Monday 6 December: Qualified vaccination volunteers turned away while GPs cut checks on over-75s

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be banned.

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

831 thoughts on “Monday 6 December: Qualified vaccination volunteers turned away while GPs cut checks on over-75s”

        1. I’ve given you an upvote, Peter, although I have no idea what you are saying. Lol.

          2. No wonder I didn’t understand you, Peter. I thought it was in Goojerati, and I don’t understand that either.

            :-))

  3. Good morning all.
    Sat up in bed with an early mug of tea and I’ve no idea what the weather is!
    Will check later.

  4. A pickup from Going Postal:-

    ChIKeNLidL • 6 minutes ago
    SpikedOnline:

    ‘And the winner of the 2021 Turner Prize for best contemporary British artist is…’
    irrelevant.

    This year, all five nominees were art collectives, who, we’re told, have helped to ‘inspire social change through art’. They include eventual winners the Array Collective, Black Obsidian Sound System (BOSS), Cooking Sections, Gentle / Radical and Project Arts Works. These collectives are being championed by the judges, not because of their art, but because of their activism. This includes raising awareness of queer, trans and intersex issues, addressing sectarianism in Northern Ireland, and drawing attention to the environmental consequences of modern food production.

    And that’s the problem with the 2021 Turner Prize. It is not a celebration of art at all. It celebrates the propaganda of a disoriented and decadent cultural elite.

    bergen ChIKeNLidL • 3 minutes ago
    God knows what poor Turner would have made of those numpties. His memory deserves better.

    1. When I was an art student, I once attended a demonstration of disgusted art students outside the Turner prize awards ceremony. We all thought it was rubbish, and I carried a placard saying THE TURNER PRIZE SUCKS which I am happy to say, was reported in the Evening Standard, though they did not seem to understand why art students were demonstrating.

      1. I think that indicates the way many art students are sidelined because of the attention paid to the Empty Drum Activists.

    2. Some years ago, when they still lived in the UK, my now daughter-in-law took my son to the Tate Modern. She has indoctrinated him into thinking talentless modern art is wonderful. They have several modern art ‘pictures’ on their walls – their two little children have produced infinitely more attractive pieces when exploring with paints (not that they seem to be allowed to use paint much any more).

  6. Severe weather warning for UK as Storm Barra set to arrive on Tuesday. 5 December 2021.

    Storm Barra, a deep area of low pressure moving in from the Atlantic and the second named storm of the season, is expected to bring the strongest winds and impacts to the Republic of Ireland.

    Two to five centimetres of snow is expected to accumulate widely across England and Scotland, but meteorologists said this could reach 10cm, particularly in parts of the Southern Uplands and Highlands.

    Thank God for Global Warming!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/05/severe-weather-warning-for-uk-as-storm-barra-set-to-arrive-on-tuesday

    1. Yet they didn’t destroy the abandoned gear. Firstborn’s 1974 military Landy has instructions on how to render unusable
      I can only conclude that the weaponry was intended as a gift to the taliban.

      1. Humvees in the thousands were shipped to Pakistan. The high end kit, helicopters, probably now in China for reverse engineering.

        Biden will have taken a cut of the business.

        China now has Bagram Air Base.

      2. I was totally gobsmacked when I saw how Biden pulled the troops out. Absolutely disgraceful.

      3. Good morning, Obs.
        They left everything in Vietnam;
        it appears to be an unfortunate habit!

        1. Really?
          Surely that should be a court Martial offence – aiding & abetting the enemy.
          In WW2, the Germans shot soldiers who abandoned their weapons and equipment in a state usable by the enemy. Hell, it wouldn’t take much to drop a grenade in the cockpit, pour avgas all over the plane, shoot it up.

        2. One of my former track testing colleagues is an ex-tanker who served in Gulf 2. After the fighting was over and the Yanks pulled troops back home, they just parked their vehicles up, jumped onto an aircraft and were flown home.
          He and his unit were then ordered to go round all the abandoned American kit to ensure there were no munitions left behind because the Yanks hadn’t bothered to de-kit them and found EVERYTHING from pistols to anti-tank RPGs!!

          1. Slightly off topic I heard of a guy who bought a boat at auction that had previously been seized while being used in the powder trade.
            It was cheap because it had been ripped to pieces by customs officials.
            Some months later as he was working on her, he uncovered several more packets hidden in some deep dark recess.
            That might explain why all those RIBs are being securely stored near Dover rather than sold off to Mr Rashid’s Life of Leisure Cruises Ltd.

          2. Sounds like my bloody van when I first bought it.
            Ex-Manchester Police & bought at auction, it still had the Chav-box” in the back. When removing it I found about half a kilo of a brownish coloured granular substance liberally spread in the back. Presumably the vehicle had been used to carry the evidence from a large drugs raid and a couple of the bags had split.

  9. Right, I’ve left the DT in bed to snooze on and am downstairs on the main computer.
    It’s -1°C, dry and still as dark as a Black man’s armpit outside and I’m planning to sort a dozen or so jars out and get some chutney made. Apple, Quince & Pineapple perhaps?

    1. Good morning, Bob.
      That sounds nice;
      I have apples and quinces
      so I might get a couple of pineapples
      and copy you.
      I also make quince jelly, it is a
      favourite of one of my brothers

      1. I scour the end of shelf life sections for things like pineapple chunks etc being flogged off cheap and bung them into the freezer. As I need to create a bit of space in the freezer, using a couple of pack of pineapple is a good idea!

        1. A friend suggested I put the
          used quinces [from making the jelly] into the slow-cooker
          on low, overnight, then cool, chop the flesh and dust
          with icing sugar; it is delish.

  10. What is happening with GP’s are they on some sort of industrial action, are they trying to keep their heads down and out of the pandemic deceptions, or have doctors been silenced? something very weird is happening in the Health Service.

    2. Our GP practice phone lines are permanently hung up. I have to visit the surgery to make my regular INR bloods appointment.

      Also had to visit audiologist at opticians for hearing test. I am not sure what GPs are doing. Coining it in all probability.

      1. I changed doctors a few ears ago, as you had to phone between 08:00 and 08:30 for an appointment today. Apart from the phone never being answered in that period, what use to planning a working life is that short notice of getting an appointment a bit later in the morning for a check-up, that can be done pretty well any time? The new clinic has a web booking system, like airlines do. Choose doctor, the calendar shows days with available slots, choose day, choose slot, click on “book”, add reason for booking, send. Couldn’t be easier.
        What’s the point of having a GP if you can’t get in touch with them?

        3. We used to have a booking system like that, then it all closed down (first indication was that “no appointments are available” and then the system didn’t transfer to the new surgery).

      2. I changed doctors a few ears ago, as you had to phone between 08:00 and 08:30 for an appointment today. Apart from the phone never being answered in that period, what use to planning a working life is that short notice of getting an appointment a bit later in the morning for a check-up, that can be done pretty well any time? The new clinic has a web booking system, like airlines do. Choose doctor, the calendar shows days with available slots, choose day, choose slot, click on “book”, add reason for booking, send. Couldn’t be easier.
        What’s the point of having a GP if you can’t get in touch with them?

      3. Even before covid the phones at my surgery were switched to silent mode and rarely answered.

  12. Antony Blinken: “What’s most important for Russia to understand is that actions have consequences” 6December 2021.

    Moscow’s military build-up near Ukraine’s border has stoked tensions between NATO, the EU and Russia. Between diplomacy and the threat of even tougher sanctions, foreign ministers meeting in Sweden are seeking to avoid any confrontation with the Kremlin.

    There seems little doubt that having led Ukraine up the Garden Path with the promise of military support that NATO et. al. has chickened out and left them with sanctions as a last resort. Zelenko; the President of Ukraine, has not unnaturally gone rather quiet at this revelation. He’s left facing a Russian Army that could stamp him flat in a few days and any support will come after it’s over in the form of Harsh Words. Putin is left with a similar conundrum, barring an agreement with Biden tomorrow (an unlikely possibility) he will be left with the present choice of doing nothing and watching Ukraine being drawn inexorably into the EU and NATO’s orbit or he can attack Ukraine and suffer the consequences. My bet is; since you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, that he will attack and seize the whole country since to do nothing would simply postpone the inevitable war with the US backed EU.

    https://www.euronews.com/2021/12/03/what-s-most-important-for-russia-to-understand-is-that-actions-have-consequences

    1. These people are supposed to be smart! Give me strength! It would not take many minutes of a brainstorming session to work out that a) NATO is a bunch of clowns who couldn’t mobilise this side of the Second Coming unless the US was doing the heavy lifting, and b) Russia, when provoked, can be a serious problem.
      Why would Ukraine expect political and military support? Eejits, the lot of them. Covid has addled their brains.

      1. Morning Oberst. I agree. Zelensky is a moron for allowing himself to be maneovered into such a position. This said Ukraine itself is simply a catspaw. No one really cares about it! It is simply a tool for provoking Russia!

      1. Morning Harry. Well Zelensky would be a fool to do this now knowing that he will recieve no support. Vlad on the other hand will need a Casus Belli and who is to know what actually happened on the Front Line?

    3. Perhaps, Russia v NATO wil cure the Convid problem

      Edit: It is not even a MAD problem now

    5. As has been pointed out Ukraine isn’t currently a member of NATO so in theory the Mutual defence clause cannot be exercised.

  13. An article and a BTL Comment:-

    End of ‘slaps on the wrist’ for middle-class drug users
    Boris Johnson wants thousands more ‘lifestyle’ drug-takers to face ‘tougher real-life consequences’
    By
    Charles Hymas,
    HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR 6 December 2021 • 12:01am
    A crackdown on middle-class drug users will be announced on Monday, meaning they face being forced to go to rehab or losing their passports and driving licences.

    Boris Johnson wants thousands more “lifestyle” drug-takers to face “tougher real-life consequences” for use of substances such as cannabis, cocaine and ketamine.

    Police will set enforceable conditions on out-of-court orders requiring first time or recreational drug users to undergo rehabilitation or face prosecution, curfews or the confiscation of ID documents.

    A Home Office source said: “It’s the end of the slap on the wrist and send you on your way.”

    The move is part of a 10-year drugs strategy, unveiled on Monday, that will see police given £145 million to try to “wipe out” county lines gangs, an expansion of drug testing to anyone arrested or serving community sentences and an increase of £550 million for community drug treatment services.

    Mr Johnson said: “Drugs are a scourge on our society, fuelling violence on our streets which communities across the country are forced to endure. That’s why, to cut crime and truly level up across the country, we must step up efforts to wipe out the vile county lines gangs who are blighting our neighbourhoods, exploiting children and ruining lives.

    “Backed by record investment, the strategy we’re setting out will attack supply and break the county lines model which sees criminals profit from people’s misery. Those who break the law will have nowhere to hide.”

    Police forces are to get extra cash to increase the number of first-time or other drug users caught in possession who are put on out-of-court disposal schemes with conditions to attend rehab courses. They face prosecution if they fail to complete them within 16 weeks.

    Other conditions can include fines, paying compensation or curfews. Ministers will also consult on “civil” sanctions including the confiscation of passports, driving licences and travel bans – described by Mr Johnson as “things that will actually interfere with their lives”.

    Police will get powers to to search the seized phones of drug dealers to identify their clients and text them to discourage them from using drugs and direct them towards support.

    Drug testing on arrest will be introduced across all 43 police forces in England and Wales as part of the crackdown and to prevent offenders’ habits from spiralling into violent crime.

    The £15 million plan will enable police to better identify those breaking the law through drug use, but also those who are dependent and need help to kick their addiction.

    Anyone testing positive after arrest for “trigger” crimes such as theft, fraud or drug possession would be required to be assessed for treatment. Those who refuse face prosecution, with a maximum penalty of up to three months in jail or a £2,500 fine.

    Judges will also get powers to order the drug testing of anyone serving a community sentence for an offence linked to illicit substances. They face jail if they test positive.

    The crackdown follows a 13 per cent rise in the number of drug offences to 175,000 in 2019-20 and evidence that half of all murders, and half of acquisitive crimes, are linked to drugs.

    In the next three years, the Government will commit to dismantling more than 2,000 county lines, the method by which drugs are transported from cities to suburban rural towns, and conducting 6,400 operations to disrupt organised criminals’ activities – an increase of 20 per cent.

    The twin strategy of offering greater treatment services at the same time as taking a more hardline approach to drug-related crime has been piloted in 10 areas with the highest levels of drugs misuse, including Blackpool, Hastings, Middlesbrough, Norwich and Swansea.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/06/end-slaps-wrist-middle-class-drug-users/

    Robert Spowart
    7 MIN AGO
    Message Actions
    In the UK we’ve had a Non-War On Drugs for decades where the Authorities do just enough at the lower end of Society to claim they are actually doing something, whilst, generally speaking, they ignore those at a higher level ESPECIALLY MEEJAH personalities, politicians and senior Civil Servants.
    So now, let us have ALL MPs, Peers, senior Snivel Serpents etc. subject to the same Drug I was subject to when I worked on the Railway.
    That included being:-
    Tested at EVERY medical.
    Tested “For Cause” i.e. when involved in an incident when my actions may have been a factor;
    Tested at random when unannounced testing teams turned up at whatever depot I was working out of.
    Failing or refusing the test meant instant dismissal.

    REPLY 1

    2. ‘Tested “For Cause” i.e. when involved in an incident when my actions may have been a factor;‘

      Come on, Bob, our politicians would spend more time being tested than running the country (into the ground).

