Thursday 18 November: ‘Sleaze’ is not just a Conservative Party problem – but Boris Johnson is

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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

721 thoughts on “Thursday 18 November: ‘Sleaze’ is not just a Conservative Party problem – but Boris Johnson is”

  5. SIR – Like a flock of angry parrots, Labour, the SNP, Sky News, Channel 4 and the BBC have squawked incessantly about “Tory sleaze”, past and present. Yet we hear barely a cheep about Labour sleaze – from the Wilson government to the Blair years – or the shenanigans in Holyrood.

    The public needs reminding that sleaze in Parliament, abominable though it is, has always been a cross-party problem. But that alone will not save the Conservatives. They must be seen to be taking decisive remedial action. That could include the removal of Boris Johnson.

    Terry Smit
    London NW11

    Is there a nation without sleazy politicos? Answers on a postcard

  7. BTL@DTletters

    Jr johnston
    6 HRS AGO
    The Liverpool Muslim terrorist’s false claim to have converted to Christianity does not pass the Glasgow test: ‘how did his own community react’. In 2016 , when a Glasgow based Ahmadi Muslim shopkeeper, Asad Shah, simply wished all his Christian friends and customers an Easter greeting on social media a Muslim assassin travelled over 200 miles from Bradford to kill him. The subsequent trial for murder was crowded with supporters cheering his savage actions. How much more would changing religion from Islam offend such followers? This Muslim migrant bomber would have been assassinated or at least survived several attempts on his life had he had the temerity to truly change religion from Islam.

  8. A good morning to all. And a dark but dry one at that with 5½°C and a convoy of HGV Quarry Traffic passing as I type!

  9. Morning all, long time no see. I see Grizzly hasn’t lost his touch…….

    SIR – When I was a novice motorist in Derbyshire, before the DVLC (forerunner of the DVLA) had been instigated, driving licences and motoring documents were issued by the local authorities (“Delays at the DVLA are only going to get worse”, Letters, November 17).

    When my licence needed renewing I would simply drive to county council headquarters at Matlock, where my request was dealt with immediately.

    How much simpler life was in those days before inefficient centralisation.

    Alan G Barstow

    Onslunda, Skåne County, Sweden

      1. Ohne Zweifel, Herr Spowart. Zentralisierung, ein Grundsatz des sozialistischen Dogmas, hat überall, wo seine ekelhaften Tentakel berühren, die Effizienz zerstört.

  10. COP26: where democracy goes up in flames. Spiked. 18 November 2021.

    When the time had come for the world’s parliaments to respond to the meeting proposal, there was no room for discussion and certainly no time for a vote, despite this being a gathering of people’s representatives. The document was declared adopted and we were told to go and tell our governments to abide by it.

    Some of what passed for ‘expert opinion’ was at least revealing. For instance, a spokesman for the low-lying island state of Tuvalu was understandably worried about rising sea levels. He told us that his country had been trying to mitigate the effects and had received funding for a five- to six-year-long project to create seawalls. That was six years ago and not a single brick had been laid. Yet half of the funding had already been spent – on consultants.

    This is a very informative account of the Globalist COP26 Jamboree in Glasgow. Gunnlaugsson was the Icelandic Representative and gives us an inside (something the MSM used to do) though limited personal view of the proceedings. Well worth a read because you get observed facts instead of propaganda!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/17/cop26-where-democracy-goes-up-in-flames/

    1. 341786+up ticks.

      Morning AS,

      Yet half of the funding had already been spent – on consultants… lifestyles.

    2. Brilliant!
      From the article it seems there has been a lot of progress in tackling ‘climate change’. Those driving the agenda have replaced the border collies with Rottweilers to herd the sheep (and these in turn soon to be replaced by wolves?)

      1. A note on the author of the Spiked article:

        Sigmundur Davíð first rose to prominence in Iceland as a spokesperson for the InDefence movement, which fought foreign creditors’ attempts to make Iceland pay £2.3 billion in compensation to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands following the collapse and subsequent nationalisation of Iceland’s three banks. As Eirikur Bergmann wrote in The Guardian, “This was the most serious diplomatic crisis the country had ever fought and Gunnlaugsson was at the forefront of it.”

  11. The knives are out for Boris, not that I’m a supporter but just imagine if May was still leader or we had a Labour government, they would really be loving the dictatorial authoritative powers that the pandemic has bequeathed them as evidenced by the lock downs on the unvaccinated abroad.
    I wonder if this is the real reason for trying to get rid of him.

    1. Morning, Bob3.

      Are you suggesting that Johnson’s nerve re the “pandemic” is failing him and that Tory MPs (and others) want him out and to be replaced by a much more hardline leader who will destroy our society? Is it just as possible that Tory MPs’ nerves are failing them over the “pandemic” and all the other balls-ups the dangerous buffoon has managed to create. Perhaps they see that their very survival as MPs, along with all the goodies that status makes available, is at risk? Greed is good! Greed is a great motivator for some.

      Tory credo:
      1) Self
      2) Party
      3) And if there’s something in it for me, Country.

        1. A genuine buffoon would be preferable to a genuine dictator, I agree. However, Johnson is a fraud and the buffoon disguises the dictator within. He is a genuinely scary politician.

    2. Morning Bob. The Globalists almost certainly have his replacement planned. Seely or Tugendhat as outsiders come to mind!

  13. 341786+ up ticks,
    Morning Each,

    Thursday 18 November: ‘Sleaze’ is not just a Conservative Party problem – but Boris Johnson is

    Should read,

    Thursday 18 November: ‘Sleaze’ is not the only Conservative Party problem – but Boris Johnson is

    END.

    1. ‘Morning, Ogga.

      So what you’re saying is (© Cathy Newman), that sleaze is not a problem.

      1. 341786+ up ticks,
        Morning PA,
        If taken as such then that is a major error & it should be seen as quiet the reverse.

  14. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    SIR – I cannot believe that the NHS is going to spend money on anti-obesity coaches for children as young as two. (report, November 16). Surely it is parents who need coaching.

    In early life children eat what they are given. As they get older they need to be set an example by their parents. Sadly this does not happen. In years to come the NHS will be overwhelmed by patients with problems that could have been avoided by sensible diets.

    Rosemary Reed
    Woodhall Spa, Lincolnshire

    Yes, another expensive measure to enable the NHS to demand even more funding. And I’m willing to bet that some of them will be overweight. I can just imagine the furore if the job specifies that applicants must have a healthy BMI…

    1. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      Think of all the money that could be saved by having smaller uniforms!

    2. 341786+ up ticks,
      Morning HJ,
      Rosemary Reed is so very,very, right.

      Check out FOOD PYRAMID NHS do you agree / disagree, personally I disagree.

    4. ‘Morning, Hugh.

      If gormless parents routinely stuff their kids each morning with the contents of boxes of sugar-laden carbs (e.g. most breakfast cereals) then fat offspring is what results. Walk around any supermarket and witness the obese and idiotic wobbling around with trollies overladen with processed “food”.

      The big problem is that all the multi-nationals who run this world, not only manufacture and market this vile “food” as being healthy (it is far from that); but they also fund national health authorities by handing them donations of millions of dollars each year to get them to pass on their corporate message (a tissue of lies).

      Big business (and health ‘authorities’) cares not a jot about people’s health. All they want is to continue making a fast buck.

      3. Well said, Grizz. The food lobby is an exceedingly powerful one, and profit at any cost is their sole aim. To hell with everything else. Nothing wrong with profit, of course, but there are limits, and stuffing their products with all sorts of dodgy ingredients and chemicals generally goes unnoticed by the majority.

  15. SIR – Clearly the DVLA computer has a soft spot for those of us like Susan Allcroft of Alnwick (Letters, November 17) who live this far north.

    Last month my renewed over-70 driving licence arrived by post within a week of my online application. When I moved here four years ago my change of address notification for both car and driving licence was acknowledged and dealt with in two weeks.

    Edward Cartner
    Alnwick, Northumberland

    Bully for you, matey. Try retaining some or all of your existing classes when reaching 70 and you will be up the creek for months. Provided you are prepared to ditch everything except ‘car’ then renewal is automatic and prompt.

    1. As I found when I wanted to keep my full entitlement. Six months I was without a driving licence.

  17. Looks like the Left may be getting tooled up for a Not Guilty verdict:-

    Leftists at Work: Police Officer Finds Suspicious Pile of Bricks in Kenosha Back Alley – Report (AUDIO)

    It appears the leftists are getting ready to clock in for work in Kenosha. There is a report of bricks being placed in Kenosha in preparation for rioting.

    Star Fire Codes reported there are already calls of suspicious activity coming through the police scanner. Kenosha officer checked a local alley way and verified there are “bricks everywhere” around 12 and 1 PM EST earlier today.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/11/leftists-work-police-officer-finds-suspicious-pile-bricks-kenosha-back-alley-audio/

    1. Robert Barnes is my favourite lawyer. He offered his services to Rittenhouse but was kept out by someone called Hancock. If you go to about 22-30 and listen for two minutes he spells out exactly what the prosecuting attorney has done. Furthermore, he has always maintained this case depended on proper jury selection which the defence did not really consider that important.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi8azc56v0M

  18. Another distinguished soldier has left us. .

    Colonel Charles Taylor, Dragoon Guard who was awarded a Military Cross in Korea after his tank was set ablaze – obituary

    His medal citation praised his courage and leadership, while later, in Libya, his jaw was broken by a rock thrown from an angry crowd

    By
    Telegraph Obituaries
    17 November 2021 • 2:37pm

    Colonel Charles Taylor, who has died aged 92, was awarded a Military Cross in 1952 during the Korean War.

    In December 1951, 5th Royal Inniskilling Dragoon Guards (5 RIDG) arrived in Korea. In June 1952, after a static period overlooking the Chinese positions, in an operation codenamed “Jehu”, the regiment carried out a raid with Centurion main battle tanks behind the enemy lines.

    1st Troop C Squadron, commanded by Taylor, led the way, but when his leading tank was knocked out he took the lead himself. He came under heavy fire, and just before he reached his final objective his tank was hit on the turret and set ablaze.

    Having dismounted, he extinguished the fire and continued to engage targets until his mission was completed and the order was given to withdraw. The citation for the award of an MC stated that his troop was the best in the regiment and that his organising ability, courage and leadership deserved the highest praise.

    Charles Eyre Taylor was born in Leeds on November 18 1928 and educated at Stowe. He went on to Sandhurst, and in 1949 he was commissioned into 5 RIDG.

    After two years in West Germany as a troop leader, he became assistant adjutant and intelligence officer. When the regiment returned from Korea it moved to Egypt and the Canal Zone and he became the technical adjutant.

    After a stint as ADC to General Sir John Anderson, during the following 12 years he served with the regiment at Catterick, Sennelager in West Germany, and Aden. Further postings took him to RMA Sandhurst, Northern Ireland with 39 Infantry Brigade, and HQ 3rd Division at Tidworth, Wiltshire.

    He was in command of C Squadron in Benghazi, Libya, in 1967, when there was unrest in the town as a result of the Six Day War. Demonstrations outside the British Consulate were threatening to become violent and his squadron was helping to evacuate the staff.

    Taylor, who was controlling the operation from a Saracen armoured car, was hit on the jaw by a rock thrown by a demonstrator and the crowd set the vehicle on fire. Taylor, with a cracked jaw, and his crew were all badly burnt but managed to reach the local hospital.

    He spent four months in hospital undergoing extensive treatment to his hands and face. Despite all the doctors did to help, he never fully recovered nor was free from pain. He subsequently taught at the Staff College before assuming command of 5 RIDG in 1970, when it moved to Munster in West Germany and converted from armoured cars to Chieftain tanks.

    In 1972, when he left to take up a staff appointment at HQ Wales, Brecon, the Regiment was as well-trained and effective as the best of the armoured regiments in BAOR. After a final appointment as Colonel Collective Training at HQ UK Land Forces, in 1979 he retired from the Army.

    Settled in Herefordshire, he enjoyed horse racing, stamp collecting and letter writing.

    Charles Taylor married, in 1964, Elizabeth Gott, the elder daughter of Lieutenant-General William “Strafer” Gott. They divorced in 1973 and he is survived by their two daughters.

    Charles Taylor, born November 18 1928, died October 4 2021

  19. The end of levelling up? Eastern leg of HS2 and Manchester-Leeds line look set to be scrapped. 18 November 2021.

    Northern political leaders have warned the government will pass up huge economic benefits and betray promises to voters if, as expected, it cancels major rail projects including the eastern leg of HS2 and a new Manchester-Leeds line.

    The plan is expected to confirm that HS2 will be curtailed – with its eastern leg extending to Leeds cancelled – and the Northern Powerhouse trans-Pennine route scrapped, despite the prime minister having publicly promised to deliver both in the last two years.

    One assumes that the vast majority of the cash has now been handed over and is irrecoverable!

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/the-end-of-levelling-up-eastern-leg-of-hs2-and-manchester-leeds-line-look-set-to-be-scrapped/ar-AAQPS4k

    1. …despite the prime minister having publicly promised to deliver both in the last two years.

      The prime minister 🤡 promised? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

    2. As I know to my cost you won’t get any change out of a minimum of £600 per day for a Structural Engineer and it soon mounts up!

      Morning Minty et al….

    3. Well it was only ever an old EU directive for a high speed EU network, so it is no loss really.
      Not sure why Boris didn’t just cancel it when we left the EU instead of trying to dress it up as some sort of levelling up, which it never could be.

  20. Andrew Neil: BBC and Sky are acting as the ‘PR department of Greenpeace’

    Former GB News anchor also claims broadcasters colluded in Russia conspiracy theories and failed to tell the truth about Covid-19

    By
    Anita Singh,
    ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
    17 November 2021 • 6:49pm

    The BBC and other broadcasters have become “the PR department of Greenpeace” with their coverage of climate change, Andrew Neil has claimed.

    The former BBC and GB News presenter also said British broadcasters had colluded in the “conspiracy theory” that the Kremlin helped Donald Trump to win the presidency of the United States, and refused to tell the truth about the origins of Covid-19.

    In a speech to a media forum, Mr Neil took a swipe at his most recent employer, GB News, saying the station had become a “Ukip tribute band”.

    Addressing media coverage of the environment, he said: “In covering climate change, we are no longer journalists – we are basically the PR department of Greenpeace. You don’t need to be a global warming sceptic to challenge what’s coming out.”

    He also encouraged people to “look at the BBC and Sky” and coverage of the foreign minister of Tuvalu.

    “He does a press conference [at Cop26] standing in water to make out his islands are about to go under,” Mr Neil said.

    “Nobody pointed out there was a report that came out in 2018 which showed, in the last four years, the land mass in his island has increased by 70 hectares. Wasn’t that worth looking at? But, no, we just did it as a piece of PR.”

    Speaking to the Freeview Outside the Box conference, Mr Neil said that the BBC, Sky and US broadcasters “peddled, basically, conspiracy theories for two-and-a-half years that Mr Trump had only got to the White House because the Kremlin was behind him”.

