Wednesday 17 November: Britain must focus on boosters and banish thoughts of fresh restrictions

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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666 thoughts on “Wednesday 17 November: Britain must focus on boosters and banish thoughts of fresh restrictions”

  3. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    A BTL which, I suspect, will find favour amongst many Nottlrs.

    Olivia Wilde
    What Is going along along the Polish border with Belarus Is very comparable with what Is happening daily In our Channel.
    Poland Is not the only country affected by Illegal migrants In that region, for months now, Latvia and Lithuania have been too.
    According to the excellent journalist Mark White of GB News on Nigel’s show last night, what has not been widely reported In the media( no surprises there then!) Is that of the 4,000 of Illegals claiming asylum, forced across the Lithuanian border by Belarusian authorities, whom they’ve been able to check actually WITH documents, It has been established that at least two dozen of them are known to have affiliations or be members of terrorist groups. most pertinently out of Syria, ISIS etc., so how many of the undocumented are too?!
    That and the sheer number of failed asylum seekers who are still here, some for years. even claiming benefits, Is an abomination and pose a very real national security threat, that’s without all the known threats reported to be on the watchlist of some 40,000 plus, what the hell are they all still doing here?!
    High time Ms Patel placed the safety and security of her own citizens and their human rights, over and above anyone coming Into our country Illegally, with those undocumented automatically refused entry and therefore asylum at the point of entry.
    Enough Is enough!

    * * *

    Quite so, and there are plenty more where that came from. And yet Johnson and Patel are still in post and systematically damaging this country. The day of reckoning cannot come soon enough.

    1. What would you have? Johnson and Patel replaced by Starmer and Thomas-Symonds? Both lawyers.

  5. Good Moaning.

    Quelle Surprise:

    “The year before Swealmeen converted, Reverend Pete Wilcox, a former Dean of Liverpool, said: “I can’t think of a single example of somebody who already had British citizenship converting here with us from Islam to Christianity.””

    1. All the young ‘converts’ who’ve renounced Islam must hope that the UK doesn’t go full Sharia in the years ahead!

  6. Morning, all

    Good sunrise

    BTL@DTletters

    Mike Pitman
    20 MIN AGO
    Sir Keir Starmer at his hypocritical best: calling for Stanley Johnson to ne prosecuted for slapping a Tory lady-MP’s bottom in 2003 which forgetting his failure as DPP to prosecute any of the Rotherham men who were doing things a damn sight worse to schoolgirls.

    1. Sh ‘Aguar
      2 HRS AGO
      Very upsetting news from Yorkshire
      Yes , the unchallenged, systematic and institutional sexual exploitation of vulnerable children. When will these victims be allowed to tell their harrowing stories to Parliament?

  7. Good morning all. A brightish start with the overnight rain stopped, or at least paused and 3°C on the thermometer outside.

    1. Good morning, BoB. Sunny and dry here, with the temperature at 10 degrees C. I’ve just stripped the back bedroom bed and put the bedding in the washing machine. Now sleeping in the front bedroom. (Too much information, perhaps.)

      1. No, no, not at all. Please go on. We are intrigued, nay, entranced. It’s like a BBC drama, only more so. Then there is the absence of adverts.
        Perhaps make it daily serial? Same time, same place. Eat your heart out Dick Tracy.

    3. Could he possibly be referring to the Duchess of Sussex? Didn’t she convert to Judaism when she first married a Jewish man, then back again after meeting Prince Henry?

    5. That would be why we’ve been forced to pray for “refugees” these last few Sundays, then. I might move my lips, but the Lord knows what’s in my heart.

  13. From the grimes

    Smear campaigns and racist bullying – Rafiq’s key accusations

    Below are the accusations from Azeem Rafiq’s witness statement to MPs on the digital, culture, media and sport select committee. Matthew Hoggard, former Yorkshire and England bowler
    “It was Hoggy who started calling me ‘Raffa the Kaffir’. It was only later I realised what ‘Kaffir’ meant,…

    The Karachi goofball doesn’t realise that he has referred to one of England’s finest bowlers as a male pig….how offensive is that?

    1. Just watched the first ten minutes as a taster. Not heard of it before but I’ll give it a squint later. Released during the second week of my basic training at Swinderby.

    2. I never heard of it but I’ll hive it a try. Must have come out when I was in BAOR. Thanks for the link.

      1. A very dark series with the elected Government depicted as being incompetent and the actual governing of the country being by Civil Servants.

  17. The accused: 12 men singled out in explosive Azeem Rafiq testimony. 17 November 2021.

    Rafiq wept as he relived his “inhuman” treatment after blowing the whistle on the game’s racism scandal and how it had cost him his career – and almost his life.

    But he was also unwavering in his determination to use the platform offered him by the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee to speak publicly for the first time about those he had accused in private.

    As revealed by Telegraph Sport, that included allegations that Ballance, his former friend and team-mate, had routinely called “everyone of colour” Kevin as a term of abuse.

    Morning everyone. Am I the only one who wonders what politicians are doing sitting in judgement on a matter that really has nothing to do with them?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/11/16/england-trio-matthew-hoggard-tim-bresnan-alex-hales-accused/

    2. They are seeking the excuse to pass laws requiring all white men to lower their eyes in the presence of Bames and to stand aside whenever they pass. White women will be required to wear the full burka at all times where a Bame may be present.

    3. He could also use the platform offered him as a famous sportsman to speak out against rape gangs.

    5. It saves them from doing their day job? As an aside, if Rafiq’s treatment at YCCC was so ‘inhuman’ why did he return there in 2016, having departed in 2014? Perhaps no other side thought his lack of talent and drive worthy of a place in their team?

  18. The accused: 12 men singled out in explosive Azeem Rafiq testimony. 17 November 2021.

    Rafiq wept as he relived his “inhuman” treatment after blowing the whistle on the game’s racism scandal and how it had cost him his career – and almost his life.

    But he was also unwavering in his determination to use the platform offered him by the Digital, Culture, Media & Sport select committee to speak publicly for the first time about those he had accused in private.

    As revealed by Telegraph Sport, that included allegations that Ballance, his former friend and team-mate, had routinely called “everyone of colour” Kevin as a term of abuse.

    Morning everyone. Am I the only one who wonders what politicians are doing sitting in judgement on a matter that really has nothing to do with them?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2021/11/16/england-trio-matthew-hoggard-tim-bresnan-alex-hales-accused/

  19. 341729+ up ticks,May one ask,

    The accused: 12 men singled out in explosive Azeem Rafiq testimony
    England stars including Joe Root, Matthew Hoggard and Tim Bresnan dragged into racism scandal on cricket’s day of shame

    How does this issue stand up against ……
    The number of men involved regarding the JAY report on rotherham,
    plus oxford, rochdale, sheffield, plus,plus,plus & the decades of cover up shame via the lab/lib/con coalition, ALL still ongoing.

    1. AR’s testimony is explosive? Was he on his way to a pop concert or a Remembrance Day service?

    2. 341729+ up ticks,

      O2O,
      How about the selectors forget about selecting any Pakistanis in the future, a sort of paki / deal would that solve the problem ?

      1. That’s where things are going. The more uppity minorities are the more they will be excluded from the workplace.

        Which is sad, as it’s precisely the opposite way we were heading, dragged backward by the nutcase ‘progressives’.

  20. Germany suspends approval for Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

    Germany on Tuesday suspended the certification process for the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia.

    The German regulator said the suspension was “temporary” and it appeared to be a technical rather than a political decision.

    But Russia is likely to see it as a hostile move and it could fuel growing tensions with the West.

    Yes let’s throw some petrol on the bonfire just to see what happens! This was a stupid move by almost any measure you could care to take. It is cutting one’s own nose off to spite one’s face.

    There is at present a Globalist manufactured gas crisis in Europe and Winter is coming! Guess who’s going to profit from a cut in the Gas supply? Aside from this it will certainly enrage the Russians who negotiated the pipeline in good faith and have seen it blocked at every turn. Germany looks as if it has simply taken instruction from the EU over a minor disturbance about refugees. It’s also worth remembering that the EU as represented by Ursula Von der Lyen and her policies has never been elected or approved by a single ordinary European voter! Just who does she take her orders from? This along with Russia amassing forces on land (much advertised) and the US threatening Crimea (hardly mentioned) in the Black Sea could see it slip out of control almost without any of these morons noticing until it is too late.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/16/germany-suspends-certification-process-controversial-nord-stream/

    1. I read yesterday (source memory-holed unfortunately but I dare say it was either in comments on here, Going Postal or TCW) that the problem was that a Swiss firm own/control the German end of Nord Stream 2 and that this same firm has a smaller subsidiary in Germany. The Germans want the Swiss firm to pass control of the pipeline to the German-based subsidiary, thus bringing it under German (and therefore EU) control.

  22. Madeline Grant in the DT. Her articles have become a ‘must read’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/17/britain-plagued-organisations-hate-loyal-supporters/

    Britain is plagued by organisations that hate their most loyal supporters

    From the National Trust to the Church of England, Britain is full of organisations that have forgotten their purpose

    17 November 2021 • 6:00am

    “Faced with a proverbial problem, the National Trust has a novel solution. After rangers at a popular beauty spot in East Hampshire complained that their bins were overflowing due to a recent influx of dog-walkers, the Trust took a somewhat counter-intuitive step … removing dog-waste bins altogether.

    This, they say, will encourage owners to take their rubbish away with them, though it doesn’t take a member of the nudge unit to imagine the more likely outcome: more fouling than ever, perhaps even systematic fly-tipping of those insalubrious little baggies. Ingenious solutions which the Trust apparently failed to consider include adding more bins, or emptying them more regularly.

    Perhaps I’m making a mountain out of a dog stool here, but the Trust’s petty, anti-people (and anti-dog) response to this problem is the latest in a series of baffling decisions which could have been designed to provoke its core supporters. The organisation has grown detached from its founding purpose. Earlier this year an internal paper was leaked, attacking the very idea of country houses and gardens, branding this “the outdated mansion experience”.

