://pissedofftoff.com/reviews/the-denial-a-review-or-leave-this-country-now/
    Lots more here to make us squirm,all too easy to see this dystopia overtaking us!!

  19. Good Moaning.
    First of all, I will say a big Thank You to Olaf’s Relict. We girlies know how much wedding anniversaries mean to us.
    I’m sure your late Beloved is quaffing a horn of mead in Valhalla in salute to your excellent memory.

  20. Totally off-topic, but I wondered if the grammarians here would enjoy this about the controversial Oxford comma:

    • An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television, getting drunk, and smoking cigars.
    • A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.
    • A bar was walked into by the passive voice.
    • An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.
    • Two quotation marks walk into a “bar.”
    • A malapropism walks into a bar, looking for all intensive purposes like a wolf in cheap clothing, muttering epitaphs and casting dispersions on his magnificent other, who takes him for granite.
    • Hyperbole totally rips into this insane bar and absolutely destroys everything.
    • A question mark walks into a bar?
    • A non sequitur walks into a bar. In a strong wind, even turkeys can fly.
    • Papyrus and Comic Sans walk into a bar. The bartender says, “Get out — we don’t serve your type.”
    • A mixed metaphor walks into a bar, seeing the handwriting on the wall but hoping to nip it in the bud.
    • A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
    • Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They converse. They depart.
    • A synonym strolls into a tavern.
    • At the end of the day, a cliché walks into a bar — fresh as a daisy, cute as a button, and sharp as a tack.
    • A run-on sentence walks into a bar it starts flirting. With a cute little sentence fragment.
    • Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.
    • A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.
    • An allusion walks into a bar, despite the fact that alcohol is its Achilles heel.
    • The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.
    • A misplaced modifier walks into a bar owned a man with a glass eye named Ralph.
    • The past, present, and future walked into a bar. It was tense.
    • A dyslexic walks into a bra.
    • A verb walks into a bar, sees a beautiful noun, and suggests they conjugate. The noun declines.
    • A simile walks into a bar, as parched as a desert.
    • A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to forget.
    • A hyphenated word and a non-hyphenated word walk into a bar and the bartender nearly chokes on the irony

  21. The USA – Not so different to the lunacy of the UK
    If plastic water bottles are okay, but plastic bags are banned, — you might live in a nation (state) that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for entering and remaining in the country illegally — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If you MUST show your identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor, or check out a library book and rent a video, but not to vote for who runs the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If the government wants to prevent stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines that hold more than ten rounds, but gives twenty F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If, in the nation’s largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not one 24-ounce soda, because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If an 80-year-old woman who is confined to a wheelchair or a three-year-old girl can be strip-searched by the TSA at the airport, but a woman in a burka or a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If a seven-year-old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher is “cute” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government regulation and intrusion while not working is rewarded with Food Stamps, WIC checks, Medicaid benefits, subsidized housing, and free cell phones — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If you pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big-screen TV, while your neighbor buys iPhones, time shares, a wall-sized do-it-all plasma screen TV and new cars, and the government forgives his debt when he defaults on his mortgage — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    If being stripped of your Constitutional right to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government — you might live in a nation that was founded by geniuses but is run by idiots.

    THINK BEFORE YOU VOTE IN ALL UPCOMING ELECTIONS. MOST OF THE IDIOTS RUNNING THIS COUNTRY SAY ONE THING AND DO THE OPPOSITE KNOWING THAT THE PEOPLE WHO VOTED THEM IN DO NOT PAY ATTENTION

    LET’S SEE IF I GOT THIS RIGHT!!! (bold text is mine)

    IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

    IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

    IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT.

    IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

    IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

    IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

    IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

    IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET ……. !!!

    A JOB, A DRIVERS LICENSE,

    SOCIAL SECURITY CARD, WELFARE,

    FOOD STAMPS, CREDIT CARDS,

    SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,

    FREE EDUCATION, FREE HEALTH CARE,

    A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON

    BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE

    THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU

    PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH RESPECT

    AND, IN MANY INSTANCES, YOU CAN VOTE.

    I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION !!!

    PLEASE KEEP THIS GOING!!! …… FORWARD TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

    IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP AMERICA !!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. If you live on a planet that has quadrupled its human population in the short period of time that you have been alive, you KNOW you live on a planet of idiots.

      1. Grizz, if the population didn’t copulate to over-populate there would be no reason for Bill Gates et al to exist. Please, think of the billionaires.😒

        2. According to the wondrous Mr Gates, vaccines can reduce the population or at least check the population growth. I wonder how that can be?

          1. Surely it’s the other way around? The strong survive, the weak don’t?

            As one of the ‘weak’ ones I think that’s quite fair. Heck, junior is already looking at a life on ruddy warfarin thanks to my blood.

          3. Frightening if true. He’s been banging on about that, he claims 10% – 15% reduction, for a few years now, I believe. Now he’s buying up farmland in the USA like it’s going out of fashion. Very scary scenarios surround Mr Gates.

    2. 329618+ up ticks,
      Morning NtN,
      United Kingdom same,same,
      Seconded with bells on every step of the way.

    3. Someone will trip over that, sue and the owner will get clobbered.

      Not everyone has a drive way.

    4. And that, boys and girls, is why the plebs won’t be driving electric cars. The only question is how long it will take to dawn on some of them.

  24. Time for a little levity

    Amazing Parrot

    I was in a pet shop when I noticed a Muslim with the most amazingly coloured
    parrot perched on her shoulder.

    “Where did you get that from?” I asked.

    “Birmingham! There’s f***g thousands of ’em!” said the Parrot.

    2. A Nigerian had this parrot on his shoulder and went to the docs – doctor asked him what was wrong and the parrot replied “Can you do anything about this blackhead on my foot?”

  25. Good morning all. Late on parade. Sunny start to the day. Gutters to clean out -today – what larks!

    No news again, thank God.

    1. “Can’t repeat the past? Why of course you can!”

      (F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby)

      But of course as George Orwell tried to warn us: rewriting or eliminating the past is a weapon of tyrants who wish to control us.

      1. It seems that the PTB are determined to repeat the past. They totally ignore any lessons from it.

  27. Reposted from Midnight

    Monday 22nd February 2021

    Grizzly

    A Magnificent Birthday

    and

    Very Many Happy Returns

    for our old friend from

    Caroline and Rastus

    We hope you will make some culinary delights to celebrate the occasion and maybe you will commemorate it by getting out your palette, paints and canvas to create another beautiful painting. (We remember the impressive elephant you posted on the Nottlers’ site a year or two ago.)

    As Paul Simon wrote:

    How terribly strange to be 70!.

    This song was produced in 1968 the year my beloved father turned 70 – he was in sparkling form and the age did not seem very strange to me! In fact I passed that milestone nearly five years ago.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3NYWzHLEZw

    1. Good morning, Rastus.

      I’m, “Feeling Groovy” this morning. Even though I’m not on a 59th Street Bridge!

      2. Don’t worry – you’re not moving too fast, you can let the moment last and kick along the cobbled stones and look for fun.

      4. Happy birthday! I shall eat cake on your behalf.

        Or I should really say, I will eat cake on your behalf *again*.

      1. It’s the daily rate for workers in the motor industry, Grizzly. (One car per diem.)

        :-))

      3. Happy Birthday G!!! Wishing you a wonderful day. I shall sing Happy Birthday in your general direction – only you know how likely you are to be able to hear it 😉 x

        1. Many, many thanks, ATD. 😘

          I may be 1,000 miles away but I’m sure your wonderful voice will carry to me. 😊🍷

      1. It is black. I don’t think a Persian Prince would touch it with a bargepole. It’s synthetic.

        I did look at some silk/embroidered Nehru jackets but they were many £100’s.

        1. £50! On a jacket! Good lord man!

          That’s ten t shirts!

          The war queen and I have this discussion a lot. She buys a suit in four figures. I buy clothes in four figures as well – just with the decimal place moved to the left twice. I wear my clothes until they’re rags – literally, my t shirts are used as dusters and my bed clothes are held up with shoe laces. She wears her get up once or twice, I think.

