Sunday 18 April: In memory of the Duke: a new kind of royal yacht to boost Britain

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/2021/04/17/lettersin-memory-duke-new-kind-royal-yacht-boost-britain/

658 thoughts on “Sunday 18 April: In memory of the Duke: a new kind of royal yacht to boost Britain”

  3. I watched most of the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral broadcast yesterday and was bowled over by the singing of the ‘choir’, a quartet of wonderful voices singing Prince Philip’s choice of works. I must make a special mention of Australian soprano Miriam Allan who sang the hymn, Melita, alongside members of the Queen’s Six. What a voice!
    The purity and clarity of their singing could not have been matched by a full choir, and I write as one who spent 21 years as a member of Canterbury Choral Society. A very tiny nit-pick: the subtitling team missed this typo during the performance, but then, nobody’s perfect! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e2ccd5031f0169fdc41e0d9d1a3a3e1d6d3f937cf756aeea113d1d3371fadd24.jpg

  5. Don’t blame Russia… WE are the ones pushing for a war. 18 April 2021.

    Once it ruled a vast empire that began at Marienborn in the middle of Germany, less than 500 miles from Calais. Now it is almost 1,500 miles from the Channel to Russia’s western frontier. It controlled a vast military alliance and an economic bloc, now both very dead.

    It maintained a global navy, most of which was long ago turned into fridges and washing machines. Much of the rest is so decrepit it can barely leave harbour. It was the headquarters of a stupid dogma, now finished and gone, which it tried to spread throughout the world.

    Morning everyone. The irony here of course being that we finished the Empire and adopted the Dogma!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9482475/PETER-HITCHENS-Dont-blame-Russia-ones-pushing-war.html

  8. Seems 77 Bde had to become regimented in their letter posts today using those in detention [without benefits to include the name of their playgroups they belong to [last letter] – 2 cheers to Echo Lu. Admiral West notably collated a set of signatures to replace the boats stolen from his bath tub by his grand kids – very noble:

    SIR – There has long been an economic case for replacing the Royal Yacht Britannia. It would be an asset in unlocking post-Brexit trade deals, showcase the UK, and provide an appropriate vessel for the Royal family.

    The sad loss of the Duke of Edinburgh gives added impetus as the nation looks for a lasting memorial to his life that encompasses his interests. We consider a replacement ship – flying the White Ensign and with a Royal Navy crew – acting as a training ship, trade platform, humanitarian vessel, mobile embassy and royal yacht, proudly made in the UK and bearing his name, to be a fitting legacy.

    Estimates of cost are in the region of £190 million and the manpower would also have to be funded. To put this in perspective, this amounts to 1/2000th of the cost, to date, of the pandemic. We appreciate that the public purse has huge demands upon it and so other funding streams, including the private sector and public subscription, should also be considered, but let us first agree that such a flagship, to complement the new aircraft carriers, is a project of national worth. The funding can be considered later.

    In the meantime, we call upon the Government to undertake a full cost-benefit analysis of such a vessel to replace that which should never have been lost upon the demise of the previous royal yacht.

    Craig Mackinlay MP (Con)
    Sir John Hayes MP (Con)
    Admiral Lord West of Spithead (Lab)
    Jake Berry MP (Con)
    Sheryll Murray MP (Con)
    James Sunderland MP (Con)
    Sir David Amess MP (Con)
    Sir Edward Leigh MP (Con)
    Sir Roger Gale MP (Con)
    Bob Blackman MP (Con)
    Andrew Rosindell MP (Con)
    Lord Shinkwin (Con)
    Baroness Meyer (Con)
    Giles Watling MP (Con)
    Richard Drax MP (Con)
    Michael Fabricant MP (Con)
    Tim Loughton MP (Con)
    Karl McCartney MP (Con)
    David Morris MP (Con)
    Sir Desmond Swayne MP (Con)
    Sir John Redwood MP (Con)
    Adam Holloway MP (Con)
    Mark Francois MP (Con)
    James Gray MP (Con)

    London SW1

    SIR – I support Lt Cdr Brian Smith’s idea (Letters, April 16) that a new royal yacht should be named HMY Elizabeth and Philip, following the precedent of HMY Victoria and Albert.

    Many ships acquire affectionate nicknames: HMS Endurance was known as the Red Plum, HMS Charybdis as Cherry B, and HMS Sheffield as Shiny Sheff.

    If the idea is taken up, it won’t be too long before she is known as HMY Liz ’n’ Phil – affectionately, of course.

    Cdr Peter Baseby RN (retd)
    Kennington, Oxfordshire

    SIR – The strict observance by the Queen and the Royal family of the current Covid rules showed their consideration and respect for all those who have died in the past year, and whose families had to cope with even tighter regulations as they laid their loved ones to rest.

    Susan Turner
    Ascot, Berkshire

    SIR – How much more beautiful the floral tributes to Prince Philip looked without their cellophane wrapping, as in your picture (April 16) from Marlborough House gardens.

    Let us hope this will set a new trend of laying flowers, which will be one more thing for which we owe thanks to the Duke.

    Anne F Bloor
    Leicester

    Bring back basic rights

    SIR – I subscribe completely to Janet Daley’s view (“How did a free people become so relaxed about losing their liberty?”, Comment, April 4).

    How excited I was when I moved to Britain a couple of years ago, leaving a country torn apart by extremism, and joining one where individual rights – the base of a fair and functional liberal democracy – seemed to be taken seriously and were not under threat.

    While I perceived the complete inversion of such values early last year as an emergency, temporary arrangement born out of desperation, it is causing me tremendous discomfort and fear that our supposed way out of this pandemic won’t necessarily end up in a return to normality, but rather will involve a slow grinding to a halt of normal life brought about by healthcare planners with a Soviet bent for all-encompassing rules. The pain is outlasting the cure.

    We should absolutely aim at normality and the full restoration of our basic rights and liberties – not to threaten this country’s fabric with things like restricting protests or introducing vaccine checks.

    Eduardo Peixoto
    London NW10

    HS2 U-turn is overdue

    SIR – I was astonished to read the statement by Andy Street (report, April 4), the would-be chairman of HS2 – a three-day-week job that pays £200,000 a
    year – that HS2 should not be reconsidered because “the Government has made its decision”.

    Throughout the Covid pandemic there’s hardly been a single government decision that hasn’t subsequently been changed, sometimes within a matter of days.

    One of HS2’s more absurd original justifications was that its speed would enable travelling business people to spend more time in their office (ignoring laptops on trains). Covid has convincingly demonstrated that there are other means of communicating without the need for physical travel, and those means can only improve in the decades ahead. Far from levelling-up the North, it is just as likely to encourage talent to migrate to the South.

    The stunning (and ever-increasing) cost of HS2 represents a major proportion of the forecast national deficit. The sunk costs are already substantial – there is no justification for throwing good money after bad.

    The Government should have the courage to abandon this expensive and environmentally unsound white elephant without delay.

    David Argent
    Crondall, Hampshire

    No larking matter

    SIR – I have lived in West Sussex for over 70 years and one of the reasons ground birds such as sky larks (What to spot, March 14), partridge, pheasant and even hedgehogs are decreasing here is because badgers prey on them.

    They are no longer treated as vermin, so there are just too many and unfortunately the only thing culling them legally is the motor vehicle.

    Derek Allfrey
    Petworth, West Sussex

    Today’s Sloane Ranger

    SIR – The authors of the The Chin Dictionary (Society, April 11) are misinformed if they think that today’s Sloane Rangers would ever refer to “the Hurlingham”. I play tennis at Hurlingham or at the Hurlingham Club, but never at the Hurlingham.

    Clare Byam-Cook
    London SW15

    Who should vaccinate

    SIR – When Dr Kosta Manis (Letters, April 4) talks of the vital role of GPs in the Covid vaccination campaign, I trust he is referring to the wider general-practice community. Every year in the UK hundreds of thousands of vaccinations are safely administered by general practice nurses.

    Guidance published by the Royal College of Nursing states: “There is no reason for a medical practitioner to be on site when vaccines are being administered. Nurses should only administer immunisations and vaccinations if they are trained and competent and this includes being up to date with anaphylaxis management”.

    The national minimum standards for immunisation training apply for any registered health care professional involved in vaccinating, and the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice provides cover for all general practice staff undertaking NHS primary medical services under contract.

    GPs would do well to let general practice nurses get on with the vaccinating, thereby making sure that they are available to attend to the immense backlog of very serious and often life-threatening conditions now affecting so many patients.

    Dr Nigel McKie
    Helston, Cornwall

    Online or bust

    SIR –I have banked with Investec for over 15 years. It informed me recently that my cash deposit account would be changing over to online and that accessing it would require a smartphone, which I do not own.

    After informing them of this, it suggested I could still open a new account and then afterwards purchase a smartphone, but that there was no alternative other than to close the account. What has happened to freedom of choice?

    Valerie Willetts
    Plymouth, Devon

    News circle

    SIR – Regarding the use of bits of the Telegraph as piano-key balance washers (“How Telegraph was key to 19th-century piano mystery”, April 11), I cut out circles of the Telegraph to put in the bottom of pots for sowing broad bean seeds.

    I have done this for years as it helps to restrain the main germination root and prevent it escaping through the bottom of the pot.

    David Beaumont
    Preston, Lancashire

    Battle to care for people with Down’s syndrome

    SIR – I write in response to the interview with Jane Jessop (“‘Having a child with Down’s is all about love’”, Features, April 4), the mother of Tommy Jessop, who appears in Line of Duty. He is a brilliant actor, and one of many very accomplished disabled people with Down’s syndrome.

    It’s crucial that readers are aware of the challenges that people with Down’s syndrome and their families face without access to the right support.

    My daughter, Georgia, now 28, has faced many challenges in her life and we have faced them with her and for her. She does not read or write but her emotional intelligence and empathy are unparalleled. She needs support in every aspect of her life and with this leads a good life in a supported-living house near us. The fight for access and support is a constant in Georgia’s life, and represents a significant undertaking for the whole family.

    These challenges and barriers are very real and will continue until disabled people have full and equal access to society. As with so many other things, social privilege plays a huge part in the experiences our children and young people have.

    Much focus is now placed on free prenatal tests, but the gap in the information provided to expectant parents is wide. It is not for me or anyone else to tell expectant parents what they should or should not do. They must be presented with balanced, unbiased information, as offered by the Down’s Syndrome Association, to ensure their decisions are informed and well supported.

    Sarah Robinson
    Maidstone, Kent

    SIR – Eight weeks ago, the Prime Minister set out a roadmap to ease lockdown, culminating in a pledge to reopen the economy, remove legal restrictions on socialising and end social distancing on June 21.

    Delivering this rested on vaccination – protecting the most vulnerable nine groups and over-50s – and declines in deaths and incidence. Almost two thirds of adults have now received a first vaccine dose and cases have fallen dramatically as a result.

