Saturday 20 March: European leaders have been playing dog in the manger with vaccines

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/20/letterseuropean-leaders-have-playing-dog-manger-vaccines/

663 thoughts on “Saturday 20 March: European leaders have been playing dog in the manger with vaccines”

  2. A Bidonian pratfall. Well, at least he saluted. 20 March 2021.

    I just watched our messiah live from CDC in Atlanta. That is where he was going when he nearly fell all the way down the stairs of AF-1. While Harris looked on giggling behind her mask he told the CDC audience that he had just caused 1.9 BILLION dollars to be appropriated for CODIV relief. He did not say 1.9 TRILLION. He said, 1.9 BILLION. He also said that he had been talking to someone “on the helicopter, uh, no the plane” on the way to Atlanta. Most ominously he several times congratulated the CDC as leading the way in transforming the way the country thinks.

    It is clear to me that he “thinks” that he will be remembered as someone who revolutionized America, and made it a new country.
    As I said before he is a pathetic abused old man who is living in a world of dreams while being encouraged to stay there by lunatics.     Pat Lang.

    Morning everyone. The View from the States. Colonel Lang living in the United States has the opportunity to hear much more of Biden’s peccadilloes than we could ever manage here in the UK where they are largely censored.

    https://turcopolier.com/a-bidonian-pratfall-well-at-least-he-saluted/

    1. Trump Derangement Syndrome was exploited by the US MSM et al along with fraud within the voting system to allow a senile puppet to be placed in the White House. How many “true” democrats have had their eyes opened since Biden was inaugurated and are now ruing their decision to vote for this very dangerous pantomime?

      Will the pressure of being POTUS exacerbate Biden’s condition such that he will not be able to last the year? It’s impossible to feel sorry for those democrats who voted for Biden, they will reap what they sowed, but their stupidity affects the World as a whole and that’s a real worry.

      1. It is incredibly easy to manipulate someone in that state.
        Add very selective editing to enhance the effect.

      2. 330590+ up ticks,
        Morning KtK,
        Could be said with much content we the UK are steering a likened course.
        We, as a Nation are suffering a very long odious harvest.

      3. I think it would actually be better if Harris took over soon, just to ensure she has a maximum 7 years rather than 10.
        Three years might even be long enough that she could be seen for what she really is, could not blame Biden for her actions, and might even be kicked out at three.

  3. Good Morning one and all and a big thank you to the BTL commenter Archie Crompton for my first laugh of the day.

    “Interesting facts on the Sturgeon: not only is it slippery it is a living dinosaur and a bottom feeder”

  6. Third Wave thriving in Europe. Now UK “experts” fear the same could happen in Blighty.

    Of course it will. This bug comes from the East and comes in waves. Why should the UK be any different?

    It would help if the “experts” explained that vaccination has no effect ON THE VIRUS. Recent impressions have suggested that once we are all jabbed, the virus will be dead and buried….. That is – as all NoTTLers know – bollocks.

  7. What if George Floyd’s killer is acquitted?. Spiked 20 march 2021.

    Many leading political figures assume the Chauvin case is an open and shut one. Vice president Kamala Harris said Chauvin ‘clearly committed murder’. On Monday, Minneapolis city officials seemed to endorse Chauvin’s guilt when they agreed to a $27million settlement with Floyd’s family (it is unusual to reach a settlement before a criminal trial, and it certainly risks influencing jurors).

    I’d venture that most Americans who watched the video of Chauvin with his knee on Floyd, for an excruciating eight minutes and forty-six seconds, will believe Chauvin is guilty of some crime. Listening to the media, that crime would have to be murder. But the defence has a much stronger case than we’re being led to believe.

    Chauvin is of course not guilty of murder! He could be guilty of Manslaughter (I’m not certain what the American definition is) and is certainly incompetent and in my view culpable of Gross Negligence. This of course won’t get him off. As the author points out a whole White Hating industry has been built on Floyd’s death. If the prosecution fails so does the policies that depend upon it!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/19/what-if-george-floyds-killer-is-acquitted/

    2. I wonder why they bother with a trial; surely if the Vice President says he’s guilty that’s good enough? /sarc

    4. Chauvin did use an approved technique. No matter how distasteful it is.

      If Floyd had not been off his head on Fantanyl and stopped struggling he would be alive to continue his nefarious lifestyle.

      Namely. Threatening heavily pregnant women with a knife to get money and drugs.

      This man was no urban hero. He was scum.

      If it hadn’t been Chauvin it would have been someone else eventually.

      1. Morning Phizzee. I am making no case for Floyd but the reality is that Chauvin did have him under restraint and thus bears some legal responsibility for his fate.

        1. The law in the US must be different. In the UK the police bear no responsibility for those who die whilst being “restrained”

        2. Officer Chauvin was detaining a man with criminal convictions who was abusing substances and who had been arrested for passing a counterfeit dollar bill.

          2. Generally his responsibilty would be to uphold the law; in England & Wales part of a policeman’s happy lot was to protect life and property.
            Mr Floyd had allegedly taken goods (property) without paying and he was on the records as a violent criminal, you know, the sort of person who endangers people’s lives.

        3. Morning, Minty.

          Within reason. The officer wouldn’t have known what substances Floyd had taken and Floyd was fighting back. If he behaved reasonably i’m sure the officer would have had no need to get him on the ground. The court case will be interesting. Mainly to see if America still believes in truth and justice. If it ever did.

      2. The NHS webpage about Fentanyl states:
        “If you’ve taken too much you may feel very sleepy, sick or dizzy. You
        may also find it difficult to breathe. In serious cases you can become
        unconscious and may need emergency treatment in hospital.”

  8. The CofE wants 30% of new ministers to be BAME. Does that diversity include its share of Muslims?

  9. Pretty soon it won’t be the boys and girls from the ‘Postcode Lottery’ acoming a knockin’ on your door:

    “FBI investigators have reportedly been tracking—and questioning—anyone whose cell phones connected to wi-fi or pinged cell phone towers near the Capitol. One man, who had gone out for a walk with his daughters only to end up stranded near the Capitol crowds, actually had FBI agents show up at his door days later. Using Google Maps, agents were able to pinpoint exactly where they were standing and for how long.

    All of the many creepy, calculating, invasive investigative and surveillance tools the government has acquired over the years are on full display right now in the FBI’s ongoing efforts to bring the rioters to “justice.”

    FBI agents are matching photos with drivers’ license pictures; tracking movements by way of license plate toll readers; and zooming in on physical identifying marks such as moles, scars and tattoos, as well as brands, logos and symbols on clothing and backpacks. They’re poring over hours of security and body camera footage; scouring social media posts; triangulating data from cellphone towers and WiFi signals; layering facial recognition software on top of that; and then cross-referencing footage with public social media posts.

    It’s not just the FBI on the hunt, however.

    They’ve enlisted the help of volunteer posses of private citizens, such as Deep State Dogs, to collaborate on the grunt work. As Dinah Voyles Pulver reports, once Deep State Dogs locates a person and confirms their identity, they put a package together with the person’s name, address, phone number and several images and send it to the FBI.

    According to USA Today, the FBI is relying on the American public and volunteer cybersleuths to help bolster its cases.

    This takes See Something, Say Something snitching programs to a whole new level.

    The lesson to be learned: Big Brother, Big Sister and all of their friends are watching you.”

    https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/digital_trails_how_the_fbi_is_identifying_tracking_and_rounding_up_dissidents

    1984 meets Brave New World meets Fharenheit 451. As Minty is won’t to say :’Welcome to the Cyber Gulag”….

    Morning all.

    1. Good moaning, King Stephen.
      The German Democratic Republic were mere amateurs.
      That is why I don’t carry a mobile phone.

          1. Reminds me of the radios we used when I was in the CCF in 1958. They didn’t work, either, Sunray…

    2. Morning Stephen. We Nottlers are in some respects extraordinarily lucky. We have lived through the most advantageous period for our like in history. No other generation has lived so well; nor so long it might be added. It looks as though it is ending with us as well. A new darker, crueller age is coming and recent events prompt the idea that even that may be superseded by the Apocalypse!

      1. Morning Minty. I’m thankful we didn’t get embroiled in Vietnam. I’m dismayed by the stupidity of our elected representatives and us for electing them in the first place. I wonder how long it will be before Governments around the World give up on the pretence of Governing because it has all become much too complicated and difficult and results in unacceptable levels of civilian bloodshed. At this point some bright spark will suggest that as there are now many big and powerful corporations in existence (with disposable resources greater than the GDPs of many countries) that traditional Government functions are contracted out to them and for daily subscriptions the individual citizen can look to NewCorp for health, policing and protection services….etc etc

          2. Come back as a cockroach. They get to visit all the best Parisien restaurants and holiday in the Med every year.

        3. That was Harold Wilson who kept the UK out of Vietnam. An economist I believe. (at least he graduated in PPE and lectured in Economic History)

    3. It will be interesting to see how many BLM/Antifa Extinction Rebellion etc. are identified. .

  10. Good Moaning: this week’s Spekkie comment.

    Even by the low standards of C21 Blighty, Scotland is quite special.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-crown-office-the-spectator-and-a-fight-for-a-free-press

    “The Crown Office, The Spectator and a fight for a free press

    The power wielded by Nicola Sturgeon and her Scottish government means it’s hard to hold her to account for basic policy failures — of which there are many. It’s even harder to investigate accusations that her aides conspired to frame and imprison someone who had become a political problem for her. The Alex Salmond affair has shown the many ways the public prosecutors in the Crown Office, led by a member of Sturgeon’s cabinet, have sought to censor and redact his allegations.

