Wednesday 14 April: The public will want to contribute towards a royal yacht named after the Duke of Edinburgh

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/2021/04/13/letters-public-will-want-contribute-towards-royal-yacht-named/

527 thoughts on “Wednesday 14 April: The public will want to contribute towards a royal yacht named after the Duke of Edinburgh”

  1. Where Do Pets Come From
    A newly discovered chapter in the Book of Genesis has provided the answer to “Where do pets come from?”

    Adam said, “Lord, when I was in the garden, you walked with me every day. Now I do not see you anymore. I am lonesome here and it is difficult for me to remember how much you love me.”

    And God said, “No problem! I will create a companion for you that will be with you forever and who will be a reflection of my love for you, so that you will love me even when you cannot see me.

    Regardless of how selfish or childish or unlovable you may be, this new companion will accept you as you are and will love you as I do, in spite of yourself.”

    And God created a new animal to be a companion for Adam. And it was a good animal. And God was pleased. And the new animal was pleased to be with Adam and he wagged his tail.

    And Adam said, “Lord, I have already named all the animals in the Kingdom and I cannot think of a name for this new animal.”

    And God said “No problem! Because I have created this new animal to be a reflection of my love for you, his name will be a reflection of my own name, and you will call him DOG.”

    And Dog lived with Adam and was a companion to him and loved him. And Adam was comforted. And God was pleased. And Dog was content and wagged his tail.

    After a while, it came to pass that Adam’s guardian angel came to the Lord and said, “Lord, Adam has become filled with pride. He struts and preens like a peacock and he believes he is worthy of adoration. Dog has indeed taught him that he is loved, but perhaps too well.”

    And the Lord said, “No problem! I will create for him a companion who will be with him forever and who will see him as he is.

    The companion will remind him of his limitations, so he will know that he is not always worthy of adoration.”

    And God created CAT to be a companion to Adam.

    And Cat would not obey Adam.

    And when Adam gazed into Cat’s eyes, he was reminded that he was not the Supreme Being. And Adam learned humility. And God was pleased. And Adam was greatly improved. And Dog was happy.

    And Cat didn’t give a shit one way or the other.

  2. Biden calls Putin to offer meeting on Ukraine military build-up. 14 April 2021

    Joe Biden last night proposed a summit in a third country with Vladimir Putin as he ratcheted up pressure on the Russian president over Ukraine and called on the Kremlin to “de-escalate tensions.”

    Amid growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia, Mr Biden called Mr Putin for their second phone conversation since taking office.

    Morning everyone. He “ratcheted up” the pressure did he? Lol! Who did the calling? Made the offers? Sounds to me more like Joe filled his incontinence pants and then whistled Dixie down the phone!

    This apology for a US president tried to overawe the Russians with a threat on the Donbass by Ukraine and they responded by showing that they were prepared to go to war (still might) with anyone. Cue Joe’s ignominious collapse!

    That Vlad! What a man! Led such; once were we!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/nato-chief-throws-weight-behind-ukraine-moscow-continues-ratchet/

      1. Sorry, Annie, you’ve baffled me. (Good morning, btw.) Are you suggesting that Sleepy Joe is now regressing to childhood?

    2. Demented Joe was trying to order some flowers for his wife. Am sure VVP gave it as much concentration as Demented Joe putting him on answerphone

      1. Sorry, AWK, you have baffled me. (Good morning, btw.) Are those two/three capital letters pronounced “Double You Pee” or “Vee Vee Pee” and, either way, what on earth do the letters stand for?!?!? “Vlad’s Vice President” or “Westminster Protocol”?

      2. Sorry, AWK, you have baffled me. (Good morning, btw.) Are those two/three capital letters pronounced “Double You Pee” or “Vee Vee Pee” and, either way, what on earth do the letters stand for?!?!? “Vlad’s Vice President” or “Westminster Protocol”?

  3. Good morning, all. Sunny. No frost.

    Question. Spanish ‘flu. It came – it went. “Billions” died (of course). But it didn’t go on and bleeding on, did it?

    1. Back when the Spanish flu was about there was no PCR test to be abused by politicians for their own ends.

    1. Hmm, licensee, Johnston, yours is one record that will be most carefully looked at and, after the pasting your jobsworth Councillors get at the local elections, it will be your turn for ousting.

    3. If I was a member of the NT I would leave; sadly I realised how woke they were a while ago so I can’t flounce off now!

    4. ‘Morning, Citroen, one wonders why the Charity Commission doesn’t investigate this ‘charity’ straying into politics – and not for the first time, either.

    5. Yo cv

      Here is an novel idea

      BLM, Vegan and LGBTQWERT Activists to forced to undergo diversity training

    6. Yo cv

      Here is an novel idea

      BLM, Vegan and LGBTQWERT Activists to forced to undergo diversity training

    7. They just cannot help themselves.
      Remember the meaning of the word ‘volunteer’.

        1. Were I an NT Volunteer I would make a point of attending such a session simply to act as a point of focus to rally “The Awkward Squad”.

          1. Alf has to attend one of these courses when working at Woking Magistrates’ Court. Over 10 years ago. It didn’t go well. For those running the course I mean! He had some fun with the two running the course.

    9. BTL Comment which may not last long:-

      Robert Spowart
      14 Apr 2021 8:15AM
      No comments on the National Trust brainwashing its volunteers I see, “Exclusive: National Trust forcing volunteers to undergo diversity training on return after lockdown”

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/exclusive-national-trust-forcing-volunteers-undergo-diversity/

      One only hopes that, before resigning en masse, enough of the volunteers will attend such training sessions and verbally tear the indoctrinator to shreads.

  7. Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show. 14 April 2021.

    Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths are people who are not dying from the disease, new official figures show, as the Government was urged to move faster with the roadmap in the light of increasingly positive data.

    The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 23 per cent of coronavirus deaths registered are now people who have died “with” the virus rather than “from” an infection.

    Wow! Just imagine that! I would never have guessed in a million years!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/quarter-covid-deaths-not-caused-virus/

          2. I find it very strange that the ONS report what is actually happening. Probably because they don’t have a Minister to guide them.

    4. Morning, Araminta.

      …who have died “with” the virus rather than “from” an infection.

      In the light of influenza dying, so to speak, this year, I am sceptical about the use of the definite article in the statement above rather than the indefinite article.

        1. Ah, that’s why I run Win 10 with a Win 7 shell and don’t allow updates for Win 10 because they’ve proven to be flakey and screw up things you’ve set for your convenience.

          1. ltd choice here, but W10 Pro. I just spent 20 mins removing Microsoft Edge for the umpteenth time. I always pause updates especially when it’s flagged as “preview”. Still, Edge removed

          2. My bête noir is ‘OneDrive’ that I neither use nor want but no matter how many times I delete it, back it comes.

          3. similar here, I never use it. Usual ways of trying to force what people don’t want. That got removed as well as Edge, til the next update

    1. Why are the audience wearing masks? They’re no guard against a virus, let alone a bullet.

      1. ‘Morning, Anne, that looks like the local medic, just waiting for the arsehole to kill himself, so that he may be ‘farmed’ for transplants.

        Just speculating, you know.

        1. don’t forget the old geezer seated with walking stick, a watch the size of a hubcap, setting the desert trend wearing pop socks

        2. Do Saudi widows scoop the pool after their husbands’ deaths? Even allowing for inheriting only a quarter.

  11. It would be a terrible mistake to admit Ukraine to Nato. 14 April 2021.

    Upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity in the face of Russian aggression is an important principle, especially when China is throwing its weight around in the South China Sea and menacing Taiwan.

    By the same token, however, it is important that Nato leaders do not allow their commitment to defending international law to result in granting membership to yet another country with a dubious democratic record.

    They are singing a different song here! Look at the slagging off of Ukraine! One of the founding principles of NATO is that no country that is presently in dispute can join so we must look for another reason for this article. It looks (we will have to keep our eyes open for others) as though this is a public but discreet affirmation of Biden’s surrender, probably because Putin has not yet agreed (*this has just been confirmed) to the summit and is waiting to see whether the offer is genuine. The real understanding here is that no further attempt is to be made for the organisation to close up to Russia’s borders or there will be war!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/14/would-terrible-mistake-admit-ukraine-nato/

      1. Five Boys say Snickers to you, after your all night Marathon to take the piccie

    3. I have only ever seen it like that when I was in Majorca one October, it never appears in South London

  14. SIR – I heartily agree with Charles Moore (Comment, April 13) that we should have a new royal yacht. What better way to celebrate the wonderful life of the Duke of Edinburgh?

    It would be a fitting tribute to his dedication to our Queen and country. He sacrificed what would undoubtedly have been a distinguished career in the Royal Navy.

    Name the ship the Duke of Edinburgh.

    A fund for members of the public to contribute to costs would allow us some expression of thanks for his life of service.

    Kathleen Bass
    Norwich

    SIR – A more sensible memorial for the Duke of Edinburgh than a soon-neglected statue or not very useful royal yacht might be to name a new class of Royal Navy ships after him – perhaps the (still rather mysterious) Type 32 frigates.

    A man who once grumbled that he could not give his name to his own children might have liked the spectacle of (say) HMS Duke of Edinburgh, HMS Philip, HMS Mountbatten, HMS Matapan and HMS Sicily at sea, doing a job of work for the Navy and the nation.

    Nicholas Shrimpton
    Charlbury, Oxfordshire

    SIR – The Government’s recent integrated review outlined plans to build a multi-role ocean surveillance ship for the Royal Navy. How appropriate it would be if such a ship were to be named HMS Duke of Edinburgh.

    The only previous ship of that name, a cruiser (1904-20), was named after Admiral of the Fleet HRH Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, the second son of Queen Victoria.

    Lieutenant Colonel J R A Ward (retd)
    London E12

    SIR – British monarchy and constitutional stability owe an immense debt to the Duke of Edinburgh. In his childhood, he experienced the impoverished consequences of the failure of the major continental monarchies, of which he was a marginal figure.

    At Salem he saw the consequences of reaction leading to fascism. He saw first hand the results if monarchies fail to adapt to the contemporary world.

    On becoming the consort of our own Sovereign he saw it as his duty and destiny to guide the British monarchy quietly into the modern world. In the process, he strengthened the monarchy and our democratic stability – and we owe him a debt far greater than we may realise.

    Jacques Arnold
    West Malling, Kent

    SIR – According to the Duke’s wishes, there is no wet-weather programme for his funeral.

    Fifty years ago, as a junior RAF officer, I was nominated as umbrella-holder for him during the Queen’s visit to York. It started to rain and, as I unfurled the brolly, an equerry spotted me and advised me, sensibly I now realise, to steer well clear of the Duke.

