Sunday 28 March: The renewed government Covid powers may be impossible to lift again

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/03/28/letters-renewed-government-covid-powers-may-impossible-lift/

710 thoughts on “Sunday 28 March: The renewed government Covid powers may be impossible to lift again”

  1. Dominic Raab vows to bring justice after children among 100 killed in Myanmar. 28 March 2021.

    Dominic Raab on Saturday vowed to bring justice for those shot dead on the streets of Myanmar in the bloodiest day of military violence since the coup.
    More than 100 people, including children as young as five, are believed to have been murdered by the military during a savage crackdown the EU said will be forever “engraved as a day of terror and dishonour”.

    As international outrage grew, Mr Raab said: “Today’s killing of unarmed civilians, including children, marks a new low. We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy.”

    Morning everyone. Here’s Mr Raab putting the world to rights again. At one time of course we would not have had to work with anyone; we would have sent the much despised but successful gunboat and the Burmese military would have collapsed into acquiescence. This is impossible now; not only because we no longer have the means, but because we cannot even liberate ourselves. I would dearly like to see the UK …secure a path back to democracy. but would suggest that it is even more unlikely than it returning to Myanmar.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/myanmar-security-forces-kill-16-protesters-asgenerals-celebrate/

    2. We may be not too far from Myanmar as regards the actions of our police on our streets. Otherwise law-abiding people are being duffed up on our
      streets, for no other reason that that they simply wish to walk about freely. They are not revolutionaries seeking the overthrow and removal of the government, but just people who wish only to take their children to the park, or join friends for a drink in a cafe or pub.

      1. Don’t worry Horace. The mass demonstrations by Muslims in Batley showed that some people are strictly left alone by the Police.

      2. Apologies Horace. Went to uptick you but had already done so earlier so no. Of upticks went down. Upticked to reinstate and wouldn’t go back to 8. Sorry. Fat fingers and poor memory!

    3. Oh BS! The new government’s biggest crime is that they closed down the local branch of the Open Society!

    4. Send them a nasty letter. Tell them they will be upbraided at the next UN meeting – but don’t mention anything about complexion, religion or native traditions. Threaten to withhold a few weeks aid. That’s teach ’em!

  2. Dominic Raab vows to bring justice after children among 100 killed in Myanmar. 28 March 2021.

    Dominic Raab on Saturday vowed to bring justice for those shot dead on the streets of Myanmar in the bloodiest day of military violence since the coup.
    More than 100 people, including children as young as five, are believed to have been murdered by the military during a savage crackdown the EU said will be forever “engraved as a day of terror and dishonour”.

    As international outrage grew, Mr Raab said: “Today’s killing of unarmed civilians, including children, marks a new low. We will work with our international partners to end this senseless violence, hold those responsible to account, and secure a path back to democracy.”

    Morning everyone. Here’s Mr Raab putting the world to rights again. At one time of course we would not have had to work with anyone; we would have sent the much despised but successful gunboat and the Burmese military would have collapsed into acquiescence. This is impossible now; not only because we no longer have the means, but we cannot even liberate ourselves. I would dearly like to see the UK …secure a path back to democracy. but would suggest that it is even more unlikely than it returning to Myanmar.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/myanmar-security-forces-kill-16-protesters-asgenerals-celebrate/

  3. Covid has been the means by which the Boris Governmnet has changed our judicial system to where it more closely resembles the Continental system.

    We have lived under Common Law for centuries where everything is allowed unless expressly forbidden , whereas on the Continent they have Napoleonic Law where everything is forbidden unless expressly allowed.

    To think that we fought many wars to preserve our system, originating back to Magna Carta , for it all to be simply swept away on the whim of the bumbling oaf in No10 Downing St, SW1 is , to me anyway, a sad reflection of the society we now have. Bullied by the media , woke liberals and a compliant police and judiciary we have simply caved in to this arrogant seizure of powers .

    I don’t expect them to be reversed any time soon

    1. Remember Tiredofeulies, that Mrs May agreed with Chancellor Merkel that Britain would wish to rejoin the EU within a few years.

      What better way to grovel to our new masters than to change our legal system to suit them.

    2. Our judicial system has been under steady but subtle attack for many years now, it’s not just Boris. When Alf worked in the Magistrates’ Court in Woking, and he retired 10 years ago, there had been a reduction from 13 to 2 of Mag. cts. in Surrey. Woking was closed in 2011, after a feasibility study carried out where all courts were supposed to have: accessibility for the disabled, separate waiting areas for youths and witnesses and family matters, and other criteria. The only court in Surrey that satisfied every single area under scrutiny was Woking. Guess which court was closed? Yup, Woking. Plus the change in uniforms that our police now wear, they are more like riot police. There is very little “local justice” now, people have to travel a long way to a court and that’s even if they are actually charged with anything. The police only seem interested in bashing up peaceful protesters, checking on twitter and thenlike for “hate crime”.

    3. Common law was eroded when the toxic human rights act was imposed. That was the point the state started dictating how we would live, what we could and couldn’t do.

      After all, it’s entire point was to force the euprats laws on us over and above those of national law.

  4. Good morning,all. Happy Summer Time. Cold, wet and dreary in Norfolk.

    Any news? The paper hasn’t arrived.

      1. No clock crow…!

        Good day, Paul. Very strange being in a house without the MR. Cats still puzzled!

  5. Spare us an annual Covid Memorial Day. 28 March 2021.

    A year on from the beginning of lockdown, thousands lit candles to commemorate those who had lost their lives in the pandemic. Momentum is growing for this to become a regular event; scores of MPs and peers from both sides of the House have written to the PM urging him to establish an annual “Covid Memorial Day” to mourn the dead and honour frontline workers.

    Advocates argue that we observe a minute’s silence for war victims, and that the total of Britain’s Covid dead exceeds the civilian death toll in World War Two. Yet I feel deeply uncomfortable at the prospect. In the world wars the flower of the nation’s youth was snatched away. In the pandemic the average victim was 82.

    Around 70,000 UK civilians died during WW2; slightly less than the mooted figure for the Covid outbreak. The problem is that the WW2 figures are demonstrably true while the latter are the product of mendacious manipulation and outright fraud. The true figures will not emerge for many years and then in historical enquiries.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/spare-us-annual-covid-memorial-day/

        2. I am afraid that offends me – I regard it as a hate-filled comment.

          You realise that, on Palm Sunday, of all days, you have made me feel unsafe?

          How you are satisfied……………………….{:¬))

          1. We feel that your best course of action is to complain at a Police station about your unhappiness.

            ..if you can find one open, that is!

          2. Fear not – I have tweeted Dick Head of the Yard (prising her from the arms of ICOTY) and the SPG is on its way to YOUR front door.

        3. The only day worth remembering is tax freedom day, when we finally stop paying for the state.

          In the UK that’s used to be in May. After Brown was kicked out, it was in late July. After fiscal drag it’s closer to mid August.

          Perhaps that will wake up the wasters.

      2. How about a day free from the minuteaof Government(?) Control

        It could be called Pre COVID Day

        Sonn no-one will remember those times

      1. How about this as a suggestion? My modest proposal.

        “I would prefer an Asian Flu Week commemorating that wonderful time in 1957 when our class was reduced by the lurgy from 32 to 5 pupils. We had a whale of a time, especially as the teachers who were still vertical proved to be human beings.”

        1. Sorry, pet. “Asian” is racist. I am offended – that’s twice in half an hour.

          The MR is hoping to have a jolly walk along the river at Wivno this gorgeous morning…

    3. Good Moaning: for poor NOTTLers – the whole thing.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/spare-us-annual-covid-memorial-day/

      “Spare us an annual Covid Memorial Day

      Of course we should honour frontline workers who’ve gone above and beyond. But an enforced mourning ritual would hit the wrong note

      27 March 2021 • 9:30pm

      A year on from the beginning of lockdown, thousands lit candles to commemorate those who had lost their lives in the pandemic. Momentum is growing for this to become a regular event; scores of MPs and peers from both sides of the House have written to the PM urging him to establish an annual “Covid Memorial Day” to mourn the dead and honour frontline workers.

      Advocates argue that we observe a minute’s silence for war victims, and that the total of Britain’s Covid dead exceeds the civilian death toll in World War Two. Yet I feel deeply uncomfortable at the prospect. In the world wars the flower of the nation’s youth was snatched away. In the pandemic the average victim was 82.

      Why not have an annual day of mourning for the victims of cancer, dementia or even previous pandemics? Most importantly, there is clearly a specific point to be taken from the two world wars, as on Holocaust Memorial Day – “Never again.”

      What form might Covid Memorial Day take? I’d hope it would be a private, respectful silence, but I suspect it would rapidly become politicised; inevitably descending into a jamboree for “Our NHS”. And just how authentic would it be?

      Take “Clapping for Carers” last year or the pressure on sports players to “take the knee” for BLM, or even the Tory MPs vying to display the biggest Union Flag in their sitting rooms. Though some of this is doubtless sincere, I suspect much is due to social pressure or opportunism. And just as authenticity suffers, so does consistency – one minute we’re clapping furiously, the next demanding solemn silence. These fluctuations mirror our own national dilemma, torn between the cult of sentimentality and the last remnants of the stiff upper lip.

      The word “hero” had been undergoing a form of aggrandisement ever since we took to calling all members of the armed forces “heroes”. Yet it has inflated still further over the last year; encompassing teachers, all healthcare staff, every frontline worker – and if everyone can be a hero, in a way, no one is.

      The twinkly-eyed centenarian Captain – later Sir – Tom gallantly hobbled endless laps of his garden, raising tens of millions for the NHS, and was rightly revered for his altruism. Yet when he died the public mourning industrial complex sprang into action with calls for statues, Bank Holidays and streets to be named in his honour.

      The Captain was clearly a kind, thoughtful person who did a wonderful thing, but what would he have made of his elevation to sainthood? I’m convinced my own grandads, both decorated war veterans, would have felt deeply uncomfortable at being eulogised on such a grandiose scale.

      Over the last year, many people have behaved heroically and deserve recognition for their extraordinary devotion to duty; but let this be with a fitting public memorial, not some enforced mourning ritual. It would be an overreaction, exemplifying our newfound insistence that every death be viewed, not as a loss, but a tragedy. Our fetish for public emotion has gone too far.”

      1. Tony Bliar introduced this fetish for dramatic public emotion.

        Like so many of his ideas, it turned out very wrong.

      2. What about a Day of Remembrance for those yet unborn? Given the appalling, ruined, dystopian shambles into which they will arrive, I think that they deserve it.

    4. I assume that refers to 70,000 killed by Germans.

      There will no doubt have been many ‘flu, cancer, heart disease and old age deaths too, and if they were recorded as Covid deaths are, then the Germans probably killed 100’s of thousands.

    5. Good morning one and all.

      Did anybody on here light a candle? We most certainly did not. It’s sanctimonious claptrap. I just keep thinking about the unbelievable cruelty of people prevented from visiting, hugging and kissing their loved ones, who have been ill in hospital.

  6. SIR – Some time ago, in conversation with friends (via Zoom), I suggested that, once any government acquires additional powers granting it more control over the population, it becomes extremely unwilling to give them up.

    I gave as an example the fact that income tax was introduced as a temporary measure at the end of the 18th century in order to pay for the Napoleonic wars.

    Our Government has just extended its draconian Covid powers for another six months. That will take us up to September, and I am sure that, soon after, the medical advisers who regularly stand beside the Prime Minister will warn us of an imminent flu epidemic – leading to a further six-month extension of these powers (as a precaution, of course).

    After that, I suspect more Covid-19 variants will be discovered, requiring another six months. Soon enough we will have reached the winter of 2022 – and so it will continue.

    The Prime Minister is supposed to be a libertarian and a Conservative. You could have fooled me.

    Andrew Barr

    St Albans, Hertfordshire

    SIR – A few days ago I received an excited message from my daughter-in-law in Switzerland, telling me that there was no longer a quarantine requirement for travellers from the UK. When would I be coming?

    I replied that, were I to do so much as show my face at Bristol airport, I could be fined £5,000 – even though I would be travelling privately at the end of the short flight, then staying in a quiet mountain village and doing little more than seeing my grandchildren for the first time in over a year.

    I have been vaccinated, and had hoped to fly in June. I would be happy to isolate on my return, take a test, wear a tag… Yet this is an increasingly faint hope, and I am starting to fear that our Government may have us trapped on this island forever.

    Annie Elles

    Torquay, Devon

    SIR – Grant Feller is not alone in finding that anger has taken precedence.

    My husband, a cancer patient, died in November – not of Covid but possibly prematurely because of it, having had a life-extending operation cancelled three times. We too were unable to see him in his final two weeks in hospital; he too asked me in one phone call why I had abandoned him. In the months since his death, I have been haunted by his face when we were finally allowed to see him for a few minutes the day before he died.

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    Britain quite rightly had a day of remembrance for those who died from the virus – but please don’t forget the other families for whom it made a loved one’s death equally unbearable. I hope Mr Feller can eventually open the box of his father’s possessions and find some peace. Living for the day is probably a good place to start.

    Elaine Jamieson

    Stirli

  7. Morning all

    SIR – Len McCluskey says he does not know what Sir Keir Starmer stands for. He is not alone.