    He went on: “For the first year or so of the Covid crisis, if you raised questions that there was more to it than just coincidence that Wuhan and Covid were in the same place, you were a sinophobe, a conspiracy theorist, and you weren’t allowed to get on to the mainstream media. It’s quite clear now that Wuhan played a major part.

    “If we want to be referees, if we want to be gatekeepers to call ‘the nutters’ to account – and there are plenty on the Right and the Left, the anti-vaxxers and all the rest, we need to get our own house in order.”

    The BBC and Sky declined to comment.

    ‘Biggest single mistake of my career’

    Mr Neil also addressed his acrimonious departure from GB News. He has one last television job in him, he said, because “I don’t want GB News to be a full stop in my broadcasting career”.

    Joining the station was “the biggest single mistake of my career”, he said. The launch was a “shambles” and there was a danger that the station will now “just slide into irrelevance and obscurity”.

    Asked if GB News had succeeded in filling a gap in the market, Mr Neil replied: “To fill a gap, you have to have an audience.”

    * * *

    A couple of BTLs:

    Richard Peacock
    17 Nov 2021 7:55PM
    It’s about time someone with journalistic gravitas stated the obvious. The sooner people recognise the danger of the current green mania being used as an excuse for hypocritical and mendacious politicians looking into controlling and taxing every aspect of our activities- homes, travel, jobs, hobbies etc- the better. Keep up the good work Andrew.

    Brian Morrison
    17 Nov 2021 10:10PM
    @C The Context

    I am more than happy to encourage good design, careful and efficient use of energy and reduce pollution. What I am not prepared to do is allow the fools and wastrels that comprise much of the green blob to drive us all back to the stone age, cold hungry and ill and undo all that has advanced humanity as a species because they insist that trace gases in the atmosphere can re-radiate more heat back at the planet than originally arrives from the only energy source in the solar system. Yes humans are capable of bad stuff too, sadly it is impossible to make everything good because that too would violate the laws of thermodynamics.

      1. Unavoidable if you are going to talk straight and tell the truth as you see it, without equivocation and without being mealy-mouthed.

          1. There is no truth platform and no truth media. I’ll rephrase that. We only have “no truth” media.

      2. ‘Morning, bb2. In my view it indicates an independence of thought, which I admire.
        It is something that is all too rare these days.

    3. I think Mr Neil is a man of principles. He finds it difficult to find find any sort of decent news platform that is outputting unbiased news, probably because there isn’t one. GB news was a hoped for source, but I find it difficult to watch.

      1. GBNews is both excellent and dismally bad in equal patches.

        Some of ‘The Superstar Panellists’ on the Mark Dolan and Dan Wootton shows are abysmal – but Calvin Robinson is excellent. Neil Oliver, who has just recovered from Covid, is one of my favourites and, say what you like about Nigel Farage, it cannot be denied that he is an outstandingly good journalist.

  24. Confessional Box

    A guy goes into the confessional box after years being away from the Church. He pulls aside the curtain, enters and sits himself down. There’s a fully equipped bar with crystal glasses, the best vestry wine, Guinness on tap, cigars and liqueur chocolates nearby, and on the wall a fine photographic display of buxom ladies who appear to have mislaid their garments.

    He hears a priest come in. “Father, forgive me for it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to confession and I must admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be”.

    The priest replies,
    “Get out, you idiot. You’re on my side“.

    1. Hey, Dean. I bummed a ride in a Rolls-Canardly, Man.Hillman Imp!

      It cruised down Slack Hill with ease on the way back, Bro; but trying to mooch up that hateful incline was simply too much for a cheap aluminium power-train, Hombre.

        1. Hey, Dean. I was a freshman on the road at the time, Dude. Seasoned Hobos gave me no head up on my choice of charabanc, Man.

          1. Hey Beatnik, with pals like yours Dude, you don’t need no enemies, Hombre. The old Linwood rollerskate was a total bummer, Dude.

      1. He was in the desert:

        “We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold.” ― Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

  26. 341786+ up ticks,

    Is the superior voting power of these Isles really going to allow the defence of what is left of the realm to be decided by the politico’s
    running the current DOVER invasion campaign ?

    If so then giant mushrooms should be added to the parliamentary halal inclusive canteen menu.

    Global warming BIG TIME.

    UK agrees to sell warships and missiles to Ukraine as tensions with Russia grow
    Deal signed by Ben Wallace in light of increasing aggression from Moscow

  29. 341786+ up ticks,

    May I say,
    Surely a responsible person prior the voting would take into consideration the fact that the daily DOVER invasion campaign as overseen by the governance party’s adds to the daily strain being put upon Medication,Education,Incarceration, Accommodation.

    Things are NEVER, EVER,EVER,going to improve using the same “party” before Country voting pattern.

  33. It occurs to me that I haven’t wished any of you Happy Birthday for ages. Not through lack of goodwill – I just haven’t done more than top and tail NotTL for a while. Apologies to those I’ve missed.

    Furniture removed from my late mother’s house, put into storage for my siblings and cousin. Now whittling down the last of my things, arranging charity donation of unwanted furniture and entire kitchen stuff, and cleaning. Still no exchange/completion date but has to be by end of next week for the buyers.

    Our solicitors are utter rubbish and will be receiving a sharp complaint; I have had to chivvy them every inch of the way.

    Looking forward to having the time to acknowledge fellow NotTLers’ birthdays!

    1. We don’t seem to have had any birthdays for a long time – or perhaps I have missed them too?

      That sounds like a lot of hard work. Are you doing it alone?

    3. I am afraid there is only one person in November on my birthday list which is Cochrane on 12th November and I missed it as I believe he has not posted here for over a year. There are five Nottler birthdays coming up in December.

      Anyone want to be added to the list?

      02 January – 1947 : Poppiesmum
      07 January – **** : Lady of the Lake
      08 January – 1941 : Rough Common
      09 January – **** : thayaric
      10 January – 1960 : hopon
      16 January – 1941 : Legal Beagle
      18 January – **** : Stormy
      21 January – **** : Nagsman
      23 January – 1951 : Damask Rose
      27 January – 1948 : Citroen 1
      10 February -1949 : Korky the Kat (Dandy Front Pager)
      11 February- 1964 : Phizzee
      22 February- 1965 : AW Kamau
      22 February- 1951 : Grizzly
      24 February- 1941 : Sguest
      28 February- 1956 :Jeremy Morfey
      29 February- **** : Ped
      05 March—– 1957 : Sue MacFarlane
      08 March—– 1957 : Geoff Graham
      26 March—– 1962 : Caroline Tracey
      27 March—– 1947 : Maggiebelle
      27 March—– 1941 : Fallick Alec
      19 April——- 1954 : Devonian in Kent
      22 April——–1950 :Jay Sands
      26 April——- **** : Harry Kobeans
      18 May———****: Hertslass
      24 May——– 1944 : NoToNanny
      02 June——–1939: Clydesider
      08 June——– **** : Still Bleau
      09 June——- 1947 : Johnny Norfolk
      09 June——– 1947 : Horace Pendleton
      23 June——– 1961 : Oberstleutnant
      25 June——– 1952 : corimmobile
      01 July——— 1946 : Rastus C Tastey
      12 July——— 1956 : David Wainwright/Stigenace
      18 July——— 1941: lacoste
      19 July——— 1948: Ndovu
      21 July———-1960: Tier5Inmate
      26 July——— 1936 : Delboy
      29 July———- 1944 : Lewis Duckworth
      30 July———- 1946 : Alf the Great
      01 August—— 1950 : Datz
      03 August—— 1954 : molamola
      10 August—— 1967 : ourmaninmunich
      14 August ——-1944 jillthelass
      18 August—— **** : ashesthandust
      19 August——- 1951 : Hugh Janus
      04 September- 1948 : Joseph B Fox
      07 September- 1946 : Araminta Smade
      11 September- 1947 : peddytheviking aka PeterAnderson
      12 September- 1946 : Ready Eddy
      13 September- **** : Anne Allan
      15 September- **** : veryveryveryoldfella
      26 September- **** : Feargal the Cat
      30 September 1944 : One Last Try
      07 October—– 1960 : Bob 3
      11 October—– 1944 : Hardcastle Craggs
      25 October—– 1955 : Sue Edison
      12 November- ***** : Cochrane
      01 December– 1956 : Sean Stanley-Adams
      06 December– 1943 : Duncan Mac
      10 December– **** : Aethelfled
      16 December– **** : Plum
      21 December– 1945 : Elsie Bloodaxe
      (E&OE)

    4. Well done if you have managed to persuade charity shops to take your unwanted furniture! I’ve been trying to get rid of a sideboard and table and four chairs for ages. I think I’ll end up using the table and chairs in the garden (need to buy covers for them) and putting the sideboard in the garage if I can make room.

      1. We have a guy up here who takes unwanted furniture, does it up and gives it to the needy. I guess you’ll be too far away for him to collect

        1. Living in the back of beyond as I do, I expect so. The sideboard particularly would make a nice piece of furniture were it chalk painted and stencilled. I just don’t do Ebay or I’d put that up (along with a lot of vintage computers, etc) for sale.

      2. I wanted to donate all the kitchen stuff en masse to a refuge – eventually got a recommendation from the movers, and not only will they gladly take it all, they pricked up their ears at the thought of chests of drawers, and are coming to pick them up to boot. Keep asking around? I know many charities have become ridiculously picky.

        1. Most of the charity shops here don’t take furniture. The one that does doesn’t have any room at the moment. I’ve offered it to a sort of arty-crafty place, but they don’t seem keen, either.

  34. Imagine my shock…………….

    “The Telegraph can also reveal that the 32-year-old, who converted to
    Christianity, was seen at his local mosque every day during Ramadan in
    April, around the same time time he began constructing his bomb.

    Sources claim the Iraqi-born asylum seeker attended the mosque “all day every
    day” during the religious festival and was seen praying with a fellow
    Muslim a week before the attack”
    The cretinous naive do-gooders who helped in his fake conversion to avoid deportation (along with many others) should hang their heads in shame…….
    But they won’t……….
    Edit
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cff9c34722837fd3c4a04f798c013b8310ec8b7c609fbc5fcb55542ccd88de62.jpg

    1. The cretinous naive do-gooders who helped in his fake conversion to
      avoid deportation (along with many others) should hang their heads in
      shame…….

    3. It is not the fault of the Churches – it is the Home Office who accepts the conversion at face value. It’s not the Church’s job to vet new members, that’s the Home Office’s job.
      it’s the Home Office who is giving the motivation for these frauds.

  35. Imagine my shock…………….

    “The Telegraph can also reveal that the 32-year-old, who converted to
    Christianity, was seen at his local mosque every day during Ramadan in
    April, around the same time time he began constructing his bomb.

    Sources claim the Iraqi-born asylum seeker attended the mosque “all day every
    day” during the religious festival and was seen praying with a fellow
    Muslim a week before the attack”
    The cretinous naive do-gooders who helped in his fake conversion to avoid deportation (along with many others) should hang their heads in shame…….
    But they won’t……….
    Edit
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cff9c34722837fd3c4a04f798c013b8310ec8b7c609fbc5fcb55542ccd88de62.jpg

  37. A letter that I have just sent to the ECB (England and Wales Cricket Board):

    Good morning from Sweden,

    I am a widely-travelled Englishman and cricket fan now ensconced in the cricket-free environment of Scandinavia.

    Reading the current reportage on the tribulations of Yorkshire County Cricket Club and the accusations of “institutional racism” that are being bandied about, I have to say that I am more than a tad confused as to why it is considered to be a “racist insult” to refer to a Pakistani as a “Paki”.

    You may (or may not) be aware that there is a very healthy, successful and well-supported cricket team of expat Pakistani cricketers, in Australia, who rejoice and celebrate being known as “Paki Power”.

    Now, my question to you is this: If the members of this team celebrate being called “Paki Power” it occurs to me that the word “Paki” is simply descriptive (i.e. a shortened version of “Pakistani”) and, consequently, very far from being a “racist” insult. What I am saying is: how is it possible for one word to be both celebrated and deemed to be an insult at the same time?

    I have met, and worked alongside many lovely people of Pakistani origin, who routinely, and joyfully, describe themselves as “Pakis”.

    I am sure that a lot of cricket fans from around the world are as mystified by this current furore in Yorkshire cricket as I am.

    I, and many other lovers of the wonderful sport of cricket, are hoping that this matter can soon be put to bed.

    Best wishes,

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d242fdb5ea0d5f3b70456e03a701b59aec333e768411c5e8365d30b0273c4c93.png https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96ffae78c00ed270e94d92e7ffdf61f0b626000111742e4423902684305e44a7.png

    1. Automated Response:

      Thank you for contacting the ECB Customer Support Team.

      This is an automated response to let you know that your ticket has been logged under ticket reference number ******.

      Due to the level of email received by ECB we cannot promise to respond to every feedback email individually, or enter into general correspondence about cricket issues or non-website matters. But we do try and respond to as many messages as possible, as quickly as possible.

      Kind Regards,

      The ECB Customer Support Team.

      2. A Pakistani that worked for me, described himself as a Waki Paki. He was a great chap.so hard working.

        1. I was at university with a tall, extremely good looking chap with a deep tan.
          He always referred to himself as The Posh Paki”.

  38. The PM was just on the BBC, insulting by his very presence the magnificent steam locomotive behind him.
    Apparently zillions are going to be spent on railways. Lots of money to be spent on ticketless travel, presumably using smartphone coding. Why? Tickets work and employ people.
    Miriam Cates being rudely interrupted by Victoria Derbyshire every five seconds. Cates talking sense with passion.

    PS The quickest rail time between here and Elgin is longer than here to London which is twice the distance.

  39. Apropos yesterday’s vanishing twitter videos……..

    “Secrecy is the keystone to all tyranny. Not force, but secrecy and

    censorship. When any government or church for that matter, undertakes to

    say to its subjects, “This you may not read, this you must not know,”

    the end result is tyranny and oppression, no matter how holy the

    motives. Mighty little force is needed to control a man who has been

    hoodwinked in this fashion; contrariwise, no amount of force can control

    a free man, whose mind is free. No, not the rack nor the atomic bomb,

    not anything. You can’t conquer a free man; the most you can do is kill

    him.”

    Robert A Heinlein.

    Secrecy you say…………..

    https://twitter.com/AaronSiriSG/status/1461042652862767110

      1. Maybe not as old as some of Tom’s jokes but still quite old:

        Two nuns sharing a bath:

        First nun: Where’s the soap?
        Second Nun: Yes, doesn’t it!

  42. Are you getting it yet?

    Gibraltar have nearly 100% of their population ‘vaccinated’, yet they’re cancelling all the festivities due to a huge surge in COVID cases.

    Government & Mainstream Media: “The jabs are working.”

    1. I said this to a true believer the other day. His reply was “Gibraltar’s a tiny country, only a couple of thousand people.”

