Thursday 25 February: An obligatory smartphone Covid app would turn into an electronic tag

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/2021/02/25/letters-obligatory-smartphone-covid-app-would-turn-electronic/

784 thoughts on “Thursday 25 February: An obligatory smartphone Covid app would turn into an electronic tag”

        2. If you or anyone else here still has one of those ‘brick’ mobile phones somewhere at home, KEEP THEM – they may be worth a LOAD of money for rare early examples – especially those that work. My mum’s cousin owns an early hp calculator from the 1970s and it’s worth £0000s now.

      2. I still use my 2003 vintage Nokia 3410 dumb phone. Great for battery life (still on the original) in comparison to modern smart phones, and hardy when it’s in its protective case.

        I do have two smart phones – one Windows phone (don’t laugh – I bought it back in 2014 because it was the best at MS-Outlook integration for work and it has a free satnav – HereDrive [sadly the traffic reports etc is no longer updated so it’s just a map, which oddly IS still updated]) and a brand new Nokia 5.3.

        1. I had a gorgeous little Nokia 6110 (In a wonderful chameleon livery) back in the mid-1990s. Since then, though, I’ve been 100% 🍏.

    2. Good morning, unintended consequences for the Govt stasi, or stating the bleeding obvious for the rest of us.

      I thought Blair’s lunatic idea of marching miscreants to the nearest ATM to pay their fines was a non-starter. Do they intend to march someone to the nearest phone shop to purchase a mobile?

  4. GCHQ takes on Russian fake news bots with plans to use AI to find troll farms, new paper reveals. 25 February 2021.

    GCHQ is taking on Russian fake news bots with plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to find troll farms, it has been announced.

    Britain’s cyber spy agency has outlined how it protects the country against state-backed disinformation campaigns and other cyber attacks using AI.

    Shadowy organisations such as Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the St Petersburg-based troll farm indicted in the US for meddling in the 2016 Presidential election, will come under increased scrutiny.

    It’s not already doing these things? The appeal to Ethics smells of forward excuses for their transgression, probably on the domestic front. The most lucrative target for Fake News would be the West’s MSM where truth is almost extinct!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/02/25/gchq-takes-russian-fake-news-bots-plans-use-ai-find-troll-farms/

  5. ‘Morning All

    Today’s CovidClownWorld memes

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/062c249f74d9e41b4824db396ec0c9f5623003d4629799771b114ace0d19d5c9.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/703a93cf8325103800fbae803a3e272ad000daaf5ab2470b5bb46a5fe021d229.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/72cae8fc0ea7b34115460234d9f5c34fcc17968e0f3382de18fc8f30d157aac5.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9b7fc34e4a47099f03027f864ebb67f11c7fbd945ab6a9615fa5853510c081dc.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cd09352e2d10757fd548d639a627c40b152a2daad66db414f5bf38e3edfaee8d.jpg

        1. Rather like one of my favourite quotes from the film ‘The Hunt for Red October’:

          “The Central Intelligence Agency – there’s a contradiction in terms…”

        1. In My Opinion? International Maritime Organisation? Instant Mashed Onions?

          I give up: I cannot second guess these people!

    2. Overwhelmed = too many staff on a break / tik-tok dance routine practice

      or

      Overwhelmed (public sector) = Working normally (private sector)

  8. Why is Tony Blair driving government policy? 25 February 2021.

    All of which makes you wonder whether Blair’s interest in Covid is partly an advertisement for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, his sprawling think tank which brought together his Faith Foundation and his other interests, such as his controversial work with Kazakhstan dictator Nursultan Nazarbayev, an arrangement which involved offering PR advice after the country’s police shot dead 15 protestors in 2011. The institute’s financial statements reveal an organisation that has become a leviathan among think tanks. It records an income of $46.3 million in 2019, says that it employs 231 staff and works in 14 African nations, as well as the UK, US, eastern Europe and the Middle East.

    That’s our Tony. Lol! No depth too low. No action too vile.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-tony-blair-driving-government-policy

    1. I am astonished that he has escaped assassination – he is held in such contempt, genuine revulsion and hatred by so many people that I would have thought hat somebody would have been successful by now.

      1. His punishment is being stuck with that slot-gobbed maven. She’d have half of what is most important to him, his cash.

        1. I’m sure that someone as slick as Tony will have it all salted away somewhere offshore.

          Panama maybe?

      2. Oh, Anne…

        Twenty million Skintos = One Bawbee.
        Twenty million Bawbees = £1.

        Any fule kno that.

        1. 400,000,000,000,000 Skintos = £1, that’s not wheelbarrow territory for a bread roll, that’s grab truck territory.😒

    2. They’ll nae know whit’s hit ’em when they replace the Pound Sterling with the Poond Stirling.

  11. Morning all

    Here are the vaccine letters….

    SIR – Not everyone has a smartphone, or wants one. Those proposing Covid-19 status apps (report, February 24) for UK use seem to forget this.

    Or do they suggest that smartphones should be mandatory and we must have one with us at all times? If so, why stop with Covid-19 status?

    Dr Alex May

    Manchester

    SIR – With his classical education, the Prime Minister will be well aware of the myth of Pandora’s Box. A domestic vaccination passport is one such unwanted gift. Open it and the spirit of a national ID card will fly out. Today is not like 2010; it will prove impossible to return it to the box.

    Russell Hunt

    Fleet, Hampshire

    SIR – The government website advises pregnant women not to be vaccinated unless they are at high risk.

    Employers cannot lawfully ask women if they are pregnant, and many women may want to keep a pregnancy private for a few months. Requiring vaccine certificates would have a disproportionate, adverse impact on women and would be discriminatory.

    Ann O’Brien

    Leeds, West Yorkshire

    Advertisement

    SIR – Michael Tyce (Letters, February 23) is right to attribute exaggerated fears of Covid to baleful government messaging. As the great H L Mencken said: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”

    Charles Mercey

    Tellisford, Somerset

    SIR – Boris Johnson has achieved a world beater. He has combined a leading vaccine rollout with the longest lockdown on the planet.

    This isn’t a roadmap to freedom, it’s an extension of lockdown subject to ill-defined criteria. The lockdown jihadists have won, game, set and match (if we were allowed to play tennis). The rest of us can simply watch as society and the economy atrophy.

    Gary Graves

    Richmond, Surrey

    SIR – The Government uses highly subjective language to justify its appalling lack of understanding of risk.

    This approach to lockdown release is not “cautious”. It ignores the catastrophic effects on the health and prosperity of the nation of extending lockdown. It is like a government praising “caution” in banning the motor car to avoid road deaths.

    Jonnie Bradshaw

    South Warborough, Oxfordshire

    SIR – I shall believe in the roadmap to freedom when Parliament reconvenes in person.

    Gwen Settle

    Pinner, Middlesex

    SIR – It is interesting to see that Mars also appears to be in lockdown.

    N P Scott

    Reigate, Surrey

    1. Excellent, N P Scott.

      Mars is a wasteland due to natural events: the UK will soon resemble Mars due to unnatural events created by unnatural people.

    2. Excellent letters on the vaccine/COVID app/vaccine passport authoritarian moves, similarly on the incompetent (possibly deliberate) customer service from utility companies and the DVLA.

      Let’s hope this is a trend in the DT that contnues, rather than an occasional sop to buy off the many readers who are very worried about developments regarding the pandemic response.

  12. SIR – When I heard that all pupils were to return to school on March 8, I was filled with hope. However, this turned to dismay when I read that masks will be required in secondary school classrooms (report, February 24).

    As a teacher, I will not be able to carry out my job effectively if the faces that tell me whether my pupils are confused, happy or bored are covered. This is the last thing that young people need after a year of isolation, educational disruption and uncertainty about the future.

    Boris Johnson said last August that masks in classrooms were “nonsensical”. I agree, as do many other teachers and parents. There is little evidence that this measure has much effect in schools, but it will have a severe impact on the learning experience of all secondary pupils.

    Anna Dunham

    Melbourne, Derbyshire

    SIR – My children have been required to wear face masks in class at their academy since November 6.

    This may look great on a compliance graph in a transmission model – but remember that these masks spend much of their time screwed up in the pockets of children. They are taken out and put back in for days on end, and touched by unwashed hands. They are pulled under the chin on the muddy playing field, dropped, picked up, and so on. This is a far cry from the World Health Organisation’s guidelines.

    In the event of any transmission at school, it would be impossible to ascertain whether it took place despite the mask policy or because of it.

    Robert Curl

    Fakenham, Norfolk

    2. Have you considered issuing your children a new mask every day, Robert?

      *Not that i agree about mask wearing.

      1. I’ve found that shoving a used mask into a zip-up pocket of a garment before washing gets it clean and reusable.

      2. Perhaps he should think about that word “ guidelines” . The WHO said that advising the wearing of masks was a political decision (sorry don’t have the link).

  13. Good Moaning.
    Sorry to start the day on such a bum note, but seriously, in these days of efficient refrigeration, do we really need to export live animals for slaughter?

    “Cattle stranded at sea for two months are likely dead or ‘suffering hell’

    Two livestock ships have been refused entry to multiple countries on health grounds since leaving Spain in December

    Sophie Kevany and Ashifa Kassam

    Wed 24 Feb 2021 12.13 GMT Last modified on Wed 24 Feb 2021 12.15 GMT

    One of two livestock ships at sea since mid-December with thousands of cattle on board is now at the Spanish port of Cartagena, but the fate of its cargo is unclear.

    The two vessels left from different ports in Spain before Christmas to deliver their cargoes of animals, but were each refused entry by various countries including Turkey and Libya, owing to suspected outbreaks onboard both ships of the bovine disease bluetongue.

    Spain’s government and the country’s largest association of beef producers, Asoprovac, have both said the cattle came from areas free of bluetongue.

    On Tuesday, the Spanish news agency EFE reported that although Turkey had originally agreed to take the cattle, satisfied they were bluetongue free, the animals were rejected on arrival because of disease fears.

    A Spanish government source confirmed that the Karim Allah, carrying a reported 895 calves, was anchored just outside the Spanish port of Cartagena. The other ship, Elbeik, carrying 1,776 animals, continues to sit at anchor in Turkish waters off the coast of Cyprus.

    Silvia Barquero, the director of Animal Equality Spain, said she understood that many animals were already dead and any still alive would be “suffering a real hell”.