    Impeccably polite, knowledgeable to a fault, the Trust’s 50,000 or so volunteers are its lifeblood. Yet thousands are reportedly leaving each year. Some are fed up with the Trust’s obsession with political causes; others the endless red tape, unconscious bias training and privilege awareness courses, others simply the dumbing down of exhibitions. Somehow, the Trust has managed to annoy practically everyone, from volunteers to the millions who loyally stump up their membership fees each year and detest being patronised. And now we can add East Hampshire dog-walkers to the list.

    This is just the tip of a large iceberg. The entire country seems in the grip of organisations that give every impression of disliking those whose interests they claim to represent. It’s a trend encompassing institutions old and new, Left and Right, political parties, civic society, and it takes many forms – from neglect to active contempt.

    Naturally, it exploded during the pandemic. Universities and teaching unions abandoned their pupils, often treating in-person learning as negotiating leverage rather than a vital part of education. Many GPs turned their backs on patients too. Groups like the BMA recast face-to-face appointments as the height of entitlement rather than a not-unreasonable preference from those who pay their wages. The Church of England also behaved cravenly, ordering parishes to lock their doors; even banning clergy from going into their own churches to pray on behalf of their congregations.

    Like the Trust, the CofE seems to specialise in making things soul-destroyingly difficult for volunteers. Churchwardens and PCC members, like my mother, are expected to bear much of the local heavy lifting – fundraising, helping to maintain church buildings and dealing with endless diocesan micro-management along the way. Yet as they demand more of their foot-soldiers than ever, the CofE seems indifferent to their wishes – stripping churches of their clergy, eroding the parish system. Even the day-to-day language seems alienating. Lambeth Palace apparatchiks favour unintelligible corporate jargon over any attempt to communicate the beauty or truth of the divine.

    The disease transcends politics and party affiliations. Labour has paid a heavy price for abandoning what was once its core electorate. Now, not content with imposing Gordon Brown’s economic platform on their members, the Conservative Party has targeted such totemic Tory staples as wood-burning stoves and bottles of port. How long until the Lib Dems start clamping down on bicycles and allotments?

    The BBC’s doomed quest to attract younger viewers has alienated loyal audiences. Meanwhile Stonewall, an organisation that once fought fearlessly for the rights of gay and lesbian people, can more often be found opposing them – joining with transgender activists in a desperate campaign to strip the advocacy group LGB Alliance of its charitable status.

    Self-hating or people-hating organisations often share a few notable qualities; centralisation, excessive bureaucracy, an inability to resist faddish bandwagons, a tendency to neglect core audiences in the misguided pursuit of new ones. No arena of public life looks safe. Even the Girl Guides, not content with teaching their young charges how to do a sheepshank and build a campfire, managed to annoy parents last month with social media posts celebrating “asexuality awareness week”.

    The question is, are there any organisations left that don’t hate their own members? One which seems mercifully free of this widespread tendency is the Women’s Institute. Despite its traditional “Jam and Jerusalem” image, WIs are busy reinventing themselves in many areas and attracting a more diverse membership. They’ve succeeding in moving with the times, while valuing their members and maintaining a shared sense of purpose. But based on Britain’s current trajectory, it can’t be long before they start trying to ban cake.”

    1. The question is, are there any organisations left that don’t hate their own members?

      With perhaps the exception of one or two, by and large NOTTL is one such organisation!

        1. You are one of the very few NoTTLers I abhor, Phizzee, because you have never bought me a drink. In fact I dislike you so much that I shall now swear at you: You are a VERY Silly Sausage, and must go to the naughty step immediately!

        2. You are one of the very few NoTTLers I abhor, Phizzee, because you have never bought me a drink. In fact I dislike you so much that I shall now swear at you: You are a VERY Silly Sausage, and must go to the naughty step immediately!

    2. “People-hating organisations often share a few notable qualities; centralisation, excessive bureaucracy, an inability to resist faddish bandwagons, a

      tendency to neglect core audiences in the misguided pursuit of new ones”.

      MOH used to work for a company like that.

      Anybody care to guess which one?

  24. FW de Klerk and the destruction of Apartheid. Spiked 17 November 2021.

    Four years later, the South African General Election was won by the ANC and Mandela became South Africa’s first black president. All this ensured that white-minority rule was dead and buried forever.

    One would cheer louder if it had led to any improvement in the lives of the mass of Black South Africans. It hasn’t!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/17/fw-de-klerk-and-the-destruction-of-apartheid/

    1. Black African lives improve only when they flee the place and put themselves under the rule of the white man in the West. Well, I use the term white loosely with the present cabinet.

      1. It is fairly typical of the demented Left that they blame Ritterhouse rather than the violent thugs of the black looting mob. They ignore that the mob had guns and were firing at Ritterhouse. They ignore that the police refused to stop the burning, looting, black mob.

        The state failed Ritterhouse by not immediately dispersing the burning, looting black mob.

    2. Mandela was saved from being properly and correctly executed for his crimes and did not serve “life”. The wikipedia entry does not mention his involvement with, and responsibility for, murder and bombings.

  27. Escaping Bureaucracy

    I saw this on an expat website yesterday: “My wife and I have lived in the Algarve for 8 years. We recently took a holiday in Germany at Lake Constance and loved it so much that we’re thinking of moving there.

    We are sick of Portuguese bureaucracy and red tape.”

    A reply from a German: “You’re fed up with bureaucracy and you want to live in Germany? Are you fucking crazy?!“

  28. I’m seething about the clip on the news last night showing illegal immigrants boarding an inflatable to get to England. They all had new lifejackets and the boat/engine were new – how on earth can the French police not know who is supplying these and take no action? We know the answer of course.
    These people would not come if it weren’t for our overgenerous welfare system, the incompetence and collusion of the Border Farce and RNLI

      1. This is because the french police – deliberately lowercase – would stand beside the illegals and intentionally look the other way.

        The solution is simple. Tow the boats back to france and destroy them. Let those on board swim the last mile.

    2. 341729+ up ticks,
      Morning FA,
      Then knowing it is in all probability being partially funded by United Kingdom tax payers as in a uk / eu partnership
      will make you feel any better will it.

    3. Interesting that the French state that the very profitable people smuggling is being run from Britain.

      Perhaps “influence” is being paid for from certain members of the Border Force and RNLI?

      1. I presume these “influencers” have been trained to statutory standards in Critical Race Theory.

      1. Hashtag – MeToo
        Notes:
        1. I have still to find where the hashtag key combination is.
        2. Last century a branch of my family bought them a boat, to rescue sailors.

        Edited in response to literary elegance/typo complaint.

        1. Sorry, HP, I can’t give you an upvote, because at present (10.25 am) I can see:

          1. I have to yet….
          2. Last century…
          3 (You have to rotate the [but not the I] by 90 degrees clockwise)

          :-))

          1. I tried the rotation thing, but I rotated too much and rotated the I by mistake and the keyboard fell on the floor. As I reached out to catch it, I toppled the chair and I too landed on the floor, slightly rotated. I was rotated, but not 180 degrees luckily. I do not suppose there is some music that would help the timing of the rotation manoeuvre? Argentine Tango perhaps?
            Although there is no “I” in tango…
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tir5_m6E4lc

            Here is a lovely thing:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZZmW59Ci5g

        2. Assuming you have a fairly standard qwerty keyboard it is under ~ key. On my keyboard it is next to the carriage return key.
          On an ipad move from the ABC to the 123 screen and on the 123 screen near the bottom right you will see a key: # + =, press that key and the # is in the middle of the top row.

          1. `~“““““““““““““““““““““““`§3#####################
            Thanks. Found it. It is an option on “3”. Aha ha. #. #Me2. #Me Too! Bring it on!

    5. Good morning, Spikey

      The French don’t want these illegal immigrants in France any more than the British want them in Britain.

      By offering each one of them the most generous conditions in the world – free accommodation, free food, free medical care, and pocket money of about £38 pw – the British are helping the French get rid of them from France.

      But of course the people in Calais and Northern France – the area which has become home to the sordid and squalid transit camps – are disgusted with the British for creating the problem they have to face by attracting the immigrants to pass through their homes en route to the land which is no longer the land of the free but the land of the free handouts for illegal immigrants.

      Trump’s idea of a wall between the US and Mexico was vilified. But they are now building a wall on the Polish border and perhaps the EU will have to build a similar wall around all its land borders!

        1. I remember that a few years ago there were daily stories in the MSM about the very high number of illegal migrants drowning in the Mediterranean.

          As Caroline and I spent some time sailing around the Eastern Med in Greek and Turkish waters we rather feared that one day we would see a dead human body in the sea. We never did – and none of our sailing friends reported seeing them either.

          So what happened to the bodies?

    6. Good morning, Spikey

      The French don’t want these illegal immigrants in France any more than the British want them in Britain.

      By offering each one of them the most generous conditions in the world – free accommodation, free food, free medical care, and pocket money of about £38 pw – the British are helping the French get rid of them from France.

      But of course the people in Calais and Northern France – the area which has become home to the sordid and squalid transit camps – are disgusted with the British for creating the problem they have to face by attracting the immigrants to pass through their homes en route to the land which is no longer the land of the free but the land of the free handouts for illegal immigrants.

      Trump’s idea of a wall between the US and Mexico was vilified. But they are now building a wall on the Polish border and perhaps the EU will have to build a similar wall around all its land borders!

    8. As has been suggested; instead of giving the French authorities £25M to slow down the flood of illegals, why not put that money to good use and buy all the boats/outboards in NE France?
      Cutting out ALL benefits to illegals, and widely advertising that fact would also help to stem the tide.
      As for those who turn up on our Channel shores without documentation? They are obviously French and should be returned home forthwith.

  29. Liverpool bomber exploited UK’s ‘dysfunctional’ asylum system, says Patel.

    The suspect in the Liverpool Remembrance Sunday suicide bombing was able to exploit Britain’s “dysfunctional” asylum system to remain in the country, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.

