Wednesday 3 March: Church buildings must close to free worshippers from the cost of upkeep

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/03/letters-church-buildings-must-close-free-worshippers-cost-upkeep/

815 thoughts on “Wednesday 3 March: Church buildings must close to free worshippers from the cost of upkeep”

  1. Biden’s immigration policy will destroy him. 3 March 2021.

    I really do think that Joe was never anything like a moderate. IMO he has always thought of himself as a progressive. He just kept quiet about it. He is a supremely ambitious man and when it was advantageous to seem moderate he behaved that way. But now, he is king of the world and can act out his fantasy life in imaginings of various kinds including the “thought” of himself as a heroic defender of the immigrant. You know, like his fighting, bombing Molly McGuire forebears.

    He has lost it over this open borders thing. Most of the world’s poor and discontented want to come to the US. They are marching toward the SW border in vast numbers. Many of them are not Latinos. Africans, Middle Easterners, South Asians, they all want in. And Joe and company have hung out welcoming signs in every way they could imagine.

    There are millions of Americans who lost their employment in the pandemic madness that gripped much of the country last year. Some millions of them are still out of work and Joe Joe is growing their numbers through ideologically motivated pipeline shutdowns. BTW these shutdowns are not motivated by concern for the feelings of Indian tribes. They are motivated by the desire of people like Biden’s nominee for the Interior Department to halt the consumption of oil and gas. The economics of such a halt mean nothing to such people. All of them including the ass John Kerry share a college delusion about the mobility of labor pools.

    Illegals, sanctuary seekers and criminals are going to pour across the border. Joe will drown in that tide. Pat Lang.

    Morning everyone. The view from the States.

    https://turcopolier.com/bidens-immigration-policy-will-destroy-him/

    1. Lang – ‘May your lum reek’ seems to have lost its traditional welcoming meaning in this case….

      Morning Minty et al

    2. I imagine Joe feels glad to wake each morning. And wishes that he could just sit by the fire and read his newspaper – slowly.

  3. ‘Morning All

    A rich crop of #CovidClownWorld today

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/af0d442bf80fbb2a0f220f3a9724b7204c9215e1e37f8f686a3efb8803e4c30d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4db334fdc8d8284933bb00911f370b3eaa863d526753fae93c8a3b262e87e310.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8003278569a05e1f6a56e76bcd5c7ad1f3fea5bede8a8e6ebccd10c7570c825f.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c5d8405042a13c4d9279d9400db4b5a56cb0a53ad7897d65f2d87c185f22a418.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/b11018ec684c52c79f50b593c53eb4cbba6722498fd2d30253e21902bd520470.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/df9a719a159bbeaa5404139669adba68466809ab478996f7306c761cd82e6094.jpg

    Finally from 2010 THAT’S Awkward…………..

    https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/15061

    1. Where the foxtrot is the volume control on that TR/SY-L/NHRN link?
      It comes up at full volume without visible control.

      1. Yes, it’s horrific. When junior went back during the brief hiatus last year they were all stuck like that. A couple of boys couldn’t cope with it and the teacher, who I respect hugely – broke all the ‘rules’ and went over to hug them. Then they talked about what a virus is, why they were wearing masks and that it wouldn’t be forever.

        Then we were all locked up again.

      2. the norm in pre-schools in Spain. Whereas in Denmark the toddlers wrap up warm and play outside.

    3. All – in my book – fine. It’s finally some useful, trustworthy data (confirmation bias notwithstanding). However, did that 1 person die from the virus?

    3. “We think we’ve come so far. Torture of heretics, burning of witches,
      it’s all ancient history. And then, before you can blink an eye,
      suddenly, it threatens to start all over again.”

      “I believed her. I-I helped her! I did not see what she was.”

      “Mr. Worf, villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well-camouflaged.”

      “I think, after yesterday, people will not be so ready to trust her.”

      “Maybe. But she or someone like her will always be with us, waiting
      for the right climate in which to flourish – spreading fear in the name
      of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to
      continually pay.”

      With apologies for the shameless lifting. The Left will never, ever stop until they are stopped.

      1. “”Maybe. But she or someone like her will always be with us, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish – spreading fear in the name
        of righteousness. Vigilance, Mr. Worf. That is the price we have to continually pay.””        .
        Eternal paranoia is the price to pay. Vigilance is not enough.

  5. HAHAHAHAHAHA

    Breathe

    HAHAHAHAHAHA

    “Amazon sales for banned Dr. Seuss book soar over 5.7 MILLION percent after publisher halts printing over ‘hurtful’ stereotypes”

    https://www.rt.com/usa/517035-dr-seuss-sales-amazon/
    Streisand Effect!!
    Those original box sets of Fawlty Towers and It Ain’t Half Hot Mum saved for the grandchilden will be illegal underground material soon!!
    All joking apart I have started to notice bowdlerisation of more and more films I remember fondly,it’s a real shock when the mind goes wtf happened to that scene or lines……….

    1. Morning Rik. It’s not a bad idea to get “hard copies” (CD’s books etc.) of your favourites since they will soon vanish!

    2. Some films when shown earlier in the day have scenes cut for age censorship reasons. I even noticed it with Star Wars. When viewed in the evenings the scenes are still there. Just sayin’.

      Other than that i couldn’t agree with you more.

      1. Morning Phizz. There has always been some degree of censorship, sometimes because of the watershed and some for running time but we’ve now graduated to full on Political Censorship!

        1. Morning, Minty.

          I have noticed. For me i can no longer watch live broadcast because of the way these issues are shoehorned into the plot.

          Much the same with cinema. They don’t make films for 50 plus any more.

          I have also noticed it in modern authors.

          1. Much the same with cinema.

            Churchill on the Underground. That’s when I turned it off!

    3. I have ‘Till Death us do part’ . In Sickness and in Health’, ‘Curry & Chips’ and a few more boxed sets of the period

    1. Perhaps we could do that to Gummer. Not only would he be in agony, he’d be forced to experience the hell his idiocy has forced on the country. None of his troughing, corruption and greed would matter then, as he died, slowly and painfully.

    2. That explains why they are so keen to install wind factories at sea: no evidence.

  10. Morning all

    SIR – Since March 2020 I have worked almost without a break, holding live morning prayers, quizzes, virtual services and much more online. The diocese has been consumed by the challenges of Covid-19.

    What do the parishes need at this time of crisis? They don’t need to be put under more financial pressure from the centre; they don’t need to be discussing sexuality; they don’t need diocesan consultations.

    I am rector of three parishes with a combined population of about 11,500 people. I oversee three beautiful listed buildings, one of which has just required maintenance costing more than £60,000.

    Our churches have been closed for 10 weeks, as requested by the bishop and the public health director. I have no idea how many people will come back to worship when we open on Palm Sunday. I have paid my diocesan contribution of £58,000, and, thanks to the generosity of my congregations, we are not going to face substantial challenges in 2021.

    There have been some green shoots: people we have never before had contact with have joined our online meetings and we have generated connections through our food bank.

    However, the fact remains that the job is too big and the demands too significant if our parishes are to meet the extra challenges the diocese and national Church are expecting of us.

    Now is the time to be radical and visionary. What both clergy and congregations need is to be set free – free from unnecessary costs, red tape, diocesan strategies and national consultations. Church buildings must close, and the weight of their upkeep lifted from congregations’ shoulders. Holding church services in people’s homes, and meeting in schools and village halls, must be the new normal.

    In 1945 the Church published a visionary document called Towards the Conversion of England, which was sadly never implemented. We are in danger of making the same mistake.

    Clergy are tired, short of resources, and burdened with costly buildings and a system that is overly managerial. Let’s create an agile and flexible Church that responds to society’s needs. I believe Covid-19 is calling time on the old pattern of being “church”.

    Rev Duncan Beet

    Rector of Sileby, Cossington and Seagrave

    Leicestershire

    1. SIR – If you cut off the connecting roots to a tree, no matter how rich the soil, the tree becomes top heavy and will fall. Sadly, this looks like happening to the Church of England.

      Charles Lovell

      Wolsingham, Co Durham

        1. Other than seeing the CofE as a rather weak bulwark against the Islamification of Great Britain, I suspect the great majority of folk don’t see themselves as having a Dog (collar) in this particular fight?

      2. It’s the cathedrals that should be closed, not the parish churches. Dreadful nests of liberalism and dirty politics.

    2. NO, No and No again. Looks like another footsoldier firing a shot in Welby’s campaign to close churches.

      Zoom. Isn’t.Church!

    3. What an arse.
      Maybe the solution would be to spend the money on the Church buildings, not the diocesan administration?

  11. SIR – It is difficult to know what the BBC hoped to achieve through its Politics Live debate on whether Jews should be classed as an ethnic minority.

    As a Holocaust researcher, I found the episode troubling. Distinguishing Jews in such a way – as has been done in the past – leaves open the door for ready attack and castigation. As a public broadcaster, the BBC might be reminded of its social responsibilities.

    Daniel Adamson

    Department of History, Durham University

    1. “…a Holocaust researcher…” Really? But apart from that, is he suggesting that Jews should hide their ethnicity, pretend to blend in?

    2. Looking forward to the BBC debate on whether Irish Travellers should be classed as an ethnic minority…

        1. People should be allowed to tell the truth of their experiences with travellers, instead of these people constantly being glamorised with stupid TV programmes.

  12. Morning again

    Grim humour

    SIR – In your obituary of Rupert Hambro, we learn that his father, Jocelyn, after losing a leg in Normandy in 1944, said: “What a day to be shot, August the 12th.”

    These men were made of tough stuff. In the same war, Lord Cowdray, when told by his surgeon that it had been necessary to amputate an arm, said: “Thank God for that. I shan’t have to play golf again.”

    Bryan Oates

    London SW18

  13. Old-time signs

    SIR – Talking of “pulling the chain” instead of “flushing the loo” (Letters, March 2) is one of many reminders of a bygone era.

    Steam trains all but disappeared more than 50 years ago, yet the road sign indicating a level crossing ahead shows a steam train, smoke and all. It’s the same in France.

    Richard Holroyd

    Cambridge

    1. How many of us use a twirling motion of the hand to ask someone to open the car window?

    2. I love chain lavatories so much that I would like to have one installed in my house to annoy my children, and hopefully fascinate any grandchildren I might have in the future.
      They have a drama that is unmatched by boring modern plumbing.

      1. A friend of mine used to collect ‘chains’ – he had an amazing collection from all over the world

      2. We installed a chain lavatory when we got rid of the (wholly inappropriate) harvest gold bathroom suite after we moved in. You do need a fairly high ceiling.

    3. Why do people insist on using the word ‘train’ when referring to a locomotive? The train is the chain of carriages or trucks that the locomotive hauls.

  14. U.S. slaps sanctions on 7 senior Russians in response to ‘unconscionable’ poisoning of Alexei Navalny with more potential actions responding to SolarWinds hack coming soon. 3 March 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e783b86f40920fcf4ac3072e0171cb561685e08bc3ddf575535215c3f28c4b3e.png

    Hmmm. Judging by this and recent events here on Nottl the Anti-Russia propaganda campaign is not going down as well as might be expected . Lol!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9316873/U-S-slaps-sanctions-7-senior-Russians-response-poisoning-Alexei-Navalny.html#comments

    1. Biden is poking a hornet’s nest.
      I wonder if he presumes that should he get a violent reaction that China will wade in alongside America.

