Tuesday 7 December: An idea for getting housebound folk vaccinated without using GPs’ time

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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1,001 thoughts on “Tuesday 7 December: An idea for getting housebound folk vaccinated without using GPs’ time”

  1. Yes, an oldie:

    Was She Worth It?

    These three guys go to a prostitute’s place to get some action.

    They line up outside her room and go in one at a time. The first guy goes in, then emerges a half hour later with a big smile on his face.

    “How was she?” his buddies ask.

    “She’s great!” he replies. “I gave her a hundred dollars, then she put some whip-cream on my dick and ate it all up! It was awesome!”

    So the second guy goes in. A half hour later, he too emerges with a big smile on his face.

    “How was she?” his buddies ask.

    “She’s great!” he replies. “I gave her a hundred and fifty dollars, then she put some whip-cream on my dick, put some chocolate sauce on that, and then she ate it all up! It was incredible!”

    So the third guy goes in. A half hour later, he emerges with a look on his face that can only be described as puzzled shame.

    “How was she?” his buddies ask.

    “Horrible!” he replies
    .
    “What are you talking about?” his buddies ask. “What happened?”

    “Well, I gave her two hundred dollars, then she put some whip-cream on my dick, put some chocolate sauce on that, and then she put some bananas and chopped peanuts on there, and she topped it off with a cherry.”

    “Wow!” his buddies reply. “What’s so horrible about that?”

    “Well,” he replies. “It looked so good to me I ate the fuckin’ thing myself!”

    1. Ditto here.
      Slowly getting brighter against the overcast, but relatively calm at the moment.

      1. Never mind that, BoB (good morning btw) how about the temperature at the bottom of your yard?

    2. There’s no calm on the Costa Clyde this morning; sleet blowing in from the east at a fair rate of knots. Golf clubs have been stood down for the day.

  3. An idea for getting housebound folk vaccinated without using GPs’ time

    Sounds like the doctors aren’t too keen on vaccinating people to me, maybe they are signed up to the Hippocratic oath or something.

  5. Good morning.
    Yesterday, I said how people in my work test themselves for corona, and Conway opined that they are brainwashed with the propaganda.
    I wanted to share my observation, that actually it is even worse than that. There are at least two colleagues who are not high risk, and who understand perfectly well that we are drifting in a very dark direction, and yet (inexplicably to me), they still went out and got vaccinated as soon as the vaccines became available to them
    They are both aware of the moral danger of punishing the unvaccinated, and have chosen to put themselves in the “good” group, even though they disapprove of stirring up hatred against the “bad” group. Perhaps they believe that the injections are neutral, safe and offer good protection, I don’t know.
    But at least one of them said that he only got vaccinated because he coaches a youth football team. Not sure what the motive was there – does he think that parents wouldn’t let their children be coached by an unvaccinated person? If so, then he is fully aware of how bad the situation is.
    The other one got vaccinated because he wanted to travel easily.
    The whole subject has been taboo for discussion since the early summer when politicians started playing the blame game, but those were their views then.

    1. There are at least two colleagues who are not high risk, and who understand perfectly well that we are drifting in a very dark direction, and yet (inexplicably to me), they still went out and got vaccinated as soon as the vaccines became available to them.

      Morning BB. The urge to join the crowd is almost irresistible in Human Nature. It at least ensures you will not be singled out!

      1. I suppose it must be that, but how can you join the crowd when you know that the crowd is about to do a very bad thing, especially when there is still time to sway what happens?
        They are NOT walking into it with their eyes shut. They know perfectly well what is being done.
        They don’t even want to try to resist it.
        People like that are the most dangerous for society – they will go along with any authoritarian stuff for a quiet life.

        1. People like that are the most dangerous for society – they will go along with any authoritarian stuff for a quiet life.

          Yes. All tyrannies are built on the backs of such people.

          1. As this one has been. We are living under a tyranny now. It is not entirely clear to everyone yet as the tyrants have not yet exercised their full power. We have been prepared. We have been made accustomed to following orders, no matter how silly. Now we are ready to put each other into camps, to approve vicious punishment of the innocent and free,

          2. Yesterday I went in to a supermarket, three different shops, and on two buses – all without wearing a mask. Nowhere was I challenged, although most others did wear a mask. I also noticed that on the High Street we were back to most everyone wearing a mask, even though numbers had previously dropped from around 90% in the summer to around 10% in the past six months. I consider it my civic duty to encourage the percentages to creep back towards 90%-plus, by example. I believe most people share my views, but are too frightened (Project Fear) to “play safe” and obey Boris’ ever-changing dictates.

          5. I was in town yesterday and did not wear a mask. All the friends I met did. Most people in the street were masked. Most people seem to accept the damned things as normal. I was challenged in our local post office by the grumpy woman but nowhere else.

          6. Excellent! Each of us in our own ways and towns are working to return things to normal.

          8. Yesterday I went in to a supermarket, three different shops, and on two buses – all without wearing a mask. Nowhere was I challenged, although most others did wear a mask. I also noticed that on the High Street we were back to most everyone wearing a mask, even though numbers had previously dropped from around 90% in the summer to around 10% in the past six months. I consider it my civic duty to encourage the percentages to creep back towards 90%-plus, by example. I believe most people share my views, but are too frightened (Project Fear) to “play safe” and obey Boris’ ever-changing dictates.

      1. SWMBO the same. She wanted to visit her parents for Xmas, and take part in scattering her brother’s ashes. But it didn’t work out. Travel is too uncertain.

  6. Two Met police officers jailed over photos of murdered sisters. 7 december 2021.

    Two Metropolitan police officers who “dehumanised” two black murder victims “for their own amusement” by taking and sharing photos from the scene where they lay murdered have each been jailed for two years and nine months.

    Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, were ordered to guard the scene in a London park where two sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found stabbed to death in June 2020.

    The Old Bailey in London heard that instead they took photos, some showing the bodies, and shared them in two WhatsApp groups, calling the victims “dead birds”. One – a group “called the A team” – contained 41 police officers and the other contained friends of Jaffer and was entitled “Covid cunts”.

    The interesting part of this business is not that these men took pictures or the charge of “Misconduct in Public Office” or the sentence but how two such men ever became Police Officers. This was surely not their first offence? There must have been warnings! Are they an anomaly; not only to the police, but wider society, or an example of Modern Man with all its Gender Baggage and Cultural Marxism that has eliminated Basic Decency?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/06/two-met-police-officers-jailed-photos-murdered-sisters-deniz-jaffer-jamie-lewis-nicole-smallman-bibaa-henry

    1. A pair of total tossers who deserved being tossed out of the force, but jailed? When people have committed worse and received a slap on the wrist?

      1. Yes. Terrible crimes against the living merit little punishment. Killing people with your car is a trivial offence.

      2. Like the Wayne Cousins case, what’s the betting these two had been viewed as weird by their work colleagues and even had nicknames that suggested that they were not exactly PC 49?

    2. MB and I just cannot understand their thought processes. How, in even the most twisted mind, was this a good thing to do?
      Even the Nasties destroyed as much evidence as possible in 1945. At least they knew they were doing wrong.
      Moral vacuum are the two words that spring to mind.

      1. ‘Morning Annie. I agree. Integrity seems to be increasingly in short supply for some. I think it is fair to say that, for police officers, trust is particularly important. These two idiots have betrayed it, and their punishment should serve as a clear warning to any others who fail to realise its importance in a job like theirs.

        How they were ever in the police has yet to be discovered.

        1. That will, of course, Hugh, include the “Let’s beat ’em up brigade”.

          Coming to little old people near you.

      2. ‘Morning Annie. I agree. Integrity seems to be increasingly in short supply for some. I think it is fair to say that, for police officers, trust is particularly important. These two idiots have betrayed it, and their punishment should serve as a clear warning to any others who fail to realise its importance in a job like theirs.

        How they were ever in the police has yet to be discovered.

    4. How on Earth did they reckon it was OK to snap and share? What mental process did they have.
      And – what law did they break taht gets them 2 1/2 years in clink? Being crass isn’t yet illegal.

  7. Two Met police officers jailed over photos of murdered sisters. 7 december 2021.

    Two Metropolitan police officers who “dehumanised” two black murder victims “for their own amusement” by taking and sharing photos from the scene where they lay murdered have each been jailed for two years and nine months.

    Deniz Jaffer, 47, and Jamie Lewis, 33, were ordered to guard the scene in a London park where two sisters, Nicole Smallman, 27, and Bibaa Henry, 46, were found stabbed to death in June 2020.

    The Old Bailey in London heard that instead they took photos, some showing the bodies, and shared them in two WhatsApp groups, calling the victims “dead birds”. One – a group “called the A team” – contained 41 police officers and the other contained friends of Jaffer and was entitled “Covid cunts”.

    The interesting part of this business is not that these men took pictures or the charge of “Misconduct in Public Office” or the sentence but how two such men ever became Police Officers. This was surely not their first offence? There must have been warnings! Are they an anomaly; not only to the police, but wider society, or an example of Modern Man with all its Gender Baggage and Cultural Marxism that has eliminated Basic Decency?

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/dec/06/two-met-police-officers-jailed-photos-murdered-sisters-deniz-jaffer-jamie-lewis-nicole-smallman-bibaa-henry

  8. Yesterday, i was on the phone to an elderly lady in her 90s. She mentioned that she was wearing a coat in the house, because it was so cold. The reason was not the cost – she believes that the planet is in crisis, and was too frightened to switch on her gas central heating because it would generate CO2.
    I said I thought the CO2 theory is a load of nonsense, and she should just be warm, but the religion is too deep, and I could tell she didn’t believe me.
    When I think of all those landowners, politicians, broadcasters, charidee bosses and third rate academics greedily raking in the profits for pushing this scam, it makes me very angry indeed.

    1. ‘Morning, bb2. Me too! When the history books are written, ordinary sane people will wonder how on earth we got ourselves into this stupid and damaging mess. Due to the media’s one-sided view we will all be tarred with the same brush.

    2. That is terribly sad. Poor lady, at her great age, she needs more heat than most of us. Keep plugging away at telling her the truth.
      When we used to visit my dear late Mum and mother-in-law, their homes were so hot we had to remove layers while they were ‘just right’.

      1. Thanks NTN

        The thing I most dreaded about a storm at Christmas was the AGA going out.
        Thankfully an AGA owning technician said the balanced flue had not been properly assembled so we invested in the latest fan assisted gas AGA with three gas oven, two electric and four gas rings.

        1. “We invested in… three gas ovens”. Well, clearly Angie you are one of the Global Warming deniers, and your very actions prove that you are a Nazi!
          :-))

          7. I propose to go off grid and have a propane tank buried under the lawn in the garden.
            If you can’t see something then it’s not there!

      1. Most of that will miss us too. We live too far south from the stuff that comes from the north, we are too far north from the stuff that comes up from the continent and gives Kent and southern counties a hard time; we are too far east for weather coming in from the west and too far west for weather that covers Norfolk and Suffolk. We are also in the lee of the most easterly outcrop of the chiltern chalk ridge. From a weather point of view it is a very boring place to live. And probably from other points of view too.

  10. An update on my friend in Germany, one of whose primary school children tested positive at the school yesterday:
    my friend was on her first day back at work for a couple of weeks, as her children had been at home with a cold (testing negative for covid), and before that, they were quarantined because someone else in the class tested positive.
    So she was called in the morning to pick both her children up from school. She got an appointment for a PCR test early afternoon, the whole family went there (they have no car). Then she had to take them home, and by mid afternoon, she could log into her work.
    She didn’t know whether to cancel all their appointments for today, and was having to home school the children, including preparing one for a test.
    Mid-evening, the PCR test results came back – all negative.
    She had given up on trying to work, and took the day as a precious day from her annual leave.

    That is how a productive work day, and a precious day in two children’s education was completely wasted due to this covid BS and the inaccurate tests.

    1. Disruption is the name of the game. Behavioural scientists in SAGE have the disruption agenda and are advising Johnson et al. Lockdowns, tiers, what appear to be nonsensical rules e.g. masks in shops but not in pubs, small shops forced to close but the ‘big-boys’ allowed to trade etc. Mask wearing disrupts normal social interaction and children are particularly susceptible, hence all-day masking in schools.
      It’s an attack on society by those elected to represent us and is evil in its intent. All the MPs, of whatever party, who support Johnson’s actions are guilty of abandoning their duty to their electorate. What happened to doing research before slavishly following this disreputable government’s line? Hiding behind, “It’s covid,” and specious claims it’s all to do with health will not save them. This most certainly is the worst Parliament of my lifetime, perhaps the worst since Cromwell took action.

      1. Definitely. You only have to compare it to Parliament in the 80s, which was a much livelier affair. This lot are dead from the neck upwards.

      2. Old Noll had his good points: can you imagine any of our present-day politicians being this articulate – let alone possessing the insight into how decayed our country has become – to make this speech?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

        In the name of God, go!”

          1. He was a man with beliefs.
            Whatever you think of his faith, we certainly have nobody with any belief – other than the right to fatten their bank balance – in the west nowadays.

  11. The death of Europe. Spiked 7 December 2021.

    Europe is on a precipice. It has marched, blindly, towards something very much resembling tyranny. Austria will shortly criminalise those who refuse the Covid vaccine. Germany looks set to follow. Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, is wondering out loud if every member state should do likewise and make offenders of those who reject this form of medication. In Italy you are deprived of your livelihood rather than your liberty if you say no to vaccination: the unvaxxed are not permitted to work. Anywhere. In Greece, everyone over the age of 60 must pay the government 100 euros for every month they remain unvaxxed. As if the Greek government, in cahoots with its masters in Brussels, had not immiserated Greek pensioners enough already.

    It was ever thus! They have had a brief period of Freedom and Democracy and have now decided it was better before. When Britain had no slaves; when no one could be arrested without showing cause in a court, where no one; no matter what their beliefs, or however mean and lowly, could be hanged without a trial the Torture Dungeons and Concentration Camps of Europe were filled with the Enemies of the State. It was in such countries that the fore runners of the unelected EU rose to power and plotted the conquest and murder of those they thought unworthy. The only real difference is that the UK, has through recent long association, forgotten its own history and has now become a member of this club. Itself a Police State in all but name, it longs to take the final step and make it a fact and join its European Cousins.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/12/06/the-death-of-europe/

    1. It’s almost like Europe is going back to the days when heretics were put to the most painful death for wrong beliefs.

      1. Yes, but there were some rules involved I believe. No blood could be spilt during torture, as a sop to its sanctity I imagine, and so crushing, burning, stretching etc became the norm.

  12. Good morning from a dark & cold Derbyshire. Dry outside and a tad below -1°C, but dry for now.

    I wonder how many consider how dark it is at 07:30 and then consider how, had the clocks not changed, it would be 08:30?

    1. After more than a hundred years of fiddling around with clocks, can we not now accept that no power on Earth, not the United Nations, not the European Union, not Bilderberg, can alter the hours of daylight?

        1. Don’t give them ideas! Besides, the same loons currently have their hands full persuading anyone who will listen that we can alter the world’s climate by generating a lot of hot air on the subject…

  13. Morning all

    An idea for getting housebound folk vaccinated without using GPs’ time

    SIR – You report (December 6) that housebound folk are not being vaccinated.

    Across the country, out-of-hours NHS GP services have brightly coloured, well-equipped cars that are unused during weekdays.

    Is it beyond the wit of managers to use this resource to transport vaccinators to unvaccinated housebound patients?

    Dr Andy Ashworth

    Bo’ness, West Lothian

    SIR – Stan Grabecki (Letters, December 5) asks what has happened to our once fantastic vaccination programme.

    The answer is that the NHS is now running it.

    Anne Andrews

    Malmesbury, Wiltshire

    SIR – I have to agree with James Fletcher (Letters, December 6). At 79, I have not yet been invited to an annual over-75 health check either.

    The decision to allow GPs not to perform this check so as to give them time to perform increased numbers of Covid-19 vaccinations would thus seem unhelpful. Even more so now that many GPs appear to have opted out of giving the booster dose.

    So, if GPs are not giving booster doses, have permission not to perform over-75 health checks, can again see more patients online (with consequent increased frequency of misdiagnosis), let patients wait 20 minutes when calling by telephone, and allow more patients to be seen by other members of the primary care team, it does make one wonder what they are doing with their time.

    Malcolm Freeth

    Retired GP

    Bournemouth, Dorset

    SIR – Yesterday, I received an email from the NHS encouraging me to book a Covid-19 booster jab. The message states that NHS records show that I have not yet had this vaccination.

    The reality is that I had the booster on November 14, and fortunately this is recorded accurately on my NHS app. This evidence of NHS inaccuracy makes me question the Covid vaccination statistics presented daily by the Government.

    Tim Oldfield

    Wye, Kent

    SIR – There is a widespread assumption that all unvaccinated people are anti-vaxxers. This is totally wrong.

    About 10 per cent of the United Kingdom’s 67 million population – a lot of people – are, like me (following a painful experience with the school nurse), needle-phobic. We can’t overcome the fear, but want the vaccine. The Health Secretary is not listening.