    The House of Commons is immune to the threats and menaces of government lawyers. The notion of parliamentary privilege, a corner-stone of British democracy, means that anything can be said within the walls of parliament without fear of prosecution. David Davis, a senior Tory MP and lifelong member of the political awkward squad, this week took advantage of that privilege to give a no-holds-barred version of the Salmond story — including new allegations. Under British law, the notion of parliamentary privilege is extended to publications, so The Spectator cannot come under legal attack for reporting what is said in parliament.

    Here is what we now know. Salmond has suggested that the criminal allegations against him (he was acquitted of 13 charges of sexual abuse) were at least in part drummed up by Sturgeon’s allies in the face of impeding defeat in the judicial review and to remove him from public life. Sturgeon denies she and her allies were out to get him. But her defence has been littered with contradictions.

    Scotland’s Crown Office is doing a clear-up job, seeking to expunge Salmond’s evidence from the internet

    For instance, she said she only found out about allegations against Salmond in early April 2018, when the internal inquiry was already under way. But Davis read the content of a message between civil servants heading the investigation into Salmond, which described ‘interference’ in the complaints process by Liz Lloyd, Sturgeon’s chief of staff. It was sent on 6 February 2018. If this is true, it means we’re to believe Ms Lloyd — who worked more closely with Ms Sturgeon than anyone — gave no hint about the bombshell allegations against Salmond for two months. We’re also asked to believe that Sturgeon’s husband, the SNP’s chief executive, told her nothing about them either.

    When Salmond published his evidence, journalists were given legal advice not to report important parts of it. To do so, ran the argument, would violate a court order preventing the naming of complainants. Salmond’s evidence names no one, so we published it on our website (with one redaction to address this concern).

    We duly received a threatening letter from the Crown Office in Edinburgh, so we went to the High Court in Edinburgh and sought clarification: was there any legal impediment to The Spectator repeating the Salmond allegations? This mattered, because a Holyrood committee was also investigating them and wanted to publish Salmond’s evidence too. The High Court raised no complaint about the publication, thereby giving the green light to the parliamentary inquiry. Salmond’s evidence was published by Holyrood too, after which the Crown Office censors swooped on Holyrood and bullied parliament into withdrawing the evidence.

    We can now disclose that the Crown Office is doing a clear-up job, seeking to expunge remnants of Salmond’s evidence from the internet. It has ordered The Spectator to make further redactions to the Salmond submission. If we fail to comply, we have been advised that we could face penalties in excess of £50,000 (there is no cap), plus huge legal costs we would not recoup even if we win in court. It’s quite a risk, so we must consider removing Salmond’s evidence from our website.

    We take solace in the fact it has been available for all to read for many weeks now, and especially over the crucial period when Salmond and Sturgeon gave evidence to the Holyrood inquiry. This underlines the absurdity of the Crown Office’s jackboot approach to a free press, in pursuit of an agenda which suits its political masters.

    Happily, the original text remains published by an internet archive service in California, which permanently stores internet pages. This service is valued by researchers who seek originals of documents censored by authoritarian regimes. The Crown Office, as part of its clean-up operation, told us to delete this version too. Luckily this is not in our gift.

    The Spectator opened its first editorial in 1828 with the credo written by its founding editor, a Dundonian named R.S. Rintoul: ‘The principal object of a newspaper is to convey intelligence.’ The principal object of the Crown Office has not only been to stop intelligence being conveyed, but to delete intelligence from the public domain.

    The hurdle in front of The Spectator now is great. The Crown Office even told us not to tell readers about its demand — but we can’t be silent about its mendacious threats to a free press. Even if we end up succumbing to its censorship, we can still put its methods on record.

    This is how the SNP government and its supine supporters operate. The recently passed Hate Crime Act gives them even more powers to menace the press. Scotland is being ushered towards an era of censorship, threats and state repression. The good news for those who cherish the principles of democratic debate — and those of the Scottish Enlightenment — is that this will not happen without a fight.”

  11. Fox News criticised for ‘rooting for Putin’ in proposed debate with Biden. 20 March 2021.

    Mr Hannity has said for months that Joe Biden is in cognitive decline, and that his allies conspire to hide his deterioration from the public.

    “It’s getting a little scary,” the pundit said on Fox News Primetime on 1 March. “It’s funny because the media was attacking me for saying that Joe looks weak and he looks frail and he’s struggling cognitively. Well, every day now, pretty much, when he speaks, when he’s allowed to speak, he’s struggling.”

    In fact, Mr Biden has spoken in public throughout his two months in office, and participated in two live debates with former President Donald Trump late last year.

    You wonder that anyone could utter such mendacious sophistry but then it is now the nature of the MSM!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/fox-news-rooting-putin-debate-biden-b1819852.html

  13. Morning all. Vaccines and vaccines….

    SIR – In continental Europe, first the AstraZeneca vaccine was not safe for over-65s, then it was. Then it was not safe to use at all and 17 EU countries stopped.

    Yesterday it was safe again, so attention has returned to banning exports of the vaccine.

    When will the EU stop this childish behaviour and grow up?

    Phyllis Jones

    Oakley, Bedfordshire

    SIR – If Ursula von der Leyen isn’t careful with her threatened export bans she may find that (since it seems that any batch of vaccine requires materials and equipment from many countries) we may end up with a situation where nobody can produce anything. Vaccine gridlock.

    Bernard Crewdson

    Maunby, North Yorkshire

    SIR – John Seager Green’s brother in France (Letters, March 19) is lucky to have received a vaccination.

    Here in Spain my over-70 high-risk, husband is waiting while they still work their way through the over-80s. Meanwhile, I, at just 60, will have to wait months as I am too “old” for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is being given to the healthy under-55s.

    Advertisement

    At least the sun is shining.

    Jane Eyles

    Mahon, Menorca, Spain

    SIR – Elderly British expats in France are not being denied access to the Covid vaccination (Letters, March 19). If they are registered in the French health system they are treated no differently.

    There is a shortage of vaccine for everyone. Appointments are made online by use of an app. I have helped many here to obtain appointments who were unaware of how to make one or have poor French and few technical skills.

    Phil Williams-Ellis

    Agen, Lot-et-Garonne, France

    SIR – As I left my designated vaccination centre and set off to drive my husband the 15 miles home, I doubted that many of those present at the centre could have reached it using public transport.

    It is easy to demonise car ownership, but where would the vaccination rolloutroll out be without these vehicles? Appointments are closely timed, and infrequent public transport would not guarantee punctuality.

    Maggie Down

    Paulerspury, Northamptonshire

    SIR – The first 10 million Covid vaccine recipients were given an NHS record card that encouragingly included the words “Enjoy life”.

    Advertisement

    Rather strangely, this optimistic suggestion has since been removed.

    Terry Scott

    Osmotherley, North Yorkshire

    SIR – My first Pfizer-BioNTech jab reduced my voice to a croak for days. My wife can’t wait for me to have the second.

    David Wood

    Rainford, Lancashire

  14. SIR – You report (March 18) that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is proposing a close season for shooting hares as their population numbers are under threat.

    On my local farm shooting (which is not permitted) has not led to a population decline; but buzzards and red kites have. Hares live and breed on open ground, so are vulnerable to large birds of prey. Buzzards prey on the leverets, then red kites scavenge from the buzzards, which find other victims.

    Jessica Leigh-Pemberton

    Faringdon, Oxfordshire

    1. The zealots believe they are saving Mr Fluffy Bunny. What they are actually doing in their well-meaning misguided way is destroying the balance of the ecosystem.

      Mother Nature finds ways to heal herself without the interference of do-gooders.

      An example being…We must create habitats for (fill in whatever). Let’s stop dredging the rivers and protect the riverbeds.

      Result = uncontrollable flooding.

      There are many other examples but they never seem to think.

      1. Oh they think all the time, but of themselves, their departments, their careers, their index-linked pensions and their supreme masters in Beijing.

    2. Excellent! Best piece of news this week! Nature in the raw, working as intended. Nothing about stoats taking small leverets away for lunch which is a pity.

    3. Jessica Leigh-Pemberton, you are a vacuous and dangerous , brain-dead cow.

      A proper education might help alleviate the symptoms of your madness malady.

  15. Steel still needs coal

    SIR – Dr A E Hanwell (Letters, March 18) correctly says that coking coal is vital for steel production and different from thermal coal, which is being replaced by cleaner energy sources.

    Advertisement

    Those reviewing the Cumbrian coal mine proposal should read what British Steel’s Ron Deelen says (Business, February 15) about the money and jobs at stake, the economic boost it would give and the post-Brexit risks of importing coke.

    Steel is needed, including in the production of electric vehicles.

    Nigel Bunting

    Shelley, Suffolk

    1. The global warming fraud ruins our economy and makes the poor poorer whilst the virus hysteria wrecks our health and kills the sick.

      2. There are several volcanos being very active at the moment.
        Hysteria over the Earth getting warmer will be overtaken by hysteria about a ‘New Ice Age’. Fortunately, by then many of the revolting peasants will have died through the collapse of an infrastructure that can no longer provide consistent power.

  16. Biden campaigned as a safe pair of hands. Already, it’s clear he’s anything but. 20 March 2021.

    I don’t think Biden has a clue. He campaigned as a safe pair of hands with years of experience on the Senate and Foreign Relations Committee – a stable, professional alternative to the unpredictable Donald Trump. Look at Biden’s record, though, and he’s a career-long blowhard who’s always blown with the prevailing wind of Washington, and hence got it wrong time after time.

    And we’re not yet a hundred days into his administration.

