Friday 17 December: Putting Covid deaths in context could encourage the vaccine-hesitant to get their jabs

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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536 thoughts on “Friday 17 December: Putting Covid deaths in context could encourage the vaccine-hesitant to get their jabs”

  4. Tory defeat in North Shropshire as Lib Dems take former safe seat. 17 December 2021.

    Ministers are waking up this morning to a Tory upset in North Shropshire. In the by-election sparked by the Owen Paterson sleaze row, the Liberal Democrats have won the seat from the Conservatives overturning a majority of 22,949. In what has long been regarded as a safe seat for the Tories (they have come out on top in the area for almost 200 years), the Liberal Democrats won 17,957 votes with the Conservatives’ managing just 12,032. This gives the Lib Dems a majority of 5,925. Labour came third with 3,686 votes.

    Despite the “historical” nature of this result you have to wonder about the nature of an electorate, who in the midst of unequalled incompetence and a social and economic catastrophe, that there could still be found 12,032 people to vote for the author of them.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/by-election

    1. Lying in bed at 6AM this morning I turned on BBC Sounds (sorry, Nottlers) to see what happened in the North Shropshire by-election.

      As expected, Nick Robinson was in triumphant mode at the Limp Dumbs’ defeat of the former huge Con majority. Nice clear recording of the new LD winner’s statement, but virtually inaudible recording of the defeated Tory candidate. BBC impartiality writ large.

          2. …and, more to the point, Sos, Johnson is seen as a busted flush.

            The sooner we can get a Steve Baker into office the better for both us and the Conservative (ino) Party

          4. I hope so but, looking at the alternative dross in the cabinet, I fear the replacement will be even worse.

          7. I’m not, sos. I have to live with a Limp Dim MP for at least two years 🙁 The best result for me would have been for the Tory dimwit to scrape in with a very tiny majority after a couple of recounts. That would have sent a message without lumbering us with a Limp Dim.

    2. Morning Minty et al.

      Labour’s support evaporated with a 75% reduction in votes compared to the GE. The reduction in Conservative votes was a ‘mere’ 66%.
      Disappointingly the smaller independent minded parties didn’t get on the score sheet. I fully expect Ogga to tell us later that he is: “going outside…”
      As for the beeb I daresay they think they’ve been given an early Christmas Present……

      1. UKIP and the others of a similar bent just don’t have any credibility. Unfortunately. Shown by the lost opportunity when a protest vote could be safely made with no consequences. Even adding up all their votes came to snot in a hanky.
        They need to up their game by rather a lot.

        1. Whilst I agree that credibility is an issue, I think that is secondary to the 2 main issues: the justification for UKIP has long gone and in England minor parties are a wasted vote because FPTP gives them no chance of being elected.

          Time for proportional representation to end our elected dictatorship by charlatans?

          1. No, Dale, PR has to go through our dictatorial Parliament and they’ll never sanction it.

            More effective would be a party that is an amalgam of ‘For Britain’, ‘Reclaim’ and ‘Reform’ in order to stop the current vote-splitting by these tiddly parties, make them a real threat, as the Electorate will vote for them, rather than continuing with Lib/Lab/Total Con.

          2. Those smaller parties should stop being so egoistical, and merge. Not only will they be bigger and maybe get enough votes for an MP or two, but they could then be seen to be putting country & people first (just as long as they don’t sink themselves with infighting during the merger). That would likely be a winner. That’ and open-ness, not playing dirty politics like the others do. A big ask, I know, but I suspect that they are widely seen as personal ego vehicles rather than serious political parties.

          3. We have PR in Norway, and you are talking about perpetual coalition government – often with the minorest party being the king-maker and wagging the dog. Maybe the Prime Minister should be a separate vote – then you get the joy of a PM from a different party to the governing party…
            The system here in NOrway is:
            – You vote for a party, and they have a list in order of who gets to be MP. So, it’s an internal stitch-up
            – A party must have over 4% of the vote to get in
            – You can cast a vote for an individual as well as the party – the Greens didn’t break the 4% barrier, but did get enough personal votes for their leaderene to be elected to Stortinget.

        2. UKIP didn’t get a fraction of the media exposure, for one thing, and the candidate was excluded from at least TWO hustings that I know about. There may have been others.

          1. UKIP need to learn from Donald Trump, and if the media won’t include them, try another way to go round the media.

    3. If one wanted to look down on the electorate one would have to wonder why they would vote for a party that would be doing exactly the same things but with a bit more dystopia in order to punish the party in power and then feel good about themselves.

    5. This is “pin a blue rosette on a donkey and it’ll get votes” country. It’s been Tory since its inception with one blip in 1904 (when it went to the Liberals). What astounds me is that 17,957 voters in a 60:40 Leave voting constituency will vote for the arch-remainer Limp Dims! If they wanted a protest vote, there were several pro-Leave anti-Boris candidates.

    1. Ironically, Fascism was named after the fascine, where individually weak and bendy rods come together to make a strong whole, compared to now where centralised authoritarianism pushes aside or crushes the weak and bendy rods of the people.

    1. Who can tell? It’s too dark.
      Had to switch on the light to check if my eyes were open this morning…

  8. #CovidClownWorld

    https://twitter.com/beverleyturner/status/1471539791254724615?s=20

    https://twitter.com/mattletiss7/status/1471579913853546508?s=20

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ee7a8a14b36fab9fd9de389b1a989ad1b6de372d27e5048b71efb4aef1075538.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/069e1dcc2e17574e9628a5a17a4fe6960c737902d3c2c2bb9b6fc43967a804d3.jpg

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4abb1bbd4fe1386fe3d809b71ad4db8a35ef15311912f2bba326c2e5caa057d6.png

    1. Come on people, get real, become fearful. 10 people in hospital and one other has died: that’s close on a whopping 10% DEATH RATE.

      1. Yes, at 10% we could soon have over 6 million people dying every day.

        Edit: well, for 10 days at least.

    1. Can you plot the measured data as well as the curve? Then we can see how good the prediction is.

  13. Good morning to all and it’s another cold start with not quite 2½°C outside. At least it is dry at the moment.

    The news and current events? I’m losing interest.

  14. 4 children under 5 years of age burnt to death in a house fire in Sutton, South London. No mention of parent[s]. BBC News

    1. I lived very close once so looked this up. I found the reporting strange, all articles mentioning just the deaths of the children and location, nothing else. Even with the by-election and Covid’s distracting journalists, I expect the story to be pursued and more details given. Why is there nothing on injuries to others, particularly parent(s), and neighbours’ stories.

      Are the media being wary in case this turns out to be another Philpott, who set light to his rented house to blame an ex-lover and get a better property, killing 6 children?

      Edit: the DM has a video showing the hall at the front door ablaze and the rest of the house normal. This could very well turn out to be an intentional blaze.

    1. With Hermes, normally the cheapest carrier, you get what you pay for. Their having lost a parcel I sent then fobbed me off repeatedly, I refuse to use them.

      1. They have delivered parcels addressed to me to an empty house in the next village, into my rubbish bin (seems a favourite ploy), and left under the outside doormat – a box the size of a wine case. The couriers are amateurs and usually have other jobs, our usual one is a daftie. If I buy something I usually ask for it to be sent by Royal Mail.

        1. My last package was left on the old water butt just inside the gate. They said on the tracker it was put through the letter box we don’t have

        2. My last package was left on the old water butt just inside the gate. They said on the tracker it was put through the letter box we don’t have

          1. We recently ordered some wall lights and replacement bulbs from Ikea. We already have two lights and like them. Not only did the order arrive a day early but was halfway through the time window given and the order was complete. The man came to our back door (only way a van can get to us) and photographed the order, so no signing was needed.
            We were very pleased.

          2. Some of them are very good- one knocked on the patio door yesterday as he could see me. He handed me the parcel when I opened the door. Others just chuck and run.

  20. Morning all

    Putting daily Covid deaths in context could encourage vaccine-hesitant to get jabs

    SIR – Yet again, British people are being asked to “do the right thing” and “follow the rules” – and the majority will do as they are asked.

    Patience is wearing thin, however. People have woken up to the fact that they are being encouraged to batten down the hatches once more in order to “save the NHS” from, and for, a minority who stubbornly refuse to be vaccinated against Covid.

    The Prime Minister announced that there had been a single death from omicron, the new variant. That was it. No context, simply that there had been a death. Did that person die of omicron, or with omicron?

    We already know that a large proportion of people in hospital suffering from and dying of Covid are unvaccinated when they enter. Those in authority need to give us the daily number of deaths in context: break them down into the vaccinated, the unvaccinated, the patients who suffer from multiple health issues, and those who are just plain unlucky.

    The Government is desperate to avoid making the vaccine mandatory. Cold, hard facts that actually tell people something might encourage some of the “undecided” to rethink their stance and help Britain to avoid such extreme measures.

    Geoff Hanson

    Leighterton, Gloucestershire

    SIR – It was reported on Wednesday evening that there had been 78,610 new Covid-19 cases that day – the highest figure since January 8 (when there were 68,053 cases) and a 32 per cent increase over the previous 24 hours.

    However, we should look at the overall figures. On Wednesday 1,319,891 test results were reported to the NHS, so the percentage of positive tests was 5.9 per cent. But the real number of tests will have been much higher, with many lateral flow test results not reported. The true percentage of positive results is likely to have beeen between 4 and 5 per cent.

    Moreover, the great majority of tests are taken by those worried they might have Covid, rather than routinely by care home workers and others. The true percentage of positive results is not dramatic, especially when hospital admissions are still below what they were at times in the past three months.

    When will the Prime Minister and our national medical advisers start giving us all the facts, instead of sensationalising and destroying the livelihoods of many over Christmas?

    James Wyburd

    Nutley, East Sussex

    SIR – As a retired registered nurse I went back to work at a mass vaccination project. I can assess and inoculate about 24 people an hour, for which I take home just over £8. I was recently told that, despite having completed a full year, I am not entitled to a pay rise until year three, as per national NHS nurses’ pay guidelines.

    Sorry, Boris, but I’ve had enough.

    Joanna Last

    Bucklesham, Suffolk

    SIR – The underlying reason for the politicians’ panic whenever there is an upturn in Covid cases is the lack of capacity within the NHS.