    Reassurance only works for a small number of people. Oral vaccines are some time away.

    This problem could easily be solved by offering us a mild sedative, as dentists do, followed by the Covid vaccine.

    Philip Fairless

    Scots Gap, Northumberland

    1. I’m unvaccinated b choice, but am not against anyone else being vacced. It’s your choice. I’m trusting to a well-exercised immune system, supported by high levels of Vit-C & D, and staying out of the path of viruses as best I can. So far, so good – I think due to my being one of the first to be infected, way back in Feb 2020 after a conference at Oslo airport (ruined the skiing holiday, so it did).

  14. Morning again

    Gender counselling

    SIR – The Government is consulting (briefly) on a Bill to outlaw conversion therapy for homosexuals. Good.

    However, transgender activists have persuaded ministers to tack on the outlawing of what they see as “conversion therapy” for gender identity. They insist that any child – irrespective of age – who shows an interest in non-stereotypical activities, and any young person who shows an interest in transitioning, should be “affirmed” in that belief, and that any attempt to help them accept their natal body should be unlawful.

    In other words, they demand that the child or teenager be launched on the path of transitioning, which involves puberty-blocking drugs, progressing to cross-hormone medication and probably surgery.

    This outcome, the activists tell us, is preferable to taking the chance – at least 80 per cent – that the child or young person will come to accept their natal body with gentle counselling.

    Charles Lewis

    London N2

      1. My characteristics are unprotected, so I can therefore legally be thrown to the wolves.

      1. How about treating so-called “gender dysphoria” as the mental illness it really is?

  15. Severe weather warning for UK as Storm Barra set to arrive on Tuesday. 7 December 2021.

    The Met Office has issued severe weather warnings for most of the UK ahead of the arrival of Storm Barra on Tuesday, as thousands of homes remain without power more than a week after Storm Arwen.

    Yellow wind weather warnings are in place across England, Wales and Northern Ireland for Tuesday, with yellow snow warnings in place in southern and western Scotland.

    I’m staying in today. I need the rest anyway and this provides as good an excuse as any!

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

    1. Yellow snow warnings seem a tad OTT; I thought it was common knowledge that everyone knew to avoid yellow snow.

  16. When an aircraft stalls

    SIR – In my letter of November 8, I discussed the Hawk crash at RAF Valley in 2018, which a coroner has now ruled could have been avoided.

    In my view, this coroner has either been misled or taken insufficient advice. A stall-warning system would not have prevented the crash because pre-stall buffet – an aerodynamic vibration – in the Hawk is impossible to ignore. To say that the aircraft stalled without warning must be wrong; the pilot’s airspeed would have been enough of an indication.

    With more than 2,000 hours’ flying experience in the Hawk, I am also sure that the smoke pod would not mask the pre-stall buffet, as the coroner suggested. Yes, one has to be mindful of its additional weight and the impact it has on the stall speed; but when the buffet arrives, especially during a turnback, you are in serious trouble.

    In 1992, I recommended that turnbacks should stop being practised. Had this been accepted, the crash would never have happened.

    Wg Cdr Jeremy Parr RAF (retd)

    Suckley, Worcestershire

    1. When we lived next to RAF Wyton, theCO killed himself and his crew by practicing an asymmetric approach where they pretend an engine has failed. It turned out that more lives were lost pretending than in a real emergency.

      1. Assymetric landings with Canberras were always dodgy. We had one at RAF Watton, luckily one rear seater ejected sideways and lived although he was severely injured – the other rear seater, a Canadian on his last flight before going home, ejected into the ground and the pilot rode it in. I was in the guard of honour at the funerals.
        A second related accident occurred months later when an engine failure on take-off was simulated, one of the rear seaters ejected thinking it was real and remembering the previous accident. He was a RN aviator and had not strapped himself in. He ejected through the frangible hatch, he separated from the seat and his parachute came floating down in front of me but he flew on and landed in the grounds of the Sergeants Mess and died on impact, the ejection seat landed in the MT section narrowly missing a WAAF.
        There are many others

      2. Fortunately we have very good simulators today, which makes the practice turnback in a real aircraft redundant.

        ‘Morning Epi.

    2. A vital part of the turn back exercise is to recognise whether or not the aircraft is going to be able to make it back to the runway to land. This decision is made in the final stages to the manoeuvre. In the case of actual engine failure and a turn back that is not working, an ejection at a safe height is the only option. In this case, the pilot had a serviceable engine but failed to abandon the exercise. That is human error. Jerry P is probably correct in his recommendation.

  18. Me time

    SIR – I wonder how many others are irritated by “It’s Christmas time for you and I” at the end of the new Elton John and Ed Sheeran song.

    Ian Stearn

    Chichester, West Sussex

          1. You think far too much of yourself, Annie (Good morning, btw). It’s all “I, I, I”.

    4. Dear Ian. What on earth do you expect from rushed out Christmas songs? Listen to better music.

      1. Phizzee, you beat I too it – and expressed so much better than me. (See what I did with “me” and “I” there?)

        :-))

          4. You are nobbut a lad. I have run out of puff!

            Are you familiar with Everard Junction” on YouTube? On a wet day, the chap’s videos give hours of harmless fun!

      2. I can’t keep track of all these puns. Those dispensing them seem to be mere sleepers waiting to go off the rails!

    8. Well, Mr Stearn, if you will listen to Sir Reginald Dwight and Edward, you deserve the irritation you have endured.

  19. Where is England now that fools are there……

    Locked up like criminals in a quarantine hotel

    SIR – I flew to South Africa on November 25 with my wife and other family members to attend my brother’s funeral. During the flight, I heard that South Africa was being put back on the red list. I dismissed this, believing that the British Government would never take such impulsive steps.

    Only when we landed and this was confirmed did I realise that ours is no longer a country that makes rational, considered decisions. Once again, Covid hysteria had taken hold.

    Britons I met during my trip felt that this crisis was created by the British Government. South Africans felt sheer disappointment that the reward for disclosing a new variant was a travel ban that would devastate their economy. Will this reaction discourage other countries from doing the same?

    The cancellation of our flights back and unclear requirements for getting home caused huge stress, as did trying to book a quarantine hotel package on the world’s worst website. I have three children being looked after by their grandmothers, who are also incredibly stressed. Their Christmas is ruined. My wife is extremely upset that we will not see our children for nearly a month. We are locked up and paying for the privilege. The food is passable, the rooms tiny, the windows do not open. You can walk in a car park, where guards are stationed, for 25 minutes, twice a day. My wife and I were given bereavement leave and now must have our laptops shipped to us so we can work in a confined space. Has anyone thought about people’s mental health in this situation? Why are we treated like criminals when we have done everything the Government asked? We are double vaccinated, our children are vaccinated, and we did all our tests.

    The huge number of exemptions from quarantine makes a mockery of the whole process. Only about half my plane went into quarantine. And whoever won the government contract for managing it is clearly cutting costs. Staff often have their masks off, and gather passports with no gloves on. I would be more worried about catching Covid in the hotel with shared air conditioning than in South Africa, where masks are mandatory, even outside, and where hand sanitiser is everywhere.

    Andrew Fox

    Bristol

    1. Only when we landed and this was confirmed did I realise that ours is no longer a country that makes rational, considered decisions.

      Not just Covid Mr Fox! Anything else you care to name!

    2. There is urgent research required from South Africa about this latest variant.

      Indications are that it may be a sheep in wolf’s clothing and a benign breakthrough that may finally put this circus to bed. To those who have been vaccinated or have had the disease, it may be no more severe than a common cold, and yet will keep out more vicious strains because of its enhanced transmissability. In effect, for the virus it is a double win – by trading transmissibility for severity, it can infect many more hosts without killing them off.

      The real test are for those who have not been vaccinated or had the disease previously – how will it affect them? If it does not send them to hospital either, then every argument suggests that far from closing down South Africa to travellers, we should be encouraging them.

        1. Given that the Common Cold viruses includes several corona type viruses, the entire gamut of the Wuhan Virus variants could be viewed as variations of the Common Cold.

  24. JetZero

    This means that a zero carbon, non-stop flight could be operated between London and San Francisco, or that passengers could fly around the world from London to Auckland, New Zealand with just one stop, at the same speed and comfort as today’s aircraft.

    The snag with this idea is the same as the one with electric vehicles – will refuelling stops have any carbon free hydogen outlets?

    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-backed-liquid-hydrogen-plane-paves-way-for-zero-emission-flight

      1. But, but, but, you’d be taking wind-power away from the wonderful wind ‘farms’.

        So selfish, Horace.

        1. I know! But I’m not going anywhere, and if I was I’d prefer to go by boat. We know that vast quantities of horrible planet-destroying emissions are poured out by jet planes. It could all be stopped. So why has all the air travel not been stopped? I cannot have a coal fire, a gas fire, or a wood stove is the official government mantra, but I can spend my entire life travelling around the world by jet? Cop that!

      2. With all these wind farms sucking energy from our planet there won’t be any left for sailors.

          2. Start with clothing and shoes. Then bookcases. Move on to drawers. Then the kitchen.

            Keep in mind….do i really need this old thing. Other than a few sentimental items…be brutal.

          3. I find that “Progress not perfection” works best for me. May I suggest you simply go to one corner of a room and work your way round the room in an anti-clockwise direction for just one hour before doing something totally different (something which you find distracting but enjoyable) for the next hour. If you feel up to it, then repeat the process. I spent six hours a day doing this (i.e. clean/read/clean/read/clean/read) and gave myself a pat on the back after each cleaning session. Within a very short time I found that the room was spotless and de-cluttered, the carpet shampooed, and all was ready for Christmas week.

        2. The lovely Saucy Sam (my cleaning lady from down the valley) is ‘doing me’ as I type. She has even cleaned out the shower head using Waitrose descaler and a picture hook/nail. Genius!

      2. I have put off all cleaning due to covid. Mrs Thursday will just have to cope.

        Morning Citroen.

  26. Good Moaning.
    To bath, or not to bath, that is the question.
    Is this a mug of coffee I see before me, the handle towards my hand?

    in short – the plumber rocked up at 08.00 to replace a shower unit that had succumbed to Colchester water.

    (Sorry, Uncle Bill; I didn’t mean to rub salt into the wound.)

  27. Good morning, everyone. Today we are taking the Springer to Fitzpatrick Referrals (SuperVet) for surgical repair of cruciate ligament. The aftermath is no walks for 4 to 6 weeks. She is used to 3 walks a day. She is going to be a very unhappy dog.

    1. Probably asking a silly question:
      Can you get a pair of wheels and harness so she can pull/push herself around?

        1. I have seen them, my concern was that it might harm the other legs due to the type of operation.

        1. I knew they were available, I wondered if there might’ve been a specific reason why she might not be allowed one.

    2. I share your anxiety. Once we had to keep a previous cat indoors, in a cage for 4 weeks. He was not allowed to do anything until his broken leg was fully mended. It was a nightmare for him and us.

    3. Morning, Delboy; let us know how you get on. Well, to be more precise, how the girl gets on.

      1. Our Vet said the waiting list in this area was in months. He said he would ring around to see if he could improve on that. The next morning we had a call from Fitzpatrick Referrals offering the first week in December.

    8. Can you get a trolley or similar so she can go out & exercise the other 3 limbs – or she’ll go daft with inaction, rush about the house, and maybe damage herself again (and the furnishings…).

  28. Good morning, all. Pale sky – a touch of frost. Welcome to the 80th anniversary of the Day that shall live in Infamy. How time flies.

    My friend Mr Rashid’s boy did well in University Challenge.

    Extraordinary that Treason May should say something that most sane people would agree with.

    3. 80 years ago.
      That is a world recognisable to us.
      Go back another 80 years and we are in 1861. Would people in 1941 have found that world as familiar?

      1. No electricity; no internal combustion engines; no telephones; much disease; much childhood death; few lived over 60;

        All a bit like he future as proposed by Carrion and the eco-freaks.

      2. I was thinking about that last week in relation to my grandfather. He was a fisherman and lived in a small village all his life, except when he was at sea. Everything he used involved technology that would have been commonplace in Roman times, or Ur of the Chaldees. The only innovation that impinged on his life was the railway, as fish and oysters were sent by train to London.

  29. What sanctions could the US hit Russia with if it invades Ukraine? 7 December 2021.

    Joe Biden goes into Tuesday’s virtual summit with Vladimir Putin, after days of close consultation with European allies on a joint response to an invasion of Ukraine, armed with a wide range of punitive measures at his disposal.

    There would be increased military support for Kyiv and a bolstering of Nato’s eastern flank, but the primary focus would be on sanctions. The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said they would include “high-impact economic measures that we’ve refrained from taking in the past”.

    Far from encouraging Russia to be “reasonable” these measures, much like those waged against Japan in 1940, will start a war since to acquiesce to them, would in actuality be surrender. Better to fight and take your chances than meekly submit. It is worth bearing in mind that the Russian Federation is immeasurably more powerful than the Japanese Empire was and it has a powerful ally in China who would surely see itself as the next on the list!

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/07/us-russia-sanctions-joe-biden-vladimir-putin

    1. If Russia cut all gas to the West and encouraged the Arabs to cut off oil supplies I think Europe would quickly come to heel.

    2. Would it not be better if the EU, the USA ( and their wee poodle, the UK) told those chaps in the Ukraine the it was their problem and nothing to do with us. They might suggest that Messrs. Shmyhal and Zelenskyy get on a plane* to Russia without any further delay and make things up with the Russians.

      * Or take a train if they are frightened to go by plane.

    3. Or, China may well seize the opportunity to take military action, with the US’ attention in Ukraine.

    4. Fed up with Ukraine. Found one website claiming they had a period of glorious independence in the 17th century and another pointing out that region was conquered by the Turks in 1529 and remained under Ottoman rule until Empress Catherine II took it for Russia in 1792. Yay Catherine say I! They need bringing to heel and as Sos points out, it can be done without war.

  30. Good article by Sherelle Jacobs but: ” Legal eagles are confident that vaccine passports are “proportionate”, given that the vaccines are safe and contribute to herd immunity.”
    The injections are not vaccines and they are killing people and injuring many more.

    1. Contribute to herd immunity? How can that be possible when their efficacy lasts at most six months as evidenced by the ‘booster’ requirement. In addition esteemed doctors are stating that those who took the “vaccine” before May this year are now effectively in the ranks of the non-vaccinated.

      1. Quite ab few holes in the S Jacobs article. If people are “unvaccinated” they are more likely to catch Covid, is the premise. So why has it not happened already? Experience and statistics confirm that masks and distancing do not have any effect in terms of preventing the spread of infection. As we now know that the vaccine has no effect on stopping the spread, why has everyone not had Covid by now?

        “Vaccines” do not work. The soi-disant “vaccines” need to be replenished every six months. Extrapolating from what we know, our experience to date and the information from vaccine producers, this will continue in perpetuity.
        If a car manufacturer produced a new model of car and sold it on the much-trumpeted basis that it only needed to be filled up once with petrol. Thereafter it would never need to be refuelled. Except that was not true, and the cars ran out of petrol and stopped. Within a couple of weeks those who had purchased the car would be mobbing the premises of the car manufacturer asking for their money back.
        We won’t be getting our money back.

        1. I read the first couple of paragraphs and gave up after reading the unvaccinated have done this, are responsible for that etc. She is writing from ignorance, the non-vaccinated have retained their innate and naturally acquired immunities, and yes, some will become infected (I’m 99.9% certain that I caught it in the last week of October) and some may become quite sick but many will fight off the virus by sterilising it and their immune system will remember and protect them in the future. Hence, the number of ‘pure-blood’ i.e. people who have not taken the “vaccine”, who can catch the virus will fall close to zero and not pose a threat to anyone else.

          The government, that is not really interested in the people’s health, hate that idea and will not recognise the fact. The “vaccine” is really a route to Control and IMO any health issues that it may have addressed are purely a secondary issue to the politicians.

          Dr Vanden Bossche predicted a virus – vaccine race would occur if mass vaccination was continued. He claimed that the vaccine would force the virus to evolve in the vaccinated. Now, Dr Robert Malone, inventor of the mRNA vaccine technique has, in the light of recent developments of Delta/Omicron, acknowledged that Vanden Bossche’s prediction is correct. The “vaccinated” are generating the variants and it’s possible that a truly deadly variant will emerge and cause mayhem in the human population.

          Two of the World’s leading vaccine developers are seriously concerned about what the “vaccine” programme is creating, and worse, what it is capable of creating, and all the politicians do is ignore the science and try and bully everyone to become a possible variant producer. Madness on an apocalyptic scale.

      1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/06/punishing-unvaccinated-would-immoral-unjustified/

        “Punishing the unvaccinated would be both immoral and unjustified

        There is no reason for the UK to go down Europe’s path of compulsory jabs and vaccine passports

        Sherelle Jacobs6 December 2021 • 8:32pm

        Sometimes, the most ostensibly compelling arguments are also the most flawed. Such is the case with the growing calls in the UK for punitive measures against the unvaccinated, as part of one last heave to escape the pandemic. The story goes that life could go back to normal were it not for a selfish minority of anti-vaxxers, who are putting a dangerous strain on the NHS as they land themselves in A&E. A related argument contends that they are holding us back from achieving herd immunity, and creating a deadly case “pool” for new variants as they continue to spread the disease.