    Official veterinary inspections of both ships had been due to take place late last week in Cyprus and Sardinia, but neither ship approached shore to allow vets on board.

    On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Spain’s agriculture ministry described the ships’ plight as a “failed operation by a Spanish exporter, who was going to sell the animals in Turkey, then tried unsuccessfully to sell them in Libya”. The spokesperson did not respond to questions about animal numbers, conditions on the ships or possible next steps.

    The spokesperson added that the Karim Allah, “now arriving in Cartagena, left Spain with animals that had the corresponding health certificates and which were from areas free of bluetongue. The animals therefore left the port of Cartagena in good health.”

    Last week, the ministry said the Elbeik, which left from the Spanish port of Tarragona, was also carrying cattle from bluetongue-free areas.

    Calls for vets to be sent to cattle ships stranded at sea since December

    Maria Boada Saña, a vet with NGO Animal Welfare Foundation, said she feared that at least 100 animals on the Karim Allah were already dead.

    “The Karim Allah arrived Sunday night at Cartagena, sailing away from a planned veterinary inspection Saturday morning in Sardinia,” she said.

    She added that a Spanish agriculture ministry source said that although the ship was in Spanish waters, it had not yet requested entry to Cartagena port.

    “That means we have no idea right now if animals are alive or dead,” said Boada Saña. “Other sources, though, have told me the Karim Allah has not asked for animal feed. To me, the way it sailed away from an inspection, the way it is waiting and not asking for food probably means most of the animals are dead.”

    Dead animals would have to be removed from the ship by hoist and the operation could take at least a day, or much longer, depending on numbers, said Genoa-based lawyer Manuela Giacomini.

    In a related development, a Spanish government source confirmed that Cartagena port had temporarily suspended the departure of livestock ships until the Karim Allah docks. The vessel continues to be anchored in front of the harbour and the decision to enter the port was up to the owner of the ship, the source added.

    Prof Kristen Stilt, director of Harvard’s animal law and policy programme, who is writing a book about the transport of live animals, said it was an inherent risk with live transport that the animals would be rejected at their destination port.

    Once labelled as rejected, Stilt said it was “very likely that no other country [would] accept them, as we are now seeing with the two vessels at sea with calves from Spain”.

    Another problem for crew and livestock, she said, was the absence of an international arbiter that could assess claims of disease and make a binding determination. The result, she said, was “usually catastrophic in terms of loss of animal lives”.

    Dutch MEP Anja Hazekamp said “the only way to stop animal cruelty related to animal transport” was to introduce a total ban on the export of live animals outside the EU.

    “Both vessels concerned have EU certificate approvals, which means that they can load European animals and send them to third countries, such as Libya, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” she said. “In total there are around 80 vessels with such a certificate.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5d741a2ec6ae0c80c7943a420cf16f11be3f300e660ff3f21543d3579c098313.jpg

    1. ‘Morning Anne

      “Both vessels concerned have EU certificate approvals, which means that
      they can load European animals and send them to third countries, such as
      Libya, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia,” she said. “In total there are
      around 80 vessels with such a certificate.”
      Am I noticing a common theme here??
      Countries with a lust for graphic brutal slaughter with no concern for the animals??
      Same with the notorious live sheep transport ship………..
      You’re right ban them all

      1. Exactly what I thought. Is their death at sea preferable to their fate when they land in Shiiteholestan?

  14. Morning again

    Faceless utilities

    SIR – Grant Hawkins (Letters, February 19) felt intimidated by an email from TV Licensing threatening referral to a debt-collection agency. I am a 71-year-old widow who has recently received a letter from Thames Water threatening to send the bailiffs in and get a county court judgment against me.

    I have been in dispute with the firm for almost two years. My neighbour’s water meter is being charged on my account, so I have refused to pay my last three bills until this is resolved.

    I have lost count of the hours I have spent on the telephone to Thames Water. All its employees say is: “I’ll put a note on your account.” I have even sent a letter, by special delivery, to the company’s chief executive, but had no response.

    I don’t know what else I can do before I am arrested.

    Pauline Wood

    Ibstone, Buckinghamshire

    2. According to the BTL Comments, provided she has kept her correspondence with the utility company about it, she has little to fear should it come to court.

        1. I’m waiting to doorstepped by the TV Licensing Investigator having received a series of 5 increasingly dire threatening letters even though I have no TV on the premises and refuse to watch anything on iPlayer. All the letters say please let us know you don’t require a license. That I refuse to do as my experience with the arseholes and their system is that they take no notice. A couple of years back my mother who was suffering from macular degeneration asked me to dispose of her TV which I did to my local tip. I then arranged for her DD to be cancelled. Over the next two years she received threatening letters from TV Licensing, despite me phoning on several occasions and emailing them. The letters continued. I plan to video my interview with the investigator when he/she eventually arrives.

          Edit: Morning Minty et al.

          9. Bin or ignore the letters. If they come to your house they have no right of entry, you don’t have to speak to them – just politely close the door but whatever you do don’t engage with them. It is not illegal to have a TV on the premises – you just can’t watch LIVE television. The only way they can enter your house is if you invite them in or they obtain a court order which is highly unlikely

          10. I cancelled my DD to the bBC tv tax in Aug 2019, the arrival of my new licence reminded me that I hadn’t watched ‘livestream tv or the bBC i-player since before Nov 2018. In fact I have never thought to view the bBC i-player.

            (As an aside, how did the bBC manage to get that name past the Apple Corp lawyers? Surely it couldn’t be anything as murky as free advertising as every churnalist on the bBC seems to have an Apple product stuck to their hand)

            There followed a flurry of correspondence, in which I sent copies of all referred material every time I replied. Eventually they said they would provide a ‘Confirmation of No Licence Needed’ letter, and did so along with other letters ‘reminding me that I didn’t have a licence. I noticed that both sets of correspondence were ‘signed’ by Jackie Garswood. So my next missive, with full set of copies, was addressed, ‘Dear Jackie’…

            Two years later, as the ‘Confirmation of No Licence Needed’ apparently only lasts for two years, I’ve started receiving letters from Jackie Garwood stating that my No Licence needed ‘claim’ expires soon.

            As a non-bBC customer (I still happily manage without ‘livestream tv or the bBC i-player’) I don’t consider the bBC data base to have the same weight as a census and therefore see no need to offer information to the company. The bBC tv tax commissioned salesmen will be wasting their time visiting my doorstep.

          11. I think the next time I get a letter I might just invoice them my hourly fee for dealing with unsolicited correspondence….

          12. Just don’t engage with them at all. assuming you don’t watch live TV – or have a TV at all – it is no business of theirs.

            Tell the intrusive wasters nothing.

          13. Precisely my stance. I do not watch ‘livestream tv or the bBC i-player’.

            As far as I’m concerned, I informed them of this fact over 2 years ago. Job done.

          14. Spot on! The two year “expiry” of the No Licence Needed is an arbitrary one. It has no legal basis and filling it out, as you say, will just keep you on their database.

          15. Ignore every letter from Darlington. Just bin them all. Note they don’t even bother to put TV licencing on them.

            You have no legal obligation to tell them you don’t have something. Ignore the swine. If I had kept every abusive letter they send I’d have a 2 foot stack of them.

    3. Heating bills paid; three square meals a day; free telly; human company.
      Apart from being chucked into a Black Maria, you’re in a win win situation.

    6. Similarly with the next letter from Michael May about the DVLA – there’s just no excuse for their carp customer service – even during the pandemic. With the DVLA, I’m not surprised, given it is in Mark Drakeford’s juristiction. Any excuse to do a bad job, and COVID provided them with such.

      As regards water companies, I had a bad experience with mine (under its former guise as Three Valleys, I think) a couple of years after I moved into my flat (well over 10 years ago now). A near neighbour in the next flat block was moving out, and somehow my address was given (two numbers out). I then received a letter saying I would be charged up to X date in full.

      I telephoned them to say there was a mistake and to reinstate my account, but to do so, the said I must pay in advance to start with. I was not due to pay a six monthly bill for 4 months. They said sorry – no exceptions. I egt penalised for someone else’s mistake. I said to them wouldn’t it be prudent for them to have security procedures to check someone’s details are correct before accessing and doing things with their account, as they do with, say insurance? They meekly agrees but said they could do nothing.

      It had been well over a decade, perhaps two, since privatisation, yet they still act (as BT do in my experience) like they are a public organisation. They now (under their latest guise) are ending the low user tarriff to just subsidise the poor, so I have (as a single person) little incentive to not waste water, given my standing charge forms 1/3rd of my bill.

      Blimmin’ useless.

  15. Good morning from a bright & dry Derbyshire with 3°C on the yard and HGVs rattling up & down the Via Gellia!
    I do not know how many go past this place, but the majority is quarry traffic with a range of limestone products.

  17. 329715+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Yet another issue to keep the herd on the verge of stampede, doing wonders for the criminal fraternity bent certs / passports, now some form of chaff needed for the phones.

    We have in point of fact entered the people’s snail trail era.

    Why do we, in all honesty, continue to give our consent once again to what we have received from the governance parties in the past.

  18. Why is criminal mastermind Tony Blair “driving government policy” asks the Spectator…

    Because the Johnson administration is a “Fools and Horses” style “get rich quick” operation motivated, like Tony Blair, by billionaire bucks.

      1. Tony’s filthy rich laundry, “Soros and Gates”, launders billions for new client Johnson and Hancock and everyone is, ummm, getting filthy rich with stacks of dirty laundry.

  19. Bidding war breaks out over rights to air Oprah’s explosive Harry and Meghan interview in the UK with ITV claimed to be the front-runner, 25 February 2021.

    A bidding war has broken out between UK broadcasters over rights to air the incendiary Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, with ITV reportedly emerging as the frontrunner for the programme.

    The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are expected to be ‘very candid’ with their friend Oprah in the 90-minute CBS primetime special after last week announcing that they had officially quit the Royal Family.

    Whatever! I shall not be watching this exercise in gross vanity and pernicious greed!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9296107/Bidding-war-breaks-rights-air-Oprahs-Harry-Meghan-interview-UK.html

    1. That will be their friend Oprah who was invited to their wedding having met the slimeballs once.

    4. I never watch this kind of rubbish but … I have to admit being slightly tempted to see how cringingly awful it will be. I am torn between disgust and curiosity.