    Sir Keir must be the ultimate political chameleon. For three years he sat on the Labour front bench as the “nice” face of Corbynism. Through his silence, and failure to resign his shadow post, he gave tacit approval to the nasty side of Labour; in his pronouncements, he gave his support to every loony Left policy.

    After the public rejection of Labour in December 2019, he moved quickly to a place on the political carpet less vividly red. Rejoin the EU? Silly idea. Large-scale nationalisation? Not on my watch. Repeal laws restricting the wildcat tendencies of Mr McCluskey and his ilk? Not while I’m in charge.

    Advertisement

    Could the real Sir Keir stand up?

    Michael Hely

    Banham, Norfolk

      1. I’m waiting for Google to vaporise that photo.
        Fortunately, thousands – possibly millions – have it safely stashed away.

  8. SIR – You report that the statue of William Beckford Senior, Lord Mayor of London and slave plantation owner, is to be moved and hidden away at the eye-watering cost of £300,000.

    Where is the benefit in this? Surely 
it would be better to “educate” the public by simply displaying a narrative of Beckford’s life, at the cost of a few pounds.

    The Beckford family made a vast fortune from the plantations, to the extent that William’s son, also William, became the richest commoner in England on the death of his father. He built Fonthill Abbey and was persecuted throughout his life after a suspected homosexual relationship with Viscount “Kitty” Courtenay.

    Should we castigate him for benefiting from the proceeds of slavery, or commiserate with him as a victim of homophobia? History is inconvenient for those on a mission.

    Tony Mawbey

    Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire

    SIR – Instead of spending upwards of £300,000 to remove the statue of William Beckford from the Guildhall, why not leave it where it is with an explanatory note about him, then give the money left over to BAME charities?

    Rev Cindy Kent

    Minster on Sea, Kent

    1. It is surely self-evident that the ongoing bleating of blacks about racism is in itself racist. They have chosen to push their main visible characteristic to the fore as a reason for their lack of progress in society, historically and currently.
      They lay no claim to intelligence, honesty, decency, manners, charm, organizational ability, artistic merit, literacy, enterprise or work ethic. Unsurprisingly.
      Instead they blame others for their inability to create a functional society or to find a place in a society created by others. They blame others living and dead.
      “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlings.” Those of them that can read should attempt to explain that to their fellows.

      1. ‘Morning, Horace, I’d like a little updating here, “The fault, dear Black Little Morons, is not in our stars, But in ourselves that we are underlingsthick.”

    2. I’ve an even easier solution: do absolutely nothing, give no one anything and disband this pointless efnick failure as a pointless waste of tax payers money.

      People clamour that companies must pay more tax – I say – this is what it is spent on. Still want the state to take more?

  9. Standing up to the EU

    SIR – Jeremy Warner is absolutely right to identify the Trade and Cooperation Agreement as an extremely poor deal for the UK. He does not say so, but the awfulness of its terms are only exceeded by those of the Withdrawal Agreement.

    His proposed solution is a counsellor who speaks the EU’s language and can pour oil on the troubled waters of our relationship. I disagree. It is precisely this sort of timidity in the face of hostility from the EU that got us into this mess.

    What Mr Warner and, more pertinently, our Government have failed to appreciate is that the EU wishes to damage the UK. Brexit presents an existential threat to the EU. In its view, the UK must be seen to suffer, in order to bind in other states.

    What we need to do, and should have done from the start, is take unilateral steps to protect British geopolitical, commercial and trade interests. The EU has capitalised on the absence of British leadership (and the Northern Ireland Protocol in particular) to threaten the unity of the United Kingdom.

    No, we do not need a counsellor to mend fences with the EU. We need our Government to do its job.

    Ben Habib

    Chairman, Unlocked

    London SW

    1. 330919+ up ticks,
      Morning E,
      Has it been considered by any of an approach to say one of Ann Marie Waters stance and the feelings of her & her party to putting a fleet of fishing protection / anti illegal vessels in the English channel on receiving a mass indigenous people’s backing for her & party.

      Bypass the “deal” drop a polite note to “whom it may concern, brussels” to encroach onto the United Kingdom’s
      fishing grounds without permission from the people’s reset
      government will be seen as an act of war, and dealt with accordingly.

      Ps,
      Inform the ex political overseers the 650 in hard labour incarceration, that it is lights out at 8 o’clock.

    2. The day the referendum was won I said to my irate friend, himself terrified of the consequences that it won’t matter. That we will never be allowed to leave.

      He couldn’t understand how, given a mandate the civil service would not obey it.

      Oh I laughed.

      The endless treaty, the unnecessary, expensive, inefficient working groups, the wretched, pointless bureaucracy willingly imposed by the state machine is all to ensure we stay chained to the EU, perpetually trapped in it’s clutches. The europhile state machine is wedded to ensuring they get what they want.

  11. 330919+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    How about a people’s reset remembrance day being established on
    the 6th May.
    A day of reflection on the actions of the lab/lib/con coalitions actions in regards to the welfare of the indigenous people’s / Country since the mid 70s then on the grounds of regaining self respect, vote with honesty.

  12. Elite school ‘rape culture’ scandal: Whitehall launches national investigation. March 28 2021.

    Officials from Home Office and Department for Education leading cross-Government response with senior officers.

    Britain’s elite schools are at the centre of a major Whitehall investigation involving police chiefs, government officials and Ofsted over their handling of the emerging “rape culture” scandal among pupils.

    Officials from the Home Office and Department for Education are leading a cross-Government response with senior officers, who have been urged to take claims seriously.

    Inspectors from Ofsted and the Independent Schools Inspectorate are ready to launch immediate and surprise investigations if safeguarding concerns are raised at particular schools, Whitehall sources said.

    Another exposé of Evil White Culture from the Gaslighting Program and from which we are going to be “rescued” by Government and the Woke! How we will welcome the New World Order which is going to protect us from these injustices!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/elite-school-rape-culture-scandal-whitehall-launches-national/

      1. Hello, hello, hello! What’s goin’ on ‘ere, then?

        [Tips helmet peak and genuflects!]

          1. That’s what the girls used to say; especially the ones emerging from a night club at 2:00 a.m.

            On more than one occasion some of those ‘girls’ made a crude attempt to try and discover where my staff was secreted!

  14. Here’s a heartbreaking letter from the DT: imagine having to live with those last memories.

    “SIR – Grant Feller is not alone in finding that anger has taken precedence.

    My husband, a cancer patient, died in November – not of Covid but possibly prematurely because of it, having had a life-extending operation cancelled three times. We too were unable to see him in his final two weeks in hospital; he too asked me in one phone call why I had abandoned him. In the months since his death, I have been haunted by his face when we were finally allowed to see him for a few minutes the day before he died.

    Britain quite rightly had a day of remembrance for those who died from the virus – but please don’t forget the other families for whom it made a loved one’s death equally unbearable. I hope Mr Feller can eventually open the box of his father’s possessions and find some peace. Living for the day is probably a good place to start.

    Elaine Jamieson

    Stirling”

    Edit: Ooops, just seen Epidermoid has also posted it.

    1. Morning Anne. I would suppose that this is a very common story. All hidden by the Covid figures!

    2. There will be no remembrance for those who died from nhs neglect, it is unhelpful to the cause, and it would be a public reminder of the shortcomings of the plan. The purpose of the day of remembrance for the victims of the disease is to further instil the fear of covid.

  16. As I was alone last night, I decided to allow G & P the freedom of the house. They were quiet most of the night, only rocking up at 6 am (New Time) to enquire when breakfast would be served. When I didn’t move – they attacked various extremities. I got up.

  17. I see The Sunday Grimes has the Babbling Poltroon plastered over several pages. And the Wail ha a go at BPAPM.

    When, oh when, will we have a decent, sensible PM again?

      1. Buffoon Posing As Prime Minister. Do keep up, Robert, I have been using this convenient shorthand for many months…!!

  18. TikTok’s fake news problem. 28 March 2021.

    This week, a TikTok video claiming that the United States was responsible for reducing Syria to rubble spread like wildfire around the app. The post – which received nearly two million ‘likes’ – shows a beautiful picture of Syria in 2010, captioned ‘Syria before America destroy it [sic]’, and a picture of rubble in 2020, ‘after America destroyed it’.

    This, of course, is nonsense. While the US has carried out airstrikes in Syria, these have been focused on Syrian Army bases and chemical weapons facilities. And although the US has backed Kurdish forces in the region against Isis, the majority of the bloodshed has happened as a result of fighting between Assad’s forces, assisted by Russia, and rebels and jihadist militias. Last year, the Russian government was found guilty of committing war crimes by the UN for bombing civilian areas with no ‘specific military objective’: the precise crime that the TikTokers accused the US of.

    I don’t go to Tik Tok, perhaps I should do so! The quote above is replete with Sophistry and Disinformation. The US is responsible for the destruction of Syria. It is true that it didn’t bomb the country directly but it supported the Jihadists who carried out the actual work!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tiktok-has-a-problem-with-misinformation

    1. I’ve had a shuffle around TikTok and it’s an interesting melange of humour , sometimes subtle sometimes childish, crass repetition of unfunny jokes/situations, creative videos, people falling over , unconvincing pranks being played, confused young girls and heavily tattooed women of I suspect negotiable virtue setting out their stall. There are a few gems there but they are few and far between .

  19. TikTok’s fake news problem. 28 March 2021.

    This week, a TikTok video claiming that the United States was responsible for reducing Syria to rubble spread like wildfire around the app. The post – which received nearly two million ‘likes’ – shows a beautiful picture of Syria in 2010, captioned ‘Syria before America destroy it [sic]’, and a picture of rubble in 2020, ‘after America destroyed it’.

    This, of course, is nonsense. While the US has carried out airstrikes in Syria, these have been focused on Syrian Army bases and chemical weapons facilities. And although the US has backed Kurdish forces in the region against Isis, the majority of the bloodshed has happened as a result of fighting between Assad’s forces, assisted by Russia, and rebels and jihadist militias. Last year, the Russian government was found guilty of committing war crimes by the UN for bombing civilian areas with no ‘specific military objective’: the precise crime that the TikTokers accused the US of.

    I don’t go to Tik Tok, perhaps I should do so! The quote above is replete with Sophistry and Disinformation. The US is responsible for the destruction of Syria. It is true that it didn’t bomb the country directly but it supported the Jihadists who carried out the actual work!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/tiktok-has-a-problem-with-misinformation

  20. Just one thing to make me smile in the Sunday Grimes.

    Brash’s important – nay vital – new “job” has the acronym: CHIMPO

  21. Has anyone found the petition to have the teacher in Batley reinstated? All the media outlets are too yellow to post a link, and the only one I found on change.org had a few hundred signatures, but according to the Mail it’s over 50 000 now.

    1. I think the authorities are fearful that if they have the organisers of “Kill those who insult…” arrested and put on trial a million or so excitables will take to the street and make BLM riots look like the Queen’s garden party.

          1. Morning, Mags. A bit of me is glad that someone is threatening Johnson – useless git that he is.

          5. And what are the government planning to do about this open threat to the state?
            Let me guess; they will find another muslim to say that islam is a religion of peace.

          6. Why don’t they just fluck off. No one cares what their little sky man thinks. If htey want to invent and live a fnatasy, so be it. But we’re going to mock it. If they kick off, then we’ll just have to be allowed to beat them up until they get the message.

            No, I’ve a plan.

            We give them all a massive tanker with no engines. We encourage them all on board. Then we float it out to sea and leave it there. Let the Dings dings sort it out.

      2. To be honest Stephen, whilst I share those fears, I hope they do as it would finally give us the chance to lance the boil that has been festering in so many of our cities for decades ignored by those in authority.

          4. I must try that one. I’m sure the police need to brush up on their ‘throw Granny into the van’ skills.

          5. I see no problem here. Circle them, arrest them. If they resist, have them water cannoned. Use flash bangs, tear gas, stun grenades then a soldi baton charge. Keep kicking them until they get the message that this is Britain, not their savage hell hole. Don’t like it? Go home. They don’t get to change who we are.

        2. 330919+ up ticks,
          Morning Bob,
          Could it be said that the UK voting pattern as in, vote in to keep out over decades
          regardless of consequence has allowed alien forces to build and construct a parallel society.

          This parallel society is gaining muscle by the day and even has more than a foothold in parliament down to halal on the canteen menu.

          Boils down to the voting pattern radically changes or we heaken tor the call five times a day.

      3. To be honest Stephen, whilst I share those fears, I hope they do as it would finally give us the chance to lance the boil that has been festering in so many of our cities for decades ignored by those in authority.

      4. Get it over with now. use the Army in support of the police. Don’t wait until summer, as it’ll be warm and many others will join in.

    1. Good morning, ogga

      I have made this point several times. We should only allow the same number of mosques in Britain as they have churches in the Middle East.

      There should be a political party committed to mosque demolition in Britain until this situation has been reached.

      Does the Conservative Party seriously want a country with an established church overwhelmed by an alien religion with entirely different mores?

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        Morning R,

        Seeing the instruction manual / oath taker lying between the
        dispatch boxes and halal fodder on the politico’s canteen menu
        the answer to the latter end of your post is,
        YES,YES,YES.

      2. Heck no, Rasty, not in the whole Middle East, the same number as in a country of comparable size, if anything.

    2. Are you some kind of islamophobic Luddite, Mr Kimbell? Do you not realise that building work employs people and puts money into th local economy? If it were not for Saudi Arabia’s massive mosque building programme in the UK we would be in a worse recession than ever.

