Wednesday 31 March: The last thing that a pandemic treaty needs is interference by the EU

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/2021/03/30/lettersthe-last-thing-pandemic-treaty-needs-interference-eu/

695 thoughts on “Wednesday 31 March: The last thing that a pandemic treaty needs is interference by the EU”

  2. Woman Trouble

    A wife asks her husband, “Could you please go shopping for me and buy one carton of milk and if they have avocados, get 6.
    A short time later the husband comes back with 6 cartons of milk.
    The wife asks him, “Why did you buy 6 cartons of milk?”
    He replied, “They had avocados.”
    If you’re a woman, I’m sure you’re going back to read it again! Men will get it the first time.
    My work here, is done.
    This is so true; Best Beloved went back to re-read it!
    ===========================================
    Water in the carburettor
    WIFE: “There is trouble with the car. It has water in the carburettor.”
    HUSBAND: “Water in the carburettor? That’s ridiculous ”
    WIFE: “I tell you the car has water in the carburettor.”
    HUSBAND: “You don’t even know what a carburettor is. I’ll check it out. Where’s the car?
    WIFE: “In the pool”
    ===========================================
    HE MUST PAY
    Husband and wife had a tiff. Wife called up her Mum and said, “He fought with me again, I am coming to live with you.”
    Mum said, “No darling, he must pay for his mistake. I am coming to live with you.

  3. Good morning, all. Slightly grey start but the sun is trying to prevail.

    Yesterday, G & P spent the whole day outdoors – from 7.30 until 6.30. Last evening they were completely zonked. Too tired even to eat!

    2. I would take that as very suspicious! Have you considered the possibility that they have discovered where the neighbours put their cat food bowls?

  4. Why won’t Tony Blair leave us alone? Spiked 31 march 2021.

    But that more complicated story doesn’t fit with the ex-PM’s view of himself as a humanitarian superhero. Back in 2001, long before the coronavirus pandemic, Blair announced his mission on a Mirror front page. ‘I WILL CURE THE WORLD’, he declared. ‘From Afghanistan to Rwanda, Israel to Northern Ireland, the Congo to global warming, the starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those living in want and squalor… WE CAN SORT IT ALL OUT.’ Despite achieving none of these things, and mainly leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Blair is always on the hunt for a new humanitarian cause to place himself at the centre of. Now he wants to be seen as the man who conquered Covid.

    Morning everyone. I did want to post an opening comment on the Batley Affair but it has been erased from Public View by the Forces of Darkness (FOD) which has found it too disturbing, so I guess I will have to make do with Blair. Oddly enough this Spiked critique while scathing, completely omits his most heinous crime. The Iraq War. This is not to say that he bears prime responsibility; that goes to Bush, but he pressed it as hard and has never (though it would be meaningless) apologised for it. It is difficulty to grasp what an utter disaster this conflict was and is. Based on a Lie, the loss of life, with its spinoffs; the Syrian and Libyan Wars, number in the millions. The United States still occupies the country; which is a hellhole far worse than under Saddam, while the consequences for Europe, with the vast increase in its Muslim refugee population that has destabilised its entire cultural and demographic foundations are probably worse. The long term effects will almost certainly be the extinction of Christendom and the creation of a European Caliphate. If Blair is not the Anti-Christ he makes a pretty good Replica.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/03/31/why-wont-tony-blair-leave-us-alone/

    1. Blair gave Bush the credibility of having a British Prime Minister support him. He enabled Bush to do what he wanted to do. Without his support, there would have been no Iraq war.

      Blair is a megalomaniac. He truly believes that he is on a ‘mission from God.’ Any normal person who had caused all the death and destruction that he did would have long since retired to the study with a bottle of whisky and a revolver. But no, he jets around the world making millions advising dictators – and now he has the ear of the UK government on Covid. He is a very dangerous person and should be nowhere near the levers of power.

      1. Morning Nan. They must have overlooked YorkshireLive when they were phoning round telling them to shut their Gobs! Lol!

        1. I just Googled, “Batley Grammar School” – there are other links but how old they are I don’t know.

          1. The D Notice or its equivalent must have done the rounds sometime early yesterday morning!

        2. I just Googled, “Batley Grammar School” – there are other links but how old they are I don’t know.

        1. That reminds me of my nursing days.
          In a mental hospital of c.1,000 patients, there were a few that we could identify as evil.
          They were not the most florid (raving) of patients, but there was an ‘X’ factor that most staff could recognise; it was a feeling rather than anything you could put into their notes. The same handful of names always surfaced when the subject of evil arose.
          Blair has that same ability to look and sound reasonable; nowadays, his face gives him away.

          4. Morning Anne ,

            It is the glint in the eye that Blair has that makes him appear to be something from the dark side .

            Horses also possess that glint … I know because I was bitten by one on the arm years ago .. Never trust anything with a glint in the eye … different to sparkly eyes , but a glint in one eye belongs to bad people .

        1. OH Yes You Do.
          (p.s. Almighty One, Please allow us a pantomime season this year. Smite down those who try to deny our festive treat.)

    4. He thinks he’s the Messiah. However, unlike Brian who was a very naughty boy, Blair is deluded and evil.

    5. Mind you we must never forget that Blair was man enough and heroic enough to square up and apologise for the Irish Potato Famine.

  5. Morning all

    SIR – It was interesting to read (report, March 30) of the need for cooperation between countries to overcome the consequences of the pandemic.

    Boris Johnson, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron were mentioned among those calling for radical action. Major newspapers in Germany, France and Spain have commented on the initiative.

    Is it too much to ask that these discussions in no way include the interference of European Union bureaucrats in Brussels?

    Ray Davison

    Marlow Bottom, Buckinghamshire

    SIR – Few have done more harm to the vaccination campaign than Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron. They tried to sabotage the reputation of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but now lecture us against vaccine nationalism while sitting on millions of doses and impounding millions more.

    They have failed their people.

    Bill Todd

    Twickenham, Middlesex

    SIR – I am saddened that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine delivery at cost, with the noble object of vaccinating without bankrupting poorer countries, has seen AstraZeneca shares tumbling while other pharmaceutical companies see their stocks rise.

    I hope that the misinformation spread about the AstraZeneca vaccine is not linked to some companies having feared for their own profits.

    Gill Akers

    Ottery St Mary, Devon

    SIR – Vaccine passports are soon to be introduced in Israel, Sweden and Denmark, among other countries. These three examples already have national identity card systems, and I don’t see their populations protesting about a perceived loss of civil liberty.

    In my opinion, a vaccine passport strips me of no sort of personal civil liberty. Rather, it would assure both parties in any social transaction that the risk of Covid transmission has been minimised.

    It might even allow a reasonable resumption of travel for holidays worldwide.

    We should take this opportunity to use such a system as soon as we are able, to bring normality a little closer.

    Geoffrey Robinson

    Woodbridge, Suffolk

    SIR – The sight of my little white ball soaring into a blue sky raised my spirits out of all proportion to the simplicity of it.

    After this dreadful last lockdown, all those who can should take pleasure in social interaction, fresh air and exercise and hope that we are never again deprived of these simple freedoms.

    David Garnett

    Northwich, Cheshire

    SIR – My son is amused that he has paid his annual subscription for Lord’s this year and the only time he will visit the hallowed ground is tomorrow when he gets his first Covid vaccination.

    Gael-Anne Morgan

    Surbiton, SurrEy

    1. Ah, Mr Robinson (any relation to the teacher?) How sweet and biddable you are, a gift to totalitarianism.. Do you have an Aids passport, a VD (excuse me, STD not telephones) passport? Do you have a Scarlet Fever passport, a leprosy passport, a tuberculosis passport? A chickenpox passport, a German measles passport? Do you have a sanity passport?

    2. “SIR – Vaccine passports are soon to be introduced in Israel, Sweden and Denmark, among other countries. These three examples already have national identity card systems, and I don’t see their populations protesting about a perceived loss of civil liberty.”

      Everybody has an identity. Not everybody can have a vaccine.

  6. SIR – I am a retired head teacher. In our school we were delighted to teach Hindus, Muslims, Jews, Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and non-believers. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. We taught free speech and responsibility, tolerance, fun, affection, trust, integrity, friendship.

    I have been offended by jokes, as in Life of Brian, but it would not occur to me to respond violently, nor would it to my Muslim friends. Let’s get upset, forgive and move on. And if we need to argue, let’s keep it jaw-jaw.

    Margaret Robinson

    Letchworth, Hertfordshiire

    1. But the point is that it’s not your Muslim friends we need to worry about but any Muslim Muslim friends you might have although that would be unlikely given that Muslim Muslims are instructed to avoid such relationships unless they are to deceive.

    2. But the point is that it’s not your Muslim friends we need to worry about but any Muslim Muslim friends you might have although that would be unlikely given that Muslim Muslims are instructed to avoid such relationships unless they are to deceive.

    3. Trouble is, Mrs Robinson (there’s a name for chaps to drool over) that you cannot discuss their madness with the slammer in the street.

      Remember that a substantial majority believed that blowing people up and beheading passers by was just fine – though they wouldn’t do it themselves (sarc).

    4. I have been offended by jokes, as in Life of Brian, but it would not
      occur to me to respond violently, nor would it to my Muslim friends.

      Would they have acted similarly ir it were The Life of Big Mo?