    We must be driven by data not dates – and the data say it is safe to confirm now the reopening of indoor hospitality on May 17 and the lifting of all social-distancing restrictions on hospitality on June 21. This is vital as government support for hospitality tapers away then, and without it many businesses will be unviable. Two thirds couldn’t open outdoors from April 12, and none is breaking even.

    The Prime Minister set out the right path. He should stick to it and not let it be derailed by talk of vaccine passports in pubs and restaurants.

    Phil Urban
    CEO, M&B

    Simon Emeny
    CEO, Fuller’s

    Patrick Dardis
    CEO, Young’s

    John Hutson
    CEO, J D Wetherspoon

    Clive Chesser
    CEO, Punch

    Kevin Georgel
    CEO, St Austell

    Jens Hofma
    CEO, Pizza Hut

    Gerry Ford
    Chairman, Caffè Nero

    Andy Hornby
    CEO, The Restaurant Group

    Nick Varney
    CEO, Merlin

    Steve Richards
    CEO, Parkdean Resorts

    Alan Morgan
    CEO, Big Table

    Ken McMeikan
    CEO, Moto

    Nick Mackenzie
    CEO, Greene King

    Simon Longbottom
    CEO, Stonegate Pub Company

    Rob Pitcher
    CEO, Revolution

    Nick Collins
    CEO, Loungers

    Mark Derry
    CEO, Brasserie Bar Co

    Mark Selby
    CEO, Wahaca

    Peter Borg-Neal
    Chair, Oakman Inns

    Peter Marks
    CEO, Rekom

    Tim Doubleday
    CFO, Burger King

    Aidan McAulay
    Senior Vice President, Accor Hotels

    David Loewi
    CEO, D&D Restaurants

    Gavin Adair
    CEO, Rosas Thai

    Robin Rowland
    Chair, Thunderbird

    Ranjit Mathrani
    Chair, RM Restaurants

    Andy Townsend
    CEO, Legacy Hotels

    Alex Salussolia
    CEO, Glendola Leisure

    Phil Thorley
    MD, Thorley Taverns

    Brian Whiting
    MD, Whiting & Hammond

    Paul Wigham
    CEO, All Our Bars

    Kevin Sammons
    CEO, Pub People

    Garry Mallen
    CEO, GM Pubs

    James Nye
    MD, Anglian Country Inns

    Jon Lake
    CEO, Chopstix

    Daniel Davies
    CEO, Rockpoint Leisure

    Echo Lu
    CEO, Haulfryn Group

    1. Well, lads and lassies, there seem to be quite a few of you representing a lot of people in a lot of companies. Why do you not all agree to open fully on the same date, possibly at the end of next week? If there is any intervention by police etc why not take the government to court? People have a right to earn a living and it is likely that the courts will defend this right. If they do not then we are all slaves to a totalitarian government with no limit on its power.

      1. That’s a powerful lobby group but the government will ignore it without consideration.😎

        2. I’m appalled that while shadowy foreigners who produce NOTHING and contribute NOTHING of value to our country wield so much power via the agencies and people that they have bought…the above group which represents companies that actually provide valuable products and employ people, appears to be so powerless in comparison.

          1. Those shadowy figures’ power/influence would not exist if we had “leaders” who put their Country and its people first. That hasn’t happened since 1990.

      2. The trouble is, I think we are all slaves to a totalitarian government. We just haven’t realised it yet. This is a fight between those who believe in central planning and those who believe in the ability of people to organise things for themselves.
        The central planners have conned people into thinking that they hold all the cards.

      1. He’s being prompted to give the right answer by holding up four fingers, Bob3, but so ignorant that he is drawing a hand without the thumb he cannot see.

      1. or given the pic posted, bearded ladies. They’ll need equality in your percentages figure or it’ll be classed as a Hate Crime

  14. Good Morning Folks,

    Though I might be first at this time of day on a Sunday morning.

    Needless to say a bright frosty start here,
    It’s been so cold the grass has stopped growing.

  15. Expand Your Vocabulary

    Just a reminder for all you folks that we are never too old to learn and continue to be polite to others.

    How to say “I Love You” in 10 Languages
    English I Love You
    Spanish Te Amo
    French Je T’aime
    German Ich Liebe Dich
    Japanese Ai Shite Imasu
    Italian Ti Amo
    Chinese Wo Ai Ni
    Swedish Jag Alskar Dig
    Lithuanian As Tave Meliu
    Alabama, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Florida, Georgia,
    Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
    South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
    Virginia, West Virginia Nice Tits, Get in the Truck.

    1. are these septic States the same ones you can cross State boundaries for a C-19 jab then as good reward participate in a Buy Large Mansions riot?

      1. As far as I know, AWK, they are the States that get lumped together as, ‘The Deep South’.

          1. I doubt if much of the Deep South would have any truck with BLM, Antifa or Extinction.

            Many are preparing to secede from the Union.

  16. The Observer view on Joe Biden’s sanctions on Russia. Observer editorial. 18 April 2021.

    Momentum towards dangerous confrontation between the US and its allies, on the one hand, and the authoritarian Chinese and Russian regimes is undoubtedly growing. Biden faces numerous flashpoints, notably Taiwan and the Black Sea. A White House meeting with Japan’s prime minister on Friday underscored his efforts to shore up western defences.

    Yet Biden is no Ronald Reagan, simplistically bent on vanquishing evil empires. Even as he punished Russia, he invited Putin to a summit on neutral ground to iron out their differences or at least defuse them. “The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable, predictable relationship,” he said.

    You have to ask yourself how anyone can write such guff without collapsing over the keyboard in gibbering hysterical laughter. A summit? One of these men is the world’s greatest Statesman; as smart as a wagon load of monkeys and who has served his country wonderfully well. The other is a corrupt, senile sex pervert who cannot remember his own birthdate. What would they discuss?

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/18/observer-view-on-joe-biden-sanctions-russia-vladimir-putin

    1. Indeed. However, I do not know what the Black Sea has do with the US, or vice versa.

    2. Don’t forget Joe “Soros” Biden pulls the levers and nothing much happens.

      For a good reason !

    3. maybe help the Graunid / Observer out re a summit giving the agenda as: Putin as an Orthodox recites / sings Tommy Steele’s Flash Bang Wallop https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5n91DasMENY Demented Joe believes he’s reading the lyrics to find differences but is reading https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/17/alabama-yoga-ban-public-schools-christian-groups and they agree on planning Demented Joe’s funeral to his vestal virgins on a stairlift serenaded by a live version of Led Zep’s Stairway to Heaven. That’s about the max limit anyone at the rag would understand

  17. Mail to YKW…

    What is a “free society” ?

    Is it a “society” run on democratic principles without collusion and corruption of politicians with billionaires?

    If it is, why are you ignoring all the evidence which strongly suggests collusion and corruption of politicians with billionaires in the UK?

    What did your “Bruges Group” mean when they described Mr Soros as a “real and dangerous influence”?

    Why did Mr Major, Mr Blair, Mr Brown and Mr Cameron all ignore Mr Soros in their autobiographies and not say one word about him?

    Despite most of their policies being identical to Mr Soros’ policies and despite Mr Soros spending vast sums of money through Open Society London to “leverage” what he wants via ”strong relationships with politicians”? Despite it being proven that Mr Blair did a number of “deals” involving Mr Soros, and Mr Blair and Mr Brown definitely meeting Mr Soros personally ?

    Why the wall to wall silence about Mr Soros?

    Is it because certain UK politicians have something to hide?

    Polly

    1. mng PP, more now an attempt by politicians to suppress what the real world knows and doing everything they can think of in the hope they can ignore it and it goes away

      1. Those four autobiographies are such a give away!

        Not a word about the sale of 31% of QinetiQ by Tony Blair in 2003 at quarter value through John Major, European Chairman of the purchaser, Carlyle Group, via a tax haven, where Soros was the star “buy out client” involving a $7.5 Billion defense contract on the day of sale.

        Why give an organization you’re selling a $7.5 Billion deal through a tax haven on the day you sell it?

        Maybe because Mr Blair and his friends wanted a slice? I wonder if that’s what happened?

        1. shifting decreasing slosh funds around ever decreasing circle. They’re running out rapidly of “facilitation / door opening” options. What they have collectively done, aside economically exposing themselves, is openly playing their hand / stating their intentions before anyone’s rolled the dice. It’s their economic version of Russian roulette, following same steps as before

  18. Good morning from a bright but cold Derbyshire.
    -2½°C on the yard thermometer when I got up an hour ago.

    I’m not putting a link up, but I’ve just watched one of the videos of the shooting of the 13yo lad in Chicago last month and it raised some questions in my mind.

    1: Did the officer SEE the lad dump the gun?
    2: How long was it between him starting to turn & raise his hands and the officer firing?
    3: Did the Officer interpret the lad’s actions as a threat and was thus squeezing the trigger as he turned?
    4: And perhaps the most important question, WTF was a 13yo lad doing with a gun at that time of night in the first place???

    It disgusts me how people can use a tragedy like this for political advantage.

      2. Dr Dolores Cahill, profile here reported on this (she quoted 1500 swabs so I’m assuming it’s the same research) back in October. She was hoping for more swabs to become available to strengthen her argument. There has been a number of suggestions forwarded re the idea of misattribution of influenza this past year. One has to wonder why…

      3. Dr Dolores Cahill, profile here reported on this (she quoted 1500 swabs so I’m assuming it’s the same research) back in October. She was hoping for more swabs to become available to strengthen her argument. There has been a number of suggestions forwarded re the idea of misattribution of influenza this past year. One has to wonder why…

      1. Wasn’t it Lambeth in the 1970s that used the aborted South Circular Road proposal to route the planned scheme through it’s Tory voting wards and as an excuse to use compulsory purchase to blight those wards and drive out the Tory voters?
        If I recall correctly, they destroyed a large percentage of the areas housing stock as they did so.

        1. Was it also one of the London boroughs that declared itself a ‘nuclear free zone’?
          There are rusting notices on lamp posts beside the A12 as it runs into the Grey Wen. I imagine the nuclear cloud, screeching to a halt and shamefacedly swerving off to somewhere less enlightened; Chelmsford or Southend, say.

    3. Laurence Fox is providing a valuable public service by laughing at this nonsense.

      Someone told me recently, apparently without irony “But Blackbox, you don’t have a TV so you don’t realise how bad the pandemic is.”

      You can guess what my reply to that was!

  20. Word has reached me of an anti-lockdown demonstration in a small town in Bavaria yesterday. Apparently it attracted a lot of enthusiastic support from passing motorists, as well as two unsavoury pale masked men who cycled up and down in front of the protesters, spitting venom at them. I assume that was the local Hantifa Youth.

