Wednesday 13 October: Our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here.

438 thoughts on “Wednesday 13 October: Our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark”

          1. Some mornings are so dark I have to switch on the lights just to check that I opened my eyes…

  3. Our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark

    Yes all as predicted by the conspiracy theorists decades ago.

    1. BTL comment:-

      Robert Spowart
      13 Oct 2021 7:36AM
      This post is not likely to stay long before being cancelled, but no comments allowed on this:-
      “Human trafficking victims can work and claim benefits in UK following High Court ruling”
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/12/human-trafficking-victims-can-work-claim-uk-benefits-following/

      “Human trafficking victims”??
      For Pete’s sake, Telegraph, they are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who VOLUNTARILY paid to make use of a service provided by criminals.
      This will be the biggest bonanza for “immigration lawyers” since Matrix Chambers appeared on the scene.
      You really couldn’t make this idiocy up!!

      Which is a toned down version of my Tw@ter comment.

      1. Morning all.

        I suggest we all club together and raise the money to send them all back home. The poor human trafficked victims will be overjoyed, yes?

    3. Former lawyers still making fortunes from legal work make the rules to promote more money for lawyers whilst the little people suffer.

      And how else will these judges get their cleaners, gardeners, cooks & bottle washers?

      As bad as results have been for Patel, you can see what she’s up against.

      1. My more considered response is this. The police officers of the Met have demonstrated over that last few years that they will ingratiate themselves with destructive protesters, kneel to black terrorists, beat up innocent people, punch old ladies and threaten innocent people, all with the approval of their superiors. They will commit rape and murder with the encouragement of their fellow officers.
        A few years ago when I was younger, and the world was different, if I saw a policeman in bother, my first thought would be to assist. Now, if I were to see a policeman being attacked I’d be inclined to cheer on the attacker. I don’t think that my views or moral outlook have changed that much, but I do think that our police have stopped being for us and have become oppressors

    3. Where was Commissioner Dick exhorting her footsoldiers to:

      Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead. ..

    4. That does my heart good. See how the scum run when it’s not little old ladies they’re attacking.

  7. Good morning all.
    Still dawn twilight here with a dry and overcast 7°C in the yard.

  8. And a couple of BTL Comments:-

    Helen Troy
    13 Oct 2021 6:28AM
    “The science is settled” How ridiculous!
    To quote Sir Bederver of Python ” And that, my leige, is how we know the earth to be banana-shaped”
    Currently, the best evidence shows the earth to be flat!
    Flag8UnlikeReply

    Robert Spowart
    13 Oct 2021 7:20AM
    @Helen Troy Anyone claiming “The Science is settled” is not following science but following a specific set of scientific opinions especially selected to support their arguments whilst ignoring other scientific opinions that may not only contradict them, but in fact be more scientifically accurate.

  9. The madness of the green agenda. Spiked 13 October 2021.

    In normal times a government would be horrified by the soaring cost of gas, a key energy source. You would hope that a staggering rise of 461 per cent in wholesale prices would spur ministers to strain every sinew to keep costs down. The prospect of pensioners going cold and factories shutting shop ought to prompt demands not only for short-term fixes, but also for a major rethink in energy strategy.

    And yet, instead of all that, instead of trying to ease the pain of the coming crunch this winter, the government is planning to increase the cost of gas. Next week, according to the Sun, ministers will announce plans to slap a levy on gas bills, potentially hiking costs by an average of £159.

    The purpose of this program is to raise the price of gas artificially so that “Green” supplies, Windmills etc, become viable. That it will impoverish those people least able to bear the cost is a bonus for the Globalists who having established (witness the present fiasco in Europe) a de facto monopoly will bleed them dry!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/10/13/the-madness-of-the-green-agenda/

    3. People have become complacent. Gas, like other fossil fuels, is priced by supply and demand with producers acting in their own self-interest. As has been proven time after time, if you rely on another country to provide you with something but don’t have them relying on you for something else in return then you are a hostage to fortune and will some time come a cropper.

      The world’s expanding population and increasing prosperity for most will cause such price increases in a variety of goods over time.

      Don’t expect our governments to act in the real world. All the current political leaders/loud mouths live in political and metropolitan bubbles insulated from the little people. There just isn’t the money to do the dirty and costly work of addressing the real long-term issues when higher priority goes to the benefits, NHS, immigrants, foreign aid etc needed for buying votes.

      If you think it’s bad now, wait until the government can neither borrow nor print money to finance its massive overspending (over £20,000 per taxpayer in the last 18 months).

  10. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – It is good to know that senior royalty aim to attend the Cop26 climate conference, as Britain “pulls out all the stops” in battling climate change. The Prince of Wales has said: “The problem is to get action on the ground.”

    Perhaps the Royal family could start this process on their own ground on the Balmoral estate. A report prepared for the Scottish government, published in January 2020, explained how Balmoral and its neighbours had some of the worst overgrazing by red deer in Scotland.

    Nearly 20 years of voluntary control schemes have failed to reduce deer numbers to levels which allow the mountain and forest habitats to regenerate.

    A better example needs to be set at Balmoral if senior royals are to have credible engagements with world leaders on climate change.

    Dave Morris
    Kinross

    And I wonder what Dave Morris’ solution is, because he doesn’t offer one. However, it sounds as though he advocates a wholesale cull by shooting – but I imagine that the Royal Family may still feel rather sensitive about such a move, given past criticism. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t? (Of course, all of this assumes a clear link between over-grazing and climate change!)

    1. Prince Charles doesn’t want to be bothered with trifling details. He’s a ‘big picture’ man, pontificating and dictating whilst we lesser mortals do the work and enjoy the consequences.

      This has nothing to do with ‘climate change’. It has been happening for a long time on National Trust and other lands, where well-meaning but naive people allow herd numbers to mushroom, replacing a diverse habitat and a healthy well-fed controlled herd with a stripped habitat and a large half-starved herd.

      Nature is long in tooth and claw. Some may not like Bambi’s being shot, but out in the real world the consequences are worse.

      1. LACS* Ltd’s “deer sanctuary” has appalling over-crowding and disease is rife. The deer are suffering, but they won’t cull in the name of welfare.
        *League Against Cruel Sports

      2. That’s why I expressed my concerns about increasing numbers and no control in the beaver survey I mentioned yesterday.

  11. Morning all

    SIR – We now see what the future will be like if we continue with the rush to undeliverable net-zero carbon.

    Already our steel and other high-energy industries are burdened with costs 80 per cent more than those of German competitors. We have seen what happens when the supply of petrol and diesel are restricted; the increased costs of travel will stop most people travelling abroad for holidays while making business travel prohibitively expensive.

    The rollout of so-called “smart meters” will allow energy companies or governments to increase prices at peak periods, ensuring that during these high-cost periods poorer consumers will not be able to afford hot water, cooking or light.

    Britain often sustains periods of weather when the wind does not blow and we have overcast skies. We need other sources of affordable electricity.

    While foreign competitors keep gas, coal and oil power stations going full tilt and provide low-cost energy to business and domestic customers, our Government appears hell-bent on dragging us into a future of mass unemployment, lower living standards and an altogether poorer nation.

    Advertisement

    Ian Wallace

    Whitley Bay, Northumberland

    SIR – It was kind of Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, to assure us there would be no gas shortages this winter. Yet it seems that, thanks to this Government’s negligent energy policy, the only person in a position to give such assurances is Vladimir Putin.

    Nigel Cowan

    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    SIR – Geological surveys have shown that we have substantial gas and oil reserves in shale that, with fracking, could satisfy our fuel needs for years.

    Canada and the United States are both self-sufficient from this process, giving them confidence not available to those dependent on supplies from dubious regimes.

    Richard English

    Poundbury, Dorset

    Placeholder image for youtube video: 6E9Bflh_iX8

    SIR – Shale gas will not answer our problems. Cuadrilla’s tests of their first Preston fracked wells did not yield viable flows of gas even when they far exceeded approved disturbance levels.

    This is due to the low and variable permeability of shale and is more common than not. By all means let the Government support another try but I fear that the result will be the same.

    Advertise

    V T Evenson

    Didcot, Oxfordshire

    SIR – As a matter of interest, who is making all the money out of the incredible surge in energy prices? The producers ? Or the traders?

    Charles Pugh

    London SW10

    SIR – Which does the Government want us to do this winter – open the windows to increase ventilation and keep Covid at bay or shut the windows to conserve heat and reduce gas consumption?