  7. Morning again

    SIR – Isn’t it time that the live export of animals was banned? News that tens of thousands were stranded on ships delayed by the vessel stuck in the Suez Canal (Letters, March 30) is heartbreaking. Their distress and discomfort is unimaginable.

    Kate Graeme-Cook

    Brixham, Devon

    1. Yo Epi

      Not to mention the missing computers, nuts, bolts…. infact everything that we have got used to buying

    2. Yes, it is.
      Apart from breeding stock of any species and race horses, there is no justification for live animal exports.
      Not only are the conditions disgusting, the animals are going to countries where welfare and slaughter methods are way below what is required in western states.

      2. We used to have something called “minimum values” (the stock had to be worth a certain amount before it could be exported). That all went when we got involved with the Common Market/EU.

  8. Morning again

    SIR – Isn’t it time that the live export of animals was banned? News that tens of thousands were stranded on ships delayed by the vessel stuck in the Suez Canal (Letters, March 30) is heartbreaking. Their distress and discomfort is unimaginable.

    Kate Graeme-Cook

    Brixham, Devon

  9. SIR – Boris Johnson is not the first PM to support greed (Letters, March 30).

    Anthony Trollope’s Plantagenet Palliser – no one’s idea of a rapacious capitalist – says: “There is no vulgar error so vulgar … as that by which men have been taught to say that mercenary tendencies are bad. A desire for wealth is the source of all progress. Civilisation comes from what men call greed.” He adds: “Let your mercenary tendencies be combined with honesty and they cannot take you astray.”

    Penelope Lenon

    Oxford

  10. SIR – Boris Johnson is not the first PM to support greed (Letters, March 30).

    Anthony Trollope’s Plantagenet Palliser – no one’s idea of a rapacious capitalist – says: “There is no vulgar error so vulgar … as that by which men have been taught to say that mercenary tendencies are bad. A desire for wealth is the source of all progress. Civilisation comes from what men call greed.” He adds: “Let your mercenary tendencies be combined with honesty and they cannot take you astray.”

    Penelope Lenon

    Oxford

  11. Computer science the future of Britain’s defence, says Head of the Armed Forces. 31 march 2021.

    Data scientists will be integral to Britain’s defence capabilities – just like the interpreters who supported the troops in Afghanistan.

    Data scientists will be the new ‘Afghan interpreters’ of the Armed Forces and will be embedded at every level, the Chief of the Defence Staff has said.

    Sir Nick told the International Institute for Strategic Studies: “I think data scientists are going to be found at almost every level in our Armed Forces. They are going to be the new Afghan interpreters, which give you the turnkey capacity to be able to maximise that adaptability and innovation.”

    Well that’s it then! Those interpreters did a great job. We got our ass kicked and the reputation of the British Army has sunk to levels undreamed of by its former alumni. These of course are the babblings of either a Fool or a Traitor. No computer can ever replace Boots on the Ground.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/30/computer-science-future-britains-defence-says-head-armed-forces/

    2. Yo Minty

      Do not forget, when we left Afghanistan, we left the ‘interpreters who supported the troops’ to their own fate there

      We did not even give them tickets for Calais – Dover crossing. You had to be a Jihadist to get those

      1. Morning OLT. One did manage to squeeze in last week on the back of the Human Rights legislation!

      2. Morning OLT. One did manage to squeeze in last week on the back of the Human Rights legislation!

        1. Good morning, Uncle Bill. I presume you are referring to the mouse. How about the cat?

          [I am not being cruel. The photo you have posted is of a white cat with brown stripes, whereas Gus (and Pickle) are both gingers.]

    3. I hope he used a tray when presenting you with its head and gall bladder.
      Must keep up standards.

      1. It was quite tricky to part him from his booty. He wanted to stash it in his cardboard box – where they keep all their treasures.

      2. When Chaucer brought in mice that he had killed we put them in his food bowl. He finally learnt to do the same and deposited his kills there himself.

    4. On the odd occasion that mine brings one home she deposits it outside the door, she’s never brought one in. You have to look where you are treading when you go out in case your step on one and lose your footing. She once left a baby rabbit outside for me as a special ‘present’

  15. re Dr Fannon and his problem with building Navy ships
    There would definitely be a problem – there are no Navy yards apart from the Clyde, Rosyth & Barrow.
    Where would he like to build frigates & destroyers? It’s not building fishing boats or pleasure boats
    it’s building leading edge technology & making it work.
    Yarrows (now BAe) have been building naval vessels in Glasgow for about 120 years.
    There really is no option but to build on the Clyde – building a shipyard on the Tyne, Tees or Mersey would take time – time we do not have if we want to modernise the Royal Navy.

    1. If Scotland has gone ‘Independent’, why should it have preferential treatment in the awarding of shipbuilding orders

      The work MUST go to the firm who submits the best deal for what is left of the Union

      1. They are the only ones with a shipyard, the infrastructure needed and the skills to build them – the naval architects, the engineers, welders etc etc. There is no alternatives as all the shipyards, commercial & navy, in the UK have all disappeared in the last 50/60 years. Barrow is to build 4 x submarines in the near future . As I said above, these are Navy boats, not fishing boats or leisure craft.

      2. Or South Korea, of course. Then again the major contractor for the clever stuff for the aircraft carriers was Thales, a French company. France built two Mistral class warships for Russia.
        So, exactly what would would be the problem with the RN building warships in Scotland other than a nasty, dog in the manger attitude such as EU is currently displaying to the UK?

        1. Norway’s new frigates came from a Spanish yard at Cadiz.
          Good-looking boats, but carp. The best bit are the armaments – from Kongsberg Defence, and world-beating.

    1. Thanks for reviving that poem.

      Over last summer, local composer Tom Wells, who was stripped of his beloved community choir, composed a set of songs for the lockdown, expressing what he felt about it all. We had a chance to rehearse three of them during the brief interlude in September when we could meet in groups of six. One of them was a setting of this poem.

      When we are liberated, it may be possible again to book a ticket to hear us perform it.

    3. Yesterday I went for a longish walk along the K&A from Dundas Wharf to Avoncliff and on the way back collected a handful of fresh young wild garlic leaves that I added to the Chicken stew for my supper

        1. Are you perchance suggesting that Grizz is wrong when he writes: “Ramsons are, indeed, a taste of spring” and that is more a question of taste of Springer?

          ( I took the precaution of selecting leaves some distance from nearby tress and high on a steep embankment – I reckoned it would take a bloody tall Great Dane to spray the leaves like some idiotic hancock…..)

      3. I’m trying to eradicate the stuff from my garden! I found some in my greenhouse the other day.

  17. Porn has corrupted our children – and we let it happen. 31 march 2021.

    We could start by telling all our sons that pornography is not a primer for a relationship. And our daughters not to tolerate anything which hurts or disgusts them. Then erect an almighty paywall around internet porn and pray that impressionable minds don’t get polluted too young.

    It is not porn or the internet that has “corrupted “ our children. It is the forces of Cultural Marxism with its “Sexual Education” in schools and the false premise of Equality that has led to the breaking down of the Social Mores that protected girls from rapacious males and the squalid results of promiscuity.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/porn-has-corrupted-children-let-happen/

    1. There was probably a good reason that morality and social norms evolved into social society, they taught people how to act towards others without having to invent new laws for all human interactions.

      1. Morning KP. Laws are a very poor way of controlling Society since they are always retroactive. Custom and tradition act in the present and are considerably more effective.

        1. I would have thought sensitivity, without surrender, to the wishes and feelings of others is what counts. Manners, in other words.

          It is not necessary to understand, agree with or even respect other people, merely to let them live in peace. We all have our own ideas, and it would be a pretty grim world if total compliance and submission to the hive was enforced by law.

      2. The Ten Commandments are pretty clear. As rules for society they work very well. Even for atheists. Babies and bathwater however. As Chesterton said, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.”

    1. Yo, Mr Effort.

      I used to work with a woman called Elise. She got right pissed off when we all called her ‘Elsie’.

  20. Last night Bristol saw the fourth Kill the Bill protest…

    Organisers and the police engaged, the police were more low key, more caps than helmets and shields and no agent provocateurs and no violence ensued.

    The police said that the easing of lockdown rules meant they couldn’t use the previous rules to break up the protest, although that’s not shared by other police forces who have threatened to patrol beaches and open spaces to ensure people remain apart.

    Last night was in stark contrast to the previous event where the police brought an otherwise peaceful protest to a conclusion with brutality. The short clip shows how brutal they were.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZXbMuuC-C4

    This shows that the vast majority of protesters are indeed peaceful which will now be more of a problem to the government as they now know they are far from violent thugs and actually represent society in general. Us oldies complain in these threads and the youngsters use the streets. Both want the same results.

    1. …other police forces who have threatened to patrol beaches and open spaces to ensure people remain apart.

      That could be fun for those ordered to do it. Thousands of really pissed off people having a day out in the sun and being bossed about by a handful of police officers. What could possibly go wrong? The chief officers making these threats need to get their heads out from their arses and realise that the people have had enough of the restrictions and want to get their lives back. This Summer is the opportunity to put Johnson, Hancock and SAGE back in their respective boxes. Enough was far too much.