      1. I prefer to wait for the columnists to rip it apart. Richard Littlejohn and Piers Morgan are favourite.

        1. Piers Morgan is a turncoat and an odious slimeball. A phrase from Milton describing Death’s rape of his mother, Sin, in Paradise Lost Bk 2

          “embraces forcible and foul”

          I wonder if Celia finds his embraces like this!

          On the other hand I rather like Richard Littlejohn’s columns in the DM from time to time.

  20. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e11008a56bc33d82e149c4779b9158e5fbd89b6ee2e83068f139d2a138ce5822.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ddfa5fa9b37fd56b9054522d5effb7f6263513b8e1338001de30bbc3af850990.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8d46707c33fbb3e9b9b058bd9725b79f370cf670bd9e266669a37ea5490371f4.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8cb6955cbcc82d84be7a0a28ad152c9404bf30e77f11575cbdf2a17334c92636.jpg Just to prove that the lovely cards sent to me by you wonderful people reached me, here in Skåne, yesterday. They will remain on display on my bookshelves for the next decade! 😘

    2. Good morning, Grizzly

      Would have sent a personal e-mail or a letter if I had had your relevant addresses. You’ll find our contact details on our website if you’re interested in getting in touch.

  22. Good morning, all. A dreary looking day. The MR about to go to market. I shall remain here because “Parcel Farce” is said to be delivering a package today. They claim to have “attempted” at 19.05 last evening. Not here, they didn’t.

    1. Hermes tried that rubbish with me. I sent them time stamped video and called their driver a liar.

      1. Morning Phizzee – Hermes delivered a parcel to me this morning after I got an e-mail from them this morning saying it would come between 9am and – 11am. It is the first time I have had a delivery from them and I was pleasantly surprised. It was a little van with no Hermes markings which I could see. You obviously had a rogue delivery person.

        1. Good morning, clydesider. Sounds like they subcontracted that one.

          With my delivery i was able to track his movements. He went past my road. Then he stopped. My guess is the cafe. He then past my road again and went into town. He then past my house again.

  23. BBC’s woke diversity drive: Corporation boss Tim Davie wants 95% of staff to complete ‘unconscious bias’ training, 80% to declare their social class and 50% of all gay employees to be ‘out’. 25 February 2021.

    According to the BBC, the ‘ambitious plans’ will make it ‘the most inclusive and diverse workforce in the media sector’.

    The measures also include the introduction of ‘inclusive behaviour training’ and a ‘toolkit’ to improve listening and decision making.

    Mr Davie said: ‘We must, from top to bottom, represent the audiences we serve. We have made some big improvements, but we want and need to go further.

    ‘This plan will ensure we are a modern, progressive, welcoming organisation where our staff are supported to deliver outstanding creative work and background is no barrier.

    This Marxist organisation cannot be shut down too soon. Would it be too much to point out that the audiences they serve are the very opposite of this little soviet and that the “training” will produce not diversity but conformity!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9295787/BBCs-diversity-directive-Director-Tim-Davie-launches-bottom-shake-up.html

    1. I wouldn’t mind attending unconscious bias training. I would make sure that I became unconscious during the session, and would make my opinion of it felt by loudly snoring throughout.

      1. “Unconscious bias” is simply the old Marxist ploy “False Consciousness” renamed.

    2. “We leverage policy, legislation and political influence and build strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs and other actors”.

    3. WTF has anyone’s class, sexuality or opinions on history got to do with an employer?
      Employers are not allowed to ask if a woman is pregnant (which can have a dire effect on a company’s profitability), so how can they probe their backgrounds or thinking processes?

    4. What about picking the best human being for the job.

      Is Tim but dim going to be the first to declare this rubbish.

    6. A Gallup poll in the US has found who ‘identifies’ as being gay (or not heterosexual) by age category:

      18 – 23: 16%
      24 – 39: 9.1%
      40 – 55: 3.8%
      56 – 74: 2%
      Over 74: 1.3%

      I suggest that this has nothing to do with sexual leanings but everything to do with the gradual brainwashing of young people by left-wing teachers and organisations such as the BBC. In fact the left seems to be so powerful now, that perhaps we can expect the elimination, or even the illegality, of heterosexuality in the future!!

      Given the inexorable decline of western civilisation, thanks to the attempted termination of our heritage, culture and traditions, perhaps my facetious remark is not as stupid as it sounds!

      1. …perhaps my facetious remark is not as stupid as it sounds!

        Not to me anyway Sguest. My mind has run on a similar theme recently!

      2. Either homosexuals die very young or many young people are seriously deluded due to being brainwashed by their teachers/lecturers and social media.

    7. If they want to represent their audience then they need to be much older, with the majority over 50, almost no homosexuals and not a one of them having had any sort of idiotic diversity training.

      However, this is the BBC’s problem: it thinks the country is like them, when it isn’t. However, because the BBC thinks the country *should* be like them, it sees no problem with forcing it’s views and attitudes on it’s audience.

      As Humphrey said, ‘Government isn’t about giving people what they want, it’s about giving them what we think they should have!’

      2. I can’t help wondering, Bleau, why Charles Moore refused the job – did it look like a mountain or is it in fact, just a molehill?

    9. They are getting rid of 50% of gays? How will the beeb cope? Oh, you mean openly in-your-face queer, rather than just getting on with their lives.

  24. Trust

    There comes a time when a woman just has to trust her husband.

    For example…

    A wife comes home late at night and quietly opens the door to her bedroom. From under the blanket she sees four legs instead of two.

    She reaches for a baseball bat and starts hitting the blanket as hard as she can.

    Once she’s done, she goes to the kitchen to pour herself a stiff drink.

    As she enters, she sees her husband there, reading a magazine.

    “Hi Darling” he says, “Your parents have come to visit us, so l let them stay in our bedroom. Did you say ‘hello’?”

  26. ‘UN Security Council rejects climate alarmism’

    “Russia and India reject attempts to turn global warming into a global security issue…..

    ……..Tuesday

    saw the highest profile discussion of climate change in the U.N.’s

    central body for promoting global peace. But Russia, which holds a veto

    as a permanent member of the Council, warned against any move to

    recognize warming as a threat to global security.

    Moscow’s stance left the Security Council’s U.K. presidency stabbing at a broken panic button.

    “It is absolutely clear that climate change is a threat to our collective

    security and the security of our nations,” said British Prime Minister

    Boris Johnson, who presided over the meeting….”

    https://www.thegwpf.com/un-security-council-rejects-climate-alarmism/
    Thank the lord for Russia and Putin (not a sentence I saw myself typing a few years ago)
    Boros of course was reading the script provided by the Green Goblin Carrie via Bliar

    1. It is absolutely clear that Warmongers are a threat to our collective

      security and the security of our nations….

      1. 329715+ up ticks,
        Morning S,
        AKA the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration paedophilia umbrella, amnesties R us coalition party.

    2. Climate change is no more a threat to national security than Mongo.

      It’s weather. The real threat is massive reductions in energy output. Without power we’re slaves to nations with it. Without food, fuel and water we’re absolutely vulnerable. These fools are so blasted stupid it’s staggering. Can they not see the obvious? They are the problem? Have they not looked at Ukraine and seen the power Russia has over it?

    3. Thank the lord for Russia and Putin.

      Hi Rik. The main reason for the campaign to get rid of Putin is because he does not subscribe to any of these Red Herrings or the Neoliberal world view.

    1. I’ve been to the Ironbridge museum and area when I was doing my GCSEs – it was a very worthwhile visit. Is there nothing left that these derranged idiots will not despoil?

  29. Funny thing, chums. It was four weeks ago today that I had the first Oxford jab. The place on my upper arm where the needle went in is still, sort of, sore. Well, not sore, but I am aware of it..

    1. My comments yesterday about lulling them into a false sense of security were right!

      ((Time for my Cdr Riker smug look))

      https://youtu.be/jojimbUeZ-c?t=152

      It’ll probably be gone by tomorrow though when England collapse again and get beaten. I’m enjoying this whilst I can. [Edit 11:05 Well that lasted all of 15 minutes. First ******* ball! Nope – disallowed! Phew!] [edit 2: b*gger!]

    2. I am enjoying the cricket but I wish the Indian commentators had gone to the Dan Maskell school of commentary.

      2. That may explain why her nickname at college was allegedly ‘Seaweed’, as even the tide wouldn’t take her out.

          2. Looks like a wee laddie wearing a bearskin – without a chinstrap. Don’t suppose they had one strong enough to keep the mouth shut.

    3. I prefer the exam method. Fifty weeks of dossing, two weeks of effort. And no greasing up to teachers.
      What’s not to like?

  33. Good morning all. To rearrange the heading; an obligatory smartphone covid app would turn mobile phones into static phones, as the free people of the land abandoned them at home and went about their lives.

    I can’t see the Stasi asking, “Vere are your paperz and your phone?”…actually I can, but until our political ‘class’ have the balls to put it on the statute books they can shove it.

  34. Good morning all on this wonderfully sunny start.

    It’s been a weird week so far :-

    Monday stopped peeing mid -afternoon.
    Tuesday GP got me admitted to hospital for 7pm. Catheter fitted [ ouch ] followed by blood, urine and covid tests. Prostate test also – I think they’ve run out of fingers and used a broom handle. Have got a bladder infection. Overnight stay.
    Wednesday industrial porridge for breakfast then instructions on maintenance of tubes and bags for myself and carers. Sent home with 2 week’s supply plus told to drink more (yippee) and an appointment for district nurse to remove said tube.
    Today An excellent zzzz with no leaks but some soreness.

    Aiming for BofB’S volume of tea.

    Have a grand day and keep peeing.

        1. Provoked of Pontyclun this morning. The RW phone in was on 16 year olds voting. The few against the proposal were cut off pretty quickly. They didn’t mention that citizens of other countries can also vote in the May elections for the Welsh Gov. Free stuff for the many, apart from the few who will have to pay for it.

    2. Great news Issy.

      I’m having to drink 3 litres of water a day. I can’t quite manage it so i eat a melon a day too.

        1. When reading my kindle in bed i carry on drinking and keep the empty bottle for when i need a pee.

          Not very mobile at the moment. :@(

    3. I’m mildly miffed, positively peeved, a bit bummed, a tad ticked-off, decidely displeased, undeniably upset.

      Get well soon.

      [edit] Presumably when you’re well again, you’ll have to change your handle here to add a P at the beginning?