    This is the second article that the author (Dominic Green) has written about Biden’s cognitive decline, which of course makes him a rarity. He’s probably just warming the water for when it comes time (not long now one would have thought) to drown Biden in his bath with a cascade of articles about it and welcome the safe and reassuring hands of Harris!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/19/biden-campaigned-safe-pair-hands-already-clear-anything/

  17. My talk show had run for several series on BBC Two when I received a
    bunch of flowers from an executive, with a card saying: “Thank you for
    the past seven years.”

    Esther Rantzen Bramshaw, Hampshire

    You see, there is a God!

    1. Laughing at the flag

      SIR – The attitude of breakfast television presenters Charlie Stayt and Naga Munchetty (report, March 19) towards the Union flag in Robert Jenrick’s office shows the true character of the BBC.

      Where was the respect? It was not light-hearted banter but an insult. Both they and the BBC should be offering a sincere apology.

      Peter Ferguson

      Poole, Dorset

      SIR – I am baffled by the BBC presenters’ distasteful sneering.

      When British troops entered my home town of Padua as liberators in 1945, Italian citizens made British flags to welcome them and the freedom they brought. As a naturalised British citizen, I salute that symbol and the values it represents. It is that freedom, ironically, which allows Mr Stayt and Ms Munchetty to laugh at it.

      Dr Marco Liviero

      Kew, Surrey

      SIR – Imagine what would happen to presenters on American, French or Scottish television if they displayed a similarly disrespectful and unpatriotic attitude to the national flag after an interview with a government minister.

      Advertisement

      Jeff Burn

      Duffield, Derbyshire

      1. This idea of British politicians showing the flag is an American import (likewise lapel pins). British people do not make a fuss of the flag. Politicians like Jenrick should drop the phony flag-waving.

        1. The politician who tried having the flag in front of the young men in “Stalky & Co” got a rather hostile reception.

        2. But, I would respectfully suggest, is an entirely different matter from laughing at the flag and a portrait of the Queen.
          I doubt either of the sniggerers were questioning the identity of a country that they are trying to undermine.
          Or, Jenrick’s taste in interior design.

          1. If I were an interviewer, I would be tempted to ask why the interviewee felt the necessity of displaying a flag at all, and if they were doing it because everyone else seems to be doing it.

          3. I agree – they are both lefties. I can’t stand Naga Munchetty, in particular. I hate the sound of her voice as well as her opinions.

          4. Um, I have a couple of small, hand held, union flags in my hall (and one I keep folded up for flying on such occasions as HM’s birthday).

          5. It’s the ostentatious display by politicians purely for the camera which I object to.

  18. Locks and lockdown

    SIR – I can go on a demonstration on March 29 (report, March 17), but cannot open my self-catering cottage until April 12. Where is the logic?

    Sally Dubuis

    Wareham, Dorset

    SIR – Organised protests can take place before hairdressers reopen. Where can I protest?

    Kirsty Blunt

    Sedgeford, Norfolk

    1. There is a similar moan in yer France. In the restricted areas (about one third of the population is affected) one can go outdoors for 12 hours (outside the curfew) but cannot have a barbecue.

  19. I don’t believe Johnson had covid19…

    Impossible to prove, but here’s the timeline of events which many can recall or certainly use the key points to search newspaper archives.

    Firstly the virus struck and Johnson goes down with a serious dose. My take here is that he faced an impossible situation as how to deal with a new pandemic so he bottled it and used the virus to hide away and let others take the can for any wrong decisions.

    Despite being desperately ill, he recovers in three short days while others remained in hospital for weeks. Just before this event his pregnant fiance is reported to have symptoms of covid.

    Johnson leaves hospital and photos emerge (DM) of him inside a car with driver, security and pregnant fiance and none are wearing masks. He’s whisked off to Chequers to recuperate. A day later it is reported that his fiance scolded him because he wanted to ride a motorbike around the grounds of Chequers despite being too poorly to return to number ten thus leaving his subordinates to carry the can for the nation.

    The two nurses who cared for Johnson during his hospital stay fly home to New Zealand and Portugal respectively, despite having come into contact with a covid patient at a time when travel was restricted. They did interview the female nurse in NZ who gave the customary response that it was a pleasure to care for the British Prime Minister. No further questions were asked. No interviews with the male nurse in Portugal.

    Following a few weeks virtually hidden away Johnson returns to work.

    Fast forward to yesterday and the man who had and recovered from covid (allegedly) has a vaccine when surely he didn’t need it having already contracted and recovered from the virus thus suggesting his immune system would take care of any future infections.

    From my point of view…everything stunk from day one and everything that happened since has enhanced the smell.

    1. The free world has fallen to a globalist coup, that can be the only rational explanation for what is happening.

      1. And perusing many comments over the past 24 hours….

        Lots of people are becoming more afraid of the vaccine than the virus.

        1. I haven’t seen any description of the symptoms shown by a brain clot due to Covid vaccination. How serious is it? Is it temporary? Can it be fatal?
          A few days after my Covid jab I experienced short sharp painful and unusual pain in the left side of my head. I passed it off as insignificant. I am used to headaches, but not like that, and I rarely need to take paracetamol, and didn’t take it for the pain described. .
          More information on these clots should be available.

          1. Blood clots on the brain which are rare have been quite topical recently…Google should reveal more.

        2. I shall not be having it in any case. I told my GP so last month.

          I explained to him that I have suffered anaphylactic reactions to influenza jabs in the past. He then advised me not to have the Covid jab. Regardless of that, I had no intention of having it in any case since I don’t trust its efficacy or what it contains.

      2. And perusing many comments over the past 24 hours….

        Lots of people are becoming more afraid of the vaccine than the virus.

    3. I am sure he had Covid but only as I remember the scenario as it progressed.
      He developed Covid much to the surprise of the nation.
      He became seriously ill with the condition which required serious treatment which did not require a ventilator but may have required oxygen. Whether any other medication was given has, as far as I know not been divulged.
      He looked ill when he came back into public life.
      As Boris for having the vaccine yesterday, everyone that wishes to take the vaccine is given it whether terminally ill or recovered from the disease.
      Boris has publicly stated that he accepts responsibility for every Covid decision taken by the government.
      I may be wrong. Time will tell.

      1. He says a lot of things that turn out to be lies for which…like all liars…catch him out at a later date.

    4. If he didn’t have it, he’s a liar.

      If he did have it, he’s a liar. Telling us the vaccines will give protection; when his immune system can’t.
      I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt from my own experience. He may have had a nasty ‘flu.

        1. I don’t think so. Johnson has total faith in his own abilities, he carries on regardless of the evidence.

          2. And he doesn’t do that very well any more. He must worry about the slagging off Carrion will give him when he gets home.

    5. Nobody wore masks till the first wave was over. Whatever he had he was certainly quite ill.

    1. Morning Bob. Spring equinox! I’ve made it through another Winter. It’s becoming increasingly difficult or desirable!

  23. British Army to turn infantry soldiers into elite fighters to tackle ‘high security’ missions abroad. 20 March 2021.

    The British Army is to turn infantry soldiers into elite fighters to tackle ‘high-threat’ missions abroad.

    As part of the move four infantry battalions will be absorbed into the new Ranger Regiment, which will be part of a Special Operations Brigade that will work in support of special forces in high-threat environments.

    More Bull to baffle the British Public. What we need is a coherent all arms Defence Policy based on protecting the UK and sod everyone else!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/19/british-army-turn-infantry-soldiers-elite-fighters-tackle-high/

    1. This from the cretins that wanted to reduce the Royal Marines not so long ago!!!!

  29. Why would the mostly Far Left MP’s want to protest during a medical emergency?

    Dozens of MPs write to Priti Patel demanding protests should be allowed during Covid crisis amid outrage at Met Police’s handling of Sarah Everard vigil as anti-lockdown campaigners plan to take to the streets today
    More than 60 MPs signed campaign group Big Brother Watch and Liberty’s letter
    Steve Baker, Sir Christopher Chope, Sir Ed Davey and Diane Abbott among them
    They are calling on Ms Patel to tell police to ‘facilitate’ protests amid Covid crisis
    It comes as protesters are expected to take to the streets across Britain Saturday

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383261/Dozens-MPs-write-Priti-Patel-demanding-protests-allowed-Covid-crisis.html

    1. If “Cur” Ed Davey and Diane Abbott are in favour, I’m almost certainly against!

      2. Ah yes, Eid Davey, the man who ‘fasted’ for Ramadan, in support of potential mohammaden Lib Dim voters, by missing one lunch!

    2. Protests are allowed…..as long as you are protesting against traditional British values.

  31. This is very true!

    Speakers ON! Click the link below.

    Age Activated Attention Disorder

    I laughed at this until I realized that this is exactly what I do.

    Now finally somebody has made a clip of it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=6oHBG3ABUJU&vq=medium

    “Be who you are and say what you feel because the people who mind don’t matter, and the people who matter don’t mind.” (Dr. Seuss)

    2. Off topic, Tom, bor.

      You know I told you about my paternal grandmother, Edith of Yorkshire, yesterday?

      Well there is another component to her. When she was just eight years old, her father left his job at the local colliery (he looked after the pit ponies) and he got a job as an ostler and farm bailiff on a gentleman’s farm at Little Walsingham. My grandmother grew up in North Norfolk and lived there until her early 20s when the family moved back to South Yorkshire for personal reasons. When I was a child, she would regale me of stories of her years in Norfolk, which were the happiest years of her life. It must’ve had a big impression on me since I moved there years later and enjoyed my happiest years.

      1. Good to know, George, I only lived there – and on the Suffolk Border – until I was 15 and then joining the RAF as a Boy Entrant started me on a peripatetic journey, twice round the world and through some 28 other countries at various times before I’ve finally settled in…

        …Suffolk.