      I do not think your comment re events on Nottle is necessary. the Engineer is no more an agent provocateur than you are.

        1. I must admit that I haven’t noticed any of yours going, and usually there is a “this post was deleted” or similar.

          Disqus can sometimes be a law unto itself with posts going and returning some time later, it’s happened to me on totally innocuous posts, where I was sure I had posted and it vanished, only to receive a reply a few days later It’s not just on Nottle.

          Perhaps an unfortunate coincidence that it should happen when in the middle of a “feud”.

          2. Auric Goldfinger to James Bond, if I recall:
            “Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action.”

            Have you offended a Mod?

          4. Interesting, I’ve not seen one like that before, although I do remember the responses.

            Chopping the head off suggests which group, I wonder.

          5. Well only speculation is possible here of course. Both Cochrane and Jennifer have departed to other realms so I would suggest that 77 Brigade have now been made “operational” and since the method implies technical ability that they have a link to GCHQ!

          6. Why on Earth would they bother to put presumably limited resources towards a tiny community such as Nottle?

  15. As Mrs N is half Welsh I am proud to say I no longer support England in Rugby Union but Wales.
    I can no longer support a racist team.

    1. Watching the fabulous Welsh team of the 1970s is what got me into enjoying rugby in the first place.

      1. Ah, free running, dummies galore, side-steps too, rugby. Never my game but I too could watch that Welsh team and enjoy their wizardry. My father being Welsh probably helped although he wasn’t a fan of sport; more singing and politics for him.

      2. Those were the days,match in the morning,a few pints afterwards and home to bacon and eggs and the Welsh Wizards
        Jawdropping entertainment

      3. I remember passing the Arms Park one Saturday afternoon late 70’s, and there was this most amazing roaring coming from the place – I guess half of Cardiff could hear it! The play must have been fantastic!

    2. Good choice JN.

      And we were singing
      Hymns and arias
      Land of my Father
      Ar Hyd Y Nos

    3. I’m half Welsh but not a fan of rugby, Association Football being my game. However, except for a couple of occasions when visiting my son, I have not watched a match since last summer. If I think I may enjoy a match I will tune in but if any player goes down on his knee then I tune to something else. The gesture is really pathetic and virtue signalling of the grossest kind. It’s time for the Leagues’ owners/bosses to stop the nonsense before the fans are allowed back into the grounds.

    4. There was a rather good comment comment posted after the Scotland game, – that the England team had “Started on their knees and ended on their arses”.

      Kneeling to BLM would have lasted about 10 seconds in front of packed crowds.

  16. Good morning all. Dull but dry this morning at 0° C with a dull dry day forecast.

    An excellent BTL response to the Reverend Duncan Beet:-

    judith ewing
    3 Mar 2021 12:17AM
    Rev Duncan Beet, you may wish to renege on your responsibilities to your mere 3 parishes.
    Here in Flowton in rural Suffolk, our vicar cares for 8 parishes, Flowton being just one and, although I post as the Secretary of the PCC, I am in fact, the lay chairman of that PCC (A Parochial Church Council) responsible only for the fabric of our little 12th Century Parish, Grade 1 listed building and we fight tooth and nail to keep our church open and viable in a village of approx 130 inhabitants with no bus service, no pub, school, shop or village hall where the church acts as the hub of the village with services twice a month, one of which is Holy Communion.
    It is the bishops, lead by Welby who are trying to undermine a British way of life that may be traced back at least 500 years.
    We are no happy-clappy congregation but rural folk who love our little church and have raised thousands of pounds to restore the South and North rooves, replace all the coping stones to make the tower safe and, best of all, built a kitchen and toilet extension that serves not only us but the many cyclists and visitors who go out of their way to visit us, and partake, once we re-open, in our church services while also enjoying the peace, quiet and tranquillity of our way of life.

    Flag18Unlike
    Reply

    1. An excellent comment, but at the same time I tend to feel that at some point hard choices are going to have to be made regarding individual churches. Assuming that each of her vicar’s 8 parishes has a similar, if not so grand building, and the populations and costs are similar, that’s an enormous overhead to be supported by a very few (and probably dwindling) number of people. A similar picture can almost certainly be painted the length and breadth of rural Britain.
      I write as a regular visitor to churches when on my travels. Some are clearly thriving, others are to all intents and purposes glorified bat sanctuaries.

      Seeing how Welby and co appear to operate they would keep the bat sanctuaries and close the others. {:-((

      1. We make a ‘Parish Share’ of £5,000 each and every year to the diocese. The other 7 are supposed to do the same but I don’t think they all do.

        1. I believe all parishes/churches are expected/required to make such contributions, we certainly have to, even here in Aquitaine.

          And how far does that go towards covering the costs of all the 8 in the parish, 40K goes next to nowhere.

      1. Agreed, seems to me that he’s not happy in his work. Perhaps he should try retraining in some other area.

        1. Looks to me rather that he’d prefer to be vicarring without all those pesky parishoners.

    2. I notice that Amazon have made the 6 tomes of non-wokedom unavailable. They must have sold out fast!

  20. Our dentist has re-opened. They have made a video of how the process will work. It may be me, but it has the makings of a pantomime. They are also charging an extra £30 per visit to cover the cost of their protective measures and that’s not funny.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g84G5gjzF9o

    1. That is clearly theft. £3 you might think is ok but they make enough bally money to soak it themselves.

    4. Best of luck to you. My NHS one is still closed to anything other than emergency work done by a couple of locums. My last checkup was Dec 2019, dentist has now ‘left us’ according to the receptionist – not sure whether he succumbed to the virus (he was rather obese and dark-skinned, making him a higher risk for COVID complications – but a really nice chap and a good dentist) or just left the practice (I didn’t press them on that), as many have done since it was sold by the nice lady dentists beforehand.

    5. Best of luck to you. My NHS one is still closed to anything other than emergency work done by a couple of locums. My last checkup was Dec 2019, dentist has now ‘left us’ according to the receptionist – not sure whether he succumbed to the virus (he was rather obese and dark-skinned, making him a higher risk for COVID complications – but a really nice chap and a good dentist) or just left the practice (I didn’t press them on that), as many have done since it was sold by the nice lady dentists beforehand.

  21. Bristol council calls for parliamentary inquiry on slavery reparations. 3 2021.

    Councillors in Bristol have called for a parliamentary commission of inquiry to be set up to investigate reparations for the UK’s part in the slave trade.

    A motion approved at an extraordinary full council meeting on Tuesday evening said that the experiences, voices and perspectives of African heritage groups were needed to help develop a “reparations plan” for the city, which is the first authority outside London to approve such a measure.

    My first response is to say if the Councillors feel like that they should stop the first “ethnically challenged “ person they meet and give them their wallet or perhaps even their house to some deserving recent arrival. It is ever so with Marxists and Socialists. Let’s feel good about ourselves and give something that is not ours to someone else!

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/mar/02/bristol-council-calls-for-parliamentary-inquiry-on-slavery-reparations

    1. Will the payments go on the council taxes or only on the white people’s council tax? silly question really.

    2. Sublime idiocy. Our forebears “made reparation” by stopping the trade at such vast expense over the course of 60 years* that the loans to cover the cost were finally repaid only a few years ago. Their forebears were illiterate and mostly useless.

      *What other course of action by a UK government ever lasted so long?

    3. … an extraordinary full council meeting

      Not sure that the word extraordinary covers this crappy nonsense.

    4. Maybe they should extract reparations from the descendants of slave traders in Africa, who raided the villages for produce for the U.S. and the Arab markets, and then used their fortunes to finance a new life for their descendants in England.

      Another handy source of funds might be Russian and Chinese oligarchs who expropriated fortunes gathered when setting up forced labour camps for those unwilling recruits sent there on trumped-up charges. The inflated prices of much of London real estate would probably cancel out the National Debt and let Rishi off the hook.

    5. We spent many lives and at great expense to put an end to slavery. We should be billing them.

      1. £14bn to Mercedes, via Africa, CEOs of Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid and many more. Plus all the £3 per month for Water Aid and countless others including saving including WWF and lots of cuddly toys.

    7. This is starting to dovetail neatly with the UN Agenda 20 and 30 – the abolition of the ownership of private property. All planned and seemingly working like clockwork. Will this be the moment when the indigenous finally wake up?

    8. Overseas Aid will cover the cost all the one way tickets to Africa.
      Repatriation = reparation.

    9. Good morning all Nottlers. Foggy here in Woking. (Which is good, we won’t be able to see the monstrosities going up in the town).

      There is something drastically wrong with our “leaders” if they cannot bring themselves to say publicly that “those who call for reparations” regarding slavery need to wake up to the fact that, a, it was at least two hundred years ago and b, our Navy was sent to bring to an end this dreadful trade. They were different times. Or some such speech. Our politicians are verbose enough in the HoC it can’t be beyond them to come up with a rebuttal of claims for reparation.

      These councillors in Bristol should be voted out.

      1. Morning VW- foggy here too.
        The councillors in Bristol are kept in place by the kind of people who endorse this stupidity.

        2. I thought Æthelflæd’s daddy founded it.
          He burnt the cakes while testing a recipe for hard tack.

    10. Send them a bill for ending slavery. Well, apart from that still carried out by Third World countries.

    11. All good, I agree entirely. Councillors can pay it from the sale of their property. Tax payers shouldn’t. If some choose to, they too can pay from their own pockets.

    12. Might I add it would be good for them to hold their meetings in some builder’s prefab …. thus avoiding buildings which were undoubtedly financed from slave trader profits …

    13. I wonder where Bristol Council is going to find the money, given they can only put up their council tax by a certain percentage. Probably cuts to OAP services. Again.

        1. 329843+ up ticks,
          Morning KtK,
          The comfort zone lies within the lab/lib/con coalition three monkeys arms & soothing rhetoric.

          1. Think globalists and their agenda. Johnson, Hancock et al are cheerleaders for that group. “Build back better,” was Johnson’s war cry a little while ago and that is one of the globalists’ war cries, too. You can’t build back unless you’ve destroyed what currently exists, can you?

          2. The slogan “Build Back Better” was invented by Professor Klaus Schwab for those of the Elite who believe in the NWO.

          3. I have to admit that I avoid listening to the likes of Johnson and Hancock. They are untruthful and beyond the pale.

            However, a few days ago I read on another forum that Johnson appeared to have stopped using the ‘Build Back Better’ phrase. If anyone else can confirm that fact it would be an interesting development. Too close to home for repetition perhaps? Globalists backing off as populations begin smelling a rat?

    2. He must’ve caught the same Common Sense virus that Florida governor Ron DeSantos has. Appears only to affect those in red states…

    3. He must’ve caught the same Common Sense virus that Florida governor Ron DeSantos has. Appears only to affect those in red states…

  23. International Co-existence

    On a group of beautiful deserted islands in the middle of nowhere, the following people are stranded:

    Two Italian men and one Italian woman
    Two French men and one French woman
    Two German men and one German woman
    Two Greek men and one Greek woman
    Two English men and one English woman
    Two Bulgarian men and one Bulgarian woman
    Two Japanese men and one Japanese woman
    Two Chinese men and one Chinese woman
    Two American men and one American woman
    Two Irish men and one Irish woman

    One month later on these stunning islands, the following things have occurred:

    One Italian man killed the other Italian man for the Italian woman.

    The two French men and the French woman are living happily together in a ménage-a-trois.