    Howard Pressey

    Wolverhampton

    Doctors on the phone

    SIR – While face-to-face GP appointments are an important part of primary care, they should not be seen as a right.

    The NHS guidance for primary care still requires staff to maintain social distancing in waiting rooms and carry out enhanced cleaning after every appointment, which makes it hard for any practice to offer as many face-to-face appointments as it would have once done. By contrast, guidance was changed for hospitals in September.

    The development of primary care networks means there is a wider range of services available to patients, some of which may be more suitable. These include consultations with advanced nurse practitioners, first-response physios and clinical pharmacists. Social prescribing and a telephone call may also provide a better experience.

    Telephone consultations are more efficient. Each month around a million more people have appointments on the same day as their request. This is a real improvement for patients.

    Jeremy Hooper

    Southport

    SIR – How many medical students are planning to work full time?

    Are the limited places on courses being given to the right people?

    Should not those on these subsidised courses agree to work full time for a certain period – and, if they fail to do so, pay back the shortfall?

    Richard Bellamy

    Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire

    Pandemic planning

    SIR – A joint report by the health and science select committees says that many mistakes were made early in the Covid pandemic.

    The Cygnus report of 2017 highlighted the lack of planning for a pandemic. Someone must be held to account for this dereliction of duty.

    Graham White

    Cambridge

    1. At our previous medical practice we could phone up first thing and have an appointment at 10:30 the same day. This was normal. This was 20 years ago.

    2. Why on earth is NHS guidance still to do an enhanced clean after each patient, when fomite transmission is known not to be a vector of transmission? A quick wipe, maybe more if the patient was coughing everywhere – but would such a patient be allowed in nowadays?

    3. Richard Bellamy such a suggestion was included in the 2015 UKIP manifesto. Graham White – what planet are you on? Nobody is ever held responsible. Jeremy Hooper, it’s no use having hundreds more appointments if illnesses are missed because you need to SEE the patient (and in some cases, poke and prod). As an aside, I topped up the car’s tank this morning as I went past the cheapest petrol station (no queues); petrol has gone up 7ppl in the last few weeks. I thought that if I delayed buying fuel, it would have gone up 10ppl.

  12. So Hancock has been handed a nice little job by the world government, what more evidence do we need that our politicians are not working for us

      5. I wish. That might result in a shock result for the Conservatives which might (might) wake Boris up to his popularity levels.

  13. Europe has found itself at Putin’s mercy. 13 October 2021.

    Now the rest of Europe finds itself at Mr Putin’s mercy, a situation that need not have arisen had its leaders paid more attention to Moscow’s motives in building Nord Stream 2, which is designed to ship gas directly from Russia to Germany. Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, who are behind efforts to resolve the crisis by holding talks with Russia, will find that any deal struck with the Kremlin will be on Mr Putin’s terms, not theirs.

    Here’s Vlad getting some stick for simply supplying a need. It serves a purpose of course in distracting attention from the real culprits. If I may I would like to incorporate this sentiment from BELOW THE LINE

    IVAN NOBLE13 Oct 2021 7:29AM.

    O for a leader like Putin ..

    Amen to that brother!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2021/10/13/europe-has-found-putins-mercy/

    2. “Moscow’s motives in building Nord Stream 2”
      It was actually Merkel’s suggestion back in 2010 to build another pipeline beside Nord Stream 1.
      Four of Europe’s major energy companies own 49% of the pipeline.Wintershall Dea GmbH, PEG Infrastruktur AG (PEGI/E.ON subsidiary), N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie and ENGIE.

  14. Just looked at the Football page of DT, for Ingerland v Hungry result, lotsacrap, but not the score

    What was it

          1. “One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
            Ioseb Besarionis dzе Jughashvili

        2. That’s certainly top of the list, but we also need a thorough investigation into the dodgy contracts!

  16. 339968+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Wednesday 13 October: Our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark

    After decades of chipping away via the polling booth at the infrastructure, the very footings of society the result is our net-zero future will be unemployed, poor, static, freezing and dark, in all reality what did we expect ?

    For decades the majority of the electorate have been fighting a battle within a battle as to which of the lab/lib/con political crime syndicate should be in number ten, The party’s actions of the past never heeded
    no lessons learnt.

    The electorate are, at each General Election reinstating the same proven political sh!te, & in many cases actually tactically voting to block one type of political sh!te making progress against the other.

    Outside the lab/lib/con mass uncontrolled immigration, ONGOING, in reality land other anti English / GB forces are building, they already have
    oath taking material on hand to allow them to tell PORKIES to non believers & halal on the canteen menu, the in your face result of the repeated voting pattern the electorate deemed fit to put in.

    The take over or hand over more like draws ever closer on a daily basis.

    The honest views of a disgruntled, still standing bowed but NOT beaten knuckle dragging fruitcake, you lab/lib/con current members know the type.

    1. 339968+ up ticks,
      O2O,
      This lab/lib/con coalition cartel have surely taken the rebar out of English society Og,

      They most surely have.

    1. Morning Anne. This is a Golden Age for Jeremiah’s and Doomsters! Not least because it looks as if we are right!

  18. Heat pumps must be more than hot air. 13 October 2021.

    The Prime Minister was referring to heat pumps, which his Government has pledged to install in 600,000 homes every year by 2028. They are a “big bet”, as Mr Johnson put it, in the Government’s strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050. They are highly energy-efficient and well-suited to the UK’s relatively mild climate, and are the only commercially proven low-carbon replacement for gas and oil-fired boilers on the market.

    The problem is that they cost, on average, around six times more than a gas boiler, produce lower output temperatures than their fossil-fuelled counterparts, take up more space and are more disruptive to install. The prohibitively high price means consumer demand to meet the Government’s aspirations is pitifully low. As new Onward research reveals today, the UK is woefully off-track to meeting the 2028 target: on the current trajectory the goal of 600,000 installations per year will not be met until 2057 – nearly three decades too late.

    Despite the headline and these disadvantages this article is actually a support for heat pumps (the author is a Government Lackey) and going on to describe a whole range of measures to make them economically viable. They are all Pie in the Sky have it tomorrow promises. You should start topping up the Piggy Bank!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/13/heat-pumps-must-hot-air/

      1. 339968+ up ticks,
        O2O,
        The niece had a problem with the heat pump &
        a visitation from ” the fixer” who, wait for it, took a picture of it, then left

      2. This is spot on, “but then he is just an ordinary bloke so what does he know”. Is how Johnson would answer it.

        1. 339968+ up ticks,

          Morning JN,
          The people power department know they have the power to change ( Brexitexit) but are very reluctant to use it for the common
          good.

          Locked into party before Country every time, the politico’s depend on it.

      4. “A lot of our houses are very old, very draughty, and they heat leak like … you know … some of them have even got solid walls, haven’t even got cavity walls, let alone cavity insulation…”

        All built by, and passed as fit for habitation by, clueless muppets!

        1. 339968+up tick,
          Morning G,
          This has been ongoing for decades, more so now with trying to house the invasion troops, may one ask regarding these “muppets” are they voted into power & if so by whom ?

        2. To be fair, my home, 18 to 24″ stone exterior walls, was probably built before the advantages of cavity walls was known.
          But those walls act very much as a heat sink.

    2. Anything, absolutely anything Johnson endorses has to be either rejected out of hand or treated with great suspicion until the facts become available and then rejected. Politically, Johnson just cannot be trusted, he continues to blather on about how great and green the UK will become under his guidance when in truth his plans are, if not pie in the sky and unworkable, outright lies. He ignores the literal expense his plans/ideas will cost the people. He is a fraud and a disaster for the UK.

    3. Heat pumps are not what they are cracked to be. They say for every watt you put in the you get 2 or 3 watts out. This is never true, so much of the time they have to use extra electric to make them work properly. yet another con from Johnson.

      1. A repost of a comment made about three months ago.

        A typical household with gas heating uses about 12000 kWh gas annually. Using a condensing gas boiler which operates typically at 95% efficiency 11400 kWh of heat is generated. An air/water heat pump operating in representative English weather conversion factor of 1.8 would consume 6335 kWh electricity to generate the same amount of heat. Most of the electricity consumption would occur in the morning and evening peak hours. These peaks cannot be satisfied with renewable sources and would need gas turbine generators to meet the demand. Gas turbine efficiency to support surges and peak demands operate at around 35% efficiency therefore to supply 6335 kWh input to an air/water heat pump would require 18100 kWh of gas to fuel these gas turbine generators. This means 12000 kWh of gas to heat a domestic property would require 18100 kWh of gas to provide the same heat using heat pumps. While this is a simplistic overview of the situation, and there will be nuances, it shows that the Government proposal to replace gas domestic heating with heat pumps is far from green, and in reality is bunkum.