      Everyone seems to be buying the line that the high covid is due to the unvaccinated, or that this year’s variant is so much more virulent – nobody seems able to see any link with a leaky vaccine.

      1. Some ordinary people as well as the politicians are not prepared to accept that the jab:

        i) is not a vaccine;
        ii) that it does not stop you getting Covid 19;
        iii) that it does not stop you passing it on;
        iv) that infection rates are just as high or higher in highly jabbed countries;
        v) that treatment with zinc, Vitamin D and Vitamin C uses and augments your natural immunity while the jab may weaken it;
        vi) that the side effects are not known and cannot be fully known until some years have passed.

        On the other hand they are happy to say that if you have the jab and then get Covid 19 you may fare better than if you have not been jabbed. But

        vii) early treatment with zinc, vitamins and ivermectin (which Big Pharma has ensured is unavailable) you could have got over the disease even more quickly.

        1. Denying ivermectin is a crime against humanity on its own. But we know that “they” think there are far too many of us useless eaters around.

          1. Dr Bhakdi thinks that the vaccine gene therapy will cull the human population by 10% – but Bill Gates is aiming for a 50% reduction. I wonder what other little tricks he has up his sleeve!

          2. A never-ending stream of jabs with various ingredients!
            People have made the point that Gates sees all problems as technology problems, and I think they are right. He thinks that you can tinker with humanity the same way you can tinker with Windows, or push through a business deal. He has no medical qualifications

      2. Apparently the latest variant is so mild that people don’t know they’ve got it – but still they get tested and isolated.

        1. It’s been going round my daughter’s school (so they say). She is currently ill with a sore throat and fever, but has done a self-test, which came out negative.
          Is her test result wrong, or the ones from the school? Obviously she has the same bug as whatever’s going round the school. Nobody has been hospitalised or died yet!
          It’s all such a farce, there is no data you can trust.
          If not all the hype, I’d just say she has a very nasty bug. She’s slim, healthy and properly nourished, so should get better without a problem with average luck.

          1. I didn’t meet my old schoolfriends for lunch on Monday, as planned, because one of them had a nasty cold. In spite of several LFTs and a PCR, they were all negative. I wouldn’t have bothered with the tests if it had been me. We’re now meeting next Monday instead.

          2. I didn’t meet my old schoolfriends for lunch on Monday, as planned, because one of them had a nasty cold. In spite of several LFTs and a PCR, they were all negative. I wouldn’t have bothered with the tests if it had been me. We’re now meeting next Monday instead.

      3. 30,000 Gibraltarians, but at least 14,000 Spanish residents cross the frontier every weekday in order to work.

    3. Have the politicians dug themselves in so deeply that it is now impossible for them to admit that the vaccine gene therapy policy has been a complete disaster and that the approach now favoured in Japan of treating the actual disease (as Trump advised) is far better?

      I am astonished that so many people are unquestioningly prepared to accept this gene therapy which does not stop you getting Covid 19 and does not stop you passing it on when you do get it. Also there seem to be horrible side effects which the MSM must have been forbidden to report upon.

      Dr Bhakdi seems to know what he is talking about. This terrifying video which a fellow Nottler posted a couple of days ago should make people sit up and think though I expect all wrong-thinking will soon be against the law.
      https://www.bitchute.com/video/QHf6loncv2G1/

        1. I suggested hereabouts yesterday, that the NHS funding should comprise of two streams. One for the doctors, nurses, medical practitioners and another for the massive administrative tail.
          This would make cutting funding from the wasteful areas (diversity coordinators, five-a-day specialists, artwork selectors) much simpler, whilst providing transparency for the taxpayers.

  45. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06954a697fe6f62a24b36b6bd7b00c184845803f16d0a4f362adefc82b1d5c5e.png

    Further to my under the counter freezer narrative of last Monday the 15th of November. The Freezer never arrived and I waited the stipulated three days and cancelled it this morning. Now I’ve had the above email. There was no delivery scheduled for the 12th because I tracked it on the Monday and there was no delivery. This is of course an example of the blatant lieing that now takes place pretty much anywhere you care to look. I haven’t left the house anytime within the delivery hours in the last three days and am stuck here again for the rest of today. Even assuming that it comes this must be the last time I buy anything real from these people!

    1. The co-founder of Amazon is an adulterer, and coincidentally the company’s policy is to screw you.

      Probably what has happened is that the refrigerator does not exist, ie it’s not in stock, but the systems allow several days for a minion to put pressure on the wholesaler. I had a similar experience last year when ordering stationery. Fictional attempt at delivery but convincing text messages followed by Amazon cancellation.
      Two years ago sending a shipping container from SE Asia to Europe cost c£2000, now the cost is nearer £16,000. At 100 fridges per container, you can see that the delivery cost per unit has risen well in excess of the govt’s little fib of 4% inflation. Although standards have fallen, may I suggest you try John Lewis, or a local charity shop.

  48. Good morning my friends,

    A couple of days ago I commented on this forum that the Johnson family are completely repulsive.

    As if Rachel Jonson wished to confirm my view she has launched a snide attack on her brother, Boris, in the same way that the Duchess of Sussex launches constant attacks on her father and sister.

    Why does the cream no longer rise to the top in our society but only the scum?

    Ghislaine Maxwell ‘rested high-heeled boot’ on Boris Johnson’s thigh after meeting him at university
    Rachel Johnson recalls encounter between the future prime minister and socialite ‘with naughty eyes’ during his Oxford days
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/17/ghislaine-maxwell-rested-high-heeled-boot-boris-johnsons-thigh/

    1. Compulsive and essential viewing for most in parliament.
      Along with House of Cards……….”Every one has their price as Mattie”, as Francis Urquhart the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party would say.
      And so on and so forth.

    2. Compulsive and essential viewing for most in parliament.
      Along with House of Cards……….”Every one has their price as Mattie”, as Francis Urquhart the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party would say.
      And so on and so forth.

    1. Well, at least they dont need to glue themselves to their cell as the bars will keep them in place.

      1. It’s a missed opportunity for satire. They should have sentenced one and superglued the rest of them to the convict.

    2. Morning all! Quite a presentable day in West Sussex today. Makes a change from the gloom.
      I see that one of these ‘precious’ people is going to go on hunger strike, good! How can you be so self righteous that you don’t care if you hold up an ambulance or some other vehicle on an emergency. Self indulgent psychopaths certainly not martyrs.

      Then, I read this morning that George Monbiot broke down in tears at these terrorists being jailed. “We have so little time left” He wailed. What a pansy! Perhaps he could do us all a favour and go plant himself somewhere in the wilderness like some loopy old testament prophet and do his self indulgent nonsense to the rocks and grass. I’m sure they would be as interested in his predictions of Armageddon as the rest of us are.

    3. They should be not only be superglued to the floors of their cells but fed gruel through a straw!

    4. Do they still have to sew mailbags? If not, suggestions invited as to what work they could do instead.

          1. Petroleum Jelly ?
            I’d imagine they are going to need it.
            When I was an apprentice joiner were i worked we made some visiting cubicles for Wandsworth prison, a whole line of the about 10 of them. I was one of the 4 who were chosen to go to the prison to fit them. But nobody actually told me at the time why, as i was only a young lad of 17 I had to stay in the cab of the delivery lorry all day, out in the car park.

      1. I have an internet (who after more then 20 years I have never met) friend who is always on top the game, she sends me everything she gets through her close group, I couldn’t possibly post them all here, some are very tedious in content. But this one as you suggest is out there for all who bother to take notice of what is happening.
        They can’t get away with it much longer.

    2. I particularly liked this bit … “when I look at this ghastly clutch of careerists in Westminster I don’t see men of steel. I see weak, greedy, cowardly little figures who wallow in the vainglorious exercise of dictatorial power meekly gained.“

      1. As I mentioned below.
        Along with House of Cards……….”Every one has their price as Mattie”, as Francis Urquhart the Chief Whip of the Conservative Party would say.
        And so on and so forth.

    3. I particularly liked this bit … “when I look at this ghastly clutch of careerists in Westminster I don’t see men of steel. I see weak, greedy, cowardly little figures who wallow in the vainglorious exercise of dictatorial power meekly gained.“

    4. Saw that article yesterday. Wishful thinking, regrettably.
      But, tell me, is their layout all over the place or is it my computer acting up again?
      Got a new computer but still in the process of setting it up. Incredible thing. A desk top more powerful than any I have had so far. The tower, believe it or not is only 6.50 inches x 6.50 inches. It has 4 ports too! A tower so small you could mislay the thing. At first I thought it was some adjunct to the real computer tower which I expected to be further down in the box. The last computer tower I brought is 11 x 16 inches and not half as powerful. The thing I’m using now is a “All in One” ghastly piece of junk by Lenovo.

  53. Back from market. Lots of stalls. Very few masks. In Tesco most people were gagged – including lotsa staff. But very few customers in the store.

    Morrisons was much busier. About half the customers were masked. Virtually none of the staff.

    Tesco are doing their 25% off wine thing (more off for cardholders). The MR (who knows about these things) chose wisely and saved ££££.

    1. In the Socialist Republic of Nippystan such offers are banned under the minimum alcohol pricing diktat issued by the Shortbread Senate…which has proven to have been yet another failure of these political midgets. I can still save on clubcard prices for wine (non EU of course) so, as they say, every little helps.

      1. We generally order from wine merchants in England. Majestic in Berwick deliver in their own van. Others like ND John in Wales don’t worry about Scottish laws on multi offers, we get them.

  55. Remember that snap yesterday of the permanently offended slammer creekiter holding a cheque? Was that the cheque for £200,000 paid to him as blood money by Yorksheer County Creekit Club? I would have liked to hear Sir Geoffrey’s views…………….

    2. Bon Jaw, I take it you saw those two pictures of the Asian cricket chaps with ‘Paki Tour’ emblazoned on their green shirts yesterday.
      I haven’t seen this on the MSM, yet i was rather hoping they might include it in one of their many mentions of the blatant and British version of racism.
      Perhaps some one might copy and paste it as usual mine wont work !

      2. When I tried to mention that BTL in The Grimes – by carefully NOT using the word that offends – they refused to print the comment.

        1. It’s interesting that the permanently offended cricketer used the word “Hoggy” when giving evidence on TV.

          I should have thought that a Muslim calling you a pig would be pretty insulting, yet amazingly no one has offered compensation.

          2. Is it time to reappraise the South African policy on sport?

            I think that in order to avoid racism in sport in the future people of different races should not be allowed to compete with or against people of different races.

    5. Why has YCC changed its rules? Time was that you could only play for YCC if born in the county. I doubt that the Paki was.

  56. Let’s hear it for Olly. We have no-one with such oratorical powers nowadays.

    “It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonored by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice. Ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government. Ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

    Is there a single virtue now remaining amongst you? Is there one vice you do not possess?

    Ye have no more religion than my horse. Gold is your God. Which of you have not bartered your conscience for bribes? Is there a man amongst you that has the least care for the good of the Commonwealth?

    Ye sordid prostitutes have you not defiled this sacred place, and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral principles and wicked practices?

    Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation. You were deputed here by the people to get grievances redressed, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.

    Your country therefore calls upon me to cleanse this Augean stable, by putting a final period to your iniquitous proceedings in this House; and which by God’s help, and the strength he has given me, I am now come to do.

    I command ye therefore, upon the peril of your lives, to depart immediately out of this place.

    Go, get you out! Make haste! Ye venal slaves be gone! So! Take away that shining bauble there, and lock up the doors.

    In the name of God, go!”

    1. The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
      And
      If experience teaches us anything at all, it teaches us this: that a good politician, under democracy, is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
      H. L. Mencken

  57. Well my Freezer has arrived! Thankfully; though I didn’t manage to hear him ringing the bell or knocking, I was still able to detect the sound of the click of the spring loaded flap as he slid the “Sorry We Missed You” card through the letter box while he held it back!.

    1. Sometimes I think they knock on the door with a feather. i don’t have a bell or a knocker.

      1. Nor have we – they sometimes leave things just by the gate or on the ground, or in the woodshed – seldom do they make any attempt to knock.

        1. Nor do we. If we order a take out, we are never sure if the guy will park in the visitors car park and walk to the front door, or come round the back to our small circle and knock on the back door. Still, makes life interesting.

          1. I haven’t had a takeaway delivery for ages. Now that it’s already dark at trough time, I’m very reluctant to open the door to strangers.

        2. I have a bell, but few people use it. Most knock on the door or tap on the window! One delivery driver threw a parcel over my front gate onto my path. It wasn’t even for me!

  59. Stop press. First jigsaw of the season completed. We were held up for two days by two pieces that just would not fit. The MR studied the puzzle for hours and saw that two other pieces were in he wrong place. Sharp eyes, that one! Apart from the edge (obvs) virtually ALL the 1000 pieces were the same shape…..

    Anyway – a new one – much worse – will be started shortly!

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/300bac9ecce262b2ddc036cbc687d9cd689d8bf8511dfc4cf9bbd52f3e278c69.jpg

      1. Already dismantled and ready to go back to the next church jigsaw sale. They have about four a year. You pay £1.50 per puzzle, complete them, return them and some other puzzler gets a go!

        1. There is a charity shop in a small town near here from which Caroline buys virtually all her clothes. The clothes are of excellent quality because the people who give their clothes to Marion, who owns and runs the shop, are either posh or wealthy!

          Marion is a white woman whose parents brought her up in Burkina Faso. All the money she raises goes into a local village where she used to live and is used for the installation of wells, sewing machines, bicycles, wheelchairs and other essential things and she goes out every year to help with the work with her own hands. Last year they put a new roof on the school. Not a centime is wasted and so Caroline is very happy to buy her clothes from Marion and to give her things for her shop. This is a proper charity – not a corrupt cess pit like the one that pays David Miliband hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

    8. Try and figure out, Bill, the puzzle that is Brussels and the EU.

      Looking forward to its imminent demise.

    9. A bottle and glass of red – quelle surprise! 🙂 If you have two pieces that don’t fit when you come to the end, the answer is almost certainly that two pieces have been misplaced (rather than there is a fault in the manufacture).

    1. Covid has been weaponised to scare the population into taking two or more shots of a vaccine which was developed at warp speed and not fully tested.

      Now they are back on “antimicrobial resistance” ie overuse of antibiotics.

      They are never honest.

      1. I have a person come in and cut my hair every 6 weeks, she was here yesterday. She has had the two initial shots but says she will not get the third. In her opinion taking a shot that does not make you immune and can still cause you to pass on an infection of Covid makes no sense. She now thinks that this is all a con game done for reasons of government control of the people. She is by no means a radical, very middle of the road Conservative, disappointed with Boris and says that in the next election she will not vote Tory unless he is gone.

        1. Gradually I think ordinary people will start to consider what is the point of taking yet another shot of a substance which doesn’t appear to work as it was supposed to.

          Sadly most of my intelligent and educated friends appear to believe the propaganda we’ve been force-fed over the last nearly two years.