      1. The awful thing is, that would be exactly the conversation when the planning committee met.

  23. Let’s Put The World To Rights

    An Emergency Call Centre worker in London has been dismissed from her job, much to the dismay of colleagues who are reportedly unhappy with her treatment.

    It seems a male caller dialled 999 from a mobile phone stating, “I am depressed and lying here on a railway track. I am waiting for the train to come so I can finally meet Allah.”

    Apparently “Please remain calm and stay on the line” was not considered to be an appropriate or correct response…

    3. Shows how things are these days that I thought for a while that this was serious news!
      Better get me a Sunday beer or two…

  24. And it’s a wet Good Morning from the Derbyshire Dales today, though the rain has subsided to a misty drizzle with little wind and a tad over 5°C in the yard, though the dampness makes it feel a bit colder.

  25. Interesting read here

    if the vaccine ‘works’ why do we need further lockdowns?
    if lockdowns ‘work’ why do we need vaccines?
    if lockdowns and vaccines work why are we still under closure?
    the vaccines do not meet the medical nor legal definition of a vaccine so why deploy a gene replacement therapy for a disease that 97 per cent of people don’t have and never have had: why treat healthy people for a disease they have never had?
    the vaccines have not undergone phase 3 safety studies and are therefore not fit for human use;
    the possible side effects of the vaccines during Phase 1 and 2 safety studies have not been disclosed to the public which suggests there is something to hide;
    a vaccine that does not stop you catching the virus, does not stop you spreading the virus and ‘may’ make the symptoms less serious is insufficient cause or justification for vaccinating an entire population, what data is being withheld to support this approach?
    it has been reported that all the vaccine will do is ‘might’ or ‘may’ make your symptoms slightly less. What cost-benefit analysis has been conducted to validate the government’s course of action?

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/vaccine-passports-are-a-con-trick-whatever-they-are-called/

    1. It’s simply not a vaccine Bob.

      It’s an injection and of only God (figuratively speaking) knows what. Not going into my body that’s for certain.

      1. Regardless of what is in it, it could just be water, it is a tool for imposing draconian state control over ever individual just like they have in China

    2. “cost-benefit analysis” The missing component of every public expenditure decision.

      1. Apparently the buzzword is “Value for money”. On one project the cost of the value for money analysis exceeded the cost of the project! MoD buys the cheapest it can get whatever the cost.

      2. No, no Horace.

        The benefits are very carefully calculated.

        However it’s not the populace who benefit, but the Elite.

  27. 330919+Up ticks,

    What a win double, especially if biden reads out the tory ( ino) manifesto.

    breitbart,
    Build Back Better: Boris and Biden Plot ‘Green Alternative’ to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

    Plus this planned agenda will have to be passed by the green, pillow whisperer first.

  28. Biden invites Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping to climate summit amid rising global tensions, 28 March 2021.

    President Joe Biden on Friday said that Vladimir Putin of Russia and Xi Jinping of China are invited to the global leaders’ climate summit the administration is hosting in April.

    The president told reporters that he hasn’t directly invited Putin or Xi but said the leaders “know they’re invited” to the summit, an event the U.S. is hosting to advance global efforts to reduce climate-changing fossil fuel emissions.

    Don’t go fellahs! It’s a trick! They’ll lock the toilets and then “Novichok” the handles on the French Windows!

    https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/26/biden-invites-vladimir-putin-and-xi-jinping-to-climate-summit.html

    1. Kameltoe will serve the coffee and bikkies, because Sleepy Joe can’t remember who takes sugar.

    1. I don’t really believe that the pyramids were built by slaves working under duress, any more than I believe that Stonehenge was built by aliens.
      It seems that even archaeologists are starting to consider that the Egyptians were smart* enough not to depend on brute force, now that they have realised that the blocks were brought to the worksite by canal. I suspect that the blocks were raised by water power rather than being dragged up ramps. I have still to finalise my mechanics on this.

      *Smart enough to lay perfectly flat foundations and produce perfectly shaped and accurately oriented pyramids using string and sticks.

      1. Once you get the maths right the rest is simple energy. When you’ve enough people doing the work it just doesn’t matter.

        1. Yes I forgot that. I was holding the stick and keeping the string tight and hardly noticed I was standing in water up to my ankles.

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        B3,
        In the nicest possible way what other countries are doing is really no concern of mine, some time ago they were eating each other until we
        the English plus came along.

        We as a Nation lit the way them days for the benefit of ALL.

        Now days the politico’s wanna be whip holders are making a play, and in many ways with the wanna be slaves via the ballot booth, in consent.

    1. People are stupid. Why? Because the state likes them stupid. Inflation has kept people poor, taxes have ensured an ever bigger state machine.

      The end result? We’re going backward, working longer and longer hours for less and less and getting dumber and dumber by the generation as the lack of want accelerates a parasitic class.

      You know, I should write a book!

      1. We are actively importing the parasitic class. Instant life upgrade for getting here – and nothing to do after that, to keep the same level.

    1. And already pushing “Booster jabs” for the elderly from September? First two jabs – Not very effective? And with “One jab will cover 3 variations” – so altering what goes in your arm already? Get ready for announcement of yet more variations – and more jabs – of yet more altered “vaccines”.

    1. Twitter needs to decide if it is a [ublisher – in which case it is responsible for the content it shows or a platform, in which case it is not.

      At the moment it hides behind being a publisher and a platform, removing content it disagrees with in the name of invented rules, denying others a say. Facebook does the same. Google deliberately fiddles it’s algorithm to return Lefty results as well.

      The authors of the removed content have no recourse to justice. One or the other. Not both.

  35. Exclusive: Britain to tell Brussels AstraZeneca jab would not exist without UK investment
    Talks to break stand-off over Covid jabs manufactured in Netherlands and avert export ban will resume as early as Monday

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/exclusive-britain-tell-brussels-astrazeneca-jab-would-not-exist/

    Those who actually love Europe despise the EU!

    A BTL comment which sums up what I think about the EU

    We forget far too easily that the EU is a vindictive and evil organisation.

    The trouble with Brexit is that it is not Brexit enough!

    Both the surrender Withdrawal Agreement and the absurd “deal” which has caused chaos in Northern Ireland, our fishing waters, the financial world and at customs check points show that both need to be scrapped immediately.

    1. 330919+ up ticks,
      R,
      Brexitexit via the tories (ino) + the “deal” = pro brussels
      damage limitations.

      BUT,
      Supporting the party comes first & foremost.

      Ps,
      Where the current voting pattern, if adhered to is taking us
      will eventually have no need of polling booths, for you will receive your daily instructions five times a day after being summoned by the daily wail.

    2. Disgraceful.

      Selective policing must be stopped.

      On every occasion when they can people must raise this issue with the politicians.

    3. This is because one is a group the state supports and endorses (oppression, control, censorship and intolerance), the other are a group pushing against (for personal freedom, liberty and normality) the state line.

      That the police wouldn’t hammer those standing against big state is inconceivable.This is why everything is back to front.

    4. Time to start thinking about identifying Islam as a terrorist organisation and deporting the Imams and reducing the mosques to rubble – further identifying that the same will happen to any other building that is identified as operating as a mosque.

      Stick that up yer private house!

  37. ConWoman

    “Who or what is driving this agenda forward is more complex and subtle

    than a single centre of malevolence. The network which today controls

    the West is an aggregate of minor ethical defeats, shallow motives,

    misplaced loyalties, naked opportunism, faulty thinking, cynicism,

    greed, and megalomaniacal delusions.

    It is composed of journalists and politicians, actors playing

    scientists and pharmaceutical executives, demented billionaires and

    agents of the CCP. And normal people, who for one reason or another wish

    to avoid confronting the reality that they are living in a world in

    which normality has ceased to function as an ethical position.”

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/lockdown-the-big-lie-that-will-never-end/

    A ripping read,all too plausible and of course look at the Demon Prince popping up again………..

    https://twitter.com/postalthoughts/status/1375914401543380998

    2. I really don’t know where he green obsession came from. The state uses it as a vehicle for tax theft. Beyond that, it just seems pointless. The end result will be mass unemployment and poverty, illness and death.

      Can you imagine a pandemeic in the future where there isn’t enough power generation to keep hospitals open?

      Statists are just greedy, stupid men who look no further than their wallets. This is why such characters as the oaf failing to run the Home office should not be rewared or allowed a tribunal but simply slapped about the chops and put on a sink estate where he can see the damage his gormless policies create.

  38. Two letters bemoaning the loss of au pairs from the continong.

    Why cant the Ms Crook and Savage employ British girls or boys?

    SIR – Like Heather Stewart (Letters, March 21), I am very disappointed to hear of the end of the au pair system.
    During the 10 years when my four children were small, my family welcomed several au pairs into our household, from either the Czech Republic or Slovakia. My children got to know more about another country and culture; the au pairs became proficient at childcare and light household tasks, and learnt to speak and write good English at the local language college. They made friends and earned enough money to travel and enjoy a social life while here.
    Our family has been much enriched by their living with us. We have kept in touch with all of them and been invited to a Czech wedding, and my older children have visited them and their families while Interrailing in Europe.
    In addition, au pairs allow parents (women in particular) to work outside the home, as it is otherwise almost impossible to find affordable childcare to cover only the hours before and after nursery and school.
    The Government talks about helping women back into the workforce, but now intends to withdraw this childcare lifeline. I urge it to reconsider and reinstate the au pair system.
    Helen Savage

     

    SIR – We were lucky to have a Finnish au pair, who helped to look after our new-born twins and their four-year-old sister.
    She spoke perfect English and honed her language skills by writing letters every evening to pen pals in other countries.
    Forty years later we still write to each other and exchange photographs. I would have found it hard to cope without her, and she is emphatic that it was one of the best years of her life.
    Diana Crook

    1. The au pair system had nothing to do with Brexit. It began in the post-war years.

      My German friend (who is 80 this year) came as an au pair and married an Englishman.

      1. Morning J

        And of course , we all hear of really heart-breaking stories of husbands who couldn’t keep their hands off the au pair .. resulting in ruined marriages .

        1. The people we bought this house from had an au pair………… they later split up.

          Sadly the husband’s son by an earlier marriage was killed in a road accident and the father committed suicide.

          1. Oh , that is terrible .. a real tragic tale.

            We have known a few couples who split because of the nanny, and of course , well, sometimes the plumber or even the gardener can contribute to a life time of misery .

        2. And of course the au pairs who couldn’t keep their hands off the husbands.
          Equality rules Belle. Of course these days it might apply to the wives as well.

    2. Cost. You have to be able to pay someone adequately, or else give them something that they will value as much as a high salary. If you’re relatively poor and need to go out to work, you can offer an au pair the chance to learn English and live safely for a year in a strange country. These benefits would be worthless to most English girls.

      1. Students could do it to get a bit of income. Cheaper too than renting or living in Halls

        1. Unfortunately Stormy students are not there during the day to care for the children.

        3. If the hours work. But loads of families don’t live near a university.
          As a former au pair mother, I wouldn’t have a British student anyway – too immature and unreliable.

      2. When our boys were little we had English au pairs to help us out.

        However, they were not official au pairs – they were former students of ours who were studying French at university and wanted to spend some of their vacs in France. Caroline helped them with their French, we took them on expeditions and projects with our students and often in the evening they went out with Caroline to a restaurant with the students while I stayed at home and babysat.

        1. I had a Dutch au pair once – she decided that our small town or the job didn’t please her, and was off to fresh pastures after a couple of weeks, leaving me in the lurch. No more spoilt European princesses after that!
          I used to avoid any who put expensive hobbies in their profile too – they wouldn’t be interested in slumming it with our family.

    1. Everyone seems to forget that Gordon Brown spent what the panemic has cost practically every quarter of his mal administration.

      Every year he racked up about a trillion in debt, extended the deficit and kept us poor.

      No one bothered then. despite the terrifying levels of debt, the crushing rates of regressive taxes, the enforced poverty – Labour’s policies hammered the lower earner far more than the richer, the wealth gap turned into a vertiable Mariana trench, the banks collapsed, the regulator was removed, Brown was warned, countless times, over and over again by people who should not be ignored: Stop, you’re doing untold damage and he carried on.

      Not a flicker in the press. The media gave him a free ride. Who did they – and he, the bastard – blame? The people who came after him.

      Junior’s entire tax income – every penny – and that of his great, great grand children has already been wasted. Pee’d up the Labour waste wall on some non-jobbers pension. That’s the extent of the debt, deficit and chaos we are in. The pandemic is trivial in response. At 400bn it’s only about two thirds of a years state spending. The state has already shown it doesn’t understand economics so what can we do? Nothing. The only thing that will reverse this is so radical, so gear grindingly shocking no one will contemplate it, so the drain circling of tax, debt and waste continues.

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        The way I see it is there is no singular party partaking in the downfall of these Isles it is the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration ongoing coalition, etc,etc, a joint effort.

        Radical change in the voting pattern or bloodshed seems as every day passes to be the only options left.

        1. Yes – it is simply one monolithic state machine where they just change sides.

          Nothing changes because those people responsible for implementing it all want the same thing – entirely at opposition to what the people want .

          1. 330919+ up ticks,
            W,
            Yet the people are still supporting “THEIR” party” THEIR” Mp in the sad belief they are different instead of acknowledging they are a coalition, answerable to the hydra heads.