    In the 1980s, when the NHS had 180,000 acute beds and operated at about 75 per cent capacity, it could comfortably cope with most increases.

    Now, with 100,000 beds, it runs at 90 to 95 per cent capacity and faces serious problems whenever patient numbers rise. Is it any wonder we have such a poor healthcare system?

    Norman Jones

    Colwyn Bay, Denbighshire

    SIR – Coronavirus is tearing our democracy apart, our society apart and individual families apart, as well as bankrupting the country and having a terrible effect on our mental and physical health.

    Many believe that China has questions to answer about the provenance of the virus, but the international community seems powerless, or unwilling, to ask. Why?

    Chris Nancollas

    Yorkley, Gloucestershire

    1. Mr/Ms Nacollas is wrong on the NHS bed occupancy figures. In the 1980’s during winter sometimes bed occupancy would exceed 100 % (A few patients being invited to spend the day in the day room whilst their beds were used for day surgery cases…..)

      Bed numbers have decreased but average lengths of stays for most treatments have reduced dramatically. However, whether there are sufficient beds today for the UK’s actual population legal & illegal is another question entirely

    2. “Cold, hard facts that actually tell people something might encourage some of the “undecided” to rethink their stance and help Britain to avoid such extreme measures.”
      You don’t see those because the facts don’t support your scenario, Mr Hanson, otherwise you would.

  23. Morning Finds

    Morris wakes up in the morning. He has a massive hangover and can’t remember anything he did last night. He picks up his bathrobe from the floor and puts it on. He notices there’s something in one of the pockets and it turns out to be a bra.

    He thinks “bloody hell what happened last night?”

    He walks towards the bathroom and finds knickerss in the other pocket of his robe. Again he thinks “what the fuck happened last night, what have I done? Must have been one WILD party.”

    He opens the bathroom door, walks in and has a look in the mirror. He notices a little string hanging out of his mouth and his only thought is

    “Please, if there is a God, please let this be a teabag.”

  24. Morning Finds

    Morris wakes up in the morning. He has a massive hangover and can’t remember anything he did last night. He picks up his bathrobe from the floor and puts it on. He notices there’s something in one of the pockets and it turns out to be a bra.

    He thinks “bloody hell what happened last night?”

    He walks towards the bathroom and finds knickerss in the other pocket of his robe. Again he thinks “what the fuck happened last night, what have I done? Must have been one WILD party.”

    He opens the bathroom door, walks in and has a look in the mirror. He notices a little string hanging out of his mouth and his only thought is

    “Please, if there is a God, please let this be a teabag.”

  25. Good morning all.

    A big Thank You to all hose who expressed kind words over Missy’s death yesterday. They were most comforting.

    2. When Magnificat died, it took ages for us to get used to his absence, and particularly to stop looking to see if he was on his (electrically heated) mat just inside the front door. We still miss him, although we got two big bruisers shortly afterwards (gifts to the lads, from my Mother).
      It’s a right bugger, Peddy, so it is. I feel for you.

    4. The death of a pet – they’re all characters – is particularly heart-wrenching.

      Mine and Best Beloved’s condolences and a wish that you may find another Missy when you can stop grieving.

    5. Good morning, Peter.

      I missed your sad news yesterday evening. RIP Missy. Condolences on the loss of a much loved companion.

    1. That’s Los Angeles, far from Tornado country and home to journalists who want everyone not like them to bow to their will under the pretence of being nice.

    2. Hmm, Steve Lopez, a good old All-American name (these days). Ancestry check and length of residence in the USA.

    1. I gave my Golden Retriever a right earwigging for dragging a large branch into the house. The look of complete bewilderment on his face when we put the Christmas tree up was a picture.

  28. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Old school reports…must dig mine out as I am sure they will contain similar gems:

    SIR – I can relate to Catherine Kidson’s letter (December 15) on 1960s school reports.

    At the end of my first year at grammar school, my art master told me: “Fletcher, the only thing you will ever paint is a door.”

    He was absolutely correct. Now in my 71st year, I am an expert with a two-inch brush and a can of Dulux.

    Robert Fletcher
    Taunton, Somerset

    SIR – My art report was succinct and entirely accurate: “Started abysmally and rose to a very low standard.”

    Michael Coward
    Clifton, Bedfordshire

    SIR – My geography report in the 1960s said: “Does well to find her way home.”

    Sue Davis
    Blackwater, Surrey

    SIR – When I began teaching in Warwickshire in the 1970s, a colleague wrote on one girl’s report: “During the last year, Susan has grown older.”

    Finding that too harsh as she surveyed the reports before they were sent out, the headmistress returned it for reconsideration. The teacher added: “And has learnt nothing.”

    Dr Rosalind Miles
    Broxbourne, Hertfordshire

    SIR – When I left primary school in 1964, the head teacher wrote: “Wendy is a nice girl who means well.”

    Wendy Whitelam
    Dursley, Gloucestershire

    SIR – On the subject of spelling, my 1964 school report simply said: “Original.”

    Peter Mitchell
    Oswestry, Shropshire

    SIR – My younger son was labelled as “able/idle”. This was true. According to his English teacher: “Ian can write a good essay – under threat.”

    Barbara Dixon
    Mansfield, Nottinghamshire

    SIR – My report for sewing in the 1950s stated: “Alison must learn to talk less and stitch more.”

    Alison Varney
    Abingdon, Oxfordshire

    1. Weren’t the teachers sarky back then? I recognise a lot of these comments, and SWMBO too – she was told often taht she’d never be able to speak more than English, and yet, at a later age, she runs technical and legal meetings in Norwegian, can manage Swedish & Danish, a smattering of Finnish, and can cope with German. I’d be willing to bet that she speaks Swedish better than her language teacher ever could French.

    3. “Now that Richard’s handwriting has improved we can see more clearly how very little he knows”

      2. Reminds me of a classic:
        “The improvement in George’s handwriting has revealed his inability to spell.”

      1. Hmm, mine said, “Very good at reading plays.” Not surprising since my Papa gave us all parts in Shakespeare plays and we sat around and acted them out.

  30. Welcome to I Can’t Believe It’s Not Lockdown, writes RICHARD LITTLEJOHN, with Christmas in disarray, city centres once again deserted and shops, bars and restaurants bereft of customers
    *
    *
    England’s Chief Medical Officer Whitty, a man with the funereal demeanour of a pox doctor’s clerk, used a Downing Street press conference to ramp up Project Fear 2.0. Painting an apocalyptic picture of the Omicron variant spreading like Triffids, he urged people not to mix unless it ‘really matters to them’.
    *
    *
    https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/12/16/22/51895035-10318927-image-a-2_1639692171276.jpg

    2. Caroline thinks Whitty is socially autistic. He has no close personal relationships – no lovers, no spouse and I wonder if he has any close friends. He simply does not understand the need for contact with other human beings that most of us have.

      I suppose that Johnson could argue that this freakishness gives him the emotional detachment that is needed to do his job effectively – but other opinions differ.

  31. ‘Morning again.

    I cannot recall such anger and frustration from traditional Conservative supporters when commenting on the performance of their party leader. Something has to give – and very soon – if the party is to survive Johnson’s many attempts to destroy it.
    Here are just a few hostile BTL comments, and there are plenty more where they come from (currently about 1,350 and rising rapidly):

    Fastand Louche
    3 HRS AGO
    As a lifelong (former) Tory voter, I am not in the least bit surprised by this result. This Conservative government have abandoned their values, principles and politics and have in addition behaved like corrupt, entitled and arrogant children. They got what they deserved here and they’ll get it again in spades at the next GE, where only a crushing defeat will actually force them to go back to their roots.

    Steven Brown
    3 HRS AGO
    Endless illegal immigration
    Higher taxes
    Green zealotry
    Left-wing positions on sex and gender
    Fishing and coastal communities sold out
    The Tory voters of Shropshire have signalled their disdain for the clown by staying away or by switching in protest. The clown cannot survive this political humiliation. It’s time he packed his bags and those of his awful wife, her friends and Stonewall with him.

    William Munny
    2 MIN AGO
    Where do you start with the oaf in No.10…?
    1. Cowardice, refuses to take on the EU, constantly caving in, BRINO has been delivered Mr Dowden.
    2. Invasion of our southern border.
    3.Eco lunacy.
    4.Failure to take on the woke cancel culture.
    5.Incompetence throughout the pandemic
    6.Christmas Parties.
    7.Constant lying, dishonesty on a scale not even New Labour got near.
    8.Tax increases.
    9. Failure to reform NHS, BBC, Civil Service
    10. Protecting the public sector with full pay, even pay rises, work from home shambles whilst throwing the private sector under a bus.

    1. You’ve had loads of support – so much money in the last two years – and what have you done with it?

      Frittered it away and supported the Government scam to the detriment of NHS credibility.

      So, shut up woman and get back to work.

      2. Though qualified as a Doctor, she’s not practiced for several years.
        She also appears to have a business interest in a company selling facemasks!

  33. What I find deeply worrying about the by election is that The Lib/Dems won so convincingly and the new alternative parties to the right of the Conservatives got nowhere.

    Our friend, ogga, is right to say that the electorate is keeping the Lib/Lab/Con arrangement going but has anyone any practical suggestions as to how the stranglehold can be broken?

    1. I can only offer the same, as I responded to Dale earlier:

      More effective would be a party that is an amalgam of ‘For Britain’, ‘Reclaim’ and ‘Reform’ in order to stop the current vote-splitting by these tiddly parties, make them a real threat, as the Electorate will vote for them, rather than continuing with Lib/Lab/Total Con.

      1. The reason such minuscule parties never combine to make a larger entity is that all are run by a power-crazed individual who thinks they are better than the power-crazed individuals who run the other micro-parties.

        This is the reason why, in the past two centuries, that only ONE new political party has emerged to any effect, and that is Labour.

        2. Could be, George, conditions are now ripe – as they were for Liebour – for a new, credible party to emerge.

          Grand-standing ego-maniacs should be dealt with by the rank and file.

        3. Agreed, Grizz. These parties are just a vehicle for the egos. And the electorate see that.

          1. Should they amalgamate, I think the electorate would view that as a God-send and a suppression of their individual egos.