          Yesterday afternoon I went to a meeting about a proposed local development – we had to sign in, wear masks (I think I was the only person there unmasked) everybody was conforming with the agenda.

          1. This conformity of thought is one of the most worrying things.

            Like The Man said:

            “O Judgment ! Thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason !”

        2. More and more people in France – both the vaccinated – gene therapied and the non-gene therapied are beginning to think that the programme is not just a scam but a very evil and deliberate scam.

          1. Kick that little shit, Macron, right out and, although she’s left wing, I think Marine Le Pen has France’s best interests at heart.

            It would certainly bring Brussels (as my dear Mama would say) up with a round turn.

            Figure out how to deal with a major partner, hell bent, on kicking out all the Muslims. Mutti, was saga dit?

          2. Well done Tom! You haven’t fallen for the MSM con which says that Marine Le Pen is extreme right wing.

            Mind you most of the British were conned two years ago into thinking that Boris Johnson was a Conservative.

        3. The lady who comes every three months to clip my toenails (I cannot now reach) has admitted to me, but not to Best Beloved, that she also, is unvaxxed, for much the same reasons as mine.

          She cannot be honest with many clients, otherwise her business will dry up amongst the sheep (Best Beloved included) but I was glad that she opened up to me. Go Girl!

      2. A couple of years ago, I asked my GP why they were reluctant to prescribe antibiotics. “If,”I said, ” I become resistant to an antibiotic it will only affect myself surely? If I don’t get the antibiotic, I could die”. The GP had no sensible answer, and I cannot think of one.

          1. Mm. Ndovu also kindly responded. If I get bugs and antibiotics kill them where is the problem? Conversely, if I do not finish the course of drugs and the bugs become resistant why does that matter as they are my bugs?

          2. If you want to run the risk of a flare-up/return of your infection, it doesn’t matter at all. However, they are not your bugs, they are everybody’s potential bugs as you could spread them throughout your community.

          3. That’s a stretch. I don’t go out when I am sick. In fact, I hardly go out at all, and the bugs are self – generating.

    2. 341786+ up ticks,
      Afternoon TB,
      To be on the safe side and knowing the coalitions treachery past / present record we should take it as such TB.

      The last four decades of mass murder, mass paedophilia via mass uncontrolled immigration agents
      is not something a person / party of decency would want on their CV.

      1. The mere sight of Squalid Jawdrip makes me feel physically sick. I imagine I am not alone in this.

  61. I have just had this e-mail as a Parler Newsletter.

    This is rather worrying – It seems that now credit/debit cards may interfere and stop you paying for things they do not want you to buy:

    Ticket sales for the upcoming Defense* of Liberty event were halted by payment processor WePay, a Chase company, citing violations of its Terms of Service. The event, featuring guest Donald Trump Jr., was scheduled for December 3rd.

    The PAC’s Founder and Co-host Paul Curtman shared the notice he received, where the processor said any pending payments would be canceled*. The notice referenced the “illegal” section of the terms and explicitly said:

    “Per our terms of service, we are unable to process for hate, violence, racial intolerance, terrorism, the financial exploitation of a crime, or items or activities that encourage, promote, facilitate, or instruct others regarding the same.”

    [* American spelling?]

        1. That is for a different reason. It seems that Visa is charging an outrageous fee to Amazon for their services. Ironic really, the greedy fighting the avaricious and both sides pretending to be righteous.

          1. I costed the possibility of running an online shop. The credit card processing charges came to around 6.5% of the total transaction value. As a business will have a reasonable target of clearing 8% net, the bank was going to take about the same amount of money from the proposed business as myself. I did not proceed.

          2. We used to employ a femme de ménage legitimately and did the paperwork.

            We discovered that for every €20 we paid her the government took over €10.

            We now don’t have a femme de ménage so if you come to visit us and find our house is rather dusty don’t blame us – blame the French government!

          3. I wouldn’t judge Rastus. I don’t have dust bunnies, I have dust kangaroos! Dusting’s useless, all you do is rearrange the dust.

          4. …and, after 4 years, it doesn’t get any worse.

            Remember, “Ashes to ashes and dust to dust.” That dust you might be sweeping up, could be your best friend!

          6. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Don’t disturb the dust -it may be someone you knew!
            Whoops! I should have read on, now i see Nanny already posted similar.

          8. Who benefits from contactless payments – is it cheaper for the retailer than accepting PIN card payments? To my mind it encourages theft.

          9. I don’t know. I think that contactless transfer of info is just a mechanism as was the old slider machine that took an imprint of your card. The banks want the money in instantly, I suppose, so they can get interest.

          10. My rather splendid Barber has dumped all cards and will only accept cash because of extortionate fees.

            ‘They’ really do want to destroy small businesses.

      2. We pour our delicious Cuban coffee from our efficient American Gemco cooker-top percolator. Oh, the irony! When we buy the coffee from the importers in Birkenhead, England, we have to telephone them and pay with a UK card. Transactiona via Paypal on the company’s website would be cancelled by Paypal as the word “Cuban”is involved.

    2. PayPal already cancels people of whose politics they disapprove. I closed my account with them a couple of years ago.
      This is the way banking is going.
      If the government succeeds in imposing a central bank digital currency, it will be game over – any political disobedience and you’ll lose access to your money, or be restricted in what you can spend it on.

      1. Same as bitcoin avoids regulation, so too will all others. Governments are slow, lumbering and incompetent. They’ve lost control over the money supply and oh, they hate it.

        1. Is Tom a pseudonym or an avatar, Tom (or is it Thomas or Tommy?).👍🏻

          [The island bus driver and odd-job man on St Mary’s on the Isles of Scilly was called Tom, but the locals called him Tonto, which he hated. All the tourists then started calling him Tonto, which he hated even more.]

          1. NoToNanny is the pseudonym, George, as Grizzly is yours.

            You need to know your Avatar from your pseudonym, maybe, despite what the Silly people do.

      2. Amazon apparently not taking Visa cards any more.

        Will Visa back down and ‘do a deal’ or will Mastercard follow suit?

        I suspect that was the one useful thing not taken across by leaving the EU, the limitations on card processing fees. Dammit, the level of incompetence in the state machine is reaching malice.

        1. The ban starts on 19th January, so there’s no threat to Chrimble shopping (if you bother to do any).

      3. My first bank, when I started work in the early 60s was the Westminster bank in Cumberland, and I have stuck with it now called NatWest which now includes the disreputable Royal Bank of Scotland. I also have accounts in Bank of Scotland and Halifax. Lost money in every one of them.

        1. My first account was with Lloyds in Milford-on-Sea. When I moved to London the firm I worked for recommended the National Provincial which then merged with the Westminster Bank and became the National Westminster. We also have had accounts with HSBC, Barclays and Santandar.

          The one thing they have in common is they don’t give a toss about their clients.

          2. We left Barclays when the branch manager, who was a friend, retired & was replaced by a vicious little runt with a lettuce leaf handshake.

          3. I’ve no idea who is the branch manager – the nearest one is closing and the next one is in Gloucester.

          4. I don’t know which one is my manager either. I get on well with all the front-line staff.

          6. I know who our branch manager is, he’s a good bloke who calls me by my name (plus honorific) and can’t be more helpful.

        2. My first bank was Martins, then taken over by Barclays. For ages I had a cheque book with the insect logo on it.

  63. 341786+ up ticks,

    I believe they had some difficulty finding boats but finally managed,
    due to some return service operating,

    breitbart,
    …FRENCH POLICE CLEAR 1,500 FROM DUNKIRK MIGRANT CAMP

      2. AI would be lovely right about now. All the reforms we could make to put this country on a path to rational operation without the egomania and stupidity, greed and arrogance of the cretinous humans.

      4. A quick test will give you the answer to what sex a person is.

        If a test shows the principal ingredients of a person to be sugar and spice then it’s a little girl; but if a test shows that the ingredients are slugs and snails and puppy dogs’ tails – it’s a boy.

        If only they had used this simple method earlier on then a lot of nonsensical confusion would have been avoided.

        Transgenders could only be classified as such if their composition was found to be composed of an even mixture of spice and puppy dogs’ tails.

      1. I do not understand why the serial numbers on these boats can’t be traced and the factories shut down. They must have some sort of ID number or code.
        It all leads you to believe that this is a deliberate invasion that our useless government fully supports.

        1. Of course it is deliberate. Otherwise HMG would have done something serious about it years ago. Priti Awful simply lies through her teeth when she “promises” to stop it. She has absolutely NO intention of stopping it.

          1. They tracked one manufacturer of the boats to the Netherlands if I remember correctly but I don’t know what was done about it. Probably not anything helpful.

        2. That is the question I have repeatedly asked in the past regarding the shiny new 4X4 trucks that ISIS used to conquer the Middle East.
          Made in Japan, imported by businesses in Qatar, Iran, Lebanon? and supplied to terrorists. No action taken, no VIN numbers traced, no Japanese factories shut down.
          The reason would be that these vicious activities are required to continue by those pulling the strings in the US and the UK.

      1. “You’re a man” is one of the most controversial things you can say these days. I have considered making a piece of art about it, but can’t touch this subject. Maybe I will, but it will stay deep undercover.

    2. A Ponder

      In the world of LGBTwertism, if a woman recatagorises ‘itself’ to be a man, shirley she loses any Rights that a woman may have,
      in any given situation

    3. The symbol looks like a stick woman with one very long arm in a come hither pose.

  67. Migrant crisis at breaking point: Dover lifeboat is scrambled to rescue 23 people from a 6ft rib in the Channel as around 70 migrants arrive in the UK today – after 1,000 were detained by Border Force on Tuesday
    Official figures are yet to be released but it is feared that Tuesday’s migrant crossing total could be a record
    At least 1,000 migrants made the crossing, rivalling the record total of 1,185 that was reached last Thursday
    The previous daily high was 853 and, overall this year, there have been more than 20,000 migrant crossings
    Meanwhile, a boat in distress that was carrying around 23 people was rescued in the Channel this morning
    By DANYAL HUSSAIN FOR MAILONLINE

    PUBLISHED: 11:18, 18 November 2021 | UPDATED: 13:01, 18 November 2021

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10216215/Migrant-crisis-breaking-point-Dover-lifeboat-scrambled-rescue-23-people.html

    1. Hmm, Maggie, “…after 1,000 were detained by Border Force on Tuesday.”

      Detained or shepherded to the nearest 4 star jobbie?

      1. Soon the government will have to divert its funds from paying old age pensions to building new luxury 4 star hotels

      2. I don’t think “detained” means what I always thought it meant! We are firmly in Alice in Wonderland country.

    1. Green energy cannot exist without massive public subsidy. That’s what the ‘green levy’ is for. That’s why green has a guaranteed return per megawatt far in excess of nuclear, coal and gas – which are heavily taxed to pay for the green nonsense.

      The whole farce is a complete con. As usual, the lowest paid are forced to pay for the excesses of spoiled, petty men.

    2. 341786+ up ticks,

      Afternoon TB,
      I find to be of major importance in this pursuit of self interest energy, ( turbines etc pay well) is the welfare
      of the mini minor miners ( battery hens)

      What a worldwide outlook for kids, jabbed, then raped & abused then a short term apprenticeship down a
      lithium mine where the life of the battery is I believe
      to be longer than the minor miner.

  69. 341786+ up ticks,

    They proved I believe, to be the only five who point blank REFUSED
    to support / vote lab/lib/con coalition.

    breitbart,
    UK Govt Returns Just FIVE out of More than 23,000 Illegal Boat Migrants to EU

  70. 341786+ up ticks,

    Murder incorporated is part & parcel of the Mafia scene, the lab/lib/con coalition are working in conjunction with the french / people smugglers

    Does that make the coalition in collusion, or what ?

    Human Traffickers Kill Again: 10 Suffocate to Death in Packed Migrant Boat

  71. Poppy Day bomber was at a mosque ‘all day, every day’ during Ramadan and in weeks leading up to botched massacre despite converting to Christianity in 2017 – and used fake identity to claim asylum

    Emad Al Swealmeen, who was baptised and confirmed at Liverpool’s Anglican cathedral in 2017, was seen worshipping with Muslims during Ramadan and before the attack.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10215949/Poppy-Day-suicide-bomber-local-mosque-day-day-Ramadan.html

    FAKE NEWS EXTRA

    Justin Welby is considering two options:

    i) Should the C of E merge with the Roman Catholic Church;

    or

    ii) Should all its churches and cathedrals be turned into mosques. He is said to be most impressed with the way that the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul went from being a church to being a museum to being a mosque and has already contacted leading architects to see if minarets could be added to Westminster Abbey and Canterbury Cathedral.

    At the moment the second option is the one that he most favours because he thinks that the Christian aversion to terrorism, rape and bloodshed is outdated and should be replaced by the more dynamic approach that Islam offers on these matters.

      1. He must already be ahead of the target Scum Cameron set him for turning committed Christian and agnostics into atheists. Maybe he should also be showing them that Islam could be another alternative when they have abandoned the CofE.

    2. I know Justin Welby is a wet blanket but if we use enough accelerant and a few ball bearings we could probably shut the traitor up.

  72. Just been out to the car & caught a welcome strong whiff of honey from the choisyas which flank the front door. It’s due the mild Autumn; turning colder next week, though.

    4. “Look what’s wrote on the back o’ the door, you two scrotes. It sez ‘J Archer woz ere’.”

    1. He’s certainly got a thick skin – hopefully he’s just making the most of the sunshine before going to prison!

      1. Depends on how many Foreign Office officials he asked, I would have thought 🙂 Makes me laugh when I read “FO” because when I was at school, one of the teachers in a Sixth Form class asked what the initials stood for. The lad who gave the non-Foreign Office reply had a stutter Fu, fu, fu, fu …..

    3. Why is this wanqueur not paying attention to events in his OWN constituency.

      I bet he doesn’t come up this way. His in-laws live about 1½ miles away from where I sit….

    2. J.H-B is my favourite person in the media
      .
      GBNews ought to employ her – she would certainly boost the ratings.

    3. It really is classic misdirection. Parliament clearly has the utmost contempt for the people that put them there.

      There will eventually come a time. I hope they are caught by surprise.

      1. It’ll need a (successful) Guido AlHussein Fawkes (with mental issues) to bring the truth home to the MPs.

  76. Amid what’s being called a fourth wave of infections to hit highly vaccinated Ireland, the government on Tuesday unveiled new Covid-related restrictions at a moment many are now worried the country could be headed toward a full nationwide lockdown before Christmas.

    The new measures take effect Friday, despite government officials confirming that at least 93% of all of Ireland’s eligible population are fully vaccinated. This makes Ireland among the most vaccinated countries in the world, and yet similar to what the UK, Israel, and more recently Austria have experienced, infection rates are still exploding.

    1. Just random figures off the top of my head:

      Cases? 20,000
      Sick people? 2,000
      People in hospital? 200
      Dead people? 20 (including 10 who fell off ladders).

