Sunday 4 April Vaccination passports would undermine Britain’s return to normality

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/2021/04/03/letters-vaccination-passports-would-undermine-britains-return/

599 thoughts on “Sunday 4 April Vaccination passports would undermine Britain’s return to normality”

      1. Er … Philip. Do I have to teach you softy southerners everything?

        Today is Easter Day, i.e. a religious FEAST. It marks the end of Lent — a religious FAST — which is now passé, gone, extinct, consigned to history, ancient, in a previous age, never to return (well, at least, this year).

        You need to get hip, Dude. 😛

        1. Errr….WRONG, Grizzly. Lent ends at lunchtime on Easter Saturday when my mother would hit the sherry bottle with a vengeance to celebrate. She could leave Plum in the dust.

  2. COVID-19: Police shut down Good Friday church service and threaten worshippers with fines. 4 April 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7957a85b83ba66466ded0430b797d3c81e7c36142bd46692f10f15dad176f375.jpg

    Police shut down a Good Friday service at a Polish church in south London for breaching coronavirus rules and threatened worshippers with a £200 fine each.

    Footage captured officers interrupting a Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion service at Christ the King Polish church in Balham at around 6pm on Friday.

    Morning everyone. I’ve googled Polish Church News and this being the only response and that from yesterday, I think it only right that I bring it up again! I think safe to assume that this story has been “killed” just as the Batley Affair has been. My own view is that the church was shut down deliberately and that if we could trace the source of the order it will almost certainly have come from an Islamic Officer in the Police Force. The opportunity to shut down the infidel’s most sacred festival must have been irresistible! Needless to say none of this is going to appear in the MSM!

    https://news.sky.com/story/police-shut-down-good-friday-church-service-and-threaten-worshippers-with-fines-12264608

    4. “Needless to say none of this is going to appear in the MSM!”

      Au Contraire!

      This story (complete with photograph) appears on page 5 of today’s Sunday Telegraph.

      1. Hey, Dean. You know me, Bro, I just mosey through life with all my cares on some other Dude’s back. No valium pills around this hombre’s campfire, Cousin.

    3. The police made the mistake in thinking that these Christians would roll over. However, they’re Poles- and one thing Poles don’t do is bend or roll over- they will stand up to tyranny. A very good demonstration of what needs to be done in the face of petty authority pushing its weight about.

      1. He knew his rights, and that he was allowed to deny them entry without a warrant. And he knew what he could get away with calling them.
        Things that we should all be aware of these days!

    4. Brilliant!
      (He would have got fined in Germany for calling them Gestapo and Nazis)

  5. mng Grizz, RR [and others in due course]. As suspected yesterday, Kenya Power did its usual greeting going AWOL all day, surprisingly returning at 20.00 bang on the time for the start of curfew. And I hear but as yet unable to validate, UK has now placed Kenya on its “red list” of countries [Ndovu be aware]. Apparently some unknown UK data source says Kenya had 963 cases in a single day [Good Friday apparently], yet here, no one knows where or who dreamed up such figures. That aside, given bars are closed here, with a bit of reverse engineering, found a local bar, moved table and chairs into the garden and had a pleasant afternoon “not in bar” and with the usual good service. Let’s see what happens to the power today. Have a good Easter Sunday

  6. It is time for a discussion about Covid certification. Michael Gove. 3 April 2021.

    On behalf of the Government, I’d like to invite readers’ thoughts on the role that certification might play in our anti-Covid strategy.

    Vaccination is a hugely powerful tool, but it can never provide 100 per cent protection. That is why we need to look at every option potentially available to ensure the fastest, safest and most sustainable road back to normality.

    Drop dead you Little Fascist Rodent!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/03/time-discussion-covid-certification/

    2. Good BTL
      “Vaccine passports needed to watch a football match, but not to get on
      the packed train to get to the stadium, or in the pub afterwards. It’s a
      stupid, unnecessary, wasteful idea from people who don’t live in the
      real world. Give it up.”
      Exactly so,one more measure that has nothing to do with health!!

    3. Gove, a modern self seeking politician. A political contortionist. A piece of excrement. I am not a fan.

      1. I have loathed Gove ever since coming across him at university more than thirty years ago. He has not changed one little bit!

    4. Does the hypocrite not realise that we’ve already seen the government consultations that make it quite clear this policy was done and dusted months ago?

  9. They were just about to write COVID on his death certificate when….

    “Jesus Christ! – He’s risen!”⛪

  11. Morning all

    SIR – Ryan Bourne hits the nail on the head. Vaccine passports might sound like a good idea (as national ID cards did at the time) but they would be impracticable.

    Imagine bouncers on the door of every venue struggling to decide who should be admitted – not to speak of the cost. And think of all the other scenarios: Granny has forgotten her passport, someone else has the wrong kind, a visitor from abroad has a document that doesn’t comply with British requirements, and so on.

    A passport would run counter to the goals of allowing life to return to normal (more or less) and managing the virus. Opponents warn of “discrimination”, but there are more practical, straightforward objections.

    Peter Boon

    Didcot, Oxfordshire

    SIR – I never imagined that I would agree with Jeremy Corbyn, but he and around 70 other MPs are absolutely right to oppose vaccination passports.

    The electorate has already suffered huge deprivations as a consequence of government incompetence. We live in a free society, yet every day we creep ever closer to becoming a police state as the Government imposes ever more restrictions in an attempt to paper over its appalling pandemic track record.

    Kim Potter

    Lambourn, Berkshire

    SIR – Sir Keir Starmer says vaccination passports would be “un-British”.

    If we pursue that logic, then it is a British trait to be able to decline a vaccination, be a carrier, go where you like and infect others. Meanwhile, it is un-British to ensure that you are both protected yourself and, as a result, helping to protect others.

    We carry driving licences and travel abroad with passports. Now we are simply being asked to carry something else to show that we are safe. This does not diminish our national character.

    John Ling

    Old Colwall, Herefordshire

    SIR – Smoking is legal, but it is not permitted by law in pubs, restaurants, shops, public buildings or care homes. The justification is that tobacco smoke can affect the health of others, and the ban encourages smokers to give it up.

    Carrying Covid can also affect the health of others and indeed cause death. If restricting the freedom of smokers to smoke in public places is right, why is it wrong to restrict the freedom of possible Covid-carriers in a similar way? It would encourage people to have the vaccine.

    Stephen Peach

    London W3

    SIR – As the vaccines are not 100 per cent effective, a small number of vaccinated persons will still get the virus. Moreover, the virus may mutate into a vaccine-resistant strain.

    I will therefore be maintaining a distance from everyone whether or not they have a passport, except for family and trusted friends. Let’s not waste time and money on a pointless gesture.

    Jerry Fulton

    Draycott, Somerset

      1. Indeed. Why does Mr Fulton believe that his family and friends will not be harbouring a deadly variant in their vaccinated bodies merely because he trusts them?

          1. Several in fact, judging by some of those letters! [Ling, Peach and Fulton]

        2. The “vaccine” doesn’t stop people getting the virus anyway (or passing it on).

    2. Of course the Articles of the UN forbid any obstacles to free movement. The Nuremberg Code forbids coercion in respect of medical treatment. This UK government has ignored both.

    3. Poor old Granny. She’s always the butt of scenarios where stupidity is required, rarely is Grandad.

  13. Nursery teachers should give lessons on white privilege, says guidance

    Advice from unions and charities criticised by Tory MPs for turning

    early learning into a ‘political Soviet indoctrination session’

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/03/nursery-teachers-should-give-lessons-white-privilege-says-guidance/?utm_content=telegraph&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1617482497
    How very Jesuitical…………………..

  14. The right to die

    SIR – As faith leaders, we say that it is surely time to listen when one of Britain’s leading brain surgeons, Dr Henry Marsh, not only reveals that he dreads the suffering he faces because of his incurable prostate cancer, but also calls for politicians to allow the option of assisted dying in the UK for terminally ill patients who so wish (report, April 2).

    It is increasingly clear, from the spate of countries that have passed legislation to allow assisted dying, that it is possible to put sufficient safeguards into place to ensure that it benefits those who request it but protects against any potential abuses.

    There is also a strong moral argument that it is a human right to be able to avoid unnecessary suffering as part of end-of-life care. It is equally permissible on religious grounds, too: in the Bible, Ecclesiastes tell us that “There is a time to be born and a time to die” (3.2), and we should be able to choose whether to live till our very last breath or thank God for the life that has been enjoyed and gratefully hand it back before it becomes abominable.

    Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain

    Lord Carey of Clifton

    Archbishop of Canterbury, 1991-2002

    1. Epidermoid, thanks for this. I remember Dr George Carey well, way back, as part of team guiding him [and his wife] around south Sudan [by road!], breaking sanctions from Nimule, across the Nile to Kajo Keji then to Yambio. A great guy. Not much news coverage of visit, this may help https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/archbishop-seeks-end-desperate-suffering-sudanese-people-1404596.html and his sermons in Yambio and Nzara drew massive crowds. This link shows a bit of the Nzara – Yambio route [c/o James Bii] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/archbishop-seeks-end-desperate-suffering-sudanese-people-1404596.html He was shown around the Nzara Agricultural Complex [from Colonial times] and his wife was given bark from local tree as bedding. I understand she still has it. Dr Carey has a habit [no pun intended] of breaking rules

    2. I like Carey, but I think he’s wrong on this one. Countries have not put sufficient safeguards in place, and even if other countries could do so, does anyone really believe that Our Beloved NHS would manage it?
      About five minutes after we get euthanasia, it will become the default (read: cheapest) “treatment” for annoying elderly people, and if you believe otherwise, can I interest you in some fine real estate spanning the Thames in London?

    3. “and we should be able to choose whether to live till our very last breath”
      You have no choice about that, boys.

    4. Dangerous renegades. I expect their places of worship to be raided by the Stasi.

    5. A time to be born and a time to die, but it doesn’t say a time to commit suicide. There will be mission creep as there was with abortion.

  15. The right to die

    SIR – As faith leaders, we say that it is surely time to listen when one of Britain’s leading brain surgeons, Dr Henry Marsh, not only reveals that he dreads the suffering he faces because of his incurable prostate cancer, but also calls for politicians to allow the option of assisted dying in the UK for terminally ill patients who so wish (report, April 2).

    It is increasingly clear, from the spate of countries that have passed legislation to allow assisted dying, that it is possible to put sufficient safeguards into place to ensure that it benefits those who request it but protects against any potential abuses.