    The two German men have a strict weekly schedule of alternating visits with the German woman.

    The two Greek men are sleeping with each other and the Greek woman is cleaning and cooking for them.

    The two English men are waiting for someone to introduce them to the English woman.

    The two Bulgarian men took one long look at the endless ocean and another long look at the Bulgarian woman and started swimming.

    The two Japanese have faxed Tokyo and are awaiting instructions.

    The two Chinese men have set up a pharmacy/liquor store/restaurant/ laundry, and have got the woman pregnant in order to supply employees for their store.

    The two American men are contemplating the virtues of suicide, because the American woman keeps on complaining about her body; the true nature of feminism; how she can do everything they can do; the necessity of fulfilment; the equal division of household chores; how sand and palm trees make her look fat; how her last boyfriend respected her opinion and treated her nicer than they do; how her relationship with her mother is improving and how at least the taxes are low and it isn’t raining.

    The two Irish men divided the island into North and South and set up a distillery. They do not remember if sex is in the picture because it gets sort of foggy after the first few litres of coconut whiskey. But they’re satisfied because at least the English aren’t having any fun.

    3. Now 9:25. Boring, boring. What this inquiry reveals is just how slow some very simple processes are when conducted by government and civil servants.

      1. Morning Horace
        I just had a wee keek at the proceedings in Holyrood at 10.50. She was still being questioned and it looked boring. She was taking time to answer the questions.

    4. Will this be the end of her ranting, whining English hating career? Will she be exposed for the charlatan she is?

  25. https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1366861650456956930

    Re this damning news, Johnson and Hancock have instructed SAGE to commission a “breathing app” to control the respiratory function of the population so as to save lives, the planet, and more importantly, the NHS. When a real scientist tried to explain that a billion years is a long, long, long, long, very long time away, Johnson stated that, “It’s important that the UK takes the lead in this very important matter no matter what the cost.”

    1. What is so awful, Korky – is that the spoof comment you quote could just as easily be true, given BPAPM and his henchmen.

      Good morning.

    2. That’s right and there is a ministerial position for an Oxygen Tsar. At the same time the fact that the sun will explode in the distant future, there will also be a position for a Boss o’ Nova.

  26. I read in the papers that there are now several Brazilian options of the pandemic . .

    Why on earth would anyone want several options [styles] when shaving those tender bits . . . ?

    2. So what’s this pandemic, which has several Brazilian options? A new variant of crabs?

      … I’ll get me Blue Unction…

      1. Apparently the incidence of genital lice has dramatically reduced now folk tend to tend their pubes much more… nowt for the lice to grip on to.
        I’ll get me razor!

  27. 329843+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    “Church buildings must close to free worshippers from the cost of upkeep”

    The peoples have a corker with this welby chap fronting up for the new Ten Demandments of reset, number one, divide & conquer, no more than x numbers at any home congregation etc,etc.

    This chap is well suited as a mouthpiece of the lab/lib/con coalition group, the very group that condones the 5* hotel upkeep of Dover daily incoming potential troops / felons etc
    monies that would be well spent in maintaining & keeping the homestead together.

    Tis sad to see the CoE receiving such treatment although as an RC I support a different team and can see in the cold light of day once “they ” have accomplished the treacherous deed “they” will be knocking on our door.

    Ps,
    Let us see what the “congregation” think via the ballot booth
    on the 6th May, could be a full on mosque building program
    will be condoned with a lab/lib/con coalition vote, there is many a submissive sign in place.

    1. Whatever we think, the destruction will go forward regardless. Welby doesn’t depend on votes.

      1. 329843+ up ticks,
        Morning BB2,
        His overseers do, very much so, he is just a patch in a patchwork of political treachery.

        I do believe we are in dire need of a voting firebreak, a denial of support / votes for ALL lab/lib/con candidates at every given opportunity.

        What must be tried for just once is the electorate do NOT vote for less sh!te, but the electorate vote for NO sh!te until they have a satisfactory outcome.

      2. 329843+ up ticks,
        BB2,
        “They” the politico’s, only operate with the people’s consent.

        These governance groups have consistently got it wrong especially
        over the last three decades much of it orchestrated so to my way of thinking, the ailment & the cure
        lie with the electorate / consent.

      3. But remember, there are more Muslims who go to mosque on Friday than C. of E. who go to church on Sunday.

        Yet two Archbishops have seats in the House of Lords, but no Muslim religious leaders.

        1. And rightly so too. Christianity is a positive influence on the country’s laws. The set of beliefs known as islam is not.

          1. If the Government believed that, they shouldn’t have encouraged so many to settle here.

          2. You might think that BB2. I might think that.

            But the PTB are still eagerly welcoming them to this country.

  28. My education has surged forward today. First, I learned a new phrase ‘polyamorous throuples’. Apparently it means three men who are listed as parents on the birth certificates of children. This has happened in California and is another ‘first’ in the inexorable decline of western civilisation.

    Secondly, I confess that I had not realised that there is such a thing as a ‘Refugee Council’ until I read a pathetic letter to the Times this morning from its ‘chief executive’. I looked at its website and this is what it says on its home page:

    End the nightmare
    People seeking asylum have been ‘abandoned’ in hotels with grossly inadequate support. Support our call for urgent action from the Government.

    Yes, the Left sure are turning our entire existence into a nightmare!

    1. Given there’s over 135000 people in the Home office, why is there also a council of refugees? Who funds this waste of time and money? Why is there yet another body doing the same job?

      1. As Kifaru says, it’s about having more people living off money printed by the government rather than money that they themselves generate though honest toil.
        People who live off money printed by the goverment will do what they are told.
        This is a point eloquently made by Catherine Austin Fitts.

    2. All the media articles about “polyamorous thouples” are part of the campaign to soften up public opinion before the next assault on the twitching corpse of marriage, which will be polygamy for the muslims.

      Have you noticed, every time the government wants to pass some particularly vile law, they run all these articles in allegedly independent newspapers designed to influence public opinion?

      Euthanasia is another similar one – the Mail regularly has heart-rending articles about poor people who are suffering because of “Britain’s outdated euthanasia laws.” Comments are usually moderated and only sympathetic ones allowed.

      1. Good morning BB

        The panic in my heart when the the vaccination tiers were announced , and of course the anxiety that many felt at the time .. well actually I won’t say what I felt at the time , because of course none of was true.

      2. Polygyny is typical of one-male, multi-female groups and can be found in many species including: elephant seal, spotted hyena, gorilla, red-winged prinia, house wren, hamadryas baboon, common pheasant, red deer, Bengal tiger, Xylocopa sonorina, Anthidium manicatum and elk.

        2. That is to ensure their survival. Humans do it as a lifestyle choice and is supported by left wing groups as it undermines the nuclear family.

        3. My Swiss wife asked if her pretty best friend could join our marriage setup. I said ok, which I thought was bigamy.

      3. Not just the Government. Any interested party that wants to put up some money can have stories placed into newspapers to nudge public opinion.

        Some companies specialise in doing this. Not just advertisers trying to hawk products but vested interest groups attempting to alter the paradign.

        When reading any article now we have to ask ourselves is this what the author thinks or are they being paid to say it to support an ideology.

      4. Here’s an interesting piece about monogamy and polygamy in the animal world, highly readable even though it’s from the BBC. I suppose they might be softening us up for the Muslim marriage.
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/earth/story/20160213-why-pairing-up-for-life-is-hardly-ever-a-good-idea#:~:text=Gibbons%20are%20monogamous%2C%20pairing%20for,promiscuously%20mating%20with%20each%20other.&text=The%20more%20sexually%20dimorphic%20a,it%20is%20to%20be%20monogamous.

  29. Just spoke to someone who crossed the Channel at Dover yesterday evening.
    From around seventy cars trying to get through border control, she was the only one allowed through the French passport control, and this was only after a long argument.
    All the others were turned back.
    She is a German citizen returning home. However, there were other EU citizens in the queue who were turned back, viz a party of Romanians.
    They didn’t even ask to see her covid test, but were concerned that she didn’t have a valid reason to enter France, as they were only accepting things like urgent medical treatment.
    As far as I know, no border control is there to turn back their own citzens going home.
    She was the only car on the ferry with the lorries!

    1. Point of information, Madam Chairman. Was your friend stopped at the French border – that is, when attempting to enter France?

      If so, did she have the two documents required by the French government to allow non-resident people to enter France?

      1. She was stopped at the French border control in Dover, which is the first one you pass through if I remember correctly. She had the covid test and the document stating her reason for entering France, which was to drive along the motorway to Belgium, en route for Germany.
        Incidentally, she says there are no border controls entering Belgium from France.

        1. I am obliged. I haven’t been through Dover and on a ferry for nearly 20 years – so I didn’t know there was a French border control there. There is one , of course, at the Tunnel – because once you come off the train in Calais you simply drive away.

    3. Apparently The Muppets has also recently had a run-in with the SJW mob as well…

  31. I see the Guardian is bang to rights for demonizing rape victims, again. Oh well, they’ve done it before and they’ll do it again. What’s a little rape when the perpetrator is a proper right-on left wing hero? In fact, it’s not rape, the problem here is ‘unreasonably withholding consent’, which should be illegal, obviously.

    1. Is this about the former Daily Mirror journo who recently confessed to supporting the IRA for years and running a hit piece on an IRA rape victim whilst at the Guardian? Something in the papers today/yesterday (?) about this…

  32. Duchess of Sussex accused of ‘bullying Palace staff to tears’
    Aides accused Duchess of ‘humiliating’ them and of ’emotional cruelty and manipulation’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2021/03/02/duchess-sussex-faced-bullying-complaint-working-royal/

    Why does this not surprise me? A good housemaster makes it a priority to be very firm with bullies just as a good army officer needs to be able to identify those of his men who are weak, those who are strong and those who are nasty.

    Most of us could see very clearly from the outset that the Duchess of Sussex is a nasty person. She is sadistic, vindictive and self-serving and she seems to have corrupted her husband.

    As a respected officer – indeed from what one gathers he was both loved and respected in the army – it is astonishing that Harry could not see through the smarmy façade and see the real nature of his wife before it was too late.

    1. Well , her white family seemed to have been hinting that Cringe has huge personality flaws .

      It is like watching a horrible film as the plot thickens .. she has an air of menace .

      1. Meghan the Menace and Harry Kiri – Episode 119 – Harry wokes up too late…..

        1. “Hairy,” said, Meagain, “Do you wanna play Mommies ad Daddies tonight? Well read the bloody script to the cameraman.”

      2. Sadly, the white family are American and went completely over the top – trailer trash, is the description that springs to mind. A more restrained, stiletto type approach works better with the British.
        Their hysterical utterances merely ensured that the British gave her an extra chance.

    2. Quote from forthcoming interview:

      “There was one of us in this marriage”

    3. Megain is fortunate she is not an England football team manager, the press and the media would have roasted her.

    4. She certainly has form in her treatment elderly white men with dodgy hearts.
      Ginge had better keep his in good order.

  35. Having ploughed my way through The Grimes – I can only say how much I admire the way Brash and Trash are shunning publicity.

    1. By comparison, shrinking violets are positively blowsy and attention seeking.

  36. Sad to see that Chris Barber has died.

    I used to have an album which was called Ball, Barber and Bilk featuring these three musicians who were all exponents of the then popular ‘trad’ jazz.

    To be honest I do not cope very well with minimalist jazz or minimalist classical music – like a thorough Philistine I like music which has a good tune!