    2. The LDs threw everything including the kitchen sink at it. You couldn’t move for hordes of orange bedecked incomers (from places like Wimbledon). The candidate leapt on every bandwagon going and got plenty of press coverage. They must have spent the absolute maximum on their campaign.

    1. The Catholic Church encourages the Rhythm method of contraception (Vatican Roulette) while the CofE has always been happy with condoms. Thus it is hardly surprising that Welby was happy to have a protective cover on the needle!

    2. It’s the same Archbishop who is presiding over a stealth campaign to shut thousands of parish churches by decree from on high with their local villagers having no say at all.

  35. Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden said: “I know that the voters of North Shropshire are fed up and they wanted to give us a kicking… We’ve heard that message loud and clear.”
    But he added: “I don’t think this amounts to a sea-change.”

    Nothing to see. Move along….

      1. …and if I see the runt (sorry about the typo) wandering around yet another vaccination centre with elbow raised and generally getting in the way, my telly is likely to sustain terminal damage.

      2. …and if I see the runt (sorry about the typo) wandering around yet another vaccination centre with elbow raised and generally getting in the way, my telly is likely to sustain terminal damage.

      3. …and if I see the runt (sorry about the typo) wandering around yet another vaccination centre with elbow raised and generally getting in the way, my telly is likely to sustain terminal damage.

  36. From today’s DT. Another capitulation. We are a laughing-stock! A good day to bury bad news?

    Britain caves in to Brussels over role of EU judges in Northern Ireland

    Ending the influence of the European Court of Justice was a red line for Lord Frost in the negotiations, but this has now been put on hold

    By
    James Crisp,
    EUROPE EDITOR and
    Joe Barnes,
    BRUSSELS CORRESPONDENT
    17 December 2021 • 6:00am

    Britain has dropped its demand that EU judges be stripped of their jurisdiction over Northern Ireland in talks with Brussels.

    Ending the influence of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) was one of Lord Frost’s red lines in the negotiations but has now been put on hold for the foreseeable future.

    Last week, UK government sources denied European newspaper reports that Britain was preparing to cave in over the EU’s top court, with one source dismissing the briefings as “b—–s”.

    The UK will now accept the ECJ having the final say on matters of EU law as it is applied in Northern Ireland.

    This means EU judges making rulings on cases, which must be followed by Northern Irish courts, and potentially the UK appearing before the ECJ if it fails to implement EU law properly.

    The European Commission has refused to enter into any negotiations over the role of the court in the ongoing talks since they began in October.

    The Northern Ireland Protocol created the Irish Sea border with Britain and was agreed by the UK in 2019 before coming into force in January this year.

    It gives the Luxembourg-based court oversight of EU law in Northern Ireland, which continues to follow Single Market rules after Brexit to prevent a hard Irish border.

    The Telegraph understands that Lord Frost will now ask Brussels to agree to a staged approach to negotiations in the New Year after the commission stonewalled UK offers of alternatives which would reduce the role of EU judges.

    Focus now on deals for medicines and border checks
    The UK has given up on securing immediate concessions from Brussels and will instead focus on getting deals on medicines and cuts to border checks, which the commission is willing to discuss.

    It hopes the EU will agree to discuss the ECJ in future negotiations but Brussels has not agreed to that demand.

    The commission has shown no sign of wanting to engage with UK proposals that would replace the ECJ with international arbitration similar to that in the Brexit trade deal or Withdrawal Agreement.

    EU capitals see the ECJ as a prerequisite for Northern Ireland’s continued access to the Single Market, Maros Sefcovic, the commission’s negotiator, has warned.

    “We should look to normalise the governance basis of the Protocol so that the relationship between the UK and the EU is not ultimately policed by the EU institutions including the Court of Justice,” the UK’s command paper for the renegotiation of the treaty said.

    A UK government source said: “Since the EU won’t address all the issues we put on the table now, we are willing to look at interim solutions which deal with the most acute problems.

    “But any such interim agreement must put a stop to the ECJ settling disputes between us and the EU, now and in the future.”

    The commission has not taken the UK to the ECJ over the last six months, although it could have done. This suggests an awareness of British sensitivities but not a desire to renegotiate the Protocol.

    On Friday, Brussels will bring forward legislation changing EU law to allow the UK to authorise new Covid-19 and cancer drugs for use in Northern Ireland, which follows EU pharma rules under the terms of the Protocol.

    Commission to make regulatory move unilaterally
    The commission will change EU law to allow the UK’s medicines regulator, rather than the EU supervisor, to authorise new and existing drugs for use in the province.

    It will make the move unilaterally, despite the fact the UK and EU have failed to agree a deal on medicines so far after weeks of negotiations.

    The UK has not been given advance sight of the bill but intends to welcome it as a positive sign of goodwill.

    Lord Frost has suggested removing medicines from the scope of the Protocol entirely.

    Brussels will also unilaterally act to extend grace periods in the Protocol to guarantee the supply of medicines to Northern Ireland next year before the law change can enter into effect.

    The bid to unblock the deadlocked talks will come as Lord Frost and Maros Sefcovic meet for what is expected to be the final time before they resume in the New Year.

    Separate UK-EU negotiations over a deal to create a common travel area between Gibraltar and Spain will now also stretch into the New Year.

    Both the UK and Spain have made optimistic noises about the prospects of a deal, which has a new target date of Easter.

    * * *
    Some typical BTLs:

    D Walker
    1 HR AGO
    Once again our cowardly EU-appeasing Government has betrayed the British people.
    They simply haven’t got the guts to stand up for this country. If they can’t do that, they should GET OUT OF THE WAY so we can get someone who will.

    Colin Campbell
    2 HRS AGO
    Well hopefully when the porcine jelly is jettisoned after last nights result we will have someone with a bit of leadership skill and political nouse in charge , so that rules out most of the current cabinet doesn’t it ?

    Christine Ten Holter
    1 HR AGO
    I can’t believe this has happened! The ECJ was one of the main things I objected to and a firm promise was made to leave them behind. Frost is giving in on everything and he started off so well. I’ve absolutely had it with this lot – I’ve already resigned my membership so there’s not a lot left I can do!

    Fun DaMental
    42 MIN AGO
    Last week, the French got the fishing licences they were demanding. French fishermen threatened to blockade the Tunnel and ports to ruin Christmas. Now we cave to the French in the ECJ after a year of denials. And still the French, aided by our lifeboats, continue the mass illegal invasion of un-vetted migrants.
    Boris, North Shropshire wasn’t a warning. It was your notice to quit.

    1. And who has replaced the Conservative in North Shropshire?

      A Lib/Dem – the party which is totally pro-Eu and will, given half a chance, take Britain back into the EU on the most unfavourable terms imaginable and will continue to surrender to the EU whenever the opportunity arises until this has been accomplished.

  37. Future BBC savings will require cheaper shows, say auditors. 17 December 2021.

    The BBC could be forced to replace expensive high-end dramas and natural history shows with cheaper programmes owing to government-imposed funding cuts.

    The broadcaster is required to make deep and continued spending cuts due to successive Conservative governments reducing its licence fee income, according to a report by the National Audit Office. At the same time, the cost of making hit shows such as Line of Duty and David Attenborough’s nature programmes has increased rapidly, with competition from Netflix and Amazon driving up prices for talent and studio space.

    The sooner it goes broke and is shut down the better!

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/17/future-bbc-savings-will-require-cheaper-shows-say-auditors

    2. Well, they have ditched all the sports that I cared to watch, rugby union, cycling, bobsleigh, …

    3. I seem to recall that it was a Conservative government who allowed the BBC to increase the licence fee, a deal the then DG described as “a good result for the BBC” – in return the BBC were supposed to fund licences for the over 75s, a pledge they had no problems unilaterally ditching! So they have that money in hand – perhaps if they paid people like the crisp salesman less they could make decent programmes?

  38. Follow the science.
    Pay yer money and pick yer scientists. Here’s yet another study going against the flow. Who does one believe?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10318991/Columbia-study-finds-Omicron-markedly-resistant-vaccines-boosters-not-help.html

    Omicron is ‘markedly resistant’ to all four COVID vaccines and booster shots may only give ‘slight protection’, Columbia University study finds: Comes one day after Fauci said triple-vaxxed should be protected

    1. Although one might not know it, Robert Kennedy’s book, The Real Antony Fauci is a runaway best seller- it is being reprinted but it has not been reviewed by any of the MSM. He was interviewed by Mark Steyn last Friday on GB News but he is being shunned by the MSM and a libellous article in AP has just been published- a litany of lies and one hopes he will sue for libel. You need to go to 21:30 for the interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-ORIbE2fx8

      1. Unfortunately, I doubt that an action in the USA would succeed.
        Whether he could sue in numerous jurisdictions, because AP operates worldwide, is a moot point.

          2. Yes, his advice once you get to it is good. It reminds me of Mark Steyn’s mantra: ” The process is the punishment” as the Left closes down individuals and groups with expensive and endless litigation. There are people out there who do offer that advice- the lawyer I referred to above who seems to be switched on to reality and not the mania that propels many into ill-thought out activities that lead to the crushing results that the article by Cole describes.

  39. I wonder when we will get accurate information on the sole Omicron fatality? The caller who spoke about him, who has not been verified, said he was a recluse which suggests that having lockdowns- as can clearly be demonstrated, is a complete waste of time while propelling the nation towards an economic cliff edge. This really is shaping up to be a yawning chasm that is going to swallow up normality, common sense and cohesion forever. There was a very sensible letter in the DT from James Wyburd on the matter of accuracy and context- I wonder how that got printed?

    1. How did it get printed?
      Perhaps the letters editors didn’t understand the points being made.

      1. The letters I write to the DT must be noted for the clarity with which I express my views because they stopped printing them some time ago.

    1. Yes but… NI businesses find that having a foot in both camps works well for them. When
      I suggested that NI might be on its way out of the UK in the DTels BTL comments, some imaginative fellow called me a “treasonous hinge-wart”.

      1. Maybe England should adopt a pro-active approach and kick both Northern Ireland and Scotland out of the UK without any compensation whatsoever and enjoy the inevitable squawking that would follow!

        1. As for Scotland, I propose using the precedent of Irish independence: supported use of the pound and forgiveness of their share of the national debt, also recognition of their maritime EEZ. But then not a penny more from us.

  42. 342967+ up ticks,

    Morning Each,
    They have never let us down yet the electorate that is when they are in full sh!te grading mode.