    There is also a strong moral argument that it is a human right to be able to avoid unnecessary suffering as part of end-of-life care. It is equally permissible on religious grounds, too: in the Bible, Ecclesiastes tell us that “There is a time to be born and a time to die” (3.2), and we should be able to choose whether to live till our very last breath or thank God for the life that has been enjoyed and gratefully hand it back before it becomes abominable.

    Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain

    Lord Carey of Clifton

    Archbishop of Canterbury, 1991-2002

  16. Morning again

    SIR – I was delighted to see the recipe for lemon meringue pie using sweetened condensed milk. This is the recipe used by my family since the war and still considered the only one by some members. An added advantage is being able to lick the condensed milk tin, if you are quick enough.

    Petronella Oelman

    Saffron Walden, Essex

  18. Put out more flags

    SIR – Daniel Hannan is right about flag snobbery: the Union Flag and Cross of St George are being wrongly maligned, and we should resist this – otherwise they will go the same way as statues.

    I have a flag pole in my front garden and it is there for fun. I have about 30 flags (mostly gifts), which I fly on various – often obscure – national days, or when a member of that nationality (for example, my Argentine mother-in-law) or even county (such as Suffolk: I won’t go into why) visits us.

    However, the most fun I have had has been flying the Olympic flag, particularly during the 2012 games. I bought it for a fiver online when I heard that only “official sponsors” were allowed to fly one.

    Tony Parrack

    London SW20

    1. Quite right Mr Parrack, and may you continue flying the flags for many years to come!

      1. My church has just had a new (St George’s) flag because the old one was flown all last year and is now tattered and torn.

    1. Army creches are really, really dangerous.
      All those unvaccinated rug rats obsessed with their white privilege.

  20. I don’t care who Boris boffs — but I do care if he screws me out of my money
    Rod Liddle

    Sunday April 04 2021, 12.01am, The Sunday Times

    I wonder what it was that attracted Boris Johnson to the young, blonde, large-breasted American businesswoman Jennifer Arcuri. According to Jennifer, it was her “events” that he greatly admired. She did not expand on the matter, so exactly what sort of events may remain for ever a mystery — except to say that, reportedly, she has a dancing pole in the middle of her living room, so perhaps some sort of event took place there, from time to time.

    We do know, from Ms Arcuri’s account, that when they first met it was an “electrifying” encounter. Nine months later, she says, they first had sex. This was hours before the opening of the London Olympics in 2012, which Boris was due to attend with some other women — the Queen, his wife and so on.

    For some time before then Boris’s irascible, mischievous penis had been pogoing around London, perhaps of its own volition, from one willing playmate to another, leaving behind a trail of the forlornly transgressed as well as some tousle-haired children. How many affairs (and children) is none of my business, and I don’t especially care — yer toffs sometimes have strange ways of conducting marriages, whereas the rest of us tend to get the old heave-ho as soon as we start acting suspiciously by bathing frequently, wearing aftershave and hiding the mobile phone. But I do care a bit about Ms Arcuri — and so, perhaps, should you. It seems to me remarkable that this issue should have engendered so little outrage, given that public money was involved.

    Not that much public money, in fairness — only about £126,000. Much less, sure, than the £14.4 million PPE contract from the Department of Health that somehow landed in the lap of a woman called Frances Stanley, who is a close associate of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, and whose husband had donated £5,000 to his office. Actually, now I think of it, there wasn’t a huge fuss over that, either — but let’s stick with Boris for now, Boris and his impressive, pogoing, “Build back better” gonads.

    We were told, at first, that Boris and this woman simply had a friendship. Later it emerged from Ms Arcuri that they had been at it like billy-o for four years, from 2012 to 2016 — when Boris was mayor of London. Boris has not denied the affair, nor admitted it. However, what we do know is that this “friendship” was not declared when a whole bunch of money was awarded to Ms Arcuri from the mayor’s promotional agency and that she had got a place on coveted trade trips to New York and Tel Aviv, which she had no real qualifications to attend.

    A police watchdog investigated and concluded that the mayor should have declared an interest, given that he had already been rebuked for having failed to do so in the case of another of his happy conquests, a woman called Helen Macintyre. The investigation stopped short of initiating criminal proceedings (although that was before Arcuri spilt all the beans). We have since found out, too, that the Conservative Party chipped in to Boris’s legal costs, which was kind of it.

    I have no personal animus against Boris — indeed I used to enjoy his company. Nor much political animus, even if we are members of different parties. But this seems to me a fairly straightforward case of public money and favours being siphoned off, without disclosure, to someone with whom the mayor was intimate.

    If Boris had launched a scheme called Shag the Mayor and Win a Contract, at least it would have been kinda transparent and we could all have applied. But does it not to you, even if you are a loyal Tory, have the whiff of corruption, of wrongdoing?

    For sure, the Conservatives have long reckoned that Boris’s romantic excursions and wayward private life are — much like his lack of intimacy with that thing we call “truth” — “baked in” to the voter’s perception of the chap, so it doesn’t really make a difference. But playing fast and loose with our money is a different matter.

    Perhaps some assume that in electing a Conservative government we also “bake in” the inevitability of corruption, or at least have become inured to it. Politicians, eh — what do you expect? But that is a mindset too cynical for even me to endure.

    Arcuri feels she was “fed to the wolves” by Boris and describes him as a “cowardly, wet noodle”. She reckons she’d have got the contracts even if she hadn’t got her kit off just as Mo Farah was warming up. She has a lot more confidence in that belief than I do.

    Vaccine passports likely

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/%2Fmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F9c470402-948f-11eb-84a3-79b283cc3ba8.jpg?crop=1500%2C1000%2C0%2C0&resize=1022

    Tony Sewell smokes out the real racists
    A particularly nasty form of racism not dealt with in the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report is one that its chief author, the excellent Tony Sewell, is discovering right now. To be black in Britain you must subscribe to a long list of opinions, principally to do with your victimhood, or you will not be considered black at all. Never mind if those opinions do not fit the facts.

    A very successful black friend of mine is frequently offered honorary posts, chancellorships and so on by the white liberals who, alas, still run this country. He always refuses, sending a stock reply that reads as follows: “I know that you want me to apply because of what I look like, but I know that the moment I open my mouth you won’t want me, because you like me to be poor, angry and incoherent — and definitely not in charge.”

    Never a truer sentence.

    Free the crotchets from this tyranny
    There was a very funny April fool spoof in one of the papers I read on Thursday. Apparently a music professor at Oxford University has demanded an end to standard musical notation because it is a “colonialist representational system”.

    They overstretched the joke, with the professor lambasting Beethoven and Mozart because they came from a time of slavery. Still, this age is so deranged that it takes real skill to construct such satire and I took my hat off to the author.

    I only stopped laughing when I saw the date on the front page of the paper — March 29. My wife usually throws the old papers in the bin, but on this occasion she had forgotten.

    The Devil and Ms Von der Leyen
    The Devil is sowing discord and disharmony among peoples during this Covid pandemic, according to Pope Francis. His Infernal Majesty has kept a fairly low profile since the coronavirus struck but is now up to his old tricks again, apparently. I rang the Hell press office for confirmation of this but was told by a senior spokesimp: “Sorry, Rod, we’re not taking any calls on this story at the moment. Try this …”

    He gave me a number for Ursula von der Leyen. Spooky, huh?

  21. 331150+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    May one ask, will this be copper free ? if so who in the overseers party
    ( tory ino) selected the selective dates.

    Observances: Zakat al-Fitr charity, Eid prayers
    Date: Wed, 12 May 2021 – Thu, 13 May 2021
    Celebrations: Eid prayers, charity, social gatherings, festive meals, gift-giving
    Significance: Marks the end of fasting in Ramadan
    Featured in religions: Islam

        2. 331150+ up ticks,
          Morning DB,
          Does it make a difference under the
          circumstances ?

          2. 331150+ up ticks,
            DB,
            I see it as a pair of feet left / right not identical but getting along together.

  22. Good morning, all. And a Very Happy Easter to you.

    Watched the Messiah last night. Pity they cut half of it. And I thought the presentation was a bit OTT. Six feet apart doesn’t mean 12 feet apart. And the soloists could have been in a row. The conductor was irritating, too. But the diverse singers were good.

    2. It has been reported that eight out of ten licensees are against this idea and so are many Tory MPs. Johnson offering up to a year as the duration of the passport is a sign that not is all well within the Tory ranks on this crass idea. In addition, Johnson’s record on CV-19 promises is, well, Bernie’s Tweets sums up that dismal record – what could one expect from an habitual liar such as the likes of Johnson.

      https://twitter.com/berniespofforth/status/1378246454209298432

      3. We have reached the stage of the late, unlamented USSR.
        The government tells lies. We know they tell lies. The government knows we know they tell lies.
        The government doesn’t care that we know they tell lies.

          1. 🙂
            I’d forgotten that one.
            The ever extended furlough springs to mind; except that you’re not supposed to work.

          2. At least we haven’t yet reached “More bread is needed. In the free world, they bake another loaf. We just slice the loaf more thinly” yet.

  25. Is Myanmar the new Syria? Rising violence threatens a repeat tragedy. 24 April 2021.

    There is little doubt Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the junta boss, and members of the military and police are each day committing crimes against humanity and war crimes. Min Aung Hlaing is already wanted for the 2017 genocide of the Rohingya minority.

    These uniformed killers and torturers are counting on impunity fuelled by international divisions and inertia. As matters stand, it’s entirely possible that, like Assad and most of his henchmen, they will escape justice.

    I don’t want to defend this deeply repellent and stupid thug but a country that harbours and protects Blair, Jack Straw and Cameron shouldn’t really be throwing stones at anyone else!

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/04/is-myanmar-the-new-syria-rising-violence-threatens-a-repeat-tragedy

    2. I think the clue is that the junta who are each day committing crimes against humanity and war crimes, made it a priority to close down the Open Society in their country.

  28. With Joe Biden’s own audacious New Deal, the democratic left rediscovers its soul. 4 April 2021.

    What amazes the party and commentators alike is why a 78-year-old moderate stalwart such as Biden has suddenly become so audacious. After all, he backed Bill Clinton’s Third Way and was a cheerleader for fiscal responsibility under both him and Barack Obama, when the stock of federal debt was two-thirds of what it is today.

    Could it be because he is completely doolally and more suited to being the Old Man of the Mountain than President of the United States?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/04/with-joe-bidens-own-audacious-new-deal-the-democratic-left-rediscovers-its-soul

          2. From what I’ve seen, it involves being done to a crisp on the cheap so that your family can afford a good party.

          3. Seems like the right priority. I don’t mind being done to a crisp on the cheap if my family have a good knees up. They can chuck the ashes on the garden! Just call me Clementine.