    3. Couldn’t they do something about the cause? You know, the Bulgarian and Romanians bringing the stuff in?

      Ah! Of course. That would mean accepting that massive, uncontrolled gimmigration is a complete farce that has done nothing but damage this country.

    4. How will they know if the druggies are middle class? Will they be allowed to self identify?
      “Nah, Mate, I’m working class, me.”

    1. That beverage is going to make a right mess when it’s drunk. On the upside, she won’t burn her tongue.

      1. The nursing home cleaners are used to mopping up fluids that are otherwise found at their convenience.

    1. The water’s still not even up to his ankles and he’s already out of his depth.

      1. I thought the tale showed that Canute understood he could not turn the tide but was surrounded by sycophants who assumed her could. Thus his demonstration was that he couldn’t.

  16. A man’s view of womanhood. Spiked 6 December 2021.

    The segment is even introduced with a drag performance by a transwoman named Evie. Can you imagine a programme about environmentalism asking on an oil lobbyist to explain the meaning of climate change? Yet it’s seemingly okay to invite a male on to explain the meaning of womanhood.

    Evie is interviewed by three of the women. There’s a fun, relaxed vibe to their get-together. They’re enjoying a drink, sitting close together at a table in a club, like girls on a night out.

    Now compare Evie’s treatment to that of Dr Nicola Williams. Williams is a feminist advocating for sex-based rights and a spokesperson for Fair Play for Women. There is nothing relaxed or fun about the vibe here. We meet her in a swimming-pool changing room. She is standing up throughout, while the three women interrogating her keep their distance. They talk to her as if she was a wild lioness that could devour them all.

    We see this technique every day on the BBC! The wilful ignorance of Truth and the Espousal of Woke Values. It’s not even confined to Women’s matters. The whole Zeitgeist of BBC News is simply the dissemination of approved positions and Propaganda! There is no enlightenment to be found in watching it!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/05/a-mans-view-of-womanhood/

    1. Well, Dr Nicola Williams surely is a wild lioness. Ordinary, everyday British men and women are the fiercest creatures on the planet. Never mind poking the bear with a stick, take a look at our history. Smart and brave we are, even if it does not look like it these days.

        1. The only time I had to catch a train there, everyone was on the street outside because of a bomb scare.

    2. Well, Dr Nicola Williams, surely is a wild lioness. Ordinary, everyday British men and women are the fiercest creatures on the planet. Never mind poking the bear with a stick, take a look at our history. Smart and brave we are, even if it does not look like it these days.

    3. Such is the Left.

      It’s exhausting. There are two sexes. Male and female. If you are not socialised and cognitively acknowledged as the sex you are then you grow up broken. Men and women are different. Fundamentally different. This is not saying men are superior or women are – we’re just different.

      Once we stop treating those who think they are something they are not with compassion for their confusion to align their entire being, then they will continue to be broken. What we should not do is indulge them, as that forces their unhealthy views on others, forcing their integrity to be challenged against the wishes of the ill.

    1. The face of evil. Oblivious to the supposedly ‘very rare’ deaths resulting from her jabs. A perfect example of the politicisation of medicine by the elites.

    3. WTF? Why is she talking about the next pandemic, like Gates? Two people who stand to make a lot of money out of it.

    4. No, more funding is not needed. If the health idiots at PHE had not been obsessed with a sugar tax they’d have had resources to do what needed to be done in the first place.

    2. Raised a glass of my favourite, Bunnahabhain 12 yo to Duncan last night. And another to the Creator of such nectar… truly a gift from The Lord.

    3. Many happy returns Duncan Mac. May you continue to uphold the standards of a lost civilisation for many years to come.

    5. I haven’t seen Duncan here for a while- I do hope all is well- happy birthday Duncan🍨🍷🤞🥳

      1. I shouldn’t think that would bother him. He is made of sterner stuff, and he is sitting on the right side of history.

  20. How Covid might affect your heart. 6 December 2021.

    After surviving Covid infection, most people simply recover to get on with their lives. But UK scientists are uncovering a hidden legacy. Stark evidence is emerging that many thousands of Britons who suffered serious illness when infected have been left with debilitating heart damage as a result of the virus attacking their major organs.

    TOP COMMENTS BELOW THE LINE.

    TN
    Tomas NiFiach1 HR AGO
    I don’t believe the content of this article at all. Heart problems were not a problem pre jabs roll out! A day of reckoning is coming.

    JJ
    Jim Jam 59 MIN AGO
    Exactly. This wasn’t an issue at all in 2020, yet there were plenty of hospitalisations back then.

    FL
    F Look1 HR AGO.

    .Funny, I hadn’t heard of myocarditis, Guillain–Barré syndrome or all those other illnesses until the vaccines came out. And the headline of this feature is misleading.

    TG
    Terry Green 48 MIN AGO.

    This is the lowest The Telegraph has stooped yet. The evidence clearly shows that the vaccinations are the cause of the heart problems (and liver & kidney). There are vaccinated children getting heart problems and collapsing that have never had covid. The evidence is out there but the press has to turn it around and keep on with the narrative. The best thing people can do, is to get on Telegram and join some relevant groups. There, evidence from doctors and professors can be found WITH LINKS TO OFFICIAL & GOVERNMENT WEBSITES to show people the data. If you post these links to official government websites on any social media, they will be removed and more than likely you will be banned. I hate what is happening but it’s heartening to see that commenters on here at least know something is not right.

    Ass covering time! It’s the vaccinations!.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/covid-might-affect-heart/

    1. Yes, it’s very likely that when the virus and its spike proteins gets into your blood, that it can damage your heart.
      But then why in God’s name would you inject a substance that causes the cells lining your blood vessels to produce those very same spike proteins twice a year?

      1. Morning BB2. Indeed. My view is that this is just the leading edge of what will become a perpetual Health Crisis more severe than the actual virus. Hence this article trying to offload the responsibility. These morons have screwed up on a truly monumental scale. They will try to conceal the truth of course!

        1. This is an ‘early side-effect’ appearing and having a devastating impact on people’s lives. We’ve still to see the medium and long term effects. It’s very clear that the current drive to jab everyone is driven by the moron’s fear of having a large non-vaccinated cohort that is not suffering a surge in these cardiac/clotting problems to explain away (and any others that will arise). Currently they’re struggling with the covid infections blame attribution i.e. the non-vaccinated are responsible and now, two weak excuses being given for cardiac/clotting problems.

          This side-effect is manifesting itself in the USA where around 650,000 people die of heart problems annually: a report disclosed on The Highwire recently stated that on current trends that number is expected to DOUBLE.

    2. Please, Minty, we are British and do not want to see our poor donkeys covered over.
      ARSE covering please!

    3. Yesterday it was the cold weather that brought on the cardiac and clotting problems.

      This latest, it’s covid causing heart etc. problems, appears to be being driven by vested interests.

      A number of brave eminent doctors/microbiologists e.g. Sucharit Bhakdi, were warning the World shortly after the roll-out commenced that the “vaccines” would create this effect. Those speaking out are being proven correct again while others keep quiet and remain in their positions.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyPjAfNNA-U

        1. So does the Left wing media. That man must not sleep, the amount of damage he causes.

          Or, perhaps, it’s actually free will, stubbornness and plain old human error?

    5. Guillain–Barré attacks people who are already run down. It is around us but is only successful if the patient’s immune system is already compromised.
      Our elder son was attacked by it when he was receiving treatment for Hairy Cell Leukaemia.
      He recovered, but it made the whole process more prolonged.

  21. Morning all

    Qualified vaccine volunteers rejected while GPs cut checks on over-75s

    SIR – I am in despair. GP surgeries are now excused from some health screening duties in order to complete Covid booster vaccinations.

    Why are fully trained vaccination practitioners not being utilised? I am a nurse (qualified for 41 years), trained and certified to vaccinate. I have been running flu clinics at my place of work.

    With my two nursing colleagues I offered my services to the NHS free of charge. We have all been told there are enough vaccinators.

    Sarah Morris

    Naccolt, Kent

    SIR – We agree that “throwing money at GPs” is no panacea to “increasing productivity” (Patrick O’Flynn, Comment, telegraph.co.uk). GPs and our teams already work at capacity in a workload and workforce crisis.

    General practice is the bedrock of the NHS and needs to be adequately supported to manage the ever-growing demand for care and to ensure that patients are safe. The Government must deliver on its manifesto pledge of an additional 6,000 GPs by 2024 and make the job of being a GP manageable again, so we retain highly trusted, highly trained family doctors in the profession, caring for patients, for as long as possible.

    Dr Gary Howsam

    Vice Chair, Royal College of GPs

    London NW1

    SIR – I read with interest about the Government’s decision to allow GPs to suspend the annual medical checks for the over-75s (report, December 4).

    I am 85 and have never been invited to attend for a medical examination and assessment. Am I the only one or are GPs generally not providing this service?

    James Fletcher

    Barmby Moor, East Yorkshiret

    SIR – The local pharmacist gave me the flu jab and booster jabs at the shop. She also gave my disabled wife her flu vaccination at home.

    Why are doctors neglecting health checks for the over-75s to do this work when pharmacists and retired medical personnel are trained to administer vaccines?

    Ted Bottle

    Coalville, Leicestershire

    SIR – After trying to understand and navigate the continually changing, Byzantine protocols necessary to undertake a planned trip to France, postponed from December 2020, we have given in and cancelled.

    The Government, having decided they are not in a position to ban travel completely, have instead constructed a process which makes it impracticable. The risk is that a positive Covid test immediately before returning to Britain confines you in a foreign country at considerable personal expense.

    The pusillanimous politicians and their cabal of doom-mongering scientists have ground me down. How long will this madness be allowed to prevail?

    Ian Mackenzie

    Preston, Lancashire

    Cats should be kept indoors during the night

    A cage bird defies the cat: a detail from William Hogarth’s The Graham Children (1742)

    A cage bird defies the cat: a detail from William Hogarth’s The Graham Children (1742)

    SIR – Joe Shute (“It’s time to ban cats from going outdoors,” Features, December 2) quotes Professor Mark Fellowes suggesting that cats should be allowed out only at night in order to help protect birds.

    Professor Fellowes might be an ecological expert, but his advice on cat care is seriously flawed. Responsible cat owners should keep their pets indoors after dark when they are most at risk from traffic, predators and theft. Cat collars can cause serious accidents and should never be worn.

    Previous studies have not shown that predation by cats is causing a fall in the bird population. There are other significant factors, many of which Joe Shute mentions. No one complains when cats kill less welcome visitors to our gardens, namely rats and mice.

    Linda Reeves-Edwards

    Chairman Cats Protection 1987-2002

    Bristol

    1. “General practice is the bedrock of the NHS and needs to be adequately supported to manage the ever-growing demand for care…” Time we did something about importing so many more to slow down the “ever-growing demand for care”, then, surely. The government should deliver on their promise to stop the boats. Ian Mackenzie, it’ll continue until people like you rise up and do something about it.

  22. IR – Joe Shute (“It’s time to ban cats from going outdoors,” Features, December 2) quotes Professor Mark Fellowes suggesting that cats should be allowed out only at night in order to help protect birds.

    Professor Fellowes might be an ecological expert, but his advice on cat care is seriously flawed. Responsible cat owners should keep their pets indoors after dark when they are most at risk from traffic, predators and theft. Cat collars can cause serious accidents and should never be worn.

    Previous studies have not shown that predation by cats is causing a fall in the bird population. There are other significant factors, many of which Joe Shute mentions. No one complains when cats kill less welcome visitors to our gardens, namely rats and mice.

    Linda Reeves-Edwards

    Chairman Cats Protection 1987-2002

    Bristol

    1. “…cats should be allowed out only at night in order to help protect birds.” – what, as guardians or guard cats? Punctuation makes sense of the sentence, by comma-ing after “night”, then we understand that, to protect birds, cats should…

      2. Our last cat Suzie aged 17 disappeared one evening and no trace of her was ever found. It’s dangerous out there at night.

    2. Elderly cats don’t hunt – I have kept cats all my life and they have very seldom caught birds. Usually by the age of ten they have slowed down.

      1. My sister’s cat, which has a taste for dried food, used to get attacked by pond goldfish at feeding time, cross that he was nicking their dinner. They would slap his nose with their fins.

    3. If any cat I’ve known is an example they spend 22 hours asleep, 2 hours running about outside and eating. There are some here who watch the birds, and The Beast is a good ratter, but a domestic cat likes being indoors, pampered and well fed.

  23. A murdered child

    SIR – Why do social workers allow themselves to be fobbed off by plausible lying adults instead of asking to see the children themselves?

    Little Arthur Labinjo-Hughes was well able to express what was happening to him. My heart breaks for that little boy.

    Elfrida Fallowfield

    Chichester, West Sussex

    SIR – The Prime Minister has promised a thorough investigation into those who failed to protect six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes. I think we can guess what that means.

    In the police and social services, faulty “processes” will be blamed. We will be assured these will be reviewed, because “nothing like this must ever be allowed to happen again”. This meaningless mantra which, as Dave Alsop (Letters, December 4), rightly says has been trotted out so often, will be trotted out again. But no one will be held responsible for any failures.

    Tim Wells

    Weymouth, Dorset

    1. I hope their conscience troubles them for the rest of their life. What they could have done, but willingly did not, makes them culpable, in my eyes.

        1. “…I was unable to countenance being responsible for the death of a child…” As the head of children’s services.