    Since the major triggered the pace with (walk) then the wretch cameron upped it to (trot) followed by treacherous treasa breaking into a (canter) with the fat turk going into the full (gallop) supported ALL the way down the road of destruction by a demented electorate suffering dangerously from loco weed addiction.

    Courtesy of the lab/lib/con coalition voting mode with NO opposition,

    For a moment all we see is burning light
    Force of evil takes us all into their dark reign

    Oppols for original post deleted on account the machine went rogue.

    1. Good morning, ogga.

      The North Shropshire by election certainly supports your view that the electorate is to blame for the continued stranglehold that Lib/Lab/Con has. They had the chance to vote for a change and they picked a candidate from the Lib/Dems whose leader, Ed Davey, is one of the dullest, most dreary and odious in politics.

      As a matter of interest for whom would you have voted in the North Shropshire by election? And how would you suggest that the situation could be made better?

      1. I have yet to see a breakdown of ALL the votes, Richard, despite the Telegraph’s supposed FULL report.

      3. 342957+ up ticks,

        Morning R,
        Staring destruction of the country in the face and still
        refusing to cha nge, as eventually due to the voting mode the take over will show us minority decent peoples the heads at the bottom of the basket still mouthing ” the lab/lib/con” coalition forever.

        Mass killings, mass paedophile rape & abuse, mass
        replacement , are ALL conspiracy theories set to bring down lab/lib/con, that seems to salve the majority of the electorates conscience’s as they continue to grade PROVEN political sh!te.

        The PTB reset, replace then give them just that reset
        replace lab/lib/con coalition with a decent peoples
        reset, a coalition of fringe party’s building on Anne Marie Waters ….. ….. as in a very PRO English / United Kingdom coalition.

  43. I find the BTL comments more pertinent than most of the DT articles.

    This one by Steven Ward commented on the fact that the North Shropshire by election result was a great personal triumph for Boris Johnson:

    Boris is already a woke green Lib Dem, so this is a huge vote of confidence.

    1. I’m disappointed that Tory voters didn’t show the courage to send a real message and vote Reform. The Lib-Dems are often the beneficiaries of mid-term ‘protest votes’ and then the sheep go back to their normal voting habits when it matters at the GE. I’m glad the Tories lost, but how does voting for another Green, Woke, tax-and-spend, pro-immigration, pro-lockdown party send a message that we want a truly conservative party?

    2. Of course, if the police had done their jobs, she wouldn’t have needed to “nudge” the feckwit!

    3. I can understand the frustration of motorists having their journey interrupted, but if this is Speid’s normal attitude, perhaps she shouldn’t be behind the wheel of a car – she’s dangerous.

      1. Dangerous is good. We need dangerous people to stand up for freedom and liberty. Why should our freedom of movement be taken away by any person who feels like it, whether serious protester or deranged loonie? If Ms Mogie had been injured, I’d not be very sympathetic, but there is no mention of any harm being done. Maybe the next driver should make prosecution worthwhile.

    1. It’s not a bad size but we come a lot bigger than that. She’s lying on her side because when a vessel comes close to a large sunfish they flip over to get a good view of it, out of curiosity I believe.

  46. Even for Disqus this is a new low – every time I try to upvote the page vanishes and I have to start again!

  48. Reverting to parcel deliveries, I was advised 10 days ago that a parcel was on its way via UPS and tracking details were supplied. Since then it has been rescheduled 4 times. On Wednesday they stopped giving a date and said, “we have no date”. This morning the tracker now shows that the delivery will be made in the next two hours. I’m not holding my breath.
    Two weeks ago we were advised that a parcel had been despatched to us from Portugal the previous day. The parcel arrived 4 hours later. Next day delivery from Portugal – maybe do all our shopping there…

    Update: Time 2:19. UPS Parcel was delivered one hour ago. I note from the despatch labelling and other labels and stickers that the parcel was sent from Herne, Germany via a logistics company – DSV Solutions – based in Venlo, the Netherlands. The delivery was by UPS. I ordered the item from a shop in Paris on 6th December. I therefore think that the German people were a fulfilment company that holds stock which they send out at the request of the shop that received the order. The despatch label also carries the information “Dangerous goods – road only”. It is a bottle of perfume.
    I ordered a bottle of perfume from a different shop in Paris and it arrived four days later.

  49. Morning all, sorry i missed yer Birthday yesterday Plum I hope you had a good one.
    And Sad to hear about yer pussy Peddy.
    Nice day so far, New dish washer arriving later, it wont be needed on Christmas Day, were are out, but on boxing day they descend on us………….. But I always wash our best Wedgewood Susie Cooper charisma dinner service by hand, we lost a small side plate once in the dish washer. A Wedding present. Don’t you just hate that when it happens. It is possible to buy replacements on line I see.

    1. Good morning RE, we’re awaiting delivery of our new dishwasher today between 12.27 and 16.27.

      1. Get in the queue Alf, ours is due between midday and 3 pm. 🤩
        I’d better move the doggo to the garden, she goes mad. Much Barking is her protection racket.

        1. Ours too, Eddy. Dotty a very very small Chihuahua, thinks she’s a Rottweiler and it is her duty to protect us from all property invaders – including the odd pigeon and figments of her imagination.

  50. Bookies turn on Boris. 17 December 2021.

    Betting markets are famously more reliable than pundit prognostications or political polls. Steerpike was intrigued, therefore, to note this morning that bookmakers are now saying that Boris will not be party leader by Tory conference next autumn. On the Betfair exchange overnight, the price has moved towards Boris Johnson being gone by autumn as the favourite outcome. At the same time, 2022 is now evens to be the year in which Boris is replaced in No. 10.

    The more interesting market, though, is who will replace Johnson as Conservative leader. On Betfair’s Sportsbook, the favourite is Chancellor Rishi Sunak at 2/1. He’s followed by Liz Truss at 7/2 and then the perennially ambitious Michael Gove is at 6/1. Having lost out to Johnson in 2019, Jeremy Hunt is 10/1 to replace him. Health secretary Sajid Javid, meanwhile, is 14/1.

    I think that I would have Five Bob on Liz Truss here. Not because I’m an admirer but because she’s the least electorally offensive. What’s depressing is that there isn’t a Tory among them! They are all Globalist Stooges!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/bookies-turn-on-boris

      2. He won’t even be an MP after the next election.
        By then,the moslems will have their own candidate.

  52. An interesting statistic re the N Shropshire by election.
    The top four candidates combined achieved fewer votes than Owen Paterson.
    And we wonder why we get such dross elected,

    1. True. However, the Conservative who won the by-election in Bexhill (?) recently (Louie French) hadn’t been in the Commons for two weeks when he joined the rebellion against the government! I was pleasantly surprised.

        1. He hasn’t had time to commit any of the three MP failings yet! (Arrogance, Alcoholism, Adultery – pick any two)

      2. 342957+ up ticks,
        Afternoon NtN,
        As with the real UKIP treacherously silenced on many a platform, lab/lib/con current members in many respects do prefer joke telling to conceal the fact that they have been, for decades, part of the ongoing problem.

  55. Boris snapped maskless on train. 17 December 2021.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7fe159bb62f25dcf26aa12fb55aacf26528c2f03a221d976a58927d99438c421.jpg

    Oh no! Is this another highly unfortunate snap of the Prime Minister caught in flagrante — this time sat maskless on a South Eastern train yesterday? It certainly looks that way.

    In fairness to Boris one does have to say that he shares the prevailing attitude among the Elite that rules are really for the serfs!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boris-snapped-maskless-on-train

  58. 37 year old woman arrested for neglect following the Sutton, South London deaths of 4 children ,3 and 4 year old twin boys, who were alone in a house which caught fire.

    1. Flowers have been laid at the scene, with one bouquet reading: “To Kyson, Bryson, Leyton + Logan. Sleep well. Love Grandad.”
      Awful, and so near Christmas.

  61. This is going to be a test of the Entent Cooldiale….

    Électricité de France S.A., commonly known as EDF, a French electric utility company primarily owned by the state, shuttered two nuclear power plants after routine safety inspections found cracks at one power plant.

    EDF wrote in a press release, “preventive maintenance checks on the primary circuit of reactor number 1 of the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant” found cracks due to corrosion on the pipes.
    “Checks initiated on the same equipment of reactor number 2 of the Civaux Nuclear Power Plant revealed similar defects,” the French power giant said.
    France’s Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) was informed about cracks detected close to the welds on the reactor’s pipes.
    EDF temporarily closed Civaux to “replace the affected parts on the two Civaux reactors, the work being governed by a technical instruction prepared in cooperation with the ASN, which leads to extend the shutdown of the two reactors,” it said.

    EDF has also chosen to close two reactors at another nuclear plant at Chooz in the northeastern Ardennes department for inspections. Both power plants use the same reactor technology.

    The temporarily closing of Civaux’s reactors and Chooz’s reactors will reduce one terawatt-hour of output and couldn’t come at the worst time as cooler weather sent French power contracts to a record high earlier this week.
    A power reduction could suggest strain on the power grid amid cooler weather and higher power prices.

    2. Earlier today, Britain was receiving three times the power from France than generated by our “fair-weather friend” wind turbines. If France cannot export power then we will suffer if both France and Britain have cold spells.

      2. Currently French nuclear is generating slightly more than the UK’s total demand, according to Gridwatch.

  62. I gather BPAPM has accepted personal responsibility for the by-election debacle.

    So – he has resigned forthwith?

    Just asking…..

    1. A man with honour would have. Honour is one of the many traits that this seriously flawed person is lacking.

  64. Littlejohn referred to Lizard Man as having the “funereal demeanour of a pox doctor’s clerk.” In one of the Rumpole stories, Soapy Sam Ballard has taken to carrying a tartan holdall which causes Rumpole to say that Ballard ,”looks like a Scottish pox doctor.”
    Littlejohn has referenced the Rumpole stories before when he stated that “the golden thread” had vanished from English justice. Anyone who likes Rumpole as much as I do is a good guy ;-))

          2. I saw John Mortimer who gave a talk about his life and his books at the Theatre Royal in Bath in about 1986. He was certainly looking rather Haggard by then.