    Not sure if this was part of a larger network of similar protests or not.

  22. I was thinking over yesterday’s event. Had an idea for future royal funerals. Lying in state in Westminster Hall for several days – so that the great unwashed can show their respect. Then have the funeral at Windsor – with the same sort of ceremonial as yesterday.

    1. If you mean the great unwashed as in dishonourable Members of Lords, Commons and civil servants re Westinster Hall then yes, spot on

    2. I think that Meghan has arranged for hers to be broadcast live on TV after a parade down Rodeo Blvd in Hollyweird stopping off at her favorite Rolex & Gucci stores & with Hussein & Michelle Obama, Chris Jenner & Oprah Winfrey as her lady pall bearers.

          1. If they got organised, BLM / Antifa would rock up in their KKK rig with torches, to add “a touch of colour” to proceedings

  23. Czech police hunt two men with names matching Skripal suspects. 18 April 2021.

    The Czech police have issued a wanted notice for Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, the two Russian intelligence agents wanted in the UK for the 2018 attempted poisoning of Sergei Skripal in Salisbury.

    At the same time the Czech government announced it was expelling 18 Russian diplomats from Prague in connection with two explosions at an ammunition dump in 2014 that killed two people.

    The second paragraph is gobbledygook, it is intended to say that Petrov and Boshirov were connected with the explosion. It is an example of the crass ineptitude that accompanies the rest of the story.

    Are we really to believe that two men suspected of murder and sabotage in 2014 then went swanning around Europe without anyone noticing? That they entered the UK in 2018 on the same fake identity papers with Novichok, a military Grade Nerve Agent concealed in Feminine Fragrance bottles? If this were true, it would be a sign of Chutzpah, (or chronic stupidity) of a high order.

    The explosion itself is interesting. It is just one of many in the Czech Republic. They are as common as dirt. There was one in 2015 and another last year, neither attributed to the GRU. This is due to Czech arms dealers buying all the dodgy arms supplies on the open market and flogging them off to Africa. These are mostly useless or unstable. This one was probably chosen because it was the only one when the two Russians were coincidently present in the country.

    So what is actually going on here? Well it looks like Mi6 persuaded its Czech counterparts to add this to the list to support the fake Skripal Narrative that judging by observation and non-official sources is coming under severe credibility pressure.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/17/czech-police-hunt-two-men-names-matching-skripal-suspects/

      1. Morning AW. They’ve brought in a ringer for the Sturgess inquest to make sure the story stays on track!

          1. Yes. The new Coroner is a Baroness Halket who has form for being a reliable Lackey!

    2. Semtex was a Czech invention. Are there retired Czech apparatchiks with it stored in garden sheds alongside expiring glysophate? Are the explosions due it it sweating and becoming unstable?
      We need BoB – explosives expert extraordinaire – to enlighten us.

    1. Why the Eff is he sporting a Union flag? He has been one of the prime movers in reducing this country to the USSR without the successful space programme.

          1. I apologised to MB. In lieu of a birthday bash – postponed pro tem – I gave him a couple of books so he had a parcel on the day.
            If only I had a spare 30% share in a businesses, which as if by magic, suddenly acquired a meaty government contract. That wrapped up with pretty bow on top, would have gone down well with the first birthday coffee.

  25. 331694+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    “Sunday 18 April: In memory of the Duke: a new kind of royal yacht to boost Britain”

    Who really is boosting this idea, I agree it should be returned in regards to the Queen and as a benefit to the Nation but…..

    To “boost” a nation like the UK in its current condition is really asking for more of the same as is being done at every General election and that certainly does NOT need being gifted.

    Boosted also has criminal connotations which one would say is in keeping with today’s society.

    Urgent priority number one is a high speed fishing protection / reverse
    incoming invasion vessel, priority number two is more of the same.
    Named “The Duke of Edinburgh realm protection fleet 1 2 3 4 as needed.

    The mindset of the politico’s will see this as a confrontational move
    against their ongoing replacement, reset agenda and would be behind,
    as I see it a yacht, a vanity project fronting their creation, the country as it is at this moment in time.

    Reinstate the Royal Yacht to the Queen & Country most definite, AFTER reinstating the Country to its former self, as in an independent nation, proud of its standing regarding decency & patriotism.

    Ps,
    Award b liar an iron mask.

    1. ..proud of its standing regarding decency & patriotism.

      Morning Oggy. Two virtues that have vanished from the UK!

      1. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning AS,
        Precisely, along with self respect in many, how can the “vote in to keep out, best of the worst, voting pattern” be beneficial
        for a nation ?

        Especially on seeing as the lab/lib/con are a mass uncontrolled immigration ongoing coalition.

  26. If you are unwise enough to use the Chrome browser to access the internet, you may be interested in the following article from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
    https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/am-i-floced-launch

    It might pay to check it out and find whether you are being floc’d by Google or not.

    Edit: I wasn’t sure if the link would show any content – it didn’t so here is the gist:
    Google has selected random Chrome users to be guinea pigs for its next generation of spy software. It uses information gained from your browser to assign you to a group, which determines what sort of ads and marketing you are on the receiving end of. Google disingenuously says that none of your private info leaves your computer – as far as I can make out, this is because the algorithm works on your computer, and only sends the results out.

    1. luckily, no. Mozilla and Yandex, Duck Duck go as search engine. This angle got flagged up ahead of Kenya’s last Presidential election [guinea pigs again].

      1. I boycott Mozilla since they forced their CEO to resign because he made a donation to a pro-marriage organisation. They are just another California mentality company where only one opinion is allowed.

        2. I’m sure that there is something detestable to be found in all service providers, BB2.

          That is one good reason why I operate behind a VPN and keep moving around the world.

          Catch me if you Flocking can.

          1. You are right. I need to set up a VPN as well.
            I have recently realised that the way I have accessed the internet for around twenty years is too relaxed, and I need to be more organised.
            I am already moving off public web based email (hotmail and the like) towards private email.

            – I need a record of what accounts and passwords I’ve got and what information I’ve given them, either electronic (KeePass or similar) or physical
            – stop putting my mobile phone number in for two factor authentication, because if your number turns up too often in stolen data sets, you become a target for SIM cloning. Looking into the possibility of a physical token.
            – get a VPN for anonymous browsing

          2. If not using, merely can validate from here, Kaspersky Cloud has inbuilt VPN which is decent enough and should sort password angle [duplications, sites etc] too Keepass and Bitwarden are both good, you use one so better handle on that. Protonmail [free and paid option available] secure enough with its encryption. Agree re mob number on 2 factor authentication – Kaspersky picked that one up for me

          3. I have a protonmail a/c and will probably go for their VPN.
            I’m hesitating on KeePass though. Do they store data in the cloud? I assume they must, in case your computer breaks down. So one is actually trusting them not to get broken into.

          4. Not sure re Keepas, others on here may offer better insight. Bitwarden, Kaspersky yes. I use protonmail for “work related” comms.

          5. As far as I know, my KeePass data is only stored on my laptop. I can’t access it on here (phone) or desktop.

          8. Serious question! this has been holding me back from signing up to KeePass for ages!

          11. The FSB, not unknown in security circles, write stuff down on paper. Lock it up, and someone has to know where to go and how to open it when they get there to be able to read what’s written. Much better than cloud storage.

          12. which, believe it or not, there is a variant of FSB doing exactly that in Canary Wharf. Largest contract was for Tower Hamlets bypassing EU purchasing rules buying C-19 “vax” on behalf of Whitehall and heavily linked to the Square Mile

          13. I need to go back to doing that. Stopped when the requirement for special keys and numbers etc put a halt to the fun of recording the passwords in Cyrillic script.

          14. I have a VPN as part of the McAffee package – with virus protection and internet protection too.

          18. Avast does it for me as well as remembering passwords for you – on your computer and providing the VPN, plus regular sweeps and cleaning.

          20. I refuse to pay for it – I’ve been caught like that with another ‘Driver Updater’. Thanks for the heads up though and it might benefit others.

          21. Can the VPN providers be trusted? I looked at one based in Switzerland. My thought was if I wanted to track everyone and everything that they emailed or looked at, the best way would be to set up a VPN?

          22. up to a point, given it’s originally Mil spec software. The usual gig, if paying, the more you pay, the better the kit [licence]

    2. Morning BB2. I do have Chrome but I always assume that Google is nobbling the results of my searches anyway!

  27. Good Moaning.
    A chum sent me this snippet:

    “Prince Philip’s stirring funeral leaves Megxit drama 6 feet under

    Despite his funeral being a vastly scaled-down affair due to COVID-19 restrictions, Prince Philip stuck it to Meghan, Harry and Oprah with his regal send-off. The final sacrifice of the often contrarian husband of Queen Elizabeth II – who walked two paces behind his wife for 73 years – was to elicit admiration, awe and sympathy for the Crown after it came so brutally under fire from their jibes. What better way to erase the optics of that infamous interview in the gardens of a Santa Barbara”

    Read in New York Post: https://apple.news/ABdmdKeCOQleK_94JNRNNHQ

      1. Therefore, by not watching it I’m depriving them of at least one breath of the oxygen of publicity. Turds.

        1. Neither have I, the link was sent from septic land from a mate who’s also not exactly in Mrs Wallis Simpson II’s fan club either

          2. And a good morning to you, Elf!
            Hope the world is treating you kindly today.

          3. Yes thank you & I am off out soon as from today masks are no longer required out in the open but still have to be worn in enclosed places so I’ll have me little elf mask with me.

          4. I got a mask made taht has a picture of the lower half of my face on it. Another, with a cat face, and I’m waiting for a zombie face. They live in my pocket in case of need.
            Gotta take the piss when you can!

          5. Only things that live in my pocket are my wallet, keys, phone & at least one SAK ( for the uninitiated into the SAK fraternity that’s a Swiss Army Knife )

    3. I thought when I was watching the funeral, that it was the most effective way to show up the utter shallowness of the Megxit circus. That devotion and love that Meghan appears to crave was present in abundance. But it is only given to those who are genuinely loyal to a greater ideal than personal glory and victimhood.

  29. UK warships to sail for Black Sea in May as Ukraine-Russia tensions rise- Sunday Times.

    British warships will sail for the Black Sea in May amid rising tensions between Ukraine and Russia, the Sunday Times newspaper reported, citing senior naval sources.

    The deployment is aimed at showing solidarity with Ukraine and Britain’s NATO allies, the newspaper reported.

    One Type 45 destroyer armed with anti-aircraft missiles and an anti-submarine Type 23 frigate will leave the Royal Navy’s carrier task group in the Mediterranean and head through the Bosphorus into the Black Sea, according to the report.

    I see. We are going to sail where American Destroyers fear to tread? It takes no military genius to realise that the Black Sea is a large rain barrel with only one exit! Shooting fish would not be an inapplicable description should it come to hostilities!