          It is an interesting article. Sadly peppered with the guardian’s frantic need to promote the state, praise labour and attack the Conservatives. In so doing it refuses to ask the question – you were in post. Why didn’t you feel responsible? You say you wanted to face the criticism, but not to accept responsibility.

          The judge may have said she should be treated fairly, but when Shoesmith was so utterly unrepentant… what did she think she was paid that amount for?

          No, this is not to say that children will not die from accidental deaths nor violent parents. Sadly, these exist everywhere. It is to accept that you are responsible for the failures, for not pushing more. For not asking who is most critical? Why? And, frankly, to give a stuff. The difference between blame and responsibility is one is an acknowledgement of failure, the other of personal attribution. You can be responsible without being blamed, and be blamed without being responsible. She believed herself neither.

    2. Yes indeed, Elfrida Fallowfield.
      But in additions, why do we allow Social Workers to excuse themselves they way we do?
      At the very least they ought to be held legally responsible for their dereliction of duty and malfeasance in public office.

    4. There are plenty of laws and processes. There are not enough people kicking in doors. “Lessons to be learned”, the usual fatuous hot air, ever and always accompanied by hand-wringing after the event.

    5. For me, “lessons were learned” in 2007 after the Head of Haringey Social Services whose officers repeatedly ignored compelling evidence that Peter Connelly was in trouble.

      She got a £600,000 handout for unfair dismissal after successfully arguing that it wasn’t her fault if there was a child homicide on her watch, and that if every Head of Social Services was made accountable for the negligence of their staff, there wouldn’t be anyone left to fill in the forms.

      The Government Minister who committed political suicide by sacking her and be damned, lost his seat and is now married to Yvette Cooper, poor devil.

      1. It is criminal but that’s how the public sector works. The higher up you go, the less you are responsible. It’s the inverse of the private where the man at the top takes all the flak.

        She shouldn’t have been sacked – there was no chance of her being found responsible though, as ‘the process’ protects such people. As long as the boxes are ticked and the meetings held, then; with a shrug there is nothing more they can – or want – to do.

      2. Are the Ballses still together? They do not need to be as they have fiddled the system in order to own more houses so they can easily live apart.

        Ed Balls was completely odious when he was in politics – he seems to have improved since leaving it.

    6. The lessons learned are ‘Stop the public finding out’ and ‘protect those responsible.’

  24. Redrafted from very late last night

    If all the ifs listed below were removed perhaps many more ‘unvaccinated’ people would be happy to have the jab:

    If it was a vaccine rather than gene therapy;
    If it was like most vaccines and stopped people getting the disease it is meant to stop;
    If people did not pass the virus on regardless of their ‘vaccinated’ status;
    If people only needed one jab and not frequent top ups possibly for the rest of their lives;
    If Big Pharma had not insisted that no other treatments were allowed and got governments to ban them;
    If the governments and the MSM were honest about side effects;
    If the makers of the ‘vaccines’ were not freed of all responsibility for adverse consequences;
    If their contents and the tests they ran on the ‘vaccines’ were not to remain secret for 55 years;
    If they did not try and blackmail or shame people into having the ‘vaccines’;
    If the PTB had any respect for people’s basic human rights;
    If politicians could explain why they think they know more about people’s of health than their GPs.

    If we can keep our heads when all about us are losing theirs!

    1. The choice of 55 years is interesting.
      I am suspicious. When that odd figure will have been chosen the assumption will have been that children and young and middle aged adults, ie those under about 50 and those without underlying health conditions were not likely to need the injection to keep them safe. If there turned out to be problems, getting evidence to sue would be difficult and if it killed people it would be mainly the elderly who are the most vulnerable anyway.
      It’s an experiment and we are the lab-rats.

    2. 342540+ up ticks,
      Morning R,
      If if’s & buts were pots & pans,

      IF we had backed Gerard Batten in his highly successful run as the real UKIP leader instead of
      backing treachery via the nEc / nige we would by now have had a formidable opposition fighting force.

      Surely by now it has been recognised by the electorate in the main, that the real anti United Kingdom political force resides in the vipers breeding ground aka parliament, & the continuing support of the lab/lib/con coalition is to condone their actions.

    5. I think I read that an American court is making Pfizer release the data much more quickly than the 55 yrs.

  26. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    I could not have put it better myself:

    SIR – Your leading article on Saturday said: “We abandon British energy at our peril.” Britain unfortunately already has the (self-imposed) Climate Change Act enshrined in law. This forbids us to carry on using fossil fuels in the future. No other country in the world has been mad enough to follow our lead.

    That Shell has, sensibly, abandoned its plans to develop new oilfields in the North Sea is only the most recent of catastrophic energy decisions forced on them by this Government.

    A few days ago we refused permission for two massive gas-powered generators to come online if we are faced with blackouts (which we will have if there is a severe winter).

    Surely one of the most irrational recent government decisions was to deny permission for the World Nuclear Association to put up exhibits at Cop26 because, it told the applicants, there was no space left. However, there was space to accommodate groups such as the Froglife Trust and the British Dragonfly Society. This was just after the Government committed £250 million to develop Rolls-Royce’s small nuclear power plants.

    We just cannot go on like this.

    Paul McClory
    Oxford

  27. Russia continues to turn East…

    Indian media outlets have cited government sources as describing 6 December as a “day of intense engagements – it will be a Russia Day”.
    Russian President Vladimir Putin will lead an official delegation, which includes Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, on an official visit to the Indian capital New Delhi on Monday, where he will hold the 21st Annual India-Russia Summit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The summit, which will be held at Modi’s residence, is set to kick off at 5:30 p.m.
    President Vladimir Putin will arrive in New Delhi at around 3 p.m. (Indian Standard Time), while ministers Lavrov and Shoigu reached the capital on Sunday night.
    Monday morning began with Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s talks with his Russian counterpart Shoigu under the India-Russia Inter-Governmental Commission on Military-Technical Cooperation framework.

    https://sputniknews.com/20211206/21st-india-russia-summit-whats-on-agenda-as-putin-set-to-arrive-in-new-delhi-to-meet-modi-1091271755.html

        2. During the Winter War Finland put up the most wonderful defence against the The Soviet Union. The Finns are probably the best soldiers in Europe!

          1. When Finns decide to do something, they do it properly. NO half-arsing around, no time for talking, just get it done.
            Whether drinking or kicking Russian arse, it’s all the same.

          2. And now we are the best of friends with quite a few Russians from the St Petersburg area owning summer cottages here on the lake-shores.

          3. The second time I saw a live concert of Wishbone Ash, the prog rock band, three of the original band had left. Andy Powell, the guitarist had recruited three replacements and taught them the band’s back catalogue of songs. The replacements were very good.

            At an interval in the concert Andy introduced his replacements. He informed us that the new bassist hailed from Glasgow, a young Jock who considered that he was a serious drinker and could drink any one under the table. His big mistake was when he issued such a challenge to the new guitarist, a Finn. Andy then reminded him: “No one attempts to drink a Finn under the table!” The Jock soon learnt his lesson.

        3. During the Winter War Finland put up the most wonderful defence against the The Soviet Union. The Finns are probably the best soldiers in Europe!

      3. Good morning Phizzee. It is just possible that Harry is originally from Northern Ireland, so no, we haven´t yet dealt with the freedom thing.

    2. Onnittelut palasivat. Ovatko suomalaiset vielä onnistuneet ryöstämään Goglandin Venäjältä?

  30. Reading the plethora of letters both for and against the mediæval woodwind instrument, the recorder, I have to declare an interest. In 1984 I bought an alto saxophone intending to learn to play it. On the advice of my tutor, and since I remembered the fingering of the recorder from my schooldays (which is similar to the fingering of the saxophone), I bought a new descant (soprano) instrument: a good quality wooden one from Moeck.

    I quickly mastered the fingering of the saxophone but unfortunately, no matter how I persevered, I never managed to develop the proper, and vital, embouchure that is necessary for extracting a sweet sound from the instrument. All I managed to do was make it sound like a cow giving birth! After a while of this futility I sold it.

    The recorder, however, has remained in my possession as a trusted friend and I regularly have a tootle on it, especially at this time of year, when my practiced rendition of In Dulci Jubilo adds to the festive spirit.

    2. I feel responsible because these attacks started after I asked a question about B u t t c o/ i n
      Will be more careful mentioning this subject in future!

  34. Expect more as we approach that season

    Those Pesky Vikings

    There’s a Viking called Rudolf the Red, on account of his hair and beard.

    One day, he comes in soaked to the skin and declares to his wife, “By Odin, it’s pouring out there!”

    His wife looks out of the window and says, “It’s worse than that, it’s snowing heavily!”

    “No, it isn’t, it’s just raining hard,” says Rudolf.

    The wife looks out again. “I’m sure it’s snowing,” she says.

    Rudolf sighs with exasperation and tells her, “Rudolf the Red knows rain, dear!”

    1. Tice is emerging as a courageous voice and gaining my respect. I don’t completely share his world view, but he’s been steadfast against the kind of fascist fear-mongering and whipping up hatred shown in that tweet from some fool above.

      1. Me too. The next trick is to persuade our mostly leftie media to give him and his party some coverage…

    2. Correct me if I’m wrong Stig, but do the vaccinated not carry the virus as much as the unvaccinated?

      Do those vaccinated not pass on the virus in the same way as the unvaccinated?

      Does then, the vaccine only help the person who is vaccinated, rather than anyone else?

      Which rather points to being vaccinated – and crowing about it – as the selfish act. It is hubris. Demanding others do as you want them to do is simple egotism and arrogance.

      1. Blinkered hack thinking that his stance on “vaccines” is correct when the facts are telling the opposite story. I’m surprised at the number of people of Abell’s stripe who have come out so willingly to display their ignorance in support of a government that is lurching from one extreme to another under a PM who doesn’t have a clue.

        1. Mortgages to pay. Holidays to book. School fees …. the list of financial commitments is endless.

          1. A well known local financial adviser started his business 40+ years ago advising local businessmen, Lawyers, GPs & Dentists. By all accounts he was good, he ran Money Advice Columns in newspapers, appeared on local radio & TV on finance matters. £1,5Bn under his investment company.
            He did not take professional advice on health matters about getting Covid jabs and died in hospital of Covid in October

      2. Every case of Moronic variant that came from South Africa was transmitted by a double vaccinated person because only double vaccinated people were allowed on the planes before the flights were stopped. I have not yet heard of hordes of unvaccinated people arriving from South Africa by rubber dinghy.

  37. 342540+ up ticks,

    “Could be” why is everything coming out on the DOOM side ?

    What if the next pandemic left it’s “victims” with the capability to poop
    diamonds or small ingots of gold so no OUCH effect is suffered.

    I take it such happenings would receive the “rotherham cloak” as it would NOT sit well with the current fear agenda.

    Live Covid latest news: Next pandemic could be ‘more lethal’, warns scientist behind the Oxford jab

    Dt,

    Live Covid latest news: Next pandemic could be ‘more lethal’, warns scientist behind the Oxford jab

    2. I’d think pooing gold or diamonds especially would be quite painful.

      It might also devalue those items.

      1. 342540+ up ticks,
        Morning W,
        I did mean to add ” in little velvet sacks”

        They the “poopers” would immediately become governance property.

        1. Oh, When I read the headline, “Darren Gough frantically searching…” I thought it would continue as, “.. for brown shoe polish”.

    1. Interesting that they can find staff to work there. Interesting that the police are searching vehicles without any reason and are not being told to push off by drivers whose privacy is being breached.

      1. I am surprised that man could come out with the garbage about the fine without realising what it sounded like.

    4. Sounds to me like Bruce and Sheila have gone soft if they put up with this type of incarceration in a concentration camp.

      Burn the bloody place to the ground.

      1. Fashions of 2000 years ago….or of brainwashed women who follow fashion advice from a controlling man who’s been dead nearly 1500 years.

        1. Simon Reeves presented a fascinating programme about the modernisation of Turkey in the BBC 2 series on The Mediterranean. The Sultan in waiting is currently having built a grand Mosque which will hold 60,000 devotees. It was a well balanced programme well worth viewing on iPlayer.

          2. Thanks Stephen, I will take a look on iPlayer.

            Speaking of good programmes, there was one about the New Forest recently, presented by Peter Owen-Jones. Not only was the filming exceptionally good, P O-J is a knowledgeable presenter who doesn’t go in for theatrical arm-waving, unlike to so many of them. And what music there is is generally subdued. Recommended.

  41. Good morning all.

    A couple of glimmers of hope for our beloved son. He’s only needing 35% oxygen now and is going to have a percutaneous tracheostomy very shortly as a step towards breathing independently. This fills us with hope although there are risks. Thank you for all your good wishes and prayers. Alf and I have been looking in from time to time and thinking of others on here who are also in need.

    3. Glad to hear things are a little bit better – thinking of you all and hope the improvement continues. What a worrying time it’s been for you.

    4. Fingers crossed for a more positive outcome for your lad.

      Alf and you must be exhausted , anxiety really does one in .

      Cups of tea and good distractions help.

      Are you allowed to visit , or are you in constant phone contact wth the medics .

      Be careful and take care xx

      1. Thank you Belle, and all others, for your continued support. It really does help.
        No visiting allowed but our d-i-l is in constant touch with ICU and updates us immediately. She’s a qualified nurse. Grandson has matured enormously and is a very fine young man of 18 years.
        Hopefully we might be able to speak to him soon as he can use WhatsApp in hospital. We’ve printed a couple of A4 photos they will put up in his room and will take them to the hospital later.