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        Afternoon J,
        If it were to be on the first of April it would be a joke in very poor taste, put nothing past these wretched tories ( ino) bring to mind one of the chief wretches cameron & the obarmy visit.

  40. I never realised just how much Biden and Prince Harry have in common: neither can speak coherently; both seem exceptionally stupid; both are puppets being exploited and manipulated by others.

  41. Beware all you Nottlers and families

    Scam warning.

    Straight from the City of London Police fraud team – Extremely sophisticated scam going about this week, involving all banks. You get a message saying a payment hasn’t been taken e.g O2, Vodafone, 3, Giff Gaff or EE and to click here. As soon as you touch it your money is gone. They already have all your details and it’s the most advance scam the bank has ever seen. Pass this on to everyone please. This is straight from work this morning – the banks are being inundated with calls – thousands flying out of peoples accounts! Spread the word to your family and friends!”
    Be vigilant !!!!

    As confirmed by Martin Lewis this morning! Saturday 27th.

    1. OK – if they already have all your details, why do you have to interact with them?

      A link can activate something, but again, only if they have all the info already – and then… well… then they wouldn’t need you to click anything.

      If you DO click something and do authorise it then.. well, you’re an idiot.

      Provide the source, as that’s unsubstantiated scaremongering.

        1. I don’t mind people’s vigilance and concern, but yes, sources would be useful as there are genuine threats out there that should be promulgated.

      2. Mr dear mr/s wibbling why don’t you ask Martin Lewis i’m sure he will accommodate and possibly calm your concerns.

        1. It seems as though Mr Lewis hasn’t done due diligence before promulgating a scare.

        2. Oddly, he doesn’t reply to me. I can’t find any reference to his morning interview nor a post on either money saving expert, the BBC or the register, securiity review, my bank fraud site.

          You didn’t present a link to references so I’ve replied to your post using my knowledge of how the internet works.

          If I have missed anything, please, point me at the evidence.

          1. Well as i’m not a prolific investigator, I do tend to let some of these thing go over my head, because it makes no difference to my life or my considered opinion.
            Some time last year I sent an inquiry his team about pensions and annuity draw downs and his team replied and were very helpful indeed, perhaps you don’t have the approach they might prefer.

          2. I haven’t contacted them – the suggestion that I am rude simply isn’t valid.

            Grief man, I’ve just asked you to validate your information.

  42. The clocks have advanced and longer evenings are with us….

    No doubt many are rubbing their hands with glee and looking forward to warm sunny days and the glorious plants coming out of hibernation to give a royal splash of colour. Pimms on the patio.

    But in reality…the main focus now should be on prepping for survival.

    I won’t elaborate because if you can’t see what’s coming then you won’t until it basically hits you in the face.

    1. Well that’s a pointless post.

      “Be scared… but I won’t tell you what of!”

        1. Loook kiddo, it’s just another day. Without specifics you’re just scaremongering. Stop it. It’s boring.

          1. Violent protests have been raging across Europe for quite some time. French yellow vests just the other side of the Channel while the Brits have remained passive.

            We, historically, have always been the last to take to the streets and now the British are on the streets.

          2. Oh………right………….. I suppose the Black Looting Mob will be out again soon as well.

          3. More than likely…the plan has always been to create chaos out of civil unrest.

          4. No, the usual Lefty rentamob are. They’re also complaining, usually the state just gives them what they want. This time the state is trying to send a message to say that disobedience will not be tolerated.

            You’re confusing this as a clash of ideology. It’s the same group fighting one another – both for control. Both sides need a slap and to be told who really rules this country but that requires the entirety of Whitehall and Westminster to be grabbed by the collective gonads and squeezed, so nothing will change. They’ll ignore us, we will remain powerless, Left wing oppressors will keep encroaching on our lives until there’s war. Then we’ll defeat them, millions will die and rinse, repeat.

            Folk seem to like it that way.

          5. Wrong…you are being led by media headlines.

            Look very closely at the main body of people protesting…not the establishment thugs trying to paint the peaceful as thugs.

            They were even out in sleepy Falmouth yesterday.

          6. That you replied so quickly shows you did not read my reply.

            You’re scaremongering. Stop it.

          9. You presented no truth, just scaremongering. A scooby Doo ‘be afraid!’. Are you going to mindlessly reply just for the sake of it? Are you 12? Present your case, coherently as to what you perceive the social and economic influences are – beyond ‘the English are rioting!’.

            Anything else is just shouting fire in a cinema.

          10. OK…summer is almost here and if I’m wrong…

            Please feel free to give me a hammering.

          11. It’s stuff that’s been repeated ad infinitem here and on other conservative fora recently.

    2. First BBQ on Tuesday evening at number 2 sons. Fire pit, maybe acoustics. Despite the forecast i expect it will rain they call me rain-man in the family.
      I have a 100% record everywhere we go on holiday and beyond it rains.
      In 1979 on election night, My wife and number one 18 months old, in our LWB Land Rover and caravan were traveling back inland from Gladstone in QLD to south east of Melbourne. We stopped over at Coonabarabran NSW. It hadn’t rained for 3 years ………….. guess what ?

    2. I put my clock back 8 hours……………..I hate Sundays!
      ://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26a0ef3d68edff1b2dfd12ebd2fffd80e299d4870103155fbafdfb1e5ab6598e.jpg

    1. 😮 OMG. What are they thinking! As you say FWs everywhere. But I hadn’t expected them to be at Oxford.

      1. Oxford’s run by the same Lefty idiots as every other university. Fools proliferate.

          1. I was a throwback in our family going to UEA rather than Cambridge.

            However I am happy I did, as, being a brand new university and in the swinging 60’s it was very trendy.

            I may no longer be much in favour of trendiness but I certainly had three very entertaining years at UEA and pretty girls were far more abundant than in the Oxbridge universities at that time.

        2. What can be done about it? The general public can’t do a single thing to stop this inexorable wokery, we need some “intellectuals” of note to protest. But they won’t cause they will be “cancelled”. We’re stuffed.
          Edit to say wokery not workers

          4. Listen, if you can bake a cake for the first time and it turn out well, you’d get my vote. And you’re being ageist! We need sensible people!

        3. What can be done about it? The general public can’t do a single thing to stop this inexorable wokery, we need some “intellectuals” of note to protest. But they won’t cause they will be “cancelled”. We’re stuffed.
          Edit to say wokery not workers

    5. Once upon a time we had institutions that catered for the cerebrally challenged, they were called Mental Asylums. Today they are known as Universities and there is no difference between those who are running them and those that are sent there by the state to keep them off the streets for a while.

    8. Ah . . . Of Course . . .The BAME lot have probably taken offence at the symbols used in sheet music . . decided that they represent dancing black figures . . . offence.. offence . . .

    1. The Grauniad will be happy because the Stasi will go for the “far right” – ie – the moderates.

      1. Yup – what the Left and media calls the far right seems to be anyone slightly right of Lenin or Mao.

    2. Ah , I see the plot, reduce the Military , making 400 Royal Marines jobless, and then bung them into the police , and well what have we got ?

      4. I’d rather see the 400 marines organize a military coup; keep our precious Queen but clear out that Augean stable full of bullshit called Westminster. Close down the Wee Pretendy Parliament up North and the two assemblies in the West put all their members on trial for treason.

    2. I am not a musician, but I thought that sheet music was the medium for all musicians, whatever their native language.

          1. Some could go on that space station going to the next planet out. Call them Marslims.

      3. Not for me – I don’t read music…..it could be printed in Arabic as far as I’m concerned

        1. Yes, but you are exceptionally musically gifted. Jules Holland does not read music either and yet he can play anything in any key with apparent ease.

          I read music extremely slowly and I have to work out what I play on the guitar by ear. I generally try to work out arrangements in 3 or 4 different keys (C, G, A, and D) and then use a capo to play in other keys.

          Caroline on the other hand cannot play the organ or the piano without sheet music to hand.

          1. I have to work out what I play on the guitar by ear.

            There’s your problem. Use your fingers instead.

          2. I played the bass guitar in a trio many years ago. The drummer was good he could even read the drum music. The pianist however could only play from the music so when it came to play Happy Birthday, if he didn’t have the dots , I used to play it on the piano. Yet Beethoven’s No 20(for instance) , although he’d never played it before, he’d play it perfectly straight off the music

    3. Oxford has decided to take people based on criteria other than academic achievement.
      So therefore, they need to dumb down their courses, otherwise their new students will all fail.
      Hence this, and probably a lot of similar stuff going on quietly behind the scenes.

    5. Presumably written matter will be banned from English Literature courses as well, as it is ‘too colonial’. It would be easier, then, to ban all books, and the next logical step would be to stop teaching children how to read. That way there is no danger of them picking up any ideas which might be ‘offensive’.

  47. And the latest attempt to extend ‘lock down’ is by another version. Daily mail says that the powers that be aka the ‘They’. are now considering removing the right to drive at night for elderly people. And restrict the distances to be driven by installing tracking devices into elderly peoples cars.
    From what i have seen over the past ten years the standard of driving in the UK has drooped through the floor. tailgating is the more annoying problem but speeding in built up areas is prolific. I suspect that up to 40% of drivers these days have never passed a test in the UK and many would have had stand-ins taking their test for them. I’m quite willing to take a driving test again. And one further observation has been the more expensive the car the less likely you are to get an indication of which direction they are about to follow. No indication especially from 4x4ers.

    1. As an “elderly”, I suppose, I am disinclined to drive at night anyway. I am happy to take a test every 3 years, or every year. I monitor my driving and am currently satisfied that it is of good standard. On more than one occasion in a built up area I have stopped and then gone back to speak to someone who was tailgating and was now stopped 8 feet behind me. I explain that their being so close frightens me. I I also mention that I do not like being frightened.
      I suggest that if someone or something ran in front of me I’d brake suddenly and that I have very fast reflexes. It is almost certain that they would run into the back of my vehicle and they would damage their nice shiny BMW. Do they want that? Those I have spoken seem to have understood my points. Whether they will be better drivers is unknown.

      1. I always make sure my windscreen washer reservoir is topped up. a couple of squirts in dry weather usually does the trick. Or if the rain has stopped and the road still wet drive through selected puddles.

    2. No evenings out – unless you can afford a taxi. What if you want to see a show in a city – and the nearest is 30 miles away? And the DVLA can constantly tweak the conditions tighter and tighter. Just like the MOT. Definite attacks on forcing the older people off the roads – but of course – rich and elite old will be well looked after.

      1. Evenings out?? Our last one was over a year ago. I don’t much like driving in the dark but sometimes it has to be done, particularly in the winter. There aren’t any buses that come here.

        1. No. We are encouraging them to go to Britain, by being so “tolerant” ie weak.
          Never forget that the wife of one of the French terrrorists from a few years ago lived in Britain, as she could indulge her islamic extremism freely in our country, which she couldn’t in France.
          It’s completely our fault.

    2. Russia has a multi-racial society.What Putin objects to are extremists.
      There have been Muslims living in Russia since the days of Ivan the Terrible (1547-1584)

    3. Vlad is the only World Leader standing up to the Globalists. The reason for the massive effort to replace him!

    4. Sadly we are governed these days by people who would prefer to kneel with backsides in the air to Muslim beliefs than to guarantee our own human rights and free speech. They make that clear every day.

      1. They only show “respect” for the Koran – when it suits them. They say that they should “obey the law of the land they are in” – NO EFFIN CHANCE OF THAT !!!! – Raping young girls, drunk drinking , drug driving, driving offences by the thousand ( all shown on the police video programs. They don’t eat Pork – OH YES THEY DO – seen it with my own eyes – my mate has seen it too when he worked abroad.

        1. They are hypocrites, Walter.
          I too have seen the queues
          for booze, they have a dedicated
          till for alcohol in the supermarkets
          and eat anything they fancy.

  49. Returning to the letter by Fareed Rehman in yesterday’s Telegraph, I post for your amusement a response I have just e-mailed off to DT Letters.
    Sadly, I seriously doubt if it will see light of day:-

    Sir,
    Regarding the letter from Fareed Rehman (27th March) regarding the disturbances at Batley Grammar School, it surely can not have escaped his notice that the UK has a tradition of satire that predates the arrival of adherents of his religion to the UK by many, many years?

    In that tradition no one is sacrosanct and all are fair game to be lampooned. Be it Royalty, The Church, The Government, The Armed Forces or any of the other aspects of life in Britain are liable to have their foibles and hypocrisies exposed for all to see and laugh at.

    Mr. Rehman and his ilk are perfectly welcome to reside in the UK and practice their religion. However, what is not welcome is for them to attempt to impose the strictures of that belief on the population at large in the way they are attempting to do.

    Sadly, by the cowardice of the school management and shameful lack of support being given to the teach concerned by the teaching unions, it seems they are succeeding in their aims.

    In reality, if they are unwilling to accept that our traditions of Free Speech include the lampooning of Islam, then perhaps the advice summed up in the Australian acronym FIFO would be appropriate?

    I am quite certain there are other countries in the world where their own extremism and narrow minded bigotry would be quite welcome.

    2. Unfortunately these days free speech is being criminalised in this country. Thought crime may have been satire in Orwell’s day but not now. Hate speech law has become a reality in Scotland, and England won’t be far behind. Already the police keep a record of “non-crime hate incidents”.