    Anyone remember HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse who were sent to impress the Japanese in 1941?

    https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/uk-warships-sail-black-sea-may-ukraine-russia-tensions-rise-sunday-times-2021-04-18/

      2. Morning Hatman. Do we still have a Woolwich Ferry? I would have thought it would be gone in favour of a rowboat!

          1. Good morning, Hatman. Funny thing, the North London, South London divide. My father was born in Richmond Surrey, and, until he was 30, lived south of the river. When he retired he lived in Hampstead (sadly the wrong side of the Finchley Road!) and was always slightly uncomfortable about it. All his brothers lived in Surrey and he was always happier there.

          2. All of my relatives that still live in Engladesh have long since fled Londonistan & are spread out in Essex, the wilds of Yorkshire & even in the Pict kingdom north of the border in deep fried Glasgow

          3. My sister and her solicitor husband have lived in that part of the world for over 60 years but just north of the River at St Margaret’s, then Twickenham and now, just near the Thames and the Lensbury Club just upstream of Teddington Lock.

          4. Elf & Safe T – whereabouts in sarf london? Being from Plumstead the ferry was the usual weekend gig over to visit my nan, who was living back then in Canning town

          6. yes I recall it, not a million miles for Brockwell Park. Certainly get your point given Lambeth and Soutwark, Brixton are “neighbours”. Last time I was in woolwich [2016], same as usual, fresh paint, crap shops. Having worked in the Royal Arsenal before transferring to London, now it’s blocks of “yuppie flats” and probably full of dossers [the well heeled ones that is from Thamesmead]

          7. Elf & Safe T – whereabouts in sarf london? Being from Plumstead the ferry was the usual weekend gig over to visit my nan, who was living back then in Canning town

        3. 331694+ up ticks
          AS,
          They use to knock us off early on the Shell refinery them days if a heavy fog was evident, if the ferry back to Kent stopped you got rowed over for 1/2 crown or travelled up to the pipe among hostile essex tribesmen, through the pipe, one point in the middle you could only see tiles, and into God’s Country,Kent.

      3. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning E&S,
        The old Tilbury ferry we used from Gravesend
        had a double deck with a tea bar, the lady always seem to have alternating black eyes an all the lads on the way to Shellhaven use to sing ” The captains a wicked man”

        1. Good morning ogga1 can’t say I every took the Tilbury ferry but as a child I also sailed aboard the pirate galleon in the Peter Pan adventure playground at Southend on Sea

    2. “We reserve the right to cancel,should any of the countries bordering the Black Sea be on the Covid Red List”

        1. I’m not so sure.You could end up with two ships of the line in quarantine!!
          Bad show all round.

    3. I do hope that, when they are required to fight, all soldiers will remain two metres apart – all the time.

        1. Happy Sunday Phil, I hope you & your little doggie are well. My Sciatica has lessened considerably after 7 long months of daily pain & pills regime, not taken any pain killers for a few weeks except for an occasional mild Migraine attack.

          1. Dolly is well, though i have trouble keeping her weight down. She is beginning to resemble a beige coffee table.

            I on the other hand am not faring so well. I have lost the ability to walk more than a few paces. Had the Meds and CT scan and the Vascular Surgeon is telephoning on Tuesday morning.

            Happy Sunday to you too.

  31. 331694+ up ticks,

    Honour Prince Philip with a monument that celebrates his unfashionable love of the technical fix

    The rear exits will take his love of the sea to mean he should be at the bottom of the harbour.

    All in good time and that ain’t currently, it is my honest opinion and in view of his fighting spirit I do believe a gunboat to help consolidate his
    unfashionable love of the GB nation and its restoration.

    Try diverting the funds / membership fees of the lab/lib/con/greens
    coalition into a protection vessel ship building campaign, plus the bBc
    licence fee, MAKE CRIME PAY.

    1. There is a khaki coloured vintage land rover at Windsor Castle that must have risen considerably in value since last week. It is now an iconic item which has had world wide attention. Another item which will be of great value is the carriage the Duke of Edinburgh used in his competitions. The Royal Family might consider putting these two items on the market. The money raised could then be the foundation for any naval vessel the Royal Family choose to remember the Duke of Edinburgh. The two lovely horses of colour would not be part of the sale. Just a thought.

  32. Good Morning All
    We have a lovely neighbour Sheila a couple of doors down who was widowed about 5 years ago and is part of our “bubble”, way back further than would be proper to mention she joined the WRENs at the age of 16 and although she wished to sign on for another term after the first one was completed her family insisted that she returned home so her sister could seek a career (she didn’t). One thing that I’ve noticed is that if you were ever part of the Military even for a short time it seems to define your life and creates an unbreakable bond even into retirement, so it is with Sheila. Why am I burbling on so ? , Sheila came around for the usual Friday evening swill full of barely contained excitement , back in 1966 she had appeared in a WREN recruitment film and had spent the last couple of decades trying to track it down and this week she found it on YouTube, grainy , washed out colour and a poor sound track but she was over the moon. I spent a little time on the file and have improved it a little. Sheila appears briefly at 5.45

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iI9lEF3QbSw

    1. Good morning D

      That is a wonderful Wren recruitment clip , so very lucky to find it .

      Around about that time I was one of many student nurses who featured in a QARNNS recruiting ad as well,

      It looks as if some of the Wren filming was done in Malta , where many of us were based for a year !

      1. and good morning to you TB, the section she was in was filmed in RAF Lossiemouth where she was an ATC and some in the bowels of Whitehall of which she does not speak, she was also stationed at Penang and was left with a life long love of the place and the people and and overwinters there, not the last two years much to her dismay but we’ve done our best to take her mind of it with copious good food, booze, Yahtzee and Rummikubs.

      2. and good morning to you TB, the section she was in was filmed in RAF Lossiemouth where she was an ATC and some in the bowels of Whitehall of which she does not speak, she was also stationed at Penang and was left with a life long love of the place and the people and and overwinters there, not the last two years much to her dismay but we’ve done our best to take her mind of it with copious good food, booze, Yahtzee and Rummikubs.

        1. I was there and watched the show from my balcony. Didn’t spot you though Rastus. :@(

  33. Reflecting (still) on the funeral, I reckon that with the 30 mourners, the two priests, the five choir (inc. director), the organist, the ten bearer party – plus the telly people, of course, and the chaps manning the pulley system in the crypt – very serious offences were committed under the Plague Act.

    I am astounded that the Berkshire Constabulary did not raid the Chapel, take everyone’s name and address (“Buckingham Palace? – yeah, right – pull the other one”) and send them packing – as well as ishoo Brash with a deportation notice for bringing the plague with him.

    I have, as a matter of public concern, reported this lapse to HM Inspectorate of Constabulary….

    Gosh – there goes the front door….

    1. Its probably a Met Pol Swat counter terror team following up on a report that you put a red wine bottle in the white wine recycling bin, a serious offense under the strategic recycling act 2019, section 8 para IV

    2. PS – I forgot – the piper, the four buglers and the four trumpeters.

      Disgraceful flouting of the regulations. Heads must roll.

      1. It said “E ii R” on the front of the trumpeters’ tunics, not bloody BJ or Hancock or their puppetmasters!

        Not since Blair has the division between government and EiiR (the country that we love and are loyal to) been so wide!

    4. As far as numbers are concerned, this is exactly what I thought, Bill. And what about the 8 coffin bearers? There was certainly not 2 metres between each of them.

        1. Morning, Mahatma. Your post has reminded me that I need to strip the raised garden plots of their anti-freeze protective covers shortly because (HOORAY!) the temperatures will not go down to freezing for the rest of this month.

      2. Both MB and my hearts were in our mouths, particularly on that long climb up the steps.
        I know all the bearers are fit disciplined young men, but not only is the coffin solid wood it is also also lead lined.

        1. Remember Winston’s funeral? As they snaked their way down the aisle I had a horrible feeling that they might drop the coffin. It weighed a ton (literally).

    5. As far as numbers are concerned, this is exactly what I thought, Bill. And what about the 8 coffin bearers? There was certainly not 2 metres between each of them.

  34. Further to roughcommon’s comments earlier this morning…

    Douglas Murray
    The music at the heart of the Duke’s funeral
    17 April 2021, 6:11pm

    Every detail of today’s funeral of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, is likely to be pored over in the days ahead. But one aspect which should get particular attention is the musical contribution. For although the choir at the service in St George’s Chapel, Windsor, was reduced to only four singers due to Covid restrictions, their singing was a powerful and important testament to this country’s musical and specifically choral tradition. It was also a reminder of how at times of deep emotion music can provide a solace that words and other mediums of expression cannot.

    The settings of the Funeral Sentences by William Croft have been heard at state funerals, among others, for three centuries. At the funerals of Baroness Thatcher and Princess Diana they were sung, respectively, by the choirs of St Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey in procession. But their stationary rendition today by the four singers of St George’s Chapel, Windsor was as moving a performance as any. The performance brought out the extraordinary genius and simplicity of these great affirmations of faith, and was a reminder that much of the great English music of the 17th and 18th centuries does not require vast forces to achieve its most moving effects.

    One of the Duke’s requests for his funeral was that the choir should sing Benjamin Britten’s Jubilate. That work was commissioned by the Duke an astonishing sixty years ago, for the Chapel choir of St George’s, Windsor. It is one of a number of works that commemorate the connection between the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and one of Britain’s greatest composers, and has firmly entered the repertory since its first performance.

    The Russian Kontakion of the Departed, sung at the end of the service, has been treated by some commentators as though it was an interloper into the service from another tradition entirely. Yet the Kontakion has been in English hymnals for many decades and is a reminder that while the choral tradition of these islands is an evolving idiom of its own it has also always been receptive to outside influence.

    This has been an especially miserable year for musicians and other performers. Many of the churches and cathedrals of this country have been silent for the first time in their long history. Numerous church choirs have been shut down or disbanded altogether. Others will struggle to get going again or will feel that they have lost their thread. Among much else, perhaps today’s service will prove a reminder of how important our musical tradition is, and be a spur for its return as soon as possible.

      1. Aye https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-music-at-the-heart-of-the-duke-s-funeral

        And some fruity BTL comments…

        Katy Hibbert • 14 hours ago • edited
        The service was superb. My mood while watching it was mostly enthralled and sad, but my ever-present Schadenfreude couldn’t help but note:

        We do these things far, far better than any other country in the world. The funeral of a former Amercian president would these days be marked by lots of mawkish emoting and a piece of meaningless doggerel delivered by some moronic robot of colour. Score: Royal family – 10. Meghan and Oprah – nil.

        Would anyone give a flying fouque about a dead EU Commissioner, even assuming they could put on a service like that? Stuff EU. Score: UK – 10. EU – nul points. Stick it up yer Juncker.