          9. With 20 hours of darkness in mid-Winter ,the nights can be……………………………………………interesting.

          10. Ah, I see what you mean. Lots of excellent television in a faraway language of which you know little?

            I expect you Lapp it up.

          2. Nice!
            Have you got a grip on Finnish? I only know one word, and that’s pretty useful, but not really conversation.
            Oh, yes, and Kippis!

          3. A tenuous grip…i’m spoiled because most Finns under 60 speak good English.

          4. I work with a number of Finns, and agree. But then, Finns do everything well.

    2. Red squirrel?
      You are lucky. I’ve never seen one. Greys, however, two a penny all around the grounds at work.

          1. WE have a Red Squirrel conservation officer up here on £-godknowswhat. They introduced 6 red squirrels and 5 got run over so they put up a ‘Red Squirrels Crossing’ sign – like the remaining one could read

  33. Britain does not want a new Cold War – but we have to be ready for one. 20 march 2021.

    Britain wants “no new Cold War on China”, said Boris Johnson on Tuesday. He was launching the Government’s Integrated Review of Britain’s defence and security. On Thursday, in Anchorage, Alaska, the first top-level meeting took place between Joe Biden’s new administration and the Chinese government. Each side insulted the other, the Chinese negotiator turning his allotted two minutes into a 15-minute diatribe. I checked the temperature in Anchorage on my mobile phone. “Minus 8C,” it said, “feels like minus 16C.” Feels pretty much like a Cold War to me.

    There’s not going to be a “Cold War” with China. Even though it is by far the greater threat it is quite clear that it has been put on the backburner. It will be ring fenced militarily of course, with the new political alliances that have recently been created and the assets that have been dragged in from round the world, but its economy which is essential to the globalists, will be unharmed! Russia on the other hand will be assaulted by every possible economic and diplomatic means with the intention of overthrowing Putin and installing a puppet leaving China a solo threat to be dealt with afterward. Whether this will work out without a full scale war is unlikely!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/19/britain-does-not-want-new-cold-war-have-ready-one/

    3. And with that cretin Biden telling Putin he is a murderer, the West is pushing Russia into the Chinese arms.. If China on it’s own would be a handful – in fact a dominant antagonist in the Far East, our insane rulers want us to have an angry Russia on our own doorstep.
      Are there words to qualify these people? – printable words.

      1. Its already happened LiM..
        Last year China became Russia’s main trading partner,usurping the EU.

      2. The attitude of the West towards Russia during the 1990s was crass. Metaphorically, it danced around and and whooped like a playground of school children rather than offer a helping hand.
        However distasteful Russian society may seem to the virtue signallers – though, given the Orwellian world now being inflicted on us, maybe they’d like to ponder a while – that society is based on western culture. A useful ally was kicked when it was down.

    4. Well, in any sensible universe the UK government would offer grants and assistance to UK manufacturers to make things in order to eliminate imports from China and the EU. (It would help us meet nonsensical CO2 targets as well, because we would not be bringing in thousands of containers every week.)
      Has anyone noticed that all of the nonfood items sold by Lidl and ALDI are made in China?

      1. Has anyone noticed that all of the nonfood items sold by Lidl and ALDI are made in China?
        That’s more like it

      4. Well, I recently bought a chainsaw and a pole saw, manufactured in Germany and the USA respectively! I now actively seek out stuff that is not made in China, and feel enormous satisfaction when I succeed in finding it.

        1. You don’t have source for an electric kettle do you, please?
          (Some items are now described on the front of the box as “Designed in Germany” and in very small letters on the back of the box as “Made in China”, like my Braun shaver. I did not spot that till I’d bought it.)

    5. If it ever came to a hot war, I suspect the Chinese would not make the same mistake as the Nazties.

      Once the USA and Europe was dealt with finally, assuming the whole planet wasn’t annihilated, THEN they would turn on the Russians.

    1. I feel sorry for Biden. He is old, frail and stupid and has been manipulated by some very disgusting people. On the other hand I do not feel sorry for Prince Harry – he is just as repulsive and nasty as his wife.

  36. I am just so heartened that the Church of Foreignland (formerly known as England) is to force a quota of one-third bames as priests.

    They may regret that – because yer blacks are often haters of gay people; chary about women priests and evangelical.

    I am also glad that I left three years ago.

    2. That is dangerous and they should look at what happened to the Catholic Church in SE London when they thought that African priests would better serve their largely African congregations.
      1. Our own priests are Nigerian and are excellent, but that is not a universal experience.
      2. It is not because people are black that they want a black priest – that is to assume people are in church by racial motivation.
      3. Often Africans either prefer a non-black priest or someone of their own particular ethnicity – Yoruba, Twi, etc. So the idiotic racist liberals who chant “diversity” like a salvific mantra have no clue about African culture. There are cases of the new African priest immediately surrounding himself with people of the same language (i.e. ethnicity) and alienating other African and Caribeans.
      4. African dioceses do not necessarily send us the best of their bunch – I will not repeat the details, but there are some real problems.
      5. BUT the good ones are really excellent. Orthodox, Christian, with a real spirit of evangelisation. – but that is not really what the powers to be are after.

      1. If less is more, imagine how much more more would be.

        One of my favourite lines from Frazier

      2. If less is more, imagine how much more more would be.

        One of my favourite lines from Frazier

      3. A bit like Native Americans who are no longer called “injuns” or Red Indians”. They were never “Native Americans”. They were Apache, Blackfeet, Crow, Sioux, Pawnee, and many other tribes. Generally they did not like each other, often fought each other and mostly avoided each other.

      1. There should be no quotas. It is nothing more of less than sheer racism.

        There are several black priests in Brittany from the Congo and Burkina Faso and everybody is quite happy with this – indeed one of our priests in Caroline’s parish, Père Mabundi, who came from the Congo as a young man, is very well educated, speaks perfect French and preaches the most coherent, erudite and sensible sermons of all the priests in the region. He is very popular.

        It will not be long before hymns, psalms, the Book of Common Prayer and the Holy Bible itself are all banned by this atheist Welby who was clearly a plant imposed on the CofE by that disgusting slimeball, Cameron, who was given instructions to destroy it.

        1. Some of the most civilised people and best Christians I know are African Christians.

    6. They will pass over the Christians and manage to find the dregs like that awful fake priest who was in the news recently.

    1. I think that nasty looking man on the left would be happier if he were naked.

      After all he says that in his vision of the future people will own nothing and be happy. So he must be stripped of all his personal possessions – starting with his clothes – to test his theory.

      1. It’s no coincidence that the notorious video doesn’t start “I will own nothing…and I will be happy”.

    1. And so the poore kids will be pestering their parents for the expensive clothes so as not to feel inferior.
      And let’s give up altogether on a school identity.

      I’ve got a great idea. Let’s give up on uniforms in the army as well. Think of the savings and how oppressive uniforms are.

      1. Our children put up some resistance to wearing “plain” trainers. The trainers with no name. We do not want to pay to advertise someones’s products when it should be the other way round. However.
        Not in the least helped by the school opting for a uniform pullover, with a brand name embroidered on the front.

        1. The worst thing to happen to clothes etc, was when they started putting labels on the outside.
          I think it was Pierre Cardin wot started it.

        2. The worst thing to happen to clothes etc, was when they started putting labels on the outside.
          I think it was Pierre Cardin wot started it.

      2. Politicians are too stupid to work this out. Mind you we had a boy on a course who was very nouveau-riche and all his clothes had ‘designer’ labels. (What an odious term!)

        But it did not impress the other students in the group who regarded his exhibitionism with contempt.

        One of my nieces is very fashion-conscious and she always dressed her two little sons over-fashionably. The rest of the family referred to them with some irony as the Gucci Twins!

      2. 330590+ up ticks,
        Morning N,
        First up best dressed in our house, I nearly always got the plimsoll with the hole in the top but white blanko cured that, until that is, when I was unmasked doing PT.

      3. Nor mine, but this was pre-1980s, so most of the kids were nth generation from that village or one of the surrounding ones. They’ve got a uniform now, but they are mostly outsiders, I think, so the school must be very different.

    3. FFS. Add the expense for parents having to keep forking out for clothes to keep children up to date with friends’ trends.

      1. Not a problem for me, I’m happily child-free!

        No hordes of Grizz Juniors running amok on this planet!

    4. From video clips I’ve seen from some of the poorest countries in the World, the school children proudly wear their school uniforms. Grizz is absolutely right – folk are becoming even more stupid especially those who aspire to or pretend to govern us.

      1. When I was in Bridgetown, Barbados in 1984 having sailed from Tenerife in Raua to get there I was very impressed to see a very well behaved crocodile of little children who were glisteningly clean in very smart school uniforms.

        It came as little surprise to me to discover when I returned to Britain that several West Indian parents sent their children back to the Caribbean for their primary schooling because they thought it was better.

      2. I was lucky enough to have a couple of weeks holiday in Antigua recently and the schoolchildren were a delight , beautifully turned out, polite, full of joie de vivre and respectful.

    5. Back in the ’80s my Daughters’s ( 2 of them) Comp’ had no uniform code and a “progressive head” it also a bad behaviour , bullying and a race to see who could have the latest trainers, behaviour on leaving school included a trail of rubbish and abuse of the general population. Now my granddaughters are at the same school but there’s a new head and a house system and a uniform code – the children love it and the transformation of the school is astonishing. Keep the uniform!

    6. If all kids wear a uniform – all kids are equally dressed.
      If they can wear anything they like – some kids will have designer trainers, designer polo shirts, designer jumpers – say £300 worth – they then taunt pupils whose parents who cannot afford prices like these.

    7. Wearing a uniform is not only important for equality, but it engenders a feeling of belonging, of being a part of a team.