    Ms Patel, on a three-day visit to Washington, said the system was a “complete merry-go-round” with a “whole industry” devoted to defending the rights of individuals intent on causing harm.

    Says the woman responsible for it! Lol. You couldn’t make it up! .

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/liverpool-bomber-exploited-uks-dysfunctional-asylum-system-says-patel/ar-AAQMKHI

    1. He was refused asylum in 2014.

      He remained here on welfare.

      As far as I can see, the Government made no attempt to deport him.

      There’s no necessity for new laws, just a need for the Government to enforce the present law.

      …and if that is too difficult, how about starting with s.137 of the Highways Act?

      1. They enforced the Highways act quickly enough when anti-invasion protesters blocked a road in Dover.

    2. Her function is to carry the can while the civil serpents betray the country. She needs to be a lot sharper and more devious to get the better of them.

    3. As soon as an illegal immigrant is set to be deported, they must have no recourse to public money. They’re not a citizen and have no rights. The judge has ruled. All these lawyers who leap out and make a profit to keep gimmigrants here should find that they’re paying the bills themselves.

      1. I would like to see a system whereby such lawyers are slapped with substantial damages and costs whenever they lose the case. They might not be so keen on the spurious claims, if they could be bankrupted.

        1. Surely it’s simpler just to remove legal aid in that instance?

          If there’s a genuine case then have the judge permit it, otherwise have all aid withheld.

          1. Given how loose the law appears to be few cases would not be allowed legal aid.
            Just look at the ones where even convicted rapists can appeal against deportation with legal aid.

    4. “You couldn’t make it up.”
      Unfortunately you don’t need to make it up, it already exists, the present Government is the proof.

    5. Very well, I accept it was a merry-go-round that enabled someone who had been refused clearance to stay in 2014, but who was still here to blow himself up in 2021. Someone must be powering this merry-go-round, and I suggest ministerial responsibility lies with the Home Secretary, the Justice Secretary, or both.

      Since 2014, these have been as follows:

      Home Secretary

      Theresa May (to 2016)
      Amber Rudd (2016-18)
      Sajid Javid (2018-19)
      Priti Patel (from 2019)

      Justice Secretary
      Chris Grayling (to 2015)
      Michael Gove (2015-16)
      Liz Truss (2016-17)
      David Lidington (2017-18)
      David Gauke (2018-19)
      Robert Buckland (2019-21)
      Dominic Raab (from 2021)

      Why not ask one of them?

      2. These wassocks stay in post for a short time before they move on to another disaster, then someone else takes the blame. Shifting jobs all the time deflects any responsibility. Reshuffling is a way of admitting you’re wrong first time so let someone else ‘have a go’.
        My answer would be do the job properly, if you don’t then you are sacked without pension or compensation – that would focus them on the job.

    1. Rape gangs, an MP murdered, a failed car bomb…no we don’t want unity. We want an honest, public discussion and action taken to protect law-abiding people.

    2. I hope one day these collaborators get washed away in the tsunami of uprising along with their ‘friends’.

    3. Are they? Perhaps if they didn’t keep trying to kill us we might feel differently?

      Yet – I’m sodding sick of this. I worked for nigh ten years with a lovely chap called Imrun. Well, his real name was Imran, but I called him Imrun because I was a rude little tyke. He was patient, calm, dignified, a great family man, witty, charming, decent, scrupulous, hard working, kind, generous – in short, a damned decent bloke.

      Oh, and he was a Muslim.

      You see, most muslims are all the above, same as most of everyone else is. The bad apples spoil it for everyone. The sad bit? That there is a problem in that religion, there is a lack of integration and that gap gets wider and deeper every time these terrorist activities occur.

      The press, by advocating for Muslims and acting as a marketing blitz after these events create the very divide so desperately needed to be papered, then boarded, then bridged and then filled in.

    4. “Muslim People already suffering hatred.”

      And why not? We’re only returning what they dish out.

  32. May I remind Richard Glover that since time began houses have been built on ‘greenfield land’

    3. All David did was ask a very valid question about mixing different brands of jabs with different properties. Given there’s been NO clinical trials on 2 jabs or 3 jabs of just one brand & definitely ZERO clinical studies mixing brands with different properties Javid is DANGEROUS

  35. Church under fire in wake of Liverpool suicide bombing for helping asylum seekers to ‘game’ system
    Questions over refugees seeking to change religion in order to avoid being deported
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/17/church-fire-wake-liverpool-suicide-bombing-helping-asylum-seekers/

    BREAKING FAKE NEWS!
    (But like much of the News that we are told is fake it could be true!)

    Justin Welby has decided to follow his heart and has converted to Islam.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3dd56f29864ec973fb801a9b03afa7512f452a054c2a107af6c5d6240855b810.jpg

    1. It’s unreasonable to blame the Church for the failings of civil serpents at the Home office.
      But so much easier!

    2. Any chance of these supposed Christian converts voluntarily – and publicly – eating bacon butties and letting dogs lick them?

    3. Morning!

      Barak Obama prentended to be a Christian convert, to get himself elected. People began to question it when it became clear that he and his family don’t celebrate Easter and mark Christmas only as a secular festival. Not the churchgoer he made himself out to be in his book, The Audacity of Hope (which I read and it’s a good read, taken at face value).

      1. The woman who released his birth certificate later died in a ‘small’ plane crash which ditched into the sea. The other passengers survived.

      2. I was recommended “Hope and Father” by my children.
        My immediate conclusion was:
        Blair in black.
        Nothing since has suggested to me that I was wrong.

  39. 341729+up ticks,

    Taken by many as a top class political seer only leaves me to think that
    this chaps mountain marching & backing boris the turk was done with political knowledge of the future.

    Farage Slams UK Govt’s Generous Handouts as Pull for Mass Migration

    Gettaway,never.

  40. At least The Queen is benefiting from her indisposition. She is missing the CoE General Synod (for the first time in her reign). Lucky lady.

  41. 341729+ up ticks,

    Will the turk / patel lead the investigation then ?

    Dt,
    Church facing Commons investigation into system that allowed Liverpool bomber to stay in UK

    1. I was all for Steve Baker when he seemed to be one of the firm voices in support of a proper Brexit before the Boris Bodge Job.

      I then began to have doubts about him.

      I now can get rid of my doubts – he is just another appeaser and his timing in publicising his support for Islamophobia Awareness Month shows that his judgement is very unsound.

        1. Is there also a Judaism Council, a Hindi Council, a Buddhist Council, A Sikh Council?

          Dietyism at work?

      2. His covid recovery group seems to have disappeared to where the sun doesn’t shine.
        Anyway if this is the beginning of the month it sure started with a bang.

  44. Not so good news. It is claimed (in The Grimes) that the crowd fund schemes for the Liverpool taxi driver may be scams. So far £66,000 has been raised. His wife is reported as saying that donors should reclaim their money as neither she nor her husband nor the pub (in whose name it was “set up”) know anything about the funds. Which is a shame – if true.

    2. Morning all.

      Neither of these open for me Rik. “Hmm. This page doesn’t exist. Try searching for something else”.

      2. Bloody Marvelous
        The first showed a massive demo in Vienna against the new unvaxxed laws
        The second showed the Australian police beating a disabled man in a wheelchair with their “wellness” batons
        Can’t let the truth out there can we?? People might wake up!!

  47. Mornin gall, no point in beating about the bush, here are the facts that need to be distributed nation wide.

    *STATE PENSION -* _keep this going please_

    Read and pass on:
    *Dear Prime Minister*
    I wish to ask you a Question:- *”Is This True?”*
    I refer to the *Pension Reality Check.*

    Are you aware of the following ?

    The British Government provides the following financial assistance:-

    *BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER*
    (bearing in mind they worked hard and paid their Income Tax and National
    Insurance contributions to the British Government all their working life)
    Weekly allowance: *£106.00*

    *IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN*
    (No Income Tax and National Insurance contribution whatsoever)
    Weekly allowance: *£250.00*

    *BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER*
    Weekly Spouse Allowance: *£25.00*

    *ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN*
    Weekly Spouse Allowance: *£225.00*

    *BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER*
    Additional Weekly Hardship Allowance: *£0.00*

    *ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN*
    Additional Weekly Hardship Allowance: *£100.00*

    A British old age pensioner is no less hard up than an illegal immigrant/refugee yet receives nothing

    *BRITISH OLD AGED PENSIONER*
    TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT:     *£6,000*

    *ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS/REFUGEES LIVING IN BRITAIN*
    TOTAL YEARLY BENEFIT:     *£29,900*

    Please read all and then forward to all your contacts so that we can lobby for a decent state pension.
    After all, the average pensioner has paid taxes and contributed to the growth of this country for the last *40* to *60* years.
    Sad isn’t it? Surely it’s about time we put our own people *first.*

    Please forward this to as many people possible, or copy and paste.

    *I JUST DID!*

    Don’t mention the gold-plated bomb-proof pensions of politicians and civil service.

      1. No sorry I can’t Olden, a very good lifelong friend sent to me, but it’s something we have been jointly saying for years.
        Both of us have been ripped off in various ways after working all our lives he lost his pension because a certain labour politician allowed a German company to buy out the London based company he worked for and they looted the pension pot and closed the firm down.

    2. Some of the figures look a bit dodgy.
      The Basic State Pension (for anyone who claimed it before 2016) is now about £140. The ” Spouse allowance” only applied if the spouse paid the “married woman’s stamp” and didn’t qualify in her own right. I don’t know how much the immigrants get.

      1. The ” Spouse allowance” only applied if the spouse paid the “married woman’s stamp” and didn’t qualify in her own right.
        That really makes the point, though?

        Edit for typos – not had coffee.

        1. Many women opted out of paying the full NI conts because they were married – but it was withdrawn many years ago for new applicants. There is now a process going on as many people were wrongly assessed and will eventually get some arrears.

          Most women these days earn their pensions in their own right. Few women these days are non-working spouses as I was in the 70s. From 1978 credits were awarded for “home responsibilities”.