    7. Maybe only ‘glimmers’ but at least it is something positive. Such a frightening time for you all. Hoping everything goes well with the surgery and further improvements from that.

    9. A very good bit of hope on a Monday morning! Best wishes to your son and all the family, and hope the operation goes well. Prayers and blessings to you.

    15. What a worrying and stressful time for you and Alf, will keep the positive thoughts coming.

    1. Have you tried Jigidi? It’s an online jigsaw site – masses of choice and a variety of numbers of pieces.

  45. ‘We are safer from the climate than ever’. Spiked 6 December 2021.

    Extract from Spiked podcast.

    Alex Epstein: It is just a fact that human beings are far safer from the climate than they have ever been. Climate-related disaster deaths – deaths from storms, floods, extreme temperatures and so on – have gone down 98 to 99 per cent over the past century. If somebody is talking about the future of climate danger and they do not recognise the present, they are either ignorant or a fraud.

    In the past, we have had 10 times more CO2 in the atmosphere than we have now and we have also had much warmer temperatures. There is nothing that we could conceivably do that would make the planet unliveable for humans – the most adaptable species in history. So changes in the climate are not the end of the world. The whole idea of the climate ‘emergency’ is baseless.

    The UN secretary-general, António Guterres, is also indirectly the head of the IPCC. He talks about ‘code red for humanity’ and about our extinction. That this guy is leading the organisation tells you something about it. We should question how it is that this allegedly scientific organisation, the IPCC, is happily participating in a process of telling the public we are in an emergency and we need to get rid of fossil fuels.

    Newspapers are definitely screwing up, too. There are many documented examples in which they just wildly distort what the IPCC says. But the IPCC itself never mentions that we are safer from the climate than ever. It is like a polio charity not mentioning that we have a polio vaccine.

    The IPCC has this belief that humanity’s impact on nature is evil. Because of this, it totally ignores the amazing benefits of fossil fuels and the improving state of the world.

    Well that’s not something you read every day! Lol!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/06/we-are-safer-from-the-climate-than-ever/

    1. It’s a pity the same can’t be done in the UK where it can be shown the WFH who are hardly working.

  48. Morning all. Been baking since 6 am.
    Qualified vaccination volunteers turned away while GPs cut checks on over-75s…..looks like the opposite to the NHS as in FOAD (Ferk Off And Die) has kicked in for good now.
    Despite having contributed for over half a century, unless you can a afford to pay out-right you will sell your home and now buy the operations you have already been waiting for at least 2 years for.

  49. How care-crisis homes made Saudis millions: Tycoon’s firm funnelled cash to tax haven in Cayman Islands
    HC-One is the country’s largest care home operator with bed capacity of 16,116
    The company is run by millionaire Saudi Olympic showjumper Kamal Bahamdan
    It is accused of siphoning off millions from care homes to private equity owners
    The findings are revealed in a BBC Panorama documentary to be aired tonight
    By SIAN BOYLE FOR THE DAILY MAIL

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10278143/How-care-crisis-homes-Saudis-millions.html

    1. All while paying the carers at the minimum wage. Not that they are alone. A local family owns a care home near to us. A clean but dark, dismal old building with, admittedly, lovely staff. On the fees they charge, they have put all four children right through private schools, run very top-of-the-range cars and a very big house.

      1. Got to be someone quite mercenary to go into the care home business and end up rich while paying low wages.

      2. Quite a number of years ago the company i worked for were refurbishing a large old building to convert it into a care home. The ‘foreign’ owners would not allow any of us to use their on site electricity supply for tools and mixers etc. We all walked off in the end.

          1. i think you might find that a number of the ‘Care homes’ in the UK are foreign owned. Easy money and fairly rapid turnover.

          2. The one I refer to is just a single, privately owned one. There is another individual, private one in another village (the owner was a nasty woman, maybe it’s now run/owned by someone else, she would be knocking late 70s by now)

    2. And probably no come back due to much forward planning.
      Every time I see something similar to this, gained from his WW2 experiences in North Africa, my fathers words echo. “Never trust an arab son”.

  51. I’ve just been trying to make some sense of the on line booster registration there is a section that asks if you immune system has been altered by the Injections.
    But no way to receive information regarding the possible side effects of the ‘booster’ if you have been lumbered with life changing experiences due to adverse reactions. Where does this leave people who have suffered from adverse side effects ?

    1. According to a number of reports folk who’ve had the nRNA compounds have had their immune systems degraded…

    2. How are you supposed to know if your immune system has been altered?
      I know a few people who suffered adverse reactions to the initial jabs and don’t want the booster, but there is no information or guidance. And in the countries where life depends on having an injection pass, the impact on daily life is quite substantial – yet there is just a wall of silence from the medical industry.
      Sorry I can’t help with your problem. Maybe try to get advice from several doctors, or just go with gut instinct?

      1. The other confusing issue is there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who had the AZ jabs for the first two and like my self. And had adverse reactions and excuse us for wondering why the AZ is no longer available with no explanation so what do ‘we’ all do now. Take another chance ? The reaction could be more adverse of course.

        1. I asked this question a few weeks ago on here, whether people always got worse reactions to later jabs, and a couple of people said that they had had worse reactions to earlier ones. My daughter’s music teacher had a bad reaction to the first, and the second one landed her in hospital.
          Dr Noack (graphene hydroxide particles video) said “it’s russian roulette whether it hits a vein and gets transported over the body (or stays in the muscle tissue of your arm)”
          I’ve heard this from other experts as well, iirc.
          It is not an easy decision. You have to weigh your risks of covid complications against the possibility of jab complications.
          Might help to look up statistics and try to write down a concrete risk figure for both cases, to help you decide.
          The disadvantage being of course the general lack of solid information. I think the government have no idea either, they just push the stuff, they don’t know these subtle things like what happens if you mix the jabs.

          1. I’ve been thinking about what government ministers actually know. Certainly many know that the ‘jab’ is a possible route to total control but beyond that?

            They cannot deny that side-effects are destroying thousands of lives and that they have some responsibility in those issues because they have supported the continuation of jabbing people irrespective of the level of harm being inflicted, either by encouraging “vaccination” or by their silence. What about further down the line? The WHO is a major influence in what is happening here but what has that organisation actually achieved?

            Steve Bannon’s War Room has Dr Robert Malone speaking a number of issues. Here is one segment in which the WHO does not come out unscathed.

            Steve Bannon with Dr Robert Malone

      1. 😏🤩
        What might be handy Anne is some sort of modern day way of contacting someone to make that enquiry ……………
        Verbally my GP told me that it might not be a good idea for me to go for the booster. But still where does that leave people like my self ? And there are so many of them. It’s far too risky.

        1. You could go with your GP’s advice, and go on the Zelenko protocol to boost your immune system?
          Ask your rellies to avoid you if they’re sick perhaps too.

  52. Good Afternoon – if you are a masochistic duck.
    I see we are being primed for the Sweating Sickness/Black Death/Ebola in time for Christmas, though the actual year in which we will all be felled like Nordmann Spruces is a bit vague.

    “A future pandemic could be “more contagious” and “more lethal” than Covid-19, Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert has warned, urging against complacency when preparing for new disease threats.”

    1. Good afternoon, Nursey.

      It is -2ºC here with a small spattering of dry snow. There seems to be a micro-climate in my village; everywhere outside of Onslunda is milder with no snow!

    4. Given how relatively harmless Covid itself really is, that would not be difficult. The number of people who have died from Covid and only Covid is negligible.

    5. Thank Heaven we won’t experience it. We are more likely to be destroyed by a meteor hitting the planet and causing some 5 billion deaths..

  53. When news first broke a few years ago that Russia’s state nuclear energy company was working on a floating nuclear power plant, some took it as a joke. Others mocked it as the worst idea ever.
    But it turns out it wasn’t such an outlandish idea after all. The Akademik Lomonosov started operating in 2019. It looks like what it was meant to be: a source of reliable energy in a region so harsh that building any other kind of power supply system would be a challenge.

    The Akademik Lomonosov sits off the town ot Pevek in Chukotka. Chukotka is an autonomous region in the northern part of Russia’s Far East.

    It also happens to be full of gold, copper, and lithium, among other metals.

    The Financial Times wrote earlier this week how Russia was fueling its Arctic ambitions with nuclear power. And the ambitions include taking full advantage of the opening up of the Northern Sea Route thanks to the changing climate and also of its metal and mineral wealth.

    This article was originally published on Oilprice.com

    https://www.rt.com/business/542293-russia-arctic-resources-development/

    1. I believe the Canadians are also developing a nuclear plant on board a ship – offshore does away with all the prohibitive regs!

      2. That sounds suspicious, the brainless government clique are opposed to anything but wind and solar.

    3. Russia commits to further floating NPPs. 27 July 2021.

      Rosatom and a subsidiary of Kaz Minerals have signed for power supply to the new Baimskaya copper mining project in the Chukotka region of eastern Siberia. Rosatom proposes to use three floating nuclear power plants each employing a pair of the new 55 MWe RITM-200M reactors, a version of which is in service powering icebreakers. A fourth unit would be held in reserve for use during repair or refuelling. The first reactors are already under construction by Atomenergomash. The companies said that they would conclude a long-term take-or-pay contract for the electricity by April 2022.

      Kaz Minerals is UK owned!

      https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Russia-commits-to-further-floating-nuclear-power-p

  55. #CovidClownWorld

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0859680713006a29d9dcc3635288defc7c05b8b4d4d8087ccb8b8319020eb77e.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/fefd44eef8dfbcff9bcef8788259442b9618f6f440854d22e09ebb85bde2473b.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4b96458d7447fc617bf4635bd92c0590b1e0122eba47c65dc51a0ecb7fab4a0f.gif

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5ddfa95f37ed6d206044721c554bff1e8ecf5d70124247b7e7f5ebce2e460b7e.png

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/123ae475e136ae9fa0a55aa977851688de65734a3a96cb8bee3c1a2d43a8be52.png
    Edit forgot one
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4e5f5671a873883286a06adbfd4ffd72b4c979969668fa62afa0665b004c73d9.jpg

  56. It’s a nice thought, Mr. H, but…

    The public has turned against the excesses of the lockdown fanatics

    Scepticism about the tightening ratchet of restrictions has quietly begun to go mainstream

    LIAM HALLIGAN

    This time last year, Professor Neil Ferguson observed how China’s draconian anti-Covid restrictions had influenced the response to the virus across the Western world – not least the UK. “We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought,” said the epidemiologist, dubbed Professor Lockdown. But after Italy shut down “we realised we could”.

    When Covid-19 first emerged as a global pandemic in early 2020, Prof Ferguson had assumed, like the vast majority of government advisers, that severely restricting freedoms would be deemed unacceptable by the British public. Controlling where people go and who they meet was seen as a non-starter in a liberal democracy. How wrong that turned out to be. Not only did people accept the lockdowns, but there was a level of enthusiasm for them – and a level of derision for those who questioned them – that astonished those of us who had thought that the UK was a nation committed to liberty.

    It is not clear, yet, that we are heading back to the dark days of truly draconian anti-Covid measures. But the early signs aren’t good. In response to the new omicron variant, the ratchet has slowly been tightened. Ministers have re-introduced compulsory masks on public transport and in shops. Travel controls are back, with compulsory PCR tests plus quarantine when returning from “red list” countries. And, from tomorrow, there are mandatory pre-departure tests for everyone aged 12 and above.

    So far, the public has been willing to accept these measures. Many of them are, wrongly, deemed to be minor; and most people just want to do their bit. But if ministers decide to go much further in the coming weeks, can they assume that the public will offer their unquestioning support once again? This time, I’m not so sure. Something has changed in Britain. Having stoically endured three separate lockdowns, there are clear signs that the public’s support for harsh anti-Covid restrictions is fast diminishing.

    Take the results of YouGov polling from last week. Over two thirds of voters in England oppose the closure of pubs and restaurants, with roughly the same share against anti-Covid restrictions on leaving home. Three in five, meanwhile, reject controls on the number of indoor home visitors. It is true that attitudes towards closing nightclubs remain borderline totalitarian, but if you had asked these same questions in January, you would have found overwhelming majorities in support of any and all restrictive measures. Previously seen as eccentric, lockdown scepticism has quietly become mainstream.

    There are several reasons for this. The first is an obvious one. After almost two years of disruption and a mass vaccination programme that has covered the vast majority of the population, many people quite rightly wonder what else can be done to protect the vulnerable against severe illness and death. At the moment, the omicron variant does not appear to be the terrifying new threat that some have made it out to be, either. While more infectious than previous variants, the early signs are that it causes only mild symptoms. Proving that, while determining if existing vaccines work against it, could take weeks. But the World Health Organisation said over the weekend there have been no omicron-related deaths, despite the variant being detected in at least 38 countries.

    Meanwhile, the costs of lockdowns have become far harder to ignore. The fact that GPs made hundreds of thousands fewer suspected cancer referrals during the pandemic, in part due to fewer face-to-face consultations, was last week highlighted in a National Audit Office report. The impact has been “devastating”, says Macmillan Cancer Support, given related delays in the treatment of life-threatening conditions, including among the young. The relentless focus on Covid, the NAO concluded, means that by March 2025, some 12 million people – around a fifth of the UK population – could be on an NHS waiting list, caught in the lockdown-related treatment backlog.