    Wg Cdr Roger Lindley (retd)
    Tetbury, Gloucestershire

    SIR – My sister recalls an occasion when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh visited Bromley on a very cold day. An elderly neighbour, determined not to miss out, was wheeled out in her chair to the event wrapped in tin foil to keep warm.

    “Ah,” said the Duke on passing her, “I see you’re oven-ready.”

    Sheila Farrell
    Ash, Surrey

    SIR – Thanks to the article on how Prince Philip stayed fit for life (Features, April 12), I decided to make Scotch woodcock – often served as a savoury instead of a pudding.

    My husband and I are very grateful to have been reminded of this delicious supper dish on a Monday night when there wasn’t much left in the fridge.

    Jane Reed
    London SW10

    A taste of freedom

    SIR – I tasted a kind of freedom on Monday and toasted all those scientists who made it possible to sit in the garden of my favourite pub and drink a pint in the sunshine. Thank you.

    Graham White
    Cambridge

    SIR – I walked over to my local, the Angel, to celebrate freedom. They could give me a seat, but could only take my order by app. Apparently this is a government regulation for Test and Trace. So an elderly person like me, who only has a 20-year-old Nokia with no apps, cannot have a drink.

    David Walters
    Corbridge, Northumberland

    SIR – Like Susan Wood (Letters, April 12), I am eagerly awaiting the opening of charity shops – but in my case it is to deposit the 56 books I have gathered during the various lockdowns.

    Susan Shields
    Kingswood, Gloucestershire

    SIR – If anyone had said to me 15 months ago that bliss was having a haircut, I would have declared them bonkers.

    John M Overton
    Buxton, Derbyshire

    SIR – Throughout this pandemic we have seen many orderly, calm, controlled queues outside supermarkets, bakers and the like, with only given numbers allowed into the premises at a time.

    Now we are told there is to be a “crackdown on queuing” (report, April 13). Who do these petty council officials suddenly think they are?

    John Tilsiter
    Radlett, Hertfordshire

    SIR – I would suggest that, in the interests of fair play, these officials should also apply the same standards to shops in the high street. Monday night’s news showed that the queues at Primark and other shops far exceeded those outside the pubs.

    Tim Twist
    Matlock, Derbyshire

    SIR – Every phone call that I have had to make to businesses or services over the past few weeks resulted in a message telling me they were very busy and giving the time I’d have to wait for an operator. Covid gets the blame, although the actual problem lies with lockdown and the fact that they are all understaffed. This even goes for the fraud department of my bank, where the wait was 50 minutes.

    Is this going to be the “new normal”?

    Victoria Back
    Wadhurst, East Sussex

    Surgical infections

    SIR – Am I alone in my surprise at learning that a group of senior surgeons, having identified a major problem with surgical site infections, should write to a newspaper (Letters, April 12) demanding that the Government do something about it?

    The eminent surgeons note that “many [infections] are preventable”. Surely they are the ones best placed to prevent them?

    Mark Allen
    East Grinstead, West Sussex

    SIR – If surgical site infections are currently costing “between £10,000 and £100,000 per patient”, you would think there is already enough money available for their prevention.

    Roy Kimberley
    Orpington, Kent

    Lightning jabs

    SIR – Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, says that “the chances of dying from a blood clot caused by a vaccine are similar to the chances of being struck by lightning” (Features, April 12).

    Having been struck by lightning 10 years ago, while holding an umbrella in the rain at Charing Races in Kent, I would like to assure you that I am happily turning up for my second AstraZeneca jab in a week’s time.

    Chris Thorpe
    Marden, Kent

    Prissy English table manners maketh a mess

    SIR – It is not the American knife and fork usage that is peculiar (Letters, April 12), but the prissy English fashion.

    We use a knife not designed to cut, held in the dominant hand, to push food on to a fork held upside down (convex side up) in the non-dominant hand, and then attempt to convey the load to the mouth, usually resulting, in my case at least, in a horrid mess.

    Most everyday food would be better approached with spoon and fork, supplemented by a sharp knife where necessary.

    James Pennington
    Prescot, Lancashire

    SIR – Like Mike Williams (Letters, April 9), I am left-handed in some things but right-handed in others.

    I hold a knife and fork as if right-handed but a spoon in my left hand. This is fine until it comes to eating dessert with spoon and fork.

    Colin Wills
    Worthing, West Sussex

    Cricket doesn’t need new terms to attract fans

    SIR – Some years ago, the Ribblesdale youth cricket league introduced a game based on 100 balls per innings, 20 overs of five balls. The only law of cricket that was amended was the number of balls per over.

    Many of the current Twenty20 laws and rules were retained, as was the terminology. We attracted huge interest from young cricketers, parents and supporters.

    The England and Wales Cricket Board has preferred to introduce unnecessary new terminology aimed at the very audience we so successfully gained through simplicity.

    Ted Holden
    Bolton, Lancashire

    SIR – If I needed a further excuse to avoid the Hundred, the ECB has provided it with its imbecilic changes to the language of cricket. I hope that this wretched commercial farce is a flop.

    Alasdair Ogilvy
    Stedham, West Sussex

    SIR – Simon Heffer (Sport, April 13) complains about the proposed use of the term outs instead of wickets.

    As serious cricket followers know, laws relating to dismissals (32-40) all use this term. Wickets (law 8) are the two sets of “three wooden stumps with two wooden bails on top”. Nor is the wicket the same as the pitch (law 6), to nail another common error.

    Like many who will watch the Hundred, I look forward to contests played by the world’s best players. New tactics will develop and, as with 50-over and 20-over cricket, better fielding and novel strokes and deliveries will improve the longer forms of the game.

    Professor Chris Barton
    Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire

    Very Shirley Williams

    SIR – The sad news of Shirley Williams’s death (report, April 13) reminded me of the time when, returning from a skiing trip through London to Paddington station via the Underground, I left one of my bags on the platform.

    I immediately realised, once the train had departed, and jumped off at the next stop and returned to the station, to find Mrs Williams, as she was then, guarding my bag and steering people around at a safe distance, having alerted the authorities – all at the height of the Irish Troubles, and she a Cabinet minister. I think she obviously cared about everyone.

    Mike Taylor
    Bristol

    SIR – Shirley Williams, along with Roy Jenkins, was responsible for the destruction of grammar schools – an appalling blow to public education in this country, from which it has still not recovered.

    Richard Elliott
    Pinner, Middlesex

    2. “Thanks to the article on how Prince Philip stayed fit for life (Features, April 12), I decided to make Scotch woodcock – often served as a savoury instead of a pudding.
      My husband and I are very grateful to have been reminded of this delicious supper dish on a Monday night when there wasn’t much left in the fridge.”
      Yes, it’s a real bugger on a Monday when there’s no venison left over from Sunday and the caviar is all finished.

    3. “Thanks to the article on how Prince Philip stayed fit for life (Features, April 12), I decided to make Scotch woodcock – often served as a savoury instead of a pudding.
      My husband and I are very grateful to have been reminded of this delicious supper dish on a Monday night when there wasn’t much left in the fridge.”
      Yes, it’s a real bugger on a Monday when there’s no venison left over from Sunday and the caviar is all finished.

  16. Good morning from a dull but dry and almost windless Derbyshire at a slightly less cold 0°C.

    I think this article posted on yesterday’s page by Mr. Stanier bears repeating:-

    Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show

    Calls to speed up roadmap as data records people dying ‘with’ disease rather than ‘from’ it

    BySarah Knapton, SCIENCE EDITOR and Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR • 13 April 2021 • 9:30pm

    Almost a quarter of registered Covid deaths are people who are not dying from the disease, new official figures show, as the Government was urged to move faster with the roadmap in the light of increasingly positive data.

    The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that 23 per cent of coronavirus deaths registered are now people who have died “with” the virus rather than “from” an infection.

    This means that, while the person who died will have tested positive for Covid, that was not the primary cause of their death recorded on the death certificate.

    Other data also shows an increasingly positive picture of the state of the pandemic in the UK.

    Daily death figures by “date of death” reveal that Britain has had no more than 28 deaths a day since the beginning of April, even though the government-announced deaths have been as high as 60.

    This is because the Government gives a daily update on deaths based on the number reported that day, which can include deaths from days or weeks previously and therefore may not reflect the true decline in deaths. On Tuesday, the Government announced that there had been 23 further deaths.

    Likewise, Oxford University has calculated that the number of people in hospital with an active Covid infection is likely to be around half the current published daily figure. Tuesday’s official figure showed there were 2,537 Covid patients in hospital, with 230 new admissions.

    However, despite the positive statistics, Boris Johnson issued a warning over the lifting of lockdown as he said it was the restrictions, not the vaccine rollout, that had predominantly kept Covid numbers low.

    “It is very, very important for everybody to understand that the reduction in these numbers – in hospitalisations and in deaths and in infections – has not been achieved by the vaccination programme,” he said.

    “People don’t, I think, appreciate that it’s the lockdown that has been overwhelmingly important in delivering this improvement in the pandemic and in the figures that we’re seeing. So yes of course the vaccination programme has helped, but the bulk of the work in reducing the disease has been done by the lockdown.”

    The Prime Minister cautioned that case numbers will rise in the coming weeks as people gather in pub gardens and visit shops again, with Number 10 carefully watching changes in the data. But he added that “at the moment I can’t see any reason for us to change the road map, to deviate from the targets that we have set ourselves”.

    Tory MPs privately noted that Mr Johnson’s comments on the vaccine struck a more cautious note than those used by Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, in a letter issued on Tuesday to MP colleagues.

    In that letter, parts of which The Telegraph has seen, Mr Hancock said “it is because of the success of the vaccination rollout”, alongside falling infection cases and hospitalisations, that “we are able carefully to lift restrictions” across the UK.

    Nicola Sturgeon, the Scottish First Minister, brought forward the reopening of non-essential shops. The speeding up of her reopening timetable comes after Mark Drakeford, the First Minister of Wales, brought forward indoor mixing by a week.

    MPs urged Mr Johnson to also be driven by the positive data. Steve Baker, the deputy chairman of the Covid Research Group of Tory MPs sceptical about lockdown, told The Telegraph: “I know the Prime Minister is worried about case data in other countries. But we were promised the vaccine would break the link between cases, hospitalisations and deaths.

    “We’ve been told repeatedly it has done. So of course we’re looking to the Prime Minister to follow the data so that we can end the other harms that come with restrictions and lockdown. The sooner we’re talking about the crisis in cancer care, the sooner we’ll be solving it.”

    Covid deaths now make up just 4.9 per cent of deaths registered in England and Wales, compared with 45 per cent in mid-January, according to the ONS.

    Prof Carl Heneghan, the director of the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University, said: “All the data is highly reassuring. There is becoming a case over the next couple of weeks to bring forward the reopening of hospitality, but that’s offset with caution around big events.

    “The issue is as we go about our daily lives there will be a slight increase in cases, but the key is not to panic. I think this over-cautiousness can be overcome by using a data-driven approach.”