        1. I saw John Mortimer once in BBC Centre House. He was small and frail by then and I’d always imagined him being more like Rumpole/McKern. (Centre House has been demolished and an enormous and extremely ugly block of flats is rising on the site.)

          1. I met him once – on the day he was appointed QC.

            He was rather pleased with himself.

            So I offered my congratulations, and added, “Rather like winning a raffle, isn’t it?”

          2. He heard from some friends of ours why we had named our dog Rumpole and apparently he was both pleased and amused.

          3. Good afternoon, Sue

            I have read all the Rumpole stories and I must have read virtually all of his other novels many many of which were made into television series.

            Did you see the televised version of A Voyage Round My Father which was effectively an autobiography in which Laurence Olivier played Mortimer’s blind lawyer father and Alan Bates played the author?

        2. They made a film of Evelyn Waugh’s Decline and Fall. I enjoyed it even though it was not highly rated by the critics in spite of a formidable cast:

          Leo McKern played Grimes, Colin Blakely played Philbrick, Donald Wolfit played Augustus Fagan, Genevieve Paige played Margot Beste-Chetwynde, Robin Philips played Paul Pennyfeather, and Felix Aylmer played the judge.

    2. An even worse variant than the current Omicron !?! How is that even possible, when the present deadly bug has lain waste to nations slaughtered entire cities been compared by the few stunned survivors to Ragnarok not actually killed anybody yet ?

    3. An even worse variant than the current Omicron !?! How is that even possible, when the present deadly bug has lain waste to nations slaughtered entire cities been compared by the few stunned survivors to Ragnarok not actually killed anybody yet ?

    4. As others have noticed – if you combine Delta and Omicron you get an anagram of media control!!

  66. DTStory:

    North Shropshire by-election result: Boris Johnson says ‘I take personal responsibility for defeat and understand people’s frustrations’
    But does he understand their frustrations and has he any idea of how to deal with them. People feel cheated because they don’t think they have got what they thought they were voting for.

    Apart from the Covid issues which he has cocked up recently there are many other specific issues which people thought he would address when they voted for him at the general election:

    i) Reform of BBC – how it should be funded?
    ii) Veterans of Northern Ireland Conflict – weren’t persecution and prosecution going to cease immediately?
    iii) Weren’t we promised no border down the Irish Sea?
    iv) Weren’t the fishermen who voted for Brexit promised satisfactory arrangements?
    v) An end to EU Law being operative in any part of the UK?
    vi) Why has he committed his government to all the green nonsense that was not in the manifesto and which will impoverish all but the very rich?
    vii) Proper Control of our borders and an end to illegal immigration?
    viii) Unprecedented level of taxation?

    That is just the tip of the iceberg but if Boris Johnson does not take personal responsibility for these things he has no chance of surviving. And if he does not survive how long will his most recent wife, who is probably a key influence in his gross errors of judgement, stay with him?

    1. Boris has nothing to worry about – people voted for essentially his policies.

      Had Reform or one of the others been the recipient of 10K votes, it would be panic stations at Central Office today.

    2. If they hadn’t parachuted in an ethnic townie lawyer from Brum with only tenuous links with the constituency, they might just have held it. As it is, thanks to their choosing someone who just raised a lot of dosh for the Cons, we’re saddled with a Limp Dim 🙁

    1. You’re welcome Plum- hope you had a good day. We raised a glass or two in your honour- hic;-)

  68. Heritage railway must track down coal from 3,000 miles away as Britain’s last mine is closed

    Bodmin and Wenford Railway has been forced to import fuel from far-flung Kazakhstan ahead of the closure of Ffos-y-fran, Britain’s last mine

    ByTelegraph Reporters • 16 December 2021 • 6:33pm

    A 200-year-old heritage railway has been forced to import coal 3,000 miles away from Kazakhstan ahead of the closure of Britain’s last coal mine.

    Bodmin and Wenford Railway has for years been using coal from Ffos-y-fran, an opencast coal mine in South Wales. The Welsh mine is the last existing source of British mined coal and the railway uses two tonnes of coal a day when fully operational. However, the mine is due to close within the next few months as coal is being phased out by the Government due to its effect on the environment. The heritage railway has now been forced to import lower-quality coal from Kazakhstan – some 3,100 miles away from Cornwall.

    Jimmy James, a spokesman for the railway, said: “At Bodmin we have just switched to coal from Kazakhstan, which is imported through the port of Immingham after a couple of thousand miles of travel across Europe. It then reaches Bodmin by road, through yet more eco-unfriendly travel, and vastly increasing the cost. We do not know how reliable the Kazakh source may prove to be, nor as yet how much we will be forced to raise our prices. These are very testing times for our industry, and we have to roll with the punches.”

    Mr James said the Heritage Railway Association had recently secured dispensation from the Government for heritage railways to continue to use imported coal to stay in business, even though plenty of British coal remains in the ground.

    He added: “The Bodmin and Wenford Railway was once part of the Great Western Railway [GWR], which used high quality, less polluting Welsh steam coal to power its fleet of steam locos. At Bodmin, the majority of our locos are ex-GWR, thus purpose-built for the traditional Welsh variety. Ffos-y-fran was primarily there to supply the steel works at Port Talbot and Aberthaw power station, and supplies to steam railways were just a small part of their business. The logic of the steel industry having to import huge supplies of coal from around the world, and not using home resources, appears to be lost on the green lobby.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/16/coals-kazakhstan-way-ensure-heritage-railway-cornwall-stays/

    I don’t know whether the Welsh mine is closing for economic reasons or because of the Government’s stupid policies but the reference to steel-making is pertinent when the recent Cumbrian case is considered.

    We must look forward to more legislation on pollution, such as the banning of barbecues, bonfires and fireworks parties.

    PS The 200-year old claim is inaccurate. The railway uses part of the course of the Bodmin and Wadebridge Railway, opened in 1834.

    1. At one level one could argue that in this day and age running a steam locomotive is a bit unnecessary, really.

        1. Not really. I like to see steam locos – they bring back so many memories of childhood.

          But if the coal-miles are disproportionate, just seems daft. Why not run it on cowpats?

          1. I suspect it is due to having to burn at a particular temperature, and produce a given amount of energy for the weight carried.

            It’s worth is for the romance!

      2. One might as well argue that anything that anyone does for a bit of enjoyment that isn’t part of the daily grind of merely staying alive is also unnecessary. Scrap every vintage train, boat, plane, car. Knock down the great country houses. Close the theatres, cinemas, concert halls, opera houses, sport stadiums.

        Ban Fun!

        1. I knew I’d be misunderstood! Nothing against steam locos….just think it is a bit daft to bring fuel from thousands of miles away…. There ought to be SOMETHING burnable in England – if only election promises!

          1. That wasn’t what you said, though, was it? We’ll let you off, though, and yes, it is absurd to import low-grade coal when we have millions of tons of high quality material of our own.

          3. That wasn’t what you said, though, was it? We’ll let you off, though, and yes, it is absurd to import low-grade coal when we have millions of tons of high quality material of our own.

          4. Fuel them with politicians?
            No one would miss them and the country might actually run better!

    3. When I fired a small steam loco (0-4-0 FT) – top picture here https://mia.no/lommedalsbanen/lokomotiver# – on the local museum railway, we had coal from Poland. Nasty stuff, very acid, and burned (badly) away to what looked like cement dust. If you got a whiff of the firebox fumes, they bit in the throat, and the smoke from the funnel was often a vile yellow-green colour, like bronchial sn*t.
      Lovely Welsh steam coal was just a dream – this Polish stuff was also full of gravel and very difficult to light. As a bonus, it didn’t clinker up and stop the firegrate from breathing, though, as Welsh coal might if you were clumsy.

      1. There are plenty of properties near to me that still use coal in the grate and some filthy stuff it is, judging from the reek they give off. It’s only in the last ten years or so that I’ve noticed it.

  69. In the last two issues of my Omicron mathematical model I showed how you could not only predict the number of people voting Conservative as a function of virus propagation but also that when everyone had died after taking a COVID jab there wouldn’t be anybody left to vote conservative.

    The thing we all want answers to however is exactly when these events are going to happen.
    This all comes down to which date Omicron patient 0 appeared in the UK (the origin on my graph) and secondly the estimated reproduction rate of Omicron.

    I have postulated that Day 0 is 25th November 2021 and that the virus reproduction rate is doubling every 1.5 days.
    Furthermore that an Omicron infection is counted only once per member of the population.

    Based on today’s BBC announcement that half of Scotland’s cases are Omicrons I have estimated that (pro rata) this UK’s variant position on my graph is at day 24 (i.e. only a couple of days off today – 17th December 2021)

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0333e3660ebe7ac32f8c70a71412458dba5d27f06fa83b4e196c3605e50cfaac.jpg

    2. We hope you had a very good birthday yesterday.

      I am sorry I was rather late putting up my greetings owing to a crisis here with last minute changes to covid travel rules. We didn’t see you last evening after sherry time but many Nottlers send their best wishes to you.

      We had two 17 year old girls with us this this week but on Wednesday night the French changed their travel rules which meant that one of the girls’ parents who were going to meet her in South East France for a skiing holiday had to cancel. This meant that she had to return to England rather than go to the Alps but she could not travel without the paperwork and a Natural Flow Test and a changed railway ticket and of course it took some time sorting these things out. Anyway, Caroline miraculously managed to do it and we put the girls on a train to Paris early this morning. If all has gone well they will have got across Paris on the metro and taken the Eurostar from the Gare du Nord and should be back in England by now. If one of the girls had tested positive they would have had to spend Christmas with us and we would have been compulsorily locked down at home.

  71. YTD the Turkish currency has lost more than half of its value!

    The Turkish central bank yesterday cut its benchmark one-week repo rate by a further 100 basis points to 14%, its fourth reduction since September spurred by demands from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to lower borrowing costs in the face of surging consumer prices as part of his batshit insane monetary policy Erdoganomics whose only possible outcome is the collapse of Turkey’s economy and hyperinflation. The resulting sell-off accelerated a 54% plunge in the currency so far this year as real rates fall further below zero with inflation now standing at an annual 21.3%.

    Erdogan then responded to the economic pain caused by rising prices by ordering a 50% increase in the minimum wage next year, guaranteeing even more inflation as it will increase production costs that will see inflation accelerate by a further 2% to 8% next year, Erkin Isik, chief economist at QNB Finansbank, wrote in a note to clients.