  37. Good Moaning.
    Catching up with C21 Scottish Play.
    It’s amazing how little Sturgeon knows; it would appear that her officers and top official never talk to her. Is she normally just wheeled out for a spot of English bashing and is now out of her depth?

      1. Horace – at the moment She is reading lengthy replies and casting doubt on Alex Salmond’s mental state

        1. Mmm. She would. however, so farce has been a bit incoherent and even panicky, dodging some questions with wordy and irrelevant responses. Ther chair does not intervene except to tell questioners to hurry up..

        2. As she cannot attack the evidence she is attacking the person. Grasping at straws to save her neck.

          2. I’m not so sure.
            It is obvious that, like Ruth Davidson, Jackie Baillie knows how to get under the Fishwife’s skin.
            Deputy Convenor, Margaret Mitchell is now geeing things up.
            The girlies certainly know how to discombobulate the poison dwarf.

        3. She is now indulging in emotional blackmail; distraught over the lost friendship … blah … blah … blah ….

    2. Not only do her officers and top advisors never talk to her, it seems that neither does her husband, Peter Murrell.

      Mind you, much as I dislike the man, can’t really say that I blame him.

      2. I haven’t met many Scots, Duncan. Do they all look as weird as those two? :@)

  38. Well people. You may remember we had to have a new boiler installed just a week or so ago. We have this morning received a letter from Gas Safe Register saying

    “It is a government requirement for home owners in England, Wales and Isle of Man to notify their local authority building control of any relevant building work carried out at their property. Your engineer has told Gas Safe Register about the work carried out and we have told your local authority building control on your behalf”.

    Wonder when this was brought in? And why on Earth the local authority building control is remotely interested in our new boiler. There was no “building” work carried out – the new one went in where the old one came out of.

    1. Big Brother on the lookout there! I don’t remember that law being published. We had a new oil-fired boiler about four years ago and I don’t think we had a letter like that.

        1. It may well have been yours was a direct like-for-like replacment, not needing any buiding work on the outside walls with no change in the external flue location/type or that of any incoming gas pipe.

    2. They are assembling a database of people with a boiler so they know exactly whom to target when the Law says they are no longer legal to use.

    3. Very creepy. I’m fairly sure this has been the case in Scotland for a long time, but I always thought the planning laws there were very illiberal.

    4. I suspect it is two-fold: that any new system needs building work (it may not) that affects a neighbouring property (e.g. if you live in a flat or terraced/linked house) in some way, or that a new flue is located in a different place or type where the exhaust gases may discharge towards a neighbouring property (where there are rules about how far they have to be away from walls, windows, other boiler flues, etc).

      Your plumber should know all the rules on what they can and cannot do, except for those that specifically pertain to your property, e.g. living in a leasehold flat (like I do), where you need permission from either the freeholder and/or estate managers (the Residents Association committee) to move a flue location or suchlike (the home owner doesn’t own the outside walls, the freeholder does).

      One house on my housing development illegally ran their new boiler’s condensate drain into (not even discharging over, which isn’t allowed either) a road rainwater drain. That will have to be removed. Building Regs/Gas Safe (CORGI as was) regs and all that.

    3. The transcript of the arrest is telling and was on the web a long time ago. He was gasping for breath before being put on the floor. But the truth will not get in the way of BLM. The trial will be interesting as the outcome has already been determined, riots and new trainers either way.

    4. The transcript of the arrest is telling and was on the web a long time ago. He was gasping for breath before being put on the floor. But the truth will not get in the way of BLM. The trial will be interesting as the outcome has already been determined, riots and new trainers either way.

  40. The Great Scottish enquiry.
    A morning of repetition and obfuscation, of legal restraints and the emotional outpouring of personal feelings. A bit light on facts though. All meaningful evidence cannot be heard, released, or even acknowledged as existing.
    What have we learned so far?
    We now know that the complaints procedure drawn up by the Scottish Government HR Dept (women’s knitting circle) is based on the fashionable movement of #MeToo, the public wailing of regret by shameless tarts who slept with people to advance their careers as film starlets and celebs.
    (Also revealed their slowness, ineptitude, stupidity and incompetence all round.)

  41. Contactless payments to be allowed up to £100 now. The Government is certainly on the side of criminals. BBC Tv news

      1. They can still track us when we draw cash from a machine. I have to say I’ve used very little cash since last March, and what I drew out then is still sitting in the purse I’ve stopped carrying as it’s easier just to put the cards in my pocket.

        When we eventually get back to some sort of normal, and start going to local events again with the hedgehog stall – I hope people will still have some cash to spend as we have no card facilities in the middle of a field.

        1. I think you will be reasonably safe. When going to County Shows and suchlike i always take cash with me. I think most people understand the difficulty.

        2. I hope you put your cards in your inside pocket. There are still thieves about.

          Slightly OT we were just nearing home after a walk yesterday when we saw a man come walking up to a bin out waiting to be collected. He had something in his hand which I thought he was going to put in the bin. But no, he opened the bin and took out what looked like two hoops, one had been badly bent out of shape. Then walked off.

    3. I don’t mind, to be honest. I usually forget my pin number anyway.

      What bothers me is that the convenience will make such records traceable. Who spent what and where, should the state want to build a profile on you.

      Weirdly though, Tesco already does this. It has a vested interest in such efforts. However, it is still trying to sell me pampers. I know I’m immature, but Junior hasn’t worn nappies for many a year and while verbally incontient those sort won’t help.

  42. The no shit Sherlock crew are cranking up the rhetoric:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9320239/NHS-hospitals-London-told-prepare-possible-surge-Covid-patients-later-year.html

    NHS hospitals in London are told to prepare for a ‘possible surge’
    in Covid patients later this year as data shows how the virus has
    retreated across the capital

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9320323/Coronavirus-Germany-90-severely-ill-patients-migrant-background.html

    ‘NINETY PER CENT of Germany’s severe Covid-19 patients have migrant
    background and more than half are Muslim’ despite making up 4.8% of the
    population – with politicians ‘afraid to tackle the problem in case they
    look racist’

    1. The third wave. It will then be seen that the famous vaccination has had absolutely no effect at all.

      Then there will be a fourth wave….

        1. BB2, let me rephrase that for you:

          You’ll be on the sixth EXPENSIVE vaccination booster by then

      2. If ‘they’ don’t like things as they are. A wave good bye might be useful.

    2. From the second report:

      Meanwhile, Merkel wants to start easing virus curbs from next week with surveys suggesting Germans are losing patients with the lockdown.

      .

      Freudian slip?

    3. I wonder if that might be because of people of a certain race type and religion have refused to take the jab.

      1. Hardly anyone in Germany has had the jab yet. My guess is more along the lines of obesity or lack of Vitamin D due to excessive covering of skin. Or maybe blood group – was’t there a study at the start, suggesting that people from certain blood groups were more susceptible?

        1. Perhaps they don’t like the frozen version of the jab.
          France is also lagging behind.

      3. In view of the concern connected to the story going around that in trials some years ago, coronavirus vaccinated cats/ferrets all died when they met the virus in the wild, this might be to soften people up to the expectation of more cases…. a new mutant variation of course.

    4. Just think what might’ve happen had governments in less sunny/warm climes carried out proper public health campaigns to get people’s immune systems firing on all cylinders by a combination of a good balanced diet, regular outdoor exercise, plus a combo of vitmain D and zinc top-ups via over-the-counter pills (costing a penny each per day) in less sunny times of the year.

      I wonder how many ‘deaths’, either from or with COVID would’ve arisen then?

      1. Many fewer.
        If what India is doing/has done is anything to go by the UK would have not wrecked the economy AND had a similar “curve” profile but much lower numbers in all areas.
        I have long been of the view that “normal” deaths have actually been out of synch for the last couple of decades or so and that what Covid has done is to clear out a lot of deadwood which has resulted in high excess deaths from a base that was far too low.
        https://www.statista.com/statistics/281478/death-rate-united-kingdom-uk/
        If the normal is actually nearer 10 than 9 per ‘000 population these graphs would suggest there was a huge very elderly population waiting for a disease such as Covid to do a major culling.

        In addition, large numbers of younger people flowed into the UK from overseas and since the Brexit vote one understands there have now been outflows of younger people, leaving an older unhealthier population overall.

        As I interpret other statistics available on the same site I think my hypothesis might be correct.

    5. I wonder how exactly they are supposed to “prepare”? Just stop taking inpatients if they don’t have “Covid19”? Or just stop taking any patients.

  43. Did anyone watch ‘”Why is Covid Killing People of Colour?” on the Beeb last night? I started to and initially its analysis seemed sound – Vitamin D deficiencies, more front-of-house type of jobs different housing types etc. But it soon descended into a ‘bash racist whitey’ rant and any useful take-away from the program was lost in a BLM-inspired diatribe. I gave up before the end. That was the last straw for me i.r.o. the BBC. They can jog on in future.

    1. Could it be that their cultural foods are unhealthy? How often do you hear of salads and fruits being served with fried chicken or curry?

    2. ITV are just as bad. Take their appalling ‘PC’ cop show, Unforgotten.

      It started with a woman lead who has an Indian cohort. Then there is a white woman/paki husband combination; a lezzie chief constable; blacks and half-castes everywhere; disabled children; and that is just amongst the leads. All these were introduced in the first three woke, “diverse” minutes.

      The only white bloke is a grotesque cockney cop who is as obese as he is ugly, who talks constant bollocks, and is too fat to get out of his chair.

      As for the dialogue: straight out of the ITV cop show cliché guidance booklet.

    3. A black millionaire with a massive chip on his expensively suited shoulder.

  44. I am coming over all Joyce Grenfell.
    Geoff set up this forum for people to chat and exchange ideas after the DT stopped BTL comments. It has proved to be a lifeline and has created many friendships; friendships often based on joshing with people we have never met. It has proved to be a very welcome point of human contact over this past very strange year. The kindness of contributors is certainly something that I can attest to.
    Geoff didn’t have to do that; he certainly doesn’t need the burden of what appears to childish squabbling.
    May I request that contributors grow up and stop indulging in childish posts that are mainly t!t for tat taunts more suited to a primary school playground.

        1. We had a delightful and well brung up boy called George on one of our courses a year or two ago.

          When we used that well-known phrase from Joyce Grenfell’s famous monologue he said ruefully: “My parents are always saying that to me!”

          1. Maybe he was only delightful when away from home.

            People used to heap praise on my younger son when he visited them. He was a little shyte at home

          2. Of course you and your Carolyn have met him and know that our Christo was not the easiest of adolescents.

          3. I remember people saying what nice and well behaved polite boys mine were…………I didn’t think they were describing the boys I knew.

          4. Parents’ permanent lament – throughout the ages, I suspect.
            My mother and father were amazed how helpful I was in other households.
            In years gone by, we had to apologise to our sons when their sprogs turned into squawling little shiites the moment their parents walked in the door. “They’ve been all right all day” could have been played on a loop.

          5. All these descriptions show why the “Kevin and Perry” sketches were so funny. Both were terrible in their own houses but lovely and polite at the other’s house. Reflecting life.

      1. I use to call my good lady Akela when she organised the U3A day trips.
        She disapproved 🙄

        1. Sort of, slightly down sizing, but the house also in a local and quite cul-de-sac needs an awful lot of work and money spent on it, quick estimate 50k, having spent my life in building and construction it put me off.