    2. The higher the level of vaccination gene therapy the higher the level of new Covid infections.

      I’m beginning to wonder if the gene therapy was specially designed to spread the disease, remove natural immunity and kill people who have not been treated for other fatal ailments.

      1. When one looks at the long list of short-term side-effects from these potions perhaps one should be very wary before having it pumped into one’s body. Gibraltar, 100% “vaccinated” give or take, is suffering terribly with infections and is closing down, maybe through Christmas. A microcosm but indicative of the problem.

        At the point of repeating ad nauseam: governments and the WHO were warned by much more clever people currently involved in real vaccine and immunology work, NOT to mass vaccinate in a pandemic. Politicians with an agenda took a politician with an agenda’s decision and ignored the advice.
        IMO the PTB may have lost control of the virus through mass “vaccination” forcing breakthrough infections. They are in unknown territory and their answer is to double-down with ‘boosters’ that could, on current evidence, exacerbate the infection rate.

    3. ….And not to mention India, when it rolled out its ‘vaccination’ programme as we saw earlier this year. Things returned to normal when India abandoned the injection roll out and returned to Ivermectin for treating its population. Now what should that tell governments around the world?

      1. Now what should that tell governments around the world?
        India missed a chance to totally control their population with fear mongering as the rest of the world did.

  78. Well i’m done in ……..vacuumed the whole house, cleaned the front windows in and out, up and down. Taken doggo for a walk and created a splendid Moussaka.
    I just hope Erin notices when she comes in, she’s been volunteering at the library and then looking after some of the Grand children, because number one son has just come back from Amsterdam on a 5 day business trip. Number three and his lady are on their way to Dubai, it’s her 30th Tmz.
    But I’m far too modest to mention the house work ……..🤗🤔
    I might have an ale though, well earned.

      2. I think Perchance you dream LO(t)L 😎🤩
        And I was awarded brownie points, you don’t get many of those to the pound eh 🤗

    2. When you have done with Lottie, please will you visit here, I need a cobweb remover , and someone to sweep the drive way , and perhaps a crack filler inner (the plaster type, and some one to oil squeaky doors, I do the vacuuming and prepare the hotpot , and sort the laundry out etc .
      Our window cleaner has missed his round with us , so if you have time , would appreciate clean windows .

      Moh is too exhausted after 4 rounds of golf a week !

      1. It’s not hard to oil squeaky doors, Maggie. You get a spray can of WD40 and spray it on the hinges. Works a treat (I did it a couple of days ago although I’m only short, with arthritic hands and have the rest of the household management to deal with as well).

        1. I know how to do everything Conway, I am very capable .

          For more than half of my marriage I have had an absent husband .. I have also moved house many times and even packed up a shipment to join him overseas.

          My bleat is all I want is some one who never says tomorrow next week next year , I just want some one else to take control and enjoy decorating , repairing and doing things other than 5.6 hours of golf four times a week .

          Perhaps I ought to escape and leave them to buy the loo rolls , cooking, beds , do the laundry , dogs etc .

          I have a huge snag list , and have been advised NOT to ask a tradesman to do stuff!

          1. If that’s what you want, Maggie, then you have to trade in the old model for one that is more to your liking. Otherwise you have to make do. You could, of course, take a sabbatical from all the chores, but I suspect you’d have to move out to do it.

          2. After 53 years, nope .. We just get on with things . Moh is an excellent carer of the pristine grassy lawn , and clipped hedges , and rotates the compost stuff, when I feel like retching . ..He loves pruning things that he believes get out of hand … I worry when I arrive back home after a shopping trip , what has he chopped /pruned / weed killed/ is the lawn safe for the dogs to run on, that sort of thing .

            On the whole , he is very helpful.

            Don’t get me wrong , he isn’t really a DIY fan , and he knows as well as I do that some of our inside walls need skimming before painting .. a plasterers job.. they are as rare as hens teeth.

  79. The Springer has damaged her cruciate ligament which requires surgery. Our vet said there are long waiting times in this area but he would ring around to try for an improvement. The next day Fitzpatrick Referrals phoned to say we can take her up on the 8th December. They will operate on the 9th and we can collect her on the 10th. Can’t do better than the Supervet.

    3. Mongo went in for a shoulder op last week – the idea of taking him to a different vet would worry the trousers off me. He goes to a practice near us where one of the vets is a specialist in giant breeds – or at least really likes them. She’s gentle as a lamb and seems to realise that even though these are huge animals, they’re just slobbering cushions.

    4. Ouch! Expensive ouch, too, I suspect 🙁 Good you managed to get a quick treatment. I’ve got Fitzpatrick’s autobiography somewhere (in the piles of books waiting to be read).

  81. 341786+ up ticks,

    What ministers are singled out when the lab/lib/con coalition follow suit and take the mengeleroute, talking with a limp or walking with a lisp will have you on a train, victim of reset.

    Richard Braine Retweeted
    Ann Bauer
    @annbauerwriter
    ·
    23h
    Austrians are being divided into castes and police are checking their papers on the streets. Disabled children are being prevented from crossing borders in Australia because they’re deemed “non-essential.”

    Can we talk about the Holocaust now or is it still off limits?

    1. The Left don’t care. They think this is necessary. Far too many people *also* think this is necessary.

      The spreading of fear and terror amongst a dumbed down, unthinking, ignorant population has been so complete that people no longer question, they just obey. This is, of course, what the state wants. This is why it is so incredibly dangerous.

      1. 341786+ up ticks,
        Evening W,
        IMB, the party IDs are RIGHT / WRONG currently & for the last 3 plus decades a coalition has been operating it is NO LONGER LEFT / RIGHT but politically SH!TE / SH!TE.

        The results now, adhering to the same voting pattern is guaranteed to be an overseeing / manipulating pin clad turd.

    2. I remember reading, many years ago, that the Germans had to be propagandized into hating Jews by the Nazis, the Austrians needed no such persuasion.

  82. UK Govt Returns Just FIVE out of More than 23,000 Illegal Boat Migrants to EU

    British authorities have returned just five illegal boat migrants to the European Union out of more than 23,500 that have landed this year.

    Immigration Minister Tom Pursglove made the admission during a House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee on Wednesday, saying there had been “difficulties around securing returns”.

    Committee chairman Yvette Cooper had asked how many migrants arriving by boat since January of this year had been returned to the last safe EU country they had travelled through, to which Mr Pursglove replied, according to the Evening Standard: “On returns related to small boat arrivals… the answer in this year is five.”

    With current figures at around 23,500 arrivals, that is a returns rate of approximately 0.02 per cent.

    Mr Pursglove attempted to blame the situation on a lack of a “returns agreement” with the EU post-Brexit, “not least as a consequence of Covid”.

    But even while the UK was still abiding by Brussels rules during the transition period — which ended on December 31st, 2020 — under the bloc’s Dublin regulations, just 105 of 8,502 illegals were returned last year, according to reports from March.

    https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1460921404963098632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1460921404963098632%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.breitbart.com%2Feurope%2F2021%2F11%2F18%2Fuk-govt-returns-just-five-out-of-more-than-23000-illegal-boat-migrants-to-eu%2F
    *
    *
    *
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2021/11/18/uk-govt-returns-just-five-out-of-more-than-23000-illegal-boat-migrants-to-eu/

    1. There are no difficulties. Get rid of them. If they won’t leave, stun them and put in a shipping container and dump in Calais.

      Turn any that try in future around and drag back to france. Get rid of them.

    2. To aid deportations get rid of the friggin’ lawyers – it’s them who are making vast amounts of money stopping deportations

    1. She is a tremendous woman – if Trump runs for president she would be a great running mate.

        2. See my remark above about Candace and Democratic senators. Only a fool would try to crucify her, the culprit would be the one who ended up crucified.

          1. They will do it constantly, behind her back, like the Trump/Russia story. You can’t do anything when the entire mainstream media is onboard with a blatant lie. They kept saying he was thin-skinned, but it’s a miracle he remained sane in the face of that constant war against him.

      1. She’s good too. But the amazing thing is when Candace goes off. She sounds as if she were using a script, she is so eloquent. It is an admirable ability and quite marvellous to hear. Will never forget her attack on the Democratic senators at a hearing where they tried to smear her reputation. She went for them like a starving tigress let out of a cage. It was magnificent.

  84. Well, well, well….wotta surprise. Racist lying b*stard with crocodile tears for effect.

    Steerpike
    Revealed: Azeem Rafiq in antisemitism storm
    18 November 2021, 3:45pm

    Cricketer Azeem Rafiq shocked the political word on Tuesday with his revelations about the abuse he suffered while a young player at Yorkshire Cricket Club. But Mr S has now been sent social media posts which show Rafiq himself was no stranger to using racist language when young, with a leaked message revealing the former player posted antisemitic content on Facebook when he was 19 years old.

    Screenshots obtained by Steerpike show Rafiq joking about ‘a jew’ going ‘after my 2nds again ha’ as ‘only jews do tht sort of shit’ in 2011. He appears to be referencing an (unknown) cricketer at Derby, with a man by the name of Ateeq Javid claiming the Derby cricketer is: ‘a dik he will nt pay!!!! watch he iz guna be like i left my card at home ect ect ect’

    Rafiq has claimed former England cricket club Michael Vaughan told a group of Yorkshire players of Asian ethnicity in 2009 that ‘there’s too many of you lot, we need to do something about it’, during a T20 game. It was just last week that the new Chairman of Yorkshire Cricket Club Lord Patel said: ‘Let me be clear from the outset, racism or discrimination in any form is not banter.’

    Yorkshire Cricket Club has been contacted for comment. Prior to Steerpike’s publication, Rafiq released a public statement claiming he is ‘ashamed’ of such messages. Talk about bowling a googly…

    https://images.contentstack.io/v3/assets/bltf04078f3cf7a9c30/blt19a2acca67eb334a/61967a2d9b3c850ceca031ae/Screenshot_2021-11-18_at_16.07.00.png?format=jpg&width=1440

    https://twitter.com/AzeemRafiq30/status/1461363690876256269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1461363690876256269%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spectator.co.uk%2Farticle%2Frevealed-azeem-rafiq-in-antisemitism-story

    2. But Yorkshire cricket club will still have to kowtow and become “diverse”, while Rafiq’s tweets will be forgotten tomorrow, and there will be no public discussion of muslim anti-semitism, or indeed of any flaws with the belief system that is islam.
      Evidence means nothing when the system is stacked so that heads they win, tails we lose.

    4. I don’t see any problem. He is just a normal Jew hating Muslim. Nothing to see here…….

      Other than that. The weasily little whinging shit has been caught out.

      Apology not accepted Rafiq. Try defrauding the benefits system like the rest of your type next time. It’s easier.

      2. Its part of his religion. Surprised people are, well, surprised. Next, is the Pope a Roman catholic. You never can be too sure after the Leeds Roman candle 🧨.

        1. One would think that not a single member of government had any insight into the Arabic psyche.

          Any service personnel or diplomat who served in those regions knows exactly how they think but our Ministers seem oblivious.

    6. BBC news website mentions the matter but those interviewed put it all down to him being young, he has apologised and ‘learned a lot since then’.

      All is well then …?

    3. With whom? Or with what, given the antics these days? The qualification for getting elected seems to be “never had a proper job in the real world and have since lost all contact with reality”.

  86. HAPPY HOUR- how was it for you Nottlers?

    After a pleasant morning shopping locally ( sherry cellar looking somewhat depleted!) I headed home for a quick lunch, tuna quiche with salad.
    Settled down to record Countdown for later viewing, thus avoiding the odious comments of Anne Robinson.
    Channel hopping I turned to Film 14 to watch ‘Run Wild, Run Free’. 1969 British drama film starring the delightful John Mills and Mark Lester, shot on location in Dartmoor.
    A Mute boy roams the moors and, with the help of two friends, a falcon, and an albino pony emerges gradually out of his shell.
    A bit of a tearjerker but all’s well that ends well…..thankfully.

      1. WTF …. trust you to find the racist angle.

        I accepted the film for what it was. The beautiful rapport between two innocent youngsters and a couple of wild animals in a largely uncomprehending world.

          2. Well if everyone is white it should be banned or at least have a warning sign at the start so as not to traumatize the left or people of colour.

          3. It was a beautiful film…two innocent children coming to terms with love and loss. Simples…
            Why do we have to view everything in racist terms?

          1. Maybe, but we are becoming so sensitive to black/white issues we have to mind we don’t upset anyone. Any excuse for the racists to jump on the bandwagon will do to keep it rolling.

          2. I think we shouldn’t become sensitive; it only plays into their hands. We should tell the truth (and jokes) and shame the Devil.

    2. Book by David (?) Rook called White Colt. The boy is not a true mute but a selective mute. It is a tearjerker.

    4. If you like that sort of film there are others just as bleak but in the sunshine. Try Walkabout with Jenny Agutter.

      Note. No Sherry was hurt in this promotion…

    1. If Boris didn’t realise how his HS2 decision looked before, he does now. Mind you, they could have our stretch. We’d happily forgo it so that Leeds could get to Birmingham faster.

  88. It seems we’ve been sold a pup…

    “A choir concert in Germany that allowed only fully vaccinated or recovered people to attend, banning those who are unvaccinated but could provide a negative test, resulted in a COVID-19 outbreak that infected at least 24 people.

    The concert, which took place in Freigericht (Main-Kinzig), operated under 2G rules, meaning only the fully vaccinated and those who can prove they recovered from COVID were allowed to attend.

    1. The underlying message being we must ban all choirs for public safety reasons.

      My opinion is if we ban all mosques more people would survive.

      1. No no Phizzee, we just need to jab earlier and more often! Clearly those people were not as fully vaccinated as they thought!

        And anyway, if they had allowed evil unvaccinated people in, everyone would have died, so you see, that proves that vaccination is the way forward.

          1. I will not be having any more jabs. The red marks on my arm continue, although not sore or itchy.

          2. I am about to go and have the bloody booster ONLY because we want to go to France in 2022.

            I expect I’ll be dead by the morning. (Hooray, I hear you all cry)…

          3. The rule of thumb seems to be that if you get a bad reaction, don’t have any more.
            Do we know if anyone had a bad reaction to the first jab, and not to either of the subsequent ones?
            Anecdotally, the reactions only seem to get greater.

          4. I still have a stiff shoulder – on the side which had the jabs. Apparently shoulder inuries from vaccine administration are quite common.

          5. Me. I had my first at the end of February, around midday. By 5pm I was shivering under a couple of blankets, by 2am I thought my back was breaking and I was weighing up whether an ambulance to A and E was worth the prospect of several hours surrounded by violent drunks…

            In the end, I stayed in bed. I had the usual cold aftermath the next day, that washed out, miserable feeling, then after that, fine. My second one in May was completely painless, no problem at all.

            My booster is a week on Sunday. Can’t wait…

          9. Compliance only keeps this thing going. If we all said ‘No!’ It would crumble overnight. Compliance encourages the bullying, the coercion to continue.

            I will not betray our ancestors who fought for our freedom.