    Experts also said it was clear that vaccination was having a “major” impact, with the death rate for over-60s now close to that of the under-60s despite being 43 times higher at the January peak.

    Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University, said: “There’s nothing in the death registration data that proves for certain that the differences in trends between older and younger people are caused by the vaccination, but vaccination must surely be playing a very major role.

    “I’m not complacent, and we must still be careful now that restrictions on what we can do are being lifted. But the news so far is good.”

    More than 32 million people have now had a vaccine in the UK, with the Government announcing on Monday that the target of offering a jab to all those over 50, care home residents, those who are classed as vulnerable and those who work in health or social care had been reached.

    However, a new analysis based on the fact that NHS England has said 19 out of 20 of those most at risk have had the jab suggests 1.3 million vulnerable people have not yet taken up the offer of a vaccine.

    It is believed Mr Johnson’s cautious message is being deliberately stressed now so that people will not be overly alarmed if Covid cases numbers begin to rise again throughout April.

    He has said since first announcing his reopening roadmap in February that Covid cases would rise as restrictions eased. Downing Street believes the correct balance has been struck between limiting virus spread and helping businesses.

    A well-placed senior government source downplayed any quickening of the reopening roadmap for England, stressing the current “earliest date” targets remained.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/quarter-covid-deaths-not-caused-virus/

    1. Under the new normal, doctors will have a much easier job of deciding cause of death.
      If the deceased was carrying a COVID jab card they will have died from the vaccination – otherwise they will have died from COVID -19.

    2. Under the new normal, doctors will have a much easier job of deciding cause of death.
      If the deceased was carrying a COVID jab card they will have died from the vaccination – otherwise they will have died from COVID -19.

  17. 331560+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,
    Truth be told IMO the Duke of Edinburgh / and the peoples would rather see an armed patrol boat patrolling the English Channel from the french instigated / UK governance party collusion invasion campaign ongoing.

    Better still a fleet of them named as Poppiesmum suggested the three Ps, the “Prince Philip patrol”

    Of course protection from Dover illegal entrants / abuse of indigenous trawlermen as reality is showing would fly in the face of these political overseers and their intended agenda.

    Wednesday 14 April: The public will want to contribute towards a royal yacht named after the Duke of Edinburgh

    1. 331560+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      A yacht by all means in the shape of a Q yacht, would
      be in keeping with these times of
      concealment and deceit.

      Come upon an anti English / GB issue on the high seas drop the facade and reveal a bloody great gun.

      The UKs political enemas cannot complain owing to the fact they revel in a menu of cover ups and manipulated facts.

    2. There is absolutely no intention on the part of the Government to prevent these people coming into the UK!

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        I belonged long term to the only party that wanted controlled
        immigration, that party was castigated by many of the herd
        since it entered the political field, seen as a threat to the lab/lib/con family tree voter.

        To continue this voting pattern is to give consent to the populous being subjugated under a ersatz higher order
        currently we are witnessing how this will be achieved.

        Keep up the same voting pattern with NO opposition and we will soon witness the outcome, have a prayer mat at the ready.

      2. You are right. But I do not fully understand why they are so determined to destroy Britain.

        1. Johnson & Co know they’ll be out on their ear and don’t have money. Part of C-19 agenda is as you know, eugenics = remove those who do know the history. Within the planned corporate takeover, remove all “people power/knolwedge”. Youth now taught what not how to think [your business being an exception] and controlled by apps etc. Illegal economic immigrants merely the lackey workforce – lightn numbers in own countries, means remove aid dependency and go straight to “development” = corporate takeover lands / resources. Rockefeller / Schwab, Gates et al all on same pre planned pathway which Johnson et al are merely following the “roadmap”

    3. There is absolutely no intention on the part of the Government to prevent these people coming into the UK!

    1. They are all so damned tribal in the Middle East and, with a bit of luck for us, it may prompt a few of the nomadic tribesmen, currently camped illegally on our shores, to return to support their particular tribe.

      Just dreaming…

      1. with Saudi oil reserves depleting rapidly and the septics slowly cutting them loose, those iiegally camped at our cost would be better used in a re run of D-Day preferably all aboard the Mary Rose

      2. with Saudi oil reserves depleting rapidly and the septics slowly cutting them loose, those iiegally camped at our cost would be better used in a re run of D-Day preferably all aboard the Mary Rose

    2. They are all so damned tribal in the Middle East and, with a bit of luck for us, it may prompt a few of the nomadic tribesmen, currently camped illegally on our shores, to return to support their particular tribe.

      Just dreaming…

    1. Good morning Front Pager

      “Why?” is the obvious question for this charlatan?

      If it does not prevent you from getting the virus and if it doesn’t stop you spreading it then what earthly practical good is it?

      1. The current jab, I hesitate to call it a vaccine, may not have much of a practical use against “the” virus but it may have an important use as the first step in conditioning people to accept jabs for anything and everything the government decrees. Out in the World there exists a number of very keen “jabbers” who see huge profits and measures of control unheard of before.

        1. Coupled with those very keen authoritarians who would like you to prove you’ve been jabbed wherever you go, and would quite like to extend the app to allow special privileges for the good boys and girls, and withdraw them from anyone who, say, drove a car, ate meat, tried to heat their home, voted for the wrong party, visited the wrong website, etc etc etc etc etc etc

        2. Coupled with those very keen authoritarians who would like you to prove you’ve been jabbed wherever you go, and would quite like to extend the app to allow special privileges for the good boys and girls, and withdraw them from anyone who, say, drove a car, ate meat, tried to heat their home, voted for the wrong party, visited the wrong website, etc etc etc etc etc etc

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        NOTA,
        I would never have consented to that not so long ago as too many lives have been lost in gaining us a once decent lifestyle via the polling booth, that no longer applies.

        In my book you either consent via the polling booth or you dissent, there ain’t no disagree a little bit, & vote and whinge
        is totally out of order.

        Taking lesser petrol to a blaze only prolongs the fire,is my personal view.

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        Morning Bob,
        They are pretty evenly matched within the odious stakes and them being a coalition via the mass uncontrolled immigration, ongoing, the delights of the may / party treachery the rotherham long term cover up ( lab) shows up as sh!te all the way.

        The Countries downfall IMO is as I see it, down to the electorate supporting and voting for “graded sh!te” resulting in receiving a sh!te governing body guaranteed every time.

        That can be confirmed on checking out the last three decades.

      2. When was the last time people voted FOR a person they wanted in office rather than AGAINST someone they did not want?

        I would not have voted FOR any Conservative Party leader since Margaret Thatcher but if Blair had not robbed me of my vote I would have voted AGAINST Blair, Brown, Corbyn and Starmer and all of the Lib/Dem leaders (especially Clegg and that reptilian Davey).

        This will probably always remain the motivation for our votes until NOTA (NoneOfTheAbove) is brought in as a voting and counted option.

  25. Joe Biden to ‘withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by September 11’. 13 April 2021.

    The Biden administration plans to withdraw the last US troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks later this year, ending American involvement in its longest war.

    President Joe Biden is expected on Wednesday to announce that he will keep thousands of forces beyond the May 1 deadline that was negotiated last year with the Taliban, but will promise to be out by September 11, according to several reports.

    In a pigs ear they will! Who could believe a new deadline when the old one is ignored! No agreement made with the United States is worth the paper it’s written on.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/13/joe-biden-withdrawal-us-troops-afghanistan-september-11/

    3. I think you’ll find that the Taliban broke the agreement repeatedly, effectively making the whole thing invalid. If you think the US is bad, you should see the others: China, the EU, Russia etc

    1. she’ll be putting her name forward for next elections, diversity and all that. It worked for Bobby Sands, so precedent already set

      1. Good morning AW Kamau

        How do you pronounce your name? Does it sound like the French existentialist playwright Albert Camus and does it rhyme with the Gnu – the animal feted by Flanders and Swann?

        Or is the au sounded as or (as in aught) or one of the many other ways of pronouncing those two letters?

    2. That Report BoB is from 20/12/19

      By now she should be out of jail and ensconced back in Nigeria.

      I wonder…

    3. Apparently she is Nigerian. Why are we keeping her fraudulent sack of excrement in clover when we could ship her out and give her a one way ticket back home?

      Next we need to ask why the welfare and council officers, let alone the tax man didn’t notice this. Heck, as soon as I started contracting the bank called me to tell me my accounts were being investigated by HMRC.

    1. Race to the bottom? Nahh. At the moment it’s who can bore through to Oz quickest. The bottom was reached, then made deeper. Now they’re just digging.

      The weird bit is, it is is impossibly simple to do the right thing, to do the decent thing for society.

  28. Oops…

    Iran will start enriching uranium to 60% purity this week, higher than ever, a top diplomat said days after a reported act of Israeli sabotage targeted Tehran’s enrichment facility in Natanz.
    Abbas Araghchi, a deputy foreign minister who serves as Iran’s chief negotiator with P5+1 – Iran’s counterparts in the 2015 nuclear agreement – announced the step on Tuesday speaking to English-language Iranian channel Press TV. He said Tehran will inform the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, that Iran will be producing 60% enriched uranium, starting Wednesday, putting it further in breach of the terms of the deal.

    The official also said Iran will introduce 1,000 new centrifuges at the Natanz facility in addition to replacing those damaged by a suspected act of sabotage on Sunday.

    The underground plant experienced a power outage last weekend, which Tehran blamed on Israel. Media outlets in Israel and the US reported that the intelligence agency Mossad targeted the facility, but Israeli officials would not comment on the nation’s alleged involvement.

  29. 331560+ up ticks,
    Dt,
    Quarter of Covid deaths not caused by virus, new figures show

    As a conservative estimate I would say 50% plus NOT coming up to
    the annual flu levels ( so flu had to go) seen as an impediment to the cornerstone of reset being laid.

  31. Good morning everyone ,

    Frosty ground this morning , sun is shining , patches of blue and , and I think all fruit blossom will be knocked back .

    Moh playing golf this morning ,and when he played on Sunday he said there were flocks of swallows swooping over the lakes on the golf course , so they have arrived .

    Hope the house martins and swifts have a safe journey, no sign of them yet .

    1. Too early for swifts – we haven’t seen swallows or martins here yet.

      Off out shortly for a coffee morning with friends!

  32. OT – cat news. Last night, we decided to let the cats have the run of the house (instead of shutting them in the nice warm kitchen).

    They walked over the bed a couple of times in the small hours. Apart from that, nothing.

    When we stripped the bed, the MR discovered that Pickles had brought his special treasure – a face flannel – upstairs and put it on top of the bedclothes….!!