        These arguments contain a grain of truth. Many of the unvaccinated have proved susceptible to malignant conspiracy theories and refuse to acknowledge that, for society to function, it takes personal responsibility as well as personal rights. Those who decide against a jab are putting a disproportionate strain on the NHS.

        That doesn’t mean, however, that it would be either morally right or clinically efficacious to follow the path that large parts of Europe are heading down. Countries from Italy to France have operated vaccine passports schemes for months, restricting people’s ability to go to bars and restaurants] and over the weekend Northern Ireland began one of its own. As Austria goes one step further – legislating for mandatory vaccinations from March – German MPs are set to vote on a similar measure for the spring.

        The simplistic idea that the unvaccinated are now “the problem” is based on a distorted and narrow epidemiological interpretation of the pandemic. While the unvaccinated clearly are exacerbating the UK’s challenges, it does not follow that they are the main source of the country’s woes or that a fully vaccinated population would put an end to Covid. Nor is the evidence strong enough to justify what many would consider to be the immoral breaches of individual rights that other countries are pursuing.

        It is true that the unvaccinated, who represent 11 per cent of the England population, account for a disproportionate number of Covid hospital emergency admissions, at 35 per cent. But claims that have circulated even in respected media outlets that they account for up to 90 per cent of hospital cases are simply false.

        Furthermore, the rate of symptomatic Covid among the jabbed is creeping up, and the proportion of Covid patients admitted to hospital who are unvaccinated has been falling over time. “Breakthrough” infections among the jabbed and waning vaccine immunity arguably present just as big a challenge as the stubborn resistance of the unvaccinated.

        It is also far from certain that soft or hard coercion on vaccination would get us to the promised land of herd immunity. Experts have for months warned that, because vaccinated people can still spread the delta variant, and vaccines do not offer perfect protection against infection, herd immunity is now a “mythical” goal, even with 100 per cent vaccination rates.

        None of this is an argument against vaccination, of course. People who have had three doses are much less likely to transmit the virus and considerably less likely to fall seriously ill.

        However, one of the problems with the excessive focus on the small unvaccinated minority is that we are failing to address the much bigger obstacles to Britain learning to live with Covid, including basic state incompetence. It is somewhat galling to hear NHS leaders complain about unjabbed people, for example, when thanks to their own bureaucratic inertia they have not radically increased hospital capacity in advance of the winter and are bungling the booster rollout. Their inability to come up with an alternative to GP-delivered top ups is proving particularly calamitous, with almost two thirds of housebound people yet to receive their booster.

        But perhaps most importantly, measures targeted against the unvaccinated would cross several important moral lines. Compulsory jabs are dehumanising in the sense that they undermine human agency. Taking their cue from mandatory child vaccinations, they infantilise the public, endorsing the idea that the state must protect people for their own good.

        Some wrly suggest that the state could nudge anti-vaxxers in a way that encourages greater self-responsibility by charging them for Covid-related hospital treatment, as in Singapore. While this is a potentially clever way to square the circle, it would be ethically repugnant to single out the unvaccinated, but continue to indulge the obese or heavy drinkers, who put strain on the NHS as well.

        If we were to introduce discriminatory measures against the unjabbed, we would also surely be setting a worryingly low bar for the circumstances in which the social good is deemed to outweigh the freedom of the individual in the future. For all the worries about the omicron variant, Covid now has an estimated fatality rate of 0.085 per cent (not dramatically greater than flu, which is believed to be 0.04 per cent), and deaths have continued to fall.

        The risk of setting a precedent is magnified by the fact that human rights law offers little protection. It does not recognise core, inviolable personal freedoms, but “balances” the rights of the individual against the needs of society to assess whether state actions are “proportionate”. Legal eagles are confident that vaccine passports are “proportionate”, given that the vaccines are safe and contribute to herd immunity. These were the criteria invoked in a landmark ECHR ruling earlier this year that endorsed compulsory child vaccinations.

        Above all, there is the question of what introducing draconian restrictions against the unjabbed would say about us. Is our attitude to human rights morally consistent? After all, freedom from torture cannot be overriden even in, say a terrorist emergency, reflecting our commitment to human dignity. Yet rights like freedom from medical coercion should have become contingent on the circumstances, in spite of our supposed belief in human autonomy. It is time we took a hard look at ourselves, and asked what it is we stand for.”

  31. University professor who called students ‘pathetic’ over woke walkout from talk by Rod Liddle is barred from duty and faces investigation
    Professor Tim Luckhurst, principal of Durham’s South College is being investigated and has been barred from duties
    It comes after he branded a walkout during a Rod Liddle speech by woke students ‘pathetic’
    Students wrote to Durham’s vice-chancellor claiming Liddle made ‘transphobic, sexist, racist and classist remarks’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10281755/University-professor-called-students-pathetic-woke-walkout-faces-investigation.html

    1. That’s an awful lot of ‘ists’, I can’t keep up with them all (a bit like ‘isms’) so I’m not going to try.

      ‘Morning C1. It’s a mad, mad world…

    2. I find it interesting that students think that the word “pathetic” is a sexist, racist and classist remark.

      They must have had a pathetic education if they don’t understand what the word “pathetic” means.

    3. Presumably they went to the lecture with the intention of walking out. Mr Liddle makes no secret of his opinions.

    6. Maybe all the teaching staff should go on strike until Prof Luckhurst is reinstated.
      It could so easily be them next. No support from the management.

  32. Writer’s cramp here I come. Just started doing the labels for the 16 jars of Apple, Quince & Pineapple Chutney I did yesterday!

    2. I print them (as does young Phil) but only because I am lazy.

      Robert – did you see my question last nigh about the weight of dry fruit etc BEFORE cooking and the weight of chutney? If you have a rough figure I should be interested.

      1. About 3kg of fruit but not sure of the final weight as the jars are of different sizes, but there are 16 of them.

          2. Charming!! My recent lot was 90 ounces of apples, onions and sultanas producing 66 ounces of chutney. I suppose there was a lot of water in the onions that boiled away.

  33. Blowing a hooley, bucketing rain and still pitch black outside. The ducks really didn’t want to emerge from their house.

    1. Reminds me when G & P were small and they “helped” when we changed the bed linen….!!

      1. I quite often have daughters mad Cockapoo, Harry and Dobby, the Sphinx ‘helping’ me! They dash around like loonies and hide under the quilt cover!

  36. Good morning to all our Nottl friends.
    We are awaiting a call from our d-I-l for and update from the hospital.
    Your kind comments are a real support to us both and we let the family know of your genuine concern for our son, d-I-l and grandson.
    Hopefully will update with good news later.
    Thank you.

  37. Good Morning my Friends

    Sadly it will not happen but I enjoyed this BTL comment under a DT article on Zemmour by a Philippa Squeak:

    Dream team leaders: Trump for the US, Zemmour for France and Farage for the UK. Watching the BBC, the MSM and the existing PTB have a meltdown would be priceless.

    1. ‘Morning Bill. Even by the pathetic standard of ‘photo ops’ I thought that this one hit a new low.

      2. How about a law against impersonating a Prime Minister? There would be no need of a trial as the evidence is in the public domain and overwhelming.

    5. He cannot resist playing the buffoon.

      He is constantly trying to repeat the great success he had in the Eton College production of Twelfth Night. Of course he was type cast as the bumbling, self-important idiot Malvolio.

      1. I wonder if Nut Nuts is busy knitting a pair of bright yellow stockings for Boris Johnson to tie to the bed post with crossing garters on Christmas Eve?

  40. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f031f45c3d036d3a6ed88831ad49e4b235d8ce6a2f34934ad887e396e34dd987.png I am with Mr Fury all the way. The BBC used to be the world’s premier sports’ outlet, back in the days of the unimpeachable Peter Dimmock and his top class professional team of: Alan Weeks, Barry Davies, Richie Benaud, Kenneth Wolstenholme, David Coleman, Harry Carpenter, Henry Longhurst, Bill McLaren, David Vine, Peter O’Sullevan, Jim Laker, John Snagge, Ron Pickering, Dorian Wilson, Dan Maskell, Peter Alliss, Stuart Storey, Hamilton Bland, Brian Johnston, Eddie Waring, Julian Wilson and a good few more (with apologies to those I have missed). All of those mentioned were at the top of the tree in sports’ journalism and commentating, and all now sadly gone. Their modern-day replacements are a crowd of bland, anodyne, politically-correct nonentities who toe the BBC line and are not fit for purpose. As a world-renowned sports outlet, the BBC would not, these days, be in the twenty-sixth division, so appallingly poor are their efforts.

    1. Used to enjoy it, many years ago, when Richie Benaud and Ray Illingworth were paired together for TV commentary – wise sages personified.

      Now it seems the BBC can’t wait to offload their few remaining decent commentators – Michael Vaughan being one – on any pretext.

    2. Morning Grizzly

      Great article , and many will appreciate your thoughts .

      The BBC are so Woke and Islington leftie re their Radio and TV output , that I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to hear that they regard the ghastly Strictly Come Dancing as a sport !

      All Tulle Tissues and camp entertainment , dahling!

        1. I hate Strictly amongst many other programs I can’t bear to be in the same room as. I do understand that many people don’t see it in the same was as I sometimes do. But according to some reports I have seen it’s rigged……….well there’s a surprise the BBC rigging programmes so the (chosen ones) people they like to promote way beyond their capabilities and obvious talents come first !!! Who Knew ?

          1. TV is generally entertainment. Competitions in baking, dancing, and anything else are entertainment. There is no reason to suppose that these things are any less scripted and rehearsed than any other programmes. Game shows are sometimes visibly “fixed”. However these things, quiz shows included, are not University exams, they are programmes made for fun and profit. If the contestants are given the answers to memorise before the show starts, it is not cheating, it is “show business”.

          2. There’s that to it of course and there’s definable rigging of the script. You obviously didn’t see the final of Bake Off when Paul Hollywood deliberately snapped and ruined a wonderful piece of engineering when he snapped off the handle of a chocolate well one of the male contestants made in the novelty cake making episode. The ‘winner’ was Nadia who had made a cake she called a Peacock it resemble a Dodo. She admitted to using shop bought icing and smothered it with blue smarties. Then she turned up at the Queen’s jubilee with another one of her monstrosities. It was army tan in colour.
            As some one who likes baking I use to enjoy the trials and tribulations of the contestants on the program, but haven’t watch it since.

          3. The frustration is in their not telling us that this is as real as a police drama. On one of the Saturday lottery shows the contestants had to list answers to questions such as such as “name capitals of countries in South East Asia”. The more correct answers they gave the more prize money they got. The contestants worked in pairs. When two young girls from Essex gave ten correct answers to the question “name star constellations visible from the Northern Hemisphere”, I became really suspicious, disbelieving even.

            Edited for typos, missed words and inconsistencies. Sense and meaning hopefully clarified. (My typing certificate has expired.)

          4. & ever since she has turned up regularly on the Beeb spouting ‘authoritatively’ about any topic under the sun, including psychology.

          5. One of our friends Taught her at her school in Luton,…… she wasn’t particular good at anything but just what the BBC needed and in the right place at the right time.

          6. As for rigging. I knew of the incident. However, for competitions like Bake Off the contest may not be interfered with after it starts, except for emergencies . The best way is to rig the contestants prior to the series, that is to choose the contestants they way they choose the “Question Time audience. Of the eight finalist in the 100 metres only one of thr competitors has two legs, kind of thing.

          7. We have a friend who some time back applied to go on Bake off she has written a couple of books on cookery both very good. She wasn’t chosen, probably because she was too white, middle class and too able. Lovely personality as well. She could have been the next Mary Berry. Another of our friends taught Nadia at her school in Luton, she want very good at anything in particular. Just what the BBC needed and in the right place at the right time.

          8. Just so. That’s how it works. “Life’s not fair, get over it.” Just the thing for employers to tell new starts I’d say.

  41. Good morning all

    Stiff breeze here , trees are waving around, occassional gusts are making the chimney echo.

    Will the wind gather pace , who knows.

  43. What about Hunter? Biden admin releases report highlighting money laundering in the art industry – while president’s son’s paintings sell for up to $500K to mystery buyers. 7 December 2021.

    A former top White House ethics official is calling out the Biden White House for a new report pointing to the potential for corruption in the murky art industry – at a time when the president’s son Hunter is exhibited his expensive artwork at glitzy gallery shows.

    Walter Shaub, who served as head of the Office of Government Ethics during the Obama Administration, pointed out the issue in a tweet Monday.
    ‘The White House just issued a report flagging that money laundering is a problem in the… wait for it… art sale industry,’ he wrote. Then he quoted the report saying: “The markets for art and antiquities—and the market participants who facilitate transactions—are especially vulnerable to a range of financial crimes.”

    Mystery buyers? Lol. This is just a variation on the Lectures and Book Deal scams. Payment for services rendered when in office! Hunter Biden couldn’t paint my lounge!

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10281677/Ethics-official-points-Hunter-gallery-sales-White-House-report-tags-corruption-art-world.html

    1. Evila May was paid nearly a million pounds to lecture to empty halls when her time as PM was over.

      I mentioned last night that I agreed with something she said in the HoC:

      ‘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…

      But Evila Teraita 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 very nasty, deceitful woman and a complete liar.

      1. But, but – she is, for probably the only time in her life – correct in what she said yesterday.

      1. All on the interwebby ‘Flying Scotsman’. Various excursions scheduled for 2022 before a major scheduled overhaul and rebuild. Quite ££££.

      2. That’s the Royal Scot route from London to Glasgow. It was a tough route with Shap and Beattock to climb. The Flying Scotsman did the Edinburgh to London Route and broke the records for the journey.
        My landlord when I first started work was a lorry driver in the 60s and it was a common site to see lorries with fires under them to defrost the frozen diesel pipes in Winter on Shap. The lorries were midgets compared to today’s massive trucks.

    3. Wonderful.
      A few years ago whilst staying at HPB Tigh Mor in the wee Trossachs for a birthday treat, my wife and I made the journey from Fort William to Mallaig and back. Loved it.

      1. There are (or were) a couple of generator coaches for this, converted Mk1 brakes with a small diesel engine and generator. Much less visually jarring than a loco and weighing 70-80 tons less.

  45. 342576+ up ticks,

    Dt,
    Covid vaccine booster rollout at a standstill despite No 10 pledge to put it ‘on steroids’
    Fears of further curbs at Christmas after fewer jabs given over weekend than before ministers promised to accelerate the programme

    Does this article actually mean there are peoples out there that STILL
    believe the vows,pledges & promises of the political overseers.

    Little wonder we are as a Country always in a continuing state of sh!te.

  46. 342576+ up ticks,

    I do make BOC right, you put what they did although odious enough
    what is it in comparison to the 16 plus year cover up of rotherham regarding the rape & abuse of 1400 /1600 children, what punishment was metered out to council members / social services / police.
    Don’t know about punishment they near got compensated.

    https://twitter.com/BeardedBob7282/status/1468123600490315776

      1. 342577+ up ticks,

        Afternoon Anne,
        I do agree higher standards are needed, but now
        currently how could any governing party be judged fit to do the calling.

        UKIP under Batten leadership was the last credible call for freedom & democracy, look what happened there via the treacherous party nec / nige / their supporters.

  47. Headline in The Grimes today:

    “If you think you’ve got a cold, there’s a good chance it’s Covid.”

    Put it another way:

    “If you think you’ve got Covid, there’s a good chance it’s a cold.”

    2. When I had a really lousy cold back in September, I spoke to a doctor in the GP practice at Charing X Hosp who said it doesn’t matter whether it’s a cold or covid as long as you get better. Methinks he knows it’s all bollocks.

      2. I suffered from what I thought was a cold, the symptoms were as I remembered them from years ago, in late October. The person who infected me had identical symptoms but suffered more and had a PCR test that returned positive. Ergo, I have had covid.

        This morning our son informed me that his son, 10 yo, has tested positive: symptoms, a tickly cough. The latter was the worst symptom I suffered from, although I had others. The cough took about a week to clear but never really troubled me after the first two days.

        These variants are being labelled as deadly and needing a jab from a legacy “vaccine” that doesn’t work very well on the original infection, let alone new ones. The worry, as I mention in an earlier comment, is what are the chances of something really nasty appearing from the body of a “vaccinated” individual?

  48. The reimposed travel bans haven’t gone down too well in South Africa……….

    “The gormless idiots (James refers to the same type below) that make big
    decisions have once again punched South Africa (and our neighbours) in
    the mouth for doing the right thing – sounding the alarm on Omicron – by
    immediately imposing harsh travel bans. What an excellent strategy to
    silence future alarms bells. Side note, make of it what you will: Absent
    from the banned list is the Netherlands, where the new strain was found
    (but strangely went unnoticed) before the warning from my government.
    Xenophobia, much?