  29. Orthodox Easter for the year 2021 is celebrated/ observed on Sunday, May 2.

    This day celebrates the resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion on Orthodox Good Friday. In the United States the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate Church, Russian Orthodox Church, and Greek Hellenic Orthodox Church celebrate the day along with other smaller Orthodox Churches.

    The Orthodox Church uses the Julian calendar to determine their holy days. Easter for the Orthodox Church will always fall sometime between April 4th and May 8th each year.

    The date used for Easter was determined at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. It is on the Sunday following the paschal full moon, which is the full moon that falls on or after the spring equinox. Orthodox Easter will usually fall later in the year than Western Christian Easter because Orthodox Easter uses the Julian calendar and the later uses the Gregorian calendar.

    2. The same goes for Christmas i.e. Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar for their interpretation of December 25th.

  30. Went to the early Easter service this morning at 6 am.
    This is my favourite service of the year, as it pulls together everything from Creation to Resurrection, and affirms that people have come through terrible disasters in history, and that Jesus sacrificed himself once and for all to put away the old fears and superstitions (are you listening, Greta?), and free us to love and serve the Lord.

    There was no advance booking, but everyone knew the church would be socially distanced, and about half the usual numbers turned up, which was about as many people as they could fit in.
    Last year, I stayed away as I didn’t want to take someone else’s place, but since the church authorities have been reporting fallen numbers with such relish, I did not make the same mistake again.
    Communion was given to each person in the pews, as a piece of bread in a paper bag and a small individual bottle of grape juice.
    (Interestingly, I noticed from the very start of lockdown that the vicar kept referring to “wine or juice” – do TPTB want us to drop Communion wine in order to become more sharia compliant?)
    There was no singing by the congregation, but someone did play the organ and one of the choir sang from the gallery for us to listen to.
    Unfortunately the vicar scores highly on the left wing buzzword bingo card, and brought in the usual (nowadays) exhortations to pray against “haters”. The sermon started promisingly enough by saying the the Resurrection gives hope to all those fighting for freedom – but then he realised his mistake and swiftly made it plain that people demonstrating against lockdown were not included in this. They, apparently are not fighting for freedom, but merely for a sort of selfishness. No, the freedom fighters we should remember are those noble refugees turning up on our shores….

    Happy Easter, Nottlers! Christ is risen!

    3. Good Moaning, BB2.
      Writing as a 4 Wheel Christian, I’m glad you went to church and had a civilised morning.
      However, it is obvious that under a supposedly Conservative government, we are entering troubling times. Whether it is Fascism or Communism makes little difference.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqOKm4k2Wcc

      1. Persecuted white culture.

        Black lives matter ..

        We have all been done over , mugged , and now we are all being persecuted ..

        We should all erect the Union flag.

        The church bells are silent today.

        1. Gosh – really? I didn’t somehow think that a German Protestant minister would be (a) woke and(b) handing out communion “parcels”.

          For some reason BB2 declines to reveal her position (as it were..!!)

    5. Interesting concept, the Deliveroo Communion.

      Surely those cutting the bread and bagging it; and sourcing, pouring etc the “juice” might be contaminated. The cunning covid is known to linger on bread…(sarc)

      I hope you wore two pairs of gloves and a double mask in church.

    6. Interesting concept, the Deliveroo Communion.

      Surely those cutting the bread and bagging it; and sourcing, pouring etc the “juice” might be contaminated. The cunning covid is known to linger on bread…(sarc)

      I hope you wore two pairs of gloves and a double mask in church.

    7. Grape juice? I thought that most Christian denominations stipulate that it must be wine i.e. the fermented juice of the grape.

      1. It’s one of those sort of invisible shifts from what you thought was reality to the new truth.

    8. Alleluia! We only had the wafer, no wine (or grape juice), but we did have a goodly choir (11/25 because they couldn’t socially distance any more). Place was packed (in terms of social distancing – 2/3 of the pews were cordoned off).

  31. 331150+ up ticks,

    Sunday 4 April Vaccination passports would undermine Britain’s return to normality

    Surely this is on a pre planned agenda, as Plum pointed out to me yesterday the old ID card try on, regurgitated and now being used as building block via covid

  32. The easing of Lockdown as expressed by an illuminated sign on the A134 Northern Approach Road in Colchester.

    Previously:

    Stay at home. Essential journeys only.

    Currently (IIRC as I only glimpsed it yesterday):

    Stay Local. Avoid travel at busy times.

    Are we supposed to be grateful for the Fat Despot’s relaxing of his advice, aka controls on our lives?

    2. Good morning Korky

      Stay home essential journeys only… ha ha , what a joke ..

      The deluge of visitors filled the car parks here at Lulworth and Durdle Door yesterday .. and other beaches, there was no respite !

      1. Yo T_B

        Is it time to go to Weymouth Beach to find the ‘First Pair of Floppies’ of Spring yet, or is it still too cold

    3. Morning Korky
      There were several such messages on the M6 and M74 overhead signs when I drove up and down on Wednesday. My journey was essential to me.
      I only saw one police car on the whole journey and that was sitting on a bridge in full view to deter traffic from speeding in a temporary 40mph zone applied to protect workers repairing a central reservation barrier on the motorway. I had no problems at the border. The Gretna Service centre was quite deserted with few cars in the carpark.
      I

      1. I do wish that when there are no workers on whatever is being work is being done, that the speed limit “to protect the workers” would be lifted, perhaps not to 70, but certainly to 60.

    2. Women falling for an unattractive, flabby oaf like Johnson is one in the eye for feminism.

  34. Joyeuses Pâques ! Happy Easter !

    A busy day for Caroline on the church organ.

      1. Mobile phone snitching via iPlod, perhaps.
        Good Easter Day 🐣 morning to you all.

    2. As singing is still prohibited, having someone playing the organ when they are allowed to, is especially appreciated.
      I hope Geoff Graham is playing today as well”

      1. I will be playing my organ today, as I do every day – Ooeerrrr I mean my keyboard :o)

      2. We’re allowed to sing here in France, which makes a huge difference. The congregation sounds a bit muffled because we all wear masks but that’s a relatively small price to pay. I’m lucky because as soon as we were allowed our church services again (back in May) our priest gave me special dispensation for not wearing a mask at the organ – my glasses fog up when I’m playing if I wear a mask, so I can’t see the scores (well, at least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it)!

        We went to my uncle’s funeral in Kent at the end of August last year; I found the lack of singing made the service a very dismal event.

  35. Yo All

    Carrying Covid can also affect the health of others and indeed causedeath. If restricting the freedom of smokers to smoke in public places
    is right, why is it wrong to restrict the freedom of possibleCovid-carriers in a similar way? It would encourage people to have the
    vaccine.

    Are you in favour of a couple of swift executions, like that of Admiral Lord Byng.

    https://spinstrangenesscharm.wordpress.com/2019/01/15/origin-of-the-expression-to-encourage-the-others-pour-encourager-les-autres/

    We are still (just) a free country despite the actions of Boros and the WEF.

    SAY NO TO PASSPORTS

    When Covid is over those on Track and Trace will still be tracked

    It will also be made compulsorty to have an ID Card

    We will have to go to Russia for a holiday, to see what a free society is like

    COVID is ‘flu. The lethal bit comes from the way the government has reacted and ‘Doctored’ (this excludes GPs, the majority who have got richer
    doing nothing) the Covid deaths ie those WITH not OF, being reported as Covid deaths

    1. I know it is Easter but it does feel like we are returning to biblical times and the fight between good and evil the way events are unfolding.

      1. 331150+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        I do agree, In politics especially it has always been there and now more recognisable as the political charlatans come into the light.

        Many a person point out “taking the knee” is unacceptable yet
        willingly support / vote for parties that are using an instruction manual in parliamentary oath taking as acceptable yet it will result in us being down on two knees five times a day.

      1. We have depths ranging from none to crotch deep (guess how I measured that) and it’s melting fast. Yaay!

  38. And a slightly late Good Morning from a gloriously bright & sunny but distinctly chilly Derbyshire.
    -½°C on the yard thermometer, but looking at the frost outside it must have been a lot colder earlier on.

    1. +10C here in the valley, but the mountain passes to the north are all closed due to bad weather.
      Hot cross buns and good coffee for breakfast after a colossal zed as a result of a day of physical work yesterday, and total peace and silence here at Firstborn’s farm.

  39. Just glancing at the Daily Mail – Sarah Vine is against vaccine passports!
    But her husband, as someone commented below, is promoting them for the government!
    I always thought she was far too good for snotty Gove.

    2. Morning blackbox2 – Apparently we will need a smart phone to get the passport app which is unlikely to be ready before the autumn.
      I have no wish to get a smart phone

      1. My mother (88) declined a smartphone for a long time, then eventually agreed to get one but would only buy a very cheap model. Needless to say it was not very good and she continued to maintain she didn’t need a better one.
        After a few years it broke and my sister and I got her a proper one. She now uses it for everything – video calling, camera, Googling when out and about, satnav, playing online bridge etc, etc.

        They really are more use than devil.

        1. Yes, I’d agree there, but it’s a utility at the end of the day. Fundamentally the biggest problem is security and privacy. It’s all weighted toward the operating system, not the user. Why, for example, can you not use a radio without having the location tracking on as well?

          Google does everything it can to conflate accesses so that as much as possible is exposed for tracking and data colection a possible – in their benefit.

        1. Morning Plum – in my case a smart phone is a phone smarter than me and too expensive for my needs. I have a mobile phone for emergencies only.

      3. I have one, but I don’t use it for the internet. Was thinking of replacing it with a clamshell button phone. All I really need is phone, camera, torch.

        Hell will freeze over before I willingly install some government app.

      4. Oh, if the government is creating it it won’t work until 2025, by which time it’ll be pointless.

        Besides, having used Android and iOS there is nothing smart about them. I suggest disabling any form of access for the app. Let it ping, but after that it may as well be paper.

        Or have it as an image and show that.

  40. Yesterday I went for a 15 mile bicycle ride to pump some oxygen into my lower limbs after too many hours sat by the PC…

    I went through the city centre where there was a Kill the Bill protest and engaged with a couple of the protesters. I asked why they were protesting and was told that it was simply against loss of freedom in general rather than any specific subject. They said they believed global warming was real but then most youngsters do it seems. I asked if they would be happy to give up their cars and they said they would if there was an efficient rail service. Asked if they were unable to fly to foreign destinations and their faces dropped somewhat.

    They did appear to understand the direction of travel related to the great reset and the removal of their wealth potential but were totally ignorant of how we arrived where we are today. I gave them a few clues and reminded them that everything I touched upon was available via Google.