      2. Fortunately, they can’t get into the house – only the porch – where earlier cats left moles, rabbits, squirrrels…..

  33. National Trust orders volunteers to take diversity training to ‘raise awareness’ of their ‘unintended biases’ – even including rangers who do not work with the public

    The training teaches volunteers at the organisation about ‘equity’ and inclusion
    A former volunteer said it has proved controversial and led to resignations

    The Trust has faced a backlash over attempts to address its links to slavery

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9468399/National-Trust-orders-volunteers-diversity-training-raise-awareness-biases.html
    By JACK NEWMAN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 02:06, 14 April 2021 | UPDATED: 02:06, 14 April 2021

    I have no idea where they are going to find volunteers , unless of course they are lefty / liberal retired teacher types.

    The list of stately homes is enormous , and historically worth a read .

    I DO NOT think that the NT in its present form are fit custodians of our British history and economic success that contributed one hell of alot to most of the world .

    The NT and all the BAME bunch need to visit the Tolpuddle Martys museum https://www.tolpuddlemartyrs.org.uk/welcome to view the real truth of these islands , to see and acknowledge the terrible time farm workers in the UK endured .

    Sadly , yes very sadly, the hard leftie Islington types have misappropriated the real harsh story behind the bad times of the 1800’s.

    1. Personally, if I were a volunteer I would just sit through the sessions blowing raspberries.

      2. I’d do the same and if that didn’t work, I’d start making rude noises with my mouth,

    1. What a complete moron! When my daughter started at Royal Dick Veterinary School, having got through the very tough selection process, there was a loony vegan on the course. She lasted 3 days and decided she couldn’t cope with the stress! Well duh! She effectively blocked a far more capable student taking up the place! Utter madness, both on the whinging veggie and the University selection!

      1. Did the selectors know she was a vagan (sic)?

        I know it tends to be the very first thing they say to anyone they are introduced to, but perhaps the university either didn’t know or political correctness would have resulted in far more trouble for then than her departing on her own volition.

    2. When I worked in Scottish & Newcastle Breweries they ran a graduate recruitment scheme. A very highly paid manager ran selection courses at various universities and groups of applicants were gathered at selection weekends and put through various tests and such like. Eventually the annual intake was whittled down to about a dozen, who were offered quite well paid jobs as graduate trainees, a position intended to last two years. The individuals were put into various departments for six months at a time before moving onto a different department. The idea was that they would receive an all-round and thorough introduction to the business in order to determine where they were best suited in order to further a career in a specific area. Well, that was the idea. What happened was that after six months or a year was that many of them moved to another company to a well paid job for which they had been trained by S&NB. One of the ways the company tried to counter this was to set up small groups of trainees with a mentor who would offer them advice and guidance, outwith the chain of command. All advice and encouragement, problem solving, snivelling and upsets, hopes and despairs were not shared with the trainees managers. I was asked to be a mentor. I was nonplussed to discover that one of my group had “moral reservations” and was opposed to the sale of alcohol. I could not help wondering about the efficacy and appropriateness of the selection process.

      1. Some years ago I was interviewing for junior engineers, and before attending interview, they weer required t take a personality test.
        Nobody could tell me what the purpose of the tests was, or how we shouldf use them in the interview, except to confirm our opinion… I found no problem whatever in determining whether the interviewee was worth hiring or not, and the ones I did hire have turned out to be top notch. The tests were a total waste of time – anyone who paid attention dueint the interview process would have easily come to a better nuanced conclusion.
        So, I concluded that the tests were HR trying to be “scientific” – but spewing rowlocks in the process.

      2. As daft as it sounds, I know a wine taster – a very good one – who is t-total.

        Yes, we make endless jokes about her not swallowing.

    3. When I worked in Scottish & Newcastle Breweries they ran a graduate recruitment scheme. A very highly paid manager ran selection courses at various universities and groups of applicants were gathered at selection weekends and put through various tests and such like. Eventually the annual intake was whittled down to about a dozen, who were offered quite well paid jobs as graduate trainees, a position intended to last two years. The individuals were put into various departments for six months at a time before moving onto a different department. The idea was that they would receive an all-round and thorough introduction to the business in order to determine where they were best suited in order to further a career in a specific area. Well, that was the idea. What happened was that after six months or a year was that many of them moved to another company to a well paid job for which they had been trained by S&NB. One of the ways the company tried to counter this was to set up small groups of trainees with a mentor who would offer them advice and guidance, outwith the chain of command. All advice and encouragement, problem solving, snivelling and upsets, hopes and despairs were not shared with the trainees managers. I was asked to be a mentor. I was nonplussed to discover that one of my group had “moral reservations” and was opposed to the sale of alcohol. I could not help wondering about the efficacy and appropriateness of the selection process.

  35. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with blooded axe and longbow.

    I think the public contributing to a Royal Yacht named after the Duke of Edinburgh is a wonderful idea.

    1. Morning all,…… i think the labour party and Blair should put most of the money in, he scraped the old RY.

      1. And Major; he was the instigator of the whole palaver. I gather he is now a millionaire (how? don’t ask), so wouldn’t miss a bob or two.

        1. Both did more damage to the UK than Hitler, greased and installed into their positions by the stealth and vicariousness of people like Heseltine.
          And both still receiving protection and 24 hr security funded by the UK tax payers.

        2. I was fishing on the beach at Weybourne with my three sons in Norfolk once and someone told us that Major lived just slightly inland a tad.
          Not far from Uncle Bill.

    2. I agree, especially if it is used for British diplomacy and business opportunities as Britannia was.

      The UK was the envy of the world of diplomacy when the Royal Yacht was used for state visits. One of many examples was in 1959 when it was used to open the St. Lawrence Seaway and navigated all the way to Lake Michigan where the Queen was greeted in Chicago by President Eisenhower.

      Britannia was used for trade missions with such success that I doubt if there has ever been a single artifact, belonging to any country in the world, that has raised more funds than those generated by Britannia for the UK. It was estimated by the Overseas Trade Board that events held on board the yacht helped raise £3 billion for the treasury between 1991 and 1995 alone.

      I have taken a particular interest in this because I was involved with the planning for visits of Britannia to the Middle East. In particular, I remember a visit of the Royal Yacht to Jeddah. There was so much interest that the undignified squabbling for invitations among billionaires, princes, ambassadors, leaders of industry from many countries, down to humble businessmen, was a sight to behold!

      1. How amazing and wonderful . Also a pride to our great monarchy. It should be done,
        named after The Duke of Edinburgh

    3. Good morning daughter
      I have a feeling the contributions would be similar to those made by people who think more tax is a good idea as long as they don’t have to contribute.

      1. Good morning Father, you maybe correct but there are many who do have great respect for the Duke of Edinburgh, so one never knows.

  36. Kate could act as peacemaker between William and Harry on day of Prince Philip’s funeral

    DT Story

    That idiot John Major has also said that this should be a chance for the rift to be ‘healed.’

    The trouble is that what Prince Harry has done is unforgivable and irrevocably unforgivable. It could only be partially mitigated if admits what he has done and shows some genuine contrition and remorse.

    I have argued here before that forgiveness is a two way process – it requires a forgiver but also a ‘forgivee’ who wants to be forgiven and is prepared to take the necessary sincere action to be forgiven. Some of us remember Claudius who murdered his brother, Hamlet’s father. We see him on his knees praying but he realises that unless he admits his fratricide, and relinquishes the throne he has usurped and his wife, Gertrude – his brother’s widow – he cannot be forgiven.

    “Words without thoughts never to heaven go.”

    3. He’s made a mistake in marrying a very difficult woman. To hold that poor judgement against him for his whole life is unfair. While he may have gone along with it, I do not believe he is the instigator of their entire ‘we want privacy/prostitution to Operah’.

      Heck, if every mistake I made – some of which were laughably destructive – were held against me forever I’d live in a cave and the cave would hate me.

  37. Re the letters today and the article about Scotch Woodcock , the very tasty light dish of scrambled egg , capers and anchovy on toast .

    Dad used to love that , and sometimes had it for breakfast . As children we loved the flavour of anchovy and chopped up capers .. My mother used fresh nasturtium seeds from the plants in the garden , and I always wondered whether they were really capers .

    I haven’t eaten that since I was a child because Moh hates anchovy , however .. I have managed to slip a bit of anchovy sauce into spag bol and gravy for lamb! No complaints either , I think his sense of taste and smell has altered as he has got older .

    1. I agree about taste and smell. When I was young, I thought pineapple jam was just the biz. A few months ago, I tried it again and it was over-sweet, tasteless pap (mind you, in-between the EU has interfered with the composition of jam – that’s why you now have to keep it in the fridge).
      MB used to eat Smarties and suchlike by the tube; now he doesn’t touch them.

    2. I think you can add anchovies to many recipes during cooking and most people won’t have a clue. I do it to the family who wouldn’t normally go near an anchovy fillet. Chopped or crushed they just melt into a wonderful overall taste.

  38. Yay!!!! Somebody loves me.
    I swept into the tip this morning; no queuing until well inside and with about 6 cars in front of me.
    Then, no queue at the post office and a chat about the current madness with another customer, who, like us, is worried about civil rights and the effect on younger generations.

    2. As I mentioned previously I spent most of Saturday in A&E. And there were hardly any people in the waiting area. In these days of awe It could easily lead to a dangerous assumption and possible conviction of paranoia. It’s quite possible that other people knew i was was going to be there and made a decision to keep away. As may have happened at the council tip…… i’ll get me ruck sack 😄😉 fulda ree fulda rah.

      1. Eddy.
        I spent Monday afternoon and evening in NGH A&E,
        there were queues to get into the Department, we
        were then funnelled off to different areas to comply
        with ‘Covid Regulations.’ It reminded me of a
        Brian Rix Farce. I am just about to brave it again for a
        visit to the Consultant …

        1. So Phizzee wasn’t making it up then? I thought he was having a giraffe…. It really was the Conga?! I hope you are feeling ok now, Garlands.

        2. Sorry to hear that Garlands i hope you are Okay, it’s a bit of a worry when they start the examinations and tests.
          Perhaps you were very unlucky.

  42. As we learn the Covid stats are bolleaux(yes,yes WE already knew) we have to wonder what else the “sainted” RNHS is hiding………….

    From 2013,I wonder what the current figures are………..

    Hospitals have spent £2 million on more than 50 gagging orders

    preventing staff speaking out, a Freedom of Information Act request has

    revealed.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/nhs-hospitals-spend-ps2m-on-gagging-orders-preventing-staff-speaking-out-8654716.html

    1. On the local radio readout of Covid stats this morning. One of the “highest in the country” – was given out as 89 per 100’000 people . . . . . Wonder why they don’t use %ages? Or do they know most people wouldn’t realise how low this is?