    Of course, every decision can be justified if you dig deep enough. For
    example, Germany has an ageing population heading into deep winter, and
    its hospitals are already stretched to the limit. To avoid the systemic
    collapse of their health services, their priority is probably to flatten
    the curve by reacting early. A total ban on all travel would surely be
    more effective – but that would piss off powerful allies and damage
    their own economies. That these gestures to selectively ban only a few
    African countries have floored Africa’s wildlife and tourism industries
    will be of little concern in the battle for votes and approval in the
    corridors of power. The inconvenient truth is that these icons of health
    and wellness have infection rates that far exceed those of the African
    countries they are fingering.

    Here’s the thing: These ridiculous knee-jerk reactions
    by the buffoons will keep coming – for the foreseeable future. This is
    what happens when we routinely elect clowns, celebrities and weak-kneed
    bureaucrats into positions of power. Get used to it. Plan your
    safaris with care, be agile and flexible about timing, and help this
    wonderful African safari industry get back on its feet. Africa
    Geographic is here for the long run – ours is a 100-year plan. We will
    be here for advice and epic safari plans when you decide to visit.”

    1. All very true! And the fools who are backing the bans will no doubt be prattling about Black Lives Matter as they do their best ruin black people’s lives who work in the tourism industry.

    1. I had many years of dealing with Social Workers when in uniform. I loathe them all to a ‘T’. They are, to a man, woman and ‘other’, a coterie of limp-wristed, ineffectual, communists and pinkoes; utterly bereft of a clue or connection with reality.

      I was called by one for assistance on one occasion. He was a biggish chap who was having dealings with a much larger man who was being aggressive towards him. When I arrived, the bigger chap continued his aggression with the Social Worker, who was whining and begging for help. I sat there for quite a while watching his pathetic response to this big chap.

      After a good while of this entertainment I asked the Social Worker a question: “Why do you now need assistance from a police officer when, normally, you do all in your power to undermine us or look down on us?”

      The by now panic-stricken Social Worker was nearly in tears. It was then that I called across to his tormentor: “OK, you’ve had your fun. Put him down before you break him.” I even got a smile and a wink from the aggressor as he backed off.

      Social Services: a non-job if ever there were one.

      1. But with terrifying powers to seize children and remove them from perfect good, decent, loving parents.

          1. They were not nice, well-spoken middle-class, educated people. Those are frequently the ones the SWs target.

          7. Yes, I posted about that a few days ago. Here it is again.

            “See the Orkney witch hunt* fiasco. It went on until a level-headed Sheriff in Inverness ended it all. Lives were ruined forever. The insane social worker who instigated the whole thing went on to a senior job somewhere else and is probably still working.
            *Literally a witch hunt.”
            https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…

          8. They were not nice, well-spoken middle-class, educated people. Those are frequently the ones the SWs target.

        2. And children who were fostered by people who believed in Brexit had the children they fostered removed from their care. Was there a specific time when the care system got broken or was it broken from the very start?

          1. I think a lot changed when the system was re-vamped following the Seebohm report in 1965. “Childrens Officers” disappeared and social workers appeared.

            There were problems under the old system, too. I was involved in a long running legal action between Oxford County Council and a well-educated, middle-class lady who had problems with her children. The Council, for whom my firm acted, seized them. We made them wards of court. The mother – who was very clever fought (on legal aid) and eventually recovered them.

            The issue was really a personal battle between the County Children’s Officer – a battleaxe when ended up a “Dame” and the mother.

            Horrible. It was still running when I left the firm.

    2. Why isn’t it simple, coming from a BBC presenter? Have they considered the labyrinthine mess that is the BBC?

      Government departments are designed around a process. You follow the process regardless of it’s value. Deviation is punished, incompetence is irrelevant, effort is irrelevant. Public sector without process is just a swamp of inefficiency.

      1. You’re lucky to see TV adverts with white people in the them……… 🤔 Some times I think i’m living in Africa !

          1. I try not to, but sometimes when you flick channels the same thing happens on the other gaps.
            And it also seems that the advertising gaps are not co-ordinated.

          2. Time to nip to the loo/put the kettle on/let out Spartie/catch up on emails/pop out to the post box ….. even in the days when companies wanted whitey’s money, it has never occurred to me that the adverts were anything to do with me.

    2. The advert makes no sense as her body doesn’t have a problem with alcohol, *she* has a problem drinking too much of it.

      Yes, she needs support in controlling her drinking problem, but she isn’t ill.

  53. Life today.

    Soldier neighbour has had a tree cut down. She employed a chap with a chainsaw. I have four large logs which were missed in the last great “saw up”. So, when matey finished off next door, I popped round and asked if he could do me a favour and cut them up. It would have take five minutes max. And he’d have had a crisp fiver.

    “I don’t do favours,” replied matey….

    Fair enough, I thought. I just hope the day comes soon when YOU need a favour – and meet someone like yourself.

      1. No – I asked a favour – but I had the fiver in my pocket. It never crossed my mind (a) that a healthy young man with a large chainsaw would decline to cut four logs in half and (b) that I wouldn’t tip him.

    2. The polite way of saying a person is a yob or unattractive used to be to say he was ill favoured. This sort of fellow does not deserve to be favoured with a tip from anybody.

      1. Compare and contrast:

        (a) My own regular tree chap was asked to lop and prune a very large beech in the churchyard. Spent most of the day. When he finished, I asked what he charged. “Nothing,” he replied, “You don’t charge the church”….. I forced some crisp tenners on to him.

        (b) Thierry in Laure, a carpet fitter. Captain of the boules club (when I still played). Fitted a carpet in a room for me. “How much?” “Rien – one doesn’t ask friends to pay.” I gave him a bottle on single malt.

        1. Last year we had a very decent chap, a chimney sweep, in to put a stainless steel lining into our chimney and the chimney worked splendidly.

          This autumn when I was getting the woodburner (a Clearview 750 which is now 30 years old) ready for winter use I noticed that the connection between the stove and the chimney pipe needed replacing. The chimney man came and said I needed a new collar which Clearview sent me in the post. He then came round to fit it on a Sunday afternoon and spend about 40 minutes on the job. He refused to accept any payment.

          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65ee372b98c3fd1ef72c1ad0aa5d875dae0b835a9f126a817ee73fbbf8a706c6.jpg

        2. How we used to be when we were all sprung from the same culture, when we were not a divided people and when money was not the be-all and end-all of everything.

    3. Perhaps it was a chain reaction and you just got sore about it ………i’ll get me Kevlar trousers…… 😎😆

  54. Rumours of an ‘Interpretation Act’ have caused a stir. The comments are entertaining, with wonderfully circular arguments about judges constraining governments that have too much power granted to them because of large majorities and governments having to constrain unelected judges who have had too much power granted to them by a government with a huge majority (led by you-know-who). I wonder how many who see this unconfirmed proposal as the end of democracy are also supporters of the growing Covid tyranny.

    The Government is right: judges have become too powerful

    Relying on judges to frustrate the will of elected ministers is profoundly undemocratic

    TOM HARRIS

    It’s all Thomas Jefferson’s fault. In 1803 the newly-established Supreme Court of the United States issued an extraordinary ruling that it could in future decide which laws of Congress were constitutional and which were not. As power grabs go, it was unprecedented and has never been eclipsed since.

    This could have set the stage for an almighty battle between the elected representatives of the people and the judiciary. Instead, Jefferson, the serving president, acquiesced. The court got its way and has ever since had the right to strike down laws agreed by members of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

    Constitutionalists may argue over the benefits (or otherwise) of this particular power. On the one hand – assuming the constitution itself is a perfect document – it seems perfectly sensible to insist that every new law should adhere to its principles. On the other hand, this practice has led to the overt politicisation of the nomination process for the US Supreme Court, with conservatives and liberals opposing and supporting their preferred candidates who, once their appointment is secured, can be relied upon to interpret the republic’s founding document according to their own political outlook.

    In Britain we have, thankfully, avoided such a situation, largely thanks to the establishment’s resistance to regular demands for a written or codified constitution. But that hasn’t prevented senior judges from over-ruling certain ministerial decisions down the years when their lordships have decided that this or that policy is outwith the explicit remit of the relevant Act of Parliament.

    Few could oppose such a system. If a minister is acting ultra vires, then he or she is acting against the will of parliament as expressed in legislation, and if a senior judge won’t point this out, who will?

    Still, there are suspicions that many of the judges making politically embarrassing judgments are themselves adhering to their own political views in the way they are interpreting the law. Which is why there have been reports of government plans to introduce an annual “Interpretation Bill” which would strike down court rulings with which ministers disagree.

    This will be seen, inevitably, as another step on the road to dictatorship and the defenestration of an independent judiciary. But it’s an odd view of democracy that suggests a government has no right to change a law that is failing to deliver the outcomes ministers intended, whether because of court intervention or any other factor.

    As we anticipate the outraged backlash, we may assume that many of the politicians and activist QCs who see their influence over government policy waning are the same people who have long placed their hopes for progressive reform in court interventions rather than in winning policy arguments at the ballot box.

    One of the most consistent arguments used by Left wing campaigners in favour of a Remain vote in the 2016 EU referendum – and it is the same argument that recruited a previously sceptical Labour movement into the EU’s camp in the late 1980s – was that, since British electors kept electing right-wing governments, we should rely on activist judges in Brussels to impose the “right” kind of social policies on Britain against the will of voters and the government. Whether it was the length of the working week or environmental standards, the European Court of Justice and the European Commission knew far better than the elected government or the silly, reactionary people who voted for them, what was good for us.

    It should hardly require pointing out that there is something profoundly undemocratic in such arguments – a point that fatally escaped the Remain campaign until it was too late: it is wrong to impose even the right policy on a country if it did not vote for it.

    Now that we are out of the EU, the last hopes of rescue from the diktats of an elected government lie with the British courts. And to be fair, they have duly provided a series of rulings that have frustrated the will of ministers.

    If the Interpretation Bill idea is to be implemented, such victories will become a thing of the past, until and unless a new government is elected to replace the current one (and even then, some of our social activist lawyers will inevitably find themselves in less agreement with our new overlords than they had expected).

    But that is the point: the Left has become so disillusioned and defeatist that, just as happened in the late 1980s, it has all but given up on replacing the current crop of ministers and has invested too much of its hope in judges coming to the rescue.

    Labour will probably, if its usual instincts prevail, oppose this new legal framework with all its energy. If it took a few moments to consider it properly, however, it might take a different approach. Some of its more experienced and senior MPs might actually consider how they themselves, once in government, might benefit from an annual Interpretation Act, and how they might prevent much of their own agenda being blown off course by the courts’ intervention.

    Boris Johnson’s Conservatives did, after all, win an election and therefore have the legal and democratic right to implement the policies they reckon are best for the country. They have the right, if a judge tells them they are going outside a particular law, to amend said law. If Labour oppose this principle, they risk looking not just like an opposition but as oppositionist, and not as a party that aspires to govern in its own right, using all the same weapons, levers and tricks that are available to their opponents.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/government-right-judges-have-become-powerful/

        1. Even H!tler didn’t have that power. Everything the Nazis did was legal – even if they had to be creative to make it so.
          Allowing government to disregard the law would be a major step in the wrong direction.

          1. The state has never liked law getting in the way. It’s why the EU has bought and paid for the pointless ECHR.

    2. Can the US Supreme Court override state legislation in matters that are not under federal law?

    3. There have been no right wing governments since 93. The country have been governed by appalling backward europhiliacs. Suggesting the UK is right wing is laughable. Suggesting that the EU needs to tell us how to live is hilarious.

      That the Left do not see the rate of decline precisely because of their malice is hilarious. Do they think this is a good state for the country to be in? Great Scott!

  55. The Duke of Sussex has said that those who do not enjoy their jobs should quit them because it would be better for their mental health.

    Has he decided that Archefraud, the charity which he and his wife have set up, will replace the incomes of all those who leave jobs they do not like?

    1. He’s right, though. If you don’t like it, do something about it or suck it up is the choice.
      My sick PC has a quotation by Churchill on the same subject.

      1. It was a quotation my mother often used on me:

        You can’t always do what you like but you must like what you do

        I must admit that I was a flibbertigibbet and trifled at several jobs before deciding what I wanted to do.

        After messing about in the worlds of finance and advertising I went back to university at the age of 27 to do a P.G.C.E and I found I loved teaching – especially my “A” and “S” level English Sixth Form classes – but I had to work very hard to keep up with changed syllabuses every year. But what was also interesting was being involved in so many other aspects of school life outside the classroom: housemastering; having rugby, swimming and cross country running teams; getting involved with school music and drama; organising theatre and concert trips and so on.

        Caroline and I have loved running our courses but I don’t think we would enjoy teaching in a school today. Spontaneity has been outlawed and everything is subject to nit-picking form filling and wokery even in the private school sector where we worked.

    3. If only my mummy had left me £20 million and daddy had access to myriad country houses, 3 palaces and, of course, unlimited credit.

      1. Let’s be honest Ginge and Erin could turn up any where and live for no cost whatsoever.

    4. According to the book “What colour is your Parachute” full two-thirds of folk are unhappy in the job they are currently doing…

  56. Susan Calvert, if it bothers you that beer is £7.80 a litre brewed locally yet petrol is only £1.45 a litre even travelling half way round the world to get to you, may I suggest you drink petrol. PS pack up smoking before you do

  58. Apropos adverts (NoTTL passim.) I am irritated by full double page adverts in the DT and The Grimes for “Boodles” “Gucci”, Watches and others..

    Has any NoTTLer ever seen an advert for some looxury product and immediately rushed out to buy it?

    Thought not.

    1. One of the advantages of no longer reading the tabloidsbroadsheets is not being annoyed by adverts for expensive trivia.

      edit: ha ha Freudian slip above

      1. In my dotage, I still see the DT and The Times as NOT tabloids…but I am prolly deluding myself.

          2. Overrated in my opinion. All of them, though Lucien was a pretty decent artist. But he never rose above studio nudes, that he dolled up as portraits when they weren’t really.

            The landmarks in my journey to becoming an ex-Telegraph reader were along the following lines:

            – feminist articles by two vacuous, empty-headed columnists whose names I have mercifully forgotten
            – a review of this season’s hijabs
            – a fluff piece that promised to be about mobile technology and was written by some work experience student called Ophelia – needless to say there was zero technical information in it.
            – another piece by some other Ophelia which talked about fruit producing “a gas” as it ripens. Clearly GCSE chemistry was not among this privileged young woman’s qualifications for getting a job at the Telegraph.
            – extolling the islamic garden at Chelsea Flower show
            – irritating travel reviews of hotels in Thailand or Vietnam
            – reviews of gorgeous little restaurants where lunch was a snip at only 300 pounds for two.

          3. Very nice precis. I take it on Saturdays – as a compromise. The MR wanted the Grauniad; I wanted The Grimes – so we took a broadsheet tabloid instead!

          6. Very weird – and I also speak as an artist. No way can you paint that portrait without being emotionally involved with it.

          7. My journey to the DT departure lounge can be summed up much more succinctly, in just two words: ‘Tom’ and ‘Chivers.’

    2. One of the advantages of no longer reading the tabloidsbroadsheets is not being annoyed by adverts for expensive trivia.

      edit: ha ha Freudian slip above

    3. I suspect that direct sales isn’t the intention, but instead to create an aura of exclusivity around the brand that would make people say “I must buy from them – look how exclusive their gear is” or something like that.

        1. It’s the low alcohol count that does it. By half past wine o’clock, I’ll be back to normal!
          ;-))

        2. Don’t underestimate the power of status.
          Back in the 80’s, a clever bloke created the habit of drinking overpriced Eurofizz lager from the bottle, and not clearing the table. The result was to subtly demonstrate how rich you were, a table filled with foil-topped beer bottles. So, many took it up. Me, I stuck to locally brewed ales that weren’t promoted at all, let alone by versions of snobbery.

    4. There’s a huge billboard ad in Shepherds Bush for Chanel No 5 which shows a very large bottle of the pure parfum. It costs around £2.5k per 100ml. What most people buy is the Eau de Parfum, which is a different formula and an entirely inferior product. The Eau de Toilette is better.

      1. There are very few examples of perfume sold in department stores that are the genuine article: the vast majority of them emanating from some chemical laboratory where faux scents are concocted.

        One mentionable exception are the superb perfumes manufactured by Olivier Creed, a Frenchman of English extraction. All his scents are the genuine article distilled from natural sources.

        https://www.creedfragrances.co.uk/?nst=0&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=818992468&utm_content=59100157418&utm_term=creed%20fragrances&gclid=Cj0KCQiAqbyNBhC2ARIsALDwAsCqK983iCVUTOYYsUslRnpXekqQcmwz6o1Hp-Ts0LKi-c71u445UpoaAiYZEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

    6. Adverts? UBlock origin and pihole. I don’t see any adverts.

      The stuff I buy isn’t advertised. What does bother me is the 10 pages of google scammed nonsense before you get to real information.

    7. As a Virgo I was once informed that advertising to ‘our’ star sign is a compete waste of time.
      I can not think of any time in my entire life that I have ever been influenced by any advertising. I have never consciously followed anything up.
      Mind you, just think of the cost of magazines and news papers if there was no advertising in them.