    3. Someone claimed that there are fifty two Muslim states in the world.

      I find it strange that none of them wish to welcome Mr Fareed Rehman, especially after he has signalled to all what a good Muslim he is.

  50. Sunday Afternoon,wet windy and foul
    Feet up with a mug of tea and Kind Hearts and Coronets on the box
    Bliss

    1. Strong beer here. Tidied in the garden, put out the terrace furniture, sorted the potted daffodils… now to do bugger-all for a while.

  51. Blimey did some of you miss a whole hours sleep,…… it’s grumpy Sunday………..i’m off.

    2. I got up later but for some reason I do feel grumpy today…I had put it down to a complete lack of success in the project that I’m doing at work…I moved to working on something else, and that’s going nowhere too!

    3. I not only missed an hour’s sleep, the fiddling with the clocks has upset my internal clock (and it won’t be right until we get back onto GMT). It’s made me sleepy, irritable and confused.

  52. ‘Afternoon, all.

    From a list of Full Moons for this year, I see that the one taking place on the 22nd of August has been named “The Sturgeon Moon”.

    What are they thinking? As if Wee Krankie’s arrogance and hubris were not already more than enough, now she has an astronomical event named after her, she will become even more insufferable. I shall be writing to the Astronomer Royal, demanding that this misnaming be rescinded at once.
    :¬(

    2. She already has a planet named after her…….Uranus! or as she pronounces it Your highness

        1. Her brain is the size of a sub-atomic particle, even smaller than a neutron….called a moron

  53. I note that the Press and MSM are fixated on indyref2. The entry of the Alba party (with Alec Salmond and others) into the election fray for seats in the Scottish Parliament is potentially a game-changer. The election could result in a substantial majority of seats (two-thirds) being held by pro-independence MSPs.
    The Alba website does not use the expressions “indyref2” or “referendum”. To me this is a clear indication that the Alba group would press for a vote in the Scottish Parliament for imminent secession. A declaration of independence, followed by talks on trade etc.
    If the SNP did not support such a vote their bluff would be called. They would reveal themselves as fraudsters using the word ” independence” as a mere slogan to wave themselves into power.
    The danger is real and imminent.
    I have suggested to the leader of the Scottish Tories, Douglas Ross, that only the suspension of the Scottish Parliament and cancellation of the election would ensure that this scenario does not play out.

    1. In the Johnson/May catastrophe, damp squib WA we had to pay to leave the EU.

      An equally high price should be levied on Scotland if it wants to leave the UK!

      3. Disagree, Rastus. Who wants to behave like that cabal of shits? Scotland should be clear that, on departure, Englad will be their friend as they share a lot of history, but will not sub them money when they want it.

        1. Er Scotland needs to be Englands friend first I would suggest . I judge Scotlad on who they vote for to represent them.

      4. I think that would be very unfair, Rastus. If they vote to leave, then they should go and we shouldn’t put obstacles in their way. We shouldn’t be funding them, though, and they should pay their fair share of the national debt.

    2. Nobody, it would seem, even considers the scenario that London send troops to prevent any breakaway.

      They have a very powerful weapon to get what they want from Brussels, which is the threat to talk to the Chinese instead.
      They are nationalist fools who can rouse a good rabble by creating a minority group that they blame for everything…how history repeats itself!

      1. Ah yes. Send English troops. As in 1919 with tanks in Glasgow and Scottish politicians clubbed unconscious. That might just work, what with over half the people in Scotland supporting independence. Or, there again, maybe not.

        1. If the vote goes to independence, then independence it must be.
          In exactly the same way as the Brexit vote that was supported on NTTL – vote to leave with a majority measured in small % is still leave – so the same should apply to Scotland.
          I would be saddened by Scottish independence, as I believe it’s better together, but would respect the vote – and I don’t get a vote.
          Edit: BREXIT experience shows it must be a clean break, mayb with a 1-2 years transition to let Scotland get the shared systems disentangled and up-to-speed. No “revenge” actions, as the EU does to Britain, but no special conditions / financial support, either. Independence means what it says on the tin.
          EDIT2: The first uptick was applied before EDIt#1. The ticker might remove it after the edit.

          1. We’re not talking about a vote of the people, but an illegal vote by elected representatives.
            And a potential Chinese satellite on our northern border.

          2. The vote would not be illegal. The clue is “elected representatives”.
            Chinese satellite? You mean they will come here and re-open the coal mines? Not likely.
            Moreover I do not see Faslane, Rosyth or the air bases closing whatever.

          3. It is well known that the best way to take over any organisation is to pack the elected representatives with extremists. Then you get to do what you want.
            Have you never heard of the Belt and Road initiative? Lots of lovely money for governments to spend! The Italians fell for it.

            Just as a matter of interests, how do you believe that an independent Scotland would finance itself?

          4. Extremists? Well if a love of freedom, a desire for liberty, a thirst for good governance, a yearning for democracy, make one an extremist, please count me in. Yes I’ve heard of Belt and Road. I don’t doubt the venal, grasping politicians would love big bribes. But I’m against independence now only because of the politicians currently in power.

            I suppose that we would work hard and tighten our belts. We’ve done it before.

          5. You have enjoyed all those things together with England in the years since the Act of Union, and they certainly didn’t exist in Scotland before!

            I’m against Scottish independence because the country is too small to survive on its own, and Sturgeon and Salmond have amply demonstrated that nothing has changed in Scottish politics since 1707. The seeds of Scotland’s destruction are right there and active today.

            The Scots might work hard and tighten their belts – your immigrants didn’t pay thousands to reach the land of milk and honey in order to work hard and tighten their belts! Free money and their culture dominant everywhere is what they require, so you’d better look sharp about providing it.

          7. Historically, we have lived on porridge and fish…

            “And a voice valedictory . . . Who is for Victory?
            Who is for Liberty? Who goes home?”

        2. That’s what I mean. Everyone is terrified of a storm on social media with nationalists playing the martyr to the cameras.
          Spain was quick enough to dissolve the Catalan parliament and jail the ringleaders in 2019. I doubt London would have the guts even for that.

          Was talking to foreigners recently about this, and they assumed that in the event of an illegal vote, troops would be sent in. I had to break it to them that the UK government would never dare to do that.

          1. Hold the lid on this kind of thing, and it just gets much more violent when it’s finally solved. If the Scots want to leave, then fine, let them leave is a spirit of friendship, not war.

          2. The current mess has been deliberately stoked, starting with Blair’s regional parliaments. We all know that Scotland would have been independent years ago if the vote were given to the English.
            I used to take the same view as you, but things have changed now. An independent Scotland wouldn’t last five minutes without regular cash handouts. These they would get from the EU or China. Either would be bad for England, and ultimately, for Scotland too.

          4. There seems to be plenty who reckon Scotland is the property of England, with talk of sending troops… to what purpose?

          5. It would not work. If that happened it would be contrary to the UN Charter. We could invite the US* to send UN peace-keepers. The UK government simply would not go that far. Moreover the Auld Alliance with France has never been rescinded.

            *As the US threatened in NI, resulting in the Good Friday agreement.

          6. Moreover the Auld Alliance with France has never been rescinded.

            The French would not miss an opportunity to undermine the UK. Remember, French support in the American War of Independence was the deciding factor in the British defeat.

          7. Bit them on the bum, thought, didn’t it? Lafayette was influential in their revolution.

          8. Just to be clear, my observation was about how FAR we are from sending troops as happened in the past! And the reason I thought about it was because it came up in conversation with a group of non-British people.

          11. The problem is that they will want the Barnett bailout to continue.

            …and knowing the Britosh government’s enthusiasm for giving money away to foreigners, they’d get it.

          12. I’d not use the word “foreigners” in conjunction with Scotland, Janet, but the conservative government does seem to love splashing taxpayers money all around.

          13. A vote by the Scottish Parliament would not be illegal. A two-thirds majority in favour of secession would be valid.
            The Catalan situation was different in that the entire Assembly did not vote so the majority in favour of secession was not valid. There was not a two-thirds majority and there were voting irregularities in the referendum.

            A two-third majority vote is sufficient to declare independence and 93 out of 129 is just over two thirds of the seats. That is a sufficient number to declare independence from the UK, that is, to secede unilaterally.
            Westminster has no say in such circumstances.
            Please see Article 2(4) and Article 33 of the UN Charter.
            Also see Para 1514 of the 15th Session of the UN General Assembly, (947th Plenary Meeting) of 14 December 1960.
            See also “Advisory opinion on Kosovo’s declaration of independence” by the International court of Justice of 22 July 2010. Please note that the UK recognised the independence of Kosovo within 24 hours.

          14. The whole Kosovo affair was the legalised theft of a piece of Serbia by immigrant ethnic Albanians, rubber-stamped by the UN. No doubt they would be equally keen to rubber-stamp a breakaway Scotland, for the same reasons. Globalists overruling national laws is what they are all about.

            If Scotland goes ahead and breaks away on these flimsy grounds, that will pave the way for many small islamic republics across Europe. Want to get approved by the UN as a new nation? Just pack your city’s council with extremists and vote for independence!
            It is the end of the nation state – which is what the UN wants.

          15. Well, all you are saying is that it could happen.
            See below regarding your unnecessary use of the pejorative expression “extremists”.

        3. The British government’s response to the Irish Easter Rising in 1916 resulted in a huge rise in support for independence.

  54. Census 2021 is cruel to the Dutch

    Did anyone notice (if they filled it on line) that, despite there being a list of 50 languages in which they could reply, there was no entry for the Netherlands?

    When I lived in Amsterdam, there were very few people I met who couldn’t speak very good English. By the time I left I spoke passable Dutch.

    Bit unfair though. Probably a lot more Dutch nationals living and working in England than most of the other nationals.

    I think we should be told why Afghans, Froggies, Eyeties etc. rate a Pashto, French, Italian translator in the Census Office but not the Cloggies.

    Wonder if the French and German censuses encourage (and pay for the translation of) data entry in languages other than their own? Just asking.

    1. I don’t think they run censuses in Germany, as everyone is registered where they live anyway. Well, everyone who obeys the law.
      When I went there nearly twenty years ago, nothing was in any other language than German, but I believe that has all changed since 2015.

      1. BB2 – you hit the nail: Well, everyone who obeys the law. Probably just the same here. What illegal would want to be counted?

    2. Cloggies are from Lancashire. They probably do not speak Dutch, only an incomprehensible dialect of English.

      for more info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cloggies

      https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=AwrJ4NaidmBgF5AAwCaJzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA3NyBHNsawNpbWcEb2lkA2UxYmY2MDQ1N2QyN2M2NTAwZTkwMmNkZTE4NzQwMThmBGdwb3MDMwRpdANiaW5n?back=https%3A%2F%2Fimages.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3Dthe%2BCloggies%2B-%2Bbill%2BTidy%26fr%3Daaplw%26fr2%3Dpiv-web%26tab%3Dorganic%26ri%3D3&w=1118&h=801&imgurl=1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-O-akjC9MODE%2FVQbN-Cn4a3I%2FAAAAAAAAoGM%2FQHk-e4rFMS8%2Fs1600%2FYP17%3ATidy%3A1970s%3ACloggies-flyer.png&rurl=https%3A%2F%2Fjohn-adcock.blogspot.com%2F2015%2F03%2Fenglands-greatest-comic-strip-artist.html&size=681.5KB&p=the+Cloggies+-+bill+Tidy&oid=e1bf60457d27c6500e902cde1874018f&fr2=piv-web&fr=aaplw&tt=Yesterday’s+Papers%3A+England’s+Greatest+Comic+Strip+Artist+…&b=0&ni=21&no=3&ts=&tab=organic&sigr=LsvkYM25asWw&sigb=VJA97qOBetTa&sigi=piArnhDVG43f&sigt=WBVOErKB.UiP&.crumb=LCr7fmFkMuv&fr=aaplw&fr2=piv-web

      1. HP, those of us who later worked for a rather large Dutch/English oil company called them ‘Cloggies’ behind their backs. The Dutch ex-pats who were working in UK ‘temporarily’ (sometimes more than 10 years) enjoyed Dutch expat salaries, higher than their direct counterparts from UK.

        1. When my elder son went to work for another large Dutch (Electronics) firm in California, the locals called them Cloggies too.

        2. I’m joking. I get it. I’ve been to Holland and I’ve seen a dyke. (That was in Amsterdam, as I recall.)

    3. Was there a Weegie language option? Plenty Weegies in the UK.
      It should only be in English. You want translate? You use Google – hell, my Google offers to translate every Goddamn website I enter these days!

      1. Nope. No Weegie or Swedish or Finnish, but Yes: Latvian, Lithuanian, Estonian. What’s going on?

      2. As in yer France. All official stuff, forms etc, is in French. Non comprendi? – tough.

  56. OT – urgent question for Anne, Korky and Elsie

    MR just back from Wivno – thank goodness! She says her sister’s house is freezing. She is hard up.

    We needs details of a reputable supplier of GOOD QUALITY logs so as to help out.

    Any suggestions? Thanks in advance

      2. I used the local branch of Coals2U and its predecessor company (takeover) for 20 years. They are based about 30 miles away and delivered fortnightly. No complaints. However, I have now found a local supplier eight miles away who delivers weekly.

      3. I used the local branch of Coals2U and its predecessor company (takeover) for 20 years. They are based about 30 miles away and delivered fortnightly. No complaints. However, I have now found a local supplier eight miles away who delivers weekly.