      1. Percentages are I suggest not as effective as:

        1 in every 111 persons

        or (the threshold for pausing the Pfizer vaccination in the US because of the rate of blood clots in those aged 18-48):

        1 in one million

        1. People seem to have no concept of large numbers. Take a simple number like a million.

          Assume one takes 10 car trips from home a week, that’s 20 journeys, out to your objective and back home.

          Not a particularly low number of trips in a week, but the odds of having a major accident or even death are much greater/worse than for Covid.

          At that weekly rate it would take over 1,000 years to complete a million journeys.

          Yet people are frightened by a one in a million chance of dying of something less likely than a car crash and this fear has been deliberately stoked by the government and its witch-doctors.

    1. And still our government allow thousands of new homes to be built on our land every year.

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        Afternoon RE,
        With the people’s consent via the polling booth.
        The electorate see an indigenous people’s social housing waiting list, they can also see foreign elements being housed before the indigenous list has been satisfactorily dealt with.

        1. From what I’ve seen, these new ‘houses’ they’re building are not exactly spacious, there’s not nearly enough room for a family.

          On the plus side, they make fine pens in which to accommodate the ‘ovis’ that will keep voting for the Lib/Lab/Con governance party, as I’m sure you’ll agree.
          :¬)

        2. The trouble is Ogga there are so many people leaving London and the suburbs now after all the major stores have been converted into flats etc for social housing I predict that our once treasured capital city will become an absolute tip. And a culture shock to the English.

          1. 331560+ up ticks,
            Evening RE,
            Methinks that is the case already everything nasty is up, as in knifings etc,etc, it has been allowed to get into its present state via appeasement and lethargy via the polling booth, and that has spread nationwide.

          3. I mean it will become increasingly worse.
            The last time we had a day out in London I felt like a tourist….well a foreigner.
            And that was London central. East and south London are far worse.

    2. 331560+ up ticks,
      Afternoon WS,
      The result of continuing to support & vote lab/lib/con
      an ongoing mass uncontrolled immigration coalition party.

      Sorry thought you said sinking.

  44. Telegraph = Boris Johnson could be seen as ‘truly historic figure’ in 100 years’ time, says Anthony Seldon
    The historian tells Chopper’s Politics podcast that “anyone who writes off Boris Johnson is letting their prejudice take over”
    Ahem
    “Truly historic figure” you say………
    Bit like Hitler,Stalin and Pol Pot??

    2. Maybe he’ll be remembered for seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and putting a kink in it.
      Apple ogies to Ray and Dave Davis.
      As Dr Spooner might have said show da light Boris.

    4. Anthony Seldon was unspeakably arrogant and demanded a cult posse of sycophants when he was the Master at Wellington.

      I fear that he has subsequently got further and further up his own anal orifice.

    5. “historic figure’ in 100 years’ time”

      I have just been listening to Boris at the dispatch box and he is patently histrionic here and now. .He will be long remembered for his waffling and arm waving – amongst other unbelievable achievements.

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        Afternoon P,
        You’ll change your tune when he does take off
        after learning to fly.

    6. 331560+ up ticks,
      Afternoon Rik,
      The historian has plainly muddled up historical with
      hysterical, bordering on treacherously hysterical.

  45. On the recent tragic shooting in the US by a police officer, i am struggling with the premise that the victim was Black. His mother was clearly a white lady, surely it’s more than a tad ‘racist’ and disrespectful to ignore her obvious white heritage. I don’t get it ???

    1. Look on the bright side, he father will be unaffected by all this fuss. He probably doesn’t even know his sprog is a gonner – or even who his mother was.

    1. Every time one of these “experts” is shown to have grossly exaggerated the doom-mongering they should be stripped of their positions and told to seek employment elsewhere.

      Too many coulds, mights, conceivablys, possiblys being bandied about by all of them.

    2. I read recently that the term Professor is applied to those who’ve reached the top of the pay grade. Not exactly something you have to study for it’s given because you’ve fooled everyone along the way.

      Edited to make some form of sense.

  47. 331560+ up ticks,
    I do wonder if those continuing to support & vote for the ongoing three party mass uncontrolled immigration coalition are of the mind set of
    ” there are more of us, than them” because shortly “they” will either
    break out of their present cover party,or form an independent party.

    They have placements countrywide in positions of power and are
    making their presents felt now on a daily basis.

    So all the while this Countries electorate are fighting a pointless “party first war” where the winner is guaranteed a political sh!te governance “they” are amassing a governance replacement party being built on every day.

    The UK political overseers are counting on these incoming peoples as a party boost, these incoming peoples are counting on, in time dominating the Nation wholesale.

    breitbart,
    Illegal Boat Migration Triples over Last Year, as Another 42 Land on British Soil on Tuesday

    1. Back in the 60s, you were told off if you referred to someone as black. You had to refer to black people as ‘coloured’.

      1. Enough to drive one to drink, this constant revision of which words are acceptable and which are not. That’s why I’ve always used the terms “nigger” and “wog”. Can’t go wrong with them, everybody understands what you’re talking about.

        1. As long as you remember the Major’s lesson about the difference between a nigger and a wog.
          Likewise anyone assessing Greta Thunberg needs to understand that technically she’s an imbecile not a cretin, there being no evidence of a thyroid condition?

    2. What do you call a one armed, one legged, mixed race, bi-sexual transgender lesbian who feels victimised and prejudiced against and not valued?

      NORMAL

      2. For about 3 years I worked in an office with a blind fellow – practically, he had some sight but described it as looking out of a fog, who had lost his legs and sight to a motorcycle accident.

        While not gay nor mentally ill, he could have been a bitter, angry BBC employee Lefty. Instead he was a jovial, friendly, decent chap. I came in to work ragingly angry one day (I was only about 22 and very immature) and he told me it was a waste of time. If you can’t change it, forget about it and move on.

        All too often I think the victim generation quite like being angry as it stops them from looking at their own anger, dealing with it and growing to using their energy positively. Thus they seek out similarly angry and immature people to reinforce their own attitudes and… the end is antifa or the BBC.

  49. A long read in the Speccie https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-and-the-lockdown-effect-a-look-at-the-evidence, suitable for statistics gluttons

    Simon Wood
    Covid and the lockdown effect: a look at the evidence
    14 April 2021, 10:30am

    ******************************************************************

    Marius • 2 hours ago
    In short, the team at Imperial – which has been grossly wrong about every virus outbreak it has ever modelled – fiddled the data to fit their fear-mongering and to justify the government’s backside-covering tactics. The size of the death toll in Britain was a consequence of UK demographics and the malign uselessness of the NHS and PHE.

    As well as not saving any lives from COVID, the lockdown enthusiasts have condemned thousands of cancer patients to an early grave, driven at least hundreds to suicide, damaged the education of millions of children and cost the nation hundreds of billions of pounds.

    Their motivation was not concern for others, as they claim. It was cowardice, pure and simple. Fear for their own hides or their reputations. In Bojo the Clown’s case, both physical and moral cowardice.

  50. Woking is to be graced with a new Gordon Ramsay outlet….Street Burgers at the bargain price of £15 a pop plus £6.50 for a shake
    I’m sure it’ll do well plenty of people with more money than sense………….

    2. Wonder where that will be in the concrete jungle.
      Still not sure it’ll be completed in my lifetime.

    3. Unfortunately it will probably make most of its money from those who can least afford to part with it.

  51. My wife is 59 and in reasonably good health. What are the chances she will die of Covid if she gets it?
    I am nearly 75 and relatively fit apart from having had a TIA some years ago and being overweight. What are the chances that I shall die if I get it?

    These stats are not very easy to determine.

    Since my wife and I have taken various risks together over the last 33 years we would like to have an idea of what the odds are as we are not completely risk averse! We gave up our safe jobs when we first married and settled and set up a business in a foreign country. When our children were little we took them out of school and taught them ourselves as we sailed around the Med in a sailing boat.

    We enjoyed the cartoon somebody posted last week which raised the question: “Should we be more afraid of living or dying?”

    2. I consider the risk is greater taking this unproven vaccine rather than contracting corvid flue.

    3. The survival rate should you catch this inexplicable virus is 99.74%. I’d say that’s pretty good odds. Unfortunately due to Government propaganda it seems the majority of the population are more afraid of living. I’d like to think they are beginning to wake up. But I wouldn’t bet on it.

      The virus is extremely clever. Sometimes it pounced after you’d been locked away for 3 weeks, sometimes after 10pm, sometimes when you walked past somebody (causing them to jump into the oncoming traffic), sometimes if you ventured further away from your house than 5 miles, sometimes if you sat in a park on a bench, some people even think the virus will pounce in their car when they are alone and wearing a mask. You just can’t tell. Best to carry on “saving the NHS”, “keeping safe in the streets”, and washing your hands as soon as you wake up or touch anything. Sometimes a few months ago you could go out for a meal but you had to wear a mask to go in and then when you sat down the virus would disappear but only if you took your mask off to have a drink. But you couldn’t go to the bar to order your food or drink because that was really dangerous.

      I give up!

      2. Just had an email from dotty teacher friend. Writes that the covid frightened her, and that it was unknown, lockdown should have been sooner & longer… this is the woman who was an army officer cadet for a period whilst at university… fcuk knows what she would have done if she’d been faced with warlike Ivans, or even a Saracen with a burst tyre.
        :-((
        Very saddening. Feet of clay & all that.

      1. I don’t know.

        I wondered why the ape baits them. I would guess it’s to set the idea in their mind that apes are not worth chasing when the tigers are adult.

    1. There must be another page; where are the dogging qualifications? Global warming certificate? Scotch/Irish independence activity record?
      Gender bender dictionary entry (and any other relevant entries)? Receipts for brown envelopes and backhander dexterity certificate? I could go on but…

  56. Fergus Walsh has just been on BBC News saying that there is some evidence that mixing jabs could provide better immunity than just sticking to one type.

    However, a statistically significant double blind trial becomes more difficult to interpret due to at least a doubling of different possible adverse reactions arising from unforeseeable multiple drug interactions.

    Could adverse reactions in the purple group below be due to Jab A; Jab B; Jab A followed by Jab B; Jab B followed by Jab A; or Jab A and Jab B mixed as a cocktail (shaken but not stirred).

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f631db29d215336dbfe85e10ea76bc3f3483511bad4964cb6680b4b4369f6161.jpg

        1. You’ll find them in Hull. And this is what they’ll look like after all their jabs:

          Sorry. I Will Read It Again

    1. Very good.

      I note the Telegaffe has an article about it too, in which zero mention is made of it actually being President Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops – an omission that the BTL commenters point out repeatedly.

  58. I think we are now seeing what a total con this corvid thing is. Its a flu just like others, in some years there has been more deaths than from corvid, now that the true figs. have been given. I have never had a flu jab nor this latest one and the more that comes to light about it all the more relived I am. I consider the jab is more risk than corvid. Its not about how many people contract it but the death rate. What a scandel it has all been.