    They were perfectly nice people aged circa 20 and easy to talk to. If they are representative of the majority of protesters then they are also representing our children and grandchildren who’s future looks very break under Johnson’s regime and should be supported in their actions.

    The only difference between them and most of us is ignorance due to lack of years of hindsight and the willingness to take their issues onto the streets as opposed to using the keyboard which after many years…the comments have fallen on deaf ears.

    1. Young folk are great. The ones I have dealings with know so much more than I did aged 18-23, it’s scary.
      They just haven’t lived long enough to develop a decent sense of skepticism, that’s all.

      1. And the brainwashing is wearing off now the stealth years have turned into reality.

  41. Apropos my question about Colchester log suppliers, the MR did a lot of sleuthing (after checking the people that kind NoTTLers recommended) and discovered:

    Alex Miller Contracting, Layer Road’, Abberton, Colchester Essex CO5 7NH

    The outfit is no expensive and he is delivering a load to my impoverished sister-in-law THIS MORNING.

    1. Small business. Always the ones to go to these days, they do things like that, often don’t charge for the extra trouble, and are often cheaper, too.
      Valley View grocers in Dinas Powys dug my Mother (and me) out of a hole last year, by being open for orders via sms and payment by bank transfer, and they delivered, too. Tescos etc – nowt but an administrative nightmare!

  42. There were riots in Belfast on Friday and Saturday nights with several police injured. The Unionists were getting the blame. Several people were arrested.

    1. The PSNI allowed the funeral of an IRA terrorist to go ahead with over 2000 people in close attendance, without interference.

  44. Turning negatives into positives….

    Watching the latest round of protests across the country yesterday threw up some negatives as the attendees included the Corbyn brothers, Extinction Rebellion and BLM supporters.

    The positives, however, show people of all persuasions are united against Johnson while this country has been totally divided for more than a decade under the Tories.

    With a bit of luck and a fair wind, this could lead to Johnson’s downfall and the possibility of him being forced out of Number 10 this summer.

    Interesting times are developing.

    1. Many – if not most – of my youthful certainties have been turned on their heads during this past year.
      A ‘Conservative’ government following China down the path of repression.
      Russia, by comparison, appearing to be a relatively free country.
      Jeremy Corbyn standing for something with which I approve.

          2. You Bright Young Thing you.
            MB and I got engaged about that time; in a coffee bar (that really dates us!).

    2. Morning Honda 1234 -The Labour leader, according to BBC Radio 4 News, is preparing his party for an election in 2023. Our PM is planning for an early election in 2023 as reported a day or two ago. Johnson has lost the plot and needs to go soon, otherwise the Tories will be toast at the next election.

      1. He’ll have to go long before then as he can do more damage in a day than most PM’s can do in a year.

    3. There may have been BLM supporters there but there were very few blacks. I counted two from all the pics in the Daily Mail. One of them being photographed several times in different places.

      1. I noticed the same…

        But let’s be fair…many blacks have blended well with the indigenous and are joining in with the condemnation of Johnson in the right kinda way.

        All the BML supporters were white trash.

        1. I have also noticed a dearth of black and Asian faces when Her Majesty is out and about. Tens of thousands lining the streets and not a Hijab or Thawb in sight.

  45. Terrific BTL quote this morning …

    “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to
    our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed
    on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling
    our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States
    where men were free.”

    Ronald Reagan

  46. Terrific BTL quote this morning …

    “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to
    our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed
    on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling
    our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States
    where men were free.”

    Ronald Reagan

  47. When You’re Over 70, Who Gives A Damn?

    I was talking to a girl in the bar last night. She said, “If you lost a few pounds, had a shave and got your hair cut, you’d look all right.”
    I said, “If I did that, I’d be talking to your friends over there instead of you.”
    ***********
    I was telling a girl in the pub about my ability to guess what day a woman was born just by feeling her boobs.
    “Really” she said, “Go on then – try.”
    After about thirty seconds of fondling her nipples she began to lose patience and said. “Come on, what day was I born”?
    I said, “Yesterday.”
    ***********
    I got caught taking a pee in the local swimming pool today.
    The lifeguard shouted at me so loud, I nearly fell in.
    *************
    I went to the pub last night and saw a fat chick dancing on a table.
    I said, “Nice legs.”
    The girl giggled and said with a smile, “Do you really think so.”
    I said “Definitely! Most tables would have collapsed by now.”

  48. Good morning all and a Happy Easter everyone. 🍷🙏🍰

    Does anyone know how the public can respond to Michael Gove’s question about exploring the need for Covid certification? Can’t read his DT article as it’s behind the paywall.

    1. Rocking up to 4,000 comments; not many in sympathy with the snake.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/03/time-discussion-covid-certification/

      “It’s time to explore the need for Covid certification

      On behalf of the Government, I’d like to invite readers’ thoughts on the role that certification might play in our anti-Covid strategy

      Michael Gove3 April 2021 • 9:30pm

      As we face our second Easter under Covid restrictions and reflect on those we have lost to this malignant virus, we can take heart that better days are at hand. In the UK, 31 million of us have had our first vaccinations. Positive tests, patients admitted to hospital and, most importantly, deaths from Covid are all falling. But the virus is an implacable enemy against which we must always display discipline and vigilance. A third wave is now driving European Governments to embrace new lockdown measures. Around the world, rates of vaccination are much lower than the UK. While so many remain unvaccinated the virus continues to mutate into new variants which might undo all our good work.

      Vaccination is a hugely powerful tool, but it can never provide 100 per cent protection. That is why we need to look at every option potentially available to ensure the fastest, safest and most sustainable road back to normality.

      Which is where the idea of Covid certification could prove useful. In Israel, which is one of the few countries to have vaccinated a higher percentage of the population than we have in the UK, they have been using a “green pass” to get back to normal more quickly. This green pass system allows citizens who’ve been vaccinated, recently recovered from the virus or who’ve had a recent negative test to congregate in venues which had been closed for months such as theatres and nightclubs.

      We can expect more countries to adopt similar tools and, indeed, other countries to require our own citizens to provide proof of their Covid status to travel and visit. So it’s imperative that we explore, with friends and allies, how such certificates should work. There are already requirements for health certification to visit some parts of the world – so there are precedents – but we need to proceed with care.

      If we do accept that Covid certification is going to be required to travel abroad, the question then follows can these certificates help in other ways? If Israel can accelerate its citizens’ returns to nightclubs, football stadia and theatres with these certificates, might we?

      We know that the virus spreads through social contact, and crowded venues which thrive on people mingling – like nightclubs – are the highest risk locations for infection. But the risk of the virus being transmitted in any setting is lower if we reduce the chances of the people there being infectious, because they have received the vaccine, have immunity from recently having had the virus, or have recently had a reliable negative test.

      Given the hit the night-time economy and the entertainment sector has taken over the last year, anything which might help businesses re-open sooner must be worth considering. That is why the Government proposes to pilot the use of certification criteria in a range of venues this month. Events which would have been closed to the public until much later this year will now be able to admit spectators who’ve been vaccinated or tested.

      There are, of course, a host of practical and ethical questions we have to answer before we can consider a wider roll-out. For health reasons, some people cannot be vaccinated, so we have to ensure access to certification through testing or natural immunity as an alternative. The Israeli approach involves a smartphone app and the NHS app could serve a similar purpose here. But we must not exclude those who do not have a smartphone, so we’re exploring paper-based complements to the app. Privacy and data security must be watertight.

      These questions aren’t easy to resolve but I don’t think we can duck them. At the moment, businesses could set up their own private certification schemes and use them to restrict access. Nightclubs and other venues already police entry. Some may well want to embrace any tool available to signal to visitors they are at low risk of infection. So we are looking closely at how we can guarantee fairness.

      I believe there are some places you should never have to demonstrate your Covid status to access – essential services such as the supermarket, the chemist or the GP surgery. We need to ask where else it would be wrong to require certification. And also consider where certification could, fairly, allow us to relax social distancing faster.

      That is why I want Telegraph readers and others to keep sharing their views on the way ahead. Certification will be an inevitability for international travel. It could be a valuable aid to opening up our domestic economy and society faster. Unless the Government takes a lead we risk others establishing the rules of the road. So where should the lines be drawn to help protect freedoms, respect privacy, promote equality and get us back to normality? And how can we ensure our approach is proportionate and time-limited? Those are the questions we need to ask in the days ahead – and I know Telegraph readers will help us find common-sense answers.”

      Michael Gove is Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

      1. Anne thank you so much for posting the article which I will read again in a few minutes.

      2. Thanks Anne. What a load of self serving meaningless guff, reads as if it has been written by an intern or consultant.

      3. Morning Anne It is now 4100+ and ticking up quickly. He is certainly getting the readers’ opinions. Some of them lengthy and professional opinions. As you say above most against the idea and some quite hostile.

      4. “Michael Gove is Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster” and a certified feckwit!

      5. “While so many remain unvaccinated the virus continues to mutate into new variants which might undo all our good work.”
        He is saying that if we are vaccinated the virus will not mutate? Any proof of that? Vaccination does not stop the ‘flu virus mutating. One might even say that evolutionary theory demands that the ‘flu virus mutates in order to survive.

      6. BTL
        John Smith
        4 Apr 2021 11:34AM
        Mr Gove, you are a vile little snake and oddball. You fit right in with this wretched government.

        I will resist this with everything in my power and for rest of my life.

        I will eat your f*cking certificate or shred it if in digital form.

        Ta ta.

        1. Or,
          David Lewis
          4 Apr 2021 11:37AM
          You’re a vile fascist Gove who has got off on the power you’ve wielded this year. Grotesquely, your policies have got more and more draconian the more we’ve learned of this virus, and the more we’ve managed to control its lethality.

          You’ve manufactured consent through your relentless terror propaganda, and so through an unholy alliance of millennial milksops and puritanical Tories you’ve taken this country to a darker place than it’s been in a thousand years.

          I hate your guts. I hate Johnson’s guts. I think you two are genuinely two of the most appalling people ever to have held power in this country, and I’ve lived through a few Labour governments.

      7. Tell you what Gove, you have your virus certification papers and we will impose direct democracy.

        Odd, I assume you’ll say ‘it’s not a negotiation’ – then it’s not a democracy, is it?

        Or ‘It is for your own good, to prevent the spread of the virus and prevent deaths’ – ditto to my request.

        ‘It’s the right thing for the country’ – yes, so is my request.