  59. ‘Afternoon All

    #CovidClownWorld gets ever more sinister

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/d48d2bce9e91b4c853c6d83ff2e6b16f0c63cabef1c95fa875907c1403357edb.png

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FF7VMs8XwAMtKMT.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3044ed07135c2ed917e30c1623ddeb9fa9d6785db55d86dbd62320838da64e5d.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c8a4371bc6520d2384c8df49006e424e23fb55e81aefb3e3f25a4aec1ea84f6a.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9358b1f105e116e0483bccb41b9d7886c71856c6af5961af9740a3cbf971a909.jpg

  60. Up date
    Moh says the weather isn’t all that bad , raining and no more windier than usual .
    A few fierce gusts , and I expect we are either escaping the worst , or there is more to come .

    The four 400ft wind turbines that are due to be erected next spring will no doubt annoy all the wealthy rural neighbours and the Golf club!

  62. Good morning. Forseeability. That is the element that makes continued jabbing criminal. Harm is forseeable. Mr Global would have you believe otherwise, but we already have had thousands of deaths and injuries to show exactly what is happening and will continue to happen increasingly as the AIDS conferred by the jabs makes itself felt more profoundly.

    https://www.tarableu.com/the-liars-do-what-they-do-and-not-much-else-ike-was-right-reptiles-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see/

    1. Jonathan,

      Am I correct in thinking it was you who recently posted a short video with Mr Whitty explaining that face masks much beloved by Ministers and the terrorised public don’t really work?

      If so could you (or whoever posted it ) please repost. Many thanks.

  63. Nicked comment

    Not sinister,no,siree

    “Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more dystopian.

    Was listening to Radio Five Lies in the graveyard slot last night and their
    resident scientist was getting very excited about something AZ are
    working on “which will help us overcome vaccine hesitancy and reassure
    the needlephobic”.

    Because the AZ vaxx uses a live viral vector,
    they are developing an airborne version of that so it can be distributed
    via aerosol, either nasally or by dispersal from aeroplanes overflying population centres.

    We are nothing but cattle to them.”

    1. Dispersal by aeroplanes….!

      It is frightening how thin our layer of civilisation was.
      Mind you, this could never have happened, pre-Blair. In order to de-stabilise the United Kingdom, Blair’s destruction had first to be wrought on the most stable country in the world.

  64. In my day, porkiness was attributed to glands or big bones.
    p.s. no pictures – presumably the DM didn’t have a camera with a suitable lens.

    “An overweight detective with fibromyalgia who felt humiliated when a higher-ranking officer said she might feel better if she stopped ‘drinking gallons of coke’ was awarded £10,000 in compensation yesterday.

    Detective Constable Kerry Moth, 46, was told to take more responsibility over her diet, an employment tribunal in Exeter heard.”

      1. There may have been, but starvation affects everyone equally. It’s rather a facile comparison. Some people struggle to lose weight despite a controlled diet. A chum had a tumour removed from his neck pressing on his thyroid as no matter what he did, even under lab conditions could he lose weight. The bloke was on a starvation diet and was risking his health, yet remained 120kg.

          2. My neighbour (in Norfolk) once told me that a friend of hers had a cat called ‘Fanny’. She said, “Can you imagine going outside and shouting to your cat to come home?”

    1. Oh, I wish he was our neighbour, or lived in the village. A dog walker from down the village walks on the other side of the road down the green now, we think, because we are unvaccinated. He has lurked outside the village shop for longer than was necessary inspecting the greengrocery outside, and turned to walk along paths he doesn’t normally use. It is all getting to me a bit this morning.

        1. A conversation very early on in the vaccination process. Dog Walker was proudly signalling his virtue re the injection, and had we booked ours. At that stage my old man couldn’t exactly see where this was going to go…. he knows now. He thought it was a load of old bunkum (it is) but he did not see the ramifications. I told him to keep his mouth firmly shut next time. I am wondering if we will have an angry crowd outside our home in a year or so’s time.

          2. One day in the not too distant future, your neighbour is going to find himself in the minority.

          3. Months ago in a club situation I revealed that I was not “vaccinated” and this started an almighty row between me and a woman and her daft boyfriend. I told the pair a few home truths and insisted that anyone who dares to impugn my character will receive short shrift. Suffice to say I am now barred from that club because they brought in a no-jabbed no membership rule. I am led to believe by a source within the club that the spat I had led to the rule being proposed.I’m better off out of contact with such small minds.

            Keep your spirits up and ignore the fool. You know it makes sense.

          4. I know, Korky. This weekend has been really difficult. I was told to “get a mask on” by a self-appointed vigilante late middle-aged straggly haired academic type woman in Waitrose (I didn’t, of course) and a somewhat lofty and patronising email from elder son when I warned him of the dangers of the third booster. Our younger son came over at the weekend and during the course of the afternoon said he’d had to go to hospital for a medical procedure earlier in the week – a colonoscopy – and cancer had been ruled out. It didn’t occur to me at that moment that his problem was a possible side effect from the injection at the time, I thought he hadn’t had it, but I suppose he had to in order to accompany his wife at the the birth of his second son in June. My concern is that if he doesn’t make the connection and he has the ‘booster’ he’ll end up even worse and with a colostomy or ileostomy as well. Maybe worse. I will see him on Thursday and try to have a chat with him. The problem is both of our sons are married to lefty-type women, both of them high flyers. All their families, parents, have had the injection. Our elder son has been losing his hair since his early twenties, but it has now accelerated since his injections in a non-male pattern. He looks moth eaten even though he has shaved it all off.

            I am by nature non-confontational, but I do know what’s what.

          5. The stupid woman who confronted me didn’t understand what she had awoken. I’m not naturally confrontational, well, not since I grew up at around 18 yo. Since I lost my dear wife I’ve reverted more to type, she had a wonderful way of smoothing my rough edges away. Being brought up on a post WWII council estate taught me to stand up for myself. By today’s standards I imagine it was a pretty tame place.
            A dear friend, from the first day at grammar school in 1960, had an operation around three months ago for cancer of the colon. I met him for lunch last Friday and he is, at 73 yo, fighting fit although a bit lighter than his usual weight. He’s doing everything that he’s always done, including preparing the ground on his allotment. At this time in our lives we must not buckle under the weight of oppression from this, in my view, illegitimate government.
            I hope that all goes well for your younger son. My best wishes to you.

          6. Thank you. I’m not going to buckle under. I usually come out of these spells with my heels ever more firmly dug in (not that they are not dug in at the moment!).

            I didn’t think you were being confrontational with the woman – I was thinking of my encounter with straggly grey hair – you were just telling her how it was.

            Ever onwards and upwards.

          7. Have you seen Desmond Swayne fillet Javid the Bald? The Lancet now looks to be moving towards the “vaccinated” being the problem. Dr Denis Rancourt has stated he will be issuing a report in a couple of weeks showing that the “vaccine” is killing people. Today seems to be full of better news on the ‘panic’ front. I hope your personal news improves, too.

          8. Desmond Swayne is really good. I wish he was our MP, we have Anthony Browne. I wrote to him about the mandatory care workers’ injection and I got a bizarre reply back. At least he replied though. Although not once during his tenure has he voted in a way that I would wish to see him vote. No, I haven’t seen Desmond Swayne fillet (I do like the sound of that!) JtB. I will look that out.

            The vaccinated are so obviously the problem but unfortunately the majority of the Great British Public does not look beyond the end of its nose; it has been subjected to mass hypnosis. In a way I can understand it as much of policy is dull and we pay these people to make decisions and look after things on our behalf. We do not expect them to turn rogue. I was suspicious as soon as Johnson mentioned a vaccine ‘by Christmas’ in April 2020, these are usually Eureka! We’ve got a vaccine! moments, and it was obviously timed in advance to take advantage of the natural effect of seasonality on winter viruses. Although I realised Something Was Up when the WHO downgraded ‘covid’ as no longer being a threat to public health on 19 March 2020 and then Johnson three days later locked us down with the words ‘some of you are going to lose loved ones, some of you are going to die’.

            I recall Denis Rancourt – the Lancet has been following the govt narrative closely and it is interesting if it is breaking away, perhaps it is getting a sense that the tide is turning.

      2. A very well to do bescarved woman asked us dog walkers if we were ever bothered by the drool.

        I sort of looked at her funny and asked if she’d ever had a dog before – as she held the dreadfully behaved Bischon Frise to her chest.

    1. Password demands that dont tell you all the requirements up front make my blood boil.

      The only thing worse is a password config that sets the maximum allowed characters.

    1. “not thoroughly thought through” – at last, some common sense! Who is on this committee?
      I guess it didn’t lead the news because it would make Bill Gates very sad.

      1. Another parliamentary committee destroyed the argument for “vaccine” passports. I’ve described Johnson in the past as a fraud, now he’s presiding over a farce. Effing mess!

          1. Two hereditaries
            A bishop
            An ex nurse (Baroness Watkins) – bet the proposals went down like a lead balloon with her.
            A Christian and co-founder of a technical university. (Lord Lisvane)
            Have no time to look up the others, but Mr Global seems to have a gap in his takeover of the British establishment…

        2. 342577+ up ticks,
          Afternoon KtK,
          It has been a continuing farce since the treacherous treasa placement with johnson the victim, gove the assassin / candidate & leadsome making some sort of orchestrated play, ALL equity
          card holders ALL laying down for the mayday.

    2. Another ‘person’ who is seemingly hell bent on wrecking a wonderful country its social structure and culture.

    3. The more I see and hear this woman the more I believe she is not anywhere near the full ticket.

    5. If there’s no end to it, then surely it doesn’t work? After all, I had a smallpox vaccination 35 years ago. I’ve not needed another since.

    6. Tell it like it is Jacinda – you’re enslaved to multiple jabs to the greater glory (and profit) of Big Pharma.

      Time to rise up and destroy Big Pharma, wherever it seeks the enslavement module. Hit ’em where it hurts, in the collective purse.

    7. I don’t think I will iver tike iny notece of a betch, like Ardern, who can nivver even spake Inglish to en understendable digree.

    9. “Straight from the horse’s mouth.”
      Le mot juste.
      (Other portions of equine anatomy are available.)

      2. He had already been in and out prison on a regular basis – but then of course he had been given the keys!

    2. I cannot loathe someone who does not mean anything to me. I know of his existence but that is all. I simply do not read any “gossip” news or anything to do with “celebrities” nonentities. I have a life.

      1. The only thing i know about slebs is what i scroll down from in the DM. But he did have a big bust up recently which was hard to miss in the UK papers.

  75. Storm forecast so far wrong. We have had the rain but the 50 MPH wind gusts, turned out to be 25MPH . There is still time though.

      1. Seems to be winding down a bit here. Was awful earlier so am very glad I went to the shop yesterday.

  78. Update just in from d-i-l

    They’re waking our son up gradually over the next 24 hours by gradually reducing the sedation. He was able to squeeze the doctor’s hand and nod in reply to questions. A bit distressed by the tracheostomy. Hopefully they will let d-i-l in to see and speak to him tomorrow through a window. He really is in great hands. Ventilation down to 30%. Fantastic news.
    All going in the right direction.

    Thank you all, again, for all your kind thoughts and prayers.

    3. Really good news, Alf. So pleased for you and vw and of course your son. We won’t let up with our thoughts for him.

    7. Fantastic, Alf – may the lad’s life the life move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. And you and vw and your family, too!

    11. Looking more positive by the day! So pleased for you all, a big relief again. Onwards and upwards for continuing improvements.

  80. Hi all. It is such wonderful news that I can’t stop the tears from running down my face no matter how I try. I thank you all and God from the bottom of my heart for your good wishes and prayers.

    2. Oh my goodness, vw! Fantastic news! You’ll soon all be back together again! Love to you all!😍

    3. Good to hear, vw.

      I’m sure that the outpourings from all your NoTTLer friends will have help. Go on, go up, be stronger.

  81. Well, that was exciting. An hour ago, the power went off. Just like that. I rang to report it and spoke to a real person, Steph – who gave me real news and was most helpful. She explained that the fault was in hand, and that power should be back between 3.30 and 4.30 and that she would phone if there was any change.

    Twenty minutes ago, the lights flickered and the phone rang. At first I assumed that the flicker had triggered the phone – but it was Steph’s oppo Kayleigh who said that they were hoping for a quicker re-connection. And, Lo, there was Light and God saw that it was Good.

    Any minister resign while I was away?

  82. Bye, Bye, Barra, goodbye….
    Sun is out now, blue sky, rain and wind finito. Good. Even saw Toby the neighbourhood pooch out in one of his raincoats; he’s a stylish dog. Better dressed than me 😉

      1. You are almost certainly right, PT. A chum of the MR (Lake District) has been without electricity for over a week.

  85. Dear NoTTlers who pride themselves on their culinary skills…
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/37512fa7694fbf62a96285bcf01fb8032bca1f2e4818fb7ed3a563a62e42f7e0.jpg

    MY cooking is fairly basic…nourishing, tasty and quick. I no longer slave over a hot stove
    and avoid most prepared meals as I have an abundance of fresh fish and vegetables.
    Does anyone use Oxo cubes or sherry any more ?
    My mum swore by Oxo when making gravy or shepherd’s pie, alas she was no Mrs.Beeton or Delia….

    1. I will use low sodium oxo if I have no homemade stock. Don’t have much freezer space right now as two ducks are in residence in case we can’t find a turkey. Some of soup recipes I use ask for sherry- i.e. cream of chicken and mushroom.

      1. That’s a terrible way to keep ducks. The like to splash about in water and peck for worms and things. I’ve rung the RSPCA…{:¬))

      2. If I had duck in the freezer, I wouldn’t bother to search for a turkey (which I dislike).

      3. Thanks Lady Lake.
        I used a good splash of sherry in my stock when making chicken soup….and thickened it with red lentils… ..so far so good. Cheers!

    2. I use Sherry in lots of dishes but i’m not keen on oxo cubes. Don’t like the taste. Waitrose sells proper stock if you don’t want to make it yourself.

    3. Hi Plum
      I sometimes use sherry or sherry vinegar when cooking. I haven’t used a stock cube for yonks, since many contain nasties. I prefer to buy liquid stock in plastic envelopes from w/rose, they have veg., beef, lamb, chicken, fish stock, unless I make my own.

      1. They also sell envelopes of sofrito, which I use a lot. Saves all that risky fine chopping of carrots & celery. Again, no nasties.

    4. How posh! My darling mother-in-law insisted on using Bisto for her gravy, which would have been OK, but she used to throw the meat juices down the sink! And don’t get me started on her grey mince…

        1. I suggested putting some other things in with the mince, apart from water, salt and white pepper! Onions perhaps, and carrots! In Morayshire, onions were foreign! And you know how we joke about putting the sprouts on early? Well, they went on at 9am for lunch at 12!

          1. We lived on the outskirts of Edinburgh in the late 50s. The Onion Johnny came round on his black bike laden with strings of onions, so we always had onions…

          2. I lodged for 4 months in Edinburgh, with the Reverend of St Mary’s Cathedral and his family, and his lovely wife once served ham and salad with mashed potatoes and gravy! Lettuce and lumpy gravy is definitely an acquired taste!

          4. That far north? I’m surprised. When I was young & we lived in Poole, we had the same onion man every year. My father & I had a good old natter with him in yer akshual French.

          5. MB’s late Auntie Agnes used to boil the greens and then add soda bic. to give them colour.
            She also used to boil sausages before frying them.
            A delighted 10 year old MB once over heard a frightful row between Agnes and her sister Ethel in which Ethel accused Agnes of playing with the sausages because “they looked like men’s doodles”.

          7. I boiled some bacon last week. The previous pack of the same stuff had given up an ocean of white blubber in the frying pan. After it was dryed off it fried a bit better. I’m still looking for the best dry-cured white blob free bacon.

          8. I had a great aunt Ethel who was a chain-smoke & had a vicious temper, but never towards me. She gave me a big chocolate Easter egg with a wet sloppy kiss every year.

          1. I once read the part of McDuff in our Bournemouth IVC play reading group. My rendition terrified the neighbours.

          1. Shudder. Once, when I was on cafe duty in Manchester, they served liver and onions with coleslaw. Now I like nice liver and I like coleslaw but together?

          2. No way. My fave is thinly-sliced calf’s liver, just given a flash on each side in the pan.
            When I worked in Simbach-am-Inn, the Gasthof where I was staying often did calf’s liver for lunch really superbly.
            Later, when I worked every year for a week in Gangkofen, about 30 miles away, I used to motor over to Simbach for Wednesday lunch (surgery closed for the afternoon) on the off chance of getting the C.L. T he first time, about 18 months after my stay, when I walked in, the landlord in Simbach thought h was seeing a ghost.

    5. I put a spoonful of Manzanilla sherry in my potato soup yesterday. It gave it a wee lift. Sherry is usually used in “cream” soups, such as er, cream of tomato. I use Knorr vegetable stock cubes for most “what’s in the cupboard ” makeshift vegetable soups and broth. I would not use a cube for carrot and coriander, for example, or for proper recipe soups such as plum tomato, basil and olive oil soup per Nick Nairn’s recipe (with sherry).
      I also use vegetable cubes in stews, and Bolognese sauce. I don’t have a stock pot as the books suggest that one should. I’m sure the stock pot only works if you use the stock every day or every couple of days, but I stand to be corrected.