    1. It has never been about the health of the nation.

      It has always been about the control of the public and the health of politicians bank balances. Not forgetting the bank balances of the faux scientists who the politicians decided to believe rather than the evidence.

    1. Government has no business wasting my money on htis pointless tripe. If they won’t use common sense, then tough.

        2. Hullo – Mongo is spending the night at the vets. He was checked and there’s nothing physically wrong with him, but when we arrived he just looked exhausted. He nuzzled a few times but mostly just lay there as if he’d given up.

          Vet checked him and he was a good boy – no nipping, barking. They’ve taken bloods and urine and he’s in for an MRI thingy so is in ‘overnight’.

          The vet wasn’t sure what could cause it as she has never known him to ever be aggressive – thus the MRI in case it’s a tumor.

          I hope he’s just had enough of it all, but when he staggered after the anaesthetic and fell against me I admit to getting a bit teary.

          I spoke to Marion, his breeder and her thinking was it was the tension in the house, the stress and confusion of the roof – it’s covered in snapping tarpauline. The slightest breeze causing – as
          Phizzee said – a whip crack noise.

          Vet says he’ll be ok to pick up tomorrow so here’s hoping.

          1. Our younger son had problems with his dog, particularly in the evenings.
            Eventually they realised that it was the reflections in the kitchen extension skylights that caused the unease and constant barking. He installed blinds and the problem disappeared.

          2. We did the mirror thing quite early on. He’d sit with his Dad (Sire, I suppose is the right term) and look out of the window, eventually seeing himself in it.

            When he does that it always makes me feel as if he’s remembering that moment. Who knows what goes through their brains.

          3. I do hope he’s all right. I remember Poppie getting very disturbed by the high winds in France, la tramontane that used to roar down the pyrénées sounding like an express train. It went on for days. When it blew over a chair, that was the final straw as far as she was concerned. She hated the flapping of the awning and even in gentle breezes here she doesn’t like the flapping of the canvas gazebo in the garden.

            I hope he is ok and settles down, let us know how he gets on. Nottler dogs (and cats…) are Nottler family, too.

          1. I don’t like horror films or anything too gory but seeing a video of a suicide bomber blowing himself up early brings a smile to my face.

            Am i a bad person?

      2. The Muslim Council also ruled on bog paper. They said it was not Haram to use it. Not that the dirty batsards do.

    1. Oh, he died in prison. That’s really sad.

      It means the state wil be lumbered with his funeral costs.

    2. Hurray !

      Bernie Ebbers CEO Worldcom is also dead. Cost me almost $400,000 when Worldcom collapsed.

      Another thieving batsard bites the dust.

      Hope it’s nice and warm where they went.

      Now…………….back to being a good Christian.

  61. Government announced today that people can have mix and match cocktails of the various vaccines…

    I’ll have a Moderna on the rocks followed by a Pfizer and lemonade and my wife will have a Valneva with a dash of Novvax and half a pint of Astrazeneca.

    Mum will have a Sputnik with a dash of Jansen, lemon twist shaken but not stirred.

  62. Had a very relaxed, pleasant lunch in town with elder son and grandson.
    Sonny Boy had booked and we just rocked up. No details requested in any shape or form. Human beings dealt with our orders.
    We had to sit outside, but the restaurant has a small, well protected garden.
    Happy, chatty atmosphere and they have been busy all week.

    2. Before he left office Blair had his expenses shredded. Considering the fraud the rest of those wasters carried out, and his wife’s well known proclivity for blatant theft when asked to ‘browse the shelves’ I imagine he was a disgusting thief as well.

          2. I did.
            It was trap to catch you.
            And it did!

            But I did the edit within a few moments, so either you answered from notifications, or you didn’t refresh, (and given your track record I can’t believe you don’t refresh yourself regularly!), or you missed it.

            };-0))

  71. Prince Andrew demands to wear the admiral’s uniform for Philip’s funeral.

    See how fast he takes it off when it kicks off in the Ukraine.

    2. He seems to do a lot of “demanding” for someone in his position. He should be told to wind his neck in.

        1. Aye, Pirrip. But he did also made a fuss about his daughters being Princesses, I believe?

  72. Tweet from John Cleese

    “Not wishing to be left behind by Hank Azaria, I would like to apologise on behalf on Monty Python for all the many sketches we did making fun of white English people

    We’re sorry for any distress we may have caused
    7:17 PM · Apr 13, 2021”

    John Cleese Mocks Hank Azaria’s Apology for Playing Apu on ‘The Simpsons’
    https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2021/04/14/john-cleese-mocks-hank-azarias-apology-for-playing-apu-on-the-simpsons/

    2. Perhaps Percy Edwards could somehow posthumously apologise to all the animals he did impressions of.

    3. And have you read some of the replying tweets? Dear life ‘just proof of white superiority’ and all that tosh.

      It mkes you want to reach out, shake these fools in their chairs and pummel them until they start to think rationally.

    2. Reading the Tyson quote I fall back on something my chemistry teacher told me once long, long… long ago:

      “Nothing is ever proven in science. Every experiment, every test adds evidence, but never fact.’

  74. Woohoo. With the flotation of a Crypto company my Dogecoin have just surged by 55%.

    I’m rich !

    Erm. £45 actually. :@)

    Still that is more than double my investment.

  75. ‘Taxpayer-Funded Indoctrination’: Farage Slams BBC Children’s Show for Anti-Meat Message

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/04/14/taxpayer-funded-indoctrination-farage-slams-bbc-childrens-show-anti-meat-

    *
    *
    *
    In writing to the “Beef Bashing Corporation” Director General Tim Davie, Mr Shand said the views being offered to young children were “unbalanced” and “irresponsible”.

    “Blue Peter’s attempts to influence the diet of young children away from these valuable food sources is a continuation of personal agendas by some journalists and programme makers,” Mr Shand wrote.

    He added that red meat was “essential to [the] development and growth of children”, saying: “Many of these nutrients that are vital to a healthy food balance cannot be found naturally in any other food source.”

    It is not the first time that impressionable young children had been pulled into leftist green activism.

    Swedish climate change evangelist Greta Thunberg, who has now been immortalised in bronze at an English university, at the age of 15 encouraged children around the world to skip school on Fridays to protest their governments over perceived inaction against alleged man-made global warming.

    The increase of children being confronted with alarmist environmental messages has resulted in a rise of what the American Psychological Association described in 2019 as “eco-anxiety”. British psychologists noted the same phenomena of young children feeling grief and anxiety related to climate change.

    The following year, a survey by Newsround — another BBC institution which focuses on current affairs for youngsters — revealed that one in five children aged between eight and 16 were experiencing climate nightmares.

    2. UNHAPPY HOUR – Cheesed Off.

      Cheese is racist’ storm as hundreds back ban on dairy foods in school.

      SERVING dairy in foods at schools is “racist” an Extinction Rebellion campaigner told a council after hundreds signed a petition to serve children plant based meals only.
      By SARAH BOOKER-LEWIS AND BRADLEY JOLLY
      https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1422913/Extinction-Rebellion-campaign-dairy-food-schools-racist-Brighton-Hove-City-Council

      In the petition, she quotes Professor Michael Clark, from Oxford University, as saying: “Animal agriculture and fishing industries are leading causes of deforestation, ocean dead zones, water pollution, biodiversity loss and species extinction.

      4. All human activities can to a greater or lesser degree harm the environment as the ‘professor’ says but why pick on livestock farming?

      7. In the petition, she quotes Professor Michael Clark, from Oxford University,

        Two words would cover all the damage that has been inflicted on the planet over the last 60 or so years. Corporate Greed.

    3. When junior’s school started indoctrinating him about this nonsense, we sat down and talked about it. He had no idea what ‘climate’ was, let alone seasons, weather, population density, energy needs, what energy is used for and all that.

      He’s just told climatechangebad!!!

      If he can think critically about it – including asking his teacher what would happen if there wasn’t enough energy from wind (pretty good for a 7 year old!). As she didn’t know, he kept asking his questions about how is water cleaned and lights kept on, what will old people do if it’s really cold….

      I think my work here is done.

      1. Excellent.
        Since Teacher probably doesn’t know which way to turn at the end of he road to get to the High Street, he’ll run rings around her! And then get marked down…

  76. One for Grizz,pair of 20 somethings on Tipping Point
    “What’s the highest mountain in Tanzania”
    Both “Everest”
    “What distance did Roger Bannister run in under 4 minutes”
    “Marathon”
    Enough to make a stone weep

    2. When I was fit & young, ran a 4 minute mile and wasn’t in bad shape after. Now I can’t do a 4-minute staircase to bed… :-((

        1. After a summer working on a farm, aged 18. The only time I have been properly fit. Been downhill since…
          and afterwards, I ran home!

          1. You should have taken athletics seriously.

            You would have beaten Steve Cram at the same age.

          3. That was a great pity. You had the potential to be an Olympic athlete, had those who should have been awake spotted the potential.

            My wife was similar. HG ran 10.7 for 100 yards on a grass track in 1967/8.
            The school teachers didn’t believe the time and made her run again, because it smashed the existing record. Same time.
            Nobody paid any attention because the school didn’t think girls should do other than team sports. They knew she was quick as she was their 1st team (u18) hockey winger and had been since she was 12.

            She was discouraged from taking up athletics.

            That time would probably have placed her in the finals of the UK championships. When she went up to Cambridge she was a flatmate with a woman who came third in the BSAA 220. Over 100 HG could leave her trailing in the wake, then the flatmate just sailed past in the final 50.

          5. In our day there were no longer 8 pubs.

            HG isn’t a beer drinker, but a friend of ours did the run and the dozen on the same day.

            HG might have done it if it was a glass of wine instead of a pint.

            At the Vet’s barbecue the friend drank the fastest pint, and cleared the yard of ale, opening round, semi-final and final, beating all comers.

            She was reading engineering!

          6. There was only one woman reading Engineering in my year but I can’t remember her name (Matric 1966)

          7. Believe it or not, everyone knew this one as Scottie, I believe her name really was Scott. She was quite good at sport as well as competitive beer drinking.

          8. At the school at which I taught the school record for the 100 m (boys) was 10.9 secs but when I was a boy at school the record for the 100 yards was 10.0 secs. I was once timed over the 100 yards at 13.6 seconds which I thought was pretty good!

    3. A great example of the products of today’s (immediately yesterday’s) education.

    5. On another quiz earlier this week, three contestants couldnt put Everest on a map of the world.

    1. I think that that is one of the worst and saddest things I have seen throughout this debacle.

      They’re in the same care home? That is dreadful.

    3. Notwithstanding my earlier comment below.

      It appears that the old man has just joined his wife in the same care home, so all is not as it appears.
      However, it still stands that elderly people like this couple should not have been prevented from seeing each other.