    The “lives versus livelihoods” debate which characterised previous lockdowns – in which those who opposed restrictions were damned as selfishly concerned solely with the health of the economy – is therefore being exposed as the nonsense it always was. The damage done to children’s mental health and education when schools close is now undeniable – which is why Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza yesterday pleaded with ministers to keep schools open. The tragedy of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes, murdered by his stepmother, has also highlighted the pressure lockdown puts on vulnerable households.

    And now we have enjoyed a real taste of freedom. Until last week, England had faced no legal Covid restrictions since Freedom Day in July. And while a fourth wave of existing variants had sent European nations back into full or partial lockdowns, the UK’s gamble seemed to have worked. Covid-related hospitalisations and deaths are still a fraction of where they were this time last year.

    It might be convenient for some politicians for the Covid emergency to continue indefinitely. Certainly, for No 10, omicron has crowded out sleaze allegations. Yet, while some voters remain clearly frightened of Covid, broader support for harsh lockdown measures appears to be melting away.

    People know that two years of restrictions have left the UK in a perilous economic situation. Many are wise enough to realise that tightening them would again crush the UK’s recovery, playing havoc with fiscal balances. It would also further stoke inflation, deepening the emerging cost of living crisis, while doing further damage to pandemic-stricken sectors such as aviation and hospitality.

    They also know that some of the people who have been keenest on restrictions have got it wrong, again and again. Back in July, as Freedom Day beckoned, Ferguson declared it was “almost inevitable” daily infection rates would hit a record 100,000 and could peak at more than 200,000 after restrictions were relaxed. In the event, daily cases barely topped 30,000 – and have remained steady since.

    So something has changed. If the Government thinks it can take the UK back into lockdown without a very clear and demonstrable reason, then it needs to think again.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/05/public-has-turned-against-excesses-lockdown-fanatics/

    1. I knew this was mainstream media when I read “dubbed Professor Lockdown”
      As far as I remember, his nickname was not so benign!

      1. Oh go on, say it. Ferguson was Professor Pantsdown. There was a freedom march in York on Saturday and early on I regretted not being there, because the London events are very uplifting and life affirming, plus York is my home city but apparently many of the people who travelled to attend were apalled and distressed by the zombification of the local populace. Masked outside, glazed expressions, the walking dead. I went up to the West End instead and it was heaving with Christmas shoppers!

    2. Is a sceptic someone who looks at a course of action logically based on evidence and realises that for the same reason it didn’t work before, it won’t work again?

      Odd, such folk used to be called rational. Lock up is a delaying tactic at best, and not a good one. Masks do stop you spreading the virus to others, but unless made mandatory all the time – which has other implications – then another delaying tactic.

      The vaccine is the best bet, but this one isn’t working. No amount of booster, travel restriction or other delaying tactic will change the fact that we need to just live with it. If the NHS is not prepared then sack the management teams.

  58. Entertainingly bonkers or mad and dangerous? Sending up the BBC is worth an award.

    Tyson Fury threatens legal action against BBC if he is on Sports Personality of the Year shortlist

    Exclusive: Undefeated WBC champion is fourth favourite for award and widely expected to be on shortlist, announced next week by BBC

    By Gareth A Davies, BOXING CORRESPONDENT • 6 December 2021 • 8:00am

    Tyson Fury has threatened legal action against the BBC if he is included on the shortlist for Sports Personality of the Year. The undefeated World Boxing Council heavyweight champion is fourth favourite for the award and widely expected to be on the shortlist when it is announced next week but says the BBC will “hear from his solicitors” if he is named.

    It is the second year running that Fury has demanded not to be included in the contenders for the award, which will be announced on Dec 19. The 33-year-old’s extraordinary triumph in a trilogy fight with arch-rival Deontay Wilder in October 9 in Las Vegas means he is certain to be chosen.

    “It means nothing to me and I don’t need it or want it,” Fury told Telegraph Sport. “In fact, they will hear from my solicitors if they do put me on the list. Give it to someone who needs it. I don’t. And, anyway, we know who the sports personality of the year is anyway – it’s me. I am the sports personality. Who does what I do, goes through a war in Las Vegas, entertains the fans, and then sings to the audience?”

    Last year, Fury took the unprecedented step of using Good Morning Britain to announce that he had instructed his lawyers to write to the Corporation demanding his name be removed from the shortlist, having written similar in an Instagram post.

    Lewis Hamilton was last year’s winner in a list that also included Ronnie O’Sullivan, Stuart Broad, Jordan Henderson and Hollie Doyle. On his social-media channel, Fury explained his view that he had “no need for verification or any awards” having declared himself the “people’s champion”.

    The BBC declined to acquiesce to Fury’s request and made public its intention to keep the boxer on the list. The shortlist, a BBC spokesperson said, had been drawn up by an “independent expert panel who choose contenders based on their sporting achievement in a given year”.

    In February of last year, Fury had claimed the WBC heavyweight title with a dominant seventh-round stoppage of Wilder, in their second contest in Las Vegas.

    Fury’s fraught relationship with Sports Personality dates back to 2015, when a petition demanding his removal drew 100,000 signatures after sexist and homophobic remarks. Fury attended the ceremony that year, having claimed the IBF, WBA and WBO heavyweight titles from long-reigning champion Wladimir Klitschko.

    In 2018, Fury was omitted from the list in spite of taking part in one of the most thrilling sporting events of the year when he rose from the canvas in the 12th round against Wilder in a fight that ended in a controversial draw.

    “They wouldn’t give it to me and give me credit if I won 50 world title belts from the people who put it on, and I don’t care,” Fury said. “I should have won it three times already. I’ve got my wife and my kids. That’s all the awards I need. I’ll sue [the BBC] if they put me on.”

    Emma Raducanu is favourite for this year’s award with Tom Daley, Adam Peaty and Hamilton – if he wins his eighth world title – among other contenders.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/boxing/2021/12/06/tyson-fury-threatens-legal-action-against-bbc-sports-personality

        1. Why not just save everyone time, do away with the show and give the award to Hamilton on a permanent basis.

          Twat of the year award suits him and his band of boy racers.

          No keyboard I meant twat, not that!

    1. Only thing is, that seems to be the EU, where the whole point of the thing is for an unaccountable, unelected clique to control the lives of entire nations.

      Yes, but if they imprison you – in some way (even by refusing entry to a pub) then they are removing your freedoms. That is the power they have that must be revoked.

    2. She said “Cui bono”!

      Did she get that from BT?

      The famous Lucius Cassius, whom the Roman people used to consider the most truthful and wisest judge, often used to say in evaluating cases “who stood to profit” [cui bono fuisset].

  61. Why should children be Covid 19 vaccinated ?

    “German physician-scientists reported Monday that not a single healthy child between the ages of 5 and 18 died of Covid in Germany in the first 15 months of the epidemic.

    Not one.

    Even including children and adolescents with preexisting conditions, only six in that age range died, the researchers found.
    Germany is Europe’s largest country, with more than 80 million people, including about 10 million school-age children and adolescents.
    Serious illness was also extremely rare. The odds that a healthy child aged 5-11 would require intensive care for Covid were about 1 in 50,000, the researchers found. For older and younger children, the odds were somewhat higher, about 1 in 8,000.
    Another eight infants and toddlers died, including five with preexisting conditions. In all, 14 Germans under 18 died of Covid, about one per month. About 1.5 million German children or adolescents were infected with Sars-Cov-2 between March 2020 and May 2021, the researchers found.
    “Overall, the SARS-CoV-2-associated burden of a severe disease course or death in children and adolescents is low,” the researchers reported.
    “This seems particularly the case for 5-11-year-old children without comorbidities.”
    The researchers reported their findings in an 18-page paper published to the medrxiv preprint server on Monday.

    1. Germany is Europe’s largest country,

      Hmmm… Germany 357,386 sq km, Sweden 450,295 sq km.

    2. Why should children be Covid 19 vaccinated?

      They shouldn’t. This disease preys primarily on the old. Had it been allowed its way all would be over by now.

    3. Do you have a source? One of my German friend’s children has just tested positive, both children (primary school age) have been terrified by the school into believing that they will die, or that unvaccinated people will die.

    4. Children have high levels of glutathione which prevents them from getting covid. As we age our bodily supplies get depleted. Glutathione supports a healthy immune system. NAC supports glutathione. NAC has been wiped off the shelves in the US for which looks like this very reason…. it aids recovery from covid and vaccine injury. It is still widely available in the UK, but now only on prescription in the US.

  62. Despite worsening relations between Moscow and the West, Russia’s interests cannot be ignored, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has said, explaining how his nation has built relations with its much larger neighbor.
    “With the Russians, the most important thing is not to undermine relations and not to ignore them,” the Finnish leader explained in an interview published by The Sunday Times over the weekend.

    He gave the example of the former mayor of the Finnish city of Turku, who, he said, met with Vladimir Putin several times in the early 1990s (before Putin became President of Russia). According to Niinistö, Putin was so charmed by the respect shown to him by the mayor, he continues to invite him on trips to Moscow.

    Still, the president added, “One must be firm in one’s position.”

    Explaining the potential for military tensions on Russia’s vast border, Niinistö said, “Of course, they say they want to guarantee the safety of Murmansk Oblast, that they’re building up and fortifying their defenses. But as we all know, the sea is endless in scale. Where does the defense start and how far does it extend?”
    In September, Niinistö called on the governments of Europe to rethink their foreign policy and engage in closer dialogue with Russia. “Instead of attempts at cooperation, we have growing distrust and mutual accusations,” he said. “Our relations with Russia are founded on active, direct dialogue.”

    In 2018, Finland hosted a summit for discussions between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, the president of the United States at the time. Last week, Finland announced that it was prepared to host a meeting soon between Putin and current American incumbent Joe Biden. The two leaders are set to have a video call Tuesday, during which they will discuss the status of Ukraine, among other issues.

    During the Cold War, Finland was known for its practice of abiding by the Soviet Union’s foreign policy rules while maintaining its national sovereignty and separate political system. This was sometimes referred to pejoratively as “Finlandization.”

    1. Interesting. Thanks.

      All we have to do to be friends with Russia is to be a friend of Russia.

      1. Russia is a handy bogeyman to pull out of the cupboard from time to time as a distraction.

      1. I find it entertaining. I guess stormtroopers and their ilk have played too large a role in my life over the last twenty years or so (less so now).

  64. No response from AGA man – looks like a cold Christmas with basic food cooked on an electric ring. Bugger it.

    4. AGAs get lonely this time of year.
      They need an old flame to reignite their Christmas.

          1. Not that I know of. A lot of oldies in Fulmodeston. The MR – pushing 70 – is one of the young ‘uns!

          2. Well, if is of any consolation, if this 70-year old youngster had still been living in Briston I would have loaned you mine.

          4. I sold it a whole decade ago, Billy. It was a very bijou cottage: you would have felt a bit cramped.

          6. Two bedrooms up: a living room, a dining room, a kitchen and a bathroom down. Small front garden; huge large garden overlooking open fields and an enclosed large patio area next the house. Detached garage.

          8. Yup! No chilly trips down the yard at 2:00 a.m. for me! Have you thought about popping into Fakenham Garden Centre? They sometimes have good deals on gas BBQs in winter. Very useful for their proper purpose in summer and as a back-up in case of power cuts in winter.

          9. Thanks, Grizz. Carl is coming on Monday morning and will solve the problem. There is a reduction in the oil flow causing reduced heat.

            As for BBQs – I cannot STAND them. Never have!!

  65. Just watching Bbc news about Japan’s push for net zero carbon. The way they are doing it is importing liquified hydrogen from Oz, where it is generated by burning coal, so Japan can claim to be ‘carbon-free’. You couldn’t make it up, except the Bbc has. I note the reporter closed with ‘the resulting CO2 will be buried in the ground’. Talk about smoke and mirrors…

  66. ‘Inedible’ food, tears and 20-minute daily walks around a car park – the grim reality of hotel quarantine. 6 December 2021.

    Richard E Grant ‘feels punished’ by quarantine hotel’s doubling of prices,

    Richard E Grant has said he was left “confounded” after being stuck in a quarantine hotel charging more than twice as much as a similar alternative nearby.

    The Withnail and I actor said he had been visiting his 90-year-old mother in southern Africa when he was caught out by the change in travel restrictions.

    Speaking in a video on Twitter, Grant said: “I went to southern Africa to visit my 90-year-old mother and got caught by the red region Covid restrictions.
    “It took over a week and many cancelled flights to finally get home, for which I am incredibly grateful.

    “I understand that there are security costs in the hotel and you’ve got to pay for two Covid tests, but £228 a day to receive 3 meals a day of this very poor standard, in a supposed 4* Holiday Inn hotel, beggars belief.”

    Quite obviously these “Captive Customers” are being ripped off by the Hotel Chains. One imagines something similar is in progress with the Migrants!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/inedible-food-tears-20-minute-daily-walks-around-car-park/

    1. If something similar is in progress with the Migrants, it’s at the cost to the tax-payer.

      But who cares?

    2. His wife died recently too. It’s no wonder he is so upset. It’s inhumane.

      Withnail and I is a brilliant film.

    3. That’s probably what Taxpayers are being charged per day for each illegal immigrant….

      1. He should have flown to France and travelled the last leg of the journey by inflatable.

    4. Another bunch of people who are making a packet from this scam! No wonder so many people want it to continue.

    5. He’s lucky he can have his opinion heard. Good for him.
      One of my nieces and her daughters are in the same position after managing find a flight to the UK for a family Christmas.