        (This is the summary of a letter in the Institute of Electrical Engineers magazine.)

      2. Having studied thermodynamics extensively, I rankle when I hear the word efficiency used for heat pumps as that term is misused; they are pumping heat from one place to another, not producing heat directly. The word should be performance (more specifically, coefficient of performance) or effectiveness.

        1. and if they cannot provide the temp. required they just use mains electricity. We stopped instaling them many years agoas they were far more expensive in the end when you include all on costs.

    4. Heat pumps are not what they are cracked to be. They say for every watt you put in the you get 2 or 3 watts out. This is never true, so much of the time they have to use extra electric to make them work properly. yet another con from Johnson.

    5. Heat pumps are really only viable in new builds where the requisite modern insulation, underfloor heating and/or large radiators etc are practical. Retrofitting to existing properties is a costly and practical nightmare.

      Any government plan to provide money will be a costly disaster. It’s living far beyond its means even now, so how will it pay?

    6. Thanks to inflation outstripping interest by 4% and counting, meaning that you lose £4000 a year for each £100,000 in your life savings, the pound in your piggy bank will barely buy you a penny chew by the time you need it.

      All the cool people borrow to the hilt. It pays to borrow – by payback time, you are let off completely because that’s what you do if you have no conscience beyond hardworking self-service,

      1. You’d think, with the threat of stagflation hovering over us all, any government would not be printing money, pissing that money up the wall, making ever more extravagant spending promises and promoting schemes of stupendous national self-harm, let alone a Conservative one. But you’d be wrong.

        We’re heading for an Eco and financial winter that will make a nuclear winter seem paltry. Perhaps with China’s aggressive plan to take over the world, avenging past humiliations at the West’s hands in the process, we’ll get both.

      2. You’d think, with the threat of stagflation hovering over us all, any government would not be printing money, pissing that money up the wall, making ever more extravagant spending promises and promoting schemes of stupendous national self-harm, let alone a Conservative one. But you’d be wrong.

        We’re heading for an Eco and financial winter that will make a nuclear winter seem paltry. Perhaps with China’s aggressive plan to take over the world, avenging past humiliations at the West’s hands in the process, we’ll get both.

      3. A point that is seldom made.

        If a tax payer has £100,000 in a bank and there is no inflation then at the end of the year he pays no tax on it and still has £100,000.

        If there is 4% inflation and he receives 4% interest from the bank the nominal value of his savings will be £104,000 but the actual value will be less than the actual £100,000 with which he started. But then he will also have to pay income tax – possibly at 40% on his interest = £1,600.

        So not only has the poor sod suffered a double whammy of lost value on his savings but the government has profited out of it.

        There is a very strong case for inflation to be deducted from received interest before it is taxed.

        1. If the poor sod’s only income is the interest on his savings, then he cannot claim any Income Tax relief, but still gets clobbered for Council Tax and VAT. Income tax relief on interest at 0.1% is bugger all anyway, even if inflation is at 4%.

          This is money that has been taxed once already before it was deposited, and will be taxed again when it is spent. Oligarchs in tax havens are exempt though. No wonder they’re rich.

    7. We’ve had an heat pump for a number of years.

      In all that time oil fired CH would have been cheaper, much cheaper.

      Don’t believe the figures about heat pumps, they are totally inaccurate.

  21. This article in today’s DT may be of interest to those Nottlrs who are on daily aspirin. However, the author of this article does not appear to have any medical qualifications:

    Over-60s should not take aspirin regularly to prevent heart attacks, say doctors
    Risk of bleeding from taking pills cancels out benefits of preventing heart disease once people turn 60, according to US researchers

    By
    Lizzie Roberts,
    HEALTH REPORTER
    12 October 2021 • 9:26pm

    Over-60s should not regularly take aspirin to help avoid a heart attack, an influential US health body has said.

    The risk of bleeding from taking aspirin cancels out the benefits of preventing heart disease once people turn 60, according to the US Preventive Services Task Force, a panel of independent experts which partners with official government bodies, including the US Food and Drug Administration.

    For the first time, the panel said there may be a small benefit for adults in their 40s who have no bleeding risk.

    For those in their 50s, there is a “closer balance of benefits and harms” than previously thought, the group said in its draft guidance.

    The NHS does not have a blanket policy of prescribing aspirin for reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes. However, doctors do recommend it for some patients at a low dose.

    Recent research found that a daily cocktail of aspirin, statins and blood pressure pills cuts the risk of having a stroke by half.

    A study by Canadian researchers, using data from more than 18,000 people with an average age of 63, found those who took all four drugs were 47 per cent less likely to have a heart attack, stroke or die from heart disease over a five-year period.

    The US task force said for patients aged 40 to 59 who are at higher risk of heart disease, and do not have a history of it, should discuss their situation with their doctor before taking the drug.

    Adults urged to speak to their doctors
    “Daily aspirin use may help prevent heart attacks and strokes in some people, but it can also cause potentially serious harms, such as internal bleeding,” said Dr John Wong, a member of the task force.

    “It’s important that people who are 40 to 59 years old and don’t have a history of heart disease have a conversation with their clinician to decide together if starting to take aspirin is right for them.”

    Dr Chien-Wen Tseng, another member of the task force, said: “The latest evidence is clear: starting a daily aspirin regimen in people who are 60 or older to prevent a first heart attack or stroke is not recommended.”

    The panel’s latest recommendation is based on new evidence since 2016.

    The experts said that the change in advice for over-60s does not apply to those already taking aspirin following a previous heart attack or stroke. These patients should continue to take their medication unless instructed by a doctor.

    1. The thing with taking aspirin is that you need to take more drugs to counteract its acid effect on the stomach. I had a large bleed out while on it which turned out to be a duodenal ulcer. In hospital while waiting for an endoscopy a nurse gave me my meds (all supplied by them of course) which included aspirin. I almost slipped away there and luckily got a swift blood transfusion.
      The endoscopy man said, as he showed me the duodenal ulcer on a screen, “The largest drug experiment ever carried out.”. Obviously it’s not the biggest drug experiment anymore.

    2. Many years ago, when registering with the Doctor in Irvine, Ayrshire, he asked what medication I was on and, hearing ‘Aspirin’, he gave a wry smile and said, “D’ye ken you’ll get the same benefit from a wee dram?” Despite his reluctance to prescribe it, it’s advice I’ve followed daily ever since.

    3. I wouldn’t want to take a daily cocktail of drugs anyway. Healthy people should just get on with life, not worry that they might one day have a heart attack or stroke.

  22. Brussels to offer new Brexit deal for Northern Ireland
    EU makes concessions over checks on goods but insists European Court of Justice must still have oversight in province
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/10/12/brussels-offer-new-brexit-deal-northern-ireland/

    Our French friends who are not really very interested in Brexit cannot understand why Britain signed up to a deal about the NI Protocol and fishing in the first place if we now want to change it. “Surely,” they say, “You knew what you were signing and could see the consequences so it is your fault if you don’t like it.”

    Indeed, even though I think that we should invoke Article 16 and leave the EU completely and regain our fishing rights in full by going for WTO terms I can understand the French point of view.

    Relations between Britain and France are at an all time low but many of us on the Nottlers’ forum were not covered in any euphoria about the Boris Brexit deal from the very start – we were completely flabbergasted that Johnson had caved in on both fishing and N. Ireland and said so here the very day it was announced. “Why,” we asked ourselves, “have we given in?”

    Yes, the EU, and especially France, are doing their best to punish Britain – and this is hardly surprising. But if we had gone for WTO terms as soon as the referendum result was declared we would now be in a far better position and we would now be held in more respect by our EU neighbours. Signing up to a deal we knew was no good and then hoping to change it has given the EU reasons to accuse us of double-dealing.

    1. And your French friends would be right. They would never have signed up to such a humiliating and one-sided deal.

      The way the EU is behaving now is just as bad, if not worse, than the way they would have behaved if we’d just left like the French did on leaving NATO: out quickly, no deal, no money, act on international norms. Like any power-mad bully, the EU will pick on the weak not the strong.