          1. Yes. The point being made is that illegal immigrants get all this for nothing, if you call breaking the law “nothing”. A free gift, and not a loan to be paid back.
            Where in the known Universe, or beyond, would that be described as reasonable or equitable?

          3. The State Pension is contributory – but for those who didn’t pay, there is Universal Credit, and previously Income Support, paid at the same rate as the SP. Also Pension Credit to top it up for those under a certain level.

      2. If it is it’s still only just over 7,000 a year. I’d go so far as to suggest this country is one of the worse in western cultures to grow old in.
        The other point that is missing is, you spend your life working and saving, you own a property having paid thousands for it and all the associated annual and weekly costs.
        You reach a certain stage in your life or become ill and are forced to sell it in order to exist. You are expected to pay around 1000 pounds per week to stay in a care home but only receive 140, which is removed at source. A lot of the people who are indicated in the list have done nothing (except arrive here) and nothing since, to deserve even the basic state pension.

        1. I don’t disagree with that Eddy – just pointing out some inaccuracies. I think our Basic SP (which is what I get) is one of the lowest. The new rate from 2016 is better. Either is not enough to live on without other income.

          1. It’s possible, but the general picture is fairly accurate Ellie.
            I know I was ripped off after working for 53 years.

          2. I get an OA pension from next year when I turn 66 – my estimate is £179.60 a week, £780.94 a month, £9,371.27 a year. My sister was born on the 5th April and missed the cut off date by one day, thus retiring this year instead of last year.

          3. Both of you in that case will get the higher rate from the new SP which came in in 2016 – not the lower rate Basic SP which anyone who qualified for it before 2016 gets.

        1. No side effects yet , J, except Moh has a slightly sore arm . We both had Phizer!

          I had to have mine done by a doctor at the Covid ab centre , he discussed everything in detail . He also explained why I had had a bad reaction to the AZ 2nd jab , and he suggested I was one of a many who had had similar and identical reactions .

          He monitored me then stuck a badge on me and I joined many others in a rest room where I had to sit still for 20 minutes .

          Cross fingers fine. I have a dental appt later , and feel confident about the long drive .

          2. I think they’re using Pfizer for all this time. I’m really not keen to have it though. I may have to if I become an “unjabbed” before my February trip. Resisting at the moment though.

    4. Yo All

      By Winter 2025, the Convid Booster will be added to the fresh water supply, al la Flouride.

      Gollox, this post may give them ideas

    5. The fact that Gates and his big Pharma pals will make billions out of this is pure coincidence and anyone who thinks otherwise is an evil, sub-human anti-vaxxer who should be locked up in a quarantine facilty.

      2. On this forum yesterday somebody posted a terrifying video of a Doctor Bhakdi – a German/Thai expert on vaccines and gene therapies who urged people not to allow themselves to be jabbed.

        He claimed that this treatment had disastrous consequences and that it would reduce the human population by 10%. The person interviewing him became more and more frightened as the interview went on and he concluded by saying that it was the most terrifying interview he had ever given.

        I know very little about medical matters in spite of the fact that The Tastey Tribe has always had medical doctors in it. My paternal grandfather was a doctor, four of his children were doctors, several of my cousins are doctors and my niece is married to a doctor and their daughter is a doctor. But my medical knowledge is best summed up by Manuel in Fawlty Towers: I know Nothing.. But even so Dr Bhakdi succeeded in putting the wind up me.

        1. I think he is thinking things through to their logical conclusion about the long term effects. But the truth is, we will never know, because the health of people in the trial won’t be monitored.

      1. How could you possibly think that Big Pharma is interested in money or that the PTB could be influenced by financial considerations when making their decisions about gene therapy?

        2. To be fair, they do look a lot more integrated into British culture than old whiner who’s having his moment in the grievance spotlight at the moment.

      4. A Two pack at the top eh.
        The BBC have been wetting their pants over all this it’s a shame they wont display these pictures so the public can see what a fiasco it has all been. They should challenge the complainant to run the cricket club and see how many players he can get to line up in support. Nil i’d say after this nonsense.

    2. How’s that eh ! Wadda load of disgustingly fake invented mercenary nonsense this has turned into. They have acted like silly spoilt little kids who can’t get their own way when wanting an ice cream.
      It’s no more racist than calling a person from Newcastle a Geordie.

          1. Can you smell my wonderful pease pudding’? I made a potful (cold, not hot, nor nine days old) yesterday and it’s the best batch I’ve made since gannin’ to Sweden, Pet. 😘👍🏻

          2. I saw the pictures,pet! I don’t really like it but I’m very impressed! Gan on, canny lad!

    3. I’m fed up with this silly mallarki
      Should I say Pinky, Packi or Parki
      If I use harmless banter
      I’m a foul racist ranter
      But at least I avoid saying Darky!

  50. Why can’t
    @RishiSunak
    reduce excise duty on petrol and diesel? The hike in fuel prices is causing a lot of hardship for everyone . Do the decent thing please , people who live in rural areas without buses are suffering financially.

    1. Tch tch Belle they will never reach Net Zero Prosperity without taxing petrol and diesel out of existence.

          1. In late 1973, after the Yom Kippur war led to shortages, I recall one friend drawing thoughtfully on his cigarette and saying: “It’ll be ten bob a gallon by Christmas”.

        2. 1979 I drove a 2.25 litre LWB Land Rover towing a 16ft x 8 ft caravan from Adelaide costal route via Melbourne, to Gladstone (and back) in QLD I use to get anything from 12 to 18 MPG out of it. It had an in built 65 litre ‘spare’ tank and a ten gallon main tank. We carried two 5 gallon cans a well. Can you imagine what that might cost now ? It’s over 2 thousand miles one way.

          1. True. It disguises the cost. Putting the price up by 1p per litre actually increases the cost by 4p per gallon.

    2. The cost of One Litre of Diesel now is equivalent to Five Days Pay, for me, when I joined the RN, in 1961

  51. O/T Last night at 9.30pm some scrote was picked up on my and my neighbour CCTV. He was trying all the car doors. He did manage to get into one and caused some damage.

    Too dark for an I.D.

    Any suggestions on how to deal with this. It’s not the first time it has happened.

    1. Tell the popo by making a report online.
      If several people noticed him then or previously or in future they might send foot patrols to deter.

        1. No.
          If you hurt some poor sod who reaches to steady his balance or worse – some criminal who says that’s what he was doing – you could end up paying compensation to someone.
          And how irksome would it be to have to pay the little scrote.

          Smartwater is a good idea, though. If they get arrested elsewhere they can be tracked back to you.

        2. Keep hammering and cc your local councillors.
          I can’t be specific here but I do have some expertise in this.
          Your LPT or SNT
          Local Policing Tream/ Safer Neighbourhoods Team or whatever they’re called in your constabulary’s jurisdiction will respond.
          What area do you live in?

          1. It has been going on for years. They say how sorry they are and make promises and then do nothing.

          3. We (councillors) have been trying to get the police to attend our meetings (they are supposed to give us a report once a month) for years without success.

          5. West Mercia. HQ is in Worcester, I believe. Nearest constable (just the one) is 13 miles away to cover a vast area. Local police station has been closed down. These are the joys of living in a rural location.

    2. Tell the popo by making a report online.
      If several people noticed him then or previously or in future they might send foot patrols to deter.

    4. A few years back the father of a distant relative poked his 12 bore out of the his bedroom window and hollered! The chap took off running with his knees hitting his chin…:-))

    5. A washing up bottle full of an indelible dye, then squirt the bastard with it; followed by a liberal application of baseball bats?

          3. I’d prefer it if you called me a wog.

            After all, that’s what the Norfolk boys at Norwich Airport called me when I first arrived there.

      4. The current mayor of London sold the water cannons that Boris Johnson had bought.

        These could have been charged with indelible dye and used most effectively when needed.

        1. Theft then, I suppose. The police ought to be interested in images of the thief. “ought” to be…

    7. Morning Phizz. I’m sorry to sound so defeatist but you should not become involved! I have personal experience!You should not go out to challenge this person! You should not report them! You should mind your own business unless they are breaking in to your premises and then hit them with something. Do not make any formal statement afterward (they will give your name and address to the perpetrator) to the Police. Do not tell them anything! Hire a good lawyer!

    8. How about posting a large meaningful A4 size note in the drivers window YOU ARE ON CCTV and get some out of reach to tamper with, security lights rigged up.

      1. The cameras are quite obvious and there are movement detector lights already. Perhaps i need a big floodlight.

  52. The myth of Russian aggression. Spiked. 17 November 2021.

    Then, not only did nothing happen, but also two rather large clarifications emerged. The first was that there were not, and never had been, 100,000 Russian troops massing on Ukraine’s border. The vast majority were at their bases many kilometres away. And second, the much smaller number who were moving around were likely to be doing so in response to reports of Ukrainian troops mustering for a spring offensive, new weapons deliveries from the UK and the US, and some rather extensive NATO exercises being conducted in the Black Sea and to the west of Ukraine.

    Déjà vu?

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/16/the-myth-of-russian-aggression/

        1. I thought about the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, but I’m not sure in this unforgiving world anything is truly spent. Criminal record checks, airport pass applications, the USA visa waiver scheme?

        1. I am hereby corrected m’lud. But I assume, from a position of ignorance, a prison record will put a black mark on one’s history.

    4. Suppose these sentences will have to do. I’d have been inclined to have jailed them for the maximum 6 months for each instance of contempt. Do they still get out half-way through sentence or does that only apply to longer jail terms?

    5. I’ve decorated a bit of loft insulation with icing sugar in the shape of a cake and the words, “Have a nice stay.”, which I’m sending them.

        1. When I was growing up, if you didn’t push a cat or a dog off a comfortable chair, you’d never get to sit on one! They usually returned and sat on our laps – or sneaked upstairs to lie on the beds!

    2. There are several BTL comments by disgruntled DT readers on the subject of racism in cricket in Yorkshire but not under the relevant articles. This is because the DT allows no comments under articles which might attract subversive opinions so the posters have to post elsewhere.