    4. Just back from Cromford, wood gathering en route, and my 4th pint mug of the morning is brewing!

      Bloody Rayburn is on one if it’s periodic hissy fits where it refuses to stay lit.

        2. Ah, kettles. The switch on our electric kettle snapped a couple of days ago, so we need a new one. I have been looking for an electric kettle that is made in the UK. Nothing so far. My enquiry to Swan elicited the undernoted response.
          “All Swan Brand LTD products are manufactured in China.”

        1. Coping quite nicely actually and the DT is extending her stay until Monday or Tuesday as she’s expecting to be restarting work at Crich Tramway Museum by the end of next month to get the place ready for opening.

    6. That’s what happened to OH at new year – ongoing hospital tests now……… hope all will be well for you Issy.

    8. Hope other places aren’t too sore either , sorry you are having such a beastly time Issy .

      I wonder whether that is why Prince Philip is in hospital .. he probably might need rehydrating .

      2. From our experience, many elderly admissions needed rehydrating.
        Because they lived on their own, they didn’t drink enough because they were afraid of wetting themselves. And also there wasn’t the social pressure of having a cuppa with chums/companions etc…
        Rehydration, a good bowel clear out and daily Vit. B complex; within days, the change was almost miraculous.

      1. It’s Charles talking to William about the Duke of Sussex!

        Mind you I don’t think the queen would have given birth to a child fathered by anyone other than her husband.

        1. I thought it might have been William talking about his uncle, Andy Porchester, (who, allegedly, has neither a Greek nor a Danish component in his DNA). 😲

          3. I think there are occasions when Andrew looks very much like the D of E, especially around the eyes and nose. I think Harry looks a lot like Charles and he has the chipmunk cheeks of the Queen Mother.

    1. HCQ since SARS in 2003. Anyone seen a government ad for us to take Vitamin D and Zinc? Or getting pharma companies to make them in huge amounts so we all can easily and cheaply buy them over the counter? Nope. Either they are completely incompetent and should’ve all been sacked 9 months ago, or they are in on it and they should be imprisoned for culpable homicide and corruption.

          1. I used to take several supplements – fish oil, vit C and glucosamine. Had to stop them as I was going into hospital for surgery – that was 10 years ago and I never went back to them – I really don’t notice any difference.

          2. I find Turmeric a boon. I took a month’s break from it – partly because my delivery got caught up in the Covid/Christmas chaos.
            I realised that there was a reason for taking it; after the four weeks I felt achy and everything required a great effort to get it done. Almost like a post-flu feeling.

          3. I bought some Turmeric/Curcumin for Dolly. When i looked at the ingredients i decided we could share them.

            *cocks leg up lamp post.

          5. When Dolly has a pee she does squat like a lady but she still lifts her back left leg.

            I didn’t teach her that or to hump her toy squeaky duck.

          7. I use a lot of turmeric in cooking. It is an essential ingredient in a home-made curry powder (much better than the ready-made muck). I use it along with: ground cumin, ground coriander, cardamom, chilli, cinnamon, cloves, mustard seeds, fennel, fenugreek, ginger, garlic and onion. Use as much of each to suit your taste.

          8. I honestly didn’t notice any difference when I stopped taking glucosamine, etc. I’d had aching joints for years, even in my 40s but now I’m over 70 and they don’t seem any worse, so I’m very lucky – I don’t think I have any arthritis.

          9. I used glucosamine for several years; again, like you, I found it didn’t really seem to do anything.

        2. Luckily for me I’d already bought two big bottles of multivitamins just before the pandemic struck (I had some Boots vouchers to use up), though no Zinc in them, but I eat enough of the Zinc-rich foods so I should be ok. AT the moment, the shelves appear to be empty of such supplements.

          BTW – Did anyone here get a flu jab last Autumn? If they weren’t widely available as usual, doesn’t that point to something more sinister, as in that the authorities/pharmacutical KNEW that COVID was going to strike, or something to that effect? I mean how would they have known that the sick and elderly would not catch the flu because they get COVID instead?

          1. I did – never bothered previously with flu jabs, but the propaganda must have got to me as I went last October and had the pneumonia one as well. No reactions to either. The nurse remembered me as ‘hedgehog lady’ and was surprised I’d not had the flu jab before before as I’ve had many for travel.

          2. I was sent an invitation to have a flu jab as i fall into the 50 to 60 year old category. It only took them 6 years to offer me one (i’m 56). I ignored it

          3. Possibly might be good idea to get other problems sorted first. Particularly as the C19 seems to cause blood clots.

          4. I was unsure about having a flu jab and then a covid jab soon after. I just thought it was asking for trouble.

          5. I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert (if you’re going mad, I’m the go-to girl), but looking at it logically, surely your system has enough to cope with at the moment. It’s not as if you’re out at raves every night or even popping into Tesco.

          7. Slightly OT, but I was reminded by the empty shelves comment.
            Yesterday, our local Homebase was more like a Soviet era supermarket than a western DIY warehouse.
            One branch was closed about a year ago and the remaining one looks as if the shelves contain jars of pickled gherkins.
            There may be trouble ahead.

          10. My folks 82 & 81 received their flu jabs as per normal and have since had their Oxford/AZ jab (they watch too much tv newz to do otherwise). They are awaiting the call for their second jab and both seem happy enough.

            My dad does a 3 mile stroll along the shorefront every day (unless it’s torrential out) and my mum and her pal still mask up a couple of times a week for the bus into Ayr for a coffee at M&S. Otherwise I do their ‘heavy’ shop alongside mine once a week.

            I lob a multi-vitamin, a vit D and a vit C every day, washed down with a berroca (other similar drinks are available). I have done the washed down multi-vit for most of the past decade as back then it was the nearest thing to breakfast as i wandered out to work at 06.00.

            Tesco still have shelves of vitamin pills various.

          13. MOH had the ‘flu jab last year. I declined as I’d had one the year before, it had made me feel ill and I got ‘flu in January and Covid in February.

        3. Every year at the start of September until the end of March Mrs VVOF and I take Cod Liver Oil tablets.
          Seems to work for us…….so far.

      1. After all, it mostly affects the already seriously ill and elderly, who are both a drain on resources and the former mostly being voters of a right-of-centre persuasion.

        Meanwhile, Biden allows all illegal immigrants in the US to find a path to citizenship rather than get deported to their country of origin. No connection there then…(replacement population).

        1. We’ve been told often enough.
          Old codgers are a drain on society, bed-blockers and a damned nuisance..so why are they interested in saving us?

      2. 329715+ up ticks,
        Morning P,
        The question is what is it’s potential in the
        wonga / booty department ?

      1. Isn’t he planning to have beef banned, except of course for himself and other elites, and replace it with insect protein and other mashed up non-mammal bits and pieces? I’m sure he’ll have the patents tied up and where better to “grow” the protein than on all the land he’s purchased in the USA. I believe that the EU recently stated that mealworms are safe to eat. Locust en croûte, anyone.

    5. Widely used against parasites? Can we send a load of tablets to Dover? It must do a better job than the govt is.

  37. Nicked Comment,horridly accurate prediction I can see it all now……………..

    “Has any journalist asked the government what it is going to do when twice
    weekly testing of 10 million children adds a conservative 10,000 “cases”
    a day to the figures just in false positives alone.

    Because the
    unions, the MSM, Piers Morgan, and uncle Tom Cobleigh and all are going
    to going into fits of spasticated shrieking about it, demanding schools
    close and we go into lockdown 4.

    Boris, this is going to
    happen, it is an absolute certainty. What’s the fucking plan? Your track
    record in holding the line is not exactly inspirational.

    Even if not, it will cause chaos in schools, which will be open in name only as
    whole year groups are sent home to isolate every other day, and most
    teachers stay at home “isolating”. Which is of course exactly what the
    unions want and why they insisted on it.

    1. Oh, c’mon, we know Johnson is lazy and detail is beyond him but even he couldn’t fail to see the figures growing. It’s part of the continuing road to perdition that this awful PM is overseeing.

      However, this morning it appears that pupil masking and testing are both voluntary, according to officials – reported on Telegraph digital edition. Further evidence of the government backtracking when confronted by public dissent?

      The idea of covid passports is also receiving a lashing on social media; we must keep up the pressure. Let’s give the Tories a thrashing (although from what I’ve heard over the years some might enjoy it) on May 6th. Vote for anyone other than the Tories, preferably Independents, Reform, Reclaim etc.

      1. It’s not Government backtracking, it’s Government shoulder-sloping putting the onus on the travel industry, hospitality venues, school boards etc to protect their users by bringing in a need for proof of jabs.

        It means the Government are liability-free (as they’ve already ‘pardoned’ the pharma companies) as it’s the bodies stated above who will bring in the restrictions, just in case.

        1. I’ve been posting for months that the government would get their proxies i.e. the shops, pubs, arena owners etc to do their dirty work. The reason being that equality, discrimination, human rights etc Acts would probably come into play. Government meddling with those delicate areas would likely arouse suspicion in even the dimmest snowflake.

          Then, along come rumours of the Blair creature advising and he is such a bastard that he may get Johnson to go the whole hog. Johnson has a reputation of acting on the words of the last person he spoke to, if true that is a very dangerous trait in someone with authority.

          1. Blair’s intrusive meddling is very, very concerning – and yet more proof if needed that lib/lab/con are but one.

  38. Test -It works if you click on the https link. Good news Priti we no longer need fruit pickers in the future!

      1. Ah no yer see they’ve thought about that. Inside every hopper is a circus dwarf primed to catch the apples and place them neatly into the trays…

  39. Not that it really matters , but I am still having lots of problems accessing here, I have to keep signing in , and then following comments I have to click one what I assume are photos , words that say java script not available, and view etc .

    My Twitter is fine, I am usually signed in here via Twitter.

    Con woman , less problems , but all I do is click on disqus logo, and things happen , but here is strange . Sorry to go on a bit … I am not actually signed into disqus ..

    2. a Canadian group that I use is moving away from disqus next week.

      We can still use disqus logins but it is easier to use and there is a support group that responds.

      1. Do such alternatives have the flexability of Disqus?

        After Guido Fawkes changed to using Vuukle, it has become awful to use – slow, mainly because it has a real-time content filter that scans every word and will shadowban, ahem I mean put aside for ‘moderation’ (which never is done) if the post is longer than a twitter posting or uses certain verboten (not rude/racist etc, just controvercial in their eyes) words or names – the more you post, the worse it gets.