      1. But how could Johnson and Gove be so out of touch with reality as not to realise that their compromises on fishing and their surrender on the NI Protocol would lead to the EU – and especially France – rubbing its hands in glee and justify their outrageous behaviour?

        It makes one want to weep to see what total imbeciles our politicians are. Our French friends are mocking the British for their naive stupidity and they have every reason to do so.

          1. You may well have a point. No Brexit is better than a bad Brexit – because a bad Brexit will have to be cancelled and we shall be back in the EU again.

            Our politicians took four years and the longer they took the less the chance became of getting a good deal. Franky the likes of Grieve. Soubry, Adonis, Bercow, Woolaston, Gauke, Hilary Benn and Clarke should be in prison for high treason.

        2. The “reality” that Johnson and Gove is not the one WE have to live in. No leader in their right mind would put “migrants” – – i.e. – a freeloaders in hotels at the taxpayers expense. How many times has there been a cut promised in immigration at election times? LIES every time. now they don’t even pretend they are all doctors, surgeons scientists.
          Yesterday I looked om ONS to find how many hotel rooms were in the UK for how many were going to be waved in through Dover to fill them. I stopped after a couple of minutes when I noticed the webste date was 2013. How many extra been built since? When a thousand can aeeive in 2 days I don’t believe the official figures at all. £Millions being wasted every day – – and getting bigger every day.

        3. We were NOT naive. We were betrayed by a deceitful, abusive, arrogant state machine that sought to destroy the country out of spite and petulance.

        4. It is often reported that Cameron said: “We will implement what you decide.” In fact, it was the official HMG pamphlet that included the phrase “The Government will implement what you decide.”

          That Cameron obviously had no intention of doing so was demonstrated by his running away the next day.

    2. 339968+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      It all falls into place & is made abundantly clear when one acknowledges the fact that the tory (ino) cartel has been / is still an eu asset.

    3. WTO would also have given us incredible leverage. France wouldn’t be able to run to the pathetic EU for it’s power. The WTO would simply say ‘no’.

      We were weak and arranged an appalling deal. Why? Because the entire state machine wanted to stay in the EU and fought any attempt at a rational Brexit with every iota it had. The fifth column Left set out to sabotage us and the government didn’t have the majority it needed to hammer the useless fools.

      There should have been a huge number of sackings for malice. They’ll cover their tracks well but they’re obviously corrupt.

  23. Rolling Stones are a blues cover band, says McCartney.

    ‘I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band. The Beatles’ net was cast a bit wider than theirs’

    SIR PAUL McCARTNEY has described the Rolling Stones as “a blues cover band” and claimed The Beatles tapped into a wider array of musical influences.

    The singer said “our net was cast a bit wider than theirs” when it came to making music, but added: “I’m not sure I should say it.”

    His comments, made in an interview with The New Yorker, threaten to provoke another response from Sir Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones’ frontman, after the pair traded words over their legacy in jest last year.

    Sir Paul said in an interview with Howard Stern in April 2020 that the Stones were “rooted in the blues” and “The Beatles were better”, prompting Sir Mick to respond in a separate interview: “One band is unbelievably luckily still playing in stadiums and then the other band doesn’t exist.”

    The Beatles and the Rolling Stones were often framed as feuding with each other during the 1960s, but the two groups were actually on friendly terms.

    In his latest interview, Sir Paul was questioned about the sophisticated composition of many Beatles songs, which has drawn praise from experts on classical music. Asked whether his band worked from a “broader range of musical language” than other bands, such as the Rolling Stones, he replied: “I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are. I think our net was cast a bit wider than theirs.”

    It comes after Sir Paul blamed John Lennon for the demise of The Beatles in a separate interview with the BBC.

    Sir Paul has traditionally been viewed as the driving force behind the band’s split in 1970, after he revealed in a press release for his solo album that he was on a “break” from the group. But he told a forthcoming episode of BBC Radio 4’s This Cultural Life: “I didn’t instigate the split. That was our Johnny.

    “John walked into a room one day and said, ‘I am leaving the Beatles.’ And he said, ‘It’s quite thrilling, it’s rather like a divorce.’ And then we were left to pick up the pieces.”

    “The point of it really was that John was making a new life with Yoko and he wanted… to lie in bed for a week in Amsterdam for peace. You couldn’t argue with that. It was the most difficult period of my life.”

    Why do people insist on comparing The Beatles with The Rolling Stones? They are not alike, and never were. I liked them equally for different reasons. Comparing them is like comparing roast beef with Spotted Dick: both delicious but quite different.

    3. It’s true that the Rolling Stones did covers of Blues and R&B numbers in the early days, but they very quickly started writing their own material. As far as the early Beatles stuff is concerned, numbers like ‘She Loves You’ I find childish.

      1. “They very quickly started writing their own material”. Yes, after seeing the Beatles doing just that and being impressed enough to copy them.

        1. Many of the groups (‘bands’ is a later affectation) of the 60s wrote their own material. Those that didn’t were not long-lived.

      2. You have to realize what went before. Top of the pops, Nat Cole, Frank Sinatra, the Platters, Lonnie Donavon. It was all rather sedate and, frankly, bland as were the lives of young people who were basically expected to be miniature 40 year olds for all the fun they were allowed.

          1. I’m still a hippie in my 70’s. I think you would be surprised at how many of us are conservative in mentality. I think the modern image of hippies is a little out of whack with what the reality was and is.

          3. I did the whole oriental thing, masses of LSD, Buckminster Fuller, E. F. Schumacher, R. D. Laing, the lot. Evolved into a staunch Orthodox Christian, Monarchist and Traditional Conservative. I think the hippies that became the pot smoking wastrels of stereotype just didn’t get it. What the true hippies were looking for was eternal truths. You can’t get anymore conservative than that if you think about it.

          6. Did anyone see the documentary about the Mamas and the Papas on TV the other night?

            Really enjoyable.

          10. I’ve looked, Phil. It was probably the “California dreamin'” episode of Rock Family, sadly no longer available.

        2. I am a little too young to have experienced pop music before the early to mid sixties, so the Beatles and the Stones were really my era. Like many people of that time, I had a preference – it was the Stones. R&B and Soul were the genres I preferred.

  24. What Do You Think?

    OKAY, Norman and Barry were married in California. They couldn’t afford a honeymoon so they went back to Norman ‘s Mom and Dad’s house for their first married night together.

    In the morning, Johnny, Norman’s little brother, gets up and has his breakfast.
    As he is going out of the door to go to school, he asks his mom if Norman and Barry are up yet. She replies, ‘No’.

    Little Johnny asks, ‘Do you know what I think?’ His mom replies, ‘I don’t want to hear what you think! Just go to school.’

    Little Johnny comes home for lunch and asks his mom, ‘Are Norman and Barry up yet?’ She replies, ‘No.’

    Johnny says, ‘Do you know what I think?’ His mom replies, ‘Never mind what you think! Eat your lunch and go back to school ‘

    After school, Little Johnny comes home and asks again, ‘Are Norman and Barry up yet?’
    His mom says, ‘No.’

    He asks, ‘Do you know what I think?’ His mom replies, ‘OK, now tell me what you think.’

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6fdd6acb927deeecb0e0d5810603a7ab86fd2a00ddebe827c809418ac33e49de.jpg

    He says: ‘Last night Norman came to my room for the Vaseline and I think…
    I gave him my airplane glue.’

    1. Presumably by tomorrow sold out and on eBay at £50 per kg . . . .

      For Christmas you have to have a whole turkey, not for the day itself but the subsequent 2 weeks of turkey sandwiches, turkey fricassee, turkey curry, turkey and chips, turkey casserole and all the rest that I so fondly remember from my youth (thank you, mum & dad, and my apologies for taking it all for granted).

      1. When the last of my older brothers and sisters left home my parents stopped doing Christmas.

        Now I normally go away to an Hotel and let them do it all.

          2. Awww! I went up to the local pet store to buy some more calmer for Oscar (it does seem to be working – see my earlier post about brushing) and he got lots of treats and a fuss. They know not to touch his head, but he seems to accept a stroke on the back.

  27. Coveney has some cheek accusing Britain of risking a ‘breakdown in relations’ with the EU

    The Irish minister for Foreign Affairs has done massive damage to the London/Dublin friendship over the years

    OWEN POLLEY

    As the UK and the EU prepare to renegotiate aspects of the Northern Ireland Protocol, the Irish Republic’s foreign minister, Simon Coveney, accused Britain of risking a “breakdown of relations” with the EU by objecting to the European Court of Justice’s interference in Ulster. He has quite a cheek.