        Message to leftard republicans – not a hope. Score: Decent royalist people of Britain – 10. Leftard republicans – nil.

        Message to Nicola Sturgeon, re kilted piper: Stick that up yer sporran.

          1. True…but surely we already have more than our fair quota of pushy, untameable tigresses, do we knot?

          2. Would it be patronising/sexist for me to say i admire the strong and funny women who post on here?

          4. But I believe one or two of our strong women here do a sort of George Eliot or George Sand in reverse in using a female pseudonym when they are actually male. In these days of confused gender alignment they are bang up to date.

        2. Great comments.
          I am glad too that there was no ghastly sentimental eulogy – not that I expected one.
          We had a eulogy at my mother’s funeral – I and another relative gave it. I tried to stay away from the sentimental, and provide some autobiographical details for people who hadn’t known her for so long, and also some insight into the experiences that had shaped her character (she was of the same generation as the Queen and the Duke).
          It was also a masterly cover-up job (though I say it myself!) of the fact that we didn’t get on at all well.
          I stayed clear of anecdotes.
          I am old enough to ask myself automatically “does the Queen do that…?” when faced with social questions. But I guess an unsentimental eulogy is the common person’s equivalent of the Duke’s list of honours!
          I shall leave strict instructions for my nearest and dearest for no sentimental anecdotes during the funeral! They can do those while nicely lubricated at the wake. Assuming I live long enough for wakes to be allowed again, which I am beginning to doubt will ever happen.

          2. A friend died young from Cancer. Her daughter asked her mother’s friends for specific happy memories. I cried when mine was read out.
            My brother was there to support me and his phone went off during the service.
            The same brother who for our father’s funeral arranged the order of service over the phone with the printer.

            We all got a pamphlet with a photo of Dad on the front and the surname spelt wrong.

    2. Will music be allowed after the great reset,? it serves no practical purpose at the end of the day and only wastes the planets resources and causes more CO2, this is how climate scientists think.

      1. Muslims don’t like music for pleasure so it will be consigned to the dustbin of history.

      2. Put it like this, Bob – I’m not holding my breath. It may be allowed in elite spaces such as St George’s, but I suspect the days of the humble village organist (i.e. me) are numbered. It seems the church hierarchy think the future is Zoom. Small, antisocially-distanced choirs have legally been permitted to sing in church since last summer. Since March, that’s been tightened up to “…if essential for worship”.

    1. It is now so easy to see how the national socialists got away with it back in the day, we haven’t learn’t a thing from history

      2. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning B3,
        Mr Batten / real UKIP learnt very well and were on the way to
        rectifying many an issue, one of the reasons they had to be stopped, in the main by politico’s who recognised the danger to their lifestyles, and many of the peoples who recognised the danger to their comfortable voting pattern.

      3. When the Nazis came for the communists,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a communist.

        When they locked up the social democrats,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a social democrat.

        When they came for the trade unionists,
        I did not speak out;
        I was not a trade unionist.

        When they came for the Jews,
        I remained silent;
        I was not a Jew.

        When they came for me,
        there was no one left to speak out.

        1. They also came for the Christians, the gypsies, the homosexuals and anyone who criticised them.

    2. ogga mng, as we’ve exchanged points on this before, it’s a statement of intent. MSM will pull all the stops to stem the blowback

    3. Well done Suzanne, at long last somebody has come out with a bit of common sense, more power to her elbow. It was an absolute disgrace that HM was so completely on her own.

      2. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning P,
        Maybe you are right I would never deny her in that department, by the same token pageantry I believe has two sides and on this a very solemn occasion a small united front
        Queen / peoples, would have been seen to be better.
        Could be wrong, my personal take.

        1. The Queen could have had other family members sitting in her quire, but at a social distance.
          It was her choice.

          1. Everything was so carefully choreographed – and some of the family were seated alongside her in the quire, just not very close. She made the decision about the uniforms so I think it probably was her decision to sit quietly on her own.

        1. My word Rastus, it’s Sunday morning, i hate that stoopid shite………..Hinit 😏

    6. I have a feeling that Boris Johnson and his group of bandits will pay very heavily for this.

      1. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning R,
        I posted years ago “they have burnt their bridges” and things have got worse since then.

        The only chance they have is if the waiting period between now and the next General Election is over a week if so they will be returned to power, really though it is labs turn.

        I truly believe this three monkey lab/lib/con voting mode will continue right up until the village / town / city imam calls a halt.

      1. 331694+ up ticks,
        Morning Anne,
        My feelings are ALL lab/lib/con/greens membership fees
        are re-routed to fund a Duke of Edinburgh protection vessel
        with a bloody great gun inclusive.

        Here’s to many more following your example.

      2. Absolutely!
        I teach martial arts in SE London and many of my students are Polish – a tough, combative people, women included – and here they behaved like lambs, quite properly under the liiturgical circumstance and to their absolute credit.
        I would have been curious to see Plod try that in a mosque! Not that I would have particularly minded a load of Mozzies sending them away with a flea in their ear. – but it would not even have been tried.
        I have a Serbian student and a Polish friend both of whom remember communism, the lies, the control. Both are appalled by our slide into totalitarianism.
        Edit: And I do not want to appear anti-plod. They have an impossible task at the moment, and many would have found some drug dealers to stop and search rather than do what these two did.

        2. 331694+ up ticks,
          Morning LiM,
          Worked in Poland when the Russians were in town, construction, the Poles could not believe it when the whole
          squad (A few hundred ) hit the gates in a working in the rain dispute.
          That was just prior to the lec W. triggering.
          Good people’s poles.

  37. Woodpeckers banging away to each other across the farmyard – at least three can be heard. One bangs, then another replies, then the third chips in. Nice, springlike.

    1. Good morning, Herr Oberst. I’ve heard of bangers and mash, but never bangers and chips.

      :-))

    2. Mmm. Lovely.
      However when the buggers woke me up by drilling holes in the wooden shutters (France) at 4.30 or 5 a.m. I had a full blown humour failure.

    3. Mmm. Lovely.
      However when the buggers woke me up by drilling holes in the wooden shutters (France) at 4.30 or 5 a.m. I had a full blown humour failure.

      1. Firstborn’s farm has both the black, white & red peckers as well as the green & red. Lovely birds, they are.
        Also saw a family(?) of CRanes in a field at the weekend. Big buggers, they are, size of a small deer.

    1. I sent that to all my friends and family Friday and it seemed to have had a mix reception…..as in not too many answers, but some were predictable.

      1. Yes.
        My own wife is African. She and our families (left and right-leaing) were amused. We often remark on the various hues of our children and grandchildren and they rib each other about it.
        What a pity society has become so ridiculously sensitive. – melanin is a laughing matter.

        1. I think most people if they were honest would see the funny side of it.
          I have just been speaking to my youngest son whose lovely lady is of a Sikh family.
          She has been racially bused on public transport. Of course it will happen and It’s not at al fair, but when i told him i hated Sadiq khan and what he’s done to my London where i was born and brought up, he went into one about racism. Totally unnecessary but i just brushed it off and i still hate that horrible little turd Sadiq khan.

          What a pity society has become so ridiculously sensitive. – melanin is a laughing matter.

          We have a long term good friend whose grandfather was a native Jamaican and she is as white as bleached sheet. So are her own offspring.

          1. I suspect that if you went to your Sikh out-laws (pre-marriage in-laws) they would completely share your opinion of Khan! Anti-business, communist little twerp that he is – and add to that his pakistani heritage…
            on second thoughts best you spare your son the hurt of that conversation in his presence.

          2. They already do share mine and many many other peoples opinion on Kahn.
            It;s not a coincidence that medieval minded Pakistan went down the proverbial drain when they split with India. And India have almost kept pace with the 21st century.

          3. I find any form of racism daft. What’s the point?

            What I do struggle with, especially over video conferencing is understand what folk with thick accents are saying.

          4. At home we quite often have to put the subtitles on whilst watching TV programmes. 😉

        2. I think most people if they were honest would see the funny side of it.
          I have just been speaking to my youngest son whose lovely lady is of a Sikh family.
          She has been racially bused on public transport. Of course it will happen and It’s not at al fair, but when i told him i hated Sadiq khan and what he’s done to my London where i was born and brought up, he went into one about racism. Totally unnecessary but i just brushed it off and i still hate that horrible little turd Sadiq khan.

          What a pity society has become so ridiculously sensitive. – melanin is a laughing matter.

          We have a long term good friend whose grandfather was a native Jamaican and she is as white as bleached sheet. So are her own offspring.

        3. I think most people if they were honest would see the funny side of it.
          I have just been speaking to my youngest son whose lovely lady is of a Sikh family.
          She has been racially bused on public transport. Of course it will happen and It’s not at al fair, but when i told him i hated Sadiq khan and what he’s done to my London where i was born and brought up, he went into one about racism. Totally unnecessary but i just brushed it off and i still hate that horrible little turd Sadiq khan.

          What a pity society has become so ridiculously sensitive. – melanin is a laughing matter.

          We have a long term good friend whose grandfather was a native Jamaican and she is as white as bleached sheet. So are her own offspring.

      2. Yes.
        My own wife is African. She and our families (left and right-leaing) were amused. We often remark on the various hues of our children and grandchildren and they rib each other about it.
        What a pity society has become so ridiculously sensitive. – melanin is a laughing matter.

    2. I imagine he’d get there, Phil exchanges a few jokes with Peter and both laugh and he’s waved in.

      Although, if I were to stick to my Milton I’d far prefer purgatory. Much more interesting people there.

    2. Stopped reading @ Shirley Williams abolishing grammar schools…

      Every day we are reminded by the decline in our education system.

      1. He is quite right. We’ve sent thousands of soldiers to Afghanistan and around 15,000 British soldiers are buried there.

  41. This is an extract from the NHS website. I have sent this to my MP, Jonathan Lord, who told me earlier this year that ‘vaccine passports’ were not on the agenda.

    https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/why-vaccination-is-safe-and-important/

    How vaccines work

    Vaccines teach your immune system how to create antibodies that protect you from diseases.
    It’s much safer for your immune system to learn this through vaccination than by catching the diseases and treating them.
    Once your immune system knows how to fight a disease, it can often protect you for many years.

    1. I trust you asked your MP “How does this work off a computer model virus”? Answers on a postcard? Mentioning C-19 equivalent Aktion T4 vax might be a sword of damacles

    2. As thousands of grocery store workers have come into contact with the entire UK pop and there is no C-19 crisis in the grocery sector, please tell him lockdown was pointless except to wreck the UK.

      So the reason for lockdown is now obvious.

      1. I repeatedly tell him PP but, as we know, MPs have very little influence over policy. I will continue to send him reminders.