          I’ve a cupboard for my stuff – ALL my stuff, including ruck sacks – and she has a room. I’ve tried to move my tools in to there as well but they were swiftly moved out again.

          1. I’m much like you. I buy T shirts and jeans from Matalan but going out to dinner or cocktails requires a decent looking jacket.

      1. I bought one similar which is even more eye catching to wear to the Zetter Townhouse Cocktail Bar. I was going for a boozy night out with Garlands but it got cancelled. It has huge Magnolias all over it covered in irridescent sequins.

        I probably look like a lounge singer on a cruise ship. :@(

        Below is a picture of the Zetter. https://www.timeout.com/london/bars-and-pubs/the-zetter-townhouse-clerkenwell-cocktail-lounge

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/621f875e301e9003dbdce245047ac31470abf97d04b56641307490a3c8c9765a.jpg

        1. Alf says presumably that’s what used to be the Zetters Pools building? He lived not far from there. But that was 53 years ago! Looks real snazzy. Just clicked on the link and the 4 poster looks inviting.

          2. Where do they get those fantastic chairs from? The striped with purple cushion?

            Every chair I sit in looks like a children’s one.

          3. I have have chairs that shape. Though in dark green. They probably had theirs professionally covered.

        2. Know the area well, it’s where I was born and brought up. My parents, eldest brother and eldest sister married at St. James’s Church, Clerkenwell Green. The Clerk’s Well is in Farringdon Lane just around the corner. I used to do Saturday morning car cleaning in that area, with a friend, when I was 13/14 years old.

          That’s the “Gin capital’ of London Dry Gin. Booth’s distillery was almost opposite Zetter’s in Turnmill Street. Gordon’s was in Goswell Road, where I started work in 1961 and Nicholson’s Gin in St. John’s Street.

          Happy memories of childhood and teen year’s. Moved from the area in 1968 when vw and I married.

          1. Gin capital? I knew there was a reason i was drawn to the area.

            I lived in Canary Wharf then later Bromley. I don’t think i will ever live in London again. Nice to visit though.

            Great for you to have those memories.

          7. Canary Wharf eh? There’s posh – amongst all those fabulous buildings? Alf and I drove up to London many years ago, before the buildings were occupied, just to see what it was like. They did look pretty impressive. But it’s got nothing on the amazing buildings in Dubai. Wouldn’t want to live there, mind. Our daughter and family live there and it’s a building site like no other – so much construction. The buildings really are fabulous but there’s no “heart” or “soul” to the place.

          8. A friend and i ran a personal security company with a sideline updating the wiring and electrics for Pubs and Bars. He was Corgi registered so we thought we would make use of it.

            Had a large apartment in Cascades.

            It was all downhill from there. :@(

            Good while it lasted though as it was easy to get on the guest lists of several clubs. Dining at Smolenksy’s and Wheelers.

            Smolensky’s on the Strand is permanently closed now sadly.

          10. No children you see. I got a head start.

            I keep giving you accidental downvotes. Time to refresh.

          11. Good afternoon, Dear One.

            Off topic: The prices at Pesky Fish
            are very good, see last night’s e-mail,
            especially the sole and plaice.

            No this is not a pun chance for Uncle Bill!! :-))

          12. Good afternoon Garlands.

            I thought the prices for the halibut and lobster were a bit steep. Probably get more choice as the weather improves.

          13. No worries. I never even look at them, up or down! We have 2 children, our daughter will be 52 next month and our son will be 49 in June! Good grief, that almost makes me feel old 😅😅😅. We started early, first one arrived a day and a year after we were married. Love them to bits and the grandchildren of course.

        3. Bars …. pubs …. hotels …. theatres ….. exhibitions …..
          (Falls into a deep reverie.)

  30. Many happy returns Grizzly, hope it’s a good one. Funny but none of the /30/40/50/60 birthdays made much of an impression on me but when I reached 70 I thought goodness, I’m getting old. Well at least older. This last year I have definitely felt “old” sometimes. (As if a year has been wasted).

    Have a fabulous day and I look forward to seeing/hearing about your cooking.

    1. Many thanks, vw. 😘

      Reaching 17 has been a big step for me. I may now learn how to drive! 🤣

  31. Good morning all et al (especially for Bill)

    About the time Conway was cataloguing his woes in the small hours this pinged through on my phone. When I played it this morning it did cross my mind that it might be a suitable (or indeed an unsuitable) anthem for all Nottlers and their woes……It certainly is the dog’s

    https://youtu.be/kE7CiT-rA7U

      1. Because they are still spending our contributions ?
        Give it a couple of years and it’ll be worth 50p, where it should be.

      2. Indeed – it’s not as though they have been doing very well over the last few years or any better than us. One of the benefits of a higher £ vs $ is that fuel prices should start to fall again, amongst other things.

      3. A lot of the stuff posted on Twit appears to come from a parallel universe.
        I never thought I would live in a country that held hate crime awareness events. I thought that kind of thing had disappeared along with the Nazis.

      1. I really don’t want to be living now. But my grandmother felt the same about the 1920s. She always said that nothing was the same again after the Great War.
        I think the 1890s were the peak of that prosperous dream, and it’s been downhill into self-indulgent decadence ever since. And of course it’s the prosperity that lays the foundations for the ruin, by producing cities that are too big to run along local lines and a pampered middle class to get marxist guilt.

        4. The Roaring Twenties was a celebration of having survived, I think. The Swinging Sixties was more like putting two fingers up to the glue that held society together.

      2. Sadly, many of today’s woke leftists/millenials/Gen-Zers will think that they clip is serious and demand Harry Enfield’s cancellation…

  38. The fearless, but sanctimonious, leader of a country that calls itself the Islamic Republic of Iran has issued a fatwa!

    “Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei recently issued a new fatwa declaring that women in cartoons and animated films must wear the hijab”.

    Are these the same people who think they should have a nuclear arsenal? Is it true that Biden wants to appease them?

        2. Has she got it all sewn up? She’s gets more fanmail than the Pope.

          Life Is A Minestrone, 10cc

    2. And the fearless but sanctimonious leaders of the formerly Great Britain are about to issue a fatwa forbidding people from leaving the country without having had an unknown liquid injected into their arms.
      Should CarrieBoris be in charge of a nuclear arsenal?

          1. 329618+ up ticks,
            Morning BB2,
            Plus tescos & morrisons also after a night of high passion the greens.

          4. I still remember that scene when he’s eating the chaps brain and having a conversation with him. 😲

        3. I wonder if they are as hard to crack as those for many a BT telephone exchange (at least some were [internal doors]) not that many years ago, i.e. either combinations of 1, 2, 3 & 4 on a 4-numbered mechanical lock of another with the code scrawled on the wall or door…

    3. Some thing i have never understood or been bothered to ask, why do slammer women cover their hair ?

        1. But Conners……..what are those medieval minded morns actually afraid of ?
          Dooring the war……..My father was in the RAF in north Africa, and i wish i’d had a pound for every time he said to me “Never trust and arab son”.

  39. Gutters done – not too bad. Small amount of stepladder work. Spotted a broken pantile which was within reach to replace.

    G & P now three kilos each….. 17 weeks ago they arrived and could fit in one hand….. How our lives have changed for the better.

    1. Morning Bill, do you live in a bungalow ? I just wonder how you manage to reach your gutters with a step ladder,……just askin’ 😉

      1. Nah – a house. But the gutters in question are at the back of the garage which has a long sloping roof down to four feet above the ground. The steps were needed for one feeder gutter that is 8 feet above ground level. It meas going next door – but we are very lucky with soldier neighbour who always makes thing easy for us.

        1. A Good neighbour. 😊
          I’ve got to get up on our lower back roof and make good the tiling around the new flue installed last week for our new boiler. And spray the winter growth of moss, but It keeps bloody raining. Not forecast for today at all. I’ll ‘ave a word with that Carol ……
          But ladders and kneeling are not good, my arthritic left knee is giving me a lot of gyp at the moment.