          1. I’m sure you’ve made your current home just as you like it. The thought of moving again is horrifying, though I know our home is not really suitable for the aged. Our next door neighbour went through a very acrimonous divorce and thought of downsizing but in the end she decided to stay.

          2. There are a couple of houses nearby that would – as far as size goes – be ideal for down sizing.
            Then you look at the condition, and after several moves and renovations in the past 50 years, we really cannot face that again. We’d rather pay extra and just move in.

          3. We discussion house swopping with our middle son and his wife they have a fairly new home south facing low maintenance rear garden. They are about the same age as we were when we moved in to our present home over 30 year ago. Our garden is quite large, maintenance has been a joy but but i’m getting a bit past it all now. BUT we have far too much furniture and other ‘stuff’ to fit into their property.

    5. Sorry Anne you sometimes bring out the inner child in me which remembers the silly rhymes we learnt as children:

      There was a young girl who begat
      Three triplets called Matt, Tat and Pat,
      Breast feeding first day,
      To her utter dismay
      She found out there was no tit for Tat

    6. Sorry Anne you sometimes bring out the inner child in me which remembers the silly rhymes we learnt as children:

      There was a young girl who begat
      Three triplets called Matt, Tat and Pat,
      Breast feeding first day,
      To her utter dismay
      She found out there was no tit for Tat

    7. This forum has been my main social contact since last March – thanks to Geoff. I do appreciate the exchange of news and views but the squabbling is certainly a turn-off. I’d rather not engage or respond when those take over.

      1. Exactly. And, although I joke about it, The Things I Learn On NOTTL are usually very useful and if not of immediate use, are just interesting.

    8. Makes me reluctant to read further down the page.

      I have already given up on evenings, the aggressive brainwashed few continually spout the same denials and attack anyone not caught up in conspiracies.

      This group has not only been the welcome point of human contact, it has allowed me to see the UK beyond accepted media biases.

    1. ” Ahead of today’s debate, I held a survey on my website for residents of Stoke-on-Trent North, Kidsgrove and Talke to complete, and nearly 3,000 responded. BBC executives should look away now, as the results will not make for easy viewing. An astonishing 96% of those who took the survey want to see the BBC licence fee scrapped. That overwhelming response should be an urgent wake-up call that something must change at the BBC.”

      Don’t worry BBC Execs you have another 6 years before the Gravy Train can be changed by Statute – I suspect a few of you may be retired by then 🙂

      1. 96%? Ouch! And from a former Red Wall area too. I’m sure there’s a load of jobs ready for them at Amazon Prime TV, Netflix or CNN/MSNBC…

      2. 96%? Ouch! And from a former Red Wall area too. I’m sure there’s a load of jobs ready for them at Amazon Prime TV, Netflix or CNN/MSNBC…

      3. In a recent DM article it said 85% of people in Stoke-on-Trent spend the day under lockdown in their pyjama’s or on the sofa.

        All that daytime TV must be addling their brains.

        1. And who can blame them. The only cultural entertainment locally is The Wedgwood Pottery Museum. I can tell you after about two minutes inside one’s eyes tend to glaze over…..

          1. Try the lace museum in Bruges, that is probably the source for glaze in many Chinese factories.

            One of the more memorable points about Wedgewood was when they talked about the model villages build to house workers in reasonably sanitary comfortable housing.

          2. Sorry Richard. I’ve already taken one for Team Men by being escorted around the seven floors of the Handbag Museum in Amsterdam. It was only on the final leg, one floor from the exit, that I discovered they had a Man Creche that had copious supplies of beer….

    2. I’m afraid I haven’t bothered reading my email yet. Did they reach any conclusions?

      1. The BBC seem to have done enough to assuage the millions who are peed off with them by reinstating Rule Britannia and Land of Hope & Glory at the Last Night of the Proms (or so the Minister seems to believe….)

        1. They’re even supposed to be bringing BBC3 back on air next year and not just online. Can’t even think of anything I ever watched on there.

        2. They can’t have been too pleased with the responses they got from Nottlers some weeks back when they invited comments. I’m sure we weren’t the only ones, either.

      2. To be honest Ellie i really don’t know. Someone sent me a lovey clip of a herd of African elephants gathering to rescue a downed and distress newborn baby the other day, i thought of you. In it’s format i’m not sure i can send it on. I’ll try later.

      3. To be honest Ellie i really don’t know. Someone sent me a lovey clip of a herd of African elephants gathering to rescue a downed and distress newborn baby the other day, i thought of you. In it’s format i’m not sure i can send it on. I’ll try later.

          2. Sorry i can’t even find the clip on YouTube, it was sent to me from a friend in Oz but the format seems to be different. I have tried something similar previously but my email address and details appeared all over the Nottler comments screen. I could email it to you through HL if you like. 😊

          3. Don’t worry – I’ve seen a lot of elephant videos ! I can’t run a lot of things on here (laptop) as it’s getting old.

    1. I really can not understand WTF Boris and his cabinet can be thinking about as they allowed thousands of illegals to flood into parts of the UK and take up all found residence for months. Leading to years.

      1. 329843+ up ticks,
        Afternoon RE,
        Plain to see, they are not of the patriotic persuasion, they and the
        other segments of the coalition lab/lib have been working to an eu agenda for decades with consent of a multitude of peoples, & in my opinion they are still at it.

        The wretch cameron pledged to reduce the intake numbers then upped them, the party still found favour, and so it continues.

        1. How’s it going Ogga ? Cameron was flying them in to RAF bases and bussing them around the country. None of them have and never will have any patriotic persuasion.

          I having an ‘ocular migraine’ blurred vision i’m off for a bit.

          1. 329843+ up ticks,
            RE,
            If my memory serves me right some were even high jacking the plane and getting themselves flown in in time for tea & accessories, ie welfare, housing , education, medication.

            Feel better soon.

          2. Try taking 75mg (UK) or 81mg (US) aspirin everyday. Should stop it after 4 or 5 days. You can then buy a year’s supply from the US for undera tenner.

          3. it’s cleared now thanks for you concern peeps. 🤩
            I use to take aspirin but my doc took me off them, since all my medical probs over the past 6 years years I’ve been prescribed a lot of other stuff instead.
            But Zero cholesterol, zero blood sugar levels no heart problems showing up.
            Bit tubby round the middle and arthritis but who’s counting 😉

          4. Very frustrating. Anything you concentrate on is subject to ‘zigzag’ lines.
            In my case usually a sign of over-tiredness.

  47. 329843+ up ticks,
    That would be the politically constructed british then NOT
    your real British as in Jock,Taffy, Paddy & wotcha cock peoples.

    breitbart,
    Lockdown-Sceptic MP Disturbed by ‘Enthusiasm’ of Britons Embracing Loss of Civil Liberties

  48. Q: Why have the UK elites and MSM stopped referring to darker skinned people as ‘ethnic minority’? and are, instead, often using the term ‘BAME’.

    A: Because in so many areas they have become an ethnic majority.

    1. BUT, looking on the bright side – can WE now start screaming and shouting what we want because WE are a minority?

    2. And with more than ten thousand more stashed away in Hotels and redundant army camps there is more to come………….many more.

      1. Modern day equivalent in JLR (especially Land Rover), who, it seems, feature every year at the bottom of the car reliability surveys. To be honest, it’s far more to do with (IMHO) cr@p designs than poor workforces. That’s why Nissan’s Sunderland plant and that of (the soon to be closed due to lack of sales in Europe) Honda plant in Swindon always churned out loads of excellent cars until the designs started to go downhill.

          1. Indeed. Let’s hope another Japanese car maker (Euro ones tend to use ours as stop-gap measures until a new one on the continent can be opened using local bribes, ahem, I mean incentives) steps in.

          1. Having worked at Longbridge for a couple of years in the early 60’s, totally agree.

          3. We have had our 2nd Pfizer vaccine with practically no side effects. Feel quite a sense of relief actually, that things are definitely looking up, the sun is shining, clear blue skies although a bit chilly out and we are going out for lunch later!

          4. Good to hear – we had a glorious few days here but this week it’s foggy and overcast. colder weather on the way, too.

          5. Longbridge should have been closed in the ’60s. It was only kept open because the Government were scared of the Unions.

  50. Just got back from my annual CT scan. Blimey, the X-ray department was chock-a-block with old people, all masked and visored up. So much for ‘stay at home’…

    1. Probably all those denied access for the last year desperate to get a diagnosis before it’s too late to make a difference…

    2. I’m having mine on the 19th. It’s from a mobile unit so at least i can sit in the car with the heating on until they ring me.

          2. After the scan you are supposed to wait 15 to 20 mins to see if they have irradiated you or not. A good time to eat the last supper.

    1. Especially one where the salespeople (like JV-T) had to go on a course first:

      https://www.bitchute.com/video/Hmxo720ccw4V/

      You’d have thought that being such a serious thing, the facts would sell themselves, only needing translation from technobabble into everyday language the man and woman in the street would understand. And yet, all they discussed was how to manipulate the public in order to attain their goals. All just a year away from when it all started.

      Hmmmm.

      1. 329843+ up ticks,
        Afternoon EA,
        The “manipulation” of the ovis was openly triggered on the result of the referendum being what it was.

        IMO many of the party member ovis would, as well as wearing masks have their ears notched to show their allegiance to the party regardless of the party’s odious actions.

        The lab/lib/con coalition politico’s, & the NON member peoples
        have been out of sync for at least the last four decades.

      1. Talking of which – I must away to collect my tablets from the GP dispensary. For some reason known only to the NHS management – the same, purposes-built building in which the GP dispensary is situated, contains – some 20 feet away, an “independent” NHS pharmacy…..

    3. Blindingly obvious. If people were scared of dying, they’d be doing all they could to protect themselves.

  52. Lidl have gone all Tesco. First the Majesaet brandy went (very good it was too) to be replaced by non-descript, boring French brandy, then all the sausage I liked went, now the Masdaam cheese has gone and the Plum and cinnamon gin too. Their wine shelves used to be good but have gone all ho-hum. Tesco have done this for years, anything I start buying they stop selling, but now Lidl. I may have to move to Aldi.

    1. I don’t normally shop at either, but when I have, they are good for Germanic-style things you can’t normally get in Morrisons. It was a plus-point as they were different.

      1. Morrisons has a good reputation for sourcing British food and Aldi are copying their model where fresh meat, poultry and veg is concerned,

        I have looked at a trolley of goods and Aldi normally works out £20 cheaper.

        1. Aldi tend to be cheaper if you buy single items, though the big 4 often have items at the same price, even fresh food. They rarely have offers for multibuys, which is where you can save money at the big 4. More difficult to do so if you’re a small household/single, especially with fresh food. Fine for long lasting dry/canned etc goods if you have the storage space.

          I wait for the big price reductions on them and buy months worth, occasionally more than a year (spagbol sauce jars, baked beans, etc which have a best before/use-by date).

          I buy about 70% of my groceries/household cleaning items from Morrisons, 20% from Tesco, 5% from Aldi and the remainder from wherever items are cheapest if I can easily get to them. Mainly because I prefer the fresh food from Morrisons, and they are a better run shop from a customer services pov.

          1. The staff at our local Morrisons, which is a fairly small one, have all been there for years. There are a few things we like to get from Waitrose, but I always spend too much there if I do more than a quick run for

            certain thngs Morrisons don’t stock.

            There is a newish Aldi store fairly near and a new Lidl due to open sometime. I’ve not tried the Aldi one.