      1. A minister has said he is not responsible for the state of Richard’s fish & chips. Miserable git. It is supposed to be a four star hotel. Someone is obviously creaming off the money.

      2. For the first time since the birth of her grandson a good friend of ours had her daughter, her husband and the little boy to stay in South Africa. They are not particularly wealthy but they are suddenly being lumbered with an extra cost of £5,000 and are now interred in a shoddy hotel where they will have to remain until just a few days before Christmas.

        I think I would find it very hard not to spit in the faces of many of our politicians if I met them!

        1. It stinks, normally the total cost of the same hotel would be less than half of what they are being forced to pay.
          My Niece is in the same boat Richard she has no spare money, but my Sister and BiL are pretty wealthy. She is stuck in the hotel near Gatwick for ten days with her three teenage daughters. I just hope she’s not put in a hotel when she returns to Cape Town.
          But in contrast our next door neighbour was in CT for a month and managed to fly to Amsterdam then on to Paris and took a train to where they have a second home in mid France. She had no problems at all and didn’t even have to show any proof of her Jabs etc.
          Typically the UK are going over the top.
          If politicians had to take such measures they would simply claim Diplomatic immunity and of course expenses.

    6. Daddy Warbucks is alive and well and flourishing in Blighty.
      The money being made by the favoured few is eye watering.

  67. ‘Inedible’ food, tears and 20-minute daily walks around a car park – the grim reality of hotel quarantine. 6 December 2021.

    Richard E Grant ‘feels punished’ by quarantine hotel’s doubling of prices,

    Richard E Grant has said he was left “confounded” after being stuck in a quarantine hotel charging more than twice as much as a similar alternative nearby.

    The Withnail and I actor said he had been visiting his 90-year-old mother in southern Africa when he was caught out by the change in travel restrictions.

    Speaking in a video on Twitter, Grant said: “I went to southern Africa to visit my 90-year-old mother and got caught by the red region Covid restrictions.
    “It took over a week and many cancelled flights to finally get home, for which I am incredibly grateful.

    “I understand that there are security costs in the hotel and you’ve got to pay for two Covid tests, but £228 a day to receive 3 meals a day of this very poor standard, in a supposed 4* Holiday Inn hotel, beggars belief.”

    Quite obviously these “Captive Customers” are being ripped off by the Hotel Chains. One imagines something similar is in progress with the Migrants!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/inedible-food-tears-20-minute-daily-walks-around-car-park/

    1. I would venture to suggest that Emily has not been brainwashed by any Common Purpose indoctrination, unlike that appalling creature from London.

  69. What’s the point of vaccine passports? 6 December 2021, 1:10pm

    What is the purpose of vaccine passports: to keep down infection or to try to persuade more people to get vaccinated by making life for the unvaccinated inconvenient and restricted? Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wasn’t trying to conceal her intentions when she announced in a press conference on 8 November that vaccine passports would be reintroduced. ‘For all of you who are not vaccinated, it of course becomes more burdensome and that is also how I think it should be,’ she said. ‘In my eyes, there are no excuses to not go out and get vaccinated.’

    I strictly ration the amount of propaganda I take in. I haven’t for example yet watched one TV News Bulletin today but I’m beginning to find that it is still getting to me. God knows what those people are like who take in this crap all the time. This is by way of saying that I’m usually quite blase about the pronouncements of our Leaders. Not so with the above it. Its arrogant and contemptuous dismissal of other people’s views provoked a spasm of rage that I haven’t experienced long since.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-s-the-point-of-vaccine-passports-

    1. How can they come out with things like “there are no excuses to not go out and get vaccinated”? (with an experimental gene therapy that doesn’t give lasting immunity and has more side effects than all vaccines over the last 40 years put together)
      How can they say this?
      EU countries falling like ninepins.
      My son says Denmark is so weirdly perfect and smug, people aren’t used to protesting. Will they accept this absolute, authoritarian government masquerading as caring and compassionate?

    2. To quote Mette Frederiksen : ‘In my eyes, there are no excuses to not go out and get vaccinated.’

      Here, Ms Frederiksen are a few excuses: it is not a vaccine it is more like gene therapy; it does not stop you getting the virus; it does not stop you passing it on regardless of your ‘vaccinated’ status; you do not need just one jab and you may have to have them every few months for the rest of your life; it is suspicious that Big Pharma insisted that no other treatments of Covid were allowed and their influence got governments to ban these other treatments; governments and the MSM are not honest or open about the long term or even short term side effects which they do not know themselves; the makers of the ‘vaccines’ were freed of all responsibility for adverse consequences; the contents and the tests on the vaccines will be kept secret for 55 years; politicians try to blackmail or shame you into having the ‘vaccines’ and have no respect for basic human rights; science that questions the governments’ line is branded as ‘fake’ and suppressed in the MSM and on the Internet; politicians do not take account of your GP’s knowledge of your health status.

      How many excuses do you need, Ms Frederksen?

      1. One thing that has struck me about all this is that people happily submit their cats & dogs to annual ‘boosters’, at cost, but squawk like mad at the idea of having similar for themselves for free..

        1. If cats and dogs started to show side effects similar to those being reported for the vaccination I suspect the RSPCA would have something to say and owners wouldn’t be quite so keen.

          2. I rather suspect, Peddy, that the cat and dog boosters have been thoroughly tested and any adverse conditions have been evaluated over many years. The veterinary Pharma Companies have NO immunity from responsibility for their products.

      3. All the red marks on my arm had gone as of last evening, yippee, I thought. Well, this morning there is a new one which is rather large. And my ankle and foot are still swollen.
        To celebrate this we have both had texts and emails telling us to book our booster appointments. Yeah, right.

        1. They called me at the early phase of vaccination, and I politely declined the offer. Since then – silence.

          1. I am off out to Asda soonish as the weather tomorrow looks dreadful and we need milk, bread and other refreshments;-) My husband has printed out the pages from the gov.uk site about mask exemption which I will keep in my handbag. It is explicit and will be presented if I get challenged…before I deck the person;-)

        2. I was talking to someone this morning who said she was having problems with pains in her leg; it wasn’t DVT, she claimed. I nearly asked if she’d been double jabbed, but I bet she had.

  70. The MR was about to send AGA man a photo of me having a heart attack when – through the ether – came a text from him saying that he fully booked until his Christmas break – but WILL BE HERE on Monday morning a 11 am and he has booked us for 2 hours.

    Carl has never let us down over three years – by far the most reliable of all the blokes we have had over the last 37 years. He works for himself and is a top chap. The silence was because he is swamped with work.

    So we have have a warm Christmas after all. Je me crois les doigts.

  71. The MR was about to send AGA man a photo of me having a heart attack when – through the ether – came a text from him saying that he fully booked until his Christmas break – but WILL BE HERE on Monday morning a 11 am and he has booked us for 2 hours.

    Carl has never let us down over three years – by far the most reliable of all the blokes we have had over the last 37 years. He works for himself and is a top chap. The silence was because he is swamped with work.

    So we have have a warm Christmas after all. Je me crois les doigts.

        2. No, not half, give him a FullTip.

          PS,
          !f your
          decorators house is perfect
          Builders house needs no work done etc
          and they can come tomorrow,

          Do not use them: No-one else has

  72. 342540 + up ticks,

    breitbert,
    Cocaine Traces Found in UK Parliament Amidst Reports of Widespread Drugs Abuse

    Truth be told they are stressed out NOT knowing what day ENLIGHTENMENT will fall upon their supporter / voters & truthseekers
    commence a levelling up campaign.

        1. Mongo sits on my feet. I have to move every so often as otherwise I’d lose feeling in them, then blood and then they’d go completely.

          1. My late hound used to lean on me. Sometimes, after half an hour, I’d move and he (having fallen asleep) would fall off the settee!

  76. The Russian people are opposed to the “imposition” of ideas like the rights of sexual minorities and “gender diversity,” the speaker of the country’s upper house said on Sunday, calling them “alien values.”
    Speaking on Sunday at a meeting with Fawzia Zainal, the head of Bahrain’s Council of Representatives, Russian Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said that it is unacceptable to put foreign values on a country without taking into account its history, faith, religion, and national characteristics.

    According to Matvienko, who is currently on a three-day working visit to Manama, Russia’s focus is on the “traditional family,” and children are “the main priority of state policy.”

    “They are trying to impose alien values on us. And not only on us, but on the advancement in the world in general,” she said. “It’s sexual minority rights. There are already 85 genders in Europe. It is unacceptable for us,” she said.

  78. Adele’s latest album has received critical acclaim. One review in particular stood out:

    “Fantastic stuff. Every suspect has confessed within minutes of me putting it on.”

    V Putin, Moscow

  79. Well, that’s a bloody big pan of VERY nice tasting chutney quietly bubbling away as I boil off some of the surplus liquid.
    A tad over 2 litres of vinegar, and the best part of 3kg of fruit, made up of apples, quince, pineapple with a few raisins & sultanas and a random selection of whatever spices I found on the spice shelf that looked as if they needed using up.
    A load of jars in the oven & jar lids in a pan of near boiling water to sterilise so it’s feet up time for a little while before jarring the stuff up.

    I’ve been handing out a few jars of my last batch, made last month, to the milkman, postman and the bloke who delivers the newspaper.

    If anyone passing by would like a jar, please feel free to drop in!

      2. Emmm! Some Sainsbury’s curry powder, mixed spice, ginger and a couple of others I can’t remember.
        I tend to pick a basic recipe and then mix, match & modify according to what comes to hand!

        1. The Chuck It All In And Cross Your Fingers school of cookery.
          I am graduate of that the same school.

    3. Another man looking for a syrup in stir.

      Alright, I know it’s not very good. I’m not as witty as you guys.

    4. Another man looking for a syrup in stir.

      Alright, I know it’s not very good. I’m not as witty as you guys.

    1. You’d almost think that poster was ironic! Are people still so brain-washed they’re falling for that rubbish, and with the face of their Dear Leader marketing it??

  82. Why the No. 10 Christmas ‘party’ story matters. 6 December 2021, 4:15pm

    It’s crime week for the government — with Boris Johnson and his ministers set to unveil a range of measures to show how they plan to get tough on law and order. Only the ministers sent out to land that message are themselves facing questions over criminality. The claims of a ‘boozy’ Christmas party of up to 50 people, held last year when the rest of the country was banned from mixing between households, emerged in the Mirror last week but don’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

    I caught this on the BBC 3 O’clock News where the presenter announced it in tones suitable to an audience of retarded underage Teddy Bears who needed to be protected from its horrors! The Drug Trade is to be ended! County Lines crushed! It was utter twaddle; a clear attempt at distraction from the Covid Fiasco!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-the-no-10-christmas-party-story-matters

    1. A distraction that can be used at the same time for govt to posture “See! We really do care about your health!”

    2. More like, County Lines has been made official and will be divvied out among Government chums! The drugs being the injected ones.

    2. There have been several stories lately about people being attacked and losing limbs to crocs/alligators.

      Call me naive – but it seems to me to be very odd to put yourself in such danger. The existence of these reptiles cannot come as a surprise.

      3. Naive – Life is a challenge.
        She’s young but determined to return to Zambia. We are in dire need of plucky teenagers who take risks and live their lives rather than living in fear.

          1. 342540+ up ticks,
            Evening M,
            Maybe the croc, had a valid claim in so far as the “victim” attire consisted of boots ( crocs granny) handbag
            ( crocs) granny).

        3. Her dad is a public school ex army type, so she has probably been ordered to go and kill the croc.

        4. There are risks and risks, PT. Faffing around in water where thee are crocs/alligators seems to me to daft.

    3. 342540+ up ticks,

      Evening P,
      When down that way always carry a picture of a handbag,you get the same reaction as showing a crucifix to many current lab/lib/con/ blm members.

  84. 342540+ up ticks,

    I can see cracks appearing at the top of the dam overseers treacherous structure.

    Dee dee, de, de diddy de de.

    breitbart,

    Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope has accused his own government of “waging” a “propaganda war” on the British people to encourage them to support continuing restrictions.

    Would wager there are NO restrictions on brown envelopes getting the green light,fueled by fools support all the way to the overseas account.

        1. He’s had a tracheostomy this morning and meds were changed from midazolam and morphine to propofol and remifentanil (not sure of spelling) yesterday in preparation for reducing the sedation. It’s all good news at the moment but tomorrow we think they will try to wake him or let him wake up. That’s the next scary thing. He has panic attacks due to IBS anyway and we’re all worried he may panic when he realises he has a tube to breathe through. Prayers needed people.

          1. Hopefully there will be a nurse to take care of him as he wakes up to alleviate the stress. I hope the new meds will be an improvement. Midazolam has unfortunate connotations.

            Will be thinking of you and him.

          3. Is there any chance they could allow one of you to be there if he is woken,to give immediate reassurance ?

          4. I’m sure they wouldn’t let us – not jabbed. His wife would have first call of course and I’ll suggest it to her that’s a good idea. She has been jabbed so it’s worth a try. Thanks for the suggestion. I’m sure they will have nurses and/or doctors there at the time. The staff have been pretty amazing I thank God. And I thank God anyway.

          9. Lord. Horrific list… I’m glad I had dinner before reading that.
            Thoughts & prayer in progress, VW.

  85. Yay …… the interwebby is just sooooooooo caring.
    It’s now fretting about my flabby arms.

    Incidentally, a chum has found this company and her Christmas present to us was a bespoke doormat with “Welcome to Allan Towers” on it.
    Make an Entrance
    help@makeanentrance.com

      1. Some entrancing evening
        You will meet a stranger
        You will meet a stranger
        across a coconut loom,
        And somehow you know,
        you know even then,
        That somehow you’ll see
        them again and again.