      2. Good morning, Front Pager

        There is a rather good line in Harvey Andrews’s brilliant song,The British Soldier about a young man in the army who has to accept being bossed about as part of the deal. When he enlisted he did not know he would be sent to Northern Ireland. The politicians did not like this song and for a time it was banned by the BBC .

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NpaT5LDFgM

      3. My young (he’s 23) neighbour was telling me this afternoon that he’s totally cheesed off with lockdown. He thinks it’s high time people just “got on with it”.

    2. I’m no fan of the Police and detest their bias and aggression shown towards peaceful protestors, but You think that’s brutal? Given the propensity of demonstrators to film everything and show only the worst, suitably edited to take out preceding provocation, is that the worst they can come up with? Without context – did the Police advance and kettle peaceful demonstrators or did the demonstrators advance on a Police line to cause trouble? – it is meaningless.

      1. Why were the police there at all? Suited and booted in Judge Dredd outfits.

      2. I watched the entire several hours long video live and reported my findings on here the other day. It showed without a doubt that the police started the violence. The same video is still available to watch on youtube…perhaps devote some time watching it and then come back to me.

  21. 331036+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Don’t take these issues at face value they are laying down a suppression / control ongoing campaign all working in unison.

    Wednesday 31 March: The last thing that a pandemic treaty needs is interference by the EU

    This is asking a great deal of the GB politico’s when considering ALL were pro eu right up until the 24/6/2016 officially, and many as actions have shown pro eu unofficially for the last five years, the “deal”.

  22. 331036+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Don’t take these issues at face value they are laying down a suppression / control ongoing campaign all working in unison.

    Wednesday 31 March: The last thing that a pandemic treaty needs is interference by the EU

    This is asking a great deal of the GB politico’s when considering ALL were pro eu right up until the 24/6/2016 officially, and many as actions have shown pro eu unofficially for the last five years, the “deal”.

  24. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c5576082e4b9e1eb700ad9599f79827cf339290480917af4f6b261db13da5da.png Idiot woman and typical modern teacher. I’m glad you were not my headmistress.

    Why do clueless people, like you, routinely label those with a positive mindset negatively as “non-believers”? I can assure you that many who do not buy into the mumbo-jumbo of organised religion are far brighter than most of those who do.

    It’s as bad as giving a negative slant to fresh-air breathers by labelling them as “non-smokers” as though being a “smoker” is a positive thing.

      1. “The Moron” is the correct and positive terminology for the brainwashed, I believe.

          2. Indeed. My mind boggles daily at the increasingly unstoppable stupidity of the species.

      3. 331036+ up ticks,
        Morning JM,
        I believe it to be current lab/lib/con coalition
        supporter / voters.

    2. Tolerance: life in UK, in the ’50s & 60’s, before us Wniteys became thr real “Ethnic Minority” and we started bend over backwards to make the BLM and jihadish Army feel at home

      1. 331036+ up ticks,
        Morning OLT,
        In ALL honesty can we lay the blame at any group of peoples door especially over the last three decades as ALL the odious issues are clearly revealed.

    3. Had she used the terms “Atheists and Non-believers” she might have been more accurate as one could look at an Atheist as being someone who has considered the possibility of there being a God and rejected it, whilst a Non-believer has never considered the matter.

      1. I strenuously object to being labelled by those whose views (on any topic) don’t accord with mine.

        1. How else can they identify you though?

          When you refuse to consider the other person’s view in favour of your own you are left with only labels.

          It’s odd how that works. A bit dehumanising.

          1. How else can they identify you though?

            By calling me what I am: a naturalist; i.e. not a creationist.

    5. Why would you get upset at someone saying ‘That bit of Halibut was good enough for Jehovah’? It’s hilarious. Mockery is essential. If your faith is so weak and fragile then perhaps that’s why you cling so fervently to a fictional man made man in the sky – it gives you an anchor rather than pushing you to take responsibility for your own life.

      ‘God made me do it’ is one of the most laughable and pathetic excuses of the weak mind. Islam should be mocked. Mercilessly, brutally.

    7. Good morning, Grizzly

      Are you not being a bit judgemental in implying that “non-believers” automatically have a positive mind-set while “believers” do not?

      I am happy to admit that many people who are considerably more intelligent than I am do not believe in God; however, many people who are considerably more intelligent than I am do.

      1. Good afternoon, Rastus.

        Please show me, exactly where in my comment that I implied that “believers” do not have a positive mindset. My comment was directed only at one individual: the writer of the letter.

        I neither subscribe to nor am in awe of the teachings of any organised religion. Attempts were made during my childhood to indoctrinate me such but I was astute enough to drive a bus through all their arguments. None were bright enough to drive a bus through my counter arguments.

        When I leave one history class that teaches me about the old stone age and the development of the species — then go directly to a religious instruction class that informs me that all the previous history teacher has told me is rubbish — what is my developing mind expected to think?

        Thankfully I was intelligent enough to see through all the mind-conditioning and was able to make my own mind up.

        I have many friends who are religious and I am not judgmental about their beliefs. I will, though, respond with vigour when anyone gives me a negative appellation beginning in “non–”.

    8. I doubt that a) she has any muslim friends (they are told not to befriend the kuffar) and b) they wouldn’t tell her if they intended violent responses due to kitman and taqiyya.

  26. 166th Boat Race this Sunday 4th on the Great Ouse at Ely. BBC from 3:00pm, girlies’ race 3:50pm, men’s race 4:50pm. Sounds even more boring than usual.

    1. My faint memory is that the river is too narrow for overtaking!

      Still, either Oxford or Cambridge ought to win…

          1. I seem to remember that the cox encouraged them to keep rowing for some little time after it was clear that they were sunk.

  27. Johnson’s sting…

    With us leaving the flu season, how could the government keep the population locked up?

    Easy…let people do what stupid people do, discover a new strain, lock people up and blame said people.

    NOT six on the beach! Hundreds of Brighton revellers enjoy sundown party as armed police descend on Leeds park after Britons rammed beauty spots ignoring Covid advice on hottest March day since 1968 – while Matt Hancock pleads ‘don’t overdo it’
    Warmest conditions in South East yesterday are on a par with Majorca as mercury hit 76.1F (24.5C) in London
    Temperatures in March last exceeded 73F (23C) in 2012, and 75F (24C) in 1968 when all-time record was set
    Warmer weather coincides with the end to ‘stay at home’ order in latest stage of roadmap out of lockdown
    Even so, people are still only supposed to gather outdoors in groups of no more than six or two households
    In Brighton, beachgoers erupted into impromptu party with flame throwers as huge crowds gathered
    Do you have any pictures of Tuesday’s weather? Email pictures@mailonline.co.uk

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9420255/Brighton-revellers-enjoy-sundown-party-hottest-March-day-53-years.html

    SARAH VINE: Sorry, I can’t give thanks for this sliver of freedom

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9420301/SARAH-VINE-Sorry-thanks-sliver-freedom.html

  28. While I deplore rape and sexual assault and hope the perpetrators (female and male) are dealt with by the courts – I am a tad pissed off by the endless claims – dating back over dozens of years – of how I was “humped” by a five year old at primary school”…..and descriptions of other “assaults” which are merely events that have happened throughout history when children are developing. And the deary souls whose lives “have been ruined” by something now perceived to have been unpleasant 40 years ago.

    I’ll go and have a lie down.

      1. Those were the days…. My life was ruined by such activities…ruined, I tell you.

        1. That and ” I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours”
          On an occasion like that the little boy says “Ha ha you haven’t got one of these” to which the little girl replied “My Mum says with one of these you can have as many of those as you like”

    2. The demonising of men is relentless.

      I said on a Mail forum which was blatantly full of idiots that trying to emasculate and fundamentally change men has the inevitable end result that it will find another outlet. One bint replied ‘Only to remove those things that make them creeps’.

      She’s obviously disturbed, as if every man she meets is a creep, then she is the problem but, equally the problem is not pornography, video games, dungeons and dragons, marilyn Manson, comic books – it’s society itself. it’s the lack of male role models. The lack of dignity, of humility, of courage.

      It’s the fundamental refusal to accept responsibility, to be honest about their behaviour – parental, social, economic – and instead just blame something else. In I think – Suzanne Moore’s case – pornography.

    3. One does wish that people would stop whining about stuff that can’t be changed – like the past.

    4. Well, I hope Teresa Brown doesn’t suddenly remember me catching her while playing kiss-chase when both aged seven. I await a knock on the door …

  29. Good morning from a bright & sunny Derbyshire dales with 6°C in the yard.

    Am I the only one to be disturbed and suspicious of all this talk of a pandemic treaty?

    1. Start worrying when the Mekon signs up to it.
      But, joking aside, I am suspicious of all these grand world order posturings.

    3. Don’t worry. It’s only part of Bill Gates’ and the Davos billionaires’ new global domination plan.

      Boros and Soros have everything carefully organized so few people will realize until it’s far too late.

      Has Boros disconnected your gas supply yet to comply with Legal Net Zero which Soros bought from Treasa?

    4. 331036+ up ticks,
      Morning Bob,
      Not by a long chalk, my belief tis the first of many
      concerning the road of suppression / incarceration ongoing.

      Seemingly the overseers act in unison whereas the electorate are NOT of a united front nature, still putting
      party before Country and guaranteeing that the last three decades repeat themselves in the future.