      In fact the DT readers are increasingly having to post many of the comments they want to make under different articles so you get the occasional diatribe about the Duchess of Sussex as a BTL comment under an article about car maintenance or a recipe for making Crêpes Suzette. The DT does not allow you to comment on any racial matters and Islam; it also does not allow you to comment on the dangers of the Covid 19 gene therapy or on the subject of Prince Harry’s disastrous marriage.

      The DT is clearly terrified of being seen to give any platform for views which are likely to be controversial in any way.

      The DT is strongly opposed to free speech.

      1. The DT is very smart.

        Any discussion about Islam would soon be followed by an explosion at DT offices.

    1. And just what difference would being “in” make to the current situation, other than to make it even worse?

      1. 341729+ up ticks,

        S,
        The point of my post is this current tory (ino)
        party is “they” have never in reality, been OUT.

      2. If we were “in” we would be making money on ferry tickets as we would not be able to prevent any from entering.

          1. #NorMe, George, but I’m considering getting one, because of the added protection from supplier scams.

          2. I had one for over thirty years, Tom (Barclaycard). They withdrew my use of it after I’d lived in Sweden for eight years, despite being an outstanding customer for all the time I’d been with them.
            (They continued to send me new cards every year for that first eight years!)

            They then told me it was due to “new rules” which made them afraid that I would run up a huge debt and not pay it back from abroad. I told them where to go!

          3. Understandable – from your point of view, George – but I am now in the UK so that caveat doesn’t apply and, since I abhor paying interest, the total would be cleared each month before interest was due.

  59. Fromage makers in blue fit over health labels.

    FRENCH doctors have denounced attempts by the country’s cheesemakers to wriggle out of carrying warnings for fat and salt content, saying that business risks trumping public health.

    The Nutri-score system, invented in France and adopted by some other European countries, ranks food products on a colour-coded scale of A to E based on their nutritional value.

    With the European Commission considering making the Nutri-score mandatory next year, French blue cheesemakers were the first to see red over the plans.

    Roquefort opened hostilities last month by calling for an exemption from the food labelling system that classes France’s tangy “king of cheeses” at the bottom – either at D or E – putting it on a par with sugary drinks and crisps.

    “It’s paradoxical. There are ultra-processed industrial products with preservatives in them that can get an A or B, but our local and very natural products are stigmatised,” said Sebastien Vignette, head of the Roquefort Confederation. He called the scoring system “a simplistic logo”. The campaign drew support from local MP Stephane Mazars, who represents the Aveyron area where all roquefort cheese is aged in limestone caves until it develops its characteristic blue mould.

    “The desire to be transparent with the consumer must be rational and based on common sense,” he said.

    Makers of a host of other cheeses, such as rocamadour and maroilles, joined in.

    Béatrice Roux, who produces cantal and salers cheeses, told France Info: “As cheesemakers, salt is our only conservative and cheese is fat by nature. If they put these bad scores on our products, we’re all in deep trouble.”

    Sébastien Ramade, head of the saintnectaire appellation and administrator at the national dairy appellations council, said it was a travesty to claim that saint-nectaire, which has a Nutri-score of D, was worse for you than Coca Cola, which is ranked B.

    Their cheeses were unable to change their ingredients as they had to follow strict appellation rules while industrial products “stuffed full of preservatives” were awarded better scores. “We want appellation cheeses to be exempt like wines and spirits,” he said. Charcuterie makers issued similar complaints.

    Yesterday, a group of doctors and public health experts signed a petition published in Le Monde saying: “It’s a fact that even if they are part of our culinary heritage, these foodstuffs have a nutritional content that is not favourable.”

    It accused “powerful multinationals” of using traditional, appellation cheeses as a “Trojan horse” to remove Nutriscore from all dairy products, including industrial ones, “above all to protect their own financial interests”.

    Those brain-dead French doctors should be struck off! When will the imbecilic human species start to learn (and assimilate) that fat is nutritious, healthy, delicious, and does not contribute to bodily fat? Bodily fat (as well as most modern diseases) is caused by the consumption of sugar and carbohydrates (look it up). The multi-nationals, who are getting richer by the microsecond, are not willing to publicise this fact since selling — to a gullible public — billions of tons of sugar- and carbohydrate-laden “foods” is what keeps them rich. I eat lots of fat and no sugar or carbs. I am losing weight, becoming fitter, more alert, sharper, and sleep like a log. Anyone telling me to cut down on the fat is given short shrift.

    2. The system is clearly nonsense and I shall ignore it when I come across it. Pass the Roquefort!

      1. I find Roquefort somewhat acidic – give me Stilton, or even Saint-Agur anytime.

        Oh, and a large glass of vintage port, a coffee and a Romeo y Julietta.

        Gotta loit, mate

        1. I like all three. Despite being from Derbyshire — where Stilton is made at Hartington — I much prefer that made in Nottinghamshire, especially from the Colston Bassett creamery, which is unbeatable.

          Stilton from Leicestershire is a distant third.

          1. True, BB2, today I would probably pass on the Cigar as well, having not smoked now for over 4 years but…

            …who knows?

    3. And anyway – constricting arteries makes the heart beat harder which is just like taking exercise.

  61. Failed asylum seeker who should have been deported years ago attempts to blow up a hospital in Liverpool slaughtering expectant Mothers and new born babies.

    The BBC decides its a good time to carpet bomb the native population with a round the clock racism story on a crap cricketer. Two birds with one stone, it gaslights us into thinking we are somehow the problem and poisons yet another sport with its sulphurous woke dogma.

    Our establishment despises us.

      1. Yes.

        They hate us – we really need to face facts, organise ourselves and get them out of power. If we keep voting Lib/Lab/Con then at some point we have to recognise our own part in our downfall.

        1. How, then, does one vote – given that the three parties are much the same – and all hate us?

    2. Several pages in the Torygraph today about said cricketer – I really can’t believe that’s the most important news story at present – when will someone really have a look at Halfcock’s contracts for example, or is investigative journalism really dead?

      3. With the taxpayer-funded largesse lobbed at the free press (in the form of covid advertising income) under the ’emergency’ powers we are all currently suffering under, the last thing the media are going to do is bite the hand that feeds them. So much easier to keep below the parapet and produce articles that would embarrass a skool magazine.

  62. OT
    If this is bad form, please feel free to delete.
    For denizens of Kent and anyone just interested in a heart-warming war story from an ever rarer generation of warriors:
    I’ve just been sent this by a colleague about her granddad’s war experience.
    “My Grandads war hero story reached the national press (page 33 of the daily mirror on Saturday), regional press across the UK and as far as Washington DC America on Remembrance weekend and on the anniversary of his death. I have set up a just giving page starting with the funds received for use of his photos in the media so far. This is to raise funds for the Pilgrims Hospice in East Kent where he passed away. I am sharing far and wide as the more funds raised will help the next families who need end of life clinical help and support.

    https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/british-soldier-who-saved-dying-22156993

    If you like the story and wish to make a donation here’s the link;

    https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rickbatterham “

    2. Yep, recognise our awareness, their transgressions, and then, kick ’em ALL out as alien to British culture and failure to integrate.

    3. It’s a pity they don’t have Islam awareness month telling us about all the vile things permitted under Islam and Sharia.

      1. When will these political fools realise they will never educate these people to accept western culture or live along side it. They have a certain one track mind set and they are sticking to it.

    4. There is only so much &rs* licking our political classes can do before they start to look very stupid indeed.

    5. The Muslims I’ve met have all been very nice people. I’m not afraid of Muslims per se, it’s the ideology with its inherent compulsion and explicit threats that bothers me enormously.

      1. And the way that “nice” slammers tend not only NOT to denigrate their fellow religionists when they kill people but indicate approval.

        1. Coercion is very strong. Not that I condone it in any way but recent examples in the West include East Germany & the USSR

  65. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/13aee0025801112a9b4df87813c1ffde14ae9b92e9b8b506ff3c5723973c63da.jpg
    Snapshot of British Heart Foundations stats of death from CVD from the British Heart Foundation.
    As of last July (so numbers to June) apparently already 30 000 more that the previous year – 10 000 in the under 75s.
    Original doc at https://www.bhf.org.uk/-/media/files/research/heart-statistics/bhf-cvd-statistics—uk-factsheet.pdf
    If anyone wants to check my understanding of numbers which is sometimes a struggle.

        1. I think you would find that Mr T would have to take his shoes and socks off and use all his fingers and toes to get to grips with that range of numbers…….

        2. I think you would find that Mr T would have to take his shoes and socks off and use all his fingers and toes to get to grips with that range of numbers…….

        3. Gosh, that was once a dress size 12 and considered average. Current sizing doesn’t even acknowledge that any such figure could exist – and maybe it doesn’t.

          1. HG was buying underwear on our latest trip to the UK and was more than somewhat disconcerted to discover that as a 10 or 12, depending on the makers, she was in the very small category and that she could have bought from the children’s section as well.
            When 80% of what was on offer would have swamped her it hammered home just how big UK women have become. A DD cup bra when we were young would have been regarded as enormous, now it’s not remotely large.

          3. There is a “big Chentlemen’s Shop” just off Ku-damm in Berlin, where in one of the smallest suits you could park your car in, and open the doors, without unbuttoning the jacket! You should see the belts… they’d stretch from London to Joburg! Never seen such big clothes…

          5. Many years ago, many, many years ago, when I was teaching in Manchester, our secondary school put on the musical Oliver! I was stage manager which was fun and hard work. (You try lugging a coffin on and off stage!) On the last night, my crew and I decided to have a bit of fun with the male teacher playing Fagin. You may recall the scene where Fagin pulls a long stream of silk handkerchiefs out of his coat pocket.
            I had a few words with “Ivy” who was the school secretary; she was smallish in stature but had a phenomenal bosom. I asked if she would be willing to loan us one of her bras and I told her why. She loved the idea and brought in a bra the size of a small hammock. I undid the row of handkerchiefs in the middle and tied the bra in. It was returned to Fagin’s pocket.
            The last night arrived, I had sworn my crew to secrecy and they were good although there were several outbreaks of giggling. The scene arrived and Fagin starts pulling the handkerchiefs from his pocket, the audience noticed and erupted in laughter, as did the girls on stage. Fagin looked and sent me a look that would have killed a weaker woman. He did see the funny side later though.
            It was such a fun show to do and a wonderful opportunity to have some fun with our wonderful pupils.