    3. I gave one of my French friends a doormat that read “an attack cat lives here”. She loved it!

  86. British soldiers should be visibly deployed near Russian border, says Ukraine. 6 December 2021.

    British soldiers should be visibly deployed near the border with Russia, Ukraine has said, as it suggested Nato’s Anglo-Saxon members were more willing to stand up to Moscow than European allies.

    Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov made the comments amid a Russian troop build-up along his country’s border that has led to fears of an imminent invasion.

    Having provoked Russia, admittedly at the behest of the EU and US, the fix they are in is becoming apparent. They have been abandoned by their “allies” so now they are looking for a few foreign sacrificial goats to encourage support. You can see this in the headlines, “Tommies shelled by Russkies”, a couple of deaths even better. We should not be involved in this in any way. The EU and US thought this up they and their pals should deal with it. It cannot be pointed out too often we have no more friends in Europe than Russia itself. They are the enemies of us both!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/12/06/british-soldiers-should-visibly-deployed-near-russian-border/

    1. Great idea. Wave a Union Flag. Offer to play foopball…. Ask to see the Red Army’s vaccine passports….

        1. Well they can’t use SWIFT to get paid so they will have to.
          As for US West-coast oil refineries….gold will be acceptable.

    3. We have no friends in the USA either. Most. of the world would do us down, apart from a number of former parts of the Empire…

  87. OT – I don’t know if it is just me – but uncertainty makes me feel seriously unwell. For three days I have been 150% uncertain about whether or not the AGA chap would come. It interferes with sleeping; puts me off my food; and makes me very bad company for the MR. I just can’t help myself.

    When the chap phoned to say that he’d come next Monday – the whole pall of misery lifted – as if by magic.

    Serious question: does anyone else get into this sort of state when confronted by uncertainty over which you have no control?

    1. Me. There is nothing like being able to take action for making one feel better.

      Edit: changed sentence structure.

      1. Even when afterwards you realise that taking action was probably the wrong thing to do!
        I completely identify with that…

    3. Try renovating an entire house and making critical decisions based on contractors promises. Guaranteed to ensure no sleep after 4:00am for months on end….. 🙁

      1. I can cap that by selling a house in France in the run up to the plague arriving – and then having to deal with the last month in a nightmare of forms, prohibitions on normal activities, chaos etc etc.

        1. I remember how upset you got over the downvoting and the loss of all our upvotes. That was nothing compared to the stress of selling up and your drive home.

          2. You let the minor irritations upset you – but perhaps that was because of the major stress at the time.

        2. I don’t have the strength to describe all the broken promises. This one will serve as an example: Having promised to be on site at 7:30 a.m. the glazing contractor arrived shortly before 8:00 (not bad). He explained the work he was planning to do – so far so good. At 2:00pm got a call from our Architect to say that the glazing chappie had removed one window and because it was raining had buggered off at 10:30 am. Our main contractors had put a tarp in place to stop water ingress. I’ve no idea when the glazer will be back…..Other trades can’t finish their work until all the windows and doors are in situ.

          2. Is your architect “supervising”? If so, remind him of his obligations and liabilities…(a lawyer writes).

          4. Tell the glazier that you have photographic evidence of his negligence which may used in court.

          5. Thank you. I’ll keep that one up my sleeve in the event of more disappointments. I can’t terminate his services just yet as the lead time to get replacement windows and doors is horrendous at the moment let alone the shut down over the Christmas & New Year holidays…

    4. Haven’t we all had that over the last two years? We don’t know what they will be imposing on us next.

      2. Frankly, I’ve got to the stage where I don’t care what they’ll impose next – I’m going to ignore it, come what may!

    5. Keep telling yourself that it’s outside your direct control, easier said than done I know, but it’s the best way that I know.

      1. I think it is combined with a (completely irrational) view that it is somehow my failure – because I lack the technical skill to put it right. Daft, I know, but there it is. I doubt that I’ll change now.

        2. You Tube will have tutorials. Teach yourself. You can’t be that thick……………..erm.

        3. Bill, we can’t all be experts in everything. As a contractor’s quantity surveyor, contract law was something which I needed to be aware of. But I was always more interested in the practical aspects of construction. To expand on that, I like to know how everything ticks. In addition to being director of music for the united parish, I also do all the printing. Despite living in a retirement bungalow, I have the parish (colour laser multifunctional copier / ) printer in my largest cupboard. It cost bugger all on eBay.

          So, for a few weeks, it has thrown up a fault code, saying “switch off and on again”, otherwise call an engineer”. Saturday morning, it died. No chance of an engineer, and >110 copies to print.

          So I searched Google for the fault code. At least a dozen YouTube videos appeared. Mostly in other than English. I took the advice of three of them, and I can now add photocopier engineer to my CV (until the next fault).

          Your skill set differs from mine. But we’ve both done pretty well from our abilities. And you are better able to use ladders than me, these days (just saying)…

    7. It’s anxiety, Bill. Some of us are more susceptible than others. I like to think I’m in the latter group. I find that if I lower my expectations, I’m generally pleasantly surprised. As for control… I know folks who have to be in control. Rightly or wrongly. I’m surrounded by control freaks. I generally ignore them. Life’s too short.

    8. Yes. Was just on the phone to my friend, she woke up at 2 am and didn’t go back to sleep, worrying about a particularly stressful appointment.

        1. I use a herbal sleep aid containing valerian and passion flower. It’s quite good and means i get a good nights sleep.

      2. Had that once, about a report. In the end, I got up and went to the office at 2am and dealt with it, finishing by 16:00.
        No point in worrying awake if we can deal with it. If we can’t deal with it, that’s stressful.

    9. I think we all dread the unknown. Present fears are less than horrible imaginings…and all that (Thanks Will!) Decide which things you can control and deal with, but realise there are things you cannot control (like the climate!) and try to put them at the back of your mind.

    10. We are living through the New Age of Anxiety..

      The Age of Anxiety, poem by W.H. Auden, published in 1947. Described as a “baroque eclogue,” the poem was the last of Auden’s long poems; it won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1948.

    11. Try ‘Controlling Stress for Dummies’.
      I’ve no idea if it exists, but it probably does.

    12. I do. I flooded the bathroom when a sink overflowed and this put out one of the fuse board busbars. This left us without use of the Rayburn and other essential circuits. After four or five days we secured an electrician to test and reconnect everything by which time the circuit had dried out.

      Similarly we had a problem with the Rayburn thermostat such that it superheated the heating and hot water. This was following the annual service. The overflow from the expansion tank was discharging litres of piping hot water down the outside wall of the house. A long wait for the service engineer to sort it. Meanwhile we were advised to switch the Rayburn off leaving us with no hot water and no cooking apart from a two ring electric job and a defective immersion heater which decided to pack up.

      I reckon it is common for folk to feel anxiety at the uncertainties. Would we have needed to buy a new Rayburn since our model was discontinued when the company was bought by Americans?

      This week we are having a new pumping station fitted to replace the existing one and with a new control panel. The wait has been about six months during which time I have had to operate the previously automatic pumps by hand (on the defective control panel) every couple of days.

      Yup. Real angst not helped by the fact that the house is presently on the market.

        1. On the question of taps the hot tap on the basin, though barely fitted for two years, was leaking litres of water. I bought replacement cartridges but these were small 1/2 inch whereas the basin is large and fitted with 3/4 inch taps with a longer throw, so had to be returned. I then bought new taps similar to the leaking tap and the hot tap was fitted by a local plumber.

          The basin overflowed because I ran both taps and was distracted. Bloody stupid of me I confess.

          Edit: In the days of leather washers and then plastic washers I was happy to use my reseating tool when replacing the washers. Ceramic cartridge washers are best left to plumbers to fit.

      2. I feel your pain. cm. The ex phoned me one morning a few years ago. As it happens, I was attending the church loo cesspit being pumped out. he gist was that Second Son was in the shower, when the lights went out. Boiling water cascaded through the Kitchen ceiling. Then the burglar alarm went off..

        So, I had put a shower pump in the airing cupboard. Unfortunately, the immersion heater thermostat, and any overheat protection, had failed, leading to the ‘boiling sound’ which she dismissed. She had inadvertently left the immersion heater on. The thermostat failed. So the cylinder was close to boiling point. The hoses on the shower pump softened with the heat, and became detached. And leaked. Massively. Next, the burglar alarm went off. The water sloshing around in the ceiling had caused the RCD to trip. Soon after, Plod turned up. He was of no use; a plumber would have been infinitely more useful.

    14. Yes.
      Weeks of worry about the pigs now over, I’m utterly wrecked now I can relax.
      Now, about Mother…

    15. Yes , always .

      Now the prospect of 4 x 400ft wind turbines , that I and many others had protested about nearly 10 years ago ,which will overlook the whole of the Purbecks , have arrived on lorries , and will be erected in the New Year, and will probably be seen from across the water on the IOW, plus the prospect of 1,000 homes which will probably get planning permission in a field a couple of hundred yards away from our house .

      Oh yes , I do fret quite abit these days .

    16. I used to, but now I recognise I have no control over it, so there is no point stressing over it.

      1. That is what I want to be able to do – but even after 80 years I still can’t make it work.

  88. Wine o’clock just struck. Have a cheerful evening planning your Christmas party…

    A demain.

    1. I’m going to the next door neighbours for New Year. I will be making a giant Pavlova as my contribution and will also be taking the candy floss machine for a laugh.

      Later when we are all jolly we will play ‘Crimes against Humanity’. It is vile but very funny.

        1. It is funny when people draw a card and sweet and innocent they may be but have to say something quite vile and convince you they are being truthful.

          2. Aha…I’ve only played it twice. Last New Year and the one before that. Normally after eating and drinking all evening. :@)

          3. Yes; the drinking, while excellently conducive to a good game, does mean the details end up a bit hazy.

            I have a very funny anecdote re CfH which isn’t suitable for public consumption; I’ll save it for when I next see you x

        2. Round here it’s alcoholic drink, coal and cake! I thought bread and salt was a Russian thing.

  90. At last Scientists have found Hard evidence of a cure:

    ‘The impotence pill Viagra may be a useful treatment against Alzheimer’s disease, say US researchers who have been studying its effects in the brain.‘

    1. “Blimey, wot’s this? Damned if I remember.”
      “Not to worry,dear. I’ve got a brain ache”

    2. Yes, and Sad Dick, mayor of London, does it very badly. The Norwegian tree in Trafalgar Square has been deliverately hung with lights so as to make it look dreadful.

      B*stard.

    3. Yes, and Sad Dick, mayor of London, does it very badly. The Norwegian tree in Trafalgar Square has been deliverately hung with lights so as to make it look dreadful.

      B*stard.

    2. What was the weight of the raw ingredients – and what was the weight of the finished product? Roughly.

  94. BBC Six O’Clock news:

    Matt Hancock says he failed in his leadership.
    No, it wasn’t that – he was caught having a snog on an official camera.

    1. He was also not entirely truthful about the PPE contract to his pub landlord buddy. He said it was a complete fabrication. It turns out that the contract was awarded to a front company and then subbed to his pal. I wonder how much the kickback was worth.

          1. Hi Phizzee – just to say I emailed HL this evening to ask her to send you my email address. No rush, I am sure you have plenty going on.

          5. But since he was Health Secretary he would have known that Pfizer’s hypertension drug worked so well on other parts of the body that thay called it Viagra.

    5. It was the Midazolam that really did it, word was getting around and getting louder so he had to be taken out of the public eye to calm the noise.

      1. Midazolam is used for sedation before diagnostic and therapeutic medical procedures

        Does snogging qualify as a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure?
        I do believe it is used for dogs!

    1. Millions being dead from COVID by Christmas becomes an insignifance when your AGA’s gone out.

        1. But ironically when your AGA’s out on on Chritmas day you know your goose is cooked.

  96. Back from Asda- no challenges so nobody had to be duffed up. Blimey, it ain’t half cold out there.

      2. I went today because tomorrow’s weather looks diabolical. So cellar and fridge restocked. I have nothing but high praise for the cabbies round here. In almost 6 years we have only encountered a couple of surly, unhelpful ones. The rest are great.

    3. Aldi last evening (Monday) at about 8 PM. Security guard stood just inside the door masked up but said nothing when I went in mask less. Masked/unmasked for customers was about 50/50 and some staff members were unmasked.

    2. If you click the ‘Trailer’ heading on this website you will get a flavour of the background music (which is different) for each of the 10 levels. Each level provides a semi-therapeutic Time Pass if you like this sort of thing…

      https://www.osmos-game.com

      And you can download a fee demo for your type of computer. (To buy the game is mere pennies)

    3. Oddly enough, Plum, I’ve just downed a large sherry. I felt I needed it after the Parish Council meeting!

    1. OK so he is in Poland. Is this event the launch of the Polish Corona committee? Is RF launching any legal action?
      I would like to know more about it!

  99. Hardly coming as a surprise in a world where the unvaccinated are now treated as subhuman scum, moments ago New York City announced it will require residents to be fully vaccinated to access indoor dining, entertainment and fitness – a stricter rule than the current requirement for people to have received at least one dose. And yes, the new rule also means that kids age 5-11 will also be required to have at least one shot to enter restaurants, de Blasio said.