    5. No. It’s disconcerting. I have a feeling that whatever happens, our government is hell bent on giving powers away to an alien authority.

      However it raises the question: the WHO is responsible for pandemic control at a global level and China ignored it utterly. If the WHO is impotent, what’s the point of it?

      1. Whitty and Ferguson are part of the WHO which is funded by Bill Gates. Between them they have directed the fake pandemic world response.

        Their interest is in making money from mass vaccination programmes.

        2. Not sure about that, as Bill Gates is giving all his money away. Yes, he owns a pharmaceuticals company, but he bought it to make creating polio vaccines easier and cheaper for his foundation.

  30. An article today on Westminster giving Scotland even more money so that public spending per head there has risen to almost 30% more than England. Daily Sturgeon and her Scots insult England yet the cowards in Westminster appease them with even more of our money, encouraging them to abuse us more. If a solution could be found to their taking and keeping their share of the UK’s debts and liabilities, including protecting us from their racking up debts that they dump on us when independence fails, I’d gladly see them get their independence.

        1. If people don’t support her demented ideology, why do they keep voting for her? She isn’t putting Scotland first as what Scotland needs is a low tax, small state economy. She’s putting herself first.

          2. Indeed, Spikey. That travesty of history has much to answer for.

            I don’t wish Mel Gibson ill but I hope his balls turn square and fester at the edges.

          3. As I said yesterday (in a slightly different context) remember is IS Scotland….

          4. The people who support her are economically illiterate – they can’t see beyond the flag

          6. China is waiting quietly in the background.
            Cheap submarine bases, some crude oil and a lot of whiskey; if they time it correctly, they could pay in sterling. Plus, plenty of room for re-education establishments.

  31. BLM lover, Victoria Derbyshire stirring racism again in response to a report that there is no institutional racism…

    Unhappy with the report, she even has an image of a BLM thug on a screen behind her as she engages with ministers and others.

    What a disgusting woman.

    Britain’s race revolution: Landmark report says UK is ‘a model to the world’ on diversity, describes us as a ‘successful multi-ethnic community’… and finds NO evidence of institutional racism
    Major review found Britain is a model of a successful multi-ethnic society
    Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities was set up by the PM Boris Johnson
    It concluded Britain’s success should be a model for white-majority countries

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9420563/Britains-race-revolution-Landmark-report-says-UK-model-world-diversity.html

    1. Do you have a link as reference?

      Although I tend to agree. The Left incite racism to proclaim their own virtue – I suppose there’s something funny about your own desperate urge to say how racist everyone else is by being so yourself.

      1. My link is live BBC News Channel…

        Try watching it and learn…then come back with something constructive rather than nit picking again.

        1. [Removed rude bit as it was horrible]. I don’t own a television, I don’t want to watch the sodding BBC. If you won’t reference your sources you provide nothing but unsubstantiated rumour.

          All I asked was where you’d got it from for goodness sake.

          1. I told you my source…if you don’t want to watch it then that’s your problem. I’m also researching the effects on people who have had the covid vaccine. Have you had yours as you seem to be out of sync with the more rational types who comment on this thread.

          2. You didn’t provide a source – I asked because sometimes you can see interesting comments that take you in different directions.

            I have no idea who Victoria Derbyshire is. The name rings a bell but beyond that? A link is far quicker.

            It is not ‘a problem’ to not want to watch something. It is a choice. I imagine at the time you saw it I was doing somthing else, so you – the commenter – have to provide the reference link.

            Did you take offence to the ‘your own desperate racism …’? As I meant that in the sovereign sense, not the ‘you are racist’ as I don’t know you – except as a short tempered (in my experience) chap.

            Just stop and breathe for a bit.

          3. I told you my source…if you don’t want to watch it then that’s your problem. I’m also researching the effects on people who have had the covid vaccine. Have you had yours as you seem to be out of sync with the more rational types who comment on this thread.

    2. There is indeed institutional racism.. in UK

      The native born Brit is subjected to it 24/7.by all other ethnicities and the Woke

      Statues pulled down, lives and achievements rubbished, freedom of speech gone etc

  32. I have heard that the reason that the Coronavirus Act was extended is that the vaccines are only licenced for emergency use. No emergency = no vaccine roll-out. Does anyone know if that is true?

    2. I do not know if this helps as it may or may not be true. On the other hand there is quite a lot of information that you will never see published on the BBC etc. Even the answers to simple questions such as, “does the vaccine work?” are not answered.

      https://www.primarydoctor.org/covidvaccine

    3. I’ve not seen any creditable refutation of this claim. Might also be why they have sat quite firmly on possible treatments, too, as a vaccine can only get emergency approval if no treatments exist.

  33. This is a lovely letter , I wish I had written it .

    SIR – On Monday I saw my first willow warbler of the year while surrounded by wild garlic leaves, wood anemones, celandines, primroses and violets. Even the speckled and shiny leaves of the early purple orchids looked healthy and full of colourful promise.

    As we begin the second spring of this terrible pandemic, I was reminded of how fragile our lives are, and it brought to mind the last two stanzas of Sara Teasdale’s powerful poem, “There Will Come Soft Rains”, published at the end of the First World War during the 1918 flu pandemic:

    Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
    If mankind perished utterly;
    And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
    Would scarcely know that we were gone.

    Major John Carter (retd)
    Bream, Gloucestershire

        1. Morning, Maggie.

          I’d never heard that lovely poem before but I now have a copy in my archive for posterity.

      2. Hopeless – she wasn’t black and would have been descended from slave owners.

        Cancel her.

          1. I was being ironic… Trying to demonstrate just how woke I have become…..

            I’ll go and have another lie down.

    2. Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough
      To get it ready for the plough.
      The cabbages are coming now;
      The earth exhales.

      Neutron bombs, and lots of ’em. Or a proper virus, not one of those Chinese knockoffs.

      1. We need some Daz or Omo. The friendly bombs might get rid of Slough but how to get rid of Staines?

        1. Staines would be Daztroyed by a tactical nuclear weapon as it is near to London Airport.

  34. I have had no sleep. The reason for this is because at some point in the night, the warqueen had a tantrum.

    Apparently Mongo has been eating her print outs. On looking at the printer log, they’ve not been printed at all, but logic isn’t home today.

    Cue printing out things at 4am, folding, binding and what not.

      1. Yep. But it’s a bit like standing in a storm. There’s no malice, it’s born of friction and frustration.

        1. Sorry to hear that, Wibbling .

          You have had a few issues in the past , that cannot possibly be doing you any good what so ever , especially as you have a lovely youngster and a dog .

          Hate to say this , but you cannot possibly be confronted with tantrums , you have your own health to think of .

          Look I don’t know you, but friction like that is not healthy , and she sounds like a spoilt child .

    4. So sorry to hear of that wibbling, must be really difficult to cope. Do you have any kind of help?

    8. Winchester university students should be asking why that money hasn’t gone into teaching resources – and demanding a refund on their horrific tuition fees.

    10. I’m tempted (living near Winchester) to pay it a visit one night with a paint spray can. After all, if they can ‘racist’ Churchill with impunity….

  36. I can’t sit about here all day enjoying myself. Log stacking calls; followed by spraying the moss on the sheds and then painting their doors.

    G & P will love it…!

    3. There’s a massive ash that came down above the lime kilns up the road a couple of years ago and I’ve started taking it to bits.

    1. The plant is still in the pot , I placed it there to photograph it , but I daren’t plant it because it has grown so quickly and I am worried the dogs will cock their legs on it and ruin it . So when it has finished flowering , it will be planted for next year .

  39. Macron is apparently exerting pressure on Ursula Fond of Lying to label Great Britain as a rogue nation akin to Russia and Iran , as some form of retribution for our sheer effrontery in Brexiting from their precious EU.

    Perhaps now Boris will stop referring to them as ‘ our friends and partners ‘

      1. When Brussels & other nations are digging a hole, & getting nowhere, give them a wide berth and get on with our own priorities.
        The French love success for the Republic + seeing other nations struggling.
        Just let/help Micron dig as many holes as he likes.

        1. Napoleon (I think): “Never interrupt the enemy when he is making a mistake”.

  40. “Breaking his silence on what the couple told Oprah Winfrey three weeks ago, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said he signed Harry and Meghan’s wedding certificate on the day millions watched them marry. The legal wedding was on Saturday, May 19, 2018 at St George’s Chapel, he said. In her interview, Meghan raised eyebrows when she told Miss Winfrey that she and Harry were married ‘just the two of us in our backyard with the Archbishop of Canterbury’.”

    DM Story

    I suppose the moral is that you should not lie if it is clear that your lie will be exposed.

    Prince Harry should be grilled as to what his and his wife’s motives were in telling such crass, easily proven lies. As we told our boys when they were little: ‘if you are exposed as having told a lie you are not going to be believed even when you are telling the truth.’

    Perhaps we were wrong to tell our children this – it seems that in Britain – and even more so in the USA – lies will be readily believed and when they are shown to be lies it will make very little difference.

    When I was young I read all of William Somerset Maugham’s novels and was fascinated by his semi-autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage. I remember underlining the following (which is why I can find it quickly in the copy on my bookshelves):

    “He lied and never knew that he lied, and when it was pointed out to him said that lies were beautiful. He was an idealist. ”

    1. Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side and the truth.