        You can’t, as far as I know, follow you own posting history and threads and have to, like on the DT comments, scroll down many hundreds just to find your own ones on each page.

        It would still be good to have a decent alternative to Disqus should the need arise. Especially one that can deal with trolls and spammers easily and swiftly, as some forums I’m a member of have trouble keeping on top of them, especially spammers, once they are aware of the site.

        1. We will find out, disqus has been nothing but trouble so the site owners have decided that enough is enough.

          We have been playing with a test install, it seems OK but as you point out the devil is in the detail.

    3. I’m having problems too. If I post an uptick it shoots to the bottom of the page. Same when posting an answer. I sometimes get dizzy trying to follow a thread. Been like that for a while now.

      1. When trying to give an uptick ( and there are several votes already there ) put your mouse pointer at the relevant place – and wait – if the list of previous voters comes up – then the vote goes on. If you click straight away before the list shows up – then I found that is when the whole screen seems to go anywhere. If the vote count is low/zero I’ve noticed the screen stays there (usually ). Also seems affected if the place you are trying to vote is near the top or bottom of the visible screen.

    2. A giveaway budget? Wow – -who to? – -and where is the cash coming from? Paul Daniels would be proud of this magic money tree.

      1. 329715+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        The idea is once the ovis accept anything in any shape or form they will be held as being complicit
        when the day of reckoning court is held at the
        Cock inn .

    4. FFS. What they should be doing is sending everybody back to schools and work. There is no money left but still they’ve got the printing presses!

    6. Cut taxes – yes; only worth it if everything is open and FULLY (no social distancing, masks, ‘santising hands every 10sec) back to pre-pandemic ways of doing everything. No vaccine passports for ANYTHING in the UK.

      1. From today’s Transport World Digest:

        Air New Zealand and Malaysia Airlines are the latest carriers to sign up to trial the IATA Travel Pass, a new digital app that
        streamlines how passengers can access the COVID-19 tests required for their travel and securely convey results to airlines.

        IATA is working with about 20 airlines on Travel Pass.

        Sorry Andy, no flying for you…….

        1. Thats the idea, spend, spend, spend, in this life, so they don’t nick it all when you pass to the next. It keeps the music going in the economy musical chairs.

    1. If we have to wait 2 years for any side effects to materialise then why shouldn’t HE have to wait two years for his payment to materialise too??

    2. Only 2 years? Every other medicine that isn’t deliberately fast-tracked (because those taking it are near death or have no meaningful life, and thus have nothing to lose) by governments takes 5-10 years to reach the market due to the long term testing for side effects that don’t appear in the few weeks after taking the medicines.

      Anyone seen Gates take his jab?

      1. he could take the jab in a televised event (on OANN) and there would be deniers

        You can hear it now:
        They didn’t actually inject him
        They used distilled water
        It was a special vial

        And so on.

      2. His daughter allegedly had it, presumably pour encourager les autres but as Gates is strongly anti-vax for his family (ok though for the rest of the world) I would very much doubt she had the genuine article.

    1. Poverty in China means something completely different to the UK where it is simply a measure of comparative opulence!

  43. A 16 year old schoolboy was stabbed to death. The last sentence of the article is a terrible indictment:

    “Police are braced for a spike in violent crime this summer as lockdown is eased and society gets back to normal.”

    The new normal?

    2. Meanwhile, in local headlines…

      “News
      Lancaster records second highest house price rise in Britain outside London.”

  44. R4 this morning, a teachers’ rep 2as saying Covid schoolchildren’s grades must reward their hard work.

    Piffle. Grades shouldreflect hard work. The grade needs to show univerities/employers what an individual has learnt not how many hours they spent trying to learn.

    Imagine if athletes all got rewarded for hard work – every Olympian would get a gold.

    1. I expect to hear that a “wave” of covid19 infections happen over the next couple of weeks with all those people fraternising. And so close together!

    2. They should have done what the Merkins did when building the Hoover dam – carry the dead and mortally injured off site so they could claim no-one had ‘died during the construction work’.

    3. Strange that. The same people appear to have been resurrected and can be found waiting their turn for a dingy on the beaches of Northern France.

    4. Workers, mainly from the sub-continent, have been dying in the Middle East like this for decades. I have worked in Qatar and seen it first hand. They are treated appallingly, yet nobody seemed to care when they were filling up their cars.

      Then football goes to Qatar and suddenly, it’s a matter for concern. Yes, it’s a matter for concern but this treatment should have been highlighted ages ago.

      I like my football but I resent it when the game is used as a vehicle for social reforms.

      1. I loathe those countries, and Britons who go on about how lovely it is out there because there are so many servants.

    1. Afternoon Belle. Had one the ability, an “app” that located all the toilets in your immediate vicinity would probably make a small fortune!

      1. Hello Minty

        Last summer was chaotic .. We knew the provenance of the poohers who did it on our heathland , because everywhere / loos were closed .. The Bollywood effect that certain people from the Midlands rushed down the motorway for .. and the need to relieve themselves of their highlyspiced meals!

        There were no public loos or pubs or anywhere open, then later on during the summer, the landowner reluctantly installed the portaloo system .

        I think the same chaos will prevail again, and infact it has already started ..

        1. It is quite the thing in France, sadly, by the itinerants and casual workers (fruit picking). Someone we met said that he never got to see the views as he was too busy watching where he put his feet.

        2. same problem over here with all of the tourists.
          After a two hour drive from Toronto, then leisurely visits to several vineyards and next up is the need for a loo.

          Apparently anyones front lawn is quite acceptable was an alternative.

    3. Wait until there are millions more here from countries where they don’t have toilets/sewage systems – or know how to use them.

    4. It’s called integration. The natives are following the example of the boat loads of incomers to make them feel at home. What a considerate people they are!

      1. it was an Indian wasn’t it? He will probably be recognized with a medal and a big cash reward.

  49. Just been having a chat with the new neighbours. Thankfully they are the right sort. In their 50’s and white retired. They chose to downsize to a bungalow.

    They certainly picked a good place to retire too. Everyone in the cul de sac is friendly.

    He told me he served on HMS Hermes in the Falklands. I told him that my next door neighbour did too. CPO on HMS Illustrious. I expect they will hit it off.

    They also had some very sad news. Their son was on board a Hercules when it was shot down just after take off in in Iraq. No survivors. He was 25.

    My eyes started leaking and his wife gave me a hug, bless her.

    3. Done. Sadly, I have absolutely no faith in my MP, Will Quince, to do anything in support if that action goes against government diktat.

    4. Trying to remember which year the Countryside Alliance filled the streets of London with some 400.000 protesting Labour’s fox-hunting ban. We haven’t seen those sort of numbers since 🙁
      Whatever the issue.

      ETA: Looked it up, it was 2004.
      ETA: The same year Blair threw open our doors to all comers. While Germany, France etc kept theirs closed.

  51. Life’s a bitch and then you dye – or just go off colour. I haven’t had a drink for a while and now I have gout in my big toe. If you’ve never had it, it’s like having a Covid jab every second and someone knocking it in with a lump hammer. Could be worse, I suppose, I might only have Radio 4 for entertainment and information… Oh! Oh! Oh!

  52. England cricketers doing what they are best at – playing crap against spin and picking 2 fast bowlers in the team instead of spinners on a clearly spinners wicket.

    2. Could be worse F_A. You could be a NI cricket fan. Although like rugby, our cricket team being an all-Ireland team, we can at least blame the other lot for each defeat 🙂

  53. Joe Root secured his maiden five-wicket haul in Test cricket on Thursday, taking 5 wickets for 8 runs in a devastating bowling spell to leave India’s batsmen reeling at Sardar Patel Stadium.

    They probably couldn’t bat for laughing at the performance of his useless team mates.

    2. Match completed in only 140.2 overs, just after tea (well, its equivalent) on the second day.

      1. Let me guess; in the next match England will score 847 for 3 declared in the first innings. India will be 47 all out. England will bat again for the practice and get another 687 runs. India will score 1488 for 2 and win the match. The bookmakers will all buy a new yacht each and a chateau in France. Unpredictable these cricket games!

        1. I thought, after the first match, that this was the greatest, most invincible team the MCC had EVER sent overseas.

          What went wrong?

      4. The groundskeeper should be fined 80% of their fee for preparing such a poor pitch. And I thought me once playing on a pitch made of astroturf on concrete was tough…

  55. On the cusp of waking this morning, I let my thoughts free range. At this time of day they are unencumbered by interruptions from their owner (me). My thoughts were thinking of Korky’s graph of a week or so ago showing that ‘covid’ had petered out by the end of summer, and the usual winter viruses kicked in October, renamed ‘covid’ on the graph. I then thought about a comment of a son-in-law of a friend who works in the ICU at a midlands hospital, that he had “never seen so many poorly people”. I wondered why, if these were the usual winter viruses. Then I thought: what exactly was in those ‘flu jabs this year – was it a simple saline solution so that the active elderly and vulnerable would go out and catch influenza to provide that third ‘covid’ wave for the government? I would believe anything of Government now, if they can seed the residential homes with the sick from nhs wards, give them DNR notices to sign which they do not understand at the same time banning their relatives from access to the residential homes and denying them treatment when they became ill they are perfectly capable of giving us a placebo so we think they are protected. If I am correct we can certainly expect a ‘fourth wave’ this winter as they will do the same again to ramp up the fear. And to manipulate the population into getting a further ‘covid’ jab. Already the daily mail is trying to seed the idea, attempting to steer one’s thoughts away from querying flu, that there has been no ‘flu this winter because of social distancing (so why doesn’t it work for covid?).

    1. This morning on the radio the presenter ( I use the term VERY loosely ) had someone on the phone. This person openly admitted that all his life any infections had “gone to his chest”. He was saying that he had recently had Covid twice – and clearly survived – but was NOW hoping to get a jab. ( Yes that is the right way round – get it twice, survive both THEN get the jab ). Then the presenter was saying that it shows how important getting the jab is ?????
      Add this to the very weird way the figures are presented – so many per 100’000 – -and – dying within 28 days of a positive test – says something is so definitely wrong in what is being said.