      1. 331560+ up ticks,
        S,
        Enforced separation in any shape or form as run by this political cartel is out of order and done in the main to satisfy
        whatever agenda the politico has in mind.

        1. I get to the point that I hope Vallance, Johnson, Whitty, Hancock, Ferguson et al are forced to die alone and in pain, and that their loved ones are refused access to them, as has happened to so many people over the last 15+ months and will happen for years to come for cancer heart and other problems, as a result of their policies.

      2. It was all about getting those DNR notices signed without interference from enquiring relatives. Cross infection was the excuse to keep people separated from their nearest and dearest.

      3. 331560+ up ticks,
        S,
        Enforced separation in any shape or form as run by this political cartel is out of order and done in the main to satisfy
        whatever agenda the politico has in mind.

  78. Part of a BTL comment by Thelonius Runt-Futtock under the DT obituary of Shirley Williams who was a cheerful looking old biddy but unfailingly wrong in all her judgements.

    How ever much people vilify Diane Abbott she tried to put her son’s interests ahead of her political career and sent him to an independent private school. Mr Blair and Mr Cameron were both educated in independent schools and could easily afford to pay school fees but their political careers were more important to them than their own children – and the same must be said of Shirley Williams.


    What is more important to you – advancement in your own career or doing the best for your children?

    1. Doing the best for the children while teaching them by example morality, decency and how not to be a hypocrite.

      The school didn’t benefit Diane’s drug addled psychotic son much.

    2. ‘Political career’ is one thing. ‘Political dogma’ that screws up everyone’s education – apart from your own or family’ – is something else.

    3. If Abbott’s son’s education was more important to her, she should have resigned as an MP instead of hypocritically telling other people not to privately educate their own children.

      1. She’d have had to go on the dole, then. Can’t see her getting any other employment.

    4. Abbott’s son was certainly given an expensive education, but apart from getting a job in the snivel service, he didn’t seem to learn how to be a descent human being.

    5. I remember Shirley Williams as the official Labour government imposed arbiter who decided the justifiable price of sliced bread in the great inflation of the mid-1970s …. she did the job with no sign of any doubts as to the wisdom of having such a policy

    7. I fear that the answer to your question, Richard, is advancement of your own career, thus leading by example and producing severely warped children to carry the torch through the next generation.

      1. mng, and younger generation althought the net’s widening, is majority now entrenched into gig economy, being a dead economic model means no career path

    1. “I’m sorry, Sir. You misheard them. It was Greenswill Craponall for David Cameron”

  80. Good evening, NoTTLers!

    For those of us who enjoy Independence Daily, they are in dire straits following Debbie’s continual hospitalisation, and need an additional editor, plus other things. I get lots of the things I post here from ID, and thought I’d post a link for anyone who might be interested.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/in-a-change-to-the-usual-programme-something-will-have-to-give-an-urgent-appeal/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=INDEPENDENCE+Daily+Newsletter1

  81. I am finished for the day. It was better in the afternoon – though still a little Japanese in the air.

    I hope to join you on the morrow – after going to Market to try to find a halal pig to celebrate Ramadanadingdong.

    A demain

    1. It is said that a man is not complete until he is married and then he is completely finished…..

    2. They could name it Spazomax Jam.
      Spread thickly until the population is cured.

      Like ham.

  85. Oh dear..more bad news for the West.
    No cases of blood clots encountered during trials & use of Sputnik V vaccine, Russian developer says
    After reports of J&J and AstraZeneca jabs causing blood clots in rare cases, the Sputnik V developer said its vaccine doesn’t have such side effects and offered to share its technologies to help other producers solve this problem.
    “A comprehensive analysis of adverse events during clinical trials and over the course of mass vaccinations with the Sputnik V vaccine showed that there were no cases of cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST),” the Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology said on Wednesday.
    The Gamaleya Research Institute stressed “there is no reason and no justification to extrapolate safety data” from J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines to Sputnik V, which boasts an efficacy of over 91%. The three immunizations might be based on adenoviral vector platforms, but they are all “different and not directly comparable” when it comes to their structure and the technologies used, it added.

    One of the reasons for the Russian jab not causing blood clots and other severe complications is that it’s made with the HEK293 cell line that “has long been safely used for the production of biotechnological products,” the statement read. The scientists behind J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines opted for other adenoviral platforms and cell lines.

    The Sputnik V developer also pointed to a recent study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, that linked blood clots in those inoculated to insufficient purification of vaccines.
    “Unlike other vaccines,” the Russian jab goes through a four-stage purification process, consisting of two stages of chromatography and two stages of tangential flow filtration, which assures its “quality and safety,” the statement read.

    The Gamaleya Institute concluded by saying that it was “ready to share its purification technology with other vaccine producers in order to help them minimize the risk of adverse effects during vaccination.”

    So it looks like the Russians are going to have to show them how to make a safe vaccine.

      1. Yep, she looks only a trifle diverse – maybe she should put on some black-face.

    3. I suppose it isn’t racist for a black person to say that a series starring a black actor (i think he is good BTW. Saw him in The Wire) who has no black friends and doesn’t eat Carribean food is right on.

      Why is it that so many black people spout off about racism when they are the worst examples of it?

      I learned that one needs to turn a view on it’s head to decide if it had worth or not.

      Perhaps it is true that black people generally are thicko’s.

      1. I do remember some sort of furore in the 60s when a professor said that generally, blacks had a lower IQ than others.

        1. Is he still alive ??
          But hang on a mo, the BBC have the answer to some of the problems as in the failure of people like Lammy, who if i remember correctly didn’t even make double figures on Master Mind.
          And i have the greatest respect for Clive Myrie the news reader and journalist, he is next in line to be asking the questions on the programme, JH is retiring.

      2. The way i see the situation is, there are so many ‘black’ people who clearly and obviously malign one of their parents.
        If black people have both black parents they are clearly black but why if one of the parents are white why do they insist on referring to them selves as black. It’s a form of racism in it’s own right.

        1. There was a story this week about an abandoned new born baby. ‘Subway baby’. This little bundle of joy ended up being adopted by a middle class gay couple. He turned out to be a credit to all who met him.

          No drugs. No guns. High achiever.

          Suggesting that having good role models makes a huge difference.

          An unconventional family but a loving and caring one.

    4. What does she want? Black actors all wearing dreadlocks, smoking ganja and speaking in fake Jamaican accents?

    7. That’ll make her popular with Meagain ask she will obviously call her white.

    1. If Chauvin is found guilty, his defence lawyers will probably use Pelosi’s remarks as grounds for a mis-trial.

      1. One would hope so, Aenas but what is it that passes for justice, either here or in USA?

          1. Pelosi probably hates these people from her protected white enclave but is merely manipulating them to gain potential votes for Democrats

            It is the same with illegal migrants, wanting a better life but having to be trained by those legitimate Americans who will become unemployed to make way for them because illegal migrants are cheaper to employ.

            The Democratic Party is dying as we speak. Creepy Joe Biden is a corpse, dead on his feet and Kamala Harris a giggling schoolgirl emerged from behind the political bike shed. Harris is a hollow brainless stooge and all now see this.

      2. I am wondering whether she/BLM/her controllers have suddenly realised that the trial may well not go as expected and are getting their retaliation in first!

        It will be interesting to see what happens through the appeals processes, once jurors are taken from the equation.

    2. Pelosi is the daughter of a mafiosi. Her attitude to public life was born of this corrupt experience and lack of education. Pelosi is an evil person who is too fond of herself.

  89. Cancer patients have been disastrously let down by our Covid-obsessed Government

    Ministers should be focusing on the crisis in cancer care, not on the imposition of yet more intrusive regulations

    PROFESSOR KAROL SIKORA

    Despite the sprawling Whitehall complex, countless civil servants and virtually an infinite budget, government bandwidth is limited. In a world of 280-character tweets, 90-second clips and catchy slogans there is only so much space in a debate, and what occupies it is generally decided by the state spin doctors.

    Throughout the Covid crisis, I have had much sympathy for politicians. Social media has given the nastiest corners of society a direct line to those governing us, and often the abuse can be beyond the pale. Mistakes have been made – we understand that – but what I find harder to forgive is the total unwillingness even to discuss the cancer crisis and other harmful consequences of lockdown policies.

    Rehashing arguments about if, when, or how restrictions should be in place is pointless. What we need to do is have an open and frank discussion about their negative consequences so that we can do our best to mitigate them.

    Instead, ministers have embarked on a bizarre quest to alter fundamentally how our society functions by considering the introduction of vaccine passports. We are talking about essentially dividing our country based on a person’s health status. That is an intensely private matter, and the fact we are even discussing having one pub for the unvaccinated and one for the vaccinated shows how far we’ve fallen. Hopefully, the virus will no longer be public health enemy number one by the time the Government sorts out the logistics of proof of vaccination.

    There is a far more significant issue looming. In 2020, 40,000 fewer patients than we would have expected started cancer treatment, and that number will have significantly increased in the meantime. Hundreds of thousands fewer people have been urgently referred for suspected cancer, and across all types of cancers there are significant drops in the number of patients. Left untreated, cancer will kill. This is no longer a ticking time bomb, it’s happening now. At Rutherford, my cancer centre network, for months we have been seeing more patients coming forward with late-stage cancer than we would normally expect. These disruptions will sadly translate into far more severe complications further down the line.

    When I describe this situation on Twitter, the responses are often that I’m wrong to frame it as a choice and that the Government should deal with all harms. Twelve months ago I would have agreed, but it’s now clear that politicians do not want to talk about this. Instead, they will focus on ramming through outrageously intrusive and unethical policies like vaccine passports. I agree that there should be sufficient space to talk about both, but that has not happened.

    Just talking about the cancer crisis will save lives. Forget glitzy ad campaigns or punchy slogans for now, we just need to talk about it. I wrote for the Telegraph a few weeks ago and called for a non-Covid health issue press conference, and the idea attracted much support. Since then, we’ve had several government press conferences filled with the usual back-patting. Go on any MP’s Twitter account and all you will see is fancy graphics detailing how many vaccinations have been given. Quite frankly, who cares? We know that the vaccination rollout has been an enormous success – it’s now time to start talking about the equally important cancer crisis.

    If anyone has a good explanation as to why a non-Covid press conference can’t happen or is a bad idea, I am all ears.

    Instead, as the national conversation twists, weaves and dodges around the cancer crisis, thousands more people will miss their cancer diagnosis. I expect over the coming weeks to see the vaccine passport debate, promoted by the Government, to consume more and more oxygen, leaving no room for anything else.

    My sympathy for politicians is wearing thin. They need to get their priorities straight, and they need to do it quickly.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/14/cancer-patients-have-disastrously-let-covid-obsessed-government/

    1. Yo WS

      To fiddle a bit

      My sympathy for GPs is wearing thin. They need to get their priorities straight, and they need to do it quickly.