      2. And the postmen/women handle letters and shove them into our properties. Even those who stay self-locked in their own homes are “at risk”.
        A friend told me the other day ( first meeting for a year! that a friend of his had locked himself in since day one – If he HAD to go out, on return he stripped and put his clothes in the washer. Got his jabs. He also spent a fortune on disinfectant and cleaning material, REALLY went over the top on his walls etc. YEP – Died of Covid ( on his death cert anyway).

      3. I have told him repeatedly and he is one of the few who has voted against lockdowns.

      5. We have both told him, Polly, that the reason for lockdown is now obvious, both individually and together. We keep on telling him. Unfortunately the only person of note mentioning the imprisonments and various restrictions as being injurious, for want of a better word, is Jonathan Sumption. His is the lone voice railing at the government strategy.

        Unless the public wakes up and starts disobeying the “mask wearing, social distancing”, etc. we will be completely and forever controlled.

    3. As thousands of grocery store workers have come into contact with the entire UK pop and there is no C-19 crisis in the grocery sector, please tell him lockdown was pointless except to wreck the UK.

      So the reason for lockdown is now obvious.

  42. Right, off to enjoy a late breakfast in the garden (temperature of 10 degrees Centigrade), followed by my usual Sunday session of “maintenance” (week, feed, prune, dead-head and – today – a good lawn-mowing and then watering session). See you all later.

  43. According to some reports,Russia is on the verge of bankruptcy..could have fooled me.

    Russia’s total external debt has fallen by 1.8% in the first quarter of the year, and was worth $459.3 billion as of April 1, data from the central bank shows.
    The size of the country’s foreign debt has dropped by $8.6 billion, “mainly due to decrease in liabilities of other sectors on external loans, as well as a decrease in portfolios of non-residents in sovereign securities,” the regulator said.

    The nation’s foreign debt totaled $470.1 billion as of January 1. It has been dropping since mid-2014, when it reached its peak of around $733 billion in the wake of US and EU sanctions.

    1. … on the verge of…
      One things the sanctions have done is keep Russia out of the debt-driven global economy. The fact is, the EU is bankrupt and can only deal with it by increasing the money supply.

    2. I understand that Russia has significant gold reserves, the value of which in all probability far exceeds its reported debt.

  44. Syria to Hold Presidential Elections on 26 May, People’s Assembly States

    The Middle Eastern nation has been engulfed in a civil war since 2011, with various groups of militants fighting against the government, led by Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    The Syrian parliament announced on Sunday that presidential elections will be held on 26 May, adding that the nomination of candidates will start on Monday, 19 April.

    The prospects of a nationwide vote this spring were previously criticised by the US, Great Britain, France, Italy, and Germany, saying in a joint statement that the elections should not lead to any international normalisation with Damascus.

    “Its not fair..after all the money we’ve spent Bashar al Assad is still going to win”!

    1. I expect our own post office will be making a few bob out of it, postal votes and all that !

  45. No time for this today, the suns out and the family are coming for a late roast beef lunch, first one we have had for over 12 months.

    1. Given that people keep voting Labour despite the horrific damage they always do the economy, the poverty and unemployment they leave behind, the higher, destructive taxes they always create that fall on the poorest first folk are either stupid or have incredibly short memories.

      Worse, they seem happy to swallow the propaganda pushed out that it’s ‘not their fault’.

      1. Well excuse me, wibbling, but the “ Cons” aren’t doing such a bad job of imitating them! You have just described exactly the situation we are in right now!

      2. 331694 + up ticks,
        Afternoon W,
        Seeing as they keep voting for an interchangeable coalition
        has been the problem getting worse daily for the last three decades.

  47. 331694+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Police Struggling to Identify Suspects Because of Corona Mask Mandates,

    As with the burka, is there “any shadow of doubt regarding ID,”
    shadow, ? it is blacker than Newgate’s knocker and certainly NOT advantageous to getting a genuine ID.

    Maybe seen as a good thing, we don’t want to go upsetting anyone do we.

        2. As per my comment last night. All Labour Party officials, MPs.Councillors, candidates, workers, activists et al are to be trained along guidelines approved by the Muslim Council of Britain. I would be surprised if the Labour Party is not entirely run and managed by muslims by 2028.

          2. 331694+ up ticks,
            Afternoon HP,
            I believe it to be touch & go who, when the great unmasking takes place, not this deflection for fools one,
            who will have the most imams on board. ?
            The koran in place between the dispatch boxes, they are oath taking by it, and there is halal on the parliamentary canteen menu.

            I do forecast a great many knee problems in the near future among current lab/lib/con members / voters
            calling for padded prayer mats.

        1. 331694+ up ticks,
          Without a shadow of doubt ?
          How do you know,
          Could very well be a Mr halloween
          contest.

      6. 331694 + up ticks,
        Afternoon E & S,
        Five entrants,five winners, appeasement at its finest.

      9. They all wanted to travel the world and love children.
        Or was that their male owners?

    2. They just want to “chip” us all to make easy for them. It’s probably not far away!

      1. 331694+ up ticks,
        VW,
        The electorate keep supporting / voting
        lab/lib/con and it will be here before you know it.

  48. Is anyone on Telegram?
    I am trying to join it on a Windows computer, but it seems to require a phone app to be installed before you can set up a profile. Has anyone managed to join it from Windows alone?

  49. Spent a chilly morning in the garden, repairing the greenhouse, removing a tree stump which has annoyed me for years, and gathering winter fuel – for use in the summer; global warming, doncha know…

    No for lunch – it is the MR’s birthday and we are celebrating with soup, bread and cheese…. And I shall have a Leffe beer.

    By the way – had jab no 2 yesterday. AZ – no ill effects at all. So it was obviously a saline solution…

          1. Thank you! That’s really lovely! As I look out at my two very old apple trees I can see at least 3 great tits nibbling at the buds and then shouting about it! Are you really feeling so Hesperus-like today?

          6. I must be older than you, because I remember that slogan for “Treets” in th ’60’s

          9. Minstrels? I thought they were musicians hired to entertain the guests at Henry VIII’s parties!

            :-))

    2. A very happy birthday to her. Just askin’, but why don’t you allow her to have lunch on her birthday?

    3. Best wishes to the MR! Hope you have a lovely day together and that your cake is as good as Rastus’s! My old man also had his second jag yesterday but his was Pfizer, and he’s hiding in the garage trying to excrete the anti-freeze!

        2. Yes, Sos, when I spent ten years in Scotland (Ayr) I was surprised to discover that they all talked about jags (jabs), carry oots (takewaway meals), pokes (paper bags), etc. The one which stumped me was a Bampot (Eejit in Irish).

          1. Thank you Elsie! “I looked and looked” and couldn’t understand his response!

      2. Love it – having told Best Beloved that she’d been injected with anti-freeze, all I got was a frosty look.

          1. I’m beginning to wonder if it’s time to be movin’ on.

            But, to where, I have no idea.

    5. Happy Birthday to Mrs MR.

      I got wheeled around the garden centre yesterday. Lovely and sunny and no wear and tear on shoe leather.

      Then had the neighbours in to the garden room toasting HRH and drinking Bellini’s all afternoon. Had to order a takeaway. Too pissed to cook.

        2. Yes. I have just checked.

          I have been successfully traded.

          58.27 Euro to now buy Ethereum.

          And i’m still up by £30.

          I’m the bee’s knee’s i am.

          1. :-((
            Had a lubricated weekend, me.
            Friday night at Firstborn’s local. Fish ‘n Chips, lots of local Fruity IPA. Wine bfore bed.
            Saturday – Weissbier & a good tasting of the Duke of Edinburgh spirit. Nice – distilled failed beer of mine, wasn’t sure how the hops would work, it’s really nice ‘n quaffable once cooled.
            Today – sitting in the sun for long lunch – heavy bread, crushed chilli, and oceans of red wine. Then a zed in the sofa.
            Is this what it’s like when retired?

  51. My infinitesimal Civil Service pension has been increased by 0.5% this year.

    I’m trying to work out what I can spen the extra 40p per month on.

      1. Happy Sunday to you
        I was thinking of buying a bit of a coin. Have i got the words in the right order?

          1. Funny you should mention Bernie scumbag Madoff.

            I’m starting my own Ponzi.

            I have some shards of Bitcoin and i also purchased £20 of Dogecoin. It has a nice picture of a doggy on the coin.

            Bitcoin is doing bugger all at the moment but Dogecoin has surged massively.

            I have traded 50% of my Dogecoin and am about to buy Etherium with the proceeds.

            I will have three Cypto currencies. The last one being funded by profits from Doge.

            I still retain more than twice my original outlay.

            Not bad for doing sod all. :@)

          2. I am probably not the only one that doesn’t have a clue about your dodgy bits.

            There is actually an etf that I could by that does nothing but hold bitcoin, I passed on that one.

          4. You’ve missed the boat on Bitcoin. It’s why i have bought newer versions. I have only spent £40 in total so am doing well in being able to fund a third.

    2. There is not much left you can spend it on really, foreign holiday? A trip to the cinema? Theatre?

        1. Think he might be better off buying Pfizer/Moderna/AstraZeneca shares! Except probably can’t afford them, they’re only for the mega rich and oligarchs!

          1. Not worth it. I bought Pfizer last year hoping for great things but have not seen the price increase that I thought might come from covid vaccines. There again a decent price increase and a 4% dividend are not all bad.

          2. But there has been talk of the millions of dollars profit made from the experimental injections. And they must be making a mint because the U.K. alone has ordered millions of jabs.

    4. The MPs got their pay increase just prior to the lockdown and £10000 to provide the ability to work from home at the start of the lockdown. Their constituents don’t seem to matter.

      1. For those whose income has disappeared completely the desire to assassinate politicians grows stronger by the day.]

  53. Further to my question below, does anyone use VPN Nord? If so is it straightforward and seamless? All help gratefully accepted.

    1. I have used Nordvpn for over a year without any issues.

      I run it on windows and android. When you start nordvpn you get prompted for the target country, click connect and that is it. There were no configuration steps beyond the standard install.

      I have no idea about how well the technology works beyond the fact that when I ask for a UK connection, UK only sites become accessible.

  54. According to the Telegraph, the Knights of Malta may have been busy with their canons, re the late HRH Prince Philip.

    “In Malta, … , a nine-gun salute was fired from canons above the
    Grand Harbour in the capital Valletta – one for each decade of his
    life. ”
    Do they mean ‘BY canons’ or ‘from CANNONS’?

    1. Maybe they are short of money and just printed pictures of big guns on their Canon printers.

    2. Perhaps they were fired by minor canons. Are they members of the clergy whose main work is in collieries?

    3. I have watched the noon day cannons being fired from upper Barraka Gardens. Makes me jump even though i know to except a loud bang. The same if someone opens a Champagne bottle in a restaurant. Always makes me jump out of my skin.