  39. 330590+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    “European leaders have been playing dog in the manger with vaccines”

    Like dogs with mange more like,` their loathing of the UK is showing through quite clearly along with their subversive political assets within the United Kingdom ( westminster)

    The “deal” in place of total severance is going to prove a costly item, this
    offshore bucket of sh!te is acting as a drag anchor, seemingly with
    lab/lib/ con coalition governance collusion.

    What really must be tried if voting is to continue is first thinking, on entering
    a polling booth “what has the LLC coalition done for the last three decades
    beneficial to the welfare of the Country overall “? blank ALL three monkey input, answer truthfully, then vote accordingly.

  40. Morning all.

    Second jab ✔
    Now bullet proof.
    Bring it on Covid. Given me your best shot.

  41. Good morning, my friends
    DT Story
    City braced for bombshell raid on Middle England’s pensions
    Officials understood to be considering slashing higher-rate tax relief.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/city-braced-bombshell-raid-middle-englands-pensions/

    Glad to see there is often a BTL comment which expresses exactly what I think.

    If pensions are going to be hit then all state pensions should be hit equally hard. The incredibly generous schemes which politicians and civil servants enjoy must be made no better than the pensions of those in the private sector.

    1. I guess any one who has scrimped and save and often gone with out certain considered ‘luxuries’ during their working lives to save for their then distant future, will be referred to as ‘Middle England’. I wonder if that includes people in the same situation in all parts of Britain. If not this is racist, it may be tribalism in it’s nature but if this is the case, it’s truly unfair.
      Bearing in mind there are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK who receive sometimes double the basic pension as hand outs in uncontributed benefits just for turning up here, usually unannounced.

  43. https://youtu.be/focypkN82Q8
    Minute 23 onwards an discussion of the effect of mass vaccination:
    The vaccines are destroying the possibility of herd immunity – there are more and more infectious variants and the vaccines are turning the population into asymptomatic carriers-spreaders.
    If they had any faith in their own system they would be telling people that are vaccinated that they do not have to quarantine, for example and can go to restaurants.

  45. Exactly one year ago, the MR and I left Laure-Minervois for the last time – the saddest thing being that we were unable to say goodbye in person to our many friends. There followed the weirdest drive I have ever made in France – 600 miles to Calais seeing only 50 cars – and a lorry every ten miles or so.

    Since our return, we have spent one night away from home. My son came to visit in July – staying at a B&B (now closed fr ever). One grandson did likewise in September. Apart from that we have not see any family member in the flesh since December 2019.

    The latest news from HMG suggests that this situation will continue until we are all dead.

    Just thought I’d brighten this dreary, damp Saturday for you.

        2. No fellow could ignore
          The little girl next door
          She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
          Now there’s a charge for what she used to give for free
          In my home town.

          [Tom Lehrer]

      3. Oh give me a home🎶
        Where the buffalo roam
        And I’ll show you a house full of sh*t 🎶

      4. I thought that the actor, Richard Burton, gave a good reply when he was asked which of his several houses was his home:

        “Home is where the books are.“

        1. He also said (to someone referring to him as ‘Dick’):

          “My name is Richard. Dick is not a name, it is an appendage!”

    2. We see our son and grandson fairly regularly. We are trying to carry on as normally as possible.

      We took a drive to Littlehampton a couple of weeks ago along with thousands of other people. No sign of plod and only 4 people wearing masks. We don’t wear masks and never have done.

      If we catch the plague and pop our clogs at least we will have done some of the normal things we have done for over 50 years.

      We refuse to be prisoners in our own home.

    3. Small world. My own family is from Conques sur orbiel, so a short drive along the base of la Montagne Noir. I managed to get there for a few days last summer.
      I find them to be quite pragmatic about rules, in the area. By “pragmatic” I mean they are just doing what the the hell they want.

      1. The rural Aude is like that. On our “grand retour” we were stopped by the cops at the entrance to the autoroute at Carcassonne. Fortunately we had our attestations with the wording allowing us to drive so as to return to the UK. The MR had, very wisely, taken a copy of the sale conveyance to prove that we were telling the truth.

        Apart from that we saw no controls, road checks or police.

        It was bizarre to drive off the Eurotunnel shuttle into Kent and find life was “normal” – traffic – no masks, no distancing …

      1. It was truly a nightmare. All hotels etc were shut. It was only through the generosity of a French family (who have a second home in Laure – and whom we saw once a year) that we were able to spend the night in their spare room. Complete isolation – they let us in – pointed to the room and wished us well.

    6. Christo has just bought a house in Bedfordshire (a three bedroom semi with garage and garden) and is getting married in August. Shall we be at the wedding or shall we even see the house?

      1. Indeed. Maybe something like
        Zut alors. Les Gallois sont formidables, n’est-ce pas?

          1. Ah. Laverbread. A trip to Swansea market is called for, as soon as were allowed to roam outside the parish, to stock up the freezer with laverbread and Welsh bacon.

          2. I’ve just put some pork back and belly into some home-made curing mix. It’s in a container in the fridge. I shall drain off the liquid and add some more curing salts every day for five days. I’ll then rinse it off, dry it, and hang it in a cold place for a fortnight before cold-smoking it.

      1. An Irish friend is coming round this afternoon. If any member of the English team kneels in abject, humiliating subjection to the nasty racism of BLM then I shall be cheering on Ireland even if the English scrum half was in the same house at Gresham’s as my son, Christo!

    1. So beloved of the Russian people,they now have a 2%representation in the Duma.

        1. They’ve only listed 95 countries. Where are the rest?

          [Oh, I’ve just noticed, it’s the Daily Wank Mail; the rag that holds an incongruous and unfathomable fascination for so many NoTTLers!]

          2. Only cos it’s free, Grizzly.
            I used to regard it as light entertainment, but nowadays it’s usually pretty depressing.

    2. Those people are morons who don’t understand the banner or the ideology they proclaim to want.

      I suggest they be offered the choice by the tax payer providing a ticket to North Korea.

      However, as these are stupid children, what they really want is other people’s money to be given to them. They like all the things living in a rich Western country gets you. No doubt this lot will stop off in a Starbucks on the way around. Probably buy an M&S sandwich.

      After all. they’re Lefties, and all Lefties are hypocrites.

    1. To be irritatingly accurate – they are not allowed to say “prick” any more. People might be offended. They have to say “scratch”….

      Gives me the needle, that sort of bollocks.

      1. Done by a professional you don’t feel anything. I had a cannula inserted yesterday and didn’t feel a thing.

          1. In my case it was the Radiologist. And it was painless surprisingly given the size of the tube !

            But i had a nurse perform 4 venesections on me just as well.

  54. Monitoring the BBC news from around the world…

    New variants of covid are infecting the under 60’s in Brazil and the under 55’s somewhere else etc.

    What age group is next to receive the jab?

    1. We’re finding the infection rate in the younger end of the population is taking off, and they blame the British virus. Or the South African one. Or the Brazilian one. or all three.
      Cases continue to rise, despite lockdown since a while ago.

        1. G & P like to touch noses with me! But only when they want to; they can’t be persuaded!

          1. They are telling you you can’t smell and it’s well past time you emptied the litter tray.

            *after they had moved the poo to the sides with their noses.

    9. It is the first day of spring!

      Counting the reports of truck drivers who wait until today to drive out onto the ice to retrieve their ice fishing huts is always good for a laugh.

      Not yet 8AM, one sunken truck already! So stupid that they must be liberal voters.

    10. I’ll tell you what doesn’t make me happy – drying my hands on a towel when only one hand is wet. Try it. It’s weird.

      3. I’ve always hated handling cotton wool. When the fibres rub against each other as you hold it I get a similar sensation to what you get when you scratch your nails on a blackboard or scrape dry metal on metal. Ugh!

      1. She does look good for someone in her nineties though doesn’t she. And who would want to be photographed with a frown on their face, I certainly wouldn’t!

      1. Surely with little legs like them they ought to be called wellingtons or even galoshes

  58. 330590+ up ticks,
    Keep this type issue in mind every opportunity you have to vote and if you agree then kiss X your lab/lib/can/greens candidate.

    breitbart,
    Immigration judges have restored the British citizenship of three British-Bangladeshi Islamic State defectors, one of whom was not even born in the country.

    1. Now that’s strange.I use “The Weather Channel” and it showed my neck of the woods to have 12 hours 8 minutes yesterday and 12 hours 14 minutes today..
      Sunrise:6.18 am…………….sunset:6.32 pm today.

        1. SWMBO & Firstborn use stuffing mix in their English-style sausages. Gives a good flavour to the pork.

          1. I might try that since I have a packet of Paxo. My favourite is to put in a can of tomatoes (and some tomato purée) instead of some of the water.

          3. Mix an eggcup of Sage & Onion with some boiling water to make a paste and stir it into mashed potato – yummy!

    3. From a friend who can do numbers:

      As far as I understand from the BBC, there were five embolisms, one fatal, in eleven million vaccinations… so therefore the death rate is one in eleven million.

      Reading across to deaths on the roads in this country we have about 40 deaths per million people per year, that is 440 deaths for eleven million people.

      Or approx 8.5 deaths per week for the eleven million people.

      Cross the road very, very carefully when going to/from the vaccination centre. You could get killed!

      1. Many sources report that the number of people of working age and below without previously known serious medical conditions that have died with Covid is less than 400. With some 8,000 total deaths I suspect the true number is a little higher than 400. However, decreasing it to allow for the large numbers who died of other causes without symptoms but just tested positive gives no more than 400 deaths. That is a quarter of road deaths over the same period.