      I imagine Harry believes his side, from his perspective. Bluntly, as we time after time people will believe whatever their side wants to believe because it suits their prejudices to do so.

      1. “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”

        [Paul Simon: The Boxer]

      2. Does he really believe it ,or has he just been sucked into her prejudicial ranting?

    2. I read ‘Of Human Bondage’ in my teens and was blown away.
      Read all Maugham’s short stories and often delve into one before bedtime.

      1. Good afternoon, Plum

        On your recommendation I bought a second-hand copy of Howard Spring’s ‘The Houses in Between‘ which I enjoyed. Caroline is now reading it. I have read several of Spring’s novels but there are some more which I must try and find second-hand as they are out of print.

        By the way, I was interested to discover that the mother of Howard Spring’s wife had lived in St Mawes where I was a child.

        1. Howard lived with his wife in Falmouth. Another fave author.
          I read My Son, my Son and several others by Howard Spring.

          1. Rachel Rising and Shabby Tiger are well worth reading too. All the Day Long is like The Houses in Between in that the narrator takes the identity of an old woman woman who spends much of her life in Cornwall and looks back on her life.

      2. Never read “Of Human Bondage”, Plum.

        Didn’t much care for the title. I’d read somewhere that Maugham was a shirt-lifter and I assumed that the book was just a manual of his perverted practices.
        ;¬)

        1. The tenderness would be wasted on you Duncan….!
          Makes more of an impact in your teens or early twenties…

      4. I read “Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day” and, like Pooh Bear, I too was blown away.

        :-))

    4. I do wonder whether Harry knew she was going to say that – was he there when she said it? – he must have squirmed really uncomfortably if he was. But couldn’t bring himself to gently point out that it was a rehearsal. What an idiot he must feel. Well, he is an idiot.

    5. Well, here is my take on it. He has to be seen and understood to be supporting her at all costs, because when the crunch comes and she wails “but Harry didn’t support me” and she twists into racism, it can be pointed out far and wide that he did, over everything. She needs to be exposed as a liar because I suspect there is a damming truth within the RF that she has learned that the RF would rather we all think is ‘just another of her lies.’

      1. This is why I feel sorry for him. A nasty, manipulative older woman takes on a not-too-smart, nice-but-dim wealthy playboy and leads him by the nose (willy) to trash his family and destroy his past. All the time tell g him that he needs to confront his innate waycism. She is a truly unpleasant piece of trash.

        1. Sue, I think this was a coerced marriage. I understand he finished with her in 2016, it was a 3-6 month relationship. Thereafter she stalked him. She turned up at Tom Inskip’s wedding in Jamaica (?) – she had been invited but because Harry had finished the relationship no-one thought to uninvite her, they did not expect her to turn up. She immediately latched on to Harry there, he looks bored to tears with her in all the photographs and not pleased and at times embarrassed with the arrogant way she is behaving with the serving staff. Then she made up this story on social media about how she and Harry were an item and then threatened him and the RF with the racist card. Do you remember those early holiday snaps of the two of them cavorting in the Jamaican waves? All photoshopped and really badly but they provided the basis for her online social media relationship campaign. Also I think RF secrets she find out in the few months of the relationship (pillow talk), blackmail. I understand they are not together and never have been. When they were in London she would gatecrash his solo events…. When laying bouquets for a memorial you could see how unprofessional hers was, the tying of the binding strings, the stalks different lengths etc compared with that of Harry’s which was RF precision! She must have the hide of a rhinocerous. There is most likely an Archie, but not in the way she wants us to believe. She is using the relationship as a platform. I think the system is taking her down now but it has to take Harry down as well otherwise – racism. Re the marriage – Harry fell on his sword to save the monarchy. I do not think it would have survived the cries of racism at that time. He was naive and not streetwise, how could he be with such a rarefied upbringing? He was prey for anyone once he was set loose into the world.

          1. Crikey pm! Thats quite a story! Where did you find that? Was it the US press or what?

          2. Er, no. Canadian blog site with people all over the globe producing photographs, showing where they have been photoshopped, pointing out the holes in her stories….. She doesn’t think things through and she isn’t good on detail and that gives her away once you know what you are looking for. Harry has to be seen to be supporting her at all costs hence “Meghan gets what Meghan wants” instruction to the staff. It puts a different perspective on it, doesn’t it? It is the weirdest thing to happen in my lifetime, but the RF has always attracted weirdos.

      2. It is the duty of a husband to support his wife. In my view he is not doing this. He is actually pandering to her narcissistic personality disorder making her mental health worse. But then he is a bit thick.

        1. It’s two way. She has deliberately encouraged the growth of the negative side of his personality.

      3. They would have had a rehearsal before the ‘big day’. Perhaps she thought that was the ‘real thing’. Or maybe she is just a liar.

        1. I think she was romanticising for her juvenile American fan base – she is trying to turn herself into some sort of Kardashian legend.

    6. She wasn’t lying – she was just telling “her truth” and a right load of bollox it seems to have been!

    8. “The legal wedding was on Saturday, May 19, 2018”
      Why the use of the word “legal” – was there another marriage ceremony, or not?

  42. What’s the problem with Xinjiang? When the west finds what it calls muslim extremists they blow up the entire country they allege harbours them including weddings, hospitals and schools. When China finds them, they send them to re- education camps.
    Is the Chinese solution not more humane?

    1. I think not, Harry. Far better to blow these muslims to smithereens. That way, it’s quick and their organs can’t be ‘harvested’, a practice they say is commonplace in the Chinese ‘re-education’ camps.

      1. “They” say a lot of things but not many are verified.
        Would you support the Chinese solution for the UK ?
        There’s plenty of space for camps in the Highlands.

        2. How about we take care of Scotland’s muslims and England takes care of hers. Seems fair to me.

          1. Neither of you seem to be doing much about it.
            But when China does there’s outcry.

  44. Spring has sprung today! The first of this season’s asparagus from the garden, the first cuckoo, 26C and…….shorts!

    4. It is about 25ºC here – and I, too, am in shorts. But the difference is the we know that it’ll be cold again….

      I just think of the cuckoos in the pretend Parliament that we are supposed to have working in our interests.

      1. I came out of shorts when I was 10 and have never worn them since (only in games).

          3. Grows in the garrigue, especially after rain. I don’t suppose you have that sort of country round you. It grew in the rounds of the block of flats we lived in at Cap d’Ail. The BCBG resident owners of the other flats thought I was mad to “eat weeds”. Little did they know!

          4. We certainly get it around here, because I’ve seen it on the market stalls being sold by the local foragers, the same people who sell fungi, sorrel etc.

            Our bit of yer Dordogneshire isn’t really representative of how English people think of the Dordogne.

          5. We all had our “special” secret places. And would discover that some native had been out at dawn and snaffled most of it. However, we would regularly bring in a couple of large handfuls each.

    6. You set me thinking in jealous mode. Soooooo. I have just purchased a dozen crowns of asparagus burgundine.

      1. Crowns for planting out? Use a well-draining sandy soil and don’t expect to have any for the table before year 3-4.

  45. The weather has temporarily improved,
    Lockdowns are easing,
    People and starting to feel happier.
    Cue the government wants to talk about racism.
    All day, racism, racism racism, none stop.

    1. Sounds good to me.
      George Floyd is the Archduke Ferdinand of the 21st century.

      1. Steady on, Horace! The Archduke had his faults, I’m sure, but they didn’t include robbing pregnant women at gunpoint, drug dealing or passing counterfeit money.
        ;¬)

    1. My friend Mr Rashid says that the ballot papers have long since been completed and counted.

    2. I was born and bred in South London. Best thing I ever did was to move out over 40 years ago.

      1. And yet had you stayed what might your property now be worth, assuming you were an owner occupier?
        I wonder how anyone can afford to live in London.

          1. The rent i paid on my flat in Wapping was nearly £2000 a month. I couldn’t afford it now even if i wanted to. That was 10 years ago.

          2. That would almost eat my entire pension income after tax.

            Thank goodness for the cottage income and HG’s State pension and our savings.

          3. That was when i was in a partnership running a personal security company. Also one of the rooms was sublet.

            I wouldn’t spend that today.

          4. Yo Fizz

            £2000 = 405 of the cost of my first house. back in the days that we lived in caves

        2. I moved out of my parents’ home and bought my first house when I got married. I couldn’t afford a house in London – that’s why I moved out of it. I haven’t regretted either of my decisions – getting married and moving out of London.

          1. My sister has a 5 bedroomed detached house in Teddington just upstream of Teddington Lock and the Lensbury Club. At the bottom of her garden is a small waterway off the river and a private jetty to which they moor their traditional Thames rowing boat. She and her husband bought the place in 1970 for £35,000. I expect it is worth a bit more than that now.

        3. My crazed teacher friend moved from close to Guildford to just up the road from Belle. Bought her present house for cash, and cleared the mortgage – happy days!

      2. We sold up in Richmond 17 years ago and have enjoyed the move to Cornwall immensely. I miss the park, the Thames and my old local, but little else.

        1. Richmond is one of my favourite picturesque villages; I was back there in 2018. But I also like a few more similar nearby places in the Yorkshire Dales.

          2. I had a house in a nearby village when I was stationed in Catterick. It’s a lovely area.

        3. I spent my Saturday mornings at Richmond Ice Rink….I was pretty good!
          I could do a half decent toe loop followed by a double axle….sometimes!