        However, at the end of the day, they’ll force it on us. I genuinely didn’t think they’d be this stupid. Even the oaf Brown stopped using ‘spending’ and fiddled that to ‘investment’ – we spend, they invest. Then it’s ‘a company won’t pay their fair share’ – I don’t consider the tax rate to be fair. You just mean you can’t take what you want. The the minimum wage was changed to ‘living wage’ – merely a tax hike of market interfereing big state which would solely result in unemployment, but hey. It’s marketing, just like ‘build back better’ – a slogan of gibberish meaning ‘we’ll tax and tax and tax to recover government income – we don’t give a toss about the economy. Blair’s ‘education educationeducation’ – verless sentences with no meaning, but the scanned well with the dim.

        Hell, even the black looting mob got their heads around marketing.

      8. “…want Telegraph readers and others to keep sharing their views on the way ahead…”

        … so we can completely ignore tham, as we do anything that disagrees with the agenda.

        I ask, what’s the point when he says this sort of nonsense: “…Certification will be an inevitability for international travel….”

        The state has already decided what will happen, shut up, you don’t matter. Damn these bastards. There is no point voting. None whatsoever. Until Gove and this sort of nonsense can be permanently refused there is no alternative but disobedience.

    2. Rocking up to 4,000 comments; not many in sympathy with the snake.

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/03/time-discussion-covid-certification/

      “It’s time to explore the need for Covid certification

      On behalf of the Government, I’d like to invite readers’ thoughts on the role that certification might play in our anti-Covid strategy

      Michael Gove3 April 2021 • 9:30pm

      As we face our second Easter under Covid restrictions and reflect on those we have lost to this malignant virus, we can take heart that better days are at hand. In the UK, 31 million of us have had our first vaccinations. Positive tests, patients admitted to hospital and, most importantly, deaths from Covid are all falling. But the virus is an implacable enemy against which we must always display discipline and vigilance. A third wave is now driving European Governments to embrace new lockdown measures. Around the world, rates of vaccination are much lower than the UK. While so many remain unvaccinated the virus continues to mutate into new variants which might undo all our good work.

      Vaccination is a hugely powerful tool, but it can never provide 100 per cent protection. That is why we need to look at every option potentially available to ensure the fastest, safest and most sustainable road back to normality.

      Which is where the idea of Covid certification could prove useful. In Israel, which is one of the few countries to have vaccinated a higher percentage of the population than we have in the UK, they have been using a “green pass” to get back to normal more quickly. This green pass system allows citizens who’ve been vaccinated, recently recovered from the virus or who’ve had a recent negative test to congregate in venues which had been closed for months such as theatres and nightclubs.

      We can expect more countries to adopt similar tools and, indeed, other countries to require our own citizens to provide proof of their Covid status to travel and visit. So it’s imperative that we explore, with friends and allies, how such certificates should work. There are already requirements for health certification to visit some parts of the world – so there are precedents – but we need to proceed with care.

      If we do accept that Covid certification is going to be required to travel abroad, the question then follows can these certificates help in other ways? If Israel can accelerate its citizens’ returns to nightclubs, football stadia and theatres with these certificates, might we?

      We know that the virus spreads through social contact, and crowded venues which thrive on people mingling – like nightclubs – are the highest risk locations for infection. But the risk of the virus being transmitted in any setting is lower if we reduce the chances of the people there being infectious, because they have received the vaccine, have immunity from recently having had the virus, or have recently had a reliable negative test.

      Given the hit the night-time economy and the entertainment sector has taken over the last year, anything which might help businesses re-open sooner must be worth considering. That is why the Government proposes to pilot the use of certification criteria in a range of venues this month. Events which would have been closed to the public until much later this year will now be able to admit spectators who’ve been vaccinated or tested.

      There are, of course, a host of practical and ethical questions we have to answer before we can consider a wider roll-out. For health reasons, some people cannot be vaccinated, so we have to ensure access to certification through testing or natural immunity as an alternative. The Israeli approach involves a smartphone app and the NHS app could serve a similar purpose here. But we must not exclude those who do not have a smartphone, so we’re exploring paper-based complements to the app. Privacy and data security must be watertight.

      These questions aren’t easy to resolve but I don’t think we can duck them. At the moment, businesses could set up their own private certification schemes and use them to restrict access. Nightclubs and other venues already police entry. Some may well want to embrace any tool available to signal to visitors they are at low risk of infection. So we are looking closely at how we can guarantee fairness.

      I believe there are some places you should never have to demonstrate your Covid status to access – essential services such as the supermarket, the chemist or the GP surgery. We need to ask where else it would be wrong to require certification. And also consider where certification could, fairly, allow us to relax social distancing faster.

      That is why I want Telegraph readers and others to keep sharing their views on the way ahead. Certification will be an inevitability for international travel. It could be a valuable aid to opening up our domestic economy and society faster. Unless the Government takes a lead we risk others establishing the rules of the road. So where should the lines be drawn to help protect freedoms, respect privacy, promote equality and get us back to normality? And how can we ensure our approach is proportionate and time-limited? Those are the questions we need to ask in the days ahead – and I know Telegraph readers will help us find common-sense answers.”

      Michael Gove is Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster

    3. Happy Easter everyone.
      £39 per year subscription available if you log in. And some Nottlers know how to bypass the DT paywall.

  49. See where Johnson’s priorities lie?

    No flights to the Costas for the poor plebs…just long haul flights to expensive locations so his green friends can enjoy some fun and put more carbon into the atmosphere.

    Foreign holidays are set to start May 17! Boris is on course to approve traffic light system – with the US, Dubai, Malta and the Caribbean likely to get green light while much of Europe stays red
    Boris Johnson is set to give green light to traffic light system paving the way for holidays abroad from May
    Countries will be assessed by their vaccination programmes, rates of infection and ability to identify variants
    Only a handful of European countries expected to be given ‘green’ status but Maldives, Malta and Israel OK
    Travel to and from approved countries will require at least three Covid tests to be taken by each holidaymaker

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9433653/Boris-Johnson-course-green-light-trips-abroad-traffic-light-system.html

    1. Remind me again why, if we’ve had the wonderful vaccine, we need “at least” 3 tests, presumably at £150 a time?? Oh, yes – the vaccine doesn’t work!

    2. Spa in is where the pre-school children have to wear masks. And adults must use masks when outside.

  50. Church fury as Archbishop of York seeks £90k-a-year chief of staff while ‘dismantling’ parishes
    Former clergy members say the decision is a ‘slap in the face’ after The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell called for a ‘simpler, humbler’ structure

    The Archbishop of York hiring a £90,000-a-year chief of staff is a “slap in the face”, clergy have claimed, amid a time of financial crisis for the Church of England.

    The Most Rev Stephen Cottrell has been criticised for overseeing the “madness of a management-shaped church” amid allegations of a dismantling of the parish church structure.

    The job advert says his new chief of staff role, which will be based at Bishopthorpe Palace, just outside York, comes with a “competitive salary in the region of £90,000 per year” and will involve the amplification of mission priorities and liaising with colleagues at Lambeth Palace, the residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

    The adverts states: “You will be the Archbishop’s chief companion, support and critical friend for developing and refining this vision, aligning his work with the dioceses and central structures of the Church of England, ensuring his time is used effectively and strategically, and making it happen.”

    The advert has prompted a backlash from laypeople, volunteers serving and retired members of the clergy amid criticism that the £90,000 offer comes after the Archbishop of York previously said the Church needs to be “simpler” and “humbler”.

    The salary could pay for around seven house-for-duty clergy plus expenses.

    “What need for another brigadier when you’ve sacked all the infantry?”, one layperson said.

    “It’s a sign of the madness of the management-shaped church, pouring money into highly-paid administration while reducing the number of stipendiary clergy,” another added.

    The chief of staff description has also raised eyebrows among some who believe the role is something for “the Archbishop [to] pretend he’s in the West Wing”, while one clergyman questioned whether he could hire a “critical friend” for a lot less money.

    The criticism comes after The Telegraph reported in October that multiple clergy and laypeople had voiced fears over the “collapse” of the Church of England in rural communities.

    Months later, a leaked Church document suggested that the pandemic has provided an opportunity for “radical change” within the Church which could result in the loss of the parish church model in a bid to remain “financially sustainable”.

    The report, sent to the 42 diocesan secretaries this month, warned clergy to prepare for changes and cuts as officials prepare to overhaul the system, sparking fears that churches in rural towns and parishes will not survive.

    Responding to the £90,000-a-year chief of staff role, Will Pearson-Gee, Rector of Buckingham parish church, said he was “dismayed”.

    “We should be spending that money on a couple of clergy posts. Surely the Archbishop could get a ‘critical friend’ for a lot less than that. It’s like buying a pair of Gucci shoes – if you can get a perfectly good pair for £50, why spend £500?

    “It’s sending out all the wrong sort of messages at a time of huge financial pressure for the Church. We only survived because of the Government’s furlough scheme.”

    Neil McKittrick, a retired judge who served for a period as a member of the chapter at Peterborough Cathedral described the salary as “amazingly generous” at a time when “many parishes up and down the country are seriously short of money and unable to pay their parish share”.

    “If the Church of England has a future, it should simulate successful parishes by putting more time and money into them.”

    Other members of the clergy also took issue with the job description.

    Fr Peter Anthony, vicar of St Benet’s, Kentish Town, London, tweeted: “Am I the only one who finds the Archbishop of York’s description of his new £90,000 a year chief of staff sounds more like something from a second rate dating app? CofE is clearly now making appointments by Tinder. This document is an employment tribunal waiting to happen.”

    The Reverend Richard Mutter, rector of the Arden Valley Benefice, responded: “Yes, but “Chief of Staff” is so much more impressive and the Archbishop can pretend he’s in the West Wing.”

    Jonathan Morgan, a street pastor, added: The “Archbishop of York is paying £90,000 for essentially a PA, that also happens to be a friend”.

    However, York is not the only diocese attracting criticism for its spending. In Chelmsford, where Archbishop Cottrell was formerly bishop, a chief executive job was recently advertised at between £80,000 and £90,000-a-year.

    In comparison, a stipendiary priest receives an annual salary of around £20,000.

    In February, both Archbishops hit back at claims that they are trying to dismantle parish churches, claiming their aim is to “expand, reimagine and revitalise” the system.

    The Most Rev Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Archbishop Cottrell made the comments during an informal live-streamed meeting of the General Synod, the Church of England’s legislative body.

    The Archbishop of York later updated the Synod on the progress of “Vision and Strategy”, his blueprint for the Church’s future, saying: “Some of us will have come to this meeting troubled by stories in parts of the press implying that big decisions about clergy numbers, parishes, buildings and services have already been decided centrally but kept under wraps.

    “Much of this has been rather misleading. Archbishop Justin and I have replied in the public domain so as to set the record straight but also, more importantly, keep the work on track.