          11. Now these marks have appeared on my left arm also. I had the jabs in my right arm. I absolutely hate going to the quack but I think I am going to have to. Grrrr.

      2. No no Phizzee, we just need to jab earlier and more often! Clearly those people were not as fully vaccinated as they thought!

        And anyway, if they had allowed evil unvaccinated people in, everyone would have died, so you see, that proves that vaccination is the way forward.

    5. This type of “statistic” is completely pointless.

      How does anyone KNOW that any of the 24 were infected AT the concert? They might well have been contaminated before the event or some time after it.

      Secondly, how many of the 24 were actually ILL? How many in hospital;? How many dead?

      My cynical view is that a number of people – in the late autumn (surprise, surprise) – developed symptoms of bad colds or seasonal ‘flu. Took some aspirin and stayed warm for a couple of days and were out and about as usual.

      It is all effing Project Fear, over and over and over again….

  90. Trans politics has driven the left insane. Spiked 18 November 2021.

    The BBC’s Politics Live isn’t billed as a comedy show. Yet Wednesday’s edition left many viewers white-knuckled, gripping the arms of their sofas with laughter.

    The moment of hilarity arrived when Ellie Mae O’Hagan, director of the think-tank CLASS, was asked by presenter Jo Coburn about the definition of ‘woman’. In response she said: ‘You know, I actually don’t know why some people are women and some people are men.’
    After claiming her view was shared by most women (though who knows if they were women), O’Hagan then said that those who claim to be able to tell a person’s sex are ‘liars’.

    Clearly, O’Hagan either skipped the ‘facts-of-life’ talk with her mum or she was talking through her flaps. Interestingly, the management committee of CLASS is less diverse, in terms of sex, than many city law firms – just three out of the 19 members are ‘vulva owners’.

    O’Hagan’s nonsensical comments were made during the course of a wider discussion on gender self-identification with the Labour MP Rosie Duffield. Duffield has been targeted by trans-rights campaigners who want her kicked out of the Labour Party for daring to suggest that ‘only women have a cervix’. The threats she received for stating this fact have been so severe that, earlier this year, the police warned she was at risk if she attended the Labour Party conference. She subsequently stayed away.

    O’Hagan is far from a lone voice on the biology-denying left. Following yesterday’s Politics Live broadcast, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell gushed that he was ‘impressed’ with O’Hagan’s ’empathy’ and ‘caring tone’. The increasingly irrelevant journalist Owen Jones chimed in to offer his support, too.

    It would be comforting to imagine that such bonkers beliefs were confined to the fringes. But others within the Labour Party have made similarly deranged comments. Last year MP Dawn Butler asserted on live television to a gobsmacked Richard Madeley that ‘a child is born without sex’. Not to be outdone, shadow cabinet minister Emily Thornberry claimed during this year’s party conference that ‘there are men who have cervixes’. For balance, it should be noted that when asked the ‘cervix question’, prime minister Boris Johnson lacked the requisite balls to answer that ‘only women have a cervix’.

    During Politics Live, Duffield made the point that those who are vulnerable, the very people the left claims to care about, can’t afford such luxury beliefs as ‘transwomen are women’. After all, it isn’t professional leftist think-tankers like O’Hagan who are at risk of being locked in a cell with a convicted male rapist who identifies as a woman. No one can buy their way out of abuse, of course, but having money does mean you’re less likely to end up in either a domestic-violence refuge or in prison.

    While it might not be reported in the pages of the Guardian, according to the Crown Prosecution Service 436 ‘women’ were convicted of rape between 2012 and 2018. Given that, according to the law, rape is defined as a crime that can only be committed by a man using his penis, that means 436 male rapists have been recorded as female, because they feel they have a female gender identity. Despite this, O’Hagan still claimed that she ‘didn’t know [of] a single incident where a woman has been put in danger because of a trans person’.

    Had O’Hagan bothered to speak to women in prison she might have come across the victims of transgender rapist Karen White. After he was incarcerated in a women-only prison, he went on to sexually assault female inmates.

    Today, outside of the Guardianista Twitterati clique, it is widely acknowledged that there is a clash between biological sex-based rights and the desire of some people to self-identify their ‘gender’. But within the Labour Party even acknowledging that there is any sort of conflict between women’s rights and trans rights is still verboten. Labour members are investigated, sanctioned and expelled for daring to say that biological sex matters.

    Duffield has refused to be bullied into silence or out of the party. She remains one of the few politicians with the integrity to hold a view that is unpopular on the left, at great personal cost, in defence of those who are denied a voice. That she has been forced to protect the rights and dignity of women from those within her own party shows just how far down the identity-politics hole the mainstream left has fallen.

    They walk among us!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/18/trans-politics-has-driven-the-left-insane/

  91. Trans politics has driven the left insane. Spiked 18 November 2021.

    The BBC’s Politics Live isn’t billed as a comedy show. Yet Wednesday’s edition left many viewers white-knuckled, gripping the arms of their sofas with laughter.

    The moment of hilarity arrived when Ellie Mae O’Hagan, director of the think-tank CLASS, was asked by presenter Jo Coburn about the definition of ‘woman’. In response she said: ‘You know, I actually don’t know why some people are women and some people are men.’
    After claiming her view was shared by most women (though who knows if they were women), O’Hagan then said that those who claim to be able to tell a person’s sex are ‘liars’.

    Clearly, O’Hagan either skipped the ‘facts-of-life’ talk with her mum or she was talking through her flaps. Interestingly, the management committee of CLASS is less diverse, in terms of sex, than many city law firms – just three out of the 19 members are ‘vulva owners’.

    O’Hagan’s nonsensical comments were made during the course of a wider discussion on gender self-identification with the Labour MP Rosie Duffield. Duffield has been targeted by trans-rights campaigners who want her kicked out of the Labour Party for daring to suggest that ‘only women have a cervix’. The threats she received for stating this fact have been so severe that, earlier this year, the police warned she was at risk if she attended the Labour Party conference. She subsequently stayed away.

    O’Hagan is far from a lone voice on the biology-denying left. Following yesterday’s Politics Live broadcast, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell gushed that he was ‘impressed’ with O’Hagan’s ’empathy’ and ‘caring tone’. The increasingly irrelevant journalist Owen Jones chimed in to offer his support, too.

    It would be comforting to imagine that such bonkers beliefs were confined to the fringes. But others within the Labour Party have made similarly deranged comments. Last year MP Dawn Butler asserted on live television to a gobsmacked Richard Madeley that ‘a child is born without sex’. Not to be outdone, shadow cabinet minister Emily Thornberry claimed during this year’s party conference that ‘there are men who have cervixes’. For balance, it should be noted that when asked the ‘cervix question’, prime minister Boris Johnson lacked the requisite balls to answer that ‘only women have a cervix’.

    During Politics Live, Duffield made the point that those who are vulnerable, the very people the left claims to care about, can’t afford such luxury beliefs as ‘transwomen are women’. After all, it isn’t professional leftist think-tankers like O’Hagan who are at risk of being locked in a cell with a convicted male rapist who identifies as a woman. No one can buy their way out of abuse, of course, but having money does mean you’re less likely to end up in either a domestic-violence refuge or in prison.

    While it might not be reported in the pages of the Guardian, according to the Crown Prosecution Service 436 ‘women’ were convicted of rape between 2012 and 2018. Given that, according to the law, rape is defined as a crime that can only be committed by a man using his penis, that means 436 male rapists have been recorded as female, because they feel they have a female gender identity. Despite this, O’Hagan still claimed that she ‘didn’t know [of] a single incident where a woman has been put in danger because of a trans person’.

    Had O’Hagan bothered to speak to women in prison she might have come across the victims of transgender rapist Karen White. After he was incarcerated in a women-only prison, he went on to sexually assault female inmates.

    Today, outside of the Guardianista Twitterati clique, it is widely acknowledged that there is a clash between biological sex-based rights and the desire of some people to self-identify their ‘gender’. But within the Labour Party even acknowledging that there is any sort of conflict between women’s rights and trans rights is still verboten. Labour members are investigated, sanctioned and expelled for daring to say that biological sex matters.

    Duffield has refused to be bullied into silence or out of the party. She remains one of the few politicians with the integrity to hold a view that is unpopular on the left, at great personal cost, in defence of those who are denied a voice. That she has been forced to protect the rights and dignity of women from those within her own party shows just how far down the identity-politics hole the mainstream left has fallen.

    They walk among us!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/11/18/trans-politics-has-driven-the-left-insane/

    1. Women are Volvo owners. I like that definition, I’ll go with it. Does that mean we automatically own the road now?

    2. On the basis of the description above perhaps “Guardianista Twitterati clique” should be called more appropriately Guardianista Twatterati clique!

  92. Let’s call it by its real name – Corruption.

    The Tories have redefined what corrupt politics is all about.

  93. That’s me for this very pleasant day (with another gorgeous sunset). More ladder work successfully accomplished.

    Have a jolly evening

    A demain.

      1. If the three monkeys are the only choice, why? Surely they could find some decent monkeys to pin a blue/red/yellow or green rosette on.

    3. It has always been corrupt Conners, but it’s more obvious now that there is 24 hour news via TV or internet. Stuff that went on in previous centuries or decades would only, if discovered, been in the daily paper. In the middle ages it was spread by word of mouth or occasional scrolls. Anything in those days that was written down was taken as gospel.

  97. We both visited an art exhibition this afternoon , a few local artists were displaying their work in part of a country park near here. I looked at some lovel bright abstract work and felt tempted to splash out .. if I had the money that is .

    There was also a studio where one could paint and decorate ceramic objects , I liked the idea , I wish I had known about the classes a few weeks ago . Now that Diesel is now 152 per litre , one has to be very careful with fuel now.

        1. I passed my test in the early sixties and I took a medical to keep my full entitlements instead of just accepting I could only drive a car. As well as driving a steam engine (which I actually have done, albeit not on the road), I can drive a minibus (although not for hire).

          4. Ooh! Can I come with you? I’ve driven a tractor on my uncle’s farm in Scotland but never a steam roller. It must be in my blood; my granny drove a crane in WW I.

  99. Recently a dear friend was told to take a Covid test regarding her job.
    She keeps fit playing tennis, golf and swimming when time allows. Her healthy diet
    played an important part of her health and fitness regime, and was in excellent health.
    She booked an appointment for today …….I’m expecting a call from her this evening.
    I bet the test is positive….

  100. Recently a dear friend was told to take a Covid test regarding her job.
    She keeps fit playing tennis, golf and swimming when time allows. Her healthy diet
    played an important part of her health and fitness regime, and was in excellent health.
    She booked an appointment for today …….I’m expecting a call from her this evening.
    I bet the test is positive….

    1. Why is any money needed. He has a career as a teacher.

      This is how this should have worked. The teacher teaches the truth. The muslims get uppity. The police arrive. The muslims get more uppity. Plod smack a few intolerant heads about. The muslims go home. The department for *education* wholly supports and endorses the teaching of proven facts. The muslims get sent a whacking great bill for their thuggery. They are reminded to behave in future. Schools everywhere start to teach how intolerant and abusive islam is.

      2. Farage said tonight that this person has substantial gambling debts. I said to my husband some days ago that Rafiq was after money and lots of it.

  103. EXCLUSIVE: Church of England school CANCELS Winston Churchill and JK Rowling: West London primary insists decision ‘was led and driven by the pupils’ as parents are told, ‘I hope you will support us’
    EXCLUSIVE
    Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School in Richmond made changes
    Winston Churchill and JK Rowling house names were selected for replacing
    They have now been renamed after Marcus Rashford and Mary Seacole
    Pupils’ parents branded change ‘cowardly’ and punishment for ‘thoughtcrimes’
    By DAN SALES FOR MAILONLINE

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10216119/Church-England-school-CANCELS-Winston-Churchill-JK-Rowling.html

    2. Children believe what adults tell them. If you lie and cheat history, you create lies and deceit.

      Perhaps those children – who will almost all be black or brown – were to learn that without Churchill and the sacrifice of millions of white soldiers they, and their bitter, nasty, racist teachers would likely be in a nice prison camp.

    3. Despite Mary Seacole being a brothel Keeper and Churchill defeating Nazism.

      The hypocrisy is breath-taking.

    2. This person is a hypocrite of the highest order and a liar. Why can’t this government get their bloody act together and get these people out?

    1. So his insults are different to other people’s. Let me guess, if you’re a white native then it’s bad, if you’re brown or black it’s not?

      Hypocrisy writ large.

    3. It’s an easy mistake to make, but Barrister Samantha Davies should read Barista Samantha Davies.

      1. A really unpleasant piece of work, isn’t he? Glad you posted, wibbling! I read it a couple of days ago and then couldn’t find it again! It appears he’s always been a problem, and wasn’t quite as good as he thought he was! He’d have been better at RADA!

    3. Story about Azeem Rafiq being banned from cricket for a month and fined £500 seems to have taken a bit of a back seat, so repeated below:

      Azeem Rafiq banned after Twitter rant at England Under-19 coach

      Yorkshire all-rounder banned from all cricket for a month

      Former Under-19 captain lashed out after being dropped

      Press Association

      Wed 4 Aug 2010 17.01 BST

      One of England’s best young cricketers has been banned from all matches for a month, after calling the national under-19 coach a “wanker” on Twitter.

      Azeem Rafiq was banned and fined £500 for his tirade about the England Under-19 coach, John Abrahams. The
      Yorkshire al-lrounder’s obscene outburst came last week, after he was dropped from the under-19 team to face Sri Lanka, when it is thought his habit of staying out after agreed curfews during matches became an issue.

      Rafiq, under-19 captain before he was first disciplined, pleaded guilty to two charges considered by an ECB cricket
      discipline commission panel.

      The England and Wales Cricket Board ruled at a hearing that the teenager was guilty of a serious breach of regulations – “breach of directives by personal attack in a public statement about England U19 team manager John Abrahams and also bringing the game into disrepute by that public statement”.

      Rafiq will be unable to play for his county, country or club until one month after the date of his offence, 26 July.

      His angry attack on Abrahams also landed him a suspension from Yorkshire pending the ECB inquiry.

      On his Twitter feed Rafiq wrote: “What a fucking farsee [sic]. ECB prove it again what incompetent people
      are working for them.” Next day, he tweeted again: “John Abrahams is a useless wanker.” Rafiq took the comments down once he realised they were publicly available.

      https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2010/aug/04/azeem-rafiq-banned-twitter

      1. “Rafiq took the comments down once he realised they were publicly available.”
        A bright lad then.

      3. A Ponder moment:

        Rafiq is accusing a number of Cricketing people of addressing him a Racialist Manner, but without any audible or written `proof ofit happening

        There is proof, that Rafiq has racially and/or verbally abused (white) people and maybe involved in othe nefarious activities

        Are these going to be looked into by Parliamentary Commitees

      1. This is totally disgusting, ruining the testimony of a Whitey Basher by telling the truth about his ‘lapses’

        Next you will all be saying the Convid is a scam

        1. Blimey Tryers- are you suggesting that the Frogs beat us at Agincourt? Well, for gawd’s sake, if one is going to rewrite history then let’s go the whole hog…
          Man created god (entirely possible to explain the sodding weather.)
          Monkeys did indeed write the works of Shakespeare & etc etc.
          All this BS is why I do not believe a single word that comes from the government, the press or any other form of media.
          I am, however, right now listening to Bach’s Sinfonias which are sublime and cannot be contaminated by anyone.