    Coveney and his boss, the Fine Gael leader and former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, have done more than most politicians to damage friendship between London and Dublin, undermine cooperation between the two parts of Ireland and destabilise the Belfast Agreement.

    Coveney advocated openly the province’s absorption by the Republic “within my political lifetime”, attempted regularly to meddle in Britain’s justice system, including supporting a campaign to free the dissident republican terrorist, Tony Taylor, and dismissed with disdain multiple British efforts to find a solution to the Irish border problem that would have kept goods moving freely across the Irish Sea as well as the land border.

    The EU will finally publish its proposals this week to “mitigate” issues with the Northern Ireland Protocol. Brussels argued originally that this deal was required to protect its single market from goods that were “at risk” of entering the continent through ports in Ulster. Instead, it has been used to implement a punitive regime that treats all intra-UK trade to the province from Great Britain as if products were entering a “third country”.

    The result is that more checks are carried out on goods in tiny Northern Ireland than take place across the EU’s entire eastern border or at its busiest port for imports, Rotterdam. With many of the Protocol’s worst features yet to be implemented, businesses’ supply chains are in ruins, consumers cannot buy products that are available across the rest of the UK and the health service could soon struggle to source thousands of medicines.

    The cabinet office minister, Lord Frost, threatened last week to trigger the deal’s “emergency break”, Article 16, which would allow the government to suspend many of the Protocol’s most damaging features. The requirements have been met, he argued, because the treaty has caused political instability and diversion of trade. In response, the EU will table plans that it claims will allow goods to move relatively unfettered. But it says it cannot relinquish the ECJ’s authority over Northern Ireland.

    This is provocative, hypocritical and ignores that the Protocol’s most glaring assault is on British sovereignty and the Union. Yes, the practical issues with trade make people’s lives in Northern Ireland miserable and undermine its economic links with the rest of the country. But the most incendiary effects, in a place whose constitutional status is such a sensitive issue, are to hand a foreign power unaccountable authority over the province’s economy and reorientate its political life toward Brussels and Dublin.

    Coveney claims that neither businesses nor unionist politicians have raised the jurisdiction of the ECJ with him. This is a mind-blowingly facile, dishonest argument. Businesses are understandably focussed on the practicalities of trade, rather than constitutional matters, and unionists have repeatedly objected to the Protocol on the basis that it subjects them to foreign jurisdiction and diminishes British sovereignty. In fact, that has consistently been their key point.

    At the heart of the Belfast Agreement, and therefore the Northern Irish peace settlement, is an acknowledgment that, “The present wish of a majority of people in Northern Ireland, freely exercised and legitimate, is to maintain the Union and, accordingly, Northern Ireland’s status as part of the United Kingdom reflects and relies upon that wish; and it would be wrong to make any change in the status of Northern Ireland save with the consent of a majority of its people.”

    This is a statement of the ‘principle of consent’ which established that Northern Ireland should remain a full and integral part of the UK, until voters determined otherwise at a referendum. This principle has no meaning if important parts of the Union can be dismantled, placing Ulster on a different economic or political footing to the rest of the country, and handing the EU authority over significant aspects of life.

    Lord Frost is right to insist that any renegotiation must deal with the ECJ’s role in Northern Ireland and restore British sovereignty fully. Many people in the province were murdered because they defended its integral place in the Union. The constitutional repercussions of the Protocol are central to its failure. They are not some sort of technical or theoretical irrelevance that can be ignored in the name of pragmatism.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/12/coveney-has-cheek-accusing-britain-risking-breakdown-relations/

    1. Trying to reason with the EU is like trying to reason with Hitler. They act in their own narrow self interest where our losing more than them is a victory, not a defeat for all.

    2. Why do we threaten and not follow through? Any parent knows that one cannot manage even a small child that way. So the EU, and their repulsive, vicious shill, Coveney are taking the Mickey.
      Invoke Article 16 or whatever, but let’s kick the EU and all its tentacles out of the UK.

  28. Save Britain’s bacon, by letting farmers slaughter pigs for market

    We have allowed the EU to tie our farmers up in regulatory knots. It’s time to re-empower them

    JAMIE BLACKETT

    It’s a mixed species metaphor but the sky is black with chickens coming home to roost over the pig slaughtering crisis. Not for Remoaner reasons but because the Brexit government has so far failed to take its own advice about a bonfire of regulations.

    Many of us have said for years that our food system is made vulnerable by increasingly relying on fewer, bigger abattoirs caused by EU regulations that favoured the Big Food corporates and drove the smaller slaughterhouses out of business. Two generations ago every large village had a butcher’s shop with a small abattoir behind it where local livestock would be killed then butchered into cuts to be sold over the counter wrapped in brown paper.

    During our time in the EU most went bust, to be replaced by gigantic factories that process meat into plastic-wrapped products for supermarket chillers. The costs of gold-plated building regulations and complying with paperwork to appease a growing army of government agencies, even the requirement to have vets present at slaughter, proved too much. Small farmers were also affected; the lack of competition among buyers has steadily eroded the farmer share of the retail price.

    The excuses for the erection of barriers to entry for small businesses were wrapped up in strictures about food safety and animal welfare. Inevitably change was also driven by the impetus for greater efficiencies in the food chain. But ironically we have made ourselves more vulnerable to salmonella outbreaks that can cause hundreds of thousands of cases from a single source instead of a few dozen in a local area.

    And animal welfare has been cruelly compromised by the need to transport animals from one end of the country to the other to be slaughtered. As for efficiency, you can judge for yourselves whether we have become more efficient when the “pingdemic” or a shortage of HGV drivers can cause a low-tech operation, one that we have been managing quite well since the Bronze Age, to fail. Currently, up to 120,000 pigs by some estimates face being culled, their meat wasted, because of a lack of abattoir workers.

    There needs to be a quick fix to put bacon back onto British breakfast tables. Derogations are required urgently to allow farmers to slaughter pigs on farm so that pig meat can go through the food chain, via butcher’s shops and temporary butcheries, rather than – disgracefully – into incinerators. It is a mystery to me why I can legally go out on my farm and shoot a roe deer or a pheasant and cut it up for the pot but not a bullock, a pig or a lamb. We need to stop thinking that civil servants know best and re-empower farmers to do what they always did before we allowed the EU to tie us up in knots.

    Longer term there needs to be a thorough overhaul of our food system. When the regulations covering the distilling industry were reformed, a thousand micro-distilleries bloomed. The same thing needs to happen in the meat industry. The lobbying, the threats and the dire warnings of animal cruelty and botulism from vested interests in the food cartels and the Civil Service will make this hard for government, but they need to act or deal with a shortage of sausages every time there is a hitch in the supply chain.

    Surely this is just the type of problem that Brexit was supposed to solve?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/12/save-britains-bacon-letting-farmers-slaughter-pigs-market/

  29. If there was a league for hypocrites this man would be a world contender.

    I heard him on Radio 4 this morning and he is a complete and utter Twát.

    GEORGE BAMBY CELEBRITY PODCASTER – I ABSOLUTELY DESPISE THE PRESS

    I am a reformed paparazzi. I absolutely despise the PRESS and will NEVER take a photograph of a celebrity ever again. I have been a horrible individual over the last 25 years and I will never again intrude on the private lives of any celebrities. I am absolutely ashamed of my PAST work and behaviour and believe that ALL CELEBRITIES, WHOEVER THEY ARE, should be able to live a normal and private life.

    I have now completely changed my life and I have given every celebrity I HAVE EVER PHOTOGRAPHED, THE COPYRIGHT OWNERSGHIP OF EVERY PHOTOGRAPH I HAVE EVER TAKEN OF THEM, SO THEY CAN NEVER BE RE-USED BY THE MEDIA. (Ownersghip?)

    I now spend my time working on TV projects with the BBC, Channel 4, Channel 5 and ITV.

      1. Perhaps his Dad will! He says his father is the charming Charles Bronson, that well-known violent burglar!

    3. I hope he enjoys his sackcloth and ashes but most celebrities seem to share the Sussexes idea of privacy and it’s said that the likes of the Beckhams have actually made more money selling themselves to gossip magazines than they ever did from their day jobs.

    1. Very instructive, Anne, for one who lived in Irvine with a direct view of Arran and no ferry port.

      I have commented below the line but it’s more wishful thinking than reality, given our present stupid government and easily led judiciary.