      2. There are anecdotes that the Pfizer Biontech jab may assist in recovery from so called ‘long covid’.

      1. In the conflict between Realists & Fantasists, election results must be a mystery to you and your good lady JN.

  56. Any way, Chums.
    I have been:
    ‘Very Hands On.’
    ‘Diligently Watching.’
    … and have just bought my only scent
    at a 15% reduction… what’s not to like?
    [I need to stop watching movies on
    Amazon Prime
    I have forgotten how yer ENGLISH speak!!]

      1. Not a new scent, Jack,
        my only scent of use!
        So it is Thursday ……. again!
        i do wonder … are you only allowed out
        on a Thursday?
        [And my comment tells you what a sarcastic
        piece of work I am!
        Apologies!]

        1. Your scent won’t be wasted – to answer his question – yes it can still be detected through a mask. I passed a lady in the supermarket last week – and she smelled wonderful, even through the mask.

        2. Thursday’s after work, my better half is round to her sister’s for their ‘Girl’s Night out’
          The only time I have the house to myself. A chance to catch up on the latest news/updates on the blogs.
          A chance to read the detail the MSM don’t tell us.
          Nowt wrong with sarcasm, without it I would have no upvotes at all 🙂

        4. I was convinced when I got up that it was Saturday, then I realised that wasn’t true – it was Friday! All day, I’ve been convinced it was Friday and have only just cottoned on to the fact that, actually, it’s Thursday! Shows how much every day is the same 🙁

  57. A few random thoughts ….

    Don’t be worried about your smartphone or TV spying on you. Your vacuum cleaner has been collecting dirt on you for years.

    If you can’t think of a word just say, “I forgot the English word for it.” That way people will think you’re bilingual instead of an idiot.

    I’m at a place in my life where errands are starting to count as going out.

    I’m getting tired of being part of a major historical event.

    I don’t always go the extra mile, but when I do it’s because I missed my exit.

    At what point can we just start using 2020 as profanity? As in: “That’s a load of 2020.” or “What in the 2020.” or “abso-2020-lutely.”

    My goal for 2020 was to lose 10 kilos. Only have 14 to go.

    I just did a week’s worth of cardio after walking into a spider web.

    I don’t mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day diet food supply in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

    A recent study has found women who carry a little extra weight live longer than men who mention it

  58. American diplomats in China complain they were forced to take anal swab tests for coronavirus

    Headline from the DM, perhaps they should do the same in the White House, after all the place is full of @rseholes these days I hear.
    Ignore the fact the Chinese now say it was a mistake, I still think this type of test is perfect for Sleepy Joe and those in Westminster.

    https://www.mailonsunday.co.uk/news/article-9298587/China-denies-requiring-U-S-diplomats-anal-swab-tests.html

    1. That German army was a wonder! Had it not been led by a loony it would have created a Eurasian Empire the equal of the United States.

      2. There is a good book to be written where Hitler dies in 1940 and instead of turning east on the Soviets they keep their pact for the moment and turn South instead.
        3 million men,19 panzer divisions 2500 aircraft 7000 artillery pieces would have made short work of our North African forces…………
        A whole continent of “Lebensraum” would lay naked before them,untold mineral wealth and endless slave labour to exploit it……….
        Their new leader assuming sanity would also NOT declare war on the US after Pearl Harbour leaving us alone totally unable to launch any European invasions in fact our inevitable starvation and defeat would have us surrendering on the best terms possible

        1. If Hitler made a single mistake that doomed his ambitions, it was that choice not to invade the UK when he had the opportunity. Had he done so I think that he would have won the war!

          1. The Royal Navy would almost certainly have scuppered any invasion and it might have been as bad a mistake as turning on the Russians.

          2. Absolutely. I posted above before seeing your comment. I give an outline of a book I read many years ago in which the author sketched out how the RN would have defeated the invasion force in detail.

          3. RtD seems to think that an invasion force could have been shipped across in a few small boats, conquer an already alert SE of England in a week and do it without armour or anyone noticing they are there.

            Far be it for me to criticise, but the vast majority of real historians came to the conclusion it almost certainly could not have been done.

            But Hey ho…

            Too many watchings of the Eagle has Landed and playing on Nintendo, probably.

          4. He didn’t have much of a chance. If the Wehrmacht had crossed piecemeal insync with Dunkirk they could have gotten significant forces across but without heavy weapons. Given the disorganization of British defensive forces at that time it would have been enough to take an airfield, a port and they would have won. By July it was too late and 1941 was far too late. But they didn’t think that way then, hadn’t been trained to do crossings that way.

          5. If the Germans couldn’t prevent the evacuation of Dunkirk I very much doubt they could have done even that.

          6. Your point about the Germans crossing the Channel in June 1940 fails on the fact that the Germans did not have any ships to carry forces over to England. In June 1940 the RAF was pretty much intact as a fighting force and air superiority was essential for an invasion. The Germans never won air superiority and hence they never invaded.

            However, there have been several books written on what may/could have happened. One in particular puts forward the following scenario. Quite plausible when the opposing forces are compared.

            The author looked at what shipping the Germans had, mostly Rhine and other river barges, quite unsuitable for a Channel crossing and quick unloading of men and materiel. The barges would have taken the best part of a day to cross from anywhere other than Calais/Boulogne and would have been at sea overnight albeit the nights were quite short. The author opined that with the RAF opposing the Luftwaffe in the invasion area i.e. Kent/Sussex coast the RN would have been able to muster its light forces i.e. light cruisers, destroyers, sloops etc out of reach of the Luftwaffe at South coast ports and the Harwich area. As darkness fell the RN would have caught the invasion force in a pincer movement and without air cover the barges would have been sitting ducks for the RN. The Kriegsmarine didn’t have the forces to counter the RN presence. The result would have been carnage and so great that Hitler wouldn’t have been able to attack Russia in 1941.
            Speculation of this sort makes great reading but is just that, speculation. It never happened but the RN was a very aggressive force in those days, especially destroyer flotilla commanders, and they would have relished the chance of getting in amongst those barges with guns, torpedoes and even depth charges.

          7. My point does not fail because I did not suggest that the Kriegsmarine would be involved, at least not until there was a significant bridgehead. That is why I said ‘piecemeal’, that is in small boats infiltrating British traffic. That most certainly could have been done and many junior officers in the Wehrmacht were petitioning to do it at the time. What forces on the British mainland could have resisted them? There were none, it was complete chaos.

            The Royal Navy could not have dominated the channel. The Luftwaffe had effective air supremacy over the channel from early on, plus the Royal Navy had almost no effective weapon systems against U-boats in 1940, hence ‘the happy time’. They would have been unable to prevent re-supply over such a short run carried out by fast small boats, which the Germans had quite a lot of. Stopping supplies crossing at night would have been completely impossible, the Royal Navy had no radar in 1940, and Chain Home low didn’t work below 1,000ft.

            The Wehrmacht would have only needed a week to win complete control over the south east, and the British Army as it was in Spring 1940 would have been incapable of ejecting them. Once they had the south east Fighter Command operations over the channel would have been impossible and the Royal Navy would have had to retire, or be sunk.

          8. Another of your ill thought through hypotheses.
            You do write some utter bollocks.

            Do you really think that the UK locals living on the coast would not have been aware of troops coming ashore?
            Do you really think that Fighter Command was only based in the SE?

            Just how many crack Wehrmacht troops would have got across?

            What equipment would they have had?
            How would they have moved around at speed?

            And even the poorly equipped UK forces would have had access to tanks.

            Yeah, yeah, of course the Germans would have conquered the SE in a week.

            Your assessment is bullshit of the highest ordure.

          9. If you had digested what I wrote above you would see that the RN would have been in Portsmouth and points West and in the Stour and Orwell rivers’ estuaries. The former covered by RAF Fighter Command 10 Group and the latter by 12 Group. They could dominate at night once the Luftwaffe had abandoned their daylight attacks. It would have taken one night of carnage to have destroyed any hope of invasion. You’re also forgetting that Hitler had very little confidence in the part played by naval forces in warfare.

            One night of incalculable losses and he would have pulled out. As for the U boats, many of not a lot in 1940 would have been deployed in the Atlantic. In any event I’m not sure how the U boats would have been effective at night in a small area of the Channel during a melee between a great number of slow moving barges and a fast hard hitting force of RN light warships. I challenged your assertions by giving an outline from a book written by a war historian who researched the strengths and weaknesses of both sides and came to a conclusion. Nevertheless it was speculation.

          10. The RAF making low level night attacks on shipping? Had they trained to that? No. Did they have bombing systems to do that? No. So they would have had to use light bombers higher up. RAF light bombers hardly ever hit anything, and moving ships at night would have been quite beyond them. Bomber command before the war like the RN concentrated on having weapon systems, not on actually hitting things.

            Germany had few ocean going U-boats in 1940, most of the fleet was inshore, good for the North Sea, readily available and proven effect against RN capital ships and destroyers. But they would have been rendered partially ineffective by the torpedo problem, though not completely.

            Bear in mind also that RN gunnery in 1940 was astonishingly bad. Lack of budget meant that there had been little or no live firing drills. Half the men on the Hood had never heard the guns fire. The task force that sank the Bismark fired 600 rounds at an almost stopped ship and hit it 6 times. Tovey despaired and sent in Devonshire with torpedoes to sink her. German naval gunnery was by contrast excellent. Top class gunnery control systems and lots of practice. Yes the RN sank the French fleet at anchor Oran, but they had maps of the anchorage and a stationary target so they knew where to aim.

            You central point about Hitler is certainly correct. Plus he would have handed it all over to Raeder as he did with Norway and Raeder thought in terms of capital ships. It would only have succeeded if the Germans had taken the whole of the south east before Raeder got his trousers on.

            You say I didn’t digest your post. Well yes I did, but you have not accepted that if this was to be done, if it was to be done at all, would have been with small forces and fast ships/boats. If the Germans has got 10,000 infantry ashore they would have overwhelmed the south east in days. Capital ships and invasion barges would not have been used. After that Fighter Command’s bases would have been a long way from the Channel, German airbases close to it, facing a basic 3:1 superiority in single seater fighters. A Spitfire from Portsmouth would have had about 30mins patrol time over Dover-Calais with the 130 mile round trip from base, they would have been ridiculously out-numbered. That would have meant German air supremacy over the Channel and a lot of sunk RN if they hung about.