          2. (For the avoidance of doubt in those of you with dubious minds it is a simple ice skating jump!)

          8. I learned to skate on ice at Richmond Ice Rink, c.1967 – on dreadful hired skates!

            Much later – in 1989 – I learned to enjoy skating on the Assiniboine River a few steps down from my town house in Winnipeg, Manitoba

            I greatly enjoyed exercising polo ponies in Richmond Park (Ham Gate) every Sat & Sun at 8.00am – in my own riding boots … My regular pony was owned by the Argentinian ambassador.

            I played rugby for London Irish – and sailed Dragons on the Medway and at Burnham-on-Crouch …

            In betwixt and between, I occasionally worked as a pharmaceutical exec in Brentford ..

          10. I was a non-playing member of Ham Polo Club – 100 yards from my rented ‘Farm Cottage’.

            It had a bar on Sunday afternoons :))

            Prince Charles was a regular player; Jimmy Edwards an invariable loudmouth …

          1. It’s a ‘gastro pub’ these days I believe. I’ve had some decent perch on the lure outside and some nice beer inside.

          2. Breaking news, I was thinking of the White Cross on the River. Yes had a few in the nearby White Swan but not on a regular basis.

          1. Where was that? I’ve got to say I don’t remember a pub with that name in the Richmond area. A few have changed names and some have closed. I was in Geneva from ’74 to ’76 but in Richmond before and after that.

          5. I replied to your post but it was deleted. Disqus playing up again.

            Edit The White Cross is still there on the riverside. https://thewhitecrossrichmond.com/

            The Adam & Eve was in a narrow passageway between Richmond Green and The High Street.

            The cast aluminium cigarette trays were highly prized, showing the fig leafed Adam & Eve on the bowl but on the reverse depicting Adam goosing Eve.

            I might be mad and suffering from loss of memory and will stand to be corrected.

          6. I remember the the Britannia down one of the Green alleys, in fact I was in there a couple of years ago for an England game. I’ll do some research as I have a friend in Ham who is a local pub historian for the area.

        1. Born in the South London Hospital for Women (the annexe in Nightingale Lane), but lived in Battersea.

    3. 331036+ up ticks,
      S,
      Three other issues also cannot be denied, the support and consenting vote for the lab/lib/con coalition party
      even with the deteriorating state of the Nation seen clearly on a daily basis.

      Also with complete disregard for the welfare of the Country & it’s decent peoples

    4. Good for house and office sales outside The Great Wen.
      Our younger son has just sold his house in four days at the asking price.

      1. My daughter sold hers to the first viewer within a day of it going up for sale. They missed out on the one they were looking at (offers over £184,000, 3 bed detached) they offered £205,000 and it went for £220,000! Their bid was 4th highest! The market is going crazy here!

  48. Just seen a woman nearly run over crossing the road at traffic lights, red for her, when a van was turning the corner.

    She was in no danger as she was wearing a mask.

    Today’s Grizzly Award for Stupidity.

      1. At least Brother-in-Law’s death wasn’t covid.
        Massive, unsurvivable heart attack. Diabetes, high colesterol, highly unfit, big ‘n fat, stopped taking statins becasue the ones prescribed made him feel bad, and he doctor wouldn’t do anything about an alternative.

        1. I really don’t wish to sound uncaring here but with those conditions he really should have taken action himself and not be reliant on the Doctor or drugs.

          Sorry. I know it was a shock.

          1. I didn’t know the stupid bastard was avoiding his meds! Jesus! No wonder he croaked. When I had problems with statins, my doc and I worked with different types and doses until they worked fine. How could he be so stupid? It’s his daughter I feel for – poor lass. His mother isn’t too happy with the situation, nor the youngest brother. SWMBO seems quite calm about it, but that’s surface only: when there’s a discussion, I hear the upset in her voice. :-((
            Funeral Tuesday – on Zoom, for us.
            I fucking hate funerals.

          2. So sorry Paul. A terrible shock, possibly avoidable and so young. Not being able to attend the funeral is a bummer/blessing and I wish SWMBO and your niece, well.

    3. The very idea of children dictating to adults is absurd.

      The ‘no afros’s one was especially funny. Frankly those brats don’t know their born. Endless Lefty ‘me me me me’ and very litte discipline and confidence. When the real world smacks them in the face what will they do?

  50. Thought for the day.

    As an interesting piece of research. It is a great pity that the Chauvin trial can’t have several juries, one chosen in the normal way and the others at random but with my restrictions. It could be done via video.

    1 The current jury.
    2 All Black
    3 All Asian
    4 All White.
    5 All the others permed with all aged under 40, all aged over 40.

    At the end of the trial put the case straight to the vote, without jury deliberation. I would bet a significant amount of money that there would be different results for every cohort.
    I would also suggest that it might give pause for thought regarding all trials and jury selection.

        1. Almost certainly, as would victims of crime and non-victims.

          What I would be interested in is how different the results would be. I suspect markedly.

          3. Do they not have to prove intent for murder? Difficult to prove unless he uses Facebook.

          10. I like combining words to produce neologisms.

            Every now and then I see one that I’ve used before being used by someone else.
            My particular favourite is scrobnofulent, which I use to describe the likes of Tony Blair.
            A bastardised combination of bits from scrotum, flatulent and knob, perfect for Blair.

          12. “One thing is certain: the truth – whatever that is – is irrelevant.”

            I would add, Rastus: Whatever the result, this case will cause endless protests and violence – and further fatalities …

  51. That’s me for this rather satisfactory day. Gus caught another mouse. He has obviously discovered a nest of them. Pickles thinks Gus is mad.

    Logs all stacked. Shed roofs treated against moss. Sheds prepared for painting tomorrow when it will be much colder.

    Until then – and I wish you a jolly evening.

    A demain.

          1. I found a deer tick in my belly button 3 months ago. It had pierced the flesh but not sucked any blood, well it was not swollen up, and was dead. I’ve still got the corpse in case I get any symptoms.

          4. Lymeys…..scurvy was caused by vitamin C deficiency.

            Lymeys happen to be attractive, very charming and have a great sense of humor !

          6. Hard to tell to be honest. I have a vertical scar through the middle of my belly button.

          7. Stub a ciggy out on it – guaranteed to kill it but it hurts just a teensie-weensie bit.

          8. Err… I can be fairly sure that it sucked your blood.

            What do you think killed it?

            };-O

        1. Frontline the name of the professional journal for physiotherapists.
          How’s your physio getting along?

          1. Not on Physio, Sos.

            A blood test tomorrow. A call from the Haematology Consultant on the 7th and a call from the Vascular Consultant on the 20th.

            What i find damned annoying is getting texts from my GP practice regarding blood tests, Urine tests and blood pressure monitoring from a third party who they were not given permission to release my details to.

            I have had at least 2 appointments a week at the local hospital every week for over 2 months but these tests have nothing to do with my actual condition.

          2. That must be hard to come to terms with.
            Does one accept it, or does one fight it and then get put to the back of every queue, as I suspect they would do to you.

            Silly question, but it it has nothing to do with your condition, why are they doing it.

            Ho hum…

          3. The Practice gets paid for performing these yearly tests on specific age groups. Blood, Urine, blood pressure and cardio.

            I suppose the logic is that they will catch serious conditions early.

            Just bad timing for me.

          4. Hmm, Philip, all my blood tests, currently mainly INR, are done by the Nurse/Phlebotomist at my local surgery – no problem.

          5. These blood tests were ordered by the Haematologist as part of my treatment for polycythaemia. I have other blood tests at the local surgery as a package of tests because i have reached a certain age.

  52. Batley school protests: Probe into Prophet Muhammad row. 31 March 2021.

    A school where a teacher showed pupils a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad is to be the subject of an independent probe, the trust which runs it has announced.

    Protests were held at Batley Grammar School in West Yorkshire after the image was used in a lesson on 22 March.

    A staff member was later suspended after complaints were made.

    Not much sympathy here. It looks like they are going to fit this guy up for the responsibility and then dump him!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-56587709

    1. Wouldn’t it be merry if some hacker could get into the BBC’s website and upload some salacious cartoons of Mohammed.

    2. Greta promotes International Stop Breathing Day to save the planet from destructive CO2 emissions.

  56. Teachers join protests at Pimlico Academy as pupils demand Union flag is torn down and scrawl ‘run by racists’ on walls after new head tried to add kings and queens to history, banned colourful hijabs and ‘forced trans boy to do girls’ PE’

    Hundreds of pupils and parents gathered outside the main entrance to the school this morning for protest
    Opposition was originally focused on the new uniform regime, introduced by head Daniel Smith last August

    But the rebellion has now extended to include other policies viewed as ‘discriminatory’ by the protesters
    Includes changes to the history curriculum, which the protesters say emphasises white kings and queens

    Comes after a wave of protests at other schools over ‘rape culture’ and cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
    By TOM PYMAN and RORY TINGLE and PAUL THOMPSON and MARK DUELL FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 12:02, 31 March 2021 | UPDATED: 18:08, 31 March 2021

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9422507/Students-Pimlico-Academy-London-stage-protest-racist-uniform-policy.html

          1. I think trans boy means it’s a girl wanting to transition to a boy – cf. trans woman.

          2. Pass.
            I thought it was the other way around.
            Obviously I can’t tell his arse from her elbow.
            {;-((

    4. It sounds as though there’s no ‘white privilege’ there as white British children are only 25 % of the pupils.

    5. Some journalism. The children are pupils and not students. Teachers are in loco parentis and the headmaster is the boss. Dress codes and hair styles need to comply with the school standards. An amazing list of worthy former pupils.
      Can the black families not be deported?