    2. Yes. After we left the EU there was no need to put the contracts out to tender. Even if they did, the official advice (or get-out clause for fiddlers) for public contracts is that the result should give “best value” and not just lowest price. “Best value” could be construed as keeping Scottish workers in jobs.

  31. Insulate Britain: Fighting breaks out as furious drivers drag protesters from the road
    Lorry seen inching its way forward towards activists sitting in the middle of the road near the Dartford Crossing
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/13/insulate-britain-fighting-breaks-furious-drivers-drag-protesters/

    NO COMMENTS ALLOWED

    What on earth is the point of the Daily Telegraph Online offering a space in which to comment if there is no chance given to comment on any issue which might elicit forceful comments?

    Perhaps the DT should abandon its pretence of serious journalism and go into soft soap manufacture instead?

    2. Given that the DT is on the side of the soap dodgers they should manufacture whitewash instead.

    3. ‘Dr Diana Warner, an Insulate Britain supporter, said: “Many people are
      going out of their way to thank us. Some come out of their cars to thank
      us, some are police officers involved with our arrests’.

      Yes, yes, of course this happened.

      2. According to the poll in my local rag, 87% of respondents think IB are “pains in the backside” rather than “ecowarriors”.

      2. I might sound a bit dim here, but how the hell can race be “a social construct”?
        Society didn’t create the colour of your skin!

          3. Report to the zoo at 5PM for the “reintroduce gorillas into the wild” reproduction program, your bananas will be provided after the requisite exertions.

  34. On previous occasions recently I have mentioned my problems with Dutch Customs. For your delectation and delight, or boredom, I note below the relevant correspondence trail.

    ONE
    Letter to Ms Truss, then Secretary for International Trade, 30th August 2021
    Dear Ms Truss,
    I am writing to you concerning problems encountered with Dutch Customs.
    The details are noted in the attached copy of the letter which I have sent to the Ambassador of the Netherlands.
    In brief, there have been long delays in items being sent into, and out of the Netherlands. I have asked the Ambassador if this has been a deliberate policy by the Dutch government.
    If there is no satisfactory response and improvement to the movement of items in and out of Dutch customs you might consider some active response on our side?
    It is, as you know, well established in nature that the best all round approach to encourage peaceful co-existence is “tit for tat”.
    May I suggest that imposing a three week delay in a UK lorry park for all flower lorries arriving in the UK from the Netherlands, might speed things up immensely at the Dutch end?
    Yours sincerely

    TWO

    Letter to His Excellency Mr Karel J G van Oosterom, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, 30th August.
    Dear Mr van Oosterom,
    I feel compelled to write to you regarding the actions of your Customs officials in the last few weeks.
    When, some time ago, your Customs officials confiscated a driver’s lunch of a ham sandwich this seemed overzealous, yet mildly amusing.
    In the last month or so I have experienced a couple of incidents that do not amuse me at all.
    On July 19th I ordered a replacement back for a Fairphone from the Fairphone company which is, as you know, a Dutch enterprise based in Amsterdam.
    This was promptly despatched by the Fairphone company on July 21st. The item, which is a small piece of plastic, was rejected by your Customs and returned to the Fairphone warehouse in Venlo.
    My enquiries discovered this and by contacting Fairphone I was able to arrange for the item to be sent again. The item was re-despatched and received by me on 16th August.
    Four weeks to get a simple item the size of a large letter from the Netherlands to Scotland, is not helpful.
    There is an annual online game with parallels to the Tour de France. It is run by, Erik Tjong Kim Sang who works at the Science Park in Amsterdam.
    I won that game this year, after 20 years of unsuccessful participation.
    On 10th August I sent a box of chocolates to Erik by a 2-day postal service. This was a small “thank-you” for his running the game for so many years. Now, on the 29th of August, “This item is still being assessed by the destination customs authority.”
    It has taken over two weeks for your Customs people to check a box of chocolates.
    Are they eating them, one chocolate a day?
    There is a saying “once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, thrice is enemy action”.
    It looks to me, if I may say so, as if your Dutch Customs are acting in a particularly bloody-minded, dog in the manger way.
    I may be wrong.
    I would be pleased if you could advise me that these actions are no more than mistakes by over-zealous officials and not part of an official ongoing action to delay trade and correspondence between our two friendly countries.
    I am sending a copy of this letter to a relevant Minister in HM government.
    I attach a copy of my letter to my government.

    Yours sincerely

    THREE A
    No response so, Letter to new Trade Secretary, The Right Honourable Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Secretary for International Trade, 20 September.
    Dear Ms Trevelyan,
    Congratulations on your appointment to the position of International Trade Secretary.
    I am writing to you concerning problems encountered with Dutch Customs. I wrote to your predecessor, Ms Truss, but as yet I have received no response.
    I attach a copy of my original letter to Ms Truss. The details are noted in the attached copy of the letter which I sent to the Ambassador of the Netherlands.
    While my complaint may seem trivial it is surely indicative of the ongoing problems occurring in the routine importing and exporting of goods from and to the EU.
    You will have noted that Marks & Spencer have closed some stores in Paris, citing import delays as the reason (ref. below).

    Yours sincerely

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-5858286

    THREE B
    No response from Dutch Embassy, so I wrote again, 20 September,

    Dear Mr van Oosterom,
    I wrote to you on 20th August regarding the actions of your Customs officials in the last few weeks.
    I have, as yet, received no response.
    While my difficulties may be trivial they are indicative of the broad range of difficulties being needlessly imposed on our trade with the EU across the board generally.
    I attach a copy of my letters to my government.
    Yours sincerely,

    FOUR
    Reply from Dutch embassy, see pic below, dated 21 September
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d883e81b730e5e23cced41b4c5f34451d9f521b737dd8cd1cde6969198cc282a.png

    FIVE. My response to Dutch Customs Attache. 28 September

    Regarding Delays at Dutch Customs
    Dear Mr van Tienhoven,
    Thank you for your letter of 21 September 2021.
    Please thank his Excellency for his apology. I feel sure that he has many matters demanding his attention.
    As far as your response is concerned, firstly, the Customs procedures in place subsequent to Brexit are those insisted upon by the EU, of which the Netherlands is a member.
    Great Britain is a trading nation and prefers free trade to tariffs, if reciprocated. Prior to our joining the EU such delays seldom occurred.
    Secondly, the delays did indeed all occur at Dutch, not UK, Customs according to the paperwork of the courier/postal services, and I suppose that they would know.
    Yours sincerely,

    SIX
    Reminder to Ms Trevelyan, Secretary for International Trade, 28 September

    Dear Ms Trevelyan,
    Further to my letter of 20 September, I have now received a response from the Embassy of the Netherlands, copy attached.
    I would reiterate that while my complaint is trivial in the great scheme of things, it is surely a telltale of the ongoing problems occurring in the routine importing and exporting of goods to and from the EU.
    I have responded to the letter from the Dutch Customs Attaché as politely as may be. The general gist of his reply is that it is our fault, firstly because of Brexit, and secondly it may have been UK Customs (it was not).
    This is a most intransigent approach by the Dutch, almost French really.
    Might I suggest that you ask one of your aides to arrange a straw poll amongst exporters to the Netherlands, including Chambers of Commerce, asking what is the current average door-to-door delivery time from the UK to their Dutch customers, compared to 2018?

    Yours sincerely,

    I have received no response whatsoever from the UK government, a government elected to work on my behalf, as well as on behalf of other UK citizens.

          2. As i wrote it i thought should i put the ‘d’ on the end but then i don’t think the protesters received much if any punishment for their criminal damage.

            Or in other words…..smartarse. :@)

    3. Wasn’t the whole point of going for a deal with the EU rather than going for WTO terms to avoid this sort of nonsense?

      1. I thought so. But even simple processes can be used to hold things up. “Please wait while we analyse the ink on the signature.”

  37. The UK has reached the stage where we need to revitalise our economy and beaver away productively by chomping down trees into wood chips and burning them instead of coal in our power stations.

    The problem arises however due to the resulting water runoff and the ensuing floods.

    The Chinese, even though their beaver population is smaller than their panda’s, have reached the thin end of the wedge after their coal fired power stations were not producing enough electricity to cope with the high rising cost of imported gas sourced energy.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10085307/China-plans-build-new-coal-fired-plants-blackouts-week.html

    So what can you do to make your own gas?
    The answer is to use what you’ve got tons of – coal.
    Many of us can remember town gas and some of us even have an old gas plant e.g. Fakenham!
    But there is a modern way of making gas from coal and from the Chinese point of view it makes sense that with just the addition of a bit of flood water you can make SYNgas which is mainly hydrogen like the old town gas:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26921145

    What is more, there is a byproduct of this process – the generation of CO2.
    As we all know, this is also in short supply as we cannot now euthanase pigs and put bubbles into our fizzy drinks.