    2. Triumph of quality over quantity?

      ETA: “Under the command of Brigadier William “Loony” Hinde, the 22nd Armoured Brigade group reached Villers-Bocage without serious incident on the morning of 13 June. The leading elements advanced eastwards from the town on the Caen road to Point 213, where they were ambushed by Tiger I tanks of the 101st SS Heavy Panzer Battalion. In fewer than 15 minutes numerous tanks, anti-tank guns and transport vehicles were destroyed, many by SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann.”

      Didn’t take much finding JN.

      2. Wittmann, who was himself destroyed by the best anti-tank gun of WW2, the British 17 pounder. It took the Germans a long time to accept that the 8,8 had been outclassed.

      3. IIRC, Willie Whitelaw was there and had his tnk shot out from under him.
        Wittmann was a craftsman.

    1. I don’t understand how a bunch of politicos can censor documents that would embarrass them from a court of law.

      That’s corruption, fraud and the sort of nonsense you get in banana republics.

    1. A friend of mine, who lives in a small town deep in the New South Wales bush, used to be the Australian finance director for a Swedish company. A Swedish colleague “acquired” for him a Swedish road sign warning of moose crossing the road. That sign was placed into a consignment of parts exported to Oz.

      The sign has been mounted on a post, in his street, for a couple of decades now, much to the puzzlement of tourists passing through. 😂

  67. Tiger Woods’ blood was not tested – didn’t smell of alcohol.

    Good job he hadn’t been drinking then, he might have had a serious accident.

      3. You know. The all American Black hero. Adulterer, drug taker and drunk driver. Apparently he can play golf quite well.

    1. Given the dire state of the Eurovision bong contest I think Dominic is in with a great chance of winning….

  69. Tonight on the telly : Educating Rita on BBC Four at 2100 GMT

    It’s about a seedy English teacher (Michael Caine) who likes the young ladies and a young working class hairdresser (Julie Walters) who enrols on an Open University English Literature course to ‘find herself’.

    (Of course seedy English teachers who are fond of the ladies are out of fashion at the moment but, in the days before I met Caroline, they were all the rage!)

    [Incidentally Rita’s advice on how best to stage Ibsen’s Peer Gynt deserves an α+]

    1. “It’s about a seedy English teacher (Michael Caine) who likes the young
      ladies and a young working class hairdresser (Julie Walters) who enrols
      on an Open University English Literature course to ‘find herself’.

      What a crock of shit. He may have been a bit of a drunk but he wasn’t a letch.

        1. The film that became a cult in France was the Robin Williams’ film The Dead Poets’ Society and called Le Cercle des Poètes Disparus. )

          It took its title from the film Educating Rita where the Michael Caine character describes William Blake as a dead poet.

    2. ‘Yeats..the wine bar..’

      My daughter was at Liverpool Uni….we often quote Rita.

      “Doctor, are you drunk?”
      “Drunk? Of course I’m drunk. You don’t really expect me to teach this when I’m sober.”

          3. Andy is far too busy to post on here. He has massive back order on loo rolls for the NHS.

            Jennifer got a big kick in the butt and is on her way to Mars.

  72. Seems to be another quiet day on Breitbart/NTTL.
    Posting on Breitbart’s Gwyneth Paltrow thread…

    “Jack S • 5 minutes ago
    What is it with these American eejits?
    Can they not keep their nonsense their side of the pond?
    1•Edit•Reply•Share ›”

      1. The American eejits are part of what attracts me to Breitbart 🙂

        “Nice of you to join us here!”” I’m guessing you don’t really mean that 🙂

  73. A blistering essay over on The Slog. Polly will be apoplectic.

    https://therealslog.com/2021/02/25/over-the-threshold-to-technocracy/

    Lots of links and even a Guest appearance on one of the videos of one N Clegg giving an obsequious apology for having to censor dissenting posts…

    And it seems the Americans finally had their Magna Carta event in 2011. To mis quote George Carlin “It’s a big Carta and you ain’t in it!”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13d4978ce3543aebe9adadd89390d59a076afbd100a139e6e260bf38382437eb.png

      1. I bought one to keep in the car. I haven’t used it yet.
        I do usually take a squirt as I enter Morrisons and wipe it over the trolley handle.

        2. I’ve never used the stuff, preferring to use soap and water when I get home and where necessary.

      1. From the same stable as Cameron’s “Hug a Hoodie!” campaign.
        Around the time people realised the Conservative Party was not the same Conservative Party they voted for.

        1. Cameron never said that, the words were put into his mouth by the execrable Vernon Croaker.
          An unpublished letter to the DT I posted nearly 12 years ago:-

          HUG A HOODIE

          Sir,
          If you were to try and find any speech in which David Cameron coined the phrase “Hug A Hoodie,” you would fail as that particular phrase was, in fact, created by then New Labour Home Office Minister, Vernon Croaker in reaction to a speech made by Mr. Cameron in July 2006.

          During his policy speech on youth Crime Mr. Cameron was expounding on the causes of the youth disaffection that is the cause of so much of the crime committed by that age group and made the observation that one of the key elements missing from the lives of these young people is love.

          As many people who have worked with disaffected young people will agree, this is a perfectly valid and reasonable observation. Too many of our young people are lacking the real, deep love in their upbringing that leads to parents being willing to put themselves out to ensure their children have the best start possible.

          That Vernon Croaker’s throwaway response has become attributed to Mr. Cameron is an example of how so very often the media refuses to let the facts get in the way of a good story.

    2. Many years ago, when newly arrived in yer Narfurk, I was waiting on Ely station to meet my then wife.

      I asked a porter (remember them??) whether the train was running late. He replied: “She hasn’t been heard of since March”.

      It took me a few minutes to realise……

      The train, by the way – ran from Glasgow to Harwich. Serving Scottish (and north-west English) troops in BAOR

        1. Indeed – and at the NNUH very good they are. Cheerful and helpful.

          Must be one of the last bastions of good old-fashioned nomenclature.

          One told me that he reckons to walk 16 miles a day pushing beds around.

          1. On my recent multiple visits to Hospital i found the Porters

            (they had to wheel me around a lot in my chair)

            very caring and cheerful. I did wonder what the tipping etiquette was.

            Obviously they are being paid too much.

    2. I’m reasonably good at DIY and have a smart pair of scissors and a roll of red electrical tape (Red is the new black)….

    1. You don’t have mackerel in a kedgeree, you need smoked haddock. Also kedgeree is a breakfast dish, not supper. Ask anyone in Deolali! 🤣👍🏻

      1. Does one suddenly suddenly lose the ability to comprehend when passing 70?

        Read my post again and see me after for detention. :@)

        I said the sky complemented my supper. Not that it was in it.

        I used one of my treasured Arbroath Smokies.

        In fact i’m going to buy another pair of them right now.

  85. A council is arranging an urgent inspection of asylum seeker accommodation in Derby after concerns were raised about conditions there.

    Photos of the property seen by the Guardian show part of the kitchen ceiling missing, rubble in the base of a shower, cracked and missing tiles, rusted pipes and plaster missing from walls where wallpaper has peeled off. The garden is strewn with litter and discarded furniture.

    A bathroom at the property.
    A bathroom at the property. Photograph: Handout
    There are about 64,000 people in Home Office accommodation. The majority are in shared housing, and about 10,000 are in hotel accommodation.

    It has been reported that the Home Office is planning to accelerate moving people out of hotels and into housing, known as dispersed accommodation, in a scheme called Operation Oak.

    One of the asylum seekers in the house in Derby was moved from a hotel in Birmingham just over a week ago. He said: “The conditions in this house are so bad they make normal life impossible. I have not been able to take a bath for a week because water was pouring from the bathroom through the kitchen ceiling.”

    Serco, the company that has the Home Office contract for provision of accommodation in this part of the UK, was last year fined £2.6m for failings on a Home Office accommodation contract between September 2019 and January 2020. It had previously received a fine of £1m on another asylum seeker accommodation contract.

    Serco told the Guardian last year it was broadly meeting its performance standards and had improved performance on addressing emergency maintenance issues and resolving people’s complaints.

    Clare Moseley, the founder of the charity Care4Calais, which is providing support for many asylum seekers in various kinds of Home Office accommodation, said: “I am disgusted to see anyone living in conditions as squalid as these. We have recently witnessed the Home Office’s uncaring attitude towards asylum seekers in hotel accommodation. What are we going to see next in dispersal accommodation?”

    Revealed: shocking death toll of asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation
    Read more

    Sarah Burnett, Serco’s operations director for immigration, said: “Looking after the asylum seekers in our care and ensuring that they are kept safe is always our first priority. When complaints are raised our team of professional housing officers, maintenance and gas engineers responds and investigates and corrects the problems as and where they exist. We do this within strict timetables laid down in our contract.”

    Serco sources said one communal bathroom was working and one was being “isolated” to stop leaks going through the ceiling into the kitchen and that part of the kitchen ceiling had been removed to fix the leaks. The sources acknowledged that the working shower cubicle, which is covered in black mould, was in need of minor repairs and a thorough clean.

    “There is rubbish in the garden, which is partly due to refurbishment work and partly due to previous occupants leaving it there; Covid has prevented the timely removal of all this, but that will be put right in the coming days,” Burnett added. She said the kitchen had been fully refurbished last summer.

    A spokesperson for Derby city council said: “Based on the evidence provided in the photos, Derby city council does have concerns regarding the condition of the property. The council’s housing standards team will be inspecting this property as a matter of urgency. A discussion has taken place with Serco and we are in the process of arranging an inspection.”

    Of course if any of you have watched the house auction prog called ” Homes under the hammer “.. you will be familiar with the sort of Asian / African buyer who has heaps of money to buy up properties to let … usually to the local souncil

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/feb/25/concerns-raised-over-squalid-serco-asylum-seeker-housing-in-derby

    1. Why do they care about foreign illegal gimmigrants when there are homeless people in Derby already?

      The Guardian doesn’t care about locals, it sees them as an annoyance in favour of the hard Left promotion of the inappropriately titled ‘refugees’.

      1. What no one seems to want to discuss is …Clare Moseley, the founder of the charity Care4Calais, which is providing support for many asylum seekers in various kinds of Home Office accommodation, said: “I am disgusted to see anyone living in conditions as squalid as these. We have recently witnessed the Home Office’s uncaring attitude towards asylum seekers in hotel accommodation. What are we going to see next in dispersal accommodation?”

        What on earth is Care4Calais.. and why have we accepted asylum seekers en route from France?