        1. Thanks, Jules. It’s wall-to-wall sunshine here at 8ºC and the snow is all disappearing. However, I’m stuck in the kitchen preparing for supper tonight. I’m currently making seven small individual cheesecakes with an almond biscuit base, an orange cheesecake centre topped with a dome of mixed fruit in jelly. I’m also making some tiny individual ‘Bounty’ bars as petit fours.

          3. I know the deep fried Mars Bar is a bit of a joke but the miniature versions in tempura do work. As long as the oil is clean.

          5. Just a quiet supper party for a few friends. Roast rib of beef, fruit jelly cheesecake. Lots of water for me and beer for the guests.

  41. 329618+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    Delingpole: Health Secretary Hancock Should Be Sacked for £18bn ‘Cash for Cronies’ Scandal

    I do believe that a much more serious point is missed by Delly and that is the political cretin digit dick, taking advantage of a proven mentally deficient electorate who are incapable of acknowledging the rape & abuse of a fair nation that has been ongoing for years, and voting to rectify, NOT aiding & abetting.

    2. He should be sacked for lying to the House regarding the non-existence of a vitamin D study.
      Edit: He said the study produced no evidence of the efficacy of vitamin D when no such study had been done. Lying bar steward.

      1. 329618+ up ticks,
        Afternoon VW,
        Sad to say he would be more likely to be sacked if he said that
        vit D was an asset, for the simple reason of inhouse investments, already more than likely made prior to the plague breaking out.

  42. 329618+ up ticks,

    breitbart,
    PRINCE OF DARKNESS’ MANDELSON SAID CHINA WILL PROVE HUMAN RIGHTS CRITICS WRONG: CLAIM

    Can I have the stamps of the brown envelope when you receive the check, manky ? ever so tar.

      1. 329618+ up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        As a last resort could we go for the one knock for yes two knocks for no option.

    2. As children, we used to be taken to Windsor quite often as it wasn’t far away. My kid brother was a cheeky little lad and would often stand beside the guards with his impish grin – he never managed to get them to smile, such was their rigid adherence to the rules of the time.

      1. One hears that Wallis Simpson soon tired of Edwrard VIII – or rather the Duke of Windsor – and took many lovers because he lost all attractiveness when he was no longer king.

        When Harry becomes a sad, pathetic, wimpish, wokish, untitled joke in the eyes of the world Migraine too will have nothing but contempt for him.

    1. None about here today, thank goodness. All very quiet at the moment but it’s started to rain. Gardening on hold for a while, damn!

  46. One for Minty – leaked papers indicate British Government has an active campaign to destabilise the Russian Government – initiated under the Premiership of TMay. And it’s clearly working as this Live Web Camera in St Petersberg shows. No one is taking a blind bit of notice of social distancing or exhortations to wear face masks! Clearly the people have a death wish!

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

      1. So what you are saying is that they are bottle fed Novichok when they are babes in arms…..?

        1. It’s a mouthwash in Russia! Particularly the brand they bring here! The first non-fatal chemical weapon in the Russian arsenal!

    2. I kept waiting for the gunfire or crash or other disaster – then realised that it was simply a live webcam!!

      1. Doesn’t it make your blood boil to see those evil Russians going about their business without being arrested by the Police. Clearly they will never attain Western democracy carrying on like this….

        2. Except those Russians complaining about an authoritarian government in other aspects of their lives…

    5. That reminds me of St. P during the white nights. There were children riding horses up and down Nevsky Prospect at midnight.

    1. I haven’t bothered to look at departures and arrivals, but we live about 10 miles from Luton airport and i have recently heard 6am flights flying to Europe and seen them approaching to land in the far off distance at night time.

  48. IDS doesn’t say when his discussions with Owen Paterson and Michel Barnier took place. We’ve all seen the video of the commissioners deciding to use NI as a booby-trap device. However, the idea that the border problem was for the UK and the RoI to solve was the right one. Irish PM Enda Kenny saw that before he was replaced.

    The EU promised to work with us on Northern Ireland. What changed?

    Top of Lord Frost’s daunting to-do list must be finding a permanent alternative to the deeply flawed Protocol currently in place

    IAIN DUNCAN SMITH

    After extricating the UK from the EU’s clutches as our chief Brexit negotiator, Lord Frost is now back in charge of our relationship with Europe. He will find that not much has changed during his time away. The main issue, for example, remains the Northern Ireland Protocol.

    It is a welcome development that Lord Frost, undistracted by other government tasks, will now be able to use all his negotiating experience and understanding of how Brussels operates to focus exclusively on our relationship with the EU.

    The pressing problem of the Protocol is that, in creating a border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, it is putting a great strain on the economic and constitutional stability of Northern Ireland. This was perhaps always inevitable because, as a cursory study of recent history shows, the Protocol was originally not intended to be permanent. It was supposed to be a staging post on the way to a new settlement and it can and must be replaced.

    The drafting of the Northern Ireland Protocol began under Theresa May in December 2017. The EU, sensing weakness on the UK side as Parliament threatened to thwart leaving and businesses demanded a lengthy transition period, sought to use the issue of the border to gain the upper hand in the negotiations.

    The document negotiated by Mrs May (and later, thankfully, redrafted by Lord Frost to avoid the disastrous “Irish backstop”) included an EU commitment to work with the UK to replace any hypothetical Irish Sea Border in the eventual trade agreement. The Withdrawal Agreement was clear that the Protocol would in time be “superseded” and the Political Declaration also referenced “alternative arrangements”.

    The EU also agreed that the Northern Irish Assembly would have to consent to any changes. Under the Good Friday Agreement, and the settled practice of the Assembly, that would mean both communities, unionist and nationalist would have to consent to any new border.

    There are many ways in which the border issues thrown up by Brexit could have been resolved with a combination of goodwill and imaginative thinking. I recall a positive meeting that Owen Paterson and I had with Michel Barnier on the topic of “mutual enforcement”. This idea, which came off the back of a proposal put forward by an official in the European Commission, essentially involves both sides accepting responsibility for not allowing the leakage of untaxed or unregulated goods across the shared border with internal mechanisms to achieve this.

    Initially this was greeted with great interest. That is, until Brussels decided that it would do all it could to ensure that losing Northern Ireland was the price Britain would pay for Brexit. Four years on, we can see that instead of working in good faith with the UK to find solutions to the question of the border, the EU is continuing to behave with outrageous stubbornness and selfish petulance.

    Despite Brussels’s constant references to the Good Friday Agreement and its importance, instead of working pragmatically with the UK on alternatives they have insisted on sticking to the Protocol to the letter in a way that is harming Northern Irish businesses and ignoring the tensions rising as a result.

    The depth of the EU’s ambivalence towards Irish and Northern Irish interests was, of course, best illustrated by the decision to invoke Article 16 of the Protocol, without consulting the UK or Ireland and thus overnight creating the very border they claimed had to be avoided.

    Now we must hold the EU to its commitments to the Good Friday Agreement and to working for alternatives to the Irish Sea Border. We must restart discussions over mutual enforcement and alternative arrangements which were broken off. Everyone knows that the Protocol doesn’t work. As the Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimble has said, the danger is that it is already seriously damaging sensitive relationships forged by him and others in the Good Friday/Belfast agreement.

    We can sort this out once and for all because, unlike the previous government’s weakness, Boris Johnson’s administration has the strength to revisit the unworkable mess of the Protocol.

    Lord Frost may have a very full in-tray, but the need to deal with the Protocol is the most important thing in it.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/21/eu-promised-work-us-northern-ireland-changed/

    1. This article confirms that Boris caved in and signed a one-sided deal which the EU will exploit. The EU 27 are due to vote on it at the end of this month but I doubt there will be another extension as is the EU way.

    2. Well, Lord Frost was head negotiator in what has turned out to be a worse “Trade Agreement” than “Versailles”.

      1. I think the NI protocol was Gove’s work – and Boris capitulated over fishing at the last minute. Those two things have proved to be big mistakes.