    2. Sainsbury’s have become so concerned about Aldi they now do a price match on 250 items.

    3. I have both Aldi and Lidl available to me and i did notice with Lidl that some items would be there for a while then disappear.

    4. I bought 12 bottles of Ozzie Atkins Farm Shiraz a few weeks ago, click and collect from Waitrose 7.99 each. Up by 2 quid a bottle now.
      At 14.8% it’s a good drop………….. as they say. And ashz i shayyy. 😉

  53. I get these emails from our local policing hub.
    Can you believe this, we live out in the sticks why have things be allowed to develop in to such a disorganised state.
    Our most recent governments and civil service seriously have a lot to answer for.
    Just in case eh ???

    The Mayor of London has launched a pilot for a new smartphone app that has been developed in partnership with Counter Terrorism Policing.

    The iREPORTit app will enable people across the country to report terrorist content online quickly, easily and anonymously to the police using their smartphone.

    The Coronavirus pandemic has seen a rise in online disinformation which has been used by extremists of all persuasions to promote hate and violence.

    The attacks last year in Reading and Streatham and multiple plots foiled by the police and security services, demonstrated that terrorism is still a real threat to our communities – the national threat level remains at substantial meaning an attack is likely.

    The iREPORTit app will allow people to refer worrying or disturbing content easily, effectively and, crucially, completely anonymously.

    There should be no safe space for terrorists online and the Counter Terrorist Internet Referral Unit (CTIRU) have a team of specially trained officers who can assess each referral and take appropriate action.

    Visit the Counter Terrorism Policing website (opens in a new window) to download the app.

    1. ERRR – -Anonymous – using your smartphone??? – -yeah. Of course its anonymous.

    2. Far better to have app to apprehend the perpetrators:

      National Intelligence Criminal Knowledge Mapping Enterprise

        1. Not if it has been downloaded by the miscreant and the app insists on satellite tracking.

    3. What next – people refusing to be vaccinated because it hasn’t been tested long-term being arrested for sedition for saying so in public? When I saw Dr Sam Bailey’s latest YT video (Q&A) yesterday, she said (I hadn’t realised this until then) she’s been sacked by her TV channel employer in NZ because she said on a programme that she was not going to get vaccinated.

      Worrying times.

      1. I’m surprised she can say what she does in woke NZ – a prison island with a captive population.

        1. I’m sure you saw the speech on TV by Mrs Ardern demanding that children report on their parents for breaking lock down rules.

          The sheep are happily going in to captivity first, said Pavlik Morosov

          1. I didn’t but I can imagine what the headscarf wearer would have said. Why people think that toothy woman is such a saint I really don’t know.

          2. Our friends in NZ said that she’s not particularly popular, but ever since she gave $50million of Government money to the Press they have been wildly enthusing over her.

          5. Our friends in NZ said that she’s not particularly popular, but ever since she gave $50million of Government money to the Press they have been wildly enthusing over her.

    4. 329843+ up ticks,
      RE,
      “Our most recent governments and civil service seriously have a lot to answer for”.
      So has the governance before them,them,them,them.

    6. I don’t like the link made between coronavirus and terrorism!
      Is the new definition of “terrorist” going to include people who post links to papers showing that HCL is an effective treatment?

      1. Our once well respected police seem to have gone off on some sort of political tangent.

    7. Perhaps everybody should download it and report potential terrorists landing on Kent beaches.

  54. You guys will have a lot more Breightbarters moving to this sight now the moderation is totally out of control…

    Here’s an unaltered comment that was deleted…

    The proof of the pudding…

    Watching the BBC and other MSM outlets shows mostly empty streets…quiet roads…a few joggers in the parks interspersed by propaganda action by the police showing them arresting little old ladies to scare people from venturing out. These are often in areas alleged to have a high infection rate.

    Then peruse local papers and you will see packed beaches and other beauty spots where people are complaining about emergency service vehicles unable to get through because of the number of cars parked by the roadside in Devon & Cornwall.

    Devon & Cornwall have the least covid cases in the UK which proves that being in crowds outdoors is far more beneficial than being cooped up at home!!!!

    1. Rugby grounds are empty of spectators and the managers are sitting remotely in the stands wearing masks. However, on the pitch rucking, mauling, scrummaging, tackling and lines-outs carry on as normal with no ‘distancing’ nor protective clothing being worn by any of the players or referee!

      Do they take us for idiots?

      1. Yes. Govt has discovered that if they say, “Jump” to their great surprise, the masses will jump.

        1. Jump in the car and drive down to the beach?
          The new normal means that we will be paying energy providers to keep the windmills turning during the periods when our electric vehicles can’t provide sufficient load to make a profit for the electricity suppliers.
          The future must surely be hydrogen with gas bags on top of vehicles and storage bags for the domestic market to power the hydrogen powered boilers and AGA cookers.😉

          1. Production of Hydrogen is not viable on a large scale because of the costs of producing it. It also goes BOOM

            I like your humour though. :@)

          3. ‘Afternoon, Angie and Hydrogen makes nice big bangs and burns furiously a la R101 that aided the flames with it doped cellulose covering.

          4. Any material that stores energy in a confined space 💣 is likely to go 💥.
            The only way forward for domestic heating and cooking are the E=MC2 versions of the BAXI boiler and AGA cooker.

      2. Some of the French national team caught covid…allegedly…yet rugby and soccer are still being played.

      3. In a word, YES! I see idiots driving around on their own in modern air conditioned cars or walking over the wide open spaces of the Gosbecks Historical site with no-one within hundreds of yards of them yet all masked up. Behavioural “science” is a powerful tool when applied to people who are a little short on thinking ability.

      4. 329843+ up ticks,
        G,
        They count on it, especially in the vicinity of the polling booth with the electorate proving them right, once again.

      5. Are they anything like Premier League football, whereby to furlough their employees at 80% pay would bankrupt the country and force up Council Tax and VAT.

  55. Iraq rocket attack: Air base hosting US-led coalition forces targeted. 3 March 2021.

    Ten rockets have hit a base hosting US-led coalition forces in western Iraq.

    Iraq’s military said the rockets caused no significant losses at Al Asad air base, but security sources told AFP news agency that a civilian contractor died after suffering a heart attack.

    Well there’s the answer to your prayers Joe! You can bomb anything you like. It makes you wonder who really did it though!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/56249926

    2. They would probably have tested him even if he had not launched the other attack.
      That’s what he gets for appearing weak.

    1. Well, that’s a relief. Just don’t recycle the old ones at Tesco. 🙂

  57. Not very Smart…

    “Tens of thousands of energy customers could be hampered by switching suppliers as energy firms continue to roll out outdated smart meters against the regulator’s orders.

    The Government wants energy suppliers to install smart meters in every home in Britain by 2024. However, older smart meters can lose functionality if a customer switches to a new supplier.

    Energy firms were supposed to stop installing these devices – known as “Smets 1″ – in March 2019, in favour of an updated version, Smets 2, which allows switching without losing smart features.

    Despite this, energy firms have continued to install some 57,499 outdated meters over the past six months, 5,573 of which were installed in January, according to auto-switching site Switchcraft.”

    When I moved home 6 months ago I switched energy suppliers. The property already had British Gas Smart Meters installed. They’ve stopped working -(assuming BG have stopped monitoring….)

    1. My supplier – SSE – has said that they’ll be putting up both gas and electric prices (only the per kWh charge) by 10% soon (price cap increasing), but I can fix my prices beforehand for 1 year…if I get smart meters.

      Funny how when they were badgering me in 2019 to get them fitted, they said I couldn’t get any discount on my bills despite them no longer having to physically read the meters (even though I always do anyway). The salesman from SSE had no answers to my engineering questions (see below)

      More nudge unit antics. I looked into (on SSE’s website, with my building services engineer hat on) the ‘smart’ meters they offered, and could find NOTHING that indicated they had fixed the problems of the SMETS-1 type regarding compatability with other suppliers’ IT systems. Now the report (see below) says the SMETS-2 type are having problems with the new national software and some firms are STILL installing SMETS-1s because of this.

      What a blimmin joke.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/thousands-outdated-smart-meters-still-installed-month/

      1. I’ve got the switch pallava to go through when my current contract expires in July (British Gas, who bought the Ebico zero standing charge contract off Robin Hood Energy, who were rubbish and went bust). I’ll go with the cheapest one that won’t inflict a smart meter on me. I’d rather pay a little more, so they leave me alone.

        1. We switched a year or so ago to Bristol Energy – which was the cheapest and no Smart meter – they promptly put the price up.

      2. It was always going to be this way.

        However, I’d like them to fix my meters. Apparently the modem parts have broken. Scottish power won’t do anything about it, they pass it on to the other company that manages the modems. They’re not interested because there’s no impetus to so our meters don’t send the info out.

        They’ve been broken for over a year. It’s absurd.

    2. I had these smart meters when I moved in. I said I want the old ones, they said no. but we can change your smart metes so the only reads the meter once a month on the samr day, and we can remove your screen.So thats what I now have . I can check the reading if I want at the meter. I do not require being reminded whan I turn on the tumble dryer.

  58. I’ve just filled in my census questionnaire.

    One problem with these is that there are bolshie old gits among us, and now I am 65, I feel entitled to be annoying to officialdom. I put under Ethnic Group: Other > Other > Refuse to say: ill defined and wrong. Here is the feedback I left:

    “The usual serious disagreement I have over the ethnic definitions, which seem to have been drawn up by Americans. I refuse to be considered “White”, which I do not consider either a proper ethnic description, nor how I identify myself. I refuse for anyone to be identified by supposed skin colour. We are all a shade of brown, even beige.

    If we must foist “racial awareness” on us, as a means to instil something I thought we had long grown out of, and do not want to see return, then as an Englishman, I identify most with the county where I was born, the one where I was raised, and the one where I have lived for the last 27 years.

    The closest general description, given that my father came from Surrey, with ancestors in England, possibly the Netherlands and possibly Brittany, and my mother was a mix of Welsh, Cockney and Somerset, is “Northern European”. I also consider myself an indigene in England, but a settler in Worcestershire.

      1. I did it online. That way, if they get stroppy and send plod in to bang down my door, I’ll put the blame on some software developer in Oregon.

        1. Did they send you a link? I haven’t seen anything yet which says how to go about it.

          2. Right – I’ll await that pleasure then – though I’m nore interested in the release next year hopefully, of the 1921 version. That will be the last one for family historians.

    2. It annoys me intensely that ethnicity is on any form and seeing as the census is for future planning of housing, etc. etc., what does it matter what your ethnicity is? Authorities should ditch that kind of question it is not needed. I haven’t seen the form yet but Another thing that annoys me is that in other cases English is not usually an option but Scottish, Welsh, Irish are.

      1. They also ask for your religion, which also has no relevance to housing planning. Or do those whose religion is “Jedi Master” (apparently now accepted as a religion) have different housing needs to we mortals?

        1. Roman Catholics and Muslims are more likely to have larger families, particularly those who are also from ethnic minorities, so it might result in greatly differing housing needs.

        2. Obvious ‘innit? Yer Jedi Master needs an extra room for light sabre practice!

          1. So you’re saying, OLT ( copyright Cathy Newman) that you are my father?

  59. Beeboid Radio 3 “celebrating” International Woman’s Day by having 24 hours of music by, er, women composers.

    Can’t wait…..