    This all goes to show that the Chinese solution to their energy problem is based on a Win, Win strategy of self sufficiency. There is no word for crisis in Chinese but there is one for opportunity!

  38. We need to dial down women’s fears. Spiked 13 October. 2021

    The government’s enthusiasm for the 888 service is deeply worrying. It seems the state believes women need to be surveilled by their partners or family members in order to be safe when walking the streets. Not only does this deny the statistical reality that very few women will ever face serious danger in public. But it also feeds a culture of fear brewing among women, particularly among a younger generation, who are losing confidence in their ability to live normally without chaperones or police protection.

    This new 888 phone line will not make women safer, but it will encourage women to be even more fearful, making us grip our keys tighter and look over our shoulders more frequently when there is no need to do so. It will do nothing to liberate women.

    They are creating out of the safest society that has ever existed for women; one steeped in Fear!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/10/13/we-need-to-dial-down-womens-fears/

    1. After dialling 888 to get a mentor to walk them home will they have to walk three paces behind?

      It seems each new thing thought up by government seems to be to fit Muslims.

      Did you hear that the 35 Mosques in Cologne have been given permission for the Muezzin call to prayer?

      At the same time as Christian Churches are being silenced, closed or burned to the ground we have to put up with an invading Alien cultures mores.

      It makes me want to spit.

      1. ‘Afternoon, Philip, it makes me wonder how long before the civilian population – here and abroad – rise up start their own holocaust against these invaders.

    2. Many of those morons have burned their injunctions – why are they not arrested, charged and imprisoned as any other citizen would be for repeatedly breaking a court order?? [Rhetorical – Sadly I know our useless, spinless government won’t do it]

      1. Wasn’t Tommy Robinson arrested, charged, stood trial, convicted and imprisoned all in one day on Contempt of Court charge?

    3. Perhaps drivers should start carrying zip ties and affix the protestors to the nearest railings? Then they wouldn’t be able to sit down on the road again until yer Police released them.

  40. Teenage Afghan refugee Hazrat Wali stabbed to death in Twickenham. 13 October 2021.

    A teenager was stabbed to death on a sports field in front of schoolchildren whose teacher ran over to give CPR in a desperate attempt to try to save his life.

    The 18-year-old was attacked during a fight on a footbridge before staggering and collapsing onto the playing fields in Craneford Way, Twickenham, at 4.45pm on Tuesday.

    No doubt some Tribal Feud from the Twelfth Century!

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/twickenham-stabbing-london-richmond-upon-thames-school-craneford-way-b960251.html

      1. They ttreat this place as their home -stabbing and knifing one another because no matter where they go, they remain savages.

      1. Pupil? 18. Don’t they mean student? Come for a better life and almost immediately killed? I wonder if he forgot hir P’s and Q’s. Or just showed a lot of Attitude……….

    4. “Detectives have called on people who filmed the attack not to share it on social media.”

      And of course the article does not give a physical description of the murderer. I wonder why this is?

      1. ‘They’ don’t need to physically rob the little girls piggy bank. All they need to do is print more money.

  42. 339962+ up ticks,
    May one ask, is there anything stopping a person on going out rhetorical IDeing as a police person & carrying pepper spray ? in the line of duty.

    1. I’m actually glad he did that and kept this iconic aircraft going – more doom on that cretin Cameron for giving these aircraft away!

    2. I was at RAF West Raynham when they had the ‘Tripartite’ Squadron – RAF, Luftwaffe and A N Other – for testing and evaluation. Two types, P1127 (Kestrel) and P1154 (Harrier).

      Fascinating to watch.

      1. I was allowed to sit in a Harrier at RAF Wittering (No 1 Squadron). I later sat in the (grounded) version they have at Brooklands. Amazing aeroplane.

          1. Originally formed as a balloon squadron, I understand, before heavier than air machines got going.

  44. Pretty low down on my list of serious annoyances, but that’s twice in less than a week that I’ve been stuck behind a pair of moronic cyclists who insist on cycling down narrow country lanes two abreast, while apparently observing distancing guidelines, going slowly and making no attempt to let traffic pass. Sooner or later someone less tolerant than me is going to lose it with these idiots.

    1. I nearly got wiped out by a hedge cutter this morning; it was merrily chugging along cutting the hedges and the electricity pole in the process; because there were cars parked on the other side of the road, I had to hang back. The driver saw somebody coming towards him (or maybe he wanted to investigate the bang as he took a chunk out of the pole), so stopped and started reversing into me! I was lucky there was nobody behind me so I could get out of the way.

      1. Reminds me of the time that the Nimitz came to the Solent. All little lanes jammed up. People who had seen it and people who wanted to get home going back and forth. I took off my motorcycle helmet and threw it at the car in front backing on to me.

      2. I suppose you’re not in need of a new car off someone else’s insurance at the moment are you?

    1. I have heard Ivermectin being dismissed by “experts” as a drug used on animals. Could you get more dishonest in wilfully misrepresenting a drug that does more for Covid than the so called cure concocted by big business.

      1. It’s not incorrect to say it’s used on animals (it’s a common wormer). It is, however, highly misleading.

        1. My point exactly Conway. You can buy it in the UK for horses. But you have to do a little math to figure out the correct dosage for a person. Needless to say you don’t take as much as a horse!

  47. https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/we-both-know-this-has-never-been-about-saving-lives-boris/

    Do you know what really got me questioning what was going on, right at
    the beginning of this? The one thing that made me realise, there and
    then, that we were being played. It was all those videos of people
    dropping dead in the streets of Wuhan. Not going down like a sack of
    spuds, but cartoonishly keeling over, stiff as a board, as they went
    shopping on the mean streets of Wuhan. Anyone who has had the flu will
    tell you that the last thing you feel like doing is a bit of shopping.

    2. I was always suspicious of those short clips about people falling down in the street and then to maximise it, the hospitals in Italy being over run. Just didn’t ring true. Though it would for young people easily nudged.

          1. You’re back !
            We missed you !
            Did you have a wonderful time with family?
            Did you manage to pocket any expensive items without anyone seeing?

      2. They don’t appear to be determined to retire gracefully, do they? I can see Mick Jagger gyrating in his bath chair at 90 croaking away.

      2. Are they going to rename the junior branch of the girl guides?

        And of course Big Ears – Noddy’s special friend is described as being a brownie. I rather suspect that he is a ‘trans’ and self-identifies as a brownie to gain access to the little girls in the Toytown Brownie Pack. One shudders to think what he gets up to in the girls’ wheelbarrow race!

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e30cae0cd3b5a78903231efe936b4327919defa944a10a6f5e6fffc6dc8375b3.jpg

        1. What is the meaning of Brown Sugar by Rolling Stones?
          Image result for brown sugar rolling stones lyrics
          Songfacts®: The lyric is about slaves from Africa who were sold in New Orleans and raped by their white masters. The subject matter is quite serious, but the way the song is structured, it comes off as a fun rocker about a white guy having sex with a black girl. >>

          Read the lyrics, John – they have more to do with sex than slavery

          Brown Sugar
          The Rolling Stones
          Gold Coast slave ship bound for cotton fields
          Sold in the market down in New Orleans
          Skydog slaver knows he’s doin’ all right
          Hear him whip the women just around midnight
          Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
          Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
          Drums beatin’ cold, English blood runs hot
          Lady of the house wonderin’ when it’s gonna stop
          House boy knows that he’s doin’ all right
          You should have heard him just around midnight
          Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good?
          Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
          Brown Sugar, how come you dance so good?
          Brown Sugar, just like a black girl should
          I bet your mama was a tent show queen
          And all her boyfriends were sweet 16
          I’m no school boy but I know what I like
          You should have heard them just around midnight
          Brown Sugar, how come you taste so good
          Brown Sugar, just like a young girl should
          I said, yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!
          How come you, how come you dance so good
          Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!
          Just like a, just like a black girl should
          Yeah, yeah, yeah, wooo!

  49. Had a good day out today – friends from Bristol came over for coffee , a walkaround and then lunch at the Brewery. Talked about swifts all day. Tonight we’ve got the first table tennis match since February 2020. Seems like getting back to normal.