        Statistically, people of working age without serious conditions are far more likely to die travelling to the pub than of Covid. Ditto for teachers, kids & students going to school.

        Worse still, there are typically 5,000-6,000 suicides each year, mostly by men. Figures are not yet available for 2020 as there is a considerable time lag for a coroner’s pronouncement. Various experts give figures of 20%-100% greater prevalence this year. Even at 20%, that’s over 1,000 extra deaths, several times the Covid rate.

        Boris promised to follow data. Why isn’t he acting to release younger people and why isn’t he putting more money into mental health services?

    4. The time of the equinox (the precise moment the sun crosses the equator) varies each year. It is generally on either 20th or 21st March. This year it occurred at 9:37 a.m. GMT today.

  60. A little fun survey if you’d like to join in…

    Assume that the lockdown is to be lifted in time for Easter and all travel restrictions lifted. You could drive where you like and fly to most destinations around the world whether vaccinated or not. You can go to a pub, the hairdressers and restaurants. Shop on the high street.

    What’s the most expensive thing you would do if you had the funds as a matter of priority after getting the essentials out of the way?

      1. What’s the most expensive thing you would do if you had the funds as a matter of priority after getting the essentials out of the way?

        That was the question.

        2. Meh..i’m not money orientated but given the choice,we’d jump on a Norwegianair flignt to Bulgaria,rent our usual apartment in Ravda for a month and hot-foot it to our favourite pavement cafe for a pint or three of Kamenitza or Zagorka beer in the sunshine.

        4. Visit a jaguar sanctuary deep in the Amazon. It was on my list before the world broke.

    4. You couldn’t put a price on what I’d like back…..my wifes health and her returning home from the care home

        1. I’m not really because there’s nothing else I would do relating to your question

      2. Thoughts, love and respect for you always, Spikey. I’m sorry I don’t say it more often. Barbara certainly picked a good ‘un!

    6. OK end of survey…

      My fault I should have worded the question differently…perhaps…

      “What do you think most other people would do”.

    7. I would like to sell Allan Towers and move into something cosier.
      By the time solicitors, estate agents and various other agencies have charged us for changing our address, it will cost as much as a world cruise.

  61. Tsunmai warning issued after massive 7.2-magnitude earthquake strikes off the coast of Japan.

    That’s ok then. I will remain in my little hut by the beach. I am on alert for a tsunami warning though.

        1. Yes, after the first wave she tested positive for exposure and found herself being resuscitated in bed with an ER doctor!

  62. EU launches legal challenge against UK over ‘unlawful’ Gibraltar state aid.

    The state aid was granted before Brexit, meaning it is subject to the EU’s rules

    DT Story

    Will the stinking bag of putrid air (i.e. Boris Johnson) have the guts to tell the EU to piss off?

    I suppose it all depends upon whether his dominatrix paramour lets him.

    1. Gib voted 98% to remain in the EU.
      Them’s the rules at the time and you wanted them to continue.
      Karma.

  63. It is reported that there have been over 34,000 Earthquakes in Iceland over the past couple of weeks. Here’s a live stream (pardon the pun) of the erupting volcano. The figures moving at the edge of the hot lava field aren’t ants but human beans…

    https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/20/beint-vefstreymi-fra-eldstodvunum

    And here are some BTL suggestions on how to stop the eruption:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1bfd25eb1bb32043cdc251242e2eba6707cf5345d9ebe4a8e2c51ddf96f7e8f8.png

    1. This is obviously Fenrir preparing to emerge from Muspelheim and begin Ragnarok!

      After this, people flee their homes, and the sun becomes black while the earth sinks into the sea, the stars vanish, steam rises, and flames touch the heavens.

      Sounds about right!

        1. You’ve missed out the ‘umlaut’ on the letter ‘o’ – it should be Ragnarök – but don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world,,,

          2. When I see the Swedish Ö on road signs I am immediately reminded of Edvard Munch’s The Scream.
            (Ö)

    4. There are still people walking up to the edge of the lava flow. A bit of pyroclastic flow to warm their tootsies would be nice. The flow of lava has moved on around 100 yards in the last two hours. Not very quick. Still, one wonders what, if anything, is going on in the heads of the people arriving to have a close look.

  64. Nicola Sturgeon’s Trumpian disdain for democracy has exposed deep flaws in the devolution system
    The First Minister’s high-flown promises of propriety have melted away in the face of parliamentary scrutiny

    DT Story by Alan Cochrane

    My comment is not about Scotland or Ms Sturgean it is about Alan Cochrane and the DT.

    Was it not argued pretty coherently by Donald Trump that it was Joe Biden’s Democrat team who had disdain for democracy and perverted the election? Why is the MSM – of which Cochrane and the DT are a part – still so reluctant to investigate the facts properly and come up with the truth – even if, to borrow a phrase from another Democrat presidential candidate – it comes up with an inconvenient truth?

    1. Cockers views are a bit skewed. I teased him a lot when I was commenting on the DT, years ago.

      1. Good wine grown on the slopes of Mt Edna.
        Just saying…
        Interesting place for a tour on foot.

          1. It beats me how plants grow in the ground glass-like rock that’s left over after a volcano, but it’s powerful stuff, apparently.

          2. Erosion. Cracks and fissures form. Wind blown dust and detritus gather. Plants get a toe hold. Live and die. Creates soil. Bigger plants get a chance from bird droppings. Roots force cracks open wider.

            Storms elsewhere in the world throw up coconuts, camels and miniature elephants on the shores.

            Before you know it (couple of million years) you get Hawaii.

            Simples.

    3. Has anyone worked out how much extra Co2 is exhaled by cyclists not being able to use private motor cars?

      2. Or how much extra fuel is used while cars are dawdling along behind cyclists that they can’t overtake?

    4. Oddly enough I’m with B&H’s stance on this, I’m not subscribing to their climate change agenda ( which I ascribe to an over-indulgence of amyl nitrate on their part) but for the fact that the bulk of the beach BBQueers either abandon their still smoking disposable BBQs or empty them on the beach or as happened here – dropped them into a waste bin which subsequently caught fire.

  66. 330590+ up ticks,
    May one ask,as with granddads axe if an area comes under 51% foreign
    ownership, can it via it’s council apply its own rules & regs.

    Some areas courtesy of the lab/lib/con/greens input must surely be very near that point today.

    Denmark to Combat ‘Parallel Societies’ by Limiting Non-Western Migrants to 30 Per Cent in Neighbourhoods

    2. “STOP DESTROYING OUR KIDS [sic] LIVES” reads the banner.

      Stop overbreeding then!

    4. Just wait until Antifa etc join in and cause mayhem. Then the Met can beat everyone up with impunity.

    5. You know where this is going by the way the police are dressed and why RT have chosen to film it.

      Give a couple more hours though.

      2. There was a black bus driver grinning, leaning out of the window and fist-bumping protesters 🙂

        1. Yeah well. It gave him the perfect excuse when he turned up at his next stop 40 minutes late. Which was the last time i used a London bus 20 years ago.

    8. Sad isn’t it.If you want to know what’s happening in Britain..go to Russian TV.

    10. Not sure if Ruptly camera has run out of film or has been silenced by the police. If the latter…that is exactly what they did on the second Saturday of last summer’s BLM riots when those not supporting BLM thugs took a pasting from said thugs while the police laughed at them.

      1. From Ruptly (my emphasis):
        Protesters took to the streets of London on Saturday to rally against the lockdown measures introduced to curb community spread of COVID-19. The demonstration took place after more than 60 MPs called on the home secretary to change the law and ease COVID-19 restrictions for demonstrations.
        A large crowd of protesters with the majority not wearing mask nor respecting social distancing measures marched from Hyde Park to Westminster in defiance of the ban on mass gatherings.
        Police officers could be seen detaining some protesters.
        Similar demonstrations against the restrictions forced by the coronavirus pandemic are expected to happen in 51 countries.
        Since the pandemic started, nearly 4.3 million confirmed cases of coronavirus have been reported in the UK and more than 126,000 people have died.

  69. Biden administration considering 6-month extension for US troops in Afghanistan. 20 March 2021.

    The Biden administration is considering a six-month extension for American troops in Afghanistan, just weeks before the May 1 deadline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban to withdraw all US forces from the country, according to a defense official.

    Surprise surprise! I don’t think!

    https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/afghanistan-troop-extension/index.html

  70. Up and off out by 1030am , sunshine then and a pleasant morning . Took the dogs for a gallop near Arne , and called into farm shop for dog meal and tins .

    The traffic was pretty heavy, and we also saw lots of cyclists , not the lycra clan but lots of couples our age ish on their electric bikes , they looked liberated , happy and healthy , and not flushed and warm , no need for pedalling hard up and down hill, and of course electric bikes are getting cheaper and cheaper , for those who have room for them, and those who can afford them .

    There were crowds of people down at Wareham Quay .. Saturday market in full swing , not much social distancing either , so life goes on , and people do what they must do.

    This past 6 weeks has seen a flurry of houses on the market and selling quickly in our area . We have heard that the big city flight from fright is gathering momentum.
    A near neighbour has found a buyer in about a month , we noticed a variety of masked viewers looking at the property .. Will be interesting to see who the unmasked are , and where they come from .

    Fields have been ploughed , ready for muck spreading , the grassy fields hosted sheep and young lambs in January and February , they were moved on a couple of weeks ago .

    There is an air of anticipation as the end of lockdown approaches . My hairdresser RANG me up to give me an appointment in mid April , and probably to check on whether I am still alive .

    Moh is watching Southampton v Bournemouth on his laptop .. Saints are winning 3-0 , so this afternoon will be a good tempered afternoon !

    Just prepared a couple of rolls filled with grilled bacon spread with mustard, and a mug of tea each .