    Bloomberg reports, all trades on Turkey’s benchmark stock index Borsa Istanbul 100 were halted after a sudden plunge in stocks – which until now were trading gingerly higher as one would expect in a time of runaway inflation – triggering a market-wide circuit breaker.

    1. Erdoganomics is rubbish … and has increased the rate at which Turkey is going “full cesspit”.

    3. Last evening you queried why I was not in bed.

      My routine is thus. I sign off about 6 pm. Spend the evening with my beloved (and with the MR, too). Because of family ishoos, I leave the PC on until I go to bed. I thus look at it a couple of times to check e-mails etc – and if there are any NoTTL comments that I think need the courtesy of an answer (because I never look at the previous day’s evening stuff) I answer them.

          3. From The Beeb:

            “Russia has demanded strict limits on the activities of the US-led Nato military alliance in the countries neighbouring its borders.
            Tension has been rising between Russia and Western countries, who fear Russia plans to invade its neighbour Ukraine.
            Russia denies this, but says Nato must rule out Ukraine and others ever joining Nato to defuse the situation.
            Moscow wants urgent talks with the US – but its proposals are being viewed as a non-starter in Washington.
            Responding to Moscow’s call for direct negotiations with the US, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters: “There will be no talks on European security without our European allies and partners.”
            Nato, which was originally set up to defend Europe against possible threats from the former Soviet Union, has forces in the Baltic republics and Poland.
            What is the Nato defence alliance?
            Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Russia had given the US and Nato two draft treaties. There was no other option, he said, as the “state of relations between Russia and the collective West is a total lack of trust”.
            In the proposals Russia sets out a series of radical demands, which require countries that joined Nato after the fall of the Soviet Union not to deploy troops or weapons in areas where they could be seen as a threat to Russia. Heavy bombers and warships would not be allowed in areas outside their national airspace or waters from which they could launch an attack.
            That would mean Nato not playing any role at all in any of the three Baltic republics or Poland. And Nato would have to abandon plans for Ukraine and Georgia to eventually join the Western alliance”.

          4. For the life of me (possibly literally) I can’t see why the Russians are not correct over this.
            If they invaded the countries in question they would almost certainly be breaking a treaty and NATO could respond anyway.

            The only quibble I have is the restriction on sailing/flying in international spaces.

    5. Great news! Maybe some British blokes could buy back the UK companies that were bought by the Turks over the last 20 years. McVitie’s for one…

    6. I don’t think we should get too smug, given that the western economies have had to be put into an induced coma over the last two years in order to prevent a collapse of the currencies and hyperinflation….!

  73. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10320375/NHS-forced-drop-rules-self-isolation-rules-vaccinated-staff.html

    The NHS has found that eating its own tail has dis-arse-terous results.

    NHS is forced to drop rules telling fully-vaxxed staff who live with Covid cases to isolate for 10 days – as figures show virus-related absences in London LEAPT by 40% amid Omicron surge with hospitals forced into cancelling ops

    Let’s get this right.
    Vaccinated staff, who can quite easily be carrying the virus, are being encouraged to work while unvaccinated staff are being threatened with the sack. Even though both can do the same PCR tests which can, of course, give false negatives.
    The NHS is on the verge of collapse and yet likely potential Covid carriers are going around, possibly infecting people who might have life threatening illnesses but came in without infection. Those people who then die will be Covid victims.

    It’s a mad mad mad world.

  74. Thanks to all of you who chimed in (ha) on yesterday’s call for favourite carols. I just got back; lovely to hear people (well, mostly see, but there you go) singing along. One great advantage of standing outside; no-one expected me to take off my coat! (Christmas Messiahs are an absolute nightmare for yer soloists – we have to hide as much Damart underwear etc etc under our glamorous clothes as we can, and it doesn’t really do to jump up and down to defrost before singing).

    For what it’s worth, the biggest response was to “Silent Night” and “Hark the Herald”.

    The world may be collapsing around us, but a bit of joy and festive spirit never goes amiss.

  75. The UN General Assembly has adopted a resolution condemning Nazism, neo-Nazism and all forms of racism, which was co-sponsored by Russia. The US and Ukraine again voted against it, while 49 countries, mainly US allies, abstained.
    The resolution on “Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices” that contribute to racism, xenophobia and intolerance was adopted with 130 votes in favor, the Russian permanent mission to the UN announced on Thursday. Moscow has submitted the motion annually, in recent years, and Washington and Kiev have consistently opposed.

    The UK abstained.

    https://www.rt.com/russia/543448-unga-resolution-condemns-nazis/

    1. Where does Convid Vaccinations fit into this

      NurembergConvention ignored, to the benefit of Big Pharma

        1. But what was the difference between 1930s/40s Germany and the USSR of the same era?
          On the murder scale, not a lot, in fact more were murdered under Stalin’s orders than Hitlers, all be it over a longer timescale.

          Yes, we owe a great deal to the People of the USSR, but it was the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty with allowed the invasion of Poland and remember, it was invaded from both sides. another version of a spit-roast.

  76. Well, the French are never happy. They are now proposing to take the UK to a European Court (well, obviously) demanding that although they have 93% of the fishing licences that they asked for, they want the other 73. Doing some quick sums that would mean that the UK is being asked (demanded) to license over a thousand French fishing boats to fish in our waters.
    What happened to Brexit? Why are all these “discussions” invariably accompanied by threats from the French? Could we not just nuke them?

    https://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2021/12/17/licences-de-peche-la-france-va-demander-a-la-commission-europeenne-d-engager-une-procedure-contre-le-royaume-uni_6106509_3210.html

      1. Yes, that’s because it is an independent nuclear deterrent, although serviced and coded in the US? Maybe we should. buy some from the Russians?

    2. They showed no concern all those years ago when OUR fishing fleet and fishing communities’ livelihoods were being destroyed.

    3. Ever since De Gaulle the French have known that as far as Europe is concerned the UK always backs down.
      Hell, we even backed down over Brexit, after having voted for it.

      1. “We” didn’t. The remainiacs in Westminster just did their level best to thwart the will of the people.

        2. Whilst that is true, “We” voted them in, “they” are “our” representatives and have betrayed their electors.

          1. Not guilty, sos. I never voted for any of the beggars. I spoiled my ballot rather than endorse them.

          2. Ah but….

            If you accept that the vote decides the issue of who is in government, the government does represent you, like it or not.

          3. I’ve done my bit campaigning for the real opposition. I’m hardly to blame if morons don’t think things through.

      1. With a parliamentary majority of 80 the very first thing Johnnson should have done was to put “No Deal” firmly back on the table and then made sure the EU negotiators knew that it was back on the table and that negotiations would proceed with this point completely clear. Johnson was, as usual, completely undermined by Gove who arrived in Brussels just before the deal was struck and the UK caved in on both fishing and N Ireland after having seemed to be holding firm.

        I very much suspect that one of the reasons that Ms Symonds found her way into Johnson’s bed was that she was given clear instructions by her pimp – whosoever he or she may may be – to destroy Brexit at its very inception.

        Is there a single thing that Johnson hasn’t buggered up?

        2. It has been established, absolutely, Richard that Johnson, like May, is a traitorous remainiac.

          Time to arrange his assassination, either physically or politically; the twat isn’t fit for purpose. OUT now!

  77. Yo all, have been away

    For Peddy and Missy

    Yo Peddy

    The Rainbow Bridge awaits you

    Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

    When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
    There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is
    plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

    All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who
    were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them
    in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content,
    except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who
    had to be left behind.

    They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks
    into the distance. Her bright eyes are intent. Her eager body quivers. Suddenly she
    begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, her legs carrying her faster and
    faster.

    You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet,
    you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face;
    your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of
    your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

    Then you cross Rainbow Bridge …..together….

      1. I have a horrible feeling I’m going to have to take my little black furball of a cat Meg on the animal equivalent of a one way trip to Geneva in the next couple of months and I’m dreading it. She is about 15 and very creaky and arthritic. It breaks my heart seeing her stagger out out her bed in the morning to greet me on the way to the food bowl. She is the most affectionate cat I’ve ever known (only to me though – she’ll draw blood with most other people) and smart to boot: I swear she has a basic English vocabulary of 10 or so words.

        Lord knows I’ll miss her 🙁

        2. Yes, the writing was on the wall for Charlie (he survived a couple of near death experiences before I finally had to do the deed). He was just short of seventeen and a half.

          1. That’s a very good age for a dog. My late hound Robinson was 15 years and seven months. 32 years ago – I still miss him – and sometimes catch sight of him disappearing into the shrubbery…

          2. Same with me, Bill, I still catch sight of Fizzy (the fluffy grey cat) out of the corner of my eye from time to time. I just know what you mean.

    3. I remember when the farmer’s wife in Sweden handed over that little black & white bundle of fur, I asked if she wanted money.
      “ingen pengar, bara giv henne et bra liv.” (“No money, just give her a good life.”)
      I think I did.

      2. When we went to the breeders to look at kittens, Big Cat was handed to Firstborn, and was so small he literally hid under Firstborn’s beard. Now Big Cat is a huge 10kg… no hiding in beards now.
        I’m glad you have lovely memories, Peddy. Sounds like Missy had a good life, and was loved to bits. Can’t ask for better.

  78. Continuing the parcels saga. We received a delivery today from Amazon. Delivered by the same nice young man who delivered an Amazon parcel a couple of days ago. He has not learned English in that time, I think that he is maybe from Eastern Europe.

    1. This morning we had a notice that a parcel we had organised was to be delivered today.
      We learnt today that it was delivered yesterday. Luckily the recipient was at home, unfortunately she had cancelled other arrangements to be there all day today.

      1. We had a Hermes parcel delivered yesterday. According to their track and trace, it is still waiting to be sent out for delivery!

    3. We had a new dishwasher delivered today by ao. Excellent service. Dead one taken away, new one installed for us with a new hose and better connections to the existing pipes, Phone call 5 minutes before arrival. Can’t fault it.

  80. Evening, all. The headline writer has absolutely no clue why people are “vaccine-hesitant”. Telling the truth about Covid and the “vaccines” would put things in context!