      1. Yes (and some of what I’ve heard is very good – though I’d be hard pressed to name the composers…. 🙁

          1. Now you are press ganging my braincells into service Minty……… Bingo! Clara Schumann & Fanny Mendelssohn …..

          8. It is known that Mrs Bach II contributed a lot to his music, and she may in fact have written some passages. She was a fine singer and certainly in his early life he played the harpsichord. It is almost certain that they talked about his music, and she would have made suggestions. Every composer of music knows the “OK so far, really good, now what do I do?” feeling where all helpful suggestions are welcome.

          9. I understood that Mozart wrote almost without corrections, and it was one of the things that Salieri was very jealous of.

      2. Google the list, there are a number of them but i don’t know any of their music. But i guess i soon will. Which is nice.

      3. There are lots of women composer – some are (were) very good. Others are ordinary – others boring and derivative – the rest are dross.

        Rather like men composers, really.

        (Of course, he adds hastily, there are lots of trans composers who are absolutely fabulous.)

    3. Does the original Doctor Who theme count?

      The tune was provided by Ron Grainer, but the arrangement, orchestration and performance of it was all done by Delia Derbyshire.

      Do girls of six count as women?

  60. 329843+ up ticks,
    They no longer talk in millions now regarding the budget but billions, at a quick estimate I reckon a child born today will witness his grandchildren still paying off the dept.

    Job creation is going into overdrive at the same time as
    Chancellor Sunak Expected to Increase Immigration Routes to UK in Budget, I am reading that as jobs for the incoming guest’s.

    1. And purely by coincidence they want to free up church land for building flats!

      1. 329843+ up ticks,
        Afternoon BB2,
        Large towering blocks of flats, Churches will in many cases be reset as mosques, a great big wodge of submission there, thought up by the head keeping department of the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration coalition.

  61. A friend has just sent this to me. I think I may have heard it before:

    Five Englishmen in an Audi Quattro arrived at an Irish border checkpoint.

    Paddy the officer stops them and tells them:

    “It is illegal to put 5 people in a Quattro, Quattro means four”,

    “Quattro is just the name of the automobile,” the Englishman retorts disbelievingly. “Look at the papers: this car is designed to carry five persons.”

    ” You cannot pull that one on me,” replies Paddy, “Quattro means four. You have five people in your car and you are therefore breaking the law.

    The Englishmen replies angrily, “You idiot! Call your supervisor over I want to speak to someone with more intelligence!”

    “Sorry,” responds Paddy, “Murphy is busy with 2 guys in a Fiat Uno.”

    1. Which reminds me – years ago I went climbing, near Largs, on a series of small crags known as The Quadrocks – there were 5 of them, IIRC!

      1. There’s a street in East Belfast called The Straight. It’s got a bend in it.

          1. There’s also a Gransha Crescent in West Belfast which is a straight as a die.

      2. A bit like the seven hills Rome is supposedly built on – in truth there are eight.

  62. On quite a few days walking outdoors recently I have noticed that most (60%+) of the older people (say over 50) are wearing masks, as are at least 30% of the under 50s.

    I wonder what they would reply if I asked them to respond off the top of their heads to “Have more or less than 2% of the population in the UK died OF Covid?

    I fancy more than 50% of them would respond with “More than”.

    Would they believe me if I replied “WRONG, it’s less than 2 per cent – indeed it’s only A TENTH OF 2 PERCENT – 0.2%

    DING-DONG.

    3. Take of the realy old like me and its even less. So many stupid people who just cannot think for themselves.

      1. You are not really old. Not really, really old. Definitely not. Not at all.
        (We share the same birthday.)

    4. What is the percentage of the people who have had Covid that have died of it?

      1. Unknown, given most people who have had it are likely asymptomatic and thus not tested. Of those who have, I believe the figure is around the 3% mark.

        1. That’s died “with” it.

          I doubt that even 0.3% have died just because of it, most will have merely been given the nudge over the edge, because they were already at death’s door.

          2. And, as I understand it, the requirement for two signatures and even a physical examination was rescinded.

            https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/877302/guidance-for-doctors-completing-medical-certificates-of-cause-of-death-covid-19.pdf

            An absolute Godsend for care homes to conveniently “lose” their most difficult residents and potentially a field day for any proto-Shipmans out there.

            I do not trust the figures.

          3. I haven’t from the first month.

            Talk about fake news – in order to devastate the country.

          4. Indeed. Odd how none of the official figures show the difference in numbers between those who die primarily OF COVID-19 and those who died of something else who just had the virus.

    5. 0.21% according to yesterday.s figures.
      1/10th of 2 isn’t 0.02, btw. Just saying.

      2. If only; but figuratively speaking.

        Coventry itself hasn’t done anything to deserve such a punishment…

    2. I don’t now why we have to keep hearing about them, they only report what they want us to hear, I suppose.
      They never say much about the people coming over on dinghies every day.

      1. What really annoyed me about the editorial was the last sentence.

        It is a shame we have lost a couple who could have helped give this
        country huge prominence around the globe. Using the media to get your
        message out does not justify the level of abuse Meghan and Harry seem to
        attract.

        Everything they do is all about them and their “brand”. If they truly wanted privacy they would just shut up for a few years.

    4. Sturgeon is undoubtedly of no interest to the LONDONISTAN Evening Standard – a minor dust-up in one of our far-flung colonies.

  66. I understand that Fishy Sushi is planting a money FOREST. Hope it is a fast growing one.

    6. A fool, a fool! I met a fool i’ the forest,
      A motley fool; a miserable world!
      As I do live by food, I met a fool
      Who laid him down and bask’d him in the sun,
      And rail’d on Lady Fortune in good terms,
      In good set terms and yet a motley fool.
      ‘Good morrow, fool,’ quoth I. ‘No, sir,’ quoth he,
      ‘Call me not fool till heaven hath sent me fortune:’
      And then he drew a dial from his poke,
      And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
      Says very wisely, ‘It is ten o’clock:
      Thus we may see,’ quoth he, ‘how the world wags:
      ‘Tis but an hour ago since it was nine,
      And after one hour more ’twill be eleven;
      And so, from hour to hour, we ripe and ripe,
      And then, from hour to hour, we rot and rot;
      And thereby hangs a tale.’ When I did hear
      The motley fool thus moral on the time,
      My lungs began to crow like chanticleer,
      That fools should be so deep-contemplative,
      And I did laugh sans intermission
      An hour by his dial. O noble fool!
      A worthy fool! Motley’s the only wear.

      1. Of course this is the melancholy Jaques in As You Like It.

        Jaques was another form of the name John and in Shakespeare’s day a jacques was place where you performed your lavatorial functions just as the john is the American term used today.

    8. Do you think he’s aiming to fulfil Cameron’s prediction and become PM, which would be the cherry on the cake so to speak…

      2. Cameron was sucking up to muslims at the time, so I don’t think he meant a Hindu PM.

    1. Is their writing legability inversely proportional to their medical abilities?

      1. Dunno. if their scribblings were legible people would probably forge prescriptions more.

      1. 46,000 stabbings in the UK 2018/2019.

        Must be something to do with white privilege.

    1. All around the world, in countries apparently untouched by Covid and lockdown, workers are saying ‘If only we could be bribed to leave our paradise and rescue the disease-ridden, bankrupt hell-hole that is the UK!’.

  76. Supper tonight….Crispy fried chicken with Zhoug. And a green salad of course. Must get some veg in there somewhere.

      1. They can’t afford where i live. Though the Chinese we do have here are mostly hard working. Paki Muslims take the piss and should be thrown out.

        Oopsy…time for me to go.

  77. Has HRH Prince Philip died?
    There was a brief accidental cutaway on the BBC to what seemed to be an obituary preparation for just a few seconds.

    1. The Beeb keep doing that. They did the Queen at least twice and they missed the boat with Diana. Can’t get nothing right !

    1. Are some countries still adament about charging everyone posting links to news articles a tax for doing so?

    2. It’s about time they caught up.

      You see these drug dealers posting pictures of huge amounts of cash, weapons and expensive booze from their Prison cells. Sheesh !

      2. It underlines the complete and utter contempt that they show for our laws and our society.
        I would inject them with a very, very generous dose of their own product.

          1. I would issue them all with completely free phones, and track the phones to hunt down their cronies, tell where they really come from, and then send them back, along with said cronies.

    3. Worse, there are quangos – funded by the taxpayer – who exist solely to perpetuate this nonsense.

    2. First attempt. Well done !

      Better than the Impala that managed to escape the crocodile then got caught by the big cat. :@(

  80. That’s me for today. I shall join you (if at all) much later tomorrow, as I am hoping to have a bonfire.

    Take care of yourselves – and follow Nurse Allan’s advice. Remember, she has an enema kit….. And a long memory.

    2. This woman you’re hoping to have, A Bonfire, I thought you were past that kind of thing…

  81. ‘Reparations for slavery have been approved by Bristol City Council in act of “atonement”.

    The Green Party councillor leading the motion, Cleo Lake, urged her colleagues to approve by “invoking” Rosa Parks and performing a lengthy monologue in character as the activist in a US accent.

    The motion to provide financial support and address “the uncomfortable truth that lighter skin did (and continues to) confer greater advantage” was passed 47 votes to 12 by the Labour-led council.

    Council papers stated that “reparations are necessary for achieving social justice” as “racism and racial hierarchy” continues to create divisions, and economic action was needed to support the descendants of “enslaved Afrikans”.

    Proposed reparative justice will include “wealth creation strategies”, identifying institutions that have benefited from slavery so they can “work towards atonement and reparations”, along with an recognition of “a crime against humanity”. ‘

    Well, the good people of Bristol voted them in…

    1. If they really think that’s a priority, then:
      a. They are really alarmingly stupid, and
      b. They have never read any history!

    3. …and the good people of Bristol can pay reparations by way of increased council taxes.

    4. This is a nonsense. There is no money available to give to supposed slave descendant Bristolians. The council seem to want to put pressure on Bristol traders to cough up presumably for the black criminals, drug traders and addicts and graffiti artists who infest the city.

      Their first target will be W D & H O Wills, the makers of Woodbines with Virginian tobacco. Then possibly the Sherry company Harvey’s and Dickinsons the paper manufacturers. I cannot think of any other companies in Bristol who may have benefitted from slavery income, albeit two hundred years ago.

      I suppose they could levy a charge on Bristol University which was largely built using profits from Woodbine sales, the Colston Hall (since renamed) along with many other developments built with benefactions from Edward Colston or other tenuous connections with less prominent benefactors to the city.

    6. As somebody pointed out – none of the Bristol BAME community are descendants of slaves and vanishingly infinitesimally tiny number of Bristolians are descendants of slavers so WTFH

      1. If the truth were known, many of the descendants of slavers are probably of African origin!

      2. Hmmm, I’ve just remembered we had a Jamaican Clerical Assistant and an Antigan DEC resident engineer on our staff in the’90s so shut up Datz.

    7. Bristol is the only city where someone tried to mug me. I’ve been to a lot of places, mainly on business, and it’s the only one.

        1. They wanted to relieve me of my hard briefcase. I rammed it horizontal into the throat of one, and kicked the other in the solar plexus. There was applause from the local shopkeepers as I walked away.