        1. Well, Frost did not resign over it, did he? Moreover there area lot of other things in the mix, border hold-ups on all fresh food, including meat, the shambles of VAT on purchases that would be VAT zero if bought in the UK, seed potatoes, financial services, leaving NI in the EU. I’m sure there are more horrors to come.
          The UK has not announced any State aid to UK companies that might upset the “level playing field” of EU control. We’ll see.

      1. It is only a pity that the Great and the Good probably don’t read the DM comments, regarding them as being written by sub-humans, aka “Daily Mail readers.”
        The comments frequently hit the nail on the head.

  50. Those irresponsible folk at the Yorkshire Building Society have written to me declaring they have increased the interest rate on my ISA savings account to an astronomical 0.3%! Are they mad?

      1. Thanks for the info but even 0.25% extra on bu@@er all savings is only a fraction better than the square root of sweet FA… 🙁

        1. Agreed – I couldn’t be arsed to take a lump of cash from the sock under my mattress and invest it to get £18 (subject to tax)….

          1. It brings a tear to my eyes, the number of times my wife has said to me: “We had something precious once, what happened to it?’ And moist eyed I reply: “You spent it….”

      1. No I checked three times as I couldn’t believe my eyes – don’t tell me it’s going to turn out to be a typo?

    4. The reckless fools will have it up to the inflation rate if they keep on like that. (currently 0.9%)

    6. How stupid is the cop who stops the car alongside the Covid-streaker instead of 40 yds ahead of him.

  52. Seagull ate man’s TONGUE after woman BIT it off and spat it on the pavement in grisly attack, court hears. 22 February 2021.

    A seagull ate a man’s tongue after a female thug bit it off during a vicious street attack.

    During a street altercation on the streets of Edinburgh, 27-year-old Bethaney Ryan bit off the tongue of James McKenzie.

    The gruesome incident left the victim maimed for life and he was forced to look in horror as a seagull grabbed his tongue off the pavement and flew away with it.

    They’re tough those Scots. Even the Seagulls are cannibals ! No wonder the Germans used to call them. “Poison Dwarfs” during WWI!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9284137/Seagull-ate-mans-TONGUE-woman-BIT-spat-pavement-court-hears.html

      1. There was a fascination documentary on the Tongue about 8 days ago on Radio 3 It might be available on BBC Sounds….

    5. How – and why – was the tip of his tongue in a position to be bitten off. Was he being rude to her ?

      1. Don’t knock him, Ndovu. When If he comes to his senses later in life it will provide a much-appreciated income for one of Annie’s relatives (the Tattoo Remover).

    4. I wonder whether he would overturn his decision if 100 ex-pupils complained about the changes.

      Wokanker.

    5. What a dickhead. To bend the knee because of ANY student undermines his authority at the school. The parents should demand his removal at once and the reinstatement of the old house names, plus anything else he changed because of woke sensibilities.

  54. 329618+ up ticks,
    Surely this can also be seen as the governance party not wanting an opposing enemy force fit & plotting justifiable anarchy.

    UK: GYM, HAIRCUTS, AND PUBS STILL OFF THE TABLE AFTER EXPECTED LOCKDOWN RELAXATION

    1. It’s alright for celebs and politicians/prominent civil servants – they get their hair cut regularly because it’s ‘necessary for the job to look smart’. What are the rest of us – hobos?

    1. Looking up into a clear blue sky it appears that all jets have been banned. Just a nice waxing moon rising in the east.

    2. Does Grant Shapps realise that the vast majority of Boeing 777s are equipped with engines made by GE Aviation?

      Boeing 777s powered by Pratt & Whitney 4000-112 engines should be suspended until the F.A.A. investigation is completed.

    3. Well, it’s OK if the bits and pieces only fall on the inside lane of smart motorways because the debris can be moved to the emergency bays. What could possibly go wrong, Mr Shapps?

    4. Just as BA finished selling off the last of its 747’s replaced in part by 777’s.
      Knowing BA, I would not be surprised if they opted for Pratts.

          2. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said Sunday an initial examination of the Pratt & Whitney PW4077 engine from United Airlines Flight 328 showed that two fan blades were fractured and the remaining blades exhibited damage “to the tips and leading edges.”
            These are preliminary findings and should not be taken as conclusive of what went wrong Saturday, but they are still significant.

    5. There are likely to be problems with the aviation fuel which is modified to be eco friendly apparently. The turbofan construction is also lighter by design to improve economy and therefore not as robust as previous models.

      Pratt and Whitney are a great historic company and their engines such as the Twin Wasp powered Liberators and Flying Fortresses in WWII. As with the problems grounding the latest Boeing aircraft the constant drive to reduce costs in flight may have a bearing on the problem encountered.

      Most British airlines choose Rolls Royce engines for their fleets.

  56. There seems to be a new scam doing the rounds –
    An outfit calling themselves “Royal Group” – purporting to be the Post Office / Parcel Force, are sending emails telling people that they have been “unable to deliver the parcel” – they ask you to click on a link and you will be charged £3.00 for delivery –
    Look out for this bogus email address –

    “Royal Group – Parcel Delivery 666096138 “

    1. I spotted this as a scam when I received the email two or three weeks ago, so I ignored and deleted the email. Sorry, NoTTLers, but I never thought to post it on here.

          1. That’s reminded me to visit my spam folders – only 106 there to delete! I even deleted the one that told me I’ve received 288,496.20 Euros in my Bitcoin account!

        2. When I was clearing a gutter yesterday, a mouse walked over my hand….

          How is your OH getting on with his “mens” problem?

          3. I hope it all goes well. I fear I am close behind him…{:¬(( Though Dr Nigeria was very helpful with medication.

  57. Spring is definitely on its way. Noticed the camellia just now and the vinca minor, Ralph Shugart, appeared a couple of days after the snow had disappeared. Risked removing the fleece from the passiflora, Snow Queen, now that the weather has improved. The current rain wasn’t forecast this morning and it has curtailed my gardening exploits this afternoon..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d2f0f411aeb62eb7bb0793ae633bbd6717aa2ab5e51a1d31c738c8b57ac2784b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5feb7f60e1529f5370b7da4a488dfdfbe9f51021a13f47ada9d19c7c8f644bf5.jpg

    2. My ‘Pride of Madeira’ started flowering in January. The flower spikes grow to over a metre. This will be the first full year i have had it.

    4. Well done, Korky. My camellia has some buds but no flowers yet. The first raised plot (of three) in my side garden was completed yesterday afternoon. Today I managed to spend just over three hours in total weeding the far border, and lining up some of the retaining bricks to hold the soil in. This job will be completed tomorrow and then the pathway between the bricks and the first plot will be levelled prior to adding wood chips in around a week’s time. Wednesday’s chores – forecast to be a sunny day – will be mowing the lawn and then doing some laundry and putting it out to dry in the sun. Thursday will be spade work digging trenches to contain the walls of the second raised plot which I hope to erect with the help of my neighbour – ignore that Mr Plod on my own.

        2. I tried to give it a Corona jab, JM, but couldn’t get the needle to penetrate the steel!

          :-))

      2. I’ve yet to start repairing my raised beds let alone start the new ones. I’m waiting for slightly warmer, and hopefully drier, weather as lots of concrete involved. Was hoping to continue gardening this afternoon but the rain arrived. Housework took pride of place although with only me here it’s not as if the place gets messy.

        Have you received my email? Very nice of you to remember.

    5. Chilly and drizzly this afternoon. Our main delight right now are the snowdrops – we have thousands and they make carpets in the woods.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cc65947a686132f1578ff293f12f5e9a9c453d6308a5fe95b601a0cf4049baac.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2beaa99c0742b16a79484f7e706f2353e1ed95b01b4961d90d6664ffd14dc11f.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fe06ad8639d7ab1c7eb19e482d6aa8cb963fcaf251504a96373c7cc529310743.jpg

          3. I wandered lonely (where’s the crowd)
            That shops the High Street and queues at tills,
            When all at once I saw them proud,
            A host, of purple blue bluebells;
            Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
            Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

            (With Apols to William Wordsworth)

        2. They are butter uggers; you have to get them in the green because the bulbs are absolutely useless.
          We now have several clumps in the garden, but it took several years to get them established.
          The other one we’ve found a pain is lily of the valley; if it takes off, it goes mad. If it doesn’t it sulks and refuses to appear.