    The afternoon has clouded over , and it is so dull compared with this morning , no sign of any rain . Had to water the pots in the garden earlier .

    The yellow buddleia that I pruned on advice from….. !!!!!!!.. is now in poor shape , so perhaps I should take some cuttings .
    So sad really , perhaps the sharp frosts earlier in the new year caused some damage .

    Grass is growing quite quickly , first cut soon I think.

    Will the Iceland volcano eruption affect us again?

    1. Will the Iceland volcano eruption affect us again?

      Afternoon Belle. Shouldn’t do as it is not the explosive type. That said one of the Great Extinctions was caused by a similar outbreak!

      1. I’ve held the view for quite a few years that a chain reaction of volcanoes through the world is more likely than anything else to adjust the population. Maybe I’ll never know.

      2. We are safe from another Grear Extinction, th ER* people will fight against it

        * Extinction Rebellion

      3. Minty I’ve no idea how you summon the strength each morning to climb out of bed….

    2. Spring optimism is in the air. Am reading a book about a house & village in Darset called Tyneham.

    3. Re the masked viewers – I am trying to sell my mother’s house. The couple of viewings I’ve had, the estate agents made the viewers wear everything under the sun including masks. And they chucked me out into the cold. So might not be masked from choice.

        1. I did, the last bloke who turned up on spec! Need the agents for when I rack and run away.

  71. I don’t know the name of the clown who is commentating on the Scotland v Italy rugby match but he has spoken of being on the “front foot” four times in the first four minutes of the match.

    I think he must be watching the cricket and not the rugby!

    1. Whatever ‘sports event’ may be on it is causing the chavs across the road and away a bit to scream at one another to the point it’s audible over half a km away.

    3. I turn the commentating off. I turn on the subtitles only when there is a penalty or something, but usually no one bothers to explain.
      The first half was interesting. At the start of the second half the Italians fell apart and the Scots were rather arsing around from then on.

    1. And of course unearthly silence from every single one of the usually extremely argumentative vociferous Women’s rights campaigners.

    2. Ah, but here we have the usual Lefty doublethink.

      I sincerely doubt any of the rentamob even know this Everard woman. I doubt any of them really care about what happened to her.

      The problem, as you demonstrate is obvious: the desperate urgency to protect, encourage and defend the perpetrators.

  73. New South Wales flooding: Thousands evacuated amid colossal downpours and tornado. 20 March 2021.

    Massive storms sweeping the east coast of Australia have forced thousands to evacuate and millions of Sydney residents to shelter in their homes.

    Record rainfall plus a mini-tornado have wreaked havoc across the state of New South Wales (NSW), leading a dam to overflow and widespread flooding.

    Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology has issued warnings for major floods in swathes of western Sydney after the Warragamba Dam spilled over on Saturday.

    Evacuation orders have been issued to those living in 15 areas already, with water in places already up to the windows forcing locals to kayak to safety through flooded streets.

    It’s the end Possums! Grab your Koalas and head for the Black Stump!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/flooding-australia-new-south-wales-b1819979.html

  74. COARSE LANGUAGE WARNING

    To much critical acclaim, Prince Harry’s new biography has been released. It tells of his heartbreak at leaving the Royal Family due to racism and charts his progress as he seeks fame and fortune in California with the gorgeous pouting Meghan Markle.

    A moving story of love and romance among the woke-folk of Hollywood, set against a background of Climate Change, it has already been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3e430803f8e73a4842bced96a1e20429304be8efeb7488f70edbc61246176a6a.jpg

  76. Now’s a good opportunity to see how our own MSM stoke up trouble….

    There’s now a largely peaceful march in London which some of you are viewing on Ruptly below. The Daily Mail is also covering the event but are running as a side show, clips of similar but much more violent historical protests from the US and Europe in order to give the impression they are related to the one in London and no doubt antagonize people into becoming violent here.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9383261/Dozens-MPs-write-Priti-Patel-demanding-protests-allowed-Covid-crisis.html

  78. Lockdown conspiracy theorist Piers Corbyn and actor Laurence Fox were spotted at the demonstration today

    Chalk and cheese protesting today shows its not a left/right issue but rather the general public demonstrating against the government lockdown.

    This could be a good sign as the elite have divided the public until now and a united public would prove a much different kettle of fish. It’s well known that the police will get heavy with protestors to dissuade them from repeating the exercise but when an united population turn up on a future Saturday in far greater numbers, the police will be on their asses rather than their knees.

    Has the lockdown broken the spell and people are awakening?

    1. 330590+ up ticks,
      Afternoon H,
      Been saying for many a post people power put us in the sh!te & kept us in the sh!te continually via the polling booth, it can work tother way to benefit ALL.

  80. Tonight BBC4 9pm – film…. Land of Mine
    Excellent reviews……subtitles if you can be @rsed. I can’t.

    Followed by The Eddie Chapman Story…well worth recording.
    Too late for NoTTlers 10.35pm ……we’re all in bed!

  81. Tonight BBC4 9pm – film…. Land of Mine
    Excellent reviews……subtitles if you can be @rsed. I can’t.

    Followed by The Eddie Chapman Story…well worth recording.
    Too late for NoTTlers 10.35pm ……we’re all in bed!

  82. The BBC filmed part of the crowd of protesters from a window of Broadcasting House….

    Imagine half a million in the same spot…what a temptation!

      1. No, Phizz. I work at Television Centre in White City. We had an XR protest outside TVC last summer. Pointless as it was practically empty and none of the big bods were there.

        2. I can remember a World Cup match being played at White City in 1966. Uruguay v France. 😊

          Yet I can’t remember what I had for me tea last Thursday! ☹️

          1. Me neither. (what I had, not what you had…). I remeber the important stuff, such as where the keys are in the fridge – next to my glasses, clearly.

          2. When I was at school I could never remember what had been said in the lesson the previous week either. Premature senility??

          3. Back in the early seventies I worked for a firm of Architects in Richmond on Thames viz. Darbourne & Darke at 2 The Green.

            One of our housing projects was at White City adjacent to White City Stadium. The main contractor was McInerny, founded by a couple of Paddy’s who came to these shores via Aer Lingus with a couple of shovels and inevitably made good.

            The initial site excavations revealed an enormous block of mass concrete buried beneath the overburden. The District Surveyor insisted that we should remove such obstructions, fill the excavated void with sand and pile through to firmer ground as our foundation system.

            The McInerny crew used a ‘concrete diviner’ to locate the full extent of those mass concrete blocks in the ground. It transpired that these were the footings for a building the size of the Albert Hall which had been erected for an International Exposition in 1922 (from memory without checking).

            The White City Stadium dated from that time.

            Blow me, in the 1980’s I was the project architect for Richmond House Whitehall where we uncovered very similar unrecorded mass concrete foundations on our site which had similarly to be removed.

            The Whitehall foundations were discovered to have been from the late C19 and supported the walls of an intended National Opera House which had been built to roof level before the developer went broke and the walls were demolished. I knew instinctively what these foundations were from my experience of the housing scheme (Wood Lane Hammersmith) a decade or so earlier. Also, I had copies of Norman Shaw’s contract drawings for New Scotland Yard on Embankment and had noted that his buildings utilised existing mass concrete footings evidently from the abortive Opera House scheme.

        3. We had an XR demo in Montreal on Friday. They demand Carbon neutral (of course) but then they added a few real gems.
          A) Automatic citizenship for refugees and migrants
          B) Return all lands to first nations
          C) Not just defend but disband the police.

          How B and C could co exist is beyond me, there again everything they were spouting is stupid.

          .

      1. Well, we will have to wean ourselves off expecting the government to sort everything out for us for a start.
        Not that most people on here suffer from that particular delusion.

    1. An interesting thought is that some police have MP on their helmets.

      Anyone know what that means?

      1. The crowd is not leftie thugs…even had a union flag. Be interesting if more turn up as the light goes…depends how many are watching the video and live nearby.

        The police have created a problem for themselves in recent times.

        2. None of what we were watching would have happened if the police had not turned up.

          The few people sat in the park would have gone home for tea.

        1. The police are an effing disgrace arresting females who must be all of 5ft tall and manhandling them. It’s an easy cop.

          1. I’m on the side of the police normally.
            It’s a very hard job where they are always in the wrong.
            I couldn’t do it.
            But imagine if all the peaceful protesters had cable ties and turned on the agitators, threw them to the ground, tied them up and then just stood aside and waited peacefully for the police to arrive.
            In the current climate, who do you think would be arrested?

          2. Point of order, Sos!

            A peaceful protester, who ties up his antagonists and throws them to the ground, surely must be at risk of forfeiting his ‘peaceful’ status?

          3. Indeed.
            It is the principle.

            If the agitators were corralled and knew they were in grave danger of being captured, perhaps, just perhaps, they might have to retreat.

            The “wrong ‘uns” always seem to get away with it.

          6. The England team beat the French by deploying the backs and limiting box kicking. Today dear old Greshams’ Ben Youngs kept kicking away possession and our other kickers were as inaccurate.

            I think we need a new coach. Einstein’s observation about repeating the same mistakes over and over again in the hope that it will work out rings true.

          9. I counted 12 of the England squad who knelt. Presumably they want to defund the police and other stupid actions.

          10. Humiliating themselves and kneeling to BLM has had a disastrous effect on the England Team.

            This season they have lost to all three of the other home nations – when did they last do this?

            I cannot help concluding that their self-abasement is the root cause of their inability to win at rugby any more.

  87. 330590+ up ticks,
    May one ask,
    After 3 decades of absolute, in your face , cannot possible bedenied,political sh!te is it not time to try something beneficial to the Country FIRST instead of the party ?

    breitbart,
    Indeed. And who could not agree with Elijah’s conclusion?