    4. I cant help with wood suppliers, but if she can afford it, why not have central heating put in?

    1. Piers Scumbag Morgan,fraudulent share pusher,liar about our troops,lockdown alarmist all round shouty gobshite who shuts down anybody who disagrees with him

      Now reinvented as a free speech defender??
      Vomit!!

      2. I’ve never watched his show or bought his newspapers but even though I might disagree with his views I think he should have the right to express them.

      4. Ah, no. Careful now. Piers, like most journalists – doesn’t believe what he is saying. He is profiting from the furore.

        He couldn’t care about freedom of speech. He just likes the columns he’s getting, the publicity.

    2. When you have no values of your own, or the ones you hold are fragile because they’re built on a personality lacking foundation; when they come across an opinion that challenges their own they have to attack it. Difference is frightening.

      The same crowd whinge about Amazon paying ‘their fair share’ of tax, never thinking beyond their own greed nor exploring the fundamentals of why Amazon avoid taxes, who is really responsible or the consequences of any change.

      It is typical short term gratification – ‘make him hurt rather than me’.

  58. The EU’s decline is self-inflicted. 28 March 2021.

    In 1991, at the height of the first Gulf War, the EU demonstrated to the world its divisions and helplessness, as Belgium infamously blocked the export of munitions to the UK, then at war in the Gulf. They quickly came to regret it. The Belgian Foreign Minister subsequently remarked tellingly: ‘Europe is an economic giant, a political dwarf and a military worm’.

    As if this lamentable display of the EU in prolonged self-harm mode were not enough, its ‘political dwarf’ status is being further undermined internationally. In an increasingly competitive world where the international rules-based system is being challenged, the soft power at the core of the EU’s existence is being called out. At the best of times, soft power is only ever a supplement to hard power. In the realpolitik of present day international politics, Stalin’s quip about the real power of the Vatican – ‘How many divisions?’ – is all the more true. Or as President Theodore Roosevelt put it more kindly: ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick’. The EU’s problem is that it has no stick and is unlikely to have one in the near future. China has spotted this and has called the EU out over what it deems to be mere virtue signalling over human rights.

    China is calling the EU’s bluff and highlighting its ‘military worm’ status. Soft power is a fine thing, but hard power helps when the going gets tough; ‘all mouth and no trousers’ means humiliation sooner or later.

    Only the UK, or more accurately its elites, panders to this gang of fantasists.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-eu-s-decline-is-self-inflicted

    1. 330919+ up ticks,
      Afternoon AS,

      The UKs decline via the polling booth is self-inflicted. 28 March 2021.

      We are a prototype showing the eu the way to failure.

      1. No, sorry – the EU is copying how to cripple nations from Lenin and Stalin, Mao and Hitler.

        The UK is suffering from apathy, luxury and decadence. We’ve too much of everything. We want for nothing – that money can buy.

        As a consequence everything is short term. No one is thinking forward, to the future. The people who are, are wrong, because they see the future they want not what it will bring about.

        Thus no one thinks because doing so is difficult. No one questions because they’re gorged on their own indulgences. No one stops because they are wedded to gratification to stave off the ennui that responsibility and consequence would impose.

        We have become selfish, stupid and spoiled and we can’t see that we are precisely because we are. As a consequence, to fill that void the Left have poured division, ego, trans nonsense and their own agenda.

        1. Young people don’t read, JN. Well, only a small proportion. If it isn’t in a “text” or a “tweet” – too hard….

          1. Considering how many people don’t use an apostrophe for don’t or won’t … gah.

            I asked someone if they thought something would happen – they had written wont and didn’t understand me. I pointed out what they had said and that they were wrong and ignorant. They weren’t happy about it. Didn’t change the fact they were dumb.

        2. Literacy amongst the young is at it’s lowest point.

          However yes, it should be forced reading at schools – and universities. Mostly by – it seems – lecturers.

  59. Did Russian hackers force Australian TV station off the air for showing Vladimir Putin investigation? 28 March 2021.

    Security experts claim that ‘Russian hackers’ sought sought to stop Monday’s episode of Under Investigation from going to air on Channel Nine.

    The network said the episode will ‘expose Vladimir Putin’s deadly campaign of chemical assassination being waged against his enemies’ in the West.

    Hosted by Liz Hayes, the broadcast would also reveal ‘Russia’s ongoing development of banned poisons and nerve agents in secret labs’

    Yet another “Vlad Ate My Hamster” story!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9411375/Did-Russian-hackers-force-Australian-TV-station-air-showing-Putin-investigation.html

  60. Reported in the French media and the BBC but very little yet in the other British MSM.

    https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/indonesie-explosion-pres-de-la-cathedrale-de-makassar-vraisemblablement-visee-par-une-bombe-20210328

    Suicide bombers strike in Makassar Cathedral in Indonesia this morning as congregation leaves Palm Sunday service.

    CHRISTIAN LIVES DON’T MATTER

    but Muslim sensitivities do and justify revenge beheadings – and our spineless politicians seem quite comfortable with that.

    1. Another one for Jihadi watch.

      Truly, one day we’re going to have to deal with these people. They can’t seem to mind their own business and just fit in.

        1. The Government is fitting in Oberst:

          The lockdown ends on the first day of Ramadan.

          Either the Government is afraid that if they don’t finish lockdown by that day then Muslims will riot, or the Government has been

          threatened civil unrest by the Imams.

          2. You misunderstood Aeneas.

            Christian churches have been closed.

            As far as we know, not a single mosque has been closed.

            Now you understand who the Government is afraid of.

          3. Our church opened up for the first time today. We even had the choir (less than half of them and all socially distanced and wearing masks when not singing, but still, it’s a start). We, of course, could only stand and sing in our heads 🙁

      2. The Christians will be the minority Indonesia.

        The difference between Islam and other religions is that once Islam is in the majority, and then the ascendency, their aim becomes to drive out or subjugate the rest. Similar to Communism.

        1. 330919+ up ticks,
          S,
          They will need all the help they can get from lab/lib/con then to achieve that, but given time……

  61. Reported in the French media and the BBC but very little yet in the other British MSM.

    https://www.lefigaro.fr/international/indonesie-explosion-pres-de-la-cathedrale-de-makassar-vraisemblablement-visee-par-une-bombe-20210328

    Suicide bombers strike in Makassar Cathedral in Indonesia this morning as congregation leaves Palm Sunday service.

    CHRISTIAN LIVES DON’T MATTER

    but Muslim sensitivities do and justify revenge beheadings – and our spineless politicians seem quite comfortable with that.

  62. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/25/rishi-sunak-exclusive-workers-could-quit-forced-stay-home/

    Considering he’s looking at the complete collapse of tax income from the theft through business rates, VAT, income taxes, ground rent taxes, traffic charges, fuel taxes, energy taxes, train fares… you name it, the state taxes it, not to mention massive unemployment from sandwich shops, cafes, pubs, foot traffic generally of course he wants people back in the office.

    In fact, the cynic in me wonders if the massive cut in the one infrastructure spend we did need – fibre connectivity – is all intended to keep using the 1950’s technology we currently have so we’re forced back to the office to use those very expensive, very profitable leased lines.

    I wouldn’t mind if he said “Look, there’s going to be mass unemployment and a huge tax loss if you don’t go back to normal” but that would be honest and state can’t manage that.

    Perhaps they need to change how they work to accommodate us rather than the other way around. Hang on, Gloucester Old Spot just passed mach 3.

    2. How will they force people to have vaccine passes if everyone is working at home? Nobody’s going to fall for “no jab no job” if they aren’t coming into the office.

  63. Was the beaching of the cargo ship in the Suez canal an accident?

    Ships navigating narrow waterways would/should have had their anchors lowered from the bow ready for immediate release especially when threatened by strong winds.

    As days pass so the fallout is becoming much clearer. The loss of £billions of trade. Delay in goods reaching their destination. Welfare of livestock. Chaos at destination ports when several large vessels all arrive at the same time.

    There is no excuse why this could have been an an accident unless the skipper wasn’t paying attention.

    1. It was an accident. If you don’t understand why, learn some physics about momentum, drag and the sheer size of that thing.

      I had written a hugely sarcastic reply but even I can’t be bothered.

        2. It was moving through the canal at the time.

          Given that I am apparently in a ferociously poor mood with an even worse temper – even the dog is avoiding me – and that while I have the ability to realise that but not the wisdom to temper it’s application, explain to me why you ascribe conspiracy to the normal chaos of the world?

          Is it to control it? A need to believe that when something goes wrong, an invisible hand is at work? The world is chaos. It’s full of petty, small, chaotic people with equally chaotic minds. What usually works often does by accident or miracle, not intent.

          Why? Why can youu not see that big boaty/strong windy pushed the ship into the bank?

          The canal is relatively narrow. It wasn’t designed for these mega ships. Navigation *is* difficult. Margin for error is incredible small.

          1. I passed through the canal many years ago viewing the shoreline through the sights of a machine gun in case any Arabs had a pop at us.

          2. A couple of weeks ago, I got scrap men in to remove some heavy stuff off a piece of land that I own. They brought a lorry that is usually used for carrying scrap cars, with a sort of grab with which they pick up a car.
            This was a piece of solid cast iron. They tried it with the grab, and the lorry started tilting over.
            They brought a tractor with a fork lift, same thing happened. They tried the lorry and the tractor at the same time, no joy.
            Finally, the chap phoned his brother who had a bigger lorry, and they used both grabs to pick it up and finally got it onto the bigger lorry.

            Watching these tugs trying to free the tanker is giving me flashbacks, especially when they keep fetching bigger tugs/dredgers etc!

        3. If the anchor was not pulled from its mountings then the ship would have likely rotated about the anchor point and still ended up across the channel.

      3. I was at the Port of Suez on 30th January, 2010 when, the night before, one of these violent storms took place. The winds were so strong that, with little warning, they disrupted all shipping in the northern Red Sea and grounded every ship, boat and yacht in the port. They also caused a fire that destroyed 7 yachts in dry dock.

        It doesn’t surprise me at all that a huge ship such as the Ever Given, with its containers piled up high, acting as a sail, was grounded.

        Therefore, I would think that it was an accident even if there were other less major factors involved.

        This is a photo (in an Egyptian newspaper) of the fire in the dry dock area which started during the night when the storm was at its most violent.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06ce90bcec4f816ea4517ae2018f9c140237dc61f3f48c0089b721233b5b5e3e.jpg

      1. A very good point!

        If no war then we can rule that out. It is causing other shipping to take the long way round which increases fuel costs which will impact on the consumer.

        1. I would guess that the ships held up do not carry enough fuel for the trip the long way round. I guess that like planes they only carry sufficient fuel for the planned voyage.
          They would therefore have to stop somewhere like Capetown to take on more fuel?

          1. I’m ex Grey Funnel Line but would imagine the commercial ships would have more fuel than they need. Perhaps oil bunkers could be deployed for top ups before re-routing.

            We usually replenished at sea before getting too low on fuel.

            They just showed the ship on the BBC and from my view the ship didn’t drop any anchor.

          2. Grey Funnel Line
            Doesn’t reflect much aspiration. Not quite the same ring to it as White Star Line

          4. By the time that the ship is underway, the goods will be able to be moved throughout UK, by HS2

          6. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but I can’t think of it.

            Late edit:- May have been, Nosmo King.

        2. In real terms not by much. The biggest cost by far is taxation. That accounts for nearly two thirds the cost of production – and why it’s cheaper to print a book in China and ship it here than print it here.

    4. C19 Virus wasn’t an accident either ..

      Malign forces at work.

      I think the export of live animals is an absolute disgrace , there are many ships carrying thousands of live animals stuck on ships in that appalling heat !

    5. I have to admit, I wondered when I heard the ship was Japanese owned! It is certainly a timely reminder to the West of how much we depend on Chinese imports, and how many live animals are transported that shouldn’t be.

      But it’s very unlikely that it was anything but an accident.

  66. I remember being knocked out by it when I first heard Uptown, Up-tempo Woman. Randy Edelman did a concert in the Poole Arts Centre in the early 80’s so I went to see him and heard this very jolly song Pretty Girls Can be Dangerous . Those who enjoy good a good tune and pictures of pretty girls will enjoy this!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd7UHCmeKEs

    3. Green is just anotherexcuse for the state to tax us and scare us to keep us compliant.

      The facts are irrelevant to big gov. It must have all ability to levy or change tax rates removed.

    3. Flying aircraft into skyscrapers,
      Paranoid mutterings
      Slaughter of Christians

      Colonising a Christian country by acting as parasites and disease carriers and persecuting their whites hosts.

  71. Lots of protests planned for over Easter…

    The article is way down the pages. Now read the comments…all MODERATED which show almost 100% against the protesters.

    Does that not sound odd where nobody supports the protests? The establishment are trying to stop genuine people from protesting in much the same way they tried to prevent Brexit.

    Kill The Bill protesters are threatening chaos over Easter with ‘National Weekend of Action’ at towns and cities across UK
    Kill The Bill protesters have called for a ‘National Weekend of Action’ over Easter
    Yesterday saw ten arrests at a third Bristol protest and eighteen in Manchester
    More than 100 riot officers disperse a crowd of more than 1,000 people in Bristol

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9411441/Kill-Bill-protesters-threatening-chaos-Easter-National-Weekend-Action.html

      2. When watching the Bristol protests…

        I had a close up view of a protester talking to a cop. The audio was very good and I was able to listen to the conversation although the cop didn’t say much.