    6. Lovely camellia. Mine are covered in buds, but none is open yet. My vinca doesn’t look like producing any flowers any time soon. But then, you are Darn Souf 🙂

    1. Problem is, government mandates what the min wage should be. That makes hiring people expensive – especially factoring in national insurance on the employer side.

      Add in massive, uncontrolled gimmigration, high company taxes and a massive, inefficient state machine and you’ve a receipe for economic collapse.

  60. “Back to normal on 21 June”

    What a joke. BPAPM completely overlooks the Third Wave which will be starting in early June – and which will then “overwhelm” the NHS. Again.

    1. My thought exactly. That fourth criterion that had to be met is the get out of jail (i e keep the people in jail) card. They will be looking everywhere for new variants and if they can’t find them, they’ll make them up.

  61. The BTL comments are scathing, Boris you are fooling no one.

    Covid lockdown roadmap: key dates revealed for easing restrictions in England
    Boris Johnson on Monday announced a four-step exit from the current lockdown
    By Ben Riley-Smith, Political Editor 22 February 2021 • 3:44pm
    Boris Johnson has announced a gradual roadmap for reopening that will see Covid-19 restrictions eased over four steps spread across at least four months.
    The plans are an attempt to kick-start the British economy and ease the societal pressures of lockdown without triggering a dangerous resurgence of the virus.
    The roadmap will be underpinned by four key “tests” that are linked to data, which will act like a checklist that must be met before moving onto the next step of reopening.
    The four tests are: the vaccine rollout is going as planned; vaccines are effective in bringing down deaths and hospitalisations; case numbers are not rising so fast that the NHS risks being overwhelmed; new variants do not create unforeseen risks.
    The third test has triggered early debate, because rising cases alone will not be enough to stop reopening. That will happen only if rising cases risk overwhelming hospitals.
    The four steps are separated five weeks apart. That leaves four weeks to monitor the impact of the preceding step and one week to give people notice.
    The reopening is designed to happen uniformly across England, so there is no return to the Tier system.
    Below are the four steps of the roadmap. The dates are the earliest dates at which the next step could happen, with delays possible if the data takes a negative turn.
    Step 1, Part 1: March 8
    The first step is split into two sections. The focus is on getting schools open again and reuniting families who have spent so long kept apart.
    All schools in England will open, both primary and secondary. It is possible some schools may initially stagger class returns because of the demand for mass testing.
    The specifics of mass testing will be worked out over the coming fortnight, with testing both at school and at home likely to feature. Pupils will be expected to wear face masks in the opening weeks.
    School sports will also return, both indoor and outdoor. So pupils of all ages can get back to playing football and doing PE lessons. Schools can set their own rules.
    ‘Wraparound’ childcare will be allowed to resume, which means after school sports and extra curricular clubs can take place.
    March 8 will also see a change in care home rules. Residents will finally be allowed to have a single visitor. That individual can visit repeated times rather than the trip being a one-off.
    The visitor and care home resident will be allowed to hold hands, but other close contact is not allowed. The visitor must get a Covid-19 test beforehand and wear protective equipment.
    This date also sees a small change to the rules for when people can meet one-on-one outside in public spaces.
    Currently that was only allowed for exercise. From March 8, that will be allowed for socialising, so a coffee on a park bench or one-on-one picnic will be allowed.
    Step 1, Part 2: March 29
    The outdoor socialising rules change. Six people from six different households are allowed to meet outside, meaning the so-called ‘rule of six’ returns. Alternatively, two households can meet outside. This means two families, who potentially together total more than six people, will be allowed to meet. This can happen in both outdoor public spaces and in back gardens.
    The ‘stay at home’ guidance will be dropped. There will also be a significant loosening in how far people can travel to see someone outside.
    While people will still be encouraged to minimise travel, there will not be punishments for someone who drives a few hours for a meet-up outside, then returns that day.
    Outdoor organised sports for both adults and children will also return. This is for both socially distanced sports like golf and tennis and team sports like football, so Sunday league and five-a-side will return.
    Indoor sports will still be off limits. Also the sports must be organised, so a large group of people cannot gather to kick around a football if it breaks the number limits explained above.
    Step 2: April 12
    All non-essential shops will be allowed to open. People may be urged to only go in alone rather than as an entire household.
    Pubs and restaurants can open again but only outside, so pub gardens and outdoor dining will be back. Groups can gather, but with the same limits as above: either up to six people or two households.
    There will be no curfews or any requirement to serve a meal with alcohol, removing the scotch egg saga of last year. Pubs will be allowed to serve takeaway pints.
    Staycations will be allowed, in a limited form. One household will be allowed to stay overnight somewhere in the UK, but not with another household.
    ‘Self-contained accommodation’ will be available to rent, so for example cottages or Airbnb rentals or campsites. However hotels and B&Bs cannot reopen. Hairdressers and nail salons will be allowed to open. So too museums and libraries.
    Outdoor hospitality venues like zoos and theme parks can also open. The limit on the maximum number of attendees at weddings and wakes will also rise from six to 15.
    There will be no change for funerals, to which 30 attendees are already allowed. Gyms can also open but you cannot attend with people outside of your household, because indoor socialising is barred at this point. Gym classes are not yet allowed.
    Step 3: May 17
    Groups of up to six people and two households will be allowed to meet indoors, so people can enter each other’s homes from now.
    Pubs and restaurants can open indoors. It is unlikely there will be strict requirements on capacity, but it must be table service.
    Hotels and B&Bs can open in step three. So too can indoor sports and gym classes.
    Entertainment venues can open too, including cinemas and theatres. New rules will be in place for different sizes of venues.
    Normal outdoor events can open for up to 4,000 people or 50 per cent of the venue capacity, whichever is smaller.
    Similarly normal indoor events can open for up to 1,000 people or 50 per cent capacity, again whichever is lower.
    For huge outdoor seated venues there is a special limit. Up to 10,000 attendees will be allowed or 25 per cent capacity, whichever is lower.
    This means, for example, Wembley Stadium will be able to open with 10,000 fans attending.
    Weddings, receptions, wakes, funerals, and other life events like Bar mitzvahs and christenings will be allowed to be attended by up to 30 people.
    Step 4: June 21
    This will be as close to normal as possible.
    There will be no attendance limits on weddings and funerals.
    Big venues that were unable to open last year, such as nightclubs, can finally reopen.
    Many of the details for what can happen now is dependent on a number of reviews.
    There are four reviews that have been commissioned that sit below the roadmap. They are designed to find answers that right now the Government feels it cannot give.
    Each has a ‘complete by now’ date, meaning we know when to expect clarity but not what the review will decide or if it will lead to a change in the rules.
    One review is looking at international travel. It will see whether with vaccine certificates and testing the border can be more open than it is now.
    This must conclude before step three on May 17 by could report back in April. That means – theoretically at least – the borders could be relaxed in time for summer holidays.
    However there is no guarantee the current rules, which bar anyone from travelling overseas for holiday, will be lifted after the review, meaning summer holidays abroad are not guaranteed.
    A second review will look at social distancing measures. These include the keeping of two metres apart outside (or ‘one metre-plus’ inside), wearing face masks and being encouraged to work from home.
    That review is due to report back before stage four, which is June 17. In other words, do not expect to be told to go back to work in an office until the summer at the earliest.
    A third review will look at Covid vaccine certificates being used domestically. This is interesting as Government ministers had previously played down that possibility.
    It will determine whether testing or proof of vaccines could help open up parts of the UK economy. Exactly what that might look like remains unclear.
    It is understood that the Government remains concerned about the implications of such steps and will weigh moral and ethical implications of any moves like this. It will report back by step four, which is June 17.
    The fourth review will look at large events. It will attempt to work out when it is safe for large events to be held again. It too will report back by step four, so June 17.
    Pilots for big outdoor events will be allowed to take place from April.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/02/22/covid-lockdown-roadmap-key-dates-revealed-easing-restrictions/

      1. As an example of what you said, last year in an effort to keep the local pub going, we used to order takeaway meals that they started doing. At that time they were serving takeaway pints, now we are supposed to be grateful they can serve takeaway pints again in April.
        It is a bloody joke!