  50. Afternoon, everyone. Lovely day today, just not in terms of weather (it was mizzle – a cross between mist and drizzle). Went to church then collected Oscar and went up to the local garden – because of the weather, although it had dried up by then, hardly anybody was there. We had the garden to ourselves at times, with nobody else in sight. A major step forward with Oscar occurred, too – he allowed me to brush his head! Only for a very short time and only very gently, but it’s great progress. I expect tomorrow to bring a major setback 🙂

      2. And here in Norf Zummerzet, I even managed to get a 2nd walk in, trying to make the most of the pleasant weather before the rains come and decides to for weeks.

      1. Two steps forward and one back seems to be the pattern; I just think I’ve cracked it and then we’re back to square one. Still, overall, I think he’s much better than he was when he first arrived; more relaxed, less stiff, less inclined to snap at the least opportunity, actively seeking a fuss (then showing his teeth – without making contact – and getting left to his own devices). He’s still guarding his food, not to mention jumping up and barking to get treats. I haven’t managed to sort out the barking yet (he’s very slow on the uptake that he doesn’t get anything unless he’s quiet), but he’s starting to sit automatically to get treats (although he has to be reminded about not jumping up first – “that’s not what you do!”)

        1. Softly, softly, catchee monkey Oscar.
          Slow, but steady progress, Conners. Looks like you are just what he needed.
          :-))

          1. I told him that this morning; I said I was glad I’d got him, but he should be glad he’d got me, too. Not that he appreciates it!

          3. Would you like to reconsider “silent”; he can bark for England (and Wales)? 🙂 He’s fine travelling while we’re moving (lies down and relaxes), but the moment we stop, whether because we’ve reached our destination or because of a red light or road junction, he barks the place down.

        2. A long term project then. Our little hound’s most annoying habit, and one we’ve never solved, is her screeching with delight whenever we arrive at our destination in the car. And she doesn’t stop. It goes on and on. It is ear splitting. She is very excitable, she loves people and has appointed herself as chief greeter of our family. All she has to do is hear us say ‘hello’ to someone and she’s there in an instant, letting them know that she is there.

          1. Better than being there, threatening them! 🙂 Charlie used to travel well until we reached our destination, then he’d go into a frenzy of barking; “We’re here! We’re here! Let me out! I want to see where we are!” Once he’d got out and had a sniff, he was fine. Oscar does it when we stop at a red light or traffic congestion or a road junction as well as when we’ve arrived 🙁 To be fair to him, he also stops once he’s out and can see where he’s got to. I could do with getting him a bark collar to try to break the habit. He’s better at not barking EVERY time he goes out in the garden, but he still does it far too often for my liking. It’s just as well my neighbours have yappy dogs, so they can hardly complain.

  51. Evening all. Just back and passing through. Lovely to see my son and daughter-in-law in person for the first time in 13 months.

    Cats aggrieved at (a) cattery; (b) coming home.

    Just glanced at newspaper headlines. Delighted that Project Fear is being continued with: “Threats of devastating flooding”. from some daft govt outfit.

    Will love you and leave you.

    A demain

  53. Has anyone noticed how the whining remainers are now all concerned with the poor working classes and their loss of income with higher taxes and lost benefits, but for 40 years the remainers looked down their noses at the poor working classes, they called them closet racists, knuckle draggers, Little Englanders

    1. If I had been one of the other astronauts, I would have shouted to William Shatner – “There’s Klingons on the starboard bow!”

      1. Trouble is that f you were an unknown astronaut accompanying Jim Kirk on the mission you would certainly have been the first to die.

  55. ‘Night All

    Funny Old World

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/162c3fcc03af16b9d7276193fc4f4e69c9e149bb7e81f9c2c3556f85c02fd836.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c04d4f218c428d40c2008ffbed74639251ccf5c93dc1f18d4e0515f5fc15bb71.png

    Meanwhile as another few thousand gimmegrants settle into their £250 a night all inclusive hotels a cri de couer from a pensioner…….

    https://twitter.com/Weanie4/status/1448233509412392960
    Sorry matey oh yes you did,blame the politicians,the bastards

      1. I can imagine catering a dinner party where those were my three guests. I have the greatest respect for the careful preparation of food.

        1. Anne,

          I truly am sorry for the following:

          ‘she doesn’t have to resign.’

          How f*cking convenient!!

  58. The major industrial economies of China, India and Germany are facing power cuts because of lack of coal.

    https://inews.co.uk/news/world/energy-crisis-uk-germany-china-india-fuel-oil-coal-shortage-price-rise-1242695

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/92851de6213b230c20ea0afc9ef4915f1dc62da1253df37c74eebe24f84e9395.jpg

    Fortunately the UK has a couple of coal fired power stations left and thanks to the closure of all the others they both have more than enough coal to help power the National Grid.

    https://news.sky.com/story/uk-had-to-turn-on-coal-power-plant-to-help-national-grid-cope-with-low-winds-12400835

    1. But…

      …are we going to mine more?

      I understand that Drax is sitting on 300 years of coal, but, but, but…

    1. ‘Pure Planet says it sells renewable energy for less than power that pollutes and that it doesn’t make a profit on the energy its customers use. Launched in 2017, Pure Planet sells 100% renewable electricity, and gas that is 100% carbon offset. BP, which has a 24% share in Pure Planet, buys all the renewable electricity and carbon offset gas on its behalf.’
      Sounds like offset gobbledygook to me.

      1. They obviously know where The Shed and The Cellar are, where Manmade and Renewable particles of energy
        are separated from each other.

  60. I watched some of the Hitler”Circle of Evil” programme about Goebbels last night. The methods, techniques, pressures and rewards that he used to manipulate the German people seem to be the same as have been used on us over the last 22 months.

    1. I suggest they don’t “seem” to be, they are. William Shirer’s book The Rise and Fall of The Third Reich describes the Nazi’s model approach to gaining influence, power and control. As you say, the parallels are rather disturbing.

  61. Some colleagues were back in the office today. One told me that her 17 yr old son is just back from holidaying with the billionaire family of a school friend. Private jet, private yacht. No Covid tests. No form filling. No restrictions.

    The young man in question doesn’t want the jab and his parents aren’t pressuring him. He’s had Covid and was fine. His mum thinks he may eventually give in to peer pressure. I think he should keep the same friends.

      1. Just Tweeted this link. It’s very hit and miss as to what gets attention on Twitter but always worth a try.

    1. Will Boris Johnson capitulate and accept N Ireland remaining under EU control or will he tell Frost to go ahead with invoking Article 16?

      My money would be on Johnson caving in. What are the odds currently being offered by Ladbrokes?

    3. Now, if a man exposed himself, the full weight of the Cressida Dick Service would be upon him

      Why is she not being prosecuted for the the same offences?

      Will I, as a man have to call 888, before getting a taxi home, ensure that I am not accosted by this pervert

      Sauce: Gander Goose

    4. Now, if a man n exposed himself, the full weight of the Cressida Dick Service would be upon him

      Why are is she not being prosecuted for the the same offences?

      Will I, as a man have to call 888, before getting a taxi home, ensure that I am not accosted by this pervert

      Sauce: Gander Goose

          4. I always thought it came from the Greek for cleansing or purification (katharsis). That’s what we were told when we were discussing French plays at A Level.

        2. Crossbows illegal here, so it couldn’t be that.
          Very slow reload, too, although much easier to master than a longbow (Firstborn has a 100 lb pull longbow. Might as well be a Landrover leaf spring, by God is it hard work!)

          1. I am useless at trying to shoot arrows either with a longbow or crossbow. I am not much better with a side by side shotgun (but I can hit things I aim at with an over and under).

          2. Shotgun is easier if you don’t try to think about it. POint ‘n shoot, and don’t hang about all day trying to work out the deflection.
            I can never hit anything going directly away from me, though, ‘cos I don’t have stereoscopic vision, can’t judge the distance.
            :-((

          4. Indeed, but I found the stance helps with shooting rifles more accurately. And pistols, particularly dynamic competitions.

        1. Not with a handle like Oberstleutnant, it isn’t!
          That’s me, too (or #metoo). Utterly wrecked after a long stressful day concluded by sorting out car wheels for changing tomorrow. Gotta zed.
          Gute nacht!

  68. Tonight’s DT –

    ‘Several people killed in bow and arrow attack in Norway’

    On a par with the ‘Large earthquake in Chile – not many dead’ spoof (by Auberon Waugh I think)

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