        The protester was verbally telling the cop what all of you write on these threads. It was if one of you were explaining that the cop was party to the destruction of civil liberties which will also impact on him and his family.

        I doubt an anarchist would even know who the Prime Minister is.

        1. What the problem is isn not exactly complicated or needful of complex analysis.

          Au contraire. I think ana anrchist would be laser focussed on the people they hate.

    3. The bit I don’t get is why they’re bothering.

      We all know that the state does whatever it wants regardless. Peaaceful protest, 2 million people marching through London, this mob of thugs.

      Oddly the only group who have got what they want have been the violent thugs destroying public property – but they were black so maybe you have to be an effnick to get your own way.

    1. This sycophancy towards Islam is not going to end well – indeed, will it ever end?

  73. 330919+up ticks,
    Dt,
    Emmanuel Macron has lost his Covid ‘bet’, and his political head
    Deepening health crisis means there is now a real possibility that far-Right leader Marine Le Pen will sweep to victory in the next election

    Make that a win double with Anne Marie Waters another so far right
    UK political patriot.

    Well past time to kick 650 political pinstripe clad arses back downstairs from wence they came, as in the Order of the boot courtesy of the
    People’s reset campaign.

    Do it, FOR BRITAIN.

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        Afternoon B3,
        I don’t believe the french would put up with it, whereas as things are currently in the UK, the electorate would.

        Party before Country has a great deal to answer for.

        1. I don’t think it’s even party before country now. At the top, it’s self first, party and country nowhere.

    2. AMW is good, but a few years ago, she had not had a political education and it showed. I like her though. She’s serious.

      1. 330919+ up ticks,
        Evening BB2,
        Lacking a political education could very well prove an advantage.
        Polished political liars in succession have brought us to our present condition as a Country.

        I cannot see any true opposition but the likes of Anne Marie,
        Laurence Fox , Robin Tilbrook, there is certainly none within parliament currently.

        1. David Kurten’s good. The efficient machine of the Tory sheep will carry more traitors to power though.

          1. 330919+ up ticks,
            BB2,
            From all the real UKIP politico’s Gerard Batten proved to be the best that is why his leadership had to be terminated.

            The coalition LLCGs input will NOT continue much longer the threatening mob outside the school the governance parties have introduced to these Isles along with the mass paedophile issues
            will as a last resort bring about a blood letting that no police force will be able to contain.

            Sad to say there is a great deal of hate building out there what with the hot weather on the way and the decent people’s backs to the wall something has to give.

          2. I agree with you about David Kurten.
            ‘The efficient machine of the Tory sheep’
            will need more than a miracle to elect a
            Conservative London Mayor!

      3. The NHS and the big vaccination centres can cope with the storage needs of the Pfizer vaccine.

        1. The minus 80 degrees centigrade. You are more likely to get the AZ at your local surgery.

    2. I started reading pop, but get weary of pieces that chop and change font with bolding, underlining and italics scattered throughout. It smacks of lack of confidence in the information being enough to make its own point.

      1. Americans for you..brash and overstated in its layout. Had I been laying it out it would have been understated in our British way. I did do that sort of thing for my job once upon a time, it was thoroughly absorbing and time passed by in a flash.

    3. Thanks poppiesmum confirms my worst fears, unfortunately.
      I would not have had any of these injections anyway. I reiterate what I said earlier these are not vaccinations they are just injections.

      2. I received an email from our daughter-in-law’s mother today. We told our son we were not having the vaccination last week. This sentence was amongst other stuff “We are meeting up with X (our DiL) and Y (our grandson) on Tuesday, It will be so lovely to see them after all this time. We are hoping to stay with them in May when two households can be indoors together, we will have had our second vaccine by them, keeping X safe as she can’t have hers while she is pregnant.” You have no idea how that has made me feel, I am finding it difficult to keep emotions under control.

        1. They are protecting themselves in the short term by having the vaccine, not anyone else. Your decision does not impact anyone else apart from you, in the short term.
          Medium to long term, we don’t yet know.
          Stay courageous!

          1. Thank you for the encouragement, bb2. I get very down about things at times but in the end I know nothing will deflect me from my chosen path.

          2. I was asked yesterday if I was having the jab. I said that I’d had Covid in Feb 2020 (before the hoohah got going), so my T cells were already fired up by the real thing. I was letting someone who needed it have my jab.

        2. I can understand how you feel Pmum. Must be awful. Trouble is those who have had the experimental jab seem to feel so superior about it, triumphant almost.

          As you know Alf and I will not have it but our daughter, S-I-L and 2 granddaughters have had it in Dubai and our D-i-L has had it. Our son and grandson have not so far, they’re in Guildford, daughter in law has rheumatoid arthritis and works for care homes and is utterly convinced about having it. We have told her our position but she probably thinks we’re mad. We’re worried about our granddaughters, 19 and 16 regarding the long term consequences and our son and grandson of 17. Pressure will undoubtedly be put on them to have it. Question is do we, when we see them, mention any of the awful things contained in your earlier post? It is a dilemma. But we must all follow our consciences whichever direction they take us in. We surely are not the only ones where families differ on the jabs.

          KBO Pmum, you are not alone.

          1. None of my children want to have it. They are all young enough to be immortal! Not sure what will happen if the govt starts putting on pressure like no jab, no university.

          2. By then, plenty will have been jabbed that the results will be statistically significant, and you can make a better informed decision.

          3. I hadn’t thought of that. God help us. Out and out coercion. There is something seriously wrong when a government blackmails its population into having an experimental jab. And we must call it that – experimental. People have been completely brainwashed into believing the MSM. I shall resist as long as possible.

          4. Thank you, vw, much appreciated. Yes, I can understand your worries about your granddaughters, and your grandson and son. Our DiL (elder son’s wife, no children) had the Pfizer jab early February. She is only 39 so I thought I wouldn’t have to worry about her for a few months. She is a high flyer but vulnerable with auto-immune problems, and as she is allergic to so many things I thought she would be a no-no for the jab. She has to carry an epipen around with her. I couldn’t believe it when our son said she had had the Pfizer jab very early February. The thing is, we are not allowed to talk about anything that is political with any of them. I was told by our younger son a couple of weekends ago they were adults now and could make their own minds up. Yes – but they don’t do any research into any of it, and they don’t seem to think ‘hang on, things are not making sense out there’ and start to query it. And of course, they think they know best (having done no research despite 4 degrees between them, younger son having two) and they know instinctively that we no nuffink. (Shades of Mark Twain, here). I fear for both our sons. I will KBO, though, never fear.

          5. Hi Mags. I regret to report that I had my first AZ jab at GLive four weeks ago. I would have been more concerned to receive any of the mRNA vaccines. I remain sceptical, but the writing on the wall is screaming ‘vaccine passports’. And I miss the pub. But, were I several decades younger, and planning to start a family, I wouldn’t touch the vax with a bargepole.

          6. No, me neither. Alf and I are trying to resist pressures to have the jab, unspoken by our family but whenever we come across other people our age almost the first thing they say is we’ve had our vaccine, have you had yours? And are shocked when we say not on your nelly. Well, not quite that but …

  76. That’s me done for the day. Signing off early because I have to go to Narridge for a Chest Scan at the NNUH, scheduled for 7 30 pm.

    I will hope to join you in the tropical heat of Monday.

    Have a jolly evening planning how to design SC2 (Suez Canal 2).

    A demain

    1. Good to see that they are working their plant… 19:30 on Sunday… Excellent! Proper job!

      1. I worked for the builder of the NNUH. And the Borders General Hospital in Melrose, where I was based for a while.

        Every pump, every fan at the BGH had to be replaced, before completion. There was a view that the M&E engineers were using a flawed computer program. But I couldn’t possibly comment, obviously…,

        1. Huh, I was a patient in the Norfolk and Norwich, Geoff, as it was then, with appendicitis, aged 11, they took my cigarettes away from me, killed my appendix, allowed my brother to come in and make me (painfully) laugh and then sent me out to Attleborough for convalescence.

          Being as tough as I now know I am, I survived. I subsequently dated a nurse, as did my brother, from the Nurse’s Home at the N&N. Accused by my Mama as being a couple of tom-cats, howling outside the Nurse’s home!. Not far wrong, dear Mama.

    1. Today’s generation are without humour, confirmed by those who they call comedians these days.

      1. I sometimes think that what has happened is that people have lost the ability to laugh at themselves.

  80. Does anyone know, what is the best way to send an electronic component by post (board from a mobile phone) if you haven’t got an anti-static bag?

      1. That was my best guess too! It should absorb the static from the bubble wrap, shouldn’t it?

    3. The only safe method is in an anti static bag, you should approach your local computer diy builder, he will have plenty.

      1. 🙁
        My local computer diy builder is my son, and he is not co-coperating.

        I might be able to find one at work.
        What do you think of tinfoil?

        1. If I remember my anti static guidance from my work days, tin foil does not prevent the build up of static. I had to endure 4 hours of static awareness training with threats of dismissal if I was lax about it, so my thinking has always been do it properly.
          The problem is the components do not show signs of damage immediately, often failing later down the line. However if you have already handled the board without anti static precautions, the damage may be done already.
          Sorry to sound like an old nag, the training guidance must be deeply ingrained in me.
          I would consider adopting another son who might be more cooperative.😀

          3. Don’t be too hasty.

            He’s wealthy, kind, generous to his friends and has a splendid dog.

            You could do worse…
            };-)

          16. Not a bad idea re the son!
            I did do anti-static training about twenty years ago, but I’ve never had to use it so it has mostly fallen out of my goldfish brain.

            The damage may be done, but I want to look as though I have made an effort!
            I’ll ask someone at work on Tuesday, I think. Or, another idea, I will drive past a computer shop tomorrow, I will ask them!

          17. The computer shop will probably oblige with a free bag for you and your efforts will do no harm.
            Good luck.

          19. Way back in the mid 1960’s I remember my dad telling me about some blokes who were paid mostly for playing darts all day and that management were happy for them to do this. It turned out the blokes in question looked after the smooth running of early mainframe computers. Management were only unhappy if the computers weren’t operational. It’s bit like when photocopiers first became available the cost of copies was such that it was cheaper to employ a photocopy machine minder than lose hundreds of copies through mis use of the machine.

          20. How things change. When I started working, photocopiers used a roll of sensitised ‘paper’. Then came ‘plain paper copiers’. Nowadays, being responsible for printing in the parish, I have a full-sized ex-lease colour laser copier/printer bought for peanuts on eBay. The same applies to toner. When it eventually dies, it gets replaced, for little money.

          21. Indeed. Having witnessed the incredibly expensive early plain paper copiers in action in the early days I marvel at the tiny Cannon printer/copier down by my feet and its ability to produce perfect colour copies.

          22. I’m prepared to bet, Geoff, that the cost of printer cartridges far exceeds the initial (cheap) outlay on the printer itself.

          23. How things change. When I started working, photocopiers used a roll of sensitised ‘paper’. Then came ‘plain paper copiers’. Nowadays, being responsible for printing in the parish, I have a full-sized ex-lease colour laser copier/printer bought for peanuts on eBay. The same applies to toner. When it eventually dies, it gets replaced, for little money.

          1. I used to buy from amazon vouchers that I bought in cash and uploaded to my account, until they started requiring you to link your bank a/c or credit card to your amazon account. I know two people personally who have had their amazon accounts hacked and money stolen.

          3. I know plenty of people have had good experiences, but two fraud victims among my small circle of friends and acquaintance does make me think twice!
            Have you got two factor authentication switched on?

            I must admit, I don’t really want to enrich Bezos any more either. He’s been responsible for the demise of too many smaller companies.

      2. 🙁
        My local computer diy builder is my son, and he is not co-coperating.

        I might be able to find one at work.
        What do you think of tinfoil?

  81. 330919+ up ticks,
    I suppose the establishments reasoning is it would maybe interfere with the ex felon when making a welfare claim or even put them at the back of the queue of house seekers.

    breitbart,
    Immigration Judges Grant Lifelong Anonymity in 90 Per Cent of Cases Involving Extremists: Report

      1. Like the Aeroflot captain who let his kids sit in the settering seat whilst the plane was flying over Siberia? That didn’t end well.

        1. “Don’t touch anything, especially that switch that says ‘AUTOPILOT’!”

          1. Same with Biden, his instructions include, “Don’t touch anything, especially that big red button.”

    1. Thanks for posting, Stephen. I know / have met most of the original singers from Voces8. But turnover of members is quite high. Only Andrea and Barnaby remain from the line-up I knew. Andrea once handed me a slice of cake at their former tenor, Robert Smith’s birthday party. I didn’t wash that hand until Covid came along… 😉

      1. Lovely. I’ve had the pleasure of singing With John Rutter conducting on two occasions (along with 200+ Choristers!).

  86. “Ooh, be careful!” says the author but it’s the bit that I’ve highlighted that caught my attention. Who knew about it?

    We cannot throw away all our hard work fighting against Covid now

    As we take a big step back towards normality, we must not forget the threat that the virus still presents

    STEPHEN POWIS

    One year ago, the nation was beginning its first weekend in the tightest national lockdown and today we come to the end of what we all hope will be the last. From Monday, groups of up to six people or two households will be allowed to meet outdoors, offering millions of us the first chance in months to see close friends and family. We all hope this weekend marks a turning point: the last under the toughest limits on our freedom and the first when we can look forward to a week during which we can experience something akin to our pre-pandemic routines.