        2. All those lovely village pubs going bust and unlikely to reopen.

          And doubtless the properties will be converted into homes for wealthy white flighters.

        3. There is a link to a campaign to unlock pubs in this articel:

          https://www.countryside-alliance.org/news/2021/2/tim-bonner-protecting-rural-pubs?utm_campaign=1709575_22%2F02%2F21&utm_medium=dotmailer&utm_source=Countryside%20Alliance&dm_i=44G9,10N47,1MJH5T,4LQIE,1

          I, too, have to declare an interest as I have a share in a community asset pub. I have already contacted my MP and got a platitudinous reply promising more money. He hasn’t replied after I asked him where the magic money was coming from.

      2. Supposedly racing will be allowed a limited number of spectators. It might be nice if owners (i e the people who pay the bills) were allowed to go racing for a start.

    2. ” A third review will look at Covid vaccine certificates being used domestically. This is interesting as Government ministers had previously played down that possibility. ”

      Track and control everyone – everywhere?

    3. The four tests are: the vaccine rollout is going as planned; vaccines are effective in bringing down deaths and hospitalisations; case numbers are not rising so fast that the NHS risks being overwhelmed; new variants do not create unforeseen risks.

      That last one is a piece of never ending string – for ever and a day!

    4. Tsk ….. there’s absolutely no attention to detail.
      How many times per day am I allowed to clean my teeth and for how long? Am I allowed to spit and rinse? Are we advised to use nylon or real bristle brushes? Will there be enough power for electric toothbrushes? And at what time of day?
      Are tooth whitening brands allowed and will fluoride toothpaste be compulsory for under 50s?
      Honestly, what sort of government would ignore these vital details? Surely it doesn’t expect us to think for ourselves.

      1. It certainly does not expect you to live your life without their restrictions imposed on you.

    1. The Olympics is full of nonsense sports, but beach volleyball has to stand alongside synchronised swimming as one of the most artificial and pointless.

      1. I seem to remember that the Olympics used to have flower arranging as a ‘sport’. Mind you, seeing how the members of my OH’s flower club behave, it can be quite competitive.

    2. Do Muslim women compete in bikinis in other countries? This “respecting cultural sensibilities” should work both ways.

      1. No of course not. Their way or nothing. They are right and everyone else has to fall in line – or else.

  64. That’s me gone for the day.

    It turned chilly after lunch so I was glad to have done the gutters this morning. Then it rained. G & P – scampering round the garden – were aghast!!

    The MR is half way through pruning the roses. Various plants ordered for end March delivery. Tomorrow is supposed to b warm and sunny. But then so was today!!

    A demain

    3. I’ve just got round to reading a load of bumf I got from the county/unitary authority information department re funerals and backfilling of graves. Both require a form to be signed by the organiser and a list of rules which MUST be obeyed. The signatory is responsible for ensuring everyone is aware of what they MUST do (and obviously, what they can’t do). If there are more than 30 mourners, the police WILL BE INFORMED. Police state indeed.

        1. No, and neither do the clergy, cemetery management or funeral directors’ team. I see the roadmap has only 30 people attending weddings as well. Match and despatch on equal terms.

          1. Slightly facetious, but hire a number of mo(u)rning coats for people who would like to attend and say they are part of the funeral director’s team

  66. Cowardly gutless scum,kicks to the head should mean an automatic attempted murder charge and conviction
    https://twitter.com/724kdubs/status/1363800061927444480?s=21
    I look forward to the arrests and trial
    Aye Right……………….
    Edit
    The worst of it,imagine the screaming outrage all over the MSM and the Al-Beeb if the roles were reversed and a whooping laughing gang of whites were kicking a black repeatedly in the head!!
    We’d never hear the end of it!!

    1. Didn’t the white lad take the knee to them? – -Every single one of the scum should be named and shamed on national tv. – along with their parents – if they know who they are.

    2. The politicians should not be cooncerned, it’s only whiteys and cyclists getting all they deserve…

    2. I’ve just been looking up the current travel restrictions. It is like something from 1945. You need to fill in a certificate detailing your reason for travel before entering France – only specific reasons are accepted. I haven’t even looked at any other country yet. Plus you need a negative test to cross the border, and then quarantine and more tests. This is insanity, for a virus that was OVER in April 2020.

      https://www.interieur.gouv.fr/Actualites/L-actu-du-Ministere/Certificate-of-international-travel

      The UK travel plan says “international travel will return in May” – yes, and we know how. When you have given the government permission to inject anything they want into your bloodstream in the future, to keep your vaccination passport up to date.

      1. Poor dear France. They rely on our fish and seafood exports, our Tourism and us in the UK buying their cheese and wine amongst other things.

        I expect the French farmers to revolt soon.

    1. Hi Plum ,

      How nice for you to enjoy a ramble through your photographs , I do hope you weren’t too sad afterwards .

      Although your music says it all, so poignant .

      It turned out to be a nice sunny afternoon . Completed a double laundy wash . Chucked out a couple of old pairs of walking shoes which were quite dangerous , the treads were worn down and were very slippery , and had holey soles, I have been unable to find a similar pair on line . Ecco shoes have shot up in price .. so anyway I took the laces out , and used them to relace the worn laces on another tatty pair of shoes with decent soles .

      Lacing shoes these days is an intelligence test , and I failed miserably !

      I also tidied out a couple of drawers upstairs .. and filled a bag with old obsolete packets of prescription pills and things , stuff way out of date , and took them back to our chemist because they dispose of things like that .

      Later on we had a nice walk with the dogs ( travelled 5 miles in the car ) so many people had the same idea .. this has been a very different lockdown , lycra cyclists everywhere, and loads of people have electric bikes … these bikes can travel nearly 30 miles before they need another charge.

      1. Hi Belle.

        A good and positive productive day.

        I have an electric battery assist bike. I don’t wear lycra! Though i can reach speeds of 30 mph i choose to.

        What i do choose to do is sail sedately past all those huffing and sweating on their ‘manual’? bikes. It feels like i’m riding a Penny Farthing.

        Last time was out with the neighbours on a sunny day down to the beach at Lee on Solent. We had a G&T in 3 Pubs and then some Nachos. Bliss.

        1. Ha ha Phizzee ,

          The lycra whizz bang goers are so different from the electric bikers who are probably like you or I and others , bods carry baskets on the front with their flasks , sarnies, mobile phones etc.

          I spoke to several bods, I was admiring their bikes , and they had bought their from Halfords , hugely expensive , but minimal huff and puff. It is quite hilly around here !!!!

          How is your foot now, and were you happy with your bloods .. treatment?

        2. Perhaps foolishly, after doing some research on the interwebby thing, I bought a folding e-bike, a few months after my extreme chiropody. Unfortunately, I couldn’t manage to get the prosthetic feet to follow the pedals all the way round. Possibly because the knees are somewhat restricted from bending when the legs are on. Still, I sold it on eBay for almost as much as the purchase price. Nothing ventured…

          PS I’d look even more ridiculous in Lycra…

      2. ….I did need a sherry or two to cheer me up Belle, that put paid to the spring cleaning!
        My comfort walking shoes are slip ons….Hotter shoes – excellent or a decent pair of trainers.
        Wonderful warm sunny day here….tomorrow’s forecast – back to the rain!

        1. Hi Plum ,
          I have a couple of old pairs of Hotters , and the sole grip has also gone , tramping around doing our exercise thing on uneven pavements around the village .

          It was really warm this afternoon ,just the same as down with you . I always worry about the adders popping out for some warmth .

          Years ago , one of our previous dgs was bitten late sunny February , she was bitten as she squatted to wee in the grass, and the blinking thing bit her on the inside of her thigh .. her poor thigh swelled up so horribly .. She needed a 2 day stay at the Vet ‘s best vet hospital , anti venom treatment and a very hefty vet bill for me .