    “But, Synod, I want to say again this is a work in progress. It is my intention to be open and transparent about the full scope of the challenge and to find ways of working on this together.”

    It understood that the £90,000-a-year post will be paid for out of pre-existing agreed budgets from the Church Commissioners, which are not linked to diocesan budgets or parishes.

    A spokesman from the Office of Archbishop of York said: “The Chief of Staff is the most senior role within the Archbishop’s staff team and focuses on the missional opportunities and priorities of the Church of England and the Northern Province.

    “Relationships with officers of Her Majesty’s Government, local authorities, and other statutory and voluntary bodies are central to the role, alongside dioceses and cathedrals across the Northern Province and relevant education institutions, business and media organisations.

    “The role has been vacant since December and a competitive process is underway to fill this vacancy. Remuneration for the role has been benchmarked against similar senior roles within the charitable sector and has been agreed centrally.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/04/church-fury-archbishop-york-seeks-90k-a-year-chief-staff-dismantlingparishes/

    1. All that community engagement while the actual religion itself crumbles is rather indicative of a Church that would prefer to ignore God in favour of government influence – becoming little more than a glorified quango.

      No wonder attendance has fallen. Even the Church doesn’t believe in God any more.

      1. Morning Wibbling

        My thoughts exactly .

        “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21

    3. I presume that, “will involve the amplification of mission priorities” won’t have much to do with what those words would once have meant.

    4. The adverts states:

      You will be the Archbishop’s chief companion, support and critical friend for developing and refining this vision, aligning his work with the dioceses and central structures of the Church of England, ensuring his time is used effectively and strategically, and making it happen.

      Belief in God optional.

    5. Is Harry going to apply? The job description seems right up his street.

  51. Doreen Lofthouse, businesswoman who made Fisherman’s Friend lozenges a global bestseller – obituary
    Convincing the family pharmacy firm that cough sweets could sell outside Fleetwood, she went on to become one of Britain’s richest women

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    31 March 2021 • 4:38pm https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2021/03/31/doreen-lofthouse-businesswoman-made-fishermens-friend-lozenges/

    Doreen Lofthouse, who has died aged 91, made Fisherman’s Friend cough lozenges into worldwide bestsellers and became one of Britain’s richest women in the process. In a traditional Lancashire tale of rags to riches, she was the shop girl who married into a small family business and transformed its fortunes….

    2. I read that obit yesterday in the DT. It was one of the most readable obits for some time.

        1. I’m all for it. Imagine a world where the UK had not taken part in WW1 and WW2. Strong and powerful with a worldwide Commonwealth just outside the Reich controlling a peaceful Europe. Would we be in this mess? I think not.

      2. We had a ‘pub garden rehearsal’ last Thursday evening in a friend’s back garden. 8 of us blokes, shhhhh, cheese and biccies, and even a bit of barbeque curtesy of the butcher among us. I had my first Guinness since Christmas day, made a change from wine. We’re going to practise once more this coming week in preparation.

    2. Ah, it’s only so everyone heaves a sigh of relief and in doing so fails to notice that they’re touting the bloody things for theatres and festivals. Once they exist, they can easily be extended to pubs etc.

    3. Floats the idea of three clicks on the ratchet and then shows how “reasonable” he is by backing off to a single click.

  53. 331150+ up ticks,
    According to the 10 o’clock news, certs. are on, wedge just entered,first click audible from the overseers ratchet, on line for full in your face ( no smiling) covid passport.

    More personal ear notching & wrist tattoos are in the pipeline for near future use is my belief.

    These health & safety,steady as you go,don’t rock the voting pattern boat necessities can only be achieved by your continuing support

    2. Perhaps our churchwardens and clerics need to check the sanctity of church visitations by police without a warrant.

  58. “Dear Richard: ‘I was in a threesome – now I’m pregnant’ ” D Torygraph.

    I suspect one of them may have been a male.

    1. You have to wonder when not another country in the World has followed the NHS pattern for a health service.

    2. When i described my symptoms to my GP she asked me if i could come to the Surgery straight away.

      After examining me she got straight on the phone and had the vascular consultant paged.

      He told me to come in the following morning at 9 A.M.

      Even our Oncology Unit is open and treating people.

      I wonder if the politics of GP’s has anything to do with not being available.

  60. 331150+ up ticks,
    Flu patients in years gone by could very well have done with that.

    Ps,
    The well documented duplicit history of this tory(ino) party over the years will show a Q ship hospital concealing a barracks for incoming potential troops.

    The politico’s will swear it isn’t so via the koran in parliament.

    UK Emergency Hospital Decommissioned Without Treating a Single Coronavirus Patient

    https://media.breitbart.com/media/2021/04/GettyImages-1210613241-e1617469324599-640×480.jpg

    1. “The well documented duplicit history of this tory(ino) party …. “

      Clint Eastwood made a film about it too – it was called “Grand Tory(ino)”, as I recall.

      1. 331150+ up ticks,
        Afternoon DM,
        Probably explains his “The man with no name” stance, I mean who would knowingly want to associate themselves with……

    2. Setting up these emergency hospitals was the right thing to do. Faced with a crisis the way to deal with it is to assess the worst case scenario, then double it. Then go in big and heavy and fast.
      I f you sort things without reaching your limit, you have succeeded. Unused capacity is a safety margin.

      1. 331150+ up ticks,
        Afternoon HP,
        Agreed, either way the taxpayer whether it be scamsville or reality, it was going to cost,

  61. Rather a sensible article by Zoe Strimpel

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/have-turned-sex-intoa-dangerous-fraughtexperience-teenagers/

    “The sexual landscape after Metoo has been perilous enough for adults. Men are paranoid about consent while women are expected to be constantly on guard. But the climate facing young people is worse, and it’s particularly sad that a whole generation of girls (and, in the wake of the present scandal, boys) are going to head into adult life associating sex with fear, vigilance and sexual acrimony.”

    But what do you expect?

    The Wokists are determined to destroy everything – and especially the relations between men and women.

    1. I suppose, Richard, that there will soon be a necessity for a ‘sex passport’ signed by both consenting adults.

      2. I dont remember, obvs, but my parents have told me that I just started reading one night out of the blue. They were amazed because they hadn’t been trying to teach me as I was still too young. It gave them great hope for a genius child, (sadly it was all downhill from there).

        1. I don’t remember learning to read, but apparently I memorised all the names in the flower album of a well-known brand of tea cards. My uncle was convinced I was cheating by reading the names, but I couldn’t read at that stage.

      1. One wonders nowadays, how many homes have bookcases stuffed with books across a wide range of topics, Philip.

        1. There were no books in our house when i was growing up.

          I did pinch the Hymn book from morning assembly because it had all the Christmas Carols in it.

          I made up for it though by singing to the Nuns in the local convent.

          That and the fact that they gave me a quid for my trouble.

        2. Very few, I’d imagine. The same homes that don’t possess a dining table, probably.

    3. 30,000 extra during Covid-19, meaning a normal year of illiterate kids moving up to secondary education is 170,000. WTF are teachers doing in our schools? I know there are some bad parents out there but this is still a telling failure in our education system.

      1. At least they know all about Climate Change and how to fill in benefit forms…

      2. With that and the complaints about inactive GPs, it seems that hardly anyone over there can be arsed.

    4. There is no great mystery about children learning how to read – all you need is parents who want their children to be literate and are prepared to spend half an hour or so each day with them. Why have children if you are not prepared to do this?

      We read to our boys every night when they were little children. I read to one in English; Caroline read to the other in French. When we came to the end of a book we swapped boys so the one who had been read to in French was read to in English and vice-versa. After this we gave them ten minutes to look at books quietly by themselves.

      Both were completely fluent, bi-lingual readers at the age of four and had amassed a very good vocabulary in English and French.

      They are now in their 20’s and they still love their books.

      1. Same in my family, Rastus. I was bought an 8-volume encyclopædia [Waverley’s The Book of Knowledge] when I was just five. It has been my constant companion through life and my nose was never out of it as a child.

          1. 331150+ up ticks,
            Afternoon FA,
            I still got my well thumbed Hank Jansen
            somewhere.

        2. The World of The Children and Arthur Mee’s Children’s Encyclopedia were my companions for many years.

    5. They cant blame lockdown – all those months at home when parents could have read to and with their children…

    6. When we were children we could hardly believe it when we were told some tinkers/travellers/gypsies couldn’t read or write – old men and women included.

      1. One came to our door next to which we had a notice that we didn’t buy or sell at the door. When he asked if I’d like to buy something I pointed to the notice and asked, “can’t you read?”. I was somewhat gobsmacked when he said no!

    7. When we were children we could hardly believe it when we were told some tinkers/travellers/gypsies couldn’t read or write – old men and women included.

    9. Lord save us! I could read before I went to primary school. I still cannot do crosswords, though.

    11. Absolute illiteracy is one thing, the inability to use basic grammar seems ever more prevalent.

  63. Just in from shed painting – am reminded of the Forth Bridge….

    Nice and sunny and – almost – warm.

  64. The Royal Horticultural Society is warning people to be very careful to observe the covid regulations at their gardens.

    They want to avoid an outbreak of mass wysteria.

    I’ll get me dibber.

      1. Even better they seized the car from the “unnamed” driver for lack of MOT and insurance. I expect they think they were fleeced.

    3. When questioned, the sheep said that his name was John Smith and that he was just an average Brit, in 2021

    4. When we had a pet sheep, I used to shove him into my VW Polo and cart him to a nearby farm for shearing.
      The look on people’s faces were a hoot.

  66. Is Putin poised to unleash secret files on wartime Windsors to ‘bring down Royal Family’?. 4 April 2021.

    VLADIMIR Putin may hold secret files on the wartime generation of the Windsors which could be used to blackmail the Royal Family and “bring down the dynasty”, a documentary will claim.

    Russian journalist Gennady Sokolov, thought to have close ties with the Kremlin, said in a 2014 interview shown in the programme: “If the letters discovered by Blunt were published in due time, it would lead to a huge scandal, the result of which could be the fall of the dynasty.”

    These Express “Vlad Ate My Hamster” stories get barmier by the day!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1418805/Royal-family-secret-files-vladimir-putin-queen-Elizabeth-and-the-spy-in-the-palace

    2. Does it have to be true? The list of daily stupidities grows ever-faster, the lies, half-truths and spin increases daily.
      Where is it all leading? And – cui bono? Find that, and you’ll have a clue as to whether, and by whom, it is being managed. But – don’t forget to watch out for the opportunists! some party might be seizing the day as events unfold.