    The future looks much brighter now than in those dark and anxious first days of March’s shutdown. The NHS, as our chief executive Sir Simon Stevens has said, has experienced a year we won’t want to remember, but one we are unlikely to forget. We’ve treated nearly 400,000 people with Covid-19 in our hospitals, with clinicians offering treatment to everyone who would benefit from it.

    As well as treating the people in front of us, the NHS has also saved lives through our contribution to the research and development of the first ever treatment for this novel virus, dexamethasone, which has saved an estimated one million lives globally. And, of course, the NHS vaccination programme is rightly a source of national pride, offering the first ever jabs outside of clinical trials and vaccinating more than half of adults already.

    This combination of pace and precision – carefully moving through the priority groups, starting with those most at risk – has not happened by chance. It is down to careful planning and extensive preparation, combined with the sheer hard work of countless NHS staff. But while the prospects for the country undoubtedly look rosier, we have seen false dawns before and must remember that Covid remains a clear and present danger.

    Yes we have 30,000 fewer people in hospital than at the height of the winter wave in January, but on the anniversary of lockdown, the NHS was treating the equivalent of two whole hospitals more Covid patients than last year. Yes, the daily reported number of deaths has dropped, but today there are still around 3,000 families waiting anxiously for news of their loved one being treated for Covid in an NHS hospital bed. Yes, the NHS vaccination programme has successfully vaccinated more than 25 million of the most at-risk people, but we still have work to do. Yes, the NHS and the world are now more knowledgeable about the virus and therefore better equipped to treat it than this time last year. But we know that new variants remain a very real danger, just as we saw in January when more than 100,000 people – one person every 30 seconds at one point – were admitted to hospital.

    So yes, our prospects look immeasurably brighter and more positive, not just compared to this time last year but even to two months ago, but Monday’s easing does not mean job done. In fact, this week marks only the latest in a series of milestones that will mean the country can begin to loosen the curbs on our day-to-day life.

    Now, looking out ahead to the rest of the year, one of the greatest threats we face is complacency. This virus still has the capacity to wreak more havoc and ill health on a significant scale. Families, businesses and the health service all want the pressure, risk and life-limits of Covid-19 to be over as soon as possible.

    At a government press conference exactly a year ago today, I said to the country that if we were going to beat this virus it won’t be “because we are somehow lucky. It won’t be because somehow the virus is acting in this country differently from any other country, it will be because every citizen in this country, the British public, has complied with the instructions the Government has given. We can beat this virus, we can reduce the number of deaths, but only if we reduce the spread and the transmission. Every one of us has a part to play.”

    Thanks to the people of this country demonstrating an extraordinary resilience and discipline, and thanks to the efforts of thousands of staff and volunteers delivering the NHS vaccination programme, one year later we are beating this virus but it is not yet beaten.

    The number of infections has fallen, fewer people are dying or seriously unwell and this week the country begins to experience the benefits of the past year’s hardship. We’ve made enormous progress that we need to build on and not squander the gains we’ve made. We need to hold our nerve and drive for the line, so everyone can get back safely and soon to our normal lives.

    Professor Stephen Powis is the medical director of NHS England

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/27/cannot-throw-away-hard-work-fighting-against-covid-now/

      1. Yep, Marines, get together with the Armed Services and prepare and carry out a military Coup. Keep our dear Queen on the throne but take out (and hang) the quislings in Westminster, the same in the Northern wee pretendy parliament and do the same in the West to the other two treasonous Assemblies.

        It needs doing NOW!

  88. What did poor Scots do to deserve the awful Sturgeon and Salmond?

    This brave and beautiful country cannot be left in the hands of these megalomaniacs

    JULIE BURCHILL

    It’s one of life’s most piquant pleasures to watch a spite-fight between two people one loathes equally – no matter what the result, it’s win/win. I frequently hugged myself in sheer glee at the sight of Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond – surely the first time the word “glee” has been used with reference to this joyless pair – wriggling on the hook of Holyrood justice recently. The best Punch and Judy show in town, it seems all set to continue with the glad tidings of Alex Salmond’s new political party Alba. (Apparently the Gaelic name for Scotland, but it sounds quite like a sweetener – ironic when one considers the sour situation which created it.)

    Before the knockabout, I’d never really thought much about Sturgeon. She seemed just the price the Scots had to pay for all those gorgeous beaches and deep fried Mars Bars; a non-conformist with a regrettable penchant for conformism, so much about the process rather than the passion of politics that it’s somewhat surreal to hear that she was once a hot-blooded youngster who joined the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament.

    One of the joys of Tracy Ullman’s portrayal of her as a megalomaniac whose desire for Scottish independence was just a front for a bid for world domination was the fact that she seems so very prosaic. Her state of permanent disapproval – especially compared with the sheer lovability of her bête noire Ruth Davidson – led me to coin the phrase The Scold War. The only time she has seemed truly human was when she was caught on camera celebrating Jo Swinson losing her seat in the last election.

    If someone tries to present themselves as efficient to the point of being a pocket calculator with a pixie cut, it’s hard then to accept that they may have struggled to keep track of all those long-gone incidents.

    Sturgeon’s doomed bid to appear human was also given a try-out last year when, in an audacious attempt to seem vulnerable, she attempted to complain that Boris Johnson’s alleged comparison of her to Wee Jimmy Krankie was an example of misogyny.

    Quite frankly, if I was Wee Jimmy Krankie, and had spent my life bringing a smile to people’s faces, I would complain about being compared to the kill-joy Sturgeon. It’s far from a laugh a minute up there in loch-land; most strikingly, the number of drug-related deaths last year was the highest since records began – higher per capita than those reported for all the EU countries and approximately three and a half times that of the UK as a whole.

    The Ullman sketch which saw Sturgeon and her evil sidekick Mhairi Black kidnapping and torturing JK Rowling until she tells her “seven billion” Twitter followers that she now backs independence was funny until one sits back and realises that it is uncomfortably close to the truth. In SNP Scotland, free speech and free opinions are an increasingly expendable commodity – and not just on independence.

    Take the Hate Crime Bill, recently passed by Holyrood. What this pernicious legislation – opposed by both the Catholic Church and the National Secular Society because of the appalling restrictions on free speech it entails – threatens to do is create a Gilead of the glens, where suppression of free thought is dealt with from behind the Wokescreen and where disagreement can be equated with hatred. It is sad when this happens to any country but to see it happen to a country with as bold a history of intellectual rigour as Scotland is tragic.

    Cleared of breaking the ministerial code, Sturgeon is wounded but has survived to bring her oxymoronic desire to break away from one union only to become a tiny cog in another, far larger, union to the electorate in May, though it seems likely that Salmond may well take a chunk out of her.

    What did the poor Scots do to deserve these two going at it hammer and tongs until May? This brave and beautiful country deserves better. But in the meantime, those of us south of the border may well concur with the words of the commentator Dennis Kavanagh: “Scottish politics hasn’t been this much fun since Macbeth.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/28/did-poor-scots-do-deserve-awful-sturgeon-salmond/

    1. I’m afraid to report I misread the last word:

      “efficient to the point of being a pocket calculator with a pixie cut”

    2. This exposes the sheer hypocrisy of it all.

      Just as a perpetual motion machine cannot exist (as I was taught in school) so generating electricity created by diesel fuel would surely burn more diesel fuel than by running the car on diesel in the first place? Or am I wrong?

      If I am wrong then effectively a perpetual motion machine can be invented and our energy problems are solved.

  90. I lifted this comment from the Brighton Argus report on the protests at Brighton on Saturday. https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/19193077.pictures-hundreds-take-part-brighton-kill-bill-protest/

    Most of the other comments mirror those on here and in the other MSM papers whereas this one follows my logic that’s not getting a very good reception from some of you. The comment below is only one which leaves me in the minority but may offer some food for thought?

    MarthaM
    8 hrs ago
    User ID: 2375500
    4Passing controversial legislation banning protest during a lockdown when there are no protests going on.
    The government are the thick ones here, and they are relying on your support for their strategic game playing.

    The police chants are connected to the high rates of racist stop and search happening across the UK including in Brighton. I don’t see the Brighton police saying they don’t need these new laws, in fact they have signed up to pilot new laws allowing indiscriminate search powers without any suspicion other than knowing someone who had a knife in their possession.

    Have a look at the daily mail videos from Bristol of the police brutality and you can see that the police using tactics like goading protestors, cornering a small number of them, attacking first, getting agent provocateurs to respond and then lying to the media about the violence. All part of painting a narrative that you will happily accept.
    If you won’t accept violence from protestors, just think about whether you apply that same standards to those given state power. If not, maybe time to think about why. Are the injustices of some not worthy of your empathy? What pushes people to this level of anger at police?
    Last Updated: 1 hr ago

    1. The UK government(s) have become more and more autocratic by stealth since the millennium. The Police have been run down and stuffed with Common Purpose lesbians, freaks and ignorant thugs. Another Blair politicised the Police and boasted about it in Reith lectures.

      KBO.

      1. Yes…you are preaching to the converted. Almost everything I comment on is researched. I spend hours studying videos and whatever I can find in other places apart from the MSM.

        But today I got a lot of flack for promulgating my findings on this thread.

        Perhaps ask one of the mods to carry this comment over to the morning when more people are active or all my painstaking research will become a complete waste of time and the establishment will have us all where they want us.

        1. Don’t take it to heart. Nottlers have a wide range of views. The most antagonistic bullshitters have been banned thank God.

          I also try to research matters outwith the corrupt MSM. If I recited everything I have discovered I would probably have a knock at the door and be carried off in a straight jacket.

          As a general rule if a political ‘leader’ such as the hacks Boris Johnson and Michael Gove or the ignoramus Matt Hancock make a statement of ‘fact’ it is safe to assume that the opposite is the Truth. This is one of the tenets of the security services, MI5, MI6 and agencies such as the Serious Fraud Office.

          Best when ‘googling’ to dispense with Safari, Chrome, Firefox or whatever and use Tor Browser : https://www.torproject.org/

          It hides your location which is really important. Also, use the File > New Identity from the top toolbar after each session to reset.

          We are being monitored all the time so best to be safe.

          1. I’ve known for years that we are all watched and that they’d track me no matter how I try and hide. I’m old fashioned and ex services. My father was shot in France…a member of the Coldstream Guards and my mother endured the London blitz. Many died for my freedom and I will not cower or hide from the tossers conspiring to ruin things for my children and grandchildren.

          2. Well said.

            My father, who was born in 1910 served in the Royal Artillery in Burma.

            My relatives in Bath and Bristol experienced the Baedeker bombing raids which destroyed many fine buildings in Bath with a direct hit on the Kingsmead Square bunker (blood oozed from the cracks in the concrete structure) and in Bristol where its shopping street and centre viz. Castle Street was completely destroyed and never rebuilt.

          3. In a way I have let my children down although age has played its part. Least I can do is fight my war with a keyboard and hope not everything falls on stony ground.

          4. #MeNeither, Honda, my Papa, borne 1895, fought in both WWI and WW2. He was commissioned in the field in 1915 when all the other officers had been shot and was a Provost Marshal in the Royal Military Police in WW2.

            I bow down to no man as I have also stood up to foreign attempts to try and kow-tow us, a la Cuba crisis 1962

            Yes, I was shit scared, as my airfield would have been a prime target but, you do your duty, no matter the cost.

          5. I post, Corri from behind a VPN supplied by Avast that puts me in Glasgow,

            Awa ‘n’ bile yer heid!

        2. We don’t carry posts over – but there’s nothing to stop you reposting it yourself tomorrow.

          1. Thanks…it was just the comment I lifted from the Argus rather than the ensuing chi chat.

          2. Post it again when there are likely to be more of us online. I’m just off to bed now.

          5. As I do with birthday wishes which I post at midnight when I go to bed and then again when I get up the following day so that those who have missed the first posting will see it.

      2. Brighton, Corri, will certainly KBO – it’s in their genes and those of their partners,

    2. The UK government(s) have become more and more autocratic by stealth since the millennium. The Police have been run down and stuffed with Common Purpose lesbians, freaks and ignorant thugs. Another Blair politicised the Police and boasted about it in Reith lectures.

      KBO.

    1. Have YouGov produced a poll yet that shows the Public ‘supports’ vaccine passports? Asking for a publican friend.

      1. Not as far as I know, but my local rag did and there was a fair majority of sheep voting for more lockdown, slower easing and not being able to go to the pub without producing your papers.

  94. Batley’s hardliners are winning by exploiting Britain’s liberal principles
    Fear and naivety have stopped us pushing back against ideas that are fundamentally extreme

    Nick Timothy – https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/28/batleys-hardliners-winning-exploiting-britains-liberal-principles/

    A BTL comment which sums up my thoughts on the matter:

    Whether or not you believe that Christ is the son of God you must accept that England is a country with an established Church of which the Head of State, the queen, is also the Head of the Church.

    Surely this means that while we can tolerate other religions we must not allow these other religions to attack our freedoms and destroy the fundamental tenets of Christian ethics and practice.

    Why should Muslims expect consideration, power and control in Christian countries that Christians are denied in Muslim countries?

    1. 330919+ up ticks,
      Evening R,
      Because lab/lib/con/greens coalition, members / voters say that is the way to go.

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