          One of my present dogs was bitten on his face by another adder a few years ago .. when we had a warm November ! Poor dog collapsed , but again the vet saved him and another huge bill.

          People have no idea that the countryside hosts some mean little biters , and there’s alot of them . My neighbour found one behind a pot of geraniums on her doorstep .. nice warm area. Yeugh !

          4. I was on the lookout today for the first time this year. Probably a bit too chilly at the height we were but once the sun creates little cosy basking spots, you never know.

  70. Hack for people who have small dogs. Though it is not recommended to give small dogs ginger biscuits on a regular basis because of the sugar content it is okay occasionally to settle the tummy. As long as there are no underlying health conditions.

    Last night in bed when reading my Kindle and scoffing ginger biscuits Dolly was growling at me. So i crumbed one and threw it over the rug.

    Once she had hunted down all the crumbs she licked the whole rug clean.

    Saves on dry cleaning i suppose. :@)

      3. Get woke, go broke. They’ll never learn. It won’t be hard to boycott it; I can’t stand the stuff.

        1. Snap. It has a strange aftertaste like an aperient (Lixon) that my parents inflicted on my brother and me when we were young.

    6. Some years ago an employee in my office had a birthday and kindly bought a can of Pepsi for everyone. Since I never drink Pepsi or ‘Coke’ (fearing for my health and sanity) I put the can of Pepsi into a cupboard that I rarely use, not wanting to upset anyone. Three months later I happened to open the cupboard, having forgotten about the can of Pepsi. Lo and behold, the Pepsi had eaten its way out of the can and there was a horrible mess on the shelf.

      What was I saying about my health? As for sanity, the above headline proves my point!

    7. A small bunch of us were talking about whiteness some years ago, and an elderly Eastern European lady remonstrated that the English are not really white at all. More of a sort of dirty pinkish brown compared to proper pure bred Hungarians.

  73. Evening, all. I’ve had my camper van MoT-ed today. I did the grand total of 87 miles last year and that included taking it for a blast up the dual carriageway and back to give it a pipe opener before I drove it to the garage! I see that Bojo has got the all-important get-out clause about freedom being dependent on there being no new variants included in his “road map”. That’s this year stuffed, then.

      1. Of Course – it’s to help our scientist be the first to identify the new variants so the UK can be No. 1 plague island in the World….

    2. How many of those 49 had been stopped previously? It reminds me of the adage about the IRA’s bombing campaign: they only have to be lucky once, whereas the security services have to be lucky every time.

    3. Didn’t the EU get those lorry scanners turned off at Dover? – -Why can’t we put them back on?

    4. Wonder if the authorities have a hotel of high enough grade that will be acceptable for the new guests?

  75. If I had £1 for every time the headline writers twisted the story to present the worst possible picture, I would be as rich as Phizzee, and nearly as rich as BT.

    Covid cases are UP for first time in SIX WEEKS with 10,641 new
    infections while deaths tumble to 178 in lowest toll since December 13 –
    and Britain dishes out just 150,000 vaccines in worst performance since
    inoculation drive started to gather pace

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9287473/Covid-cases-time-SIX-WEEKS-10-641-new-infections.html

    1. Feb 26th Huge party
      Feb 27th Huge hangovers
      Feb 28th Covid suddenly becomes ‘flu and life carries on as if it was 2018…

    2. Me too. On the question of the reluctant teachers, do as Reagan did with the air traffic controllers: sack the lot of them and reemploy on less generous wages and conditions should they want their jobs back.

  77. It has never really been about the virus, it has been all about control.
    If the R rate dropped to 0.1 tomorrow it would make no difference as he stated a “not before” date on when restrictions MIGHT be eased.
    They like the power and control, I’m starting to think this will end badly for them.

      1. “The tree of liberty has to be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants”.

        1. Apparently he said the N-word during a statement to some international conference in the last couple of days. IMHO the man’s senile as well as corrupt.

    3. You are correct. It will end badly for them. Crimes against humanity is the obvious charge along with malfeasance in public office viz. taking bribes and awarding contracts worth billions to their chums without tendering or proper audit.

      1. I agree, but who will be brave enough to stand in judgment and do the necessary? They are all as corrupt as each other. However, I live in hope. The alternative is unthinkable.

        1. 329618+ up ticks,
          Evening PM,
          “They” cannot survive politically without peoples support, look at the referendum result ALL parties / peoples
          in unity won the day.

      2. I’d be FAR more worried about letting the billionairres/big tech/business via the WEF & Co basically take over the levers of power with nary a word from the media or protest from the general public. Over the next few months, we’re going to see huge numbers of SMEs go under with the big boys cleaning up even more than they are now via the lockdown restrictions. Unemployment will rocket, with nothing but more borrowed money to pay for it.

      3. 329618+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        I have trouble believing it will damage the voting pattern in any lasting manner, rape & abuse of children covered up for years still found the support for mass uncontrolled immigration party’s and the evil consequences
        still in place.

    4. I have already heard talk of masks and social distancing continuing as some sort of normality. It will be interesting to see what happens if we have a hard flu season next winter, either as a result of a natural and nasty mutation or as some sort of secondary effect of the CV measures this year.

      1. The causes of next winter’s seasonal respiratory deaths, and most other deaths, will be attributed to whatever the PTB want them to be attributed to.

    5. 329618+ up ticks,
      Evening VVOF,
      I have thought no other way the wretch cameron / may duo confirmed it, I also believe they had a limit eu
      damage in place prior to the referendum, in case.
      They triggered it on the 25/6/2016, mays placement farce, 9 month delay etc.etc,etc.

      1. 329618+ up ticks,
        Evening M,
        That confirms it will be the reverse, remember the wretch cameron when promising to reduce the intake of “guest’s” he promptly raised them.

        1. Their wordplay means, to their elevated and misguided moral compasses (ha ha), that they are not lying.

    3. 329618+ up ticks,
      Evening EA,
      So there is no confusion these promises are coming via the leader of what passes for the tory party with the May elections looming are the member/supporter / voters aware of the pretendee tory past record on
      fulfilling vows, promises, & pledges ?

      If it is any consolation the lab/lib/ collection of political
      mercenaries are of the same ilk.

  79. Night All
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/abb399d60dd088817da89a7fb27b19580aa2e6aec3e36585008b3f61f86e0aa2.jpg
    https://images.mayusharethis.com/wp-content/uploads/imagesnew/2021/02/20210219073_Seg1_02.jpg
    Texans
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/521310f01eefdcf00260aee077b9a610b4082da9e49d860c6edc441f899122d2.jpg
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d97109786894f005d990f46e5eecb0cb3da4766b252f10491fb25aa0c4dc8455.jpg
    Ambitious
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f09f80c77fe55ef6ffffd330a257908f5bc0c348d20bea09eb19a263e9718257.gif
    And finally to all the young whippersnappers………..
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/2e95bf41de00dc65c84848501e0298490e8baee02503755368bbfcdab0b48848.jpg

  81. The ‘heritage summit’ will be British culture’s last stand against woke zealotry

    Among the 25 heritage bodies whose leaders will meet Oliver Dowden, too many are possessed by a Left-wing spirit that the public reviles

    SIMON HEFFER

    Perhaps it is because Covid has been so much on its mind that the Government has been so insipid and retroactive in its response to the “cancel culture” that has contaminated our society since the killing of George Floyd in May last year. The inexcusable death of this man at the hands of an American police force became the excuse for a small minority of highly vocal activists in this country to impose their ahistorical view of Britain’s past on everyone else, and to act in a proscriptive and intolerant fashion towards any aspect of that past – and there are many – that causes them offence.

    So it is a sign of grace that Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, has invited the leaders of 25 of the country’s leading heritage bodies and charities to a meeting tomorrow to tell them “to defend our culture and history from the noisy minority of activists constantly trying to do Britain down”. Such an intention sounds dangerously jingoistic: Dowden should be setting out to ensure that our history stops giving the impression of having been hijacked by the far-Left for its own ideological purposes, not least to seek, by bullying and aggression to marginalise those who think differently and to close down debate.