      2. I roast chickens on a regular basis for stock. The meat gets used in pies, curries and Chinese dishes, and is also a great source of dog treats.

    6. Sherry’s always useful for splashing into things at the last minute (because I’m not.tempted to.swallow the rest). Oxo cubes no, but I have an emergency stash of the little jellified stock thingies.

    7. I’ll pop an oxo cube in with some beef dishes for colour and taste. They also make condensed liquid stock cubes like Knorr et al.

      1. I use Worcester sauce for a bit of colour and I usually flour the meat and brown it in a frying pan. If the meat is going into a casserole I deglaze the frying pan with the made up stock cube stock.

        1. Yep, Worcester sauce is a great additive. I often deglaze the frying pan with a glass of red wine.

          1. Yes, that works for me with bolognese sauce. One is supposed to use the wine that you are going to serve at table to make sauce, or for the marinade for boeuf bourguignon but I think that is a terrible waste of good wine. I use wines that are still “good” but have disappointed when served in a glass. (Barolo from Lidl comes to mind.)

          9. I find a very little goes a very long way. I have it in the cupboard, but I rarely use it.

    8. I use organic chicken stock powder. If you use too much of it, then everything tastes the same.

    10. Oxo cubes have always been the cost for visiting relatives, bring me a couple of boxes and you can stay as long as you want!! Although I have to confess I don’t use them as much as I used to but need them definitely for cottage pie.

          1. Hmmm. Not sure I agree, Alf. I hope you and vw are risking a small glass of something agreeable later.

          2. Our son gave us a bottle of Donna Maria Ferreira Tawny Port some time ago and we opened it last week. It’s delicious, therefore we’ll have glug of that, Bill.
            Hope you approve 😀

    11. I never use Oxo cubes, but use Knorr jelly thingies occasionally.

      I always have sherry with soup; my fav. is Coop Fino a £8.50 a litre …

    13. Dammit! I seem to have missed a gravy train of puns whilst out visiting incarcerated MiL…..

      For what it’s worth I tend to make my own chicken stock but add a Knorr cube (instead of salt) to add a little extra flavour.

        1. Curiously Knorr also make a fish stock cube – I think it was once advertised by Marlin Brando…..

    15. I’m sure you coking is fine Plum you are still alive. 😍 Most of cooking we see on TV is over the top BS it’s only food at the end of the day.

      Well we had home made chicken risotto this evening. If i’d realised there were mushrooms as well I would have used them.
      I strained my Sloe Vodka and put it back into the bottle, clear as a bell. But not quite the litre I started with. Must have been due to the tasting process.
      Defrosted some damsons I discovered in the freezer cut around them and popped them in to the washed demi Jon and topped it up with 150 grams of caster sugar and one litre of Gin. Already taking the colour. (and flavour) Crushed up and ‘bottled’ some herbs I had dried about a month ago. Watched a bit of TV and now i’m off the bed. Good night all.

  86. Anyone here follow World Rally Championship?
    Andrea Adamo has left Hyundai with immediate effect!!

  89. David Tennant: Around the World in 80 Days shows ‘alarming’ side of British Empire. 7 December 2021.

    David Tennant said the eight-part drama, which begins on Boxing Day and is aimed at a family audience, will explore “the racial and sexual politics” of Victorian England.

    He plays Phileas Fogg in the updated version of Jules Vernes’ novel. Ibrahim Koma, a French actor of Malian heritage, plays Passepartout, while the original character of Detective Fix has been replaced by Abigail Fix, an intrepid journalist.

    Speaking to Radio Times, Tennant said his Fogg was a “damaged” character.

    “In many ways, Phileas Fogg represents everything that’s alarming and peculiar about that old sense of British Empire. Potentially, it’s a story about an England that should elicit very little sympathy,” he said.

    “Verne chose to make Phileas Fogg a particularly stuffy Englishman. We’re showing a different type of stuffy Englishman. He’s very damaged, everything is a trauma for him.”

    Around the Wokeys in Eighty Days! Passepartout Black! Detective Fix a woman! Give that a miss then!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/07/david-tennant-around-world-80-days-shows-alarming-side-british/

    2. Oh dear. I will be washing my hair. Or microwaving the cat. Watching paint dry …
      Well, doing something anything else.

          6. Yes, they both are. Big Cat is more aloof and, well, cat-like than Little Cat who is extrovert and demonstrative. Both are close friends & het on well.

      2. Afternoon Anne. I shouldn’t really complain. I don’t watch the BBC anyway unless I happen to spy something highly recommended or from the Archives.

    3. It’s a great pity that for just one week the world could not be stripped of everything those evil Victorian white men and women invented and created, together with what came afterwards.
      The woke would get a very cold awakening.

      1. Of course, there’d be no telly or films or newspapers or cars or trains or planes…..(yawns and drops off).

    2. Hope you have lots of diesel locomotives on standby for when the leccy runs out, you obese buffoon.

    3. Taking the train to see family costs twice a tank of fuel, even as offensively taxed as it is and takes twice as long.

      Sod off, Boris.

      1. On Sunday I noticed that diesel at the Shell Tankstelle was 154.9/L. I thought that prices were supposed to be sinking again, albeit very slowly.

        1. Paid £150 for a tank of diesel last Thursday, and I onky drive a medium-sized VW. 170p a litre…

          1. I stopped reading after “tank” – and wondered why you wanted one…{:¬))

            Thought it seemed good value, though, especially with yer Russians on their way…

          2. Might be sooner than you think:

            “President Biden will warn Russian President Vladimir Putin that the US is prepared to move more troops and military hardware near Russia’s border on NATO’s “eastern flank” if Russia invades Ukraine, an unnamed senior administration official told reporters on Monday.”

          3. My late eldest brother – who spent his life in the Royal Engineers – used to remind me that, should they wish, the Red Army could be on the French coast within 48 hours of kick-off.

            He always was an optimist…

          5. BTL Comment from a Septic:

            “You know… whenever I come across a bear in the woods… and I have encountered a few… I have an overwhelming temptation to walk up to the critter and prod it with a stick just to see what happens next…

            Thus far I have been able to resist the urge…”

  91. Greetings, all, from the middle of the second major storm to hit since I moved into my caravan just over a week ago, LOL! All a bit hairy at the moment but at least I was too lazy to bother with an awning – have been out trying to rescue rogue ones with a couple of others and am covered in mud and nearly flew over the Yorkshire Wolds like a superannuated Mary Poppins a while ago!

    2. Perhaps it is a SIGN that a different way of living is not quite such a good idea…{:¬))

      I do hope you can keep warm and that your diesel doesn’t freeze.

      1. Ah no, my learnèd friend; it is instead the beginning of an adventure – these will make cracking anecdotes.

        And thanks; still warm while the electricity supply holds (oops, sorry; undiplomatic!).

      1. Too revolting to walk/swim/fly down there in these storms, and they have stopped doing food for the winter. Bugger!

    4. Now look here. If you’re going to do an impression of superman you should take it seriously and wear your pants outside your trousers.

      1. I do take it seriously! Long skirts all the way (aids buoyancy) and as for pants . . . 😉

  92. Uff Da

    As has been widely reported in the last few days, European Commission

    President Ursula von der Leyen has publicly called for the repeal of

    the Nuremberg Code (Mark Steyn’s commentary on the topic is particularly trenchant).

    The Code was established after World War Two to address the issue of

    medical experiments conducted on human beings without their consent. It

    has been violated by Western countries in the years since, notably by

    the CIA with its MKUltra program, but that was secret and unofficial —

    no country has so far publicly abrogated the Nuremberg Code.

    Ms. Von der Leyen appears to be on the verge of changing all that by

    making the Corona “vaccine” mandatory for all citizens of the European

    Union. She acknowledges that her proposal requires the abolition of the

    Nuremberg Code, which, if it happens, will indeed be an historic moment.

    https://gatesofvienna.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/corona-boxcar2.jpg

    https://gatesofvienna.net/2021/12/the-iron-fist-discards-the-velvet-glove/

    2. Get ready for a giant wave of refugees across the Channel if that passes. But surely – SURELY – the rest of Europe will not let a German woman who is married to a gene therapy salesman dictate to them that regular gene therapy treatment is mandatory for the rest of their lives?

      I guess they will try to sneak this in silently, without any public debate. Or perhaps they think the populations are brainwashed enough to accept it?
      Whatever, now and the next few months are critical in the propaganda war.
      The elites have had it mostly their own way up til now – but that’s been the easy ground for them – most people could accept masks, three weeks to flatten the curve and a couple of injections.
      Now they’re coming to the really hard bit, where they have to persuade young, healthy people that they need to be hooked on regular medical treatment for the rest of their lives.

      1. Will the mounting number of deaths from heart problems, strokes, organ failure etc in their peer groups prompt young people to ask themselves the right questions? Just Say No sounds like a good slogan to use against dangerous drug dealers.

    4. Here’s another thing that’s creepy as fk.

      from reitschuster.de Apparently there has been an action to recruit companies to the vaccine campaign. They make a little advertisement, and change their logos to include the word “Impfen” which means “to vaccinate.”

      “Die Volksbank (Nicht zu verwechseln mit einer Bank des Volkes) tritt da heute mit dem Impfslogan auf: „Wir impfen uns den Weg frei“, in Abwandlung des Markenclaims „Wir machen den Weg frei“.

      Was macht frei? Impfen? Merken es diese Kollegen eigentlich noch?!

      Translation:
      “The Volksbank (not to be confused with a bank of the people), came out today with the vaxx-slogan “We’re vaccinating the way free”, as a variation on their usual slogan “We make the way free”.

      What makes free? Vaccinating? Haven’t the colleagues noticed something here?!”

        1. That’s the idea! There was a photo of a leaflet, I couldn’t see VW there, but I bet they are, and their slogan is probably exactly that!!!

  93. My, admittedly slightly old but perfectly serviceable, colour laser printer is refusing to work with my iMac since the latest OS upgrade. I can’t reinstall the drivers as Apple tells me they are out of date! I would like to replace the printer with something newer but all the adverse reviews on Amazon seem to be from Mac users saying that the recommended printers don’t work with a Mac. Have any Nottlers got a newish colour printer that does work with Macs??

    1. What does apple recommend? Something expensive, I expect! I could ask my colleague tomorrow, he has a mac.

    3. Have you checked on the printer manufacturer’s website whether there is a driver upgrade available?

    4. We have a recently purchase Canon MG3600 series from Argos that cost about £35 with standard cartridges. New cartridges XL cost more than the printer. That’s where the profit is. We’re on OS15 Monterey.

      1. I guess they are the cartridges of liquid ink. I have the one with the powder ink, they last far longer, and if you get them re-filled they cost about 12 pounds per cartridge that lasts 6 months (black ink).
        I could get them even cheaper if I looked harder.

        1. So what you are saying (© Cathy Newman) is that you get the best bargain by staring out the sales assistant.

        2. ‘Powder ink” = toner, which is what Bleau presumably uses in his laser printer. Inkjet cartridges are an utter rip-off. The ink itself is one of the most expensive substances on the planet (retail, anyway). I think it’s prolly made from Unobtanium. I do the printing for the parish. Initially on their HP B/W laser. The cartridges were ruinously expensive, mainly because they contain a new imaging drum, as well as toner. Cheapo Chinese refurbed units were vastly cheaper, but didn’t always work.

          When that machine finally died, I bought a full size ex-lease commercial Ricoh colour laser copier/printer on eBay. I can usually find cheap toner cartridges, also on eBay, but even if I have to source genuine, new cartridges, the cost per page is still less than £0.01. These machines don’t last forever, but you can expect a few years’ service before they reach the end of their useful life. We’re now on the fourth machine. Cost us £140. It ‘expired’ on Saturday morning, crying out for an engineer. No chance on a Saturday, and I had printing to do, so I searched for the fault code online, and found dozens of YT videos showing the solution. Half an hour with a magnetic screwdriver and a microfibre cloth later, working order was restored. Admittedly, I now know what it must feel like to be a bomb disposal expert, mostly because a dropped screw would never have been recovered, and might have killed the machine for good.

          But if anyone does a lot of printing, and has the space (mine is in a cupboard), it’s a cheap way of printing.

    5. I have a couple of HP bubble-jets, a 6250 and 3750, they both work with Monterey and all previous iterations on both my Mac Book and iMac without issue

    1. We had gallons of it this morning, and snow as well – then it blew over and I had to go out – it was sunny by the time I got to Gloucester. Quite clear out now.

  95. I’m being plagued by text and email messages from the National Health Service to apply for a booster. I really need much more information on the efficacy of these things before I sign up…..

      1. Thank you. I won’t for the time being as I want to see the degree of persistence.
        The TV Licensing thugs have sent around 13 threatening letters to the house undergoing renovation which is now under ‘Active Investigation’. I have no time for the Barstewards as they previously ignored all my communications with them and continued to plague my mother (now deceased) with threatening letters even though I had informed them she no longer had a TV which was destroyed at a local tip

    2. My GP surgery have so much time on their hands that they have been texting me for the last 3 weeks.

    3. We have had two texts and two emails each. Neither of us is biting. With my red spots, of which I still I have one, I reckon I would be a prime candidate for a blood clot. So forget it.

  96. Britain’s hubristic green commissars can’t see the wood for the trees

    Storm Arwen showed the value of gas stoves and diesel, and the folly of our national forestry policy

    MATT RIDLEY • 6 December 2021

    The one thing that cheered us Northumbrians up as we waited for power to come back on after Storm Arwen (some wit points out that naming these daughters of Boreas only seems to encourage them) was to grumble: “if this was in the Home Counties we would never hear the end of it”. But it is not funny that thousands of homes are still waiting for reconnection, some with elderly occupants.

    I can vouch that five days of living in the cold and dark when the nights are more than twice as long as the days does not half remind you of the value of reliable electricity, diesel cars (how else do you charge a phone?) and gas stoves to cook on – all three of which are about to be banned by the eco-commissars.

    The longer term devastation in Northumberland is to trees. Where I live the damage is patchy: some whole woods are flattened, some veteran oaks uprooted and huge pines snapped off. But mostly the wind knocked down patches of woods and when the mess is cleared, that will leave woodland clearings that saplings will slowly fill.

    Further north in the county, however, there are large areas of forest flattened altogether. As a boy I remember seeing similar scenes in central Scotland after the even fiercer storm of January 1968, which destroyed 8,000 hectares (30 square miles) of forest and 300 homes, so don’t blame climate change.

    But do let’s plant back better. The tree planting policy in Britain of the past 50 years has been a man-made disaster. Alarmed at the shortage of pit props during the First World War, the government set up the Forestry Commission with a remit to buy land and plant it with “commercial” trees while issuing grants and permits to landowners to do the same (a curious conflict of interest, incidentally).

    This resulted in moorland and hill disappearing under square, hard-edged carpets of alien sitka spruce, creating dark, closed forest monocultures that acidified streams, accelerated flooding, collapsed biodiversity (except midges) and took away jobs. Where once the curlew called and the shepherd gathered, now there was empty silence.

    To add insult to environmental injury, it was a commercial failure, too. The Forestry Commission never made a profit. Yet, bent on empire building, it set about converting even ancient semi-natural woodlands into sitka plantations: it is a little known fact that a higher proportion of ancient woodland was lost under Forestry Commission ownership than under private ownership. The ostensible purpose of these pulp farms was to feed paper mills that never came, supplying a demand for paper that was about to shrink, in thrall to an import-substitution policy that had been rubbished by Adam Smith.

    But we import a lot of timber, wrote an angry duke to me when I made this point once before. Yes and bananas too, I replied, but we don’t subsidise greenhouses. In the 1980s the Forestry Commission even began telling us to grow lodgepole pines from the Rockies. Disaster: in British winds they grew sideways and collapsed into unmanageable thickets.

    But alder, birch and rowan – oh no, you were not encouraged to plant those, at least until recently. It took me years to persuade the Forestry Commission to allow abundant natural regeneration of birch to grow where I had felled a spruce wood. Spray them off and replant with spruce was the “advice” from the commissars. It’s now a mature birch wood in which I found a woodcock’s nest last year.

    That at least had changed a bit. The Forestry Commission is now encouraging the planting of native species and the growing of “woodland” instead of forestry plantations. Under its excellent new chairman, Sir William Worsley, it might even approach efficiency in answering letters in less than three months.

    There is hope that in responding to the Government’s ambition to plant millions of trees to soak up carbon, both private and public landowners will be putting in mixtures of well-spaced native hardwood trees (and Scots pines) that follow the contours, include clearings and are managed for wildlife.

    But the scale of the ambition fills me with dread. The sphagnum mosses on moorland blanket bogs where many new trees will be planted are actually better at capturing carbon than trees, we now know; the one thing people trying to save the curlew agree on is that nearby woodland is bad news: it houses crows, foxes, stoats and buzzards that take the eggs and chicks.