          2. Don’t tempt me- I am in a very bolshy mood and not afraid to be very rude;-))
            It seems to me that I am always cross these days- I wonder why………

      2. This is totally disgusting, ruining the testimony of a Whitey Basher by telling the truth about his ‘lapses’

        Next you will all be saying the Convid is a scam

    5. Oh, boo bloody hoo……

      I must keep a straight face …
      I must keep a straight face …
      I must keep a …

      Gawd, the strain’s killing me.

    7. Does nobody remember Ollie Robinson who lost his place in the England Cricket Team for what he said as a teenager?

  109. Sorry Sajid Javid, but the NHS does not deserve our blind respect

    Conservatives used to understand that the health service is there to serve the public, not the other way around

    PATRICK O’FLYNN

    When does a demand for “respect” tip into an exaggerated sense of entitlement? Certainly the feeling of being disrespected lies at the heart of many gangland disputes, precipitating irrational and bitter flare-ups between thin-skinned and insecure individuals.

    Most of us realise, however, that respect needs to be earned rather than demanded. Thus, when a citizen gets rounded on by a Cabinet minister for “disrespecting” the government department said minister is in charge of, things are clearly out of kilter.

    That was the fate of the libertarian tweeter David Atherton on Tuesday. The thought crime that earned Atherton a rebuke from Health Secretary Sajid Javid was a tweet that went as follows: “From our ‘world beating’ NHS. Went for my 3rd jab today, previously having had 2 Pfizer ones. They were only using Moderna vaccines. WTF is happening, Sajid Javid?”

    It was not the most elegantly worded of questions, I’ll grant you, but it hardly amounted to an anti-social act either. Yet Javid, hitherto one of the great hopes of the Thatcherite wing of his party [like hell he was!], snapped back: “So what? How about you show some respect for the NHS.”

    Perhaps the Secretary of State had been having a bad day and was in a ratty mood, but the philosophy underlying his tweet was clear: you will get what you are given and should be grateful for it. The classic mindset of a monopolist.

    The Iron Lady herself would never have berated taxpayers for making critical observations about a service their tax contributions were helping to fund. Nor would she have succumbed to the idea of the NHS being the new national religion. I suspect, though, she would have wanted to know why all the extra money being ploughed into the service is not yielding better frontline results.

    As The Telegraph has reported, a near shutdown of many NHS services at the height of the pandemic may have led to almost 10,000 non-Covid deaths in the past four months alone. Meanwhile, waiting times for many operations are longer than they have ever been, as are waits at A&Es and ambulance response times.

    Mr Javid will not prosper in his role if he becomes complicit in the idea that the only legitimate response to the NHS from citizens is to offer servile praise and expressions of gratitude for its very existence. Yes, many of us banged saucepans on Thursday evenings [and many of us didn’t] to let frontline staff know how much their efforts were appreciated during that traumatic first wave of Covid. That was a spontaneous outpouring of appreciation.

    Unfortunately, politicians of all parties – as well as health industry trade unions such as the BMA – appear close to assuming such “we are not worthy” outpourings have become a public duty when addressing anything to do with the NHS.

    In fact, every aspect of the service must be scrutinised and challenged continuously to ensure that high standards prevail. The disempowering of patients who wish to make their own critical observations will not help this process.

    The NHS is not “free”, despite many of its most enthusiastic advocates arguing the contrary. It is “free at the point of use”, which is something else altogether. Hundreds of billions of pounds of taxpayer money is needed to sustain this.

    There are many circumstances in which it makes sense to have a service provided through a funding mechanism other than direct consumer payments. But whenever that happens there is a potential loss of agency for consumers that can lead to inferior outcomes.

    Put bluntly, producer vested interests can stop bothering about what customers want. So it is of the utmost importance that in such circumstances, the service being provided is open to criticism and scrutiny.

    Conservatives used to understand this. Telling a critic to shut up and show respect indicates that they have forgotten it. Mr Javid needs to remember he is the public’s servant, or his recent return to the Cabinet will not mark the start of a substantial second act in his ministerial career.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/17/sorry-sajid-javid-nhs-does-not-deserve-blind-respect/

    1. I wonder, if Jabid has read the history of Smallpox, which was a worldwide problem for 3,000 years and only ended eventually (in the 1970s) by the work of Dr Jenner

      Annual flu’ mutates, it changes and if Bliar is PM and is your mate, you get 25 million + pounds for supplying the wrong ‘jab

      Convid vacccine supplying companies cannot be held liable for injuries etc, ot the efficacy vaccines at until 2075. I will not mention the Nuremberg

      If people die because of the vaccinations, no-one is responsible for those deaths, however,

      No TV Tax Licence and you are in the pooh

  110. I have said this before. Someone double jabbed can catch Covid and pass it on. Someone unvaccinated can catch Covid and pass it on. What is the difference?

    2. Longer explanation tomorrow, all details slightly anonymised because this is now.
      Ten people in a work setting, nine double vaccinated. One anti-vaxxer introduces Covid (first to fall ill).
      Nine are off sick for about a week, but the unvaccinated person leaves hospital after two weeks on a ventilator and will be off work for months.

  111. The Tory HQ campaign to discredit Mr Smith will begin tomorrow.

    HS2 is unviable, unaffordable and undeliverable

    Never have I seen such a concentrated level of misery among decent, hard-working people – none of whom asked for the chaos HS2 has unleashed

    GREG SMITH, MP for Buckingham

    The Prime Minister’s announcement of the Integrated Rail Plan has unveiled a stark truth behind one of this country’s most disastrous megaprojects, HS2. Having begun with an utterly hollow business case, the reality of this £200 billion railway is now clear – it will not deliver for the very people it was supposedly intended for. With the Eastern Leg scaled back, the entire project is left hanging on borrowed time.

    It is not too late to scrutinise properly the seemingly endless pot of taxpayers’ money devoted to HS2, or to question seriously whether it is worth going ahead with at all. The Government must come forward with what the severed leg means for the overall cost.

    Much has happened since the original proposals for the railway were tabled over a decade ago, most 1notably the coronavirus pandemic. Attitudes to travel have changed fundamentally. We all know that the project’s utility is almost wholly based on purported efficiency gains for businesses operating beyond our biggest cities, yet those efficiency gains have since been met not by a multi-billion pound railway, but by Zoom. We must not let ourselves slip into a false reality dominated by outdated thinking and outdated proposals.

    This warrants a wholesale review. We simply cannot sustain the extraordinary level of spending HS2 requires for such negligible gain. The cost has almost quadrupled from the original estimate of £55.7 billion.

    Covid-related costs alone have added around £1.7 billion to the bill, with almost half of that associated with Phase One. The National Audit Office notes that 50 per cent of the costs for Phase One are still based on HS2 Ltd’s benchmark estimates rather than costs agreed with industry, so these could rise again. The latest revised cost estimates also assume HS2 Ltd will be able to find £2.8 billion in savings – yet it’s had to dip substantially into its contingency budget.

    In reality, HS2 will end up costing this country a great deal, without delivering for the Midlands or North as originally intended. The completion date for Phase One has already slipped by over four years to 2033. Any and all sections of Phase Two will have to wait even longer. We Conservatives need to Build Back Better now – not in 15 years time.

    Millions of people in the North want and deserve to have a much better regional transport system than what is currently on offer, but it must be delivered at least this side of 2030 and without sacrificing the livelihoods of the millions living in its path, who have had their homes and businesses gambled by the state at will.

    The sheer amount of destruction that this white elephant has wreaked on the lives of my constituents, and many more up and down the Phase One route of the line, is astonishing. Never have I seen such a concentrated level of misery among decent, hard-working people – none of whom asked for the daily disruption they are now facing.

    Whether it be the excessive noise and vibration levels that have shaken houses; the plethora of roads falling apart beneath the low-loaders and dump trucks plying their way around otherwise peaceful villages; or the enormous loss of endless hedgerows, ancient woodland and protected habitats that I and my constituents cherish so dearly. This is a dangerous assault on innocent communities, some of which will never look the same again, thanks to HS2.

    I cannot and will not stand by as the destruction continues, and I would not wish this misery on anyone else. Nor will I ever give up hope.

    The human cost alone is enough to warrant the project’s scrapping entirely. It is unviable, unaffordable and undeliverable. It is unfit for the new reality in which we all live, and the wrong path to take in improving our country’s infrastructure. We must focus on regional and local projects, as the Integrated Rail Plan does, which can actually deliver real opportunities for people.

    My constituents, like the vast majority of Britons, are proud of the communities and regions in which they live and work. Let us therefore focus on delivering our levelling-up agenda in a meaningful way.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/11/18/hs2-unviable-unaffordable-undeliverable/

    2. I no longer believe there was ever any intention to build a railway. All those multi billion pound contracts were just part and parcel of the transfer of wealth from the public purse.

      2. 120 000 pounds to build a “wildlife area” in a field alongside where the track will run. The wildlife area consists of three ponds, an earth bank and some bat boxes. A local contractor could have done it for 30K and made a decent profit.
        These wildlife areas are reapeated every half mile or so all the way along the track, I believe.

    3. I have a theory that when HS2 is complete, they will suggest Birmingham airport as an alternative to expansion at Heathrow.

  112. Mr Aitken, you’re close to Cop-ping out here a couple of times…

    Andrew Neil is right – on climate change, the BBC is short-changing us

    The Cop26 coverage across TV and radio was wildly apocalyptic. This isn’t rigorous journalism, and it doesn’t help us face the future

    ROBIN AITKEN

    One of the dismal side-effects of Cop26, the recent climate-change conference in Glasgow, is how it sucked the oxygen out of our national media. For weeks before it started, and throughout its duration, nearly every broadcaster, newspaper and magazine devoted lavish amounts of space to the deliberations of politicians, scientists, diplomats and officials.

    The cumulative effect was deadening. This wasn’t because the subject is of no importance or interest, but rather because when the media is in this kind of mood there is no tension, no quarrel, no edge to the debate. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the journalists were all on board with the “line”. The starting point of every interview was the implicit agreement that everything is getting worse and that climate change is an existential threat. Metaphorically – like the preachers’ billboard – the reporters were telling us “The End is Nigh”.

    What this meant in practice was that every time you turned on the radio or TV, you heard the same message relentlessly repeated, and that message, as Andrew Neil has complained, seemed to come straight from the Greenpeace press office. Neil’s complaint was aimed squarely at the BBC, but, in truth, none of the other big broadcasters was any better. There were a few hold-outs against the eco doom-mongering: GB News and TalkRadio, among other insurgents, struck a more sceptical note. But in general, our national media gave themselves over to an orgy of apocalyptic hair-shirt environmentalism.

    And this is self-defeating and wrong. Self-defeating because, confronted with pretty much the same headline hour by hour, day by day, over a period of weeks, the response of most rational people is to smell a rat – “I’m being sold a message here” – and switch off. And wrong because, despite the weight of the climate-change consensus, there are still important arguments to be had about anthropogenic climate-change, and what we should do about it.

    Here’s the interview you should have heard during Cop26:

    Politician, or climate activist, or committed scientist: So, if we cannot limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 1.5 degrees, we can expect more devastating weather events, more hurricanes and flooding and wildfires, and more people will die.

    BBC interviewer: In which case, how do we explain the fact that there has been no increase in the frequency of hurricanes in the past 150 years? And that far fewer people die now from weather-related disasters than they did in the 1970s? And that the amount of land consumed by fires worldwide is dropping year on year?

    Believe me, you did not hear that interview or anything like it during the Glasgow conference. And yet all the questions above are reasonable, and grounded in statistics issued by highly reputable government and scientific bodies.

    The frequency of hurricanes, for instance, was the subject of an historical study published by Nature Communications in July, which found no increase in the past century and a half. The number of deaths worldwide from weather events in 2010 was estimated at about 18,000; in 2020, as National Geographic reported last month, it was down to around 6,000, whereas in the 1970s it was not unusual for it to number around 50,000.

    On the subject of wildfires – which, as we know, make for highly visual and dramatic TV footage – the actual facts seem especially counter-intuitive. As the Royal Society reported in an authoritative survey in 2016, despite the perception that wildfires are hugely on the increase, “global area burned appears to have declined overall over [the] past decades, and there is increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape today than centuries ago”.

    I am not making these points to be a smart-aleck, nor because I am, in the cant phrase, a “climate-change denier”. Personally, it seems overwhelmingly likely that human activity must be having an effect on our climate. But what worries me is the way in which our media – and especially the BBC – has entirely abandoned the noble tradition of pugnacious journalistic inquiry here.

    This can be traced back to a decision taken in 2006, after the BBC convened a private climate-change seminar in which senior Corporation figures were briefed by leading scientific experts and climate activists. The following year, the BBC Trust stated: “The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.”

    I understand why the BBC feels that it can trust the global scientific establishment to the extent that it accepts climate change as a reality. And I think it would be absurd to “balance” every interview on the subject with someone who denies that reality. But – and this is an important qualification – while there’s no need for “equal space”, there’s an absolute requirement, in my view, that some space should be given so that the sceptics can make their case. Otherwise, the result will be what we got from Glasgow: supine, gutless, sycophantic agreement with the official line, which is the antithesis of what robust journalism should be.

    I do not know the answers to the questions I pose in my imaginary interview, but I reckon they would have made for more interesting listening than all that hyperbolic talk about “the clock ticking” and “five minutes to disaster”. Challenging questions bring out the best in most interviewees. Putting an expert on the spot, and demanding that they justify their assertions, sharpens their thinking: it forces them to explain themselves convincingly. Without that sceptical interrogation, too many Cop26 media interviews will have come over to the unconvinced as bland propaganda.

    One of the great hate-figures for climate-change true-believers is the Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, who has developed a sceptical critique of the demands of passionate activists. Lomborg does not deny the reality of climate change, but he picks apart the assumptions of the consensus, and demands that they justify the colossal economic cost of the remedies they advocate: green energy, electric cars and so on. He adds that those who forecast disaster consistently underestimate mankind’s ability to adapt and find new solutions. Yes, he says, global warming will force us to change, but we will because we can: that’s what humans always do.

    That optimistic, central insight was glaringly absent from all the pessimistic journalistic outpourings from the BBC and others in Glasgow. And their apocalypse-peddling has consequences. A recent global survey of 10,000 young people by the University of Bath found that 56 per cent think humankind is doomed because of climate change. Is it any wonder, given the diet of bad news they are force-fed? Who can be surprised that all this gloom is causing mental-health problems among young people who sincerely believe climate change will be the end of the world?