    3. It seems to me that that document does not allow any meaningful comparison of this year’s numbers with last year’s.

  66. I received an email from Amazon today.
    As from 19.01.22 Amazon are not accepting Visa credit cards, but they will accept V. debit cards.
    That will put a dent in their customer numbers, I should have thought.

      1. No, apparently the V.CC expenses are too high. 99% of my purchases are books & I find the service good. Perhaps it’s a postcode lottery scenario.

    2. The only thing I use Amazon for is as a search engine, to find out the cost of something. I then go elsewhere to buy. I will not and people should not buy from a company which while selling books censors them and outright bans them. It is part and parcel of the woke corruption typified by Facebook, Twitter, and Google which I also do not use.

      1. Amazon refused to sell me a copy of The Bell Curve. They took the order initially then cancelled it, so I went to my local Waterstones branch and they explained that it had to be printed to order but they got that done for me and I bought the book.

        2. Frankly Sue, I’m not surprised that they wouldn’t sell you that. To many uncomfortable truths for the left wing contained in that book.

  67. To be ‘Global Britain’, we must lead the response to Russian aggression, 17 November 2021.

    The thousands of migrants gathered at points along the border between Poland and Belarus are being used to undermine the liberties that matter to us all. The few who manage to squeeze past the border are heading to Western Europe, and their journey is dangerous, not least because of the freezing winter temperatures.

    This isn’t not a one-off event, but the latest in a pattern of behaviour spearheaded by the Russian government. Putin’s playbook when under pressure is to sow discord in the West and capitalise on the chaos to distract his domestic audience.

    You can scarcely credit that someone could write this pretentious and untruthful twaddle! If these people are indeed undermining the liberties that matter to us all, and let’s face it there’s not many of them left courtesy of Tugendhat and his pals; what of the thousands that cross the Channel every week? In all this talk about “Russian aggression” it behoves us to remember that in the whole of our history no Russian Army, or portion of it, has ever set foot on English soil. That and the only times they have entered the Heartland of Europe they were allies of the UK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/17/global-britain-must-lead-response-russian-aggression/

    2. Historically speaking too, “Russian aggression” is almost non-existent. Almost all the wars they have fought have been defensive and usually because their country has been invaded by an enemy. You cannot count the behaviour of the Soviet Union because that was not Russia per se. The Russians, in the main, have tried to avoid conflict because with such a large territory it is almost impossible to stop invasions. They have, however participated with allies in various ventures such as the Napoleonic Wars.

    3. Despite all the rhetoric, our politicians have little sense of history in that the Soviets played a major part in the defeat of Hitler in WW2.

    4. What is the Russian connection to the army of illegal immigrants on the Polsih border? The last thing that I saw was a map showing the routes by which the immigrants arrived in Belarus by air from Syria, Turkey and the Lebanon.

      1. All supplied with “Drizabone” Outerwear.

        Hope the underwear is now “brownzadingle-berry”

    3. They should put skin dye in the water.
      Looking at all the blicks I didn’t realise Belarus was in Africa.

        1. When I got back from a month visiting friends in Jamaica in January ’73 I went to a party at my dental partner’s house. some snotty bitch asked in a loud voice if I were English.

        1. He was quite attractive when he was younger, as any healthy, intelligent old Etonian of average good looks is. He likes women, which is in itself attractive. But he got a reputation for playing the field very young, and as he has got older, his record of dishonesty, cheating, self-indulgence and lack of principles is writ large on his face. So now, he only has power and wealth to attract women. Good luck with that, Boris!

          2. No doubt about it.

            I think she is probably given anaesthetics by her controllers to help her cope with the times she has to be subjected to his foul, lecherous, clumsy fumblings. And when he is no longer prime minister how long will she stay and will she and her foul Lothario want to have to look after the progeny resulting from their sordid concupiscence?

        1. I’ll have another go at Angels One Five – then, with luck, it’ll be an Appointment in London (unless, of course, One of Our Aircraft is Missing)…..

    1. And add someone in the second picture with a billboard saying:

      * Free health care
      * Free accommodation in luxury hotel
      * Free meals
      * Free mobile phone
      * Pocket money
      * No fear of ever being deported.
      * Conveniently near a mosque

      2. 341729+ up ticks,
        Evening R,
        ALL that is required is that you show your love of your benefactors with a big kiss X on a lab/lib / cons candidates kiss box.

    2. A disgusting state of affairs

      The Border Farce should have built a Floating Dock by now.

      That lady with the bandaged head could have slipped as she came down the ladder, when she left the RIB and sued us for £ 1000s.

  74. Funny thing about the permanently offended creekiter (notice he managed a little weep of crocodile tears?). The Grimes is full of it – natch – and terribly sympathetic to the poor lamb. I have tried twice – without using the word that upsets him so much – to post that he used to play for a team that had the word in its name.

    Deleted before appearing. Censorship.

    2. I find it strange that never ever, ever has any ‘person of colour’ made any racial, or other disparaging remarks about a white
      person. since time immemorial

      They are shining beacons to us all of racial integration.(with a hint of sarcasm)

      This is very apparent, in places like Rotheram and Rochdale, where they have integrated with the white female youth of the town

    1. Hi Lottie. The page is premoderated at the moment, in an effort to defeat the spammers. I’ve added you to the ‘trusted users’ list, so it shouldn’t happen again. Surprised you weren’t already on it…

  77. 9 Insulate Britain activists have been sentenced to 3-6 months in prison for breaching a judicial injunction. [DT report].

    1. Steerpike
      ‘We’re like Martin Luther King’: Insulate Britain jailed
      17 November 2021, 12:15pm

      It looks like a winter lockdown has come early for some. Nine Insulate Britain members have been jailed at the High Court today, after breaching injunctions designed to prevent disruptive protests. Despite the eco-activists’ protests – with one tearfully telling LBC that ‘I’m crapping myself this morning and I feel like crying’ – judge Dame Victoria Sharp said there was no alternative to custodial sentences, given the severity of their actions and their expressed intention to further flout court orders.

      She said: ‘The defendants, or some of them, seem to want to be martyrs for their cause, and the media campaign surrounding this hearing appears designed to suggest this. We, however, have to act dispassionately and proportionately.’ All the activists will spend Christmas behind bars; Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Louis McKechnie, 20, were jailed for three months, while Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, received four-month sentences. The group and their supporters chanted ‘We are unstoppable, another world is possible!’, as they were led to the cells through the dock.

      Outside the courtroom, a defiant Insulate Britain spokesman told the assembled press pack: ‘The right thing to do is to highlight the injustice, breaking the law if needed. This is what the suffragettes and Martin Luther King did and it’s what Insulate Britain has done.’ Given the treatment meted out to both the civil rights protestors of the sixties and the suffragettes some fifty years earlier, Mr S hopes the jailed nine have time to read a history book during their stint inside.

      It’s worth remembering that it was just, er, three weeks ago that the group were publicly demanding to know why they hadn’t been jailed yet. A spokesman was quoted in the Observer as saying:

      “It’s fair to say that there is absolute disbelief and surprise that the campaign has lasted this long. We assumed that we would not be allowed to carry on disrupting the motorway network to the extent that we have been. We thought that people would basically be in prison.

      Good to see the government finally meeting one of their demands eh?

    2. Steerpike
      ‘We’re like Martin Luther King’: Insulate Britain jailed
      17 November 2021, 12:15pm

      It looks like a winter lockdown has come early for some. Nine Insulate Britain members have been jailed at the High Court today, after breaching injunctions designed to prevent disruptive protests. Despite the eco-activists’ protests – with one tearfully telling LBC that ‘I’m crapping myself this morning and I feel like crying’ – judge Dame Victoria Sharp said there was no alternative to custodial sentences, given the severity of their actions and their expressed intention to further flout court orders.

      She said: ‘The defendants, or some of them, seem to want to be martyrs for their cause, and the media campaign surrounding this hearing appears designed to suggest this. We, however, have to act dispassionately and proportionately.’ All the activists will spend Christmas behind bars; Ana Heyatawin, 58, and Louis McKechnie, 20, were jailed for three months, while Ben Buse, 36, Roman Paluch-Machnik, 28, Oliver Rock, 41, Emma Smart, 44, Tim Speers, 36, and James Thomas, 47, received four-month sentences. The group and their supporters chanted ‘We are unstoppable, another world is possible!’, as they were led to the cells through the dock.

      Outside the courtroom, a defiant Insulate Britain spokesman told the assembled press pack: ‘The right thing to do is to highlight the injustice, breaking the law if needed. This is what the suffragettes and Martin Luther King did and it’s what Insulate Britain has done.’ Given the treatment meted out to both the civil rights protestors of the sixties and the suffragettes some fifty years earlier, Mr S hopes the jailed nine have time to read a history book during their stint inside.

      It’s worth remembering that it was just, er, three weeks ago that the group were publicly demanding to know why they hadn’t been jailed yet. A spokesman was quoted in the Observer as saying:

      “It’s fair to say that there is absolute disbelief and surprise that the campaign has lasted this long. We assumed that we would not be allowed to carry on disrupting the motorway network to the extent that we have been. We thought that people would basically be in prison.

      Good to see the government finally meeting one of their demands eh?

    3. Not long enough sentences.

      But does anyone remember the American short story writer called O. Henry? He wrote a story about an old lag called Soapy who tried to get arrested and imprisoned for a few months as soon as winter began to bite into his bones as he tried to sleep on his park bench. The story is called The Cop and The Anthem. Well worth a listen.