    Yet the “commercial” foresters are already dusting off their business plans, with talk of planting “mostly” sitka spruce. The price of timber is up, almost entirely because the EU bizarrely decided that burning trees in Drax power station, and others like it, is carbon neutral, even though it produces more carbon dioxide than coal (trees take decades to regrow and are then cut down again).

    As we replant, please let’s not keep making these environmental mistakes in the uplands of northern Britain (wind farms, ditches in peat?) simply to reward lobbyists on hobby horses.

    Matt Ridley owns woodland in Northumberland and is the co-author of ‘Viral: the search for the origin of Covid-19’.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/britains-hubristic-green-commissars-cant-see-wood-trees/

      1. Wiki:
        The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England.

        From the FC website:
        The Forestry Commission increases the value of woodlands to society and the environment.

    2. “Under its excellent new chairman, Sir William Worsley, it might even approach efficiency in answering letters in less than three months.”

      Come, come, Lord Ridley – they are working from home – the best way when outdoor activity is concerned. Anyway, I expect they think you are faking your peerage…!

    3. Why do people continue to believe/follow government advice as I can’t remember anything government has ever done that works. I can’t think of anything on the horizon that’s going end up spreading anything but misery.
      Anyone for a government endorsed experimental injection? I was persuaded to follow government advice and took statins for a couple of months and they nearly destroyed my kidneys.
      Never ever again.

      1. Government involvement is the death knell for any activity. It adds bungling, ineptititude, box ticking.

        It is the epitome of inefficiency, waste and activity with no outcome.

        1. That happened to me. In the 1960s, I commuted to Temple station on the Tube. At the bottom of Arundel Street (along which I walked up to me office) once a week was a street band of British Legion chaps. Once I asked them to play “Lara’s Theme” and gave the half-a-crown.

          For months after, each time I emerged from the station, they’d break out with that damned tune!!

          4. Good heavens Sos! Just how much plonk have you had? That’s the second ” compliment” you have paid me today;-)

          6. 47 Frith Street, Ronnie Scott.. oh yes

            London Theatres , oh yes

            London restaurants .. 60’s food eating out wasn’t all that bad .. new tastes and strange things .

            Treated to a b/day treat .. Tea at the Ritz , oh yes

            Many oh yes’s

            And this time of the year was the best time of all.

            I cannot believe I am the image of a country bumpkin now !

    3. We couldn’t bear to watch anymore the other evening , so we switched channels .

      I seem to remember doing the same years ago .. it was too raw.

  98. 342577+ up ticks,

    May one suggest that johnson /ALL party members / token number of hard core followers don IRON MASKS as a sign of honesty as in being behind the actions they are having the peoples suffer.

    All keys in a container fastened by a Gordian knot, so safe enough regarding current overseeing politico’s.

  99. “Top Foreign Office mandarin tells shocked MPs he stayed on holiday for ELEVEN DAYS even AFTER Kabul fell as he tries to defend Afghan evacuation shambles after whistleblower revealed WFH civil servants refused to do overtime while allies were left to die”

    Why is this “top mandarin” still in government employment?

  101. I feel deeply for the neighbours either side of the house undergoing renovation. However, I think the Christmas card I posted to one of them bearing the legend “Peace on Earth” may have been less than tactful…..

      1. According to the LA building inspector regs mean that the new rainwater soak-away (there wasn’t one before) needs to be 5metres by 4 metres by 2 metres deep. The builders will be hiring a mini digger!

  103. That’s me for this eventful day. I hope that tomorrow brings lighter winds and little or no rain.

    I trust you will have a safe and calm evening. The risks of life are brought home vividly by Alf’s and vw’s family trauma. Fingers crossed for them and the family.

    A demain.

    1. yes, I saw it somewhere else in my travels on news sites. I think quite a lot of people have been faking the vaxx passses, because the old one is just a booklet, if I remember rightly.

  106. Afghanistan evacuation one of the finest British military achievements in last 50 years?
    Raab you sh1t, I doubt it would rank in the top ten.

  108. Latest Breaking News – due to the sudden rising levels of the Omicron variant chemists and corner shops are reporting shortages of Man size tissues, vick and fisherman friends. causing an emergency meeting of COBRA to unleash a Christmas lockdown until supplies can be replenished.

    1. Thank goodness i still have 50,000 bog rolls and 10,000 litres of petrol since the last time they nudged me.

  110. Daughter in Dubai told us today thst weekends will move from current Friday/Saturday to Saturday/Sunday fron 1st January 2022.

    Obviously, in that perfect democracy, the one man with the one vote, Sheikh Mo, has decided. Bit like the U.K. no need to consult Parliament just decree.

    2. Isn’t Friday a significant prayer day for Muslims?
      Sheikh Mo might be tempting Providence.

      1. Perhaps it’s to keep the road free from infidels on Fridays. They’ll all be at work or school.

    4. She’s 12 weeks pregnant……… should have used contraception then. Must have conceived after they arrived.

    5. I’ve worked with a fair few Muslims on board seismic exploration vessels and most were fine but had to be prepared to let their religion come second to the job. Several times in difficult online circumstances, bad weather causing streamer depth issues needing manual input and watching the seismic coverage as feather angle changes and 25 other screens showing you what could go wrong at any moment, and the voice of your Muslim junior navigation processor saying, “I have to go pray now, Max.” could be a trifle annoying.

      1. That must have been a really fascinating job .

        I expect nothing would ever get done if the Muslims concentrated so much on their prayer times.

        How long do they pray for , and is it 6 times a day?

        1. A few minutes, Belle, most times it wasn’t a problem. I enjoyed my off shift time just watching from the bow and when possible, fishing. Stressful, but it paid well. Like your hubby probably.

    6. A while ago some Syrians complained about being sent to a Scottish island. Bute? Arran?

      I wonder if there’s someone in a government office who’s actually on our side…

  112. From the Spekkie.

    …. “presumably because his gold-plated career is now on the line.” But not, one would assume his gold plated pension.

    The utter uselessness of Sir Philip Barton

    “Steerpike has seen many abject appearances before select committees. There was the time Sir Philip Green told Richard Fuller to ‘stop staring’ at him after BHS went belly-up. There was Russell Brand’s cowboy-hatted testimony on drug abuse. There was even the infamous occasion when Rupert Murdoch was attacked by a pie. But few civil servants have given such a pathetic performance as Sir Philip Barton managed today before the Foreign Affairs Select Committee on the loss of Afghanistan.

    The Foreign Office Permanent Secretary was up before a panel of seething MPs to respond to this morning’s revelations about the department’s dire response to the collapse of Kabul. To say that his appearance was a turkey shoot would be an embarrassment to turkeys, as the former mandarin was asked again and again why he refused to cut short his leave as the Taliban prepared to take the capital. In the course of this afternoon’s grilling it transpired that the £185,000-a-year official – who has a pension worth £1.7m – stayed on holiday until 26 August, some 11 days after Kabul fell. With Icarus-level hubris, Sir Philip refused to disclose where his jolly jaunt exactly was – only that it was split between the UK and abroad.

    Under forceful questioning from a visibly enraged Alicia Kearns, Sir Philip admitted he now ‘regrets’ not coming back from his holiday sooner – presumably because his gold-plated career is now on the line. The brazen Barton nevertheless insisted that more people would not have been evacuated from Afghanistan if he had returned earlier from holiday – an insistence that prompted Kearns to mutter darkly: ‘he couldn’t be bothered.’

    ‘It is not enough to say mea culpa’ she continued ‘How in two weeks did you not think I have to go in and protect my people?’ Sir Philip only claimed that: ‘I don’t believe me being present in London would have changed the outcome – the number of people evacuated.’ Doesn’t exactly say much for his in person presence among the troops now, does it? At least Sir Humphrey had charisma. Not for nothing did the Rutland Merton MP tell the flailing mandarin that ‘this was a catastrophe of incomparable nature.’

    Kearns was just one of many queuing up to turn their fire on Barton’s clapped out Rolls Royce of a department. Tory Bob Seely contrasted the soldiers at Kabul airport working around the clock with the ‘unfocused and rubbish’ Foreign Office pen-pushers refusing to work more than eight hours a day – a comparison which led Barton to bleat that ‘there’s not a clocking off culture’ among his staff. This was despite him admitting in the same session that many of the 500 FCDO staff ‘masterminding’ the Afghanistan evacuation were, in fact, working from home. And to make matters worse, the department only ordered 24 hour shifts – i.e. night teams – for the crisis from August 14, just the day before Kabul fell, with ministers unable to say for sure that these teams actually showed up on August 14. Trebles all round.

    The anger at the Foreign Office was not merely confined to those in Whitehall. Under questioning about what his then political master, Dominic Raab, was up to during the crisis, Barton failed to provide any details as to when Raab went on holiday in August. Asked as to why the call leagues provided to the committee missed out the entire first two weeks of that months, Barton could only stutter and claim he would have to go away and check the information.

    Unprepared, unimpressive, underwhelming and ill-advised: that answer seemed to encapsulate Sir Philip’s whole dreadful approach to the entire sorry episode of Britain’s Kabul debacle.”

    1. He’s absolutely correct, his presence would have made no difference. His absence won’t either. Sack the bastard and most of his empire while we’re about it.

    2. There is a long tradition in the Foreign Office of loyalty and admiration for All Things Arab; the radical changes in 1979 – the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini – had no impact on FCO civil servant loyalties.

      The FCO needs cultural sterilisation; i.e. sack the whole lot …

    4. The Foreign Office has completely useless at least since the notorious leaked meeting when Pope Benedict visited Britain.
      Decades of politically correct recruitment.

    5. Another failed retreat from Kabul, but this one had communications and logistics that could and should have made it a successful one.

        2. Watched a series called Gay Army some years ago on tv. They horrified the drill Sergeant with them.

    5. The person who commissioned that hates Christmas. There was a similarly depressing installation at Heathrow Airport when I had the misfortune to pass through at Christmas time a few years ago.

    1. The sad thing is, she didn’t make history in any way at all. She did nothing to deserve her office.

  116. First the Cuckoo Clock, then the Swiss Army Knife and now this:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/782c757ab0ddf56e52505b8e2d9c5a77a29c1ef1bd2d2c885c782e2a848b56a6.png

    SWI swissinfo.ch spoke to Dr Philip Nitschke, founder of Australia-registered Exit International, about his innovation, the coffin-like Sarco capsule, and what place he expects it will have in the Swiss assisted dying sector.

    SWI swissinfo.ch: What is Sarco and how does it work?

    Philip Nitschke: It’s a 3-D printed capsule, activated from the inside by the person intending to die. The machine can be towed anywhere for the death. It can be in an idyllic outdoor setting or in the premises of an assisted suicide organisation, for example.

    The person will get into the capsule and lie down. It’s very comfortable. They will be asked a number of questions and when they have answered, they may press the button inside the capsule activating the mechanism in their own time.

    The capsule is sitting on a piece of equipment that will flood the interior with nitrogen, rapidly reducing the oxygen level to 1 per cent from 21 per cent in about 30 seconds. The person will feel a little disoriented and may feel slightly euphoric before they lose consciousness. The whole thing takes about 30 seconds. Death takes place through hypoxia and hypocapnia, oxygen and carbon dioxide deprivation, respectively. There is no panic, no choking feeling. [In an environment where the oxygen is less than 1 per cent, after losing consciousness death would occur after approximately 5-10 minutes, according to Philip Nitschke.]

        1. Missed the last 2 open mics due to the lurgy, my presence is only for clapping, or clapping out possibly in this case.

          2. It lingers, but I shall have a Guinness early doors Friday, come hell or high water. I just hope it tastes okay.

          2. I guess!
            Somehow it seems emblematic of the vanity of our age. Not only can we conquer the climate, we can control death too – or kid ourselves that we can anyway.

          4. It takes a lot of courage though, violence and wrenching outside one’s normal mental state. The pod seems to normalise it, even make it stylish and pleasant.

    3. I’ve only ever come across two Nitschke’s and they both appear to be obsessed with Death…

      1. Don’t worry. Good news – there are only two or three in existence and 8 billion of us!
        Bad news they can be 3D printed!

      1. It’s unequivocal that the absence of oxygen tends to have a serious deleterious effect on brain function. I suppose they could enhance the function of the device by creating a vacuum inside the capsule to be absolutely sure?

        1. “*** I would have given it 5* but disappointed there was no last meal of choice” Verified Participant. RIP

    2. The nationalists really are unpleasant, nasty people. This sort of abuse is petty, bitter and utterly stupid.

    2. Perhaps they’re freezing him out for his reported views on the Woke language and denying Christmas.

  120. We did not have a “Weather Bomb” in Sussex more like a damp squib. The media lies about everything.

    2. The forecasters did rather exaggerate the strength of this ordinary winter depression but then weather is now political propaganda.

      Here in Northants we had rather less than a quarter of an inch of rain, and most of that was in a brief squally downpour as the cold front passed.

      1. It was quite strong here this morning – very wet and windy and some snow as well. The bottom of our lane was flooded when I went out.

    3. We were totally unaware ofvit as we haven’t watched or listened to any news for almost 2 years.
      Today we had about 20 minutes of heavy rain.
      Normal weather for any time of the year in England.

  121. Almost 70 medics who attended a large Christmas party in southern Spain have since tested positive for Covid-19, authorities say.
    Most of the 68 infected are doctors and nurses working in the intensive care unit at Málaga’s regional hospital.
    Health authorities said they were all at a party attended by about 170 people last Wednesday.
    All guests returned negative antigen tests before the event but more than half are now isolating.
    The infected staff were all fully vaccinated and are showing no symptoms, health authorities said.
    Local reports say doctors and nurses from other departments at Málaga’s regional hospital in Andalusia have been redeployed to cover for their colleagues.

  122. Ascension Island? Some floating harbours will do…

    Processing illegal migrants offshore is the only way to end the crisis

    If even a Democrat US president is prepared summarily to remove illegal arrivals, surely UK authorities should be doing something similar

    PATRICK O’FLYNN

    The statue of Liberty in New York Harbour has an inscription at its base which reads “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free”.

    As a country built by immigrants, with a vast amount of territory at its disposal and a population density only an eighth of the UK’s, that sentiment has traditionally been echoed in more relaxed public attitudes towards immigration in America than pertain here.

    But such is the scale of global migratory flows these days that even in the US the political debate around the issue has become highly charged and the open-ended promise to the huddled masses no longer stands.

    When Donald Trump took office in 2017, he was partly riding a wave of anxiety about the scale and nature of immigration, particularly across the southern border with Mexico. A series of tough immigration and asylum policies followed, including about half the reinforcements to the border wall that Trump spent his election campaign promising to get built.

    When the left-wing administration of Joe Biden took office in January this year, the mood music changed with some of the most draconian measures being scrapped, including a “Remain In Mexico” programme that forced asylum applicants to wait outside the US while their claims were processed.

    So it has come as a surprise to many to learn that the Biden government is reimposing the policy immediately. Officially, this is because a federal court order found the policy had been improperly terminated. Biden has lodged an appeal to try and get this overturned but with the Supreme Court carrying a conservative majority his chances of success may be slim and some observers think he is just going through the motions.

    The furore over the issue has also drawn attention to the fact that Biden has not even tried to scrap another Trump era measure – the so-called Title 42 emergency policy that allows the US instantly to expel a majority of irregular migrants without even allowing them to claim asylum at all.

    The potential spill-over of all this into the immigration politics of Britain is obvious: If even a Democrat US administration is prepared summarily to remove illegal arrivals, forbid them from claiming asylum and restart a policy of forcing those it does permit to lodge claims to wait in Mexico then shouldn’t our own authorities be doing something similar?

    Doesn’t all this in fact amount to the “offshore processing” that our own Government is said to be considering as a way of stemming the illegal flotillas crossing the English Channel? Of course, the US is not constrained by the European Convention on Human Rights. But as the “land of the free” it is a highly relevant example of how a wealthy sovereign state should approach largescale attempts to evade its migration laws.

    Processing claimants out-of-territory has the distinct advantage of preventing them absconding and living in your society illegally. It can also prevent applicants from acquiring rights to remain via forming relationships, having children, or working with legal teams to come up with new ideas as to why deportation back to their country of origin would be an unconscionable step. Removing illegal arrivals to wait it out offshore would also send a highly visible signal to others that crossing the Channel in a dinghy is no longer a viable way of securing residence in the UK.

    On Saturday 100 migrants were escorted into the UK after being picked up in the Channel. No interceptions were made by the French authorities. For such a number to make it across on a single day in the winter should tell ministers that under present policies next spring and summer will bring a scale of arrivals much greater than anything yet seen.

    The British public and particularly those who voted Tory in 2019 would surely be horrified at such a turn of events and liable to believe their government was not even trying to implement its promise to “take back control” of our borders.

    With the Nationality & Borders Bill – which contains clauses that would enable offshore processing but no commitment to it – due back in the Commons imminently, it may suit Boris Johnson to have a political bust-up with opposition parties about such a prospect.