  81. Branstorm is a it again. I wish he’d just stick to his mistress:

    “Omicron sends UK daily Covid cases to ANOTHER record high of 93,000 in 60% weekly jump as ‘Prof Lockdown’ warns of up to 5,000 deaths a DAY this winter unless tighter restrictions return soon in sign UK could be heading for a New Year lockdown”

    I wonder if that figure includes the “million dead” or is on top of it.

    Daft git.

    1. Since the cretin hasn’t been right in any prediction that I can recall, I am at a total loss why anyone still pays the least attention to him, especially as he obviously feels Covid isn’t that dangerous – why else would he break the very rules he was instrumental in creating to go shagging out of watch??

  82. Does anyone else think it’s ironic that the latest M&S advert features a pig when M&S were originally Jews?

    4. I shared a house in Fulham with a Jewish friend when I was young. He loved shellfish, bacon and meat dishes cooked in cream sauces.

      A few years ago when sailing in Turkey we made friends with a very urbane Turk who admitted that he was only nominally Muslim and did not feel at all constrained by Islamic customs – indeed, he used to sail regularly from Marmaris to the Greek islands Rhodes or Symi in order to stock up on pork and alcohol.

    5. That’s right, Spikey. Michael Marks was a Polish Jew who emigrated to Leeds. He met up with Thomas Spencer, a Yorkshireman from Skipton and, together, they started their “Penny Bazaar”.

    6. Not at all, your average Jew is a very decent and tolerant person. When it comes to food, the ones I know, and have known, have all been of a practical bent.

  83. 342957+ up ticks,

    Would one be right in saying they believe post
    by election that, a proven dangerous numerous times,
    electoral tick has been carried once again into it’s high density breeding ground, the polling booth,party before Country, death to the United Kingdom.

    These covid sh!te frights are nothing compared to what is coming with this voting pattern staying the same.

    1. A good dose of Communism is what the UK needs.
      And the beauty is……you won’t even notice the difference!

      1. 342957+ up ticks,

        Evening HM,
        We are heading for far worse but “the party first rules the day”

        Gerard Batten was the man, not farage, Batten in reading & trying to warn of the future, rhetorically & in book form.

        The electorate actually, over the years voted tactically to keep UKIP out in favour of the lab/lib/con coalition controlled illegal immigration leading to mass uncontrolled paedophilia.

        Again,again,& again.

      1. 342957+ up ticks,
        Evening NtN,
        Tell me, is it the realisation that the tory ( ino) party’s true colours are coming to light that leads you to
        dig out those of a decent leaning ?

      1. Much better than the last two or three days – the cartoons were far too close to the covid bone to be funny.

        1. Yes, I couldn’t manage to raise even a wry smile. If the current clusterphuck is getting to Matt then we are doomed.

    5. I have spent today reading the reaction from “leading” Tory MPs and the like. I have to surmise that it is not only the buffoon that doesn’t get it, those that surround him are like minded.
      Their voter base will continue to withdraw their support until they see a conservative minded leader running the party.
      If the next leader needs any pointers as to what needs doing, I suggest they are directed to this forum. I am sure ditching this woke carp, the net zero green folly, a meaningful Brexit, responsible economic policies are just a taste of what will be shouted out to help them get the message.

    6. He makes the fundamental error of thinking that people want government involved.

      A man who looks to the state for answers is a fool. What people want is the state to get out of their way and to leave them alone. To cut taxes, to stop interfereing in their lives and to sod off.

      Thing is, there are plenty who look to big government for control for power, to make others lesser so they are raised up. Such people are waste.

  89. That’s me for this cold, foggy day. Good news – paint job one third completed. By this time Tuesday, all will be done. More grey weather tomorrow.

    AGA fine – at last. Gus’s shoulder is giving him less gyp. So it didn’t prevent him leaping on my bed at 3.25 this morning and asking to be allowed out…

    I hope to be able to join you on Saturday….

    A demain

  92. More on the ECHR.

    Dominic Raab’s British Bill of Rights inches us closer to legal sovereignty

    Revising the ECHR is an opportunity to reaffirm quintessentially British liberties

    TELEGRAPH VIEW • 15 December 2021 • 6:00am

    The Conservatives have been promising to reform human rights laws for years. The party’s 2015 manifesto foreshadowed a new British Bill of Rights only to be sidetracked by the small matter of the Brexit crisis. Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, feels the time is now right to proceed with the aim of getting the new law on to the statute book before the next election.

    His consultation paper published yesterday (report below) is less of a dramatic overhaul than the burgeoning human rights lobby would have us believe. There is no plan to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which some critics would like to have seen. Article 3 of the convention, which has proved one of its more problematic provisions, will remain in place. This forbids the extradition of anyone to a place where their lives would be in danger, a principle that is incorporated in treaties beyond the ECHR, such as the UN Refugee Convention.

    But the European Court has strayed far beyond the role intended for it, leading to some egregious rulings. British judges have tended to follow its jurisprudence, so the new Bill will end their duty to take Strasbourg case law into account.

    The Bill is also an opportunity to reaffirm quintessentially British liberties, such as trial by jury, and to thwart the momentum towards a judge-made privacy law by strengthening the legal protections for free speech. The main aim of the reforms, says Mr Raab, is to restore balance and common sense to the system, not remove the fundamental rights that have been embedded for centuries here, unlike in many continental European countries. This is a pragmatic Tory solution to a constitutional conundrum.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/15/dominic-raabs-british-bill-rights-inches-us-closer-legal-sovereignty/
    ___________________________________________________

    Dominic Raab’s Human Rights Act overhaul could remove restrictions on police and armed forces

    The Justice Secretary is seeking to end the duty on British courts to adhere to precedents set by the European Court of Human Rights

    By Edward Malnick, SUNDAY POLITICAL EDITOR • 11 December 2021 • 9:00pm

    Police work and military operations could face fewer restrictions under plans to remove the legal obligation on judges to “take into account” European human rights rulings.

    An overhaul of the Human Rights Act being prepared by Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, includes ending the duty on British courts to adhere to precedents set by the European Court of Human Rights. The plan, due in a consultation document this week, would go further than earlier proposals by amending Section 2 of the Human Rights Act.

    This is likely to prove controversial. Last week, Joanna Cherry, the QC and Scottish National Party MP, told Mr Raab that such a move would “take the guts out” of the Act, which allows courts to apply the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

    The proposals have been drawn up after the Armed Forces warned that troops were being put “in harm’s way” due to a fear of facing legal action under European human rights laws, and the Metropolitan Police said that judgments meant officers’ time had been wasted investigating cases that will “never reach the threshold for prosecution” in case victims later made a complaint.

    This year, Lord Pannick, a human rights QC, told the Independent Human Rights Act Review that ministers should amend the Human Rights Act to make clear in law that, while judges should still take ECHR rulings “into account”, they “shall not be bound” by decisions taken in Strasbourg.

    This week’s Ministry of Justice consultation document is expected to propose options including explicitly stating that UK courts are not required to adhere to Strasbourg case law.

    Mr Raab’s changes would make clear that UK precedents should trump those set by Strasbourg.

    Senior defence figures have told the Independent Human Rights Review that personnel were facing a “Hobson’s choice” in war zones due to fears that the ECHR prevented them from transferring prisoners from overstretched military prisons to “local facilities”, such as those run by the Afghan government before the Taliban takeover.

    The shake-up will include an attempt to make it more difficult for foreign criminals to frustrate deportation proceedings using ECHR Article 8, which safeguards the right to a family life.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/12/11/dominic-raabs-human-rights-act-overhaul-could-remove-restrictions/

    ___________________________________________________

    Here’s a BTL comment on the editorial

    Sam Sharp
    Why should we submit to foreign jurisdiction? Er, well, we (Britain) WROTE the European Convention on Human Rights. It was proposed by Winston Churchill and written predominantly by BRITISH lawyers, who used existing British freedoms – right to a fair trial; right of liberty and security; freedom of thought and religion etc- as the basis for making a European wide Declaration of Rights. It predates the whole EU structure (we’ve been a signatory of it since 1953) and it’s acceptance goes far beyond the EU with the likes of Norway, Switzerland, Turkey and Russia all parties to the ECHR. The Court that was set up following the ECHR is there to enforce the rights that WE wrote. So how on Earth is that submitting to foreign jurisdiction? The European Court of Justice this isn’t.

    As for why the HRA cannot be repealed and not replaced, well, the HRA was introduced so that in the event someone appealed that their human rights were being abused by government, instead of the case being heard in Strasbourg, it would be heard here. In the UK. By British judges. So are you proposing we should go back to hearing cases in Strasbourg instead?

    Also, can you perhaps cite any examples of how the HRA has done nothing but damage? And don’t dig up the old “pet cat” nonsense stories that Theresa May used many moons ago- they were proved to be complete lies long ago.

    The correspondent misses the point spectacularly, which is made by Philip Johnston in the final paragraph of his article a couple of days ago:

    Concern has been voiced by eminent judges like Lord Hoffmann who said the [Strasbourg] court had “taken upon itself an extraordinary power to micromanage the legal systems of the member states of the Council of Europe”. Or the late Lord McCluskey, vice-chairman of the Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, who said of the HRA: “By incorporating into our domestic law vague, imprecise and high-sounding statements of legal rights, we hand what is truly legislative power away from a democratic and accountable Parliament to an appointed, unelected and unaccountable judiciary.”

    1. It’s funny, this build back better slogan seems to be to destroy and make the state more powerful.

      That’s not building anything, and it is demonstrably worse. Why they just call it what it is: enforcing fascist socialism.

      1. Excuse me while I laugh…a lot! Even with the bozo we have as PM there is not a hope in hell for the limp dumbs, nor the loony greens being anywhere near the reins of this country!

        1. Are you sure? The useless fools in Westminster are desperate to enact every single useless green policy going – all the way up to communism.

          1. Ah, wibbling! You want to try living in the Nikeliars Marxist utopian paradise of the nation formerly known as Bonny Scotland! The two green lunatics now in ‘government’ haven’t a seat between them!

    4. I understand the map and the “adjusted” number of MPs in such a Parliament, but am totally baffled by the unattractive man and the winking woman. Can anyone explain this to me?