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

  78. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5165b65e49eed25606ec218de4ef7b73881da876c3e51644bc9353cce01bc9f0.jpg I am trying to source some decent-quality A6-size hardback notebooks, preferably narrow-feint lined.

    I still have a few of these of various sizes (mainly A6 and A4) that I’ve had for decades, all with the same pattern on the covers. Nowhere on (or inside) the books does it state their make or where they were obtained from.

    Does any NoTTLer have any recall of such notebooks, and actually remember what they were called and who sold them?

      1. Thanks, Billy. I feared that might be the case, but I’d still love to find out what they were called and who made them (they were such good quality).

        The ones you showed me on your link (Black & Red) are also excellent quality. I’ll probably buy some of those.

    2. I have also been looking for notebooks recently, and it’s incredibly hard to find any that aren’t made in China. I’m still looking. I use A5 lined or squared ones mostly.
      You could try art material shops – boesner has a pretty good line in notebooks, and is available online in Sweden, if it’s the same shop. All made in China though.

    4. These must be the books of names who will be dealt with after the revolution. My black books are also full to overflowing!

      1. That’s probably where I got mine. Woolies, in the 1950s and 1960s, was a treasure trove of good stuff. Trouble was it then went rapidly downhill, selling a much-reduced line of utter crap, prior to its decline and ultimate closure.

        1. I don’t think the Woolworths in Australia is the same but it might pay to browse their site.

    6. It looks American to me. I used to buy an almost identical product, if not the exact same thing, in California to jot things down in. At schools they are almost a standard item. The lines are blue? If that’s the case they are the same thing. Try eBay, USA.

      Does it say: “Composition Book” on the front cover? If so definitely American. Found it! I think.
      https://www.teachchildren.com/roa77230.html
      This firm will ship internationally.

      Jeremy says he got his from Woolworths and that makes sense because it was an American firm. Pity it has gone the way of all things, it was a fun store.

      1. That’s the problem It has no wording, information, or logo, anywhere on (or in) the book. Just the bar-code on the rear.

        1. Got someone who can read the barcode for you? Friendly neighbourhood shop? Maybe there is something online that can interpret the numbers if not the bars? Seem now a days there is something on line for everything. May even be some tutorial on You Tube. Found a You Tube video the other day on how to remove the little bugs that get under the outer layer your computer screen! Wasn’t expecting to find anything for something that off beat.

          Walla!!! And I found this. “How To Read a Barcode” http://www.smallbusinessbrief.com/productivity/barcoding-decoded-how-to-read-barcodes-for-beginners/ This would drive me nuts but perhaps you could try it. And this
          https://uniqueproductcodes.com/how-to-read-a-barcode/

  80. Signing off early – talk at 5 pm about the Roman port at Ostia (Portus). Live from the British School at Rome.

    Have a jolly evening insulting cricketers.

    A demain.

    1. I honestly think at their age this is undignified and bordering on the obscene. The sort of thing that old folk get up to because dementia is setting in and they can’t restrain themselves. It looks thoroughly ugly, two doddering old fools thinking that they are still yoofs!

    3. I thought Keef was how the old geezer on the left in the picture with a green guitar and wearing a pink hat spelt (or spelled) his name!

      1. Nothing new in the Frogs sending their rubbish our way. I expect that the Chinese will be sniggering, thank goodness they didnt come out for a bat dog-fight.

      2. Don’t worry Harry.

        The Russians will fish it out very soon, and as they are such kind people, will probably strip it down to check what went wrong.

        1. To find out what went wrong with a F-35?…I think even the Russians would baulk at that task.Even the makers don’t know all the faults!

    3. RAF F-35 fighter jet

      There are 18 F-35bs on the aircraft carrier, 10 of which are made up from the US Marine Corps.

      In my days, on the ‘old’ Ark Royal, I am sure the Fleet Air Arm had their Squadrons on board.

      Those were the days

      1. Stupid boy – thought he could land on water.

        Bloke I was at school with killed himself by taking off from a carrier and not getting flying speed. Toothy White RIP.

  84. HAPPY HOUR

    Tea and coffee could cut the risk of dementia – Says Health and Science Minister.

    Sorry I’ve forgotten his name!

          1. When Canaan Banana attended a conference in UK quite a while ago now, the press and media were told that they were not to refer to the talks as “fruitful”.

          3. If he was I imagine he was straightened out for his coffin- he died some years ago. Yellow fever possibly;-)

    2. I don’t like tea but I do drink coffee quite a bit. But I prefer vino which means I will live for ever;-))

    5. Oh,yes. Th eSultana heard that this morning and she told me at breakfast. Well, what she actually said was, “they said on TV that tea and coffee cause dementia, or was it the other way round?”.
      But we do not care either way. We have always had coffee at breakfast for, erm, some time…

  85. Heard that one of the Insulate Britain prisoners plans to go on hunger strike. So apathetic about this couldn’t even be bothered to shrug my shoulders!

    1. Carrie Antoinette ought to mimic the queen after whom she is named but go a bit further and and say:

      Don’t give them bread, don’t even give them brioche – just let them starve.

    2. They just want to be noticed! Perhaps we should satisfy their craving to be victims by putting them in the stocks and letting motorists loose with rotten tomatoes.

  86. Politics latest news: Boris Johnson accepts Owen Paterson breached lobbying rules
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/11/17/boris-johnson-mps-second-jobs-sleaze-brexit-article-16/

    ‘Boris Johnson has accepted that Owen Paterson broke lobbying rules and suggested colleagues misled him over whether there was cross-party support for his bid to protect him. ‘

    How did he break the rules? What, precisely, did he do?

    “Chris Bryant, the chairman of the standards committee which approved the investigation into Mr Paterson, told the Prime Minister that Mr Paterson’s appeal had been heard “endlessly”.”

    So why were none of the 17 witnesses Mr Paterson offered who could explain the facts of the matter ever seen? Why was their evidence not examined? And why was Owen Paterson not seen face to face and given the chance to defend himself?

    The process stinks of very rotten fish. Boris Johnson must be drummed out of office by his own party and his own MPs. He is beginning to surpass May, Brown, Major and Heath in sheer incompetence, intellectual dishonesty and cowardice.

    1. It is claimed that the “Famous 17” were merely character witnesses – saying what an awfully good chap Paterson was and how he couldn’t possibly have misled anyone…

    2. Michael Vaughn has effectively been silenced…given no chance to defend himself. But no, the media are full of woe about this Rafiq guy who, from what I have read, was a piece of work anyway.
      This country now seems to be full of groups of “protected species” but we, the indigenous, are not one of them.

  87. Who’s next?

    Now that the campaign to vilify British historical figures has moved on from politics and the Empire to science (Abraham Darby has been named and shamed by the Swedish she-goblin), who will be next? I’ll start with Crick and Watson, whose discovery of the structure of DNA will almost certainly lead to evil racial genetic experiments by right-wing extremists. Surely they are the inheritors of Mengele’s tradition?

    Over to you…

    2. But Abraham Darby developed the production of pig iron by using coke instead of charcoal. Which would mean less use of living forests to make charcoal and using long dead ones instead.

  88. We are sending experts to Poland to advise on its borders with Belarus.
    I hope they find a remedy.

    On their return maybe experts can secure our borders!

  90. Passing through. Brilliant talk about Roman sailing ships – given by a lady who was lecturing in her third language – but, apart from some slight linguistic problems – was a walking encyclopedia. The talk also showed that the brand new ship museum on the edge of Fiumicino Airport is now open. Can’t wait to get back there – plague or no plague.

    If anyone is interested (I hear your yawns) these talks are available on the British School at Rome’s YouTube. Free. We have seen some marvellous stuff over the last 2 years. They have – very generously – made tremendous use of Zoom.

    Must go now. Again. TTFN

      1. I make my own pies Alec. Made a beef pie t’other day and there’s still some left. Was good. Last year I made some small pork pies but haven’t got round to those lately.

  92. Good. The DM has gone to the dogs in recent years

    Geordie Greig steps down as Daily Mail editor

    Head of Britain’s best-selling daily newspaper to be replaced by Mail on Sunday’s Ted Verity, who will oversee both titles

    By Ben Woods 17 November 2021 • 5:59pm
    *
    *
    Greig was installed because Rothermere’s wife was continually getting flack from her woke pals about Paul Dacre’s politics.

        1. I agree. It used to be rubbish but at least it was entertaining. Now it’s just either awful propaganda or else sickening trivia.

  93. Evening, all. Britain should forget about boosters and concentrate on giving effective treatments and living with Covid as it lives with influenza.

    3. That’s VERY interesting! Daughter in Austria says that apparently demonstrations are a “Grundrecht” (basic right in the constitution) so the government can’t ban the unvaccinated from going on them.

          2. Good evening again, it is always so nice to chat with you. I enjoy your humour and wit. We have a lot in common….
            Wait for the howls of disagreement – for me, I hasten to add. I think you are fun.

    4. Yo Paul – we’ve had much incoming spam, so I guess some mod thought it would save a lot of flagging. It worked, but caught out a couple of posters who weren’t on the trusted users list. Since the spammers appear to have retired for the evening, I’ve cancelled the premoderation…

      2. That’s ruined Mystic Meg’s recent record of correct predictions (see recent days’ posts) 🙂

        1. Look you lot, my crystal ball fell off the shelf and shattered…one does one’s best. I predict, however, that tomorrow will bring more of the same, more tedious lies and ballcocks from the so-called govt. Harry (Elsie) will update us on the state of his drying bed linen, others will update about their supermarket visits;-)
          Sos will carry on insulting me and I shall respond in kind.
          I shall also try and be humorous and keep my spirits up- have been quite down of late.

          1. Question. How do you get down off an Elephant?

            Answer: You can’t – you get Down off a duck!

          2. Here comes the elephant
            Swaying along
            With his cargo of children all singing a song;
            To the tinkle of laughter
            He goes on his way
            And his cargo of children
            Have crowned him with May….and &

          4. Sorry to hear you’ve been feeling down; is it seasonal or have there been specific events which have caused it?

          5. This whole bloody year, Conners. Of course, nothing to compare with what you have been through.

          6. The Master (Harry Lime) has drawn my attention to your post, M’lady. I can advise you that the laundry is now dry and will be put in the linen cupboard in due course.