    But while a bust-up may make good theatre and shore-up Tory support in the very short-term, only effective action will allow the Government to protect its reputation on an enduring basis.

    The UK does not share a land border with a pliant or client state, as the US does with Mexico, but it does have an array of overseas territories and dependencies available. Before the 2005 election, the Tories scoped out the possibility of offshore asylum processing and identified Ascension Island as the best bet. That exercise even led to a manifesto commitment that “asylum seekers’ applications will be processed outside Britain”.

    It is high time that Mr Johnson implemented that Michael Howard-era policy. Not only are other governments across Europe, such as Denmark’s, starting to understand that the current approach to asylum is unsustainable, but even the New World countries of Australia and America with their vast open spaces have imposed measures far more rigorous than anything being implemented on our own overcrowded island. That has simply got to change.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/06/processing-illegal-migrants-offshore-way-end-crisis/

  123. Detection of the Omicron variant is problematic because the virus is primarily suspected to have been identified by something that isn’t there – which other viruses might not have anyway.

    Diagnosis of any illness up until now has been the sole preserve of the medical profession subject to laboratory tests.
    An Omicron viral infection can only be confirmed by determining its full genomic sequence in a laboratory.

    Fergus Walsh has said on BBC that the UK does not have the testing resources to adequately reach this level of Omicron identification so we are all in the dark about what’s really going in the COVID-19 variant spread.

    I think the ongoing publication of COVID-19 statistics is now just a waste of time.

    Here’s extract from WHO’s technical recommendations:

    Enhancing Readiness for Omicron (B.1.1.529): Technical Brief and
    Priority Actions for Member States

    World Health Organization HQ
    Current SARS-CoV-2 PCR diagnostics are able to detect the Omicrom variant. Several labs have
    indicated that for one widely used PCR test (ThermoFisher TaqPath), one of the three target genes is
    not detected (called S gene dropout or S gene target failure, SGTF) and this test can therefore be used
    as marker for this variant, pending sequencing confirmation.

    S gene target failure (SGTF)
    • For countries with access to diagnostic tests in which at least one gene target contains the S gene
    target:
    o Prioritize specimens with SGTF (no detection for S gene and detection for other gene targets)
    for sequencing confirmation of the Omicron.
    o While a sudden increase in SGFT may be indicative of circulation of the Omicron since the
    prevalence of Alpha variant (which also causes SGTF) is very low in the vast majority of
    countries, confirmation of Omicron by sequencing is recommended.
    • For countries without access to diagnostic tests with S gene target, enhanced surveillance and
    sequencing are recommended to characterize the circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.

  124. This Charade has gone on for long enough:

    “On Tuesday, police in Senzig, Brandenburg discovered the deaths of an entire family living in the town just south of Berlin. A suicide note was also present at the scene, which was left by the husband and father of the family. In the note, the 40 year-old confessed to murdering his wife and 3 daughters before killing himself. The motive he described behind the murder-suicide was his fear of forthcoming penalties after it was discovered that he forged his wife’s vaccine certificate.”

    1. How tragic & what a waste of human life. No mention of what the penalties would have been?

  125. Good night all.

    A rich, home-made chicken broth, ideal for stormy weather
    A custard tart with lotsa raspberries, bitter chocolate.

  126. Dry in W6 now and the wind is 8 mph. Damp and dreary here today but the storm didn’t reach West London. ‘Night all!

  127. Beeb ranting on now about the Pacific islanders being terrified of “weather related climate events” – climate fanatics are responsible for frightening these people over normal weather.

  128. Nowhere today, even in US papers have I seen any reference to the fact that 80 years ago the attack on Pearl Harbour took place. How soon it is all forgotten. I don’t remember that, of course, and many people of that era are long gone.
    May the memories of all those poor folk never be forgotten.

    1. Evening LotL. I have had a deep interest in WW2 and (strangely, I am English after all) I have majored on the US Marine campaign in the Pacific, from Tulagi through to Okinawa.
      And I am sorry to say that today’s date rang no bell’s with me! What a plonker…

      1. Evening Iffy, I did live over there for 30+ years and it was always mentioned.
        I don’t know nearly enough about WW I or WW II but I plan to learn.

        1. If you need any suggestions let me know. My grandfather, btw, joined the Army in May 1914, went into the war in August that year and went through all the battles on the front line until 1917 when he was wounded.
          I transcribed his memoirs a couple of years ago and it is now part of the IWM archive. I can let you have a copy if you would like?

          1. My great uncle Charlie was killed in the first few days of WW I in France. He was one of the Queen’s 16th Royal Lancers. My late dad’s cousin wrote a paper about it and tracked stuff down. It’s interesting and a rather spooky story.

          2. My grandad joined the Lancashire Fusiliers, moved into the MachineGun Corps for the duration of the war and went on to become RSM in the Fusiliers. Interesting story.
            Why spooky btw?

          3. My great granddad joined up in 1914 aged 48 and served with the MGC and then the Tank Corps which it became.

          4. Charlie was reported missing, presumed dead and nothing my G grandfather did could find anymore out. After the war he went to France determined to find out what had happened to his son. He went to the town where his son had been killed, I could give the name but would have to search for the papers. Anyway, he was given a ride by a local and when he explained why he was there, the man became very animated and took him to a house. It turned out that this family had Charlie’s medals and personal effects.
            This family showed my G grandfather where Charlie was buried which is in the town graveyard and to this day, that family’s descendants put flowers on Charlie’s grave.

          5. Charlie was reported missing, presumed dead and nothing my G grandfather did could find anymore out. After the war he went to France determined to find out what had happened to his son. He went to the town where his son had been killed, I could give the name but would have to search for the papers. Anyway, he was given a ride by a local and when he explained why he was there, the man became very animated and took him to a house. It turned out that this family had Charlie’s medals and personal effects.
            This family showed my G grandfather where Charlie was buried which is in the town graveyard and to this day, that family’s descendants put flowers on Charlie’s grave.

        2. M’Lady, I have spent a couple of months this year watching two outstanding 26-part TV documentaries on the two 20th century World Wars: THE GREAT WAR (WWI) made in the 1960s by the BBC, and A WORLD AT WAR (WWII) made in the 1970s by Thames Television. These two classic series have really helped me to understand more deeply the historical events which – initially – I was ignorant of. I got my copies from Amazon.uk and I would highly recommend you do the same. There is also a similar US series called, I think, THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC with music by Richard Rodgers. Another fabulous series which I gave to a friend in the local u3a who is a fan of military history; I now regret having giving the set away, but perhaps may be able to borrow it back from him to re-watch.
          EDIT: The correct title of the US documentary is called VICTORY AT SEA (and not THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC).

    2. Watched a Burt Lancaster film late last night, Valdez is Coming’. I perhaps should have watched ‘From Here to Eternity’, a wonderful film which ends with the Jap attack.

      1. Mola, if you haven’t already, read A Town Like Alice and On the Beach by Nevil Shute. He’s a little dated in his attitudes to women but his observations re the war and post war possibilities are right on.

        1. Read both and ATLA very recently. A lovely story. There are people who tear it apart because of the Aussie soldier’s (can’t remember his name) talk of ‘Abos’, great book.

          2. Lotl, I believe that’s what was used at the time, a euphemism, but a commonly used term.

        2. Neville Shute’s ‘No Highway‘ (1948) was extraordinarily prescient re ‘metal fatigue’ and the DH Comet disasters …

          1. The only Shute book I didn’t like was Slide Rule because I didn’t understand it… not being an engineer. All the rest are super.

    3. There was an article in the Telegraph yesterday about two newish books on Pearl Harbor. Comments were allowed.

  129. Either the Government is under an intense, sustained cyber media attack from foreign forces or they are, indeed, phucking useless.

  130. Bureaucratic Britain has become addicted to permanent failure

    Instead of learning from mistakes, we’re trapped in a spiral of incompetence and terrible misjudgements

    MADELINE GRANT • 7 December 2021 • 9:30pm

    Do you ever get the sneaking feeling that nothing really … works? Certainly, a few days of dealing with the DVLA or passport office (or indeed, any customer service recently) will have that effect. It is a Kafka-esque ordeal in which robotic apparatchiks direct you from pillar to post, and then back again. “All our advisers are currently very busy,” trills the automated voice, as the hold music begins to seep into your brain. Yet “Computer Says No” is a disease afflicting Britain at all levels – and shows little sign of abating.

    After a brilliant start, Britain’s booster rollout appears to be stumbling amid delays and bureaucratic hold-ups. Last weekend, England vaccinated fewer people than it did before ministers vowed to put the campaign “on steroids” to strengthen our resistance to the omicron variant.

    The timing couldn’t be worse. Next week, the Government will review whether new restrictions such as mask mandates and interruptions to international travel should continue. It will also be contemplating further restrictions over Christmas. Based on the direction of travel, and the fact that the Government is clearly in “act fast” mode, things look bleak.

    Analysing the alleged causes of the delay, what emerges is a case study in bureaucratic failure and a feeble capitulation to vested interests that could only exist in the public sector. GPs initially refused to take part in the rollout, which triggered days of wrangling with doctors’ unions to determine which services they would cease offering in order to participate. Eventually, they decided to halt routine health checks for the over-75s, although not before the doctors’ unions had secured a deal ensuring GPs would be paid for duties they were not doing anyway, on top of special bonuses for administering jabs.

    Then came a further torrent of “Computer Says No”, as the NHS delayed opening up its booking systems, reportedly awaiting “legal instructions” from the UK Health Security Agency (HSA), Public Health England’s successor. As a result, NHS chiefs only issued their guidance to the health service last Friday night. The accelerated rollout now looks unlikely to begin until December 13, at the earliest.

    It’s all so depressing. There’s the miserable realisation that the spirit of the initial vaccine taskforce has been subsumed within the bureaucracy. There’s a sense of quiet resignation at the state’s capture by public sector interests – and that perennial revolving door rewarding failure. As deputy chief medical officer, Dr Jenny Harries was notably wrong on crucial points – talking down the importance of testing and ventilation while over-emphasising much less useful interventions like hand-washing. Naturally, when the time came to find a head for the new HSA, who else but Harries got the call? No amount of measurable decline seems enough to prompt even the mildest rethink of the way we manage our health sector. Instead, the NHS will continue to swallow up a vast, and ever-growing share of public spending.

    New antiviral treatments offer another promising route to normality. Yet we have lost much of the resolve that drove the vaccine taskforce. Paxlovid, Pfizer’s new antiviral drug, has been shown to decrease Covid hospitalisations by a factor of almost 10 – an extraordinary result. Initial findings from clinical trials were so overwhelmingly positive that regulators shut them down early. Though the MHRA has yet to approve the drug, the Government ought to be bulk-buying it in advance, as Dame Kate Bingham did so effectively earlier this year. So far, however, Britain has ordered just 250,000 doses – a decent start, but nowhere near enough.

    The testimony of Foreign Office whistle-blower Raphael Marshall reveals a terrifyingly complacent work culture. He alleges that working from home in the Foreign Office contributed to the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. As the situation deteriorated rapidly, he says, “the default expectation remained that FCDO staff would only work eight hours a day, five days a week”. What business could countenance operating like this? Back in my pint-pulling days, you’d have been laughed out of the pub if you’d said: “Sorry boss, I don’t fancy working late on New Years’ Eve” – but somehow the equivalent is tolerated in the civil service, even when grappling with matters of life and death.

    In a way, these developments reflect a paradox – that we are doubling down on the worst of our Covid failures, even as the counter-evidence piles up.

    Working from home may improve productivity in some sectors of the economy, but not everywhere. It has produced vast backlogs in applications for HGV licences and passports – with disastrous knock-on effects. Yet the Government is still flirting with calls to reintroduce home-working; perhaps even longer-term legal moves to make flexible working the default in any new job.

    The pandemic should have shown politicians the vanity of fancying that they could control the world, yet their reaction to the new variant demonstrated precisely the opposite. Instead of seeing, based on bitter experience, that the omicron variant was already circulating in Britain, making border restrictions futile, they instantly reintroduced measures – weakening the travel industry, disrupting family life for millions and punishing poorer countries for being transparent in their genomic sequencing. Recent events should have humbled our over-mighty state, yet it has emerged more powerful than ever.

    Easily the most explosive claim, denied by Downing Street, from the Foreign Office whistle-blower, was that at the height of Afghanistan’s collapse, No 10 issued direct orders to divert troops to escort Pen Farthing and his menagerie to safety, ahead of his Afghan staff, not to mention thousands of soldiers and interpreters who’d risked their lives to serve Britain. It is the behaviour of a weak-minded, fundamentally unserious country, with topsy-turvy priorities. Given the current state of play, these priorities are about to get both topsier and turvier.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/07/bureaucratic-britain-has-become-addicted-permanent-failure/

    1. I am becoming annoyed with journalists parroting the line that our vaccination campaign is a wonder to behold. It is anything but and has killed and disabled many whilst remaining likely to injure many more in the years to come.

      The constant emphasis on Covid at the expense of other more serious illnesses is a travesty, as has been the threat and reality of lockdowns, mask mandates, school closures and destruction of vast swathes of several vital business sectors.

      1. “I am becoming annoyed with journalists parroting the line that our vaccination campaign is a wonder to behold…”

        It was in the sense that it was done so quickly. Money may have been talking but it was done because of the utter failure of the NHS agencies to get off their arses and do something and that is the point of the article – the nation’s institutional failures.

        1. As you observe, money was thrown at obtaining vaccines. We now carry a debt greater than that run up in WWII when the additional astronomical costs of dud PPE, a useless Test and Trace application and profiteering by Hancock and chums is taken into account.

          Edit: I agree that our institutions have been failing us for decades. Membership of the EU and blind acceptance of its mad policies allowed our lot to go to sleep on full pay.

          Brexit has combined with a faux pandemic to expose the utter uselessness of our politicians and government institutions.

    2. Official Britain has been worse that useless for decades. You should try living somewhere where official services actually work, and enjoy the difference.

  135. Is the ball swinging, is it moving, why don’t the BBC commentators tell us? They whinge about Broad and his swing being left out, possibly for the day/night games, but are Hazlewood and Starc moving the ball with the weather conditions?

    1. Night Mola- going to finish my glass and then go to bed myself. MH is seriously pissed off with England performance thus far.

  143. 03:12 and sat up in bed with a mug of tea again.

    Looks like the NHS is performing to expectations again:-

    SIR – Tim Oldfield (Letters, December 7) discusses the inaccurate recording of Covid vaccinations.

    My wife received a letter from the NHS in Bristol saying she had not yet had the booster. She had, in fact, received it 28 days earlier. How many other people’s records are wrong?

    Accurate recording is vital, as the Covid response is reliant on data. How can the Government make informed decisions if it is being guided by experts using incorrect figures? When I was having outpatient treatment in hospital, this was a topic of discussion. One woman said she had received eight letters telling her (wrongly) that she had missed her booster.

    A further error was that my wife was invited to get her booster many days before me, even though, due to our age difference, I had my first two jabs a month before her.

    Adrian Bailey
    Hayling Island, Hampshire

  144. Morning folks. Whilst waiting for the new page you may find this lengthy review of Robert Kennedy’s dissection of Anthony Fauci interesting:

    “But in the early 1990s, the character of AIDS changed dramatically with the proliferation of AZT. As they started to give AZT to people who were in fact not even sick but simply positive on the HIV test, AIDS started to look increasingly like AZT poisoning. And the death rate climbed precipitously. According to the Duesbergians, the vast majority of “AIDS deaths” after 1987 were actually caused by AZT. The medication that Dr. Fauci was prescribing to treat AIDS patients actually did what the virus could not: it caused AIDS itself. In 1988, the average survival time for patients taking AZT was four months. In 1997, recognizing the lethal effect of AZT, health officials lowered the dose; the average lifespan of AZT patients then rose to twenty-four months. According to Dr. Claus Köhnlein, a German oncologist, “We virtually killed a whole generation of AIDS patients without even noticing it because the symptoms of the AZT intoxication were almost indistinguishable from AIDS.”

    https://www.unz.com/article/fauci-and-the-great-aids-swindle/

    1. Thank you for that, Stephenroi. Now I know a little bit more why people such as Del Bigtree of The Highwire programme are so opposed to the vaccination regime in the USA. I’ve heard that children can receive up to 72 vaccines to “protect” their health.

  145. The Metaverse

    If you want to get an idea of where Mark Zuckerberg is going with Facebook have a look at this trailer of Ready Player One. This is what is inspiring him to merge the internet with reality by immersing ourse!ves through human computer interface technology to create an animated version of our avatars.

    I can’t help thinking it is something to do with experiencing the domination of a virtual world that is predominantly a rubbish tip where there is a golden egg which will endow the finder with untold riches:

    https://youtu.be/cSp1dM2Vj48

    1. I can’t help thinking it is something to do with experiencing the domination of a virtual world that is predominantly a rubbish tip where there is a golden egg which will endow the finder with untold riches

      I thought that was where we were now Angie! Lol!

      1. Morning Minty,

        Yes, we need the Grand Master to free us frrom the constraints our existing waste disposal environment by giving us a sock.

        😉

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