    It is a pernicious, one-sided, hope-extinguishing narrative – and it’s rank bad journalism to boot.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/andrew-neil-right-climate-change-bbc-short-changing-us/

    1. You have seen nothing compared to the Canadian coverage of the chinwag. The liberal government shoveled about $60 million at the press before the election, the bribe has stifled almost all reasoned thought. The big floods over in BC are naturally supporting the climate emergency rhetoric.

      We shall see what comes out of the two unwise men meeting the Mexican president in Washington.

    2. Perhaps there are fewer wildfires because a lot of forests have been cut down? “Personally, it seems overwhelmingly likely that human activity must be having an effect on our climate.” Perhaps so, but not necessarily catastrophically. That big yellow thing in the sky is far more influential.

      1. It is human inactivity (by order) which is causing the effect that we are seeing attributed to ‘climate change’.

  113. Mr Aitken, you’re close to Cop-ping out here a couple of times…

    Andrew Neil is right – on climate change, the BBC is short-changing us

    The Cop26 coverage across TV and radio was wildly apocalyptic. This isn’t rigorous journalism, and it doesn’t help us face the future

    ROBIN AITKEN

    One of the dismal side-effects of Cop26, the recent climate-change conference in Glasgow, is how it sucked the oxygen out of our national media. For weeks before it started, and throughout its duration, nearly every broadcaster, newspaper and magazine devoted lavish amounts of space to the deliberations of politicians, scientists, diplomats and officials.

    The cumulative effect was deadening. This wasn’t because the subject is of no importance or interest, but rather because when the media is in this kind of mood there is no tension, no quarrel, no edge to the debate. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the journalists were all on board with the “line”. The starting point of every interview was the implicit agreement that everything is getting worse and that climate change is an existential threat. Metaphorically – like the preachers’ billboard – the reporters were telling us “The End is Nigh”.

    What this meant in practice was that every time you turned on the radio or TV, you heard the same message relentlessly repeated, and that message, as Andrew Neil has complained, seemed to come straight from the Greenpeace press office. Neil’s complaint was aimed squarely at the BBC, but, in truth, none of the other big broadcasters was any better. There were a few hold-outs against the eco doom-mongering: GB News and TalkRadio, among other insurgents, struck a more sceptical note. But in general, our national media gave themselves over to an orgy of apocalyptic hair-shirt environmentalism.

    And this is self-defeating and wrong. Self-defeating because, confronted with pretty much the same headline hour by hour, day by day, over a period of weeks, the response of most rational people is to smell a rat – “I’m being sold a message here” – and switch off. And wrong because, despite the weight of the climate-change consensus, there are still important arguments to be had about anthropogenic climate-change, and what we should do about it.

    Here’s the interview you should have heard during Cop26:

    Politician, or climate activist, or committed scientist: So, if we cannot limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 1.5 degrees, we can expect more devastating weather events, more hurricanes and flooding and wildfires, and more people will die.

    BBC interviewer: In which case, how do we explain the fact that there has been no increase in the frequency of hurricanes in the past 150 years? And that far fewer people die now from weather-related disasters than they did in the 1970s? And that the amount of land consumed by fires worldwide is dropping year on year?

    Believe me, you did not hear that interview or anything like it during the Glasgow conference. And yet all the questions above are reasonable, and grounded in statistics issued by highly reputable government and scientific bodies.

    The frequency of hurricanes, for instance, was the subject of an historical study published by Nature Communications in July, which found no increase in the past century and a half. The number of deaths worldwide from weather events in 2010 was estimated at about 18,000; in 2020, as National Geographic reported last month, it was down to around 6,000, whereas in the 1970s it was not unusual for it to number around 50,000.

    On the subject of wildfires – which, as we know, make for highly visual and dramatic TV footage – the actual facts seem especially counter-intuitive. As the Royal Society reported in an authoritative survey in 2016, despite the perception that wildfires are hugely on the increase, “global area burned appears to have declined overall over [the] past decades, and there is increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape today than centuries ago”.

    I am not making these points to be a smart-aleck, nor because I am, in the cant phrase, a “climate-change denier”. Personally, it seems overwhelmingly likely that human activity must be having an effect on our climate. But what worries me is the way in which our media – and especially the BBC – has entirely abandoned the noble tradition of pugnacious journalistic inquiry here.

    This can be traced back to a decision taken in 2006, after the BBC convened a private climate-change seminar in which senior Corporation figures were briefed by leading scientific experts and climate activists. The following year, the BBC Trust stated: “The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.”

    I understand why the BBC feels that it can trust the global scientific establishment to the extent that it accepts climate change as a reality. And I think it would be absurd to “balance” every interview on the subject with someone who denies that reality. But – and this is an important qualification – while there’s no need for “equal space”, there’s an absolute requirement, in my view, that some space should be given so that the sceptics can make their case. Otherwise, the result will be what we got from Glasgow: supine, gutless, sycophantic agreement with the official line, which is the antithesis of what robust journalism should be.

    I do not know the answers to the questions I pose in my imaginary interview, but I reckon they would have made for more interesting listening than all that hyperbolic talk about “the clock ticking” and “five minutes to disaster”. Challenging questions bring out the best in most interviewees. Putting an expert on the spot, and demanding that they justify their assertions, sharpens their thinking: it forces them to explain themselves convincingly. Without that sceptical interrogation, too many Cop26 media interviews will have come over to the unconvinced as bland propaganda.

    One of the great hate-figures for climate-change true-believers is the Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, who has developed a sceptical critique of the demands of passionate activists. Lomborg does not deny the reality of climate change, but he picks apart the assumptions of the consensus, and demands that they justify the colossal economic cost of the remedies they advocate: green energy, electric cars and so on. He adds that those who forecast disaster consistently underestimate mankind’s ability to adapt and find new solutions. Yes, he says, global warming will force us to change, but we will because we can: that’s what humans always do.

    That optimistic, central insight was glaringly absent from all the pessimistic journalistic outpourings from the BBC and others in Glasgow. And their apocalypse-peddling has consequences. A recent global survey of 10,000 young people by the University of Bath found that 56 per cent think humankind is doomed because of climate change. Is it any wonder, given the diet of bad news they are force-fed? Who can be surprised that all this gloom is causing mental-health problems among young people who sincerely believe climate change will be the end of the world?

    It is a pernicious, one-sided, hope-extinguishing narrative – and it’s rank bad journalism to boot.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/andrew-neil-right-climate-change-bbc-short-changing-us/

  114. Mr Aitken, you’re close to Cop-ping out here a couple of times…

    Andrew Neil is right – on climate change, the BBC is short-changing us

    The Cop26 coverage across TV and radio was wildly apocalyptic. This isn’t rigorous journalism, and it doesn’t help us face the future

    ROBIN AITKEN

    One of the dismal side-effects of Cop26, the recent climate-change conference in Glasgow, is how it sucked the oxygen out of our national media. For weeks before it started, and throughout its duration, nearly every broadcaster, newspaper and magazine devoted lavish amounts of space to the deliberations of politicians, scientists, diplomats and officials.

    The cumulative effect was deadening. This wasn’t because the subject is of no importance or interest, but rather because when the media is in this kind of mood there is no tension, no quarrel, no edge to the debate. The problem, in a nutshell, is that the journalists were all on board with the “line”. The starting point of every interview was the implicit agreement that everything is getting worse and that climate change is an existential threat. Metaphorically – like the preachers’ billboard – the reporters were telling us “The End is Nigh”.

    What this meant in practice was that every time you turned on the radio or TV, you heard the same message relentlessly repeated, and that message, as Andrew Neil has complained, seemed to come straight from the Greenpeace press office. Neil’s complaint was aimed squarely at the BBC, but, in truth, none of the other big broadcasters was any better. There were a few hold-outs against the eco doom-mongering: GB News and TalkRadio, among other insurgents, struck a more sceptical note. But in general, our national media gave themselves over to an orgy of apocalyptic hair-shirt environmentalism.

    And this is self-defeating and wrong. Self-defeating because, confronted with pretty much the same headline hour by hour, day by day, over a period of weeks, the response of most rational people is to smell a rat – “I’m being sold a message here” – and switch off. And wrong because, despite the weight of the climate-change consensus, there are still important arguments to be had about anthropogenic climate-change, and what we should do about it.

    Here’s the interview you should have heard during Cop26:

    Politician, or climate activist, or committed scientist: So, if we cannot limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 1.5 degrees, we can expect more devastating weather events, more hurricanes and flooding and wildfires, and more people will die.

    BBC interviewer: In which case, how do we explain the fact that there has been no increase in the frequency of hurricanes in the past 150 years? And that far fewer people die now from weather-related disasters than they did in the 1970s? And that the amount of land consumed by fires worldwide is dropping year on year?

    Believe me, you did not hear that interview or anything like it during the Glasgow conference. And yet all the questions above are reasonable, and grounded in statistics issued by highly reputable government and scientific bodies.

    The frequency of hurricanes, for instance, was the subject of an historical study published by Nature Communications in July, which found no increase in the past century and a half. The number of deaths worldwide from weather events in 2010 was estimated at about 18,000; in 2020, as National Geographic reported last month, it was down to around 6,000, whereas in the 1970s it was not unusual for it to number around 50,000.

    On the subject of wildfires – which, as we know, make for highly visual and dramatic TV footage – the actual facts seem especially counter-intuitive. As the Royal Society reported in an authoritative survey in 2016, despite the perception that wildfires are hugely on the increase, “global area burned appears to have declined overall over [the] past decades, and there is increasing evidence that there is less fire in the global landscape today than centuries ago”.

    I am not making these points to be a smart-aleck, nor because I am, in the cant phrase, a “climate-change denier”. Personally, it seems overwhelmingly likely that human activity must be having an effect on our climate. But what worries me is the way in which our media – and especially the BBC – has entirely abandoned the noble tradition of pugnacious journalistic inquiry here.

    This can be traced back to a decision taken in 2006, after the BBC convened a private climate-change seminar in which senior Corporation figures were briefed by leading scientific experts and climate activists. The following year, the BBC Trust stated: “The BBC has held a high-level seminar with some of the best scientific experts and has come to the view that the weight of evidence no longer justifies equal space being given to the opponents of the consensus.”

    I understand why the BBC feels that it can trust the global scientific establishment to the extent that it accepts climate change as a reality. And I think it would be absurd to “balance” every interview on the subject with someone who denies that reality. But – and this is an important qualification – while there’s no need for “equal space”, there’s an absolute requirement, in my view, that some space should be given so that the sceptics can make their case. Otherwise, the result will be what we got from Glasgow: supine, gutless, sycophantic agreement with the official line, which is the antithesis of what robust journalism should be.

    I do not know the answers to the questions I pose in my imaginary interview, but I reckon they would have made for more interesting listening than all that hyperbolic talk about “the clock ticking” and “five minutes to disaster”. Challenging questions bring out the best in most interviewees. Putting an expert on the spot, and demanding that they justify their assertions, sharpens their thinking: it forces them to explain themselves convincingly. Without that sceptical interrogation, too many Cop26 media interviews will have come over to the unconvinced as bland propaganda.

    One of the great hate-figures for climate-change true-believers is the Danish political scientist Bjørn Lomborg, who has developed a sceptical critique of the demands of passionate activists. Lomborg does not deny the reality of climate change, but he picks apart the assumptions of the consensus, and demands that they justify the colossal economic cost of the remedies they advocate: green energy, electric cars and so on. He adds that those who forecast disaster consistently underestimate mankind’s ability to adapt and find new solutions. Yes, he says, global warming will force us to change, but we will because we can: that’s what humans always do.

    That optimistic, central insight was glaringly absent from all the pessimistic journalistic outpourings from the BBC and others in Glasgow. And their apocalypse-peddling has consequences. A recent global survey of 10,000 young people by the University of Bath found that 56 per cent think humankind is doomed because of climate change. Is it any wonder, given the diet of bad news they are force-fed? Who can be surprised that all this gloom is causing mental-health problems among young people who sincerely believe climate change will be the end of the world?

    It is a pernicious, one-sided, hope-extinguishing narrative – and it’s rank bad journalism to boot.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/andrew-neil-right-climate-change-bbc-short-changing-us/

  115. Ponder Two for tonight

    The BLM charade was instigated by the death of a murdering criminal

    Cricket and racial relationships are being ripped apart by the actions of a Racialist Speaking Bame, whom it seems has other faults as well

  117. Good night all

    Butter chicken, Bombay potato, thick yoghurt.
    A custard tart with raspberries & blueberries.
    The butter sauce was really good, so I sucked it off the chicken, which I gave to Missy.

    1. I wonder what Ollie Robinson thinks. He lost his place in the England team because of what he said when he was 19 – the same age as Azeem Rafiq was when he made his anti-Semitic comments. Robinson’s punishment also punished the England XI as he was their best bowler in the previous match.

      Would it not be a sign of racial discrimination by the cricket authorities if they did not impose a punishment of comparable severity on Rafiq?

  121. Azeem Rafiq made anti-Semitic comments when he was 19 years old. When it was discovered that Ollie Robinson made racist comments he was he was dropped from the England cricket team.

    I wonder if the Cricket authorities will have the courage to dismiss Azeem Rafiq’s claims as being hypocritical?

    2. We all know they won’t. Nothing will happen, except that Yorkshire Cricket won’t dare have a white man leading them.

  123. From Friday’s letters:

    SIR – I do not share Alice Vincent’s desire for a squirrel-free habitat (Gardening, November 13).

    I am lucky to have a large garden. Much of it is wild, and it is visited by many kinds of bird as well as rabbits, badgers, deer – and squirrels.

    The squirrels take nuts from my hand and often enter the French windows to demand their breakfast. We have feeding stations with seeds, fat balls and peanuts. Custard creams are a particular favourite of theirs.

    The part of the garden that is not wild is well planted, and the squirrels leave the bulbs, flowers, shrubs and tubs alone. Even if they did start to dig up my beds, I would willingly put up with it. If you study these animals long enough you begin to love them for their cheekiness, cleverness and bravery. I would not swap my squirrels for anything.

    Wendy May
    Hereford

    Just wait until one of them finds it way into your house…

    1. Not even in your house. Just let one get into the boxes/masts with internet or cable wiring and start chewing. We lost internet for 3 days a month or so ago and it was because of a squirrel chewing through the wires. Grr.
      They are fun to watch though.

        1. That is brilliant. In CT there was a squirrel who watched us, I swear. A visitor was sunbathing on a lounger and said squirrel was sitting in his usual spot in a branch over our deck. He began pelting her with acorns and she thought it was us. Look up, we said, and there was the squirrel ready to aim again. Honestly, I think I could hear him chuckling;-)

    2. Some people think that the true name for a GREY Squirrel is Tree Rat

      The (refugee ?!) arrivals at Dover are mimicing the actions of the Tree Rats, ie driving the indigenous people

      out of their homes and changing the ways we can live our lives{
      Halal slaughter/food
      Shariah Law
      Grooming Gangs
      An Army in waiting

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