            PS – Sorry to hear that you have been quite down of late. I hope that things will improve soon. Keep well.

          8. Are you saying, Lotl, that posters here are only interested in platitudes?

            I want/hope that this forum is the last bastion of (elderly) hope.

          10. Are you saying, Lotl, that posters here are only interested in platitudes?

            I want/hope that this forum is the last bastion of (elderly) hope.

        1. 🙁
          Agree, very boring!
          Yesterday I made a blended fish soup from a tin of sardines, a little suitable backing veg , herbs and leftover fish stock. It was delicious, but we eat in the middle of the day, so no wine as straight back to work, and nothing in the evening for health reasons.

    2. I created a delicious meal , boneless chicken thighs, Mediterranean vegetables , chicken stock cube , tomato puree, chilli, simmered down to a rich liquid , served with tricolore fusilli pasta… quite delicious .

      Then sharing a small Christmas pud and custard!

      Now munching a Russet Apple !

      1. Only a Pakistani is allowed to call himself a Paki just as only a black man is allowed to call himself by the n word!

        I am a honky – but nobody who isn’t a honky should be allowed to call me a honky.

    3. The Pakistani ‘cricketer’ is a creep. He thought himself better than his peers who thought otherwise.

      I preferred it when Yorkshire County Cricket Club employed folk born in Yorkshire as opposed to importing ‘stars’ from Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. They also denied access to our talented indigenous players.

      This general cultural mixture meant that our competitors became familiar with our own players and importantly our playing conditions, pitches and so forth to their advantage.

      My father told me to never trust an Arab or a Pakistani. He had served in India and Burma in WWII snd had direct experience of these people.

      Edited.

    4. The Pakistani ‘cricketer’ is a creep. He thought himself better than his peers who thought otherwise.

      I preferred it when Yorkshire County Cricket Club employed folk born in Yorkshire as opposed to importing ‘stars’ from Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

      This general cultural mixture meant that our competitors became familiar with our own players and importantly our playing conditions, pitches and so forth to their advantage.

      My father told me to never trust an Arab or a Pakistani. He had served in India and Burma in WWII snd had direct experience of these people.

    1. Serco went downhill, after they took over Airworks

      Like topsy, they grew and grew and failed at evrything

    2. I pray, for a Member of the Cabinet called Smith, Wilkinson , Jones etc, with a white face and

      born in UK, but not in a Caliphtown

  101. Pacific north-west floods latest: Canada’s Trudeau deploys air force to ‘terrifically bad situation’ – live
    Justin Trudeau said the Canadian government will help regions recover from the flooding, which has killed one person

    Pacific north-west storm wreaks havoc, with Vancouver cut off
    Canada hit by heavy rains and floods in British Columbia – pictures
    How poor forestry fuels floods and fires in western Canada
    How have you been affected?

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/nov/17/canada-floods-vancouver-british-columbia-weather-pacific-north-west-latest-updates

  102. It was yet again the gaps on the Tory benches that most caught the eye. During the good times it’s standing room only for prime minister’s questions, but these days the three rows behind the government frontbench are barely half full. And it’s almost certainly not because dozens of Tory MPs are preoccupied with their second jobs: it’s because they are profoundly pissed off with the way Boris Johnson is doing his first one.

    Mind you, the ones who did show up as a token gesture of support to their hapless leader may well have made a mental note to give PMQs a swerve in future weeks. For what we got was Boris at his absolute worst. Not the “everything’s great, Bertie Booster” Boris. Not even the nauseating, ersatz absent-minded joker Boris. But the raw, childlike, unchannelled, psychotic Boris. Angry, out of control and out of his depth. Lashing out randomly while blaming others for his own shortcomings. The shallowness of his empty narcissism ruthlessly exposed. Not a pretty sight and one normally only seen by women and friends he has betrayed.

    To no one’s surprise, Keir Starmer focused on matters of trust. Never Johnson’s strongest suit even on a good day. And especially not now. Could the prime minister guarantee not to go back on his promise to build both a new railway line between Manchester and Leeds and the eastern leg of HS2? “Pifflepafflewifflewaffle,” said Boris. We can almost certainly take that as a no then.

    The Labour leader then moved on to sleaze and Tory corruption. Other people had apologised. Would he? Again Johnson made no pretence to answer while Jacob Rees-Mogg, the homunculus in an oversized suit who is the unthinking person’s idea of a thinking person, shook his head furiously. He definitely hadn’t apologised. Oh, no. He had only expressed the mildest regret. Saying sorry was for the little people. It wasn’t a great look.

    “But what about the money you took from Mishcon de Reya?” Boris asked. “The leader of the opposition is guilty of Mish-Conduct”. He was so pleased with that schoolboy gag that he repeated it three times. For some reason the Tories have got it into their heads that Starmer had been taking money to help Gina Miller stop Brexit. They don’t appear to have noticed that the payment was received in 2016, well before Miller got involved in her legal fight. Details, details …

    But Johnson went on and on, eventually getting called out by the Speaker for being generally unpleasant and obstructive. Keir normally plays it safe and passionless, but this time he went for the jugular. Johnson was a coward, not a leader. Someone who had been investigated by every organisation to which he had been elected. And most places that he’s worked, for that matter. He can’t say sorry – he believes the rules don’t apply to him and he rows back on every promise. “The joke isn’t funny any more”. It hasn’t been for a while.

    Things didn’t get any better for Boris when he appeared before the liaison committee, the supergroup of select committee chairs, later in the afternoon. Even the mild mannered William Wragg, who is one of the more docile Tories, inadvertently managed to get the better of him by asking Boris a simple question about the ministerial code. Something in which Boris doesn’t believe, having forced one independent adviser to resign by refusing to accept his findings on Priti Patel, and replacing him with Lord Geidt – the Geidtadoodle – who could be relied on not to find anything compromising about Johnson’s own financial arrangements.

    Johnson smirked nervously, but somewhere in his subconscious was a growing realisation that the comedy was turning to a personal tragedy. He was the chancer who had been found out by his peers. Even his own backbenchers had turned on him. Sick of U-turn after U-turn and U-turns on U-turns. Taken for mugs and made not just to look stupid, but corrupt with it.

    Labour’s Chris Bryant quietly and methodically took advantage of the prime minister’s discomfort to expose what everyone had long suspected. That Boris hadn’t bothered to read the Owen Paterson report before whipping his MPs to ignore it. Just too much hassle. Too much work. Policy had been constructed on the hoof, reacting to whatever shitshow had been going on at the time. But he couldn’t remember telling John Whittingdale that there was definitely cross-party consensus for his sham committee. Even if Whittingdale could.

    It soon got worse. Yvette Cooper was having none of Johnson’s usual prevarications. Did he think Paterson had broken the rules or not? Just saying he had fallen foul of the rules wasn’t good enough. Boris looked horrified at being asked to tell the truth. But he ran out of road and had no option.

    Cooper pressed on. People expected even higher standards of the prime minister – news to Johnson – so why hadn’t he worn a mask at Hexham hospital. “There was barely 30 seconds when I wasn’t wearing a mask?” he whined. So that’s all right then. It was just bad luck that was the 30 seconds in which he was photographed. Perhaps there was a sign in that corridor saying “please don’t wear a mask here”.

    If Boris thought his troubles were over once the questions moved away from sleaze, he was badly mistaken. Everyone went for him. Particularly his own MPs. Mel Stride, Philip Dunne, Julian Knight, Tobias Ellwood and Jeremy Hunt all took chunks out of an under-prepared and badly briefed Johnson. The prime minister’s life was also falling apart in the Commons where an embarrassed Gillian Keegan was forced to explain how the government had managed to lose – presumably in the incinerator – the records of the phone calls between Paterson, Randox – who paid him more than £100,000 a year – and former health minister Lord Bethell.

    It felt like a moment of no return. The government was in meltdown. Rules on second jobs were going to be kicked into the long grass. A minister had just guessed three separate figures of 10, 15 and 20 hours that MPs could freelance each week. Chaos. Johnson had never given much of a shit about his own MPs. But they had cared about him. Especially, the “red wall” MPs elected in 2019. They had believed he was a winner. Now though, the last of his stardust had been brushed away. And all that was left was an emperor in all his pallid nakedness. From now on, it was every man and woman for themselves

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/nov/17/empty-benches-at-pmqs-amid-fury-at-johnsons-inability-to-do-one-job

        1. Therein lies the problem.

          One small ray of light, Johnson’s performance as PM has cast a nasty stain over everything he has come into contact with, including the alleged ‘pandemic’. Will the next incumbent be as keen to follow Johnson’s route into destroying society? Will the Tory MPs who, according to this article, have started to drift away, come running back to someone with the same policies? What indications of unrest within the voters’ ranks are Tory MPs receiving? Policy is one thing, holding on to their seats is the real thing.

          1. I’m not optimistic. It’ll be Sunak (who has already said he wants a central bank digital currency) or Truss, who will do what her globalist masters tell her.

          2. Not much of a choice, I agree. Our main hope, Tory MPs’ self interest, isn’t great either but could win in the end. Depends how many are committed to the reality of the globalist cause. Johnson’s/globalist’s plans are so base that only a very small group would be aware of them: one doesn’t let all and sundry in on such secrets. Whatever their suspicions the Tory MPs are keeping quiet at the moment.

    2. If Carrie ever gets to read the above she will be furious. It won’t be very funny being turfed out of No.10 and realising she is now plain old Mrs Johnson……

      Morning Folks. Are things getting any better?

  105. Goodnight, Jolly NoTTLers and God bless. I was up until 03:00 on Wednesday morn so I need some shut-eye.

    Bis Morgen fruh.

      1. I’m well thank you Dev. I was off line for a while but got back into posting earlier this week.

Comments are closed.