      1. Does it have to be true?.

        Afternoon Oberst. No of course not!. The plethora of false claims and mendacious reports all add to the sense of insecurity regardless. It leads eventually to a loss of faith in anything. Even the Truth! Nottl due to the efforts of its contributors probably has more of the latter than all the MSM combined!

        1. Indeed, and it’s working well. Aided by useful, and likely unwitting, idiots in the msm.
          So – what next? Where does it lead – and why?
          I’d say a power grab, unlikely to be too military or all this preparation would be unnecessary, but by whom?

          1. Apart from the disinformation propagated by Intelligence Organisations and Political Influence groups (mostly American) a great deal of what we see (Gay rights, BLM, Feminism etc.) is self perpetuating. Behind all this is what I call the Borg, it acts with and through all these agencies and is almost Satanic in its nature and ambitions since it seeks to dominate totally.

          2. It’s well put together, I must say. A cultural assault on so many fronts – religious, behavioural, artistic, political, cultural. It’s aimed at the Anglosphere mostly, Western countries, and as it’s taken years to get going properly, one needs to look at those who like to play the long game and seek the downfall of the West.

          3. I of course have my own idea as to who is responsible but say nothing since I arrived at it by Negative Reasoning and have no proof whatsoever. The Borg is certainly not Oriental or Islamic in origin and its ambition of Western, particularly European Annihilation suggests Hatred and Revenge as much as the Lust for Power!

          4. Satanic? You bet! The Adversary is stronger than he has been for centuries.

          5. Afternoon Horace. Yes, such is its malevolent nature that I do often wonder if it is of this world!

    3. Don’t really see what the secret files can reveal. That Edward VIII sympathised with Hitler and his regeneration of Germany during the 1930s – as did many of the elite of the time? We already knew that. Who cares?

      Of course, Edward VIII was thick as a docker’s sandwich, like most of the Hanoverians. Thankfully, our present Queen escaped the family handicap – largely due to the genes she inherited from her Scottish mother – but, unfortunately, the ‘Hanover-syndrome’ appears to be resurrected in Prince Charles and Prince Harry.

      Seems to me, we would have been in better position if we had stuck with the Royal House of Stuart. We did try to warn you in 1745 but you wouldn’t listen. Maybe it’s not too late …. God save Francis II, our King over the water!

      1. Afternoon Duncan. They can’t (assuming they exist) reveal anything that is not already known. Aside from Edward VIII there was a large band of mostly aristocratic Quislings waiting to collaborate with Hitler’s Germany!

      2. Ach, Duncan! Have ye no heard the Big Yin’s pisstake on Bonnie Prince Charlie? He thought the “wee, poncified Italian dwarf” was a joke.

          1. I’m a romantic at heart, me. I’m thinking Romeo and Juliet except they haven’t killed themselves yet.

            Still, there is still time.

      4. But they were Papes.
        It took a lot of searching to find Protestant descendants of The Winter Queen.

    1. So that’s what they mean when they talk about being “black pilled” – a term popular in modern parlance – the meaning of which I’d never really grasped until now.
      ;¬)

  71. Rev Richard Coles: ‘I went from living hand-to-mouth to flying Concorde’ D Toadygraf
    The Rev Richard Coles tells how his 1980s pop stardom set him up for life .

    A regular back- passager.

    1. I have never seen his attraction. If I were one of his parishioners, I’d wonder why he was always on the radio and telly and NOT ministering to his, er, parish.

  73. A video of the local wood with birdsong taken this morning on my ten minute walk:

    Trying to compress file for upload.

          4. Ahhh! The Goon Show! Round the Horne! Church Bells ringing. Roast Beef Sunday Dinner! What it was to be Young and English!

          6. Life with the Lyons, Ben Lyons and Bebe Daniels
            Take it from here, Jimmy Edwards, June Whitfield, Kathleen Harrison.

    2. Good for him, Bill and your Sis-in-law.

      A M³ cost us in Spain, 75€ but that was 4 years ago so I guess £100 is good value. I’ll let you know what our next M³ will cost when ordered in June/July.

      1. We paid €80 in France in October 2018. And as the wood came from trees in local forests – I thought that the Essex bloke’s price was fair.

        1. Does your S-i-L take the wood in herself?
          If so, I would take a closer look at the stacking, an unfortunate choice of log might topple others onto her shins/feet.

          1. I thought it looked a bit messy too. One of those dropping on her foot would not be good wood.

          2. As a regular stacker of home cut logs and particularly those that are oddly shaped, as some of those are, I’m always very wary about how easily they can overbalance.

          3. If you want a good read, it’s all here: Cutting, drying, splitting, stacking.
            https://www.bookdepository.com/Norwegian-Wood-Lars-Mytting/9780857052551?redirected=true&utm_medium=Google&utm_campaign=Base1&utm_source=NO&utm_content=Norwegian-Wood&selectCurrency=NOK&w=AF7LAU9SJTPRBDA8VRHS&pdg=pla-293946777986:cmp-8702387657:adg-93158610611:crv-408426388788:pos-:dev-c&gclid=CjwKCAjwx6WDBhBQEiwA_dP8rdc-pypjE2QsYbKPY6vZQdTV-CcETiYYHV6Xm9bZiVg9nG_9PISp8RoCxoYQAvD_BwE

          13. A highly skilled job, similar in some ways to old fashioned hedge-laying in that “eye” matters nearly as much as balance and shape.

          1. She could lose 10 stone and have the tats removed but then who would notice her?

            Not me or me or me.

          1. Yo, Mr Effort.

            I don’t do ‘gender’, I’m not a noun. I only do sex.

            And as the bitch ain’t no boar! I case my rest. :•)

          1. The most difficult places in the World to visit. The MR used to take 13 year olds to the Somme and/or Flanders. The list of Old Boys killed was always read out. Once, it fell to me. I had the greatest difficulty with saying the FOUR Bryant brothers…

          2. Yes, they are very hard. Just so many neat while headstones in line after line after line… Four brothers, that must have been a difficult one to deliver to Mr & Mrs Bryant.

          3. My grandmother lost two brothers in the FWW. I found one of their names on the Menin Gate on my first visit ther.

            My second visit was with the Batallion on a study tour. It wasn’t long after we had returned from Afghanistan and we were guests of honour at the evening ceremony. We marched through the gate, wearing our medals, to cheers and applause from the Belgians and all the tourists there. It was incredibly moving.

          1. I would be fairly willing to bet that that photo is from Arlington.
            Arlington uses a similar standard headstone.

            Not everywhere, because the site is fairly old, but having visited a few times I’m reasonably confident that the picture is there, but not one of the more usual views.

  79. Bugger the telephones in South Wales!
    Still can’t get through to Mother, all the same symptoms as the last time – ringing tone, but Call Guardian doesn’t pick up, indicating tat the ring doesn’t get to the house but does to the exchange. So, no Easter call to Mother. It could be a fault with the line, that the phone didn’t get put back on it’s holder for a recharge, who knows? A week ago I pinged the carers to ask if they could check, but no answer or reply, just repinged, lets see what happens (I hoped they’d do it quickly, rather than get enmeshed in a pile of Bank Holidays, where even volunteers should get time off for a rest).
    Be easier if I had a basket of pigeons…

    1. Wouldn’t your friend who lives in Dorset help by trying to ring your mother / or the help line etc or even by sending an ambulance car out to investigate , just to check she is alright.

      1. A good idea, Belle, but the calling is the problem. It isn’t ringing at the handset, just the exchange. We’ve had these problems before, last time due to someone digging a hole through the lines… I’ll see what response from the carers before doing owt else.

        1. Phone up her nearest Church. I know they are busy but they will help if they can.

          I did just that for a Nottler. She was most surprised to say the least !

  81. Had a lovely roast beef here today with all the family, lovely warm sunshine outside, is it really supposed to snow tomorrow?

    1. Might do but i no longer trust weather reports. Probably worried about people going out and enjoying themselves on a Bank Holiday.

      A plague of locusts next weekend i expect.

          2. My thoughts, and reason, exactly.

            Big question – can anyone tell me what are the expected after-effects of ‘Vaccine Imunisation’?

            Thought not.

  83. Nationalists on course to win independence ‘super-majority’ in Holyrood election, poll finds
    A poll has found three separatist parties would together win 79 out of the Scottish Parliament’s 129 seats, with the Alba Party getting six.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/04/04/nationalists-course-win-independence-super-majority-holyrood/

    A BTL comment:

    After the British people voted in a referendum to leave the European Union Britain had to pay £37 billion to leave it.

    How much should Scotland have to pay England to leave the Union of the United Kingdom (aka the UK)?

    Nicola Sturgeon loves the EU way of doing things so she will doubtless be happy to pay a similar sum to the UK in severance money?

  84. Cambridge, the underdogs, win by 3/4 of a length. Nifty coxing pushing the Oxford boat into the reed beds at the side of the Gt Ouse.

      2. I believe you can; it comes from cutting logs in a saw pit. The under dog was the chap in the pit pulling the saw down while the over dog (presumably) was the chap on top pulling it up.
        Edit; I’ve just remembered that the chap pulling on top was the top dog! A duh! moment.

    2. Hmmm can’t white people be muslim?
      Can’t a black person show a cartoon.
      I thought these people were supposed to be wise

      1. 331150+ up ticks,
        Evening B3,
        One thing for sure they are a lot wiser than many of our submissive latch lifters, go to the root of the problem well past time in asking oneself “who let them in” who went into french waters to collect them,as reported of late?
        Why is the DOVER campaign still operating ?
        What else is on the parliamentary menu besides halal nosh ?

    3. These people have just learned the lingo that’s all! Me victim! You oppressor!

      1. 331150+ up ticks,
        Evening AS,
        They have been allowed to practise it unhindered long enough.
        The thing I cannot get my head round is they, and their mounting numbers, have been and are continuing to be supported via the polling booth, why.

    2. Yo Plum

      I could have so much fun on my own….

      There is a word for that…………

    3. Yo Plum

      I could have so much fun on my own….

      There is a word for that…………

  88. So, if I understand the incomprehensible, the MR may have up to four people join us in our garden – so long as we are all 6 feet apart. They can’t come indoors; they can’t stay the night. And FIVE would mean the end of the World.

    But I can pop along to Morrisons (tomorrow) and join several hundred people INDOORS at the same time.

    Funny old world.

    And on that note, I’ll leave you to ponder. Te MR abstains from alcohol for Lent- so has opened a bottle of Crémant which I shall look forward to sampling.

    Looks like very cold and some rain tomorrow. As well that I did the important bits of those effing sheds….

    A demain

    2. Our health unit thought that they had a solution to the overcrowding we get from townies. Hotels, B&Bs and restaurants can only serve people from the local area. IDs to be checked and a record kept of all customers.