        1. They are the weepy handwringers who were taking food to the Calais camps – with Lily Allen one of their prime supporters.

        2. We accept them because of the Big Lie that they are”asylum seekers”. it is impossible to legally come to the UK from any country in Europe as an “asylum seeker”. This is because they will have left a safe country to come here. The requirement is to seek asylum in the first safe country into which they travel. The only way to be an asylum seeker in the UK is to arrive here by plane.

          1. You could, possibly, paddle you’re rubber dinghy from Libya, via the Pillars of Hercules, the Bay of Biscay and the English Channel but…

            …I’ve not heard of any ‘Asylum Seekers’ landing in the Scilly Isles or Cornwell/Devon/Dorset.

      2. I wonder what would happen if a group of homeless folk scraped together a few bob to buy a rubber dinghy and rowed it onto a Dover beach?

      3. Late reply w…

        “wibbling Jack S • 14 days ago
        You’re making that usual sad assumption Lefties so often do that because you think it, everyone else does too.

        We don’t. You’re in the minority. If you don’t like common sense and incredulity at the insanity of this back to front bonkers work, nip back to the guardian where they can indulge their fantasies of how high taxes are good and massive public spending creates jobs, wealth and growth.

        *Snigger

        Jack S wibbling • 14 days ago
        To those out here on the fringes of the Right 95% of British voters are Socialists/Marxists.
        We majority can live with that.1•Share”

        “Lefties? Socialists? Cultural Marxists?”
        Do you recognise those labels and who uses them w?

    2. ‘Evening, Mags, “… I have not been able to take a bath for a week because water was pouring from the bathroom through the kitchen ceiling.”

      Try running upstairs and turning off the taps in the bath and pulling the plug out!

  87. This is so sweet……..

    Now David ”Soros” Cameron wants ”passports to go to the pub”, just like Tony ”Soros” Blair……

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9299127/Ex-PM-David-Cameron-backs-Covid-passports-open-economy-rapidly-possible.html

    ”In May 2017 the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) granted Cameron’s appointment as a Director of U2 Frontman Bono’s One Foundation which is also supported by Bill Gates and George Soros’s Open Society”.

    Funny how great minds think alike !

    I wonder why ?

    1. Gave up reading after “Pretty Polly.” Putting it down to experience.
      The Americans seem to love your nonsense.
      The same Americans who say “Farrage should run for PM.”

      1. I find it strange you bothered to comment on something you never read.
        If I done that I would monopolise the blog, for the number of things I have not read is huge….

  88. I am off for today. Have a lovely evening planning how to vote in May.

    Looks like a chilly night but a sunny day tomorrow.

    A demain.

        1. Either him or Laurence Fox. Maybe For Britain or what’s left of UKIP. Not forgetting Nigel and his next “party”
          Between them they’d struggle to fill a London bus with their supporters.
          A Ballymena built London bus at that 🙂

          1. I don’t trust NF as far as I can blow him. He let down the electorate appallingly when he unilaterally withdrew so many Brexit party candidates.

          3. I would beg to differ – there were many people who were not his “fans” but who might well have voted for a Brexit Party candidate, as an alternative to a Tory one.

    3. I will only give serious consideration to candidates who are against lockdowns, mask-wearing, vaccine passports (especially when in the UK) and who wants to find out what REALLY happened re: virus transmission in hospitals, care homes and the dodgy tests, etc etc. That and – for local issues – not ruining our town centres.

      For me, that probably rules out my local Tory party (my MP was one of the ‘Grieve 12’ who tried to bring down the government over Brexit on the remoaner side and gave me a dismissive response when I emailed him about it – the local party stood by him throughout) as well as the usual left-of-centre lot.

      Let’s see what the anti-woke/lockdown/Brexit Party/Reform people have to say and if they put anyone forward. Other than Lawrence Fox and Farage popping up on Tw@tter and YT occasionally, the silence in my neck-of-the-woods has been deafening. I bet that for my council area, the Lib Dems get in again with Labour, even after the ‘high point’ under Mrs May in 2019. Too many people may way are still royally ticked off with the Tories – especially locally, because they thought they had a devine right to govern and rarely bothered to campaign or listen to voters’ concerns.

    1. The questioner talks far, far too much and should have hammered home questions rather than spouting off himself.

        1. Indeed so.
          But given he has a limited time he should have kept asking closed questions in follow up and then undermined ITS case.

          IT damned itself, keep handing IT another spade.

        2. Indeed so.
          But given he has a limited time he should have kept asking closed questions in follow up and then undermined ITS case.

          IT damned itself, keep handing IT another spade.

          5. Search on “Hague v Bercow” The Guardian is good as any.

            “26 Mar 2015 — Mr Bercow was almost overcome by emotion as he announced the result … William Hague wanted a secret ballot to decide the Speaker’s future …”

      3. You might be forgiven thinking that the Democrats are deliberately poking a stick in the cage to rile the Republicans into violent reactions

        2. Biden’s handlers are deliberately placing vile, corrupt, incompetent and inexperienced halfwits in prominent government positions. The inept policy is designer deliberate but will in all probability backfire.

          Hundreds of thousands are leaving the Democrat run cities for the flyover states. New York has been run into the ground whilst California is bust with usurious taxes.

          1. There may be method in their madness. It’s not just republicans leaving high tax democrat controlled states. There’s anxiety in Arizona & Texas that a number of those fleeing California are also taking the democrat politics with them and voting accordingly…

          2. For sure but having witnessed a Biden presidency the sensible Democrats will likely flip. Not all Democrats are as batty as Biden and Harris or as malevolent as Obama.

          5. I’m pretty sure that it won’t be long before both Texas and Arizona secede from the Union, taking a few other states with them.

        1. Having “enjoyed” Boris I sometimes start to wonder if we actually made the right decision…

          6. Back in the day when Nigel told you eejits to elect Diane James as your leader?
            Then followed up with Paul “Nutter” Nuttal. And Henry Bolton.
            Back then you clowns were a a joke which was no longer funny.

          7. Given this may be the most dishonest and corrupt PM/government in recent history, Boris and his “Garden Bridge” seems small fry now.

          8. I’m not convinced that they really are corrupt, but as to incompetence and dishonesty, even Blair is getting worried.

          11. 329715+ up ticks,
            Evening P,
            That is precisely what the lab/lib/con politico’s want, no one loses a chair when the music stops.

      5. I believe that Creepy Uncle Joe turned on the Virtue Signal again. At least that’s one woman he won’t be feeling up any time soon…(joke – don’t sue me please!)

    1. If you think that’s bad, try coming to Sweden and getting your head around the indefinite article here! In English you have ‘a’ and ‘an’ and their respective uses are specific and easy to assimilate.

      Not so here in Retardland. They have ‘en’ and ‘ett’ as the indefinite article and, do you know what? There is no logic or rule as to which is used and when! Whenever I ask I’m told that you have to learn each word and then discover (by learning) which one is used in every case!

      If I use ‘en’ when it should be ‘ett’ (or vice versa), the locals simply smirk and tell me that it is wrong, but they cannot tell me why it is wrong!

      3. In the end, you get to see which feels better and is usually right. Dunno how it works.
        Norwegian has a feminine as well… en, ei & ett
        En mann
        Ei Jente
        Ett dings

          1. You get the hang of it after a while.
            I never forget the day when I first made the adjective agree with the noun WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT!!
            Oh, the joy!

          3. Our visitors don’t want to learn our language. They might be pushed into a job ! Same as the ones stopped by the police – who suddenly can’t speak English.

          4. Tell me about it. When I was translating/interpreting I got a call in the early hours – interpreter needed for a French lorry driver who’d been stopped for some infringement and didn’t speak English. Ok, give me five minutes. I’d just got dressed and was about to leave when I got another phone call saying, don’t bother; when he heard an interpreter was on the way, he suddenly decided he could speak English after all.

          5. If it was not for the leadership of a Mr W Churchill, the Slave Master, those words would have been totally natural for you

          6. Where were you when the Veterans turned out to protect his statue OLT.
            Left it to the Football Hooligans?

          10. Centre-right posting on Further-Right/Far-Right safe spaces. Ad-Homs come with the territory. 🙂

        2. Yo Ol

          It makes no difference now in WoUKe

          Whichever one you use, you will be told that you have incorretly Gendercast them

    1. Every single one of them should have their penis removed. THEN deport them after taking every penny off them ( which has probably come from us anyway. )

      1. The most effective technique is the brick treatment, a suitably cultural and primitive form of gelding.

        They will need their penis to err …..pee.

        2. Ahem, trivial fact coming up here. In the days when eunuchs were kept to guard the harem, they were “swept clean” (i e everything was removed) and they peed through a rod placed against the scar (which often looked like a rosette). It’s amazing what you learn on Nottl 🙂

      1. 329715+ up ticks,
        Evening OLT,
        Well for starters the backing of the lab/lib/con coalition group and supporters either with knowledge of their paedophile actions or ignorant of them,as the JAY report revealed only to clearly
        regarding rotherham.

    3. Talking of paedophilia ogga, is UKIP’s own South Thanet “predatory paedophile” out of prison yet?

    1. Rest of UK might be happy with ““Prime Minister of England”
      If our lot weren’t even worse.

  103. Her Majesty Davos-Gates-Windsor tells us………

    ”The Queen has said people who refuse the coronavirus vaccine “ought to think about other people rather than themselves”. In her first comments on the subject, Her Majesty said it was important that people were “protected” by the vaccine.

    Speaking to the senior responsible officers overseeing the delivery of the vaccine across all four UK nations, she said that her own immunisation, administered at Windsor Castle in January, was “very quick,” adding: “It didn’t hurt at all.”

    She added: “Once you’ve had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you’re protected, which is I think very important.

    “And I think the other thing is that it is obviously difficult for people if they’ve never had a vaccine… but they ought to think about other people rather than themselves.”

    No !

        1. She always does what she believes is necessary to keep her family on top. The entire RF appears to have been convinced that the way forward is Gates-Soros, so they had better get with the agenda sharpish.
          Charles is all over the WEF, and William has gone woke.

      2. Its an interesting one as she doesn’t normally get involved with politics, which this crisis definitely is.

      3. Looks like it. She is a fool to break her habit of a lifetime and get involved with this lame government’s dishonest dealings.

      4. “She added: “Once you’ve had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you’re protected, which is I think very important.”

        I find it very difficult to believe that Her Majesty said “you know”.

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