    It’s high time for an independent public inquiry to investigate Sage’s modelling data and the conflicts of interest of the scientists and indeed our politicians.

    Could even be said it is well past time.

    1. We lost today at cricket and rugby.

      We have lost big time with SAGE behavioural scientists giving blindingly suspect advice to government and bent medical officers pushing vaccines which are both experimental and likely to cause yet more damage to essential herd immunity.

      Nobody but a bunch of fools would have sought advice from Neil Ferguson, a totally discredited ‘mathematical modeller’ responsible for bringing immense damage to our country and economy with his mad predictions over decades.

      Ferguson I might add is in cahoots with the German, Drosten, the person who misappropriated the PCR tests in order to falsely justify ‘cases’.

      There are plenty of scientists and clinical epidemiologists and immunologists whose advice should have been given weight yet they have been comprehensively ignored.

      One final point is that the advice of academic ‘doctorate’ experts have replaced the MDs. Those ‘doctorate’ academics were funded by China for a decade or more. Their universities depend on income from Chinese students (walk around Hills Road in Cambridge if you doubt my words, it is swarming with young Chinese students).

      As a nation I regret to say we are well and truly stuffed by a corrupt political class and their backers.

      1. 330590+ up ticks,
        Evening C,
        The ongoing political civil war has been the main cause the one that followers the ” party first regardless of consequence,”
        this among three political antagonist who were up until the 24/6/2016 contented pro eu allies.

        Behind this domestic civil war the very real enemas have been taking over positions of power they will shortly be flexing their
        political muscles the results of which will make the present
        interparty ( pro eu coalition) rivalry a tiff in the playground.

      2. on a lighter note, you mentioned G L Bernini a few days ago. As in “A girl from my course at UCL was interviewed by Sir William Whitfield, for whom I worked for donkeys years. She had elected to study Bernini which struck me as odd given that many eminent historians had written treatises on his work.”
        A sanguine drawing by the Neapolitan architect & sculptor just sold for 1,937,500 euro, at Actéon Auctions in France. Well ahead of its estimate of 30-50k.

        1. If you are interested you might take a look at the sale of Part 1 of the collection of Sir William Whitfield CBE by Dreweatts last year. That just went ahead before Covid lockdowns.

          Some of the items put up for sale by Andrew Lockwood, his civil partner, fetched fabulous sums way over the pre-auction estimates.

          It is the nature of things that the most important drawings, documents, paintings, sculpture and the rest rise in value. We have witnessed this with Chinese artefacts which are being reclaimed from the West for fabulous sums by the new Chinese oligarchs.

          1. Many years ago I was told that Corston Manor near Bath was built to designs provided by Bernini. I will in my present semi-retirement do some research after moving house, hopefully this year.

            Corston Manor occupies an elevated position overlooking the old Midland Railway line which was once an alternative service between Bath snd Bristol Temple Meads. The rail bed is now a cycle linear path. The Bath terminus in my youth was Green Park Station, a fine shed terminus but now regrettably a covered Sainsbury car park.

            The service between Bath Green Park and Bristol Temple Meads arrived at the old platforms of the Stephenson designed sheds, subsequently used by the Post Office.

  88. That’s me for this dreary day. A couple of hours in the garden – though it was chilly.

    Same tomorrow – grey and cold. Then – apparently – it will be warmer for a few days. We’ll see….

    A demain

    PS Yer French have scrapped their TWO PAGE document allowing you to leave the house – and said an ID card is OK. One of the many stupidities in the two-pager was the one that said you could walk up to 10 km from your house for exercise, fresh air etc – but ONLY 1 km if you had your dog with you…!!

    3. Easily explained. Dogs have been complaining that they have had too many walkies during lockdown.

  91. I am still watching the eruption in Iceland. Please see post below. It has got a lot hotter in the last three hours. There are still people walking on the volcano and circling the edge of the moving lava flow.

  92. Dismal stuff from England in cricket and rugby this winter but chins up, the football team starts its World Cup qualifying campaign this week with matches against the might of San Marino, Albania and Poland. That should test their mettle!

        1. Don’t get me wrong…i’ve seen all the games…but i haven’t watched any football.

  93. A great day, spring has sprung and our resident expert told us the sun crossed the equator.

    Thank God, the Sun moves around the Earth, Copernicus was wrong.

    1. Can’t resist having a pop, can you. Been sniffing the barmaid’s apron again? After all it is Saturday night. That’s when those of that ilk usually come out to chuck their teddies out of the cot.

      1. Oh dear, what a shame.

        Our resident, IT’S NOT A SEAGULL, gets caught with his pants down.

          2. Am I reading posts from a completely different Grizzly?
            To put it another way, it makes me sad.
            Or is this some bloke thing that mere women don’t understand?

          3. Me too. I was a bloke the last time I looked.

            I have lost so much weight during this fake pandemic that I can just about see my own penis again. Hallelujah to that. (Regrettably no one else are particularly interested).

          4. Grizzly comes on, every day, putting down anyone and everyone who has a different opinion from him.
            He constantly “corrects” everyday day language.
            He tells anyone who makes the tiniest mistake how wrong they are.
            There are times his pedantry is worse than Peddy’s, and to be honest I’m sick of it.

          7. I’ve backed away from Nottlers recently, I don’t take any one too seriously Sos, Their seems to be an under cover degree of high brow or even a hidden hierarchy. I’ve only ever met one Nottler, I thought a good bloke and i don’t ‘give one’ about what people might say against a post i might decide to make. I have from years of certain experiences my considered opinions, I make mistakes as most do, but so what, I share life experiences as others do. I’ve had my critics, again, so what !! They don’t know me. If some one doesn’t like it, do I give one ? Peddy was an absolute and obsessive PITA, some thing was/is wrong there.
            I think what we have on here more of late, is an obvious ‘trait of the English’ certain tactics carried out from personally considered higher observations, often including some sort of superiority complex, but how it’s hard to understand and i really think this is why a lot of people on this planet don’t like us, the afore mentioned Brits.
            I think the ladies are far nicer more realistic and down to earth than a lot of the men are, not all men included but the ladies don’t have no reason to try and prove machismo.
            Please don’t let this fascinating web site die a death get over it Mate. Your seem like a decent bloke, let it go. 😉

          8. Thanks for that.

            Generally I try to live and let live, but at times the constant pedantry and “I’m the expert/arbiter of taste, language etc” get my goat.

            It is a good and usually friendly site and as you observe, worth hanging on to.

          9. PS.
            First post of the day Sunday from my friend has appeared just now.

            I will ignore it, even though I could produce a suitable riposte.

          10. I think the incessant point scoring is a bloke thing.
            The pedantry gets boring, so I don’t do it, though sometimes i would wish to. As I told Peddy, some time ago – not everybody here has had the benefit of a good education.
            I value the range of people, knowledge and comments here – it’s been my main social contact over the past year of tedious lockdowns.

          11. I agree, the range of life experience on this site is very interesting and valuable. People come out with the most amazing stuff that they have seen or done. Quite restores my faith in humanity!

  94. The statue of slave trader William Beckford will be replaced and stashed in a car park at a cost of £300,000, under City of London plans to remove his marble monument, The Telegraph can reveal.

    Beckford, who owned plantations and up to 3,000 slaves in Jamaica, is honoured with a memorial in the City of London Corporation’s Guildhall headquarters where he served as Lord Mayor in the 18th century.

    Robert Aske is also in the frame.

    I find the concept and continuing practice of slavery in parts of the World today totally abhorrent.

    However, before we examine the morality of Robert Aske and others from a C21st perspective who is going to apologise for the tens of thousands of Europeans taken into slavery by Barbary Pirates including a number of Cornish Villagers?

    If the Haberdashers’ organisations want to do something positive they could teach the current crop of pupils the entire history and geography of slavery throughout the ages. Indeed they should include a seminar or two on the role of the Royal Navy and the number of British Sailors that died in actions designed to stop the Atlantic slave trade.

    1. Posted a link earlier to an article about poor Norwegians and Danes being sent as slaves to the Caribbean about 350 years ago. So, it wasn’t just blacks getting that shit.

  96. Horrific:

    There is an extraordinary case out of British Columbia where a father referenced as CD was arrested after he continued to refer to his biological 14-year-old daughter (known as AB) as “she” and his “daughter” after he transitioned to a male gender. The Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada ordered that the child receive testosterone injections without obtaining parental consent. CD opposed the transition as the parent but he was overruled after physicians at BC Children’s Hospital who decided the girl should receive testosterone injections. The father continued to defy gag orders, including a bar on his trying to persuade with his own child to wait before making such a change.

    “I had a perfectly healthy child a year ago, and that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason. She can never go back to being a girl in the healthy body that she should have had. She’s going to forever have a lower voice. She’ll forever have to shave because of facial hair. She won’t be able to have children… Sometimes I just want to scream so that other parents and people will… jump in, understand what’s going on. There’s a child—and not only mine, but in my case, my child out there having her life ruined.”

    1. Sick, sick, sick.
      Where is the mother?
      How has society changed so this is acceptable?

      Western Society will ensure its own demise.

    2. It is a harsh punishment that the unknown child has meted out to itself. Illusions, meet reality.
      Poor father.

      1. It happened to a good friend of mine. The child’s determination was fully supported by his ex-wife, the child’s mother.

  100. Ave atque vale, amici. My internet connection has been dropping out all evening, so I’ll log in while I can, but I expect to disappear in no time – pouf!

  102. Goodnight all. I have been on and off line all evening, so now I’m giving up and going to bed.

Comments are closed.