    He will have his work cut out. Many of these bodies have proved soft targets for extremists (particularly those hailing from universities), as they have fallen over each other trying to prove their “wokeness” in recent months. He should begin by reminding the charities that charitable status and political activity are incompatible with each other, and that the Charities Commission will routinely monitor them for evidence of breaches – and will order the removal of that status where charities have been hijacked by activist sentiment. The National Trust is asking to be made an example of in this respect.

    The non-charitable heritage bodies will be attending this meeting precisely because they are to an extent dependent upon public funding. Therefore, there is no reason for Dowden to soft-pedal. The average customer of these organisations is seldom so stupid that he or she needs to be told that policies were pursued centuries or even decades ago that would not be pursued now – or, as LP Hartley memorably put it, “the past is a foreign country: they do things differently there”.

    In explaining history, full information is always valuable. If a guidebook to a stately home, for example, wishes to state the objective fact that the wealth of the family who built it and furnished it was based partly on income from slavery, then there can be no objection to it stating that fact. But removing likenesses of people who so profited, whether paintings or statues, is unacceptable; and focusing the interpretation of such buildings or artefacts on the obsession with “decolonising” our history is likely to alienate the public, who do not attend these places to be brainwashed or manipulated. Dowden must say that such activities will be met by a loss of funding, and the transfer of curatorship to a more responsible body.

    He needs, too, to issue a wider injunction from this meeting: that there are other custodians of our heritage who also rely on Government support, and who must also be more intelligent about how they manage that heritage. The Archbishop of Canterbury has implied that there are memorials in Canterbury Cathedral with which he is not happy. This pitiful attempt at grandstanding is quite understandable, given Dr Welby’s craven attitude to most social and intellectual questions, but if the established church is going to start vandalising its heritage then official intervention is essential. Since God is supposedly about forgiveness, a memorial to a long-dead slave-owner or someone who profited by that iniquitous trade is a memorial to someone whom God has forgiven; it hardly becomes an Archbishop, even one sucking up to a far-Left minority group, to think he knows better than Him.

    The ancient universities of Oxford and Cambridge, who despite their wealth rely on cash subventions from Whitehall, must also protect their heritage. Only last week, the Cambridge college that bears the name of Winston Churchill hosted a conference of self-advertising exhibitionists who queued up to describe this dedicated anti-Nazi as a racist. At Oxford, the massive benefaction of Cecil Rhodes (from which many students of all backgrounds have benefited over the last century or so) is to be marked by the possible removal of his statue from Oriel College. The common denominator with so many of these institutions – stately homes, cathedrals, Oxbridge – is that without public money they either would struggle to operate, or would not operate at all.

    Secure in this knowledge, Dowden should not hesitate to confirm that funding will be withdrawn from any institution that chooses to twist or negate British history by adopting an overtly political attitude towards it. It may be a crude measure, but it will hit these institutions where it hurts, and the negative publicity will have an equally negative impact on their private fundraising. One only has to read the accounts of people who have resigned their National Trust memberships because of the Trust’s obsequious behaviour towards far-Left activists, not least in recruiting a group of them to draw up a report last autumn on the links between slavery (something the Trust seemed to equate with any connection to the British Empire, resulting in dead people being condemned for the most tenuous links with territories where slavery never existed, or which were not even part of the Empire until after slavery was abolished).

    Of course, the anti-intellectual assault on Britain’s past now goes far beyond statues and other monuments. The BBC needs to be warned that any attempt to repeat the absurdities of last year – when it threatened to remove certain patriotic tunes from the Last Night of the Proms and performed a hideous version of Parry’s Jerusalem – will not be tolerated. If the country had a credible education secretary, Dowden could enlist him to ensure a more objective teaching of history in our universities generally, and an end to the present indoctrination of history students to believe that everything about the British Empire was bad. It is people who have imbibed that ignorant doctrine who are responsible for the hijacking of too many heritage concerns, not least because they are afraid to break out of the minority group-think that has grown up around this question.

    The key consideration Dowden needs to remember, in the February 23 meeting, is that he has nothing to be defensive about. There will be men and women in the room who have failed in their duties as conservators and defenders of the nation’s heritage, and who are prepared to go further in their failures. Above all, he must not feel afraid to cut off the oxygen of taxpayers’ money or the privilege of charitable status for those who are determined to turn heritage into a form of brainwashing.

    It is one thing to re-interpret history using legitimate, accurate and relevant facts: it is quite another to weaponise it in the cause of some aggressive ideology and, in the process, alienate most of the people it is designed to benefit and enlighten.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/architecture/heritage-summit-will-british-cultures-last-stand-against-woke/

    1. That will require cojones on the part of Dowden, not to mention a belief in Britain. I won’t hold my breath.

    1. Amazing achievement but what is the point. I’m with Greta on this one. Basically, there are plenty of problems on Earth that need solving first.

      2. I must have missed Saint Greta’s pronouncements on the Mars probe.

        Of course one of the problems we need to confront on earth is the myth of man made global warming. That study would put the stupid little wench out of business if properly applied.

      3. There may be things learned from the mission that will result on changes in practice on earth.

        Things learned from motor racing, I many eyes a complete waste of money, have benefited motorists with the development of safer braking, better tyres, engine management systems, better mpg, smaller fuel saving engines etc etc.

        As a nation we went out and ‘discovered’ the world, brought law and order to many countries and educated them.

        I am all in favour of exploring even though the benefits may not be immediately evident.

  84. “I will fight on…Despite all of the election crimes committed against me. We will win.” – President Donald J Trump, February 22, 2021

    The reality is that President Trump has already won. He just hasn’t announced it yet for reasons already explained !

    1. There is a bottle of Samur chilled in my cooler for when the time comes. UK delivery only, and it has to be before 2024.

    2. There is a bottle of Samur chilled in my cooler for when the time comes. UK delivery only, and it has to be before 2024.

    3. Judging by what my friends in Fort Worth, Dallas and Georgia report, normal folk are incensed at the electoral fraud and determined to fight it. Several of my friends are committed to Christian charity work and acting on a global scale.

      Sleepy China Joe Biden needs to watch out for an immense backlash. The demented cretin, Biden, a nasty man at best, has absolutely nothing positive to say or offer. He is the puppet of a malevolent Obama snd Clinton conspiracy which is now even more blatantly obvious.

  85. Something needs to be done regarding obvious electoral fraud in the USA and by comparison, the total electoral fraud indulged in by Boris Johnson snd his incompetent and corruptible cabinet.

    The Johnson government directives snd missives are utterly unpredictable and are not guided by science at all. They are guided by an inept ‘cover your arse’ policy which has attempted to defer decisions on public health to a cabal of self interested charlatans, with shares In Big Pharma, including Vallance, Whitty, van Tamm, and those in the NHS management who wish to cover up their management incompetence.

    God help us all but these bastards should be held to account for their crimes.

  86. An early good morning to whoever is about.
    A letter & BTL Comment:-

    SIR – Lockdown cannot yet be significantly lifted, because the public approves of it.

    From the outset the Government has set out to instil unreasonable levels of fear, even now running shroud-waving advertising on television.
    This approach has been the very opposite of the traditional British “Keep Calm and Carry On”.
    It is the Government that created an attitude of fear instead of hope, and we shall all live with the economic and social consequences for a generation.

    Michael Tyce
    Waterstock, Oxfordshire

    Robert Spowart
    23 Feb 2021 3:59AM
    Michael Tyce is quite correct in his comment. I often wonder how the Hell we have, in such a short time, become a country of face nappy wearing, germophobic hysterics terrified to even pass close to other people in the street!
    When, if ever, this lockdown ends, it will take years to undo the damage caused by the hysteria from both the Government and the MEEJAH.

  88. Oliver Dowden MP has met with Melinda Gates who is more Davos than Davos.

    He’s the MP who wants draconian internet censorship with such massively unreasonable penalties that it could mean the end of UK social media.

    Don’t expect too much from the heritage summit, he’s got his future million dollar non job to think about..

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