          3. I should explain this wasn’t much. I was a very fit, large early thirties, and they were a pair of short 16 year olds. They assumed that because I was wearing a full on business suit it would be easy. One of them had a knife, but I had not long moved down from Glasgow, so I was used to seeing knives, and he wasn’t holding it right. I meant to get him on the nose, but missed and got his throat, the other one froze, didn’t run, so I kicked him. Fact is, I just saw red and didn’t really think.

            If it had been a pair of solid blokes who obviously knew what they were about I would have handed over the case.

    8. ‘Lighter skin’ is the white man’s burden now, seemingly. Blacks are unhampered by this ‘privilege’ and can get on with their lives.

  82. Right……time to dish up the dinner – I’ll leave someone else to zap the next lot of spammers.

    2. I wish disqus would hurry up with the notifications, it is still sending emails for four hour old spam.

      1. I turned off the emails years ago – I never bother with them.

        There has been an awful lot of spammers today.

  83. Tech test for everyone on a PC with Windows. On which of these browsers can you run BBC iPlayer – audio or video, livestream or recorded:
    i. Chrome
    ii. Edge
    iii. Firefox

    Since yesterday I’ve had the spinning wheel with Chrome (my default) and Edge. Firefox is working.

        1. W, that was on Version 88.0.4324.190 (Official Build) (32-bit)
          Prompted by your post, I have now updated to Version 89.0.4389.72 (Official Build) (32-bit) and it is still working.
          Delay is down to my steam-driven laptop being even slower than its owner!

    1. I’m not an anti -vaxxer, as you know – but there’s some scary stuff going on.

      1. I am really profoundly worried as my last phone call yesterday (three letters, two texts, an email and two voicemails) on my mob voice mail yesterday said that they would phone again in a few days’ time regarding my plans for vaccination…. I don’t know who these people are (nhs I suppose) why they require that information and what they are going to do with it. I am not the property of the nhs or the state. I blocked the previous call that I had, and I have blocked this one now, a different number the second time obviously. I think I will just let the battery run down on my mobile and not use it for a while. I am actually quite frightened now; we are living in a different world.

        1. That is very intrusive. You know I had the vax because I have a trip to Kenya booked and I’m sure it will become a requirement. But otherwise I’m not that keen and was glad it was the AZ one. I got a text from the surgery and booked the appointment time myself.

          Previously for the flu jabs we’ve had a letter in the autumn, and either ignored it or sent back the slip to say we didn’t want it. I did go last October for the first time for that. Probably should have had the shingles one too, but I didn’t bother – although the nurse said you can get that again. Have you recovered from that now?

          1. I am on the road to recovery from the shingles, I just lack energy now, not so much tired but no oomph, no reserves in the batteries. Certainly my husband was much more severely affected, whereas for me it wasn’t necessary to take paracetamol. The blobs still irritate slightly from time to time whereas Charles is rubbing his ribs and saying ‘oooh, I feel shingly today’ 18 months later, the cold really affects his condition. For me, it would not have (so far) been worth even considering the shingles vaccination, it would have been a waste of time and money. Yes, I know you can get it more than once but I do not know anyone who has had it twice.

            I wish I hadn’t read the ukcolumn article now, I suppose it is that which has spooked me. I do not have the ‘flu vaccine either, but for the first time this winter I got a request to make an appointment for it, but I did not respond to the letter and I heard nothing more. There is something awfully strange about this covid vaccine, 99.7% survival rate from the actual virus and the average age of death is 82. I am beginning to feel I may well be dragged off to the gulags soon for my stance.

          2. Try to ignore them – turn off the phone except when you need to use it for yourself. Is there any way you can get a different sim card and keep the number private?

          3. Thanks for that, I will look into it. I am not techie so it didn’t actually occur to me, and I fear my brain has stopped working this evening. I really use my phone only for my convenience, family use the landline.

          4. I never answer calls on my mobile – I don’t make any either! Partly because I’m too slow and it’s not always in my hand like most people seem to have them all the time. I do use it as a mini computer or to take photos. I much prefer to use the landline for speaking.

            After my blip with the passwords and cookies last week I’m logged in here now with my old account, but the phone still has the newer one – so I’m off to bed in a minute but will have that one on for a wee while till lights out time!

          5. I use my phone mainly for texts and any emergency when I’m out and about – I’m too slow with mine as well, I never quite know where it is, I ‘m usually scrabbling around for it in the bottom of my bag and by the time I have located it (if I have heard it, that is! – the first hurdle to overcome!) it has rung off, which is why the two nhs calls went to voicemail. Night-night, Ndovu, I’m on my way up the stairs now. Tomorrow is another day.

        2. Just ignore it all. We remain free to decide whether or not we wish to take some experimental vaccine or the alternative experimental mRNA injections.

          Both will likely kill you so far better to resist pathetic attempts at state control.

          1. My heels are both well dug in regardless of their tactics, cori, I will not give in. The more people try to persuade me the further my heels go for a firmer purchase. At the age of just five I walked home from school on my first day at school at mid-morning break, I decided I didn’t like it at all. I also did the same on the second day (but I was snitched upon and found out), so I suppose a spirit of rebellion does lurk within to be kindled from time to time. As I said to Ndovu below, I think the uk column article has spooked me and my imagination is viewing me as being dragged off to a gulag for re-education with ECT or whatever it is they use today.

          2. You may be assured that the vaccines and injections are designed to harm us all and should be resisted at all costs.

            This Covid alarm is a bare faced scam and best ignored altogether.

            Those adhering to its prescriptions are clueless and will likely die within a year or two. The second dose of their cherished vaccines and nefarious mRNA injections will consign them to their early graves.

        3. It’s probably the track and trace people being deployed. so the number will change as they’re all working from home. Try not to let them worry you.

      2. The penny has finally dropped and our useless Johnson led government are exposed as charlatans in the pay of global bankers. May the lot of them, Johnson, Hancock, Raab and Patel plus the other rabble of Johnson’s cabinet all rot in hell.

        I believe trials at either The Hague or else some replica of the Nuremberg trials for war criminals and crimes against humanity are now in order.

        1. 329843+ up ticks,
          C,
          A good % of the party first voting electorate for aiding & abetting also.

      3. The penny has finally dropped and our useless Johnson led government are exposed as charlatans in the pay of global bankers. May the lot of them, Johnson, Hancock, Raab and Patel plus the other rabble of Johnson’s cabinet all rot in hell.

        I believe trials at either The Hague or else some replica of the Nuremberg trials for war criminals snd crimes against humanity are now in order.

    2. That is truly scary. I know about the PCR tests and any death within 28 days of a “positive” test being recorded as due to Covid. But it seems now that is to be extended to 60 days. Need to see if I can find that anywhere in the MSM.

      Added: so I googled “death within 60 days of positive Covid test” and got the attached link. However after clicking on it there is no further mention of the 60 days

      https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=death+within+60+days+of+positive+covid+test&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari

      1. They will soon bring in the kind of questions that we get at the gym.
        Have you been outside our green zone? do you know someone who has? Do you know anyone who has tested positive?
        If you cannot answer No to all of the questions, guilty as infected!

  86. La Splurgeon increasingly illustrates the effect that as a woman grows older, her character becomes more readily apparent in her face. She is starting to look like a thoroughly nasty piece of work.

      1. 10 years ago a lot of Scots blokes fancied her something rotten. Not now. Never saw the appeal myself. Bit then I like a woman to be a lady (most of the time), and she never was.

      1. Thin lips? Well not the thin anything else these days for Splurgeon. My comment is two edged, if she is really a nice person, that will show too. For me it’s the arrogant, condescending pomposity that does for her.

      2. Even lippy cannot disguise thin lips and merely accentuate the mean look.

        Edit: As the great charlatan wanker Obama observed “you can put lipstick on a pig, but it is still a pig”. This is about the only honest pronouncement Obama ever made during his eight years of his disastrous rule of America.

    5. Every lie she has told is another line added to her nasty pinched little face

      1. Oh come on! She hasn’t got enough face for that many lines. The Scot Nats all still think she is wonderful. Reading the comments BTL on Glasgow Herald, they all sneer at each other. Anything else is quite unusual. What has become of the Scots?

        The motion of no confidence was a neat piece of politics which the Scot Nats still haven’t grasped. There’s only one reason to post it so early, and that’s to make sure it fails. The Tories want her to remain in place, and I can guess why.

    6. Some women’s faces become more attractive as they age but of course it is a combination of good genes, personality and temperament. And it goes without saying that the same applies to men.

    9. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

      King Duncan judged the original Thane of Cawdor by his face and had built an absolute trust upon him only to discover that he had led a rebellion against the crown.

      How would you judge the Duchess of Sussex by her face? She’s nearly forty now and already her looks are fading fast – what will she look like when she’s over 70 as many of us Nottlers here are?

      (It has just occurred to me that her mother is called Doria – and of course Oscar Wilde wrote a story about a character called Dorian Gray whose portrait aged rather badly!)

      1. I took one look at Meeeagain and thought “You what?”. A woman that a man might have an exciting fling with, a holiday romance, but definitely not one to marry. You would need to be out before the problems built up, as they are doing.

    10. “There’s no art to find the mind’s construction in the face.”

      King Duncan judged the original Thane of Cawdor by his face and had built an absolute trust upon him only to discover that he had led a rebellion against the crown.

      How would you judge the Duchess of Sussex by her face? She’s nearly forty now and already her looks are fading fast – what will she look like when she’s over 70 as many of us Nottlers here are?

      (It has just occurred to me that her mother is called Doria – and of course Oscar Wilde wrote a story about a character called Dorian Gray whose portrait aged rather badly!)

          1. I know we’re a bit reactionary in Shropshire, but allying the paper to Herr H’s troops is a bit much 🙂

        2. I agree, Conners, and in theory they should be paying us back our contribution for the EU buildings in Brussels to which we have already contributed so much over the years. But politics is the art of the possible, not the ideal.

      2. 329843+ up ticks,
        Evening N,
        Many of the old UKIP must feel totally betrayed after witnessing
        the work put in to achieve the referendum only to see it betrayed in many ways by the lab/lib/con / supporters still pro eu coalition.

    2. 329843+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      Very early post referendum those saying now leave it to the tories must surely,surely be anti UK.

    3. Good morning, Conners. Your link to the Shropshire Star is a report of what the Chancellor did after he presented the Budget. And I notice that the headline trumpets how tax will grow to its highest since the days when Roy Jenkins was Chancellor – only noting”in passing” that this will not happen until 2023/2024 because for this coming year the tax rates are frozen. He has also frozen fuel duty despite many predictions that this would not be the case. So until you can post a link to the article your local paper printed before the Budget and I can compare it with the actual statement I am not in a position to comment. But I do believe that, in this as in many other news articles, people have made up their own minds and search the media for views which reflect their own pre-conceived ideas.

      With regards to the continuing EU payments, you say you understood that all of these were cancelled on the 31st of January 2021; that was not my impression although maybe some NoTTLers with greater memories of the facts can put us both right. My take on his Budget is that he is heading towards better fiscal policies but is trying to soften the blow by weaning us off largesse slowly in order to help businesses grow and those out of work to survive. Note in this respect that the furlough payments will be increasingly paid for by employers (10% rising to 20% by the end of the year).

      1. No, I didn’t write that I understood that all the payments to the EU were cancelled on 31st January, what I put, surely, was that we’d left and we shouldn’t be paying them anything. I put up a link to the Star the day before the budget about furlough being extended and you told me I should wait until the budget was announced, asking me if they were clairvoyant (or words to that effect). Hence my reference to a crystal ball.

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