  95. A tale of an outing. We went on the bus up to the pub and post office, so I could finally get my cards posted. Most of the bus passengers masked but not the driver and no challenges. Went to PO and sorted that- we have never been asked to wear a mask there, they are our chums. Then to the pub- only a couple of folks wearing masks, again no challenge. Bus, driver not masked, down to Sa’bury’s (lights not fixed) not a challenge and neither in said shop.
    Cab home- double ditto.
    I truly think that most sensible people have had enough and are not bothering. If others want to wear masks then let ’em…
    BTW- so far I have resisted that fudge in the lovely hamper we received yesterday.

      1. Not all that many although more staff masked than in Asda. I have gone off Sa’bury’s. Don’t think their fruit or veg is as good as the dreaded Asda. Used to be the other way round.

          1. Our local Asda has had some good meat- have had no problems with it. Guess it depends on where you are.

    2. Good for you, M’Lady. I think the era of unquestioning mask-wearing is about to come to an end.

      1. Salt, perhaps? Just a guess.

        Edit: Suggested, as salt was a precious commodity back in the day.

      2. I wondered too! It would just be surmise. I just love to look at it and the intricate patterns of the gold.

    2. I agree Sue, it is absolutely stunning – so beautiful and found wrapped in a piece of textile still fairly intact after all this time. I never fail to be amazed at the intricacy of these ancient artifacts.

    3. Final four sentences: “Doctor Leslie Webster… ‘This object is absolutely fascinating’ she said”. Is Dr Webster male or female?

      EDIT: Well, after a Google search, it seems I was wrong and she does spell her first name in the male way. It also lists her interests as “books, music, walking, cooking, France and whistling“. She sounds like a fascinating character.

  100. The writer fails to mention the great influence on Johnson: the trollop whispering in his ear.

    The BBC is wilfully ignorant about Tory Britain

    Voters gave the PM a kicking in part because he failed to deliver conservative priorities. All Auntie wants to talk about is his personality

    CAMILLA TOMINEY, ASSOCIATE EDITOR • 17 December 2021 • 3:36pm

    It may be apocryphal but it is a story worth telling anyway. A young producer turned up at the BBC to do a shift on election night in December 2019. Huw Edwards had just revealed the results of the exit poll, predicting a landslide Conservative majority and the complete evisceration of Jeremy Corbyn. According to the tale, the rookie journalist arrived at the newsroom in Portland Place to find half of Auntie’s staff in tears.

    It might not be true but it certainly is believable. There is clearly something about Boris Johnson that particularly rankles with the largely Left-leaning staff of our national broadcaster. Before 90,000 of her tweets mysteriously “disappeared” in advance of her joining the Corporation as executive editor of the BBC’s News Channel, Jess Brammar summed up the mood among Auntie-types when she seemed to give credence to the idea that “black Brits” were “considering leaving the UK” if Mr Johnson became Prime Minister.

    Indeed, such is the Corporation’s obsession with Mr Johnson’s personality – rather than his policies – that it has put pathetically little effort into understanding what actually went wrong in the North Shropshire by-election.

    Take its treatment of Sir John Redwood this morning. The former minister and adviser to Margaret Thatcher had been due to go on the BBC to talk about why Owen Paterson’s seat had been lost to the Liberal Democrats in such a dramatic fashion.

    Having been the MP for Wokingham since 1987 – and served under six Tory leaders – he could not have been in a better place to comment about why his party had lost a constituency that it had held for almost 200 years.

    Yet, as he commented on social media: “BBC up to usual tricks. Invited me on for a live on Today at 7.10. I agreed. After hearing what I might say they cancelled and are talking about a pre record later! No surprise there.”

    Instead, the programme turned to outspoken Johnson critic Sir Roger Gale MP, who quite predictably started banging on about the Prime Minister being “one strike” away from being forced out of Downing Street, because that’s the only story the BBC wanted to hear.

    Yet had they been properly doing the job we pay them £3.5 billion a year for, they might have been minded to delve a little deeper than the #BorisJohnsonMustGo narrative that pervades on social media but that barely even begins to scratch the surface of what has actually gone wrong here.

    Yes this by-election was about sleaze. And yes it was about Mr Johnson’s leadership (of lack thereof). But it was also a vote of no confidence in a Tory Government that is putting up our taxes, squandering the country’s Brexit opportunities, and shifting the country to the Left.

    North Shropshire is proper Tory territory. It’s been true blue since the Great Reform Act. It voted nearly 60 per cent for Leave. Its former MP, Mr Paterson, was a poster boy for Brexit.

    So the Tory loss is about a hell of a lot more than Boris, the bungling bad boy.

    Sir John had summed up part of the trouble with the Conservatives perfectly, less than an hour before he was due to appear on Radio 4. “If the Chancellor wants to help the country he should cancel his increases in National Insurance. Take VAT off domestic heating fuel,” he tweeted.

    He had also criticised the Bank of England for putting up interest rates this week, arguing: “The way to cut the inflation is to produce more of our own energy, not to put mortgage rates up.”

    And he had a go at Rishi Sunak, saying: “Will the Chancellor now admit his high tax economic slowdown is wrong? Will the Environment Secretary back British farming instead of trying to stop us growing our own food? Time to listen to Conservatives.”

    Yet amid all the hysteria about Christmas parties, which the BBC has gulped down more greedily than Scrooge on his second helping of figgy pudding, it hasn’t seemed to put much effort into hearing from proper Tories either.

    The BBC has never understood Conservatism – or indeed Conservatives, despite them paying a huge chunk of the licence fee, which probably goes a long way to explaining why it is about as popular as a blue rinse in Oswestry High Street right now. The BBC is as willfully blind to the priorities of ordinary voters as Downing Street.

    Contrary to Nick Robinson’s desire to shut the Prime Minister up, actually the electorate is crying out for him to say something – anything – about how he is going to restore the faith in Conservatism that he has trashed over the past two years. Voters want a real Tory government – not a shadow of one.

    And there are more of them out there than the BBC would ever care to admit. For the truth is, the people who voted for Mr Johnson already knew what Robinson, Kuenssberg and co keep on telling them, day in, day out. They knew that the Prime Minister was a far from perfect blunderer who could often be economical with the truth.

    But they elected him because he wasn’t an ageing communist or a hypocritical “Liberal” “Democrat” trying to reverse the referendum result.

    They trusted him to deliver a Brexit dividend of a low-tax, deregulated economy that would emerge from the clutches of Brussels, bigger, better and stronger than our EU competitors. They voted for Mr Johnson because he was a patriot (a concept the BBC still singularly fails to understand despite the word “British” being in its title). And they wanted him to control immigration (seemingly a dirty word in the BBC’s virtue signalling vocabulary).

    Yet unfortunately he appears to have done none of that. That is why he has been given the bloodiest of noses up the A5.

    Frankly, merely being “a bit rubbish” is the least of his worries. I appreciate he wasn’t anticipating being hit by a global pandemic within his first six months in office – but there was no need to allow the Treasury to once again go native any more than there was to sacrifice his libertarian principles on the altar of state control.

    Since the Labour Party clearly hasn’t got any better ideas – and the Lib Dems want to green tax us until the pips squeak – Mr Johnson remains the only credible alternative, if only he would summon the spirit of his political heroes and show some Churchillian or Thatcherite backbone.

    The public is crying out not only for leadership but for stuff to actually get done. The Taskforce on Innovation, Growth and Regulatory Reform (TIGR) submitted its independent report telling him exactly how the UK can seize new opportunities from Brexit with its newfound regulatory freedom back in June. No 10 has just sat on it. Why?

    There’s been lots of talk about “levelling up” but again, no action. In fact, some of the proposals – such as for free ports in the Midlands and the North – are now at risk of being “killed off”. The migrant crisis is a mess. And still our taxes go up to pay for an NHS that so desperately needs reform that it imperils our economy for as long as coronavirus is in circulation. And let’s not even get started on a bloated civil service that failed the people of Kabul and seemingly slows everything to a standstill.

    The Prime Minister told the French to “prenez un grip”. But as we’ve seen in North Shropshire, if you’re laissez-faire with Conservatism, you lose the bourgeoisie.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/12/17/bbc-wilfully-ignorant-tory-britain

    2. The BBC has not been our national broadcaster for years. It is the mouthpiece and tool of the government- as is ITV.

    3. I agree that it’s not all about Johnson. It’s mainly to do with the whole political structure we have. And while we’re at it, bugger the BBC and bugger the Conservative Party, along with the other (2?) contenders.

    4. They might yet have held the seat had they selected a local Tory who understood agriculture instead of someone from Birmingham who had virtually no connection with the constituency, was a medic turned barrister (because lawyers are really, really popular here – not!) and moreover had a part foreign name and a permanent suntan. He looked completely out of his comfort zone standing next to Eustice at a livestock market. Parochial is North Salop’s middle name! Add to that the gushing admission in the first press release that he’d raised “hundreds of thousands of pounds” for the Party. The moment I saw that, I knew they were heading for a hiding.

        1. It’s the selection committee that needs to be put up against a wall and shown the error of their ways. They selected him because he’d raised loadsa dosh for the Party (and incredibly gushed about that “achievement” in the first press release!). Surely to goodness he couldn’t have been the ONLY choice, even if he was politically correct and diverse? Mind you, we’ve now got a Limp Dim who appears to be equally clueless about agriculture (the NFU is already on the case), but at least she didn’t make the mistake of posing in a livestock market looking ill at ease.

  102. Stoicism ended this evening…I broke into the Christmas hamper! There was a small square item which MH thought might be a Bakewell tart, of which he is very fond. Sadly, for him, it was not but, happily for me, it was a very rich fruit cake with some icing on top. The icing was a bit too sweet but the cake….oh YUM. Had a small piece and it was lovely.
    What a delightful holiday treat.

      1. He’s got bigger teeth than I have! 🙂 I did once bite the ear of one of my dogs who was young and prone to nipping. I’m not sure if it worked or he just grew out of it.

  105. The vaccines are not vaccines in the conventional sense viz. granting immunity, but are generally gene therapies designed to override the immune system of those taking the jabs in order to target specific RNA spike proteins.

    The injections are modified to target particular spike proteins as identified by the Chinese who developed the virus in the first place. Our politicians, acting on the advices and modelling of the Chinese, have fallen for the nonsensical conclusion that all must be vaccinated.

    The ‘vaccines’ are the killing machine, not the saviour of humanity,

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