      I was lucky enough to have a balconied apartment adjacent to the gardens when Prince William was there representing Her Majesty.

      There was me drinking cocktails watching the show being watched by military grade drones. I waved at them. :@)

    6. It could be allusion to the difference between when a Princess has a baby and when a nun has a baby:

      In the first instance they fire a twenty-one cannon salute and, in the latter, they fire a dirty old canon.

    7. It could be allusion to the difference between when a Princess has a baby and when a nun has a baby:

      In the first instance they fire a twenty-one cannon salute and, in the latter, they fire a dirty old canon.

  56. 331694+ up ticks,
    breitbart,
    Lesbians Complain of Sexual Harassment from Leftist Trans Activists

    I am led to believe at one point it was that serious a meeting took place as in dicks at dawn to settle the dispute.

          4. Happy Sunday NTN, at first I was on Tamsulosin for 3 years & my PSA was still on a slight annual increase so the specialist put me on Duodart & thank goodness my PSA decreased & has kept well within parameters ever since.

      2. 331695+ up ticks,
        Afternoon Kp,
        That could lead to a nasty friction bum
        burn methinks.

      1. A poetic interlude:

        A homosexual man from Khartoum
        Took a lesbian up to his room
        They sat up half the night
        Wond’ring who had the right
        To do what, and with which, and to whom

        1. My late lamented Mama had that riddle constantly on her mind – not that, as far as I know, she was more than very heterosexual.

      2. 331694 + up ticks.
        Afternoon A,
        I do believe there is a official handbook in the parliamentary library that covers it, ” sexual tips for tossers” well thumbed so I hear.

  57. Britain stands in ‘full support’ of Czechs after Russian expulsions. 18 April 2021.

    The UK stands in full support of our Czech allies, who have exposed the lengths that the GRU will go to in their attempts to conduct dangerous and malign operations – and highlights a disturbing pattern of behaviour following the attack in Salisbury,” Raab said on Twitter.

    It scarcely seems possible that the Czechs would accept an assurance from the country that handed them over to Nazi Germany with the Munich agreement in 1938! Do they remember nothing? The same people are in charge now as were then. Cowards and traitors!

    https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/britain-stands-full-support-czechs-after-russian-expulsions-2021-04-18/

      1. Afternoon Phizzee. Czeckoes? Czechals? Who knows? If they believe the UK Government morons might be more appropriate!

        2. I rode my motorcycle on a 2000 round trip to Hovetci in the Czech Republic. Some place called Belgium and all through Germany.

          The views were glorious and the people very friendly.

          Whizzing out from a forest onto a bridge which seemed to be in the clouds was something else !

          The beer was stupidly cheap too.

          The best service ever was in Berlin. They take things seriously!

          I think everyone would be better off without Governments that don’t reflect the people.

          Arriving back after a fortnight to a reservation at Langan’s.

          🎵Sweet dreams are made of this🎵.

          1. I think everyone would be better off without Governments that don’t reflect the people.

  58. Afternoon all!

    Had a smile on the way to church this morning. On one of those sickly snide TFL posters telling us to “Be Kind” someone had written the following in large clear neat black lettering…

    SETTINGS
    MOBILE DATA
    TURN OFF

    Sadly the people who most need to get the message won’t understand.

    The church choir are back. Just one voice per part but sounding great. All Mozart this morning and all Purcell this evening.

    1. Eleven in our choir (all female!) this morning. Agnus Dei and Sanctus sung in Latin again, something I really enjoy.

  59. There is a new COVID fast strain loose in Lincolnshire

    I drove past a sign that said

    Rapid Covid -19 Testing Station

    Of course it might have meant

    COVID -19
    Rapid Testing Station

    1. The Covid testing tent in Thirsk N Yorks had been dismantled when I drove past this morning .

      1. Likewise the testing centre at White City. The library had been taken over for pcr testing but it’s all packed up and gone now. Queueing one day, nothing the next. Maybe it’ll reopen as a library. That would be novel.

    2. We have a Symptom Free Testing Centre. Only for people who aren’t ill.
      Can you believe how stupid you’d have to be to go there.
      Won’t test if you have a symptom no doubt.

      1. I can’t imagine why any healthy people would want to do the twice weekly tests if they don’t have to. I know some schools are insisting on them for staff.

        1. We know it’s not about health it’s to see how the infantilism of the population going. Once you’ve got herd stupidity at about 75% the rest will just follow.
          Job done.

          1. I won’t be doing it. I have already refused several different tests because they require a smartphone.

            I’m also having to be careful about my Meds because some have to be taken at different times of day whilst standing on one foot and whistling Dixie.

            On top of that i am having to take BP readings twice X times twice a day.

            I feel like i’m training to be a Doctor !

      2. Ha, we have the same! And the testers are done up in full PCR gear looking like something from outer space in the car park.
        It’s for testing to be allowed to do stuff, rather than testing because you might be ill.
        I wonder how many false positives they get?

  60. Citizen Kane is overrated – but this Orson Welles classic isn’t. 18 April 2021.

    Orson Welles’s 1941 Citizen Kane routinely leads lists of the greatest feature films. It wouldn’t even be in my top 50. A different matter altogether is The Magnificent Ambersons, the film Welles wrote and directed straight afterwards, about the ruin of a grand American family from a thriving town in the Midwest.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE

    susan Chambers18 Apr 2021 9:07AM.

    We can’t discuss Welles, director or actor, without mentioning the best film EVER – The Third Man.

    I put this up because Ms. Chambers precisely replicated my own thought when I saw Heffer’s headline. Citizen Kane is mind numbingly pretentious and boring whereas The Third Man is a Tour de Force on every level. Lighting. Camera. Location. Script and Acting all united in absolute perfection. It is the Greatest (though not the most enjoyable) film ever made!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/citizen-kane-overrated-orson-welles-classic-isnt/

    1. We watched The Third Man a couple of weeks ago – hard to follow and confusing, but wonderful photography.

          1. Me? I’m as pure as the driven slush.

            They don’t make many films now that tax you mentally. I remember watching Mulholland Drive after smoking a spliff.

            Not a clue what was going on.

      2. Happy Sunday Jules, The Third Man is my favourite Orson Wells film, I love in particular this clip
        The.Cuckoo Clock
        Harry Line “After all it’s not that awful. You know what the fellow said – in Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. So long Holly.”

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cydkTy6GmFA

        1. Behind the joke is an actual truth.
          We’ve had 70 years of peace and we get Damian Hirst and Tracey Emin.

  61. Hi NoTTlers, another friggin’ Sunday!

    A friend called before lunch on her way to the shops and was kind enough to ask if I needed anything.
    If it wasn’t any trouble could she bring me a pack of probiotic drinks, preferably their own brand…. NOT Actimel/fruit flavoured…I asked.

    ………..I have 6 Actimel/ strawberry flavoured yoghurts to dispose of…..!

          8. Maybe…and don’t call me Shirley! Was it you that down voted me or is it the troll (thebullet) who has trip-trapped over from Breitbart? Must have reelly annoyed it!

          9. Not me. Sometimes when Discurse is playing up one only has to hover the cursor over the up and down arrows for it to register a downvote.

            I see it was ‘the bullet’.

          10. That’s the one! It’s down voted everything I’ve posted today – tit for tat I expect!i
            My iPad can’t see my notifications so I have to check on old mans lap top!

          14. That’s the one! It’s down voted everything I’ve posted today – tit for tat I expect!i
            My iPad can’t see my notifications so I have to check on old mans lap top!

    2. Yo Plum, aka Clare

      Don’tcha Know

      SIR – The authors of the The Chin Dictionary (Society, April 11)
      are misinformed if they think that today’s Sloane Rangers would ever
      refer to “the Hurlingham”.

      I play tennis at Hurlingham or at theHurlingham Club, but never

      at the Hurlingham.

      Clare Byam-Cook

      London SW15

        1. I wondered that when I read it…then I thought it was probably a complete self-awareness failure!

    3. On the odd occasions I’ve had a supermarket delivery, I tick the’No Substitute” box for that very reason.

  63. Russia alleges assassination plot against Belarus leader Lukashenko. 18 April 2021.

    “Another thing surprises me: Why do the Americans behave this way? Remember, no one can assign the task of eliminating a president other than the top political leadership. Only they can make that call, not the special services,” Lukashenko said, according to his media office.

    Lukashenko added that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin had raised the issue during a Tuesday phone call with U.S. President Joe Biden. “I’m grateful to Putin. When he talked with Biden, he asked him this [Belarus-related] question. There was gurgling, no clear answer.”

    A surprisingly sly dig there from Lukashenko!

    These are of course all preliminaries for the coming war, with the Americans seeking the moral high ground for the history books!

    https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-alleges-assassination-plot-against-belarus-leader-lukashenko-putin-tkhanovskaya/

  64. It’s guess Today’s Earworm Time: this afternoon I spruced up the garden furniture.
    I went into the shed, looked through our started pots of exterior wood paint and thought ….. “Paint It Bla ……..”

    4. Sheds Off Colour…!!

      Very satisfying to do – and one promises NOT to let it be too long before the shed is re-painted….. Only to break that promise…{:¬((

      1. Hah. You is wrong!
        6 ‘park style’ folding chairs; 1octagonal garden table; 1 garden bench.
        Very nicely used up a half tin of paint left over from revamping the garden fence last year.
        Just call me Mrs. Unbearably-Smug.

    1. Thanks for that Stephen. An exceptionally lucid account of Ukraine’s travails that will not be appearing in the MSM!

    2. Thanks for that Stephen. An exceptionally lucid account of Ukraine’s travails that will not be appearing in the MSM!

    3. Not sure I trust anything that is so quick to label a group as “nazis” without defining the term or going into detail. A lot of Ukrainians who had worked in Germany during the war (having survived the pre-war ravages of Stalin), were sent back home afterwards by the allies to be murdered by Stalin.
      Yet the writer of that article just labels all Ukrainians in Germany during the war as “nazis.”

    2. I was going to go on about ‘smallholders’ but there is not anything small on vieew

    1. Better stay in lockdown, socially distanced and wearing 3 masks though, just to be sure. And all rule-breakers should feel thoroughly ashamed of themselves!

    2. University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest acute trusts in the UK and provides a wide range of clinical services to people in West Sussex Brighton and Hove, and parts of East Sussex.
      Our seven hospitals host more than 1.5 million outpatient appointments, A&E visits and surgery cases every year and employ nearly 20,000 staff.

      If the letter isn’t a spoof, this is absolutely disgraceful.
      If the letter is a spoof the authors should be named and shamed.

    1. Crikey, he’s slow.

      AIDS, the Falklands, then global warming, then climate change, then COVID, now Russia and green = the state likes peope to be kept in crisis. Busy troubled minds with foreign quarrels. Keep people off baalnce, afraid, over taxed and suppressed and there’s nothing the state cannot get away with.