      Addendum: I ean t to say that burning the flag should result in a minimum of six months hard labour.

    6. How about someone stands up to the loud mouthed dimbos and says “No! You sometimes have to do what you’re told! They’re called rules!”

      1. Sue ,

        I honest to goodness feel that there is no one in control, people of another colour are getting rather uppity and dangerous , and the Libertarian elite are just as bad , or are they Labour agitators , Lord only knows . London our big cities and and non indigenous areas look very frightening places to me , no one sings from the same song sheet , do they?

        1. The Headmaster has already resorted to appeasement by taking down the Union Flag. Doesn’t bode well for the next term.

          1. Pathetic little man. But he probably wouldn’t have been backed up, whatever he’d done. I’m so sick of people not being made to take responsibility for their actions, or anything, really.

          2. Seems to be the mark of today’s Headmaster, primary prerequisite – be a wimp!

        2. The pathetic appeasers/grovellers who just give in absolutely horrify me. You can see it all around us – children not taught how to behave, parents can’t be bothered to discipline their children and then run to the schools to complain if little Mohammed/Johnny is told off. There seem to be no boundaries.

        3. Yep, Mags, ‘Uppity’ was the adjective of choice appended to those of a dark hue in days of yore.

          Seems it still applies. They used to lynch them in those days but we’re much more civilised these days, we just ignore them. Well, I do.

    7. Sorry, Pimlico pimps, White Kings and Queens are all we have, get over it; and you, transgender girls, get your PE knickers on and do a few star jumps.

      What a complete bunch of woke wimps.

    2. Chris, “I’m Sir Whitty now”.
      Boris “Don’t worry Chris, it’s only a side effect of the jab”.

    3. If my BiL can become a Lord anything is possible.
      Get that man a horse and a lance…arise Sir Liealot.

  58. Yessssss …. I’ve been rewarded for plugging on through a basket of ironing.
    I’ve received an email offering a link to an African expert who can increase my penis by another 6 “ to an eye popping (among other things) 15”.
    Just one question: why did my laptop dump such valuable information in the junk mail folder?

        1. “When a man grows old
          And his balls grow cold
          And the tip of his cock turns blue
          And bends in the middle
          Like a one-string fiddle
          I’d say he was f*cked … wouldn’t you?”

          1. When dead-eyed Dick and Mexican Pete set off for the Rio Grande?

            50+ years ago, HG’s party piece to great hilarity at rugby club evenings was to recite the poem, I doubt she can even remember any of the verses now.

          3. So pull up your chairs and buy me a drink and I’ll tell you a tale or two
            About Dead-eyed Dick and Mexican Pete and a harlot called Eskimo Nell!

            Apparently Noel Coward could recite the whole ballad without a single mistake.

    2. Talking about things that grow , my Crown Imperial has grown an inch today ..it is 29 inches .. the rate of growth has been incredible !

    3. Yo ann(ton)ee

      Youse benn hiding dangly bitz?

      Going to !5″ could be diminihing ones assets

  59. Poles – please, please, PLEASE! Don’t go down on one knee.

    EDIT: – Good on them – the Poles stayed standing.

      1. Looked like it – you could only see the forwards, but I assume the rest of them did, like sheep.

  60. So with the French now going into a full lockdown, will the Dinghy boat refugees still be allowed to travel?

  61. So with the French now going into a full lockdown, will the Dinghy boat refugees still be allowed to travel?

  62. Macron this evening.

    One knew it was all utter bollocks when the interpreter couldn’t translate it coherently and smoothly.

    1. The comments (and journalists’ reponses) on the piece in Le Monde are priceless. Apparently, no one knows what Toy Boy was on about (apart from schools etc being closed).

      The press are waiting for the enormous intellect Castex to explain tomorrow….

      1. He came across as drunker than Juncker.
        Even my pisse-dru French knew it was incoherent.

    5. I don’t mind the amount. Not being forced to pay for them I don’t mind.

      I don’t see why the salary of the gambling commission president is relevant. He’s a civil servant. We’ve no choice but to fund him.

      My concern with betting is the dopamine (I think) hit from gambling and it’s addiction.

    7. Hang on. I thought women are hugely disadvantaged at work by the patriarchy. The highest paid employee is a woman? I’m confused.

      1. To cut CO emissions,
        Men will breathe Monday, Wedneday and Friday

        Wimmen will breathe Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

        both sexes will breathe on Sundays

    2. It’s just a lot of hot air and virtue signalling from the usual suspects. Far better to cancel it now.

    3. Precisely. How are these supposed climate experts expected to arrive in Glasgow? I cannot see them arriving individually by Microlites. No, they will arrive on private jets and Glasgow Airport will most likely be closed to commercial traffic to accommodate these truly wonderful, far cleverer than we are, global elites.

      Edit: Is Greta Thunberg arriving by plastic ocean going yacht?

  65. Just watching Fred Dibnah’s Round Britain series.
    Sigh…
    Nostalgia on steam-powered wheels… and the Brass music…

    1. Best you learn the difference between 2049 and 20:49, particularly if you take on a debt.

    4. I am not sure I want to live until I am 103 My father died in full possession of his intellect, humour and mental faculties at 85 but my mother, who died at 97, had lost much of her motivation for living.

      1. I had something similar but less severe on my back and upper torso after the bloody flu injection two or more months ago. The pharmacist thought it was a fungal infection. Now under control with creams, Sudocrem, Dermalex and O’Keefes Skin Repair, but leaving a sort of bruising.

        I will never take another vaccine of any sort from these criminals.

  69. Thought – by choosing the name ‘Alba’ for his new party – does Alex Salmond realise that, apart from being the ancient name for Scotland, it’s also the name of a crap Electronics manufacturer?

    2. Oops. A bit of nonunderreadery hère, I’m afraid. Ms Allan was on that yesterday.

          1. Your devotion to duty is admirable. Cyberspace is safer because of people like you, constantly scanning message boards. Award yourself the CDM.

          2. I will do, thanks. However, I am off chocolate for Lent. Worse than that, I am off alcohol as well. Only a few days to go.

          4. I will do, thanks. However, I am off chocolate for Lent. Worse than that, I am off alcohol as well. Only a few days to go.

    1. That is OK, when you look at the racial attacks us Whiteys are getting from all the immigrants in Uk, we are an effnick minority

      We certainly cannot respond

      How about BLM British Lives Matter

      Will the Black peoplego down on one knee in support of us: did not think so

      I hear sirens, car doors slamming and my front door is in the garden

    1. Seems as though they are more interested in virtue-signalling than in defending their country.

      1. They haven’t had to seriously do that for a while. It will come as a great shock when they do.

    2. If someone is suffering a psychosis whereby they think they’re something they’re not, so be it. However, they are ill. They are not special and certainly should not be serving in a warzone nor, honestly, in any post of high office. They need therapeutic intervention, not pandering.

      1. Biden is far past his sell by date. His administration is a heist on the American population, conducted by Barack Obama and his husband Big Mike.

        These Democrats want to rule in the same manner as the Russian Politburo holding ultimate power and directing the lives of every single citizen. Obama was a disaster for America and is now back trying to complete his anti-American socialist vision using the dead-eyed Joe Biden as glove puppet.

        By the way, can any sentient being accept giggling hag Kamala Harris as a potential President?

        When Biden falls off his perch there will be big trouble in the States. Even the half asleep Democrats will have to answer for the impending catastrophe.

    1. BBC Radio 4, The World Tonight

      The space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock contributed to the study:
      “Institutional racism is a very emotive word [sic]. The UK has changed radically but we’re not there yet. No one’s saying racism doesn’t exist, we’re not even saying that institutional racism doesn’t exist, we’re just saying that in our work we didn’t find it out there.”

      Enter your space and astronomy puns below!

      2. The UK is not a racist country but a tolerant society. We hope people with different religions and skin colour will work within our laws and respect our history and customs.

        It is now obvious that there are cultural problems where many Muslims consider the indigenous population to be infidels and where the disadvantaged assign their problems, mostly self inflicted, to the indigenous mostly white population.

        Identity politics is a curse on our nation. Those promoting Critical Race Theory are abominable lefties unable to face problems rationally. The reality is that these lefties have infiltrated our schools and higher education facilities. There they preach their perverse gospel of hate.

        1. I think the UK’s downfall will be that we are too tolerant and allow incomers too much leeway.

    2. ‘Evening, Dale, David Lammy, the shadow justice secretary, said black Britons were being “gaslighted” by the commission. “This report could be a turning point and a moment to come together,” he said. “Instead, it has chosen to divide us once more and keep us debating about the existence of racism rather than doing anything about it.”

      The 2nd biggest London Racist has spoken – and, as usual, we shall ignore the ignorant bigot.

  78. Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has criticised the idea of vaccine
    passports for pubs – as floated by Boris Johnson – saying they would go
    against the “British instinct”, writes The Daily Telegraph.