      It is raising a fortune in fines from the Airbnb owners who ignored the rules.

        1. Not sure that we have any, but I hope we do. I like the combination of fatty lamb and acidic mint.

          2. Only on saddle of lamb, Plum and, if you can afford Saddle of Lamb, will you marry me?

            I’ll bring redcurrant jelly.

    2. Fish Finger Rolls* and oven cooked chips

      *The Rolls come from out local bakery and are cowing lush

      2. Just finished ‘afters’

        Two meringue nests, crushed onto a bed Double Cream, topped with bite size strawberries and more cream added

        (and Connie Onnie for me)

        Cowing Lushesterer

    5. We had steak chips and salad about half an hour ago .

      Moh played golf today , son was out for a ride on his motor bike and I visited a friend .. a 96 year old lady .. who is as bright as a button .

      She showed me around her lovely spring garden , her greenhouse was alive with sprouting seedlings , tomatoes and runner beans , carrots , beetroot . I hope this cold snap doesn’t ruin everything .

      The dogs had a good walk/ run around afterwards in the countryside .. yes and the roads were very busy .

      I am glad you enjoyed your pie Plum, nice safe cosy option .

  91. What a MotoGP race i have just seen from Qatar.
    5.7 secs between 1st and 10th
    8.9 secs between 1st and 15th.

    1. Is that down to the cars, or the drivers?

      As long as Louise Hamilton did not win, all is OK

          15. Strange, like the weight of babies at birth and motor sport speeds, the Imperial system is used

            But for Covid,we have to suffer Metric, ie Two Metres, which in UK are still an option, not the rule of for dimensional measurement

          16. I think I read somewhere that for distances to be legal in the U.K. they must be in miles, yards, feet and inches.

            Most of government, industry and commerce use metric units, but imperial units are officially used to specify journey distances, vehicle speeds and the sizes of returnable milk containers, beer and cider glasses (though fresh milk is often still sold in multiples of pints, with the metric equivalent also marked). Imperial units are also often used to describe body measurements and vehicle fuel economy. In schools metric units are taught and used as the norm. Imperial units that remain in common usage in the UK are also taught.[a]

          17. Volume and weight are metric, by law, as a market trader in Sunderland found out, when he wa imprisoned for selling bananas by the pound (lb)

            Distance is still Imperial, ie yards, feet and inches.

            The Americans require that imported goods are described in the volume, weight and size in the measurements that they use.

            They will not accept metric as the prime Unit

            The EU ‘graciously allowed us to keep yds, ft and inches, so that it could be legally used on exports to the US by all EUSSR countries

          22. Both systems are used in motor sports but i used imperial because this is a predominantly UK forum.
            In daily life i use metric all the time.

          23. My top speed on my Kwaka is 55 and that’s down hill with the wind behind me.

  92. TV this evening……’Barabbas’ recorded earlier.
    Anthony Quin and Jack Palance.

    I don’t know about you but I’m a Barabbas fan.

    Simplifies all you need to know about religion….

      1. If that had been the USA, GB, NZ or Oz I suspect he would have been tasered and hauled out, and the church cleared.

        {:-((

      2. Superb! Kudos!
        Perhaps a bit risque calling them nasties, that kind of thing gets you tasered, but excellent! Top bloke!

    2. The police have devised a way, to get the general population to hate them

      Well done the police, may you all fall on hard times and starve to death

  97. The Americans hope to colonise Mars. The Chinese wish to colonise the far side of the Moon. Bezos wishes to set up a command and control hub on the near side of the Moon.

    The problem for the Americans is that the moon is in the way.

    This is as good a conspiracy theory as any others devised so far, and all of those have proven to be true viz. fake pandemic, promotion of projects fear and dodgy potentially harmful vaccines, now coercion to make people take vaccines in exchange for a limited lifting of people control by way of vaccine passports.

    We live in incredible times!

    1. interesting discusions going over here regarding vaccine passports.
      Down in Florida DeSantis has banned the very idea, many republican states are also leery about them.
      Biden? Who cares.
      Then up in Canada our despised leader is hot to trot on introducing them but talks about technical issues that will delay their introduction. He is right for once – he has screwed up vaccine procurement so badly that the few people with two vaccinations never leave their nursing homes!

      1. I would be grateful that the son of gangster Trudeau is so incompetent. The last thing you need are poisonous injections of fake vaccines designed to compromise your immune system.

    2. Wait until they’re ensconced and then divert an asteroid (large, type bang) and steer it into the moon – we get rid of both the Chinese and Ar5ebook at the same time.

      Win-win but watch out for a lack of tides – and falling debris.

  98. Evening, all and Happy Easter. It’s been a beautiful day. After church I went for a bike ride (I have become totally unfit over lockdown and need to start exercising again) and then worked in the garden. After my exertions I lay on the chaise longue and fell asleep with a glass of red wine (or two). I shall be tanned tomorrow, but at the moment, I resemble a lobster 🙂

    1. sounds like a good way to while away an afternoon.

      I have just finished servicing my bike, I felt exhausted after pumping up the tyres. Now of course the weather is scheduled to turn nasty for a few weeks so the first ride will be delayed.

      1. I’m afraid I paid to have mine serviced (new inner tube, handlebars tightened and brakes checked). It hadn’t been used for a good twenty years! The last time I’d cycled regularly I was getting fit for my trek across the Gobi. They say you never forget how to ride a bike, which is true, but your muscles don’t always cope! It’s also got a very fancy Shimano gear system with about 24 different settings. After 20 years I’ve forgotten how that works!

    2. In the heat of 1976 I had a few pints of Young’s Special and dozed off in the sun on a parched brown Clapham Common. I awoke the colour of lobster and had to persuade a lady flat mate to apply CaIamine lotion from my sports bag to most of my body. I smelled like the changing rooms for a while.

      1. Oddly enough in July 1976 at the shore end of the Jet d’eau in Geneva I was awakened, after some glasses of Fendant, by a shout of, “Tu brûle!”

      2. You must have been in The Windmill, a fine establishment as I recall. Sadly the Wandsworth brewed Young’s Special that you enjoyed is no longer. Something called ‘Young’s Special’ is still available, renamed as London Special for some reason but is a shabby impersonation of the real thing, which I remember fondly. I’m not sure whether it’s brewed in Bedford or Burton, but either way it doesn’t compare with the Wandsworth product. In those days I used to lunch regularly in The Bull at Barnes and lunch would include a couple of pints of ‘Special’. Those were the days…..

      3. I also got the lobster treatment in 1976 on Hunstanton beach. I went into a chemist’s to by some of that ‘magic spray’ that football coaches use to take the pain away.

        1. Good morning Grizz
          Isn’t Hunstanton the beach on the east cost that faces west?

      4. May 1976 – I remember it well: Loch Lomond had exposed, parched beaches with cracked mud !

        That must have been the start of Global Cooling …

      5. The worst, and most painful, I did was to fall asleep in a cloud-covered ‘Terror Club’ in Singapore.

        I didn’t notice anything when I woke up but I sort of ‘erupted’ into a painful lobster in bed in the Holiday Inn, just off Orchard Road.

        In all fairness, the staff were great and even at 3 o’clock in the morning they brought me some local ointment and rubbed it in.

        Funnily enough I also stayed at a Holiday Inn in Hawaii and the staff were terrible – lazy, careless and sloppy service.

    3. Evening, Conway!

      I spent the afternoon cycling to a walking destination, complete with charged camera, thinking of blue skies, waterbirds, and reflections (a recurring theme of mine in photography). Sadly, it was blowing such a gale when I got there that every watery surface was a massive wave, and all the birds had buggered off or hidden.

      Cycling back was knackering, as I was against the gale at every point.

      Hello from a fellow lobster, given all that fresh air and a glass of wine (or two!) at this end too
      🙂 ).

      1. It seems that lots of us have dusted off our cycles, but it sounds as though you are a more regular cyclist than I am. I don’t own any lycra kit, so I shan’t be a lycra lout 🙂

        1. Lived and worked in Germany for eight years without a car, and grew to love my bike. Hadn’t cycled since college, and the first time I did I got overtaken by a bloke in a wheelchair, as I’d forgotten how gears worked and was stuck in third . . .

          Lycra and I do not exist in the same universe.

          Oh, except for a nice memory. In Italy, in a cafe for breakfast, on a cycling route. Bloke came in, drank his espresso, and was about to leave, when my curiosity got the better of me and I asked why he had socks on over his shoes.

          Rather offended, he explained that his shoes didn’t match the rest of his kit, so what else was he meant to do?

          Peak Italian!

  100. Sod it! I’m awake again!!
    An interesting BTL comment on the Race Report that has upset so many of the Race Baiters:-

    Colin Harrow
    5 Apr 2021 12:50AM
    Having now had time to read some of the details of The Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities report on racism in the UK there’s one set of statistics that stand out like a beacon.

    They alone help justify the report’s conclusion that racism, institutionalised, systemic or otherwise, plays little if any part in the employment and educational disadvantages suffered by the black Caribbean heritage community, and to a slightly lesser extent those of African heritage.

    They also show why, at the other end of the achievement scale, children of another ethnic minority, those of Indian heritage, who if racism is as “institutionalised” in the UK as it’s said to be would no doubt be subject to it, actually have generally higher educational and salary levels than many of the white population.

    These statistics, unsurprisingly relate to children living in single parent families which is one of the major factors in their involvement in violent crime, particularly gang related, when there’s no father figure to provide a male role model to counter the influence of older gang members.

    The statistics show that although 15% of all families in the UK are single parent ones a massive 63% of black Caribbean heritage children and 43% of black African children grow up in one parent households. In contrast the figure for Indian children is just 6%. Some difference!

    This is a crucial factor in so many areas related to equality of achievement and it has nothing whatsoever to do with racism but appears to be entirely cultural. Even the most obsessed anti-racist would struggle to blame “white privilege” or any kind of racism for whatever motivates Caribbean heritage men, maybe a minority but from the figures it would appear to be a significant one, to impregnate so many of their womenfolk then just move on.

    Although anyone who looks at the lyrics of rap and drill music with their references to woman by names that cannot be repeated here, might get some idea.

    I’ve made this point about the “baby mother” culture in the black community in previous posts and have now discovered that even Yasmin Alibhai-Brown last year described it in The Guardian of all places as young black men wearing the number of women they’ve impregnated “as a badge of honour.”

    But even I was truly shocked by the report’s figures which make it’s conclusion that in many areas social and cultural factors have a greater effect on disadvantaging members of the black community than racism, entirely credible, believable and correct.

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