      Now, imagine if it had a quarter of our money that it currently takes? It simply couldn’t carry out these terror campaigns.

  74. HAPPY HOUR – I hate Sundays..

    I spent this afternoon listening to a bit of old Rach….NOT a good idea on a Sunday…!

    Rachmaninov Piano Con. No.3 tears my heart out. It features in the gut wrenching film ‘Shine’ ,starring the brilliant Geofrey Rush.
    I had the opportunity to play piano as a child and my father encouraged me to do
    so. Half a crown an hour with the local piano teacher! …….I hated it….
    I soon packed it in and unbeknown to my dad kept the money for sweets until the teacher phoned my dad to ask why I had stopped coming.

    …………..that was when the sh*t hit the fan.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUbi0nEnUi4

    1. I’ve just read some of the alarming treatment observations from nottlers commenting about ECT treatment of mental patients.
      I didn’t rea!ise that David Helgott, the pianist played so convincingly by Geoffrey Rush in Shine had undergone ten years of electrical treatments when he appeared at this ceremony:

      https://youtu.be/2HYE7jgOQPI

    2. I have recordings of Rach 3 by Cyril Smith and Martha Argerich.

      Rachmaninov thought Cyril Smith to be the best contemporary performer of his piano concertos.

      Cyril Smith was married to Phyllis Sellick, a favourite pianist of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He lost the use of his left hand (left side) after suffering a cerebral thrombosis on tour in Russia. Thereafter he and Phyllis played duets ‘for three hands’ some especially composed for them by composers of the day.

  75. BBC reporting that a WW2 plane had to make a crash landing into the sea at Cocoa beach Florida. It was a good landing but close to surfers and a crowded beach. The pilot looked unhurt in the video.

    2. Yo cs

      He had to put down at sometime with his WWII ‘plane
      He had been airborne for about 78 years… Greta will love it

      BBC should have said a

      WWII vintage ‘plane…..

      But what do you expect from them

    3. Yo cs

      He had to put down at sometime with his WWII ‘plane
      He had been airborne for about 78 years… Greta will love it

      BBC should have said a

      WWII vintage ‘plane…..

      But what do you expect from them

  76. 331695+ up ticks,
    May one ask,

    breitbart,
    UK Christian Clergy Warn Vaccine Passports Will Create ‘Medical Apartheid’

    Courtesy of the lab/lib/con/ green current supporter / member / voters
    and their continuing voting mode, have the rest of us really got a say
    in anything ?

  77. Sonny Boy sent me this link to an article that I found interesting.

    https://cphpost.dk/?p=123623

    On reading it, the following thoughts came to mind.

    I remember – and remind others – of the large number of elderly women at Severalls Hospital who were there because, basically, they had put it about a bit in their youth. To my knowledge we had a mother and son – the son being the result of his mother and her brother’s incestuous relationship.

    Often they were ‘simple’, schizophrenic, in the manic phase of bi-polar or maybe in the early stages of Huntingdon’s Chorea; I dread to think who was incarcerated at the other hospitals of Essex Hall and Turner Village which dealt exclusively with the mental handicapped.

    The ideas were of their time; the Nazis just took a universally accepted theory to its logical end.

      1. One would think the mosque mongs would be put to polishing the heaps of very tatty shoes.

        1. Sadly, it isn’t really a joking matter, as AA has pointed out.

          Scabu, the special care baby unit, was over-occupied by their ilk.

      2. I gather that is a problem. Generations of cousins marrying cousins to keep a small patch of scrub in the family.
        Of course, in racist Blighty, taxpayers finances the resulting off-spring for the whole of their natural.

    2. Hallo Anne

      When I was a young nurse , my year did our second year in the Royal Naval hospitals in Malta, obstetrics and many other disciplines , as well as family clinics which included tending to some Maltese families .

      There were several examples of interbreeding and associated mental and physical faults , children with huge learning difficulties , cretinism and other things that I didn’t understand at the time .

      Our year also visited a civilian Maltese mental hospital on the Island , and we were really shocked to view children tied into their cots with special jackets to stop them hurting themselves and adults who suffered from appalling maladies . Mongolism seemed to be very common , some who were very advanced in that spectrum , lots adults with brain injuries from birth and of course the after effects of a very brutal battering the poor Maltese received during WW2 , when many many people were on starvation rations .. I am talking about my time there between late 1966 to 67 .. so just over 20 years since the end of the war!

      1. As part of our training, we were taken round the mental handicap hospitals; there was often an overlap in patients – partly because of variable diagnoses but also because it is possible to have a low IQ and a mental illness..
        There were wards that even psychiatric nurses were not taken round as some of the patients would either shock us or be too dangerous for strangers.

        1. You must have been very stoic and extremely well balanced to have coped with what you were facing in those days .

          All I can remember from that particular time were RN personnel who had severe problems , despatched back to the UK for ECT and Lobotomies , which frightened the living daylights out of everyone who nursed .. certainly extreme treatment .

          Those sort of situations seemed similar to … well do you remember Quasimodo and Charles Laughton playing his part brilliantly , well there were some very similar cases like that in the Maltese community . Small island syndrome I think!

          ( as there are in many communities and villages in the UK)

          1. They were still doing ECT in my day; lobotomies had stopped.
            However (I hope you’re not eating your tea!) when washing the hair of some of the older schizophrenics, your fingers would unnervingly sink into soft dents in their skulls – just behind the hairline.
            By and large, provided you were working with like minded staff, trench humour used to take over.
            A riveting fact we learnt in ‘school’ was that Essex had the highest rate of bestiality in the country.

          4. My mother was given ECT for depression. It destroyed her, mentally: she became nervous, obsessive and repetitive. I would have liked to give the psychiatric doctor who did that the experience of his own mother being completely ruined. The medics were so full of themselves, as well…

    3. Uncomfortably, the aims of the eugenics movement weren’t that different from the outcome of abortion, which is that the poor have fewer children. Abortion is self-selecting rather than forced, but the effects for society are largely the same.

      1. Slight problem there.

        It’s the middle classes and the rich that have gone that route, the poor just keep popping them out.

  78. Breaking News – Ireland has just announced that with EU funding that it is going to produce the latest new generation of green electric car batteries using river water, the Liffeyum cell factory is set to open near Dublin

  79. That’s me for this sunny but chilly day.

    I hope to join you tomorrow – but who knows? Life is short/

    A demain – prolly.

  80. Let’s see. Taking car without permission, racing on public road, speeding and exceeding speed limit, driving without insurance. Pretty flagrant breaches of the law. Could be a term in prison. No, wait. No prison involved. No fines either. These offences were committed by police officers on duty. So a Final Official Warning. Just stay out of trouble for two years and it’s all forgotten. No criminal record and no meaningful penalty.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-56792910

    1. At least i won’t need my anti-histamines this year with a mask glued to my face !

      Tell you a secret…When i was 15 years old i was seduced by a bingo caller in Weymouth and had outdoor sex in the Nothe gardens at midnight.

      My first dogging badge. :@)

      1. Yeah.. have to agree. While Mongo has a sun hat it’s not something he likes. Also, as they sweat through their tongues it’s a bit unfair to mask them.

  83. Supper tonight.

    Chicken Kevin with roasted Jerusalem artichokes and fresh podded peas. Plus more fizz. Burp !

      1. I am always of a sunny disposition unlike sosraboc below in his dank darkened cellar. :@)

        Other than not being able to walk i am fine. Vascular consultant calling me this week and he will be telling me how many legs need cutting off. (Joke. I hope !).

        1. I’m in the cellar because you are eating Jerusalem artichokes washed down with fizz.
          A highly explosive mixture…

          2. Notwithstanding the unfortunate side-effects, they are one of my favourite vegetables.

            They were described by my mother as tasting of soot and blankets

        2. Bally hope so, as if the vascular fellow suggests cutting off a leg you need a new doctor. That’s not where your heart is!

    4. I am surprised that Brenda didn’t opt to ride her pony, headscarf style, sweetie … x

  85. Steaming vegetables. How?

    I regularly give the monsters steamed carrots, cauliflour, beans and when I can’t destroy it quickly enough, cabbage, although I prefer red cabbage.

    They always complain they are too hard or too soft. I’ve a steamer thing but cheat and put stuff in the microwave so…

    Someone tell me how to do this properly. I tend to use Chantenay carrots and little florets of cauliflour (as junior likes those) .

    On the upside, I did make these: https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/honey-glazed-roast-carrots

    Although I didn’t put vinegar on them afterward.

    1. Tell them to think of the starving children in Africa/China/India (other countries are available)

    2. Stagger the veg in the steamer,put the carrots on give them 2/3 mins add green beans give them 2/3 mins add cauili/brocolli florets anothe 2/3 mins should all be cooked to same degree
      I do mine in a sieve over a pan of boiling water with a pan lid on top

      1. I steam broccoli for 5 minutes tops, don’t like them soggy. Cauliflower would be the same I’m guessing. I’d put the carrots in cold water in the saucepan to begin with then after about 5 minutes put the other veggies in their steaming part with the lid on.

        Edit: Sorry should have replied to wibbling!

        1. I mean 15 mins turn on from cold; that’s probably equivalent to 5 mins steaming; I too, like them al dente …

      2. I steam broccoli for 5 minutes tops, don’t like them soggy. Cauliflower would be the same I’m guessing. I’d put the carrots in cold water in the saucepan to begin with then after about 5 minutes put the other veggies in their steaming part with the lid on.

        Edit: Sorry should have replied to wibbling!

    4. I boil turnips (or what effete Southerners call “Swedes”) and carrots and steam potatoes and brassicas.
      I then save the boiling water for gravy or making stew.

    2. It is becoming clearer and clearer to me that Boris Johnson and Michael Gove are traitors who have cynically and quite deliberately betrayed us to the EU.

      1. 331694+ up ticks,
        Evening R,
        Precisely what my ex party had been trying to convince peoples of for years, sadly under the treacherous current nEc they have now become part of the lab/lib/con coalition.

  88. So all you footie fans out there. What do you think of the “Super League” on the front of the DT? What I find bizarre is the government muscling in on things. It’s surely nothing to do with the government.

    What about the government “answering to their fans” before taking further steps, I.e. in the case of a certain virus that has caused untold damage over the past year and continues to.

    2. It’s a parallel to the Brexit fuss.
      For the footie, if it’s a failure (as in, nobody much goes to watch or buys TV rights), then it was a bad ised. If it’s a success, then it should have been done earlier. And if the fans don’t like it, they will stay away.
      WTF does government have to do with it? Boris should butt out.

  91. Monday 19th April 2021

    Devonian in Kent

    Have an Excellent Birthday

    and

    Very Many Happy Returns

    With best wishes

    from

    Rastus and Caroline

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