  80. Good morning from a somewhat insomniac me.

    An excellent early BTL Comment this morning:-

    Colin Harrow
    1 Apr 2021 12:34AM
    A report by The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities has concluded not only that there’s no evidence of institutionalised or systemic racism in the UK but that Britain is a “model to the world” as far as race relations are concerned.

    This almost certainly comes as no surprise to the vast majority of the UK population who’s views have not been warped by the increasingly strident so-called, “anti-racist” lobby or been hijacked by “Black Lives Matter”, an organisation imported from a country with an historic legacy of slavery to a country that has never experienced it and to which its black population came voluntarily and gladly.

    Of course, as in all societies, there are still pockets of knuckle dragging white supremacists to whom the internet has given an exaggerated voice. Just as it has to extremists of all ideologies including those on the other side of the colour spectrum who promulgate the specious doctrines of “white privilege” and genetic white racism.

    But what used to be known in the 1950’s as “racial prejudice” has fundamentally changed over the years. There may still be a residual wariness towards some communities, but by no means all, with immigrants from the Indian sub-continent, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and those of Chinese heritage, not only having integrated into the host community but having prospered to the extent where current educational and salary comparisons often put them ahead of whites.

    But where the antipathy still exists it is no longer based on colour, ethnicity or race, but on far more concrete reasons including cultural attitudes, practices and particularly behaviour. Behaviour that not only conflicts with that of the host community but often with other minority ethnic groups within it .

    In fact one might even say now that for the overwhelming majority of the population the only remaining remnant of “racism”, if it can even be described as that, can now justifiably be termed, to coin a new word, as “behaviourism” if an “ism” is required which it usually is these days.

    Not applied to all BAME groups but specifically, and here unfortunately it must be said, to members of, although by no means all, two particular communities, and even one of these can be further divided.

    Firstly there are those who espouse a certain religion and share the culture that envelopes it, and the other mainly from one particular black community, that of Caribbean heritage rather than African. And again, as always it must be stressed, that just as blanket racism was wrong so is blanket behaviourism, and not all members of any community are by any means guilty of it.

    As far as the first community mentioned is concerned behaviourism as defined above can certainly be used to describe what has recently happened to a teacher at Batley Grammar School who legitimately used a cartoon of the religion’s Prophet as an example of blasphemy in an RE lesson and is now in hiding and fearing for his life for doing so.

    Add to this the history of Islamic terrorist attacks in the UK, child sex grooming scandals, honour killings and forced marriages, even down to FGM, wearing Burkhas and other signs of their unwillingness to integrate with the host community among whom they have chosen to live, it is clear that a feeling of alienation from, and even genuine fear of them is based on observable examples of their behaviour rather than irrational xenophobia.

    As for the second group as well as the issue of black on black murder there is also their extensive involvement in gang and drug related activities. ONS statistics published in 2020 showed black murders at a 20 year high in the UK and that in the three years to March 2020 the average homicide rate per million of population was around five time higher for blacks than for whites and almost four times that of other ethnicities.

    In 2018 Sky News published murder figures for London showing that although blacks made up just 13% of the population, 44% of the capital’s murder victims were from the same community as were 48% of murder suspects. The figures for 16 to 24 -year-olds were particularly shocking and sociologists including those of colour, lay much of the blame on the lack of a stable father figure in many black families.

    ONS statistics back this up with 24% of black families being single parent compared to 10% for whites and 8% for Asians. As I’ve mentioned before on these threads much of this has to do with the idea of “baby mothers”, where women are impregnated then abandoned, which seems to be a particularly black Caribbean culture thing with some males regarding numbers left as bizarre status symbols..

    Mentioning this has nothing to do with race but everything to do with behaviour and maybe I’ll now be condemned as a “behaviourist” for saying so, attracting the ire of a whole new lobby group.

    1. Morning Bob

      The battle against the Left’s ideology of racial victimhood has only just begun
      The hostile reception to Tony Sewell’s report into race in Britain shows the scale of the fight ahead

      SHERELLE JACOBS
      DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST
      31 March 2021 • 9:30pm

      We have entered the opening phase of a vicious new culture war. A Government-commissioned review, launched in the wake of last summer’s Black Lives Matters protests, has come to the heretical conclusion that race is less important than family and class in explaining the outcomes of different groups. The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report is a forensic and unapologetic challenge to the liberal-Left conviction that the UK is structurally bigoted. It finds no evidence that institutional racism exists in Britain. In fact, it points out that, in some areas, such as education, particular ethnic minorities outperform their white counterparts. Even more boldly it ventures that UK should be seen as a model for other white-majority nations.

      Hours before the report was even published, it had already been trashed by the Left-wing activists who dominate discourse on race in Britain. Maurice Mcleod, the chief executive of Race on the Agenda, blasted the report as “government level gaslighting”. Halima Begum, head of the Runnymede Trust, called it a “gross offence” to grieving families of ethnic minorities who have died of Covid. Black Lives Matter, which has bloomed from a grassroots rabble into a slick establishment operation, snipped that it was “perplexed” by the report’s methodology and “disappointed” by oversight of police racism.

      A hostile reception is, on one level, a good sign. The report is a brave first step in confronting the Neo-Marxist ideology that has poisoned conversations about race. Its emphasis on concrete evidence rather than patronising theories – from critical race to unconcious bias – is radical. It is a deep rejection of “political blackness” – a post-communist doctrine seeded in the civil rights solidarity of 1960s, which lumps minorities together in a battle against capitalist white privilege. The inquiry’s jettisoning of the term BAME is not merely “semantics”, but the start of a fierce academic battle. The cliched acronym epitomises the 30-year colonisation of the cultural mainstream by the hard-Left, travelling from radicalised anthropology departments to executive boardrooms, public bodies, and media outfits.

      Tony Sewell – the Brixton-born educationalist who led the Commission – is trying to shift the debate away from victimising meta-theories towards a more nuanced discussion about race. His investigation is barbed with inconvenient facts. The ethnic pay gap has shrunk to 2.3 per cent overall and barely registers for employees under 30. Diversity is improving in professions like medicine and law. Sewell’s report dares to broach the complexity of black Britain.

      It finds, for example, that the exclusion rate for black Caribbean pupils is double that of their black African counterparts. Black Caribbean pupils are the only ethnic minority group that do not do as well or better than their white counterparts. Sewell has expressed his hope that this will go down as a landmark report which changes the dialogue over coming decades. That depends on how much fight – and skill – the centre-Right possesses.

      It will have to overthrow a hard-Left nexus of academics, NGOs and political agitators. They have been calling the shots ever since a notorious coup against the Institute for Race Relations in 1972. A three-year guerilla assault on the body, led by the novelist Ambalavaner Sivanandan, resulted in resignations, and a watershed shift in research focus from black people to white institutions. Sivanandan’s theory of “institutional racism” – that it is first finds venomous roots in the laws of the land (for example in biased immigration legislation), and then branches out to the executive and judiciary – went mainstream in the wake of the tragic murder of Stephen Lawrence.

      Since then its even more ambitious cousin, structural racism, has found evidence of oppression in everything from the benefits system to Kew Gardens’ plants. Unconscious bias training has become a multi-million pound industry. Youth groups pitch themselves as intermediaries between black teens and “white-dominated” police and social services. Lecturers ride a gravy train of anti-racism advocacy and book deals on decolonising human rights.

      The only way to challenge such a vast, profitable and entrenched enterprise is to build a rival one in parallel. Funding must be secured for academic research into the challenges faced by the specific groups outlined in the Sewell report – particularly Caribbean Brits, the white working class and British Pakistanis. New NGOs and organisations with the same granular focus will also be needed. Yet this is the easy part. More difficult will be to contest a victimhood mentality that is becoming as entrenched as religious dogma. For all its troubles, America offers some inspiration here. Latinos and Afro-Americans identify as American in a way their British counterparts don’t because the country’s founding ideas – like freedom and the American Dream – are so bewitching. We desperately lack our own story of Britishness fired by energetic values.

      Winning hearts and minds will also demand sensitivity and courage. The Tories need to tread carefully as they make inroads into the political vipers nest of “parental responsibility”. They will also have to alter their language. We need to shift the debate, not from “inequality” to “culture” – but to “counter-culture”. The problem is not the customs of some immigrant groups per say but the toxic attitudes that have spread among second and third generation Britons.

      Most controversially, it is important not to fall into the trap of downplaying Britain’s race problems. Woke teachings have enjoyed such momentum in recent years because multiculturalism has failed. The orthodoxy that tensions resolve themselves if you give immigrants cultural “space” has proved naive. Conservatives must confront the basic truth that progress can be both enriching and a destructive. They might well find more support for this revelation than the home truths of the Sewell report.

      It is no coincidence that the ethnic groups who feel the paradoxes of immigration most profoundly have rejected metropolitanland’s sunny mythology of “samba, saris and samosas” just as virulently as the white working class.

      [Oh no!!! No comments allowed!]

      1. Good morning, Sir!
        Yes, I fear that the UK has been far too accepting and far too welcoming.

    2. Superb summary, Bob. Can I suggest you repost it on Thursday’s board so more will see it.

    1. Good morning Geoff
      Thank you for bringing together so many good people of diverse thoughts and attitudes that sees the end of 5 years of discussion and we enter the 6th year today, 1st April.

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