    2. “My sympathy for politicians is wearing thin. They need to get their priorities straight, and they need to do it quickly.”
      No, I think they already have their priorities straight, they just aren’t our prorities.

      1. My late parents refused to vote for them. At the time I thought that was shocking, but now I understand why.

  90. We know, Simon, we know…

    And for the record, ‘Civilisation’ is on the iPlayer.

    The BBC has no respect for history or older viewers – witness the plight of BBC Four

    To turn the once-noble ‘BBC Knowledge’ channel into a ‘repeats’ jukebox is shameful, but par for the Corporation’s anti-intellectual course

    SIMON HEFFER

    The BBC’s programming for those intelligent enough to tie their shoelaces without an instructional video has long been inadequate, and is getting worse. BBC Four – which some may recall was, when it was launched, known as “BBC Knowledge” – is now to become an “archive” channel: in other words, it will show just repeats rather than commissioning new programmes to help fulfil the Reithian intention of educating, as well as informing or entertaining.

    The BBC recently stated an intention to make programmes only for a younger, general audience, because the tastes of older ones are too varied. Yes, that’s the problem with older people: they’ve read a few books, have intellectual curiosity, and in their documentary tastes (whether in the arts, humanities or sciences) are therefore just too bloody determined to learn something new. And since advancing the frontiers of knowledge takes one to a wild and unexplored world that cannot always be spoon-fed as if to imbeciles, the BBC can’t be bothered to do so any more.

    This will prove exceptionally bad for those interested in history, and indeed for a country whose knowledge of history is often poor thanks to the failures of our education system, and badly requires improvement by other means. Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, who has made some history programmes for the network, says in this week’s Radio Times that the decision to make BBC Four a repeats channel will mean the end of its remit to make “intellectually and culturally enriching” programming of the sort one almost never sees on BBc One or Two.

    The BBC’s spin doctors have said that the networks will concentrate on commissioning “unique, high-impact content”, which Prof Lipscomb interprets as meaning “populist” programmes that draw in the undemanding. And, since the aim is to maximise audiences, Prof Lipscomb is almost certainly right here, as she is when she says that in future there will be no place for programming that is “quirky, highbrow, cosmopolitan and thoughtful”. The BBC denied Prof Lipscomb’s assertions – but then they would, wouldn’t they?

    In truth, BBC Four has been dying a lingering death for years, and serious history programming with it. For a time, it had commissioning editors who took chances and who recognised that their potential audience were not just young, superficial metropolitan airheads. It has shown a high proportion of repeats for ages. Some of these are indeed good and worth watching: but nobody appears to have told the present generation of BBC commissioning editors that sometimes scholars undertake new research, new discoveries are made and new areas of thought open up.

    It ought to have been obvious to them because, for example, historians keep publishing books on subjects that other historians have already covered. This is not because the latest historians are plagiarists; it is because they have been into archives, done painstaking work in them, and discovered material that either no-one else has, or no-one has analysed in the enlightened and intelligent way that they have. Apparently, this rule does not apply to television documentaries: if somebody made a series on the Nazis 10, 20 or 30 years ago, then there can’t be anything to add now, so there is no need to make a new programme or series about them – is there?

    Perhaps worse, part of the long-term deterioration of BBC Four has been how dismal its choice of repeats is. We await in vain a re-run of one of the finest documentary series ever made – Civilisation – for reasons one presumes are obvious. Its presenter, Lord Clark, was old, white, male, posh and highly educated, all characteristics that make him anathema to modern BBC executives. The fact he was an authority on art and a brilliant communicator is, of course, irrelevant. Also, Clark’s crime was that the civilisation with whose history he was concerned was the one that had shaped our country: that of the West. The failure to give equality of esteem to the history of non-European civilisations makes his work, in the eyes of today’s BBC, unacceptable.

    There is plenty more evidence, beyond history programming, that the BBC has not taken its “cultural” channel seriously for some time. Documentaries about classical music have been few and far between and, when allowed out of their box, tend to consist of young presenters emoting about why a piece of music or a performer is special to them: they teach little about composers or their works.

    Most of the music content of BBC Four consists of Friday night re-runs of Top of the Pops (heavily edited to exclude the various child molesters who featured in it), compilations from the Old Grey Whistle Test and old documentaries on drug-addled rock stars. When one of Britain’s greatest documentary makers, Tony Palmer, recently enquired of the channel whether it would like to re-screen his award-winning documentary about Stravinsky to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, the dolt to whom he spoke had to ask who Stravinsky was.

    As a historian, Prof Lipscomb was lucky she was allowed on the air. Much of the history programming on the network in recent years has centred upon the talents of Dr Lucy Worsley, who apparently makes the subject palatable to the hard-of-understanding by interpreting it via endless costume changes. Dr Worsley is a considerable scholar in her field; that field does not include some of the subjects on which she has presented programmes. Using her as a mere talking head rather than as an expert shows contempt not just for her, but for the whole idea of history and its teaching.

    One suspects the BBC is beyond hope now when it comes to representing any sort of history to the masses in an intelligent and enlightening way. It is hard to build a reputation for serious programming, but wrecking it is the work of a moment. A culture secretary with any clout, and any sense of what culture really means, would have had Tim Davie, the director-general, on the carpet long before now to ask why the BBC’s charter should be renewed if it is abandoning one of the reasons why it was granted one.

    The BBC says, in its defence, that the over-55s are leaving it for rival subscription services. Perhaps one of those rival services will now start commissioning serious history of the sort one might have seen on the BBC 20 years ago but which, itself, is now history. There is a gap in the market, and it is getting bigger.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/bbc-has-no-respect-history-older-viewers-witness-plight-bbc/

  91. I have spent many hours today attempting to remove my mobile phone service from Vodafone. A few weeks ago I sent several hours on the phone to various of their departments trying to get a technical problem fixed. It never was. Then yesterday I received an email saying that the cost of their service to me was going to be increased. A trivial amount actually, but I only use around 1% of the cheapest “plan” that they offer. The last straw. I have been with them for some time. The contract expired in 2006 and I have done nothing about it through sheer inertia.
    A call to their call centre today resulted I my hanging on the phone for 20 minutes waiting for someone to answer, “We are very busy just now. someone who can help you will answer as soon as available”. I gave up. I tried using access via my account and followed to directions from web page to web page and back to the page from which I had started. Very clever! Vodafone.
    Next I tried the online chat box. I was asked various questions to prove I was the account holder and then I presented my requirements. I received the response, “I cannot answer these points, I will pass you to a human”. I was passed to Divyesh who asked various questions to prove I was the account holder and then I presented my requirements. He then told me that he would have to check stuff and it would take a few minutes.
    Eventually he came back and said that he would have to pass me to another department. I was passed to Molly who asked various questions to prove that I was the account holder (yes, the same questions asked by the machine and by Divyesh). Molly asked me what the problem was, and why was I leaving? I replied that I was fed up and did not wish to go into detail and could we proceed. So we did. I am shortly to become an ex customer.
    All I can say is that Divyesh and Molly were very polite.
    Other problems with communications over the last three days led me to a thought:
    In a society fixated on the phone, businesses don’t answer the phone.

    1. Funny how you can always get into these contracts by using a web site without a load of ‘security’ but never get out of the service in the same way!

    2. You could try GiffGaff. Flexible and economical, it runs on the O2 service.
      Big firms use behavioural psychologists to keep you on the hook by making it difficult to leave. They like to employ Asians, and anyone with a strong regional accent, knowing that mature Britons find it difficult to understand them.

    4. We use BT for phones and Internet. The phones cost us £5/month and I’m not sure if that’s each as Best Beloved does the negotiation – she can be a tartar.

    5. Customer services in general has built walls around them selves.
      Although i did have a pretty decent experience from Argos lat year after i bought a new lawn mower and the grass collator box kept falling off.
      I wrote and email to the boss of Sainsburys, i was contacted by a pleasant lady who couldn’t do enough for me. Including sending me a brand new different make of lawn mower, letting me keep the first one. I’m going to have to extend the shed 😄

    7. I’m with iD Mobile which uses the 3 network . A Sim-only deal which costs £6 per months for unlimited minutes, texts and 2Gb of 4G data which rolls over for one month. I do have a decent Samsung S8 mobile also. More than happy with both.

  92. Evening, all. It was Blair’s act of meanness that robbed Her Majesty of her yacht.

    1. It was a terrible thing to do to HM. Sadly I think she will be too old to enjoy a replacement and her life has changed.
      Good evening Conway.

      1. I am afraid I agree with you about HM being unable to enjoy a replacement RY at this stage of her life. I trust you’ve had a good day.

      2. It never fails me to be appalled by just how mean nasty and vindictive Blair is.

        Will he ever get his just deserts?

    2. The Royal Yacht was single hulled and will not have gained a certificate of seaworthiness. It should rightly have been replaced with a more sophisticated vessel.

      There was an opportunity for our great naval architects, interior architects and designers and our great shipbuilders to make a suitably prestigious replacement vessel.

      Major and Blair remain miserable mean and unworthy individuals with the worst defect of no imagination.

      1. I agree that the RY needed updating, but that should have been done rather than scrap it with no replacement.

      2. Indeed.
        Hope that they would not have used the designers & fabricators of the two leaky aircraft carriers, though. British Leyland, weren’t they?

    3. 331560+ up ticks,
      Evening C,
      Then in place of a pretty yacht a working naval patrol vessel or two would be a lasting legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh protecting the English / GB shores.

  94. DM Story

    NONE of the Royals will wear uniform at Philip’s funeral to spare Harry and Andrew’s blushes: Duke of Sussex ‘wanted to wear military outfit’ alongside his uncle – but Queen decides they’ll ALL wear mourning dress in departure from tradition

    So the only way to stop Harry wearing a uniform to which he is no longer entitled is that all the other members of the Royal family entitled to wear their uniforms and wishing to do so have be instructed by the Queen to wear civilian clothes.

    More pandering to the spoilt and nasty brat. The sooner he goes back to the States and stays there the better.

    1. Or pandering to Andrew? I was not sure how much of that story was the Mail stirring the pot.
      Andrew’s position is more delicate than Harry’s because nothing is official, and it’s due to a bad stink rather than anything concrete. Personally I hope the sleazebag never returns to royal duties.

    2. I guess they are trying to include Harry still in the family. Good for the Queen to continue to make the effort, I suppose. I’m rather more judgemental about these things – remind me, who started it all by pissing in the tea?

    1. A story this week that was downplayed by the media. They don’t vaccinate. They got ill. They got better. They got herd immunity.

      Big pharma not impressed.

    1. Truck supplied by Ford*. Big gun supplied by ?

      * Armed Taliban running around in a Ford truck, ready to attack American troops as required. Does the American government and the military industrial complex not get a bit confused sometimes?

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