    1. How can anyone not see that this isn’t science, it’s authoritarian BS?
      What on earth use does it do to give a child one shot of an injection that doesn’t stop them catching or passing on covid?

      2. I just hope that a couple of states relax all draconian restrictions so the world can see who is right and who is wrong in tackling this novel virus.

        1. I don’t think truth even matters any more. I have a horrible feeling that the next attack will be launched in January, just as people start to see through the BS.

          2. No, nor me. I just saw a video of the Governor (?) promising no one would need a vaccine passport etc.

      3. 342540+ up ticks.
        Evening BB2,

        There is a reason, it surely gives the peoples political enemas a reading on what percentage of the peoples are in abeyance
        signaling if the smoke / mirror campaign is
        succeeding or stalling.

        1. I think we don’t know yet. What we do know is that when the spike protein was injected into rats, 13% of it ended up in the ovaries. And we know that if you have a jab during pregnancy (I’m not sure if it covers the whole 9 months or not) you are more likely to have a miscarriage.

          2. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10279341/Italy-begins-lockdown-unvaccinated-double-jabbed-able-participate-public-life.html

            Italy begins lockdown of the unvaccinated: Only the
            double jabbed will be able to fully participate in public life using a
            ‘super green pass’ from TODAY
            Unvaccinated Italians will not be allowed into indoor restaurants, theatres, museums and public events from Monday
            The ‘Super Green Pass’ requires Italians to be double jabbed rather than providing a negative Covid test result
            Restrictions follow a steady rise in Covid cases and fears over Omicron variant

    2. Well actually, Ms Patel, laws to stop this illegal activity have been in place for some yeras. The people you oversee, you know, the police forces, have fallen down on the job. They did not have enough time to monitor social media 24/7 and catch drug dealers, armed gangsters and child exploiters, so they concentrated on offences on social media. What is going to change?

      Edited to correct poor typing.

    5. The ONLY way to stop gangs is to hunt them down in the streets, in their homes, in their haunts and wipe them out with machine-gun fire. No warnings, no arrests, no cautions, no courts, lots of justice.

      They operate in a primitive world, therefore primitive justice is required to extinguish them. Nothing else will do.

  102. John Ward on top form:

    Yes, it’s the dreaded Omicron.

    There’s just one teensy-weensy problem when it comes to positioning it as the cloven-hoofed Beelzebub rendered incarnate: it doesn’t actually kill anyone, as such. But yesterday, the French print media said la belle France was in ‘A race against the clock’ to stop Omicron ‘taking hold’. Taking hold of what, exactly – your hand to shake it warmly?

    Not to be outdone, a ‘senior expert government advisor’ in the UK said it was “too late to stop Omicron, as the horse has now bolted”. Too late to stop it galloping about and giving the odd equestrian a minor sniffle, perhaps.

    This has now gone miles beyond silly.

    Predictably, by late afternoon Pfizer was quick to assure us that a little tweek here and there of their product would stifle Omicron. My personal reaction was, “Leave the poor little bugger alone, and the chances are, it’ll leave Homo sapiens alone”.

    Why did the promoters of global fear choose to call it Omicron – as opposed to, for example, iota…a fitting name for a tiny non-event?

    There’s a wicked part of me that suspects they liked the idea of omnipotence – probably even the sound of it as something globally ethereal and yet disturbingly powerful. Almost, in fact, as if it might be a huge military conglomerate run by Vladimir Putin: engaged in a devilish plan to enslave the saintly powers of goodness as represented by Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Hollywood, Prince William, Sajid Javid, Mario Draghi and Christine Lagarde.

    2. Telford has discovered ONE case of OMG (and the victim is self-isolating), but the email went full-on “get jabbed, save the town” mode.

  103. Never a truer word – Mr ward again:

    “In Britain, Il Duce Borisini is now setting about a demolition of the concept of judicial decisions overturning illegal political proposals, as the UK moves ever closer to becoming a Singaporean corporate State. The development caused barely a ripple on the social pond, apart from one article in the Guardian that missed the point so completely, I wanted to drown myself in the toilet after reading it. The data released last week about the percentage of citizens “vaccinated” against Covid19 (but taking up hospital beds with, um, Covid19) was surreal, but the Government toughed it out….and of course, Labour shrank from pointing out the obvious. If the history of this calumny does ever get published, what’s left of the working class will revile the Left and its manic metropolitan obsession with multicultural LGBTQ racist homophobia among the Under Fives for evermore.”

    2. You haven’t told us where, when or if it happened.
      Assuming it actually happened; did anyone enjoy it?

  107. A further step in locking down the unvaccinatrd.

    The province on New Brunswick has just introduced new controls that allow all stores to require proof of vaccination before shoppers are allowed in.

    Not a mandatory restriction yet but it certainly tightens the screws and will make life just about impossible for anyone unwilling to show that little certificate.

    Oh by the way, the provincial government claims to be conservative.

  108. Evening, all. Just back from the Parish Council meeting. The LD voting councillor sat there with his mask on the whole time (couldn’t hear a word he was saying) with eyes (the only part of him visible) like thunder, wanted the door open for ventilation and would have preferred we met by Zoom! TBF he was the only one who kept his mask on. The rest of us had decided we needed to get on with life. The Chairman opined that we would be meeting by Zoom after Christmas. Enough is enough!

  109. 342540+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Hope for end to Brexit fishing wars as UK expected to offer olive branch to France

    sounds very ominous for the United Kingdom.

        1. 342576+ up ticks,
          Morning KP,
          Still very pro eu,have been openly
          since the nine month delay via treacherous treesa.

      1. Thanks Conners, I obviously missed that. As always they will be in my heart and thoughts.

        1. He’s having a tracheotomy and they are hoping to bring him out of his induced coma (he’s on 35% oxygen). We hope that someone he knows will be there with him so he doesn’t have a panic attack.

  113. ‘You can’t keep stopping and starting the economy every time there is a new variant’: Theresa May blasts Boris’s handling of Omicron and demands the Government ‘learns to live’ with changes in Covid.

    DM Story : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10281365/Former-Prime-Minister-Theresa-slams-Governments-handling-Omicron-variant.html

    I agree entirely with what she says.

    But Evila May is entirely untrustworthy: all she wants to do is slag off Boris Johnson just as Mendacius Heath sniped at Margaret Thatcher when she had replaced him.

    The last time I agreed with Mrs May was when she said: “Brexit means Brexit” and “No deal is better than a bad deal.” But then I did not fully realise that she was a liar.

    1. Why do ex PMs interfere so much .

      Tony Blair was putting the world to rights on Radio 4 yesterday , he was given so much airtime by the Beeb , the thought of him made me feel physically sick .
      He has proved to all that he is an absolute hypocrite.

      Cameron Clegg and the Maybot have injured Britain badly .. They have unleashed the very devil to cause havoc in our midst.

      Auguries of Innocence
      BY WILLIAM BLAKE

      To see a World in a Grain of Sand
      And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
      Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
      And Eternity in an hour
      A Robin Red breast in a Cage
      Puts all Heaven in a Rage
      A Dove house filld with Doves & Pigeons
      Shudders Hell thr’ all its regions
      A dog starvd at his Masters Gate
      Predicts the ruin of the State
      A Horse misusd upon the Road
      Calls to Heaven for Human blood
      Each outcry of the hunted Hare
      A fibre from the Brain does tear
      A Skylark wounded in the wing
      A Cherubim does cease to sing
      The Game Cock clipd & armd for fight
      Does the Rising Sun affright
      Every Wolfs & Lions howl
      Raises from Hell a Human Soul
      The wild deer, wandring here & there
      Keeps the Human Soul from Care
      The Lamb misusd breeds Public Strife
      And yet forgives the Butchers knife
      The Bat that flits at close of Eve
      Has left the Brain that wont Believe
      The Owl that calls upon the Night
      Speaks the Unbelievers fright
      He who shall hurt the little Wren
      Shall never be belovd by Men
      He who the Ox to wrath has movd
      Shall never be by Woman lovd
      The wanton Boy that kills the Fly
      Shall feel the Spiders enmity
      He who torments the Chafers Sprite
      Weaves a Bower in endless Night
      The Catterpiller on the Leaf
      Repeats to thee thy Mothers grief
      Kill not the Moth nor Butterfly
      For the Last Judgment draweth nigh
      He who shall train the Horse to War
      Shall never pass the Polar Bar
      The Beggars Dog & Widows Cat
      Feed them & thou wilt grow fat
      The Gnat that sings his Summers Song
      Poison gets from Slanders tongue
      The poison of the Snake & Newt
      Is the sweat of Envys Foot
      The poison of the Honey Bee
      Is the Artists Jealousy
      The Princes Robes & Beggars Rags
      Are Toadstools on the Misers Bags
      A Truth thats told with bad intent
      Beats all the Lies you can invent
      It is right it should be so
      Man was made for Joy & Woe
      And when this we rightly know
      Thro the World we safely go
      Joy & Woe are woven fine
      A Clothing for the soul divine
      Under every grief & pine
      Runs a joy with silken twine
      The Babe is more than swadling Bands
      Throughout all these Human Lands
      Tools were made & Born were hands
      Every Farmer Understands
      Every Tear from Every Eye
      Becomes a Babe in Eternity
      This is caught by Females bright
      And returnd to its own delight
      The Bleat the Bark Bellow & Roar
      Are Waves that Beat on Heavens Shore
      The Babe that weeps the Rod beneath
      Writes Revenge in realms of Death
      The Beggars Rags fluttering in Air
      Does to Rags the Heavens tear
      The Soldier armd with Sword & Gun
      Palsied strikes the Summers Sun
      The poor Mans Farthing is worth more
      Than all the Gold on Africs Shore
      One Mite wrung from the Labrers hands
      Shall buy & sell the Misers Lands
      Or if protected from on high
      Does that whole Nation sell & buy
      He who mocks the Infants Faith
      Shall be mockd in Age & Death
      He who shall teach the Child to Doubt
      The rotting Grave shall neer get out
      He who respects the Infants faith
      Triumphs over Hell & Death
      The Childs Toys & the Old Mans Reasons
      Are the Fruits of the Two seasons
      The Questioner who sits so sly
      Shall never know how to Reply
      He who replies to words of Doubt
      Doth put the Light of Knowledge out
      The Strongest Poison ever known
      Came from Caesars Laurel Crown
      Nought can Deform the Human Race
      Like to the Armours iron brace
      When Gold & Gems adorn the Plow
      To peaceful Arts shall Envy Bow
      A Riddle or the Crickets Cry
      Is to Doubt a fit Reply
      The Emmets Inch & Eagles Mile
      Make Lame Philosophy to smile
      He who Doubts from what he sees
      Will neer Believe do what you Please
      If the Sun & Moon should Doubt
      Theyd immediately Go out
      To be in a Passion you Good may Do
      But no Good if a Passion is in you
      The Whore & Gambler by the State
      Licencd build that Nations Fate
      The Harlots cry from Street to Street
      Shall weave Old Englands winding Sheet
      The Winners Shout the Losers Curse
      Dance before dead Englands Hearse
      Every Night & every Morn
      Some to Misery are Born
      Every Morn and every Night
      Some are Born to sweet delight
      Some are Born to sweet delight
      Some are Born to Endless Night
      We are led to Believe a Lie
      When we see not Thro the Eye
      Which was Born in a Night to perish in a Night
      When the Soul Slept in Beams of Light
      God Appears & God is Light
      To those poor Souls who dwell in Night
      But does a Human Form Display
      To those who Dwell in Realms of day

  114. ‘You can’t keep stopping and starting the economy every time there is a new variant’: Theresa May blasts Boris’s handling of Omicron and demands the Government ‘learns to live’ with changes in Covid.

    DM Story : https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10281365/Former-Prime-Minister-Theresa-slams-Governments-handling-Omicron-variant.html

    I agree entirely with what she says.

    But Evila May is entirely untrustworthy: all she wants to do is slag off Boris Johnson just as Mendacius Heath sniped at Margaret Thatcher when she had replaced him.

    The last time I agreed with Mrs May was when she said: “Brexit means Brexit” and “No deal is better than a bad deal.” But then I did not fully realise that she was a liar.

        1. Thanks Belle, my mother liked G&S but I have never been a fan. Am listening to the Christmas segment of Handel’s Messiah right now and singing along. Out neighbours to our left are somewhat deaf which is a benefit to them in this instance;-)
          Trouble is that I am very tired but have found that being overtired is a detriment to falling asleep. Shall head to sleep very soon and hope the ZZZs overtake me.

  116. Good night, everyone.

    This afternoon I watched THE POWER OF THE DOG (starring Benedict Cumberbatch and a fine cast) with two friends at the weekly “Wrinklies” Film Club. All three of us would highly recommend it.

  117. Morning Folks –

    In the Weird Wild World outside of Nottl:

    “Here’s What You Need to Remember: “The Chinese have plans to at least double their (nuclear)arsenal by the end of the decade. They are departing from what has been known as a minimalist theory,” Gen. Timothy Ray, Commander, Air Force Global Strike Command, told reporters at the 2021 Air Force Association Symposium.

    BTL Comment:
    BelleDelphine
    1 hour ago

    ‘Russia and China should remember that US nuclear subs are now staffed by very unstable pink haired LGBTQ personnel strung out on hormone drugs and when they aren’t having sex in the engine room they are in the middle of lovers quarrels’

    We seem to be living in very ‘Interesting times’ …….

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